Today in History - September 23
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487BC Sep 23,
Greek dramatist Euripides, was born. He wrote "Medea" and "The
Trojan Women." His plays used a device called "Deus ex Machina,"
literally "God from a machine." Today the term refers to sudden
events that come from nowhere to advance the plot. [see 484-406,
480-406]
(MC, 9/23/01)
63BC Sep 23, Caesar Augustus
(63BC-14AD) was born in Rome. Augustus, first emperor of Rome, ended
the era of the Roman Republic and introduced the Pax Romana, the era
of peace. Augustus held power but shared administrative tasks with
the Senate, consuls, and tribunes who continued to be elected: "Make
haste slowly."
(V.D.-H.K.p.63)(AP, 9/23/97)(AP, 11/20/97)(HN,
9/23/98)
53BC Sep 23, Augustus, the
first Roman emperor, or Caesar, was born. His ascension to the title
of emperor marked the end of true Roman democracy, even though the
Senate survived for generations. [see 63BC]
(MC, 9/23/01)
951 Sep 23, Otto I, the Great,
became king of Italy.
(MC, 9/23/01)
1553 Sep 23, The Sadians
defeated the last of their enemies and establish themselves as
rulers of Morocco.
(HN, 9/23/98)
1561 Sep 23, Philip II of Spain
gave orders to halt colonizing efforts in Florida. The French took
advantage of the opportunity.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.20)(HN, 9/23/98)
1570 Sep 23, The Turks began
their attack on Famagusta, Cyprus, which was fortified by Venetian
commander Marcantonio Bragadino (1523-1571).
(http://historicbiography.blogspot.com/2008/01/marcantonio-bragadin.html)(WSJ,
7/21/08, p.A11)
1577 Sep 23, William of Orange
made his triumphant entry into Brussels, Belgium.
(HN, 9/23/98)
1641 Sep 23, Adrian "Aart" van
Wijck, theologian, was born. He fought Jansenism.
(MC, 9/23/01)
1642 Sep 23, Giovanni Maria
Bononcini, composer, was born.
(MC, 9/23/01)
1642 Sep 23, Harvard College in
Cambridge, Mass., held its first commencement.
(AP, 9/23/97)
1667 Sep 23, Slaves in Virginia
were banned from obtaining their freedom by converting to
Christianity.
(HN, 9/23/98)
1703 Sep 23, Jean-Marie
Leclair, composer, was born.
(MC, 9/23/01)
1719 Sep 23, Liechtenstein
declared independence from German empire.
(MC, 9/23/01)
1739 Sep 23, The Austrians
signed the Treaty of Belgrade after having lost the city to the
Turks.
(HN, 9/23/98)
1779 Sep 23, During the
Revolutionary War, the American navy under John Paul Jones,
commanding from Bonhomie Richard, defeated and captured the British
man-of-war Serapis. An American attack on a British convoy pitted
the British frigate HMS Serapis against the American Bon Homme
Richard. The American ship was commanded by Scotsman John Paul
Jones, who chose to name the ship after Benjamin Franklin's “Poor
Richard’s Almanack.” Fierce fighting ensued, and when Richard began
to sink, Serapis commander Richard Pearson called over to ask if
Richard would surrender and Jones responded, "I have not yet begun
to fight!"--a response that would become a slogan of the U.S. Navy.
Pearson surrendered and Jones took control of Serapis. The Bonhomie
Richard sank 2 days after the battle. In 1959 the film Jean Paul
Jones starred Robert Stack.
(TVM, 1975, p.294)(AP, 9/23/97)(HN,
9/23/98)(HNPD, 9/23/98)(Arch, 9/02, p.17)
1780 Sep 23, British spy John
Andre was captured along with papers revealing Benedict Arnold's
plot to surrender West Point to the British.
(AP, 9/23/97)
1788 Sep 23, Louis XVI of
France declared the Parliament restored.
(HN, 9/23/98)
1795 Sep 23, A national
plebiscite approved the new French constitution, but so many voters
sustained that the results were suspect.
(HN, 9/23/99)
1795 Sep 23, Conseil of the
Cinq-Cents (Council of 500), formed in Paris.
(MC, 9/23/01)
1800 Sep 23, William Holmes
McGuffey, educator, was born. He is famous for his book "Eclectic
Readers" (McGuffey Readers).
(HN, 9/23/98)
1803 Sep 23, British Major
General Sir Arthur Wellesley defeated the Marathas at Assaye, India.
(HN, 9/23/98)
1805 Sep 23, Lieutenant Zebulon
Pike paid $2,000 to buy from the Sioux a 9-square-mile tract at the
mouth of the Minnesota River that would be used to establish a
military post, Fort Snelling.
(HN, 9/23/98)
1806 Sep 23, The Lewis and
Clark expedition returned to St. Louis from the Pacific Northwest
over three years after its departure. In 2004 Larry E. Morris
authored “The Fate of the Corps,” a look at what happened to all the
members of the expedition.
(AP, 9/23/97)(HN, 9/23/98)(WSJ, 7/2/04, p.W10)
1817 Sep 23, Leon Charles
Francois Kreutzer, composer, was born.
(MC, 9/23/01)
1835 Sep 23, HMS Beagle sailed
to Charles Island in the Galapagos archipelago.
(MC, 9/23/01)
1838 Sep 23, Victoria Chaflin
Woodhull (d.1927), American presidential candidate (1872), was born
into a family of charlatans in Ohio. Woodhull, a militant
suffragist, advocated free love and was Wall Street's first female
broker after attracting Cornelius Vanderbilt. She was the first
woman to address Congress. Her story is documented in “The Woman Who
Ran for President: The Many Lives of Victoria Woodhull” by Lois
Beachy Underhill. In 1998 Mary Gabriel published "Notorious
Victoria: The Life of Victoria Woodhull, Uncensored. In 1998 Barbara
Goldsmith published "Other Powers--The Age of Suffrage, Spiritualism
and the Scandalous Victoria Woodhull."
(WSJ, 7/25/95, p.A-10)(SFEC, 2/22/98, BR
p.5)(SFEC, 3/8/98, Par p.14)(HNPD, 4/28/00)
1844 Sep 23, Count Alexander
von Benckendorff (b.1783), Russian Lieutenant General and statesman,
died. He was Adjutant General of the Svita and a commander in
Patriotic War of 1812 and is best remembered for having established
the Gendarmes in Russia.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_von_Benckendorff)
1846 Sep 23, The planet Neptune
was discovered by German astronomer Johann Gottfried Galle. Neptune
was discovered after John Couch Adams of England and Urbain Jean
Leverrier of France independently figured out where it should be.
(HFA, ‘96, p.38)(AP, 9/23/97)(SFEC, 5/30/99, Par
p.13)(ON, 9/01, p.9)
1849 Sep 23, Mikhail
Mikhaylovich Ivanov, composer, was born.
(MC, 9/23/01)
1852 Sep 23, William Stewart
Halsted, was born. He established the 1st US surgical school.
(MC, 9/23/01)
1857 Sep 23, The Russian
warship Leffort disappeared in the Finland Gulf in a storm; 826
died.
(MC, 9/23/01)
1862 Sep 23, Lincoln's
Emancipation Proclamation was published in Northern Newspapers.
(MC, 9/23/01)
1863 Sep 23, Mary Church
Terrell, educator, political activist, and first president of the
National Association of Colored Women, was born in Memphis,
Tennessee. An 1884 graduate of Oberlin College, America's first
college to admit women and amongst the first to admit students of
all races, Terrell was one of the first American women of African
descent to graduate from college. She earned her master's degree
from Oberlin in 1888.
(http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/today.html)
1863 Sep 23, The Confederate
siege of Chattanooga began.
(MC, 9/23/01)
1864 Sep 23, Confederate and
Union forces clashed at Mount Jackson, Front Royal and Woodstock in
Virginia during the Valley campaign.
(HN, 9/23/98)
1864 Sep 23, Battle of Athens,
Va.
(MC, 9/23/01)
1865 Sep 23, Emmuska Orczy
(d.1947), baroness and writer, was born in Tarnaors, Hungary. Her
family moved to London in 1880. Her books included "The Scarlet
Pimpernel" (1905).
(HN,
9/23/00)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baroness_Orczy)
1868 Sep 23, Grito de Lares
proclaimed Puerto Rico's independence. It was crushed by Spain.
(MC, 9/23/01)
1869 Sep 23, Edgar Lee Masters,
poet and novelist (Spoon River Anthology), was born.
(MC, 9/23/01)
1870 Sep 23, Prosper Merimee
(66), French playwright (Carmen), died.
(www.kirjasto.sci.fi/merimee.htm)
1879 Sep 23, Richard Rhodes
invented a hearing aid called the Audiophone.
(MC, 9/23/01)
1889 Sep 23, William Wilkie
Collins, English writer (Moonstone), died.
(MC, 9/23/01)
1889 Sep 23, Walter Lippmann,
journalist, was born in NYC. He was one of the founders of The New
Republic Magazine in 1914. His political writings included "Men of
Destiny."
(HN, 9/23/00)
1889 Sep 23, Louise Nevelson,
sculptor, was born.
(HN, 9/23/00)
1896 Sep 23, Louis-Gilbert
Duprez, composer, died at 89.
(MC, 9/23/01)
1897 Sep 23, The 1st frontier
days rodeo celebration in Cheyenne, Wyoming, was held. By 1998 it
had become the world’s largest outdoor rodeo.
(SFEC, 6/28/98, p.T3)(MC, 9/23/01)
1902 Sep 23, John Wesley Powell
(68), US explorer and geologist, died. He led expeditions down the
Green and Colorado rivers (1869 & 1871), through the Grand
Canyon even though he had lost the lower part of his right arm in
the Battle of Shiloh during the Civil War. Powell, a geographer and
ethnologist, held a number of positions after resigning from the
army in 1865, many for government agencies such as director of the
U.S. Geographical Survey. [see 1891] In 2001 Donald Worster authored
"A River Running West: the Life and Times of John Wesley Powell."
(HNQ, 10/13/00)(SSFC, 4/1/01, BR p.6)(MC,
9/23/01)(ON, 5/02, p.5)
1907 Sep 23, Jarmila Novotna,
soprano (Met Opera) and president of Czechoslovakia (1957-68), was
born.
(MC, 9/23/01)
1908 Sep 23, One of baseball's
most famous blunders occurred in a game between the New York Giants
and the visiting Chicago Cubs. With the score tied 1-1 in the bottom
of the ninth and two runners out, the Giants batted in what should
have been the winning run. However, Fred Merkle, who was on first
base, began to leave the field apparently without bothering to tag
second; the Cubs then claimed to have forced Merkle out. Merkle was
eventually ruled out, negating the winning run and leaving the game
tied. The Cubs won a rematch game on Oct. 8 and with it, the
National League pennant; Chicago then went on to win the World
Series.
(AP, 9/23/08)
1910 Sep 23, Elliot Roosevelt,
son of FDR and writer (Murder in the Oval Office), was born.
(MC, 9/23/01)
1911 Sep 23, Second
International Aviation Meet opened in New York.
(HN, 9/23/98)
1912 Sep 23, Mack Sennett's
first Keystone Cops short subject "Cohen collects a Debt", a
split-reel of two comedies starring Mabel Normand and Ford Sterling,
was released.
(AP, 9/23/97)(HN, 9/23/01)
1913 Sep 23, Serbian troops
marched into Albania.
(MC, 9/23/01)
1915 Sep 23, Clifford G. Shull,
physicist, was born. He improved techniques for exploring the atomic
structure of matter.
(HN, 9//00)
1920 Sep 23, Mickey Rooney,
actor, was born Joe Yule, Jr. in Brooklyn, NY.
(SSFC, 3/11/01, DB p.61)
1926 Sep 23, John Coltrane,
influential jazz saxophonist, was born..
(HN, 9/23/00)
1926 Sep 23, Gene Tunney
(1897-1978), an ex-marine, defeated Jack Dempsey for the World
Heavyweight Boxing championship. Tunney defeated Dempsey again in a
1927 rematch and retired undefeated in 1928. In 2006 Jack Cavanaugh
authored “Tunney: Boxing’s Brainiest Champ and His Upset of the
Great Jack Dempsey.”
(Smith., 5/95, p.12)(SFC, 10/19/99, p.A22)(WSJ,
11/17/06, p.W6)
1930 Sep 23, Ray Charles
(d.2004), rhythm ‘n’ blues piano player and singer best known for
"Hit the Road Jack" and "Georgia on My Mind" was born in Albany,
Georgia. Stuart Gorrell wrote the lyrics for the hit song "Georgia
on My Mind" in 1930 with music by Hoagy Carmichael. It was declared
the state song of Georgia on April 24, 1979.
(HN, 9/23/98)(WSJ, 2/2/00,
p.W8)(www.promotega.org/vsu00011/georgia_book.htm)
1932 Sep 23, In 2005 King
Abdullah established this day as the official unification date of
Saudi Arabia and made it an official holiday.
(Econ, 10/2/10, p.49)
1938 Sep 23, A time capsule, to
be opened in the year 6939, was buried on the grounds of the World's
Fair in New York City. The capsule contained a woman's hat,
man's pipe & 1,100' of microfilm. [see Apr 30, 1939]
Westinghouse coined the term "time capsule" when it buried a torpedo
shaped vessel at the 1939 NY fair.
(AP, 9/23/98)(SFEC, 1/2/00, p.D4)(MC, 9/23/01)
1938 Sep 23, British premier
Neville Chamberlain flew to Munich.
(MC, 9/23/01)
1939 Sep 23, Sigmund Freud
(b.1856), founder of psychoanalysis, died in London. He had escaped
from Vienna in 1938. His work “Moses and Monotheism” was published
this year. In 1986 Frederick Crews, a skeptic on Freud's work,
published "Skeptical Engagements." Crews also published "The memory
wars: Freud's Legacy in dispute" and "Unauthorized Freud: Doubters
Confront a Legend." Freud's last days were dramatized in 1999 by
Terry Johnson in the play "Hysteria."
(SFEM, 1/10/99, p.4)(AP, 9/23/99)(WSJ, 12/23/99,
p.A16)
1941 Sep 23, Germans staged an
air raid on the Russian naval base at Kronstadt. The battleship
Marat sank.
(MC, 9/23/01)
1942 Sep 23, At Auschwitz Nazis
began experimental gassing executions.
(MC, 9/23/01)
1942 Sep 23, The Russian
counter offensive at Stalingrad began.
(MC, 9/23/01)
1943 Sep 23, Julio Iglesias De
la Cueva, Spanish singer (To All the Girls I’ve Loved Before…), was
born in Madrid.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julio_Iglesias)
1943 Sep 23, Benito Mussolini
formed a rival fascist government in Italy.
(www.cifr.it/Chapter_05.html)
1945 Sep 23, The first American
died in Vietnam during the fall of Saigon to French forces.
(HN, 9/23/98)
1947 Sep 23, Nikola Petkov,
leader of Bulgaria party, was hanged.
(MC, 9/23/01)
1949 Sep 23, US Pres. Truman
announced evidence of the USSR's 1st nuclear device detonation thus
breaking the US atomic monopoly.
(WUD, 1994, p.1684)(MC, 9/23/01)
1950 Sep 23, Congress adopted
the Internal Security Act, which provided for registration of
communists. The Act was ruled later unconstitutional by the US
Supreme Court. US Sen. Pat McCarran (Nevada) legislated the Internal
Security Act, which included a jumble of restrictions on speech and
association. Pres. Truman attempted an unsuccessful veto of the
McCarran Act, which gave the government unprecedented powers.
(WSJ, 3/18/99, p.W17)(MC, 9/23/01)(WSJ, 10/13/04,
p.D18)
1950 Sep 23, US Mustangs
accidentally bombed British troops on Hill 282 Korea, 17 killed.
(MC, 9/23/01)
1952 Sep 23, Rocky Marciano
became the world heavyweight boxing champion by knocking out Jersey
Joe Walcott in the 13th round, in Philadelphia PA. It was Rocky’s
43rd consecutive victory. This was the 1st closed circuit pay-TV
telecast of a sports event.
(MC, 9/23/01)
1952 Sep 23, Republican
vice-presidential candidate Richard M. Nixon went on television to
deliver what came to be known as the "Checkers" speech as he refuted
allegations of improper campaign financing. Nixon denied that he
maintained a private slush fund and all financial allegations except
for the gift of a cocker spaniel dog named Checkers from a Texan who
heard that his daughters wanted a puppy. Nixon, then a candidate for
Vice President stated that he would not give back a gift, whether it
had political ties or not, because it was a present for his
daughter. Some 30 million television viewers watched as Nixon,
Dwight Eisenhower‘s running mate in the upcoming presidential
elections, made a plea for sympathy and vindication in light of
charges he was living a lifestyle beyond the means of his $12,500
Senate salary. In 1997 plans were underway to exhume the dog and
rebury it near the former president.
(TMC, 1994, p.1952)(SFC, 4/28/97, p.A5)(AP,
9/23/97)(HNQ, 10/12/99)
1953 Sep 23, The 20th-Century
Fox film "The Robe," the first movie filmed in the CinemaScope
widescreen process, premiered in Hollywood, a week after opening in
New York.
(AP, 9/23/03)
1954 Sep 23, East German police
arrested 400 citizens as U.S. spies.
(HN, 9/23/98)
1957 Sep 23, "That'll Be Day"
by Buddy Holly & Crickets reached #1.
(MC, 9/23/01)
1957 Sep 23, Nine black
students who had entered Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas
were forced to withdraw because of a white mob outside. Pres.
Eisenhower signed Executive Order 10730 to send Federal troops to
maintain order and peace while the integration of Central High
School in Little Rock, AR, took place.
(AP,
9/23/97)(www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=true&doc=89)
1962 Sep 23, "The Jetsons," a
TV animated Hanna-Barbera cartoon series about a Space Age family,
premiered as the ABC television network's first color program. It
was a futuristic mirror image of the Flintstones. Penny Singleton
(1908-2003) was the voice of Jane Jetson.
(SFC, 3/23/01, p.D7)(AP, 9/23/02)(SFC, 11/15/03,
p.A23)
1962 Sep 23, New York's
Philharmonic Hall, since renamed Avery Fisher Hall, formally opened
as the first unit of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.
Opening ceremonies included the premier of Samuel Barber’s Piano
Concerto by John Browning (d.2003) and the Boston Symphony under
Erich Leinsdorf.
(AP, 9/23/97)(SFC, 1/30/03, p.A17)
1967 Sep 23, The regime of
Greek Colonels freed ex-premier Georgios Papandreou. [see Dec 24]
(MC, 9/23/01)
1967 Sep 23, Soviets signed a
pact to send more aid to Hanoi.
(HN, 9/23/98)
1968 Sep 23, The TV western
"The Outcasts" premiered. The one season show featured Otis Young
(d.2001 at 69) and Don Murray working together as post Civil War
bounty hunters.
(SFC, 10/20/01,
p.E2)(www.imdb.com/title/tt0062596/)
1969 Sep 23, The 1st broadcast
of "Marcus Welby MD" on ABC-TV. The drama with Robert Young
continued to 1976.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Welby,_M.D.)
1973 Sep 23, Juan Peron was
re-elected president of Argentina after being overthrown in 1955.
His second wife, Isabel, became vice president, the first woman vice
president in Latin American history. She succeeded him when he died
10 months later.
(AP, 9/23/97)(HN, 9/23/98)
1973 Sep 23, Pablo Neruda
(b.1904), Chilean Nobel laureate poet, died of alleged leukemia. One
of his last works, "The Book of Questions," was published in an
English translation in 1991. In 2003 Ilan Stavans edited "The Poetry
of Pablo Neruda." In 2004 Matilda Urrutia’s “My Life With Pablo
Neruda” was translated into English. Neruda’s driver later said the
poet was poisoned by government agents.
(SFEC, 6/25/00, BR p.2)(SSFC, 8/31/03,
p.M3)(SSFC, 10/31/04, p.M4)(SFC, 6/1/11, p.A2)
1974 Sep 23, The 1959
Broadway show "Gypsy" reopened on Broadway with Angel Lansbury
(b.1925), following a 1973 run in London.
(SFEC, 12/8/96, Par
p.18)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gypsy:_A_Musical_Fable)
1974 Sep 23, Cliff Arquette
(b.1905), TV actor, died. He invented the character of Charley
Weaver for a 1959 appearance on Jack Paar’s “The Tonight Show,” and
in 1962 became a regular on “The Roy Rogers Show.”
(SFC, 2/21/07,
p.G3)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cliff_Arquette)
1975 Sep 23, California’s Gov.
Jerry Brown signed the Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act
(MICRA). It imposed limits on attorney fees and capped jury awards
in medical malpractice suits for “noneconomic” damages to $250,000.
(SFC, 4/25/01, p.A7)(WSJ, 7/13/04,
p.D4)(http://tinyurl.com/m852rv)
1979 Sep 23, The ABC TV show
"The Associates" premiered as a comedy about lawyers. It
lasted for one season.
(SFC, 12/3/98,
p.E1)(www.imdb.com/title/tt0078563/)
1981 Sep 23, The Reagan
administration announced plans for what became known as Radio Marti.
(AP, 9/23/97)
1981 Sep 23, Home Depot went
public in an IPO offering of $3 million of stock. The company was
founded by Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank, formerly of the Handy
Dandy hardware chain. The 1st know case of backdating stock options
took place this year with Home Depot. In 1999 they authored "Built
From Scratch" ghost-written by Bob Andelman. In 1999 Chris Roush
published "Inside Home Depot."
(WSJ, 5/4/99, p.A20)(WSJ, 12/27/06,
p.A6)(http://ir.homedepot.com/lookup.cfm)
1981 Sep 23, Chief Dan George
(b.1899), actor, died at 82 in British Columbia, Canada. His films
included “Harry & Tonto” (1974) and “Little Big Man” (1970). He
was born Geswanouth Slahoot on a First Nations Reserve in North
Vancouver. His English name was Dan Slaholt. His last name was
changed to George when he entered a residential school at the age of
5.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chief_Dan_George)
1983 Sep 23, The so-called Law
of National Pacification was issued two weeks before the election
that brought President Alfonsín to power. Argentina’s
military regime gave a blanket amnesty to military and political
killers and torturers.
(www.cidh.oas.org/annualrep/83.84.eng/chap.4.htm)
1985 Sep 23, Italian journalist
Giancarlo Siani (b.1959) was killed after he ran investigative
reports on the Mafia in the Naples daily Il Mattino. In 1997 6
Naples gangsters were sentenced to life terms for the murder.
(SFC, 4/15/97,
p.A9)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giancarlo_Siani)
1986 Sep 23, The US Congress
selected the rose as the US national flower.
(http://openweb.tvnews.vanderbilt.edu/1986-9/1986-09-23-ABC-25.html)
1987 Sep 23, Delaware Sen.
Joseph Biden withdrew from the Democratic presidential race
following questions about his use of borrowed quotations and the
portrayal of his academic record.
(AP, 9/23/97)
1987 Sep 23, Bob Fosse
(b.1927), choreographer (All the Jazz), died at age 62.
(www.ibdb.com/person.asp?ID=4563)
1988 Sep 23, Soviet Foreign
Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze concluded two days of talks in
Washington with Secretary of State George P. Shultz on the subjects
of arms control and human rights.
(AP, 9/23/98)
1989 Sep 23, President Bush,
saying he was "very pleased" with talks between Secretary of State
James Baker and Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze, told
reporters there would be a superpower summit later in the year.
(AP, 9/23/99)
1990 Sep 23, PBS began an 11
hour miniseries by Ken Burns on the American Civil War.
(www.museum.tv/archives/etv/C/htmlC/civilwarth/civilwarth.htm)
1990 Sep 23, Iraq threatened to
destroy Middle East oil fields and attack Israel if other nations
tried to force it from Kuwait.
(AP, 9/23/00)
1990 Sep 23, South African
President F.W. de Klerk arrived in the US for talks with President
Bush.
(AP, 9/23/00)
1991 Sep 23, President Bush
addressed the United Nations, urging the world body to rescind its
resolution equating Zionism with racism.
(AP, 9/23/01)
1991 Sep 23, UN weapons
inspectors in Baghdad discovered documents detailing Iraq's secret
nuclear weapons program and said Iraq was close to building a bomb.
This triggered a standoff with Iraqi authorities.
(SFC, 9/4/96, p.A8)(AP, 9/23/01)
1992 Sep 23, Plans for a
presidential debate fell apart, with President Bush continuing to
object to a single-moderator format proposed by a bipartisan
commission; it was the second such cancellation.
(AP, 9/23/97)
1992 Sep 23, Bernice Gera, the
1st female baseball umpire (1969 NY-Penn League) died at age 61.
(www.baseballlibrary.com/baseballlibrary/chronology/1992SEPTEMBER.stm)
1993 Sep 23, Seattle’s City
Council passed a sit/lie ban affecting the downtown area between 7
am and 9 pm. The law was upheld by the US Court of Appeals in 1996.
(http://tinyurl.com/ybahqyp)(SSFC, 3/28/10,
p.A16)(www.sfbos.org/index.aspx?page=1277)
1993 Sep 23, Sydney, Australia,
was selected to host the 2000 Summer Olympics, beating Beijing.
(AP, 9/23/98)
1993 Sep 23, The Israeli
parliament ratified the Israel-PLO accord.
(AP, 9/23/98)
1993 Sep 23, The South African
parliament voted to allow blacks a role in governing.
(AP, 9/23/98)
1994 Sep 23, The White House
announced a shakeup involving two dozen staff members.
(AP, 9/23/99)
1994 Sep 23, John van Damme
(59), Dutch businessman, was hanged in Singapore for drug
trafficking.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1994_in_Singapore)
1994 Sep 23, The U.N. Security
Council rewarded Yugoslavia for sealing its border with Bosnia by
easing sanctions in sports, cultural exchanges and air traffic.
(AP, 9/23/99)
1995 Sep 23, In a wide-ranging
interview aboard Air Force One, President Clinton admitted he had
tended in the past to get hung up on details, and pledged to do a
better job in providing reassuring leadership to Americans confused
by tumultuous times.
(AP, 9/23/00)
1995 Sep 23, Guillermo Gaede,
an Intel engineer, was arrested in Phoenix. He had used his computer
to tap into plans for the Pentium & 486 chip manufacturing
process and video taped the information in May 1993. He sent the
info to his former employer Advanced Micro Devices who notified
federal authorities. He claimed to have been double-crossed by the
FBI and also to have passed info from AMD to Cuba, China, North
Korea and Iran.
(SFC, 6/25/96, p.A23)
1996 Sep 23, Ross Perot sued
the bipartisan commission that voted to keep him out of the
presidential debates, arguing that excluding him would deepen public
cynicism and cause his campaign "incalculable damage."
(AP, 9/23/97)
1996 Sep 23, California
governor Wilson signed a bill to open the sale of electricity to the
free market and became the first US state to do so. A 20% drop in
rates by 2003 was guaranteed.
(SFC, 9/24/96, p.A1)
1996 Sep 23, Space shuttle
Atlantis left Russia's orbiting Mir station with astronaut Shannon
Lucid, who ended her six-month visit with tender goodbyes to her
Russian colleagues.
(AP, 9/23/97)
1996 Sep 23, In Armenia Pres.
Levon Ter-Petrossian claimed victory in elections as did his
opponent former Prime Minister Vazgen Manukian. The next day the
Pres. claimed victory with 52% and the PM claimed fraud with 41%.
Int’l. observers claimed serious irregularities.
(SFC, 9/24/96, p.A14)(WSJ, 9/25/96, p.A1)(SFC,
9/26/96, p.A10)
1996 Sep 23, The European Union
awarded the Aristeion Prize for literature to Salmon Rushdie for
"The Moor’s Last Sigh" and to Christoph Ransmayr for "Morbus
Kitahara." A prize for translation went to Thorkild Bjoernvig for
his translation of poetry by German poet Rainier Marie Rilke.
(SFC, 9/24/96, p.E3)
1996 Sep 23, In Jiangsu
Province, China, the American Dream Park was scheduled to open. It
is a 70-acre-mini Disneyland and admission will cost 100 yuan, about
2 weeks wages for the average Chinese worker.
(WSJ, 9/5/96, p.A14)
1996 Sep 23, In England police
killed one man and seized 10 tons of explosives during raids of
suspected IRA hideouts.
(SFC, 9/24/96, p.A12)
1996 Sep 23, Ethiopian forces
exchanged fire with Somali militiamen.
(SFC, 9/25/96, p.A10)
1996 Sep 23, Iran expected
delivery of its 3rd Russian-made submarine within 6 months, as part
of its navy buildup in the Persian Gulf.
(SFC, 9/24/96, p.A14)
1996 Sep 23, In Mexico
financing was expected to enable the start of the $551 million
channel project, a 272-mile Tamaulipas Intracoastal Waterway on the
east coast to link Mexico to US cargo channels.
(WSJ, 9/23/96, p.A17)
1996 Sep 23, In Pakistan gunmen
attacked a Sunni Muslim mosque and killed 16 and wounded 45 people.
The attack followed the killing of a Shiite leader the night before
in Bahawalpur.
(SFC, 9/23/96, A12)
1996 Sep 23, In Singapore the
government announced that there will be enough bomb shelters for
everyone. All new dwellings will be required to have bomb shelters
with concrete walls and a steel door.
(SFC, 9/25/96, p.A9)
1996 Sep 23, In South Africa 2
days of ethnic fighting among gold miners at Buffeslfontein left 18
people dead.
(WSJ, 9/24/96, p.A1)
1997 Sep 23, The White House
awarded the $10,000 National Heritage Fellows awards to a dozen
Americans that included Chinese singer Hua Wenyi, and Ali Akbar
Khan, composer of North Indian music.
(SFC, 9/24/97, p.A17)
1997 Sep 23, The Gilmore Artist
Award, a $300,000 prize given every 4 years to a classical pianist,
was awarded to Norwegian pianist Leif Ove Andsnes at the Irving S.
Gilmore Int’l. Keyboard Festival in Kalamazoo, Mich.
(SFC, 9/24/97, p.E5)
1997 Sep 23, The Senate Finance
Committee opened hearings into reports of alleged abuses by the
Internal Revenue Service.
(AP, 9/23/98)
1997 Sep 23, Kevin (18) and
Tilmon Golphin (19) of Virginia shot and killed Patrol Troopers Ed
Lowry and David Hathcock on I-95 in North Carolina after they were
pulled over in a stolen car. The 2 brothers were sentenced to death
May 13, 1998.
(SFC, 5/14/98, p.A6)
1997 Sep 23, In Algeria the
government reported that 85 people were killed, while eyewitnesses
counted more than 200 bodies in the Bentalha neighborhood of the
Baraki suburb of Algiers. Armed men raided an Algerian village,
killing at least 200 people in one of the worst massacres since
Algeria's Islamic insurgency began.
(AP, 9/23/98)(SFC, 9/24/97, p.A10)
1998 Sep 23, In Milwaukee Sammy
Sosa hit his 64th and 65th home runs against the Brewers, tying Mark
McGwire for the single-season record.
(SFC, 9/24/98, p.A18) (AP, 9/23/99)
1998 Sep 23, Federal regulators
approved the merger of Citicorp and Travelers Group.
(AP, 9/23/99)
1998 Sep 23, Federal Reserve
Chairman Greenspan hinted that the central bank is prepared to cut
interest rates and the Dow went up 257.
(SFC, 9/24/98, p.A1)
1998 Sep 23, Joan Kroc, the
heiress to McDonald’s, donated $80 million to the Salvation Army.
(USAT, 9/24/98, p.3A)
1998 Sep 23, Scientists
reported two more planets beyond our solar system. One in the
constellation Cygnus and the other in Aquarius.
(SFC, 9/24/98, p.A2)
1998 Sep 23, Actress Mary
Frann, who played Bob Newhart's wife on TV's "Newhart," died in
Beverly Hills, Calif., at age 55.
(AP, 9/23/99)
1998 Sep 23, The death toll
from hurricane Georges reached 110. 17 people were killed in Haiti
and 17 in the Dominican Republic as the storm hit Cuba.
(SFC, 9/24/98, p.A12)(WSJ, 9/24/98, p.A1)
1998 Sep 23, In Cambodia a
rocket attack intended for Huns Sen killed 4 people including 2
children.
(SFC, 9/24/98, p.A14)
1998 Sep 23, Transparency
Int’l, an int’l. good-government advocacy group, said that Cameroon
is viewed as the most corrupt of the 85 countries rated. Nigeria,
Tanzania, Honduras and Paraguay filled out the bottom five. Denmark,
Finland and Sweden were seen as having the cleanest political
systems.
(WSJ, 9/23/98, p.B17)
1998 Sep 23, In Congo Hutu
militiamen attacked a military post manned by ethnic Tutsis and 56
people were killed.
(WSJ, 9/24/98, p.A1)
1998 Sep 23, In Ecuador
demonstrations in Quito erupted over the devaluation of the sucre.
Unions called for a national strike for Oct 1.
(SFEC, 10/4/98, p.T11)
1998 Sep 23, In Lesotho 9 South
Africans and 40 rebels were killed since the SADC (Southern African
Development Community) task force entered the country to restore the
government of Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili.
(SFC, 9/24/98, p.A14)
1998 Sep 23, In Pakistan Prime
Minister Nawaz Sharif said that he would sign the nuclear test ban
treaty within the year. Sharif also met with Prime Minister Atal
Bihari Vajpayee of India and agreed to resume talks on Kashmir.
(SFC, 9/24/98, p.A12)(WSJ, 9/24/98, p.A1)
1998 Sep 23, Philippine
Airlines (b.1941) cancelled its last flight from San Francisco and
shut down operations due to financial problems. On Sep 28 Pres.
Estrada announced that the airline could reopen following a
management agreement with its largest union for a proposed
rehabilitation plan.
(SFC, 9/24/98, p.A19)(SFC, 9/29/98, p.D1)
1998 Sep 23, In Thailand the
economy was expected to contract by 7-10%. Prime Minister Chuan
Leekpai called for an investigation into the sale of medical
supplies and 3 prominent academics published the book "Guns, Girls,
Gambling and Ganja."
(SFC, 9/24/98, p.A12)
1998 Sep 23, The Turkey high
court jailed Istanbul Mayor Tayyip Erdogan.
(WSJ, 9/24/98, p.A13)
1998 Sep 23, The U.N. Security
Council adopted a resolution demanding a cease-fire in Kosovo and
threatened further action if fighting continued.
(SFC, 9/24/98, p.A12)(AP, 9/23/99)
1999 Sep 23, Pres. Clinton
vetoed the $792 billion GOP proposed 10-year tax cut calling it "too
big, too bloated."
(SFC, 9/24/99, p.A1)(AP, 9/23/00)
1999 Sep 23, The $125 million
Mars Climate Orbiter was presumed lost after it hit the Martian
atmosphere. The crash was later blamed on navigation confusion due
to 2 teams using conflicting English and metric units.
(SFC, 9/24/99, p.A1)(SFC, 10/1/99, p.A1)
1999 Sep 23, In Chechnya
Russian fighter jets bombed targets in and around Grozny. The
Chechen government said that it does not support Islamic militants
and that it would retaliate against Russian attacks on its
territory.
(SFC, 9/24/99, p.A16)
1999 Sep 23, In Indonesia
protests erupted after parliament passed army-backed security
legislation that would revoke civil liberties during emergencies.
(WSJ, 9/24/99, p.A1)
1999 Sep 23, In Italy the
cloned bull Galileo was unveiled at the dairy cattle show in
Cremona. The Health Ministry confiscated the bull the next day due
to the 1998 decree forbidding cloning issued by Health Minister Rosy
Bindi.
(SFEC, 9/26/99, p.A22)
1999 Sep 23, In Kenya police
reported that 23 people in Embu were killed by methanol liquor
disguised as whiskey.
(SFC, 9/24/99, p.A14)
1999 Sep 23, In Taiwan the
death toll passed 2100 but the number believed to be trapped was
reduced to 300. Chip production was expected to resume in 10 days.
(WSJ, 9/24/99, p.A1)
1999 Sep 23, In Zimbabwe
Defense Minister Moven Mahachi announced that Zimbabwe’s and Congo’s
armies had set up a joint diamond and gold venture to help finance
the war in Congo.
(WSJ, 5/30/00, p.A22)
2000 Sep 23, At the Sydney
Olympics, Marion Jones won the women's 100-meter final in 10.7
seconds; Maurice Greene (news - web sites) took the men's 100 in
9.87 seconds.
(AP, 9/23/01)
2000 Sep 23, Carl Rowan,
prize-winning black journalist, died at age 75. His 8 books included
"Wait Till Next Year," a biography of Jackie Robinson, "Dream
Makers, Dream Breakers," a biography of Thurgood Marshall, and "The
Coming Race War in America" (1996). His autobiography was titled
"Breaking Barriers.’
(SFEC, 9/24/00, p.D15)
2000 Sep 23, World Bank and IMF
leaders gathered in Prague for a summit amidst protests. They issued
a communiqué on currency markets and oil prices.
(SFEC, 9/24/00, p.d15)
2000 Sep 23, In Indonesia
police arrested 25 people in connection with the recent bombings in
Jakarta.
(SFEC, 9/24/00, p.A6)
2001 Sep 23, President George
W. Bush returned the American flag to full staff at Camp David,
symbolically ending a period of national mourning.
(AP, 9/23/02)
2001 Sep 23, Thousands gathered
at New York's Yankee Stadium to offer prayers for the victims of
terrorism; Mayor Rudolph Giuliani pledged that "our skyline will
rise again."
(AP, 9/23/02)
2001 Sep 23, US Sec. of State
Colin Powell vowed the US would give allies evidence detailing Osama
bin Laden’s connection to the Sep 11 attacks.
(SFC, 9/24/01, p.A1)
2001 Sep 23, The NYC missing #
was raised to 6,453 with 252 accounted dead. On Nov 20 the official
count was reduced to just below 3,900. [see Dec 19]
(SFC, 9/24/01, p.A3)(SFC, 11/21/01, p.A2)(SFC,
12/20/01, p.A15)
2001 Sep 23, In Hillsborough
County, Florida, Randolph Standifer (21) was arrested for the rape
and attempted murder of a 9-month-old baby that was kidnapped and
abandoned a day earlier.
(SFC, 9/24/01, p.B2)
2001 Sep 23, NASA reported that
its Deep Space I craft took pictures of the comet Borrelly.
(SFC, 9/24/01, p.B2)
2001 Sep 23, Four coal miners
were killed in an explosion at the Blue Creek Mine Number Five in
Brookwood, Ala. 9 miners who rushed to their aid also died. The mine
is the deepest in North America at 2,140 feet below the surface.
(SFC, 9/25/01, p.A14)(AP, 9/23/06)
2001 Sep 23, Osama bin Laden
issued a statement that called for Muslim brothers to resist the
"Christian-Jewish crusade led by the big crusader Bush under the
flag of the Cross…"
(SFC, 9/25/01, p.A6)
2001 Sep 23, In Colombia 2 men
were arrested in connection with a plot to assassinate Pres.
Pastrana in July in the town of Armenia.
(SFC, 9/26/01, p.C2)
2001 Sep 23, In Congo rebel
leader Adolphe Onusumba acknowledged peace talks with Zimbabwe’s
Pres. Mugabe.
(SFC, 9/24/01, p.B2)
2001 Sep 23, Israel’s PM Sharon
cancelled talks with Yasser Arafat after Palestinians fired 3 mortar
shells in the Gaza Strip, 2 of which hit Jewish settlements and the
3rd fell inside Israel. There were no injuries.
(SFC, 9/24/01, p.B1)
2001 Sep 23, In Macao
pro-Beijing and business candidates won a majority of the 10
directly chosen 27 legislative seats. Pro-democracy candidates won
21% of the total vote, the highest won by any group.
(SFC, 9/24/01, p.B2)
2001 Sep 23, The 6-member
Persian "Gulf Cooperation Council" (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar,
Saudi Arabia, UAR) met in Jidda and pledged support for an int’l.
coalition against terrorism.
(SFC, 9/24/01, p.A7)
2001 Sep 23, Elections were
held in Poland and the Democratic Left Alliance, composed of former
Communists, won with 41% of the popular vote. Leszek Miller became
the new PM.
(SFC, 9/24/01, p.B1)(Econ, 2/19/05, p.49)
2002 Sep 23, The Bush
administration asked a federal appeals court to strike down Oregon's
assisted-suicide law.
(SFC, 9/24/02, p.A3)
2002 Sep 23, A 24-count
indictment charging conspiracy, securities fraud and wire fraud was
filed against the founding family and two executives of bankrupt
cable company Adelphia Communications Corporation.
(AP, 9/23/03)
2002 Sep 23, Governor Gray
Davis signed a law making California the first state to offer
workers paid family leave.
(SFC, 9/24/02, p.A1)(AP, 9/23/03)
2002 Sep 23, Hong Im Ballenger,
a beauty shop manager in Baton Rouge, La., was shot to death. Her
murder was later attributed to John Allen Muhammed, the Washington
area sniper.
(SFC, 11/1/02, p.A3)
2002 Sep 23, Rachel Burkheimer
(18) of Marysville, Wa., was shot to death by her boyfriend John
Anderson. On Oct 5 Matthew Durham led police to her body. 8 people
were later arrested for her murder. In 2004 Yusef Jihad, head of a
gang involved in the killing, was convicted of 1st degree murder.
Anderson was convicted of aggravated 1st degree murder on May 19,
2004. In 2004 Tony Williams (22) was sentenced to 9 years in prison
and Maurice Rivas (20) to 26 years.
(ST, 4/6/04, p.B5)(ST, 5/20/04, p.B1)(ST,
7/29/04, p.B1)
2002 Sep 23, In Inner Mongolia,
China, a staircase guardrail gave way at a school, killing 21
students.
(Reuters, 9/24/02)
2002 Sep 23, Georgia's
president sought to defuse an explosive war of words with Russia,
offering to let Moscow send unarmed military observers to the
mountain valley where Russia says terrorists are operating.
(AP, 9/23/02)
2002 Sep 23, War fever drove
U.S. oil prices to a new 19-month high as dealers took fright at the
growing threat of a U.S. assault on Iraq.
(AP, 9/23/02)
2002 Sep 23, Twenty five
leaders from Asia and the European Union gathered for a two-day
summit expected to focus on North Korea, the fight against
international terrorism and economic cooperation.
(AP, 9/23/02)
2002 Sep 23, Hurricane Isidore
left two dead and 300,000 homeless in Mexico's Yucatan and moved
toward the U.S. Gulf coast.
(AP, 9/24/02)
2002 Sep 23, In Kashmir Muslim
separatists killed 10 people in grenade attacks on polling stations
to frighten voters.
(SFC, 9/24/02, p.A13)
2002 Sep 23, Nepali troops
fought a fierce battle with Maoist rebels and killed 24 guerrillas.
The death toll from the fighting took the number of insurgents
killed in the last five days to 143.
(Reuters, 9/25/02)
2002 Sep 23, A defiant Yasser
Arafat dug in at his besieged West Bank compound, rejecting Israel's
demand to hand over the names of all those holed up inside.
(AP, 9/23/03)
2002 Sep 23, A Palestinian
gunman opened fire on visitors attending Jewish holiday celebrations
In Hebron, killing a man and wounding three of his sons.
(AP, 9/24/02)
2003 Sep 23, Speaking at the
United Nations, President Bush rejected calls from France and
Germany to hasten the transfer of power in Iraq, insisting the shift
to self-government could be "neither hurried nor delayed."
(AP, 9/23/04)
2003 Sep 23, Puerto Rico's
congressional delegate said the United States will close its
Roosevelt Roads Naval Station in eastern Puerto Rico within the next
six months.
(AP, 9/23/03)
2003 Sep 23, US forces in Iraq
killed 3 civilians in an aerial attack on a farming village.
(SFC, 9/24/03, p.A3)
2003 Sep 23, A federal appeals
court unanimously put California's recall election back on the
calendar for Oct. 11.
(AP, 9/23/04)
2003 Sep 23, In California's
Gov. Gray Davis signed a law to prohibit spam effective Jan 1.
(SFC, 9/24/03, p.A1)
2003 Sep 23, Advanced Micro
Devices (AMD) introduced 64-bit computing for PC users. The 1st new
chip is the AMD Athlon 64 Processor 3200+, which runs at 2 GHz.
(SFC, 9/23/03, p.B1)
2003 Sep 23, Scientists
reported that human bone fragments found in a cave from Aveline's
Hole in the Mendip Hills of southwest England date from
10,200-10,400BCE.
(AP, 9/23/03)
2003 Sep 23, China signed
agreements with Russia and four Central Asian neighbors (Uzbekistan,
Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Kazakhstan) in an effort to strengthen a
7-year-old security alliance and encourage economic links across a
largely undeveloped region.
(AP, 9/23/03)
2003 Sep 23, A power outage
struck the capital of Denmark and southern Sweden, leaving nearly 4
million people without electricity.
(AP, 9/23/03)
2003 Sep 23, Ivory Coast rebel
leaders said they were abandoning their posts in Ivory Coast's
power-sharing government and halting disarmament.
(AP, 9/23/03)
2003 Sep 23, A raid in Saudi
Arabia on Islamic militants left three suspects dead, including
Jubran Sultan al-Qahtani (aka as Zubayr al-Rimi), an al-Qaida figure
wanted by the US.
(AP, 9/24/03)
2004 Sep 23, President Bush
denied painting too rosy a picture about Iraq, and said he would
consider sending more troops if asked; Iraq's interim leader, Ayad
Allawi, standing with Bush in the White House Rose Garden, said
additional troops weren't needed. Allawi declared that his country
is succeeding in its effort to move past the war that ousted Saddam
Hussein.
(AP, 9/23/04)(AP, 9/23/05)
2004 Sep 23, The US Congress
voted to extend 3 tax cuts aimed at the middle class along with a
bevy of business tax breaks.
(SFC, 9/24/04, p.A3)
2004 Sep 23, Antarctic
researchers reported that the ice cap’s glaciers are now melting
twice as fast as in the 1990s and raising sea level.
(WSJ, 9/24/04, p.A1)
2004 Sep 23, In Belgium a woman
gave birth to a healthy baby after doctors had transplanted ovarian
tissue, frozen since 1997, back into her abdomen.
(SFC, 9/24/04, p.A1)
2004 Sep 23, In southern Brazil
seven teenagers were beaten to death and five others were injured in
a rebellion at a juvenile detention center.
(AP, 9/24/04)
2004 Sep 23, Nigel Nicolson
(87), English writer and publisher, died. His mother was Vita
Sackville-West.
(Econ, 10/2/04, p.87)
2004 Sep 23, Egypt’s ruling
National Democratic Party ended its annual conference and announced
that income and corporate taxes would be halved with top rates
capped at 20%.
(Econ, 9/25/04, p.61)
2004 Sep 23, Haiti officials
said the death toll from Tropical Storm Jeanne rose to more than
1,070 and could double again.
(AP, 9/23/04)
2004 Sep 23, US warplanes fired
on insurgent targets in the east Baghdad slum of Sadr City. Iraqi
doctors said one person was killed and 12 were injured, many of them
children. Gunmen in Mosul killed a senior official of Iraq's North
Oil Co.
(AP, 9/23/04)
2004 Sep 23, A militant group
falsely claimed in a Web posting that two Italian women taken
hostage in Iraq had been killed. [see Sep 28]
(AP, 9/23/04)
2004 Sep 23, In Iraq kidnappers
seized 2 more Egyptian construction engineers working for the
country's mobile phone company.
(AP, 9/24/04)(SFC, 9/25/04, p.A1)
2004 Sep 23, In Latvia
lawmakers rejected a proposal to let nearly 500,000 ethnic Russians
vote in local elections, despite giving the same right to citizens
of EU countries who live in the Baltic state.
(AP, 9/23/04)
2004 Sep 23, In northern
Nigeria a gunbattle between security forces and Islamic militants
fighting to create a Taliban-style state left 29 people dead, most
of them militants.
(AP, 9/24/04)
2004 Sep 23, Three Palestinian
gunmen infiltrated a fog-shrouded Israeli army post at dawn, killing
three Israeli soldiers in a fierce gunbattle before they were shot
to death.
(AP, 9/23/04)
2004 Sep 23, A senior Russian
official said his country’s appetite for counterfeits costs
manufacturers tens of billions of dollars each year: "Billions, tens
of billions of dollars of fake goods are in circulation."
(AP, 9/23/04)
2005 Sep 23, G7 finance
ministers and central bankers concluded a meeting in Washington and
agreed to meet again in December in London and bid farewell to
Chairman Alan Greenspan. They focused their attention on lopsided
global economic progress and rising oil prices.
(AFP, 9/24/05)(WSJ, 9/24/05, p.A4)
2005 Sep 23, Lester Crawford,
commissioner of the US FDA, resigned. He had just been confirmed on
July 18.
(SFC, 9/24/05, p.A2)
2005 Sep 23, Hurricane Rita,
dropped to Category 4, moved toward the Texas and Louisiana coast
with 135 mph winds, creating monumental traffic jams along
evacuation routes and raising fears of a crippling blow to the
nation's oil-refining industry.
(AP, 9/23/05)
2005 Sep 23, In New Orleans
water poured over a patched levee, cascading into one of the city's
lowest-lying neighborhoods and heightening fears that Hurricane Rita
would re-flood this devastated city.
(AP, 9/23/05)
2005 Sep 23, In Texas a bus
carrying elderly evacuees from Hurricane Rita caught fire and was
rocked by explosions on a gridlocked highway near Dallas, killing 23
people. In 2006 James Maples (65), owner of the bus, was acquitted
of a safety violation but convicted on 2 lesser counts. His company
Global Limo was found guilty on all charges.
(AP, 9/23/05)(SFC, 10/4/06, p.A3)
2005 Sep 23, Scientists
reported that the transplant of the nearly entire human chromosome
21 in mice in a medical and technical breakthrough that could reveal
new insights into Down's syndrome and other disorders.
(Reuters, 9/23/05)
2005 Sep 23, Arubans voted for
a prime minister and all 21 seats in the parliament in a race that
has focused on immigration and frustration over stagnant salaries
lagging behind inflation.
(AP, 9/23/05)
2005 Sep 23, A US embassy
official said the US is to help its Caspian Sea ally Azerbaijan
build a radar station on its border with Iran and another near
Russia.
(AP, 9/23/05)
2005 Sep 23, A British convert
to Islam was jailed for 15 years after being convicted in London on
two charges of possessing of articles for use in terrorism. Andrew
Rowe (34), arrested in Oct, 2003, was found guilty of having a book
containing notes on how to fire a mortar bomb, plus details of a
secret communication code. He was jailed for 7½ years
for each charge.
(AP, 9/23/05)
2005 Sep 23, The People’s Bank
of China said the yuan would be allowed to fluctuate by 3% a day
against the euro, yen and other non-dollar currencies, compared with
a 1.5% previous limit. Movements against the dollar remained limited
to 0.3%.
(Econ, 10/1/05, p.71)
2005 Sep 23, Colombia's
2nd-largest rebel group, the ELN, accepted an offer from Venezuela
to host peace talks between the guerrillas and the Colombian
government.
(AP, 9/24/05)
2005 Sep 23, Maarike Harro,
director of the National Institute for Health Development said the
World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that one in every 100
people in Estonia in the 15 to 49 age group may be infected with
HIV.
(AFP, 9/23/05)
2005 Sep 23, In Egypt Seoudi
Ali Salem, a Qatari man participating in an informal car race,
killed five people and injured 32 when his speeding car slammed into
a crowd sitting on a grassy median strip on the airport road. Salem
fled the scene with another driver.
(AP, 9/24/05)
2005 Sep 23, In Haiti Dumarsais
Simeus (65), owner of a Texas-based food services company, was
rejected as a presidential candidate because he has US citizenship.
Simeus appealed the decision.
(AP, 9/24/05)
2005 Sep 23, The newly opened
Hong Kong Disneyland said it prefers that its 5,000 workers not
unionize as activists described tough work conditions at the park
such as long hours, harsh turnarounds and lack of breaks.
(AP, 9/23/05)
2005 Sep 23, A suicide bomber
detonated hidden explosives on a small bus in Baghdad, killing 6
people. 2 American soldiers died in separate attacks. A roadside
bomb killed a US Army soldier whose convoy was patrolling Baghdad.
(AP, 9/23/05)(SFC, 9/24/05, p.A3)
2005 Sep 23, Sinn Fein and
Irish government leaders said the outlawed Irish Republican Army is
ready to dispose of its stockpiled arms in a long-sought peace move,
possibly within the next week, after their first meeting in eight
months.
(AP, 9/24/05)
2005 Sep 23, Lithuania’s
defense minister said the crash of a Russian military jet in
Lithuania was almost certainly accidental and the pilot will be sent
home when the investigation ends, but he criticized Moscow for
sending a plane armed with missiles into the country's airspace.
(AP, 9/23/05)
2005 Sep 23, North Korean
leader Kim Jong Il ordered his aides to arrange a meeting with a
high-ranking U.S. official, possibly with President Bush.
(AP, 9/23/05)
2005 Sep 23, Religious schools
in Pakistan agreed to register with the government on condition the
process is approved by parliament and they don't have to reveal
their sources of funding.
(AP, 9/23/05)
2005 Sep 23, Palestinians took
charge of a border for the first time ever, allowing thousands to
cross between the Gaza Strip and Egypt in a temporary opening of the
frontier.
(AP, 9/23/05)
2005 Sep 23, In Gaza’s Jebaliya
refugee camp a truck filled with masked militants and homemade
weapons exploded at a Hamas rally, killing at least 15 Palestinians
and wounding 80, including children. Hamas blamed Israel and
unleashed a barrage of rocket fire that lasted through the night.
(AP, 9/24/05)(SSFC, 9/25/05, A3)
2005 Sep 23, In the southern
Philippines 3 teenagers were killed and at least 8 others wounded
when a retired army sergeant threw a grenade at a group of boys at a
town fiesta.
(AP, 9/24/05)
2005 Sep 23, In Puerto Rico FBI
agents shot and killed Filiberto Ojeda Rios (72), a Puerto Rican
nationalist leader wanted in the 1983 robbery of a Connecticut
armored truck.
(AP, 9/25/05)(Econ, 10/1/05, p.82)
2005 Sep 23, In Puerto Rico
real estate developer Adam Anhang (b.1973), a Canadian businessman,
was killed. His wife, Aura Vazquez, sued Anhang's parents six months
after Anhang was beaten and stabbed to death. She accused them of
seizing control of his estate and blocking her from it. Vazquez was
later charged by a US grand jury with offering a man $3 million to
kill Anhang. Jonathan Roman Rivera (22) spent eight months in
maximum security prison after he was sentenced to 105 years for the
slaying. Rivera was released in June 2008 after another man was
indicted for the murder. In 2009 Rivera sued more than a dozen
police officials and prosecutors for his ordeal, seeking $12 million
in damages.
(http://www.121s.com/viewtopic.php?t=594)(AP,
9/17/09)(AP, 8/17/11)
2005 Sep 23, Police in the
breakaway republic of Somaliland raided houses in the capital,
Hargeisa, where al-Qaida militants were believed holed up and
captured four suspects after a shootout. A fifth suspect was
arrested 20 miles away. Pres. Dahir Riyale Kahnin said the men were
mostly locals trained at a camp outside Mogadishu, Somalia.
(AP, 9/23/05)(Econ, 10/1/05, p.43)
2005 Sep 23, The UN Security
Council extended the peacekeeping mission in Sudan by six months.
(AP, 9/23/05)
2006 Sep 23, Barry Bonds hit
his 734th career home run in the Giants' 10-8 loss to the Brewers,
breaking Hank Aaron's NL record.
(AP, 9/23/07)
2006 Sep 23, Two days of high
winds, heavy rain and tornadoes pounded parts of the US Midwest and
the South, killing at least 10 people and stranding others in trees
and shelters while forecasters warned that the stormy weather was
expected to continue.
(AP, 9/23/06)(SSFC, 9/24/06, p.A2)
2006 Sep 23, Three young
children were found dead in an East St. Louis, Ill., apartment,
hours after Tiffany Hall was charged with killing their pregnant
mother and her fetus in a grisly attack. Hall has since been charged
with first-degree murder in the deaths of Jimella Tunstall and her
children, as well as intentional homicide of Tunstall's fetus.
(AP, 9/23/07)
2006 Sep 23, Etta Baker (93),
blues guitarist, died in Fairfax, Va. In 1991 she won a Folk
Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. Her
albums included a 2004 recording with Taj Mahal.
(SFC, 9/26/06, p.D6)
2006 Sep 23, Afghan and
NATO-led security forces backed by war planes killed 40 rebels in
Helmand province's Greshk district.
(AFP, 9/24/06)
2006 Sep 23, In Bolivia 90% of
the country’s productive land was still owned by just 50,000
families. Four-fifths of the rural population remained poor.
(Econ, 9/23/06, p.41)
2006 Sep 23, Toomas Hendrik
Ilves (52), a Western-leaning former diplomat and journalist, was
narrowly elected Estonia's president, ousting the incumbent who was
favored in the race.
(AP, 9/23/06)
2006 Sep 23, Russian Pres.
Vladimir Putin and his French counterpart Jacques Chirac joined
German Chancellor Angela Merkel for a three-way informal summit in a
chateau in Compiegne.
(AP, 9/23/06)
2006 Sep 23, In northern
England at least 10,000 anti-war demonstrators marched through the
city of Manchester, protesting the presence of British troops in
Iraq and Afghanistan.
(AP, 9/23/06)
2006 Sep 23, A French newspaper
reported that Osama bin Laden had died in Pakistan on August 23 of
typhoid fever. The report was not confirmed.
(SSFC, 9/24/06, p.A4)
2006 Sep 23, Gambian President
Yahya Jammeh easily won a third term and called for a concerted
effort to develop the country socially and economically.
(AP, 9/23/06)
2006 Sep 23, A square in front
of Hungary's parliament overflowed with demonstrators demanding that
PM Gyurcsany quit in the largest protest yet since a recording was
leaked on which he admitted lying to the people about the economy.
Hungary’s current-account deficit reached 9% of GDP and the budget
deficit hit 10%.
(AP, 9/24/06)(Econ, 9/23/06, p.64)
2006 Sep 23, In Indian Kashmir
suspected militants shot dead a man and a woman near Srinagar. A
border guard hurt in a bomb explosion died the next day.
(AFP, 9/24/06)
2006 Sep 23, Indian security
officials in the western desert state of Rajasthan shot dead three
suspected militants who were trying to cross over from Pakistan.
(AP, 9/24/06)
2006 Sep 23, A bombing in the
Shiite slum of Sadr City killed 38 people and wounded 42 as they
stocked up on fuel for Ramadan. The severed heads of 10 Iraqi
soldiers that were tossed into a crowded market in Beiji by
unidentified gunmen. Minority Sunnis began the fasting month of
Ramadan. Police Col. Ismaiel Chehayyan was killed by gunmen while
having his Ramadan fast-breaking dinner at a friend's house. Iraqi
security forces arrested a leader of the al-Ashreen Brigades, a
group responsible for attacks and kidnappings. The leader along with
7 aides were captured in Kharnabat. 5 apparent death squad victims
were turned in to the morgue in Kut. The victims were blindfolded
with their arms and hands bound, and showed signs of torture.
(AP, 9/23/06)(AP, 9/24/06)
2006 Sep 23, The TV series “The
Renegades,” directed by Najdat Anzour of Syria, began showing in
Lebanon and the rest of the Arab world. It fictionalized the
devastating effects of terrorism on Muslim families.
(SFC, 10/4/06, p.A7)
2006 Sep 23, In Mexico the
governor of Oaxaca state warned 70,000 striking teachers that they
would be replaced and lose their pay unless they immediately
returned to work.
(AP, 9/24/06)
2006 Sep 23, In Nepal's
mountainous east a helicopter with 24 people aboard went missing.
Searchers found the wreckage on Sep 25. The 24 dead included 2
Americans, Nepalese Forestry Minister Gopal Rai, Finnish Embassy
Charge d'Affaires Pauli Mustonen and Canadian Jennifer Headley, a
coordinator for WWF, several Nepali journalists, government
officials and four crew members, two Russians and two Nepalis.
(AP, 9/23/06)(AP, 9/25/06)
2006 Sep 23, In Pakistan at
least 8 people were killed and 55 injured when a bus collided with
another on the main highway near the Islamabad. According to
official statistics Pakistan has the world's third highest death
rate from road accidents.
(AFP, 9/23/06)
2006 Sep 23, Spain's Basque
separatist group ETA has said it will not give up its weapons until
independence for the Basque region is won, fuelling concerns over
the future of a six-month-old ceasefire.
(AFP, 9/24/06)
2006 Sep 23, In eastern Turkey
suspected Kurdish guerrillas set off an explosive-laden minibus
across from a police guest house, injuring 17 people.
(AP, 9/23/06)
2006 Sep 23, Yemen's President
Ali Abdullah Saleh was re-elected with more than 77% of votes in the
face of the strongest challenge since he came to power 28 years ago.
Faisal bin Shamlan won almost 22% of the vote. Opposition parties
backing bin Shamlan immediately rejected the election commission's
results, claiming their candidate won at least 40%.
(AP, 9/24/06)
2007 Sep 23, The 7-part,
15-hour opus “The War,” by Ken Burns and co-director Lynn Novick,
began on PBS. PBS later estimated 18.7 million viewers saw the
airings of "The War," the first chapter of Ken Burns' seven-part
documentary about World War II.
(SSFC, 9/23/07, p.A1)(AP, 9/25/07)
2007 Sep 23, The campaign group
End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and the Trafficking of
Children for Sexual Purposes (ECPAT) said criminal gangs are
trafficking hundreds of children into Britain and forcing them to
work in cannabis factories, with at least one child per week being
found by police.
(AFP, 9/23/07)
2007 Sep 23, In Egypt thousands
of workers at Ghazl el-Mahalla started a strike, demanding 150-day
shares of annual profits, improved industrial safety, and raising
the monthly bonuses. The strike started by 10,000 workers, has gone
up to 15,000. Ghazl al-Mahallah is the biggest textile factory in
the Middle East, with over 27,000 workers comprising its total labor
force.
(http://tinyurl.com/2o3aup)
2007 Sep 23, Indian Oil
Minister Murli Deora witnessed the signing of three accords between
state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) and the state-run Myanmar
Oil and Gas Enterprise at Nay Pyi Taw, the administrative capital of
Myanmar.
(AFP, 9/24/07)
2007 Sep 23, Iranian President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad left Tehran for New York to address the United
Nations; state media quoted him as saying the American people were
eager for different opinions about the world, and that he was
looking forward to providing them with "correct and clear
information."
(AP, 9/23/08)
2007 Sep 23, The Israeli
Cabinet voted overwhelmingly to release 90 Palestinian prisoners in
an effort to shore up the moderate Palestinian president, Mahmoud
Abbas, in his power struggle with Islamic Hamas militants.
(AP, 9/23/07)
2007 Sep 23, Yasuo Fukuda, a
veteran moderate, easily won election as Japan's ruling party
president, pledging to keep a pro-US foreign policy and improve ties
with Asia after he almost certainly becomes prime minister later
this week.
(AP, 9/23/07)
2007 Sep 23, In Myanmar some
20,000 people, led by Buddhist monks, protested against the junta.
Riot police and barbed wire barricades blocked hundreds of monks and
anti-government demonstrators from approaching the home of the
detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, in a new show of force
against a rising protest movement.
(AP, 9/23/07)
2008 Sep 23, The Bush
administration urgently pressed Congress in public and private to
move quickly on a $700 billion bailout of the financial industry as
Democratic and Republican lawmakers vented their anger over a crisis
that pushed the nation's economy to the brink. Congress and treasury
secretary Hank Paulson appeared to have worked out the general
outlines of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).
(AP, 9/23/08)(Econ, 9/27/08, p.81)
2008 Sep 23, The US said it has
given Ethiopia 151 million dollars to boost its health and education
services.
(AP, 9/23/08)
2008 Sep 23, California’s Gov.
Schwarzenegger signed a $144.5 billion spending plan. The state
budget was a record 85 days late.
(SFC, 9/24/08, p.A1)(WSJ, 9/24/08, p.A1)
2008 Sep 23, Ronald Dominique,
suspected of killing as many as 23 men in southern Louisiana over 10
years, pleaded guilty to killing 8 men. He was sentenced to serve 8
consecutive sentences of life in prison.
(SFC, 9/24/08, p.A4)
2008 Sep 23, Chrysler LLC
disclosed that it had lost $400 million so far this year just hours
after it unveiled prototypes of 3 new electric cars.
(WSJ, 9/24/08, p.B1)
2008 Sep 23, Goldman Sachs said
it will get a $5 billion infusion from Warren Buffett and his
Berkshire Hathaway Inc., giving Berkshire roughly 10% of Goldman.
(WSJ, 9/24/08, p.A1)
2008 Sep 23, Google and
T-Mobile unveiled the T-Mobile G1, the first phone to use the
Google’s Android operating system.
(SFC, 9/24/08, p.C1)
2008 Sep 23, In China Li
Shiming, a corrupt and rapacious local Communist Party secretary in
Shanxi province, was murdered by Zhang Xuping (18). Shiming had
Zhang expelled from school in 2003 following the imprisonment of his
mother, who had protested along with others the confiscation of land
by Shiming.
(Econ, 8/22/09, p.38)
2008 Sep 23, Ecuador expelled a
leading Brazilian construction firm sending in troops to seize
projects worth $800 million. Pres. Correa was battling with the
Odebrecht firm over a dam which the government said was badly built.
(WSJ, 9/24/08, p.A24)
2008 Sep 23, In western Finland
Matti Juhani Saari (22), whose violent YouTube postings made police
bring him in for questioning, opened fire at his trade school,
killing 8 women and 2 men before shooting himself.
(AP, 9/23/08)(AP, 9/24/08)
2008 Sep 23, Iran's President
Ahmadinejad addressed the UN General Assembly declaring that "the
American empire" is nearing collapse and should end its military
involvement in other countries.
(AP, 9/23/08)
2008 Sep 23, Two bombs
apparently targeting Iraqi security forces struck different areas in
Baghdad, killing at least one civilian and wounding seven others. US
soldiers accidentally killed Jassim al-Garrout, a US-allied Sunni
group leader in Siniyah.
(AP, 9/23/08)(SFC, 9/24/08, p.A9)
2008 Sep 23, Japan’s Nomura
Holdings said it will buy the European and Middle Eastern equities
and investment banking operations of Lehman Brothers for an
undisclosed sum.
(AFP, 9/23/08)
2008 Sep 23, The international
organization Transparency International reported that, among 30
member states of the European Union (EU) and other countries of
Western Europe, only Romania and Bulgaria encounter worse situation
than Lithuania according to the corruption perceptions index.
(www.baltic-course.com/eng/analytics/?doc=5411)
2008 Sep 23, Mexico said it
plans to search 10 percent of all vehicles entering the country from
the United States in an effort to curb arms smuggling.
(AP, 9/24/08)
2008 Sep 23, Myanmar's
longest-serving political prisoner, journalist Win Tin, was freed
after 19 years behind bars and vowed to continue his struggle to
achieve democracy in the military-ruled country. Altogether Myanmar
freed 9,002 prisoners. Win Htein (64), a former aide to Myanmar
pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, was re-arrested less than 24
hours after being freed by the military government in the mass
amnesty.
(AP, 9/23/08)(SFC, 9/24/08, p.A4)(AP, 9/26/08)
2008 Sep 23, Pakistani
officials said security forces, backed by helicopter gunships and
artillery, have killed more than 60 insurgents in the northwest
tribal regions in offensives aimed at denying al-Qaida and Taliban
militants safe havens.
(AP, 9/23/08)
2008 Sep 23, The bodies of 2
Palestinian smugglers were pulled from a tunnel that collapsed along
the Gaza-Egypt border. 3 more bodies were removed the next day. The
five were bringing contraband goods from Egypt into Gaza when an
explosion collapsed the tunnel. Three smugglers survived and were
arrested on the Egyptian side.
(AP, 9/24/08)
2008 Sep 23, Portugal's
Socialist government began the roll-out of 500,000 ultra-cheap
laptops for school children in a program that the government said
could be extended to Venezuela. While the Magellan computer will be
assembled in Portugal by a company called JP Sa Couto, it is based
on Intel's Classmate PC, a cheap computer that has been adopted in
various formats in countries such as Brazil and Indonesia.
(Reuters, 9/23/08)
2008 Sep 23, Heavy fighting
between Somali insurgents and African Union forces erupted in
southern Mogadishu, leaving at least seven civilians dead.
(AFP, 9/23/08)
2008 Sep 23, South Africa's
finance minister resigned along with most leading Cabinet members
but tried to reassure a shaken business community and stock market
by saying he was willing to serve the country's new administration.
(AP, 9/23/08)
2008 Sep 23, Venezuelan
President Hugo Chavez arrived in China to hold talks with his
counterpart Hu Jintao and sign a deal for combat aircraft in a visit
likely to irk the US. Chavez said Venezuela and China agreed to
jointly build 2 oil refineries, one in each country.
(AP, 9/23/08)(WSJ, 9/24/08, p.A25)
2009 Sep 23, US President
Barack Obama delivered a stern message to global leaders to work
together to solve the world's most pressing problems in his maiden
speech to UN General Assembly. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
challenged world leaders to cleanse the globe of nuclear weapons,
tackle the threat of catastrophic climate change and combat growing
poverty from the global financial crisis.
(AFP, 9/23/09)(AP, 9/23/09)
2009 Sep 23, In San Mateo, Ca.,
a federal grand jury indicted Seth Sundberg (34), a branch manager
for a mortgage and financial business, with mail fraud and
falsifying a tax return. He had claimed a tax refund of just over $5
million after allegedly paying $5.7 million in taxes for receiving
interest income.
(SFC, 9/25/09, p.C4)
2009 Sep 23, In Oakland, Ca.,
Damon Wessel (48) and Michael Caldwell (44) were shot and killed at
4075 Canon Ave. On Nov 18 Damon Joseph Ferreira (34), wanted for a
parole violation and for connection to the slayings, shot and killed
himself in Stockton as he was confronted by police.
(SFC, 11/19/09, p.C2)
2009 Sep 23, In Illinois
Michael Finton (29) was arrested in Springfield after federal
officials said he attempted to detonate what he believed to be
explosives in a van in Springfield. The FBI had provided the decoy
devices.
(SFC, 9/26/09, p.A6)
2009 Sep 23, In Texas Maria
Refugia Camarillo (72), a Fort Worth grandmother, was sentenced to
nearly 4 years in prison for running a scheme in which her family
members married scores of foreigners seeking to stay in the US.
(SFC, 9/24/09, p.A7)
2009 Sep 23, It was reported
that solar power company SolarCity and Dutch Bank RaboBank have
teamed together to build 5 recharging stations along Highway 101,
between the SF Bay Area and Los Angeles, to support the new Tesla
electric cars. The $109,000 roadster was limited to range of about
250 miles. Recharging would take 30-45 minutes. Fully charging the
cars took over 3 hours at a cost of about $4.
(SFC, 9/23/09, p.A1)
2009 Sep 23, John Hart
(b.1917), former film and TV star, died in Baha, Ca. He had
temporarily replaced Clayton Moore as the Lone Ranger in 1952. His
career started with bit parts in “The Buccaneer” (1938). In 1947 he
played the title role in the 1947 serial “Jack Armstrong: The
All-American Boy.” In 1957 he starred as Hawkeye in the TV series
“Hawkeye and the Last of the Mohicans.”
(SFC, 9/24/09, p.D5)
2009 Sep 23, In Afghanistan a
family of seven died when their vehicle struck a bomb in Panjwayi
district, in Kandahar province. All in the car were killed including
two young children.
(AP, 9/23/09)
2009 Sep 23, The 20-member
African Leaders Malaria alliance began a campaign to stop malaria
from killing an estimated 1 million people in Africa each year.
(SFC, 9/24/09, p.A2)
2009 Sep 23, Australia's worst
dust storm in 70 years blanketed the heavily populated east coast in
a cloud of red Outback grit, nearly closed the country's largest
airport and left millions of people coughing and sputtering in the
streets.
(AP, 9/23/09)
2009 Sep 23, An Australian
naval ship stopped a boat carrying 98 asylum seekers off the
country's northwest coast.
(AP, 9/23/09)
2009 Sep 23, Sidney Cambridge
(45) of Nassau, a prominent Bahamian lawyer, was indicted on US
federal corruption charges in a case that allegedly involves a South
Florida politician and nearly $1 million in laundered money. Also
charged in the case was Broward County Commissioner and Vice Mayor
Josephus Eggelletion, who was suspended pending the outcome of the
case.
(AP, 9/24/09)
2009 Sep 23, In Canada the
Globe and Mail said Ford Motor Co's Canadian subsidiary faces a $1.8
billion shortfall in its pension plan, citing a company letter to
employees and retirees.
(Reuters, 9/23/09)
2009 Sep 23, Ethiopia said its
national electricity company has signed contracts with three Chinese
firms to develop hydro-electric projects and made preliminary
accords for wind power projects.
(AFP, 9/23/09)
2009 Sep 23, Europe laid out
new proposals to police its banks and financial markets, seeking to
set an example on the eve of a summit of G20 major economies.
(AFP, 9/23/09)
2009 Sep 23, England's top
prosecutor unveiled new guidelines that could decriminalize many
forms of assisted suicide, saying that most people who help close
friends or family kill themselves aren't likely to face charges.
(AP, 9/23/09)
2009 Sep 23, Honduras' interim
government extended an already long curfew after police skirmished
with backers of ousted President Manuel Zelaya throughout the night
and arrested more than 100 people for vandalism and looting. The
curfew was lifted for 6 hours to allow businesses to reopen and
people to restock supplies.
(AP, 9/23/09)(SFC, 9/24/09, p.A2)
2009 Sep 23, In central India
an 820-foot (250m) chimney collapsed during bad weather killing 40
people. More than 100 workers were feared dead at the site in Korba,
Chhattisgarh state, where the giant chimney came crashing down on
the plant's cafeteria as the workers had tea. On Jan 11, 2010, 2
Chinese engineers and a project manager wee charged with culpable
homicide not amounting to murder. The arrests took to 7 the number
of people held in connection with the accident.
(AP, 9/24/09)(AFP, 9/24/09)(AFP, 1/11/10)
2009 Sep 23, Iranian police
warned shop owners against displaying female mannequins wearing
underwear or showing off their curves as part of a government
campaign against Western influence. Azar Mansouri, a senior leader
from reformist political party, Islamic Iran Participation Front,
was arrested during a widespread crackdown on opposition supporters
who challenged the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in
June 2009. In March 2010 Mansouri was sentenced to three years in
jail for plotting to harm national security.
(AP, 9/23/09)(AFP,
3/13/10)(www.sign4change.info/english/spip.php?article579)
2009 Sep 23, In Iraq a bomb in
southwestern Baghdad killed a woman and her 2 children. Other
bombings in Baghdad and the northern city of Mosul killed at least 7
Iraqi security personnel and a local politician. 5 al-Qaida-linked
prisoners awaiting execution and 11 other inmates broke out of a
prison, just before midnight, in Saddam Hussein's hometown of
Tikrit, prompting a massive manhunt. More than 100 prison officials
and guards were soon detained for questioning. 6 of the escaped
convicts, including 3 of the al-Qaida linked inmates, were arrested
by late Sep 25. Iraqi security teams recaptured two more of
prisoners on Sep 26.
(AP, 9/23/09)(AP, 9/24/09)(AP, 9/25/09)(AP,
9/26/09)
2009 Sep 23, Israel's foreign
minister said that the summit of Israeli, US and Palestinian leaders
proved Israel could successfully fend off international pressure to
freeze West Bank settlement construction.
(AP, 9/23/09)
2009 Sep 23, Four Serbs were
arrested in Novo Brdo, Kosovo, 20 miles east of Pristina, under
suspicion of committing war crimes against Albanian civilians during
the 1998-1999 Kosovo war.
(SFC, 9/24/09, p.A2)
2009 Sep 23, Officials in
Kyrgyzstan called for the death penalty to be reinstated and said
public executions could be carried out, a sharp reversal that will
likely draw international condemnation.
(AP, 9/23/09)
2009 Sep 23, Morocco’s interior
ministry said security services have arrested 24 members of a
"terrorist network" linked to Al-Qaeda that recruited volunteers for
suicide bombings in Iraq.
(AFP, 9/23/09)
2009 Sep 23, Saudi Arabia
opened a new multibillion dollar coed university outside the coastal
city of Jeddah. The King Abdullah Science and Technology University,
or KAUST, boasts state-of-the-art labs, the world's 14th fastest
supercomputer and one of the biggest endowments worldwide. 817
students representing 61 different countries were currently
enrolled, with 314 beginning classes this month.
(AP, 9/23/09)
2009 Sep 23, Swedish police
held one suspect after armed robbers used a helicopter to stage a
spectacular raid on the roof of a cash storage facility belonging to
Anglo-Danish firm G4S in Vastberga, just south of Stockholm. On
August 2, 2010, ten men accused of stealing nearly 40 million kronor
($5 million) pleaded innocent as prosecutors opened their trial with
surveillance video of the brazen helicopter heist.
(Reuters, 9/23/09)(AP, 8/2/10)
2009 Sep 23, In Turkey heavy
rains in the northeast triggered floods and a landslide that killed
4 people. One person was reported missing.
(AP, 9/24/09)
2010 Sep 23, Republicans in the
House of Representatives unveiled their campaign agenda, a "Pledge
to America" to create jobs, cut taxes and shrink government, as they
head for big gains in November's congressional election.
(Reuters, 9/23/10)
2010 Sep 23, A New York
court sentenced Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani scientist, to 86 years
in prison. Siddiqui (38) was detained in Afghanistan in 2008. She
was found guilty of seizing a weapon from one of her captors and
trying to shoot US authorities who were interrogating her there.
(AP, 9/24/10)
2010 Sep 23, Blockbuster Inc.,
once the dominant movie rental company in the US, filed for Chapter
11 bankruptcy protection, after reeling from mounting losses, rising
debt and competitors that have better catered to Americans' changed
media habits.
(AP, 9/23/10)
2010 Sep 23, In Seattle, Wa.,
Saroeun Phan shot and killed 3 members of her family and then killed
herself. Relatives said she suffered from depression and
schizophrenia.
(SFC, 9/25/10, p.A4)
2010 Sep 23, The state of
Virginia executed Teresa Lewis (41) by lethal injection. She had
plotted the murder of her husband and stepson 8 years ago and hired
2 gunmen, one of whom became her lover, for the murder.
(SFC, 9/24/10, p.A6)
2010 Sep 23, Afghan Pres.
Karzai called for the quick release of 3 Afghan journalists. All 3
were picked up over the past week, two by a joint NATO and Afghan
force and one by Afghan intelligence officials. Analysts said the
arrests were reminiscent of a strategy the US military used in Iraq
to detain local journalists as a way to disrupt insurgents'
propaganda networks. Coalition forces conducted an airstrike in
Kabul province, killing Qari Mansur, a senior Haqqani operator who
was linked, along with five of his associates, to an attack against
an Afghan National Police unit earlier in the week.
(AP, 9/23/10)(AP, 9/24/10)
2010 Sep 23, Brazilian
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva officially launched the sale of
new shares in the state-run oil company Petrobras seen as the
world's biggest capitalization, worth 67 billion dollars. This
raised the government’s stake from 40% to 48%.
(AP, 9/24/10)(Econ, 10/2/10, p.31)
2010 Sep 23, Britain opened the
world's largest offshore wind farm off its southeast coast, as part
of a government's push to boost renewable energy.
(AP, 9/23/10)
2010 Sep 23, Cambodia's main
opposition party leader, Sam Rainsy, was convicted in absentia and
sentenced to 10 years in prison for a politically sensitive comment
about a border dispute, in what critics said was another example of
the government's intimidation of its opponents.
(AP, 9/23/10)
2010 Sep 23, China detained
four Japanese citizens for allegedly videotaping at a military
installation in Hebei province. 3 of the men were released on Sep
30. The 4th was held as investigations continued. The 4th Japanese
contractor was freed on Oct 9.
(SFC, 10/1/10, p.A4)(AP, 10/9/10)
2010 Sep 23, Colombia's
military killed Jorge Briceno (57), the field marshal and No. 2
commander of FARC, the country's main leftist rebel group in the
country's eastern plains. Briceno died in an operation in the rebel
stronghold of La Macarena that began the previous night and involved
special forces, air force and police intelligence.
(AP, 9/23/10)
2010 Sep 23, In the Dominican
Rep. 5 teenagers (ages 15 to 17), including two girls, were
convicted and sentenced to 3-5 years in prison for killing 7 taxi
drivers and seriously injuring two others by forcing most of them to
drink drain cleaner. The teens used guns to assault the drivers in
April and steal money from them.
(AP, 9/24/10)
2010 Sep 23, French trade
unions staged their second 24-hour strike in a month against
President Nicolas Sarkozy's unpopular pension reform, seeking to
force him to scrap plans to raise the retirement age to 62 from 60.
(Reuters, 9/23/10)
2010 Sep 23, Indian officials
said raging floodwaters triggered by heavy rain in the north have
killed at least 17 people, washed away thousands of homes and forced
some 2 million people to evacuate in a 24 hour period.
(AP, 9/23/10)
2010 Sep 23, In eastern India a
speeding freight train struck a herd of elephants overnight in a
densely forested region, killing seven. India's wild elephant
population was recently estimated at around 26,000.
(AP, 9/23/10)
2010 Sep 23, Mohammed Sofyan
Tsauri, a former Indonesian police officer, said he helped al-Qaida
train 170 members of a new terror network in Aceh province soon
after he left the police force in 2008. On Jan 19, 2011, Tsauri (34)
was sentenced to 10 years in prison for supplying weapons to a
terrorist cell allegedly plotting a series of attacks on foreigners.
(AP, 9/23/10)(AP, 1/19/11)
2010 Sep 23, Iran's President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said most people believe the US government
staged the September 11 attacks, setting off a Western walk out at
the UN.
(AFP, 9/24/10)
2010 Sep 23, In Iraq a "verbal
altercation" broke out among four American soldiers in Fallujah and
suspect Spc. Neftaly Platero "allegedly took his weapon and began
shooting the other soldiers." 2 soldiers died the next day and one
was left wounded. On Oct 20 Platero (32) was charged with killing
the 2 soldiers and wounding a third.
(AP, 9/28/10)(AP, 10/20/10)
2010 Sep 23, In Italy
Carabinieri investigators in southern Calabria said that an euro8
million winning ticket in the national Superenalotto numbers game
was sold in a smokeshop owned by the father-in-law of a suspect
jailed in a drug probe. The winner avoided taxes on interest due had
the windfall been deposited in a bank. The mobsters got an excuse to
open a mega-account. Italian law requires those making big deposits
to prove the funds aren't illegal. Police seized millions of euros
worth of assets from the jailed mob suspect.
(AP, 9/23/10)
2010 Sep 23, In Mexico gunmen
killed Prisciliano Rodriguez Salinas, mayor of the town of Doctor
Gonzalez, near Monterrey, as well as his personal assistant. He
became the fourth mayor in northern Mexico to be murdered in little
more than a month. Two men were later arrested for the killing
because of a land dispute. They had been paid $6,000. An uncle of
one of the two suspects had hired them a week before the
assassination.
(AP, 9/24/10)(AP, 9/30/10)
2010 Sep 23, The Palestinian
militant Hamas group said its military court has convicted and
sentenced Omar Kawari to death by a firing squad. The Gaza man was
convicted on charges of spying for Israel.
(AP, 9/23/10)
2010 Sep 23, In the Philippines
President Benigno Aquino ordered a halt to the demolition of
thousands of squatter shanties in Manila following violent street
protests.
(AFP, 9/24/10)
2010 Sep 23, Russia turned over
to Poland 20 new files from a probe into the 1940 Katyn massacre
that could be key in proving that Soviet secret police carefully
planned the killing of thousands of Poles.
(AP, 9/23/10)
2010 Sep 23, In Somalia heavy
fighting between Islamist militants and pro-government troops raged
in several parts of Mogadishu, killing at least 22 people and
wounding nearly 78.
(AP, 9/23/10)(SFC, 9/24/10, p.A4)
2010 Sep 23, In South Africa 8
prisoners, charged with murder and robbery, escaped from a court in
Johannesburg. Police re-arrested seven but were still searching for
one. 13 officers were arrested on charges of aiding the escape.
(AP, 9/24/10)
2010 Sep 23, Zimbabwe's
national airline said a crippling two-week strike by its 44 pilots
has ended and regional and international flights will resume Sep 24.
(AP, 9/23/10)
2010 Sep 23, Zimbabwe state
media said a measles outbreak has claimed the lives of 70 children
over the past two weeks, mostly among families from apostolic sects
that shun vaccinations.
(AP, 9/24/10)
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