Today in History - October 15
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70BC Oct 15,
Virgil [Vergil] (Publius Vergilius Maro), Roman poet, was born in
Mantua. He wrote about the mythical founding of Rome in the Aeneid,
which told the legend of Rome‘s founder and was considered a
national epic.
(V.D.-H.K.p.60)(HN, 10/15/98)(AMNHDT, 5/98)
1501 Oct 15, English crown
prince Arthur married Catharina of Aragon. [see Nov 14]
(MC, 10/15/01)
1520 Oct 15, King Henry VIII of
England ordered bowling lanes at Whitehall.
(MC, 10/15/01)
1522 Oct 15, Emperor Charles
named Hernan Cortes governor of Mexico.
(MC, 10/15/01)
1529 Oct 15, Ottoman armies
under Suleiman ended their siege of Vienna and head back to
Belgrade. The Ottomans siege of Vienna was a key battle of world
history. The Ottoman Empire reached its peak with the Turks settled
in Buda on the left bank of the Danube after failing in their siege
of Vienna.
(WSJ, 3/27/96, p.A-16)(TL-MB, 1988, p.13)(HN,
10/15/98)
1564 Oct 15, Andreas Vesalius
(b.1514), Flemish anatomist, died. Andreas Vesalius, the father of
modern anatomy, was forced by the Inquisition to make a pilgrimage
to the Holy Land. He disappeared during the voyage. In 1543 he
authored of one of the most influential books on human anatomy, De
humani corporis fabrica (On the Fabric of the Human Body).
(TL-MB, 1988,
p.20)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andreas_Vesalius)
1581 Oct 15, Commissioned by
Catherine De Medici, the 1st ballet "Ballet Comique de la Reine,"
was staged in Paris.
(MC, 10/15/01)
1582 Oct 15, The Gregorian (or
New World) calendar was adopted in Italy, France, Spain, and
Portugal; and the preceding ten days were lost to history. This day
followed Oct 4 to bring the calendar into sync. by order of the
Council of Trent. Oct 5-14 were dropped.
(K.I.-365D, p.97)(NG, March 1990, J.
Boslough)(HN, 10/15/98)
1598 Oct 15, Spanish general
strategist Bernardino de Mendoza occupied Fort Rhine.
(MC, 10/15/01)
1655 Oct 15, Jews of Lublin,
Poland, were massacred.
(MC, 10/15/01)
1660 Oct 15, Asser Levy was
granted a butcher's license for kosher meat in New Amsterdam.
(MC, 10/15/01)
1674 Oct 15, Robert Herrick,
British poet (Together), was born in Mass.
(MC, 10/15/01)
1762 Oct 15, Samuel Adams
Holyoke, composer, was born.
(MC, 10/15/01)
1777 Oct 15, Tory Maj. James
Graves Simcoe was appointed commandant of Queen's Rangers to combat
American rebels.
(MC, 10/15/01)
1783 Oct 15, Francois Pilatre
de Rozier (Jean Piletre de Rozier) made the first manned flight in a
hot air balloon. The first flight was let out to 82 feet, but over
the next few days the altitude increased up to 6,500 feet. [see Jun
5]
(HN, 10/15/98)(MC, 10/15/01)
1789 Oct 15, George Washington
went to New England on the 1st presidential tour.
(MC, 10/15/01)
1794 Oct 15, US moneymakers
minted some 2,000 silver dollars of which 1,750 were deemed good
enough to go into circulation. The press initially used was designed
for a smaller coin and large scale production on a bigger press
began a year later.
(SFC, 7/27/05, p.C8)
1817 Oct 15, Tadeusz AB
Kosciusko (b.1746), Polish Lt-Gen. and American Revolution freedom
fighter, died.
(MC, 10/15/01)
1818 Oct 15, Irvin McDowell
(d.1985), Major General (Union volunteers), was born.
(MC, 10/15/01)
1820 Oct 15, Florence
Nightingale (d.1910), English hospital reformer and nursing pioneer,
was born. "Were there none who were discontented with what they
have, the world would never reach anything better."
(AP, 11/12/97)(HN, 10/15/98)
1822 Oct 15, Alfred Meissner,
Austrian physician and writer, was born.
(MC, 10/15/01)
1827 Oct 15, Charles Darwin
reached Christ's Counsel, Cambridge.
(MC, 10/15/01)
1830 Oct 15, Helen Maria Hunt
Jackson (d.1885), writer and poet, was born in Amherst,
Massachusetts. Her 1881 non-fiction work, "A Century of Dishonor,"
raised concerns about the treatment of Native Americans. Jackson, a
lifelong friend of Emily Dickinson, worked on a government
investigation of the treatment of Mission Indians. Her 1884 novel
Ramona was also about the plight of Indians in California. "Wounded
vanity knows when it is mortally hurt; and limps off the field,
piteous, all disguises thrown away. But pride carries its banner to
the last; and fast as it is driven from one field unfurls it in
another." “It is the weakness and danger of republics, that the
vices as well as virtues of the people are represented in their
legislation.”
(AP, 5/24/97)(HN, 10/15/98)(HNQ, 12/20/99)(AP,
2/17/00)
1842 Oct 15, Karl Marx became
editor-in-chief of Rheinische Zeitung.
(MC, 10/15/01)
1844 Oct 15, Friedrich Wilhelm
Nietzsche (d.1900), German philosopher, poet, and critic, was born.
He wrote 13 books and was driven to madness by a number of factors,
but one was the bland, dishonest complacency of his contemporaries,
who ignored him while honoring writers who seem like comic book
figures today... He shrilled against Christianity and its empty
moral claims. In 1998 two biographies were published: “Nietzsche in
Turin: An Intimate Biography” by Lesley Chamberlain; and “The
Good European: Nietzsche’s Work Sites in word and Image” by David
Farell Krell and Donald L. Bates. In 2000 Robert C. Solomon and
Kathleen M. Higgins authored “What Nietzsche Really Said.” “No one
is such a liar as the indignant man.” "In individuals, insanity is
rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule."
“The time for me hasn’t come yet. Some are born posthumously.”
(V.D.-H.K.p.279)(SFEC, 2/8/98, BR p.9)(AP,
3/19/98)(HN,10/15/98)(AP, 12/3/98) (SFEC, 4/23/00, BR p.4)
1855 Oct 15, In San Francisco
St. Ignatius opened for classes with 3 students, including Richard
McCabe, at 841 Market St. In the 1880s St. Ignatius College moved to
a new campus on Van Ness.
(SFEC, 2/9/97, p.W4)(GenIV, Winter 04/05)
1858 Oct 15, John L. Sullivan,
heavyweight boxing champ (1882-92), was born in Mass.
(MC, 10/15/01)
1858 Oct 15, The seventh and
final debate between senatorial candidates Abraham Lincoln and
Stephen Douglas took place in Alton, Ill.
(ON, 4/08, p.2)(AP, 10/15/08)
1860 Oct 15, 11-year-old Grace
Bedell of Westfield, N.Y., wrote a letter to presidential candidate
Abraham Lincoln, suggesting he could improve his appearance by
growing a beard.
(AP, 10/15/01)
1861 Oct 15, The British
steamship Fingal, purchased by James D. Bulloch for the US Southern
Confederacy, ran into the Austrian brig Siccardi, which sank with
her load of coal in England’s Holyhead harbor. The Fingal quickly
sailed for Savannah. The Fingal was later converted to an ironclad
and renamed Atlanta.
(ON, 7/01, p.6)
1863 Oct 15, For the second
time, the Confederate submarine H L Hunley sank during a practice
dive in Charleston Harbor, S.C, this time drowning its inventor
along with seven crew members.
(HN, 10/15/98)
1864 Oct 15, Confederate troops
occupied Glasgow, Missouri.
(MC, 10/15/01)
1866 Oct 15, A great fire in
Quebec destroyed 2,500 houses.
(MC, 10/15/01)
1874 Oct 15, A US child labor
law took 12 year olds out of work force.
(MC, 10/15/01)
1878 Oct 15, Thomas A. Edison
incorporated Edison Electric Light Co.
(HN, 10/15/98)(MC, 10/15/01)
1880 Oct 15, Victorio, feared
leader of the Minbreno Apache, was killed by Mexican troops in
northwestern Chihuahua, Mexico. [see Oct 14]
(HN, 10/15/98)
1881 Oct 15, Pelham Grenville
Wodehouse (d.1975), British writer and humorist, was born in
Guildford, Surrey, England. He produced 93 books and countless
articles and short stories. He was the creator of the two great
comic characters: Bertie Wooster and his valet, Jeeves.
(Hem., 10/’95, p.109)(HN, 10/15/00)
1892 Oct 15, US government
convinced the Crow Indians to give up 1.8 million acres of their
reservation (in the mountainous area of western Montana) for 50
cents per acre. Presidential proclamation opened this land to
settlers.
(MC, 10/15/01)
1892 Oct 15, An attempt to rob
two banks in Coffeyville, Kan., ended in disaster for the Dalton
gang as four of the five outlaws were killed and Emmet Dalton was
seriously wounded. [see Oct 5]
(HN, 10/15/98)
1893 Oct 15, The NY Times
declared Coney Island “Sodom-by-the-Sea” for the thrilling rides
that let men and women clutch each other.
(Econ, 9/1/07, p.28)(http://tinyurl.com/39yjht)
1894 Oct 15, Captain Alfred
Dreyfus (1859-1935), a Jewish army officer in France, was arrested
for allegedly betraying military secrets to Germany.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Dreyfus)
1897 Oct 15, Aaron and Samuel
Bloch carried the 1st US Mail Pouch.
(MC, 10/15/01)
1900 Oct 15, Boston’s Symphony
Hall, one of the world's most highly regarded concert halls, was
inaugurated. It was the 1st to be built in known conformity with
acoustical laws described by Harvard physicist Wallace Sabine.
(www.bach-cantatas.com/Bio/BSO.htm)(WSJ, 4/24/02,
p.D9)
1901 Oct 15, Bernard von
Brentano, German writer (Big Cats), was born.
(MC, 10/15/01)
1901 Oct 15, Hermann Abs,
director (Deutsche Bank) and Hitler's advisor, was born.
(MC, 10/15/01)
1905 Oct 15, Charles P. Snow
(d.1980), English novelist (Death Under Sail), was born. He pointed
out that the university’s separate worlds have ceased to talk to one
another. The “uni” in the university has become meaningless as the
institution, possessing more and more power as government funds were
pumped into it for research, turned into a loose confederation of
disconnected mini-states, instead of an organization devoted to the
joint search for knowledge and truth.
(V.D.-H.K.p.142)(HN, 10/15/00)(MC, 10/15/01)
1905 Oct 15, Claude Debussy's
"La Mer," premiered.
(MC, 10/15/01)
1905 Oct 15, US President
Grover Cleveland wrote an article for "Ladies Home Journal", joining
others in the US who opposed women voters. The president said, "We
all know how much further women go than men in their social
rivalries and jealousies... sensible and responsible women do not
want to vote."
(MC, 10/15/01)
1908 Oct 15, John Kenneth
Galbraith, economist, writer and diplomat, was born in Canada. His
work included "A History of Economics" and "Affluent Society"
(1958). He won the Hillman Award in 1958. In 2005 Richard Parker
authored the biography “John Kenneth Galbraith: His Life, His
Politics, His Economics.”
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R50)(HN, 10/15/00)(WSJ, 2/22/05,
p.D10)
1910 Oct 15, Torbjorn Oskar
Caspersson, Swedish cytologist and geneticist, was born.
(HN, 10/15/00)
1913 Oct 15, Klaus Barbie,
gestapo chief (Lyon), was born.
(MC, 10/15/01)
1914 Oct 15, ASCAP (American
Society of Composers, Authors & Publishers) founded.
(MC, 10/15/01)
1914 Oct 15, Congress passed
President Wilson signed the Clayton Anti-Trust Act, which labor
leader Samuel Gompers called "labor's charter of freedom." It
strengthened previous anti-monopoly legislation. The act exempted
unions from anti-trust laws; strikes, picketing and boycotting
became legal; corporate interlocking directorates became illegal, as
did setting prices which would effect a monopoly.
(SFC, 7/8/96, p.D2)(HN, 10/15/98)(AP, 10/15/08)
1914 Oct 15, Aleksander
Rozycki, composer, died at 69.
(MC, 10/15/01)
1917 Oct 15, Arthur
Schlesinger, Jr., historian and author, was born in Ohio. He won the
1946 Pulitzer Prize for his book “Age of Jackson.”
(HN, 10/15/00)(MC, 10/15/01)
1917 Oct 15, Mata Hari
(b.1876), the woman whose name has become synonymous with a
seductive female spy, was executed by the French outside Paris on
charges of spying for the Germans during World War I. The daughter
of a prosperous Dutch merchant, Margaretha Geertruida Zelle married
a colonial army officer named MacLeod in 1895. The couple lived for
five years in Java and Sumatra before the marriage failed. By 1905,
Mrs. MacLeod was calling herself Mata Hari--said to be Malay for
"eye of the day"--and creating a sensation as an exotic East Indian
dancer in Europe. Among her many lovers were military officers and,
although the facts surrounding her espionage activities are still
unclear, Mata Hari was arrested by the French as a German spy in
February 1917. After a two-day trial before a military court, Mata
Hari was sentenced to death for espionage. In 2002 Richard Skinner
authored “The Red Dancer,” a novel based on her life.
(WSJ, 1/16/97, p.A16)(AP, 10/15/97)(HNPD,
10/15/98)(SSFC, 3/24/02, p.M4)
1920 Oct 15, Mario Puzo,
novelist and screenwriter, was born. His work included “The
Godfather.” [see Oct 15, 1921]
(HN, 10/15/00)
1921 Oct 15, Mario Puzo,
novelist (Godfather, Cotton Club, Earthquake), was born in NYC. [see
Oct 15, 1920]
(MC, 10/15/01)
1923 Oct 15, Italo Calvino
(d.1985), Italian novelist (Winter's Night a Traveler), was born in
Cuba.
(HN, 10/15/00)(MC, 10/15/01)(SSFC, 4/6/03, p.M4)
1924 Oct 15, Lee A. Iacocca,
CEO (Chrysler Corp), was born.
(MC, 10/15/01)
1924 Oct 15, Pres Coolidge
declared the Statue of Liberty a national monument.
(MC, 10/15/01)
1924 Oct 15, German ZR-3 flew
5000 miles, the furthest Zeppelin flight to date.
(HN, 10/15/98)
1926 Oct 15, Evan Hunter, [Ed
McBain], American writer (Blackboard Jungle), was born.
(MC, 10/15/01)
1926 Oct 15, Karl Richter,
composer and conductor, was born.
(MC, 10/15/01)
1928 Oct 15, The German
dirigible Graf Zeppelin landed in Lakehurst, N.J., on its first
commercial flight across the Atlantic.
(AP, 10/15/97)
1929 Oct 15, Nadir Khan
(1983-1933) took the throne of Afghanistan after a 3-way power
struggle. His tribal Wazir army looted government buildings and
houses of wealthy citizens because the treasury was empty.
Habibullah Kalakani, along with his supporters, and a few supporters
of Amanullah Khan were killed by Nadir Khan and Khan established
full control.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammed_Nadir_Shah)(WSJ, 10/11/01,
p.A6)
1937 Oct 15, The Ernest
Hemingway novel "To Have and Have Not" was first published.
(AP, 10/15/97)
1938 Oct 15, Robert Sherwood's
"Abe Lincoln in Illinois," premiered in NYC.
(MC, 10/15/01)
1939 Oct 15, The New York
Municipal Airport was dedicated. It was the largest, most advanced
commercial airport in the world. Its new terminal featured
innovative design that kept arriving and departing passengers
separated on two levels for greater efficiency. It was also
terminals adorned with Art Deco details and fine restaurants and a
rooftop viewing promenade as well as many technological details that
made flying safer and less expensive. On Mar 31, 1940, the new
airport was rechristened LaGuardia Airport after the mayor, who had
been a bomber pilot in World War I and whose interest in aviation
lasted throughout his lifetime, barely a month after it opened.
(www.arcadiapublishing.com/news_article.html?id=1816)(AP, 10/15/97)
1940 Oct 15, London's Waterloo
Station was bombed by Germans. 2 days of Heavy German bombing on
London killed 400 people.
(MC, 10/15/01)
1941 Oct 15, The 1st mass
deportation of German Jews to Eastern Europe.
(MC, 10/15/01)
1941 Oct 15, The Japanese Tojo
regime was formed. [see Oct 17]
(MC, 10/15/01)
1941 Oct 15, Odessa, a Russian
port on the Black Sea which had been surrounded by German troops for
several weeks, was evacuated by Russian troops.
(HN, 10/15/98)
1942 Oct 15, Dirk Bannink,
nurse and local councilor Deventer, Netherlands, was executed.
(MC, 10/15/01)
1944 Oct 15, Philip Mechanicus,
journalist, was executed in Auschwitz-Birkenau.
(MC, 10/15/01)
1945 Oct 15, The former Vichy
French Premier Pierre Laval was executed by a firing squad for his
wartime collaboration with the Germans.
(AP, 10/15/97)(HN, 10/15/98)
1946 Oct 15, Nazi war criminal
Hermann Goering poisoned himself hours before he was to have been
executed.
(AP, 10/15/97)
1948 Oct 15, China's Red army
occupied Chinchov.
(MC, 10/15/01)
1949 Oct 15, Laszlo Rajk,
Hungarian Sec. of State and Foreign minister, was hanged.
(MC, 10/15/01)
1950 Oct 15, President Harry
Truman met with General Douglas MacArthur at Wake Island to discuss
U.N. progress in the Korean War.
(HN, 10/15/98)
1950 Oct 15, John Jacob Raskob
(b.1879), former General Motors executive and developer of the
Empire State Building, died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_J._Raskob)
1951 Oct 15, The situation
comedy “I Love Lucy” premiered on CBS. It ran through to 1961.
Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz bought their television studio, Desilu,
from Howard Hughes.
(SFEC, 10/20/96, T8)(AP, 10/15/97)(SFEC, 5/24/98,
DB p.37)(WSJ, 5/29/98, p.W9)
1951 Oct 15, Dr. Carl Djerassi
(27), Prof. of chemistry at Stanford Univ., developed the birth
control pill in Mexico City while working for Palo Alto based Syntex
Corp. He synthesized norethindrone, a steroid oral contraceptive. In
2001 Carl Djerassi authored “This Man’s Pill: Reflections on the
50th Birthday of the Pill.” Djerassi synthesized a key hormone in
the pill in Mexico City in 1951. Serle won FDA ok to market the pill
May 11, 1960.
(SJSVB, 4/8/96, p.8)(SSFC, 10/14/01, Par
p.13)(SSFC, 10/21/01, p.R6)
1953 Oct 15, John Patrick's
"Teahouse of the August Moon," premiered in NYC.
(MC, 10/15/01)
1954 Oct 15, Hurricane Hazel
struck US and Canada and 348 people died. 81 people were killed in
Ontario where damages were estimated at $24 million.
(AP, 10/16/04)
1955 Oct 15, Richard Martin
Theiler (28) was in the front seat of the Lockheed-Martin T-33A that
went missing just after takeoff from the Los Angeles International
Airport. In 2009 aviation archaeologist G. Pat Macha and a group of
volunteers found the plane underneath 100 feet of water.
(AP, 9/30/09)
1956 Oct 15, Pres. Eisenhower
appointed William J. Brennan Jr. to the Supreme Court. He served
until 1990. In 1997 a collection of essays on Brennan was edited by
Rosenkranz and Schwartz titled: “Reason and Passion: Justice
Brennan’s Enduring Influence.”
(TOH, 1982, p.1956)(WSJ, 7/24/97, p.A16)(MC,
10/15/01)
1956 Oct 15, Pan Am Flight 943,
enroute to Hawaii from San Francisco crash landed in the ocean. All
31 aboard were rescued by the Coast Guard cutter Pontchartrain.
(SFC, 1/24/09, p.A1)
1959 Oct 15, Sarah Ferguson,
the Duchess of York, aka 'Fergie,' was born.
(MC, 10/15/01)
1959 Oct 15, The TV show "The
Untouchables" premiered with Robert Stack (d.2003) as Eliot Ness. It
was produced by Bert Granet (d.2002 at 92) and ran to 1963.
(SFC, 5/12/96, Par, p.14)(MC, 10/15/01)(SFC,
11/25/02, p.A15)(AP, 5/15/03)
1959 Oct 15, Stepan Bandera
(b.1909), a Ukrainian nationalist, was assassinated in Munich by a
KGB agent who used a spray gun to fire cyanide gas into his face. In
2010 Ukraine Pres. Yushchenko issued a decree posthumously awarding
the nation's highest award to Bandera weeks before his term ended in
February. Yushchenko called Bandera patriot, but the Simon
Wiesenthal Center, a leading Jewish rights group, said Bandera's
followers were linked to the deaths of thousands of Jews. In April
2010 a court overturned the decree.
(WSJ, 11/21/96, p.A10)(AP,
4/3/10)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stepan_Bandera)
1962 Oct 15, Byron R. White
(1917-2002) was appointed to the US Supreme Court by Pres. Kennedy.
(MC, 10/15/01)(SFC, 4/16/02, p.A5)
1963 Oct 15, Stanley Milgram of
Yale Univ. published his groundbreaking article “Behavioral Study of
Obedience” in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology. His experiments,
begun in 1960, created a paradigm for considering how cruel people
can be when they are obeying orders.
(SSFC, 7/4/04, p.M6)(SAM, 10/08, p,24)
1964 Oct 15, St. Louis
Cardinals in their home park beat the New York Yankees in game 7 of
Baseball’s World Series (7-5). In 1994 David Halberstam authored
“October 1964,” an account centered on the series.
(www.baseball-almanac.com/ws/yr1964ws.shtml)(WSJ,
9/24/05, p.P12)
1964 Oct 15, Cole Porter (73),
renowned lyricist and composer, died. His work included “Still of
the Night,” “I've Got You Under My Skin,” and hundreds of other
classics. Cole Porter music crossed all musical style and format
boundaries throughout his long and rich career.
(MC, 10/15/01)
1964 Oct 15, It was announced
that Soviet leader Nikita S. Khrushchev had been removed from
office. He was succeeded as premier by Alexei N. Kosygin and as
Communist Party secretary by Leonid I. Brezhnev.
(TMC, 1994, p.1964)(AP, 10/15/97)
1966 Oct 15, President Johnson
signed a bill creating the Department of Transportation (DOT).
(AP, 10/15/97)
1966 Oct 15, US Congress passed
the Endangered Species Preservation Act. It was expanded in 1973 as
the Endangered Species Act. The Devils Hole Pupfish of Death Valley
were among the first species protected. By 1972 only 124 remained.
By 2007 only 42 were left.
(www.fws.gov/endangered/1966listing.html)
1966 Oct 15, South Dakota’s
Mount Rushmore was listed on the National Register of Historic
Places.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Rushmore)
1966 Oct 15, The Black Panthers
wrote their Ten Point Program at the Office of Economic Development
Corp. in Oakland, Ca. It called for adequate housing, jobs,
education and an end to police brutality. The Black Panther Party
was founded by Merritt College students Huey Newton and Bobby Seale.
In 2006 Flores A. Forbes authored “Will You Die With Me: My Life and
the Black Panther Party.”
(SFC,10/24/97, p.A15)(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W31)(SSFC,
7/9/06, p.M1)
1969 Oct 15, Peace
demonstrators staged activities across the US, including a
candlelight march around the White House, as part Vietnam Moratorium
Day.
(AP, 10/15/97)(TMC, 1994, p.1969)
1969 Oct 15, The $100-million,
52-story Bank of America World Headquarters at 555 California St. in
SF, was dedicated. In 1985 it was sold to Walter Shorenstein for
$660 million. In 2005 a Hong Kong group offered $1.05 billion.
(http://continuumacg.net/moody2.html)(SFC,
9/23/05, p.C1)
1970 Oct 15, Anwar Sadat
(1918-1981) succeeded the late Gamal Abdel Nasser as president of
Egypt. Sadat had worked with Nasser to overthrow Egypt‘s monarchy
and was imprisoned during World War II for his ties to the Germans.
After the revolution in 1952, he held key posts under Nasser
including that of vice president (1964-66 and 1969-70). In 1973, he
led Egypt into a war with Israel, but five years later negotiated
the Camp David Accords with Israeli premier Menachem Begin for which
both men received the 1978 Nobel Peace Prize. He was assassinated by
Muslim extremists in 1981.
(SFC, 4/14/97, p.A19)(HNQ,
7/30/00)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anwar_Sadat)
1973 Oct 15, Russell E. Train,
the US Environmental Protection Agency Administrator, announced
final transportation control measures to lower air pollution levels
in several of the nation's largest cities. The action marked a final
step in developing the transportation controls required under the
Clean Air Act of 1972, although several urban plans were yet to be
finalized.
(www.epa.gov/history/topics/caa70/10.htm)
1973 Oct 15 Israeli tanks under
General Ariel Sharon crossed the Suez Canal and began to encircle
two Egyptian armies.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yom_Kippur_War)
1974 Oct 15, Pres. Ford signed
legislation limiting campaign spending by political parties.
Congress amended the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA) of 1971 to
set limits on contributions by individuals, political parties and
PACs.
(SFC, 6/27/96, p.A3)(http://tinyurl.com/6zvcpc)
1974 Oct 15, Nobel prize for
chemistry was awarded to Paul J. Flory of Stanford Univ. for his
work on macro molecules.
(http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1974/press.html)
1974 Oct 15, National Guard
mobilized to restore order in Boston school busing.
(MC, 10/15/01)
1975 Oct 15, Iceland moved its
intl. boundary for fishing rights from 50 to 200 miles.
(www.american.edu/ted/ice/CODWAR.htm)
1976 Oct 15, In the first
debate of its kind between vice-presidential nominees, Democrat
Walter F. Mondale and Republican Bob Dole faced off in Houston.
(AP, 10/15/97)
1976 Oct 15, Carlo Gambino
(b.1902), US gangster, died at his summer home in Long Island.
(www.gambino.com/bio/carlogambino.htm)
1976 Oct 15, French-Argentine
citizen Marianne Erize (22) was kidnapped and disappeared. In 2008
retired army major Jorge Antonio Olivera was arrested for the
"forced disappearance, kidnapping and torture" of Erize when Olivera
was a lieutenant in the 22nd Mountain Infantry Regiment. In August
2000, Olivera was detained in Italy at the request of French
authorities, but was freed after presenting what was later found to
be a falsified death certificate saying Erize had died on Nov. 11,
1976 — 26 days after being illegally detained.
(AP, 11/4/08)
1982 Oct 15, The federal
Centers for Disease Control warned that a new epidemic was impacting
Americans and that over 200, mostly gay young men, had died from
AIDS. In 2001 Jon Cohen authored “Shots in the Dark: The Wayward
Search for an AIDS Vaccine.”
(SSFC, 2/4/01, BR p.4)
1983 Oct 15, One US marine was
killed and another wounded when Marine positions at Beirut
International Airport came under sniper fire from neighboring Shiite
Moslem quarters.
(http://tinyurl.com/2oux37)
1984 Oct 15, The Central
Intelligence Agency's Freedom of Information Act was signed into law
by Pres. Reagan.
(www.asne.org/index.cfm?ID=453)
1985 Oct 15, Shelley Taylor of
Australia made the fastest swim ever around Manhattan Island, doing
it in 6 hours 12 minutes 29 seconds.
(www.scopesys.com/cgi-bin/today2.cgi?askmonth=10&askday=15)
1985 Oct 15, Humphrey, a 45-ton
humpback whale, continued swimming inland to within 27 miles of
Sacramento, despite efforts to turn him around.
(SSFC, 10/10/10, DB p.50)
1986 Oct 15, Harvard Univ.
agreed to buy 1.35 million shares of Harken Energy for $2 million
and to invest $20 million in Harken projects. George W. Bush served
as a Harken board member and paid consultant.
(WSJ, 10/9/02, p.A4)
1987 Oct 15, Lanford Wilson's
"Burn This," premiered in NYC.
(http://allstarz.hollywood.com/~malkovich/nyburnthis.html)
1987 Oct 15, Frantic efforts
continued in Midland, Texas, to save 18-month-old Jessica McClure,
who had fallen 22 feet down an abandoned well the day before.
Jessica was freed the following evening.
(AP, 10/15/97)
1987 Oct 15, In Burkina Faso
Blaise Compaore (b.1951), trained in Gadhafi's guerrilla camps,
seized power in a bloody takeover. Libya and Burkina Faso later
denied repeated accusations of gunrunning to West Africa hot spots.
(SFC, 2/19/00, p.A10)(AP,
12/16/02)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blaise_Compaor%C3%A9)
1988 Oct 15, Shapurji Sorabji
(b.1892), British composer (Leon Dudley Sorabji), died. His work
included "Opus clavicembalisticum" (1930), an elaboration of
Ferrucio Busoni’s 1921 "Fantasia conatrappuntistica," itself a
metamorphosis and completion of Bach’s "The Art of Fugue."
(WSJ, 12/12/00,
p.A24)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaikhosru_Shapurji_Sorabji)
1989 Oct 15, The NHL's Wayne
Gretzky of the Los Angeles Kings surpassed Gordie Howe's scoring
record of 1,850 points, in a game against the Edmonton Oilers.
(AP, 10/15/99)
1989 Oct 15, South African
officials released eight prominent political prisoners, including
Walter Sisulu, a leader of the African National Congress.
(AP, 10/15/99)
1990 Oct 15, Soviet Union
President Mikhail S. Gorbachev was named the winner of the Nobel
Peace Prize.
(SFC, 10/12/96, p.A13)(AP, 10/15/97)
1990 Oct 15, South Africa’s
Separate Amenities Act, which barred blacks from public facilities
for decades, was formally scrapped.
(AP, 10/15/00)
1991 Oct 15, Despite sexual
harassment allegations by Anita Hill, the Senate narrowly confirmed
the nomination of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court, 52 to 48.
Jane Mayer and Jill Abramson later published "Strange Justice,"
which was made into a 1999 Showtime TV movie.
(AP, 10/15/97)(WSJ, 8/23/99, p.A13)
1992 Oct 15, The US State
Department acknowledged that it had improperly handled requests for
the passport file of Democratic presidential nominee Bill Clinton.
(AP, 10/15/97)
1992 Oct 15, NYC Subway
motorman Robert Ray was convicted of manslaughter in death of 5
riders, when he fell asleep drunk while in control of train on Aug
28, 1991.
(http://tinyurl.com/bk4uq)
1993 Oct 15, President Clinton
sent six warships to the waters off Haiti to enforce trade sanctions
in the face of defiant Haitian military rulers.
(AP, 10/15/98)
1993 Oct 15, Nelson Mandela and
F.W. de Klerk were named winners of the Nobel Peace Prize for their
efforts to end apartheid.
(AP, 10/15/98)
1994 Oct 15, A Cuban exile took
part in a commando raid during which Arcilio Rodriguez Garcia, a
local official, was shot dead. Humberto Real Suarez and six others
were captured several hours after landing by boat. He was sentenced
to death in 1996 and the others were sentenced to 30-years in
prison. In late 2010 Cuba's Supreme Court commuted the death
sentence against Humberto Real Suarez, the last person remaining on
death row in Cuba.
(SFC, 4/26/96, p.A-14)(AP, 12/28/10)
1994 Oct 15, Haitian President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide returned to his country, three years after
being overthrown by army rulers. The U.N. Security Council welcomed
Aristide's return by voting to lift stifling trade sanctions imposed
against Haiti. The US had led an invasion, Operation Restore
Democracy, to restore Pres. Aristide. Emmanuel “Toto” Constant left
Haiti for the US when Jean-Bertrand Aristide was reinstated as
president. The US invasion was described in 1999 by Bob Shacochis in
"The Immaculate Invasion." Shacochis served there for 18 months as a
Special Forces noncombatant.
(SFC, 7/15/96, p.A10)(SFC, 6/21/96, p.A14)(SFEC,
2/14/99, BR p.1)(WSJ, 2/18/99, p.A20)(AP, 10/15/99)
1995 Oct 15, Six Israeli
soldiers were killed in Israeli-occupied southern Lebanon in an
ambush blamed on the Iranian-backed group Hezbollah.
(AP, 10/15/00)
1996 Oct 15, CSX Corp.
announced plans to buy Conrail Inc. for $8.4 billion to create the
nation's third-largest railroad.
(AP, 10/15/97)
1997 Oct 15, The Cleveland
Indians won the American League championship, defeating the
Baltimore Orioles 1-0 in game six.
(AP, 10/15/98)
1997 Oct 15, The Nobel Prize in
Physics was awarded to Steven Chu of Stanford, William D. Phillips
of the Nat’l. Institute of Standards and Technology, and Claude
Cohen-Tannoudji of the France. Their work centered on slowing the
speed of gaseous atoms using lasers. The Nobel Prize in Chemistry
was awarded to Paul D. Boyer of UCLA, John E. Walker of Britain, and
Jens C. Skou of Denmark for work on how ATP works to store energy in
living cells.
(SFC,10/16/97, p.A1,15)(AP, 10/15/98)
1997 Oct 15, The US CIA
disclosed that its annual budget for spy services totaled $26.6
billion.
(WSJ, 10/16/97, p.A1)
1997 Oct 15, The US set a
deadline for three Japanese shipping companies to pay some $4
million in fines. The fines were imposed based on discriminatory
Japanese harbor policies. The deadline was missed and the US
threatened to block Japanese shipping from US ports. An agreement
was later reached. The problem was with the Japan Harbor
Transportation Association (JHTA), which was said to have ties with
the Yamaguchi-gumi syndicate. A settlement was approved on Oct 27.
(SFC,10/17/97, p.A1)(WSJ, 10/21/97, p.A1)(WSJ,
10/28/97, p.A1)
1997 Oct 15, Former rep Dan
Rostenkowski was released from custody for mail fraud.
(MC, 10/15/01)
1997 Oct 15, A British
jet-powered car driven by pilot Andy Green broke the land speed
record with an average run of 763.035 mph at Gerlach, Nevada. The
Thrust SSC was powered by two 110,000-horse-power Rolls-Royce Spey
205 engines. The vehicle was 54 feet long, 12 feet wide, and weighed
10.2 tons.
(SFC,10/16/97, p.A3)(AP, 10/15/98)
1997 Oct 15, NASA's
plutonium-powered Cassini spacecraft rocketed flawlessly toward
Saturn. The $3.3 billion Cassini-Huygens Mission was scheduled to
arrive on July 1, 2004.
(SFC,10/16/97, p.A3)(AP, 10/15/98)(SSFC, 6/27/04,
p.A1)
1997 cOct 15, The CD-ROM
computer game “Riven,” a sequel to “Myst,” was scheduled for
release.
(SFC, 7/5/97, p.E3)(SFEC, 8/10/97, DB p.33)
1997 Oct 15, In Brazil Pres.
Clinton spoke on free trade at the Mangueira school, a multi-use
training facility for some 2,000 children sponsored by Xerox Corp.
(SFC,10/16/97, p.A13)
1997 Oct 15, Regarding Burma it
was reported that only 2 of the 31 in the elite Junta have
university degrees and that Chinese business people had virtually
taken over in Mandalay, which had been the heart of Burmese culture.
(SFC,10/15/97, p.C2)
1997 Oct 15, In the Republic of
the Congo rebel forces loyal to the former Marxist dictator Denis
Sassou-Nguesso, backed by as many as 1000 troops from Angola, gained
full control of Brazzaville, the capital and Pointe Noire, the 2nd
largest city.
(SFC,10/16/97, p.A13)(SFC,12/12/97, p.B4)
1997 Oct 15, In Sri Lanka 18
people were killed in a series of bomb blasts in downtown Colombo
and some 110 were injured. The blasts occurred at the 39-story World
Trade Center. 15-20 youths were said to have taken part in the
attack. The Liberation Tigers were reported to be led by Velupillai
Prabhakaran, the son of a fisherman.
(SFC,10/15/97, p.C4)(SFC,10/17/97, p.A12)(SFC,
1/26/98, p.A9)
1998 Oct 15, Pres. Clinton
opened the Mideast summit talks in Maryland between Arafat and
Netanyahu in Washington that resulted in the Wye River
land-for-peace agreement..
(WSJ, 10/16/98, p.A1)(AP, 10/15/99)
1998 Oct 15, The US Congress
and Pres. Clinton agreed to a $500 billion budget that included
funds for 100,000 new teachers and emergency funds for farmers and
$18 billion for the IMF. This ending a week of election-season
budget brinkmanship.
(SFC, 10/16/98, p.A3)(AP, 10/15/99)
1998 Oct 15, The Federal
Reserve made surprise cuts in the discount rate and the overnight
loan rate of banks by .25%. The move pushed the Dow Jones up 331
points.
(SFC, 10/16/98, p.A1)(AP, 10/15/99)
1998 Oct 15, Pope John Paul
marked his 20th anniversary with a new encyclical “Fides et Ratio,”
or Faith and Reason with the basic message of: Be not afraid of
human reason. The 40,000 word treatise emphasizes spiritual truth
over technology.
(SFC, 10/16/98, p.A17) (WSJ, 10/16/98, p.A13)
1998 Oct 15, In Colombia some
200,000 people marched on the 8th day of a strike against the
government’s planned austerity program.
(WSJ, 10/16/98, p.A1)
1998 Oct 15, In France over
200,000 high-school students protested overcrowded classes, a
shortage of teachers, over-loaded schedules, and ill-equipped,
unsafe schools.
(SFC, 10/16/98, p.D2)
1998 Oct 15, In Germany the
coalition parties agreed to open talks next year on a timetable for
closing the country’s 19 nuclear power plants.
(WSJ, 10/16/98, p.A1)
1998 Oct 15, From Indonesia it
was reported that machete-wielding gangs have killed at least 153
people in Banyuwangi in recent months. The dead were accused of
dabbling in black magic and denounced as evil sorcerers. The
killings were reported to be spreading to the neighboring districts
of Jember, Pasuruan, Situbondo, and the island of Madura.
(SFC, 10/15/98, p.A12)(WSJ, 10/16/98, p.A13)
1998 Oct 15, In Lebanon the
parliament approved Gen’l. Emile Lahoud as president.
(SFC, 10/16/98, p.D2)
1998 Oct 15, In Norway up to 1
1/2 million workers were expected to strike for 2 hours to protest a
government proposal to cut the annual vacation allowance by one day
to 4 weeks.
(SFC, 10/15/98, p.A17)
1998 Oct 15, The Contact Group
in Paris approved the Kosovo agreement. In Vienna the 54-nation
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe agreed to
oversee the 2,000-member ground verification mission. Serbian
authorities suspended the Nasa Borba newspaper.
(SFC, 10/16/98, p.A14)
1998 Oct 15, Sudanese Foreign
Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail said that Sudan will allow the UN to
investigate any site alleged to be making chemical weapons.
(WSJ, 10/16/98, p.A13)
1999 Oct 15, The US stock
market Dow Jones average dropped 266.9 points, 2.6%, to 10,019.71.
It was the largest % drop since Oct 13, 1989.
(SFC, 10/16/99, p.A1)
1999 Oct 15, The French
organization "Doctors Without Borders" (Medecins Sans Frontieres)
won the Nobel Peace Prize.
(SFC, 10/16/99, p.A1)
1999 Oct 15, Hurricane Irene
hit southern Florida and 5 people were electrocuted by down power
lines in Miami.
(SFC, 10/16/99, p.A3)
1999 Oct 15, In China The
People's Daily published an order that demanded that "foreign
organizations or individuals using encryption products or equipment
containing encryption technology in China must apply" for permission
by Jan 31.
(WSJ, 1/25/00, p.A10)
1999 Oct 15, In Indonesia
thousands of anti-Habibie demonstrators fought police and pressured
the official assembly to go forward with reforms.
(SFC, 10/16/99, p.A14)
1999 Oct 15, Irish tenor Josef
Locke, whose life inspired the 1992 film “Hear My Song,” died in
County Kildare, Ireland, at age 82.
(AP, 10/15/00)
1999 Oct 15, In Kosovo Some 100
people were injured as they tried to force their way against NATO
forces across a bridge in Mitrovica to the Serb half of town.
(SFC, 10/16/99, p.A12)
1999 Oct 15, In Pakistan Gen'l.
Pervaiz Musharraf declared a state of emergency and suspended the
constitution.
(SFC, 10/15/99, p.A1)
2000 Oct 15, President Clinton
left Washington for emergency talks in Egypt with Israeli and Arab
leaders.
(AP, 10/15/01)
2000 Oct 15, New York Times
movie and drama critic Vincent Canby died at age 76.
(AP, 10/15/01)
2000 Oct 15, In Belarus
parliamentary elections were held. Authorities hand-picked most
candidates and those with known anti-Lukoshenko views were barred
from running. The average salary in Belarus was $50 per month. An
opposition call for a boycott failed due to rural government
support.
(SFEC, 10/15/00, p.A22)(SFC, 10/16/00, p.F8)
2000 Oct 15, The Palestinian
Hezbollah seized an Israeli colonel, Elchanan Tennenbaum, in
Switzerland.
(SFC, 10/16/00, p.A1)
2000 Oct 15, Two rival Solomon
Island militia groups signed a peace agreement in Australia.
(SFC, 10/16/00, p.F8)
2000 Oct 15, At least 31 people
were killed as landslides due to heavy rains continued in the Alps
of Switzerland and Italy. 23 died in northern Italy and 8 in
southern Switzerland
(SFC, 10/16/00, p.F8)(SFC, 10/18/00, p.A14)(SFC,
10/19/00, p.C4)
2001 Oct 15, US warplanes
carried out their heaviest bombings in 9 days over Afghanistan. The
Pentagon called in the slow moving AC-130 Spectre gunships to
targets around Kandahar.
(SFC, 10/16/01, p.A1)
2001 Oct 15, Anthrax in a
letter to a Reno Microsoft office was reported to be from Malaysia.
2 anthrax-tainted letters were reported to have been mailed from
Trenton, New Jersey and 2 postal employees there showed symptoms.
Anthrax spores were in a letter deliver to a Senate office.
Officials announced that a letter sent to Senate Majority Leader Tom
Daschle had tested positive for anthrax, and that the infant son of
an ABC News producer in New York had developed skin anthrax.
(SFC, 10/16/01, p.A1)(SFC, 10/19/01, p.A16)(AP,
10/15/02)
2001 Oct 15, In Texas the last
2 of 5 escaped convicts were captured after one shot another and
freed a farm couple that was held hostage.
(SFC, 10/16/01, p.B6)
2001 Oct 15, Bethlehem Steel
filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
(SFC, 10/16/01, p.D1)
2001 Oct 15, Britain’s PM Tony
Blair said his country favors “a viable Palestinian state, as part
of a negotiated and agreed settlement” during a news conference with
visiting Yasser Arafat.
(SFC, 10/16/01, p.A8)
2001 Oct 15, China executed 2
Muslim separatists in Yili, Xinjiang province.
(SFC, 10/18/01, p.C2)
2001 Oct 15, It was reported
that Croatian officials had suspended the use of Baxter Int’l.
filters for kidney dialysis machines after 23 patients died in a
week. A similar incident in Spain killed 10 people but tests seemed
to rule out the filters.
(WSJ, 10/15/01, p.A1)
2001 Oct 15, India shelled
Pakistani posts along their line in Jammu Kashmir for aiding Islamic
militants. One woman was killed and 25 civilians wounded.
(SFC, 10/16/01, p.B1)
2001 Oct 15, In Indonesia riot
police fought protesters outside the Parliament in what had become
daily battles over US bombing in Afghanistan.
(WSJ, 10/16/01, p.A1)
2001 Oct 15, In Israel a
hardline nationalist party withdrew from PM Sharon’s coalition
government.
(WSJ, 10/16/01, p.A1)
2001 Oct 15, Japan’s PM Koizumi
visited South Korea and expressed his remorse at Sodaemun
Independence Park for suffering inflicted by Japan’s colonial rule.
(SFC, 10/16/01, p.B6)
2001 Oct 15, It was reported
that Sheik Hamoud bin Uqlaa al-Shuaibi (80), a militant Wahhabi in
Buraydah, Saudi Arabia, called on Muslims to wage jihad on
supporters of the US military action in Afghanistan.
(WSJ, 10/15/01, p.A12)
2001 Oct 15, Russian troops
claimed to have killed 20 Chechen rebels with a loss of 5 of their
own men.
(WSJ, 10/16/01, p.A1)
2001 Oct 15, In South Africa
Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, the former wife of Nelson Mandela, was
indicted for fraudulent loans of more than $100,000.
(SFC, 10/16/01, p.B6)
2001 Oct 15, In Zimbabwe Pres.
Mugabe announced the abandonment of market-based economics and a
return to a socialist-style economy.
(SFC, 10/16/01, p.B6)
2002 Oct 15, Former New York
City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani will be paid $4.3 million plus expenses
for a one-year contract to advise Mexico City's mayor on reducing
crime.
(AP, 10/15/02)
2002 Oct 15, ImClone Systems
founder Sam Waksal pleaded guilty in New York in the biotech
company's insider trading scandal.
(AP, 10/15/03)
2002 Oct 15, Illinois opened
hearings on 140 death row cases.
(SFC, 10/15/02, p.A3)
2002 Oct 15, The DJIA rose 378
to 8,255. Nasdaq rose 61.9 to 1,282.
(SFC, 10/16/02, p.B1)
2002 Oct 15, It was reported
that duct tape is effective in removing warts when worn over the
wart for a number of days.
(SFC, 10/15/02, p.A2)
2002 Oct 15, A listeria
outbreak blamed for at east 7 deaths in the northeast was traced to
a Wampler Foods plant in Franconia, Pa.
(SFC, 10/16/02, p.A5)
2002 Oct 15, Allied planes
bombed a military command facility in the southern no-fly zone over
Iraq after taking fire from Iraqi forces.
(AP, 10/15/02)
2002 Oct 15, In Canada a man
facing workplace discipline shot and killed two co-workers at a
provincial office in Kamloops, British Columbia, before taking his
own life.
(Reuters, 10/16/02)
2002 Oct 15, Yaacov "Zeev"
Farkas (b.1923), called the founder of the political cartoonist's
art in Israel, died. He was born in Hungary and survived the Nazi
concentration camp at Dachau.
(AP, 10/16/02)(SFC, 10/17/02, p.A28)
2002 Oct 15, In Iraq Saddam
Hussein won the presidential referendum for another 7-year term. He
claimed a 100% victory the next day.
(SFC, 10/16/02, p.A9)
2002 Oct 15, In Italy a heavily
armed man fatally shot his ex-wife and six other relatives and
neighbors and then killed himself in Chieri, a suburb of Turin.
(AP, 10/15/02)(SFC, 10/16/02, p.A16)
2002 Oct 15, In Jamaica 3
people were shot dead outside Kingston.
(SFC, 10/16/02, p.A17)
2002 Oct 15, In Japan 5
citizens snatched by North Korean agents in 1978, returned home for
a visit.
(SFC, 10/16/02, p.A1)
2002 Oct 15, In northern Russia
a Soyuz-U rocket carrying a EU research communications satellite
exploded several seconds after liftoff from a launch pad, killing
one soldier.
(AP, 10/16/02)(WSJ, 10/17/02, p.A1)
2002 Oct 15, Sudan's government
signed an agreement with rebels to suspend fighting during talks to
end their 20-year-old war.
(AP, 10/15/02)
2002 Oct 15, A judge opened a
criminal case against embattled Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma, a
day after U.S. and British experts began investigating allegations
that he approved the sale of a radar system to Iraq.
(AP, 10/15/02)
2003 Oct 15, The Florida
Marlins defeated the Chicago Cubs 9-6 in game 7 for the National
League pennant.
(WSJ, 10/16/03, p.A1)
2003 Oct 15, FCC officials
raided San Francisco Liberation Radio, a low-power FM station, and
confiscated its equipment.
(SFC, 10/21/03, p.D1)
2003 Oct 15, In Florida
tube-feeding stopped for Terri Schiavo (39), brain-damaged since
1990, based on a court decision for its removal. Death was expected
within 2 weeks. The tube was reinserted six days later after the
Florida Legislature rushed through "Terri's Law," which was recently
struck down by the Florida Supreme Court
(Econ, 10/18/03, p.31)(AP, 10/15/04)
2003 Oct 15, A Staten Island
ferry pilot lost consciousness before the vessel slammed into a
pier, killing at least 10 people and injuring 42, including 3 who
lost limbs. Pilot Richard J. Smith fled the scene and attempted
suicide. Smith later pleaded guilty to 11 counts of manslaughter. In
2006 Smith was sentenced to 18 months in jail. Patrick Ryan, the
ex-ferry director received a one year sentence.
(AP, 10/16/03)(SFC, 10/16/03, p.A1)(AP,
10/15/04)(SFC, 1/10/06, p.A5)
2003 Oct 15, Azerbaijan held
presidential elections.
(WSJ, 10/15/03, p.A1)
2003 Oct 15, In China Shenzhou
5 launched into orbit with air force Lt. Col. Yang Liwei (38)
aboard, making China the third nation to put a human in space on its
own, after the former Soviet Union and the United States. The launch
was made from the space center at Jiuquan. His capsule landed in
Mongolia the next day.
(AP, 10/15/03)(SFC, 10/16/03, p.A3)(SSFC,
7/15/07, p.D5)(Econ, 10/24/09, SR p.13)
2003 Oct 15, In the Gaza Strip
a remote-controlled bomb exploded under a US diplomatic convoy,
ripping apart an armored van and killing three Americans.
(AP, 10/15/03)
2003 Oct 15, Japan pledged $1.5
billion in reconstruction aid next year for Iraq and more down the
line despite economic woes at home.
(AP, 10/15/03)
2003 Oct 15, In Iraq the new
dinar was launched graced with the likeness of an ancient ruler and
a 10th century mathematician. The Iraqi central bank had no tools to
regulate currency value. Exchange of the old currency was set to end
Jan 15.
(SFC, 10/16/03, p.A12)(WSJ, 11/7/03, p.A10)
2003 Oct 15, NATO launched its
elite rapid-reaction force, a prototype unit that will eventually
become a 20,000-member force able to deploy in short notice anywhere
in the world.
(AP, 10/15/03)
2003 Oct 15, In Nicaragua
radical students and teachers drove a truck through a gate and threw
rocks and gasoline bombs at police guarding the legislature as part
of a protest demanding more government spending for education.
(AP, 10/16/03)
2003 Oct 15, Nigerian police
returned 74 child workers to Benin. As young as 4 years old, their
skin broken and palms callused from months of hauling granite, they
received food, clothes and medical care in the West African state of
Benin after being rescued from the traffickers who sold them into
heavy labor. On Sept. 27 authorities brought back 116 children who
had been put to work in the granite quarries of southwest Nigeria.
(AP, 10/16/03)
2004 Oct 15, Former President
Jimmy Carter urged the US and other international lenders to forgive
part of Grenada's debt, saying the Caribbean country needs the money
to recover from the devastation of Hurricane Ivan.
(AP, 10/15/04)
2004 Oct 15, The US State
Department said "restrictions on arms exports" to Haiti remained in
place but promised to "consider requests from the interim
government."
(AP, 10/20/04)
2004 Oct 15, A federal judge
struck down a ban on snowmobiles in Yellowstone and Grand Teton
national parks.
(AP, 10/15/05)
2004 Oct 15, A federal
bankruptcy judge allowed U.S. Airways to cut union workers' pay
immediately by 21 percent.
(AP, 10/15/05)
2004 Oct 15, The Food and Drug
Administration ordered that all antidepressants carry strong
warnings that they "increase the risk of suicidal thinking and
behavior" in children who take them.
(AP, 10/15/05)
2004 Oct 15, Several thousand
people opposed to gay marriage gathered on the National Mall in
Washington to call for a constitutional amendment defining marriage
as being between a man and a woman.
(AP, 10/15/05)
2004 Oct 15, The journal
Science published a report that said 1,856 of 5,743 species of
amphibians are “globally threatened.”
(SFC, 10/15/04, p.A4)
2004 Oct 15, Authorities said
the Northern Snakehead has invaded the Great Lakes. The voracious
predator dubbed the "Frankenfish" can breathe out of water and
wriggle across land.
(Reuters, 10/15/04)
2004 Oct 15, In an eastern
Afghan province killed at least three children and a policeman on
the first day of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
(AP, 10/16/04)
2004 Oct 15, Craig Murray,
Britain's former ambassador to Uzbekistan, said he is a "victim of
conscience" for having dared to speak out against human rights
outrages. Murray had highlighted the allegedly systematic use of
torture, including the alleged boiling to death of two prisoners, by
Uzbek authorities.
(AP, 10/15/04)
2004 Oct 15, Canada’s
Bombardier Transportation and two joint-venture partners won a
$424-million order to supply 20 high-speed trains to China's
Ministry of Railways.
(AP, 10/15/04)
2004 Oct 15, German Chancellor
Gerhard Schroeder and Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi clashed over Iraq
during their first-ever meeting in Tripoli while German business
leaders touted for business in the oil-rich former pariah state.
Schroeder praised the reforms of Muammar Gaddafi and invited the
Libyan leader to visit Germany.
(AP, 10/15/04)(Reuters, 10/15/04)
2004 Oct 15, Indonesian
prosecutors formally charged militant cleric Abu Bakar Bashir with
ordering his followers to launch a suicide attack on the J.W.
Marriott hotel in Jakarta last year.
(AP, 10/15/04)
2004 Oct 15, US Marines
launched air and ground attacks on the insurgent bastion Fallujah
after city representatives suspended peace talks with the government
over PM Ayad Allawi's demand to hand over terror mastermind Abu
Musab al-Zarqawi. US officials said 10 people, including a family of
four, were killed when a car bomb exploded near a Baghdad police
station.
(AP, 10/15/04)
2004 Oct 15, Car bombs killed
five US troops in Iraq.
(AP, 10/16/04)
2004 Oct 15, Japan won a
two-year term on the U.N. Security Council along with Argentina,
Denmark, Greece and Tanzania.
(AP, 10/15/04)
2004 Oct 15, The World Trade
Organization (WTO) ruled that the European Union had broken
international trade rules by subsidizing sugar producers.
(AP, 10/15/04)
2004 Oct 15, Zimbabwe
opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai was acquitted on treason charges
following a yearlong trial that his party had said was orchestrated
by the government of President Robert Mugabe.
(AP, 10/15/04)
2005 Oct 15, Thousands gathered
in DC at the National Mall for the Millions More Movement to
commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Million Man March organized
by Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.
(AP, 10/15/05)
2005 Oct 15, Marcia and Ken
Powers, a husband-and-wife team, reached the Pacific Ocean on after
a 4,900-mile cross-country hike, becoming the first to backpack the
transcontinental American Discovery Trail in one continuous trek.
They had started Feb. 27 at Cape Henlopen in Delaware.
(AP, 10/16/05)
2005 Oct 15, In Toledo, Ohio, a
riot broke out when protesters confronted members of the National
Socialist Movement who had gathered at a city park. More than 100
people were arrested and one officer was seriously injured.
(AP, 10/16/05)
2005 Oct 15, In Texas the
Government Canyon State Natural Area officially opened. The over
8,600 acre area was set aside to protect the Edwards Aquifer, which
provided drinking water for San Antonio.
(LP, Spring 2006, p.55)
2005 Oct 15, Pamela Vitale
(52), the wife of prominent defense attorney and TV legal analyst
Daniel Horowitz, was found slain in the couple's home in Lafayette,
Ca. On Oct 20 police arrested Scott Dyleski (16), a neighbor
scheming to grow pot, as a suspect in the murder. Dyleski was
convicted of first-degree murder on Aug 28, 2006, and faced life in
prison.
(AP, 10/16/05)(SFC, 10/21/05, p.A1)(SFC, 8/29/06,
p.A1)
2005 Oct 15, Jason Collier
(28), Atlanta Hawks center, died, possibly of cardiac arrest.
(AP, 10/15/05)
2005 Oct 15-2005 Oct 16, The
G20 group of rich and developing nations met in Xianghe, China. They
sounded the alarm over high oil prices but barely touched on the
role a stronger yuan could play in easing world economic imbalances.
(AP, 10/16/05)
2005 Oct 15, Egyptian
authorities ordered the release of a leading Muslim Brotherhood
figure, Essam el-Erian, and three other members of the banned
Islamic group.
(AP, 10/15/05)
2005 Oct 15, The European
Commission said tests have confirmed a link between the bird flu
found in Romania and the virus that has devastated flocks in Asia
and turned up in Turkey.
(AP, 10/15/05)
2005 Oct 15, In Iran 2 bombs
hit a shopping center Saturday in Ahvaz, near the southwestern
border with Iraq, killing two people and wounding at least 50.
(AP, 10/15/05)
2005 Oct 15, Iraq's deeply
divided Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds voted under heavy guard Saturday
to decide the fate of a new constitution. A roadside bomb killed
three Iraqi soldiers in northeast Iraq, and seven people were
wounded during attacks by insurgents near five of Baghdad's 1,200
polling stations.
(AP, 10/15/05)
2005 Oct 15, In Iraq 5 American
soldiers were killed by a bomb blast on referendum day.
(AP, 10/16/05)
2005 Oct 15, Israeli painter
Efraim Reuytenberg (91), known for infusing Chinese influences and
bold colors into his work, died in Israel.
(AP, 10/20/05)
2005 Oct 15, A worsening food
crisis threatening millions of people prompted Malawi's Pres. Bingu
wa Mutharika to declare the African nation a "disaster area" and
call for more international aid.
(AP, 10/15/05)
2005 Oct 15, Moroccan
authorities flew 435 illegal immigrants home to Senegal and Mali,
starting a second wave of mass deportations of sub-Saharan Africans
who have tried to slip into Europe through the North African
kingdom.
(AP, 10/16/05)
2005 Oct 15, Nigeria and
Cameroon discussed a new program for Nigeria to withdraw from the
disputed Bakassi peninsula, but failed to set a new deadline after
two days of talks in Abuja.
(AP, 10/16/05)
2005 Oct 15, The death toll in
Pakistan's devastating earthquake rose to nearly 40,000, while rain,
snow and frigid temperatures compounded the misery of millions of
homeless victims.
(AP, 10/15/05)
2005 Oct 15, In northeastern
Spanish at least 5 north African men were killed, four were injured
and one was believed still trapped under rubble after a three-storey
17th century building collapsed in the town of Piera.
(AP, 10/15/05)
2005 Oct 15, Members of a
Venezuelan indigenous tribe criticized President Hugo Chavez's order
to expel a U.S. missionary group he accused of links to the CIA,
saying the decision goes against the interests of their impoverished
communities.
(AP, 10/16/05)
2006 Oct 15, Three members of
Duke University's lacrosse team appeared on CBS' "60 Minutes" to
deny raping a woman who had been hired to perform as a stripper.
Collin Finnerty, Reade Seligmann and David Evans were later
exonerated.
(AP, 10/15/07)
2006 Oct 15, UnitedHealth Group
said CEO Dr. William McGuire agreed to leave the company by Dec 1
due to illegal stock option practices. His walk away package was
estimated at $1.1 billion.
(SFC, 10/16/06, p.A13)(WSJ, 10/17/06, p.B1)
2006 Oct 15, A 6.7-magnitude
quake hit Hawaii’s Big Island at 7:07 am, followed by aftershocks.
It caused blackouts and landslides but no reported fatalities.
Structural damages on the Big Island were later estimated at $100
million.
(AP, 10/16/06)(SSFC, 10/22/06, p.G2)
2006 Oct 15, Algerian Energy
Minister Chehib Khelil said that the Organization of Petroleum
Exporting Countries will announce a 1 million barrel a day cut in
crude production during a meeting in Qatar.
(AP, 10/15/06)
2006 Oct 15, Foreign Minister
Alexander Downer said Australia would cut ministerial contacts with
its northern neighbor until an investigation was held into the
escape from Papua New Guinea of a Solomon Islands official wanted on
child sex charges. Julian Moti, now in custody in the Solomons and
facing charges of illegal entry, was wanted in Australia on child
sex charges involving a 13-year-old girl in Vanuatu in 1997.
(AFP, 10/15/06)(Econ, 10/28/06, p.51)
2006 Oct 15, Salah Abdulrahim
al Blooshi, a former detainee in the US prison at Guantanamo Bay,
returned home to Bahrain after being held for five years. Two other
Bahrain nationals remain in custody at Guantanamo Bay, where the US
holds about 450 men on suspicion of links to al-Qaida or the
Taliban.
(AP, 10/15/06)
2006 Oct 15, Ecuador held
presidential elections. The favorite was Rafael Correa (43), a
leftist pledging to lead a "citizens' revolution" against a
political establishment widely seen as corrupt and incompetent. He
faced a strong challenge from Alvaro Noboa, a banana billionaire who
also pushed a populist line. The elections headed to a 2nd round
after Alvaro Noboa, who favored strong relations with the US,
narrowly defeated Rafael Correa in the first round. A Nov 26 runoff
had been expected as none of the 13 candidates appeared likely to
win outright.
(AP, 10/14/06)(AP, 10/16/06)(Econ, 10/14/06,
p.39)
2006 Oct 15, At least 83 people
were killed during a two-day spree of sectarian revenge killings.
Suspected Shiite militiamen killed at least 20 more Sunni Arabs in
Balad. A string of bombings in Kirkuk killed 10 people, including
two girls who died when a man detonated explosives strapped to his
body in front of the al-Mallimin girls high school. In Baghdad
Interior Ministry undersecretary Hala Shakir Salim survived a
roadside bomb attack that killed seven others, four bystanders and
three bodyguards. A husband, wife and two of their sons were killed,
and two daughters-in-law critically wounded when gunmen burst into
their home in Mosul. Two US soldiers were killed and two other
American soldiers were wounded on after coming under fire in the
province of Kirkuk.
(AP, 10/15/06)(Reuters, 10/16/06)
2006 Oct 15, In Lebanon a small
grenade exploded after it was fired at a building near UN offices in
a downtown Beirut square injuring four people.
(AP, 10/15/06)
2006 Oct 15, Mexican
authorities arrested a soldier accused of opening fire on a street
barricade in Oaxaca, killing one demonstrator and wounding another.
Elections in Mexico’s Tabasco state showed Andres Rafael Granier of
the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) defeating Democratic
Revolution candidate Cesar Raul Ojeda by 10 points. The next day the
PRD accused its rivals of fraud.
(AP, 10/15/06)(AP, 10/16/06)
2006 Oct 15, Sri Lanka's navy
sank a rebel boat loaded with arms along the west coast, killing at
least five Tamil Tiger separatists.
(AP, 10/15/06)
2006 Oct 15, Uganda's
government and the Lord's Resistance Army rebel group admitted
Sunday they had both violated their recent truce, raising fears the
deal to end one of Africa's longest wars may unravel.
(AP, 10/15/06)
2006 Oct 15, Pope Benedict XVI
gave Catholics four news saints, bestowing the honor on a
19th-century nun who struggled on the American frontier, a bishop
who tended to the wounded during the Mexican Revolution and two
Italian clergy.
(AP, 10/15/06)
2007 Oct 15, It was reported
that 3 of America's biggest banks are banding together to set up an
$80 billion fund to breathe life back into the commercial paper
market. The Treasury Dept. was urging banks to set up a “Master
Liquidity Enhancement Conduit” to buy assets. On Dec 21 the 3
largest US banks gave up on the fund.
(www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/video/embed.asp?id=725)(WSJ, 12/22/07,
p.A1)
2007 Oct 15,
Americans Leonid Hurwicz (d.2008 at 90), Eric S. Maskin and
Roger B. Myerson won the Nobel economics prize for developing a
theory that helps explain how sellers and buyers can maximize their
gains from a transaction.
(AP, 10/15/07)(SFC, 6/26/08, p.B5)
2007 Oct 15, News Corporation’s
Fox Business Network launched a new cable channel that will focus on
financial markets and global economy news.
(www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/media/july-dec07/fox_10-15.html)
2007 Oct 15, In San Diego, Ca.,
local and federal agents seized over 5,000 trained birds in the
largest cockfighting bust in US history.
(SFC, 10/16/07, p.D12)
2007 Oct 15, In North Carolina
Gov. Mike Easley asked residents to stop washing cars and watering
lawns as the Southeast US experienced a severe drought.
(SFC, 10/16/07, p.A3)
2007 Oct 15, Kathleen
Casey-Kirschling became the first baby boomer to make an early
filing for Social Security benefits. Kathleen Casey became the first
official US baby boomer following her January 1, 1946, birth just
after midnight.
(SFC, 10/16/07, p.A8)
2007 Oct 15, Internet addresses
began in 11 languages that do not use the Roman alphabet.
(WSJ, 10/11/07, p.B1)
2007 Oct 15,
Medtronic Inc. said it is stopping distribution of wires that
connect some of its defibrillators to patients' hearts after
learning they may have contributed to five deaths.
(AP, 10/15/07)
2007 Oct 15, Brazil’s President
Luiz Ignacio Lula Da Silva arrived in the Congolese capital
Brazzaville for a one-day visit, the first by a Brazilian leader to
the African country.
(AFP, 10/16/07)
2007 Oct 15,
In China 2,217 delegates listened as party leader Hu Jintao
pledged to make communist rule more inclusive and better spread the
fruits of China's economic boom. Hu said economic growth must remain
the party’s main task.
(AP, 10/15/07)(WSJ, 10/16/07, p.A1)(Econ,
10/13/07, p.42)
2007 Oct 15, An army minibus
slammed into a water tanker truck in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula,
killing 13 soldiers and the civilian driver.
(AP, 10/16/07)
2007 Oct 15, The EU granted
final approval to the Audiovisual Media Services Directive, which
removes many restrictions on television product placement. Member
states will have 2 years to adopt the new rules.
(Econ, 11/3/07, p.81)(http://tinyurl.com/3con6l)
2007 Oct 15, European Union
foreign ministers gave their final approval to deploy a 3,000-strong
EU peacekeeping force for one year to help refugees and displaced
people living along Darfur's borders with Chad and the Central
African Republic.
(AP, 10/15/07)
2007 Oct 15,
Airbus finally delivered its first A380 superjumbo jet.
Singapore Airlines took delivery of the double-decker jet, the
world's largest passenger plane, almost two years late.
(AP, 10/15/07)
2007 Oct 15,
In Germany Pres. Putin held talks with German Chancellor
Angela Merkel on the sidelines of a German-Russian political
conference called the Petersburg Dialogue.
(AFP, 10/15/07)
2007 Oct 15,
Gunmen launched simultaneous mortar and machinegun attacks on
two mainly Polish military bases in Diwaniyah, after Shi'ite
militants vowed to step up pressure on Polish soldiers to force them
out. US helicopters fired back during clashes that killed five Iraqi
civilians, including two children, and wounded 17. Iraqi journalist
Dhi Abdul-Razak al-Dibo (32), a freelance reporter, was killed while
driving his BMW with his guards near Kirkuk.
(AP, 10/15/07)
2007 Oct 15, Montenegro signed
a stabilization and association agreement with the EU, normally a
step towards membership.
(Econ, 10/20/07, p.72)
2007 Oct 15, Moroccan leaders,
after nearly a month of tough negotiations, formed a new government
that includes seven women but no one from the Islamic party that
placed second in September's parliamentary elections.
(AP, 10/16/07)
2007 Oct 15, Russia’s
Agriculture Minister Alexei Gordeyev said that major food producers
and retailers had agreed to fix their prices at the current level
following talks with the government. The prices for basic foods will
be fixed until January 31, 2008, a period which covers parliamentary
elections.
(www.prime-tass.com/news/show.asp?topicid=54&id=428507)(Econ,
10/27/07, p.63)
2007 Oct 15, Fresh fighting in
northern Somalia left several combatants dead in an escalating
boundary dispute between the breakaway regions of Somaliland and
Puntland.
(AFP, 10/15/07)
2007 Oct 15, In northern Sri
Lanka a fierce battle broke out between government troops and Tamil
rebels, leaving 30 guerrillas dead. 4 prominent activists resigned
from a government advisory panel on human rights, saying that
officials were more interested in fighting separatist rebels than
protecting human rights.
(AP, 10/16/07)
2007 Oct 15,
Representatives of seven Darfur rebel groups met in south
Sudan to try to reach a common negotiating position ahead of peace
talks with the government.
(Reuters, 10/15/07)
2007 Oct 15, The Security
Council voted unanimously to extend the UN observer mission in
Georgia, expressing "serious concern" at violence that has escalated
tensions between Georgia and the breakaway region of Abkhazia.
(AP, 10/15/07)
2007 Oct 15, The UN Security
Council voted unanimously to extend the UN peacekeeping mission in
Haiti for a year, noting significant improvements in security in
recent months but saying the situation remains fragile.
(AP, 10/15/07)
2008 Oct 15, John McCain and
Barack Obama held their final televised debate at Hofstra Univ. in
Hempstead, NY. It was moderated by Bob Schieffer of CBS.
(AP, 10/16/08)(SFC, 10/16/08,
p.A1)
2008 Oct 15, The US Commerce
Department reported that retail sales decreased 1.2% last month,
nearly double the 0.7% drop that had been expected. Stocks plunged
733 points in their second biggest point loss ever.
(AP, 10/15/08)(SFC, 10/16/08, p.C1)
2008 Oct 15, At Camp Pendleton,
California, Sgt. Jan Pietrzak (24) and his wife, Quiana
Jenkins-Pietrzak (26) were found gagged, tied and shot in the head
in the living room of their Winchester home. Investigators said the
house had been ransacked and a fire had been set, an apparent effort
to destroy evidence. 4 Marines were later charged with two counts of
first-degree murder and special-circumstance allegations of
committing multiple murders, committing the crime during a robbery
and rape by instrument.
(AP, 11/21/08)
2008 Oct 15, In Illinois a
medical helicopter crashed just before midnight and killed a
desperately ill 1-year-old girl and three crew members when the
aircraft clipped a radio structure's wire and went down in a
suburban Chicago field.
(AP, 10/17/08)
2008 Oct 15, A NYC police
officer warned Michael Mineo, a tattoo parlor worker, that if he
reported being sodomized with a baton during an arrest at a subway
station, officers would lock him up for a felony. Officer Richard
Kern (25) was later charged with aggravated sexual abuse and
assault. Fellow Officers Alex Cruz and Andrew Morales were charged
with hindering prosecution and official misconduct for allegedly
covering up the crime.
(AP, 12/9/08)
2008 Oct 15, In Afghanistan
international war planes bombed a gathering of Taliban and other
militants overnight in Barham Chah on the border with Pakistan and
killed up to 70. An explosion in Helmand province killed a British
soldier.
(AFP, 10/15/08)(AP, 10/16/08)
2008 Oct 15, Authorities in
Azerbaijan said turnout was high in a presidential election
boycotted by the opposition and almost certain to return Ilham
Aliyev for a second term in the oil-producing state. President Ilham
Aliyev had 89% of the vote with 70% of precincts reporting.
(AP, 10/15/08)(AP, 10/16/08)
2008 Oct 15, In Barbados 13
Caribbean countries approved a new Economic partnership Agreement
(EPA) with the EU.
(Econ, 10/18/08, p.50)
2008 Oct 15, Nicky Reilly (22),
a convert to Islam, pleaded guilty at a London court to attempted
murder and engaging in preparation for terrorism by researching how
to make bombs. He was arrested shortly after a blast rattled a
family restaurant in the southwest English city of Exeter 200 miles
(320 kilometers) west of London on May 22.
(AP, 10/15/08)
2008 Oct 15, The Shell
Anglo-Dutch group said a Nigerian court has ordered it to hand over
land around its giant Bonny oil terminal to the local population, a
key demand of armed rebels in the volatile region. Shell said ruling
was given some months ago but we have appealed.
(AFP, 10/15/08)
2008 Oct 15, Cambodia and
Thailand exchanged fire on the border in a clash over disputed land
which left two soldiers dead and several wounded.
(AFP, 10/15/08)
2008 Oct 15, Chile’s President
Michelle Bachelet signed into law a measure that bans all whale
hunting off Chile's 3,400-mile (5,500-kilometer) coast.
(AP, 10/16/08)
2008 Oct 15, EU leaders agreed
to stick to ambitious plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions 20% by
2020, but divisions over how to share out the cuts were widened by
fears over the impact of the financial crisis.
(AP, 10/15/08)
2008 Oct 15, Iceland moved to
shore up its ravaged economy by slashing borrowing costs and
officials pursued efforts to get help from Russia in tackling the
worst financial crisis in the island's history.
(Reuters, 10/15/08)
2008 Oct 15, Esha Momeni, a
student at California State University, Northridge, was driving on a
highway in Tehran when she was stopped by authorities, who said they
were traffic police, and later taken to Evin prison. Her computer
and other materials related to her research on the Iranian women's
movement were confiscated.
(AP, 10/24/08)
2008 Oct 15, Baghdad and
Washington reached final agreement on a pact requiring US forces to
withdraw from Iraq by 2012. The agreement, reached after months of
difficult negotiations, would allow US troops to remain here after
their UN mandate expires Dec. 31. The US military detained 2
suspected insurgents in raids targeting al-Qaida in Iraq's
leadership in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul. A US soldier died of
noncombat causes.
(WSJ, 10/16/08, p.A1)(AP, 10/16/08)(AP,
10/17/08)(SFC, 10/17/08, p.A9)
2008 Oct 15, A Malaysian court
ordered Tuanku Jaafar Tuanku Abdul Rahman (86), the country's former
king (1994-1999), to settle a $1 million debt to a bank in a
landmark verdict that ended a centuries-old tradition shielding the
country's royal sultans from legal prosecution.
(AP, 10/15/08)
2008 Oct 15, Pakistani
President Asif Ali Zardari reached trade deals with China, raising
hopes that Beijing would help his country through difficult economic
and diplomatic times.
(AP, 10/15/08)
2008 Oct 15, Armed pirates
hijacked a bulk carrier with 21 crew members in the Gulf of Aden
near Somalia. The ship under a Panamanian flag was operated by the
Philippines.
(AP, 10/15/08)
2008 Oct 15, In Sri Lanka air
force jets bombed a group of rebels who were building an earthen
embankment as a defense against advancing government forces in
Mullaitivu.
(AP, 10/15/08)
2008 Oct 15, The foreign
ministers of Syria and Lebanon signed an agreement formalizing
diplomatic ties between the two countries for the first time in
their turbulent history.
(AP, 10/15/08)
2008 Oct 15, Turkish media
reported that a hijacker attempted to commandeer a Turkish Airlines
plane over Belarus but that he was overpowered by passengers.
(AP, 10/15/08)
2008 Oct 15, The Turkish
military clashed with Kurdish rebels near the Iraqi border in
battles in which four soldiers and five rebels were killed. A
Turkish helicopter crashed during the clash. A soldier was killed
and 15 security personnel were slightly injured in the crash.
(AP, 10/16/08)
2008 Oct 15, The IMF said
Ukrainian authorities have asked the International Monetary Fund for
help in stemming a financial crisis in the country. The government
took emergency measures to rescue banks and stabilize the national
currency, the hryvna, after worried depositors withdrew more than
US$1 billion from their accounts this month.
(AP, 10/15/08)
2008 Oct 15, A Vietnamese court
sentenced journalist Nguyen Viet Chien (56) to two years in prison,
accusing him of writing inaccurate stories about one of the
country's most high-profile corruption cases. Fellow reporter Nguyen
Van Hai (33) was sentenced on the charges to two years of
"re-education without detention." The reporters were arrested in May
for writing about a 2005 scandal in which Transportation Ministry
officials were accused of gambling with allegedly embezzled funds.
Police Maj. Gen. Pham Xuan Quac (62) and investigator Dinh Van Huynh
were charged with "deliberately revealing state secrets," for giving
information to the journalists. Quac, who has retired, was given a
warning, while Huynh was sentenced to one year in prison.
(AP, 10/15/08)
2008 Oct 15, Former South
African leader Thabo Mbeki opened a second day of talks with
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe and his main rival to save a
power-sharing deal that has floundered over cabinet posts.
(AFP, 10/15/08)
2008 Oct 15, Wang Yung-Ching
(b.1917), founder of Formosa Plastics Group, died leaving a fortune
estimated at $7 billion. He had set up a small PVC plant in 1954 in
Taiwan with money from a US aid program.
(WSJ, 10/18/08, p.A10)
2008 Oct 15, A study by Gaffney
Cline & Associates of a big natural gas filed in Turkmenistan
confirmed the South Yolotan-Osman as the fifth largest in the world.
(WSJ, 10/16/08, p.A9)
2009 Oct 15, Pres. Obama
visited San Francisco for a Democratic Party fundraiser.
(SFC, 10/16/09, p.A1)
2009 Oct 15, Prosecutors in San
Francisco filed a mail-fraud charge against Roberto Heckscher (55),
owner of Irving Bookkeeping and Taxes on Irving Street, alleging
that he began operating a Ponzi scheme in 1979 that defrauded
investors of over $20 million.
(SFC, 10/16/09, p.D4)
2009 Oct 15, In Colorado the
flight of a home-made helium balloon touched off a frantic rescue
attempt for the young boy thought to be aboard. It was later
determined to have been a publicity-seeking hoax. On Nov 13 parents
Richard and Mayumi Heene pleaded guilty to charges related to the
hoax. In late December a judge sentenced Richard Heene to 90 days in
jail, including 60 days of work release that will let him pursue
work as a construction contractor while doing his time. Mayumi Heene
was sentenced to 20 days in jail.
(Reuters, 10/19/09)(SFC, 11/13/09, p.A8)(AP,
12/23/09)(SFC, 12/24/09, p.A4)
2009 Oct 15, A US warship
seized about four tons of hashish being transported aboard a boat
off the Horn of Africa. The guided missile cruiser USS Anzio stopped
the skiff after a brief chase in the Gulf of Aden.
(AP, 10/20/09)
2009 Oct 15, Colleen R. LaRose
(46), a self-described "Jihad Jane," was arrested in Philadelphia.
LaRose was later accused, in an indictment filed March 9, 2010, of
actively recruiting fighters, as well as agreeing to murder Swedish
artist Lars Vilks, marry a terrorism suspect so he could move to
Europe and martyr herself if necessary.
(AP, 3/10/10)
2009 Oct 15, Two F-16 planes
collided around 8:30 p.m. about 40 miles off Folly Beach, near
Charleston, SC. One jet, piloted by Capt. Lee Bryant, landed safely
at Charleston Air Force Base. The missing plane was piloted by Capt.
Nicholas Giglio.
(AP, 10/16/09)
2009 Oct 15, Google Inc. said
it is launching a new online service for booksellers next year
called Google Editions, which will let readers buy books and read
them on gadgets ranging from cell phones to possibly e-book devices.
(AP, 10/15/09)
2009 Oct 15, It was reported
that the Taj network, funded by the National Science Foundation, now
connects India, Singapore, Vietnam and Egypt to the larger Global
Ring Network for Advanced Application Development (GLORIAD) global
infrastructure, and "dramatically improves existing US network links
with China and the Nordic region," according to an NSF statement.
(www.livescience.com/technology/091015-global-gloraid-taj-cyber-net.html)
2009 Oct 15, In Palo Alto, Ca.,
the body of Jennifer Schipsi (29) was found in a rented cottage on
the 900 block of Addison Ave. Bulos “Paul” Zumot (36), her
on-and-off boyfriend was arrested on Oct 19 on charges of murder and
setting a fire to cover the slaying.
(SFC, 10/21/09, p.D4)
2009 Oct 15, In southern
Afghanistan 4 American troops died in a bombing, as a UN-backed
panel completed most of its investigation into whether the level of
fraud in the August presidential election would require a runoff.
(AP, 10/16/09)
2009 Oct 15, The far-right
British National Party agreed to change its constitution to let
nonwhite people become members.
(AP, 10/15/09)
2009 Oct 15, China’s Premier
Wen Jiabao said that China intends to strengthen its cooperation
with Iran, an indication Beijing would oppose growing calls in the
West for additional sanctions against the Islamic regime for its
nuclear program.
(AP, 10/15/09)
2009 Oct 15, A Chinese court
handed out a further three death sentences to people convicted of
violent crimes during ethnic rioting in far western Xinjiang region
in July in which almost 200 people died. The court also sentenced
three defendants to suspended death sentences, which could be
commuted to life sentences in two years. At least two of those
sentenced were Han Chinese. The others all appeared to be Uighurs.
(Reuters, 10/15/09)
2009 Oct 15, Top EU and South
Korean trade officials signed a free trade deal which the EU said
could boost trade between the two by euro19 billion ($28 billion).
(AP, 10/15/09)
2009 Oct 15, A French court
turned down a bid by Fabienne Justel, a 39-year-old widow, to
retrieve her late husband's frozen sperm in order to have his child
by insemination in another country. A French law prohibited
post-mortem insemination.
(AFP, 10/15/09)
2009 Oct 15, Iraq’s PM Nouri
al-Maliki warned Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan to stop conducting
military operations across Iraq's northern border targeting Kurdish
rebels and stressed that Iraq's sovereignty can not be violated. The
two met in Baghdad and were to sign agreements boosting economic
ties between their countries. A roadside bomb struck an Iraqi army
patrol in Baghdad, killing one Iraqi soldier.
(AP, 10/15/09)
2009 Oct 15, Italy and NATO
denied a newspaper report that the Italian intelligence secretly
paid the Taliban thousands of dollars to maintain peace in an area
in Afghanistan that was under Italian control. The Times of London
had just reported that Italy had paid "tens of thousands of dollars"
to Taliban commanders and warlords in the Surobi district. It
accused Rome of failing to inform its allies about the payments and
of misleading the French, who took over the Surobi district in
mid-2008, into thinking the area was quiet and safe. An ambush of
the French in a mountain pass on Aug. 18, 2008, was the biggest
single combat loss for international forces in Afghanistan in more
than three years.
(AP, 10/15/09)
2009 Oct 15, Libya freed 88
Islamists with Al-Qaeda links from Abu Slim prison in Tripoli.
Lawyers said "45 members of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG)
and 43 members of other jihadist groups were freed thanks to the
efforts of the Islamic Foundation," in a joint statement with the
Foundation, headed by Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi's son Seif
al-Islam.
(AFP, 10/15/09)
2009 Oct 15, In Mexico some
33,000 people marched to protest President Felipe Calderon's weekend
decision to disband Luz y Fuerza, a public electricity company that
provided electricity to Mexico City and the surrounding area. Police
officers found the decapitated bodies of 9 men in an abandoned
pickup truck on a highway in the drug-plagued Mexican state of
Guerrero.
(AP, 10/16/09)
2009 Oct 15, Nigeria’s central
bank said ex-vice president Atiku Abubakar is among more than 600
debtors owing five troubled banks some 450 billion naira (2.96
billion dollars, 2 billion euros). Abubakar, who was deputy to
former president Olusegun Obasanjo (1999-2007), owed Spring Bank
111.15 million naira (731,490 dollars, 491,592 euros). The CBN also
listed billionaire tycoon Aliko Dangote (52) and Mohammed Buba
Marwa, Nigeria's ambassador to South Africa, as major debtors.
(AFP, 10/15/09)
2009 Oct 15, Nigeria's most
high-profile armed group MEND threatened to resume attacks on the
country's oil sector when a unilateral ceasefire lapses at midnight.
(AFP, 10/15/09)
2009 Oct 15, In Pakistan teams
of gunmen launched coordinated attacks on three law enforcement
facilities in the eastern city of Lahore killing 18 people including
11 insurgents. A car bombs hit northwest Kohat killing 11 people,
including 3 police officers and 8 civilians. Another car bomb in
Peshawar killed 10 people, mostly women and children. A total of 39
people were killed in the escalating wave of anti-government
violence. A suspected US missile strike killed 4 alleged militants.
(AP, 10/15/09)(SFC, 10/15/09, p.A4)
2009 Oct 15, In Paraguay Fidel
Zavala, a wealthy rancher, was kidnapped by the guerrilla group,
known as the EPP for its initials in Spanish. It soon demanded $5
million for his release, purportedly to finance what the band calls
a revolutionary movement for the poor. Zavala was released following
a ransom payment after 94 days.
(AP, 1/12/10)(Econ, 5/15/10, p.42)
2009 Oct 15, A Philippine
military tribunal acquitted 11 officers of plotting a foiled Feb,
2006, coup against President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.
(AP, 10/15/09)
2009 Oct 15, In Puerto Rico
thousands of demonstrators swarmed the financial hub of San Juan,
blocking highways and setting fires in the streets of the capital to
protest massive layoffs of government workers. Gov. Luis Fortuno has
said the dismissal of more than 20,000 public employees was
necessary to close a $3.2 billion deficit and pull the economy out
of a 3-year recession.
(AP, 10/15/09)
2009 Oct 15, South African
police fired rubber bullets at residents in Diepsloot, a poor
settlement north of Johannesburg, injuring 19 people protesting poor
living standards. The protests have spread from Standerton, about 90
miles (150km) southeast of Johannesburg, to at least four other
towns in eastern South Africa this week.
(AP, 10/15/09)
2009 Oct 15, The Syrian-based
leadership of the militant Palestinian Hamas said it has rejected an
Egyptian-mediated proposal to reconcile with the rival Fatah group.
Hamas and seven other Damascus-based Palestinian factions issued a
joint statement saying the reconciliation plan must be revised to
include a reference to the Palestinian right to resist Israeli
occupation.
(AP, 10/15/09)
2009 Oct 15, Turkish police
detained over 30 suspects allegedly linked to Al-Qaida, saying they
were planning to stage attacks on NATO facilities as well as US and
Israeli missions.
(SFC, 10/16/09, p.A2)
2010 Oct 15, US federal
authorities aid they have rounded up over 40 people in New York and
Florida during a takedown of a wholesale marijuana ring. Agents
seized $1 million and almost 200 pounds of marijuana.
(SFC, 10/16/10, p.A4)
2010 Oct 15, A security
researcher said criminals are using a Zeus botnet to pillage Charles
Schwab investment accounts. Although police in the US, the UK and
Ukraine collared more than 100 members of a Zeus crimeware gang
three weeks ago, experts warned that the arrests wouldn't stop the
botnet. Other gangs can simply step into the void.
(http://news.idg.no/cw/art.cfm?id=B7C76BC0-1A64-67EA-E459F0D62DD95E83)
2010 Oct 15, Mike Ehredt (49) a
US Army veteran of Hope, Iowa, completed a coast to coast jog in
Rockland, Maine. He had placed a flag in the ground every mile to
honor military personnel killed in Iraq. He averaged about 29 miles
a day with 4 days off.
(SFC, 10/16/10, p.A4)
2010 Oct 15, A light plane
carrying four US citizens on a medical aid flight crashed in Baja
California, killing all four aboard. The plane that went down was
one of three on a mission from the San Luis Obispo, Ca., area.
(AP, 10/17/10)
2010 Oct 15, The Afghan
government said a system meant to ensure Afghan officials are
consulted on sensitive international military operations has been
"ineffective." 3 NATO troops were killed in a surge of attacks that
raised the death toll to 17 over the past three days for
international troops in the country. In the southeast 6 civilians
were killed when a roadside bomb detonated beside their vehicle near
Kalat.
(AP, 10/15/10)(AP, 10/17/10)
2010 Oct 15, China's Communist
Party opened its secretive annual meeting to discuss the nation's
next five-year economic plan against the backdrop of unusually
outspoken calls for political reform.
(AFP, 10/15/10)
2010 Oct 15, China's basketball
association fined a series of coaches and players in the national
team after a bench-clearing brawl put an end to a friendly match
with Brazil. The fight had erupted the night of Oct 12 at a game in
central Henan province.
(AFP, 10/16/10)
2010 Oct 15, Roger Meece, heads
of the UN peacekeeping mission in Congo, said more than 15,000
people were raped in the volatile eastern region of Congo last year,
according to the best data available.
(AP, 10/15/10)
2010 Oct 15, Adrian Edwards,
the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, said the rebels of the Lord's
Resistance Army have killed at least 2,000 people and forced 400,000
to flee in three countries in less than two years. A UNHCR
communique documented a mounting "campaign of terror against
civilians" in the DR Congo, South Sudan and the CAR.
(AFP, 10/15/10)
2010 Oct 15, The Costa Rican
government said it is receiving nearly $56 million in donations and
debt write-offs to expand its forest and marine conservation
programs and has become the first developing country to meet UN
goals on protected areas. Under the plan, the US agreed to buy back
$27 million of Costa Rica's foreign debt, money that will be used
instead to invest conservation programs. The US already trimmed $26
million of Costa Rican debt in 2007 as part of the US Tropical
Forest Conservation Act. The debt now stands at $77 million.
(AP, 10/15/10)
2010 Oct 15, In Ecuador a
tunnel collapsed in a gold mine in the south, trapping four miners
490 feet (150 meters) underground. Authorities said rescue efforts
were under way. The bodies of 2 miners were found the next day as
rescue efforts continued for 2 others. Their bodies were found on
Oct 20.
(AP, 10/15/10)(AP, 10/17/10)(Reuters, 10/20/10)
2010 Oct 15, French President
Nicolas Sarkozy sent in riot police to reopen fuel depots blocked by
strikes, as the pipeline to Paris airports was cut in an escalating
battle over pension reform.
(AFP, 10/15/10)
2010 Oct 15, In Indonesia a
rabies outbreak on the resort island of Bali has to date killed 100
people. Bali, an island of 3 million people and one of Asia's top
tourist destinations, has been grappling with the outbreak for
nearly two years.
(AP, 10/15/10)
2010 Oct 15, Iran’s Foreign
Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said that Tehran was ready to resume
talks about its nuclear program with the international community
within a matter of weeks.
(AP, 10/15/10)
2010 Oct 15, Israel signed off
on the construction of 238 homes in Jewish neighborhoods in east
Jerusalem, bringing an end to an unofficial building freeze in the
traditionally Arab sector of the city and further complicating peace
talks stuck over the broader fate of West Bank settlements. A report
released by aid organization Oxfam said attacks and other acts of
harassment by Jewish settlers against Palestinian olive farmers "are
common and often increase during the time of the harvest." The
Israeli army says it does all it can to protect Palestinian olive
growers. So far this year there have been no casualties at least.
But neither have the police made any arrests.
(AP, 10/15/10)(AFP, 10/16/10)
2010 Oct 15, Israeli police
arrested Staten Island resident Eric Bellucci (30), a US citizen who
escaped to Israel after allegedly stabbing his parents to death in
their New York home earlier this week. Bellucci's parents, Arthur
(61) and Marian (56), were found dead the night of Oct 13 in their
Staten Island home.
(AP, 10/15/10)(AP, 10/16/10)
2010 Oct 15, In Italy judicial
sources said prosecutors have launched an investigation against PM
Silvio Berlusconi for tax evasion linked to his Mediaset media
empire. The allegations, which were immediately rejected by
Mediaset, were linked to tax declarations for 2003 and 2004 and are
part of a wider inquiry.
(AFP, 10/15/10)
2010 Oct 15, In Jamaica a bus
plunged over a cliff on the island's north coast, killing a teenage
girl and injuring 39 people. The bus driver fled after the accident.
(AP, 10/16/10)
2010 Oct 15, In Mexico armed
men entered through the back of a house in a residential
neighborhood near the center of Ciudad Juarez, surprising the
party-goers with an assault-rifle attack that killed 6 people.
(Reuters, 10/16/10)
2010 Oct 15, In southeastern
Mexico a helicopter carrying oil workers crashed killing all 8
people aboard.
(SSFC, 10/17/10, p.A6)
2010 Oct 15, Pakistan said it
was willing to assist talks between the Afghan government and the
Taliban, and NATO confirmed its forces had helped ensure a senior
Taliban commander reached Kabul. In an early morning attack in South
Waziristan 5 Pakistani soldiers were killed when militants sprayed
an army checkpoint with gunfire. A suspected US unmanned aircraft
launched two missiles in North Waziristan. 3 were killed in the
first missile strike, which hit a vehicle in Machi Khel. The 2nd
strike occurred several hours later, killing six suspected militants
at a house in Aziz Khel. Gunmen ambushed a truck early in the
morning as it was returning home after delivering NATO supplies in
Afghanistan, killing the driver and his assistant.
(Reuters, 10/15/10)(AP, 10/15/10)(AP, 10/16/10)
2010 Oct 15, Russian PM
Vladimir Putin's chief of staff, Sergei Sobyanin, was nominated as
Moscow's next mayor, a move seen as bringing the capital's sizable
political and business interests under the direct control of the
Kremlin.
(AP, 10/15/10)
2010 Oct 15, Russia agreed to
help build Venezuela's first nuclear power plant and buy $1.6
billion of oil assets, reinforcing ties with President Hugo Chavez,
who shares Moscow's opposition to US global dominance.
(Reuters, 10/15/10)
2010 Oct 15, The Saudi
government said Jaber Jabran al-Faifi, a former Guantanamo detainee,
has turned himself in to Saudi authorities. He had rejoined Al-Qaeda
in Yemen after graduating from Saudi Arabia's rehabilitation
program.
(AFP, 10/15/10)
2010 Oct 15, Swiss engineers
smashed through the last stretch of rock to create the world's
longest tunnel (35.4 miles), The Gotthard Base rail tunnel, sparking
a national groundswell of elation over a costly, technically
difficult project that has been 60 years in the making.
(AP, 10/15/10)(SFC, 10/15/10, p.A5)
2010 Oct 15, In Zambia nearly a
dozen miners were shot in a pay dispute.
(AP, 1/4/11)
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