Today in History - November 20
Return to home
269 Nov 20,
Diocletian was proclaimed emperor of Numerian in Asia Minor by his
soldiers. He had been the commander of the emperor's bodyguard.
(HN, 11/20/98)
284 Nov 20, Diocletian
(245-316) became Emperor of the Roman Empire and continued to 305.
Under his rule the last and most terrible persecution of the
Christians took place, perhaps some 3,000 martyrs. He divided rule
over the empire among four men. He put two rulers to oversee the
east and two to oversee the west. He also established four capitals.
He moved his own capital from Rome to Nicomedia, south of Byzantium
in Asia Minor. He also increased the size of the Roman army from
300,000 to 500,000 men.
(http://bode.diee.unica.it/~giua/SEBASTIAN/Diocletian.html)(V.D.-H.K.p.91)(ITV,
1/96, p.58)
967 Nov 20, Aboe al-Faradj
al-Isfahani, Arabic author (Book of liederen), died.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1347 Nov 20, Roman tribune Cola
di Rienzi defeated nobles. Stefano Colonna, Roman senator, died in
battle (SPQR).
(MC, 11/20/01)
1521 Nov 20, Arabs attributed a
shortage of water in Jerusalem to Jews making wine.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1527 Nov 20, Wendelmoet
"Weyntjen" Claesdochter, became the 1st Dutch woman to be burned as
heretic.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1602 Nov 20, Otto von Guericke,
inventor (air pump), was born.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1616 Nov 20, Bishop Richelieu
became French minister of Foreign affairs and War.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1620 Nov 20, Peregrine White,
son of William and Susanna White, was born aboard the Mayflower in
Massachusetts Bay. He was the first child born of English parents in
present-day New England.
(AP, 11/20/97)
1637 Nov 20, Peter Minuit &
1st Dutch and Swedish immigrants to Delaware sailed from Sweden.
Peter later purchased Manhattan Island for 60 guilders.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1695 Nov 20, Zumbi dos
Palmares, Brazilian leader of a hundred-year-old rebel slave group,
was killed in an ambush. He was later honored by a National Day of
Black Consciousness.
(HN, 11/20/98)(SFC, 8/16/01, p.A8)
1700 Nov 20, Sweden's
17-year-old King Charles XII defeated the Russians at Narva.
(HN, 11/20/98)
1713 Nov 20, Thomas Tompion,
English clock maker (cylinder tunnel), died.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1720 Nov 20, Pirates Mary Read,
Anne Bonny (b.~1700) and Captain Calico Jack Rackham were tried by
an admiralty court in Jamaica. Rackham was found guilty and hanged
the next day. Read and Bonny were also found guilty and sentenced to
hang but pleaded pregnancy. Their sentences were commuted until they
gave birth. Bonny was later pardoned but Read died in prison on Apr
28, 1721. Bonny, an Irish American pirate, had plied her trade in
the Caribbean and died around 1782.
(ON, 12/01,
p.12)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Bonny)
1726 Nov 20, Oliver Wolcott,
later Conn.-Gov. and signer of Declaration of Independence, was
born.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1741 Nov 20, Melchior de
Polignac, French diplomat and clergyman, died.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1752 Nov 20, Thomas Chatterton
(d.1770), English poet (Christabel), was born. His early death
marked him as the “prototype of the fragile poet withered by the
hostility of philistines.”
(WSJ, 1/15/98, p.A17)(MC, 11/20/01)
1765 Nov 20, Friedrich Heinrich
Himmel, composer (Von Himmel Hoch), was born.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1789 Nov 20, New Jersey became
the first state to ratify the Bill of Rights.
(AP, 11/20/97)
1805 Nov 20, Beethoven's
"Fidelio," premiered in Vienna.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1815 Nov 20, With the 2nd Peace
of Paris Napoleon was involuntarily exiled to St. Helena.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1817 Nov 20, 1st Seminole War
began in Florida. [see Nov 27]
(MC, 11/20/01)
1829 Nov 20, Jews were expelled
from Nikolayev and Sevastopol, Russia.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1833 Nov 20, Charles Darwin
reached Punta Gorda and saw Rio Uruguay.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1858 Nov 20, Selma Lagerdorf,
Swedish novelist, was born. Her work included “The Story of Gosta
Berling.”
(HN, 11/20/00)
1866 Nov 20, Pierre Lallemont,
French mechanic, was granted a US patent for his velocipede, a
rotary crank bicycle.
(http://www.todayinsci.com/11/11_20.htm)(ON,
2/10, p.1)
1873 Nov 20, Budapest was
formed from 2 Rival cities, Buda and Obuda on the west bank of the
Danube and Pest on the east bank.
(WUD, 1994, p.193)(MC, 11/20/01)
1884 Nov 20, Norman Thomas,
socialist and Pres. Candidate 1928-48, was born in Marion, Ohio, and
ran for president in six successive elections beginning in 1928.
(HNQ, 10/21/98)(MC, 11/20/01)
1888 Nov 20, William Bundy
patented a timecard clock.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1889 Nov 20, Edwin Hubble
(d.1953), American astronomer, was born. He proved that there are
other galaxies far from our own.
(HN, 11/20/98)(WSJ, 7/25/00, p.A20)
1889 Nov 20, Gustav Mahler's
1st Symphony premiered.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1893 Nov 20, The struggling
Western League of Professional Baseball Clubs, meeting in Detroit,
Michigan, elected Byron Bancroft Johnson (29), a former ballplayer
and Cincinnati sportswriter, as president. He had been recommended
by Charles Comiskey, a potential investor in the league and manager
of the National League’s Cincinnati Reds.
(ON, 6/09, p.10)
1894 Nov 20, Anton Rubinstein
(64), Russian composer (Dmitri Donskoi), died.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1903 Nov 20, In Cheyenne,
Wyoming, 42-year-old hired gunman and stock detective Tom Horn was
hanged for the 1901 murder of Willie Nickell (14). Horn had made a
controversial confession to U.S. Deputy Marshal Joseph S. LeFors
that was pivotal in the conviction.
(HN, 11/20/98)
1906 Nov 20, George Bernard
Shaw's "Doctor's Dilemma," premiered in London.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1907 Nov 20, Henri-Georges
Clouzot, French director (Le salaire de la peur), was born.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1907 Nov 20, The McLaughlin
Motor Car Company was founded in Ontario, Canada, under Samuel
McLaughlin (1871-1972). In 1910 he became a director of General
Motors and sold his company in 1918 becoming president of General
Motors of Canada.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_C._Durant)
1908 Nov 20, Alistair Cooke
(d.2004), English journalist, who hosted "Masterpiece Theater," was
born in Salford, England.
(SFC, 3/31/04, p.A2)(AP, 11/20/08)
1910 Nov 20, Revolution broke
out in Mexico. Francisco I. Madero called for a rise to national
arms on this day when dictator Porfirio Diaz reneged on his pledge
to stay out of the presidential election.
(SFEC,11/9/97, p.T6) (AP, 11/20/97)
1911 Nov 20, Gustav Mahler's
"Das Lied von der Erde" premiered in Munich.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1914 Nov 20, Emilio Pucci,
fashion designer (Neiman-Marcus Award-1954), was born in Naples.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1914 Nov 20, US State
Department began requiring photographs for passports.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1914 Nov 20, Bulgaria
proclaimed its neutrality in the First World War.
(HN, 11/20/98)
1916 Nov 20, Thomas McGrath,
poet and novelist, was born.
(HN, 11/20/00)
1917 Nov 20, In the 1st tank
battle Britain broke through German lines.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1920 Nov 20, The Nobel Peace
Prize was awarded to US president W. Wilson.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1923 Nov 20, Nadine Gordimer,
1991 Nobel Prize-winning South African novelist, was born.
(HN, 11/20/00)
1923 Nov 20, Garrett Morgan
invented and patented a traffic signal.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1925 Nov 20, Robert F. Kennedy,
U.S. Attorney General and Senator, was born in Brookline, Mass.
While at Harvard during World War II, Robert F. Kennedy joined the
U.S. Naval Reserve and served as a seaman on the destroyer Joseph P.
Kennedy, Jr. The ship was named for Kennedy’s eldest brother, who
had been killed in battle during World War II. Kennedy died from an
assassin’s bullet June 6, 1968, in Los Angeles after proclaiming
victory in California’s Democratic Party primary election.
(AP, 11/20/97)(HNQ, 7/14/98) (HN, 11/20/98)
1927 Nov 20, Karl Wilhelm Eugen
Stenhammer (56), composer, died.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1928 Nov 20, Mrs. Glen Hyde
became the first woman to dare the Grand Canyon rapids in a scow.
Her flat bottomed boat used sweep oars for maneuvering.
(HN, 11/20/98)
1929 Nov 20, Kenneth DeWitt
Schermerhorn, conductor, was born in Schenectady, NY.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1929 Nov 20, Salvador Dali held
his 1st one-man show.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1929 Nov 20, The radio program
"The Rise of the Goldbergs" debuted on the NBC Blue Network.
(AP, 11/20/97)
1931 Nov 20, AT&T began
commercial teletype service.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1931 Nov 20, Japan and China
rejected the League of Council terms for Manchuria at Geneva.
(HN, 11/20/98)
1934 Nov 20, Lillian Hellman's
"Children's Hour," premiered in NYC.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1935 Nov 20, Borden and Coca
Cola were removed from the DJIA. Du Pont and National Steel were
added.
(WSJ, 4/8/04, p.C4)
1936 Nov 20, Don DeLillo,
author, was born. His work includes “White Noise” and ”Libra.”
(HN, 11/20/00)
1938 Nov 20, The 1st documented
anti-Semitic remarks over US radio were made by Father Coughlin.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1941 Nov 20, Ambassadors Nomura
and Kurusu handed over Japan’s last diplomatic note.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1942 Nov 20, Joseph Biden,
later US Senator for Delaware, was born in Scranton, Pa. In 2008
Barack Obama named Biden as his vice presidential running mate.
(SSFC, 8/24/08, p.A15)
1942 Nov 20, Meredith Monk,
choreographer, composer and performing artist, was born in Lima,
Peru.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1942 Nov 20, British 8th Army
recaptured Benghazi, Libya.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1942 Nov 20, Hitler named field
marshal Erich von Manstein to command.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1942 Nov 20, The 26th Russian
Armored Corps recaptured Perelazovski. A million Russians breached
German lines in a Soviet army offensive.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1943 Nov 20, US Marines began
landing on Tarawa and Makin atolls in the Gilbert Islands,
encountering fierce resistance from Japanese forces but emerging
victorious three days later. The US 2nd marine division invaded the
tiny isle of Betio on Tarawa Atoll in the Gilberts. It was the first
seriously opposed landing experienced by the Americans in WWII.
After 3 days 1,027 US Marine and Navy personnel were killed. Of some
4,800 Japanese and Korean laborers on Betio, 146 survived, including
17 Japanese troops. In 2006 John Wukovits authored “One Square Mile
Of Hell.”
(AP,
11/20/05)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Tarawa)(AH, 6/07,
p.72)
1943 Nov 20, U-538 sank in the
Atlantic Ocean.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1944 Nov 20, The 1st Japanese
suicide submarine attack was at Ulithi Atoll, Carolines.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1945 Nov 20, Dmitri
Shostakovitch's 9th Symphony premiered.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1945 Nov 20, In Nuremberg,
Germany 22 out of 24 indicted Nazi officials went on trial (one in
absentia) before an international war crimes tribunal.
(AP, 11/20/08)
1946 Nov 20, Lillian Hellman's
"Another Part of the Forest," premiered in NYC.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1947 Nov 20, "Meet the Press"
made network TV debut on NBC.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1947 Nov 20, Princess Elizabeth
(future Queen Elizabeth II) married Philip Mountbatten, Duke of
Edinburgh, in a ceremony broadcast worldwide from Westminster Abbey.
(HN, 11/20/98)(SFEM, 1/26/97, p.44)(AP, 11/20/97)
1949 Nov 20, Jewish population
of Israel reached 1,000,000.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1950 Nov 20, U.S. troops pushed
to Yalu River within five miles of Manchuria.
(HN, 11/20/98)
1950 Nov 20, Francesco Cilea
(84), opera composer, died.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1952 Nov 20, George Axelrod's
"7 Year Itch," premiered in NYC.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1955 Nov 20, The Maryland
National Guard was ordered desegregated.
(HN, 11/20/98)
1959 Nov 20, The United Nations
issued its "Declaration of the Rights of the Child."
(AP, 11/20/99)
1959 Nov 20, Seven European
nations (Austria, Britain, Denmark, Norway, Portugal, Sweden,
Switzerland) signed the Stockholm Convention to form the European
Free Trade Association (EFTA). The organization becoming operative
on May 3 1960.
(www.iceland.org/efta/the-mission/int-organizations/efta/)
1962 Nov 20, President Kennedy
barred religious or racial discrimination in federally funded
housing.
(HN, 11/20/98)
1962 Nov 20, USSR agreed to
remove bombers from Cuba and US lifted its blockade.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1965 Nov 20, UN Security
council called for a boycott of Rhodesia (later Zimbabwe).
(MC, 11/20/01)
1966 Nov 20, "Cabaret" opened
at Broadhurst Theater, NYC, for 1166 performances.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1966 Nov 20, Men in Zurich
voted against female suffrage.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1967 Nov 20, The Census Clock
at the US Commerce Department ticked past 200 million.
(AP, 11/20/97)
1969 Nov 20, The Nixon
administration announced a halt to residential use of the pesticide
DDT as part of a total phase-out.
(AP, 11/20/97)
1969 Nov 20, A group of 80
Native Americans, all college students, seized Alcatraz Island in
the name of “Indians of All Tribes.” The occupation lasted 19
months. They offered $24 in beads and cloth to buy the island,
demanded an American Indian Univ., museum and cultural center, and
listed reasons why the island was a suitable Indian reservation.
(SFEC, 3/8/98, p.W38)
1970 Nov 20, UN General
Assembly accepted membership of the People’s Republic of China.
(www.un.org/documents/ga/res/25/ares25.htm)
1971 Nov 20, U.S. planned to
give Turkey $35 million for farmers who agreed to stop growing opium
poppies.
(HN, 11/20/98)
1973 Nov 20, Allan Sherman
(b.1924), American musician, parodist and producer, died. He was the
creator and original producer of the popular “I've Got a Secret”
from 1952 to 1958.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allan_Sherman)
1974 Nov 20, The US Dept. of
Justice filed an antitrust suit to break up ATT.
(HN, 11/20/98)(www.spectrum.ieee.org/jul05/1571)
1975 Nov 20, Ronald Reagan
announced his intention to battle Gerald Ford for the Republican
presidential nomination.
(SSFC, 6/6/04,
A16)(www.ford.utexas.edu/grf/timeline.asp)
1975 Nov 20, An interim report
by the US Senate’s Church Committee said that the CIA failed to
assassinated Fidel Castro at least 8 times. The report also covered
CIA activity in Chile, the Congo, the Dominican Republic and
elsewhere.
(WSJ, 8/5/06,
p.A9)(http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Church_Committee)
1975 Nov 20, After nearly four
decades of absolute rule (1936-1975), Spain's General Francisco
Franco died, two weeks before his 83rd birthday. Juan Carlos,
grandson of King Alfonso, was his designated successor and the
monarchy was restored. In 2002 Gabrielle Ashford Hodges authored
"Franco: A Concise Biography."
(SFC, 11/12/96, p.A12)(SFEC, 10/5/97, p.A17)(AP,
11/20/97)(SSFC, 4/21/02, p.M4)
1977 Nov 20, Egyptian President
Anwar Sadat became the first Arab leader to address Israel's
parliament.
(AP, 11/20/97)
1979 Nov 20, The first US
artificial blood transfusion occurred at Univ. of Minn. Hospital.
The patient was a Jehovah's Witness, who had refused a transfusion
of real blood because of his religious beliefs.
(www.todayinsci.com/11/11_20.htm)
1980 Nov 20, Faced with
disastrous reviews from New York critics, United Artists announced
it was withdrawing its $36 million movie "Heaven's Gate" for
re-editing.
(AP, 11/20/05)
1980 Nov 20, In China the Gang
of Four, scapegoats for the 1966-1976 Cultural Revolution, were put
on trial. They were tried and sentenced in nationally televised
court proceedings. Jiang Hua led the special tribunal that was set
up to try Jiang Qing and her 3 Politburo allies known as the Gang of
Four. Qing was sentenced to death but her sentence was later
commuted to life in prison.
(SFC, 2/20/96, p.A4)(SFC, 12/25/99,
p.B4)(http://tinyurl.com/2tfc9u)
1982 Nov 20, South Africa
backed down on a plan to install black rule in neighboring Namibia.
(HN, 11/20/98)
1984 Nov 20, McDonald's made
its 50 billionth hamburger.
(http://tinyurl.com/2p8ua9)
1986 Nov 20, The US Federal
Reserve Board approved a $500 million equity investment by Japan’s
Sumitomo Bank in Goldman Sachs.
(Econ, 5/19/07, SR
p.20)(http://tinyurl.com/3xdm2q)
1986 Nov 20, UN's WHO announced
1st global effort to combat AIDS.
(http://tinyurl.com/ycyxmk)
1987 Nov 20, The film "Nuts"
starring Barbra Streisand premiered.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuts_%28film%29)
1987 Nov 20, President Reagan
and congressional leaders announced agreement on a two-year, $76
billion deficit-reduction plan designed to reassure jittery
financial markets.
(AP, 11/20/97)
1988 Nov 20, Egypt and China
announced they were recognizing the Palestinian state proclaimed by
the Palestine National Council.
(AP, 11/20/98)
1989 Nov 20, More than 200,000
people rallied peacefully in Prague, Czechoslovakia, demanding
democratic reforms and the ouster of Communist Party leader Milos
Jakes.
(AP, 11/20/99)
1990 Nov 20, The space shuttle
“Atlantis” landed at Cape Canaveral, Florida, after completing a
secret military mission.
(AP, 11/20/00)
1990 Nov 20, The Soviet Union
again rebuffed President Bush’s efforts to rally support for a UN
Security Council resolution authorizing military force against Iraq.
(AP, 11/20/00)
1990 Nov 20, Margaret Thatcher
failed to defeat Heseltine's bid for party leadership.
(http://tinyurl.com/krb66)
1991 Nov 20, California
Democrat Alan Cranston accepted a Senate reprimand for his dealings
with former savings-and-loan chief Charles H. Keating Jr., but then
denied he was guilty of many of the allegations, prompting an angry
rebuttal by New Hampshire Republican Warren B. Rudman.
(AP, 11/20/01)
1991 Nov 20, Mile Mrksic,
Miroslav Radic, and Veselin Sljivan-Canin, officers in the Yugoslav
National Army, ordered the Serb army and military police to withdraw
from the hospital at Vukovar. The paramilitary forces then took 194
Croat men in small groups to an area nearby and shot them. Radic
surrendered to Serbian authorities in 2003. Mrksic and Sljivancanin
were convicted by a UN tribunal in 2007. Radic was acquitted.
(SFC, 11/30/96, p.A15)(SFC, 4/22/03, A7)(AP,
9/27/07)(WSJ, 9/28/07, p.A1)
1992 Nov 20, The United States
and the European Community announced they had resolved a dispute
over EC farm subsidies, but French officials expressed
dissatisfaction.
(AP, 11/20/97)
1992 Nov 20, Fire seriously
damaged the northwest side of Windsor Castle, the favorite weekend
home of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II.
(AP, 11/20/97)
1993 Nov 20, The U.S. Senate
ended a filibuster against the Brady Bill, which imposed a five-day
waiting period for handgun purchases, and passed it by a 63-36 vote;
the Senate also approved legislation implementing the North American
Free Trade Agreement, 61-38.
(AP, 11/20/98)
1994 Nov 20, The Angolan
government under dos Santos and rebels under Savimbi signed a treaty
in Zambia to end 19 years of war, even as fighting continued in
their homeland.
(AP, 11/20/99)(SFC, 4/5/02, p.A11)
1994 Nov 20, The most heavily
mined country in the world was Afghanistan, with between 10 and 15
million deadly mines. In Angola, one third of the countryside was
strewn with mines and the toll of nearly 25 people a day who were
injured or killed by land mines has left 20,000 amputees. Cambodia’s
7 million mines amount to two for every single Cambodian child, and
between 200 and 250 people became victims every month. In Somalia,
the laying of mines rose to new heights of terror as civilian areas
were deliberately targeted. Truck loads of mines were scattered in
houses, wells, river-crossings, markets, and even cemeteries.
Presently, the area being mined most heavily is the war zone of the
former Yugoslavia, where 3 million mines have been laid in just a
few years. The US State Dept. estimated that 25,000 people are
killed or maimed each year by mines. About 1.5 to 2 million new
mines go into the ground each year. There is a British Rapid
Antipersonnel Minefield Breaching System (RAMBS) manufactured by
Pains-Wessex Schermuly that is fired from a rifle and clears a path
60 meters long and one meter wide in less than a minute.
(UNICEFF Mailer,11/94)(WSJ, 5/17/96,p.A-1)(WSJ,
5/31/96, p.A13)
1995 Nov 20, Radio stations
began airing a new Beatles recording, “Free As a Bird,” which had
debuted on ABC TV the night before.
(AP, 11/20/00)
1995 Nov 20, US Federal
employees, idled during a government shutdown, returned to their
jobs.
(AP, 11/20/00)
1995 Nov 20, The US FDA
approved new therapy for use as an initial AIDS treatment, 3TC.
(www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/NEWS/NEW00519.html)
1995 Nov 20, Olympic figure
skating champion Sergei Grinkov (28) died of a heart attack in Lake
Placid, New York.
(AP, 11/20/00)
1995 Nov 20, BBC Television
broadcast an interview with Princess Diana, who admitted being
unfaithful to Prince Charles.
(AP, 11/20/97)
1995 Nov 20, France conducted
its 4th nuclear test at the Mururoa atoll in French Polynesia.
[other news sources indicated a severe earthquake with the epicenter
in the Red Sea]
(WSJ, 11/22/95, p.A-1)
1996 Nov 20, US House
Republicans chose Newt Gingrich to be speaker for a second term.
(AP, 11/20/97)
1996 Nov 20, San Francisco
began posting signs along its waterfront to warn fisherman of health
hazards from fish caught in the Bay.
(SFC, 11/21/96, p.A22)
1996 Nov 20, In Zagreb,
Croatia, thousands protested the government’s attempt to close the
independent Radio 101.
(SFC, 11/21/96, p.C6)
1996 Nov 20, In Hong Kong a
fire raged in the 16-story Garley Building and 39 people died.
(SFC, 11/21/96, p.C3)(SFC, 11/22/96, p.A22)(AP,
11/20/97)
1996 Nov 20, In Zambia
Frederick Chiluba and his Movement for Multiparty Democracy won
re-election. Former pres. Kaunda and his United National Independent
Party boycotted because he was declared ineligible to run.
(SFC, 11/21/96, p.C3)
1996 Nov 20-1996 Nov 25, In the
Philippines the summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation
Forum (APEC) was to be held in Manila. APEC has 18 member countries
and its goal is to remove all trade barriers by 2020.
(SFC, 11/18/96, p.A12)(SFC, 11/23/96, p.A8)
1997 Nov 20, It was reported
that Lucent Tech.’s Bell Labs has developed a new tiny transistor
that is 5 times faster and 1/4th the size of commercially available
transistors.
(WSJ, 11/20/97, p.B4)
1997 Nov 20, From Ethiopia it
was reported that flooding has killed 297 people and uprooted 65,000
and that heavy rains continued to fall.
(SFC,11/20/97, p.B2)
1997 Nov 20, In India S.V.
Ramanna Reddy, a former legislator of Andhra Pradesh, surrendered to
police in relation to the previous days bomb blast.
(SFC,11/21/97, p.D6)
1997 Nov 20, Iraq agreed to
allow US arms inspectors back into the country after Russia agreed
to help work to lift UN Security Council sanctions. Prodded by
Russia, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein agreed to allow U.S. arms
monitors back into his country, ending a three-week crisis that had
raised fears of a military confrontation with the United States.
(SFC,11/20/97, p.A1)(AP, 11/20/98)
1997 Nov 20, In Nigeria the
government of Gen’l. Sani Abacha gave 5 political parties $637,000
each to campaign in elections to restore civilian rule. Opposition
groups called politicians of the 5 parties government stooges. 18
parties had applied for recognition but only 5 were deemed suitable.
(SFC,11/21/97, p.D6)(SFC, 4/28/98, p.A6)
1998 Nov 20, A $206 billion
tobacco settlement over health costs for treating sick smokers was
endorsed by 46 eligible states. It was the largest settlement of a
civil lawsuit in history.
(SFC, 11/21/98, p.A1)(AP, 11/20/99)
1998 Nov 20, President Clinton
wrapped up a visit to Japan and flew to South Korea.
(AP, 11/20/99)
1998 Nov 20, Rolando Alphonso,
tenor saxophonist for the ska group Skatalites, died at age 67. He
was an original member of the Jamaican group that was formed in
1964.
(SFC, 12/7/98, p.A25)
1998 Nov 20, Re: Congo it was
reported that Kabila was signing away large stakes in Congo’s
biggest enterprises to businessmen from Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia
in return for support against rebels backed by Uganda and Rwanda.
(WSJ, 11/20/98, p.A1)
1998 Nov 20, In Indonesia
thousands of students marched and demanded the resignations of Pres.
Habibie and military chief Wiranto following doctor’s confirmation
that protestors were killed with live ammunition on Nov 13-14. In
Pinrang thousands of villagers rioted after finding that they could
not withdraw savings from an outlawed bank.
(SFC, 11/21/98, p.A1)(SFEC, 11/22/98, p.A24)
1998 Nov 20, Iraq balked at
handing over documents on chemical and biological weapons and
missile systems.
(SFC, 11/21/98, p.A1)
1998 Nov 20, Israel ceded
control of a 200-sq. mile patchwork area, 2 percent of the West
Bank, to the Palestinian Authority in the 1st of 3 withdrawals. 250
prisoners were released but 150 of them were common criminals rather
than political detainees,
(SFC, 11/21/98, p.A10)(SFC, 11/30/98, p.A1)(AP,
11/20/99)
1998 Nov 20, Israel carried out
its 100th air raid along with ground attacks in southern Lebanon.
One Amal fighter was reported killed.
(SFC, 11/21/98, p.A12)
1998 Nov 20, In Italy a court
ordered the release of Kurdish rebel Abdullah Ocalan under a law
barring extradition in death penalty cases and planned to grant him
asylum.
(SFC, 11/21/98, p.A10)
1998 Nov 20, In Kazakhstan a
Russian Proton booster rocket lifted up the first stage of the new
int’l. space station called Zarya (Sunrise).
(SFC, 11/20/98, p.A18)(SFC, 11/21/98, p.A13)
1998 Nov 20, In Pakistan Prime
Minister Sharif ordered soldiers to quell violence in Karachi and
suspended civil rights in Sindh province, which surrounds the city.
(SFC, 11/21/98, p.A14)
1998 Nov 20, Galina
Starovoitova, a member of the State Duma, was shot to death in St.
Petersburg. She had recently formed a coalition called Northern
Capital to push the candidacy of liberals for the Dec. 6 elections
to the regional legislature. In June, 2005, two men were convicted
of the actual killing. Four others charged in the case were
acquitted. In 2006 two more men were convicted on charges relating
to the murder. Vyacheslav Lelyavin was sentenced to 11 years in
prison for being a member of the gang. Pavel Stekhnovsky, guilty of
buying the rifle used to shoot Starovoitova, was freed after
prosecutors failed to prove he knew the gun was intended for the
killing.
(SFC, 11/21/98, p.A12)(SFEC, 11/22/98, p.A26)(AP,
9/23/06)(AP, 9/29/06)
1998 Nov 20, From Senegal it
was reported that land mines had made 80% of Casamance province
unusable. The mines, laid by separatist rebels, had killed or
wounded close to 500 people in the 1st 8 months of this year.
(SFC, 11/21/98, p.A15)
1998 Nov 20, UN sponsored
autonomy negotiations on East Timor were suspended after 44 people
were reported killed under a military crackdown by the Indonesian
government. The Red Cross later denied the reports of a massacre.
(WSJ, 11/23/98, p.A1)(WSJ, 11/27/98, p.A1)
1999 Nov 20, A day after
violent anti-American protests in Greece, President Clinton sought
to heal old wounds by acknowledging the United States had failed its
“obligation to support democracy” when it backed Greek’s harsh
military junta during the Cold War.
(AP, 11/20/00)
1999 Nov 20, In Algeria some 20
people were killed in a clash between guerrillas and security forces
south of Algiers.
(SFC, 11/23/99, p.A15)
1999 Nov 20, China completed
its first unmanned test of a spacecraft. The Shenzhou 1, or "Divine
Vessel," was launched at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in
Gansu province.
(SFEC, 11/21/99, p.A1)
2000 Nov 20, Lawyers for Al
Gore and George W. Bush battled before the Florida Supreme Court
over whether the presidential election recount should be allowed to
continue.
(SFC, 11/21/00, p.A1)(AP, 11/20/01)
2000 Nov 20, China singed an
agreement with the UN for cooperation and training on individual
rights and the rule of law.
(SFC, 11/21/00, p.A13)
2000 Nov 20, The EU began to
build its own defense force, a 60,000 man, rapid reaction corps. EU
defense chiefs pledged 100,000 soldiers, 400 planes and 100 ships
for a rapid-reaction force.
(SFEC, 11/19/00, p.A16)(WSJ, 11/21/00, p.A1)
2000 Nov 20, Israel fired a
barrage of missiles on the Gaza Strip in retaliation for an attack
on a school bus that killed 2 Jewish settlers and wounded 9 others
including 3 siblings who lost limbs. At least 35 people were
reported wounded in the missile attack.
(SFC, 11/21/00, p.A1)
2000 Nov 20, In Mozambique
Carlos Cardoso, founder and editor of the Metical newspaper, was
murdered while driving in Maputo. He had been investigating a 1996
theft of $14 million from the Commercial Bank of Mozambique. In 2003
six men were convicted of the murder.
(AP, 1/31/03)
2000 Nov 20, Peru’s Pres.
Fujimori announced his resignation from Tokyo, ending a 10-year
reign. Acting president Ricardo Marquez also stepped down.
(SFC, 11/21/00, p.A12)(AP, 11/20/01)
2000 Nov 20, Philippine
senators presented Pres. Estrada a 270-page articles of impeachment
for corruption and constitutional violations.
(SFC, 11/21/00, p.A12)
2001 Nov 20, Pres. Bush called
on Americans to support charities of all kinds.
(SFC, 11/21/01, p.A16)
2001 Nov 20, A federal judge
extended a court order blocking an attempt by Attorney General John
Ashcroft to dismantle Oregon's one-of-a-kind law allowing
physician-assisted suicides.
(AP, 11/20/02)
2001 Nov 20, US federal health
officials approved sale of the world's first contraceptive patch,
Ortho-Evra.
(AP, 11/20/02)
2001 Nov 20, The Sep 11 death
toll at the WTC was reduced to just under 3,900.
(SFC, 11/21/01, p.A2)
2001 Nov 20, Portland police
said they would not cooperate with FBI efforts to interview some
5,000 Middle Eastern men because the questioning violated state
laws.
(SFC, 11/21/01, p.A11)
2001 Nov 20, Jeff Hawkins,
inventor of the Palm computer, was reported to hold that the brain
works by anticipating and completing patterns more than it does
through inputs and outputs of information.
(WSJ, 11/20/01, p.B1)
2001 Nov 20, In Afghanistan the
Northern Alliance gave the Taliban in Kunduz 3 days to give up. The
alliance controlling Afghanistan's capital and much of its
countryside agreed to attend power-sharing talks in Germany the
following week.
(WSJ, 11/21/01, p.A1)(AP, 11/20/02)
2001 Nov 20, Abu Qatada (40), a
Muslim cleric living in London, was named in a Spanish indictment as
a pivotal figure in the al Qaeda network in Europe.
(SFC, 11/21/01, p.A11)
2001 Nov 20, Chinese police on
Tiananmen Square detained some 35 foreigners who protested the
crackdown on the Falun Gong. The protesters were all expelled from
the country.
(SFC, 11/21/01, p.A1)(SFC, 11/22/01, p.A21)
2001 Nov 20, A speedboat,
believed to be carrying 30 smuggled Cubans, capsized in the Florida
Straits and all were believed drowned.
(SFC, 11/21/01, p.A17)
2001 Nov 20, The Liberal
(Venstre) Party under Anders Fogh Rasmussen (1953) won elections in
Denmark. It formed a minority government with the Conservative
People’s Party.
(http://www.andersfogh.dk/807.0.html)
2002 Nov 20, On the eve of a
NATO summit in the Czech Republic, President Bush, recalling
Europe's grim history of "excusing aggression," challenged skeptical
allies to stand firm against Saddam Hussein.
(WSJ, 11/20/02, p.A1)(AP, 11/20/03)
2002 Nov 20, Louisiana began
offering a $4-a-tail bounty on the swamp-dwelling nutria rodent, due
to wetlands damage from devoured plants.
(SFC, 11/20/02, p.A2)
2002 Nov 20, Thomas Mohaghan
(65), founder of Domino's Pizza, pledged at least $220 million to
build the Catholic Ave Maria Univ. near Naples, Fla.
(SFC, 11/21/02, p.A7)
2002 Nov 20, A German doctor
conducted Britain's first public autopsy in more than 170 years, an
event denounced by the British Medical Association's Head of Ethics
as "degrading and disrespectful."
(AP, 11/20/03)
2002 Nov 20, Francoise Ducros,
aide to PM Chretien of Canada, called Pres. Bush a moron during a
private conversation in Prague. She resigned Nov 26.
(SFC, 11/23/02, p.A1)(AP, 11/26/02)
2002 Nov 20, In Riobamba,
Ecuador, a series of explosions at an ammunition depot left at least
7 people dead and 140 injured.
(WSJ, 11/21/02, p.A1)(AP, 11/22/02)
2002 Nov 20, The EU, except for
Portugal. banned Belarus Pres. Lukashenko and top aides to protest
human rights abuses under his rule.
(WSJ, 11/20/02, p.A1)
2002 Nov 20, Israel's Labor
Party chose Amram Mitzna, ex-general and Haifa mayor, as its leader
in the Jan 28 elections.
(WSJ, 11/20/02, p.A1)
2002 Nov 20, Israeli troops
shot and killed Amr Qudsi (15), a Palestinian teenager in a
confrontation in Tulkarem.
(AP, 11/20/02)
2002 Nov 20, In Port-of-Spain,
Trinidad, Phillip Seerattan (17) opened fire with a pistol at a
school for foreign students, wounding a security guard before being
shot to death by police.
(AP, 11/21/02)
2003 Nov 20, In Florida
ministers from 34 countries announced a framework to establish a
Free Trade Area of the Americas," (FTAA).
(SFC, 11/21/03, p.A12)
2003 Nov 20, Michael Jackson
turned himself over to police in Santa Barbara, Ca., on an arrest
warrant alleging multiple counts of child molestation. He posted a
$3 million bail bond. Jackson was later acquitted at trial.
(AP, 11/20/08)
2003 Nov 20, Record producer
Phil Spector was charged with murder in the shooting death of an
actress, Lana Clarkson, at his home in Alhambra, Calif., in February
2003. As of 2008 Spector was being retried after his first trial
ended in a deadlocked jury.
(AP, 11/20/08)
2003 Nov 20, Motor Trend named
the Toyota's hybrid Prius as "Car of the Year."
(AP, 11/20/03)
2003 Nov 20, Advanced Micro
Devices said it would build $2.4 billion chip factory in
Germany to produce microprocessors on 300-mm silicon wafers.
(SFC, 11/21/03, p.B1)
2003 Nov 20, Eugene Kleiner
(80), California pioneer venture capitalist, died.
(Econ, 12/6/03, p.79)
2003 Nov 20, Tens of thousands
of demonstrators in London burned an effigy of President Bush to
show their anger over the Iraq war.
(AP, 11/20/08)
2003 Nov 20, In Canada Conrad
Black, newspaper magnate, stepped down as CEO of Hollinger Int'l.
following reports that he other top officials received unauthorized
payments of some $32.2 million.
(WSJ, 11/28/03, p.A1)
2003 Nov 20, David Dacko (76),
the first president of Central African Republic as an independent
nation (1960-1966, 1979-1981), died.
(AP, 11/21/03)
2003 Nov 20, In Kirkuk, Iraq, a
bomb apparently hidden in a pickup truck exploded at the offices of
a US-allied Kurdish political party, killing five people and
wounding 40.
(AP, 11/20/03)
2003 Nov 20, A group of UN
agencies is asking for $221 million in international aid for North
Korea, where food shortages, poverty and poor health care services
have put the country in a state of "chronic emergency."
(AP, 11/20/03)
2003 Nov 20, The London Privy
Council ruled that Trinidad's mandatory death penalty for murder
convictions was unconstitutional, forcing the country to begin
giving discretion to judges when handing out sentences.
(AP, 11/21/03)
2003 Nov 20, In Turkey trucks
packed with explosives blew up at the HSBC London-based bank and the
British consulate. The 32 people killed included London's
consul-general Roger Short. Some 450 people were wounded.
(AP, 11/20/03)(WSJ, 11/21/03, p.A1)(SFC, 12/1/03,
p.A16)
2003 Nov 20, In Florida
ministers from 34 countries announced a framework to establish a
Free Trade Area of the Americas" (FTAA), as police clashed with
hundreds of demonstrators.
(SFC, 11/21/03, p.A12)(AP, 11/20/04)
2003 Nov 20, Michael Jackson
turned himself over to police in Santa Barbara, Ca., on an arrest
warrant alleging multiple counts of child molestation. He posted a
$3 million bail bond.
(AP, 11/19/03)
2003 Nov 20, Record producer
Phil Spector was charged with murder in the fatal shooting of
actress, Lana Clarkson, at his home in Alhambra, Calif.
(AP, 11/20/04)
2003 Nov 20, Motor Trend named
the Toyota's hybrid Prius as "Car of the Year."
(AP, 11/20/03)
2003 Nov 20, Advanced Micro
Devices said it would build $2.4 billion chip factory in
Germany to produce microprocessors on 300-mm silicon wafers.
(SFC, 11/21/03, p.B1)
2003 Nov 20, Eugene Kleiner
(80), California pioneer venture capitalist, died.
(Econ, 12/6/03, p.79)
2003 Nov 20, In Canada Conrad
Black, newspaper magnate, stepped down as CEO of Hollinger Int'l.
following reports that he other top officials received unauthorized
payments of some $32.2 million.
(WSJ, 11/28/03, p.A1)
2003 Nov 20, David Dacko (76),
the first president of Central African Republic as an independent
nation (1960-1966, 1979-1981), died.
(AP, 11/21/03)
2003 Nov 20, Tens of thousands
of demonstrators in London burned an effigy of President Bush to
show their anger over the Iraq war.
(AP, 11/20/04)
2003 Nov 20, In Kirkuk, Iraq, a
bomb apparently hidden in a pickup truck exploded at the offices of
a US-allied Kurdish political party, killing five people and
wounding 40.
(AP, 11/20/03)
2003 Nov 20, A group of UN
agencies is asking for $221 million in international aid for North
Korea, where food shortages, poverty and poor health care services
have put the country in a state of "chronic emergency."
(AP, 11/20/03)
2003 Nov 20, The London Privy
Council ruled that Trinidad's mandatory death penalty for murder
convictions was unconstitutional, forcing the country to begin
giving discretion to judges when handing out sentences.
(AP, 11/21/03)
2003 Nov 20, In Turkey trucks
packed with explosives blew up at the HSBC London-based bank and the
British consulate. The 32 people killed included London's
consul-general Roger Short. Some 450 people were wounded.
(AP, 11/20/03)(WSJ, 11/21/03, p.A1)(SFC, 12/1/03,
p.A16)
2004 Nov 20, US Republicans
whisked a $388 billion spending bill through the House.
(AP, 11/20/05)
2004 Nov 20, The new NYC MOMA
opened in midtown Manhattan. Its new tower was designed by Yoshio
Taniguchi.
(Econ, 11/20/04, p.85)
2004 Nov 20, The NBA suspended
9 players without pay over the Nov 19 Piston and Pacer brawl in
Auburn Hills, Mich.
(Econ, 11/27/04, p.34)
2004 Nov 20, Juan Rodriguez
(49) of NYC, a Colombian immigrant and parking garage worker, won
the $149 million Mega Millions lottery jackpot. He chose to take a
single payment of $88.5 million before taxes.
(USAT, 11/21/04, p.3A)
2004 Nov 20, Scientist Ancel
Keys (100), died in Minneapolis. He invented the K rations eaten by
soldiers in World War II and who linked high cholesterol and fatty
diets to heart disease.
(AP, 11/20/05)
2004 Nov 20, Fifteen African
presidents and UN chief Kofi Annan signed a common declaration in
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, to promote peace and security in the Great
Lakes region.
(AFP, 11/20/04)
2004 Nov 20, In China a fire at
a complex of iron mines in Shahe, Hebei province, left 68 dead. Most
of the miners were suffocated by smoke.
(AP, 11/26/04)
2004 Nov 20, An early morning
6.2 earthquake jolted San Jose, Costa Rica, and killed 8 people.
Leaders of 21 nations were gathered there for the Ibero-American
Summit.
(AP, 11/20/04)
2004 Nov 20, In Baghdad
insurgents attacked a US patrol and a police station, assassinated 4
government employees and detonated several bombs. One American
soldier was killed and 9 were wounded during clashes that left 3
Iraqi troops and a police officer dead.
(AP, 11/20/04)
2004 Nov 20, The bodies of nine
Iraqi soldiers, all shot execution-style and seven of them
decapitated, were discovered in the northern city of Mosul.
(AP, 11/20/04)
2004 Nov 20, Germany and the
United States agreed on a proposal to write off as much as 80
percent of Iraq's debt.
(AP, 11/20/04)
2004 Nov 20, India pulled out
around 3,000 troops from Kashmir.
(AP, 11/20/04)
2004 Nov 20, In southern Italy
8 people from two families were killed when a gas explosion
destroyed their apartment building.
(AP, 11/20/04)
2004 Nov 20, In western Nepal
at least 26 rebel and government soldiers were killed during a clash
at a rebel training camp at Pandon.
(SFC, 11/22/04, p.A3)
2004 Nov 20, In Ojobo, Nigeria,
a protest at an oil rig operated by Shell left 7 people dead.
(SFC, 12/10/04, p.A23)
2004 Nov 20, Palestinians
formally opened the campaign for a successor to Yasser Arafat.
(AP, 11/20/05)
2004 Nov 20, A Polish woman
abducted from her apartment in Baghdad reappeared in Poland after
being suddenly released.
(AP, 11/20/04)
2004 Nov 20, Puerto Rico's two
highest courts ordered election authorities in separate rulings to
immediately begin recounting votes cast in the extremely tight Nov.
2 gubernatorial elections.
(AP, 11/21/04)
2004 Nov 20, In Togo at least
13 people died and others were injured in a crush at a demonstration
to welcome an improvement in relations with the EU.
(Reuters, 11/20/04)
2004 Nov 20, Ugur Kaymaz (12)
and his father Ahmet Kaymaz (30), a Kurdish truck driver from
Kiziltepe, Turkey, were reportedly shot dead by police officers in
front of their house. In 2007 all 4 members of the special forces
implicated in the killings were exonerated.
(www.extrajudicialexecutions.org/communications/turkey.html)(Econ,
6/23/07, p.60)
2005 Nov 20, US President
George W. Bush pressed President Hu Jintao to rein in China's
swelling trade surplus and push forward currency reform after
calling for greater religious freedom. Hu Jintao has rebuffed Bush's
calls to allow greater religious and political freedom but promised
to show more flexibility on Sino-US economic disputes.
(AP, 11/20/05)
2005 Nov 20, In Tacoma, Wash.,
Dominick Sergio Maldonado (20) went on a shooting spree at a crowded
shopping mall. 7 people were injured, one critically, before he was
arrested. Maldonado has been charged with attempted murder and
kidnapping.
(AP, 11/20/06)
2005 Nov 20, Chris Whitley
(45), a chameleon singer-songwriter who oscillated between roots
rock 'n' roll, blues and alt-rock, died of lung cancer in Houston.
He recorded 11 albums since his 1991 debut, "Living with the Law,"
including “Dirt Floor" (1998) and this year's "Soft Dangerous
Shores."
(AP, 11/23/05)
2005 Nov 20, In Brazil TV da
Gente (Our TV), the 1st channel to be directed at Brazil’s black
population, was launched.
(SSFC, 11/27/05, p.A21)
2005 Nov 20, British military
said a British soldier was killed and four wounded by a roadside
bomb in Iraq's southern city of Basra. A total of 98 British
soldiers have been killed in Iraq, including 65 in hostile action,
since the US-led invasion in March 2003.
(AFP, 11/20/05)
2005 Nov 20, China reported two
new outbreaks of bird flu in which almost 3,700 poultry died and
more than 7,000 were culled as provinces hit by the deadly virus
tightened preventive measures.
(Reuters, 11/20/05)
2005 Nov 20, A helicopter
carrying a Colombian congressman and five others crashed Sunday in a
storm in the mountains north of Bogota, killing all aboard.
Conservative Party congressman Roberto Camacho, Cundinamarca state
deputy Efren Bejerano and former Cundinamarca deputy governor Adolfo
Leon were among those killed.
(AP, 11/20/05)
2005 Nov 20, Widespread
violence marred the second round of Egypt's parliamentary vote, with
police saying a campaign worker was shot and killed in Alexandria
and witnesses reporting scores of injuries. Police arrested 400
Muslim Brotherhood activists in a crackdown on the Islamist group.
(AP, 11/20/05)(Reuters, 11/20/05)
2005 Nov 20, Tropical Storm
Gamma weakened into a tropical depression after it deluged the
Central American coast, killing 14 people in Honduras and Belize. 2
US newlyweds were among the dead in Belize.
(AP, 11/20/05)(WSJ, 11/22/05, p.A1)
2005 Nov 20, Iran’s Parliament
approved a bill requiring the government to block international
inspections of its atomic facilities if the UN nuclear monitoring
agency refers Iran to the Security Council for possible sanctions.
(AP, 11/20/05)
2005 Nov 20, In Iraq a car bomb
exploded by a convoy carrying the mayor of Madaen killing 5
civilians. 3 bodies, all blindfolded and shot in the head, were
found in Sadr City. A headless body was found south of Baghdad. A
policeman was shot dead in Baghdad. A roadside bomb in Baghdad
killed a child and wounded 5 others. A US soldier was killed by
small arms fire north of Baghdad. A US marine died from wounds
suffered the previous day in Karma.
(SFC, 11/21/05, p.A6)
2005 Nov 20, Israel's dovish
Labor Party voted Sunday to pull out of PM Ariel Sharon's coalition
government, virtually assuring early general elections in March.
(AP, 11/20/05)
2005 Nov 20, Project manager
Junichiro Kawaguchi said Hayabusa, a Japanese spacecraft, has failed
to land on the Itokawa asteroid in the 2nd setback for the landmark
mission aiming to bring samples from such a celestial body to Earth
for the first time. The space agency, after evaluating more data,
said on Nov 23 that Hayabusa did land for a half-hour, but failed to
collect any material.
(AFP, 11/20/05)(SFC, 11/23/05, p.A16)
2005 Nov 20, Russian President
Vladimir Putin started a three-day visit to Japan but it appears
unlikely there will be any progress in settling a 60-year
territorial dispute that has prevented the two nations from formally
ending World War II hostilities.
(AP, 11/20/05)
2005 Nov 20, In Turkey 12
people were detained after Kurdish demonstrators hurled Molotov
cocktails and stones at the police during a protest in Istanbul.
(AFP, 11/20/05)
2005 Nov 20, The Vatican
beatified 13 Mexicans who died during a Roman Catholic uprising in
the late 1920s that was crushed by the Mexican government.
(AP, 11/20/05)
2005 Nov 20, Zimbabwe President
Robert Mugabe said he will turn to nuclear power by processing
recently discovered uranium deposits to resolve its chronic
electricity shortage.
(AP, 11/20/05)
2006 Nov 20, President Bush in
Indonesia shrugged off protests that greeted him in the world's most
populous Muslim nation, calling it a sign of a healthy democracy.
Bush praised Indonesia's "pluralism and its diversity" and said that
the world should look to the predominantly Muslim country as an
example.
(AP, 11/20/06)
2006 Nov 20, The US Mint
announced designs for new one-dollar coins that will feature images
of the presidents beginning in February.
(SFC, 11/20/06, p.A1)
2006 Nov 20, Six imams were
removed from a US Airways flight at Minneapolis-St. Paul
International Airport after passengers reported they were acting
suspiciously.
(AP, 11/20/07)
2006 Nov 20, O.J. Simpson's
book and TV special were canceled, an astonishing end to an
imaginary confession that had sickened the public as the very worst
kind of tabloid sensation. "If I Did It," in which Simpson was to
have described how he would have killed his ex-wife, had been
scheduled to air as a two-part interview Nov. 27 and Nov. 29 on Fox.
The book was to have followed on Nov. 30. Harper Collins said all
copies would be destroyed. The book was later brought out by a
different publisher.
(AP, 11/20/06)(SFC, 11/24/06, p.A3)(AP, 11/20/07)
2006 Nov 20, A bus crash in
Huntsville, Alabama, killed 3 teenage girls and left at least 30
students injured. A 4th student died the next day.
(SFC, 11/21/06, p.A3)(SFC, 11/22/06, p.A3)
2006 Nov 20, Robert Altman
(b.1925), film director, producer and writer, died in Los Angeles.
His numerous films included “M*A*S*H” (1970) and “Nashville” (1975).
(SFC, 11/22/06, p.A1)(Econ, 11/25/06, p.87)
2006 Nov 20, Dirk Dirksen
(b.1937), the godfather of San Francisco punk rock, died. He moved
to SF in 1974 and soon began presenting late-night events at the
Mabuhay Gardens in North Beach, where punk rock found a home.
(SFC, 11/22/06, p.B7)
2006 Nov 20, British PM Tony
Blair told soldiers fighting a resurgent Taliban that success in
Afghanistan would be a step toward global security, and pledged
Britain's commitment to the war-torn country "for as long as it
takes."
(AP, 11/20/06)
2006 Nov 20, In Austria 35
nations tried to find common ground in a fractious session focusing
on what to do about Iran's requests to the UN nuclear watchdog
agency for help on projects including building a plutonium-producing
reactor.
(AP, 11/20/06)
2006 Nov 20, British Brig.
Grismond "Gris" Davies-Scourfield died at age 88. He won a Military
Cross for his part in the Allied defense of Calais during World War
II and later escaped from the Nazis holding him prisoner in the
notorious Colditz Castle.
(AP, 12/6/06)
2006 Nov 20, Authorities seized
a 50-foot homemade submarine with 3 tons of cocaine off the coast of
Costa Rica.
(SFC, 11/21/06, p.A2)
2006 Nov 20, China’s Pres. Hu
Jintao arrived in New Delhi for the second visit by a Chinese
president.
(AP, 11/20/06)
2006 Nov 20, Eritrea and
Ethiopia both rejected plans by a UN-appointed border panel to
demarcate their contentious frontier on paper.
(AFP, 11/21/06)
2006 Nov 20, French prosecutors
approved international arrest warrants for 9 Rwandan officials in
connection with the 1994 attack that killed Rwanda's president,
triggering the central African country's genocide. Magistrate
Jean-Louis Bruguiere also said there was evidence that "Paul Kagame
and members of his military staff devised the operation" to destroy
Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana's plane.
(Reuters, 11/21/06)
2006 Nov 20, In Kempten,
Germany, nurse Stephan Letter was convicted of killing 28 of his
patients (2003-2004) at a hospital in Sonthofen, Germany, and
sentenced to life in prison.
(AP, 11/20/06)
2006 Nov 20, In northwest
Germany, Sebastian Bosse (18) with explosives strapped to his body,
killed himself after storming a high school in Emsdetten and
injuring several people with gunfire.
(AP, 11/21/06)
2006 Nov 20, In Guatemala City
an enormous fire broke out at Central America's largest open-air
market killing 15 people, including three minors.
(AP, 11/21/06)
2006 Nov 20, In eastern India
an explosion ripped through two cars of a passenger train, killing
at least 8 people and injuring about 60 people.
(AP, 11/21/06)
2006 Nov 20, Iran invited Iraq
and Syria to talks in Tehran aimed at curbing violence in Iraq.
(SFC, 11/21/06, p.A1)
2006 Nov 20, Assassins killed
Walid Hassan (47), a popular Baghdad television comedian and a
professor at a university south of the capital, but failed in
attempts to kill two government officials as the country's leader
met with Syria's foreign minister about improving security and
reopening diplomatic relations. At least 25 Iraqis were killed in a
series of attacks in Baghdad, Ramadi and Baquba. The bodies of 75
Iraqis, who had been kidnapped and tortured, were found in Baghdad,
Dujail and in the Tigris River in southern Iraq. It was
reported that at least 21 Iraqi interpreters had been kidnapped and
shot in the head in Basra over the last month.
(AP, 11/20/06)(SFC, 11/20/06, p.A9)(AP,
11/21/06)(SFC, 11/21/06, p.A13)
2006 Nov 20, Italian Premier
Romano Prodi’s center-left government got rid of the heads of its 3
intelligence chiefs: military service (SISMI), civil agency (SISDI)
and the coordinating body CESIS.
(Econ, 11/25/06, p.48)
2006 Nov 20, Mexico’s defeated
presidential candidate Lopez Obrador planned to be sworn in as the
country's "legitimate president" as Mexico celebrated its 1910
revolution.
(AP, 11/20/06)
2006 Nov 20, Armed men attacked
the offices of a Nigerian aid group in the southern oil hub of Port
Harcourt, killing one person and wounding another. The dead man had
offered to help find Ateke Tom, a militant wanted by the Nigerian
government in connection with a string of kidnappings and bank
robberies.
(AP, 11/20/06)
2006 Nov 20, A Paraguayan court
dropped corruption charges against former President Luis Gonzalez
Macchi, acknowledging it had failed to meet a deadline for hearing
full testimony on accusations he maintained a secret Swiss bank
account.
(AP, 11/20/06)
2006 Nov 20, Gen. Addeh Museh,
the president of the semiautonomous region of Puntland, said he will
rule according to Islamic law, a surprising move in a relatively
stable area that has resisted the spread of Islamic militants who
control most of southern Somalia.
(AP, 11/20/06)
2006 Nov 20, In South Africa
police said Ananias Mathe, a Mozambican national awaiting trial on
rape, murder and other charges, escaped from Pretoria's C-Max
prison by greasing himself up with petroleum jelly and
squeezing out of a tiny window. This was the first reported escape
at the top security prison in its 36-year history. On Dec 4 Mathe
was shot and captured.
(AP, 11/20/06)(AFP, 12/4/06)
2006 Nov 20, Sudan’s President
Omar al-Bashir's government hailed a new agreement with the UN over
peacekeepers in Darfur as a diplomatic breakthrough, but said
serious differences remain over the force's makeup and command.
(AP, 11/20/06)
2006 Nov 20, In Turkey police
arrested 29 leftist activists who broke into The Associated Press
office in Ankara to protest alleged mistreatment of prisoners.
(AP, 11/20/06)
2006 Nov 20, Uzbekistan blocked
a UN resolution backed by the US and Western nations criticizing its
human rights violations, including the harassment, beatings and
arrests of journalists and civil activists.
(AP, 11/20/06)
2007 Nov 20, Freddie Mac, the
larger US buyer and guarantor of home loans, reported a $2 billion
loss for the 3rd quarter and warned that it may need to raise fresh
capital. Fannie Mae, another US mortgage guarantor, had already
posted a $1.4 billion loss earlier in the month.
(SFC, 11/21/07, p.C1)(Econ, 11/24/07, p.76)
2007 Nov 20, In Utah polygamist
leader Warren Jeffs, self-proclaimed prophet of a breakaway Mormon
sect, was sentenced to 10 years to life in prison for forcing a
14-year-old to marry her first cousin. In 2010 the Utah Supreme
Court reversed the convictions of Jeffs and ordered a new trial
saying a jury received incorrect instructions. On April 7, 2011, a
federal judge handed control of a $114 million communal land trust
back to the leaders of Jeff’s polygamous church. Courts had seized
control of the trust in 2005.
(Reuters, 11/21/07)(SFC, 7/28/10, p.A4)(SFC,
4/9/11, p.A5)
2007 Nov 20, Crude-oil futures
surged to a record high settling at $98.03 a barrel on the NY
Mercantile Exchange.
(WSJ, 11/21/07, p.C8)
2007 Nov 20, Researchers said
they have decoded the gene map of a strain of extensively
drug-resistant tuberculosis and that their work has identified
mutations that may help develop better treatments.
(AP, 11/21/07)
2007 Nov 20, Scientists in
Japan and the US reported that they have made ordinary human skin
cells take on the chameleon-like powers of embryonic stem cells, a
startling breakthrough that might someday deliver the medical
payoffs of embryo cloning without the controversy.
(AP, 11/20/07)
2007 Nov 20, In SF large
grocery stores stopped using plastic bags as a new city ordnance
banning the bags took effect.
(SFC, 11/20/07, p.D1)
2007 Nov 20, British Treasury
chief Alistair Darling revealed a lapse at Britain's tax and customs
service regarding missing computer disks with details of 25 million
British individuals and 7.25 million families claiming child
benefit. There were gasps from lawmakers when Darling described the
scale of the loss.
(AP, 11/21/07)(Econ, 11/24/07, p.24)
2007 Nov 20, In Cambodia Kaing
Guek Eav (66), also known as Duch, the head of the Khmer Rouge's
largest and most notorious torture center appeared in court in the
first public session of the long-delayed UN-backed tribunal probing
the regime's reign of terror in the 1970s.
(AP, 11/20/07)
2007 Nov 20, A Chinese court
sentenced a Tibetan nomad to eight years in prison for seeking
Tibetan independence after he urged a crowd to proclaim loyalty to
the Dalai Lama.
(AP, 11/20/07)
2007 Nov 20, In China Huang
Qingnan (34), a workers’ rights advocate in Shenzhen, was severely
beaten and stabbed by thugs believed to have been hired by Chinese
companies opposed to labor activism.
(SFC, 1/7/08, p.A18)
2007 Nov 20, The Paris-based
World Association of Newspapers said imprisoned Chinese journalist
Li Changqing has been awarded the Golden Pen of Freedom, its annual
press freedom prize.
(AP, 11/20/07)
2007 Nov 20, A landslide in
central China buried a bus. Workers clearing rocks from the
landslide discovered the bus underneath rubble three days later and
recovered 29 bodies, that included 28 inside the bus. The landslide
raised concern that the massive reservoir of the Three Gorges Dam,
120 miles away, was wreaking ecological havoc in the region. The
death toll later increased to 34.
(AP, 11/23/07)(AP, 11/24/07)(AP, 12/3/07)
2007 Nov 20, It was reported
that Congo is setting aside more than 11,000 square miles of rain
forest to help protect the endangered bonobo, a great ape that is
the most closely related to humans and is found only in this Central
African country.
(AP, 11/21/07)
2007 Nov 20, Travel woes piled
up in France with air traffic delays adding to a week of rail
strikes as many of the nation's 5 million civil servants held a
day-long walkout in the biggest test of President Nicolas Sarkozy's
appetite for reform.
(AP, 11/20/07)
2007 Nov 20, A British Puma
helicopter crashed southeast of Baghdad, killing two soldiers and
seriously injuring two others. A sophisticated roadside bomb killed
a US soldier and an Iraqi interpreter and wounded three other
soldiers on patrol in eastern Baghdad.
(AP, 11/21/07)
2007 Nov 20, Israel’s PM Olmert
met with Egypt’s Pres. Mubarek and said a peace deal with the
Palestinians can be signed within a year.
(WSJ, 11/21/07, p.A1)
2007 Nov 20, Israel signed an
agreement with Liberia to extract diamonds from the African nation,
seven months after sanctions barring Liberia from exporting the gems
were lifted.
(AFP, 11/20/07)
2007 Nov 20, Jordan held
elections. Supporters of King Abdullah II, a close US ally, handily
defeated the country's Islamist opposition in parliamentary
elections, dropping their number of parliament seats by nearly
two-thirds.
(AP, 11/21/07)
2007 Nov 20, Officials said
Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua will not allow his country to be
used as a base for the proposed US African military command AFRICOM.
(AFP, 11/20/07)
2007 Nov 20, The British
government announced that the legal age of sexual consent in
Northern Ireland will be lowered to 16 in line with the rest of the
United Kingdom.
(AP, 11/21/07)
2007 Nov 20, Pakistan’s
Interior Ministry said more than 3,000 people jailed under emergency
rule have been released, the latest sign that President Gen. Pervez
Musharraf was rolling back some of the harsher measures taken
against his opponents. Over 2,000 remained jailed. The government
said the army had killed 15 militants in Shangla as Pres. Musharraf
left for a visit to Saudi Arabia.
(AP, 11/20/07)
2007 Nov 20, President Vladimir
Putin said that Russia's decision to suspend its participation in a
key arms control treaty was a necessary response to NATO
"muscle-flexing" near its frontiers. The 1990 Conventional Forces in
Europe (CFE) treaty, which originally set limits on weapons of NATO
and Warsaw Pact countries, was revised in 1999. Russia ratified the
updated treaty in 2004, but the US and other NATO members have
refused to follow suit, saying Moscow first must fulfill obligations
to withdraw forces from Georgia and from Moldova's separatist
Trans-Dniester region.
(AP, 11/20/07)
2007 Nov 20, In Singapore
Southeast Asian leaders (ASEAN) adopted a landmark charter but their
vision to create an EU-style bloc faced hurdles because of concerns
over Myanmar, whose military rulers have defied international calls
to restore democracy.
(AP, 11/20/07)(Econ, 11/24/07, p.43)
2007 Nov 20, Ian Smith (88),
Rhodesia's last white prime minister, died in South Africa . His
attempts to resist black rule dragged the country, later renamed as
Zimbabwe, into isolation and civil war.
(AP, 11/20/07)(SFC, 11/23/07, p.B14)(Econ,
11/24/07, p.92)
2008 Nov 20, A US federal judge
ordered the release of five Algerians held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba,
and the continued detention of a sixth in a major blow to the Bush
administration's strategy to keep terror suspects locked up without
charges.
(AP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 20, US Congressional
efforts to rescue Detroit’s auto makers collapsed with lawmakers
saying the industry lacks credibility to return to profitability.
Democrats asked for a convincing turnaround plan by Dec 2.
(WSJ, 11/21/08, p.A1)
2008 Nov 20, The DJIA fell
444.99 to its lowest level since March, 2003.
(SFC, 11/21/08, p.C1)
2008 Nov 20, In Afghanistan
US-led forces killed an Afghan civilian in a battle that also left
two militants dead.
(AP, 11/23/08)
2008 Nov 20, The new Australian
Sex Party launched at Sexpo, an annual sex exhibition in Melbourne.
It has already gathered the required 500 members and plans to
register with the electoral commission next week.
(AP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 20, The UN Security
Council voted unanimously to extend the European Union's
peacekeeping force in Bosnia for a year, emphasizing the importance
of the country's progress towards Euro-Atlantic integration.
(AP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 20, Britain called on
Rwandan President Paul Kagame to use his "influence" over Congolese
rebels led by general Laurent Nkunda to end to violence in eastern
Democratic Republic of Congo.
(AFP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 20, A meteor streaked
across the sky of the Canadian Prairies producing a fire ball that
shone brightly enough to be seen over an area 700 km (435 miles)
wide. Searchers soon found the remains of the 10-ton meteor.
(AP, 11/28/08)
2008 Nov 20, In southwestern
Colombia the Nevado del Huila volcano erupted and loosed avalanches
of mud and ash that injured nine, destroyed bridges and trapped
people in their towns. At least 10 people died in landslides
triggered by the eruption.
(AP, 11/22/08)(SFC, 11/29/08, p.B6)
2008 Nov 20, Dubai held a
launch party for its Atlantis Hotel.
(Econ, 12/20/08, p.115)
2008 Nov 20, Egypt held
emergency talks with nations bordering the Red Sea on how to stop
Somali gunmen from hijacking ships. Somali pirates had already
seized at least 80 ships off the Horn of Africa this year.
(SFC, 11/21/08, p.A13)
2008 Nov 20, The European Union
formally recognized Welsh, which dates back to the 6th century, as a
minority tongue. It became an official tongue in Wales in 1993, 450
years after British rulers gave it the boot in favor of English.
(AP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 20, Finland's Finance
Ministry said four Nordic countries will lend Iceland $2.5 billion
(euro1.98 billion) to help the country recover from its economic
meltdown.
(AP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 20, The 2008 edition
of Beaujolais Nouveau wine arrived, and vintners hoped it will lift
spirits despite the financial crisis and a dismal crop.
(AP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 20, Georgian officials
said Russian and separatist forces attacked a Georgian police
checkpoint near the village of Ganmukhuri, near the breakaway
province of Abkhazia. Anatoly Zaitsev, the chief of staff for the
Abkhaz armed forces, said that a group of Abkhaz troops patrolling
the area were shelled from the Georgian side and returned fire, and
no Russian troops were involved.
(AP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 20, Iraqi opposition
lawmakers shouted and pounded their desks in protest in a second day
of emotional debate in parliament over a proposed agreement with the
US that would allow American forces to stay in Iraq for three more
years. Baghdad authorities announced a campaign to kill stray dogs
who roam the Iraqi capital in packs, after a spate of fatal dog
attacks left children in some neighborhoods fearful of going
outside. An American soldier died of non-combat-related causes.
(AP, 11/20/08)(AP, 11/21/08)
2008 Nov 20, Jewish settlers in
Hebron spray-painted graffiti on a mosque slurring the Prophet
Muhammad and defaced a Muslim cemetery, Israeli military officials
said, threatening to worsen tensions in this volatile West Bank
city.
(AP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 20, Latvia said it is
looking to start talks with IMF and had formally entered into
negotiations with the European Commission on emergency financial
assistance.
(WSJ, 11/21/08, p.A10)
2008 Nov 20, US oil group
Chevron suspended export contracts on much of its Nigerian
production after a militant attack on a key pipeline. Chevron said
it was declaring "force majeure" until December 31 following the Nov
14 attack on the pipeline which carries supplies to its Escravos
terminal in the Niger Delta.
(AFP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 20, The Norwegian
government said it has picked the US developed F-35 Joint Strike
Fighter to replace its aging US-made F-16 aircraft in a roughly 60
billion kroner ($8.5 billion) deal.
(AP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 20, In Pakistan a
militant Taliban group warned of reprisals if there was another US
drone attack, as the government condemned the latest missile strike
in its territory. A suicide bomber killed at least four people when
he blew himself up at a mosque northwest of Khar, the main town in
the troubled Bajaur tribal region. Pakistani jets and artillery
killed 17 people, including up to four Uzbek commanders, as they
pounded suspected Taliban and Al-Qaeda hideouts in Bajaur overnight
and into the morning. Pakistani jets also killed 20 militants in
attacks on militant centers in the northwestern Swat valley. A
suicide bomber attacked a mosque in the border region where
government-backed anti-militant tribesman were praying, killing 8,
including the head of the group.
(AFP, 11/20/08)(AP, 11/21/08)
2008 Nov 20, In the Philippines
a mother and her 3 children were among the six people killed after a
mudslide triggered by days of heavy rain buried houses in a southern
gold mining town.
(AP, 11/21/08)
2008 Nov 20, Boris Fyodorov
(50), Russian economic reformer, died.
(Econ, 11/29/08, p.88)
2008 Nov 20, The UN Security
Council voted unanimously to impose sanctions on pirates, arms
smugglers, and perpetrators of instability in Somalia in a fresh
attempt to help end years of lawlessness in the Horn of Africa
nation.
(AP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 20, South Africa said
it will withhold aid for Zimbabwe until a representative government
is in place, in what appeared to be the first punitive measure by a
regional country to enforce a power-sharing agreement.
(AP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 20, South Korean
activists sent propaganda leaflets over the border into North Korea,
ignoring their own government's pleas to stop the practice and
threats from the North to sever relations if it continues.
(AP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 20, Sri Lanka's
military said that it smashed a key Tamil Tiger defense line in the
island's far north and seized an airfield, putting new pressure on
the shrinking jungle mini-state.
(AFP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 20, The International
Criminal Court prosecutor requested arrest warrants for rebels in
Sudan's Darfur region, accusing them of storming an African Union
camp and killing 12 peacekeepers in Sep, 2007.
(Reuters, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 20, Switzerland’s
central bank cut its benchmark interest by a full percentage point,
the latest in a global round of aggressive rate cuts amid stuttering
economic growth.
(WSJ, 11/21/08, p.A16)
2008 Nov 20, In Thailand a
grenade attack on demonstrators occupying the Thai premier's offices
killed one person and wounded 29, prompting protest leaders to call
for a new march against the government.
(AFP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 19, Turkey’s central
bank cuts its core overnight borrowing rate by .5% to 16.25%.
(WSJ, 11/20/08, p.A15)
2008 Nov 20, The UN Security
Council voted unanimously to send some 3,000 additional UN
peacekeepers to the Democratic Republic of the Congo to help prevent
a new war in the country's east.
(AP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 20, Vietnam's
president Nguyen Minh Triet was set to meet Venezuelan leader Hugo
Chavez, during the first visit by a head of state from the communist
nation here, mainly focused on oil and gas ties.
(AP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 20, In Vietnam family
planning chiefs said officials in Communist Vietnam, alarmed by a
new baby boom, are to crack down on couples having more than two
children. The government first launched a two-child policy in the
early 1960s. A 2003 ordinance encouraged small families without
making it illegal for families to have a third child.
(AFP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 20, The US ambassador
to Harare, James McGee, said that a total of 294 people have been
confirmed dead from cholera in Zimbabwe, amid some 1,200 cases of
the water-borne disease.
(AFP, 11/20/08)
2009 Nov 20, A US judge blocked
a Tennessee law that allowed people to bring handguns into
restaurants and bars.
(Reuters, 11/23/09)
2009 Nov 20, The Manhattan
Declaration was signed by about 150 prominent Christian clergy,
ministry leaders and scholars and was released at a press conference
in Washington, DC. A number of Christian leaders, known for their
public witness on behalf of justice, human rights, and the common
good, had come together in shaping the declaration. It was born out
of an urgent concern about growing efforts to marginalize the
Christian voice in the public square, to redefine marriage, and to
move away from the biblical view of the sanctity of life. In
December 2010 apple removed it as a iPhone App.
(www.manhattandeclaration.org/the-movement/movement.aspx)(SFC,
12/7/10, p.A18)
2009 Nov 20, Oprah Winfrey
announced that she will end her eponymous show in Sep 2011, 26 after
it first aired nationwide.
(Econ, 11/28/09, p.78)
2009 Nov 20, Lester Shubin
(84), former US Justice Dept. researcher, died at his home in
Virginia. In the 1970s he began developing Kevlar, a new DuPont
fabric invented in 1965, into body armor for police and soldiers.
DuPont had intended Kevlar to replace steel belting on tires and
began marketing it in 1971. By the end of 2009 bulletproof vests had
saved the lives of over 3,000 law enforcement officers.
(SFC, 11/28/09, p.C4)(SFC, 4/7/03, p.E2)
2009 Nov 20, Charis Wilson
(96), American model and writer, died. She had modeled for
photographer Edward Weston for 11 years beginning in 1934.
(Econ, 12/12/09, p.96)
2009 Nov 20, In Afghanistan a
suicide bomber on a motorcycle struck Farah city, the capital of the
southwestern province of Farah, killing 16 people near the
governor's home. A roadside bomb targeted a controversial warlord,
who escaped unscathed but killed five of his bodyguards northwest of
Kabul. A similar device, of the type favored by Taliban insurgents,
killed three civilians in the east.
(AFP, 11/20/09)(SFC, 11/21/09, p.A2)
2009 Nov 20, In Australia 2
executives at Securency, a banknote-making firm part-owned by
Australia's central bank, were suspended over a police probe into
alleged bribery and kickbacks. According to a May 23 report by The
Age newspaper, Securency officials had paid more than 12 million
dollars in kickbacks for a printing contract to a Vietnamese
businessman with links to the communist state's government.
Officials were also accused of paying bribes worth millions of
dollars into tax haven bank accounts of a politically-connected
Nigerian businessman to win a 2007 contract.
(AFP, 11/22/09)
2009 Nov 20, Australian
firefighters battled dozens of bush blazes as record-breaking hot
weather sparked "catastrophic" warnings in two states, just months
after the country's worst ever wildfire disaster.
(AFP, 11/20/09)
2009 Nov 20, Canada’s TD Bank
was hit with a multimillion-dollar lawsuit calling it the "financial
epicenter" of an alleged Ponzi scheme run by disgraced Florida
lawyer Scott Rothstein.
(Reuters, 11/20/09)
2009 Nov 20, In Cuba Reinaldo
Escobar, the husband of acclaimed dissident Cuban blogger, Yoani
Sanchez, was punched and shouted down by a pro-government mob after
he challenged the presumed state agents who earlier roughed up his
wife, to a street corner debate.
(AP, 11/21/09)
2009 Nov 20, Egyptian police
shot and killed a Bedouin in north Sinai after the arrest of fellow
tribesmen prompted clashes. Protesters injured dozens of police near
the Algerian embassy in Cairo, fanning the flames of a diplomatic
spat that erupted after Algeria won a football World Cup qualifier.
(AFP, 11/20/09)
2009 Nov 20, In northern
England military helicopters winched dozens of people to safety and
emergency workers in inflatable boats rescued scores more as floods
swamped the picturesque Lake District. One police officer was
missing and feared dead after a bridge was swept away.
(AP, 11/20/09)
2009 Nov 20, In France a man
with an automatic rifle opened fire on a car near a Paris train
station, killing one man and wounding two others.
(AP, 11/20/09)
2009 Nov 20, Germany filed
terrorism charges against a Turkish-German dual citizen allegedly
linked to a member of a cell that plotted to attack US targets. The
24-year-old, identified only as Kadir T. in line with German privacy
laws, was charged with supporting a foreign terrorist organization
and violating export laws.
(AP, 12/9/09)
2009 Nov 20, German prosecutors
said that around 200 football matches in nine European countries
including at least three Champions League games are implicated in a
new match-fixing scandal.
(AP, 11/20/09)
2009 Nov 20, Guatemalan
officials announced the resumption of international adoptions after
a nearly two-year suspension prompted by the discovery that some
babies were being sold.
(AP, 11/20/09)
2009 Nov 20, In India 7 people
were arrested in Mumbai after activists from a hardline Hindu
regional political party ransacked a television station's offices
and beat up staff.
(AFP, 11/20/09)
2009 Nov 20, In the Northern
Mariana Islands a gunman went on a rampage on the Pacific resort
island of Saipan, killing 4 people and wounding six others before
fatally shooting himself. Li Zhongren (42), a Chinese citizen, was
believed to have been employed at the shooting range and left notes
indicating personal financial problems and frustrations.
(AP, 11/20/09)(SFC, 11/23/09, p.A2)
2009 Nov 20, In Mexico Jesus
Zambada Reyes, identified as the nephew of drug lord Ismael "El
Mayo" Zambada, was found dead in an apparent suicide in Guerrero
state. A body found in Guerrero state was identified as Omar
Guerrero Solis, a rebel leader who had accused the state governor of
drug ties. Solis told local media in May that he believed Gov.
Zeferino Torreblanca had ties to the Sinaloa cartel. He accused the
army of not detaining Sinaloa gunmen, while cracking down on members
of the rival Beltran Leyva cartel. US citizen Lizbeth Marin was shot
in Matamoros and later died of the wound. A Mexican army soldier was
said to have accidentally fired a round that hit Marin.
(AP, 11/21/09)(AP, 11/24/09)
2009 Nov 20, In northwestern
Pakistan a suspected US missile strike killed at least eight
militants, the second attack this week in an area believed to hold
many insurgents who fled from an army offensive elsewhere in the
Afghan border region. Four Pakistani soldiers, including a captain,
were killed when militants ambushed their convoy in the North
Waziristan area of Shawal. Two police officers were killed and four
others wounded when a remote-controlled bomb destroyed their vehicle
in Peshawar.
(AP, 11/20/09)
2009 Nov 20, Somali pirates
hijacked a Panamanian cargo ship in the Gulf of Aden between the
Arabian peninsula and the Horn of Africa.
(AP, 11/21/09)
2009 Nov 20, Swiss authorities
said that they had ordered some 350 million dollars of assets to be
seized from the son of the late Nigerian dictator Sani Abacha for
graft.
(AFP, 11/20/09)
2009 Nov 20, In Geneva, Sw.,
CERN scientists restarted the $10 billion Large Hadron Collider
(LHC) following more than a year of repairs. They were surprised
that they could so quickly get beams of protons whizzing near the
speed of light during the restart.
(AP, 11/21/09)
2009 Nov 20, In Tanzania
members of the East Africa Community (Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda,
Tanzania, Uganda) signed a common market agreement in Arusha,
headquarters of the EAC.
(http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-11/21/content_12513712.htm)
2009 Nov 20, Hugo Chavez has
defended the alleged terrorist mastermind Carlos the Jackal, aka
Ilich Sanchez Ramirez, saying the Venezuelan imprisoned in France
was an important "revolutionary fighter" who supported the cause of
the Palestinians. Ramirez gained international notoriety during the
1970s and 80s as the alleged mastermind of a series of bombings,
killings and hostage dramas. He is serving a life sentence in France
for the 1975 murders of two French secret agents and an alleged
informant.
(AP, 11/21/09)
2010 Nov 20, American scientist
Siegfried Hecker, a former director of the US Los Alamos Nuclear
Laboratory, said in a report that he was taken during a recent trip
to the North's main Yongbyon atomic complex to a small
industrial-scale uranium enrichment facility. It had 2,000 recently
completed centrifuges. The North told him it was producing
low-enriched uranium meant for a new reactor. North Korea told
Hecker it began construction on the centrifuges in April 2009 and
finished only a few days before the scientist's Nov. 12 visit.
(AP, 11/21/10)
2010 Nov 20, In Florida Brandi
Peters (27) and her 3 young children were found slain in a
Tallahassee home.
(SSFC, 11/21/10, p.A14)(SSFC, 11/21/10, p.A5)
2010 Nov 20, In eastern
Afghanistan Taliban suicide bombers on bicycles killed four people
and wounded 31. Hafiz Janan, a Taliban leader involved in training
foreign fighters, was killed in the Bakwa district of Farah
province. Another Taliban leader was captured in Baraki Barak
district of Logar province.
(Reuters, 11/20/10)(AP, 11/22/10)
2010 Nov 20, China's
government-backed Catholic church ordained a bishop who did not have
the pope's approval, despite objections from the Vatican.
(AP, 11/20/10)
2010 Nov 20, Colombia’s
President Juan Manuel Santos said a top FARC rebel leader who
oversees major cocaine production may have been killed in the
bombing of a guerrilla camp in the country's southern jungles.
Fabian Ramirez's pistols, rucksack and computers were found at the
scene of a pre-dawn bombing. At least six bodies were found.
(AP, 11/20/10)
2010 Nov 20, In Egypt a tour
bus lost control and flipped over several times on a winding
mountain road near a Red Sea resort, killing eight tourists.
(AP, 11/20/10)
2010 Nov 20, Ireland moved
towards finalizing its four-year crisis plan for cutting its budget
deficit which could pave the way for a multi-billion euro bailout.
(AFP, 11/20/10)
2010 Nov 20, Yair Klein, an
Israeli wanted in Colombia for training militias that killed
hundreds of people, returned home after he was released from a
Moscow jail. Klein has denied working with Colombia's cocaine
cartels and said he only instructed paramilitaries in defense
tactics.
(AP, 11/20/10)
2010 Nov 20, Madagascar PM
Camille Vital told reporters that 16 officers have surrendered,
ending an impasse that began Nov 17, when a faction of officers
declared they were taking over from Andry Rajoelina.
(AP, 11/21/10)
2010 Nov 20, In Mexico a gang
of suspected kidnappers were arrested by marines. They had detailed
plans of security arrangements for next week's UN climate change
talks in Cancun.
(Reuters, 11/22/10)
2010 Nov 20, NATO nations
meeting in Portugal formally agreed to start turning over
Afghanistan's security to its military next year and give them full
control by 2014. The US and its allies appeared to take conflicting
views on when NATO combat operations would end. NATO
Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said he did not expect NATO
troops to stay in the fight against the Taliban after 2014. Russia
was receptive but stopped short of accepting a historic NATO
invitation to join a missile shield protecting Europe against
Iranian attack.
(AP, 11/20/10)(Reuters, 11/20/10)
2010 Nov 20, In Saudi Arabia a
young woman in her twenties defying a driving ban in the capital
died along with three female friends when her car overturned.
(AP, 11/21/10)
2010 Nov 20, Pope Benedict XVI
formally created 24 new cardinals amid cheers in St. Peter's
Basilica, bringing a mostly Italian group into the elite club that
will eventually elect his successor. Benedict XVI reiterated that
condoms are not a moral solution for stopping AIDS. But he added
that in some cases, such as for male prostitutes, their use could
represent a first step in assuming moral responsibility "in the
intention of reducing the risk of infection.
(AP, 11/20/10)(AP, 11/21/10)
2010 Nov 20, Venezuela’s
President Hugo Chavez stepped up his threats against the country’s
only remaining opposition-aligned television channel, calling its
owner, Guillermo Zuloaga, a fugitive criminal and accusing him of
conspiring against his government.
(AP, 11/20/10)
Go to http://www.timelinesdb.com
Go to November 21