Today in History - December 1
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World Aids Day (1988)
1135
Dec 1, Henry I Beauclerc of England died and the
crown was passed to his nephew Stephen of Bloise. He had decreed
that the standard linear measure of one foot be a third the length
of his arm which was 36 inches. He was the 1st English king able to
read.
(HN, 12/1/98)(SFEC, 2/14/99, Z1 p.8)(MC, 12/1/01)
1167 Dec 1, Northern Italian
towns formed the Lombardi League.
(MC, 12/1/01)
1455 Dec 1, Lorenzo Ghiberti
(77), Italian sculptor, died.
(MC, 12/1/01)
1566 Dec 1, Spanish king Philip
II named Fernando Alvarez, duke of Alba.
(MC, 12/1/01)
1581 Dec 1, Edmund Campion
(41), English Jesuit was hanged drawn and quartered at Tyburn,
England, for sedition, after being tortured. Other Jesuits were also
executed.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.23)(HN, 12/1/99)(PCh, 1992,
p.200)
1605 Dec 1, Juan de Padilla,
composer, was born.
(MC, 12/1/01)
1626 Dec 1, Pasha Muhammad ibn
Farukh, tyrannical governor of Jerusalem, was driven out.
(MC, 12/1/01)
1635 Dec 1, Melchior Teschner
(51), composer, died.
(MC, 12/1/01)
1640 Dec 1, Spain lost Portugal
as the Duke of Braganza was proclaimed João IV (John IV),
king of Portugal.
(HoS, p.267)
1641 Dec 1, Massachusetts
became the 1st colony to give statutory recognition to slavery. It
was followed by Connecticut in 1650 and Virginia in 1661.
(MC, 12/1/01)(HNQ, 5/20/02)
1653 Dec 1, An athlete from
Croydon was reported to have run 20 miles from St. Albans to London
in less than 90 minutes.
(MC, 12/1/01)
1671 Dec 1, Francesco
Stradivari, Italian violin maker and son of Antonius, was born.
(MC, 12/1/01)
1707 Dec 1, Jeremiah Clarke,
composer, died.
(MC, 12/1/01)
1709 Dec 1, Franz Xaver
Richter, composer, was born.
(MC, 12/1/01)
1729 Dec 1, Giuseppe Sarti,
composer, was born.
(MC, 12/1/01)
1742 Dec 1, Empress Elisabeth
ordered the expulsion of all Jews from Russia.
(MC, 12/1/01)
1761 Dec 1, Madame Tussaud,
Swiss-born modeler in wax, was born. She founded the world-famous
exhibition in London's Baker Street. [see Dec 7]
(HN, 12/1/99)
1804 Dec 1, Emperor Napoleon
married Josephine de Beauharnais, of Martinique.
(MC, 12/1/01)
1808 Dec 1, Anton Fischer (30),
composer, died.
(MC, 12/1/01)
1814 Dec 1, The shallow-draft
steamboat Enterprise, completed in Pittsburgh under the direction of
keelboat captain Henry Miller Shreve, left for New Orleans to
deliver guns and ammunition to Gen. Jackson.
(ON, 7/02, p.9)
1822 Dec 1, Franz Liszt (11)
made his debut as a pianist for Isabella Colbran.
(MC, 12/1/01)
1824 Dec 1, The presidential
election was turned over to the U.S. House of Representatives when a
deadlock developed among John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, William
H. Crawford and Henry Clay with Jackson 32 votes shy of a majority.
John Quincy Adams ended up the winner. He was reportedly the only
bald-headed president.
(AP, 12/1/97)(WSJ, 12/31/97, p.A11)(SFEC,
11/1/98, Z1p.10)
1835 Dec 1, Hans Christian
Andersen published his 1st book of fairy tales.
(MC, 12/1/01)
1842 Dec 1, Midshipman Philip
Spencer (18) on the brig-of-war Somers, the 1st US naval officer
condemned for mutiny, was hanged. Spencer was the son of John
Canfield Spencer, the Sec. of War under Pres. John Tyler. In 2003
Buckner F. Melton Jr. authored "A Hanging Offense," an account of
the "Somers affair."
(MC, 12/1/01)(WSJ, 4/25/03, W6)
1847 Dec 1, Julia Moore, poet,
was born.
(HN, 12/1/00)
1861 Dec 1, The U.S. gunboat
Penguin seized the Confederate blockade runner Albion carrying
supplies worth almost $100,000.
(HN, 12/1/98)
1862 Dec 1, President Lincoln
gave the State of the Union message to the 37th Congress. “The
dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present… As
our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew. We must
disenthrall ourselves.”
(WSJ, 9/7/06, p.A20)
1863 Dec 1, Oliver Herford,
American humorist and poet, was born. He wrote "Cupid's Fair Weather
Book" and "The Deb's Dictionary."
(HN, 12/1/99)
1863 Dec 1, Belle Boyd, a
Confederate spy, was released from prison in Washington.
(HN, 12/1/98)
1864 Dec 1, Skirmish at Millen
Brutal, Georgia.
(MC, 12/1/01)
1864 Dec 1, Franklin-Nashville
Campaign began.
(HN, 12/1/98)
1864 Dec 1, Raid at Stoneman:
Knoxville, Ten., to Saltville, Va.
(MC, 12/1/01)
1868 Dec 1, John D. Rockefeller
began anti oil war.
(MC, 12/1/01)
1881 Dec 1, Virgil, Wyatt and
Morgan Earp were exonerated in court for their action in the
Gunfight at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Ariz.
(HN, 12/1/98)
1886 Dec 1, Rex Stout, writer,
poet, was born. He created the detective character Nero Wolfe.
(HN, 12/1/00)
1887 Dec 1, Sherlock Holmes 1st
appeared in print: "Study in Scarlet." Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s
first story about the detective he named Sherlock Holmes was
published in Beeton’s Christmas Annual. It wasn’t until a London
magazine called the Strand began publishing Doyle’s shorter
Holmes adventures in 1891 that the detective became a phenomenon.
Today hundreds of books, articles and movies have been devoted to
the great detective and his biographer, Dr. John Watson, at 221b
Baker Street, London.
(HNQ, 4/7/01)(ON, 3/06, p.11)
1891 Dec 1, The Canadian, Dr.
James B. Naismith, sports figure, inventor, teacher, invented the
game of basketball at the YMCA in Springfield, Mass. A janitor
provided peach baskets instead of the requested boxes.
(Hem, Dec. 94, p.126)(DTnet, 11/28/97)(MC,
12/1/01)
1896 Dec 1, 1st certified
public accountants received certificates in NY.
(MC, 12/1/01)
1899 Dec 1, Robert Welch,
founder of the John Birch Society, was born.
(MC, 12/1/01)
1900 Dec 1, Kaiser Wilhelm II
refused to meet with Boer leader Paul Kruger in Berlin.
(HN, 12/1/98)
1903 Dec 1, "The Great Train
Robbery," the 1st Western film, was released. Edwin S. Porter, a
cameraman for Thomas Edison’s production company, revived flagging
interest in motion pictures with the 12-minute movie that introduced
three great American traditions—editing, the chase scene and the
Western. Prior to Porter’s landmark movie, moving pictures were
non-narrative, with one long shot recording an actual event. The
Great Train Robbery, with a series of 14 scenes of bandits robbing a
railway station and ultimately paying the price for their misdeeds,
developed multiple plot lines simultaneously by cutting and splicing
film. Moviegoers screamed when the scene of an outlaw shooting
directly into the camera was shown.
(HNPD, 9/11/98)(MC, 12/1/01)
1904 Dec 1, The Louisiana
Purchase Exposition in St. Louis closed after seven months and some
20 million visitors.
(AP, 12/1/04)
1905 Dec 1, Charles Finney,
American author (Circus of Dr Lao), was born.
(MC, 12/1/01)
1905 Dec 1, Twenty officers and
230 guards were arrested in St. Petersburg, Russia for the revolt at
the Winter Palace.
(HN, 12/1/98)
1908 Dec 1, The US Dept. of
Agriculture as of this day restricted opium imports to the US based
on morphine content. Opium with under 3% morphine, which included
opium for smoking, was restricted. This severely impacted the
customs revenue in San Francisco and created an uproar in the city’s
Chinatown. The law became effective as of April 1, 2009.
(SSFC, 11/30/08, DB p.58)(SSFC, 3/15/09, DB p.50)
1908 Dec 1, The Italian
Parliament debated the future of the Triple Alliance and asked for
compensation for Austria’s action in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
(HN, 12/1/98)
1909 Dec 1, President Taft
severed official relations with Nicaragua’s Zelaya government, and
declared support for the revolutionaries.
(HN, 12/1/98)
1909 Dec 1, The 1st Israeli
kibbutz, Deganya Alef, a collective agricultural settlement, was
founded in Palestine.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R25)(MC, 12/1/01)
1912 Dec 1, Minoru Yamasaki,
architect (World Trade Center, NY), was born.
(MC, 12/1/01)
1913 Dec 1, Mary Martin,
American actress famous for her roles in “South Pacific” and “The
Sound of Music,” was born.
(HN, 12/1/98)
1913 Dec 1, The first drive-in
automobile service station, built by Gulf Refining Co., opened in
Pittsburgh. [see Cincinnati in 1912]
(AP, 12/1/06)
1913 Dec 1, Continuous moving
assembly line was introduced by Ford.
(MC, 12/1/01)
1916 Dec 1, King Constantine
Greece refused to surrender to the Allies.
(HN, 12/1/98)
1917 Dec 1, Boys Town founded
by Father Edward Flanagan west of Omaha Neb. [see Dec 12]
(MC, 12/1/01)
1918 Dec 1, US breweries shut
down due to a September directive from Pres. Wilson.
(WSJ, 10/28/06, p.P13)
1918 Dec 1, An American army of
occupation entered Germany.
(HN, 12/1/98)
1918 Dec 1, Danish parliament
passed an act to grant Iceland independence.
(HFA, ‘96, p.20)(MC, 12/1/01)
1918 Dec 1, The Kingdom of
Serbs, Croats and Slovenes [later in 1929 to be called Yugoslavia]
was proclaimed by Alexander Karadjordjevic, the son of King Peter of
Serbia. It included the previously independent kingdoms of Serbia
and Macedonia, the Hungarian-controlled regions of Croatia and
Slovenia, the Austrian province of Dalmatia, Carniola and parts of
Styria, Carinthia and Istria. King Alexander I renamed the Balkan
state called the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes to
Yugoslavia in 1929.
(AP, 10/3/97)(HNQ,
3/26/99)(http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/map/yugoslavia/1900/)
1919 Dec 1, A.A. Milne's "Mr.
Pim Passes By," premiered in Manchester.
(MC, 12/1/01)
1919 Dec 1, Lady Astor was
sworn in as the first female member of the British Parliament.
(AP, 12/1/00)
1921 Dec 1, The US Navy flew
the first nonrigid dirigible to use helium; the C-7 traveled from
Hampton Roads, Va., to Washington.
(AP, 12/1/06)
1922 Dec 1, 1st skywriting over
US-"Hello USA"-by Capt Turner, RAF.
(MC, 12/1/01)
1924 Dec 1, George and Ira
Gershwin's musical "Lady Be Good," premiered in NYC.
(MC, 12/1/01)
1925 Dec 1, Martin Rodbell,
Nobel Prize-winning biochemist, poet, was born.
(HN, 12/1/00)
1925 Dec 1, After a seven year
occupation, 7,000 British troops evacuated Cologne, Germany.
(HN, 12/1/98)
1929 Dec 1, Dick Shawn, actor
(Producers, Maid to Order, Angel), was born in Buffalo, NY.
(MC, 12/1/01)
1929 Dec 1, Game of Bingo was
invented by Edwin S. Lowe.
(MC, 12/1/01)
1933 Dec 1, Rudolf Hess and
Earnest Roehm became ministers in Hitler govt. Nazi storm troops
become an official organ of the Reich.
(HN, 12/1/98)(MC, 12/1/01)
1934 Dec 1, In Bolivia Jose
Luis Tejada Sorzano (1882-1938) was installed as president by the
military. He served to 1936 and was succeeded by David Toro.
(SFC, 4/25/09,
p.E1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Luis_Tejada_Sorzano)
1934 Dec 1, Sergei M. Kirov, a
collaborator of Josef Stalin, was assassinated in Leningrad, a
stronghold of opposition to Stalin. This resulted in a massive
purge. Kirov was succeeded by Andrei Zdhanov, who became the virtual
dictator of literary and artistic policies of the USSR.
(AP, 12/1/98)(SFC, 6/10/00, p.A12)
1935 Dec 1, Woody Allen [Allen
Stewart Konigsberg], American actor, director best known for “Annie
Hall” and “Manhattan,” was born.
(HN, 12/1/98)
1935 Dec 1, Lou Rawls, vocalist
(Dean Martin's Golddiggers, Natural Man), was born in Chicago, Ill.
(MC, 12/1/01)
1936 Dec 1, Bell Labs tested
coaxial cable for TV use.
(MC, 12/1/01)
1936 Dec 1, EW Brundin & FF
Lyon obtained patents on the soil-less culture of plants.
(MC, 12/1/01)
1937 Dec 1, Japan recognized
Spain’s Franco govt.
(MC, 12/1/01)
1939 Dec 1, Reichsfuhrer-SS
Heinrich Himmler ordered the deportation of Polish Jews.
(MC, 12/1/01)
1940 Dec 1, Richard Pryor Ill,
comedian and actor (Lady Sings the Blues, Stir Crazy), was born.
(MC, 12/1/01)
1941 Dec 1, The first Civil Air
Patrol in the U.S. was organized.
(HN, 12/1/98)
1941 Dec 1, British declared a
state of emergency in Malaya following reports of Japanese attacks.
(HN, 12/1/98)
1941 Dec 1, British cruiser
Devonshire sank the German sub Python.
(MC, 12/1/01)
1941 Dec 1, Japanese emperor
Hirohito signed a declaration of war. Japan’s Tojo rejected U.S.
proposals for a Pacific settlement as fantastic and unrealistic.
(HN, 12/1/98)(MC, 12/1/01)
1942 Dec 1, Nationwide gasoline
rationing went into effect in the United States.
(AP, 12/1/97)(HN, 12/1/98)
1943 Dec 1, President
Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet
leader Josef Stalin concluded their Tehran conference and agreed to
Operation Overlord (D-Day).
(AP, 12/1/00)
1944 Dec 1, Bela Bartok's
Concerto for Orchestra, premiered.
(MC, 12/1/01)
1945 Dec 1, Bette Midler,
singer, actress (Do You Want to Dance?), was born in Patterson, NJ.
(MC, 12/1/01)
1947 Dec 1, Aleister Edward S.
Crowley (72), British occultist, died. In 2000 Lawrence Sutin
authored “Do What Thou Wilt, A Life of Aleister Crowley.”
(SSFC, 1/14/01, BR p.12)(MC, 12/1/01)
1947 Dec 1, Godfrey Harold
Hardy (b.1877), English mathematician, died. Non-mathematicians
usually know G.H. Hardy for “A Mathematician's Apology,” his essay
from 1940 on the aesthetics of mathematics.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G._H._Hardy)
1948 Dec 1, Costa Rica’s
President José Figueres Ferrer abolished the military after
victory in a civil war.
(SFC, 3/16/02,
p.A19)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_of_Costa_Rica)
1950 Dec 1, In North Korea a US
company of soldiers encountered a swarming Chinese assault near
Kunu-ri. Army Sgt. Richard Desautels was among those captured and
taken to a POW compound, known as Camp 5, near Pyoktong. In 2003
Chinese authorities said Desautels became mentally ill and died on
April 29, 1953, and was buried in a Chinese cemetery.
(SFC, 6/20/08, p.A11)
1951 Dec 1, Benjamin Britten's
opera "Billy Budd," premiered in London.
(MC, 12/1/01)
1951 Dec 1, A tempest raged
over SF and forced the first-ever closure of the Golden Gate Bridge.
The bridge closed for 3 hours.
(SFEC, 2/1/98, p.A1)(SFC, 11/30/01, WB p.G8)
1955 Dec 1, Rosa Parks (42), a
seamstress and secretary of the Montgomery NAACP, was arrested in
Montgomery, Alabama, as she sat in a section of a bus just behind
the area reserved for whites. She refused to move to the back the
bus, to accommodate a white male passenger, as ordered by driver
James F. Blake (d.2002 at 89) and defied the South’s segregationist
laws. This prompted the Dec. 5 bus boycott, a year-long boycott of
the buses by blacks, and launched the Civil Rights movement in the
United States. Virginia Durr (d.1999 at 95) helped a black civil
rights leader bail Parks out of jail. In 1985 Durr wrote her memoir:
"Outside the Magic Circle." In 1999 Pres. Clinton authorized a
Congressional Gold Medal for Rosa Parks.
(SFC, 5/12/96, p.A-6)(SFEC, 9/15/96, p.A2)(SFEM,
2/2/97, p.8)(AP, 12/1/97)(SFC, 3/10/99, p.A23)(SFC, 5/5/99,
p.A3)(SFC, 3/26/02, p.A24)
1955 Dec 1-1955 Dec 5, AFL
delegates in San Francisco approved a merger wit the CIO. The next
day CIO delegates voted 660-3 in favor of merging. The American
Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations
merged to form the AFL-CIO under its first president, George Meany
(1894-1980). [see Feb 9]
(AP, 12/5/97)(HNQ, 6/9/98)(SFC, 12/2/05, p.F2)
1956 Dec 1, Leonard Bernstein's
musical "Candide," based on the work by Voltaire, opened at Martin
Beck Theater in NYC for 73 performances. The book was by Lillian
Hellman with lyrics by Richard Wilbur.
(AP, 12/1/99)(SFC, 1/11/05, p.E1)
1958 Dec 1, The Rodgers and
Hammerstein musical "Flower Drum Song" opened on Broadway.
(AP, 12/1/97)
1958 Dec 1, In Chicago Our Lady
of Angels School burned. 92 students and 3 nuns were killed.
(MC, 12/1/01)
1959 Dec 1, Representatives of
12 countries signed the Antarctic Treaty in Washington DC setting
aside Antarctica as a scientific preserve, free from military
activity (effective in 1961). It was adopted by the governments of
Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Chile, the French Republic, Japan,
New Zealand, Norway, the Union of South Africa, the Union of Soviet
Socialist Republics, the UK of Great Britain and Northern Ireland,
and the USA [see 1961]. By 2007 45 signatories agreed to suspend
territorial claims and disputes, to forego all military and mining
activity, and to protect the continent as a natural reserve devoted
to peace and science.
(AP,
12/1/97)(www.aad.gov.au/default.asp?casid=1187)(Econ, 3/31/07, p.86)
1959 Dec 1, The 1st color
photograph of Earth was received from outer space.
(MC, 12/1/01)
1960 Dec 1, Patrice Lumumba was
caught in the Congo.
(MC, 12/1/01)
1964 Dec 1, M.L. King spoke to
J. Edgar Hoover about his slander campaign.
(MC, 12/1/01)
1965 Dec 1, An airlift of
refugees from Cuba to the United States began in which thousands of
Cubans were allowed to leave their homeland.
(AP, 12/1/97)
1965 Dec 1, South Africa
government said children of white fathers are white.
(MC, 12/1/01)
1967 Dec 1, Queen Elizabeth
inaugurated the 98-inch (249-cm) Isaac Newton telescope.
(MC, 12/1/01)
1968 Dec 1, Burt Bacharach and
Hal David's musical "Promises, Promises" opened at Shubert Theater
in NYC for 1281 performances.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Promises,_Promises)
1969 Dec 1, The U.S. government
held its first draft lottery since World War II in 1942.
(AP, 12/1/97)(HN, 12/1/98)
1970 Dec 1, In Mexico Pres.
Luis Echeverria succeeded Gustav Diaz Ortaz and continued to 1976.
He began with populist approach and later devalued the peso,
starting a tradition of currency instability and economic crises.
(WSJ, 12/5/95, p.A-14)(WSJ, 8/13/97, p.A12)
1971 Dec 1, In Santiago, Chile,
students began a 2-day against the Allende government. The
government banned public demonstrations and declared a state of
emergency.
(WUD, 1994, p. 1688)
1972 Dec 24, Hanoi barred all
peace talks with the U.S. until the air raids stopped.
(HN, 12/24/98)
1973 Dec 1, David Ben-Gurion
(87), Israel's first prime minister (1948-1953 and 1955-1963), died
in Tel Aviv.
(AP,
12/1/97)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Ben-Gurion)
1974 Dec 1, The L.A. Skid Row
slasher killed Charles Jackson (46), an alcoholic drifter. In 1975
police arrested Vaughn Greenwood, a black loner and homosexual, who
had drifted back and forth between Chicago and California. In 1977
Greenwood, who was indicted on 11 counts of murder, was convicted on
9 counts and sentenced to life in prison.
(www.crimezzz.net/serialkillers/G/GREENWOOD_vaughn_orrin.php)
1976 Dec 1, Sex Pistols used
profanity on TV, and got branded as "rotten punks."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_Pistols)
1978 Dec 1, Pres. Jimmy Carter
proclaimed 15 new national monuments, eleven under NPS jurisdiction
and two each for the Forest Service and the Fish and Wildlife
Service.
(www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/rothman/chap11a.htm)
1980 Dec 1, The US Justice Dept
sued Yonkers, NY, citing racial discrimination.
(http://tinyurl.com/2m6tyl)
1980 Dec 1, SF Assemblyman
Willie Brown was elected speaker of the California Assembly.
(SFC, 11/25/05, p.F2)
1980 Dec 1, IBM delivered its
1st prototype PC to Microsoft. IBM selected Microsoft to create
MS-DOS, the operating system for its first PC. Steve Ballmer arrived
from Proctor & Gamble as an assistant to Gates. Paul Allen
bought the QDOS operating system (Quick and Dirty Operating System)
from a rival company for $50,000. It was renamed MS-DOS and licensed
to IBM. The IBM 5150 PC standardized the marketplace.
(WSJ, 4/4/00, p.A16)(SFEC, 4/16/00, p.B1)
1981 Dec 1, 180 people were
killed when a chartered Yugoslav DC-9 jetliner slammed into a
mountain while approaching Ajaccio Airport in Corsica.
(AP, 12/1/01)
1986 Dec 1, Lt. Col. Oliver
North pleaded the fifth amendment before a Senate panel
investigating the Iran Contra arms sale.
(HN, 12/1/98)
1986 Dec 1, Musee d'Orsay
opened in Paris.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mus%C3%A9e_d'Orsay)
1986 Dec 1, In South Africa
National Congress supporter Dr. Fabian Ribeiro (b.1933) and his
wife, Florence, were assassinated.
(SFEC, 10/13/96,
p.A19)(http://sahistory.org.za/pages/people/ribiero-f.htm)
1987 Dec 1, NASA announced that
four companies -- Boeing Aerospace, McDonnell Douglas Astronautics,
General Electric's Astro-Space Division and Rocketdyne Division of
Rockwell International -- had been awarded contracts to help build a
space station.
(AP, 12/1/97)
1987 Dec 1, Digging of the
Eurotunnel began on the English side to link England and France,
under co-chairman Alastair Morton (d.2004).
(www.scripophily.net/eurotunnel.html)(Econ,
9/11/04, p.82)
1988 Dec 1, The first World
Aids Day was held. Dr. Jonathan Mann, Director of the Global Program
on AIDS (later known as UNAIDS) had approved a concept put forward
by James W. Bunn and Thomas Netter in 1987, and agreed with the
recommendation that the first observance of World AIDS Day should be
December 1, 1988.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_AIDS_Day)
1988 Dec 1, At least 1300 were
killed after a cyclone hit Bangladesh. Half a million were left
homeless.
(http://tinyurl.com/gtev9)
1988 Dec 1, J. Vernon McGee,
founder of "Thru the Bible Radio Network," died.
(WSJ, 12/19/02,
p.A1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Vernon_McGee)
1988 Dec 1, Carlos Salinas de
Gortari was sworn in as president of Mexico. He succeeded Pres.
Miguel de la Madrid. One of his first acts was to turn Agualeguas,
the lost family patrimony, into his official retreat.
(WSJ, 2/8/96, p.A-6)(SFC, 9/2/97, p.A7)(AP,
12/1/98)
1988 Dec 1, Benazir Bhutto was
named 1st female PM of a Moslem country, Pakistan.
(www.cnn.com/resources/video.almanac/1988/index.html)
1988 Dec 1, Soviet President
Mikhail S. Gorbachev won nearly unanimous approval for a more
dynamic political structure from the Supreme Soviet, which voted
itself out of existence in favor of a new Congress of People's
Deputies.
(AP, 12/1/98)
1989 Dec 1, Alvin Ailey
(b.1931), leader of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
(Blues Suite, Revelations), died. In 1996 Jennifer Dunning wrote his
biography: "Alvin Ailey, A Life in Dance."
(SFEC, 12/15/96, BR p.4)(WSJ, 5/13/98,
p.A20)(www.the-ballet.com/ailey.php)
1989 Dec 1, East Germany's
Parliament abolished the Communist Party's constitutional guarantee
of supremacy.
(AP, 12/1/99)
1989 Dec 1, In an extraordinary
encounter, Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev met with Pope John
Paul II at the Vatican.
(AP, 12/1/99)
1990 Dec 1, British and French
workers digging the Channel Tunnel between their countries finally
met after knocking out a passage in a service tunnel large enough to
walk through and shake hands.
(AP, 12/1/00)
1990 Dec 1, Hissene Habre
(b.1942), dictator of Chad, was deposed by Idriss Deby and fled to
Senegal with $11 million.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiss%C3%A8ne_Habr%C3%A9)(WSJ, 5/31/00,
p.A26)
1990 Dec 1, Iraq accepted a US
offer to talk about resolving the Persian Gulf crisis.
(AP, 12/1/00)
1991 Dec 1, Kidnappers in
Lebanon pledged to release American hostage Joseph Cicippio within
48 hours.
(AP, 12/1/01)
1991 Dec 1, The space shuttle
Atlantis safely returned from a shortened military mission.
(AP, 12/1/01)
1991 Dec 1, In Paraguay the
Colorado party won parliamentary elections.
(www.atlapedia.com/online/countries/paraguay.htm)
1991 Dec 1, Ukrainians voted
overwhelmingly for independence from the Soviet Union.
(AP, 12/1/97)
1992 Dec 1, In Mineola, N.Y.,
Amy Fisher was sentenced to five to 15 years in prison for shooting
and seriously wounding Mary Jo Buttafuoco. Fisher was released in
1999 after serving 7 years.
(AP, 12/1/97)(SFC, 5/11/99, p.A9)
1992 Dec 1, President Boris
Yeltsin survived an impeachment attempt by hard-liners at the
opening of the Russian Congress.
(AP, 12/1/97)
1993 Dec 1, US Navy Ensign
George Smith shot and killed his ex-fiancée and a friend and
then himself. In Oct. he had passed a Navy screening test to gauge
his psychological fitness for nuclear submarine duty.
(SFC, 5/27/96, p.A2)
1993 Dec 1, Eighteen people
were killed when a Northwest Airlink commuter plane crashed in
Minnesota.
(AP, 12/1/98)
1994 Dec 1, The US Senate gave
final congressional approval to a world trade agreement, passing the
124-nation General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), 76-24.
(AP, 12/1/99)
1994 Dec 1, Former TV
evangelist Jim Bakker spent his first full day of freedom after time
in prison, a halfway house and house arrest for bilking followers of
his PTL ministry.
(AP, 12/1/04)
1994 Dec 1, Mexican Pres.
Carlos Salinas de Gortari left office. Within weeks speculators
began to attack the overvalued peso.
(SFEC, 6/13/99, p.A13)
1995 Dec 1, Tens of thousands
of people in Dublin, Ireland, warmly welcomed President Clinton to
his ancestral homeland.
(AP, 12/1/00)
1995 Dec 1, The NATO alliance
chose Spanish Foreign Minister Javier Solana be its new secretary
general.
(AP, 12/1/00)
1996 Dec 1, The Arab League
held an emergency meeting in Cairo, after which it warned Israel
that peace efforts would be endangered if Israel insisted on
expanding Jewish settlements.
(AP, 12/1/97)
1996 Dec 1, Dr. Ayman
al-Zawahri, head of the Egyptian Jihad, crossed into Russia on his
way to Chechnya as a possible base of operations. He was soon
arrested by Russian police in Dagestan.
(SFC, 2/22/00, p.A8)
1996 Dec 1, In the Central
African Republic army factions in Bangui began fighting. Rebel
troops of the Yakoma tribe seized key points.
(SFC, 12/2/96, p.A12)
1997 Dec 1, Pres. Clinton
signed the 50 States Commemorative Coin Program Act into law.
(SFC, 12/20/99, p.E1)
1997 Dec 1, In California
Latrell Sprewell, guard for the Golden State Warriors, choked and
threatened coach P.J. Carlesimo. The Warriors quickly terminated
Sprewell’s multi-million contract and the NBA then banned him from
basketball for one year.
(SFC,12/5/97, p.A1)
1997 Dec 1, Westinghouse
formally changed its name to CBS.
(www.cbs.com/specials/cbs_75/timeline/1990.shtml)
1997 Dec 1, In Shelbyville,
Tenn., Daryl Keith Holton shot and killed his 3 sons and his
ex-wife’s daughter (ages 4-13), because he could not get custody. He
turned himself in to police.
(SFC, 12/2/97, p.A8)
1997 Dec 1, Michael Carneal
(14), opened fire on a prayer circle and killed 3 classmates and
wounded five during a shooting spree at Heath High School in West
Paducah, Ky. In 1998 he pleaded guilty but mentally ill in a plea
agreement and was given a life prison term with no parole for 25
years.
(SFC, 12/3/97, p.A3)(WSJ, 10/6/98, p.A1)(AP,
12/1/98)
1997 Dec 1, Stephane Grappelli,
jazz violinist, died in Paris. In the mid-30s the Quintet of the Hot
Club of France, with Grappelli and Django Reinhardt, recorded “Tiger
Rag,” “Dinah,” and “Lady Be Good.” His albums included “Live at
Carnegie Hall, “Jazz Round Midnight,” “Plays Jerome Kern,” “Tivoli
Gardens” (1979), “Satin Doll,” ‘’Stardust,” ‘For Django,” and “Plays
Gershwin.”
(SFC, 12/2/97, p.A22)(SFC, 12/4/97, p.E3)
1997 Dec 1, The Partnership and
Cooperation Agreement (PCA) between Russia and the EU came into
force. It was signed in June 1994 to encourage political,
commercial, economic and cultural cooperation.
(www.delrus.ec.europa.eu/en/p_243.htm)
1997 Dec 1, In Japan
international talks on global warming and reducing greenhouse gases
began in Kyoto.
(WSJ, 12/5/97, p.A1)(AP, 12/1/98)
1997 Dec 1, South Korea reached
a preliminary agreement with the IMF for a $55-60 billion bailout.
(SFC, 12/1/97, p.A13)(SFC, 1/8/98, p.A7)
1997 Dec 1, Spain’s Supreme
Court convicted 23 leaders of the Herri Batsuna (Unified Country)
Basque separatist coalition. Each was sentenced to 7 years in prison
and fined $3,500.
(SFC, 12/2/97, p.A10)
1998 Dec 1, Pres. Clinton
marked World Aids Day by announcing an increase in NIH funding for
an AIDS vaccine to $200 million.
(WSJ, 12/2/98, p.A1)
1998 Dec 1, A nation-wide
gun-buyer database was due to go into service.
(WSJ, 11/12/98, p.A1)
1998 Dec 1, It was reported
that a US congressional initiative added $165 million in
counter-narcotics funds to Colombia. The 1999 aid package totaled
$289 million.
(SFC, 12/1/98, p.A10)
1998 Dec 1, Exxon agreed to buy
Mobil Corp. for $75.3 ($73.7) billion. The combination would form
the world’s largest corporation.
(SFC, 12/2/98, p.A1)(WSJ, 12/2/98, p.A1)(AP,
12/1/99)
1998 Dec 1, A scientific panel
reported that no links were found between breast implants and
systemic illnesses.
(WSJ, 12/2/98, p.A1)
1998 Dec 1, In Chicago a fire
destroyed the historic Pullman building.
(SFC, 12/3/98, p.A3)
1998 Dec 1, In Canada a new gun
control law went into effect that required all 3 million gun owners
to be licensed and every one of an estimated 7 million rifles and
handguns to be registered.
(SFEC, 3/28/99, p.A22)
1998 Dec 1, A rally of 82
vintage cars entered Cape Town, South Africa, after a 39 day, 18,600
mile journey that began in London.
(SFC, 12/2/98, p.C12)
1998 Dec 1, In Colombia rebels
stormed 2 towns and killed at least 8 people and wounded 30.
(SFC, 12/2/98, p.A6)
1998 Dec 1, Granma, Cuba’s only
daily newspaper, recommended that Christmas be re-established as a
permanent holiday. Cuba's Communist Party recommended that Dec. 25
be re-established as an annual holiday.
(SFC, 12/2/98, p.A10)(AP, 12/1/99)
1998 Dec 1, Dutch and Flemish
lexicographers unveiled a 40-tome dictionary with 45,000 pages that
documented words back to 1500. It took 147 years to complete and
compilers stopped at 1976.
(SFC, 12/2/98, p.C2)
1998 Dec 1, From Egypt it was
reported that construction of the $180 million Bibliotheca
Alexandria was proceeding. Completion was expected in Oct, 1999.
(SFC, 12/1/98, p.A10)
1998 Dec 1, In Honduras the
death toll from Hurricane Mitch was lowered to 5,657. Some 8,058
were verified as missing, 12,272 injured and 1.4 million homeless.
(SFC, 12/2/98, p.C12)
1999 Dec 1, The WTO met in
Seattle for global trade talks to be known as the Seattle Round. A
massive "mobilization against globalization" was also planned by
activists. The 134-nation WTO began meeting in Seattle for a round
of global trade talks under the proposed names "Millennium Round" or
"Clinton Round." The purpose of the talks was to reduce tariffs and
subsidies and to open markets. The last Uruguay Round lasted for
nearly 8 years. Pres. Clinton spoke and urged the WTO to listen to
the demands of protestors. Clinton defended his administration’s
policies in the face of sometimes violent street demonstrations.
Thousands demonstrated on labor and environmental issues and
hundreds were arrested.
(WSJ, 7/16/99, p.A1)(WSJ, 11/29/99, p.A1)(SFC,
12/2/99, p.A1)(AP, 12/1/00)
1999 Dec 1, The US NIH
announced that it would again fund research with controlled
safeguards on stem cells from human embryos.
(SFC, 12/2/99, p.A4)
1999 Dec 1, An international
team of scientists announced that they had virtually mapped all 34
million chemical letters of the number 22 human chromosome, the 2nd
smallest of the 23 pairs.
(SFC, 12/2/99, p.A3)(AP, 12/1/00)
1999 Dec 1, On World AIDS Days,
United Nations officials released a report estimating that eleven
million children worldwide had been orphaned by the pandemic.
(AP, 12/1/00)
1999 Dec 1, African leaders
chose Nelson Mandela as the new mediator for talks on ending the
6-year civil war in Burundi.
(SFC, 12/2/99, p.D2)
1999 Dec 1, Queen Elizabeth
approved a law that granted semi autonomy to Northern Ireland and a
midnight power passed formally from London to Belfast.
(SFC, 12/2/99, p.A24)
1999 Dec 1, It was reported
that the French government had decided to make morning-after
contraception pills available to teenage girls through school
nurses. 10,000 girls under 18 were becoming pregnant each year and
6,000 were having abortions.
(SFC, 12/1/99, p.A15)
1999 Dec 1, Ireland joined
NATO's Partnership for Peace program.
(SFC, 12/2/99, p.D2)
1999 Dec 1, Prime Minister
Massimo D'Alema of Italy began a 2-day visit to Libya that involved
a $5.5 billion oil and gas project involving ENI, an Italian oil
company. It was the 1st visit by a Western head of government since
sanctions in 1992.
(SFC, 12/2/99, p.D2)
1999 Dec 1, In Japan Tatsuko
Muraoka, acting leader of the Aum Shinri Kyo cult, took
responsibility for the 1995 gassing of Tokyo subways, led by former
guru Shoko Asahara, and promised some compensation to the victims.
(SFC, 12/2/99, p.D2)
1999 Dec 1, In Russia the Duma
passed a bill that vastly increased the powers of security services
to combat terrorism and civil disturbances.
(WSJ, 12/2/99, p.A1)
2000 Dec 1, Pres. Clinton on
World AIDS Day urged Congress to provide more money for the
prevention and treatment of AIDS. In the US 40,000 people were being
infected each year and 420,000 had died since 1981. Worldwide almost
60 million people were infected and 16,000 more were being infected
every day.
(SFC, 12/2/00, p.A6)
2000 Dec 1, The US Supreme
Court heard arguments by attorneys of Al Gore and George W. Bush on
the legality of a vote extension by the Florida Supreme Court. The
Florida Supreme Court turned down 2 Democratic pleas for an
immediate count of disputed ballots and for a new election in Palm
Beach County where a “butterfly ballot” drew protests from
Democratic voters.
(SFC, 12/2/00, p.A1)(AP, 12/1/01)
2000 Dec 1, In Chile an Appeals
Court judge ordered the house arrest of Gen. Pinochet for
kidnappings following the 1973 coup.
(SFC, 12/2/00, p.A12)
2000 Dec 1, In China a shopping
mall collapsed and scores of people were killed in Dongguan.
(WSJ, 12/4/00, p.A1)
2000 Dec 1, The European
Commission demanded reductions in fishing including 60% cuts of cod
and hake catches due to overfishing.
(SFC, 12/2/00, p.A13)
2000 Dec 1, In France Michel
Roussin, former right-hand man of Pres. Jacques Chirac when he was
mayor of Paris, was arrested for a kickback scheme in school
construction projects.
(SFC, 12/5/00, p.A15)
2000 Dec 1, In Indonesia police
killed 6 separatists in Irian Jaya province after they tried to
raise their outlawed rebel flag, the “Morning Star.”
(SFC, 12/2/00, p.A14)
2000 Dec 1, Iraq halted oil
production due to the UN’s refusal to authorize a new payment
arrangement for the oil-for-food program. Production was resumed
after 2 days.
(SFC, 12/4/00, p.A12)
2000 Dec 1, Israelis killed 2
Palestinians and injured over 20 in clashes in the West Bank and
Gaza.
(SFC, 12/2/00, p.A13)
2000 Dec 1, In Mexico Pres.
Vicente Fox was sworn in as president of Mexico, ending 71 years of
ruling-party domination.
(WSJ, 12/1/00, p.A1)(AP, 12/1/01)
2000 Dec 1, Russia as of this
date declared that it would no longer abide by a 1995 deal to halt
arms exports to Iran. The US threatened sanctions.
(SFC, 11/23/00, p.D8)
2000 Dec 1, In South Africa the
government agreed to accept a $50 million donation of the drug
fluconazole from Pfizer to treat a brain inflammation associated
with AIDS. Recent approval was also given for nevirapine, a drug to
reduce transmission of the AIDS virus to a fetus.
(SFC, 12/2/00, p.A12)
2001 Dec 1, In downtown
Jerusalem 2 Palestinian suicide bombers self-destructed and killed
11 others. A car bomb detonated shortly after and another dozen were
injured. Hamas claimed responsibility.
(SSFC, 12/2/01, p.A1)(SFC, 7/24/02, p.A14)(AP,
12/1/02)
2001 Dec 1, In Afghanistan
Farida Afzali (21) became the 1st woman in 5 years to enroll at
Kabul Univ. Day 56: US bombing continued around Kandahar and over
Tora Bora near Kabul, where 3 villages were hit and a number of
civilians killed and injured. Air strikes at Khan-I-Merjahuddin
killed 48 civilians. Air strikes at Madoo killed 48 civilians.
(SSFC, 12/2/01, p.A2)(SSFC, 7/21/02, p.A14)
2001 Dec 1, In London, England,
the Financial Service Authority (FSA) replaced a plethora of
financial regulators.
(Econ, 9/15/07, SR
p.9)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_Services_Authority)
2001 Dec 1, In Germany 4 Afghan
factions continued to work on a 20-member “interim authority.”
(SSFC, 12/2/01, p.A3)
2001 Dec 1 A baby girl was born
to Japan's Crown Princess Masako and Crown Prince Naruhito, the
royal couple's first child in eight years of marriage; she was later
named Aiko.
(SFC, 12/1/01, p.A2)(AP, 12/1/02)
2001 Dec 1, In Russia the Union
of Unity and Fatherland Party united 3 centrist movements: Unity,
Fatherland and All-Russia. Sergei Shoigu, a Putin confidant, was
elected head of 3 co-chairmen.
(SSFC, 12/2/01, p.A18)
2001 Dec 1, Taiwan held
parliamentary elections. The Nationalist Party lost 42 seats and
their majority in the 225-seat legislature. The Democratic
Progressive Party of Pres. Chen Shui-bian gained 21 seats. The
results forced a new coalition government.
(SFC, 12/1/01, p.A2)
2002 Dec 1, The US federal
Bureau of Land Management (BLM) began rounding up over 2,650 wild
horses in Nevada to prevent starving and rangeland destruction.
(SFC, 11/29/02, p.J7)
2002 Dec 1, Sen. Kerry of
Massachusetts announced that he would seek the Democratic nomination
for president.
(WSJ, 11/3/04, p.A6)
2002 Dec 1, Edward Latimer
"Ned" Beach (b.1918), former Navy captain and author, died at age
84. His books included "Run Silent, Run Deep" (1955), "Around the
World Submerged" (1962) and "Scapegoats! A Defense of Kimmel and
short at Pearl Harbor."
(SFC, 12/2/02, p.A19)(WSJ, 12/4/02, p.D10)
2002 Dec 1, In Gaibandha,
Bangladesh, least 30 people, mostly women and children, were killed
in a stampede after a wall collapsed during a give-away of clothes
and money.
(Reuters, 12/1/02)
2002 Dec 1, Colombia's largest
right-wing paramilitary group began a unilateral cease-fire in its
long-running battle against leftist rebels.
(AP, 12/1/03)
2002 Dec 1, Martin Lee, Hong
Kong's pre-eminent champion of democracy, stepped down as leader of
the territory's most popular political party.
(Reuters, 12/1/02)
2002 Dec 1, Prof. Saburo
Ienaga, Japanese historian, died at age 89. He had led battles
against the government screening of textbooks.
(SFC, 12/2/02, p.A19)
2002 Dec 1, In Kashmir 10
people, including 4 militants, were killed in fresh clashes between
Muslim guerrillas and Indian security forces.
(Reuters, 12/1/02)
2002 Dec 1, Russia won its
first Davis Cup title by rallying to beat defending champion France
3-2.
(AP, 12/1/03)
2002 Dec 1, PM Janez Drnovsek
(52) won Slovenia's presidential election and promised to keep the
former Yugoslav republic on a pro-Western course. In 1999 he had a
cancerous kidney removed, and in 2005 revealed that doctors had
diagnosed "formations" on his lungs and liver in 2001.
(AP, 12/2/02)(SSFC, 12/2/02, p.a10)(AP, 9/29/06)
2002 Dec 1, In Istanbul,
Turkey, some 10,000 people took part in a protest against a U.S.-led
war in neighboring Iraq.
(AP, 12/1/02)
2002 Dec 1, Venezuela museum
officials discovered that Henri Matisse's "Odalisque in Red Pants,"
a 1925 painting of a topless, raven-haired woman kneeling on a
floor, worth about $3 million, was stolen as long as two years ago
from the Sofia Imber Museum of Contemporary Art and replaced by an
imitation.
(AP, 2/1/03)
2002 Dec 1, World AIDS Day
marked 42 million HIV positive people around the world with 75% in
sub-Saharan Africa.
(AP, 12/2/02)
2003 Dec 1, US Rep. Bill
Janklow went on trial in Flandreau, S.D., charged with manslaughter
in the death of a motorcyclist who'd collided with his automobile.
Janklow was convicted and served 100 days in jail.
(AP, 12/1/04)
2003 Dec 1, Alfonso Rodriguez
Jr. (50), described by authorities as a predatory sex offender was
arrested in Crookston, Minn., and charged with kidnapping in the
disappearance of Dru Sjodin, a North Dakota college student,
who may have been abducted last month while talking on her cell
phone.
(AP, 12/2/03)
2003 Dec 1, Boeing Company
chairman and CEO Phil Condit resigned unexpectedly. Boeing was
involved in a series of procurement violations that also led to the
firing of CFO Michael Sears, who ended up serving time in prison for
illegal employment negotiations. In 2006 Boeing agreed to pay $615
million to end 3 years of Justice Department investigations.
(AP, 12/1/04)(WSJ, 5/15/06, p.A1)
2003 Dec 1, Clark Kerr (92),
former UC president (1958-1967), died in El Cerrito, Ca.
(SFC, 12/2/03, p.A1)
2003 Dec 1, In Canada a
coalition of energy and forest companies and Indian tribes and
environmental groups announced a framework for forest and wetland
conservation to conserve at least 50% of Canada's sub-Arctic boreal
forests.
(SFC, 12/1/03, p.A7)
2003 Dec 1, A strong earthquake
rumbled through a swath of western China's mountainous Xinjiang
region, killing at least 11 people and collapsing hundreds of homes
in Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture near the border with Kazakhstan.
(AP, 12/1/03)
2003 Dec 1, French diplomats
and other Foreign Ministry staff in 126 countries walked off the job
in a one-day strike to protest planned budget cuts.
(AP, 12/2/03)
2003 Dec 1, India and Pakistan
agreed to restore airline overflight and landing rights by Jan. 1,
2004.
(AP, 12/1/04)
2003 Dec 1, Israeli troops
launched a sweeping raid on Ramallah, killing a 9-year-old boy and 3
Hamas gunmen and leaving 60 people homeless after blowing up their
apartment building.
(AP, 12/1/03)
2003 Dec 1, North Korea said
the US military conducted at least 150 spy flights against it in
November and accused Washington of "watching for an opportunity to
crush" the communist regime.
(AP, 12/1/03)
2003 Dec 1, A Lithuanian
Parliament investigation concluded that the office of Pres. Rolandas
Paksas has links to organized crime. This prompted calls for his
resignation.
(SFC, 12/2/03, p.A12)
2003 Dec 1, In Mexico Isidro
Galeana (65), a former state judicials police commander, was
declared a fugitive after a judge ordered his arrest on suspicion of
kidnapping alleged leftists during the Mexican government's campaign
against radical activists in 1974.
(AP, 12/2/03)
2003 Dec 1, A report laid bare
a corporate scandal at Skandia, Sweden's largest insurer.
(Econ, 12/6/03, p.67)
2003 Dec 1, Dignitaries from
around the world, including former Pres. Jimmy Carter, gathered in
Geneva to sign a draft peace accord, called the Geneva Accords,
drawn up between Israeli and Palestinian activists.
(SFC, 12/1/03, p.A1)
2004 Dec 1, US President George
W. Bush arrived in Halifax to thank Atlantic Canadians for helping
thousands of stranded Americans three years ago and to deliver a
speech expected to outline his foreign policy goals for the next
four years.
(AP, 12/1/04)
2004 Dec 1, The Pentagon said
it will boost US troops in Iraq to 150,000.
(SFC, 12/2/04, p.A1)
2004 Dec 1, Tom Brokaw signed
off as anchor of NBC News after 21 years. He was succeeded by Brian
Williams.
(SFC, 12/2/04, p.A3)(AP, 12/01/05)
2004 Dec 1, World AIDS Day was
observed around the globe. The CDC said nearly one million Americans
had the AIDS virus.
(AP, 12/1/04)(WSJ, 12/2/04, p.A1)
2005 Dec 1, Texas Gov. Rick
Perry blocked the execution of Frances Newton two hours before she
was to be lethally injected for the deaths of her husband and two
young children so her lawyers can conduct new tests on evidence in
the 17-year-old murder case. Newton was executed in September 2005.
(AP, 12/01/05)
2004 Dec 1, Andrea Labbe (26),
a Toronto woman, stabbed her husband and three-year-old daughter to
death before fatally cutting her own throat in one of the most
terrible tragedies ever encountered by the city's emergency workers.
(AP, 12/3/04)
2004 Dec 1, A French appeals
court reduced the suspended prison sentence for former Prime
Minister Alain Juppe in a party financing scandal from 18 to 14
months, and barred him from elected office for 1 year instead of 10.
(AP, 12/1/04)
2004 Dec 1, A prison riot
followed other violence that left at least 11 people dead and scores
wounded as Secretary of State Colin Powell visited with Haitian
leaders in an effort to stop the country's bloodshed.
(AP, 12/2/04)
2004 Dec 1, Encore Software
Ltd., one of the makers of India's cheap hand-held computer, the
Simputer, forecast a surge in orders to 50,000 units next year.
(AP, 12/1/04)
2004 Dec 1, The US military
command said multinational troops have arrested 210 suspected
militants in a weeklong crackdown against insurgents in an area
south of Baghdad known as the "triangle of death."
(AP, 12/1/04)
2004 Dec 1, Prince Bernhard
(93), father of Queen Beatrix, died in Utrecht. It was soon reported
that he had acknowledged in a series of secret interviews 2
illegitimate children and the acceptance of bribes in 1976 from
Lockheed to persuade the Dutch government to purchase its planes.
The money was reportedly passed to charities.
(SFC, 12/15/04, p.A12)
2004 Dec 1, Unidentified gunmen
in Iraq killed 5 leading members of a Kurdish group that led a
15-year rebellion in southern Turkey.
(WSJ, 12/2/04, p.A1)
2004 Dec 1, A Hamas leader
announced that the militant group will boycott upcoming Palestinian
presidential elections.
(AP, 12/1/04)
2004 Dec 1, Ukraine's
parliament brought down the government of PM Viktor Yanukovych with
a no-confidence motion in a show of the opposition's strength. The
outgoing president called for an entirely new presidential election
to be held to resolve the spiraling political crisis.
(AP, 12/1/04)
2005 Dec 1, The US government
signed an agreement in Kabul committing itself to grants over five
years for development in war-ravaged Afghanistan that could amount
to about five billion dollars.
(AFP, 12/01/05)
2005 Dec 1, A jury in Sarasota,
Fla., recommended the death sentence for Joseph Smith, the killer of
11-year-old Carlie Brucia.
(AP, 12/1/06)
2005 Dec 1, A dog and its owner
found the bodies of Sarah and Philip Gehring, two children who'd
been fatally shot by their father and buried in rural Ohio.
(AP, 12/1/06)
2005 Dec 1, Countries across
the globe marked the 18th World AIDS Day as the UN warned that
drastic action was needed to counter the global epidemic. The number
of people living with HIV in 2005 was 40.3 million, the highest
figure ever.
(AFP, 12/01/05)
2005 Dec 1, Scientists reported
that current flow in the Atlantic had slowed 30% over the past
5 decades. Computer models had predicted that global warming could
disrupt the way Earth regulates heat.
(SFC, 12/1/05, p.A7)
2005 Dec 1, Howard Gotlieb
(79), archivist at Boston Univ., died.
(Econ, 12/10/05, p.98)
2005 Dec 1, Reserve Bank of
Australia (RBA) board member Robert Gerard announced his
resignation, a week after revelations about his disputes with the
tax office.
(AFP, 12/01/05)
2005 Dec 1, Australia and East
Timor finalized a revenue-sharing pact covering the $5 billion
Sunrise natural-gas project.
(WSJ, 12/2/05, p.A8)
2005 Dec 1, Researchers in
Gabon reported that 3 species of fruit bats served as the animal
reservoir of the Ebola virus. The deadly disease 1st emerged in
1976.
(SFC, 12/1/05, p.A7)
2005 Dec 1, In Bangladesh a
bomb thrown by an Islamic militant disguised as a tea vendor
exploded outside a government building in Gazipur, killing one
person and wounding at least 29. The militant was hurt and captured
after the blast.
(AP, 12/01/05)
2005 Dec 1, In Bangladesh 9
wedding guests died of suspected alcohol poisoning from drinking
toxic home-brewed liquor the previous evening in a northeastern
village.
(AP, 12/01/05)
2005 Dec 1, Brazil's Congress
voted to expel Rep. Jose Dirceu (59), the president's former
chief-of-staff, and bar him from holding public office for 8 years
amid a corruption scandal that has rocked the government.
(AP, 12/01/05)
2005 Dec 1, Brazilian
authorities said they have arrested three more men suspected of
taking part in the August $70 million cash heist, and that a fourth
allegedly has been kidnapped.
(AP, 12/01/05)
2005 Dec 1, In Egypt riot
police battled voters, killing one person and blocking entry to
polling stations in opposition strongholds in the third and final
round of legislative elections.
(AP, 12/01/05)
2005 Dec 1, In Salamina,
Greece, an 80-year-old woman was found strangled to death. Police
the next day arrested 3 children (7,8,14) for the robbery and
strangling.
(AP, 12/01/05)
2005 Dec 1, Thousands marched
in anti-AIDS rallies in India's plagued northeast, while China
rolled out a campaign targeting millions of migrant workers to mark
World AIDS Day.
(AP, 12/01/05)
2005 Dec 1, In Iraq 10 Marines
on foot patrol were killed and 11 wounded by a roadside bomb near
Fallujah in one of the deadliest attack on American troops in recent
months.
(AP, 12/02/05)
2005 Dec 1, The Mexican
Attorney General's office said 11 federal agents were charged with
kidnapping for picking up four alleged drug hit men and possibly
helping kill them.
(AP, 12/02/05)
2005 Dec 1, Hamza Rabia, one of
al-Qaida's top five leaders, a key associate of Ayman al-Zawahri,
was tracked down with US help and killed by Pakistani security
forces in a rocket attack near the Afghan border. Pakistani
authorities said he was killed with 5 other militants.
(AP, 12/03/05)(SSFC, 12/4/05, p.A3)
2005 Dec 1, Russian press said
the Far East city of Khabarovsk, in the path of a toxic spill from a
Chinese plant explosion, has enough drinking water reserves to last
more than 10 days.
(AP, 12/01/05)
2005 Dec 1, South Africa's
highest court ruled it is unconstitutional to prevent gay people
from marrying, paving the way for the country to become the first to
legalize same-sex unions on a continent where homosexuality remains
largely taboo.
(AP, 12/01/05)
2005 Dec 1, About 60,000 South
Korean workers defied a government warning by going on strike to
demand better protection for part-time workers.
(AP, 12/01/05)
2005 Dec 1, in northern
Switzerland a pack of dogs mauled a boy walking to his kindergarten
class killing him instantly.
(AP, 12/01/05)
2005 Dec 1, The United Arab
Emirates announced it will hold a limited form of voting to pick
members of a consultative council, a small step toward widening
political participation in a country that has never held elections.
(AP, 12/01/05)
2005 Dec 1, A UN Security
Council committee called on all governments to freeze the assets and
travel of two individuals linked to international gunrunner Victor
Bout over past arms sales to Liberia. The council added Syrian-born
accountant Richard Ammar Chichakli of Texas and Ukrainian-born
businessman Valeriy Naydo, with an address in the United Arab
Emirates, to its list of people whose assets and travel are to be
frozen around the world.
(AP, 12/01/05)
2005 Dec 1, Zimbabwe signed an
agreement with the UN food agency to feed at least 3 million people
after previously denying major shortages.
(AP, 12/01/05)
2006 Dec 1, US companies will
need to keep track of all the e-mails, instant messages and other
electronic documents generated by their employees thanks to new
federal rules that go into effect today. The rules, approved by the
Supreme Court in April, require companies and other entities
involved in federal litigation to produce "electronically stored
information" as part of the discovery process, when evidence is
shared by both sides before a trial.
(AP, 12/1/06)
2006 Dec 1, The largest Roman
Catholic archdiocese in the US said it will pay $60 million to
settle 45 sex abuse lawsuits, the largest payout yet by the
Archdiocese of Los Angeles and among the biggest resulting from the
molestation crisis that has plagued the church.
(AP, 12/2/06)
2006 Dec 1, World AIDS Day was
marked around the globe by somber religious services, boisterous
demonstrations and warnings that far more needs to be done to treat
and prevent the disease.
(AP, 12/1/06)
2006 Dec 1, In Berkeley, Ca.,
protesters began sitting in trees near Memorial Stadium which US
Berkeley officials planned to cut in order to build an athletic
training center. The last 4 protesters came down on December 9,
2008.
(SFC, 8/22/08, p.B1)(SFC, 9/10/08, p.A1)
2006 Dec 1, In Argentina a
court declared former Iranian President Hashemi Rafsanjani and eight
others fugitives from justice in Argentina, where they are wanted in
connection with the 1994 bombing of a Jewish cultural center.
(AP, 12/1/06)
2006 Dec 1, Opposition leaders
led a work stoppage in four Bolivian state capitals to protest
President Evo Morales' control of an assembly called to rewrite
Bolivia's constitution.
(AP, 12/1/06)
2006 Dec 1, British media
reported that an Italian security expert, who met with a former KGB
agent Alexander Litvinenko the day the ex-spy fell fatally ill with
radiation poisoning, has also tested positive for the substance.
(AP, 12/1/06)
2006 Dec 1, Amnesty
International accused the government of Chad of failing to act as
Janjaweed militia carry out increasing attacks on civilians.
(AFP, 12/1/06)
2006 Dec 1, Chinese courts
rejected an appeal from Zhao Yan, the NY Times researcher who
reported on official corruption and peasant rights before he joined
the newspaper. They upheld the four-year prison term of activist
Chen Guangcheng, who documented cases of forced abortions.
(AP, 12/1/06)
2006 Dec 1, An Interior
Ministry official said that 1,846 civilians were killed in Iraq in
November, a 43 percent increase from the estimated toll in October.
Iraqi forces backed by US helicopters swept through one of the
oldest area of Baghdad in house-to-house fighting that killed at
least three Iraqis and wounded 11. Scattered sectarian violence
elsewhere killed 12 other people. A US Army soldier also was killed
in fighting in the volatile Anbar province.
(AP, 12/1/06)(AP, 12/2/06)
2006 Dec 1, In Lebanon at least
a million people loyal to Hezbollah and its pro-Syrian opposition
allies massed in downtown Beirut seeking to force the resignation of
Western-backed PM Fuad Saniora, who was holed up in his office
ringed by hundreds of police and combat troops.
(AP, 12/1/06)(SFC, 12/2/06, p.A1)
2006 Dec 1, Felipe Calderon
took the oath of office as Mexico's president amid jeers and
whistles, in a chaotic ceremony before congress preceded by a brawl
between lawmakers still divided over the nation's tight presidential
election.
(AP, 12/1/06)
2006 Dec 1, In the Netherlands
a court convicted four Dutch Muslims of plotting terrorist attacks
against political leaders and government buildings and sentenced
them to up to eight years in prison. A man in a hooded coat killed
an 8-year-old boy in the corridor of a Dutch grade school. Police
said they arrested a 22-year-old suspect.
(AP, 12/1/06)
2006 Dec 1, In Nigeria OPEC
President Edmund Daukoru said that he expects the OPEC oil export
group to cut its output quota by at least half a million barrels per
day when it meets on December 14.
(AFP, 12/1/06)
2006 Dec 1, The 15th Asian
Games exploded into life in Doha, Qatar, with the most spectacular
opening ceremony ever staged.
(www.dohaasiangames.org/)
2006 Dec 1, Pakistan’s
President Gen. Pervez Musharraf signed into law an amendment to the
country's controversial rape statute to make it easier to prosecute
sexual assault cases. In northwestern Pakistan a suicide bomber
struck outside a military facility in Peshawar, killing himself but
causing no other casualties.
(AP, 12/1/06)
2006 Dec 1, Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas convened the PLO's top decision-making body
to map out a strategy after declaring that talks to form a more
moderate government with ruling Hamas militants had collapsed.
(AP, 12/1/06)
2006 Dec 1, In Paraguay a court
convicted and sentenced 15 members of a radical leftist group to
prison for the 2004 kidnapping and murder of Cecilia Cubas (31), a
former president's daughter.
(AP, 12/1/06)
2006 Dec 1, Officials reported
that Typhoon Durian killed as many as 200 people when it tore
through the eastern Philippines. The storm was eventually blamed for
1,399 deaths.
(AP, 12/1/07)
2006 Dec 1, The opening
ceremony for the 15th Asian Games took place in Doha, the capital of
Qatar.
(Reuters, 11/27/06)
2006 Dec 1, The US circulated a
UN Security Council draft resolution that would authorize a regional
force to protect Somalia's weak government and threaten Security
Council action against those who block peace efforts and attempt to
overthrow it.
(AP, 12/2/06)
2006 Dec 1, South Africa
unveiled plans to halve the number of people being infected with the
AIDS virus within five years by persuading youngsters to delay the
start of their sex lives. Some 5.5 million South Africans suffered
from HIV and about 950 were dying from AIDS every day.
(AFP, 12/1/06)(Econ, 12/9/06, p.53)
2006 Dec 1, A suicide bomber
targeted a convoy carrying Sri Lanka's defense secretary in Colombo,
killing himself and two soldiers. The defense secretary, who is also
the president's brother, was unharmed.
(AP, 12/1/06)
2006 Dec 1, Ukraine lawmakers
fired the foreign minister and interior minister, setting the stage
for a legal battle between the president and the premier.
(AP, 12/1/06)
2006 Dec 1, Pres. Robert Mugabe
said Zimbabwe is showing the way for Africa in the fight against
HIV/AIDS. He urged Zimbabweans to take greater personal
responsibility in stopping the epidemic. HIV prevalence rate
declined to 18.1% this year from 25% five years ago.
(Reuters, 12/1/06)
2007 Dec 1, Pres. Bush sent a
letter, his first, to North Korean leader Kim Jong Il urging him to
fully disclose his nuclear programs by the end of the year.
(SFC, 12/7/07, p.A16)
2007 Dec 1, Roger Lee Dillon
(22) and his girlfriend, Nicole N. Boyd (24), were arrested in West
Virginia for the disappearance of $7 million in cash and checks from
an Ohio armored car company. The disappearance of the money was
discovered Nov 26.
(AP, 12/1/07)
2007 Dec 1, Police in Wichita,
Kan., identified a body found days earlier as that of Emily Sander,
a missing college student whose disappearance drew nationwide
attention after the discovery she was also an Internet pornography
model named Zoey Zane. As of 2008 suspect Israel Mireles, was
fighting extradition from Mexico.
(AP, 12/1/08)
2007 Dec 1, Four suspects were
charged in Miami in the shooting death of Washington Redskins star
Sean Taylor. One ended up pleading guilty to second-degree murder; a
fifth suspect was also charged.
(AP, 12/1/08)
2007 Dec 1, Cheryl Dunlap, a
nurse from Crawfordsville, Florida, went missing. On Dec 16 her
decapitated body was found in the Apalachicola National Forest. In
2011 a jury recommended the death penalty for Michael Hilton (64),
who was already serving life in prison for the 2008 slaying of
Meredith Emerson of Athens, Georgia.
(SFC, 2/22/11,
p.A4)(www.wjhg.com/news/headlines/12542231.html)
2007 Dec 1, Danny Newman
(b.1919), press agent, died at his home in Chicago. He boosted
theater success for the Lyric Opera of Chicago beginning in 1954
with the use of subscriptions. His 1978 book “Subscribe Now” became
a fund-raising classic.
(WSJ, 12/15/07, p.A8)
2007 Dec 1, Afghan and NATO-led
troops battled with Taliban militants and called in airstrikes in a
series of clashes in the country's south that left 40 insurgents
dead.
(AP, 12/2/07)
2007 Dec 1, Officials said a
week of heavy rains in northern Algeria caused the death of 15
people, while three more people are missing feared dead.
(AFP, 12/1/07)
2007 Dec 1, The head of
Belgium's Flemish Christian Democrats abandoned efforts to form a
coalition government, after more than five months of fruitless
talks, plunging the country further into crisis.
(AP, 12/1/07)
2007 Dec 1, The Times reported
that Jonathan Evans, the head of Britain's domestic security
service, has warned business leaders that China has been carrying
out state-sponsored espionage against vital parts of the economy.
(AFP, 12/1/07)
2007 Dec 1, Zhang Zilin (23),
Miss China, won the Miss World 2007 title in her own country in
front of an estimated two billion viewers around the globe.
(AFP, 12/1/07)
2007 Dec 1, China and Japan
began talks on trade and economic issues that are intended to
bolster the recent warming of their long-uneasy relations.
(AP, 12/1/07)
2007 Dec 1, Dubai police
conducted a series of simultaneous raids on suspected brothels,
landing 247 suspects in jail in the emirate's biggest
anti-prostitution sweep to date. Human was trafficking rampant in
this wealthy Gulf city.
(AP, 12/5/07)
2007 Dec 1, A deadline for
Ethiopia and Eritrea to agree on the physical demarcation of their
border expired amid escalating tension between the two nations,
leaving the frontier only delineated on maps.
(AP, 12/1/07)
2007 Dec 1, At the 20th annual
European Film Awards in Berlin Romanian director Cristian Mungiu's
"4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days" won the best film prize.
(AP, 12/1/07)
2007 Dec 1, Dozens of militants
stormed Dwelah, a Shiite village north of Baghdad, killing at least
13 people and torching homes. The villagers fought back killing
three gunmen. Elsewhere in the same region, Iraqi and US troops
freed four villages from al-Qaida control.
(AP, 12/1/07)
2007 Dec 1, An Israeli
airstrike killed five Hamas members, prompting threats by Gaza
militants to fire longer-range rockets at Israeli border towns.
(AP, 12/1/07)
2007 Dec 1, In northwestern
Pakistan former PM Benazir Bhutto launched her election campaign, a
day after unveiling her party's platform despite calls from other
opposition groups to boycott the Jan. 8 vote.
(AP, 12/1/07)
2007 Dec 1, US coffee giant
Starbucks announced plans to build a regional support centre in
Rwanda for farmers in east Africa, where the industry has faced
difficulty despite recent price spikes.
(AFP, 12/2/07)
2007 Dec 1, In South Africa
Nelson Mandela drew a crowd of about 15,000 to his fifth
international awareness concert, held this year to coincide with
World AIDS Day.
(AP, 12/2/07)
2007 Dec 1, ETA gunmen shot and
killed a Spanish policeman and seriously injured another in France,
the first killing by the Basque separatist group in almost a year.
(AP, 12/1/07)
2007 Dec 1, In Sri Lanka at
least 11 Tamil Tiger rebels were killed and 49 injured in heavy
clashes across northern defense lines in Mannar. Elsewhere, 13
rebels were killed overnight in separate fighting near the
guerrillas' stronghold in the north of the island.
(AFP, 12/1/07)
2007 Dec 1, The Turkish
military said it fired on 50 to 60 Kurdish rebels inside Iraqi
territory, inflicting "significant losses." Turkish troops killed
four Kurdish rebels in fighting near its border with Iraq.
(AP, 12/1/07)(AP, 12/2/07)
2008 Dec 1, President-elect
Barack Obama announced that Robert Gates would remain as defense
secretary. Obama picked former campaign rival Hillary Rodham Clinton
as secretary of state.
(AP, 12/1/08)
2008 Dec 1, In Alabama mayor
Larry Langford of Birmingham was arrested on charges of steering
millions of dollars of bond work to a friend in exchange for over
$230,000 in bribes. The 101-count indictment also charged Montgomery
banker Bill Blount and lobbyist Al LaPierre.
(SFC, 12/2/08, p.A2)
2008 Dec 1, California’s Gov.
Schwarzenegger declared a fiscal emergency and called legislators
into a new special session in order to trim a $11.2 billion budget
deficit.
(SFC, 12/2/08, p.A1)
2008 Dec 1, In Tracy, Ca., Kyle
Ramirez (16) escaped from a home where he had been shackled and
tortured for over a year. In 2010 defendants Michael Schumacher (36)
was sentenced to 30 years in prison, his wife Kelly Lau (32)
received 33 years, and the boy’s guardian Caren Ramirez (45) was
given 34 years. All three had accepted plea deals. In 2010 Anthony
Waiters (31), a neighbor, was convicted of 9 charges including
aggravated mayhem and false imprisonment. On Feb 28, 2011, Waiters
was sentenced to life in prison.
(SFC, 10/9/10, p.C2)(SFC, 11/24/10, p.C3)(SFC,
12/7/10, p.C3)(SFC, 3/1/11, p.C3)
2008 Dec 1, The NBER, a
private, nonprofit research organization, said its group of academic
economists who determine business cycles met and decided that the US
recession began last December.
(AP, 12/2/08)
2008 Dec 1, A federal jury in
SF cleared Chevron Corp. of responsibility for any human rights
abuses during a violent protest on a company oil platform in Nigeria
a decade ago.
(AP, 12/2/08)
2008 Dec 1, US researchers
reported that almost 20% of young American adults have a personality
disorder that interferes with everyday life, and that even more
abuse alcohol or drugs.
(SFC, 12/2/08, p.A10)
2008 Dec 1, China's Health
Ministry said six babies may have died after consuming tainted milk
powder, up from a previous official toll of three, and announced a
six-fold increase in its tally of infants sickened in the scandal,
to nearly 300,000.
(AP, 12/1/08)
2008 Dec 1, In northern China
11 girls died of carbon monoxide poisoning at a school in Shaanxi
province. A news report said the girls had lit a fire to keep warm.
(AP, 12/2/08)
2008 Dec 1, In Germany Monika
Halbe (44) was sentenced to four years and three months in prison
for killing the children born in 1988 and 2003 by suffocation or
neglect. The case of a third infant killed in 1986 and stored with
the other two was not prosecuted because the statute of limitations
had expired.
(AP, 12/1/08)
2008 Dec 1, India has formally
demanded that Pakistan take "strong action" against the people
behind the Mumbai attacks. An Indian police official said the only
gunman captured alive after the attacks claimed to belong to
Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistani militant group with links to the
disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir and one long seen as a creation
of the Pakistani intelligence service.
(AP, 12/1/08)
2008 Dec 1, A series of suicide
bomb attacks struck US and Iraqi security forces in Baghdad and the
northern city of Mosul, killing at least 32 people and wounding
dozens.
(AP, 12/1/08)(SFC, 12/2/08, p.A4)
2008 Dec 1, The Israeli navy
turned away a Libyan ship heading to Gaza with 3,000 tons of
humanitarian aid, ending the most high-profile effort yet to break a
blockade of the Hamas-ruled territory.
(AP, 12/1/08)
2008 Dec 1, In Italy the worst
flooding in Venice in more than 20 years forced residents and
tourists to wade through knee-high water.
(AP, 12/1/08)
2008 Dec 1, In Mexico Tijuana's
anti-corruption police chief was fired and replaced with an army
officer, following three days of violence that left 37 people dead
in this border city plagued by warring drug gangs. In southern
Mexico Fabian Ramirez shot his 50-year-old mother in the back
Monday, wounding her. He then allegedly killed three police officers
who arrived at the scene, including Iguala's police chief. Police
captured Ramirez, but four armed men broke into the jail and took
him away by force. The next day Ramirez was found beheaded.
(AP, 12/1/08)(AP, 12/2/08)
2008 Dec 1, In Nigeria some two
thousand angry youths stormed a mosque in the riot-torn city of Jos
as a top parliament official appealed for an end to religious
troubles that have left hundreds dead.
(AFP, 12/1/08)
2008 Dec 1, Militants in
northwestern Pakistan attacked trucks ferrying supplies to NATO and
US forces in Afghanistan, killing two people and destroying a dozen
vehicles. A suicide attack on a security checkpoint in the
Swat Valley killed 8 people and wounded 40.
(AP, 12/1/08)
2008 Dec 1, A 12-day UN climate
conference opened in Poznan, Poland. During the conference Chief
Bill Erasmus of the Dene nation in northern Canada brought a stark
warning about the climate crisis: The once abundant herds of caribou
are dwindling, rivers are running lower and the ice is too thin to
hunt on.
(www.environmentalleader.com/2008/12/01/un-climate-talks-kicks-off-in-poznan/)
2008 Dec 1, Romania's
parliamentary election results showed the centrist and leftist
parties less than a percentage point apart with more than 90 percent
of the vote counted, raising the prospect of tough negotiations to
form a coalition.
(AP, 12/1/08)
2008 Dec 1, South Africa used
World AIDS Day to urge its menfolk to get themselves tested for the
HIV virus that leads to the illness.
(AP, 12/1/08)
2008 Dec 1, In Thailand a
senior tourism official said an estimated 350,000 passengers have
been unable to fly out since anti-government protesters shut down
Bangkok's two airports last week.
(AFP, 12/1/08)
2008 Dec 1, In Zimbabwe gunfire
broke out in downtown Harare when rampaging, unpaid soldiers
attacked money changers and clashed with police. Zimbabwe rejected a
court ruling that demanded the government stop its policy of seizing
land from white farmers. Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai urged
the world to help end a "man-made" humanitarian crisis which has
left hundreds of people dead in a cholera epidemic.
(AP, 12/1/08)
2009 Dec 1, President Barack
Obama shared his new US strategy for Afghanistan with President
Hamid Karzai, spending an hour discussing troops levels, security,
political and economic elements of his revised war plan. Obama
planned to send 30,000 more troops to be deployed over the next six
months, escalating the 8-year-old war. In his prime-time speech to
the nation, Obama laid out a rough timeframe, for when the main US
military mission will end. Obama proposed an 18-month timeline for
starting to bring troops home.
(AP, 12/1/09)(Reuters, 12/2/09)
2009 Dec 1, California Governor
Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver inducted the latest nominees to the
California Hall of Fame. They included: Carol Burnett, Andy Grove,
Hiram Johnson, Rafer Johnson, Henry J. Kaiser, Joan Kroc, George
Lucas, John Madden, Harvey Milk, Fritz Scholder, Danielle Steel, Joe
Weider and General Chuck Yeager.
(SFC, 12/2/09, p.C6)
2009 Dec 1, In Miami, Florida,
lawyer Scott Rothstein was arrested on federal racketeering and
fraud charges alleging he operated a $1 billion scheme involving
phony legal settlements. On Jan 27, 2010 Rothstein (47) pleaded
guilty to federal charges that he ran a $1.2 billion Ponzi scheme.
(SFC, 12/2/09, p.A9)(SFC, 1/28/10, p.A6)
2009 Dec 1, Voters in Atlanta,
Georgia, selected former state Sen. Kasim Reed as mayor by a margin
of 715 votes over City Councilwoman Mary Norwood. With 84,383 votes
cast, the margin was less than 1% and a recount was expected. A Dec
9 recount confirmed Reed as the winner by a margin of 714 votes.
(SSFC, 12/6/09, p.A14)(SFC, 12/10/09, p.A13)
2009 Dec 1, A Baltimore jury
convicted Mayor Sheila Dixon of one count of embezzlement for
stealing gift cards meant for poor residents. She was acquitted of
other charges.
(SFC, 12/2/09, p.A12)
2009 Dec 1, In NYC John
“Junior” Gotti was freed on $2 million bond after a jury failed to
reach a verdict over racketeering charges. This was the 4th hung
jury for Gotti in 5 years.
(SFC, 12/2/09, p.A9)
2009 Dec 1, In Vienna Japanese
diplomat Yukiya Amano took the helm of the UN atomic watchdog
(IAEA), pledging a steady hand to steer the agency through the storm
surrounding Iran's nuclear drive. Mohamed ElBaradei (67), the
outgoing Egyptian chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency
(IAEA), handed over his leadership to Yukiya Amano.
(AP, 11/30/09)(AFP, 12/1/09)
2009 Dec 1, Ephraim Nkezabera
(57), a former Rwandan bank director, was sentenced to 30 years in
prison by a Belgian court which found him guilty of war crimes
including murder, attempted murder and rape during the 1994
genocide. Nkezabera was not present in court and did not attend the
trial, which started just over three weeks ago, because of ill
health. He was arrested in June 2004 by the Belgian authorities
while visiting a family member in Belgium.
(Reuters, 12/1/09)
2009 Dec 1, China’s quarantine
bureau said it has lifted bans on imports of pork products from the
United States, Canada and Mexico, but analysts said the move would
not likely lead to a surge of new imports.
(Reuters, 12/1/09)
2009 Dec 1, The new EU Treaty
of Lisbon went into effect. It provided the EU with modern
institutions and optimized working methods to tackle both
efficiently and effectively today's challenges in today's world.
(AP,
1/1/10)(http://europa.eu/lisbon_treaty/index_en.htm)
2009 Dec 1, In Hong Kong a
rare, 5-carat pink diamond was auctioned off for a record $10.8
million in Hong Kong.
(AP, 12/1/09)
2009 Dec 1, In India newspaper
executives and editors gathered from around the world heard calls to
seek more payment for their content on the Internet as they decried
their industry's sharply falling advertising revenues.
(AP, 12/1/09)
2009 Dec 1, Indonesia banned
the film “Balibo,” an Australian-made film on the alleged murder of
six Australian-based journalists by Indonesian troops during the
1975 invasion of East Timor.
(AFP, 12/2/09)
2009 Dec 1, Israel sternly
warned the EU against recognizing east Jerusalem as the Palestinian
capital, saying such a move would damage Europe's credibility as a
Mideast mediator. Sweden, the current EU president, was floating an
initiative to recognize east Jerusalem as the Palestinian capital.
(AP, 12/1/09)
2009 Dec 1, Italian officials
said police have broken up a major mafia clan, issuing 83 arrest
warrants and seizing businesses, land, race horses and a
London-based online betting company. Local politicians and
businessmen in the southern city of Bari were among those implicated
as part of a 3-year operation, called "Domino," for collaborating
with the Parisi clan.
(AP, 12/1/09)
2009 Dec 1, In Kazakhstan
astronauts from Canada and Belgium and a Russian cosmonaut landed
safely, wrapping up a six-month stint on the International Space
Station.
(AP, 12/1/09)
2009 Dec 1, Kosovo told the
UN's highest court that its independence is irreversible and warned
that any attempt to cancel it could set off a renewed conflict.
(AP, 12/1/09)
2009 Dec 1, Libya sentenced two
Swiss businessmen to 16 months in prison and a fine, in a row
stemming from the arrest in Geneva last year of Libyan leader Moamer
Kadhafi's son.
(AP, 12/2/09)
2009 Dec 1, In Mexico City
gunmen burst in to a Starbucks coffee shop and killed a former
policeman who was a protected witness in a drug corruption case, the
second death of a high-profile witness in Mexico in less than two
weeks. Edgar Bayardo was gunned down in the upper middle-class Del
Valle neighborhood, and a man with him was severely wounded.
(AP, 12/1/09)
2009 Dec 1, In Pakistan a
suicide bomber killed Shamsher Ali Khan, a provincial lawmaker, as
he received guests at his home in the northwest Swat valley. The
army said 10 suspected militants were arrested in two search
operations in the region in the past 24 hours.
(AFP, 12/1/09)
2009 Dec 1, Peru's police chief
dismissed the head of his criminal investigations unit amid
suggestions that officers may have invented a story about a
murderous gang of human fat thieves, perhaps to distract from
allegations of police killings.
(AP, 12/1/09)
2009 Dec 1, In the Philippines
Andal Ampatuan Jr., the heir of a powerful clan, was charged in
connection with the Nov 23 ambush in which 57 people, more than half
journalists, were slaughtered. Three witnesses, who escaped,
reported seeing him and some 100 gunmen stopping cars at the scene
of the massacre.
(AP, 12/1/09)
2009 Dec 1, Pirates off Oman
attacked the oil tanker, Sikinos. Using flares and hoses, the crew
of the Greek oil tanker fought off the pirate attack in the Arabian
Sea.
(AP, 12/1/09)
2009 Dec 1, In South Africa
Pres. Zuma said on World AIDS Day that all HIV-positive babies will
be treated and testing expanded, a dramatic and eagerly awaited
shift in a country that has more people living with HIV than any
other.
(AP, 12/1/09)
2009 Dec 1, Sri Lanka gave
permission to nearly 127,000 Tamil refugees to leave squalid and
overrun government camps where they have been detained since the
country's civil war ended six months ago.
(AP, 12/1/09)
2009 Dec 1, Turkey's government
approved a plan to open the country's first Kurdish-language
department at a university as part of its efforts to reconcile with
the Kurdish minority. Small scale violence continued for the third
day in a row as stone-throwing Kurdish militants clashed with police
across the nation in the wake of last week's anniversary of the 1978
founding of the PKK rebel group.
(AP, 12/1/09)
2009 Dec 1, UAR stock markets
plunged for a second day after the Dubai government said it is not
guaranteeing debt-ridden Dubai World, which unveiled a major
restructuring plan.
(AP, 12/1/09)
2010 Dec 1, President Barack
Obama reversed a March decision to expand offshore oil exploration
to the Atlantic Ocean and eastern Gulf of Mexico, but said deepwater
drilling could continue in the part of the Gulf hit by the BP
disaster.
(AFP, 12/1/10)
2010 Dec 1, It was reported
that the Pentagon has rolled out prototypes of a programmable
"smart" grenade launcher, a shoulder-fired weapon that uses
microchipped ammunition to target and kill the enemy, even when the
enemy is hidden behind walls or other cover.
(AFP, 12/1/10)
2010 Dec 1, Extended
unemployment benefits for nearly 2 million Americans began to run
out, cutting off a steady stream of income and guaranteeing a dismal
holiday season for people already struggling with bills they cannot
pay.
(AP, 12/1/10)
2010 Dec 1, In Rohnert Park,
Ca., Calli Murray (2) was killed and her mother injured as a Sonoma
State Univ. student ran into them while texting on her phone. In
2011 Kaitlyn Dunaway (19) pleaded no contest and was sentenced to 5
days in jail and nearly 4 months of home detention.
(SFC, 11/17/11, p.C3)
2010 Dec 1, In San Francisco
Dr. Dean Edell (69), syndicated radio medical show host, announced
his retirement on KGO-AM, where he began in 1979.
(SFC, 12/2/10, p.C7)
2010 Dec 1, Harold Martin Smith
(43), a man wanted in the Nov 16 slaying of Hollywood publicist
Ronni Chasen (64), killed himself in the lobby of a dreary Los
Angeles hotel as police closed in to question him.
(AP, 12/2/10)(SFC, 12/9/10, p.A18)
2010 Dec 1, A Delaware jury
awarded $30 million in damages to John Vai, who claimed he was
sexually abused by former priest Francis DeLuca (80) in the 1960s.
DeLuca was defrocked in 2008 after serving a short prison sentence
for repeatedly molesting his grandnephew (18). The Wilmington
diocese, facing more than 100 priest-abuse lawsuits, filed for
Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last year.
(SFC, 12/2/10, p.A13)(http://tinyurl.com/2cqrfcl)
2010 Dec 1, The Illinois
Legislature voted to legalize civil unions.
(SFC, 12/2/10, p.A13)
2010 Dec 1, The Journal Nature
published a research study that estimated the universe contains some
300 sextillion stars, 3 times more than previously calculated.
(SFC, 12/2/10, p.A16)
2010 Dec 1, In Afghanistan
gunmen kidnapped 16 deminers but released nine of them hours later
before taking the rest to an unknown location. A coalition service
member was killed in a roadside explosion in the south. The
remaining 7 deminers were freed in Pakistan on Dec 3.
(AFP, 12/1/10)(AP, 12/2/10)(AFP, 12/3/10)
2010 Dec 1, Belarus announced
that it will give up its stockpile of material used to make nuclear
weapons by 2012. The arrangement was announced on the sidelines of
an international security meeting in the Central Asian nation of
Kazakhstan by US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and her
Belarussian counterpart, Sergei Martynov.
(AP, 12/1/10)
2010 Dec 1, Central African
Republic President Francois Bozize said Jean-Bedel Bokassa (d.1996),
the former self-styled "emperor" who was overthrown in 1979, is
"rehabilitated in all his rights" in a decree published to coincide
with the country's 50th anniversary celebrations.
(AP, 12/1/10)
2010 Dec 1, In Egypt a top
official from the opposition Muslim Brotherhood said the group is
pulling out of parliamentary elections, citing widespread fraud.
(AP, 12/1/10)
2010 Dec 1, A Guatemalan
ex-congressman, Manuel Castillo, was sentenced to 203 years in
prison after being found guilty of ordering the assassination of
three Salvadoran representatives to the Central American Parliament
and their driver in 2007. Two former police officers and four others
were also sentenced to between 99 and 210 years.
(AP, 12/3/10)
2010 Dec 1, In India Azim
Premji (b.1945), chairman of Wipro Ltd., announced a nearly $2
billion donation to fund education programs for the poor.
(SFC, 12/3/10,
p.A2)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azim_Premji)
2010 Dec 1, Human Rights Watch
urged Indonesia to overturn the Shariah laws in Aceh province, in
effect since 2001, due to alleged widespread rights abuses.
(SFC, 12/2/10, p.A11)
2010 Dec 1, In Iran for the
second time in a month, heavy air pollution in the smog-filled
capital of Tehran, home to over 12 million people, has forced
authorities to close government offices and schools and declare a
two-day public holiday because of the health dangers of being
outdoors.
(AP, 12/1/10)
2010 Dec 1, Iran hanged Shahla
Jahed (40), a former soccer player's mistress. She was convicted in
2002 of murdering her love rival in a case that captivated the
Iranian public for several years.
(AP, 12/1/10)
2010 Dec 1, Kazakhstan began
hosting a 2-day summit of the OSCE, the first in 11 years, seeking
to revamp the organisation's ability to react to security crises.
(AFP, 12/1/10)(Econ, 12/4/10, p.54)
2010 Dec 1, Kuwait began
hosting a two-day conference to try to attract aid and investment to
resource-rich but neglected east Sudan.
(AFP, 11/30/10)
2010 Dec 1, In southern Nigeria
a gun battle between police and armed robbers left seven people
dead, including a policeman and three passersby.
(AFP, 12/3/10)
2010 Dec 1, In Peru a tourist
bus collided head-on with a truck loaded with cement, killing 4
travelers from Belgium and one from the Netherlands as well as both
drivers in the southern Chacachaca area. 28 people were injured.
(AP, 12/1/10)
2010 Dec 1, In the Philippines
suspected communist guerrillas seized a passenger bus then opened
fire on pursuing government forces in a running gunbattle that
killed at least four people in San Francisco town, Quezon province.
(AP, 12/1/10)
2010 Dec 1, Portugal suffered
another blow when its borrowing costs rose sharply in a government
Treasury bill auction, but officials insisted the debt-ridden
country could survive without an international bailout.
(Reuters, 12/1/10)
2010 Dec 1, Russia’s PM
Vladimir Putin warned that his country will find it necessary to
build up its nuclear forces, if the United State's doesn't ratify a
new arms reduction treaty.
(AP, 12/1/10)
2010 Dec 1, South African white
farmer Attie Potgieter (40), his wife Wilna (36) and their
3-year-old daughter were murdered on their farm in Lindley. 6 men
were later charged with the murders. Attie was slashed over 150
times.
(Econ, 9/17/11, p.48)(http://tinyurl.com/3ru3qom)
2010 Dec 1, On World AIDS Day
South Africa counted the world’s largest HIV-positive population
with an estimated 5.7 million people infected, over 11% of its 50
million people.
(SFC, 12/2/10, p.A9)
2010 Dec 1, Spain said it will
sell off a third of its national lottery business, partially
privatize airports and cut both a key jobless benefit and taxes for
small companies in an unexpected move to soothe market fears about
debt.
(AP, 12/1/10)
2010 Dec 1, Spain’s Interior
Ministry said police over the last 24 hours have arrested seven
people in Spain and three in Thailand in an international operation
against a group suspected of forging passports for an
al-Qaida-linked Islamic terrorist group.
(AP, 12/1/10)
2010 Dec 1, In southern Sudan
northern-backed militias ambushed its army killing 10 soldiers and
two civilians in the latest hike in north-south tensions ahead of a
January 9 vote on southern independence.
(Reuters, 12/2/10)
2010 Dec 1, Turkey’s PM Recep
Tayyip Erdogan said a US diplomat who reported claims in a State
Department memo that he has Swiss bank accounts should be punished
for making a false allegation. A classified cable, released this
week by WikiLeaks and dated Dec. 30, 2004, from then-U.S. Ambassador
Eric Edelman said: "We have heard from two contacts that Erdogan has
eight accounts in Swiss banks; his explanations that his wealth
comes from the wedding presents guests gave his son and that a
Turkish businessman is paying the educational expenses of all four
Erdogan children in the U.S. purely altruistically are lame."
(AP, 12/1/10)
2010 Dec 1, The UN said it is
seeking $530 million for aid projects in Somalia next year, and it
called the country's 20 years of strife a catastrophe that is "as
urgent as ever."
(AP, 12/1/10)
2010 Dec 1, The UN named 3
Rwandan rebel leaders and a Congolese military officer, suspected of
recruiting child soldiers and other abuses, on its worldwide travel
ban and assets freeze aimed at stemming widespread violence in
Congo.
(AP, 12/2/10)
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