Today in History - March 15
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The Ides of March. In the ancient Roman calendar the 15th day of March, May, July and Oct. or the 13th day of the other months.
(HFA, '96, p.26)(AHD, p.654)
World Consumer Rights Day (see 1962)
( http://www.consumersinternational.org/our-work/wcrd/ )
For Asia History: https://www.asiaobserver.org/category/news/on-this-day-in-asian-history
44BC Mar 15, Roman Emperor Julius Caesar (b.100BC) was murdered by Brutus, Cassius and other conspirators on the Ides of March. Caesar had defeated Pompey in battle and had Pompey murdered in 48BCE. He was perceived as a big threat to the Roman Aristocracy and so his murder was supported by Cicero and most Romans. In 2006 Adrian Goldsworthy authored “Caesar: Life of a Colossus."
(ATC, p.24)(AP, 3/15/97)(WSJ, 10/24/06, p.D6)
493 Mar 15, Theodoric the Great beat Odoacer of Italy. Odoacer, German army leader, King of Italy (476-93), died. [see Mar 3]
(MC, 3/15/02)
933 Mar 15, Henry the Fowler routed the raiding Magyars at Merseburg, Germany.
(HN, 3/15/99)
963 Mar 15, Romanus II (25), Byzantine emperor (959-63), died.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1360 Mar 15, French invasion army landed on English south coast and conquered Winchel.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1382 Mar 15, Conservative "Popolo Grasso" regained power in Florence, Italy.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1391 Mar 15, A Jew-hating monk in Seville, Spain, stirred up a mob to attack Jews.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1493 Mar 15, Christopher Columbus returned to Spain, concluding his first voyage to the Western Hemisphere.
(AP, 3/15/97)(HN, 3/15/98)
1580 Mar 15, Spanish king Philip II put 25,000 gold coins on head of Prince William of Orange.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1626 Mar 15, In Bolivia the Potosi (San Ildefonso) dam collapsed. It was one of the major hydraulic disasters in the world with some 4,000 human lives lost.
(http://tinyurl.com/pgorcx2)
1672 Mar 15, England’s King Charles II enacted a 2nd Declaration of Indulgence.
(http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1327117)
1713 Mar 15, Nicolas Louis de Lacaille, astronomer who mapped the Southern Hemisphere, was born.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1767 Mar 15, Andrew Jackson (d.1845), seventh President of the United States known as "Old Hickory," was born in Waxhaw, South Carolina. The first American president to be born in a log cabin, Jackson was a hero of the War of 1812, an Indian fighter and a Tennessee lawyer. Neither a particularly intelligent man nor a wise one, Jackson became the symbol of his age by being the right man believing in the right things at the right time. Success was a race, Jackson believed, and the government’s primary responsibility was to guarantee that every man got a fair chance at winning. Jackson’s administration (1829-37) saw the development of modern-style political parties and changes in the voting laws that nearly tripled the electorate. He died June 8, 1845. In 1997 Max Byrd wrote “Jackson," a biographical novel.
(AP, 3/15/97)(WSJ, 5/14/97, p.A20) (HNPD, 3/15/99)
1778 Mar 15, In command of two frigates, the Frenchman la Perouse sailed east from Botany Bay for the last lap of his voyage around the world.
(HN, 3/15/99)
1778 Mar 15, Nootka Sound, Vancouver Island, was discovered by Captain Cook.
(HN, 3/15/98)(MC, 3/15/02)
1781 Mar 15, Gen. Nathanael Greene engaged British forces under Cornwallis at Guilford Court-House, North Carolina. Greene retreated after inflicting severe casualties on Cornwallis’ army.
(ON, 12/01, p.10)
1808 Mar 15, Gaetano Gaspari, composer, was born.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1809 Mar 15, Joseph Jenkins Roberts, first president of Liberia, was born.
(HN, 3/15/98)
1813 Mar 15, John Snow (d.1858), obstetrician, was born in York, England. He worked on the epidemiology of cholera.
(ON, 5/05, p.8)(www.johnsnowsociety.org/johnsnow/facts.html)
1820 Mar 15, Maine, a province of Massachusetts since 1647, became the 23rd state. Maine entered the Union as a free state and helped maintain the balance in the US Senate, that would have been disrupted by the entrance of Missouri Territory into the Union as a slave state.
(AP, 3/15/97)
1821 Mar 15, Josef Loschmidt (d.1895), a pioneer of 19th-century physics and chemistry, was born in Putschim (Pocerny), Bohemia. In his first publication (1861) Loschmidt proposed the first structural chemical formulae for many important molecules, introducing markings for double and triple carbon bonds. In 1865 he became the first person to use the kinetic theory of gases to obtain a reasonably good value for the diameter of a molecule. What we call "Avogadro's number" is, in German-speaking countries, called "Loschmidt's number."
(www.physicstoday.org/pt/vol-54/iss-3/p45.html)
1842 Mar 15, Maria Luigi Cherubini (81), Italian composer (Dies Irae), died.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1848 Mar 15, In San Francisco the Californian newsspaper ran a filler on Page 3 about a horse race at Mission Dolores. Below it appeared another filler: “Gold Mine Found," which described a gold find at Sutter’s Mill on the American Fork.
(SFC, 7/12/14, p.C2)
1848 Mar 15, In Hungary an uprising against Habsburg rule began in front of the national museum in Budapest. This was later remembered as a national holiday.
(Reuters, 3/15/07)(Econ, 3/24/12, p.52)
1854 Mar 15, Emil von Behring, first recipient of the Nobel Prize for medicine in 1901, was born.
(HN, 3/15/99)
1855 Mar 15, Louisiana established the 1st health board to regulate quarantine.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1858 Mar 15, Pope Pius IX elevated deacon Teodolfo Cardinal Mertel to the status of cardinal.
(http://tinyurl.com/hy46re2)(Econ, 7/30/16, p.48)
1862 Mar 15, General John Hunt Morgan began four days of raids near the city of Gallatin, Tenn. "The Yankees will never take me a prisoner again," vowed Confederate General John Hunt Morgan.
(HN, 3/15/98)
1864 Mar 15, Red River Campaign began as the Union forces reached Alexandria, La.
(HN, 3/15/98)
1865 Mar 15, Lincoln delivered his Second Inaugural Address. In 2002 Ronald C. White Jr. authored “Lincoln’s Greatest Speech: The Second Inaugural."
(HFA, ‘96, p.28)(WSJ, 2/8/02, p.W9)
1869 Mar 15, Cincinnati Red Stockings became the 1st pro baseball team.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1874 Mar 15, Harold L. Ickes, New Deal politician, was born.
(HN, 3/15/98)
1875 Mar 15, John McCloskey, Roman Catholic archbishop of New York, was named the first American cardinal by Pope Pius IX.
(AP, 3/15/97)
1892 Mar 15, New York State unveiled the new automatic ballot voting machine.
(HN, 3/15/98)
1892 Mar 15, Jesse W. Reno, inventor, patented the 1st escalator in NYC.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1895 Mar 15, Bone Mizell, the famed cowboy of Florida, appeared before a judge for altering cattle brands.
(HN, 3/15/00)
1895 Mar 15, Fridtjof Nansen and Hjalmar Johansen left their ship Fram in an attempt to reach the North Pole by dogsled. [see Jun 17, 1896]
(ON, 7/05, p.5)
1903 Mar 15, The British completed the conquest of Nigeria, 500,000 square miles are now controlled by the United Kingdom.
(HN, 3/15/99)
1904 Mar 15, Three hundred Russians were killed as the Japanese shelled Port Arthur in Korea.
(HN, 3/15/98)
1905 Mar 15, Berthold Schenck von Stauffenberg was born. He later attempted to assassinate Hitler.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1907 Mar 15-1907 Mar 16, Finland held elections and Finnish women became the first in the world to attain full political rights.
(http://electionresources.org/fi/)
1907 Mar 15, Finland became the 1st European country to give women the right to vote. [see Mar 7, 1906]
(MC, 3/15/02)
1908 Mar 15, 1st performance of Maurice Ravel's "Rhapsodie Espagnole."
(MC, 3/15/02)
1909 Mar 15, Italy proposed a European conference on the Balkans.
(HN, 3/15/98)
1912 Mar 15, Yuan Shih-kai succeeded Sun Yat-sen as President of the Republic of China.
(HN, 3/15/98)
1909 Mar 15, Jonas Zemaitis was born in Palanga. He was a founder of the Lithuanian independence movement and served as presidium head. He was shot to death in Moscow Nov 26, 1954.
(LHC, 3/15/03)
1913 Mar 15, President Wilson met with reporters for what's been described as the first presidential press conference. Some sources say Wilson's first actual press conference was a week later.
(AP, 3/15/97)
1915 Mar 15, Thomas Robert Bard (b.1841), US Republican Senator from Ventura, California (1900-1905), died. In 1871 he laid out the town of Hueneme and built a wharf there. Bard was born in Chambersburg, Pa., and came to California in 1864.
(www.bioguide.congress)
1916 Mar 15, Harry James (d.1983), American band leader and trumpet player, was born, He is best remembered for his hit "You Made Me Love You." He married Betty Grable
(HN, 3/15/99)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_James)
1916 Mar 15, General Pershing and his 15,000 troops chased Pancho Villa into Mexico. US troops pursued the guerillas, killing 50 on US soil and 70 more in Mexico. General Pershing failed to capture the Villa dead or alive. Villa was assassinated at Parral in 1923.
(HN, 3/15/98)(MC, 3/15/02)
1917 Mar 15, William D. Stephens (1859-1944) began serving as the 24th governor of California and continued to Jan 8, 1923.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Stephens)
1917 Mar 15, Nicholas II, last Russian tsar, said he will abdicate.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1918 Mar 15, Richard Ellmann, US literary scholar, writer (Oscar Wilde), was born.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1919 Mar 15-17, The American Legion was founded in Paris by members of the American Expeditionary Force.
(AP, 3/15/97)(www.legion.org/)
1922 Mar 15, Sultan Fuad I issued whereby he changed his title from Sultan of Egypt to King of Egypt.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuad_I_of_Egypt)
1922 Mar 15, France was willing to accept raw material instead of currency for German reparations.
(HN, 3/15/98)
1923 Mar 15, An ambassador's conference set the demarcation line between Lithuania and Poland as a national border, which Lithuania did not recognize.
(LHC, 3/15/03)
1923 Mar 15, Lenin was felled by his 3rd stroke.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1924 Mar 15, Sweden recognized the USSR
(HN, 3/15/98)
1928 Mar 15, Nicolas Flagello, composer, was born.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1928 Mar 15, Mussolini modified the Italy electoral system. [see May 12]
(MC, 3/15/02)
1930 Mar 15, The USS Nautilus, the 1st streamlined submarine of US Navy, was launched.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1933 Mar 15, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, U.S. Supreme Court Justice, was born.
(HN, 3/16/01)
1933 Mar 15, The NAACP began a coordinated attack on segregation and discrimination.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1934 Mar 15, Henry Ford restored the $5 a day wage.
(HN, 3/15/98)
1935 Mar 15, Joseph Goebbels, German Minister of Propaganda banned four Berlin newspapers.
(HN, 3/15/98)
1937 Mar 15, The 1st state contraceptive clinic opened in Raleigh, NC.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1937 Mar 15, H.P. Lovecraft (b.1890), author of horror tales whose works included "The Color out of Space," died in Providence, RI.
(HN, 8/20/98)(SSFC, 2/27/05, p.B1)
1939 Mar 15, Germany occupied Bohemia and Moravia, Czechoslovakia. Slovakia became independent
(Voruta #27-28, Jul 1996, p.2)(WSJ, 12/12/96, p.A13)(HN, 3/15/98)(MC, 3/15/02)
1940 Mar 15, Reichsmarshal Herman Goering said 100-200 church bells are enough for Germany and smelted the rest.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1941 Mar 15, A blizzard in North Dakota killed 151. [see Mar 16]
(MC, 3/15/02)
1941 Mar 15, Philippine Airlines maid its maiden flight from Manila to Baguio.
(SFC, 9/24/98, p.A19)
1942 Mar 15, Alexander van Zemlinsky (70), Austrian-US composer (African Dance), died.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1943 Mar 15, In Thessaloniki, Greece, occupying German forces began founding up the first batch of Jews in Eleftherias (Freedom) Square. By August 1943, 46,091 Jews had been deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Of those, 1,950 survived.
(AP, 3/16/13)
1944 March 15, In Algiers, the provisional government merged the Office Français d'Information and France-Afrique, thus forming Agence Française de Presse (AFP).
(www.afp.com)
1944 Mar 15, Allied bombers again raided German-held Monte Cassino, Italy.
(AP, 3/15/07)
1944 Mar 15, Otto von Below (86), German commandant (WW I), died.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1945 Mar 15, Bing Cosby and Ingrid Bergman were winners in the 17th Academy Awards along with the film "Going my Way."
(MC, 3/15/02)
1945 Mar 15, Pierre Drieu La Rochelle (b.1893), a well-known French collaborationist and fascist writer, committed suicide.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Drieu_La_Rochelle)(Econ, 4/26/14, p.84)
1946 Mar 15, British premier Clement Attlee agreed with India's right to independence.
(https://tinyurl.com/3jtmpt9d)
1949 Mar 15, Almost four years after the end of World War II, clothes rationing in Great Britain ends.
(HN, 3/15/99)
1950 Mar 15, "Consul" opened at Barrymore Theater in NYC.
(www.ibdb.com/venue.asp?ID=1147)
1951 Mar 15, General de Lattre demanded that Paris send him more troops for the fight in Indochina (Vietnam).
(HN, 3/15/98)
1951 Mar 15, Persia nationalized the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1954 Mar 15, The "CBS Morning Show" premiered with Walter Cronkite (1916-2009) and Jack Paar (1918-2004).
(NYT, 3/14/54, p.x15)(www.imdb.com/title/tt0046627/episodes)
1955 Mar 15, The U.S. Air Force unveiled a self-guided missile.
(HN, 3/15/98)
1956 Mar 15, The Lerner and Loewe musical "My Fair Lady" opened starring Julie Andrews and Rex Harrison at the Mark Hellinger Theater in NYC for 2,715 performances.
(AP, 3/15/97)(HN, 3/15/02)
1957 Mar 15, Burton Abbot was executed for the 1955 abduction and killing of 14-year-old Stephanie Bryan.
(SFEC, 11/17/96, p.C17)
1960 Mar 15, Ten nations met in Geneva to discuss disarmament.
(HN, 3/15/98)
1961 Mar 15, In San Francisco a 12-ton statue of St. Francis, created by Benny Bufano, was removed from the front of St. Francis of Assisi Church at 610 Vallejo St. and taken to Oakland.
(SSFC, 3/13/11, DB p.42)
1961 Mar 15, South Africa withdrew from British Commonwealth.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1962 Mar 15, Richard Rodger's musical "No Strings," premiered in NYC for 580 performances.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1962 Mar 15, US President John F Kennedy gave an address to Congress in which he formally addressed the issue of consumer rights. He was the first world leader to do so. World Consumer Rights Day (WCRD) was first observed on March 15, 1983, and has since become an important occasion for mobilizing citizen action.
(http://www.consumersinternational.org/our-work/wcrd/)
1962 Mar 15, A US Lockheed Super H Constellation disappeared above the Pacific Ocean and 107 people were killed. The aircraft was transporting 93 Army men and 3 South Vietnamese from Travis Air Force Base, California to Saigon, Vietnam. It was en route to Clark Air Base in the Philippines when it disappeared.
(SSFC, 3/11/12, DBp.42)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_Tiger_Line_Flight_739)
1964 Mar 15, Actress Elizabeth Taylor married actor Richard Burton in Montreal; it was her fifth marriage, his second.
(AP, 3/15/97)
1964 Mar 15, LBJ asked for a War on Poverty and for Congress to ensure everybody's right to vote. [see Mar 16]
(MC, 3/15/02)
1964 Mar 15, Cambodia was receiving military aid from Communist China.
(HN, 3/15/98)
1965 Mar 15, Addressing a joint session of Congress, President Johnson called for new legislation to guarantee every American's right to vote. His speech was written by Richard Goodwin. In 2007 Garth E. Pauley authored “LBJ’s American Promise: the 1965 Voting Rights Address."
(AP, 3/15/97)(WSJ, 4/12/08, p.W8)(AH, 10/07, p.65)
1965 Mar 15, T.G.I. Friday's 1st restaurant opened in NYC.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1965 Mar 15, Gamal Abdel Nasser was re-elected Egyptian President.
(HN, 3/15/99)
1966 Mar 15, Abe Saperstein, founder of the Harlem Globetrotters, died.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1967 Mar 15, LBJ named Ellsworth Bunker as the new ambassador to Saigon, South Vietnam. Bunker replaced Lodge.
(HN, 3/15/98)
1967 Mar 15, Texas lawyer Herb Kelleher and businessman Rollin King incorporated Southwest Airlines initially as "Air Southwest Co." Kelleher and King faced four years of setbacks and legal challenges from competitors that culminated in winning key cases before the Supreme Court of the United States in December 1970 and the Supreme Court of Texas in June 1971. The first flights finally took off on June 18, 1971.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herb_Kelleher)
1968 Mar 15, The U.S. mint halted the practice of buying and selling gold.
(HN, 3/15/98)
1968 Mar 15, American intelligence noted withdrawal of major NVA units from the Khe Sanh area.
(www.geocities.com/Pentagon/4867/timeline.html)
1969 Mar 15, A violent Chinese-Russian border dispute left 100s dead.
(www.jstor.org/pss/1957173)
1970 Mar 15, "Purlie" opened at Broadway Theater in NYC. In December it moved to the Winter Garden Theater and in March 1971 to the ANTA Playhouse where it closed in November after a total of 688 performances.
(www.ibdb.com/production.php?id=3514)
1970 Mar 15, Expo '70, promoting "Progress and Harmony for Mankind," opened in Osaka, Japan. The ‘70 Expo featured the Multiscreen Corporation production of the film Tiger Child.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 216)(Hem., 3/97, p.81)(AP, 3/15/08)
1974 Mar 15, In Brazil General Ernesto Geisel (1907-1996) became president and ruled for 5 years. He gradually ended political repression, lifted press censorship and allowed political exiles to return. Under his rule the foreign debt doubled to $43 billion.
(SFC, 9/13/96, p.E2)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernesto_Geisel)
1975 Mar 15, Ted Bundy victim Julie Cunningham (26) disappeared from Vail, Colo.
(www.crimenews2000.com/memorial/00052902pg8.htm)
1975 Mar 15, Aristotle Onassis (69) Greek shipping magnate died near Paris.
(AP, 3/15/97)
1977 Mar 15, The U.S. House of Representatives began a 90-day test to determine the feasibility of showing its sessions on television.
(AP, 3/15/97)
1979 Mar 15, In Brazil Gen. Joao Baptista Figueiredo (d.1999 at 81) began serving as president and continued to 1985. Aureliano Chaves (d.2003 at 74) served as VP. Figueiredo was the last of 5 generals to rule during the 1964-1985 dictatorship. He oversaw the transition to democracy begun by his predecessor Ernesto Geisel. Inflation during his rule rose from 43% a year to 230% a year when he left office.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jo%C3%A3o_Baptista_de_Oliveira_Figueiredo)(SFC, 12/25/99, p.B4)(SFC, 5/2/03, p.A26)
1981 Mar 15, Fernando Belmontes (19) killed Steacy McConnell (19) during a robbery in Victor, just east of Lodi, Ca. He hit her 15-20 times with an iron dumbbell. In 2006 the US Supreme Court reinstated his death sentence.
{California, Murder, USA}
(SFC, 11/14/06, p.B3)(www.cjlf.org/releases/06-18.htm)
1981 Mar 15, Rene Clair (b.1898), French director (It Happened Tomorrow), died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ren%C3%A9_Clair)
1982 Mar 15, Actress Theresa Saldana (b.1954) was stalked and stabbed by Arthur Jackson. She had starred in Martin Scorsese’s 1980 film "Raging Bull." Jackson was convicted of 2nd degree attempted murder and served 12 years. He was then extradited to England for wounding 2 tellers and killing a man who tried to stop a bank robbery in the Chelsea section of London in 1966. In 1994 Ronald Markman and Ron Labrecque authored “Obsessed: The Stalking of Theresa Soldana."
(SFC, 6/22/96, p.E3)(http://tinyurl.com/2sz4cq)
1983 Mar 15, World Consumer Rights Day (WCRD) was first observed. US President John F Kennedy gave an address to Congress on March 15, 1962, in which he formally addressed the issue of consumer rights. He was the first world leader to do so.
(http://www.consumersinternational.org/our-work/wcrd/)
1983 Mar 15, Rebecca West (born in 1892 as Cicily Fairfield), British writer, died. Her books included "The Return of the Soldier" (1918) and "Black Lamb and Grey Falcon," which was written following a trip through Yugoslavia. She had a relationship with H.G. Wells that led to the birth of a son, Anthony. In 1996 Carl Rollyson wrote her biography: "Rebecca West: A Life." Her pen name came from a character in Ibsen’s play "Rosmersholm." In 2000 the "Selected Letters of Rebecca West" was edited by Bonnie Kime Scott. In 2003 Bernard Schweitzer edited and introduced her work "Survivors in Mexico."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebecca_West)(WSJ, 3/6/00, p.A28)(SSFC, 6/8/03, p.M3)
1984 Mar 15, The acquittal of a Miami police officer on charges of negligently killing a ghetto youth sparked a rampage by angry blacks in Miami; 550 people were arrested.
(http://tinyurl.com/39ow9d)
1986 Mar 15, The AMA ruled that euthanasia was ethical on coma patients.
(HN, 3/15/98)
1987 Mar 15, "Starlight Express" by Andrew Lloyd Weber, opened at Gershwin Theater in NYC for 761 performances. The initial production had opened at the Apollo Victoria Theatre in London on March 27 1984.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starlight_Express)
1987 Mar 15, Peggy Say, the sister of Terry Anderson, the Associated Press correspondent held hostage in Lebanon, said President Reagan was being "unjustly castigated" for his arms-for-hostages deal.
(AP, 3/15/97)
1988 Mar 15, Paul Simon defeated Jesse Jackson in the Illinois Democratic primary, while George Bush won a ringing victory over Bob Dole in the Republican contest.
(AP, 3/15/98)
1988 Mar 15, NFL owners approved the move of the St Louis Cardinals to Phoenix.
(www.sportsecyclopedia.com/nfl/az/cardsarizona.html)
1988 Mar 15, In southern California Joe Morgan (49), a former baseball star and Hall of Famer, was roughed up and handcuffed by LA police and a DEA agent, who mistook him for a drug suspect. A federal appeal court later reduced Morgan’s $540,000 damage award to between $190,000 and $340,000.
(SSFC, 9/10/17 DB p.54)
1989 Mar 15, Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev convened a two-day meeting of the Communist Party's Central Committee to decide on agricultural reforms.
(AP, 3/15/99)
1990 Mar 15, Iraq executed London-based journalist Farzad Bazoft, claiming he was a spy.
(AP, 3/15/00)
1990 Mar 15, The Israeli government of Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir lost a vote of confidence in the Knesset after Shamir refused to accept a U.S. plan for Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
(AP, 3/15/00)
1991 Mar 15, An indictment was unsealed in Los Angeles, charging four police officers with beating black motorist Rodney King.
(HN, 3/15/98)(AP, 3/15/01)
1991 Mar 15, Soviet pole vaulter Sergei Bubka cleared a record 20 feet during an international meet in San Sebastian, Spain.
(AP, 3/15/01)
1992 Mar 15, Democratic presidential candidates debated in Chicago, criticizing President George H.W. Bush's handling of the Persian Gulf War and its aftermath, and clashing over economic issues.
(AP, 3/15/97)
1992 Mar 15, The United Nations officially embarked on its largest peacekeeping operation with the arrival of a diplomat in Cambodia. The UN peacekeeping mission in Cambodia soon began running a radio station to disseminate reliable information before elections.
(AP, 3/15/97)(Economist, 9/1/12, p.51)
1993 Mar 15, Searchers found the body of the sixth and last missing victim of the World Trade Center bombing in New York.
(AP, 3/15/98)
1993 Mar 15, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin met at the White House with President Clinton, after which Rabin offered to negotiate the return of part of the Golan Heights to Syria.
(AP, 3/15/98)
1994 Mar 15, Illinois Congressman Dan Rostenkowski, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, defeated four Democratic primary challengers in his bid for re-election.
(AP, 3/15/99)
1995 Mar 15, President Clinton issued an executive order formally blocking a $1 billion contract between Conoco and Iran to develop a huge offshore oil tract in the Persian Gulf.
(AP, 3/15/00)
1996 Mar 15, The Liggett Group agreed to repay more than $10 million in Medicaid bills for treatment of smokers, settling lawsuits with five states. The settlement came two days after Liggett, the nation's fifth-largest tobacco company, made history by settling a private class-action lawsuit alleging cigarette makers manipulated nicotine to hook smokers.
(AP, 3/15/97)
1996 Mar 15, Helen Chadwick (42), British artist, died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Chadwick)
1997 Mar 15, An art show that featured 13 oil paintings by Dr. Kevorkian opened in Royal Oak, Mich. They depicted severed heads, moldering skulls and rotting corpses.
(SFC, 3/17/97, p.A2)
1997 Mar 15, President Clinton spent a second day at Bethesda Naval Medical Center, recuperating from surgery for a partially torn knee tendon.
(AP, 3/15/98)
1997 Mar 15, Greek frogmen and U.S. Marines evacuated hundreds of foreigners trapped in Albania after that country's descent into anarchy.
(AP, 3/15/98)
1997 Mar 15, German soldiers, while rescuing foreigners, opened fire under hostile conditions in Albania. This was their first active combat since WW II.
(SFC, 3/17/97, p.C1)
1997 Mar 15, The Moscow paper Komsomolskaya Pravda reported in an article by Robert Bykov, retired Russian colonel, that an accidental nuclear launch could happen at any time due to the aged and unreliability of the command-an-control equipment.
(WSJ, 3/28/97, p.A16)
1997 Mar 15, In Zaire rebel soldiers occupied Kisangani.
(SFC, 3/17/97, p.A8)
1998 Mar 15, CBS' "60 Minutes" aired an interview with former White House employee Kathleen Willey, who said President Clinton had made unwelcome sexual advances toward her in the Oval Office in 1993, a charge denied by the president.
(AP, 3/15/99)
1998 Mar 15, Dr. Benjamin Spock (b.1903), whose child care guidance spanned half a century, died in San Diego at 94. He was the author of the 1946 “Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care."
(SFC, 3/17/98, p.A5)(AP, 3/15/99)
1998 Mar 15, Random drug testing at all Malaysian schools was to be instituted with urine testing equipment.
(SFC, 3/16/98, p.A9)
1999 Mar 15, Bruce Springsteen, Paul McCartney, Billy Joel and Dusty Springfield were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
(AP, 3/15/00)
1999 Mar 15, The US prison population was reported at 1.8 million with 668 inmates per 100,000 residents.
(SFC, 3/15/99, p.A2)
1999 Mar 15, In Bourbonnais, Ill., the "City of New Orleans" Amtrak train derailed after hitting a truck loaded with steel. The truck was driven by John Stokes and 11 people were killed and 119 injured. A witness testified that Stokes tried to go around the crossing gates to beat the train, but the testimony was later reported as mistaken.
(SFC, 3/16/99, p.A3)(SFC, 3/17/99, p.A1)(WSJ, 3/17/99, p.A1)(SFC, 3/17/99, p.A3)(SFC, 3/18/99, p.A3)(SFC, 3/20/99, p.A10)
1999 Mar 15, In Ecuador the banks reopened as taxi drivers protested the doubling of gas prices.
(SFC, 3/16/99, p.A9)
1999 Mar 15, Eritrea claimed to have shot down an Ethiopian MiG-23 and to have destroyed 19 tanks. Ethiopia denied the claims.
(SFC, 3/16/99, p.A9)
1999 Mar 15, All 20 members of the EU executive body, the European Commission led by Jacques Santer, resigned in the wake of charges of fraud, corruption and mismanagement.
(SFC, 3/16/99, p.A1)(Econ, 9/13/03, p.50)
1999 Mar 15, In Haiti a UN helicopter crashed in the mountains and 13 people were killed. They included 6 Argentines, 6 Russians and 1 American.
(SFC, 3/16/99, p.A9)
1999 Mar 15, In Indonesia the government closed 38 banks, took over 7, and agreed to bail out 9 in an attempt to revitalize the financial system.
(WSJ, 3/15/99, p.A13)
1999 Mar 15, The Kosovar Albanian delegation to peace talks in Paris said it was ready to sign an international accord for Kosovo. In Kosovo the ethnic Albanians gave a written pledge to sign a peace proposal.
(SFC, 3/16/99, p.A8)(AP, 3/15/00)
1999 Mar 15, In Northern Ireland Rosemary Nelson (40), a Catholic human rights lawyer, was killed by a car bomb in Lurgan.
(SFC, 3/16/99, p.A8)
1999 Mar 15, Pluto again became the outermost planet.
(MC, 3/15/02)
2000 Mar 15, Their presidential nominations secured, Al Gore and George W. Bush dug in for the eight-month battle to Election Day, with Bush saying he was braced for Gore’s “politics of personal destruction and distortions," and Gore arguing that Bush’s “risky tax scheme" would hurt the economy.
(AP, 3/15/01)
2000 Mar 15, Paleontologist Daniel Gebo announced the discovery of bones from 2 tiny primates, the size of a human thumb, that lived 42 million years ago in Shanghuang, China.
(SFC, 3/16/00, p.A1)
2000 Mar 15, In Michigan 4 teens beat to death and robbed Willie Jones (66) as he left the Michigan Lanes Bowling Alley in Grand Rapids. The teens then stuffed Jones into their car trunk and drove around town to show him off.
(SFC, 3/20/00, p.A11)
2000 Mar 15, Darrell Keith Rich (45), serial killer, was executed at San Quentin, Ca. His was the 8th execution in the state since the reinstitution of the death penalty.
(SFC, 3/15/00, p.A1)(SFC, 12/13/05, p.A13)
2000 Mar 15, Durward Kirby (b.1912), TV funnyman ("Candid Camera" and "The Garry Moore Show") died at age 87 in Fort Myers, Florida.
(AP, 3/15/01)
2000 Mar 15, A UN Security Council panel accused governments of Africa and Europe of violating sanctions against the UNITA rebels in Angola.
(SFC, 3/16/00, p.A14)
2000 Mar 15, Canada passed the Clarity Act, which set out a procedure for the government to negotiate with any province that votes for independence by a clear majority.
(www.cric.ca/en_html/guide/clarity/clarity_act.html)(Econ, 1/14/06, p.18)
2000 Mar 16, Emergency food aid was planned for Ethiopia after it was learned that 53 children under age 5 had died of malnutrition in one town.
(SFC, 3/16/00, p.A16)
2000 Mar 15, In Iraq US and British warplanes hit southern targets and Iraq reported that one civilian was killed and 6 injured.
(SFC, 3/16/00, p.A15)
2000 Mar 15, In Israel the security cabinet approved a troop pullout from 6.1% of the West Bank as Hezbollah fired rockets at Israeli positions in southern Lebanon and northern Israel. The areas to be ceded included several Palestinian villages and towns near Ramallah, Bethlehem and Hebron.
(WSJ, 3/16/00, p.A1)(SFC, 3/16/00, p.A14)
2000 Mar 15, In Kosovo US troops raided 5 locations in southeastern Kosovo and seized large quantities of arms and ammunition from militant Albanians.
(SFC, 3/16/00, p.A16)
2000 Mar 15, In Liberia the government closed 2 leading independent radio stations saying they posed a security risk.
(SFC, 3/16/00, p.A15)
2000 Mar 15, The IMF announced that Ukraine had provided false data on its currency reserves between 1996 and 1998 in order to get 3 loans approved.
(SFC, 3/16/00, p.A15)
2001 Mar 15, Federal authorities confirmed that remains found on a Texas ranch were those of missing atheist leader Madalyn Murray O'Hair and two of her relatives. David Waters, the key suspect in the slayings, was sentenced to 20 years in prison on a federal extortion charge in connection with the case.
(AP, 3/15/06)
2001 Mar 15, Ann Sothern (92), film and TV actress, died in Ketchum, Idaho. Her work included 64 movies and over 175 TV episodes.
(SFC, 3/17/01, p.A23)(AP, 3/15/02)
2001 Mar 15, Australia’s HIH Insurance, the country’s 2nd largest insurance firm, was forced into liquidation. This led to a revision of regulatory oversight.
(Econ, 5/28/11, SR p.5)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HIH_Insurance)
2001 Mar 15, In Brazil a Petrobras oil-platform explosion killed 1 worker and left 9 missing at the 40-story offshore facility. The platform was in danger of sinking.
(WSJ, 3/16/01, p.A1)(SFC, 3/17/01, p.A11)
2001 Mar 15, Britain announced plans to slaughter up to 100,000 more animals due to possible contacts with foot-and-mouth disease virus.
(SFC, 3/16/01, p.A15)
2001 Mar 15, Chechen men, wielding knives and claiming to have a bomb, hijacked a Russian plane carrying 174 people after it left Turkey and forced it to land in the holy Saudi city of Medina. Saudi special forces stormed the plane the following day; a flight attendant, a passenger and a hijacker were killed.
(SFC, 3/16/01, p.A14)(AP, 3/15/02)
2001 Mar 15, In India defense minister George Fernandes resigned in a corruption scandal.
(SFC, 3/16/01, p.A16)
2001 Mar 15, Israel arrested 3 members of an elite Palestinian security force who allegedly planned a bomb attack on Israeli West Bank military headquarters.
(SFC, 3/16/01, p.A14)
2001 Mar 15, In Macedonia Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski said that a direct involvement of Nato troops might be required to stem rebel attacks.
(SFC, 3/16/01, p.A14)
2001 Mar 15, In the Philippines 10 police officers were sentenced to death for accepting $13,265 in bribes from alleged drug dealers in 1999.
(SFC, 3/16/01, p.A16)
2001 Mar 15, A St. Maarten registered boat carrying illegal migrants sank near St. Martin and at least 20 people were killed.
(SFC, 3/16/01, p.A16)
2002 Mar 15, Disney opened its new $532.9 million movie-themed park adjacent to Disneyland Paris.
(WSJ, 3/12/02, p.B1)
2002 Mar 15, Adm. Zinni, US envoy, met with Yasser Arafat in Ramallah and demanded that he reign in militants and enforced a cease fire.
(SFC, 3/16/02, p.A7)
2002 Mar 15, China allowed 25 North Korean asylum seekers to leave the Spanish Embassy in Beijing for South Korea by way of the Philippines.
(WSJ, 3/18/02, p.A1)
2003 Mar 15, Many thousands of anti-war demonstrators marched in SF, Washington DC and around the world against plans for a war with Iraq.
(SFC, 3/16/03, p.A1)(AP, 3/15/08)
2002 Mar 15, A Houston jury spared Andrea Yates’ life after prosecutors stopped short of demanding the death penalty for the tormented mother who’d drowned her five children in the bathtub. Yates was sentenced to life in prison; however, she was later acquitted by reason of insanity in a retrial.
(AP, 3/15/07)
2002 Mar 15, In Lewisville, Texas, Jackson Carr (6) was killed and buried by his older sister (15) and brother (10). His body was found the next day.
(SFC, 4/17/02, p.A5)
2002 Mar 15, Sylvester “Pat" Weaver (93), TV pioneer, died in Santa Barbara, Calif. He had created NBC’s “Today" and “Tonight" shows.
(AP, 3/15/07)
2003 Mar 15, In Chechnya 6 Russian soldiers were killed by rebel fire and mines. Attackers destroyed 2 polling stations ahead of the Mar 23 constitutional referendum.
(SFC, 3/17/03, p.A4)
2003 Mar 15, Hu Jintao was chosen to replace Jiang Zemin as the president of China.
(AP, 3/15/04)
2003 Mar 15, In Pakistan authorities near Lahore arrested Yassir al-Jaziri, a suspected key al-Qaeda figure.
(SFC, 3/16/03, p.A1)
2004 Mar 15, The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted Prince, Bob Seger, Jackson Browne and George Harrison along with ZZ Top, Traffic and the Dells.
(SFC, 3/16/04, p.A2)
2004 Mar 15, Missouri jurors agreed that vapors from butter flavoring at the microwave popcorn factory had permanently ruined the lungs of Eric Peoples. The verdict was against International Flavors and Fragrances Inc. and its subsidiary Bush Boake Allen Inc. The flavoring manufacturers were ordered to pay $18 million to Peoples and $2 million to his wife.
(AP, 3/16/04)
2004 Mar 15, Ohio police identified Charles A. McCoy Jr. (28) as the gunman in two dozen highway shootings that have terrorized motorists for months.
(AP, 3/16/04)(SFC, 3/18/04, p.A4)
2004 Mar 15, Bank of America and FleetBoston Financial agreed to pay $675 million in fines and fee cuts to settle improper mutual-fund trading. Some 13,000 job cuts were expected following the merger of the 2 companies.
(WSJ, 3/16/04, p.A1)(WSJ, 3/17/04, p.A1)
2004 Mar 15, The Bill Gates Foundation donated $47 million to private agencies carrying out AIDS prevention programs in India.
(SFC, 3/16/04, p.A2)
2004 Mar 15, Martha Stewart resigned from the board of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia 10 days after being convicted in a stock scandal.
(AP, 3/15/05)
2004 Mar 15, A new computer worm, named "Phatbot," began appearing in the Asia-Pacific region. Most call it a variation of the longstanding Gaobot or Agobot family, and sometimes as Polybot. When the worm is run, it sets the system to autostart the worm at boot time; attempts to terminate security software running on the computer; and probes network shares in an attempt to spread itself.
(AP, 3/17/04)
2004 Mar 15, Scientists announced the discovery of a new planetoid named Sedna. The frozen, shiny red world is some 8 billion miles from Earth, the most distant known object in the solar system. Some placed it in the outer periphery of a region called the Oort Cloud.
(AP, 3/16/04)(SFC, 3/16/04, p.A1)
2004 Mar 15, The WHO reported that drug-resistant strains of tuberculosis had reached troubling levels in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.
(WSJ, 3/16/04, p.A1)
2004 Mar 15, The U.S. military said it released 23 Afghan and three Pakistani citizens from the U.S. Navy prison for terrorist suspects in Cuba, leaving about 610 still in detention.
(AP, 3/16/04)
2004 Mar 15, Canadian National Railway reached a tentative agreement with the Canadian Auto Workers union that could end a 3½-week-old strike by 5,000 employees.
(AP, 3/15/04)
2004 Mar 15, Georgia's President Mikhail Saakashvili put trade restrictions on Adzharia after Aslan Abashidze ignored a deadline to accept federal authority.
(AP, 3/14/04)
2004 Mar 15, Iran relented and decided to allow a visit at the end of this month, after temporarily freezing out international nuclear inspectors.
(AP, 3/15/04)
2004 Mar 15, In Iraq 4 American missionary relief workers were killed in a drive-by shooting in Mosul.
(SFC, 3/16/04, p.A14)(AP, 3/15/05)
2004 Mar 15, Israeli helicopters attacked two suspected Hamas weapons workshops in Gaza City and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon called off a summit with his Palestinian counterpart.
(AP, 3/15/04)
2004 Mar 15, Ousted Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide left his temporary exile in Africa and flew to Jamaica despite opposition to his presence in the Caribbean.
(AP, 3/15/04)
2004 Mar 15, Pakistani police diffused a large bomb inside a van parked in front of the US Consulate in Karachi.
(SFC, 3/16/04, p.A3)
2004 Mar 15, In Saudi Arabia authorities killed Khaled Ali Haj, a Yemeni, and Ibrahim bin Abdul-Aziz bin Mohammed al-Mezeini, a Saudi. Haj, who also uses the name Abu Hazim al-Sha'ir, was the "most dangerous" al-Qaeda operative in the region. Haj was third on the government's list of Saudi Arabia's 26 most wanted militants.
(AP, 3/16/04)
2004 Mar 15, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, the leader of Spain's victorious Socialists, said he will withdraw his nation's support for the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq.
(AP, 3/15/04)
2004 Mar 15, In Venezuela opponents of President Hugo Chavez celebrated a Supreme Court ruling that signatures on petitions seeking a presidential recall vote were valid unless citizens disclaim them.
(AP, 3/16/04)
2005 Mar 15, A US Senate investigators released a new report that said 9 US banks, including Citigroup, Bank of America, and Riggs Bank, enabled Augusto Pinochet, former Chilean dictator, and family members to build a secret network of accounts to conceal his wealth. DC-based Riggs Bank merged with PNC Financial following the inquiry, which also revealed that Pinochet and Obiang Nguema, president of Equatorial Guinea, had stashed millions in private accounts there.
(WSJ, 3/16/05, p.A2)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riggs_Bank)(Econ, 3/14/09, p.63)
2005 Mar 15, The US charged 18 people with a scheme to smuggle shoulder-fired missiles and other military gear from former Soviet states. One person was still at large.
(WSJ, 3/16/05, p.A1)
2005 Mar 15, A NY federal jury found Bernard Ebbers (63), former head of WorldCom, guilty on all 9 counts against him, including securities fraud, conspiracy and lying to regulators. He was later sentenced to 25 years in prison.
(SFC, 3/16/05, p.C1)(AP, 3/15/06)
2005 Mar 15, British and Spanish scientists reported that they have discovered how green tea helps to prevent certain types of cancer. They showed that a compound called EGCG in green tea prevents cancer cells from growing by binding to a specific enzyme.
(AP, 3/15/05)
2005 Mar 15, It was noted that Israeli researchers had found that pomegranate juice, 8 ounces a day, helps lower cholesterol.
(WSJ, 3/15/05, p.D4)(WSJ, 4/5/05, p.D4)
2005 Mar 15, Bolivia's embattled President Carlos Mesa asked the country's legislature to authorize an early presidential election this summer, saying he can no longer govern among growing protests and road blockades.
(AP, 3/16/05)
2005 Mar 15, Hong Kong press reported that Zhang Enzhou was removed as president of China Construction Bank (CCB), China’s 3rd largest bank, allegedly for taking bribes.
(Econ, 3/19/05, p.79)
2005 Mar 15, A French court gave the maximum 10-year prison sentence to Djamel Beghal (39), the ringleader of an alleged plot to send a suicide bomber into the US Embassy in Paris. The court also sentenced 5 other defendants in the case to 1-9 year prison terms. Beghal testified that his confession of a plan to send a suicide bomber into the U.S. Embassy was obtained under torture after his July 2001 arrest in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. He was extradited to France two months later and retracted that confession.
(AP, 3/15/05)
2005 Mar 15, Three car bombs exploded in Baghdad, killing at least 5 people.
(AP, 3/15/05)
2005 Mar 15, Pres. Berlusconi announced that Italy would begin pulling its 3,300 troops out of Iraq in September. The next day he said the withdrawal date was merely a hope.
(AP, 3/16/05)(Econ, 3/19/05, p.56)
2005 Mar 15, Pakistan issued release orders for 589 Indian prisoners as a gesture of goodwill towards New Delhi.
(Reuters, 3/15/05)
2005 Mar 15, In the Philippines some of the country's most hardened terror suspects were killed in a failed prison uprising that left 28 people dead. The inmates at Camp Bagong Diwa in suburban Manila had agreed to surrender after their failed jailbreak a day earlier, but the deal broke down when they demanded food first.
(AP, 3/15/05)
2006 Mar 15, The US FCC proposed a record fine of $3.6 million against dozens of CBS stations and affiliates in a crackdown on indecent television programming.
(SFC, 3/16/06, p.A2)
2006 Mar 15, US federal authorities announced charges against 27 people in an Int’l. Internet child-porn scheme.
(SFC, 3/16/06, p.A7)
2006 Mar 15, Veteran musher Jeff King drove his dog team into the Bering Sea town of Nome, Alaska, to capture the 1,100-mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, the world's premier dog-sled event, for the fourth time.
(AP, 3/15/06)
2006 Mar 15, Lawrence Edward Woods (60), a transient with 2 guns, shot and killed 2 people inside a Denny’s restaurant in Pismo Beach, Ca. He wounded 2 others and then killed himself.
(SFC, 3/16/06, p.B5)
2006 Mar 15, Afghan authorities said preliminary test results from a U.N. lab left them "99 percent certain" that the country's first bird flu outbreak was the deadly H5N1 strain.
(AP, 3/15/06)
2006 Mar 15, Britain's Queen Elizabeth II was greeted with protests, as well as pomp, when she arrived in the southern Australian city Melbourne to open the Commonwealth Games.
(AP, 3/15/06)
2006 Mar 15, Officials in Azerbaijan said a dog had died of bird flu in Baku on Mar 9. 3 human victims, who died over the past few weeks, were thought to have been infected through contact with birds.
(AP, 3/15/06)
2006 Mar 15, A British serviceman facing his first day of a court martial contended that the war in Iraq is illegal. Flight Lt. Malcolm Kendall-Smith, a Royal Air Force medic, is the first British officer accused of refusing to serve in Iraq.
(AP, 3/15/06)
2006 Mar 15, In China 8 aphorisms by Pres. Hu Jintao were issued on a $1 poster with plain, black Chinese characters above a photo of the Great Wall: Love, do not harm the motherland. Serve, don't disserve the people. Uphold science; don't be ignorant and unenlightened. Work hard; don't be lazy and hate work. Be united and help each other; don't gain benefits at the expense of others. Be honest and trustworthy, not profit-mongering at the expense of your values. Be disciplined and law-abiding instead of chaotic and lawless. Know plain living and hard struggle, do not wallow in luxuries and pleasures.
(AP, 3/16/06)
2006 Mar 15, In southwest China a boat carrying people home from a fair capsized while crossing a river leaving at least 27 dead.
(AP, 3/15/06)
2006 Mar 15, It was reported that the Dominican Republic is looking to Washington for help recovering at least $80 million in damages from a US utility it accuses of dumping thousands of tons of coal ash on the country's beaches, sickening residents and harming the tourism industry. The government says 82,000 tons of coal ash were shipped from an AES plant in Guayama, Puerto Rico, and left on beaches in Manzanillo and the Samana Bay port town of Arroyo Barril between October 2003 and March 2004 without proper government permits.
(AP, 3/15/06)
2006 Mar 15, Alfredo Castillo, Ecuador's interior minister, resigned as protests over a US free trade plan spread from the Andean highlands to the oil-producing southeast jungle, where police clashed with demonstrators. His comments appeared to support the protesters and showed disloyalty to Pres. Palacio.
(AP, 3/15/06)
2006 Mar 15, In France a suspected gangland-style car explosion killed one man and injured another on a highway north of Paris.
(AP, 3/15/06)
2006 Mar 15, In Indonesia protesters, demanding the closure of a US-owned gold mine in Papua, clashed with police in the second day of violent protests in the province.
(AP, 3/15/06)
2006 Mar 15, Saddam Hussein, testifying for the first time in his trial, called on Iraqis to stop killing each other and instead fight US troops; the judge reprimanded him for making a rambling, political speech and ordered the TV cameras switched off. US forces bombed a house during a raid north of Baghdad, killing 13 people, mostly women and children, while insurgent attacks elsewhere left four dead. In Baqouba, a suicide bomber on a bicycle missed a police patrol and killed at least two civilians. Interior Ministry officials announced another driving ban, from 8 p.m. Mar 15 to 4 p.m. Mar 16, to protect against car and suicide bombs while the Iraqi parliament meets for the first session since the Dec. 15 election. On June 3 the US military said that it had found no wrongdoing by American troops accused of intentionally killing civilians during a raid in Ishaqi village north of Baghdad. In 2011 the Iraqi government revived a probe into allegations that US forces shot and killed civilians.
(AP, 3/15/06)(AP, 6/3/06)(AP, 3/15/07)(AP, 9/2/11)
2006 Mar 15, In Ivory Coast Guillaume Soro, a leader of the rebel New Forces, joined a national unity government as minister of development.
(SFC, 3/16/06, p.A3)
2006 Mar 15, It was reported that Japanese scientists had unveiled a robotic fish that could one day be used to observe fish in the ocean or survey oil platforms for damage.
(Reuters, 3/15/06)
2006 Mar 15, In Japan 4 people suspected of committing group suicide were found dead inside a parked car.
(AP, 3/15/06)
2006 Mar 15, In the Netherlands 2 Bosnian Muslim army commanders were convicted of war crimes for failing to rein in foreign Muslim volunteers who murdered and tortured Bosnian Croats and Serbs in a 1990s "holy war."
(AP, 3/16/06)
2006 Mar 15, Palestinian militants released the last four foreigners they had seized a day earlier to protest an Israeli military raid on a West Bank prison. Meanwhile, Palestinian PM Mahmoud Abbas called the raid an "unforgivable crime."
(AP, 3/15/06)
2006 Mar 15, South Korea formally opened new immigration checkpoints for travelers crossing the heavily fortified border with North Korea, symbolizing Seoul's hopes for boosting exchanges with its longtime communist foe.
(AP, 3/15/06)
2006 Mar 15, Gunmen attacked a compound of the UN refugee agency in the town of Yei in southern Sudan, killing one person and critically wounding two others.
(AP, 3/16/06)
2006 Mar 15, Sweden recorded its first case of the deadly H5N1 bird flu strain, saying European laboratory tests confirm two wild birds found dead in the southeast were infected with the virus.
(AP, 3/15/06)
2007 Mar 15, In the US Senate Republicans easily turned back Democratic legislation requiring a troop withdrawal from Iraq to begin within 120 days.
(AP, 3/15/08)
2007 Mar 15, A revised transcript was released by the US military that said suspected 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed confessed to the beheading of American journalist Daniel Pearl and a central role in 30 other attacks and plots in the US and worldwide that killed thousands of victims.
(AP, 3/15/07)
2007 Mar 15, Standard & Poor's said an increase in US homes for sale as a result of subprime loan borrowers defaulting on their mortgages, in addition to less construction of new homes, is likely to depress gross domestic product growth.
(Reuters, 3/15/07)
2007 Mar 15, Cisco said it has acquired WebEx Communications for $3.2 billion in cash.
(SFC, 3/16/07, p.C1)
2007 Mar 15, In Sacramento, Ca., a fire burned hundreds of feet of a railroad trestle at the American River causing part of the bridge to collapse. This halted passenger and freight traffic on Amtrak and the Union Pacific lines on the main east-west route in Northern California.
(SFC, 3/16/07, p.A2)
2007 Mar 15, Scientists said a spacecraft orbiting Mars has scanned huge deposits of water ice at its south pole so plentiful they would blanket the planet in 36 feet of water if they were liquid.
(Reuters, 3/15/07)
2007 Mar 15, Stuart Rosenberg (79), a prolific director of series television and theatrical films, died at his home in Beverly Hills. He had partnered with Paul Newman on the widely popular prison drama "Cool Hand Luke" and several other movies.
(AP, 3/19/07)
2007 Mar 15, Bowie Kuhn (80), former baseball commissioner died in Jacksonville, Fla.
(AP, 3/15/08)
2007 Mar 15, US-led coalition forces mistakenly killed five Afghan police in a clash in a southern province.
(AP, 3/16/07)
2007 Mar 15, Interpol said it plans to issue international requests for the arrest of five prominent Iranians and a Lebanese militant in connection with the 1994 bombing of a Jewish cultural center in Argentina.
(AP, 3/15/07)
2007 Mar 15, Bulgaria, Russia and Greece signed a deal in Athens to build a 175-mile pipeline to transport Russian oil to a port in northern Greece.
(AP, 3/15/07)
2007 Mar 15, Human Rights Watch released a report that said Children in Burundi suffer serious abuses in prison, including torture, rape and food shortages, in a criminal justice system that treats them as adults.
(AP, 3/15/07)
2007 Mar 15, China expressed "deep regret" over a US decision to punish a Macau bank for allegedly helping North Korea launder money, foreshadowing the difficulties of enforcing an international agreement on the North's nuclear disarmament.
(AP, 3/15/07)
2007 Mar 15, A UN report said Colombian security forces killed civilians in several states last year and falsely labeled many as leftist rebels slain in combat.
(AP, 3/15/07)
2007 Mar 15, The EU said it would put pressure on members of the Southeast Asian regional grouping ASEAN at talks in Germany to urge Myanmar to improve its human rights record.
(AP, 3/15/07)
2007 Mar 15, A French court convicted a doctor in the poisoning death of a terminally ill cancer patient, in a trial that has raised the issue of euthanasia in France's presidential race.
(AP, 3/15/07)
2007 Mar 15, It was reported that the Pascha brothel in Cologne, Germany, hopes to capitalize on the growing number of retirees by offering a 50% discount for sex in the afternoon.
(AP, 3/15/07)
2007 Mar 15, In Hungary thousands of people protested against Socialist PM Ferenc Gyurcsany at ceremonies to mark the country's national holiday, demanding his resignation and shouting "traitor."
(AP, 3/15/07)
2007 Mar 15, Communist rebels armed with rifles, hand grenades and petrol bombs attacked a police post in the jungles of eastern India, killing at least 55 officers. In eastern India farmers angry over plans to build an industrial park on their land torched a government office in a second day of unrest that has claimed 14 lives.
(AP, 3/15/07)(AP, 3/16/07)
2007 Mar 15, The six world powers reached an agreement on a draft resolution for a new package of sanctions against Iran for its nuclear program. It included an embargo on arms exports and an asset freeze on more individuals and companies associated with Tehran's nuclear and missile programs.
(AP, 3/15/07)
2007 Mar 15, A suicide car bomber apparently targeting a senior city official struck an Iraqi military checkpoint in a Shiite neighborhood in Baghdad, killing at least eight people. In Iskandariyah a bomb in a parked car exploded as a bus packed with workers passed by, killing at least four and wounding 24. The top official in Baghdad's Sadr City was seriously wounded when gunmen ambushed his convoy in eastern Baghdad, killing two of his bodyguards. A US soldier was killed in an explosion in Salahuddin province.
(AP, 3/15/07)(AP, 3/16/07)
2007 Mar 15, Jordan's military court sentenced to death four Iraqi al-Qaida militants charged with terror attacks on Jordanians in Iraq. Of the four, only one is in custody while the other three remain at large and were tried in absentia.
(AP, 3/15/07)
2007 Mar 15, The European Commission and the UN Development Program said Malaysia should empower its forest-dependent indigenous people to alleviate poverty and safeguard their environment.
(AP, 3/15/07)
2007 Mar 15, Mexican Federal agents seized the cash, eight luxury vehicles, seven weapons and a machine to make pills during a raid at a house in Lomas de Chapultepec. The attorney general later said the $206 million in cash seized was connected to one of the hemisphere's largest networks for trafficking pseudoephedrine, the main ingredient in methamphetamines. The ring had been operating since 2004 and was run by a native of China who had gained Mexican citizenship. A recount put the cashed seized to over $207 million.
(AP, 3/17/07)(AP, 3/22/07)
2007 Mar 15, Montenegro signed a stabilization and association agreement (SAA), usually the first step toward EU membership.
(Econ, 3/24/07, p.60)
2007 Mar 15, Nigeria’s electoral commission barred Vice President Atiku Abubakar from crucial elections, omitting his name from the roster of two dozen approved candidates. In southern Nigeria militants released two Italian oil workers who were kidnapped more than three months ago.
(AP, 3/15/07)(AFP, 3/15/07)
2007 Mar 15, The rival Hamas and Fatah movements formed a long-elusive unity government, hoping to end bloody infighting and lead the Palestinians out of yearlong international isolation. Israel immediately said that it would not deal with the new government.
(AP, 3/15/07)
2007 Mar 15, In St. Petersburg Nikolai Zavadsky, the husband of a late curator at Russia's most famous museum, was convicted in the theft of dozens of art objects and sentenced to five years in prison. He was also ordered to pay $283,000 in damages to the Hermitage.
(AP, 3/15/07)
2007 Mar 15, In Somalia a bomb blast destroyed two houses near Mogadishu, killing seven people, including four children.
(AP, 3/16/07)
2007 Mar 15, Spain’s Parliament passed a gender-equality bill aimed at getting more Spanish women into elected office and corporate boardrooms, and more men heating baby bottles and changing diapers.
(AP, 3/15/07)
2007 Mar 15, A rights group said Mukhammadali Karabayev, an Uzbek opposition activist, has been sentenced to six years in prison on extortion and fraud charges amid a sweeping crackdown on dissent in the tightly controlled ex-Soviet republic.
(AP, 3/15/07)
2007 Mar 15, A defiant Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe told his critics of his government to "go hang" themselves in his first response to the arrest and assault of opposition chief Morgan Tsvangirai. Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete went into talks with Mugabe following growing international condemnation of the crackdown on opposition demonstrators.
(AFP, 3/15/07)
2008 Mar 15, In NYC an apartment building on Manhattan’s East Side was crushed in a giant crane collapse that killed 7 people and injured 17.
(AP, 3/16/08)(SFC, 3/18/08, p.A2)
2008 Mar 15, It was reported that spores of Ug99, a wheat killing fungus that emerged in East Africa nearly 10 years ago, has been spread by winds into the Saudi Peninsula and South Asia.
(SFC, 3/15/08, p.B6)
2008 Mar 15, In Afghanistan a suicide car bomb attack near a convoy of international troops killed a 13-year-old Afghan child and wounded a soldier in Khost province. 3 militants were killed in the former Taliban stronghold of Musa Qala in Helmand province.
(AP, 3/15/08)(AFP, 3/16/08)
2008 Mar 15, In Albania 26 people, including several children, were killed and over 250 injured by a series of large explosions at an army base on the outskirts of the capital Tirana. The explosions began when workers were moving stocks of old Chinese and Soviet shells stored at the base. Some workers were repackaging 40-year-old Chinese-made shells to disguise their origin. In September Kosta Trebicka, a businessman turned whistle-blower, was killed when his jeep crashed on a remote mountain road.
(Reuters, 3/16/08)(AP, 3/18/08)(Econ, 10/11/08, p.71)
2008 Mar 15, Azerbaijan warned it would review relations with France, Russia and the US after they voted against a UN resolution calling on Armenia to pull out of Azerbaijani territory.
(AFP, 3/15/08)
2008 Mar 15, China's legislature re-elected Hu Jintao as president, giving him a second five-year term as leader of the world's most populous country. It also returned Hu as head of the Central Military Commission, the body overseeing the armed forces.
(AP, 3/15/08)
2008 Mar 15, China kept government workers confined to their offices and ordered tourists out of Tibet's capital while lines of soldiers sealed off streets where riots had erupted. A Tibetan exile group said at least 30 people were killed in protests a day earlier. Tibet's government-in-exile demanded the UN intervene to end what it called "urgent human rights violations" by China in the region following deadly protests.
(AP, 3/15/08)
2008 Mar 15, Congo’s foreign debt stood at $12 billion and interest payments consumed a large chunk of its budget.
(Econ, 3/15/08, SR p.12)
2008 Mar 15, In Iran hard-line allies of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad pulled ahead in Iran's parliamentary elections, according to partial results, but the president's conservative critics were making a strong showing that could unsettle his domination of the legislature.
(AP, 3/15/08)
2008 Mar 15, Iraqi security forces clashed with a breakaway faction of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army in Kut, leaving five dead and 15 wounded.
(AP, 3/15/08)
2008 Mar 15, Thousands of Italians marched in an anti-mafia protest and called on all citizens to take a public stand against Italy's powerful crime syndicates.
(Reuters, 3/15/08)
2008 Mar 15, Alitalia, Italy’s state-owned national airline, accepted a takeover offer worth $217 made by air France-KLM, a French-Dutch airline group. The Italian government accepted the offer on March 17.
(Econ, 3/22/08, p.73)
2008 Mar 15, In Japan Tony Blair, during a meeting of senior officials from the world's top 20 greenhouse gas emitters, urged the world's heaviest polluters including the United States, China and India to agree to binding emissions cuts, saying failure to act on global warming would be "unforgivably irresponsible."
(AP, 3/15/08)
2008 Mar 15, Vytautas Kernagis (57), popular Lithuanian singer, died of cancer.
(www.lzinios.lt/lt/2008-03-17.html)
2008 Mar 15, Officials said the main telecom operator in the United Arab Emirates, Etisalat, has launched mobile services in Nigeria, becoming the fifth operator there.
(AP, 3/15/08)
2008 Mar 15, In Nigeria a Wings Airline 19-seater aircraft went missing shortly after leaving Lagos for the Obudu Cattle Ranch in Cross River state. On Aug 30 hunters found the wreckage of the plane and the bodies of its three crew members.
(AFP, 9/3/08)
2008 Mar 15, In Pakistan a bomb struck an Italian restaurant crowded with foreigners, killing a Turkish aid worker and wounding at least 12 other people.
(AP, 3/16/08)
2008 Mar 15, Qatar-based investment company IAS International said it was undertaking a series of development projects in Central African Republic worth 1.6 billion dollars.
(AP, 3/15/08)
2008 Mar 15, In Qatar the consecration of the Church of Our Lady of the Rosary was held. This became Qatar’s first Roman Catholic church, ending decades of clandestine worship for tens of thousands of foreign workers. The $15 million, 2,700-seat church was built on land donated by Qatar's emir, Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani.
(AP, 3/14/08)(AP, 3/15/08)
2008 Mar 15, In southern Thailand a bomb exploded in the parking lot of an upscale hotel, killing two people and wounding 14 others.
(AP, 3/15/08)
2009 Mar 15, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said America's recession "probably" will end this year if the government succeeds in bolstering the banking system.
(AP, 3/16/09)
2009 Mar 15, The space shuttle Discovery and its crew of 7 launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fl., bound for the Int’l. Space Station. It carried the last set of solar wings to boost the station to full power.
(SFC, 3/16/09, p.A7)(SFC, 3/18/09, p.A5)
2009 Mar 15, The History Guild of Daly City dedicated its new museum located at the former John Daly Library, 6351 Mission Street, Ca. 94014, (650-757-7177).
(Opening Day Flyer, 3/15/09)
2009 Mar 15, American International Group said its executives will receive tens of millions of dollars in new bonuses, in order to meet a legal deadline, even though it received a taxpayer bailout of more than $170 billion dollars. The group of top executives getting bonuses will receive half of the $9.6 million now, with the average payment around $112,000. The large bulk of the payments at issue cover AIG Financial Products, the unit of the company that sold credit default swaps, the risky contracts that caused massive losses for the insurer.
(AP, 3/15/09)
2009 Mar 15, In Miami, Florida, a man shot four people to death at a family gathering, then went home and killed himself.
(AP, 3/15/09)
2009 Mar 15, Richard Masato Aoki (b.1938), former Japanese-American FBI informant (1961-1977) and early member of the Black Panthers (1967), died in Oakland, Ca., from complications relating to diabetes. He had given the Panthers some of their first guns.
(SFC, 8/20/12, p.A1)(http://tinyurl.com/9g5u4zn)(SFC, 9/8/12, p.C2)
2009 Mar 15, Actor Ron Silver (62) died in NYC. He had been fighting esophageal cancer for two years. Silver won a Tony Award as a take-no-prisoners Hollywood producer in David Mamet's "Speed-the-Plow" and did a political about-face from loyal Democrat to Republican activist after the Sept. 11 attacks.
(AP, 3/16/09)
2009 Mar 15, In Afghanistan US soldiers killed 5 militants in an operation about 60 kilometers (40 miles) west of Kandahar city. A blast in Nangarhar province killed four US soldiers. 3 Afghan civilians died from bombs in Kabul and Kandahar.
(AFP, 3/15/09)
2009 Mar 15, Belarus' authoritarian Pres. Lukashenko allowed a banned organization of ethnic Poles to meet for the first time in four years, sending a tentative signal of his willingness to relax his tight hold in exchange for warmer ties with the West. The Union of Poles has been banned since riot police were sent in to take over its headquarters in March 2005.
(AP, 3/15/09)
2009 Mar 15, In Abeche, Chad, UN forces took over command from EU peacekeepers to protect refugees and displaced people in Chad and the Central African Republic.
(AFP, 3/15/09)
2009 Mar 15, El Salvador's entrenched conservatives faced a stiff challenge from the party of former guerrillas in presidential elections. Mauricio Funes (b.1959), a leftist television journalist, made history by bringing the FMLN, a party of former guerrillas, to power for the first time since the end of a bloody civil war.
(AP, 3/15/09)(AP, 3/16/09)
2009 Mar 15, Germany's chancellor Angela Merkel called for greater government supervision of gun owners after a school shooting last week that killed 15 people.
(AP, 3/15/09)
2009 Mar 15, A German newspaper reported that Deutsche Post AG has paid a pension of euro20 million ($26 million) to Klaus Zumwinkel, the former CEO convicted of tax evasion.
(AP, 3/15/09)
2009 Mar 15, Thirty three pro-democracy legislators from Hong Kong crossed to Macao to confront the local government over banned visitors. 5 were immediately returned over “security reasons" and the rest were allowed to deliver a letter of protest.
(Econ, 3/21/09, p.43)
2009 Mar 15, In Hungary several thousand people held right wing, anti-government protests in Budapest during a national holiday. Police detained 35 people. The holiday commemorated the unsuccessful 1848 revolution against the Habsburgs.
(AP, 3/15/09)
2009 Mar 15, Northern Ireland's police commander said about 300 Irish Republican Army dissidents backed by "a few nutters and idiots" are trying to tear apart the peace process, as his detectives interrogated nine people over the killings of two soldiers and a policeman.
(AP, 3/15/09)
2009 Mar 15, Two Israeli police officers were shot and killed while traveling near the Jewish settlement of Massua in the West Bank. A few days later the Martyrs of Imad Mughniyeh said it was behind the shooting. The group is named after an assassinated Hezbollah mastermind. Israeli and Palestinian security officials said there is no such group. They believe rogue militants have used the fake name as cover to evade Israeli reprisals.
(SFC, 3/16/09, p.A2)(AP, 3/16/09)(AP, 3/17/09)
2009 Mar 15, In northern Mozambique a mob angered by false rumors that health workers were spreading cholera killed a Red Cross volunteer, two health workers and a policeman.
(AP, 3/17/09)
2009 Mar 15, Pakistan’s opposition leader Nawaz Sharif defied house arrest to lead anti-government protests that briefly turned violent before becoming a jubilant show of force against the country's pro-Western president. Suspected militants attacked a transport terminal in northwestern Pakistan used to supply NATO troops in Afghanistan before dawn and torched dozens of containers and military vehicles. A suspected US missile strike killed two Arabs and three other people in northwest Pakistan.
(AP, 3/15/09)
2009 Mar 15, Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev said that he will publicly declare his income and encouraged other officials to fight corruption by disclosing relatives' incomes and assets.
(AP, 3/15/09)
2009 Mar 15, In central Somalia clashes between rival Islamist militias killed at least 14 people over the last 2 days. Most of those killed were fighters for the al-Shabab group or its rival Ahlu-sunah Wal-jamea.
(AP, 3/15/09)
2009 Mar 15, Sri Lanka’s government forces overran a former Tamil Tiger police post, killing at least nine rebels and raising to 41 the number killed in weekend fighting.
(AFP, 3/15/09)
2009 Mar 15, Uganda began withdrawing troops hunting brutal Lord's Resistance Army rebels in neighboring Congo after the deadline for them to leave expired. Felix Kulaigye, a Ugandan military spokesman, said the operation had been a success, with around 100 rebels killed and more than 200 abductees rescued, and that Congo would continue the hunt.
(AP, 3/15/09)
2009 Mar 15, President Hugo Chavez dispatched the navy to Venezuela's seaports, warning that state governors who challenge a new law bringing transportation hubs under federal control could end up in prison. Chavez also said that Russian bombers would be welcome in Venezuela, but he denied that his country would offer Moscow its territory for a military base.
(AP, 3/15/09)
2009 Mar 15, In Yemen a bomb killed four South Korean tourists and their Yemeni guide, the latest attack targeting foreigners visiting this poor Arab country that has both famed historic sites and a strong al-Qaida presence. 12 Islamic suspects were soon arrested.
(AP, 3/16/09)(WSJ, 3/17/09, p.A1)
2010 Mar 15, Honda Motor Co. notified the NHTSA it will recall 410,000 Odyssey minivans and Element small trucks, from the 2007-2008 model years, due to braking system problems.
(SFC, 3/17/10, p.A9)
2010 Mar 15, In Afghanistan a rocket attack on Bagram Air Field killed one person. Afghan authorities in the eastern Paktika province prevented three would-be suicide bombers from attacking a security post in Barmal district. Six suspected Taliban also died after their vehicle hit a roadside bomb in Shah Wali Kot district in Kandahar province. 3 civilians were killed and 3 others were wounded when their vehicle hit a mine while they were moving household goods in Ghazni province. Fire from insurgents killed an Afghan child outside a NATO base in Kunar province.
(AP, 3/15/10)
2010 Mar 15, In Britain Louis Wainwright (18) and Nicholas Smith (19), both from Scunthorpe, were found dead at different addresses following a night out. They had both taken the drug mephedrone, sold online as plant food and also goes by the names meow meow, mcat and bubble. The deaths come a week after a secondary school in Leicestershire reported that 180 pupils had missed school after taking the drug, which can be bought for less than £10 a gram.
(AFP, 3/17/10)
2010 Mar 15, British and Italian doctors carried out groundbreaking surgery to rebuild the windpipe of a 10-year-old boy using stem cells developed within his own body. Doctors at London's Great Ormond Street children's hospital implanted the boy with a donor trachea, or windpipe, that had been stripped of its cells and injected with his own.
(AFP, 3/20/10)
2010 Mar 15, China’s state media said at least 94 people living near a lead factory, most of them children, have tested positive for lead poisoning, prompting authorities to order the closure of the Zhongyi Alloy Co. in Longchang county of Sichuan province's Neijiang city. Hundreds more people waited for test results.
(AP, 3/15/10)
2010 Mar 15, Israel’s Haaretz newspaper said Egyptian security officials have arrested Yotam Feldman, an Israeli journalist, as he tried to sneak across the porous Israeli-Egyptian border with African migrants. Feldman told his investigators he was reporting on African migrants sneaking into Israel from Egypt. Feldman returned home on March 22, saying he had been beaten in captivity and that some of his materials had been confiscated.
(AP, 3/15/10)(AP, 3/22/10)
2010 Mar 15, In Iraq the US military turned over the Taji prison holding some 2,900 detainees to Iraqi authorities. A suicide car bomber killed 8 people and wounded 28 others when his vehicle exploded in a busy street during the morning rush hour in Fallujah. In northern Iraq an American soldier died in a vehicle accident.
(AP, 3/15/10)(AFP, 3/15/10)(AP, 3/16/10)
2010 Mar 15, Irish police charged two men from Algeria and Libya with minor offenses following a weeklong investigation into Muslim extremists allegedly involved in efforts to kill a Swedish artist. Ali Charafe Damache (49) of Algeria was charged with sending a threatening text message. A Libyan who used the false name Abdul-Salam Mansour Al-Jehani was charged with immigration violations.
(AP, 3/15/10)
2010 Mar 15, Italian police arrested the "postmen" of the Mafia's top boss, 19 close aides who delivered the notes Matteo Messina Denaro writes to impart orders from his hideout.
(AP, 3/15/10)
2010 Mar 15, Mexican marines and Navy personnel announced they had launched a raid against an operations base run by the Zeta drug gang near Monterrey. A convoy of fleeing vehicles opened fire on a Marine helicopter following them. The Marines chased them down, some on foot, and killed eight suspects. Elsewhere in Chihuahua state, running gun battles in the tourist town of Creel left seven people dead and two seriously wounded. Farther south prosecutors reported the bodies of five men were found on the side of a highway. In the Gulf Coast town of Tierra Blanco some 90 city policemen were held for questioning about the kidnapping of undocumented Central American migrants.
(AP, 3/16/10)(SFC, 3/17/10, p.A2)
2010 Mar 15, Militants in Nigeria's oil-producing region detonated two car bombs near a government building in Warri where officials were discussing an amnesty deal, showing their resolve to resume attacks after an agreement to bring peace and economic benefits to the area unraveled. Nigeria's intelligence agency later accused Henry Okah, an alleged ex-leader of militant group MEND, of having wired the bombs.
(AP, 3/15/10)(AFP, 11/11/10)
2010 Mar 15, Pakistani police discovered a cache of bomb-making equipment and thousands of pounds of explosives in an empty Lahore shop where authorities said a string of attacks on the eastern city may have been plotted.
(AP, 3/15/10)
2010 Mar 15, At the CITES conference in Qatar a top official with the UN wildlife agency said the world has "failed miserably" at protecting tigers in the wild, bringing an animal that is a symbol for many cultures and religions to "the verge of extinction."
(AP, 3/15/10)
2010 Mar 15, Somalia's transitional government (TFG) and a faction of the country's moderate Ahlu Sunna Sufi sect signed a deal in Addis Ababa to jointly fight extremist elements in Somalia.
(AFP, 3/15/10)
2010 Mar 15, Thailand's PM Abhisit Vejjajiva, backed by a formidable military force, rejected an ultimatum to dissolve Parliament as tens of thousands of red-shirted protesters vowed to splatter the seat of government with their own blood if their demands weren't met.
(AP, 3/15/10)
2010 Mar 15, in Venezuela representatives of a leftist party asserted their independence from President Hugo Chavez, accepting a dissident politician into their ranks while demanding increased tolerance from their socialist leader.
(AP, 3/15/10)
2010 Mar 15, Yemen launched a 2nd day of strikes against al-Qaida hideouts. As many as 9 people were killed in the raids including some civilians.
(AP, 3/15/10)(AFP, 3/16/10)
2011 Mar 15, In California Evan O’Dorney (17) of Danville beat 39 other finalists to win the Intel Science Talent Search. His mathematics entry was titled “Continued Fraction Convergents and Linear fractional transformations."
(SFC, 3/16/11, p.C1)
2011 Mar 15, In Florida voters in a recall election ousted Miami Dade Mayor Carlos Álvarez and Commissioner Natacha Seijas after they supported a budget that raised taxes and salaries for county employees.
(SFC, 3/16/11, p.A7)
2011 Mar 15, Minnesota nurse William Melchert-Dinkel (b.1962) was convicted of two counts of encouraging suicide while he watched voyeuristically on a webcam. A judge found that he had intentionally advised two people to take their own lives. In 2014 the Minnesota Supreme Court struck down a section of the state’s assisted suicide law that makes it a crime to encourage someone to commit suicide. It remained a crime to assist in someone’s suicide.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Francis_Melchert-Dinkel)(SFC, 3/20/14, p.A6)
2011 Mar 15, The Afghan interior ministry announced that seven private security companies are being dissolved. "Based on our commitment to transparency and the rule of law, the private security companies have been informed that they have been dissolved because of their connection to officials of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan." The government ordered all private security companies to disband by March 21 next year. Two bombings killed a local legislator in Laghman province and a school principal in Nangarhar province.
(AFP, 3/15/11)
2011 Mar 15, Australia's remote Christmas Island detention centre was hit by a second night of riots, with up to 200 asylum seekers destroying closed-circuit television cameras.
(AFP, 3/15/11)
2011 Mar 15, Bahrain's king imposed a three-month state of emergency and gave the country's military chief wide authority to battle a pro-democracy uprising that has threatened the ruling monarchy and drawn in forces from around the Gulf. Saudi Sgt. Ahmed al-Raddadi was shot and killed by a protester in Manama.
(AP, 3/15/11)
2011 Mar 15, Egypt's interior minister dissolved the country's widely hated state security agency.
(AP, 3/15/11)
2011 Mar 15, Chancellor Angela Merkel said Germany will take seven of its 17 reactors offline for three months while the country reconsiders plans to extend the life of its nuclear power plants.
(AP, 3/15/11)
2011 Mar 15, In Haiti Danny Pye (29), a Christian pastor who runs an orphanage with his wife in the southern city of Jacmel, was released from jail held after being held without charges for five months. Judge Maxon Samdi initially jailed Pye last October over claims he took property from another group of missionaries.
(AP, 3/16/11)
2011 Mar 15, In Indonesia a small mail bomb addressed to a moderate Muslim leader exploded in Jakarta as police were trying to defuse it, wounding four people.
(AP, 3/15/11)
2011 Mar 15, In northern Iraq 2 top Kurdish politicians resigned from local government in what appeared to be a political maneuver to challenge Arabs for control of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk.
(AP, 3/15/11)
2011 Mar 15, The Israeli navy intercepted an Egyptian-bound ship carrying a large delivery of weapons off the Mediterranean coast, saying the arms had been sent by Syria to Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip. PM Netanyahu said the source of the weaponry was Iran.
(AP, 3/15/11)
2011 Mar 15, In Ivory Coast elected leader Alassane Ouattara extended an offer to former Pres. Laurent Gbagbo a national unity government, a fusion of their armed forces and a truth and reconciliation committee to avoid civil war.
(SFC, 3/16/11, p.A2)
2011 Mar 15, Japan faced a potential catastrophe after a quake-crippled nuclear power plant exploded and sent low levels of radiation floating toward Tokyo, prompting some people to flee the capital and others to stock up on essential supplies.
(Reuters, 3/15/11)
2011 Mar 15, In Kazakhstan several hundred people rallied near the presidential palace to urge the government to assist homeowners battling repossessions, and a few dozen were detained by police.
(AP, 3/15/11)
2011 Mar 15, Lebanon's Maronite bishops elected Archbishop Bechara el-Rai as the new patriarch for the Middle East's largest Catholic church.
(AP, 3/15/11)
2011 Mar 15, In Libya Gadhafi's military blasted rebels with airstrikes and bombardment from warships, tanks and artillery in an overwhelming display of firepower, trying for the first time to take back the city of Ajdabiya in the opposition's eastern heartland. Rebel fighters rushed to the front as mosques in the city broadcast pleas for help defending the city. Four NYT journalists were detained the northern port city of Ajdabiya where they were covering the retreat of rebels. The 4 journalists were released on March 21.
(AP, 3/15/11)(AP, 3/17/11)(Reuters, 3/21/11)
2011 Mar 15, Group of Eight (G8) powers shied away from imposing a no-fly zone to protect Libyans from assault by Kadhafi forces, laying it off to the UN Security Council. Flight restrictions sought by France and Britain were blocked by Russia and Germany.
(AFP, 3/15/11)
2011 Mar 15, Malaysia's government agreed to release some 35,000 imported Bibles seized by customs officials amid a dispute over their use of the word "Allah" as a translation for God. A statement assured Muslims that the announcement would not jeopardize their interests in an ongoing court case on whether non-Muslims have the constitutional right to use "Allah."
(AP, 3/15/11)
2011 Mar 15, In Mexico a convoy of gunmen chased their target into a home in the resort city of Acapulco and sprayed the residence with bullets, killing two small children and an elderly woman inside. Other attacks in Acapulco killed a total of eight people. Police in the resort city of Cancun found four bodies that had been set on fire. The Mexican army announced that soldiers had seized five metric tons of marijuana in the northern border city of Miguel Aleman.
(AP, 3/16/11)
2011 Mar 15, In Oman Sheik Ahmed bin Hamad al-Khalili, highest religious authority in the Persian Gulf kingdom, called for a nationwide alcohol ban and strict monitoring of health clubs in this Muslim country. Al-Khalili told state television that "drunk people are unproductive people who sink into vice."
(AP, 3/17/11)
2011 Mar 15, In Pakistan Qumar David (50), a Christian jailed for blasphemy, died of an alleged heart attack in Karachi Central Jail after complaining of chest pain. David was serving a 25-year prison term for blasphemy. His lawyer suspected the man had been murdered.
(AP, 3/16/11)
2011 Mar 15, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas proposed holding elections "as soon as possible" in order to end the divide within the national movement. Thousands of Palestinians thronged major squares in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank to deliver an impassioned appeal to their leaders to end the long-running feud that has divided the Palestinian people between two rival governments.
(AFP, 3/15/11)(AP, 3/15/11)
2011 Mar 15, In Somalia 13 people died in mortar attacks in Mogadishu.
(SFC, 3/16/11, p.A2)
2011 Mar 15, A Thailand court sentenced Thanthawut Taweewarodomkul (38), the administrator of an anti-government website, to 13 years in prison on charges of defaming the monarchy and violating the computer crime act.
(SFC, 3/16/11, p.A2)
2011 Mar 15, Uruguay said it has joined a string of South American nations in recognizing an independent Palestinian state.
(AP, 3/16/11)
2011 Mar 15, Human Rights Watch said that it has been forced to close its office in Uzbekistan after facing years of harassment by the Central Asian nation's authorities.
(AP, 3/15/11)
2011 Mar 15, In Yemen thousands poured onto the streets in the southern provinces of Taiz, Aden and Hadramawt. Pres. Saleh visited the governor of Marib province, who was stabbed and wounded by protesters a day earlier. Government supporters in al-Hudaydah set fire to the headquarters of the influential opposition Islah party, the main Sunni Islamist party.
(AP, 3/15/11)(AP, 3/16/11)(Econ, 9/27/14, p.48)
2012 Mar 15, In New Hampshire a federal judge declared a mistrial in the case of Beatrice Munyenyezi, a Rwanda woman who became a citizen in 2003. She was accused of lying to obtain her citizenship by denying her role in the 1994 Rwanda genocide.
(SFC, 3/16/12, p.A8)
2012 Mar 15, New research reportedly showed a link between an increase in the death of bees and insecticides, specifically the chemicals used to coat corn seeds. A study, titled "Assessment of the Environmental Exposure of Honeybees to Particulate Matter Containing Neonicotinoid Insecticides Coming from Corn Coated Seeds," was published in the American Chemical Society's Environmental Science & Technology journal, and provided insight into colony collapse disorder.
(ABCNews, 3/15/12)(Econ, 3/31/12, p.89)
2012 Mar 15, Afghan President Hamid Karzai demanded NATO troops immediately pull out of rural areas in the wake of the killing of 16 civilians. The Taliban broke off talks with the US. Karzai also said he now wants Afghan forces take the lead for countrywide security in 2013, a year ahead of schedule.
(AP, 3/15/12)
2012 Mar 15, Bahrain riot police fired tear gas, stun grenades and rubber bullets at protesters, who were marking the first anniversary of the deployment of a Saudi-led military force in Bahrain.
(AP, 3/15/12)
2012 Mar 15, Britain jailed 2 men who had posed as good Samaritans to steal from an injured Malaysian student, Asyraf Haziq Rosli (21), an infamous incident caught on camera during riots in London last year. Reece Donovan (22) was sentenced to a total of five years in jail for robbery, violent disorder and burglary offences. John Kafunda (22) was sentenced to three and a half years for robbery and nine months for violent disorder.
(AFP, 3/15/12)
2012 Mar 15, Chilean police used water cannons and tear gas to break up a march by thousands of students, the first protest this year by student groups whose demonstrations demanding education reform paralyzed major cities in 2011.
(AP, 3/16/12)
2012 Mar 15, In China Bo Xilai (62), the Communist Party secretary in Chongqing, was removed from his post. Critics had said his anti-corruption had parallels with the Cultural Revolution that gripped China from 1966-1976.
(SFC, 3/16/12, p.A5)
2012 Mar 15, In China Xu Ming, one of the richest people in China, was detained by a powerful body which investigates corruption within the ranks of the ruling Communist party. His company Shide Group sponsors a Chinese football club.
(AFP, 4/3/12)
2012 Mar 15, Cuban police evicted 13 dissidents from a church they had been occupying for two days demanding that Pope Benedict XVI air a list of grievances during his upcoming trip to the island. Cuba’s Cardinal Jaime Ortega called for the ouster.
(AP, 3/15/12)(SFC, 3/17/12, p.A2)
2012 Mar 15, Egypt's top prosecutor charged 75 people in connection with the deadly Feb 1 soccer riot last month in the Mediterranean city of Port Said in which authorities said fans were thrown to their death off the stadium walls and others killed by explosives as they tried to flee.
(AP, 3/15/12)
2012 Mar 15, Ethiopian forces entered archrival Eritrea and carried out what a government spokesman described as "a successful attack" against military posts.
(AP, 3/15/12)
2012 Mar 15, European Union nations agreed to ban financial transfers such as SWIFT payments to hundreds of Iranian firms and individuals blacklisted by the bloc over Tehran's contested nuclear drive.
(AFP, 3/15/12)
2012 Mar 15, France rejected weapons requests by the Syrian rebel forces, saying that arming the Syrian opposition could lead to catastrophic civil war.
(AP, 3/16/12)
2012 Mar 15, In southern France a gunman on a motorbike opened fire on three uniformed paratroopers at a bank machine in Montauban, killing two and critically wounding the other. Four days earlier, a gunman on a motorbike shot and killed another paratrooper in Toulouse, about 50 km (30 miles) away. The same caliber of weapon was used in both attacks.
(AP, 3/16/12)
2012 Mar 15, Gabon students demanding the payment of scholarships funds and police clashed in Libreville, leaving three people wounded.
(AFP, 3/15/12)
2012 Mar 15, In Guinea-Bissau soldiers and para-military troops were the first to vote in presidential elections, three days before the rest of the country.
(AFP, 3/15/12)
2012 Mar 15, In Iraq Amir Sarbut Zaidan al-Batawi (33), the bodyguard of Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi, died while under government detention. Authorities later said he died of kidney failure.
(AP, 3/22/12)
2012 Mar 15, Israeli aircraft and Gaza rocket squads traded strikes across the border as the Israeli prime minister blamed Iran for the violence from the Palestinian territory. A female Israeli soldier was stabbed on Jerusalem's light rail, and police apprehended a Palestinian suspect at a Jerusalem crossing into the West Bank.
(AP, 3/15/12)(AFP, 3/15/12)
2012 Mar 15, Kashmir scientists at Sher-i-Kashmir University said they have cloned a rare Himalayan goat, hoping to help increase the number of animals famed for their silky soft undercoats used to make pashmina wool, or cashmere.
(AP, 3/15/12)
2012 Mar 15, CH. Karchang, a Thailand construction giant, officially began work on the $3.5 billion dam at Xayaburi in northern Laos. A December agreement by the Mekong River Commission had called for further study on the environmental impacts of the dam.
(Econ, 5/5/12, p.43)(Econ, 9/7/13, p.40)
2012 Mar 15, Libya's stock market opened with a yawn, the first day of trading since the fall of Moamer Kadhafi, with turnover of less than $10,000. The LSM index closed at 1,473 points.
(AFP, 3/15/12)
2012 Mar 15, In Morocco a minister in the Islamist government called for a change to a law allowing a rapist to marry his victim after a teenager forced into such a union committed suicide. Amina al-Filali (16) drank rat poison last week in Larache, near Tangiers in the north, after being forced to marry the man who raped her.
(AFP, 3/15/12)
2012 Mar 15, Mozambique's Cahora Bassa dam denied cutting power to Zimbabwe, which had claimed the state-owned company had pulled the plug over unpaid bills totaling around $75 million.
(AFP, 3/15/12)
2012 Mar 15, In Nigeria gunmen raided a mainly Christian village in Kaduna State, killing 10 people, including a pastor and injuring four others.
(AFP, 3/17/12)
2012 Mar 15, A Norwegian military plane crashed killing all five people on board during an exercise in northern Sweden. Four men and one woman, all Norwegians, were on board the C-130 heading from Evenes, on Norway's Arctic coast, to the Swedish city of Kiruna.
(AP, 3/17/12)
2012 Mar 15, In Pakistan Swiss couple David Och and Daniela Widmer, held captive for nearly a year by the Taliban, turned up at an army post close to the Afghan border, claiming to have escaped from their captors. Taliban commanders said a ransom was paid in exchange for their release.
(AP, 3/15/12)
2012 Mar 15, In Puerto Rico a vintage cargo plane loaded with bread crashed in a lagoon near the international airport, killing the airline's owner and another crew member.
(AP, 3/15/12)
2012 Mar 15, South Korean author Kyung-sook Shin won Asia's most prestigious prize for literature for her novel "Please Look After Mom," about a family's guilty soul-searching after the disappearance of their elderly mother.
(AFP, 3/15/12)
2012 Mar 15, KORUS, a long-delayed free trade agreement between the United States and South Korea, took effect. It slashed tariffs, tightened intellectual property rights and opened up South Korea’s services market. The agreement won praise from the two countries' leaders and prompting rallies by supporters and opponents.
(AFP, 3/15/12)(Econ, 3/18/17, p.75)
2012 Mar 15, In Syria 23 mutilated corpses were found near Mazraat Wadi Khaled, west of the city of Idlib. The regime's bloody crackdown entered its second year to a rising world outcry. Violent clashes broke out overnight as rebels attacked army posts in the eastern region of Deir Ezzor (Deir el-Zour). State television showed tens of thousands of people waving Syrian flags and Assad's portrait in cities including Damascus, the second-largest city Aleppo and Latakia. Tanks and snipers besieged opposition areas, including the southern city of Daraa. At least 34 other people were killed in violence, mostly in Idlib province bordering Turkey.
(AFP, 3/15/12)(AP, 3/16/12)(AFP, 3/16/12)
2012 Mar 15, Turkey’s deputy prime minister said Syria has planted landmines near its border with Turkey along routes used by refugees fleeing the regime's deadly crackdown on dissent. The foreign ministry said Around 1,000 Syrian refugees, including a defecting general, flocked into Turkey in the last 24 hours.
(AFP, 3/15/12)
2012 Mar 15, Zambian ex-president Rupiah Banda denounced the dissolution of his former ruling Movement for Multi-Party Democracy as an attack on freedom and accused the new administration of persecuting him. The Movement for Multiparty Democracy, whose 20-year rule came to an end in September, was dissolved by the chief registrar of societies for owing 390 million kwacha ($75,876) in registration fees dating back to 1993.
(AFP, 3/15/12)(AFP, 6/26/12)
2013 Mar 15, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said the US is deploying 14 new ground-based missile interceptors in Alaska to counter renewed nuclear threats from North Korea and Iran. Hagel also said the US would shift some "resources," which he didn't specify, from the delayed Aegis anti-missile program in Europe.
(http://tinyurl.com/almlalu)
2013 Mar 15, SAC Capital agreed to pay the SEC a record $616 million to settle a long-standing probe into insider trading.
(Econ, 3/23/13, p.78)
2013 Mar 15, In Florida a small plane crashed near Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport killing all three men aboard.
(SSFC, 3/17/13, p.A8)
2013 Mar 15, In Brazil a new oil law that gives a greater share of royalty revenues from the country’s oil fields to non-producing states went into effect and producing states filed appeals against it with the Supreme Court.
(AP, 3/16/13)
2013 Mar 15, Three British Muslims, including a convert who was featured in a documentary about radical Islam, pleaded guilty to terrorism charges in London. Richard Dart (29), Imran Mahmood (21), and Jahangir Alom (26), were arrested last July and accused of traveling to Pakistan between 2010 and 2012 with the intention of committing terrorist acts.
(AP, 3/15/13)
2013 Mar 15, In Britain Dr. Davinderjit Bains, arrested last year, admitted 39 charges against 30 victims, including sexual assault, voyeurism and sexual activity with a child. He had used a Tieex 4GB Waterproof HD Spy Watch DVR, which has a camera on its face, to record assaults on patients at his practice in Royal Wootton Bassett in western England.
(AP, 3/15/13)
2013 Mar 15, A Canadian joint venture operating one of the world's largest gold mines and the government of the Dominican Republic reached an agreement to inspect the company's exports, ending a standoff that halted a shipment valued at nearly $12 million.
(AP, 3/16/13)
2013 Mar 15, In southwestern Chad over the last 24 hours at least 86 elephants, including 33 pregnant females, were killed by poachers for the ivory of their tusks.
(Econ, 4/20/13, p.47)
2013 Mar 15, In China Li Keqiang was confirmed as premier.
(AP, 3/15/13)
2013 Mar 15, A snowstorm in Hungary brought drifts 10 feet (3m) high and violent gusts of wind, forcing thousands of people to spend the night in their cars or emergency shelters after being stranded on a major highway.
(AP, 3/15/13)
2013 Mar 15, In India a Swiss woman (39) on a cycling trip in Madhya Pradesh state with her husband was gang-raped by eight men. On March 17 police arrested 5 men, who admitted to the attack. At least 2 others remained at large.
(AP, 3/16/13)(AP, 3/17/13)
2013 Mar 15, In Iraq protesters clashed with police trying to prevent them from reaching the Abu Hanifa mosque, the most venerated Sunni mosque in Baghdad, as sect members again massed for anti-government rallies in several Iraqi cities. Several people were reported injured.
(AP, 3/15/13)
2013 Mar 15, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu signed a coalition deal with rival parties to form the next government.
(AP, 3/15/13)
2013 Mar 15, In central Lebanon at least eight Syrians were killed and 29 were injured when the bus they were traveling in from Syria overturned in the mountains.
(AP, 3/15/13)
2013 Mar 15, In central Mexico a truck loaded with fireworks exploded during a religious procession in the rural village of Jesus Tepactepec, killing at least 13 people and injuring 154.
(AP, 3/16/13)
2013 Mar 15, North Korea blamed South Korea and the United States for cyber-attacks that temporarily shut down websites this week at a time of elevated tensions over the North's nuclear ambitions.
(AP, 3/15/13)
2013 Mar 15, In southern Pakistan a bomb blast just after midnight killed three people and wounded four others outside a cable TV office in Karachi.
(AP, 3/15/13)
2013 Mar 15, In Senegal lawyer El Hadj Amadou Sall said that his client, the son of Senegal's ex-president, is being unjustly accused. A special prosecutor charged with investigating the embezzlement of state funds has asked Karim Wade to justify a fortune that he estimates is worth up to 694 billion West African francs, equal to more than $1.3 billion.
(AP, 3/15/13)
2013 Mar 15, In Senegal 3 students set themselves on fire on the campus of the country’s largest university to protest changes in the way credits are being counted in the college's geography department. All 3 survived.
(AP, 3/15/13)
2013 Mar 15, In South Africa 24 people died when a bus veered off a road and rolled over near Cape Town.
(AP, 3/15/13)
2013 Mar 15, Gen. Salim Idris, the chief of Syria's main, Western-backed rebel group, marked the second anniversary of the start of the uprising against President Bashar Assad by pledging to fight until the "criminal" regime is gone. Leaders at a European Union summit failed to agree if they should send arms to the rebels.
(AP, 3/15/13)
2013 Mar 15, The head of a UN team investigating casualties from US drone strikes in Pakistan declared after a secret research trip to the country that the attacks violate Pakistan's sovereignty.
(AP, 3/15/13)
2014 Mar 15, Afghan President Hamid Karzai told the United States its soldiers can leave at the end of the year because his military, which already protects 93% of the country, was ready to take over entirely.
(AP, 3/15/14)
2014 Mar 15, In Algeria about 100 activists from a new anti-government movement staged a rare protest against the ailing Pres. Abdelaziz Bouteflika (77) and his decision to run for a fourth term. 3 men from the Arab community died in clashes with Mozabite Berbers in Ghardaia. Clashes first erupted in December and 5 Mozabites were killed before violence was stopped by a heavy police deployment in late January.
(AP, 3/15/14)(AP, 3/17/14)
2014 Mar 15, In Egypt gunmen shot dead six army officers near Cairo, the 2nd attack on Egyptian security forces in three days that the military has blamed on the Muslim Brotherhood of deposed Pres. Mohamed Mursi.
(Reuters, 3/15/14)
2014 Mar 15, In Guyana businessman Lennox La Cruz (50) was arrested on suspicion of killing his wife and four of his five children by locking them inside their home and setting it on fire the previous evening.
(AP, 3/15/14)
2014 Mar 15, In Lebanon 10 people were reported killed in the last 48 hours of clashes in Tripoli linked to the conflict in neighboring Syria.
(Reuters, 3/15/14)
2014 Mar 15, Malaysia’s PM Najib Razak said the missing Malaysian Flight 370 was deliberately diverted and continued flying for more than six hours after severing contact with the ground on March 8.
(AP, 3/15/14)
2014 Mar 15, In central Nigeria some 40 assailants armed with guns and machetes stormed the villages of Angwan Gata, Chenshyi and Angwan Sankwai, attacking locals in their sleep and torching their homes on Kaduna state. The overnight attacks left at least 100 dead. Local residents, mostly Christians, blamed the bloodshed on Muslim Fulani herdsmen.
(AFP, 3/16/14)
2014 Mar 15, In Nigeria at least 20 people were killed and dozens were injured in Abuja after thousands of panicked job-seekers stampeded during a government recruitment drive at the national stadium.
(AFP, 3/15/14)(AFP, 2/23/16)
2014 Mar 15, A Pakistani judicial official reduced the 33-year jail sentence of Dr. Shakil Afridi, alleged to have helped the US track down Osama bin Laden, to 23 years.
(AP, 3/15/14)
2014 Mar 15, The Gaza Strip's only power plant shut down due to a lack of fuel from Israel, which closed a goods crossing after militant rocket attacks.
(AFP, 3/15/14)
2014 Mar 15, In Russia tens of thousands have gathered in downtown Moscow in the largest anti-government demonstration since 2012, protesting against the March 16 Kremlin-backed referendum in Crimea on whether to break away from Ukraine and merge with Russia.
(AP, 3/15/14)
2014 Mar 15, Russian forces seized a natural gas distribution station in Strelkova, about 10 km outside Crimea.
(AP, 3/15/14)
2014 Mar 15, Russia vetoed a UN resolution declaring the March 15 referendum on the future of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula illegal, but close ally China abstained in a show of Moscow's isolation.
(AP, 3/15/14)
2014 Mar 15, Slovaks voted in the first round of a presidential election, a largely ceremonial post. PM Robert Fico and businessman-turned philanthropist Andrej Kiska (51) beat 12 other candidates in the first round of voting. Turnout was low at 43.4 percent. Both men will compete in a March 29 election.
(AFP, 3/15/14)(AP, 3/16/14)
2014 Mar 15, In South Africa Takalani Tshivhase (59), the executive director of Pinnacle Holdings, was arrested by the police's elite anti-corruption unit and released on bail the same day. He was charged with offering a $460,000 bribe to a senior police official in an attempt to win an equipment deal for the technology company.
(Reuters, 3/25/14)
2014 Mar 15, In South Africa 3 people were killed when their small plane crashed near a landing strip in KwaZulu Natal province.
(Reuters, 3/15/14)
2014 Mar 15, Syrian soldiers entered eastern districts of the town of Yabroud, the last rebel bastion near the Lebanese border north of Damascus, and advanced towards the main street.
(Reuters, 3/15/14)
2014 Mar 15, Ukraine's military scrambled aircraft and paratroops to repel an attempt by Russian forces to enter a long spit of land belonging to a region adjacent to Crimea.
(Reuters, 3/15/14)
2014 Mar 15, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro urged Washington to join a "high-level commission" to promote peace after more than a month of deadly anti-government demonstrations.
(AFP, 3/16/14)
2015 Mar 15, In eastern Afghanistan gunmen kidnapped eight ethnic Hazara people from two cars but later released all but one of the hostages.
(Reuters, 3/15/15)
2015 Mar 15, In Brazil an estimated 1.5-2.2 million people took to the streets across the country in protest over corruption, with many calling for Pres. Dilma Rousseff's impeachment.
(AFP, 3/16/15)(Econ., 3/21/15, p.29)
2015 Mar 15, In China Xu Caihou (71), the highest-ranking military officer to fall victim to President Xi Jinping's anti-corruption drive, died of cancer.
(AFP, 3/16/15)
2015 Mar 15, Islamic State fighters traded sniper fire and mortar rounds with Iraqi troops and allied Shi'ite militia forces in the city of Tikrit but no major advances were made by either side.
(Reuters, 3/15/15)
2015 Mar 15, In northern Kenya Somali Shebab militants killed one man and wounded three others in a shooting in the town of Mandera.
(AFP, 3/16/15)
2015 Mar 15, Nigerian Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau reportedly addressed his fighters and told them to return to Gwoza and kill the women they had taken as wives.
(AFP, 3/27/15)
2015 Mar 15, In eastern Pakistan a pair of suicide bombers attacked two churches in Lahore as worshippers prayed inside killing 17 people.
(AP, 3/15/15)(AP, 3/16/15)
2015 Mar 15, Philippine security forces arrested Mohammad Ali Tambako, the head of a small Islamic militant group, along with five accomplices. Tambako was involved in protecting Abdul Basit Usman, one of the United States' "most wanted terrorists," who had escaped a Jan 25 raid.
(AFP, 3/16/15)
2015 Mar 15, Syrian government warplanes pounded a Damascus suburb, killing at least 18 people and scattering shattered concrete blocks and mangled cars in the streets.
(AP, 3/15/15)
2016 Mar 15, The United States loosened rules in the US trade embargo on Cuba just days ahead of President Barack Obama's historic visit to the former Cold War enemy.
(Reuters, 3/15/16)(SFC, 3/16/16, p.A4)
2016 Mar 15, The United States and its allies carried out 11 air strikes against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
(Reuters, 3/16/16)
2016 Mar 15, Flooding caused by days of heavy rain forced the closure of a section of I-10, a major east-west US highway on the Louisiana-Texas border along the rising Sabine River.
(Reuters, 3/15/16)
2016 Mar 15, A 2nd Pennsylvania Supreme Court justice, Michael Eakins, quit the bench over a widening scandal over raunchy and otherwise offensive emails that he and others exchanged with friends and lawyers.
(SFC, 3/16/16, p.A6)
2016 Mar 15, In Pennsylvania three leaders of a Franciscan religious order were charged with allowing a friar who was a known sexual predator to take on jobs that enabled him to molest more than 100 children.
(SFC, 3/16/16, p.A6)
2016 Mar 15, Afghanistan's Pres. Ashraf Ghani said that Islamic State militants are "on the run" following a massive military operation that included elite commando units in remote districts on the border with Pakistan.
(AP, 3/15/16)
2016 Mar 15, Bangladesh’s central bank Gov. Atiur Rahman resigned following the recent theft of some $100 million allegedly stolen by Chinese hackers from a Bangladesh account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
(Econ, 3/19/15, p.76)
2016 Mar 15, Belgian and French police officers arrived to search a flat in a Brussels suburb in a raid targeting suspects in the Nov 13 Paris attacks. They came under a barrage of automatic weapons fire through a door from at least two people barricaded inside, injuring four officers. A special forces sniper shot dead Algerian gunman Mohamed Belkaid (35) when he tried to fire at police from a window. An Islamic State flag was found next to his body. Two suspects were detained.
(Reuters, 3/16/16)(AFP, 3/16/16)
2016 Mar 15, Brazil's Supreme Court said it had accepted a plea agreement offered by prosecutors to Senator Delcídio do Amaral, a legislative ally of President Dilma Rousseff until he was arrested last year in a far-reaching corruption scandal. Newsmagazine Veja said that Amaral in the plea agreement accused Rousseff aides of trying to pay him to keep quiet.
(Reuters, 3/15/16)
2016 Mar 15, China's Foreign Ministry said water will be released from Jinghong dam in the southwestern province of Yunnan to help alleviate a drought in parts of Southeast Asia, including Vietnam.
(Reuters, 3/15/16)
2016 Mar 15, Beijing-based journalist Jia Jia, linked with an online petition calling for the Chinese president's resignation, disappeared from the Beijing airport on his way to Hong Kong. The petition criticized Xi's handling of economic and domestic affairs and noted that more and more factions of the Communist Party oppose the president's tightening grip over speech, government bureaucracy and dissent within the party. Jia was reported freed on March 26.
(AP, 3/19/16)(AP, 3/26/16)
2016 Mar 15, The last direct flight carrying stranded Cuban migrants from Costa Rica arrived in Mexico, ending an effort that transported 6,003 Cubans.
(SFC, 3/16/16, p.A2)
2016 Mar 15, European Union lawmakers and member states agreed on a long-term plan to end over fishing of cod, sprat and herring stocks in the Baltic Sea, the first such plan of its kind under the EU's reformed fisheries policy.
(Reuters, 3/16/16)
2016 Mar 15, German police opened a homicide probe after a car bomb killed a driver on a central Berlin street, with authorities saying there was currently no terrorism link.
(AFP, 3/15/16)
2016 Mar 15, Indonesian police killed two suspected Chinese Uighur militants in Central Sulawesi province during a hunt for Abu Wardah Santoso, the country's most wanted Islamic radical.
(AP, 3/16/16)
2016 Mar 15, Iran's annual fire festival ahead of the Persian New Year claimed three lives and injured more than 2,500, hundreds of whom remain hospitalized.
(AFP, 3/16/16)
2016 Mar 15, In Iraq terrified residents fled the town of Hit as security forces closed in and jihadist fighters hunkered down to defend one of their main bastions in Anbar province.
(AFP, 3/15/16)
2016 Mar 15, Israeli Army Radio said the government has appropriated 579 acres in the occupied West Bank near the Dead Sea and the Palestinian city of Jericho.
(Reuters, 3/15/16)
2016 Mar 15, Macedonia dumped about 1,500 migrants and refugees back into Greece overnight after they forced their way across the border, as European nations continued to pass the buck in a migration crisis that risks tearing the EU apart.
(Reuters, 3/15/16)
2016 Mar 15, Mexico City's government ordered traffic restrictions and recommended people stay indoors due to serious air pollution, issuing its second-highest alert warning for ozone levels for the first time in 13 years.
(Reuters, 3/15/16)
2016 Mar 15, Myanmar's parliament elected a close friend and confidant of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi as president, making Htin Kyaw the first head of state who does not hail from a military background since the 1960s.
(Reuters, 3/15/16)
2016 Mar 15, Norway's Academy of Science and Letters said British mathematician Sir Andrew J. Wiles has won the Abel Prize in math for his stunning proof of French mathematician Pierre de Fermat's Last Theorem, first conjectured by Fermat in 1637.
(AP, 3/15/16)
2016 Mar 15, Russian warplanes began leaving Syria as Moscow started to draw down forces that have tipped the war President Bashar al-Assad's way. Russian Deputy Defense Minister Nikolai Pankov said the air force will continue striking targets in Syria linked to Islamic State and other terrorist groups despite a partial withdrawal.
(Reuters, 3/15/16)
2016 Mar 15, In Spain a person stumbled across 83 kg (182 pounds) of cocaine on a beach in the popular Mediterranean tourist island of Formentera.
(AP, 3/17/16)
2016 Mar 15, Taiwan’s President-elect Tsai Ing-wen named Lin Chuan, a former finance minister, as Taiwan's next premier, tasked with reinvigorating the island's slowing high-tech economy and stabilizing relations with neighbor China.
(AP, 3/15/16)
2016 Mar 15, In Thailand Mercedes driver Janepob Verraporn (37), the son of a wealthy Thai businessman, crashed into a slower car while driving at an estimated 240 km (150 miles) per hour. Two graduate students in their 30s died at the scene of the accident. Verraporn survived with minor injuries and refused both alcohol and drug tests.
(AP, 3/23/16)
2016 Mar 15, In northern Yemen Saudi-led warplanes bombed a busy market in the city of Mastaba. 22 children were among at least 119 killed.
(AP, 3/15/16)(AP, 3/17/16)
2016 Mar 15, Pope Francis approved sainthood for Mother Teresa, the missionary nun who became a global if controversial symbol of compassion for her care of the sick and destitute. The pontiff set September 4 as the date for her canonization.
(AFP, 3/15/16)
2016 Mar 15, A Zimbabwe state-owned newspaper said the number of citizens requiring food aid has risen to 4 million, up from 3 million initially.
(Reuters, 3/15/16)
2017 Mar 15, United States charged two Russian intelligence agents and two hackers with masterminding the 2014 theft of 500 million Yahoo accounts, the first time the U.S. government has criminally charged Russian spies for cyber offences. The indictment named the FSB officers involved as Dmitry Dokuchaev and his superior, Igor Sushchin, who are both in Russia. The alleged criminals involved included Alexsey Belan and Karim Baratov, who was arrested in Canada a day earlier. Belan was arrested in Europe in June 2013 but escaped to Russia before he could be extradited to the US.
(Reuters, 3/16/17)
2017 Mar 15, The US Federal Reserve raised its benchmark interest rate for the 2nd time in three months. The short-term rate was raised by a quarter point to a range of 0.75% to 1%.
(SFC, 3/16/17, p.C1)
2017 Mar 15, A federal jury in Chicago convicted South Korean CEO Heon Seok Lee of defrauding municipal governments into using federal money on wastewater-treatment equipment they were falsely told was made in America.
(AP, 3/17/17)
2017 Mar 15, US District Judge Derrick Watson of Hawaii issued a ruling granting a temporary restraining order on Pres. Trump’s travel ban.
(SFC, 3/16/17, p.A1)
2017 Mar 15, A group of 17 Republicans in Congress signed a resolution vowing to seek "economically viable" ways to stave off global warming, possibly putting them on a collision course with President Donald Trump who has called climate change a hoax.
(Reuters, 3/15/17)
2017 Mar 15, Former Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca (74) was convicted of obstructing an FBI investigation into corrupt and violent guards.
(SFC, 3/16/17, p.A5)
2017 Mar 15, In Louisiana three people were found shot to death and a fourth fatally stabbed at an apartment complex in Matairie, a suburb of New Orleans.
(SFC, 3/16/17, p.A5)
2017 Mar 15, In western Austria three people were killed when their ski touring group was swept away by an avalanche in the Tyrol region. A fourth person was missing.
(AP, 3/15/17)
2017 Mar 15, Brazilian civil servants, rural workers and labor confederations staged nationwide demonstrations against President Michel Temer's pension reform plan, with hundreds of protesters occupying the premises of the finance ministry in Brasilia.
(Reuters, 3/15/17)
2017 Mar 15, In Cambodia Sok An (66), a deputy prime minister who was one of PM Hun Sen's closest political and personal allies, died.
(AP, 3/15/17)
2017 Mar 15, Cameroon said regional forces had rescued the hostages, who were held in villages by the jihadist group, in an operation along the Nigeria-Cameroon border. On March 17 a man purporting to be Abubakar Shekau, the leader of Nigerian Islamist militant group Boko Haram, denied in a posted video that 5,000 people held by the group had been freed by West African forces earlier in the week.
(Reuters, 3/17/17)
2017 Mar 15, China wrapped up its annual National People’s Congress. On its final day it passed legislation titled the General Principles of Civil Law.
(Econ, 3/18/17, p.42)
2017 Mar 15, The European Union gave its blessing to AT&T's proposed $85 billion purchase of Time Warner, saying that it raises no competition concerns in Europe. The deal still needs approval from US regulators.
(AP, 3/15/17)
2017 Mar 15, In Germany three men and a woman were sentenced to prison terms between three and five years for forming the so-called Oldschool Society in August 2014, a far-right terrorist group with a plan to bomb refugee homes as a tactic to scare migrants into leaving the country.
(AP, 3/15/17)
2017 Mar 15, Indonesia's government said that a British-owned cruise ship must pay compensation for the destruction of coral reefs in a popular tourist area known for its extensive marine biodiversity. The 4,200-ton cruise ship M.V. Caledonian Sky ran aground in the waters of Raja Ampat in West Papua province last week, causing extensive damage to the coral reefs.
(AP, 3/15/17)
2017 Mar 15, Kenya announced that it will ban all plastic bags, becoming the 2nd African country to do so after Rwanda. Earlier efforts by Kenya in 2007 and 2011 failed.
(Econ, 3/25/17, p.41)
2017 Mar 15, Forces loyal to Libya's UN-backed unity government seized the headquarters of a rival militia in a third day of intense fighting for control of Tripoli.
(AP, 3/15/17)
2017 Mar 15, Millions of Dutch flocked to the polls in a test of the "patriotic revolution" promised by far-right MP Geert Wilders. PM Mark Rutte's conservative VVD party won the elections with 33 seats. Wilders increased his bloc from 15 in 2012 to 20. The Denk party, catering to Dutch Muslims, won three seats.
(AFP, 3/15/17)(AP, 3/16/17)(Econ, 3/18/17, p.59)
2017 Mar 15, New Zealand approved a law that declared the Whanganui River to be a legal person, in the sense that it can own property, incur debts and petition the courts. Days later an Indian court declared the Ganges and Yamuna rivers to be people too.
(Econ, 3/25/17, p.34)
2017 Mar 15, Pakistan launched a national census, the country's first in 19 years.
(AP, 3/15/17)
2017 Mar 15, Eleven Philippine legislators who voted against a bill to re-introduce capital punishment lost key posts in the country's Congress, in an apparent follow through of a threat by the house speaker to purge obstacles to the draft.
(Reuters, 3/15/17)
2017 Mar 15, Romanian authorities extradited Chilean fugitive Rafael Garay. He was accused of embezzling almost a billion dollars.
(Reuters, 3/15/17)
2017 Mar 15, In Sierra Leone a 709-carat diamond was presented to President Ernest Bai Koroma. Pastor Emmanuel Momoh found the diamond in Yakadu village in the country's diamond-rich eastern Kono District. It was among the 20 largest diamonds ever found. In October the stone was taken by a sales team from the National Minerals Agency to Antwerp, Belgium, to meet sales agents, auction houses and potential buyers.
(AP, 3/16/17)(AP, 10/3/17)
2017 Mar 15, In Syria two suicide bomb attacks killed at least 31 people and wounded dozens more in Damascus, in the second such spate of bombings in the Syrian capital in five days. Sixteen lawyers were among the dozens killed in the suicide attack that struck the main judicial building in Damascus.
(Reuters, 3/15/17)(AP, 3/16/17)
2017 Mar 15, Turkey said its red meat association has ordered a consignment of prize Dutch cattle to be sent back to the Netherlands, saying it no longer wants to farm the cows due to the diplomatic crisis between the countries.
(AFP, 3/15/17)
2017 Mar 15, Human Rights Watch said 155 people, including 15 children, were killed in fierce fighting that erupted last Nov 26 in western Uganda between security forces and a tribal king's palace guards.
(AFP, 3/15/17)
2017 Mar 15, Ukraine's Security and Defence Council approved the suspension of all cargo traffic with separatist-held territory.
(Reuters, 3/15/17)
2018 Mar 15, The US Treasury Department said sanctions have been slapped on 19 Russian individuals and five groups, including Moscow's intelligence services, for meddling in the 2016 US election and malicious cyber attacks.
(Reuters, 3/15/18)
2018 Mar 15, The leaders of the United States, France and Germany joined Britain in blaming Russia for poisoning a former spy with a powerful nerve agent.
(AP, 3/15/18)
2018 Mar 15, Alabama executed Michael Wayne Eggers (50) for killing his employer at a traveling carnival in 2000.
(SFC, 3/16/18, p.A5)
2018 Mar 15, California wildlife officials said Richard Parker (67) had shot and killed more that 130 protected birds of prey in Lassen County. Parker was reported jailed on charges of taking protected birds of prey and migratory non-game birds.
(SFC, 3/16/18, p.D3)
2018 Mar 15, In Florida at least eight cars were trapped when the 950-ton bridge suddenly gave way in Miami. At least six people were killed.
(AFP, 3/16/18)
2018 Mar 15, The US state of Georgia executed Carlton Gary (67), known as the "stocking strangler," for raping and killing three elderly women in the 1977-1978. Nine women had been attacked and seven of them died.
(SFC, 3/16/18, p.A5)
2018 Mar 15, Local media reported that Bosnia has banned leaders of the Russian Night Wolves motorcycle club from entering the country next week because of security concerns. The club is under US sanctions for its role in a pro-Russian separatist insurgency in Ukraine.
(Reuters, 3/15/18)
2018 Mar 15, Brazil's troubled national oil company Petrobras posted net losses of 446 million reais ($139.7 million) for 2017, reflecting continued fallout from the "Car Wash" corruption scandal, but sharply improving on the previous year.
(AFP, 3/15/18)
2018 Mar 15, Anglo-Dutch consumer giant Unilever chose The Netherlands over London to host its headquarters, dealing a blow to Britain's efforts to keep multinational companies onside following Brexit.
(AFP, 3/15/18)
2018 Mar 15, In western Cambodia a land mine exploded accidently during clearance training at a military base, killing two people, including an Australian trainer, and injuring three others.
(AP, 3/15/18)
2018 Mar 15, Cameroon's octogenarian President Paul Biya, who has ruled the central African country with an iron grip for decades, held his first cabinet meeting since 2015.
(Reuters, 3/15/18)
2018 Mar 15, Beijing WKW Automotive Parts said it plans to invest about 16 billion yuan ($2.53 billion) in a new energy car project, to cash in on the increasing popularity of environmentally friendly vehicles as part of China's efforts to cut pollution.
(Reuters, 3/15/18)
2018 Mar 15, Members of the Uighur Muslim ethnic group held demonstrations in cities around the world to protest a sweeping Chinese surveillance and security campaign that has sent thousands of their people into detention and political indoctrination centers.
(AP, 3/15/18)
2018 Mar 15, The European Commission published an updated draft text of the treaty that will regulate Britain's exit from the European Union on March 29th, 2019, but some of the key sticking points remain unresolved.
(Reuters, 3/15/18)
2018 Mar 15, French pensioners and retirement home workers staged protests across the country, kicking off a series of strikes against Pres. Emmanuel Macron's reforms.
(AFP, 3/15/18)
2018 Mar 15, Greek police said they have arrested 11 people on suspicion of running a smuggling ring transporting hundreds of refugees and migrants from the Greek-Turkish land border to the cities of Athens and Thessaloniki over the past year.
(AP, 3/15/18)
2018 Mar 15, A Greek court sentenced a university lecturer (46) to two life terms in prison for fatally poisoning his wife and her grandmother with arsenic. The court ruled that the geology lecturer at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki gradually poisoned his 34-year-old wife and her 85-year-old grandmother in August 2013.
(AP, 3/16/18)
2018 Mar 15, Tens of thousands of supporters of Hungary's right-wing PM Viktor Orban marched in Budapest to back his bid for a third term in office in April elections, many of them hailing his hardline stance on immigration. They were joined by thousands of supporters of Poland's ruling conservative PiS party.
(Reuters, 3/15/18)
2018 Mar 15, In Indonesia the Law on Representative Assemblies, passed last month by the 560-member Parliament, came into force automatically after 30 days despite President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo's refusal to sign it because of public opposition. Critics say the law could protect legislators from investigations by the powerful anti-graft commission.
(AP, 3/15/18)
2018 Mar 15, In Iraq a US HH-60 Pave Hawk helicopter carrying seven people crashed near al-Qaim, Anbar province, killing all on board.
(Reuters, 3/16/18)
2018 Mar 15, Malaysia's PM Najib Razak announced cash handouts on top of bonuses already paid to staff of the largest government-linked asset management firm, as he prepared for a general election that must be held by August.
(Reuters, 3/15/18)
2018 Mar 15, In Pakistan a Taliban-linked Pakistani cleric and six of his family members were killed in a powerful explosion at the cleric's home in the remote southwestern town of Qillah Saifullah, Baluchistan province. The explosion apparently occurred when a bomb or an explosive device was being loaded in a vehicle.
(AP, 3/16/18)
2018 Mar 15, Peru's congress voted by a wide margin to allow impeachment proceedings to begin against Pres. Pedro Pablo Kuczynski over his ties to Odebrecht, the Brazilian construction giant.
(SFC, 3/16/18, p.A2)
2018 Mar 15, Polish prosecutors say American authorities are moving ahead with their request to extradite Michael Karkoc (99) of Minnesota man to be tried on allegations he was involved in a World War II massacre of civilians.
(AP, 3/15/18)
2018 Mar 15, Slovak PM Robert Fico and his government resigned as a way out of the political crisis triggered by the slayings of an investigative journalist and his fiancée. Pres. Andrej Kiska asked deputy prime minister Peter Pellegrini to form a new government.
(AP, 3/15/18)
2018 Mar 15, A South African court granted bail to six police officers charged with murder and attempted murder in connection with the 2012 killing of striking mine workers at Lonmin’s Marikana mine.
(Reuters, 3/15/18)
2018 Mar 15, In Spain street vendor Mbame Ndiaye (35) of Senegal, who had been running away from police officers, died of cardiorespiratory arrest after he escaped a police crackdown on informal street sales. Subsequent protests by hundreds of African migrants and Spanish residents degenerated into rioting.
(AP, 3/16/18)
2018 Mar 15, Sri Lanka's government ended a weeklong ban on social media that was imposed because of concerns that it was being used to fan anti-Muslim violence in the country's central region.
(AP, 3/15/18)
2018 Mar 15, Syrian charities and rights groups called on Western leaders to threaten a boycott of the upcoming football World Cup in Russia to protest against Moscow's support for Syria's regime.
(AFP, 3/15/18)
2018 Mar 15, In Syria government and Russian forces blanketed the besieged rebel-held eastern Ghouta region with airstrikes and rocket fire. Regime forces captured Hammuriyeh. More than 12,000 people fled the enclave of Eastern Ghouta. A joint convoy of food supplies for some 26,000 people entered Douma, the largest town in Ghouta and part of a separate rebel-controlled pocket.
(AP, 3/15/18)(AFP, 3/15/18)
2018 Mar 15, In northern Syria hundreds of residents of the Kurdish enclave under Turkish assault trickled out of Afrin's center toward neighboring villages amid an intensifying offensive. Senior Kurdish official Omar Alloush, who played a key role with the United States in implementing its post-Islamic State policy in northern Syria, was found dead in his apartment in northern Syria.
(AP, 3/15/18)
2018 Mar 15, In Syria Anna Campbell (27), a British woman fighting alongside Kurdish forces was killed in Turkish shelling" on frontlines around Afrin city.
(AFP, 3/19/18)
2018 Mar 15, The UN human rights office said in a report that Mexican authorities had tortured dozens of people in connection with an investigation into the 2014 disappearance of 43 students, and called for a full inquiry.
(Reuters, 3/15/18)
2018 Mar 15, The United Nations Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution renewing for a year its peace mission in South Sudan, while also threatening to later impose an arms embargo if necessary.
(AFP, 3/15/18)
2019 Mar 15, Pres. Donald Trump signed the first veto of his presidency, overriding congressional opposition to secure emergency funds to build more walls on the US-Mexico border.
(AFP, 3/16/19)
2019 Mar 15, The US State Department said that it is eliminating a coveted five-year tourist visa for Cubans, dealing a heavy blow to entrepreneurs and Cuban members of divided families, who used the visas to see relatives in the United States and buy precious supplies for their businesses on the island.
(AP, 3/16/19)
2019 Mar 15, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the United States will revoke or deny visas to International Criminal Court personnel who attempt to investigate or prosecute alleged abuses committed by US forces in Afghanistan or elsewhere and may do the same with those who try to take action against Israel.
(AP, 3/15/19)
2019 Mar 15, The US Special Counsel's Office asked a court to delay sentencing for US President Donald Trump's former deputy campaign chairman, Rick Gates, amid "ongoing investigations" stemming from the Russia investigation.
(Reuters, 3/15/19)
2019 Mar 15, The US Environmental Protection Agency banned consumer sales of a paint stripper following personal appeals by families of men who died while using the product. The rule does not affect commercial uses.
(SFC, 3/16/19, p.A5)
2019 Mar 15, American poet W.S. Merwin died at his home in Hawaii. Merwin was a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the US poet laureate from 2010-2011.
(SFC, 3/18/19, p.C3)
2019 Mar 15, In Minnesota the body of a child was found inside a blanket along a highway near Austin. Dariaz Higgins, the father of Noelani Robinson (2), was accused of killing her mother, Sierra Robinson (24), in Milwaukee last week.
(SSFC, 3/17/19, p.A8)
2019 Mar 15, The Univ. of Tennessee said it will begin providing free tuition to state residents stating in the fall of 2020.
(SFC, 3/16/19, p.A5)
2019 Mar 15, In Washington state a US District judge granted a temporary restraining order that let Microsoft take over 99 websites that Iranian hackers had used to try to steal sensitive information from targets in the US.
(SSFC, 3/31/19, p.D2)
2019 Mar 15, In Afghanistan Sultan Mahmoud Khirkhowa, a reporter with the local Zhman TV and radio, was killed when two men on a motorcycle opened fire on his vehicle in eastern Khost province.
(AP, 3/17/19)
2019 Mar 15, In Algeria a huge crowd of demonstrators marched through Algiers for a fourth consecutive Friday to step up demands for President Abdelaziz Bouteflika's ouster, rejecting his offer not to seek re-election.
(AFP, 3/15/19)
2019 Mar 15, In London Michael Seed , a 58-year-old man nicknamed "Basil," was found guilty of being the sixth member of a gang of aging criminals who carried out the 2015 Easter weekend robbery at the Hatton Garden Safety Deposit building, one the most audacious in the annals of British crime.
(Reuters, 3/15/19)
2019 Mar 15, In northern China a landslide knocked down several buildings, killing seven people and leaving 13 others missing in Xiangning county, Shanxi province.
(AP, 3/16/19)
2019 Mar 15, In Congo DRC at least one person was left dead after protests over local elections turned violent. Members of President Felix Tshisekedi's Union for Democracy and Social Progress took to the streets in Kinshasa and in other parts of the country after the party failed to win any senate seats from Kinshasa in the regional assembly.
(AP, 3/16/19)
2019 Mar 15, The Catholic Church in Costa Rica asked for forgiveness following recent accusations that three of its priests sexually abused minors, amid a clerical abuse scandal that has ravaged the institution's credibility around the globe.
(Reuters, 3/15/19)
2019 Mar 15, Czech police said they have broken up an international ring smuggling migrants from southeast Asia to western Europe.
(AP, 3/15/19)
2019 Mar 15, The EU imposed sanctions on eight more Russian officials that it says were involved in the seizure by Russia of Ukrainian ships and crew in November.
(AP, 3/15/19)
2019 Mar 15, Greece backed calls by Bolivia's left-wing President Evo Morales for a negotiated settlement to the severe political and financial crisis in Venezuela, in what marks a different approach to that pursued by key European allies.
(AP, 3/15/19)
2019 Mar 15, The Iraqi government started exhuming a mass grave left behind by the Islamic State group in the northwestern Sinjar region in the presence of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Nadia Murad, whose slain relatives are believed to have been buried in the area. Over 70 mass graves have been discovered in Sinjar since it was liberated from IS in November 2015.
(AP, 3/16/19)
2019 Mar 15, Israel struck dozens of Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip overnight in response to rockets from the Palestinian enclave, including rare fire toward its economic capital Tel Aviv.
(AFP, 3/15/19)
2019 Mar 15, In Kenya nations meeting at the UN environment assembly in Nairobi announced that they had agreed to "significantly reduce" single-use plastics over the next decade.
(AFP, 3/15/19)
2019 Mar 15, A court in North Macedonia sentenced 16 people, including a former interior minister, from 7 to 18 years in prison for their role in a violent intrusion in parliament at the height of a political crisis in 2017.
(AP, 3/15/19)
2019 Mar 15, In Poland thousands of students marched in rainy Warsaw and other cities to demand a ban on burning coal, a major source of carbon dioxide. Tens of thousands of young people skipped school across the globe to march through the streets for an international day of student protests aimed at pushing world leaders into action on climate change.
(AP, 3/15/19)(AFP, 3/15/19)
2019 Mar 15, In New Zealand shootings at two mosques in Christchurch left 50 dead in the country's worst-ever mass shooting. Video footage by the shooter was live streamed and widely shared online. Brenton Harrison Tarrant, an Australian-born man (28), was arrested and charged with murder. He left behind a 74-page document posted on social media under his name in which he said he hoped to survive the attack to better spread his views in the media.
(Reuters, 3/15/19)(AFP, 3/15/19)(AP, 3/16/19)(AP, 3/17/19)
2019 Mar 15, Nicaragua released 50 prisoners held for taking part in anti-government protests, authorities said, giving a fresh impetus to peace talks on ending the country's long running political crisis.
(AFP, 3/15/19)
2019 Mar 15, In eastern Syria the IS launched three suicide attacks outside Baghouz, killing six people as they fled the village near the Iraqi border. An SDF official said IS militants were holding some 300 prisoners, both civilians and SDF fighters.
(AFP, 3/16/19)(SFC, 3/16/19, p.A2)
2019 Mar 15, Freeman Mbowe, the head of Tanzania's main opposition party, condemned what he described as a climate of fear installed by a "police state" after he was held in prison for more than three months.
(AFP, 3/15/19)
2019 Mar 15, A Turkish court convicted Neil Prakash (27), an Australian-born Islamic State militant, of belonging to a terror group and sentenced him to more than seven years in prison. The court said he could be released in 2½ years under Turkish law.
(AP, 3/15/19)
2019 Mar 15, Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro created a military unit charged with protecting basic installations and services such as electricity and water just over a week after the country was hit with a massive blackout.
(AFP, 3/15/19)
2019 Mar 15, In Venezuela German journalist Billy Six, detained by Venezuelan intelligence services four months ago, was freed in Caracas, but must report to the court every 15 days. Six was allowed to leave Venezuela if he chose and soon flew home from Caracas.
(AFP, 3/15/19)(AP, 3/17/19)
2019 Mar 15, Cyclone Idai hit Zimbabwe, cutting off power and communications. At least 31 people died in southeastern Zimbabwe as homes and bridges were swept away by the tropical storm. The confirmed dead soon rose to 98 with least 217 more missing.
(Reuters, 3/16/19)(SSFC, 3/17/19, p.A7)(AFP, 3/19/19)
2020 Mar 15, Joe Biden promised to choose a woman as his vice president should he win the Democratic presidential nomination. He made the pledge on stage with rival Bernie Sanders in the first debate held without a live audience because of concerns over the coronavirus. Sanders said he would also likely choose a woman.
(Bloomberg, 3/16/20)
2020 Mar 15, US officials recorded nearly 3,000 cases of coronavirus with 63 deaths, up from 58 a day earlier. Globally more than 162,000 were infected and over 6,400 have died. The US Navy said a sailor aboard a warship ship has tested positive for the coronavirus for the first time. The only state not reporting cases is West Virginia. Cases neared 160,000 worldwide, as deaths top 6,000. Several countries cautioned that fewer tests are being performed as more people fall ill. A US Army soldier tested positive for the coronavirus, marking the first US Army case in Europe.
(NY Times, 3/15/20)(Bloomberg, 3/15/20)(Reuters, 3/16/20)
2020 Mar 15, The US Federal Reserve slashing its benchmark rate back to a record low slashing it by a full percentage point to a range between zero and 0.25%. Global markets slumped. The Fed also said it would buy $700 billion in Treasury and mortgage bonds.
(AP, 3/15/20)(AP, 3/16/20)
2020 Mar 15, The Peace Corps told its volunteers around the world that it is suspending all operations globally and evacuating all volunteers in light of the spread of the new coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/16/20)
2020 Mar 15, California's Gov. Gavin Newsom announced new state measure to combat the coronavirus, urging that bars close and restaurants reduce capacity. Newsom also asked all state residents 65 and older to isolate themselves at home.
(SFC, 3/16/20, p.A1)
2020 Mar 15, In the SF Bay Area Santa Clara's health officer confirmed 114 cases of coronavirus, the most of any county in the state and about 30% of the cases statewide.
(SFC, 3/16/20, p.A1)
2020 Mar 15, In Georgia seven people were dead after a shooting incident initially reported as a murder-suicide in Moncure, Chatham County. The victims included the suspected shooter.
(Charlotte Observer, 3/16/20)
2020 Mar 15, In Missouri 5 people including a police officer and a gunman died in a shooting at a Springfield gas station after gunman Joaquin Roman (31) went inside and opened fire.
(Reuters, 3/16/20)(SFC, 3/17/20, p.A4)
2020 Mar 15, New Jersey reported its second death from the coronavirus, The state has 69 positive tests, up from 50 the day before.
(Bloomberg, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, New York's Governor Andrew Cuomo said two state Assembly members, Helene Weinstein and Charles Barron, have tested positive for Covid-19. The state reported 729 confirmed cases, an increase of 69. There have been three deaths.
(Bloomberg, 3/15/20)(The Independent, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a decision to close city schools through at least April 20. Hours later the mayor also took aim at the city's nightlife, saying he would sign an order on March 16 limiting the city's 27,000 restaurants and bars to takeout and delivery only effective on the morning of March 17.
(AP, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, US sportswear giant Nike Inc said it is closing all of its stores in the United States and several other countries to limit the spread of the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, Several African countries closed borders, canceled flights and imposed strict entry and quarantine requirements to contain the spread of the new coronavirus, which has a foothold in 26 nations on the continent as cases keep rising. Cases have now been reported in Algeria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Rep., Congo Brazzaville, Congo DRC, Egypt, and Equatorial Guinea, eSwatini, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Mauritania, Morocco, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Seychelles, South Africa, Sudan, Togo, Tunisia.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, In Australia's New South Wales, the country’s most populous state, reported 22 new cases taking the totally tally to 134. Eight new cases of coronavirus were confirmed in the state of Victoria, bringing the total number of cases in that state to 57. Australia said it will impose 14-day self-isolation on international travelers arriving from midnight and ban cruise ships from foreign ports for 30 days.
(Bloomberg, 3/15/20)(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, In Austria the number of confirmed coronavirus cases jumped to 800, from 602 a day earlier.
(AP, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, Belgium’s health ministry reported 197 new cases, bringing the total of confirmed infections to 886.
(Bloomberg, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, The British government announced England will join a growing list of countries offering HIV-prevention pill to all those at high risk of catching the virus. More than 100,000 people were estimated to be living with HIV in the UK in 2018.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, Airlines called on the British government to help ensure their survival during the coronavirus crisis after the US extended restrictions on European travelers to include Britain.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, PM Boyko Borissov said Bulgaria will raise the salaries of all medics involved in treating coronavirus patients by 1000 levs ($566) per month as it steps up measures to contain the fast-spreading infection. Confirmed cases had almost doubled to 43 with two deaths.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, In Cameroon a passenger arriving from Brussels was whisked to a hospital and diagnosed inside four hours as the country's fourth case of coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/17/20)
2020 Mar 15, Cambodia said French national travelling from Paris via Singapore to Phnom Penh has been infected with the coronavirus, bringing the country's tally of cases to eight.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, In the Central African Rep. a UN peacekeeper from Burundi was killed when troops were trying to stop an attack in Grimari in the center of the country that began when anti-Balaka fighters under the command of Dimitri Ayoloma opened fire on the homes of the mayor and a regional official.
(AP, 3/16/20)
2020 Mar 15, China reported 16 new confirmed cases of coronavirus bringing its total to 80,860. Beijing said it will quarantine all travelers from overseas, including Chinese citizens, at designated locations for 14 days as the government shifts its focus to limiting imported coronavirus cases.
(AP, 3/15/20)(Reuters, 3/16/20)
2020 Mar 15, Denmark's government told private companies struggling with drastic measures to curb the spread of coronavirus that it would cover 75% of employees' salaries, if they promised not to cut staff.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, Ethiopia has now recorded four coronavirus cases.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, Finland had a total of 240 coronavirus cases.
(Bloomberg, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, French voters went to the polls in the first round of elections to choose mayors and tens of thousands of local officials.
(SSFC, 3/15/20, p.A3)
2020 Mar 15, Georgia's government said it will temporarily shut its border with Russia for travelers from March 16 in a bid to stop the spread of the coronavirus. Georgia had 30 cases of coronavirus, the highest number in the South Caucasus region.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, Germany's Health Ministry confirmed a report in newspaper Welt am Sonntag, which said President Donald Trump had offered funds to lure the company CureVac to the United States, and the German government was making counter-offers to tempt it to stay.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, Guatemala logged its first fatality from the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/16/20)
2020 Mar 15, In Guyana a team from the 15-nation Caribbean Community arrived to supervise a recount of the March 2 elections. Incumbent Pres. David Granger had agreed to the recount. A local court soon blocked the recount.
(SFC, 3/16/20, p.A2)(SFC, 3/19/20, p.A2)
2020 Mar 15, India reported that the number of coronavirus infections had risen to 107, an increase of 23 from the day before.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, Indonesia reported 21 new coronavirus infections, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 117.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, Iran's Health Ministry added another 113 deaths and 1,209 new confirmed cases of the COVID-19 infection. It said the outbreak has claimed 724. Some 13,938 people have been infected across the country.
(AFP, 3/15/20)(Bloomberg, 3/15/20)(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, Israel's Pres. Reuven Rivlin said he has decided to give opposition leader Benny Gants the first opportunity to form a new government. PM Benjamin Netanyahu proposed a six-month "emergency government" to confront the coronavirus crisis and end a political deadlock after the country's third inconclusive election in less than a year. Israel delayed PM Benjamin Netanyahu's corruption trial for two months due to the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)(Reuters, 3/16/20)(SFC, 3/16/20, p.A4)
2020 Mar 15, Italy recorded 368 more deaths from the coronavirus. It had 24,747 cases and 1,809 deaths.
(Reuters, 3/16/20)
2020 Mar 15, In Japan the number of coronavirus infections rose to 1,484, increasing by a faster pace than the previous day. The total number of infections included 697 from the Diamond Princess cruise ship and 14 returnees on charter flights from China.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, Jordan confirmed 12 new coronavirus cases.
(Reuters, 3/16/20)
2020 Mar 15, Kenya has now recorded three coronavirus cases.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, Lebanon's Health Ministry said that it had recorded 99 cases of coronavirus. Pres. Michel Aoun called for citizens to work from home and avoid socializing to prevent the spread of the virus.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, Libya’s coast guard intercepted over 400 Europe-bound migrants off the country’s Mediterranean coast and returned them to the capital of Tripoli over the past 24 hours.
(AP, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, Malaysia confirmed 190 new coronavirus cases, pushing its overall total to 428, the most in Southeast Asia.
(Bloomberg, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, Mexican officials said the number of monarch butterflies that reached their winter resting grounds decreased by about 53% this year. The population covered only 6.9 acres, down from 15 acres a year earlier.
(SFC, 3/16/20, p.A2)
2020 Mar 15, In the Netherlands the number of deaths rose by eight to 20, while confirmed cases increased by 176 to 1,135.
(AP, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, Niger's army reportedly killed at least 50 Boko Haram Islamist extremists during an overnight attack on the eastern Toumour military post.
(SFC, 3/18/20, p.A2)
2020 Mar 15, In Nigeria a pipeline explosion killed at least 15 people and destroyed about 50 buildings after a fire broke out in a suburb of Lagos.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, Peru's Pres. Martin Vizcarra imposed a lockdown and quarantine as his country reported 71 cases of the coronavirus.
(Economist, 4/4/20, p.26)
2020 Mar 15, The Philippines recorded 4 additional coronavirus deaths and 29 new cases, bringing the domestic tally of infections to 140, as authorities placed the entire capital Manila under "community quarantine" for about a month.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)(Reuters, 3/16/20)
2020 Mar 15, Poland’s coronavirus cases rose to 111 cases with three deaths. The count was rising as the nation is now testing all those who are in quarantine.
(Bloomberg, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, Singapore confirmed 14 new cases of the novel coronavirus, marking the biggest daily increase of the infection in the city-state. Nine of the cases were imported. Singapore has confirmed a total 226 cases of the virus so far, with 105 having fully recovered.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, Slovakia reported 54 coronavirus cases, an increase of 10.
(Bloomberg, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, South Africa reported its first local transmission of coronavirus, increasing the number of cases to 62. President Cyril Ramaphosa introduced social-distancing and declared a national state of disaster to combat the spread of the coronavirus as his counterparts in sub-Saharan Africa took similar steps to curb the threat in a region that accounts for only 1% of global health-care spending.
(BBC, 3/16/20)(AP, 3/16/20)(Econ, 4/18/20, p.33)
2020 Mar 15, South Korea reported 76 new coronavirus cases in 24 hours, an all-time low since Feb. 20, when the country saw a surge of over 500 in four days. The country’s total tally stands at 8,162 with a total of 75 deaths.
(Bloomberg, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, Spain’s diagnosed cases of the coronavirus jumped 35% to 7,753 and the death toll rose by 152 to 288. Ford Motors said it would shut its Spanish plant in the eastern region of Valencia for one week starting tomorrow after three employees tested positive for coronavirus.
(Bloomberg, 3/15/20)(Reuters, 3/15/20)(Reuters, 3/16/20)
2020 Mar 15, In Switzerland coronavirus infections jumped by nearly 1,000 cases in 24 hours to 2,200 and 14 deaths were recorded from the virus across the country.
(AFP, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, Syria's brutal conflict entered its 10th year with President Bashar al-Assad's regime consolidating its hold over a war-wracked country where foreign powers are flexing their muscle. In the northwest Turkish and Russian troops began joint patrols on the key M4 highway. Rebel provocations forced Russia and Turkey to cut short their first joint patrol.
(AFP, 3/15/20)(AP, 3/15/20)(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, Thailand reported 32 new cases of the coronavirus in the largest daily jump in infections since the outbreak began, bringing its total tally to 114.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, Turkey said thousands of Muslims returning to home from a pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia were being taken into quarantine due to concerns about the spread of the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro wrote to the IMF asking for a $5bn loan to fight COVID-19.
(Econ, 3/21/20, p.30)
2020 Mar 15, Vietnam's health ministry said all passengers coming from or through China, South Korea, the UK and Schengen countries will be quarantined and tested for coronavirus. Vietnam reported 37 new coronavirus cases over the past week, taking the tally to 53.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2021 Mar 15, President Joe Biden's administration told the US Supreme Court that it thinks low-level crack cocaine offenders should be among the beneficiaries of a federal law that reduced certain prison sentences, reversing the position taken under his predecessor Donald Trump.
(Reuters, 3/15/21)
2021 Mar 15, The US Senate confirmed New Mexico Rep. Deb Haaland as interior secretary, making her the first Native American to lead a Cabinet department and the first to lead the federal agency that has wielded influence over the nation's tribes for nearly two centuries.
(SFC, 3/16/21, p.A3)
2021 Mar 15, It was reported that the US-based branch of the Jesuits has unveiled plans for a "truth and reconciliation" initiative in partnership with descendants of people once enslaved by the Roman Catholic order. The Jesuits planned to raise $1 billion within five years in pursuit of racial justice and racial healing.
(NY Times, 3/17/21, p.A4)
2021 Mar 15, The US embassy in Mozambique said US special operations forces will support Mozambique's efforts to prevent the spread of terrorism and violent extremism".
(BBC, 3/21/21)
2021 Mar 15, California to date had 3,600,364 cases of coronavirus and 55,815 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 414,922 cases and 5,656 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 29,492,614 with the death toll at 535,597.
(sfist.com, 3/15/21)
2021 Mar 15, In San Francisco Stephen Bechtel Jr. (95), philanthropist and retired CEO of the Bechtel construction company (1960-1990), died at his home in Pacific Heights.
(SFC, 3/16/21, p.B1)
2021 Mar 15, In Florida the body of Neil Clark (67), a longtime Ohio lobbyist who had pleaded not guilty in a sweeping $60 million federal bribery investigation, was found dead in Collier County.
(AP, 3/16/21)
2021 Mar 15, County officials in coastal North Carolina voted on whether to raise property taxes to help save a main road from rising seas.
(NY Times, 3/15/21)
2021 Mar 15, Eight migrants died in a car crash in Texas on US Highway 277, about 30 miles north of the border city Del Rio.
(NY Times, 3/16/21)
2021 Mar 15, Senator Mitt Romney of Utah in a public letter urged American spectators, companies and diplomats to boycott the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, to punish China for its human rights abuses. He favored that approach over an athlete boycott.
(NY Times, 3/15/21)
2021 Mar 15, It was reported that a new feature has appeared at smoke shops in Montana, gas stations in the Carolinas and delis in far-flung corners of New York City: a brightly-lit bitcoin ATM, where customers can buy or sell digital currency, and sometimes extract hard cash. There are now bitcoin ATMs in every state except Alaska.
(Reuters, 3/15/21)
2021 Mar 15, Billionaire hedge fund investor William Ackman said he donated 26.5 million shares in newly public South Korean e-commerce giant Coupang Inc to three entities, including his foundation.
(AP, 3/15/21)
2021 Mar 15, Advanced Micro Devices Inc released a new data center chip aimed at taking away more market share from rival Intel Corp. California-based AMD designs the chip but taps Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd to fabricate the chip using TSMC's 7-nanometer chipmaking process.
(Reuters, 3/15/21)
2021 Mar 15, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Facebook is adding informational labels to posts about vaccines as it expands efforts to counter COVID-19-related misinformation flourishing on its platforms.
(AP, 3/15/21)
2021 Mar 15, General Motors Co said that due to the global semiconductor chip shortage the US automaker is building certain 2021 light-duty full-size pickup trucks without a fuel management module, hurting those vehicles' fuel economy performance.
(Reuters, 3/15/21)
2021 Mar 15, Gilead Sciences Inc and rival Merck & Co Inc said they will test a combination of their experimental HIV drugs to develop a long-acting treatment for the infection that affects millions worldwide.
(Reuters, 3/15/21)
2021 Mar 15, Moderna Inc said it had dosed the first patients in an early-stage study of a new COVID-19 vaccine candidate for evaluation as a next-generation shot. The new candidate, mRNA-1283, could potentially be stored in refrigerators instead of freezers.
(Reuters, 3/15/21)
2021 Mar 15, Purdue Pharma submitted its bankruptcy restructuring plan just before midnight. The blueprint requires members of the billionaire Sackler family to relinquish control of the company and transforms it into a new corporation with revenue directed exclusively toward abating the addiction epidemic that its signature painkiller, OxyContin, helped create.
(NY Times, 3/16/21)
2021 Mar 15, In Australia more than 100,000 people took to the streets in dozens of rallies across the country to protest violence against women and the government’s handling of two rape cases involving high-level political figures.
(The Telegraph, 3/15/21)
2021 Mar 15, Britain said it was imposing new sanctions on Bashar al-Assad’s regime, including asset freezes and travel bans on the Syrian dictator’s close allies.
(AP, 3/15/21)
2021 Mar 15, Rogers Communications Inc said it was buying rival Shaw Communications Inc for about C$20 billion in a deal that would create Canada's second-largest cellular and cable operator but might attract stiff regulatory scrutiny.
(Reuters, 3/15/21)
2021 Mar 15, A regional court in West Africa ordered the immediate release of a Venezuelan businessman close to President Nicolás Maduro, finding that his arrest in Cape Verde on US money laundering charges was unlawful. The court also instructed Cape Verde to cease all extradition proceedings against Alex Saab and compensate him $200,000 for damages. Federal prosecutors in Miami indicted Saab in 2019 on money laundering charges connected to an alleged bribery scheme that pocketed more than $350 million from a low-income housing project for the Venezuelan government that was never built.
(AP, 3/15/21)
2021 Mar 15, It was reported that 25% of Chile's population has received at least one shot of the coronavirus vaccine.
(SFC, 3/15/21, p.A6)
2021 Mar 15, China said it will simplify visa applications for foreign nationals who have been inoculated with Chinese-made COVID-19 vaccines, its latest small step towards normalizing international travel.
(Reuters, 3/15/21)
2021 Mar 15, China reported a new COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use. The vaccine, jointly developed by Anhui Jifei Longcom Biopharmaceutical Co. and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, is the fifth coronavirus vaccine developed and approved in China and the 4th to be given emergency use approval.
(SFC, 3/17/21, p.A3)
2021 Mar 15, The largest sandstorm in a decade swept across northern China and Mongolia, grounding flights and closing schools. At least 10 people were killed and nearly 400 left missing.
(NY Times, 3/15/21)(SSFC, 3/21/21, p.B8)
2021 Mar 15, Attacks on Chinese-run factories in Myanmar's biggest city drew demands from Beijing for protection for their property and employees.
(AP, 3/15/21)
2021 Mar 15, A report by medical charity MSF has found that nearly 70% of health facilities in Ethiopia's conflict-hit northern region of Tigray have been vandalized and equipment looted.
(BBC, 3/15/21)
2021 Mar 15, The European Union launched legal action against Britain for unilaterally changing trading arrangements for Northern Ireland that Brussels says breach the Brexit divorce deal agreed with London last year.
(Reuters, 3/15/21)
2021 Mar 15, The French government said it will return a Nazi-looted Gustav Klimt landscape painting (Rosebushes under the Trees) to the family of Nora Stiasny, a Holocaust victim who was dispossessed of the 1905 painting in 1938.
(SFC, 3/16/21, p.A3)
2021 Mar 15, Germany, France, Italy and Spain said they would stop administering the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine after several countries reported possible serious side-effects.
(AP, 3/15/21)(SFC, 3/16/21, p.A4)
2021 Mar 15, Germany's IDT Biologica said it would make Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine using capacity previously reserved by Japan's Takeda, helping to ease concerns about the US drugmaker's ability to meet its production goals.
(AP, 3/15/21)
2021 Mar 15, Hong Kong authorities said that the city's vaccine scheme would be widened to include those aged between 30-60 years old and domestic helpers, as they aim to increase take up amongst residents in the Asian financial hub.
(Reuters, 3/15/21)
2021 Mar 15, In Hungary demonstrators in Budapest broke a ban on public gatherings to demand an end to the country's lockdown restrictions, even as a surge in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations sweeps the country.
(AP, 3/15/21)
2021 Mar 15, Indonesia said it will delay the administering of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine due to reports of blood clots among some recipients in Europe and would await a review from the World Health Organization (WHO).
(Reuters, 3/15/21)
2021 Mar 15, Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard inaugurated a new underground facility designated for missile storage.
(AP, 3/15/21)
2021 Mar 15, Iran charged a French tourist with spying and “spreading propaganda against the system. Benjamin Berier was arrested some 10 months ago after taking pictures in a desert area where photography is prohibited.
(AP, 3/15/21)
2021 Mar 15, Italy’s top administrative court ruled against a conservative think tank affiliated with former White House adviser Steve Bannon over its use of a hilltop monastery to train future populist leaders.
(AP, 3/16/21)
2021 Mar 15, Most of Italy entered a new lockdown today. Cases have risen over the past three weeks, driven by the spread of the variant first found in Britain and a slow vaccination campaign.
(NY Times, 3/15/21)
2021 Mar 15, Libya's first unity government in years was sworn in in the eastern city of Tobruk, charged with unifying the country after years of violence and division and overseeing the run-up to national elections.
(Reuters, 3/15/21)
2021 Mar 15, The Netherlands began 3 days of general elections.
(SFC, 3/16/21, p.A2)
2021 Mar 15, In Nigeria gunmen on motorcycles stormed the primary school in Rama village in Birnin Gwari local government area as children were arriving for classes. Three teachers were abducted.
(BBC, 3/15/21)
2021 Mar 15, Yaphet Kotto (b.1939), African-American actor, died near Manila in the Philippines. His films included "Nothing But a Man" (1964), "Live and Let Die" (1973), "Blue Collar" (1978), "Alien" (1979), "Running Man" (1987) and "Midnight Run" (1988).
(SFC, 3/17/21, p.A4)
2021 Mar 15, Russia's RDIF sovereign wealth fund said Russia has vaccinated 3.5 million people with both shots of its Sputnik V vaccine against COVID-19, which puts it ahead of all countries in Europe in terms of the absolute number of people fully vaccinated.
(Reuters, 3/15/21)
2021 Mar 15, In Thailand six pedigree cats valued at thousands of dollars were confiscated in a Thai drug network raid on suspicion they were being used to launder money.
(Reuters, 3/16/21)
2021 Mar 15, It was reported that Ugandan opposition figure Bobi Wine has been arrested while leading a protest in Kampala.
(AP, 3/15/21)
2021 Mar 15, The Vatican decreed that the Catholic Church won't bless same-sex unions since God “cannot bless sin".
(AP, 3/15/21)
2021 Mar 15, It was reported that Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is pressing banks to implement digital payment systems as hyperinflation prompts chronic shortages of cash in the bolivar currency.
(Reuters, 3/15/21)
Go to http://www.timelinesdb.com
Go to March 16
Return to home
The Ides of March. In the ancient Roman calendar the 15th day of March, May, July and Oct. or the 13th day of the other months.
(HFA, '96, p.26)(AHD, p.654)
World Consumer Rights Day (see 1962)
( http://www.consumersinternational.org/our-work/wcrd/ )
For Asia History: https://www.asiaobserver.org/category/news/on-this-day-in-asian-history
44BC Mar 15, Roman Emperor Julius Caesar (b.100BC) was murdered by Brutus, Cassius and other conspirators on the Ides of March. Caesar had defeated Pompey in battle and had Pompey murdered in 48BCE. He was perceived as a big threat to the Roman Aristocracy and so his murder was supported by Cicero and most Romans. In 2006 Adrian Goldsworthy authored “Caesar: Life of a Colossus."
(ATC, p.24)(AP, 3/15/97)(WSJ, 10/24/06, p.D6)
493 Mar 15, Theodoric the Great beat Odoacer of Italy. Odoacer, German army leader, King of Italy (476-93), died. [see Mar 3]
(MC, 3/15/02)
933 Mar 15, Henry the Fowler routed the raiding Magyars at Merseburg, Germany.
(HN, 3/15/99)
963 Mar 15, Romanus II (25), Byzantine emperor (959-63), died.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1360 Mar 15, French invasion army landed on English south coast and conquered Winchel.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1382 Mar 15, Conservative "Popolo Grasso" regained power in Florence, Italy.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1391 Mar 15, A Jew-hating monk in Seville, Spain, stirred up a mob to attack Jews.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1493 Mar 15, Christopher Columbus returned to Spain, concluding his first voyage to the Western Hemisphere.
(AP, 3/15/97)(HN, 3/15/98)
1580 Mar 15, Spanish king Philip II put 25,000 gold coins on head of Prince William of Orange.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1626 Mar 15, In Bolivia the Potosi (San Ildefonso) dam collapsed. It was one of the major hydraulic disasters in the world with some 4,000 human lives lost.
(http://tinyurl.com/pgorcx2)
1672 Mar 15, England’s King Charles II enacted a 2nd Declaration of Indulgence.
(http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1327117)
1713 Mar 15, Nicolas Louis de Lacaille, astronomer who mapped the Southern Hemisphere, was born.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1767 Mar 15, Andrew Jackson (d.1845), seventh President of the United States known as "Old Hickory," was born in Waxhaw, South Carolina. The first American president to be born in a log cabin, Jackson was a hero of the War of 1812, an Indian fighter and a Tennessee lawyer. Neither a particularly intelligent man nor a wise one, Jackson became the symbol of his age by being the right man believing in the right things at the right time. Success was a race, Jackson believed, and the government’s primary responsibility was to guarantee that every man got a fair chance at winning. Jackson’s administration (1829-37) saw the development of modern-style political parties and changes in the voting laws that nearly tripled the electorate. He died June 8, 1845. In 1997 Max Byrd wrote “Jackson," a biographical novel.
(AP, 3/15/97)(WSJ, 5/14/97, p.A20) (HNPD, 3/15/99)
1778 Mar 15, In command of two frigates, the Frenchman la Perouse sailed east from Botany Bay for the last lap of his voyage around the world.
(HN, 3/15/99)
1778 Mar 15, Nootka Sound, Vancouver Island, was discovered by Captain Cook.
(HN, 3/15/98)(MC, 3/15/02)
1781 Mar 15, Gen. Nathanael Greene engaged British forces under Cornwallis at Guilford Court-House, North Carolina. Greene retreated after inflicting severe casualties on Cornwallis’ army.
(ON, 12/01, p.10)
1808 Mar 15, Gaetano Gaspari, composer, was born.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1809 Mar 15, Joseph Jenkins Roberts, first president of Liberia, was born.
(HN, 3/15/98)
1813 Mar 15, John Snow (d.1858), obstetrician, was born in York, England. He worked on the epidemiology of cholera.
(ON, 5/05, p.8)(www.johnsnowsociety.org/johnsnow/facts.html)
1820 Mar 15, Maine, a province of Massachusetts since 1647, became the 23rd state. Maine entered the Union as a free state and helped maintain the balance in the US Senate, that would have been disrupted by the entrance of Missouri Territory into the Union as a slave state.
(AP, 3/15/97)
1821 Mar 15, Josef Loschmidt (d.1895), a pioneer of 19th-century physics and chemistry, was born in Putschim (Pocerny), Bohemia. In his first publication (1861) Loschmidt proposed the first structural chemical formulae for many important molecules, introducing markings for double and triple carbon bonds. In 1865 he became the first person to use the kinetic theory of gases to obtain a reasonably good value for the diameter of a molecule. What we call "Avogadro's number" is, in German-speaking countries, called "Loschmidt's number."
(www.physicstoday.org/pt/vol-54/iss-3/p45.html)
1842 Mar 15, Maria Luigi Cherubini (81), Italian composer (Dies Irae), died.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1848 Mar 15, In San Francisco the Californian newsspaper ran a filler on Page 3 about a horse race at Mission Dolores. Below it appeared another filler: “Gold Mine Found," which described a gold find at Sutter’s Mill on the American Fork.
(SFC, 7/12/14, p.C2)
1848 Mar 15, In Hungary an uprising against Habsburg rule began in front of the national museum in Budapest. This was later remembered as a national holiday.
(Reuters, 3/15/07)(Econ, 3/24/12, p.52)
1854 Mar 15, Emil von Behring, first recipient of the Nobel Prize for medicine in 1901, was born.
(HN, 3/15/99)
1855 Mar 15, Louisiana established the 1st health board to regulate quarantine.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1858 Mar 15, Pope Pius IX elevated deacon Teodolfo Cardinal Mertel to the status of cardinal.
(http://tinyurl.com/hy46re2)(Econ, 7/30/16, p.48)
1862 Mar 15, General John Hunt Morgan began four days of raids near the city of Gallatin, Tenn. "The Yankees will never take me a prisoner again," vowed Confederate General John Hunt Morgan.
(HN, 3/15/98)
1864 Mar 15, Red River Campaign began as the Union forces reached Alexandria, La.
(HN, 3/15/98)
1865 Mar 15, Lincoln delivered his Second Inaugural Address. In 2002 Ronald C. White Jr. authored “Lincoln’s Greatest Speech: The Second Inaugural."
(HFA, ‘96, p.28)(WSJ, 2/8/02, p.W9)
1869 Mar 15, Cincinnati Red Stockings became the 1st pro baseball team.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1874 Mar 15, Harold L. Ickes, New Deal politician, was born.
(HN, 3/15/98)
1875 Mar 15, John McCloskey, Roman Catholic archbishop of New York, was named the first American cardinal by Pope Pius IX.
(AP, 3/15/97)
1892 Mar 15, New York State unveiled the new automatic ballot voting machine.
(HN, 3/15/98)
1892 Mar 15, Jesse W. Reno, inventor, patented the 1st escalator in NYC.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1895 Mar 15, Bone Mizell, the famed cowboy of Florida, appeared before a judge for altering cattle brands.
(HN, 3/15/00)
1895 Mar 15, Fridtjof Nansen and Hjalmar Johansen left their ship Fram in an attempt to reach the North Pole by dogsled. [see Jun 17, 1896]
(ON, 7/05, p.5)
1903 Mar 15, The British completed the conquest of Nigeria, 500,000 square miles are now controlled by the United Kingdom.
(HN, 3/15/99)
1904 Mar 15, Three hundred Russians were killed as the Japanese shelled Port Arthur in Korea.
(HN, 3/15/98)
1905 Mar 15, Berthold Schenck von Stauffenberg was born. He later attempted to assassinate Hitler.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1907 Mar 15-1907 Mar 16, Finland held elections and Finnish women became the first in the world to attain full political rights.
(http://electionresources.org/fi/)
1907 Mar 15, Finland became the 1st European country to give women the right to vote. [see Mar 7, 1906]
(MC, 3/15/02)
1908 Mar 15, 1st performance of Maurice Ravel's "Rhapsodie Espagnole."
(MC, 3/15/02)
1909 Mar 15, Italy proposed a European conference on the Balkans.
(HN, 3/15/98)
1912 Mar 15, Yuan Shih-kai succeeded Sun Yat-sen as President of the Republic of China.
(HN, 3/15/98)
1909 Mar 15, Jonas Zemaitis was born in Palanga. He was a founder of the Lithuanian independence movement and served as presidium head. He was shot to death in Moscow Nov 26, 1954.
(LHC, 3/15/03)
1913 Mar 15, President Wilson met with reporters for what's been described as the first presidential press conference. Some sources say Wilson's first actual press conference was a week later.
(AP, 3/15/97)
1915 Mar 15, Thomas Robert Bard (b.1841), US Republican Senator from Ventura, California (1900-1905), died. In 1871 he laid out the town of Hueneme and built a wharf there. Bard was born in Chambersburg, Pa., and came to California in 1864.
(www.bioguide.congress)
1916 Mar 15, Harry James (d.1983), American band leader and trumpet player, was born, He is best remembered for his hit "You Made Me Love You." He married Betty Grable
(HN, 3/15/99)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_James)
1916 Mar 15, General Pershing and his 15,000 troops chased Pancho Villa into Mexico. US troops pursued the guerillas, killing 50 on US soil and 70 more in Mexico. General Pershing failed to capture the Villa dead or alive. Villa was assassinated at Parral in 1923.
(HN, 3/15/98)(MC, 3/15/02)
1917 Mar 15, William D. Stephens (1859-1944) began serving as the 24th governor of California and continued to Jan 8, 1923.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Stephens)
1917 Mar 15, Nicholas II, last Russian tsar, said he will abdicate.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1918 Mar 15, Richard Ellmann, US literary scholar, writer (Oscar Wilde), was born.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1919 Mar 15-17, The American Legion was founded in Paris by members of the American Expeditionary Force.
(AP, 3/15/97)(www.legion.org/)
1922 Mar 15, Sultan Fuad I issued whereby he changed his title from Sultan of Egypt to King of Egypt.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuad_I_of_Egypt)
1922 Mar 15, France was willing to accept raw material instead of currency for German reparations.
(HN, 3/15/98)
1923 Mar 15, An ambassador's conference set the demarcation line between Lithuania and Poland as a national border, which Lithuania did not recognize.
(LHC, 3/15/03)
1923 Mar 15, Lenin was felled by his 3rd stroke.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1924 Mar 15, Sweden recognized the USSR
(HN, 3/15/98)
1928 Mar 15, Nicolas Flagello, composer, was born.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1928 Mar 15, Mussolini modified the Italy electoral system. [see May 12]
(MC, 3/15/02)
1930 Mar 15, The USS Nautilus, the 1st streamlined submarine of US Navy, was launched.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1933 Mar 15, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, U.S. Supreme Court Justice, was born.
(HN, 3/16/01)
1933 Mar 15, The NAACP began a coordinated attack on segregation and discrimination.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1934 Mar 15, Henry Ford restored the $5 a day wage.
(HN, 3/15/98)
1935 Mar 15, Joseph Goebbels, German Minister of Propaganda banned four Berlin newspapers.
(HN, 3/15/98)
1937 Mar 15, The 1st state contraceptive clinic opened in Raleigh, NC.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1937 Mar 15, H.P. Lovecraft (b.1890), author of horror tales whose works included "The Color out of Space," died in Providence, RI.
(HN, 8/20/98)(SSFC, 2/27/05, p.B1)
1939 Mar 15, Germany occupied Bohemia and Moravia, Czechoslovakia. Slovakia became independent
(Voruta #27-28, Jul 1996, p.2)(WSJ, 12/12/96, p.A13)(HN, 3/15/98)(MC, 3/15/02)
1940 Mar 15, Reichsmarshal Herman Goering said 100-200 church bells are enough for Germany and smelted the rest.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1941 Mar 15, A blizzard in North Dakota killed 151. [see Mar 16]
(MC, 3/15/02)
1941 Mar 15, Philippine Airlines maid its maiden flight from Manila to Baguio.
(SFC, 9/24/98, p.A19)
1942 Mar 15, Alexander van Zemlinsky (70), Austrian-US composer (African Dance), died.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1943 Mar 15, In Thessaloniki, Greece, occupying German forces began founding up the first batch of Jews in Eleftherias (Freedom) Square. By August 1943, 46,091 Jews had been deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Of those, 1,950 survived.
(AP, 3/16/13)
1944 March 15, In Algiers, the provisional government merged the Office Français d'Information and France-Afrique, thus forming Agence Française de Presse (AFP).
(www.afp.com)
1944 Mar 15, Allied bombers again raided German-held Monte Cassino, Italy.
(AP, 3/15/07)
1944 Mar 15, Otto von Below (86), German commandant (WW I), died.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1945 Mar 15, Bing Cosby and Ingrid Bergman were winners in the 17th Academy Awards along with the film "Going my Way."
(MC, 3/15/02)
1945 Mar 15, Pierre Drieu La Rochelle (b.1893), a well-known French collaborationist and fascist writer, committed suicide.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Drieu_La_Rochelle)(Econ, 4/26/14, p.84)
1946 Mar 15, British premier Clement Attlee agreed with India's right to independence.
(https://tinyurl.com/3jtmpt9d)
1949 Mar 15, Almost four years after the end of World War II, clothes rationing in Great Britain ends.
(HN, 3/15/99)
1950 Mar 15, "Consul" opened at Barrymore Theater in NYC.
(www.ibdb.com/venue.asp?ID=1147)
1951 Mar 15, General de Lattre demanded that Paris send him more troops for the fight in Indochina (Vietnam).
(HN, 3/15/98)
1951 Mar 15, Persia nationalized the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1954 Mar 15, The "CBS Morning Show" premiered with Walter Cronkite (1916-2009) and Jack Paar (1918-2004).
(NYT, 3/14/54, p.x15)(www.imdb.com/title/tt0046627/episodes)
1955 Mar 15, The U.S. Air Force unveiled a self-guided missile.
(HN, 3/15/98)
1956 Mar 15, The Lerner and Loewe musical "My Fair Lady" opened starring Julie Andrews and Rex Harrison at the Mark Hellinger Theater in NYC for 2,715 performances.
(AP, 3/15/97)(HN, 3/15/02)
1957 Mar 15, Burton Abbot was executed for the 1955 abduction and killing of 14-year-old Stephanie Bryan.
(SFEC, 11/17/96, p.C17)
1960 Mar 15, Ten nations met in Geneva to discuss disarmament.
(HN, 3/15/98)
1961 Mar 15, In San Francisco a 12-ton statue of St. Francis, created by Benny Bufano, was removed from the front of St. Francis of Assisi Church at 610 Vallejo St. and taken to Oakland.
(SSFC, 3/13/11, DB p.42)
1961 Mar 15, South Africa withdrew from British Commonwealth.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1962 Mar 15, Richard Rodger's musical "No Strings," premiered in NYC for 580 performances.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1962 Mar 15, US President John F Kennedy gave an address to Congress in which he formally addressed the issue of consumer rights. He was the first world leader to do so. World Consumer Rights Day (WCRD) was first observed on March 15, 1983, and has since become an important occasion for mobilizing citizen action.
(http://www.consumersinternational.org/our-work/wcrd/)
1962 Mar 15, A US Lockheed Super H Constellation disappeared above the Pacific Ocean and 107 people were killed. The aircraft was transporting 93 Army men and 3 South Vietnamese from Travis Air Force Base, California to Saigon, Vietnam. It was en route to Clark Air Base in the Philippines when it disappeared.
(SSFC, 3/11/12, DBp.42)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_Tiger_Line_Flight_739)
1964 Mar 15, Actress Elizabeth Taylor married actor Richard Burton in Montreal; it was her fifth marriage, his second.
(AP, 3/15/97)
1964 Mar 15, LBJ asked for a War on Poverty and for Congress to ensure everybody's right to vote. [see Mar 16]
(MC, 3/15/02)
1964 Mar 15, Cambodia was receiving military aid from Communist China.
(HN, 3/15/98)
1965 Mar 15, Addressing a joint session of Congress, President Johnson called for new legislation to guarantee every American's right to vote. His speech was written by Richard Goodwin. In 2007 Garth E. Pauley authored “LBJ’s American Promise: the 1965 Voting Rights Address."
(AP, 3/15/97)(WSJ, 4/12/08, p.W8)(AH, 10/07, p.65)
1965 Mar 15, T.G.I. Friday's 1st restaurant opened in NYC.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1965 Mar 15, Gamal Abdel Nasser was re-elected Egyptian President.
(HN, 3/15/99)
1966 Mar 15, Abe Saperstein, founder of the Harlem Globetrotters, died.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1967 Mar 15, LBJ named Ellsworth Bunker as the new ambassador to Saigon, South Vietnam. Bunker replaced Lodge.
(HN, 3/15/98)
1967 Mar 15, Texas lawyer Herb Kelleher and businessman Rollin King incorporated Southwest Airlines initially as "Air Southwest Co." Kelleher and King faced four years of setbacks and legal challenges from competitors that culminated in winning key cases before the Supreme Court of the United States in December 1970 and the Supreme Court of Texas in June 1971. The first flights finally took off on June 18, 1971.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herb_Kelleher)
1968 Mar 15, The U.S. mint halted the practice of buying and selling gold.
(HN, 3/15/98)
1968 Mar 15, American intelligence noted withdrawal of major NVA units from the Khe Sanh area.
(www.geocities.com/Pentagon/4867/timeline.html)
1969 Mar 15, A violent Chinese-Russian border dispute left 100s dead.
(www.jstor.org/pss/1957173)
1970 Mar 15, "Purlie" opened at Broadway Theater in NYC. In December it moved to the Winter Garden Theater and in March 1971 to the ANTA Playhouse where it closed in November after a total of 688 performances.
(www.ibdb.com/production.php?id=3514)
1970 Mar 15, Expo '70, promoting "Progress and Harmony for Mankind," opened in Osaka, Japan. The ‘70 Expo featured the Multiscreen Corporation production of the film Tiger Child.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 216)(Hem., 3/97, p.81)(AP, 3/15/08)
1974 Mar 15, In Brazil General Ernesto Geisel (1907-1996) became president and ruled for 5 years. He gradually ended political repression, lifted press censorship and allowed political exiles to return. Under his rule the foreign debt doubled to $43 billion.
(SFC, 9/13/96, p.E2)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernesto_Geisel)
1975 Mar 15, Ted Bundy victim Julie Cunningham (26) disappeared from Vail, Colo.
(www.crimenews2000.com/memorial/00052902pg8.htm)
1975 Mar 15, Aristotle Onassis (69) Greek shipping magnate died near Paris.
(AP, 3/15/97)
1977 Mar 15, The U.S. House of Representatives began a 90-day test to determine the feasibility of showing its sessions on television.
(AP, 3/15/97)
1979 Mar 15, In Brazil Gen. Joao Baptista Figueiredo (d.1999 at 81) began serving as president and continued to 1985. Aureliano Chaves (d.2003 at 74) served as VP. Figueiredo was the last of 5 generals to rule during the 1964-1985 dictatorship. He oversaw the transition to democracy begun by his predecessor Ernesto Geisel. Inflation during his rule rose from 43% a year to 230% a year when he left office.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jo%C3%A3o_Baptista_de_Oliveira_Figueiredo)(SFC, 12/25/99, p.B4)(SFC, 5/2/03, p.A26)
1981 Mar 15, Fernando Belmontes (19) killed Steacy McConnell (19) during a robbery in Victor, just east of Lodi, Ca. He hit her 15-20 times with an iron dumbbell. In 2006 the US Supreme Court reinstated his death sentence.
{California, Murder, USA}
(SFC, 11/14/06, p.B3)(www.cjlf.org/releases/06-18.htm)
1981 Mar 15, Rene Clair (b.1898), French director (It Happened Tomorrow), died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ren%C3%A9_Clair)
1982 Mar 15, Actress Theresa Saldana (b.1954) was stalked and stabbed by Arthur Jackson. She had starred in Martin Scorsese’s 1980 film "Raging Bull." Jackson was convicted of 2nd degree attempted murder and served 12 years. He was then extradited to England for wounding 2 tellers and killing a man who tried to stop a bank robbery in the Chelsea section of London in 1966. In 1994 Ronald Markman and Ron Labrecque authored “Obsessed: The Stalking of Theresa Soldana."
(SFC, 6/22/96, p.E3)(http://tinyurl.com/2sz4cq)
1983 Mar 15, World Consumer Rights Day (WCRD) was first observed. US President John F Kennedy gave an address to Congress on March 15, 1962, in which he formally addressed the issue of consumer rights. He was the first world leader to do so.
(http://www.consumersinternational.org/our-work/wcrd/)
1983 Mar 15, Rebecca West (born in 1892 as Cicily Fairfield), British writer, died. Her books included "The Return of the Soldier" (1918) and "Black Lamb and Grey Falcon," which was written following a trip through Yugoslavia. She had a relationship with H.G. Wells that led to the birth of a son, Anthony. In 1996 Carl Rollyson wrote her biography: "Rebecca West: A Life." Her pen name came from a character in Ibsen’s play "Rosmersholm." In 2000 the "Selected Letters of Rebecca West" was edited by Bonnie Kime Scott. In 2003 Bernard Schweitzer edited and introduced her work "Survivors in Mexico."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebecca_West)(WSJ, 3/6/00, p.A28)(SSFC, 6/8/03, p.M3)
1984 Mar 15, The acquittal of a Miami police officer on charges of negligently killing a ghetto youth sparked a rampage by angry blacks in Miami; 550 people were arrested.
(http://tinyurl.com/39ow9d)
1986 Mar 15, The AMA ruled that euthanasia was ethical on coma patients.
(HN, 3/15/98)
1987 Mar 15, "Starlight Express" by Andrew Lloyd Weber, opened at Gershwin Theater in NYC for 761 performances. The initial production had opened at the Apollo Victoria Theatre in London on March 27 1984.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starlight_Express)
1987 Mar 15, Peggy Say, the sister of Terry Anderson, the Associated Press correspondent held hostage in Lebanon, said President Reagan was being "unjustly castigated" for his arms-for-hostages deal.
(AP, 3/15/97)
1988 Mar 15, Paul Simon defeated Jesse Jackson in the Illinois Democratic primary, while George Bush won a ringing victory over Bob Dole in the Republican contest.
(AP, 3/15/98)
1988 Mar 15, NFL owners approved the move of the St Louis Cardinals to Phoenix.
(www.sportsecyclopedia.com/nfl/az/cardsarizona.html)
1988 Mar 15, In southern California Joe Morgan (49), a former baseball star and Hall of Famer, was roughed up and handcuffed by LA police and a DEA agent, who mistook him for a drug suspect. A federal appeal court later reduced Morgan’s $540,000 damage award to between $190,000 and $340,000.
(SSFC, 9/10/17 DB p.54)
1989 Mar 15, Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev convened a two-day meeting of the Communist Party's Central Committee to decide on agricultural reforms.
(AP, 3/15/99)
1990 Mar 15, Iraq executed London-based journalist Farzad Bazoft, claiming he was a spy.
(AP, 3/15/00)
1990 Mar 15, The Israeli government of Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir lost a vote of confidence in the Knesset after Shamir refused to accept a U.S. plan for Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
(AP, 3/15/00)
1991 Mar 15, An indictment was unsealed in Los Angeles, charging four police officers with beating black motorist Rodney King.
(HN, 3/15/98)(AP, 3/15/01)
1991 Mar 15, Soviet pole vaulter Sergei Bubka cleared a record 20 feet during an international meet in San Sebastian, Spain.
(AP, 3/15/01)
1992 Mar 15, Democratic presidential candidates debated in Chicago, criticizing President George H.W. Bush's handling of the Persian Gulf War and its aftermath, and clashing over economic issues.
(AP, 3/15/97)
1992 Mar 15, The United Nations officially embarked on its largest peacekeeping operation with the arrival of a diplomat in Cambodia. The UN peacekeeping mission in Cambodia soon began running a radio station to disseminate reliable information before elections.
(AP, 3/15/97)(Economist, 9/1/12, p.51)
1993 Mar 15, Searchers found the body of the sixth and last missing victim of the World Trade Center bombing in New York.
(AP, 3/15/98)
1993 Mar 15, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin met at the White House with President Clinton, after which Rabin offered to negotiate the return of part of the Golan Heights to Syria.
(AP, 3/15/98)
1994 Mar 15, Illinois Congressman Dan Rostenkowski, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, defeated four Democratic primary challengers in his bid for re-election.
(AP, 3/15/99)
1995 Mar 15, President Clinton issued an executive order formally blocking a $1 billion contract between Conoco and Iran to develop a huge offshore oil tract in the Persian Gulf.
(AP, 3/15/00)
1996 Mar 15, The Liggett Group agreed to repay more than $10 million in Medicaid bills for treatment of smokers, settling lawsuits with five states. The settlement came two days after Liggett, the nation's fifth-largest tobacco company, made history by settling a private class-action lawsuit alleging cigarette makers manipulated nicotine to hook smokers.
(AP, 3/15/97)
1996 Mar 15, Helen Chadwick (42), British artist, died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Chadwick)
1997 Mar 15, An art show that featured 13 oil paintings by Dr. Kevorkian opened in Royal Oak, Mich. They depicted severed heads, moldering skulls and rotting corpses.
(SFC, 3/17/97, p.A2)
1997 Mar 15, President Clinton spent a second day at Bethesda Naval Medical Center, recuperating from surgery for a partially torn knee tendon.
(AP, 3/15/98)
1997 Mar 15, Greek frogmen and U.S. Marines evacuated hundreds of foreigners trapped in Albania after that country's descent into anarchy.
(AP, 3/15/98)
1997 Mar 15, German soldiers, while rescuing foreigners, opened fire under hostile conditions in Albania. This was their first active combat since WW II.
(SFC, 3/17/97, p.C1)
1997 Mar 15, The Moscow paper Komsomolskaya Pravda reported in an article by Robert Bykov, retired Russian colonel, that an accidental nuclear launch could happen at any time due to the aged and unreliability of the command-an-control equipment.
(WSJ, 3/28/97, p.A16)
1997 Mar 15, In Zaire rebel soldiers occupied Kisangani.
(SFC, 3/17/97, p.A8)
1998 Mar 15, CBS' "60 Minutes" aired an interview with former White House employee Kathleen Willey, who said President Clinton had made unwelcome sexual advances toward her in the Oval Office in 1993, a charge denied by the president.
(AP, 3/15/99)
1998 Mar 15, Dr. Benjamin Spock (b.1903), whose child care guidance spanned half a century, died in San Diego at 94. He was the author of the 1946 “Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care."
(SFC, 3/17/98, p.A5)(AP, 3/15/99)
1998 Mar 15, Random drug testing at all Malaysian schools was to be instituted with urine testing equipment.
(SFC, 3/16/98, p.A9)
1999 Mar 15, Bruce Springsteen, Paul McCartney, Billy Joel and Dusty Springfield were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
(AP, 3/15/00)
1999 Mar 15, The US prison population was reported at 1.8 million with 668 inmates per 100,000 residents.
(SFC, 3/15/99, p.A2)
1999 Mar 15, In Bourbonnais, Ill., the "City of New Orleans" Amtrak train derailed after hitting a truck loaded with steel. The truck was driven by John Stokes and 11 people were killed and 119 injured. A witness testified that Stokes tried to go around the crossing gates to beat the train, but the testimony was later reported as mistaken.
(SFC, 3/16/99, p.A3)(SFC, 3/17/99, p.A1)(WSJ, 3/17/99, p.A1)(SFC, 3/17/99, p.A3)(SFC, 3/18/99, p.A3)(SFC, 3/20/99, p.A10)
1999 Mar 15, In Ecuador the banks reopened as taxi drivers protested the doubling of gas prices.
(SFC, 3/16/99, p.A9)
1999 Mar 15, Eritrea claimed to have shot down an Ethiopian MiG-23 and to have destroyed 19 tanks. Ethiopia denied the claims.
(SFC, 3/16/99, p.A9)
1999 Mar 15, All 20 members of the EU executive body, the European Commission led by Jacques Santer, resigned in the wake of charges of fraud, corruption and mismanagement.
(SFC, 3/16/99, p.A1)(Econ, 9/13/03, p.50)
1999 Mar 15, In Haiti a UN helicopter crashed in the mountains and 13 people were killed. They included 6 Argentines, 6 Russians and 1 American.
(SFC, 3/16/99, p.A9)
1999 Mar 15, In Indonesia the government closed 38 banks, took over 7, and agreed to bail out 9 in an attempt to revitalize the financial system.
(WSJ, 3/15/99, p.A13)
1999 Mar 15, The Kosovar Albanian delegation to peace talks in Paris said it was ready to sign an international accord for Kosovo. In Kosovo the ethnic Albanians gave a written pledge to sign a peace proposal.
(SFC, 3/16/99, p.A8)(AP, 3/15/00)
1999 Mar 15, In Northern Ireland Rosemary Nelson (40), a Catholic human rights lawyer, was killed by a car bomb in Lurgan.
(SFC, 3/16/99, p.A8)
1999 Mar 15, Pluto again became the outermost planet.
(MC, 3/15/02)
2000 Mar 15, Their presidential nominations secured, Al Gore and George W. Bush dug in for the eight-month battle to Election Day, with Bush saying he was braced for Gore’s “politics of personal destruction and distortions," and Gore arguing that Bush’s “risky tax scheme" would hurt the economy.
(AP, 3/15/01)
2000 Mar 15, Paleontologist Daniel Gebo announced the discovery of bones from 2 tiny primates, the size of a human thumb, that lived 42 million years ago in Shanghuang, China.
(SFC, 3/16/00, p.A1)
2000 Mar 15, In Michigan 4 teens beat to death and robbed Willie Jones (66) as he left the Michigan Lanes Bowling Alley in Grand Rapids. The teens then stuffed Jones into their car trunk and drove around town to show him off.
(SFC, 3/20/00, p.A11)
2000 Mar 15, Darrell Keith Rich (45), serial killer, was executed at San Quentin, Ca. His was the 8th execution in the state since the reinstitution of the death penalty.
(SFC, 3/15/00, p.A1)(SFC, 12/13/05, p.A13)
2000 Mar 15, Durward Kirby (b.1912), TV funnyman ("Candid Camera" and "The Garry Moore Show") died at age 87 in Fort Myers, Florida.
(AP, 3/15/01)
2000 Mar 15, A UN Security Council panel accused governments of Africa and Europe of violating sanctions against the UNITA rebels in Angola.
(SFC, 3/16/00, p.A14)
2000 Mar 15, Canada passed the Clarity Act, which set out a procedure for the government to negotiate with any province that votes for independence by a clear majority.
(www.cric.ca/en_html/guide/clarity/clarity_act.html)(Econ, 1/14/06, p.18)
2000 Mar 16, Emergency food aid was planned for Ethiopia after it was learned that 53 children under age 5 had died of malnutrition in one town.
(SFC, 3/16/00, p.A16)
2000 Mar 15, In Iraq US and British warplanes hit southern targets and Iraq reported that one civilian was killed and 6 injured.
(SFC, 3/16/00, p.A15)
2000 Mar 15, In Israel the security cabinet approved a troop pullout from 6.1% of the West Bank as Hezbollah fired rockets at Israeli positions in southern Lebanon and northern Israel. The areas to be ceded included several Palestinian villages and towns near Ramallah, Bethlehem and Hebron.
(WSJ, 3/16/00, p.A1)(SFC, 3/16/00, p.A14)
2000 Mar 15, In Kosovo US troops raided 5 locations in southeastern Kosovo and seized large quantities of arms and ammunition from militant Albanians.
(SFC, 3/16/00, p.A16)
2000 Mar 15, In Liberia the government closed 2 leading independent radio stations saying they posed a security risk.
(SFC, 3/16/00, p.A15)
2000 Mar 15, The IMF announced that Ukraine had provided false data on its currency reserves between 1996 and 1998 in order to get 3 loans approved.
(SFC, 3/16/00, p.A15)
2001 Mar 15, Federal authorities confirmed that remains found on a Texas ranch were those of missing atheist leader Madalyn Murray O'Hair and two of her relatives. David Waters, the key suspect in the slayings, was sentenced to 20 years in prison on a federal extortion charge in connection with the case.
(AP, 3/15/06)
2001 Mar 15, Ann Sothern (92), film and TV actress, died in Ketchum, Idaho. Her work included 64 movies and over 175 TV episodes.
(SFC, 3/17/01, p.A23)(AP, 3/15/02)
2001 Mar 15, Australia’s HIH Insurance, the country’s 2nd largest insurance firm, was forced into liquidation. This led to a revision of regulatory oversight.
(Econ, 5/28/11, SR p.5)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HIH_Insurance)
2001 Mar 15, In Brazil a Petrobras oil-platform explosion killed 1 worker and left 9 missing at the 40-story offshore facility. The platform was in danger of sinking.
(WSJ, 3/16/01, p.A1)(SFC, 3/17/01, p.A11)
2001 Mar 15, Britain announced plans to slaughter up to 100,000 more animals due to possible contacts with foot-and-mouth disease virus.
(SFC, 3/16/01, p.A15)
2001 Mar 15, Chechen men, wielding knives and claiming to have a bomb, hijacked a Russian plane carrying 174 people after it left Turkey and forced it to land in the holy Saudi city of Medina. Saudi special forces stormed the plane the following day; a flight attendant, a passenger and a hijacker were killed.
(SFC, 3/16/01, p.A14)(AP, 3/15/02)
2001 Mar 15, In India defense minister George Fernandes resigned in a corruption scandal.
(SFC, 3/16/01, p.A16)
2001 Mar 15, Israel arrested 3 members of an elite Palestinian security force who allegedly planned a bomb attack on Israeli West Bank military headquarters.
(SFC, 3/16/01, p.A14)
2001 Mar 15, In Macedonia Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski said that a direct involvement of Nato troops might be required to stem rebel attacks.
(SFC, 3/16/01, p.A14)
2001 Mar 15, In the Philippines 10 police officers were sentenced to death for accepting $13,265 in bribes from alleged drug dealers in 1999.
(SFC, 3/16/01, p.A16)
2001 Mar 15, A St. Maarten registered boat carrying illegal migrants sank near St. Martin and at least 20 people were killed.
(SFC, 3/16/01, p.A16)
2002 Mar 15, Disney opened its new $532.9 million movie-themed park adjacent to Disneyland Paris.
(WSJ, 3/12/02, p.B1)
2002 Mar 15, Adm. Zinni, US envoy, met with Yasser Arafat in Ramallah and demanded that he reign in militants and enforced a cease fire.
(SFC, 3/16/02, p.A7)
2002 Mar 15, China allowed 25 North Korean asylum seekers to leave the Spanish Embassy in Beijing for South Korea by way of the Philippines.
(WSJ, 3/18/02, p.A1)
2003 Mar 15, Many thousands of anti-war demonstrators marched in SF, Washington DC and around the world against plans for a war with Iraq.
(SFC, 3/16/03, p.A1)(AP, 3/15/08)
2002 Mar 15, A Houston jury spared Andrea Yates’ life after prosecutors stopped short of demanding the death penalty for the tormented mother who’d drowned her five children in the bathtub. Yates was sentenced to life in prison; however, she was later acquitted by reason of insanity in a retrial.
(AP, 3/15/07)
2002 Mar 15, In Lewisville, Texas, Jackson Carr (6) was killed and buried by his older sister (15) and brother (10). His body was found the next day.
(SFC, 4/17/02, p.A5)
2002 Mar 15, Sylvester “Pat" Weaver (93), TV pioneer, died in Santa Barbara, Calif. He had created NBC’s “Today" and “Tonight" shows.
(AP, 3/15/07)
2003 Mar 15, In Chechnya 6 Russian soldiers were killed by rebel fire and mines. Attackers destroyed 2 polling stations ahead of the Mar 23 constitutional referendum.
(SFC, 3/17/03, p.A4)
2003 Mar 15, Hu Jintao was chosen to replace Jiang Zemin as the president of China.
(AP, 3/15/04)
2003 Mar 15, In Pakistan authorities near Lahore arrested Yassir al-Jaziri, a suspected key al-Qaeda figure.
(SFC, 3/16/03, p.A1)
2004 Mar 15, The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted Prince, Bob Seger, Jackson Browne and George Harrison along with ZZ Top, Traffic and the Dells.
(SFC, 3/16/04, p.A2)
2004 Mar 15, Missouri jurors agreed that vapors from butter flavoring at the microwave popcorn factory had permanently ruined the lungs of Eric Peoples. The verdict was against International Flavors and Fragrances Inc. and its subsidiary Bush Boake Allen Inc. The flavoring manufacturers were ordered to pay $18 million to Peoples and $2 million to his wife.
(AP, 3/16/04)
2004 Mar 15, Ohio police identified Charles A. McCoy Jr. (28) as the gunman in two dozen highway shootings that have terrorized motorists for months.
(AP, 3/16/04)(SFC, 3/18/04, p.A4)
2004 Mar 15, Bank of America and FleetBoston Financial agreed to pay $675 million in fines and fee cuts to settle improper mutual-fund trading. Some 13,000 job cuts were expected following the merger of the 2 companies.
(WSJ, 3/16/04, p.A1)(WSJ, 3/17/04, p.A1)
2004 Mar 15, The Bill Gates Foundation donated $47 million to private agencies carrying out AIDS prevention programs in India.
(SFC, 3/16/04, p.A2)
2004 Mar 15, Martha Stewart resigned from the board of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia 10 days after being convicted in a stock scandal.
(AP, 3/15/05)
2004 Mar 15, A new computer worm, named "Phatbot," began appearing in the Asia-Pacific region. Most call it a variation of the longstanding Gaobot or Agobot family, and sometimes as Polybot. When the worm is run, it sets the system to autostart the worm at boot time; attempts to terminate security software running on the computer; and probes network shares in an attempt to spread itself.
(AP, 3/17/04)
2004 Mar 15, Scientists announced the discovery of a new planetoid named Sedna. The frozen, shiny red world is some 8 billion miles from Earth, the most distant known object in the solar system. Some placed it in the outer periphery of a region called the Oort Cloud.
(AP, 3/16/04)(SFC, 3/16/04, p.A1)
2004 Mar 15, The WHO reported that drug-resistant strains of tuberculosis had reached troubling levels in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.
(WSJ, 3/16/04, p.A1)
2004 Mar 15, The U.S. military said it released 23 Afghan and three Pakistani citizens from the U.S. Navy prison for terrorist suspects in Cuba, leaving about 610 still in detention.
(AP, 3/16/04)
2004 Mar 15, Canadian National Railway reached a tentative agreement with the Canadian Auto Workers union that could end a 3½-week-old strike by 5,000 employees.
(AP, 3/15/04)
2004 Mar 15, Georgia's President Mikhail Saakashvili put trade restrictions on Adzharia after Aslan Abashidze ignored a deadline to accept federal authority.
(AP, 3/14/04)
2004 Mar 15, Iran relented and decided to allow a visit at the end of this month, after temporarily freezing out international nuclear inspectors.
(AP, 3/15/04)
2004 Mar 15, In Iraq 4 American missionary relief workers were killed in a drive-by shooting in Mosul.
(SFC, 3/16/04, p.A14)(AP, 3/15/05)
2004 Mar 15, Israeli helicopters attacked two suspected Hamas weapons workshops in Gaza City and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon called off a summit with his Palestinian counterpart.
(AP, 3/15/04)
2004 Mar 15, Ousted Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide left his temporary exile in Africa and flew to Jamaica despite opposition to his presence in the Caribbean.
(AP, 3/15/04)
2004 Mar 15, Pakistani police diffused a large bomb inside a van parked in front of the US Consulate in Karachi.
(SFC, 3/16/04, p.A3)
2004 Mar 15, In Saudi Arabia authorities killed Khaled Ali Haj, a Yemeni, and Ibrahim bin Abdul-Aziz bin Mohammed al-Mezeini, a Saudi. Haj, who also uses the name Abu Hazim al-Sha'ir, was the "most dangerous" al-Qaeda operative in the region. Haj was third on the government's list of Saudi Arabia's 26 most wanted militants.
(AP, 3/16/04)
2004 Mar 15, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, the leader of Spain's victorious Socialists, said he will withdraw his nation's support for the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq.
(AP, 3/15/04)
2004 Mar 15, In Venezuela opponents of President Hugo Chavez celebrated a Supreme Court ruling that signatures on petitions seeking a presidential recall vote were valid unless citizens disclaim them.
(AP, 3/16/04)
2005 Mar 15, A US Senate investigators released a new report that said 9 US banks, including Citigroup, Bank of America, and Riggs Bank, enabled Augusto Pinochet, former Chilean dictator, and family members to build a secret network of accounts to conceal his wealth. DC-based Riggs Bank merged with PNC Financial following the inquiry, which also revealed that Pinochet and Obiang Nguema, president of Equatorial Guinea, had stashed millions in private accounts there.
(WSJ, 3/16/05, p.A2)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riggs_Bank)(Econ, 3/14/09, p.63)
2005 Mar 15, The US charged 18 people with a scheme to smuggle shoulder-fired missiles and other military gear from former Soviet states. One person was still at large.
(WSJ, 3/16/05, p.A1)
2005 Mar 15, A NY federal jury found Bernard Ebbers (63), former head of WorldCom, guilty on all 9 counts against him, including securities fraud, conspiracy and lying to regulators. He was later sentenced to 25 years in prison.
(SFC, 3/16/05, p.C1)(AP, 3/15/06)
2005 Mar 15, British and Spanish scientists reported that they have discovered how green tea helps to prevent certain types of cancer. They showed that a compound called EGCG in green tea prevents cancer cells from growing by binding to a specific enzyme.
(AP, 3/15/05)
2005 Mar 15, It was noted that Israeli researchers had found that pomegranate juice, 8 ounces a day, helps lower cholesterol.
(WSJ, 3/15/05, p.D4)(WSJ, 4/5/05, p.D4)
2005 Mar 15, Bolivia's embattled President Carlos Mesa asked the country's legislature to authorize an early presidential election this summer, saying he can no longer govern among growing protests and road blockades.
(AP, 3/16/05)
2005 Mar 15, Hong Kong press reported that Zhang Enzhou was removed as president of China Construction Bank (CCB), China’s 3rd largest bank, allegedly for taking bribes.
(Econ, 3/19/05, p.79)
2005 Mar 15, A French court gave the maximum 10-year prison sentence to Djamel Beghal (39), the ringleader of an alleged plot to send a suicide bomber into the US Embassy in Paris. The court also sentenced 5 other defendants in the case to 1-9 year prison terms. Beghal testified that his confession of a plan to send a suicide bomber into the U.S. Embassy was obtained under torture after his July 2001 arrest in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. He was extradited to France two months later and retracted that confession.
(AP, 3/15/05)
2005 Mar 15, Three car bombs exploded in Baghdad, killing at least 5 people.
(AP, 3/15/05)
2005 Mar 15, Pres. Berlusconi announced that Italy would begin pulling its 3,300 troops out of Iraq in September. The next day he said the withdrawal date was merely a hope.
(AP, 3/16/05)(Econ, 3/19/05, p.56)
2005 Mar 15, Pakistan issued release orders for 589 Indian prisoners as a gesture of goodwill towards New Delhi.
(Reuters, 3/15/05)
2005 Mar 15, In the Philippines some of the country's most hardened terror suspects were killed in a failed prison uprising that left 28 people dead. The inmates at Camp Bagong Diwa in suburban Manila had agreed to surrender after their failed jailbreak a day earlier, but the deal broke down when they demanded food first.
(AP, 3/15/05)
2006 Mar 15, The US FCC proposed a record fine of $3.6 million against dozens of CBS stations and affiliates in a crackdown on indecent television programming.
(SFC, 3/16/06, p.A2)
2006 Mar 15, US federal authorities announced charges against 27 people in an Int’l. Internet child-porn scheme.
(SFC, 3/16/06, p.A7)
2006 Mar 15, Veteran musher Jeff King drove his dog team into the Bering Sea town of Nome, Alaska, to capture the 1,100-mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, the world's premier dog-sled event, for the fourth time.
(AP, 3/15/06)
2006 Mar 15, Lawrence Edward Woods (60), a transient with 2 guns, shot and killed 2 people inside a Denny’s restaurant in Pismo Beach, Ca. He wounded 2 others and then killed himself.
(SFC, 3/16/06, p.B5)
2006 Mar 15, Afghan authorities said preliminary test results from a U.N. lab left them "99 percent certain" that the country's first bird flu outbreak was the deadly H5N1 strain.
(AP, 3/15/06)
2006 Mar 15, Britain's Queen Elizabeth II was greeted with protests, as well as pomp, when she arrived in the southern Australian city Melbourne to open the Commonwealth Games.
(AP, 3/15/06)
2006 Mar 15, Officials in Azerbaijan said a dog had died of bird flu in Baku on Mar 9. 3 human victims, who died over the past few weeks, were thought to have been infected through contact with birds.
(AP, 3/15/06)
2006 Mar 15, A British serviceman facing his first day of a court martial contended that the war in Iraq is illegal. Flight Lt. Malcolm Kendall-Smith, a Royal Air Force medic, is the first British officer accused of refusing to serve in Iraq.
(AP, 3/15/06)
2006 Mar 15, In China 8 aphorisms by Pres. Hu Jintao were issued on a $1 poster with plain, black Chinese characters above a photo of the Great Wall: Love, do not harm the motherland. Serve, don't disserve the people. Uphold science; don't be ignorant and unenlightened. Work hard; don't be lazy and hate work. Be united and help each other; don't gain benefits at the expense of others. Be honest and trustworthy, not profit-mongering at the expense of your values. Be disciplined and law-abiding instead of chaotic and lawless. Know plain living and hard struggle, do not wallow in luxuries and pleasures.
(AP, 3/16/06)
2006 Mar 15, In southwest China a boat carrying people home from a fair capsized while crossing a river leaving at least 27 dead.
(AP, 3/15/06)
2006 Mar 15, It was reported that the Dominican Republic is looking to Washington for help recovering at least $80 million in damages from a US utility it accuses of dumping thousands of tons of coal ash on the country's beaches, sickening residents and harming the tourism industry. The government says 82,000 tons of coal ash were shipped from an AES plant in Guayama, Puerto Rico, and left on beaches in Manzanillo and the Samana Bay port town of Arroyo Barril between October 2003 and March 2004 without proper government permits.
(AP, 3/15/06)
2006 Mar 15, Alfredo Castillo, Ecuador's interior minister, resigned as protests over a US free trade plan spread from the Andean highlands to the oil-producing southeast jungle, where police clashed with demonstrators. His comments appeared to support the protesters and showed disloyalty to Pres. Palacio.
(AP, 3/15/06)
2006 Mar 15, In France a suspected gangland-style car explosion killed one man and injured another on a highway north of Paris.
(AP, 3/15/06)
2006 Mar 15, In Indonesia protesters, demanding the closure of a US-owned gold mine in Papua, clashed with police in the second day of violent protests in the province.
(AP, 3/15/06)
2006 Mar 15, Saddam Hussein, testifying for the first time in his trial, called on Iraqis to stop killing each other and instead fight US troops; the judge reprimanded him for making a rambling, political speech and ordered the TV cameras switched off. US forces bombed a house during a raid north of Baghdad, killing 13 people, mostly women and children, while insurgent attacks elsewhere left four dead. In Baqouba, a suicide bomber on a bicycle missed a police patrol and killed at least two civilians. Interior Ministry officials announced another driving ban, from 8 p.m. Mar 15 to 4 p.m. Mar 16, to protect against car and suicide bombs while the Iraqi parliament meets for the first session since the Dec. 15 election. On June 3 the US military said that it had found no wrongdoing by American troops accused of intentionally killing civilians during a raid in Ishaqi village north of Baghdad. In 2011 the Iraqi government revived a probe into allegations that US forces shot and killed civilians.
(AP, 3/15/06)(AP, 6/3/06)(AP, 3/15/07)(AP, 9/2/11)
2006 Mar 15, In Ivory Coast Guillaume Soro, a leader of the rebel New Forces, joined a national unity government as minister of development.
(SFC, 3/16/06, p.A3)
2006 Mar 15, It was reported that Japanese scientists had unveiled a robotic fish that could one day be used to observe fish in the ocean or survey oil platforms for damage.
(Reuters, 3/15/06)
2006 Mar 15, In Japan 4 people suspected of committing group suicide were found dead inside a parked car.
(AP, 3/15/06)
2006 Mar 15, In the Netherlands 2 Bosnian Muslim army commanders were convicted of war crimes for failing to rein in foreign Muslim volunteers who murdered and tortured Bosnian Croats and Serbs in a 1990s "holy war."
(AP, 3/16/06)
2006 Mar 15, Palestinian militants released the last four foreigners they had seized a day earlier to protest an Israeli military raid on a West Bank prison. Meanwhile, Palestinian PM Mahmoud Abbas called the raid an "unforgivable crime."
(AP, 3/15/06)
2006 Mar 15, South Korea formally opened new immigration checkpoints for travelers crossing the heavily fortified border with North Korea, symbolizing Seoul's hopes for boosting exchanges with its longtime communist foe.
(AP, 3/15/06)
2006 Mar 15, Gunmen attacked a compound of the UN refugee agency in the town of Yei in southern Sudan, killing one person and critically wounding two others.
(AP, 3/16/06)
2006 Mar 15, Sweden recorded its first case of the deadly H5N1 bird flu strain, saying European laboratory tests confirm two wild birds found dead in the southeast were infected with the virus.
(AP, 3/15/06)
2007 Mar 15, In the US Senate Republicans easily turned back Democratic legislation requiring a troop withdrawal from Iraq to begin within 120 days.
(AP, 3/15/08)
2007 Mar 15, A revised transcript was released by the US military that said suspected 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed confessed to the beheading of American journalist Daniel Pearl and a central role in 30 other attacks and plots in the US and worldwide that killed thousands of victims.
(AP, 3/15/07)
2007 Mar 15, Standard & Poor's said an increase in US homes for sale as a result of subprime loan borrowers defaulting on their mortgages, in addition to less construction of new homes, is likely to depress gross domestic product growth.
(Reuters, 3/15/07)
2007 Mar 15, Cisco said it has acquired WebEx Communications for $3.2 billion in cash.
(SFC, 3/16/07, p.C1)
2007 Mar 15, In Sacramento, Ca., a fire burned hundreds of feet of a railroad trestle at the American River causing part of the bridge to collapse. This halted passenger and freight traffic on Amtrak and the Union Pacific lines on the main east-west route in Northern California.
(SFC, 3/16/07, p.A2)
2007 Mar 15, Scientists said a spacecraft orbiting Mars has scanned huge deposits of water ice at its south pole so plentiful they would blanket the planet in 36 feet of water if they were liquid.
(Reuters, 3/15/07)
2007 Mar 15, Stuart Rosenberg (79), a prolific director of series television and theatrical films, died at his home in Beverly Hills. He had partnered with Paul Newman on the widely popular prison drama "Cool Hand Luke" and several other movies.
(AP, 3/19/07)
2007 Mar 15, Bowie Kuhn (80), former baseball commissioner died in Jacksonville, Fla.
(AP, 3/15/08)
2007 Mar 15, US-led coalition forces mistakenly killed five Afghan police in a clash in a southern province.
(AP, 3/16/07)
2007 Mar 15, Interpol said it plans to issue international requests for the arrest of five prominent Iranians and a Lebanese militant in connection with the 1994 bombing of a Jewish cultural center in Argentina.
(AP, 3/15/07)
2007 Mar 15, Bulgaria, Russia and Greece signed a deal in Athens to build a 175-mile pipeline to transport Russian oil to a port in northern Greece.
(AP, 3/15/07)
2007 Mar 15, Human Rights Watch released a report that said Children in Burundi suffer serious abuses in prison, including torture, rape and food shortages, in a criminal justice system that treats them as adults.
(AP, 3/15/07)
2007 Mar 15, China expressed "deep regret" over a US decision to punish a Macau bank for allegedly helping North Korea launder money, foreshadowing the difficulties of enforcing an international agreement on the North's nuclear disarmament.
(AP, 3/15/07)
2007 Mar 15, A UN report said Colombian security forces killed civilians in several states last year and falsely labeled many as leftist rebels slain in combat.
(AP, 3/15/07)
2007 Mar 15, The EU said it would put pressure on members of the Southeast Asian regional grouping ASEAN at talks in Germany to urge Myanmar to improve its human rights record.
(AP, 3/15/07)
2007 Mar 15, A French court convicted a doctor in the poisoning death of a terminally ill cancer patient, in a trial that has raised the issue of euthanasia in France's presidential race.
(AP, 3/15/07)
2007 Mar 15, It was reported that the Pascha brothel in Cologne, Germany, hopes to capitalize on the growing number of retirees by offering a 50% discount for sex in the afternoon.
(AP, 3/15/07)
2007 Mar 15, In Hungary thousands of people protested against Socialist PM Ferenc Gyurcsany at ceremonies to mark the country's national holiday, demanding his resignation and shouting "traitor."
(AP, 3/15/07)
2007 Mar 15, Communist rebels armed with rifles, hand grenades and petrol bombs attacked a police post in the jungles of eastern India, killing at least 55 officers. In eastern India farmers angry over plans to build an industrial park on their land torched a government office in a second day of unrest that has claimed 14 lives.
(AP, 3/15/07)(AP, 3/16/07)
2007 Mar 15, The six world powers reached an agreement on a draft resolution for a new package of sanctions against Iran for its nuclear program. It included an embargo on arms exports and an asset freeze on more individuals and companies associated with Tehran's nuclear and missile programs.
(AP, 3/15/07)
2007 Mar 15, A suicide car bomber apparently targeting a senior city official struck an Iraqi military checkpoint in a Shiite neighborhood in Baghdad, killing at least eight people. In Iskandariyah a bomb in a parked car exploded as a bus packed with workers passed by, killing at least four and wounding 24. The top official in Baghdad's Sadr City was seriously wounded when gunmen ambushed his convoy in eastern Baghdad, killing two of his bodyguards. A US soldier was killed in an explosion in Salahuddin province.
(AP, 3/15/07)(AP, 3/16/07)
2007 Mar 15, Jordan's military court sentenced to death four Iraqi al-Qaida militants charged with terror attacks on Jordanians in Iraq. Of the four, only one is in custody while the other three remain at large and were tried in absentia.
(AP, 3/15/07)
2007 Mar 15, The European Commission and the UN Development Program said Malaysia should empower its forest-dependent indigenous people to alleviate poverty and safeguard their environment.
(AP, 3/15/07)
2007 Mar 15, Mexican Federal agents seized the cash, eight luxury vehicles, seven weapons and a machine to make pills during a raid at a house in Lomas de Chapultepec. The attorney general later said the $206 million in cash seized was connected to one of the hemisphere's largest networks for trafficking pseudoephedrine, the main ingredient in methamphetamines. The ring had been operating since 2004 and was run by a native of China who had gained Mexican citizenship. A recount put the cashed seized to over $207 million.
(AP, 3/17/07)(AP, 3/22/07)
2007 Mar 15, Montenegro signed a stabilization and association agreement (SAA), usually the first step toward EU membership.
(Econ, 3/24/07, p.60)
2007 Mar 15, Nigeria’s electoral commission barred Vice President Atiku Abubakar from crucial elections, omitting his name from the roster of two dozen approved candidates. In southern Nigeria militants released two Italian oil workers who were kidnapped more than three months ago.
(AP, 3/15/07)(AFP, 3/15/07)
2007 Mar 15, The rival Hamas and Fatah movements formed a long-elusive unity government, hoping to end bloody infighting and lead the Palestinians out of yearlong international isolation. Israel immediately said that it would not deal with the new government.
(AP, 3/15/07)
2007 Mar 15, In St. Petersburg Nikolai Zavadsky, the husband of a late curator at Russia's most famous museum, was convicted in the theft of dozens of art objects and sentenced to five years in prison. He was also ordered to pay $283,000 in damages to the Hermitage.
(AP, 3/15/07)
2007 Mar 15, In Somalia a bomb blast destroyed two houses near Mogadishu, killing seven people, including four children.
(AP, 3/16/07)
2007 Mar 15, Spain’s Parliament passed a gender-equality bill aimed at getting more Spanish women into elected office and corporate boardrooms, and more men heating baby bottles and changing diapers.
(AP, 3/15/07)
2007 Mar 15, A rights group said Mukhammadali Karabayev, an Uzbek opposition activist, has been sentenced to six years in prison on extortion and fraud charges amid a sweeping crackdown on dissent in the tightly controlled ex-Soviet republic.
(AP, 3/15/07)
2007 Mar 15, A defiant Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe told his critics of his government to "go hang" themselves in his first response to the arrest and assault of opposition chief Morgan Tsvangirai. Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete went into talks with Mugabe following growing international condemnation of the crackdown on opposition demonstrators.
(AFP, 3/15/07)
2008 Mar 15, In NYC an apartment building on Manhattan’s East Side was crushed in a giant crane collapse that killed 7 people and injured 17.
(AP, 3/16/08)(SFC, 3/18/08, p.A2)
2008 Mar 15, It was reported that spores of Ug99, a wheat killing fungus that emerged in East Africa nearly 10 years ago, has been spread by winds into the Saudi Peninsula and South Asia.
(SFC, 3/15/08, p.B6)
2008 Mar 15, In Afghanistan a suicide car bomb attack near a convoy of international troops killed a 13-year-old Afghan child and wounded a soldier in Khost province. 3 militants were killed in the former Taliban stronghold of Musa Qala in Helmand province.
(AP, 3/15/08)(AFP, 3/16/08)
2008 Mar 15, In Albania 26 people, including several children, were killed and over 250 injured by a series of large explosions at an army base on the outskirts of the capital Tirana. The explosions began when workers were moving stocks of old Chinese and Soviet shells stored at the base. Some workers were repackaging 40-year-old Chinese-made shells to disguise their origin. In September Kosta Trebicka, a businessman turned whistle-blower, was killed when his jeep crashed on a remote mountain road.
(Reuters, 3/16/08)(AP, 3/18/08)(Econ, 10/11/08, p.71)
2008 Mar 15, Azerbaijan warned it would review relations with France, Russia and the US after they voted against a UN resolution calling on Armenia to pull out of Azerbaijani territory.
(AFP, 3/15/08)
2008 Mar 15, China's legislature re-elected Hu Jintao as president, giving him a second five-year term as leader of the world's most populous country. It also returned Hu as head of the Central Military Commission, the body overseeing the armed forces.
(AP, 3/15/08)
2008 Mar 15, China kept government workers confined to their offices and ordered tourists out of Tibet's capital while lines of soldiers sealed off streets where riots had erupted. A Tibetan exile group said at least 30 people were killed in protests a day earlier. Tibet's government-in-exile demanded the UN intervene to end what it called "urgent human rights violations" by China in the region following deadly protests.
(AP, 3/15/08)
2008 Mar 15, Congo’s foreign debt stood at $12 billion and interest payments consumed a large chunk of its budget.
(Econ, 3/15/08, SR p.12)
2008 Mar 15, In Iran hard-line allies of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad pulled ahead in Iran's parliamentary elections, according to partial results, but the president's conservative critics were making a strong showing that could unsettle his domination of the legislature.
(AP, 3/15/08)
2008 Mar 15, Iraqi security forces clashed with a breakaway faction of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army in Kut, leaving five dead and 15 wounded.
(AP, 3/15/08)
2008 Mar 15, Thousands of Italians marched in an anti-mafia protest and called on all citizens to take a public stand against Italy's powerful crime syndicates.
(Reuters, 3/15/08)
2008 Mar 15, Alitalia, Italy’s state-owned national airline, accepted a takeover offer worth $217 made by air France-KLM, a French-Dutch airline group. The Italian government accepted the offer on March 17.
(Econ, 3/22/08, p.73)
2008 Mar 15, In Japan Tony Blair, during a meeting of senior officials from the world's top 20 greenhouse gas emitters, urged the world's heaviest polluters including the United States, China and India to agree to binding emissions cuts, saying failure to act on global warming would be "unforgivably irresponsible."
(AP, 3/15/08)
2008 Mar 15, Vytautas Kernagis (57), popular Lithuanian singer, died of cancer.
(www.lzinios.lt/lt/2008-03-17.html)
2008 Mar 15, Officials said the main telecom operator in the United Arab Emirates, Etisalat, has launched mobile services in Nigeria, becoming the fifth operator there.
(AP, 3/15/08)
2008 Mar 15, In Nigeria a Wings Airline 19-seater aircraft went missing shortly after leaving Lagos for the Obudu Cattle Ranch in Cross River state. On Aug 30 hunters found the wreckage of the plane and the bodies of its three crew members.
(AFP, 9/3/08)
2008 Mar 15, In Pakistan a bomb struck an Italian restaurant crowded with foreigners, killing a Turkish aid worker and wounding at least 12 other people.
(AP, 3/16/08)
2008 Mar 15, Qatar-based investment company IAS International said it was undertaking a series of development projects in Central African Republic worth 1.6 billion dollars.
(AP, 3/15/08)
2008 Mar 15, In Qatar the consecration of the Church of Our Lady of the Rosary was held. This became Qatar’s first Roman Catholic church, ending decades of clandestine worship for tens of thousands of foreign workers. The $15 million, 2,700-seat church was built on land donated by Qatar's emir, Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani.
(AP, 3/14/08)(AP, 3/15/08)
2008 Mar 15, In southern Thailand a bomb exploded in the parking lot of an upscale hotel, killing two people and wounding 14 others.
(AP, 3/15/08)
2009 Mar 15, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said America's recession "probably" will end this year if the government succeeds in bolstering the banking system.
(AP, 3/16/09)
2009 Mar 15, The space shuttle Discovery and its crew of 7 launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fl., bound for the Int’l. Space Station. It carried the last set of solar wings to boost the station to full power.
(SFC, 3/16/09, p.A7)(SFC, 3/18/09, p.A5)
2009 Mar 15, The History Guild of Daly City dedicated its new museum located at the former John Daly Library, 6351 Mission Street, Ca. 94014, (650-757-7177).
(Opening Day Flyer, 3/15/09)
2009 Mar 15, American International Group said its executives will receive tens of millions of dollars in new bonuses, in order to meet a legal deadline, even though it received a taxpayer bailout of more than $170 billion dollars. The group of top executives getting bonuses will receive half of the $9.6 million now, with the average payment around $112,000. The large bulk of the payments at issue cover AIG Financial Products, the unit of the company that sold credit default swaps, the risky contracts that caused massive losses for the insurer.
(AP, 3/15/09)
2009 Mar 15, In Miami, Florida, a man shot four people to death at a family gathering, then went home and killed himself.
(AP, 3/15/09)
2009 Mar 15, Richard Masato Aoki (b.1938), former Japanese-American FBI informant (1961-1977) and early member of the Black Panthers (1967), died in Oakland, Ca., from complications relating to diabetes. He had given the Panthers some of their first guns.
(SFC, 8/20/12, p.A1)(http://tinyurl.com/9g5u4zn)(SFC, 9/8/12, p.C2)
2009 Mar 15, Actor Ron Silver (62) died in NYC. He had been fighting esophageal cancer for two years. Silver won a Tony Award as a take-no-prisoners Hollywood producer in David Mamet's "Speed-the-Plow" and did a political about-face from loyal Democrat to Republican activist after the Sept. 11 attacks.
(AP, 3/16/09)
2009 Mar 15, In Afghanistan US soldiers killed 5 militants in an operation about 60 kilometers (40 miles) west of Kandahar city. A blast in Nangarhar province killed four US soldiers. 3 Afghan civilians died from bombs in Kabul and Kandahar.
(AFP, 3/15/09)
2009 Mar 15, Belarus' authoritarian Pres. Lukashenko allowed a banned organization of ethnic Poles to meet for the first time in four years, sending a tentative signal of his willingness to relax his tight hold in exchange for warmer ties with the West. The Union of Poles has been banned since riot police were sent in to take over its headquarters in March 2005.
(AP, 3/15/09)
2009 Mar 15, In Abeche, Chad, UN forces took over command from EU peacekeepers to protect refugees and displaced people in Chad and the Central African Republic.
(AFP, 3/15/09)
2009 Mar 15, El Salvador's entrenched conservatives faced a stiff challenge from the party of former guerrillas in presidential elections. Mauricio Funes (b.1959), a leftist television journalist, made history by bringing the FMLN, a party of former guerrillas, to power for the first time since the end of a bloody civil war.
(AP, 3/15/09)(AP, 3/16/09)
2009 Mar 15, Germany's chancellor Angela Merkel called for greater government supervision of gun owners after a school shooting last week that killed 15 people.
(AP, 3/15/09)
2009 Mar 15, A German newspaper reported that Deutsche Post AG has paid a pension of euro20 million ($26 million) to Klaus Zumwinkel, the former CEO convicted of tax evasion.
(AP, 3/15/09)
2009 Mar 15, Thirty three pro-democracy legislators from Hong Kong crossed to Macao to confront the local government over banned visitors. 5 were immediately returned over “security reasons" and the rest were allowed to deliver a letter of protest.
(Econ, 3/21/09, p.43)
2009 Mar 15, In Hungary several thousand people held right wing, anti-government protests in Budapest during a national holiday. Police detained 35 people. The holiday commemorated the unsuccessful 1848 revolution against the Habsburgs.
(AP, 3/15/09)
2009 Mar 15, Northern Ireland's police commander said about 300 Irish Republican Army dissidents backed by "a few nutters and idiots" are trying to tear apart the peace process, as his detectives interrogated nine people over the killings of two soldiers and a policeman.
(AP, 3/15/09)
2009 Mar 15, Two Israeli police officers were shot and killed while traveling near the Jewish settlement of Massua in the West Bank. A few days later the Martyrs of Imad Mughniyeh said it was behind the shooting. The group is named after an assassinated Hezbollah mastermind. Israeli and Palestinian security officials said there is no such group. They believe rogue militants have used the fake name as cover to evade Israeli reprisals.
(SFC, 3/16/09, p.A2)(AP, 3/16/09)(AP, 3/17/09)
2009 Mar 15, In northern Mozambique a mob angered by false rumors that health workers were spreading cholera killed a Red Cross volunteer, two health workers and a policeman.
(AP, 3/17/09)
2009 Mar 15, Pakistan’s opposition leader Nawaz Sharif defied house arrest to lead anti-government protests that briefly turned violent before becoming a jubilant show of force against the country's pro-Western president. Suspected militants attacked a transport terminal in northwestern Pakistan used to supply NATO troops in Afghanistan before dawn and torched dozens of containers and military vehicles. A suspected US missile strike killed two Arabs and three other people in northwest Pakistan.
(AP, 3/15/09)
2009 Mar 15, Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev said that he will publicly declare his income and encouraged other officials to fight corruption by disclosing relatives' incomes and assets.
(AP, 3/15/09)
2009 Mar 15, In central Somalia clashes between rival Islamist militias killed at least 14 people over the last 2 days. Most of those killed were fighters for the al-Shabab group or its rival Ahlu-sunah Wal-jamea.
(AP, 3/15/09)
2009 Mar 15, Sri Lanka’s government forces overran a former Tamil Tiger police post, killing at least nine rebels and raising to 41 the number killed in weekend fighting.
(AFP, 3/15/09)
2009 Mar 15, Uganda began withdrawing troops hunting brutal Lord's Resistance Army rebels in neighboring Congo after the deadline for them to leave expired. Felix Kulaigye, a Ugandan military spokesman, said the operation had been a success, with around 100 rebels killed and more than 200 abductees rescued, and that Congo would continue the hunt.
(AP, 3/15/09)
2009 Mar 15, President Hugo Chavez dispatched the navy to Venezuela's seaports, warning that state governors who challenge a new law bringing transportation hubs under federal control could end up in prison. Chavez also said that Russian bombers would be welcome in Venezuela, but he denied that his country would offer Moscow its territory for a military base.
(AP, 3/15/09)
2009 Mar 15, In Yemen a bomb killed four South Korean tourists and their Yemeni guide, the latest attack targeting foreigners visiting this poor Arab country that has both famed historic sites and a strong al-Qaida presence. 12 Islamic suspects were soon arrested.
(AP, 3/16/09)(WSJ, 3/17/09, p.A1)
2010 Mar 15, Honda Motor Co. notified the NHTSA it will recall 410,000 Odyssey minivans and Element small trucks, from the 2007-2008 model years, due to braking system problems.
(SFC, 3/17/10, p.A9)
2010 Mar 15, In Afghanistan a rocket attack on Bagram Air Field killed one person. Afghan authorities in the eastern Paktika province prevented three would-be suicide bombers from attacking a security post in Barmal district. Six suspected Taliban also died after their vehicle hit a roadside bomb in Shah Wali Kot district in Kandahar province. 3 civilians were killed and 3 others were wounded when their vehicle hit a mine while they were moving household goods in Ghazni province. Fire from insurgents killed an Afghan child outside a NATO base in Kunar province.
(AP, 3/15/10)
2010 Mar 15, In Britain Louis Wainwright (18) and Nicholas Smith (19), both from Scunthorpe, were found dead at different addresses following a night out. They had both taken the drug mephedrone, sold online as plant food and also goes by the names meow meow, mcat and bubble. The deaths come a week after a secondary school in Leicestershire reported that 180 pupils had missed school after taking the drug, which can be bought for less than £10 a gram.
(AFP, 3/17/10)
2010 Mar 15, British and Italian doctors carried out groundbreaking surgery to rebuild the windpipe of a 10-year-old boy using stem cells developed within his own body. Doctors at London's Great Ormond Street children's hospital implanted the boy with a donor trachea, or windpipe, that had been stripped of its cells and injected with his own.
(AFP, 3/20/10)
2010 Mar 15, China’s state media said at least 94 people living near a lead factory, most of them children, have tested positive for lead poisoning, prompting authorities to order the closure of the Zhongyi Alloy Co. in Longchang county of Sichuan province's Neijiang city. Hundreds more people waited for test results.
(AP, 3/15/10)
2010 Mar 15, Israel’s Haaretz newspaper said Egyptian security officials have arrested Yotam Feldman, an Israeli journalist, as he tried to sneak across the porous Israeli-Egyptian border with African migrants. Feldman told his investigators he was reporting on African migrants sneaking into Israel from Egypt. Feldman returned home on March 22, saying he had been beaten in captivity and that some of his materials had been confiscated.
(AP, 3/15/10)(AP, 3/22/10)
2010 Mar 15, In Iraq the US military turned over the Taji prison holding some 2,900 detainees to Iraqi authorities. A suicide car bomber killed 8 people and wounded 28 others when his vehicle exploded in a busy street during the morning rush hour in Fallujah. In northern Iraq an American soldier died in a vehicle accident.
(AP, 3/15/10)(AFP, 3/15/10)(AP, 3/16/10)
2010 Mar 15, Irish police charged two men from Algeria and Libya with minor offenses following a weeklong investigation into Muslim extremists allegedly involved in efforts to kill a Swedish artist. Ali Charafe Damache (49) of Algeria was charged with sending a threatening text message. A Libyan who used the false name Abdul-Salam Mansour Al-Jehani was charged with immigration violations.
(AP, 3/15/10)
2010 Mar 15, Italian police arrested the "postmen" of the Mafia's top boss, 19 close aides who delivered the notes Matteo Messina Denaro writes to impart orders from his hideout.
(AP, 3/15/10)
2010 Mar 15, Mexican marines and Navy personnel announced they had launched a raid against an operations base run by the Zeta drug gang near Monterrey. A convoy of fleeing vehicles opened fire on a Marine helicopter following them. The Marines chased them down, some on foot, and killed eight suspects. Elsewhere in Chihuahua state, running gun battles in the tourist town of Creel left seven people dead and two seriously wounded. Farther south prosecutors reported the bodies of five men were found on the side of a highway. In the Gulf Coast town of Tierra Blanco some 90 city policemen were held for questioning about the kidnapping of undocumented Central American migrants.
(AP, 3/16/10)(SFC, 3/17/10, p.A2)
2010 Mar 15, Militants in Nigeria's oil-producing region detonated two car bombs near a government building in Warri where officials were discussing an amnesty deal, showing their resolve to resume attacks after an agreement to bring peace and economic benefits to the area unraveled. Nigeria's intelligence agency later accused Henry Okah, an alleged ex-leader of militant group MEND, of having wired the bombs.
(AP, 3/15/10)(AFP, 11/11/10)
2010 Mar 15, Pakistani police discovered a cache of bomb-making equipment and thousands of pounds of explosives in an empty Lahore shop where authorities said a string of attacks on the eastern city may have been plotted.
(AP, 3/15/10)
2010 Mar 15, At the CITES conference in Qatar a top official with the UN wildlife agency said the world has "failed miserably" at protecting tigers in the wild, bringing an animal that is a symbol for many cultures and religions to "the verge of extinction."
(AP, 3/15/10)
2010 Mar 15, Somalia's transitional government (TFG) and a faction of the country's moderate Ahlu Sunna Sufi sect signed a deal in Addis Ababa to jointly fight extremist elements in Somalia.
(AFP, 3/15/10)
2010 Mar 15, Thailand's PM Abhisit Vejjajiva, backed by a formidable military force, rejected an ultimatum to dissolve Parliament as tens of thousands of red-shirted protesters vowed to splatter the seat of government with their own blood if their demands weren't met.
(AP, 3/15/10)
2010 Mar 15, in Venezuela representatives of a leftist party asserted their independence from President Hugo Chavez, accepting a dissident politician into their ranks while demanding increased tolerance from their socialist leader.
(AP, 3/15/10)
2010 Mar 15, Yemen launched a 2nd day of strikes against al-Qaida hideouts. As many as 9 people were killed in the raids including some civilians.
(AP, 3/15/10)(AFP, 3/16/10)
2011 Mar 15, In California Evan O’Dorney (17) of Danville beat 39 other finalists to win the Intel Science Talent Search. His mathematics entry was titled “Continued Fraction Convergents and Linear fractional transformations."
(SFC, 3/16/11, p.C1)
2011 Mar 15, In Florida voters in a recall election ousted Miami Dade Mayor Carlos Álvarez and Commissioner Natacha Seijas after they supported a budget that raised taxes and salaries for county employees.
(SFC, 3/16/11, p.A7)
2011 Mar 15, Minnesota nurse William Melchert-Dinkel (b.1962) was convicted of two counts of encouraging suicide while he watched voyeuristically on a webcam. A judge found that he had intentionally advised two people to take their own lives. In 2014 the Minnesota Supreme Court struck down a section of the state’s assisted suicide law that makes it a crime to encourage someone to commit suicide. It remained a crime to assist in someone’s suicide.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Francis_Melchert-Dinkel)(SFC, 3/20/14, p.A6)
2011 Mar 15, The Afghan interior ministry announced that seven private security companies are being dissolved. "Based on our commitment to transparency and the rule of law, the private security companies have been informed that they have been dissolved because of their connection to officials of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan." The government ordered all private security companies to disband by March 21 next year. Two bombings killed a local legislator in Laghman province and a school principal in Nangarhar province.
(AFP, 3/15/11)
2011 Mar 15, Australia's remote Christmas Island detention centre was hit by a second night of riots, with up to 200 asylum seekers destroying closed-circuit television cameras.
(AFP, 3/15/11)
2011 Mar 15, Bahrain's king imposed a three-month state of emergency and gave the country's military chief wide authority to battle a pro-democracy uprising that has threatened the ruling monarchy and drawn in forces from around the Gulf. Saudi Sgt. Ahmed al-Raddadi was shot and killed by a protester in Manama.
(AP, 3/15/11)
2011 Mar 15, Egypt's interior minister dissolved the country's widely hated state security agency.
(AP, 3/15/11)
2011 Mar 15, Chancellor Angela Merkel said Germany will take seven of its 17 reactors offline for three months while the country reconsiders plans to extend the life of its nuclear power plants.
(AP, 3/15/11)
2011 Mar 15, In Haiti Danny Pye (29), a Christian pastor who runs an orphanage with his wife in the southern city of Jacmel, was released from jail held after being held without charges for five months. Judge Maxon Samdi initially jailed Pye last October over claims he took property from another group of missionaries.
(AP, 3/16/11)
2011 Mar 15, In Indonesia a small mail bomb addressed to a moderate Muslim leader exploded in Jakarta as police were trying to defuse it, wounding four people.
(AP, 3/15/11)
2011 Mar 15, In northern Iraq 2 top Kurdish politicians resigned from local government in what appeared to be a political maneuver to challenge Arabs for control of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk.
(AP, 3/15/11)
2011 Mar 15, The Israeli navy intercepted an Egyptian-bound ship carrying a large delivery of weapons off the Mediterranean coast, saying the arms had been sent by Syria to Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip. PM Netanyahu said the source of the weaponry was Iran.
(AP, 3/15/11)
2011 Mar 15, In Ivory Coast elected leader Alassane Ouattara extended an offer to former Pres. Laurent Gbagbo a national unity government, a fusion of their armed forces and a truth and reconciliation committee to avoid civil war.
(SFC, 3/16/11, p.A2)
2011 Mar 15, Japan faced a potential catastrophe after a quake-crippled nuclear power plant exploded and sent low levels of radiation floating toward Tokyo, prompting some people to flee the capital and others to stock up on essential supplies.
(Reuters, 3/15/11)
2011 Mar 15, In Kazakhstan several hundred people rallied near the presidential palace to urge the government to assist homeowners battling repossessions, and a few dozen were detained by police.
(AP, 3/15/11)
2011 Mar 15, Lebanon's Maronite bishops elected Archbishop Bechara el-Rai as the new patriarch for the Middle East's largest Catholic church.
(AP, 3/15/11)
2011 Mar 15, In Libya Gadhafi's military blasted rebels with airstrikes and bombardment from warships, tanks and artillery in an overwhelming display of firepower, trying for the first time to take back the city of Ajdabiya in the opposition's eastern heartland. Rebel fighters rushed to the front as mosques in the city broadcast pleas for help defending the city. Four NYT journalists were detained the northern port city of Ajdabiya where they were covering the retreat of rebels. The 4 journalists were released on March 21.
(AP, 3/15/11)(AP, 3/17/11)(Reuters, 3/21/11)
2011 Mar 15, Group of Eight (G8) powers shied away from imposing a no-fly zone to protect Libyans from assault by Kadhafi forces, laying it off to the UN Security Council. Flight restrictions sought by France and Britain were blocked by Russia and Germany.
(AFP, 3/15/11)
2011 Mar 15, Malaysia's government agreed to release some 35,000 imported Bibles seized by customs officials amid a dispute over their use of the word "Allah" as a translation for God. A statement assured Muslims that the announcement would not jeopardize their interests in an ongoing court case on whether non-Muslims have the constitutional right to use "Allah."
(AP, 3/15/11)
2011 Mar 15, In Mexico a convoy of gunmen chased their target into a home in the resort city of Acapulco and sprayed the residence with bullets, killing two small children and an elderly woman inside. Other attacks in Acapulco killed a total of eight people. Police in the resort city of Cancun found four bodies that had been set on fire. The Mexican army announced that soldiers had seized five metric tons of marijuana in the northern border city of Miguel Aleman.
(AP, 3/16/11)
2011 Mar 15, In Oman Sheik Ahmed bin Hamad al-Khalili, highest religious authority in the Persian Gulf kingdom, called for a nationwide alcohol ban and strict monitoring of health clubs in this Muslim country. Al-Khalili told state television that "drunk people are unproductive people who sink into vice."
(AP, 3/17/11)
2011 Mar 15, In Pakistan Qumar David (50), a Christian jailed for blasphemy, died of an alleged heart attack in Karachi Central Jail after complaining of chest pain. David was serving a 25-year prison term for blasphemy. His lawyer suspected the man had been murdered.
(AP, 3/16/11)
2011 Mar 15, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas proposed holding elections "as soon as possible" in order to end the divide within the national movement. Thousands of Palestinians thronged major squares in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank to deliver an impassioned appeal to their leaders to end the long-running feud that has divided the Palestinian people between two rival governments.
(AFP, 3/15/11)(AP, 3/15/11)
2011 Mar 15, In Somalia 13 people died in mortar attacks in Mogadishu.
(SFC, 3/16/11, p.A2)
2011 Mar 15, A Thailand court sentenced Thanthawut Taweewarodomkul (38), the administrator of an anti-government website, to 13 years in prison on charges of defaming the monarchy and violating the computer crime act.
(SFC, 3/16/11, p.A2)
2011 Mar 15, Uruguay said it has joined a string of South American nations in recognizing an independent Palestinian state.
(AP, 3/16/11)
2011 Mar 15, Human Rights Watch said that it has been forced to close its office in Uzbekistan after facing years of harassment by the Central Asian nation's authorities.
(AP, 3/15/11)
2011 Mar 15, In Yemen thousands poured onto the streets in the southern provinces of Taiz, Aden and Hadramawt. Pres. Saleh visited the governor of Marib province, who was stabbed and wounded by protesters a day earlier. Government supporters in al-Hudaydah set fire to the headquarters of the influential opposition Islah party, the main Sunni Islamist party.
(AP, 3/15/11)(AP, 3/16/11)(Econ, 9/27/14, p.48)
2012 Mar 15, In New Hampshire a federal judge declared a mistrial in the case of Beatrice Munyenyezi, a Rwanda woman who became a citizen in 2003. She was accused of lying to obtain her citizenship by denying her role in the 1994 Rwanda genocide.
(SFC, 3/16/12, p.A8)
2012 Mar 15, New research reportedly showed a link between an increase in the death of bees and insecticides, specifically the chemicals used to coat corn seeds. A study, titled "Assessment of the Environmental Exposure of Honeybees to Particulate Matter Containing Neonicotinoid Insecticides Coming from Corn Coated Seeds," was published in the American Chemical Society's Environmental Science & Technology journal, and provided insight into colony collapse disorder.
(ABCNews, 3/15/12)(Econ, 3/31/12, p.89)
2012 Mar 15, Afghan President Hamid Karzai demanded NATO troops immediately pull out of rural areas in the wake of the killing of 16 civilians. The Taliban broke off talks with the US. Karzai also said he now wants Afghan forces take the lead for countrywide security in 2013, a year ahead of schedule.
(AP, 3/15/12)
2012 Mar 15, Bahrain riot police fired tear gas, stun grenades and rubber bullets at protesters, who were marking the first anniversary of the deployment of a Saudi-led military force in Bahrain.
(AP, 3/15/12)
2012 Mar 15, Britain jailed 2 men who had posed as good Samaritans to steal from an injured Malaysian student, Asyraf Haziq Rosli (21), an infamous incident caught on camera during riots in London last year. Reece Donovan (22) was sentenced to a total of five years in jail for robbery, violent disorder and burglary offences. John Kafunda (22) was sentenced to three and a half years for robbery and nine months for violent disorder.
(AFP, 3/15/12)
2012 Mar 15, Chilean police used water cannons and tear gas to break up a march by thousands of students, the first protest this year by student groups whose demonstrations demanding education reform paralyzed major cities in 2011.
(AP, 3/16/12)
2012 Mar 15, In China Bo Xilai (62), the Communist Party secretary in Chongqing, was removed from his post. Critics had said his anti-corruption had parallels with the Cultural Revolution that gripped China from 1966-1976.
(SFC, 3/16/12, p.A5)
2012 Mar 15, In China Xu Ming, one of the richest people in China, was detained by a powerful body which investigates corruption within the ranks of the ruling Communist party. His company Shide Group sponsors a Chinese football club.
(AFP, 4/3/12)
2012 Mar 15, Cuban police evicted 13 dissidents from a church they had been occupying for two days demanding that Pope Benedict XVI air a list of grievances during his upcoming trip to the island. Cuba’s Cardinal Jaime Ortega called for the ouster.
(AP, 3/15/12)(SFC, 3/17/12, p.A2)
2012 Mar 15, Egypt's top prosecutor charged 75 people in connection with the deadly Feb 1 soccer riot last month in the Mediterranean city of Port Said in which authorities said fans were thrown to their death off the stadium walls and others killed by explosives as they tried to flee.
(AP, 3/15/12)
2012 Mar 15, Ethiopian forces entered archrival Eritrea and carried out what a government spokesman described as "a successful attack" against military posts.
(AP, 3/15/12)
2012 Mar 15, European Union nations agreed to ban financial transfers such as SWIFT payments to hundreds of Iranian firms and individuals blacklisted by the bloc over Tehran's contested nuclear drive.
(AFP, 3/15/12)
2012 Mar 15, France rejected weapons requests by the Syrian rebel forces, saying that arming the Syrian opposition could lead to catastrophic civil war.
(AP, 3/16/12)
2012 Mar 15, In southern France a gunman on a motorbike opened fire on three uniformed paratroopers at a bank machine in Montauban, killing two and critically wounding the other. Four days earlier, a gunman on a motorbike shot and killed another paratrooper in Toulouse, about 50 km (30 miles) away. The same caliber of weapon was used in both attacks.
(AP, 3/16/12)
2012 Mar 15, Gabon students demanding the payment of scholarships funds and police clashed in Libreville, leaving three people wounded.
(AFP, 3/15/12)
2012 Mar 15, In Guinea-Bissau soldiers and para-military troops were the first to vote in presidential elections, three days before the rest of the country.
(AFP, 3/15/12)
2012 Mar 15, In Iraq Amir Sarbut Zaidan al-Batawi (33), the bodyguard of Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi, died while under government detention. Authorities later said he died of kidney failure.
(AP, 3/22/12)
2012 Mar 15, Israeli aircraft and Gaza rocket squads traded strikes across the border as the Israeli prime minister blamed Iran for the violence from the Palestinian territory. A female Israeli soldier was stabbed on Jerusalem's light rail, and police apprehended a Palestinian suspect at a Jerusalem crossing into the West Bank.
(AP, 3/15/12)(AFP, 3/15/12)
2012 Mar 15, Kashmir scientists at Sher-i-Kashmir University said they have cloned a rare Himalayan goat, hoping to help increase the number of animals famed for their silky soft undercoats used to make pashmina wool, or cashmere.
(AP, 3/15/12)
2012 Mar 15, CH. Karchang, a Thailand construction giant, officially began work on the $3.5 billion dam at Xayaburi in northern Laos. A December agreement by the Mekong River Commission had called for further study on the environmental impacts of the dam.
(Econ, 5/5/12, p.43)(Econ, 9/7/13, p.40)
2012 Mar 15, Libya's stock market opened with a yawn, the first day of trading since the fall of Moamer Kadhafi, with turnover of less than $10,000. The LSM index closed at 1,473 points.
(AFP, 3/15/12)
2012 Mar 15, In Morocco a minister in the Islamist government called for a change to a law allowing a rapist to marry his victim after a teenager forced into such a union committed suicide. Amina al-Filali (16) drank rat poison last week in Larache, near Tangiers in the north, after being forced to marry the man who raped her.
(AFP, 3/15/12)
2012 Mar 15, Mozambique's Cahora Bassa dam denied cutting power to Zimbabwe, which had claimed the state-owned company had pulled the plug over unpaid bills totaling around $75 million.
(AFP, 3/15/12)
2012 Mar 15, In Nigeria gunmen raided a mainly Christian village in Kaduna State, killing 10 people, including a pastor and injuring four others.
(AFP, 3/17/12)
2012 Mar 15, A Norwegian military plane crashed killing all five people on board during an exercise in northern Sweden. Four men and one woman, all Norwegians, were on board the C-130 heading from Evenes, on Norway's Arctic coast, to the Swedish city of Kiruna.
(AP, 3/17/12)
2012 Mar 15, In Pakistan Swiss couple David Och and Daniela Widmer, held captive for nearly a year by the Taliban, turned up at an army post close to the Afghan border, claiming to have escaped from their captors. Taliban commanders said a ransom was paid in exchange for their release.
(AP, 3/15/12)
2012 Mar 15, In Puerto Rico a vintage cargo plane loaded with bread crashed in a lagoon near the international airport, killing the airline's owner and another crew member.
(AP, 3/15/12)
2012 Mar 15, South Korean author Kyung-sook Shin won Asia's most prestigious prize for literature for her novel "Please Look After Mom," about a family's guilty soul-searching after the disappearance of their elderly mother.
(AFP, 3/15/12)
2012 Mar 15, KORUS, a long-delayed free trade agreement between the United States and South Korea, took effect. It slashed tariffs, tightened intellectual property rights and opened up South Korea’s services market. The agreement won praise from the two countries' leaders and prompting rallies by supporters and opponents.
(AFP, 3/15/12)(Econ, 3/18/17, p.75)
2012 Mar 15, In Syria 23 mutilated corpses were found near Mazraat Wadi Khaled, west of the city of Idlib. The regime's bloody crackdown entered its second year to a rising world outcry. Violent clashes broke out overnight as rebels attacked army posts in the eastern region of Deir Ezzor (Deir el-Zour). State television showed tens of thousands of people waving Syrian flags and Assad's portrait in cities including Damascus, the second-largest city Aleppo and Latakia. Tanks and snipers besieged opposition areas, including the southern city of Daraa. At least 34 other people were killed in violence, mostly in Idlib province bordering Turkey.
(AFP, 3/15/12)(AP, 3/16/12)(AFP, 3/16/12)
2012 Mar 15, Turkey’s deputy prime minister said Syria has planted landmines near its border with Turkey along routes used by refugees fleeing the regime's deadly crackdown on dissent. The foreign ministry said Around 1,000 Syrian refugees, including a defecting general, flocked into Turkey in the last 24 hours.
(AFP, 3/15/12)
2012 Mar 15, Zambian ex-president Rupiah Banda denounced the dissolution of his former ruling Movement for Multi-Party Democracy as an attack on freedom and accused the new administration of persecuting him. The Movement for Multiparty Democracy, whose 20-year rule came to an end in September, was dissolved by the chief registrar of societies for owing 390 million kwacha ($75,876) in registration fees dating back to 1993.
(AFP, 3/15/12)(AFP, 6/26/12)
2013 Mar 15, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said the US is deploying 14 new ground-based missile interceptors in Alaska to counter renewed nuclear threats from North Korea and Iran. Hagel also said the US would shift some "resources," which he didn't specify, from the delayed Aegis anti-missile program in Europe.
(http://tinyurl.com/almlalu)
2013 Mar 15, SAC Capital agreed to pay the SEC a record $616 million to settle a long-standing probe into insider trading.
(Econ, 3/23/13, p.78)
2013 Mar 15, In Florida a small plane crashed near Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport killing all three men aboard.
(SSFC, 3/17/13, p.A8)
2013 Mar 15, In Brazil a new oil law that gives a greater share of royalty revenues from the country’s oil fields to non-producing states went into effect and producing states filed appeals against it with the Supreme Court.
(AP, 3/16/13)
2013 Mar 15, Three British Muslims, including a convert who was featured in a documentary about radical Islam, pleaded guilty to terrorism charges in London. Richard Dart (29), Imran Mahmood (21), and Jahangir Alom (26), were arrested last July and accused of traveling to Pakistan between 2010 and 2012 with the intention of committing terrorist acts.
(AP, 3/15/13)
2013 Mar 15, In Britain Dr. Davinderjit Bains, arrested last year, admitted 39 charges against 30 victims, including sexual assault, voyeurism and sexual activity with a child. He had used a Tieex 4GB Waterproof HD Spy Watch DVR, which has a camera on its face, to record assaults on patients at his practice in Royal Wootton Bassett in western England.
(AP, 3/15/13)
2013 Mar 15, A Canadian joint venture operating one of the world's largest gold mines and the government of the Dominican Republic reached an agreement to inspect the company's exports, ending a standoff that halted a shipment valued at nearly $12 million.
(AP, 3/16/13)
2013 Mar 15, In southwestern Chad over the last 24 hours at least 86 elephants, including 33 pregnant females, were killed by poachers for the ivory of their tusks.
(Econ, 4/20/13, p.47)
2013 Mar 15, In China Li Keqiang was confirmed as premier.
(AP, 3/15/13)
2013 Mar 15, A snowstorm in Hungary brought drifts 10 feet (3m) high and violent gusts of wind, forcing thousands of people to spend the night in their cars or emergency shelters after being stranded on a major highway.
(AP, 3/15/13)
2013 Mar 15, In India a Swiss woman (39) on a cycling trip in Madhya Pradesh state with her husband was gang-raped by eight men. On March 17 police arrested 5 men, who admitted to the attack. At least 2 others remained at large.
(AP, 3/16/13)(AP, 3/17/13)
2013 Mar 15, In Iraq protesters clashed with police trying to prevent them from reaching the Abu Hanifa mosque, the most venerated Sunni mosque in Baghdad, as sect members again massed for anti-government rallies in several Iraqi cities. Several people were reported injured.
(AP, 3/15/13)
2013 Mar 15, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu signed a coalition deal with rival parties to form the next government.
(AP, 3/15/13)
2013 Mar 15, In central Lebanon at least eight Syrians were killed and 29 were injured when the bus they were traveling in from Syria overturned in the mountains.
(AP, 3/15/13)
2013 Mar 15, In central Mexico a truck loaded with fireworks exploded during a religious procession in the rural village of Jesus Tepactepec, killing at least 13 people and injuring 154.
(AP, 3/16/13)
2013 Mar 15, North Korea blamed South Korea and the United States for cyber-attacks that temporarily shut down websites this week at a time of elevated tensions over the North's nuclear ambitions.
(AP, 3/15/13)
2013 Mar 15, In southern Pakistan a bomb blast just after midnight killed three people and wounded four others outside a cable TV office in Karachi.
(AP, 3/15/13)
2013 Mar 15, In Senegal lawyer El Hadj Amadou Sall said that his client, the son of Senegal's ex-president, is being unjustly accused. A special prosecutor charged with investigating the embezzlement of state funds has asked Karim Wade to justify a fortune that he estimates is worth up to 694 billion West African francs, equal to more than $1.3 billion.
(AP, 3/15/13)
2013 Mar 15, In Senegal 3 students set themselves on fire on the campus of the country’s largest university to protest changes in the way credits are being counted in the college's geography department. All 3 survived.
(AP, 3/15/13)
2013 Mar 15, In South Africa 24 people died when a bus veered off a road and rolled over near Cape Town.
(AP, 3/15/13)
2013 Mar 15, Gen. Salim Idris, the chief of Syria's main, Western-backed rebel group, marked the second anniversary of the start of the uprising against President Bashar Assad by pledging to fight until the "criminal" regime is gone. Leaders at a European Union summit failed to agree if they should send arms to the rebels.
(AP, 3/15/13)
2013 Mar 15, The head of a UN team investigating casualties from US drone strikes in Pakistan declared after a secret research trip to the country that the attacks violate Pakistan's sovereignty.
(AP, 3/15/13)
2014 Mar 15, Afghan President Hamid Karzai told the United States its soldiers can leave at the end of the year because his military, which already protects 93% of the country, was ready to take over entirely.
(AP, 3/15/14)
2014 Mar 15, In Algeria about 100 activists from a new anti-government movement staged a rare protest against the ailing Pres. Abdelaziz Bouteflika (77) and his decision to run for a fourth term. 3 men from the Arab community died in clashes with Mozabite Berbers in Ghardaia. Clashes first erupted in December and 5 Mozabites were killed before violence was stopped by a heavy police deployment in late January.
(AP, 3/15/14)(AP, 3/17/14)
2014 Mar 15, In Egypt gunmen shot dead six army officers near Cairo, the 2nd attack on Egyptian security forces in three days that the military has blamed on the Muslim Brotherhood of deposed Pres. Mohamed Mursi.
(Reuters, 3/15/14)
2014 Mar 15, In Guyana businessman Lennox La Cruz (50) was arrested on suspicion of killing his wife and four of his five children by locking them inside their home and setting it on fire the previous evening.
(AP, 3/15/14)
2014 Mar 15, In Lebanon 10 people were reported killed in the last 48 hours of clashes in Tripoli linked to the conflict in neighboring Syria.
(Reuters, 3/15/14)
2014 Mar 15, Malaysia’s PM Najib Razak said the missing Malaysian Flight 370 was deliberately diverted and continued flying for more than six hours after severing contact with the ground on March 8.
(AP, 3/15/14)
2014 Mar 15, In central Nigeria some 40 assailants armed with guns and machetes stormed the villages of Angwan Gata, Chenshyi and Angwan Sankwai, attacking locals in their sleep and torching their homes on Kaduna state. The overnight attacks left at least 100 dead. Local residents, mostly Christians, blamed the bloodshed on Muslim Fulani herdsmen.
(AFP, 3/16/14)
2014 Mar 15, In Nigeria at least 20 people were killed and dozens were injured in Abuja after thousands of panicked job-seekers stampeded during a government recruitment drive at the national stadium.
(AFP, 3/15/14)(AFP, 2/23/16)
2014 Mar 15, A Pakistani judicial official reduced the 33-year jail sentence of Dr. Shakil Afridi, alleged to have helped the US track down Osama bin Laden, to 23 years.
(AP, 3/15/14)
2014 Mar 15, The Gaza Strip's only power plant shut down due to a lack of fuel from Israel, which closed a goods crossing after militant rocket attacks.
(AFP, 3/15/14)
2014 Mar 15, In Russia tens of thousands have gathered in downtown Moscow in the largest anti-government demonstration since 2012, protesting against the March 16 Kremlin-backed referendum in Crimea on whether to break away from Ukraine and merge with Russia.
(AP, 3/15/14)
2014 Mar 15, Russian forces seized a natural gas distribution station in Strelkova, about 10 km outside Crimea.
(AP, 3/15/14)
2014 Mar 15, Russia vetoed a UN resolution declaring the March 15 referendum on the future of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula illegal, but close ally China abstained in a show of Moscow's isolation.
(AP, 3/15/14)
2014 Mar 15, Slovaks voted in the first round of a presidential election, a largely ceremonial post. PM Robert Fico and businessman-turned philanthropist Andrej Kiska (51) beat 12 other candidates in the first round of voting. Turnout was low at 43.4 percent. Both men will compete in a March 29 election.
(AFP, 3/15/14)(AP, 3/16/14)
2014 Mar 15, In South Africa Takalani Tshivhase (59), the executive director of Pinnacle Holdings, was arrested by the police's elite anti-corruption unit and released on bail the same day. He was charged with offering a $460,000 bribe to a senior police official in an attempt to win an equipment deal for the technology company.
(Reuters, 3/25/14)
2014 Mar 15, In South Africa 3 people were killed when their small plane crashed near a landing strip in KwaZulu Natal province.
(Reuters, 3/15/14)
2014 Mar 15, Syrian soldiers entered eastern districts of the town of Yabroud, the last rebel bastion near the Lebanese border north of Damascus, and advanced towards the main street.
(Reuters, 3/15/14)
2014 Mar 15, Ukraine's military scrambled aircraft and paratroops to repel an attempt by Russian forces to enter a long spit of land belonging to a region adjacent to Crimea.
(Reuters, 3/15/14)
2014 Mar 15, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro urged Washington to join a "high-level commission" to promote peace after more than a month of deadly anti-government demonstrations.
(AFP, 3/16/14)
2015 Mar 15, In eastern Afghanistan gunmen kidnapped eight ethnic Hazara people from two cars but later released all but one of the hostages.
(Reuters, 3/15/15)
2015 Mar 15, In Brazil an estimated 1.5-2.2 million people took to the streets across the country in protest over corruption, with many calling for Pres. Dilma Rousseff's impeachment.
(AFP, 3/16/15)(Econ., 3/21/15, p.29)
2015 Mar 15, In China Xu Caihou (71), the highest-ranking military officer to fall victim to President Xi Jinping's anti-corruption drive, died of cancer.
(AFP, 3/16/15)
2015 Mar 15, Islamic State fighters traded sniper fire and mortar rounds with Iraqi troops and allied Shi'ite militia forces in the city of Tikrit but no major advances were made by either side.
(Reuters, 3/15/15)
2015 Mar 15, In northern Kenya Somali Shebab militants killed one man and wounded three others in a shooting in the town of Mandera.
(AFP, 3/16/15)
2015 Mar 15, Nigerian Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau reportedly addressed his fighters and told them to return to Gwoza and kill the women they had taken as wives.
(AFP, 3/27/15)
2015 Mar 15, In eastern Pakistan a pair of suicide bombers attacked two churches in Lahore as worshippers prayed inside killing 17 people.
(AP, 3/15/15)(AP, 3/16/15)
2015 Mar 15, Philippine security forces arrested Mohammad Ali Tambako, the head of a small Islamic militant group, along with five accomplices. Tambako was involved in protecting Abdul Basit Usman, one of the United States' "most wanted terrorists," who had escaped a Jan 25 raid.
(AFP, 3/16/15)
2015 Mar 15, Syrian government warplanes pounded a Damascus suburb, killing at least 18 people and scattering shattered concrete blocks and mangled cars in the streets.
(AP, 3/15/15)
2016 Mar 15, The United States loosened rules in the US trade embargo on Cuba just days ahead of President Barack Obama's historic visit to the former Cold War enemy.
(Reuters, 3/15/16)(SFC, 3/16/16, p.A4)
2016 Mar 15, The United States and its allies carried out 11 air strikes against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
(Reuters, 3/16/16)
2016 Mar 15, Flooding caused by days of heavy rain forced the closure of a section of I-10, a major east-west US highway on the Louisiana-Texas border along the rising Sabine River.
(Reuters, 3/15/16)
2016 Mar 15, A 2nd Pennsylvania Supreme Court justice, Michael Eakins, quit the bench over a widening scandal over raunchy and otherwise offensive emails that he and others exchanged with friends and lawyers.
(SFC, 3/16/16, p.A6)
2016 Mar 15, In Pennsylvania three leaders of a Franciscan religious order were charged with allowing a friar who was a known sexual predator to take on jobs that enabled him to molest more than 100 children.
(SFC, 3/16/16, p.A6)
2016 Mar 15, Afghanistan's Pres. Ashraf Ghani said that Islamic State militants are "on the run" following a massive military operation that included elite commando units in remote districts on the border with Pakistan.
(AP, 3/15/16)
2016 Mar 15, Bangladesh’s central bank Gov. Atiur Rahman resigned following the recent theft of some $100 million allegedly stolen by Chinese hackers from a Bangladesh account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
(Econ, 3/19/15, p.76)
2016 Mar 15, Belgian and French police officers arrived to search a flat in a Brussels suburb in a raid targeting suspects in the Nov 13 Paris attacks. They came under a barrage of automatic weapons fire through a door from at least two people barricaded inside, injuring four officers. A special forces sniper shot dead Algerian gunman Mohamed Belkaid (35) when he tried to fire at police from a window. An Islamic State flag was found next to his body. Two suspects were detained.
(Reuters, 3/16/16)(AFP, 3/16/16)
2016 Mar 15, Brazil's Supreme Court said it had accepted a plea agreement offered by prosecutors to Senator Delcídio do Amaral, a legislative ally of President Dilma Rousseff until he was arrested last year in a far-reaching corruption scandal. Newsmagazine Veja said that Amaral in the plea agreement accused Rousseff aides of trying to pay him to keep quiet.
(Reuters, 3/15/16)
2016 Mar 15, China's Foreign Ministry said water will be released from Jinghong dam in the southwestern province of Yunnan to help alleviate a drought in parts of Southeast Asia, including Vietnam.
(Reuters, 3/15/16)
2016 Mar 15, Beijing-based journalist Jia Jia, linked with an online petition calling for the Chinese president's resignation, disappeared from the Beijing airport on his way to Hong Kong. The petition criticized Xi's handling of economic and domestic affairs and noted that more and more factions of the Communist Party oppose the president's tightening grip over speech, government bureaucracy and dissent within the party. Jia was reported freed on March 26.
(AP, 3/19/16)(AP, 3/26/16)
2016 Mar 15, The last direct flight carrying stranded Cuban migrants from Costa Rica arrived in Mexico, ending an effort that transported 6,003 Cubans.
(SFC, 3/16/16, p.A2)
2016 Mar 15, European Union lawmakers and member states agreed on a long-term plan to end over fishing of cod, sprat and herring stocks in the Baltic Sea, the first such plan of its kind under the EU's reformed fisheries policy.
(Reuters, 3/16/16)
2016 Mar 15, German police opened a homicide probe after a car bomb killed a driver on a central Berlin street, with authorities saying there was currently no terrorism link.
(AFP, 3/15/16)
2016 Mar 15, Indonesian police killed two suspected Chinese Uighur militants in Central Sulawesi province during a hunt for Abu Wardah Santoso, the country's most wanted Islamic radical.
(AP, 3/16/16)
2016 Mar 15, Iran's annual fire festival ahead of the Persian New Year claimed three lives and injured more than 2,500, hundreds of whom remain hospitalized.
(AFP, 3/16/16)
2016 Mar 15, In Iraq terrified residents fled the town of Hit as security forces closed in and jihadist fighters hunkered down to defend one of their main bastions in Anbar province.
(AFP, 3/15/16)
2016 Mar 15, Israeli Army Radio said the government has appropriated 579 acres in the occupied West Bank near the Dead Sea and the Palestinian city of Jericho.
(Reuters, 3/15/16)
2016 Mar 15, Macedonia dumped about 1,500 migrants and refugees back into Greece overnight after they forced their way across the border, as European nations continued to pass the buck in a migration crisis that risks tearing the EU apart.
(Reuters, 3/15/16)
2016 Mar 15, Mexico City's government ordered traffic restrictions and recommended people stay indoors due to serious air pollution, issuing its second-highest alert warning for ozone levels for the first time in 13 years.
(Reuters, 3/15/16)
2016 Mar 15, Myanmar's parliament elected a close friend and confidant of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi as president, making Htin Kyaw the first head of state who does not hail from a military background since the 1960s.
(Reuters, 3/15/16)
2016 Mar 15, Norway's Academy of Science and Letters said British mathematician Sir Andrew J. Wiles has won the Abel Prize in math for his stunning proof of French mathematician Pierre de Fermat's Last Theorem, first conjectured by Fermat in 1637.
(AP, 3/15/16)
2016 Mar 15, Russian warplanes began leaving Syria as Moscow started to draw down forces that have tipped the war President Bashar al-Assad's way. Russian Deputy Defense Minister Nikolai Pankov said the air force will continue striking targets in Syria linked to Islamic State and other terrorist groups despite a partial withdrawal.
(Reuters, 3/15/16)
2016 Mar 15, In Spain a person stumbled across 83 kg (182 pounds) of cocaine on a beach in the popular Mediterranean tourist island of Formentera.
(AP, 3/17/16)
2016 Mar 15, Taiwan’s President-elect Tsai Ing-wen named Lin Chuan, a former finance minister, as Taiwan's next premier, tasked with reinvigorating the island's slowing high-tech economy and stabilizing relations with neighbor China.
(AP, 3/15/16)
2016 Mar 15, In Thailand Mercedes driver Janepob Verraporn (37), the son of a wealthy Thai businessman, crashed into a slower car while driving at an estimated 240 km (150 miles) per hour. Two graduate students in their 30s died at the scene of the accident. Verraporn survived with minor injuries and refused both alcohol and drug tests.
(AP, 3/23/16)
2016 Mar 15, In northern Yemen Saudi-led warplanes bombed a busy market in the city of Mastaba. 22 children were among at least 119 killed.
(AP, 3/15/16)(AP, 3/17/16)
2016 Mar 15, Pope Francis approved sainthood for Mother Teresa, the missionary nun who became a global if controversial symbol of compassion for her care of the sick and destitute. The pontiff set September 4 as the date for her canonization.
(AFP, 3/15/16)
2016 Mar 15, A Zimbabwe state-owned newspaper said the number of citizens requiring food aid has risen to 4 million, up from 3 million initially.
(Reuters, 3/15/16)
2017 Mar 15, United States charged two Russian intelligence agents and two hackers with masterminding the 2014 theft of 500 million Yahoo accounts, the first time the U.S. government has criminally charged Russian spies for cyber offences. The indictment named the FSB officers involved as Dmitry Dokuchaev and his superior, Igor Sushchin, who are both in Russia. The alleged criminals involved included Alexsey Belan and Karim Baratov, who was arrested in Canada a day earlier. Belan was arrested in Europe in June 2013 but escaped to Russia before he could be extradited to the US.
(Reuters, 3/16/17)
2017 Mar 15, The US Federal Reserve raised its benchmark interest rate for the 2nd time in three months. The short-term rate was raised by a quarter point to a range of 0.75% to 1%.
(SFC, 3/16/17, p.C1)
2017 Mar 15, A federal jury in Chicago convicted South Korean CEO Heon Seok Lee of defrauding municipal governments into using federal money on wastewater-treatment equipment they were falsely told was made in America.
(AP, 3/17/17)
2017 Mar 15, US District Judge Derrick Watson of Hawaii issued a ruling granting a temporary restraining order on Pres. Trump’s travel ban.
(SFC, 3/16/17, p.A1)
2017 Mar 15, A group of 17 Republicans in Congress signed a resolution vowing to seek "economically viable" ways to stave off global warming, possibly putting them on a collision course with President Donald Trump who has called climate change a hoax.
(Reuters, 3/15/17)
2017 Mar 15, Former Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca (74) was convicted of obstructing an FBI investigation into corrupt and violent guards.
(SFC, 3/16/17, p.A5)
2017 Mar 15, In Louisiana three people were found shot to death and a fourth fatally stabbed at an apartment complex in Matairie, a suburb of New Orleans.
(SFC, 3/16/17, p.A5)
2017 Mar 15, In western Austria three people were killed when their ski touring group was swept away by an avalanche in the Tyrol region. A fourth person was missing.
(AP, 3/15/17)
2017 Mar 15, Brazilian civil servants, rural workers and labor confederations staged nationwide demonstrations against President Michel Temer's pension reform plan, with hundreds of protesters occupying the premises of the finance ministry in Brasilia.
(Reuters, 3/15/17)
2017 Mar 15, In Cambodia Sok An (66), a deputy prime minister who was one of PM Hun Sen's closest political and personal allies, died.
(AP, 3/15/17)
2017 Mar 15, Cameroon said regional forces had rescued the hostages, who were held in villages by the jihadist group, in an operation along the Nigeria-Cameroon border. On March 17 a man purporting to be Abubakar Shekau, the leader of Nigerian Islamist militant group Boko Haram, denied in a posted video that 5,000 people held by the group had been freed by West African forces earlier in the week.
(Reuters, 3/17/17)
2017 Mar 15, China wrapped up its annual National People’s Congress. On its final day it passed legislation titled the General Principles of Civil Law.
(Econ, 3/18/17, p.42)
2017 Mar 15, The European Union gave its blessing to AT&T's proposed $85 billion purchase of Time Warner, saying that it raises no competition concerns in Europe. The deal still needs approval from US regulators.
(AP, 3/15/17)
2017 Mar 15, In Germany three men and a woman were sentenced to prison terms between three and five years for forming the so-called Oldschool Society in August 2014, a far-right terrorist group with a plan to bomb refugee homes as a tactic to scare migrants into leaving the country.
(AP, 3/15/17)
2017 Mar 15, Indonesia's government said that a British-owned cruise ship must pay compensation for the destruction of coral reefs in a popular tourist area known for its extensive marine biodiversity. The 4,200-ton cruise ship M.V. Caledonian Sky ran aground in the waters of Raja Ampat in West Papua province last week, causing extensive damage to the coral reefs.
(AP, 3/15/17)
2017 Mar 15, Kenya announced that it will ban all plastic bags, becoming the 2nd African country to do so after Rwanda. Earlier efforts by Kenya in 2007 and 2011 failed.
(Econ, 3/25/17, p.41)
2017 Mar 15, Forces loyal to Libya's UN-backed unity government seized the headquarters of a rival militia in a third day of intense fighting for control of Tripoli.
(AP, 3/15/17)
2017 Mar 15, Millions of Dutch flocked to the polls in a test of the "patriotic revolution" promised by far-right MP Geert Wilders. PM Mark Rutte's conservative VVD party won the elections with 33 seats. Wilders increased his bloc from 15 in 2012 to 20. The Denk party, catering to Dutch Muslims, won three seats.
(AFP, 3/15/17)(AP, 3/16/17)(Econ, 3/18/17, p.59)
2017 Mar 15, New Zealand approved a law that declared the Whanganui River to be a legal person, in the sense that it can own property, incur debts and petition the courts. Days later an Indian court declared the Ganges and Yamuna rivers to be people too.
(Econ, 3/25/17, p.34)
2017 Mar 15, Pakistan launched a national census, the country's first in 19 years.
(AP, 3/15/17)
2017 Mar 15, Eleven Philippine legislators who voted against a bill to re-introduce capital punishment lost key posts in the country's Congress, in an apparent follow through of a threat by the house speaker to purge obstacles to the draft.
(Reuters, 3/15/17)
2017 Mar 15, Romanian authorities extradited Chilean fugitive Rafael Garay. He was accused of embezzling almost a billion dollars.
(Reuters, 3/15/17)
2017 Mar 15, In Sierra Leone a 709-carat diamond was presented to President Ernest Bai Koroma. Pastor Emmanuel Momoh found the diamond in Yakadu village in the country's diamond-rich eastern Kono District. It was among the 20 largest diamonds ever found. In October the stone was taken by a sales team from the National Minerals Agency to Antwerp, Belgium, to meet sales agents, auction houses and potential buyers.
(AP, 3/16/17)(AP, 10/3/17)
2017 Mar 15, In Syria two suicide bomb attacks killed at least 31 people and wounded dozens more in Damascus, in the second such spate of bombings in the Syrian capital in five days. Sixteen lawyers were among the dozens killed in the suicide attack that struck the main judicial building in Damascus.
(Reuters, 3/15/17)(AP, 3/16/17)
2017 Mar 15, Turkey said its red meat association has ordered a consignment of prize Dutch cattle to be sent back to the Netherlands, saying it no longer wants to farm the cows due to the diplomatic crisis between the countries.
(AFP, 3/15/17)
2017 Mar 15, Human Rights Watch said 155 people, including 15 children, were killed in fierce fighting that erupted last Nov 26 in western Uganda between security forces and a tribal king's palace guards.
(AFP, 3/15/17)
2017 Mar 15, Ukraine's Security and Defence Council approved the suspension of all cargo traffic with separatist-held territory.
(Reuters, 3/15/17)
2018 Mar 15, The US Treasury Department said sanctions have been slapped on 19 Russian individuals and five groups, including Moscow's intelligence services, for meddling in the 2016 US election and malicious cyber attacks.
(Reuters, 3/15/18)
2018 Mar 15, The leaders of the United States, France and Germany joined Britain in blaming Russia for poisoning a former spy with a powerful nerve agent.
(AP, 3/15/18)
2018 Mar 15, Alabama executed Michael Wayne Eggers (50) for killing his employer at a traveling carnival in 2000.
(SFC, 3/16/18, p.A5)
2018 Mar 15, California wildlife officials said Richard Parker (67) had shot and killed more that 130 protected birds of prey in Lassen County. Parker was reported jailed on charges of taking protected birds of prey and migratory non-game birds.
(SFC, 3/16/18, p.D3)
2018 Mar 15, In Florida at least eight cars were trapped when the 950-ton bridge suddenly gave way in Miami. At least six people were killed.
(AFP, 3/16/18)
2018 Mar 15, The US state of Georgia executed Carlton Gary (67), known as the "stocking strangler," for raping and killing three elderly women in the 1977-1978. Nine women had been attacked and seven of them died.
(SFC, 3/16/18, p.A5)
2018 Mar 15, Local media reported that Bosnia has banned leaders of the Russian Night Wolves motorcycle club from entering the country next week because of security concerns. The club is under US sanctions for its role in a pro-Russian separatist insurgency in Ukraine.
(Reuters, 3/15/18)
2018 Mar 15, Brazil's troubled national oil company Petrobras posted net losses of 446 million reais ($139.7 million) for 2017, reflecting continued fallout from the "Car Wash" corruption scandal, but sharply improving on the previous year.
(AFP, 3/15/18)
2018 Mar 15, Anglo-Dutch consumer giant Unilever chose The Netherlands over London to host its headquarters, dealing a blow to Britain's efforts to keep multinational companies onside following Brexit.
(AFP, 3/15/18)
2018 Mar 15, In western Cambodia a land mine exploded accidently during clearance training at a military base, killing two people, including an Australian trainer, and injuring three others.
(AP, 3/15/18)
2018 Mar 15, Cameroon's octogenarian President Paul Biya, who has ruled the central African country with an iron grip for decades, held his first cabinet meeting since 2015.
(Reuters, 3/15/18)
2018 Mar 15, Beijing WKW Automotive Parts said it plans to invest about 16 billion yuan ($2.53 billion) in a new energy car project, to cash in on the increasing popularity of environmentally friendly vehicles as part of China's efforts to cut pollution.
(Reuters, 3/15/18)
2018 Mar 15, Members of the Uighur Muslim ethnic group held demonstrations in cities around the world to protest a sweeping Chinese surveillance and security campaign that has sent thousands of their people into detention and political indoctrination centers.
(AP, 3/15/18)
2018 Mar 15, The European Commission published an updated draft text of the treaty that will regulate Britain's exit from the European Union on March 29th, 2019, but some of the key sticking points remain unresolved.
(Reuters, 3/15/18)
2018 Mar 15, French pensioners and retirement home workers staged protests across the country, kicking off a series of strikes against Pres. Emmanuel Macron's reforms.
(AFP, 3/15/18)
2018 Mar 15, Greek police said they have arrested 11 people on suspicion of running a smuggling ring transporting hundreds of refugees and migrants from the Greek-Turkish land border to the cities of Athens and Thessaloniki over the past year.
(AP, 3/15/18)
2018 Mar 15, A Greek court sentenced a university lecturer (46) to two life terms in prison for fatally poisoning his wife and her grandmother with arsenic. The court ruled that the geology lecturer at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki gradually poisoned his 34-year-old wife and her 85-year-old grandmother in August 2013.
(AP, 3/16/18)
2018 Mar 15, Tens of thousands of supporters of Hungary's right-wing PM Viktor Orban marched in Budapest to back his bid for a third term in office in April elections, many of them hailing his hardline stance on immigration. They were joined by thousands of supporters of Poland's ruling conservative PiS party.
(Reuters, 3/15/18)
2018 Mar 15, In Indonesia the Law on Representative Assemblies, passed last month by the 560-member Parliament, came into force automatically after 30 days despite President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo's refusal to sign it because of public opposition. Critics say the law could protect legislators from investigations by the powerful anti-graft commission.
(AP, 3/15/18)
2018 Mar 15, In Iraq a US HH-60 Pave Hawk helicopter carrying seven people crashed near al-Qaim, Anbar province, killing all on board.
(Reuters, 3/16/18)
2018 Mar 15, Malaysia's PM Najib Razak announced cash handouts on top of bonuses already paid to staff of the largest government-linked asset management firm, as he prepared for a general election that must be held by August.
(Reuters, 3/15/18)
2018 Mar 15, In Pakistan a Taliban-linked Pakistani cleric and six of his family members were killed in a powerful explosion at the cleric's home in the remote southwestern town of Qillah Saifullah, Baluchistan province. The explosion apparently occurred when a bomb or an explosive device was being loaded in a vehicle.
(AP, 3/16/18)
2018 Mar 15, Peru's congress voted by a wide margin to allow impeachment proceedings to begin against Pres. Pedro Pablo Kuczynski over his ties to Odebrecht, the Brazilian construction giant.
(SFC, 3/16/18, p.A2)
2018 Mar 15, Polish prosecutors say American authorities are moving ahead with their request to extradite Michael Karkoc (99) of Minnesota man to be tried on allegations he was involved in a World War II massacre of civilians.
(AP, 3/15/18)
2018 Mar 15, Slovak PM Robert Fico and his government resigned as a way out of the political crisis triggered by the slayings of an investigative journalist and his fiancée. Pres. Andrej Kiska asked deputy prime minister Peter Pellegrini to form a new government.
(AP, 3/15/18)
2018 Mar 15, A South African court granted bail to six police officers charged with murder and attempted murder in connection with the 2012 killing of striking mine workers at Lonmin’s Marikana mine.
(Reuters, 3/15/18)
2018 Mar 15, In Spain street vendor Mbame Ndiaye (35) of Senegal, who had been running away from police officers, died of cardiorespiratory arrest after he escaped a police crackdown on informal street sales. Subsequent protests by hundreds of African migrants and Spanish residents degenerated into rioting.
(AP, 3/16/18)
2018 Mar 15, Sri Lanka's government ended a weeklong ban on social media that was imposed because of concerns that it was being used to fan anti-Muslim violence in the country's central region.
(AP, 3/15/18)
2018 Mar 15, Syrian charities and rights groups called on Western leaders to threaten a boycott of the upcoming football World Cup in Russia to protest against Moscow's support for Syria's regime.
(AFP, 3/15/18)
2018 Mar 15, In Syria government and Russian forces blanketed the besieged rebel-held eastern Ghouta region with airstrikes and rocket fire. Regime forces captured Hammuriyeh. More than 12,000 people fled the enclave of Eastern Ghouta. A joint convoy of food supplies for some 26,000 people entered Douma, the largest town in Ghouta and part of a separate rebel-controlled pocket.
(AP, 3/15/18)(AFP, 3/15/18)
2018 Mar 15, In northern Syria hundreds of residents of the Kurdish enclave under Turkish assault trickled out of Afrin's center toward neighboring villages amid an intensifying offensive. Senior Kurdish official Omar Alloush, who played a key role with the United States in implementing its post-Islamic State policy in northern Syria, was found dead in his apartment in northern Syria.
(AP, 3/15/18)
2018 Mar 15, In Syria Anna Campbell (27), a British woman fighting alongside Kurdish forces was killed in Turkish shelling" on frontlines around Afrin city.
(AFP, 3/19/18)
2018 Mar 15, The UN human rights office said in a report that Mexican authorities had tortured dozens of people in connection with an investigation into the 2014 disappearance of 43 students, and called for a full inquiry.
(Reuters, 3/15/18)
2018 Mar 15, The United Nations Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution renewing for a year its peace mission in South Sudan, while also threatening to later impose an arms embargo if necessary.
(AFP, 3/15/18)
2019 Mar 15, Pres. Donald Trump signed the first veto of his presidency, overriding congressional opposition to secure emergency funds to build more walls on the US-Mexico border.
(AFP, 3/16/19)
2019 Mar 15, The US State Department said that it is eliminating a coveted five-year tourist visa for Cubans, dealing a heavy blow to entrepreneurs and Cuban members of divided families, who used the visas to see relatives in the United States and buy precious supplies for their businesses on the island.
(AP, 3/16/19)
2019 Mar 15, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the United States will revoke or deny visas to International Criminal Court personnel who attempt to investigate or prosecute alleged abuses committed by US forces in Afghanistan or elsewhere and may do the same with those who try to take action against Israel.
(AP, 3/15/19)
2019 Mar 15, The US Special Counsel's Office asked a court to delay sentencing for US President Donald Trump's former deputy campaign chairman, Rick Gates, amid "ongoing investigations" stemming from the Russia investigation.
(Reuters, 3/15/19)
2019 Mar 15, The US Environmental Protection Agency banned consumer sales of a paint stripper following personal appeals by families of men who died while using the product. The rule does not affect commercial uses.
(SFC, 3/16/19, p.A5)
2019 Mar 15, American poet W.S. Merwin died at his home in Hawaii. Merwin was a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the US poet laureate from 2010-2011.
(SFC, 3/18/19, p.C3)
2019 Mar 15, In Minnesota the body of a child was found inside a blanket along a highway near Austin. Dariaz Higgins, the father of Noelani Robinson (2), was accused of killing her mother, Sierra Robinson (24), in Milwaukee last week.
(SSFC, 3/17/19, p.A8)
2019 Mar 15, The Univ. of Tennessee said it will begin providing free tuition to state residents stating in the fall of 2020.
(SFC, 3/16/19, p.A5)
2019 Mar 15, In Washington state a US District judge granted a temporary restraining order that let Microsoft take over 99 websites that Iranian hackers had used to try to steal sensitive information from targets in the US.
(SSFC, 3/31/19, p.D2)
2019 Mar 15, In Afghanistan Sultan Mahmoud Khirkhowa, a reporter with the local Zhman TV and radio, was killed when two men on a motorcycle opened fire on his vehicle in eastern Khost province.
(AP, 3/17/19)
2019 Mar 15, In Algeria a huge crowd of demonstrators marched through Algiers for a fourth consecutive Friday to step up demands for President Abdelaziz Bouteflika's ouster, rejecting his offer not to seek re-election.
(AFP, 3/15/19)
2019 Mar 15, In London Michael Seed , a 58-year-old man nicknamed "Basil," was found guilty of being the sixth member of a gang of aging criminals who carried out the 2015 Easter weekend robbery at the Hatton Garden Safety Deposit building, one the most audacious in the annals of British crime.
(Reuters, 3/15/19)
2019 Mar 15, In northern China a landslide knocked down several buildings, killing seven people and leaving 13 others missing in Xiangning county, Shanxi province.
(AP, 3/16/19)
2019 Mar 15, In Congo DRC at least one person was left dead after protests over local elections turned violent. Members of President Felix Tshisekedi's Union for Democracy and Social Progress took to the streets in Kinshasa and in other parts of the country after the party failed to win any senate seats from Kinshasa in the regional assembly.
(AP, 3/16/19)
2019 Mar 15, The Catholic Church in Costa Rica asked for forgiveness following recent accusations that three of its priests sexually abused minors, amid a clerical abuse scandal that has ravaged the institution's credibility around the globe.
(Reuters, 3/15/19)
2019 Mar 15, Czech police said they have broken up an international ring smuggling migrants from southeast Asia to western Europe.
(AP, 3/15/19)
2019 Mar 15, The EU imposed sanctions on eight more Russian officials that it says were involved in the seizure by Russia of Ukrainian ships and crew in November.
(AP, 3/15/19)
2019 Mar 15, Greece backed calls by Bolivia's left-wing President Evo Morales for a negotiated settlement to the severe political and financial crisis in Venezuela, in what marks a different approach to that pursued by key European allies.
(AP, 3/15/19)
2019 Mar 15, The Iraqi government started exhuming a mass grave left behind by the Islamic State group in the northwestern Sinjar region in the presence of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Nadia Murad, whose slain relatives are believed to have been buried in the area. Over 70 mass graves have been discovered in Sinjar since it was liberated from IS in November 2015.
(AP, 3/16/19)
2019 Mar 15, Israel struck dozens of Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip overnight in response to rockets from the Palestinian enclave, including rare fire toward its economic capital Tel Aviv.
(AFP, 3/15/19)
2019 Mar 15, In Kenya nations meeting at the UN environment assembly in Nairobi announced that they had agreed to "significantly reduce" single-use plastics over the next decade.
(AFP, 3/15/19)
2019 Mar 15, A court in North Macedonia sentenced 16 people, including a former interior minister, from 7 to 18 years in prison for their role in a violent intrusion in parliament at the height of a political crisis in 2017.
(AP, 3/15/19)
2019 Mar 15, In Poland thousands of students marched in rainy Warsaw and other cities to demand a ban on burning coal, a major source of carbon dioxide. Tens of thousands of young people skipped school across the globe to march through the streets for an international day of student protests aimed at pushing world leaders into action on climate change.
(AP, 3/15/19)(AFP, 3/15/19)
2019 Mar 15, In New Zealand shootings at two mosques in Christchurch left 50 dead in the country's worst-ever mass shooting. Video footage by the shooter was live streamed and widely shared online. Brenton Harrison Tarrant, an Australian-born man (28), was arrested and charged with murder. He left behind a 74-page document posted on social media under his name in which he said he hoped to survive the attack to better spread his views in the media.
(Reuters, 3/15/19)(AFP, 3/15/19)(AP, 3/16/19)(AP, 3/17/19)
2019 Mar 15, Nicaragua released 50 prisoners held for taking part in anti-government protests, authorities said, giving a fresh impetus to peace talks on ending the country's long running political crisis.
(AFP, 3/15/19)
2019 Mar 15, In eastern Syria the IS launched three suicide attacks outside Baghouz, killing six people as they fled the village near the Iraqi border. An SDF official said IS militants were holding some 300 prisoners, both civilians and SDF fighters.
(AFP, 3/16/19)(SFC, 3/16/19, p.A2)
2019 Mar 15, Freeman Mbowe, the head of Tanzania's main opposition party, condemned what he described as a climate of fear installed by a "police state" after he was held in prison for more than three months.
(AFP, 3/15/19)
2019 Mar 15, A Turkish court convicted Neil Prakash (27), an Australian-born Islamic State militant, of belonging to a terror group and sentenced him to more than seven years in prison. The court said he could be released in 2½ years under Turkish law.
(AP, 3/15/19)
2019 Mar 15, Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro created a military unit charged with protecting basic installations and services such as electricity and water just over a week after the country was hit with a massive blackout.
(AFP, 3/15/19)
2019 Mar 15, In Venezuela German journalist Billy Six, detained by Venezuelan intelligence services four months ago, was freed in Caracas, but must report to the court every 15 days. Six was allowed to leave Venezuela if he chose and soon flew home from Caracas.
(AFP, 3/15/19)(AP, 3/17/19)
2019 Mar 15, Cyclone Idai hit Zimbabwe, cutting off power and communications. At least 31 people died in southeastern Zimbabwe as homes and bridges were swept away by the tropical storm. The confirmed dead soon rose to 98 with least 217 more missing.
(Reuters, 3/16/19)(SSFC, 3/17/19, p.A7)(AFP, 3/19/19)
2020 Mar 15, Joe Biden promised to choose a woman as his vice president should he win the Democratic presidential nomination. He made the pledge on stage with rival Bernie Sanders in the first debate held without a live audience because of concerns over the coronavirus. Sanders said he would also likely choose a woman.
(Bloomberg, 3/16/20)
2020 Mar 15, US officials recorded nearly 3,000 cases of coronavirus with 63 deaths, up from 58 a day earlier. Globally more than 162,000 were infected and over 6,400 have died. The US Navy said a sailor aboard a warship ship has tested positive for the coronavirus for the first time. The only state not reporting cases is West Virginia. Cases neared 160,000 worldwide, as deaths top 6,000. Several countries cautioned that fewer tests are being performed as more people fall ill. A US Army soldier tested positive for the coronavirus, marking the first US Army case in Europe.
(NY Times, 3/15/20)(Bloomberg, 3/15/20)(Reuters, 3/16/20)
2020 Mar 15, The US Federal Reserve slashing its benchmark rate back to a record low slashing it by a full percentage point to a range between zero and 0.25%. Global markets slumped. The Fed also said it would buy $700 billion in Treasury and mortgage bonds.
(AP, 3/15/20)(AP, 3/16/20)
2020 Mar 15, The Peace Corps told its volunteers around the world that it is suspending all operations globally and evacuating all volunteers in light of the spread of the new coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/16/20)
2020 Mar 15, California's Gov. Gavin Newsom announced new state measure to combat the coronavirus, urging that bars close and restaurants reduce capacity. Newsom also asked all state residents 65 and older to isolate themselves at home.
(SFC, 3/16/20, p.A1)
2020 Mar 15, In the SF Bay Area Santa Clara's health officer confirmed 114 cases of coronavirus, the most of any county in the state and about 30% of the cases statewide.
(SFC, 3/16/20, p.A1)
2020 Mar 15, In Georgia seven people were dead after a shooting incident initially reported as a murder-suicide in Moncure, Chatham County. The victims included the suspected shooter.
(Charlotte Observer, 3/16/20)
2020 Mar 15, In Missouri 5 people including a police officer and a gunman died in a shooting at a Springfield gas station after gunman Joaquin Roman (31) went inside and opened fire.
(Reuters, 3/16/20)(SFC, 3/17/20, p.A4)
2020 Mar 15, New Jersey reported its second death from the coronavirus, The state has 69 positive tests, up from 50 the day before.
(Bloomberg, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, New York's Governor Andrew Cuomo said two state Assembly members, Helene Weinstein and Charles Barron, have tested positive for Covid-19. The state reported 729 confirmed cases, an increase of 69. There have been three deaths.
(Bloomberg, 3/15/20)(The Independent, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a decision to close city schools through at least April 20. Hours later the mayor also took aim at the city's nightlife, saying he would sign an order on March 16 limiting the city's 27,000 restaurants and bars to takeout and delivery only effective on the morning of March 17.
(AP, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, US sportswear giant Nike Inc said it is closing all of its stores in the United States and several other countries to limit the spread of the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, Several African countries closed borders, canceled flights and imposed strict entry and quarantine requirements to contain the spread of the new coronavirus, which has a foothold in 26 nations on the continent as cases keep rising. Cases have now been reported in Algeria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Rep., Congo Brazzaville, Congo DRC, Egypt, and Equatorial Guinea, eSwatini, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Mauritania, Morocco, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Seychelles, South Africa, Sudan, Togo, Tunisia.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, In Australia's New South Wales, the country’s most populous state, reported 22 new cases taking the totally tally to 134. Eight new cases of coronavirus were confirmed in the state of Victoria, bringing the total number of cases in that state to 57. Australia said it will impose 14-day self-isolation on international travelers arriving from midnight and ban cruise ships from foreign ports for 30 days.
(Bloomberg, 3/15/20)(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, In Austria the number of confirmed coronavirus cases jumped to 800, from 602 a day earlier.
(AP, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, Belgium’s health ministry reported 197 new cases, bringing the total of confirmed infections to 886.
(Bloomberg, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, The British government announced England will join a growing list of countries offering HIV-prevention pill to all those at high risk of catching the virus. More than 100,000 people were estimated to be living with HIV in the UK in 2018.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, Airlines called on the British government to help ensure their survival during the coronavirus crisis after the US extended restrictions on European travelers to include Britain.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, PM Boyko Borissov said Bulgaria will raise the salaries of all medics involved in treating coronavirus patients by 1000 levs ($566) per month as it steps up measures to contain the fast-spreading infection. Confirmed cases had almost doubled to 43 with two deaths.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, In Cameroon a passenger arriving from Brussels was whisked to a hospital and diagnosed inside four hours as the country's fourth case of coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/17/20)
2020 Mar 15, Cambodia said French national travelling from Paris via Singapore to Phnom Penh has been infected with the coronavirus, bringing the country's tally of cases to eight.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, In the Central African Rep. a UN peacekeeper from Burundi was killed when troops were trying to stop an attack in Grimari in the center of the country that began when anti-Balaka fighters under the command of Dimitri Ayoloma opened fire on the homes of the mayor and a regional official.
(AP, 3/16/20)
2020 Mar 15, China reported 16 new confirmed cases of coronavirus bringing its total to 80,860. Beijing said it will quarantine all travelers from overseas, including Chinese citizens, at designated locations for 14 days as the government shifts its focus to limiting imported coronavirus cases.
(AP, 3/15/20)(Reuters, 3/16/20)
2020 Mar 15, Denmark's government told private companies struggling with drastic measures to curb the spread of coronavirus that it would cover 75% of employees' salaries, if they promised not to cut staff.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, Ethiopia has now recorded four coronavirus cases.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, Finland had a total of 240 coronavirus cases.
(Bloomberg, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, French voters went to the polls in the first round of elections to choose mayors and tens of thousands of local officials.
(SSFC, 3/15/20, p.A3)
2020 Mar 15, Georgia's government said it will temporarily shut its border with Russia for travelers from March 16 in a bid to stop the spread of the coronavirus. Georgia had 30 cases of coronavirus, the highest number in the South Caucasus region.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, Germany's Health Ministry confirmed a report in newspaper Welt am Sonntag, which said President Donald Trump had offered funds to lure the company CureVac to the United States, and the German government was making counter-offers to tempt it to stay.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, Guatemala logged its first fatality from the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/16/20)
2020 Mar 15, In Guyana a team from the 15-nation Caribbean Community arrived to supervise a recount of the March 2 elections. Incumbent Pres. David Granger had agreed to the recount. A local court soon blocked the recount.
(SFC, 3/16/20, p.A2)(SFC, 3/19/20, p.A2)
2020 Mar 15, India reported that the number of coronavirus infections had risen to 107, an increase of 23 from the day before.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, Indonesia reported 21 new coronavirus infections, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 117.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, Iran's Health Ministry added another 113 deaths and 1,209 new confirmed cases of the COVID-19 infection. It said the outbreak has claimed 724. Some 13,938 people have been infected across the country.
(AFP, 3/15/20)(Bloomberg, 3/15/20)(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, Israel's Pres. Reuven Rivlin said he has decided to give opposition leader Benny Gants the first opportunity to form a new government. PM Benjamin Netanyahu proposed a six-month "emergency government" to confront the coronavirus crisis and end a political deadlock after the country's third inconclusive election in less than a year. Israel delayed PM Benjamin Netanyahu's corruption trial for two months due to the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)(Reuters, 3/16/20)(SFC, 3/16/20, p.A4)
2020 Mar 15, Italy recorded 368 more deaths from the coronavirus. It had 24,747 cases and 1,809 deaths.
(Reuters, 3/16/20)
2020 Mar 15, In Japan the number of coronavirus infections rose to 1,484, increasing by a faster pace than the previous day. The total number of infections included 697 from the Diamond Princess cruise ship and 14 returnees on charter flights from China.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, Jordan confirmed 12 new coronavirus cases.
(Reuters, 3/16/20)
2020 Mar 15, Kenya has now recorded three coronavirus cases.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, Lebanon's Health Ministry said that it had recorded 99 cases of coronavirus. Pres. Michel Aoun called for citizens to work from home and avoid socializing to prevent the spread of the virus.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, Libya’s coast guard intercepted over 400 Europe-bound migrants off the country’s Mediterranean coast and returned them to the capital of Tripoli over the past 24 hours.
(AP, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, Malaysia confirmed 190 new coronavirus cases, pushing its overall total to 428, the most in Southeast Asia.
(Bloomberg, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, Mexican officials said the number of monarch butterflies that reached their winter resting grounds decreased by about 53% this year. The population covered only 6.9 acres, down from 15 acres a year earlier.
(SFC, 3/16/20, p.A2)
2020 Mar 15, In the Netherlands the number of deaths rose by eight to 20, while confirmed cases increased by 176 to 1,135.
(AP, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, Niger's army reportedly killed at least 50 Boko Haram Islamist extremists during an overnight attack on the eastern Toumour military post.
(SFC, 3/18/20, p.A2)
2020 Mar 15, In Nigeria a pipeline explosion killed at least 15 people and destroyed about 50 buildings after a fire broke out in a suburb of Lagos.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, Peru's Pres. Martin Vizcarra imposed a lockdown and quarantine as his country reported 71 cases of the coronavirus.
(Economist, 4/4/20, p.26)
2020 Mar 15, The Philippines recorded 4 additional coronavirus deaths and 29 new cases, bringing the domestic tally of infections to 140, as authorities placed the entire capital Manila under "community quarantine" for about a month.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)(Reuters, 3/16/20)
2020 Mar 15, Poland’s coronavirus cases rose to 111 cases with three deaths. The count was rising as the nation is now testing all those who are in quarantine.
(Bloomberg, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, Singapore confirmed 14 new cases of the novel coronavirus, marking the biggest daily increase of the infection in the city-state. Nine of the cases were imported. Singapore has confirmed a total 226 cases of the virus so far, with 105 having fully recovered.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, Slovakia reported 54 coronavirus cases, an increase of 10.
(Bloomberg, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, South Africa reported its first local transmission of coronavirus, increasing the number of cases to 62. President Cyril Ramaphosa introduced social-distancing and declared a national state of disaster to combat the spread of the coronavirus as his counterparts in sub-Saharan Africa took similar steps to curb the threat in a region that accounts for only 1% of global health-care spending.
(BBC, 3/16/20)(AP, 3/16/20)(Econ, 4/18/20, p.33)
2020 Mar 15, South Korea reported 76 new coronavirus cases in 24 hours, an all-time low since Feb. 20, when the country saw a surge of over 500 in four days. The country’s total tally stands at 8,162 with a total of 75 deaths.
(Bloomberg, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, Spain’s diagnosed cases of the coronavirus jumped 35% to 7,753 and the death toll rose by 152 to 288. Ford Motors said it would shut its Spanish plant in the eastern region of Valencia for one week starting tomorrow after three employees tested positive for coronavirus.
(Bloomberg, 3/15/20)(Reuters, 3/15/20)(Reuters, 3/16/20)
2020 Mar 15, In Switzerland coronavirus infections jumped by nearly 1,000 cases in 24 hours to 2,200 and 14 deaths were recorded from the virus across the country.
(AFP, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, Syria's brutal conflict entered its 10th year with President Bashar al-Assad's regime consolidating its hold over a war-wracked country where foreign powers are flexing their muscle. In the northwest Turkish and Russian troops began joint patrols on the key M4 highway. Rebel provocations forced Russia and Turkey to cut short their first joint patrol.
(AFP, 3/15/20)(AP, 3/15/20)(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, Thailand reported 32 new cases of the coronavirus in the largest daily jump in infections since the outbreak began, bringing its total tally to 114.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, Turkey said thousands of Muslims returning to home from a pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia were being taken into quarantine due to concerns about the spread of the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro wrote to the IMF asking for a $5bn loan to fight COVID-19.
(Econ, 3/21/20, p.30)
2020 Mar 15, Vietnam's health ministry said all passengers coming from or through China, South Korea, the UK and Schengen countries will be quarantined and tested for coronavirus. Vietnam reported 37 new coronavirus cases over the past week, taking the tally to 53.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2021 Mar 15, President Joe Biden's administration told the US Supreme Court that it thinks low-level crack cocaine offenders should be among the beneficiaries of a federal law that reduced certain prison sentences, reversing the position taken under his predecessor Donald Trump.
(Reuters, 3/15/21)
2021 Mar 15, The US Senate confirmed New Mexico Rep. Deb Haaland as interior secretary, making her the first Native American to lead a Cabinet department and the first to lead the federal agency that has wielded influence over the nation's tribes for nearly two centuries.
(SFC, 3/16/21, p.A3)
2021 Mar 15, It was reported that the US-based branch of the Jesuits has unveiled plans for a "truth and reconciliation" initiative in partnership with descendants of people once enslaved by the Roman Catholic order. The Jesuits planned to raise $1 billion within five years in pursuit of racial justice and racial healing.
(NY Times, 3/17/21, p.A4)
2021 Mar 15, The US embassy in Mozambique said US special operations forces will support Mozambique's efforts to prevent the spread of terrorism and violent extremism".
(BBC, 3/21/21)
2021 Mar 15, California to date had 3,600,364 cases of coronavirus and 55,815 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 414,922 cases and 5,656 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 29,492,614 with the death toll at 535,597.
(sfist.com, 3/15/21)
2021 Mar 15, In San Francisco Stephen Bechtel Jr. (95), philanthropist and retired CEO of the Bechtel construction company (1960-1990), died at his home in Pacific Heights.
(SFC, 3/16/21, p.B1)
2021 Mar 15, In Florida the body of Neil Clark (67), a longtime Ohio lobbyist who had pleaded not guilty in a sweeping $60 million federal bribery investigation, was found dead in Collier County.
(AP, 3/16/21)
2021 Mar 15, County officials in coastal North Carolina voted on whether to raise property taxes to help save a main road from rising seas.
(NY Times, 3/15/21)
2021 Mar 15, Eight migrants died in a car crash in Texas on US Highway 277, about 30 miles north of the border city Del Rio.
(NY Times, 3/16/21)
2021 Mar 15, Senator Mitt Romney of Utah in a public letter urged American spectators, companies and diplomats to boycott the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, to punish China for its human rights abuses. He favored that approach over an athlete boycott.
(NY Times, 3/15/21)
2021 Mar 15, It was reported that a new feature has appeared at smoke shops in Montana, gas stations in the Carolinas and delis in far-flung corners of New York City: a brightly-lit bitcoin ATM, where customers can buy or sell digital currency, and sometimes extract hard cash. There are now bitcoin ATMs in every state except Alaska.
(Reuters, 3/15/21)
2021 Mar 15, Billionaire hedge fund investor William Ackman said he donated 26.5 million shares in newly public South Korean e-commerce giant Coupang Inc to three entities, including his foundation.
(AP, 3/15/21)
2021 Mar 15, Advanced Micro Devices Inc released a new data center chip aimed at taking away more market share from rival Intel Corp. California-based AMD designs the chip but taps Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd to fabricate the chip using TSMC's 7-nanometer chipmaking process.
(Reuters, 3/15/21)
2021 Mar 15, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Facebook is adding informational labels to posts about vaccines as it expands efforts to counter COVID-19-related misinformation flourishing on its platforms.
(AP, 3/15/21)
2021 Mar 15, General Motors Co said that due to the global semiconductor chip shortage the US automaker is building certain 2021 light-duty full-size pickup trucks without a fuel management module, hurting those vehicles' fuel economy performance.
(Reuters, 3/15/21)
2021 Mar 15, Gilead Sciences Inc and rival Merck & Co Inc said they will test a combination of their experimental HIV drugs to develop a long-acting treatment for the infection that affects millions worldwide.
(Reuters, 3/15/21)
2021 Mar 15, Moderna Inc said it had dosed the first patients in an early-stage study of a new COVID-19 vaccine candidate for evaluation as a next-generation shot. The new candidate, mRNA-1283, could potentially be stored in refrigerators instead of freezers.
(Reuters, 3/15/21)
2021 Mar 15, Purdue Pharma submitted its bankruptcy restructuring plan just before midnight. The blueprint requires members of the billionaire Sackler family to relinquish control of the company and transforms it into a new corporation with revenue directed exclusively toward abating the addiction epidemic that its signature painkiller, OxyContin, helped create.
(NY Times, 3/16/21)
2021 Mar 15, In Australia more than 100,000 people took to the streets in dozens of rallies across the country to protest violence against women and the government’s handling of two rape cases involving high-level political figures.
(The Telegraph, 3/15/21)
2021 Mar 15, Britain said it was imposing new sanctions on Bashar al-Assad’s regime, including asset freezes and travel bans on the Syrian dictator’s close allies.
(AP, 3/15/21)
2021 Mar 15, Rogers Communications Inc said it was buying rival Shaw Communications Inc for about C$20 billion in a deal that would create Canada's second-largest cellular and cable operator but might attract stiff regulatory scrutiny.
(Reuters, 3/15/21)
2021 Mar 15, A regional court in West Africa ordered the immediate release of a Venezuelan businessman close to President Nicolás Maduro, finding that his arrest in Cape Verde on US money laundering charges was unlawful. The court also instructed Cape Verde to cease all extradition proceedings against Alex Saab and compensate him $200,000 for damages. Federal prosecutors in Miami indicted Saab in 2019 on money laundering charges connected to an alleged bribery scheme that pocketed more than $350 million from a low-income housing project for the Venezuelan government that was never built.
(AP, 3/15/21)
2021 Mar 15, It was reported that 25% of Chile's population has received at least one shot of the coronavirus vaccine.
(SFC, 3/15/21, p.A6)
2021 Mar 15, China said it will simplify visa applications for foreign nationals who have been inoculated with Chinese-made COVID-19 vaccines, its latest small step towards normalizing international travel.
(Reuters, 3/15/21)
2021 Mar 15, China reported a new COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use. The vaccine, jointly developed by Anhui Jifei Longcom Biopharmaceutical Co. and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, is the fifth coronavirus vaccine developed and approved in China and the 4th to be given emergency use approval.
(SFC, 3/17/21, p.A3)
2021 Mar 15, The largest sandstorm in a decade swept across northern China and Mongolia, grounding flights and closing schools. At least 10 people were killed and nearly 400 left missing.
(NY Times, 3/15/21)(SSFC, 3/21/21, p.B8)
2021 Mar 15, Attacks on Chinese-run factories in Myanmar's biggest city drew demands from Beijing for protection for their property and employees.
(AP, 3/15/21)
2021 Mar 15, A report by medical charity MSF has found that nearly 70% of health facilities in Ethiopia's conflict-hit northern region of Tigray have been vandalized and equipment looted.
(BBC, 3/15/21)
2021 Mar 15, The European Union launched legal action against Britain for unilaterally changing trading arrangements for Northern Ireland that Brussels says breach the Brexit divorce deal agreed with London last year.
(Reuters, 3/15/21)
2021 Mar 15, The French government said it will return a Nazi-looted Gustav Klimt landscape painting (Rosebushes under the Trees) to the family of Nora Stiasny, a Holocaust victim who was dispossessed of the 1905 painting in 1938.
(SFC, 3/16/21, p.A3)
2021 Mar 15, Germany, France, Italy and Spain said they would stop administering the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine after several countries reported possible serious side-effects.
(AP, 3/15/21)(SFC, 3/16/21, p.A4)
2021 Mar 15, Germany's IDT Biologica said it would make Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine using capacity previously reserved by Japan's Takeda, helping to ease concerns about the US drugmaker's ability to meet its production goals.
(AP, 3/15/21)
2021 Mar 15, Hong Kong authorities said that the city's vaccine scheme would be widened to include those aged between 30-60 years old and domestic helpers, as they aim to increase take up amongst residents in the Asian financial hub.
(Reuters, 3/15/21)
2021 Mar 15, In Hungary demonstrators in Budapest broke a ban on public gatherings to demand an end to the country's lockdown restrictions, even as a surge in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations sweeps the country.
(AP, 3/15/21)
2021 Mar 15, Indonesia said it will delay the administering of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine due to reports of blood clots among some recipients in Europe and would await a review from the World Health Organization (WHO).
(Reuters, 3/15/21)
2021 Mar 15, Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard inaugurated a new underground facility designated for missile storage.
(AP, 3/15/21)
2021 Mar 15, Iran charged a French tourist with spying and “spreading propaganda against the system. Benjamin Berier was arrested some 10 months ago after taking pictures in a desert area where photography is prohibited.
(AP, 3/15/21)
2021 Mar 15, Italy’s top administrative court ruled against a conservative think tank affiliated with former White House adviser Steve Bannon over its use of a hilltop monastery to train future populist leaders.
(AP, 3/16/21)
2021 Mar 15, Most of Italy entered a new lockdown today. Cases have risen over the past three weeks, driven by the spread of the variant first found in Britain and a slow vaccination campaign.
(NY Times, 3/15/21)
2021 Mar 15, Libya's first unity government in years was sworn in in the eastern city of Tobruk, charged with unifying the country after years of violence and division and overseeing the run-up to national elections.
(Reuters, 3/15/21)
2021 Mar 15, The Netherlands began 3 days of general elections.
(SFC, 3/16/21, p.A2)
2021 Mar 15, In Nigeria gunmen on motorcycles stormed the primary school in Rama village in Birnin Gwari local government area as children were arriving for classes. Three teachers were abducted.
(BBC, 3/15/21)
2021 Mar 15, Yaphet Kotto (b.1939), African-American actor, died near Manila in the Philippines. His films included "Nothing But a Man" (1964), "Live and Let Die" (1973), "Blue Collar" (1978), "Alien" (1979), "Running Man" (1987) and "Midnight Run" (1988).
(SFC, 3/17/21, p.A4)
2021 Mar 15, Russia's RDIF sovereign wealth fund said Russia has vaccinated 3.5 million people with both shots of its Sputnik V vaccine against COVID-19, which puts it ahead of all countries in Europe in terms of the absolute number of people fully vaccinated.
(Reuters, 3/15/21)
2021 Mar 15, In Thailand six pedigree cats valued at thousands of dollars were confiscated in a Thai drug network raid on suspicion they were being used to launder money.
(Reuters, 3/16/21)
2021 Mar 15, It was reported that Ugandan opposition figure Bobi Wine has been arrested while leading a protest in Kampala.
(AP, 3/15/21)
2021 Mar 15, The Vatican decreed that the Catholic Church won't bless same-sex unions since God “cannot bless sin".
(AP, 3/15/21)
2021 Mar 15, It was reported that Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is pressing banks to implement digital payment systems as hyperinflation prompts chronic shortages of cash in the bolivar currency.
(Reuters, 3/15/21)
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