Today in History - March 17
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Traditional St. Patrick's Day toast. : "May the enemies of Ireland never eat bread nor drink whisky, but be tormented with itching without benefit of scratching."
(AP, 3/17/99)
For Asian History: https://www.asiaobserver.org/category/news/on-this-day-in-asian-history
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For Asian History: https://www.asiaobserver.org/category/news/on-this-day-in-asian-history
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180CE Mar 17, Antonius Marcus Aurelius (58), [Marcus Verus], Emperor of Rome, died.
(MC, 3/17/02)
c389 Mar 17, St. Patrick (d.461), the patron saint of Ireland, was born. Calpurnius, his father, was a deacon and local official who lost his son to Irish raiders when Patrick was 16. Patrick allegedly drove all the snakes (i.e. pagans) out of Ireland.
(HN, 3/17/99)(HNQ, 3/17/01)(WSJ, 3/12/04, p.W13)
461 Mar 17, According to tradition, St. Patrick (b.c389), the patron saint of Ireland, died in Saul, County Down. Some sources say he died in 493AD. He was an English missionary and bishop of Ireland. In 2004 Philip Freeman authored "St. Patrick: A Biography."
(SFC, 3/15/97, p.A16)(WSJ, 3/12/04, p.W13)(AP, 3/17/08)
1394 Mar 17, Sir John Hawkwood (b.~1323), English soldier who served as a mercenary leader or condottiero in Italy, died at his home in Florence.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hawkwood)
1516 Mar 17, Giuliano de' Medici (37), monarch of Florence, died.
(MC, 3/17/02)
1753 Mar 17, The 1st official St Patrick's Day was celebrated.
(MC, 3/17/02)
1756 Mar 17, St. Patrick's Day was 1st celebrated in NYC at Crown & Thistle Tavern.
(MC, 3/17/02)
1762 Mar 17, 1st St Patrick's Day parade was held in NYC.
(MC, 3/17/02)
1775 Mar 17, Richard Henderson, a North Carolina judge, representing the Transylvania Company, met with three Cherokee Chiefs (Oconistoto, chief warrior and first representative of the Cherokee Nation or tribe of Indians, and Attacuttuillah and Sewanooko) to purchase (for the equivalent of $50,000) all the land lying between the Ohio, Kentucky and Cumberland rivers; some 17 to 20 million acres. It was known as the Treaty of Sycamore Shoals or The Henderson Purchase. The purchase was later declared invalid but land cession was not reversed.
(www.tngenweb.org/cessions/17750317.html)
1776 Mar 17, British forces evacuated Boston to Nova Scotia during the Revolutionary War. In some of the bloodiest fighting of the Revolutionary War, American and French troops failed to take Savannah.
(AP, 3/17/97)(HN, 3/17/98)
1780 Mar 17, Thomas Chalmers, 1st moderator (Free Church of Scotland 1843-47), was born.
(MC, 3/17/02)
1799 Mar 17, Napoleon Bonaparte and his army reached the Mediterranean seaport of St. Jean d'Acra, only to find British warships ready to break his siege of the town.
(HN, 3/17/00)
1800 Mar 17, English warship Queen Charlotte caught fire and 700 people died.
(MC, 3/17/02)
1828 Mar 17, Maj. Gen. Patrick R. Cleburne, the "Stonewall" of the West, was born.
(HN, 3/17/98)
1832 Mar 17, Daniel Conway Moncure, U.S. clergyman, author, abolitionist, was born.
(HN, 3/17/98)
1836 Mar 17, David G. Burnet (1788-1870) became interim president of Texas and continued to Oct 22, 1836. he became the second Vice President of the Republic of Texas (1839-41), and Secretary of State (1846) for the new state of Texas after it was annexed to the United States of America.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_G._Burnet)
1837 Mar 17, Stephen Grover Cleveland was born in Caldwell, N.J. He was the 22nd (1885-1889) and 24th (1893-1897) president of the United States, the only President elected for two nonconsecutive terms.
(AP, 3/17/04)
1845 Mar 17, The rubber band was patented by Stephen Perry of London. [see May 17]
(MC, 3/17/02)
1846 Mar 17, Kate Greenway, painter and illustrator (Mother Goose), was born.
(HN, 3/17/01)
1860 Mar 17, The Japanese ship Kanrin Maru, under Admiral Yoshitake Kimura, entered the Golden Gate after a 37-day voyage, on a diplomatic mission to San Francisco. It was the first Japanese ship to cross the Pacific. 3 sailors died while the ship was in SF. It set sail to return to Japan on May 8.
(SFC, 3/17/10, p.C2)
1861 Mar 17, Victor Emmanuel, the King of Piedmont, Savoy, and Sardinia, proclaimed the foundation of the kingdom of Italy. The Risorgimento movement resulted in Italian unification. The Carbonari was a secret society in early 19th century Italy who advocated liberal and patriotic ideas and opposed the conservative regimes imposed on Italy by the Allies who had defeated Napoleon in 1815. As with other secret societies of the age, the Carbonari had an initiation ceremony, complex symbols and a hierarchical organization though its exact origins are left to conjecture. They recruited primarily among nobility, small landowners and officeholders and may have been an offshoot of the Freemasons. Their influence is credited with preparing the way for the Risorgimento movement.
(Econ, 3/19/11, p.61)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Emmanuel_II_of_Italy)(HNQ, 8/21/00)
1863 Mar 17, The Battle of Kelly's Ford, Va., was fought.
(http://americancivilwar.com/statepic/va/va029.html)
1868 Mar 17, Postage stamp canceling machine patent was issued.
(HN, 3/17/98)
1870 Mar 17, The Massachusetts Legislature authorized the incorporation of Wellesley Female Seminary. It later became Wellesley College.
(AP, 3/17/97)
1874 Mar 17, Kincsem, a horse that never lost a race, was born.
(MC, 3/17/02)
1876 Mar 17, Gen. Crook destroyed Cheyenne and Ogallala-Sioux Indian camps.
(MC, 3/17/02)
1884 Mar 17, John Joseph Montgomery made the first glider flight in Otay, Calif.
(HN, 3/17/98)
1886 Mar 17, The Carrollton Massacre in Mississippi occurred and 20 African Americans were killed.
(HN, 3/17/98)
1891 Mar 17, The British steamer Utopia sank off the coast of Gibraltar.
(HN, 3/17/98)
1902 Mar 17, Bobby Jones was born. He was the first American golfer to win the U.S. and British championships in the same year in 1930.
(HN, 3/17/99)
1894 Mar 17, US and China signed a treaty preventing Chinese laborers from entering US.
(MC, 3/17/02)
1895 Mar 17, Shemp Howard, comedian (3 Stooges, Bank Dick), was born in Brooklyn.
(MC, 3/17/02)
1901 Mar 17, Eisaku Sato, premier of Japan (Nobel 1974), was born.
(MC, 3/17/02)
1905 Mar 17, Anna Eleanor Roosevelt, niece of President Theodore Roosevelt, married her fifth cousin, Franklin Delano Roosevelt in New York and by 1916, they had become the parents of six children.
(AP, 3/17/97)(HN, 3/17/98)(HNPD, 10/11/99)
1906 Mar 17, President Theodore Roosevelt first likened crusading journalists to a man with "the muck-rake in his hand" in a speech to the Gridiron Club in Washington, DC, as he criticized what he saw as the excesses of investigative journalism.
(AP, 3/17/06)(www.gwu.edu/~smpa/faculty/documents/Harvard.pdf)
1908 Mar 17, The 225-foot long steamship Pomona, en route to Eureka from San Francisco, sank after hitting rocks near Fort Ross, Ca. All 146 people aboard made it safely to shore.
(SFC, 7/28/18, p.A1)
1910 Mar 17, The Camp Fire Girls organization was formed in Lake Sebago, Maine. It was formally presented to the public exactly two years later.
(AP, 3/17/97)(HN, 3/17/01)
1914 Mar 17, Russia increased the number of active duty military from 460,000 to 1,700,000.
(HN, 3/17/98)
1917 Mar 17, Czar Michael abdicated after one day in favor of a provisional government under Prince George Evgenievich Lvov (55).
(PCh, 1992, p.722)
1919 Mar 17, Nat “King" Cole, American jazz pianist and singer, was born. He is famous for "Unforgettable" and "Mona Lisa."
(HN, 3/17/99)
1920 Mar 17, John La Montaine, composer (Pulitzer 1959), was born in Oak Park, Ill.
(MC, 3/17/02)
1921 Mar 17, Dr Marie Stopes opened Britain's 1st birth control clinic in London.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Stopes)
1924 Mar 17, Four Douglas army aircraft left Los Angeles for an around the world flight.
(HN, 3/17/98)
1929 Mar 17, General Motors purchased an 80% stake in Opel, a German car manufacturer, for $33.3 million. GM raised the stake to 100% in 1931.
(http://wiki.gmnext.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page)
1930 Mar 17, James Benson Irwin, Col. USAF, astronaut (Apollo 15), was born in Pittsburgh, Penn.
(MC, 3/17/02)
1930 Mar 17, Mob boss Al Capone was released from jail.
(HN, 3/17/98)
1931 Mar 17, Stalin threw Krupskaja Lenin out of the Central Committee.
(MC, 3/17/02)
1932 Mar 17, German police raided Hitler's Nazi headquarters.
(MC, 3/17/02)
1934 Mar 17, Thousands of blacks battled the police in New York in protest of the Scottsboro trial.
(HN, 3/17/98)
1934 Mar 17, The Rome Protocols allied Hungary with Italy, Austria and Germany.
(WUD, 1994, p.1682)
1935 Mar 17, Hitler reviewed the military parade in Berlin.
(HN, 3/17/98)
1937 Mar 17, Amelia Earhart took off from Oakland, Ca., in an attempt to become the first pilot to fly around the globe at the equator.
(SFC, 3/1/97, p.A8)
1938 Mar 17, Rudolf Nureyev, ballet dancer, choreographer (Kirov), was born in Russia.
(MC, 3/17/02)
1938 Mar 17, The Polish government presented an ultimatum to Lithuania to establish diplomatic ties. (LHC, 3/17/03)
1941 Mar 17, The National Gallery of Art opened in Washington, DC.
(AP, 3/17/98)(HN, 3/17/98)
1942 Mar 17, John Wayne Gacy, serial killer (32 boys), was born in Chicago, Ill.
(MC, 3/17/02)
1942 Mar 17, Gen. Douglas MacArthur arrived in Australia to become supreme commander of Allied forces in the southwest Pacific theater during World War II.
(AP, 3/17/97) (HN, 3/17/98)
1942 Mar 17, Belzec Concentration Camp opened. 30,000 Lublin Polish Jews were transported.
(MC, 3/17/02)
1942 Mar 17, The Nazis began deporting Jews to the Belsen camp.
(HN, 3/17/98)
1943 Mar 17, The German occupation authority closed Lithuanian schools of higher education and the Academy of Education.
(LHC, 3/17/03)
1944 Mar 17, Danny DeVito, actor (Louie-Taxi, Twins), was born in Neptune, NJ. [see Nov 17]
(MC, 3/17/02)
1944 Mar 17, The US Eighth Air Force bombed Vienna.
(HN, 3/17/00)
1945 Mar 17, In Germany the bridge at Remagen, weakened by shelling and the passage of some 50,000 Allied troops, fell taking 28 US soldiers to their deaths.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remagen)(AP, 5/7/18)
1945 Mar 17, Allied ships bombed North Sumatra.
(MC, 3/17/02)
1948 Mar 17, The International Maritime Organization (IMO) was established following agreement at a UN conference held in Geneva and came into existence ten years later, meeting for the first time in 1959. Preventing pollution was one of its original aims. The original name was the Inter-Governmental Maritime Consultative Organization, or IMCO, but the name was changed in 1982 to IMO.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Maritime_Organization)(Econ, 3/30/13, p.69)(http://www.imo.org/About/Pages/Default.aspx)
1990 The Marshall Islands first president signed a deal with a company, International Registries Inc., to create a tax-friendly, low-cost way for ships to sail under the Marshall Islands flag.
(NY Times, 6/4/21)
1991 Frances 'Franco' Stevens (23) launched "Denueve," a glossy lifestyle magazine for lesbians, after raising funds by taking cash out on credit cards and betting on the horses. The magazine had to change its name following a lawsuit from French actress Catherine Deneuve and in 2010 Stevens sold the magazine after an accident left her disabled. She bought it back 10 years later.
(Reuters, 6/4/21)
2021 Jun 3, Pres. Joe Biden issued a new executive order barring Americans from investing in Chinese firms that are linked to the country’s military or that sell surveillance technology used to repress dissent or religious minorities, both inside and outside China.
(NY Times, 6/3/21)
2021 Jun 3, The US Ambassador to the UN announced nearly $240 million in humanitarian funding to support the people of Syria, Syrian refugees and countries hosting them, and called for access through international crossings to allow the delivery of aid.
(AP, 6/3/21)
2021 Jun 3, California to date had 3,766,071 cases of coronavirus and 63,002 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 444,761 cases and 6,609 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 33,326,054 with the death toll at 596,401.
(sfist.com, 6/4/21)
2021 Jun 3, Criminal lawyer F. Lee Bailey (87) died in Atlanta. He had invited juries into the twilight zone of reasonable doubt in defense of Patricia Hearst, O.J. Simpson, the Boston Strangler, the army commander at the My Lai Massacre in Vietnam and other notorious cases.
(NY Times, 6/3/21)
2021 Jun 3, Denmark said it has withdrawn permission for a planned pipeline that was designed to bring Norwegian gas to Poland, citing the need to assess if the project would harm the habitats of certain mice and bat species. Baltic Pipe was designed to bring Norway’s offshore natural gas from the North Sea through Denmark to Poland.
(AP, 6/4/21)
2021 Jun 3, In Egypt a fire broke out at a juvenile detention center in Cairo, killing at least six children.
(AP, 6/3/21)
2021 Jun 3, France said it is halting joint military operations with Mali over last week's coup in the West African country. It said the suspension would continue until it received guarantees about a return to civilian rule in Mali.
(BBC, 6/3/21)
2021 Jun 3, In Iraq a gas cylinder explosion at a crowded restaurant in a northwestern Baghdad neighborhood killed three people and injured 16.
(AP, 6/3/21)
2021 Jun 3, Spain’s PM Pedro Sánchez was in the Libyan capital of Tripoli to reopen his country’s embassy and show support for Libya’s new interim authorities entrusted with leading the nation out of years of civil war.
(AP, 6/3/21)
2021 Jun 3, The head of the international chemical weapons watchdog told the UN Security Council that its experts have investigated 77 allegations against Syria, and concluded that in 17 cases chemical weapons were likely or definitely used.
(AP, 6/3/21)
2021 Jun 4, A US State Department spokesman said the US is shipping one million doses of Johnson & Johnson's one-shot COVID-19 vaccine to South Korea.
(Reuters, 6/4/21)
2021 Jun 4, It was reported that the US health regulator has authorized a lower dose of Regeneron Pharmaceutical's COVID-19 antibody cocktail that can be given by injection, a move that could ease logistical challenges stemming from administering a higher dose intravenously.
(Reuters, 6/4/21)
2021 Jun 4, It was reported that JPMorgan Chase & Co will resume making political donations to US lawmakers but will not give to Republican members of Congress who voted to overturn President Joe Biden's election victory.
(Reuters, 6/4/21)
2021 Jun 4, The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) said it and the European Union have concluded the world's first bloc-to-bloc air transport agreement, to allow their airlines to easier expand services to and within the respective regions.
(Reuters, 6/4/21)
2021 Jun 4, Britain's health ministry said the estimated reproduction "R" number in England remains at over 1 and the epidemic could be growing by as much as 3% each day. Britain's medicines regulator said it had approved the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech for use on 12- to 15-year-olds.
(Reuters, 6/4/21)
2021 Jun 4, The UK announced a post-Brexit trade deal with Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein.
(BBC, 6/4/21)
2021 Jun 4, Denmark’s Parliament voted in favor of building Lynetteholmen, a 20-billion-kroner ($3.3 billion) artificial island in Copenhagen, that will house at least 35,000 people who will be connected to downtown by a harbor tunnel and a subway line.
(AP, 6/4/21)
2021 Jun 4, The European Union submitted a plan to the World Trade Organization that it believes will more effectively broaden supply of COVID-19 vaccines than the intellectual property (IP) rights waiver backed by the United States.
(Reuters, 6/4/21)
2021 Jun 4, Cardinal Reinhard Marx, a leading German cardinal and confidant of Pope Francis, offered to resign over the Catholic Church's “catastrophic" mishandling of clergy sexual abuse cases, declaring that the scandals had brought the church to “a dead end".
(AP, 6/4/21)
2021 Jun 4, Italy reported 73 coronavirus-related deaths against 59 the day before, while the daily tally of new infections rose to 2,557 from 1,968. Italy has registered 126,415 deaths linked to COVID-19 since its outbreak emerged in February last year.
(Reuters, 6/4/21)
2021 Jun 4, Pakistan has started producing the single dose Chinese CanSinoBio COVID-19 vaccine to be able to deliver 3 million doses a month. An initial batch of 118,000 doses of the vaccine was ready to be delivered to the government.
(Reuters, 6/4/21)
1950 Mar 17, Scientists at the University of California at Berkeley announced they had created a new radioactive element, which they named "californium."
(AP, 3/17/97)
1952 Mar 17, A US ban on the word “tornado" was lifted. The ban had started in 1886 when the US Army, which handled weather forecasting, determined that the harm done by predicting a tornado would be greater than that done by the tornado itself.
(SFC, 3/17/09, p.D6)
1956 Mar 17, Fred Allen (b.1894), American comedian (Fred Allen Radio Show), died.
(TOH, 1982, p.1956)(AP, 3/17/06)
1957 Mar 17, In the Philippines a plane crash on Mt. Manunggal in Cebu killed Pres. Ramon Magsaysay (b.1907). 25 of the 26 passengers and crew aboard were killed.
(AP, 8/2/10)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramon_Magsaysay)
1958 Mar 17, The U.S. Navy launched the Vanguard 1 satellite.
(AP, 3/17/02)
1959 Mar 17, The USS Skate became the 1st submarine to surface at the North Pole. The ships crew held a funeral service and scattered the ashes of explorer Hubert Wilkins (d.1958), who had attempted the feat in 1931.
(ON, 1/02, p.9)
1960 Mar 17, Eisenhower formed anti-Castro-exile army under the CIA.
(MC, 3/17/02)
1961 Mar 17, The U.S. increased military aid and technicians to Laos.
(HN, 3/17/98)
1962 Mar 17, The Soviet Union asked the U.S. to pull out of South Vietnam.
(HN, 3/17/98)
1963 Mar 17, In Indonesia eruptions of Mount Agung volcano on Bali killed 1,184 people.
(SFC, 1/19/02, p.A14)(AP, 12/3/17)
1966 Mar 17, A U.S. midget submarine located a missing hydrogen bomb which had fallen from an American bomber into the Mediterranean off Spain.
(AP, 3/17/97)(HN, 3/17/98)
1968 Mar 17, A peaceful anti-Vietnam War protest in London was followed by a riot outside the US Embassy; more than 80 people were reported injured. Some 20,000 people at the Vietnam Solidarity Campaign in London were mowed down by police on horses as they marched.
(www.springerlink.com/content/qg812p1147300117/)(AP, 3/17/08)(SFC, 5/22/98, p.C12)
1969 Mar 17, Golda Meir (d.1978) became the 4th prime minister of Israel. She held the office to 1974.
(AP, 3/17/97)(AP, 12/8/97)
1970 Mar 17, The US Army charged 14 officers with suppression of facts in the My Lai massacre case.
(HN, 3/17/98)
1970 Mar 17, The United States cast its first veto in the UN Security Council. The US killed a resolution that would have condemned Britain for failure to use force to overthrow the white-ruled government of Rhodesia.
(AP, 3/17/00)
1972 Mar 17, Nixon asked Congress to halt busing in order to achieve desegregation.
(HN, 3/17/98)
1973 Mar 17, Queen Elizabeth II opened the new London Bridge.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Bridge)
1973 Mar 17, Twenty people were killed in Cambodia when a bomb went off that was meant for the Cambodian President Lon Nol.
(HN, 3/17/98)
1973 Mar 17, First POWs were released from the "Hanoi Hilton" in Hanoi, North Vietnam.
(HN, 3/17/98)
1974 Mar 17 Arab oil ministers, with the exception of Libya, announced the end the oil embargo on the US.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1973_oil_crisis)
1974 Mar 17, Louis Kahn (1901), Estonia-born architect, died. His designs included the capital building of Bangladesh, completed in 1983. In 2004 his son Nathaniel Kahn directed the documentary film "My Architect: A Son's Journey."
(PBS, Internet)(SFC, 2/6/04, p.D5)
1978 Mar 17, In Zaire 13 opponents of Pres. Mobutu were executed.
(WUD, 1994, p.1691)
1879 Mar 17, The US Supreme Court in Wilkerson v. Utah ruled that Utah could use a firing squad for capital punishment.
(http://supreme.justia.com/us/99/130/case.html)
1980 Mar 17, The United States Refugee Act (Public Law 96-212) became effective. It was an amendment to the earlier Immigration and Nationality Act and the Migration and Refugee Assistance Act, and was created to provide a permanent and systematic procedure for the admission to the United States of refugees of special humanitarian concern to the US, and to provide comprehensive and uniform provisions for the effective resettlement and absorption of those refugees who are admitted.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refugee_Act)
1983 Mar 17, Laura Marie Purchase was murdered in southeast Texas. In 2021 police in Kansas arrested Thomas Elvin Darnell (75), following DNA evidence that linked him to her sexual assault and murder.
(https://tinyurl.com/46skkx5r)(SFC, 5/22/21, p.A4)
1985 Mar 17, President Reagan agreed to a joint study with Canada on acid rain.
(HN, 3/17/98)
1987 Mar 17, A US federal appeals court cleared the way for the perjury indictment of former White House aide Michael Deaver (b.1938). He was later convicted of three of five perjury counts and fined $100,000.
(AP, 3/17/97)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Deaver)
1987 Mar 17, Antonio Lopez (b.1943), fashion illustrator, died in Los Angeles from AIDS. In 2018 the documentary "Antonio Lopez 1970: Sex Fashion & Disco," directed by James Crump, was released.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonio_Lopez_(illustrator))(SFC, 10/5/18, p.E6)
1988 Mar 17, Planeloads of U.S. soldiers arrived at Palmerola Air Base in Honduras in a show of strength ordered by President Reagan.
(AP, 3/17/98)
1988 Mar 17, Apple filed suit against Microsoft, alleging copyright infringement in the Windows GUI.
(Wired, 12/98, p.196)
1988 Mar 17, Ethiopia and Eritrea engaged at the Battle at Afabet. Fighting continued through March 20. It was a watershed battle in the Eritrean War of Independence. This was Mengistu Haile Mariam's first humiliating defeat at the hands of the Eritreans.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Afabet)(SSFC, 4/15/12, p.P3)
1989 Mar 17, The Senate unanimously confirmed Wyoming Congressman Dick Cheney to be secretary of defense, following the failed nomination of former Sen. John Tower.
(AP, 3/17/99)
1990 Mar 17, The president of Lithuania, Vytautas Landsbergis, rejected a deadline set by Moscow for renouncing the republic's independence.
(AP, 3/17/00)
1991 Mar 17, Allied commanders from the Gulf War held a second round of cease-fire talks with Iraqi officers; the Iraqis were told they could not move their warplanes inside Iraq for any reason.
(AP, 3/17/01)
1991 Mar 17, Millions of people voted in a landmark referendum on whether to preserve the splintering Soviet Union.
(AP, 3/17/01)
1992 Mar 17, Democrat Bill Clinton scored big primary victories in Illinois and Michigan. In Illinois, Sen. Alan Dixon was defeated in his primary re-election bid by Carol Moseley-Braun, who went on to become the first black woman in the U.S. Senate.
(AP, 3/17/97)
1992 Mar 17, Three of President George Bush's cabinet secretaries disclosed that they had overdrawn their accounts at the scandal-ridden House of Representatives bank when they were in Congress.
(www.iht.com/articles/1992/03/18/hous_3.php)
1992 Mar 17, Grace Stafford Lantz (87), cartoon voice (Woody Woodpecker), died.
(www.imdb.com/name/nm0821282/)
1992 Mar 17, A truck bombing at the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires, Argentina, killed 29 people. Iran denied any role. Hezbollah leader Imad Mughniyeh was suspected of involvement. Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility.
(AP, 3/17/97)(WSJ, 11/24/97, p.A1)(WSJ, 9/19/01, p.A14)(NYT, 10/8/04, p.A12)
1992 Mar 17, The whites of South Africa voted in a referendum to endorse the “continuation of the reform process" by a margin of 68.73% to 31.27%. They supported the negotiated reforms begun by State President F.W. de Klerk two years earlier, in which he proposed to end the apartheid.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_African_apartheid_referendum,_1992)
1993 Mar 17, Helen Hayes (92), the "First Lady of the American Theater," died in Nyack, N.Y. Hayes quit the theater in 1971 due to severe asthma.
(AP, 3/17/98)(SSFC, 12/2/07, Par p.4)
1993 Mar 17, A bomb attack in Calcutta, India, killed 60 people.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombay_bombings_(1993))
1994 Mar 17, Secretary of State Warren Christopher, just back from China, told a House subcommittee that reports the trip was a failure were "rather misleading," and said Beijing had made "solid improvements" in areas of prison labor and immigration.
(AP, 3/17/99)
1994 Mar 17, Mae Zetterling (b.1925), Swedish director and actress (Night Games), died.
(www.imdb.com/name/nm0955195/)
1995 Mar 17, The White House hosted a St. Patrick's Day reception for Irish Prime Minister John Bruton which was attended by Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams.
(AP, 3/17/00)
1995 Mar 17, The federal government approved the nation's first chicken pox vaccine, Varivax by Merck & Co.
(AP, 3/17/00)
1995 Mar 17, Flor Contemplacion, a Filipino maid, was hanged in Singapore for murder, despite international pleas to spare her.
(AP, 3/17/00)
1996 Mar 17, The $16 mil Museum of Television and Radio was christened in Beverly Hills.
(SFC, 7/9/96, p.B4)
1996 Mar 17, In Dunblane, Scotland, Queen Elizabeth II came with flowers and sympathy as residents paused in silence to mourn 16 murdered children and their teacher.
(AP, 3/17/97)
1997 Mar 17, Anthony Lake asked President Clinton to withdraw his nomination to be CIA director, saying the partisan confirmation process had "gone haywire."
(AP, 3/17/98)
1997 Mar 17, The US Supreme Court declined to hear San Francisco’s argument that the cross on Mt. Davidson is a cultural landmark. The cross would now have to be torn down or sold to a private owner.
(SFC, 3/18/97, p.A1)
1997 Mar 17, It was reported that China was upgrading the city of Chongqing in Sichuan to the status of province. It would be directly controlled by the central government but operate as a province.
(WSJ, 3/17/97, p.B9D)
1997 Mar 17, In Germany ten drunk soldiers beat up 2 Turks and an Italian during a rampage in Detmold.
(SFC, 3/19/97, p.A12,14)
1997 Mar 17, In Mexico army Brigadier Gen’l. Alfredo Navarro Lara was arrested for trying to buy off authorities in Baha. He offered payments of $1 million a month to Gen’l. Jose Luis Chavez Garcia to allow cocaine to pass into the US.
(SFC, 3/18/97, p.A10)
1997 Mar 17, In Papua New Guinea the government fired army commander Brigadier Gen’l. Jerry Singirok. He refused to accept the hiring of the British mercenary firm Sandline Int’l.
(SFC, 3/18/97, p.A12)
1997 Mar 17, In southern Russia a Stavropol Airlines AN-24 airplane crashed and all 50 aboard were presumed dead.
(SFC, 3/19/97, p.A14)
1998 Mar 17, In Alaska Jeff King battled through blowing snow and poor visibility to earn his third victory in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.
(AP, 3/17/08)
1998 Mar 17, In Mississippi after a 21-year court fight the state unsealed over 124,000 pages of secret files of the State Sovereignty Commission that revealed numerous illegal methods to thwart the civil rights workers of the ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s.
(SFC, 3/18/98, p.A1)
1998 Mar 17, Washington Mutual announced it had agreed to buy H.F. Ahmanson and Co. for $9.9 billion dollars, creating the nation's seventh-largest banking company.
(AP, 3/17/99)
1998 Mar 17, In Texas Joe Collins (64) was killed during a break-in at his home outside Nagadoches. In 2009 Khristian Oliver (32) was executed for beating and shooting Collins.
(www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/APStories/stories/D9BPMCQO0.html)
1998 Mar 17, From Brazil it was reported that a 3-month-old fire was raging out of control in the state of Roraima, home of the Yanomani Indians.
(SFC, 3/17/98, p.B2)
1998 Mar 17, More than 10,000 Catholics marched in the first-ever St. Patrick’s Day parade in Belfast.
(SFC, 3/18/98, p.A11)
1998 Mar 17, In Zambia the state of emergency imposed last Oct. was lifted.
(WSJ, 3/18/98, p.A1)
1999 Mar 17, Instant replay was voted back in the NFL for the 1999 season.
(AP, 3/17/00)
1999 Mar 17, A US science panel commissioned by the Clinton administration called for clinical trials of medical marijuana. Medical experts concluded that marijuana has medical benefits for people suffering from cancer and AIDS.
(SFC, 3/17/99, p.A1)(AP, 3/17/00)
1999 Mar 17, In Nebraska a large prairie fire around Thedford burned tens of thousands of acres and killed one volunteer firefighter.
(SFC, 3/18/99, p.A2)
1999 Mar 17, The Int'l. Olympic Committee expelled 6 members in the wake of a bribery scandal, but gave a vote of confidence to IOC pres. Juan Antonio Samaranch.
(SFC, 3/18/99, p.A1)(AP, 3/17/00)
1999 Mar 17, Eritrea said it repulsed Ethiopian troops after a 3-day battle. 300 Ethiopian soldiers were reported dead and 57 tanks destroyed. Ethiopia said the results of the battle were staged.
(SFC, 3/18/99, p.C3)
1999 Mar 17, Iraqi pilgrims flew to Saudi Arabia for the Hajj. It was the 2nd day of flights violating UN prohibitions.
(SFC, 3/18/99, p.C2)
1999 Mar 17, In Belfast gunmen killed Frankie Curry, a Protestant extremist recently paroled from prison.
(SFC, 3/18/99, p.A12)
1999 Mar 17, In Israel Rabbi Aryeh Deri, head of the Shas party of religious Sephardim, was convicted on bribery charges.
(SFC, 3/18/99, p.A12)
1999 Mar 17, In Russia the Federal Council, the upper house of parliament, defied Pres. Yeltsin's attempt to oust Yuri Skuratov, the prosecutor general. Skuratove exposed the Central Bank's secret transfer of hard currency reserves to the FIMAKO company in the Channel Islands.
(SFC, 3/18/99, p.C3)
1999 Mar 17, Allan Boesak (53), a leading anti-apartheid activist, was convicted of stealing money from foreign donors intended for the Foundation for Peace and Justice. He was later sentenced to 6 years in prison for theft and fraud.
(SFC, 3/18/99, p.A13)(SFC, 3/25/99, p.A10)
1999 Mar 17, The Vatican and Sony announced the release of the first music video, "Abba Pater," by Pope John Paul II.
(SFC, 3/17/99, p.C3)
2000 Mar 17, The United States lifted a ban on imports of Iranian luxury goods.
(AP, 3/17/01)
2000 Mar 17, Smith and Wesson signed an unprecedented agreement with the Clinton administration to, among other things, include safety locks with all of its handguns to make them more childproof; in return, the agreement called for federal, state and city lawsuits against the gun maker to be dropped.
(AP, 3/17/01)
2000 Mar 17, Boeing Co. agreed to settle a 38-day strike by its engineers. It was the largest white-collar walkout in US history.
(SFC, 3/18/00, p.A2)
2000 Mar 17, Ford Motor Co. acquired Land Rover from BMW.
(WSJ, 3/17/00, p.A1)
2000 Mar 17, A bankruptcy plan for Iridium Corp. was approved. Its satellites would be allowed to burn up in the atmosphere.
(WSJ, 3/17/00, p.B8)
2000 Mar 17, Denmark informed the 18 Faeroe Islands that they would have to give up subsidies in 4 years if they wanted independence.
(SFC, 3/18/00, p.C1)
2000 Mar 17, In Dominica it was reported that Elizabeth Israel, the daughter of a freed slave, was living at age 125.
(SFC, 3/17/00, p.A14)
2000 Mar 17, Old East German Stasi files revealed that radioactive material was used to mark opponents, their papers and money. East German dissident writer Rudolf Bahro, who died of Leukemia, may have been a victim.
(SFC, 3/18/00, p.C16)
2000 Mar 17, Lebanon granted asylum to Kozo Okamoto, one of the terrorists in the May 30, 1972 massacre at an Israeli airport. 4 other Japanese Red Army members were deported to Japan.
(SFC, 3/18/00, p.A3)
2000 Mar 17, In Uganda some 330 followers of the Movement for the Restoration of Ten Commandments of God, led by Joseph Kibweteree, burned to death in a mass suicide in Kanungu. Children were involved and it was not clear if Kibweteree was killed. More bodies were found at the house of Kibweteree. Foul play was later suspected instead of suicide. 448 other victims were later found. The dead at Kanungu have never been officially remembered. Those who lost family members have never got any answers.
(SFEC, 3/19/00, p.A19)(SFC, 3/20/00, p.A13)(SFC, 3/24/00, p.A18)(SFC, 7/15/00, p.A13)(AP, 3/17/20)
2001 Mar 17, Ray Rice, one of the founders of the Art and Architecture movement, died at age 85 in Mendocino. His work include 40 short films.
(SFC, 4/9/01, p.A17)(http://tinyurl.com/23geum)
2001 Mar 17, In Angola a small plane crashed into a mountain near Lubango and all but one of 17 people on board were killed.
(SSFC, 3/18/01, p.S2)
2001 Mar 17, Colombia suspended meat and livestock imports from Argentina for 60 days due to fears of foot-and-mouth disease. Only Israel and Russia still imported Argentine meat.
(SFC, 3/19/01, p.A9)
2001 Mar 17, In Italy protesters demonstrated at the third Global Forum in Naples. They clashed with police and 50 officers and 70 protesters suffered minor injuries.
(SSFC, 3/18/01, p.D4)
2001 Mar 17, OPEC decided to curtail its official output by 4 percent, or 1 million barrels of oil a day, in an effort to halt a recent slide in oil prices, a decision the Bush administration called “disappointing."
(SSFC, 3/18/01, p.D1)(AP, 3/17/02)
2001 Mar 17, In Spain Santos Santamaria Avedano (32), a police officer, was killed when a car bomb went off as he evacuated guests from a hotel in Roses.
(SFC, 3/19/01, p.A9)
2002 Mar 17, After nearly a year's run, Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick left the Broadway hit musical "The Producers." They later returned for a limited engagement.
(AP, 3/17/07)
2002 Mar 17, US troops killed 16 al Qaeda fighters in the Gardez region.
(WSJ, 3/19/02, p.A1)
2002 Mar 17, It was reported that McDonald’s Corp. had agreed to give 410 million to vegetarian groups, Hindu and Sikh organizations and to pay $4,000 to 12 plaintiffs to settle a suit over the use of beef tallow in french fries.
(SSFC, 3/17/02, p.A22)
2002 Mar 17, Israeli and Palestinian officials met to prepare for a cease-fire following meetings with US envoy Adm. Zinni. A Palestinian gunman opened fire in Kfar Saba. He killed an Israeli high school student (18) and was shot dead. A suicide bomber detonated himself in Jerusalem.
(SSFC, 3/17/02, p.A1)(SFC, 3/18/02, p.A3)
2002 Mar 17, In Karadzigach, Kyrgyzstan, 4 people were killed during a protest over the sentencing of lawmaker Azimbek Beknazarov.
(SFC, 3/19/02, p.A7)
2002 Mar 17, In Islamabad, Pakistan, 2 attackers hurled grenades into a Protestant Int’l. Church and 5 people were killed including a US Embassy employee, Barbara Green, and her daughter Kristen Wormsley (17). Investigators later believed that the attack was by a lone suicide bomber, one of the dead.
(SFC, 3/18/02, p.A1)(SFC, 3/19/02, p.A10)
2002 Mar 17, In Portugal the Social Democrats won elections with 40% of the vote to 37.85% for the Socialists. The SD gained 102 seats and the Popular Party won 14 giving them a majority in the 230-seat parliament. Jose Manuel Durao Barroso became prime minister.
(SFC, 3/18/02, p.A5)(Econ, 3/27/04, p.51)
2003 Mar 17, Pres. Bush gave Saddam Hussein 48 hours to go into exile or face military onslaught.
(SFC, 3/19/03, p.A1)
2003 Mar 17, Berlin Plus agreement, a short title for a comprehensive package of agreements between NATO and EU, was based on conclusions of the NATO Washington Summit.
(www.nato.int/shape/news/2003/shape_eu/se030822a.htm)(Econ, 2/10/07, p.54)
2003 Mar 17, In Washington, D.C., tobacco farmer Dwight Ware Watson, claiming to be carrying bombs, drove a tractor and trailer into a pond on the National Mall; the threat disrupted traffic for two days until Watson surrendered; there were no bombs.
(AP, 3/17/04)
2003 Mar 17, Herbert Aptheker (87), historian, died. His work included a multi-volume "Documentary History of the Negro People," and the editing of 3 volumes of letters from W.E.B. DuBois.
(SFC, 3/21/03, p.A21)
2003 Mar 17, Pen Hadow, 41, began a 478-mile trek from Ward Hunt Island in northern Canada to the geographic North Pole. He reached the Pole unsupported on May 19, but a plane has been unable to retrieve him because of broken ice and thick clouds.
(AP, 5/27/03)
2003 Mar 17, Chinese police found 28 baby girls hidden in suitcases aboard a long-distance bus in southern Guangxi, apparently being smuggled for sale. Police later arrested 10 people involved in the scheme.
(AP, 3/22/03)(WSJ, 3/24/03, p.A1)
2003 Mar 17, In Soro, Denmark, Nizar Al-Khazraji (65), former Iraqi general, disappeared.
(WSJ, 4/9/03, p.A1)(SFC, 4/16/03, p.A11)
2003 Mar 17, Iraq rejected Bush's ultimatum, saying that a U.S. attack to force Saddam from power would be "a grave mistake."
(AP, 3/17/04)
2003 Mar 17, Israeli forces invaded 2 communities in the Gaza Strip and gun battles left 10 Palestinians dead including a 4-yer-old girl.
(SFC, 3/18/03, p.AA6)
2003 Mar 17, In the Netherlands a law went into effect that allowed pharmacies to fill prescriptions for marijuana.
(SFC, 3/18/03, p.A8)
2003 Mar 17, In Nigeria ethnic clashes left 8 people dead, including an employee of ChevronTexaco.
(AP, 3/18/03)
2003 Mar 17-May 25, Iraq was scheduled to take over as chairman of the UN disarmament organization, but declined the position.
(SSFC, 2/9/03, p.A16)
2004 Mar 17, Charles A. McCoy Jr., suspected in a series of highway shootings in central Ohio, was arrested in Las Vegas.
(AP, 3/17/05)
2004 Mar 17, Major league Baseball banned THG, a steroid at the center of a criminal probe involving a SF-area lab.
(WSJ, 3/18/04, p.A1)
2004 Mar 17, Harvard researchers reported that an enzyme in the brain appears to regulate appetite and weight.
(WSJ, 3/18/04, p.A1)
2004 Mar 17, John "J.J." Jackson (62), former MTV personality, died in Los Angeles.
(AP, 3/17/05)
2004 Mar 17, Angola decided to reject genetically modified food aid. The decision threatened to disrupt distributions to hundreds of thousands of people.
(AP, 3/29/04)
2004 Mar 17, It was reported that locusts have swarmed through the Australian Outback, devastating crops just as farmers had begun recovering from a two-year drought.
(AP, 3/17/04)
2004 Mar 17, In Iraq a car bomb tore apart the five-story Mount Lebanon Hotel in central Baghdad, killing 7 people. In northeastern Iraq gunmen opened fire on a minibus, killing three Iraqi journalists and wounding nine other employees of a coalition-funded TV station. Insurgents killed two U.S. Marines who were on patrol in al-Anbar province. In Mosul 4 US Baptist missionaries were killed in a drive-by shooting.
(AP, 3/18/04)(SFC, 3/18/04, p.A1)(AP, 3/19/04)(WSJ, 4/1/04, p.A10)
2004 Mar 17, Israeli helicopters fired two missiles into a crowd of suspected gunmen in a Palestinian refugee camp, killing four people in a stepped-up campaign to root out militants in the Gaza Strip. 2 teenage boys were killed in an air strike at the Rafah refugee camp.
(AP, 3/17/04)(SFC, 3/18/04, p.A2)
2004 Mar 17, Israel's Supreme Court imposed an open-ended freeze on construction of a 15-mile section of the country's controversial West Bank separation barrier.
(AP, 3/18/04)
2004 Mar 17, The Maldives ferry Enamaa was carrying far more than its capacity of up to 100 when a wave overturned it. At least 18 people were killed. More than 50 others were missing.
(AP, 3/18/04)
2004 Mar 17, In Kosovo ethnic Albanians traded gunfire with Serbs after blaming them for the drownings of two boys. The clashes left eight dead and more than 300 injured.
(AP, 3/17/04)
2005 Mar 17, US Congressional hearings began on steroid use among baseball players. Baseball players told Congress that steroids were a problem in the sport; stars Rafael Palmeiro and Sammy Sosa testified they hadn't used them while Mark McGwire refused to say whether he had.
(SFC, 3/18/05, p.A1)(AP, 3/17/06)
2005 Mar 17, Rapper Lil' Kim was convicted of lying to a grand jury about a shootout outside a New York radio station. Lil' Kim started serving her 366-day sentence just before her fourth album was released in September 2005.
(AP, 3/17/06)
2005 Mar 17, Toys R Us agreed to become a privately owned company in a $6.6 billion buyout deal that included 2 equity firms and a real estate developer.
(SFC, 3/18/05, p.C1)
2005 Mar 17, George F. Kennan (b.1904), former US diplomat and historian, died. In 1947 Kennan wrote an article that would guide US postwar policy (containment) for decades. He proposed in the piece signed "X" that the US stop the global spread of Communism through ideology and politics, not war. His books included "Russia Leaves the War" (1956). In 2007 John Lukacs authored “George Kennan: A Study of Character." In 2009 Nicholas Thompson authored “The Hawk and the Dove: Paul Nitze, George Kennan, and the History of the Cold War." In 2011 John Lewis authored “George F. Kennan: An American Life."
(AP, 3/18/05)(SFC, 3/18/05, p.A2)(Econ, 3/26/05, p.85)(SSFC, 4/8/07, p.M3)(Econ, 10/17/09, p.98)(Econ, 11/12/11, p.97)
2005 Mar 17, In Afghanistan a bomb exploded near a taxi carrying women and children in the southern city of Kandahar, killing at least five people and wounding.
(AP, 3/17/05)
2005 Mar 17, President Fidel Castro announced a 7 percent revaluation of Cuba's national currency, giving Cubans slightly more buying power as the communist-run island moves to reassert greater control over its economy.
(AP, 3/17/05)
2005 Mar 17, Italian airline Alitalia SpA said that the latest strike by flight attendants could plunge the struggling carrier into bankruptcy.
(AP, 3/17/05)
2005 Mar 17, In Pakistan’s Baluchistan province 17 minority Hindus were killed when their temple was hit by rockets during fighting between renegade tribesmen and security forces in Dera Bugti. Officials later said up to 45 people, including eight soldiers, were killed in the clashes between the Frontier Corps troops and Bugti tribesmen. Of the 67 people killed about half died when the ghetto was shelled by government forces.
(AP, 3/21/05)(Econ, 5/7/05, p.37)
2005 Mar 17, Palestinian militants declared a halt to attacks on Israel for the rest of this year, their longest cease-fire promise ever and a victory for Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.
(AP, 3/17/05)
2005 Mar 17, Anatoly Chubais, head of Russia’s state-controlled Unified Energy Systems power grid, was ambushed on his way to work near his country home outside Moscow by assailants who detonated a bomb and raked his armored car with automatic weapons fire. No one was hurt. In September prosecutors indicted 3 former servicemen in connection with the attempted assassination. Formal charges were filed against retired military intelligence colonel, Vladimir Kvachkov, and former paratroopers Robert Yashin and Alexander Naidyonov.
(AP, 9/27/05)
2005 Mar 17, Stephane Lambiel of Switzerland won the men's title at the World Figure Skating Championships in Moscow.
(AP, 3/17/06)
2005 Mar 17, Zimbabwe's highest court barred 3.4 million citizens living abroad, over 20 percent of the country's population, from voting in this month's parliamentary elections.
(AP, 3/18/05)
2006 Mar 17, A US federal appeals court blocked the Environmental Protection Agency from easing clean air rules on aging power plants, refineries and factories, one of the regulatory changes that had been among the top environmental priorities of the White House.
(AP, 3/18/06)
2006 Mar 17, US Federal regulators reported the deaths of two more women who had taken the abortion pill RU-486; Planned Parenthood, which had provided the pills to the women, said it would immediately stop disregarding the approved instructions for the drug's use.
(AP, 3/17/07)
2006 Mar 17, The new Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology opened in Menlo Park, Ca., as part of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. Researchers there planned to focus on investigations on the dark matter and dark energy components of the universe.
(SFC, 3/18/06, p.B4)
2006 Mar 17, Oleg Cassini (92), who designed the dresses that helped make Jacqueline Kennedy the most glamorous first lady in history, died on Long Island, NY.
(AP, 3/18/06)
2006 Mar 17, Former US Federal Reserve Chairman and former treasury secretary G. William Miller died at age 81.
(AP, 3/17/07)
2006 Mar 17, In Vienna, Austria, ethnic Albanian and Serbian officials laid out their demands at UN-mediated talks on the future of Kosovo, one of the most intractable disputes left over from the disintegration of Yugoslavia.
(AP, 3/17/06)
2006 Mar 17, In southern Afghanistan a roadside bomb hit a convoy carrying the bodies of four men believed to be kidnapped Macedonians, a day after the remains were recovered. Five police were killed and three wounded.
(AP, 3/17/06)
2006 Mar 17, Bangladesh confirmed the country's first case of polio in nearly six years, prompting plans to resume mass vaccinations against the crippling disease next month.
(AP, 3/17/06)
2006 Mar 17, Britain’s PM Tony Blair's Labour Party revealed it had received 24.5 million dollars in loans from individual supporters as a furor over the party's secret funding deepened.
(AP, 3/17/06)(Econ, 3/25/06, p.65)
2006 Mar 17, Mohammed Ajmal Khan (31), a British man who bought equipment which might have been used in attacks on coalition troops in Afghanistan, was jailed after he admitted being a "terrorist quartermaster." He had been trying to buy night vision and thermal imaging equipment when arrested in 2003 and also worked closely with Masaud Khan and Seifullah Chapman, both given long jail terms in the US in 2004 for terrorism-related offences.
(AP, 3/17/06)
2006 Mar 17, Statistics Canada reported that the nation's net worth hit $4.5 trillion, or $137,000 a head, at the end of 2005.
(AP, 3/17/06)
2006 Mar 17, A Chinese court dropped charges against a Chinese researcher for The New York Times who was accused of leaking state secrets, about a month ahead of a visit by Chinese President Hu Jintao to Washington. Zhao Yan, who worked for the Times' Beijing bureau, was detained in September 2004.
(AP, 3/17/06)
2006 Mar 17, A Chinese court jailed teacher Ren Ziyuan (27) for 10 years for publishing anti-government views on the Internet, continuing an official crackdown on Web-based dissidents.
(AP, 3/17/06)
2006 Mar 17, Yuan Baojing, a Chinese tycoon once worth more than $360 million, and two accomplices were executed by lethal injection. Yuan (40) was convicted last year of hiring a hit man in a failed plot to kill a business partner who had caused Yuan's company to lose $11 million in futures trading.
(AP, 3/18/06)
2006 Mar 17, Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, a Congolese militia leader accused of conscripting and enlisting children aged under 15 for warfare (1998-2002), became the first suspect sent for trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Netherlands.
(Reuters, 3/17/06)(WSJ, 3/18/06, p.A1)
2006 Mar 17, Nearly 1,000 Egyptian judges held a half-hour silent protest to demonstrate for full judicial independence and against the government's order to interrogate six of their colleagues who criticized recent elections.
(AP, 3/17/06)
2006 Mar 17, Indian PM Manmohan Singh thanked Russia for its decision to supply uranium to two fuel-starved Indian nuclear reactors, during a visit to New Delhi by Russian Premier Mikhail Fradkov.
(AFP, 3/17/06)
2006 Mar 17, Some 93 whales began beaching themselves in Indonesia's Central Sulawesi province. About 50 died as local villagers dragged at least 40 back to the open sea.
(AFP, 3/19/06)
2006 Mar 17, Akbar Ganji (46), an Iranian dissident journalist, was freed after spending most of his six-year prison term in solitary confinement. He vowed to keep criticizing the hard-line clerical regime. Ganji was jailed in 2000 after reporting on the killings of five dissidents by Intelligence Ministry agents.
(AP, 3/18/06)
2006 Mar 17, In Iraq the Muslim pilgrims' road to the holy city of Karbala was a highway of bullets and bombs for Shiites. Drive-by shootings and roadside and bus bombs killed or wounded 19 people.
(AP, 3/17/06)
2006 Mar 17, Israel set up a quarantine and destroyed flocks after bird flu was found at 2 turkey farms.
(WSJ, 3/18/06, p.A1)
2006 Mar 17, Officials in Japan said they have confirmed the country's first case of mad cow disease in cattle raised to provide meat.
(AP, 3/17/06)
2006 Mar 17, Liberia said it has asked Nigeria to hand over former Pres. Charles Taylor, who is living there in exile and wanted on war crimes charges for his role in Sierra Leone's civil war.
(AP, 3/17/06)
2006 Mar 17, A bus carrying dozens of teenagers on a school field trip toppled off a bridge on the outskirts of Mexico's capital, killing 7 people and injuring at least 28.
(AP, 3/18/06)
2006 Mar 17, A helicopter evacuated the five conservation workers from Raoul Island, a nature reserve in New Zealand's remote Kermadec Islands. An erupting volcano forced the conservation team to abandon a missing colleague on the South Pacific island. The last known eruption on Raoul Island, about 625 miles northeast of the New Zealand city of Auckland, was on Nov. 21, 1964, from a vent close to Green Lake.
(AP, 3/17/06)
2006 Mar 17, Exiled Syrian opposition figures in Belgium formed a united front, calling for a transitional government to prepare for the overthrow of President Bashar Assad's regime.
(AP, 3/17/06)
2006 Mar 17, In Uruguay 7 residents of Young were killed when they were run over by a train they were pushing as part of a reality television show aimed at raising funds for a local hospital.
(AP, 3/17/06)
2007 Mar 17, An estimated 10-20 thousand protesters marched in Washington DC marking the 4th anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq and demanding an end to the war there.
(SSFC, 3/18/07, p.A10)
2007 Mar 17, John Backus (b.1924), programmer, died in Oregon. His development of the Fortran programming language in the 1950s changed how people interacted with computers and paved the way for modern software. Fortran, short for Formula Translation, reduced the number of programming statements necessary to operate a machine by a factor of 20. The Association for Computing Machinery gave Backus its 1977 Turing Award, one of the industry's highest accolades. Backus also won a National Medal of Science in 1975 and got the 1993 Charles Stark Draper Prize, the top honor from the National Academy of Engineering.
(AP, 3/20/07)
2007 Mar 17, In southern Afghanistan a suicide bomber targeting a Canadian military convoy killed a child and wounded a NATO soldier and three other people. More than 1,400 artifacts, protected from looters and the Taliban since 1999 at a museum-in-exile in Switzerland, were returned to the National Museum of Afghanistan. In western Afghanistan a two-hour clash between suspected Taliban militants and police left two officers dead. Taliban guerrillas chopped noses and ears of at least five truck drivers in eastern Afghanistan as punishment for transporting supplies to US-led troops.
(AP, 3/17/07)(AP, 3/18/07)(Reuters, 3/18/07)
2007 Mar 17, China's central bank said it will raise key interest rates by more than a quarter point to control a surge in bank lending and investment and to prevent consumer prices from rising. The 0.27% point hike in one-year deposit and lending benchmark rates will go into effect Mar 18. This was the 3rd rate hike in a year.
(SSFC, 3/18/07, p.A18)(AP, 3/19/07)
2007 Mar 17, Two cargo ships collided in the East China Sea, killing at least eight people. The collision occurred off Zhejiang province between a cargo ship from China and a Hong Kong-registered vessel. The Hong Kong ship, with 29 crew aboard, sank immediately.
(AP, 3/19/07)
2007 Mar 17, In France tens of thousands of people filled the streets of five cities to protest plans to build the next generation of nuclear reactors.
(AP, 3/17/07)
2007 Mar 17, Officials in Guatemala City said China is seeking to join the Inter-American Development Bank, Latin America's largest financing institution, as a way to fuel its economic development and increase its influence in the region.
(AP, 3/18/07)
2007 Mar 17, India’s West Bengal state government said it is dropping plans for an industrial zone after deadly riots by farmers furious that their land was being taken for the project.
(AP, 3/17/07)
2007 Mar 17, In Iraq bombings and shootings targeted police patrols, killing five policemen, including two who died after a suicide car bomber struck the checkpoint they were manning near a Sunni mosque in western Baghdad. 7 US troops were killed, including four by a roadside bomb while patrolling western Baghdad.
(AP, 3/17/07)(AP, 3/18/07)
2007 Mar 17, Lithuanian musicians, drum-beating Punjabis and West African dancers used Dublin's St. Patrick's Day parade to celebrate their place in a booming Ireland that has become a land of immigrants.
(AP, 3/17/07)
2007 Mar 17, The Arenitas waste water treatment plant, that Mexican officials say will help prevent pollution of US waterways, was inaugurated in the city of Mexicali, across the border from Calexico, Calif.
(AP, 3/18/07)
2007 Mar 17, In Nigeria retired general Adetunji Olurin, who runs Ekiti State, warned he could invoke State of Emergency Laws against politicians bent on causing violence as April general elections draw near. Newspapers next day reported that he threatened to have troublemakers shot on sight to curb political violence. In central Nigeria 2 Asians and one Nigerian were kidnapped.
(AFP, 3/18/07)(AP, 3/19/07)
2007 Mar 17, North Korea warned it would not shut a nuclear plant until the United States lifted banking curbs, while Washington's envoy maintained the bank issue would not kill a budding disarmament deal.
(Reuters, 3/17/07)
2007 Mar 17, Authorities eased restrictions on Pakistan's chief justice and sacked 15 police for attacking a private news channel that had criticized the government's handling of the judge's dismissal.
(AP, 3/17/07)
2007 Mar 17, The new Hamas-Fatah coalition won overwhelming parliamentary approval, clearing a final formal hurdle before taking on the challenge of persuading a skeptical world to end a crippling yearlong boycott of the Palestinian government. Fatah counted 6 ministers, Hamas had 12, and 7 more went to independents and small, centrist parties.
(AP, 3/16/07)(Econ, 3/24/07, p.51)
2007 Mar 17, A Russian Tu-134 airliner crash landed in heavy fog in the central Russian city of Samara, killing 6 people and injuring 26.
(AP, 3/17/07)
2007 Mar 17, In Spain film director Pedro Almodovar joined tens of thousands of people in a march through Madrid to protest the war in Iraq and to demand the closure of the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay.
(AP, 3/17/07)
2007 Mar 17, In southern Thailand attackers hurled explosives and opened fire on an Islamic school, killing three students and sparking a riot by angry Muslim villagers. Shortly after the attack, three Buddhists were shot dead in the same district.
(AP, 3/18/07)
2007 Mar 17, Half of Uganda’s 28 million population was reported to be under age 15.
(Econ, 3/17/07, p.50)
2007 Mar 17, Three Zimbabwean opposition activists were arrested as they tried to leave the country, including two who were allegedly beaten by police and were going to South Africa to seek medical treatment. The African Union (AU) expressed "great concern" about Zimbabwe's crisis and called for human rights to be respected, after opposition members said they were beaten after an anti-government protest.
(AP, 3/17/07)
2008 Mar 17, The US administration signed deals with Hungary, Lithuania and Slovakia paving the way for visa-free travel for their citizens despite concerns in Brussels over the bilateral agreements.
(AFP, 3/17/08)
2008 Mar 17, In New York David Paterson was sworn in almost exactly a week after allegations first surfaced that former Gov. Eliot Spitzer was "Client 9" of a high-priced call girl service. Paterson tried to come clean about his own skeletons just hours after assuming office by acknowledging a years-old affair.
(AP, 3/18/08)
2008 Mar 17, Hannaford Bros., a grocery store chain in the Northeast US and Florida owned by Belgium’s Delhaize Group SA, disclosed that as many as 4.2 million customer account numbers had been stolen between Dec 7 and Mar 10. The intrusion was not discovered until Feb 27 and occurred over a network system that experts had believed to be secure.
(WSJ, 3/31/08, p.B4)
2008 Mar 17, The commodities markets staged a broad sell off after climbing for months. Most commodities recovered the next day.
(Econ, 3/22/08, p.85)
2008 Mar 17, The first carbon-linked derivatives contracts began trading on the Green Exchange, a joint venture between the NY Mercantile Exchange, Evolution Markets and Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch and others. Carbon permits this year reached nearly $47 a ton.
(Econ, 3/15/08, p.91)(Econ, 3/3/12, p.82)
2008 Mar 17, Roland Arnall (b.1939), founder of Ameriquest Mortgage Co., died. He was also the co-founder of the Holocaust memorial Simon Wiesenthal Center. In 2006 he began serving as US ambassador to the Netherlands.
(WSJ, 3/22/08, p.A7)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roland_Arnall)
2008 Mar 17, in Afghanistan 4 NATO soldiers, 2 Danes, a Canadian and a Czech with the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), were killed in new attacks, including a Taliban suicide bomb that also took the lives of three Afghan civilians.
(AP, 3/17/08)
2008 Mar 17, A judge awarded Heather Mills a total of $48.6 million in the financial settlement of her divorce from former Beatle Paul McCartney. This was a fifth of what she had demanded.
(AP, 3/17/08)(Econ, 3/22/08, p.65)
2008 Mar 17, An EU force of 3,700 troops still deploying in Chad and the Central African Republic (CAR) announced the official start of its year-long mission to protect refugees and displaced people. The EU force in Chad was known as EUFOR, and the UN Mission there and the CAR was called MINURCAT.
(AFP, 3/17/08)(Econ, 5/31/08, p.52)
2008 Mar 17, China denounced attacks on its embassies by pro-Tibetan activists hours before a deadline for rioters in Lhasa to turn themselves in and said it would do all in its power to protect its territorial integrity.
(Reuters, 3/17/08)
2008 Mar 17, In India 7 migrant workers believed to be from northern Uttar Pradesh state were shot and killed on the outskirts of Impala, the capital of Manipur state.
(AP, 3/18/08)
2008 Mar 17, Indonesia and South Africa agreed to reduce obstacles to trade and business and jointly explore new avenues for electricity generation.
(AFP, 3/17/08)
2008 Mar 17, In Iraq police said they found the bodies of three members of a US-allied group fighting al-Qaida in Udaim. Sen. John McCain stressed the importance of a US commitment to Iraq during talks with Iraq's prime minister. Explosions struck Baghdad during twin visits by the presumptive Republican presidential nominee and Vice President Dick Cheney. A female suicide bomber struck Shiite worshippers in Karbala, killing at least 32 people with 51 wounded. The blast was the deadliest in a series of attacks that left at least 78 Iraqis dead.
(AP, 3/17/08)(AP, 3/18/08)(AP, 3/19/08)
2008 Mar 17, The Mozambican government made an urgent appeal to the UN World Food Program to help more than 60,000 people left destitute when cyclone Jokwe hit northern and central parts of the country.
(AFP, 3/17/08)
2008 Mar 17, UN forces pulling Serb demonstrators from a UN courthouse were attacked by hundreds of furious protesters who massed outside, setting off an hours-long battle with rocks, grenades and live ammunition. One UN policeman was killed.
(AP, 3/17/08)(WSJ, 3/19/08, p.A1)
2009 Mar 17, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said AIG, the troubled insurance giant, paid bonuses of $1 million or more to 73 employees, including 11 who no longer work for the company.
(AP, 3/18/09)
2009 Mar 17, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir will be responsible for "every single death" caused by the expulsion of 13 foreign aid groups from Sudan.
(Reuters, 3/17/09)
2009 Mar 17, The Seattle Post Intelligencer, owned by the Hearst Corp., printed its last newspaper edition. It will become exclusively Web-based as Seattlepi.com, making it the nation’s largest daily newspaper to move to online only.
(SFC, 3/17/09, p.A8)
2009 Mar 17, In Utah Chiew Chan Saevang (37), a suspected opium trafficker, killed himself and his girlfriend, Yer Yang (40), after sheriff’s deputies chased them down on a state highway. Saevang was also wanted in the March 12 slaying of four Conover, NC, family members.
(SFC, 3/19/09, p.A5)
2009 Mar 17, Afghanistan called for more international help to develop its fledgling and embattled security forces so that it can take on a larger role in "the fight against terrorism."
(AFP, 3/17/09)
2009 Mar 17, Pope Benedict XVI arrived in Cameroon to start his first visit to Africa as pontiff. Benedict, arriving in Africa, said that condoms "increase the problem" of AIDS. The comment, made to reporters aboard his plane, caused a worldwide firestorm of criticism.
(Reuters, 3/18/09)
2009 Mar 17, In Canada more than 100 protesters chanted "war criminal" and flung shoes in Calgary, angry that former US President George W. Bush was in the city to give his first speech since leaving the White House.
(Reuters, 3/17/09)
2009 Mar 17, In Colombia Erik Roland Larsson (69), a partially paralyzed Swede, was released by leftist rebels after nearly two years of captivity. He was the last known foreign hostage held in Colombia by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).
(AP, 3/18/09)
2009 Mar 17, Egyptian security officials caught 2 Hamas officials returning to Gaza with nearly $850,000 stuffed into candy tins.
(SFC, 3/18/09, p.A2)
2009 Mar 17, French President Nicolas Sarkozy's government won a parliamentary confidence vote prompted by his plans to rejoin NATO's military command, which many legislators fear would compromise France's independence.
(AP, 3/17/09)
2009 Mar 17, Police in the Republic of Ireland made public-order arrests from St. Patrick’s Day festivities that easily exceeded 200, typical for recent years. Inebriated mobs annually turned districts of Dublin and Belfast into a nightmare.
(AP, 3/18/09)
2009 Mar 17, Madagascar's Pres. Marc Ravalomanana ceded power to the military, instead of rival Andry Rajoelina, who plunged the island nation into weeks of turmoil with his bid for power. The military installed opposition leader Andry Rajoelina.
(AP, 3/17/09)(SFC, 3/18/09, p.A4)
2009 Mar 17, In Malaysia a battle for senior leadership posts in the ruling party was hit with a bombshell as 15 members including several top figures were found guilty in an anti-corruption probe.
(AFP, 3/17/09)
2009 Mar 17, Authorities in Myanmar were reported to have arrested five members of detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi's political party from March 6-13. the report came a day after the UN called for the release of more than 2,000 political prisoners in the military-run country.
(AP, 3/17/09)
2009 Mar 17, In the Netherlands the UN criminal tribunal for the former Yugoslavia reduced the jail sentence of Bosnian Serb leader Momcilo Krajisnik from 27 to 20 years, quashing some convictions from a 2006 judgment.
(AP, 3/17/09)
2009 Mar 17, North Korea fully reopened its border to South Koreans commuting to jobs at factories in a northern economic zone after four days of restrictions. North Korean soldiers detained two American journalists near the country's border with China. Laura Ling and Euna Lee, reporters for former Vice President Al Gore's San Francisco-based online media outlet Current TV, were taken into custody near the Tumen River in northeastern North Korea. They had crossed into the country while reporting about the sex trade. Both journalists were formally indicted in April. After 140 days in custody, the reporters were granted a pardon.
(AP, 3/17/09)(AP, 3/19/09)(SFC, 4/24/09, p.A2)(SFC, 5/18/10, p.A4)(AP, 8/5/09)
2009 Mar 17, In Pakistan Islamic courts started work in the Swat valley under a controversial deal that the government hopes will end two years of bitter fighting.
(AFP, 3/18/09)
2009 Mar 17, Philippine marines and al-Qaida-linked militants holding three Red Cross workers clashed for a second day, leaving three troops and up to 7 Abu Sayyaf militants dead.
(AP, 3/17/09)(AP, 3/18/09)
2009 Mar 17, Portuguese police said they have captured more than 7.7 tons (7 metric tons) of hashish from Morocco with an estimated street value of more than euro70 million (US$91 million). Police said they netted the drug in a series of coordinated operations over three days beginning last weekend.
(AP, 3/17/09)
2009 Mar 17, Russia's defense minister charged that the US and NATO were beefing up their military presence near Russia's borders in a bid for natural resources that could ignite new conflicts.
(AP, 3/17/09)
2009 Mar 17, In Sudan a UN/African Union peacekeeper was killed in an ambush in Darfur.
(AP, 3/17/09)
2010 Mar 17, US federal authorities won a court order requiring officials in the US Virgin Islands to repair sewage plants that have dumped raw waste at beaches renowned for snorkeling and surfing.
(AP, 3/17/10)
2010 Mar 17, In California US Border patrol agents seized 580 pounds of marijuana inside a tractor-trailer near Blythe in Riverside County.
(SFC, 3/20/10, p.A5)
2010 Mar 17, McAfee Inc. reported that hackers have flooded the Internet with virus-tainted spam that targets Facebook's estimated 400 million users in an effort to steal banking passwords and gather other sensitive information.
(Reuters, 3/19/10)
2010 Mar 17, Alex Chilton (59), singer and guitarist, died in New Orleans. His song “The Letter" (“Gimme a ticket for an airplane…") reached the top of the charts in 1967.
(SFC, 3/19/10, p.C5)
2010 Mar 17, In Abu Dhabi Hissa Hilal, only her eyes visible through her black veil, delivered a blistering poem against Muslim preachers "who sit in the position of power" but are "frightening" people with their fatwas, or religious edicts, and "preying like a wolf" on those seeking peace. She presented her 15-verse poem on the live TV “The Million's Poet" program.
(AP, 3/23/10)
2010 Mar 17, In Afghanistan 2 suicide attackers dressed in burqas were shot dead as they attempted to enter the compound of a US-linked aid organization in southern Lashkar Gah. Up to 35 people died when a bus carrying passengers taking home gas canisters collided with a truck on a treacherous mountain pass in northern Afghanistan.
(AFP, 3/17/10)
2010 Mar 17, The Congolese army said more than 600 Rwandan Hutu rebels have been killed or captured since January in an operation backed by the UN mission to the country.
(AFP, 3/18/10)
2010 Mar 17, Uniformed Cuban security agents prevented the mothers and wives of dissidents from marching on the outskirts of Havana to demand release of their loved ones, shoving them into a bus when they lay down in the street in protest.
(AP, 3/17/10)
2010 Mar 17, A Guatemalan court approved the extradition of former President Alfonso Portillo (2000-2004) to the US to face money laundering charges. He is charged in a New York federal court with embezzling $1.5 million in foreign donations intended to buy school library books in Guatemala. He allegedly endorsed checks drawn from a New York bank and deposited them in a Miami account.
(AP, 3/18/10)
2010 Mar 17, Iran released Mohsen Mirdamadi, the leader of the country's biggest reformist party, the Islamic Iran Participation Front. He was temporarily freed on $450,000 bail. Authorities also released filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof, journalist Ali Akbar Montajabi and female activist Farzaneh Qassemi, all of whom were detained in recent weeks.
(AP, 3/18/10)
2010 Mar 17, Israel lifted its tight restrictions on Palestinian access to Jerusalem's holiest shrine and called off an extended West Bank closure after days of clashes between Palestinians and Israeli security forces.
(AP, 3/17/10)
2010 Mar 17, In Kyrgyzstan thousands of demonstrators rallied in the capital Bishkek to protest recent sharp increases in heating and electricity tariffs and alleged oppression of government opponents.
(AP, 3/17/10)
2010 Mar 17, The African Union slapped sanctions on Madagascar's rulers for failing to implement accords to end a long political crisis, as fresh violence erupted in the island's capital.
(AFP, 3/17/10)
2010 Mar 17, Nigeria's Acting President Goodluck Jonathan dissolved the Cabinet, purging top officials loyal to the nation's ill president in his first major act since taking over the young democracy's highest office more than a month ago. Suspected Muslim Fulani herdsmen disguised as soldiers butchered and then burned around a dozen Christians, mostly women and children, in the Riyom region of Plateau state, close to the site of a recent sectarian massacre.
(AFP, 3/18/10)(AFP, 3/17/10)
2010 Mar 17, In northwest Pakistan 2 US missile strikes killed at least 10 militants in North Waziristan. Attackers armed with rockets and petrol bombs killed five policemen in a pre-dawn ambush near the Khyber tribal district. an Afghan was killed in an explosion while making a bomb on the outskirts of Quetta. Militants fixed a bomb to the tail end of a tanker with a magnet and the explosion burnt some 40,000 liters of fuel it was carrying for NATO forces in Afghanistan. A Pakistani court formally charged 5 young Americans of plotting terrorism in the country, in a case that has raised alarm over the danger posed by militants using the Internet.
(AFP, 3/17/10)(AP, 3/17/10)
2010 Mar 17, In Ramallah Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva placed a wreath on the tomb of the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and sharply criticized Israeli policies, leading Israeli officials to suggest he was not being evenhanded. The visit came a day after Israel's hawkish foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, said he boycotted meetings with Silva because the Brazilian did not pay a similar visit to the grave of Zionist founder Theodor Herzl.
(AP, 3/18/10)
2010 Mar 17, In southern Sudan at least 13 people were killed in fighting between northern nomads and the southern army.
(AFP, 3/19/10)
2010 Mar 17, Ugandan security forces fatally shot three people in the capital during clashes with rioters angry after the tombs of five traditional kings were destroyed overnight by fire. On March 30 man turned himself saying a vision told him the tombs were Satanic.
(AP, 3/17/10)(AP, 3/31/10)
2010 Mar 17, In Zimbabwe South African President Jacob Zuma began talks with Zimbabwe's political leaders on his first trip as chief regional mediator to patch up differences in the troubled coalition government.
(AP, 3/17/10)
2011 Mar 17, The US Justice Dept. accused the New Orleans Police Dept. of systematic misconduct that violated the Constitution. A report said officers had engaged in racial profiling against the city’s black majority from January 2009 to May 2010 and used deadly force against 27 people.
(SFC, 3/18/11, p.A4)
2011 Mar 17, In southern California Huy Pham (29) jumped off roof of City Hall in Costa Mesa at 3:20 pm and was pronounced dead at the scene. The maintenance worker jumped to his death an hour after he was called in to get his layoff notice. He was on a list of more than 200 people, nearly half of the city's workforce, targeted for layoffs in a drastic move to plug a $15 million budget hole.
(AP, 3/18/11)
2011 Mar 17, In Minneapolis, Min., one teen died and teenagers and young adults were hospitalized following an apparent overdose on a designer hallucinogen, 2C-E (aka Europa), which they had ordered legally over the Internet for a spring break party.
(SFC, 3/18/11, p.A4)
2011 Mar 17, American actor Danny Glover arrived in South Africa to escort former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide home.
(AP, 3/17/11)
2011 Mar 17, In northern Afghanistan gunmen on motorcycles kidnapped six road engineers and their driver as they were traveling to a work site.
(AP, 3/18/11)
2011 Mar 17, In Australia a pod of long-finned pilot whales beached themselves at Bruny Island, south of the Tasmanian state capital Hobart. 21 whales died but 11 were saved.
(AP, 3/18/11)
2011 Mar 17, Bahrain's Sunni monarchy detained at least seven prominent opposition activists. Iran recalled its ambassador to protest the Gulf troops backing the government against the Shiite protests. Dr. Ali al-Iqri, one of Bahrain's acclaimed surgeons who had spoken to media at the height of the unrest, was taken from an operating theater. On Sep 29 al-Iqri was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
(AP, 3/17/11)(AP, 9/29/11)
2011 Mar 17, Colombia’s Chief Prosecutor's Office said it has convicted Vicente Castano, head of Colombia's paramilitary umbrella group. He was sentenced to 40 years in prison for the 2004 slaying of his brother.
(AP, 3/17/11)
2011 Mar 17, Iran sent the country's first space capsule that is able to sustain life into orbit as a test for a future mission that may carry a live animal.
(AP, 3/17/11)
2011 Mar 17, In Ivory Coast mortars from a military police base controlled by Pres. Gbagbo killed up to 30 people in Abidjan.
(SFC, 3/18/11, p.A2)
2011 Mar 17, Japan tried high-pressure water cannons, fire trucks and even helicopters that dropped batches of seawater in increasingly frantic attempts to cool an overheated nuclear complex as US officials warned the situation was deteriorating. More than 5,300 people were officially listed as dead, but officials believed the toll will climb to well over 10,000.
(AP, 3/17/11)
2011 Mar 17, Libyan rebels shot down at least two bomber planes that attacked the airport in Benina, a civil and military airport just outside Benghazi. The Red Cross said it was leaving Benghazi because of deteriorating security and moving to the city of Tobruk.
(AP, 3/17/11)
2011 Mar 17, In Mexico police found the body of a 4-year-old girl who had been shot in the chest, the fifth child killed in drug-related violence in Acapulco in less than a week. Police also found the bullet-ridden body of a man outside a state prison in Acapulco. Police in Michoacan state found two bodies hanging from the neck in two different towns. In Jalisco state marines found the bodies of two men and two women buried in two clandestine graves. US citizen, Josue Reyes Castro (26), was killed by gunmen while visiting relatives in Ciudad Juarez. A neighbor also was killed, and two of Reyes Castro's relatives were wounded including a girl (4).
(AP, 3/18/11)
2011 Mar 17, In Pakistan US drone aircraft fired four missiles at a building in a militant sanctuary in North Waziristan, killing 42 people in an unusually deadly strike. At least 24 were later said to be civilians from tribes asking the Taliban to mediate a dispute. The most senior militant killed in the attack was Sharabat Khan, Hafiz Gul Bahadur’s top commander for the Datta Khel area.
(AP, 3/17/11)(SFC, 3/18/11, p.A2)(SFC, 3/19/11, p.A4)(AP, 3/21/11)(AP, 4/13/11)(AP, 2/25/12)
2011 Mar 17, South Sudan's army fought heavy battles with militia in the oil-producing Unity state. At least 59 soldiers and militiamen were killed and dozens wounded in clashes between the South Sudan army and local militia groups in three oil-producing states.
(Reuters, 3/17/11)(Reuters, 3/18/11)
2011 Mar 17, Rigzin Phuntsog (16), a Tibetan monk at the Kirti monastery in China’s Sichuan province, died one day after he set himself on fire in an anti-government protest. He was beaten and kicked by police, prompting hundreds of monks and others to rally. In August authorities said they will charge three Buddhist monks with murder over the death of Phuntsog.
(SFC, 3/18/11, p.A2)(http://tinyurl.com/4nsxj9p)(AFP, 4/13/11)(AP, 8/26/11)
2011 Mar 17, The UN Security Council voted to permit "all necessary measures" to establish a no-fly zone, protect civilian areas and impose a ceasefire on Kadhafi's military. Five countries on the 15-strong council abstained, including China, Russia, India, Brazil and Germany. Resolution 1973 outlined the "responsibility of the Libyan authorities to protect the Libyan population.
(AFP, 3/18/11)
2011 Mar 17, A Venezuelan government official said one person has died of swine flu and six others have been diagnosed with the virus.
(AP, 3/17/11)
2011 Mar 17, Yemeni government supporters attacked a protest camp in Manama, hurling stones and opening fire. At another rally government loyalists struck as police fired tear gas.
(AP, 3/17/11)
2012 Mar 17, NYC police broke up an Occupy Wall Street rally at Zucotti Park and detained 73 people.
(SFC, 3/19/12, p.A5)
2012 Mar 17, Belarus state television reported that both Vladislav Kovalyov (26) and Dmitry Konovalov (26) had been put to death, which in Belarus is done with a shot to the back of the head. Two men were convicted of carrying out a deadly subway bombing last year in Minsk. Belarus is the only country in Europe that still puts people to death, and rights activists claim that around 400 people have been executed since the 1991 Soviet collapse.
(AP, 3/18/12)
2012 Mar 17, In China Tibetan farmer Sonam Thargyal (44) fastened cotton padding to his body and doused himself with kerosene before setting himself on fire in Tongren, a monastery town in western China's Qinghai province. He had been close friends with a monk who survived a self-immolation attempt on March 14, also in Tongren. The monk, Jamyang Palden, was believed to be alive but critically injured.
(AP, 3/18/12)
2012 Mar 17, In Colombia 11 government soldiers were killed in Arauca state in an attack blamed on the FARC.
(AP, 3/21/12)
2012 Mar 17, East Timor voted for a new president. Incumbent Jose Ramos Horta, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate (1996), faced off against 11 other candidates. Francisco "Lu Olo" Guterres, of the traditionally strong leftist Fretilin party, won with 29% of the vote, followed by former military chief Jose Maria Vasconcelos, aka Taur Matan Ruak, with 25%. A runoff was scheduled for mid-April.
(AP, 3/17/12)(AP, 3/19/12)(Econ, 3/24/12, p.42)
2012 Mar 17, In Egypt Pope Shenouda III (b.1923), the patriarch of the Coptic Orthodox Church since 1971, died. He led Egypt's Christian minority for 40 years during a time of increasing tensions with Muslims.
(AP, 3/18/12)
2012 Mar 17, John Demjanjuk, a retired US autoworker, died in the southern Bavarian town of Bad Feilnbach. He was convicted last May of being a guard at the Nazis' Sobibor death camp despite steadfastly maintaining over three decades of legal battles that he had been mistaken for someone else. His conviction helped set new German legal precedent, being the first time someone was convicted solely on the basis of serving as a camp guard, with no evidence of being involved in a specific killing.
(AP, 3/17/12)(Econ, 3/24/12, p.98)
2012 Mar 17, Guinean police arrested dozens of people in Conakry and sealed off access to a stadium where opposition groups planned to rally in a call for clean elections in July. At least 15 people were injured when opposition supporters stoned the headquarters of the Guinean ruling party.
(AFP, 3/17/12)(AFP, 3/18/12)
2012 Mar 17, A senior Iranian military commander, Gen. Masoud Jazayeri, urged Afghans to use force to kick American troops out of their country, hinting that "new resistance groups" could launch attacks on US interests in Afghanistan.
(AP, 3/17/12)
2012 Mar 17, In Iraq wearing a US Army uniform and flanked by Iraqi lawmakers, an American citizen announced that he was being released from more than nine months of imprisonment by a Shiite militia that for years targeted US troops. US-issued military and contractor ID cards identified him as Randy Michael Hultz (59). He said the kidnappers were from the Promised Day Brigade, a branch of the Mahdi Army, a militia controlled by the anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
(AP, 3/17/12)
2012 Mar 17, In Ireland an estimated 500,000 people crowded into central Dublin to view the St. Patrick's Day parade, a focal point for Irish celebrations worldwide.
(AP, 3/17/12)
2012 Mar 17, Ivory Coast in a ceremony started a month of mourning and "purification" after post-election violence a year ago left about 3,000 people dead.
(AFP, 3/18/12)
2012 Mar 17, Malawi's leading rights activist John Kapito, who was detained by police for possession of foreign currency, was released on bail. Police conducted a two-hour search at his home looking for guns and T-shirts he had printed that had words promoting the overthrow of the government.
(AFP, 3/18/12)
2012 Mar 17, Mauritania arrested Abdullah al-Senoussi, Moammar Ghadafi's former intelligence chief, accused of attacking civilians during the uprising in Libya last year and the 1989 bombing of a French airliner. The International Criminal Court, France and Libya all said they want to prosecute al-Senoussi.
(AP, 3/17/12)
2012 Mar 17, In Nigeria respected cleric Ibrahim Datti Ahmad, who was mediating in peace talks between the government and the Boko Haram Islamist sect, announced he was quitting the talks, accusing the government of insincerity.
(AFP, 3/17/12)
2012 Mar 17, Pakistani acid attack victim Fakhra Younus (33) jumped from the sixth floor of a building in Rome, where she had been living and receiving treatment. She had endured more than three dozen surgeries since May 2000 to repair her severely damaged face and body when she finally decided life was no longer worth living.
(AP, 3/28/12)
2012 Mar 17, In Syria twin car bombs struck intelligence and security buildings in Damascus, killing at least 27 people and wounding nearly 100. A third blast went off near a military bus at the Palestinian refugee camp Yarmouk in Damascus, killing the two suicide bombers. On March 21 an Islamist group called the Al-Nusra Front to Protect the Levant claimed responsibility for twin suicide bombings.
(AP, 3/17/12)(AP, 3/18/12)(AP, 3/21/12)
2012 Mar 17, In Taiwan Lin Mei-heng (31) posted messages on Facebook saying she wanted to take her life after growing suspicious that her boyfriend was having an affair. 9 of her friends attempted to dissuade her from taking her life, but none alerted the police. She was found dead the following day by her boyfriend at her flat in a suburb of Taipei.
(AFP, 3/27/12)
2012 Mar 17, Thailand billionaire Chaleo Yoovidhya (89), the co-founder of energy drink Red Bull and the second richest man in Thailand, died. Chaleo had founded T.C. Pharmaceuticals. In the 1970s, it formulated an energy drink prototype called Krathing Daeng, or Red Bull in English. He co-founded a company with Austrian marketing whiz Dietrich Mateschitz in 1984, who helped turn Red Bull into a global brand. Mateschitz had become aware of "tonic drinks" while traveling in Asia. They started selling the drink in Austria in 1987.
(AFP, 3/17/12)(AP, 3/17/12)
2012 Mar 17, In Venezuela the daughter of Chilean diplomat Fernando Berendique was shot to death by police at a road checkpoint. The young woman (19) was hit by three bullets after her brother tried to evade an illegal unmarked roadblock.
(AP, 3/18/12)(Econ, 4/14/12, p.48)
2012 Mar 17, Yemeni security forces and unknown gunmen clashed in the southern port city of Aden, wounding two policemen and a civilian. A day earlier a member of the Al-Qaeda-linked Partisans of Sharia (Islamic law) was arrested in the same district.
(AFP, 3/17/12)
2013 Mar 17, In Indiana a small plane crashed in South Bend killing 2 men including Steve Davis (60), former Oklahoma quarterback.
(SFC, 3/19/13, p.A7)
2013 Mar 17, In Ohio 2 members of the Steubenville high school football team were found guilty of raping a drunken 16-year-old girl after a drinking party last August 11. On Nov 25 a superintendent and two coaches were charged with lying or failure to report possible child abuse.
(SFC, 3/18/13, p.A5)(SFC, 11/26/13, p.A6)
2013 Mar 17, It was reported that Lake Erie is sick and that a dead zone covers a large portion of the lake bottom due to a poisonous blue-green algae called Microcystis enhanced by high levels of phosphorous from fertilizer runoff. The problem was compounded by the zebra mussel, a foreign invader discovered in 1988, which excretes phosphorous providing Microcystis a ready-made meal.
(SSFC, 3/17/13, p.A15)
2013 Mar 17, A boulder slammed into the Moon, creating the biggest explosion scientists have seen there since they started monitoring it.
(Reuters, 5/17/13)
2013 Mar 17, In Bahrain 17 suspected anti-government protesters were sentenced to 15-year prison sentences for links to a bombing last year that injured four policemen. 8 of the defendants were in custody, and the others were tried in absentia.
(AP, 3/17/13)
2013 Mar 17, Britain's Treasury chief said the government will compensate UK troops who lose money to Cyprus's bailout tax, a levy of 6.75 to 9.9 percent on all bank balances as part of a deal with creditors for €10 billion ($13 billion) in rescue money. British residents of Cyprus not working for the UK military or government could be out of pocket.
(AP, 3/17/13)
2013 Mar 17, China’s National People’s Congress came to a close.
(Econ, 3/16/13, p.45)
2013 Mar 17, Cyprus Pres. Nicos Anastasiades urged lawmakers to approve a tax on bank deposits to save the country from bankruptcy.
(SFC, 3/18/13, p.A3)
2013 Mar 17, In Egypt dozens of journalists protested in Cairo against alleged assaults the previous evening on their colleagues by members of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood from which President Mohammed Morsi hails.
(AP, 3/17/13)
2013 Mar 17, Egyptian vigilantes beat two men accused of stealing a motorized rickshaw, stripped them half-naked and hung them by their feet in a crowded bus station in the Nile Delta. Both men died.
(AP, 3/17/13)
2013 Mar 17, In Greece police lobbed chemicals inside a central prison, trying to smoke out Albanian Alket Rizaj, a convicted murderer who was holding five hostages. After a 24-hour standoff Rizaj surrendered to police at Malandrino prison.
(AP, 3/17/13)
2013 Mar 17, In Iraq 2 car bombs went off in Basra, killing 9 and wounding 24 in a rare attack in the Shiite-dominated south of the country.
(AP, 3/17/13)
2013 Mar 17, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu appointed Moshe Yaalon, a hard-line former military chief (2002-2005), as the country's new defense minister.
(AP, 3/17/13)
2013 Mar 17, Japanese architect Toyo Ito (71) won the Pritzker Architecture Prize.
(SFC, 3/18/13, p.A4)
2013 Mar 17, Libya's health minister said the death toll from drinking homemade alcohol that contained poisonous methanol has risen to 87. The deaths were first reported a week ago.
(AP, 3/17/13)
2013 Mar 17, Pakistani paramilitary Ranges arrested Qari Abdul Hayee, a leader of the Islamist militant group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi. He was accused of involvement in the 2002 slaying of US journalist Daniel Pearl.
(SFC, 3/20/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 17, Ayman Sharawneh (53), a freed Palestinian prisoner, was given a hero's welcome in the Gaza Strip after ending his hunger strike in an Israeli jail and agreeing to a plea bargain that will confine him to the Hamas-run territory for the next 10 years.
(AP, 3/17/13)
2013 Mar 17, Palestinian lawmaker Mariam Farhat (64), aka “the mother of martyrs," died in a Gaza hospital of health complications including lung ailments and kidney failure. She had lost three sons in militant activities against Israelis.
(AP, 3/17/13)
2013 Mar 17, Zimbabwe police arrested rights lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa, the country's most prominent rights lawyer and four senior officials of PM Tsvangirai’s party and held them at the capital's main police station. Mtetwa was accused of "obstructing or defeating the course of justice." Police also raided and searched a suburban office of Tsvangirai's media and communications department. On March 18 police ignored a judge’s order to release Mtetwa.
(AP, 3/17/13)(SFC, 3/19/13, p.A4)
2014 Mar 17, The Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics announced that the BICEP2 team of scientists has spotted signs of gravitational waves that formed when the universe was but a trillionth of a second old. In 2015 the scientists retracted their findings.
(Econ, 3/22/14, p.78)(Econ, 2/7/15, p.77)
2014 Mar 17, In Afghanistan gunmen killed district judge Abdul Latif and his bodyguard in an attack in western Herat province.
(AP, 3/17/14)
2014 Mar 17, A British judge ruled that Domenico Rancadore (65), a convicted Mafia boss, will be allowed to return to his comfortable home in west London rather than sent back to Italy and put in prison. The judge cited concerns about conditions in Italian prisons.
(AP, 3/17/14)
2014 Mar 17, British telecommunications company Vodafone agreed to buy Spain's Ono for 7.2 billion euros ($10 billion) as it seeks to expand operations across Europe.
(AP, 3/17/14)
2014 Mar 17, In London fashion designer L'Wren Scott, the girlfriend of Mick Jagger, died of an apparent suicide. Her LS Fashion Ltd. company was heavily in debt at the time it filed its most recent accounts.
(AP, 3/18/14)
2014 Mar 17, It was reported that Egypt’s crackdown on Islamists has jailed some 16,000 people over the last eight months.
(SFC, 3/17/14, p.A4)
2014 Mar 17, Ten Egyptians, including a journalist working for a Muslim Brotherhood newspaper, were each sentenced to a year in jail for protesting against a constitutional referendum.
(AP, 3/17/14)
2014 Mar 17, Paris, France, imposed drastic measures to combat its worst air pollution in years.
(AP, 3/17/14)
2014 Mar 17, A senior Iranian official said that an alleged attempt to sabotage one of Tehran's nuclear facilities involved foreign intelligence agencies who tampered with imported pumps.
(AP, 3/17/14)
2014 Mar 17, Toyota said it has shut down production at its two auto-assembly plants in India, locking out 6,400 workers amid testy wage negotiations and allegations of threats against management.
(AP, 3/17/14)
2014 Mar 17, In Libya A car bomb targeting a military academy in Benghazi killed at least 7 soldiers and wounded twelve.
(AFP, 3/17/14)
2014 Mar 17, Lithuania's domestic intelligence department accused a Russian diplomat of spying, saying he had sought to gain access to classified information during the Baltic state's presidency of the European Union last year.
(Reuters, 3/17/14)
2014 Mar 17, Russia's government acknowledged for the first time on that the economy was in crisis, undermining earlier attempts by officials to suggest albeit weakening growth could weather sanctions over Ukraine.
(Reuters, 3/17/14)
2014 Mar 17, In Somalia a suicide bomber rammed a car packed full of explosives into a hotel in Buulo Berde, days after it was recaptured from the Al-Qaeda-linked Shebab. At least 8 people were killed. 4 attackers were also reported killed.
(AFP, 3/18/14)
2014 Mar 17, South Africa’s government said 32 people had died because of the rains over the past two weeks in the northern and eastern provinces of North West, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal. The toll included 25 drownings and six people killed by lightning.
(Reuters, 3/17/14)
2014 Mar 17, South Africa's state-owned rail freight firm Transet said it was ordering 1,064 new locomotives, in what it hailed as the country's biggest single corporate infrastructure investment. It ordered 599 electric locomotives from China's Zhuzhou and the South African subsidiary of Canada's Bombardier, as well as 465 diesel trains from General Electric.
(AFP, 3/17/14)
2014 Mar 17, In Palm Springs, South Africa, Sizwe Kubheka (16) returned home complaining of a headache following a beating by a teacher at school. Kubheka died at a hospital a week later and his teacher faced a possible murder charge.
(AP, 4/2/14)
2014 Mar 17, Sri Lanka’s military said Ruki Fernando, a human rights adviser, and Praveen Mahesahn, a pastor and director of a rights group, have been arrested under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), anti-terrorism legislation that was used to crush Tamil Tiger rebels during the final phase of a 26-year war. Both were released on March 18.
(Reuters, 3/17/14)(AP, 3/19/14)
2014 Mar 17, Tunisia police shot and killed three suspected Islamist militants and arrested six others in a raid near the Algerian border.
(Reuters, 3/17/14)
2014 Mar 17, Ukraine's Crimean peninsula declared itself independent after its residents voted overwhelmingly to secede and join Russia, while the United States and the European Union slapped sanctions against some of those who promoted the divisive referendum. Ukraine recalled its ambassador to Russia for consultations on the international ramifications of the situation in its Crimea region. Armed men came to the Ukrainian Belbek military airfield in the Crimean peninsula, fired shots in the air and took away the base’s commanding officer.
(AP, 3/17/14)(Reuters, 3/17/14)(Reuters, 3/18/14)
2014 Mar 17, Mining magnate Andrew Forrest launched the Global Freedom Network, an organization to end modern slavery, with the support of the Pope and the senior Islamic authority. In 2013 Mr. Forrest, Pierre Omidyar and the Legatum Foundation had launched the Freedom Fund to finance research into ways to reduce bonded labor.
(http://tinyurl.com/qb6e6mp)(Econ., 3/14/15, p.61)
2015 Mar 17, Illinois Rep. Aaron Schock (33) resigned after weeks of mounting media reports about questionable expenditures and personal finances.
(SFC, 3/21/15, p.A6)
2015 Mar 17, In North Carolina 3 Burmese children — ages 1, 5, and 12 — were stabbed to death and two other people were hurt in an attack at a home in New Bern. Police identified the suspect as Eh Lar Doh Htoo (18).
(AP, 3/18/15)
2015 Mar 17, Britain announced a three percent rise in the minimum wage, the largest real terms increase since 2008.
(AFP, 3/17/15)
2015 Mar 17, British officials said three judges who looked at pornography on their work accounts have been fired. A fourth judge who was also found to have viewed similar material at work resigned before the inquiry had concluded.
(AP, 3/17/15)
2015 Mar 17, Germany, France and Italy followed Britain in announcing that they plan to join the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, a proposed Chinese-led Asian regional bank, swinging Europe's biggest economic powers behind a project that is viewed with concern in Washington.
(AP, 3/17/15)
2015 Mar 17, Greek officials said police raids across the country last week smashed an international people trafficking ring that made $8 million in profit from smuggling Syrian migrants into Europe. 16 suspects were arrested.
(Reuters, 3/17/15)
2015 Mar 17, Iraq's offensive to retake Tikrit from the Islamic State group was stalled because of streets and buildings rigged with booby trap bombs and by the several hundred jihadists still holding out there. Separate attacks in and outside Baghdad killed at least 9 people.
(AFP, 3/17/15)(AP, 3/17/15)
2015 Mar 17, Israel held elections. PM Benjamin Netanyahu (65) faced an uphill battle to defeat a strong campaign by the center-left opposition to deny him a fourth term in office. Netanyahu's Likud had won 30 seats in the 120-member Knesset, comfortably defeating the center-left Zionist Union opposition on 24 seats.
(Reuters, 3/17/15)(Reuters, 3/18/15)
2015 Mar 17, In Kenya 4 people were shot dead in a shop Wajir town by unknown gunmen who wounded three others. Al-Shabab Islamic extremists soon claimed responsibility, bringing the total number of those killed by the militants since March 13 to 12.
(AP, 3/18/15)
2015 Mar 17, In Myanmar Philip Blackwood, a New Zealand bar manager, and his two Myanmar colleagues were jailed for two and a half years with hard labor by a Yangon court for using a Buddha image to promote a cheap drinks night.
(AFP, 3/17/15)
2015 Mar 17, Pakistan hanged 12 convicts. This was the largest number of people executed on the same day since an unofficial moratorium on capital punishment was lifted in December.
(Reuters, 3/17/15)
2015 Mar 17, In Pakistan Samiullah Khan Afridi, a former lawyer for a doctor who helped the US find Osama bin Laden, was killed by a gunman in Peshawar.
(SFC, 3/18/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 17, In Poland rioting by some 300 young people in Sosnowiec follows two nights of disturbances near Warsaw over the death of another young man apprehended by the police. Two officers were hurt as police detained 14 people. They blamed the police for the death last week of a 23-year-old man, apprehended in the street and taken to a sobering center, where he lost consciousness.
(AP, 3/18/15)
2015 Mar 17, Puerto Rico Police Chief Jose Caldero said that officers found 2,535 pounds (1,150 kg) of cocaine, worth an estimated $32 million, aboard a boat and detained 14 people from the Dominican Republic.
(AP, 3/17/15)
2015 Mar 17, Swiss officials said they are returning to Nigeria some $380 million linked to the country's former dictator, Gen. Sani Abacha. The money, confiscated on the basis that the Abacha family was a criminal organization, will now be returned to Nigeria under World Bank supervision.
(AP, 3/17/15)
2015 Mar 17, A Syrian army statement said dozens of militants were killed in other areas of Idlib province overnight in clashes and attacks. A monitoring group said government forces carried out a poison gas attack that killed six people in the northwest. Medics posted videos of children suffering what they said was suffocation.
(Reuters, 3/17/15)
2015 Mar 17, The Syrian army shot down a US drone over Latakia province, part of the western region where Damascus has been consolidating state control.
(Reuters, 3/18/15)
2015 Mar 17, Tunisia said it had dismantled 4 recruiting cells sending jihadis to fight in Libya and arrested dozens in part of tighter security and border controls to counter Islamist militants.
(Reuters, 3/17/15)
2015 Mar 17, Ukraine said 3 government servicemen were killed in fighting in the east in the past 24 hours despite a ceasefire agreement with Russian-backed rebels.
(Reuters, 3/17/15)
2016 Mar 17, The United States declared that the Islamic State group's slaughter of Christians, Yazidis and Shiites amounts to a genocide and vowed to halt it.
(AFP, 3/17/16)
2016 Mar 17, The United States and its allies conducted 20 strikes against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria.
(Reuters, 3/18/16)
2016 Mar 17, The American Islamic State group fighter, Muhammad Jamal Amin, who handed himself over to Kurdish forces in northern Iraq on March 14 said he made "a bad decision" in joining the IS, according to a heavily edited interview he gave to an Iraqi Kurdish television station.
(AP, 3/18/16)
2016 Mar 17, In Louisiana Khang Nguyen Le, a Buddhist monk, pleaded guilty to embezzling more than $200,000 from his temple to feed a casino gambling habit.
(SFC, 3/18/16, p.A6)
2016 Mar 17, In New York Yemen-born Mufid Elfgeeh (32) was sentenced in Rochester to 22.5 years in prison for attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State.
(SFC, 3/18/16, p.A12)
2016 Mar 17, Organizers of New York's storied St. Patrick's Day Parade opened the lineup more broadly to include activists who protested a ban on gay groups for years.
(AP, 3/17/16)
2016 Mar 17, In Texas Nika (5) and Michaela (1), the daughters of Ukraine-born concert pianist Vadym Kholodenko (b.1986), were found smothered to death in their Fort Worth suburban home. In 2018 a judge ruled that his estranged wife, Sonya Tsygankova, was not guilty by reason of insanity.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vadym_Kholodenko)(SFC, 7/16/18, p.A4)
2016 Mar 17, Sea World said that it would stop breeding killer whales in captivity.
(SFC, 3/18/16, p.D1)
2016 Mar 17, In Brazil a federal judge in Brasilia issued an injunction suspending the appointment of former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva as minister. Supporters of da Silva clashed briefly with opponents of his Workers' Party outside the presidential palace, where he was due to be sworn in as President Dilma Rousseff's chief of staff.
(Reuters, 3/17/16)
2016 Mar 17, China expressed its opposition to unilateral sanctions against North Korea saying they could raise tension, a day after the United States imposed new curbs on the isolated country in retaliation for its nuclear and rocket tests.
(Reuters, 3/17/16)
2016 Mar 17, In Egypt explosions rocked the northern Sinai town of Rafah as militants struck a weapons depot, killing at least 5 soldiers and injuring 10 others.
(AP, 3/17/16)
2016 Mar 17, Egypt’s antiquities minister said scans of King Tut’s burial chamber have revealed two hidden rooms.
(SFC, 3/18/16, p.A4)
2016 Mar 17, Egypt’s antiquities minister said scans of King Tut’s burial chamber have revealed two hidden rooms.
(SFC, 3/18/16, p.A4)
2016 Mar 17, French unions said the government will lift a six-year-old freeze on civil servants' pay, but that the resulting wage increase was too little.
(Reuters, 3/17/16)
2016 Mar 17, In France thousands of youths held street protests to reject the government's new labor changes.
(AP, 3/17/16)
2016 Mar 17, French lawmakers approved plans for a total ban on some widely used pesticides blamed for harming bees, going beyond EU restrictions in a fierce debate that has pitched farmers and chemical firms against beekeepers and green groups.
(Reuters, 3/18/16)
2016 Mar 17, Germany’s dpa news agency reported that Markus R., whose last name wasn't given in line with privacy laws, was found by the Munich state court to have sold some 200 highly classified documents to the CIA between 2008 and 2014 for 80,000 euros ($91,000).
(AP, 3/17/16)
2016 Mar 17, In Israel Meir Dagan (71), a former Israeli general and longtime director of the country's spy agency, died.
(AP, 3/17/16)
2016 Mar 17, A Macau court sentenced Alan Ho, the nephew of former kingpin Stanley Ho, to 13 months in prison for helping to facilitate a high-profile prostitution ring in the world's biggest gambling hub.
(Reuters, 3/17/16)
2016 Mar 17, Mexican officials lifted a four-day air pollution alert in the nation's densely-populated capital after ozone levels dropped to acceptable levels.
(AFP, 3/18/16)
2016 Mar 17, Myanmar's incoming government announced plans to create a ministry for ethnic affairs, marking the importance it places on relations with minorities in a country scarred by festering civil wars and sectarian tensions.
(AFP, 3/17/16)
2016 Mar 17, Pakistani soldiers carried out a raid in the Tarel valley, killing 3 militants involved in attacks on tourists and security forces. The exchange of fire also killed two security personnel.
(AP, 3/17/16)
2016 Mar 17, Two Palestinian assailants stabbed a female Israeli soldier in the northern West Bank before Israeli security forces killed them.
(AP, 3/17/16)
2016 Mar 17, Polish President Andrzej Duda led the formal opening of the Ulma Family Museum of Poles Saving Jews, in the village of Markowa.
(AP, 3/17/16)
2016 Mar 17, President Vladimir Putin honored Fyodor Zhuravlyov (27), a Russian soldier killed in Russia's military operation in Syria, breaking four months of official silence about his death.
(Reuters, 3/17/16)
2016 Mar 17, Saudi Arabia said its military coalition will scale down operations in Yemen, an announcement that came as the death toll from an airstrike by the alliance on a market north of the Yemeni capital this week nearly doubled, reaching 119.
(AP, 3/17/16)
2016 Mar 17, Syria's three Kurdish-controlled autonomous regions voted to approve the establishment of a federal system in the north of the country, defying warnings from Damascus and neighboring Turkey against any such unilateral move.
(Reuters, 3/17/16)
2016 Mar 17, Venezuela's Supreme Court approved President Nicolas Maduro's request for a 60-day extension of an economic emergency decree that had been rejected by the opposition-controlled congress.
(AP, 3/18/16)
2016 Mar 17, Vietnamese officials said the country is experiencing its worst drought and saline intrusion in recent history. The world’s third-largest exporter of grain feared the loss of up to 1 million tons of rice.
(SFC, 3/18/16, p.A2)
2017 Mar 17, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson directed US diplomatic missions to identify "populations warranting increased scrutiny" and toughen screening for visa applicants in those groups. In cables dated March 10 and March 15, Tillerson had issued detailed instructions to consular officials for implementing Trump's travel order, which was due to take effect on March 16.
(Reuters, 3/23/17)
2017 Mar 17, In San Francisco George Martinez (44) was killed as he celebrated his birthday in the Mission District. In 2019 two members of the MS-13 street gang were convicted of executing Martinez. The gang members mistook Martinez for a rival gang member.
(SFC, 12/21/19, p.C1)
2017 Mar 17, Results were published of a $1 billion study on Repatha, a cholesterol drug made by Amgen, that indicated the drug can make cholesterol tumble and cut the risk of heart attack and stroke. The list price for the drug was $14,523 a year.
(SFC, 3/18/17, p.A6)
2017 Mar 17, In Afghanistan a suicide truck bomber struck a military checkpoint, killing one soldier and wounding 10 in Khost province. Another suicide bomber elsewhere in the country killed the brother of a local religious leader he had targeted for assassination.
(AP, 3/17/17)
2017 Mar 17, An avalanche in Austria's western region of Tyrol killed two people.
(Reuters, 3/17/17)
2017 Mar 17, In Bangladesh two policemen were wounded in the apparently botched attack when a man blew himself up at an elite forces camp near Dhaka's international airport. The Islamic State Group soon claimed responsibility.
(AFP, 3/18/17)
2017 Mar 17, Brazilian federal police raided dozens of meatpacker offices, including industry giants JBS SA and BRF SA, following a two-year investigation into alleged bribery of regulators to subvert inspections of their plants. "Operation Weak Flesh" had already uncovered about 40 cases of meatpackers who had bribed inspectors and politicians to overlook unsanitary practices.
(Reuters, 3/17/17)
2017 Mar 17, Former British Treasury chief George Osborne was appointed editor of the Evening Standard newspaper, touching off a torrent of criticism about whether a sitting lawmaker should be able to run a London-based daily.
(AP, 3/17/17)
2017 Mar 17, Security forces in Congo Republic said they have killed around 15 rebel fighters during a military operation in the restive Pool region.
(Reuters, 3/18/17)
2017 Mar 17, The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said governments need to do more to create growth that benefits everyone, and the US should spend more on roads, highways, bridges and airports.
(AP, 3/17/17)
2017 Mar 17, Txetx Etcheverry, a prominent figure in the French Basque community, said the Basque separatist group ETA will complete its disarmament by April 8.
(AP, 3/17/17)
2017 Mar 17, Brazilian federal police raided dozens of meatpacker offices, including industry giants JBS SA and BRF SA, following a two-year investigation into alleged bribery of regulators to subvert inspections of their plants. "Operation Weak Flesh" had already uncovered about 40 cases of meatpackers who had bribed inspectors and politicians to overlook unsanitary practices.
(Reuters, 3/17/17)
2017 Mar 17, In China poultry trading in Hunan’s provincial capital of Changsha went into effect. An outbreak of H7N9 bird flu virus originated from a farm with about 29,760 infected birds. Over 170,000 birds were culled as a result. At least 162 deaths have been reported since last October.
(Reuters, 4/2/17)
2017 Mar 17, The European Union re-imposed a fine on 11 air cargo companies totaling $835 million after the original decision was thrown out by a high court on a procedural issue.
(AP, 3/17/17)
2017 Mar 17, A visit of Segolene Royal, the French minister of ecology, to French Guiana was cut short after masked demonstrators from the collective stormed into a regional conference on biodiversity she was attending in the department's capital city of Cayenne.
(AP, 3/25/17)
2017 Mar 17, In Germany a G20 official said opposition from the United States, Saudi Arabia and others has forced Germany to drop a reference to financing programs to combat climate change from the draft communique at a G20 finance and central bankers meeting.
(AP, 3/17/17)
2017 Mar 17, In Iraq an airstrike hit the residential area in Mosul for the 2nd time in four days. Many residents were later reported killed. US officials acknowledged the airstrike on March 25 that witnesses said killed at least 100 people. On May 25 the US military acknowledged the bombing saying it set off explosive materials that militants had planted inside causing the structure to collapse.
(AP, 3/24/17)(SSFC, 3/26/17, p.A6)(SFC, 5/26/17, p.A2)
2017 Mar 17, Israeli warplanes struck several targets in Syria overnight, prompting retaliatory missile launches, in the most serious incident between the two countries since the Syrian civil war began six years ago.
(AFP, 3/17/17)
2017 Mar 17, Japan’s Maebashi district court held the government and the Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) liable for neglecting tsunami safety measures at the Fukushima nuclear plant and ordered them to pay more money to dozens out of the thousands of people who fled radiation released during the March 2011 disaster.
(AP, 3/17/17)
2017 Mar 17, Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta ordered the military to deploy to the volatile counties of Baringo and Laikipia in the Rift Valley to calm deadly violence fueled by drought that affects roughly half the country.
(AP, 3/17/17)
2017 Mar 17, In Libya gunmen opened fire at demonstrators protesting against militias in Tripoli.
(AFP, 3/18/17)
2017 Mar 17, Morocco’s MAP state news said King Mohammed VI has named Saad Eddine El Othmani of the Islamist Justice and Development Party (PJD) as the country's new prime minister and asked him to form a government.
(Reuters, 3/17/17)
2017 Mar 17, SWIFT, a messaging network for cross-border payments, suspended services for four remaining North Korean banks. Earlier this month SWIFT was obliged to exclude three North Korean banks that were under UN sanctions.
(Econ, 3/25/17, p.63)
2017 Mar 17, In Peru El Nino-fueled flash floods and landslides hit parts of Lima, leaving some communities cut off from roads. This year's El Nino shut down northern Peru's sugar-cane business.
(AFP, 3/18/17)(Econ., 10/10/20, p.72)
2017 Mar 17, The Philippines said it would strengthen its military facilities on islands and shoals in the disputed South China Sea and announced initial plans to build a new port and pave an existing rough airstrip.
(Reuters, 3/17/17)
2017 Mar 17, Portugal's attorney general granted investigators another extension to conclude their 2 1/2-year investigation into former PM Jose Socrates (59), who is suspected of corruption, money laundering and tax fraud. Socrates was the center-left Socialist prime minister from 2005 to 2011.
(AP, 3/17/17)
2017 Mar 17, South Africa's Constitutional Court ordered the government to pay social grants on April 1 via its current service provider, seeking to end a fiasco that had threatened the payment of benefits to 17 million people.
(Reuters, 3/17/17)
2017 Mar 17, In South Korea US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said US policy of strategic patience with North Korea's nuclear and missile programs has ended, warning that military action would be "on the table" if Pyongyang elevated the threat level.
(Reuters, 3/17/17)
2017 Mar 17, In St. Lucia Derek Walcott (87), a Nobel-prize winning poet, died. He was known for capturing the essence of his native Caribbean and became the region's most internationally famous writer.
(AP, 3/17/17)(Econ, 4/1/17, p.82)
2017 Mar 17, In Tanzania Dar es Salaam regional commissioner Paul Makonda stormed into the offices of the Clouds FM Media Group with six armed men to demand the airing of a muckraking video aimed at undermining a popular local pastor with whom Makonda has a dispute.
(AFP, 3/23/17)
2017 Mar 17, In Uganda senior police official Andrew Felix Kaweesi was shot and killed in his car along with two other officers as he left his home in Kampala. President Yoweri Museveni condemned the killing and directed the immediate installation of cameras in all major towns of Uganda and along the highways.
(AFP, 3/17/17)(Reuters, 5/12/17)
2017 Mar 17, In Yemen 22 people were killed in an attack on a mosque during prayers inside a military base in Marib province.
(AP, 3/17/17)
2018 Mar 17, The US government's road safety agency said air bags in some Hyundai and Kia cars failed to inflate in crashes and four people are dead.
(AP, 3/17/18)
2018 Mar 17, In Florida Cirque du Soleil performer Yann Arnaud died after falling during a show in Tampa.
(SFC, 3/19/18, p.A4)
2018 Mar 17, In Minnesota a man (53) was arrested for fatally stabbing two men at a Salvation Army apartment building in Rochester.
(SFC, 3/20/18, p.A6)
2018 Mar 17, In New York a Fly Jamaica Airways crew member Hugh Hall was arrested at JFK airport and agents seized about 9 pounds of cocaine taped to his legs, with a street value of about $160,000.
(AP, 3/22/18)
2018 Mar 17, In Afghanistan a Taliban car bomb killed at least three people and wounded two in Kabul.
(Reuters, 3/17/18)
2018 Mar 17, Albania police said they have arrested 39 people in a crackdown on crime rings illegally sending about 1,000 Albanians to Britain, the United States and Canada.
(AP, 3/17/18)
2018 Mar 17, Angola saw its first authorized anti-government protest in decades with about 10 people demonstrating in the capital against an amnesty those who have stashed vast wealth abroad.
(AFP, 3/17/18)
2018 Mar 17, In Australia Southeast Asian leaders (ASEAN) said they will sign an agreement on regional cooperation against violent extremism as the risk to the region grows due to militants fleeing Islamic State group losses in the Middle East.
(AP, 3/17/18)
2018 Mar 17, China's Xi Jinping was reappointed as president with no limit on the number of terms he can serve. China's largely rubber-stamp parliament chose former top graft-buster Wang Qishan, a key ally of President Xi Jinping, as vice president.
(AP, 3/17/18)(Reuters, 3/17/18)
2018 Mar 17, China announced the formation of the State Administration for Market Regulation (SADR). It was formed by combining the offices of three regulators.
(https://tinyurl.com/9dmhbzar)(Econ., 1/2/21, p.49)
2018 Mar 17, Greek coast guard officials said at least 16 people, including five children, drowned when the small boat they were on capsized off Agathonisi island.
(Reuters, 3/17/18)(SSFC, 3/18/18, p.A4)
2018 Mar 17, It was reported that more than half of Bangalore's estimated 10 million inhabitants have to rely on borewells and tankers for their water because there isn't enough mains supply to go round. An ecologist with the Indian Institute of Science has predicted the Karnataka state capital could be the first Indian city to follow Cape Town in running out of water.
(AFP, 3/17/18)
2018 Mar 17, In eastern India a speeding bus plunged into a dry river bed, killing at least 12 people and injuring 35 in Bihar state.
(AP, 3/17/18)
2018 Mar 17, Indonesia's normally bustling Bali shut down social media, turned away flights and shuttered all shops for a Day of Silence that marks New Year on the predominantly Hindu island.
(AP, 3/17/18)
2018 Mar 17, Maldivian authorities arrested more than 140 activists who defied a ban on rallies and demonstrated against a state of emergency imposed by Pres. Abdulla Yameen.
(AFP, 3/17/18)
2018 Mar 17, The president of Mauritius, Ameenah Gurib-Fakim, resigned from the ceremonial position, amid accusations of financial impropriety that triggered a dispute between her and the prime minister.
(Reuters, 3/17/18)
2018 Mar 17, In Pakistan militants ambushed a polio vaccination team in a remote tribal region, killing two of the medical workers and seriously wounding another two. The gunmen also attacked tribal police and the paramilitary Frontier Corps when they responded to the attack.
(AP, 3/18/18)
2018 Mar 17, Hamas closed the Gaza offices of a major telecommunications firm, accusing it of failing to cooperate in a probe into the apparent assassination attempt against the Palestinian premier.
(AFP, 3/17/18)
2018 Mar 17, In the Philippines ten people died when a Piper-23 Apache plane crashed into a house north of Manila. The dead included five people in the plane and five people on the ground.
(Reuters, 3/17/18)(SSFC, 3/18/18, p.A4)
2018 Mar 17, Russia expelled 23 British diplomats. Russia also suspended the British Council, a network of cultural and linguistic institutes, amid escalating tensions over the poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in England.
(AFP, 3/17/18)
2018 Mar 17, South African supermarket chain Shoprite said it has withdrawn a third brand of sausages after the world's worst listeria outbreak which has claimed at least 183 lives since January last year.
(AFP, 3/17/18)
2018 Mar 17, Tens of thousands of Spaniards rallied across the country to demand better pensions as unions accused the government of seeking to privatize retirement benefits.
(AFP, 3/17/18)
2018 Mar 17, In Switzerland four people were killed after an avalanche hit the ski area of Vallon d'Arbi. Two bodies were soon recovered and rescue workers searched for two missing.
(AFP, 3/17/18)(SFC, 3/19/18, p.A2)
2018 Mar 17, Syria's regime retook two more towns in Eastern Ghouta. Regime air strikes on Eastern Ghouta killed at least 30 civilians. Thousands of civilians streamed out of their towns to escape battles in the north and south.
(AP, 3/17/18)(Reuters, 3/17/18)(AFP, 3/17/18)
2018 Mar 17, In Turkey prominent journalist Sahin Alpay (74), accused of supporting Turkey's failed coup, was released from prison after a court ruling. The Anadolu news agency said he has been banned from leaving his house and the country.
(AP, 3/17/18)
2018 Mar 17, Phan Van Khai (84), Vietnam's former prime minister (1997-2006) died in his home district of Cu Chi on the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City. He was an architect of Vietnam's economic rise and in 2005 became the country's first prime minister to visit the United States after the end of the war.
(AP, 3/17/18)
2018 Mar 17, Yemen's president Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi assigned Ali Saleh al-Ahmar, the half brother of ex-President Ali Abdullah Saleh, as commander of the country's reserve force.
(AP, 3/17/18)
2018 Mar 17, The World Health Organization said a diphtheria outbreak in war-torn Yemen has spread rapidly nationwide and infected more than 1,300 people.
(AP, 3/17/18)
2019 Mar 17, The Missouri River reached a record 30.2 feet in Iowa's Fremont County. Heavy rainfall and snowmelt caused flooding in Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska with at least two deaths reported.
(SFC, 3/18/19, p.A8)
2019 Mar 17, Afghan officials said an overnight Taliban assault on checkpoints in northern Faryab province killed 22 troops.
(AP, 3/17/19)
2019 Mar 17, Algeria's Ministry of Religious Affairs informed clerics that they are no longer required to submit texts of their sermons to authorities for approval.
(Reuters, 3/18/19)
2019 Mar 17, The French government faced heavy criticism over failing to maintain law and order during an arson and looting rampage by "yellow vest" protesters along the famous Champs-Elysees in Paris.
(AFP, 3/17/19)
2019 Mar 17, France's BEA air accident investigation said data from the flight data recorder of the Ethiopian jet that crashed last week has been successfully downloaded. BEA said the information has been transferred to Ethiopian investigators and that its technical work on the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder was now done.
(Reuters, 3/17/19)
2019 Mar 17, Indonesian disaster officials said flash flood and mudslides triggered by days of torrential downpours have torn through mountainside villages in Papua province, killing at least 58 people and injuring 59 others.
(AP, 3/17/19)
2019 Mar 17, In Indonesia a magnitude 5.5 earthquake triggered a landslide that hit a popular waterfall on the tourist island of Lombok, killing at least two people and injuring dozens.
(AP, 3/17/19)
2019 Mar 17, Iran's President Hassan Rouhani inaugurated a new phase in the development of a massive natural gas field. The development will allow Iran to overtake Qatar in the production of natural gas.
(AP, 3/17/19)
2019 Mar 17, In Mali gunmen attacked and briefly seized an army base overnight, killing at least 16 soldiers and destroying five vehicles in the central Mopti region. Central Mali is the locus of the Macina Liberation Front, led by Salafist preacher and militant leader Amadou Koufa.
(Reuters, 3/17/19)
2019 Mar 17, In Northern Ireland two 17-year-olds and a 16-year-old died after a crowd of revelers trying to get into a St. Patrick's Day event caused what appears to be a crush at the Greenvale Hotel in Cookstown.
(AP, 3/18/19)
2019 Mar 17, In Pakistan four people were killed and 10 injured when a bomb went off on a train track in the resource-rich province of Baluchistan.
(Reuters, 3/17/19)
2019 Mar 17, A Palestinian stabbed an Israeli soldier to death in the occupied West Bank and used his rifle to wound another soldier and a Jewish settler before escaping.
(Reuters, 3/17/19)
2019 Mar 17, Serbia's Pres. Aleksandar Vucic pledged to defend the country's law and order a day after opposition supporters stormed the national TV station protesting what they said is his autocratic rule and firm control of the media. Thousands of demonstrators rallied around the presidential palace in Belgrade to protest the speech by Vucic.
(AP, 3/17/19)(AFP, 3/17/19)
2019 Mar 17, In Somalia a US air strike killed four people near the town of Afgoye. The US Africa Command (AFRICOM) later said it carried out the air strike and that three militants had died in the attack.
(Reuters, 3/19/19)
2019 Mar 17, In eastern Syria Lorenzo Orsetti (33), an Italian fighting alongside the Kurdish-led YPG force, was killed in battle as he fought diehard jihadists in the village of Baghouz.
(AFP, 3/19/19)
2019 Mar 17, Hundreds of Sudanese took part in anti-government protests in the capital and other cities as the government announced it had secured $300 million in loans to address the economic crisis that triggered the unrest.
(AP, 3/17/19)
2019 Mar 17, In eastern Syria the SDF admitted to facing difficulties defeating the IS extremists, saying they were being slowed by mines, tunnels and concerns over harming women and children still in Baghouz. The SDF said it would no longer estimate how many people remained, but said recent evacuees told the fighting forces that another 5,000 were still inside.
(AP, 3/17/19)
2019 Mar 17, In Turkey Kurdish activist Zulkuf Gezen died late today. He was one of scores of detainees on hunger strike in support of a Kurdish lawmaker in Diyarbakir. He reportedly hanged himself after 12 years in prison on charges of membership of the PKK Kurdish militant group.
(AFP, 3/18/19)
2020 Mar 17, The Trump administration called for $1 trillion in spending, including $250 billion for direct payments to Americans, as the federal government prepares to fight the coronavirus pandemic and an almost certain recession.
(NY Times, 3/18/20)
2020 Mar 17, The US Federal Reserve said it would reinstate a funding facility used during the 2008 financial crisis to get credit directly to businesses and households as fears over a liquidity crunch due to the coronavirus have grown in recent days.
(Reuters, 3/17/20)
2020 Mar 17, Former US vice president Joe Biden easily defeated Bernie Sanders in Arizona, Florida and Illinois state primaries.
(AP, 3/18/20)
2020 Mar 17, Former California Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter was sentenced to 11 months in prison after pleading guilty to stealing campaign funds and spending the money on everything from outings with friends to his daughter's birthday party.
(Miami Herald, 3/17/20)
2020 Mar 17, San Francisco's Mayor London Breed announced plans to ban commercial evictions for small and medium-sized businesses impacted by the coronavirus. City officials said canabis businesses may remain open as non-essential businesses were told to shut down.
(SFC, 3/18/20, p.B5)
2020 Mar 17, In the SF Bay Area Xuehua "Edward" Peng (56) of Hayward was sentenced to four years in federal prison for smuggling purported national security information to China for more than two years.
(SFC, 3/18/20, p.B1)
2020 Mar 17, Jerry Slick (b.1939), drummer and founder of the San Francisco-based Great Society rock band, died in his Mill Valley, Ca., home. He founded the band with his wife Grace Slick in 1965. Grace Slick joined the Jefferson Airplane in 1966 and Jerry moved on as a cinematographer and filmmaker.
(SSFC, 3/29/20, p.B8)
2020 Mar 17, In Florida Colombian brothers Pedro Nel Rincon-Castillo (53) and Omar Rincon-Castillo (50) were sentenced to about 20 years and 17-1/2 years, respectively, on cocaine-trafficking charges by a federal judge in Fort Lauderdale.
(AP, 3/18/20)
2020 Mar 17, In Michigan a Wayne County jury convicted Devon Kareem Robinson (19) of first-degree premeditated murder, assault with intent to murder and felony firearm in the May 2019 killings of Alunte Davis (21), Timothy Blancher (20) and Paris Cameron (20). Police believed the victims were targeted for their sexual orientation.
(AP, 3/18/20)
2020 Mar 17, New York state closed all schools for two weeks. The state has 1,374 cases of coronavirus and 12 people have died. The US had 5,124 cases of coronavirus with 96 deaths.
(AP, 3/17/20)(https://ncov2019.live/)
2020 Mar 17, It was reported that a TSA officer at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport has tested positive for COVID-19. This marked the 8th TSA officer to test positive for COVID-19. The other cases were in California, Florida and Georgia.
(Good Morning America, 3/17/20)
2020 Mar 17, Ohio's primary, planned for today, was cancelled. Governor Mike DeWine postponed his state's primary until June 2 because of the growing coronavirus crisis.
(Reuters, 3/17/20)
2020 Mar 17, Texas confirmed its first death due to coronavirus.
(The Independent, 3/17/20)
2020 Mar 17, West Virginia reported its first confirmed coronavirus infection. There are now known coronavirus cases in all 50 US states.
(NY Times, 3/18/20)
2020 Mar 17, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc said it had identified hundreds of antibodies that could treat or prevent the coronavirus and was preparing to begin clinical trials by early summer, sending the drugmaker's shares up nearly 12%.
(Reuters, 3/17/20)
2020 Mar 17, Brazil's government called for a state of emergency to loosen fiscal rules as it faced challenges from the coronavirus pandemic and oil price war. Brazil reported its first death due to the virus and closed its border to Venezuelans for an initial 15 days, citing strains on the public health system and what its president described as Venezuela's inability to respond.
(Reuters, 3/18/20)
2020 Mar 17, Brazil's Sao Paulo state prison authority said more than 500 prisoners have been recaptured who fled four jails ahead of a planned lockdown of the facilities over the coronavirus pandemic. Local officials had cancelled temporary leaves because of fears that prisoners could bring the new coronavirus back with them.
(AP, 3/17/20)(SFC, 3/18/20, p.A2)
2020 Mar 17, Britain's health ministry said cases of coronavirus rose 26% to 1,950 from 1,543 the day before. The National Health Service (NHS) announced plans to cancel all routine surgery for three months and to send home as many patients as possible to free up staff and beds to deal with the spread of the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/17/20)
2020 Mar 17, The BBC reported that Hashem Abedi, the brother of the bomber who blew himself up at the end of an Ariana Grande concert in the English city of Manchester in May 2017, has been found guilty of murdering the 22 victims.
(Reuters, 3/17/20)
2020 Mar 17, Bulgaria banned all foreign and domestic holiday trips until April 13 as part of efforts to contain the spread of the coronavirus. The Balkan country had 81 confirmed cases of the new virus and two deaths.
(Reuters, 3/17/20)
2020 Mar 17, In Bulgaria investigative journalist Slavi Angelov, editor-in-chief of the weekly 168 Hours, was attacked by unknown assailants and hospitalized in Sofia with serious injuries.
(SFC, 3/19/20, p.A2)(https://tinyurl.com/rrjhy5u)
2020 Mar 17, Canadian PM Justin Trudeau said his government would provide financial support to people during the coronavirus outbreak as he urged them to stay at home to slow the spread of COVI0D-19.
(Reuters, 3/17/20)
2020 Mar 17, It was reported that Chad is repaying Angola a debt of $100m (£82m) with cattle. More than 1,000 cows have arrived by ship in Luanda as the first payment.
(BBC, 3/17/20)
2020 Mar 17, The Chinese Foreign Ministry said that it was revoking the press credentials for American journalists from three newspapers, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post, requiring them to return their media passes within 10 days and essentially expelling them from the country. All three US media outlets have reported politically sensitive stories in China, a long-term taboo with the Chinese Communist Party.
(AP, 3/18/20)
2020 Mar 17, Chinese doctors reported that Avigan (favipiravir), a drug used against influenza in Japan, led to clinical improvements in coronavirus patients.
(Econ, 3/21/20, p.18)
2020 Mar 17, Croatia's government proposed to postpone tax payments for at least three months and make loans available to struggling business in response to the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic. Croatia has so far reported 65 cases of coronavirus. Four people have recovered and no one has yet died from COVID-19.
(Reuters, 3/17/20)
2020 Mar 17, Egypt, which has 166 confirmed cases of the new virus including four fatalities, announced the lockdown of the Red Sea province that includes the popular resort town of Hurghada. Egypt lowered the price of natural gas for industrial use to $4.5 per mmbtu and cut a tax on dividends for companies listed on its stock exchange to 5% in an attempt to soften the impact of the spread of the coronavirus on the economy.
(AP, 3/17/20)(Reuters, 3/17/20)
2020 Mar 17, European Union leaders agreed to restrict most travel into the continent in an unprecedented move aimed at slowing down the spread of a deadly coronavirus and mitigating its effects on the bloc. Europe logged 10,560 new COVID-19 infections, with 3,590 of the cases diagnosed in Italy.
(Bloomberg, 3/17/20)(Business Insider, 3/17/20)
2020 Mar 17, French President Emmanuel Macron declared "war" on Covid-19 with a raft of measures to keep citizens in lock-down mode, including a ban on non-essential travel, just a few days after ordering business closures and shutting schools.
(Bloomberg, 3/17/20)
2020 Mar 17, Indian authorities expanded the population eligible for testing to health care workers with symptoms who are treating patients with severe respiratory illnesses. Authorities have confirmed 126 cases linked to foreign travel or direct contact with someone who caught the disease abroad. Indian authorities said that they would not widely expand testing for the virus, despite mounting criticism from some experts that the limited tests could mask the true toll of the disease in the world's second most populous country.
(AP, 3/17/20)
2020 Mar 17, Iran issued its most dire warning yet about the outbreak of the new coronavirus ravaging the country, suggesting “millions" could die in the Islamic Republic if the public keeps traveling and ignoring health guidance. Health Ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour said the virus had killed 135 more people to raise the total to 988 amid over 16,000 cases. In efforts to curb the spread of the virus, Iran has released 85,000 prisoners on temporary leave.
(AP, 3/17/20)
2020 Mar 17, Iran temporarily released Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe (41), a British-Iranian woman serving a five-year prison term in Tehran for sedition, from jail for two weeks. Nazanin had warned last month that was in danger of contracting the new coronavirus inside Evin Prison.
(AFP, 3/17/20)
2020 Mar 17, Iraq's President Barham Saleh named Adnan al-Zurfi, a former governor of the city of Najaf, as prime minister-designate, following weeks of political infighting.
(AP, 3/17/20)
2020 Mar 17, Peace Now, an Israeli monitoring group that opposes West Bank settlements, said that Israel's average annual construction rate has risen 25% since President Donald Trump took office in 2017.
(AP, 3/18/20)
2020 Mar 17, Official data in Italy showed that 31,506 people have been confirmed as positive for the coronavirus. The official death toll passed 2,500.
(AP, 3/18/20)(Reuters, 3/18/20)
2020 Mar 17, A Lebanese military judge appealed a verdict by the military tribunal that ordered the release of Amer Fakhoury, a Lebanese-American held since September on charges of working for an Israeli-backed militia two decades ago. Lebanon released Amer Fakhoury (57) on March 19.
(AP, 3/17/20)(AP, 3/19/20)
2020 Mar 17, The Lithuanian parliament voted to the raise borrowing limit by 4.5 billion euros, and to allow the government to borrow over the limit to fight effects of the coronavirus. Lithuania had 22 cases of coronavirus with no deaths.
(Reuters, 3/17/20)(https://ncov2019.live/)
2020 Mar 17, A Moroccan court handed a four-month suspended sentence and a 500 dirham fine to Moroccan journalist and rights activist Omar Radi (33) on charges of insulting a judge on Twitter, in a case that outraged advocates of free speech in the country.
(Reuters, 3/17/20)
2020 Mar 17, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un acknowledged that his country lacks modern medical facilities and called for urgent improvements.
(AP, 3/18/20)
2020 Mar 17, Pakistani PM Imran Khan declared that there would be no national lockdown to block the spread of the coronavirus.
(Econ, 3/28/20, p.36)
2020 Mar 17, In Peru miners halted operations and girded for extended supply chain disruptions in neighboring Chile as governments tightened curbs due to coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/18/20)
2020 Mar 17, Qatari authorities announced the closure of several square km of the industrial area in the capital Doha, which also contains labor camps and other housing units, due to the coronavirus. Qatar relies on about 2 million migrant workers for the bulk of its labor force.
(Reuters, 3/19/20)
2020 Mar 17, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a vote on changes to the constitution which could allow him to extend his rule to be held next month as planned, but warned it could be delayed if the coronavirus situation worsens.
(AP, 3/17/20)
2020 Mar 17, Senegal has recorded 27 cases of coronavirus. Medical staff said they had received limited protective equipment beyond extra gloves and masks.
(Reuters, 3/17/20)
2020 Mar 17, In South Africa Lt Col Leroy Brewer, a top rhino poaching investigator, was driving to work when he was shot dead by gunmen with high-caliber weapons. He died on the spot.
(AP, 3/18/20)
2020 Mar 17, South Africa's national ports operator Transnet said it is holding the cruise liner, MV AidAmira, and a cargo vessel off Cape Town's port limits after a crew member onboard one of the vessels showed signs of coronavirus. The MV Aidamira, with 1,240 passengers and 486 crew on board, had returned to Cape Town from Namibia’s Walvis Bay.
(Reuters, 3/17/20)(BBC, 3/18/20)
2020 Mar 17, Spanish PM Pedro Sanchez announced a package of measures worth a total 200 billion euros ($219 billion), between loans, credit guarantees, benefits and direct aid, to mitigate the impact of the coronavirus epidemic on the economy.
(Reuters, 3/17/20)
2020 Mar 17, It was reported that Spain's King Felipe VI has renounced any future personal inheritance he could receive from his father, King Emirat Jaun Carlos I, over the alleged financial irregularities involving the former monarch. Felipe (52) was also strippimng Juan Carlos of his annual stipend.
(SFC, 3/17/20, p.A2)
2020 Mar 17, In southern Thailand bombers attacked a major government office as hundreds of local officials and Muslim clerics met to discuss fighting COVID-19. At least 20 people were reported hurt.
(SFC, 3/18/20, p.A2)
2020 Mar 17, Ukrainian shops, restaurants and transport shut down as the country tightened restrictions to contain the spread of the coronavirus. Police arrested five people suspected of trying to rob 100,000 surgical masks at gunpoint in Kiev.
(AP, 3/17/20)
2020 Mar 17, The United Nations and nine countries called on Libya's warring parties to cease hostilities to allow health authorities to fight against the new coronavirus.
(AFP, 3/17/20)
2020 Mar 17, The UN refugee agency and the International Organization for Migration announced a temporary pause in refugee resettlement to slow the spread of the new coronavirus. That led the US to pause its admissions until at least April 6.
(The Week, 3/18/20)
2020 Mar 17, Yemeni officials said heavy fighting between pro-government forces and Shiite rebels killed more than three dozen people in the previous 24 hours. Houthi officials said the Saudi-led coalition had carried out at least 15 airstrikes against their fighters.
(AP, 3/17/20)
2021 Mar 17, President Joe Biden said Russian President Vladimir Putin will face consequences for directing efforts to swing the 2020 US presidential election to Donald Trump, and that they would come soon.
(Reuters, 3/17/21)
2021 Mar 17, The US government said it is investing $12.25 billion on ramping up COVID-19 testing in the country to help schools reopen safely and promote testing equity among high-risk and underserved populations. The funds will be taken from the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan that was signed into law last week.
(Reuters, 3/17/21)
2021 Mar 17, The US State Dept. announced sanctions on 24 Chinese officials for undermining Hong Kong's democratic freedoms.
(SFC, 3/18/21, p.A4)
2021 Mar 17, The IRS said filers will have until May 17 to file their tax returns. The extra time is intended to ease the burden on Americans dealing with the economic upheaval caused by the pandemic.
(NY Times, 3/17/21)
2021 Mar 17, US Federal Reserve officials signaled that they are in no rush to dial back support for a pandemic-damaged economy, releasing a fresh set of projections that showed the central bank’s policy interest rate on hold at near zero for years to come.
(NY Times, 3/17/21)
2021 Mar 17, California to date had 3,605,719 cases of coronavirus and 56,097 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 415,829 cases and 5,701 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 29,602,809 with the death toll at 537,945.
(sfist.com, 3/17/21)
2021 Mar 17, Sean Lannon (47) was arrested in St Louis, Missouri driving the stolen car of his alleged New Jersey victim, Michael Dabkowski. Lannon said Dabkowski had sexually abused him as a child. Lannon soon claimed responsibility for 15 killings in New Mexico.
(The Independent, 3/20/21)
2021 Mar 17, Abbvie Inc said the US Food and Drug Administration has extended the review period for expanded use of its rheumatoid arthritis drug Rinvoq by three months, citing the need for more time to assess the drug's benefit-risk profile.
(AP, 3/17/21)
2021 Mar 17, CNBC reported that Morgan Stanley has become the first big US bank to offer its wealth management clients access to bitcoin funds.
(Reuters, 3/17/21)
2021 Mar 17, Facebook Inc said it is starting to remove the recommendations it gives global users for political and social issue Facebook groups, a move it has billed as turning down tension on the site.
(Reuters, 3/17/21)
2021 Mar 17, Australia said it will send COVID-19 vaccines from its own supply to Papua New Guinea and will ask AstraZeneca to send 8,000 doses to contain a concerning wave of infections.
(SFC, 3/18/21, p.A5)
2021 Mar 17, It was reported that interest in cybersex is soaring as the pandemic has left people subject to lockdowns and travel bans and unable to seek intimacy in the usual ways. In London Angelina Aleksandrovich runs a collective called Raspberry Dream Labs which creates multi-sensory cybersex experiences which allow people to enjoy intimate moments together even when they are not in same place.
(Reuters, 3/17/21)
2021 Mar 17, Cape Verde’s Supreme Court ruled that Alex Saab, a businessman close to Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro who was arrested last year in the West African country, can be extradited to the United States to face money-laundering charges.
(AP, 3/17/21)
2021 Mar 17, Researchers in a large study from Denmark reported that the vast majority of people who recover from Covid-19 remain shielded from the virus for at least six months.
(NY Times, 3/18/21)
2021 Mar 17, An Egyptian court convicted prominent human rights activist Sanaa Seif of spreading false news, and insulting a police officer, sentencing her to 18 months in prison.
(AP, 3/17/21)
2021 Mar 17, The European Union criticized Turkish authorities for stripping a prominent pro-Kurdish legislator of his parliamentary seat and seeking to shut down his political party, saying these moves add to concerns over the “backsliding of rights" in Turkey.
(AP, 3/18/21)
2021 Mar 17, It was reported that Finland-based Nokia plans to cut up to 10,000 jobs as it tries to cement its role as a key supplier of 5G technology. Nokia said the restructuring should reduce costs by $715 million by 2023.
(SFC, 3/17/21, p.B2)
2021 Mar 17, Greece launched a 30-year government bond auction, hoping to take advantage of low interest rates to improve its debt profile and offset some of the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the country’s public finances.
(AP, 3/17/21)
2021 Mar 17, Indian health officials said about 6.5% of coronavirus vaccine doses in India are going to waste, urging states to manage their immunization drives better to optimize use of what one called "this elixir-like precious commodity".
(Reuters, 3/17/21)
2021 Mar 17, Iran's state TV reported that mishaps during the annual Nowruz fire festival have left at least 10 people dead and hundreds more injured around the country. The deaths happened over a period of several weeks.
(AP, 3/17/21)
2021 Mar 17, In Italy Eni SpA, Royal Dutch Shell Plc and several of their current and former executives were acquitted of corruption charges related to a Nigerian oil deal by a court in Milan. Sentences in Italy aren’t definitive until appeals are exhausted. It could take years before a final decision.
(Bloomberg, 3/17/21)
2021 Mar 17, A Japanese court for the first time ruled that same-sex marriage should be allowed under the country's constitution, a moral victory that does not have any immediate legal consequence but could bolster efforts for legalization.
(AP, 3/17/21)
2021 Mar 17, Kenya's high court upheld a ban on female genital mutilation (FGM) in a landmark ruling welcomed by campaigners seeking to eradicate the internationally condemned procedure.
(Reuters, 3/17/21)
2021 Mar 17, Two Polish government websites were hacked today and used briefly to spread false information about a non-existent radioactive threat, in what a Polish government official said had the hallmarks of a Russian cyberattack.
(AP, 3/17/21)
2021 Mar 17, Syria has registered 16,656 cases of coronavirus, including 1,110 deaths in government-held areas. The numbers are believed to be much higher because of limited testing being done. President Bashar Assad’s office said the first couple are on their way to recovery nine days after testing positive for the coronavirus.
(AP, 3/17/21)
2021 Mar 17, Tanzania's Pres. John Magufuli (61) died from reported heart complications at a hospital in Dar es Salaam. Vice-President Samia Suluhu Hassan (61) will be sworn in as the new president within 24 hours and should serve the remainder of Mr Magufuli's five-year term which he began last year.
(BBC, 3/18/21)
2021 Mar 17, Tunisia’s president met with Libya's newly appointed government officials in Tripoli, becoming the first head of state to visit the war-torn country a day after an interim administration took power.
(AP, 3/17/21)
2021 Mar 17, Turkish authorities stripped Omer Faruk Gergerlioglu, a prominent legislator and human rights advocate, of his parliamentary seat and took a step toward disbanding the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party. On March 21 around 100 police officers entered parliament to detain him. He was released after questioning several hours later.
(AP, 3/17/21)(AP, 3/21/21)
2021 Mar 17, A UN spokesman said human rights chief Michelle Bachelet has agreed to Ethiopia's request for a joint investigation into the humanitarian consequences of the conflict in the country's northern Tigray region.
(AFP, 3/17/21)
2021 Mar 17, The United Nations' nuclear watchdog (IAEA) said it has confirmed that Iran has begun operating a cascade of advanced centrifuges at an underground site.
(AP, 3/17/21)
2021 Mar 17, A UN team of investigators on Myanmar appealed for people to collect and preserve documentary evidence of crimes ordered by the military since a Feb. 1 coup, in order to build future cases against its leaders.
(Reuters, 3/17/21)
2021 Mar 17, A World Health Organization (WHO) vaccine safety panel said that it considers that the benefits of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine outweigh its risks and recommends that vaccinations continue.
(Reuters, 3/17/21)
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Traditional St. Patrick's Day toast. : "May the enemies of Ireland never eat bread nor drink whisky, but be tormented with itching without benefit of scratching."
(AP, 3/17/99)
For Asian History: https://www.asiaobserver.org/category/news/on-this-day-in-asian-history
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For Asian History: https://www.asiaobserver.org/category/news/on-this-day-in-asian-history
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180CE Mar 17, Antonius Marcus Aurelius (58), [Marcus Verus], Emperor of Rome, died.
(MC, 3/17/02)
c389 Mar 17, St. Patrick (d.461), the patron saint of Ireland, was born. Calpurnius, his father, was a deacon and local official who lost his son to Irish raiders when Patrick was 16. Patrick allegedly drove all the snakes (i.e. pagans) out of Ireland.
(HN, 3/17/99)(HNQ, 3/17/01)(WSJ, 3/12/04, p.W13)
461 Mar 17, According to tradition, St. Patrick (b.c389), the patron saint of Ireland, died in Saul, County Down. Some sources say he died in 493AD. He was an English missionary and bishop of Ireland. In 2004 Philip Freeman authored "St. Patrick: A Biography."
(SFC, 3/15/97, p.A16)(WSJ, 3/12/04, p.W13)(AP, 3/17/08)
1394 Mar 17, Sir John Hawkwood (b.~1323), English soldier who served as a mercenary leader or condottiero in Italy, died at his home in Florence.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hawkwood)
1516 Mar 17, Giuliano de' Medici (37), monarch of Florence, died.
(MC, 3/17/02)
1753 Mar 17, The 1st official St Patrick's Day was celebrated.
(MC, 3/17/02)
1756 Mar 17, St. Patrick's Day was 1st celebrated in NYC at Crown & Thistle Tavern.
(MC, 3/17/02)
1762 Mar 17, 1st St Patrick's Day parade was held in NYC.
(MC, 3/17/02)
1775 Mar 17, Richard Henderson, a North Carolina judge, representing the Transylvania Company, met with three Cherokee Chiefs (Oconistoto, chief warrior and first representative of the Cherokee Nation or tribe of Indians, and Attacuttuillah and Sewanooko) to purchase (for the equivalent of $50,000) all the land lying between the Ohio, Kentucky and Cumberland rivers; some 17 to 20 million acres. It was known as the Treaty of Sycamore Shoals or The Henderson Purchase. The purchase was later declared invalid but land cession was not reversed.
(www.tngenweb.org/cessions/17750317.html)
1776 Mar 17, British forces evacuated Boston to Nova Scotia during the Revolutionary War. In some of the bloodiest fighting of the Revolutionary War, American and French troops failed to take Savannah.
(AP, 3/17/97)(HN, 3/17/98)
1780 Mar 17, Thomas Chalmers, 1st moderator (Free Church of Scotland 1843-47), was born.
(MC, 3/17/02)
1799 Mar 17, Napoleon Bonaparte and his army reached the Mediterranean seaport of St. Jean d'Acra, only to find British warships ready to break his siege of the town.
(HN, 3/17/00)
1800 Mar 17, English warship Queen Charlotte caught fire and 700 people died.
(MC, 3/17/02)
1828 Mar 17, Maj. Gen. Patrick R. Cleburne, the "Stonewall" of the West, was born.
(HN, 3/17/98)
1832 Mar 17, Daniel Conway Moncure, U.S. clergyman, author, abolitionist, was born.
(HN, 3/17/98)
1836 Mar 17, David G. Burnet (1788-1870) became interim president of Texas and continued to Oct 22, 1836. he became the second Vice President of the Republic of Texas (1839-41), and Secretary of State (1846) for the new state of Texas after it was annexed to the United States of America.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_G._Burnet)
1837 Mar 17, Stephen Grover Cleveland was born in Caldwell, N.J. He was the 22nd (1885-1889) and 24th (1893-1897) president of the United States, the only President elected for two nonconsecutive terms.
(AP, 3/17/04)
1845 Mar 17, The rubber band was patented by Stephen Perry of London. [see May 17]
(MC, 3/17/02)
1846 Mar 17, Kate Greenway, painter and illustrator (Mother Goose), was born.
(HN, 3/17/01)
1860 Mar 17, The Japanese ship Kanrin Maru, under Admiral Yoshitake Kimura, entered the Golden Gate after a 37-day voyage, on a diplomatic mission to San Francisco. It was the first Japanese ship to cross the Pacific. 3 sailors died while the ship was in SF. It set sail to return to Japan on May 8.
(SFC, 3/17/10, p.C2)
1861 Mar 17, Victor Emmanuel, the King of Piedmont, Savoy, and Sardinia, proclaimed the foundation of the kingdom of Italy. The Risorgimento movement resulted in Italian unification. The Carbonari was a secret society in early 19th century Italy who advocated liberal and patriotic ideas and opposed the conservative regimes imposed on Italy by the Allies who had defeated Napoleon in 1815. As with other secret societies of the age, the Carbonari had an initiation ceremony, complex symbols and a hierarchical organization though its exact origins are left to conjecture. They recruited primarily among nobility, small landowners and officeholders and may have been an offshoot of the Freemasons. Their influence is credited with preparing the way for the Risorgimento movement.
(Econ, 3/19/11, p.61)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Emmanuel_II_of_Italy)(HNQ, 8/21/00)
1863 Mar 17, The Battle of Kelly's Ford, Va., was fought.
(http://americancivilwar.com/statepic/va/va029.html)
1868 Mar 17, Postage stamp canceling machine patent was issued.
(HN, 3/17/98)
1870 Mar 17, The Massachusetts Legislature authorized the incorporation of Wellesley Female Seminary. It later became Wellesley College.
(AP, 3/17/97)
1874 Mar 17, Kincsem, a horse that never lost a race, was born.
(MC, 3/17/02)
1876 Mar 17, Gen. Crook destroyed Cheyenne and Ogallala-Sioux Indian camps.
(MC, 3/17/02)
1884 Mar 17, John Joseph Montgomery made the first glider flight in Otay, Calif.
(HN, 3/17/98)
1886 Mar 17, The Carrollton Massacre in Mississippi occurred and 20 African Americans were killed.
(HN, 3/17/98)
1891 Mar 17, The British steamer Utopia sank off the coast of Gibraltar.
(HN, 3/17/98)
1902 Mar 17, Bobby Jones was born. He was the first American golfer to win the U.S. and British championships in the same year in 1930.
(HN, 3/17/99)
1894 Mar 17, US and China signed a treaty preventing Chinese laborers from entering US.
(MC, 3/17/02)
1895 Mar 17, Shemp Howard, comedian (3 Stooges, Bank Dick), was born in Brooklyn.
(MC, 3/17/02)
1901 Mar 17, Eisaku Sato, premier of Japan (Nobel 1974), was born.
(MC, 3/17/02)
1905 Mar 17, Anna Eleanor Roosevelt, niece of President Theodore Roosevelt, married her fifth cousin, Franklin Delano Roosevelt in New York and by 1916, they had become the parents of six children.
(AP, 3/17/97)(HN, 3/17/98)(HNPD, 10/11/99)
1906 Mar 17, President Theodore Roosevelt first likened crusading journalists to a man with "the muck-rake in his hand" in a speech to the Gridiron Club in Washington, DC, as he criticized what he saw as the excesses of investigative journalism.
(AP, 3/17/06)(www.gwu.edu/~smpa/faculty/documents/Harvard.pdf)
1908 Mar 17, The 225-foot long steamship Pomona, en route to Eureka from San Francisco, sank after hitting rocks near Fort Ross, Ca. All 146 people aboard made it safely to shore.
(SFC, 7/28/18, p.A1)
1910 Mar 17, The Camp Fire Girls organization was formed in Lake Sebago, Maine. It was formally presented to the public exactly two years later.
(AP, 3/17/97)(HN, 3/17/01)
1914 Mar 17, Russia increased the number of active duty military from 460,000 to 1,700,000.
(HN, 3/17/98)
1917 Mar 17, Czar Michael abdicated after one day in favor of a provisional government under Prince George Evgenievich Lvov (55).
(PCh, 1992, p.722)
1919 Mar 17, Nat “King" Cole, American jazz pianist and singer, was born. He is famous for "Unforgettable" and "Mona Lisa."
(HN, 3/17/99)
1920 Mar 17, John La Montaine, composer (Pulitzer 1959), was born in Oak Park, Ill.
(MC, 3/17/02)
1921 Mar 17, Dr Marie Stopes opened Britain's 1st birth control clinic in London.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Stopes)
1924 Mar 17, Four Douglas army aircraft left Los Angeles for an around the world flight.
(HN, 3/17/98)
1929 Mar 17, General Motors purchased an 80% stake in Opel, a German car manufacturer, for $33.3 million. GM raised the stake to 100% in 1931.
(http://wiki.gmnext.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page)
1930 Mar 17, James Benson Irwin, Col. USAF, astronaut (Apollo 15), was born in Pittsburgh, Penn.
(MC, 3/17/02)
1930 Mar 17, Mob boss Al Capone was released from jail.
(HN, 3/17/98)
1931 Mar 17, Stalin threw Krupskaja Lenin out of the Central Committee.
(MC, 3/17/02)
1932 Mar 17, German police raided Hitler's Nazi headquarters.
(MC, 3/17/02)
1934 Mar 17, Thousands of blacks battled the police in New York in protest of the Scottsboro trial.
(HN, 3/17/98)
1934 Mar 17, The Rome Protocols allied Hungary with Italy, Austria and Germany.
(WUD, 1994, p.1682)
1935 Mar 17, Hitler reviewed the military parade in Berlin.
(HN, 3/17/98)
1937 Mar 17, Amelia Earhart took off from Oakland, Ca., in an attempt to become the first pilot to fly around the globe at the equator.
(SFC, 3/1/97, p.A8)
1938 Mar 17, Rudolf Nureyev, ballet dancer, choreographer (Kirov), was born in Russia.
(MC, 3/17/02)
1938 Mar 17, The Polish government presented an ultimatum to Lithuania to establish diplomatic ties. (LHC, 3/17/03)
1941 Mar 17, The National Gallery of Art opened in Washington, DC.
(AP, 3/17/98)(HN, 3/17/98)
1942 Mar 17, John Wayne Gacy, serial killer (32 boys), was born in Chicago, Ill.
(MC, 3/17/02)
1942 Mar 17, Gen. Douglas MacArthur arrived in Australia to become supreme commander of Allied forces in the southwest Pacific theater during World War II.
(AP, 3/17/97) (HN, 3/17/98)
1942 Mar 17, Belzec Concentration Camp opened. 30,000 Lublin Polish Jews were transported.
(MC, 3/17/02)
1942 Mar 17, The Nazis began deporting Jews to the Belsen camp.
(HN, 3/17/98)
1943 Mar 17, The German occupation authority closed Lithuanian schools of higher education and the Academy of Education.
(LHC, 3/17/03)
1944 Mar 17, Danny DeVito, actor (Louie-Taxi, Twins), was born in Neptune, NJ. [see Nov 17]
(MC, 3/17/02)
1944 Mar 17, The US Eighth Air Force bombed Vienna.
(HN, 3/17/00)
1945 Mar 17, In Germany the bridge at Remagen, weakened by shelling and the passage of some 50,000 Allied troops, fell taking 28 US soldiers to their deaths.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remagen)(AP, 5/7/18)
1945 Mar 17, Allied ships bombed North Sumatra.
(MC, 3/17/02)
1948 Mar 17, The International Maritime Organization (IMO) was established following agreement at a UN conference held in Geneva and came into existence ten years later, meeting for the first time in 1959. Preventing pollution was one of its original aims. The original name was the Inter-Governmental Maritime Consultative Organization, or IMCO, but the name was changed in 1982 to IMO.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Maritime_Organization)(Econ, 3/30/13, p.69)(http://www.imo.org/About/Pages/Default.aspx)
1990 The Marshall Islands first president signed a deal with a company, International Registries Inc., to create a tax-friendly, low-cost way for ships to sail under the Marshall Islands flag.
(NY Times, 6/4/21)
1991 Frances 'Franco' Stevens (23) launched "Denueve," a glossy lifestyle magazine for lesbians, after raising funds by taking cash out on credit cards and betting on the horses. The magazine had to change its name following a lawsuit from French actress Catherine Deneuve and in 2010 Stevens sold the magazine after an accident left her disabled. She bought it back 10 years later.
(Reuters, 6/4/21)
2021 Jun 3, Pres. Joe Biden issued a new executive order barring Americans from investing in Chinese firms that are linked to the country’s military or that sell surveillance technology used to repress dissent or religious minorities, both inside and outside China.
(NY Times, 6/3/21)
2021 Jun 3, The US Ambassador to the UN announced nearly $240 million in humanitarian funding to support the people of Syria, Syrian refugees and countries hosting them, and called for access through international crossings to allow the delivery of aid.
(AP, 6/3/21)
2021 Jun 3, California to date had 3,766,071 cases of coronavirus and 63,002 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 444,761 cases and 6,609 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 33,326,054 with the death toll at 596,401.
(sfist.com, 6/4/21)
2021 Jun 3, Criminal lawyer F. Lee Bailey (87) died in Atlanta. He had invited juries into the twilight zone of reasonable doubt in defense of Patricia Hearst, O.J. Simpson, the Boston Strangler, the army commander at the My Lai Massacre in Vietnam and other notorious cases.
(NY Times, 6/3/21)
2021 Jun 3, Denmark said it has withdrawn permission for a planned pipeline that was designed to bring Norwegian gas to Poland, citing the need to assess if the project would harm the habitats of certain mice and bat species. Baltic Pipe was designed to bring Norway’s offshore natural gas from the North Sea through Denmark to Poland.
(AP, 6/4/21)
2021 Jun 3, In Egypt a fire broke out at a juvenile detention center in Cairo, killing at least six children.
(AP, 6/3/21)
2021 Jun 3, France said it is halting joint military operations with Mali over last week's coup in the West African country. It said the suspension would continue until it received guarantees about a return to civilian rule in Mali.
(BBC, 6/3/21)
2021 Jun 3, In Iraq a gas cylinder explosion at a crowded restaurant in a northwestern Baghdad neighborhood killed three people and injured 16.
(AP, 6/3/21)
2021 Jun 3, Spain’s PM Pedro Sánchez was in the Libyan capital of Tripoli to reopen his country’s embassy and show support for Libya’s new interim authorities entrusted with leading the nation out of years of civil war.
(AP, 6/3/21)
2021 Jun 3, The head of the international chemical weapons watchdog told the UN Security Council that its experts have investigated 77 allegations against Syria, and concluded that in 17 cases chemical weapons were likely or definitely used.
(AP, 6/3/21)
2021 Jun 4, A US State Department spokesman said the US is shipping one million doses of Johnson & Johnson's one-shot COVID-19 vaccine to South Korea.
(Reuters, 6/4/21)
2021 Jun 4, It was reported that the US health regulator has authorized a lower dose of Regeneron Pharmaceutical's COVID-19 antibody cocktail that can be given by injection, a move that could ease logistical challenges stemming from administering a higher dose intravenously.
(Reuters, 6/4/21)
2021 Jun 4, It was reported that JPMorgan Chase & Co will resume making political donations to US lawmakers but will not give to Republican members of Congress who voted to overturn President Joe Biden's election victory.
(Reuters, 6/4/21)
2021 Jun 4, The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) said it and the European Union have concluded the world's first bloc-to-bloc air transport agreement, to allow their airlines to easier expand services to and within the respective regions.
(Reuters, 6/4/21)
2021 Jun 4, Britain's health ministry said the estimated reproduction "R" number in England remains at over 1 and the epidemic could be growing by as much as 3% each day. Britain's medicines regulator said it had approved the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech for use on 12- to 15-year-olds.
(Reuters, 6/4/21)
2021 Jun 4, The UK announced a post-Brexit trade deal with Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein.
(BBC, 6/4/21)
2021 Jun 4, Denmark’s Parliament voted in favor of building Lynetteholmen, a 20-billion-kroner ($3.3 billion) artificial island in Copenhagen, that will house at least 35,000 people who will be connected to downtown by a harbor tunnel and a subway line.
(AP, 6/4/21)
2021 Jun 4, The European Union submitted a plan to the World Trade Organization that it believes will more effectively broaden supply of COVID-19 vaccines than the intellectual property (IP) rights waiver backed by the United States.
(Reuters, 6/4/21)
2021 Jun 4, Cardinal Reinhard Marx, a leading German cardinal and confidant of Pope Francis, offered to resign over the Catholic Church's “catastrophic" mishandling of clergy sexual abuse cases, declaring that the scandals had brought the church to “a dead end".
(AP, 6/4/21)
2021 Jun 4, Italy reported 73 coronavirus-related deaths against 59 the day before, while the daily tally of new infections rose to 2,557 from 1,968. Italy has registered 126,415 deaths linked to COVID-19 since its outbreak emerged in February last year.
(Reuters, 6/4/21)
2021 Jun 4, Pakistan has started producing the single dose Chinese CanSinoBio COVID-19 vaccine to be able to deliver 3 million doses a month. An initial batch of 118,000 doses of the vaccine was ready to be delivered to the government.
(Reuters, 6/4/21)
1950 Mar 17, Scientists at the University of California at Berkeley announced they had created a new radioactive element, which they named "californium."
(AP, 3/17/97)
1952 Mar 17, A US ban on the word “tornado" was lifted. The ban had started in 1886 when the US Army, which handled weather forecasting, determined that the harm done by predicting a tornado would be greater than that done by the tornado itself.
(SFC, 3/17/09, p.D6)
1956 Mar 17, Fred Allen (b.1894), American comedian (Fred Allen Radio Show), died.
(TOH, 1982, p.1956)(AP, 3/17/06)
1957 Mar 17, In the Philippines a plane crash on Mt. Manunggal in Cebu killed Pres. Ramon Magsaysay (b.1907). 25 of the 26 passengers and crew aboard were killed.
(AP, 8/2/10)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramon_Magsaysay)
1958 Mar 17, The U.S. Navy launched the Vanguard 1 satellite.
(AP, 3/17/02)
1959 Mar 17, The USS Skate became the 1st submarine to surface at the North Pole. The ships crew held a funeral service and scattered the ashes of explorer Hubert Wilkins (d.1958), who had attempted the feat in 1931.
(ON, 1/02, p.9)
1960 Mar 17, Eisenhower formed anti-Castro-exile army under the CIA.
(MC, 3/17/02)
1961 Mar 17, The U.S. increased military aid and technicians to Laos.
(HN, 3/17/98)
1962 Mar 17, The Soviet Union asked the U.S. to pull out of South Vietnam.
(HN, 3/17/98)
1963 Mar 17, In Indonesia eruptions of Mount Agung volcano on Bali killed 1,184 people.
(SFC, 1/19/02, p.A14)(AP, 12/3/17)
1966 Mar 17, A U.S. midget submarine located a missing hydrogen bomb which had fallen from an American bomber into the Mediterranean off Spain.
(AP, 3/17/97)(HN, 3/17/98)
1968 Mar 17, A peaceful anti-Vietnam War protest in London was followed by a riot outside the US Embassy; more than 80 people were reported injured. Some 20,000 people at the Vietnam Solidarity Campaign in London were mowed down by police on horses as they marched.
(www.springerlink.com/content/qg812p1147300117/)(AP, 3/17/08)(SFC, 5/22/98, p.C12)
1969 Mar 17, Golda Meir (d.1978) became the 4th prime minister of Israel. She held the office to 1974.
(AP, 3/17/97)(AP, 12/8/97)
1970 Mar 17, The US Army charged 14 officers with suppression of facts in the My Lai massacre case.
(HN, 3/17/98)
1970 Mar 17, The United States cast its first veto in the UN Security Council. The US killed a resolution that would have condemned Britain for failure to use force to overthrow the white-ruled government of Rhodesia.
(AP, 3/17/00)
1972 Mar 17, Nixon asked Congress to halt busing in order to achieve desegregation.
(HN, 3/17/98)
1973 Mar 17, Queen Elizabeth II opened the new London Bridge.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Bridge)
1973 Mar 17, Twenty people were killed in Cambodia when a bomb went off that was meant for the Cambodian President Lon Nol.
(HN, 3/17/98)
1973 Mar 17, First POWs were released from the "Hanoi Hilton" in Hanoi, North Vietnam.
(HN, 3/17/98)
1974 Mar 17 Arab oil ministers, with the exception of Libya, announced the end the oil embargo on the US.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1973_oil_crisis)
1974 Mar 17, Louis Kahn (1901), Estonia-born architect, died. His designs included the capital building of Bangladesh, completed in 1983. In 2004 his son Nathaniel Kahn directed the documentary film "My Architect: A Son's Journey."
(PBS, Internet)(SFC, 2/6/04, p.D5)
1978 Mar 17, In Zaire 13 opponents of Pres. Mobutu were executed.
(WUD, 1994, p.1691)
1879 Mar 17, The US Supreme Court in Wilkerson v. Utah ruled that Utah could use a firing squad for capital punishment.
(http://supreme.justia.com/us/99/130/case.html)
1980 Mar 17, The United States Refugee Act (Public Law 96-212) became effective. It was an amendment to the earlier Immigration and Nationality Act and the Migration and Refugee Assistance Act, and was created to provide a permanent and systematic procedure for the admission to the United States of refugees of special humanitarian concern to the US, and to provide comprehensive and uniform provisions for the effective resettlement and absorption of those refugees who are admitted.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refugee_Act)
1983 Mar 17, Laura Marie Purchase was murdered in southeast Texas. In 2021 police in Kansas arrested Thomas Elvin Darnell (75), following DNA evidence that linked him to her sexual assault and murder.
(https://tinyurl.com/46skkx5r)(SFC, 5/22/21, p.A4)
1985 Mar 17, President Reagan agreed to a joint study with Canada on acid rain.
(HN, 3/17/98)
1987 Mar 17, A US federal appeals court cleared the way for the perjury indictment of former White House aide Michael Deaver (b.1938). He was later convicted of three of five perjury counts and fined $100,000.
(AP, 3/17/97)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Deaver)
1987 Mar 17, Antonio Lopez (b.1943), fashion illustrator, died in Los Angeles from AIDS. In 2018 the documentary "Antonio Lopez 1970: Sex Fashion & Disco," directed by James Crump, was released.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonio_Lopez_(illustrator))(SFC, 10/5/18, p.E6)
1988 Mar 17, Planeloads of U.S. soldiers arrived at Palmerola Air Base in Honduras in a show of strength ordered by President Reagan.
(AP, 3/17/98)
1988 Mar 17, Apple filed suit against Microsoft, alleging copyright infringement in the Windows GUI.
(Wired, 12/98, p.196)
1988 Mar 17, Ethiopia and Eritrea engaged at the Battle at Afabet. Fighting continued through March 20. It was a watershed battle in the Eritrean War of Independence. This was Mengistu Haile Mariam's first humiliating defeat at the hands of the Eritreans.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Afabet)(SSFC, 4/15/12, p.P3)
1989 Mar 17, The Senate unanimously confirmed Wyoming Congressman Dick Cheney to be secretary of defense, following the failed nomination of former Sen. John Tower.
(AP, 3/17/99)
1990 Mar 17, The president of Lithuania, Vytautas Landsbergis, rejected a deadline set by Moscow for renouncing the republic's independence.
(AP, 3/17/00)
1991 Mar 17, Allied commanders from the Gulf War held a second round of cease-fire talks with Iraqi officers; the Iraqis were told they could not move their warplanes inside Iraq for any reason.
(AP, 3/17/01)
1991 Mar 17, Millions of people voted in a landmark referendum on whether to preserve the splintering Soviet Union.
(AP, 3/17/01)
1992 Mar 17, Democrat Bill Clinton scored big primary victories in Illinois and Michigan. In Illinois, Sen. Alan Dixon was defeated in his primary re-election bid by Carol Moseley-Braun, who went on to become the first black woman in the U.S. Senate.
(AP, 3/17/97)
1992 Mar 17, Three of President George Bush's cabinet secretaries disclosed that they had overdrawn their accounts at the scandal-ridden House of Representatives bank when they were in Congress.
(www.iht.com/articles/1992/03/18/hous_3.php)
1992 Mar 17, Grace Stafford Lantz (87), cartoon voice (Woody Woodpecker), died.
(www.imdb.com/name/nm0821282/)
1992 Mar 17, A truck bombing at the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires, Argentina, killed 29 people. Iran denied any role. Hezbollah leader Imad Mughniyeh was suspected of involvement. Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility.
(AP, 3/17/97)(WSJ, 11/24/97, p.A1)(WSJ, 9/19/01, p.A14)(NYT, 10/8/04, p.A12)
1992 Mar 17, The whites of South Africa voted in a referendum to endorse the “continuation of the reform process" by a margin of 68.73% to 31.27%. They supported the negotiated reforms begun by State President F.W. de Klerk two years earlier, in which he proposed to end the apartheid.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_African_apartheid_referendum,_1992)
1993 Mar 17, Helen Hayes (92), the "First Lady of the American Theater," died in Nyack, N.Y. Hayes quit the theater in 1971 due to severe asthma.
(AP, 3/17/98)(SSFC, 12/2/07, Par p.4)
1993 Mar 17, A bomb attack in Calcutta, India, killed 60 people.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombay_bombings_(1993))
1994 Mar 17, Secretary of State Warren Christopher, just back from China, told a House subcommittee that reports the trip was a failure were "rather misleading," and said Beijing had made "solid improvements" in areas of prison labor and immigration.
(AP, 3/17/99)
1994 Mar 17, Mae Zetterling (b.1925), Swedish director and actress (Night Games), died.
(www.imdb.com/name/nm0955195/)
1995 Mar 17, The White House hosted a St. Patrick's Day reception for Irish Prime Minister John Bruton which was attended by Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams.
(AP, 3/17/00)
1995 Mar 17, The federal government approved the nation's first chicken pox vaccine, Varivax by Merck & Co.
(AP, 3/17/00)
1995 Mar 17, Flor Contemplacion, a Filipino maid, was hanged in Singapore for murder, despite international pleas to spare her.
(AP, 3/17/00)
1996 Mar 17, The $16 mil Museum of Television and Radio was christened in Beverly Hills.
(SFC, 7/9/96, p.B4)
1996 Mar 17, In Dunblane, Scotland, Queen Elizabeth II came with flowers and sympathy as residents paused in silence to mourn 16 murdered children and their teacher.
(AP, 3/17/97)
1997 Mar 17, Anthony Lake asked President Clinton to withdraw his nomination to be CIA director, saying the partisan confirmation process had "gone haywire."
(AP, 3/17/98)
1997 Mar 17, The US Supreme Court declined to hear San Francisco’s argument that the cross on Mt. Davidson is a cultural landmark. The cross would now have to be torn down or sold to a private owner.
(SFC, 3/18/97, p.A1)
1997 Mar 17, It was reported that China was upgrading the city of Chongqing in Sichuan to the status of province. It would be directly controlled by the central government but operate as a province.
(WSJ, 3/17/97, p.B9D)
1997 Mar 17, In Germany ten drunk soldiers beat up 2 Turks and an Italian during a rampage in Detmold.
(SFC, 3/19/97, p.A12,14)
1997 Mar 17, In Mexico army Brigadier Gen’l. Alfredo Navarro Lara was arrested for trying to buy off authorities in Baha. He offered payments of $1 million a month to Gen’l. Jose Luis Chavez Garcia to allow cocaine to pass into the US.
(SFC, 3/18/97, p.A10)
1997 Mar 17, In Papua New Guinea the government fired army commander Brigadier Gen’l. Jerry Singirok. He refused to accept the hiring of the British mercenary firm Sandline Int’l.
(SFC, 3/18/97, p.A12)
1997 Mar 17, In southern Russia a Stavropol Airlines AN-24 airplane crashed and all 50 aboard were presumed dead.
(SFC, 3/19/97, p.A14)
1998 Mar 17, In Alaska Jeff King battled through blowing snow and poor visibility to earn his third victory in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.
(AP, 3/17/08)
1998 Mar 17, In Mississippi after a 21-year court fight the state unsealed over 124,000 pages of secret files of the State Sovereignty Commission that revealed numerous illegal methods to thwart the civil rights workers of the ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s.
(SFC, 3/18/98, p.A1)
1998 Mar 17, Washington Mutual announced it had agreed to buy H.F. Ahmanson and Co. for $9.9 billion dollars, creating the nation's seventh-largest banking company.
(AP, 3/17/99)
1998 Mar 17, In Texas Joe Collins (64) was killed during a break-in at his home outside Nagadoches. In 2009 Khristian Oliver (32) was executed for beating and shooting Collins.
(www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/APStories/stories/D9BPMCQO0.html)
1998 Mar 17, From Brazil it was reported that a 3-month-old fire was raging out of control in the state of Roraima, home of the Yanomani Indians.
(SFC, 3/17/98, p.B2)
1998 Mar 17, More than 10,000 Catholics marched in the first-ever St. Patrick’s Day parade in Belfast.
(SFC, 3/18/98, p.A11)
1998 Mar 17, In Zambia the state of emergency imposed last Oct. was lifted.
(WSJ, 3/18/98, p.A1)
1999 Mar 17, Instant replay was voted back in the NFL for the 1999 season.
(AP, 3/17/00)
1999 Mar 17, A US science panel commissioned by the Clinton administration called for clinical trials of medical marijuana. Medical experts concluded that marijuana has medical benefits for people suffering from cancer and AIDS.
(SFC, 3/17/99, p.A1)(AP, 3/17/00)
1999 Mar 17, In Nebraska a large prairie fire around Thedford burned tens of thousands of acres and killed one volunteer firefighter.
(SFC, 3/18/99, p.A2)
1999 Mar 17, The Int'l. Olympic Committee expelled 6 members in the wake of a bribery scandal, but gave a vote of confidence to IOC pres. Juan Antonio Samaranch.
(SFC, 3/18/99, p.A1)(AP, 3/17/00)
1999 Mar 17, Eritrea said it repulsed Ethiopian troops after a 3-day battle. 300 Ethiopian soldiers were reported dead and 57 tanks destroyed. Ethiopia said the results of the battle were staged.
(SFC, 3/18/99, p.C3)
1999 Mar 17, Iraqi pilgrims flew to Saudi Arabia for the Hajj. It was the 2nd day of flights violating UN prohibitions.
(SFC, 3/18/99, p.C2)
1999 Mar 17, In Belfast gunmen killed Frankie Curry, a Protestant extremist recently paroled from prison.
(SFC, 3/18/99, p.A12)
1999 Mar 17, In Israel Rabbi Aryeh Deri, head of the Shas party of religious Sephardim, was convicted on bribery charges.
(SFC, 3/18/99, p.A12)
1999 Mar 17, In Russia the Federal Council, the upper house of parliament, defied Pres. Yeltsin's attempt to oust Yuri Skuratov, the prosecutor general. Skuratove exposed the Central Bank's secret transfer of hard currency reserves to the FIMAKO company in the Channel Islands.
(SFC, 3/18/99, p.C3)
1999 Mar 17, Allan Boesak (53), a leading anti-apartheid activist, was convicted of stealing money from foreign donors intended for the Foundation for Peace and Justice. He was later sentenced to 6 years in prison for theft and fraud.
(SFC, 3/18/99, p.A13)(SFC, 3/25/99, p.A10)
1999 Mar 17, The Vatican and Sony announced the release of the first music video, "Abba Pater," by Pope John Paul II.
(SFC, 3/17/99, p.C3)
2000 Mar 17, The United States lifted a ban on imports of Iranian luxury goods.
(AP, 3/17/01)
2000 Mar 17, Smith and Wesson signed an unprecedented agreement with the Clinton administration to, among other things, include safety locks with all of its handguns to make them more childproof; in return, the agreement called for federal, state and city lawsuits against the gun maker to be dropped.
(AP, 3/17/01)
2000 Mar 17, Boeing Co. agreed to settle a 38-day strike by its engineers. It was the largest white-collar walkout in US history.
(SFC, 3/18/00, p.A2)
2000 Mar 17, Ford Motor Co. acquired Land Rover from BMW.
(WSJ, 3/17/00, p.A1)
2000 Mar 17, A bankruptcy plan for Iridium Corp. was approved. Its satellites would be allowed to burn up in the atmosphere.
(WSJ, 3/17/00, p.B8)
2000 Mar 17, Denmark informed the 18 Faeroe Islands that they would have to give up subsidies in 4 years if they wanted independence.
(SFC, 3/18/00, p.C1)
2000 Mar 17, In Dominica it was reported that Elizabeth Israel, the daughter of a freed slave, was living at age 125.
(SFC, 3/17/00, p.A14)
2000 Mar 17, Old East German Stasi files revealed that radioactive material was used to mark opponents, their papers and money. East German dissident writer Rudolf Bahro, who died of Leukemia, may have been a victim.
(SFC, 3/18/00, p.C16)
2000 Mar 17, Lebanon granted asylum to Kozo Okamoto, one of the terrorists in the May 30, 1972 massacre at an Israeli airport. 4 other Japanese Red Army members were deported to Japan.
(SFC, 3/18/00, p.A3)
2000 Mar 17, In Uganda some 330 followers of the Movement for the Restoration of Ten Commandments of God, led by Joseph Kibweteree, burned to death in a mass suicide in Kanungu. Children were involved and it was not clear if Kibweteree was killed. More bodies were found at the house of Kibweteree. Foul play was later suspected instead of suicide. 448 other victims were later found. The dead at Kanungu have never been officially remembered. Those who lost family members have never got any answers.
(SFEC, 3/19/00, p.A19)(SFC, 3/20/00, p.A13)(SFC, 3/24/00, p.A18)(SFC, 7/15/00, p.A13)(AP, 3/17/20)
2001 Mar 17, Ray Rice, one of the founders of the Art and Architecture movement, died at age 85 in Mendocino. His work include 40 short films.
(SFC, 4/9/01, p.A17)(http://tinyurl.com/23geum)
2001 Mar 17, In Angola a small plane crashed into a mountain near Lubango and all but one of 17 people on board were killed.
(SSFC, 3/18/01, p.S2)
2001 Mar 17, Colombia suspended meat and livestock imports from Argentina for 60 days due to fears of foot-and-mouth disease. Only Israel and Russia still imported Argentine meat.
(SFC, 3/19/01, p.A9)
2001 Mar 17, In Italy protesters demonstrated at the third Global Forum in Naples. They clashed with police and 50 officers and 70 protesters suffered minor injuries.
(SSFC, 3/18/01, p.D4)
2001 Mar 17, OPEC decided to curtail its official output by 4 percent, or 1 million barrels of oil a day, in an effort to halt a recent slide in oil prices, a decision the Bush administration called “disappointing."
(SSFC, 3/18/01, p.D1)(AP, 3/17/02)
2001 Mar 17, In Spain Santos Santamaria Avedano (32), a police officer, was killed when a car bomb went off as he evacuated guests from a hotel in Roses.
(SFC, 3/19/01, p.A9)
2002 Mar 17, After nearly a year's run, Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick left the Broadway hit musical "The Producers." They later returned for a limited engagement.
(AP, 3/17/07)
2002 Mar 17, US troops killed 16 al Qaeda fighters in the Gardez region.
(WSJ, 3/19/02, p.A1)
2002 Mar 17, It was reported that McDonald’s Corp. had agreed to give 410 million to vegetarian groups, Hindu and Sikh organizations and to pay $4,000 to 12 plaintiffs to settle a suit over the use of beef tallow in french fries.
(SSFC, 3/17/02, p.A22)
2002 Mar 17, Israeli and Palestinian officials met to prepare for a cease-fire following meetings with US envoy Adm. Zinni. A Palestinian gunman opened fire in Kfar Saba. He killed an Israeli high school student (18) and was shot dead. A suicide bomber detonated himself in Jerusalem.
(SSFC, 3/17/02, p.A1)(SFC, 3/18/02, p.A3)
2002 Mar 17, In Karadzigach, Kyrgyzstan, 4 people were killed during a protest over the sentencing of lawmaker Azimbek Beknazarov.
(SFC, 3/19/02, p.A7)
2002 Mar 17, In Islamabad, Pakistan, 2 attackers hurled grenades into a Protestant Int’l. Church and 5 people were killed including a US Embassy employee, Barbara Green, and her daughter Kristen Wormsley (17). Investigators later believed that the attack was by a lone suicide bomber, one of the dead.
(SFC, 3/18/02, p.A1)(SFC, 3/19/02, p.A10)
2002 Mar 17, In Portugal the Social Democrats won elections with 40% of the vote to 37.85% for the Socialists. The SD gained 102 seats and the Popular Party won 14 giving them a majority in the 230-seat parliament. Jose Manuel Durao Barroso became prime minister.
(SFC, 3/18/02, p.A5)(Econ, 3/27/04, p.51)
2003 Mar 17, Pres. Bush gave Saddam Hussein 48 hours to go into exile or face military onslaught.
(SFC, 3/19/03, p.A1)
2003 Mar 17, Berlin Plus agreement, a short title for a comprehensive package of agreements between NATO and EU, was based on conclusions of the NATO Washington Summit.
(www.nato.int/shape/news/2003/shape_eu/se030822a.htm)(Econ, 2/10/07, p.54)
2003 Mar 17, In Washington, D.C., tobacco farmer Dwight Ware Watson, claiming to be carrying bombs, drove a tractor and trailer into a pond on the National Mall; the threat disrupted traffic for two days until Watson surrendered; there were no bombs.
(AP, 3/17/04)
2003 Mar 17, Herbert Aptheker (87), historian, died. His work included a multi-volume "Documentary History of the Negro People," and the editing of 3 volumes of letters from W.E.B. DuBois.
(SFC, 3/21/03, p.A21)
2003 Mar 17, Pen Hadow, 41, began a 478-mile trek from Ward Hunt Island in northern Canada to the geographic North Pole. He reached the Pole unsupported on May 19, but a plane has been unable to retrieve him because of broken ice and thick clouds.
(AP, 5/27/03)
2003 Mar 17, Chinese police found 28 baby girls hidden in suitcases aboard a long-distance bus in southern Guangxi, apparently being smuggled for sale. Police later arrested 10 people involved in the scheme.
(AP, 3/22/03)(WSJ, 3/24/03, p.A1)
2003 Mar 17, In Soro, Denmark, Nizar Al-Khazraji (65), former Iraqi general, disappeared.
(WSJ, 4/9/03, p.A1)(SFC, 4/16/03, p.A11)
2003 Mar 17, Iraq rejected Bush's ultimatum, saying that a U.S. attack to force Saddam from power would be "a grave mistake."
(AP, 3/17/04)
2003 Mar 17, Israeli forces invaded 2 communities in the Gaza Strip and gun battles left 10 Palestinians dead including a 4-yer-old girl.
(SFC, 3/18/03, p.AA6)
2003 Mar 17, In the Netherlands a law went into effect that allowed pharmacies to fill prescriptions for marijuana.
(SFC, 3/18/03, p.A8)
2003 Mar 17, In Nigeria ethnic clashes left 8 people dead, including an employee of ChevronTexaco.
(AP, 3/18/03)
2003 Mar 17-May 25, Iraq was scheduled to take over as chairman of the UN disarmament organization, but declined the position.
(SSFC, 2/9/03, p.A16)
2004 Mar 17, Charles A. McCoy Jr., suspected in a series of highway shootings in central Ohio, was arrested in Las Vegas.
(AP, 3/17/05)
2004 Mar 17, Major league Baseball banned THG, a steroid at the center of a criminal probe involving a SF-area lab.
(WSJ, 3/18/04, p.A1)
2004 Mar 17, Harvard researchers reported that an enzyme in the brain appears to regulate appetite and weight.
(WSJ, 3/18/04, p.A1)
2004 Mar 17, John "J.J." Jackson (62), former MTV personality, died in Los Angeles.
(AP, 3/17/05)
2004 Mar 17, Angola decided to reject genetically modified food aid. The decision threatened to disrupt distributions to hundreds of thousands of people.
(AP, 3/29/04)
2004 Mar 17, It was reported that locusts have swarmed through the Australian Outback, devastating crops just as farmers had begun recovering from a two-year drought.
(AP, 3/17/04)
2004 Mar 17, In Iraq a car bomb tore apart the five-story Mount Lebanon Hotel in central Baghdad, killing 7 people. In northeastern Iraq gunmen opened fire on a minibus, killing three Iraqi journalists and wounding nine other employees of a coalition-funded TV station. Insurgents killed two U.S. Marines who were on patrol in al-Anbar province. In Mosul 4 US Baptist missionaries were killed in a drive-by shooting.
(AP, 3/18/04)(SFC, 3/18/04, p.A1)(AP, 3/19/04)(WSJ, 4/1/04, p.A10)
2004 Mar 17, Israeli helicopters fired two missiles into a crowd of suspected gunmen in a Palestinian refugee camp, killing four people in a stepped-up campaign to root out militants in the Gaza Strip. 2 teenage boys were killed in an air strike at the Rafah refugee camp.
(AP, 3/17/04)(SFC, 3/18/04, p.A2)
2004 Mar 17, Israel's Supreme Court imposed an open-ended freeze on construction of a 15-mile section of the country's controversial West Bank separation barrier.
(AP, 3/18/04)
2004 Mar 17, The Maldives ferry Enamaa was carrying far more than its capacity of up to 100 when a wave overturned it. At least 18 people were killed. More than 50 others were missing.
(AP, 3/18/04)
2004 Mar 17, In Kosovo ethnic Albanians traded gunfire with Serbs after blaming them for the drownings of two boys. The clashes left eight dead and more than 300 injured.
(AP, 3/17/04)
2005 Mar 17, US Congressional hearings began on steroid use among baseball players. Baseball players told Congress that steroids were a problem in the sport; stars Rafael Palmeiro and Sammy Sosa testified they hadn't used them while Mark McGwire refused to say whether he had.
(SFC, 3/18/05, p.A1)(AP, 3/17/06)
2005 Mar 17, Rapper Lil' Kim was convicted of lying to a grand jury about a shootout outside a New York radio station. Lil' Kim started serving her 366-day sentence just before her fourth album was released in September 2005.
(AP, 3/17/06)
2005 Mar 17, Toys R Us agreed to become a privately owned company in a $6.6 billion buyout deal that included 2 equity firms and a real estate developer.
(SFC, 3/18/05, p.C1)
2005 Mar 17, George F. Kennan (b.1904), former US diplomat and historian, died. In 1947 Kennan wrote an article that would guide US postwar policy (containment) for decades. He proposed in the piece signed "X" that the US stop the global spread of Communism through ideology and politics, not war. His books included "Russia Leaves the War" (1956). In 2007 John Lukacs authored “George Kennan: A Study of Character." In 2009 Nicholas Thompson authored “The Hawk and the Dove: Paul Nitze, George Kennan, and the History of the Cold War." In 2011 John Lewis authored “George F. Kennan: An American Life."
(AP, 3/18/05)(SFC, 3/18/05, p.A2)(Econ, 3/26/05, p.85)(SSFC, 4/8/07, p.M3)(Econ, 10/17/09, p.98)(Econ, 11/12/11, p.97)
2005 Mar 17, In Afghanistan a bomb exploded near a taxi carrying women and children in the southern city of Kandahar, killing at least five people and wounding.
(AP, 3/17/05)
2005 Mar 17, President Fidel Castro announced a 7 percent revaluation of Cuba's national currency, giving Cubans slightly more buying power as the communist-run island moves to reassert greater control over its economy.
(AP, 3/17/05)
2005 Mar 17, Italian airline Alitalia SpA said that the latest strike by flight attendants could plunge the struggling carrier into bankruptcy.
(AP, 3/17/05)
2005 Mar 17, In Pakistan’s Baluchistan province 17 minority Hindus were killed when their temple was hit by rockets during fighting between renegade tribesmen and security forces in Dera Bugti. Officials later said up to 45 people, including eight soldiers, were killed in the clashes between the Frontier Corps troops and Bugti tribesmen. Of the 67 people killed about half died when the ghetto was shelled by government forces.
(AP, 3/21/05)(Econ, 5/7/05, p.37)
2005 Mar 17, Palestinian militants declared a halt to attacks on Israel for the rest of this year, their longest cease-fire promise ever and a victory for Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.
(AP, 3/17/05)
2005 Mar 17, Anatoly Chubais, head of Russia’s state-controlled Unified Energy Systems power grid, was ambushed on his way to work near his country home outside Moscow by assailants who detonated a bomb and raked his armored car with automatic weapons fire. No one was hurt. In September prosecutors indicted 3 former servicemen in connection with the attempted assassination. Formal charges were filed against retired military intelligence colonel, Vladimir Kvachkov, and former paratroopers Robert Yashin and Alexander Naidyonov.
(AP, 9/27/05)
2005 Mar 17, Stephane Lambiel of Switzerland won the men's title at the World Figure Skating Championships in Moscow.
(AP, 3/17/06)
2005 Mar 17, Zimbabwe's highest court barred 3.4 million citizens living abroad, over 20 percent of the country's population, from voting in this month's parliamentary elections.
(AP, 3/18/05)
2006 Mar 17, A US federal appeals court blocked the Environmental Protection Agency from easing clean air rules on aging power plants, refineries and factories, one of the regulatory changes that had been among the top environmental priorities of the White House.
(AP, 3/18/06)
2006 Mar 17, US Federal regulators reported the deaths of two more women who had taken the abortion pill RU-486; Planned Parenthood, which had provided the pills to the women, said it would immediately stop disregarding the approved instructions for the drug's use.
(AP, 3/17/07)
2006 Mar 17, The new Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology opened in Menlo Park, Ca., as part of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. Researchers there planned to focus on investigations on the dark matter and dark energy components of the universe.
(SFC, 3/18/06, p.B4)
2006 Mar 17, Oleg Cassini (92), who designed the dresses that helped make Jacqueline Kennedy the most glamorous first lady in history, died on Long Island, NY.
(AP, 3/18/06)
2006 Mar 17, Former US Federal Reserve Chairman and former treasury secretary G. William Miller died at age 81.
(AP, 3/17/07)
2006 Mar 17, In Vienna, Austria, ethnic Albanian and Serbian officials laid out their demands at UN-mediated talks on the future of Kosovo, one of the most intractable disputes left over from the disintegration of Yugoslavia.
(AP, 3/17/06)
2006 Mar 17, In southern Afghanistan a roadside bomb hit a convoy carrying the bodies of four men believed to be kidnapped Macedonians, a day after the remains were recovered. Five police were killed and three wounded.
(AP, 3/17/06)
2006 Mar 17, Bangladesh confirmed the country's first case of polio in nearly six years, prompting plans to resume mass vaccinations against the crippling disease next month.
(AP, 3/17/06)
2006 Mar 17, Britain’s PM Tony Blair's Labour Party revealed it had received 24.5 million dollars in loans from individual supporters as a furor over the party's secret funding deepened.
(AP, 3/17/06)(Econ, 3/25/06, p.65)
2006 Mar 17, Mohammed Ajmal Khan (31), a British man who bought equipment which might have been used in attacks on coalition troops in Afghanistan, was jailed after he admitted being a "terrorist quartermaster." He had been trying to buy night vision and thermal imaging equipment when arrested in 2003 and also worked closely with Masaud Khan and Seifullah Chapman, both given long jail terms in the US in 2004 for terrorism-related offences.
(AP, 3/17/06)
2006 Mar 17, Statistics Canada reported that the nation's net worth hit $4.5 trillion, or $137,000 a head, at the end of 2005.
(AP, 3/17/06)
2006 Mar 17, A Chinese court dropped charges against a Chinese researcher for The New York Times who was accused of leaking state secrets, about a month ahead of a visit by Chinese President Hu Jintao to Washington. Zhao Yan, who worked for the Times' Beijing bureau, was detained in September 2004.
(AP, 3/17/06)
2006 Mar 17, A Chinese court jailed teacher Ren Ziyuan (27) for 10 years for publishing anti-government views on the Internet, continuing an official crackdown on Web-based dissidents.
(AP, 3/17/06)
2006 Mar 17, Yuan Baojing, a Chinese tycoon once worth more than $360 million, and two accomplices were executed by lethal injection. Yuan (40) was convicted last year of hiring a hit man in a failed plot to kill a business partner who had caused Yuan's company to lose $11 million in futures trading.
(AP, 3/18/06)
2006 Mar 17, Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, a Congolese militia leader accused of conscripting and enlisting children aged under 15 for warfare (1998-2002), became the first suspect sent for trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Netherlands.
(Reuters, 3/17/06)(WSJ, 3/18/06, p.A1)
2006 Mar 17, Nearly 1,000 Egyptian judges held a half-hour silent protest to demonstrate for full judicial independence and against the government's order to interrogate six of their colleagues who criticized recent elections.
(AP, 3/17/06)
2006 Mar 17, Indian PM Manmohan Singh thanked Russia for its decision to supply uranium to two fuel-starved Indian nuclear reactors, during a visit to New Delhi by Russian Premier Mikhail Fradkov.
(AFP, 3/17/06)
2006 Mar 17, Some 93 whales began beaching themselves in Indonesia's Central Sulawesi province. About 50 died as local villagers dragged at least 40 back to the open sea.
(AFP, 3/19/06)
2006 Mar 17, Akbar Ganji (46), an Iranian dissident journalist, was freed after spending most of his six-year prison term in solitary confinement. He vowed to keep criticizing the hard-line clerical regime. Ganji was jailed in 2000 after reporting on the killings of five dissidents by Intelligence Ministry agents.
(AP, 3/18/06)
2006 Mar 17, In Iraq the Muslim pilgrims' road to the holy city of Karbala was a highway of bullets and bombs for Shiites. Drive-by shootings and roadside and bus bombs killed or wounded 19 people.
(AP, 3/17/06)
2006 Mar 17, Israel set up a quarantine and destroyed flocks after bird flu was found at 2 turkey farms.
(WSJ, 3/18/06, p.A1)
2006 Mar 17, Officials in Japan said they have confirmed the country's first case of mad cow disease in cattle raised to provide meat.
(AP, 3/17/06)
2006 Mar 17, Liberia said it has asked Nigeria to hand over former Pres. Charles Taylor, who is living there in exile and wanted on war crimes charges for his role in Sierra Leone's civil war.
(AP, 3/17/06)
2006 Mar 17, A bus carrying dozens of teenagers on a school field trip toppled off a bridge on the outskirts of Mexico's capital, killing 7 people and injuring at least 28.
(AP, 3/18/06)
2006 Mar 17, A helicopter evacuated the five conservation workers from Raoul Island, a nature reserve in New Zealand's remote Kermadec Islands. An erupting volcano forced the conservation team to abandon a missing colleague on the South Pacific island. The last known eruption on Raoul Island, about 625 miles northeast of the New Zealand city of Auckland, was on Nov. 21, 1964, from a vent close to Green Lake.
(AP, 3/17/06)
2006 Mar 17, Exiled Syrian opposition figures in Belgium formed a united front, calling for a transitional government to prepare for the overthrow of President Bashar Assad's regime.
(AP, 3/17/06)
2006 Mar 17, In Uruguay 7 residents of Young were killed when they were run over by a train they were pushing as part of a reality television show aimed at raising funds for a local hospital.
(AP, 3/17/06)
2007 Mar 17, An estimated 10-20 thousand protesters marched in Washington DC marking the 4th anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq and demanding an end to the war there.
(SSFC, 3/18/07, p.A10)
2007 Mar 17, John Backus (b.1924), programmer, died in Oregon. His development of the Fortran programming language in the 1950s changed how people interacted with computers and paved the way for modern software. Fortran, short for Formula Translation, reduced the number of programming statements necessary to operate a machine by a factor of 20. The Association for Computing Machinery gave Backus its 1977 Turing Award, one of the industry's highest accolades. Backus also won a National Medal of Science in 1975 and got the 1993 Charles Stark Draper Prize, the top honor from the National Academy of Engineering.
(AP, 3/20/07)
2007 Mar 17, In southern Afghanistan a suicide bomber targeting a Canadian military convoy killed a child and wounded a NATO soldier and three other people. More than 1,400 artifacts, protected from looters and the Taliban since 1999 at a museum-in-exile in Switzerland, were returned to the National Museum of Afghanistan. In western Afghanistan a two-hour clash between suspected Taliban militants and police left two officers dead. Taliban guerrillas chopped noses and ears of at least five truck drivers in eastern Afghanistan as punishment for transporting supplies to US-led troops.
(AP, 3/17/07)(AP, 3/18/07)(Reuters, 3/18/07)
2007 Mar 17, China's central bank said it will raise key interest rates by more than a quarter point to control a surge in bank lending and investment and to prevent consumer prices from rising. The 0.27% point hike in one-year deposit and lending benchmark rates will go into effect Mar 18. This was the 3rd rate hike in a year.
(SSFC, 3/18/07, p.A18)(AP, 3/19/07)
2007 Mar 17, Two cargo ships collided in the East China Sea, killing at least eight people. The collision occurred off Zhejiang province between a cargo ship from China and a Hong Kong-registered vessel. The Hong Kong ship, with 29 crew aboard, sank immediately.
(AP, 3/19/07)
2007 Mar 17, In France tens of thousands of people filled the streets of five cities to protest plans to build the next generation of nuclear reactors.
(AP, 3/17/07)
2007 Mar 17, Officials in Guatemala City said China is seeking to join the Inter-American Development Bank, Latin America's largest financing institution, as a way to fuel its economic development and increase its influence in the region.
(AP, 3/18/07)
2007 Mar 17, India’s West Bengal state government said it is dropping plans for an industrial zone after deadly riots by farmers furious that their land was being taken for the project.
(AP, 3/17/07)
2007 Mar 17, In Iraq bombings and shootings targeted police patrols, killing five policemen, including two who died after a suicide car bomber struck the checkpoint they were manning near a Sunni mosque in western Baghdad. 7 US troops were killed, including four by a roadside bomb while patrolling western Baghdad.
(AP, 3/17/07)(AP, 3/18/07)
2007 Mar 17, Lithuanian musicians, drum-beating Punjabis and West African dancers used Dublin's St. Patrick's Day parade to celebrate their place in a booming Ireland that has become a land of immigrants.
(AP, 3/17/07)
2007 Mar 17, The Arenitas waste water treatment plant, that Mexican officials say will help prevent pollution of US waterways, was inaugurated in the city of Mexicali, across the border from Calexico, Calif.
(AP, 3/18/07)
2007 Mar 17, In Nigeria retired general Adetunji Olurin, who runs Ekiti State, warned he could invoke State of Emergency Laws against politicians bent on causing violence as April general elections draw near. Newspapers next day reported that he threatened to have troublemakers shot on sight to curb political violence. In central Nigeria 2 Asians and one Nigerian were kidnapped.
(AFP, 3/18/07)(AP, 3/19/07)
2007 Mar 17, North Korea warned it would not shut a nuclear plant until the United States lifted banking curbs, while Washington's envoy maintained the bank issue would not kill a budding disarmament deal.
(Reuters, 3/17/07)
2007 Mar 17, Authorities eased restrictions on Pakistan's chief justice and sacked 15 police for attacking a private news channel that had criticized the government's handling of the judge's dismissal.
(AP, 3/17/07)
2007 Mar 17, The new Hamas-Fatah coalition won overwhelming parliamentary approval, clearing a final formal hurdle before taking on the challenge of persuading a skeptical world to end a crippling yearlong boycott of the Palestinian government. Fatah counted 6 ministers, Hamas had 12, and 7 more went to independents and small, centrist parties.
(AP, 3/16/07)(Econ, 3/24/07, p.51)
2007 Mar 17, A Russian Tu-134 airliner crash landed in heavy fog in the central Russian city of Samara, killing 6 people and injuring 26.
(AP, 3/17/07)
2007 Mar 17, In Spain film director Pedro Almodovar joined tens of thousands of people in a march through Madrid to protest the war in Iraq and to demand the closure of the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay.
(AP, 3/17/07)
2007 Mar 17, In southern Thailand attackers hurled explosives and opened fire on an Islamic school, killing three students and sparking a riot by angry Muslim villagers. Shortly after the attack, three Buddhists were shot dead in the same district.
(AP, 3/18/07)
2007 Mar 17, Half of Uganda’s 28 million population was reported to be under age 15.
(Econ, 3/17/07, p.50)
2007 Mar 17, Three Zimbabwean opposition activists were arrested as they tried to leave the country, including two who were allegedly beaten by police and were going to South Africa to seek medical treatment. The African Union (AU) expressed "great concern" about Zimbabwe's crisis and called for human rights to be respected, after opposition members said they were beaten after an anti-government protest.
(AP, 3/17/07)
2008 Mar 17, The US administration signed deals with Hungary, Lithuania and Slovakia paving the way for visa-free travel for their citizens despite concerns in Brussels over the bilateral agreements.
(AFP, 3/17/08)
2008 Mar 17, In New York David Paterson was sworn in almost exactly a week after allegations first surfaced that former Gov. Eliot Spitzer was "Client 9" of a high-priced call girl service. Paterson tried to come clean about his own skeletons just hours after assuming office by acknowledging a years-old affair.
(AP, 3/18/08)
2008 Mar 17, Hannaford Bros., a grocery store chain in the Northeast US and Florida owned by Belgium’s Delhaize Group SA, disclosed that as many as 4.2 million customer account numbers had been stolen between Dec 7 and Mar 10. The intrusion was not discovered until Feb 27 and occurred over a network system that experts had believed to be secure.
(WSJ, 3/31/08, p.B4)
2008 Mar 17, The commodities markets staged a broad sell off after climbing for months. Most commodities recovered the next day.
(Econ, 3/22/08, p.85)
2008 Mar 17, The first carbon-linked derivatives contracts began trading on the Green Exchange, a joint venture between the NY Mercantile Exchange, Evolution Markets and Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch and others. Carbon permits this year reached nearly $47 a ton.
(Econ, 3/15/08, p.91)(Econ, 3/3/12, p.82)
2008 Mar 17, Roland Arnall (b.1939), founder of Ameriquest Mortgage Co., died. He was also the co-founder of the Holocaust memorial Simon Wiesenthal Center. In 2006 he began serving as US ambassador to the Netherlands.
(WSJ, 3/22/08, p.A7)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roland_Arnall)
2008 Mar 17, in Afghanistan 4 NATO soldiers, 2 Danes, a Canadian and a Czech with the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), were killed in new attacks, including a Taliban suicide bomb that also took the lives of three Afghan civilians.
(AP, 3/17/08)
2008 Mar 17, A judge awarded Heather Mills a total of $48.6 million in the financial settlement of her divorce from former Beatle Paul McCartney. This was a fifth of what she had demanded.
(AP, 3/17/08)(Econ, 3/22/08, p.65)
2008 Mar 17, An EU force of 3,700 troops still deploying in Chad and the Central African Republic (CAR) announced the official start of its year-long mission to protect refugees and displaced people. The EU force in Chad was known as EUFOR, and the UN Mission there and the CAR was called MINURCAT.
(AFP, 3/17/08)(Econ, 5/31/08, p.52)
2008 Mar 17, China denounced attacks on its embassies by pro-Tibetan activists hours before a deadline for rioters in Lhasa to turn themselves in and said it would do all in its power to protect its territorial integrity.
(Reuters, 3/17/08)
2008 Mar 17, In India 7 migrant workers believed to be from northern Uttar Pradesh state were shot and killed on the outskirts of Impala, the capital of Manipur state.
(AP, 3/18/08)
2008 Mar 17, Indonesia and South Africa agreed to reduce obstacles to trade and business and jointly explore new avenues for electricity generation.
(AFP, 3/17/08)
2008 Mar 17, In Iraq police said they found the bodies of three members of a US-allied group fighting al-Qaida in Udaim. Sen. John McCain stressed the importance of a US commitment to Iraq during talks with Iraq's prime minister. Explosions struck Baghdad during twin visits by the presumptive Republican presidential nominee and Vice President Dick Cheney. A female suicide bomber struck Shiite worshippers in Karbala, killing at least 32 people with 51 wounded. The blast was the deadliest in a series of attacks that left at least 78 Iraqis dead.
(AP, 3/17/08)(AP, 3/18/08)(AP, 3/19/08)
2008 Mar 17, The Mozambican government made an urgent appeal to the UN World Food Program to help more than 60,000 people left destitute when cyclone Jokwe hit northern and central parts of the country.
(AFP, 3/17/08)
2008 Mar 17, UN forces pulling Serb demonstrators from a UN courthouse were attacked by hundreds of furious protesters who massed outside, setting off an hours-long battle with rocks, grenades and live ammunition. One UN policeman was killed.
(AP, 3/17/08)(WSJ, 3/19/08, p.A1)
2009 Mar 17, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said AIG, the troubled insurance giant, paid bonuses of $1 million or more to 73 employees, including 11 who no longer work for the company.
(AP, 3/18/09)
2009 Mar 17, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir will be responsible for "every single death" caused by the expulsion of 13 foreign aid groups from Sudan.
(Reuters, 3/17/09)
2009 Mar 17, The Seattle Post Intelligencer, owned by the Hearst Corp., printed its last newspaper edition. It will become exclusively Web-based as Seattlepi.com, making it the nation’s largest daily newspaper to move to online only.
(SFC, 3/17/09, p.A8)
2009 Mar 17, In Utah Chiew Chan Saevang (37), a suspected opium trafficker, killed himself and his girlfriend, Yer Yang (40), after sheriff’s deputies chased them down on a state highway. Saevang was also wanted in the March 12 slaying of four Conover, NC, family members.
(SFC, 3/19/09, p.A5)
2009 Mar 17, Afghanistan called for more international help to develop its fledgling and embattled security forces so that it can take on a larger role in "the fight against terrorism."
(AFP, 3/17/09)
2009 Mar 17, Pope Benedict XVI arrived in Cameroon to start his first visit to Africa as pontiff. Benedict, arriving in Africa, said that condoms "increase the problem" of AIDS. The comment, made to reporters aboard his plane, caused a worldwide firestorm of criticism.
(Reuters, 3/18/09)
2009 Mar 17, In Canada more than 100 protesters chanted "war criminal" and flung shoes in Calgary, angry that former US President George W. Bush was in the city to give his first speech since leaving the White House.
(Reuters, 3/17/09)
2009 Mar 17, In Colombia Erik Roland Larsson (69), a partially paralyzed Swede, was released by leftist rebels after nearly two years of captivity. He was the last known foreign hostage held in Colombia by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).
(AP, 3/18/09)
2009 Mar 17, Egyptian security officials caught 2 Hamas officials returning to Gaza with nearly $850,000 stuffed into candy tins.
(SFC, 3/18/09, p.A2)
2009 Mar 17, French President Nicolas Sarkozy's government won a parliamentary confidence vote prompted by his plans to rejoin NATO's military command, which many legislators fear would compromise France's independence.
(AP, 3/17/09)
2009 Mar 17, Police in the Republic of Ireland made public-order arrests from St. Patrick’s Day festivities that easily exceeded 200, typical for recent years. Inebriated mobs annually turned districts of Dublin and Belfast into a nightmare.
(AP, 3/18/09)
2009 Mar 17, Madagascar's Pres. Marc Ravalomanana ceded power to the military, instead of rival Andry Rajoelina, who plunged the island nation into weeks of turmoil with his bid for power. The military installed opposition leader Andry Rajoelina.
(AP, 3/17/09)(SFC, 3/18/09, p.A4)
2009 Mar 17, In Malaysia a battle for senior leadership posts in the ruling party was hit with a bombshell as 15 members including several top figures were found guilty in an anti-corruption probe.
(AFP, 3/17/09)
2009 Mar 17, Authorities in Myanmar were reported to have arrested five members of detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi's political party from March 6-13. the report came a day after the UN called for the release of more than 2,000 political prisoners in the military-run country.
(AP, 3/17/09)
2009 Mar 17, In the Netherlands the UN criminal tribunal for the former Yugoslavia reduced the jail sentence of Bosnian Serb leader Momcilo Krajisnik from 27 to 20 years, quashing some convictions from a 2006 judgment.
(AP, 3/17/09)
2009 Mar 17, North Korea fully reopened its border to South Koreans commuting to jobs at factories in a northern economic zone after four days of restrictions. North Korean soldiers detained two American journalists near the country's border with China. Laura Ling and Euna Lee, reporters for former Vice President Al Gore's San Francisco-based online media outlet Current TV, were taken into custody near the Tumen River in northeastern North Korea. They had crossed into the country while reporting about the sex trade. Both journalists were formally indicted in April. After 140 days in custody, the reporters were granted a pardon.
(AP, 3/17/09)(AP, 3/19/09)(SFC, 4/24/09, p.A2)(SFC, 5/18/10, p.A4)(AP, 8/5/09)
2009 Mar 17, In Pakistan Islamic courts started work in the Swat valley under a controversial deal that the government hopes will end two years of bitter fighting.
(AFP, 3/18/09)
2009 Mar 17, Philippine marines and al-Qaida-linked militants holding three Red Cross workers clashed for a second day, leaving three troops and up to 7 Abu Sayyaf militants dead.
(AP, 3/17/09)(AP, 3/18/09)
2009 Mar 17, Portuguese police said they have captured more than 7.7 tons (7 metric tons) of hashish from Morocco with an estimated street value of more than euro70 million (US$91 million). Police said they netted the drug in a series of coordinated operations over three days beginning last weekend.
(AP, 3/17/09)
2009 Mar 17, Russia's defense minister charged that the US and NATO were beefing up their military presence near Russia's borders in a bid for natural resources that could ignite new conflicts.
(AP, 3/17/09)
2009 Mar 17, In Sudan a UN/African Union peacekeeper was killed in an ambush in Darfur.
(AP, 3/17/09)
2010 Mar 17, US federal authorities won a court order requiring officials in the US Virgin Islands to repair sewage plants that have dumped raw waste at beaches renowned for snorkeling and surfing.
(AP, 3/17/10)
2010 Mar 17, In California US Border patrol agents seized 580 pounds of marijuana inside a tractor-trailer near Blythe in Riverside County.
(SFC, 3/20/10, p.A5)
2010 Mar 17, McAfee Inc. reported that hackers have flooded the Internet with virus-tainted spam that targets Facebook's estimated 400 million users in an effort to steal banking passwords and gather other sensitive information.
(Reuters, 3/19/10)
2010 Mar 17, Alex Chilton (59), singer and guitarist, died in New Orleans. His song “The Letter" (“Gimme a ticket for an airplane…") reached the top of the charts in 1967.
(SFC, 3/19/10, p.C5)
2010 Mar 17, In Abu Dhabi Hissa Hilal, only her eyes visible through her black veil, delivered a blistering poem against Muslim preachers "who sit in the position of power" but are "frightening" people with their fatwas, or religious edicts, and "preying like a wolf" on those seeking peace. She presented her 15-verse poem on the live TV “The Million's Poet" program.
(AP, 3/23/10)
2010 Mar 17, In Afghanistan 2 suicide attackers dressed in burqas were shot dead as they attempted to enter the compound of a US-linked aid organization in southern Lashkar Gah. Up to 35 people died when a bus carrying passengers taking home gas canisters collided with a truck on a treacherous mountain pass in northern Afghanistan.
(AFP, 3/17/10)
2010 Mar 17, The Congolese army said more than 600 Rwandan Hutu rebels have been killed or captured since January in an operation backed by the UN mission to the country.
(AFP, 3/18/10)
2010 Mar 17, Uniformed Cuban security agents prevented the mothers and wives of dissidents from marching on the outskirts of Havana to demand release of their loved ones, shoving them into a bus when they lay down in the street in protest.
(AP, 3/17/10)
2010 Mar 17, A Guatemalan court approved the extradition of former President Alfonso Portillo (2000-2004) to the US to face money laundering charges. He is charged in a New York federal court with embezzling $1.5 million in foreign donations intended to buy school library books in Guatemala. He allegedly endorsed checks drawn from a New York bank and deposited them in a Miami account.
(AP, 3/18/10)
2010 Mar 17, Iran released Mohsen Mirdamadi, the leader of the country's biggest reformist party, the Islamic Iran Participation Front. He was temporarily freed on $450,000 bail. Authorities also released filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof, journalist Ali Akbar Montajabi and female activist Farzaneh Qassemi, all of whom were detained in recent weeks.
(AP, 3/18/10)
2010 Mar 17, Israel lifted its tight restrictions on Palestinian access to Jerusalem's holiest shrine and called off an extended West Bank closure after days of clashes between Palestinians and Israeli security forces.
(AP, 3/17/10)
2010 Mar 17, In Kyrgyzstan thousands of demonstrators rallied in the capital Bishkek to protest recent sharp increases in heating and electricity tariffs and alleged oppression of government opponents.
(AP, 3/17/10)
2010 Mar 17, The African Union slapped sanctions on Madagascar's rulers for failing to implement accords to end a long political crisis, as fresh violence erupted in the island's capital.
(AFP, 3/17/10)
2010 Mar 17, Nigeria's Acting President Goodluck Jonathan dissolved the Cabinet, purging top officials loyal to the nation's ill president in his first major act since taking over the young democracy's highest office more than a month ago. Suspected Muslim Fulani herdsmen disguised as soldiers butchered and then burned around a dozen Christians, mostly women and children, in the Riyom region of Plateau state, close to the site of a recent sectarian massacre.
(AFP, 3/18/10)(AFP, 3/17/10)
2010 Mar 17, In northwest Pakistan 2 US missile strikes killed at least 10 militants in North Waziristan. Attackers armed with rockets and petrol bombs killed five policemen in a pre-dawn ambush near the Khyber tribal district. an Afghan was killed in an explosion while making a bomb on the outskirts of Quetta. Militants fixed a bomb to the tail end of a tanker with a magnet and the explosion burnt some 40,000 liters of fuel it was carrying for NATO forces in Afghanistan. A Pakistani court formally charged 5 young Americans of plotting terrorism in the country, in a case that has raised alarm over the danger posed by militants using the Internet.
(AFP, 3/17/10)(AP, 3/17/10)
2010 Mar 17, In Ramallah Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva placed a wreath on the tomb of the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and sharply criticized Israeli policies, leading Israeli officials to suggest he was not being evenhanded. The visit came a day after Israel's hawkish foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, said he boycotted meetings with Silva because the Brazilian did not pay a similar visit to the grave of Zionist founder Theodor Herzl.
(AP, 3/18/10)
2010 Mar 17, In southern Sudan at least 13 people were killed in fighting between northern nomads and the southern army.
(AFP, 3/19/10)
2010 Mar 17, Ugandan security forces fatally shot three people in the capital during clashes with rioters angry after the tombs of five traditional kings were destroyed overnight by fire. On March 30 man turned himself saying a vision told him the tombs were Satanic.
(AP, 3/17/10)(AP, 3/31/10)
2010 Mar 17, In Zimbabwe South African President Jacob Zuma began talks with Zimbabwe's political leaders on his first trip as chief regional mediator to patch up differences in the troubled coalition government.
(AP, 3/17/10)
2011 Mar 17, The US Justice Dept. accused the New Orleans Police Dept. of systematic misconduct that violated the Constitution. A report said officers had engaged in racial profiling against the city’s black majority from January 2009 to May 2010 and used deadly force against 27 people.
(SFC, 3/18/11, p.A4)
2011 Mar 17, In southern California Huy Pham (29) jumped off roof of City Hall in Costa Mesa at 3:20 pm and was pronounced dead at the scene. The maintenance worker jumped to his death an hour after he was called in to get his layoff notice. He was on a list of more than 200 people, nearly half of the city's workforce, targeted for layoffs in a drastic move to plug a $15 million budget hole.
(AP, 3/18/11)
2011 Mar 17, In Minneapolis, Min., one teen died and teenagers and young adults were hospitalized following an apparent overdose on a designer hallucinogen, 2C-E (aka Europa), which they had ordered legally over the Internet for a spring break party.
(SFC, 3/18/11, p.A4)
2011 Mar 17, American actor Danny Glover arrived in South Africa to escort former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide home.
(AP, 3/17/11)
2011 Mar 17, In northern Afghanistan gunmen on motorcycles kidnapped six road engineers and their driver as they were traveling to a work site.
(AP, 3/18/11)
2011 Mar 17, In Australia a pod of long-finned pilot whales beached themselves at Bruny Island, south of the Tasmanian state capital Hobart. 21 whales died but 11 were saved.
(AP, 3/18/11)
2011 Mar 17, Bahrain's Sunni monarchy detained at least seven prominent opposition activists. Iran recalled its ambassador to protest the Gulf troops backing the government against the Shiite protests. Dr. Ali al-Iqri, one of Bahrain's acclaimed surgeons who had spoken to media at the height of the unrest, was taken from an operating theater. On Sep 29 al-Iqri was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
(AP, 3/17/11)(AP, 9/29/11)
2011 Mar 17, Colombia’s Chief Prosecutor's Office said it has convicted Vicente Castano, head of Colombia's paramilitary umbrella group. He was sentenced to 40 years in prison for the 2004 slaying of his brother.
(AP, 3/17/11)
2011 Mar 17, Iran sent the country's first space capsule that is able to sustain life into orbit as a test for a future mission that may carry a live animal.
(AP, 3/17/11)
2011 Mar 17, In Ivory Coast mortars from a military police base controlled by Pres. Gbagbo killed up to 30 people in Abidjan.
(SFC, 3/18/11, p.A2)
2011 Mar 17, Japan tried high-pressure water cannons, fire trucks and even helicopters that dropped batches of seawater in increasingly frantic attempts to cool an overheated nuclear complex as US officials warned the situation was deteriorating. More than 5,300 people were officially listed as dead, but officials believed the toll will climb to well over 10,000.
(AP, 3/17/11)
2011 Mar 17, Libyan rebels shot down at least two bomber planes that attacked the airport in Benina, a civil and military airport just outside Benghazi. The Red Cross said it was leaving Benghazi because of deteriorating security and moving to the city of Tobruk.
(AP, 3/17/11)
2011 Mar 17, In Mexico police found the body of a 4-year-old girl who had been shot in the chest, the fifth child killed in drug-related violence in Acapulco in less than a week. Police also found the bullet-ridden body of a man outside a state prison in Acapulco. Police in Michoacan state found two bodies hanging from the neck in two different towns. In Jalisco state marines found the bodies of two men and two women buried in two clandestine graves. US citizen, Josue Reyes Castro (26), was killed by gunmen while visiting relatives in Ciudad Juarez. A neighbor also was killed, and two of Reyes Castro's relatives were wounded including a girl (4).
(AP, 3/18/11)
2011 Mar 17, In Pakistan US drone aircraft fired four missiles at a building in a militant sanctuary in North Waziristan, killing 42 people in an unusually deadly strike. At least 24 were later said to be civilians from tribes asking the Taliban to mediate a dispute. The most senior militant killed in the attack was Sharabat Khan, Hafiz Gul Bahadur’s top commander for the Datta Khel area.
(AP, 3/17/11)(SFC, 3/18/11, p.A2)(SFC, 3/19/11, p.A4)(AP, 3/21/11)(AP, 4/13/11)(AP, 2/25/12)
2011 Mar 17, South Sudan's army fought heavy battles with militia in the oil-producing Unity state. At least 59 soldiers and militiamen were killed and dozens wounded in clashes between the South Sudan army and local militia groups in three oil-producing states.
(Reuters, 3/17/11)(Reuters, 3/18/11)
2011 Mar 17, Rigzin Phuntsog (16), a Tibetan monk at the Kirti monastery in China’s Sichuan province, died one day after he set himself on fire in an anti-government protest. He was beaten and kicked by police, prompting hundreds of monks and others to rally. In August authorities said they will charge three Buddhist monks with murder over the death of Phuntsog.
(SFC, 3/18/11, p.A2)(http://tinyurl.com/4nsxj9p)(AFP, 4/13/11)(AP, 8/26/11)
2011 Mar 17, The UN Security Council voted to permit "all necessary measures" to establish a no-fly zone, protect civilian areas and impose a ceasefire on Kadhafi's military. Five countries on the 15-strong council abstained, including China, Russia, India, Brazil and Germany. Resolution 1973 outlined the "responsibility of the Libyan authorities to protect the Libyan population.
(AFP, 3/18/11)
2011 Mar 17, A Venezuelan government official said one person has died of swine flu and six others have been diagnosed with the virus.
(AP, 3/17/11)
2011 Mar 17, Yemeni government supporters attacked a protest camp in Manama, hurling stones and opening fire. At another rally government loyalists struck as police fired tear gas.
(AP, 3/17/11)
2012 Mar 17, NYC police broke up an Occupy Wall Street rally at Zucotti Park and detained 73 people.
(SFC, 3/19/12, p.A5)
2012 Mar 17, Belarus state television reported that both Vladislav Kovalyov (26) and Dmitry Konovalov (26) had been put to death, which in Belarus is done with a shot to the back of the head. Two men were convicted of carrying out a deadly subway bombing last year in Minsk. Belarus is the only country in Europe that still puts people to death, and rights activists claim that around 400 people have been executed since the 1991 Soviet collapse.
(AP, 3/18/12)
2012 Mar 17, In China Tibetan farmer Sonam Thargyal (44) fastened cotton padding to his body and doused himself with kerosene before setting himself on fire in Tongren, a monastery town in western China's Qinghai province. He had been close friends with a monk who survived a self-immolation attempt on March 14, also in Tongren. The monk, Jamyang Palden, was believed to be alive but critically injured.
(AP, 3/18/12)
2012 Mar 17, In Colombia 11 government soldiers were killed in Arauca state in an attack blamed on the FARC.
(AP, 3/21/12)
2012 Mar 17, East Timor voted for a new president. Incumbent Jose Ramos Horta, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate (1996), faced off against 11 other candidates. Francisco "Lu Olo" Guterres, of the traditionally strong leftist Fretilin party, won with 29% of the vote, followed by former military chief Jose Maria Vasconcelos, aka Taur Matan Ruak, with 25%. A runoff was scheduled for mid-April.
(AP, 3/17/12)(AP, 3/19/12)(Econ, 3/24/12, p.42)
2012 Mar 17, In Egypt Pope Shenouda III (b.1923), the patriarch of the Coptic Orthodox Church since 1971, died. He led Egypt's Christian minority for 40 years during a time of increasing tensions with Muslims.
(AP, 3/18/12)
2012 Mar 17, John Demjanjuk, a retired US autoworker, died in the southern Bavarian town of Bad Feilnbach. He was convicted last May of being a guard at the Nazis' Sobibor death camp despite steadfastly maintaining over three decades of legal battles that he had been mistaken for someone else. His conviction helped set new German legal precedent, being the first time someone was convicted solely on the basis of serving as a camp guard, with no evidence of being involved in a specific killing.
(AP, 3/17/12)(Econ, 3/24/12, p.98)
2012 Mar 17, Guinean police arrested dozens of people in Conakry and sealed off access to a stadium where opposition groups planned to rally in a call for clean elections in July. At least 15 people were injured when opposition supporters stoned the headquarters of the Guinean ruling party.
(AFP, 3/17/12)(AFP, 3/18/12)
2012 Mar 17, A senior Iranian military commander, Gen. Masoud Jazayeri, urged Afghans to use force to kick American troops out of their country, hinting that "new resistance groups" could launch attacks on US interests in Afghanistan.
(AP, 3/17/12)
2012 Mar 17, In Iraq wearing a US Army uniform and flanked by Iraqi lawmakers, an American citizen announced that he was being released from more than nine months of imprisonment by a Shiite militia that for years targeted US troops. US-issued military and contractor ID cards identified him as Randy Michael Hultz (59). He said the kidnappers were from the Promised Day Brigade, a branch of the Mahdi Army, a militia controlled by the anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
(AP, 3/17/12)
2012 Mar 17, In Ireland an estimated 500,000 people crowded into central Dublin to view the St. Patrick's Day parade, a focal point for Irish celebrations worldwide.
(AP, 3/17/12)
2012 Mar 17, Ivory Coast in a ceremony started a month of mourning and "purification" after post-election violence a year ago left about 3,000 people dead.
(AFP, 3/18/12)
2012 Mar 17, Malawi's leading rights activist John Kapito, who was detained by police for possession of foreign currency, was released on bail. Police conducted a two-hour search at his home looking for guns and T-shirts he had printed that had words promoting the overthrow of the government.
(AFP, 3/18/12)
2012 Mar 17, Mauritania arrested Abdullah al-Senoussi, Moammar Ghadafi's former intelligence chief, accused of attacking civilians during the uprising in Libya last year and the 1989 bombing of a French airliner. The International Criminal Court, France and Libya all said they want to prosecute al-Senoussi.
(AP, 3/17/12)
2012 Mar 17, In Nigeria respected cleric Ibrahim Datti Ahmad, who was mediating in peace talks between the government and the Boko Haram Islamist sect, announced he was quitting the talks, accusing the government of insincerity.
(AFP, 3/17/12)
2012 Mar 17, Pakistani acid attack victim Fakhra Younus (33) jumped from the sixth floor of a building in Rome, where she had been living and receiving treatment. She had endured more than three dozen surgeries since May 2000 to repair her severely damaged face and body when she finally decided life was no longer worth living.
(AP, 3/28/12)
2012 Mar 17, In Syria twin car bombs struck intelligence and security buildings in Damascus, killing at least 27 people and wounding nearly 100. A third blast went off near a military bus at the Palestinian refugee camp Yarmouk in Damascus, killing the two suicide bombers. On March 21 an Islamist group called the Al-Nusra Front to Protect the Levant claimed responsibility for twin suicide bombings.
(AP, 3/17/12)(AP, 3/18/12)(AP, 3/21/12)
2012 Mar 17, In Taiwan Lin Mei-heng (31) posted messages on Facebook saying she wanted to take her life after growing suspicious that her boyfriend was having an affair. 9 of her friends attempted to dissuade her from taking her life, but none alerted the police. She was found dead the following day by her boyfriend at her flat in a suburb of Taipei.
(AFP, 3/27/12)
2012 Mar 17, Thailand billionaire Chaleo Yoovidhya (89), the co-founder of energy drink Red Bull and the second richest man in Thailand, died. Chaleo had founded T.C. Pharmaceuticals. In the 1970s, it formulated an energy drink prototype called Krathing Daeng, or Red Bull in English. He co-founded a company with Austrian marketing whiz Dietrich Mateschitz in 1984, who helped turn Red Bull into a global brand. Mateschitz had become aware of "tonic drinks" while traveling in Asia. They started selling the drink in Austria in 1987.
(AFP, 3/17/12)(AP, 3/17/12)
2012 Mar 17, In Venezuela the daughter of Chilean diplomat Fernando Berendique was shot to death by police at a road checkpoint. The young woman (19) was hit by three bullets after her brother tried to evade an illegal unmarked roadblock.
(AP, 3/18/12)(Econ, 4/14/12, p.48)
2012 Mar 17, Yemeni security forces and unknown gunmen clashed in the southern port city of Aden, wounding two policemen and a civilian. A day earlier a member of the Al-Qaeda-linked Partisans of Sharia (Islamic law) was arrested in the same district.
(AFP, 3/17/12)
2013 Mar 17, In Indiana a small plane crashed in South Bend killing 2 men including Steve Davis (60), former Oklahoma quarterback.
(SFC, 3/19/13, p.A7)
2013 Mar 17, In Ohio 2 members of the Steubenville high school football team were found guilty of raping a drunken 16-year-old girl after a drinking party last August 11. On Nov 25 a superintendent and two coaches were charged with lying or failure to report possible child abuse.
(SFC, 3/18/13, p.A5)(SFC, 11/26/13, p.A6)
2013 Mar 17, It was reported that Lake Erie is sick and that a dead zone covers a large portion of the lake bottom due to a poisonous blue-green algae called Microcystis enhanced by high levels of phosphorous from fertilizer runoff. The problem was compounded by the zebra mussel, a foreign invader discovered in 1988, which excretes phosphorous providing Microcystis a ready-made meal.
(SSFC, 3/17/13, p.A15)
2013 Mar 17, A boulder slammed into the Moon, creating the biggest explosion scientists have seen there since they started monitoring it.
(Reuters, 5/17/13)
2013 Mar 17, In Bahrain 17 suspected anti-government protesters were sentenced to 15-year prison sentences for links to a bombing last year that injured four policemen. 8 of the defendants were in custody, and the others were tried in absentia.
(AP, 3/17/13)
2013 Mar 17, Britain's Treasury chief said the government will compensate UK troops who lose money to Cyprus's bailout tax, a levy of 6.75 to 9.9 percent on all bank balances as part of a deal with creditors for €10 billion ($13 billion) in rescue money. British residents of Cyprus not working for the UK military or government could be out of pocket.
(AP, 3/17/13)
2013 Mar 17, China’s National People’s Congress came to a close.
(Econ, 3/16/13, p.45)
2013 Mar 17, Cyprus Pres. Nicos Anastasiades urged lawmakers to approve a tax on bank deposits to save the country from bankruptcy.
(SFC, 3/18/13, p.A3)
2013 Mar 17, In Egypt dozens of journalists protested in Cairo against alleged assaults the previous evening on their colleagues by members of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood from which President Mohammed Morsi hails.
(AP, 3/17/13)
2013 Mar 17, Egyptian vigilantes beat two men accused of stealing a motorized rickshaw, stripped them half-naked and hung them by their feet in a crowded bus station in the Nile Delta. Both men died.
(AP, 3/17/13)
2013 Mar 17, In Greece police lobbed chemicals inside a central prison, trying to smoke out Albanian Alket Rizaj, a convicted murderer who was holding five hostages. After a 24-hour standoff Rizaj surrendered to police at Malandrino prison.
(AP, 3/17/13)
2013 Mar 17, In Iraq 2 car bombs went off in Basra, killing 9 and wounding 24 in a rare attack in the Shiite-dominated south of the country.
(AP, 3/17/13)
2013 Mar 17, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu appointed Moshe Yaalon, a hard-line former military chief (2002-2005), as the country's new defense minister.
(AP, 3/17/13)
2013 Mar 17, Japanese architect Toyo Ito (71) won the Pritzker Architecture Prize.
(SFC, 3/18/13, p.A4)
2013 Mar 17, Libya's health minister said the death toll from drinking homemade alcohol that contained poisonous methanol has risen to 87. The deaths were first reported a week ago.
(AP, 3/17/13)
2013 Mar 17, Pakistani paramilitary Ranges arrested Qari Abdul Hayee, a leader of the Islamist militant group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi. He was accused of involvement in the 2002 slaying of US journalist Daniel Pearl.
(SFC, 3/20/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 17, Ayman Sharawneh (53), a freed Palestinian prisoner, was given a hero's welcome in the Gaza Strip after ending his hunger strike in an Israeli jail and agreeing to a plea bargain that will confine him to the Hamas-run territory for the next 10 years.
(AP, 3/17/13)
2013 Mar 17, Palestinian lawmaker Mariam Farhat (64), aka “the mother of martyrs," died in a Gaza hospital of health complications including lung ailments and kidney failure. She had lost three sons in militant activities against Israelis.
(AP, 3/17/13)
2013 Mar 17, Zimbabwe police arrested rights lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa, the country's most prominent rights lawyer and four senior officials of PM Tsvangirai’s party and held them at the capital's main police station. Mtetwa was accused of "obstructing or defeating the course of justice." Police also raided and searched a suburban office of Tsvangirai's media and communications department. On March 18 police ignored a judge’s order to release Mtetwa.
(AP, 3/17/13)(SFC, 3/19/13, p.A4)
2014 Mar 17, The Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics announced that the BICEP2 team of scientists has spotted signs of gravitational waves that formed when the universe was but a trillionth of a second old. In 2015 the scientists retracted their findings.
(Econ, 3/22/14, p.78)(Econ, 2/7/15, p.77)
2014 Mar 17, In Afghanistan gunmen killed district judge Abdul Latif and his bodyguard in an attack in western Herat province.
(AP, 3/17/14)
2014 Mar 17, A British judge ruled that Domenico Rancadore (65), a convicted Mafia boss, will be allowed to return to his comfortable home in west London rather than sent back to Italy and put in prison. The judge cited concerns about conditions in Italian prisons.
(AP, 3/17/14)
2014 Mar 17, British telecommunications company Vodafone agreed to buy Spain's Ono for 7.2 billion euros ($10 billion) as it seeks to expand operations across Europe.
(AP, 3/17/14)
2014 Mar 17, In London fashion designer L'Wren Scott, the girlfriend of Mick Jagger, died of an apparent suicide. Her LS Fashion Ltd. company was heavily in debt at the time it filed its most recent accounts.
(AP, 3/18/14)
2014 Mar 17, It was reported that Egypt’s crackdown on Islamists has jailed some 16,000 people over the last eight months.
(SFC, 3/17/14, p.A4)
2014 Mar 17, Ten Egyptians, including a journalist working for a Muslim Brotherhood newspaper, were each sentenced to a year in jail for protesting against a constitutional referendum.
(AP, 3/17/14)
2014 Mar 17, Paris, France, imposed drastic measures to combat its worst air pollution in years.
(AP, 3/17/14)
2014 Mar 17, A senior Iranian official said that an alleged attempt to sabotage one of Tehran's nuclear facilities involved foreign intelligence agencies who tampered with imported pumps.
(AP, 3/17/14)
2014 Mar 17, Toyota said it has shut down production at its two auto-assembly plants in India, locking out 6,400 workers amid testy wage negotiations and allegations of threats against management.
(AP, 3/17/14)
2014 Mar 17, In Libya A car bomb targeting a military academy in Benghazi killed at least 7 soldiers and wounded twelve.
(AFP, 3/17/14)
2014 Mar 17, Lithuania's domestic intelligence department accused a Russian diplomat of spying, saying he had sought to gain access to classified information during the Baltic state's presidency of the European Union last year.
(Reuters, 3/17/14)
2014 Mar 17, Russia's government acknowledged for the first time on that the economy was in crisis, undermining earlier attempts by officials to suggest albeit weakening growth could weather sanctions over Ukraine.
(Reuters, 3/17/14)
2014 Mar 17, In Somalia a suicide bomber rammed a car packed full of explosives into a hotel in Buulo Berde, days after it was recaptured from the Al-Qaeda-linked Shebab. At least 8 people were killed. 4 attackers were also reported killed.
(AFP, 3/18/14)
2014 Mar 17, South Africa’s government said 32 people had died because of the rains over the past two weeks in the northern and eastern provinces of North West, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal. The toll included 25 drownings and six people killed by lightning.
(Reuters, 3/17/14)
2014 Mar 17, South Africa's state-owned rail freight firm Transet said it was ordering 1,064 new locomotives, in what it hailed as the country's biggest single corporate infrastructure investment. It ordered 599 electric locomotives from China's Zhuzhou and the South African subsidiary of Canada's Bombardier, as well as 465 diesel trains from General Electric.
(AFP, 3/17/14)
2014 Mar 17, In Palm Springs, South Africa, Sizwe Kubheka (16) returned home complaining of a headache following a beating by a teacher at school. Kubheka died at a hospital a week later and his teacher faced a possible murder charge.
(AP, 4/2/14)
2014 Mar 17, Sri Lanka’s military said Ruki Fernando, a human rights adviser, and Praveen Mahesahn, a pastor and director of a rights group, have been arrested under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), anti-terrorism legislation that was used to crush Tamil Tiger rebels during the final phase of a 26-year war. Both were released on March 18.
(Reuters, 3/17/14)(AP, 3/19/14)
2014 Mar 17, Tunisia police shot and killed three suspected Islamist militants and arrested six others in a raid near the Algerian border.
(Reuters, 3/17/14)
2014 Mar 17, Ukraine's Crimean peninsula declared itself independent after its residents voted overwhelmingly to secede and join Russia, while the United States and the European Union slapped sanctions against some of those who promoted the divisive referendum. Ukraine recalled its ambassador to Russia for consultations on the international ramifications of the situation in its Crimea region. Armed men came to the Ukrainian Belbek military airfield in the Crimean peninsula, fired shots in the air and took away the base’s commanding officer.
(AP, 3/17/14)(Reuters, 3/17/14)(Reuters, 3/18/14)
2014 Mar 17, Mining magnate Andrew Forrest launched the Global Freedom Network, an organization to end modern slavery, with the support of the Pope and the senior Islamic authority. In 2013 Mr. Forrest, Pierre Omidyar and the Legatum Foundation had launched the Freedom Fund to finance research into ways to reduce bonded labor.
(http://tinyurl.com/qb6e6mp)(Econ., 3/14/15, p.61)
2015 Mar 17, Illinois Rep. Aaron Schock (33) resigned after weeks of mounting media reports about questionable expenditures and personal finances.
(SFC, 3/21/15, p.A6)
2015 Mar 17, In North Carolina 3 Burmese children — ages 1, 5, and 12 — were stabbed to death and two other people were hurt in an attack at a home in New Bern. Police identified the suspect as Eh Lar Doh Htoo (18).
(AP, 3/18/15)
2015 Mar 17, Britain announced a three percent rise in the minimum wage, the largest real terms increase since 2008.
(AFP, 3/17/15)
2015 Mar 17, British officials said three judges who looked at pornography on their work accounts have been fired. A fourth judge who was also found to have viewed similar material at work resigned before the inquiry had concluded.
(AP, 3/17/15)
2015 Mar 17, Germany, France and Italy followed Britain in announcing that they plan to join the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, a proposed Chinese-led Asian regional bank, swinging Europe's biggest economic powers behind a project that is viewed with concern in Washington.
(AP, 3/17/15)
2015 Mar 17, Greek officials said police raids across the country last week smashed an international people trafficking ring that made $8 million in profit from smuggling Syrian migrants into Europe. 16 suspects were arrested.
(Reuters, 3/17/15)
2015 Mar 17, Iraq's offensive to retake Tikrit from the Islamic State group was stalled because of streets and buildings rigged with booby trap bombs and by the several hundred jihadists still holding out there. Separate attacks in and outside Baghdad killed at least 9 people.
(AFP, 3/17/15)(AP, 3/17/15)
2015 Mar 17, Israel held elections. PM Benjamin Netanyahu (65) faced an uphill battle to defeat a strong campaign by the center-left opposition to deny him a fourth term in office. Netanyahu's Likud had won 30 seats in the 120-member Knesset, comfortably defeating the center-left Zionist Union opposition on 24 seats.
(Reuters, 3/17/15)(Reuters, 3/18/15)
2015 Mar 17, In Kenya 4 people were shot dead in a shop Wajir town by unknown gunmen who wounded three others. Al-Shabab Islamic extremists soon claimed responsibility, bringing the total number of those killed by the militants since March 13 to 12.
(AP, 3/18/15)
2015 Mar 17, In Myanmar Philip Blackwood, a New Zealand bar manager, and his two Myanmar colleagues were jailed for two and a half years with hard labor by a Yangon court for using a Buddha image to promote a cheap drinks night.
(AFP, 3/17/15)
2015 Mar 17, Pakistan hanged 12 convicts. This was the largest number of people executed on the same day since an unofficial moratorium on capital punishment was lifted in December.
(Reuters, 3/17/15)
2015 Mar 17, In Pakistan Samiullah Khan Afridi, a former lawyer for a doctor who helped the US find Osama bin Laden, was killed by a gunman in Peshawar.
(SFC, 3/18/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 17, In Poland rioting by some 300 young people in Sosnowiec follows two nights of disturbances near Warsaw over the death of another young man apprehended by the police. Two officers were hurt as police detained 14 people. They blamed the police for the death last week of a 23-year-old man, apprehended in the street and taken to a sobering center, where he lost consciousness.
(AP, 3/18/15)
2015 Mar 17, Puerto Rico Police Chief Jose Caldero said that officers found 2,535 pounds (1,150 kg) of cocaine, worth an estimated $32 million, aboard a boat and detained 14 people from the Dominican Republic.
(AP, 3/17/15)
2015 Mar 17, Swiss officials said they are returning to Nigeria some $380 million linked to the country's former dictator, Gen. Sani Abacha. The money, confiscated on the basis that the Abacha family was a criminal organization, will now be returned to Nigeria under World Bank supervision.
(AP, 3/17/15)
2015 Mar 17, A Syrian army statement said dozens of militants were killed in other areas of Idlib province overnight in clashes and attacks. A monitoring group said government forces carried out a poison gas attack that killed six people in the northwest. Medics posted videos of children suffering what they said was suffocation.
(Reuters, 3/17/15)
2015 Mar 17, The Syrian army shot down a US drone over Latakia province, part of the western region where Damascus has been consolidating state control.
(Reuters, 3/18/15)
2015 Mar 17, Tunisia said it had dismantled 4 recruiting cells sending jihadis to fight in Libya and arrested dozens in part of tighter security and border controls to counter Islamist militants.
(Reuters, 3/17/15)
2015 Mar 17, Ukraine said 3 government servicemen were killed in fighting in the east in the past 24 hours despite a ceasefire agreement with Russian-backed rebels.
(Reuters, 3/17/15)
2016 Mar 17, The United States declared that the Islamic State group's slaughter of Christians, Yazidis and Shiites amounts to a genocide and vowed to halt it.
(AFP, 3/17/16)
2016 Mar 17, The United States and its allies conducted 20 strikes against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria.
(Reuters, 3/18/16)
2016 Mar 17, The American Islamic State group fighter, Muhammad Jamal Amin, who handed himself over to Kurdish forces in northern Iraq on March 14 said he made "a bad decision" in joining the IS, according to a heavily edited interview he gave to an Iraqi Kurdish television station.
(AP, 3/18/16)
2016 Mar 17, In Louisiana Khang Nguyen Le, a Buddhist monk, pleaded guilty to embezzling more than $200,000 from his temple to feed a casino gambling habit.
(SFC, 3/18/16, p.A6)
2016 Mar 17, In New York Yemen-born Mufid Elfgeeh (32) was sentenced in Rochester to 22.5 years in prison for attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State.
(SFC, 3/18/16, p.A12)
2016 Mar 17, Organizers of New York's storied St. Patrick's Day Parade opened the lineup more broadly to include activists who protested a ban on gay groups for years.
(AP, 3/17/16)
2016 Mar 17, In Texas Nika (5) and Michaela (1), the daughters of Ukraine-born concert pianist Vadym Kholodenko (b.1986), were found smothered to death in their Fort Worth suburban home. In 2018 a judge ruled that his estranged wife, Sonya Tsygankova, was not guilty by reason of insanity.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vadym_Kholodenko)(SFC, 7/16/18, p.A4)
2016 Mar 17, Sea World said that it would stop breeding killer whales in captivity.
(SFC, 3/18/16, p.D1)
2016 Mar 17, In Brazil a federal judge in Brasilia issued an injunction suspending the appointment of former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva as minister. Supporters of da Silva clashed briefly with opponents of his Workers' Party outside the presidential palace, where he was due to be sworn in as President Dilma Rousseff's chief of staff.
(Reuters, 3/17/16)
2016 Mar 17, China expressed its opposition to unilateral sanctions against North Korea saying they could raise tension, a day after the United States imposed new curbs on the isolated country in retaliation for its nuclear and rocket tests.
(Reuters, 3/17/16)
2016 Mar 17, In Egypt explosions rocked the northern Sinai town of Rafah as militants struck a weapons depot, killing at least 5 soldiers and injuring 10 others.
(AP, 3/17/16)
2016 Mar 17, Egypt’s antiquities minister said scans of King Tut’s burial chamber have revealed two hidden rooms.
(SFC, 3/18/16, p.A4)
2016 Mar 17, Egypt’s antiquities minister said scans of King Tut’s burial chamber have revealed two hidden rooms.
(SFC, 3/18/16, p.A4)
2016 Mar 17, French unions said the government will lift a six-year-old freeze on civil servants' pay, but that the resulting wage increase was too little.
(Reuters, 3/17/16)
2016 Mar 17, In France thousands of youths held street protests to reject the government's new labor changes.
(AP, 3/17/16)
2016 Mar 17, French lawmakers approved plans for a total ban on some widely used pesticides blamed for harming bees, going beyond EU restrictions in a fierce debate that has pitched farmers and chemical firms against beekeepers and green groups.
(Reuters, 3/18/16)
2016 Mar 17, Germany’s dpa news agency reported that Markus R., whose last name wasn't given in line with privacy laws, was found by the Munich state court to have sold some 200 highly classified documents to the CIA between 2008 and 2014 for 80,000 euros ($91,000).
(AP, 3/17/16)
2016 Mar 17, In Israel Meir Dagan (71), a former Israeli general and longtime director of the country's spy agency, died.
(AP, 3/17/16)
2016 Mar 17, A Macau court sentenced Alan Ho, the nephew of former kingpin Stanley Ho, to 13 months in prison for helping to facilitate a high-profile prostitution ring in the world's biggest gambling hub.
(Reuters, 3/17/16)
2016 Mar 17, Mexican officials lifted a four-day air pollution alert in the nation's densely-populated capital after ozone levels dropped to acceptable levels.
(AFP, 3/18/16)
2016 Mar 17, Myanmar's incoming government announced plans to create a ministry for ethnic affairs, marking the importance it places on relations with minorities in a country scarred by festering civil wars and sectarian tensions.
(AFP, 3/17/16)
2016 Mar 17, Pakistani soldiers carried out a raid in the Tarel valley, killing 3 militants involved in attacks on tourists and security forces. The exchange of fire also killed two security personnel.
(AP, 3/17/16)
2016 Mar 17, Two Palestinian assailants stabbed a female Israeli soldier in the northern West Bank before Israeli security forces killed them.
(AP, 3/17/16)
2016 Mar 17, Polish President Andrzej Duda led the formal opening of the Ulma Family Museum of Poles Saving Jews, in the village of Markowa.
(AP, 3/17/16)
2016 Mar 17, President Vladimir Putin honored Fyodor Zhuravlyov (27), a Russian soldier killed in Russia's military operation in Syria, breaking four months of official silence about his death.
(Reuters, 3/17/16)
2016 Mar 17, Saudi Arabia said its military coalition will scale down operations in Yemen, an announcement that came as the death toll from an airstrike by the alliance on a market north of the Yemeni capital this week nearly doubled, reaching 119.
(AP, 3/17/16)
2016 Mar 17, Syria's three Kurdish-controlled autonomous regions voted to approve the establishment of a federal system in the north of the country, defying warnings from Damascus and neighboring Turkey against any such unilateral move.
(Reuters, 3/17/16)
2016 Mar 17, Venezuela's Supreme Court approved President Nicolas Maduro's request for a 60-day extension of an economic emergency decree that had been rejected by the opposition-controlled congress.
(AP, 3/18/16)
2016 Mar 17, Vietnamese officials said the country is experiencing its worst drought and saline intrusion in recent history. The world’s third-largest exporter of grain feared the loss of up to 1 million tons of rice.
(SFC, 3/18/16, p.A2)
2017 Mar 17, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson directed US diplomatic missions to identify "populations warranting increased scrutiny" and toughen screening for visa applicants in those groups. In cables dated March 10 and March 15, Tillerson had issued detailed instructions to consular officials for implementing Trump's travel order, which was due to take effect on March 16.
(Reuters, 3/23/17)
2017 Mar 17, In San Francisco George Martinez (44) was killed as he celebrated his birthday in the Mission District. In 2019 two members of the MS-13 street gang were convicted of executing Martinez. The gang members mistook Martinez for a rival gang member.
(SFC, 12/21/19, p.C1)
2017 Mar 17, Results were published of a $1 billion study on Repatha, a cholesterol drug made by Amgen, that indicated the drug can make cholesterol tumble and cut the risk of heart attack and stroke. The list price for the drug was $14,523 a year.
(SFC, 3/18/17, p.A6)
2017 Mar 17, In Afghanistan a suicide truck bomber struck a military checkpoint, killing one soldier and wounding 10 in Khost province. Another suicide bomber elsewhere in the country killed the brother of a local religious leader he had targeted for assassination.
(AP, 3/17/17)
2017 Mar 17, An avalanche in Austria's western region of Tyrol killed two people.
(Reuters, 3/17/17)
2017 Mar 17, In Bangladesh two policemen were wounded in the apparently botched attack when a man blew himself up at an elite forces camp near Dhaka's international airport. The Islamic State Group soon claimed responsibility.
(AFP, 3/18/17)
2017 Mar 17, Brazilian federal police raided dozens of meatpacker offices, including industry giants JBS SA and BRF SA, following a two-year investigation into alleged bribery of regulators to subvert inspections of their plants. "Operation Weak Flesh" had already uncovered about 40 cases of meatpackers who had bribed inspectors and politicians to overlook unsanitary practices.
(Reuters, 3/17/17)
2017 Mar 17, Former British Treasury chief George Osborne was appointed editor of the Evening Standard newspaper, touching off a torrent of criticism about whether a sitting lawmaker should be able to run a London-based daily.
(AP, 3/17/17)
2017 Mar 17, Security forces in Congo Republic said they have killed around 15 rebel fighters during a military operation in the restive Pool region.
(Reuters, 3/18/17)
2017 Mar 17, The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said governments need to do more to create growth that benefits everyone, and the US should spend more on roads, highways, bridges and airports.
(AP, 3/17/17)
2017 Mar 17, Txetx Etcheverry, a prominent figure in the French Basque community, said the Basque separatist group ETA will complete its disarmament by April 8.
(AP, 3/17/17)
2017 Mar 17, Brazilian federal police raided dozens of meatpacker offices, including industry giants JBS SA and BRF SA, following a two-year investigation into alleged bribery of regulators to subvert inspections of their plants. "Operation Weak Flesh" had already uncovered about 40 cases of meatpackers who had bribed inspectors and politicians to overlook unsanitary practices.
(Reuters, 3/17/17)
2017 Mar 17, In China poultry trading in Hunan’s provincial capital of Changsha went into effect. An outbreak of H7N9 bird flu virus originated from a farm with about 29,760 infected birds. Over 170,000 birds were culled as a result. At least 162 deaths have been reported since last October.
(Reuters, 4/2/17)
2017 Mar 17, The European Union re-imposed a fine on 11 air cargo companies totaling $835 million after the original decision was thrown out by a high court on a procedural issue.
(AP, 3/17/17)
2017 Mar 17, A visit of Segolene Royal, the French minister of ecology, to French Guiana was cut short after masked demonstrators from the collective stormed into a regional conference on biodiversity she was attending in the department's capital city of Cayenne.
(AP, 3/25/17)
2017 Mar 17, In Germany a G20 official said opposition from the United States, Saudi Arabia and others has forced Germany to drop a reference to financing programs to combat climate change from the draft communique at a G20 finance and central bankers meeting.
(AP, 3/17/17)
2017 Mar 17, In Iraq an airstrike hit the residential area in Mosul for the 2nd time in four days. Many residents were later reported killed. US officials acknowledged the airstrike on March 25 that witnesses said killed at least 100 people. On May 25 the US military acknowledged the bombing saying it set off explosive materials that militants had planted inside causing the structure to collapse.
(AP, 3/24/17)(SSFC, 3/26/17, p.A6)(SFC, 5/26/17, p.A2)
2017 Mar 17, Israeli warplanes struck several targets in Syria overnight, prompting retaliatory missile launches, in the most serious incident between the two countries since the Syrian civil war began six years ago.
(AFP, 3/17/17)
2017 Mar 17, Japan’s Maebashi district court held the government and the Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) liable for neglecting tsunami safety measures at the Fukushima nuclear plant and ordered them to pay more money to dozens out of the thousands of people who fled radiation released during the March 2011 disaster.
(AP, 3/17/17)
2017 Mar 17, Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta ordered the military to deploy to the volatile counties of Baringo and Laikipia in the Rift Valley to calm deadly violence fueled by drought that affects roughly half the country.
(AP, 3/17/17)
2017 Mar 17, In Libya gunmen opened fire at demonstrators protesting against militias in Tripoli.
(AFP, 3/18/17)
2017 Mar 17, Morocco’s MAP state news said King Mohammed VI has named Saad Eddine El Othmani of the Islamist Justice and Development Party (PJD) as the country's new prime minister and asked him to form a government.
(Reuters, 3/17/17)
2017 Mar 17, SWIFT, a messaging network for cross-border payments, suspended services for four remaining North Korean banks. Earlier this month SWIFT was obliged to exclude three North Korean banks that were under UN sanctions.
(Econ, 3/25/17, p.63)
2017 Mar 17, In Peru El Nino-fueled flash floods and landslides hit parts of Lima, leaving some communities cut off from roads. This year's El Nino shut down northern Peru's sugar-cane business.
(AFP, 3/18/17)(Econ., 10/10/20, p.72)
2017 Mar 17, The Philippines said it would strengthen its military facilities on islands and shoals in the disputed South China Sea and announced initial plans to build a new port and pave an existing rough airstrip.
(Reuters, 3/17/17)
2017 Mar 17, Portugal's attorney general granted investigators another extension to conclude their 2 1/2-year investigation into former PM Jose Socrates (59), who is suspected of corruption, money laundering and tax fraud. Socrates was the center-left Socialist prime minister from 2005 to 2011.
(AP, 3/17/17)
2017 Mar 17, South Africa's Constitutional Court ordered the government to pay social grants on April 1 via its current service provider, seeking to end a fiasco that had threatened the payment of benefits to 17 million people.
(Reuters, 3/17/17)
2017 Mar 17, In South Korea US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said US policy of strategic patience with North Korea's nuclear and missile programs has ended, warning that military action would be "on the table" if Pyongyang elevated the threat level.
(Reuters, 3/17/17)
2017 Mar 17, In St. Lucia Derek Walcott (87), a Nobel-prize winning poet, died. He was known for capturing the essence of his native Caribbean and became the region's most internationally famous writer.
(AP, 3/17/17)(Econ, 4/1/17, p.82)
2017 Mar 17, In Tanzania Dar es Salaam regional commissioner Paul Makonda stormed into the offices of the Clouds FM Media Group with six armed men to demand the airing of a muckraking video aimed at undermining a popular local pastor with whom Makonda has a dispute.
(AFP, 3/23/17)
2017 Mar 17, In Uganda senior police official Andrew Felix Kaweesi was shot and killed in his car along with two other officers as he left his home in Kampala. President Yoweri Museveni condemned the killing and directed the immediate installation of cameras in all major towns of Uganda and along the highways.
(AFP, 3/17/17)(Reuters, 5/12/17)
2017 Mar 17, In Yemen 22 people were killed in an attack on a mosque during prayers inside a military base in Marib province.
(AP, 3/17/17)
2018 Mar 17, The US government's road safety agency said air bags in some Hyundai and Kia cars failed to inflate in crashes and four people are dead.
(AP, 3/17/18)
2018 Mar 17, In Florida Cirque du Soleil performer Yann Arnaud died after falling during a show in Tampa.
(SFC, 3/19/18, p.A4)
2018 Mar 17, In Minnesota a man (53) was arrested for fatally stabbing two men at a Salvation Army apartment building in Rochester.
(SFC, 3/20/18, p.A6)
2018 Mar 17, In New York a Fly Jamaica Airways crew member Hugh Hall was arrested at JFK airport and agents seized about 9 pounds of cocaine taped to his legs, with a street value of about $160,000.
(AP, 3/22/18)
2018 Mar 17, In Afghanistan a Taliban car bomb killed at least three people and wounded two in Kabul.
(Reuters, 3/17/18)
2018 Mar 17, Albania police said they have arrested 39 people in a crackdown on crime rings illegally sending about 1,000 Albanians to Britain, the United States and Canada.
(AP, 3/17/18)
2018 Mar 17, Angola saw its first authorized anti-government protest in decades with about 10 people demonstrating in the capital against an amnesty those who have stashed vast wealth abroad.
(AFP, 3/17/18)
2018 Mar 17, In Australia Southeast Asian leaders (ASEAN) said they will sign an agreement on regional cooperation against violent extremism as the risk to the region grows due to militants fleeing Islamic State group losses in the Middle East.
(AP, 3/17/18)
2018 Mar 17, China's Xi Jinping was reappointed as president with no limit on the number of terms he can serve. China's largely rubber-stamp parliament chose former top graft-buster Wang Qishan, a key ally of President Xi Jinping, as vice president.
(AP, 3/17/18)(Reuters, 3/17/18)
2018 Mar 17, China announced the formation of the State Administration for Market Regulation (SADR). It was formed by combining the offices of three regulators.
(https://tinyurl.com/9dmhbzar)(Econ., 1/2/21, p.49)
2018 Mar 17, Greek coast guard officials said at least 16 people, including five children, drowned when the small boat they were on capsized off Agathonisi island.
(Reuters, 3/17/18)(SSFC, 3/18/18, p.A4)
2018 Mar 17, It was reported that more than half of Bangalore's estimated 10 million inhabitants have to rely on borewells and tankers for their water because there isn't enough mains supply to go round. An ecologist with the Indian Institute of Science has predicted the Karnataka state capital could be the first Indian city to follow Cape Town in running out of water.
(AFP, 3/17/18)
2018 Mar 17, In eastern India a speeding bus plunged into a dry river bed, killing at least 12 people and injuring 35 in Bihar state.
(AP, 3/17/18)
2018 Mar 17, Indonesia's normally bustling Bali shut down social media, turned away flights and shuttered all shops for a Day of Silence that marks New Year on the predominantly Hindu island.
(AP, 3/17/18)
2018 Mar 17, Maldivian authorities arrested more than 140 activists who defied a ban on rallies and demonstrated against a state of emergency imposed by Pres. Abdulla Yameen.
(AFP, 3/17/18)
2018 Mar 17, The president of Mauritius, Ameenah Gurib-Fakim, resigned from the ceremonial position, amid accusations of financial impropriety that triggered a dispute between her and the prime minister.
(Reuters, 3/17/18)
2018 Mar 17, In Pakistan militants ambushed a polio vaccination team in a remote tribal region, killing two of the medical workers and seriously wounding another two. The gunmen also attacked tribal police and the paramilitary Frontier Corps when they responded to the attack.
(AP, 3/18/18)
2018 Mar 17, Hamas closed the Gaza offices of a major telecommunications firm, accusing it of failing to cooperate in a probe into the apparent assassination attempt against the Palestinian premier.
(AFP, 3/17/18)
2018 Mar 17, In the Philippines ten people died when a Piper-23 Apache plane crashed into a house north of Manila. The dead included five people in the plane and five people on the ground.
(Reuters, 3/17/18)(SSFC, 3/18/18, p.A4)
2018 Mar 17, Russia expelled 23 British diplomats. Russia also suspended the British Council, a network of cultural and linguistic institutes, amid escalating tensions over the poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in England.
(AFP, 3/17/18)
2018 Mar 17, South African supermarket chain Shoprite said it has withdrawn a third brand of sausages after the world's worst listeria outbreak which has claimed at least 183 lives since January last year.
(AFP, 3/17/18)
2018 Mar 17, Tens of thousands of Spaniards rallied across the country to demand better pensions as unions accused the government of seeking to privatize retirement benefits.
(AFP, 3/17/18)
2018 Mar 17, In Switzerland four people were killed after an avalanche hit the ski area of Vallon d'Arbi. Two bodies were soon recovered and rescue workers searched for two missing.
(AFP, 3/17/18)(SFC, 3/19/18, p.A2)
2018 Mar 17, Syria's regime retook two more towns in Eastern Ghouta. Regime air strikes on Eastern Ghouta killed at least 30 civilians. Thousands of civilians streamed out of their towns to escape battles in the north and south.
(AP, 3/17/18)(Reuters, 3/17/18)(AFP, 3/17/18)
2018 Mar 17, In Turkey prominent journalist Sahin Alpay (74), accused of supporting Turkey's failed coup, was released from prison after a court ruling. The Anadolu news agency said he has been banned from leaving his house and the country.
(AP, 3/17/18)
2018 Mar 17, Phan Van Khai (84), Vietnam's former prime minister (1997-2006) died in his home district of Cu Chi on the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City. He was an architect of Vietnam's economic rise and in 2005 became the country's first prime minister to visit the United States after the end of the war.
(AP, 3/17/18)
2018 Mar 17, Yemen's president Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi assigned Ali Saleh al-Ahmar, the half brother of ex-President Ali Abdullah Saleh, as commander of the country's reserve force.
(AP, 3/17/18)
2018 Mar 17, The World Health Organization said a diphtheria outbreak in war-torn Yemen has spread rapidly nationwide and infected more than 1,300 people.
(AP, 3/17/18)
2019 Mar 17, The Missouri River reached a record 30.2 feet in Iowa's Fremont County. Heavy rainfall and snowmelt caused flooding in Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska with at least two deaths reported.
(SFC, 3/18/19, p.A8)
2019 Mar 17, Afghan officials said an overnight Taliban assault on checkpoints in northern Faryab province killed 22 troops.
(AP, 3/17/19)
2019 Mar 17, Algeria's Ministry of Religious Affairs informed clerics that they are no longer required to submit texts of their sermons to authorities for approval.
(Reuters, 3/18/19)
2019 Mar 17, The French government faced heavy criticism over failing to maintain law and order during an arson and looting rampage by "yellow vest" protesters along the famous Champs-Elysees in Paris.
(AFP, 3/17/19)
2019 Mar 17, France's BEA air accident investigation said data from the flight data recorder of the Ethiopian jet that crashed last week has been successfully downloaded. BEA said the information has been transferred to Ethiopian investigators and that its technical work on the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder was now done.
(Reuters, 3/17/19)
2019 Mar 17, Indonesian disaster officials said flash flood and mudslides triggered by days of torrential downpours have torn through mountainside villages in Papua province, killing at least 58 people and injuring 59 others.
(AP, 3/17/19)
2019 Mar 17, In Indonesia a magnitude 5.5 earthquake triggered a landslide that hit a popular waterfall on the tourist island of Lombok, killing at least two people and injuring dozens.
(AP, 3/17/19)
2019 Mar 17, Iran's President Hassan Rouhani inaugurated a new phase in the development of a massive natural gas field. The development will allow Iran to overtake Qatar in the production of natural gas.
(AP, 3/17/19)
2019 Mar 17, In Mali gunmen attacked and briefly seized an army base overnight, killing at least 16 soldiers and destroying five vehicles in the central Mopti region. Central Mali is the locus of the Macina Liberation Front, led by Salafist preacher and militant leader Amadou Koufa.
(Reuters, 3/17/19)
2019 Mar 17, In Northern Ireland two 17-year-olds and a 16-year-old died after a crowd of revelers trying to get into a St. Patrick's Day event caused what appears to be a crush at the Greenvale Hotel in Cookstown.
(AP, 3/18/19)
2019 Mar 17, In Pakistan four people were killed and 10 injured when a bomb went off on a train track in the resource-rich province of Baluchistan.
(Reuters, 3/17/19)
2019 Mar 17, A Palestinian stabbed an Israeli soldier to death in the occupied West Bank and used his rifle to wound another soldier and a Jewish settler before escaping.
(Reuters, 3/17/19)
2019 Mar 17, Serbia's Pres. Aleksandar Vucic pledged to defend the country's law and order a day after opposition supporters stormed the national TV station protesting what they said is his autocratic rule and firm control of the media. Thousands of demonstrators rallied around the presidential palace in Belgrade to protest the speech by Vucic.
(AP, 3/17/19)(AFP, 3/17/19)
2019 Mar 17, In Somalia a US air strike killed four people near the town of Afgoye. The US Africa Command (AFRICOM) later said it carried out the air strike and that three militants had died in the attack.
(Reuters, 3/19/19)
2019 Mar 17, In eastern Syria Lorenzo Orsetti (33), an Italian fighting alongside the Kurdish-led YPG force, was killed in battle as he fought diehard jihadists in the village of Baghouz.
(AFP, 3/19/19)
2019 Mar 17, Hundreds of Sudanese took part in anti-government protests in the capital and other cities as the government announced it had secured $300 million in loans to address the economic crisis that triggered the unrest.
(AP, 3/17/19)
2019 Mar 17, In eastern Syria the SDF admitted to facing difficulties defeating the IS extremists, saying they were being slowed by mines, tunnels and concerns over harming women and children still in Baghouz. The SDF said it would no longer estimate how many people remained, but said recent evacuees told the fighting forces that another 5,000 were still inside.
(AP, 3/17/19)
2019 Mar 17, In Turkey Kurdish activist Zulkuf Gezen died late today. He was one of scores of detainees on hunger strike in support of a Kurdish lawmaker in Diyarbakir. He reportedly hanged himself after 12 years in prison on charges of membership of the PKK Kurdish militant group.
(AFP, 3/18/19)
2020 Mar 17, The Trump administration called for $1 trillion in spending, including $250 billion for direct payments to Americans, as the federal government prepares to fight the coronavirus pandemic and an almost certain recession.
(NY Times, 3/18/20)
2020 Mar 17, The US Federal Reserve said it would reinstate a funding facility used during the 2008 financial crisis to get credit directly to businesses and households as fears over a liquidity crunch due to the coronavirus have grown in recent days.
(Reuters, 3/17/20)
2020 Mar 17, Former US vice president Joe Biden easily defeated Bernie Sanders in Arizona, Florida and Illinois state primaries.
(AP, 3/18/20)
2020 Mar 17, Former California Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter was sentenced to 11 months in prison after pleading guilty to stealing campaign funds and spending the money on everything from outings with friends to his daughter's birthday party.
(Miami Herald, 3/17/20)
2020 Mar 17, San Francisco's Mayor London Breed announced plans to ban commercial evictions for small and medium-sized businesses impacted by the coronavirus. City officials said canabis businesses may remain open as non-essential businesses were told to shut down.
(SFC, 3/18/20, p.B5)
2020 Mar 17, In the SF Bay Area Xuehua "Edward" Peng (56) of Hayward was sentenced to four years in federal prison for smuggling purported national security information to China for more than two years.
(SFC, 3/18/20, p.B1)
2020 Mar 17, Jerry Slick (b.1939), drummer and founder of the San Francisco-based Great Society rock band, died in his Mill Valley, Ca., home. He founded the band with his wife Grace Slick in 1965. Grace Slick joined the Jefferson Airplane in 1966 and Jerry moved on as a cinematographer and filmmaker.
(SSFC, 3/29/20, p.B8)
2020 Mar 17, In Florida Colombian brothers Pedro Nel Rincon-Castillo (53) and Omar Rincon-Castillo (50) were sentenced to about 20 years and 17-1/2 years, respectively, on cocaine-trafficking charges by a federal judge in Fort Lauderdale.
(AP, 3/18/20)
2020 Mar 17, In Michigan a Wayne County jury convicted Devon Kareem Robinson (19) of first-degree premeditated murder, assault with intent to murder and felony firearm in the May 2019 killings of Alunte Davis (21), Timothy Blancher (20) and Paris Cameron (20). Police believed the victims were targeted for their sexual orientation.
(AP, 3/18/20)
2020 Mar 17, New York state closed all schools for two weeks. The state has 1,374 cases of coronavirus and 12 people have died. The US had 5,124 cases of coronavirus with 96 deaths.
(AP, 3/17/20)(https://ncov2019.live/)
2020 Mar 17, It was reported that a TSA officer at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport has tested positive for COVID-19. This marked the 8th TSA officer to test positive for COVID-19. The other cases were in California, Florida and Georgia.
(Good Morning America, 3/17/20)
2020 Mar 17, Ohio's primary, planned for today, was cancelled. Governor Mike DeWine postponed his state's primary until June 2 because of the growing coronavirus crisis.
(Reuters, 3/17/20)
2020 Mar 17, Texas confirmed its first death due to coronavirus.
(The Independent, 3/17/20)
2020 Mar 17, West Virginia reported its first confirmed coronavirus infection. There are now known coronavirus cases in all 50 US states.
(NY Times, 3/18/20)
2020 Mar 17, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc said it had identified hundreds of antibodies that could treat or prevent the coronavirus and was preparing to begin clinical trials by early summer, sending the drugmaker's shares up nearly 12%.
(Reuters, 3/17/20)
2020 Mar 17, Brazil's government called for a state of emergency to loosen fiscal rules as it faced challenges from the coronavirus pandemic and oil price war. Brazil reported its first death due to the virus and closed its border to Venezuelans for an initial 15 days, citing strains on the public health system and what its president described as Venezuela's inability to respond.
(Reuters, 3/18/20)
2020 Mar 17, Brazil's Sao Paulo state prison authority said more than 500 prisoners have been recaptured who fled four jails ahead of a planned lockdown of the facilities over the coronavirus pandemic. Local officials had cancelled temporary leaves because of fears that prisoners could bring the new coronavirus back with them.
(AP, 3/17/20)(SFC, 3/18/20, p.A2)
2020 Mar 17, Britain's health ministry said cases of coronavirus rose 26% to 1,950 from 1,543 the day before. The National Health Service (NHS) announced plans to cancel all routine surgery for three months and to send home as many patients as possible to free up staff and beds to deal with the spread of the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/17/20)
2020 Mar 17, The BBC reported that Hashem Abedi, the brother of the bomber who blew himself up at the end of an Ariana Grande concert in the English city of Manchester in May 2017, has been found guilty of murdering the 22 victims.
(Reuters, 3/17/20)
2020 Mar 17, Bulgaria banned all foreign and domestic holiday trips until April 13 as part of efforts to contain the spread of the coronavirus. The Balkan country had 81 confirmed cases of the new virus and two deaths.
(Reuters, 3/17/20)
2020 Mar 17, In Bulgaria investigative journalist Slavi Angelov, editor-in-chief of the weekly 168 Hours, was attacked by unknown assailants and hospitalized in Sofia with serious injuries.
(SFC, 3/19/20, p.A2)(https://tinyurl.com/rrjhy5u)
2020 Mar 17, Canadian PM Justin Trudeau said his government would provide financial support to people during the coronavirus outbreak as he urged them to stay at home to slow the spread of COVI0D-19.
(Reuters, 3/17/20)
2020 Mar 17, It was reported that Chad is repaying Angola a debt of $100m (£82m) with cattle. More than 1,000 cows have arrived by ship in Luanda as the first payment.
(BBC, 3/17/20)
2020 Mar 17, The Chinese Foreign Ministry said that it was revoking the press credentials for American journalists from three newspapers, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post, requiring them to return their media passes within 10 days and essentially expelling them from the country. All three US media outlets have reported politically sensitive stories in China, a long-term taboo with the Chinese Communist Party.
(AP, 3/18/20)
2020 Mar 17, Chinese doctors reported that Avigan (favipiravir), a drug used against influenza in Japan, led to clinical improvements in coronavirus patients.
(Econ, 3/21/20, p.18)
2020 Mar 17, Croatia's government proposed to postpone tax payments for at least three months and make loans available to struggling business in response to the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic. Croatia has so far reported 65 cases of coronavirus. Four people have recovered and no one has yet died from COVID-19.
(Reuters, 3/17/20)
2020 Mar 17, Egypt, which has 166 confirmed cases of the new virus including four fatalities, announced the lockdown of the Red Sea province that includes the popular resort town of Hurghada. Egypt lowered the price of natural gas for industrial use to $4.5 per mmbtu and cut a tax on dividends for companies listed on its stock exchange to 5% in an attempt to soften the impact of the spread of the coronavirus on the economy.
(AP, 3/17/20)(Reuters, 3/17/20)
2020 Mar 17, European Union leaders agreed to restrict most travel into the continent in an unprecedented move aimed at slowing down the spread of a deadly coronavirus and mitigating its effects on the bloc. Europe logged 10,560 new COVID-19 infections, with 3,590 of the cases diagnosed in Italy.
(Bloomberg, 3/17/20)(Business Insider, 3/17/20)
2020 Mar 17, French President Emmanuel Macron declared "war" on Covid-19 with a raft of measures to keep citizens in lock-down mode, including a ban on non-essential travel, just a few days after ordering business closures and shutting schools.
(Bloomberg, 3/17/20)
2020 Mar 17, Indian authorities expanded the population eligible for testing to health care workers with symptoms who are treating patients with severe respiratory illnesses. Authorities have confirmed 126 cases linked to foreign travel or direct contact with someone who caught the disease abroad. Indian authorities said that they would not widely expand testing for the virus, despite mounting criticism from some experts that the limited tests could mask the true toll of the disease in the world's second most populous country.
(AP, 3/17/20)
2020 Mar 17, Iran issued its most dire warning yet about the outbreak of the new coronavirus ravaging the country, suggesting “millions" could die in the Islamic Republic if the public keeps traveling and ignoring health guidance. Health Ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour said the virus had killed 135 more people to raise the total to 988 amid over 16,000 cases. In efforts to curb the spread of the virus, Iran has released 85,000 prisoners on temporary leave.
(AP, 3/17/20)
2020 Mar 17, Iran temporarily released Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe (41), a British-Iranian woman serving a five-year prison term in Tehran for sedition, from jail for two weeks. Nazanin had warned last month that was in danger of contracting the new coronavirus inside Evin Prison.
(AFP, 3/17/20)
2020 Mar 17, Iraq's President Barham Saleh named Adnan al-Zurfi, a former governor of the city of Najaf, as prime minister-designate, following weeks of political infighting.
(AP, 3/17/20)
2020 Mar 17, Peace Now, an Israeli monitoring group that opposes West Bank settlements, said that Israel's average annual construction rate has risen 25% since President Donald Trump took office in 2017.
(AP, 3/18/20)
2020 Mar 17, Official data in Italy showed that 31,506 people have been confirmed as positive for the coronavirus. The official death toll passed 2,500.
(AP, 3/18/20)(Reuters, 3/18/20)
2020 Mar 17, A Lebanese military judge appealed a verdict by the military tribunal that ordered the release of Amer Fakhoury, a Lebanese-American held since September on charges of working for an Israeli-backed militia two decades ago. Lebanon released Amer Fakhoury (57) on March 19.
(AP, 3/17/20)(AP, 3/19/20)
2020 Mar 17, The Lithuanian parliament voted to the raise borrowing limit by 4.5 billion euros, and to allow the government to borrow over the limit to fight effects of the coronavirus. Lithuania had 22 cases of coronavirus with no deaths.
(Reuters, 3/17/20)(https://ncov2019.live/)
2020 Mar 17, A Moroccan court handed a four-month suspended sentence and a 500 dirham fine to Moroccan journalist and rights activist Omar Radi (33) on charges of insulting a judge on Twitter, in a case that outraged advocates of free speech in the country.
(Reuters, 3/17/20)
2020 Mar 17, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un acknowledged that his country lacks modern medical facilities and called for urgent improvements.
(AP, 3/18/20)
2020 Mar 17, Pakistani PM Imran Khan declared that there would be no national lockdown to block the spread of the coronavirus.
(Econ, 3/28/20, p.36)
2020 Mar 17, In Peru miners halted operations and girded for extended supply chain disruptions in neighboring Chile as governments tightened curbs due to coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/18/20)
2020 Mar 17, Qatari authorities announced the closure of several square km of the industrial area in the capital Doha, which also contains labor camps and other housing units, due to the coronavirus. Qatar relies on about 2 million migrant workers for the bulk of its labor force.
(Reuters, 3/19/20)
2020 Mar 17, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a vote on changes to the constitution which could allow him to extend his rule to be held next month as planned, but warned it could be delayed if the coronavirus situation worsens.
(AP, 3/17/20)
2020 Mar 17, Senegal has recorded 27 cases of coronavirus. Medical staff said they had received limited protective equipment beyond extra gloves and masks.
(Reuters, 3/17/20)
2020 Mar 17, In South Africa Lt Col Leroy Brewer, a top rhino poaching investigator, was driving to work when he was shot dead by gunmen with high-caliber weapons. He died on the spot.
(AP, 3/18/20)
2020 Mar 17, South Africa's national ports operator Transnet said it is holding the cruise liner, MV AidAmira, and a cargo vessel off Cape Town's port limits after a crew member onboard one of the vessels showed signs of coronavirus. The MV Aidamira, with 1,240 passengers and 486 crew on board, had returned to Cape Town from Namibia’s Walvis Bay.
(Reuters, 3/17/20)(BBC, 3/18/20)
2020 Mar 17, Spanish PM Pedro Sanchez announced a package of measures worth a total 200 billion euros ($219 billion), between loans, credit guarantees, benefits and direct aid, to mitigate the impact of the coronavirus epidemic on the economy.
(Reuters, 3/17/20)
2020 Mar 17, It was reported that Spain's King Felipe VI has renounced any future personal inheritance he could receive from his father, King Emirat Jaun Carlos I, over the alleged financial irregularities involving the former monarch. Felipe (52) was also strippimng Juan Carlos of his annual stipend.
(SFC, 3/17/20, p.A2)
2020 Mar 17, In southern Thailand bombers attacked a major government office as hundreds of local officials and Muslim clerics met to discuss fighting COVID-19. At least 20 people were reported hurt.
(SFC, 3/18/20, p.A2)
2020 Mar 17, Ukrainian shops, restaurants and transport shut down as the country tightened restrictions to contain the spread of the coronavirus. Police arrested five people suspected of trying to rob 100,000 surgical masks at gunpoint in Kiev.
(AP, 3/17/20)
2020 Mar 17, The United Nations and nine countries called on Libya's warring parties to cease hostilities to allow health authorities to fight against the new coronavirus.
(AFP, 3/17/20)
2020 Mar 17, The UN refugee agency and the International Organization for Migration announced a temporary pause in refugee resettlement to slow the spread of the new coronavirus. That led the US to pause its admissions until at least April 6.
(The Week, 3/18/20)
2020 Mar 17, Yemeni officials said heavy fighting between pro-government forces and Shiite rebels killed more than three dozen people in the previous 24 hours. Houthi officials said the Saudi-led coalition had carried out at least 15 airstrikes against their fighters.
(AP, 3/17/20)
2021 Mar 17, President Joe Biden said Russian President Vladimir Putin will face consequences for directing efforts to swing the 2020 US presidential election to Donald Trump, and that they would come soon.
(Reuters, 3/17/21)
2021 Mar 17, The US government said it is investing $12.25 billion on ramping up COVID-19 testing in the country to help schools reopen safely and promote testing equity among high-risk and underserved populations. The funds will be taken from the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan that was signed into law last week.
(Reuters, 3/17/21)
2021 Mar 17, The US State Dept. announced sanctions on 24 Chinese officials for undermining Hong Kong's democratic freedoms.
(SFC, 3/18/21, p.A4)
2021 Mar 17, The IRS said filers will have until May 17 to file their tax returns. The extra time is intended to ease the burden on Americans dealing with the economic upheaval caused by the pandemic.
(NY Times, 3/17/21)
2021 Mar 17, US Federal Reserve officials signaled that they are in no rush to dial back support for a pandemic-damaged economy, releasing a fresh set of projections that showed the central bank’s policy interest rate on hold at near zero for years to come.
(NY Times, 3/17/21)
2021 Mar 17, California to date had 3,605,719 cases of coronavirus and 56,097 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 415,829 cases and 5,701 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 29,602,809 with the death toll at 537,945.
(sfist.com, 3/17/21)
2021 Mar 17, Sean Lannon (47) was arrested in St Louis, Missouri driving the stolen car of his alleged New Jersey victim, Michael Dabkowski. Lannon said Dabkowski had sexually abused him as a child. Lannon soon claimed responsibility for 15 killings in New Mexico.
(The Independent, 3/20/21)
2021 Mar 17, Abbvie Inc said the US Food and Drug Administration has extended the review period for expanded use of its rheumatoid arthritis drug Rinvoq by three months, citing the need for more time to assess the drug's benefit-risk profile.
(AP, 3/17/21)
2021 Mar 17, CNBC reported that Morgan Stanley has become the first big US bank to offer its wealth management clients access to bitcoin funds.
(Reuters, 3/17/21)
2021 Mar 17, Facebook Inc said it is starting to remove the recommendations it gives global users for political and social issue Facebook groups, a move it has billed as turning down tension on the site.
(Reuters, 3/17/21)
2021 Mar 17, Australia said it will send COVID-19 vaccines from its own supply to Papua New Guinea and will ask AstraZeneca to send 8,000 doses to contain a concerning wave of infections.
(SFC, 3/18/21, p.A5)
2021 Mar 17, It was reported that interest in cybersex is soaring as the pandemic has left people subject to lockdowns and travel bans and unable to seek intimacy in the usual ways. In London Angelina Aleksandrovich runs a collective called Raspberry Dream Labs which creates multi-sensory cybersex experiences which allow people to enjoy intimate moments together even when they are not in same place.
(Reuters, 3/17/21)
2021 Mar 17, Cape Verde’s Supreme Court ruled that Alex Saab, a businessman close to Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro who was arrested last year in the West African country, can be extradited to the United States to face money-laundering charges.
(AP, 3/17/21)
2021 Mar 17, Researchers in a large study from Denmark reported that the vast majority of people who recover from Covid-19 remain shielded from the virus for at least six months.
(NY Times, 3/18/21)
2021 Mar 17, An Egyptian court convicted prominent human rights activist Sanaa Seif of spreading false news, and insulting a police officer, sentencing her to 18 months in prison.
(AP, 3/17/21)
2021 Mar 17, The European Union criticized Turkish authorities for stripping a prominent pro-Kurdish legislator of his parliamentary seat and seeking to shut down his political party, saying these moves add to concerns over the “backsliding of rights" in Turkey.
(AP, 3/18/21)
2021 Mar 17, It was reported that Finland-based Nokia plans to cut up to 10,000 jobs as it tries to cement its role as a key supplier of 5G technology. Nokia said the restructuring should reduce costs by $715 million by 2023.
(SFC, 3/17/21, p.B2)
2021 Mar 17, Greece launched a 30-year government bond auction, hoping to take advantage of low interest rates to improve its debt profile and offset some of the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the country’s public finances.
(AP, 3/17/21)
2021 Mar 17, Indian health officials said about 6.5% of coronavirus vaccine doses in India are going to waste, urging states to manage their immunization drives better to optimize use of what one called "this elixir-like precious commodity".
(Reuters, 3/17/21)
2021 Mar 17, Iran's state TV reported that mishaps during the annual Nowruz fire festival have left at least 10 people dead and hundreds more injured around the country. The deaths happened over a period of several weeks.
(AP, 3/17/21)
2021 Mar 17, In Italy Eni SpA, Royal Dutch Shell Plc and several of their current and former executives were acquitted of corruption charges related to a Nigerian oil deal by a court in Milan. Sentences in Italy aren’t definitive until appeals are exhausted. It could take years before a final decision.
(Bloomberg, 3/17/21)
2021 Mar 17, A Japanese court for the first time ruled that same-sex marriage should be allowed under the country's constitution, a moral victory that does not have any immediate legal consequence but could bolster efforts for legalization.
(AP, 3/17/21)
2021 Mar 17, Kenya's high court upheld a ban on female genital mutilation (FGM) in a landmark ruling welcomed by campaigners seeking to eradicate the internationally condemned procedure.
(Reuters, 3/17/21)
2021 Mar 17, Two Polish government websites were hacked today and used briefly to spread false information about a non-existent radioactive threat, in what a Polish government official said had the hallmarks of a Russian cyberattack.
(AP, 3/17/21)
2021 Mar 17, Syria has registered 16,656 cases of coronavirus, including 1,110 deaths in government-held areas. The numbers are believed to be much higher because of limited testing being done. President Bashar Assad’s office said the first couple are on their way to recovery nine days after testing positive for the coronavirus.
(AP, 3/17/21)
2021 Mar 17, Tanzania's Pres. John Magufuli (61) died from reported heart complications at a hospital in Dar es Salaam. Vice-President Samia Suluhu Hassan (61) will be sworn in as the new president within 24 hours and should serve the remainder of Mr Magufuli's five-year term which he began last year.
(BBC, 3/18/21)
2021 Mar 17, Tunisia’s president met with Libya's newly appointed government officials in Tripoli, becoming the first head of state to visit the war-torn country a day after an interim administration took power.
(AP, 3/17/21)
2021 Mar 17, Turkish authorities stripped Omer Faruk Gergerlioglu, a prominent legislator and human rights advocate, of his parliamentary seat and took a step toward disbanding the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party. On March 21 around 100 police officers entered parliament to detain him. He was released after questioning several hours later.
(AP, 3/17/21)(AP, 3/21/21)
2021 Mar 17, A UN spokesman said human rights chief Michelle Bachelet has agreed to Ethiopia's request for a joint investigation into the humanitarian consequences of the conflict in the country's northern Tigray region.
(AFP, 3/17/21)
2021 Mar 17, The United Nations' nuclear watchdog (IAEA) said it has confirmed that Iran has begun operating a cascade of advanced centrifuges at an underground site.
(AP, 3/17/21)
2021 Mar 17, A UN team of investigators on Myanmar appealed for people to collect and preserve documentary evidence of crimes ordered by the military since a Feb. 1 coup, in order to build future cases against its leaders.
(Reuters, 3/17/21)
2021 Mar 17, A World Health Organization (WHO) vaccine safety panel said that it considers that the benefits of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine outweigh its risks and recommends that vaccinations continue.
(Reuters, 3/17/21)
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