Today in History - March 26
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752 Mar 26, Pope Stephen II died 4 days after his election.
(SS, 3/26/02)(PTA, 1980, p.184)
922 Mar 26, Al-Hallaj al-Mughith-al-Hsayn Mansur (64), Persian mystic, was beheaded. Mansur al-Hallaj (b.858), a Sufi mystic, was crucified in Baghdad for pronouncing in the midst of a trance that he was the truth, i.e god.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Hallaj)(SFC, 4/21/04, p.A10)
1027 Mar 26, John XIX crowned Conrad II the Salier Roman German emperor.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1150 Mar 26, Tichborne family of Hampshire, England, started tradition of giving a gallon of flour to each resident to keep deathbed promise.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1258 Mar 26, Floris the Guardian, count-regent of Holland, died.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1479 Mar 26, Vasili III, great prince of Moscow (1505-33), son of Ivan III, was born.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1516 Mar 26, Konrad von Gesner, naturalist (Bibliotheca Universalis), was born in Zurich, Switzerland.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1517 Mar 26, The famous Flemish composer Heinrich Issac, died. His music fused Flemish, Italian and Germanic styles.
(HN, 3/26/99)
1526 Mar 26, King François I returned Spanish captivity to France.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1534 Mar 26, Lübeck accepted free Dutch ships into East Sea.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1636 Mar 26, University of Utrecht held its opening ceremony.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1649 Mar 26, John Winthrop, Puritan and 1st Gov. of Massachusetts, died. [see Apr 5]
(SS, 3/26/02)
1659 Mar 26, William Wollaston, English philosopher, was born.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1668 Mar 26, England took control of Bombay, India.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1692 Mar 26, King Maximilian was installed as land guardian of South Netherlands.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1753 Mar 26, Benjamin Thompson (d.1814), Count Rumford, English physicist and diplomat, was born. He was a Tory spy in the American Revolution and discovered that heat equaled motion, which led to the 2nd law of thermodynamics.
(WUD, 1994, p.1477)(WSJ, 7/28/98, p.A16)(SS, 3/26/02)
1773 Mar 26, Nathaniel Bowditch (d.1838), mathematician, astronomer, polyglot, author (Marine Sextant), was born in Salem, Mass. In 1802 he published “The New American Practical Navigator."
(SS, 3/26/02)(AH, 12/02, p.22)
1780 Mar 26, The 1st British Sunday newspaper appeared as the British Gazette and Sunday Monitor.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1790 Mar 26, US Congress passed a Naturalization Act. It required a 2-year residency.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1793 Mar 26, Pro-royalist uprising took place in Vendée region of France.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1797 Mar 26, James Hutton, geologist, died.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1798 Mar 26, Tunis, under the rule of Bey Hamuda Pasha, signed a treaty of peace and friendship with the US following negotiations with William Eaton. The American Revolutionary War veteran had been recently appointed consul to the North African kingdom.
(ON, 10/06, p.7)
1799 Mar 26, Napoleon Bonaparte captured Jaffa, Palestine.
(HN, 3/26/99)
1804 Mar 26, Congress ordered the removal of Indians east of the Mississippi to Louisiana.
(HN, 3/25/98)
1804 Mar 26, The Louisiana Purchase was divided into the Territory of Orleans and the District of Louisiana.
(AP, 3/26/97)(HN, 3/25/98)
1812 Mar 26, Earthquake destroyed 90% of Caracas; about 20,000 died.
(SS, 3/26/02)(PCh, 1992, p.376)
1819 Mar 26, Louise Otto, German feminist author, was born.
(HN, 3/25/98)
1821 Mar 26, Franz Grillparzer's "Das Goldene Vliess" premiered in Vienna.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1824 Mar 26, 1st performance of Beethoven's "Missa Solemnis."
(SS, 3/26/02)
1827 Mar 26, Ludwig von Beethoven (56), German composer, died in Vienna. He had been deaf for the later part of his life, but said on his death bead "I shall hear in heaven." It was later determined that he suffered from lead poisoning. In 1995 Tia DeNora authored "Beethoven and the Construction of Genius." In 2000 Russell Martin authored "Beethoven’s Hair: An Extraordinary Historical Odyssey and a Scientific Mystery Solved." In 2014 Jan Swafford authored “Beethoven: Anguish and Triumph."
(WSJ, 5/29/96, p.A5)(AP, 3/256/97)(HN, 3/26/99)(SFC, 10/18/00, p.A2)(WSJ, 1/17/02, p.A12)(Econ, 9/20/14, p.78)
1831 Mar 26, An interim government was set up in Raseiniai as a Lithuanian revolt against Russian rule began. There was a major uprising led by the Polish nobility in Warsaw against Russian rule. Russian forces began to march through Lithuania and this led many people of Lithuania to join in the rebellion against Russian rule. Serf uprisings also followed. The rebellion was eventually quelled by Russian force.
(H of L, 1931, p.85-86)(LHC, 3/26/03)
1832 Mar 26, Famed western artist George Catlin began his voyage up the Missouri River aboard the American Fur Company steamship Yellowstone.
(HN, 3/26/99)
1836 Mar 26, Mexican Colonel Jose Nicolas de la Portilla received orders from Gen. Santa Anna in triplicate to execute his Texan prisoners at Goliad.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goliad_Campaign)
1845 Mar 26, Joseph Francis, New York NY, patented a corrugated sheet-iron lifeboat.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1845 Mar 26, Patent was awarded for adhesive medicated plaster, precursor of band aid.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1850 Mar 26, Edward Bellamy (d.1898), writer, was born. His work included the utopian novel "Looking Backward, 2000-1887," which forecast what America might look like if people worked together for the common good.
(WSJ, 12/10/99, p.W17)(HN, 3/26/01)
1859 Mar 26, A.E. Houseman (d.1936), critic, classics scholar and poet (A Shropshire Lad), was born. A 1997 fictionalized portrait of Alfred Edward Housman, "The Invention of Love: Memory Play," was written by Tom Stoppard. He is best known for his work "A Shropshire Lad."
(SFEC, 3/29/98, p.T9)(SFC, 1/15/00, p.B1)(HN, 3/26/01)
1859 Mar 26, 1st sighting of Vulcan, a planet thought to orbit inside Mercury.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1862 Mar 26, Battle of La Glorieta Pass, New Mexico Territory (Apache Canyon, Pigeon's Ranch).
(SS, 3/26/02)
1863 Mar 26, Henry Royce, founder (Rolls-Royce Limited in 1884), was born. [see Mar 27]
(SS, 3/26/02)
1863 Mar 26, Voters in West Virginia approved the gradual emancipation of slaves.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1864 Mar 26, British metalworkers in Scunthorpe charged their first blast furnace. Iron ore mining in the area had begun in July 1860.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scunthorpe)
1868 Mar 26, Fuad I, king of Egypt (1922-36), was born.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1871 Mar 26, Serafín Alvarez Quintéro, Spanish dramatist, playwright (El Flechazo), was born.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1871 Mar 26, Paris Commune was founded. The Parisians revolted against their government and tried to secede by electing their own government. The Commune of Paris refused to obey Adolphe Thiers, the elected president of the country. Thiers asked the Germans to release thousands of French prisoners and organized a powerful force to overcome the Commune.
(V.D.-H.K.p.260)(SS, 3/26/02)
1872 Mar 26, Thomas J. Martin patented a fire extinguisher.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1872 Mar 26, A 7.8 earthquake shook the Owens Valley, California.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1874 Mar 26, Robert Frost, poet (d.1963), was born in San Francisco. In a biography of Frost by Jeffrey Myers: “Robert Frost: A Biography," the author claims that Frost moved his birthday up a year (to 1875) to make himself legitimate. A 3-volume biography by Lawrence Thompson was completed in 1976. Myers reveals that Frost’s lover, Kay Morrison, was also involved with Lawrence Thompson, but that that would not be disclosed in the Thompson biography. "Before I built a wall I'd ask to know What I was walling in or walling out."
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Frost)(AP, 3/26/97)(AP, 11/9/98)
1875 Mar 26, Syngman Rhee, President of South Korea (1948-60), was born. [see Apr 26]
(SS, 3/26/02)
1880 Mar 26, Duncan Hines, US restaurant guide writer (Out of Kentucky Kitchens), was born.
(HN, 3/25/98)(SS, 3/26/02)
1882 Mar 26, Oscar Wilde arrived in SF for a series of lectures. His first lecture on “The English Renaissance," was given the next night at Platt’s Hall at Bush and Montgomery.
(SFEC, 11/16/97, DB p.3)(SFC, 10/12/12, p.C3)
1885 Mar 26, The Eastman Film Co. of Rochester, N.Y., manufactured the first commercial motion picture film. George Eastman had perfected a method for bonding photographic emulsion onto thin strips of celluloid.
(AP, 3/25/98)(HN, 3/25/98)(ON, 11/03, p.5)
1885 Mar 26, Louis Riel's forces defeated Canadian forces at Duck Lake, Saskatchewan.
(SS, 3/26/02)(ON, 11/07, p.12)
1886 Mar 26, The 1st cremation in England took place.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1892 Mar 26, Poet Walt Whitman died in Camden, N.J. In 1997 Gary Schmidgall published the biography: “Walt Whitman: A Gay Life." It focused on the poet’s homosexuality. In 1999 a critical biography: Walt Whitman: The Song of Himself" by Jerome Loving was published along with "A Whitman Chronology" by Joann P. Krieg.
(AP, 3/26/97)(SFEC, 9/14/97, BR p.7)(SFC, 3/3/99, p.E4)(SFEC, 4/4/99, Par p.15)
1895 Mar 26, King Alfonso planted a pine sapling in Madrid and started Spain's Arbor Day.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1898 Mar 26, In South Africa the Sabi Game Reserve, the world's 1st official designated game reserve, opened.
(http://schools-wikipedia.org/wp/k/Kruger_National_Park.htm)
1902 Mar 26, Cecil John Rhodes (b.1853), British imperialist, died at age 48. He was buried in a tomb in the Matopos Hills, Rhodesia (Zimbabwe). He had co-founded De Beers Consolidated Mines Ltd., built great railways through southern Africa. Rhodes (founder of Rhodesia) left $10 million in his will to provide scholarships to Oxford University in England. The first scholars were selected in 1903. In 2008 Philip Ziegler authored “Legacy: Cecil Rhodes, the Rhodes Trust and Rhodes Scholarships."
(WSJ, 12/9/98, p.A1)(AP, 4/4/97)(SFC, 12/9/98, p.A25)(Econ, 5/10/08, p.95)
1903 Mar 26, American Hotel opened in Amsterdam.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1904 Mar 26, Joseph Campbell, folklorist and writer, was born.
(HN, 3/26/01)
1905 Mar 26, Viktor Emil Frankl, psychiatrist (Man's Search for Meaning), was born.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1909 Mar 26, August Strindberg's "Bjalb-jarle-ti" premiered in Stockholm.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1909 Mar 26, Russian troops invaded Persia to support Muhammad Ali as the Shah in place of the constitutional government.
(HN, 3/25/98)
1910 Mar 26, US forbade immigration to criminals, anarchists, paupers and the sick.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1910 Mar 26, William H. Lewis was appointed Assistant Attorney General of US.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1911 Mar 26, Tennessee Williams (d.1983), American dramatist, was born in Columbus, Miss. His plays included "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" and "A Streetcar Name Desire."
(HN, 3/26/01)(AP, 3/26/02)(http://tinyurl.com/s8zm5)
1913 Mar 26, Dayton, Ohio, was almost destroyed when Scioto, Miami, and Muskingum River reached flood stage simultaneously.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1913 Mar 26, The Balkan allies took Adrianople. Bulgaria captured Adrianople, ending the 1st Balkan War.
(HN, 3/25/98)(SS, 3/26/02)
1914 Mar 26, The birthday of Tennessee (Thomas Lanier) Williams (1914-1983), American dramatist. His play “The Glass Menagerie" was inspired by a pre-frontal lobotomy performed on his sister to cure a case of schizophrenia. The operation failed and his sister, Rose (1909-1996), was institutionalized. He left a $10 million estate to support her and directed that anything left go to support aspiring writers at the Univ. of the South of Sewanee. He also wrote "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" and "A Streetcar Name Desire." [see Mar 11 & 26, 1911]
(AHD, p.1466)(WUD, 1994, p.1634)
1914 Mar 26, William Westmoreland, U.S. army general and head of all ground forces in South Vietnam during the Vietnam War, was born in Saxon, SC.
(HN, 3/26/99)(SS, 3/26/02)
1917 Mar 27, The Seattle Metropolitans became the first US team to win the Stanley Cup as they defeated the Montreal Canadiens.
(AP, 3/27/97)
1918 Mar 26, On the Western Front during World War I the Germans took the French towns Noyon, Roye and Lihons.
(HN, 3/25/98)
1918 Mar 26, Col. Raynal Bolling (b.1877), architect of American air power in WWI and resident of Greenwich, Connecticut, was shot dead by a German patrol in France.
(WSJ, 4/12/08, p.A1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raynal_Bolling)
1923 Mar 26, Bob Elliot, radio comedian, one half of Bob and Ray, was born.
(HN, 3/26/01)
1923 Mar 26, Actress Sarah Bernhardt (b.1844), born in Paris as Rosine Bernardt, died in Paris. In 2010 Robert Gottlieb authored “Sarah: The Life of Sarah Bernhardt."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Bernhardt)(Econ, 9/18/10, p.105)
1924 Mar 26, Premiere of Bernard Shaw's "Saint Joan" in London.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1925 Mar 26, Pierre Boulez, composer, conductor (Visage Nuptial), was born in Montbrison, France.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1926 Mar 26, ACD de Graeff was appointed Governor-General of Dutch East-Indies.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1926 Mar 26, The 1st lip-reading tournament was held in America.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1926 Mar 26, U.S. oil companies bought 190,000 tons of kerosene from Russia for $3.2 million.
(HN, 3/25/98)
1927 Mar 26, Alfred Hugenberg purchased German film company UFA.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1927 Mar 26, Gaumont-British Film Corporation formed.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1930 Mar 26, Gregory Corso, beat poet (Happy Birthday of Death, Long Live Man), was born. He discovered literature in prison.
(HN, 3/26/01)(SS, 3/26/02)
1930 Mar 26, Sandra Day O'Connor, first woman US Supreme Court Justice (1981- ), was born in El Paso TX.
(HN, 3/26/01)(SS, 3/26/02)
1930 Mar 26, Congress appropriated $50,000 for Inter-American highway.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1931 Mar 26, Leonard Nimoy, actor (Spock-Star Trek, Mission Impossible), was born in Boston, MA.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1931 Mar 26, Iraq and Trans-Jordan (Transjordan) signed a peace treaty.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1931 Mar 26, New Delhi replaced Calcutta as capitol of British-India. [see Feb 10]
(SS, 3/26/02)
1933 Mar 26, Vine Deloria, Jr., writer, activist, was born.
(HN, 3/26/01)
1934 Mar 26, Alan Arkin, actor (Catch 22, In-Laws, Simon, Wait Until Dark), was born in NYC.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1934 Mar 26, Driving tests were introduced in Britain.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1934 Mar 26, Switzerland banned all slanderous criticism of state institutions in the press and threatened the suspension of publications if the ban was not heeded.
(HN, 3/25/98)
1936 Mar 26, A 200" telescope lens was shipped by the Corning Glass Works from New York to Cal Tech.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1936 Mar 26, Mary Joyce ended a 1,000 mile trip by dog in Alaska.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1936 Mar 26, New Zealand radio aired a parliamentary debate for the 1st time.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1937 Mar 26, A 6-foot-tall concrete statue of the cartoon character Popeye was unveiled during the Second Annual Spinach Festival in Crystal City, Texas.
(AP, 3/26/97)
1937 Mar 26, William H. Hastie became the first black federal judge in the Virgin Islands.
(HN, 3/25/98)(SS, 3/26/02)
1938 Mar 26, NBC radio performance of Howard Hanson's 3rd Symphony.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1938 Mar 26, Herman Goering warned all Jews to leave Austria.
(HN, 3/25/98)
1940 Mar 26, Nancy Pelosi, (Representative-Democrat-CA), was born.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1940 Mar 26, In California 9 homeless people, including two women, were killed after the elevated floor of a warehouse collapsed in Santa Rosa. Eight of the3 dead were Pomo Indians known in the area as fruit pickers and odd jib laborers.
(SSFC, 3/22/15, DB p.42)
1941 Mar 26, Clinton Richard Dawkins, British ethologist, evolutionary biologist and popular science author, was born. He came to prominence with his 1976 book “The Selfish Gene," which popularized the gene-centered view of evolution and introduced the term meme.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Dawkins)
1942 Mar 26, Erica Jong [Mann], poet, novelist (Fear of Flying, How to Save Your Own Life), was born in NYC.
(HN, 3/26/01)(SS, 3/26/02)
1942 Mar 26, 20 tons of gelignite killed 21 in a stone quarry in Easton, PA.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1942 Mar 26, A German offensive took place in North-Africa under Colonel-General Rommel.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1943 Mar 26, Elsie S. Ott, US army nurse, became the 1st woman to receive air medal.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1943 Mar 26, Battle of Komandorski Islands, Pacific Ocean.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1944 Mar 26, Diana Ross [Earle], (Supremes, Lady Sings the Blues, Mahogany), was born Detroit, MI.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1944 Mar 26, 705 British bombers attacked Essen.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1945 Mar 26, Generals Eisenhower, Bradley, and Patton attack at Remagen on the Rhine.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1945 Mar 26, US 7th Army crossed Rhine at Worms.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1945 Mar 26, Japanese resistance ended on Iwo Jima.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1945 Mar 26, Kamikazes attacked US battle fleet near Kerama Retto.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1945 Mar 26, Syria declared war on Germany.
(HN, 3/25/98)
1945 Mar 26, David Lloyd George (b.1863), former prime minister (1916-1922), died. In 1973 John Grigg (d.2001 at 77) authored “The Young Lloyd George." 2 more volumes of the biography were published in 1978 and 1985.
(WUD, 1994 p.839)(SFC, 1/3/02, p.A16)(SS, 3/26/02)
1947 Mar 26, FBI director J. Edgar Hoover warned HUAC that communists had launched “a furtive attack on Hollywood" 12 years earlier.
(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.F2)
1950 Mar 26, Senator Joe McCarthy named Owen Lattimore, an ex-State Department adviser, as a Soviet spy.
(HN, 3/25/98)
1951 Mar 26, The United States Air Force flag design was approved.
(HN, 3/25/98)
1952 Mar 26, F. Dürrenmatt's "Die Ehe des Herrn Mississippi" premiered in Munich.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1953 Mar 26, Eisenhower offered increased aid in Indochina (Vietnam) to France.
(HN, 3/25/98)
1953 Mar 26, Dr. Jonas Salk of the University of Pittsburgh announced that a vaccine against polio had been successfully tested in a small group of adults and children. By April 1955, the vaccine had undergone further testing and gained federal approval for public use, as shown in this photo of Salk administering the vaccine at Colfax School in Pittsburgh. Salk’s polio vaccine was so successful that by 1961 the incidence of polio had decreased by 95 percent.
(HNPD, 3/26/99)
1954 Mar 26, The U.S. set off the second H-bomb blast in four weeks in the Marshall Islands at Bikini Island. The 15-megaton device was 750 times more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. The blast contaminated the neighboring island of Rongelap and nearly 100 people on the island and other downwind atolls.
(HN, 3/25/98)(SFC, 12/7/99, p.A10)(SS, 3/26/02)
1955 Mar 26, "Ballad of Davy Crockett" by Fess Parker became the #1 record in US.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1956 Mar 26, Medic Alert Foundation formed.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1956 Mar 26, Red Buttons debuted on TV in Studio One.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1958 Mar 26, In the 30th Academy Awards "The Bridge on the River Kwai" won 7 Awards, including best picture of 1957; its director, David Lean, and star Alec Guinness also received Oscars. Joanne Woodward was named best actress for "The Three Faces of Eve."
(AP, 3/26/08)
1958 Mar 26, The U.S. Army launched America's third successful satellite, Explorer 3.
(AP, 3/26/97)
1959 Mar 26, Raymond Chandler (71), American writer, best known for his Philip Marlowe detective novels, died. He wrote seven Marlowe books that includes "Farewell My Lovely," "The Long Goodbye" (1953) and "The Big Sleep" (1939). In 1976 Prof. Frank MacShane wrote "The Life of Raymond Chandler." In 1995 he was honored with a 2-volume issues of his works by the Library of America. A CD-ROM was also made titled after a novel: Trouble is My Business. In 1997 Tom Hiney wrote "Raymond Chandler: A Biography." In 2001 Tom Hiney and Frank MacShane edited "The Raymond Chandler Papers." In 2007 Judith Freeman authored “The Long Embrace: Raymond Chandler and the Woman He Loved."
(WSJ, 10/18/95, A-16)(SFC, 7/9/97, p.D5)(SFC, 3/14/98, p.B7)(SFC, 11/18/99, p.C8)(WSJ, 4/23/01, p.A20)(SS, 3/26/02)(SSFC, 11/4/07, p.M1)
1960 Mar 26, Iraq executed 30 after attack on President Kassem.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1961 Mar 26, John F. Kennedy met with British Premier Macmillan, in Washington to discuss increased Communist involvement in Laos.
(HN, 3/25/98)
1962 Mar 26, The U.S. Supreme Court in Baker vs. Carr gave federal courts the power to order reapportionment of seats in a state legislature, a decision that eventually led to the doctrine of “one man, one vote." It arose from a Tennessee case in which Carr was the state attorney general.
(AP, 3/26/02)(SFC, 8/1/03, p.A27)
1964 Mar 26, The Broadway hit musical "Funny Girl" premiered with Barbara Streisand as singer Fanny Brice. Jule Styne and Bob Merrill produced the show, which ran at Winter Garden Theater in NYC for 1,348 performances
(SS, 3/26/02)(SSFC, 1/18/04, p.A1)
1964 Mar 26, Pres. Johnson signed a document that accepted "pre-delegation authority." It authorized senior military commanders to use nuclear weapons if the US was attacked by nuclear weapons and the president could not be reached. It continued a policy begun by Eisenhower in 1957.
(SFC, 3/21/98, p.A2)
1964 Mar 26, Singapore began using the Merlion symbol, designed by Alec Fraser-Brunner, a member of the Souvenir Committee and curator of the Van Kleef Aquarium, as the logo of the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) and continued to 1997. The STB changed their logo in 1997, but the STB Act continues to protect the Merlion symbol. The Merlion appears frequently on STB-approved souvenirs.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merlion)
1967 Mar 26, The 21st Tony Awards were held at the Schubert Theater in NYC. “The Homecoming" won for Best Play and “Cabaret" won for Best Musical.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/21st_Tony_Awards)
1967 Mar 26, Herbert von Karajan founded the Salzburg Easter Festival with the idea of staging his ideal Ring of the Nibelung with his own Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.
(WSJ, 4/12/96, p.A-12)
1967 Mar 26, Jim Thompson, American ex-serviceman, disappeared while on holiday in the Cameron Highlands of Northern Malaysia. He revived the Thai silk industry after WW II. He was one of the first to adopt a classic Thai house to the requirements of modern life, and his home is now a museum in Bangkok, Thailand.
(Hem, Mar. 95, p.63)(SFEC, 7/16/00, p.T14)
1967 Mar 26, Pope Paul VI published encyclical Populorum Progressio (On the Development of Peoples).
(www.ewtn.com/library/ENCYC/P6DEVELO.HTM)
1969 Mar 26, Marcus Welby MD, a TV movie was shown on ABC-TV. It began a popular series with Robert Young and ran to 1976.
(SS, 3/26/02)(WSJ, 1/10/03, p.A10)
1969 Mar 26, Writer John Kennedy Toole (b.1937) committed suicide in Mississippi at the age of 32. His mother helped get his first and only novel, "A Confederacy of Dunces," published. It went on to win the 1981 Pulitzer Prize. In 2020 Kent Carroll and Jodee Blanco authored "I, John Kennedy Toole," a fictionalized portrait of the author.
(HN, 3/26/01)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Kennedy_Toole)(Econ., 5/30/20, p.72)
1969 Mar 26, B. Traven (b.1890), novelist and short-story writer, died. He lived most of his life incognito in Mexico. His work included "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" (1934), "The Death Ship," The Rebellion of the Hanged" and "The General from the Jungle." In 1976 Michael L. Baumann authored "B. Traven, An Introduction." In 2000 Michael L. Baumann authored "Mr. Traven, I Presume."
(SFEC, 10/15/00, BR p.8)(www.kirjasto.sci.fi/traven.htm)
1969 Mar 26, Nuclear reactor in Dodewaard, Netherlands, went into use.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1969 Mar 26, Soviet weather Satellite Meteor 1 was launched.
(HN, 3/25/98)
1970 Mar 26, "Minnie's Boys" opened at Imperial Theater in NYC for 80 performances.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minnie%27s_Boys)
1970 Mar 26, The US conducted the Handley nuclear test in Nevada.
(http://tinyurl.com/3urgtw)
1970 Mar 26, Peter Yarrow (b.1938), of the singing trio Peter, Paul & Mary, pleaded guilty to taking "immoral liberties" with a minor, referring to an incident between Mr. Yarrow and a 14-year old. He served 3 months in jail; 11 years later he was pardoned by President Carter.
(http://theawarenesscenter.org/yarrow_peter.html)
1971 Mar 26, East Pakistan proclaimed its independence, taking the name Bangladesh. [See Mar 21] This is considered the official Independence day of Bangladesh.
(AP, 3/26/97)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangladesh_Liberation_War)
1972 Mar 26, "Only Fools Are Sad" closed at Edison Theater in NYC after 144 performances.
(www.ibdb.com/production.php?id=3626)
1972 Mar 26, Evil Knievel broke his collarbone after successfully clearing 13 cars.
(www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oCif2imBHU)
1973 Mar 26, The US soap opera "The Young and the Restless" premiered.
(www.imdb.com/title/tt0069658/)
1973 Mar 26, Susan Shaw became the 1st woman in 171 years in London's Stock exchange.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1973 Mar 26, Noel Coward (b.1899), English gay playwright, died. He was called "The Master" and his work included "The Vortex," "Hay Fever," "Private Lives," "Brief Encounter" and "Blithe Spirit." In 1970 he was given knighthood. "Noel Coward: A Biography" by Philip Hoare was published in 1996. Another biography, "A Talent to Amuse" by Sheridan Morley, published in 1974, was recommended. In 2007 Barry Day edited “The Letters of Noel Coward."
(WSJ, 8/15/96, p.A10)(SFEC, 8/25/96, BR p.9)(WSJ, 11/10/07, p.W8)
1975 Mar 26, The film "Tommy" premiered in London.
(www.imdb.com/title/tt0073812/combined)
1975 Mar 26, The US ratified a ban on poison gas established in the 1925 Geneva Protocol. Production, stockpiling and the use of anthrax was outlawed by an int’l. treaty of chemical and biological weapons. 140 nations adopted the Int'l. Biological Weapons Convention, but these did not include Russia. The treaty had no organization, no budget, no sanctions and no inspections provisions. By 2019 it was ratified by 183 parties.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biological_Weapons_Convention)(SFC,11/12/97, p.C2)(SFC, 2/20/98, p.A9)(SFC, 2/19/00, p.A14)
1975 Mar 26, Clela Rorex, Boulder, Colo., county clerk, allowed 6 same-sex couples to wed after changing the license application to read "person" rather than "male" and "female."
(SFC, 2/14/04, p.A1)(www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/3/26/22117/6384)
1976 Mar 26, Paul McCartney and Wings released "Wings at the Speed of Sound" album.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wings_at_the_Speed_of_Sound)
1976 Mar 26, In 2006 an NSA transcript from this day indicated that US Sec. of State Henry Kissinger was informed in the meeting by then-Assistant Secretary for Latin America William D. Rogers, that if the Argentine military regime succeeded (March 24 coup), it would make a "considerable effort to involve the United States — particularly in the financial field." Kissinger, the NSA's transcript further stated, responded, "Yes, but that is in our interest."
(AP, 3/24/06)
1977 Mar 26, Rose Bird (1936-1999) was sworn in as Chief Justice of California. She had been confirmed on March 12.
(SFEC, 12/5/99, p.A18)
1977 Mar 26, Elvis Costello released his 1st record "Less Than Zero."
(www.pugetsoundradio.com/forum/b-radiohistory/m-1174918300/)
1979 Mar 26, In the 41st NCAA Men's Basketball Championship the Michigan State Spartans beat the Indiana State Sycamores, 75-64, as Magic Johnson outscored Larry Bird, 24-19; this snapped Indiana State's 33-game win streak. In 2009 Seth Davis authored “When March Went Mad: The Game That Transformed Basketball."
(http://espn.go.com/sportscentury/moments/9903.html)(WSJ, 3/20/09, p.W10)
1979 Mar 26, The Camp David peace treaty was signed by Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat at the White House. [see Sep 5-17, 1978] Under the historic peace accord, Israel and Egypt agreed to operate flights between the countries.
(AP, 3/26/97)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_David_Accords)(AP, 9/16/12)
1981 Mar 26, A jury in Los Angeles awarded entertainer Carol Burnett $1.6 million from the “National Enquirer" for an article she’d charged was libelous. The award was later reduced, and the two parties settled out of court.
(AP, 3/26/01)
1981 Mar 26, Police and Albanian demonstrators battled in Kosovo.
(www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/8454/8454.ch01.html)
1982 Mar 26, Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder released "Ebony & Ivory" in the UK.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1982 Mar 26, The American soap opera "Capitol" premiered and ran for 1270 episodes.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitol_(TV_series))
1982 Mar 26, Ground was broken in Washington D.C. for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial designed by Maya Lin of Yale. It was dedicated Nov 13.
(NG, May 1985, p.554, 557)(AP, 3/26/97)(HN, 3/25/98)
1983 Mar 26, US performed a nuclear test at Nevada Test Site.
(www.johnstonsarchive.net/nuclear/tests/USA-ntests3.html)
1983 Mar 26, Anthony Blunt (b.1907), art historian and one of Britain's most notorious Cold War spies, died in London. In a memoir published in 2009 he admitted that spying for Russia was "the biggest mistake of my life." He had written his memoirs, with the stipulation they should not published until a quarter of a century after his death.
(AFP, 7/23/09)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Blunt)
1984 Mar 26, US Congress established the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to distribute funds for wildlife and environmental projects.
(SFC, 11/20/99, p.A8)(www.fws.gov/laws/laws_digest/NATLFW.HTML)
1987 Mar 26, "Fences" by August Wilson (1945-2005) premiered in NYC.
(www.theatredatabase.com/20th_century/august_wilson_timeline.html)
1987 Mar 26, National Federation of High Schools adopted college 3 point shot (21 feet). The FIBA instituted the three-point shot at a distance of 20 feet, 6 inches (6.25 meters) in the international game in 1984.
(www.answerbag.com/c_view/222)
1987 Mar 26, Jessica Hahn, the former church secretary who admitted to a sexual encounter with former PTL head Jim Bakker, told reporters she had not tried to blackmail Bakker, and expressed concern about "innocent bystanders who have been hurt" by the scandal.
(AP, 3/26/97)
1987 Mar 26, NASA launched Fltsatcom-6, but it failed after 51 seconds due to lightning.
(http://www.astronautix.com/craft/fltatcom.htm)
1988 Mar 26, Jesse Jackson stunned fellow Democrats by soundly defeating Michael S. Dukakis in Michigan's Democratic presidential caucuses.
(AP, 3/25/98)
1989 Mar 26, The first free elections took place in the Soviet Union. Boris Yeltsin was elected. Voters in the Soviet Union filled 1,500 of more than 2,000 seats in the new Congress of People's Deputies, beginning embarrassing defeats for the Communist Party.
(AP, 3/26/99)(HN, 3/25/98)
1990 Mar 26, "Driving Miss Daisy" won best picture at the 62nd annual Academy Awards and captured the best actress prize for Jessica Tandy; Daniel Day-Lewis was named best actor for "My Left Foot."
(AP, 3/26/00)
1990 Mar 26, Designer Halston died in San Francisco at age 57.
(AP, 3/26/00)
1991 Mar 26, The Bush administration indicated it would not aid rebels seeking to overthrow Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
(AP, 3/26/01)
1991 Mar 26, A divided US Supreme Court ruled that criminal defendants whose coerced confessions were improperly used as evidence are not always entitled to new trials.
(AP, 3/26/01)
1991 Mar 26, Fuel pipe exploded under 58th street and Lexington Ave, NYC.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1991 Mar 26, Marc Camoletti's "Don't Dress for Dinner" premiered in London.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1991 Mar 26, The Treaty of Asuncion established the southern common market: (Mercado Comun del Sur) Mercosur, between Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. They were later joined by associate members Chile (1996), Bolivia (1997), Peru (2001) and Venezuela (2004). Mexico was granted observer status in 2004.
(www.itcilo.it/english/actrav/telearn/global/ilo/blokit/mercoa.htm)
1991 Mar 26, Mali became a democracy after a Revolution. Gen. Amadou Toumani Toure seized power in a coup. Prior to the period of French colonialism, each of 12 ethnic groups governed itself.
(SFC, 6/7/96, p.A12)(Econ, 7/30/05, p.41)(AFP, 3/26/12)
1992 Mar 26, A judge in Indianapolis sentenced former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson to six years in prison for raping a Miss Black America contestant. Tyson ended up serving three years.
(AP, 3/26/02)
1993 Mar 26, President Clinton promised a "full-court press" against Bosnian Serbs to secure their agreement to a United Nations peace plan endorsed by Bosnian Muslims and Croats.
(AP, 3/25/98)
1994 Mar 26, The Senate passed President Clinton's education reform measure, the "Goals 2000" bill, 63-22.
(AP, 3/26/99)
1994 Mar 26, U.N. peacekeepers in Bosnia-Herzegovina destroyed a Serb bunker following a seven-hour exchange of fire.
(AP, 3/26/99)
1995 Mar 26, "Defending the Caveman" opened at Helen Hayes Theater in NYC for 671 performances.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1995 Mar 26, "Moliere Comedies" closed at Criterion Theater in NYC after 56 performances.
(www.ibdb.com/production.php?id=12594)
1995 Mar 26, In the 15th Golden Raspberry Awards: Color of Night won.
(http://razzies.com/asp/content/XcNewsPlus.asp?cmd=view&articleid=34)
1995 Mar 26, The National Labor Relations Board, in an extraordinary Sunday session, voted 3-2 to seek an injunction against baseball owners as a seven-and-a-half-month-old strike by players continued.
(AP, 3/26/00)
1995 Mar 26, Former US diplomat-turned-radio talk show host Alan Keyes entered the race for the Republican presidential nomination.
(AP, 3/26/00)
1995 Mar 26, Uzbek Pres. Karimov's period in office is extended by three years, to 2000, in a referendum.
(AP, 3/30/04)
1996 Mar 26, The closest approach of the Hyakutake comet, first sighted Jan 31. It was to come within ten-million miles of the Earth.
(Nat. Hist., 4/96, p.62)
1996 Mar 26, Edmund Muskie, former senator from Maine, secretary of state and Democratic pres. candidate in 1972, died after a heart attack two days shy of his 82nd birthday.
(WSJ, 3/27/96, p.A-1)(AP, 3/26/97)
1996 Mar 26 David Packard, co-founder of Hewlett-Packard Co., died. In a 1988 letter to his children he declared that the David & Lucille Packard Foundation’s highest priority must be to reduce world-wide population growth.
(WSJ, 3/27/96, p.A-1)(WSJ, 3/6/98)
1996 Mar 26, Amid public fears of mad cow disease, British farmers demanded their government order the destruction of old cattle, but Prime Minister John Major refused, and blamed the crisis on his political opponents.
(AP, 3/26/97)
1996 Mar 26, In Cambodia the Khmer Rouge kidnapped Christopher Howes (37), a mine-clearing expert from Bristol, England, and Huon Huot, his interpreter. In November Howes’ employer paid $120,000 for his release. The two men were killed shortly after their abduction. Their remains were found in 1998. In 2008 a Cambodian court sentenced four former Khmer Rouge rebels each to up to 20 years in prison for their involvement in the murders.
(SFC, 11/23/96, p.A11)(SFC, 4/13/98, p.A14)(http://tinyurl.com/7s7x4)(AP, 10/14/08)
1997 Mar 26, "Annie" opened at Martin Beck Theater NYC.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1997 Mar 26, Former drug counselor John G. Bennett Jr. pleaded no contest in Philadelphia to charges stemming from a $100 million charity fraud. Bennett was sentenced to 12 years in prison for fraud, tax violations and money laundering.
(AP, 3/25/07)
1997 Mar 26, The united Farm Workers Union announced that it would petition the US Environmental Agency to reinstate a 4-day period when farmworkers would stay out of strawberry fields after the application of capstan, a cancer causing fungicide. Its use has increased 7-fold in the last 6 years. 80% of the nation’s strawberry crop is grown in California.
(SFC, 3/27/97, p.A21)
1997 Mar 26, The bodies 39 young men and women (26-72) of the Heaven’s Gate cult were found in a mansion at Rancho Santa Fe, near San Diego. The techno-religious group, led by an older man named “Do," (aka Marshall Herff Applewhite), had committed mass suicide as the Hale-Bopp comet approached. They had run a business under the name WW Higher Source that engaged in WWW page development.
(SFC, 3/27/97, p.A1)(SFC, 3/28/97, p.A1,12)(AP, 3/25/98)
1997 Mar 26, In Belarus Pres. Lukashenko announced the revival of the Soviet tradition of “subbotniks," weekend unpaid mandatory labor.
(SFC, 3/27/97, p.A15)
1997 Mar 26, Bre-X and Freeport Mining announced that due-diligence testing by Freeport found much less gold than estimated in the Busang, Indonesia, discovery by the team of Michael de Guzman (d.3/19/97). The penny stock had been pumped to $4.5 billion in market value before the hoax crashed.
(WSJ, 4/9/97, p.A10)(WSJ, 6/19/01, p.A18)
1997 Mar 26, Irish terrorists set off 2 bombs in Wilmslow, England, at a railroad crossing.
(SFC, 3/27/97, p.A14)
1997 Mar 26, In Northern Ireland a bomb exploded at a police station in Coalisland, 30 miles west of Belfast.
(SFC, 3/27/97, p.A14)
1997 Mar 26, In Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Julius Chan resigned due to the public uproar over plans to use mercenaries in Bougainville.
(SFC, 3/26/97, p.A14)
1997 Mar 26, Manfred Nowak resigned the job of envoy of the UN for missing persons in the former Yugoslavia and said that he failed to receive support to account for the 20,000 missing people of the Bosnian war. He had begun the job in 1994.
(SFC, 3/27/97, p.A18)
1998 Mar 26, President Clinton stood with President Nelson Mandela in a racially integrated South African parliament to salute a country that was "truly free and democratic at last."
(SFC, 3/21/98, p.A13)(AP, 3/26/99)
1998 Mar 26, The federal government endorsed a new HIV test that yielded instant results.
(AP, 3/26/03)
1998 Mar 26, In Nevada a new satellite-based survey of the Yucca Mountain site for storing radioactive wastes indicated that the Earth’s crust at the site was stretching 10 times faster than previous studies have shown.
(SFC, 3/27/98, p.A3)
1998 Mar 26, In Greece a 2-day storm closed the Athens airport and left much of the capital without electricity. At least one person was killed.
(SFC, 3/27/98, p.A14)
1998 Mar 26, In Japan the ruling Liberal Democratic Party announced a $124 billion economic stimulus package.
(SFC, 3/27/98, p.A13)
1998 Mar 26, In Kenya a fire at a school near Mombasa killed 25 teenage girls in their dormitory.
(WSJ, 3/26/98, p.A1)
1998 Mar 26, In Malaysia riots flared in 4 detention camps that housed mainly Indonesian illegal immigrants. The Internal Security Act allowed the detention without trial of people caught helping illegals. 8 inmates and one policeman were killed. Over 200 inmates escaped from one camp.
(WSJ, 3/27/98, p.A10)
1998 Mar 26, In Mexico a mob in Huejutla lynched 2 suspected kidnappers after a judge ordered the 2 men freed on $600 bail. 30 residents were arrested in the lynching.
(SFC, 3/27/98, p.A14)
1998 Mar 26, In the Philippines Imelda Marcos claimed to have $800 million in foreign banks and promised to give it all to the poor if she is elected in May.
(SFC, 3/27/98, p.A14)
1998 Mar 26, In Serbia Pres. Milosevic ordered several hundred additional police to Kosovo. Serbs protested the killing of a policeman and 2 ethnic Albanians were killed in a police counterattack.
(SFC, 3/27/98, p.A12)(WSJ, 3/27/98, p.A1)
1998 Mar 26, Three major Swiss banks pledged to set up a compensation fund in the US for a global settlement with Holocaust victims.
(SFC, 3/27/98, p.A12)
1999 Mar 26, Hillary Clinton continued her 12-day African tour with a speech in Tunis at a women's rights conference.
(SFC, 3/27/99, p.C1)
1999 Mar 26, Right-to-die advocate Dr. Jack Kevorkian was convicted in Pontiac, Mich., of second-degree murder for giving Thomas Youk, a patient with Lou Gehrig's disease, a lethal injection. His action was videotaped and broadcast on television.
(SFC, 3/27/99, p.A1)(AP, 3/26/00)
1999 Mar 26, The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M. received its first shipment of nuclear waste. The facility was completed in 1988.
(SFC, 3/26/99, p.A3)(SFC, 3/27/99, p.A2)
1999 Mar 26, A computer virus named "Melissa" began infecting computers across the country.
(AP, 3/26/00)
1999 Mar 26, American-led NATO forces launched a third night of airstrikes against Yugoslavia and 2 MiG-29 fighters were shot down as Serbian troops continued to sweep ethnic Albanian villages in Kosovo.
(SFC, 3/27/99, p.A1)(AP, 3/26/00)
1999 Mar 26, In Bulgaria some 10,000 people protested NATO strikes; in Greece some 15,000 marched on the US embassy in protest; in Bosnia some 3,000 Serb youths turned violent in Banja Luka over the NATO strikes.
(SFC, 3/27/99, p.A11)
1999 Mar 26, The EU declared that the creation of a Palestine state was the best way to resolve the Middle East conflict, and the action could not be vetoed by Israel.
(SFC, 3/27/99, p.A10)
1999 Mar 26, In Jordan security authorities released more than 20 activists of an illegal Islamic party who were sentenced to different jail terms over the past year. The decision to release Al Tahrir Party activists followed a public amnesty signed by His Majesty King Abdullah last week under which more than 2,500 prisoners and detainees are expected to be freed.
(www.jordanembassyus.org/033099003.htm)
1999 Mar 26, Serbian forces rounded up ethnic Albanian villages in Krushe e Vogel, Kosovo. Serb forces herded 114 men and boys into a barn, including a disabled man whose wheelchair was used to block one of the exits. The Serbs then riddled the barn with bullets from automatic weapons before torching it and all those inside. In 2011 a UN court sentenced former Serbian police chief Vlastimir Djordjevic to 27 years in prison for orchestrating the murder of hundreds of ethnic Albanians. In 2018 a Kosovo prosecutor brought war crime charges against a Serb man (D.T.) his role in the Krushe e Vogel attack.
(SSFC, 9/8/02, p.F1)(AP, 2/23/11)(AP, 4/26/18)
1999 Mar 26, The UN Security Council defeated a Russian resolution demanding an immediate end to NATO attacks on Yugoslavia.
(SFC, 3/27/99, p.A11)
1999 Mar 26, In Uganda it was reported that wheat stem-rust fungus had appeared on a crop. The fungus killed nearly half the world's crop before the green revolution of the 1950s. The black rust disease was named Ug99 and by 2007 had jumped to Yemen. In 2008 it was confirmed in Iran. In 2008 Cornell Univ. received a $26.8 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to help combat the new strains of rust disease.
(WSJ, 3/26/99, p.A1)(WSJ, 4/3/08, p.A16)
2000 Mar 26, In the Academy Awards ceremony the film "American Beauty" won 5 Oscars, including best director for Sam Mendes and best actor for Kevin Spacey. Hilary Swank won best actress for "Boys Don't Cry." Michael Caine won best supporting actor for his role in "The Cider House Rules." Angelina Jolie won best supporting actress for her role in "Girl, Interrupted." The film "Matrix" won r technical categories, and best score went to "The Red Violin." Pedro Almodovar won the foreign language film for "All About My Mother."
(SFC, 3/27/00, p.A1)(AP, 3/26/01)
2000 Mar 26, Pres Clinton met with Pres. Assad of Syria in Geneva but failed to get an agreement to revive peace talks with Israel.
(WSJ, 3/27/00, p.A1)
2000 Mar 26, The Seattle Kingdome was blown up in a controlled implosion. The 7.9 acre roof collapsed in less than 20 seconds.
(WSJ, 5/10/99, p.A21)(SFC, 3/27/00, p.A4)
2000 Mar 26, Pope John Paul II ended his Holy Land tour with a message of contrition at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, a visit to Al Aqsa Mosque and a Mass at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the traditional site for the resurrection of Jesus.
(SFC, 3/27/00, p.A1)(WSJ, 3/27/00, p.A1)
2000 Mar 26, Dr. Alex Comfort, British author of the 1972 “Joy of Sex," died at age 80 in Oxfordshire. Comfort wrote some 50 books that included novels, poetry, criticism, scientific texts and works on Eastern philosophy.
(SFC, 3/28/00, p.E1)(AP, 3/26/01)
2000 Mar 26, In Chechnya Russian Col. Yuri Budanov and 3 soldiers seized Elza (Heda) Kungayeva (18) and strangled her to death following a pummeling and sexual assault. She was believed to be a rebel sniper. In 2001 Budanov faced a trial and in 2002 he was ruled temporarily insane. In 2009 Budanov was freed with more than a year left on his murder sentence.
(SSFC, 3/18/01, p.D5)(SFC, 1/1/03, p.A9)(AP, 1/19/09)
2000 Mar 26, In Colombia Pres. Pastrana pressured Armando Pomorica, president of the lower house of Congress, to take responsibility for a corruption scandal.
(WSJ, 3/27/00, p.A1)
2000 Mar 26, Russia elected Vladimir Putin as its 2nd post-Communist president with 52.5% vote.
(SFC, 3/27/00, p.A1)(AP, 3/26/01)
2001 Mar 26, The Bill Moyers PBS special “Trade Secrets" focused on the coverup by the American chemical industry of health problems caused by numerous products including vinyl chloride and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs).
(SFC, 3/27/01, p.A17)
2001 Mar 26, A US Army plane crashed in Germany and 2 pilots were killed. In Scotland US Air Force F15C fighter jets were lost during training. The body of one pilot, Lt. Col. Kenneth John Hyvonen, and F15 wreckage was found the next day. Wreckage of the 2nd F15 was found after 2 days. The body of Capt. Kirk Jones was found Mar 30.
(SFC, 3/27/01, p.F1)(SFC, 3/28/01, p.A10)(SFC, 3/29/01, p.A11)(SFC, 3/31/01, p.A14)
2001 Mar 26, California state regulators proposed a 40% rate increase to help remedy the state’s energy crisis.
(SFC, 3/27/01, p.A1)
2001 Mar 26, Regional Comair pilots went on strike after failing to settle with corporate parent Delta. The three-month strike began after contract talks with the regional airline broke off.
(SFC, 3/27/01, p.C4)(AP, 3/26/02)
2001 Mar 26, It was reported that scientists had detected high-energy neutrinos for the 1st time in the Antarctic Muon and neutrino Detector Array (Amanda).
(SFC, 3/26/01, p.A6)
2001 Mar 26, In Colombia Juan Gonzalez, head of the right-wing Calima Front of the United Self-Defense Forces, was killed with 3 others in a bar shootout.
(SFC, 3/28/01, p.D4)
2001 Mar 26, In Hebron a Palestinian sniper shot and killed a 10-month-old Jewish girl. A 15-year-old Palestinian boy was shot and wounded in Gaza.
(SFC, 3/27/01, p.F1)
2001 Mar 26, In Kazakstan the Caspian Pipeline Consortium began pumping crude oil from the Tengiz field to Novorossiisk, Russia’s Black Sea port. The 990-mile Tengiz-Novorossisk oil pipeline was owned by Kazakstan, Russia, Oman and 8 oil companies. Chevron held 15% in the 12-partner consortium.
(WSJ, 2/26/01, p.A14)(SFC, 3/27/01, p.C4)
2001 Mar 26, In Kenya a dorm fire at the Kyanguli Secondary School in Machakos killed 58 youths. One of 2 doors was bolted shut and arson was suspected. The toll soon rose to 64 as more students died from burns.
(SFC, 3/27/01, p.F1)(SFC, 3/30/01, p.D4)
2002 Mar 26, Pres. Bush nominated Richard Carmona (52), a trauma surgeon from Arizona, as surgeon-general. Elias Zerhouni, a Johns Hopkins Univ. administrator, was nominated to the NIH.
(SFC, 3/27/02, p.A3)
2002 Mar 26, The US Supreme Court upheld regulations that allowed federal housing officials to evict an entire household if even one member is arrested for drug violations.
(SFC, 3/27/02, p.A1)
2002 Mar 26, Joseph Berardino, CEO of Arthur Anderson, resigned over the Enron fallout.
(WSJ, 3/27/02, p.C1)
2002 Mar 26, India passed a Prevention of Terrorism bill that allowed a 3-month detention of suspects without charges plus an additional 3 months with court approval.
(SFC, 3/27/02, p.A6)
2002 Mar 26, Yasser Arafat declared that he would not attend the Arab league conference in Beirut due to restrictions imposed by PM Sharon. His Cabinet accused Israel of trying to "blackmail" the Palestinian leader with tough conditions for letting him go. Israeli security forces stopped a car that exploded with 2 men inside.
(SFC, 3/27/02, p.A1)(AP, 3/26/03)
2002 Mar 26, In Serbia 2 Albanian gunmen were killed in what police said was a battle between rebel factions.
(WSJ, 3/27/02, p.A1)
2003 Mar 26, The Senate approved a $2.2 trillion budget that provided less than half the $726 billion in tax cuts President Bush wanted.
(AP, 3/26/04)
2003 Mar 26, In the 8th day of Operation Iraqi Freedom Baghdad officials said two cruise missiles hit a residential area, killing 14 people. Iraq said 36 civilians were killed and 215 wounded in US airstrikes on Baghdad. Some 1,000 US paratroopers jumped into northern Iraq as sandstorms eased.
(AP, 3/26/03)(AP, 3/27/03)(SSFC, 3/30/03, p.W12)
2003 Mar 26, Federal energy regulators (FERC) validated California claims to 2000-2001 overcharges for energy and said the state is owed $3.3 billion in refunds from Enron and 5 other energy firms. California called for $9 billion.
(SFC, 3/27/03, p.A1)
2003 Mar 26, Daniel Patrick Moynihan (76), former NY Senator (1976-2000) and scholar, died. He wrote or edited some 18 books. In 2010 Steven Weisman edited his letters: “Daniel Patrick Moynihan: A Portrait in Letters of an American Visionary."
(SFC, 3/27/03, p.A1)(Econ, 9/18/10, p.104)
2003 Mar 26, In Afghanistan suspected Taliban rebels attacked a government checkpoint and 13 people were killed.
(WSJ, 3/27/03, p.A1)
2003 Mar 26, The Burundian army attacked a rebel stronghold in a Kibira forest with mortars and artillery, killing 68 insurgents. Rebels said only 2 fighters were killed.
(AP, 3/27/03)
2003 Mar 26, India test-fired a short-range missile capable of carrying a nuclear weapon, and Pakistan immediately announced it had tested a similar missile.
(AP, 3/26/03)
2003 Mar 26, In India gunmen fatally shot a senior Hindu nationalist in western Gujarat state.
(AP, 3/26/03)
2003 Mar 26, Pirates with automatic weapons stormed an Indonesian tanker ship in the Malacca Strait and escaped with equipment and cash.
(AP, 3/29/03)
2003 Mar 26, NATO officially signed up 7 eastern European nations to become members: Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia.
(AP, 3/27/03)
2003 Mar 26, In Nigeria Ijaw militants battling soldiers and tribal enemies in the oil-rich delta region called for a cease-fire after state officials agreed to support their political demands.
(AP, 3/26/03)
2003 Mar 26, In South Korea a late night fire in a grade school dormitory killed eight children.
(AP, 3/27/03)
2003 Mar 26, Interpol issued an international call for the arrest of former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori on charges of murder and kidnapping in Peru.
(AP, 3/26/04)
2004 Mar 26, The FDA approved the 1st HIV test that uses saliva rather than blood. The 20 minute test, made by OraSure, is able to detect HIV antibodies about 6 weeks after infection.
(SFC, 3/27/04, p.A1)
2004 Mar 26, Phoenix Bishop Thomas O'Brien was sentenced to four years' probation and 1,000 hours of community service for a deadly hit-and-run that claimed the life of pedestrian Jim Reed.
(AP, 3/26/05)
2004 Mar 26, Jan Berry (62), pioneering California rock musician, died in LA. He rode the wave of the surf music trend in the 1960s as one half of the popular duo Jan & Dean.
(Reuters, 3/28/04)
2004 Mar 26, Jan Sterling (82), Hollywood film actress, died.
(SFC, 3/30/04, p.B6)
2004 Mar 26, West of Baghdad, U.S. Marines and gunmen fought an hour-long battle that left four Iraqis dead and six wounded. A U.S. Marine and an ABC freelance cameraman were killed during a bitter, hours-long firefight between American troops and Iraqi insurgents in the city of Fallujah, while 18 people died in violence elsewhere across Iraq.
(AP, 3/26/04)(AP, 3/27/04)
2004 Mar 26, A Palestinian militant was killed when an explosion went off in a van he was driving in a West Bank refugee camp.
(AP, 3/26/04)
2004 Mar 26, The bodies of 8 Pakistani soldiers, executed by Al Qaeda-linked militants, were found near Wana. They had been taken hostage in fighting near the Afghan border.
(AP, 3/27/04)
2004 Mar 26, Polish PM Leszek Miller announced he will step down the day after Poland joins the European Union on May 1, taking the blame for his government's collapse in popularity and raising the prospect of early elections. 22 members of Miller’s SLD party had left to form the new left-wing Polish social Democracy as Miller’s popularity plummeted.
(AP, 3/26/04)(Econ, 4/3/04, p.56)
2004 Mar 26, A Moscow court banned the religious activities of Jehovah's Witnesses from the Russian capital in a move that critics called a step back for democracy and religious freedom. A 1997 religion law enshrines Orthodox Christianity as the country's predominant religion and pledges respect for Buddhism, Islam and Judaism, but places restrictions on other groups.
(AP, 3/27/04)
2005 Mar 26, In Afghanistan 4 US soldiers died when their vehicle struck a land mine.
(AP, 3/26/05)
2005 Mar 26, James Callaghan, former British prime minister (1976-1979), died on the eve of his 93rd birthday.
(SSFC, 3/27/05, p.A21)(Econ, 4/2/05, p.80)
2005 Mar 26, A twin-engine commercial Czech-built Let-410 airplane, crashed while taking off from the tiny Colombian island of Old Providence, killing 8 people, including a 3-year-old boy, and injuring six other passengers.
(AP, 3/26/05)
2005 Mar 26, In Iraq a car bomb struck a US military patrol in Baghdad, killing two U.S. soldiers and injuring two others.
(AP, 3/26/05)
2005 Mar 26, A fire swept through a sprawling Moscow art market popular with tourists for its unusual antiques from around the former Soviet Union and sometimes bargain prices, and news reports said two people were killed.
(AP, 3/26/05)
2005 Mar 26, In Taiwan about a million people marched through the capital to protest a new Chinese law that authorizes an attack on the island if it moves toward formal independence.
(AP, 3/26/05)
2005 Mar 26, German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger stood in for Pope John Paul II during the Easter Vigil Mass at the Vatican. Ratzinger later succeed John Paul, becoming Pope Benedict XVI.
(AP, 3/26/06)
2006 Mar 26, In Florida Paul Dana, a 30-year-old rookie in the Indy Racing League, died at Jackson Memorial Hospital from multiple trauma suffered in the crash during the final morning practice for the season-opening Toyota Indy 300.
(www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/sports/14193716.htm)
2006 Mar 26, An Afghan court dismissed a case against Abdul Rahman, who converted from Islam to Christianity because of a lack of evidence. Officials said he will be released soon.
(AP, 3/26/06)
2006 Mar 26, In Bangladesh 19 people were injured in clashes between political parties as the nation marked its 35th Independence Day anniversary under tight security for fear of Islamic militant attacks.
(AP, 3/26/06)
2006 Mar 26, The Chinese partner of Time Warner’s consumer products unit said the studio division plans to open some 200 stores in China over the coming years as demand for branded merchandise increases in China.
(Reuters, 3/26/06)
2006 Mar 26, Georgian police stormed a prison in Tbilisi after inmates rioted in an escape attempt from Ortochala prison, sparking a gun battle that left two guards and an unknown number of inmates dead.
(AP, 3/27/06)
2006 Mar 26, Iraqi Interior Ministry officials said authorities arrested Arkan al-Bawi, a police major from Diyala province, for taking part in death squads. Iraqi authorities said that US forces raided an Interior Ministry building and arrested 40 policemen after discovering 17 non-Iraqi prisoners in the facility.
(Reuters, 3/26/06)(AP, 3/26/06)
2006 Mar 26, Police found 30 more victims of the sectarian slaughter ravaging Iraq, most of them beheaded, dumped on a village road north of Baghdad. At least 16 Iraqis were killed in a US-backed raid at the Mustafa mosque complex in a Shiite neighborhood in northeastern Baghdad. At least 69 people were reported killed in one of the bloodiest days in weeks.
(AP, 3/26/06)(Econ, 4/1/06, p.40)
2006 Mar 26-2006 Mar 27, In Iraq two days of violence left at least 151 dead.
(AP, 3/28/06)
2006 Mar 26, The UN said it did not expect Lebanon to disarm Hezbollah guerillas by force but hoped they would join the Lebanese army.
(AP, 3/26/06)
2006 Mar 26, In Mexico the bodies of six men, blindfolded, handcuffed and shot to death, were found packed inside a pickup truck on the side of a highway leading to the Texas border.
(AP, 3/26/06)
2006 Mar 26, A rights group said Myanmar's military rulers have launched an offensive against separatist guerrillas, attacking villages and forcing thousands to flee in an attempt to quash a five-decade insurgency by Karen ethnic rebels.
(AP, 3/26/06)
2006 Mar 26, In southwest Pakistan rebel tribesmen set off a bomb near the home of a senior government official and launched a separate attack on a military post, triggering a gunbattle that left two attackers and a soldier dead.
(AP, 3/26/06)
2006 Mar 26, Hamas pressed Arab leaders gathering for a summit in Sudan to triple their financial support to Palestinians and provide it fast, saying its government will need around $170 million a month, mostly for salaries.
(AP, 3/26/06)
2006 Mar 26, A smoking ban in enclosed public places took effect in Scotland, although a poll showed that a fifth of all Scottish smokers planned to ignore the new law.
(AP, 3/26/06)
2006 Mar 26, Ukrainians cast ballots in a parliamentary election that could tip this divided ex-Soviet republic back toward Russia just 16 months after the Orange Revolution helped put it on a westward course.
(AP, 3/26/06)
2007 Mar 26, The US military concluded that high-ranking Army officers had made critical errors in reporting the friendly fire death of Army Ranger Pat Tillman in Afghanistan, but that there was no criminal wrongdoing in the shooting of the former NFL star by fellow soldiers. The findings were rejected by Tillman's family.
(AP, 3/26/08)
2007 Mar 26, An American border inspector was sentenced to nearly six years in prison for taking cash and cars from smugglers, allowing them to shuttle illegal immigrants from Mexico into the United States.
(AP, 3/26/07)
2007 Mar 26, David Hicks, a 31-year-old former kangaroo skinner, entered a surprise guilty plea at the first session of the tribunals set up after the US Supreme Court struck down the Pentagon's previous efforts to try Guantanamo prisoners. Hicks was sentenced to seven years in prison; all but nine months' prison time was suspended. Hicks was returned to Australia to serve out his term, and was freed in December.
(AP, 3/27/07)(AP, 3/26/08)
2007 Mar 26, A new study that suggested that an antioxidant found in blueberries and grapes may offer protection against colon cancer.
(AFP, 3/26/07)
2007 Mar 26, Intel Corp. announced it will build a $2.5 billion chip factory in China, giving the US company a bigger presence in the booming Chinese market and boosting Beijing's efforts to attract high-tech investment. Intel also unveiled a prototype chip that uses optical connections to increase speed. Products using the technology were expected to appear within 3 years.
(AP, 3/26/07)(WSJ, 3/26/07, p.B6)
2007 Mar 26, Four children and Pedro Rodriguez (28), their father, were found dead in the family's home in Frederick, Maryland. The mother Deysi M. Benitez (25) was missing. Her sister from El Salvador said she had been beaten by her husband and wanted to separate. Police concluded he had smothered the girls and killed the boy with a blow to the head, and then killed himself. The body of his wife, Deysi Benitez (25), an immigrant from El Salvador, was found Feb 29, 2008, 20 miles from their home in Frederick.
(AP, 3/28/07)(AP, 4/17/08)
2007 Mar 26, A suicide bomber in a car attacked a NATO convoy in the southern province of Kandahar, killing himself but causing no alliance casualties. The US urged European countries to provide more troops for Afghanistan and to free them up for combat, as well as to provide further aid to the war-shattered country.
(AP, 3/26/07)(AP, 3/27/07)
2007 Mar 26, In Britain Taylor Woodrow and George Wimpey agreed upon a $9.8 billion merger to create the country’s largest house builder.
(AP, 3/26/07)(Econ, 3/31/07, p.65)
2007 Mar 26, Chile’s President Michelle Bachelet fired her chief of staff and three other members of her Cabinet in response to a public transportation crisis that has badly damaged her government.
(AP, 3/27/07)
2007 Mar 26, Chinese President Hu Jintao arrived in Russia on his third visit as national leader, seeking energy deals but also offering Moscow business opportunities and international cooperation as they expand ties.
(Reuters, 3/26/07)
2007 Mar 26, Egyptians were slow to vote in a referendum on constitutional amendments that opponents condemned as a sham and a setback to democratic progress. Egyptian human rights groups later said that turnout for the referendum was only five percent, far lower than the 27 percent reported by the government.
(AP, 3/26/07)(Econ, 3/31/07, p.57)(AP, 4/11/07)
2007 Mar 26, Nicolas Sarkozy resigned as French interior minister to focus on his presidential bid, recalling his successes but also challenges, including violence by poor young minorities.
(AP, 3/26/07)
2007 Mar 26, Guatemala's interior minister resigned in the wake of a scandal over police investigators' alleged involvement in the grisly murder of three Salvadoran politicians last month. Rioting gang members fired dozens of gunshots, killing three inmates, and took two guards and two food service workers hostage in a southern Guatemala prison.
(AP, 3/26/07)(AP, 3/27/07)
2007 Mar 26, In India New Delhi’s High Court imposed new measures aimed at deterring habitually bad drivers in the capital, including the smoking ban and a prohibition on using mobile phones while behind the wheel.
(AP, 3/27/07)
2007 Mar 26, Zalmay Khalilzad, the departing US ambassador, said American and Iraqi officials are seeking to persuade so-called "reconcilable insurgents" to join forces against al-Qaida. Iskandariyah authorities imposed an indefinite curfew after two people were killed and two others wounded in sectarian clashes sparked by an attack by suspected Shiite militants on a Sunni mosque. Kirkuk police said two elderly Chaldean Catholic nuns were stabbed multiple time by two intruders who raided their home near Kirkuk's Cathedral of the Virgin. The US military also announced the capture of leaders of a car-bombing ring blamed for killing hundreds of Iraqis.
(AP, 3/26/07)(AP, 3/27/07)
2007 Mar 26, Israel welcomed the idea of a regional peace summit and Saudi Arabia suggesting it would consider changes in a dormant peace initiative to make it more acceptable to Israel.
(AP, 3/26/07)
2007 Mar 26, An Italian prosecutor demanded a five-year jail sentence for conservative former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, who is accused of bribing a judge.
(AP, 3/26/07)
2007 Mar 26, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe, under fire for denying that Japan forced women to work as sex slaves during World War II, offered a fresh apology but refused to clearly acknowledge Japan's responsibility for running the frontline brothels.
(AP, 3/26/07)
2007 Mar 26, Lindsay Ann Hawker (22), a British language teacher, was found naked in a sand-filled bathtub at an apartment outside Tokyo. She had been beaten and then suffocated. Police hunted for the prime suspect, a 28-year-old Japanese male. On Nov 10, 2009, Tatsuya Ichihashi was arrested as the only suspect in the murder, after he had spent over two years on the run and altered his appearance with plastic surgery. In 2011 Ichihashi admitted the killing but said it was accidental. On July 21 Ichihashi was sentenced to life in prison.
(AP, 3/29/07)(AFP, 12/2/09)(AFP, 7/4/11)(AFP, 7/21/11)
2007 Mar 26, A report by a special envoy for UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon recommended independence for Serbia's breakaway province of Kosovo, supervised by the international community.
(AP, 3/26/07)
2007 Mar 26, In northern Nigeria at least 89 people burned to death in Kaduna when a tanker lorry caught fire as they were stealing fuel from it.
(AFP, 3/28/07)
2007 Mar 26, The leaders of Northern Ireland's major Protestant and Catholic parties, sitting side by side for the first time in history, announced a breakthrough deal to forge a power-sharing administration May 8.
(AP, 3/26/07)
2007 Mar 26, In Pakistan supporters of opposition parties rallied against President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's removal of Pakistan's top judge, raising the stakes in a judicial crisis that threatens to undermine the military ruler's hold on power. In northwestern Pakistan police challenged a group of suspected militants at a high school in Tank after hearing that they wanted to recruit suicide bombers for holy war, sparking a gunbattle that left six people dead.
(AP, 3/26/07)(WSJ, 3/27/07, p.A1)
2007 Mar 26, Tamil rebels launched their first airstrike in the nearly quarter-decade conflict with Sri Lanka's government, using at least one small plane to bomb an air base outside the capital and killing three airmen.
(AP, 3/26/07)
2008 Mar 26, Motorola Inc said it would split into two publicly traded entities to separate its loss-making handset division from its other businesses, sending its shares up about 5%.
(AP, 3/26/08)
2008 Mar 26, Scientists said the basic ingredients for life: warmth, water and organic chemicals, are in place on Saturn's small moon Enceladus, in detailing the content of huge plumes erupting off its surface.
(Reuters, 3/26/08)(Econ, 5/30/15, p.78)
2008 Mar 26, The NASA space shuttle Endeavour and its crew of seven made a night landing in Florida following a 16 day mission to the ISS.
(SFC, 3/27/08, p.A3)
2008 Mar 26, In southern Afghanistan 8 civilians were killed when a bomb-filled car exploded near a crowded bazaar in Helmand province, in an attack claimed by the Taliban. A police officer was killed in a roadside bombing in Helmand. Insurgents attacked a NATO patrol, killing one soldier and wounding another. Militants fired a rocket at opium poppy eradication police, killing two policemen and wounding another. US-led coalition forces killed several Taliban militants after coming under attack in Helmand province.
(AP, 3/26/08)(AP, 3/27/08)(AP, 3/28/08)
2008 Mar 26, It was reported that British pig husbandry is in crisis due to exploding global grain prices. Last month British pig farmers recorded “Stand By Your Ham" based on the 1968 US country classic “Stand By Your Man" by Tammy Wynette.
(WSJ, 3/26/08, p.A1)
2008 Mar 26, China announced the surrender of hundreds of people over anti-government riots among Tibetans and allowed the first group of foreign journalists to visit the regional capital since the violence.
(AP, 3/26/08)
2008 Mar 26, In China 24 people were killed when fireworks that had been trucked to the Gobi Desert to be destroyed exploded as they were being dumped into a ditch.
(AP, 3/28/08)
2008 Mar 26, Manuel "Sureshot" Marulanda (78), co-founder and commander of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), died of a heart attack. On May 24 President Alvaro Uribe announced he is willing to offer rebels who free hostages "conditional liberty" and passage abroad. Marulanda, whose real name is Pedro Antonio Marin, and had led the peasant-based FARC since its founding in 1964. Alfonso Cano (Guillermo Leon Saenz), the FARC’s chief ideologue, was expected to replace Marulanda.
(AP, 5/25/08)(Econ, 5/31/08, p.42)(AP, 3/26/09)
2008 Mar 26, In Dubai a massive explosion at a fireworks factory left two people dead and two injured. Subsequent fires rapidly spread, sending thick clouds of black smoke into the sky.
(AP, 3/26/08)
2008 Mar 26, French Pres. Nicolas Sarkozy vowed to open a new chapter in ties with Britain as he arrived for a state visit which he hopes will also help repair his image as a statesman.
(AP, 3/26/08)
2008 Mar 25, Air travel between Georgia and Russia resumed, more than 17 months after Moscow suspended flights because of tension between the ex-Soviet neighbors.
(AP, 3/25/08)
2008 Mar 26, India's Tata Motors said it had bought British luxury icons Jaguar and Land Rover from ailing US carmaker Ford Motor Co for 1.15 billion pounds (2.3 billion dollars).
(AP, 3/26/08)
2008 Mar 26, Iraq's prime minister gave gunmen in the southern oil port of Basra three days to surrender their weapons and renounce violence as clashes between security forces and Shiite militia fighters erupted for a second day. Officials said at least 40 people were killed and 200 wounded in the fighting in Basra. 3 Americans were seriously injured by rockets or mortars fired into Baghdad’s Green Zone. A mortar shell or rocket that apparently fell short struck a minibus in the mainly Shiite district of Karradah, killing at least 3 passengers and wounding 9 others. Two rounds also slammed into another area of Karradah, killing 3 civilians and wounding six. Two other Iraqis were killed and 4 wounded when another round struck a residential area in a Shiite neighborhood in western Baghdad. Gunmen killed a US-allied Sunni fighter and wounded his wife and daughter after storming his house in Samarra. Several Iraqi civilians were killed or injured in separate fighting between US troops and suspected al-Qaida in Iraq insurgents in the northern town of Tikrit. A US airstrike there left 7 bodies in the rubble of houses and a local judge who owned one of the houses was among the dead. Two American soldiers were killed in separate attacks in Baghdad.
(AP, 3/26/08)(AP, 3/27/08)
2008 Mar 26, The Israeli military captured Omar Jabar, the mastermind of the March 2002 bombing in Netanya, the deadliest suicide bombing of the Palestinian uprising.
(AP, 3/26/08)
2008 Mar 26, Italian officials held a crisis meeting after Japan and South Korea banned imports of mozzarella following the discovery of high dioxin levels in buffalo milk used to make the famed cheese.
(AP, 3/26/08)
2008 Mar 26, In Mexico a confrontation in Sinaloa state left four civilians and two soldiers dead. A military judge later issued an arrest warrant for 5 soldiers considered as suspects.
(AP, 4/5/08)
2008 Mar 26, TimeRime BV was founded by Marijn Bom, Jaap Joziasse, Gerard Pastwa and Pico Wilbrenninck, as a spin-off of the Dutch webdevelopment company Hoppinger.com.
(www.timerime.com/)
2008 Mar 26, In Norway a six-story apartment building collapsed in the west coast city of Aalesund after it was hit by a rock slide, injuring 15 people and leaving five missing.
(AP, 3/26/08)
2008 Mar 26, Philippine farmers warned that the country was facing a serious rice supply crisis, as the government signed a deal to import rice from Vietnam to boost local reserves at a time of rising prices and shrinking global stocks.
(AP, 3/26/08)
2008 Mar 26, In the southern Philippines a passenger boat with 14 people on board capsized, leaving only one known survivor, a man who swam several hours to shore. Most of the missing were children.
(AP, 3/28/08)
2008 Mar 26, A roadside blast in Sri Lanka's restive eastern region killed two policemen while fighting in the north left at least 19 rebels and one soldier dead.
(AFP, 3/26/08)
2008 Mar 26, The African Union-UN mission said 5 civilians were killed and more than a dozen others injured when an international peacekeeping vehicle crashed into a bus in Darfur.
(AFP, 3/26/08)
2008 Mar 26, Trinidad’s RBTT, the largest regionally owned bank, agreed to accept a takeover by the Royal Bank of Canada.
(Econ, 3/29/08, p.50)
2008 Mar 26, Venezuela's National Assembly opened an investigation into a congressman's accusations that two of President Hugo Chavez's brothers acquired 17 ranches in recent years.
(AP, 3/26/08)
2009 Mar 26, The Obama administration unveiled a sweeping overhaul of the financial system designed to impose greater regulation on major players like hedge funds. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told lawmakers that the changes are needed to fix the flaws exposed by the current financial crisis, the worst to hit the country in seven decades.
(AP, 3/26/09)
2009 Mar 26, The US Internal Revenue Service announced new steps aimed at getting taxpayers hiding money in offshore accounts to pay up, promising not to file criminal charges for those who voluntarily fess up to hiding money overseas.
(Reuters, 3/26/09)
2009 Mar 26, A New Jersey girl (14) was accused of child pornography after posting nearly 30 explicit nude pictures of herself on MySpace.com, charges that could force her to register as a sex offender if convicted.
(AP, 3/27/09)
2009 Mar 26, In Los Angeles US automaker Tesla Motors unveiled its state-of-the-art five-seat sedan, billed as the world's first mass-produced, highway-capable electric car. The San Carlos company said it would likely be built in Southern California rather than San Jose.
(AFP, 3/26/09)(SFC, 3/27/09, p.C1)
2009 Mar 26, In Brazil engine pieces from a US plane fell from the sky, hitting 22 houses and a car but sparing passengers and residents on the ground. Arrow Cargo's station manager in Manaus, Rai Marinho, said the company will pay local residents for damages to their property.
(AP, 3/26/09)
2009 Mar 26, The archives from the London Historical Records, dating back to the 16th century, began to be made available online. Around 250,000 records were currently available, with all 77 million uploaded by 2011.
(AP, 3/26/09)
2009 Mar 26, In Ganzi, China, a predominantly Tibetan prefecture in Sichuan province, Phuntsok Rabten (27), a Tibetan Buddhist monk of Draggo monastery, was found dead. He had called for protests against Chinese authorities. He had fled on a motorcycle after police in a van discovered him distributing flyers urging Tibetans to leave their farming plots untended.
(AP, 3/31/09)
2009 Mar 26, Ebtisam Ali Rashid al Bedwani (b.1982) was sworn in as Dubai’s first woman judge.
(www.gulfnews.com/nation/Government/10298829.html)
2009 Mar 26, French President Nicolas Sarkozy visited Brazzaville and Kinshasa. During the Kinshasa trip, given over in large part to regional political issues, Areva signed an agreement with the government allowing the company to prospect for and mine uranium.
(AP, 3/27/09)
2009 Mar 26, An official said France will limit or ban bonuses and stock options for executives at companies bailed out with taxpayer money, as the government scrambled to calm public outrage at what some see as the greed that caused the global financial crisis.
(AP, 3/26/09)
2009 Mar 26, In northern Guatemala a hitman training camp for Mexico's infamous Gulf cartel was found, along with 500 grenades. Officials seized six rifles, three motorcycles and several boxes of ammunition during the operation. The hitmen were among those carrying out nearly daily attacks on Guatemalan buses in which the driver is often killed.
(AP, 3/27/09)
2009 Mar 26, In Iraq a car bomb exploded near a crowded market in a mainly Shiite area of Baghdad, killing at least 20 people, including 4 women and 4 children, in the country’s sixth major attack this month. A bomb attached to a car exploded elsewhere in eastern Baghdad, wounding four people. Gunmen killed Sheik Abdul-Kareem Saleh, a Sunni Arab cleric, and wounded his son at Jalula, a town northeast of Baghdad where a suicide bomber struck a Kurdish funeral this week. A foreign contractor was shot and killed at a base north of Baghdad. Pfc. Carl T. Stovall III (25) of Kennesaw, Georgia, was taken into custody soon after the shooting at the US base in Taji.
(AP, 3/26/09)(AP, 3/27/09)(SFC, 3/27/09, p.A4)(AP, 4/5/09)
2009 Mar 26, An Israeli ministry statement said that in a series of tests this week the iron Dome high-tech system faced rockets of the type fired by Palestinian and Lebanese militants, and operated successfully.
(AP, 3/27/09)
2009 Mar 26, Israeli police said they have seized 15 thousand marijuana water pipes in a raid on a factory in Haifa. Pipes and other drug paraphernalia were banned a few weeks ago and police are cracking down.
(AP, 3/26/09)
2009 Mar 26, In Kazakhstan a Soyuz capsule carrying a Russian-American crew and US billionaire space tourist Charles Simonyi blasted off for the international space station.
(AP, 3/26/09)
2009 Mar 26, The MT Bow Asir, a Norwegian tanker with a crew of 27, was hijacked off the coast of Somalia.
(AP, 3/27/09)(WSJ, 3/27/09, p.A8)
2009 Mar 26, In Pakistan a suicide bomber killed as many as 11 people at a restaurant near Tank, in South Waziristan, in an attack targeting opponents of the Taliban.
(AP, 3/26/09)
2009 Mar 26, In central Russia a head-on collision between a bus and a truck in Petushki, about 120 kilometers (75 miles) east of Moscow, killed 14 people.
(AP, 3/26/09)
2009 Mar 26, Serbian lawmakers approved a law against discrimination due to race, religion, gender, sexual orientation or other factors despite opposition from conservatives, including the Serbian Orthodox Church, and nationalists.
(AP, 3/26/09)
2009 Mar 26, Somalia's new interior minister was wounded by a roadside bomb in an attack that killed his bodyguard and wounded two others. The moderate Islamist pledged to seek reconciliation with his attackers, widely believed to be hardline fighters.
(AP, 3/26/09)
2009 Mar 26, In Sri Lanka more than 2,100 civilians fled in one day from the northern war zone where the military is squeezing the Tamil Tiger rebels into a smaller area as it pushes to end 25 years of civil war. in New York, John Holmes, the UN's top humanitarian official, said the international organization estimated 150,000 to 190,000 civilians were trapped by the fighting and unable to escape, resulting in dozens of deaths each day.
(AP, 3/27/09)
2009 Mar 26, Regulators in St. Vincent and the Grenadines took control of an island bank linked to an alleged Ponzi scheme. A complaint alleged that William Wise of Raleigh, NC, and Kristi Hoegel of Napa, Ca., orchestrated the scheme through Millennium Bank and its Geneva-based parent United Trust of Switzerland SA, as well as US affiliates of both organizations.
(SFC, 3/28/09, p.A2)(http://tinyurl.com/cqedzr)
2009 Mar 26, Sudan's president Omar al-Bashir visited his third country in four days, this time touching down in Libya, the latest country to welcome the leader who's wanted by an international court on war crimes.
(AP, 3/26/09)
2009 Mar 26, In Thailand more than 20,000 protesters ringed the prime minister's office, demanding the government resign and deriding its distribution of checks to millions of low-income workers as a payoff.
(AP, 3/26/09)
2009 Mar 26, The UN's top human-rights body approved a proposal by Muslims nations urging passage of laws around the world to protect religion from criticism. The resolution was sponsored by Pakistan, Belarus and Venezuela.
(AP, 3/26/09)(Econ, 4/4/09, p.17)
2010 Mar 26, Pres. Obama concluded a new strategic arms reduction treaty in a call with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.
(AFP, 3/26/10)
2010 Mar 26, The Obama administration unveiled a revamped Home Affordable Mortgage Program (HAMP).
(Econ, 4/3/10, p.78)
2010 Mar 26, Hacker Albert Gonzalez (28), who participated in a cybercrime ring that stole tens of millions of credit and debit card numbers, was sentenced in US District Court to 20 years in prison. Gonzalez was living in Miami at the time of the crimes in the three cases, which occurred over almost two years before he was arrested in May of 2008 and subsequently indicted in New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts.
(http://news.yahoo.com/s/pcworld/hackergonzalezsentencedto20yearsforexploits)
2010 Mar 26, In south-central Kentucky at least 10 people were killed in a fiery crash between a tractor-trailer and a van after the truck crossed over the median on an interstate highway.
(AP, 3/26/10)
2010 Mar 26, The head of Abu Dhabi's sovereign wealth fund, the world's largest, went missing after his glider crashed in Morocco. Ahmed bin Zayed Al Nahyan's glider went down in a lake in Morocco. The pilot of the aircraft was rescued in good condition. The body of al-Nahayan was found on March 30.
(AP, 3/27/10)(AFP, 3/30/10)
2010 Mar 26, In eastern Afghanistan a gunman attacked a group of German and Afghan aid workers inspecting a high school under renovation. 2 people died and a German employed by German humanitarian organization GTZ was among 10 people wounded when assailants opened fire on workers in Khost city.
(AP, 3/26/10)(AFP, 3/27/10)
2010 Mar 26-2010 Mar 27, In China hundreds of citizens rampaged in the southern city of Kunming enraged by rumors that a vendor had been killed by an officer of the “City Administration and Law Enforcement Bureau," commonly known by its Chinese abbreviation chengguan.
(Econ, 4/3/10, p.43)
2010 Mar 26, In Ecuador a district court judge convicted Emilio Palacio, a newspaper editorial writer for the newspaper El Universo, of insulting the head of the government's National Financial Corp. and sentenced him to three years in prison.
(AP, 3/27/10)
2010 Mar 26, Egyptian police said they arrested 45 suspected smugglers over the past three days in an intensified crackdown on the supply line to Gaza by way of hundreds of cross-border tunnels. Among the suspects was a man accused of trying to deliver $242,000 in Egyptian pounds and US dollars to Hamas in Gaza.
(AP, 3/27/10)
2010 Mar 26, Iraq’s election commission announced that former PM Ayad Allawi edged out chief rival PM Nouri al-Maliki by two seats, 91-89, in the March 7 vote for a 325-member parliament.
(AP, 3/27/10)
2010 Mar 26, In Finland Juha Turunen, a corporate lawyer, was convicted of kidnapping heiress Minna Nurminen (26) and holding her captive for two weeks in 2009 until her family paid a multimillion euro (dollar) ransom. He had admitted during the trial that he had kidnapped Nurminen and held her captive at an apartment in Turku, western Finland. She was released unharmed and police recovered the ransom money.
(AP, 3/26/10)
2010 Mar 26, Germany and Switzerland said they have reached a preliminary deal on an agreement to exchange information on suspected tax cheats, an important step toward defusing a long-festering irritant in their relations.
(AP, 3/26/10)
2010 Mar 26, In Honduras radio journalists Jose Bayardo (52) and Manuel de Jesus Juarez (55) were riddled with bullets late in the day as they drove on a highway in the rural province of Olancho. Three other journalists have been killed in March in Honduras, which is wracked by political divisions relating to a 2009 coup and common crime fueled by street gangs.
(AP, 3/27/10)
2010 Mar 26, Israel insisted it would continue construction in contested east Jerusalem, taking an uncompromising stance against US pressure following a tense visit by PM Benjamin Netanyahu to Washington. Two Israeli soldiers and two Palestinian militants were killed in a gunbattle in the Gaza Strip. Palestinian medics said one civilian was killed and seven were wounded in the fighting. Militants reported one wounded and one missing. Israeli soldier withdrew the next day.
(AP, 3/26/10)(AP, 3/27/10)
2010 Mar 26, In northern Mexico the decapitated body of Heriberto Cerda, the police chief in Agualeguas, Nuevo Leon state, and the body of his brother were found inside the chief's patrol truck. Late in the day gunmen opened fired on a hotel in downtown Ciudad Juarez where federal agents stay, killing one and wounding two.
(AP, 3/27/10)
2010 Mar 26, Mozambican police said they have arrested 7 people suspected of trafficking women to neighboring South Africa to work as prostitutes. The men were arrested last week through a police sting operation. The women were on sale for about $670 each.
(AP, 3/26/10)
2010 Mar 26, Asad Qureshi, a British journalist, went missing while traveling to North Waziristan with a retired army officer Sultan Amir Tarar (Col. Imam), and Khalid Khawaja, a prominent Pakistani ex-spy. Khawaja was found killed by the captors on April 30. On Sep 9 it was reported that Qureshi and Col. Imam were released.
(AFP, 9/9/10)(http://cpj.org/2010/04/documentary-filmmaker-missing-in-pakistan.php)
2010 Mar 26, A South Korean naval ship sank leaving 46 marines missing near Baengnyeong Island. An explosion at the rear of the Cheonan shut down its engine, wiped out power and caused the ship to sink a little over three hours later. 58 of the crew of 104 were rescued. A North Korean mine was later suspected as the cause of the explosion. South Korea's defense minister confirmed on May 10 that traces of an explosive chemical substance used to make torpedoes were found in the wreckage of the naval ship. It was later determined that a North Korean submarine sank the Cheonan. Of the 104 officers and enlisted men onboard the ship, forty-six were killed. North Korea denied responsibility for the attack.
(AP, 3/27/10)(AP, 3/29/10)(AP, 5/10/10)(AP, 12/24/19)
2010 Mar 26, Tens of thousands of Syrians and Palestinians gathered in a Damascus square in a government-orchestrated "march of anger" against Israeli settlements in east Jerusalem.
(AP, 3/26/10)
2010 Mar 26, Togo's government and the opposition coalition signed a temporary truce committing both sides to peace, law and order following opposition protests against presidential election results.
(AP, 3/27/10)
2010 Mar 26, Zimbabwe state media reported that PM Morgan Tsvangirai has backed President Robert Mugabe's stance against including gay rights in a new constitution. President Robert Mugabe said he would only implement terms of an agreement he signed in 2008 with rival Morgan Tsvangirai if the West removed sanctions on his allies.
(AFP, 3/26/10)(Reuters, 3/26/10)
2011 Mar 26, In a World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) initiative landmarks in thousands of cities, from Sydney Harbor Bridge to the world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, turned off the power for Earth Hour, the fifth such event promoting a sustainable future for the planet. The first lights dimmed across Fiji and New Zealand at 8.30 p.m. (3:30 a.m. EDT), to lights being turned on again in Samoa 24 hours later.
(Reuters, 3/27/11)
2011 Mar 26, In Maine a whoopee pie maker created a massive 1,067 pound whoopee pie. State Reps. Paul Davis and Emily Cain, sponsors of a bill to make the whoopee pie Maine’s official “treat," were on hand.
(SSFC, 3/27/11, p.A10)
2011 Mar 26, Harry Wesley Coover Jr. (b.1917), the inventor of Super Glue, died at his home in Kingsport, Tenn. Dr. Coover first happened upon the super-sticky adhesive, more formally known as cyanoacrylates, by accident when he was experimenting with acrylates for use in clear plastic gun-sights during World War II. An experimental accident in 1951 brought it back to his attention. In 1958 the first incarnation of Super Glue, called Eastman 910, hit the market. Kodak was not able to capitalize commercially on Dr. Coover’s discovery and sold the business to National Starch in 1980.
(www.nytimes.com/2011/03/28/business/28coover.html?_r=1)(SFC, 3/28/11, p.A4)
2011 Mar 26, Geraldine Ferraro (b.1935), former Queens congresswoman and the first woman to run for vice-president (Mondale-Ferraro 1984) on a major US party ticket, died in Boston.
(SSFC, 3/27/11, p.A12)
2011 Mar 26, Afghan President Hamid Karzai left on a visit to Tehran, where he will meet his Iranian counterpart following a row over fuel imports and attend a ceremony to mark the Persian new year. 3 militants and 4 civilians died when two cars they were traveling in were hit by NATO fire in Helmand province. 3 lower ranking Taliban fighters were killed in one vehicle and 4 civilians were killed in a second vehicle. Taliban militants kidnapped some 40 policemen after being tipped off that they would be traveling in Kunar province.
(AFP, 3/26/11)(AP, 3/27/11)(SFC, 3/28/11, p.A2)(AP, 3/30/11)
2011 Mar 26, Algerian police again stifled an attempt by pro-reform activists to rally against the government in what has become a weekly ritual. It was the eighth attempt since January by the CNDC to stage a weekly demonstration, along the lines of pro-democracy protests sweeping the Arab world, in defiance of a ban on rallies in the capital imposed in 2001.
(AFP, 3/26/11)
2011 Mar 26, Voters in New South Wales, Australia's most populous state, delivered a crushing defeat to PM Julia Gillard's Labor party, handing power to the conservative opposition in a landslide.
(Reuters, 3/26/11)
2011 Mar 26, Some 250,000 Britons marched through London in a demonstration against the government's austerity measures, amid a heavy police presence that failed to stop outbreaks of violence. More than 200 people were arrested. Rioters went on the rampage after the rally, attacking police and smashing up shops in a night of violence.
(AP, 3/26/11)(AFP, 3/27/11)
2011 Mar 26, It was reported that the Oxford English Dictionary has approved900 new words including a number of Internet-inspired expressions including LOL (laughing out loud), OMG (Oh, my God) and BFF (best friends forever).
(SFC, 3/26/11, p.A4)
2011 Mar 26, In Germany some 200,000 people turned out in the largest cities to protest against the use of nuclear power in the wake of Japan's Fukushima reactor disaster.
(AP, 3/26/11)
2011 Mar 26, Gaza militants fired over 50 mortar shells into southern Israel. One rocket damaged a house.
(SSFC, 3/27/11, p.A2)
2011 Mar 26, Japanese officials said radiation levels have surged in seawater near the tsunami-stricken nuclear power station in Fukushima, as engineers battled to stabilize the plant in hazardous conditions.
(AFP, 3/26/11)
2011 Mar 26, Jordan's Islamist opposition, leftists and trade unions demanded the ouster of PM Maaruf Bakhit, who they blame for violence that has killed one person and injured 130. The resilient opposition protest movement demanded political reforms and new elections. Some 7 thousand supporters of King Abdullah II took to the streets of Amman to express their loyalty.
(AFP, 3/26/11)(AP, 3/26/11)(SSFC, 3/27/11, p.A2)
2011 Mar 26, Libyan rebels regained control of the eastern gateway city of Ajdabiya after international airstrikes crippled Moammar Gadhafi's forces, in the first major turnaround for an uprising that a week ago appeared on the verge of defeat. In the western city of Zwara the opposition lost to Gadhafi. A resident said security agents had lists of rebel sympathizers and were dragging them from their homes in Zwara and Zawiya.
(AP, 3/26/11)
2011 Mar 26, In Libya Iman Al-Obeidi said she spent two days in detention after being arrested at a checkpoint, and sexually assaulted by up to 15 men while in custody. She shouted to tell her story at the Rixos hotel in Tripoli, after storming into the hotel's breakfast room to show her wounds to foreign media. Minders overpowered the woman and took her away. Days later Iman Al-Obeidi was sued for slander for naming her alleged attackers.
(AP, 3/26/11)(Reuters, 3/29/11)
2011 Mar 26, A Madagascar government official said Pres. Andry Rajoelina has announced a new transitional government as part of a roadmap to resolve the island's political crisis.
(AP, 3/26/11)
2011 Mar 26, In Mexico 4 Ciudad Juarez men were last seen, when they were picked up by patrol vehicles with decals matching those used by the security detail of new police chief, Julian Leyzaola.
(AP, 4/4/11)
2011 Mar 26, Myanmar reportedly earned more than $2.8 billion from the sale of jade, gems and pearls at its annual gems auction, held this month in the capital, Naypyitaw.
(AP, 3/26/11)
2011 Mar 26, In Nigeria police and local media said John James Akpanudoedehe, an opposition politician for governor in Akwa Ibom state, has been charged with treason after clashes killed four and left a campaign office for the president burnt in the main oil region.
(AFP, 3/26/11)
2011 Mar 26, Philippine Sen. Panfilo Lacson, who fled double murder charges more than a year ago, returned to the country after a court voided the arrest warrant against him. He had been charged with the killings of high-profile publicist Salvador "Bubby" Dacer and his driver in 2000, but has denied involvement.
(AP, 3/26/11)
2011 Mar 26, Portugal's Socialist Party, in a 2-day election, overwhelmingly re-elected outgoing PM Jose Socrates as its leader, after he quit last week when parliament rejected his austerity plan.
(AFP, 3/27/11)
2011 Mar 26, In Switzerland 1 person was missing after an avalanche swept away 11 French skiers near the southern border with Italy. 4 people were killed.
(AP, 3/26/11)
2011 Mar 26, Syrian government forces and protesters clashed in the coastal city of Latakia, where demonstrators set fire to the offices of President Bashar Assad's ruling Baath party.
(AP, 3/26/11)
2011 Mar 26, University protesters in Venezuela ended a month-long hunger strike, saying President Hugo Chavez's government has met their demands.
(AP, 3/26/11)
2011 Mar 26, The ruling party of Yemen's embattled President Saleh said he should serve out his term until 2013, after he offered to hand over power but only to "safe hands." In the south the army killed six suspected Al-Qaeda members.
(AFP, 3/26/11)
2012 Mar 26, The United States dropped Argentina from its system of trade preferences, citing the South American country's failure to pay court-ordered damages of $300 million plus interest to two US companies.
(AP, 3/26/12)
2012 Mar 26, In Colorado a state-prescribed burn went out of control and destroyed dozens of homes near Denver and left 2 people dead.
(SFC, 3/29/12, p.A7)
2012 Mar 26, Vermont police in Barnet found the body of Melissa Jenkins (33), a boarding school teacher. She had disappeared a day earlier leaving her SUV running and 2-year-old child unharmed inside. On March 28 Vermont snowplow driver Allen Prue was accused with his wife Patricia of luring the teacher from her home by pretending their vehicle had broken down, strangling her, stripping her and throwing her body into the Connecticut River.
(SFC, 3/27/12, p.A5)(SFC, 3/29/12, p.A7)
2012 Mar 26, In Afghanistan a member of the Afghan national army opened fire at entrance gate to the British headquarters at Lashkar Gah city, killing the two British service personnel. The assailant was killed by return fire. A joint Afghan and coalition force in Faryab province killed Makhdum Nusrat, leader of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan.
(Reuters, 3/26/12)(AP, 4/7/12)
2012 Mar 26, Britain’s PM David Cameron bowed to pressure to disclose his own contacts with wealthy donors after a newspaper sting caught a top fundraiser for his party offering meetings with the premier in return for big contributions.
(Reuters, 3/26/12)
2012 Mar 26, Britain’s Financial Services Authority handed Coutts, the private bank which counts the queen as a client, an £8.75-million fine for failing to ensure it was not handling laundered money.
(AFP, 3/26/12)
2012 Mar 26, British video games retailer GAME collapsed into administration, placing more than 5,500 jobs at risk, becoming the latest victim of tough economic conditions. GAME's international divisions were operating as normal.
(AFP, 3/26/12)
2012 Mar 26, Ontario's highest court struck down a national law that outlaws brothels but upheld an effective ban on street prostitution, a partial victory for those arguing Canada's laws put sex workers in harm's way.
(Reuters, 3/26/12)
2012 Mar 26, In the CAR British safari driver David Simpson was arrested after he reported the discovery of the bodies of 13 people by a small-scale gold mine at the Ngungunza mining site. Simpson was released after five months of incarceration.
(AFP, 5/14/12)(AP, 8/27/12)
2012 Mar 26, Colombia's military killed 36 rebels in a pre-dawn bombing of a guerrilla camp in the Meta state municipality of Vista Hermosa, a traditional stronghold of the FARC.
(AP, 3/26/12)
2012 Mar 26, Pope Benedict XVI arrived in Santiago, Cuba, in the footsteps of his more famous predecessor, gently pressing the island's longtime communist leaders to push through "legitimate" reforms their people desire, while also criticizing the excesses of capitalism.
(AP, 3/27/12)
2012 Mar 26, In Egypt two prominent liberal politicians pulled out from a panel tasked with drafting a new constitution after Islamists won a majority of seats on the body. The 100-member panel selected over the weekend includes nearly 60 Islamists and only six women and six minority Christians.
(AP, 3/26/12)
2012 Mar 26, In Egypt 3 people were killed and a dozen others injured when a tugboat engine exploded in the Suez Canal. More than 10 people were injured by the fire. Movement in the vital waterway was not affected.
(AFP, 3/26/12)
2012 Mar 26, In France former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn was handed preliminary charges alleging he was involved in a French prostitution ring.
(SFC, 3/27/12, p.A2)
2012 Mar 26, India's defense minister ordered federal investigators to probe revelations by the country's top military officer that he had been offered a $2.8 million bribe to clear a procurement deal. Army Chief General V.K Singh told the Hindu newspaper that a lobbyist for an unnamed military equipment supplier had offered him the cash incentive to approve the purchase of 600 sub-standard vehicles.
(AFP, 3/26/12)
2012 Mar 26, In India Tibetan exile Jamphel Yeshi lit himself on fire and ran shouting through a demonstration in New Delhi, just ahead of a visit by China's president. Yeshi sustained burns on 98 percent of his body and his condition was critical. Jamphel Yeshi died on March 28.
(AP, 3/26/12)(AFP, 3/28/12)
2012 Mar 26, Israel cut working relations with the UN Human Rights Council and said it will bar a UN team from entering Israel or the West Bank for a planned investigation of Jewish settlements.
(AP, 3/26/12)
2012 Mar 26, Kenya’s President Mwai Kibaki said oil has been struck in the northwestern Turkana region after exploratory drilling by Anglo-Irish firm Tullow Oil. Commercial viability was yet to be established.
(AFP, 3/26/12)
2012 Mar 26, Malians marched in Bamako to protest against the junta while Tuareg rebels threatened to capture a key northern city, piling political and military pressure on the coup leaders.
(AFP, 3/26/12)
2012 Mar 26, The Norwegian Foreign Ministry said it has decided to close down its embassy in Damascus due to security concerns.
(AP, 3/26/12)
2012 Mar 26, In Pakistan Mansoor Mukhtar (37), a member of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), the largest political party in Karachi, was shot dead late today when gunmen burst into the home where he was sleeping. His brother also died and his sister-in-law was wounded in the attack.
(AFP, 3/27/12)
2012 Mar 26, Saudi King Abdullah ordered the donation of petroleum products to neighboring Yemen that should cover the impoverished country's needs for two months.
(AFP, 3/27/12)
2012 Mar 26, In central Somalia Ethiopian forces seized El Bur, the main regional base of the Al Qaeda-linked Shebab insurgents. Shebab rebels in Mogadishu killed two civilians at a camp for the displaced near the presidential compound, which they targeted with mortar bombs.
(AFP, 3/26/12)
2012 Mar 26, Somali pirates seized an Iranian-owned cargo ship and its 23-strong crew in the first hijacking within Maldivian territory. The MV. Eglantine was seized off the north-western Hoarafush island in the Indian Ocean atoll nation. The Bolivian-flagged vessel was freed on April 2, and continued on to Iran with its sugar shipment.
(AFP, 3/27/12)(AFP, 4/3/12)
2012 Mar 26, South African rights activists began a legal bid to compel South Africa to investigate and prosecute citizens of neighboring Zimbabwe suspected of crimes against humanity.
(Reuters, 3/26/12)
2012 Mar 26, In South Korea leaders or top officials from 53 nations gathered in Seoul for a summit on nuclear security. President Obama said the United States would further cut its own nuclear stockpiles, as he warned North Korea and Iran to back down over their atomic plans.
(AFP, 3/26/12)
2012 Mar 26, A Spanish court dropped a rape probe against a Saudi prince who is one of the world's richest people, saying his accuser's allegations are inconsistent and do not stand up. The ruling cleared Prince Alwaleed bin Talal (57) and was released today by a court in Palma in Spain's Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean. The drugging and sexual assault of a young Spanish model was alleged to have occurred aboard a yacht moored at the island of Ibiza in the wee hours of Aug 12, 2008.
(AP, 3/29/12)
2012 Mar 26, Sri Lanka said it will not implement all proposals from its civil war commission because the panel went beyond its mandate. A UN rights council has called for the report's implementation.
(AP, 3/26/12)
2012 Mar 26, Syrian troops shelled rebel-held neighborhoods in Homs. The LCC said 19 people were killed in Syria, nine of them in Homs. The Observatory said 10 people were killed, including five in the Homs shelling. The government banned military aged males 18-42 from traveling outside the country.
(AP, 3/26/12)(SFC, 3/27/12, p.A3)
2012 Mar 26, Turkey closed its embassy in Damascus and recalled its ambassador as relations between the former allies continued to deteriorate.
(AFP, 3/26/12)
2012 Mar 26, A top official in Tunisia's ruling Islamist Ennahda Party says Islamic law will not be enshrined in the country's new constitution, preserving the North African nation's civil state.
(AFP, 3/26/12)
2013 Mar 26, President Barack Obama chose veteran agent Julia Pierson as Secret Service director, the first woman to lead the male-dominated agency.
(Reuters, 3/26/13)
2013 Mar 26, The US Supreme Court ruled that police cannot bring drug-sniffing police dogs onto a suspect's property to look for evidence without first getting a warrant for a search.
(AP, 3/26/13)
2013 Mar 26, The US Environmental Protection Agency issued a survey that said 55% of the nation’s rivers and streams are in poor biological health.
(SFC, 3/27/13, p.A6)
2013 Mar 26, In San Francisco Henry Doelger’s Art Deco/Streamline Modern real estate office at 320 Judah St. was voted in as the city’s 265th historical landmark by the Board of Supervisors.
(http://tinyurl.com/bswp2to)
2013 Mar 26, The Delaware state Senate approved a bill repealing the state’s death penalty in a 11-10 vote.
(SFC, 3/27/13, p.A6)
2013 Mar 26, North Dakota Gov. Jack Dalrymple signed legislation that that would make North Dakota the nation's most restrictive state on abortion rights, banning the procedure if a fetal heartbeat can be detected — something that can happen as early as six weeks into a pregnancy.
(AP, 3/27/13)
2013 Mar 26, In eastern Afghanistan 8 suicide bombers struck a police headquarters, killing at least five officers in Jalalabad. Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the attack. A roadside bomb killed two police officers and wounded another in the Nad Ali district of southern Helmand province.
(AP, 3/26/13)
2013 Mar 26, Afghan and NATO forces killed more than 20 insurgents in a 2-day joint operation in Logar province.
(AP, 3/27/13)
2013 Mar 26, In Bahrain 13 pro-democracy activists were sentenced to 10 years in prison over allegations that they attacked police officers.
(SFC, 3/27/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 26, The British government published its long-term Nuclear Industrial Strategy but fell short of announcing a guaranteed power price which operators want spelled out before investing billions in new power stations.
(AP, 3/26/13)
2013 Mar 26, In the CAR Michel Djotodia, one of the leaders of the Seleka rebel coalition, announced over radio that he has dissolved the country's constitution as well as the parliament and the government. French forces protecting Bangui's main airport opened fire on three cars that were speeding toward a security checkpoint. Two Indian citizens were killed, and wounded Indian and Chadian passengers were taken for medical care. Pillaging continued in Bangui.
(AP, 3/26/13)
2013 Mar 26, China and Brazil signed a deal to do up to $30 billion of trade in their local currencies, as the five-nation BRICS forum of emerging market powers worked to lessen dependence on the US dollar and euro.
(AP, 3/26/13)
2013 Mar 26, Prominent Egyptian blogger Alaa Abdel-Fattah handed himself in to authorities, a day after the country's prosecutor general ordered his arrest over his alleged role in instigating violence during clashes between supporters and opponents of the Islamist president. blogger, Abdel-Fattah was freed following his demand that an investigative judge take over his case.
(AP, 3/26/13)
2013 Mar 26, Egyptian authorities extradited two Libyan officials from the regime of deposed dictator Moammar Gadhafi back to their home country. Former ambassador to Cairo Ali Maria (71) and ex-official Mohammed Ibrahim Gadhafi (44) were handcuffed after resisting the transfer.
(AP, 3/26/13)
2013 Mar 26, Ghana and US officials broke ground for the National Marine Police Training Academy in the city of Anyinase. The US was investing over $1.2 million to construct the training center.
(AP, 3/26/13)
2013 Mar 26, In Iraq shootings and blasts killed five people, including two local politicians in a town north of Baghdad who died when a bomb attached to their car exploded.
(AP, 3/26/13)
2013 Mar 26, Italy's foreign minister Giulio Terzi resigned to protest his government's decision to send two marines back to India to face trial in the deaths of two fishermen.
(AP, 3/26/13)
2013 Mar 26, Italy's highest criminal court overturned the murder acquittal of Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito in the slaying of British roommate Meredith Kercher and ordered a new trial.
(AP, 3/26/13)
2013 Mar 26, UN officials in Liberia said they've temporarily halted the repatriation of tens of thousands of refugees from Ivory Coast because of continued unrest near the border between the two countries.
(AP, 3/26/13)
2013 Mar 26, In Libya 3 British female activists of Pakistani origin were kidnapped and raped in the eastern city of Benghazi. Pro-government militiamen were suspected. The women were part of an overland aid convoy bound for Gaza.
(AP, 3/29/13)
2013 Mar 26, In Libya nearly 50 inmates fled a prison in an oasis city in the country's southern desert. Authorities shot one dead during the escape.
(AP, 3/26/13)
2013 Mar 26, Earthquakes shook a broad swath of southern Mexico, causing buildings to sway in the capital and sending thousands fleeing into the streets. There were no immediate reports of damages or injuries.
(AP, 3/26/13)
2013 Mar 26, In Rwanda a grenade blast in Kigali killed one person and wounded eight.
(AP, 3/27/13)
2013 Mar 26, Saudi Arabia said investigations have shown that members of a spy ring arrested last week were working for Iranian intelligence.
(AP, 3/26/13)
2013 Mar 26, The Scottish government approved an offshore wind farm near Aberdeen. American tycoon Donald Trump vowed to bring a lawsuit to stop the $349 million development. He feared it would spoil the views at his nearby luxury golf course.
(SFC, 3/27/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 26, In South Sudan 143 rebels led by David Yau Yau died in a battle between soldiers and rebels backed by Sudan. 20 soldiers were killed and 70 wounded.
(AP, 3/28/13)
2013 Mar 26, Syrian opposition representatives took the country's seat for the first time at an Arab League summit in Qatar. The Arab League in 2011 suspended the Syrian government's membership in the organization in response to the regime's crackdown on opponents.
(AP, 3/26/13)
2013 Mar 26, In Syria mortars pounded at least two areas of Damascus, killing a girl and at least 2 other people. Anti-regime activists said government troops seized control of Baba Amr, a neighborhood in the central city of Homs, considered a symbol of opposition to Pres. Assad's regime. The Observatory said that at least 13 charred bodies, including those of four children and five women, were found on the outskirts of the village of Abil, southwest of Homs city.
(AP, 3/26/13)
2014 Mar 26, In California state Sen. Leland Yee was arrested in an FBI sting on charges that he conspired to traffic in firearms and traded favors in Sacramento for bribes. Yee represented half of San Francisco and most of San Mateo County. Yee was one of 26 people ensnared in a 5-year federal investigation that targeted Raymond “Shrimp Boy" Chow, a Chinatown gangster who had claimed to have gone straight.
(SFC, 3/27/14, p.A1)
2014 Mar 26, Daly City dentist Wilson Sy Lim was among 26 people arrested in a SF Bay Area FBI sting. State Sen. Leland Yee had introduced Lim to an undercover FBI agent as a connection for securing guns from the Philippines.
(SFC, 3/31/14, p.A8)
2014 Mar 26, A New York jury found Osama bin Laden's son-in-law and former Al-Qaeda spokesman Suleiman Abu Ghaith (48) guilty on three counts of conspiracy to kill Americans and supporting terrorists.
(AFP, 3/26/14)(SFC, 3/27/14, p.A9)
2014 Mar 26, Charlotte, NC, Mayor Patrick Cannon, in office for less than six months, resigned hours after he was arrested and accused of taking over $48,000 in bribes from undercover FBI agents.
(SFC, 3/28/14, p.A6)
2014 Mar 26, A British financial watchdog said it has fined Spanish banking giant Santander almost £12.4 million for mis-advising customers.
(AFP, 3/26/14)
2014 Mar 26, In Brussels Pres. Barack Obama and EU leaders presented a unified front against Russia's annexation of Crimea, promoting trans-Atlantic trade as an antidote to Russia's influence in the region and a way to help Europe become less dependent on Moscow for energy.
(AP, 3/26/14)
2014 Mar 26, The head of African peacekeepers in the Central African Republic said that vigilante groups known as "anti-balaka" will be considered and treated as "enemies" from now on.
(AFP, 3/26/14)
2014 Mar 26, In southern China a fire in a lingerie factory killed 11 people in Puning County, Guangdong province.
(AP, 3/26/14)
2014 Mar 26, In Egypt one person was killed near Cairo University when protesters supporting ousted President Mohamed Mursi clashed with security forces.
(Reuters, 3/26/14)
2014 Mar 26, Guinea health officials said the death toll from the rare Ebola virus has risen to 63. The outbreak is the first in West Africa in 20 years.
(AP, 3/26/14)
2014 Mar 26, Israeli navy ships opened fire on two suspected Palestinian smuggling boats off the Gaza coast. Both vessels sank after an explosion following the shooting.
(AP, 3/26/14)
2014 Mar 26, In their “Kuwait Declaration" Arab leaders called for a political solution to the conflict in Syria, overlooking Saudi-backed demands for greater military support for rebel forces to tip the balance in the war. The Arab League also announced their "total rejection of the call to consider Israel a Jewish state," in the final statement.
(AFP, 3/26/14)
2014 Mar 26, Myanmar’s Energy Ministry said major oil companies including Total, Chevron, Woodside Energy and Shell have won bids for offshore oil and gas exploration blocks off its western and southern coasts.
(AP, 3/26/14)
2014 Mar 26, North Korea test-fired two medium-range Rodong ballistic missiles. The Rodong launch, the first since 2009, violated UN Security Council resolutions and marked a big escalation from a series of shorter-range rocket launches the North has staged in recent weeks to protest ongoing annual military drills by the US and South Korea that Pyongyang claims are invasion preparation.
(AP, 3/26/14)
2014 Mar 26, The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters said Russian mathematician Yakov G. Sinai (78) has won this year's $1 million Abel Prize in mathematics.
(AP, 3/26/14)
2014 Mar 26, A Pakistani government team traveled to a secret location in the northwest where it held the first-ever direct talks with the Taliban.
(AP, 3/26/14)
2014 Mar 26, Russian forces took over the Ukrainian minesweeper Cherkasy, the last military ship controlled by Ukraine in Crimea.
(Reuters, 3/26/14)
2014 Mar 26, A Soyuz spacecraft carrying two Russians and NASA’s Steve Swanson blasted off from Kazakhstan. A software glitch delayed their docking with the International Space Station until March 27.
(SFC, 3/27/14, p.A2)(AP, 3/28/14)
2014 Mar 26, Somali government forces fighting alongside African Union troops said they had taken back control of the key town of El-Bur, driving Al-Qaeda-linked Shebab rebels from a major central bastion.
(AFP, 3/26/14)
2014 Mar 26, Spanish police arrested more than 50 students during a protest at a Madrid university during the first day of a strike to protest a government education reform and cutbacks in grants and staffing.
(AP, 3/26/14)
2014 Mar 26, A Turkish court ordered the telecommunications authority to restore access to Twitter, issuing an injunction five days after the government blocked access to the social network.
(AP, 3/26/14)
2014 Mar 26, Ukraine’s Naftogaz officials said the price of gas will rise for domestic consumers by more than 50 per cent from May 1. Further rises will be implemented under a fixed timetable until 2018. The step were in response to demands by the International Monetary Fund.
(AP, 3/26/14)
2014 Mar 26, Pope Francis permanently removed German bishop Franz-Peter Terbartz-van Elst from his Limburg diocese after his 31 million-euro ($43-million) new residence complex caused an uproar among the faithful. Francis had temporarily expelled him in October pending a church inquiry.
(AP, 3/26/14)
2014 Mar 26, The World Trade Organization ruled that China has violated international trade rules with its restrictions on the export of 17 "rare earths" and two other minerals that have key industrial and high-tech uses.
(AP, 3/26/14)
2015 Mar 26, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence signed into law a religious objections bill that some convention organizers and business leaders have opposed amid concern it could allow discrimination against gay people.
(AP, 3/26/15)
2015 Mar 26, Airlines rushed to change their rules so as to require a second crew member in the cockpit at all times, hours after French prosecutors suggested co-pilot Andreas Lubitz (27) had barricaded himself alone at the controls of a German jetliner and crashed it on purpose.
(Reuters, 3/26/15)
2015 Mar 26, Albanian lawmakers voted to lift the immunity of two of their colleagues accused of false testimony claiming that the parliament speaker was behind an alleged assassination plot to kill two deputies. Doshi was expelled from the governing Socialists three weeks ago after claiming Parliament speaker Ilir Meta, a former prime minister, had paid 600,000 euros ($656,000) to have him and an opposition Democratic Party lawmaker killed. Doshi had claimed that Frroku had first told him about the alleged plot.
(AP, 3/26/15)
2015 Mar 26, Argentina announced a new 100-peso note honoring the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo. Today 100 pesos buys $11 at the official exchange rate.
(Econ., 4/11/15, p.68)
2015 Mar 26, Brazil’s federal police said they had uncovered "criminal organizations" suspected of causing a shortfall of at least 6 billion reais ($1.9 billion) in unpaid taxes. More than 50 companies in the industrial, financial and agricultural sectors were being investigated for allegedly bribing officials at the Finance Ministry's tax appeals court to reduce annual fines on unpaid taxes.
(AP, 3/27/15)
2015 Mar 26, Britain's world-first Modern Slavery Act became law. It required companies whose turnover exceeds 36 million pounds ($46 million) to produce an annual statement outlining the actions they have taken to identify and root out slavery from their operations.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_Slavery_Act_2015)
2015 Mar 26, Britain buried King Richard III with pomp 530 years after his violent death. His remains had been found under a parking lot in 2012.
(SFC, 3/27/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 26, Troops from Chad and Niger pursued Boko Haram fighters across a northern Nigeria border area, driving them out of a village they held there and causing some to flee into Niger.
(Reuters, 3/26/15)
2015 Mar 26, Jaber, an Iranian fishing vessel believed to have up to 19 crew, was captured by Somali pirates, along with another Iranian fishing vessel, Siraj. Jaber and its crew escaped on August 27.
(Reuters, 8/28/15)
2015 Mar 26, Iraqi forces buoyed by the first US-led coalition air strikes on Tikrit made a final push to flush diehard jihadists out of Saddam Hussein's hometown. US-led warplanes carried out 17 air strikes against Islamic State jihadists in Tikrit overnight in the first wave of coalition bombing raids in support of an Iraqi government offensive to recapture the town. The Iran-backed Shiite militias pulled out of the offensive in Tikrit in protest over US airstrikes there.
(AFP, 3/26/15)(AP, 3/27/15)
2015 Mar 26, Italian police and Europol said eight people have been arrested in a half-dozen European countries for allegedly operating a diesel import scam that avoided taxes by disguising the fuel as it transited across the continent.
(AP, 3/26/15)
2015 Mar 26, In Mexico an attempt to take gasoline from a crashed tanker truck led to deaths and injuries when the vehicle exploded. The death toll rose to 17 as more victims died of burn injuries at hospitals.
(AP, 3/28/15)(AP, 4/3/15)
2015 Mar 26, North Korea said it had arrested two South Koreans based in the Chinese border city of Dandong, accusing them of spying for South Korea.
(Reuters, 3/26/15)
2015 Mar 26, The Pakistani Taliban killed 5 police officers in a rocket attack in country's southwest.
(AP, 3/27/15)
2015 Mar 26, The Philippines' top diplomat said that China has been rushing construction projects, including massive land reclamation, in the disputed South China Sea in hopes of forestalling any legal moves against its vast territorial claims.
(AP, 3/26/15)
2015 Mar 26, Warplanes from a Saudi-led Arab coalition bombed Huthi Shiite rebels in support of Yemen's embattled president, as regional rival Iran warned the intervention was a "dangerous" move. Egypt participated in the Saudi-led campaign against Shi'ite Houthis militias in Yemen with its naval and air forces. The US military rescued two Saudi pilots who ejected from their jet off Yemen's coast.
(AFP, 3/26/15)(Reuters, 3/26/15)(AFP, 3/27/15)
2015 Mar 26, Sudan said it is providing ground troops as well as warplanes for a Saudi-led military intervention against Shiite rebels in Yemen.
(AFP, 3/26/15)
2015 Mar 26, The UN Security Council boosted the number of peacekeepers in Central African Republic by more than 1,000 after the mission was overburdened by a need to protect infrastructure and senior officials in the capital Bangui.
(Reuters, 3/26/15)
2015 Mar 26, The UN Security Council voted to cut 2,000 troops from the UN peacekeeping force in the Democratic Republic of Congo despite calls from Kinshasa for a bigger drawdown.
(AFP, 3/26/15)
2016 Mar 26, In Alabama a medical helicopter crashed killing all 4 people onboard near the town of Enterprise.
(SFC, 4/12/16, p.A4)
2016 Mar 26, Vermont senator Bernie Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, breathed fresh life into his campaign for the White House with a clean sweep in caucuses in the western US states of Alaska, Hawaii and Washington.
(AFP, 3/27/16)
2016 Mar 26, The six astronauts at the International Space Station got an early Easter treat today with the arrival of a supply ship full of fresh food and experiments via Orbital ATK's Cygnus capsule, named after the swan constellation. The cargo carrier rocketed away from Cape Canaveral on March 22.
(AP, 3/26/16)
2016 Mar 26, In Afghanistan insurgents in Wardak province killed Mohammad Anwar, the top judge on a Ghazni province appeals court.
(AP, 3/27/16)
2016 Mar 26, Bolivian President Evo Morales said his country has decided to file suit against Chile at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) over a water dispute. Bolivia argues it owns the Silala spring waters originating in its southwest department of Potosi and that it is not being compensated for Chile's use of the water.
(AFP, 3/27/16)
2016 Mar 26, The final print edition of The Independent newspaper went on sale, ending its 30-year appearance on British newsstands.
(AFP, 3/26/16)
2016 Mar 26, Cameroon authorities said a teenager who surrendered before carrying out a suicide bombing attack in the north has said she was one of the 276 girls abducted from a Nigerian boarding school by Islamic extremists nearly two years ago.
(AP, 3/26/16)
2016 Mar 26, Greece said it has begun emptying the main migrant camp on its Macedonia border, as the huge tide of refugees flooding into the country slows to a trickle following the EU-Turkey deal.
(AFP, 3/26/16)
2016 Mar 26, The Indonesian the tug Brahma 12 and the Anand 12 barge en route to Batangas province, south of the Philippine capital, were reported hijacked with 10 crew members. On May 1 Abu Sayyaf militants freed the 10 Indonesian crewmen.
(AP, 3/29/16)(AP, 5/1/16)
2016 Mar 26, In Iraq a group of suicide bombers from the Islamic State group killed three Iraqi soldiers in an attack on the Al-Asad air base military base hosting hundreds of coalition advisers in Anbar province.
(AFP, 3/26/16)
2016 Mar 26, Mexican police in Veracruz killed 3 alleged criminals in a shootout, and then found three bodies the suspects had apparently been transporting.
(AP, 3/26/16)
2016 Mar 26, Sierra Leone police and military arms experts began destroying nearly 5,000 "unserviceable weapons" in an operation set to last two weeks.
(AFP, 3/26/16)
2016 Mar 26, Turkish Air Force jets joined coalition forces in attacking Islamic State targets in northern Iraq, hours after a Turkish soldier was killed at a military base in the region from rockets fired by the extremist militants.
(AP, 3/26/16)
2017 Mar 26, Joe Harris (89), American commercial illustrator, died at his home in Stamford, Conn. He created a cartoon rabbit to help sell the Trix cereal in 1959. He later designed cartoon characters for the Rocky & Bullwinkle show.
(SFC, 4/6/17, p.D3)
2017 Mar 26, In Ohio one person was killed and 16 others wounded early today in a shooting at the packed Cameo nightclub in Cincinnati. One hospitalized man faced murder charges. On March 30 police arrested Cornell Beckley (27) on murder charges.
(AFP, 3/26/17)(SFC, 4/1/17, p.A7)
2017 Mar 26, In eastern Bangladesh two suspected militants were killed in an ongoing military raid on a building in Sylhet where armed militants were holed up.
(AP, 3/26/17)
2017 Mar 26, Belarus police arrested about 30 demonstrators in Minsk who were demanding to know the whereabouts of friends and relatives detained in the breakup of a mass protest.
(AP, 3/26/17)
2017 Mar 26, Bulgarians voted for the third time in four years in an early election. The strongly pro-EU GERB was seen taking 96 of parliament's 240 seats, leaving it short of a majority and certain to seek a deal with the third-placed United Patriots, an alliance of three nationalist parties expected to take 27 seats. GERN leader Boyko Borisov faced an uphill battle to build a stable coalition government.
(AP, 3/26/17)(Reuters, 3/27/17)
2017 Mar 26, China's Premier Li Keqiang arrived in New Zealand for high-level talks at a time that both countries are pushing to expand free trade.
(AP, 3/26/17)
2017 Mar 26, An Egyptian court sentenced 56 people to prison terms of up to 14 years over the capsizing of a boat that killed over 200 people last September 21.
(Reuters, 3/26/17)
2017 Mar 26, In France Shaoyo Liu (56), a Chinese man, was shot and killed in his home by a plainclothes police officer. The killing prompted angry demonstrations the next day from the Asian community in Paris' multicultural northeast where the killing occurred. Liu’s daughter said her father was cooking dinner when she heard a loud knocking and that police broke down their door and shot him as he held scissors.
(AP, 3/28/17)(AP, 3/29/17)
2017 Mar 26, Carrie Lam, a Beijing-backed civil servant, was chosen to be Hong Kong's next leader, replacing Leung Chun-ying. She was chosen from among several candidates by a 1,200-person "election committee" stacked with pro-Beijing and pro-establishment loyalists.
(Reuters, 3/26/17)(Econ, 3/4/17, p.32)
2017 Mar 26, Indonesian farmer Akbar (25) failed to return home from a trip to the family's plantation on Sulawesi Island. His body was found the next day inside the belly of a giant python.
(AFP, 3/29/17)
2017 Mar 26, Iran sanctioned what it described as 15 American companies, alleging they support terrorism, repression and Israel's occupation of land Palestinians want for a future state, likely in retaliation for sanctions earlier announced by the US. The list included ITT Corp., missile-maker Raytheon Co., United Technologies Corp. Denver's Re/Max Holdings Inc., a real estate company and truck maker Oshkosh.
(AP, 3/26/17)
2017 Mar 26, Iran's central bank said it will appeal Luxembourg's decision to freeze $1.6 billion of its assets, which the US is claiming as compensation for victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks.
(AFP, 3/26/17)
2017 Mar 26, Iraq's military said that 61 bodies were recovered from a collapsed building that Islamic State had booby-trapped in west Mosul, but there was no sign the building had been hit by a coalition air strike. Witnesses and local officials that said as many as 200 bodies were pulled from the building after a March 17 coalition strike targeted IS militants and equipment in the Jadida district.
(Reuters, 3/26/17)
2017 Mar 26, Kenyan troops in Somalia killed 31 Islamist al Shabaab militants in a raid on two of their bases in the southern Somali region of Jubbaland.
(Reuters, 3/27/17)
2017 Mar 26, Hamas shut the crossing between the Gaza Strip and Israel after blaming the Jewish state for the assassination of one of its officials in the Palestinian enclave.
(AFP, 3/26/17)
2017 Mar 26, Russian police detained dozens of protesters across the country, including opposition leader Alexei Navalny, after thousands took to the streets to demonstrate against corruption and demand the resignation of PM Dmitry Medvedev. Riot police arrested more than 1,000 people in Moscow alone.
(Reuters, 3/26/17)(Econ, 4/1/17, p.43)
2017 Mar 26, In Syria the Islamic State group ordered residents to evacuate the city of Raqqa following reports that a dam contested by US-backed forces upstream on the Euphrates River could collapse.
(AP, 3/26/17)
2017 Mar 26, In Syria a Kurdish and Arab Syrian militia backed by the United States said it has captured the town of Karama and the capture of the Tabqa air base, 28 miles west of Raqqa. They planned an assault on the Islamic State stronghold of Raqqa in early April.
(Reuters, 3/26/17)(SFC, 3/27/17, p.A3)
2017 Mar 26, Tens of thousands of Yemenis protested in the capital Sanaa against the Saudi-led military intervention as it marked its second anniversary.
(AP, 3/26/17)
2018 Mar 26, The US said it is expelling 60 Russians, including 12 intelligence officers from Russia's mission to UN headquarters in New York and closing the Russian consulate in Seattle. Moscow said it will expel at least 60 staff from US diplomatic missions in Russia.
(Reuters, 3/26/18)
2018 Mar 26, The Federal Trade Commission confirmed that it is investigating Facebook's privacy practices following a week of privacy scandals including whether the company engaged in "unfair acts" that cause "substantial injury" to consumers.
(AP, 3/26/18)
2018 Mar 26, In northern California an SUV drove off an embankment on Highway 1 in Mendocino killing five members of a Washington state family. Three children remained missing in the tragedy.
(SFC, 3/29/18, p.D6)
2018 Mar 26, Pennsylvania environmental regulators issued another notice of violation to Energy Transfer Partners LP's Sunoco Mariner East 2 natural gas liquids pipeline for releasing drilling fluids into a wetland.
(Reuters, 3/27/18)
2018 Mar 26, In Angola the prosecutor general's office said the son of ex-president, Jose Filomeno dos Santos, has been charged with fraud relating to a $500 million transaction out of an account belonging to the central bank. Prosecutors also charged the head of the Angolan armed forces, Geraldo Sachipengo Nunda, with involvement in a scheme to negotiate a fraudulent international credit line of $50 billion.
(Reuters, 3/26/18)
2018 Mar 26, British PM Theresa May said 18 countries have announced they are expelling more than 100 Russian intelligence officers in response to the nerve-agent poisoning of a former spy.
(AP, 3/26/18)
2018 Mar 26, In Burundi Aloys Baricako, president of the opposition ground RANAC (National Gathering for Change) was apprehended this evening in the central town of Gitega where he had traveled to attend a funeral.
(AP, 3/27/18)
2018 Mar 26, Canada said it is expelling four Russians alleged to have worked as spies or interfered in Canadian affairs under diplomatic cover and denied three applications for Russian diplomatic staff.
(Reuters, 3/26/18)
2018 Mar 26, In Canada Alexandre Bissonnette (26) pleaded guilty in the slaying of six men at a Quebec city mosque on January 29, 2017.
(SFC, 3/29/18, p.A4)
2018 Mar 26, AsiaNews reported that Chinese Bishop Vincent Guo Xijin and his chancellor were taken away, at the start of Holy Week. AsiaNews noted that Guo had disappeared for several weeks last year around Easter as well.
(AP, 3/27/18)
2018 Mar 26, Democratic Republic of Congo said it would refuse international financing for a long-delayed presidential election and fund the poll itself, saying donors' conditions amounted to "foreign interference".
(Reuters, 3/26/18)
2018 Mar 26, In Ecuador three journalists working for El Comercio were kidnapped and transported to Colombia by a holdout faction of the FARC. On April 13 Pres. Lenin Moreno confirmed that the three journalists had been killed. On June 21 their bodies were found in a restless border region of Colombia.
(SFC, 3/28/18, p.A2)(SFC, 4/14/18, p.A2)(AP, 6/23/18)
2018 Mar 26, Egyptians began voting in an election that President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi is virtually guaranteed to win.
(AP, 3/26/18)
2018 Mar 26, Several EU countries and Ukraine said they are expelling Russian diplomats in response to the poisoning of a former Russian double agent with military-grade nerve agent in the English town of Salisbury.
(Reuters, 3/26/18)
2018 Mar 26, Clashes in India between supporters of PM Narendra Modi's party and those of an opposition party snowballed into Hindu-Muslim rioting, with three people killed and dozens injured over two days of violence.
(Reuters, 3/27/18)
2018 Mar 26, In India reporter Sandeep Sharma was killed in Madhya Pradesh state's Bhind district. He had been investigating illegal sand mining in the region for a television station.
(AP, 3/27/18)
2018 Mar 26, An Indonesian court sentenced Putu Astawa, a Balinese man, to 15 years in prison for robbing and murdering an elderly Japanese couple last year on Bali.
(AP, 3/26/18)
2018 Mar 26, The Iranian rial fell to a record low, breaking through the 50,000-to-the-dollar mark for the first time, as analysts blamed uncertainty from Washington.
(AFP, 3/26/18)
2018 Mar 26, In Kenya opposition figure Miguna Miguna was detained when he returned on a flight from Canada, a month after being deported in a dispute over his dual citizenship. Plainclothes officers tried to hustle him onto an outbound plane, but that failed when he protested. A High Court order the next day called for the his immediate release and a court appearance.
(Reuters, 3/27/18)(AP, 3/28/18)
2018 Mar 26, Kosovo sent special police units to its volatile northern region to enforce a decision to stop two senior Serbian officials coming in, as relations between the two countries worsen. Senior Serb official Marko Djuric was briefly detained as officers fired tear gas and stun grenades at Serb protesters.
(Reuters, 3/26/18)(SFC, 3/27/18, p.A2)
2018 Mar 26, A special train from North Korea to Beijing and unusually heavy security at a guesthouse where prominent North Koreans have stayed seemed to point to the possibility that Kim Jong Un was making his first visit to China as the North's leader.
(AP, 3/27/18)
2018 Mar 26, Pakistani police arrested 12 people, including members of a village council, elders and relatives, for ordering a man to rape a girl in revenge for the rape of his sister.
(AP, 3/26/18)
2018 Mar 26, It was reported that Sergei Mavrodi (62), an operator of Ponzi schemes and sometime politician, has died in a Moscow hospital. He was a TV personality and was elected a member of parliament in 1994, which gave him immunity from prosecution. He later served a four-year prison term for fraud, but was only ordered to pay back a fraction of the sums invested in his schemes.
(AP, 3/26/18)
2018 Mar 26, Sierra Leone's High Court canceled an injunction to delay the second round of presidential elections, saying the vote could go ahead as planned.
(Reuters, 3/26/18)
2018 Mar 26, A Slovak prosecutor said the murder of investigative journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancee last month, which sparked mass protests and forced PM Robert Fico to resign, was likely to have been a contract killing.
(Reuters, 3/26/18)
2018 Mar 26, South Korea said it has agreed to further open its auto market to the United States as the two countries prepare to amend their six-year-old trade agreement following complaints by President Donald Trump.
(AP, 3/26/18)
2018 Mar 26, Spanish authorities said police have captured a cybercrime gang made up of Ukrainians and Russians that allegedly stole more than $1.24 billion from financial institutions worldwide in a 5-year spree. Almost all of Russia's banks were said to have been targeted and about 50 of them had lost money.
(SFC, 3/27/18, p.A2)
2018 Mar 26, In Syria more than 2,500 rebels and civilians prepared to leave Eastern Ghouta after the largest exodus yet from the opposition enclave, as talks stalled over the final pocket of resistance.
(AFP, 3/26/18)
2018 Mar 26, Syria and its ally Russia threatened to resume bombing the final opposition holdout of Douma in Eastern Ghouta unless rebels there agree to evacuate.
(AFP, 3/27/18)
2018 Mar 26, In Ukraine a Washington-backed body set up to vet judges as part of the battle against corruption quit its role, saying the process to screen a judge fit for office was a sham.
(Reuters, 3/26/18)
2018 Mar 26, The United Arab Emirates said that one of four nuclear reactors at its debut plant has been completed as it moves closer to becoming the first Arab nation to produce atomic power. Visiting South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed toured the $20-billion Barakah plant constructed by a consortium led by the Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO).
(AFP, 3/26/18)
2018 Mar 26, The Houthi movement that controls northern Yemen vowed to fire more missiles into Saudi Arabia unless it stops bombing the country, after missiles crashed into Riyadh overnight causing casualties in the Saudi capital for the first time. Debris fell on a home in the capital, killing an Egyptian resident and wounding two other Egyptians. Riyadh said it had intercepted seven missiles fired from rebel territory.
(Reuters, 3/26/18)(AFP, 3/26/18)
2019 Mar 26, US Sec. of State Mike Pompeo expanded the Trump administration's ban on US aid to groups that promote or provide abortions to include organizations that that comply with the rules but give money to others that don't.
(SFC, 3/27/19, p.A4)
2019 Mar 26, The US Treasury took fresh aim at the international network funneling dollars and euros to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), naming 25 individuals and entities for financial sanctions.
(AFP, 3/26/19)
2019 Mar 26, The US Supreme Court threw out a nearly $315 million judgment against Sudan stemming from the USS Cole bombing in 2000, saying Sudan hadn't properly been notified of the lawsuit.
(AP, 3/26/19)
2019 Mar 26, In the US a nationwide ban on bump stocks took effect. The attachment allowed semiautomatic weapons to fire rapidly like machine guns.
(SFC, 3/30/19, p.A6)
2019 Mar 26, Prosecutors in Illinois' Cook County, who handle crimes in Chicago, dropped charges against actor Jussie Smollett who was accused of staging a hoax hate crime attack against himself. Details of the case were sealed.
(AFP, 3/28/19)
2019 Mar 26, An attorney said the Pennsylvania Roman Catholic Diocese of Erie has agreed to pay $2 million to a man who was sexually abused as a child by a priest who made him say confession after the assaults. Defrocked priest David Poulson was sentenced this year to 2½ to 14 years in prison after pleading guilty to the sexual assault of one boy and attempted sexual assault of another.
(AP, 3/26/19)
2019 Mar 26, Facebook said it has shut down more than 2,600 fake accounts linked to Iran, Russia, Macedonia and Kosovo and aiming to influence political sentiment in various parts of the world.
(AFP, 3/26/19)
2019 Mar 26, SF-based ride-hailing service Uber announced that it has acquired Dubai-based competitor Careem for $3.1 billion.
(SFC, 3/27/19, p.D1)
2019 Mar 26, Algeria's powerful army chief Ahmed Gaid Salah said he wants to trigger the constitutional process that would declare President Abdelaziz Bouteflika unfit for office, after more than a month of mass protests against the ailing leader's long rule.
(AP, 3/26/19)
2019 Mar 26, The Canola Council of Canada confirmed that China formally posted a web notice suspending the license of Viterra for canola seed. Exporters reported last week that Chinese importers are unwilling to purchase the seeds at this time. This was seen as retaliation for Canada's arrest of a top executive of Chinese tech giant Huawei.
(AP, 3/26/19)
2019 Mar 26, China's former internet censor Lu Wei, who once held high-profile meetings with industry leaders such as Apple CEO Tim Cook and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, was sentenced to 14 years in prison on corruption charges.
(AP, 3/26/19)
2019 Mar 26, A court in the Czech Republic convicted Radim Zondra of knifing two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova in her home in December, 2016, and sentenced him to eight years in prison.
(AP, 3/26/19)
2019 Mar 26, The European Commission ignored US calls to ban Chinese tech supplier Huawei as it announced a series of new cybersecurity recommendations for next-generation mobile networks.
(AP, 3/26/19)
2019 Mar 26, The European Parliament adopted copyright reforms championed by news publishers and the media business, in defiance of the tech giants that lobbied against it.
(AFP, 3/26/19)
2019 Mar 26, A German court upheld the murder convictions of two men whose midnight drag race in downtown Berlin in 2016 ended with a crash that killed another driver.
(AP, 3/26/19)
2019 Mar 26, Germany's meteorological agency DWD says 2018 was the warmest in the country since records began in 1881.
(AP, 3/26/19)
2019 Mar 26, A court in Georgia ruled that Jack Shepherd (31), a fugitive British man wanted for the manslaughter of a woman killed during a London date on a speedboat in 2015, is to be extradited. The web designer had showed up at a police station in Tbilisi, Georgia, in January and turned himself in.
(AP, 3/26/19)
2019 Mar 26, Israel kept up air strikes on Gaza and Palestinian militants launched new rockets despite the ceasefire claim. The UN envoy for the Middle East warned of catastrophic consequences from escalating violence in Gaza as Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas continued to exchange fire despite a ceasefire deal.
(AFP, 3/26/19)
2019 Mar 26, The academy of Italy's premier opera house, Teatro alla Scala, agreed to start a conservatory for both girls and boys in Saudi Arabia.
(AP, 3/27/19)
2019 Mar 26, In Mexico the head prosecutor of Veracruz state said search teams exhumed 12 sets of remains and have located three more bodies but not yet extracted them.
(AP, 3/27/19)
2019 Mar 26, In Morocco Larbi Rich (54), the driver of a passenger train that derailed and killed seven people last year, was convicted of manslaughter but ordered released on time already served.
(AFP, 3/27/19)
2019 Mar 26, Myanmar's Supreme Court agreed to rule on an appeal filed by lawyers for Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo sentenced to seven years in prison for their reporting on Myanmar's brutal crackdown on Rohingya Muslims.
(AP, 3/26/19)
2019 Mar 26, A Pakistani court placed two teenage sisters from the minority Hindu community in a government shelter as authorities launched an investigation into whether the girls were abducted and forced to convert and marry two Muslim men.
(AP, 3/26/19)
2019 Mar 26, In South Africa several southern African leaders threw their support behind Western Sahara, with one calling the disputed territory the "last colony" on the African continent.
(AFP, 3/26/19)
2019 Mar 26, Spanish weather authorities said 32 million people in the southern European country, or around two-thirds of Spain's population, are having to deal with higher temperatures, longer summers and more frequent tropical nights as a result of climate change.
(AP, 3/26/19)
2019 Mar 26, In northern Syria the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for an attack early today on a checkpoint of US-backed forces in Manbij that killed seven fighters.
(AP, 3/26/19)
2019 Mar 26, Demonstrations spread across Syria denouncing Washington's recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, in a show of unity in the war-torn country.
(AFP, 3/26/19)
2019 Mar 26, Turkish and Russian forces carried out the first "independent and coordinated" patrols in the mainly Kurdish-controlled northern Syrian region of Tel Rifaat.
(Reuters, 3/26/19)
2019 Mar 26, In Tunisia UN official Moncef Kartas, charged with investigating alleged violations of a UN arms embargo on Libya, was detained in Tunis on suspicion of spying. On March 29 Tunisian authorities confirmed that they had detained two Tunisians, including Kartas, on suspicion of "spying for foreign parties".
(AFP, 3/29/19)(AFP, 4/13/19)
2019 Mar 26, The all-female staff of the Vatican newspaper's monthly magazine on women's issues resigned abruptly en masse, saying the new editor was trying limit their autonomy and put them "under direct male control".
(Reuters, 3/26/19)
2019 Mar 26, Venezuela canceled work and school as the second major blackout this month left streets mostly empty in Caracas and residents of the capital wondering how long power would be out amid a deepening economic and political crisis.
(Reuters, 3/26/19)
2019 Mar 26, Yemenis held a mass rally in Sanaa to show support for the Houthi movement on the fourth anniversary of a war that has killed thousands of people and pushed the country to the brink of starvation. An airstrike killed seven people near the Kitaf rural hospital.
(Reuters, 3/26/19)(SFC, 3/28/19, p.A4)
2020 Mar 26, President Trump said he planned to label different areas as “high risk, medium risk or low risk," as part of guidelines to help states determine quarantine and distancing measures. He also reiterated his desire to start opening up parts of the country soon.
(NY Times, 3/27/20)
2020 Mar 26, The US State Department announced rewards for information leading to the arrest or conviction of various Venezuelan nationals, including President Nicolas Maduro who Washington aims to push out of power.
(Reuters, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, The US military said it has decided it will stop providing some of the more granular data about coronavirus infections within its ranks, citing concern that the information might be used by adversaries as the virus spreads.
(Reuters, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, The US Labor Dept. reported that a record 3.8 million American filed for first-time unemployment last week.
(SFC, 3/27/20, p.A1)
2020 Mar 26, The newly established US Space Force launched its first national security satellite from Cape Canaveral. The nearly $1 billion satellite is the sixth and final one in the US military's Advanced Extrememly High Frequency series.
(SFC, 3/27/20, p.A3)
2020 Mar 26, The US Environmental Protection Agency relaxed pollution rules, allowing power plants, factories and other facilities to monitor themselves for an undetermined period.
(NY Times, 3/27/20)
2020 Mar 26, In the United States deaths due to the coronavirus passed 1,050. The number of US coronavirus infections climbed above 82,000, surpassing the national tallies of China and Italy. The global death toll from the virus climbed past 21,000 and the number of infections has surpassed 472,000.
(AP, 3/26/20)(The Telegraph, 3/27/20)
2020 Mar 26, In the SF Bay Area confirrmed cases of coronavirus topped 1,400 with at least 32 deaths.
(SFC, 3/27/20, p.A1)
2020 Mar 26, Lee Guittar (b.1931), former editor-publisher of the San Francisco Examiner, died at his home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He was involved in the 1990 launch of We/Mbl, a short-lived partnership between Hearst and Izvestia to publish a daily newspaper in both English and Russian to be circulated in both countries.
(SFC, 3/30/20, p.B2)
2020 Mar 26, As of today anyone arriving in Hawaii was required to undergo a mandatory 14-day self-quarantine to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
(SFC, 3/30/20, p.A4)
2020 Mar 26, Louisiana reported the number of coronavirus cases in the state leapt 28% overnight. Louisiana has surpassed 2,300 people known to be infected, with 86 residents dead.
(AP, 3/27/20)
2020 Mar 26, NY state Gov. Andrew Cuomo said his state has become the nation's epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic. Cuomo says Congress' $2 trillion stimulus bill has "failed to meet the governmental need." New York has seen 385 deaths from COVID-19 and that number is expected to continue to rise.
(AP, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, Scientists announced the discovery of Dineobellator notohesperus, a two-legged meat-eater that was relatively small - around 7 feet (2 meters) long and 3 feet (1 meter) tall at the hip, weighing 40-50 pounds (18-22 kg). Fossils of the feathered dinosaur were found in northwestern New Mexico. The name means "Navajo warrior" to honor the Native American people native to the area.
(Reuters, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, The International Monetary Fund asked G20 leaders to back a doubling of its emergency financing capacity to strengthen its response to the rapidly spreading coronavirus pandemic that is set to cause a global recession in 2020. G20 leaders in a video conference said they were committed to presenting a united front against the coronavirus pandemic, calling it their "absolute priority" to tackle its health, social and economic impacts.
(Reuters, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) said it has increased resources available to countries in Latin America and the Caribbean to fight the coronavirus pandemic to $12 billion, up from the $2 billion it had promised a few weeks ago.
(Reuters, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, A lockdown of Austrian ski resorts that have become hotspots for the spread of the coronavirus in Europe was extended until April 13, Easter Monday. Austria has reported nearly 6,400 cases in its nine provinces, a quarter of them in Tyrol.
(Reuters, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, Bangladesh deployed soldiers to enforce the start of a nationwide 10-day shutdown to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
(SFC, 3/27/20, p.A4)
2020 Mar 26, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro (65) told reporters in the capital, Brasilia, that he feels Brazilians’ natural immunity will protect the nation from the coronavirus pandemic. The nation’s tally of confirmed COVID-19 cases surpassed 3,400 and deaths top 90. 25 of Brazil’s 27 governors signed a joint letter this week begging Bolsonaro to back strict anti-virus measures.
(AP, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 26, The number of people in the UK who have died from coronavirus increased by 31% to 759.
(AP, 3/27/20)
2020 Mar 26, It was reported that Mologic, a British company behind a 10-minute coronavirus antibody test, has begun sending prototypes to laboratories for validation, which could be a game-changer in the fight against the pandemic. The test would cost about a $1.
(Reuters, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, The Southern Cameroons Defence Forces (Socadef) said its ceasefire would come into effect from March 29 as "a gesture of goodwill." Cameroon's health ministry has so far has confirmed 75 cases of the coronavirus - and recorded its first death earlier this week.
(BBC, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, China said it will temporarily suspend the entry of foreigners with valid Chinese visas and residence permits starting on March 28, as an interim measure in response to the coronavirus epidemic. Exemptions will be made to those travelling in a diplomatic or official capacity, as well as holders of "C" visas, which are issued to foreigners involved in provision of international transportation services.
(Reuters, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, Cliver Alcalá, a retired Venezuelan army general indicted alongside Nicolás Maduro, surrendered in Colombia and was flown with US Drug Enforcement Administration agents to New York for arraignment.
(AP, 3/27/20)
2020 Mar 26, Denmark has recorded 1,851 people infected with coronavirus and 34 deaths. The country has restricted public assembly to 10 or fewer people and ordered the closure of schools, universities, day care centers, restaurants, cafes, libraries, gyms and hair salons.
(Reuters, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, Egypt's health ministry said there have been 495 cases of the new coronavirus in the country, including 24 fatalities. Egypt has expelled Ruth Michaelson, a correspondent for The Guardian, over a report citing a study that challenged the official count of coronavirus cases.
(AP, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, European Union diplomats said the EU will launch a new Mediterranean naval and air mission in April to stop more arms reach warring factions in Libya, with Greece agreeing to take in any migrants rescued at sea. The new mission, named Irini, will replace the EU's current military mission, known as Operation Sophia.
(Reuters, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, French health authorities reported 299 new deaths from coronavirus, taking the total to 1,995. A TGV bullet train transferred 20 patients on life-support systems to from Strasbourg to eastern France.
(Reuters, 3/28/20)(Economist, 4/4/20, p.39)
2020 Mar 26, A German court convicted Tunisian man Sief Allah H. (31) of planning to carry out a ricin attack in the name of the Islamic State.
(SFC, 3/27/20, p.A2)
2020 Mar 26, Germany has reported coronavirus infections in more than 39,000 people, but just 222 deaths. The country now has the ability to test 500,000 people a week, perhaps the greatest capacity in the world.
(AP, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, In Hong Kong opposition politician Cheng Lai-King (61) was arrested a day after she forwarded a Facebook post that identified a policeman who was believed to have fired the rubber bullet that last year blinded Indonesian journalist Veby Mega in one eye. Lai-King was released after being charged with sedition.
(SFC, 3/27/20, p.A2)
2020 Mar 26, In India the Jimme Foundation, an LGBT+ rights group, launched a fundraising appeal for Mumbai sex workers whose income has been hit by coronavirus, saying it wanted to help other Indians who faced prejudice.
(Reuters, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, Iran implicitly denied that Bob Levinson, a missing former FBI agent, had died in its custody as his family claims, restating its longstanding position that he left the Islamic republic "years ago." Levinson has been missing since 2007 and would have turned 72 this month.
(AFP, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, Iran's death toll due to the coronavirus jumped by 157 to 2,234, prompting new steps to limit public gatherings and domestic travel. President Hassan Rouhani said there would be more travel and gathering restrictions for the next two weeks to “break the chain" of the virus.
(AP, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, Iraq extended government-imposed restrictions on movement for two more weeks to stem the spread of the new coronavirus. The Health Ministry reported a jump of coronavirus-related deaths by seven in 24 hours. Authorities have confirmed that at least 29 Iraqis have died from COVID-19 and nearly 350 others have contracted the disease.
(AP, 3/26/20)(AFP, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, In northern Iraq the US-led coalition started pulling out from the Qayara airfield, in line with a planned drawdown of troops, hours after two rockets hit inside Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone.
(AP, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, In Israel Benny Gantz was chosen as the new speqker of parliament. Local media reported that Gantz and PM Benjamin Netanyahu had agreed on a broad coalition in which Netanyahu would remain as prime minister with Gantz as foreign minister. The two would swap posts in September 2021.
(SFC, 3/27/20, p.A2)
2020 Mar 26, Italy's death toll due to coronavirus was about 7,500. The number of cases in the in the northern region of Lombardy, increased by some 2,500. Italy has reported 8,215 deaths from the illness, more than anywhere else in the world, while confirmed cases total 80,539.
(AP, 3/26/20)(Reuters, 3/26/20)(Bloomberg, 3/27/20)(Reuters, 3/27/20)
2020 Mar 26, Lebanon extended government-imposed restrictions on movement for two more weeks to stem the spread of the new coronavirus. Lebanon has recorded six deaths of the virus while 35 new infected cases were recorded, raising the total to 386 cases.
(AP, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, In Morocco hundreds of mostly British tourists who were traveling in motorhomes have found themselves stranded in a parking lot near a Tangier highway that authorities have turned into a makeshift quarantine center. Morocco has identified 225 cases of COVID-19.
(AP, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, In New Zealand Brenton Harrison Tarrant (29), man who committed the worst atrocity in New Zealand's modern history when he slaughtered 51 worshippers at two Christchurch mosques on March 15, 2019, unexpectedly pleaded guilty to all charges.
(AP, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, Norway extradited Muslim cleric Mullah Krekar to Italy, where he was sentenced last July to 12 years in prison for planning terror. He had been found guilty of attempting to overthrow the Kurdish government in northern Iraq and create an Islamic caliphate.
(SFC, 3/27/20, p.A2)
2020 Mar 26, In Pakistan gunmen opened fire on security forces patrolling a remote border region near Iran, killing two soldiers. The troops were patrolling the region where smugglers have a strong presence.
(AP, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, Pakistan's cases of coronavirus rose to 1,098, up from 250 a week earlier. Eight deaths have been reported.
(SFC, 3/27/20, p.A4)
2020 Mar 26, The Russian government ordered the grounding of all international flights as part of new measures against the coronavirus pandemic, with the exception of flights evacuating Russian citizens from abroad. Kremlin spokesman Dmitri S. Peskov told reporters: “There is de facto no epidemic" in Russia.
(Good Morning America, 3/26/20)(NY Times, 4/14/20)
2020 Mar 26, It was reported that Rwanda police have shot and killed two young men for defying lockdown orders to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus.
(https://allafrica.com/stories/202003260464.html)
2020 Mar 26, Saudi authorities announced a total lockdown on the capital, Riyadh, and Islam's two holiest cities, Mecca and Medina, in addition to a nationwide curfew.
(AP, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, South African President Ramaphosa called on richer countries to support the continent's economies via stimulus packages to mitigate the devastation caused by the coronavirus, as his own country registered a jump to more than 900 cases.
(Reuters, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, Spain's Health Ministry reported nearly 8,600 new infections and 655 deaths, bringing the total cases to over 56,000 and more than 4,000 fatalities.
(AP, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, Sweden has reported around 2,806 confirmed coronavirus cases and 66 deaths while Denmark recorded 1,851 infected and 34 deaths. The country has remained largely open for business. Sweden's health agency has conceded more measures are likely as the virus continues to spread.
(Reuters, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, Swiss-based Nestle, the world's biggest food company, said it would pay full salaries for at least three months to employees affected by work stoppages to prevent the spread of coronavirus.
(AP, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, Nestle-owned N espresso, the maker of coffee brewing pods and machines, said it has found child labor at three farms where it buys coffee in Guatemala. The company said it has implemented a prevention plan to ward off potential further abuse.
(Reuters, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, Thailand has reported a total of 1,045 cases of coronavirus and four deaths since the outbreak started in January. Honda's Thai business said it would suspend operations at two factories after Thailand declared a state of emergency to curb the spread of coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, Authorities in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) announced an overnight weekend lockdown and used drones to tell residents to stay home.
(AP, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, All sides in Yemen's long conflict offered support for the United Nations' call for a ceasefire to protect civilians from the coronavirus pandemic.
(AFP, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro stood defiant in the face of a $15 million bounty by the US to face drug trafficking charges, calling Donald Trump a “racist cowboy" and warning that he is ready to fight by whatever means necessary should the US and neighboring Colombia dare to invade.
(AP, 3/26/20)
2233 Mar 26, James T. Kirk, science fiction captain of USS Enterprise (Star Trek), was born.
(SS, 3/26/02)
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For Asian History: https://www.asiaobserver.org/category/news/on-this-day-in-asian-history
752 Mar 26, Pope Stephen II died 4 days after his election.
(SS, 3/26/02)(PTA, 1980, p.184)
922 Mar 26, Al-Hallaj al-Mughith-al-Hsayn Mansur (64), Persian mystic, was beheaded. Mansur al-Hallaj (b.858), a Sufi mystic, was crucified in Baghdad for pronouncing in the midst of a trance that he was the truth, i.e god.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Hallaj)(SFC, 4/21/04, p.A10)
1027 Mar 26, John XIX crowned Conrad II the Salier Roman German emperor.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1150 Mar 26, Tichborne family of Hampshire, England, started tradition of giving a gallon of flour to each resident to keep deathbed promise.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1258 Mar 26, Floris the Guardian, count-regent of Holland, died.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1479 Mar 26, Vasili III, great prince of Moscow (1505-33), son of Ivan III, was born.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1516 Mar 26, Konrad von Gesner, naturalist (Bibliotheca Universalis), was born in Zurich, Switzerland.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1517 Mar 26, The famous Flemish composer Heinrich Issac, died. His music fused Flemish, Italian and Germanic styles.
(HN, 3/26/99)
1526 Mar 26, King François I returned Spanish captivity to France.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1534 Mar 26, Lübeck accepted free Dutch ships into East Sea.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1636 Mar 26, University of Utrecht held its opening ceremony.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1649 Mar 26, John Winthrop, Puritan and 1st Gov. of Massachusetts, died. [see Apr 5]
(SS, 3/26/02)
1659 Mar 26, William Wollaston, English philosopher, was born.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1668 Mar 26, England took control of Bombay, India.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1692 Mar 26, King Maximilian was installed as land guardian of South Netherlands.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1753 Mar 26, Benjamin Thompson (d.1814), Count Rumford, English physicist and diplomat, was born. He was a Tory spy in the American Revolution and discovered that heat equaled motion, which led to the 2nd law of thermodynamics.
(WUD, 1994, p.1477)(WSJ, 7/28/98, p.A16)(SS, 3/26/02)
1773 Mar 26, Nathaniel Bowditch (d.1838), mathematician, astronomer, polyglot, author (Marine Sextant), was born in Salem, Mass. In 1802 he published “The New American Practical Navigator."
(SS, 3/26/02)(AH, 12/02, p.22)
1780 Mar 26, The 1st British Sunday newspaper appeared as the British Gazette and Sunday Monitor.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1790 Mar 26, US Congress passed a Naturalization Act. It required a 2-year residency.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1793 Mar 26, Pro-royalist uprising took place in Vendée region of France.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1797 Mar 26, James Hutton, geologist, died.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1798 Mar 26, Tunis, under the rule of Bey Hamuda Pasha, signed a treaty of peace and friendship with the US following negotiations with William Eaton. The American Revolutionary War veteran had been recently appointed consul to the North African kingdom.
(ON, 10/06, p.7)
1799 Mar 26, Napoleon Bonaparte captured Jaffa, Palestine.
(HN, 3/26/99)
1804 Mar 26, Congress ordered the removal of Indians east of the Mississippi to Louisiana.
(HN, 3/25/98)
1804 Mar 26, The Louisiana Purchase was divided into the Territory of Orleans and the District of Louisiana.
(AP, 3/26/97)(HN, 3/25/98)
1812 Mar 26, Earthquake destroyed 90% of Caracas; about 20,000 died.
(SS, 3/26/02)(PCh, 1992, p.376)
1819 Mar 26, Louise Otto, German feminist author, was born.
(HN, 3/25/98)
1821 Mar 26, Franz Grillparzer's "Das Goldene Vliess" premiered in Vienna.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1824 Mar 26, 1st performance of Beethoven's "Missa Solemnis."
(SS, 3/26/02)
1827 Mar 26, Ludwig von Beethoven (56), German composer, died in Vienna. He had been deaf for the later part of his life, but said on his death bead "I shall hear in heaven." It was later determined that he suffered from lead poisoning. In 1995 Tia DeNora authored "Beethoven and the Construction of Genius." In 2000 Russell Martin authored "Beethoven’s Hair: An Extraordinary Historical Odyssey and a Scientific Mystery Solved." In 2014 Jan Swafford authored “Beethoven: Anguish and Triumph."
(WSJ, 5/29/96, p.A5)(AP, 3/256/97)(HN, 3/26/99)(SFC, 10/18/00, p.A2)(WSJ, 1/17/02, p.A12)(Econ, 9/20/14, p.78)
1831 Mar 26, An interim government was set up in Raseiniai as a Lithuanian revolt against Russian rule began. There was a major uprising led by the Polish nobility in Warsaw against Russian rule. Russian forces began to march through Lithuania and this led many people of Lithuania to join in the rebellion against Russian rule. Serf uprisings also followed. The rebellion was eventually quelled by Russian force.
(H of L, 1931, p.85-86)(LHC, 3/26/03)
1832 Mar 26, Famed western artist George Catlin began his voyage up the Missouri River aboard the American Fur Company steamship Yellowstone.
(HN, 3/26/99)
1836 Mar 26, Mexican Colonel Jose Nicolas de la Portilla received orders from Gen. Santa Anna in triplicate to execute his Texan prisoners at Goliad.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goliad_Campaign)
1845 Mar 26, Joseph Francis, New York NY, patented a corrugated sheet-iron lifeboat.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1845 Mar 26, Patent was awarded for adhesive medicated plaster, precursor of band aid.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1850 Mar 26, Edward Bellamy (d.1898), writer, was born. His work included the utopian novel "Looking Backward, 2000-1887," which forecast what America might look like if people worked together for the common good.
(WSJ, 12/10/99, p.W17)(HN, 3/26/01)
1859 Mar 26, A.E. Houseman (d.1936), critic, classics scholar and poet (A Shropshire Lad), was born. A 1997 fictionalized portrait of Alfred Edward Housman, "The Invention of Love: Memory Play," was written by Tom Stoppard. He is best known for his work "A Shropshire Lad."
(SFEC, 3/29/98, p.T9)(SFC, 1/15/00, p.B1)(HN, 3/26/01)
1859 Mar 26, 1st sighting of Vulcan, a planet thought to orbit inside Mercury.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1862 Mar 26, Battle of La Glorieta Pass, New Mexico Territory (Apache Canyon, Pigeon's Ranch).
(SS, 3/26/02)
1863 Mar 26, Henry Royce, founder (Rolls-Royce Limited in 1884), was born. [see Mar 27]
(SS, 3/26/02)
1863 Mar 26, Voters in West Virginia approved the gradual emancipation of slaves.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1864 Mar 26, British metalworkers in Scunthorpe charged their first blast furnace. Iron ore mining in the area had begun in July 1860.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scunthorpe)
1868 Mar 26, Fuad I, king of Egypt (1922-36), was born.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1871 Mar 26, Serafín Alvarez Quintéro, Spanish dramatist, playwright (El Flechazo), was born.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1871 Mar 26, Paris Commune was founded. The Parisians revolted against their government and tried to secede by electing their own government. The Commune of Paris refused to obey Adolphe Thiers, the elected president of the country. Thiers asked the Germans to release thousands of French prisoners and organized a powerful force to overcome the Commune.
(V.D.-H.K.p.260)(SS, 3/26/02)
1872 Mar 26, Thomas J. Martin patented a fire extinguisher.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1872 Mar 26, A 7.8 earthquake shook the Owens Valley, California.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1874 Mar 26, Robert Frost, poet (d.1963), was born in San Francisco. In a biography of Frost by Jeffrey Myers: “Robert Frost: A Biography," the author claims that Frost moved his birthday up a year (to 1875) to make himself legitimate. A 3-volume biography by Lawrence Thompson was completed in 1976. Myers reveals that Frost’s lover, Kay Morrison, was also involved with Lawrence Thompson, but that that would not be disclosed in the Thompson biography. "Before I built a wall I'd ask to know What I was walling in or walling out."
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Frost)(AP, 3/26/97)(AP, 11/9/98)
1875 Mar 26, Syngman Rhee, President of South Korea (1948-60), was born. [see Apr 26]
(SS, 3/26/02)
1880 Mar 26, Duncan Hines, US restaurant guide writer (Out of Kentucky Kitchens), was born.
(HN, 3/25/98)(SS, 3/26/02)
1882 Mar 26, Oscar Wilde arrived in SF for a series of lectures. His first lecture on “The English Renaissance," was given the next night at Platt’s Hall at Bush and Montgomery.
(SFEC, 11/16/97, DB p.3)(SFC, 10/12/12, p.C3)
1885 Mar 26, The Eastman Film Co. of Rochester, N.Y., manufactured the first commercial motion picture film. George Eastman had perfected a method for bonding photographic emulsion onto thin strips of celluloid.
(AP, 3/25/98)(HN, 3/25/98)(ON, 11/03, p.5)
1885 Mar 26, Louis Riel's forces defeated Canadian forces at Duck Lake, Saskatchewan.
(SS, 3/26/02)(ON, 11/07, p.12)
1886 Mar 26, The 1st cremation in England took place.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1892 Mar 26, Poet Walt Whitman died in Camden, N.J. In 1997 Gary Schmidgall published the biography: “Walt Whitman: A Gay Life." It focused on the poet’s homosexuality. In 1999 a critical biography: Walt Whitman: The Song of Himself" by Jerome Loving was published along with "A Whitman Chronology" by Joann P. Krieg.
(AP, 3/26/97)(SFEC, 9/14/97, BR p.7)(SFC, 3/3/99, p.E4)(SFEC, 4/4/99, Par p.15)
1895 Mar 26, King Alfonso planted a pine sapling in Madrid and started Spain's Arbor Day.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1898 Mar 26, In South Africa the Sabi Game Reserve, the world's 1st official designated game reserve, opened.
(http://schools-wikipedia.org/wp/k/Kruger_National_Park.htm)
1902 Mar 26, Cecil John Rhodes (b.1853), British imperialist, died at age 48. He was buried in a tomb in the Matopos Hills, Rhodesia (Zimbabwe). He had co-founded De Beers Consolidated Mines Ltd., built great railways through southern Africa. Rhodes (founder of Rhodesia) left $10 million in his will to provide scholarships to Oxford University in England. The first scholars were selected in 1903. In 2008 Philip Ziegler authored “Legacy: Cecil Rhodes, the Rhodes Trust and Rhodes Scholarships."
(WSJ, 12/9/98, p.A1)(AP, 4/4/97)(SFC, 12/9/98, p.A25)(Econ, 5/10/08, p.95)
1903 Mar 26, American Hotel opened in Amsterdam.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1904 Mar 26, Joseph Campbell, folklorist and writer, was born.
(HN, 3/26/01)
1905 Mar 26, Viktor Emil Frankl, psychiatrist (Man's Search for Meaning), was born.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1909 Mar 26, August Strindberg's "Bjalb-jarle-ti" premiered in Stockholm.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1909 Mar 26, Russian troops invaded Persia to support Muhammad Ali as the Shah in place of the constitutional government.
(HN, 3/25/98)
1910 Mar 26, US forbade immigration to criminals, anarchists, paupers and the sick.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1910 Mar 26, William H. Lewis was appointed Assistant Attorney General of US.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1911 Mar 26, Tennessee Williams (d.1983), American dramatist, was born in Columbus, Miss. His plays included "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" and "A Streetcar Name Desire."
(HN, 3/26/01)(AP, 3/26/02)(http://tinyurl.com/s8zm5)
1913 Mar 26, Dayton, Ohio, was almost destroyed when Scioto, Miami, and Muskingum River reached flood stage simultaneously.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1913 Mar 26, The Balkan allies took Adrianople. Bulgaria captured Adrianople, ending the 1st Balkan War.
(HN, 3/25/98)(SS, 3/26/02)
1914 Mar 26, The birthday of Tennessee (Thomas Lanier) Williams (1914-1983), American dramatist. His play “The Glass Menagerie" was inspired by a pre-frontal lobotomy performed on his sister to cure a case of schizophrenia. The operation failed and his sister, Rose (1909-1996), was institutionalized. He left a $10 million estate to support her and directed that anything left go to support aspiring writers at the Univ. of the South of Sewanee. He also wrote "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" and "A Streetcar Name Desire." [see Mar 11 & 26, 1911]
(AHD, p.1466)(WUD, 1994, p.1634)
1914 Mar 26, William Westmoreland, U.S. army general and head of all ground forces in South Vietnam during the Vietnam War, was born in Saxon, SC.
(HN, 3/26/99)(SS, 3/26/02)
1917 Mar 27, The Seattle Metropolitans became the first US team to win the Stanley Cup as they defeated the Montreal Canadiens.
(AP, 3/27/97)
1918 Mar 26, On the Western Front during World War I the Germans took the French towns Noyon, Roye and Lihons.
(HN, 3/25/98)
1918 Mar 26, Col. Raynal Bolling (b.1877), architect of American air power in WWI and resident of Greenwich, Connecticut, was shot dead by a German patrol in France.
(WSJ, 4/12/08, p.A1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raynal_Bolling)
1923 Mar 26, Bob Elliot, radio comedian, one half of Bob and Ray, was born.
(HN, 3/26/01)
1923 Mar 26, Actress Sarah Bernhardt (b.1844), born in Paris as Rosine Bernardt, died in Paris. In 2010 Robert Gottlieb authored “Sarah: The Life of Sarah Bernhardt."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Bernhardt)(Econ, 9/18/10, p.105)
1924 Mar 26, Premiere of Bernard Shaw's "Saint Joan" in London.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1925 Mar 26, Pierre Boulez, composer, conductor (Visage Nuptial), was born in Montbrison, France.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1926 Mar 26, ACD de Graeff was appointed Governor-General of Dutch East-Indies.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1926 Mar 26, The 1st lip-reading tournament was held in America.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1926 Mar 26, U.S. oil companies bought 190,000 tons of kerosene from Russia for $3.2 million.
(HN, 3/25/98)
1927 Mar 26, Alfred Hugenberg purchased German film company UFA.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1927 Mar 26, Gaumont-British Film Corporation formed.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1930 Mar 26, Gregory Corso, beat poet (Happy Birthday of Death, Long Live Man), was born. He discovered literature in prison.
(HN, 3/26/01)(SS, 3/26/02)
1930 Mar 26, Sandra Day O'Connor, first woman US Supreme Court Justice (1981- ), was born in El Paso TX.
(HN, 3/26/01)(SS, 3/26/02)
1930 Mar 26, Congress appropriated $50,000 for Inter-American highway.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1931 Mar 26, Leonard Nimoy, actor (Spock-Star Trek, Mission Impossible), was born in Boston, MA.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1931 Mar 26, Iraq and Trans-Jordan (Transjordan) signed a peace treaty.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1931 Mar 26, New Delhi replaced Calcutta as capitol of British-India. [see Feb 10]
(SS, 3/26/02)
1933 Mar 26, Vine Deloria, Jr., writer, activist, was born.
(HN, 3/26/01)
1934 Mar 26, Alan Arkin, actor (Catch 22, In-Laws, Simon, Wait Until Dark), was born in NYC.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1934 Mar 26, Driving tests were introduced in Britain.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1934 Mar 26, Switzerland banned all slanderous criticism of state institutions in the press and threatened the suspension of publications if the ban was not heeded.
(HN, 3/25/98)
1936 Mar 26, A 200" telescope lens was shipped by the Corning Glass Works from New York to Cal Tech.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1936 Mar 26, Mary Joyce ended a 1,000 mile trip by dog in Alaska.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1936 Mar 26, New Zealand radio aired a parliamentary debate for the 1st time.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1937 Mar 26, A 6-foot-tall concrete statue of the cartoon character Popeye was unveiled during the Second Annual Spinach Festival in Crystal City, Texas.
(AP, 3/26/97)
1937 Mar 26, William H. Hastie became the first black federal judge in the Virgin Islands.
(HN, 3/25/98)(SS, 3/26/02)
1938 Mar 26, NBC radio performance of Howard Hanson's 3rd Symphony.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1938 Mar 26, Herman Goering warned all Jews to leave Austria.
(HN, 3/25/98)
1940 Mar 26, Nancy Pelosi, (Representative-Democrat-CA), was born.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1940 Mar 26, In California 9 homeless people, including two women, were killed after the elevated floor of a warehouse collapsed in Santa Rosa. Eight of the3 dead were Pomo Indians known in the area as fruit pickers and odd jib laborers.
(SSFC, 3/22/15, DB p.42)
1941 Mar 26, Clinton Richard Dawkins, British ethologist, evolutionary biologist and popular science author, was born. He came to prominence with his 1976 book “The Selfish Gene," which popularized the gene-centered view of evolution and introduced the term meme.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Dawkins)
1942 Mar 26, Erica Jong [Mann], poet, novelist (Fear of Flying, How to Save Your Own Life), was born in NYC.
(HN, 3/26/01)(SS, 3/26/02)
1942 Mar 26, 20 tons of gelignite killed 21 in a stone quarry in Easton, PA.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1942 Mar 26, A German offensive took place in North-Africa under Colonel-General Rommel.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1943 Mar 26, Elsie S. Ott, US army nurse, became the 1st woman to receive air medal.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1943 Mar 26, Battle of Komandorski Islands, Pacific Ocean.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1944 Mar 26, Diana Ross [Earle], (Supremes, Lady Sings the Blues, Mahogany), was born Detroit, MI.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1944 Mar 26, 705 British bombers attacked Essen.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1945 Mar 26, Generals Eisenhower, Bradley, and Patton attack at Remagen on the Rhine.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1945 Mar 26, US 7th Army crossed Rhine at Worms.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1945 Mar 26, Japanese resistance ended on Iwo Jima.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1945 Mar 26, Kamikazes attacked US battle fleet near Kerama Retto.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1945 Mar 26, Syria declared war on Germany.
(HN, 3/25/98)
1945 Mar 26, David Lloyd George (b.1863), former prime minister (1916-1922), died. In 1973 John Grigg (d.2001 at 77) authored “The Young Lloyd George." 2 more volumes of the biography were published in 1978 and 1985.
(WUD, 1994 p.839)(SFC, 1/3/02, p.A16)(SS, 3/26/02)
1947 Mar 26, FBI director J. Edgar Hoover warned HUAC that communists had launched “a furtive attack on Hollywood" 12 years earlier.
(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.F2)
1950 Mar 26, Senator Joe McCarthy named Owen Lattimore, an ex-State Department adviser, as a Soviet spy.
(HN, 3/25/98)
1951 Mar 26, The United States Air Force flag design was approved.
(HN, 3/25/98)
1952 Mar 26, F. Dürrenmatt's "Die Ehe des Herrn Mississippi" premiered in Munich.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1953 Mar 26, Eisenhower offered increased aid in Indochina (Vietnam) to France.
(HN, 3/25/98)
1953 Mar 26, Dr. Jonas Salk of the University of Pittsburgh announced that a vaccine against polio had been successfully tested in a small group of adults and children. By April 1955, the vaccine had undergone further testing and gained federal approval for public use, as shown in this photo of Salk administering the vaccine at Colfax School in Pittsburgh. Salk’s polio vaccine was so successful that by 1961 the incidence of polio had decreased by 95 percent.
(HNPD, 3/26/99)
1954 Mar 26, The U.S. set off the second H-bomb blast in four weeks in the Marshall Islands at Bikini Island. The 15-megaton device was 750 times more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. The blast contaminated the neighboring island of Rongelap and nearly 100 people on the island and other downwind atolls.
(HN, 3/25/98)(SFC, 12/7/99, p.A10)(SS, 3/26/02)
1955 Mar 26, "Ballad of Davy Crockett" by Fess Parker became the #1 record in US.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1956 Mar 26, Medic Alert Foundation formed.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1956 Mar 26, Red Buttons debuted on TV in Studio One.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1958 Mar 26, In the 30th Academy Awards "The Bridge on the River Kwai" won 7 Awards, including best picture of 1957; its director, David Lean, and star Alec Guinness also received Oscars. Joanne Woodward was named best actress for "The Three Faces of Eve."
(AP, 3/26/08)
1958 Mar 26, The U.S. Army launched America's third successful satellite, Explorer 3.
(AP, 3/26/97)
1959 Mar 26, Raymond Chandler (71), American writer, best known for his Philip Marlowe detective novels, died. He wrote seven Marlowe books that includes "Farewell My Lovely," "The Long Goodbye" (1953) and "The Big Sleep" (1939). In 1976 Prof. Frank MacShane wrote "The Life of Raymond Chandler." In 1995 he was honored with a 2-volume issues of his works by the Library of America. A CD-ROM was also made titled after a novel: Trouble is My Business. In 1997 Tom Hiney wrote "Raymond Chandler: A Biography." In 2001 Tom Hiney and Frank MacShane edited "The Raymond Chandler Papers." In 2007 Judith Freeman authored “The Long Embrace: Raymond Chandler and the Woman He Loved."
(WSJ, 10/18/95, A-16)(SFC, 7/9/97, p.D5)(SFC, 3/14/98, p.B7)(SFC, 11/18/99, p.C8)(WSJ, 4/23/01, p.A20)(SS, 3/26/02)(SSFC, 11/4/07, p.M1)
1960 Mar 26, Iraq executed 30 after attack on President Kassem.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1961 Mar 26, John F. Kennedy met with British Premier Macmillan, in Washington to discuss increased Communist involvement in Laos.
(HN, 3/25/98)
1962 Mar 26, The U.S. Supreme Court in Baker vs. Carr gave federal courts the power to order reapportionment of seats in a state legislature, a decision that eventually led to the doctrine of “one man, one vote." It arose from a Tennessee case in which Carr was the state attorney general.
(AP, 3/26/02)(SFC, 8/1/03, p.A27)
1964 Mar 26, The Broadway hit musical "Funny Girl" premiered with Barbara Streisand as singer Fanny Brice. Jule Styne and Bob Merrill produced the show, which ran at Winter Garden Theater in NYC for 1,348 performances
(SS, 3/26/02)(SSFC, 1/18/04, p.A1)
1964 Mar 26, Pres. Johnson signed a document that accepted "pre-delegation authority." It authorized senior military commanders to use nuclear weapons if the US was attacked by nuclear weapons and the president could not be reached. It continued a policy begun by Eisenhower in 1957.
(SFC, 3/21/98, p.A2)
1964 Mar 26, Singapore began using the Merlion symbol, designed by Alec Fraser-Brunner, a member of the Souvenir Committee and curator of the Van Kleef Aquarium, as the logo of the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) and continued to 1997. The STB changed their logo in 1997, but the STB Act continues to protect the Merlion symbol. The Merlion appears frequently on STB-approved souvenirs.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merlion)
1967 Mar 26, The 21st Tony Awards were held at the Schubert Theater in NYC. “The Homecoming" won for Best Play and “Cabaret" won for Best Musical.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/21st_Tony_Awards)
1967 Mar 26, Herbert von Karajan founded the Salzburg Easter Festival with the idea of staging his ideal Ring of the Nibelung with his own Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.
(WSJ, 4/12/96, p.A-12)
1967 Mar 26, Jim Thompson, American ex-serviceman, disappeared while on holiday in the Cameron Highlands of Northern Malaysia. He revived the Thai silk industry after WW II. He was one of the first to adopt a classic Thai house to the requirements of modern life, and his home is now a museum in Bangkok, Thailand.
(Hem, Mar. 95, p.63)(SFEC, 7/16/00, p.T14)
1967 Mar 26, Pope Paul VI published encyclical Populorum Progressio (On the Development of Peoples).
(www.ewtn.com/library/ENCYC/P6DEVELO.HTM)
1969 Mar 26, Marcus Welby MD, a TV movie was shown on ABC-TV. It began a popular series with Robert Young and ran to 1976.
(SS, 3/26/02)(WSJ, 1/10/03, p.A10)
1969 Mar 26, Writer John Kennedy Toole (b.1937) committed suicide in Mississippi at the age of 32. His mother helped get his first and only novel, "A Confederacy of Dunces," published. It went on to win the 1981 Pulitzer Prize. In 2020 Kent Carroll and Jodee Blanco authored "I, John Kennedy Toole," a fictionalized portrait of the author.
(HN, 3/26/01)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Kennedy_Toole)(Econ., 5/30/20, p.72)
1969 Mar 26, B. Traven (b.1890), novelist and short-story writer, died. He lived most of his life incognito in Mexico. His work included "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" (1934), "The Death Ship," The Rebellion of the Hanged" and "The General from the Jungle." In 1976 Michael L. Baumann authored "B. Traven, An Introduction." In 2000 Michael L. Baumann authored "Mr. Traven, I Presume."
(SFEC, 10/15/00, BR p.8)(www.kirjasto.sci.fi/traven.htm)
1969 Mar 26, Nuclear reactor in Dodewaard, Netherlands, went into use.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1969 Mar 26, Soviet weather Satellite Meteor 1 was launched.
(HN, 3/25/98)
1970 Mar 26, "Minnie's Boys" opened at Imperial Theater in NYC for 80 performances.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minnie%27s_Boys)
1970 Mar 26, The US conducted the Handley nuclear test in Nevada.
(http://tinyurl.com/3urgtw)
1970 Mar 26, Peter Yarrow (b.1938), of the singing trio Peter, Paul & Mary, pleaded guilty to taking "immoral liberties" with a minor, referring to an incident between Mr. Yarrow and a 14-year old. He served 3 months in jail; 11 years later he was pardoned by President Carter.
(http://theawarenesscenter.org/yarrow_peter.html)
1971 Mar 26, East Pakistan proclaimed its independence, taking the name Bangladesh. [See Mar 21] This is considered the official Independence day of Bangladesh.
(AP, 3/26/97)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangladesh_Liberation_War)
1972 Mar 26, "Only Fools Are Sad" closed at Edison Theater in NYC after 144 performances.
(www.ibdb.com/production.php?id=3626)
1972 Mar 26, Evil Knievel broke his collarbone after successfully clearing 13 cars.
(www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oCif2imBHU)
1973 Mar 26, The US soap opera "The Young and the Restless" premiered.
(www.imdb.com/title/tt0069658/)
1973 Mar 26, Susan Shaw became the 1st woman in 171 years in London's Stock exchange.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1973 Mar 26, Noel Coward (b.1899), English gay playwright, died. He was called "The Master" and his work included "The Vortex," "Hay Fever," "Private Lives," "Brief Encounter" and "Blithe Spirit." In 1970 he was given knighthood. "Noel Coward: A Biography" by Philip Hoare was published in 1996. Another biography, "A Talent to Amuse" by Sheridan Morley, published in 1974, was recommended. In 2007 Barry Day edited “The Letters of Noel Coward."
(WSJ, 8/15/96, p.A10)(SFEC, 8/25/96, BR p.9)(WSJ, 11/10/07, p.W8)
1975 Mar 26, The film "Tommy" premiered in London.
(www.imdb.com/title/tt0073812/combined)
1975 Mar 26, The US ratified a ban on poison gas established in the 1925 Geneva Protocol. Production, stockpiling and the use of anthrax was outlawed by an int’l. treaty of chemical and biological weapons. 140 nations adopted the Int'l. Biological Weapons Convention, but these did not include Russia. The treaty had no organization, no budget, no sanctions and no inspections provisions. By 2019 it was ratified by 183 parties.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biological_Weapons_Convention)(SFC,11/12/97, p.C2)(SFC, 2/20/98, p.A9)(SFC, 2/19/00, p.A14)
1975 Mar 26, Clela Rorex, Boulder, Colo., county clerk, allowed 6 same-sex couples to wed after changing the license application to read "person" rather than "male" and "female."
(SFC, 2/14/04, p.A1)(www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/3/26/22117/6384)
1976 Mar 26, Paul McCartney and Wings released "Wings at the Speed of Sound" album.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wings_at_the_Speed_of_Sound)
1976 Mar 26, In 2006 an NSA transcript from this day indicated that US Sec. of State Henry Kissinger was informed in the meeting by then-Assistant Secretary for Latin America William D. Rogers, that if the Argentine military regime succeeded (March 24 coup), it would make a "considerable effort to involve the United States — particularly in the financial field." Kissinger, the NSA's transcript further stated, responded, "Yes, but that is in our interest."
(AP, 3/24/06)
1977 Mar 26, Rose Bird (1936-1999) was sworn in as Chief Justice of California. She had been confirmed on March 12.
(SFEC, 12/5/99, p.A18)
1977 Mar 26, Elvis Costello released his 1st record "Less Than Zero."
(www.pugetsoundradio.com/forum/b-radiohistory/m-1174918300/)
1979 Mar 26, In the 41st NCAA Men's Basketball Championship the Michigan State Spartans beat the Indiana State Sycamores, 75-64, as Magic Johnson outscored Larry Bird, 24-19; this snapped Indiana State's 33-game win streak. In 2009 Seth Davis authored “When March Went Mad: The Game That Transformed Basketball."
(http://espn.go.com/sportscentury/moments/9903.html)(WSJ, 3/20/09, p.W10)
1979 Mar 26, The Camp David peace treaty was signed by Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat at the White House. [see Sep 5-17, 1978] Under the historic peace accord, Israel and Egypt agreed to operate flights between the countries.
(AP, 3/26/97)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_David_Accords)(AP, 9/16/12)
1981 Mar 26, A jury in Los Angeles awarded entertainer Carol Burnett $1.6 million from the “National Enquirer" for an article she’d charged was libelous. The award was later reduced, and the two parties settled out of court.
(AP, 3/26/01)
1981 Mar 26, Police and Albanian demonstrators battled in Kosovo.
(www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/8454/8454.ch01.html)
1982 Mar 26, Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder released "Ebony & Ivory" in the UK.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1982 Mar 26, The American soap opera "Capitol" premiered and ran for 1270 episodes.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitol_(TV_series))
1982 Mar 26, Ground was broken in Washington D.C. for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial designed by Maya Lin of Yale. It was dedicated Nov 13.
(NG, May 1985, p.554, 557)(AP, 3/26/97)(HN, 3/25/98)
1983 Mar 26, US performed a nuclear test at Nevada Test Site.
(www.johnstonsarchive.net/nuclear/tests/USA-ntests3.html)
1983 Mar 26, Anthony Blunt (b.1907), art historian and one of Britain's most notorious Cold War spies, died in London. In a memoir published in 2009 he admitted that spying for Russia was "the biggest mistake of my life." He had written his memoirs, with the stipulation they should not published until a quarter of a century after his death.
(AFP, 7/23/09)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Blunt)
1984 Mar 26, US Congress established the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to distribute funds for wildlife and environmental projects.
(SFC, 11/20/99, p.A8)(www.fws.gov/laws/laws_digest/NATLFW.HTML)
1987 Mar 26, "Fences" by August Wilson (1945-2005) premiered in NYC.
(www.theatredatabase.com/20th_century/august_wilson_timeline.html)
1987 Mar 26, National Federation of High Schools adopted college 3 point shot (21 feet). The FIBA instituted the three-point shot at a distance of 20 feet, 6 inches (6.25 meters) in the international game in 1984.
(www.answerbag.com/c_view/222)
1987 Mar 26, Jessica Hahn, the former church secretary who admitted to a sexual encounter with former PTL head Jim Bakker, told reporters she had not tried to blackmail Bakker, and expressed concern about "innocent bystanders who have been hurt" by the scandal.
(AP, 3/26/97)
1987 Mar 26, NASA launched Fltsatcom-6, but it failed after 51 seconds due to lightning.
(http://www.astronautix.com/craft/fltatcom.htm)
1988 Mar 26, Jesse Jackson stunned fellow Democrats by soundly defeating Michael S. Dukakis in Michigan's Democratic presidential caucuses.
(AP, 3/25/98)
1989 Mar 26, The first free elections took place in the Soviet Union. Boris Yeltsin was elected. Voters in the Soviet Union filled 1,500 of more than 2,000 seats in the new Congress of People's Deputies, beginning embarrassing defeats for the Communist Party.
(AP, 3/26/99)(HN, 3/25/98)
1990 Mar 26, "Driving Miss Daisy" won best picture at the 62nd annual Academy Awards and captured the best actress prize for Jessica Tandy; Daniel Day-Lewis was named best actor for "My Left Foot."
(AP, 3/26/00)
1990 Mar 26, Designer Halston died in San Francisco at age 57.
(AP, 3/26/00)
1991 Mar 26, The Bush administration indicated it would not aid rebels seeking to overthrow Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
(AP, 3/26/01)
1991 Mar 26, A divided US Supreme Court ruled that criminal defendants whose coerced confessions were improperly used as evidence are not always entitled to new trials.
(AP, 3/26/01)
1991 Mar 26, Fuel pipe exploded under 58th street and Lexington Ave, NYC.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1991 Mar 26, Marc Camoletti's "Don't Dress for Dinner" premiered in London.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1991 Mar 26, The Treaty of Asuncion established the southern common market: (Mercado Comun del Sur) Mercosur, between Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. They were later joined by associate members Chile (1996), Bolivia (1997), Peru (2001) and Venezuela (2004). Mexico was granted observer status in 2004.
(www.itcilo.it/english/actrav/telearn/global/ilo/blokit/mercoa.htm)
1991 Mar 26, Mali became a democracy after a Revolution. Gen. Amadou Toumani Toure seized power in a coup. Prior to the period of French colonialism, each of 12 ethnic groups governed itself.
(SFC, 6/7/96, p.A12)(Econ, 7/30/05, p.41)(AFP, 3/26/12)
1992 Mar 26, A judge in Indianapolis sentenced former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson to six years in prison for raping a Miss Black America contestant. Tyson ended up serving three years.
(AP, 3/26/02)
1993 Mar 26, President Clinton promised a "full-court press" against Bosnian Serbs to secure their agreement to a United Nations peace plan endorsed by Bosnian Muslims and Croats.
(AP, 3/25/98)
1994 Mar 26, The Senate passed President Clinton's education reform measure, the "Goals 2000" bill, 63-22.
(AP, 3/26/99)
1994 Mar 26, U.N. peacekeepers in Bosnia-Herzegovina destroyed a Serb bunker following a seven-hour exchange of fire.
(AP, 3/26/99)
1995 Mar 26, "Defending the Caveman" opened at Helen Hayes Theater in NYC for 671 performances.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1995 Mar 26, "Moliere Comedies" closed at Criterion Theater in NYC after 56 performances.
(www.ibdb.com/production.php?id=12594)
1995 Mar 26, In the 15th Golden Raspberry Awards: Color of Night won.
(http://razzies.com/asp/content/XcNewsPlus.asp?cmd=view&articleid=34)
1995 Mar 26, The National Labor Relations Board, in an extraordinary Sunday session, voted 3-2 to seek an injunction against baseball owners as a seven-and-a-half-month-old strike by players continued.
(AP, 3/26/00)
1995 Mar 26, Former US diplomat-turned-radio talk show host Alan Keyes entered the race for the Republican presidential nomination.
(AP, 3/26/00)
1995 Mar 26, Uzbek Pres. Karimov's period in office is extended by three years, to 2000, in a referendum.
(AP, 3/30/04)
1996 Mar 26, The closest approach of the Hyakutake comet, first sighted Jan 31. It was to come within ten-million miles of the Earth.
(Nat. Hist., 4/96, p.62)
1996 Mar 26, Edmund Muskie, former senator from Maine, secretary of state and Democratic pres. candidate in 1972, died after a heart attack two days shy of his 82nd birthday.
(WSJ, 3/27/96, p.A-1)(AP, 3/26/97)
1996 Mar 26 David Packard, co-founder of Hewlett-Packard Co., died. In a 1988 letter to his children he declared that the David & Lucille Packard Foundation’s highest priority must be to reduce world-wide population growth.
(WSJ, 3/27/96, p.A-1)(WSJ, 3/6/98)
1996 Mar 26, Amid public fears of mad cow disease, British farmers demanded their government order the destruction of old cattle, but Prime Minister John Major refused, and blamed the crisis on his political opponents.
(AP, 3/26/97)
1996 Mar 26, In Cambodia the Khmer Rouge kidnapped Christopher Howes (37), a mine-clearing expert from Bristol, England, and Huon Huot, his interpreter. In November Howes’ employer paid $120,000 for his release. The two men were killed shortly after their abduction. Their remains were found in 1998. In 2008 a Cambodian court sentenced four former Khmer Rouge rebels each to up to 20 years in prison for their involvement in the murders.
(SFC, 11/23/96, p.A11)(SFC, 4/13/98, p.A14)(http://tinyurl.com/7s7x4)(AP, 10/14/08)
1997 Mar 26, "Annie" opened at Martin Beck Theater NYC.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1997 Mar 26, Former drug counselor John G. Bennett Jr. pleaded no contest in Philadelphia to charges stemming from a $100 million charity fraud. Bennett was sentenced to 12 years in prison for fraud, tax violations and money laundering.
(AP, 3/25/07)
1997 Mar 26, The united Farm Workers Union announced that it would petition the US Environmental Agency to reinstate a 4-day period when farmworkers would stay out of strawberry fields after the application of capstan, a cancer causing fungicide. Its use has increased 7-fold in the last 6 years. 80% of the nation’s strawberry crop is grown in California.
(SFC, 3/27/97, p.A21)
1997 Mar 26, The bodies 39 young men and women (26-72) of the Heaven’s Gate cult were found in a mansion at Rancho Santa Fe, near San Diego. The techno-religious group, led by an older man named “Do," (aka Marshall Herff Applewhite), had committed mass suicide as the Hale-Bopp comet approached. They had run a business under the name WW Higher Source that engaged in WWW page development.
(SFC, 3/27/97, p.A1)(SFC, 3/28/97, p.A1,12)(AP, 3/25/98)
1997 Mar 26, In Belarus Pres. Lukashenko announced the revival of the Soviet tradition of “subbotniks," weekend unpaid mandatory labor.
(SFC, 3/27/97, p.A15)
1997 Mar 26, Bre-X and Freeport Mining announced that due-diligence testing by Freeport found much less gold than estimated in the Busang, Indonesia, discovery by the team of Michael de Guzman (d.3/19/97). The penny stock had been pumped to $4.5 billion in market value before the hoax crashed.
(WSJ, 4/9/97, p.A10)(WSJ, 6/19/01, p.A18)
1997 Mar 26, Irish terrorists set off 2 bombs in Wilmslow, England, at a railroad crossing.
(SFC, 3/27/97, p.A14)
1997 Mar 26, In Northern Ireland a bomb exploded at a police station in Coalisland, 30 miles west of Belfast.
(SFC, 3/27/97, p.A14)
1997 Mar 26, In Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Julius Chan resigned due to the public uproar over plans to use mercenaries in Bougainville.
(SFC, 3/26/97, p.A14)
1997 Mar 26, Manfred Nowak resigned the job of envoy of the UN for missing persons in the former Yugoslavia and said that he failed to receive support to account for the 20,000 missing people of the Bosnian war. He had begun the job in 1994.
(SFC, 3/27/97, p.A18)
1998 Mar 26, President Clinton stood with President Nelson Mandela in a racially integrated South African parliament to salute a country that was "truly free and democratic at last."
(SFC, 3/21/98, p.A13)(AP, 3/26/99)
1998 Mar 26, The federal government endorsed a new HIV test that yielded instant results.
(AP, 3/26/03)
1998 Mar 26, In Nevada a new satellite-based survey of the Yucca Mountain site for storing radioactive wastes indicated that the Earth’s crust at the site was stretching 10 times faster than previous studies have shown.
(SFC, 3/27/98, p.A3)
1998 Mar 26, In Greece a 2-day storm closed the Athens airport and left much of the capital without electricity. At least one person was killed.
(SFC, 3/27/98, p.A14)
1998 Mar 26, In Japan the ruling Liberal Democratic Party announced a $124 billion economic stimulus package.
(SFC, 3/27/98, p.A13)
1998 Mar 26, In Kenya a fire at a school near Mombasa killed 25 teenage girls in their dormitory.
(WSJ, 3/26/98, p.A1)
1998 Mar 26, In Malaysia riots flared in 4 detention camps that housed mainly Indonesian illegal immigrants. The Internal Security Act allowed the detention without trial of people caught helping illegals. 8 inmates and one policeman were killed. Over 200 inmates escaped from one camp.
(WSJ, 3/27/98, p.A10)
1998 Mar 26, In Mexico a mob in Huejutla lynched 2 suspected kidnappers after a judge ordered the 2 men freed on $600 bail. 30 residents were arrested in the lynching.
(SFC, 3/27/98, p.A14)
1998 Mar 26, In the Philippines Imelda Marcos claimed to have $800 million in foreign banks and promised to give it all to the poor if she is elected in May.
(SFC, 3/27/98, p.A14)
1998 Mar 26, In Serbia Pres. Milosevic ordered several hundred additional police to Kosovo. Serbs protested the killing of a policeman and 2 ethnic Albanians were killed in a police counterattack.
(SFC, 3/27/98, p.A12)(WSJ, 3/27/98, p.A1)
1998 Mar 26, Three major Swiss banks pledged to set up a compensation fund in the US for a global settlement with Holocaust victims.
(SFC, 3/27/98, p.A12)
1999 Mar 26, Hillary Clinton continued her 12-day African tour with a speech in Tunis at a women's rights conference.
(SFC, 3/27/99, p.C1)
1999 Mar 26, Right-to-die advocate Dr. Jack Kevorkian was convicted in Pontiac, Mich., of second-degree murder for giving Thomas Youk, a patient with Lou Gehrig's disease, a lethal injection. His action was videotaped and broadcast on television.
(SFC, 3/27/99, p.A1)(AP, 3/26/00)
1999 Mar 26, The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M. received its first shipment of nuclear waste. The facility was completed in 1988.
(SFC, 3/26/99, p.A3)(SFC, 3/27/99, p.A2)
1999 Mar 26, A computer virus named "Melissa" began infecting computers across the country.
(AP, 3/26/00)
1999 Mar 26, American-led NATO forces launched a third night of airstrikes against Yugoslavia and 2 MiG-29 fighters were shot down as Serbian troops continued to sweep ethnic Albanian villages in Kosovo.
(SFC, 3/27/99, p.A1)(AP, 3/26/00)
1999 Mar 26, In Bulgaria some 10,000 people protested NATO strikes; in Greece some 15,000 marched on the US embassy in protest; in Bosnia some 3,000 Serb youths turned violent in Banja Luka over the NATO strikes.
(SFC, 3/27/99, p.A11)
1999 Mar 26, The EU declared that the creation of a Palestine state was the best way to resolve the Middle East conflict, and the action could not be vetoed by Israel.
(SFC, 3/27/99, p.A10)
1999 Mar 26, In Jordan security authorities released more than 20 activists of an illegal Islamic party who were sentenced to different jail terms over the past year. The decision to release Al Tahrir Party activists followed a public amnesty signed by His Majesty King Abdullah last week under which more than 2,500 prisoners and detainees are expected to be freed.
(www.jordanembassyus.org/033099003.htm)
1999 Mar 26, Serbian forces rounded up ethnic Albanian villages in Krushe e Vogel, Kosovo. Serb forces herded 114 men and boys into a barn, including a disabled man whose wheelchair was used to block one of the exits. The Serbs then riddled the barn with bullets from automatic weapons before torching it and all those inside. In 2011 a UN court sentenced former Serbian police chief Vlastimir Djordjevic to 27 years in prison for orchestrating the murder of hundreds of ethnic Albanians. In 2018 a Kosovo prosecutor brought war crime charges against a Serb man (D.T.) his role in the Krushe e Vogel attack.
(SSFC, 9/8/02, p.F1)(AP, 2/23/11)(AP, 4/26/18)
1999 Mar 26, The UN Security Council defeated a Russian resolution demanding an immediate end to NATO attacks on Yugoslavia.
(SFC, 3/27/99, p.A11)
1999 Mar 26, In Uganda it was reported that wheat stem-rust fungus had appeared on a crop. The fungus killed nearly half the world's crop before the green revolution of the 1950s. The black rust disease was named Ug99 and by 2007 had jumped to Yemen. In 2008 it was confirmed in Iran. In 2008 Cornell Univ. received a $26.8 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to help combat the new strains of rust disease.
(WSJ, 3/26/99, p.A1)(WSJ, 4/3/08, p.A16)
2000 Mar 26, In the Academy Awards ceremony the film "American Beauty" won 5 Oscars, including best director for Sam Mendes and best actor for Kevin Spacey. Hilary Swank won best actress for "Boys Don't Cry." Michael Caine won best supporting actor for his role in "The Cider House Rules." Angelina Jolie won best supporting actress for her role in "Girl, Interrupted." The film "Matrix" won r technical categories, and best score went to "The Red Violin." Pedro Almodovar won the foreign language film for "All About My Mother."
(SFC, 3/27/00, p.A1)(AP, 3/26/01)
2000 Mar 26, Pres Clinton met with Pres. Assad of Syria in Geneva but failed to get an agreement to revive peace talks with Israel.
(WSJ, 3/27/00, p.A1)
2000 Mar 26, The Seattle Kingdome was blown up in a controlled implosion. The 7.9 acre roof collapsed in less than 20 seconds.
(WSJ, 5/10/99, p.A21)(SFC, 3/27/00, p.A4)
2000 Mar 26, Pope John Paul II ended his Holy Land tour with a message of contrition at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, a visit to Al Aqsa Mosque and a Mass at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the traditional site for the resurrection of Jesus.
(SFC, 3/27/00, p.A1)(WSJ, 3/27/00, p.A1)
2000 Mar 26, Dr. Alex Comfort, British author of the 1972 “Joy of Sex," died at age 80 in Oxfordshire. Comfort wrote some 50 books that included novels, poetry, criticism, scientific texts and works on Eastern philosophy.
(SFC, 3/28/00, p.E1)(AP, 3/26/01)
2000 Mar 26, In Chechnya Russian Col. Yuri Budanov and 3 soldiers seized Elza (Heda) Kungayeva (18) and strangled her to death following a pummeling and sexual assault. She was believed to be a rebel sniper. In 2001 Budanov faced a trial and in 2002 he was ruled temporarily insane. In 2009 Budanov was freed with more than a year left on his murder sentence.
(SSFC, 3/18/01, p.D5)(SFC, 1/1/03, p.A9)(AP, 1/19/09)
2000 Mar 26, In Colombia Pres. Pastrana pressured Armando Pomorica, president of the lower house of Congress, to take responsibility for a corruption scandal.
(WSJ, 3/27/00, p.A1)
2000 Mar 26, Russia elected Vladimir Putin as its 2nd post-Communist president with 52.5% vote.
(SFC, 3/27/00, p.A1)(AP, 3/26/01)
2001 Mar 26, The Bill Moyers PBS special “Trade Secrets" focused on the coverup by the American chemical industry of health problems caused by numerous products including vinyl chloride and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs).
(SFC, 3/27/01, p.A17)
2001 Mar 26, A US Army plane crashed in Germany and 2 pilots were killed. In Scotland US Air Force F15C fighter jets were lost during training. The body of one pilot, Lt. Col. Kenneth John Hyvonen, and F15 wreckage was found the next day. Wreckage of the 2nd F15 was found after 2 days. The body of Capt. Kirk Jones was found Mar 30.
(SFC, 3/27/01, p.F1)(SFC, 3/28/01, p.A10)(SFC, 3/29/01, p.A11)(SFC, 3/31/01, p.A14)
2001 Mar 26, California state regulators proposed a 40% rate increase to help remedy the state’s energy crisis.
(SFC, 3/27/01, p.A1)
2001 Mar 26, Regional Comair pilots went on strike after failing to settle with corporate parent Delta. The three-month strike began after contract talks with the regional airline broke off.
(SFC, 3/27/01, p.C4)(AP, 3/26/02)
2001 Mar 26, It was reported that scientists had detected high-energy neutrinos for the 1st time in the Antarctic Muon and neutrino Detector Array (Amanda).
(SFC, 3/26/01, p.A6)
2001 Mar 26, In Colombia Juan Gonzalez, head of the right-wing Calima Front of the United Self-Defense Forces, was killed with 3 others in a bar shootout.
(SFC, 3/28/01, p.D4)
2001 Mar 26, In Hebron a Palestinian sniper shot and killed a 10-month-old Jewish girl. A 15-year-old Palestinian boy was shot and wounded in Gaza.
(SFC, 3/27/01, p.F1)
2001 Mar 26, In Kazakstan the Caspian Pipeline Consortium began pumping crude oil from the Tengiz field to Novorossiisk, Russia’s Black Sea port. The 990-mile Tengiz-Novorossisk oil pipeline was owned by Kazakstan, Russia, Oman and 8 oil companies. Chevron held 15% in the 12-partner consortium.
(WSJ, 2/26/01, p.A14)(SFC, 3/27/01, p.C4)
2001 Mar 26, In Kenya a dorm fire at the Kyanguli Secondary School in Machakos killed 58 youths. One of 2 doors was bolted shut and arson was suspected. The toll soon rose to 64 as more students died from burns.
(SFC, 3/27/01, p.F1)(SFC, 3/30/01, p.D4)
2002 Mar 26, Pres. Bush nominated Richard Carmona (52), a trauma surgeon from Arizona, as surgeon-general. Elias Zerhouni, a Johns Hopkins Univ. administrator, was nominated to the NIH.
(SFC, 3/27/02, p.A3)
2002 Mar 26, The US Supreme Court upheld regulations that allowed federal housing officials to evict an entire household if even one member is arrested for drug violations.
(SFC, 3/27/02, p.A1)
2002 Mar 26, Joseph Berardino, CEO of Arthur Anderson, resigned over the Enron fallout.
(WSJ, 3/27/02, p.C1)
2002 Mar 26, India passed a Prevention of Terrorism bill that allowed a 3-month detention of suspects without charges plus an additional 3 months with court approval.
(SFC, 3/27/02, p.A6)
2002 Mar 26, Yasser Arafat declared that he would not attend the Arab league conference in Beirut due to restrictions imposed by PM Sharon. His Cabinet accused Israel of trying to "blackmail" the Palestinian leader with tough conditions for letting him go. Israeli security forces stopped a car that exploded with 2 men inside.
(SFC, 3/27/02, p.A1)(AP, 3/26/03)
2002 Mar 26, In Serbia 2 Albanian gunmen were killed in what police said was a battle between rebel factions.
(WSJ, 3/27/02, p.A1)
2003 Mar 26, The Senate approved a $2.2 trillion budget that provided less than half the $726 billion in tax cuts President Bush wanted.
(AP, 3/26/04)
2003 Mar 26, In the 8th day of Operation Iraqi Freedom Baghdad officials said two cruise missiles hit a residential area, killing 14 people. Iraq said 36 civilians were killed and 215 wounded in US airstrikes on Baghdad. Some 1,000 US paratroopers jumped into northern Iraq as sandstorms eased.
(AP, 3/26/03)(AP, 3/27/03)(SSFC, 3/30/03, p.W12)
2003 Mar 26, Federal energy regulators (FERC) validated California claims to 2000-2001 overcharges for energy and said the state is owed $3.3 billion in refunds from Enron and 5 other energy firms. California called for $9 billion.
(SFC, 3/27/03, p.A1)
2003 Mar 26, Daniel Patrick Moynihan (76), former NY Senator (1976-2000) and scholar, died. He wrote or edited some 18 books. In 2010 Steven Weisman edited his letters: “Daniel Patrick Moynihan: A Portrait in Letters of an American Visionary."
(SFC, 3/27/03, p.A1)(Econ, 9/18/10, p.104)
2003 Mar 26, In Afghanistan suspected Taliban rebels attacked a government checkpoint and 13 people were killed.
(WSJ, 3/27/03, p.A1)
2003 Mar 26, The Burundian army attacked a rebel stronghold in a Kibira forest with mortars and artillery, killing 68 insurgents. Rebels said only 2 fighters were killed.
(AP, 3/27/03)
2003 Mar 26, India test-fired a short-range missile capable of carrying a nuclear weapon, and Pakistan immediately announced it had tested a similar missile.
(AP, 3/26/03)
2003 Mar 26, In India gunmen fatally shot a senior Hindu nationalist in western Gujarat state.
(AP, 3/26/03)
2003 Mar 26, Pirates with automatic weapons stormed an Indonesian tanker ship in the Malacca Strait and escaped with equipment and cash.
(AP, 3/29/03)
2003 Mar 26, NATO officially signed up 7 eastern European nations to become members: Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia.
(AP, 3/27/03)
2003 Mar 26, In Nigeria Ijaw militants battling soldiers and tribal enemies in the oil-rich delta region called for a cease-fire after state officials agreed to support their political demands.
(AP, 3/26/03)
2003 Mar 26, In South Korea a late night fire in a grade school dormitory killed eight children.
(AP, 3/27/03)
2003 Mar 26, Interpol issued an international call for the arrest of former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori on charges of murder and kidnapping in Peru.
(AP, 3/26/04)
2004 Mar 26, The FDA approved the 1st HIV test that uses saliva rather than blood. The 20 minute test, made by OraSure, is able to detect HIV antibodies about 6 weeks after infection.
(SFC, 3/27/04, p.A1)
2004 Mar 26, Phoenix Bishop Thomas O'Brien was sentenced to four years' probation and 1,000 hours of community service for a deadly hit-and-run that claimed the life of pedestrian Jim Reed.
(AP, 3/26/05)
2004 Mar 26, Jan Berry (62), pioneering California rock musician, died in LA. He rode the wave of the surf music trend in the 1960s as one half of the popular duo Jan & Dean.
(Reuters, 3/28/04)
2004 Mar 26, Jan Sterling (82), Hollywood film actress, died.
(SFC, 3/30/04, p.B6)
2004 Mar 26, West of Baghdad, U.S. Marines and gunmen fought an hour-long battle that left four Iraqis dead and six wounded. A U.S. Marine and an ABC freelance cameraman were killed during a bitter, hours-long firefight between American troops and Iraqi insurgents in the city of Fallujah, while 18 people died in violence elsewhere across Iraq.
(AP, 3/26/04)(AP, 3/27/04)
2004 Mar 26, A Palestinian militant was killed when an explosion went off in a van he was driving in a West Bank refugee camp.
(AP, 3/26/04)
2004 Mar 26, The bodies of 8 Pakistani soldiers, executed by Al Qaeda-linked militants, were found near Wana. They had been taken hostage in fighting near the Afghan border.
(AP, 3/27/04)
2004 Mar 26, Polish PM Leszek Miller announced he will step down the day after Poland joins the European Union on May 1, taking the blame for his government's collapse in popularity and raising the prospect of early elections. 22 members of Miller’s SLD party had left to form the new left-wing Polish social Democracy as Miller’s popularity plummeted.
(AP, 3/26/04)(Econ, 4/3/04, p.56)
2004 Mar 26, A Moscow court banned the religious activities of Jehovah's Witnesses from the Russian capital in a move that critics called a step back for democracy and religious freedom. A 1997 religion law enshrines Orthodox Christianity as the country's predominant religion and pledges respect for Buddhism, Islam and Judaism, but places restrictions on other groups.
(AP, 3/27/04)
2005 Mar 26, In Afghanistan 4 US soldiers died when their vehicle struck a land mine.
(AP, 3/26/05)
2005 Mar 26, James Callaghan, former British prime minister (1976-1979), died on the eve of his 93rd birthday.
(SSFC, 3/27/05, p.A21)(Econ, 4/2/05, p.80)
2005 Mar 26, A twin-engine commercial Czech-built Let-410 airplane, crashed while taking off from the tiny Colombian island of Old Providence, killing 8 people, including a 3-year-old boy, and injuring six other passengers.
(AP, 3/26/05)
2005 Mar 26, In Iraq a car bomb struck a US military patrol in Baghdad, killing two U.S. soldiers and injuring two others.
(AP, 3/26/05)
2005 Mar 26, A fire swept through a sprawling Moscow art market popular with tourists for its unusual antiques from around the former Soviet Union and sometimes bargain prices, and news reports said two people were killed.
(AP, 3/26/05)
2005 Mar 26, In Taiwan about a million people marched through the capital to protest a new Chinese law that authorizes an attack on the island if it moves toward formal independence.
(AP, 3/26/05)
2005 Mar 26, German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger stood in for Pope John Paul II during the Easter Vigil Mass at the Vatican. Ratzinger later succeed John Paul, becoming Pope Benedict XVI.
(AP, 3/26/06)
2006 Mar 26, In Florida Paul Dana, a 30-year-old rookie in the Indy Racing League, died at Jackson Memorial Hospital from multiple trauma suffered in the crash during the final morning practice for the season-opening Toyota Indy 300.
(www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/sports/14193716.htm)
2006 Mar 26, An Afghan court dismissed a case against Abdul Rahman, who converted from Islam to Christianity because of a lack of evidence. Officials said he will be released soon.
(AP, 3/26/06)
2006 Mar 26, In Bangladesh 19 people were injured in clashes between political parties as the nation marked its 35th Independence Day anniversary under tight security for fear of Islamic militant attacks.
(AP, 3/26/06)
2006 Mar 26, The Chinese partner of Time Warner’s consumer products unit said the studio division plans to open some 200 stores in China over the coming years as demand for branded merchandise increases in China.
(Reuters, 3/26/06)
2006 Mar 26, Georgian police stormed a prison in Tbilisi after inmates rioted in an escape attempt from Ortochala prison, sparking a gun battle that left two guards and an unknown number of inmates dead.
(AP, 3/27/06)
2006 Mar 26, Iraqi Interior Ministry officials said authorities arrested Arkan al-Bawi, a police major from Diyala province, for taking part in death squads. Iraqi authorities said that US forces raided an Interior Ministry building and arrested 40 policemen after discovering 17 non-Iraqi prisoners in the facility.
(Reuters, 3/26/06)(AP, 3/26/06)
2006 Mar 26, Police found 30 more victims of the sectarian slaughter ravaging Iraq, most of them beheaded, dumped on a village road north of Baghdad. At least 16 Iraqis were killed in a US-backed raid at the Mustafa mosque complex in a Shiite neighborhood in northeastern Baghdad. At least 69 people were reported killed in one of the bloodiest days in weeks.
(AP, 3/26/06)(Econ, 4/1/06, p.40)
2006 Mar 26-2006 Mar 27, In Iraq two days of violence left at least 151 dead.
(AP, 3/28/06)
2006 Mar 26, The UN said it did not expect Lebanon to disarm Hezbollah guerillas by force but hoped they would join the Lebanese army.
(AP, 3/26/06)
2006 Mar 26, In Mexico the bodies of six men, blindfolded, handcuffed and shot to death, were found packed inside a pickup truck on the side of a highway leading to the Texas border.
(AP, 3/26/06)
2006 Mar 26, A rights group said Myanmar's military rulers have launched an offensive against separatist guerrillas, attacking villages and forcing thousands to flee in an attempt to quash a five-decade insurgency by Karen ethnic rebels.
(AP, 3/26/06)
2006 Mar 26, In southwest Pakistan rebel tribesmen set off a bomb near the home of a senior government official and launched a separate attack on a military post, triggering a gunbattle that left two attackers and a soldier dead.
(AP, 3/26/06)
2006 Mar 26, Hamas pressed Arab leaders gathering for a summit in Sudan to triple their financial support to Palestinians and provide it fast, saying its government will need around $170 million a month, mostly for salaries.
(AP, 3/26/06)
2006 Mar 26, A smoking ban in enclosed public places took effect in Scotland, although a poll showed that a fifth of all Scottish smokers planned to ignore the new law.
(AP, 3/26/06)
2006 Mar 26, Ukrainians cast ballots in a parliamentary election that could tip this divided ex-Soviet republic back toward Russia just 16 months after the Orange Revolution helped put it on a westward course.
(AP, 3/26/06)
2007 Mar 26, The US military concluded that high-ranking Army officers had made critical errors in reporting the friendly fire death of Army Ranger Pat Tillman in Afghanistan, but that there was no criminal wrongdoing in the shooting of the former NFL star by fellow soldiers. The findings were rejected by Tillman's family.
(AP, 3/26/08)
2007 Mar 26, An American border inspector was sentenced to nearly six years in prison for taking cash and cars from smugglers, allowing them to shuttle illegal immigrants from Mexico into the United States.
(AP, 3/26/07)
2007 Mar 26, David Hicks, a 31-year-old former kangaroo skinner, entered a surprise guilty plea at the first session of the tribunals set up after the US Supreme Court struck down the Pentagon's previous efforts to try Guantanamo prisoners. Hicks was sentenced to seven years in prison; all but nine months' prison time was suspended. Hicks was returned to Australia to serve out his term, and was freed in December.
(AP, 3/27/07)(AP, 3/26/08)
2007 Mar 26, A new study that suggested that an antioxidant found in blueberries and grapes may offer protection against colon cancer.
(AFP, 3/26/07)
2007 Mar 26, Intel Corp. announced it will build a $2.5 billion chip factory in China, giving the US company a bigger presence in the booming Chinese market and boosting Beijing's efforts to attract high-tech investment. Intel also unveiled a prototype chip that uses optical connections to increase speed. Products using the technology were expected to appear within 3 years.
(AP, 3/26/07)(WSJ, 3/26/07, p.B6)
2007 Mar 26, Four children and Pedro Rodriguez (28), their father, were found dead in the family's home in Frederick, Maryland. The mother Deysi M. Benitez (25) was missing. Her sister from El Salvador said she had been beaten by her husband and wanted to separate. Police concluded he had smothered the girls and killed the boy with a blow to the head, and then killed himself. The body of his wife, Deysi Benitez (25), an immigrant from El Salvador, was found Feb 29, 2008, 20 miles from their home in Frederick.
(AP, 3/28/07)(AP, 4/17/08)
2007 Mar 26, A suicide bomber in a car attacked a NATO convoy in the southern province of Kandahar, killing himself but causing no alliance casualties. The US urged European countries to provide more troops for Afghanistan and to free them up for combat, as well as to provide further aid to the war-shattered country.
(AP, 3/26/07)(AP, 3/27/07)
2007 Mar 26, In Britain Taylor Woodrow and George Wimpey agreed upon a $9.8 billion merger to create the country’s largest house builder.
(AP, 3/26/07)(Econ, 3/31/07, p.65)
2007 Mar 26, Chile’s President Michelle Bachelet fired her chief of staff and three other members of her Cabinet in response to a public transportation crisis that has badly damaged her government.
(AP, 3/27/07)
2007 Mar 26, Chinese President Hu Jintao arrived in Russia on his third visit as national leader, seeking energy deals but also offering Moscow business opportunities and international cooperation as they expand ties.
(Reuters, 3/26/07)
2007 Mar 26, Egyptians were slow to vote in a referendum on constitutional amendments that opponents condemned as a sham and a setback to democratic progress. Egyptian human rights groups later said that turnout for the referendum was only five percent, far lower than the 27 percent reported by the government.
(AP, 3/26/07)(Econ, 3/31/07, p.57)(AP, 4/11/07)
2007 Mar 26, Nicolas Sarkozy resigned as French interior minister to focus on his presidential bid, recalling his successes but also challenges, including violence by poor young minorities.
(AP, 3/26/07)
2007 Mar 26, Guatemala's interior minister resigned in the wake of a scandal over police investigators' alleged involvement in the grisly murder of three Salvadoran politicians last month. Rioting gang members fired dozens of gunshots, killing three inmates, and took two guards and two food service workers hostage in a southern Guatemala prison.
(AP, 3/26/07)(AP, 3/27/07)
2007 Mar 26, In India New Delhi’s High Court imposed new measures aimed at deterring habitually bad drivers in the capital, including the smoking ban and a prohibition on using mobile phones while behind the wheel.
(AP, 3/27/07)
2007 Mar 26, Zalmay Khalilzad, the departing US ambassador, said American and Iraqi officials are seeking to persuade so-called "reconcilable insurgents" to join forces against al-Qaida. Iskandariyah authorities imposed an indefinite curfew after two people were killed and two others wounded in sectarian clashes sparked by an attack by suspected Shiite militants on a Sunni mosque. Kirkuk police said two elderly Chaldean Catholic nuns were stabbed multiple time by two intruders who raided their home near Kirkuk's Cathedral of the Virgin. The US military also announced the capture of leaders of a car-bombing ring blamed for killing hundreds of Iraqis.
(AP, 3/26/07)(AP, 3/27/07)
2007 Mar 26, Israel welcomed the idea of a regional peace summit and Saudi Arabia suggesting it would consider changes in a dormant peace initiative to make it more acceptable to Israel.
(AP, 3/26/07)
2007 Mar 26, An Italian prosecutor demanded a five-year jail sentence for conservative former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, who is accused of bribing a judge.
(AP, 3/26/07)
2007 Mar 26, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe, under fire for denying that Japan forced women to work as sex slaves during World War II, offered a fresh apology but refused to clearly acknowledge Japan's responsibility for running the frontline brothels.
(AP, 3/26/07)
2007 Mar 26, Lindsay Ann Hawker (22), a British language teacher, was found naked in a sand-filled bathtub at an apartment outside Tokyo. She had been beaten and then suffocated. Police hunted for the prime suspect, a 28-year-old Japanese male. On Nov 10, 2009, Tatsuya Ichihashi was arrested as the only suspect in the murder, after he had spent over two years on the run and altered his appearance with plastic surgery. In 2011 Ichihashi admitted the killing but said it was accidental. On July 21 Ichihashi was sentenced to life in prison.
(AP, 3/29/07)(AFP, 12/2/09)(AFP, 7/4/11)(AFP, 7/21/11)
2007 Mar 26, A report by a special envoy for UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon recommended independence for Serbia's breakaway province of Kosovo, supervised by the international community.
(AP, 3/26/07)
2007 Mar 26, In northern Nigeria at least 89 people burned to death in Kaduna when a tanker lorry caught fire as they were stealing fuel from it.
(AFP, 3/28/07)
2007 Mar 26, The leaders of Northern Ireland's major Protestant and Catholic parties, sitting side by side for the first time in history, announced a breakthrough deal to forge a power-sharing administration May 8.
(AP, 3/26/07)
2007 Mar 26, In Pakistan supporters of opposition parties rallied against President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's removal of Pakistan's top judge, raising the stakes in a judicial crisis that threatens to undermine the military ruler's hold on power. In northwestern Pakistan police challenged a group of suspected militants at a high school in Tank after hearing that they wanted to recruit suicide bombers for holy war, sparking a gunbattle that left six people dead.
(AP, 3/26/07)(WSJ, 3/27/07, p.A1)
2007 Mar 26, Tamil rebels launched their first airstrike in the nearly quarter-decade conflict with Sri Lanka's government, using at least one small plane to bomb an air base outside the capital and killing three airmen.
(AP, 3/26/07)
2008 Mar 26, Motorola Inc said it would split into two publicly traded entities to separate its loss-making handset division from its other businesses, sending its shares up about 5%.
(AP, 3/26/08)
2008 Mar 26, Scientists said the basic ingredients for life: warmth, water and organic chemicals, are in place on Saturn's small moon Enceladus, in detailing the content of huge plumes erupting off its surface.
(Reuters, 3/26/08)(Econ, 5/30/15, p.78)
2008 Mar 26, The NASA space shuttle Endeavour and its crew of seven made a night landing in Florida following a 16 day mission to the ISS.
(SFC, 3/27/08, p.A3)
2008 Mar 26, In southern Afghanistan 8 civilians were killed when a bomb-filled car exploded near a crowded bazaar in Helmand province, in an attack claimed by the Taliban. A police officer was killed in a roadside bombing in Helmand. Insurgents attacked a NATO patrol, killing one soldier and wounding another. Militants fired a rocket at opium poppy eradication police, killing two policemen and wounding another. US-led coalition forces killed several Taliban militants after coming under attack in Helmand province.
(AP, 3/26/08)(AP, 3/27/08)(AP, 3/28/08)
2008 Mar 26, It was reported that British pig husbandry is in crisis due to exploding global grain prices. Last month British pig farmers recorded “Stand By Your Ham" based on the 1968 US country classic “Stand By Your Man" by Tammy Wynette.
(WSJ, 3/26/08, p.A1)
2008 Mar 26, China announced the surrender of hundreds of people over anti-government riots among Tibetans and allowed the first group of foreign journalists to visit the regional capital since the violence.
(AP, 3/26/08)
2008 Mar 26, In China 24 people were killed when fireworks that had been trucked to the Gobi Desert to be destroyed exploded as they were being dumped into a ditch.
(AP, 3/28/08)
2008 Mar 26, Manuel "Sureshot" Marulanda (78), co-founder and commander of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), died of a heart attack. On May 24 President Alvaro Uribe announced he is willing to offer rebels who free hostages "conditional liberty" and passage abroad. Marulanda, whose real name is Pedro Antonio Marin, and had led the peasant-based FARC since its founding in 1964. Alfonso Cano (Guillermo Leon Saenz), the FARC’s chief ideologue, was expected to replace Marulanda.
(AP, 5/25/08)(Econ, 5/31/08, p.42)(AP, 3/26/09)
2008 Mar 26, In Dubai a massive explosion at a fireworks factory left two people dead and two injured. Subsequent fires rapidly spread, sending thick clouds of black smoke into the sky.
(AP, 3/26/08)
2008 Mar 26, French Pres. Nicolas Sarkozy vowed to open a new chapter in ties with Britain as he arrived for a state visit which he hopes will also help repair his image as a statesman.
(AP, 3/26/08)
2008 Mar 25, Air travel between Georgia and Russia resumed, more than 17 months after Moscow suspended flights because of tension between the ex-Soviet neighbors.
(AP, 3/25/08)
2008 Mar 26, India's Tata Motors said it had bought British luxury icons Jaguar and Land Rover from ailing US carmaker Ford Motor Co for 1.15 billion pounds (2.3 billion dollars).
(AP, 3/26/08)
2008 Mar 26, Iraq's prime minister gave gunmen in the southern oil port of Basra three days to surrender their weapons and renounce violence as clashes between security forces and Shiite militia fighters erupted for a second day. Officials said at least 40 people were killed and 200 wounded in the fighting in Basra. 3 Americans were seriously injured by rockets or mortars fired into Baghdad’s Green Zone. A mortar shell or rocket that apparently fell short struck a minibus in the mainly Shiite district of Karradah, killing at least 3 passengers and wounding 9 others. Two rounds also slammed into another area of Karradah, killing 3 civilians and wounding six. Two other Iraqis were killed and 4 wounded when another round struck a residential area in a Shiite neighborhood in western Baghdad. Gunmen killed a US-allied Sunni fighter and wounded his wife and daughter after storming his house in Samarra. Several Iraqi civilians were killed or injured in separate fighting between US troops and suspected al-Qaida in Iraq insurgents in the northern town of Tikrit. A US airstrike there left 7 bodies in the rubble of houses and a local judge who owned one of the houses was among the dead. Two American soldiers were killed in separate attacks in Baghdad.
(AP, 3/26/08)(AP, 3/27/08)
2008 Mar 26, The Israeli military captured Omar Jabar, the mastermind of the March 2002 bombing in Netanya, the deadliest suicide bombing of the Palestinian uprising.
(AP, 3/26/08)
2008 Mar 26, Italian officials held a crisis meeting after Japan and South Korea banned imports of mozzarella following the discovery of high dioxin levels in buffalo milk used to make the famed cheese.
(AP, 3/26/08)
2008 Mar 26, In Mexico a confrontation in Sinaloa state left four civilians and two soldiers dead. A military judge later issued an arrest warrant for 5 soldiers considered as suspects.
(AP, 4/5/08)
2008 Mar 26, TimeRime BV was founded by Marijn Bom, Jaap Joziasse, Gerard Pastwa and Pico Wilbrenninck, as a spin-off of the Dutch webdevelopment company Hoppinger.com.
(www.timerime.com/)
2008 Mar 26, In Norway a six-story apartment building collapsed in the west coast city of Aalesund after it was hit by a rock slide, injuring 15 people and leaving five missing.
(AP, 3/26/08)
2008 Mar 26, Philippine farmers warned that the country was facing a serious rice supply crisis, as the government signed a deal to import rice from Vietnam to boost local reserves at a time of rising prices and shrinking global stocks.
(AP, 3/26/08)
2008 Mar 26, In the southern Philippines a passenger boat with 14 people on board capsized, leaving only one known survivor, a man who swam several hours to shore. Most of the missing were children.
(AP, 3/28/08)
2008 Mar 26, A roadside blast in Sri Lanka's restive eastern region killed two policemen while fighting in the north left at least 19 rebels and one soldier dead.
(AFP, 3/26/08)
2008 Mar 26, The African Union-UN mission said 5 civilians were killed and more than a dozen others injured when an international peacekeeping vehicle crashed into a bus in Darfur.
(AFP, 3/26/08)
2008 Mar 26, Trinidad’s RBTT, the largest regionally owned bank, agreed to accept a takeover by the Royal Bank of Canada.
(Econ, 3/29/08, p.50)
2008 Mar 26, Venezuela's National Assembly opened an investigation into a congressman's accusations that two of President Hugo Chavez's brothers acquired 17 ranches in recent years.
(AP, 3/26/08)
2009 Mar 26, The Obama administration unveiled a sweeping overhaul of the financial system designed to impose greater regulation on major players like hedge funds. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told lawmakers that the changes are needed to fix the flaws exposed by the current financial crisis, the worst to hit the country in seven decades.
(AP, 3/26/09)
2009 Mar 26, The US Internal Revenue Service announced new steps aimed at getting taxpayers hiding money in offshore accounts to pay up, promising not to file criminal charges for those who voluntarily fess up to hiding money overseas.
(Reuters, 3/26/09)
2009 Mar 26, A New Jersey girl (14) was accused of child pornography after posting nearly 30 explicit nude pictures of herself on MySpace.com, charges that could force her to register as a sex offender if convicted.
(AP, 3/27/09)
2009 Mar 26, In Los Angeles US automaker Tesla Motors unveiled its state-of-the-art five-seat sedan, billed as the world's first mass-produced, highway-capable electric car. The San Carlos company said it would likely be built in Southern California rather than San Jose.
(AFP, 3/26/09)(SFC, 3/27/09, p.C1)
2009 Mar 26, In Brazil engine pieces from a US plane fell from the sky, hitting 22 houses and a car but sparing passengers and residents on the ground. Arrow Cargo's station manager in Manaus, Rai Marinho, said the company will pay local residents for damages to their property.
(AP, 3/26/09)
2009 Mar 26, The archives from the London Historical Records, dating back to the 16th century, began to be made available online. Around 250,000 records were currently available, with all 77 million uploaded by 2011.
(AP, 3/26/09)
2009 Mar 26, In Ganzi, China, a predominantly Tibetan prefecture in Sichuan province, Phuntsok Rabten (27), a Tibetan Buddhist monk of Draggo monastery, was found dead. He had called for protests against Chinese authorities. He had fled on a motorcycle after police in a van discovered him distributing flyers urging Tibetans to leave their farming plots untended.
(AP, 3/31/09)
2009 Mar 26, Ebtisam Ali Rashid al Bedwani (b.1982) was sworn in as Dubai’s first woman judge.
(www.gulfnews.com/nation/Government/10298829.html)
2009 Mar 26, French President Nicolas Sarkozy visited Brazzaville and Kinshasa. During the Kinshasa trip, given over in large part to regional political issues, Areva signed an agreement with the government allowing the company to prospect for and mine uranium.
(AP, 3/27/09)
2009 Mar 26, An official said France will limit or ban bonuses and stock options for executives at companies bailed out with taxpayer money, as the government scrambled to calm public outrage at what some see as the greed that caused the global financial crisis.
(AP, 3/26/09)
2009 Mar 26, In northern Guatemala a hitman training camp for Mexico's infamous Gulf cartel was found, along with 500 grenades. Officials seized six rifles, three motorcycles and several boxes of ammunition during the operation. The hitmen were among those carrying out nearly daily attacks on Guatemalan buses in which the driver is often killed.
(AP, 3/27/09)
2009 Mar 26, In Iraq a car bomb exploded near a crowded market in a mainly Shiite area of Baghdad, killing at least 20 people, including 4 women and 4 children, in the country’s sixth major attack this month. A bomb attached to a car exploded elsewhere in eastern Baghdad, wounding four people. Gunmen killed Sheik Abdul-Kareem Saleh, a Sunni Arab cleric, and wounded his son at Jalula, a town northeast of Baghdad where a suicide bomber struck a Kurdish funeral this week. A foreign contractor was shot and killed at a base north of Baghdad. Pfc. Carl T. Stovall III (25) of Kennesaw, Georgia, was taken into custody soon after the shooting at the US base in Taji.
(AP, 3/26/09)(AP, 3/27/09)(SFC, 3/27/09, p.A4)(AP, 4/5/09)
2009 Mar 26, An Israeli ministry statement said that in a series of tests this week the iron Dome high-tech system faced rockets of the type fired by Palestinian and Lebanese militants, and operated successfully.
(AP, 3/27/09)
2009 Mar 26, Israeli police said they have seized 15 thousand marijuana water pipes in a raid on a factory in Haifa. Pipes and other drug paraphernalia were banned a few weeks ago and police are cracking down.
(AP, 3/26/09)
2009 Mar 26, In Kazakhstan a Soyuz capsule carrying a Russian-American crew and US billionaire space tourist Charles Simonyi blasted off for the international space station.
(AP, 3/26/09)
2009 Mar 26, The MT Bow Asir, a Norwegian tanker with a crew of 27, was hijacked off the coast of Somalia.
(AP, 3/27/09)(WSJ, 3/27/09, p.A8)
2009 Mar 26, In Pakistan a suicide bomber killed as many as 11 people at a restaurant near Tank, in South Waziristan, in an attack targeting opponents of the Taliban.
(AP, 3/26/09)
2009 Mar 26, In central Russia a head-on collision between a bus and a truck in Petushki, about 120 kilometers (75 miles) east of Moscow, killed 14 people.
(AP, 3/26/09)
2009 Mar 26, Serbian lawmakers approved a law against discrimination due to race, religion, gender, sexual orientation or other factors despite opposition from conservatives, including the Serbian Orthodox Church, and nationalists.
(AP, 3/26/09)
2009 Mar 26, Somalia's new interior minister was wounded by a roadside bomb in an attack that killed his bodyguard and wounded two others. The moderate Islamist pledged to seek reconciliation with his attackers, widely believed to be hardline fighters.
(AP, 3/26/09)
2009 Mar 26, In Sri Lanka more than 2,100 civilians fled in one day from the northern war zone where the military is squeezing the Tamil Tiger rebels into a smaller area as it pushes to end 25 years of civil war. in New York, John Holmes, the UN's top humanitarian official, said the international organization estimated 150,000 to 190,000 civilians were trapped by the fighting and unable to escape, resulting in dozens of deaths each day.
(AP, 3/27/09)
2009 Mar 26, Regulators in St. Vincent and the Grenadines took control of an island bank linked to an alleged Ponzi scheme. A complaint alleged that William Wise of Raleigh, NC, and Kristi Hoegel of Napa, Ca., orchestrated the scheme through Millennium Bank and its Geneva-based parent United Trust of Switzerland SA, as well as US affiliates of both organizations.
(SFC, 3/28/09, p.A2)(http://tinyurl.com/cqedzr)
2009 Mar 26, Sudan's president Omar al-Bashir visited his third country in four days, this time touching down in Libya, the latest country to welcome the leader who's wanted by an international court on war crimes.
(AP, 3/26/09)
2009 Mar 26, In Thailand more than 20,000 protesters ringed the prime minister's office, demanding the government resign and deriding its distribution of checks to millions of low-income workers as a payoff.
(AP, 3/26/09)
2009 Mar 26, The UN's top human-rights body approved a proposal by Muslims nations urging passage of laws around the world to protect religion from criticism. The resolution was sponsored by Pakistan, Belarus and Venezuela.
(AP, 3/26/09)(Econ, 4/4/09, p.17)
2010 Mar 26, Pres. Obama concluded a new strategic arms reduction treaty in a call with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.
(AFP, 3/26/10)
2010 Mar 26, The Obama administration unveiled a revamped Home Affordable Mortgage Program (HAMP).
(Econ, 4/3/10, p.78)
2010 Mar 26, Hacker Albert Gonzalez (28), who participated in a cybercrime ring that stole tens of millions of credit and debit card numbers, was sentenced in US District Court to 20 years in prison. Gonzalez was living in Miami at the time of the crimes in the three cases, which occurred over almost two years before he was arrested in May of 2008 and subsequently indicted in New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts.
(http://news.yahoo.com/s/pcworld/hackergonzalezsentencedto20yearsforexploits)
2010 Mar 26, In south-central Kentucky at least 10 people were killed in a fiery crash between a tractor-trailer and a van after the truck crossed over the median on an interstate highway.
(AP, 3/26/10)
2010 Mar 26, The head of Abu Dhabi's sovereign wealth fund, the world's largest, went missing after his glider crashed in Morocco. Ahmed bin Zayed Al Nahyan's glider went down in a lake in Morocco. The pilot of the aircraft was rescued in good condition. The body of al-Nahayan was found on March 30.
(AP, 3/27/10)(AFP, 3/30/10)
2010 Mar 26, In eastern Afghanistan a gunman attacked a group of German and Afghan aid workers inspecting a high school under renovation. 2 people died and a German employed by German humanitarian organization GTZ was among 10 people wounded when assailants opened fire on workers in Khost city.
(AP, 3/26/10)(AFP, 3/27/10)
2010 Mar 26-2010 Mar 27, In China hundreds of citizens rampaged in the southern city of Kunming enraged by rumors that a vendor had been killed by an officer of the “City Administration and Law Enforcement Bureau," commonly known by its Chinese abbreviation chengguan.
(Econ, 4/3/10, p.43)
2010 Mar 26, In Ecuador a district court judge convicted Emilio Palacio, a newspaper editorial writer for the newspaper El Universo, of insulting the head of the government's National Financial Corp. and sentenced him to three years in prison.
(AP, 3/27/10)
2010 Mar 26, Egyptian police said they arrested 45 suspected smugglers over the past three days in an intensified crackdown on the supply line to Gaza by way of hundreds of cross-border tunnels. Among the suspects was a man accused of trying to deliver $242,000 in Egyptian pounds and US dollars to Hamas in Gaza.
(AP, 3/27/10)
2010 Mar 26, Iraq’s election commission announced that former PM Ayad Allawi edged out chief rival PM Nouri al-Maliki by two seats, 91-89, in the March 7 vote for a 325-member parliament.
(AP, 3/27/10)
2010 Mar 26, In Finland Juha Turunen, a corporate lawyer, was convicted of kidnapping heiress Minna Nurminen (26) and holding her captive for two weeks in 2009 until her family paid a multimillion euro (dollar) ransom. He had admitted during the trial that he had kidnapped Nurminen and held her captive at an apartment in Turku, western Finland. She was released unharmed and police recovered the ransom money.
(AP, 3/26/10)
2010 Mar 26, Germany and Switzerland said they have reached a preliminary deal on an agreement to exchange information on suspected tax cheats, an important step toward defusing a long-festering irritant in their relations.
(AP, 3/26/10)
2010 Mar 26, In Honduras radio journalists Jose Bayardo (52) and Manuel de Jesus Juarez (55) were riddled with bullets late in the day as they drove on a highway in the rural province of Olancho. Three other journalists have been killed in March in Honduras, which is wracked by political divisions relating to a 2009 coup and common crime fueled by street gangs.
(AP, 3/27/10)
2010 Mar 26, Israel insisted it would continue construction in contested east Jerusalem, taking an uncompromising stance against US pressure following a tense visit by PM Benjamin Netanyahu to Washington. Two Israeli soldiers and two Palestinian militants were killed in a gunbattle in the Gaza Strip. Palestinian medics said one civilian was killed and seven were wounded in the fighting. Militants reported one wounded and one missing. Israeli soldier withdrew the next day.
(AP, 3/26/10)(AP, 3/27/10)
2010 Mar 26, In northern Mexico the decapitated body of Heriberto Cerda, the police chief in Agualeguas, Nuevo Leon state, and the body of his brother were found inside the chief's patrol truck. Late in the day gunmen opened fired on a hotel in downtown Ciudad Juarez where federal agents stay, killing one and wounding two.
(AP, 3/27/10)
2010 Mar 26, Mozambican police said they have arrested 7 people suspected of trafficking women to neighboring South Africa to work as prostitutes. The men were arrested last week through a police sting operation. The women were on sale for about $670 each.
(AP, 3/26/10)
2010 Mar 26, Asad Qureshi, a British journalist, went missing while traveling to North Waziristan with a retired army officer Sultan Amir Tarar (Col. Imam), and Khalid Khawaja, a prominent Pakistani ex-spy. Khawaja was found killed by the captors on April 30. On Sep 9 it was reported that Qureshi and Col. Imam were released.
(AFP, 9/9/10)(http://cpj.org/2010/04/documentary-filmmaker-missing-in-pakistan.php)
2010 Mar 26, A South Korean naval ship sank leaving 46 marines missing near Baengnyeong Island. An explosion at the rear of the Cheonan shut down its engine, wiped out power and caused the ship to sink a little over three hours later. 58 of the crew of 104 were rescued. A North Korean mine was later suspected as the cause of the explosion. South Korea's defense minister confirmed on May 10 that traces of an explosive chemical substance used to make torpedoes were found in the wreckage of the naval ship. It was later determined that a North Korean submarine sank the Cheonan. Of the 104 officers and enlisted men onboard the ship, forty-six were killed. North Korea denied responsibility for the attack.
(AP, 3/27/10)(AP, 3/29/10)(AP, 5/10/10)(AP, 12/24/19)
2010 Mar 26, Tens of thousands of Syrians and Palestinians gathered in a Damascus square in a government-orchestrated "march of anger" against Israeli settlements in east Jerusalem.
(AP, 3/26/10)
2010 Mar 26, Togo's government and the opposition coalition signed a temporary truce committing both sides to peace, law and order following opposition protests against presidential election results.
(AP, 3/27/10)
2010 Mar 26, Zimbabwe state media reported that PM Morgan Tsvangirai has backed President Robert Mugabe's stance against including gay rights in a new constitution. President Robert Mugabe said he would only implement terms of an agreement he signed in 2008 with rival Morgan Tsvangirai if the West removed sanctions on his allies.
(AFP, 3/26/10)(Reuters, 3/26/10)
2011 Mar 26, In a World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) initiative landmarks in thousands of cities, from Sydney Harbor Bridge to the world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, turned off the power for Earth Hour, the fifth such event promoting a sustainable future for the planet. The first lights dimmed across Fiji and New Zealand at 8.30 p.m. (3:30 a.m. EDT), to lights being turned on again in Samoa 24 hours later.
(Reuters, 3/27/11)
2011 Mar 26, In Maine a whoopee pie maker created a massive 1,067 pound whoopee pie. State Reps. Paul Davis and Emily Cain, sponsors of a bill to make the whoopee pie Maine’s official “treat," were on hand.
(SSFC, 3/27/11, p.A10)
2011 Mar 26, Harry Wesley Coover Jr. (b.1917), the inventor of Super Glue, died at his home in Kingsport, Tenn. Dr. Coover first happened upon the super-sticky adhesive, more formally known as cyanoacrylates, by accident when he was experimenting with acrylates for use in clear plastic gun-sights during World War II. An experimental accident in 1951 brought it back to his attention. In 1958 the first incarnation of Super Glue, called Eastman 910, hit the market. Kodak was not able to capitalize commercially on Dr. Coover’s discovery and sold the business to National Starch in 1980.
(www.nytimes.com/2011/03/28/business/28coover.html?_r=1)(SFC, 3/28/11, p.A4)
2011 Mar 26, Geraldine Ferraro (b.1935), former Queens congresswoman and the first woman to run for vice-president (Mondale-Ferraro 1984) on a major US party ticket, died in Boston.
(SSFC, 3/27/11, p.A12)
2011 Mar 26, Afghan President Hamid Karzai left on a visit to Tehran, where he will meet his Iranian counterpart following a row over fuel imports and attend a ceremony to mark the Persian new year. 3 militants and 4 civilians died when two cars they were traveling in were hit by NATO fire in Helmand province. 3 lower ranking Taliban fighters were killed in one vehicle and 4 civilians were killed in a second vehicle. Taliban militants kidnapped some 40 policemen after being tipped off that they would be traveling in Kunar province.
(AFP, 3/26/11)(AP, 3/27/11)(SFC, 3/28/11, p.A2)(AP, 3/30/11)
2011 Mar 26, Algerian police again stifled an attempt by pro-reform activists to rally against the government in what has become a weekly ritual. It was the eighth attempt since January by the CNDC to stage a weekly demonstration, along the lines of pro-democracy protests sweeping the Arab world, in defiance of a ban on rallies in the capital imposed in 2001.
(AFP, 3/26/11)
2011 Mar 26, Voters in New South Wales, Australia's most populous state, delivered a crushing defeat to PM Julia Gillard's Labor party, handing power to the conservative opposition in a landslide.
(Reuters, 3/26/11)
2011 Mar 26, Some 250,000 Britons marched through London in a demonstration against the government's austerity measures, amid a heavy police presence that failed to stop outbreaks of violence. More than 200 people were arrested. Rioters went on the rampage after the rally, attacking police and smashing up shops in a night of violence.
(AP, 3/26/11)(AFP, 3/27/11)
2011 Mar 26, It was reported that the Oxford English Dictionary has approved900 new words including a number of Internet-inspired expressions including LOL (laughing out loud), OMG (Oh, my God) and BFF (best friends forever).
(SFC, 3/26/11, p.A4)
2011 Mar 26, In Germany some 200,000 people turned out in the largest cities to protest against the use of nuclear power in the wake of Japan's Fukushima reactor disaster.
(AP, 3/26/11)
2011 Mar 26, Gaza militants fired over 50 mortar shells into southern Israel. One rocket damaged a house.
(SSFC, 3/27/11, p.A2)
2011 Mar 26, Japanese officials said radiation levels have surged in seawater near the tsunami-stricken nuclear power station in Fukushima, as engineers battled to stabilize the plant in hazardous conditions.
(AFP, 3/26/11)
2011 Mar 26, Jordan's Islamist opposition, leftists and trade unions demanded the ouster of PM Maaruf Bakhit, who they blame for violence that has killed one person and injured 130. The resilient opposition protest movement demanded political reforms and new elections. Some 7 thousand supporters of King Abdullah II took to the streets of Amman to express their loyalty.
(AFP, 3/26/11)(AP, 3/26/11)(SSFC, 3/27/11, p.A2)
2011 Mar 26, Libyan rebels regained control of the eastern gateway city of Ajdabiya after international airstrikes crippled Moammar Gadhafi's forces, in the first major turnaround for an uprising that a week ago appeared on the verge of defeat. In the western city of Zwara the opposition lost to Gadhafi. A resident said security agents had lists of rebel sympathizers and were dragging them from their homes in Zwara and Zawiya.
(AP, 3/26/11)
2011 Mar 26, In Libya Iman Al-Obeidi said she spent two days in detention after being arrested at a checkpoint, and sexually assaulted by up to 15 men while in custody. She shouted to tell her story at the Rixos hotel in Tripoli, after storming into the hotel's breakfast room to show her wounds to foreign media. Minders overpowered the woman and took her away. Days later Iman Al-Obeidi was sued for slander for naming her alleged attackers.
(AP, 3/26/11)(Reuters, 3/29/11)
2011 Mar 26, A Madagascar government official said Pres. Andry Rajoelina has announced a new transitional government as part of a roadmap to resolve the island's political crisis.
(AP, 3/26/11)
2011 Mar 26, In Mexico 4 Ciudad Juarez men were last seen, when they were picked up by patrol vehicles with decals matching those used by the security detail of new police chief, Julian Leyzaola.
(AP, 4/4/11)
2011 Mar 26, Myanmar reportedly earned more than $2.8 billion from the sale of jade, gems and pearls at its annual gems auction, held this month in the capital, Naypyitaw.
(AP, 3/26/11)
2011 Mar 26, In Nigeria police and local media said John James Akpanudoedehe, an opposition politician for governor in Akwa Ibom state, has been charged with treason after clashes killed four and left a campaign office for the president burnt in the main oil region.
(AFP, 3/26/11)
2011 Mar 26, Philippine Sen. Panfilo Lacson, who fled double murder charges more than a year ago, returned to the country after a court voided the arrest warrant against him. He had been charged with the killings of high-profile publicist Salvador "Bubby" Dacer and his driver in 2000, but has denied involvement.
(AP, 3/26/11)
2011 Mar 26, Portugal's Socialist Party, in a 2-day election, overwhelmingly re-elected outgoing PM Jose Socrates as its leader, after he quit last week when parliament rejected his austerity plan.
(AFP, 3/27/11)
2011 Mar 26, In Switzerland 1 person was missing after an avalanche swept away 11 French skiers near the southern border with Italy. 4 people were killed.
(AP, 3/26/11)
2011 Mar 26, Syrian government forces and protesters clashed in the coastal city of Latakia, where demonstrators set fire to the offices of President Bashar Assad's ruling Baath party.
(AP, 3/26/11)
2011 Mar 26, University protesters in Venezuela ended a month-long hunger strike, saying President Hugo Chavez's government has met their demands.
(AP, 3/26/11)
2011 Mar 26, The ruling party of Yemen's embattled President Saleh said he should serve out his term until 2013, after he offered to hand over power but only to "safe hands." In the south the army killed six suspected Al-Qaeda members.
(AFP, 3/26/11)
2012 Mar 26, The United States dropped Argentina from its system of trade preferences, citing the South American country's failure to pay court-ordered damages of $300 million plus interest to two US companies.
(AP, 3/26/12)
2012 Mar 26, In Colorado a state-prescribed burn went out of control and destroyed dozens of homes near Denver and left 2 people dead.
(SFC, 3/29/12, p.A7)
2012 Mar 26, Vermont police in Barnet found the body of Melissa Jenkins (33), a boarding school teacher. She had disappeared a day earlier leaving her SUV running and 2-year-old child unharmed inside. On March 28 Vermont snowplow driver Allen Prue was accused with his wife Patricia of luring the teacher from her home by pretending their vehicle had broken down, strangling her, stripping her and throwing her body into the Connecticut River.
(SFC, 3/27/12, p.A5)(SFC, 3/29/12, p.A7)
2012 Mar 26, In Afghanistan a member of the Afghan national army opened fire at entrance gate to the British headquarters at Lashkar Gah city, killing the two British service personnel. The assailant was killed by return fire. A joint Afghan and coalition force in Faryab province killed Makhdum Nusrat, leader of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan.
(Reuters, 3/26/12)(AP, 4/7/12)
2012 Mar 26, Britain’s PM David Cameron bowed to pressure to disclose his own contacts with wealthy donors after a newspaper sting caught a top fundraiser for his party offering meetings with the premier in return for big contributions.
(Reuters, 3/26/12)
2012 Mar 26, Britain’s Financial Services Authority handed Coutts, the private bank which counts the queen as a client, an £8.75-million fine for failing to ensure it was not handling laundered money.
(AFP, 3/26/12)
2012 Mar 26, British video games retailer GAME collapsed into administration, placing more than 5,500 jobs at risk, becoming the latest victim of tough economic conditions. GAME's international divisions were operating as normal.
(AFP, 3/26/12)
2012 Mar 26, Ontario's highest court struck down a national law that outlaws brothels but upheld an effective ban on street prostitution, a partial victory for those arguing Canada's laws put sex workers in harm's way.
(Reuters, 3/26/12)
2012 Mar 26, In the CAR British safari driver David Simpson was arrested after he reported the discovery of the bodies of 13 people by a small-scale gold mine at the Ngungunza mining site. Simpson was released after five months of incarceration.
(AFP, 5/14/12)(AP, 8/27/12)
2012 Mar 26, Colombia's military killed 36 rebels in a pre-dawn bombing of a guerrilla camp in the Meta state municipality of Vista Hermosa, a traditional stronghold of the FARC.
(AP, 3/26/12)
2012 Mar 26, Pope Benedict XVI arrived in Santiago, Cuba, in the footsteps of his more famous predecessor, gently pressing the island's longtime communist leaders to push through "legitimate" reforms their people desire, while also criticizing the excesses of capitalism.
(AP, 3/27/12)
2012 Mar 26, In Egypt two prominent liberal politicians pulled out from a panel tasked with drafting a new constitution after Islamists won a majority of seats on the body. The 100-member panel selected over the weekend includes nearly 60 Islamists and only six women and six minority Christians.
(AP, 3/26/12)
2012 Mar 26, In Egypt 3 people were killed and a dozen others injured when a tugboat engine exploded in the Suez Canal. More than 10 people were injured by the fire. Movement in the vital waterway was not affected.
(AFP, 3/26/12)
2012 Mar 26, In France former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn was handed preliminary charges alleging he was involved in a French prostitution ring.
(SFC, 3/27/12, p.A2)
2012 Mar 26, India's defense minister ordered federal investigators to probe revelations by the country's top military officer that he had been offered a $2.8 million bribe to clear a procurement deal. Army Chief General V.K Singh told the Hindu newspaper that a lobbyist for an unnamed military equipment supplier had offered him the cash incentive to approve the purchase of 600 sub-standard vehicles.
(AFP, 3/26/12)
2012 Mar 26, In India Tibetan exile Jamphel Yeshi lit himself on fire and ran shouting through a demonstration in New Delhi, just ahead of a visit by China's president. Yeshi sustained burns on 98 percent of his body and his condition was critical. Jamphel Yeshi died on March 28.
(AP, 3/26/12)(AFP, 3/28/12)
2012 Mar 26, Israel cut working relations with the UN Human Rights Council and said it will bar a UN team from entering Israel or the West Bank for a planned investigation of Jewish settlements.
(AP, 3/26/12)
2012 Mar 26, Kenya’s President Mwai Kibaki said oil has been struck in the northwestern Turkana region after exploratory drilling by Anglo-Irish firm Tullow Oil. Commercial viability was yet to be established.
(AFP, 3/26/12)
2012 Mar 26, Malians marched in Bamako to protest against the junta while Tuareg rebels threatened to capture a key northern city, piling political and military pressure on the coup leaders.
(AFP, 3/26/12)
2012 Mar 26, The Norwegian Foreign Ministry said it has decided to close down its embassy in Damascus due to security concerns.
(AP, 3/26/12)
2012 Mar 26, In Pakistan Mansoor Mukhtar (37), a member of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), the largest political party in Karachi, was shot dead late today when gunmen burst into the home where he was sleeping. His brother also died and his sister-in-law was wounded in the attack.
(AFP, 3/27/12)
2012 Mar 26, Saudi King Abdullah ordered the donation of petroleum products to neighboring Yemen that should cover the impoverished country's needs for two months.
(AFP, 3/27/12)
2012 Mar 26, In central Somalia Ethiopian forces seized El Bur, the main regional base of the Al Qaeda-linked Shebab insurgents. Shebab rebels in Mogadishu killed two civilians at a camp for the displaced near the presidential compound, which they targeted with mortar bombs.
(AFP, 3/26/12)
2012 Mar 26, Somali pirates seized an Iranian-owned cargo ship and its 23-strong crew in the first hijacking within Maldivian territory. The MV. Eglantine was seized off the north-western Hoarafush island in the Indian Ocean atoll nation. The Bolivian-flagged vessel was freed on April 2, and continued on to Iran with its sugar shipment.
(AFP, 3/27/12)(AFP, 4/3/12)
2012 Mar 26, South African rights activists began a legal bid to compel South Africa to investigate and prosecute citizens of neighboring Zimbabwe suspected of crimes against humanity.
(Reuters, 3/26/12)
2012 Mar 26, In South Korea leaders or top officials from 53 nations gathered in Seoul for a summit on nuclear security. President Obama said the United States would further cut its own nuclear stockpiles, as he warned North Korea and Iran to back down over their atomic plans.
(AFP, 3/26/12)
2012 Mar 26, A Spanish court dropped a rape probe against a Saudi prince who is one of the world's richest people, saying his accuser's allegations are inconsistent and do not stand up. The ruling cleared Prince Alwaleed bin Talal (57) and was released today by a court in Palma in Spain's Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean. The drugging and sexual assault of a young Spanish model was alleged to have occurred aboard a yacht moored at the island of Ibiza in the wee hours of Aug 12, 2008.
(AP, 3/29/12)
2012 Mar 26, Sri Lanka said it will not implement all proposals from its civil war commission because the panel went beyond its mandate. A UN rights council has called for the report's implementation.
(AP, 3/26/12)
2012 Mar 26, Syrian troops shelled rebel-held neighborhoods in Homs. The LCC said 19 people were killed in Syria, nine of them in Homs. The Observatory said 10 people were killed, including five in the Homs shelling. The government banned military aged males 18-42 from traveling outside the country.
(AP, 3/26/12)(SFC, 3/27/12, p.A3)
2012 Mar 26, Turkey closed its embassy in Damascus and recalled its ambassador as relations between the former allies continued to deteriorate.
(AFP, 3/26/12)
2012 Mar 26, A top official in Tunisia's ruling Islamist Ennahda Party says Islamic law will not be enshrined in the country's new constitution, preserving the North African nation's civil state.
(AFP, 3/26/12)
2013 Mar 26, President Barack Obama chose veteran agent Julia Pierson as Secret Service director, the first woman to lead the male-dominated agency.
(Reuters, 3/26/13)
2013 Mar 26, The US Supreme Court ruled that police cannot bring drug-sniffing police dogs onto a suspect's property to look for evidence without first getting a warrant for a search.
(AP, 3/26/13)
2013 Mar 26, The US Environmental Protection Agency issued a survey that said 55% of the nation’s rivers and streams are in poor biological health.
(SFC, 3/27/13, p.A6)
2013 Mar 26, In San Francisco Henry Doelger’s Art Deco/Streamline Modern real estate office at 320 Judah St. was voted in as the city’s 265th historical landmark by the Board of Supervisors.
(http://tinyurl.com/bswp2to)
2013 Mar 26, The Delaware state Senate approved a bill repealing the state’s death penalty in a 11-10 vote.
(SFC, 3/27/13, p.A6)
2013 Mar 26, North Dakota Gov. Jack Dalrymple signed legislation that that would make North Dakota the nation's most restrictive state on abortion rights, banning the procedure if a fetal heartbeat can be detected — something that can happen as early as six weeks into a pregnancy.
(AP, 3/27/13)
2013 Mar 26, In eastern Afghanistan 8 suicide bombers struck a police headquarters, killing at least five officers in Jalalabad. Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the attack. A roadside bomb killed two police officers and wounded another in the Nad Ali district of southern Helmand province.
(AP, 3/26/13)
2013 Mar 26, Afghan and NATO forces killed more than 20 insurgents in a 2-day joint operation in Logar province.
(AP, 3/27/13)
2013 Mar 26, In Bahrain 13 pro-democracy activists were sentenced to 10 years in prison over allegations that they attacked police officers.
(SFC, 3/27/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 26, The British government published its long-term Nuclear Industrial Strategy but fell short of announcing a guaranteed power price which operators want spelled out before investing billions in new power stations.
(AP, 3/26/13)
2013 Mar 26, In the CAR Michel Djotodia, one of the leaders of the Seleka rebel coalition, announced over radio that he has dissolved the country's constitution as well as the parliament and the government. French forces protecting Bangui's main airport opened fire on three cars that were speeding toward a security checkpoint. Two Indian citizens were killed, and wounded Indian and Chadian passengers were taken for medical care. Pillaging continued in Bangui.
(AP, 3/26/13)
2013 Mar 26, China and Brazil signed a deal to do up to $30 billion of trade in their local currencies, as the five-nation BRICS forum of emerging market powers worked to lessen dependence on the US dollar and euro.
(AP, 3/26/13)
2013 Mar 26, Prominent Egyptian blogger Alaa Abdel-Fattah handed himself in to authorities, a day after the country's prosecutor general ordered his arrest over his alleged role in instigating violence during clashes between supporters and opponents of the Islamist president. blogger, Abdel-Fattah was freed following his demand that an investigative judge take over his case.
(AP, 3/26/13)
2013 Mar 26, Egyptian authorities extradited two Libyan officials from the regime of deposed dictator Moammar Gadhafi back to their home country. Former ambassador to Cairo Ali Maria (71) and ex-official Mohammed Ibrahim Gadhafi (44) were handcuffed after resisting the transfer.
(AP, 3/26/13)
2013 Mar 26, Ghana and US officials broke ground for the National Marine Police Training Academy in the city of Anyinase. The US was investing over $1.2 million to construct the training center.
(AP, 3/26/13)
2013 Mar 26, In Iraq shootings and blasts killed five people, including two local politicians in a town north of Baghdad who died when a bomb attached to their car exploded.
(AP, 3/26/13)
2013 Mar 26, Italy's foreign minister Giulio Terzi resigned to protest his government's decision to send two marines back to India to face trial in the deaths of two fishermen.
(AP, 3/26/13)
2013 Mar 26, Italy's highest criminal court overturned the murder acquittal of Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito in the slaying of British roommate Meredith Kercher and ordered a new trial.
(AP, 3/26/13)
2013 Mar 26, UN officials in Liberia said they've temporarily halted the repatriation of tens of thousands of refugees from Ivory Coast because of continued unrest near the border between the two countries.
(AP, 3/26/13)
2013 Mar 26, In Libya 3 British female activists of Pakistani origin were kidnapped and raped in the eastern city of Benghazi. Pro-government militiamen were suspected. The women were part of an overland aid convoy bound for Gaza.
(AP, 3/29/13)
2013 Mar 26, In Libya nearly 50 inmates fled a prison in an oasis city in the country's southern desert. Authorities shot one dead during the escape.
(AP, 3/26/13)
2013 Mar 26, Earthquakes shook a broad swath of southern Mexico, causing buildings to sway in the capital and sending thousands fleeing into the streets. There were no immediate reports of damages or injuries.
(AP, 3/26/13)
2013 Mar 26, In Rwanda a grenade blast in Kigali killed one person and wounded eight.
(AP, 3/27/13)
2013 Mar 26, Saudi Arabia said investigations have shown that members of a spy ring arrested last week were working for Iranian intelligence.
(AP, 3/26/13)
2013 Mar 26, The Scottish government approved an offshore wind farm near Aberdeen. American tycoon Donald Trump vowed to bring a lawsuit to stop the $349 million development. He feared it would spoil the views at his nearby luxury golf course.
(SFC, 3/27/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 26, In South Sudan 143 rebels led by David Yau Yau died in a battle between soldiers and rebels backed by Sudan. 20 soldiers were killed and 70 wounded.
(AP, 3/28/13)
2013 Mar 26, Syrian opposition representatives took the country's seat for the first time at an Arab League summit in Qatar. The Arab League in 2011 suspended the Syrian government's membership in the organization in response to the regime's crackdown on opponents.
(AP, 3/26/13)
2013 Mar 26, In Syria mortars pounded at least two areas of Damascus, killing a girl and at least 2 other people. Anti-regime activists said government troops seized control of Baba Amr, a neighborhood in the central city of Homs, considered a symbol of opposition to Pres. Assad's regime. The Observatory said that at least 13 charred bodies, including those of four children and five women, were found on the outskirts of the village of Abil, southwest of Homs city.
(AP, 3/26/13)
2014 Mar 26, In California state Sen. Leland Yee was arrested in an FBI sting on charges that he conspired to traffic in firearms and traded favors in Sacramento for bribes. Yee represented half of San Francisco and most of San Mateo County. Yee was one of 26 people ensnared in a 5-year federal investigation that targeted Raymond “Shrimp Boy" Chow, a Chinatown gangster who had claimed to have gone straight.
(SFC, 3/27/14, p.A1)
2014 Mar 26, Daly City dentist Wilson Sy Lim was among 26 people arrested in a SF Bay Area FBI sting. State Sen. Leland Yee had introduced Lim to an undercover FBI agent as a connection for securing guns from the Philippines.
(SFC, 3/31/14, p.A8)
2014 Mar 26, A New York jury found Osama bin Laden's son-in-law and former Al-Qaeda spokesman Suleiman Abu Ghaith (48) guilty on three counts of conspiracy to kill Americans and supporting terrorists.
(AFP, 3/26/14)(SFC, 3/27/14, p.A9)
2014 Mar 26, Charlotte, NC, Mayor Patrick Cannon, in office for less than six months, resigned hours after he was arrested and accused of taking over $48,000 in bribes from undercover FBI agents.
(SFC, 3/28/14, p.A6)
2014 Mar 26, A British financial watchdog said it has fined Spanish banking giant Santander almost £12.4 million for mis-advising customers.
(AFP, 3/26/14)
2014 Mar 26, In Brussels Pres. Barack Obama and EU leaders presented a unified front against Russia's annexation of Crimea, promoting trans-Atlantic trade as an antidote to Russia's influence in the region and a way to help Europe become less dependent on Moscow for energy.
(AP, 3/26/14)
2014 Mar 26, The head of African peacekeepers in the Central African Republic said that vigilante groups known as "anti-balaka" will be considered and treated as "enemies" from now on.
(AFP, 3/26/14)
2014 Mar 26, In southern China a fire in a lingerie factory killed 11 people in Puning County, Guangdong province.
(AP, 3/26/14)
2014 Mar 26, In Egypt one person was killed near Cairo University when protesters supporting ousted President Mohamed Mursi clashed with security forces.
(Reuters, 3/26/14)
2014 Mar 26, Guinea health officials said the death toll from the rare Ebola virus has risen to 63. The outbreak is the first in West Africa in 20 years.
(AP, 3/26/14)
2014 Mar 26, Israeli navy ships opened fire on two suspected Palestinian smuggling boats off the Gaza coast. Both vessels sank after an explosion following the shooting.
(AP, 3/26/14)
2014 Mar 26, In their “Kuwait Declaration" Arab leaders called for a political solution to the conflict in Syria, overlooking Saudi-backed demands for greater military support for rebel forces to tip the balance in the war. The Arab League also announced their "total rejection of the call to consider Israel a Jewish state," in the final statement.
(AFP, 3/26/14)
2014 Mar 26, Myanmar’s Energy Ministry said major oil companies including Total, Chevron, Woodside Energy and Shell have won bids for offshore oil and gas exploration blocks off its western and southern coasts.
(AP, 3/26/14)
2014 Mar 26, North Korea test-fired two medium-range Rodong ballistic missiles. The Rodong launch, the first since 2009, violated UN Security Council resolutions and marked a big escalation from a series of shorter-range rocket launches the North has staged in recent weeks to protest ongoing annual military drills by the US and South Korea that Pyongyang claims are invasion preparation.
(AP, 3/26/14)
2014 Mar 26, The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters said Russian mathematician Yakov G. Sinai (78) has won this year's $1 million Abel Prize in mathematics.
(AP, 3/26/14)
2014 Mar 26, A Pakistani government team traveled to a secret location in the northwest where it held the first-ever direct talks with the Taliban.
(AP, 3/26/14)
2014 Mar 26, Russian forces took over the Ukrainian minesweeper Cherkasy, the last military ship controlled by Ukraine in Crimea.
(Reuters, 3/26/14)
2014 Mar 26, A Soyuz spacecraft carrying two Russians and NASA’s Steve Swanson blasted off from Kazakhstan. A software glitch delayed their docking with the International Space Station until March 27.
(SFC, 3/27/14, p.A2)(AP, 3/28/14)
2014 Mar 26, Somali government forces fighting alongside African Union troops said they had taken back control of the key town of El-Bur, driving Al-Qaeda-linked Shebab rebels from a major central bastion.
(AFP, 3/26/14)
2014 Mar 26, Spanish police arrested more than 50 students during a protest at a Madrid university during the first day of a strike to protest a government education reform and cutbacks in grants and staffing.
(AP, 3/26/14)
2014 Mar 26, A Turkish court ordered the telecommunications authority to restore access to Twitter, issuing an injunction five days after the government blocked access to the social network.
(AP, 3/26/14)
2014 Mar 26, Ukraine’s Naftogaz officials said the price of gas will rise for domestic consumers by more than 50 per cent from May 1. Further rises will be implemented under a fixed timetable until 2018. The step were in response to demands by the International Monetary Fund.
(AP, 3/26/14)
2014 Mar 26, Pope Francis permanently removed German bishop Franz-Peter Terbartz-van Elst from his Limburg diocese after his 31 million-euro ($43-million) new residence complex caused an uproar among the faithful. Francis had temporarily expelled him in October pending a church inquiry.
(AP, 3/26/14)
2014 Mar 26, The World Trade Organization ruled that China has violated international trade rules with its restrictions on the export of 17 "rare earths" and two other minerals that have key industrial and high-tech uses.
(AP, 3/26/14)
2015 Mar 26, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence signed into law a religious objections bill that some convention organizers and business leaders have opposed amid concern it could allow discrimination against gay people.
(AP, 3/26/15)
2015 Mar 26, Airlines rushed to change their rules so as to require a second crew member in the cockpit at all times, hours after French prosecutors suggested co-pilot Andreas Lubitz (27) had barricaded himself alone at the controls of a German jetliner and crashed it on purpose.
(Reuters, 3/26/15)
2015 Mar 26, Albanian lawmakers voted to lift the immunity of two of their colleagues accused of false testimony claiming that the parliament speaker was behind an alleged assassination plot to kill two deputies. Doshi was expelled from the governing Socialists three weeks ago after claiming Parliament speaker Ilir Meta, a former prime minister, had paid 600,000 euros ($656,000) to have him and an opposition Democratic Party lawmaker killed. Doshi had claimed that Frroku had first told him about the alleged plot.
(AP, 3/26/15)
2015 Mar 26, Argentina announced a new 100-peso note honoring the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo. Today 100 pesos buys $11 at the official exchange rate.
(Econ., 4/11/15, p.68)
2015 Mar 26, Brazil’s federal police said they had uncovered "criminal organizations" suspected of causing a shortfall of at least 6 billion reais ($1.9 billion) in unpaid taxes. More than 50 companies in the industrial, financial and agricultural sectors were being investigated for allegedly bribing officials at the Finance Ministry's tax appeals court to reduce annual fines on unpaid taxes.
(AP, 3/27/15)
2015 Mar 26, Britain's world-first Modern Slavery Act became law. It required companies whose turnover exceeds 36 million pounds ($46 million) to produce an annual statement outlining the actions they have taken to identify and root out slavery from their operations.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_Slavery_Act_2015)
2015 Mar 26, Britain buried King Richard III with pomp 530 years after his violent death. His remains had been found under a parking lot in 2012.
(SFC, 3/27/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 26, Troops from Chad and Niger pursued Boko Haram fighters across a northern Nigeria border area, driving them out of a village they held there and causing some to flee into Niger.
(Reuters, 3/26/15)
2015 Mar 26, Jaber, an Iranian fishing vessel believed to have up to 19 crew, was captured by Somali pirates, along with another Iranian fishing vessel, Siraj. Jaber and its crew escaped on August 27.
(Reuters, 8/28/15)
2015 Mar 26, Iraqi forces buoyed by the first US-led coalition air strikes on Tikrit made a final push to flush diehard jihadists out of Saddam Hussein's hometown. US-led warplanes carried out 17 air strikes against Islamic State jihadists in Tikrit overnight in the first wave of coalition bombing raids in support of an Iraqi government offensive to recapture the town. The Iran-backed Shiite militias pulled out of the offensive in Tikrit in protest over US airstrikes there.
(AFP, 3/26/15)(AP, 3/27/15)
2015 Mar 26, Italian police and Europol said eight people have been arrested in a half-dozen European countries for allegedly operating a diesel import scam that avoided taxes by disguising the fuel as it transited across the continent.
(AP, 3/26/15)
2015 Mar 26, In Mexico an attempt to take gasoline from a crashed tanker truck led to deaths and injuries when the vehicle exploded. The death toll rose to 17 as more victims died of burn injuries at hospitals.
(AP, 3/28/15)(AP, 4/3/15)
2015 Mar 26, North Korea said it had arrested two South Koreans based in the Chinese border city of Dandong, accusing them of spying for South Korea.
(Reuters, 3/26/15)
2015 Mar 26, The Pakistani Taliban killed 5 police officers in a rocket attack in country's southwest.
(AP, 3/27/15)
2015 Mar 26, The Philippines' top diplomat said that China has been rushing construction projects, including massive land reclamation, in the disputed South China Sea in hopes of forestalling any legal moves against its vast territorial claims.
(AP, 3/26/15)
2015 Mar 26, Warplanes from a Saudi-led Arab coalition bombed Huthi Shiite rebels in support of Yemen's embattled president, as regional rival Iran warned the intervention was a "dangerous" move. Egypt participated in the Saudi-led campaign against Shi'ite Houthis militias in Yemen with its naval and air forces. The US military rescued two Saudi pilots who ejected from their jet off Yemen's coast.
(AFP, 3/26/15)(Reuters, 3/26/15)(AFP, 3/27/15)
2015 Mar 26, Sudan said it is providing ground troops as well as warplanes for a Saudi-led military intervention against Shiite rebels in Yemen.
(AFP, 3/26/15)
2015 Mar 26, The UN Security Council boosted the number of peacekeepers in Central African Republic by more than 1,000 after the mission was overburdened by a need to protect infrastructure and senior officials in the capital Bangui.
(Reuters, 3/26/15)
2015 Mar 26, The UN Security Council voted to cut 2,000 troops from the UN peacekeeping force in the Democratic Republic of Congo despite calls from Kinshasa for a bigger drawdown.
(AFP, 3/26/15)
2016 Mar 26, In Alabama a medical helicopter crashed killing all 4 people onboard near the town of Enterprise.
(SFC, 4/12/16, p.A4)
2016 Mar 26, Vermont senator Bernie Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, breathed fresh life into his campaign for the White House with a clean sweep in caucuses in the western US states of Alaska, Hawaii and Washington.
(AFP, 3/27/16)
2016 Mar 26, The six astronauts at the International Space Station got an early Easter treat today with the arrival of a supply ship full of fresh food and experiments via Orbital ATK's Cygnus capsule, named after the swan constellation. The cargo carrier rocketed away from Cape Canaveral on March 22.
(AP, 3/26/16)
2016 Mar 26, In Afghanistan insurgents in Wardak province killed Mohammad Anwar, the top judge on a Ghazni province appeals court.
(AP, 3/27/16)
2016 Mar 26, Bolivian President Evo Morales said his country has decided to file suit against Chile at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) over a water dispute. Bolivia argues it owns the Silala spring waters originating in its southwest department of Potosi and that it is not being compensated for Chile's use of the water.
(AFP, 3/27/16)
2016 Mar 26, The final print edition of The Independent newspaper went on sale, ending its 30-year appearance on British newsstands.
(AFP, 3/26/16)
2016 Mar 26, Cameroon authorities said a teenager who surrendered before carrying out a suicide bombing attack in the north has said she was one of the 276 girls abducted from a Nigerian boarding school by Islamic extremists nearly two years ago.
(AP, 3/26/16)
2016 Mar 26, Greece said it has begun emptying the main migrant camp on its Macedonia border, as the huge tide of refugees flooding into the country slows to a trickle following the EU-Turkey deal.
(AFP, 3/26/16)
2016 Mar 26, The Indonesian the tug Brahma 12 and the Anand 12 barge en route to Batangas province, south of the Philippine capital, were reported hijacked with 10 crew members. On May 1 Abu Sayyaf militants freed the 10 Indonesian crewmen.
(AP, 3/29/16)(AP, 5/1/16)
2016 Mar 26, In Iraq a group of suicide bombers from the Islamic State group killed three Iraqi soldiers in an attack on the Al-Asad air base military base hosting hundreds of coalition advisers in Anbar province.
(AFP, 3/26/16)
2016 Mar 26, Mexican police in Veracruz killed 3 alleged criminals in a shootout, and then found three bodies the suspects had apparently been transporting.
(AP, 3/26/16)
2016 Mar 26, Sierra Leone police and military arms experts began destroying nearly 5,000 "unserviceable weapons" in an operation set to last two weeks.
(AFP, 3/26/16)
2016 Mar 26, Turkish Air Force jets joined coalition forces in attacking Islamic State targets in northern Iraq, hours after a Turkish soldier was killed at a military base in the region from rockets fired by the extremist militants.
(AP, 3/26/16)
2017 Mar 26, Joe Harris (89), American commercial illustrator, died at his home in Stamford, Conn. He created a cartoon rabbit to help sell the Trix cereal in 1959. He later designed cartoon characters for the Rocky & Bullwinkle show.
(SFC, 4/6/17, p.D3)
2017 Mar 26, In Ohio one person was killed and 16 others wounded early today in a shooting at the packed Cameo nightclub in Cincinnati. One hospitalized man faced murder charges. On March 30 police arrested Cornell Beckley (27) on murder charges.
(AFP, 3/26/17)(SFC, 4/1/17, p.A7)
2017 Mar 26, In eastern Bangladesh two suspected militants were killed in an ongoing military raid on a building in Sylhet where armed militants were holed up.
(AP, 3/26/17)
2017 Mar 26, Belarus police arrested about 30 demonstrators in Minsk who were demanding to know the whereabouts of friends and relatives detained in the breakup of a mass protest.
(AP, 3/26/17)
2017 Mar 26, Bulgarians voted for the third time in four years in an early election. The strongly pro-EU GERB was seen taking 96 of parliament's 240 seats, leaving it short of a majority and certain to seek a deal with the third-placed United Patriots, an alliance of three nationalist parties expected to take 27 seats. GERN leader Boyko Borisov faced an uphill battle to build a stable coalition government.
(AP, 3/26/17)(Reuters, 3/27/17)
2017 Mar 26, China's Premier Li Keqiang arrived in New Zealand for high-level talks at a time that both countries are pushing to expand free trade.
(AP, 3/26/17)
2017 Mar 26, An Egyptian court sentenced 56 people to prison terms of up to 14 years over the capsizing of a boat that killed over 200 people last September 21.
(Reuters, 3/26/17)
2017 Mar 26, In France Shaoyo Liu (56), a Chinese man, was shot and killed in his home by a plainclothes police officer. The killing prompted angry demonstrations the next day from the Asian community in Paris' multicultural northeast where the killing occurred. Liu’s daughter said her father was cooking dinner when she heard a loud knocking and that police broke down their door and shot him as he held scissors.
(AP, 3/28/17)(AP, 3/29/17)
2017 Mar 26, Carrie Lam, a Beijing-backed civil servant, was chosen to be Hong Kong's next leader, replacing Leung Chun-ying. She was chosen from among several candidates by a 1,200-person "election committee" stacked with pro-Beijing and pro-establishment loyalists.
(Reuters, 3/26/17)(Econ, 3/4/17, p.32)
2017 Mar 26, Indonesian farmer Akbar (25) failed to return home from a trip to the family's plantation on Sulawesi Island. His body was found the next day inside the belly of a giant python.
(AFP, 3/29/17)
2017 Mar 26, Iran sanctioned what it described as 15 American companies, alleging they support terrorism, repression and Israel's occupation of land Palestinians want for a future state, likely in retaliation for sanctions earlier announced by the US. The list included ITT Corp., missile-maker Raytheon Co., United Technologies Corp. Denver's Re/Max Holdings Inc., a real estate company and truck maker Oshkosh.
(AP, 3/26/17)
2017 Mar 26, Iran's central bank said it will appeal Luxembourg's decision to freeze $1.6 billion of its assets, which the US is claiming as compensation for victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks.
(AFP, 3/26/17)
2017 Mar 26, Iraq's military said that 61 bodies were recovered from a collapsed building that Islamic State had booby-trapped in west Mosul, but there was no sign the building had been hit by a coalition air strike. Witnesses and local officials that said as many as 200 bodies were pulled from the building after a March 17 coalition strike targeted IS militants and equipment in the Jadida district.
(Reuters, 3/26/17)
2017 Mar 26, Kenyan troops in Somalia killed 31 Islamist al Shabaab militants in a raid on two of their bases in the southern Somali region of Jubbaland.
(Reuters, 3/27/17)
2017 Mar 26, Hamas shut the crossing between the Gaza Strip and Israel after blaming the Jewish state for the assassination of one of its officials in the Palestinian enclave.
(AFP, 3/26/17)
2017 Mar 26, Russian police detained dozens of protesters across the country, including opposition leader Alexei Navalny, after thousands took to the streets to demonstrate against corruption and demand the resignation of PM Dmitry Medvedev. Riot police arrested more than 1,000 people in Moscow alone.
(Reuters, 3/26/17)(Econ, 4/1/17, p.43)
2017 Mar 26, In Syria the Islamic State group ordered residents to evacuate the city of Raqqa following reports that a dam contested by US-backed forces upstream on the Euphrates River could collapse.
(AP, 3/26/17)
2017 Mar 26, In Syria a Kurdish and Arab Syrian militia backed by the United States said it has captured the town of Karama and the capture of the Tabqa air base, 28 miles west of Raqqa. They planned an assault on the Islamic State stronghold of Raqqa in early April.
(Reuters, 3/26/17)(SFC, 3/27/17, p.A3)
2017 Mar 26, Tens of thousands of Yemenis protested in the capital Sanaa against the Saudi-led military intervention as it marked its second anniversary.
(AP, 3/26/17)
2018 Mar 26, The US said it is expelling 60 Russians, including 12 intelligence officers from Russia's mission to UN headquarters in New York and closing the Russian consulate in Seattle. Moscow said it will expel at least 60 staff from US diplomatic missions in Russia.
(Reuters, 3/26/18)
2018 Mar 26, The Federal Trade Commission confirmed that it is investigating Facebook's privacy practices following a week of privacy scandals including whether the company engaged in "unfair acts" that cause "substantial injury" to consumers.
(AP, 3/26/18)
2018 Mar 26, In northern California an SUV drove off an embankment on Highway 1 in Mendocino killing five members of a Washington state family. Three children remained missing in the tragedy.
(SFC, 3/29/18, p.D6)
2018 Mar 26, Pennsylvania environmental regulators issued another notice of violation to Energy Transfer Partners LP's Sunoco Mariner East 2 natural gas liquids pipeline for releasing drilling fluids into a wetland.
(Reuters, 3/27/18)
2018 Mar 26, In Angola the prosecutor general's office said the son of ex-president, Jose Filomeno dos Santos, has been charged with fraud relating to a $500 million transaction out of an account belonging to the central bank. Prosecutors also charged the head of the Angolan armed forces, Geraldo Sachipengo Nunda, with involvement in a scheme to negotiate a fraudulent international credit line of $50 billion.
(Reuters, 3/26/18)
2018 Mar 26, British PM Theresa May said 18 countries have announced they are expelling more than 100 Russian intelligence officers in response to the nerve-agent poisoning of a former spy.
(AP, 3/26/18)
2018 Mar 26, In Burundi Aloys Baricako, president of the opposition ground RANAC (National Gathering for Change) was apprehended this evening in the central town of Gitega where he had traveled to attend a funeral.
(AP, 3/27/18)
2018 Mar 26, Canada said it is expelling four Russians alleged to have worked as spies or interfered in Canadian affairs under diplomatic cover and denied three applications for Russian diplomatic staff.
(Reuters, 3/26/18)
2018 Mar 26, In Canada Alexandre Bissonnette (26) pleaded guilty in the slaying of six men at a Quebec city mosque on January 29, 2017.
(SFC, 3/29/18, p.A4)
2018 Mar 26, AsiaNews reported that Chinese Bishop Vincent Guo Xijin and his chancellor were taken away, at the start of Holy Week. AsiaNews noted that Guo had disappeared for several weeks last year around Easter as well.
(AP, 3/27/18)
2018 Mar 26, Democratic Republic of Congo said it would refuse international financing for a long-delayed presidential election and fund the poll itself, saying donors' conditions amounted to "foreign interference".
(Reuters, 3/26/18)
2018 Mar 26, In Ecuador three journalists working for El Comercio were kidnapped and transported to Colombia by a holdout faction of the FARC. On April 13 Pres. Lenin Moreno confirmed that the three journalists had been killed. On June 21 their bodies were found in a restless border region of Colombia.
(SFC, 3/28/18, p.A2)(SFC, 4/14/18, p.A2)(AP, 6/23/18)
2018 Mar 26, Egyptians began voting in an election that President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi is virtually guaranteed to win.
(AP, 3/26/18)
2018 Mar 26, Several EU countries and Ukraine said they are expelling Russian diplomats in response to the poisoning of a former Russian double agent with military-grade nerve agent in the English town of Salisbury.
(Reuters, 3/26/18)
2018 Mar 26, Clashes in India between supporters of PM Narendra Modi's party and those of an opposition party snowballed into Hindu-Muslim rioting, with three people killed and dozens injured over two days of violence.
(Reuters, 3/27/18)
2018 Mar 26, In India reporter Sandeep Sharma was killed in Madhya Pradesh state's Bhind district. He had been investigating illegal sand mining in the region for a television station.
(AP, 3/27/18)
2018 Mar 26, An Indonesian court sentenced Putu Astawa, a Balinese man, to 15 years in prison for robbing and murdering an elderly Japanese couple last year on Bali.
(AP, 3/26/18)
2018 Mar 26, The Iranian rial fell to a record low, breaking through the 50,000-to-the-dollar mark for the first time, as analysts blamed uncertainty from Washington.
(AFP, 3/26/18)
2018 Mar 26, In Kenya opposition figure Miguna Miguna was detained when he returned on a flight from Canada, a month after being deported in a dispute over his dual citizenship. Plainclothes officers tried to hustle him onto an outbound plane, but that failed when he protested. A High Court order the next day called for the his immediate release and a court appearance.
(Reuters, 3/27/18)(AP, 3/28/18)
2018 Mar 26, Kosovo sent special police units to its volatile northern region to enforce a decision to stop two senior Serbian officials coming in, as relations between the two countries worsen. Senior Serb official Marko Djuric was briefly detained as officers fired tear gas and stun grenades at Serb protesters.
(Reuters, 3/26/18)(SFC, 3/27/18, p.A2)
2018 Mar 26, A special train from North Korea to Beijing and unusually heavy security at a guesthouse where prominent North Koreans have stayed seemed to point to the possibility that Kim Jong Un was making his first visit to China as the North's leader.
(AP, 3/27/18)
2018 Mar 26, Pakistani police arrested 12 people, including members of a village council, elders and relatives, for ordering a man to rape a girl in revenge for the rape of his sister.
(AP, 3/26/18)
2018 Mar 26, It was reported that Sergei Mavrodi (62), an operator of Ponzi schemes and sometime politician, has died in a Moscow hospital. He was a TV personality and was elected a member of parliament in 1994, which gave him immunity from prosecution. He later served a four-year prison term for fraud, but was only ordered to pay back a fraction of the sums invested in his schemes.
(AP, 3/26/18)
2018 Mar 26, Sierra Leone's High Court canceled an injunction to delay the second round of presidential elections, saying the vote could go ahead as planned.
(Reuters, 3/26/18)
2018 Mar 26, A Slovak prosecutor said the murder of investigative journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancee last month, which sparked mass protests and forced PM Robert Fico to resign, was likely to have been a contract killing.
(Reuters, 3/26/18)
2018 Mar 26, South Korea said it has agreed to further open its auto market to the United States as the two countries prepare to amend their six-year-old trade agreement following complaints by President Donald Trump.
(AP, 3/26/18)
2018 Mar 26, Spanish authorities said police have captured a cybercrime gang made up of Ukrainians and Russians that allegedly stole more than $1.24 billion from financial institutions worldwide in a 5-year spree. Almost all of Russia's banks were said to have been targeted and about 50 of them had lost money.
(SFC, 3/27/18, p.A2)
2018 Mar 26, In Syria more than 2,500 rebels and civilians prepared to leave Eastern Ghouta after the largest exodus yet from the opposition enclave, as talks stalled over the final pocket of resistance.
(AFP, 3/26/18)
2018 Mar 26, Syria and its ally Russia threatened to resume bombing the final opposition holdout of Douma in Eastern Ghouta unless rebels there agree to evacuate.
(AFP, 3/27/18)
2018 Mar 26, In Ukraine a Washington-backed body set up to vet judges as part of the battle against corruption quit its role, saying the process to screen a judge fit for office was a sham.
(Reuters, 3/26/18)
2018 Mar 26, The United Arab Emirates said that one of four nuclear reactors at its debut plant has been completed as it moves closer to becoming the first Arab nation to produce atomic power. Visiting South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed toured the $20-billion Barakah plant constructed by a consortium led by the Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO).
(AFP, 3/26/18)
2018 Mar 26, The Houthi movement that controls northern Yemen vowed to fire more missiles into Saudi Arabia unless it stops bombing the country, after missiles crashed into Riyadh overnight causing casualties in the Saudi capital for the first time. Debris fell on a home in the capital, killing an Egyptian resident and wounding two other Egyptians. Riyadh said it had intercepted seven missiles fired from rebel territory.
(Reuters, 3/26/18)(AFP, 3/26/18)
2019 Mar 26, US Sec. of State Mike Pompeo expanded the Trump administration's ban on US aid to groups that promote or provide abortions to include organizations that that comply with the rules but give money to others that don't.
(SFC, 3/27/19, p.A4)
2019 Mar 26, The US Treasury took fresh aim at the international network funneling dollars and euros to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), naming 25 individuals and entities for financial sanctions.
(AFP, 3/26/19)
2019 Mar 26, The US Supreme Court threw out a nearly $315 million judgment against Sudan stemming from the USS Cole bombing in 2000, saying Sudan hadn't properly been notified of the lawsuit.
(AP, 3/26/19)
2019 Mar 26, In the US a nationwide ban on bump stocks took effect. The attachment allowed semiautomatic weapons to fire rapidly like machine guns.
(SFC, 3/30/19, p.A6)
2019 Mar 26, Prosecutors in Illinois' Cook County, who handle crimes in Chicago, dropped charges against actor Jussie Smollett who was accused of staging a hoax hate crime attack against himself. Details of the case were sealed.
(AFP, 3/28/19)
2019 Mar 26, An attorney said the Pennsylvania Roman Catholic Diocese of Erie has agreed to pay $2 million to a man who was sexually abused as a child by a priest who made him say confession after the assaults. Defrocked priest David Poulson was sentenced this year to 2½ to 14 years in prison after pleading guilty to the sexual assault of one boy and attempted sexual assault of another.
(AP, 3/26/19)
2019 Mar 26, Facebook said it has shut down more than 2,600 fake accounts linked to Iran, Russia, Macedonia and Kosovo and aiming to influence political sentiment in various parts of the world.
(AFP, 3/26/19)
2019 Mar 26, SF-based ride-hailing service Uber announced that it has acquired Dubai-based competitor Careem for $3.1 billion.
(SFC, 3/27/19, p.D1)
2019 Mar 26, Algeria's powerful army chief Ahmed Gaid Salah said he wants to trigger the constitutional process that would declare President Abdelaziz Bouteflika unfit for office, after more than a month of mass protests against the ailing leader's long rule.
(AP, 3/26/19)
2019 Mar 26, The Canola Council of Canada confirmed that China formally posted a web notice suspending the license of Viterra for canola seed. Exporters reported last week that Chinese importers are unwilling to purchase the seeds at this time. This was seen as retaliation for Canada's arrest of a top executive of Chinese tech giant Huawei.
(AP, 3/26/19)
2019 Mar 26, China's former internet censor Lu Wei, who once held high-profile meetings with industry leaders such as Apple CEO Tim Cook and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, was sentenced to 14 years in prison on corruption charges.
(AP, 3/26/19)
2019 Mar 26, A court in the Czech Republic convicted Radim Zondra of knifing two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova in her home in December, 2016, and sentenced him to eight years in prison.
(AP, 3/26/19)
2019 Mar 26, The European Commission ignored US calls to ban Chinese tech supplier Huawei as it announced a series of new cybersecurity recommendations for next-generation mobile networks.
(AP, 3/26/19)
2019 Mar 26, The European Parliament adopted copyright reforms championed by news publishers and the media business, in defiance of the tech giants that lobbied against it.
(AFP, 3/26/19)
2019 Mar 26, A German court upheld the murder convictions of two men whose midnight drag race in downtown Berlin in 2016 ended with a crash that killed another driver.
(AP, 3/26/19)
2019 Mar 26, Germany's meteorological agency DWD says 2018 was the warmest in the country since records began in 1881.
(AP, 3/26/19)
2019 Mar 26, A court in Georgia ruled that Jack Shepherd (31), a fugitive British man wanted for the manslaughter of a woman killed during a London date on a speedboat in 2015, is to be extradited. The web designer had showed up at a police station in Tbilisi, Georgia, in January and turned himself in.
(AP, 3/26/19)
2019 Mar 26, Israel kept up air strikes on Gaza and Palestinian militants launched new rockets despite the ceasefire claim. The UN envoy for the Middle East warned of catastrophic consequences from escalating violence in Gaza as Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas continued to exchange fire despite a ceasefire deal.
(AFP, 3/26/19)
2019 Mar 26, The academy of Italy's premier opera house, Teatro alla Scala, agreed to start a conservatory for both girls and boys in Saudi Arabia.
(AP, 3/27/19)
2019 Mar 26, In Mexico the head prosecutor of Veracruz state said search teams exhumed 12 sets of remains and have located three more bodies but not yet extracted them.
(AP, 3/27/19)
2019 Mar 26, In Morocco Larbi Rich (54), the driver of a passenger train that derailed and killed seven people last year, was convicted of manslaughter but ordered released on time already served.
(AFP, 3/27/19)
2019 Mar 26, Myanmar's Supreme Court agreed to rule on an appeal filed by lawyers for Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo sentenced to seven years in prison for their reporting on Myanmar's brutal crackdown on Rohingya Muslims.
(AP, 3/26/19)
2019 Mar 26, A Pakistani court placed two teenage sisters from the minority Hindu community in a government shelter as authorities launched an investigation into whether the girls were abducted and forced to convert and marry two Muslim men.
(AP, 3/26/19)
2019 Mar 26, In South Africa several southern African leaders threw their support behind Western Sahara, with one calling the disputed territory the "last colony" on the African continent.
(AFP, 3/26/19)
2019 Mar 26, Spanish weather authorities said 32 million people in the southern European country, or around two-thirds of Spain's population, are having to deal with higher temperatures, longer summers and more frequent tropical nights as a result of climate change.
(AP, 3/26/19)
2019 Mar 26, In northern Syria the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for an attack early today on a checkpoint of US-backed forces in Manbij that killed seven fighters.
(AP, 3/26/19)
2019 Mar 26, Demonstrations spread across Syria denouncing Washington's recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, in a show of unity in the war-torn country.
(AFP, 3/26/19)
2019 Mar 26, Turkish and Russian forces carried out the first "independent and coordinated" patrols in the mainly Kurdish-controlled northern Syrian region of Tel Rifaat.
(Reuters, 3/26/19)
2019 Mar 26, In Tunisia UN official Moncef Kartas, charged with investigating alleged violations of a UN arms embargo on Libya, was detained in Tunis on suspicion of spying. On March 29 Tunisian authorities confirmed that they had detained two Tunisians, including Kartas, on suspicion of "spying for foreign parties".
(AFP, 3/29/19)(AFP, 4/13/19)
2019 Mar 26, The all-female staff of the Vatican newspaper's monthly magazine on women's issues resigned abruptly en masse, saying the new editor was trying limit their autonomy and put them "under direct male control".
(Reuters, 3/26/19)
2019 Mar 26, Venezuela canceled work and school as the second major blackout this month left streets mostly empty in Caracas and residents of the capital wondering how long power would be out amid a deepening economic and political crisis.
(Reuters, 3/26/19)
2019 Mar 26, Yemenis held a mass rally in Sanaa to show support for the Houthi movement on the fourth anniversary of a war that has killed thousands of people and pushed the country to the brink of starvation. An airstrike killed seven people near the Kitaf rural hospital.
(Reuters, 3/26/19)(SFC, 3/28/19, p.A4)
2020 Mar 26, President Trump said he planned to label different areas as “high risk, medium risk or low risk," as part of guidelines to help states determine quarantine and distancing measures. He also reiterated his desire to start opening up parts of the country soon.
(NY Times, 3/27/20)
2020 Mar 26, The US State Department announced rewards for information leading to the arrest or conviction of various Venezuelan nationals, including President Nicolas Maduro who Washington aims to push out of power.
(Reuters, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, The US military said it has decided it will stop providing some of the more granular data about coronavirus infections within its ranks, citing concern that the information might be used by adversaries as the virus spreads.
(Reuters, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, The US Labor Dept. reported that a record 3.8 million American filed for first-time unemployment last week.
(SFC, 3/27/20, p.A1)
2020 Mar 26, The newly established US Space Force launched its first national security satellite from Cape Canaveral. The nearly $1 billion satellite is the sixth and final one in the US military's Advanced Extrememly High Frequency series.
(SFC, 3/27/20, p.A3)
2020 Mar 26, The US Environmental Protection Agency relaxed pollution rules, allowing power plants, factories and other facilities to monitor themselves for an undetermined period.
(NY Times, 3/27/20)
2020 Mar 26, In the United States deaths due to the coronavirus passed 1,050. The number of US coronavirus infections climbed above 82,000, surpassing the national tallies of China and Italy. The global death toll from the virus climbed past 21,000 and the number of infections has surpassed 472,000.
(AP, 3/26/20)(The Telegraph, 3/27/20)
2020 Mar 26, In the SF Bay Area confirrmed cases of coronavirus topped 1,400 with at least 32 deaths.
(SFC, 3/27/20, p.A1)
2020 Mar 26, Lee Guittar (b.1931), former editor-publisher of the San Francisco Examiner, died at his home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He was involved in the 1990 launch of We/Mbl, a short-lived partnership between Hearst and Izvestia to publish a daily newspaper in both English and Russian to be circulated in both countries.
(SFC, 3/30/20, p.B2)
2020 Mar 26, As of today anyone arriving in Hawaii was required to undergo a mandatory 14-day self-quarantine to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
(SFC, 3/30/20, p.A4)
2020 Mar 26, Louisiana reported the number of coronavirus cases in the state leapt 28% overnight. Louisiana has surpassed 2,300 people known to be infected, with 86 residents dead.
(AP, 3/27/20)
2020 Mar 26, NY state Gov. Andrew Cuomo said his state has become the nation's epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic. Cuomo says Congress' $2 trillion stimulus bill has "failed to meet the governmental need." New York has seen 385 deaths from COVID-19 and that number is expected to continue to rise.
(AP, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, Scientists announced the discovery of Dineobellator notohesperus, a two-legged meat-eater that was relatively small - around 7 feet (2 meters) long and 3 feet (1 meter) tall at the hip, weighing 40-50 pounds (18-22 kg). Fossils of the feathered dinosaur were found in northwestern New Mexico. The name means "Navajo warrior" to honor the Native American people native to the area.
(Reuters, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, The International Monetary Fund asked G20 leaders to back a doubling of its emergency financing capacity to strengthen its response to the rapidly spreading coronavirus pandemic that is set to cause a global recession in 2020. G20 leaders in a video conference said they were committed to presenting a united front against the coronavirus pandemic, calling it their "absolute priority" to tackle its health, social and economic impacts.
(Reuters, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) said it has increased resources available to countries in Latin America and the Caribbean to fight the coronavirus pandemic to $12 billion, up from the $2 billion it had promised a few weeks ago.
(Reuters, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, A lockdown of Austrian ski resorts that have become hotspots for the spread of the coronavirus in Europe was extended until April 13, Easter Monday. Austria has reported nearly 6,400 cases in its nine provinces, a quarter of them in Tyrol.
(Reuters, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, Bangladesh deployed soldiers to enforce the start of a nationwide 10-day shutdown to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
(SFC, 3/27/20, p.A4)
2020 Mar 26, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro (65) told reporters in the capital, Brasilia, that he feels Brazilians’ natural immunity will protect the nation from the coronavirus pandemic. The nation’s tally of confirmed COVID-19 cases surpassed 3,400 and deaths top 90. 25 of Brazil’s 27 governors signed a joint letter this week begging Bolsonaro to back strict anti-virus measures.
(AP, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 26, The number of people in the UK who have died from coronavirus increased by 31% to 759.
(AP, 3/27/20)
2020 Mar 26, It was reported that Mologic, a British company behind a 10-minute coronavirus antibody test, has begun sending prototypes to laboratories for validation, which could be a game-changer in the fight against the pandemic. The test would cost about a $1.
(Reuters, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, The Southern Cameroons Defence Forces (Socadef) said its ceasefire would come into effect from March 29 as "a gesture of goodwill." Cameroon's health ministry has so far has confirmed 75 cases of the coronavirus - and recorded its first death earlier this week.
(BBC, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, China said it will temporarily suspend the entry of foreigners with valid Chinese visas and residence permits starting on March 28, as an interim measure in response to the coronavirus epidemic. Exemptions will be made to those travelling in a diplomatic or official capacity, as well as holders of "C" visas, which are issued to foreigners involved in provision of international transportation services.
(Reuters, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, Cliver Alcalá, a retired Venezuelan army general indicted alongside Nicolás Maduro, surrendered in Colombia and was flown with US Drug Enforcement Administration agents to New York for arraignment.
(AP, 3/27/20)
2020 Mar 26, Denmark has recorded 1,851 people infected with coronavirus and 34 deaths. The country has restricted public assembly to 10 or fewer people and ordered the closure of schools, universities, day care centers, restaurants, cafes, libraries, gyms and hair salons.
(Reuters, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, Egypt's health ministry said there have been 495 cases of the new coronavirus in the country, including 24 fatalities. Egypt has expelled Ruth Michaelson, a correspondent for The Guardian, over a report citing a study that challenged the official count of coronavirus cases.
(AP, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, European Union diplomats said the EU will launch a new Mediterranean naval and air mission in April to stop more arms reach warring factions in Libya, with Greece agreeing to take in any migrants rescued at sea. The new mission, named Irini, will replace the EU's current military mission, known as Operation Sophia.
(Reuters, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, French health authorities reported 299 new deaths from coronavirus, taking the total to 1,995. A TGV bullet train transferred 20 patients on life-support systems to from Strasbourg to eastern France.
(Reuters, 3/28/20)(Economist, 4/4/20, p.39)
2020 Mar 26, A German court convicted Tunisian man Sief Allah H. (31) of planning to carry out a ricin attack in the name of the Islamic State.
(SFC, 3/27/20, p.A2)
2020 Mar 26, Germany has reported coronavirus infections in more than 39,000 people, but just 222 deaths. The country now has the ability to test 500,000 people a week, perhaps the greatest capacity in the world.
(AP, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, In Hong Kong opposition politician Cheng Lai-King (61) was arrested a day after she forwarded a Facebook post that identified a policeman who was believed to have fired the rubber bullet that last year blinded Indonesian journalist Veby Mega in one eye. Lai-King was released after being charged with sedition.
(SFC, 3/27/20, p.A2)
2020 Mar 26, In India the Jimme Foundation, an LGBT+ rights group, launched a fundraising appeal for Mumbai sex workers whose income has been hit by coronavirus, saying it wanted to help other Indians who faced prejudice.
(Reuters, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, Iran implicitly denied that Bob Levinson, a missing former FBI agent, had died in its custody as his family claims, restating its longstanding position that he left the Islamic republic "years ago." Levinson has been missing since 2007 and would have turned 72 this month.
(AFP, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, Iran's death toll due to the coronavirus jumped by 157 to 2,234, prompting new steps to limit public gatherings and domestic travel. President Hassan Rouhani said there would be more travel and gathering restrictions for the next two weeks to “break the chain" of the virus.
(AP, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, Iraq extended government-imposed restrictions on movement for two more weeks to stem the spread of the new coronavirus. The Health Ministry reported a jump of coronavirus-related deaths by seven in 24 hours. Authorities have confirmed that at least 29 Iraqis have died from COVID-19 and nearly 350 others have contracted the disease.
(AP, 3/26/20)(AFP, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, In northern Iraq the US-led coalition started pulling out from the Qayara airfield, in line with a planned drawdown of troops, hours after two rockets hit inside Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone.
(AP, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, In Israel Benny Gantz was chosen as the new speqker of parliament. Local media reported that Gantz and PM Benjamin Netanyahu had agreed on a broad coalition in which Netanyahu would remain as prime minister with Gantz as foreign minister. The two would swap posts in September 2021.
(SFC, 3/27/20, p.A2)
2020 Mar 26, Italy's death toll due to coronavirus was about 7,500. The number of cases in the in the northern region of Lombardy, increased by some 2,500. Italy has reported 8,215 deaths from the illness, more than anywhere else in the world, while confirmed cases total 80,539.
(AP, 3/26/20)(Reuters, 3/26/20)(Bloomberg, 3/27/20)(Reuters, 3/27/20)
2020 Mar 26, Lebanon extended government-imposed restrictions on movement for two more weeks to stem the spread of the new coronavirus. Lebanon has recorded six deaths of the virus while 35 new infected cases were recorded, raising the total to 386 cases.
(AP, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, In Morocco hundreds of mostly British tourists who were traveling in motorhomes have found themselves stranded in a parking lot near a Tangier highway that authorities have turned into a makeshift quarantine center. Morocco has identified 225 cases of COVID-19.
(AP, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, In New Zealand Brenton Harrison Tarrant (29), man who committed the worst atrocity in New Zealand's modern history when he slaughtered 51 worshippers at two Christchurch mosques on March 15, 2019, unexpectedly pleaded guilty to all charges.
(AP, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, Norway extradited Muslim cleric Mullah Krekar to Italy, where he was sentenced last July to 12 years in prison for planning terror. He had been found guilty of attempting to overthrow the Kurdish government in northern Iraq and create an Islamic caliphate.
(SFC, 3/27/20, p.A2)
2020 Mar 26, In Pakistan gunmen opened fire on security forces patrolling a remote border region near Iran, killing two soldiers. The troops were patrolling the region where smugglers have a strong presence.
(AP, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, Pakistan's cases of coronavirus rose to 1,098, up from 250 a week earlier. Eight deaths have been reported.
(SFC, 3/27/20, p.A4)
2020 Mar 26, The Russian government ordered the grounding of all international flights as part of new measures against the coronavirus pandemic, with the exception of flights evacuating Russian citizens from abroad. Kremlin spokesman Dmitri S. Peskov told reporters: “There is de facto no epidemic" in Russia.
(Good Morning America, 3/26/20)(NY Times, 4/14/20)
2020 Mar 26, It was reported that Rwanda police have shot and killed two young men for defying lockdown orders to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus.
(https://allafrica.com/stories/202003260464.html)
2020 Mar 26, Saudi authorities announced a total lockdown on the capital, Riyadh, and Islam's two holiest cities, Mecca and Medina, in addition to a nationwide curfew.
(AP, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, South African President Ramaphosa called on richer countries to support the continent's economies via stimulus packages to mitigate the devastation caused by the coronavirus, as his own country registered a jump to more than 900 cases.
(Reuters, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, Spain's Health Ministry reported nearly 8,600 new infections and 655 deaths, bringing the total cases to over 56,000 and more than 4,000 fatalities.
(AP, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, Sweden has reported around 2,806 confirmed coronavirus cases and 66 deaths while Denmark recorded 1,851 infected and 34 deaths. The country has remained largely open for business. Sweden's health agency has conceded more measures are likely as the virus continues to spread.
(Reuters, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, Swiss-based Nestle, the world's biggest food company, said it would pay full salaries for at least three months to employees affected by work stoppages to prevent the spread of coronavirus.
(AP, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, Nestle-owned N espresso, the maker of coffee brewing pods and machines, said it has found child labor at three farms where it buys coffee in Guatemala. The company said it has implemented a prevention plan to ward off potential further abuse.
(Reuters, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, Thailand has reported a total of 1,045 cases of coronavirus and four deaths since the outbreak started in January. Honda's Thai business said it would suspend operations at two factories after Thailand declared a state of emergency to curb the spread of coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, Authorities in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) announced an overnight weekend lockdown and used drones to tell residents to stay home.
(AP, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, All sides in Yemen's long conflict offered support for the United Nations' call for a ceasefire to protect civilians from the coronavirus pandemic.
(AFP, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro stood defiant in the face of a $15 million bounty by the US to face drug trafficking charges, calling Donald Trump a “racist cowboy" and warning that he is ready to fight by whatever means necessary should the US and neighboring Colombia dare to invade.
(AP, 3/26/20)
2233 Mar 26, James T. Kirk, science fiction captain of USS Enterprise (Star Trek), was born.
(SS, 3/26/02)
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