Today in History - October 17
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532 Oct 17,
Boniface II, 1st "German" Pope, died.
(MC, 10/17/01)
1244 Oct 17, The Sixth Crusade
ended when an Egyptian-Khwarismian force almost annihilated the
Frankish army at Gaza.
(HN, 10/17/98)
1346 Oct 17, English forces
defeated the Scots under David II during the Battle of Neville's
Cross, Scotland.
(HN, 10/17/98)
1483 Oct 17, The Reverend Dr.
Tomas de Torquemada (1420-1498), the Grand Inquisitor of Castile,
had his jurisdiction extended to Aragon.
(www.newadvent.org/cathen/14783a.htm)
1492 Oct 17, Columbus sighted
the isle of San Salvador (Watling Island, Bahamas).
(http://tinyurl.com/774v3)
1529 Oct 17, Henry VIII of
England stripped Thomas Wolsey of his office for failing to secure
an annulment of his marriage.
(HN, 10/17/98)
1577 Oct 17, Cristofano Allori,
Italian painter (Judith), was born.
(MC, 10/17/01)
1586 Oct 17, Philip Sidney
(b.1554), English poet and diplomat, died in battle at 32. His work
included “Astrophel and Stella” and “Defense of Poesy.” In 2002 Alan
Stewart authored “Philip Sidney: A Double Life.”
(MC, 10/17/01)(SSFC, 1/20/02, p.M4)
1587 Oct 17, Francesco de'
Medici (46) died 11 days after he fell ill and a few hours before
his wife. In 2007 forensic experts reported evidence that they had
died of arsenic poisoning. Francesco had ruled from 1574. By all
accounts his wife had been his mistress while he was married to his
first wife, who is also believed to have died of poisoning.
(AP, 1/3/07)
1651 Oct 17, Future King
Charles II fled from England. [see Oct 15]
(MC, 10/17/01)
1691 Oct 17, Maine and Plymouth
were incorporated in Massachusetts.
(HN, 10/17/98)
1707 Oct 17, German composer
Johann S. Bach married his niece Maria Bach.
(MC, 10/17/01)
1725 Oct 17, John Wilkes
(d.1797), English journalist, was born. He became a MP, Lord Mayor
of London and called for independence of Britain's American
colonies.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wilkes)
1739 Oct 17, King George II
granted Thomas Coram, retired sea captain, a royal charter to
establish "a hospital for the reception, maintenance and education
of exposed and deserted young children."
(ON, 9/02, p.8)
1777 Oct 17, General John
Burgoyne with British forces of 5,000 men surrendered to General
Horatio Gates, commander of the American forces at Schuylerville,
NY. In the fall of 1777, the British commander Gen'l. Burgoyne and
his men were advancing along the Hudson River. After Burgoyne had
retreated to the heights of Saratoga, the Americans stopped and
surrounded them. The surrender was a turning point in the American
Revolution, demonstrating American determination to gain
independence. After the surrender, France sided with the Americans,
and other countries began to get involved and align themselves
against Britain.
(AP, 10/17/97)(HN, 10/17/98)(HNPD,
10/17/99)(SSFC, 6/30/02, p.C10)
1805 Oct 17, Vice Adm. Horatio
Nelson wrote a letter to the governor, Rear Admiral John Knight just
four days before the historic Battle of Trafalgar, in which Nelson
was killed. In it Nelson declared he was "anxious for an Easterly
wind," as that would encourage the enemy to leave port and finally
face the British.
(Reuters, 7/13/10)
1806 Oct 17, Jean-Jacques
Dessalines (b.1758), Emp. Jacques I of Haiti, was assassinated.
(www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/43a/168.html)
1807 Oct 17, Britain declared
it would continue to reclaim British-born sailors from American
ships and ports regardless of whether they held US citizenship.
(AP, 10/17/07)
1808 Oct 17, The political
rights of Jews was suspended in Duchy of Warsaw.
(MC, 10/17/01)
1813 Oct 17, Georg Buchner,
German playwright (Danton's Death, Woyzeck), was born.
(MC, 10/17/01)
1814 Oct 17, Two giant porter
vats at the Horse Shoe Brewery on London’s Tottenham Court Road
burst when the securing hoops failed. The 25-foot-high vats were
owned by Sir Henry Meux and. Several lives were lost along with an
estimated 8,000-9,000 barrels of porter.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meux%27s_Brewery)(http://tinyurl.com/2v43jm)
1815 Oct 17, Napoleon (d.1821)
arrived in St. Helena.
(MC, 10/17/01)
1821 Oct 17, Alexander Gardner,
American photographer, was born. He documented the Civil War and the
West.
(HN, 10/17/00)
1821 Oct 17, The Gambia became
administered as a crown colony from Sierra Leone. Since then Banjul
(Bathurst) has been its capital.
(http://www.vdiest.nl/gambia.htm)
1825 Oct 17, Franz Liszt's
operetta Don Sanche premiered in Paris
(MC, 10/17/01)
1829 Oct 17, Delaware River and
Chesapeake Bay Canal formally opened. The Chesapeake-Delaware Canal
was 14 miles long.
(NG, Sept., 1939, p.379)(MC, 10/17/01)
1829 Oct 17, Sam Patch (~23),
stunt diver, successfully dove 120 feet from a platform on Goat
Island at Niagara Falls.
(MC, 11/13/01)(ON, 4/02, p.6)
1831 Oct 17, Felix
Mendelssohn's 1st Piano concert in G premiered.
(MC, 10/17/01)
1837 Oct 17, Austrian composer
Johan Nepomuk Hummel (b.1778) died in Weimar, Germany. His music
reflects the transition from the Classical to the Romantic musical
era.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Nepomuk_Hummel)
1849 Oct 17, Composer and
pianist Frederic Chopin died in Paris of tuberculosis at the age of
39. The 1945 film “A Song to Remember” was about Chopin.”
(HN, 10/17/00)(SFC, 11/25/02, p.A15)
1855 Oct 17, The Bessemer steel
making process was patented.
(MC, 10/17/01)
1859 Oct 17, Childe Hassam
(d.1935), American impressionist painter, etcher and illustrator,
was born. His work included "St. Patrick's Day."
(WUD, 1994, p.649)(HN, 10/17/00)
1860 Oct 17, The British Open
was 1st held at the Prestwick Golf Club in Scotland. The prize was a
red leather belt with a silver buckle. The belt was retired in 1872
and replaced with a silver claret jug.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Open_Championship)(WSJ, 7/21/00,
p.W9)
1862 Oct 17, Battle of Leetown
and Thoroughfare Gap, Va.
(MC, 10/17/01)
1863 Oct 17, General Ulysses S.
Grant was named overall Union Commander of the West. [see Oct 16]
(HN, 10/17/98)
1864 Oct 17, Elinor Glyn,
British novelist (3 Weeks), was born.
(MC, 10/17/01)
1871 Oct 17, President Grant
suspended writ of habeas corpus in South Carolina in response to
violence by the KKK. It applied to all arrests made by US marshals
and federal troops in nine of the state’s western counties. By the
end of November some 600 arrests were made.
(AH, 6/03, p.31)
1876 Oct 17, Henry Morton
Stanley's expedition (to find the source of the Congo River) reached
the Lualaba River.
(MC, 10/17/01)
1877 Oct 17, Brigadier General
Alfred Terry met with Sitting Bull in Canada to discuss the Indians'
return to the United States.
(HN, 10/17/99)
1883 Oct 17, A.S. Neill,
British headmaster (Summerhill), was born.
(MC, 10/17/01)
1894 Oct 17, Ohio national
guard killed 3 lynchers while rescuing a black man.
(MC, 10/17/01)
1895 Oct 17, Doris Humphrey,
modern dance choreographer, was born.
(HN, 10/17/00)
1898 Oct 17, Shinichi Suzuki
(d.1998), music teacher, was born.
(MC, 10/17/01)
1903 Oct 17, Nathanael West,
novelist and screenwriter, was born. His work included “Miss Lonely
Hearts” and “The Day of the Locust.”
(HN, 10/17/00)
1904 Oct 17, Amadeo Peter
Giannini (d.1949) founded the Bank of Italy, the predecessor to the
Bank of America, on the Montgomery block in SF.
(SFC, 4/14/98, p.B4)(SSFC, 10/24/04, Par p.5)
1907 Oct 17, Guglielmo Marconi
began offering limited commercial wireless telegraph service between
Nova Scotia and Ireland.
(AP, 10/17/07)
1910 Oct 17, Julia Ward Howe,
prominent American abolitionist, social activist, poet, died at her
home in Rhode Island. She was the author of "The Battle Hymn of the
Republic". In 2016 Elaine Showalter authored “The Civil Wars of
Julia Ward Howe. A Biography.”
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julia_Ward_Howe)(Econ, 2/20/15, p.74)
1912 Oct 17, John Paul I,
[Albino Luciano], 263rd Roman Catholic pope (1978), was born.
(MC, 10/17/01)
1912 Oct 17, Bulgaria, Greece
and Serbia declared war on Turkey. [see Oct 18]
(MC, 10/17/01)
1913 Oct 17, Zeppelin LII
exploded over London, killing 28.
(HN, 10/17/98)
1914 Oct 17, John Mosely,
recording expert and entrepreneur, was born.
(MC, 10/17/01)
1915 Oct 17, Arthur Miller,
Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, was born. His work included
"Death of a Salesman" and "A View from the Bridge." In 2003 Martin
Gottfried authored "Arthur Miller: His Life and Work."
(HN, 10/17/00)(SSFC, 9/28/03, p.M2)
1917 Oct 17, The 1st British
bombing of Germany took place.
(MC, 10/17/01)
1918 Oct 17, Rita Hayworth,
American actress, was born.
(HN, 10/17/98)
1918 Oct 17, Anton Dilger
(B.1884), an American saboteur educated as a surgeon in Germany,
died of Spanish flu in Spain. [see 1916] In 2007 Robert Koenig
authored “The Fourth Horseman: One Man’s Mission to Wage the Great
War in America.”
(SSFC, 1/14/07, p.M2)
1918 Oct 17, Yugoslavia
proclaimed itself a republic.
(MC, 10/17/01)
1919 Oct 17, The Radio
Corporation of America (RCA) was chartered.
(AP, 10/17/08)
1920 Oct 17, Montgomery Clift,
actor (From Here to Eternity), was born in Omaha, Neb.
(MC, 10/17/01)
1930 Oct 17, Jimmy Breslin,
columnist and novelist (NY Post, News, Newsday), was born in Queens,
NYC.
(HN, 10/17/00)
1931 Oct 17, Mobster Al Capone
was convicted of income tax evasion and sentenced to 11 years in
prison. He was released in 1939.
(AP, 10/17/97)
1933 Oct 17, Hugh Bancroft,
president of Dow Jones & Co., died.
(www.nndb.com/people/348/000159868/)
1933 Oct 17, Due to rising
anti-Semitism and anti-intellectualism in Hitler's Germany, Albert
Einstein immigrated to the United States. He made his new home in
Princeton, N.J.
(AP, 10/17/97)(HN, 10/17/98)
1934 Oct 17, "The Aldrich
Family" premiered on radio.
(MC, 10/17/01)
1934 Oct 17, "Handsome" Harry
Pierpont, bank robber, was executed in the electric chair in
Columbus, Ohio, for the murder of Sheriff Jesse Sarber.
(Internet)
1938 Oct 17, Evel Knievel (d.
Nov 30, 2007) was born as Robert Craig "Evel" Knievel, Jr. He became
a US daredevil motorcycle stunt man, showman, entertainer, Member
Motorcycle Hall of Fame and Guinness World Record Holder.
(HN, 10/17/98)
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evil_Kneivel)
1939 Oct 17, Frank Capra's
comedy-drama "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" premiered in the
nation's capital.
(AP, 10/17/99)
1940 Oct 17, California Gov.
Culbert Olson commuted the prison sentence of Warren K. Billings,
who spent 23 years in prison for his alleged role in the July 22,
1916, Preparedness Day bombing in San Francisco.
(SSFC, 1/4/15, DB p.42)
1941 Oct 17, The U.S. destroyer
Kearney was damaged by a German U-boat torpedo off Iceland; 11
people were killed.
(AP, 10/17/08)
1941 Oct 17, Gen’l. Hideki Toho
(1885-1948) became Premier and Minister of War in Japan. When the
bellicose war minister and most powerful man in Japan, Army General
Hideki Tojo, became prime minister, there no longer was a chance of
avoiding war with Britain and the United States.
(WUD, 1944, p.1683)(HN, 2/21/98)
1942 Oct 17, In Switzerland
Eduard von Steiger, Justice Minister and minister of police, told
leaders of the Swiss Fatherland Assoc. that the government had
decided on a “fundamental slowing” of Jewish immigration.
(SFC, 6/10/98, p.a10)
1943 Oct 17, British Liberators
sank U-540 and U-631.
(MC, 10/17/01)
1944 Oct 17 Hans Krasa,
Czech-Jewish composer, died at Auschwitz. The opera Brundibar by
Krasa was 1st performed at a Prague orphanage. It had been intended
for a 1938 government competition. It was later performed at the
Terezin concentration camp.
(WSJ, 2/7/03, p.D8)
1945 Oct 17, Col. Juan Peron,
the future president of Argentina, was released from prison after
protests by trade unionists, ending a crisis that began with his
forced resignation from his government posts and his arrest.
(AP, 10/17/06)
1949 Oct 17, Liu Wencai
(b.1887), Chinese landlord from Sichuan province, died. He was
depicted as the archetype of the exploiter of peasant farmers.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liu_Wencai)(Econ,
6/25/11, SR p.11)
1951 Oct 17, The Egyptian army
fired on British troops.
(MC, 10/17/01)
1956 Oct 17, The all-star movie
"Around the World in 80 Days," produced by Michael Todd, had its
world premiere in New York.
(AP, 10/17/06)
1956 Oct 17, The nuclear power
station Calder Hall was opened in Britain. Calder Hall was the first
nuclear station to feed an appreciable amount of power into a
civilian network. In 2007 engineers began the planned
decommissioning of the plant.
(HN, 10/17/98)(AP, 9/29/07)
1957 Oct 17, The movie
"Jailhouse Rock," starring Elvis Presley, had its world premiere in
Memphis, Tenn.
(AP, 10/17/07)
1957 Oct 17, French author
Albert Camus won the Nobel Prize in literature.
(AP, 10/17/97)
1957 Oct 17, Britain's Queen
Elizabeth and Prince Philip visited the White House.
(MC, 10/17/01)
1958 Oct 17, The special "An
Evening with Fred Astaire," the first major TV program produced on
color videotape, aired on NBC.
(AP, 10/17/08)
1960 Oct 17, A grand jury found
that the popular television game show Twenty-One had provided
contestants with questions and answers before the live programs were
broadcast.
(MC, 10/17/01)
1961 Oct 17, NY Museum of
Modern Art hung Henri Matisse's "Le Bateau" upside-down It wasn't
corrected until December 3rd.
(MC, 10/17/01)
1961 Oct 17, Paris police beat
and killed dozens of Algerian demonstrators and threw some bodies
into the Seine. The police were commanded by Maurice Papon. Papon
said some 30 bodies had been recovered from the Seine but that they
had been killed in fighting between rival Algerian nationalist
groups. In 1999 France agreed to open its archives on the issue.
Police killed 210 Algerians who were protesting against police
oppression and the curfew imposed against their community in Paris.
On Oct 17, 2011, Algeria's post office issued a new stamp to
commemorate the massacre.
(WSJ, 5/5/98, p.A1)(SFC, 5/6/99, p.A15)(Econ,
2/24/07, p.99)(AFP, 10/17/11)
1962 Oct 17, The SF Giants lost
to the NY Yankees 1-0 in the 7th game of the
World Series at Candlestick Park.
(SSFC, 10/14/12, DB p.46)
1964 Oct 17, In San Francisco
some 350,000 people came out for the Columbus Day Parade and to see
Pres. Lyndon Johnson.
(SSFC, 10/12/14, DB p.42)
1965 Oct 17, The musical "On A
Clear Day You Can See Forever," with a score by Burton Lane and book
and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner, opened on Broadway.
(AP, 10/17/05)
1966 Oct 17, Wieland Wagner,
German opera director and grandson of Richard Wagner, died.
(MC, 10/17/01)
1967 Oct 17, "Hair," subtitled
The American Tribal Love/Rock Musical, premiered off Broadway at the
Public Theater. It moved to the Biltmore Theater on Broadway on
April 29, 1968, where it stayed for 1,873 performances.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hair_(musical))
1967 Oct 17, American forces of
the black Lion battalion walked into an ambush set by NV commander
Vo Minh Triet and 61 were killed. In 2003 David Maraniss authored
"They Marched Into Sunlight: War and Peace, Vietnam and America,"
which centered on this battle and a protest in Wisconsin on Oct 18.
(Econ, 11/22/03, p.82)(SSFC, 12/28/03, p.M3)
1967 Oct 17, In Oakland, Ca.,
police clubbed a bloody path through some 2500 anti-war
demonstrators who had closed down the Oakland Armed Forces Examining
Station.
(SSFC, 10/15/17, DB p.50)
1967 Oct 17, Aisin-Gioro Henry
Puyi (61), the last emperor of China, died of cancer. Official
reports said his death occurred while under persecution from
ultra-leftists of the Cultural Revolution.
(SFC, 6/11/97,
p.C16)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Puyi)
1972 Oct 17, Bob Randall's play
"6 Rooms Riv Vu," premiered in NYC.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/6_Rms_Riv_Vu)
1972 Oct 17, The European
Communities Act, an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom,
legislated for the accession of the United Kingdom to the European
Communities (EC).
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Communities_Act_1972_%28UK%29)
1972 Oct 17, Peace talks
between Pathet Lao and Royal Lao government began in Vietnam.
(HN, 10/17/98)
1975 Oct 17, A UN committee
passed a resolution saying "Zionism is a form of racism." The
resolution was reversed in 1991.
(www.heritage.org/Research/InternationalOrganizations/bg851.cfm)(Econ,
4/25/09, p.62)
1977 Oct 17, West German
commandos stormed a hijacked Lufthansa jetliner that was on the
ground in Mogadishu, Somalia, freeing all 86 hostages and killing
three of the four hijackers.
(AP, 10/17/97)
1978 Oct 17, President Carter
signed a bill restoring U.S. citizenship to Confederate President
Jefferson Davis.
(AP, 10/17/98)
1979 Oct 17, Mother Teresa of
India, head of the Missionaries of Charity, was awarded the Nobel
Peace Prize for her years of work on behalf of the destitute in
Calcutta.
(SFC, 3/14/97, p.A13)(AP, 10/17/97)
1979 Oct 17, Pres. Carter
signed legislation creating Dept. of Education.
(www.jimmycarterlibrary.org/documents/jec/chron.phtml)
1979 Oct 17, S.J. Perelman
(b.1904), American humorist and screenwriter (Around the World in 80
Days), died at age 75.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S._J._Perelman)
1980 Oct 17, Mt. St. Helens
erupted 3 times in 24 hours, in Washington. The eruptions had begun
May 18.
(HN, 10/17/98)
1981 Oct 17 - 1981, Oct 18, In
San Francisco over 145,000 attended two concerts by the Rolling
Stones at Candlestick Park.
(SSFC, 12/22/13, p.A14)
1982 Oct 17, Sam Shepard's
"True West" premiered in NYC.
(www.cherrylanetheatre.org/historyMainstage.htm)
1986 Oct 17, The US Senate
approved immigration bill prohibiting hiring of illegal aliens and
offered amnesty to illegals who entered prior to 1982.
(http://tinyurl.com/yet49v)
1987 Oct 17, The 1st indoor
World Series game took place at the Minnesota Metrodome.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1987_World_Series)
1987 Oct 17, First lady Nancy
Reagan underwent a modified radical mastectomy at Bethesda Naval
Hospital in Maryland.
(AP, 10/17/97)
1988 Oct 17, Philip Morris
Companies Inc. launched an $11.5 billion takeover bid for Kraft Inc.
(AP, 10/17/98)
1988 Oct 17, Israel's supreme
court upheld a ban on Meyer Kahane's Kach Party as racist.
(www.washington-report.org/backissues/0799/9907081.html)
1989 Oct 17, The 7.1 Loma
Prieta earthquake [Watsonville] hit the Bay Area minutes before the
start of a World Series game at San Francisco’s Candlestick Park. 67
people died and 3,000 were injured. It caused $7 billion worth of
damage. The Spreckels Temple of Music in Golden Gate Park was
damaged and later restored. 28,000 structures were damaged and
several freeways ruined. 42 people died on the Cypress Freeway. At
the train station in SF Dr. Margaret McChesney commandeered a tour
bus to take frightened passengers home and navigated the driver
safely through barricades of cars and gangs of marauding youths on
3rd St. In 1999 new measuring methods changed the magnitude to 6.9.
(SFC, 4/15/96, A-6)(SFC, 10/17/96, A15)(SFC,
7/23/97, p.A13)(AP, 10/17/97)(AR, 9/12/98)(HN, 10/17/98)(SFC,
10/7/99, p.A21)
1990 Oct 17, The Cincinnati
Reds opened up a two games-to-none World Series lead, beating the
Oakland A’s 5-to-4.
(AP, 10/17/00)
1990 Oct 17, In testimony
before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Secretary of State
James Baker said Iraqi President Saddam Hussein “must fail if peace
is to succeed.”
(AP, 10/17/00)
1991 Oct 17, The Atlanta Braves
won their first National League pennant, defeating the Pittsburgh
Pirates 4-to-0 in game seven of their playoff series.
(AP, 10/17/01)
1991 Oct 17, Tennessee Ernie
Ford (b.1919), country singer (16 Tons), died in Reston, Va.
(AP, 10/17/01)(www.ernieford.com/Bio.htm)
1992 Oct 17, The Atlanta Braves
defeated the Toronto Blue Jays in game one of the World Series,
3-to-1.
(AP, 10/17/97)
1992 Oct 17, Japanese exchange
student Yoshi Hattori, 16, was shot and killed by Rodney Peairs in
Center, La., after Hattori and his American host mistakenly knocked
on Peairs' door while looking for a Halloween party. Peairs was
acquitted of manslaughter, but in a civil trial was ordered to pay
more than $650,000 in damages to Hattori's family.
(AP, 10/17/97)
1993 Oct 17, The Philadelphia
Phillies defeated the Toronto Blue Jays, 6-4, evening the World
Series at one game each.
(AP, 10/17/98)
1993 Oct 17, Senate Minority
Leader Bob Dole, in a CBS interview, said he would offer legislation
restricting President Clinton's authority to send troops to Haiti.
(AP, 10/17/98)
1994 Oct 17, Negotiators for
the Angolan government and rebels agreed to a peace treaty to end
their 19-year civil war.
(AP, 10/17/99)
1994 Oct 17, Leaders of Israel
and Jordan initialed a draft peace treaty.
(AP, 10/17/99)
1995 Oct 17, The Cleveland
Indians won the American League pennant by defeating the Seattle
Mariners, 4-to-0, in game six of their playoff series.
(AP, 10/17/00)
1995 Oct 17, President Clinton
told wealthy contributors at a Houston fund-raiser that “you think I
raised your taxes too much. It might surprise you to know that I
think I raised them too much, too”— a statement that drew criticism
from both Republicans and Democrats.
(AP, 10/17/00)
1995 Oct 17, The gasoline
additive MTBE showed up in a second drinking water well in Santa
Monica. The city was later forced to shut down half of its water
well supply due to MTBE.
(SFC, 9/15/97, p.A10)
1995 Oct 17, A bomb exploded
aboard a Paris subway car, wounding 29 people.
(AP, 10/17/00)
1995 Oct 17, In Sri Lanka the
army started the 1st phase of an effort to take full control of the
Jaffna peninsula. Shelling and bombing against civilians often
occurred.
(SFC, 7/24/96, p.A9)
1996 Oct 17, The Atlanta Braves
won the National League Championship Series, beating the St. Louis
Cardinals.
(AP, 10/17/97)
1996 Oct 17, In Leland, Miss.
Aaron White, a black TV repairman received a gunshot wound to the
head and was killed. It was claimed that a white police narcotics
officer shot Mr. White, while the police claimed that Mr. White shot
himself. On Oct 31 angry citizens rioted after marching on the local
police dept. when local officials agreed to only speak with the
march organizers.
(SFC, 11/1/96, p.A17)
1996 Oct 17, Berthold
Goldschmidt, German-born Jewish composer and conductor, died at 93
in England.
(www.scena.org/columns/lebrecht/030115-NL-goldschmidt.html)
1996 Oct 17, In France a
one-day strike was held by about 1.6 million public employees, a
third of the total public service sector. French unemployment stood
at 12.5%.
(SFC, 10/18/96, A14)
1996 Oct 17, In Russia Pres.
Boris Yeltsin dismissed Alexander Lebed from his post as national
security chief, one day after the former general was accused by a
rival of building his own rogue army.
(SFC, 10/18/96, A1)(AP, 10/17/97)
1996 Oct 17, In Slovakia some
10,000 people demonstrated against Culture Minister Ivan Hudec for
firing National Theater director Dusan Jamrich. Slovak artists claim
that the government is increasingly authoritarian.
(SFC, 10/18/96, C6)
1997 cOct 17, The new $180
million New Jersey Performing Arts Center opened in Newark.
(WSJ, 10/21/97, p.A20)
1997 Oct 17, The US Army used a
Miracl (medium infra-red advanced chemical laser developed by TRW)
laser beam to hit the MISTI-3 satellite in orbit. The laser test was
prohibited by Congress in 1985, but the ban expired in 1995. The
test failed to be recorded by sensors on the satellite.
(SFC, 10/21/97, p.A2)(WSJ, 10/24/97, p.A1)
1997 Oct 17, Tosco Corp. asked
the California Air Resources Board to move away from the use of MTBE
as a gasoline fuel additive due to possible contamination of ground
water.
(SFC, 10/30/97, p.A1)
1997 Oct 17, The remains of
revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara (1928-1967) were laid to rest in
his adopted Cuba in Santa Clara, 30 years after his execution in
Bolivia.
(SFC, 10/18/97, p.A10)(AP, 10/17/98)
1998 Oct 17, The New York
Yankees beat the San Diego Padres in the first game of the Baseball
World Series 9 to 6.
(SFC, 10/22/98, p.D1)
1998 Oct 17, Jon Postel (55),
an influential Internet pioneer, died. Since 1968 he had directed
the network’s Internet assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) that
allowed computers to be matched with web addresses. Two weeks before
he died he submitted the framework for a new organization to succeed
the IANA, a non-profit entity (ICANN) with an internationally
diverse board of directors.
(WSJ, 10/19/98, p.A1)(WSJ, 10/22/98, p.A22)(Econ,
11/19/05, p.68)
1998 Oct 17, Chilean officials
lodged a formal complaint to Britain over the arrest of former
Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, who arrested in a London medical
clinic following a request from Spain for his extradition.
(SFEC, 10/18/98, p.A1)
1998 Oct 17, In Malaysia Azizah
Ismail, wife of Anwar Ibrahim, joined some ten thousand protestors
demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Mohamad.
(SFEC, 10/18/98, p.A20)
1998 Oct 17, In Nigeria a
pipeline explosion near the town of Jesse killed some 700 people.
Authorities believed that scavenger’s tools sparked the explosion.
(SFC, 10/19/98, p.a1)(SFC, 10/20/98, p.A8)(SFC,
10/21/98, p.C2)(AP, 10/17/08)
1999 Oct 17, US negotiators
proposed to Russia an alteration to the 1972 ABM treaty to allow
construction of defensive systems.
(SFC, 10/18/99, p.A5)
1999 Oct 17, The FBI reported
that serious crimes reported to police declined for seventh straight
year in 1998 and murder and robbery rates reached 30-year lows.
(AP, 10/17/00)
1999 Oct 17, Former nurse
Orville Lynn Majors was convicted of murdering six patients at a
western Indiana hospital; the jury deadlocked on a seventh count.
Major is serving a 360-year prison sentence.
(AP, 10/17/00)
1999 Oct 17, In Niger the 1st
round of the presidential election was held.
(WSJ, 10/18/99, p.A1)
1999 Oct 17, In Pakistan Gen'l.
Musharraf announced a unilateral reduction of troops on the India
border, the establishment of a military-technocrat ruling council,
and an eventual return to civilian rule. He unveiled a 7-point
agenda to save the nation.
(SFC, 10/18/99, p.A10)(http://tinyurl.com/ruuth)
1999 Oct 17, In Yemen Abu
Hassan, "a nom de guerre" for the head of the Islamic Army of Aden
and Abyan, was executed.
(SFC, 10/29/00, p.A10)
2000 Oct 17, The New York
Yankees followed the Mets into the World Series, beating the Seattle
Mariners 9-to-7 and winning the American League championship series
four games to two.
(AP, 10/17/01)
2000 Oct 17, Al Gore and George
W. Bush held their 3rd and last TV debate from St. Louis with a town
hall format.
(WSJ, 10/17/00, p.A1)
2000 Oct 17, The month long Los
Angeles transit authority strike ended following negotiations
brokered by Jesse Jackson.
(SFC, 10/18/00, p.A3)
2000 Oct 17, In Britain the
London to Leeds train derailed at Hatfield and 4 people were killed
with 70 injured.
(SFC, 10/18/00,
p.A14)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatfield_rail_crash)
2000 Oct 17, In Chechnya it was
reported that mines planted by rebels killed 4 Russian soldiers.
(SFC, 10/18/00, p.A26)
2000 Oct 17, Ending an
emergency summit in Egypt, Israeli and Palestinian leaders agreed to
publicly urge an end to a burst of bloody conflict and to consult
within two weeks on restarting the ravaged Mideast peace process.
(SFC, 10/18/00, p.A1)(AP, 10/17/01)
2000 Oct 17, Montenegro Pres.
Milo Djukanovic refused to take part in national institutions with
Serbia until the Montenegro-Serbia relationship is redefined.
(SFC, 10/18/00, p.A12)
2001 Oct 17, Peter Carey won
his 2nd Booker Prize for his novel “True History of the Kelly Gang,”
a fictional account of the 19th century Australian outlaw.
(SFC, 10/18/01, p.B3)
2001 Oct 17, Pres. Bush
departed on a diplomatic mission to China following a stop in
Sacramento, Ca.
(SFC, 10/17/01, p.A5)
2001 Oct 17, Federal officials
reported that the anthrax strains in New York and Florida appeared
to be identical. The House and 6 congressional office buildings were
closed for tests after over 30 Senate staff members tested positive
for exposure to spores.
(SFC, 10/18/01, p.A1)(WSJ, 10/18/01, p.A1)
2001 Oct 17, Some 100 US land
and sea-base planes hit targets that included Kandahar and
Mazar-e-Sharif.
(SFC, 10/18/01, p.A3)
2001 Oct 17, Researchers at
Lucent’s Bell Labs reported the development of a tiny new transistor
made of a simple cluster of organic molecules.
(SFC, 10/18/01, p.D2)(WSJ, 10/18/01, p.B8)
2001 Oct 17, Jay Livingston
(86), film and TV composer, died in LA. He worked with lyricist Ray
Evans and together won 3 Academy Awards for best song, which
included “Que Sera Sera” in 1956.
(SFC, 10/19/01, p.D5)
2001 Oct 17, In Afghanistan
Taliban forces seized UN food warehouses in Kabul and Kandahar.
(SFC, 10/18/01, p.A3)
2001 Oct 17, Rehavam Zeevi,
Israeli tourist minister, was shot dead at the Hyatt Regency in East
Jerusalem. The PFLP claimed responsibility and Yasser Arafat
promised to hunt down the perpetrators. Hambi Quran, Basel al-Asmar,
Ahmed Gholmy and Majdi Rimawi were later convicted for the murder.
Ahmed Saadat, head of the radical Popular Front for the Liberation
of Palestine, was imprisoned in Jericho. In 2007 Hamdi Quran was
sentenced to 100 years in prison for gunning down the minister as
well as bombing and shooting attacks against Israelis. In 2008
Bassel Asmar was sentenced to life imprisonment for murder,
attempted murder and belonging to a terror organization.
(SFC, 10/18/01, p.A1)(SFC, 4/30/02, p.A16)(AP,
3/7/06)(AP, 2/6/08)
2001 Oct 17, In the Philippines
gunmen abducted an Italian priest, Giuseppe Pierantoni (45), in
Dimataling, Zamboanga del Sur. He was freed Apr 8, 2002.
(WSJ, 10/18/01, p.A1)(SFC, 4/8/02, p.A7)
2001 Oct 17, Russia announced
military cuts that would eliminate a navy base in Vietnam and a
radar station in Cuba.
(WSJ, 10/18/01, p.A1)
2002 Oct 17, Timothy Belden,
former Enron executive, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and agreed to
cooperate with federal prosecutors. Belden admitted to giving grid
operators false information and shipping power from within
California out of state and selling it back at higher prices.
(SFC, 10/18/02, p.A1)
2002 Oct 17, Ira Einhorn, the
'70s hippie guru who had fled to Europe after being charged with
murder, was convicted in Philadelphia of killing his girlfriend,
Holly Maddux, and stuffing her corpse in his closet a
quarter-century earlier. He was later sentenced to life without
parole.
(AP, 10/17/03)
2002 Oct 17, Israeli tanks
fired artillery shells and machine guns after coming under attack by
anti-tank missiles, killing at least 6 Palestinians and wounding
more than 40 in the southern Gaza town of Rafah.
(AP, 10/17/02)(SFC, 10/18/02, p.A18)
2002 Oct 17, In the Philippines
bombings in Zamboanga killed 7 people and injured 152. Militants of
Abu Sayyaf were suspected.
(SFC, 10/18/02, p.A10)
2003 Oct 17, Pres. Bush stopped
in Tokyo and thanked PM Junichiro Koizumi for aid to Iraq.
(WSJ, 10/17/03, p.A1)
2003 Oct 17, The US House and
Senate voted to spend some $87 billion earmarked for securing peace
and eliminating terrorist threats in Iraq and Afghanistan.
(AP, 10/17/04)
2003 Oct 17, In Chicago
government workers trapped in a burning downtown office tower
frantically dialed 911 as they tried to make their way through
smoke-filled staircases and hallways. 13 were found unconscious amid
the smoke, 6 of them dead.
(AP, 10/18/03)
2003 Oct 17, A new family of
frogs was reported from the western India. The purple, burrowing
frog family, named Nasikabatrachus sahydrensis, appeared to date
back some 200 million years.
(SFC, 10/17/03, p.A10)
2003 Oct 17, In eastern
Afghanistan a bomb blew up a pickup truck on a dirt road, killing
four people, and two Afghan soldiers were killed in a land mine
explosion in the country's south.
(AP, 10/19/03)
2003 Oct 17, Bolivia's Pres.
Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada (“Goni”) resigned in a letter to Congress.
VP Carlos Mesa, a moderate political unknown, took over the
presidency. As one of Bolivia's top journalists, Mesa wrote a
best-selling book, "Entre urnas y fusiles" (Between the Ballot Box
and the Rifle), about the many presidents in this country's often
tumultuous history. Lozada and Jose Sanchez Berzain, the former
defense minister, fled to the US. In 2007 suits were filed in the US
against Lozada and Berzain men for their October crackdown on
protestors that left 67 people dead.
(Econ, 10/16/04,
p.34)(www.boliviasolidarity.org/takeaction/latestactions/sanfran)
2003 Oct 17, The EU pushed
ahead with efforts to build its own defense arm but sought to ease
U.S. concerns by insisting the plan would neither duplicate nor
undermine NATO.
(AP, 10/17/03)
2003 Oct 17, German lawmakers
approved an $18 billion tax cut for next year and reductions in
jobless benefits.
(AP, 10/17/03)
2003 Oct 17, In Iraq the deaths
of 4 soldiers brought to 101 the number killed since Pres. Bush
declared the end of major combat on May 1.
(SFC, 10/18/03, p.A1)
2003 Oct 17, Taiwanese
officials celebrated the completion of the world's tallest
skyscraper after crews installed the pinnacle on the 1,676-foot-tall
building.
(AP, 10/17/03)
2004 Oct 17, Betty Hill (85),
who claimed that she and her husband, Barney, had been abducted,
examined and released by extraterrestrials in 1961, died in
Portsmouth, N.H.
(AP, 10/17/05)
2004 Oct 17, Organizers of a
campaign by French non-government organizations said African chicken
farmers risk ruin from massive imports of European frozen poultry at
less than a third of their prices.
(AP, 10/17/04)
2004 Oct 17, Belarus voters
went to the polls to decide whether to abolish presidential term
limits and allow the authoritarian president to run for a third term
in 2006. Opposition leaders accused the government of arresting
exit-poll takers and turning away election observers.
(AP, 10/17/04)
2004 Oct 17, Effective as of
today Brazil's air force will be allowed to shoot down small planes
suspected of carrying drugs under a law meant to stem the flow of
cocaine.
(AP, 10/15/04)
2004 Oct 17, US forces battled
insurgents around Fallujah. Militants ambushed and killed nine Iraqi
policemen returning from training in Jordan. A suicide driver in
Baghdad killed at least 7 people. More than 200 detainees were
released from Abu Ghraib prison after a security review deemed them
no longer a threat.
(AP, 10/17/04)(SFC, 10/18/04, p.A1)
2004 Oct 17, Jordan's military
prosecutor indicted Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, one of the most wanted
insurgents in Iraq, and 12 other alleged Muslim militants for an
alleged al-Qaida linked plot to attack the U.S. Embassy in Amman and
Jordanian government targets.
(AP, 10/17/04)
2004 Oct 17, The Tawhid and
Jihad group, a militant group led by terror mastermind Abu Musab
al-Zarqawi, declared its allegiance to Osama bin Laden.
(AP, 10/18/04)
2004 Oct 17, Military
helicopters doused a 730-foot office tower in Caracas' Parque
Central complex, one of Venezuela's tallest buildings, bringing
under control a blaze that many feared would cause the tower to
collapse.
(AP, 10/17/04)
2005 Oct 17, The American
magazine Conference unveiled the top 40 magazine covers of the last
40 years. The top rating went to Rolling Stone for its 1/22/81 cover
of John Lennon and Yoko Ono lying in bed.
(www.magazine.org/Press_Room/13806.cfm)
2005 Oct 17, The FBI reported
that US murders fell to 16,137 in 2004, 391 fewer than in 2003 and
that the overall violent crime rate hit a 3-year low.
(WSJ, 10/18/05, p.A1)
2005 Oct 17, Serono
Laboratories, a Swiss drug-maker, pleaded guilty to US federal
conspiracy charges and agreed to pay $740 million for kickbacks to
doctors for the AIDS drug Serostim and for manipulating a test for
AIDS patients.
(SFC, 10/18/05, p.E1)
2005 Oct 17, General Motors
Corp. and the United Auto Workers reached a tentative agreement that
will help the embattled automaker lower its health care costs even
as GM reported a whopping $1.6 billion loss for the third quarter.
(AP, 10/17/05)
2005 Oct 17, Commodities
brokerage Refco Inc. said it had filed for bankruptcy protection as
it struck a deal to sell its core futures brokerage business to a
group of private equity investors for $768 million. BAWAG, Austria’s
4th largest bank, gave Refco a top-up loan of 350 million euros just
hours before the bankruptcy. In 2007 it was revealed that Wolfgang
Flottl, a hedge fund manager, had his investments sour in 1997
causing BAWAG to lose over $1 billion. The losses were hid from
auditors for 7 years. Helmut Elsner, former boss of BAWAG
(1995-2003), faced charges along with 8 others for the bank’s near
collapse.
(Reuters, 10/17/06)(Econ, 5/6/06, p.72)(WSJ,
1/25/06, p.A1)(Econ, 7/21/07, p.73)
2005 Oct 17, Idaho state and
federal health officials are trying to get to the bottom of nine
reported cases of suspected sporadic CJD in Idaho this year.
(AP, 10/17/05)
2005 Oct 17, It was reported
that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation pledged $15 million for
the Computer History Museum in Silicon Valley, the world's largest
institution dedicated to preserving Information Age artifacts.
(AP, 10/17/05)
2005 Oct 17, Two days of
U.S.-Chinese trade talks ended with no response by China to an
ambitious American proposal to reform its financial sector and open
its markets wider to foreign products, while also moving faster on
currency reforms.
(AP, 10/17/05)
2005 Oct 17,
Dr. Marvin Chodorow (b.1913), former professor of physics at
Stanford Univ., died. He expanded on the 1937 invention of the
klystron tube, an early form of the driver for microwave power, and
increased its power from a few hundred watts to millions of watts.
(www.stanford.edu/dept/news/pr/2005/pr-chodorow-102605.html)
2005 Oct 17, In southern
Afghanistan US-led coalition forces killed four police officers
after mistaking them for militants during an operation in the
Maywand district of Kandahar province. Elsewhere militants shot dead
a police intelligence officer as he was walking in Zabul province.
(AP, 10/18/05)
2005 Oct 17, An Azerbaijani
opposition leader was arrested in Ukraine and scores of his
supporters were detained by police. Tensions rose in Azerbaijan in
the run-up to next month's parliamentary election.
(AP, 10/17/05)
2005 Oct 17, Radovan Karadzic,
former Bosnian-Serb leader and war-crimes fugitive, released a 6th
collection of poems titled “Under the left Breast of the Century.”
(SFC, 10/19/05, p.A2)
2005 Oct 17, The British
government announced that smoking will be banned at all workplaces
as well as pubs and restaurants in Northern Ireland from April 2007.
(AP, 10/17/05)
2005 Oct 17, China’s Shenzhou 6
capsule carrying astronauts Fei Junlong and Nie Haisheng landed
before dawn by parachute in China's northern grasslands after a
five-day mission.
(AP, 10/17/05)
2005 Oct 17, Ba Jin (100), one
of China's most revered communist-era writers who attacked the evils
of the pre-revolutionary era in novels, short stories and essays,
died of cancer in Shanghai. He is best known for his 1931 novel
"Family," the story of a disintegrating feudal household. Ba Jin
also translated the Russian writers Ivan Turgenev and Pyotr
Kropotkin.
(AP, 10/17/05)
2005 Oct 17, The EU urged
Croatia and Greece to expedite tests on dead birds as concerns rose
over the westward spread of avian flu.
(WSJ, 10/18/05, p.A1)
2005 Oct 17, The European Union
unblocked $87 million in development aid for Haiti, ending a freeze
imposed almost five years ago because of allegedly flawed elections
in the Western Hemisphere's poorest nation.
(AP, 10/17/05)
2005 Oct 17, Deutsche Bank AG
and private bank Sal. Oppenheim said they would acquire a combined
14% stake in China's Hua Xia Bank in a deal worth 272 million euros
($326.4 million).
(AP, 10/17/05)
2005 Oct 17, Iraq's former
Prime Minister Ayad Allawi and other secular leaders announced a new
coalition they said unites moderate Sunnis, Shiites and other
political groups to run in December's parliamentary elections.
(AP, 10/17/05)
2005 Oct 17, In western Iraq 2
US Marines were killed in fighting near the Jordanian border.
Insurgents shot and killed Ayed Abdul Ghani, an adviser to one of
Iraq's top Sunni Arab officials, as he drove to work in Baghdad.
(AP, 10/18/05)
2005 Oct 17, US warplanes and
helicopters bombed two western villages, killing an estimated 70
militants near a site where five American soldiers died in a weekend
roadside blast, the military. Residents said at least 39 of the dead
were civilians.
(AP, 10/17/05)
2005 Oct 17, Israel suspended
negotiations with the Palestinian Authority on issues such as
prisoner releases and slapped tough travel restrictions on the West
Bank after Palestinian gunmen killed three Israelis and wounded five
a day earlier.
(AP, 10/17/05)
2005 Oct 17,
Japanese PM Junichiro Koizumi enraged China and South Korea by
visiting Tokyo's Yasukuni war shrine.
(AP, 10/17/06)
2005 Oct 17, Libyan Foreign
Minister Abdel Rahman Shalgam rejected a call by US President George
W. Bush for Tripoli to spare the lives of five Bulgarian nurses
sentenced to death for infecting hundreds of Libyan children with
the AIDS virus.
(AP, 10/17/05)
2005 Oct 17, Dutch police
arrested 45 members of the Hell's Angels motorcycle gang and seized
an assortment of weapons during nationwide raids on the group's
clubhouses. Prosecutors said those arrested face charges of murder,
extortion, intimidation and weapons and drug trafficking.
(AP, 10/17/05)
2005 Oct 17, Russian state
security agents arrested a senior tax official as he was handed a $1
million bribe in a plush Moscow hotel. The arrest was announced the
next day as corruption watchdog Transparency International published
its annual survey showing graft in Russia had worsened to put it on
the same level as Sierra Leone, Niger and Albania.
(AP, 10/18/05)(Econ, 10/22/05, p.53)
2005 Oct 17, Abdi Hassan Awale,
who once served as Somalia's interior minister, was arrested on
suspicion of war crimes while attending a conference in Sweden. He
is suspected of being a militia leader during the Oct 3, 1993,
"Black Hawk Down" battle that left 18 Americans dead.
(AP, 10/17/05)
2005 Oct 17, South Africa's
government vowed to press ahead with legislative attempts to take
greater control of the nation's diamonds and weaken the grip of
diamond-producer De Beers, dismissing arguments that this could
disrupt global markets and lead to job losses.
(AP, 10/17/05)
2006 Oct 17, President Bush
signed legislation authorizing tough interrogation of terror
suspects and smoothing the way for trials before military
commissions. The Military Commissions Act virtually abolished the
right of any non-American deemed an enemy combatant to challenge his
indefinite detention before American courts.
(AP, 10/17/06)(Econ, 5/26/07, p.30)
2006 Oct 17, Pres. George W.
Bush signed the Military Lending Act, capping loan rates to service
members at 36%.
(http://tinyurl.com/yby24l9f)(Econ, 4/8/17, p.67)
2006 Oct 17, Pres. Bush signed
into law a bill to provide grant money for the Gullah/Geechee
Cultural Heritage Corridor. In September Congress had declared a
swathe of coastline from North Carolina to Florida the
Gullah/Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor, in an effort to preserve
the region’s distinctive black culture and creole language.
(www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6283153)(Econ,
2/2/08, p.42)
2006 Oct 17, The United States
said it plans to take in about 10,000 Burundian refugees from
Tanzania, many of whom fled their landlocked nation as far back as
1972.
(Reuters, 10/18/06)
2006 Oct 17, The US FDA
approved Januvia, a novel pill for Type 2 diabetes made by Merck.
Type 2 diabetes affects about 20 million Americans.
(AP, 10/17/06)
2006 Oct 17, Actor Wesley
Snipes was indicted for cheating the US government out of nearly $12
million in false refund claims and not filing for 6 years. On Feb 1,
2008, a federal jury in Florida acquitted Snipes (45) of the most
serious charges but convicted him on 3 of 6 lesser charges and said
he must pay up to $17 million in back taxes plus penalties and
interest.
(SFC, 10/18/06, p.A2)(SFC, 2/2/08, p.A2)
2006 Oct 17, The Chicago
Mercantile Exchange announced plans to acquire the Chicago Board of
Trade for about $8 billion.
(WSJ, 10/18/06, p.A1)(Econ, 10/21/06, p.86)
2006 Oct 17, It was reported
that teams of scientists from the Dubna nuclear research center in
Moscow and Livermore Lawrence National Laboratory in California had
detected element 118 after bombarding californium with calcium ions
in a Russian cyclotron.
(SFC, 10/17/06, p.A1)
2006 Oct 17, The 300 millionth
US resident was born at 4:46 am according to a US Census Bureau
estimate. The 200 million mark was reached in 1967. The 400 million
mark was expected around 2043.
(SFC, 10/18/06, p.B3)(Econ, 10/14/06, p.29)
2006 Oct 17, Megan Meier
(b.1992) of Missouri committed suicide following a series of cruel
messages on the MySpace online social network. In 2008 Lori drew
(49) of Missouri was indicted for perpetrating an online hoax, which
led to Meier’s suicide. Drew was convicted on Nov 26 of only three
minor offenses for her role in the Internet hoax. The federal jury
could not reach a verdict on the main charge against 49-year-old
Lori Drew, conspiracy, and rejected three other felony counts of
accessing computers without authorization to inflict emotional harm.
A final decision on the verdicts was still pending in 2009.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megan_Meier_suicide_controversy)(SFC,
5/16/08, p.A4)(AP, 11/27/08)(Econ, 7/11/09, p.232)
2006 Oct 17, Rapper Fabolous
was shot as he stood at a Manhattan parking garage, spurring a
sequence of events that left him both hospitalized in stable
condition and under arrest.
(AP, 10/17/06)
2006 Oct 17, Miriam Engelberg,
cartoonist and writer, died in SF. She had recently authored “Cancer
Made Me a Shallower Person.”
(SFC, 10/20/06, p.B9)
2006 Oct 17, Christopher Glenn
(68), CBS News correspondent, died in Norwalk, Conn.
(AP, 10/17/07)
2006 Oct 17, In southern
Afghanistan British troops pulled out of the Musa Qala district in
Helmand province. A US-led coalition airstrike killed a suspected
midlevel Taliban commander and up to 15 other militants. Suspected
Taliban militants destroyed an oil tanker transporting fuel for
NATO-led peacekeepers and killed its driver in southern Kandahar
province's Spin Boldak district.
(AP, 10/17/06)
2006 Oct 17, Australia's
worsening drought was driving farmers to suicide. Scientists and
politicians said government funds should be used to help them leave
increasingly unviable land.
(AFP, 10/17/06)
2006 Oct 17, Bahrain said
Lateefa al-Geood, a British-educated civil servant, has become the
first-ever female to serve as an elected member of the parliament.
18 women were among 221 candidates vying for seats in the 40-member
assembly in the Nov. 25 vote. Al-Geood was the only candidate who
registered to run in her region.
(AP, 10/17/06)
2006 Oct 17, In Brazil some 200
Indians from the Xikrin tribe, wielding war clubs and bows and
arrows, stormed an Amazon mining complex at the company town of
Carajas, shutting it down in an apparent demand for more
compensation from CVRD, the world's largest iron ore miner. The
Indians left after 2 days.
(AP, 10/18/06)(AP, 10/19/06)
2006 Oct 17, A Chinese court
ruled that journalist Yang Xiaoqing was exempt from serving the
remainder of his sentence but would not overturn the lower court's
conviction. Xiaoqing, convicted of extortion for exposing local
corruption, was released on bail last month.
(AP, 10/21/06)
2006 Oct 17, A UN report
recommended that recommended that East Timor’s former interior
minister Rogerio Lobato, military chief Taur Matan Ruak, and several
others be prosecuted for illegal distribution of weapons and be held
accountable for unrest that gripped capital Dili this year. The
79-page report also called for a further investigation into former
PM Mari Alkatiri to determine whether he should face criminal
charges.
(Reuters, 10/18/06)
2006 Oct 17, In Ecuador with
60% of the vote counted, Rafael Correa was all-but tied with Alvaro
Noboa, each with about 25%.
(AP, 10/17/06)
2006 Oct 17, The EU said it
felt obliged to back limited sanctions against Iran's nuclear
program after Tehran refused to halt uranium enrichment as a
condition to start negotiations.
(Reuters, 10/17/06)
2006 Oct 17, In eastern
Honduras a military truck plunged off a cliff, killing five soldiers
and injuring 12.
(AP, 10/18/06)
2006 Oct 17, Indonesian
television broadcast the photo of Sudjiono Timan, a fugitive
convicted of embezzling millions of dollars in state funds as part
of a new campaign against corruption. Timan, was sentenced in
absentia to 15 years in jail for embezzling $140 million after his
bank received emergency funds meant to bail out banks crippled
during Indonesia's 1998 financial crisis. This was the first
installment of a weekly TV program exposing people convicted of
corruption, which remains endemic at all levels of government.
(AP, 10/19/06)
2006 Oct 17, Iceland said it
would resume commercial whaling after a nearly two-decade
moratorium, defying a worldwide ban on hunting the mammals for their
meat.
(AP, 10/18/06)
2006 Oct 17, In Iraq attacks
left Iraqis dead and 16 more corpses turned up in Baghdad. 8 US
soldiers and one Marine were killed by roadside bombs and enemy fire
in and around Baghdad.
(AP, 10/18/06)(WSJ, 10/18/06, p.A1)
2006 Oct 17, Israeli troops
shot and killed 5 Palestinians, including 2 young stone-throwers, in
the West Bank town of Qabatiyeh.
(AP, 10/17/06)(WSJ, 10/18/06, p.A1)
2006 Oct 17, The Italian bank
Sanpaolo won a five-way race for control of Bank of Alexandria, the
first Egyptian bank to be privatized in a selloff worth 1.6 billion
dollars.
(AFP, 10/17/06)
2006 Oct 17, In Italy a subway
train rammed into another train halted at the Piazza Vittorio
Emanuele II station in central Rome, killing at least one person and
injuring 236.
(AP, 10/17/06)(WSJ, 10/18/06, p.A1)
2006 Oct 17, Kenya reported its
first case of polio in 22 years at a refugee camp near the Somali
border as the United Nations appealed for urgent help to cope with a
surge in refugees from Somalia.
(AFP, 10/17/06)
2006 Oct 17, In central Mexico
an explosion in an area packed with small fireworks factories
Capulhuac, 20 miles west of Mexico City, left four people dead and a
man with severe burns. In western Mexico 14 people were killed when
a passenger bus crashed into the back of a tractor trailer. A spark
touched off an explosion aboard a gasoline tanker ship at Pemex's
Pajarito marine terminal in the city of Coatzacoalcos, killing eight
people and injuring nine others.
(AP, 10/17/06)
2006 Oct 17, The US State
Department said that the last landmines and unexploded ordnance
blocking Mozambique's vital Sena Railway line have been removed,
thanks largely to some $13 million (€10 million) in US aid. The mine
action assistance was launched in 2002. Under the US Humanitarian
Mine Action Program approximately 46 million dollars have been given
in aid to Mozambique since 1993.
(AFP, 10/17/06)
2006 Oct 17, North Korea said
it considered UN sanctions aimed at punishing the country for its
nuclear test "a declaration of war," as Japan and South Korea
reported the communist nation might be preparing a second explosion.
(AP, 10/17/06)
2006 Oct 17, Philippine media
groups accused the president's husband of trying to muzzle a
critical press by filing a string of libel cases against 43
journalists and publishers.
(AP, 10/18/06)
2006 Oct 17, Sri Lankan fighter
jets pounded two suspected Tamil Tiger bases and a camp.
(AP, 10/17/06)
2006 Oct 17, A former Janjaweed
fighter in London recounted to the BBC how the Sudanese government
has actively supported the militia that is accused of genocide
against non-Arab ethnic groups in Darfur.
(AFP, 10/18/06)
2007 Oct 17,
President Bush attended a ceremony in which the Dalai Lama was
awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, Congress’ highest civilian
honor. China lodged an official protest over the honoring of the
Dalai Lama in Washington, while bluntly rejecting US President
George W. Bush's advice on how to handle the Tibet issue.
(AFP, 10/16/07)(WSJ, 10/18/07, p.A1)
2007 Oct 17, The US Supreme
Court stopped the execution of Virginia death row inmate Christopher
Scott Emmet (36). Legal experts said the move signals a nationwide
halt to lethal injections until the court decides in 2008 whether
the procedure violates constitutional standards.
(SFC, 10/18/07, p.A15)
2007 Oct 17, Teresa Brewer
(b.1931), singer, died at her home in New Rochelle, NY. She had a
big hit with “Music, Music, Music” in 1950.
(SFC, 10/19/07, p.A11)
2007 Oct 17, Joey Bishop
(b.1918), comedian and the last surviving member of Frank Sinatra’s
legendary Rat Pack, died. In 2002 Michael Seth Starr authored the
biography “Mouse in the Rat Pack: The Joey Bishop Story.”
(SFC, 10/19/07, p.A11)(AP, 10/17/08)
2007 Oct 17, Taliban used heavy
machine guns and rocket propelled grenades to ambush a US-led
coalition patrol in southern Afghanistan that wounded nine troops.
In the east, a roadside bomb on a police vehicle close to the border
with Pakistan killed an officer and wounded three others in Khost
province.
(AP, 10/18/07)
2007 Oct 17, In Australia a
group of children playing in a suburban Sidney park opened a
suitcase they found floating in a pond and discovered the body of a
youngster inside.
(AP, 10/17/07)
2007 Oct 17, Hundreds of police
agents swooped in on drug gangs in two Rio de Janeiro shantytowns,
setting off gunbattles that killed 12 people, including an officer
and a boy (4).
(AP, 10/17/07)
2007 Oct 17, In Cambodia
Alexander Trofimov (41), the Russian chairman of Koh Puos Investment
Group Ltd., was charged with debauchery, a Cambodian legal offense
covering sexual abuse of children. He was detained in the southern
resort town of Sihanoukville and accused of raping at least six
girls. In September last year, the Cambodian government gave
Trofimov's company permission to develop an island near
Sihanoukville into a tourist resort.
(AP, 11/16/07)
2007 Oct 17, In Costa Rica and
agreement was reached by which the US government and environmental
groups will trim $26 million off Costa Rica's debt rolls in exchange
for the country spending the same amount on tropical forest
conservation.
(AP, 10/17/07)
2007 Oct 17,
Fiji's coup leader Voreqe Bainimarama pledged to hold
elections in early 2009 as Pacific countries welcomed the move and
vowed to continue pressing for progress at a regional summit.
(AP, 10/17/07)
2007 Oct 17,
A Greek-flagged cargo ship carrying coal sank in the northern
Greek port of Thessaloniki after colliding with Panama-flagged Dubai
Guardian. The captain of the Diamond 1 was killed.
(AP, 10/17/07)
2007 Oct 17, In Indonesia's
Papua region rival tribes armed with bows and arrows clashed close
to a US-owned gold mine, killing eight people.
(AP, 10/17/07)
2007 Oct 17, Iran hanged eight
men and one woman on murder charges in the notorious Evin Prison in
northern Tehran.
(AP, 10/18/07)
2007 Oct 17, A roadside bomb
exploded near a police patrol, killing at least seven officers in a
Shiite area south of Baghdad. A suicide bomber driving an
explosives-laden truck struck a checkpoint manned by Kurdish forces
in Diyala province. The attack in a mountainous area near the
Iranian border killed 2 Kurdish soldiers and wounding more than 10
others. A bomb exploded near a residential building in the
predominantly Shiite neighborhood of Zafaraniyah, killing two
civilians and wounding two others. US troops captured 15 suspected
militants in operations targeted al-Qaida in Tikrit, Ramadi, Baqouba
and Mosul. Those captured were accused of helping smuggle foreign
fighters and weapons into Iraq, including five with alleged
connections to Syrian-based extremists.
(AP, 10/17/07)
2007 Oct 17,
Israeli troops killed a Hamas gunman in a battle in southern
Gaza.
(AP, 10/17/07)
2007 Oct 17,
A man opened fire in a courtroom in northern Italy, seriously
wounding his estranged wife and killing her brother before being
shot to death by police.
(AP, 10/17/07)
2007 Oct 17, Investigators
began raids on Japanese companies accused of corruption in projects
to remove chemical weapons abandoned in China during World War II.
The allegations involve the illegal diversion of some of the $199
million the government has disbursed since 2004 to help dispose of
400,000 chemical weapons that retreating Japanese troops left in
northeast China at war's end. China has said poisons have leaked
from the weapons and killed about 2,000 people since 1945.
(AP, 10/19/07)
2007 Oct 17,
Myanmar's military junta acknowledged that it detained nearly
3,000 people during a crackdown on recent pro-democracy protests,
with hundreds still remaining in custody.
(AP, 10/17/07)
2007 Oct 17, A clash between
Hamas security forces and members of a large Gaza clan affiliated
with the rival Fatah party left four people dead.
(AP, 10/17/07)
2007 Oct 17, Interfax reported
that Russia has charged a lieutenant colonel in the security service
and 8 others for the Oct 7, 2006, slaying of anti-Kremlin journalist
Ann Politkovskaya.
(WSJ, 10/18/07, p.A1)(Reuters, 10/17/07)
2007 Oct 17,
Irdris Osman, the head of UN food agency operations in the
violence-wracked Somali capital, was taken away by 50 to 60 heavily
armed government security officers who had stormed the UN compound
in Mogadishu. Osman was freed on Oct 23. Overnight, at least 8
civilians and one policeman died during a battle between Islamic
insurgents and policemen.
(AP, 10/17/07)(AP, 10/23/07)
2007 Oct 17,
In South Africa the leaders of Brazil, India and South Africa
vowed to push the interests of poor nations in stalled international
trade talks and said any agreement would have to benefit the
developing world.
(AP, 10/17/07)
2007 Oct 17,
Sudan's former southern rebels said they would rejoin the
national government to work through a stalemate on implementing a
2005 peace deal which ended Africa's longest civil war.
(AP, 10/17/07)
2007 Oct 17,
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, on a visit to Turkey, said
that Damascus would back a possible Turkish incursion into northern
Iraq to crack down "against terrorist activities" there.
(AP, 10/17/07)
2007 Oct 17, Turkey’s
Parliament gave the government a one-year window in which to launch
cross-border offensives against Turkish Kurd rebels who've been
conducting raids into Turkey. The vote removed the last legal
obstacle to an offensive.
(AP, 10/18/07)(AP, 10/20/07)
2007 Oct 17,
Pope Benedict XVI named 23 new cardinals, tapping two
Americans, the patriarch of Baghdad, and archbishops from five
continents to join the elite ranks of the "princes" of the Roman
Catholic Church.
(AP, 10/17/07)
2008 Oct 17, The Bush
administration named the beluga whale in Alaska’s Cook Inlet an
endangered species, despite opposition from Gov. Palin. Only 375
beluga whales remained there as opposed to some 1,300 in the 1970s.
In 2011 a US federal judge upheld the listing.
(SFC, 10/18/08, p.A3)(SFC, 11/22/11, p.A6)
2008 Oct 17, US drug czar John
Walters said that Mexico's drug cartels are crossing the border to
kidnap and kill inside the United States, and promised that an
anti-drug aid package to help Mexico to fight the gangs will be
ready soon.
(AP, 10/17/08)
2008 Oct 17, Harvard Univ.
announced a gift of $45 million and 31 major works of art from 1936
alumna Emily Rauh Pulitzer for the Harvard Art Museum. It was the
largest gift in the history of the museum.
(SFC, 10/18/08, p.E3)
2008 Oct 17, In Philadelphia
college student Jocelyn Kirsch (23) was sentenced to five years in
prison and ordered to pay more than $100,000 in restitution. She and
her former boyfriend, Edward Anderton, had stolen the identities of
friends and neighbors in 2006 and 2007 to net more than $116,000 in
goods and services. Anderton’s sentence was pending.
(AP, 10/17/08)
2008 Oct 17, Mervyn’s, a
Hayward, Ca., based retailer, said it plans to liquidate its
remaining 149 locations and shutter the business after the holiday
season.
(SFC, 10/18/08, p.C1)
2008 Oct 17, Pfizer Inc. said
it has reached agreements to end up to 92% of personal injury
lawsuits relating to anti-inflammatory drugs Bextra and Celebrex,
linked to elevated risks of heart attacks and stroke, at a cost of
$894 million.
(SFC, 10/18/08, p.A2)
2008 Oct 17, George M Keller
(b.1923), former head of Standard Oil of California (1981-1988),
died at his home in Palo Alto, Ca. He oversaw the 1984 merger with
Gulf Oil to form Chevron Corp.
(SFC, 10/18/08, p.B1)
2008 Oct 17, Levi Stubbs (72),
Four Tops frontman, died at his home in Detroit. His dynamic and
emotive voice drove such Motown classics as "Reach Out (I'll Be
There)" and "Baby I Need Your Loving."
(AP, 10/17/08)
2008 Oct 17, In Afghanistan a
bomb in Paktika province killed two civilians. A two-day battle in
Wardak province left 20 militants dead. NATO-led forces assaulted
the insurgent stronghold with airstrikes 40 miles west of Kabul.
(AFP, 10/18/08)(AP, 10/20/08)
2008 Oct 17, Two Indonesian
fishing crew picked up in Australian territorial waters with 14
refugees on their boat were charged with people smuggling.
(Reuters, 10/17/08)
2008 Oct 17, Some 30 leaders of
French-speaking nations attended a 3-day summit of French-speaking
nations in Quebec City, Canada. The focus was dominated by the
world's financial woes.
(AFP, 10/17/08)
2008 Oct 17, Chechen leader
Ramzan Kadyrov opened one of Europe's biggest mosques in the rebuilt
capital of the southern Russian region, saying it was proof Russian
rule and Islam can go together. The mosque, named "The Heart of
Chechnya" and constructed by Turkish builders, can host up to 10,000
worshippers.
(AP, 10/17/08)
2008 Oct 17, A bomb planted
near a Baghdad mosque killed three Shiite worshippers as they were
leaving prayers. Iraqi mosques used the Muslim week's holy day to
address recent attacks against Christians.
(AP, 10/17/08)
2008 Oct 17, In Mexico 334
police officers were ousted in ciudad Juarez after they failed
psychological, background and other checks as part of a clean-up
campaign meant to root out officers who are corrupt or cooperating
with drug traffickers. The border city sent police recruiters across
the country as it tries to replace nearly half a police force gutted
by firings and retirements.
(AP, 10/18/08)
2008 Oct 17, In northwest
Pakistan troops backed by helicopter gunships and artillery pounded
militant positions, killing 60 fighters and wounding many others
near the town of Matta in the Swat Valley.
(AP, 10/18/08)
2008 Oct 17, In southern
Thailand a 25-year-old man was shot dead in a gunfight with security
officials after the arrests of five other suspected militants.
(AFP, 10/18/08)
2008 Oct 17, Turkish warplanes
carried out successful airstrikes inside Iraq on the main bases used
by Kurdish rebels. The air strikes on Qandil Mountain killed 25
Kurdish rebels and wounded many more. Earlier in the day, the
military said it intercepted Kurdish rebel radio chatter indicating
that up to 35 guerrillas had been killed in clashes with troops
earlier this week in southeastern Sirnak province.
(AP, 10/17/08)(AP, 10/24/08)
2008 Oct 17, The UN added
Japan, Austria, Turkey, Mexico and Uganda as members to the 10
non-permanent seats of the Security Council, replacing Belgium,
Indonesia, Italy, Panama and South Africa.
(AP, 10/17/08)
2009 Oct 17, In Oakland, Ca., 3
people died when their car flipped during a sideshow in the early
hours. The Nissan in the crash was said to have been in a hyphy
train, like a conga line on wheels with cars weaving and speeding in
unison.
(SSFC, 10/18/09, p.C3)
2009 Oct 17, In Virginia Morgan
Harrington (20), a Virginia Tech student, disappeared folowing a
Metallica in Charlottesville. A farmer found her remains three
months later in a hayfield.
(SFC, 10/1/14, p.A12)
2009 Oct 17, In Brazil drug
traffickers shot down a police helicopter during a gunbattle between
rival gangs. The weekend gang fight in Rio de Janeiro left 3 police
officers killed, and continued into the week leaving at least 32
people dead.
(SSFC, 10/18/09, p.A8)(AP, 10/21/09)(AP,
10/22/09)(Econ, 10/24/09, p.42)
2009 Oct 17, In Iraq a suicide
bomber driving a dynamite-laden truck destroyed a key bridge on a
highway used by the departing US military outside Ramadi. An attack
on an Iraqi army convoy just outside of the city of Fallujah killed
four Iraqi soldiers and wounded 14. Attackers threw hand grenades at
an Iraqi army patrol near Kirkuk, killing two civilians and wounding
two others. In Mosul 2 policemen and one civilian were killed in
three unrelated incidents.
(AP, 10/17/09)
2009 Oct 17, The West Africa
regional bloc ECOWAS imposed an arms embargo against Guinea,
accusing the ruling military junta for "mass human rights
violations" during anti-government protests last month.
(AP, 10/17/09)
2009 Oct 17, In Honduras ousted
President Manuel Zelaya said negotiations over the coup are in
"suspense" after the rival factions rebuffed each other's proposals
and his foreign minister called the internationally brokered talks a
failure.
(AP, 10/17/09)
2009 Oct 17, Members of the
Maldives' Cabinet donned scuba gear and used hand signals at an
underwater meeting staged to highlight the threat of global warming
to the lowest-lying nation on earth.
(AP, 10/17/09)
2009 Oct 17, Mexican police in
Tijuana found a man's nude, mutilated body hung by the neck from an
expressway overpass, the 2nd such grisly discovery in 9 days. Police
reported finding the mutilated body of a woman in a reservoir in
another part of Tijuana. The woman's hands and head were missing. A
shootout between gunmen and police killed one officer and a gunman
and wounded two policemen. Tijuana investigators found five assault
rifles and vests with federal prosecutors' insignia in three
vehicles thought used by the attackers.
(AP, 10/17/09)
2009 Oct 17, It was reported
that an increasing number of children in Africa are being accused of
witchcraft by pastors of evangelical Christianity and then tortured
or killed, often by family members. Pastors were involved in half of
200 cases of "witch children" reviewed by the AP, and 13 churches
were named in the case files. Campaigners against the practice said
around 15,000 children have been accused in two of Nigeria's 36
states over the past decade and around 1,000 have been murdered.
(AP, 10/17/09)
2009 Oct 17, More than 30,000
Pakistani soldiers launched a ground offensive against al-Qaida and
the Taliban's main stronghold along the Afghan border, in the
country's toughest test yet against a strengthening insurgency. The
operation was expected to last around two months. At least 11
suspected insurgents were killed in jet bombings, while a bomb hit a
security convoy, killing one soldier and wounding three others. 4
soldiers were killed and 12 wounded in exchanges of fire elsewhere
in the region. The plan was to capture and hold an area where an
estimated 10,000 insurgents were headquartered and reinforced with
about 1,500 foreign fighters, most of them of Central Asian origin.
(AP, 10/17/09)
2009 Oct 17, In the Philippines
a propeller-driven plane on a test flight crashed and burst into
flames in a suburb of Manila, killing at least four people onboard.
(AP, 10/17/09)
2009 Oct 17, In Puerto Rico
gunmen opened fire into a bar in Toa Baja shortly before midnight
and killed seven people, injuring 20 others. On Oct 27 Wilfredo
Semprit Santana, the owner of the bar, was arrested and charged with
drug trafficking.
(AP, 10/18/09)(AP, 10/27/09)
2009 Oct 17, In Spain a huge
crowd rallied in Madrid against a bill to ease restrictions on
abortion, a vivid and emotional show of how the issue remains
sensitive two decades after abortion was legalized in this
traditionally Roman Catholic country.
(AP, 10/17/09)
2009 Oct 17, In western Sudan 3
peacekeepers were wounded, two of them seriously, when their vehicle
came under fire in the Darfur region.
(AFP, 10/17/09)
2009 Oct 17, In Thailand some
17,000 "Red Shirt" supporters of Thaksin Shinawatra rallied in
Bangkok to pressure the Thai government over their petition seeking
a royal pardon for the fugitive former prime minister.
(AP, 10/17/09)
2010 Oct 17, The New York Times
reported that possibly hundreds of members of Iraq's Awakening
Councils, a group affiliated with the US military, have switched
their loyalty to Al-Qaeda.
(AP, 10/17/10)
2010 Oct 17, The Washington
Post reported that the United States believes some Chinese firms are
helping Iran improve its missile technology and develop nuclear
weapons and has asked Beijing to prevent such activity.
(AFP, 10/17/10)
2010 Oct 17, In Arizona a
commercial tour bus drifted off a highway near Meadview and rolled
over several times killing 2 people and injuring several others.
(SFC, 10/18/10, p.A5)
2010 Oct 17, In New York Danroy
"D.J." Henry (20), a college football player driving away from the
scene of a fight, ended up dead hours after the team's homecoming
game, struck in a burst of police gunfire that pierced his
windshield in the Westchester County hamlet of Thornwood.
(AP, 10/19/10)
2010 Oct 17, Afghanistan issued
a statement issued by the president's office saying that private
security firms will not only be able to operate inside international
compounds, but also travel with diplomats and work as protection for
international military installations. A NATO service member was
killed by a bomb blast in the south. Afghan and Western officials
said that fraud was pervasive in the Sep 18 elections and that 25%
or 800,000 to a million votes would be likely thrown out. air
strikes killed a Taliban "military leader" and 15 other insurgents
in the northern province of Baghlan. A Taliban prisoner, Mullah
Muhebullah, was found shot dead while under US guard in an Afghan
holding facility. Pfc. David Lawrence (20) was soon placed under
custody in a criminal investigation of Muhebullah’s death.
(AP, 10/17/10)(SFC, 10/18/10, p.A3)(AFP,
10/19/10)(SFC, 12/1/10, p.A6)
2010 Oct 17, In Afghanistan
about this time 3 Taliban leaders secretly met with Pres. Karzai in
an effort to weaken the Haqqani network, the US-led coalition's most
vicious enemy.
(AP, 10/31/10)
2010 Oct 17, In Brazil three
men broke into the home of Wanderley dos Reis, the owner of a small
newspaper in Sao Paulo state, and shot and killed him.
(AP, 10/20/10)
2010 Oct 17, In southeastern
Brazil a bus carrying people back from a sports festival for special
needs athletes fell from a bridge into a river, killing 11 and
injuring nearly 30.
(AP, 10/17/10)
2010 Oct 17, Congo's first
lady, Olive Lembe Kabila, led thousands of women marching in the
country's volatile east to demand an end to a wave of mass rapes. 3
residents were killed when soldiers looted homes in Congo's South
Kivu province.
(AP, 10/17/10)(AP, 10/18/10)
2010 Oct 17, In Haiti 2 inmates
were shot to death trying to escape from the roof of the
quake-damaged national penitentiary. A third was trampled to death
inside during a prison riot. Police officials familiar with the
prison said some inmates had escaped.
(AP, 10/17/10)
2010 Oct 17, In northern India
an argument over sacrificing goats during a Hindu festival triggered
a stampede that killed 10 people in a packed temple.
(AP, 10/17/10)
2010 Oct 17, Iran's Pres.
Ahmadinejad endorsed the idea of new talks with the international
community over his country's nuclear program, while warning that
negotiations would fail if the West does not clearly come out
against Israel's suspected nuclear arsenal.
(AP, 10/17/10)
2010 Oct 17, Iran freed Reza
Taghavi (71), an Iranian-American businessman. The next day he said
he had spent some of his more than two years in prison alongside
protesters detained in Iran's postelection crackdowns and praised
his first taste of freedom as a blessing "no one can imagine.”
Taghavi, who regularly visits Iran to conduct business and see
family, had been jailed for 29 months for passing $200 to someone
suspected of links to a rebel group known as Tondar, which seeks to
topple the Islamic system and was implicated in the mosque bombing.
(AP, 10/17/10)
2010 Oct 17, In Iraq two
policemen and two gunmen were killed in gunfights between security
forces and armed groups attempting to rob Baghdad jewelry stores. 5
gunmen escaped.
(AP, 10/17/10)(SFC, 10/18/10, p.A2)
2010 Oct 17, In Kuwait some 100
people stormed the offices of privately owned Scope TV’s studios and
destroyed its equipment after the channel aired shows critical of
the ruling Al Sabah family.
(SFC, 10/19/10, p.A2)
2010 Oct 17, The Mexican Navy
said two men were killed in a confrontation with marines in
Tamaulipas state. A Sonora state police officer was found dead,
apparently from a blow to the head, alongside the road in Benito
Juarez municipality. Ciudad Juarez gunmen burst into a home where a
family was having a party. 3 women and 2 men died at the scene, and
a man and a woman died at the hospital. Assailants attacked a second
home in the neighborhood minutes later, killing 2 men.
(AP, 10/17/10)(AP, 10/19/10)
2010 Oct 17, In Morocco world
leaders at the World Policy Conference (WPC) in Marrakech examined
frameworks for global governance ahead of a G20 summit in Seoul,
with UN chief Ban Ki-Moon stressing no single power could tackle key
issues alone.
(AFP, 10/17/10)
2010 Oct 17, A Nigerian
government spokesman said a Dubai court found cause to honor an
extradition request for former Delta state Gov. James Ibori, a
prominent politician in the ruling People's Democratic Party.
Authorities have said Ibori faces charges over stealing $292 million
in state funds while in office.
(AP, 10/17/10)
2010 Oct 17, In Pakistan gunmen
killed at least 25 people in Karachi over the past 24 hours, raising
tensions in Pakistan's largest city as voters cast ballots to
replace a provincial lawmaker murdered in August.
(AP, 10/17/10)
2010 Oct 17, Two Palestinians
were killed and a third wounded in a pre-dawn Israeli air strike
north of Gaza City. The Israeli military said the air force had
struck a "squad of terror operatives who were preparing to fire
rockets from the northern Gaza Strip into Israel."
(AFP, 10/17/10)
2010 Oct 17, Thousands of
Thailand's anti-government "Red Shirts" joined a mass rally in the
latest large-scale demonstration by the movement in recent weeks.
(AFP, 10/17/10)
2010 Oct 17, Pope Benedict XVI
proclaimed Australia's first saint, canonizing Mary MacKillop
(1842-1909), a 19th-century nun. The Vatican also declared five
other saints in an open-air Mass attended by tens of thousands.
Brother Andre (1845-1937), a Canadian, Italian nuns Giulia Salzano
and Battista Camilla da Varano, and Spanish nun Candida Maria de
Jesus Cipitria y Barriola were also canonized.
(AP, 10/17/10)
2010 Oct 17, The official
Vatican newspaper said that beer-swilling, doughnut-loving Homer
Simpson and son Bart are Catholics, and what's more, it says that
parents should not be afraid to let their children watch "the
adventures of the little guys in yellow." Executive producer Al Jean
told Entertainment Weekly the next day he was in "shock and awe" at
the latest assertion, adding that the Simpsons attend the
"Presbylutheran" First Church of Springfield. "The Simpsons" is the
longest-running prime-time TV series in the United States and is now
in its 22nd season.
(Reuters, 10/18/10)
2010 Oct 17, Vietnamese
officials said more flooding has killed at least 14 people and
forced around 78,000 people to be evacuated from their homes in the
centre of the country.
(AFP, 10/17/10)
2010 Oct 17, Zambian police
said managers at a Chinese-run coal mine who shot at workers
protesting poor working conditions will be charged with attempted
murder. 12 workers at Collum Coal Mine in the southern town of
Sinazongwe were injured a day earlier when mainly Chinese managers
fired randomly at the protesting workers.
(AFP, 10/17/10)
2011 Oct 17, Lowe's Cos Inc, a
home improvement retailer, said it is closing 20 of its US
locations, eliminating nearly 2,000 jobs and slashing store-openings
to improve profitability.
(Reuters, 10/17/11)
2011 Oct 17, In northern
Afghanistan a suicide bomber targeted a car carrying Sayed Ahmad
Sadat the chief of National Directorate of Security (NDS) for Faryab
province, wounding six intelligence officials and killing a child.
Sadat died of his injuries on Oct 26.
(AFP, 10/17/11)(AP, 10/26/11)
2011 Oct 17, Austrian officials
said an investigation will be launched into claims by 2 women that
they and 18 other girls at the Schloss Wilhelminenberg foster home,
run by the city of Vienna, were raped in the 1970s. The sisters, now
47 and 49, alleged the abuse began when they were 6 and 8, and ended
in their early teens. 343 former foster children who were wards of
the city have turned to Weisser Ring, non-governmental victims'
organization, with reports of being abused at the Schloss
Wilhelminenberg alone since investigations began last year.
(AP, 10/17/11)(AP, 10/18/11)
2011 Oct 17, British security
group G4S agreed to buy Denmark-based facilities company ISS for
£5.2 billion, creating the world's largest security and facilities
firm.
(AFP, 10/17/11)
2011 Oct 17, Canadian
scientists announced that a contagious and lethal fish virus has
been detected for the first time in wild Pacific salmon. The
European strain of the virus had only been identified before in
farm-raised Atlantic salmon.
(Reuters, 10/20/11)
2011 Oct 17, In the Central
African Republic 2 rebel groups, that signed a cease fire on Oct 8,
said they had left the central town of Bria. One of them asked for
humanitarian aid for civilians.
(AFP, 10/18/11)
2011 Oct 17, Chile said it is
giving nearly 57,000 18-year-olds one month to report for potential
military duty. The government said it needs to fill gaps in its
armed forces because a nationwide student protest movement has
reduced the number of volunteers it usually gets. Attending a
university does not enable young Chileans to avoid the draft.
(AP, 10/18/11)
2011 Oct 17, In western China
Tenzin Wangmo (20), a Tibetan nun, committed self-immolation in a
call for religious freedom and the return of the Dalai Lama. She was
the 9th Tibetan to commit self-immolation and the first women to
kill herself in this way.
(SFC, 10/18/11, p.A4)
2011 Oct 17, A senior Egyptian
Justice Ministry official said that the two sons of ousted President
Hosni Mubarak have an estimated $340 million in Swiss bank accounts.
(AP, 10/17/11)
2011 Oct 17, In Greece strikes
halted ferries to the local islands and trash continued to pile in
Athens for a 16th straight day as unions fought against austerity
measures.
(SFC, 10/18/11, p.A4)
2011 Oct 17, In Italy Rev. Roy
Bourgeois, a US Catholic priest who supports ordination for women,
was detained by police after marching to the Vatican to press the
Holy See to lift its ban on women priests.
(AP, 10/17/11)
2011 Oct 17, In Jordan PM
Marouf al-Bakhit (64) resigned after a majority of 70 out of 120
parliamentarians called for his ouster. Jordan's King Abdullah II
designated Awn al-Khasawneh (61), a well-known international judge,
as the new prime minister.
(AP, 10/17/11)
2011 Oct 17, The offices of a
Liberian radio station were set ablaze, in the wake of an arson
attack on the ruling party headquarters and opposition discontent
over poll results.
(AFP, 10/17/11)
2011 Oct 17, Libyan fighters
raised the new government's flag over the desert oasis of Bani Walid
and hailed an exodus of regime families from the only other redoubt
of Moamer Kadhafi's forces, his hometown Sirte. For a 2nd straight
day NATO announced no hits in its air war.
(AFP, 10/17/11)
2011 Oct 17, Pakistani
paramilitary forces raided a militant hideout in the rugged Khyber
tribal region near the Afghan border, sparking fighting that killed
9 soldiers and 10 insurgents.
(AP, 10/17/11)
2011 Oct 17, In the Philippines
Rev. Fausto Tentorio (59), an Italian Catholic priest who was about
to travel to a clergy meeting, was shot dead in his southern parish
in Arakan town, North Cotabato province. He was the third Pontifical
Institute for Foreign Missions missionary to be killed on southern
Mindanao Island. In 2017 A Justice Department panel led by Senior
Assistant State Prosecutor Peter Ong recommended murder complaints
be filed against a dozen suspects, including the militiamen and two
army commanders.
(AP, 10/17/11)(AP, 11/10/17)
2011 Oct 17, Somalia's
al-Shabab militant group threatened Kenya with suicide attacks,
saying Nairobi's skyscrapers would be destroyed and its tourism
industry ruined in an ominous warning one day after Kenyan troops
poured into Somalia.
(AP, 10/17/11)
2011 Oct 17, Swaziland's King
Mswati III announced a major cabinet reshuffle in a move his critics
say is aimed at punishing those who do not toe the line. Amongst
those fired was Justice Minister David Matse who refused to fire an
independently minded High Court judge, Thomas Masuku, earlier this
month.
(AFP, 10/18/11)
2011 Oct 17, Five Syrian
soldiers were killed during clashes with gunmen suspected to be army
defectors in the flashpoint central province of Homs. 2 civilians
were also killed. UN chief Ban Ki-moon urged President Bashar
al-Assad to immediately stop the killings of civilians.
(AFP, 10/17/11)
2011 Oct 17, Uganda police
fired tear gas at protesters in Kampala demonstrating against high
food prices and corruption.
(SFC, 10/18/11, p.A2)
2011 Oct 17, In Yemen one
protester was killed and seven wounded when Saleh loyalists opened
fire on a demonstration in Taez. A family of five were killed when a
rocket hit their home in north Sanaa. At least 18 people were killed
on Sanaa in fighting between troops loyal to Pres. Saleh and rival
forces.
(AFP, 10/18/11)(SFC, 10/18/11, p.A2)
2012 Oct 17, The FBI arrested
21-year-old Quazi Mohammad Rezwanul Ahsan Nafis, a banker’s son from
Bangladesh, after he tried to detonate a fake 1,000-pound
(454-kilogram) car bomb at the Federal Reserve Bank in NYC. On Feb
7, 2013, Nafis pleaded guilty to terrorism charges. On Aug 9, 2013,
Nafis was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
(AP, 10/18/12)(SFC, 2/8/13, p.A16)(SFC, 8/10/13,
p.A4)
2012 Oct 17, Los Angeles
authorities arrested county assessor John Noguez, a top aide and a
campaign contributor, as part of a probe into alleged influence
peddling and slashing of property taxes for political allies.
(SFC, 10/18/12, p.C3)
2012 Oct 17, In the SF Bay Area
Barbara Latiolais (58) was strangled to death by Cody Nicosia (18)
and Christian Birdsall (16). The teens set fire to the home
following her murder and robbery. Both teens were arrested on Oct
25.
(SFC, 10/27/12, p.C1)
2012 Oct 17, In eastern
Afghanistan a suicide car bomber blew up his vehicle near the gate
of a US-Afghan combat outpost, wounding 10 Afghan soldiers.
(AP, 10/17/12)
2012 Oct 17, In Argentina
former Gen. Mario Benjamin Menendez (82) was arrested for his role
at the La Escaulita torture center in Tucuman province which he
helped run in 1975. In 1982 Menendez served as the military governor
of the Falkland Islands during Argentina’s brief occupation.
(SFC, 10/19/12, p.A2)
2012 Oct 17, Bahrain detained
four people for defaming the island's king with Twitter posts in a
case that is likely to test the limits of expression in the
violence-wracked Gulf nation. The four will be held for seven days
pending trial.
(AP, 10/18/12)
2012 Oct 17, Scotland Yard
confirmed in a statement that the Metropolitan Police will no longer
permit tattoos on the face, hands or which appear above the collar
line.
(AP, 10/17/12)
2012 Oct 17, Two British
parliamentary committees said they planned to quiz tax officials
about how Starbucks was able to avoid paying tax on 1.2 billion
pounds of sales since 2009.
(Reuters, 10/17/12)
2012 Oct 17, In Egypt a top
parliamentarian suspended the editor-in-chief of a state-owned
newspaper for publishing a report deemed an offense to the military.
(AP, 10/18/12)
2012 Oct 17, France's foreign
minister Laurent Fabius said Syria's air force is using so-called
barrel bombs — makeshift weapons consisting of containers stuffed
with TNT — to heavily damage neighborhoods. Fabius met with
representatives of about 20 countries to share details about a
secret French aid program and encourage others to join it.
(AP, 10/17/12)
2012 Oct 17, In Iraq a roadside
bomb hit a police patrol in western Baghdad, killing two policemen
and wounding two others. Another bomb went off in a grocery market
in southern Baghdad, killing two civilians and wounding seven. A
third bomb exploded in a market in the city's east killing one
person and wounding six others.
(AP, 10/17/12)
2012 Oct 17, In Kenya a terror
suspect threw a grenade at officers, wounding four of them in the
Mombasa area. Three suspects were killed in the clash.
(AP, 10/17/12)
2012 Oct 17, Libyan authorities
identified Ahmed Abu Khattala, a leader of the Benghazi-based
Islamist group Ansar al-Shariah, as commander in the Sep 11 attack
that killed US ambassador J. Christopher Stevens. At least six
people died and 80 were wounded on the first day of renewed fighting
at Bani Walid after negotiations failed to hand over the suspects
for the death of a well-known anti-Gadhafi rebel.
(SFC, 10/18/12, p.A4)(AP, 10/18/12)
2012 Oct 17, Russian
investigators opened a criminal probe against leftist leader Sergei
Udaltsov and several other activists for allegedly plotting mass
riots in a new sign of a widening crackdown on Russia's opposition.
(AP, 10/17/12)
2012 Oct 17, In Sri Lanka
Selvarasa Pathmanathan (57), a key suspect wanted over the
assassination of Gandhi in May 1991, was released from detention. He
had been arrested in 2009 in Malaysia for procuring weapons for the
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
(SFC, 10/18/12, p.A4)
2012 Oct 17, Lakhdar Brahimi,
the international envoy to the Syrian conflict, called on President
Bashar Assad's regime to take the lead in a cease-fire during a
major Muslim holiday later this month, calling it a "microscopic"
step toward ending a crisis that he said could consume the whole
region.
(AP, 10/17/12)
2013 Oct 17, Florida
Congressman Bill Young (82) died after 42 years of service. He had
channeled hundreds of million of dollars via earmarks to his
district and state.
(Econ, 2/15/14, p.29)(AP, 10/18/13)
2013 Oct 17, A global index on
modern slavery said some 30 million people are enslaved worldwide,
trafficked into brothels, forced into manual labour, victims of debt
bondage or even born into servitude. Almost half were in India.
(Reuters, 10/17/13)
2013 Oct 17, The first ladies
of Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast sealed an agreement to fight the
growing child trafficking trade between the two west African
nations.
(AFP, 10/17/13)
2013 Oct 17, Canadian police
arrested at least 40 protesters opposed to shale gas development in
New Brunswick after vehicles were set ablaze and a shot was fired.
(AFP, 10/17/13)
2013 Oct 17, In France hundreds
of pupils blocked high schools in the Paris region and joined
protests after Leonarda Dibrani, a 15-year-old girl, was taken off a
school bus on Oct 9 and deported to Kosovo.
(AP, 10/16/13)(Reuters, 10/17/13)
2013 Oct 17, Indonesian police
shot dead Suardi, a suspected militant, and arrested two others, in
an ongoing clampdown on terrorism. All three were said to be part of
a network led by Abu Uswah, who allegedly taught bomb-making and was
shot dead in a raid in January.
(AFP, 10/18/13)
2013 Oct 17, In northern Iraq a
suicide bomber blew up his explosives-laden car among houses in the
Shabak village of al-Mouafaqiyah near Mosul, killing at least 15
people. Attacks on Shi'ite Muslims killed at least 61 people across
the country.
(AP, 10/17/13)
2013 Oct 17, Moroccan police
drove back 400 African migrants who tried to rush across the
country's border into the Spanish territory of Ceuta.
(AFP, 10/17/13)
2013 Oct 17, Mozambique
government forces killed two fighters from rebel group Renamo in
clashes on the first anniversary of their leader's return to the
bush.
(AFP, 10/17/13)
2013 Oct 17, Pakistani
officials said a Pakistani Ranger was killed by "unprovoked firing"
by Indian troops along the disputed northwestern India-Pakistan
border. An Indian Border Security Force officer said their forces
retaliated after being fired on by the Pakistani side. Another
Pakistani soldier was killed by militants in South Waziristan.
(AP, 10/17/13)
2013 Oct 17, In Saudi Arabia
some 1.4 million Muslim pilgrims from 188 countries started to leave
Mecca at the end of what authorities hailed as a successful and
incident-free hajj. The hajj now brings in $16.5 billion, about 3%
of Saudi GDP.
(AFP, 10/17/13)(Econ, 10/12/13, p.74)
2013 Oct 17, In South Africa a
senior union official at a Lonmin mine in Marikana was shot dead.
(AFP, 10/18/13)
2013 Oct 17, In South
Sudan 5 people including four children were killed in a market
when explosives left over from decades of civil war were
accidentally set off on the outskirts of Juba.
(AFP, 10/17/13)
2013 Oct 17, Spanish police
said they have arrested 17 people for their role in stealing watches
worth 23 million euros ($31 million) in Dec 2012, resolving one of
the country's biggest jewelry heists.
(AP, 10/17/13)
2013 Oct 17, The Syrian
government said it has turned over to the United Nations Carl
Campeau, a Canadian staffer, who went missing eight months ago in
the Golan Heights, accusing rebels of having kidnapped him. Gen.
Jameh Jameh, a top military intelligence officer was killed in
clashes in Deir al-Zou.
(AFP, 10/17/13)(AP, 10/18/13)(SFC, 10/18/13,
p.A2)
2013 Oct 17, In Tunisia
Islamist militants killed two policemen in clashes in the
northeastern city of Goubellat.
(Reuters, 10/17/13)
2013 Oct 17, The UN General
Assembly elected five new members to the Security Council. The
uncontested seats included Chad, Chile, Lithuania, Nigeria and Saudi
Arabia.
(AP, 10/17/13)
2014 Oct 17, Pres. Obama named
Ron Klain, a former chief of staff to VP Biden, as the
administration’s point man on Ebola.
(SFC, 10/18/14, p.A8)
2014 Oct 17, The United States
said it has issued entry bans to several Hungarians suspected of
corruption, including people connected to the government.
(AP, 10/17/14)
2014 Oct 17, Indiana police
found the body of Afrika Hardy (19) in a Motel 6 in Hammond. Police
the next day arrested Darren Vann (43) of Gary. Vann confessed
and told where the bodies of other women would be found. The body of
Anith Jones of Merrillville, missing since Oct 8, was found the next
day. Five more bodies were found on Oct 19.
(SFC, 10/20/14, p.A5)(SFC, 10/21/14, p.A6)
2014 Oct 17, Hurricane Gonzalo
crushed trees, flattened power lines and damaged Bermuda's main
hospital during an hours-long battering, but the tiny, wealthy
British territory suffered no deaths.
(AP, 10/18/14)
2014 Oct 17, China’s Vice
President Li Yuanchao called on China and Vietnam to enhance
political trust and manage maritime disputes in a meeting with
Vietnamese Defense Minister Phung Quang Thanh in Beijing.
(AP, 10/18/14)
2014 Oct 17, In CongoDRC
Ugandan rebels hacked and clubbed to death 10 women, 8 children and
4 men in the town of Eringeti.
(AFP, 10/18/14)
2014 Oct 17, Hong Kong riot
police battled with thousands of pro-democracy protesters for
control of the city’s streets.
(SFC, 10/18/14, p.A2)
2014 Oct 17, India’s
environment minister said a new air quality index has been launched
to help citizens understand complex pollution data and its
implications for their health.
(Reuters, 10/17/14)
2014 Oct 17, The Iraqi
government imposed a curfew in the western city of Ramadi over fears
that the Islamic State group might try to advance on the
strategically important city. Car bombs exploded in three crowded
areas of Baghdad, killing at least 23 people.
(AP, 10/17/14)(AFP, 10/17/14)
2014 Oct 17, It was reported
that Iraqi pilots who have joined Islamic State in Syria are
training members of the group to fly in three fighter jets captured
from the Syrian military. In eastern Syria a US-led coalition
airstrike on a gas distribution facility in Khasham, Deir el-Zour
province, a stronghold of the Islamic State group, set off a series
of secondary explosions and killed at least 8 people.
(Reuters, 10/17/14)(AP, 10/18/14)
2014 Oct 17, Meeting in Milan,
Italy, Russia and Ukraine made progress towards resolving a row over
gas supplies, but European leaders said Moscow had to do much more
to prop up a fragile ceasefire and end fighting in eastern Ukraine.
(Reuters, 10/17/14)
2014 Oct 17, A Lebanese soldier
was killed as a military bus came under fire in the country's north,
in the 4th such deadly attack in less than a month.
(AP, 10/17/14)
2014 Oct 17, Lesotho's king
convened parliament for the first time since an alleged coup attempt
in August as the southern African country strives to resolve
political tensions before elections next year.
(Reuters, 10/17/14)
2014 Oct 17, In Libya at least
14 people were killed when fighting erupted between armed youths and
Islamist militias in Benghazi.
(AP, 10/17/14)
2014 Oct 17, Mozambican Renamo
opposition leader Afonso Dhlakama said he would challenge elections
held this week which he called unfair and marred by fraud.
(AP, 10/17/14)
2014 Oct 17, A Myanmar court
sentenced the ex-religious affairs minister to 13 years in prison
for embezzling state funds and sedition. Hsan Sint was removed from
office in June following allegations he misused $10,000 to build a
pagoda near Naypyitaw.
(AP, 10/17/14)
2014 Oct 17, Nigeria's official
news agency said the government and Boko Haram Islamic extremists
have agreed to an immediate cease-fire. Suspected Boko Haram
insurgents attacked the village of Abadam late at night, killing at
least one person and ransacking homes.
(AP, 10/17/14)(Reuters, 10/18/14)
2014 Oct 17, Pakistan's army
extended its offensive against Islamist militants in mountains along
the Afghan border, killing at least 9 insurgents.
(Reuters, 10/17/14)
2014 Oct 17, In the Philippines
the Abu Sayyaf group released Stefan Okonek and Henrike Dielen on
southern Jolo Island after receiving 250 million pesos ($5.6
million) in ransom. The two Germans were kidnapped six months
earlier.
(AP, 10/17/14)
2014 Oct 17, In Russia Lyudmila
Bogatenkova (73), a veteran activist who investigated the deaths and
disappearances of Russian soldiers in Ukraine, was charged with
fraud and ordered to be jailed.
(AP, 10/18/14)
2014 Oct 17, In South Korea 16
people were killed at a open-air pop concert where the group 4Minute
was performing when the cover of a ventilation shaft they were
standing on gave way. The man involved in planning the pop concert
was found dead on Oct 18 in an apparent suicide.
(Reuters, 10/17/14)(AP, 10/18/14)
2014 Oct 17, Prosecutors in
Istanbul ruled that there were no grounds for legal action against
53 suspects, including the sons of two former government ministers
and a prominent Iranian businessman, who were suspected of bribery
and corruption in a case that shook the country in December.
(AP, 10/18/14)
2014 Oct 17, The UN health
agency officially declared an end to the Ebola outbreak in Senegal
as the countrymade it past the 42-day mark, which is twice the
maximum incubation period for Ebola, without detecting more such
cases.
(AP, 10/17/14)
2014 Oct 17, In Yemen clashes
between tribesmen and Shiite rebels advancing into the mainly Sunni
southwestern province of Ibb killed 14 rebels and 10 tribesmen.
Houthi rebels overran the al-Qaida stronghold of Radda.
(AFP, 10/17/14)(AFP, 10/18/14)(SFC, 10/18/14,
p.A2)
2015 Oct 17, The US-led
coalition conducted 18 air strikes against Islamic State in Iraq and
five in Syria, according to the task force organizing the military
operation.
(Reuters, 10/18/15)
2015 Oct 17, In Florida a
shooting at the ZombieCon gathering in Fort Myers left one person
dead and five others injured.
(SFC, 10/19/15, p.A7)
2015 Oct 17, Addyi, the first
drug to boost sexual desire in women, became available from Sprout
Pharmaceuticals.
(SFC, 10/17/15, p.A5)
2015 Oct 17, In Argentina a
magnitude 5.9 earthquake struck the northwest, leaving at least one
person dead and damaging homes in the Salta region.
(Reuters, 10/17/15)
2015 Oct 17, Australia
announced plans to legalize the growing of cannabis for medicinal
purposes, saying those suffering debilitating illnesses deserved
access to the most effective treatments.
(AFP, 10/17/15)
2015 Oct 17, In the Democratic
Republic of Congo leaders of the Twa and Luba ethnic groups signed
an agreement intended to end a conflict which has killed hundreds
and displaced tens of thousands.
(Reuters, 10/21/15)
2015 Oct 17, Hungary said it
will temporarily reinstate border controls on its frontier with
Slovenia, after his government sealed off its border with Croatia
overnight to stem the flow of migrants. Migrants streaming across
the Balkans reached Slovenia, diverted overnight by the closure of
Hungary’s border with Croatia.
(Reuters, 10/17/15)
2015 Oct 17, In southern India
at least 15 people headed for a wedding were killed when a mini-bus
they were riding collided with another bus as they were traveling to
Malakonda town in Andhra Pradesh state.
(AP, 10/17/15)
2015 Oct 17, Indonesian
officials said 182 ethnic Rohingya have fled their encampment in
Aceh province. Officials suspected they may have been persuaded by
human traffickers to flee.
(AP, 10/17/15)
2015 Oct 17, Iran reported that
2 people were killed in a shooting attack on Shiite worshippers
marking Ashura, in the town of Dezful in Khuzestan province.
(AFP, 10/17/15)
2015 Oct 17, Iraqi forces
pressed their biggest offensive in months to resume their
long-stalled northward advance and disrupt jihadist lines.
(AFP, 10/17/15)
2015 Oct 17, Nigeria said Brig.
Gen. Enitan Ransome Kuti has been dismissed from the army and jailed
for losing a major battle in which Boko Haram Islamic extremists
killed hundreds of civilians at the Jan. 2 battle for Baga.
(AP, 10/17/15)
2015 Oct 17, Four Palestinians
were shot dead and a fifth was wounded in attacks on Israelis in
east Jerusalem and the West Bank.
(AFP, 10/18/15)
2015 Oct 17, Portugal’s former
Socialist PM Jose Socrates left home as a free man for the first
time in 10 months after a court lifted a house arrest.
(AP, 10/17/15)
2015 Oct 17, In Romania three
journalists were detained on suspicion of extorting money from
public figures in exchange for not writing negative articles about
them.
(AP, 10/17/15)
2015 Oct 17, Russia said its
air force has made 36 sorties, hitting 49 Islamic State targets in
Syria in the last 24 hours.
(Reuters, 10/17/15)
2015 Oct 17, It was reported
that hundreds of South Korean scholars have declared they are
boycotting the writing of state-issued history textbooks out of
concern that that they will teach distorted views on the country's
recent past.
(AP, 10/17/15)
2015 Oct 17, Spanish police
said they have arrested 81 persons on suspicion of sexually abusing
minors and sharing child pornography on the Internet.
(AP, 10/17/15)
2015 Oct 17, In northern Spain
thousands took to the streets of San Sebastian to call for the
release of Arnaldo Otegi (57), the jailed head of the Basque
independence Sortu party.
(AFP, 10/17/15)
2015 Oct 17, Syrian troops
backed by Hezbollah and Iranian fighters made advances in their
offensive to retake territory around the northern city of Aleppo
from insurgents and jihadist fighters.
(Reuters, 10/17/15)
2015 Oct 17, Taiwan's ruling
party on named chairman Eric Chu to run for the island's top spot in
coming national elections, replacing an existing pick in a move
aimed at avoiding a trouncing by an opposition it fears could derail
warming ties with China.
(Reuters, 10/17/15)
2015 Oct 17, Turkey said 3
soldiers and 28 Kurdish militants have been killed in air strikes
and clashes over the past two days in the predominantly Kurdish
southeast.
(Reuters, 10/17/15)
2015 Oct 17, The Turkish
coastguard said 12 migrants thought to be from Syria and
Afghanistan, including four children and a baby, drowned off the
coast of Turkey as they tried to reach the Greek island of Lesbos.
(Reuters, 10/17/15)
2015 Oct 17, In Turkey a
British woman working for a London-based media charity who was
heading to Iraq was found dead at Istanbul's Ataturk airport. Jackie
Sutton (50) was reportedly found hanged in the toilets. There were
no signs of foul play.
(AFP, 10/19/15)(AP, 10/21/15)
2015 Oct 17, The Ukrainian
excursion boat Ivolga capsized in the Black Sea, killing 14 people.
It was carrying twice as many passengers as allowed and was knocked
over by a big wave.
(AP, 10/18/15)
2015 Oct 17, Venezuela
announced that its state-owned oil company will buy a 25 percent
stake in West Indies Oil Co. and that it will establish a regional
bank with the Antigua and Barbuda government to fund a new resort.
(AP, 10/17/15)
2016 Oct 17, In Washington, DC.
retired Marine Gen. James Cartwright (67) pleaded guilty to making
false statements during an investigation into a leak of classified
information about a covert cyber-attack on Iran’s nuclear
facilities. He faced up to six months in prison.
(SFC, 10/18/16, p.A4)
2016 Oct 17, In Brazil 8
inmates were killed and burned in a fresh prison riot. Police
believed the riot was related to clashes a day earlier between rival
factions in another jail that left 25 detainees dead.
(AFP, 10/17/16)
2016 Oct 17, Two Chinese
astronauts began the country's longest crewed space mission yet,
blasting off on a spacecraft for a 30-day stay on the Tiangong 2
experimental space station as China steadfastly navigates its way to
becoming a space superpower.
(AP, 10/17/16)(SFC, 10/20/16, p.A2)
2016 Oct 17, Egypt passed
legislation to crack down on people traffickers linked to a major
surge in the numbers of migrants departing from the country's
Mediterranean coast on often disastrous sea journeys to Europe.
(Reuters, 10/17/16)
2016 Oct 17, In eastern India a
fire broke out late today at the private Sum Hospital in the city of
Bhubaneswar, killing at least 23 people.
(AP, 10/18/16)
2016 Oct 17, An Indonesian
official said three men were arrested over the weekend for allegedly
trading in protected species, with police seizing animal parts
including a tiger skin, deer genitalia and pangolin scales.
(AFP, 10/17/16)
2016 Oct 17, Iraqi government
forces launched a US-backed offensive to drive Islamic State from
the northern city of Mosul. The United Nations refugee agency UNHCR
said up to 100,000 Iraqis may flee to Syria and Turkey to escape the
assault.
(Reuters, 10/17/16)
2016 Oct 17, Italian PM Matteo
Renzi flew to the United States for a high-profile visit that he
hopes will boost his flagging campaign for a referendum on
constitutional reform.
(Reuters, 10/17/16)
2016 Oct 17, A Lithuanian court
called former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to testify in a mass
trial related to the 1991 crackdown on the country's independence
movement.
(AP, 10/17/16)
2016 Oct 17, In central
Pakistan two passenger buses collided in Khanpur town killing 25
people and leaving 69 injured.
(SFC, 10/18/16, p.A2)
2016 Oct 17, The
editor-in-chief of Kremlin-funded television network RT said that
all its bank accounts in Britain have been closed down.
(AFP, 10/17/16)
2016 Oct 17, South African
protesters demanding free university education broke windows, forced
open doors and threw human excrement in an effort to disrupt the
resumption of classes.
(AP, 10/17/16)
2016 Oct 17, In Syria
airstrikes by Russian warplanes on rebel-held areas in the northern
province of Aleppo killed at least 36 people, including children.
(AP, 10/17/16)
2016 Oct 17, Vietnam officials
said that floods in four central provinces have killed 24 people and
displaced thousands, with tropical storm Sarika in the South China
Sea approaching the central coast.
(SFC, 10/18/16, p.A2)
2017 Oct 17, A federal judge in
Hawaii blocked Pres. Trump’s revised travel order, saying the policy
has the same problems as a previous version. A second US judge
ordered a freeze on Trump's newest travel ban order, saying it was
essentially targeted at Muslims in violation of the US Constitution.
(AP, 10/17/17)(AFP, 10/18/17)
2017 Oct 17, The US Justice
Dept. announced the indictment of Xiaobang Yan (40) and Jian Zhang
(38) of China on charges of manufacturing tons of fentanyl and other
powerful narcotics that were then peddled in the US. Chances were
slim that the men would be brought ot the US to face the charges.
(SFC, 10/18/17, p.A4)
2017 Oct 17, US and Japanese
diplomats agreed to maximize pressure on North Korea to resolve
tensions over its nuclear program.
(AP, 10/17/17)
2017 Oct 17, Thousands of files
from the US Embassy in Jakarta covering 1963-66 were made public
after a declassification review that began under the Obama
administration. They revealed new details of US government knowledge
and support of an Indonesian army extermination campaign that killed
several hundred thousand civilians during anti-communist hysteria in
the mid-1960s.
(AP, 10/17/17)
2017 Oct 17, In South Carolina
Timothy Johnson (24) was shot and killed by a boy (3). Albert Davis
(31) was soon charged with murder for giving the boy a gun and
telling him to chase a man around the yard of a home in Warrenville.
(SFC, 10/19/17, p.A4)
2017 Oct 17, In Afghanistan the
Taliban unleashed a wave of attacks across the country, targeting
police compounds and government facilities with suicide bombers in
the country's south, east and west, and killing at least 74 people.
(AP, 10/17/17)
2017 Oct 17, In Argentina the
body of indigenous rights activist Santiago Maldonado (28), last
seen on Aug. 1 being detained by paramilitary police, was found
entangled in roots in the bed of a river that traverses ancestral
lands sold to Italian businessman Luciano Benetton but is claimed by
the Mapuche.
(AFP, 10/28/17)
2017 Oct 17, Britain’s Home
Office in London said 80,393 hate crimes were reported during the 12
months to march of this year, an increase of nearly 30% over last
year.
(SFC, 10/18/17, p.A2)
2017 Oct 17, Gord Downie (53),
who made himself part of Canada's national identity with songs about
hockey and small towns as lead singer and songwriter of iconic rock
band The Tragically Hip, died after a battle with brain cancer.
(AP, 10/18/17)
2017 Oct 17, Chinese
authorities reportedly released Gui Minhai, a China-born Swedish
bookseller. Gui was abducted in Thailand while on holiday in 2015
after publishing books on the personal lives of President Xi Jinping
and other Communist Party leaders.
(AP, 10/24/17)
2017 Oct 17, Officials said an
EU-funded project that provides cash assistance to the most
vulnerable refugee families in Turkey has reached 1 million
beneficiaries a year after its launch.
(AP, 10/17/17)
2017 Oct 17, Ghana and Ivory
Coast set up a body to implement an international tribunal ruling on
their dispute over a border running through multibillion dollar
offshore oilfields.
(Reuters, 10/17/17)
2017 Oct 17, The Indian
government ordered diesel generators and a power plant in Delhi to
be shut down as air quality in the capital deteriorated ahead of the
Hindu festival of lights, when a night of firecrackers sends
pollution levels rocketing.
(Reuters, 10/17/17)
2017 Oct 17, In Indonesia Asia
Pacific Resources International Limited (APRIL) suspended forestry
operations at its pulp and paper subsidiary after the government
canceled a long-term work plan citing environmental non-compliance.
(Reuters, 10/21/17)
2017 Oct 17, The Baghdad
government recaptured territory from Kurds across the breadth of
northern Iraq, making startlingly rapid gains in a sudden campaign
that has shifted the balance of power in the country almost
overnight.
(AP, 10/17/17)
2017 Oct 17, Israeli
authorities advanced plans for 1,292 settler homes in a new push by
PM Benjamin Netanyahu's government to expand settlements in the
occupied West Bank.
(AP, 10/17/17)
2017 Oct 17, A Japanese
military helicopter carrying four crewmembers lost radar contact
while on a nighttime search and rescue flight training mission in
central Japan and is feared to have crashed.
(AP, 10/17/17)
2017 Oct 17, Kenyan opposition
leader Raila Odinga said he was suspending a protest campaign after
three people were shot dead in demonstrations against the
Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC).
(AP, 10/17/17)
2017 Oct 17, The Libyan
capital's Mitiga airport was evacuated and civilian flights were
repeatedly suspended as rival armed groups clashed nearby.
(Reuters, 10/17/17)
2017 Oct 17, In Nigeria Rev.
Maurizio Pallu was released late today, five days after being
kidnapped in Benin City.
(AP, 10/18/17)
2017 Oct 17, Norwegian solar
panel maker Saga Energy signed a deal worth 2.5 billion euros ($2.9
billion) with Iran's state-owned company Amin Energy Developers to
build solar power plants.
(AP, 10/18/17)
2017 Oct 17, In Pakistan two
suspected US drone strikes killed 11 people on the mountainous
Pakistan-Afghanistan border, following a strike a day earlier that
killed 20.
(Reuters, 10/17/17)
2017 Oct 17, Philippine
soldiers fought to gain control of the last pocket of Marawi
controlled by Islamic militants as President Rodrigo Duterte
declared the southern city liberated from "terrorist influence".
(AP, 10/17/17)
2017 Oct 17, In Warsaw Turkish
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met with his Polish counterpart, his
first official bilateral visit to an EU country since the failed
2016 coup in Turkey. President Andrzej Duda said he hopes Turkey
will eventually join the EU. They discussed defense cooperation
through NATO, and the issue of energy as both countries count on
coal for part of their energy needs.
(AFP, 10/17/17)
2017 Oct 17, Overnight rain and
calmer winds helped firefighters tame a spate of deadly wildfires
that broke out over the weekend, devouring homes and killing 37
people in Portugal and another four in northern Spain.
(AFP, 10/17/17)
2017 Oct 17, Saudi Arabia’s
King Salman ordered the establishment of an authority to scrutinize
uses of the "hadith" - accounts of the sayings, actions or habits of
the Prophet that are used by preachers and jurists to support
teachings and edicts on all aspects of life. The body would be
chaired by Sheikh Mohammed bin Hassan al-Sheikh, a member of the
Council of Senior Scholars, which serves as Saudi Arabia's highest
religious body.
(AP, 10/18/17)
2017 Oct 17, South African
President Jacob Zuma sacked a vocal critic from his cabinet, a move
set to deepen tensions before the ANC chooses a new party leader in
December. Zuma dropped higher education minister Blade Nzimande, a
veteran member of the South African Communist Party, a key political
ally within the ruling ANC alliance.
(AFP, 10/17/17)
2017 Oct 17, Spain's top court
officially ruled that Catalonia's disputed independence referendum
was illegal because a regional law that backed it was against the
constitution. Catalonia refused to bow to the government's demand
that it renounce its declaration of independence, setting it on a
political collision course with Madrid later this week.
(AP, 10/17/17)(Reuters, 10/17/17)
2017 Oct 17, In Spain an F18
fighter jet crashed on takeoff at a military base near Madrid,
killing the pilot. This was the second time a military plane has
come down in Spain in a week.
(AFP, 10/17/17)
2017 Oct 17, In northern Syria
US-backed forces said they have captured Raqqa, once the seat of
power for the Islamic State group, after a grueling four-month
battle that left the city in ruins.
(AP, 10/17/17)
2017 Oct 17, In Togo two
teenagers and two soldiers were killed during clashes in Sokode that
followed the arrest of a local imam who is close to the opposition
Panafrican National Party (PNP).
(AFP, 10/18/17)
2017 Oct 17, In southern Turkey
a bomb exploded as a bus carrying police was passing by in Mersin.
(AP, 10/17/17)
2017 Oct 17, In Turkey seven
miners were killed and another was missing after part of a coal mine
collapsed in the southeastern province of Sirnak.
(Reuters, 10/17/17)
2018 Oct 17, The US Treasury
imposed sanctions on an Iraq-based money services business, Afaq
Dubai, believed to be moving funds for the Islamic State militant
group.
(Reuters, 10/17/18)
2018 Oct 17, US Secretary of
State Mike Pompeo said that Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan had
made clear in talks in Ankara that Saudi officials were cooperating
with Turkey's investigation into missing journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
(Reuters, 10/17/18)
2018 Oct 17, US Defense
Secretary Jim Mattis visited a former American air base in southern
Vietnam that will soon become the biggest-ever US cleanup site for
contamination left by the defoliant Agent Orange during the Vietnam
War.
(Reuters, 10/17/18)
2018 Oct 17, It was reported
that six to ten sea lions suffering from leptospirosis were being
received on a daily basis at the Marine Mammal Center in the Marin
Headlands of northern California. Veterinarians have treated 220 sea
lions so far this year.
(SFC, 10/17/18, p.A1)
2018 Oct 17, In North Carolina
state Trooper Kevin Conner was shot and killed during a traffic stop
in Columbus County. Raheem Cole Dashanell Davis (20) was soon
charged first-degree murder. On October 22 a polcie offi8cer shot
and killed Tafahree Maynard
(SFC, 10/18/18, p.A5)
2018 Oct 17, In Pennsylvania
Rev. David Lee Poulson (65) of Oil City admitted that he sexually
abused children and pleaded guilty to corruption of minors and child
endangerment.
(SFC, 10/18/18, p.A9)
2018 Oct 17, Twitter said that
it had identified 3,841 accounts affiliated with the St.
Petersburg-based Internet Research Agency, a Russian “troll farm”
that has been indicted by US Special Counsel Robert Mueller for
attempts to interfere with the 2016 presidential election.
(Reuters, 10/17/18)
2018 Oct 17, In Afghanistan the
Taliban attacked checkpoints in the northern Baghlan province,
killing six policemen and wounding two others in a four-hour battle.
A suicide car bomber targeted a military vehicle, killing two army
troops in eastern Maidan Wardak province. A bomb accidently
detonated inside a local Taliban commander's home in western Herat
province, killing five people.
(AP, 10/17/18)
2018 Oct 17, Bahrain began
hosting a four-day meeting of the Green Climate Fund's board. The
UN-backed fund to help poor countries tackle climate change met
following the recent resignation of its director and a shortfall in
contributions from rich nations.
(AP, 10/17/18)
2018 Oct 17, Canada became the
first industrialized nation to legalize recreational cannabis, but a
lawful buzz will be hard to come by in its biggest cities like
Toronto and Vancouver, which will have no stores open.
(Reuters, 10/17/18)
2018 Oct 17, In Russian-annexed
Crimea 20 people were killed and dozens more wounded, most of them
teenagers, after a student opened fire at the Kerch Polytechnical
College. Investigators identified the attacker as Vladislav
Roslyakov (18), a fourth-year student whose body was found "with a
gunshot wound" on the premises.
(AFP, 10/17/18)(Reuters, 10/19/18)
2018 Oct 17, French Pres.
Emmanuel Macron met with visiting Japanese PM Shinzo Abe to prepare
next year's summits of the group of developing countries G-20 in
Japan and the world's advanced economies G-7 in France.
(AP, 10/17/18)
2018 Oct 17, The France-based
Interpol police organization said coordinated police raids in 93
countries have netted more than 55 tons of drugs including a
cocaine, heroin and millions of synthetic drug pills. 1,300 people
in all were arrested in an operation codenamed Lionfish, and which
took place between Sept. 17 and Oct. 8.
(Reuters, 10/17/18)
2018 Oct 17, Greek PM Alexis
Tsipras took over as foreign minister following the resignation of
Nikos Kotzias, who quit amid reports of a growing rift with a
coalition partner over a June 2018 deal with Macedonia to end the
name dispute.
(Reuters, 10/17/18)
2018 Oct 17, In Haiti at least
two people were killed and dozens injured during large protests over
alleged misuse of government funds.
(AP, 10/18/18)
2018 Oct 17, In India
conservative Hindu groups prevented women from entering an Indian
hill temple, in defiance of India's top court which says a
centuries-long ban at the holy site is illegal.
(Reuters, 10/17/18)
2018 Oct 17, Indian government
junior minister M.J. Akbar resigned to fight accusations of sexual
harassment from more than a dozen women during his previous career
as a journalist.
(Reuters, 10/17/18)
2018 Oct 17, Anti-India
protests and clashes erupted in the main city in disputed Kashmir
after a gunbattle between militants and government forces killed at
least two rebels.
(AP, 10/17/18)
2018 Oct 17, A rocket fired
from the Gaza Strip hit a house in in Beersheba, the largest city in
southern Israel early today, prompting Israeli air strikes that
killed a militant in the Palestinian enclave.
(Reuters, 10/17/18)
2018 Oct 17, Jordan said a
group of 279 Syrian rescue workers have left the kingdom for
resettlement in Western countries three months after they were
evacuated from Israel.
(AFP, 10/17/18)
2018 Oct 17, Norway's
government officially apologized to Norwegian women targeted for
reprisals by authorities for having intimate relations with German
soldiers during the country's war-time occupation.
(AP, 10/17/18)
2018 Oct 17, In Pakistan
Mohammad Imran, a man convicted of killing eight children, was
executed at a prison early today after the country's top court
rejected a request for his public hanging.
(AP, 10/17/18)
2018 Oct 17, A Peruvian judge
freed conservative opposition leader Keiko Fujimori from jail where
she spent the past week pending charges in a money laundering probe.
(Reuters, 10/18/18)
2018 Oct 17, Slovakia's defense
ministry said the country will keep its military presence in Iraq
after the government approved a plan to deploy up to 42 soldiers
there next year to help train Iraqi security forces as part of a
NATO mission.
(AP, 10/17/18)
2018 Oct 17, Francisco Tejon,
leader of the "Los Castanas" clan and one of Spain's most-wanted
drug traffickers, was arrested in Cadiz province after seeming to
taunt police by appearing in a music video.
(AFP, 10/17/18)
2018 Oct 17, Moldova's
President Igor Dodon met with visiting Turkish President Recep
Tayyip Erdogan. The two-day visit aimed at boosting political and
trade ties with the former Soviet republic.
(AP, 10/17/18)
2018 Oct 17, A landslide in
Tibet blocked the flow of one of the region's key rivers, creating a
lake that could endanger downstream areas in India. Chinese
emergency services evacuated about 6,000 people in the region.
(AP, 10/18/18)
2018 Oct 17, UN agencies called
for an end to the practice in some countries of determining whether
a girl or woman is a virgin through gynecological testing.
(SFC, 10/18/18, p.A2)
2018 Oct 17, The Vietnamese
dissident known as "Mother Mushroom" was released from prison and
left Vietnam on a flight to the United States. Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh
was serving a 10-year sentence for anti-state propaganda.
(Reuters, 10/17/18)
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