Wednesday, April 24, 1996




Strip bars are sexual in nature, and his offense was sexually related. -- Joe Andrews



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  • Trial is scheduled to begin today for Aum Shinri Kyo cult leader Shoko Asahara. He is accused of directing a March 1995 subway gas attack that killed 12 people in Tokyo. Today's proceedings will be dominated by reading of the names of more than 3,000 people sickened or killed in the attack.

  • In Florence, Arizona today, a pretrial conference is scheduled for a Florida woman accused of killing her grandmother by stuffing kiwi fruit down her throat.

  • The U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments today in a case to decide whether national banks that issue credit cards can charge late-payment fees that otherwise would be barred in customers' home states.

  • U.S. diplomats, including Deputy Assistant Secretary of State William Twaddell, are expected to meet with leaders of the Liberian government and the West African peacekeeping army in Monrovia today.

  • Russian President Boris Yeltsin begins a visit to China today to discuss economic and military cooperation and the situation along the two countries' common borders.

  • The Association of Southeast Asian Nations' economic ministers will meet today in Singapore.

  • In New York today, the National Basketball Association board of governors will meet.

  • The 31st annual Academy of Country Music Awards will be presented in Los Angeles tonight.





  • On Thursday, April 25, the 1996 NBA basketball playoffs begin.

  • On Friday, April 26, the Olympic flame will board a Delta flight to the United States.

  • On Saturday, April 27, former Olympic gymnast Nadia Comaneci is scheduled to marry U.S. gymnast Bart Conner at a ceremony in Bucharest, Romania.

  • Sunday, April 28, is Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's 59th birthday.

  • On Monday, April 29, Colorado will hold its version of the Million Man March, dubbed the Mile High March.





  • In 1792, the national anthem of France, "La Marseillaise" was composed by Captain Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle, an officer stationed in Strasbourg.

  • In 1800, the U.S. Congress approved a bill establishing the Library of Congress in Washington D.C., appropriating $5,000 "for the purchase of such books as may be necessary."

  • In 1877, federal troops were ordered out of New Orleans, ending the North's post-Civil War rule in the South.

  • In 1898, Spain declared war on the United States after rejecting America's ultimatum to withdraw from Cuba.

  • In 1915, the Ottoman Turkish Empire began the brutal mass deportation of Armenians during World War I.

  • In 1916, some 1,600 Irish nationalists launched the Easter Rising by seizing several key sites in Dublin, including the General Post Office.

  • In 1953, British statesman Winston Churchill was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace.

  • In 1962, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology achieved the first satellite relay of a television signal, between Camp Parks, California, and Westford, Massachusetts.

  • In 1968, leftist students at Columbia University in New York began a week-long occupation of several campus buildings.

  • In 1970, the People's Republic of China launched its first satellite, which transmitted a song, "The East is Red."

  • In 1980, the United States launched an abortive attempt to free the American hostages in Iran, a mission that resulted in the deaths of eight U.S. servicemen.

  • In 1990, the space shuttle "Discovery" blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, carrying the $1.5 billion-dollar Hubble Space Telescope.





  • Families picnicking near grave sites around the Chernobyl nuclear plant in Russia Tuesday were believed responsible for a fire that swept through deserted villages around the plant and sent wind-whipped radioactive particles into the Ukrainian skies. What timing. Ten years ago this week, April 26 to be exact, the world experienced it worst nuclear accident ever at Chernobyl. The explosion of a reactor there killed 30 people outright and exposed at least 5 million others to radioactive fallout. Tuesday's fire posed no danger to the plant, which is still in operation, but is sure to raise the hackles of anti-nuclear activists everywhere. The papers will undoubtedly be filled with Chernobyl look-backs later in the week, but you can get a head start at the Chernobyl No More Home Page. The quote at the top of the page ("Nuclear power is one hell of a way to boil water," from Albert Einstein) sets the tone of the rest of the site. Peruse through the gallery of anti-nuclear images and the links to save-the-earth groups all over the Web. Check out ways that each and every one of us can participate in the coming festivities, or absorb the tidbits of nuclear trivia and details on other nuclear reactors in Eastern Europe. And, of course, there is also merchandise for sale.





  • In Armenia, today is Armenian Genocide Memorial Day.

  • Israel celebrates Independence Day, or Yom Ha'atzma'ut, today.

  • It is National Day today in Niger.

  • Egypt celebrates Sham El Nesim, a sporting holiday in which people spend the day in parks and along the banks of the Nile, today.

  • Today marks the beginning of National TV Turnoff Week in the United States. Children are encouraged to spend time reading or participating in other activities instead of watching television.

  • Animal rights activists in Johannesburg, South Africa today will mark World Day for Laboratory Animals with a march to the National Center for Occupational Health.



  • Sources: Associated Press,
    Chase's Calendar of Events 1996, J.P. Morgan

    News almanac archive



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