Sunday, February 16, 1997
Today's Events
The Laurence Olivier Theater Awards are announced in London.
U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright is due to arrive in Germany.
Liz Taylor's star-studded 65th birthday celebration is scheduled for today. The "Happy Birthday, Elizabeth: A Celebration of Life" benefit is to raise money for AIDS research.
|
On the horizon
On Monday, February 17, more than 250 magicians from around the world, including 28 international stars, convene in Bogota, Colombia, for the International Magic Congress.
On Tuesday, February 18, Korea's outlawed Confederation of Trade Unions says it will start a series of nationwide strikes.
On Wednesday, February 19, U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright visits Russia.
On Thursday, February 20, Formula One team chief Frank Williams and five other people are due to go on trial, charged with manslaughter in the death of Brazil's world champion driver Ayrton Senna in a 1994 San Marino Grand Prix crash.
On Friday, February 21, World Vision is scheduled to hold its annual fund-raiser entitled "30-Hour Famine" to raise awareness of world hunger.
|
On this day
In 1808, France invaded Spain in the Peninsular War.
In 1918, Lithuania proclaimed its independence from Russia.
In 1923, the Allied Powers Ambassadors' Conference decided to place Memelland, an area on the Baltic Sea, under Lithuanian control.
In 1932, the Fianna Fail party led by Eamon De Valera won the Irish general election.
In 1933, fearing threats from Germany, the Little Entente (a mutual defense agreement between Czechoslovakia, Romania and Yugoslavia) was reorganized, creating a permanent council that met three times a year to direct a common policy.
In 1936, the Popular Front won the general election in Spain; Manuel Azana became premier and reestablished the constitution of 1931.
In 1937, nylon was first developed by Dr. Wallace Carothers and his U.S. research team.
In 1940, a boarding party from HMS Cossack rescued over 300 British prisoners from the German supply ship Altmark in Norwegian waters.
In 1945, Venezuela declared war on Germany and Japan.
In 1945, U.S. paratroopers landed on the Philippine island of Corregidor, which was being defended by some 5,000 Japanese sailors.
In 1959, Fidel Castro was sworn in as prime minister of Cuba after leading a guerrilla campaign that ousted right-wing dictator Fulgencio Batista on January 1.
In 1960, the U.S. nuclear submarine Triton began its underwater round-the-world trip.
In 1983, bush fires in southern Australia killed at least 69 people.
In 1984, Iran said it had broken through Iraqi defenses at the start of what Tehran Radio described as a "massive offensive" and claimed to have killed or wounded 1,200 Iraqi soldiers in the first 11 hours of fighting.
In 1992, Zairean security forces shot dead 32 people after thousands of Christians began a peaceful street protest against President Mobutu Sese Seko's government.
In 1994, Greece banned the neighboring former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia from using the Greek port of Salonika for its commerce.
In 1994, a Jerusalem court found former heads of Israel's top four banks guilty of fraud in a 1983 bank shares scandal that shook the country and cost the government $9 billion.
In 1994, Peruvian Prime Minister Alfonso Bustamante resigned over a human rights controversy.
In 1994, a powerful earthquake killed at least 200 people in a mountainous area of Sumatra island.
|
Newslink
Sonny Bono is 62 today. He may have graduated from being the mayor of Palm Springs, California, to a member of Congress, but who can forget the good old days when he was singing "I Got You Babe" with Cher? Relive the memories by clicking here.
|
Holidays and more
Today is Independence Day in Lithuania.
It's National Flag Day in Turkmenistan.
Singer Sonny Bono is 62.
Actor LeVar Burton is 40.
Singer James Ingram is 41.
Actor William Katt is 42.
Tennis player John McEnroe is 38.
Actor Barry Primus is 59.
|
Sources: Associated Press,
Chase's Calendar of Events 1997, J.P. Morgan
|