Friday, March 14, 1997
Today's events
A court in Olmar, France, is expected to rule on who is to blame for the 1988 crash of Airbus A-320 aircraft that killed three and injured 50.
President Bill Clinton is scheduled to travel to Florida to play in the Hobe Sound Golf Tournament.
Rescheduled national opening of digitally updated edition of "Return of the Jedi."
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On the horizon
On Saturday, March 15, a Belgian parliamentary commission is set to end its inquiry into a police and court investigation of a pedophile murder ring.
On Sunday, March 16, the International Defense Exhibition opens in Abu Dhabi.
On Monday, March 17, Irish Prime Minister John Bruton visits the United States.
On Tuesday, March 18, first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton visits South Africa.
On Wednesday, March 19, President Clinton and Russian President Boris Yeltsin arrive in Helsinki, Finland, ahead of their Thursday summit.
On Thursday, March 20, the Angolan government and former National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) rebels inaugurate the new national unity government.
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On this day
In 1369, Henry of Trastamare defeated Pedro I of Castile at
the battle of Montiel in the Castilian Civil War. Pedro was
executed nine days later.
In 1489, Catherine Cornaro, Queen of Cyprus and last of the
Lusignan dynasty, sold her kingdom to Venice.
In 1558, Ferdinand I assumed the title of Holy Roman Emperor
without being crowned by the Pope.
In 1590, in the French Religious Wars, Henry IV, with an army
of 13,000, defeated the 25,000-strong army of the Duc de Mayenne
at the battle of Ivry.
In 1647, in the Thirty Years War, a Treaty of Neutrality was
signed at Ulm between France, Sweden, Bavaria and Cologne.
In 1757, British Admiral John Byng was shot by a firing squad
for his bungled attempt to relieve the island of Minorca
threatened by the French fleet.
In 1864, Samuel Baker discovered another source of the Nile in
East Africa and named it Lake Albert Nyanza.
In 1883, Karl Marx, German philosopher and economist, died in
London. He published, with Friedrich Engels, the Communist
Manifesto.
In 1891, the submarine Monarch laid telephone cable along the
English Channel bed to prepare for the first telephone links
across the Channel.
In 1915, in World War I, the German cruiser Dresden was sunk
by the Royal Navy in the Pacific.
In 1932, George Eastman, American photographic pioneer who
founded the Kodak company, committed suicide.
In 1939, Hungary occupied the Carpatho-Ukraine and Slovakia
declared its independence.
In 1945, the heaviest bomb of World War Two, the 22,000 pound
"Grand Slam," was dropped by the RAF's Dambuster Squadron in
Germany on the Bielefeld railway viaduct.
In 1954, the Vietnamese took the Gabrielle strong point against
the French in the battle of Dien Bien Phu.
In 1964, Jack Ruby was found guilty of the murder of Lee
Harvey Oswald, alleged assassin of President John F. Kennedy.
In 1965, Israel accepted West Germany's request to establish
diplomatic relations.
In 1976, Egypt formally abrogated the 1971 Treaty Friendship
and Cooperation with the Soviet Union.
In 1978, Dutch marines succeeded in freeing 71 hostages held
by South Moluccans for 29 hours. On June 30, the South Moluccans
were jailed for 15 years.
In 1979, at least 200 people died when a Trident aircraft crashed on to a factory outside Peking, China.
In 1980, 87 people including a 14-man U.S. boxing team died in
an air crash in Warsaw.
In 1983, OPEC agreed to cut its oil prices by 15 per cent for
the first time in its 23-year history.
In 1991, the "Birmingham Six," six Irishmen wrongly accused
of the 1974 bombing of pubs in Birmingham, England, were freed
after 16 years in jail.
In 1996, U.S. President Bill Clinton committed $100 million
for an anti-terrorism pact with Israel to track down and root
out Islamic militants.
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Newslink
One hundred and eighteen years ago, Albert Einstein was born. The renowned theoretical physicist best known for his theory of relativity was born in Ulm, Germany, in 1879. He won the Nobel Prize in 1921. To find out more about the scientist, click here.
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Holidays and more
It's the anniversary of the Revolutionary attack on the Presidential Palace in Cuba.
Former astronaut Frank Borman is 69.
Actor Michael Caine is 64.
Actor Billy Crystal is 50.
Composer/producer Quincy Jones is 64.
Cartoonist Hank Ketcham is 77.
Actress Rita Tushingham is 55.
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Sources: Reuters,
Chase's Calendar of Events 1997, J.P. Morgan
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