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Sunday, March 16, 1997

  • Today's Events
  • On Horizon
  • On This Day
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  • "He'll be back on his feet -- both of them -- very soon."

    -- Vice President Al Gore on President ClintonÕs recovery.





    Today's Events


  • The International Defense Exhibition opens in Abu Dhabi.

  • A Mass rally against the Renault decision to close a Vilvoorde plant is scheduled in Brussels.

  • The Philippine Military Academy graduation is scheduled to take place. It is the first-ever for Filipino female cadets.

  • The Writers Guild Awards are scheduled to be presented in Hollywood, California.
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    On the horizon


  • 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.

  • On Friday, March 21, U.S. President Bill Clinton pays a one-day visit to Denmark.
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    On this day


  • In 37, Roman Emperor Tiberius, having retired to Capri, died on a visit to the mainland near the Bay of Naples.

  • In 1792, Gustavus III of Sweden was shot by Captain Anckarstroem at a masked ball. He died on March 29. His rule was known as the "Gustavian Enlightenment" and he was a great patron of the arts. Giuseppe Verdi composed his opera "A Masked Ball" around these events.

  • In 1802, the United States Congress passed an act establishing a military academy at West Point, New York.

  • In 1827, Freedom's Journal, the first newspaper for blacks in the United States, was published in New York.

  • In 1851, Spain signed a concordat with the Papacy under which Roman Catholicism became the only authorized faith. It also gave control of education and the press to the Church.

  • In 1917, in Russia, Grand Duke Michael, brother of former Tsar Nicholas II who had abdicated the day before, refused to take the throne. The provisional government under Prince Georgi Lvov then formally took office.

  • In 1926, the first liquid-fuel rocket was successfully launched by Professor Robert Goddard at Auburn, Massachusetts. The rocket traveled 184 feet in 2.5 seconds.

  • In 1935, German leader Adolf Hitler renounced the disarmament clauses in the Versailles Treaty and introduced conscription.

  • In 1968, in the Vietnam War, during an operation in the village of My Lai, a platoon of U.S. troops massacred at least 100 Vietnamese civilians.

  • In 1973, in Paris, finance ministers of 14 countries, and the heads of the IMF, OECD and BIS agreed to establish a currency system with backing from the United States, based on floating rates of exchange.

  • In 1976, British Prime Minister Harold Wilson announced his intention to retire. He was succeeded by James Callaghan on April 5.

  • In 1978, former Italian premier Aldo Moro was kidnapped by Red Brigades guerrillas, who demanded the release of all Communist prisoners.

  • In 1978, about 220,000 tons of oil were spilled after the Amoco Cadiz ran aground off the Brittany coast.

  • In 1982, Soviet President Leonid Brezhnev announced that the Soviet Union was freezing deployment of SS-20 missiles west of the Urals.

  • In 1984, South Africa and Mozambique signed a non-aggression pact near the border town of Komatipoort.

  • In 1985, U.S. journalist Terry Anderson kidnapped in Beirut. He was not released until December 4, 1991, after 2,454 days in captivity.

  • In 1995, Norman Thagard stepped aboard the Mir space station to become the first U.S. astronaut to fly on a Russian spacecraft.
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    Newslink


    The Writers Guild Awards are scheduled to be presented tonight in Hollywood, California. For all the latest information, check out their Web site.


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    Holidays and more


  • Filmmaker Bernardo Bertolucci is 56.

  • Actor Erik Estrada is 48.

  • Comedian Jerry Lewis is 72.

  • Actress Isabelle Huppert is 42.

  • Actor Leo McKern is 77.

  • U.S. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan is 70.
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    Sources: Associated Press,
    Chase's Calendar of Events 1997, J.P. Morgan



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