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Monday, March 31, 1997

  • Today's Events
  • On Horizon
  • On This Day
  • Newslink
  • Holidays & more
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  • "I'm probably the loneliest man in the world."

    -- Roy Sells, whose wife was killed in the Oklahoma City bombing





    Today's Events


  • Timothy McVeigh is scheduled to begin federal trial for the April 19, 1995, bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah building in Oklahoma City that killed 168 people. His co-defendant, Terry Nichols, will be tried separately at a later date.

  • The Lower House of the Tokyo legislator is scheduled to disclose their personal assets.

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    On the horizon


  • On Tuesday, April 1, American and National league teams begin the 1997 baseball season. Active rosters must be reduced to 25 players.

  • On Wednesday, April 2, the space shuttle Columbia will be launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, beginning a 16-day microgravity science laboratory mission.

  • On Thursday, April 3, the 5th Beijing International Trade Exhibition is scheduled to Beijing.

  • On Friday, April 4, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored Persons is scheduled to hold a Non-Violence Day rally in Los Angeles.

  • On Saturday, April 5, the U.S. and Japan are scheduled to hold defense talks.

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    On this day


  • In 1084, Clement III, elected antipope in 1080 by a synod convoked by Henry IV, crowned Henry as Holy Roman Emperor.

  • In 1492, Jews in Spain were given three months to accept Christianity or leave.

  • In 1547, King Francis I of France died and was succeeded by Henry II.

  • In 1854, the Treaty of Kanagawa was signed between the U.S. and Japan, opening up the ports of Shimoda and Hakodate to U.S. traders.

  • In 1870, in the United States, Thomas Peterson-Mundy became the first black to vote under the Fifteenth Amendment (passed by Congress February 1870) which required all Southern States to allow blacks to vote.

  • In 1889, the Eiffel Tower in Paris was inaugurated.

  • In 1917, the U.S. purchased the Danish West Indies for $25 million and called them the Virgin Islands.

  • In 1939, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain undertook to defend Poland in an Anglo-French alliance if attacked.

  • In 1949, Newfoundland joined the Canadian Federation as the tenth province.

  • In 1954, the Soviet Union offered to join NATO.

  • In 1959, the Dalai Lama, fleeing Chinese repression of an uprising in Tibet, arrived at the Indian border and was granted political asylum.

  • In 1964, in Brazil, a period of economic crisis, exacerbated by allegations of official corruption, led a military revolt against the government of President Joao Goulart.

  • In 1968, President Lyndon Baines Johnson announced he would not stand for re-election.

  • In 1970, Lesotho's prime minister, Leabua Jonathan, announced that King Moshoeshoe II was leaving the country indefinitely and Queen Mamohato would act as Regent.

  • In 1971, Lt. William Calley was sentenced to life imprisonment (later reduced to 20 years) for the killings of Vietnamese civilians at My Lai in March 1968.

  • In 1979, the military relationship between Britain and Malta ended after 181 years with the departure of the destroyer HMS London from Valetta Harbor.

  • In 1990, a rally against a new and unpopular poll tax turned into a violent riot in the heart of London.

  • In 1992, Israel and Spain marked the 500th anniversary of Roman Catholic monarchs banishing Jews from Spain with a visit to King Juan Carlos by President Chaim Herzog.

  • In 1994, Israel and the PLO signed an agreement to put international observers in the West Bank town of Hebron, the first time Israel had agreed to an international presence in the occupied territories since it captured them in 1967.

  • In 1994, President F.W. de Klerk announced a state of emergency to halt spiralling violence in South Africa's Zulu heartland.

  • In 1995, all 60 people aboard a Romanian Tarom airlines Airbus were killed when it crashed and burst into flames shortly after takeoff for Brussels.

  • In 1995, the Paris Appeals Court ruled that maverick French soccer boss-turned-politician Bernard Tapie was bankrupt, clearing a way for him to be stripped of his French and European parliament seats.

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    Newslink


    Today is Albert Gore Jr.'s 49th birthday. Want to send him a celebratory e-mail? Click here to log into the vice president's personal Web page.


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    Holidays and more


  • It's Easter Monday throughout much of the world.

  • Today is Freedom Day in Malta.

  • Today is Family Day in South Africa.

  • Today is Transfer Day in the Virgin Islands.

  • Musician Herb Alpert is 62.

  • Actor Richard Chamberlain is 62.

  • Fashion designer Liz Claiborne is 68.

  • Actor William Daniels is 70.

  • U.S. Vice President Al Gore is 49.

  • Hockey Hall of Fame right winger Gordie Howe is 69.

  • Singer Shirley Jones is 63.

  • Actor Gabe Kaplan is 51.

  • Actor Edward Francis Marinaro is 47.

  • Actress Rhea Perlman is 49.

  • Actor Christopher Walken is 54.

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    Sources: Associated Press,
    Chase's Calendar of Events 1997, J.P. Morgan



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