Tuesday, April 15, 1997
Today's Events
The deadline for filing income taxes in the United States
falls at midnight.
The trial of self-confessed apartheid hit-squad commander
Dirk Coetzee and four others is scheduled to begin in Durban,
South Africa, for the murder of ANC lawyer Griffiths Mxenge.
New Federal Republic of Yugoslavia passports are scheduled to
begin being issued in Belgrade.
U.S. President Clinton is scheduled to address junior high
school students in Brooklyn and then speak at ceremony
honoring Jackie Robinson.
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On the horizon
On Wednesday, April 16, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan
pays an official visit to Bonn, Germany.
On Thursday, April 17, a march by Brazil's landless movement
is due to arrive in Brasilia after a two-month walk across
the country. The walk commemorates the first anniversary of
massacre of 19 landless peasants by military police in Para
state.
On Friday, April 18, NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana
visits Sarajevo.
On Saturday, April 19, the "Voices of Chichen-Itza" concert
to benefit Maya culture will be held in Chichen-Itza, Mexico.
On Sunday, April 20, Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic
visits Cairo, Egypt.
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On this day
In 1450, the French defeated the English at the Battle of
Formigny in the last phase of the 100 Years' War.
In 1755, Dr. Samuel Johnson, English poet, journalist and
lexicographer, had his famous dictionary published on this
day.
In 1797, British naval personnel mutinied at Spithead, in the
English Channel.
In 1865, Andrew Johnson became the 17th president of the
United States after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.
In 1891, Katanga Company was formed in Brussels to exploit
copper deposits in the Katanga area of Central Africa.
In 1912, the White Star passenger liner Titanic sank on her
maiden voyage after hitting an iceberg off Newfoundland;
1,523 of the 2,200 passengers and crew lost their lives in
the supposedly unsinkable vessel.
In 1923, in New York, at the Rialto Theatre, Lee De Forest
screened a selection of musical shorts demonstrating his
sound-on-film process, the first sound films to be
demonstrated
before a paying audience.
In 1938, General Francisco Franco's forces captured Vinaroz
in the Spanish Civil war.
In 1942, the George Cross, Britain's highest accolade for
civilian gallantry, was conferred on Malta by King George VI
for
bravery in withstanding Italian and German attacks.
In 1945, British troops liberated the Bergen-Belsen
concentration camp in Germany.
In 1966, Ugandan Prime Minister Milton Obote was declared
president under a new constitution.
In 1971, British and Chinese governments agreed to the
reopening of a telephone link between London and Shanghai
which
had been closed for 22 years.
In 1974, the 15-year rule of President Hamani Diori in Niger
came to end when he was deposed in a coup.
In 1989, at the Hillsborough football stadium in Sheffield,
northern England, 96 people died when a gate was opened to
let
in supporters onto an already crowded terrace.
In 1991, European Community foreign ministers agreed to lift
most remaining sanctions against South Africa.
In 1992, governments across the world applied U.N. sanctions
against Libya because of its alleged involvement in the
destruction of a Pan Am airliner over Lockerbie in 1988 and
the
bombing of a French plane over Niger in 1989.
In 1994, ministers from the world's trading nations signed
the
GATT pact (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade), the
biggest
market-opening treaty in history.
In 1996, South Africa's "truth commission," looking into
abuses during the apartheid era, began its public hearings.
In 1996, Japan and the U.S. announced the closure of six more
U.S. military facilities on the southern Japanese island of
Okinawa, reducing the amount of land occupied by American
forces there by a fifth.
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Newslink
It's tax time again. Got any last minute questions? Need some
more information? Don't even know where to start? Click here
and enter the world of the Internal
Revenue Service.
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Holidays and more
It's a Local Holiday in Bolivia.
Today is the Recollection of Deceased in Georgia.
It's the Declaration of Melaka as a Historic State in
Malaysia.
Today is the Thingyan Holiday in the Union of Myanmar.
Olympic gold medal track athlete Evelyn Ashford is 40.
A ctress Claudia Cardinale is 59.
Singer Roy Clark is 64.
Actress Amy Wright is 47.
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Sources: Associated Press,
Chase's Calendar of Events 1997, J.P. Morgan
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