Friday, April 18, 1997
Today's events
Annual U.N. Human Rights Commission meeting due to end in Geneva.
Public inquiry into $36 million contract between Papua New Guinea government and British mercenary group for soldiers and equipment to crush uprising on Bougainville island scheduled to end in Port Moresby, Australia.
NATO secretary general Javier Solana visits Sarajevo.
Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar visits Brazil.
|
On the horizon
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.
On Monday, April 21, Britain's Queen Elizabeth celebrates her
71st birthday.
On Tuesday, April 22, King Hussein of Jordan is scheduled to
visit Denmark.
On Wednesday, April 23, International Monetary Fund (IMF) World Bank holds its 1997 spring meeting in Washington.
|
On this day
In 1775, Paul Revere rode from Charlestown to Lexington to
warn the Massachusetts colonists of the arrival of British
troops at the start of the War of American Independence.
In 1942, U.S. aircraft bombed Tokyo for the first time in World War II.
In 1945 , Ernie Pyle, one of the most famous war correspondents of World War Two, was killed by Japanese machine-gun fire on the island of Ie Shima in the Pacific. The 1945 film "G.I. Joe" was about his coverage of the Italian campaign.
In 1946, the League of Nations dissolved itself and all its
assets were handed over to the United Nations.
In 1949, Southern Ireland came into being with the
passing of the Republic of Ireland Act.
In 1951, France, West Germany, Italy and the three Benelux
countries signed a treaty in Paris setting up the European Coal and Steel Community.
In 1954, Gamal Abdel Nasser became prime minister of Egypt.
In 1974, the Washington District Court conducting the Watergate proceedings issued a subpoena on President Richard Nixon to produce tape recordings and other material demanded by the Special Prosecutor.
In 1978, the U.S. Senate ratified the second Panama Canal
Treaty, providing for the operation and defense of the canal
until 1999.
In 1980, Rhodesia gained legal independence as Zimbabwe.
In 1983, a suicide bomb shattered the U.S. embassy in Beirut, killing at least 63 people.
In 1988, an Israeli court convicted John Demjanjuk of Nazi war crimes, saying he was the gas chamber operator "Ivan The
Terrible" at the Treblinka death camp in World War II.
In 1996, more than 100 Lebanese refugees, many of them women
and children, were killed when Israeli artillery shells ripped into a crowded U.N. peacekeepers base where they were
sheltering.
|
Newslink
House Speaker Newt Gingrich, calling himself "a person of
limited means," announced he will pay his $300,000 ethics
violation penalty with a personal loan from former Senate
Majority Leader Bob Dole. Reaction in Washington was swift. Most Republicans applaud the speaker's choice, and some Democrats are even praising it. Visit the politically provocative publication Mother Jones to get to the heart of the matter.
|
Holidays and more
Labor negotiator Ed Garvey is 57.
Actress Barbara Hale is 75.
Actor John James is 41.
Actress Dorothy Lyman is 50.
Football player Wilber Marshall is 35.
Actress Hayley Mills is 51.
Actor James Woods is 50.
|
Sources: Associated Press,
Chase's Calendar of Events 1997, J.P. Morgan
|