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Tuesday, June 17, 1997

  • Today's Events
  • On Horizon
  • On This Day
  • Newslink
  • Holidays & more
  • Almanac archive
  • "It was the luckiest thing that ever happened to me in my life,"

    -- Playwright Lee Breuer on being awarded a $355,000 grant





    Today's events


  • Aum Shinri Kyo (Supreme Truth Sect) religious sect leader Shoko Asahara appears at the Tokyo trial of cult official Ikuo Hayashi.

  • The European Food Law holds it sixth annual conference in Brussels.

  • Britain's Opposition Conservative Party MPs take part in the second round of voting for new party leader.

  • Amnesty International presents its annual report, with 1996 Nobel Peace Prize laureate and East Timor independence leader Jose Ramos Horta.

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    On the horizon


  • On Wednesday, June 18, defense ministers from the Commonwealth of Independent States meet in Tbilisi, Georgia.

  • On Thursday, June 19, new French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin is expected to deliver his keynote policy speech to parliament.

  • On Friday, June 20, the Group of Seven, or G7, summit of leading industrialized countries opens in Denver.

  • On Saturday, June 21, dragon boat competition is held in Beijing.

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    On this day


  • In 656, Caliph Uthman, the third caliph to rule after the death of the Prophet, was assassinated at his home in Medina (now Saudi Arabia) by besieging Muslim rebels from Mesopotamia.

  • In 1239, Edward I, King of England, was born. He was king from 1272 on the death of his father Henry III. His rule was notable for its efficiency in administration.

  • In 1775, in the American War of Independence, British forces defeated the Americans at the Battle of Bunker Hill which took place at Breed's Hill near Boston. The British won at the cost of 800 out of their force of 2,000.

  • In 1789, in France, the Third Estate proclaimed itself a National Assembly and refused to let the king keep his veto.

  • In 1860, the 692-foot liner Great Eastern, built by Brunel, left the Isle of Wight on her first transatlantic voyage.

  • In 1867, Joseph Lister performed the first surgical operation under antiseptic conditions on his sister Isabella, at Glasgow's Royal Infirmary.

  • In 1882, Igor Stravinsky, composer, born in Russia. One of the 20th century's leading musical figures and most famous for his ballets "The Rite of Spring" and "Petrushka."

  • In 1925, 29 countries signed the Geneva Protocol which prohibited the use of poisonous gases in war.

  • In 1940, Marshal Philippe Petain announced that France had asked for armistice terms from Germany.

  • In 1940, the troop ship Lancastria was sunk by enemy fire after having taken on board British troops who were evacuating from France. Of the 5,300 on board almost 2,480 were saved.

  • In 1944, Iceland became an independent republic following a referendum on disengaging from Denmark's rule.

  • In 1967, China exploded its first hydrogen bomb.

  • In 1971, America and Japan signed an agreement for the return of Okinawa to Japan in 1972.

  • In 1972, in the United States, five men were arrested for attempting to place bugging equipment at the Democratic Party National Committee headquarters in the Watergate building in Washington. This led to President Richard Nixon's resignation in 1974.

  • In 1974, an Irish republican guerrilla bomb exploded at Westminster Hall, in the British Houses of Parliament injuring 11.

  • In 1982, in Argentina, Gen. Leopoldo Galtieri resigned as president following the country's defeat in the Falklands War.

  • In 1991, South Africa's white-dominated parliament voted to end race classification, the legal foundation of apartheid since 1950.

  • In 1994, American football star O.J. Simpson, accused of killing his ex-wife and a male friend, was arrested after a dramatic motorway chase and a 90-minute standoff in the driveway of his estate.

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    Newslink


    Amnesty International presents its annual report today, with 1996 Nobel Peace Prize laureate and East Timor independence leader Jose Ramos Horta. For a closer look at the human rights agency, check out Amnesty International Online.


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    Holidays and more


  • Today is a National Day in Ireland.

  • Massachusetts celebrates Bunker Hill Day.

  • Actor Mark Linn-Baker is 44.

  • Singer Barry Manilow is 51.

  • Comedian Joe Piscopo is 46.

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



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