Wednesday, July 30, 1997
Today's events
The Baalbek Festival, once Lebanon's leading cultural event,
resumes with a performance by cellist Mstislav Rostropovich;
the festival was last held in 1974.
The 6th annual Beijing International Beer Festival is
scheduled to begin.
Paraguayan President Juan Carlos Wasmosy is scheduled to
begin a visit to Colombia.
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On the horizon
On Thursday, July 31, a Beirut court issues a verdict in the
case of five Japanese Red Army guerrillas charged with
forgery and other offenses carrying maximum sentences of 10
years in prison.
On Friday, August 1, Lima, Peru's, Latin American film
festival opens.
On Saturday, August 2, the World Gold Council holds a seminar
on Gold Banking in New Delhi.
On Sunday, August 3, the annual induction ceremony at
Baseball's Hall of Fame is scheduled to take place in
Cooperstown, New York.
On Monday, August 4, Los Angeles is scheduled to play San
Diego in the annual Baseball Hall of Fame game in
Cooperstown, New York.
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On this day
In 1178, Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor known as Barbarossa,
was crowned King of Burgundy.
In 1419, anti-Catholic Hussites, followers of executed
reformer Jan Hus, stormed the town hall in Prague and threw
Catholic councilors out of the windows.
In 1619, the first legislative assembly in America, known as
the House of Burgesses, was convened in Jamestown, Virginia.
In 1656, Charles X of Sweden defeated the Poles at the Battle
of Warsaw, two days after invading the country.
In 1934, Kurt von Schuschnigg was named Austrian chancellor
following the assassination of Engelbert Dollfuss.
In 1935, the first Penguin book was published, starting the
paperback revolution. The idea came from Sir Allen Lane, who
wanted to provide "a whole book for the price of 10
cigarettes." The first one to be issued was "Ariel" by Andre
Maurois.
In 1945, the U.S. cruiser Indianapolis was sunk by a Japanese
submarine killing over 800. It was returning to the U.S.
after delivering nuclear material for the atomic bomb.
In 1948, the advance of Communist domination in Hungary
forced the resignation of President Zoltan Tildy.
In 1949, British warship HMS Amethyst made its escape down
the Yangtze River, having been refused a safe passage by
Chinese Communists after a three-month standoff.
In 1963, the Soviet newspaper Izvestia reported that Kim
Philby, recently revealed as the "third man" in Britain's
Burgess and Maclean spy affair, had been given asylum in
Moscow.
In 1966, England beat Germany 4-2 at Wembley to win the
football World Cup.
In 1971, during the Apollo 15 mission, David Scott and James
Irwin landed on the moon.
In 1971, a Japanese Boeing 727 collided with a jet fighter
over Shizukuishi, killing 162 people.
In 1973, the 11-year battle for the victims of the drug
Thalidomide ended with compensation payments of 20 million
pounds sterling.
In 1974, a joint declaration on Cyprus was signed in Geneva
between Greece, Turkey and Britain.
In 1975, a summit conference on European security opened in
Helsinki attended by leaders of 35 nations including U.S.
President Ford and Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev.
In 1980, the Republic of Vanuatu (formerly the Franco-British
condominium of New Hebrides) achieved its independence.
In 1989, Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski stepped down after eight
years as Polish Communist Party leader. He was succeeded by
his friend and protégé, Mieczyslaw Rakowski.
In 1989, radical members of the Soviet parliament set up a
group to press for faster reform. Boris Yeltsin and Andrei
Sakharov were among those elected to run it.
In 1990, British Conservative member of parliament Ian Gow,
close aide of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, was killed by
a car bomb planted by Irish republicans.
In 1991, President Bush and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev
began a two-day summit meeting in Moscow, Bush's first summit
on Soviet soil.
In 1993, in Geneva peace talks, Bosnia's Muslims, Serbs and
Croats agreed to create a new "union" of three ethnic
republics.
In 1994, Zaire declared its eastern region, swamped by 1.7
million Rwandan refugees, a disaster region.
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Newslink
Holidays and more
Today is Revolutionary Martyrs Day in Cuba.
It's Independence Day in Vanuatu.
Actress Geraldine Chaplin is 53.
Actor Don Murray is 68.
Actor Wesley Snipes is 35.
Former Governor of Massachusetts William F. Weld is 52.
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Sources: Associated Press,
Chase's Calendar of Events 1997, J.P. Morgan
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