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Friday, September 12, 1997

  • Today's Events
  • On Horizon
  • On This Day
  • Newslink
  • Holidays & more
  • Almanac archive
  • "We continue on a perfect course toward the red planet. Everything is absolutely perfect. There are no technical difficulties whatsoever."

    -- Mars Global Surveyor Project Manager Glenn Cunningham





    Today's events


  • The 15th Chinese Communist Party Congress opens in Beijing.

  • Ireland's President Mary Robinson steps down as head of state nearly three months before the end of her term to take up the post of U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights.

  • European Union economic and finance ministers hold an informal meeting in Luxembourg.

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    On the horizon


  • On Saturday, September 13, the first post-war municipal elections organized by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) are scheduled throughout Bosnia.

  • On Sunday, September 14, the opening ceremony for the Sydney Olympic Festival of the Dreaming is scheduled to be held.

  • On Monday, September 15, Oslo, Norway, is scheduled to hold parliamentary and local elections.

  • On Tuesday, September 16, the United Nations General Assembly's 52nd session opens in New York.

  • On Wednesday, September 17, the 28th South Pacific Forum is held in Australia's Cook Islands.

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    On this day


  • In 1609, Henry Hudson, the English navigator and explorer, entered the river later known as the Hudson, in North America.

  • In 1683, Vienna, under siege by the Turks for two months, was relieved by a force led by Polish King Sobieski.

  • In 1848, Switzerland adopted a new constitution under which it became a federal republic.

  • In 1878, the obelisk known as Cleopatra's Needle, originally cut from the quarries of Aswan in about 1475 BC, was erected in London.

  • In 1890, white settlers and troops reached the site of Salisbury (now Harare), which became the capital of Rhodesia.

  • In 1910, the world's first woman police officer, Alice Stebbins Wells, was appointed to the Los Angeles Police Department.

  • In 1913, Jesse Owens, the U.S. athlete who won four gold medals at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, is born.

  • In 1935, U.S. millionaire Howard Hughes flew a plane of his own design at 352.46 mph to establish the first of his several aviation records.

  • In 1940, four teenagers, following their dog when it disappeared down a hole near Lascaux, France, discovered 17,000-year-old drawings now known as the Lascaux Cave Paintings.

  • In 1943, German paratroopers, on the orders of Adolf Hitler, seized former Italian dictator Benito Mussolini who was being held prisoner by the government.

  • In 1953, American politician John F. Kennedy married Jacqueline Bouvier.

  • In 1953, Nikita Khrushchev was elected first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the USSR.

  • In 1960, the post of president was abolished in East Germany following the death of President Wilhelm Pieck and Walter Ulbricht became head of an all-powerful new Council of State.

  • In 1968, Albania announced it was withdrawing from the Warsaw Pact.

  • In 1970, the supersonic airliner Concorde landed for the first time at Heathrow airport in London, causing a barrage of complaints about the noise.

  • In 1972, an Icelandic gunboat sank two British trawlers in the North Sea in the first hostilities of the "Cod War."

  • In 1974, Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia was deposed in an army coup. He had ruled since 1930.

  • In 1977, South African black civil rights leader Steve Biko died in police detention.

  • In 1980, Turkish armed forces, led by General Kenan Evren, Chief of the General Staff, overthrew the government of Suleyman Demirel in a bloodless coup.

  • In 1986, American Joseph Cicippio was kidnapped in Lebanon. He was released in December 1991 after 1,906 days in captivity.

  • In 1990, East and West Germany and the World War II allies signed a treaty to restore sovereignty to a united Germany and define its international status.

  • In 1992, the U.S. space shuttle Endeavour took off with a crew that included Mark Lee and Jan Davis, the first married couple in space.

  • In 1994, soldiers from NATO states and their former communist foes joined forces for the first time in a military exercise in Poland.

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    Newslink


    India begins its tribute to Mother Teresa, the revered nun who turned her good works in Calcutta's slums into a worldwide charity. Click here for a CNN tribute to Mother Teresa.


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    Holidays and more


  • Cape Verde celebrates its Independence Day.

  • Actress Linda Gray is 56.

  • Singer George Jones in 66.

  • Singer Barry White is 53.

  • Basketball player Timothy Duane Hardaway is 31.

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



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