Saturday, October 18, 1997
Today's events
North Korean residents in Japan hold a reception in Tokyo to
celebrate Kim Jong-il's recent rise in title.
The U.S. Embassy in Lima, Peru, holds a news conference on the drug trade.
The "Fairy Queen," India's oldest steam locomotive, leaves for Alwar in Rajasthan.
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On the horizon
On Sunday, October 19, U.S. drug czar Barry McCaffrey is scheduled to visit Bogota, Colombia.
On Monday, October 20, European Commission President Jacques Santer is expected to meet with Hong Kong Chief Executive Tung Chee Hwa in Brussels.
On Tuesday, October 21, Tunisian President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali is scheduled to visit France at the invitation of French President Jacques Chirac.
On Wednesday, October 22, Paris celebrates the 200th anniversary of the world's first parachute jump.
On Thursday, October 23, local elections are to be held in Algeria.
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On this day
In 1469, Isabella of Castile married Ferdinand II of Aragon,
thus uniting almost all the Christian dominions of Spain under one monarchy.
In 1685, King Louis XIV of France revoked the Edict of Nantes, depriving the Protestant Huguenots of all religious and civil liberties granted them by Henry IV in 1598.
In 1748, the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, negotiated largely by
Britain and France, ended the Austrian War of Succession.
In 1860, British troops burned the Yuanmingyuan, the imperial
summer palace in Beijing, to the ground.
In 1867, the U.S. flag flew for the first time at Sitka following the purchase of Alaska from Russia.
In 1873, the first American Football rules were formulated at
a meeting in New York attended by delegates from Columbia,
Princeton, Rutgers and Yale.
In 1912, Italy and Turkey signed a peace treaty at Lausanne,
whereby Cyrenaica and Tripoli gained autonomy and the Dodecanese Islands were restored to Turkey.
In 1922, the British Broadcasting Company (BBC) was formed.
In 1963, Harold Macmillan resigned as British Prime Minister
and was replaced by Lord Home who renounced his peerage and
became Sir Alec Douglas-Home.
In 1967, the Soviet Venera 4 spacecraft entered the atmosphere of Venus and transmitted data back to earth before losing contact 27 km above the surface.
In 1970, the body of Pierre Laporte, the Quebec (Canada)
Minister of Labor, was found following his kidnap by the Quebec Liberation Front.
In 1977, three Palestinian hijackers were killed when a German anti-terrorist squad stormed a Lufthansa aircraft at Mogadishu Airport. All 86 passengers who had been held hostage for five days were freed.
In 1988, the British government banned broadcast interviews
with groups which expressed support for violence in Northern
Ireland, provoking opposition charges it was handing a
propaganda coup to the outlawed Irish Republican Army.
In 1989, Hungary's Parliament purged the constitution of its
Stalinist elements to create a Western-style basic law for a return to multi-party democracy.
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Newslink
The National Archives have just released over 150 hours of secretly made tapes from the Nixon White House. Today its easier than ever to make illicit recordings of meetings and phone calls, even though that practice often falls outside the bounds of the law. Visit Gadgets, Inc. for a look at the darker side of consumer electronics.
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Holidays and more
Azerbaijan Republic celebrates the Day of the State of Independence.
Turkmenistan celebrates Unity Day.
Singer Chuck Berry is 71.
Actor Peter Boyle is 64.
Actress Pam Dawber is 46.
Football coach Mike Ditka is 58.
Former boxer Thomas "Hit Man" Hearns is 39.
Jazz musician Wynton Marsalis is 36.
Actress Erin Moran is 36.
Actor Joe Morton is 50.
Singer Laura Nyro is 50.
Actor George C. Scott is 70.
Poet Ntozake Shange is 49.
Actor Vincent Spano is 35.
Writer Wendy Wasserstein is 47.
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Sources: Associated Press,
Chase's Calendar of Events 1997, J.P. Morgan
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