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Sunday, October 1819, 1997

  • Today's Events
  • On Horizon
  • On This Day
  • Newslink
  • Holidays & more
  • Almanac archive
  • "Congolese people must have peace again in their country."

    -- Gen. Denis Sassou-Nguesso





    Today's events


  • Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak opens the Peace Canal, bringing in Nile waters to the Sinai.

  • U.S. drug czar Barry McCaffrey is scheduled to visit Bogota, Colombia.

  • The 33rd World Bridge Championships open in Tunisia.

  • In Taiwan, stripper-turned-politician Hsu Shao-tan holds her wedding outdoors and in the nude.

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    On the horizon


  • 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.

  • On Friday, October 24, the Tokyo Motor Show opens in Japan.

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    On this day


  • In 1781, Lord Cornwallis surrendered to General Washington at Yorktown in Virginia, signaling the end of the American War of Independence.

  • In 1813, Napoleon was defeated by the Allies at the Battle of the Nations at Leipzig.

  • In 1872, the Holtermann Nugget, a slab of slate weighing 235.14 kg, was found in New South Wales, Australia. It contained 82.11 kg of gold, the largest mass of gold ever found.

  • In 1901, Alberto Santos-Dumont, a Brazilian aviator, flew an airship around the Eiffel Tower. The trip took 30 minutes and he was awarded the Deutsche Prize.

  • In 1915, Italy and Russia declared war on Bulgaria.

  • In 1935, the League of Nations imposed sanctions against Italy following its invasion of Ethiopia.

  • In 1943, the Moscow Conference of Foreign Ministers began, aimed at improving allied relations with the Soviet Union.

  • In 1954, Britain and Egypt signed a new Suez Canal pact, calling for withdrawal of British troops from the canal zone within 20 months.

  • In 1960, the U.S. State Department embargoed the shipment to Cuba of all goods except medicine and foodstuffs.

  • In 1970, British Petroleum made the first major oil find in the British sector of the North Sea.

  • In 1978, Rhodesian troops attacked suspected guerrilla camps in neighboring Zambia, killing 300 people.

  • In 1982, the Northern Ireland Office announced the closure of the De Lorean car plant in Belfast, after John De Lorean's arrest on drug charges in the U.S.

  • In 1983, the U.S. Senate passed a bill making Martin Luther King's birthday a public holiday.

  • In 1986, President Samora Machel of Mozambique and 30 of his staff were killed in a plane crash near the South African border.

  • In 1987, "Black Monday" occurred when Wall Street stocks plunged a record 508 points or 22.6 per cent. The loss topped the one-day declines of October 28 and 29 in 1929 which heralded the Great Depression.

  • In 1989, the murder convictions against Britain's "Guildford Four," jailed since 1975 for IRA attacks on public houses at Guildford and Woolwich in 1974, were quashed.

  • In 1990, Soviet President Gorbachev won parliamentary approval for a plan to switch from old-style communist central planning to a market economy.

  • In 1994, a suspected Muslim suicide bomber blew up a bus in the heart of Tel Aviv, killing 22 people and wounding more than 40.

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    Newslink


    The eyes of the sporting world, or at least the U.S., are on baseball's World Series right now. Rawlings is a company that knows a little about the game, having sold baseball equipment for 109 years straight. Visit the Rawlings baseball page for a little history lesson and a look at the instruments of the game.


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    Holidays and more


  • Journalist Jack Anderson is 75.

  • Former CBS announcer Bern Bennett is 76.

  • Basketball player Brad Daugherty is 32.

  • Actor Michael Gambon is 57.

  • Social activist, feminist Patricia Ireland is 52.

  • Author John LeCarre is 66.

  • Actor John Lithgow is 52.

  • Artist Peter Max is 60.

  • Actress LaWanda Page is 77.

  • Actor Simon Ward is 56.

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



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