Tuesday, October 21, 1997
Today's events
Germany's Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel is scheduled to visit South Korea.
The National Union of Journalists is scheduled to hold a seminar on the role of the media in light of Princess Diana's death.
Iceland's President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson and
his wife Gudrun Katrin Thorbergsdottir are scheduled to visit Sweden.
China's Vice Premier Wu Bangguo is scheduled to visit Bangladesh, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand.
Tunisian President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali is scheduled to visit France at the invitation of French President Jacques Chirac.
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On the horizon
On Wednesday, October 22, Paris is scheduled to celebrate 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 is scheduled to open in Japan.
On Saturday, October 25, the 4th International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific is scheduled to take place in Manila.
On Sunday, October 26, China's President Jiang Zemin is scheduled to visit the United States and is expected to meet with President Clinton to discuss Sino-U.S. relations.
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On this day
In 1805, the Battle of Trafalgar was fought, with the British
under Horatio Nelson victorious over the French and Spanish.
Nelson was mortally wounded.
In 1824, Portland cement, the modern building material, was
first patented by Joseph Aspdin of Wakefield in Yorkshire.
In 1879, Thomas Alva Edison successfully tested an electric
incandescent lamp with a carbonized filament at his New Jersey laboratory. It stayed alight for just over 13 hours.
In 1915, the first direct transatlantic speech relay by radio
telephone was made by the American Telephone and Telegraph
Company from Arlington, Virginia to Paris.
In 1923, the first planetarium was opened at the Deutsche
Museum in Munich.
In 1934, Chinese Communist forces led by Mao Zedong began an
attempt to break out of encirclement in Jiangxi province by
Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist Army. The "Long March" to safety through hostile lands to Yanan, 6,000 miles (9,600 km) to the north, took almost a year.
In 1937, in the Spanish Civil War, Franco's troops captured
Gijon, securing their control of northwest Spain.
In 1938, after months of bombing, the Japanese finally took
the Chinese city of Canton.
In 1940, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill taunted
Adolf Hitler in a radio broadcast: "We are waiting for the
long-promised invasion..... so are the fishes."
In 1944, U.S. troops captured Aachen, the first big German
city to fall to the Allies in World War II.
In 1950, Chinese forces began their occupation of Tibet.
In 1960, HMS Dreadnought, Britain's first nuclear submarine,
was launched by Queen Elizabeth.
In 1966, a colliery slag heap slid and buried a school in the
Welsh village of Aberfan, killing 116 children and 28 adults.
In 1967, the Egyptian navy sunk the Israeli destroyer Eilat
off Sinai.
In 1969, Willy Brandt was elected Chancellor of West Germany,
at the head of a Social Democrat-FDP coalition.
In 1979, Israeli Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan resigned over
the government's refusal to negotiate with Palestinians.
In 1982, Hissene Habre was sworn in as president of Chad.
In 1985, the Commonwealth heads of government meeting ended in the Bahamas with agreement to pressurize South Africa to
dismantle apartheid, but without the all-out sanctions some had asked for.
In 1986, the U.S. ordered 55 Soviet diplomats to leave the
country by November 1. The Soviet Union retaliated on the 22nd
In 1990, Dany Chamoun, leader of the National Liberal Party in Lebanon, was assassinated with members of his family.
In 1991, U.S. hostage Jesse Turner was released from nearly
five years in captivity in Beirut.
In 1993, President Ndadaye died in an abortive military coup
in Burundi.
In 1994, The U.S. and North Korea signed a landmark deal under which Pyongyang would freeze and then dismantle its nuclear program.
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Newslink
Now you can enjoy some of the treasures of Washington's Smithsonian Institution without leaving your home. Take a virtual tour of the some of the exhibits and photographs with the click of a mouse.
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Holidays and more
British Virgin Islands celebrates St. Ursula's Day.
Burundi marks the Anniversary of the Assassination of President Ndanday.
It's Armed Forces Day in Honduras.
India celebrates Dasera.
The Somali Democratic Republic marks the Anniversary of the Revolution.
Composer Sir Malcolm Arnold is 76.
Former baseball player George Antonio Bell is 38.
Musician Elvin Bishop is 55.
Actress Carrie Fisher is 41.
Journalist Frances Fitzgerald is 57.
Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Edward Charles Ford is 69.
Author Ursula LeGuin is 68.
Conductor Sir Georg Soti is 85.
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Sources: Associated Press,
Chase's Calendar of Events 1997, J.P. Morgan
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