CNN logo
navigation

Infoseek/Big Yellow


Pathfinder/Warner Bros


Barnes and Noble



Almanac Main banner

Tuesday, October 21, 1997

  • Today's Events
  • On Horizon
  • On This Day
  • Newslink
  • Holidays & more
  • Almanac archive
  • "Forcing PC manufacturers to take one Microsoft product as a condition of buying a monopoly product like Windows 95 is not only a violation of the court order but it's plain wrong."

    -- U. S. Attorney General Janet Reno





    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.

  • rule


    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.

  • rule


    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.

  • rule


    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.


    rule


    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.

  • rule


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



    To the top

    © 1997 Cable News Network, Inc.
    All Rights Reserved.

    Terms under which this service is provided to you.