Tuesday, November 18, 1997
Today's events
- The trial of two Palestinians, a Libyan and two Germans,
charged in connection with the 1986 bomb attack in the West
Berlin discotheque that killed two U.S. soldiers and a
Turkish woman, is to open in Berlin.
- The 1997 China Environment Forum gets under way in Beijing.
- Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is scheduled to visit
Bangladesh on a three-day diplomatic trip.
- A Bonn court is to deliver a verdict on whether Amnesty
International defamed Colonia Dignidad, a secretive German
sect in Chile, by saying in a 1970s report that the colony
ran a torture center for Pinochet regime opponents.
- The United Nations Environment and Development conference on Earth Summit II is scheduled to begin.
- Greek Prime Minister Costas Simitis is the scheduled guest of honor and keynote speaker at the Foreign Press Association luncheon in Athens.
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On the horizon
- On Wednesday, November 19, Britain's Queen Elizabeth and the
Duke of Edinburgh are to attend a lunch given by the Lord
Mayor of London to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary,
which is Thursday.
- On Thursday, November 20, Britain's Queen Elizabeth and Duke
of Edinburgh are to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary
by attending a special service at Westminster Abbey, where
they were married.
- On Friday, November 21, Japan's Prime Minister Hashimoto,
other government leaders and ambassadors plan to attend a
ceremony marking the 25th anniversary of Okinawa's reversion
to Japan.
- On Saturday, November 22, the Miss World competition is
scheduled to take place in Victoria, Seychelles.
- On Sunday, November 23, Ecuador is to host a meeting of Army
chiefs from the Americas to discuss ways to improve security
and peace in the region.
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On this day
- In 1477, William Caxton produced the first printed book in
the English language, "The Dictes and Sayengis of the
Phylosophers."
- In 1626, St. Peters Basilica was consecrated by Pope
Urban VIII.
- In 1883, the United States adopted standard time and divided
the country into four time-zones.
- In 1886, Chester Alan Arthur, 21st U.S. president (1881-85),
died.
- In 1903, Panama and the United States signed a treaty on the
proposed Panama Canal.
- In 1916, Gen. Douglas Haig called off the first
Battle of the Somme in Europe after five months of futile
battle, which included the first use of tanks in battle. The
Allied advance of just 125 square miles claimed 420,000
British and 195,000 French casualties. German losses were
over 650,000.
- In 1918, the Latvian National Council proclaimed the
independent Republic of Latvia, with Janis Cakste as
president.
- In 1918, the Belgian army reoccupied Brussels after four
years of German occupation.
- In 1928, Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse made his first appearance
at the Colony Theatre in New York in a film called "Steamboat
Willie."
- In 1936, Germany under Adolf Hitler and Italy under Benito
Mussolini recognized General Francisco Franco's provisional
government in Spain.
- In 1941, Britain opened its second Western Desert offensive
in Libya when the Eighth Army advanced into Cyrenaica.
- In 1970, West Germany and Poland initialed a treaty
recognizing the Oder-Neisse line as a common border and
pledging each other to territorial integrity.
- In 1978, Jim Jones, a U.S. pastor, led 914 of his followers
to their deaths at Jonestown, Guyana, by drinking a
cyanide-laced fruit drink. Cult members who refused to
swallow the liquid were shot.
- In 1991, British peace envoy Terry Waite and U.S. academic
Thomas Sutherland were released from five years of captivity
in Lebanon by Islamic Jihad.
- In 1992, police arrested Pakistani opposition leader Benazir
Bhutto when she tried to lead a march on parliament to demand
the government's removal.
- In 1993, black and white leaders in South Africa approved the
new democracy constitution, which gave blacks the right to
vote and ended white minority rule.
- In 1993, Ukraine's parliament overwhelmingly ratified the
START-1 disarmament treaty but placed stiff conditions on
giving up nuclear weapons on its territory.
- In 1995, the Vatican said the Roman Catholic ban on the
ordination of women as priests was a definitive, infallible
and unquestionable part of the Church's doctrine.
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Newslink
The FBI reportedly plans to release evidence Tuesday that
supports the agency's belief that three Atlanta bombings are
linked, including the Centennial Olympic Park explosion. For
more information, visit the FBI's CENTBOM site.
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Holidays and more
- Morocco celebrates Independence Day.
- Oman marks National Day.
- It's Vertieres Day in Haiti.
- Latvia celebrates Independence Day.
- Actress Linda Evans is 55.
- Actress and singer Andrea Marcovicci turns 49.
- Actor Kevin Nealon is 44.
- Actor Jameson Parker is 50.
- Actress Elizabeth Perkins celebrates her 36th birthday.
- Astronaut Alan Shepard is 74.
- Actress Susan Sullivan turns 53.
- Actress Brenda Vaccaro is 58.
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Sources: Associated Press,
Chase's Calendar of Events 1997, J.P. Morgan
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