Monday, December 1, 1997
Today's events
An international conference on climate control convenes in Kyoto, Japan.
Asian finance ministers begin a two-day meeting on the region's economic crisis.
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On the horizon
On Tuesday, December 2, NATO defense ministers are to meet in Brussels.
On Wednesday, December 3, the United Nations marks the International Day of Disabled Persons.
On Thursday, December 4, the English National Ballet will hold a special performance of "The Nutcracker" dedicated to patron Diana, Princess of Wales.
On Friday, December 5, the 5th China International Environmental Protection Exhibition and Conference is set to begin in Beijing.
On Saturday, December 6, about 50 heads of state are expected to attend the Organization of the Islamic Conference summit in Tehran.
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On this day
On this day In 1521, Pope Leo X died. One of the most extravagant of Renaissance popes, he made Rome a center of European culture and contributed to the dissolution of a unified church.
In 1640, in a nationalist revolution, Spanish garrisons were driven out of Portugal. Two weeks later, the Duke of Braganca was crowned as John IV.
In 1821, the Dominican Republic, comprising the eastern two-thirds of the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, declared independence from Spain.
In 1822, Dom Pedro, founder of the Brazilian Empire was crowned as first emperor of Brazil and ruled as Pedro I.
In 1906, the Cinema Omnia Pathe, considered the world's first cinema, opened in Paris.
In 1918, the Danish parliament passed an act to grant Iceland independence as a sovereign state.
In 1918, the province of Transylvania, previously part of Hungary, voted unanimously for union with Romania.
In 1919, Lady Nancy Astor became the first woman member to take her seat in the British House of Commons.
In 1925, the Locarno Treaties, guaranteeing peace and frontiers in Europe were signed by France, Belgium and Germany and its terms guaranteed by Britain and Italy.
In 1934, Sergei Kirov, Communist Party leader and associate of Josef Stalin, was shot in his office in Leningrad by Leonid Nikolayev.
In 1942, the welfare state was officially envisaged in Britain with the publication of the Beveridge Report. It was hailed as a charter for social security by bringing the whole population into an insurance scheme.
In 1954, the U.S. signed a mutual defense treaty with Nationalist China.
In 1955, Rosa Parks, a black woman from Montgomery, Alabama, was arrested when she refused to give up her seat in the front section of a bus so that a white man might be seated.
In 1959, 12 nations signed the Antarctic Treaty preserving the area for peaceful purposes and scientific research.
In 1970, in Italy, parliament gave final approval to a law granting divorce in certain circumstances.
In 1976, Angola was admitted to the United Nations.
In 1988, Benazir Bhutto became the first woman elected to govern a Muslim nation when acting President Ghulam Ishaq Khan nominated her to be prime minister of Pakistan.
In 1989, Mikhail Gorbachev became the first Soviet leader to visit the Vatican and meet the Pope. This meeting ended 72 years of Kremlin atheist ideology.
In 1990, engineers digging a railway tunnel under the English Channel broke through the last dividing rock and joined Britain to mainland Europe for the first time since the Ice Age.
In 1991, a referendum took place in Ukraine and voters backed independence from Russia by 9 to 1. The result confirmed parliament's earlier declaration of independence.
In 1994, the head of the U.N. commission on Rwanda concluded that genocide in the country in this year cost 500,000 lives and that murdered President Juvenal Habyarimana and his entourage were behind the slaughter.
In 1995, NATO ambassadors unanimously picked Spanish Foreign Minister Javier Solana as new head of the alliance.
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Newslink
Leaders from more than 150 countries with competing interests meet in Kyoto, Japan, Monday to discuss possible solutions to global warming, a problem that may not have tangible results for another century. For information on the hazards of this climate phenomenon, visit the Global Warming Information Page.
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Holidays and more
Barbados celebrates Independence Day.
It's Liberation Day in Chad.
Macau marks Restoration of Portuguese Independence.
New Zealand honors Provincial Anniversary.
It's Independence Day in Portugal.
Romania celebrates National Day.
Actor Woody Allen is 62.
Model Carol Alt is 37.
Singer Bette Midler is 52.
Entertainer Richard Pryor is 57.
Blues singer Lou Rawls is 62.
Golfer Lee Trevino is 58.
Actor Treat Williams is 45.
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Sources: Associated Press,
Chase's Calendar of Events 1997, J.P. Morgan
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