Wednesday, March 4, 1998
Today's events
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There is a tentatively scheduled House floor vote on admitting Puerto Rico as the 51st U.S. state.
Public Citizen releases its annual listing of "Questionable Doctors."
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On the horizon
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On Thursday, March 5, the VII Paralympic Winter Games open in Nagano, Japan.
On Friday, March 6, the Massachusetts State Supreme Judicial Court hears appeal in case of Louise Woodward, the 19-year-old au pair accused of killing a baby in her care.
On Saturday, March 7, the start of the annual sled dog race begins in Anchorage, Alaska.
On Sunday, March 8, the annual Screen Actors Guild awards will be presented in Los Angeles.
Monday, March 9, is the deadline for motions in Microsoft's appeal of an injunction restricting distribution of its browser program.
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On this day
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In 1193, Saladin, sultan of Egypt and Syria, died; his forces
captured Jerusalem in 1187, ending its 88-year occupation by the Franks.
In 1152, Frederick I Barbarossa was elected king of Germany in succession to his uncle Conrad III. He later became a crusader and opponent of the pope.
In 1461, in the English Wars of the Roses, Edward of York took the English throne as Edward IV.
In 1678, Antonio Vivaldi, Italian composer, was born. Best known for "The Four Seasons," he wrote more than 230 violin
concertos and 120 concertos for other solo instruments.
In 1681, King Charles II granted William Penn by charter
almost all of what is now Pennsylvania.
In 1789, the first U.S. Congress convened in New York City
until September 29; 28 senators and 65 representatives sat for the 13 states.
In 1791, Vermont became the 14th state of the United States.
In 1793, George Washington was inaugurated in Philadelphia for a second term as president of the United States.
In 1801, Thomas Jefferson was inaugurated as the third
president of the United States; he was the first to be
inaugurated in the new capital of Washington.
In 1832, Jean-Francois Champollion, French historian and
Egyptologist, died.
In 1877, Tchaikovsky's ballet "Swan Lake" was first
performed at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow.
In 1890, in Scotland the Forth Bridge was opened by the prince of Wales. The bridge, more than one mile long with the track 157 feet above the water, cost almost 3 million pounds.
In 1913, Woodrow Wilson was inaugurated as the 28th U.S.
president, only the second Democrat since the American
Civil War.
In 1927, some 25,000 diggers participated in a rush to stake
their claims in new diamond fields at Grasfontein, South Africa.
In 1933, Franklin D. Roosevelt was sworn in as 32nd U.S.
president and the first to be elected for a third and fourth
term.
In 1941, a British naval raid on the German-occupied Lofoten
Islands off Norway sank 11 German ships.
In 1964, U.N. Security Council adopted a resolution to appoint a mediator and establish a U.N. peace-keeping force in Cyprus.
In 1970, the French submarine Eurydice sank off the coast of
Toulon. All 57 aboard died.
In 1971, Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau secretly
married Margaret Sinclair.
In 1974, in Britain, Prime Minister Edward Heath resigned and
Labour leader Harold Wilson formed a new government.
In 1975, actor Charlie Chaplin was knighted at Buckingham
Palace.
In 1976, in Northern Ireland, the Ulster Convention was
formally dissolved and Northern Ireland came under direct rule from London.
In 1977, more than 1,570 people were killed in Romania by an
earthquake which registered 7.2 on the Richter scale; 35,000
families were made homeless.
In 1980, Rhodesian Gov. Lord Soames invited Robert Mugabe
to form a government after his ZANU-PF party won a decisive
election victory.
In 1990, President Lennox Sebe was ousted in a military coup
in the South African homeland of Ciskei.
In 1991, coup leader Idriss Deby was sworn in as Chad's new
president.
In 1991, the Soviet parliament ratified a six-nation treaty,
setting the legal seal on German unification after two years of revolutionary change in central Europe.
In 1991, miners in the two largest Soviet coalfields went on
strike to support demands for the resignation of President
Mikhail Gorbachev and for pay raises.
In 1991, Crown Prince Sheikh Saad al-Abdulla al-Sabah became
the first senior member of the Kuwaiti ruling family to return to the homeland liberated from Iraqi occupation.
In 1994, four Muslim fundamentalists were found guilty of
bombing the landmark World Trade Center in New York.
In 1994, Zulu chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi and white separatist
Constand Viljoen signed up at the last moment to contest South Africa's multiracial elections.
In 1996, a Muslim suicide bomber killed 13 people and wounded
100, including children, outside a crowded Tel Aviv shopping
mall.
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Newslink
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Want to know more about Public Citizen, a Ralph Nader-founded group that bills itself as "the consumer's eyes and ears in Washington"? Go straight to the horse's mouth.
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Holidays and more
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It is Discovery Day in Guam.
It is Carnival in Switzerland.
Anthropologist Jane Goodall is 64.
Actress Patsy Kensit ("The Great Gatsby") is 30.
Actress Kay Lenz ("Rich Man, Poor Man") is 45.
Singer/actress Barbara McNair is 64.
Actress Catherine O'Hara ("Home Alone") is 44.
Actress Paula Prentiss ("What's New Pussycat?") is 59.
Singer Mary Wilson is 54.
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Sources: Associated Press,
Chase's Calendar of Events 1997, J.P. Morgan
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