by Associated Press Tuesday, September 23 by The Associated Press, Associated Press - 15 September 2014 19:02-04:00 Today is Tuesday, September 23, the 266th day of 2014. There are 99 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date: 1518 - During the reign of Great Britain's King Henry VIII, the Royal College of Physicians is established to protect citizens from medical charlatans and quacks. 1642 - Harvard College in Cambridge, Massachusetts, holds its first commencement. 1817 - Spain signs treaty with Britain to end slave trade. 1846 - The planet Neptune is discovered by German astronomer Johann Gottfried Galle. 1942 - The Russians launch a counterattack against the Germans in Stalingrad after being reinforced by troops that had crossed the Volga. More than 2,000 Germans are killed. 1951 - United Nations forces capture "Heartbreak Ridge" in Korea from Communists. 1952 - U.S. Republican vice-presidential candidate Richard M. Nixon delivers his "Checkers" speech on TV to refute allegations of improper campaign financing. 1956 - Britain and France submit Suez Canal dispute to U.N. Security Council. 1957 - Romania's request to join Balkan Pact is refused by Greece; Nine black students who entered Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas withdraw because of a white mob outside. 1967 - The Soviet Union pledges to send military and economic assistance to North Vietnam, including aircraft, ground-to-air missiles and rocket equipment. 1972 - President Ferdinand Marcos declares martial law in the Philippines. It lasts for more than eight years. 1973 - Juan Peron is elected for his third and last presidential term in Argentina. 1978 - Egypt's President Anwar Sadat returns home to hero's welcome after Camp David summit that resulted in agreement on framework for peace with Israel. 1980 - The U.N. Security Council calls on Iran and Iraq "to desist from all armed activities forthwith and to settle their dispute by peaceful means." Meanwhile, the U.S. and Soviet Union declare neutrality in the conflict. 1986 - A force of about 50 armed dissidents infiltrates the Togolese capital of Lome in an attempt to topple President Gnassingbe Eyadema's government. They are defeated by the military. 1990 - Saddam Hussein says he will destroy Israel and launch an all-out war before allowing the U.N. embargo to "strangle" Iraq. 1991 - Iraqi soldiers detain U.N. officials in Baghdad and forcibly confiscate documents showing Iraq had been developing nuclear weapons. 1992 - France's deadliest storm in 34 years kills at least 32 people. 1993 - The South African parliament approves a law giving blacks their first official say in the running of the country, authorizing the creation of a transitional executive council before the first universal elections. 1994 - The U.N. Security Council eases sanctions on Yugoslavia for 100 days after Serbia promises to support a peace plan for Bosnia and accept civilian monitoring of the Serbian-Bosnian border. 1995 - Gunmen in Mexico ambush a squad of policemen outside a village in southern Guerrero state, killing four officers and wounding five. 1996 - A typhoon batters China's Hainan Island, leaving at least 38 people dead and 96 missing. 1997 - Armed men raid an Algerian village, shooting or stabbing to death at least 200 people and wounding 100 others. 1998 - Hurricane Georges reaches Cuba and threatens the Florida Keys after causing widespread damage in Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and Haiti. 1999 - Violent protests continue in Jakarta for a second day as police struggle to contain crowds enraged by the passage of a bill giving the military power to revoke civil liberties in Indonesia. 2000 - Military troops use cannon to pound areas of the Philippine island of Jolo where two groups of Muslim rebels were seen fleeing with hostages. 2003 - An Indian court sentences one man to death by hanging and 12 others to life in prison for killing a Christian missionary from Australia and his two young sons in an arson attack in 1999. 2004 - About 300 Syrian soldiers in a convoy cross the Lebanese border into Syria. The redeployment is seen as an attempt to appease Western sponsors of a U.N. Security Council resolution demanding Syria withdraw all of its estimated 20,000 troops in Lebanon. 2005 - Simon Wiesenthal, who spent decades tirelessly tracking down Nazis hiding throughout the world, is laid to rest in Israel. 2006 - A high-tech train that floats on powerful magnetic fields smashes into a maintenance car on an elevated test track in Germany, killing 23 people and injuring 10 — the first fatalities on a maglev train. 2007 — Former President Alberto Fujimori returns to Peru to face charges of corruption and sanctioning death-squad killings, seven years after he fled the country as his government collapsed in scandal. 2008 - A 22-year-old gunman opens fire at his trade school in Kauhajoki, Finland, killing 10 people before fatally shooting himself. 2009 - President Barack Obama challenges world leaders to shoulder more of the globe's critical burdens, promising a newly cooperative partner in America but sternly warning they can no longer castigate the U.S. as a go-it-alone bully while still demanding it cure all ills. 2010 - The U.S. delegation walks out of the U.N. speech of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad after he says some in the world have speculated that Americans were behind the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, staged in an attempt to assure Israel's survival. 2011 - The Palestinian leader takes his people's quest for independence to the heart of world diplomacy, seeking U.N. recognition of Palestine and sidestepping negotiations that have foundered for nearly two decades under the weight of inflexibility, violence and failure of will. 2012 — A suicide car bomber attacks a Roman Catholic church during Mass in northern Nigeria, killing two people and wounding another 45 in a region under assault by a radical Islamic sect. 2013 — Kenyan forces are in the final stages of flushing out terrorists from a besieged shopping mall two days after it was seized by a Somali Islamic extremist group linked to al-Qaida. Today's Birthdays: Augustus Caesar, first Roman emperor (63 B.C.-14 A.D.); John De Witt, Dutch statesman (1625-1672); Raymond Chandler, U.S. writer (1888-1959); Haile Selassie I, emperor of Ethiopia (1892-1975); Mickey Rooney, U.S. actor-entertainer (1920-2014); Ray Charles, U.S. singer-composer (1932-2004); Julio Iglesias, Spanish singer (1943--); Bruce Springsteen, U.S. rock singer (1949--); Ani DiFranco, U.S. singer (1970--). Thought For Today: Each generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it — George Orwell (Eric Blair), British author (1903-1950). News Topics: General news, Sanctions and embargoes, War and unrest, Terrorism, Diplomacy, Political scandals, Music, Government and politics, Foreign policy, Government policy, International relations, Political issues, Entertainment, Arts and entertainment People, Places and Companies: Richard Nixon, Ferdinand Marcos, Saddam Hussein, Alberto Fujimori, Barack Obama, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Raymond Chandler, Mickey Rooney, Ray Charles, Julio Iglesias, Bruce Springsteen, George Orwell, United Kingdom, Iraq, Israel, Syria, United States, Germany, Middle East, Southeast Asia, Caribbean, Western Europe, Europe, North America, Asia, Latin America and Caribbean Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 |
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.neurope.eu |
