Wednesday, May 25
2005-05-25 09:47
Today is Wednesday, May 25, the 145th day of 2005. There are 220 days left in the year.
Highlights in history on this date:
1622 - The Tryal, believed to be first English ship to sight Australia, is wrecked on rocks in the Monte Bello Islands off Western Australia.
1744 - Austrian troops invade Alsace in France.
1787 - The Constitutional Convention is convened in Philadelphia.
1842 - Dick King, a 29-year-old wagon driver, and his 16-year-old servant, Ndongeni, leave Durban on horseback for Grahamstown on an epic 900km ride to seek reinforcements for the British garrison under siege by Voortrekkers at Durban.
1846 - Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte escapes to London from imprisonment in Ham, France. He returns two years later and is elected president of France.
1849 - Sir Benjamin D'Urban, governor of the Cape from 1834 to 1838, dies in Montreal, Canada.
1911 - Revolution in Mexico overthrows President Porfirio Diaz.
1914 - Britain's House of Commons passes Irish Home Rule Bill, but Irish autonomy remains suspended during World War 1.
1915 - With the European powers preoccupied by war, China is forced to accept a Japanese ultimatum regarding rights and privileges.
1923 - Independence of Transjordan - now Jordan - under Amir Abdullah is proclaimed.
1961 - US President John F Kennedy asks the nation to work toward putting a man on the moon by the end of the decade.
1963 - Leaders of six African nations, meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, form Organisation of African Unity.
1969 - Parliamentary government in Sudan is overthrown in bloodless coup and Maj Gen Jafaar Numeiry heads new military regime.
1970 - United States places first of its MIRV missiles, with multiple warheads capable of striking different targets, in underground silos in North Dakota.
1979 - American Airlines DC-10 loses an engine and nosedives into ground at Chicago's O'Hare Airport, killing all 272 people aboard.
1985 - Emir of Kuwait escapes death when terrorists detonate a bomb in his motorcade. Extremist Jihad Islamic organisation claims responsibility.
1986 - An estimated seven million Americans participate in "Hands Across America," forming a line across the country to raise money for the nation's hungry and homeless.
1987 - The secretary of the United Democratic Front in the Border, Makhenkesi Stofile, is sentenced to an effective 11 years' imprisonment in Ciskei for terrorism.
1988 - Israeli army imposes curfews confining 200 000 Arabs as PLO-mandated general strike shuts down commerce and transportation in occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.
1989 - Chinese Premier Li Peng denies that troops surrounding Beijing are deployed to crush student protests.
1989 - Barend Strydom receives eight death sentences as the result of racial murders in Pretoria the previous year.
1990 - The African National Congress announces in Lusaka that it will not abandon the armed struggle against white domination until a democratically elected government is in power.
1990 - Former Mandela United football coach Jerry Richardson is found guilty on all charges, including the murder of teenage activist "Stompie" Moeketsi Seipei. Sentencing is postponed until August 6 for evidence in mitigation.
1991 - In a two-day airlift, Israel brings 15 000 Ethiopian Jews from the besieged city of Addis Ababa to Israel.
1992 - Jay Leno makes his debut as permanent host of NBC's "Tonight Show," succeeding Johnny Carson.
1994 - Russia proposes expanded relations with NATO to deal with post-Cold War security problems.
1995 - Nato aircraft attack Bosnian Serb headquarters after the Serbs fail to meet a deadline to pull back heavy weapons from Sarajevo. The Serbs answer with a barrage of shells at government-held cities.
1996 - Fresh violence erupts in the insurgency-torn state of Jammu-Kashmir in India, killing at least four people.
1996 - Two South Africans, Ian Woodall and Cathy O'Dowd, reach the summit of Mount Everest and become the first official South African team to conquer the highest mountain in the world.
Their jubilation is dampened when a third member of the team, British photographer Bruce Herrod, who reportedly reached the summit hours later, goes missing.
1997 - Rebels topple the government of Sierra Leone in a violent coup; Polish voters adopt a constitution that removes the last traces of communism.
1998 - Indonesia's new president, BJ Habibie, announces that elections will be held and begins releasing some political prisoners.
1999 - Nato's top policy makers approve a plan for a 50 000-strong force to be sent to Kosovo when Serb troops withdraw.
2000 - The Chinese army begins removing British names from military buildings in Hong Kong.
2001 - Human rights organisation Amnesty International marks 40 years of activism. The organisation which won the Nobel Prize in 1977 has dealt with the cases of 47 000 prisoners of conscience.
2002 - A China Airlines passenger jet carrying 206 passengers and 19 crew members breaks up in the air and crashes into the Taiwan Strait.
2003 - The Israeli cabinet votes to accept the steps outlined in an internationally endorsed "road map" for Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts, but notes that it is not declaring unqualified support for the road map as a whole.
Today's Birthdays:
Ralph Waldo Emerson, US writer (1803-1882); Josip Broz Tito, Yugoslavia's president (1892-1980); Beverly Sills, US opera singer (1929--); Ian McKellen, English actor (1939--); John Newcombe, Australian tennis star (1944--); David Graham, Australian golfer (1946--); Mike Myers, Canadian actor/comedian (1963--); Lauryn Hill, US singer (1975--).
Thought For Today:
Love, I find, is like singing. Everybody can do enough to satisfy themselves, though it may not impress the neighbours as being very much - Zora Neale Hurston, American anthropologist (1903-1960). - Sapa-AP
- SAPA