Monday, May 3
2005-05-04 07:20
Today is Monday, May 3, the 123rd day of 2004. There are 242
days left in the year.
Highlights in history on this date:
1494 - Columbus discovers Jamaica.
1660 - Peace of Olivia is signed, ending war between
Brandenburg, Poland, Austria and Sweden.
1765 - The first US medical school, University of
Pennsylvania, is founded.
1791 - Polish Parliament approves Europe's first modern
constitution.
1814 - France's King Louis XVIII returns to Paris after allied
forces defeat Napoleon Bonaparte.
1841 - New Zealand is formally proclaimed a British colony.
1859 - France declares war on Austria.
1898 - Bread riots erupt in Milan, Italy, and are crushed with
heavy loss of life.
1921 - West Virginia imposes the first US state sales tax.
1933 - Nellie Taylor is sworn in as the first female director of
the US Mint.
1937 - Margaret Mitchell wins a Pulitzer Prize for her novel
"Gone with the Wind".
1945 - Allied troops enter Hamburg, Germany, in World War II;
Indian forces capture Rangoon, Burma, from the Japanese.
1947 - Japan's new post-war Constitution, reflecting the policies
of Allied occupiers, takes effect.
1948 - The US Supreme Court rules that covenants prohibiting
the sale of real estate to blacks and other minorities are legally
unenforceable.
1963 - Government crisis in Syria threatens recently agreed-upon union of Syria, Iraq and United Arab Republic.
1971 - Anti-war protesters calling themselves the Mayday Tribe
begin four days of demonstrations in Washington, DC, aimed at
shutting down the nation's capital.
1972 - Turkish guerrillas hijack Turkish plane and land in
Sofia, Bulgaria.
1979 - Conservative Party leader Margaret Thatcher becomes
Britain's first female prime minister as the Tories oust the incumbent Labour government in parliamentary elections.
1985 - Lebanese Christians protesting against sectarian fighting
in their country occupy their diplomatic missions in Argentina, Australia and Sweden.
1986 - In NASA's first post-Challenger launch, an unmanned Delta rocket loses power in its main engine shortly after lift-off,
forcing safety officers to destroy it by remote control.
1988 - The White House acknowledges that first lady Nancy Reagan used astrological advice to help schedule her husband's activities.
1991 - Hundreds of Iraqi troops withdraw from an expanded allied security zone in northern Iraq.
1992 - Guerrillas loyal to radical fundamentalist Hekmatyar
fight with militia on the outskirts of Kabul, Afghanistan.
1993 - Thousands of workers drop their tools and leave factories
around eastern Germany to demand the 26-percent wage hike they were
promised after German reunification.
1994 - Civil war erupts in Yemen.
1995 - The Armed Islamic Group in Algeria expands its terrorist
threat against women by vowing to kill every mother, sister or
daughter of government officials.
1996 - Warlord Roosevelt Johnson is secretly carried out of
Monrovia, Liberia, and to neighbouring Freetown, Sierra Leone,
aboard a US helicopter.
1997 - The rebels of the Guatemalan Revolutionary Unit surrender
the last of their weapons to the government, marking the end of one
of Latin America's most drawn-out wars.
1998 - Yugoslav forces battle ethnic Albanian rebels smuggling
weapons into Kosovo, killing at least 10 according to Serbs.
1999 - Angola, Guinea Bissau, Senegal come under fire for
violating a treaty they signed to ban land mine use. Yugoslavia was
also censured at the UN conference but had not signed the
agreement.
2000 - Four hostages held by Muslim rebels in the southern
Philippines are killed when government troops stumble upon the
group. Fifteen of the original 27 hostages are rescued.
2001 - Ronnie Biggs, fugitive robber of Britain's 1963 "Great
Train Robbery" says he is ready to return home to face justice
after three decades of exile in Brazil.
2002 - A ferry carrying hundreds of people sinks in a storm on
the Meghna River about 40 miles south of Dhaka. More than 300
perish.
2003 - James Miller, British freelance journalist and producer
of International award winning documentaries, "Beneath the Veil"
and "Innocents Lost," is shot and killed by Israeli military tank
in the Gaza Strip.
Today's Birthdays:
Nicolo Machiavelli, Italian political philosopher (1469-1527);
William Broome, English scholar-poet (1689-1745); Golda Meir,
Israeli statesman (1898-1978); William Inge, US playwright
(1913-1973); Betty Comden, US songwriter-entertainer (1919--);
Pete Seeger, US folk singer (1919--); James Brown, US soul
musician (1928--); Engelbert Humperdinck, British singer (1936--);
Christopher Cross, US singer (1951--)
Thought For Today:
If you want anything said, ask a man; if you want anything done,
ask a woman - Margaret Thatcher, former British prime minister.' -Sapa-AP
- SAPA