Friday, March 21, 1997
Today's events
Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma is due to deliver the state of the nation address to parliament in Kiev.
A world water forum attended by U.N. agencies and the World Bank is scheduled to take place in Marrakesh, Morocco. The aim of the forum is to produce a world water charter and to draw up details of water
resources and discuss longterm management plans.
One hundred days countdown begins for the handover of Hong Kong from Britain to China.
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On the horizon
On Saturday, March 22, an auction of Beatles paraphernalia is
scheduled at the Tokyo Auction House.
On Sunday, March 23, the presentation of the Golden Raspberry
Awards takes place in Hollywood. The ceremony spoofs the Oscars with awards for the year's worst movies and film performances.
On Monday, March 24, the 69th annual Academy Awards presentation is broadcast live from Hollywood.
On Tuesday, March 25, first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton continues her goodwill tour of Africa with a stop in Tanzania.
On Wednesday, March 26, Britain's Salman Rushdie is among 40
writers attending a Writers Parliament session to denounce
"the rise of fascism."
On Thursday, March 27, South African President Nelson Mandela pays an official visit to India.
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On this day
In 1556, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer, was burned at the stake as a heretic.
In 1791, Bangalore in India was seized by the British under
Lord Cornwallis in the Third Mysore war.
In 1871, Otto von Bismarck opened the first Reichstag or Parliament in the newly created German Reich.
In 1917, Tsar Nicholas II and his family were arrested by the
revolutionary forces in Russia.
In 1918, the Second Battle of the Somme, the last German
offensive in World War I, began.
In 1919, a pro-Soviet coup headed by Bela Kun overthrew the
government of Hungary.
In 1927, the Nationalist Chinese forces of Chiang Kai-shek
took the city of Shanghai.
In 1939, the Lithuanian port of Memel was ceded to Germany.
In 1945, British warplanes destroyed Gestapo headquarters in
Copenhagen, killing more than 70 Nazis. The raid also killed
civilians, including 86 schoolchildren, in Denmark's worst
civilian disaster of the war.
In 1952, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah became prime minister of the Gold
Coast, the first African to be elected prime minister south of
the Sahara.
In 1960, almost 70 people were killed and more than 180
wounded when South African police opened fire on a peaceful
demonstration in Sharpeville in the Transvaal.
In 1963, Alcatraz Prison in San Francisco Bay, a harsh maximum
security jail which once housed gangster Al Capone, closed when
the last 27 prisoners were transferred.
In 1965, Martin Luther King led the start of a 4,000-strong
civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.
In 1989, Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke wept on
television as he admitted having an extramarital affair.
In 1990, Namibia, formerly known as South West Africa, became
independent after 75 years of South African rule.
In 1994, the last Italian soldiers ended their 15-month
peacekeeping mission in Somalia.
In 1996, Goran Persson, a former finance minister, became
Swedish prime minister.
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Newslink
Visit the Space Tourism Initiative Information site to take a look at an idea whose time has almost arrived. Today, the first international symposium on space tourism opens in Germany. Get a jump on your friends and find out what it will take to be the first paying customer in orbit.
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Holidays and more
Today is International Astrology Day.
It's National Tree Planting Day in Lesotho, South Africa.
Today is Independence Day in Namibia.
It's the Iranian New Year today in Noruz.
Today is the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination for the United Nations.
Actor Matthew Broderick is 35.
Actor Timothy Dalton is 51.
Actor Al Freeman Jr. is 63.
Poet Phyllis McGinley is 92.
Actor Gary Oldman is 39.
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Sources: Reuters,
Chase's Calendar of Events 1997, J.P. Morgan
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