Sunday, August 24, 1997
Today's events
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Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits Japan
for talks on bilateral economic ties and the Middle East peace process.
The 10th World Conference on Tobacco or Health takes place in Beijing.
"Sea-Breeze-97," a Ukraine-U.S. joint military training operation, begins in the Crimea.
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On the horizon
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On Monday, August 25, NASA's Advanced Composition Explorer is
set for a late-morning launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida,
aboard a Boeing Delta II rocket.
On Tuesday, August 26, the National Organization for Women is scheduled to mark Women's Equality Day.
On Wednesday, August 27, the annual Venice Film Festival opens in Italy.
On Thursday, August 28, Mafest 97, an international film festival of tourism, ecology and sports opens in Palic, Serbia with 65 films from 28 countries.
On Friday, August 29, the "Air-guitar" world championships take place in Oulu, Finland.
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On this day
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In 79, the cities of Pompeii, Herculaneum and Stabiae were
destroyed and thousands of people killed by an eruption of Mount Vesuvius in Italy.
In 410, Alaric and his Visigoth army sacked Rome.
In 1516, Ottoman Sultan Selim I defeated the Mameluke army
near Aleppo, securing Syria for the empire.
In 1572, the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre in France brought
the death of up to 70,000 Protestant Huguenots.
In 1814, British forces captured Washington, D.C., and burned down many landmarks. President James Madison fled.
In 1893, a fire in the south of Chicago left 5,000 homeless.
In 1921, the Battle of the Sakarya River began between Greece and Turkey. After three weeks of fighting the Turks were victorious.
In 1922, Arab states meeting at Nablus rejected the British
mandate for Palestine given by the League of Nations.
In 1953, the British colonial government of Kenya broadcast a
call to Mau Mau nationalist guerrilla fighters to surrender.
In 1954, U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower signed into law the
Communist Control Act, outlawing the Communist Party.
In 1965, Saudi Arabia and Egypt signed a cease-fire deal for
Yemen. They had been backing rival sides in the Yemeni civil
war.
In 1968, France became the fifth nuclear power when it exploded a hydrogen bomb near Fugataufa Atoll, midway between
Australia and South America.
In 1975, death sentences on former Greek prime minister
Georgios Papadopoulos and two other leaders of the 1967 coup
were commuted to life imprisonment.
In 1989, Poland became the first Soviet-bloc country since the late 1940s to appoint a non-communist prime minister, Tadeusz Mazowiecki.
In 1990, Irish hostage Brian Keenan was freed by his Islamic
Dawn Organization captors in west Beirut after 52 months in
captivity.
In 1991, the Ukraine parliament declared independence from
Moscow, subject to confirmation by a referendum in December.
In 1994, Israel and the PLO initialed an accord giving
autonomy to Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank in
five important areas of life -- education, health, taxation,
social welfare and tourism.
In 1995, China expelled U.S. human rights activist Harry Wu
Hongda, just hours after he was sentenced to 15 years in jail
for spying.
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Newslink
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A NASA scientific probe, with over 600,000 signatures by earthlings stored on a digital disc, is hurtling toward the planet Saturn. The Cassini spacecraft undoubtedly has many a high-tech gadget to help it find the ringed planet. But all the average Web surfer has to do for the same result is visit Saturn Events Web page.
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Holidays and more
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Liberia celebrates National Flag Day.
Ukraine celebrates Independence Day.
Former boxer Gerry Cooney is 41.
Actor Steve Guttenberg is 39.
Actress Marlee Matlin is 32.
Basketball player Reggie Miller is 32.
Baseball player Cal Ripken is 37.
Composer Mason Williams is 59.
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Sources: Associated Press,
Chase's Calendar of Events 1997, J.P. Morgan
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