Subscribe Login
Jamaica Observer
ePaper
The Edge 105 FM Radio Fyah 105 FM
Jamaica Observer
ePaper
The Edge 105 FM Radio Fyah 105 FM
    • Home
    • News
      • Latest News
      • Cartoon
      • International News
      • Central
      • North & East
      • Western
      • Environment
      • Health
      • #
    • Business
      • Business Bites
      • Social Love
    • Sports
      • Football
      • Basketball
      • Cricket
      • Horse Racing
      • World Champs
      • Commonwealth Games
      • FIFA World Cup 2022
      • Olympics
      • #
    • Entertainment
      • Music
      • Movies
      • Art & Culture
      • Bookends
      • #
    • Lifestyle
      • Page2
      • Food
      • Tuesday Style
      • Food Awards
      • JOL Takes Style Out
      • Design Week JA
      • Black Friday
      • #
    • All Woman
      • Home
      • Relationships
      • Features
      • Fashion
      • Fitness
      • Rights
      • Parenting
      • Advice
      • #
    • Obituaries
    • Classifieds
      • Employment
      • Property
      • Motor Vehicles
      • Place an Ad
      • Obituaries
    • More
      • Games
      • Elections
      • Jobs & Careers
      • Study Centre
      • Jnr Study Centre
      • Letters
      • Columns
      • Advertorial
      • Editorial
      • Supplements
      • Webinars
    • Home
    • News
      • Latest News
      • Cartoon
      • International News
      • Central
      • North & East
      • Western
      • Environment
      • Health
      • #
    • Business
      • Business Bites
      • Social Love
    • Sports
      • Football
      • Basketball
      • Cricket
      • Horse Racing
      • World Champs
      • Commonwealth Games
      • FIFA World Cup 2022
      • Olympics
      • #
    • Entertainment
      • Music
      • Movies
      • Art & Culture
      • Bookends
      • #
    • Lifestyle
      • Page2
      • Food
      • Tuesday Style
      • Food Awards
      • JOL Takes Style Out
      • Design Week JA
      • Black Friday
      • #
    • All Woman
      • Home
      • Relationships
      • Features
      • Fashion
      • Fitness
      • Rights
      • Parenting
      • Advice
      • #
    • Obituaries
    • Classifieds
      • Employment
      • Property
      • Motor Vehicles
      • Place an Ad
      • Obituaries
    • More
      • Games
      • Elections
      • Jobs & Careers
      • Study Centre
      • Jnr Study Centre
      • Letters
      • Columns
      • Advertorial
      • Editorial
      • Supplements
      • Webinars
  • Home
  • News
    • International News
  • Latest
  • Business
    • Business Bites
  • Cartoon
  • Games
  • Food Awards
  • Health
  • Entertainment
    • Bookends
  • Regional
  • Sports
    • Sports
    • World Cup
    • World Champs
    • Olympics
  • All Woman
  • Career & Education
  • Environment
  • Webinars
  • More
    • Football
    • Elections
    • Letters
    • Advertorial
    • Columns
    • Editorial
    • Supplements
  • Epaper
  • Classifieds
  • Design Week
This Day in History
Mexico’s top antidrugofficial, Joséde Jesús GutiérrezRebollo, is firedand arrested in1997 foraccepting bribesfrom a drug lord
News
AP  
February 17, 2010

This Day in History

Today is Thursday, February 18, the 49th day of 2010. There are 316 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight

1930: American astronomer Clyde W Tombaugh discovers the planet Pluto.

Other Notable Events

1685: Robert Cavelier de La Salle, French explorer, establishes the first settlement on American soil in Texas.

1885: Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is published in the US.

1945: Battle for Iwo Jima begins in Pacific in World War II.

1953: Bwana Devil, the movie that heralded the 3D fad of the 1950s, opens in New York City.

1964: Earthquakes rock Azores in eastern Atlantic, and ships battle high waves to evacuate people from San Jorge Island.

1965: African nation of Gambia becomes independent within British Commonwealth.

1970: Young Filipinos storm US Embassy compound in Manila, protesting US military bases in Philippines and US economic policy.

1977: The space shuttle Enterprise, sitting atop a Boeing 747, goes on its maiden flight above the Mojave Desert.

1988: Boris Yeltsin is ousted from ruling Communist Party Politburo in Moscow.

1989: Afghan government declares state of emergency “to ensure peace and security” in war-ravaged country.

1992: Libya produces two men accused of blowing up an American jetliner over Lockerbie, Scotland, but insists they’ll never go to trial in the West.

1993: UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali rebukes a top official for suspending relief shipments to eastern Bosnia and Sarajevo, and orders the aid deliveries resumed.

1995: Fighting ebbs in Chechnya as a fragile truce goes into its final hours with no word about resumption of peace talks.

1996: Two car bombs explode near Algiers, Algeria, killing 12 and wounding 35 during the final hours of Ramadan celebrations.

1997: Mexico’s top anti-drug official, Gen José de Jésus Gutiérrez Rebollo, is dismissed and later sentenced for taking money from a drug kingpin.

1998: Kenneth Kaunda, the former president of Zambia, is charged with concealing information about a failed coup. In June, the charges are dropped and Kaunda freed from house arrest.

1999: Three Greek Cabinet ministers are fired after the government fails to protect Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan, who was arrested by Turkey three days earlier while hiding in the Kenyan Embassy in Greece.

2002: Admiral Vladimir Kuroyedov, the Russian navy’s commander-in-chief, discloses that the Kursk, a nuclear-powered submarine that sank in the Barents Sea in August 2000, had been loaded with obsolete torpedoes that contained unstable fuel.

2003: A 56-year-old man ignites a container of flammable liquid inside a subway train in Taegu, South Korea, starting a blaze that engulfs two trains, killing at least 133 people.

2004: Runaway train cars carrying a lethal mix of fuel and chemicals derail, catch fire and then explode hours later in north-east Iran, killing more than 200 people, injuring at least 400 and leaving dozens trapped beneath crumbled mud homes.

2005: Togo’s new military-installed leader promises to hold presidential elections within two months, bowing to intense pressure at home and abroad to end his summary succession to power following the death of his 38-year dictator father.

2006: Muslim protesters attack Christians and burn churches when a march against cartoons depicting Prophet Muhammad turns violent in north-eastern Nigeria, killing at least 15 people in the first major protest to erupt over the issue in Africa’s most populous nation.

2008: Pakistan’s opposition parties win a parliamentary majority, threatening the rule of President Pervez Musharraf, a key American ally in the war on terror.

2009: French President Nicolas Sarkozy pledges to spend ¤2.6 billion ($3.3 billion) on measures to soften the blow of the global financial crisis on France’s most vulnerable citizens.

Today’s Birthdays

Milos Forman, Czech film director (1932-); George Kennedy, US actor (1925-); Toni Morrison, US author (1931-); Yoko Ono, US singer/John Lennon’s widow (1933-); John Hughes, US screenwriter/director (1950-); Cybill Shepherd, US actress (1950-); Randy Crawford, US singer (1952-); John Travolta, US actor (1954-); Greta Scacchi, British-Italian actress (1960-); Matt Dillon, US actor (1964-); Dr Dre, US rapper (1965-).

{"website":"website"}{"jamaica-observer":"Jamaica Observer"}
img img
0 Comments · Make a comment

ALSO ON JAMAICA OBSERVER

Ernie Smith, beloved Jamaican singer, has died
Entertainment, Latest News, News
Ernie Smith, beloved Jamaican singer, has died
Howard Campbell 
April 16, 2026
Ernie Smith, whose easy-listening songs ruled Jamaican airwaves during the 1970s, has died. The singer-songwriter, who was ill for some time, passed a...
{"jamaica-observer":"Jamaica Observer"}
48-hour curfew extended in sections of St Andrew South Division
Latest News, News
48-hour curfew extended in sections of St Andrew South Division
April 16, 2026
KINGSTON, Jamaica — The 48-hour curfew imposed in sections of the St Andrew South Policing Division has been extended. The curfew will continue from 6...
{"jamaica-observer":"Jamaica Observer"}
IMF resumes dealings with Venezuela after seven-year freeze
Latest News, News
IMF resumes dealings with Venezuela after seven-year freeze
April 16, 2026
KINGSTON, Jamaica — The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Thursday it has resumed dealings with Venezuela after a seven-year pause, reopening ...
{"jamaica-observer":"Jamaica Observer"}
Mustard Seed to undertake critical repairs with funds raised by JN
Latest News, News
Mustard Seed to undertake critical repairs with funds raised by JN
April 16, 2026
KINGSTON, Jamaica — JN Foundation has channelled approximately $1.4 million to the Mustard Seed Communities’ (MSC) Blessed Assurance home in St James ...
{"jamaica-observer":"Jamaica Observer"}
STATHS to get renewable energy laboratory
Latest News, News
STATHS to get renewable energy laboratory
April 16, 2026
KINGSTON, Jamaica — Procurement is under way for a renewable energy laboratory at St Andrew Technical High School (STATHS). Minister of Education, Ski...
{"jamaica-observer":"Jamaica Observer"}
Jamaicans for Justice presents $250,000 cheque to support residential child care facilities
Latest News, News
Jamaicans for Justice presents $250,000 cheque to support residential child care facilities
Proceeds from 2025 Run for Rights 5K directed toward vulnerable children and hurricane relief
April 16, 2026
KINGSTON, Jamaica — Jamaicans for Justice (JFJ), one of Jamaica’s leading human rights organisations, presented a cheque for $250,000 to support resid...
{"jamaica-observer":"Jamaica Observer"}
Vaz reaffirms commitment to provide 100 new school buses
Latest News, News
Vaz reaffirms commitment to provide 100 new school buses
Billeane Williams, Observer writer 
April 16, 2026
Transport Minister Daryl Vaz on Wednesday sought to reassure residents of deep rural communities that his commitment to providing an additional 100 ne...
{"jamaica-observer":"Jamaica Observer"}
MC Systems pushes cash automation tech to banks, businesses
Latest News, News
MC Systems pushes cash automation tech to banks, businesses
April 16, 2026
KINGSTON, Jamaica — Technology firm MC Systems is urging banks and cash-intensive businesses to adopt a new cash automation system, arguing that the t...
{"jamaica-observer":"Jamaica Observer"}
❮ ❯

Polls

HOUSE RULES

  1. We welcome reader comments on the top stories of the day. Some comments may be republished on the website or in the newspaper; email addresses will not be published.
  2. Please understand that comments are moderated and it is not always possible to publish all that have been submitted. We will, however, try to publish comments that are representative of all received.
  3. We ask that comments are civil and free of libellous or hateful material. Also please stick to the topic under discussion.
  4. Please do not write in block capitals since this makes your comment hard to read.
  5. Please don't use the comments to advertise. However, our advertising department can be more than accommodating if emailed: advertising@jamaicaobserver.com.
  6. If readers wish to report offensive comments, suggest a correction or share a story then please email: community@jamaicaobserver.com.
  7. Lastly, read our Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy

Recent Posts

Archives

Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
Tweets

Polls

Recent Posts

Archives

Logo Jamaica Observer
Breaking news from the premier Jamaican newspaper, the Jamaica Observer. Follow Jamaican news online for free and stay informed on what's happening in the Caribbean
Featured Tags
  • Editorial
  • Columns
  • Health
  • Auto
  • Business
  • Letters
  • Page2
  • Football
Categories
  • Business
  • Politics
  • Entertainment
  • Page2
  • Business
  • Politics
  • Entertainment
  • Page2
Ads
img
Jamaica Observer, © All Rights Reserved
  • Home
  • Contact Us
  • RSS Feeds
  • Feedback
  • Privacy Policy
  • Editorial Code of Conduct