This Day in History
Today, Saturday, April 17, is the 107th day of 2010. There are 258 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight
2000: Paul Kagame is selected president of Rwanda, the nation’s first Tutsi leader since independence in 1962 and a former rebel leader whose forces stopped the 1994 genocide.
Other Notable Events
1521: Martin Luther appears before the Holy Roman Emperor at Worms, Germany, and is cross-examined about his thoughts on religious reform. Luther goes into hiding soon after.
1524: Giovanni da Verrazano discovers New York harbour.
1824: Russia and the US define respective rights in the Pacific Ocean and on the northwest coast of America.
1895: China and Japan, by Treaty of Shimonoseki, recognise independence of Korea; China opens seven new ports and cedes Formosa (Taiwan), Port Arthur and the Liao Tung Peninsula to Japan.
1946: Last French troops leave Syria, which becomes independent.
1961: Cuba is invaded at “Bay of Pigs” by a US supported invasion force of 1,500 Cuban exiles, who are defeated by Fidel Castro’s forces.
1975: Phnom Penh falls to communist insurgents, ending Cambodia’s five-year war.
1993: A federal jury in Los Angeles convicts two former police officers of violating the civil rights of beaten motorist Rodney King. Two other officers are acquitted.
1997: The South Korean Supreme Court upholds verdicts sentencing former president Chun Doo Hwan to life in prison and his successor, Roh Tae Woo, to 17 years. They were accused of abuse of power and corruption.
1998: The UN withdraws the team investigating mass killings of Rwandan Hutus in Congo, complaining of a “total lack of cooperation” by the Congolese government.
2001: Jury selection begins in Brussels in the landmark trial of four Rwandans, including two Roman Catholic nuns, who faced charges of aiding and abetting the murder of Tutsis during the 1994 genocide.
2005: Communist rebels in southern Nepal drag at least 10 people from their homes and gun them down for refusing to take up arms with the guerrilla movement. The guerrillas, who claim to be inspired by Chinese revolutionary Mao Zedong, began fighting in 1996 to overthrow Nepal’s monarchy and establish a communist state.
Today’s Birthdays
Samuel Chase, US jurist/signer of the Declaration of Independence (1741-1811); Nikita Khrushchev, Soviet statesman (1894-1971); Liz Phair, US singer (1967-); Jennifer Garner, US actress (1972-); Victoria Adams Beckham, British singer (1974-).
