This Day in History – October 17
This is the 290th day of 2022. There are 75 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT
1997: Former Rwandan Prime Minister Jean Kambanda is charged by the UN International Criminal Tribunal with genocide and crimes against humanity in the 1994 slaughter of a half-million Rwandans.
OTHER EVENTS
1989: An earthquake strikes northern California, killing more than 60 people.
1990: The leader of the Navajo Nation, the largest Indian tribe in the United States, is convicted in the Navajo Tribal Court in Arizona of bribery, conspiracy, and violating the tribe’s ethics laws.
1993: Indian officials try to talk Muslim separatists occupying Kashmir’s holiest shrine into surrendering but the rebels refuse, threatening to blow up the mosque if soldiers enter.
1996: Boris Yeltsin fires security chief Alexander Lebed one day after the former general is accused of building his own army in an attempt to seize power.
1997: The remains of revolutionary Ernesto “Che” Guevara are laid to rest in his adopted Cuba, 30 years after his execution in Bolivia.
1998: A pipeline explodes in Nigeria when villagers try to siphon off oil; at least 700 die.
1999: The head of Pakistan’s new military regime, General Pervez Musharraf announces a reduction of troops on the Indian border, the establishment of a military-technocrat ruling council, and an eventual return to civilian rule.
2004: Jordan’s military prosecutor indicts 13 alleged Muslim militants, including Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi — one of the most wanted insurgents in Iraq — for an al-Qaeda-linked plot to attack targets in Jordan with chemical and conventional weapons.
2005: China celebrates the successful landing of the country’s second manned space flight as a boost to its status as a space power. The Colbert Report — an ironic send-up of television news programmes, hosted by Stephen Colbert — debuts on Comedy Central; it runs until 2014.
2006: A British-educated civil servant, Lateefa al-Geood, becomes the first-ever female to serve as an elected member of Bahrain’s Parliament. The United States population reaches 300 million.
2007: Myanmar’s military junta acknowledges that it detained nearly 3,000 people during a crackdown on pro-democracy protests at that time, with hundreds still kept in custody.
2008: The US Government declares that the beluga whales of Alaska’s Cook Inlet are endangered and require additional protection to survive.
2009: Members of the Maldives Cabinet don scuba gear and use hand signals during an underwater meeting staged to highlight the threat of global warming to the lowest-lying nation on earth.
2010: Chancellor Angela Merkel’s declaration that Germany’s attempts to build a multicultural society had “utterly failed” feeds a growing debate over how to deal with the millions of foreigners who call the country home.
2011: The UN Population Fund reports that a momentous milestone will pass as of October 31 when there will be 7 billion people sharing Earth’s land and resources.
2017: The Islamic State headquarters of Raqqa is declared, by Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) spokesman Talal Sello, under the full control of a US-led alliance — after four months of fighting.
2018: Recreational marijuana becomes legal in Canada.
2020: Chicago is declared the “rattiest city” in America for the sixth year in a row by pest control service Orkin.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS
Mikhail Naimy, Lebanese poet-philosopher (1889-1988); Arthur Miller, US playwright (1915-2005); Rita Hayworth, US actress (1918-1987); Robert Craig “Evel” Knievel, motorcycle daredevil (1938-2007); Mae Jemison, astronaut, physician and first African American woman in space (1956- ); David Nesta “Ziggy” Marley, multiple Grammy Award winner (1968- ); Eminem, US rapper (1972- )
— AP/Jamaica Observer
