:: wikimiki.org ::
| Robert N. Sobel |
Robert N. Sobel
Robert N. Sobel (February 19 1931 – June 2, 1999) was professor of history at Hofstra University and a well-known and prolific writer of business histories.
Sobel was born in the Bronx, in New York City, New York. He completed his bachelor's at City College of New York and obtained a PhD from New York University in 1957. He started teaching at Hofstra in 1956. Sobel eventually became Lawrence Stessin Distinguished Professor of Business History at Hofstra. Sobel wrote more than 30 books and he published in national periodicals, including Barron's, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal. Sobel's first book, published in 1962 was The Big Board: A History of the New York Stock Market. He was perhaps most famous for his 1972 book, For Want of a Nail, an alternate history in which Burgoyne won the Battle of Saratoga.
Bibliography
Fiction
- For Want of a Nail (1972)
Non-fiction
- The Big Board: A History of the New York Stock Market (1962)
- Panic on Wall Street: A History of America's Financial Disasters (1968)
- The Entrepreneurs: Explorations Within the American Business Tradition (1974)
- Herbert Hoover and the Onset of the Great Depression 1929-1930 (1975)
- NYSE: a history of the New York Stock Exchange: 1935-1975 (1975)
- Inside Wall Street : Continuity & Change in the Financial District (1977)
- The Fallen Colossus (1977), concerning the failure of Penn Central Transportation
- IBM: Colossus in Transition (1981)
- Thomas Watson, Sr.: IBM and the Computer Revolution, (1981), biography of Thomas J. Watson
- ITT: The Management of Opportunity (1982)
- IBM vs. Japan: The Struggle for the Future (1986)
- RCA (1986)
- Salomon Brothers 1910-1985 (1986)
- Trammell Crow, Master Builder: The Story of America's Largest Real Estate Empire (1989), biography of Trammell Crow
- The Life and Times of Dillon Read (1991)
- Dangerous Dreamers: The Financial Innovators from Charles Merrill to Michael Milken (1993)
- The Age of Giant Corporations: A Microeconomic History of the United States (1993)
- Coolidge: An American Enigma (1998), biography of Calvin Coolidge
- The Pursuit of Wealth: The Incredible Story of Money Throughout the Ages of Wealth (1999)
- The Rise and Fall of the Conglomerate Kings (1999)
- When Giants Stumble: Classic Business Blunders and How to Avoid Them (1999)
- AMEX: A History of the American Stock Exchange (2000)
- The Curbstone Brokers: The Origins of the American Stock Exchange (2000)
- The Money Manias: The Eras of Great Speculation in America 1770-1970 (2000)
- The Great Boom 1950-2000 : How a Generation of Americans Created the World's Most Prosperous Society (2002)
Essays
- The Great Bull Market: Wall Street in the 1920's (1968)
External links
- [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1893122662/qid=1129674249/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/104-1156803-3003167?v=glance&s=books The Big Board: A History of the New York Stock Market ISBN: 1893122662]
- [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0471577340/qid=1129756287/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/104-1156803-3003167?v=glance&s=books&n=507846 Dangerous Dreamers: The Financial Innovators from Charles Merrill to Michael Milken ISBN: 0471577340]
- [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1853675040/qid=1129674133/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-1156803-3003167?v=glance Inside Wall Street : Continuity & Change in the Financial District ISBN: 1893122670]
- [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1853672815/qid=1129756841/sr=1-4/ref=sr_1_4/104-1156803-3003167?v=glance&s=books For Want of a Nail: If Burgoyne Had Won at Saratoga, ISBN: 1853675040]
- [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1893122468/qid=1129846615/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-1156803-3003167?v=glance&s=books&n=507846 Panic on Wall Street: A History of America's Financial Disasters, ISBN: 1893122468]
1931
1931 (MCMXXXI) is a common year starting on Thursday.
Events
January-March
- January 4 - Elly Beinhorn begins her flight to Africa
- January 6 - Thomas Edison submits his last patent application.
- January 22 - Sir Isaac Isaacs sworn in as the first Australian-born Governor-General of Australia
- January 25 - Mohandas Gandhi released again
- January 27 - Pierre Laval forms a government in France
- February 10 - New Delhi becomes the capital of India
- February 16 - Pehr Evind Svinhufvud elected president of Finland
- February 20 - California gets the go-ahead by the U.S. Congress to build the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.
- February 21 - Peruvian revolutionaries hijack a Ford Tri-motor aeroplane and demand that the pilot drop propaganda leaflets over Lima
- March 1 - Henry Pu Yi, former Emperor of China, is proclaimed King of the puppet state of Manchukuo by Japan.
- March 1 - USS Arizona (BB-39) placed back in full commission after a refit
- March 3 - The Star-Spangled Banner is adopted as the United States National anthem.
- March 4 - British viceroy of India and Mohandas Gandhi negotiate
- March 7 - New House of Representatives opened in Helsinki, Finland
- March 17 - Nevada legalizes gambling
- March 25 - The Scottsboro Boys are arrested in Alabama and charged with rape.
- March 27 - British writer Arnold Bennet dies in Paris when he drinks local water to prove it safe to drink - but is poisoned
- March 31 - An earthquake destroys Managua, Nicaragua killing 2,000.
April-August
- April 1 - Earthquake destroys Managua, Nicaragua - over 2000 dead
- April 6 - Portuguese government declares martial law in Madeira and in the Azores because of an attempted military takeover in Funchal
- April 9 - Execution of Argentinean anarchist Severino Digiovanni
- April 14 - 2nd Spanish Republic proclaimed in Spain
- April 22 - Austria, Britain, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Sweden and USA recognize the Spanish Republic
- May 1 - Construction of the Empire State Building is completed in New York City
- May 4 - Kemal Atatürk re-elected president of Turkey
- May 13 - Paul Doumer elected president of France
- June 12 - Charlie Parker equals J.T. Hearne's record for the earliest date to reach 100 wickets.
- June 14 - Yacht St Philiebert sinks in river Loire in France - over 500 drown
- June 23 - Wiley Post and Harold Gatty take off from Roosevelt Field, Long Island in an attempt to accomplish the first round-the-world flight in a single-engine plane. [http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Explorers_Record_Setters_and_Daredevils/Wiley_Post/EX27.htm]
- July 1 - Official opening of Milan Central Station
- July 16 - Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia signs the first constitution of Ethiopia
- Huang He floods kill between 850,000 and 4,000,000 people - the most deadly historic natural disaster.
- August 24 - Labour Government of Ramsay MacDonald resigns in Britain - replaced by National Government of people drawn from all parties also under MacDonald.
- August 31 - Yangtze River floods - 23 million made homeless
September-December
- September 5 - John Thomson, soccer player, dies in an accident during a Celtic - Rangers match
- September 15 - The Invergordon Mutiny: Strikes in Royal Navy due to decreased salaries
- September 18 - Mukden Incident. After that, Japan uses it to occupy Manchuria.
- September 18 - Geli Raubal is found shot dead in Hitler's apartment
- November 7 - Chinese People's Republic proclaimed by Mao Tse Tung.
- November 8 - French gendarmes launch a large scale raid against Corsican bandits
- November 8 - Panama Canal closed for couple of weeks due to damage caused by a number of earthquakes
- December 10 - Niceto Alcalá-Zamora elected president of Spanish republic
Undated
- Deuterium discovered by Harold Clayton Urey.
- The Castellemmarese War ends with the assassination of Joe "The Boss" Masseria, briefly leaving Salvatore Maranzano as capo di tutti capi, "boss of all bosses" and undisputed ruler of the American mafia. Maranzano is himself assassinated less than 6 months later, leading to the establishment of the Five Families
- Ust-Abakanskoye becomes Abakan.
- National Committee for Modification of the Volstead Act formed to work for repeal of prohibition in United States.
Births
January
- January 5 - Alvin Ailey, American choreographer (d. 1989)
- January 5 - Alfred Brendel, Austrian pianist
- January 5 - Robert Duvall, American actor and director
- January 6 - E. L. Doctorow, American author
- January 8 - Bill Graham, German concert promoter (d. 1991)
- January 10 - Peter Barnes, English playwright and screenwriter (d. 2004)
- January 13 - Charles Nelson Reilly, American actor
- January 14 - Caterina Valente, French singer and actress
- January 16 - Johannes Rau, President of Germany
- January 17 - James Earl Jones, American actor
- January 19 - Tippi Hedren, American actress
- January 19 - Robert MacNeil, Canadian journalist
- January 20 - David Lee, American physicist, Nobe Prize laureate
- January 22 - Sam Cooke, American singer (d. 1964)
- January 27 - Mordecai Richler, Canadian author (d. 2001)
- January 30 - Allan W. Eckert, American historian, naturalist, and author
- January 31 - Ernie Banks, baseball player
February-April
- February 1 - Boris Yeltsin, President of Russia
- February 2 - Dries van Agt, Dutch politician
- February 6 - Rip Torn, American actor and director
- February 8 - James Dean, American actor (d. 1955)
- February 10 - Thomas Bernhard, Dutch author (d. 1989)
- February 11 - Larry Merchant, author and boxing commentator
- February 18 - Johnny Hart, American cartoonist
- February 18 - Toni Morrison, American writer, Nobel Prize laureate
- February 18 - Bob St. Clair, American football star
- February 24 - Brian Close, British cricket player
- February 26 - Ally McLeod, Scottish football manager
- February 28 - Dean Smith, American basketball coach
- March 2 - Mikhail Gorbachev, President of the Soviet Union, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
- March 2 - Tom Wolfe, American author
- March 11 - Rupert Murdoch, Australian-born publisher
- March 22 - Burton Richter, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- March 22 - William Shatner, Canadian actor
- March 26 - Leonard Nimoy, American actor and director
- March 29 - Aleksei Gubarev, cosmonaut
- April 1 - Rolf Hochhuth, German writer
- April 27 - Igor Oistrakh, Ukrainian violinist
- April 29 - Frank Auerbach, German-born painter
- April 29 - Lonnie Donegan, Scottish musician (d. 2002)
May-August
- May 6 - Willie Mays, baseball player
- May 7 - Teresa Brewer, American singer
- May 13 - Jim Jones, American cult leader (d. 1978)
- May 14 - Alvin Lucier, American composer
- May 15 - Ken Venturi, American golfer
- May 16 - Natwar Singh, Indian politician
- May 18 - Robert Morse, American actor
- May 19 - Eric Tappy, Swiss tenor
- May 20 - Ken Boyer, baseball player (d. 1982)
- May 25 - Georgi Grechko, cosmonaut
- May 31 - John Robert Schrieffer, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- May 31 - Shirley Verrett, American mezzo-soprano
- June 3 - Lindy Remigino, American athlete
- June 7 - Malcolm Morley, English-born painter
- June 9 - Joe Santos, American actor
- June 20 - Martin Landau, American actor
- June 27 - Martinus J. G. Veltman, Dutch physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- July 1 - Leslie Caron, French actress
- July 10 - Alice Munro, Canadian writer
- July 26 - Fred Foster, American songwriter and record producer
- August 12 - William Goldman, American author
- August 19 - Willie Shoemaker, American jockey (d. 2003)
- August 23 - Hamilton O. Smith, American microbiologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
- August 25 - Regis Philbin, American television personality
- August 28 - John Shirley-Quirk, English bass-baritone
- August 31 - Jean Béliveau, Canadian hockey player
September-December
- September 17 - Anne Bancroft, American actress (d. 2005)
- September 22 - Fay Weldon, British author
- September 22 - George Younger, 4th Viscount Younger of Leckie, British politician (d. 2003)
- September 23 - Gerald Stairs Merrithew, Canadian educator and statesman (d. 2004)
- September 29 - James Watson Cronin, American nuclear physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- September 29 - Anita Ekberg, Swedish actress
- September 30 - Wesley L. Fox, U.S. Marine Corps officer
- October 6 - Riccardo Giacconi, Italian-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- October 7 - Cotton Fitzsimmons, American basketball coach (d. 2004)
- October 7 - Desmond Tutu, South African Anglican archbishop and activist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
- October 13 - Eddie Mathews, baseball player (d. 2001)
- October 20 - Mickey Mantle, baseball player (d. 1995)
- October 23 - Jim Bunning, baseball player and U.S. Senator
- October 23 - Diana Dors, English actress
- November 15 - Mwai Kibaki, Kenya's third president
- November 21 - Malcolm Williamson, Australian composer (d. 2003)
- November 23 - Dervla Murphy, Irish author
- November 26 - Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, Argentine activist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
- November 28 - Hope Lange, American actress (d. 2003)
- December 23 - Ronnie Schell, American actor
- December 24 - Mauricio Kagel, Argentine composer
- December 30 - Skeeter Davis, Ameircan singer (d. 2004)
- December 31 - Bob Shaw, British author (d. 1996)
Month/day unknown
- Joseph A. Califano, Jr., American politician
Deaths
- January 14 - Hardy Richardson, baseball player (b. 1855)
- January 23 - Anna Pavlova, Russian ballerina (b. 1881)
- February 11 - Charles Algernon Parsons, British inventor (b. 1854)
- February 16 - Wilhelm von Gloeden, German photographer (b. 1856)
- February 26 - Otto Wallach, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1847)
- March 7 - Akseli Gallén-Kallela, Finnish painter (b. 1865)
- March 11 - F.W. Murnau, German director (b. 1888)
- March 21 - Bhagat Singh, Indian revolutionary (b. 1908)
- March 31 - Knute Rockne, American football coach (b. 1888)
- April 8 - Erik Axel Karlfeldt, Swedish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1864)
- April 10 - Khalil Gibran Lebanese poet and painter (b. 1883)
- April 30 - Sammy Woods, English cricketer (b. 1867)
- May 9 - Albert Abraham Michelson, German-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1852)
- May 14 - David Belasco, American writer (b. 1853)
- July 4 - Buddie Petit, American jazz musician
- July 12 - Nathan Söderblom, Swedish archbishop, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1866)
- August 6 - Bix Beiderbecke, American jazz trumpeter (b. 1903)
- August 27 - Frank Harris, Irish author and editor (b. 1856)
- August 27 - Francis Marion Smith, American borax magnate (b. 1846)
- October 13 - Ernst Didring, Swedish writer (b. 1868)
- October 18 - Thomas Edison, American inventor (b. 1847)
- November 11 - Shibusawa Eiichi, Japanese industrialist (b. 1840)
- December 2 - Vincent d'Indy, French composer (b. 1851)
Undated
- Joseph Tabrar, British songwriter (b. 1857)
Nobel Prizes
- Physics - not awarded
- Chemistry - Carl Bosch, Friedrich Bergius
- Medicine - Otto Heinrich Warburg
- Literature - Erik Axel Karlfeldt
- Peace - Jane Addams, Nicholas Murray Butler
Category:1931
ko:1931년
ms:1931
ja:1931年
simple:1931
th:พ.ศ. 2474
1999
1999 (MCMXCIX) is a common year starting on Friday, and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations.
Events
- Kosovo War
- Y2K preparation was a major event in 1999 both in actual events and in media over-reporting.
- The human population of the world surpassed six billion. The United Nations Population Fund designated October 12 as the approximate date for this event.
January
- January 1 - Euro currency introduced.
- January 1 - An avalanche destroys a school gymnasium during New Year celebrations in Kangiqsualujjuaq in far northern Quebec, killing nine.
- January 2 - A brutal snowstorm smashes into the Midwestern USA, causing 14 inches (359 mm) of snow at Milwaukee, Wisconsin and 19 inches (487 mm) at Chicago, Illinois. In Chicago, temperatures plunge to -13°F (-25°C), and 68 deaths are reported.
- January 4 - Gunmen open fire on Shiite Muslims worshipping in an Islamabad mosque killing 16 people and injuring 25.
- January 12 - The remains of Christina Marie Williams were found three miles (5 km) from her home on the old Fort Ord military base.
- January 20 - The China News Service announces new government restrictions on Internet use aimed especially at Internet cafes.
- January 21 - War on Drugs: In one of the largest drug busts in American history, the United States Coast Guard intercepts a ship with over 9,500 pounds (4.3 t) of cocaine aboard. The ship was headed for Houston, Texas.
- January 25 - A 6.0 Richter scale earthquake hits western Colombia killing at least 1,000
February
- February 4 - Unarmed West African immigrant Amadou Diallo is shot dead by four plainclothes New York City police officers on an unrelated stake-out, inflaming race-relations in the city.
- February 5 - Mike Tyson is sentenced to a year's imprisonment, fined $5,000, and ordered to serve 2 years probation and perform 200 hours of community service for the August 31, 1998 assault on two people after a car accident.
- February 7 - King of Jordan, Hussein of Jordan, dies from cancer. His son Abdullah II then inherits the throne, and becomes King of Jordan.
- February 10 - Avalanches in the French Alps near Geneva kill at least ten.
- February 11 - Pluto, a planet with an irregular orbit, changes from the eighth to ninth planet furthest from the Sun. It had been the eighth furthest since 1979, and will become again in 2231.
- February 12 - President Bill Clinton is acquitted by the United States Senate in his impeachment trial
- February 12 - John Myatt and John Drewe are sentenced for art forgery for one and six years, respectively.
- February 16 - In Uzbekistan a bomb explodes and gunfire is heard at the government headquarters in an apparent assassination attempt against President Islam Karimov.
- February 16 - Across Europe, Kurdish rebels take over embassies and hold hostages after Turkey arrested one of their rebel leaders, Abdullah Öcalan.
- February 16 - In Jasper, Texas, testimony begins in the trial of John William King who is accused of dragging African American James Byrd Jr. to death in an apparent hate crime. King was later convicted and sentenced to the death penalty.
- February 22 - Moderate Iraqi Shiite cleric Mohammad Sadeq al-Sadr is assassinated.
- February 23 - Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Öcalan is charged with treason in Ankara, Turkey.
- February 23 - White supremacist John William King is found guilty of kidnapping and killing African American James Byrd Jr by dragging him behind a truck for two miles (3 km).
- February 23 - An avalanche destroys the Austrian village of Galtür, killing 31.
- February 24 - LaGrand Case: The State of Arizona executes Karl LaGrand, a German national involved in an armed robbery that led to a death. Karl's brother Walter is executed a week later, in spite of Germany's legal action in the International Court of Justice to attempt to save him.
- February 27 - While trying to circumnavigate the world in a hot air balloon, Colin Prescot and Andy Elson set a new endurance record after being in a hot air balloon for 233 hours and 55 minutes.
- February 27 - Olusegun Obasanjo becomes Nigeria's first elected president since mid-1983.
March
- March 1 - One of four bombs detonated in Lusaka, Zambia, destroys the Angolan Embassy.
- March 1 - Rwandan Hutu rebels kill and hack to pieces eight foreign tourists at the Buhoma homestead, Uganda
- March 1 - The Convention on the Prohibition of Anti-Personnel Mines comes into force.
- March 3 - Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones begin their attempt to circumnavigate the world in a hot air balloon without stopping. Their journey ended in success on March 21.
- March 4 - Monica Lewinsky's book detailing her affair with Bill Clinton goes on sale in the United States
- March 4 - In a military court, Captain Richard Ashby of the United States Marines is acquitted of the charge of reckless flying which resulted in the deaths of 20 skiers in the Italian Alps when his low-flying jet hit a gondola cable.
- March 12 - Hungary, Poland and Czech Republic join NATO.
- March 15 - The European Commission under the presidency of Jacques Santer resigns over allegations of corruption.
- March 17 - The [http://www.roth-401k-forum.com/ Roth 401k] is introduced by Sen Roth Jr., William V.
- March 20 - Serbs launch an offensive in Bosnia
- March 21 - Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones become the first to circumnavigate the Earth in a hot air balloon.
- March 22 - US pro-euthanasia doctor Jack Kevorkian goes on trial for murder in Pontiac, Michigan. He is later convicted of second-degree murder
- March 23 - Gunmen assassinate Paraguay's Vice President Luis María Argaña
- March 24 - NATO launches air strikes in Federal Republic of Yugoslavia which was refusing to sign a peace treaty. This marks the first time NATO attacked a sovereign country
- March 24 - Fire in the Mont Blanc Tunnel kills 39 people, closing the tunnel for nearly 3 years.
- March 26 - The Melissa worm attacks the Internet.
- March 26 - A jury in Michigan finds Dr. Jack Kevorkian guilty of second-degree murder for administering a lethal injection to a terminally ill man (the incident was videotaped and aired on September 17, 1998 edition of 60 Minutes)
- March 29 - For the first time, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above the 10000 mark at 10006.78.
April
- April 1 - Nunavut, an Inuit homeland, part of the Northwest Territories becomes Canada's third territory.
- April 5 - Two Libyans suspected of bringing down Pan Am flight 103 in 1988 are handed over to Scottish authorities for eventual trial in the Netherlands. The United Nations suspends sanctions against Libya
- April 5 - In Laramie, Wyoming, Russell Henderson pleads guilty to kidnapping and felony murder in order to avoid a possible death penalty conviction for the apparent hate crime killing of Matthew Shepard
- April 7 - Kosovo War: Kosovo's main border crossings are closed by Serbian forces to prevent ethnic Albanians from leaving
- April 7 - Bomb explodes in the Valley of the Fallen church in Spain - GRAPO claims responsibility
- April 9 - Ibrahim Baré Maînassara, president of Nigeria, is assassinated
- April 17 - A nail bomb explodes in the middle of a busy market in Brixton, South London
- April 18 - "The Great One" Wayne Gretzky plays his final game in the NHL.
- April 20 - Two Littleton, Colorado teenagers named Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold open fire on their teachers and fellow students. The teenagers killed 12 students and 1 teacher, and then killed themselves. See Columbine High School massacre.
- April 25 - End of term for Tuanku Jaafar ibni Almarhum Tuanku Abdul Rahman as the 10th Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia.
- April 26 - Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah ibni Almarhum Sultan Hisamuddin Alam Shah Al-Haj, Sultan of Selangor becomes the 11th Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia.
- April 28 - The first comic of Sexy Losers (then called "The Thin H Line") goes online. This webcomic would go on to be one of the most popular webcomics ever made, with a sustained level of unique IP address hits of approximately 1 million a week. It would also popularize the word "fap" as an onomatopoeia for masturbation, a sound effect widely used in anime-themed comics since.
- April 30 - Cambodia joins the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) bringing the total members to 10.
- April 30 - A third nail bomb (see April 17) explodes in the Admiral Duncan pub in Old Compton Street, Soho, London, killing a pregnant woman and two friends and injuring 70 others, including her husband. This was part of a hate campaign against ethnic minorities and gay people by David Copeland
May
David Copeland
- May 2 - Oliver Reed, British actor famous for starring in The Three Musketeers, The Four Musketeers, and The Assassination Bureau, dies of a heart attack in Malta while filming Gladiator.
- May 2 - Norman J. Sirnic and Karen Sirnic are murdered by Angel Maturino Resendiz in a parsonage in Weimar, Texas. They were his fourth and fifth victims in his fourth incident.
- May 3 - Photo driver licences and banknotes made out of polymer substrate are introduced to New Zealand.
- May 3 - A F5 tornado slams in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma killing 38 people. This was the strongest tornado ever. (See Oklahoma Tornado Outbreak)
- May 3 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above 11,000 for the first time. It closes at 11,014.70.
- May 6 - Elections are held in Scotland and Wales for the new Scottish Parliament and National Assembly for Wales
- May 7 - A jury finds The Jenny Jones Show and Warner Bros liable in the shooting death of Scott Amedure after the show purposely deceived Jonathan Schmitz to appear on a secret same-sex crush episode.
- May 7 - Kosovo War: In Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, three Chinese embassy workers are killed and 20 wounded when a NATO aircraft mistakenly bombs the Chinese embassy in Belgrade
- May 7 - In Guinea-Bissau, President João Bernardo Vieira is ousted in a military coup
- May 8 - Nancy Mace becomes the first female cadet to graduate from The Military College of South Carolina.
- May 12 - David Steel becomes the first Presiding Officer (speaker) of the modern Scottish Parliament
- May 13 - in Italy Carlo Azeglio Ciampi is elected President of the republic
- May 17 - Ehud Barak is elected prime minister of Israel.
- May 19 - Star Wars: The Phantom Menace is released in theaters.
- May 20 - Bluetooth announced.
- May 23 - In Kansas City, Missouri, Owen Hart (Blue Blazer) falls 90 feet (30 m) to his death while being lowered into a World Wrestling Federation ring
- May 26 - Indian Air Force launches attack on intruding Pakistan backed militants in Kashmir sparking the Kargil War.
- May 26 - Manchester United win the UEFA Champions League at the Nou Camp stadium, Barcelona, beating Bayern Munich to lift their third major trophy in their unprecedented Treble, after winning the English Premier League and FA Cup.
- May 26 - Madejczyk Massacre Averted, Bridgman, Michigan school shooting plot
- May 26 - first Welsh Assembly for over 600 years opens in Cardiff
- May 27 - The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague, Netherlands indicts Slobodan Milošević and four others for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Kosovo
- May 28 - In Milan, Italy, after 22 years of restoration work, Leonardo de Vinci's newly-restored masterpiece "The Last Supper" is put back on display.
June
- 'solid - the socialist youth is formed in Hannover, Germany
- June 2 - After decades of fighting off outside technological influences like television, the King of Bhutan allows television transmissions to commence in the Kingdom for the first time, coinciding with the King's silver jubilee (see Bhutan Broadcasting Service).
- June 5 - The AIS, the armed wing of FIS, agrees in principle to disband in Algeria.
- June 6 - In Brazil, 345 prisoners escape from Putim prison through the front gate
- June 7 - Garfield daily strips in colour.
- June 8 - The government of Colombia announces it will include the estimated value of the country's illegal drug crops, exceeding half a billion US dollars, in its gross national product.
- June 9 - Kosovo War: Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and NATO sign a peace treaty.
- June 10 - Kosovo War: NATO suspends its air strikes after Slobodan Milošević agrees to withdraw Serbian forces from Kosovo.
- June 12 - Kosovo War: Operation Joint Guardian begins - NATO-led United Nations peacekeeping force KFor enter the province of Kosovo in Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Texas Governor George W. Bush announces his intention to seek the Republican Party's nomination for President of the United States.
- June 15 - George Morber Senior and Carolyn Frederick are murdered by Angel Maturino Resendiz in Gorham, Illinois. They are his eighth and ninth victims, in his seventh and final incident.
- June 19 - Torino is picked as the host city of the 2006 Winter Olympics.
July
- July 4 - David Beckham and Victoria Adams are married.
- July 11 - India recaptures Kargil as Pakistan pulls out its troops and militants after international condemnation. India claim victory in the two-month conflict.
- July 16 - Off the coast of Martha's Vineyard, a plane piloted by John F. Kennedy Jr. crashes with his wife Carolyn Bessette Kennedy and her sister Lauren Bessette on board. All three are killed in the crash
- July 20 - Mercury program: Liberty Bell 7 is raised from the Atlantic Ocean.
- July 23 - Mohammed VI becomes King of Morocco.
- July 23 to July 25 - Woodstock 99 festival held in New York.
- July 23 - Hijack of ANA Flight 61 in Tokyo.
- July 25 - Lance Armstrong wins first Tour de France.
- July 27 - 21 die in a canyoning disaster near Interlaken, Switzerland.
- July 31 - Mark O. Barton kills 9 in Atlanta, Georgia
- July 31 - NASA intentionally crashes the Lunar Prospector spacecraft into the Moon, thus ending its mission to detect frozen water on the moon's surface.
August
- August 8 - The first edition of the Callatis Festival, the largest music &culture festival in Romania.
- August 9 - Russian President Boris Yeltsin fires his Prime Minister, Sergei Stepashin, and for the fourth time fires his entire cabinet
- August 10 - Buford O. Furrow, Jr. attempts a mass murder in Los Angeles
- August 10 - Atlantique Incident occurs as an intruding Pakistan navy plane is shot down in India. The incident sparks tensions between the two nations, coming just a month after the end of the Kargil War.
- August 11 - Total eclipse in Europe and Asia
- August 11 - An F-2 tornado rips through downtown Salt Lake City, Utah, killing one person and injuring over 100.
- August 17 - A 7.4-magnitude earthquake strikes Istanbul and northwestern Turkey, killing more than 17,000 and injuring 44,000. This earthquake was the first of a long series of unrelated but frequent earthquakes throughout the world during the years 1999 and 2000. Some connected the earthquake to the fact that the Umbra of the solar eclipse of August 11, was right above Istanbul.
- August 19 - In Belgrade, tens of thousands of Serbians rally to demand the resignation of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milošević
September
- September 7 - Earthquake strikes Athens resulting to more than 100 dead and 672 homes destroyed. It was not clear if it was related to the earlier earthquake of Turkey. That earthquake was the worst in Athens after 20 years. Both disasters were noted for resulting to a mutual assistance and better climate between the two 'rivalling' countries.
- September 8 - first of the series of Russian apartment bombings. The subsequent occurred on September 13, 16, and 22 (failed).
- September 9 - Sega released the Dreamcast worldwide. Breaking video game and other entertainment sales record in its first 24 hours of availability.
- September 21 - Chi-Chi earthquake occurred in central Taiwan, caused about 2,400 people dead.
October
- October - NASA loses one of its Mars probes, the Climate Orbiter
- October 5 - Thirty-one people die in the Ladbroke Grove rail crash, west of London, England.
- October 12 - Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif attempts to dismiss Army Chief General Pervez Musharraf and install ISI director Khwaja Ziauddin in his place. Senior Army generals refuse to accept the dismissal. Musharraf, who was out of the country, attempts to return in a commercial airliner. Sharif orders the Karachi airport to not allow the plane to land. The generals lead a coup, ousting Sharif's administration and taking over the airport. The plane lands with only a few minutes of fuel to spare, and Musharraf takes control of the government.
- October 12 - The 6 billionth person in the world, according to the UN is born in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
- October 13 - The United States Senate rejects ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT)
- October 15 ? National Geographic Society reveals the fossil of Archaeoraptor in a press conference (the fossil is later found to be a forgery)
- October 18 ? Michael Pawluk Michigan attorney sails solo-single-handed over 2,500 nautical miles (4600 km) on a 30 foot (10 m) boat when his wife demands "some space".
- October 25 - Golfer Payne Stewart, 42, dies in an aircraft accident.
- October 27 - Gunmen open fire in the Armenian parliament killing Prime Minister Vazgan Sarkisian, Parliament Chairman Karen Demirchian and 6 other members.
- October 27 - The New York Yankees complete a 4 game sweep of the Atlanta Braves to win their second consecutive World Series.
- October 31 - EgyptAir Flight 990 traveling from New York City to Cairo crashes off the coast of Nantucket, Massachusetts, killing all 217 on-board
- October 31 - Roman Catholic Church and Lutheran Church leaders sign the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification, ending a centuries-old doctrinal dispute over the nature of faith and salvation.
November
- November 5 - United States v. Microsoft: US District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson issues a preliminary ruling that the software company Microsoft had "monopoly power" (on April 3, 2000 Jackson found that Microsoft violated the Sherman Anti-Trust Act).
- November 6 - Australians vote to keep the British queen as their head of state
- November 18 - In College Station, Texas, 12 are killed and 28 injured at Texas A&M University when a huge bonfire under construction collapses.
- November 19 - In Istanbul, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) ends a two-day summit by calling for a political settlement in Chechnya and adopting a Charter for European Security
- November 20 - The People's Republic of China launches the first Shenzhou spacecraft
- November 26 - Earthquake and Tsunami in Vanuatu
- November 27 - Labour Party elected in New Zealand general election. Helen Clark first Elected Woman Prime Minster in New Zealand History.
- November 28 - A man wielding a samurai sword enters St Andrews Catholic Church in Thornton Heath and injures 11
- November 28 - Jorge Batlle for the Colorado Party is elected president of Uruguay
- November 30 - In Seattle, Washington, the first major mobilization of the anti-globalization movement catches police unprepared and forces the cancellation of the opening ceremonies of the WTO Meeting of 1999 (protests end on December 3).
December
December 3
- December 2 - The United Kingdom devolves political power in Northern Ireland to the Northern Ireland Executive.
- December 3 - After rowing for 81 days and 2,962 nautical miles (5486 km), Tori Murden becomes the first woman to cross the Atlantic Ocean by rowboat alone when she reaches Guadeloupe from the Canary Islands
- December 3 - NASA loses radio contact with the Mars Polar Lander moments before the spacecraft enters the Martian atmosphere.
- December 12 - President Lt. General Umar Hasan Ahmad al-Bashir of Sudan dismisses the National Assembly during an internal power struggle between him and speaker of the Parliament Hasan al-Turabi.
- December 14 - Algerian Ahmed Ressam was arrested while crossing the United States-Canada border at Port Angeles, Washington when United States Customs found explosives in the trunk of his automobile. The arrest caused fears of a terrorist attack in the United States and was a major factor in the cancellation of a public New Year's celebration in Seattle. Ressam was later convicted in a plot to bomb Los Angeles International Airport on New Year's Eve.
- December 17 - Iraq disarmament crisis: The United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (Unmovic) is created to replace UNSCOM. The U.N. Security council once again orders Iraq to allow inspections teams immediate and unconditional access to any weapons sites and facilities. Iraq rejects the resolution.
- December 20 - Macau is handed over to the People's Republic of China by Portugal.
- December 21 and December 22 - The Spanish Civil Guard intercepts near Calatayud (Zaragoza) a Madrid-bound van driven by ETA and loaded with 950 kg of explosives. The next day, another van loaded with 750 kg is found not far from there. The incident is known as "la caravana de la muerte" (the caravan of death). Shortly after 9/11, ETA confirmed their plan had been to blow down Torre Picasso.
- December 24 - Indian Airlines Flight 814, which was en route from Kathmandu, Nepal to Delhi, India was hijacked and taken to Kandahar, Afghanistan
- December 29 - Former Beatle George Harrison is stabbed several times in the chest by Michael Anram, who had broken into his home. Harrison's wife wrestles the knife out the assailant's hand before the police arrives. The man apparently believed that Harrison was the devil. He was later charged with attempted murder
- December 31 - Boris Yeltsin resigns as President of Russia, to be replaced by Vladimir Putin
- December 31 - Five hijackers, who had been holding 155 hostages on an Indian Airlines plane, leave the plane with two Islamic clerics that they had demanded be freed.
- December 31 - Start Of Millennium celebrations and countdown.
- December 31 - HM Queen Elizabeth II opens the Millennium Dome at Greenwich, London.
- December 31 - The Panama Canal is transferred to Panamanian control.
Unknown date
- Honda Insight is the first hybrid-fuel automobile imported into the United States.
- Naruto (manga) is created by Masashi Kishimoto.
Births
- February 3 - Brett & Jon Wirta, American actors
- April 7 - Conner Rayburn, American actor
Deaths
January-April
- January 14 - Jerzy Grotowski, Polish theatre director (b. 1933)
- January 25 - Robert Shaw, American conductor (b. 1916)
- January 31 - Norm Zauchin, baseball player (b. 1929)
- February 1 - Paul Mellon, American philanthropist (b. 1907)
- February 5 - Wassily Leontief, Russian economist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1906)
- February 7 - King Hussein of Jordan (b. 1935)
- February 8 - Iris Murdoch, Anglo-Irish author (b. 1919)
- February 15 - Henry Way Kendall, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1926)
- February 18 - Noam Pitlik, American actor and director (b. 1932)
- February 20 - Sarah Kane, English playwright (b. 1971)
- February 20 - Gene Siskel, American film critic (b. 1946)
- February 21 - Gertrude B. Elion, American scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1918)
- February 22 - William Bronk, American poet (b. 1918)
- February 25 - Glenn Seaborg, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1912)
- March 2 - Dusty Springfield, English singer, (b. 1939)
- March 3 - Gerhard Herzberg, German-born chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1904)
- March 4 - Harry Blackmun, American judge (b. 1908)
- March 5 - Richard Kiley, American actor (b. 1922)
- March 7 - Sidney Gottlieb, American Central Intelligence Agency official (b. 1918)
- March 7 - Stanley Kubrick, American film director and producer (b. 1928)
- March 8 - Joe DiMaggio, baseball player (b. 1914)
- March 12 - Yehudi Menuhin, American-born violinist (b. 1916)
- March 18 - Adolfo Bioy Casares, Argentinian writer (b. 1914)
- March 20 - David Strickland, American actor (suicide) (b. 1969)
- March 24 - Birdie Tebbetts, baseball player and manager (b. 1912)
- March 29 - Joe Williams, American jazz singer (b. 1918)
- March 31 - Yuri Knorosov, Russian linguist and epigrapher (b. 1922)
- April 20 - Richard Rood, American professional wrestler (b. 1958)
- April 25 - Lord Killanin, Irish journalist and president of the International Olympic Committee (b. 1914)
- April 25 - Herman Miller, American screenwriter and producer (b. 1919)
- April 26 - Jill Dando, British journalist and TV presenter
- April 28 - Arthur Leonard Schawlow, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1921)
May-August
- May 2 - Oliver Reed, English actor (b. 1938)
- May 3 - Steve Chiasson, Canadi
Bronx:For the American punk rock band see The Bronx (band)
The Bronx is one of the five boroughs of New York City in the United States. It is coterminous with Bronx County of the State of New York. It is the northernmost and only borough of New York City on the North American mainland, located south of Westchester County. It also includes several small islands in the East River and Long Island Sound. . The Harlem River separates The Bronx from the island of Manhattan.
The Bronx takes its name from Bronck's Farms, after an early settler (1641) in the area, Swedish immigrant Jonas Bronck, whose 500 acre (2 km²) farm lay between the Harlem River and the Aquahung, which now bears his name. The borough's name is officially The Bronx, but the county's name is officially just Bronx, without the definite article. According to a 2003 census estimate, the population of Bronx County was approximately 1,363,198.
History
The territory now contained within Bronx County was originally part of Westchester County, an original county of New York State. The present Bronx County was contained in four towns: Westchester, Yonkers, Eastchester, and Pelham. In 1846, a new town, West Farms, was created by secession from Westchester; in turn, in 1855, the town of Morrisania seceded from West Farms. In 1873, the town of Kingsbridge seceded from Yonkers.
In 1874, the western portion of the present Bronx County, consisting of the towns of Kingsbridge, West Farms, and Morrisania, was transferred to New York County, and in 1895 the Town of Westchester and portions of Eastchester and Pelham, were transferred to New York County. City Island, known as New York City's only nautical community, voted to secede from Westchester County and join New York County in 1896. In 1914, those parts of the then New York County which had been annexed from Westchester County were constituted the new Bronx County. New York City had also annexed the present-day Bronx County.
During the mid 1960s to the mid 1970s, many of the Bronx's apartment buildings were burned in an arson. Due to the heavy drug trafficking in the area, addicted tenants took advantage of the city's policies toward burn-out victims and the fact that Section 8 checks were addressed to tenants, not landlords (although some did burn their own buildings to collect on fire insurance). One reason for this was insurance companies' and banks' decision to stop offering their services in the South Bronx and other lower income areas -- a process known as redlining -- and landlords' subsequent decision to burn their buildings before their insurance policies expired and were not renewed. After the destruction of nearly half of the buildings in the South Bronx, this era all but ended during the tenure of Mayor Ed Koch.
Landmarks
Ed Koch]]
The Bronx's attractions include Yankee Stadium, home of the New York Yankees baseball club of the American League; the Bronx Zoo, Bronx High School of Science, Walton High School, Morris Park, the New York Botanical Garden, Wave Hill, Little Italy on Arthur Avenue, Fordham University and Manhattan College. It includes two of the largest parks in NYC, Pelham Bay Park and Van Cortlandt Park. Pelham Bay Park also has a large man made public beach called Orchard Beach created by Robert Moses.
The Bronx also has The Hall of Fame for Great Americans: a national landmark which overlooks the Harlem and Hudson Rivers. It was designed by the renowned architect Stanford White.
The Bronx is also the only Borough that has a freshwater river (the Bronx River) running through it. A smaller river, the Hutchinson River, passes through the northeast Bronx to empty into Eastchester Bay.
The Bronx now has the distinction of being the Birthplace of Hip-hop music, circa 1973.
Though it has a great deal of attractions, the Bronx is known for being particularly "anti-tourist", not so much in the sense of hostility to outsiders but insofar as its reputation nationally keeps tourists to New York as far from the borough as possible. This characteristic is actually what many in the New York area actually enjoy about visiting the Bronx; it has been claimed that the Little Italy on Arthur Avenue is more authentic than the more famous Little Italy in Manhattan on Mulberry Street.
Famous Bronxites
Famous people who resided in The Bronx at some time in their lives include: Danny Aiello, Sholom Aleichem, Woody Allen, June Allyson, Christopher Aponte, Anne Bancroft, David Berkowitz, Joey Bishop, Mary J. Blige, Red Buttons, James Caan, George Carlin, Diahann Carroll, Paddy Chayefsky, Tony Curtis, Lauren Conrad, Cus D'Amato, Bobby Darin, Gray Davis, Don DeLillo, Art Donovan, Ace Frehley, Stan Getz, Marty Glickman, Cuba Gooding Jr., John Gotti, Hank Greenberg, Rahel Haile, Fat Joe, Billy Joel, Max Kellerman, Felix Lugo, Afrika Bambaataa, Edward Koch, Stanley Kubrick, Fiorello La Guardia, Jake LaMotta, Ralph Lauren, Miles Marshall Lewis, Tom Leykis, Jennifer Lopez, Linda Lovelace, Sonia Manzano, Garry Marshall, Penny Marshall, Sal Mineo, Laura Nyro, Carroll O'Connor, KRS One, Grandmaster Flash, Grandmaster Melle Mel, Grand Wizard Theodore, Grandmaster Caz, Kool Herc, Jerry Orbach, Al Pacino, Justin Pierce, Regis Philbin, Edgar Allan Poe, Chaim Potok, Colin Powell, Tito Puente, Big Pun, Carl Reiner, Vin Scully, Tupac Shakur, Carly Simon, Neil Simon, Elliot Spitzer, George Weah, Vanessa Williams.
Law and government
Like the other counties which are contained within New York City, the Bronx is nominally presided over by a borough president. The borough is also served by various county courts, as well as a district attorney (public prosecutor).
As a part of New York City, Bronx County contains no other political subdivisions. It is located at 40°42'15" North, 73°55'5" West (40.704234, -73.917927).
According to the United States Census Bureau, the borough has a total area of 148.7 km² (57.4 mi²). 108.9 km² (42.0 mi²) of it is land and 39.9 km² (15.4 mi²) of it is water. The total area is 26.82% water.
The Bronx has four large low peninsulas or "necks" of low-lying land that jut into the waters of the East River and were once saltmarsh: Hunt's Point, Clason's Point, Screvin's Neck and Throg's Neck. In the northeast corner of the Bronx, Rodman's Neck lies in Long Island Sound.
Rodman's Neck
Street Layout
Many of the Bronx's streets are numbered, but unlike the street numbering systems in Brooklyn and Queens, the Bronx's system is a continuation of the Manhattan street grid. Because of this, the lowest numbered street in the borough is 132nd Street in the South Bronx, and the highest is 263rd Street in the Riverdale section. The numbered street grid is far from perfect as some numbers are just skipped altogether in Riverdale; other neighborhoods have no numbered streets at all.
As in Manhattan, 200th Street is also missing, since it was renamed Bedford Park Boulevard in 1906 (although many local businesses, people and other places have continued to call it 200th Street since the renaming [like the New York Botanical Garden] and the USPS recognizes E 200 ST addresses as an alternative address).
Interestingly 200th Street is also missing in Manhattan, although in this case there was never a "200th Street" until the Independent Subway System(IND) used numeric tiling in the Dyckman Street station calling it 200th Street (or DYCKMAN-200TH ST), this unofficially designated Dyckman Street as "200th Street" (the USPS somehow also recognizes W 200 ST addresses even though it never existed officially). In addition, some north-south throughfares also continue from Manhattan into the Bronx; examples include Third Avenue — above which a famous elevated line once ran (in Manhattan until 1955 and in the Bronx until 1973), Park Avenue, and Broadway. Like Manhattan, the streets are designated either "East" or "West", with the divider being Jerome Avenue (the divider in Manhattan is Fifth Avenue). The two boroughs also formerly shared the same Postal Code format, as mail addressed to either bore the designation "New York XX, New York," with a one- or two-digit number between the two "New Yorks" (this number being from 1 to 49 for Manhattan addresses and 50 or higher for the Bronx). When five-digit ZIP Codes replaced the postal codes in 1963, the Bronx was assigned the three-digit prefix "104" while Manhattan got "100" (Manhattan later added "101" and "102").
Numerous subway lines run through the Bronx, many of them above ground. In addition, three Metro-North Railroad commuter railroad lines run through the Bronx. The borough has 12 Metro North stations.
Three major expressways crisscross the Bronx: The Major Deegan Expressway, which runs along the western edge of the Harlem River, the Bruckner Expressway, which runs through the eastern part of the Borough, and the Cross Bronx Expressway, which crosses the borough's south-central section and serves as a major connection to the George Washington Bridge.
Neighborhoods
See List of Bronx neighborhoods for a comprehensive listing of the Bronx's various neighborhoods and their descriptions.
The borough is politically divided into 12 community boards :
- 1 : Mott Haven, Port Morris, and Melrose
- 2 : Hunts Point, Longwood, and Morrisania
- 3 : Crotona Park, Claremont Village, Concourse Village, Woodstock, and Morrisania
- 4 : Highbridge, Concourse, Mount Eden, and Concourse Village
- 5 : Fordham, University Heights, Morris Heights, Bathgate, and Mount Hope
- 6 : Belmont, Bathgate, West Farms, East Tremont, and Bronx Park South
- 7 : Norwood, University Heights, Jerome Park, Bedford Park, Fordham, and Kingsbridge Heights
- 8 : Riverdale, Spuyten Duyvil, Van Cortlandt Village, Kingsbridge, Kingsbridge Heights, Fieldston, and Marble Hill
- 9 : Parkchester, Unionport, Soundview, Castle Hill, Bruckner, Harding Park, Bronx River and Clason Point
- 10 : Co-op City, City Island, Spencer Estates, Throgs Neck, Country Club, Zerega, Westchester Square, Pelham Bay, Eastchester Bay, Schuylerville, Edgewater, Locust Point, and Silver Beach
- 11 : Morris Park, Pelham Parkway, Pelham Gardens, Allerton, Bronxdale, Laconia, and Van Nest
- 12 : Edenwald, Wakefield, Williamsbridge, Woodlawn, Fish Bay, Eastchester, Olinville, and Baychester
Demographics
As of the census of 2000, there are 1,332,650 people, 463,212 households, and 314,984 families residing in the borough. The population density is 12,242.2/km² (31,709.3/mi²). There are 490,659 housing units at an average density of 4,507.4/km² (11,674.8/mi²). The racial makeup of the borough is 29.87% White, 35.64% Black or African American, 0.85% | | |
