April 23rd Major News Events

1970 USA Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act

1970: President Richard Nixon signed the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act which would ban the advertising of cigarettes on television and radio beginning on January 2nd, 1971.

1979 UK National Front

1979: Thousands of protesters gathered to demonstrate against a National Front campaign meeting in Southall London and one protestor, a teacher, is killed.

1983 USA Renewable Energy

1983: A think tank in Washington predicted by the year 2000 50% of the worlds energy resources will be met from renewable energy sources. In 2004, oil accounted for 37.6%, natural gas for 25.6%, and coal for 23.1%. The total for Non-Renewable Energy Sources was 85.2%, so predictions were somewhat wrong.

1984 USA AIDS

1984: Researchers announced have discovered and isolated a virus they say is likely to be the primary cause of AIDS, the mysterious and deadly disease that destroys the body's protective immune system.

1998 USA James Earl Ray

1998: James Earl Ray, the convicted killer of the black American civil rights leader Martin Luther King, has died from a terminal liver disease while still incarcerated. He protested his innocence to the murder till the end.

2001 Serbia Slobodan Milosevic

2001: Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic is arrested on suspicion of corruption, abuse of power, and embezzlement by Serbian authorities at his Belgrade villa.

2003 Iraq Pfc. Jessica Lynch

2003: US troops rescue Army Pfc. Jessica Lynch from a hospital in Nasiriyah, Iraq, where she had been held prisoner since her unit was ambushed nine days earlier.

2007 Nine US Troops Killed in Iraq

2007: Two suicide car bombers have struck a U.S. patrol base in the Diyala province, killing nine soldiers and wounding twenty others. All of the casualties were members of the Army's 82nd Airborne, which is based in Fort Bragg, North Carolina. "Today represents the single greatest loss of life for soldiers from Fort Bragg in more than five years of simultaneous deployment," a media affairs officer said. Police have reported that the bombers rammed their cars into a checkpoint in the town of Khalis, which is 50 miles from Baghdad.

2010 Arizona New Immigration Law

2010: Arizona's governor, Jan Brewer, has signed an immigration bill into law that is seen as one of the toughest in the U.S., despite criticism of it by President Obama. The bill will require State Police to question people about their immigration status if there is 'reasonable suspicion.' Its aim is to identify, prosecute and deport illegal immigrants, although it has already unleashed protests and reignited the divisive battle over immigration reform.

2012 President of Yemen Announces Plans to Step Down

2012: Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh agreed to leave power after thirty two years in order to appease protesters in the country and curb violence. Saleh agreed to a transition plan that would take thirty days. After signing an agreement with opposition leaders there would be thirty days before he would leave power to the vice-president and receive immunity from any prosecution. Despite the progress, the opposition leaders still needed to agree on the conditions of the handover of power and protesters were resistant to accept a transitional government doubting that the President would actually leave his position of power.

2012 Dutch Government Falls During Budget Crisis

2012: The Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte gave his resignation to Queen Beatrix after his cabinet fell apart during budget talks. Rutte's government lasted 558 days the fourth shortest period of a government in the country since World War II. His resignation meant that political parties would have to gear up for early elections.

2013 Same-Sex Marriage Approved in France

2013: The French parliament made the final approval of same-sex marriage in the country with a vote of 321 to 225. The bill also legalized the adoption of children by same-sex couples.

2014 Russian Parliament Bans Swearing in Art

2014: The lower house of the Russian parliament passed a bill that would ban swearing in all film, music and art. They would issue fines for swearing in movies, concerts, plays, etc. The fines would be around $70 for members of the general public and $140 for officials. If passed in the upper house and signed by President Putin it would become effective by July of 2014 and the inappropriate words would be determined by a panel.