April 3rd Major News Events

1987 Switzerland - Sotheby's Auction Windsor ( Wallis Simpson ) Jewels

1987 : The late Duchess of Windsor's ( Wallis Simpson )Jewels has been sold for £31m ($50m) during an auction in Switzerland. Bidders filled Sotherby's Auction Rooms around the world including New York to have their bids relayed to Geneva.

1993 UK - Grand National

1993 : The English Grand National ends in chaos after a series of events at the start including protesters getting onto the track near the first fence and ended with only some of the riders competing in the race. The decision was made by the Jockey Club to declare the race void

1996 U.S.A. - Unabomber

1996 : Theodore John Kaczynski is arrested by the FBI accused of being the Unabomber, the elusive terrorist blamed for 16 mail bombs that killed three people and injured 23 during an 18-year period.

1998 U.S.A. - Dow Jones Over 9,000 First Time

1998 : The Dow Jones industrial average climbed above 9,000 for the first time.

2000 UK - Asylum Seekers

2000 : Asylum seekers in the UK are to receive vouchers to buy food and clothes and £10 a week in cash. This follows weeks of adverse publicity over begging on British streets involving asylum seekers.

2000 U.S.A. - US Microsoft Antitrust Case

2000 : A case started in 1998 was a set of consolidated civil actions filed against Microsoft Corporation by the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) and twenty U.S. states claiming Microsoft abused it's monopoly power in its handling of operating system sales with it's bundled web browser ( Internet Explorer ) to eliminate competition in the Browser Wars between Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator and Opera.

The main issue in the case was that Microsoft embedded it's Own Browser in it's Operating System for free .

On This day 2000 , Judge Jackson issued a two-part ruling: his conclusions of law were that Microsoft had committed monopolization, attempted monopolization, and tying in violation of Sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act, and his remedy was that Microsoft must be broken into two separate units, one to produce the operating system, and one to produce other software components.

2004 Spain - Madrid Railway Bombers

2004 : Five suspects in the Madrid railway bombings blew themselves up in a building outside the Spanish capital.

2006 United States - Moussaoui is eligible for the death penalty

2006 : Al-Qaeda's Zacarias Moussaoui has been found eligible for the death penalty by a federal jury in Alexandria, Virginia. This is the first U.S. trial for the 9-11 terrorist attacks. The jurors agreed with federal prosecutors that Moussaoui's lies to F.B.I. agents had resulted in multiple deaths. The jury had reached their verdict on the fourth day of deliberations. Moussaoui refused to stand in court, and showed no reaction to the verdict until the jurors had left.

2006 United States - Severe storms in the Midwest

2006 : Severe storms, with a number of tornadoes, have passed through several states, and killed about twenty-seven people. Most of the damage was done in Tennessee, where twenty-three deaths have been reported. Three have died in Missouri and one in Illinois. Dozens of people were injured in north-eastern Arkansas, and people warned from going outside in Kentucky and Indiana.

2007 Syria - Nancy Pelosi in Syria

2007 : House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has met Syria's President Bashar al-Assad, who tells her that he is keen to resume peace talks with Israel. While in Damascus, Pelosi says that she has given Assad a similar message from the Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert. She voices concern over Syria's connections to Hamas, and stresses the importance of Damascus' role in the peace talks between Palestine and Israel. Her visit angers President Bush, who says that it undermines U.S. foreign policy. Bush also says that Pelosi's trip will send "mixed signals" that could undermine the U.S.-led efforts to isolate the Syrian president.

2008 U.S.A. - Unemployment

2008 : The number of Americans filing first-time claims for unemployment benefits increased last week to the highest level since September 2005. The jobless numbers are blamed on a housing recession and mounting losses in financial markets causing a credit squeeze and consumers to slow their spending.

2009 Germany - Obama highlights Europe’s threat from al-Qaeda

2009 : US President Barack Obama has urged for a better use of NATO resources in Afghanistan. Participating in this year's summit he said that al-Qaeda is a greater threat to Europe than it is to the United States. NATO's Secretary General said that members are reluctant to send more troops to Afghanistan unless the country adopts a law to protect the rights of women. Michelle Obama was also in Baden-Baden. The summit is taking place between April 3rd and 4th, and is being co-hosted by France and Germany.

2010 United States - twelve-year-old New York girl is sueing the City for being arrested at school

2010 : The twelve-year-old schoolgirl that was handcuffed and arrested in February for doodling on her desk is planning to sue the city. A lawyer for Alexa Gonzalez and her mother has notified the city that they will being asking for $1 million in damages for the incident which took place inside Junior High School 190. The legal papers have described her ordeal as an excessive use of force and a violation of her rights. "We want to stop this from happening to other young children in the future," the lawyer said. She is said to have used an erasable lime-green marker to scribble the message "I love my friends Abby and Faith" on the desk. New York City officials have acknowledged that the arrest was a mistake, and said that better judgement should have been used. Gonzalez was suspended from school and tried in a family court, where she received eight hours of community service and required to write an essay on the lessons she had learned.

2010 United States - Apple Releases Ipad

2010 : Apple has released the much publised Ipad a tablet computer, the Ipad sold 3 million units in the first 3 months, The Ipad is the same operating system as the iPod Touch and iPhone and measures 9.7 in (25 cm) with a liquid crystal display and operates via it's touch sensitive screen..

2010 Kyrgyzstani - riots and demonstrations begin

2010 : Following the closure of Media Outlets who were not pro government protesters gathered outside the UN's headquarters in the capital of Bishkek to inform Ban Ki-moon of the media situation beginning 2 weeks of riots and protests leading to the ousting of President Kurmanbek Bakiyev.

2011 United States - Spanish Actress Gets Star on Walk of Fame

2011 : Penelope Cruz became the first Spanish actress to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The Oscar-winning actress received the 2,436th star placed in front of the El Capitan Theater, and was accompanied by husband Javier Bardem and, co-star and friend, Johnny Depp during the ceremony.

2012 Colombia - Farc Rebels Release Hostages

2012 : Colombia's Farc rebels released the last ten police and military hostages. Some of the hostages had spent up to fourteen years being held by the rebels. The country's president, Juan Manuel Santos, was happy about the release but said it did not go far enough to open peace talks as the rebels still held an unknown number of civilian hostages. The Farc rebels had been fighting the Colombian government for around fifty years.

2013 North Korea - Blocks Kaesong Zone

2013 : North Korea has blocked South Korean workers from entering the Kaesong joint industrial zone as tensions between the two countries grew. This was the first time North Korea had blocked South Korean workers from entering since 2009. The area was one of the last functioning connections between the two countries and acts as a significant source of income for North Korea as well as a valuable symbol of cooperation.

2014 US - Confirms Cuba Text Service

2014 : The United States officially confirmed that the text message service ZunZuneo in Cuba was created by a United States government aid agency and ran from 2009 to 2012. The alleged purpose of the program was to be a "Twitter-like" means to gauge and contribute to unrest in Cuba.