October 21st Major News Events

21 Oct, 1937 Spain Civil War

1937 : Franco has now gained control of the North of Spain as the last government seaport of Gijon surrenders to the insurgent army of Franco.

21 Oct, 1944 Australia First Kamikaze Attack

1944 : HMAS Australia is attacked by the first kamikaze Attack when a Japanese aircraft carrying a 200 kg (441 lb) bomb strikes the superstructure, above the bridge. 30 crew members were killed in the attack which caused severe damage to the ship but because of the bombs failure to explode the ship was not destroyed.

21 Oct, 1945 France Women Get The Vote

1945 : Women in France get the right to vote in the parliamentary elections as part of the woman's suffrage movement. Many attribute the start of the modern woman's suffrage movement to women in France in the 18th century.

21 Oct, 1947 U.S.A. Forest Fires

1947 : Forest fires continue to claim millions of acres of forests and property in Maine after strong fresh winds start new outbreaks across the State which now has more than 50 separate forest fires to contend with. Other states in New England are also affected with forest fires but appear to be under control currently.

21 Oct, 1949 Female Federal Judge

1949 : Harry S. Truman appoints the first female federal judge in the nation. Burnita Shelton Matthews from Hazelhurst, MS.

21 Oct, 1952 Kenya State of Emergency Declared

1952 : Following the state of Emergency a number of members of the Mau Mau Movement who are demanding immediate self government from Britain are arrested including Jomo Kenyatta.

21 Oct, 1958 U.S.A. Civil Rights

1958 : The Civil Rights Commission is fighting an uphill battle to access to county voter records in Macon County, Alabama. The reason the commission is fighting to obtain records is that African-American residents outnumber white residents by 6 to 1 but voting records show white voters outnumber black voters by 2 to 1.

21 Oct, 1965 Disney Plans Walt Disney World Resort Orlando

1965 : Following the success of Disneyland in Anaheim, California (opened in 1955) Walt Disney buys 27,000 acres of land on the outskirts of Orlando, Florida (using dummy corporations to stop land speculators pushing up the price) for $5 million (News story leaked by the Orlando Sentinel). Walt Disney World opened on October 1st, 1971, five years after the death of Walt Disney with the Magic Kingdom theme park and is now the most visited and largest recreational resort in the world.

21 Oct, 1967 U.S.A. Vietnam Demonstrations

1967 : 100,000 Demonstrators march on the Pentagon but the demonstration was marred by violence when the more radical element of the demonstrators clashed with the soldiers and U.S. Marshals protecting the Pentagon, in total 683 people including novelist Norman Mailer and two United Press International reporters, were arrested. Demonstrations also happened in Japan and Western Europe on the same day.

21 Oct, 1973 U.S.A. Aide Package Israel

October 21st, 1973 : President Nixon is seeking a 2.2 billion dollar military aide package for Israel.

21 Oct, 1978 Rhodesia Guerrillas

1978 : Massive raids by the Rhodesian army and air force on 12 black guerrilla bases in Zambia have left the death toll at over 1,500 and the Rhodesian Prime minister is blaming the British and American government for not arranging a cease fire with guerrillas as promised.

21 Oct, 1986 U.S.A. Ozone Layer

October 21st, 1986 : In a satellite hook up from Antarctica scientists have been studying a huge hole that has appeared in the earths ozone layer over Antarctica. They believe it may have been caused by a chemical process and are suspecting the gas used in Aerosol Cans. The preliminary studies the chemical reaction is caused by Chlorofluorocarbons CFC's. Although the use of Chlorofluorocarbons has been banned in the US in Aerosol Cans since 1978, they are still used in many applications including air conditioning in cars through to keeping Big Mac's warm and the overall growth in use has continued to rise.

21 Oct, 1988 Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos

1988 : Former Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos and his wife, Imelda, are indicted by a federal grand jury in New York on charges of fraud and racketeering.

Full Size Original Here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Marcos_with_Bosworths.jpg

21 Oct, 1994 South Korea Seongsu Bridge Collapses

October 21st, 1994 : The Seongsu Bridge over the Han River in Seoul collapses when the suspension structure gives way leaving 32 dead.

21 Oct, 1998 U.S.A. Mike Tyson

1998 : Mike Tyson has been given his boxing license back by the Nevada Athletic Commission who took his license away following his match with Evander Holyfield where he bit his opponents ears.

Full Size Original Here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mike-g-tyson.jpg

21 Oct, 2001 U.S.A. Anthrax

October 21st, 2001 : A Washington postal worker is confirmed as the ninth confirmed case of anthrax since anthrax infected mail began turning up in Florida, Washington and New York following the 11 September attacks.

21 Oct, 2002 World Wide Internet Attack

2002 : An attempt to cripple the internet by attacking its central address books in a distributed denial-of-service attack (DDos) causes some problems and temporarily disables seven of the net's 13 root servers, but due to the design of the Internet most users were not badly affected.

21 Oct, 2003 U.S.A. Right To Die

October 21st, 2003 : Florida Governor Jeb Bush has ordered a feeding tube reinserted into Terry Schiavo, who suffered severe brain damage in 1990 the patient at the center of The Right To Die battle in Florida.

21 Oct, 2006 Iceland Begins Whaling Again

2006 : Iceland broke a twenty-one year international moratorium on whaling after the Hvalur 9 whaling ship caught and killed a fin whale. A week prior to the catch Iceland announced that it would resume commercial whaling.

21 Oct, 2008 Greece National Strike

October 21st, 2008 : A strike by hundreds of thousands in Greece has bought the country to a standstill with Air traffic, urban transport and public services unavailable. The strike is over the governments proposals at privatization, caps on pay and reforms to the pension system combined protests against a 28bn-euro (£22bn) government rescue package to banks hit by the international credit crisis.

21 Oct, 2009 Banking Sector Sees Upturn In Profits

2009 : After nearly 12 months with large losses or low profits, the US banking sector begins the current reporting session with larger than expected profits. Many are concerned that this will mean large bonuses for banking sector employees while the rest of the country is in a recession.

21 Oct, 2011 President Obama Announces Troop Withdrawal from Iraq

October 21st, 2011 : President Obama announced that all troops would be withdrawn from Iraq by the end of December 2011, honoring the terms set between Iraq and the United States when George W. Bush was president. The war began in 2003 with 150,000 American troops. During the span of the war, around 4,400 US soldiers were killed and over 100,000 Iraqi civilians were estimated to have been killed.

21 Oct, 2012 Nixon Presidential Challenger Dies

2012 : George McGovern, the Democratic challenger to Richard Nixon in the 1972 presidential election died at the age of ninety. McGovern had been in hospice care and had been suffering from a number of medical issues due to advancing age.

21 Oct, 2013 Severe Smog in China

October 21st, 2013 : Severe smog impedes daily life in parts of China with schools being closed due to the difficulty of travel and health risks. The city of Harbin in the Heilongjiang province experienced dense smog making it difficult to travel, highways and schools were closed and many flights were cancelled. The visibility was reported at less than 160 feet in some areas.