Monday, February 16, 1998
Today's events
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Deadline is scheduled for decision in Microsoft Corp. case involving whether temporary workers should receive benefits.
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On the horizon
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On Tuesday, February 17, the trial of Jonathan Norman, charged with stalking film director Steven Spielberg, is scheduled to start in Santa Monica, California.
On Wednesday, February 18, multiparty talks on Northern Ireland's future open in Dublin.
On Thursday, February 19, preparatory talks will be held in London for an ASEM leaders summit in April.
On Friday, February 20, the start of the "Women of Color and Allies Summit:
Linking Arms in Dangerous Times" begins in Arlington, Virginia.
On Saturday, February 21, the National Governors Association holds its winter meeting in Washington, D.C.
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On this day
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In 1804, the U.S. frigate Philadelphia, held captive by Barbary pirates at Tripoli, was destroyed by an American party led by Stephen Decatur, thus denying its use by the Tripolitans.
In 1808, France invaded Spain in the Peninsular War.
In 1862, in the American Civil war, Fort Donelson was surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant by the Confederates.
In 1918, Lithuania proclaimed its independence from Russia.
In 1923, the Allied Powers Ambassadors' Conference decided to place Memelland, an area on the Baltic Sea, under Lithuanian control.
In 1933, fearing threats from Germany, the Little Entente -- a mutual defense agreement between Czechoslovakia, Romania and Yugoslavia -- was reorganised, creating a permanent council that met three times a year to direct a common policy.
In 1936, the Popular Front won the general election in Spain; Manuel Azana became premier and reestablished the constitution of 1931.
In 1937, Nylon was first developed by Dr. Wallace Carothers and his U.S. research team.
In 1944, the Japanese naval base at Truk, Caroline Islands, was bombed by Allied aircraft destroying 201 planes.
In 1945, Venezuela declared war on Germany and Japan.
In 1959, Fidel Castro was sworn in as prime minister of Cuba after leading a guerrilla campaign that ousted right-wing dictator Fulgencio Batista on January 1.
In 1960, the U.S. nuclear submarine Triton began its underwater round-the-world trip.
In 1984, Iran said it had broken through Iraqi defenses at the start of what Tehran Radio described as a "massive offensive" and claimed to have killed or wounded 1,200 Iraqi soldiers in the first 11 hours of fighting.
In 1987, the trial of John Demjanjuk, accused of being "Ivan the Terrible" of the Treblinka death camp in World War II, began in Israel.
In 1991, Enrique Bermudez, a former leader of the Contra rebels in Nicaragua, was assassinated in Managua.
In 1994, a Jerusalem court found former heads of Israel's top four banks guilty of fraud in a 1983 bank shares scandal that shook the country and cost the government $9 billion.
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Newslink
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On Sunday, Dale Earnhardt finally won NASCAR's most prestigious event, The Daytona 500. Learn more about the speedway at Daytona USA.
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Holidays and more
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The United States marks Presidents' Day.
Canada celebrates Family Day.
It's Independence Day in Lithuania.
Turkmenistan marks National Flag Day.
Former tennis star John McEnroe is 39.
Actor LeVar Burton is 41.
Singer James Ingram is 42.
Actor William Katt is 43.
Actor Barry Primus is 60.
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Sources: Associated Press,
Chase's Calendar of Events 1998, J.P. Morgan
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