Unix Timestamp: 992649600
Saturday, June 16. 2001, 12:00:00 AM UTC

Japan turns away a Taiwan activist boat near the disputed Senkaku Islands in a protest against a ship collision last week. //in.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idINIndia-34077920080616 (Reuters)

An official of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports that effect food crisis on Somalia is creating a worse humanitarian situation than the War in Darfur. //news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7457974.stm (BBC News)

Heavy rainstorm and major flooding continues in the South China region. Millions of people are affected in Anhui, Hunan, Jiangxi, Fujian and Guangdong. Tens of thousands of victims of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake are evacuated due to heavy rains as 65 people are dead or missing with flood warnings on the Yangtze River and Pearl River amongst other rivers. //www.afp.com/english/news/stories/newsmlmmd.f53a58ff7a91ac19c2d85276238766b6.191.html (AFP)

Chinese journalist Yang Xiaoqing, a reporter for the state-run China Industrial Economy News, is sentenced to one year in prison at the Longhui No. 1 People's Court in Hunan province for extortion. Xiaoqing wrote an article exposing local Communist Party official Yang Jianxin's embezzlement of state assets. Jianxin has been reassigned to an advisory post in Shaoyang city. Hundreds of protesters block police cars to prevent them from taking Xiaoqing to jail. //www.cpj.org/news/2006/asia/china15june06na.html (CPJ)

The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (or 9/11 Commission) issues an initial report of its findings.

About 50 are killed in the Dairat Labguer massacre in Algeria.

The IOC selects Salt Lake City to host the 2002 Winter Olympics.

A crowd of 250,000 gathers at Heroes Square in Budapest for the historic reburial of Imre Nagy, the former Hungarian prime minister who had been executed in 1958.

Cork Graham caught off the Vietnamese island of Phú Quốc looking for treasure buried by Captain Kidd. Convicted and imprisoned for illegal entry.

The U.S. Supreme Court rules that the states are not required to spend Medicaid funds on elective abortions.

The Oracle Corporation is incorporated in Redwood Shores, California as Software Development Laboratories (SDL) by Larry Ellison, Bob Miner, and Ed Oates.

Anglia Television broadcasts the fake documentary "Alternative 3", which enters into the conspiracy theory canon.

The Soweto riots in South Africa begin.

U.S. President Richard Nixon begins several talks with Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev.

Staines air disaster: 118 die when a Trident 1 jet airliner crashes 2 minutes after take off from London Heathrow Airport.

Watergate scandal: Five White House operatives are arrested for burglarizing the offices of the Democratic National Committee.

Chilean president Salvador Allende forms a new government.

West Germany beats the Soviet Union 3–0 to win Euro 72.

The United States returns Okinawa, occupied and governed since the World War II Battle of Okinawa, to Japan.

108 die as two passenger trains hit the debris of a collapsed railway tunnel near Soissons, France.

The Monterey Pop Festival begins and is held for 3 days.

A planned anti-war protest at The Pentagon becomes a teach-in, with demonstrators distributing 50,000 leaflets in and around the building.

Keith Bennett, 12, is abducted by Myra Hindley and Ian Brady.

"Vostok 6" carries Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman, into space.

The New Democratic Party of Canada is founded with the merger of the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) and the Canadian Labour Congress.

Russian ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev requests asylum in France while in Paris with the Kirov Ballet.

A Paris-to-Strasbourg train derails near Vitry-le-François 24 are killed, 109 injured.

Imre Nagy is hanged for treason in Hungary.

"Lady and the Tr", the Walt Disney company's 15th animated film, premieres in Chicago, Illinois.

July 4 ndash the 1954 FIFA World Cup is held in Switzerland

The Soviet Union and Yugoslavia form diplomatic relations.

United States Army Air Corps becomes the Army Air Forces.

All German and Italian consulates in the United States are ordered closed and their staffs to leave the country by July 10.

WWII: The First Sisak Partisan Brigade, the first anti-fascist armed unit in occupied Europe, is founded by partisans near Sisak, Croatia.

WWII: Germany invades the Soviet Union under Operation Barbarossa.

WWII: Royal Navy planes sink the VichyFrench ship Chevalier Paul

WWII: Italy and Romania declare war on the Soviet Union.

WWII: Winston Churchill promises all possible British assistance to the Soviet Union in a worldwide broadcast: Any man or state who fights against Nazidom will have our aid. Any man or state who marches with Hitler is our foe.

Walt Disney's live-action animated feature, "The Reluctant Dragon", is released.

WWII: Appeal of 18 June: General Charles de Gaulle, "de facto" leader of the Free French Forces, makes his first broadcast appeal over Radio Londres from London rallying French Resistance, calling on all French people to continue the fight against Nazi Germany: France has lost a battle. But France has not lost the war.

WWII: Winston Churchill says to the House of Commons: The Battle of France is over. The Battle of Britain is about to begin.

The Soviet Army enters the Baltic states of Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia.

WWII: Operation Ariel begins: Allied troops start to evacuate France, following Germany's takeover of Paris and most of the nation.

WWII: A Luftwaffe Junkers 88 bomber sinks the British ship "RMS Lancastria", which was evacuating troops from near Saint-Nazaire, France, killing some 5,800 men. (Wartime censorship prevents the story from becoming public.)

Philippe Pétain becomes Prime Minister of France and immediately asks Germany for peace terms.

The Sturgis Motorcycle Rally is held for the first time in Sturgis, South Dakota.

Whoa Military Academy is founded in China.

The storming of Ayan in Siberia concludes the Yakut Revolt and the Russian Civil War.

The British Women's Institute is founded.

Australia: Female British subjects (with the exception of Asians, Aborigines and Africans) win the vote with the Uniform Franchise Act.

Fort Erie Racetrack in Fort Erie, Ontario, opens. The first race is won by Ellesmere, guided home by Sullivan.

John Abbott becomes Canada's third prime minister.

Victoria Hall disaster: A rush for treats results in 183 children being asphyxiated in a concert hall in Sunderland, England.

Abraham Lincoln accepts the Republican Party (United States) nomination for a seat in the US Senate, delivering his House Divided speech in Springfield, Illinois.

Pope Pius IX succeeds Pope Gregory XVI as the 255th pope. He will reign for 31½ years (the longest definitely confirmed).

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals is established in Great Britain.

Battle of Quatre Bras: Marshal Ney wins a strategic victory over an Anglo-Dutch force.

Battle of Ligny: Napoleon defeats a Prussian army under Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher.

New York State charters City Bank of New York, which later became Citibank.

American Revolutionary War: In support of the U.S., Spain declares war on England.

Post of Chief Engineer of the Continental Army created.

Battle of Piacenza: Austrian forces defeat French and Spanish troops.

Battle of Dettingen in Bavaria: King George II of Great Britain leads his own troops, the last British king to do so.

Mary, Queen of Scots, recognizes Philip II of Spain as her heir.

Henry VIII of England appoints his illegitimate son Henry FitzroyDuke of Richmond and Somerset.

Battle of Stoke Field: The rebellion of pretender Lambert Simnel, led by John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln, and Francis Lovell, 1st Viscount Lovell, is crushed by troops loyal to Henry VII.

August ndash Bartolomeu Dias leaves Lisbon on his voyage to the Cape of Good Hope.

the Teutonic Knights and Švitrigaila sign the Treaty of Christmemel, creating anti-Polish alliance

September ndash Battle of Inverlochy: Donald Balloch defeats the Royalists.

Hussite Wars ndash Battle of Usti nad Labem: The Hussites decisively beat the crusading armies in the Fourth Anti-Hussite Crusade.

The bishop of Västerås buys 1/8 of the Stora Kopparberg copper mine in Falun, Sweden.

The Flemish city of Ghent seeks rights to start redeeming its already issued annuities. It is a clear indication of financial difficulty and maybe an early sign of the crisis of the 13th century.

The Roman army starts its retreat northward to Corduene (Armenia). Julian marches back up the Tigris and burns his fleet of supply ships. During the withdrawal Julian's forces suffering several attacks from the Persians.