Hittokiri's Hara-Kiri Forum

Events of 1997 3/12
March

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1; Thunderstorms and tornadoes, sweeping across Arkansas, Mississippi, Kentucky, West Virginia, and Ohio, leave 48 people dead.

5; Clinton Administration Officials admit that Margaret A. Williams, Hillary Rodham Clinton's chief of staff, accepted- in the White House in 1995- a $50,000 campaign donation to the Democratic Party from Johnny Chung, a California businessman. Federal Law prohibits solicitation or receipt of political contributions in government offices.

6; China's legislature revises the nation's criminal code for the first time since 1979, introducing laws regulating insider trading and money laundering and elimination laws covering a variety of "counterrevolutionary" crimes.

7; The most severe flooding along the Ohio River since 1964 crests at Louisville, Kentucky, 15.7 feet (4.8 meters) above flood stage. It leaves 29 people dead and tens of thousands homeless in West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Tennessee, and Kentucky.

8; Hostage crisis negotiations between Peruvian officials and the Tupac Amaru collapse when the Marxist rebels discover that government security police are digging a tunnel beneath the Japanese ambassador's residence in Lima, the capital, where the Tupac Amaru have held 72 people hostage since Dec. 17, 1996.

10; The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) issues a statement flatly refuting President Bill Clinton's claim, made during a news conference earlier in the day, that the FBI had warned White House officials in 1996 that China might be attempting to illegally funnel money into U.S. political campaigns.

11; The U.S. Senate approves a measure to investigate "Illegal and improper" campaign fund-raising activities in the executive and legislative branches of the government.

12; Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto publicly apologizes for his government's "inadequate" response to a March 11 fire that triggered an exposing 21 workers to low-level radiation. A similar accident in December 1995 at Monju, Japan's only fastbreeder reactor, triggered widespread criticism of Japans's Nuclear industry.

13; A 23-year-old Jordanian soldier opens fire on a group of Israeli junior-high school girls visiting Naharayim. Seven girls die and six are wounded before the attacker is subdued.

In Tirane, the capital of Albania, looters carry off the remains of the city's dwindling food supply, while the police arm civilians in the hope that they will defend the government of authoritarian ruler Sali Berisha, who refuses to resign the presidency. The U.S. State Department warns that all Americans in Albania should leave immediately.

14; The Giant food corporation H.J. Heinz announces that it will lay off 2,500 employees- 5.8 percent of its work force- shut down at least 25 domestic and international plants, and sell its frozen-foods subsidiary, Ore-Ida foods Incorporated.

15; Zairian rebels take the important, eastern city of Kisangani, a Congo River port of more than 300,000 residents, from the Zairian army, which puts up token resistance. Kasangani's fall signals the downfall of President Mobutu Sese Seko, who has ruled Zaire for 31 years.

17; Anthony Lake, President Bill Clinton's nominee for Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) director, withdraws his name from consideration after his confirmation, delayed for three months, is threatened with additional delays by the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee.

18; The Presidential Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans' illnesses, a panel charged with investigation illnesses associated with the Persian Gulf War, presents evidence that the March 1991 demolition of an enemy ammunition dept in Iraq released clouds of nerve gas. The gas may have spread as far as 165 miles (265 kilometers) in a southerly direction, exposing hundreds of thousands of American troops to low doses of toxic chemicals.

20; The Ligger Group, Inc, which manufactures the Chesterfield, L & M, and Lark brands of cigarettes, acknowledges that tobacco is addictive and causes cancer. The Legit spokesperson also concedes that tobacco companies historically have marketted their products to minors in an attempt to lure children as young as 14 years old into a lifetime smoking habit.

24; Director of the Kenya Wildlife Service David Western announces his support for lifting the 20-year ban on big-game hunting on private land in order to cull overpopulations of such non endangered species as zebra, antelope, and wart hogs, which overrun farmers' fields.

25;The Federal Reserve banking system, under the leadership of Chairman Alan Greenspan, votes to raise interet rates for the first time in more than two years.

26; The bodies of 39 mass suicide victims are discovered in a mansion in the San Diego suburb of Rancho Santa Fe. The dead- 21 women and 18 men- belonged to a cult named Heaven's Gate. They apparently had believed that a space ship traveling behind Comet Hale-Bopp, visible in the night sky, would pick up and transport then to a better world.

29; A dozen tornadoes rampage through Tennessee, leaving more than 40 people homeless. In Chattanooga, tornadoes snap tree and utility poles designed to withstand winds of up to 160 miles per hour (270 kilometers per hour). Two people were killed when the same series of storms cut through Indiana and Kentucky late on March 28.