Way back when: Today in history
BY GENE CURTIS
Sunday, November 25, 2012
11/25/12 at 2:36 AM
1990 - Floating bridge sinks
The world's first floating concrete bridge collapsed into Lake Washington at Seattle because of heavy rain. The state transportation department laid part of the blame on workers leaving lids open on its concrete flotation chambers, closed a 1-year-old seven-lane adjacent bridge temporarily for fear that debris from the old span would damage it. The floating concrete bridge was dedicated in 1940.
1992 - Czechoslovakia split
The Czech parliament voted to split Czechoslovakia into separate Czech and Slovak republics beginning Jan. 1, 1993. New Year's celebrations in Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic, did little to commemorate the split. But revelers in Bratislava, the Slovak capital, cheered the event, their new flag, songs, fireworks and independence speeches by their leaders. Czechoslovakia was created from the remains of the Austro-Hungarian Empire after World War I ended in 1918.
1993 - Car bomb target unhurt
Muslim extremists set off a car bomb outside a Cairo grade school in a failed attempt to assassinate Prime Minister Atef Sedki. An 11-year-old girl was killed and 18 people were wounded. The Jihad group that assassinated President Anwar Sadat in 1981 claimed responsibility for the attack, the third against a Cabinet minister that year.
2003 - Medicare bill approved
A sweeping Medicare reform bill that included prescription drug benefits for millions of older people was approved in a 54-44 Senate vote. Passage of the most sweeping changes to Medicare since its creation in 1965 was considered a big victory for Republican leaders in Congress and for President George W. Bush. Oklahoma's senators, Republicans Don Nickles and Jim Inhofe, split their votes, with Nickles against the measure and Inhofe for it. The House passed had the bill a few days earlier in a 220-215 vote with all five Oklahomans in that chamber - Reps. John Sullivan, Frank Lucas, Tom Cole and Ernest Istook, all of the GOP, and Rep. Brad Carson, a Democrat - voting for it.
Associated Images:
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee (center), flanked by Sen. John Breaux, D-La., (left), and Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., appear at a Capitol Hill news conference after the Senate approved sweeping changes to Medicare. AP file
|
