Way back when: Today in history
BY GENE CURTIS
Sunday, January 27, 2013
1/27/13 at 2:23 AM
1967 - Treaty bans space weapons
A treaty banning the orbiting of nuclear weapons was signed by diplomats from 60 nations in a White House ceremony that President Lyndon Johnson called "an inspiring moment in the history of the human race." The U.S., Great Britain and the Soviet Union were the first to sign the peace-in-space treaty. Johnson proposed the treaty nearly a year earlier and said that if disarmament on Earth remains a goal to be sought "at least we can keep the virus from spreading" into space. The treaty blocks the orbiting of nuclear warheads or other weapons of mass destruction and forbids the placing of weapons on celestial bodies or space stations.
1973 - Vietnam war ends
The Vietnam war was officially over at 6 p.m. CST but scattered fighting continued past the deadline set by a peace accord signed in Paris by the U.S., North Vietnam, South Vietnam and the Viet Cong. The Communist side claimed the cease fire ending 12 years of war was a mighty victory over imperialism. South Vietnam President Nguyen Van Thieu predicted the Communists would break the accord while President Richard Nixon offered a silent prayer for its success. Secretary of State William P. Rogers said that he had "every hope that this will be a durable peace."
1983 - Meeting under sea
With a dynamite blast and shouts of "Banzai!" two crews digging the world's longest undersea tunnel met after digging for 19 years. The Japanese Seikan railway tunnel 787 feet below the sea bed that links Honshu with Hokkaido was finally completed and opened to traffic in March 1988. The dynamite blast was triggered by Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone using a telephone relay from Tokyo to open a 3-foot-thick wall of earth separating the two digging gangs. Workers carried a portable Shinto shrine and a big barrel of sake, Japanese rice wine, to celebrate.
1996 - Seles wins Open
Monica Seles, the former No. 1 women's player in the world before she left tennis after being stabbed in Hamburg, Germany, on April 30, 1991, won her fourth Australian Open by defeating Anke Huber 6-4, 6-1. "I left this tournament in 1993 with unbelievable memories," she said after her victory that earned her $380,000. "The hardest thing for me, the time that I couldn't play, was not being able to defend my title here." She was stabbed by Gunther Parche, a self-professed fan of the German tennis champion Steffi Graf during the quarterfinals of the Citizen Cup tournament in Hamburg.
Associated Images:
Monica Seles Associated Press file
|
