On this day
Revisit the music, news, notable people, and historical moments connected to this date.
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Year-end buying spree drives three main stock markets to new highs; Dow Jones industrial average gains 202.16, to 11,405.76; Nasdaq gains 32.14, to 3,969.44 and Standard & Poor's 500-stock index gains 22.21, to 1,458.34; graphs (M)
Special report on plight of thousands of workers, most from third-world countries, who toil aboard luxury cruise ships; long hours--up to 18 hours a day, seven days a week--and subsistence wages are part of their contracts, as is threat of being fired without notice or cause; these are boom times for cruise industry, providing record profits, but benefits have been slow to trickle down to workers; even though 90 percent of passengers sailing out of US ports are American and most lines have their headquarters in United States, companies escape US minimum wage requirements and labor laws by registering their corporations in countries with weak laws and enforcement; photos (L)
New York City Board of Education, after weeks of complaining that Schools Chancellor Rudy Crew has lost his focus and become deeply ambivalent about his job, votes 4-3 not to renew his contract when it expires in June; aides to Crew say he is so disgusted by action that he may leave sooner; Mayor Rudolph Giuliani says he supports vote; photos (M)
Federal authorities said they had linked a couple who were arrested at a Vermont border crossing with a fake passport to a man associated with Algerian terrorists. But they did not specify what, if anything, they think the couple's plans were. In particular, they did not cite any connection with Ahmed Ressam, who was stopped as he tried to enter Washington State in a car with what officials said were bomb materials. Since his indictment, Canada's relaxed immigration rules have come under scrutiny. He had managed to stay in Canada after asylum was refused and his deportation ordered.
Comment on home movie filmed in Oct 1932 in which Babe Ruth is seen gesturing in way that made some witnesses believe he was pointing to spot in outfield where he would slug home run in world series game; photos (M)
Music on My Birthday
The Top 50 albums for the chart week of December 22, 1999, covering December 24, 1999.
The Notorious B.I.G.
Celine Dion
Backstreet Boys
Britney Spears
Santana
1999Bill Bowerman, American runner, coach, and businessman, co-founded Nike, Inc. (born 1911)[†]
William Jay Bowerman was an American track and field coach and co-founder of Nike, Inc. Over his career, he trained 31 Olympic athletes, 51 All-Americans, 12 American record-holders, 22 NCAA champions and 16 sub-4 minute milers.
1999Maurice Couve de Murville, French soldier and politician, 152nd Prime Minister of France (born 1907)[†]
Jacques-Maurice Couve de Murville was a French diplomat and politician who was Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1958 to 1968 and Prime Minister from 1968 to 1969 under the presidency of General de Gaulle. As foreign minister he played the leading role in the critical Franco-German treaty of cooperation in 1963, he laid the foundation for the Paris-Bonn axis that was central in building a united Europe.
1999João Figueiredo, Brazilian general and politician, 30th President of Brazil (born 1918)[†]
João Baptista de Oliveira Figueiredo was a Brazilian military officer and dictator who served as the 30th president of Brazil from 1979 to 1985, the last of the military regime that ruled the country following the 1964 Brazilian coup d'état. He was chief of the Secret Service (SNI) during the term of his predecessor, Ernesto Geisel, who appointed him to the presidency at the end of his own term.
1999William C. Schneider, American aerospace engineer (born 1923)[†]
William Charles Schneider was an American aerospace engineer. He served in the United States Naval Reserve 1942–1946 as an Aviation Machinist's Mate, 1st Class Petty Officer. He joined NASA in June 1963 and served as the Gemini mission director for seven of the ten piloted Gemini missions. From 1967 to 1968, he served as Apollo mission director and the Apollo program's deputy director for missions. He then served from 1968 to 1974 as the Skylab program's director. From 1974 to 1978, he worked as the Deputy Associate Administrator for Space Transportation Systems. From 1978 to 1980, he served as the Associate Administrator for Space Tracking and Data systems. He received a Ph.D. in engineering from Catholic University of America.
1999Indian Airlines Flight 814 is hijacked in Indian airspace between Kathmandu, Nepal, and Delhi, India. The aircraft landed at Kandahar in Afghanistan. The incident ended on December 31 with the release of 190 survivors (one passenger is killed).[†]
Indian Airlines Flight 814, commonly known as IC 814, was an Indian Airlines Airbus A300 that was hijacked on 24 December 1999 by five members of Harkat-ul-Mujahideen. The passenger flight, en route from Kathmandu to Delhi, was taken over shortly after it entered Indian airspace at about 16:53 IST. The aircraft carried 190 occupants — 179 passengers and 11 crew members including Captain Devi Sharan, First Officer Rajinder Kumar, and Flight Engineer Anil Kumar Jaggia.
In 1999, the world population was approximately 6,089,006,339 people[†]