On this day
Revisit the music, news, notable people, and historical moments connected to this date.
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Broadway's experiment with 7:00 pm curtain on Tuesdays is well-received by most theatergoers; accommodations made by restaurants and other businesses dependent on customers headed for theater discussed; photos (M)
Swiss team Alinghi defeats team New Zealand in Race 3 of America's Cup to lead five-of-nine series, 3-0; photos (M)
Great-West Lifeco Offers $4.7 Billion for Canada Life Great-West Lifeco has agreed to acquire Canada Life Financial for almost $4.7 billion in cash and stock, topping an earlier bid by Manulife Financial. If completed, the deal would create Canada's biggest insurance company. Canada Life had earlier rejected Manulife's offer as inadequate. The battle for Canada Life comes after a series of mergers and acquisitions by life insurers. The trend has been reinforced in recent years by the conversion to shareholder ownership from mutual ownership of four of the five biggest companies, including Manulife and Canada Life. [Page C4.]
Leaders of 15 members of European Union say Iraq must disarm 'immediately and fully' but that Europe wants to achieve this disarmament peacefully and that war should be last resort; statement is issued at end of emergency summit meeting and after weekend of huge demonstrations in several cities against war in Iraq; it appears to represent effort to paper over trans-Atlantic differences through firm demands on Saddam Hussein while maintaining distinct European position dedicated to peaceful outcome; European leaders do not approve timetable for Iraqi disarmament and reject British proposal that statement include phrase 'time is running out'; Pres Jacques Chirac says France would oppose any second United Nations resolution reinforcing threat of force against Iraq if US and Britain propose it to Security Council; European leaders seem anxious to allay fears over future of NATO alliance because of differences between Europe and US over Iraq; photo (M)
Clyde Haberman NYC column offers humorous suggestions for boycotts in wake of talk about boycotting French products because of France's opposition to American stance on Iraq (M)
Music on My Birthday
The Top 50 albums for the chart week of February 12, 2003, covering February 18, 2003.
Dixie Chicks
Norah Jones
Zwan
Avril Lavigne
Jennifer Lopez
2003192 people die when an arsonist sets fire to a subway train in Daegu, South Korea.[†]
On February 18, 2003, an arsonist set fire to a Daegu Metro subway train as it arrived at Jungangno station in central Daegu, South Korea. The resulting blaze, which spread when a second train stopped at the same station, killed 192 people and injured another 151. It remains the deadliest loss of life in a single deliberate incident in South Korean peacetime history, surpassing the 1982 shooting rampage committed by Woo Bum-kon.
In 2003, the world population was approximately 6,420,361,634 people[†]