On this day
Revisit the news, notable people, and historical moments connected to this date.
In 2003, the world population was approximately 6,420,361,634 people[†]
2003Wyatt Oleff, American actor[†]
Wyatt Jess Oleff is an American actor, known for portraying the role of Stanley Uris in It and its 2019 sequel, as well as the role of Stanley Barber in I Am Not Okay with This (2020), and a young Peter Quill in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) superhero films Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017) by Marvel Studios.
2003Mason Teague, Australian rugby league player[†]
Mason Teague is an Australian professional rugby league footballer who plays as a lock or second-row forward for the Newcastle Knights in the National Rugby League (NRL). He previously played for the Dolphins.
2003Compay Segundo, Cuban singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1907)[†]
Máximo Francisco Repilado Muñoz Telles, known professionally as "Compay Segundo", was a Cuban trova guitarist, singer and composer.
2003French DGSE personnel abort an operation to rescue Íngrid Betancourt from FARC rebels in Colombia, causing a political scandal when details are leaked to the press.[†]
The Directorate General for External Security is France's foreign intelligence agency, equivalent to the British MI6 and the American CIA, established on 27 November 1943. The DGSE safeguards French national security through intelligence gathering and conducting paramilitary and counterintelligence operations abroad, as well as economic espionage. The service is currently headquartered in the 20th arrondissement of Paris, but construction has begun on a new headquarters at Fort Neuf de Vincennes, in Vincennes, on the eastern edge of Paris.
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Anemona Hartocollis Coping column describes scene at Cunningham Park, Queens, during New York Philharmonic concert; drawing (M)
'Honor' Killings Persist Turkey has approved sweeping legislation that would make it harder to reduce punishment for ''honor'' killings, but such killings continue in the nation's remote areas. PAGE 3 Abuse Cases Abandoned Hundreds of sexual abuse cases are expected to be dropped, and scores of accused offenders released, after a Supreme Court ruling against a California law on prosecution. PAGE 12
New York Yankees center fielder Bernie Williams album The Journey Within debuts, giving All-Star athlete chance to express his other love, guitar; photo (M)
Automobile designers sometimes have difficulty coming up with innovative solutions to similar problems, and cars tend to lack distinctive features, as designers are confronted with same 'space packages' of dominant vehicle types; successful designs tend to breed imitation, and today's designers communicate more with each other and move more often among companies; photos (M)
Cosmetics companies such as Estee Lauder, Procter & Gamble and Neutrogena are increasingly using high-tech approaches to develop and market skin-care products, as baby boomers seek to stave off effects of aging; critics charge that scientific-sounding claims are false and some ingredients may be unsafe; drug companies such as Pfizer are investing heavily in aesthetic dermatology products, seeing sales potential in hundreds of millions of dollars or more; chart; photos (M)
Steve Kurutz article on New York City's lovers' lanes, some of which, including popular Plum Beach along Belt Parkway in Sheepshead Bay, now have summer nighttime curfews prompted by rise in prostitution; photos (L)
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which has distributed $6.2 billion since its founding less than four years ago, has pledged $3.2 billion to improving health in developing world; its influence now rivals that of World Health Organization and Unicef, and can be seen in rising vaccination rates in some of poorest countries, in clinical trials of promising drugs and in new devices that make delivery of health care easier and cheaper; foundation spreads its wealth generously but cautiously, hedging its bets by financing collaborative efforts; large grants bestowed by Gates Foundation allow beneficiaries to devote more time to missions and worry less about raising money; photo; graph compares Gates Foundation with other large US foundations; chart of amount given since 1994 by type (L)
Ohio State University running back Maurice Clarett was given opportunity to take final exam orally after leaving during written exam without finishing it, leading many to believe he was given preferential treatment because he is star athlete; photos (L)
Campaign to kill Saddam Hussein, frankly discussed by high officials at White House, Defense Department and CIA, commits US for first time to public, personalized, open-ended warfare in classic mode of Middle Eastern violence; officials argue that Hussein's survival encourages resistance in Iraq so that killing him is legitimate act of war, but US has never before openly marked foreign leaders for killing; earlier covert actions recalled (M)
Suit filed against Internal Revenue Service by fallen hedge fund Long-Term Capital Management is seen as test for founding partner and Nobel Prize winning economist Myron Scholes, who conceived of $106 million tax deduction ultimately disallowed by IRS; deduction involved purchase of shares and associated tax deductions from overseas investors who were unable to use deductions themselves; IRS has assessed Long-Term Capital $40 million in taxes and $16 million in penalties and interest; photo (M)
Aggressive accounting practices have resulted in decline in quality of earnings reported by many corporations; chief offenses are recurring operational costs disguised as special one-time charges, failure to deduct stock option costs from results and unrealistically favorable pension assumptions; consequence is that already-high price-earnings ratios, when adjusted to reflect aggressive accounting, are even higher than investors believe; chart (M)
Building in Lower Manhattan that was once headquarters for private commercial bank Brown Brothers Harriman is sold to developer Nathan Berman for conversion to rental apartments; photo (M)