On this day
Revisit the music, news, notable people, and historical moments connected to this date.
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Harvey Araton Sports of The Times column discusses Boston Red Sox loss to New York Yankees in American League Championship Series, which he contends was not result of 'Curse of Bambino,' but poor managing by Grady Little; photo (M)
Dan Barry About New York column discusses Bronx Zoo associate general curator James Breheny, who was called to assist removal of tiger from Harlem (NYC) resident Antoine Yates's apartment (M)
Food and Drug Administration and Drug Enforcement Administration form special task force to crack down on growing tide of illicit sales of narcotics on Internet and give first indication that those who order drugs may face prosecution; task force, called Operation Gray Lord, will include officials from Justice Dept, some local law enforcement agencies and perhaps even top law enforcement officials from Canada because much of trade originates there; members intend to pursue purveyors of prescription narcotics aggressively, but they acknowledge difficulty of task; photo; graph shows growing percentage of teenagers and young adults using painkillers without prescription (M)
Cantor Fitzgerald, which lost 658 employees and its offices during Sept 11 terrorist attacks on World Trade Center, is negotiating to buy office condominium downtown, where occupancy costs in Lower Manhattan are much decreased (M)
Congress votes overwhelmingly in favor of Pres George W Bush's request for $87 billion package for Iraq and Afghanistan, giving him solid mandate for continued occupation and reconstruction of Iraq; $2 billion considered excessive is trimmed by both House and Senate; Senate requires Iraq to repay up to $10 billion in aid; issues will be negotiated next week; Bush supporters predict original funding levels will be restored and loan requirement eliminated; vote in House is 303 to 125 in favor of bill, with most Democrats voting against spending; vote in Senate is 87 to 12, with 11 Democrats and one independent voting against provision (M)
Music on My Birthday
The Top 50 albums for the chart week of October 15, 2003, covering October 18, 2003.
OutKast
Bad Boy's Da Band
Sting
Dido
Dave Matthews
2003Preston Smith, American businessman and politician, 40th Governor of Texas (born 1912)[†]
Preston Earnest Smith was an American entrepreneur and politician who served as the 40th governor of Texas from 1969 to 1973. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 35th lieutenant governor from 1963 to 1969.
2003Manuel Vázquez Montalbán, Spanish journalist, author, and critic (born 1939)[†]
Manuel Vázquez Montalbán was a prolific Spanish writer from Barcelona: journalist, novelist, poet, essayist, anthologue, prologist, humorist, critic and political prisoner as well as a gastronome and an FC Barcelona supporter.
2003Bolivian gas conflict: Bolivian President Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada is forced to resign and leave Bolivia.[†]
The Bolivian Gas War or Bolivian gas conflict was a social confrontation in Bolivia reaching its peak in 2003, centering on the exploitation of the country's vast natural gas reserves. The expression can be extended to refer to the general conflict in Bolivia over the exploitation of gas resources, thus including the 2005 protests and the election of Evo Morales as president. Before these protests, Bolivia had seen a series of similar earlier protests during the Cochabamba protests of 2000, which were against the privatization of the municipal water supply.
In 2003, the world population was approximately 6,420,361,634 people[†]