6:05 AM Thu, Nov 05, 2009 | Permalink
Thomas J. Morgan  Email
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On the local front:
A year ago today:
The guided-missile destroyer Cole, the victim of a deadly suicide bombing in Yemen in 2000, wraps up a visit to the Newport Naval Station. The visit is part of a program of bringing Navy ships to the base for naval students to tour, according to spokeswoman Lisa Rama. Soon, they'll be crew members aboard one. The Cole, however, is no ordinary ship, Rama said. "She's a special ship because of the fact that sailors' lives [were] lost on that vessel. It's a sentimental visit," she said. Eight years ago, terrorists aboard an explosives-laden barge crashed into the Cole while the destroyer was at anchor, blasting an enormous hole in the side of the ship and killing 17 sailors. Another 39 were wounded.
Ruth Simmons
5 years ago today:
Ruth Simmons, the first African-American to become president of an Ivy League institution, tells a crowd of 90 minority women in academia who gathered at the Providence Biltmore for a three-day summit on leadership, "It's just not easy being the first Texan to lead Brown." She added, "It's hard to be a first, I must confess." Professors, provosts, vice presidents and deans from across the country came to Providence this week to meet other Hispanic, Asian, Native-American and black women in higher education, and exchange ideas about diversity and advancement. The conference was sponsored by the American Council on Education and hosted by Brown and the Ford Foundation.
25 years ago today:
An elusive New Hampshire fugitive convicted of killing two gay people and suspected of trying to kill a third, all in separate incidents, is held without bail at the Adult Correctional Institutions, five years after he escaped during his murder trial in Manchester. Joseph Lister, 36, declined to waive extradition to New Hampshire, where he faces a life sentence without parole for the 1975 killing of his gay roommate. Lister's trial continued after his 1979 escape and he was convicted in absentia. Edmund M. LeBoeuf, deputy police chief in Manchester, said that in an interview with a psychiatrist before his 1979 trial, Lister admitted having "a compulsion to kill homosexuals, and that he had killed one every six months for 11 years." LeBoeuf said Lister escaped before investigators could question him in detail about the statement. He was arrested in Providence. District Court Judge Paul J. DelNero ordered him held pending a hearing Dec. 5.
On the international front:
On this day in 2006, Saddam Hussein is sentenced to death by an Iraqi court for crimes against humanity, closing a quarter-century-old chapter of violent suppression by the former dictator.
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Ruth Simmons
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