Reagan nominates Webster to head CIA
1987 - US President Ronald Reagan nominated Federal Bureau of Investigation Director William Webster to be the new director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The announcement came one day after Reagan withdrew the nomination of Deputy CIA Director Robert Gates, who faced opposition in the Senate because of the CIA’s role in the Iran-Contra scandal. “Bill Webster will bring a remarkable depth and breadth of experience as well as a remarkable record of achievement to this position,” said Reagan. Webster served as a federal appeals judge before he was named FBI director by President Jimmy Carter in 1978. Reagan said that Webster, who turns 63 tomorrow, had dramatically increased FBI counter-intelligence and anti-terrorism capabilities during his time as director.
March 3
1849 - US Congress creates the Minnesota Territory.
1896 - Peace of Bucharest between Serbia and Bulgaria is signed.
1953 - World heavyweight boxing champion James Jeffries dies at 78.
1956 - Morocco gains independence from France.
1974 - A Turkish Airlines plane crashes after take-off from Orly Airport in Paris, killing 350.
1980 - Robert Mugabe wins a landslide victory in Rhodesia’s independence election.
1987 - Italy’s Socialist Prime Minister Bettino Craxi resigns after 3 1/2 years in power.
1988 - Political clashes leave 11 people dead and more than 300 injured in Bangladesh.
1992 - Bosnia and Herzegovina declares its independence from Yugoslavia.
1997 - A passenger train derails in Pakistan’s Punjab province, killing at least 126 people and injuring more than 450.
2002 - Swiss citizens vote in favour of becoming the 190th member of the UN.
2005 - An Interior Ministry helicopter with five people crashes into the sea near Jumeirah Palm Island, Dubai.
2007 - Pakistan successfully test-fires a short-range missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead.
2009 - Dozens of gunmen armed with rifles and rocket launchers attack the bus of the Sri Lankan cricket team in Pakistan
2011 - Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmad Shafiq steps down.
2013 - A car bomb explodes, killing 48 people in Karachi, Pakistan.
2014 - An Emirati police officer among three security personnel in a joint Gulf force are killed in a blast in Manama, Bahrain.
2016 - Former New Zealand cricketer and captain Martin Crowe dies of cancer at the age of 53.
