Today in History - May 9
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May 9 is Europe Day.
(Econ, 7/28/07, p.55)
For Asian History: http://www.asiaobserver.org/2019/05/9
1079 May 9, Stanislaus, Polish bishop of Cracow, was murdered.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1265 May 9, Dante Alighieri, Italian poet (Divine Comedy), was born.
(WUD, 1994 p.367)(MC, 5/9/02)
1429 May 9, Joan of Arc defeated the besieging English at Orleans.
(HN, 5/9/98)
1443 May 9, Niccolo d'Albergati, Italian cardinal, died.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1460 May 9, In the Netherlands the courtyard Episcopal palace at Atrecht had witch burnings.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1474 May 9, Peter van Hagenbach, Elzasser knight, land guardian, was beheaded.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1502 May 9, Christopher Columbus left Cadiz, Spain, on his fourth and final trip to the Western Hemisphere. He explored Central America, and discovered St. Lucia, the Isthmus of Panama, Honduras, and Costa Rica. Columbus left 52 Jewish families in Costa Rica. [see May 11]
(TL-MB, 1988, p.8)(AP, 5/9/97)(WSJ, 6/15/00, p.A1)
1588 May 9, Duke Henri de Guise's troops occupied Paris.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1657 May 9, William Bradford, Governor (Plymouth Colony, Mass), died.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1667 May 9, Marie Louise de Gonzague-Nevers, French Queen of Poland (1645-48), died.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1671 May 9, Colonel Thomas Blood (1618-1680), Irish adventurer, attempted to steal the Crown Jewels from the Tower of London.
(MC, 5/9/02)(Reuters, 8/24/01)
1707 May 9, Dietrich Buxtehude (~69), German organist, composer, died.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1738 May 9, John Pindar, [Peter], physician, poet, was born.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1740 May 9, Giovanni Paisiello, Italian composer (Barber of Seville), was born.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1745 May 9, Tomaso Antonio Vitali (82), composer, died.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1753 May 9, King Louis XV disbanded the French parliament.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1754 May 9, The first American newspaper cartoon was published. The illustration in Benjamin Franklin's Pennsylvania Gazette showed a snake cut into sections, each part representing an American colony; the caption read, "Join or die."
(AP, 5/9/97)(HN, 5/9/98)
1783 May 9, Alexander Ross, pioneer, fur trader, was born in Canada.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1785 May 9, James Pollard Espy, meteorologist (Philosophy of Storms), was born in Pennsylvania.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1785 May 9, British inventor Joseph Bramah patented a beer-pump handle.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1791 May 9, Francis Hopkinson (53), US writer, music, lawyer, died.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1800 May 9, John Brown, American abolitionist, was born. His adventures came to an end at Harper's Ferry, where he tried to start a revolution against slavery.
(HN, 5/9/99)
1805 May 9, Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller (45), poet, playwright, died in Weimar.
(MC, 5/9/02)(SSFC, 8/1/04, p.D10)
1810 May 9, Louis Gallait, historical painter, was born.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1813 May 9, U.S. troops under William Henry Harrison rescued Fort Meigs from British and Canadian troops.
(HN, 5/9/99)
1836 May 9, HMS Beagle with Charles Darwin departed Port Louis, Mauritius.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1837 May 9, "Sherrod" burned in Mississippi River below Natchez, Miss., and 175 died.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1843 May 9, Belle Boyd, Confederate spy, was born. She helped 'Stonewall' Jackson during his Valley campaign.
(HN, 5/9/99)
1846 May 9, US forced Mexico back to Rio Grande in the Battle of Resaca de la Palma.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1846 May 9, Gen. Mariano Arista crossed the Rio Grande and killed a number of US soldiers in a surprise attack. Mexico believed that France and Britain would support it in a war against the US.
(WP, 6/29/96, p.A15)
1859 May 9, Threatened by the advancing French army, the Austrian army retreated across the River Sesia in Italy.
(HN, 5/9/00)
1860 May 9, James Matthew Barrie (d.1937), novelist (Margaret Ogilvy, Peter Pan), was born in Kirriemuir, Scotland.
(www.angus.gov.uk)
1861 May 9, The Banshee, a British ship designed to run the American blockade on Confederate ports, departed Nassau for Wilmington, NC, on the first of many successful runs directed by Thomas E. Taylor, a shipping clerk for the Anglo-Confederate Trading Company.
(ON, 8/09, p.11)
1862 May 9, Battle of Ft. Pickens, FL (Pensacola), evacuated by CSA.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1862 May 9, Battle of Farmington, Missouri.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1862 May 9, US Naval Academy was relocated from Annapolis MD to Newport, RI.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1864 May 9, Union General John Sedgwick was shot and killed by a confederate sharpshooter during fighting at Spotsylvania, Va. His last words before getting hit were "From this distance they couldn't hit an elephant."
(AH, 2/03, p.35)
1864 May 9, Battle of Dalton, GA.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1864 May 9, Battle of Cloyd's Mt. and Swift Creek, VA (Drewry’s Bluff, Ft. Darling).
(MC, 5/9/02)
1864 May 9, Austria and Denmark held a ship battle at Helgoland.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1865 May 9, William Smith (1797-1887) was forced out of office as governor of Virginia following the Confederate surrender.
(http://tinyurl.com/lnq3flb)(Econ, 8/17/13, p.28)
1865 May 9, August de Boeck (d.1937), Flemish composer, was born.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_de_Boeck)
1868 May 9, Anton Bruckner's 1st Symphony in C premiered.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1873 May 9, Howard Carter, discoverer of King Tutankhamen's tomb, was born.
(HN, 5/9/98)
1880 May 9, Johann Hermann Berens (54), composer, died.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1882 May 9, Henry J. Kaiser, builder of Liberty Ships for U.S. war effort, was born.
(HN, 5/9/98)
1883 May 9, Spanish philosopher Jose Ortega y Gasset was born in Madrid.
(AP, 5/9/08)
1885 May 9, In the Battle of Batoche, Saskatchewan, Metis rebels ran out of ammunition and resorted to firing pebbles from their guns, until they were forced to retreat.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North-West_Rebellion)
1896 May 9, The 1st horseless carriage show in London featured 10 models.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1899 May 9, A lawn mower was patented.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1907 May 9, Baldur von Schirach, German writer, Nazi Youth leader, convicted war criminal, was born.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1908 May 9, Dirk Fock became governor of Suriname.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1909 May 9, In San Francisco 135 delegates of the anti-Japanese Laundry League took steps at a convention at Golden Gate Hall, 222 Van Ness Ave., to boycott all Japanese enterprises on the Pacific Coast.
(SSFC, 5/10/09, DB p.50)
1913 May 9, The 17th amendment to the Constitution, providing for the election of US senators by popular vote rather than selection by state legislatures, was ratified. [see May 31]
(AP, 5/9/01)
1914 May 9, Carlo Maria Giulini, conductor, was born.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1914 May 9, Clarence Eugene Snow (d.1999), later known as singer Hank Snow (I Went to Your Wedding), was born in Brooklyn, Nova Scotia. His songs included the 1950 hit "I'm Moving On."
(SFC, 12/21/99, p.A27)(MC, 5/9/02)
1914 May 9, Pres. Wilson proclaimed Mother's Day.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1915 May 9, German and French forces fought the Battle of Artois.
(HN, 5/9/98)
1916 May 9, The Sykes-Picot Agreement, a secret understanding between the governments of Britain and France, defined their respective spheres of post-World War I influence and control in the Middle East. It was signed on 16 May 1916. Italian claims were added in 1917. Britain and France carved up the Levant into an assortment of monarchies, mandates and emirates. The agreement enshrined Anglo-French imperialist ambitions at the end of WW II. Syria and Lebanon were put into the French orbit, while Britain claimed Jordan, Iraq, the Gulf states and the Palestinian Mandate. Sir Mark Sykes (d.1919 at age 39) and Francois Picot made the deal. As of 2016 the boundaries of the agreement remained in much of the common border between Syria and Iraq.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sykes%E2%80%93Picot_Agreement)(WSJ, 2/27/00, p.A17)(Econ, 5/7/15, SR p.5)
1918 May 9, Mike Wallace, newscaster (Biography, 60 Minutes), was born in Brookline, Mass.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1918 May 9, Orville Freeman, (Gov-D-Minn.), Sec of Agriculture (1961-69), was born in Minneapolis.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1919 May 9, Arthur English, comedian, actor (Malachi's Cove), was born.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1919 May 9, James Reese Europe (b.1881), jazz band leader and founder of the NYC Clef Club, died after he was stabbed during the intermission of a performance at Mechanic’s Hall in Boston. Europe led the Clef Club Symphony Orchestra before WW I and during the war led a US Army band in the all-black 369th Infantry Regiment, which was attached to the French Army. In 1995 Reid Badger authored “A Life in Ragtime," a biography of Europe.
(WSJ, 11/10/05, p.D7)(www.jass.com/Others/europe.html)
1921 May 9, The play "Sei Personaggi in Cerca d'Autore" (Six Characters in Search of an Author) by Luigi Pirandello (1867-1936) premiered in Rome.
(http://tinyurl.com/qs2xg8)
1925 May 9, Cornerstone for Hebrew University in Jerusalem was laid. It was founded in Jerusalem in part by Aharon and Yocheved Shulov.
(SFC, 6/3/96, p.A19)(MC, 5/9/02)
1926 May 9, Americans Richard Byrd and Floyd Bennett made the first flight over the North Pole. [see 1888-1957, Byrd] Two teams of aviators competed to be the first to fly over the North Pole. American Navy Lt. Cmdr. Richard E. Byrd and pilot Floyd Bennett claimed victory when they circled the North Pole. But even today experts suspect that faulty navigation caused Byrd to miss the North Pole. Later archivists determined that Byrd was probably 150 miles short of the pole. His tri-motor Fokker monoplane named Josephine Ford probably came within 2.25 degrees of the pole.
(HFA, ‘96, p.30)(TMC, 1994, p.1926)(SFC, 5/9/96, p.A-13)(HN, 5/9/98)(HNPD, 5/13/99)
1926 May 9, In San Francisco a bomb exploded in front of the main entrance of Sts. Peter and Paul’s Catholic Church.
(SFC, 11/22/14, p.C1)
1926 May 9, Joseph Malaby Dent (b.1849), British bookbinder turned publisher, died. He began Everyman’s Library in 1906, a collection of low cost classic books. Random House and Knopf debuted a revived line in 1991.
(WSJ, 1/9/07, p.D4)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._M._Dent)
1932 May 9, Piccadilly Circus was lit by electricity.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1933 May 9, Spanish anarchists called for a general strike.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1934 May 9, Alan Bennett, playwright, actor (Secret Policeman's Other Ball, Beyond the Fringe), was born in England.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1934 May 9, The San Francisco waterfront strike began. The Int’l. Longshoremen’s Association (ILA), headed by Australian immigrant Harry Bridges, shut down seaports in Washington, Oregon and California for 3 months. Union workers went on strike for a 6 hour day and a hiring hall to replace the company operated Blue Book Union on the waterfront. Strike breakers were housed in ships to avoid getting beat up by the dock workers. In 1996 David F. Selvin published "A Terrible Anger: The 1934 Waterfront and General Strikes in San Francisco." [see Jul 5]
(SFEC, 12/15/96, BR p.5)(SFEM, 3/2/97, p.21)(SFC, 8/4/97, p.E5)(SFEC, 5/2/99, Z1 p.4)(SFC, 10/4/02, p.A17)
1936 May 9, Albert Finney, actor, was born in Salford, UK. He starred in "Murder on the Orient Express" and "Tom Jones."
(HN, 5/9/99)(MC, 5/9/02)
1936 May 9, Glenda Jackson, actress (Women in Love), was born in Cheshire, England.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1936 May 9, Fascist Italy took Addis Abba and annexed Ethiopia as Benito Mussolini celebrated in Rome.
(AP, 5/9/97)(HN, 5/9/98)
1940 May 9, James L. Brooks, producer, director (Broadcast News, Taxi, Critic), was born.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1940 cMay 9, The Germans made their panzer attack across the Ardennes.
(DrEE, 10/26/96, p.4)
1941 May 9, The German submarine U-110 was captured at sea by the Royal Navy, revealing considerable Enigma material. Enigma was the German machine used to encrypt messages during World War II.
(HN, 5/9/99)(HNQ, 8/30/00)
1942 May 9, John Ashcroft, later Missouri governor (1984-1992) senator (1995-2000) and US Attorney Gen’l (2001-2004), was born in Chicago, Ill.
(USAT, 11/5/04, p.4A)
1943 May 9, The 5th German Panzer army surrendered in Tunisia.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1944 May 9, Russians recaptured Crimea by taking Sevastopol. [see May 6]
(MC, 5/9/02)
1945 May 9, U.S. officials announced that the midnight entertainment curfew was being lifted immediately.
(AP, 5/9/97)
1945 May 9, Czechoslovakia was liberated from Nazi occupation (Nat’l Day). Soviet commander Ivan Stepanovic Konev (1897-1973) led the Red Army forces that liberated large parts of Czechoslovakia.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prague_uprising)(SFC, 8/22/18, p.A3)
1945 May 9, Jersey was liberated from Nazis.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1945 May 9, Norwegian Nazi collaborator Vidkun Quisling was arrested.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1945 May 9, Soviet citizens celebrated their WW II victory in Europe at Red Square. This became an annual holiday to commemorate the 27 million Soviet citizens who died in the war.
(Econ, 5/7/05, p.45)
1946 May 9, Italy’s King Victor Emmanuel III, known as "sciaboletta", or small sabre, due to his stature, abdicated the throne in favor of his son Umberto II in a vain effort to avert a plebiscite to decide whether Italy should remain a monarchy or become a republic. Umberto II (d.1983) ruled for just 26 days before he was sent into exile after a June referendum abolished the monarchy. After the referendum Victor Emmanuel III went into exile in Alexandria, Egypt, where he died the following year.
(SFC, 5/6/97, p.A11)(SFC, 6/3/96, p.A12)(SFC, 1/30/01, p.C2)(Reuters, 12/17/17)
1949 May 9, Billy Joel, Bronx, rock vocalist (Piano man, Capt Jack, Bridge), was born.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1949 May 9, In Monaco Prince Rainier (26) succeeded his grandfather, Prince Louis II.
(SFEC, 3/28/99, p.T3)
1950 May 9, Sam Walton opened a small “Five and Dime" store in Bentonville, Ark. In 1962 he started his Wal-Mart discount chain. [see 1945]
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Walton)
1950 May 9, French foreign minister Robert Schuman proposed to place French and German production of coal and steel under one common High Authority. This organization would be open to participation of Western European countries. His statement became known as the Schuman declaration.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schuman_Declaration)(Econ, 12/10/16, p.74)
1951 May 9, The U.S. Far East Air Force launched a strike on Sinuiju, North Korea, on the Yalu River.
(HN, 5/9/99)
1957 May 9, Ezio F. Pinza, Italian bass (La Scala of Milan, NY Met Opera, Broadway musicals), died.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1957 May 9, Heinrich Campendonk (b.1889), German-born Dutch artist and a member of the Der Blaue Reiter group (1911-1912), died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinrich_Campendonk)
1958 May 9, The film "Vertigo" with James Stewart and Kim Novak was released. It was directed by Alfred Hitchcock and had been shot in the SF Bay Area. "Vertigo" premiered in San Francisco.
(SFEC, 8/11/96, DB, p.39)(AP, 5/9/08)
1959 May 9, In San Francisco four men poured gasoline on the deck of the Rotting Fort Sutter riverboat hulk and ignited it at Aquatic Cove. The men were said to be members of the South End swimming club.
(SFC, 11/21/15, p.C2)
1960 May 9, The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the pill Enovid as safe for birth control use. The pill was made by G.D. Searle and Company of Chicago. It was commissioned by Margaret Sanger and funded by heiress Katharine McCormick. In 2001 Carl Djerassi authored "This Man’s Pill: Reflections on the 50th Birthday of the Pill." Djerassi synthesized a key hormone in the pill in Mexico City in 1951.
(SSFC, 10/21/01, p.R6)(AP, 5/9/00)
1960 May 9, US sent a U-2 over USSR.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1961 May 9, In a speech to the National Association of Broadcasters, Federal Communications Commission chairman Newton N. Minow condemned television programming as a "vast wasteland."
(AP, 5/9/97)
1962 May 9, A laser beam was successfully bounced off Moon for the first time.
(HN, 5/9/99)
1964 May 9, Khrushchev visited Egypt.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1965 May 9, The USSR resumed Victory Day celebrations to commemorate its WW II victory over Nazi Germany.
(Econ., 5/2/15, p.43)
1967 May 9, Marine Sgt. James Neil Tycz (22) and three other US servicemen were killed on Hill 665 near Khe Sanh, Vietnam, close to the Laos border. In 2005 three of the men were buried at Arlington National Cemetery on the 38th anniversary of their deaths.
(AP, 5/8/05)
1970 May 9, Walter Reuther (1907-1970) died in a plane crash. He was a die maker who pioneered the establishment of the United Automobile Workers union and served as the UAW president from 1946 for 24 years.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Reuther)
1971 May 9, In the 23rd Emmy Awards: Jack Klugman won for his role in “The Odd Couple" & Jean Stapleton won for her role in “All in the Family."
(www.imdb.com/Sections/Awards/Emmy_Awards/1971)
1971 May 9, Friends of Earth returned 1500 non-returnable bottles to Schweppes. Friends of Earth became an international network this year with a meeting of representatives from the US, Sweden, the UK and France.
(http://tinyurl.com/6yqzul)(http://tinyurl.com/5zmwfa)
1974 May 9, The House Judiciary Committee opened hearings on whether to recommend the impeachment of President Nixon.
(AP, 5/9/97)(HN, 5/9/98)
1976 May 9, Harvey Fite, professor of art at Bard College, died in Saugerties, NY, while working on his multi-acre Opus 40 landscape sculpture. In 2010 the 37-year project was listed for sale for $3.5 million.
(SFC, 3/22/10, p.A4)
1976 May 9, Ulrike Meinhof (b.1934), co-leader of the Baader-Meinhof gang, committed suicide in German prison.
(SFC, 1/10/01, p.A8)(WSJ, 4/3/09, p.A15)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulrike_Meinhof)
1977 May 9, Pink Floyd opened a 2-night stand at the Oakland Coliseum.
(http://concerts.wolfgangsvault.com/dt/pink-floyd-concert/2923-5541.html)
1977 May 9, James Jones (b.1921), US writer (From Here to Eternity), died. His work included the pre-WW II novel "From Here to Eternity." His daughter later wrote the novel "A Soldier’s Daughter never Cries," which was made into a film with Kris Kristofferson as James Jones.
(www.kirjasto.sci.fi/jjones.htm)(SFEC, 7/12/98, Par p.17)
1978 May 9, "Ain't Misbehavin'" opened at Longacre Theater NYC for 1604 performances.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ain't_Misbehavin')
1978 May 9, The bullet-riddled body of former Italian PM Aldo Moro, who'd been abducted by the Red Brigades, was found in an abandoned automobile in the center of Rome. In 2000 French police arrested Alvaro Loiacono in northern Corsica for his alleged role in the murder.
(AP, 5/9/97)(SFC, 6/3/00, p.A12)
1980 May 9, In Florida 35 motorists were killed when a Liberian-flagged freighter rammed the Sunshine Skyway Bridge over Tampa Bay. The freighter MV Summit Venture collided with a pier (support column) during a blinding thunderstorm, sending over 1200 feet (366m) of the bridge plummeting into Tampa Bay. The collision caused six cars, a truck, and a Greyhound bus to fall 150 feet (46 m) into the water.
(AP, 5/9/97)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunshine_Skyway_Bridge)
1981 May 9, Nelson Algren (72), US writer (Man with the Golden Arm), died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nelson_Algren)
1982 May 9, The musical "Nine," inspired by Federico Fellini's film "Eight and a-Half," opened on Broadway.
(AP, 5/9/07)
1984 May 9, In San Francisco a 5-alarm fire engulfed the structures on Pier 30-32 along the Embarcadero at the foot of Bryant Street. Damages were estimated at $2.5 million.
(SSFC, 5/3/09, DB p.50)(SSFC, 5/10/09, DB p.50)
1985 May 9, Laurent Fabius, head of the French Socialist government, blocked the sale of an AIDS virus detection test made by Abbott Laboratories. Fabius and others were later charged with criminal negligence and manslaughter in the deaths of hundreds who died from transfusions of tainted blood. In 1999 Fabius and Georgina Dufoix were cleared of the charges. Edmond Herve, the health minister under Dufoix, was convicted of negligence in 2 cases.
(SFEC, 2/7/99, p.A2)(SFC, 3/10/99, p.A1)
1986 May 9, In Norway the Conservative-led coalition resigned and Gro Harlem Brundtland (b.1939) returned to power. She immediately appointed 8 women to her 18-member cabinet.
(SFC, 10/24/96, p.C3)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gro_Harlem_Brundtland)
1986 May 9, Tenzing Norgay (b.1914), Tibetan climber (Mount Everest 1953), died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenzing_Norgay)
1987 May 9, All 183 people aboard a Polish jetliner were killed when the plane, bound for New York, crashed and burned in Warsaw after the pilot attempted an emergency return.
(AP, 5/9/97)
1988 May 9, Education Secretary William J. Bennett announced he would leave his position in mid-September.
(AP, 5/9/98)
1989 May 9, President Bush complained that Panama's elections were marred by "massive irregularities," and he called for worldwide pressure on General Manuel Antonio Noriega to step down as military leader.
(AP, 5/9/99)
1989 May 9, VP Quayle said in United Negro College Fund speech: "What a waste it is to lose one's mind" instead of "a mind is terrible thing to waste."
(www.realchange.org/quayle.htm)
1990 May 9, President Bush and congressional leaders announced plans for emergency budget talks, with tax increases and spending cuts on the negotiating table.
(AP, 5/9/00)
1990 May 9, A major cyclone made landfall on Andhra Pradesh, India. It dissipated 2 days later over central India. Strong flooding caused 510 human fatalities, but the effect on agriculture was substantial. More than 100,000 animals were killed,
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1990-1994_North_Indian_Ocean_cyclone_seasons)
1991 May 9, President Bush met at the White House with UN Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar, who relayed Iraq’s rejection of a US-backed proposal for a UN civilian force in northern Iraq.
(AP, 5/9/01)
1991 May 9, William Kennedy Smith was charged with rape, nearly six weeks after Patricia Bowman accused him of attacking her at the Kennedy family estate in West Palm Beach, Florida. He was later acquitted at trial.
(AP, 5/9/01)
1991 May 9, Michael Landon (d.7/1/1991) appeared on Tonight Show to talk about his cancer.
(www.sawilsons.com/highway_to_heaven.htm)
1992 May 9, Final episode of "Golden Girls" aired on NBC-TV.
(www.tv.com/golden-girls/show/131/summary.html)
1992 May 9, President Bush, back in Washington after a visit to riot-torn Los Angeles, promised in a radio speech that he would work with the Democrat-controlled Congress on proposals to help American cities.
(AP, 5/9/97)
1992 May 9, The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) was adopted.
(Econ, 12/5/15, p.76)
1993 May 9, The White House said President Clinton had directed Secretary of State Warren M. Christopher to contact U.S. allies to discuss how they could ensure Serbia's promise to cut supplies to the Bosnian Serbs.
(AP, 5/9/98)
1993 May 9, Major flooding began in the Mississippi Valley. 1700 square miles flooded in Kansas, Illinois, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin. Total damage was later estimated at $20 billion.
(SSFC, 9/4/05, p.A7)
1993 May 9, Paraguay held its 1st presidential and parliamentary elections in 50 years. A democracy was established in Paraguay. Juan Carlos Wasmosy was elected president.
(WSJ, 4/24/96, A1)
1993 May 9, Pope John Paul II made an anti-Mafia speech in Agrigento, Sicily.
(www.cbc.ca/news/obit/pope/timeline.html)
1993 May 9, Penelope Gilliatt [Conner], British author, died.
(www.britannica.com/eb/article-9104302)
1994 May 9, "Passion" opened at Plymouth Theater in NYC for 280 performances.
(www.sjsondheim.com/passion.html)
1994 May 9, Comedian Bobcat Goldthwait set fire to the couch on Tonight Show. A misdemeanor charge soon followed and a fine of $3,888.
(www.courttv.com/news/flashback/May.html)
1994 May 9, Mass murderer Joel Rifkin was found guilty in NY. By January 1996, Rifkin was scheduled to serve at least 183 years for seven slayings, with 10 counts outstanding.
(www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/predators/rifkin/9.html)
1994 May 9, South Africa's newly elected parliament chose Nelson Mandela to be the country's first black president. Mandela promised a South Africa for "all its people, black and white."
(AP, 5/9/99)
1995 May 9, President Clinton arrived in Moscow for a summit with Russian President Boris Yeltsin.
(AP, 5/9/00)
1995 May 9, The United States returned 13 Cuban boat people to their homeland, the first to be sent back under a new policy bitterly protested by Cuban-Americans.
(AP, 5/9/00)
1995 May 9, Kinshasa, capital of Zaire (later Congo), was placed under quarantine after an outbreak of the Ebola virus.
(AP, 5/9/00)
1996 May 9, In dramatic video testimony to a hushed courtroom in Little Rock, Ark., President Clinton insisted he had nothing to do with a $300,000 loan at the heart of the criminal case against his former Whitewater partners.
(AP, 5/9/97)
1996 May 9, In India the Congress Party conceded to electoral losses.
(WSJ, 5/9/96, p.A-1)
1996 May 9, In South Africa the National Party withdrew from a national-unity government with Pres. Mandela’s African National Congress.
(WSJ, 5/10/96, p.A-1)
1996 May 9, In Germany the parliament cleared the way for a high-speed, magnetically levitated train system to link Berlin and Hamburg. The project is estimated to cost $3.7 billion and is to be completed in 2005.
(WSJ, 5/10/96, p.A-6)
1996 May 9, Bacterial meningitis had Infected more than 100,000 people in West Africa over the last 3 months and more than 10,000 died. The epidemic was most intense in the region just south of the Sahara known as the Sahel.
(SFC, 5/9/96, p.C-5)
1997 May 9, During a visit to a rain forest in Costa Rica, President Clinton urged nations not to sacrifice their environment in pursuit of economic gain.
(AP, 5/9/98)
1997 May 9, HUD announced a suit against A. Bruce Rozet, a prominent SF property owner, for kickbacks on inflated management fees. Rozet and partner Deane Earl Ross had holdings that included 21,851 housing units that received annual federal subsidies of $71.6 million.
(SFC, 5/10/97, p.A3)
1997 May 9, The California state Environmental protection Agency issued a report that linked lung cancer to diesel exhaust fumes.
(SFC, 5/10/97, p.A17)
1997 May 9, A pesticide plant burned after an explosion in West Helena, Ark. The chemical Azinphosmethyl was not supposed to have exploded unless it was heated and decomposed. A levee was built to keep poison-laden rainwater from entering the Mississippi River. Three firefighters were killed.
(SFC, 5/10/97, p.A8)
1997 May 9, Australian scientists reported in the journal Radiation Research that prolonged exposure of cellular phone radiation in the 900 megahertz range increased the risk of lymphoma cancer in mice.
(SFC, 5/9/97, p.A1,11)
1997 May 9, In Hong Kong a 3-year-old boy became ill with the flu. He died May 21 and the flu was identified as subtype H5N1, a bird flu.
(SFC, 2/26/01, p.A9)
1997 May 9, In Italy 8 Venetian separatists took over the bell tower at St. Mark’s Square. They were overpowered by police after 7 1/2 hours.
(SFC, 5/10/97, p.A10)
1997 May 9, Marco Ferreri (b.1928), film director, died. His work included “The Wheelchair" (El Cochecit 1960), “Le Lit Conjugal" (The Conjugal Bed 1963), “Dillinger Is Dead" (1969), “La Grande Bouffe" (1973), “La Derniere Femme" (1976), and “Bye Bye Monkey’ (1978).
(SFC, 5/10/97, p.A20)
1997 May 9, In Russia Pres. Yeltsin approved a new security doctrine that stipulated that right to use nuclear weapons if it was attacked.
(SFC, 5/10/97, p.A12)
1998 May 9, In Britain the Israeli transsexual, Dana International (Yaron Cohen), won the annual Eurovision Song Prize with the song “Diva.".
(SFC, 5/11/98, p.D5)(SFEC, 7/20/98, p.A9)
1998 May 9, In France a bomb exploded near the Spanish border at Saint-Pierre d’Irube and caused damage to a bank branch and the City Hall. Basque militants were suspected.
(SFEC, 5/10/98, p.A22)
1998 May 9, In Greece Archbishop Christodoulos was enthroned in Athens as the new head of the Greek Orthodox Church. A recent proposal to force the separation of church and state in Greece was rejected the previous week.
(SFEC, 5/10/98, p.A19)
1998 May 9, Indonesian President Suharto left his troubled country for a summit in Egypt with a warning his army would quell violence over his 32-year rule and the worsening economy.
(AP, 5/9/99)
1998 May 9, The leading Group of Eight industrialized countries imposed an investment ban on Serbia and froze and froze the assets abroad of Serbia and Montenegro due to conditions in Kosovo. The sanctions did not go into effect because Serbia began talks with ethnic Albanians in Kosovo.
(SFEC, 5/10/98, p.A13)(WSJ, 5/19/98, p.A1)
1999 May 9, On Oahu, Hawaii, a landslide at Sacred Falls State Park killed 8 people and injured dozens.
(SFC, 5/11/99, p.A3)(SFC, 5/13/99, p.A5)
1999 May 9, In Louisiana a chartered bus, bound for a Mother's Day gambling excursion, crashed on I-610 in New Orleans and [22] 23 people were killed.
(SFC, 5/10/99, p.A1)(WSJ, 5/10/99, p.A1)(AP, 5/9/00)
1999 May 9, NATO struck artillery and mortar positions along with armored vehicles and Serbian troops in Kosovo.
(SFC, 5/10/99, p.A8)
1999 May 9, China announced that it was breaking off diplomatic contacts with Washington on human rights and arms control along with contacts on weapons proliferation and int'l. security due to the bombing of its embassy in Belgrade. Furious Chinese demonstrators hurled rocks and debris into the U.S. Embassy in a second day of protests against NATO's bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Yugoslavia.
(SFC, 5/10/99, p.A1)(AP, 5/9/00)
1999 May 9, In East Timor violence in Dili between separatists and anti-independence militia began and left 4 people dead over the next 2 days.
(SFC, 5/11/99, p.A12)
2000 May 9, Senator John McCain endorsed Texas Governor George W. Bush for president.
(SFC, 5/10/00, p.A1)
2000 May 9, Former four-term Louisiana Governor Edwin Edwards was convicted of extortion schemes to manipulate the licensing of riverboat casinos. Edwards was sentenced in January, 2001, to ten years in prison and fined a quarter of a million dollars.
(AP, 5/9/01)
2000 May 9, In Kentucky a fire at the Wild Turkey Distillery caused an alcohol runoff into an 8-mile stretch of the Kentucky River and a huge fish kill followed within days.
(SFC, 5/20/00, p.D8)
2000 May 9, It was reported that 10% of the world’s 608 primate species and subspecies on 3 continents were critically imperiled.
(WSJ, 5/9/00, p.A1)
2000 May 9, In the Philippines Reomel Ramones, suspect in the “Love Bug" computer virus case, was released due to lack of evidence. His girlfriend, Irene de Guzman, failed to turn herself in as promised.
(SFC, 5/10/00, p.A12)
2001 May 9, Pres. Bush told Pres. Kostunica of Yugoslavia that aid would depend on cooperation with the Balkan war crimes tribunal.
(SFC, 5/10/01, p.A16)
2001 May 9, It was reported that El Paso Merchant Energy had crimped space in its desert pipeline and forced California power buyers to pay some $3.8 billion in excess over the past year.
(SFC, 5/9/01, p.A7)
2001 May 9, China sought U.S. understanding for its refusal to allow a damaged U.S. Navy spy plane to fly home, saying public sentiment would be outraged if the aircraft flew again over Chinese territory.
(AP, 5/9/02)
2001 May 9, In Split, Croatia, a soccer brawl left 130 people injured including 30 police.
(SFC, 5/11/01, p.D4)
2001 May 9, In Ghana a stampede at a soccer match in Accra killed 126 people. Police had use of tear gas to quell fans which caused panic and the stampede.
(WSJ, 5/10/01, p.A1)(SFC, 5/10/01, p.A16)(AP, 5/9/02)
2001 May 9, In Kashmir Islamic guerrillas, members of the Pakistan based Lashkar-e-Tayyaba group, set off explosives in a paramilitary camp in Magam and killed themselves and 6 civilians.
(SFC, 5/10/01, p.C5)
2001 May 9, In the West Bank 2 Israeli teenagers, Koby Mandell (13) and Yossi Ishran (14), were stoned to death and found in a cave.
(WSJ, 5/10/01, p.A1)(SFC, 5/10/01, p.A16)
2001 May 9, Macedonian forces intensified assaults on suspected ethnic Albanian positions.
(WSJ, 5/10/01, p.A1)
2001 May 9, In Papua New Guinea the Bougainville Provincial Peace Consultative committee adopted a peace plan and opposing factions agreed to lay down their weapons. The agreement entailed the PNG government’s accepting an Autonomous Bougainville Government (ABG) and a referendum on independence to be held between 2015-2020.
(SFC, 5/11/01, p.D8)(Econ, 2/9/08, p.48)(Econ, 4/8/17, p.34)
2001 May 9, In southern Sudan a Red Cross plane was shot and its co-pilot, Dane Ole Friis Eriksen, was killed. The plane managed to land in Kenya.
(SFC, 5/10/01, p.C5)
2002 May 9, Veteran Mexican musician Juan Gabriel won four awards, including top songwriter, at the Billboard Latin Music Awards held in Miami Beach, Florida.
(AP, 5/9/03)
2002 May 9, In Maryland Gov. Parris Glendening declared a moratorium on executions. It was the 2nd state after Illinois to do so because of doubts over its fairness.
(SFC, 5/10/02, p.A5)
2002 May 9, In Bahrain voters cast ballots in elections for 50 municipal seats. Bahraini women were allowed to vote and run for office for the 1st time, though none were elected.
(SFC, 5/10/02, p.A20)
2002 May 9, In India rioting between Hindus and Muslims in Ahmadabad left 9 people dead.
(SFC, 5/10/02, p.A20)
2002 May 9, In Liberia many civilians were reported killed as rebels attacked Gbarnga, the stronghold of Pres. Charles Taylor.
(SFC, 5/10/02, p.A16)
2002 May 9, In Russia a remote-controlled terrorist bomb killed 43 people including 13 children in Kaspiisk, Dagestan.
(SFC, 5/10/02, p.A1)(WSJ, 5/10/02, p.A1)(SFC, 5/11/02, p.A12)(AP, 5/9/03)
2003 May 9, The US and its allies asked the UN Security Council to legitimize their occupation of Iraq and sought permission to use revenue from the world's second-largest oil reserves to rebuild the war-battered country.
(AP, 5/9/03)
2003 May 9, The Republican-led House approved 222-203 a $550 billion tax cut package.
(AP, 5/9/04)
2003 May 9, The Fizzer computer virus began circulating aided by its ability to propagate through the Kazaa file sharing network.
(WSJ, 5/13/03, p.D3)
2003 May 9, In Cleveland, Ohio, Biswanath Halder (62), a camouflage-clad gunman, fired hundreds of rounds as he roamed the halls of the Case Western Univ. Weatherhead School of management, killing Norman Wallace (30), of Youngstown and wounding others. He was arrested after a 7-hour standoff. Halder was later convicted and sentenced to life in prison.
(SFC, 5/10/03, p.A3)(SSFC, 5/11/03, p.A1)(AP, 5/9/08)
2003 May 9, In Tyler, Texas, Deanna LaJune Laney (38) bludgeoned to death her 2 sons Joshua (8) and Luke (6). A toddler was in critical condition. In 2004 a jury found Laney legally insane.
(SFC, 5/13/03, p.A6)(AP, 4/4/04)
2003 May 9, Russell Long (b.1918), U.S. senator from Louisiana, died. He was 1st elected to the senate in 1948 and served for over 32 years.
(HN, 11/3/98)(SFC, 5/10/03, p.A13)
2003 May 9, In northern Iraq 3 U.S. soldiers were killed when their helicopter crashed into the Tigris River.
(AP, 5/9/03)
2003 May 9, Japan launched a rocket carrying the Muses-C probe, which planned to make contact with asteroid 1998 SF36 in June of 2005.
(SFC, 5/10/03, p.A7)
2003 May 9, Spain's highest court barred nearly 1,500 Basque nationalists from running in municipal elections, calling them camouflaged members of the outlawed party Batasuna.
(AP, 5/9/03)
2004 May 9, Alan King, comedian, died in NYC. King was born in Brooklyn as Irwin Alan Kniberg. His books included “Is Salami and Eggs Better than Sex?" (1985).
(SFC, 5/10/04, p.A2)
2004 May 9, The Bangladesh government put thousands of security forces on the streets of Dhaka and nearby Tongi as a strike to protest the killing of Ahsanullah Master, a member of the main opposition Awami League, brought the country to a standstill.
(AP, 5/9/04)
2004 May 9, Canada rallied to beat Sweden for the second straight year in the gold-medal game at the world hockey championships, 5-3.
(AP, 5/9/05)
2004 Mar 9, In Chad 2 days of fighting broke out as the army battled Islamic militants near a remote village on the country's western border with Niger, killing 43 "terrorists" of a group suspected of links with al-Qaida. Chad’s defense minister said hundreds of Arab militiamen from Sudan had raided a village inside Chad, setting off gun battles with the army that killed dozens of fighters.
(AP, 3/12/04)(AP, 5/9/04)
2004 May 9, The Chinese government warned that AIDS is continuing to spread and estimated that there were some 840,000 carriers of the disease.
(SFC, 5/10/04, p.A3)
2004 May 9, Akhmad Kadyrov (52), the Kremlin-backed president of Russia's warring Chechnya region, was killed along with 23 others when an explosion tore through a stadium in Grozny, during Victory Day observances marking the defeat of the Nazis in World War II. Russian Sergei Abramov was named acting president.
(SFC, 5/10/04, p.A1)(SFC, 5/11/04, p.A7)(AP, 5/9/05)
2004 May 9, U.S. and British troops clashed with forces of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr for a second day. 4 Iraqis were killed in an explosion in a Baghdad market. Militants loyal to al-Sadr took over Sadr City.
(AP, 5/9/04)(SFC, 5/10/04, p.A1)(SFC, 5/11/04, p.A9)
2004 May 9, Polish police in Lodz mistakenly opened fire with live ammunition to stop a street fight, killing a 19-year-old man and wounding three others.
(AP, 5/9/04)
2004 May 9, Brenda Fassie (39), South Africa's first black pop star, who gave a voice to disenfranchised blacks at the height of apartheid, died of complications from an asthma attack.
(AP, 5/10/04)
2005 May 9, President Bush, Russian President Vladimir Putin, French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder commemorated the 60th anniversary of the Allied victory over Nazi Germany with a lavish military parade in Moscow. President Bush then traveled to Georgia.
(AP, 5/9/06)
2005 May 9, Actress Renee Zellweger married country music star Kenny Chesney on the island of St. John in the US Virgin Islands. The marriage was annulled just months later.
(AP, 5/9/06)
2005 May 9, Eight-year-old Laura Hobbs and 9-year-old Krystal Tobias were found stabbed to death in Zion, Ill.; Laura's father, Jerry Hobbs III, was later charged with killing the girls.
(AP, 5/9/06)
2005 May 9, In Hingham, Mass., the bodies of two homeless men were found. They had likely been killed the previous April. In 2007 Eric Snow (25) and James Winquist (23) were accused of beating the 2 men to death with baseball bats.
(SFC, 9/5/07, p.A3)
2005 May 9, In Espertantina, Brazil, Mayor Felipe Santolia (32) declared May 9 as an official Orgasm Day.
(AP, 5/9/05)
2005 May 9, In northern China nearly a dozen homes built into hillside caves were buried when the soil above them collapsed, trapping 24 people.
(AP, 5/10/05)
2005 May 9, In Ecuador former President Gustavo Noboa was placed under house arrest on charges he mishandled Ecuador's foreign debt negotiations during his three-year term.
(AP, 5/9/05)
2005 May 9, In Tbilisi Pres. Bush, before a cheering crowd of tens of thousands of people, said that the former Soviet republic of Georgia is proving to the world that determined people can rise up and claim their freedom from oppressive rulers.
(AP, 5/9/05)
2005 May 9, Werner G. Seifert, the long-serving chief executive of the German stock exchange, was ousted by The Children's Investment Fund (TCI), a British hedge fund. In 2006 Seifert authored his account of the affair: “Invasion der Heuschrecken: Intrigen, Machkampfe, Marktmanipulation."
(Econ, 4/8/06, p.64)(Econ, 4/22/06, p.81)
2005 May 9, In Athens, Greece, Christian leaders, theologians and religious activists from around the world gathered for a meeting to assess some of the most serious challenges for the faith, such as growing rifts between churches and African congregations ravaged by AIDS.
(AP, 5/9/05)
2005 May 9, Iran confirmed that it has processed 37 tons of uranium into gas, a key step into the using the material as a fuel for reactors or weapons.
(WSJ, 5/10/05, p.A1)
2005 May 9, PM Ariel Sharon told Israeli media that Israel's evacuation of the Gaza Strip will be put off until mid-August.
(AP, 5/9/05)
2005 May 9, Leftist Mexico City Mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador announced that he will resign on July 31 to run for president.
(AP, 5/9/05)
2005 May 9, Nepali troops killed 26 Maoist rebels who attacked a military base at Bandipur. 3 policemen and one soldier were also killed.
(AP, 5/10/05)
2005 May 9, Palestinian militants and police exchanged gunfire in two West Bank towns Monday, defying Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas' attempts to crack down on lawlessness and put peacemaking with Israel on a more solid footing.
(AP, 5/9/05)
2005 May 9, World leaders joined Russian Pres. Vladimir Putin on Red Square for a lavish military parade celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Allied victory over Nazi Germany.
(AP, 5/9/05)
2006 May 9, The United States bowed to pressure from its allies and agreed to support a new program to temporarily funnel additional aid directly to the Palestinian people.
(AP, 5/10/06)
2006 May 9, Vermont Gov. Jim Douglas signed a health reform package to provide health insurance to as many as 25,000 uninsured residents.
(SFC, 5/10/06, p.A3)
2006 May 9, Cory Anthony Booker (b.1969) was elected the 36th mayor of Newark, New Jersey. The Democratic politician and former Newark Councilman and community activist had run unsuccessfully for mayor in 2002 against longtime incumbent Sharpe James. Booker inherited a $44 million deficit from James, who had boasted of a $30 million surplus.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cory_Booker)
2006 May 9, Gold futures closed above $700 for the 1st time since 1980.
(SFC, 5/10/06, p.C1)(WSJ, 5/10/06, p.C1)
2006 May 9, Tornadoes swept through two North Texas towns after dark, reducing houses to bare concrete slabs in a path of destruction that left three people dead and 10 injured.
(AP, 5/10/06)
2006 May 9, Victor Gonzalez, former butcher, murdered his roofing foreman Wilfredo Pinto. He then dismembered and bagged the body parts and scattered them on NYC street corners. In 2009 Gonzalez was convicted of murder.
(SFC, 4/9/09, p.A4)(www.mahalo.com/Victor_Gonzalez)
2006 May 9, Australia's government unveiled a big-spending "boom budget" that will use a projected 10 billion dollar (7.7 billion US) surplus to finance across-the-board tax cuts and build up the military and national security agencies.
(AP, 5/9/06)
2006 May 9, In Beaconsfield, Australia, Brant Webb and Todd Russell were rescued from a mine more than a half mile underground. A small earthquake on April 25 trapped Webb and Russell in the 4-foot-tall safety cage they were working in under tons of rock. Mourners gathered to bury, Larry Knight, who died in the same rock collapse.
(AP, 5/9/06)
2006 May 9, A plan by Bolivia's leftist government to redistribute up to 54,000 square miles of land to the poor generated protests by leaders in the wealthy province of Santa Cruz, the stronghold of opposition to leftist President Evo Morales.
(AP, 5/10/06)
2006 May 9, Bosnia's war crimes court launched the trial of 11 Bosnian Serbs charged over the 1995 Srebrenica massacre of 8,000 Bosnian Muslims, its first genocide trial since it opened last year.
(Reuters, 5/9/06)
2006 May 9, A land mine killed five Cambodian soldiers and maimed another as they tried to remove it from an area being developed to build a casino.
(AP, 5/10/06)
2006 May 9, The Canadian dollar hit a 28-year high against the US dollar, as the greenback came under broad selling pressure.
(AP, 5/9/06)
2006 May 9, Authorities said Chinese and US had agents seized more than 300 pounds of cocaine in March smuggled from Colombia in the country's largest ever cocaine bust. Nine people involved in a drug ring were arrested in southern China.
(AP, 5/9/06)
2006 May 9, In Egypt Nasser Khamis el-Mallahi, the leader of an al-Qaida-inspired group wanted for last month's bombings in Dahab, was killed in a gunbattle in the mountains of the Sinai Peninsula.
(AP, 5/9/06)
2006 May 9, A German court handed down a life sentence for murder to Armin Meiwes, the German cannibal jailed for killing a man and feeding on his flesh, overturning a previous manslaughter conviction.
(AP, 5/9/06)
2006 May 9, Officials said Iran will supply crude oil and equity investment to build an oil refinery in Indonesia that will supply China and provide Iran with a secure outlet in the face of possible sanctions.
(WSJ, 5/10/06, p.A8)
2006 May 9, Iran's president declared in a letter to President Bush that democracy had failed worldwide and lamented "an ever-increasing global hatred" of the U.S. government. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice swiftly rejected the letter, saying it didn't resolve questions about Tehran's suspect nuclear program.
(AP, 5/9/06)
2006 May 9, In Iraq a suicide truck bomber hit a crowded public market in the northern city of Tal Afar, killing at least 19 people and wounding 35. In Suwayra police recovered the corpses on 11 people, 9 of whom had been beheaded. In Salahuddin province 3 Iraqi detainees were shot and killed by US soldiers near Samarra. On June 19 the US military announced murder charges against 4 US soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division’s 3rd Brigade. The soldiers said they were under orders to kill all military-age males on “Objective Murray." In 2007 Spec. Juston Graber pleaded guilty to reduced charges. On Jan 25, 2007, Pfc. Corey Clagett (22) was sentenced to 18 years in prison for murdering a detainee and taking part in the killing of 2 others. In 2007 Staff Sgt. Ray Girouard was found guilty on 3 counts of negligent homicide. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
(AP, 5/9/06)(SFC, 5/10/06, p.A3)(SFC, 6/20/06, p.A4)(SFC, 7/22/06, p.A3)(SFC, 1/4/07, p.A3)(SFC, 1/26/07, p.A3)(SFC, 3/17/07, p.A3)(AFP, 3/20/07)
2006 May 9, Mexican lawmakers handed federal investigators a box of evidence that they claim shows that two of President Vicente Fox's stepsons were involved in fraud and illicit enrichment through real estate deals.
(AP, 5/9/06)
2006 May 9, In eastern Nepal a school van plunged into a canal, killing at least nine students and leaving several others missing.
(AP, 5/9/06)
2006 May 9, Renewed clashes between Hamas and Fatah militants wounded nine Palestinians, including five children, raising fears that Palestinian territories could erupt in a much wider conflagration.
(AP, 5/9/06)
2006 May 9, Somalian factions said they have agreed to a truce following clashes between Islamic fighters and a warlord alliance that have killed about 60 people.
(WSJ, 5/10/06, p.A1)
2006 May 9, UN members elected 47 countries to a new Human Rights Council. Cuba, Saudi Arabia, China and Russia won seats on the new UN Human Rights Council despite their poor human rights records. Two rights abusers, Iran and Venezuela, were defeated.
(AP, 5/10/06)(SFC, 5/10/06, p.A17)
2007 May 9, The NY Times reported on its Web site that Amgen Inc. and Johnson & Johnson are paying doctors hundreds of millions of dollars every year in return for prescribing anemia drugs which regulators now say may be unsafe at commonly used doses.
(AP, 5/9/07)
2007 May 9, Alfred D. Chandler Jr., American historian, died in Massachusetts. He helped establish the field of business history. His books included “Strategy and Structure: Chapters in the History of the Industrial Revolution" (1962).
(WSJ, 5/12/07, p.A8)(Econ, 5/19/07, p.91)
2007 May 9, Afghan civilians fought with Taliban militants who hit a checkpoint near Sangin, leaving three of the attackers dead. A suicide car bomber killed two Afghans and wounded five when he detonated his car in the eastern Paktika province.
(AP, 5/10/07)
2007 May 9, Police in Brazil and Norway detained at least 25 people in simultaneous raids on suspected criminal gangs, seeking evidence of money laundering.
(AP, 5/9/07)
2007 May 9, Britain’s Home Office, once called "not fit for purpose" by the minister in charge of it, was split into two in a bid to combat illegal immigration, crime and terrorism more effectively. British police arrested four people in connection with the suicide bombings that killed 52 bus and subway passengers in London in 2005.
(AFP, 5/9/07)(AP, 5/9/07)
2007 May 9, Chad pledged to work to demobilize hundreds of child soldiers fighting in the ranks of the government army and rebel groups across the conflict-torn central African country.
(Reuters, 5/9/07)
2007 May 9, China ordered strengthened controls over its food industry after a series of health scares with international repercussions laid bare lax standards. A Beijing court sentenced a man to life in prison for taking nearly $500,000 in bribes while posing as a reporter, and sometimes a top editor, for the Communist Party's official newspaper, the People's Daily.
(AP, 5/9/07)
2007 May 9, East Timor voted for a new president, choosing between a Nobel Prize winner and an ex-freedom fighter in polls critical to maintaining peace a year after the nation was pushed to the brink of civil war.
(AP, 5/9/07)
2007 May 9, In the early hours Internet traffic in Estonia spiked to thousands of times the normal flow. May 10 was heavier still, forcing Estonia’s biggest bank to shut down its online service for more than an hour. Hansabank continued under assault and worked to block access to 300 suspect Internet addresses. On March 12, 2009, Konstantin Goloskokov, an activist with Russia's Nashi youth group and aide to a pro-Kremlin member of parliament, said he had organized a network of sympathizers who bombarded Estonian Internet sites with electronic requests, causing them to crash.
(www.lunchoverip.com/2007/05/estonia_under_c.html)(Reuters, 3/12/09)
2007 May 9, France’s interior minister said violence hit for a third night following the election of conservative Nicolas Sarkozy, with about 200 vehicles torched by vandals and more than 80 people taken in for questioning nationwide.
(AP, 5/9/07)
2007 May 9, In France Nayef al-Shaalan, a Saudi Prince, was sentenced in absentia to 10 years in jail on charges of involvement in a cocaine smuggling gang.
(AP, 5/9/07)
2007 May 9, Hundreds of German police raided the offices and apartments of left-wing activists suspected of planning to disrupt next month's Group of Eight summit, leading security officials to tighten border controls ahead of the gathering.
(AP, 5/9/07)
2007 May 9, US VP Dick Cheney and Iraqi PM Nouri al-Maliki acknowledged problems in the pace of reducing violence in Iraq, but both pledged their governments would continue working together toward a solution. A majority of Iraqi lawmakers endorsed a draft bill calling for a timetable for the withdrawal of foreign troops and demanding a freeze on the number already in the country. A suicide truck bomb ripped through the Interior Ministry headquarters in the Kurdish city of Irbil, killing at least 14 people and wounding dozens. Four Iraqi journalists were killed in a drive-by shooting near the northern oil-rich city of Kirkuk. Gunmen killed two members of the minority Yazidi religious sect and wounded another in a drive-by shooting in Mosul. A car bomb exploded near an Iraqi military checkpoint in Baghdad, killing one civilian and wounding two soldiers. Police found four decapitated heads in the Sabtiyah area north of Baqouba. The body of a security officer was found shot in the head and chest in Diwaniyah. 72 people killed or found dead nationwide.
(AP, 5/9/07)(AP, 5/10/07)
2007 May 9, Japan's Supreme Court rejected compensation claims by Chinese victims of atrocities committed by Japan in the 1930s and 40s, which included the use of biological weapons and a massacre in the city of Nanjing.
(AP, 5/10/07)
2007 May 9, In Mexico gunmen opened fire on a naval commander in the Pacific resort city of Ixtapa and killed his bodyguard. Suspected drug traffickers attacked a military checkpoint in the Pacific resort of Huatulco. One attacker was killed.
(AP, 5/10/07)
2007 May 9, In southern Nigeria gunmen seized four American workers overnight as violence escalated in the petroleum-producing region. South Korea's top builder Daewoo Engineering and Construction welcomed the release of its kidnapped workers in Nigeria and said the incident would not affect its lucrative business in the country.
(AP, 5/9/07)
2007 May 9, Military officials from North and South Korea reached an agreement clearing the way for the first railway journeys across their heavily fortified border for half a century.
(AP, 5/9/07)
2007 May 9, Pakistan and the Czech Republic agreed to boost diplomatic links and promote relations in trade, health and science.
(AP, 5/9/07)
2007 May 9, The Palestinian information minister said Hamas militants have suspended a TV program that featured a Mickey Mouse look-alike urging Palestinian children to fight Israel and work for global Islamic domination. Hamas militants in Palestine had enlisted a figure bearing a strong resemblance to Mickey Mouse to broadcast their message of Islamic domination and armed resistance to their most impressionable audience, children. The show was broadcast as usual two days after the Palestinian information minister said it would be suspended.
(AP, 5/9/07)(AP, 5/11/07)
2007 May 9, In the Philippines Ernie Tatoy (41), an aide to a gubernatorial candidate, was fatally shot and his daughter (13) wounded, as violence in the run-up to next week's local and congressional elections claimed its 100th victim in four months.
(AP, 5/9/07)
2007 May 9, Saudi authorities beheaded an Ethiopian woman convicted of killing an Egyptian man over a dispute. Khadija Bint Ibrahim Moussa was the second woman to be executed this year. The kingdom last beheaded two women in 2005. Beheadings are carried out with a sword in a public square.
(AP, 5/9/07)
2007 May 9, Authorities said Somali security forces are seizing and even burning Muslim women's veils in Mogadishu to stop Islamist insurgents disguising themselves for attacks.
(AP, 5/9/07)
2007 May 9, In northern Syria 7 people were killed and 7 were wounded when a 5-story building collapsed.
(AP, 5/10/07)
2007 May 9, Pope Benedict XVI departed for a 5-day visit to Brazil, as evangelical Christians packed converted storefronts and cavernous churches every Sunday. Benedict gave his first full-fledged news conference since becoming pontiff in 2005. When a reporter pressed Benedict on whether he agreed that Catholic politicians who recently legalized abortion in Mexico City should rightfully be considered excommunicated, the response was "Yes."
(AP, 5/9/07)(AP, 5/10/07)
2007 May 9, Zimbabweans braced for darker days after President Robert Mugabe's government announced 20-hour daily electricity cuts for households across the country.
(AP, 5/9/07)
2007 May 9, A Zimbabwean court authorized the extradition of Briton Simon Mann to Equatorial Guinea on coup plot charges, sweeping aside concerns that he might face torture or invalid justice there.
(AFP, 5/9/07)
2008 May 9, Oil closed at a record high with light, sweet crude settling at $125.96 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
(WSJ, 5/10/08, p.B4)
2008 May 9, In eastern Afghanistan the US-led coalition killed several militants during an operation in Nangarhar province. Villagers claimed that 3 civilians were among those killed.
(AP, 5/10/08)
2008 May 9, The government of Central African Republic (CAR), plagued by unrest since 2005, and the country's main rebel group signed a ceasefire and peace accord to take effect immediately.
(AFP, 5/9/08)
2008 May 9, A newly disclosed set of documents that Colombia's government says were recovered on March 1 from a slain rebel's computers indicate senior Venezuelan officials tried to help arm Colombia's main guerrilla army. The price of crude rose above US$126 a barrel for the first time as investors questioned whether a Wall Street Journal report regarding the documents could lead to a confrontation between Washington and Venezuela.
(AP, 5/10/08)
2008 May 9, Dominica legislators balked at deciding who can marry whom. Chief Charles Williams, the leader of the last remaining pre-Columbian tribe in the eastern Caribbean, recently suggested outlawing marriage to outsiders to save a dwindling indigenous population.
(AP, 5/9/08)
2008 May 9, In Balla, India, 5 armed men killed Sunita (21), 22-weeks pregnant, and her boyfriend, Jasbir Singh (22). They were beaten, dragged into waiting cars, driven away and strangled. Their bodies, half-stripped, were laid out on the dirt outside Sunita's father's house for all to see, a sign that the family's "honor" had been restored by her cold-blooded murder. At the small police post in Balla, a constable later admitted the case was unlikely to ever reach prosecution, with the village putting enormous pressure on the police, and especially Jasbir's family, to quietly drop the case.
(Reuters, 5/16/08)
2008 May 9, Shiite Hezbollah gunmen seized nearly all of the Lebanese capital's Muslim sector from Sunni foes loyal to the US-backed government in the country's worst sectarian clashes since the 15-year civil war.
(AP, 5/9/08)
2008 May 9, Mortar shells fired by militant Hamas killed an Israeli man in an Israeli communal farm near Gaza. Israel fired missiles at two Hamas police station in retaliation and killed five Hamas members.
(AP, 5/10/08)
2008 May 9, Myanmar's junta seized UN aid shipments headed for hungry and homeless survivors of last week's devastating cyclone prompting the world body to suspend further help. According to state media, 23,335 people died and 37,019 are missing from Cyclone Nargis.
(AP, 5/9/08)
2008 May 9, In northwest Pakistan suspected Islamic militants killed a policeman and injured two other police officers in a rocket attack.
(AP, 5/9/08)
2008 May 9, South African President Thabo Mbeki held intensive talks with veteran counterpart Robert Mugabe over Zimbabwe's post-election crisis as doctors reported a dramatic rise in violence.
(AP, 5/9/08)
2008 May 9, A South Korean aid group said North Koreans are dying because of food shortages in rural areas, and a massive famine is just a matter of time.
(AP, 5/9/08)
2008 May 9, In eastern Sri Lanka a bomb hidden in a package exploded in a cafe in the town of Ampara, killing 11 people on the eve local elections.
(AP, 5/10/08)
2008 May 9, In southeast Turkey a land mine explosion killed 3 people and injured 3 others. Air strikes launched in retaliation for a rebel raid killed 19 Kurdish fighters. Six soldiers died in the violence. The PKK denied the military's claims of 19 rebel deaths saying "not a single guerrilla was killed."
(AP, 5/9/08)(AP, 5/10/08)
2009 May 9, Federal drug enforcement agents began seizing about 351 pounds of meth from two houses in Duluth, in suburban Atlanta. The 2-day operation included the arrest of four Mexican nationals, three of whom were in the US illegally. It was the biggest seizure of Mexican crystal methamphetamine ever recorded east of the Mississippi River.
(AP, 5/13/09)
2009 May 9, Chuck Daly (b.1930), NBA basketball coach, died in Florida. He coached the Dream Team to the Olympic gold medal in 1992 after winning back-to-back NBA championships with the Detroit Pistons.
(AP, 5/9/09)
2009 May 9, In Afghanistan 2 police died in a roadside blast in Zabul province.
(AP, 5/10/09)
2009 May 9, Australia and Japan joined the ranks of affected countries with confirmed H1N1 swine flu. New Zealand, the first country in the Asia-Pacific region to confirm cases, reported two more for a total of seven.
(AP, 5/9/09)
2009 May 9, Costa Rica reported the first swine flu death outside North America and the US announced its third death from the virus, while Mexico delayed the reopening of primary schools in some states.
(AP, 5/9/09)
2009 May 9, PM Nouri al-Maliki said Iraq should launch an anti-corruption campaign that would match the fight it has waged against insurgents and militias, amid increasing complaints over criminality in the government.
(AP, 5/9/09)
2009 May 9, In Mexico gunmen killed 9 people in three separate attacks in the western state of Michoacan. 4 horses and a bull were also killed in one of the attacks. The bodies of 4 US citizens (19-23) were found strangled, beaten and stabbed in a van in Tijuana, two days after they reportedly left their Southern California homes for a night at the Mexican clubs.
(AP, 5/11/09)(AP, 5/15/09)
2009 May 9, Pakistani civilians cowered in hospital beds and refugees looted UN supplies, all of them desperate for relief from the fighting that has engulfed a northwestern valley as troops and warplanes struggled to drive out Taliban militants. The army said it killed as many as 55 more Taliban fighters in Swat. A suspected US missile strike killed nine people, mostly foreigners, in another militant stronghold near the Afghan border.
(AP, 5/9/09)
2009 May 9, It was reported that Peru’s police over the last two months have seized some $40 million in near perfect replicas of American dollar bills in $20, $50 and $100 denominations. Most of the fake bills were sent to Ecuador and Panama, which used the greenback as their national currency.
(Econ, 5/9/09, p.40)
2009 May 9, In South Africa Jacob Zuma became president, vowing to work to fulfill the dreams of all South Africans after he overcame corruption and sex scandals to reach the nation's highest office.
(AP, 5/9/09)
2009 May 9, Human Rights Watch accused Sri Lankan forces of repeatedly striking hospitals in the northern war zone with indiscriminate artillery and aerial attacks that have killed scores of people, a charge the military denied. Sri Lankan police arrested three journalists for London-based Channel 4 television news on charges of tarnishing the image of government security forces.
(AP, 5/9/09)
2009 May 9, UN officials said a UN-sponsored treaty to combat highly dangerous chemicals has been expanded beyond the original "dirty dozen" to include nine more substances that are used in pesticides, flame retardants and other products.
(AP, 5/9/09)
2009 May 9, In Venezuela police and soldiers discovered 4,370 pounds (1,983 kilograms) of cocaine during a raid on a ranch in central Miranda state. A Colombian and two Venezuelans were detained.
(AP, 5/11/09)
2010 May 9, US Attorney General Eric Holder said Washington had evidence that Pakistani Taliban were behind a failed car bomb attack in the heart of New York City.
(AFP, 5/9/10)
2010 May 9, Lena Horne (b.1917), jazz singer and actress, died in NYC at age 92. She was known for her plaintive signature song "Stormy Weather" and for her triumph over the bigotry that allowed her to entertain white audiences but not socialize with them. In 1942's "Panama Hattie," her first movie with MGM, she sang Cole Porter's "Just One of Those Things," winning critical acclaim.
(AP, 5/10/10)
2010 May 9, In Afghanistan an insurgent rocket, apparently fired at a NATO convoy, missed its target and hit a civilian vehicle in southern Helmand province killing four civilians. A NATO service members died in an insurgent attack in eastern Afghanistan.
(AP, 5/10/10)
2010 May 9, Australia's government said 5 people are feared dead and 59 people were rescued from a disabled boat carrying suspected asylum-seekers in the Indian Ocean.
(Reuters, 5/9/10)
2010 May 9, European Union leaders agreed to provide $572 billion in new loans and $78 billion under an existing lending program to contain its spreading government debt crisis and keep it from tearing the euro currency apart and derailing the global economic recovery. An IMF contribution of $325 million would raise the amount to over $975 million. The European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) fund was conjured up as a backstop for Eurozone countries should they shut out of bond markets. On Sep 20 it was given a AAA grade by the three major ratings agencies.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Financial_Stability_Facility)(AP, 5/10/10)(SFC, 5/10/10, p.A2)(SFC, 5/11/10, p.D2)(Econ, 9/25/10, p.83)
2010 May 9, A plume of volcanic ash snaked its way through southern France, Switzerland, Italy and Germany, shutting down airports and disrupting flights across Europe.
(AP, 5/9/10)
2010 May 9, In Germany Angela Merkel's center-right coalition lost control of Germany's most populous state, North Rhine-Westphalia, in an election that also erased its majority in the upper house of parliament, making the country harder to run. The defeat followed a stumbling start for Merkel's new national coalition government, which took power in October.
(AP, 5/10/10)
2010 May 9, In Indonesia an earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 7.4 rattled the North Sumatra province, prompting a brief local tsunami watch, knocking out power and damaging some homes.
(AP, 5/9/10)
2010 May 9, Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad opened what is being dubbed as the Middle East's biggest car plant set up by Iranian state-run automobile company Saipa.
(AFP, 5/9/10)
2010 May 9, Iran hanged five Kurdish activists, including one woman, convicted of membership of armed opposition groups and involvement in bombings.
(AP, 5/9/10)
2010 May 9, In Iran Newsweek reporter Maziar Bahari was sentenced in absentia to more than 13 years in prison and 74 lashes, raising concerns about a new government crackdown ahead of the anniversary of disputed presidential elections.
(AP, 5/11/10)
2010 May 9, The second round of Lebanon's municipal elections kicked off in Beirut and the Bekaa region, respectively dominated by PM Saad Hariri and the Shiite party Hezbollah.
(AFP, 5/9/10)
2010 May 9, In Nepal riot police clashed with thousands of communists demonstrating outside the government's main offices in Katmandu, injuring several protesters and police officers.
(AP, 5/9/10)
2010 May 9, In Pakistan 10 people were killed in a US drone attack in North Waziristan. 9 of the 10 were said to be militants.
(AP, 5/9/10)(SFC, 5/10/10, p.A2)
2010 May 9, The Palestinians announced the official start of indirect peace talks with Israel after a 17-month breakdown, while Israel's leader urged a quick transition to face-to-face negotiations to tackle the hardest issues. Israeli-Arab leaders launched a boycott of 1000 companies that produce Jewish settlement-made products, following Palestinian Authority Pres. Abbas’ call for a similar ban by West Bank Arabs.
(AP, 5/9/10)(SSFC, 5/9/10, p.A4)
2011 May 9, Former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and wife Maria Shriver announced their separation, cleaving a sometimes-turbulent 25-year relationship. On May 17 Schwarzenegger acknowledged that he had fathered a child with a member of his household staff over a decade ago.
(AP, 5/10/11)(AP, 5/17/11)
2011 May 9, In New York two small planes collided near New Hampton killing two people. Both planes were registered to men from New Jersey.
(SFC, 5/10/11, p.A6)
2011 May 9, Abu Dhabi donated US$32 million dollars to Queensland to help protect the Australian state from cyclones in the wake of a monster storm that hit in February.
(AFP, 5/9/11)
2011 May 9, In southern Afghanistan 2 NATO service members were killed by roadside bombs.
(AP, 5/10/11)
2011 May 9, In Australia organizers of the Sydney Writers' Festival said Chinese authorities have barred dissident writer Liao Yiwu from traveling to Australia for a festival for "security reasons" and advised him against publishing his works abroad.
(AFP, 5/9/11)
2011 May 9, An Austrian court approved the extradition of former Croatian PM Ivo Sanader to his homeland where he is suspected of corruption while in office.
(AP, 5/9/11)
2011 May 9, Lidia Gueiler (b.1921), former Bolivian president and the second woman to lead a Latin American nation, died. She served as president of Bolivia when she held the post for about eight months in 1979-80 between coup d'etats.
(AP, 5/10/11)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lidia_Gueiler_Tejada)
2011 May 9, In Canada the provincial government of Manitoba said breaking dikes on the flooded Assiniboine River on May 11 at a spot west of Winnipeg will unleash a torrent of water that will swamp 225 square km of land. Manitoba pushed back the timing of the planned break to May 12 afternoon as residents scrambled to protect themselves from a deliberate flood of a vast area of farmland.
(Reuters, 5/10/11)(Reuters, 5/12/11)
2011 May 9, A Chilean government commission approved a $7 billion project to dam, two rivers for electrification, despite much opposition. 5 dams were approved on the Baker and Pascua rivers in Aysen, southern Patagonia.
(SFC, 5/10/11, p.A4)
2011 May 9, Colombia extradited Walid Makled to Venezuela to face drug smuggling and murder charges.
(SFC, 5/10/11, p.A2)
2011 May 9, Egyptian authorities detained 23 more people in connection with recent clashes between Muslims and Christians, including two people suspected of sparking riots over the weekend that left a Cairo church torched and 13 people dead. Hundreds of Christians continued their sit-in outside Egypt's state TV building, saying they fear an Islamic state is in the making.
(AP, 5/9/11)(SFC, 5/10/11, p.A2)
2011 May 9, The Gambian high court granted an application allowing the government to seize millions of dollars worth of Libyan assets "until a government recognized by the United Nations is in place in Libya."
(AFP, 5/9/11)
2011 May 9, A Guatemalan court acquitted former president Alfonso Portillo on charges of embezzling $15 million in defense funds during his 2000-2004 term of office. He remained in prison facing an extradition request from the United States, on charges of embezzling $1.5 million in foreign donations.
(AP, 5/10/11)
2011 May 9, India's top court suspended a ruling that divided between Hindus and Muslims the Babri Mosque holy site in northern India that had been the cause of deadly riots.
(AP, 5/9/11)
2011 May 9, The operator of Japan's ageing Hamaoka nuclear plant, located near a tectonic faultline southwest of Tokyo, said it would temporarily shut down its last two running reactors.
(AP, 5/9/11)
2011 May 9, In Libya NATO planes pounded government weapons depots southeast of the town of Zintan, in a sign of widening conflict in the Western Mountains region as rebels battled to unseat Muammar Gaddafi. Rebels were reported to have found a way to access badly needed cash, selling oil worth $100 million paid for through a Qatari bank in US dollars.
(Reuters, 5/9/11)
2011 May 9, Malaysian police said they have arrested Abdul Majid Kunji Mohamad, a Singaporean businessman, suspected of channeling funds to southern Philippine militants.
(AP, 5/9/11)
2011 May 9, Mexican public defenders said a group of Central American migrants recently rescued from kidnappers in northern Mexico has accused immigration agents of pulling them from a bus and handing them over to criminal gangs. In April the federal government had announced the arrest of six immigration agents in Tamaulipas for "federal crimes."
(AP, 5/10/11)
2011 May 9, Pakistan met US demands for an inquiry into how Osama bin Laden lived for years under the noses of its military but refused to be blamed alone for Al-Qaeda or its mastermind. Pakistan’s spy agency gave the name of the CIA station chief to the Nation, a conservative daily newspaper.
(AFP, 5/9/11)(SFC, 5/10/11, p.A3)
2011 May 9, The Palestinian Authority said it had not been able to pay salaries for the first time since 2007 because of Israel's decision to halt the transfer of funds it collects on its behalf.
(Reuters, 5/9/11)
2011 May 9, A Philippine anti-graft court approved a much-criticized plea bargain deal between prosecutors and former Maj. Gen. Carlos Garcia, who was accused of plunder. Garcia had pleaded guilty to the lesser charges of direct bribery and facilitating money laundering. He was released on bail in December pending sentencing on the lesser charges.
(AP, 5/9/11)
2011 May 9, It was reported that Samoa plans to leap 24 hours into the future, erasing a day and putting a new kink in the Pacific's jagged international date line so that it can be on the same weekday as Australia, New Zealand and eastern Asia.
(AP, 5/9/11)
2011 May 9, Serbia’s High Court ruled that folksinger Svetlana Raznatovic known as Ceca will spend one year under house arrest in exchange for a euro1.5-million ($2.2-million) fine. Raznatovic pleaded guilty on charges that she embezzled about euro4 million in the sale of 10 football players to foreign clubs from a Belgrade team she managed in the early 2000s.
(AP, 5/9/11)
2011 May 9, In Southern Sudan 46 militia were killed in fighting in Kuei Koi. Most of the dead killed over the last 2 days were rebels loyal to Peter Gadet, a formerly high-ranking army officer who launched his own rebel group.
(AP, 5/11/11)(AP, 5/12/11)
2011 May 9, Syrian security forces arrested hundreds of activists and anti-government protesters in house-to-house raids across the country, part of an escalating government crackdown aimed at stamping out the nationwide revolt engulfing the country.
(AP, 5/9/11)
2011 May 9, Thailand's PM Abhisit Vejjajiva announced that he is dissolving the lower house of Parliament to hold early elections July 3, setting off a political battle that could inflame tensions in the divided nation.
(AP, 5/9/11)
2011 May 9, In Turkey a five-day UN-backed conference of the 48-member "least-developed countries" opened to address the problems of the world's poorest countries. The last such conference was hosted by the EU in Brussels in 2001. France hosted the two previous ones in 1990 and 1981.
(AP, 5/9/11)
2011 May 9, In Uganda hundreds of women demonstrated in Kampala over high food prices and brutal tactics employed by police during recent political rallies.
(AP, 5/9/11)
2011 May 9, Yemeni security forces opened fire on demonstrators and launched rocket-propelled grenades at an office building as they cracked down on a protest in the flashpoint city of Taiz in the country's south. Three people were reported killed.
(AP, 5/9/11)
2012 May 9, President Barack Obama announced his support for gay marriage and boosted the hopes of gay rights groups around the world. Opponents denounced his switch as a shameless appeal for votes.
(AP, 5/9/12)
2012 May 9, The United States opened its banking market to China's biggest bank ICBC, for the first time clearing a takeover of a US bank by a Chinese state-controlled company.
(AFP, 5/9/12)
2012 May 9, Bed Bath and Beyond announced a cash deal to buy Cost Plus for $554 million.
(SFC, 5/10/12, p.D1)
2012 May 9, Argentina's senate overwhelmingly approved a "dignified death" law giving terminally ill patients and their families more power to make end-of-life decisions. The law passed by a vote of 55 to zero, with 17 senators declaring themselves absent. It passed the lower house last year.
(AP, 5/10/12)
2012 May 9, Argentina’s senate passed a gender identity law giving people the freedom to change their legal and physical gender identity simply because they want to, without having to undergo judicial, psychiatric and medical procedures beforehand.
(AFP, 5/10/12)
2012 May 9, In Australia 27 protected Little Penguins were found mauled in the Phillip Island Nature Park in Victoria state, a popular tourist attraction. The penguins were believed killed by a dog or a pack of dogs, ironically at Cat Bay.
(AFP, 5/10/12)
2012 May 9, Britain’s Queen Elizabeth unveiled the government’s agenda in her annual Queen‘s Speech.
(SFC, 5/10/12, p.A2)
2012 May 9, A group of London investment bankers won their High Court battle to receive 50 million euros ($65 million) in unpaid bonuses. The bankers claimed that Commerzbank had reneged on a deal to pay bonuses promised to them by Dresdner before the takeover in 2008.
(AFP, 5/9/12)
2012 May 9, British police in Newcastle arrested a suspected spokesman (17) for Team Poison, a hacking group that has claimed responsibility for a series of high-profile cyber-attacks.
(AFP, 5/10/12)
2012 May 9, Nine men in northwest England were sentenced to jail terms for luring girls as young as 13 into sexual encounters using alcohol and drugs. The men, aged between 22 and 59, were all of Pakistani or Afghan origin.
(AP, 5/9/12)
2012 May 9, British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline said it has gone hostile over its $2.6 billion (2.0 billion-euro) takeover bid for US research partner Human Genome Sciences Inc.
(AFP, 5/9/12)
2012 May 9, In CongoDRC the Nord-Kivu governor's office said a 25-ton arms cache has been found on the farm of Bosco Ntaganda, the leader and wanted war criminal of a band of Congolese army mutineers. The farm is located in Masisi," part of Nord-Kivu province, where clashes took place between April 29 and May 4.
(AFP, 5/9/12)
2012 May 9, In India the number of pilots involved in a wildcat strike at national carrier Air India rose to 150, as the walkout forced the cancellation of more international flights.
(AFP, 5/9/12)
2012 May 9, In Indonesia a Russian Sukhoi Superjet 100 crashed into a volcano south of Jakarta during a demonstration flight. All 45 people on board were feared dead. The Superjet, Russia's first new model of passenger jet since the fall of the Soviet Union two decades ago, was in Indonesia as part of a 6-nation tour of Asia aimed at drumming up new customers.
(AFP, 5/9/12)(AP, 5/10/12)
2012 May 9, Japan's government approved a plan to take a controlling stake in the operator of the Fukushima nuclear plant, effectively nationalizing one of the world's largest utilities. Tokyo will inject one trillion yen ($12 billion) as part of a 10-year restructuring aimed at preventing the vast regional power monopoly from going bankrupt.
(AFP, 5/9/12)
2012 May 9, In Mauritania thousands opposition activists staged a march and sit-down protest in Nouakchott, calling for former coup leader Pres. Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz to step down.
(AFP, 5/9/12)
2012 May 9, Mexican police found 18 dismembered bodies inside 2 vans near the Lake Chapala enclave of Ajijic, just south of Guadalajara.
(SFC, 5/10/12, p.A2)Reuters, 6/17/12)
2012 May 9, In northeast Nigeria at least two people were killed in an attack on a market in Maiduguri. The military blamed the radical Boko Haram Islamist sect.
(AP, 5/9/12)
2012 May 9, Palestinian Airlines resumed operations, starting with biweekly flights between El-Arish and Marka Airbase in the Jordanian capital of Amman. The new route means Gazans no longer have to travel to Cairo, some 350 km (215 miles) from their territory, to board planes.
(AFP, 5/27/12)
2012 May 9, In the southern Philippines an inferno at a three-story clothing store killed 17 employees, all women who were sleeping on the top floor in downtown Butuan city.
(AP, 5/9/12)
2012 May 9, In Serbia pro-European Union Democrats and Socialists reached an agreement to form a new coalition government, after an election that indicated the bloc has kept its luster in the Balkans despite the eurozone crisis.
(AP, 5/9/12)
2012 May 9, South African authorities seized assets worth almost $7 million from game farm owner Dawie Groenewald and veterinary surgeons, Karel Toet and Manie Du Plessis, accused of rhino poaching. They were charged with 1,872 counts of racketeering.
(AFP, 5/9/12)
2012 May 9, Spain’s government nationalized Banco Financiero y de Ahorros (BFA), parent of Bankia, the largest property lender in the country.
(Econ, 5/12/12, p.79)
2012 May 9, Sudan offered African tribesmen in the disputed oil-rich region of Abyei its citizenship in an effort to woo them to the north. Abyei's fate was left unresolved when South Sudan split from Sudan. Sudanese armed forces said they have repulsed an attack by Darfur rebels in Gereida (Girayda). 9 soldiers and an unknown number of rebels were reported killed.
(AFP, 5/9/12)(AP, 5/9/12)
2012 May 9, In Syria bullets flying across the Syrian border into Lebanon killed a 70-year-old woman and wounded her daughter. A roadside bomb struck a Syrian military truck, wounding 6 soldiers just seconds after a convoy carrying the head of the UN observer mission passed by.
(AP, 5/9/12)
2012 May 9, In Yemen a girl (13) was raped as she headed to a bakery. She was kidnapped and taken into a car whose owner has been identified. She was brutally raped by the suspects who then deformed her face using sharp tools. Protesters later called for the arrest of 7 escaped suspects.
(AFP, 5/19/12)
2013 May 9, Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn unsealed an indictment accusing Lajud-Pena and 7 other New York suspects of withdrawing $2.8 million in cash from hacked accounts in less than a day. The accused ringleader in the US cell, Alberto Yusi Lajud-Pena, was reportedly killed in the Dominican Republic late last month. US federal prosecutors said a worldwide gang of criminals stole $45 million in a matter of hours by hacking their way into a database of prepaid debit cards and then draining cash machines around the globe. There were two separate attacks, one in December that reaped $5 million worldwide and one in February that snared about $40 million in 10 hours with about 36,000 transactions.
(AP, 5/9/13)
2013 May 9, In southern California Pamela Marie Devitt (63) was fatally mauled by a pack of pit bulls while walking near her home near Palmdale. Authorities were still searching for the dogs as darkness fell. On May 30 Alex Jackson (29), the owner of the dogs, was charged with murder. On Oct 4, 2014, Jackson was sentenced to 15 years to life. The dogs had guarded his pot-growing operation.
(Reuters, 5/9/13)(SFC, 5/11/13, p.A5)(SFC, 5/31/13, p.A12)(SFC, 10/5/14, p.A5)
2013 May 9, In Ohio an amber alert was issued for Blain (14) and Blake Romes (17) of Ottawa. Michael Fay (17) told authorities where the bodies of the two brothers could be found. Murder charges against Fay were announced on May 17.
(SFC, 5/18/13, p.A6)
2013 May 9, In Afghanistan unidentified kidnappers abducted 11 Afghans working in a UN-affiliated landmine clearing program in Nangarhar province.
(AP, 5/11/13)
2013 May 9, A Bangladesh tribunal sentenced the deputy head of Jamaat-e-Islami, Muhammad Kamaruzzaman, to death for crimes against humanity during the 1971 war for independence.
(Econ, 5/11/13, p.55)
2013 May 9, British yacht-racing champion Andrew "Bart" Simpson, who won a gold medal at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, was killed when his vessel capsized in SF Bay during training for the America's Cup.
(Reuters, 5/9/13)
2013 May 9, A federal jury in Texas found Jose Trevino Morales (46) guilty of conspiracy to commit money laundering. His older brothers were said to be leaders of the Zetas, a Nuevo Leon based criminal group that has become the largest in Mexico.
(SFC, 5/9/13, p.A8)
2013 May 9, It was reported that 460 Vietnamese men, women and children have fled to Australian shores so far this year.
(AP, 5/9/13)
2013 May 9, Brazil’s Sao Paulo state Gov. Geraldo Alckmin unveiled a program that will provide about $650 per month in subsidies for the rehabilitation of addicts who voluntarily enroll in the rehab program.
(SFC, 5/10/13, p.A3)
2013 May 9, Chinese officials said film director Zhang Yimou is being investigated for a potential violation of family planning laws. He reportedly has fathered up to 7 children with 4 women.
(SFC, 5/10/13, p.A7)
2013 May 9, Ratings agency Standard & Poor's pushed Egypt's sovereign credit ratings deeper into junk status to CCC+ and C, from B- and B, citing "continued pressure" on foreign reserves.
(AP, 5/9/13)
2013 May 9, In Egypt American national Christopher Stone was attacked and stabbed outside the US Embassy in Cairo. Police arrested the attacker.
(AP, 5/9/13)(SFC, 5/10/13, p.A2)
2013 May 9, Amnesty Int’l. said Eritrea's government has jailed about 10,000 dissidents without charge or trial over the years and described the Horn of Africa nation as one of the world's most repressive states. Among those behind bars are 187 people detained since January.
(AP, 5/9/13)
2013 May 9, Iran's defense minister said Iran has built a new, radar-evading drone that can do surveillance and fire on enemy targets. The Fars news agency quoted Gen. Ahmad Vahidi as saying that the new aircraft — dubbed Epic, or Hemaseh in Farsi — can fly at high altitudes.
(AP, 5/9/13)
2013 May 9, Iraq rejected a key element of an accord to bring an end to a long Kurdish uprising in Turkey — offering refuge to rebel fighters in country's north.
(AP, 5/9/13)
2013 May 9, Northern Ireland officials said they hope to tear down the so-called “peace lines," walls of brick steel and barbed wire that have divided Irish Catholic and British Protestant neighborhoods going back to 1970, within a decade.
(SFC, 5/10/13, p.A3)
2013 May 9, In northern Italy Ottavio Missoni (b.1921), the patriarch of the iconic fashion brand of zigzag-patterned knitwear, died.
(AP, 5/9/13)
2013 May 9, In Mexico Malcolm Shabazz (28), grandson of Malcolm X, was beaten to death in Mexico City during a dispute over a $1200 bar bill. Prosecutors soon arrested two men in connection with the death of Shabazz.
(SSFC, 5/12/13, p.A4)(AP, 5/13/13)
2013 May 9, Nine young defectors from North Korea, ages 15-23, entered Laos through China. The alleged orphans were caught by Laotian authorities on May 16 and soon returned to North Korea. On May 31 the UN human rights chief criticized China and Laos for their actions.
(SFC, 6/1/13, p.A2)
2013 May 9, In Pakistan gunmen attacked an election rally in the southern Punjab province and abducted Ali Haider Gilani, the son of ex-premier Yousuf Raza Gilani. Two guards were killed. A bomb blew up at an election office of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam in the city of Mir Ali in the North Waziristan tribal area. One person was killed and six others wounded.
(AP, 5/9/13)
2013 May 9, Syrian warplanes pounded rebel targets in two northern provinces as President Bashar Assad's troops pushed on with an offensive to reclaim more territory from the opposition.
(AP, 5/9/13)
2013 May 9, Taiwanese fisherman Hung Shih-cheng (65) was shot dead by Philippine coast guard sailors in disputed waters. On May 15 Philippine Pres. Benigno Aquino III apologized to Taiwan for the shooting.
(SFC, 5/11/13, p.A2)(SFC, 5/16/13, p.A2)
2013 May 9, Yemen’s President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi warned that the al-Qaida branch in the country was expanding and using assassinations and abductions of foreigners as a way to challenge the central authority.
(AP, 5/9/13)
2014 May 9, President Barack Obama announced executive orders to increase the use of solar panels, boost energy efficiency in federal buildings and train more people to work in the renewable energy field.
(Reuters, 5/9/14)
2014 May 9, The US Treasury Department said it has reached an information-sharing agreement with Hong Kong under a new law meant to combat offshore tax dodging by Americans.
(Reuters, 5/9/14)
2014 May 9, A US judge struck down Arkansas’s 2004 amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman as unconstitutional. On May 15 Judge Chris Piazza extended his ruling to include all state laws preventing gay couples from marrying. On May 16 the state Supreme Court granted a request to suspend Piazza’s decisions.
(SFC, 5/10/14, p.A10)(SFC, 5/17/14, p.A5)
2014 May 9, In California a judge issued a permanent injunction against two Los Angeles merchants and fined them over $26 million after investigators found over 10,000 counterfeit items at their now defunct T.J. Accessories store.
(SFC, 5/11/14, p.A16)
2014 May 9, Police in Davis, Ca., arrested Rev. Hector Coria (45) for allegedly engaging in a sexual relationship with a teenage girl.
(SFC, 5/12/14, p.A6)
2014 May 9, In Colorado a crude oil train derailed spilling some 6,500 gallons of oil near LaSalle.
(SSFC, 5/11/14, p.A16)
2014 May 9, The Hybrid Remotely Operated Vehicle Nereus, operated by the Massachusetts-based Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, was lost during its dive to the Kermadec Trench off the coast of New Zealand. It was being operated as part of the Hadal Ecosystems Studies (HADES) Program funded by the US National Science Foundation.
(AP, 5/11/14)
2014 May 9, In Virginia a hot air balloon carrying three people crashed and burned after it hit a power line and burst into flames.
(SSFC, 5/11/14, p.A16)
2014 May 9, In western Afghanistan More than 100 Taliban fighters staged a large-scale attack on a remote police checkpoint, wounding 11 police officers in Farah province.
(AP, 5/9/14)
2014 May 9, Bosnia reopened the reconstructed National Library in Sarajevo. It had been destroyed by Serb shelling in 1992.
(SFC, 5/10/14, p.A2)
2014 May 9, British experts arrived in Abuja to help find at least 276 girls being held by Islamic militants in northeastern Nigeria as an international effort began taking hold.
(AP, 5/9/14)
2014 May 9, Cambodian authorities intercepted 3 tons of illegal ivory that was stashed in shipping containers, its largest such seizure.
(AP, 5/9/14)
2014 May 9, Central African Republic rebel Col. Mahamat Deya said a gathering of Muslim fighters has chosen Gen. Joseph Zindeko as the new leader of Seleka.
(SFC, 5/10/14, p.A2)
2014 May 9, Dominican Republic authorities said that they have arrested a citizen of Pakistan and six others accused of running a sophisticated migrant smuggling operation.
(AP, 5/9/14)
2014 May 9, In Germany SLM Solutions, a pioneer in making selective laser melting equipment, i.e. 3D printers, used in factories, began trading on the Frankfurt stock exchange. Here additive manufacturing was used to describe one aspect of 3D printing.
(Econ, 5/3/14, p.56)
2014 May 9, In Iraq army shelling killed 8 civilians and 3 gunmen in the militant-held city of Fallujah.
(AP, 5/10/14)
2014 May 9, In Italy plumber Riccardo Viti (55) confessed to the recent slaying of a prostitute whose body was tied, crucifixion-style, to metal bars in the countryside near Florence. His DNA was being compared to samples from 10 other similar cases.
(AP, 5/9/14)
2014 May 9, Lebanon braced for a summer drought, after a record dry winter exacerbated by a massive influx of Syrian refugees and longstanding water management problems.
(AFP, 5/9/14)
2014 May 9, In Mexico 5 gunmen and one soldier were killed in gunbattles in Reynosa, a city across the border from McAllen, Texas. Galindo Mellado Cruz was one of the 5 gunmen who died in the shootout that also killed a Mexican soldier. Cruz was one of the 30 ex-special forces soldiers who created the Zetas gang to serve as enforcers for the Gulf Cartel before splitting off in a bloody breakup with its former ally.
(AP, 5/9/14)(AP, 5/11/14)
2014 May 9, In New Zealand Malaysian diplomat Mohammed Rizalman Bin Ismail followed a 21-year-old woman, later identified as Tania Billingsley (21) and assaulted her. New Zealand charged the man with assault and attempt to rape, but Malaysia claimed diplomatic immunity and he returned home on May 22. On July 2 Malaysia's foreign ministry said that Muhammad Rizalman would return to New Zealand "to assist in the investigation for the charges".
(AP, 6/30/14)(AP, 7/1/14)(AFP, 7/2/14)(AP, 7/9/14)
2014 May 9, In northeastern Nigeria Islamic extremists blew up a bridge, killed an unknown number of people and abducted the wife and two children of a retired police officer.
(AP, 5/10/14)
2014 May 9, In southern Pakistan a magnitude 5 earthquake rattled several towns in before dawn, killing one person and injuring 70.
(AP, 5/9/14)
2014 May 9, Taliban head Maulana Fazlullah moved against Khan "Sajna" Said after weeks of bloody infighting in the powerful Mehsud tribe that supplies the bulk of the Pakistani Taliban fighters.
(Reuters, 5/10/14)
2014 May 9, Russia’s President Putin watched as about 11,000 Russian troops proudly marched across Red Square in celebration of Victory Day. He then flew to Crimea and extolled its return to Russia before tens of thousands during his first trip there since its annexation.
(AP, 5/9/14)
2014 May 9, Saudi Arabia's health ministry said the death toll from MERS has risen by five to 126 fatalities since the mystery respiratory virus first appeared in the kingdom in 2012.
(AFP, 5/9/14)
2014 May 9, South African police used rubber bullets and stun grenades to disperse demonstrators who burned tires and barricaded roads in the Alexandra township north of Johannesburg in post-election unrest.
(Reuters, 5/10/14)
2014 May 9, South Korean police arrested Kim Han-sik, president of Chonghaejin Marine Co. Ltd. His company owns the Sewol ferry that sank and left more than 300 people dead or missing, and authorities worried he may destroy evidence.
(AP, 5/9/14)
2014 May 9, South Sudanese President Salva Kiir arrived in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to meet rebel leader Riek Machar under growing international pressure for an end to ethnic fighting that has raised fears of genocide. Kiir and Machar, a former vice president, met, shook hands and prayed together, and agreed to order a halt to fighting within 24 hours.
(Reuters, 5/9/14)(AFP, 5/10/14)
2014 May 9, Thai police fired tear gas and water cannons to push back hundreds of protesters trying to force their way into a government compound, the latest indication that ousting the premier will not solve the country's tense political crisis.
(AP, 5/9/14)
2014 May 9, In Ukraine at least 3 people were killed in a clash between government forces and rebels in the eastern city of Mariupol. Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said in a statement that 20 "terrorists" and one police officer were killed in fighting that erupted when 60 gunmen tried to capture the Mariupol police station.
(AP, 5/9/14)
2014 May 9, The UN Security Council ordered sanctions against three Central African Republic leaders, including former president Francois Bozize. The leader of the anti-Balaka militia Levy Yakete and the Seleka militia's number two Nourredine Adam were also targeted.
(AFP, 5/10/14)
2014 May 9, In Yemen 4 soldiers were killed and three wounded in an ambush by suspected al Qaeda fighters in the central province of al-Bayda. Defense minister Muhammad Nasir Ahmad and a number of senior security officials were attacked by gunmen while travelling in their vehicles in Shabwa province. No one was killed or injured. Suspected Al-Qaeda militants attacked the presidential palace in Sanaa, killing 5 guards and triggering a fierce gunfight.
(Reuters, 5/9/14)(AFP, 5/10/14)
2015 May 9, In Mississippi police officers Benjamin Deen (34) and Liquori Tate (25) were shot and taken to a hospital where they were confirmed dead. Brothers Curtis Banks (26) and Marvin Banks (29) were arrested the next day over the killing. Joanie Calloway (22) was also charged with two counts of capital murder. A fourth man, identified as Cornelius Clark, was also arrested in connection with the case and booked on an obstruction of justice charge. Three more people were soon arrested in the case.
(AFP, 5/10/15)(Reuters, 5/11/15)(SSFC, 5/17/15, p.A8)
2015 May 9, In New York state a transformer fire at the Indian Point nuclear power plant caused oil to leak into the Hudson River and forced an automatic shutdown of the plant.
(SFC, 5/11/15, p.A6)
2015 May 9, Afghan officials said the bodies of 18 foreigners have been retrieved from the battlefield around Kunduz city, found to be from Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkey and Chechnya.
(AP, 5/9/15)
2015 May 9, Burundi's leading opposition figure, Agathon Rwasa, registered to run in a coming presidential election against Pierre Nkurunziza, whose quest for a third term has sparked two weeks of protests. The government ordered "insurgents" to end weeks of demonstrations against President Pierre Nkurunziza's third term bid and ordered all barricades to be removed within 48 hours.
(Reuters, 5/9/15)(AFP, 5/9/15)
2015 May 9, Colombia’s Pres. Juan Manuel Santos said he is halting the use of an herbicide that has been a key part of US-financed efforts to wipe out cocaine crops following a WHO decision to classify glyphosate as a carcinogen.
(SSFC, 5/10/15, p.A3)
2015 May 9, Two Colombian soldiers were killed in clashes with leftist ELN rebels in the northeastern town of Cubara. The soldiers were trying to dismantle oil infrastructure that the ELN is building in the area.
(AFP, 5/10/15)
2015 May 9, An Egyptian court sentenced former president Hosni Mubarak and his two sons to three years in jail without parole in the retrial of a corruption case. 3 policemen and a retired officer were shot dead by gunmen in separate incidents in the Sinai peninsula.
(Reuters, 5/9/15)(AFP, 5/9/15)
2015 May 9, In France crowds of protesters, many dressed in Jamaican colors, made their way through the streets of Paris from the Place de la Republique to Bastille calling for the legalization of recreational marijuana use.
(AP, 5/10/15)
2015 May 9, In central India Maoist rebels killed one villager and released around 250 others they had held for a day to stop the construction of a bridge.
(AP, 5/10/15)
2015 May 9, In Iraq a car bomb blast targeting Shiite pilgrims on an annual march to a Baghdad shrine killed at least 7 people and wounded 20. Some 50 inmates and 12 police were killed and 40 inmates escaped in a bloody prison break in Khalis. The Islamic State jihadist group claimed responsibility for both events.
(AFP, 5/9/15)(Reuters, 5/9/15)
2015 May 9, In Iraq and Syria the United States and its allies conducted 28 air strikes against Islamic State with 15 in Syria and 13 in Iraq in the last 24 hours.
(Reuters, 5/9/15)
2015 May 9, In Italy the Venice Biennale contemporary art fair opened for a seven-month run. It was curated by Okwui Enwezor, a Nigerian art critic and museum director.
(AP, 5/9/15)
2015 May 9, In northern Macedonia explosions and heavy gunfire rocked a suburb of Kumanovo as police moved against what authorities described as an "armed group", heightening fears of instability in the ex-Yugoslav republic. 8 police and 14 members a group of ethnic Albanian veterans of insurgencies in ex-Yugoslavia were killed in a day-long gun battle. Over 30 people were arrested.
(Reuters, 5/9/15)(Reuters, 5/10/15)
2015 May 9, In Russia thousands of troops marched across Moscow's Red Square and tanks rumbled through streets to mark the 70th anniversary of victory over Nazi Germany, an event boycotted by Western leaders over Russia's role in the Ukraine crisis.
(Reuters, 5/9/15)
2015 May 9, The Saudi-led coalition struck northern provinces of Yemen in a third consecutive night of heavy air strikes. More than 100 air strikes hit areas of Saada and Hajjah provinces, including the districts of Haradh, Maidi and Bakil al-Mir.
(Reuters, 5/9/15)
2015 May 9, In South Sudan Doctors Without Borders and the International Committee of the Red Cross evacuated their staff from the rebel-held town of Leer in the south of Unity State fearing clashes between the rebels and government troops.
(AP, 5/9/15)
2015 May 9, In southwestern Spain a military transport plane crashed near Seville airport, killing 4 of six Airbus crew members. The Airbus A400M military transport plane had been ordered by Turkey.
(AP, 5/9/15)(Reuters, 5/9/15)(SSFC, 5/10/15, p.A3)
2015 May 9, In Switzerland a gunman (36) killed 3 relatives and a neighbor in a late-night rampage in in Wuerenlingen before turning his weapon on himself.
(Reuters, 5/10/15)(SFC, 5/11/15, p.A2)
2015 May 9, Turkish former president Kenan Evren (97), convicted last year for his key role in the country's bloody 1980 coup, died in Ankara.
(AFP, 5/10/15)
2015 May 9, The UN World Health Organization (WHO) declared Liberia Ebola-free, hailing the "monumental" achievement in the west African country where the virus has killed more than 4,700 people.
(AFP, 5/9/15)
2015 May 9-2015 May 14, In Mexico at least 16 people disappeared during a takeover by vigilantes allegedly linked to a drug gang in Chilapa, Guerrero state. On May 20 federal prosecutors said detectives and experts were being sent to look for the victims.
(AP, 5/21/15)
2016 May 9, The US Justice Dept. sued North Carolina over the state’s new bathroom law requiring transgender people to use restrooms corresponding to the gender on their birth certificates.
(SFC, 5/10/16, p.A6)
2016 May 9, The Chicago Tribune reported that 8 people were killed over Mother’s Day weekend with at least 1,225 people shot in the city this year.
(SFC, 5/10/16, p.A6)
2016 May 9, In Kansas City, Kan., a police detective was fatally shot while helping respond to a report of a suspicious person near a racetrack. Parolee Curtis Ayers (28) was shot and taken into custody after trying to carjack a woman’s vehicle following a police chase.
(SFC, 5/10/16, p.A6)
2016 May 9, An Australian law firm filed a compensation claim against Russia and President Vladimir Putin in the European Court of Human Rights on behalf of families of victims of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17, shot down over Ukraine on July 17, 2014. The application names the Russian Federation and Putin as respondents and seeks $10 million in compensation per passenger.
(Reuters, 5/21/16)
2016 May 9, Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann resigned, citing lack of support for his policies within his own Social Democratic party.
(AP, 5/9/16)
2016 May 9, Belgium called up the military to assist in prisons where guards have been on strike for two weeks over what they say is dangerously low staffing due to budget cuts.
(Reuters, 5/9/16)
2016 May 9, In Brazil acting Speaker Waldir Maranhao annulled last month’s vote on impeaching Pres. Dilma Rousseff.
(SFC, 5/10/16, p.A5)
2016 May 9, In Cambodia two foreigners were among eight people arrested by police on in Phnom Penh for protesting the jailing of a group of human rights workers and an election official on what demonstrators said were politically-motivated charges.
(Reuters, 5/9/16)
2016 May 9, The Republic of Congo called on the EU to recall its ambassador to Brazzaville over EU criticism of President Denis Sassou Nguesso's controversial re-election in March. In its response on May 17, Brussels expressed its unwavering support for EU representative Saskia de Lang.
(AFP, 5/21/16)
2016 May 9, In Egypt a fire in downtown Cairo engulfed a hotel and several nearby buildings killing at least 3 people.
(SFC, 5/10/16, p.A2)
2016 May 9, Greek lawmakers passed unpopular pension and tax reforms that a European official said marked a major advance in negotiations towards unlocking more rescue funds from the country's creditors.
(Reuters, 5/9/16)
2016 May 9, Indonesia’s VP Jusuf Kalla spoke before the Int’l. Summit of the Moderate Islamic Leaders meeting in Jakarta and called on Islamic leaders to spread messages a tolerant Islam to curb extremism.
(SFC, 5/10/16, p.A2)
2016 May 9, In Iraq an evening suicide bombing in a commercial Shiite neighborhood of Baqouba killed at least 13 people.
(AP, 5/10/16)
2016 May 9, Japanese artist Megumi Igarashi (44), who makes objects shaped like her vagina, was convicted after a high-profile obscenity trial. The Tokyo District Court slapped her with a 400,000 yen ($3,700) fine. The court fined her for distributing digital data of her genitals but said her figurines, decorated with fake fur and glitter, could be considered "pop art".
(AFP, 5/9/16)(Reuters, 5/9/16)
2016 May 9, In Nigeria 3 soldiers guarding an oil installation were shot and killed when they came under fierce attack. The Niger Avengers claimed responsibility.
(SFC, 5/12/16, p.A2)
2016 May 9, The Philippines held presidential elections. Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte won the presidential election, defeating his four main rivals by a large margin. Ferdinand Marcos Jr., the son of late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, led in the vice presidential race.
(AP, 5/9/16)(AP, 5/10/16)
2016 May 9, In the Philippines Geraldine Roman won the congressional race in the first district of northern Bataan province becoming the country’s first transgender politician.
(AP, 5/11/16)
2016 May 9, Rwanda said at least 49 people have been killed by landslides in the country's north following heavy rains over the weekend.
(AP, 5/9/16)
2016 May 9, In Somalia Islamic jihadists killed 3 police officers in a bomb and gun attack on a police station in Mogadishu. A suicide car bomber and a gunman also died as well as two civilians.
(AFP, 5/9/16)
2016 May 9, The UN World Food Program said up to 5.3 million people in South Sudan may face a severe food shortages during this year's lean season, nearly double the number in the first three months of the year.
(Reuters, 5/9/16)
2016 May 9, In Syria multiple air raids struck rebel-held areas while shelling hit government-controlled parts of Aleppo, hours before a five-day cease-fire was to expire.
(AP, 5/9/16)
2016 May 9, Thailand media reported that a top Thai medical college has caught students using spy cameras linked to smartwatches to cheat during exams.
(AFP, 5/9/16)
2016 May 9, A Turkish soldier was killed in clashes in Nusaybin, located at the Syrian border and under a round-the-clock curfew since mid-March, as fighting continued in both Nusaybin and Sirnak throughout the day.
(Reuters, 5/9/16)
2017 May 9, President Donald Trump fired FBI Director James Comey. The abrupt firing threw into question the future of the FBI's investigation into the Trump campaign's possible connections to Russia and immediately raised suspicions of an underhanded effort to stymie a probe that has shadowed the administration from the outset.
(AP, 5/10/17)
2017 May 9, The Trump administration said it will arm Syria’s Kurdish fighters “as necessary" to recapture the Islamic State stronghold of Raqqa.
(SFC, 5/10/17, p.A2)
2017 May 9, The US Embassy in Kenya said it has suspended approximately $21 million in assistance to Kenya's ministry of health because of concerns about corruption. Kenya is ranked 145 out of 176 countries in Transparency International's index of the world's most corrupt countries.
(AP, 5/9/17)
2017 May 9, In Florida Spirit Airlines cancelled nine flights blaming the decision on pilots’ failure to show up at Fort Lauderdale.
(SFC, 5/10/17, p.A5)
2017 May 9, In Washington state an underground tunnel containing radioactive waste collapsed at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation. Officials detected no release of radiation and no workers were injured.
(SFC, 5/11/17, p.A5)
2017 May 9, Bulgarian prosecutors charged former Foreign Minister Daniel Mitov with mismanagement that led to state losses of about 500 million levs ($278 million) related to signing contracts in breach of public procurement rules. Mitov said he was surprised with the charges and noted that Bulgarian ministries have been using similar practices for years.
(Reuters, 5/9/17)
2017 May 9, In Canada the city of Montreal extended its state of emergency as 171 municipalities fought flooding.
(Reuters, 5/9/17)
2017 May 9, In Canada the Liberals of British Columbia, led by Christy Clark, won their fifth straight election, but fell short of a majority.
(Econ 7/8/17, p.32)
2017 May 9, China released prominent human rights lawyers Xie Yang and Li Heping. Both were detained nearly two years ago and released after they allegedly confessed in court to collaborating with foreign organizations and media to smear and subvert Communist Party rule.
(AP, 5/10/17)
2017 May 9, Qian Qichen (90), former Chinese vice premier and top diplomat, died in Beijing. He oversaw the 1997 handover of Hong Kong from Britain to China.
(AP, 5/10/17)
2017 May 9, In eastern China eleven young children, five South Korean and six Chinese, were killed along with their driver when their bus crashed and burst in to flames in a tunnel in Shandong province.
(Reuters, 5/9/17)
2017 May 9, Democratic Republic of Congo President Joseph Kabila named a new transitional government, defying opponents who rejected the cabinet, saying it violated a previous agreement.
(Reuters, 5/9/17)
2017 May 9, In the French Alps an avalanche swept away a group of cross-country skiers, killing three people.
(Reuters, 5/9/17)
2017 May 9, In Indonesia Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, Jakarta's Christian governor, was sentenced to two years in jail for blasphemy, a harsher-than-expected ruling critics fear will embolden hardline Islamist forces to challenge secularism in Indonesia.
(Reuters, 5/9/17)
2017 May 9, In Iraq corpses of Islamic State militants (IS) littered the streets of a district in Mosul as US-backed Iraqi forces chipped away at the last remaining handful of districts under the jihadists' control. A spokesman for the Emergency Response Division said 250 Islamic State members had been killed in Harmat district over the past 5 days.
(Reuters, 5/9/17)
2017 May 9, Kashmiri militants kidnapped an Indian army officer (23) who was visiting home in the disputed Himalayan region. His bullet-riddled body was recovered the next morning.
(AP, 5/10/17)
2017 May 9, More than 880 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel remained on a hunger strike, the 23rd day of their protest.
(AP, 5/9/17)
2017 May 9, In Libya forces loyal to Field Marshal Khalifa Hifter said they have lost 17 fighters in their two-day push to clear central parts of Benghazi from Islamists and their allies.
(AP, 5/9/17)
2017 May 9, A Dutch appeals court ruled that Russian authorities knowingly plunged oil giant Yukos into bankruptcy in 2006 by ordering it to pay huge tax bills, the latest ruling in a long-running battle over the assets of a Dutch Yukos subsidiary.
(AP, 5/9/17)
2017 May 9, Norway’s second-largest supermarket chain, Coop Norway, said it has launched reverse vending machines that give customers discount coupons for new batteries when they deposit old ones for recycling.
(SFC, 5/10/17, p.A2)
2017 May 9, In South Africa violent protests have erupted in Johannesburg for a second day, with police firing rubber bullets at demonstrators, who blocked roads and burned tires, demanded housing and other government services.
(AP, 5/9/17)
2017 May 9, South Koreans elected left-leaning former human rights lawyer Moon Jae-In in a presidential election held after a scandal led to the impeachment of the country's previous leader.
(AFP, 5/9/17)
2017 May 9, Spanish officials said about 300 migrants tried to scramble across the 6-meter (20-foot) border fence separating the North African enclave of Melilla from Morocco, with many throwing stones and other objects at police.
(AP, 5/9/17)
2017 May 9, In Switzerland Europe’s top physics lab CERN launched Linac 4, its newest particle accelerator, billed as a key step towards future experiments that could unlock the universe's greatest mysteries.
(AFP, 5/9/17)
2017 May 9, Syrian government forces and US-backed opposition fighters clashed in a remote desert area near the borders with Iraq and Jordan. About 7,400 troops from more than 20 nations were said to be participating. Syrian government warplanes struck rebel outposts near the Jordanian border.
(AP, 5/9/17)(Reuters, 5/9/17)
2017 May 9, In Syria warplanes late today, thought to belong to the US-led military coalition against Islamic State, killed at least 11 people, including four children, in al-Salihiya village north of Raqqa.
(Reuters, 5/10/17)
2017 May 9, In southern Thailand Muslim militants fighting for a separate state were suspected of carrying out a car-bomb attack outside a supermarket in the city of Pattani that wounded 60 people.
(Reuters, 5/9/17)
2017 May 9, The World Health Organization (WHO) said thirty-four people have died in Yemen of cholera-related causes and more than 2,000 have been taken ill, and warned that the outbreak could spiral out of control.
(AFP, 5/9/17)
2018 May 9, It was reported that Michael Cohen, Pres. Trump's personal lawyer and longtime fixer, used the shell company Essential Consultants LLC, for an array of business activities starting shortly before Pres. Trump was elected and continuing to January, 2018. Transactions totaling at least $4.4 million included $130,000 paid to porn star Stephanie Clifford and some $500,000 from Columbus Nova, a New York investment firm controlled by Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg. Novartis said it paid $1.2 million to Essential Consultants. Similar payments were made by AT&T and Korea Aerospace Industries.
(SFC, 5/9/18, p.A5)(SFC, 5/10/18, p.A6)
2018 May 9, California regulators unanimously approved requiring solar arrays on virtually all new single-family homes built in the state starting in 2020.
(SFC, 5/10/18, p.C1)
2018 May 9, Delaware Gov. John Carney signed a measure into law making his state the first in the US to ban marriage for anyone under 18.
(http://tinyurl.com/ybzkl7mx)(SFC, 5/12/18, p.A5)
2018 May 9, Ohio's Rep. Gov. John Kasich signed an executive order authorizing autonomous vehicle research to take place across the state.
(SFC, 5/10/18, p.A4)
2018 May 9, Google announced that it is suspending all advertising connected to Ireland's abortion referendum as part of moves to protect "election integrity".
(AP, 5/9/18)
2018 May 9, In Afghanistan suicide bombers struck two police stations in Kabul, killing at least seven people and wounding 17. In the north the Taliban advanced on a compound in the Bilchirgh district of Faryab province. The Taliban also attacked a school being used as a voter registration center, killing eight soldiers in Badghis province in the latest in a series of attacks targeting preparations for elections later this year. In eastern Nangarhar province, a rocket fired by insurgents struck a market, killing two people and wounding 19. Another four other civilians were killed and 15 wounded in a gunbattle in the same district. Two insurgents were killed and seven wounded.
(AP, 5/9/18)
2018 May 9, Britain's foreign secretary Boris Johnson said the country "has no intention of walking away" from the Iran nuclear agreement despite the United States' decision to pull out.
(AP, 5/9/18)
2018 May 9, China expressed regret over President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw the US from the Iran nuclear deal and said it remains committed to the landmark pact.
(AP, 5/9/18)
2018 May 9, China's GCL Group signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Egypt's ministry of military production to build a solar panel facility at a cost of up to $2 billion.
(Reuters, 5/10/18)
2018 May 9, Chinese tech giant, telecommunications equipment and smartphone maker ZTE, said that it's ceasing "major operations" after the US last month banned it from doing business with American suppliers for seven years as a punishment for illegal exports.
(AP, 5/10/18)
2018 May 9, The Indian Ocean state of Comoros hit back against France for suspending visas for its citizens, a further escalation in a diplomatic row linked to immigration and territorial disputes. The French embassy in Moroni, the capital of Comoros, decided on May 4 to suspend issuing visas to all Comorian nationals. It had earlier suspended visas for officials and services, after the Comorian government refused to receive, in its three islands, Comorians deported from Mayotte. In March 2009, Mayotte's people voted overwhelmingly to become a full-fledged part of France.
(Reuters, 5/9/18)
2018 May 9, In Dubai the sixth edition of Arab Fashion Week opened with fallen angels, Rococo corsets, cupcake headbands and nary a kaftan in sight.
(AFP, 5/10/18)
2018 May 9, Chancellor Angela Merkel's cabinet agreed on rules to allow a limited number of family members to join migrants in Germany, ending a long-standing dispute between the parties in her two-month old right-left coalition.
(Reuters, 5/9/18)
2018 May 9, Germany's foreign minister vowed to work to preserve the Iran nuclear deal and prevent an "uncontrolled escalation" of tensions in the Middle East. The Federation of German Industries, or BDI, said it rejects "the extraterritorial application of sanctions" and called upon the EU to find a solution to protect European companies from the "unlawful and unilateral" application of US sanctions.
(AP, 5/9/18)
2018 May 9, In northeastern India a homemade bomb exploded, killing two paramilitary soldiers and wounding two civilians in Manipur state.
(AP, 5/9/18)
2018 May 9, In northern India a powerful dust and rain storm demolished homes and downed power lines late today, killing at least 14 people in Uttar Pradesh state.
(AP, 5/10/18)
2018 May 9, It was reported that Walmart is breaking into India's massive and growing consumer market with its biggest acquisition yet, spending $16 billion for a controlling stake in the online retailer Flipkart, whose delivery drivers, with their motorcycles and oversized backpacks, have become ubiquitous across the nation of 1.3 billion people.
(AP, 5/9/18)
2018 May 9, The Iranian rial plunged to a record low against the US dollar in the free market. The head of Iran's Revolutionary Guard welcomed President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw the US from the 2015 nuclear deal, saying it was clear from the beginning that the Americans were "not trustworthy" and that the move would have no impact.
(Reuters, 5/9/18)(AP, 5/9/18)
2018 May 9, Iraqi state TV announced the capture of five Islamic State commanders.
(Reuters, 5/10/18)
2018 May 9, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu traveled to Moscow to meet with President Vladimir Putin and discuss military coordination amid new strikes in Syria blamed on Israel.
(AP, 5/9/18)
2018 May 9, In Japan leaders from China, Japan and South Korea held their first three-way summit in more than two years, demonstrating a spirt of cooperation despite continuing differences over North Korea and other issues. Japan and China agreed on to set up a security hotline to defuse any maritime confrontations between the two Asian powers.
(AP, 5/9/18)(Reuters, 5/9/18)
2018 May 9, In Kenya the Patel Dam, dam burst its banks in the Rift Valley late today, killing at least 45 people and forcing hundreds from their homes. At least 20 of the dead were children. 40 people remained missing.
(AP, 5/10/18)(Reuters, 5/10/18)(AFP, 5/11/18)
2018 May 9, Malaysians flocked to vote in a fiercely contested election pitting an opposition led by former authoritarian leader Mahathir Mohamad against the ruling coalition of Prime Minister Najib Razak. Mahathir Mohamad (92) led opposition parties to their first election victory in six decades.
(AP, 5/9/18)(AP, 5/10/18)
2018 May 9, In Montenegro hundreds protested in Podgorica after unknown assailants shot and wounded Olivera Lakic, a prominent crime and corruption reporter a day earlier.
(AP, 5/9/18)
2018 May 9, Myanmar police Captain Moe Yan Naing (47), now serving a one year prison sentence, gave more details to a court about how he says two Reuters reporters were framed by police.
(Reuters, 5/9/18)
2018 May 9, North Korea released three American detainees and handed them over to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, clearing a major obstacle to an unprecedented summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
(Reuters, 5/9/18)
2018 May 9, Philippine authorities detained Tawanda Chandiwana, a Zimbabwe missionary, as he attended a seminar on the southern island of Mindanao. He had been briefly detained and questioned in February, along with two other missionaries from the United Methodist Church, when they were stopped at a police checkpoint in Mindanao while participating in a human rights fact-finding mission sponsored by a left-wing group.
(Reuters, 6/26/18)
2018 May 9, Russia celebrated the Soviet Union's World War Two victory over the Nazis. The Moscow parade was one of many which took place across Russia involving a total of 55,000 troops, 1,200 weapons systems and 150 war planes in 28 Russian cities.
(Reuters, 5/9/18)
2018 May 9, Russian President Vladimir Putin held a brief meeting in Moscow with Nechirvan Barzani the prime minister of Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdistan region.
(Reuters, 5/9/18)
2018 May 9, In Scotland Frightened Rabbit singer Scott Hutchison (36) was reported missing after leaving a hotel in South Queensferry, near Edinburgh. On May 11 police confirmed that a body discovered at a Scottish marina is that of Scott Hutchison.
(AP, 5/11/18)
2018 May 9, Serbia banned a Kosovo team from taking part in a karate competition it is hosting, over a political dispute stemming from the former province's declaration of independence.
(AP, 5/9/18)
2018 May 9, Somalia's al Shabaab insurgents in Sablale town in the Lower Shabelle region stoned to death a woman it accused of having multiple husbands. Shukri Abdullahi Warsame (30) had allegedly married 11 men in a row without seeking a divorce.
(Reuters, 5/9/18)(SFC, 5/10/18, p.A2)
2018 May 9, In South Africa protesters hurled petrol bombs at three Zambian-registered trucks late today, leaving one of the drivers with life-threatening injuries, the second attack on foreign vehicles there in two weeks.
(Reuters, 5/10/18)
2018 May 9, Spain's executive said it would block Carles Puigdemont from being re-appointed president of Catalonia, putting pressure on the separatist camp to pick another candidate and form a regional government after months of limbo.
(AFP, 5/9/18)
2018 May 9, In Syria rocket fire in Damascus killed four people and wounded dozens of others. The attacks came as regime forces battled to oust Islamic State group jihadists from the southern districts of the capital, including Yarmuk and the adjacent Hajar al-Aswad neighborhood.
(AFP, 5/9/18)
2018 May 9, The UN Security Council urged Myanmar's government to fulfill its commitment to hold perpetrators of violence against Rohingya Muslims accountable and to address the root causes that led about 700,000 members of the ethnic minority to flee to Bangladesh.
(AP, 5/10/18)
2018 May 9, An international report was released into the situation of the Roma people in the Western Balkans. It showed that up to 93 percent of Roma women are unemployed, with one-third of all Roma families there going to bed hungry. The study covered Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Kosovo.
(AP, 5/9/18)
2018 May 9, Vietnam requested that China withdraw its military equipment from South China Sea outposts, saying its deployment seriously violates Hanoi's sovereignty, increases tension and destabilizes the region.
(AP, 5/9/18)
2018 May 9, A court in Vietnam convicted and sentenced Facebook user Bui Hieu Vo (56) to 4 ½ years in jail for posts that the court said distorted the political situation in the country and opposed the ruling Communist Party and the state.
(AP, 5/10/18)
2018 May 9, Yemen's Houthis fired a salvo of ballistic missiles at Saudi Arabia's capital, an attack Saudi authorities said they intercepted in the skies over Riyadh.
(Reuters, 5/9/18)
2019 May 9, US Pres. Donald Trump urged Iran's leadership to sit down and talk with him about giving up Tehran's nuclear program and said he could not rule out a military confrontation given the heightened tensions between the two countries.
(Reuters, 5/10/19)
2019 May 9, The United States announced a highly unusual seizure of a huge North Korean cargo ship involved in banned coal transports.
(AP, 5/10/19)
2019 May 9, Former military intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning was freed from a US jail after two months in custody. She is expected to appear before a different grand jury, on Thursday, May 16.
(AFP, 5/10/19)
2019 May 9, US federal prosecutors in Virginia arrested Daniel Everette Hale (31), a former US intelligence analyst, for providing classified information to a reporter under the Espionage Act and with theft of government property.
(SFC, 5/10/19, p.A5)
2019 May 9, US and Chinese negotiators resumed trade talks just hours before the United States was set to raise tariffs on Chinese imports in a dramatic escalation of tensions between the world's two biggest economies.
(AP, 5/09/19)
2019 May 9, The US called on North Korea to "dismantle all political prison camps" and release all political prisoners, who it said numbered between 80,000 and 120,000.
(Reuters, 5/09/19)
2019 May 9, In NYC German con artist Anna Sorokin, a 28-year-old who was born in Russia, was sentenced to four to 12 years in prison for swindling banks, hotels and wealthy New Yorkers. She had used a fake identity as a German heiress named Anna Delvey to scam victims out of more than $200,000.
(AP, 5/10/19)
2019 May 9, In Argentina civil servant Marcelo Yadon (58) was shot five times at close range as he walked in a square in front of the National Congress this morning with his childhood friend and lawmaker Hector Olivares )61). Two men were arrested the next day on suspicion of murder. Press reports later claimed the motive was related to a relationship between Yadon, who was married with children, and the 24-year-old daughter of one of the shooters.
(AP, 5/10/19)
2019 May 9, In Australia three Sunni Muslim men were convicted of engaging in a terror act by burning down a Shiite mosque in the city of Melbourne on Dec. 11, 2016.
(AP, 5/09/19)
2019 May 9, Australia's central bank took responsibility for typos on 46 million bank notes after a radio station posted an image of the microscopic error on social media. The word “responsibility" appears three times on the note and the third "i'' is omitted every time.
(AP, 5/09/19)
2019 May 9, The BBC fired Danny Baker, a broadcaster with BBC Radio 5 Live, who tweeted an image of a chimpanzee dressed in clothes below the caption "Royal Baby leaves hospital".
(Reuters, 5/09/19)
2019 May 9, Ambani's Reliance Brands announced late today that it had bought the 259-year-old British toy store Hamleys from the Hong Kong-listed Chinese fashion conglomerate C. Banner International Holdings for $88 million. India-based Ambani is currently engaged in fierce competition with Amazon and Walmart in an ongoing race to dominate India's retail market.
(AFP, 5/10/19)
2019 May 9, China vowed to defend its own interests and retaliate if President Donald Trump goes ahead with more tariff hikes in a dispute over trade and technology.
(AP, 5/09/19)
2019 May 9, EU leaders, minus Britain, meeting in Sibiu, Romania, committed to stick together "through thick and thin" to remain a key player in the world despite myriad problems facing the bloc.
(AP, 5/09/19)
2019 May 9, French unions held strikes and protests against 120,000 job cuts and other deep changes to France's huge public sector by Pres. Emmanuel Macron's government.
(AP, 5/09/19)
2019 May 9, A French human rights group sought to block the loading of weapons onto a Saudi Arabian vessel that is due to dock in northern France later in the day, arguing the cargo contravened an international arms treaty.
(Reuters, 5/09/19)
2019 May 9, In Iraq gunmen attacked a grain silo in the northern town of Shirqat, killing a guard and setting fire to a vehicle. A suicide bombing killed 8 people at the Jamila marketplace in Baghdad's sprawling Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City. The Islamic State soon claimed responsibility.
(Reuters, 5/09/19)(AP, 5/10/19)
2019 May 9, In southern Libya three people were killed in a suspected hit-and-run attack by Islamic State militants on the town of Ghadwa.
(AP, 5/09/19)
2019 May 9, A Montenegro court sentenced 13 people, including two Russian secret service operatives, to up to 15 years in prison after they were convicted of plotting to overthrow the Balkan country's government on Oct. 16, 2016, and prevent it from joining NATO. The two Russians, identified as Eduard Shishmakov and Vladimir Popov, were tried in absentia.
(AP, 5/09/19)
2019 May 9, In Northern Ireland four males, aged 15, 18, 38 and 51, were arrested under terrorism laws in connection with the killing of journalist Lyra McKee in Londonderry last month.
(AFP, 5/09/19)
2019 May 9, North Korea fired two suspected short-range missiles toward the sea, its second weapons launch in five days and a possible warning that nuclear disarmament talks with Washington could be in danger.
(AP, 5/09/19)
2019 May 9, In Pakistan three soldiers and two coalminers were killed in attacks in the town of Hernai in volatile southwestern Baluchistan province.
(AP, 5/10/19)
2019 May 9, Russian President Vladimir Putin told the 74th annual military Victory Day parade in Red Square that the country will continue to strengthen its armed forces.
(AP, 5/09/19)
2019 May 9, Russia’s government agency for aerial protection of forests said wildfires are blazing on about 58,000 hectares (145,000 acres) throughout the eastern reaches.
(AP, 5/09/19)
2019 May 9, Syrian government troops captured the northwestern village of Qalaat al-Madiq, known for its medieval fortress, and two smaller nearby villages as they moved deeper toward Idlib province, the last major rebel stronghold.
(AP, 5/09/19)
2019 May 9, Taiwan broke ground on a shipyard to produce submarines to counter China's growing military threat.
(AP, 5/09/19)
2019 May 9, Pope Francis issued a new church law about reporting clergy sex abuse and cover-up, outlining investigation procedures when the accused is a bishop or religious superior.
(AP, 5/09/19)
2019 May 9, In Yemen grain silos outside the port of Hodeida, vital to UN plans to feed millions of needy, were hit by gunfire just days after aid staff gained access. The silos, controlled by troops of a Saudi-led coalition, are close to front line with Huthi rebels who control the port and much of the city of Hodeida.
(AFP, 5/10/19)
Go to http://www.timelinesdb.com
Go to May 10
Return to home
May 9 is Europe Day.
(Econ, 7/28/07, p.55)
For Asian History: http://www.asiaobserver.org/2019/05/9
1079 May 9, Stanislaus, Polish bishop of Cracow, was murdered.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1265 May 9, Dante Alighieri, Italian poet (Divine Comedy), was born.
(WUD, 1994 p.367)(MC, 5/9/02)
1429 May 9, Joan of Arc defeated the besieging English at Orleans.
(HN, 5/9/98)
1443 May 9, Niccolo d'Albergati, Italian cardinal, died.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1460 May 9, In the Netherlands the courtyard Episcopal palace at Atrecht had witch burnings.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1474 May 9, Peter van Hagenbach, Elzasser knight, land guardian, was beheaded.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1502 May 9, Christopher Columbus left Cadiz, Spain, on his fourth and final trip to the Western Hemisphere. He explored Central America, and discovered St. Lucia, the Isthmus of Panama, Honduras, and Costa Rica. Columbus left 52 Jewish families in Costa Rica. [see May 11]
(TL-MB, 1988, p.8)(AP, 5/9/97)(WSJ, 6/15/00, p.A1)
1588 May 9, Duke Henri de Guise's troops occupied Paris.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1657 May 9, William Bradford, Governor (Plymouth Colony, Mass), died.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1667 May 9, Marie Louise de Gonzague-Nevers, French Queen of Poland (1645-48), died.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1671 May 9, Colonel Thomas Blood (1618-1680), Irish adventurer, attempted to steal the Crown Jewels from the Tower of London.
(MC, 5/9/02)(Reuters, 8/24/01)
1707 May 9, Dietrich Buxtehude (~69), German organist, composer, died.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1738 May 9, John Pindar, [Peter], physician, poet, was born.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1740 May 9, Giovanni Paisiello, Italian composer (Barber of Seville), was born.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1745 May 9, Tomaso Antonio Vitali (82), composer, died.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1753 May 9, King Louis XV disbanded the French parliament.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1754 May 9, The first American newspaper cartoon was published. The illustration in Benjamin Franklin's Pennsylvania Gazette showed a snake cut into sections, each part representing an American colony; the caption read, "Join or die."
(AP, 5/9/97)(HN, 5/9/98)
1783 May 9, Alexander Ross, pioneer, fur trader, was born in Canada.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1785 May 9, James Pollard Espy, meteorologist (Philosophy of Storms), was born in Pennsylvania.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1785 May 9, British inventor Joseph Bramah patented a beer-pump handle.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1791 May 9, Francis Hopkinson (53), US writer, music, lawyer, died.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1800 May 9, John Brown, American abolitionist, was born. His adventures came to an end at Harper's Ferry, where he tried to start a revolution against slavery.
(HN, 5/9/99)
1805 May 9, Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller (45), poet, playwright, died in Weimar.
(MC, 5/9/02)(SSFC, 8/1/04, p.D10)
1810 May 9, Louis Gallait, historical painter, was born.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1813 May 9, U.S. troops under William Henry Harrison rescued Fort Meigs from British and Canadian troops.
(HN, 5/9/99)
1836 May 9, HMS Beagle with Charles Darwin departed Port Louis, Mauritius.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1837 May 9, "Sherrod" burned in Mississippi River below Natchez, Miss., and 175 died.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1843 May 9, Belle Boyd, Confederate spy, was born. She helped 'Stonewall' Jackson during his Valley campaign.
(HN, 5/9/99)
1846 May 9, US forced Mexico back to Rio Grande in the Battle of Resaca de la Palma.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1846 May 9, Gen. Mariano Arista crossed the Rio Grande and killed a number of US soldiers in a surprise attack. Mexico believed that France and Britain would support it in a war against the US.
(WP, 6/29/96, p.A15)
1859 May 9, Threatened by the advancing French army, the Austrian army retreated across the River Sesia in Italy.
(HN, 5/9/00)
1860 May 9, James Matthew Barrie (d.1937), novelist (Margaret Ogilvy, Peter Pan), was born in Kirriemuir, Scotland.
(www.angus.gov.uk)
1861 May 9, The Banshee, a British ship designed to run the American blockade on Confederate ports, departed Nassau for Wilmington, NC, on the first of many successful runs directed by Thomas E. Taylor, a shipping clerk for the Anglo-Confederate Trading Company.
(ON, 8/09, p.11)
1862 May 9, Battle of Ft. Pickens, FL (Pensacola), evacuated by CSA.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1862 May 9, Battle of Farmington, Missouri.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1862 May 9, US Naval Academy was relocated from Annapolis MD to Newport, RI.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1864 May 9, Union General John Sedgwick was shot and killed by a confederate sharpshooter during fighting at Spotsylvania, Va. His last words before getting hit were "From this distance they couldn't hit an elephant."
(AH, 2/03, p.35)
1864 May 9, Battle of Dalton, GA.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1864 May 9, Battle of Cloyd's Mt. and Swift Creek, VA (Drewry’s Bluff, Ft. Darling).
(MC, 5/9/02)
1864 May 9, Austria and Denmark held a ship battle at Helgoland.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1865 May 9, William Smith (1797-1887) was forced out of office as governor of Virginia following the Confederate surrender.
(http://tinyurl.com/lnq3flb)(Econ, 8/17/13, p.28)
1865 May 9, August de Boeck (d.1937), Flemish composer, was born.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_de_Boeck)
1868 May 9, Anton Bruckner's 1st Symphony in C premiered.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1873 May 9, Howard Carter, discoverer of King Tutankhamen's tomb, was born.
(HN, 5/9/98)
1880 May 9, Johann Hermann Berens (54), composer, died.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1882 May 9, Henry J. Kaiser, builder of Liberty Ships for U.S. war effort, was born.
(HN, 5/9/98)
1883 May 9, Spanish philosopher Jose Ortega y Gasset was born in Madrid.
(AP, 5/9/08)
1885 May 9, In the Battle of Batoche, Saskatchewan, Metis rebels ran out of ammunition and resorted to firing pebbles from their guns, until they were forced to retreat.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North-West_Rebellion)
1896 May 9, The 1st horseless carriage show in London featured 10 models.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1899 May 9, A lawn mower was patented.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1907 May 9, Baldur von Schirach, German writer, Nazi Youth leader, convicted war criminal, was born.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1908 May 9, Dirk Fock became governor of Suriname.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1909 May 9, In San Francisco 135 delegates of the anti-Japanese Laundry League took steps at a convention at Golden Gate Hall, 222 Van Ness Ave., to boycott all Japanese enterprises on the Pacific Coast.
(SSFC, 5/10/09, DB p.50)
1913 May 9, The 17th amendment to the Constitution, providing for the election of US senators by popular vote rather than selection by state legislatures, was ratified. [see May 31]
(AP, 5/9/01)
1914 May 9, Carlo Maria Giulini, conductor, was born.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1914 May 9, Clarence Eugene Snow (d.1999), later known as singer Hank Snow (I Went to Your Wedding), was born in Brooklyn, Nova Scotia. His songs included the 1950 hit "I'm Moving On."
(SFC, 12/21/99, p.A27)(MC, 5/9/02)
1914 May 9, Pres. Wilson proclaimed Mother's Day.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1915 May 9, German and French forces fought the Battle of Artois.
(HN, 5/9/98)
1916 May 9, The Sykes-Picot Agreement, a secret understanding between the governments of Britain and France, defined their respective spheres of post-World War I influence and control in the Middle East. It was signed on 16 May 1916. Italian claims were added in 1917. Britain and France carved up the Levant into an assortment of monarchies, mandates and emirates. The agreement enshrined Anglo-French imperialist ambitions at the end of WW II. Syria and Lebanon were put into the French orbit, while Britain claimed Jordan, Iraq, the Gulf states and the Palestinian Mandate. Sir Mark Sykes (d.1919 at age 39) and Francois Picot made the deal. As of 2016 the boundaries of the agreement remained in much of the common border between Syria and Iraq.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sykes%E2%80%93Picot_Agreement)(WSJ, 2/27/00, p.A17)(Econ, 5/7/15, SR p.5)
1918 May 9, Mike Wallace, newscaster (Biography, 60 Minutes), was born in Brookline, Mass.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1918 May 9, Orville Freeman, (Gov-D-Minn.), Sec of Agriculture (1961-69), was born in Minneapolis.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1919 May 9, Arthur English, comedian, actor (Malachi's Cove), was born.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1919 May 9, James Reese Europe (b.1881), jazz band leader and founder of the NYC Clef Club, died after he was stabbed during the intermission of a performance at Mechanic’s Hall in Boston. Europe led the Clef Club Symphony Orchestra before WW I and during the war led a US Army band in the all-black 369th Infantry Regiment, which was attached to the French Army. In 1995 Reid Badger authored “A Life in Ragtime," a biography of Europe.
(WSJ, 11/10/05, p.D7)(www.jass.com/Others/europe.html)
1921 May 9, The play "Sei Personaggi in Cerca d'Autore" (Six Characters in Search of an Author) by Luigi Pirandello (1867-1936) premiered in Rome.
(http://tinyurl.com/qs2xg8)
1925 May 9, Cornerstone for Hebrew University in Jerusalem was laid. It was founded in Jerusalem in part by Aharon and Yocheved Shulov.
(SFC, 6/3/96, p.A19)(MC, 5/9/02)
1926 May 9, Americans Richard Byrd and Floyd Bennett made the first flight over the North Pole. [see 1888-1957, Byrd] Two teams of aviators competed to be the first to fly over the North Pole. American Navy Lt. Cmdr. Richard E. Byrd and pilot Floyd Bennett claimed victory when they circled the North Pole. But even today experts suspect that faulty navigation caused Byrd to miss the North Pole. Later archivists determined that Byrd was probably 150 miles short of the pole. His tri-motor Fokker monoplane named Josephine Ford probably came within 2.25 degrees of the pole.
(HFA, ‘96, p.30)(TMC, 1994, p.1926)(SFC, 5/9/96, p.A-13)(HN, 5/9/98)(HNPD, 5/13/99)
1926 May 9, In San Francisco a bomb exploded in front of the main entrance of Sts. Peter and Paul’s Catholic Church.
(SFC, 11/22/14, p.C1)
1926 May 9, Joseph Malaby Dent (b.1849), British bookbinder turned publisher, died. He began Everyman’s Library in 1906, a collection of low cost classic books. Random House and Knopf debuted a revived line in 1991.
(WSJ, 1/9/07, p.D4)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._M._Dent)
1932 May 9, Piccadilly Circus was lit by electricity.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1933 May 9, Spanish anarchists called for a general strike.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1934 May 9, Alan Bennett, playwright, actor (Secret Policeman's Other Ball, Beyond the Fringe), was born in England.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1934 May 9, The San Francisco waterfront strike began. The Int’l. Longshoremen’s Association (ILA), headed by Australian immigrant Harry Bridges, shut down seaports in Washington, Oregon and California for 3 months. Union workers went on strike for a 6 hour day and a hiring hall to replace the company operated Blue Book Union on the waterfront. Strike breakers were housed in ships to avoid getting beat up by the dock workers. In 1996 David F. Selvin published "A Terrible Anger: The 1934 Waterfront and General Strikes in San Francisco." [see Jul 5]
(SFEC, 12/15/96, BR p.5)(SFEM, 3/2/97, p.21)(SFC, 8/4/97, p.E5)(SFEC, 5/2/99, Z1 p.4)(SFC, 10/4/02, p.A17)
1936 May 9, Albert Finney, actor, was born in Salford, UK. He starred in "Murder on the Orient Express" and "Tom Jones."
(HN, 5/9/99)(MC, 5/9/02)
1936 May 9, Glenda Jackson, actress (Women in Love), was born in Cheshire, England.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1936 May 9, Fascist Italy took Addis Abba and annexed Ethiopia as Benito Mussolini celebrated in Rome.
(AP, 5/9/97)(HN, 5/9/98)
1940 May 9, James L. Brooks, producer, director (Broadcast News, Taxi, Critic), was born.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1940 cMay 9, The Germans made their panzer attack across the Ardennes.
(DrEE, 10/26/96, p.4)
1941 May 9, The German submarine U-110 was captured at sea by the Royal Navy, revealing considerable Enigma material. Enigma was the German machine used to encrypt messages during World War II.
(HN, 5/9/99)(HNQ, 8/30/00)
1942 May 9, John Ashcroft, later Missouri governor (1984-1992) senator (1995-2000) and US Attorney Gen’l (2001-2004), was born in Chicago, Ill.
(USAT, 11/5/04, p.4A)
1943 May 9, The 5th German Panzer army surrendered in Tunisia.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1944 May 9, Russians recaptured Crimea by taking Sevastopol. [see May 6]
(MC, 5/9/02)
1945 May 9, U.S. officials announced that the midnight entertainment curfew was being lifted immediately.
(AP, 5/9/97)
1945 May 9, Czechoslovakia was liberated from Nazi occupation (Nat’l Day). Soviet commander Ivan Stepanovic Konev (1897-1973) led the Red Army forces that liberated large parts of Czechoslovakia.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prague_uprising)(SFC, 8/22/18, p.A3)
1945 May 9, Jersey was liberated from Nazis.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1945 May 9, Norwegian Nazi collaborator Vidkun Quisling was arrested.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1945 May 9, Soviet citizens celebrated their WW II victory in Europe at Red Square. This became an annual holiday to commemorate the 27 million Soviet citizens who died in the war.
(Econ, 5/7/05, p.45)
1946 May 9, Italy’s King Victor Emmanuel III, known as "sciaboletta", or small sabre, due to his stature, abdicated the throne in favor of his son Umberto II in a vain effort to avert a plebiscite to decide whether Italy should remain a monarchy or become a republic. Umberto II (d.1983) ruled for just 26 days before he was sent into exile after a June referendum abolished the monarchy. After the referendum Victor Emmanuel III went into exile in Alexandria, Egypt, where he died the following year.
(SFC, 5/6/97, p.A11)(SFC, 6/3/96, p.A12)(SFC, 1/30/01, p.C2)(Reuters, 12/17/17)
1949 May 9, Billy Joel, Bronx, rock vocalist (Piano man, Capt Jack, Bridge), was born.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1949 May 9, In Monaco Prince Rainier (26) succeeded his grandfather, Prince Louis II.
(SFEC, 3/28/99, p.T3)
1950 May 9, Sam Walton opened a small “Five and Dime" store in Bentonville, Ark. In 1962 he started his Wal-Mart discount chain. [see 1945]
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Walton)
1950 May 9, French foreign minister Robert Schuman proposed to place French and German production of coal and steel under one common High Authority. This organization would be open to participation of Western European countries. His statement became known as the Schuman declaration.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schuman_Declaration)(Econ, 12/10/16, p.74)
1951 May 9, The U.S. Far East Air Force launched a strike on Sinuiju, North Korea, on the Yalu River.
(HN, 5/9/99)
1957 May 9, Ezio F. Pinza, Italian bass (La Scala of Milan, NY Met Opera, Broadway musicals), died.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1957 May 9, Heinrich Campendonk (b.1889), German-born Dutch artist and a member of the Der Blaue Reiter group (1911-1912), died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinrich_Campendonk)
1958 May 9, The film "Vertigo" with James Stewart and Kim Novak was released. It was directed by Alfred Hitchcock and had been shot in the SF Bay Area. "Vertigo" premiered in San Francisco.
(SFEC, 8/11/96, DB, p.39)(AP, 5/9/08)
1959 May 9, In San Francisco four men poured gasoline on the deck of the Rotting Fort Sutter riverboat hulk and ignited it at Aquatic Cove. The men were said to be members of the South End swimming club.
(SFC, 11/21/15, p.C2)
1960 May 9, The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the pill Enovid as safe for birth control use. The pill was made by G.D. Searle and Company of Chicago. It was commissioned by Margaret Sanger and funded by heiress Katharine McCormick. In 2001 Carl Djerassi authored "This Man’s Pill: Reflections on the 50th Birthday of the Pill." Djerassi synthesized a key hormone in the pill in Mexico City in 1951.
(SSFC, 10/21/01, p.R6)(AP, 5/9/00)
1960 May 9, US sent a U-2 over USSR.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1961 May 9, In a speech to the National Association of Broadcasters, Federal Communications Commission chairman Newton N. Minow condemned television programming as a "vast wasteland."
(AP, 5/9/97)
1962 May 9, A laser beam was successfully bounced off Moon for the first time.
(HN, 5/9/99)
1964 May 9, Khrushchev visited Egypt.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1965 May 9, The USSR resumed Victory Day celebrations to commemorate its WW II victory over Nazi Germany.
(Econ., 5/2/15, p.43)
1967 May 9, Marine Sgt. James Neil Tycz (22) and three other US servicemen were killed on Hill 665 near Khe Sanh, Vietnam, close to the Laos border. In 2005 three of the men were buried at Arlington National Cemetery on the 38th anniversary of their deaths.
(AP, 5/8/05)
1970 May 9, Walter Reuther (1907-1970) died in a plane crash. He was a die maker who pioneered the establishment of the United Automobile Workers union and served as the UAW president from 1946 for 24 years.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Reuther)
1971 May 9, In the 23rd Emmy Awards: Jack Klugman won for his role in “The Odd Couple" & Jean Stapleton won for her role in “All in the Family."
(www.imdb.com/Sections/Awards/Emmy_Awards/1971)
1971 May 9, Friends of Earth returned 1500 non-returnable bottles to Schweppes. Friends of Earth became an international network this year with a meeting of representatives from the US, Sweden, the UK and France.
(http://tinyurl.com/6yqzul)(http://tinyurl.com/5zmwfa)
1974 May 9, The House Judiciary Committee opened hearings on whether to recommend the impeachment of President Nixon.
(AP, 5/9/97)(HN, 5/9/98)
1976 May 9, Harvey Fite, professor of art at Bard College, died in Saugerties, NY, while working on his multi-acre Opus 40 landscape sculpture. In 2010 the 37-year project was listed for sale for $3.5 million.
(SFC, 3/22/10, p.A4)
1976 May 9, Ulrike Meinhof (b.1934), co-leader of the Baader-Meinhof gang, committed suicide in German prison.
(SFC, 1/10/01, p.A8)(WSJ, 4/3/09, p.A15)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulrike_Meinhof)
1977 May 9, Pink Floyd opened a 2-night stand at the Oakland Coliseum.
(http://concerts.wolfgangsvault.com/dt/pink-floyd-concert/2923-5541.html)
1977 May 9, James Jones (b.1921), US writer (From Here to Eternity), died. His work included the pre-WW II novel "From Here to Eternity." His daughter later wrote the novel "A Soldier’s Daughter never Cries," which was made into a film with Kris Kristofferson as James Jones.
(www.kirjasto.sci.fi/jjones.htm)(SFEC, 7/12/98, Par p.17)
1978 May 9, "Ain't Misbehavin'" opened at Longacre Theater NYC for 1604 performances.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ain't_Misbehavin')
1978 May 9, The bullet-riddled body of former Italian PM Aldo Moro, who'd been abducted by the Red Brigades, was found in an abandoned automobile in the center of Rome. In 2000 French police arrested Alvaro Loiacono in northern Corsica for his alleged role in the murder.
(AP, 5/9/97)(SFC, 6/3/00, p.A12)
1980 May 9, In Florida 35 motorists were killed when a Liberian-flagged freighter rammed the Sunshine Skyway Bridge over Tampa Bay. The freighter MV Summit Venture collided with a pier (support column) during a blinding thunderstorm, sending over 1200 feet (366m) of the bridge plummeting into Tampa Bay. The collision caused six cars, a truck, and a Greyhound bus to fall 150 feet (46 m) into the water.
(AP, 5/9/97)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunshine_Skyway_Bridge)
1981 May 9, Nelson Algren (72), US writer (Man with the Golden Arm), died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nelson_Algren)
1982 May 9, The musical "Nine," inspired by Federico Fellini's film "Eight and a-Half," opened on Broadway.
(AP, 5/9/07)
1984 May 9, In San Francisco a 5-alarm fire engulfed the structures on Pier 30-32 along the Embarcadero at the foot of Bryant Street. Damages were estimated at $2.5 million.
(SSFC, 5/3/09, DB p.50)(SSFC, 5/10/09, DB p.50)
1985 May 9, Laurent Fabius, head of the French Socialist government, blocked the sale of an AIDS virus detection test made by Abbott Laboratories. Fabius and others were later charged with criminal negligence and manslaughter in the deaths of hundreds who died from transfusions of tainted blood. In 1999 Fabius and Georgina Dufoix were cleared of the charges. Edmond Herve, the health minister under Dufoix, was convicted of negligence in 2 cases.
(SFEC, 2/7/99, p.A2)(SFC, 3/10/99, p.A1)
1986 May 9, In Norway the Conservative-led coalition resigned and Gro Harlem Brundtland (b.1939) returned to power. She immediately appointed 8 women to her 18-member cabinet.
(SFC, 10/24/96, p.C3)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gro_Harlem_Brundtland)
1986 May 9, Tenzing Norgay (b.1914), Tibetan climber (Mount Everest 1953), died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenzing_Norgay)
1987 May 9, All 183 people aboard a Polish jetliner were killed when the plane, bound for New York, crashed and burned in Warsaw after the pilot attempted an emergency return.
(AP, 5/9/97)
1988 May 9, Education Secretary William J. Bennett announced he would leave his position in mid-September.
(AP, 5/9/98)
1989 May 9, President Bush complained that Panama's elections were marred by "massive irregularities," and he called for worldwide pressure on General Manuel Antonio Noriega to step down as military leader.
(AP, 5/9/99)
1989 May 9, VP Quayle said in United Negro College Fund speech: "What a waste it is to lose one's mind" instead of "a mind is terrible thing to waste."
(www.realchange.org/quayle.htm)
1990 May 9, President Bush and congressional leaders announced plans for emergency budget talks, with tax increases and spending cuts on the negotiating table.
(AP, 5/9/00)
1990 May 9, A major cyclone made landfall on Andhra Pradesh, India. It dissipated 2 days later over central India. Strong flooding caused 510 human fatalities, but the effect on agriculture was substantial. More than 100,000 animals were killed,
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1990-1994_North_Indian_Ocean_cyclone_seasons)
1991 May 9, President Bush met at the White House with UN Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar, who relayed Iraq’s rejection of a US-backed proposal for a UN civilian force in northern Iraq.
(AP, 5/9/01)
1991 May 9, William Kennedy Smith was charged with rape, nearly six weeks after Patricia Bowman accused him of attacking her at the Kennedy family estate in West Palm Beach, Florida. He was later acquitted at trial.
(AP, 5/9/01)
1991 May 9, Michael Landon (d.7/1/1991) appeared on Tonight Show to talk about his cancer.
(www.sawilsons.com/highway_to_heaven.htm)
1992 May 9, Final episode of "Golden Girls" aired on NBC-TV.
(www.tv.com/golden-girls/show/131/summary.html)
1992 May 9, President Bush, back in Washington after a visit to riot-torn Los Angeles, promised in a radio speech that he would work with the Democrat-controlled Congress on proposals to help American cities.
(AP, 5/9/97)
1992 May 9, The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) was adopted.
(Econ, 12/5/15, p.76)
1993 May 9, The White House said President Clinton had directed Secretary of State Warren M. Christopher to contact U.S. allies to discuss how they could ensure Serbia's promise to cut supplies to the Bosnian Serbs.
(AP, 5/9/98)
1993 May 9, Major flooding began in the Mississippi Valley. 1700 square miles flooded in Kansas, Illinois, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin. Total damage was later estimated at $20 billion.
(SSFC, 9/4/05, p.A7)
1993 May 9, Paraguay held its 1st presidential and parliamentary elections in 50 years. A democracy was established in Paraguay. Juan Carlos Wasmosy was elected president.
(WSJ, 4/24/96, A1)
1993 May 9, Pope John Paul II made an anti-Mafia speech in Agrigento, Sicily.
(www.cbc.ca/news/obit/pope/timeline.html)
1993 May 9, Penelope Gilliatt [Conner], British author, died.
(www.britannica.com/eb/article-9104302)
1994 May 9, "Passion" opened at Plymouth Theater in NYC for 280 performances.
(www.sjsondheim.com/passion.html)
1994 May 9, Comedian Bobcat Goldthwait set fire to the couch on Tonight Show. A misdemeanor charge soon followed and a fine of $3,888.
(www.courttv.com/news/flashback/May.html)
1994 May 9, Mass murderer Joel Rifkin was found guilty in NY. By January 1996, Rifkin was scheduled to serve at least 183 years for seven slayings, with 10 counts outstanding.
(www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/predators/rifkin/9.html)
1994 May 9, South Africa's newly elected parliament chose Nelson Mandela to be the country's first black president. Mandela promised a South Africa for "all its people, black and white."
(AP, 5/9/99)
1995 May 9, President Clinton arrived in Moscow for a summit with Russian President Boris Yeltsin.
(AP, 5/9/00)
1995 May 9, The United States returned 13 Cuban boat people to their homeland, the first to be sent back under a new policy bitterly protested by Cuban-Americans.
(AP, 5/9/00)
1995 May 9, Kinshasa, capital of Zaire (later Congo), was placed under quarantine after an outbreak of the Ebola virus.
(AP, 5/9/00)
1996 May 9, In dramatic video testimony to a hushed courtroom in Little Rock, Ark., President Clinton insisted he had nothing to do with a $300,000 loan at the heart of the criminal case against his former Whitewater partners.
(AP, 5/9/97)
1996 May 9, In India the Congress Party conceded to electoral losses.
(WSJ, 5/9/96, p.A-1)
1996 May 9, In South Africa the National Party withdrew from a national-unity government with Pres. Mandela’s African National Congress.
(WSJ, 5/10/96, p.A-1)
1996 May 9, In Germany the parliament cleared the way for a high-speed, magnetically levitated train system to link Berlin and Hamburg. The project is estimated to cost $3.7 billion and is to be completed in 2005.
(WSJ, 5/10/96, p.A-6)
1996 May 9, Bacterial meningitis had Infected more than 100,000 people in West Africa over the last 3 months and more than 10,000 died. The epidemic was most intense in the region just south of the Sahara known as the Sahel.
(SFC, 5/9/96, p.C-5)
1997 May 9, During a visit to a rain forest in Costa Rica, President Clinton urged nations not to sacrifice their environment in pursuit of economic gain.
(AP, 5/9/98)
1997 May 9, HUD announced a suit against A. Bruce Rozet, a prominent SF property owner, for kickbacks on inflated management fees. Rozet and partner Deane Earl Ross had holdings that included 21,851 housing units that received annual federal subsidies of $71.6 million.
(SFC, 5/10/97, p.A3)
1997 May 9, The California state Environmental protection Agency issued a report that linked lung cancer to diesel exhaust fumes.
(SFC, 5/10/97, p.A17)
1997 May 9, A pesticide plant burned after an explosion in West Helena, Ark. The chemical Azinphosmethyl was not supposed to have exploded unless it was heated and decomposed. A levee was built to keep poison-laden rainwater from entering the Mississippi River. Three firefighters were killed.
(SFC, 5/10/97, p.A8)
1997 May 9, Australian scientists reported in the journal Radiation Research that prolonged exposure of cellular phone radiation in the 900 megahertz range increased the risk of lymphoma cancer in mice.
(SFC, 5/9/97, p.A1,11)
1997 May 9, In Hong Kong a 3-year-old boy became ill with the flu. He died May 21 and the flu was identified as subtype H5N1, a bird flu.
(SFC, 2/26/01, p.A9)
1997 May 9, In Italy 8 Venetian separatists took over the bell tower at St. Mark’s Square. They were overpowered by police after 7 1/2 hours.
(SFC, 5/10/97, p.A10)
1997 May 9, Marco Ferreri (b.1928), film director, died. His work included “The Wheelchair" (El Cochecit 1960), “Le Lit Conjugal" (The Conjugal Bed 1963), “Dillinger Is Dead" (1969), “La Grande Bouffe" (1973), “La Derniere Femme" (1976), and “Bye Bye Monkey’ (1978).
(SFC, 5/10/97, p.A20)
1997 May 9, In Russia Pres. Yeltsin approved a new security doctrine that stipulated that right to use nuclear weapons if it was attacked.
(SFC, 5/10/97, p.A12)
1998 May 9, In Britain the Israeli transsexual, Dana International (Yaron Cohen), won the annual Eurovision Song Prize with the song “Diva.".
(SFC, 5/11/98, p.D5)(SFEC, 7/20/98, p.A9)
1998 May 9, In France a bomb exploded near the Spanish border at Saint-Pierre d’Irube and caused damage to a bank branch and the City Hall. Basque militants were suspected.
(SFEC, 5/10/98, p.A22)
1998 May 9, In Greece Archbishop Christodoulos was enthroned in Athens as the new head of the Greek Orthodox Church. A recent proposal to force the separation of church and state in Greece was rejected the previous week.
(SFEC, 5/10/98, p.A19)
1998 May 9, Indonesian President Suharto left his troubled country for a summit in Egypt with a warning his army would quell violence over his 32-year rule and the worsening economy.
(AP, 5/9/99)
1998 May 9, The leading Group of Eight industrialized countries imposed an investment ban on Serbia and froze and froze the assets abroad of Serbia and Montenegro due to conditions in Kosovo. The sanctions did not go into effect because Serbia began talks with ethnic Albanians in Kosovo.
(SFEC, 5/10/98, p.A13)(WSJ, 5/19/98, p.A1)
1999 May 9, On Oahu, Hawaii, a landslide at Sacred Falls State Park killed 8 people and injured dozens.
(SFC, 5/11/99, p.A3)(SFC, 5/13/99, p.A5)
1999 May 9, In Louisiana a chartered bus, bound for a Mother's Day gambling excursion, crashed on I-610 in New Orleans and [22] 23 people were killed.
(SFC, 5/10/99, p.A1)(WSJ, 5/10/99, p.A1)(AP, 5/9/00)
1999 May 9, NATO struck artillery and mortar positions along with armored vehicles and Serbian troops in Kosovo.
(SFC, 5/10/99, p.A8)
1999 May 9, China announced that it was breaking off diplomatic contacts with Washington on human rights and arms control along with contacts on weapons proliferation and int'l. security due to the bombing of its embassy in Belgrade. Furious Chinese demonstrators hurled rocks and debris into the U.S. Embassy in a second day of protests against NATO's bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Yugoslavia.
(SFC, 5/10/99, p.A1)(AP, 5/9/00)
1999 May 9, In East Timor violence in Dili between separatists and anti-independence militia began and left 4 people dead over the next 2 days.
(SFC, 5/11/99, p.A12)
2000 May 9, Senator John McCain endorsed Texas Governor George W. Bush for president.
(SFC, 5/10/00, p.A1)
2000 May 9, Former four-term Louisiana Governor Edwin Edwards was convicted of extortion schemes to manipulate the licensing of riverboat casinos. Edwards was sentenced in January, 2001, to ten years in prison and fined a quarter of a million dollars.
(AP, 5/9/01)
2000 May 9, In Kentucky a fire at the Wild Turkey Distillery caused an alcohol runoff into an 8-mile stretch of the Kentucky River and a huge fish kill followed within days.
(SFC, 5/20/00, p.D8)
2000 May 9, It was reported that 10% of the world’s 608 primate species and subspecies on 3 continents were critically imperiled.
(WSJ, 5/9/00, p.A1)
2000 May 9, In the Philippines Reomel Ramones, suspect in the “Love Bug" computer virus case, was released due to lack of evidence. His girlfriend, Irene de Guzman, failed to turn herself in as promised.
(SFC, 5/10/00, p.A12)
2001 May 9, Pres. Bush told Pres. Kostunica of Yugoslavia that aid would depend on cooperation with the Balkan war crimes tribunal.
(SFC, 5/10/01, p.A16)
2001 May 9, It was reported that El Paso Merchant Energy had crimped space in its desert pipeline and forced California power buyers to pay some $3.8 billion in excess over the past year.
(SFC, 5/9/01, p.A7)
2001 May 9, China sought U.S. understanding for its refusal to allow a damaged U.S. Navy spy plane to fly home, saying public sentiment would be outraged if the aircraft flew again over Chinese territory.
(AP, 5/9/02)
2001 May 9, In Split, Croatia, a soccer brawl left 130 people injured including 30 police.
(SFC, 5/11/01, p.D4)
2001 May 9, In Ghana a stampede at a soccer match in Accra killed 126 people. Police had use of tear gas to quell fans which caused panic and the stampede.
(WSJ, 5/10/01, p.A1)(SFC, 5/10/01, p.A16)(AP, 5/9/02)
2001 May 9, In Kashmir Islamic guerrillas, members of the Pakistan based Lashkar-e-Tayyaba group, set off explosives in a paramilitary camp in Magam and killed themselves and 6 civilians.
(SFC, 5/10/01, p.C5)
2001 May 9, In the West Bank 2 Israeli teenagers, Koby Mandell (13) and Yossi Ishran (14), were stoned to death and found in a cave.
(WSJ, 5/10/01, p.A1)(SFC, 5/10/01, p.A16)
2001 May 9, Macedonian forces intensified assaults on suspected ethnic Albanian positions.
(WSJ, 5/10/01, p.A1)
2001 May 9, In Papua New Guinea the Bougainville Provincial Peace Consultative committee adopted a peace plan and opposing factions agreed to lay down their weapons. The agreement entailed the PNG government’s accepting an Autonomous Bougainville Government (ABG) and a referendum on independence to be held between 2015-2020.
(SFC, 5/11/01, p.D8)(Econ, 2/9/08, p.48)(Econ, 4/8/17, p.34)
2001 May 9, In southern Sudan a Red Cross plane was shot and its co-pilot, Dane Ole Friis Eriksen, was killed. The plane managed to land in Kenya.
(SFC, 5/10/01, p.C5)
2002 May 9, Veteran Mexican musician Juan Gabriel won four awards, including top songwriter, at the Billboard Latin Music Awards held in Miami Beach, Florida.
(AP, 5/9/03)
2002 May 9, In Maryland Gov. Parris Glendening declared a moratorium on executions. It was the 2nd state after Illinois to do so because of doubts over its fairness.
(SFC, 5/10/02, p.A5)
2002 May 9, In Bahrain voters cast ballots in elections for 50 municipal seats. Bahraini women were allowed to vote and run for office for the 1st time, though none were elected.
(SFC, 5/10/02, p.A20)
2002 May 9, In India rioting between Hindus and Muslims in Ahmadabad left 9 people dead.
(SFC, 5/10/02, p.A20)
2002 May 9, In Liberia many civilians were reported killed as rebels attacked Gbarnga, the stronghold of Pres. Charles Taylor.
(SFC, 5/10/02, p.A16)
2002 May 9, In Russia a remote-controlled terrorist bomb killed 43 people including 13 children in Kaspiisk, Dagestan.
(SFC, 5/10/02, p.A1)(WSJ, 5/10/02, p.A1)(SFC, 5/11/02, p.A12)(AP, 5/9/03)
2003 May 9, The US and its allies asked the UN Security Council to legitimize their occupation of Iraq and sought permission to use revenue from the world's second-largest oil reserves to rebuild the war-battered country.
(AP, 5/9/03)
2003 May 9, The Republican-led House approved 222-203 a $550 billion tax cut package.
(AP, 5/9/04)
2003 May 9, The Fizzer computer virus began circulating aided by its ability to propagate through the Kazaa file sharing network.
(WSJ, 5/13/03, p.D3)
2003 May 9, In Cleveland, Ohio, Biswanath Halder (62), a camouflage-clad gunman, fired hundreds of rounds as he roamed the halls of the Case Western Univ. Weatherhead School of management, killing Norman Wallace (30), of Youngstown and wounding others. He was arrested after a 7-hour standoff. Halder was later convicted and sentenced to life in prison.
(SFC, 5/10/03, p.A3)(SSFC, 5/11/03, p.A1)(AP, 5/9/08)
2003 May 9, In Tyler, Texas, Deanna LaJune Laney (38) bludgeoned to death her 2 sons Joshua (8) and Luke (6). A toddler was in critical condition. In 2004 a jury found Laney legally insane.
(SFC, 5/13/03, p.A6)(AP, 4/4/04)
2003 May 9, Russell Long (b.1918), U.S. senator from Louisiana, died. He was 1st elected to the senate in 1948 and served for over 32 years.
(HN, 11/3/98)(SFC, 5/10/03, p.A13)
2003 May 9, In northern Iraq 3 U.S. soldiers were killed when their helicopter crashed into the Tigris River.
(AP, 5/9/03)
2003 May 9, Japan launched a rocket carrying the Muses-C probe, which planned to make contact with asteroid 1998 SF36 in June of 2005.
(SFC, 5/10/03, p.A7)
2003 May 9, Spain's highest court barred nearly 1,500 Basque nationalists from running in municipal elections, calling them camouflaged members of the outlawed party Batasuna.
(AP, 5/9/03)
2004 May 9, Alan King, comedian, died in NYC. King was born in Brooklyn as Irwin Alan Kniberg. His books included “Is Salami and Eggs Better than Sex?" (1985).
(SFC, 5/10/04, p.A2)
2004 May 9, The Bangladesh government put thousands of security forces on the streets of Dhaka and nearby Tongi as a strike to protest the killing of Ahsanullah Master, a member of the main opposition Awami League, brought the country to a standstill.
(AP, 5/9/04)
2004 May 9, Canada rallied to beat Sweden for the second straight year in the gold-medal game at the world hockey championships, 5-3.
(AP, 5/9/05)
2004 Mar 9, In Chad 2 days of fighting broke out as the army battled Islamic militants near a remote village on the country's western border with Niger, killing 43 "terrorists" of a group suspected of links with al-Qaida. Chad’s defense minister said hundreds of Arab militiamen from Sudan had raided a village inside Chad, setting off gun battles with the army that killed dozens of fighters.
(AP, 3/12/04)(AP, 5/9/04)
2004 May 9, The Chinese government warned that AIDS is continuing to spread and estimated that there were some 840,000 carriers of the disease.
(SFC, 5/10/04, p.A3)
2004 May 9, Akhmad Kadyrov (52), the Kremlin-backed president of Russia's warring Chechnya region, was killed along with 23 others when an explosion tore through a stadium in Grozny, during Victory Day observances marking the defeat of the Nazis in World War II. Russian Sergei Abramov was named acting president.
(SFC, 5/10/04, p.A1)(SFC, 5/11/04, p.A7)(AP, 5/9/05)
2004 May 9, U.S. and British troops clashed with forces of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr for a second day. 4 Iraqis were killed in an explosion in a Baghdad market. Militants loyal to al-Sadr took over Sadr City.
(AP, 5/9/04)(SFC, 5/10/04, p.A1)(SFC, 5/11/04, p.A9)
2004 May 9, Polish police in Lodz mistakenly opened fire with live ammunition to stop a street fight, killing a 19-year-old man and wounding three others.
(AP, 5/9/04)
2004 May 9, Brenda Fassie (39), South Africa's first black pop star, who gave a voice to disenfranchised blacks at the height of apartheid, died of complications from an asthma attack.
(AP, 5/10/04)
2005 May 9, President Bush, Russian President Vladimir Putin, French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder commemorated the 60th anniversary of the Allied victory over Nazi Germany with a lavish military parade in Moscow. President Bush then traveled to Georgia.
(AP, 5/9/06)
2005 May 9, Actress Renee Zellweger married country music star Kenny Chesney on the island of St. John in the US Virgin Islands. The marriage was annulled just months later.
(AP, 5/9/06)
2005 May 9, Eight-year-old Laura Hobbs and 9-year-old Krystal Tobias were found stabbed to death in Zion, Ill.; Laura's father, Jerry Hobbs III, was later charged with killing the girls.
(AP, 5/9/06)
2005 May 9, In Hingham, Mass., the bodies of two homeless men were found. They had likely been killed the previous April. In 2007 Eric Snow (25) and James Winquist (23) were accused of beating the 2 men to death with baseball bats.
(SFC, 9/5/07, p.A3)
2005 May 9, In Espertantina, Brazil, Mayor Felipe Santolia (32) declared May 9 as an official Orgasm Day.
(AP, 5/9/05)
2005 May 9, In northern China nearly a dozen homes built into hillside caves were buried when the soil above them collapsed, trapping 24 people.
(AP, 5/10/05)
2005 May 9, In Ecuador former President Gustavo Noboa was placed under house arrest on charges he mishandled Ecuador's foreign debt negotiations during his three-year term.
(AP, 5/9/05)
2005 May 9, In Tbilisi Pres. Bush, before a cheering crowd of tens of thousands of people, said that the former Soviet republic of Georgia is proving to the world that determined people can rise up and claim their freedom from oppressive rulers.
(AP, 5/9/05)
2005 May 9, Werner G. Seifert, the long-serving chief executive of the German stock exchange, was ousted by The Children's Investment Fund (TCI), a British hedge fund. In 2006 Seifert authored his account of the affair: “Invasion der Heuschrecken: Intrigen, Machkampfe, Marktmanipulation."
(Econ, 4/8/06, p.64)(Econ, 4/22/06, p.81)
2005 May 9, In Athens, Greece, Christian leaders, theologians and religious activists from around the world gathered for a meeting to assess some of the most serious challenges for the faith, such as growing rifts between churches and African congregations ravaged by AIDS.
(AP, 5/9/05)
2005 May 9, Iran confirmed that it has processed 37 tons of uranium into gas, a key step into the using the material as a fuel for reactors or weapons.
(WSJ, 5/10/05, p.A1)
2005 May 9, PM Ariel Sharon told Israeli media that Israel's evacuation of the Gaza Strip will be put off until mid-August.
(AP, 5/9/05)
2005 May 9, Leftist Mexico City Mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador announced that he will resign on July 31 to run for president.
(AP, 5/9/05)
2005 May 9, Nepali troops killed 26 Maoist rebels who attacked a military base at Bandipur. 3 policemen and one soldier were also killed.
(AP, 5/10/05)
2005 May 9, Palestinian militants and police exchanged gunfire in two West Bank towns Monday, defying Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas' attempts to crack down on lawlessness and put peacemaking with Israel on a more solid footing.
(AP, 5/9/05)
2005 May 9, World leaders joined Russian Pres. Vladimir Putin on Red Square for a lavish military parade celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Allied victory over Nazi Germany.
(AP, 5/9/05)
2006 May 9, The United States bowed to pressure from its allies and agreed to support a new program to temporarily funnel additional aid directly to the Palestinian people.
(AP, 5/10/06)
2006 May 9, Vermont Gov. Jim Douglas signed a health reform package to provide health insurance to as many as 25,000 uninsured residents.
(SFC, 5/10/06, p.A3)
2006 May 9, Cory Anthony Booker (b.1969) was elected the 36th mayor of Newark, New Jersey. The Democratic politician and former Newark Councilman and community activist had run unsuccessfully for mayor in 2002 against longtime incumbent Sharpe James. Booker inherited a $44 million deficit from James, who had boasted of a $30 million surplus.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cory_Booker)
2006 May 9, Gold futures closed above $700 for the 1st time since 1980.
(SFC, 5/10/06, p.C1)(WSJ, 5/10/06, p.C1)
2006 May 9, Tornadoes swept through two North Texas towns after dark, reducing houses to bare concrete slabs in a path of destruction that left three people dead and 10 injured.
(AP, 5/10/06)
2006 May 9, Victor Gonzalez, former butcher, murdered his roofing foreman Wilfredo Pinto. He then dismembered and bagged the body parts and scattered them on NYC street corners. In 2009 Gonzalez was convicted of murder.
(SFC, 4/9/09, p.A4)(www.mahalo.com/Victor_Gonzalez)
2006 May 9, Australia's government unveiled a big-spending "boom budget" that will use a projected 10 billion dollar (7.7 billion US) surplus to finance across-the-board tax cuts and build up the military and national security agencies.
(AP, 5/9/06)
2006 May 9, In Beaconsfield, Australia, Brant Webb and Todd Russell were rescued from a mine more than a half mile underground. A small earthquake on April 25 trapped Webb and Russell in the 4-foot-tall safety cage they were working in under tons of rock. Mourners gathered to bury, Larry Knight, who died in the same rock collapse.
(AP, 5/9/06)
2006 May 9, A plan by Bolivia's leftist government to redistribute up to 54,000 square miles of land to the poor generated protests by leaders in the wealthy province of Santa Cruz, the stronghold of opposition to leftist President Evo Morales.
(AP, 5/10/06)
2006 May 9, Bosnia's war crimes court launched the trial of 11 Bosnian Serbs charged over the 1995 Srebrenica massacre of 8,000 Bosnian Muslims, its first genocide trial since it opened last year.
(Reuters, 5/9/06)
2006 May 9, A land mine killed five Cambodian soldiers and maimed another as they tried to remove it from an area being developed to build a casino.
(AP, 5/10/06)
2006 May 9, The Canadian dollar hit a 28-year high against the US dollar, as the greenback came under broad selling pressure.
(AP, 5/9/06)
2006 May 9, Authorities said Chinese and US had agents seized more than 300 pounds of cocaine in March smuggled from Colombia in the country's largest ever cocaine bust. Nine people involved in a drug ring were arrested in southern China.
(AP, 5/9/06)
2006 May 9, In Egypt Nasser Khamis el-Mallahi, the leader of an al-Qaida-inspired group wanted for last month's bombings in Dahab, was killed in a gunbattle in the mountains of the Sinai Peninsula.
(AP, 5/9/06)
2006 May 9, A German court handed down a life sentence for murder to Armin Meiwes, the German cannibal jailed for killing a man and feeding on his flesh, overturning a previous manslaughter conviction.
(AP, 5/9/06)
2006 May 9, Officials said Iran will supply crude oil and equity investment to build an oil refinery in Indonesia that will supply China and provide Iran with a secure outlet in the face of possible sanctions.
(WSJ, 5/10/06, p.A8)
2006 May 9, Iran's president declared in a letter to President Bush that democracy had failed worldwide and lamented "an ever-increasing global hatred" of the U.S. government. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice swiftly rejected the letter, saying it didn't resolve questions about Tehran's suspect nuclear program.
(AP, 5/9/06)
2006 May 9, In Iraq a suicide truck bomber hit a crowded public market in the northern city of Tal Afar, killing at least 19 people and wounding 35. In Suwayra police recovered the corpses on 11 people, 9 of whom had been beheaded. In Salahuddin province 3 Iraqi detainees were shot and killed by US soldiers near Samarra. On June 19 the US military announced murder charges against 4 US soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division’s 3rd Brigade. The soldiers said they were under orders to kill all military-age males on “Objective Murray." In 2007 Spec. Juston Graber pleaded guilty to reduced charges. On Jan 25, 2007, Pfc. Corey Clagett (22) was sentenced to 18 years in prison for murdering a detainee and taking part in the killing of 2 others. In 2007 Staff Sgt. Ray Girouard was found guilty on 3 counts of negligent homicide. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
(AP, 5/9/06)(SFC, 5/10/06, p.A3)(SFC, 6/20/06, p.A4)(SFC, 7/22/06, p.A3)(SFC, 1/4/07, p.A3)(SFC, 1/26/07, p.A3)(SFC, 3/17/07, p.A3)(AFP, 3/20/07)
2006 May 9, Mexican lawmakers handed federal investigators a box of evidence that they claim shows that two of President Vicente Fox's stepsons were involved in fraud and illicit enrichment through real estate deals.
(AP, 5/9/06)
2006 May 9, In eastern Nepal a school van plunged into a canal, killing at least nine students and leaving several others missing.
(AP, 5/9/06)
2006 May 9, Renewed clashes between Hamas and Fatah militants wounded nine Palestinians, including five children, raising fears that Palestinian territories could erupt in a much wider conflagration.
(AP, 5/9/06)
2006 May 9, Somalian factions said they have agreed to a truce following clashes between Islamic fighters and a warlord alliance that have killed about 60 people.
(WSJ, 5/10/06, p.A1)
2006 May 9, UN members elected 47 countries to a new Human Rights Council. Cuba, Saudi Arabia, China and Russia won seats on the new UN Human Rights Council despite their poor human rights records. Two rights abusers, Iran and Venezuela, were defeated.
(AP, 5/10/06)(SFC, 5/10/06, p.A17)
2007 May 9, The NY Times reported on its Web site that Amgen Inc. and Johnson & Johnson are paying doctors hundreds of millions of dollars every year in return for prescribing anemia drugs which regulators now say may be unsafe at commonly used doses.
(AP, 5/9/07)
2007 May 9, Alfred D. Chandler Jr., American historian, died in Massachusetts. He helped establish the field of business history. His books included “Strategy and Structure: Chapters in the History of the Industrial Revolution" (1962).
(WSJ, 5/12/07, p.A8)(Econ, 5/19/07, p.91)
2007 May 9, Afghan civilians fought with Taliban militants who hit a checkpoint near Sangin, leaving three of the attackers dead. A suicide car bomber killed two Afghans and wounded five when he detonated his car in the eastern Paktika province.
(AP, 5/10/07)
2007 May 9, Police in Brazil and Norway detained at least 25 people in simultaneous raids on suspected criminal gangs, seeking evidence of money laundering.
(AP, 5/9/07)
2007 May 9, Britain’s Home Office, once called "not fit for purpose" by the minister in charge of it, was split into two in a bid to combat illegal immigration, crime and terrorism more effectively. British police arrested four people in connection with the suicide bombings that killed 52 bus and subway passengers in London in 2005.
(AFP, 5/9/07)(AP, 5/9/07)
2007 May 9, Chad pledged to work to demobilize hundreds of child soldiers fighting in the ranks of the government army and rebel groups across the conflict-torn central African country.
(Reuters, 5/9/07)
2007 May 9, China ordered strengthened controls over its food industry after a series of health scares with international repercussions laid bare lax standards. A Beijing court sentenced a man to life in prison for taking nearly $500,000 in bribes while posing as a reporter, and sometimes a top editor, for the Communist Party's official newspaper, the People's Daily.
(AP, 5/9/07)
2007 May 9, East Timor voted for a new president, choosing between a Nobel Prize winner and an ex-freedom fighter in polls critical to maintaining peace a year after the nation was pushed to the brink of civil war.
(AP, 5/9/07)
2007 May 9, In the early hours Internet traffic in Estonia spiked to thousands of times the normal flow. May 10 was heavier still, forcing Estonia’s biggest bank to shut down its online service for more than an hour. Hansabank continued under assault and worked to block access to 300 suspect Internet addresses. On March 12, 2009, Konstantin Goloskokov, an activist with Russia's Nashi youth group and aide to a pro-Kremlin member of parliament, said he had organized a network of sympathizers who bombarded Estonian Internet sites with electronic requests, causing them to crash.
(www.lunchoverip.com/2007/05/estonia_under_c.html)(Reuters, 3/12/09)
2007 May 9, France’s interior minister said violence hit for a third night following the election of conservative Nicolas Sarkozy, with about 200 vehicles torched by vandals and more than 80 people taken in for questioning nationwide.
(AP, 5/9/07)
2007 May 9, In France Nayef al-Shaalan, a Saudi Prince, was sentenced in absentia to 10 years in jail on charges of involvement in a cocaine smuggling gang.
(AP, 5/9/07)
2007 May 9, Hundreds of German police raided the offices and apartments of left-wing activists suspected of planning to disrupt next month's Group of Eight summit, leading security officials to tighten border controls ahead of the gathering.
(AP, 5/9/07)
2007 May 9, US VP Dick Cheney and Iraqi PM Nouri al-Maliki acknowledged problems in the pace of reducing violence in Iraq, but both pledged their governments would continue working together toward a solution. A majority of Iraqi lawmakers endorsed a draft bill calling for a timetable for the withdrawal of foreign troops and demanding a freeze on the number already in the country. A suicide truck bomb ripped through the Interior Ministry headquarters in the Kurdish city of Irbil, killing at least 14 people and wounding dozens. Four Iraqi journalists were killed in a drive-by shooting near the northern oil-rich city of Kirkuk. Gunmen killed two members of the minority Yazidi religious sect and wounded another in a drive-by shooting in Mosul. A car bomb exploded near an Iraqi military checkpoint in Baghdad, killing one civilian and wounding two soldiers. Police found four decapitated heads in the Sabtiyah area north of Baqouba. The body of a security officer was found shot in the head and chest in Diwaniyah. 72 people killed or found dead nationwide.
(AP, 5/9/07)(AP, 5/10/07)
2007 May 9, Japan's Supreme Court rejected compensation claims by Chinese victims of atrocities committed by Japan in the 1930s and 40s, which included the use of biological weapons and a massacre in the city of Nanjing.
(AP, 5/10/07)
2007 May 9, In Mexico gunmen opened fire on a naval commander in the Pacific resort city of Ixtapa and killed his bodyguard. Suspected drug traffickers attacked a military checkpoint in the Pacific resort of Huatulco. One attacker was killed.
(AP, 5/10/07)
2007 May 9, In southern Nigeria gunmen seized four American workers overnight as violence escalated in the petroleum-producing region. South Korea's top builder Daewoo Engineering and Construction welcomed the release of its kidnapped workers in Nigeria and said the incident would not affect its lucrative business in the country.
(AP, 5/9/07)
2007 May 9, Military officials from North and South Korea reached an agreement clearing the way for the first railway journeys across their heavily fortified border for half a century.
(AP, 5/9/07)
2007 May 9, Pakistan and the Czech Republic agreed to boost diplomatic links and promote relations in trade, health and science.
(AP, 5/9/07)
2007 May 9, The Palestinian information minister said Hamas militants have suspended a TV program that featured a Mickey Mouse look-alike urging Palestinian children to fight Israel and work for global Islamic domination. Hamas militants in Palestine had enlisted a figure bearing a strong resemblance to Mickey Mouse to broadcast their message of Islamic domination and armed resistance to their most impressionable audience, children. The show was broadcast as usual two days after the Palestinian information minister said it would be suspended.
(AP, 5/9/07)(AP, 5/11/07)
2007 May 9, In the Philippines Ernie Tatoy (41), an aide to a gubernatorial candidate, was fatally shot and his daughter (13) wounded, as violence in the run-up to next week's local and congressional elections claimed its 100th victim in four months.
(AP, 5/9/07)
2007 May 9, Saudi authorities beheaded an Ethiopian woman convicted of killing an Egyptian man over a dispute. Khadija Bint Ibrahim Moussa was the second woman to be executed this year. The kingdom last beheaded two women in 2005. Beheadings are carried out with a sword in a public square.
(AP, 5/9/07)
2007 May 9, Authorities said Somali security forces are seizing and even burning Muslim women's veils in Mogadishu to stop Islamist insurgents disguising themselves for attacks.
(AP, 5/9/07)
2007 May 9, In northern Syria 7 people were killed and 7 were wounded when a 5-story building collapsed.
(AP, 5/10/07)
2007 May 9, Pope Benedict XVI departed for a 5-day visit to Brazil, as evangelical Christians packed converted storefronts and cavernous churches every Sunday. Benedict gave his first full-fledged news conference since becoming pontiff in 2005. When a reporter pressed Benedict on whether he agreed that Catholic politicians who recently legalized abortion in Mexico City should rightfully be considered excommunicated, the response was "Yes."
(AP, 5/9/07)(AP, 5/10/07)
2007 May 9, Zimbabweans braced for darker days after President Robert Mugabe's government announced 20-hour daily electricity cuts for households across the country.
(AP, 5/9/07)
2007 May 9, A Zimbabwean court authorized the extradition of Briton Simon Mann to Equatorial Guinea on coup plot charges, sweeping aside concerns that he might face torture or invalid justice there.
(AFP, 5/9/07)
2008 May 9, Oil closed at a record high with light, sweet crude settling at $125.96 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
(WSJ, 5/10/08, p.B4)
2008 May 9, In eastern Afghanistan the US-led coalition killed several militants during an operation in Nangarhar province. Villagers claimed that 3 civilians were among those killed.
(AP, 5/10/08)
2008 May 9, The government of Central African Republic (CAR), plagued by unrest since 2005, and the country's main rebel group signed a ceasefire and peace accord to take effect immediately.
(AFP, 5/9/08)
2008 May 9, A newly disclosed set of documents that Colombia's government says were recovered on March 1 from a slain rebel's computers indicate senior Venezuelan officials tried to help arm Colombia's main guerrilla army. The price of crude rose above US$126 a barrel for the first time as investors questioned whether a Wall Street Journal report regarding the documents could lead to a confrontation between Washington and Venezuela.
(AP, 5/10/08)
2008 May 9, Dominica legislators balked at deciding who can marry whom. Chief Charles Williams, the leader of the last remaining pre-Columbian tribe in the eastern Caribbean, recently suggested outlawing marriage to outsiders to save a dwindling indigenous population.
(AP, 5/9/08)
2008 May 9, In Balla, India, 5 armed men killed Sunita (21), 22-weeks pregnant, and her boyfriend, Jasbir Singh (22). They were beaten, dragged into waiting cars, driven away and strangled. Their bodies, half-stripped, were laid out on the dirt outside Sunita's father's house for all to see, a sign that the family's "honor" had been restored by her cold-blooded murder. At the small police post in Balla, a constable later admitted the case was unlikely to ever reach prosecution, with the village putting enormous pressure on the police, and especially Jasbir's family, to quietly drop the case.
(Reuters, 5/16/08)
2008 May 9, Shiite Hezbollah gunmen seized nearly all of the Lebanese capital's Muslim sector from Sunni foes loyal to the US-backed government in the country's worst sectarian clashes since the 15-year civil war.
(AP, 5/9/08)
2008 May 9, Mortar shells fired by militant Hamas killed an Israeli man in an Israeli communal farm near Gaza. Israel fired missiles at two Hamas police station in retaliation and killed five Hamas members.
(AP, 5/10/08)
2008 May 9, Myanmar's junta seized UN aid shipments headed for hungry and homeless survivors of last week's devastating cyclone prompting the world body to suspend further help. According to state media, 23,335 people died and 37,019 are missing from Cyclone Nargis.
(AP, 5/9/08)
2008 May 9, In northwest Pakistan suspected Islamic militants killed a policeman and injured two other police officers in a rocket attack.
(AP, 5/9/08)
2008 May 9, South African President Thabo Mbeki held intensive talks with veteran counterpart Robert Mugabe over Zimbabwe's post-election crisis as doctors reported a dramatic rise in violence.
(AP, 5/9/08)
2008 May 9, A South Korean aid group said North Koreans are dying because of food shortages in rural areas, and a massive famine is just a matter of time.
(AP, 5/9/08)
2008 May 9, In eastern Sri Lanka a bomb hidden in a package exploded in a cafe in the town of Ampara, killing 11 people on the eve local elections.
(AP, 5/10/08)
2008 May 9, In southeast Turkey a land mine explosion killed 3 people and injured 3 others. Air strikes launched in retaliation for a rebel raid killed 19 Kurdish fighters. Six soldiers died in the violence. The PKK denied the military's claims of 19 rebel deaths saying "not a single guerrilla was killed."
(AP, 5/9/08)(AP, 5/10/08)
2009 May 9, Federal drug enforcement agents began seizing about 351 pounds of meth from two houses in Duluth, in suburban Atlanta. The 2-day operation included the arrest of four Mexican nationals, three of whom were in the US illegally. It was the biggest seizure of Mexican crystal methamphetamine ever recorded east of the Mississippi River.
(AP, 5/13/09)
2009 May 9, Chuck Daly (b.1930), NBA basketball coach, died in Florida. He coached the Dream Team to the Olympic gold medal in 1992 after winning back-to-back NBA championships with the Detroit Pistons.
(AP, 5/9/09)
2009 May 9, In Afghanistan 2 police died in a roadside blast in Zabul province.
(AP, 5/10/09)
2009 May 9, Australia and Japan joined the ranks of affected countries with confirmed H1N1 swine flu. New Zealand, the first country in the Asia-Pacific region to confirm cases, reported two more for a total of seven.
(AP, 5/9/09)
2009 May 9, Costa Rica reported the first swine flu death outside North America and the US announced its third death from the virus, while Mexico delayed the reopening of primary schools in some states.
(AP, 5/9/09)
2009 May 9, PM Nouri al-Maliki said Iraq should launch an anti-corruption campaign that would match the fight it has waged against insurgents and militias, amid increasing complaints over criminality in the government.
(AP, 5/9/09)
2009 May 9, In Mexico gunmen killed 9 people in three separate attacks in the western state of Michoacan. 4 horses and a bull were also killed in one of the attacks. The bodies of 4 US citizens (19-23) were found strangled, beaten and stabbed in a van in Tijuana, two days after they reportedly left their Southern California homes for a night at the Mexican clubs.
(AP, 5/11/09)(AP, 5/15/09)
2009 May 9, Pakistani civilians cowered in hospital beds and refugees looted UN supplies, all of them desperate for relief from the fighting that has engulfed a northwestern valley as troops and warplanes struggled to drive out Taliban militants. The army said it killed as many as 55 more Taliban fighters in Swat. A suspected US missile strike killed nine people, mostly foreigners, in another militant stronghold near the Afghan border.
(AP, 5/9/09)
2009 May 9, It was reported that Peru’s police over the last two months have seized some $40 million in near perfect replicas of American dollar bills in $20, $50 and $100 denominations. Most of the fake bills were sent to Ecuador and Panama, which used the greenback as their national currency.
(Econ, 5/9/09, p.40)
2009 May 9, In South Africa Jacob Zuma became president, vowing to work to fulfill the dreams of all South Africans after he overcame corruption and sex scandals to reach the nation's highest office.
(AP, 5/9/09)
2009 May 9, Human Rights Watch accused Sri Lankan forces of repeatedly striking hospitals in the northern war zone with indiscriminate artillery and aerial attacks that have killed scores of people, a charge the military denied. Sri Lankan police arrested three journalists for London-based Channel 4 television news on charges of tarnishing the image of government security forces.
(AP, 5/9/09)
2009 May 9, UN officials said a UN-sponsored treaty to combat highly dangerous chemicals has been expanded beyond the original "dirty dozen" to include nine more substances that are used in pesticides, flame retardants and other products.
(AP, 5/9/09)
2009 May 9, In Venezuela police and soldiers discovered 4,370 pounds (1,983 kilograms) of cocaine during a raid on a ranch in central Miranda state. A Colombian and two Venezuelans were detained.
(AP, 5/11/09)
2010 May 9, US Attorney General Eric Holder said Washington had evidence that Pakistani Taliban were behind a failed car bomb attack in the heart of New York City.
(AFP, 5/9/10)
2010 May 9, Lena Horne (b.1917), jazz singer and actress, died in NYC at age 92. She was known for her plaintive signature song "Stormy Weather" and for her triumph over the bigotry that allowed her to entertain white audiences but not socialize with them. In 1942's "Panama Hattie," her first movie with MGM, she sang Cole Porter's "Just One of Those Things," winning critical acclaim.
(AP, 5/10/10)
2010 May 9, In Afghanistan an insurgent rocket, apparently fired at a NATO convoy, missed its target and hit a civilian vehicle in southern Helmand province killing four civilians. A NATO service members died in an insurgent attack in eastern Afghanistan.
(AP, 5/10/10)
2010 May 9, Australia's government said 5 people are feared dead and 59 people were rescued from a disabled boat carrying suspected asylum-seekers in the Indian Ocean.
(Reuters, 5/9/10)
2010 May 9, European Union leaders agreed to provide $572 billion in new loans and $78 billion under an existing lending program to contain its spreading government debt crisis and keep it from tearing the euro currency apart and derailing the global economic recovery. An IMF contribution of $325 million would raise the amount to over $975 million. The European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) fund was conjured up as a backstop for Eurozone countries should they shut out of bond markets. On Sep 20 it was given a AAA grade by the three major ratings agencies.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Financial_Stability_Facility)(AP, 5/10/10)(SFC, 5/10/10, p.A2)(SFC, 5/11/10, p.D2)(Econ, 9/25/10, p.83)
2010 May 9, A plume of volcanic ash snaked its way through southern France, Switzerland, Italy and Germany, shutting down airports and disrupting flights across Europe.
(AP, 5/9/10)
2010 May 9, In Germany Angela Merkel's center-right coalition lost control of Germany's most populous state, North Rhine-Westphalia, in an election that also erased its majority in the upper house of parliament, making the country harder to run. The defeat followed a stumbling start for Merkel's new national coalition government, which took power in October.
(AP, 5/10/10)
2010 May 9, In Indonesia an earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 7.4 rattled the North Sumatra province, prompting a brief local tsunami watch, knocking out power and damaging some homes.
(AP, 5/9/10)
2010 May 9, Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad opened what is being dubbed as the Middle East's biggest car plant set up by Iranian state-run automobile company Saipa.
(AFP, 5/9/10)
2010 May 9, Iran hanged five Kurdish activists, including one woman, convicted of membership of armed opposition groups and involvement in bombings.
(AP, 5/9/10)
2010 May 9, In Iran Newsweek reporter Maziar Bahari was sentenced in absentia to more than 13 years in prison and 74 lashes, raising concerns about a new government crackdown ahead of the anniversary of disputed presidential elections.
(AP, 5/11/10)
2010 May 9, The second round of Lebanon's municipal elections kicked off in Beirut and the Bekaa region, respectively dominated by PM Saad Hariri and the Shiite party Hezbollah.
(AFP, 5/9/10)
2010 May 9, In Nepal riot police clashed with thousands of communists demonstrating outside the government's main offices in Katmandu, injuring several protesters and police officers.
(AP, 5/9/10)
2010 May 9, In Pakistan 10 people were killed in a US drone attack in North Waziristan. 9 of the 10 were said to be militants.
(AP, 5/9/10)(SFC, 5/10/10, p.A2)
2010 May 9, The Palestinians announced the official start of indirect peace talks with Israel after a 17-month breakdown, while Israel's leader urged a quick transition to face-to-face negotiations to tackle the hardest issues. Israeli-Arab leaders launched a boycott of 1000 companies that produce Jewish settlement-made products, following Palestinian Authority Pres. Abbas’ call for a similar ban by West Bank Arabs.
(AP, 5/9/10)(SSFC, 5/9/10, p.A4)
2011 May 9, Former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and wife Maria Shriver announced their separation, cleaving a sometimes-turbulent 25-year relationship. On May 17 Schwarzenegger acknowledged that he had fathered a child with a member of his household staff over a decade ago.
(AP, 5/10/11)(AP, 5/17/11)
2011 May 9, In New York two small planes collided near New Hampton killing two people. Both planes were registered to men from New Jersey.
(SFC, 5/10/11, p.A6)
2011 May 9, Abu Dhabi donated US$32 million dollars to Queensland to help protect the Australian state from cyclones in the wake of a monster storm that hit in February.
(AFP, 5/9/11)
2011 May 9, In southern Afghanistan 2 NATO service members were killed by roadside bombs.
(AP, 5/10/11)
2011 May 9, In Australia organizers of the Sydney Writers' Festival said Chinese authorities have barred dissident writer Liao Yiwu from traveling to Australia for a festival for "security reasons" and advised him against publishing his works abroad.
(AFP, 5/9/11)
2011 May 9, An Austrian court approved the extradition of former Croatian PM Ivo Sanader to his homeland where he is suspected of corruption while in office.
(AP, 5/9/11)
2011 May 9, Lidia Gueiler (b.1921), former Bolivian president and the second woman to lead a Latin American nation, died. She served as president of Bolivia when she held the post for about eight months in 1979-80 between coup d'etats.
(AP, 5/10/11)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lidia_Gueiler_Tejada)
2011 May 9, In Canada the provincial government of Manitoba said breaking dikes on the flooded Assiniboine River on May 11 at a spot west of Winnipeg will unleash a torrent of water that will swamp 225 square km of land. Manitoba pushed back the timing of the planned break to May 12 afternoon as residents scrambled to protect themselves from a deliberate flood of a vast area of farmland.
(Reuters, 5/10/11)(Reuters, 5/12/11)
2011 May 9, A Chilean government commission approved a $7 billion project to dam, two rivers for electrification, despite much opposition. 5 dams were approved on the Baker and Pascua rivers in Aysen, southern Patagonia.
(SFC, 5/10/11, p.A4)
2011 May 9, Colombia extradited Walid Makled to Venezuela to face drug smuggling and murder charges.
(SFC, 5/10/11, p.A2)
2011 May 9, Egyptian authorities detained 23 more people in connection with recent clashes between Muslims and Christians, including two people suspected of sparking riots over the weekend that left a Cairo church torched and 13 people dead. Hundreds of Christians continued their sit-in outside Egypt's state TV building, saying they fear an Islamic state is in the making.
(AP, 5/9/11)(SFC, 5/10/11, p.A2)
2011 May 9, The Gambian high court granted an application allowing the government to seize millions of dollars worth of Libyan assets "until a government recognized by the United Nations is in place in Libya."
(AFP, 5/9/11)
2011 May 9, A Guatemalan court acquitted former president Alfonso Portillo on charges of embezzling $15 million in defense funds during his 2000-2004 term of office. He remained in prison facing an extradition request from the United States, on charges of embezzling $1.5 million in foreign donations.
(AP, 5/10/11)
2011 May 9, India's top court suspended a ruling that divided between Hindus and Muslims the Babri Mosque holy site in northern India that had been the cause of deadly riots.
(AP, 5/9/11)
2011 May 9, The operator of Japan's ageing Hamaoka nuclear plant, located near a tectonic faultline southwest of Tokyo, said it would temporarily shut down its last two running reactors.
(AP, 5/9/11)
2011 May 9, In Libya NATO planes pounded government weapons depots southeast of the town of Zintan, in a sign of widening conflict in the Western Mountains region as rebels battled to unseat Muammar Gaddafi. Rebels were reported to have found a way to access badly needed cash, selling oil worth $100 million paid for through a Qatari bank in US dollars.
(Reuters, 5/9/11)
2011 May 9, Malaysian police said they have arrested Abdul Majid Kunji Mohamad, a Singaporean businessman, suspected of channeling funds to southern Philippine militants.
(AP, 5/9/11)
2011 May 9, Mexican public defenders said a group of Central American migrants recently rescued from kidnappers in northern Mexico has accused immigration agents of pulling them from a bus and handing them over to criminal gangs. In April the federal government had announced the arrest of six immigration agents in Tamaulipas for "federal crimes."
(AP, 5/10/11)
2011 May 9, Pakistan met US demands for an inquiry into how Osama bin Laden lived for years under the noses of its military but refused to be blamed alone for Al-Qaeda or its mastermind. Pakistan’s spy agency gave the name of the CIA station chief to the Nation, a conservative daily newspaper.
(AFP, 5/9/11)(SFC, 5/10/11, p.A3)
2011 May 9, The Palestinian Authority said it had not been able to pay salaries for the first time since 2007 because of Israel's decision to halt the transfer of funds it collects on its behalf.
(Reuters, 5/9/11)
2011 May 9, A Philippine anti-graft court approved a much-criticized plea bargain deal between prosecutors and former Maj. Gen. Carlos Garcia, who was accused of plunder. Garcia had pleaded guilty to the lesser charges of direct bribery and facilitating money laundering. He was released on bail in December pending sentencing on the lesser charges.
(AP, 5/9/11)
2011 May 9, It was reported that Samoa plans to leap 24 hours into the future, erasing a day and putting a new kink in the Pacific's jagged international date line so that it can be on the same weekday as Australia, New Zealand and eastern Asia.
(AP, 5/9/11)
2011 May 9, Serbia’s High Court ruled that folksinger Svetlana Raznatovic known as Ceca will spend one year under house arrest in exchange for a euro1.5-million ($2.2-million) fine. Raznatovic pleaded guilty on charges that she embezzled about euro4 million in the sale of 10 football players to foreign clubs from a Belgrade team she managed in the early 2000s.
(AP, 5/9/11)
2011 May 9, In Southern Sudan 46 militia were killed in fighting in Kuei Koi. Most of the dead killed over the last 2 days were rebels loyal to Peter Gadet, a formerly high-ranking army officer who launched his own rebel group.
(AP, 5/11/11)(AP, 5/12/11)
2011 May 9, Syrian security forces arrested hundreds of activists and anti-government protesters in house-to-house raids across the country, part of an escalating government crackdown aimed at stamping out the nationwide revolt engulfing the country.
(AP, 5/9/11)
2011 May 9, Thailand's PM Abhisit Vejjajiva announced that he is dissolving the lower house of Parliament to hold early elections July 3, setting off a political battle that could inflame tensions in the divided nation.
(AP, 5/9/11)
2011 May 9, In Turkey a five-day UN-backed conference of the 48-member "least-developed countries" opened to address the problems of the world's poorest countries. The last such conference was hosted by the EU in Brussels in 2001. France hosted the two previous ones in 1990 and 1981.
(AP, 5/9/11)
2011 May 9, In Uganda hundreds of women demonstrated in Kampala over high food prices and brutal tactics employed by police during recent political rallies.
(AP, 5/9/11)
2011 May 9, Yemeni security forces opened fire on demonstrators and launched rocket-propelled grenades at an office building as they cracked down on a protest in the flashpoint city of Taiz in the country's south. Three people were reported killed.
(AP, 5/9/11)
2012 May 9, President Barack Obama announced his support for gay marriage and boosted the hopes of gay rights groups around the world. Opponents denounced his switch as a shameless appeal for votes.
(AP, 5/9/12)
2012 May 9, The United States opened its banking market to China's biggest bank ICBC, for the first time clearing a takeover of a US bank by a Chinese state-controlled company.
(AFP, 5/9/12)
2012 May 9, Bed Bath and Beyond announced a cash deal to buy Cost Plus for $554 million.
(SFC, 5/10/12, p.D1)
2012 May 9, Argentina's senate overwhelmingly approved a "dignified death" law giving terminally ill patients and their families more power to make end-of-life decisions. The law passed by a vote of 55 to zero, with 17 senators declaring themselves absent. It passed the lower house last year.
(AP, 5/10/12)
2012 May 9, Argentina’s senate passed a gender identity law giving people the freedom to change their legal and physical gender identity simply because they want to, without having to undergo judicial, psychiatric and medical procedures beforehand.
(AFP, 5/10/12)
2012 May 9, In Australia 27 protected Little Penguins were found mauled in the Phillip Island Nature Park in Victoria state, a popular tourist attraction. The penguins were believed killed by a dog or a pack of dogs, ironically at Cat Bay.
(AFP, 5/10/12)
2012 May 9, Britain’s Queen Elizabeth unveiled the government’s agenda in her annual Queen‘s Speech.
(SFC, 5/10/12, p.A2)
2012 May 9, A group of London investment bankers won their High Court battle to receive 50 million euros ($65 million) in unpaid bonuses. The bankers claimed that Commerzbank had reneged on a deal to pay bonuses promised to them by Dresdner before the takeover in 2008.
(AFP, 5/9/12)
2012 May 9, British police in Newcastle arrested a suspected spokesman (17) for Team Poison, a hacking group that has claimed responsibility for a series of high-profile cyber-attacks.
(AFP, 5/10/12)
2012 May 9, Nine men in northwest England were sentenced to jail terms for luring girls as young as 13 into sexual encounters using alcohol and drugs. The men, aged between 22 and 59, were all of Pakistani or Afghan origin.
(AP, 5/9/12)
2012 May 9, British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline said it has gone hostile over its $2.6 billion (2.0 billion-euro) takeover bid for US research partner Human Genome Sciences Inc.
(AFP, 5/9/12)
2012 May 9, In CongoDRC the Nord-Kivu governor's office said a 25-ton arms cache has been found on the farm of Bosco Ntaganda, the leader and wanted war criminal of a band of Congolese army mutineers. The farm is located in Masisi," part of Nord-Kivu province, where clashes took place between April 29 and May 4.
(AFP, 5/9/12)
2012 May 9, In India the number of pilots involved in a wildcat strike at national carrier Air India rose to 150, as the walkout forced the cancellation of more international flights.
(AFP, 5/9/12)
2012 May 9, In Indonesia a Russian Sukhoi Superjet 100 crashed into a volcano south of Jakarta during a demonstration flight. All 45 people on board were feared dead. The Superjet, Russia's first new model of passenger jet since the fall of the Soviet Union two decades ago, was in Indonesia as part of a 6-nation tour of Asia aimed at drumming up new customers.
(AFP, 5/9/12)(AP, 5/10/12)
2012 May 9, Japan's government approved a plan to take a controlling stake in the operator of the Fukushima nuclear plant, effectively nationalizing one of the world's largest utilities. Tokyo will inject one trillion yen ($12 billion) as part of a 10-year restructuring aimed at preventing the vast regional power monopoly from going bankrupt.
(AFP, 5/9/12)
2012 May 9, In Mauritania thousands opposition activists staged a march and sit-down protest in Nouakchott, calling for former coup leader Pres. Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz to step down.
(AFP, 5/9/12)
2012 May 9, Mexican police found 18 dismembered bodies inside 2 vans near the Lake Chapala enclave of Ajijic, just south of Guadalajara.
(SFC, 5/10/12, p.A2)Reuters, 6/17/12)
2012 May 9, In northeast Nigeria at least two people were killed in an attack on a market in Maiduguri. The military blamed the radical Boko Haram Islamist sect.
(AP, 5/9/12)
2012 May 9, Palestinian Airlines resumed operations, starting with biweekly flights between El-Arish and Marka Airbase in the Jordanian capital of Amman. The new route means Gazans no longer have to travel to Cairo, some 350 km (215 miles) from their territory, to board planes.
(AFP, 5/27/12)
2012 May 9, In the southern Philippines an inferno at a three-story clothing store killed 17 employees, all women who were sleeping on the top floor in downtown Butuan city.
(AP, 5/9/12)
2012 May 9, In Serbia pro-European Union Democrats and Socialists reached an agreement to form a new coalition government, after an election that indicated the bloc has kept its luster in the Balkans despite the eurozone crisis.
(AP, 5/9/12)
2012 May 9, South African authorities seized assets worth almost $7 million from game farm owner Dawie Groenewald and veterinary surgeons, Karel Toet and Manie Du Plessis, accused of rhino poaching. They were charged with 1,872 counts of racketeering.
(AFP, 5/9/12)
2012 May 9, Spain’s government nationalized Banco Financiero y de Ahorros (BFA), parent of Bankia, the largest property lender in the country.
(Econ, 5/12/12, p.79)
2012 May 9, Sudan offered African tribesmen in the disputed oil-rich region of Abyei its citizenship in an effort to woo them to the north. Abyei's fate was left unresolved when South Sudan split from Sudan. Sudanese armed forces said they have repulsed an attack by Darfur rebels in Gereida (Girayda). 9 soldiers and an unknown number of rebels were reported killed.
(AFP, 5/9/12)(AP, 5/9/12)
2012 May 9, In Syria bullets flying across the Syrian border into Lebanon killed a 70-year-old woman and wounded her daughter. A roadside bomb struck a Syrian military truck, wounding 6 soldiers just seconds after a convoy carrying the head of the UN observer mission passed by.
(AP, 5/9/12)
2012 May 9, In Yemen a girl (13) was raped as she headed to a bakery. She was kidnapped and taken into a car whose owner has been identified. She was brutally raped by the suspects who then deformed her face using sharp tools. Protesters later called for the arrest of 7 escaped suspects.
(AFP, 5/19/12)
2013 May 9, Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn unsealed an indictment accusing Lajud-Pena and 7 other New York suspects of withdrawing $2.8 million in cash from hacked accounts in less than a day. The accused ringleader in the US cell, Alberto Yusi Lajud-Pena, was reportedly killed in the Dominican Republic late last month. US federal prosecutors said a worldwide gang of criminals stole $45 million in a matter of hours by hacking their way into a database of prepaid debit cards and then draining cash machines around the globe. There were two separate attacks, one in December that reaped $5 million worldwide and one in February that snared about $40 million in 10 hours with about 36,000 transactions.
(AP, 5/9/13)
2013 May 9, In southern California Pamela Marie Devitt (63) was fatally mauled by a pack of pit bulls while walking near her home near Palmdale. Authorities were still searching for the dogs as darkness fell. On May 30 Alex Jackson (29), the owner of the dogs, was charged with murder. On Oct 4, 2014, Jackson was sentenced to 15 years to life. The dogs had guarded his pot-growing operation.
(Reuters, 5/9/13)(SFC, 5/11/13, p.A5)(SFC, 5/31/13, p.A12)(SFC, 10/5/14, p.A5)
2013 May 9, In Ohio an amber alert was issued for Blain (14) and Blake Romes (17) of Ottawa. Michael Fay (17) told authorities where the bodies of the two brothers could be found. Murder charges against Fay were announced on May 17.
(SFC, 5/18/13, p.A6)
2013 May 9, In Afghanistan unidentified kidnappers abducted 11 Afghans working in a UN-affiliated landmine clearing program in Nangarhar province.
(AP, 5/11/13)
2013 May 9, A Bangladesh tribunal sentenced the deputy head of Jamaat-e-Islami, Muhammad Kamaruzzaman, to death for crimes against humanity during the 1971 war for independence.
(Econ, 5/11/13, p.55)
2013 May 9, British yacht-racing champion Andrew "Bart" Simpson, who won a gold medal at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, was killed when his vessel capsized in SF Bay during training for the America's Cup.
(Reuters, 5/9/13)
2013 May 9, A federal jury in Texas found Jose Trevino Morales (46) guilty of conspiracy to commit money laundering. His older brothers were said to be leaders of the Zetas, a Nuevo Leon based criminal group that has become the largest in Mexico.
(SFC, 5/9/13, p.A8)
2013 May 9, It was reported that 460 Vietnamese men, women and children have fled to Australian shores so far this year.
(AP, 5/9/13)
2013 May 9, Brazil’s Sao Paulo state Gov. Geraldo Alckmin unveiled a program that will provide about $650 per month in subsidies for the rehabilitation of addicts who voluntarily enroll in the rehab program.
(SFC, 5/10/13, p.A3)
2013 May 9, Chinese officials said film director Zhang Yimou is being investigated for a potential violation of family planning laws. He reportedly has fathered up to 7 children with 4 women.
(SFC, 5/10/13, p.A7)
2013 May 9, Ratings agency Standard & Poor's pushed Egypt's sovereign credit ratings deeper into junk status to CCC+ and C, from B- and B, citing "continued pressure" on foreign reserves.
(AP, 5/9/13)
2013 May 9, In Egypt American national Christopher Stone was attacked and stabbed outside the US Embassy in Cairo. Police arrested the attacker.
(AP, 5/9/13)(SFC, 5/10/13, p.A2)
2013 May 9, Amnesty Int’l. said Eritrea's government has jailed about 10,000 dissidents without charge or trial over the years and described the Horn of Africa nation as one of the world's most repressive states. Among those behind bars are 187 people detained since January.
(AP, 5/9/13)
2013 May 9, Iran's defense minister said Iran has built a new, radar-evading drone that can do surveillance and fire on enemy targets. The Fars news agency quoted Gen. Ahmad Vahidi as saying that the new aircraft — dubbed Epic, or Hemaseh in Farsi — can fly at high altitudes.
(AP, 5/9/13)
2013 May 9, Iraq rejected a key element of an accord to bring an end to a long Kurdish uprising in Turkey — offering refuge to rebel fighters in country's north.
(AP, 5/9/13)
2013 May 9, Northern Ireland officials said they hope to tear down the so-called “peace lines," walls of brick steel and barbed wire that have divided Irish Catholic and British Protestant neighborhoods going back to 1970, within a decade.
(SFC, 5/10/13, p.A3)
2013 May 9, In northern Italy Ottavio Missoni (b.1921), the patriarch of the iconic fashion brand of zigzag-patterned knitwear, died.
(AP, 5/9/13)
2013 May 9, In Mexico Malcolm Shabazz (28), grandson of Malcolm X, was beaten to death in Mexico City during a dispute over a $1200 bar bill. Prosecutors soon arrested two men in connection with the death of Shabazz.
(SSFC, 5/12/13, p.A4)(AP, 5/13/13)
2013 May 9, Nine young defectors from North Korea, ages 15-23, entered Laos through China. The alleged orphans were caught by Laotian authorities on May 16 and soon returned to North Korea. On May 31 the UN human rights chief criticized China and Laos for their actions.
(SFC, 6/1/13, p.A2)
2013 May 9, In Pakistan gunmen attacked an election rally in the southern Punjab province and abducted Ali Haider Gilani, the son of ex-premier Yousuf Raza Gilani. Two guards were killed. A bomb blew up at an election office of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam in the city of Mir Ali in the North Waziristan tribal area. One person was killed and six others wounded.
(AP, 5/9/13)
2013 May 9, Syrian warplanes pounded rebel targets in two northern provinces as President Bashar Assad's troops pushed on with an offensive to reclaim more territory from the opposition.
(AP, 5/9/13)
2013 May 9, Taiwanese fisherman Hung Shih-cheng (65) was shot dead by Philippine coast guard sailors in disputed waters. On May 15 Philippine Pres. Benigno Aquino III apologized to Taiwan for the shooting.
(SFC, 5/11/13, p.A2)(SFC, 5/16/13, p.A2)
2013 May 9, Yemen’s President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi warned that the al-Qaida branch in the country was expanding and using assassinations and abductions of foreigners as a way to challenge the central authority.
(AP, 5/9/13)
2014 May 9, President Barack Obama announced executive orders to increase the use of solar panels, boost energy efficiency in federal buildings and train more people to work in the renewable energy field.
(Reuters, 5/9/14)
2014 May 9, The US Treasury Department said it has reached an information-sharing agreement with Hong Kong under a new law meant to combat offshore tax dodging by Americans.
(Reuters, 5/9/14)
2014 May 9, A US judge struck down Arkansas’s 2004 amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman as unconstitutional. On May 15 Judge Chris Piazza extended his ruling to include all state laws preventing gay couples from marrying. On May 16 the state Supreme Court granted a request to suspend Piazza’s decisions.
(SFC, 5/10/14, p.A10)(SFC, 5/17/14, p.A5)
2014 May 9, In California a judge issued a permanent injunction against two Los Angeles merchants and fined them over $26 million after investigators found over 10,000 counterfeit items at their now defunct T.J. Accessories store.
(SFC, 5/11/14, p.A16)
2014 May 9, Police in Davis, Ca., arrested Rev. Hector Coria (45) for allegedly engaging in a sexual relationship with a teenage girl.
(SFC, 5/12/14, p.A6)
2014 May 9, In Colorado a crude oil train derailed spilling some 6,500 gallons of oil near LaSalle.
(SSFC, 5/11/14, p.A16)
2014 May 9, The Hybrid Remotely Operated Vehicle Nereus, operated by the Massachusetts-based Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, was lost during its dive to the Kermadec Trench off the coast of New Zealand. It was being operated as part of the Hadal Ecosystems Studies (HADES) Program funded by the US National Science Foundation.
(AP, 5/11/14)
2014 May 9, In Virginia a hot air balloon carrying three people crashed and burned after it hit a power line and burst into flames.
(SSFC, 5/11/14, p.A16)
2014 May 9, In western Afghanistan More than 100 Taliban fighters staged a large-scale attack on a remote police checkpoint, wounding 11 police officers in Farah province.
(AP, 5/9/14)
2014 May 9, Bosnia reopened the reconstructed National Library in Sarajevo. It had been destroyed by Serb shelling in 1992.
(SFC, 5/10/14, p.A2)
2014 May 9, British experts arrived in Abuja to help find at least 276 girls being held by Islamic militants in northeastern Nigeria as an international effort began taking hold.
(AP, 5/9/14)
2014 May 9, Cambodian authorities intercepted 3 tons of illegal ivory that was stashed in shipping containers, its largest such seizure.
(AP, 5/9/14)
2014 May 9, Central African Republic rebel Col. Mahamat Deya said a gathering of Muslim fighters has chosen Gen. Joseph Zindeko as the new leader of Seleka.
(SFC, 5/10/14, p.A2)
2014 May 9, Dominican Republic authorities said that they have arrested a citizen of Pakistan and six others accused of running a sophisticated migrant smuggling operation.
(AP, 5/9/14)
2014 May 9, In Germany SLM Solutions, a pioneer in making selective laser melting equipment, i.e. 3D printers, used in factories, began trading on the Frankfurt stock exchange. Here additive manufacturing was used to describe one aspect of 3D printing.
(Econ, 5/3/14, p.56)
2014 May 9, In Iraq army shelling killed 8 civilians and 3 gunmen in the militant-held city of Fallujah.
(AP, 5/10/14)
2014 May 9, In Italy plumber Riccardo Viti (55) confessed to the recent slaying of a prostitute whose body was tied, crucifixion-style, to metal bars in the countryside near Florence. His DNA was being compared to samples from 10 other similar cases.
(AP, 5/9/14)
2014 May 9, Lebanon braced for a summer drought, after a record dry winter exacerbated by a massive influx of Syrian refugees and longstanding water management problems.
(AFP, 5/9/14)
2014 May 9, In Mexico 5 gunmen and one soldier were killed in gunbattles in Reynosa, a city across the border from McAllen, Texas. Galindo Mellado Cruz was one of the 5 gunmen who died in the shootout that also killed a Mexican soldier. Cruz was one of the 30 ex-special forces soldiers who created the Zetas gang to serve as enforcers for the Gulf Cartel before splitting off in a bloody breakup with its former ally.
(AP, 5/9/14)(AP, 5/11/14)
2014 May 9, In New Zealand Malaysian diplomat Mohammed Rizalman Bin Ismail followed a 21-year-old woman, later identified as Tania Billingsley (21) and assaulted her. New Zealand charged the man with assault and attempt to rape, but Malaysia claimed diplomatic immunity and he returned home on May 22. On July 2 Malaysia's foreign ministry said that Muhammad Rizalman would return to New Zealand "to assist in the investigation for the charges".
(AP, 6/30/14)(AP, 7/1/14)(AFP, 7/2/14)(AP, 7/9/14)
2014 May 9, In northeastern Nigeria Islamic extremists blew up a bridge, killed an unknown number of people and abducted the wife and two children of a retired police officer.
(AP, 5/10/14)
2014 May 9, In southern Pakistan a magnitude 5 earthquake rattled several towns in before dawn, killing one person and injuring 70.
(AP, 5/9/14)
2014 May 9, Taliban head Maulana Fazlullah moved against Khan "Sajna" Said after weeks of bloody infighting in the powerful Mehsud tribe that supplies the bulk of the Pakistani Taliban fighters.
(Reuters, 5/10/14)
2014 May 9, Russia’s President Putin watched as about 11,000 Russian troops proudly marched across Red Square in celebration of Victory Day. He then flew to Crimea and extolled its return to Russia before tens of thousands during his first trip there since its annexation.
(AP, 5/9/14)
2014 May 9, Saudi Arabia's health ministry said the death toll from MERS has risen by five to 126 fatalities since the mystery respiratory virus first appeared in the kingdom in 2012.
(AFP, 5/9/14)
2014 May 9, South African police used rubber bullets and stun grenades to disperse demonstrators who burned tires and barricaded roads in the Alexandra township north of Johannesburg in post-election unrest.
(Reuters, 5/10/14)
2014 May 9, South Korean police arrested Kim Han-sik, president of Chonghaejin Marine Co. Ltd. His company owns the Sewol ferry that sank and left more than 300 people dead or missing, and authorities worried he may destroy evidence.
(AP, 5/9/14)
2014 May 9, South Sudanese President Salva Kiir arrived in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to meet rebel leader Riek Machar under growing international pressure for an end to ethnic fighting that has raised fears of genocide. Kiir and Machar, a former vice president, met, shook hands and prayed together, and agreed to order a halt to fighting within 24 hours.
(Reuters, 5/9/14)(AFP, 5/10/14)
2014 May 9, Thai police fired tear gas and water cannons to push back hundreds of protesters trying to force their way into a government compound, the latest indication that ousting the premier will not solve the country's tense political crisis.
(AP, 5/9/14)
2014 May 9, In Ukraine at least 3 people were killed in a clash between government forces and rebels in the eastern city of Mariupol. Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said in a statement that 20 "terrorists" and one police officer were killed in fighting that erupted when 60 gunmen tried to capture the Mariupol police station.
(AP, 5/9/14)
2014 May 9, The UN Security Council ordered sanctions against three Central African Republic leaders, including former president Francois Bozize. The leader of the anti-Balaka militia Levy Yakete and the Seleka militia's number two Nourredine Adam were also targeted.
(AFP, 5/10/14)
2014 May 9, In Yemen 4 soldiers were killed and three wounded in an ambush by suspected al Qaeda fighters in the central province of al-Bayda. Defense minister Muhammad Nasir Ahmad and a number of senior security officials were attacked by gunmen while travelling in their vehicles in Shabwa province. No one was killed or injured. Suspected Al-Qaeda militants attacked the presidential palace in Sanaa, killing 5 guards and triggering a fierce gunfight.
(Reuters, 5/9/14)(AFP, 5/10/14)
2015 May 9, In Mississippi police officers Benjamin Deen (34) and Liquori Tate (25) were shot and taken to a hospital where they were confirmed dead. Brothers Curtis Banks (26) and Marvin Banks (29) were arrested the next day over the killing. Joanie Calloway (22) was also charged with two counts of capital murder. A fourth man, identified as Cornelius Clark, was also arrested in connection with the case and booked on an obstruction of justice charge. Three more people were soon arrested in the case.
(AFP, 5/10/15)(Reuters, 5/11/15)(SSFC, 5/17/15, p.A8)
2015 May 9, In New York state a transformer fire at the Indian Point nuclear power plant caused oil to leak into the Hudson River and forced an automatic shutdown of the plant.
(SFC, 5/11/15, p.A6)
2015 May 9, Afghan officials said the bodies of 18 foreigners have been retrieved from the battlefield around Kunduz city, found to be from Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkey and Chechnya.
(AP, 5/9/15)
2015 May 9, Burundi's leading opposition figure, Agathon Rwasa, registered to run in a coming presidential election against Pierre Nkurunziza, whose quest for a third term has sparked two weeks of protests. The government ordered "insurgents" to end weeks of demonstrations against President Pierre Nkurunziza's third term bid and ordered all barricades to be removed within 48 hours.
(Reuters, 5/9/15)(AFP, 5/9/15)
2015 May 9, Colombia’s Pres. Juan Manuel Santos said he is halting the use of an herbicide that has been a key part of US-financed efforts to wipe out cocaine crops following a WHO decision to classify glyphosate as a carcinogen.
(SSFC, 5/10/15, p.A3)
2015 May 9, Two Colombian soldiers were killed in clashes with leftist ELN rebels in the northeastern town of Cubara. The soldiers were trying to dismantle oil infrastructure that the ELN is building in the area.
(AFP, 5/10/15)
2015 May 9, An Egyptian court sentenced former president Hosni Mubarak and his two sons to three years in jail without parole in the retrial of a corruption case. 3 policemen and a retired officer were shot dead by gunmen in separate incidents in the Sinai peninsula.
(Reuters, 5/9/15)(AFP, 5/9/15)
2015 May 9, In France crowds of protesters, many dressed in Jamaican colors, made their way through the streets of Paris from the Place de la Republique to Bastille calling for the legalization of recreational marijuana use.
(AP, 5/10/15)
2015 May 9, In central India Maoist rebels killed one villager and released around 250 others they had held for a day to stop the construction of a bridge.
(AP, 5/10/15)
2015 May 9, In Iraq a car bomb blast targeting Shiite pilgrims on an annual march to a Baghdad shrine killed at least 7 people and wounded 20. Some 50 inmates and 12 police were killed and 40 inmates escaped in a bloody prison break in Khalis. The Islamic State jihadist group claimed responsibility for both events.
(AFP, 5/9/15)(Reuters, 5/9/15)
2015 May 9, In Iraq and Syria the United States and its allies conducted 28 air strikes against Islamic State with 15 in Syria and 13 in Iraq in the last 24 hours.
(Reuters, 5/9/15)
2015 May 9, In Italy the Venice Biennale contemporary art fair opened for a seven-month run. It was curated by Okwui Enwezor, a Nigerian art critic and museum director.
(AP, 5/9/15)
2015 May 9, In northern Macedonia explosions and heavy gunfire rocked a suburb of Kumanovo as police moved against what authorities described as an "armed group", heightening fears of instability in the ex-Yugoslav republic. 8 police and 14 members a group of ethnic Albanian veterans of insurgencies in ex-Yugoslavia were killed in a day-long gun battle. Over 30 people were arrested.
(Reuters, 5/9/15)(Reuters, 5/10/15)
2015 May 9, In Russia thousands of troops marched across Moscow's Red Square and tanks rumbled through streets to mark the 70th anniversary of victory over Nazi Germany, an event boycotted by Western leaders over Russia's role in the Ukraine crisis.
(Reuters, 5/9/15)
2015 May 9, The Saudi-led coalition struck northern provinces of Yemen in a third consecutive night of heavy air strikes. More than 100 air strikes hit areas of Saada and Hajjah provinces, including the districts of Haradh, Maidi and Bakil al-Mir.
(Reuters, 5/9/15)
2015 May 9, In South Sudan Doctors Without Borders and the International Committee of the Red Cross evacuated their staff from the rebel-held town of Leer in the south of Unity State fearing clashes between the rebels and government troops.
(AP, 5/9/15)
2015 May 9, In southwestern Spain a military transport plane crashed near Seville airport, killing 4 of six Airbus crew members. The Airbus A400M military transport plane had been ordered by Turkey.
(AP, 5/9/15)(Reuters, 5/9/15)(SSFC, 5/10/15, p.A3)
2015 May 9, In Switzerland a gunman (36) killed 3 relatives and a neighbor in a late-night rampage in in Wuerenlingen before turning his weapon on himself.
(Reuters, 5/10/15)(SFC, 5/11/15, p.A2)
2015 May 9, Turkish former president Kenan Evren (97), convicted last year for his key role in the country's bloody 1980 coup, died in Ankara.
(AFP, 5/10/15)
2015 May 9, The UN World Health Organization (WHO) declared Liberia Ebola-free, hailing the "monumental" achievement in the west African country where the virus has killed more than 4,700 people.
(AFP, 5/9/15)
2015 May 9-2015 May 14, In Mexico at least 16 people disappeared during a takeover by vigilantes allegedly linked to a drug gang in Chilapa, Guerrero state. On May 20 federal prosecutors said detectives and experts were being sent to look for the victims.
(AP, 5/21/15)
2016 May 9, The US Justice Dept. sued North Carolina over the state’s new bathroom law requiring transgender people to use restrooms corresponding to the gender on their birth certificates.
(SFC, 5/10/16, p.A6)
2016 May 9, The Chicago Tribune reported that 8 people were killed over Mother’s Day weekend with at least 1,225 people shot in the city this year.
(SFC, 5/10/16, p.A6)
2016 May 9, In Kansas City, Kan., a police detective was fatally shot while helping respond to a report of a suspicious person near a racetrack. Parolee Curtis Ayers (28) was shot and taken into custody after trying to carjack a woman’s vehicle following a police chase.
(SFC, 5/10/16, p.A6)
2016 May 9, An Australian law firm filed a compensation claim against Russia and President Vladimir Putin in the European Court of Human Rights on behalf of families of victims of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17, shot down over Ukraine on July 17, 2014. The application names the Russian Federation and Putin as respondents and seeks $10 million in compensation per passenger.
(Reuters, 5/21/16)
2016 May 9, Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann resigned, citing lack of support for his policies within his own Social Democratic party.
(AP, 5/9/16)
2016 May 9, Belgium called up the military to assist in prisons where guards have been on strike for two weeks over what they say is dangerously low staffing due to budget cuts.
(Reuters, 5/9/16)
2016 May 9, In Brazil acting Speaker Waldir Maranhao annulled last month’s vote on impeaching Pres. Dilma Rousseff.
(SFC, 5/10/16, p.A5)
2016 May 9, In Cambodia two foreigners were among eight people arrested by police on in Phnom Penh for protesting the jailing of a group of human rights workers and an election official on what demonstrators said were politically-motivated charges.
(Reuters, 5/9/16)
2016 May 9, The Republic of Congo called on the EU to recall its ambassador to Brazzaville over EU criticism of President Denis Sassou Nguesso's controversial re-election in March. In its response on May 17, Brussels expressed its unwavering support for EU representative Saskia de Lang.
(AFP, 5/21/16)
2016 May 9, In Egypt a fire in downtown Cairo engulfed a hotel and several nearby buildings killing at least 3 people.
(SFC, 5/10/16, p.A2)
2016 May 9, Greek lawmakers passed unpopular pension and tax reforms that a European official said marked a major advance in negotiations towards unlocking more rescue funds from the country's creditors.
(Reuters, 5/9/16)
2016 May 9, Indonesia’s VP Jusuf Kalla spoke before the Int’l. Summit of the Moderate Islamic Leaders meeting in Jakarta and called on Islamic leaders to spread messages a tolerant Islam to curb extremism.
(SFC, 5/10/16, p.A2)
2016 May 9, In Iraq an evening suicide bombing in a commercial Shiite neighborhood of Baqouba killed at least 13 people.
(AP, 5/10/16)
2016 May 9, Japanese artist Megumi Igarashi (44), who makes objects shaped like her vagina, was convicted after a high-profile obscenity trial. The Tokyo District Court slapped her with a 400,000 yen ($3,700) fine. The court fined her for distributing digital data of her genitals but said her figurines, decorated with fake fur and glitter, could be considered "pop art".
(AFP, 5/9/16)(Reuters, 5/9/16)
2016 May 9, In Nigeria 3 soldiers guarding an oil installation were shot and killed when they came under fierce attack. The Niger Avengers claimed responsibility.
(SFC, 5/12/16, p.A2)
2016 May 9, The Philippines held presidential elections. Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte won the presidential election, defeating his four main rivals by a large margin. Ferdinand Marcos Jr., the son of late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, led in the vice presidential race.
(AP, 5/9/16)(AP, 5/10/16)
2016 May 9, In the Philippines Geraldine Roman won the congressional race in the first district of northern Bataan province becoming the country’s first transgender politician.
(AP, 5/11/16)
2016 May 9, Rwanda said at least 49 people have been killed by landslides in the country's north following heavy rains over the weekend.
(AP, 5/9/16)
2016 May 9, In Somalia Islamic jihadists killed 3 police officers in a bomb and gun attack on a police station in Mogadishu. A suicide car bomber and a gunman also died as well as two civilians.
(AFP, 5/9/16)
2016 May 9, The UN World Food Program said up to 5.3 million people in South Sudan may face a severe food shortages during this year's lean season, nearly double the number in the first three months of the year.
(Reuters, 5/9/16)
2016 May 9, In Syria multiple air raids struck rebel-held areas while shelling hit government-controlled parts of Aleppo, hours before a five-day cease-fire was to expire.
(AP, 5/9/16)
2016 May 9, Thailand media reported that a top Thai medical college has caught students using spy cameras linked to smartwatches to cheat during exams.
(AFP, 5/9/16)
2016 May 9, A Turkish soldier was killed in clashes in Nusaybin, located at the Syrian border and under a round-the-clock curfew since mid-March, as fighting continued in both Nusaybin and Sirnak throughout the day.
(Reuters, 5/9/16)
2017 May 9, President Donald Trump fired FBI Director James Comey. The abrupt firing threw into question the future of the FBI's investigation into the Trump campaign's possible connections to Russia and immediately raised suspicions of an underhanded effort to stymie a probe that has shadowed the administration from the outset.
(AP, 5/10/17)
2017 May 9, The Trump administration said it will arm Syria’s Kurdish fighters “as necessary" to recapture the Islamic State stronghold of Raqqa.
(SFC, 5/10/17, p.A2)
2017 May 9, The US Embassy in Kenya said it has suspended approximately $21 million in assistance to Kenya's ministry of health because of concerns about corruption. Kenya is ranked 145 out of 176 countries in Transparency International's index of the world's most corrupt countries.
(AP, 5/9/17)
2017 May 9, In Florida Spirit Airlines cancelled nine flights blaming the decision on pilots’ failure to show up at Fort Lauderdale.
(SFC, 5/10/17, p.A5)
2017 May 9, In Washington state an underground tunnel containing radioactive waste collapsed at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation. Officials detected no release of radiation and no workers were injured.
(SFC, 5/11/17, p.A5)
2017 May 9, Bulgarian prosecutors charged former Foreign Minister Daniel Mitov with mismanagement that led to state losses of about 500 million levs ($278 million) related to signing contracts in breach of public procurement rules. Mitov said he was surprised with the charges and noted that Bulgarian ministries have been using similar practices for years.
(Reuters, 5/9/17)
2017 May 9, In Canada the city of Montreal extended its state of emergency as 171 municipalities fought flooding.
(Reuters, 5/9/17)
2017 May 9, In Canada the Liberals of British Columbia, led by Christy Clark, won their fifth straight election, but fell short of a majority.
(Econ 7/8/17, p.32)
2017 May 9, China released prominent human rights lawyers Xie Yang and Li Heping. Both were detained nearly two years ago and released after they allegedly confessed in court to collaborating with foreign organizations and media to smear and subvert Communist Party rule.
(AP, 5/10/17)
2017 May 9, Qian Qichen (90), former Chinese vice premier and top diplomat, died in Beijing. He oversaw the 1997 handover of Hong Kong from Britain to China.
(AP, 5/10/17)
2017 May 9, In eastern China eleven young children, five South Korean and six Chinese, were killed along with their driver when their bus crashed and burst in to flames in a tunnel in Shandong province.
(Reuters, 5/9/17)
2017 May 9, Democratic Republic of Congo President Joseph Kabila named a new transitional government, defying opponents who rejected the cabinet, saying it violated a previous agreement.
(Reuters, 5/9/17)
2017 May 9, In the French Alps an avalanche swept away a group of cross-country skiers, killing three people.
(Reuters, 5/9/17)
2017 May 9, In Indonesia Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, Jakarta's Christian governor, was sentenced to two years in jail for blasphemy, a harsher-than-expected ruling critics fear will embolden hardline Islamist forces to challenge secularism in Indonesia.
(Reuters, 5/9/17)
2017 May 9, In Iraq corpses of Islamic State militants (IS) littered the streets of a district in Mosul as US-backed Iraqi forces chipped away at the last remaining handful of districts under the jihadists' control. A spokesman for the Emergency Response Division said 250 Islamic State members had been killed in Harmat district over the past 5 days.
(Reuters, 5/9/17)
2017 May 9, Kashmiri militants kidnapped an Indian army officer (23) who was visiting home in the disputed Himalayan region. His bullet-riddled body was recovered the next morning.
(AP, 5/10/17)
2017 May 9, More than 880 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel remained on a hunger strike, the 23rd day of their protest.
(AP, 5/9/17)
2017 May 9, In Libya forces loyal to Field Marshal Khalifa Hifter said they have lost 17 fighters in their two-day push to clear central parts of Benghazi from Islamists and their allies.
(AP, 5/9/17)
2017 May 9, A Dutch appeals court ruled that Russian authorities knowingly plunged oil giant Yukos into bankruptcy in 2006 by ordering it to pay huge tax bills, the latest ruling in a long-running battle over the assets of a Dutch Yukos subsidiary.
(AP, 5/9/17)
2017 May 9, Norway’s second-largest supermarket chain, Coop Norway, said it has launched reverse vending machines that give customers discount coupons for new batteries when they deposit old ones for recycling.
(SFC, 5/10/17, p.A2)
2017 May 9, In South Africa violent protests have erupted in Johannesburg for a second day, with police firing rubber bullets at demonstrators, who blocked roads and burned tires, demanded housing and other government services.
(AP, 5/9/17)
2017 May 9, South Koreans elected left-leaning former human rights lawyer Moon Jae-In in a presidential election held after a scandal led to the impeachment of the country's previous leader.
(AFP, 5/9/17)
2017 May 9, Spanish officials said about 300 migrants tried to scramble across the 6-meter (20-foot) border fence separating the North African enclave of Melilla from Morocco, with many throwing stones and other objects at police.
(AP, 5/9/17)
2017 May 9, In Switzerland Europe’s top physics lab CERN launched Linac 4, its newest particle accelerator, billed as a key step towards future experiments that could unlock the universe's greatest mysteries.
(AFP, 5/9/17)
2017 May 9, Syrian government forces and US-backed opposition fighters clashed in a remote desert area near the borders with Iraq and Jordan. About 7,400 troops from more than 20 nations were said to be participating. Syrian government warplanes struck rebel outposts near the Jordanian border.
(AP, 5/9/17)(Reuters, 5/9/17)
2017 May 9, In Syria warplanes late today, thought to belong to the US-led military coalition against Islamic State, killed at least 11 people, including four children, in al-Salihiya village north of Raqqa.
(Reuters, 5/10/17)
2017 May 9, In southern Thailand Muslim militants fighting for a separate state were suspected of carrying out a car-bomb attack outside a supermarket in the city of Pattani that wounded 60 people.
(Reuters, 5/9/17)
2017 May 9, The World Health Organization (WHO) said thirty-four people have died in Yemen of cholera-related causes and more than 2,000 have been taken ill, and warned that the outbreak could spiral out of control.
(AFP, 5/9/17)
2018 May 9, It was reported that Michael Cohen, Pres. Trump's personal lawyer and longtime fixer, used the shell company Essential Consultants LLC, for an array of business activities starting shortly before Pres. Trump was elected and continuing to January, 2018. Transactions totaling at least $4.4 million included $130,000 paid to porn star Stephanie Clifford and some $500,000 from Columbus Nova, a New York investment firm controlled by Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg. Novartis said it paid $1.2 million to Essential Consultants. Similar payments were made by AT&T and Korea Aerospace Industries.
(SFC, 5/9/18, p.A5)(SFC, 5/10/18, p.A6)
2018 May 9, California regulators unanimously approved requiring solar arrays on virtually all new single-family homes built in the state starting in 2020.
(SFC, 5/10/18, p.C1)
2018 May 9, Delaware Gov. John Carney signed a measure into law making his state the first in the US to ban marriage for anyone under 18.
(http://tinyurl.com/ybzkl7mx)(SFC, 5/12/18, p.A5)
2018 May 9, Ohio's Rep. Gov. John Kasich signed an executive order authorizing autonomous vehicle research to take place across the state.
(SFC, 5/10/18, p.A4)
2018 May 9, Google announced that it is suspending all advertising connected to Ireland's abortion referendum as part of moves to protect "election integrity".
(AP, 5/9/18)
2018 May 9, In Afghanistan suicide bombers struck two police stations in Kabul, killing at least seven people and wounding 17. In the north the Taliban advanced on a compound in the Bilchirgh district of Faryab province. The Taliban also attacked a school being used as a voter registration center, killing eight soldiers in Badghis province in the latest in a series of attacks targeting preparations for elections later this year. In eastern Nangarhar province, a rocket fired by insurgents struck a market, killing two people and wounding 19. Another four other civilians were killed and 15 wounded in a gunbattle in the same district. Two insurgents were killed and seven wounded.
(AP, 5/9/18)
2018 May 9, Britain's foreign secretary Boris Johnson said the country "has no intention of walking away" from the Iran nuclear agreement despite the United States' decision to pull out.
(AP, 5/9/18)
2018 May 9, China expressed regret over President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw the US from the Iran nuclear deal and said it remains committed to the landmark pact.
(AP, 5/9/18)
2018 May 9, China's GCL Group signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Egypt's ministry of military production to build a solar panel facility at a cost of up to $2 billion.
(Reuters, 5/10/18)
2018 May 9, Chinese tech giant, telecommunications equipment and smartphone maker ZTE, said that it's ceasing "major operations" after the US last month banned it from doing business with American suppliers for seven years as a punishment for illegal exports.
(AP, 5/10/18)
2018 May 9, The Indian Ocean state of Comoros hit back against France for suspending visas for its citizens, a further escalation in a diplomatic row linked to immigration and territorial disputes. The French embassy in Moroni, the capital of Comoros, decided on May 4 to suspend issuing visas to all Comorian nationals. It had earlier suspended visas for officials and services, after the Comorian government refused to receive, in its three islands, Comorians deported from Mayotte. In March 2009, Mayotte's people voted overwhelmingly to become a full-fledged part of France.
(Reuters, 5/9/18)
2018 May 9, In Dubai the sixth edition of Arab Fashion Week opened with fallen angels, Rococo corsets, cupcake headbands and nary a kaftan in sight.
(AFP, 5/10/18)
2018 May 9, Chancellor Angela Merkel's cabinet agreed on rules to allow a limited number of family members to join migrants in Germany, ending a long-standing dispute between the parties in her two-month old right-left coalition.
(Reuters, 5/9/18)
2018 May 9, Germany's foreign minister vowed to work to preserve the Iran nuclear deal and prevent an "uncontrolled escalation" of tensions in the Middle East. The Federation of German Industries, or BDI, said it rejects "the extraterritorial application of sanctions" and called upon the EU to find a solution to protect European companies from the "unlawful and unilateral" application of US sanctions.
(AP, 5/9/18)
2018 May 9, In northeastern India a homemade bomb exploded, killing two paramilitary soldiers and wounding two civilians in Manipur state.
(AP, 5/9/18)
2018 May 9, In northern India a powerful dust and rain storm demolished homes and downed power lines late today, killing at least 14 people in Uttar Pradesh state.
(AP, 5/10/18)
2018 May 9, It was reported that Walmart is breaking into India's massive and growing consumer market with its biggest acquisition yet, spending $16 billion for a controlling stake in the online retailer Flipkart, whose delivery drivers, with their motorcycles and oversized backpacks, have become ubiquitous across the nation of 1.3 billion people.
(AP, 5/9/18)
2018 May 9, The Iranian rial plunged to a record low against the US dollar in the free market. The head of Iran's Revolutionary Guard welcomed President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw the US from the 2015 nuclear deal, saying it was clear from the beginning that the Americans were "not trustworthy" and that the move would have no impact.
(Reuters, 5/9/18)(AP, 5/9/18)
2018 May 9, Iraqi state TV announced the capture of five Islamic State commanders.
(Reuters, 5/10/18)
2018 May 9, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu traveled to Moscow to meet with President Vladimir Putin and discuss military coordination amid new strikes in Syria blamed on Israel.
(AP, 5/9/18)
2018 May 9, In Japan leaders from China, Japan and South Korea held their first three-way summit in more than two years, demonstrating a spirt of cooperation despite continuing differences over North Korea and other issues. Japan and China agreed on to set up a security hotline to defuse any maritime confrontations between the two Asian powers.
(AP, 5/9/18)(Reuters, 5/9/18)
2018 May 9, In Kenya the Patel Dam, dam burst its banks in the Rift Valley late today, killing at least 45 people and forcing hundreds from their homes. At least 20 of the dead were children. 40 people remained missing.
(AP, 5/10/18)(Reuters, 5/10/18)(AFP, 5/11/18)
2018 May 9, Malaysians flocked to vote in a fiercely contested election pitting an opposition led by former authoritarian leader Mahathir Mohamad against the ruling coalition of Prime Minister Najib Razak. Mahathir Mohamad (92) led opposition parties to their first election victory in six decades.
(AP, 5/9/18)(AP, 5/10/18)
2018 May 9, In Montenegro hundreds protested in Podgorica after unknown assailants shot and wounded Olivera Lakic, a prominent crime and corruption reporter a day earlier.
(AP, 5/9/18)
2018 May 9, Myanmar police Captain Moe Yan Naing (47), now serving a one year prison sentence, gave more details to a court about how he says two Reuters reporters were framed by police.
(Reuters, 5/9/18)
2018 May 9, North Korea released three American detainees and handed them over to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, clearing a major obstacle to an unprecedented summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
(Reuters, 5/9/18)
2018 May 9, Philippine authorities detained Tawanda Chandiwana, a Zimbabwe missionary, as he attended a seminar on the southern island of Mindanao. He had been briefly detained and questioned in February, along with two other missionaries from the United Methodist Church, when they were stopped at a police checkpoint in Mindanao while participating in a human rights fact-finding mission sponsored by a left-wing group.
(Reuters, 6/26/18)
2018 May 9, Russia celebrated the Soviet Union's World War Two victory over the Nazis. The Moscow parade was one of many which took place across Russia involving a total of 55,000 troops, 1,200 weapons systems and 150 war planes in 28 Russian cities.
(Reuters, 5/9/18)
2018 May 9, Russian President Vladimir Putin held a brief meeting in Moscow with Nechirvan Barzani the prime minister of Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdistan region.
(Reuters, 5/9/18)
2018 May 9, In Scotland Frightened Rabbit singer Scott Hutchison (36) was reported missing after leaving a hotel in South Queensferry, near Edinburgh. On May 11 police confirmed that a body discovered at a Scottish marina is that of Scott Hutchison.
(AP, 5/11/18)
2018 May 9, Serbia banned a Kosovo team from taking part in a karate competition it is hosting, over a political dispute stemming from the former province's declaration of independence.
(AP, 5/9/18)
2018 May 9, Somalia's al Shabaab insurgents in Sablale town in the Lower Shabelle region stoned to death a woman it accused of having multiple husbands. Shukri Abdullahi Warsame (30) had allegedly married 11 men in a row without seeking a divorce.
(Reuters, 5/9/18)(SFC, 5/10/18, p.A2)
2018 May 9, In South Africa protesters hurled petrol bombs at three Zambian-registered trucks late today, leaving one of the drivers with life-threatening injuries, the second attack on foreign vehicles there in two weeks.
(Reuters, 5/10/18)
2018 May 9, Spain's executive said it would block Carles Puigdemont from being re-appointed president of Catalonia, putting pressure on the separatist camp to pick another candidate and form a regional government after months of limbo.
(AFP, 5/9/18)
2018 May 9, In Syria rocket fire in Damascus killed four people and wounded dozens of others. The attacks came as regime forces battled to oust Islamic State group jihadists from the southern districts of the capital, including Yarmuk and the adjacent Hajar al-Aswad neighborhood.
(AFP, 5/9/18)
2018 May 9, The UN Security Council urged Myanmar's government to fulfill its commitment to hold perpetrators of violence against Rohingya Muslims accountable and to address the root causes that led about 700,000 members of the ethnic minority to flee to Bangladesh.
(AP, 5/10/18)
2018 May 9, An international report was released into the situation of the Roma people in the Western Balkans. It showed that up to 93 percent of Roma women are unemployed, with one-third of all Roma families there going to bed hungry. The study covered Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Kosovo.
(AP, 5/9/18)
2018 May 9, Vietnam requested that China withdraw its military equipment from South China Sea outposts, saying its deployment seriously violates Hanoi's sovereignty, increases tension and destabilizes the region.
(AP, 5/9/18)
2018 May 9, A court in Vietnam convicted and sentenced Facebook user Bui Hieu Vo (56) to 4 ½ years in jail for posts that the court said distorted the political situation in the country and opposed the ruling Communist Party and the state.
(AP, 5/10/18)
2018 May 9, Yemen's Houthis fired a salvo of ballistic missiles at Saudi Arabia's capital, an attack Saudi authorities said they intercepted in the skies over Riyadh.
(Reuters, 5/9/18)
2019 May 9, US Pres. Donald Trump urged Iran's leadership to sit down and talk with him about giving up Tehran's nuclear program and said he could not rule out a military confrontation given the heightened tensions between the two countries.
(Reuters, 5/10/19)
2019 May 9, The United States announced a highly unusual seizure of a huge North Korean cargo ship involved in banned coal transports.
(AP, 5/10/19)
2019 May 9, Former military intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning was freed from a US jail after two months in custody. She is expected to appear before a different grand jury, on Thursday, May 16.
(AFP, 5/10/19)
2019 May 9, US federal prosecutors in Virginia arrested Daniel Everette Hale (31), a former US intelligence analyst, for providing classified information to a reporter under the Espionage Act and with theft of government property.
(SFC, 5/10/19, p.A5)
2019 May 9, US and Chinese negotiators resumed trade talks just hours before the United States was set to raise tariffs on Chinese imports in a dramatic escalation of tensions between the world's two biggest economies.
(AP, 5/09/19)
2019 May 9, The US called on North Korea to "dismantle all political prison camps" and release all political prisoners, who it said numbered between 80,000 and 120,000.
(Reuters, 5/09/19)
2019 May 9, In NYC German con artist Anna Sorokin, a 28-year-old who was born in Russia, was sentenced to four to 12 years in prison for swindling banks, hotels and wealthy New Yorkers. She had used a fake identity as a German heiress named Anna Delvey to scam victims out of more than $200,000.
(AP, 5/10/19)
2019 May 9, In Argentina civil servant Marcelo Yadon (58) was shot five times at close range as he walked in a square in front of the National Congress this morning with his childhood friend and lawmaker Hector Olivares )61). Two men were arrested the next day on suspicion of murder. Press reports later claimed the motive was related to a relationship between Yadon, who was married with children, and the 24-year-old daughter of one of the shooters.
(AP, 5/10/19)
2019 May 9, In Australia three Sunni Muslim men were convicted of engaging in a terror act by burning down a Shiite mosque in the city of Melbourne on Dec. 11, 2016.
(AP, 5/09/19)
2019 May 9, Australia's central bank took responsibility for typos on 46 million bank notes after a radio station posted an image of the microscopic error on social media. The word “responsibility" appears three times on the note and the third "i'' is omitted every time.
(AP, 5/09/19)
2019 May 9, The BBC fired Danny Baker, a broadcaster with BBC Radio 5 Live, who tweeted an image of a chimpanzee dressed in clothes below the caption "Royal Baby leaves hospital".
(Reuters, 5/09/19)
2019 May 9, Ambani's Reliance Brands announced late today that it had bought the 259-year-old British toy store Hamleys from the Hong Kong-listed Chinese fashion conglomerate C. Banner International Holdings for $88 million. India-based Ambani is currently engaged in fierce competition with Amazon and Walmart in an ongoing race to dominate India's retail market.
(AFP, 5/10/19)
2019 May 9, China vowed to defend its own interests and retaliate if President Donald Trump goes ahead with more tariff hikes in a dispute over trade and technology.
(AP, 5/09/19)
2019 May 9, EU leaders, minus Britain, meeting in Sibiu, Romania, committed to stick together "through thick and thin" to remain a key player in the world despite myriad problems facing the bloc.
(AP, 5/09/19)
2019 May 9, French unions held strikes and protests against 120,000 job cuts and other deep changes to France's huge public sector by Pres. Emmanuel Macron's government.
(AP, 5/09/19)
2019 May 9, A French human rights group sought to block the loading of weapons onto a Saudi Arabian vessel that is due to dock in northern France later in the day, arguing the cargo contravened an international arms treaty.
(Reuters, 5/09/19)
2019 May 9, In Iraq gunmen attacked a grain silo in the northern town of Shirqat, killing a guard and setting fire to a vehicle. A suicide bombing killed 8 people at the Jamila marketplace in Baghdad's sprawling Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City. The Islamic State soon claimed responsibility.
(Reuters, 5/09/19)(AP, 5/10/19)
2019 May 9, In southern Libya three people were killed in a suspected hit-and-run attack by Islamic State militants on the town of Ghadwa.
(AP, 5/09/19)
2019 May 9, A Montenegro court sentenced 13 people, including two Russian secret service operatives, to up to 15 years in prison after they were convicted of plotting to overthrow the Balkan country's government on Oct. 16, 2016, and prevent it from joining NATO. The two Russians, identified as Eduard Shishmakov and Vladimir Popov, were tried in absentia.
(AP, 5/09/19)
2019 May 9, In Northern Ireland four males, aged 15, 18, 38 and 51, were arrested under terrorism laws in connection with the killing of journalist Lyra McKee in Londonderry last month.
(AFP, 5/09/19)
2019 May 9, North Korea fired two suspected short-range missiles toward the sea, its second weapons launch in five days and a possible warning that nuclear disarmament talks with Washington could be in danger.
(AP, 5/09/19)
2019 May 9, In Pakistan three soldiers and two coalminers were killed in attacks in the town of Hernai in volatile southwestern Baluchistan province.
(AP, 5/10/19)
2019 May 9, Russian President Vladimir Putin told the 74th annual military Victory Day parade in Red Square that the country will continue to strengthen its armed forces.
(AP, 5/09/19)
2019 May 9, Russia’s government agency for aerial protection of forests said wildfires are blazing on about 58,000 hectares (145,000 acres) throughout the eastern reaches.
(AP, 5/09/19)
2019 May 9, Syrian government troops captured the northwestern village of Qalaat al-Madiq, known for its medieval fortress, and two smaller nearby villages as they moved deeper toward Idlib province, the last major rebel stronghold.
(AP, 5/09/19)
2019 May 9, Taiwan broke ground on a shipyard to produce submarines to counter China's growing military threat.
(AP, 5/09/19)
2019 May 9, Pope Francis issued a new church law about reporting clergy sex abuse and cover-up, outlining investigation procedures when the accused is a bishop or religious superior.
(AP, 5/09/19)
2019 May 9, In Yemen grain silos outside the port of Hodeida, vital to UN plans to feed millions of needy, were hit by gunfire just days after aid staff gained access. The silos, controlled by troops of a Saudi-led coalition, are close to front line with Huthi rebels who control the port and much of the city of Hodeida.
(AFP, 5/10/19)
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