Today in History - June 4
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1070 Jun 4,
Roquefort cheese was accidentally discovered in a cave near
Roquefort, France, when a shepherd found a lunch he had forgotten
several days before.
(HN, 6/4/01)
1133 Jun 4, In Rome Pope
Innocentius II crowned German King Lothair II as emperor at the
Church of the Lateran.
(MC, 6/4/02)(PCh, 1992, p.92)
1316 Jun 4, Louis X (26), King
of France (1314-16), died.
(MC, 6/4/02)
1391 Jun 4, A mob led by
Ferrand Martinez surrounded and set fire to the Jewish quarter of
Seville, Spain. The surviving Jews were sold into slavery.
(MC, 6/4/02)
1568 Jun 4, Lamoraal, Count
Egmont, prince of Gavere, was beheaded in Brussels for opposition to
the Spanish Inquisition. He became a heroic figure in Goethe's play
and Beethoven's musical setting.
(PCh, 1992, p.195)(MC, 6/5/02)
1608 Jun 4, Francesco
Caracciolo (44), Italian religious founder, saint, died.
(MC, 6/4/02)
1615 Jun 4, The fortress of
Osaka, Japan, fell to shogun Leyasu after a six month siege.
(HN, 6/4/98)
1647 Jun 4, In England
Parliamentary forces seized King Charles I as a hostage.
(AP, 6/4/97)(HN, 6/4/98)
1717 Jun 4, The Freemasons
established their Grand Lodge in London. They had begun in the 13th
century as a guild of masons, who worked in soft stone called
freestone.
(HN, 6/4/98)(WSJ, 2/6/02, p.A16)
1738 Jun 4, George III was born
(d.1820). He was the King of Great Britain and Ireland from
1760-1820, and the King of Hanover from 1815-1820. He was
responsible for losing the American colonies. He passed the Royal
Marriages Act, which made it unlawful for his children to marry
without his consent.
(HFA, '96, p.32)(AHD, 1971, p.552) (WSJ, 5/23/96,
p.A-10)
1745 Jun 4, Frederick the Great
of Prussia defeated the Austrians & Saxons.
(MC, 6/4/02)
1756 Jun 4, Quakers left the
assembly of Pennsylvania.
(MC, 6/4/02)
1783 Jun 4, The Montgolfier
brothers launched their 1st hot-air balloon (unmanned) in a
10-minute flight over Annonay, France.
(http://inventors.about.com/od/astartinventions/ss/airship_2.htm)
1784 Jun 4, Elizabeth Thible
became the first woman to fly aboard a Montgolfier hot-air balloon,
over Lyon, France.
(AP, 6/4/07)
1789 Jun 4, The US
constitution, enacted as sovereign law, went into effect.
(V.D.-H.K.p.300)(MC, 6/4/02)
1792 Jun 4, Captain George
Vancouver claimed Puget Sound for Britain.
(HN, 6/4/98)
1792 Jun 4, John Burgoyne,
soldier, playwright, died.
(MC, 6/4/02)
1794 Jun 4, Congress passed a
Neutrality Act that banned Americans from serving in armed forces of
foreign powers.
(MC, 6/4/02)
1794 Jun 4, British troops
captured Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
(HN, 6/4/98)
1794 Jun 4, Robespierre was
unanimously elected president of the Convention in the French
Revolution.
(MC, 6/4/02)
1798 Jun 4, Giovanni Jacopo
Casanova (b.1725), fabled Italian seducer, adventurer, spy,
librarian, died of prostate cancer in Dux, Bohemia. While at Dux he
authored his memoirs: “History of My Life.” The standard English
edition runs over 3,600 pages. In 2008 Ian Kelly authored “Casanova:
Actor, Lover, Priest, Spy.”
(www.1911encyclopedia.org/Giovanni_Jacopo_Casanova_de_Seingalt)(WSJ,
10/24/08, p.W5)
1800 Jun 4, The White House was
completed and President & Mrs. John Adams moved in. [see Nov 1]
(MC, 6/4/02)
1805 Jun 4, The US signed a
Treaty of Peace and Amity at Tripoli. The US agreed to pay Tripoli
$60,000 in war reparations and was in turn absolved of tribute
demands. The treaty was ratified by the US on Apr 17, 1806.
(ON, 2/03,
p.4)(www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/diplomacy/barbary/bar1805t.htm)
1812 Jun 4, The Louisiana
Territory was renamed the Missouri Territory.
(AP, 6/4/97)
1826 Jun 4, Karl Maria FE von
Weber (39), German composer (Oberon), died.
(MC, 6/4/02)
1843 Jun 4, Charles C. Abbott,
American naturalist, was born. He wrote “Days Out of Doors.”
(HN, 6/4/00)
1850 Jun 4, A self deodorizing
fertilizer was patented in England.
(MC, 6/4/02)
1859 Jun 4, The French army
under Napoleon III took Magenta from the Austrian army after a
bloody battle in northern Italy.
(HN, 6/4/99)
1862 Jun 4, Confederates
evacuated Ft. Pillow, Tenn.
(MC, 6/4/02)
1864 Jun 4, With Gen. Sherman
again flanking them, Confederates under General Joseph Johnston
retreated to the mountains before Marietta, Georgia.
(HN, 6/4/98)
1867 Jun 4, Carl Gustaf
Mannerheim, president of Finland, was born.
(HN, 6/4/98)
1872 Jun 4, Harvey Flint
(d.1882) patented his Quaker Bitters, a general cure-all with 21.4%
alcohol. He had recently left a family furniture business in
Providence, Rhode Island, and began making Quaker Bitters under the
name Flint & Co.
(SFC, 8/8/07,
p.G2)(www.bottlebooks.com/temperance/temperance.htm)
1878 Jun 4, The Ottoman Empire
turned over control of Cyprus to the British.
(AP, 6/4/08)
1889 Jun 4, Beno Gutenberg,
seismologist, was born.
(HN, 6/4/01)
1892 Jun 4, The Sierra Club was
incorporated in San Francisco.
(AP, 6/4/97)
1894 Jun 4, Blanch Knopf,
publishing CEO (Knopf), was born.
(MC, 6/4/02)
1895 Jun 4, Dino Conte Grandi,
Italy's delegate to League of Nations, was born.
(HN, 6/4/98)
1896 Jun 4, Henry Ford made a
successful pre-dawn test run of his horseless carriage, called a
quadricycle, through the streets of Detroit.
(AP, 6/4/97)
1904 Jun 4, Alvah Bessie,
screenwriter and novelist, was born.
(HN, 6/4/01)
1907 Jun 4, Automatic washer
and dryer was introduced.
(MC, 6/4/02)
1908 Jun 4, Rosalind Russell
(d.1976), actress (Mame, Take a Letter Darling), was born in
Waterbury, Connecticut.
(www.filmreference.com/Actors-and-Actresses-Ro-Sc/Russell-Rosalind.html)
1911 Jun 4, Gold was discovered
in Alaska's Indian Creek.
(HN, 6/4/98)
1912 Jun 4, Massachusetts
passed the 1st US minimum wage law.
(MC, 6/4/02)
1917 Jun 4, Charles
Collingwood, news commentator (CBS, Chronicles), was born in Mich.
(MC, 6/4/02)
1917 Jun 4, American men begin
registering for the draft. [see Jun 5]
(MC, 6/4/02)
1917 Jun 4, The Most Excellent
Order of the British Empire, a British order of chivalry, was
established by King George V. The Order included five classes in
civil and military divisions in decreasing order of seniority. These
included: Knight Grand Cross (GBE) or Dame Grand Cross (GBE), Knight
Commander (KBE) or Dame Commander (DBE), Commander (CBE),
Officer (OBE), and Member (MBE).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_the_British_Empire)
1918 Jun 4, French and American
troops halted Germany's offensive at Chateau-Thierry, France.
(HN, 6/4/98)
1919 Jun 4, The U.S. Senate
passed the Women's Suffrage bill.
(HN, 6/4/98)
1919 Jun 4, US marines invaded
Costa Rica.
(MC, 6/4/02)
1920 Jun 4, The Treaty of
Trianon, signed at Versailles, was forced upon Hungary by the
victorious Allies after WWII and resulted in Hungary giving up
nearly three-fourths of its territory to Romania, Czechoslovakia and
the Kingdom of Serbs, Croat and Slovenes. Hungary lost more than
half its population, including some 3 million Hungarians. Hungary
ceded the hills of Transylvania to Romania.
(HNQ, 7/5/98)(WSJ, 1/2/97,
p.1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Trianon)
1923 Jun 4, Filippo Smaldone,
Italian priest, died. He provided education and assistance for the
death and founded the Congregation of the Salesian Sisters of the
Sacred Heart. In 2006 Pope Benedict XVI named him a saint.
(SFC, 10/16/06, p.A2)
1928 Jun 4, Ruth Westheimer,
sex therapist (WYNY-FM), was born in Germany.
(MC, 6/4/02)
1929 Jun 4, George Eastman
demonstrated 1st Technicolor movie in Rochester, NY.
(MC, 6/4/02)
1936 Jun 4, Leon Blum became
the first socialist and the first Jew to serve as Prime Minister of
France.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%A9on_Blum)
1937 Jun 4, Robert Fulghrum,
American author, was born. He wrote "All I Really need to Know I
learned in Kindergarten" and "It Was on Fire When I Lay Down on It."
(HN, 6/4/99)
1937 Jun 4, Freddy Fender,
singer, was born as Baldemar Huerta. His songs included: Wasted Days
and Wasted Nights and Before the Next Teardrop Falls.
(www.napster.com/view/artist/index.html?id=11508506)
1939 Jun 4, During what became
known as the "Voyage of the Damned," the SS St. Louis, carrying 907
Jewish refugees from Germany, was turned away from the Florida
coast. Also denied permission to dock in Canada and Cuba, the ship
eventually returned to Europe. The passengers were divided among
England, France, Belgium and Holland and a number of the refugees
later died in Nazi concentration camps. By 2003 efforts to track
their fates identified 935 out of the 937 passengers. Some 260 ended
in Nazi killing centers.
(AP, 6/4/99)(SFC, 10/4/99, p.D3)(SSFC, 12/7/03,
Par p.5)(Econ, 6/24/06, p.44)
1940 Jun 4, A synthetic rubber
tire was unveiled.
(MC, 6/4/02)
1940 Jun 4, The Allied military
evacuation of 300,000 troops from Dunkirk, France, ended.
(AP, 6/4/97)(HN, 6/4/98)
1940 Jun 4, German forces
entered Paris.
(MC, 6/4/02)
1941 Jun 4, Republic of Croatia
ordered all Jews to wear a star with the letter Z.
(MC, 6/4/02)
1941 Jun 4, Wilhelm II von
Hohenzollern, emperor (Germany, 1888-1918), died.
(MC, 6/4/02)
1942 Jun 4, The Battle of
Midway began. It was Japan’s first major defeat in World War II.
Four Japanese carriers were lost. The carrier USS Yorktown was hit
by 3 Japanese bombs and put on tow to Pearl Harbor. It was torpedoed
three days later and sank in waters 16,650 deep. The Yorktown was
found in 1998 by a team led by oceanographer Robert Ballard, who had
also found the Titanic and the Bismarck. The story of the Battle of
Midway was told by Walter Lord in "Incredible Victory." In 2005
Alvin Kernan authored “The Unknown Battle of Midway.”
(AP, 6/4/97)(HN, 6/4/98)(SFC, 6/5/98, p.A3)(SFEC,
6/4/00, p.C1)(WSJ, 11/29/05, p.D8)
1943 Jun 4, Race riots took
place in LA.
(MC, 6/4/02)
1943 Jun 4, In Argentina, Gen
Rawson and Col. Juan Peron led the military coup that overthrew
Ramon S. Castillo.
(HN, 6/4/98)(MC, 6/4/02)
1944 Jun 4, The U-505 became
the first enemy submarine captured by the U.S. Navy under Admiral
Dan Gallery. The keel for the U-505 was laid on June 12, 1940. It
launched from Hamburg the following year. During its career, the
U-505 gained the unwelcome but lucky distinction of being the
most heavily damaged U-boat to manage to return to port. Under the
command of Harald Lange, the boat was attacked by an American task
group led by the USS Guadalcanal. Crewmen from the destroyer escort
USS Pillsbury managed to capture the U-505 before the submariners
could in scuttle her. This represented the first time since 1815
that the US Navy captured an enemy warship on the high seas (the
capture remained a secret). After the war, Navy plans to scuttle the
U-boat in a gunnery exercise were themselves scrapped when the
president of Chicago’s Museum of Science & Industry voiced
interest and a plan to use the entire submarine as part of an
exhibit. The U-505 was dedicated as a permanent exhibit and war
memorial at the museum on September 25, 1954. In 2005 a $35 million
project restored the ship and moved it to a specially constructed
underground hall.
(HN, 6/4/98)(HNQ, 3/29/01)(WSJ, 8/5/05, p.W2)
1944 Jun 4, The US Fifth Army
under Gen. Mark Clark, entered Rome, beginning the liberation of the
Italian capital during World War II.
(AP, 6/4/97)(Econ, 4/12/08, p.94)
1945 Jun 4, Anthony Braxton,
jazz composer and saxophonist, was born.
(HN, 6/4/01)
1945 Jun 4, US, Russia, England
& France agreed to split occupied Germany.
(MC, 6/4/02)
1946 Jun 4, Juan Peron was
installed as Argentina's president.
(HN, 6/4/98)
1946 Jun 4, A giant eruption
occurred on the surface of the sun and was photographed by the
coronograph of the High Altitude Observatory of the Univ. of
Colorado.
(SCTS, p.84)
1947 Jun 4, The House of
Representatives overwhelmingly approved the Labor Management
Relations Act also known as the Taft-Hartley Act. It provided for an
80-day injunction against strikes that endangered public health and
safety. Pres. [see Jun 20]
(WUD, 1994 p.1447)(AP, 6/4/97)(SFC, 11/27/99,
p.C4)
1948 Jun 4, Hugh Kenner (d.2003
at 80) met for the 1st time with Ezra Pound in a Washington-area
mental facility. Pound became his mentor and directed him in a
number of literary efforts. In 1951 Kenner turned his thesis into
the book: "The Poetry of Ezra Pound." In 1971 Kenner authored "The
Pound Era."
(SSFC, 11/30/03, p.A31)
1951 Jun 4, Serge Koussevitsky
(76), conductor, composer, died.
(MC, 6/4/02)
1952 Jun 4, Parker Stevenson,
actor (The Hardy Boys Mysteries, Baywatch, Melrose Place, Falcon
Crest), was born.
(MC, 6/4/02)
1953 Jun 4, An atomic bomb test
explosion took place at Yucca Flats, Nevada, equivalent to 50,000
tons of TNT. This was double the 1945 blast over Hiroshima.
(SFC, 5/30/03, p.E7)
1953 Jun 4, North Koreans
accepted UN proposals in all major respects.
(HN, 6/4/98)
1954 Jun 4, French Premier
Joseph Laniel and Vietnamese Premier Buu Loc initialed treaties in
Paris according "complete independence" to Vietnam.
(AP, 6/4/97)
1958 Jun 4, French premier De
Gaulle arrived in Algiers.
(MC, 6/4/02)
1959 Jun 4, The Soviet Union’s
Bolshoi Ballet company arrived in San Francisco following
performances in New York and Los Angeles. They were scheduled for 4
performances at the War Memorial House. In LA troupe members bought
furs, rugs, china and curtain rods.
(SSFC, 5/31/09, DB p.50)
1960 Jun 4, The Taiwan island
of Quemoy was hit by 500 artillery shells fired from the coast of
Communist China.
(HN, 6/4/98)
1961 Jun 4, A Soviet K-19
nuclear submarine with 139 crew members experienced a nuclear
accident. 22 later died from radiation poisoning. In 2001 the US
film “K-19: The Widowmaker” loosely depicted the accident.
(SFC, 4/20/01, p.A14)(WSJ, 4/3/02, p.A20)
1962 Jun 4, Lee Harvey Oswald
departed Rotterdam on SS Maasdam to US.
(MC, 6/4/02)
1962 Jun 4, William Beebe
(b.1877), US biologist, explorer, died. In 2004 Carol Grant Gould
authored “The Remarkable Life of William Beebe: Explorer and
Naturalist.”
(NH, 2/05,
p.54)(www.britannica.com/eb/article?tocId=9014090)
1967 Jun 4, American actor and
comedian Bill Cosby (b.1937) received an Emmy Award for his work in
the television series "I Spy." Cosby won three consecutive Emmy
Awards for Outstanding Lead Actor in the Drama Series in 1966, 1967
and 1968. In the 19th Emmy Awards: Mission Impossible, Monkees, Don
Knotts & Lucy Ball were among the winners.
(HN, 6/4/00)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Spy)
1968 Jun 4, Robert Kennedy won
the California democratic Presidential Primary whose candidates
included Eugene McCarthy. Vice-Pres. Hubert Humphrey had declined to
enter the California primary. Kennedy was shot the next day in LA by
Sirhan Sirhan and died on June 6.
(SFEM, 11/17/96, p.26)
1968 Jun 4, Alexandre Kojeve
(b.1902), French-Russian philosopher, died in Brussels. He was
suspected of serving as a Soviet spy from 1938 to his death.
(WSJ, 10/11/01,
p.A20)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandre_Koj%C3%A8ve)
1969 Jun 4, Armando Socarras
Ramirez (22) sneaked into wheel pod of a jet parked in Havana &
survived a 9-hr flight to Spain despite thin oxygen levels at 29,000
ft.
(http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/168489/an/0/page/25)
1972 Jun 4, Black militant
Angela Davis was found not guilty of murder, kidnapping, and
criminal conspiracy.
(HN, 6/4/98)
1974 Jun 4, Ten Cent Beer Night
was an ill-fated promotion held by the American League's Cleveland
Indians during a game against the Texas Rangers at Cleveland
Municipal Stadium.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_Cent_Beer_Night)
1975 Jun 4, The oldest animal
fossils to date in the US were discovered in North Carolina.
(www.todayinsci.com/6/6_04.htm)
1979 Jun 4, Joe Clark of the
Progressive Conservatives became the 16th prime minister of Canada.
(AP, 6/4/07)
1979 Jun 4, In Ghana friends of
J.J. Rawlings (b.1947), led by Major Boakye Djan, overthrew the
military government of General Fred Akuffo in a bloody coup.
(SFC, 12/6/96, p.B1)
1979 Jun 4, South African Pres.
Vorster resigned due to scandal. Marais Viljoen became the last
non-executive State President of South Africa and served until
September 3, 1984.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marais_Viljoen)
1980 Jun 4, In northern
California the body of Anna Menjivas was discovered in Mt. Tamalpais
State Park. Her murder had not been connected with the "Trailside"
slayings at the time. Investigators later learned she was a
long-time friend of David Carpenter, who often let him drive her
home from work. In 1988 Carpenter was convicted of 4 killings
in Marin County.
(www.francesfarmersrevenge.com/stuff/serialkillers/carpenter.htm)(SFC,
2/24/10, p.A7)
1982 Jun 4, A 4-day storm began
in New England. It deluged Connecticut with 14 inches of rain,
breaking 23 dams and destroying two. Damages were estimated at close
to $276 million.
(SFC, 6/4/09, p.D10)
1982 Jun 4, Israel attacked
targets in south Lebanon one day after the attempted assassination
of the Israeli ambassador in London.
(www.adl.org/israel/advocacy/glossary/lebanon_war.asp)
1983 Jun 4, In Chino Hills,
Ca., Douglas and Peggy Ryen and their 10-year old daughter, Jessica,
were killed in the master bedroom of their home. Christopher Hughes
(11), a neighbor, was also killed. Joshua Ryen (8) survived despite
serious wounds. Kevin Cooper, who escaped from Chino prison on June
2, was arrested 47 days later and was convicted for the murders in
1985 and faced execution. Cooper claimed he was innocent and called
for DNA testing of the evidence in 2000. In 2003 an execution date
of Feb 10, 2004, was set for Cooper. Cooper won a last minute
reprieve on Feb 9 pending a re-examination of the case. In 2005 a
federal judge upheld his death penalty.
(SFC, 12/18/03, p.A21)(SFC, 2/11/04,
p.A4)(www.savekevincooper.org/background.html)
1984 Jun 4, DNA was
successfully cloned from a quagga, an animal extinct since 1883.
(www.tecsoc.org/pubs/history/2003/jun4.htm)
1985 Jun 4, The Supreme Court
upheld a lower court ruling striking down an Alabama law providing
for a daily "moment of silence" in public schools.
(AP, 6/4/97)(http://tinyurl.com/2lqt4u)
1986 Jun 4, Jonathan Jay
Pollard, a former Navy intelligence analyst, pleaded guilty in
Washington to spying for Israel. He was later sentenced a life
prison term.
(AP, 6/4/97)(WSJ, 1/28/98, p.A18)
1987 Jun 4, The US
congressional Iran-Contra committees voted to grant limited immunity
to former National Security Council aide Oliver L. North, following
an appeal by independent counsel Lawrence E. Walsh to reject
immunity.
(AP, 6/4/97)
1988 Jun 4, US Secretary of
State George Shultz flew to Jordan, where he met with King Hussein.
Afterward, Shultz said the Jordanian monarch was reluctant to engage
in peace talks with Israel unless Israel agreed to give up land on
the West Bank.
(AP, 6/4/98)
1989 Jun 4, "Jerome Robbins's
Broadway" won best musical at the 43rd annual Tony Awards; "The
Heidi Chronicles" by Wendy Wasserstein won best play.
(AP, 6/4/99)
1989 Jun 4, In China hundreds
of people died as Chinese army troops stormed Beijing to crush the
pro-democracy movement. Hundreds of thousands of discontented
Chinese took to the streets of Beijing, demanding more reform, but
the military crushed the protests in the Tiananmen Square crackdown.
Zhao Ziyang was ousted. The West and Japan cut off aid. Bao Tong was
the only Communist Party official arrested in the Tiananmen Square
uprising. He was released with ill-health in 1996. Han Dongfang,
leader of China’s first independent trade union spent 22 months
behind bars for his role in the pro-democracy uprising. Ren Wanding
was also again jailed for giving speeches in the pro-democracy
protests.
(WSJ 12/10/93)(SFC, 5/28/96, p.A6)(SFC, 6/4/96,
p.A11)(SFC, 6/10/96, C2)(AP, 6/4/97)
1989 Jun 4, Poland held Eastern
Europe's 1st somewhat free election in 40 years. The 2-part election
(June 4 and 19) resulted in a land-slide victory of the opposition
organized in the Citizens' Committee, which won all 161 seats
available to it in the Sejm, and 99 out of 100 seats in the senate.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solidarity_Citizens'_Committee)
1989 Jun 4, A gas explosion in
the Soviet Union engulfed two passing trains, killing 645.
(AP, 6/4/97)
1990 Jun 4, Janet Adkins (54)
of Portland, Ore., became the first person to use a suicide machine
developed by Dr. Kevorkian. This began a national debate over the
right to die.
(SFC, 4/14/99,
p.A3)(www.lectlaw.com/files/cas20.htm)
1990 Jun 4, Soviet President
Mikhail Gorbachev closed out his US visit in northern California,
where he held a reunion with former President Reagan and met with
South Korean President Roh Tae-woo in San Francisco, and addressed
students at Stanford University in Palo Alto.
(AP, 6/4/00)
1991 Jun 4, President Bush
tapped former Democratic national chairman Robert S. Strauss to be
the new US ambassador to the Soviet Union.
(AP, 6/4/01)
1991 Jun 4, The government of
China announced the death of Jiang Qing (77), the widow of Mao
Tse-tung, saying she had committed suicide on May 14th.
(AP, 6/4/01)
1992 Jun 4, President Bush held
a news conference in which he said he understood Americans'
fascination with Ross Perot, but predicted that voters would
eventually ask, "How are you going to do it?"
(AP, 6/4/97)
1992 Jun 4, The U.S. Postal
Service announced the results of a nationwide vote on the Elvis
Presley stamp, saying more people preferred the "younger Elvis"
design.
(AP, 6/4/97)
1993 Jun 4, Rejecting
allegations of "quota queen," Lani Guinier expressed regret
President Clinton had dropped her nomination to head the Justice
Department's civil rights division.
(AP, 6/4/98)
1993 Jun 4, The UN Security
Council agreed to send up to 10,000 more UN peacekeepers to six
Bosnian cities to protect Muslim havens.
(AP, 6/4/98)
1994 Jun 4, President Clinton
and British Prime Minister John Major paid tribute to the lost
airmen of World War II at the American Cemetery in Cambridge,
England.
(AP, 6/4/99)
1994 Jun 4, Gregory Scarpa,
nicknamed The Grim Reaper, died in a Minnesota prison. He was a
soldier for the Colombo crime family and an informant for the FBI.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregory_Scarpa_Sr.)
1994 Jun 4, Toto Bissainthe
(59), Haitian poet and singer, died.
(www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/world/guidehaitid.shtml)
1995 Jun 4, At the Tony Awards,
“Sunset Boulevard” won best Broadway musical while “Love! Valour!
Compassion!” by Terrence McNally was chosen best play.
(AP, 6/4/00)
1995 Jun 4, Sophie Winter (34),
actress (She's a Good Fighter), died from a misdiagnosed extopic
pregnancy.
(http://tinyurl.com/83sc6)
1995 Jun 4, French General
Bernard Janvier, supreme UN military commander in the former
Yugoslavia, met with Bosnian Serb military commander, Ratko Mladic.
He pleaded for the release of UN captives and offered to halt future
NATO air attacks. Shortly after Yasushi Akashi publicly affirmed
that the UN would abide by peacekeeping principles - shorthand for
no more air attacks.
(SFC, 6/7/96, p.A10)
1995 Jun 4, In Sri Lanka the
Tigers blew up a ship chartered by the Int’l. Committee of the Red
Cross.
(SFC, 7/24/96, p.A9)
1996 Jun 4, Russian President
Boris Yeltsin, campaigning for re-election, indulged in a bit of
onstage boogie at a pop concert for young voters.
(AP, 6/4/97)
1996 Jun 4, US and French
officials signed a secret agreement to share nuclear weapons
information and facilitate joint work between scientists.
(SFC, 6/15/96, p.A10)
1996 Jun 4, The Organization of
American States criticized the US over the extension of the economic
embargo against Cuba with 32 co-sponsors. The US was the sole
dissenter.
(SFC, 6/6/96, C2)
1996 Jun 4, NATO foreign
ministers approved plans to shift focus toward intervention in small
regional conflicts and away from containing Russia, its primary
focus for 47 years.
(WSJ, 6/4/96, p.A1)
1996 Jun 4, In Burundi three
Swiss Red Cross workers were ambushed and killed while delivering
supplies near the village of Mugina. The Tutsi-dominated Uprona
Party denied any role and said the killings were the work of gangs
of the Coalition for the Defense of Democracy, the main Hutu rebel
group.
(SFC, 6/5/96, p.C16)(SFC, 6/6/96,
p.C3)
1996 Jun 4, The European Space
Agency Ariane 5 rocket was destroyed when it went off course during
take-off from Kourou, French Guiana. The $7 billion rocket had taken
10 years to develop and was to be capable of carrying 7.6 tons into
orbit.
(SFC, 6/5/96, p.C16)
1996 Jun 4, A report on China
focused on tens of millions of people suffering from iodine
deficiency. The effects of the deficiency has led to stunted lives
and intellects. Where goiter and cretinism are not visibly apparent,
chronic mental and physical fatigue and some degree of mental
impairment was widespread.
(SFC, 6/4/96, p.A13)
1996 Jun 4, In Nigeria Kudirat
Abiola, wife of imprisoned opposition leader Moshood Abiola, was
shot and killed by 6 gunmen near her home in Lagos. In 2011 Maj.
Hamza Al-Mustapha, right-hand man of dictator Sani Abacha, faced
trial for ordering a security agent to kill Kudirat. Al-Mustapha
denied taking part in her machine-gun killing, saying he was
tortured into a false confession.
(SFC, 6/5/96, p.C2)(AP, 8/9/11)
1997 Jun 4, At the Oklahoma
City bombing trial, prosecutors urged the jury to sentence Timothy
McVeigh to death, calling relatives of victims to testify about
agonizing losses.
(AP, 6/4/98)
1997 Jun 4, In Lubbock, Texas,
Michael Rosales, a parole violator, beat and used kitchen tools to
kill Mary Felder (67) during a robbery at her apartment. Rosales
(35) was executed on April 16, 2009.
(SFC, 4/16/09,
p.A6)(www.oag.state.tx.us/oagnews/release.php?id=2917)
1997 Jun 4, The 53-nation
Organization of African Unity unanimously condemned the coup in
Sierra Leone. The 16-member Nigerian-led Economic Community of West
African states pledged not to tolerate military coups on the
continent a day after it approved the use of force to restore the
government of Sierra Leone.
(SFC, 6/5/97, p.C3)
1997 Jun 4, Brazil’s Senate
approved a constitutional revision to allow office-holders to run
for re-election. this will allow Pres. Cardoso to seek a 2nd term.
(WSJ, 6/5/97, p.A1)
1997 Jun 4, China signed a $660
million deal to develop an Iraqi oil field.
(WSJ, 6/5/97, p.A1)
1997 Jun 4, In France PM Lionel
Jospin appointed women to 6 of 16 ministerial positions.
(SFC, 6/5/97, p.C2)
1997 Jun 4, In Germany some
600,000 chemical union workers agreed to allow wage cuts by up to
10% by financially strapped companies. Record unemployment stood at
11% and the government asked unions for some flexibility.
(SFC, 6/6/97, p.E2)
1997 Jun 4, In Drammen, Norway,
a car bomb destroyed the headquarters of the Bandido motorcycle
gang. One passerby was killed and 4 people were injured.
(SDUT, 6/6/97, p.A26)
1998 Jun 4, In Denver a federal
judge sentenced Terry Nichols to life in prison without parole for
conspiring in 1995 to bomb the Alfred Murrah Federal Building in
Oklahoma City.
(SFC, 6/5/98, p.A1)(AP, 6/4/99)
1998 Jun 4, Americans aboard
the shuttle Discovery arrived at the Russian space station Mir to
pick up U.S. astronaut Andrew Thomas, who'd spent four months in
orbit.
(AP, 6/4/99)
1998 Jun 4, It was reported
that Duke Univ. scientists reported that they were able to change
sickled blood cells into normal cells using genetic therapy.
(SFC, 6/5/98, p.A7)
1998 Jun 4, In Bluff, Utah,
Robert Mason (26), one of 3 suspects in the May 29 killing of a
Cortez, Colo., police officer, was found dead with a gunshot wound
to his head.
(SFC, 6/5/98, p.A3)
1998 Jun 4, A team of
physicists from Japan reported that they had established that the
subnuclear neutrino particles had mass.
(SFC, 6/5/98, p.A1)
1998 Jun 4, Shirley Polykoff,
the pioneering advertising woman who authored the “Does she... or
doesn’t she” for Clairol hair dyes in 1956, died at age 90. She
wrote the 1975 book “Does She... or Doesn’t She? And How She Die
It.”
(SFC, 6/9/98, p.A24)
1998 Jun 4, In Britain the
House of Commons decided to get rid of its collapsible top hats, a
tradition that dated from 19th century.
(SFC, 6/5/98, p.D4)
1998 Jun 4, In Indonesia
creditor banks unveiled a plan to restructure $80 billion of foreign
debt owed by banks and corporations.
(WSJ, 6/5/98, p.A1)
1998 Jun 4, Mexico, Saudi
Arabia and Venezuela agreed to cuts in oil production and exports
for the 2nd time this year in order to raise prices.
(WSJ, 6/5/98, p.A2)
1998 Jun 4, In Pristina,
Serbia, the Kosovo Albanians withdrew from negotiations with Serbia
due to the new Serbian offensive.
(SFC, 6/5/98, p.D2)
1998 Jun 4, In Taiwan it was
reported that an airborne virus had killed 26 children in the last 6
weeks. Another 132 were hospitalized and as many as 9,000 were
infected. Efforts to fight the disease were being centralized.
Enterovirus 71 soon claimed 7 more children.
(WSJ, 6/5/98, p.A1)(SFC, 6/19/98, p.B4)
1999 Jun 4, Using a provision
of the Constitution allowing him to bypass the Senate, Pres. Clinton
bypassed Congress with a "recess appointment" for James Hormel as
ambassador to Luxembourg, the first openly gay ambassador in US
history.
(SFC, 6/5/99, p.A1)(AP, 6/4/00)
1999 Jun 4, A federal judge in
Portland ruled that AT&T must open its cable lines to
competitors.
(SFC, 6/5/99, p.A1)
1999 Jun 4, Senators Diane
Feinstein of California and Harry Reid of Nevada announced the Lake
Tahoe Restoration Act. The bill would authorized $300 million over
10 years to restore clarity and health to Lake Tahoe.
(SFC, 6/5/99, p.A1)
1999 Jun 4, On the tenth
anniversary of China’s crackdown on the Tiananmen Square protests,
tens of thousands of people in Hong Kong held a candlelight vigil.
(AP, 6/4/00)
1999 Jun 4, The Deutsche Bank
AG $9.8 billion acquisition of Bankers Trust, an American Bank, was
finalized.
(Econ, 5/19/07, SR
p.10)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bankers_Trust)
1999 Jun 4, NATO commanders met
with Yugoslav army officers in Macedonia to arrange for the
withdrawal of some 40,000 Serbian troops from Kosovo.
(SFC, 6/5/99, p.A1)
1999 Jun 4, Pope John Paul II
traveled to Poland, the first stop on a 13-day visit to 20 cities.
This was his 8th visit to Poland.
(WSJ, 6/4/99, p.A1)
1999 Jun 4, In Colombia at
least 2,000 people crossed the border into Venezuela to escape heavy
fighting in northern Santander province.
(SFC, 6/5/99, p.A12)
1999 Jun 4, In Turkey police
killed 2 members of a radical group believed to be planning a rocket
attack on the US Consulate in Istanbul.
(SFC, 6/5/99, p.A12)
2000 Jun 4, The play
“Copenhagen” by Michael Frayn won the best play Tony at the 54th
annual Tony Awards in Manhattan. The dance-play “Contact” won for
best new musical. “Kiss Me, Kate” won for best musical revival.
(SFC, 6/5/00, p.D1)(AP, 6/4/01)
2000 Jun 4, Pres. Clinton and
Pres. Putin agreed to each dispose 34 metric tons of weapons-grade
plutonium and to establish a military center in Moscow for US and
Russian officers to share early warning data on missile and space
launches. Clinton then answered questions from the public at the
Ekho Moskvy radio station.
(SFC, 6/5/00, p.A1,8)
2000 Jun 4, In NYC 150 people
posed face-down flat nude beneath the Williamsburg Bridge for a
photo shoot by Spencer Tunick.
(SFC, 6/5/00, p.A7)
2000 Jun 4, NASA directed the
$670 million, 17-ton, crippled Compton Gamma Ray Observatory into a
suicide plunge into the Pacific Ocean in a controlled re-entry to
avoid debris over populated areas.
(SFC, 6/3/00,
p.A6)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compton_Gamma_Ray_Observatory)
2000 Jun 4, It was reported
that IBM planned to build the “Blue Gene” computer over the next
five years to model the way human proteins fold into shapes that
give them unique biological properties.
(SFEC, 6/4/00, p.A12)
2000 Jun 4, A 3-day meeting on
trade of the 34-nation OAS, Organization of American States, began
in Windsor, Canada. Police arrested 41 protesters.
(SFEC, 6/4/00, p.A20)(SFC, 6/5/00, p.A9)
2000 Jun 4, In Indonesia a 7.3
earthquake hit Sumatra and over 100 people were killed with
relentless aftershocks.
(SFC, 6/5/00, p.A8)(SFC, 6/6/00, p.A13)
2000 Jun 4, In West Papua
separatists made a declaration of independence from Indonesia. Thaha
Alhamid read the declaration before thousands gathered in Jayapura.
500 West Papuans had gathered for a “congress” that resulted in the
declaration.
(SFC, 6/5/00, p.A8)(SFC, 7/7/00, p.A12)
2000 Jun 4, In Pakistan a new
government tax caused protests and strikes. In Peshawar police broke
up a rally with tear gas and batons. Small traders refused to open
their shops and transport workers joined the strikes.
(SFEC, 6/11/00, p.T10)
2000 Jun 4, In the Solomon
Islands insurgents of the Malaita Eagle Force militia took Prime
Minister Bartholomew Ulufa’alua hostage in Honiara. The Malaita
Force was fighting the Isatabu force, which was trying to drive
thousands of migrants from Malaita off of Guadalcanal.
(SFC, 6/5/00, p.A9)
2001 Jun 4, Pres. Bush spoke in
the Florida Everglades and underlined his request for $58 million in
the 2002 budget for Everglades restoration.
(SFC, 6/5/01, p.A3)
2001 Jun 4, It was reported
that US Defense Sec. Donald Rumsfeld had virtually cut off all
Pentagon contacts with the Chinese armed forces in displeasure over
the spy plane incident. Rumsfeld announced that he had given limited
permission to resume military-to-military contacts with China due to
the progress in the resolution of the spy plane incident.
(SFC, 6/4/01, p.A10)(SFC, 6/5/01, p.A12)
2001 Jun 4, Nevada lawmakers
approved a bill to legalize Internet gambling and passed a medical
marijuana measure.
(WSJ, 6/5/01, p.A1)
2001 Jun 4, Hewlett-Packard
agreed to pay $400 million to Pitney Bowes to settle a 6-year-old
patent dispute over printer technology.
(SFC, 6/5/01, p.C1)
2001 Jun 4, In India government
troops battled Islamic rebels on 3 fronts and 23 people were killed.
4 civilians died when a grenade missed a paramilitary bunker and
exploded at a crowded bus station.
(SFC, 6/5/01, p.A14)
2001 Jun 4, As Israeli soldiers
and Palestinians exchanged fire in Rafah, Hamas said that it would
join the cease-fire.
(SFC, 6/5/01, p.A12)
2001 Jun 4, In Nepal King
Dipendra died 3 days after allegedly shooting the royal family and
himself. Prince Gyanendra was named king.
(SFC, 6/4/01, p.A8)(AP, 6/4/02)
2001 Jun 4, In Russia most of
the production of vodka stopped due to the lack of government
stamps, which were ordered to fight bootlegging and boost taxes.
(WSJ, 6/5/01, p.A1)
2001 Jun 4, In Sri Lanka
anti-terrorist commandos killed 14 Tamil Tiger rebels trying to
infiltrate the Ampara district.
(SFC, 6/5/01, p.A14)
2001 Jun 4, In Zimbabwe
Chenjerai Hunzvi (Hitler Hunzvi), a leader of the war veterans, died
at age 51. He had led the violent occupations of white-owned farms.
(SFC, 6/5/01, p.A14)
2002 Jun 4, Pres. Bush said the
CIA and FBI had failed to communicate adequately before the Sept.
11, 2001, terror attacks; Congress began extraordinary closed-door
hearings into intelligence lapses.
(AP, 6/4/03)
2002 Jun 4, Pres. Bush said
that he read the new EPA report on global warming, but still opposed
the Kyoto treaty.
(SFC, 6/5/02, p.A3)
2002 Jun 4, Members of Congress
initiated an investigation to probe the “evolution of the
international terrorist threat” back to 1986.
(SFC, 6/5/02, p.A1)
2002 Jun 4, A NYC crime sweep
arrested 17 alleged members of the Gambino family with charges that
included extortion.
(SFC, 6/5/02, p.A8)
2002 Jun 4, A panel of U.S.
Roman Catholic bishops called for a zero-tolerance policy against
priests who molest children in the future and a
two-strikes-you're-out policy for those guilty of past abuse.
(AP, 6/4/03)
2002 Jun 4, Japan ratified the
Kyoto Protocol, aimed at cutting emissions of heat-trapping gases
and urged the US and other countries to do so.
(AP, 6/4/03)(SFC, 6/5/02, p.A3)
2002 Jun 4, New Zealand's prime
minister apologized for mistakes her country made during its 48-year
rule over the tiny South Pacific island chain of Samoa.
(AP, 6/3/02)
2002 Jun 4, In Syria the
Zayzoun Dam (b.1996) near Idlib burst and at least 20 people were
killed. A 24 square-mile area was flooded and 3 villages submerged.
(SFC, 6/7/02, p.A13)
2002 Jun 4, Turkish
peacekeepers arrived in Afghanistan.
(WSJ, 6/5/02, p.A1)
2003 Jun 4, Pres. Bush held
meetings with the Israeli and Palestinian prime ministers, hoping to
advance a Middle East peace plan after winning new support from top
Arab leaders.
(AP, 6/4/04)
2003 Jun 4, Martha Stewart
stepped down as head of her media empire, hours after she was
charged with a 9-count federal indictment in a stock trading
scandal. Stewart was convicted in March, 2004, of lying about why
she'd sold her shares of ImClone Systems stock in 2001, just before
the stock price plunged.
(SFC, 6/5/03, p.A1)(AP, 6/4/04)
2003 Jun 4, Palm Inc. said it
would buy rival Handspring in a stock deal valued at $195 mil.
(SFC, 6/5/03, p.B1)(WSJ, 6/5/03, p.B1)
2003 Jun 4, The Pews Ocean
Commission said US waters are so stressed by pollution and
overfishing that drastic federal intervention is required.
(SFC, 6/5/03, p.A8)(WSJ, 6/5/03, p.A1)
2003 Jun 4, Corey Marques
Jasmin (20), an airman at Travis Air Force Base, robbed an adult
book store in Fairfield, Ca. Hours later he killed two homeless
women, Otilia Carrington (48) and Ricksehlla Harrison (29). In 2008
a state appeals court upheld his life sentence without parole.
(SFC, 9/27/08, p.B2)
2003 Jun 4, Delmar E. Brown
(84), renowned fly fisherman, died in Watsonville, Ca. He invented
the Del Brown Crab Fly and held a record-setting catch of a tarpon
15 times the test of his line.
(SSFC, 6/8/03, p.A29)
2003 Jun 4, In Afghanistan 40
Taliban suspects were killed in one of the deadliest exchanges
between Taliban and government troops since the hardline religious
regime was overthrown in late 2001. 7 government soldiers also died
in the nine hours of fighting in three villages north of Spinboldak,
near the border with Pakistan.
(AP, 6/5/03)
2003 Jun 4, In Jordan Israeli
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon pledged to dismantle illegal settlements
in Palestinian areas, while the new Palestinian leader renounced all
terrorism against Israel. Both steps were sought by President Bush
as he brought the two sides together in a bid to advance Middle East
peace.
(AP, 6/4/03)
2003 Jun 4, In Laos 2 European
journalists and an American were arrested on murder charges. Belgian
photojournalist Thierry Falise and French cameraman Vincent Reynaud
were arrested with an American of Hmong origin for allegedly helping
"bandits" kill a security official in the remote northeastern
village of Khai.
(AP, 6/11/03)
2003 Jun 4, In Nepal King
Gyanendra appointed a pro-monarchist Wednesday as Nepal's new PM.
Surya Bahadur Thapa replaces Lokendra Bahadur Chand, who resigned
last week.
(AP, 6/4/03)
2003 Jun 4, A UN-backed war
crimes court indicted Liberian Pres. Charles Taylor, accusing him of
"the greatest responsibility" in the vicious 10-year civil war in
neighboring Sierra Leone.
(AP, 6/4/03)
2003 Jun 4, The Peruvian
government failed to meet wage demands by striking teachers, who
vowed to extend a 24-day walkout that triggered nationwide protests
and prompted President Alejandro Toledo to declare a state of
emergency.
(AP, 6/5/03)
2003 Jun 4, The UN Security
Council agreed to end a ban on the export of so-called "blood
diamonds" from Sierra Leone because of government efforts to control
the diamond industry.
(AP, 6/4/03)
2003 Jun 4,Togo President Gen.
Gnassingbe Eyadema, was declared winner of questioned presidential
elections.
(AP, 6/4/03)
2003 Jun 4, In Vietnam Truong
Van Cam, reputed underworld boss, was found guilty of 7 crimes. 154
alleged associates included high-ranking government officials. He
was sentenced to death the next day.
(SFC, 6/5/03, p.A3)
2004 Jun 4, Pres. Bush
nominated John Danforth, former Republican senator from Missouri, to
be US ambassador to the UN.
(SFC, 6/5/04, A3)
2004 Jun 4, Pope John Paul II
met with President Bush and reminded him of the Vatican's opposition
to the war in Iraq.
(AP, 6/4/04)
2004 Jun 4, In Granby, Colo.,
Marvin Heemeyer, a muffler shop owner, tore through town in a plated
bulldozer in anger over a zoning dispute, before shooting himself
dead.
(SFC, 6/5/04, A3)
2004 Jun 4, In southern
Afghanistan U.S. troops and warplanes attacked Taliban rebels
besieging a remote checkpoint. Eight militants were killed.
(AP, 6/5/04)
2004 Jun 4, In Brazil President
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva designated four new national forests to
protect more than a million acres of rainforest.
(AP, 6/4/04)
2004 Jun 4, In Colombia
Francisco Galan, jailed leader of the ELN, was granted a 1-day
parole to address the Senate. He denounced the problem of landmines
and called for an end to the country’s violence.
(Econ, 6/12/04, p.36)
2004 Jun 4, In Hong Kong tens
of thousands of residents rallied on the 15th anniversary of the
bloody Tiananmen Square crackdown.
(AP, 6/5/04)
2004 Jun 4, American and Shiite
militia forces agreed to withdraw from the holy cities of Najaf and
Kufa and turn over security to Iraqi police. 5 Americans were killed
and 5 wounded in 3 clashes in Sadr City. US combat deaths reached
601.
(AP, 6/4/04)(SFC, 6/5/04, A1)
2004 Jun 4, The two Koreas
agreed, after an all-night negotiating session, to try to ease
tensions by, among other things, ending blaring propaganda efforts
on their border.
(AP, 6/4/04)
2004 Jun 4, Nigerian troops
killed 17 armed bandits in oil-rich Delta state, as military
operations intensified to disarm criminals engaged in oil theft and
piracy in the Niger delta.
(Reuters, 6/5/04)
2004 Jun 4, In central Russia a
bomb hidden behind a kiosk exploded in a crowded market in Samara.
10 people were killed and 37 wounding.
(AP, 6/5/04)
2004 Jun 4-6, The Shangri-La
Dialogue, a regional security conference, was held in Singapore. It
was organized by the London-based Int’l. Institute for Strategic
Studies.
(Econ, 6/12/04, p.37)
2005 Jun 4, The White House
downplayed a Pentagon report detailing incidents in which U.S.
guards at Guantanamo Bay prison desecrated the Quran, saying in a
statement, "It is unfortunate that some have chosen to take out of
context a few isolated incidents by a few individuals."
(AP, 6/4/06)
2005 Jun 4, Defense Secretary
Donald H. Rumsfeld said China is not a threat to the US but is
building up its military without being threatened by any other
country. The US commerce secretary warned China of a potential
political backlash in Washington amid tensions over mounting Chinese
trade surpluses, surging textile exports and rampant product piracy.
(AP, 6/4/05)
2005 Jun 4, It was reported
that Larry Ellison, head of Oracle Corp., planned to create a
database and journal to track improvements in world health through a
joint venture with Harvard that would be accompanied by as much as
$115 million. In 2006 Ellison decided against the donation due to
the resignation of Pres. Lawrence Summers.
(SFC, 6/4/05, p.C1)(SFC, 6/28/06, p.C1)
2005 Jun 4, In Afghanistan Haji
Sultan, division commander for the Taliban, was arrested with Mullah
Mohammad Rahim, another senior Taliban official, in the western
Farah province.
(AP, 6/5/05)
2005 Jun 4, Australian
officials said a senior Chinese diplomat has sought Australian
government protection for himself and his family, claiming he faces
persecution if he goes home. Analysts said Chen Yonglin's defection
could muddy Canberra's relations with Beijing.
(AP, 6/4/05)
2005 Jun 4, Thousands of
opposition protesters chanted "Freedom!" and carried pictures of
President Bush as they marched across Azerbaijan's capital, urging
the government of this U.S. ally to step down and allow free
parliamentary elections this year.
(AP, 6/4/05)
2005 Jun 4, Bangladesh police
arrested the 2nd wife of former president Hussain Mohammad Ershad
(1982-1990), after he accused her of stealing money and threatening
his life.
(AP, 6/4/05)
2005 Jun 4, In Canada Bernard
Landry resigned as leader of the Parti Quebecois.
(CP, 6/5/05)
2005 Jun 4, Masked Chechen
soldiers apparently avenging the killing of a woodcutter raided a
tiny village, beat and killed residents and set homes afire. The
raid in Borozdinovskaya pitted ethnic Chechens against ethnic Avars,
marking the first serious conflict between the two groups.
Villagers, failing to attract local authorities' attention to the
abuses, abandoned their houses June 16 and fled to nearby Kizlyar in
Dagestan.
(AP, 6/26/05)
2005 Jun 4, It was reported
that the death rate on China’s roads, according to the WHO, was 680
per day plus 45,000 injuries. American traffic deaths in contrast
were at 115 per day.
(Econ, 6/4/05, p.25)
2005 Jun 4, Justine
Henin-Hardenne beat Mary Pierce 6-1, 6-1 to win the French Open
women's singles title.
(AP, 6/4/06)
2005 Jun 4, In Haiti police
killed at least 4 people and burned 12 homes during raids against
gang members in a slum filled with supporters of ousted President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
(AP, 6/5/05)
2005 Jun 4, Iraqi police
arrested Mutlaq Mahmoud Mutlaq Abdullah, also known as Abu Raad, a
key aide to the leader of the Mosul branch of the al-Qaida in Iraq
terrorist group. A suicide car bomber blew himself up at an Iraqi
police checkpoint on a main road connecting northern Mosul with the
nearby city of Tal Afar, killing two officers and wounding four.
Iraqi and US troops discovered 50 weapons and ammunition caches and
a huge underground bunker west of the capital fitted out with air
conditioning, a kitchen and showers.
(AP, 6/5/05)
2005 Jun 4, In Northern Ireland
Terence Davison (49), a reputed IRA veteran, was arraigned for the
Jan 30 killing of Robert McCartney.
(SSFC, 6/5/05, p.A3)
2005 Jun 4, In Laos after
decades on the run, 170 women, children and old men of the Hmong
ethnic minority, once part of a U.S.-backed secret army fighting
communists, emerged from their jungle hideouts to surrender to the
government.
(AP, 6/4/05)
2005 Jun 4-2005 Jun 5, An
overnight border raid by al-Qaida-linked insurgents in Mgheiti, a
remote Mauritanian army post in the northern desert, sparked a
gunbattle that killed 15 Mauritanian troops and nine attackers.
Algeria's Salafist Group for Call and Combat claimed responsibility
for the attack.
(AP, 6/5/05)(AP, 8/3/05)
2005 Jun 4, Hundreds of
activists gathered in southern Nigeria to rally support for an
opposition conference, backed by the Nobel prize-winning author Wole
Soyinka, to end ethnic and political violence in Africa's most
populous nation.
(AP, 6/4/05)
2005 Jun 4, In Pakistan Gul
Hassan, Islamic militant and member of the outlawed
Lashkar-e-Jhangvi group, was convicted and sentenced to death for
planning two suicide attacks that killed 45 minority Shiite Muslims
on May 7 and May 31, 2004, at mosques in Karachi.
(AP, 6/4/05)
2006 Jun 4, The US military
said dozens of Guantanamo Bay detainees have abandoned a hunger
strike, lowering the number of inmates refusing food to 18.
(AP, 6/4/06)
2006 Jun 4, A suicide car bomb
exploded in Kandahar city near a convoy carrying the governor of
Afghanistan's Kandahar province, missing the apparent target but
killing 3 civilians and injuring a dozen. In Farah province 4
policemen were killed. In Zabul province Afghan troops on a joint
mission with soldiers from the US-led coalition killed around five
Taliban fighters and arrested three more. In Helmand province troops
with the US-led coalition and Afghan army clashed with a group of
rebel fighters, five of whom were killed.
(AP, 6/4/06)(AFP, 6/5/06)
2006 Jun 4-2006 Jun 5, In
Afghanistan 17 suspected militants were killed in three operations.
Two coalition soldiers were wounded in one of those battles.
(AP, 6/7/06)
2006 Jun 4, The Czech republic
faced weeks of uncertainty or even fresh elections after a deadlock
between center-right and leftist parties in weekend general
elections.
(AP, 6/4/06)
2006 Jun 4, In East Timor gangs
burned half a dozen buildings near the airport in Dili as residents
pleaded for a permanent police presence in their neighborhoods to
stop the violence.
(AP, 6/4/06)
2006 Jun 4, Nikos Palaiokostas
(46), one of the most wanted men in Greece, pulled off a daring jail
break, landing a helicopter in the Korydallos prison yard to pick up
his brother and another inmate before fleeing in a fog of smoke.
(AP, 6/5/06)
2006 Jun 4, In India 9 people
died in lightning strikes as the death toll from the early monsoon
hit 118. Some 25,000 people were displaced by flooding.
(AP, 6/4/06)
2006 Jun 4, Gunmen dragged
passengers off 2 minibuses northeast of Baghdad and killed 21
people, including a dozen high school students. The attackers spared
four Sunni Arabs in one the worst sectarian atrocities in recent
weeks. A gunbattle broke out after Iraqi police surrounded a Sunni
Arab mosque in the southern city of Basra, leaving at least 9 people
dead.(AP, 6/4/06)(WSJ, 6/5/06, p.A1)
2006 Jun 4, In Nigeria 8
foreign oil workers, kidnapped on June 2, were released. Police
declined to say whether a ransom was paid and did not say who was
responsible for the hostage-taking.
(AP, 6/4/06)
2006 Jun 4, The Hamas-led
Palestinian government rejected a deadline to accept a proposal that
implicitly recognizes Israel, saying President Mahmoud Abbas' plan
for a referendum on the matter is illegal. Members of a new, unarmed
security force loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas deployed
in Jenin in a move that residents feared could provoke clashes with
rival factions.
(AP, 6/4/06)(Reuters, 6/4/06)
2006 Jun 4, Peruvians faced a
choice in runoff presidential elections between former president
Alan Garcia (57), and Ollanta Humala (43), a fiery political
newcomer pledging to punish a corrupt political establishment.
Garcia beat Humala, a nationalist backed by Venezuela's Hugo Chavez,
to regain control of the country 16 years after his first
presidential term ended in economic ruin and rebel violence.
Garcia’s American Popular Revolutionary Alliance (APRA) party held
only 36 of 120 seats in Congress.
(AP, 6/4/06)(AP, 6/5/06)(Econ, 6/10/06, p.36)
2006 Jun 4, US Secretary of
Defense Donald Rumsfeld arrived in Vietnam for a visit aimed at
boosting security ties with a former foe that now shares American
wariness about China's rising military might.
(AP, 6/4/06)
2007 Jun 4, President Bush left
on an eight-day European trip that included a Group of Eight (G8)
summit in Germany.
(AP, 6/4/08)
2007 Jun 4, Two US military
judges dismissed charges against a Guantanamo detainee accused of
chauffeuring Osama bin Laden and another who allegedly killed a US
soldier in Afghanistan. Salim Ahmed Hamdan of Yemen and Omar Khadr,
a Canadian who was 15 when he was arrested on an Afghan battlefield,
were the only two of the roughly 380 prisoners at Guantanamo charged
with crimes under a reconstituted military trial system.
(AP, 6/5/07)
2007 Jun 4, US Rep. William
Jefferson, a Democrat from Louisiana, was indicted for graft
involving Nigerian business schemes that netted him over $500,000 in
bribes. Jefferson has maintained his innocence.
(WSJ, 6/5/07, p.A1)(AP, 6/4/08)
2007 Jun 4, In California 9
Hmong leaders, Gen. Vang Pao, a former Laotian military general, and
Harrison Jack, a former officer in the California National Guard,
were arrested during a sweep by more than 200 federal, state and
local agents for their alleged plot, hatched last winter, to
overthrow the communist government of Laos. They were charged with
violating the US federal Neutrality Act. In 2009 federal prosecutors
in Sacramento, Ca., dismissed charges against Vang Pao.
(AP, 6/5/07)(SFC, 5/12/09, p.A5)(SFC, 9/19/09,
p.A1)
2007 Jun 4, A small plane from
Milwaukee carrying a six-member organ transplant team and their
cargo of donor organs to Michigan crashed in Lake Michigan with no
survivors.
(AP, 6/5/07)
2007 Jun 4, In Portage,
Wisconsin, Tammie Garlin was killed. Felicia Garlin (15) and
Michaela Clerc (20) had kicked her, then later that day carried her
into the bathroom, where Clerc dropped her head on the floor. A
roving band of suspected identity thieves buried her in the backyard
and locked her bloody and beaten 11-year-old son in an upstairs
closet. Authorities reached the house on June 14.
(AP, 6/21/07)
2007 Jun 4, Jim Clark (84),
sheriff and segregationist from Alabama, died. He turned back the
1965 civil rights march at the Edmund Pettus Bridge leaving 57
people injured. National revulsion led to the Voting Rights Act
later that year.
(Econ, 6/16/07, p.99)
2007 Jun 4, US Sen. Craig
Thompson (74), 3-term Republican conservative from Wyoming, died of
leukemia.
(SFC, 6/5/07, p.A5)
2007 Jun 4, US Defense
Secretary Robert Gates said Iranian weapons have begun flowing into
Afghanistan, but he and Afghan President Hamid Karzai agreed
involvement by Tehran cannot yet be proved. Six Taliban rebels were
killed in a gunfight with Afghan and NATO-led troops in the eastern
province of Paktia. Afghan forces sank a boat in the Helmand River
carrying suspected Taliban fighters fleeing an attack, and more than
20 drowned. In a separate gunbattle and airstrikes killed an
estimated two dozen militants. Roadside bombs killed two Afghan
soldiers and wounded five in southern Afghanistan.
(AP, 6/4/07)(AFP, 6/4/07)(AP, 6/5/07)
2007 Jun 4, Scientists said a
frog with fluorescent purple markings and 12 kinds of dung beetles
were among two dozen new species discovered in the remote plateaus
of eastern Suriname.
(AP, 6/4/07)
2007 Jun 4, In Algeria Hassan
Hattab, fugitive founder of the extremist Salafist Group for
Preaching and Combat (GSPC), was sentenced in absentia to life in
prison for setting up an armed terrorist group by a court in
Tizi-Ouzou.
(AFP, 6/6/07)
2007 Jun 4, Brazil’s President
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said that rich nations should pay poorer
countries to preserve their forests because the rich are responsible
for most of the world's greenhouse gas emissions. Police formally
accused a brother of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of
influence peddling after a nationwide crackdown on illegal gambling.
About 600 Federal Police agents took part in the raids carrying 87
arrest warrants and another 50 search and seizure warrants in six
states as part of Operation Razor, an investigation into fraudulent
public works (www.brazzilmag.com/content/view/8320/54/).
(AP, 6/4/07)(AP,
6/5/07)(www.brazzilmag.com/content/view/8320/54/)
2007 Jun 4, PM Tony Blair said
the British government is to boost funding to help train Muslim
imams at universities and to step up the promotion of moderate
Islam.
(AP, 6/4/07)
2007 Jun 4, China promised to
better control emissions of greenhouse gases, unveiling a national
program to combat global warming, but rejected mandatory caps on
emissions as unfair to countries still trying to catch up with the
developed West. The government also said it will license no new
Internet cafes this year while regulators carry out an industry-wide
inspection, amid official concern that online material is harming
young people.
(AP, 6/4/07)
2007 Jun 4, Cambodian and
foreign judges began a weeklong meeting to confirm rules for the
much-delayed genocide trials of former Khmer Rouge leaders, blamed
for the deaths of 1.7 million people.
(AP, 6/4/07)
2007 Jun 4, In Colombia Rodrigo
Granda, the highest-ranking jailed member of the country's main
guerrilla group, was freed by the government as part of a wider
prisoner release intended to help secure the freedom of 60 hostages,
including three Americans, held by the guerrillas. There is no
explanation for why these particular captives are to be freed.
Police officer Guillermo Solorzano was seized by the FARC.
(AP, 6/4/07)(AP, 12/23/10)
2007 Jun 4, In Germany hundreds
of protesters clashed with police ahead of this week's G8 meeting,
as anti-globalization activists challenged attempts by security
officials to keep them away from the summit town of Heiligendamm.
Nearly 1000 officers and protesters were already injured in clashes.
(AP, 6/4/07)(WSJ, 6/4/07, p.A1)
2007 Jun 4, Emerging economic
powers India and Brazil pledged to increase bilateral trade
four-fold to 10 billion dollars in the next three years.
(AFP, 6/4/07)
2007 Jun 4, The NY Times said
US-led forces have control of fewer than one-third of Baghdad's
neighborhoods despite thousands of extra troops nearly four months
into a security crackdown. Insurgents posted a video claiming to
have killed the 3 US soldiers who went missing May 12. The body of
Pfc. Joseph Anzack Jr. was later recovered; a year later Spc. Alex
Jimenez and Pvt. Byron Fouty remained missing. Iraqi police said at
least 6 people were killed and 14 were wounded in 3 separate
bombings in Baghdad. At least 16 other people were killed or found
dead in attacks elsewhere, including a pregnant woman who died in a
mortar barrage targeting a US base in Fallujah.
(AP, 6/4/07)(SFC, 6/5/07, p.A13)(AP, 6/4/08)
2007 Jun 4, Violence sparked by
a two-week old confrontation between the Lebanese army and al-Qaida
inspired militants spread to a second Palestinian refugee camp in
the southern part of the country, killing two soldiers.
(AP, 6/4/07)
2007 Jun 4, Experts warned at a
conference in Nepal's capital that Himalayan glaciers are retreating
fast and could disappear within the next 50 years.
(AFP, 6/4/07)
2007 Jun 4, Thousands of
survivors of Europe's worst massacre since World War II filed a
lawsuit against the UN and the Dutch government for their failure to
protect civilians in the Srebrenica safe haven when Bosnian Serb
forces overran it in 1995 and slaughtered some 8,000 men.
(AP, 6/4/07)
2007 Jun 4, Charles Taylor
boycotted the start of his Liberia war-crimes trial at the Hague.
(WSJ, 6/5/07, p.A1)
2007 Jun 4, The Nigerian police
said military troops stormed a hideout in Ebonyi state and freed one
of two Chinese workers abducted by unknown gunmen on Mar 17.
(AFP, 6/4/07)
2007 Jun 4, Oman evacuated an
island as Cyclone Gonu drew near the Persian Gulf.
(WSJ, 6/5/07, p.A1)
2007 Jun 4, Pres. Musharraf
signed a decree giving a government regulating agency stronger
powers over the news media and the ability to rewrite regulations
without recourse to Parliament. Hundreds of demonstrators chanted
slogans against President Pervez Musharraf after the alleged
blocking of three private television news channels by the Pakistani
authorities. Police arrested Attaur Rehman and Faisal Bhatti in
Kashmor, a town about 300 miles northeast of Karachi, in association
with the 2002 murder of Daniel Pearl. Police later said the 2 men
had been in custody since 2002.
(SFC, 6/7/07, p.A4)(AFP, 6/4/07)(AP, 6/5/07)(WSJ,
6/13/07, p.A1)
2007 Jun 4, Senegal defended
the low poll turnout used by critics to put a question mark on the
legitimacy of weekend legislative elections, saying the west African
nation had never had enthusiastic voters. A 17-party opposition
grouping had called for an unprecedented boycott of the ballot,
which looked set to be won by President Abdoulaye Wade's ruling
party.
(AP, 6/4/07)
2007 Jun 4, In Somalia
Ethiopian troops fired at a would-be suicide bomber speeding toward
their base, blowing up the car and killing the bomber and a civilian
standing nearby.
(AP, 6/4/07)
2007 Jun 4, The Institute for
Democracy in South Africa (IDASA) said a study of mortality patterns
in South Africa, Malawi, Namibia, Zambia, Tanzania and Senegal
indicated Africa's HIV/AIDS crisis was reaching deep into elected
governments.
(Reuters, 6/4/07)
2007 Jun 4, South African
police fired stun grenades and made a dozen arrests as they cracked
down on union hardliners who were preventing nurses from turning up
for work at a hospital in Durban.
(AP, 6/4/07)
2007 Jun 4, The TED
organization (Technology, Entertainment, Design) gathered in
Tanzania for a 4 day session to discuss ideas for helping the poor
of Africa.
(Econ, 6/23/07,
p.55)(www.ted.com/pages/view/id/49)
2007 Jun 4, Seven Turkish
paramilitary police were killed when Kurdish militants attacked
their headquarters in eastern Tunceli province.
(AP, 6/4/07)(Econ, 6/9/07, p.58)
2007 Jun 4, The UN warned in a
report that up to 12% of Arctic ice has turned to water in the past
30 years, an alarming fact that only accelerates global warming
further.
(AP, 6/4/07)
2007 Jun 4, In Venezuela
thousands of university students, their hands painted white as a
symbol of nonviolence returned to the streets of Caracas, keeping up
a week of protests against President Hugo Chavez's decision to force
a popular TV station off the air.
(AP, 6/4/07)
2008 Jun 4, California’s Gov.
Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a statewide drought after two years
of below-average rainfall, low snowmelt runoff and a court-ordered
restriction on water transfers.
(AP, 6/5/08)
2008 Jun 4, In New York Thomas
Gioeli (Tommy Shots), said to be the acting boss of the Colombo
organized crime family, was arrested along with 8 other suspected
gangsters on federal charges of coast to coast Mafia crimes.
(SFC, 6/5/08, p.A3)
2008 Jun 4, Google said it had
signed a lease for 42 acres at Moffet Field, a former naval air
station near Mountain View, Ca. The deal called for an initial
annual rent of $3.7 million to the NASA Ames space agency.
(SFC, 6/5/08, p.C1)
2008 Jun 4, Ayman al-Zawahri,
Al-Qaida's No. 2 leader, called on Muslims to launch a holy war to
break Israel's economic blockade of the Gaza Strip, in an audio
recording posted on an Islamic militant Internet site.
(AP, 6/5/08)
2008 Jun 4, In Afghanistan 2
suicide bombs killed 2 people and wounded several others near the
Pakistan border.
(SFC, 6/5/08, p.A3)
2008 Jun 4, In Algeria 2
simultaneous bombs in Bordj El Kiffan, a suburb of Algiers, killed a
suicide bomber and injured six others. The blasts targeted a
barracks and a seaside café.
(AFP, 6/6/08)
2008 Jun 4, In Bangladesh more
than 1,700 people were detained in the past 24 hours. That takes the
number of detainees to more than 10,000 since May 30 in a drive to
improve law and order before national elections planned for late
this year.
(AP, 6/4/08)
2008 Jun 4, In Belgium riot
police armed with shields and batons charged hundreds of protesting
fishermen outside EU headquarters after a demonstration over high
fuel prices turned violent.
(AP, 6/4/08)
2008 Jun 4, In Bosnia genocide
charges were filed against Vaso Todorovic (40), a former Bosnian
Serb police officer. He was accused of taking part in the 1995
massacre of more than 7,000 Muslims, Europe's worst slaughter since
World War II.
(www.signonsandiego.com/news/world/20080604-0441-bosnia-warcrimes.html)
2008 Jun 4, British officials
said an outbreak of the H7 strain of bird flu at a farm in central
England is "highly pathogenic." All the chickens on the farm were
slaughtered following detection of the virus in Banbury,
Oxfordshire.
(AFP, 6/4/08)
2008 Jun 4, Jonathan Routh
(80), English prankster and former star of Candid Camera, died. His
books included “The Good Loo Guide: Where to Go in London” (1965)
(Econ, 6/21/08,
p.105)(www.economicexpert.com/a/Jonathan:Routh.htm)
2008 Jun 4, In Canada angry
autoworkers blockaded the entrance to General Motors of Canada
headquarters in Oshawa, Ontario, one day after GM said it would shut
its Oshawa truck plant as well as 2 plants in the US and one in
Mexico.
(Reuters, 6/4/08)
2008 Jun 4, Chinese police
blocked access to a school that collapsed in last month's massive
earthquake, a day after breaking up a protest by parents of students
who died in the disaster.
(AP, 6/4/08)
2008 Jun 4, In Haiti thousands
of protesters, bearing photographs of victims and with fists thrust
in the air, marched through Port-au-Prince to demand that officials
crack down on a kidnapping scourge. UN police said more than 157
people have been kidnapped this year in Haiti, up 10 percent from
last year.
(AP, 6/4/08)
2008 Jun 4, Indonesian police
launched a major crackdown on Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), a
radical Islamist group blamed for a weekend attack on a rally for
religious tolerance, arresting 59 including the outfit's firebrand
leader.
(AP, 6/4/08)
2008 Jun 4, Iraq’s parliament
approved a bill to combat oil smuggling. To become a law, the
measure needs the signature of Iraq's three-member presidential
council. A suicide truck bomber struck near the Baghdad home of an
Iraqi police general, killing 16 people in the biggest such attack
on the capital in months. A 2nd car bomb killed 7 people, including
3 police commandos, in the Jadriya neighborhood of Baghdad. Iraqi
police said they uncovered a large weapons cache near Samarra. The
US military said it detained nine suspects and destroyed two
"terrorist safe houses" in raids targeting al-Qaida in Iraq across
central and northern parts of the country. 3 US soldiers were shot
dead in northern Tamim province.
(AP, 6/4/08)(AP, 6/5/08)(SFC, 6/5/08, p.A3)
2008 Jun 4, The Israeli army
says it has closed the Gaza fuel crossing after an errant rocket
fired by militants wounded a Palestinian worker at the terminal.
(AP, 6/4/08)
2008 Jun 4, A Mexican court
sentenced Mario Villanueva, a former Quintana Roo state governor
(1993-1996), to 36 years in prison for fomenting drug trafficking,
overturning an earlier ruling that had imposed six years on lesser
charges. A husband and wife, both state police officers, were shot
dead while leaving their home in Ciudad Juarez, the border city
where drug gangs have stepped up attacks against security forces.
(AP, 6/5/08)(AP, 6/4/08)
2008 Jun 4, The rival parties
in Northern Ireland's power-sharing administration announced a deal
that will permit both sides to elect a new leader and keep their
unlikely coalition running.
(AP, 6/4/08)
2008 Jun 4, Officials said
Pakistan’s PM Yousuf Raza Gilani has moved suspend peace
negotiations with tribal groups along the border with Afghanistan,
until they agree to new conditions including the cessation of all
activities in Afghanistan. In northwest Pakistan a bomb explosion
ripped through a video shop in a business center, killing 3 people
and wounding 3.
(WSJ, 6/5/08, p.A8)(AP, 6/4/08)
2008 Jun 4, Scientists issued
warnings about the puffin’s future as the population of the
orange-beaked seabird off Scotland's east coast has dropped by
nearly a third in less than five years.
(AP, 6/5/08)
2008 Jun 4, In Sri Lanka a bomb
blast targeting a passenger train wounded 18 bystanders in Colombo
in the latest attack on civilians in the island nation. Tamil Tigers
reportedly killed 10 soldiers while security forces reportedly
killed 35 rebels during the heavy clashes across the island's north.
According to the defense ministry, 4,068 Tamil Tigers and 335
government troops have been killed since January.
(AP, 6/4/08)(AFP, 6/5/08)
2008 Jun 4-2008 Jun 5, In South
Sudan more than 20 people were killed, including soldiers and
several children, in Ugandan rebel attacks near the border with
Congo. The Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) guerrillas had targeted the
villages of Nabanga and Yamba.
(AFP, 6/7/08)
2008 Jun 4, Swiss
pharmaceutical Novartis announced it had bought Protez
Pharmaceuticals for $100 million (64.8 million euros), thus
acquiring the rights to a new antibiotic.
(AP, 6/4/08)
2008 Jun 4, An undetermined
amount of fuel oil was released after the Greece-registered Syros
slammed against the Malta-registered Sea Bird near Montevideo,
Uruguay.
(AP, 6/5/08)
2008 Jun 4, Zimbabwe police
detained opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai after his convoy was
stopped at a roadblock. The director of a national NGO association
said Zimbabwe has ordered aid groups Save the Children UK, CARE
International and ADRA to stop work in the country immediately due
to alleged political interference.
(AP, 6/4/08)(AFP, 6/4/08)(WSJ, 6/4/08, p.A1)
2009 Jun 4, Pres. Obama spoke
in Cairo and touched on many themes Muslims wanted to hear in the
highly anticipated speech broadcast live across much of the Middle
East and elsewhere across the Muslim world. Muslims praised Obama's
address as a positive shift in US attitude and tone. But hard-liners
criticized it as style over substance and said it lacked concrete
proposals to turn the words into action.
(AP, 6/4/09)
2009 Jun 4, Angelo Mozilo, the
man who rode the housing boom to build Countrywide Financial Corp.
into a California colossus of high-risk mortgage lending, was
charged with civil fraud and illegal insider trading by federal
regulators who accuse him of deceiving shareholders and profiting on
confidential information. The Securities and Exchange Commission
also filed civil fraud charges against two other former executives
of Countrywide.
(AP, 6/5/09)
2009 Jun 4, South Carolina’s
Supreme Court ordered Gov. Mark Sanford to request $700 million in
federal stimulus money, which was aimed primarily at struggling
schools.
(SFC, 6/5/09, p.A6)
2009 Jun 4, In Tennessee
handguns will soon be allowed in bars and restaurants under a new
law passed by state legislators who voted to override Democratic
Gov. Phil Bredesen's veto. The legislation takes effect July 14 and
retains an existing ban on consuming alcohol while carrying a
handgun. Restaurant owners can still opt to ban weapons from their
establishments.
(AP, 6/5/09)
2009 Jun 4, In Afghanistan
insurgents killed three US soldiers in a bomb and small-arms attack
on their vehicle in Kapisa province, considered a stronghold of
insurgents loyal to Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. A man was
killed in Nangarhar by a bomb he was trying to plant inside a
university faculty. Police found the body of Yeiya Mulaye Azhar, a
candidate in the provincial elections in Wardak province. he had
been kidnapped 11 days earlier.
(AP, 6/4/09)(AP, 6/5/09)(SFC, 6/5/09, p.A2)
2009 Jun 4, Australia's Defense
Minister Joel Fitzgibbon (47) stepped down after a series of
scandals, in the first major embarrassment for PM Kevin Rudd.
Fitzgibbon had been under pressure since March when he admitted not
declaring to parliamentary authorities two trips to China paid for
by wealthy businesswoman Helen Liu.
(AP, 6/4/09)
2009 Jun 4, British naturalist
Sir David Attenborough won Spain's prestigious Prince of Asturias
social sciences prize for his "great contributions to the defense of
life and conservation of our planet."
(AP, 6/4/09)
2009 Jun 4, China aggressively
deterred dissent in Beijing on the 20th anniversary of the crackdown
on democracy activists in Tiananmen Square. But tens of thousands
turned out for a candlelight vigil in Hong Kong to mourn the many
demonstrators who were killed.
(AP, 6/4/09)
2009 Jun 4, Ethiopia charged 46
people, most of them ex-military, of plotting to assassinate
government officials. Ethiopia also said it has undertaken military
reconnaissance operations in Somalia, but is not planning to
re-deploy.
(AFP, 6/4/09)
2009 Jun 4, About 375 million
voters across the 27-nation European Union began 4 days of voting,
to appoint candidates to 736 seats on the assembly in the
second-largest election in the world after India's. Voting began in
Britain and the Netherlands.
(AP, 6/4/09)
2009 Jun 4, In Germany the
federal and state governments approved an €18 billion plan to create
more university places, boost funding for research and cultivate a
small group of elite institutions.
(Econ, 6/27/09, p.57)
2009 Jun 4, Guatemala's
anti-drug prosecutor said that thousands of bullets and grenades
that were part of a Mexican drug cartel's weapons cache belong to
the Guatemalan army. In the April weapons seizure, police also found
eight anti-personnel mines, 11 M60 machine guns, bullet proof vests
and two armored cars that investigators say belong to the Zetas, a
group of assassins for Mexico's Gulf drug cartel.
(AP, 6/4/09)
2009 Jun 4, In northern Iraq an
American soldier was killed in a grenade attack in Tamim province.
Another American soldier was killed in a grenade attack north of
Baghdad.
(AP, 6/4/09)(AP, 6/5/09)
2009 Jun 4, Mexican police
found 11 bodies, most with their hands and feet cut off, inside an
abandoned car in the border state of Sonora in violence attributed
to drug traffickers battling for control of the region.
(AP, 6/5/09)
2009 Jun 4, Nigerian President
Umaru Yar’Adua made a new offer of amnesty to militants in the
oil-rich Niger Delta, after earlier rejection by armed opponents.
(AFP, 6/4/09)
2009 Jun 4, Palestinian police
killed two Hamas militants after the men opened fire at security
forces who had surrounded their underground hideout in Qalqiliya.
One officer was also killed in the operation, part of an
intensifying crackdown on Islamic militants in this West Bank town.
(AP, 6/4/09)
2009 Jun 4, Sri Lanka's navy
seized a foreign-owned ship loaded with medical, food and other
supplies for war-hit civilians, saying the vessel had entered its
territorial waters illegally.
(AFP, 6/4/09)
2009 Jun 4, David Carradine
(72), star of TV series "Kung Fu" (1972-1975), was found dead
in Thailand. At first suicide was suspected but a forensics expert
said circumstances suggested that he may have died from autoerotic
asphyxiation. His career had roared back to life when he played the
assassin-turned-victim in Quentin Tarentino's "Kill Bill" (2003).
(AP, 6/4/09)(SFC, 6/6/09, p.E3)
2009 Jun 4, Venezuelan
prosecutors charged Guillermo Zuloaga (67), president of the
anti-government television station Globovision, with usury.
This ended a weeks-long investigation into his business activities
that Zuloaga called politically motivated.
(AP, 6/5/09)
2010 Jun 4, Anamika Veeramani
(14), an Indian-American from North Royalton, Ohio, won the 83rd
Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, DC. She claimed a
trophy and more than $40,000 in cash and prizes.
(AP, 6/5/10)
2010 Jun 4, Mahmoud Reza Banki
(33), an Ivy League-educated man whose family sent him millions of
dollars from Iran, was convicted of violating the Iran trade embargo
and operating an unlicensed money transmitting business. Banki, born
in Tehran, faced up to 25 years in prison. He has been a US citizen
since 1996.
(AP, 6/4/10)
2010 Jun 4, In Oregon Kyron
Horman (7) was last seen at his Portland school. A criminal
investigation was opened on June 13.
(SFC, 6/14/10, p.A6)
2010 Jun 4, Workers for Bank of
America Corp, one of the nation's largest employers, sued the
company for allegedly failing to pay overtime and other wages.
(Reuters, 6/5/10)
2010 Jun 4, Cadmium has been
discovered in the painted design on "Shrek"-themed drinking glasses
being sold nationwide at McDonald's, forcing the burger giant to
recall 12 million of the cheap US-made collectibles while
dramatically expanding contamination concerns about the toxic metal
beyond imported children's jewelry.
(AP, 6/4/10)
2010 Jun 4, The Falcon 9, a
SpaceX test rocket, blasted off from Cape Canaveral on its maiden
voyage and reached orbit. Space Exploration Technologies was founded
by Elon Musk, an Internet entrepreneur who co-founded PayPal. NASA
hoped to use the rocket to haul cargo.
(SFC, 6/4/10, p.A9)
2010 Jun 4, Richard Dunn (73),
a longtime character actor who frequently collaborated with comics
Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim, died after being unconscious
several days. He often appeared on "Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great
Job!" on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim lineup. Dunn also had bit
parts on shows including "Nip/Tuck," "Weeds" and "House."
(AP, 6/4/10)
2010 Jun 4, John Wooden (99),
college basketball's gentlemanly Wizard of Westwood, died. He built
one of the greatest dynasties in all of sports at UCLA and became
one of the most revered coaches ever.
(AP, 6/5/10)
2010 Jun 4, An Afghan national
peace conference urged the government to take formal steps toward
negotiating with insurgents, boosting President Hamid Karzai's plans
to open talks with the Taliban. NATO forces said NATO and Afghan
troops have killed Mullah Zergay, a top Taliban commander for
Kandahar city, along with several of his guards last week. 2 British
soldiers were killed in a gunbattle with insurgents in southern
Helmand province. NATO aircraft pounded a target in Kunar province,
killing 9 Taliban militants including 3 Pakistanis. Three insurgents
were killed and four wounded in a gunbattle with Afghan forces in
Ghazni province.
(AP, 6/4/10)(AP, 6/5/10)
2010 Jun 4, Burundi's main
Tutsi party followed five opposition parties in pulling out from the
central African nation's June presidential poll, leaving serving
leader Pierre Nkurunziza as the sole candidate.
(AFP, 6/5/10)
2010 Jun 4, A University of
Chile study, ordered up by the country's Supreme Court, said late
dictator Augusto Pinochet (1915-2006) had amassed a fortune of $21
million, of which less than 10 percent was justified by his military
salary.
(AP, 6/5/10)
2010 Jun 4, France's Interior
Minister Brice Hortefeux was convicted of making racist comments and
ordered to pay compensation in an controversy that prompted calls
for his resignation. He was also fined euro750 ($900) and ordered to
pay euro2,000 ($2,400) to an anti-racism group.
(AP, 6/4/10)
2010 Jun 4, Tens of thousands
of Hong Kong residents marked the bloody 1989 Tiananmen crackdown
with a candle-lit vigil, as agitation against Beijing intensifies in
the former British colony.
(AP, 6/4/10)
2010 Jun 4, Iran's top
authority accused the pro-reform opposition of betraying the legacy
of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, as hundreds of thousands rallied to
mark the 21st anniversary of the revolutionary leader's death.
(Reuters, 6/4/10)
2010 Jun 4, In Japan Naoto Kan
(63), a straight-talking populist, was named the new prime minister.
He faced a host of daunting tasks, from reviving the nation's
stagnant economy to cutting back its ballooning national debt.
(AP, 6/4/10)
2010 Jun 4, Kurdish rebels
based in northern Iraq announced they had ended their unilateral
ceasefire with Turkey a day after Iraqi Kurdish leader Massoud
Barzani met Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and pledged
"all efforts" to stop rising rebel violence.
(AP, 6/4/10)
2010 Jun 4, A Lebanese
policeman died after he was critically wounded by a bomblet from a
cluster bomb, one of millions dropped by Israel during a devastating
2006 war with Hezbollah.
(AP, 6/4/10)
2010 Jun 4, Robert Kelley, a
former senior UN nuclear inspector, said secret documents and
hundreds of photos smuggled out of Myanmar by an army defector
indicate its military regime is trying to develop nuclear weapons
and long-range missiles.
(AP, 6/4/10)
2010 Jun 4, A Dutch court
ordered 10 suspected Somali pirates to be extradited to Germany,
where Hamburg prosecutors want to charge them with hijacking a
German container ship.
(AP, 6/4/10)
2010 Jun 4, A senior Nigerian
official said lead poisoning caused by illegal gold mining has
killed 163 Nigerians, including 111 children, since March in several
northern remote villages.
(Reuters, 6/4/10)
2010 Jun 4, A North Korean
border guard shot and killed three Chinese citizens and wounded a
fourth on the countries' border, apparently on suspicion they were
crossing the border for illegal trade. China son lodged a formal
diplomatic protest.
(AP, 6/8/10)
2010 Jun 4, The Rachel Corrie
activist ship kept its course for a June 5 arrival in Gaza as world
anger simmered over Israel's deadly raid on an earlier
blockade-busting bid.
(AFP, 6/4/10)
2010 Jun 4, South Korea handed
over a letter officially referring North Korea to the UN Security
Council over the March 26 sinking of the Cheonan, which left 46
sailors killed.
(AP, 6/4/10)
2010 Jun 4, In South Korea
finance chiefs of the Group of 20 leading economies worked to craft
an agenda for keeping the global recovery on track and fending off
future crises, sidestepping conflicts to present a united show of
support for Europe's $1 trillion bailout.
(AP, 6/4/10)
2010 Jun 4, Turkey’s Deputy PM
Bulent Arinc said Turkey will reduce economic and defense ties with
Israel, but bilateral cooperation will not be entirely frozen after
the Gaza ship raid.
(AP, 6/4/10)
2010 Jun 4, Pope Benedict XVI
began a pilgrimage to Cyprus bringing a message of peace to the
region as Greek Cypriot leaders made a blistering attack on Turkey
for its occupation of northern Cyprus.
(AP, 6/4/10)
2010 Jun 4, In Zambia press
freedom campaigner and newspaper publisher Fred M'membe was
sentenced to four months imprisonment with hard labor. He was
convicted of publishing critical comment on state maternity services
after an editor faced pornography charges for e-mailing officials
photos of the woman giving birth to illustrate the consequences of a
health workers' strike. She was later acquitted.
(AP, 6/5/10)
2010 Jun 4, Zimbabwe's first
private daily newspaper hit the streets to break a state monopoly
established years ago after President Robert Mugabe's government
banned a pro-opposition newspaper over a registration dispute.
(Reuters, 6/4/10)
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