Today in History - July 4
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1054 Jul 4,
Chinese and Arabian observers first documented the massive supernova
of the Crab Nebula created thousands of years ago and consisting of
a huge expanding cloud of gas and dust 6,000 light-years from Earth.
The great nova, as Oriental astronomers described it, was six times
brighter than Venus and was only outshone by the sun and moon. For
23 days the nova could be observed in broad daylight. An entry in
the Records of the Royal Observatory of Peking reads: "In the first
year of the period Chihha, the fifth moon, the day Chi-chou, a great
star appeared approximately several inches southeast of T’ien-Kuan
(i.e. Zeta Tauri). After more than a year it gradually became
invisible."
(LSA., S. Pobojewski, p.29)(TNG, Klein,
p.96)(SCTS, p.183)(IB, 12/7/98)
1187 Jul 4, In the Battle of
Hittin (Tiberias) Saladin defeated Reynaud of Chatillon. Salah al
Din, who ruled from his imperial seat in ancient Syria, defeated
Christian armies of the Crusaders and forced their retreat from the
Holy Land. The battle was depicted in a mosaic that was found and
restored for the palace of Pres, Hafez Assad of Syria. Saladin
personally executed Crusader Reynaud of Chatillon (b.1124/5).
Reynaud of Chatillon, Lord of Kerak, Jordan, had violated twice
violated a tenuous truce and earlier this year attacked a caravan of
pilgrims returning from Mecca.
(WSJ, 9/30/96, p.A1)(Econ, 5/30/09,
p.24)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raynald_of_Chatillon)
1301 Jul 4, Battle at
Breukelen: Holland vs. Lichtenberg.
(Maggio, 98)
1415 Jul 4, Angelo Correr
became Pope Gregory XII.
(Maggio, 98)
1453 Jul 4, 41 Jewish martyrs
burned at stake at Breslau.
(Maggio, 98)
1610 Jul 4, Battle at Klushino:
King Sigismund II beat Russia & Sweden.
(Maggio, 98)
1623 Jul 4, William Byrd (80),
English composer (Ave verum corpus), died.
(MC, 7/4/02)
1636 Jul 4, City of Providence,
Rhode Island, was formed.
(Maggio, 98)
1652 Jul 4, Prince of Cond‚
started a blood bath in Paris.
(Maggio, 98)
1653 Jul 4, British Barebones
Parliament went into session.
(Maggio, 98)
1672 Jul 4, States of Holland
declared "Eternal Edict" void.
(Maggio, 98)
1693 Jul 4, Battle at
Boussu-lez-Walcourt: French-English vs. Dutch army.
(Maggio, 98)
1708 Jul 4, Swedish King Karel
XII beat Russians.
(Maggio, 98)
1712 Jul 4, Twelve slaves were
executed for starting a slave uprising in New York that killed nine
whites. [see Apr 7]
(HN, 7/4/98)(PCh, 1992, p.278)
1753 Jul 4,
Jean-Pierre-Francois Blanchard (d.1809), French balloonist, was
born. He made the 1st balloon flights in England and US.
(www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/AVblanchard.htm)
1754 Jul 4, George Washington
gave Ft. Necessity to France.
(Maggio, 98)
1761 Jul 4, Samuel Richardson,
English novelist, died at 72 in London.
(WUD, 1994, p.1231)
1776 Jul 4, The Continental
Congress approved adoption of the amended Declaration of
Independence, prepared by Thomas Jefferson and signed by John
Hancock--President of the Continental Congress--and Charles Thomson,
Congress secretary, without dissent. However, the New York
delegation abstained as directed by the New York Provisional
Congress. On July 9, the New York Congress voted to endorse the
declaration. On July 19, Congress then resolved to have the
"Unanimous Declaration" inscribed on parchment for the signature of
the delegates. Among the signers of the Declaration of Independence,
two went on to become presidents of the United States, John Adams
and Thomas Jefferson. The Declaration of Independence was signed by
president of Congress John Hancock and secretary Charles Thomson.
John Hancock said, "There, I guess King George will be able to read
that." referring to his signature on the Declaration of
Independence. Other signers later included Benjamin Rush and Robert
Morris. Of the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence, eight
were born outside North America. In 2007 David Armitage authored
“The Declaration of Independence: A Global History.”
(HN, 7/4/98)(SFC,12/19/97,p.B6)(SFC,2/9/98,
p.A19)(HNQ, 9/10/00)(WSJ, 1/4/07, p.B11)
1777 Jul 4, No member of
Congress thought about commemorating the adoption of the Declaration
of Independence until July 3 - one day too late. So the first
organized elaborate celebration of independence occurred the
following day: July 4, 1777, in Philadelphia.
(http://tinyurl.com/mpsa8y)
1779 Jul 4, French fleet
occupied Grenada.
(Maggio, 98)
1785 Jul 4, The first Fourth of
July parade was held in Bristol, Rhode Island. It served as a
prayerful walk to celebrate independence from England.
(SFC, 7/5/97, p.A3)
1789 Jul 4, 1st US tariff act.
(Maggio, 98)
1796 Jul 4, 1st Independence
Day celebration was held.
(Maggio, 98)
1802 Jul 4, The United State
Military Academy opened its doors at West Point, New York, welcoming
the first 10 cadets.
(AP, 7/4/97)(IB, 12/7/98)
1804 Jul 4, Nathaniel Hawthorne
(1804-1864) American novelist and short-story writer, was born in
Marblehead, [Salem], Massachusetts. Hawthorne was born to a
prominent but decaying family. One of his ancestors, a judge in the
Salem witchcraft trials, became the model for the accursed founder
of The House of the Seven Gables. Hawthorne would often wonder
whether the decline of his family’s fortune was a punishment for the
sins of his "sable-cloaked steeple-crowned progenitors. "Marblehead
is also the location of the house in his book "The House of Seven
Gables." He also wrote "The Scarlet Letter."
(WUD, 1994, p.651)(SFEC, 7/13/97, p.T9)(HN,
7/4/98) (IB, 12/7/98)
1807 Jul 4, Giuseppe Garibaldi
(1807-1882) Italian military leader, was born in Nice, France. He
led the movement to make Italy one nation.
(HN, 7/4/98) (IB, 12/7/98)
1810 Jul 4, French troops
occupied Amsterdam.
(Maggio, 98)
1817 Work began on the
Erie Canal, more properly named the New York State Barge Canal. The
canal connected Lake Erie with the Hudson and opened on October 26,
1825.
(WSJ, 7/3/96, p.A8)(HN, 7/4/98)(IB, 12/7/98)
1819 Jul 4, The Territory of
Arkansas was created. [see Mar 2]
(IB, Internet, 12/7/98)
1819 Jul 4, William Herschel
made his last telescopic observation of an 1819 comet.
(Maggio, 98)
1826 Jul 4, Stephen Foster
(Stephen Collins Foster, d. Jan 13, 1864) composer, was born near
Pittsburgh. His famous songs include "My Old Kentucky Home," "O
Susanna," "Old Folks at Home," "Old Black Joe" and "Camptown Races."
(HFA, ‘96, p.22)(AHD, p. 519)(BAAC PN, Chambers,
1/8/96) (IB, 12/7/98)
1826 Jul 4, Construction of the
Pennsylvania Grand Canal was begun.
(WSJ, 7/3/96, p.A8)
1826 Jul 4, Thomas Jefferson,
the nation's third president, died at age 83 at one o'clock in the
afternoon and was buried near Charlottesville, Virginia. He was the
founder of the Univ. of Virginia and wrote the state’s statute of
religious freedom. In 1981 Dumas Malone, aged 89 and nearly blind,
published "The Sage of Monticello," the sixth and final volume of
his Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of Jefferson. In 1997 Joseph J.
Ellis won the National Book Award in nonfiction for "American
Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson." "Nothing gives one
person so much of an advantage over another as to remain unruffled
in all circumstances."
(A&IP, Miers, p.29)(SFEC, 6/29/97, BR
p.5)(AP, 7/4/97)(SFC, 4/29/98, p.A6)(SFEC, 10/25/98, Z1 p.12)(IB,
Internet, 12/7/98)
1826 Jul 4, John Adams died at
age 90 in Braintree [Quincy], Mass, just a few hours after
Jefferson. Because communications was slow in those days, Adams and
Jefferson, at their death, thought the other was still alive. Adams'
last words were, "Thomas Jefferson still survives." It was 50 years
to the day after the Declaration of Independence was adopted. Adams
was the 2nd president of the US. A multi-generational biography of
the Adams family was later written by Paul C. Nagel: "Descent from
Glory." The Joseph Ellis book The Passionate Edge" helped restore
Adams to his rightful place in the American pantheon. The 1972
musical film 1776 focused on Adams’ efforts to get an independence
resolution through Congress. In 1998 C. Bradley Thompson published
"John Adams and the Spirit of Liberty." In 2001 David McCullough
authored "John Adams." In 2005 James Grant authored “John Adams:
Party of One.”
(A&IP, p.29)(AP, 7/4/97)(SFC, 7/4/98,
p.E4)(IB, Internet, 12/7/98)(WSJ, 12/22/98, p.A16)(WSJ, 5/30/01,
p.A20)(WSJ, 3/24/05, p.D8)
1827 Jul 4, New York state law
emancipated adult slaves.
(SFEC, 12/1/96, BR p.5)(Maggio, 98)
1828 Jul 4, James Johnston
Pettigrew, scholar, teacher, Brig General (Confederate Army), was
born.
(MC, 7/4/02)
1828 Jul 4, Ground-breaking
ceremonies were held in Baltimore for construction of the Baltimore
and Ohio Railroad. On the same day, in nearby Georgetown, President
John Quincy Adams, with great fanfare, lifted the first shovel of
dirt to begin construction of the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal that
would link Washington, Baltimore and Pittsburgh by water. The
railroad went on to become one of the nation's longest rail lines,
reaching St. Louis, Missouri, in 1857. The 185-mile canal, though it
had many years of use, was quickly eclipsed as a transportation
medium by the superior technology of the railroad.
(IB, 12/7/98)
1829 Jul 4, Cornerstone laid
for 1st US mint (Chestnut & Juniper St, Phil).
(Maggio, 98)
1829 Jul 4, In Boston, Mass.,
abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison (1805-1879) gave a passionate
antislavery sermon at the Park Street Church and was attacked by a
white supremacist mob who dragged him from the pulpit and beat him
nearly to death. Garrison published the anti-slavery newspaper, the
Liberator, from 1831-1865.
(www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p1561.html)(AH,
10/07, p.72)
1830 Jul 4, William Sublette, a
trapper and explorer, named Independence Rock, Wyo., when he
celebrated his 54th birthday there.
(SFC, 8/13/98, p.A3)
1831 Jul 4, "America (My
Country 'Tis of Thee)" was 1st sung in Boston. [see Jul 4, 1832]
(Maggio, 98)
1831 Jul 4, James Monroe, 5th
President of the United States, died in New York City at age 73,
making him the third ex-President to die on Independence Day.
(AP, 7/4/97)(HN, 7/4/98)(IB, 12/7/98)
1832 Jul 4, The song "America"
was sung publicly for the first time at a Fourth of July celebration
by a group of children at Park Street Church in Boston. The words
were written on a scrap of paper in half an hour by Dr. Samuel
Francis Smith, a Baptist minister, and were set to the music of "God
Save the King." [see Jul 4, 1831]
(IB, 12/7/98)
1835 Jul 4, The Boston and
Worcester Railroad was inaugurated.
(WSJ, 7/3/96, p.A8)
1836 Jul 4, The territorial
government of Wisconsin was established.
(IB, 12/7/98)
1840 Jul 4, The Cunard Line
took just over 14 days to make its first Atlantic crossing with the
paddle steamer "Britannia", which embarked from Liverpool.
(IB, 12/7/98)
1845 Jul 4, American writer
Henry David Thoreau began his 26 month experiment in simple living
at Walden Pond, near Concord, Mass. He chose this day to move to a
rustic hut in the peace and quiet of Walden Pond. He doubted that
there was a spot in Massachusetts where one could not hear a train
whistle. The Fitchburg trains passed Walden Pond about a hundred
rods south of his cabin. He lived there until September 6, 1947. His
writings about his thoughts and experiences there are still read and
remembered by millions around the world. "I went to the woods
because I wished to see if I could not learn what it [life] had to
teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived."
(Civil., Jul-Aug., '95, p.76) (NOHY, Weiner,
3/90, p.53)(AP, 7/4/97)(IB, 12/7/98)
1845 Jul 4, Texas Congress
voted for annexation to US. [see Jun 23, 1845]
(Maggio, 98)
1848 Jul 4, The Communist
Manifesto was published.
(IB, 12/7/98)
1848 Jul 4, The Cornerstone of
the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C. was laid by President
Polk. Each state of the union was invited to donate a memorial
stone. The white marble obelisk, which is 555 feet tall and 55 fee
square at the base, was not completed until 1884. The public was
admitted to the monument on October 9, 1888. Architect Robert Mills
(1781-1855) designed the monument.
(ON, 3/00, p.9)(WSJ, 2/16/08, p.W18)
1848 Jul 4,
Vicomte Francois-Rene de Chateaubriand (b.1768), French writer and
statesman, 79, died in Paris.
(WUD, 1994, p.250)
1850 Jul 4, President Zachary
Taylor stood hatless in the sun for hours listening to long-winded
speeches. He returned to the White House and attempted to cool off
by eating cherries, cucumbers and drinking iced milk. Severe stomach
cramps followed and it is likely that Taylor's own physicians
inadvertently killed him with a whole series of debilitating
treatments. Taylor died July 9.
(HN, 7/11/99)
1852 Jul 4, Frederick Douglass
delivered the keynote speech for the Independence Day celebration in
Rochester, NY. In 2006 James A. Colaiaco authored Frederick Douglass
and the Fourth of July.”
(WSJ, 7/1/06, p.P6)
1855 Jul 4, One of America's
greatest poets -- Walt Whitman -- published the first edition of his
famous "Leaves of Grass", a collection of 12 poems. Whitman
published the edition himself and had about 1,000 copies printed. He
later recalled about the publication, "I don't think one copy was
sold, not a copy." The book was published in Philadelphia after the
Boston district attorney cited 22 passages as violating a state law
against obscenity.
(IB, 12/7/98)(SFC, 3/3/99, Z1 p.9)
1860 Jul 4, In San Francisco
the Market Street Railroad Co. opened a line on Market from Third to
Valencia running both horsecar and steam train lines. This was the
first street railway on the Pacific Coast.
(GenIV, Winter 04/05)(SSFC, 7/4/10, p.C2)
1861 Jul 4, In a special
session of 27th Congress Lincoln requested 400,000 troops.
(Maggio, 98)
1861 Jul 4, Union and
Confederate forces skirmished at Harpers Ferry, West Virginia.
(HN, 7/4/98)
1862 Jul 4, Charles Dodgson, an
Oxford mathematician whose penname of Lewis Carroll would make him
world famous, told little Alice Liddell on a boat trip the fairy
tale he had dreamed up for her called "Alice's Adventures
Underground." He later wrote it out for her and it became the
classic children's tale, "Alice in Wonderland."
(IB, 12/7/98)
1862 Jul 4, Battle at Green
River, Ky. (Morgan's Ohio Raid).
(Maggio, 98)
1862 Jul 4, Battle of Port
Royal, SC. (Port Royal Ferry). [see Jun 6, 1862]
(Maggio, 98)
1863 Jul 4, Boise, Idaho, was
founded.
(Maggio, 98)
1863 Jul 4, General U.S.
Grant's Union army captured the Confederate town of Vicksburg,
Miss., after a long siege during the Civil War. In 2009 Winston
Groom authored “Vicksburg 1863.”
(HN, 7/4/98)(IB, 12/7/98)(Econ, 4/4/09, p.88)
1863 Jul 4, General Lee’s army
limped toward Virginia after defeat at Gettysburg. 28,063 of 75,000
confederate soldiers were lost. General Meade’s army suffered 23,049
soldiers killed, wounded and missing.
(SFC, 7/7/96, T6)
1863 Jul 4, Paul Joseph Revere,
US grandson of Paul Revere, Union brig-gen, died from wounds at
Gettysburg.
(MC, 7/4/02)
1863 Jul 4, Failed Confederate
assault on Helena, Arkansas, left 640 casualties.
(Maggio, 98)
1863 Jul 4, Skirmish at
Smithburg, TN.
(Maggio, 98)
1864 Jul 4-9, Battle at
Chattahoochee River, Georgia.
(MC, 7/4/02)
1865 Jul 4, 1st edition of
"Alice in Wonderland" was published. English mathematician Charles
Lutwidge Dodgson is best known for writing the children’s book
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland under the pen name Lewis Carroll.
Born in 1832, also a skilled portrait photographer, Dodgson
pioneered in the art of photographing children.
(SFEM, 11/24/96, p.59)(HNQ, 6/12/98)(Maggio,
98)
1866 Jul 4, Firecracker thrown
in wood started a fire that destroyed Portland, Me.
(Maggio, 98)
1868 Jul 4, In Japan the last
Tokugawa armies were defeated at the Battle at Ueno.
(Maggio, 98)
1872 Jul 4, John Calvin
Coolidge (d.1933) 30th President of the United States (1923-29), was
born in Plymouth, Vermont. Calvin Coolidge, also known as ‘Silent
Cal,’ was a Republican; Vice President from 1921-23 and succeeded to
the Presidency on the death of Warren Harding in 1923; elected
President in 1924 and served a full term. He was especially known
for his economy of language. A lady dinner companion during his
presidency told him she had a bet she could get him to say more than
two words; he replied: "You lose." "Little progress can be made by
merely attempting to repress what is evil. Our great hope lies in
developing what is good."
(AP, 7/4/97)(HN, 7/4/98)(IB, Internet,
12/7/98)(AP, 12/26/99)
1874 Jul 4, Social Democratic
Workmen's Party of North America was formed.
(Maggio, 98)
1875 Jul 4, White Democrats
killed several blacks in terrorist attacks in Vicksburg, Miss.
(Maggio, 98)
1876 Jul 4, Fr. Joseph Neri,
SJ, introduced electric lights on Market Street in SF.
(GenIV, Winter 04/05)
1876 Jul 4, Batholdi visited
Bedloe Island, future home of his Statue of Liberty.
(Maggio, 98)
1879 Jul 4, Afrikaner Union was
formed by Rev SJ du Toit at Cape colony.
(Maggio, 98)
1879 Jul 4, Battle at Rorkes
Drift: Britain ended attack on Zulus.
(Maggio, 98)
1881 Jul 4, In Alabama Tuskegee
Institute enrolled 30 students. It was founded by former slave
Booker T. Washington as a "normal" school and industrial institute
where "colored" people with little or no formal schooling could be
trained as teachers and skilled workers.
(NH, 2/97, p.82)(WSJ, 2/24/98, p.A22)(IB,
Internet, 12/7/98)
1881 Jul 4, Billy the Kid was
shot dead in New Mexico. [see Jul 14]
(HN, 7/4/98)
1882 Jul 4, Telegraph Hill
Observatory opened in SF.
(Maggio, 98)
1883 Jul 4, Alan Brooke,
English general, was born.
(MC, 7/4/02)
1883 Jul 4, Rube Goldberg
(Ruben Lucius Goldberg, 1883-1970) cartoonist, was born in San
Francisco. He was known for cartoons featuring absurdly complicated
mechanical devices to accomplish absurdly simple tasks.
(WUD, 1994, p.607)(SFEC, 4/5/98, p.A28)(IB,
Internet, 12/7/98)
1883 Jul 4, Maximilian
Oseyevich Shteynberg, composer, was born.
(MC, 7/4/02)
1883 Jul 4, One of the first
Wild West shows was performed in North Platte, Nebraska, and was
organized by Buffalo Bill (William F. Cody), who took the show on
the road the following year.
(IB, 12/7/98)
1884 Jul 4, 1st US bullfight
was held in Dodge City, Ka.
(Maggio, 98)
1884 Jul 4, The Statue of
Liberty was presented to the United States in ceremonies at Paris,
France. The 225-ton, 152-foot statue was a gift from France in
commemoration of 100 years of American independence. Created by the
French sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, the statue was installed
on Bedloe Island (now Liberty Island) in New York harbor in 1885. It
was dedicated on October 28, 1886.
(IB, 12/7/98)
1886 Jul 4, The 1st scheduled
Canadian transcontinental passenger train (CPR) reached Pt. Moody,
BC. It had left Montreal on June 28.
(ON, 11/07, p.12)
1888 Jul 4, Many believe that
the first rodeo in America was held in Prescott, Arizona, on this
day. Before this, informal competitions were frequently held among
ranch hands from a single ranch or from neighboring spreads, but
they were not full-scale rodeos. The Prescott event went on to
become an annual contest.
(IB, 12/7/98)
1889 Jul 4, North Dakota
founders began drafting a constitution but left out a key
requirement that the governor and other top officials take an oath
of office, putting the state constitution in conflict with the
federal one. In 2011 State Senator Tim Mathern introduced a bill
fixing the mistake that will be put to voters.
(www.court.state.nd.us/court/history/dakotaterritory.htm)(http://tinyurl.com/6cz8dks)
1889 Jul 4, Washington state
constitutional convention held 1st meeting.
(Maggio, 98)
1892 Jul 4, The Omaha Platform
was adopted at the formative convention of the Populist (or
People's) Party held in Omaha, Nebraska. The People's party, more
commonly known as the Populist party, was organized in St. Louis to
represent the common folk, especially farmers, against the
entrenched interests of railroads, bankers, processors,
corporations, and the politicians in league with such interests. At
its first national convention in Omaha in July 1892, the party
nominated James K. Weaver for president and ratified the so-called
Omaha Platform, drafted by Ignatius Donnelly of Minnesota.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omaha_Platform)
1892 Jul 4, James Keir Hardie
was 1st socialist chosen in British Lower house.
(Maggio, 98)
1893 Jul 4, A. Borrelly
discovered asteroid #369 Aeria.
(Maggio, 98)
1894 Jul 4, The Provisional
Government under Judge Stanford B. Dole declared Hawaii a republic.
(HN, 7/4/98)(ON, 11/02, p.7)
1894 Jul 4, Elwood Haynes
successfully tested one of 1st US autos at 6 MPH.
(Maggio, 98)
1895 Jul 4, The words to
"America the Beautiful" appeared for the first time in "The
Congregationalist", a Boston magazine; the author was Katherine Lee
Bates (1819-1910), a Wellesley professor, who penned it in 1893. It
has often been suggested that this song be adopted as the national
anthem of the US since it is easier to sing than the "The Star
Spangled Banner." In 1904 Clarence Barbour adapted it to the melody
of Samuel Ward’s “Materna” (1890). Bates’ final version was
completed in 1911. In 2001 Lynn Sherr authored "America the
Beautiful."
(WSJ, 9/28/01, p.W13)(SSFC, 10/21/01, Par
p.8)(AH, 10/04, p.26)
1898 Jul 4, Gertrude Lawrence,
English actress, was born.
(HN, 7/4/01)
1898 Jul 4, A US flag was
hoisted over Wake Island during the Spanish-American War.
(Maggio, 98)
1898 Jul 4, The French liner
"La Bourgogne" collided with bark Cromartyshire, and 560 people
died.
(Maggio, 98)
1901 Jul 4, William H. Taft,
later the 27th president of the United States, became the American
territorial governor of the Philippines. Taft soon appointed Prof.
Bernard Moses secretary of public instruction for the Philippines.
Taft, who had been solicitor general of the U.S. under President
Benjamin Harrison, was a federal circuit court judge when President
William McKinley appointed him to serve as president of the U.S.
Philippines Commission in 1900-01. Later in 1901, President Theodore
Roosevelt named Taft the first civil governor of the Philippines
Islands, a post he held for four years. Roosevelt named Taft
secretary of war in 1904. A Republican, Taft was president from 1909
to 1913 and Supreme Court Chief Justice from 1921 to 1930. He was
born in 1857 and died on March 8, 1930, shortly after his
resignation from the court.
(HN, 7/4/98)(SFEM, 1/30/00, p.13)(HNQ, 2/18/00)
1901 Jul 4, Julian Scott
(b.1846), American artist, died alone and penniless. He had achieved
fame for his paintings of Civil War events. His work included “The
Death of General Kearny” (1884) and “The Death of General Sedgwick”
(1887). In 1997 Robert J. Titterton authored “Julian Scott: Artist
of the Civil War and Native America.”
(AH, 2/03,
p.40)(http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/2943183)
1902 Jul 4, Meyer Lansky
(d.1983), mobster (Started numbers), was born.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meyer_Lansky)
1902 Jul 4, Pres. Roosevelt
officially ended the Philippine-American War. Estimates for the
civilian people killed ranged from 250,000 to 1 million. Creighton
Miller in 1982 published "Benevolent Assimilation," a comprehensive
account of the conflict.
(SFEC, 1/31/99, Z1 p.1,4)(WSJ, 11/19/97,
p.A6)(PC, 1992, p.642)
1903 Jul 4, Pacific Cable (SF,
Hawaii, Guam, Philippines) opened. Pres. Theodore Roosevelt opened
the first Pacific communications cable by sending a message around
the world. Roosevelt sent a message around the world, and the
message came back to him in 12 minutes. [see Jul 3]
(Maggio, 98)(HNQ, 7/6/01)
1905 Jul 4, Lionel Trilling
(d.1975), literary critic and educator, was born. His work included
"The Liberal Imagination" and "Sincerity and Authenticity." He wrote
the 1947 novel "Middle of the Journey."
(WSJ, 6/4/99, p.W15)(HN, 7/4/01)
1906 Jul 4, Great Britain,
France & Italy granted independence to Ethiopia.
(Maggio, 98)
1910 Jul 4, African-American
Jack Johnson knocked out Jim Jeffries in the 15th round of a
heavyweight boxing match in Reno, Nevada. As Johnson entered the
ring a band played “All Coons Look Alike to Me.” Johnson’s victory
prompted race riots in major cities across the United States leaving
as many as 26 people dead. Jack London covered the match and coined
the phrase "The great white hope" in his story.
(SFEC, 10/3/99, p.B10)(Econ, 6/21/08, p.104)(ON,
4/09, p.7)
1910 Jul 4, Melville W. Fuller
(b.1833), US Supreme Court Chief Justice (1888-1910), died after
serving over 21 years. He favored limited government, economic
liberty, private property rights, free trade and contractual
freedom.
(SFC, 9/6/05,
p.A4)(www.oyez.org/oyez/resource/legal_entity/50/)
1911 Jul 4, 105øF
(41øC) at Vernon, Vermont (state record).
(Maggio, 98)
1911 Jul 4, 106øF
(41øC) at Nashua, New Hampshire (state record).
(Maggio, 98)
1911 Jul 4, Ty Cobb went 0 for
4 & ended a 40 game hit streak. White Sox Ed Walsh stopped Ty
Cobb's 40-game hitting streak.
(Maggio, 98)
1912 Jul 4, Detroit Tiger
George Mullen no-hits St Louis Browns, 7-0.
(Maggio, 98)
1912 Jul 4, Jack Johnson TKOd
Jim Flynn in 9 for heavyweight boxing title.
(Maggio, 98)
1914 Jul 4, 1st US motorcycle
race (300 miles, Dodge City Ks).
(Maggio, 98)
1916 Jul 4, Tokyo Rose, (Iva
Toguri D'Aquino), was born in Los Angeles. She did propaganda
broadcasts against the U.S. from Japan during World War II.;
imprisoned after the war, then received presidential pardon in 1977.
(IB, 12/7/98)
1916 Jul 4, Nathan’s Famous Hot
Dogs opened a stand at Brooklyn’s Coney Island and held an eating
contest as a publicity stunt that became an annual event.
(SFC, 7/5/97, p.A3)
1916 Jul 4, Poet Alan Seeger
died in action at Befloy-en-Santerre. He had enlisted into the
French Foreign Legion at the outset of WW I. He wrote the lines: I
have a rendezvous with death / At some disputed barricade..."
(SFEC, 3/16/97, z1 p.2)
1917 Jul 4, During a ceremony
in Paris honoring the French hero of the American Revolution, US Lt.
Col. Charles E. Stanton declared, "Lafayette, we are here!"
(AP, 7/4/97)
1918 Jul 4, Ann Landers and
Abigail Van Buren, twin sisters who became famous columnists, were
born in Sioux City, Iowa, as Esther P. (Landers) and Pauline E.
(Abbie) Friedman. Their "advice" columns are syndicated in more than
1,000 newspapers. Esther Friedman died in 2002 at age 83.
(IB, 12/7/98)(SSFC, 6/23/02, p.A10)
1918 Jul 4, Altar dedicated at
full-scale replica of Stonehenge at Maryhill, Wa.
(Maggio, 98)
1918 Jul 4, A record 17 war
vessels were launched the Bay Area. The steamer "Defiance" was
sponsored by Mrs. Charles Schwab.
(SFEC, 12/26/99, p.W5)
1918 Jul 4, Taufa’ahau Tupou
IV, king of Tonga (1965-2006), was born.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taufa'ahau_Tupou_IV)(WSJ, 9/11/06,
p.A1)
1919 Jul 4, Jack Dempsey, the
"Manassa Mauler", defeated Jess Willard by a knockout in Toledo,
Ohio, after three rounds to become the World's Heavyweight Boxing
Champion.
(IB, 12/7/98)
1919 Jul 4, Max Wolf discovered
asteroid #914 Palisana.
(Maggio, 98)
1919 Jul 4, The ADGB
(Allgemeine Deutsche Gewerkschaftsbund) party was formed.
(Maggio, 98)
1920 Jul 4, Leona Helmsley,
(wife of Harry), real estate billionaire, tax cheat, was born.
(MC, 7/4/02)
1923 Jul 4, Jack Dempsey beat
Tommy Gibbon in 15 for the heavyweight boxing title.
(Maggio, 98)
1924 Jul 4, The first San Mateo
County park opened as San Mateo County Memorial Park in a 450-acre
Redwood grove 6 miles east of Pescadero. It was dedicated to the
memory of 52 area soldier who had died in WW I.
(DRC, 6/5/99, p.1)
1925 Jul 4, 44 died when
Dreyfus Hotel in Boston collapsed.
(Maggio, 98)
1926 Jul 4, The NSDAP (Nazi)
party formed in Weimar.
(Maggio, 98)
1927 Jul 4, Neil Simon, (Marvin
Neil Simon) American playwright, was born in New York City. His many
hit plays include "Barefoot in the Park", "The Odd Couple", "Sweet
Charity", "The Sunshine Boys", "Prisoner of Second Avenue", "Biloxi
Blues" and "Lost in Yonkers" for which he was awarded a Pulitzer
Prize in 1991.
(HN, 7/4/98)(IB, 12/7/98)
1927 Jul 4, Ir Sukarno formed
PNI (Perserikatan Nasional Indonesia) in Batavia.
(Maggio, 98)
1928 Jul 4, Cathy Berberian, US
singer, was born in Armenia.
(MC, 7/4/02)
1928 Jul 4, Stephen Boyd,
[William Millar], actor (Fantastic Voyage, Ben-Hur), was born in
Ireland.
(MC, 7/4/02)
1928 Jul 4, Jean Lussier became
the first person to go over the Niagara Falls in a rubber ball. He
went over Horseshoe Falls in the padded ball, which he had built
complete with oxygen tanks and which weighed 750 pounds.
(IB, 12/7/98)
1929 Jul 4, Al Davis (d.2011),
NFL team owner, was born in Brocton, Mass. In 1982 he moved the
Oakland Raiders to Los Angeles. The team moved back to Oakland in
1995.
(SFC, 1/22/03, p.A10)(SSFC, 10/9/11, p.A18)
1930 Jul 4, George
Steinbrenner, (George Michael Steinbrenner, III) businessman and
baseball executive, was born in Rocky River, Ohio. He became the
principal owner of the New York Yankees baseball team (1973-90);
ordered by the Commissioner of Baseball to give up active management
of the Yankee franchise for alleged association with gamblers; he is
now back in control; known for firing one Yankee manager after
another.
(IB, 12/7/98)
1931 Jul 4, 1st fireworks were
held at Cleveland Stadium.
(Maggio, 98)
1931 Jul 4, 1st trailside
museum opened in Cleveland Metroparks.
(Maggio, 98)
1931 Jul 4, Novelist James
Joyce (22) married Nora Barnacle (20) in London. They legalized
their 26-year common-law marriage at the Kensington Registry Office
in London.
(SFEM, 1/25/98, p.69)
1933 Jul 4, Work began on
Oakland Bay Bridge, Ca.
(Maggio, 98)
1934
Jul 4, Boxer Joe Louis won his first professional fight, knocking
out Jack Kracken in the first round in Chicago. He won 12 fights
that year, all in Chicago, 10 by knockout.
(HN,
7/4/98)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Louis#Early_life_and_career)
1934 Jul 4, Jordanians revolted
in Amsterdam after reduction in employment.
(Maggio, 98)
1934 Jul 4, "Madame" Marie
Curie-Sklodovska, Polish-born French chemist and Nobel Prize winner,
died in Paris of leukemia caused by her long exposure to radiation.
In 1937 Eve Curie authored "Madame Curie, a Biography." In 2004
Barbara Goldsmith authored “Obsessive Genius: The Inner World of
Marie Curie.”
(ON, 3/00,
p.2)(http://myhero.com/myhero/hero.asp?hero=madameCurie)(SSFC,
12/5/04, p.E2)
1936 Jul 4, The League Council
voted to end economic sanctions against Italy with the collapse of
Ethiopia. The cancellation of economic sanctions against an
aggressor state marked the failure of collective security under the
League and was a harbinger of conflict in the upcoming years.
(http://www.indiana.edu/~league/1936.htm)
1938 Jul 4, 1st game at Shribe
Park, Phil; Braves beat Phillies 10-5.
(Maggio, 98)
1938 Jul 4, France-Turkish
friendship treaty.
(Maggio, 98)
1939 Jul 4, Baseball's "Iron
Horse," Lou Gehrig (1904-1941), said farewell to 61,808 fans
honoring him with a special day at New York City's Yankee Stadium.
He was suffering from A.L.S. (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), a
neurodegenerative disorder that destroys the body's neuromuscular
system. Many now call it Lou Gehrig's disease. He did less than two
years later at the age of 37.
(SFEC, 3/30/97, Par. p.2)(AP, 7/4/97)(IB,
12/7/98)
1940 Jul 4, British destroyed
French battle fleet at Oran, Algeria, 1267 died.
(Maggio, 98)
1941 Jul 4, Howard Florey &
Norman Heatley meet for 1st time, 11 days later they successfully
recreated penicillin.
(MC, 7/4/02)
1941 Jul 4, Latvia partisans
shot 416 Jews dead.
(Maggio, 98)
1941 Jul 4, Politburo of
Yugoslav communist party reorganized.
(Maggio, 98)
1942 Jul 4, Irving Berlin’s
musical review "This Is the Army" opened at the Broadway Theater in
New York.
(AP, 7/4/00)
1942 Jul 4, Allied convoy PQ-17
scattered when its escort ships were withdrawn, leaving the convoy
to face German U-boats alone.
(HN, 7/4/98)
1942 Jul 4, 1st American
bombing mission over enemy-occupied Europe (WW II). US air offensive
against Nazi-Germany began.
(Maggio, 98)
1943 Jul 4, Geraldo Rivera, TV
talkshow host, was born in New York City. He became known for his
non-conformity in the subjects he approached.
(IB, 12/7/98)
1943 Jul 4, A Liberator II
aircraft carrying Gen. Wladyslaw Sikorski, Poland’s prime minister
and chief army commander, crashed into the sea just 16 seconds after
taking off from Gibraltar. In 2008 Poland began an investigation
into the crash.
(AP, 9/3/08)
1944 Jul 4, Stanley Hiller Jr.
(1925-2006) flew his XH-44 helicopter free from its tether for the
1st time in the stadium of UC Berkeley. A public demonstration took
place in SF on Aug. 30, 1944.
(SSFC, 4/23/06,
p.B7)(www.helis.com/timeline/hiller.php)
1944 Jul 4, 1,100 US guns fired
4th of July salute at German lines in Normandy.
(Maggio, 98)
1944 Jul 4, Allied assault on
Carpiquet airport at Caen.
(Maggio, 98)
1944 Jul 4, Gestapo arrested
German Social Democrat Julius Leber.
(Maggio, 98)
1944 Jul 4, The Japanese made
their first kamikaze (god wind) attack on a US fleet near Iwo Jima.
There is little evidence that these hits were more than accidental
collisions or last-minute decisions by pilots in doomed aircraft, of
the kind likely to happen in intense sea-air battles [see Oct 21].
(Maggio)(WSJ, 9/10/02,
p.D8)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamikaze)
1946 Jul 4, Ron Kovic, disabled
Vietnam veteran, author (Born on 4th of July), was born.
(MC, 7/4/02)
1946 Jul 4, Michael Milken,
partner (Intl Capital Access Group), was born in LA, Calif.
(MC, 7/4/02)
1946 Jul 4, The Philippines
became independent of U.S. sovereignty. The Philippines, which
officially became a territory of the United States in 1902, gained
its independence. In 1932 a movement to implement Philippine
independence began to grow. The Tydings-McDuffie Act of 1934,
providing for independence after 12 years, was unanimously accepted
and a Philippine constitution approved by President Roosevelt in
February 1935. Manuel Quezon was elected the first president of the
Philippines on September 17, 1935. In 1937 a Joint Preparatory
Commission on Philippine Affairs was established by Roosevelt to
recommend a program for economic adjustment. The Republic of the
Philippines was inaugurated.
(SFC, 3/31/97, p.A14)(AP, 7/4/97)(HNQ, 11/9/99)
1946 July 4, A postwar pogrom
in Kielce, Poland, left 42 people, mostly Jews, dead and 50 wounded.
Army and security officers took part in the attack that was sparked
by the false story of Walenty Blaszcyk that his son had been
kidnapped by Jews. The event is considered as Europe’s last pogrom.
In 2001 Jan Tomascz Gross authored “Neighbors,” the story of the
Kielce Jews, who were herded into a barn that was set alight.
(WSJ, 3/20/96, p.A-14)(SFC,10/17/97, p.D3)(Econ,
2/2/08, p.59)
1947 Jul 4, "Wino Willie"
Forkner (d.1997) led his South Central LA Boozefighters
motorcyclists to Hollister for a weekend of beer-drenched fun. They
were all veterans of WW II. He was said to have been the model for
Marlon Brando in the film "The Wild One." 3,000 motorcyclists
spilled over into Hollister from a nearby racetrack. [see Jul 7]
(SFC, 6/26/97, p.A17)(SFEC, 6/29/97, p.A1)
1949 Jul 4, Joyce Brothers,
psychologist, author, columnist, was born.
(MC, 7/4/02)
1951 Jul 4, The "Capital Times"
in Madison, Wisconsin, reported that one of its reporters was turned
down by 99 out of 100 people he asked to sign a petition made up of
quotations from the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of
Rights. Many said the petition was subversive.
(IB, 12/7/98)
1953 Jul 4, Today the song "I’m
Walking Behind You" by Eddie Fisher topped the charts and stayed
there for 7 weeks.
(DataDragon)
1953 Jul 4, Imre Nagy succeeded
Matyas Rkosi as premier of Hungary.
(Maggio, 98)
1954 Jul 4, WMSL (WYUR, now
WAFF) TV channel 48 in Huntsville, AL (ABC) began.
(Maggio, 98)
1954 Jul 4, West Germany beat
Hungary 3-2 to win the 5th World Cup soccer match in Bern, Switz.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1954_World_Cup)
1954 Jul 4, Marilyn Sheppard
(31 and pregnant) was killed at her home near Cleveland and her
husband, Dr. Sam Sheppard (d.1970), was later accused, tried and
jailed for the murder. Sam was released from jail in 1964. His story
inspired the TV series "The Fugitive" and a film in 1993. DNA
evidence in 1997 indicated a third person was involved. Cleveland’s
chief prosecutor ruled in 1998 that the DNA samples were too old. A
civil trial in Cleveland in 2000 rejected the claim of Sam Reese
Sheppard that his father was innocent.
(SFC, 2/5/97, p.A6)(SFC, 3/5/98, p.A3)(SFC,
3/6/98, p.A3)(SFC, 4/13/00, p.A2)
1956 Jul 4, Independence
National Historical Park formed in Philadelphia.
(Maggio, 98)
1956 Jul 4, US most intense
rain fall (1.23" in 1 minute) at Unionville Maryland.
(Maggio, 98)
1957 Jul 4, Dutch 2nd Chamber
accepted temporary tax increase.
(Maggio, 98)
1957 Jul 4, In Italy the new 13
horsepower Fiat 500 was launched. In 1965 Fiat introduced the 500 F
model. The car could get 58 mpg from its 4.25-gallon tank.
(Econ, 7/14/07, p.69)(SSFC, 5/1/11, p.J1)
1959 Jul 4, A 49-star flag was
raised for the first time at the Capitol in Washington, D.C., in
honor of Alaska which had become the 49th state in the Union on July
7, 1958.
(IB, 12/7/98)
1959 Jul 4, Cayman Islands
separated from Jamaica, made a crown colony.
(Maggio, 98)
1960 Jul 4, The 50-star flag
made its debut in Philadelphia. A 50th star was added to the
American flag in honor of Hawaii's admission into the Union on
August 21, 1959.
(HN, 7/4/98)(IB, 12/7/98)
1962 Jul 4, Island Records
began.
(Maggio, 98)
1962 Jul 4, KIKU (now KHNL) TV
channel 13 in Honolulu, HI (IND) 1st broadcast.
(Maggio, 98)
1963 Jul 4, Naturalization
ceremonies began to be held annually at Monticello, Virginia.
(SFC, 7/5/97, p.A3)
1964 Jul 4, The
song "I Get Around" by the Beach Boys topped the charts and stayed
there for 2 weeks. Sales went on to exceed a million records.
(DataDragon)(Maggio, 98)(SFEC, 2/8/98, p.D8)
1966 Jul 4, President Johnson
signed the Freedom of Information Act, which went into effect the
following year.
(AP, 7/4/97)
1966 Jul 4, Beatles were
attacked in Philippines after insulting Imelda Marcos.
(Maggio, 98)
1967 Jul 4, The Freedom of
Information Act became official, making government information more
readily available. To withhold information, the government must
prove its need to be classified.
(IB, 12/7/98)
1968 Jul 4, Arthur Kopit's
"Indians," premiered in London.
(www.enotes.com/indians)
1968 Jul 4, The radio astronomy
satellite Explorer 38 launched.
(www.n2yo.com/satellite/?s=28608)
1969 Jul 4, "Give Peace a
Chance" by Plastic Ono Band was released in UK.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Give_Peace_a_Chance)
1969 Jul 4, Some 140,000
attended the Atlanta Pop Festival featuring Led Zeppelin & Janis
Joplin.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlanta_International_Pop_Festival_(1969))
1969 Jul 4, In San Francisco
Jim (d.2007) and Artie Mitchell (d.1991) opened the Mitchell
Brothers O’Farrell Theater at O’Farrell and Polk.
(SFC, 10/3/97, p.A15)(SFC, 7/14/07, p.A7)
1969 Jul 4, The California
Zodiac killer shot and killed a waitress in Vallejo.
(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W20)
1969 Jul 4, The Italian
coalition government under Mariano Rumor (1915-1990) fell apart.
(www.speedylook.com/Mariano_Rumor.html)
1969 Jul 4, The USSR performed
nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR.
{Russia, USSR, Nuclear, Kazakhstan}
(www.ldeo.columbia.edu/res/pi/Monitoring/Arch/sts-table/sts-table.html)
1970 Jul 4, Some 100 people
were injured in race rioting in Asbury Park, NJ. In 2005 Daniel
Wolff authored “Fourth of July, Asbury Park: A History of the
Promised Land.”
(SSFC, 7/3/05, p.E1)
1970 Jul 4, Casey Kasem
(b.1932) debuted his "American Top 40" on LA radio.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casey_Kasem)
1970 Jul 4, Barnett Newman
(b.1905), American artist of the abstract expressionist movement,
died. His "zips" consisted of fields of flat color punctuated by
vertical stripes.
(SFC,11/22/97, p.D5)(SFC, 3/30/02, p.D1)(NW,
4/22/02, p.66)
1971 Jul 4, Koko, a female
lowland gorilla who learned American sign language, was born.
(AP, 8/9/04)(www.koko.org)
1971 Jul 4, A July 4th concert
on the West Lawn of the White House was held and began an annual
tradition.
(SSFC, 6/30/02, Par p.30)
1971 Jul 4, Michael S. Hart
(1947-2011) began typing the Declaration of Independence into the
memory of a mainframe computer at the Univ. of Illinois. This led
him to begin Project Gutenberg, an effort to put US historical
documents on line. It was later expanded to include books out of
copyright.
(WSJ, 11/21/96,
p.B12)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_S._Hart)
1971 Jul 4, France performed a
nuclear test at Muruora Island.
(www.atomicforum.org/france/1971.html)
1972 Jul 4, Lee Hu-rak
(1924-2009), South Korean President Park Chung-hee’s top
intelligence officer, helped broker a joint statement in which the
two Koreas agreed to work toward peacefully reunifying their divided
peninsula. The July 4 joint communique was hailed as the first major
accord between the Koreas on unification since the Korean War ended
with a fragile truce in 1953.
(AP, 10/31/09)
1973 Jul 4, Alan Ayckbourne's
"Absurd Person Singular," premiered in London.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absurd_Person_Singular)
1973 Jul 4, Eleanor F. Helin,
American astronomer, discovered asteroid #5496.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_asteroids/5401%E2%80%935500)
1973 Jul 4, The Treaty of
Chaguaramas was signed in Trinidad and established the Caribbean
Community CARICOM - Caribbean Community & Common Market.
(www.axses.com/encyc/caricom/nt/faqs.cfm)
1973 Jul 4, Leonid Stein
(b.1934), Soviet Grandmaster chess player from the Ukraine, died of
a heart attack.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonid_Stein)
1975 Jul 4, Nancy Baird (23), a
Bundy victim, disappeared from a convenience store where she worked
in Layton, Utah.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Bundy)
1976 Jul 4, The nation held a
200th anniversary party across the land in celebration of America's
200 years of independence. President Ford made stops in Valley
Forge, Pennsylvania, Independence Hall in Philadelphia, and New
York, where more than 200 ships paraded up the Hudson River in
Operation Sail.
(TMC, 1994, p.1976)(IB, 12/7/98)(AP, 7/4/01)
1976 Jul 4, The National Museum
of American Jewish History opened in Philadelphia. It was
established to tell the story of the American Jewish experience.
(SFC, 7/3/08,
p.E15)(www.ushistory.org/tour/tour_jewish.htm)
1976 Jul 4, A government
program was begun in 1937 to provide American flags, certified to
have flown over the capital, to the public. Each flag was provided a
certificate with the date it was flown and the name of the person
for whom it was flown. By 1998 the program average 250-300 flags per
day with a peak of 10,471 flown on July 4, 1976, and a record of
154,224 flown in 1991.
(SFC, 7/4/98, p.C2)
1976 Jul 4, The Ramones, a US
punk rock group managed by Danny Fields and Linda Stein (1945-2007),
held a concert in England that sparked the young British punk scene.
(SFC, 11/2/07, p.E2)
1976 Jul 4, Jonathan Netanyahu,
brother of Benjamin, led and was killed in an Israeli raid called
Operation Thunderball that rescued the [105] hostages held at
Entebbe Airport in Uganda. The raid was by Sayeret Matkal, Israel’s
elite counter-terrorist unit led by Muki Betser, and it freed all
but 3 of the 104 Israeli and Jewish hostages and crew of an Air
France jetliner seized by pro-Palestinian hijackers. A total of 45
Ugandan soldiers were killed during the raid. The events are
described by Muki Betser and Robert Rosenberg in "Secret Soldier,
The True Life of Israel’s Greatest Commando." The hijacking was
linked to Carlos the Jackal, aka Ilich Ramirez Sanchez.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Entebbe)(AP,
7/4/97)(SFC,12/11/97, p.C2)
1978
Jul 4, Memphis fire fighters halted 3-day strike
under a court order. At least 350 fires were reported during the
strike. The city police director charged that the strikers set
almost all of the fires, which broke out mostly in abandoned
buildings.
(http://tinyurl.com/34xkkk)
1978 Jul 4, L.I. Chernykh
(b.1935), Russian astronomer, discovered asteroids #3332, #6110
& #7730.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyudmila_Chernykh)
1979 Jul 4, Algerian
ex-president Ben Bella (b.1918) was freed after 14 years of
detention, but remained under house arrest. He had served as prime
minister from 1962-63, and as president from 1963-65. Bella was
freed on Oct 20, 1980.
(http://www.rulers.org/indexb2.html)(www.cnn.com/almanac/9807/04/)
1982 Jul 4, The space shuttle
Columbia 4 concluded its fourth and final test flight with a landing
at Edwards AFB.
(http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/missions/sts-4/mission-sts-4.html)(AP,
7/4/02)
1982 Jul 4, Antonio Guzman
(b.1911), president of the Dominican Rep., committed suicide by a
gunshot wound to his head while still in office.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonio_Guzm%C3%A1n_Fern%C3%A1ndez)
1982 Jul 4, Four Iranians,
charge d'affaires Mohsen Musavi, diplomat Ahmad Motovasselian,
photographer Kazem Akhavan and driver Mohammad Taqi Rastgar
Moghaddam, were seized at a Lebanese Forces checkpoint north of
Beirut. In 2006 Samir Geagea, former head of the disbanded Lebanese
Forces, said that they were killed by Christian militiamen.
(AP, 5/19/06)
1982 Jul 4, Miguel de la Madrid
Hurtado (b.1934) was elected president of Mexico. Madrid was chosen
by Pres. Portillo as his successor. De la Madrid took office in a
year when inflation had surpassed 100 percent and Mexico had a
foreign debt of $87 billion, much of it short-term.
(SFC, 11/28/98,
p.C2)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miguel_de_la_Madrid)(AP, 3/9/04)
1982 Jul 4, USSR performed
nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR.
(www.iss.niiit.ru/ksenia/catal_nt/3_9.htm)
1984 Jul 4, The NY Yankee Phil
Niekro became the 9th pitcher to strikeout 3,000 batters.
(www.thebaseballpage.com/players/niekrph01.php)
1986 Jul 4, Liberty Weekend was
capped with a spectacular fireworks display that lighted up New York
Harbor.
(AP, 7/4/06)
1986 Jul 4, E F Helin
discovered asteroid #3855 Pasasymphonia.
(http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=3855)
1987 Jul 4, Bill Graham took
Santana, the Doobie Brothers and Bonny Rait to Moscow for an
American-Soviet peace concert.
(SFC,12/13/97, p.A15)
1987 Jul 4, Martina Navratilova
won her eighth Wimbledon singles title as she defeated Steffi Graf.
(AP, 7/4/97)
1987 Jul 4, Klaus Barbie, the
former Gestapo chief known as the "Butcher of Lyon," was convicted
by a French court of crimes against humanity and sentenced to life
in prison; he died in September 1991.
(AP, 7/4/97)
1989 Jul 4, Drew Barrymore
(b.1975), actress, attempted suicide.
(www.worldofquotes.com/history/7_4/9/index.html)
1989 Jul 4, Unmanned Russian
Mig-23 crashed in Bellegem-Kooigem, Belgium, and 1 person died. The
pilot had ejected over Poland.
(http://tinyurl.com/ftljd)
1989 Jul 4, Soviet President
Mikhail S. Gorbachev arrived in France for a three-day visit that
included an address to the Council of Europe in Strasbourg.
(AP, 7/4/99)
1990 Jul 4, Rioting that left
three people dead erupted in 30 English towns following England’s
loss to West Germany in World Cup soccer.
(AP, 7/4/00)
1990 Jul 4, France performed
nuclear test at Muruora Island.
(www.seismo.ethz.ch/bsv/nuclear_explosions/undergr/france.html)
1991 Jul 4, Americans
celebrated Independence Day, with the Persian Gulf War adding to
emotions. President Bush and his wife, Barbara, attended festivities
in Marshfield, Missouri, and Grand Rapids, Michigan, before
returning to Washington DC for the annual fireworks display.
(AP, 7/4/01)
1991 Jul 4, Victor Chang, who
had earned an international reputation for his pioneering work on
heart transplant methods, was shot dead near his home as he made his
way to work. Phillip Choon Tee Lim and co-offender Chew Seng Liew
were imprisoned over the killing of Chang in the exclusive Sydney
suburb of Mosman, following a failed extortion attempt. In 2010 Lim
(50) was extradited to Malaysia after serving 18 years in prison.
(AP,
3/2/10)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Chang)
1992 Jul 4, The song "Baby Got
Back" by Sir Mix-A-Lot topped the charts and stayed there for 5
weeks.
(DataDragon)
1992 Jul 4, Steffi Graf won her
fourth Wimbledon title, defeating Monica Seles in a 5 1/2-hour match
interrupted three times by rain.
(AP, 7/4/97)
1993 Jul 4, Pilar Fort was
crowned 25th Miss Black America.
(Maggio, 98)
1993 Jul 4, Pete Sampras won
the men's title at Wimbledon, defeating fellow American Jim Courier.
(AP, 7/4/03)
1993 Jul 4, South African
leaders F.W. de Klerk and Nelson Mandela received the Liberty Medal
in a ceremony outside Philadelphia's Independence Hall.
(AP, 7/4/03)
1993 Jul 4, Pizza Hut blimp
deflated & landed safely on W 56th street in NYC.
(Maggio, 98)
1994 Jul 4, The United States
opened its embassy in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, with a Fourth of
July party.
(AP, 7/4/99)
1994 Jul 4, E F Helin
discovered asteroid #6875.
(Maggio, 98)
1994 Jul 4, Russian manned
space craft TM-18, landed.
(Maggio, 98)
1994 Jul 4, Rwandan Tutsi
rebels seized control of most of their country's capital, Kigali,
and continued advancing on areas held by the Hutu-led government.
(AP, 7/4/99)(Maggio, 98)
1995 Jul 4, The space shuttle
"Atlantis" and the Russian space station "Mir" parted after spending
five days in orbit docked together.
(AP, 7/4/00)
1995
Jul 4, Actress Eva Gabor (b.1919), Hungarian-born actress, died in
Los Angeles, Ca., of respiratory failure due to complications of
food poisoning.
(http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001247/)
1995 Jul 4, British Prime
Minister John Major won re-election as Conservative Party leader.
(AP, 7/4/00)
1995 Jul 4, President Boris
Yeltsin announced that Russian troops would be permanently stationed
in Chechnya.
(AP, 7/4/00)
1996 Jul 4, President Clinton
extolled the joys of democracy and asked the nation to honor
America's independence by praising continued free rule in Russia as
he spoke during a jamboree honoring the 200th anniversary of
Youngstown, Ohio.
(AP, 7/4/97)
1996 Jul 4, Koko, the first
gorilla to use sign language, turned 25 and asked for a box of
scary, rubber snakes and lizards. Koko was the offspring of Jackie,
who was donated to the SF Zoo by benefactor Carroll Soo-Hoo (d.1998
at 84).
(SFC, 7/4/96, p.A24)(SFC, 7/3/98, p.D6)
1996 Jul 4, The film
"Independence Day," produced and co-written by David Devlin, was
released. It passed $100 mil in revenue in six days beating the
Jurassic Park record of 9 days.
(SFC, 7/8/96, p.E4) (SFC, 7/10/96, p.E2)
1996 Jul 4, Hot Mail, a free
internet E-mail service began.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotmail)
1996 Jul 4, In Burundi
unidentified gunmen killed 80 people in an attack on a tea factory
15 miles northeast of Bujumbura.
(WSJ, 7/5/96, p.A1)
1996 Jul 4, Floods and
landslides in China killed at least 121 people and forced 450,000
from their homes from Zhejiang on the east coast to Guizhou in the
southwest.
(WSJ, 7/5/96, p.A1)
1996 Jul 4, China’s Pres. Jiang
Zemin began a 3-day to Kazakhstan, whose population numbered about
15 million. Zemin held talks with President Nazarbayev, and met with
Kazakhstan Parliament Lower House Speaker Ospanov and delivered an
important speech entitled "For a Better Future of Friendship and
Cooperation Between China and Central Asia". The two sides signed a
joint statement, the extradition treaty, the agreement on
cooperation between the People's Bank of China and the Kazakhstan
National Bank, the agreement on cooperation in quality control and
mutual certification of import and export commodities and other
documents.
(Econ, 1/30/10,
p.48)(http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2003-05/21/content_879991.htm)
1996 Jul 4, In Panama police
arrested Jaime Revello, a top Columbian drug lord, and seized 4.5
tons of cocaine.
(SFC, 7/5/96, p.A13)
1996 Jul 4, In Sri Lanka a
suicide bomber killed an army commander and 20 others when she
leaped in front of a motorcade in Jaffna.
(WSJ, 7/5/96, p.A1)
1996 Jul 4, In Switzerland the
defense ministry hoped to save $476,000 a year by pensioning off
7,000 carrier pigeons.
(SFC, 7/4/96, p.C1)
1997 Jul 4, In San Francisco at
the Howard and Karen Rheinstein 6th annual July 4th party, a baby
spilled a glass of red wine on the white wool carpet, just moments
after their carpet-cleaning friend departed. Guests rushed for
mineral water and white soda to scrub out the red droplets.
(EW, 7/4/97)
1997 Jul 4, Bikers returned to
Hollister, Ca., for a 50-year anniversary and began an annual
tradition. [see Jul 4, 1947]
(SFC, 7/4/02, p.A18)
1997 Jul 4, The Mars Pathfinder
landed at 10:07 AM PST on Ares Vallis Mars and began to broadcast
pictures of the red rocky landscape.
(SFC, 7/5/97, p.A1)(Maggio, 98)
1997 Jul 4, TV journalist
Charles Kuralt (b.1934) died at 62 from lupus.
(SFC, 7/5/97, p.A5)
1997 Jul 4, It was reported
that Australia had sold 167 tons of gold over the last 6 months in
order to put the money into more productive assets.
(SFC, 7/4/97, p.C1)
1997 Jul 4, In Cambodia troops
of Prince Ranariddh laid down their arms and some 140 were taken
prisoner by troops of 2nd Prime Minister Hun Sen. Ranariddh was on a
trip to France and Hun Sen claimed that illegal negotiations were
taking place with Khmer Rouge guerrillas.
(SFC, 7/5/97, p.A10)
1997 Jul 4, In Guatemala Pres.
Alvaro Arzu fired 2 top military officials, after they had helped
negotiate a peace treaty. They were known as moderates and the
hard-liner Gen’l. Hector Barrios took over as the new defense chief.
(SFC, 7/5/97, p.A10)
1997 Jul 4, The Hong Kong
Philharmonic premiered the "Symphony 1997 (Heaven Earth Mankind)" by
the composer Tan Dun. The piece was commissioned by China to mark
the reunification of Hong Kong and China.
(WSJ, 6/25/97, p.A20)
1997 Jul 4, In Mexico it was
reported that Amado Carillo Fuentes (41), Mexico’s reputed top drug
trafficker, died following extensive plastic surgery. His operations
were centered in Juarez, across the border from El Paso. He was
called "Lord of the Skies" for using passenger jets to bring in
cocaine from Columbia. It was later reported that his death was an
inside job arranged because a massive manhunt for him had become a
liability to his cartel’s business.
(SFEC, 7/6/97, p.B4)(SFC, 7/7/97, p.A10)(SFC,
2/14/98, p.A9)
1997 Jul 4, In Russia the
parliament passed a law to reassert state control over weapons
exports.
(SFC, 7/5/97, p.C2)
1998 Jul 4, In San Francisco at
the home of Howard and Karen Rheinstein, Howard managed to recover
in time from his broken leg, due to a February ski accident, to host
his 7th annual July 4th party. He sold his 486-equipped wheel chair,
ivory crutches, and a gold plated cane to cover the expenses.
(EW, 7/4/98)
1998 Jul 4, Jana Novotna of the
Czech Republic won the women's title at Wimbledon, defeating
France's Nathalie Tauziat 6-4, 7-6 (7-2).
(AP, 7/4/99)
1998 Jul 4, In Finland in the
annual Wife Carrying World Championships, 2 Estonian couples won top
honors in the 278 yard course in Sonkajarvi.
(SFEC, 7/5/98, p.A2)
1998 Jul 4, Japan launched its
Planet-B probe to Mars the Planet-B on its M-5 rocket, which is to
begin beaming back photographs and data from the Red Planet in
October 1999.
(SFC, 7/4/98, p.A10)(AP, 7/4/99)
1998 Jul 4, In Kosovo fresh
fighting erupted outside Suva Reka, a region with 60,000 residents.
(SFEC, 7/5/98, p.A17)
1998 Jul 4, In Pakistan Zuhair
Akram Nadeem, a former provincial and federal legislator, was shot a
killed by 2 men on motorcycle.
(SFEC, 7/5/98, p.A18)
1998 Jul 4, Aftershocks hit
southern Turkey and some 1000 people were reportedly injured.
(SFEC, 7/5/98, p.A14)
1999 Jul 4, In San Francisco at
the home of Howard and Karen Rheinstein, Brian Weiss (4) learned
about gravity. Shortly thereafter his teacher gave everybody a
public demonstration by spilling red wine over the white carpet. A
special cleaner was quickly fetched to clean the spill.
(EW, 7/4/99)
1999 Jul 4, Pete Sampras and
Lindsay Davenport won the singles titles at Wimbledon, defeating
Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf.
(AP, 7/4/00)
1999 Jul 4, In Bloomington,
Ind., Benjamin Nathaniel Smith killed Won Joon Moon (26), a
Korean-born Indiana Univ. student. Later the same day he shot
himself dead during a police chase in Salem, Ill. Authorities
believe Smith was also responsible for killing former college
basketball coach Ricky Byrdsong during a three-day rampage targeting
minorities.
(SFC, 7/5/99, p.A1,5)(AP, 7/4/00)
1999 Jul 4, A 2,000 pound
tombstone for "Unknown Civilians Killed in Wars" departed from
Sherborn, Mass., on a 450-mile trek to Arlington National Cemetery.
It was impounded by police on August 6 for safekeeping pending
approval by Congress. In the 20th century 62 million civilians died
in wars as compared to 43 million military people.
(SFC, 8/7/99, p.A2)(SFEC, 8/8/99, Z1 p.8)
1999 Jul 4, In Congo Abdulaiye
Yerodia, the foreign minister, objected to the inclusion of foreign
rebels in a joint military commission to verify terms of a
cease-fire. Meanwhile The Congolese Liberation Movement, led by
Jena-Pierre Bemba, took Gbadolite, 750 miles northeast of Kinshasa.
(SFC, 7/5/99, p.A12)
1999 Jul 4, In East Timor
anti-independence fighters fired for the first time on a convoy of
foreign workers and wounded as many as 3.
(SFC, 7/5/99, p.A12)
1999 Jul 4, Pakistani PM Nawaz
Sharif met with Pres. Clinton and announced that it would abandon
its seized positions in Kashmir. Meanwhile India claimed a victory
at Tiger Hill. In 2002 it was revealed that Clinton confronted
Sharif with intelligence reports that the Pakistani military was
preparing missiles with nuclear warheads.
(SFC, 7/5/99, p.A8)(SFC, 5/15/02, p.A11)
1999 Jul 4, In Mexico City
elections for governor were scheduled. Arturo Montiel (55), a PRI
former congressman, faced Jose Luis Duran (38), a PAN mayor of
Naucalpan. PRI candidate Arturo Montiel defeated Jose Luis Duran of
the National Action Party. In Nayarit Antonuio Echeverria, a
coalition candidate, led a victory over the PRI.
(SFC, 7/3/99, p.A12)(SFC, 7/5/99, p.A8)
1999 Jul 4, In Puerto Rico anti
US Navy protests drew some 50,000 people.
(SFC, 7/26/99, p.A3)
1999 Jul 4, In Russia troops
were forced to delay their departure for Kosovo after NATO blocked
air corridors on their route.
(SFC, 7/5/99, p.A1)
1999 Jul 4, In Turkey PKK
guerrillas planted a bomb in an Istanbul park that killed one person
and injured 25.
(SFC, 7/6/99, p.A8)
2000 Jul 4, Pres. Clinton
presided over the largest naval parade in history in Ney York
harbor. Tall ships sailed through New York Harbor during OpSail
2000, celebrating Independence Day.
(WSJ, 7/5/00, p.A1)(AP, 7/4/01)
2000 Jul 4, In Fiji Laisenia
Qarase was sworn in as prime minister along with a 19-member
all-Fijian temporary government.
(SFC, 7/4/00, p.A9)
2000 Jul 4, In India the
Cabinet rejected a demand for political autonomy by the Kashmir
state legislature.
(SFC, 7/5/00, p.A12)
2000 Jul 4, In Indonesia 10
people were killed over 2 days of clashes between Christians and
Muslims in the Malukus.
(SFC, 7/5/00, p.A10)
2000 Jul 4, In Northern Ireland
protestors clashed with police in Belfast for a 2nd night due to
restrictions on traditional parades in Catholic areas.
(SFC, 7/5/00, p.A10)
2000 Jul 4, In Mexico
president-elect Vincente Fox promised to fight corruption, to
restart talks with the Zapatista rebels, and to strip the Interior
Ministry of all functions but those involving political relations
between the federal and state governments.
(SFC, 7/5/00, p.A4)
2000 Jul 4, In Sri Lanka the
government reimposed censorship on local media and foreign
journalists reporting on the civil war.
(SFC, 7/5/00, p.A4)
2001 Jul 4, The US
counter-terrorism group run by Richard Clarke sent a memorandum to
Condoleeza Rice, national security advisor, that described a series
of steps that the White House had taken to put the nation on
heightened terrorist alert. It noted that all 56 FBI field offices
were tasked in late June to go to increased surveillance and contact
informants related to known or suspected terrorists.
(SFC, 4/10/04, p.A1)
2001 Jul 4, Australia’s interim
cabinet approved East Timor’s demands for 90% of the revenues from
oil and gas reserves in the Timor Sea.
(SFC, 7/5/01, p.A8)
2001 Jul 4, A Russian airliner
crashed in Siberia, killing all 145 people aboard.
(AP, 7/4/02)
2001 Jul 4, In Turkey Mahmut
Gokhan Ozocak (41) became the 27th person to die from a hunger
strike protesting prisoner transfers.
(SFC, 7/6/01, p.D6)
2002 Jul 4, Hesham Mohamed
Hadayet (41), an Egyptian-born 10-year resident of Irvine, opened
fire at Israel’s El Al airline ticket counter in Los Angeles'
airport. Victoria Hen and Yaakov Aminov were killed before Hadayet,
born July 4, 1961, was shot to death by a guard.
(AP, 7/5/02)(Reuters, 7/5/02)(SFC, 7/5/02,
p.A1)(SFC, 7/6/02, p.A12)
2002 Jul 4, In central Texas
70,000 cubic feet of water gushed down a spillway from Canyon Lake
toward the Guadalupe River for three days, scraping off vegetation
and topsoil and leaving only limestone walls. The
mile-and-a-half-long Canyon Lake Gorge, up to 80 feet deep, was dug
out from what had been a nondescript valley covered in mesquite and
oak trees.
(AP, 10/5/07)
2002 Jul 4, A Cessna 310 plane
crashed at Frank G. Bonelli Regional County Park at San Dimas and 3
people were killed.
(SFC, 7/5/02, p.A24)
2002 Jul 4, General Benjamin
Oliver Davis, Jr. (b.1912), the first black general in the US Air
Force and commander of the World War II Tuskegee Airmen, died in
Washington. In 1991 he published his autobiography “Benjamin O.
Davis, Jr., American: An Autobiography.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_O._Davis,_Jr.)(AP, 7/4/03)
2002 Jul 4, Winnifred Quick Van
Tongerloo (98), one of the four known survivors of the Titanic
sinking, died in East Lansing, Mich.
(AP, 7/4/03)
2002 Jul 4, In Australia Steve
Fossett launched Independence Day celebrations early when his Spirit
of Freedom balloon ended its record-breaking flight around the
world.
(AP, 7/4/02)
2002 Jul 4, In Bangui, CAR, a
Boeing 707 cargo plane crashed in a sparsely populated residential
area in this central African capital, killing at least 20 people.
(AP, 7/4/02)(SFC, 7/5/02, p.A14)
2002 Jul 4, In Chile Augusto
Pinochet resigned as senator-for-life.
(SFC, 7/5/02, p.A14)
2002 Jul 4, In China a blast in
the Fuqiang mine in Songshu trapped 39 miners. There was little hope
for survivors.
(SFC, 7/6/02, p.A14)
2002 Jul 4, American warplanes
bombed an Iraqi air defense system after coming under attack from
Iraqi anti-aircraft artillery.
(AP, 7/4/02)
2002 Jul 4, Italian
photographer Angelo Frontoni (76), known for his work with stars
such as Sophia Loren, Brigitte Bardot and Ava Gardner, died in Rome.
(AP, 7/4/02)
2002 Jul 4, A British ship left
Takahama, Japan, with 550 pounds of defective, near weapons-grade
plutonium, for return to its British supplier.
(SFC, 7/5/02, p.A12)
2002 Jul 4, The Palestinian
police chief Ghazi Jabali decided to resign and run for president
following a controversy over whether Yasser Arafat had tried to oust
both him and security commander Jibril Rajoub.
(Reuters, 7/4/02)(SFC, 7/5/02, p.A7)
2002 Jul 4, An explosion
shattered a white Mercedes, killing two people including Jihad
Amerin (38), a Gaza leader of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.
Palestinian police said their initial suspicions were Israeli agents
had planted a bomb.
(AP, 7/4/02)(SFC, 7/5/02, p.A7)
2002 Jul 4, In Spain AIDS
experts announced a $4.8 billion prevention plan.
(SFC, 7/5/02, p.A1)
2003 Jul 4, President Bush
visited Dayton, Ohio, to praise the work of U.S. troops and
celebrate the 100th anniversary of flight in the hometown of the
Wright brothers.
(AP, 7/4/04)
2003 Jul 4, Los Angeles Lakers
guard Kobe Bryant was arrested on suspicion of sexual assault after
a woman accused him of sexual misconduct at a hotel near Vail, Colo.
(AP, 7/4/04)
2003 Jul 4, US forces raided a
Turkish special forces office in northern Iraq and detained 11
soldiers on reports that Turks were plotting to kill the governor of
the oil-rich city of Kirkuk.
(AP, 7/5/03)
2003 Jul 4, Manuel Gehring (44)
shot and killed his 2 children, Philip (11) and Sarah (14),
following a dispute with his wife in Concord, NH. He was later
arrested in Gilroy, Ca. He confessed to police that he shot and
killed his 2 children in New Hampshire and buried them in the
Midwest. In 2005 authorities found the bodies of the 2 children
buried off I-80 in Ohio. Gehring committed suicide in his jail cell
on February 19, 2004 at the Merrimack County Jail in Boscawen, New
Hampshire.
(SFC, 8/1/03, p.A3)(SSFC, 12/4/05,
p.A22)(http://tinyurl.com/62dfka)
2003 Jul 4, Barry White (58), a
singer and songwriter whose rich bass crooning stirred romance in
the hearts of a generation of fans, died in Los Angeles. His songs
included "Can't Get Enough of Your Love, Babe" (1974).
(SFC, 7/5/03, p.A20)
2003 Jul 4, In Algeria
suspected Islamic militants killed Lawmaker Rabah Radja and three
other people at a roadblock east of the capital.
(AP, 7/5/03)
2003 Jul 4, Landslides in
central China caused by torrential rains killed 21 people as river
waters ran at their highest level in more than a decade,
(AP, 7/6/03)
2003 Jul 4, A coal mine
explosion in northeastern China killed 22 people and injured 6
others.
(AP, 7/6/03)
2003 Jul 4, Tung Chee-hwa, Hong
Kong's leader, withdrew parts of an anti-subversion bill that
triggered massive street protests.
(AP, 7/5/03)
2003 Jul 4, A voice purported
to be Saddam Hussein's, aired on the Arab television station
Al-Jazeera, said he is in Iraq directing attacks on American forces
and called on Iraqis to help the resistance against the US-led
occupation.
(AP, 7/4/03)(SFC, 7/5/03, p.A1)
2003 Jul 4, Ivory Coast's
government and rebel officials declared an official end to the civil
war, 9 months after fighting erupted following a failed attempt to
oust Pres. Laurent Gbagbo.
(AP, 7/4/03)
2003 Jul 4, In
Indian-controlled Kashmir suspected Islamic guerrillas tossed a
grenade and opened fire at a meeting between a minister and health
officials, killing 2 people and wounding 28.
(AP, 7/5/03)
2003 Jul 4, Liberia's President
Charles Taylor, under US pressure to quit, said he had agreed to
step down. A senior Nigerian official said Taylor had accepted an
offer of asylum.
(AP, 7/4/03)
2003 Jul 4, In Mexico gunmen in
Las Choapas, Veracruz, killed a man believed to be a migrant
trafficker and then fatally shot four bystanders, including a
12-year-old boy, apparently to avoid leaving witnesses.
(AP, 7/5/03)
2003 Jul 4, In Quetta,
Pakistan, 3 assassins attacked a Shiite Muslim mosque and killed 44
worshippers during prayers. Angry Shiites rioted in the streets
burning cars and tires.
(SFC, 7/5/03, p.A1)(AP, 7/6/03)(SSFC, 7/6/03,
p.A6)
2003 Jul 4, The 180-nation
world Radio Communication Conference in Geneva planned to approve an
expansion of the band for wireless local area networks (Wi-Fi) by
455 megahertz.
(WSJ, 7/3/03, p.B4)
2004 Jul 4, Defending the war
in Iraq, President Bush told a cheering crowd outside the West
Virginia state capitol that America was safer because Saddam Hussein
was in a prison cell.
(AP, 7/4/05)
2004 Jul 4, In NYC a 20-ton
slab of granite, inscribed to honor "the enduring spirit of
freedom," was laid at the World Trade Center site as the cornerstone
of the skyscraper that will replace the destroyed towers.
(AP, 7/4/04)
2004 Jul 4, In NYC Takeru "The
Tsunami" Kobayashi chewed up the competition at the Nathan's Famous
hot dog eating competition, breaking his own previous world record.
Kobayashi, of Nagano, Japan, gulped down 53 1/2 wieners in 12
minutes and shattered his own world record by three dogs. 105-pound
Sonya "The Black Widow" Thomas, 36, of Alexandria, Va., ate more hot
dogs (32) than any other woman and any other American in the
contest's history.
(AP, 7/4/04)
2004 Jul 4, The Army's 1st
Armored Division stowed its flags and prepared to head home after
the longest tour in Iraq of any American combat command — 15 months.
(AP, 7/4/04)
2004 Jul 4, Afghan President
Hamid Karzai issued a decree ordering death penalty for criminals
who remove body parts from kidnapped children.
(Reuters, 7/4/04)
2004 Jul 4, Australia and
Thailand signed a free-trade agreement that officials believe will
boost the economies of both countries by billions of dollars over
the next two decades.
(AP, 7/5/04)
2004 Jul 4, It was reported
that Libya's state-owned Tam Oil Co has bought the Niger unit of US
oil major ExxonMobil Corp, in the first such deal following an end
to US sanctions on Tripoli.
(AP, 7/4/04)
2005 Jul 4, President Bush,
during an Independence Day visit to Morgantown, W.Va., urged resolve
in the war in Iraq and said that "the proper response is not
retreat. It is courage."
(AP, 7/4/06)
2005 Jul 4, A senior US defense
official confirmed the deaths of two Navy SEALS that were missing in
action in Afghanistan's northeast.
(AP, 7/4/05)
2005 Jul 4, Meeting in Georgia
the General Synod of the United Church of Christ, the rule-making
body for 1.3 million members, endorsed same-sex marriage with a
resolution that called for equal marriage rights for all.
(SFC, 7/5/05, p.A3)
2005 Jul 4, Iowa’s Gov. Tom
Vilsack gave all Iowa’s ex-prisoners the right to vote.
(Econ, 7/25/05, p.23)
2005 Jul 4, In NYC Takeru
Kobayashi (27) captured the Nathan's Famous hot dog eating contest
for the 5th straight year, gobbling a nauseating 49 dogs in 12
minutes, but missing his own world record of 53 1/2, set at last
year's July Fourth competition.
(AP, 7/5/05)
2005 Jul 4, Idaho authorities
said they found the remains of Dylan Groene (9) in western Montana.
[see July 2] In 2008 a jury recommended the death sentence for
Joseph Edward Duncan III in the 2005 kidnapping, torture and murder
of the 9-year-old boy.
(SFC, 7/5/05, p.A3)(AP, 8/28/08)
2005 Jul 4, Hank Stram (82),
Hall of Fame football coach, died in Covington, La.
(AP, 7/4/06)
2005 Jul 4, June Haver (79),
movie musical actress died.
(AP, 7/4/06)
2005 Jul 4, In Afghanistan a
provincial governor said a 2nd member of a missing elite US military
team has been located in the rugged mountains near the Pakistan
border.
(AP, 7/4/05)
2005 Jul 4, Al-Jazeera
announced plans to launch an international, a satellite channel by
march, 2006, that will beam English-language news to the US, and
much of the rest of the world, from its base in tiny Qatar.
(AP, 7/4/05)
2005 Jul 4, In Austria
IAEA representatives of more than 100 countries gathered at the UN
nuclear agency's Vienna headquarters to consider strengthening
international laws meant to safeguard nuclear materials from theft
and prevent terrorist attacks on atomic power plants.
(AP, 7/4/05)
2005 Jul 4, A British court
upheld the government's ban on adoptions of Cambodian children. Six
couples had gone to court to challenge the ban, which was imposed in
June of last year.
(AP, 7/4/05)
2005 Jul 4, Burundi's main Hutu
ex-rebel group, the Forces for the Defence of Democracy (FDD), won a
comfortable victory in legislative elections, taking 58.23% of the
vote.
(AP, 7/5/05)
2005 Jul 4, In China protests
began at the Jinxing Pharmaceutical plant in Xinchang, a town about
125 miles south of Shanghai, by local farmers angry over pollution.
(AP, 7/19/05)
2005 Jul 4, Egypt replaced the
editors of all the top state-owned publications in the biggest
reshuffle the media houses have seen in nearly 20 years.
(AP, 7/4/05)
2005 Jul 4, A UN official said
boat carrying dozens of migrants fleeing Haiti sank off the island's
coast, killing two people and leaving 11 others feared dead.
(AP, 7/4/05)
2005 Jul 4, In an illegal
overflight an American Shadow-200 aircraft crashed about 38 miles
inside Iranian territory in the province of Ilam. On Nov 7 Iran
circulated letters at the UN protesting the violation of its
territory and airspace.
(AP, 11/8/05)
2005 Jul 4, US and Iraqi forces
raided suspected insurgent safe houses near Baghdad International
Airport, arresting at least 100 suspected militants, including
foreign fighters.
(AP, 7/4/05)
2005 Jul 4, A Japanese
parliamentary committee approved bills that would create the world's
largest bank by privatizing the state-run postal system, which
handles trillions of dollars in savings and insurance deposits.
(AP, 7/5/05)
2005 Jul 4, In Libya Moammar
Gadhafi called on African nations to stop "begging" during the
opening of an African summit attended by more than 50 leaders from
this crisis-wracked continent. African Union (AU) chairman Olusegun
Obasanjo called on rich nations to provide "massive" financial help
rather than sympathy in its fight against poverty at their summit in
Scotland this week. UN Sec-Gen. Kofi Annan announced the creation of
a fund to promote democratic institutions and practices around the
world, an idea first proposed by the Pres. Bush in Sep 2004.
(AP, 7/4/05)(AP, 7/5/05)
2005 Jul 4, In Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia, UN agencies met for a 3-day conference on bird flu virus
and said the disease remains as dangerous as ever and nations must
do more to prepare for a pandemic among humans.
(AP, 7/4/05)
2005 Jul 4, Mauritius'
opposition Social Alliance claimed victory as counting from the
Indian Ocean island's weekend election neared an end.
(AP, 7/4/05)
2005 Jul 4, A Moroccan court
convicted and sentenced Taoufik Hanouichi and Mohcine Bouarfa to
death. They were among those arrested in a sweep to dismantle
militant Islamic networks following suicide bombings in Casablanca.
Dozens of others were jailed. The two men were unlikely to be
executed, as Morocco has had a de facto moratorium on the death
penalty since 1993.
(AP, 7/5/05)
2005 Jul 4, In Edinburgh,
Scotland, police scuffled with black-clad anarchists and
antiglobalization protesters, and 450 demonstrators sat down in the
road blocking an entrance to a naval base for nuclear submarines.
(AP, 7/4/05)
2005 Jul 4, The UN’s World Food
Program (WFP) said it has suspended aid shipments to lawless Somalia
after gunmen hijacked a vessel it chartered and demanded a $500,000
ransom.
(AP, 7/4/05)
2005 Jul 4, In Zimbabwe armed
paramilitary police swept through a Harare township, pulling down
more 100 prefabricated wooden cabins, including one with screaming
children inside.
(AP, 7/5/05)
2006 Jul 4, The US space
shuttle Discovery took off at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape
Canaveral, Florida, with 7 astronauts. Up to six pieces of debris
that could be foam insulation fell off Discovery's troublesome
external fuel tank minutes after liftoff. News arrived that North
Korea had launched test missiles [see July 5].
(AFP, 7/5/06)(SFC, 7/5/06, p.A3)
2006 Jul 4, In Gustine, Ca.,
Trevor Branscum (38) killed his 4 young children with a hunting
rifle and then turned the weapon on himself.
(SFC, 7/5/06, p.B3)
2006 Jul 4, A bomb exploded in
downtown Kabul, wounding at least 10 people. In eastern Afghanistan
5 laborers were ambushed and fatally shot on their way to a US
military base. US-led coalition forces killed 35 suspected militants
during a raid late in the village of Gujdar in Helmand province.
(AP, 7/4/06)(AP, 7/5/06)
2006 Jul 4, Two former currency
dealers for Australia's biggest bank were jailed for their part in a
260 million US dollar rogue trading scandal. Vince Ficarra (27) and
David Bullen (34) made a raft of fictitious trades for the National
Australia Bank (NAB) between September 2003 and January 2004 to mask
massive losses. Bullen was sentenced to 44 months in prison and
Ficarra to 28 months.
(AFP, 7/4/06)
2006 Jul 4, A bomb exploded in
downtown Kabul, wounding at least 10 people. In eastern Afghanistan
5 laborers were ambushed and fatally shot on their way to a US
military base.
(AP, 7/4/06)
2006 Jul 4, Gunmen attacked a
Russian military convoy in the Chechnya region, killing at least
five troops and wounding as many as 25 others, officials said.
Pro-rebel Web sites claimed more than 20 Russian soldiers were
killed.
(AP, 7/4/06)
2006 Jul 4, A French court
convicted respected wine exporter Georges Duboeuf Wines of fraud
after one of its wineries mixed a variety of grapes in its
Beaujolais.
(AP, 7/4/06)
2006 Jul 4, Iraq’s justice
minister demanded that the UN Security Council ensure that a group
of US troops are punished in the March 11 rape and murder of a young
Iraqi and the killing of her family. In eastern Baghdad gunmen in
camouflaged uniforms kidnapped Iraq's deputy electricity minister
along with 11 of his bodyguards. The minister was released after
several hours.
(AP, 7/4/06)
2006 Jul 4, PM Ehud Olmert
ignored a deadline to begin releasing Palestinian prisoners and
instead issued a veiled threat against Syria, vowing to strike
"those who sponsor" the militants in the Gaza Strip who seized a
young Israeli soldier.
(AP, 7/4/06)
2006 Jul 4, Japan initiated new
rules that tightened 89 existing laws covering the financial
industry. It doubled the maximum jail sentence for fraud to 10 years
and gave extra power and broader authority to the Financial Services
Agency (FSA).
(Econ, 7/8/06, p.67)
2006 Jul 4, The parties of
Kazakhstan's leader and his eldest daughter announced a merger, a
move that tightens President Nursultan Nazarbayev's grip on power.
(AP, 7/4/06)
2006 Jul 4, Lopez Obrador,
Mexico’s leftist presidential candidate, called for a recount of
election results that showed him trailing his conservative rival by
1 percentage point.
(AP, 7/4/06)
2006 Jul 4, Lars Korvald (90),
the first Christian Democrat to serve as prime minister of Norway
(1972-1973), died.
(AP, 7/4/06)
2006 Jul 4, Palestinian
militants hit an Israeli city with a rocket from Gaza for the first
time, causing no casualties but drawing a pledge of harsh
retaliation from Israel while it was already in the midst of a
military offensive.
(AP, 7/4/06)
2006 Jul 4, Radical Islamic
militia fighters in Somalia shot and killed two people who were
watching a World Cup soccer broadcast. The Islamic group that
controls Somalia's capital soon arrested two of its own militiamen
for killing two people who were watching the soccer match.
(AP, 7/5/06)(AP, 7/6/06)
2006 Jul 4, President Hugo
Chavez marked Venezuela's entry into the South American trade bloc
Mercosur with a six-nation summit, an alliance that he says should
be a common front against US free trade deals.
(AP, 7/4/06)
2007 Jul 4, In NYC Joey
Chestnut emerged as the world's hot dog eating champion, knocking
off six-time winner Takeru Kobayashi in a record-setting yet
repulsive triumph. Chestnut ate 66 hot dogs in 12 minutes.
(AP, 7/5/07)
2007 Jul 4, In SF some 300
skateboarders rolled down the Embarcadero in a 3-mile,
police-escorted rally promoted by Emerica, an Orange County shoe and
skateboard apparel company.
(SFC, 7/5/07, p.B1)
2007 Jul 4, In California the
Zaca wildfire began in Santa Barbara County. By the end of the month
it had consumed 32,000 acres and was 70% contained.
(SFC, 7/30/07, p.A4)
2007 Jul 4, In Bridgeport,
Conn., a mother and 3 children drowned after their van rolled into a
park pond.
(SFC, 7/6/07, p.A7)
2007 Jul 4, Johnny Frigo (90),
jazz violinist and bassist, died in Chicago.
(SFC, 7/6/07, p.B8)
2007 Jul 4, Bill Pinkney (81),
the last survivor of the original members of the musical group The
Drifters, died.
(AP, 7/5/07)
2007 Jul 4, In southern
Afghanistan a roadside bomb hit a NATO vehicle, killing six Canadian
soldiers and their Afghan interpreter.
(Reuters, 7/5/07)
2007 Jul 4, On the historic
occasion of their first summit, the EU and Brazil decided to
establish a comprehensive strategic partnership, based on their
close historical, cultural and economic ties. Brazil and EU leaders
met in Lisbon, Portugal.
(www.eu2007.pt/UE/vEN/Noticias_Documentos/20070704BRSUM.htm)(Econ,
7/7/07, p.40)
2007 Jul 4, In Chile Osvaldo
Romo (70), a security agent who became a symbol of torture and
repression under Gen. Augusto Pinochet's former military
dictatorship, died in prison.
(AP, 7/4/07)
2007 Jul 4, In northeast China
a blast ripped through a karaoke parlor and bath house, killing 25
people and injuring 33 others. It was later reported that a coal
mine owner, who ran the karaoke parlor, stored more than a ton of
explosives in the basement.
(AP, 7/5/07)(AP, 7/6/07)
2007 Jul 4, Human Rights Watch
accused the Ethiopian army of burning homes and displacing thousands
of civilians in a crackdown on rebels in the volatile east.
(AP, 7/4/07)
2007 Jul 4, In Ghana a drive
towards forging a United States of Africa ran out of steam as
leaders filed away from a summit without agreeing on a timeline for
creating a new government for the continent.
(AFP, 7/5/07)
2007 Jul 4, In India 13
passengers aboard the Karnataka Express from Bangalore to Delhi were
found unconscious in their compartment. They had eaten cookies laced
with sedatives offered by thieves and lost all their possessions.
(SSFC, 7/15/07, p.G2)
2007 Jul 4, Khaled Abdul-Fattah
Dawoud Mahmoud al-Mashhadani (aka Abu Shahid), believed to be the
most senior Iraqi in the al-Qaida in Iraq network, was captured in
Mosul.
(AP, 7/18/07)
2007 Jul 4, The foreign
ministers of Israel and Morocco held their first publicly disclosed
talks in years, with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at the heart
of the discussion.
(AP, 7/4/07)
2007 Jul 4, In Mexico heavy
rains triggered the landslide on a remote winding road near the town
of Eloxochitlan in the state of Puebla. As many as 60 passengers
were thought to be buried in a bus on the rural road. 32 bodies were
recovered.
(AP, 7/5/07)(AP, 7/6/07)
2007 Jul 4, Mexico’s financial
website Sentido Comun reported that telecom tycoon Carlos Slim Helu
(67) has overtaken Microsoft founder Bill Gates as the richest
person on the planet.
(AFP, 7/4/07)
2007 Jul 4, Mozambique's
President Armando Guebuza sought to expand trade ties with Tanzania
to boost development in the two impoverished African nations.
(AFP, 7/4/07)
2007 Jul 4, In southern Nigeria
armed men kidnapped five foreigners, the same day the country's most
prominent militant group announced it would end a truce with the
government.
(AP, 7/5/07)
2007 Jul 4, In Pakistan Maulana
Abdul Aziz, one of the leaders of the radical-held Red Mosque, was
arrested while fleeing his government-besieged mosque in a woman's
burqa and high heels. He said that the nearly 1,000 followers
still inside should flee or surrender. At least 16 people, including
eight militants, have been killed and scores injured in the
standoff.
(AP, 7/5/07)(Econ, 7/26/08, p.50)
2007 Jul 4, Palestinian gunmen
released Alan Johnston, a British journalist, who had been kidnapped
March 12.
(AP, 7/5/07)
2007 Jul 4, A top Panamanian
prosecutor said tests show at least 94 people have died from taking
medicine contaminated with diethylene glycol since July 2006 and
that 293 more deaths are under investigation. Total deaths reached
116 from contaminated medications.
(AP, 7/4/07)(AP, 5/10/08)
2007 Jul 4, Russia’s parliament
authorized an exemption to Gazprom and OAO Transneft from limits on
wielding arms. They would now be able to employ their own armed
operatives.
(WSJ, 1/5/07, p.A4)
2007 Jul 4, Taiwan's vice
president kicked off a Latin American tour in the Dominican
Republic, an ally rapidly increasing its economic and political ties
with the island's diplomatic rival, China.
(AP, 7/4/07)
2007 Jul 4, UN food agencies
called for global backing for a "Green Revolution" in Africa to help
the continent build stable agricultural systems and rescue tens of
millions of people from poverty.
(Reuters, 7/4/07)
2008 Jul 4, In California 27
major fires were considered active. These included the Basin Complex
Fire in Los Padres National Forest where over 68,700 acres were
scorched and the Indians Fire in Monterey County with 81,300 acres
consumed.
(SFC, 7/4/08, p.A1)
2008 Jul 4, In Milwaukee,
Wisconsin, early morning gunfire killed 2 men and 2 women on the
city’s north side.
(SFC, 7/4/08, p.A4)
2008 Jul 4, Jesse Helms
(b.1921), former 5-term US Senator from North Carolina, died in
Raleigh, NC. Helms had switched to the Republican Party in 1970 and
was elected to the Senate in 1972, the first Republican from North
Carolina in the 20th century. The conservative senator earned the
title “Senator No” as a leading crusader against communism,
liberalism, tax increases, abortion, homosexuality, affirmative
action and court-ordered busing to desegregate schools.
(SFC, 7/4/08, p.A2)
2008 Jul 4, Evelyn Keyes
(b.1916), American film star, died in Montecito, Ca. Her 3 former
husbands included director John Huston, director Charles Vidor and
jazz musician Artie Shaw. Her nearly 50 films included a role as the
younger sister of Scarlett O’Hara in “Gone With the Wind” (1939).
Her memoir “Scarlett O’Hara’s Younger Sister” was published in 1977.
(SFC, 7/12/08, p.B5)(WSJ, 2/21/09, p.W8)
2008 Jul 4, In southern
Afghanistan gunmen assassinated parliament member and former
military commander Habibullah Jan. In Helmand province a roadside
bomb militants were planting detonated prematurely, killing 10
Taliban. 22 civilians were killed in air strikes in the Waygal
district, including a woman and a child. A spokesman for the US-led
coalition said the airstrikes in Nuristan province hit militants who
earlier attacked a US military base with mortars. Several militants
were killed during an operation in Ghazni province. More than 20
militants were killed and wounded during a battle with NATO-backed
Afghan forces in Kunar province.
(AP, 7/5/08)(AP, 7/6/08)
2008 Jul 4, In Austria 9
people, including a prominent executive who fled to France in an
attempt to elude justice, were convicted of criminal charges in a
major Austrian bank fraud case linked to the 2005 collapse of New
York-based commodities brokerage Refco Inc. Vienna Federal Court
Judge Claudia Bandion-Ortner found the defendants responsible for
euro1.4 billion (US$1.9 billion) in losses at BAWAG, Austria's No. 4
bank.
(AP, 7/4/08)
2008 Jul 4, In Belarus about 50
people were wounded by a home-made bomb that sprayed nuts and bolts
into a crowd at an open-air concert in Minsk attended by long-time
ruler President Alexander Lukashenko.
(Reuters, 7/4/08)
2008 Jul 4, China and Taiwan
launched regular direct flights for the first time in nearly six
decades, ushering in what Beijing called a "new start" in their
tense and testy relations.
(AP, 7/4/08)
2008 Jul 4, Colombia's military
found more than a ton of explosives in a house in a rural area
outside the capital.
(AP, 7/6/08)
2008 Jul 4, Ecuador's
constitutional assembly pardoned hundreds of jailed convicts,
low-level drug couriers known as "mules." An estimated 1,200
prisoners may be eligible for pardon.
(AP, 7/7/08)
2008 Jul 4, India's coalition
government underwent a major shake-up with the dominant Congress
party pushing on with a controversial nuclear deal with the US and
ditching left-wing allies. In eastern India at least six people were
killed and 20 injured in a stampede at a popular Hindu religious
festival in Orissa state’s Puri district. Truck drivers called off
their strike after the government agreed to roll back rising road
tolls.
(AFP, 7/4/08)(WSJ, 7/5/08, p.A5)
2008 Jul 4, State television
said Iran delivered its response to an international offer of
incentives for it to suspend uranium enrichment, a central part of
its nuclear program. It did not say what the response was.
(AP, 7/4/08)
2008 Jul 4, In Basra, Iraq,
gunmen on a motorcycle assassinated Sheik Salim al-Dirraji, an
official of Iraq's biggest Shiite party.
(AP, 7/5/08)
2008 Jul 4, Japan announced it
will provide $50 million in new emergency food aid to help
developing countries cope with the impact of soaring food prices.
(AP, 7/4/08)
2008 Jul 4, Fierce fighting
raged in India's portion of Kashmir, killing five army soldiers and
a suspected Muslim rebel near the de facto border with Pakistan.
(AP, 7/4/08)
2008 Jul 4, In New Zealand
morning rush-hour traffic slowed to a crawl in most cities as
truckers snarled highways and streets with thousands of vehicles to
protest higher road taxes.
(AP, 7/4/08)
2008 Jul 4, In Nigeria hundreds
of soldiers, who served as UN peacekeepers in Liberia, went on the
rampage in southwestern Akure in protest against the military
authorities' refusal to pay their allowance. In 2009 a Nigerian
court-martial sentenced 27 former UN peacekeepers to life in prison
after they were convicted of mutiny following their protests.
(AP, 7/5/08)(AP, 4/28/09)
2008 Jul 4, North Korea said it
will not take further steps to dismantle its nuclear program until
the US and its other negotiating partners award fuel oil and
political benefits promised under an aid-for-disarmament deal.
(AP, 7/4/08)
2008 Jul 4, In Pakistan a bomb
exploded on a busy street in the southwestern city of Quetta,
killing a 4-year old girl and wounding 11 other people.
(AP, 7/4/08)
2008 Jul 4, Poland rejected a
US offer to boost its air defenses in return for basing a "missile
shield" on Polish soil but PM Donald Tusk said Poland remains open
for further talks with Washington.
(Reuters, 7/4/08)
2008 Jul 4, In Sri Lanka
soldiers took control of Michael Base in the rebel stronghold of
Mullaitivu district after three days of fighting. Other battles in
Vavuniya killed 18 rebels and wounded three soldiers. Fighting in
Mannar, Jaffna and Welioya left 15 rebels dead and one soldier
wounded.
(AP, 7/4/08)(AP, 7/5/08)
2008 Jul 4, Robert Mugabe ruled
out the prospect of talks with his opponents on ending Zimbabwe's
political crisis unless they acknowledge his victory in the one-man
presidential election. Botswana's government urged its neighbors not
to recognize Mugabe's re-election as it reiterated calls for
Zimbabwe to be suspended from a regional bloc.
(AFP, 7/4/08)
2009 Jul 4, In southeast
Afghanistan two US soldiers were killed when their base came under
attack. The attack included an attempted suicide truck bombing of
the base in the Zirok district of southeastern Paktika province. As
many as 30 Taliban insurgents might have been killed when troops
called in air strikes.
(Reuters, 7/4/09)
2009 Jul 4, Albania's
opposition Socialists charged that the ruling Democrats were
improperly trying to influence the country's lengthy vote count by
declaring victory before all ballots from last week's national
election were tallied.
(AP, 7/4/09)
2009 Jul 4, In Myanmar UN chief
Ban Ki-moon gave a rare public speech outlining his vision for a
democratic Myanmar, just hours after the ruling junta refused to let
him meet opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
(AFP, 7/4/09)
2009 Jul 4, Nigeria's rebel
group MEND threatened to thwart a 10-billion-dollar trans-Saharan
gas pipeline linking vast reserves in Nigeria to Europe. The army
vowed to protect the project.
(AFP, 7/4/09)
2009 Jul 4, North Korea fired
seven ballistic missiles off its eastern coast, in a violation of UN
resolutions and an apparent message of defiance to the US on its
Independence Day.
(AP, 7/4/09)
2009 Jul 4, Pakistani warplanes
and helicopter gunships pounded Taliban positions in the country's
volatile northwest, killing at least 12 suspected insurgents.
Clashes between tribesmen and Taliban fighters left 16 people dead
in the remote Mohmand region. Army helicopters attacked a militant
position in the area the previous day’s helicopter crash and struck
a militant bunker on a peak. 10 bodies were reported found lying
there.
(AP, 7/4/09)(Reuters, 7/4/09)
2008 Jul 4, In California 27
major fires were considered active. These included the Basin Complex
Fire in Los Padres National Forest where over 68,700 acres were
scorched and the Indians Fire in Monterey County with 81,300 acres
consumed.
(SFC, 7/4/08, p.A1)
2008 Jul 4, In Milwaukee,
Wisconsin, early morning gunfire killed 2 men and 2 women on the
city’s north side.
(SFC, 7/4/08, p.A4)
2008 Jul 4, Jesse Helms
(b.1921), former 5-term US Senator from North Carolina, died in
Raleigh, NC. Helms had switched to the Republican Party in 1970 and
was elected to the Senate in 1972, the first Republican from North
Carolina in the 20th century. The conservative senator earned the
title “Senator No” as a leading crusader against communism,
liberalism, tax increases, abortion, homosexuality, affirmative
action and court-ordered busing to desegregate schools.
(SFC, 7/4/08, p.A2)
2008 Jul 4, Evelyn Keyes
(b.1916), American film star, died in Montecito, Ca. Her 3 former
husbands included director John Huston, director Charles Vidor and
jazz musician Artie Shaw. Her nearly 50 films included a role as the
younger sister of Scarlett O’Hara in “Gone With the Wind” (1939).
Her memoir “Scarlett O’Hara’s Younger Sister” was published in 1977.
(SFC, 7/12/08, p.B5)(WSJ, 2/21/09, p.W8)
2008 Jul 4, In southern
Afghanistan gunmen assassinated parliament member and former
military commander Habibullah Jan. In Helmand province a roadside
bomb militants were planting detonated prematurely, killing 10
Taliban. 22 civilians were killed in air strikes in the Waygal
district, including a woman and a child. A spokesman for the US-led
coalition said the airstrikes in Nuristan province hit militants who
earlier attacked a US military base with mortars. Several militants
were killed during an operation in Ghazni province. More than 20
militants were killed and wounded during a battle with NATO-backed
Afghan forces in Kunar province.
(AP, 7/5/08)(AP, 7/6/08)
2008 Jul 4, In Austria 9
people, including a prominent executive who fled to France in an
attempt to elude justice, were convicted of criminal charges in a
major Austrian bank fraud case linked to the 2005 collapse of New
York-based commodities brokerage Refco Inc. Vienna Federal Court
Judge Claudia Bandion-Ortner found the defendants responsible for
euro1.4 billion (US$1.9 billion) in losses at BAWAG, Austria's No. 4
bank.
(AP, 7/4/08)
2008 Jul 4, In Belarus about 50
people were wounded by a home-made bomb that sprayed nuts and bolts
into a crowd at an open-air concert in Minsk attended by long-time
ruler President Alexander Lukashenko.
(Reuters, 7/4/08)
2008 Jul 4, China and Taiwan
launched regular direct flights for the first time in nearly six
decades, ushering in what Beijing called a "new start" in their
tense and testy relations.
(AP, 7/4/08)
2008 Jul 4, Colombia's military
found more than a ton of explosives in a house in a rural area
outside the capital.
(AP, 7/6/08)
2008 Jul 4, Ecuador's
constitutional assembly pardoned hundreds of jailed convicts,
low-level drug couriers known as "mules." An estimated 1,200
prisoners may be eligible for pardon.
(AP, 7/7/08)
2008 Jul 4, India's coalition
government underwent a major shake-up with the dominant Congress
party pushing on with a controversial nuclear deal with the US and
ditching left-wing allies. In eastern India at least six people were
killed and 20 injured in a stampede at a popular Hindu religious
festival in Orissa state’s Puri district. Truck drivers called off
their strike after the government agreed to roll back rising road
tolls.
(AFP, 7/4/08)(WSJ, 7/5/08, p.A5)
2008 Jul 4, State television
said Iran delivered its response to an international offer of
incentives for it to suspend uranium enrichment, a central part of
its nuclear program. It did not say what the response was.
(AP, 7/4/08)
2008 Jul 4, In Basra, Iraq,
gunmen on a motorcycle assassinated Sheik Salim al-Dirraji, an
official of Iraq's biggest Shiite party.
(AP, 7/5/08)
2008 Jul 4, Japan announced it
will provide $50 million in new emergency food aid to help
developing countries cope with the impact of soaring food prices.
(AP, 7/4/08)
2008 Jul 4, Fierce fighting
raged in India's portion of Kashmir, killing five army soldiers and
a suspected Muslim rebel near the de facto border with Pakistan.
(AP, 7/4/08)
2008 Jul 4, In New Zealand
morning rush-hour traffic slowed to a crawl in most cities as
truckers snarled highways and streets with thousands of vehicles to
protest higher road taxes.
(AP, 7/4/08)
2008 Jul 4, In Nigeria hundreds
of soldiers, who served as UN peacekeepers in Liberia, went on the
rampage in southwestern Akure in protest against the military
authorities' refusal to pay their allowance. On April 27, 2009, a
Nigerian court-martial sentenced 27 former UN peacekeepers to life
in prison after they were convicted of mutiny following their
protests. On Aug 29 the army commuted the life sentences to 7 years.
(AP, 7/5/08)(AP, 4/28/09)(AFP, 8/29/09)
2008 Jul 4, North Korea said it
will not take further steps to dismantle its nuclear program until
the US and its other negotiating partners award fuel oil and
political benefits promised under an aid-for-disarmament deal.
(AP, 7/4/08)
2008 Jul 4, In Pakistan a bomb
exploded on a busy street in the southwestern city of Quetta,
killing a 4-year old girl and wounding 11 other people.
(AP, 7/4/08)
2008 Jul 4, Poland rejected a
US offer to boost its air defenses in return for basing a "missile
shield" on Polish soil but PM Donald Tusk said Poland remains open
for further talks with Washington.
(Reuters, 7/4/08)
2008 Jul 4, In Sri Lanka
soldiers took control of Michael Base in the rebel stronghold of
Mullaitivu district after three days of fighting. Other battles in
Vavuniya killed 18 rebels and wounded three soldiers. Fighting in
Mannar, Jaffna and Welioya left 15 rebels dead and one soldier
wounded.
(AP, 7/4/08)(AP, 7/5/08)
2008 Jul 4, Robert Mugabe ruled
out the prospect of talks with his opponents on ending Zimbabwe's
political crisis unless they acknowledge his victory in the one-man
presidential election. Botswana's government urged its neighbors not
to recognize Mugabe's re-election as it reiterated calls for
Zimbabwe to be suspended from a regional bloc.
(AFP, 7/4/08)
2009 Jul 4, Attacks began on
more than two dozen Internet sites in the United States and South
Korea and some were disabled by hackers. South Korea's spy agency
later said the attacks were possibly linked to North Korea. Some of
the affected US government Web sites, such as the Treasury
Department, Federal Trade Commission and Secret Service, were still
reporting problems days after it started during the July 4 holiday.
(Reuters, 7/8/09)(AP, 7/8/09)
2009 Jul 4, NYC police arrested
a dozen people and seized 33 pounds of heroin worth $30 million that
was stuffed inside Build-A-Bear toys.
(SSFC, 7/5/09, p.A11)
2009 Jul 4, In North Carolina 2
workers were killed when a truckload of fireworks exploded on a dock
at the southern end of Ocracoke Island. 2 others soon died from
their injuries.
(AP, 7/5/09)(SFC, 7/6/09, p.A10)
2009 Jul 4, In Tennessee Steve
McNair (36), a four-time Pro Bowl selection, was found dead with
multiple gunshot wounds on a sofa in his Nashville condominium
living room. Sahel Kazemi, (20), discovered near him, was killed by
a single gunshot wound. McNair was married with four children.
(AP, 7/5/09)
2009 Jul 4, Drake Levin
(b.1946), blues guitarist and former lead guitarist for Paul Revere
and the Raiders, died of cancer in SF.
(SFC, 7/17/09, p.D5)
2009 Jul 4, In Afghanistan
insurgent attacks in Helmand province killed 3 British soldiers.
Gunmen in the east abducted 16 mine-clearing personnel working for
the United Nations as they traveled between Paktia and Khost
provinces.
(Reuters, 7/4/09)(AP, 7/5/09)(AP, 7/6/09)
2009 Jul 4, Albania's
opposition Socialists charged that the ruling Democrats were
improperly trying to influence the country's lengthy vote count by
declaring victory before all ballots from last week's national
election were tallied.
(AP, 7/4/09)
2009 Jul 4, In Canada an
explosion damaged a natural gas pipeline in northeast British
Columbia, the sixth attack on an energy facility in that area in
recent months. In a letter to a local newspaper the bomber gave
EnCana until mid-October to cease operations in the area, or face
larger attacks.
(Reuters, 7/4/09)(Econ, 8/15/09, p.32)
2009 Jul 4, A joint
French-Spanish operation captured 3 suspected members of ETA in the
French city of Pau.
(SFC, 7/6/09, p.A2)
2009 Jul 4, The OAS suspended
Honduras participation in the organization because of last week's
military coup.
(AP, 7/4/09)
2009 Jul 4, In Mali dozens of
people were killed during clashes in the Timbuktu region between the
army and Al-Qaeda of the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) fighters.
(AFP, 7/21/09)
2009 Jul 4, In Myanmar UN chief
Ban Ki-moon gave a rare public speech outlining his vision for a
democratic Myanmar, just hours after the ruling junta refused to let
him meet opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
(AFP, 7/4/09)
2009 Jul 4, Nigeria's rebel
group MEND threatened to thwart a 10-billion-dollar trans-Saharan
gas pipeline linking vast reserves in Nigeria to Europe. The army
vowed to protect the project. Rebels Sichem Peace oil tanker
and its six crew members. The ship and crew were freed July 21 after
spending 18 days in captivity in the Niger Delta.
(AFP, 7/4/09)(AP, 7/22/09)
2009 Jul 4, North Korea fired
seven ballistic missiles off its eastern coast, in a violation of UN
resolutions and an apparent message of defiance to the US on its
Independence Day.
(AP, 7/4/09)
2009 Jul 4, Pakistani warplanes
and helicopter gunships pounded Taliban positions in the country's
volatile northwest, killing at least 12 suspected insurgents.
Clashes between tribesmen and Taliban fighters left 16 people dead
in the remote Mohmand region. Army helicopters attacked a militant
position in the area the previous day’s helicopter crash and struck
a militant bunker on a peak. 10 bodies were reported found lying
there.
(AP, 7/4/09)(Reuters, 7/4/09)
2010 Jul 4, Joey Chestnut (26),
of San Jose, Ca., ate 54 hot dogs capturing his 4th straight
Nathan’s Famous Fourth of July Int’l. Hot Dog Eating Contest at
Coney Island, NYC.
(www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/07/04/MNSM1E9I2D.DTL)
2010 Jul 4, It was reported
that 5 electricians working for the city of San Francisco spent
years allegedly stealing from taxpayers, moonlighting on city time
and fraudulently billing to pay for suburban life styles. 5 members
of the Hetch Hetchy Power Crew were arrested in 2009. The spree had
gone of for about 4 years ending in 2007.
(SSFC, 7/4/10, p.A1)
2010 Jul 4, In Bellevue, Iowa,
a pair of runaway horses, in harness to a wagon, crashed into a
Fourth of July parade float and collapsed, ending a rampage that
injured 24 people and killed wagon passenger Janet Steines.
(AP, 7/5/10)(SFC, 7/6/10, p.A4)
2010 Jul 4, In Texas an air
ambulance crashed after takeoff in Alpine killing all 5 people on
board including a patient and his wife.
(SFC, 7/5/10, p.A4)
2010 Jul 4, In Afghanistan a
joint force in Kunduz province discovered rocket-propelled grenades,
automatic weapons and a roadside bomb near a mosque. A 2-day
drug-sweeping operation ended in the south with security forces
killing 63 smugglers and terrorists.
(AP, 7/7/10)(SFC, 7/5/10, p.A2)
2010 Jul 4, In the Bahamas
fugitive Colton Harris-Moore (19), dubbed the "Barefoot Bandit,"
crash landed a stolen plane on Great Abaco Island, and eluded
police. Harris-Moore, who grew up in the woods of Washington state's
Camano Island, has been on the run since escaping from a halfway
house more than two years ago. Colton Harris-Moore was arrested on
July 11 in northern Eleuthera. He pleaded guilty on July 13 and was
deported to face US charges. On June 17,2011, Colton pleaded guilty
to 7 charges carrying a prison term of up to 6½ years.
(AP, 7/9/10)(AP, 7/11/10)(AP, 7/13/10)(SFC,
6/18/11, p.A6)
2010 Jul 4, In London Rafael
Nadal reclaimed his Wimbledon title. The match lasted just two
hours and 13 minutes before being concluded 6-3 7-5 6-4.
(AP, 7/4/10)
2010 Jul 4, In the Central
African Republic Ugandan LRA rebels killed four people and took six
hostages in an attack on the village of Mandabazouma.
(AFP, 7/8/10)
2010 Jul 4, In central China a
fire on a shuttle bus carrying steel factory workers killed 24
people and injured 19. State media later reported that Dong
Chuansheng (57), an angry steel worker, had started the shuttle bus
fire near Shanghai.
(AP, 7/4/10)(AP, 7/15/10)
2010 Jul 4, In Japan Toyota
started recalling more than 90,000 luxury Lexus and Crown vehicles
over defective engines.
(AP, 7/4/10)
2010 Jul 4, In Lebanon Grand
Ayatollah Mohammed-Hussein Fadlallah (b.1935), revered Shiite cleric
and one-time mentor to Hezbollah, died in Beirut.
(SFC, 7/5/10, p.A3)
2010 Jul 4, Poland’s moderate
conservative Bronislaw Komorowski narrowly won the presidential
election. Komorowski won 52.6% of the vote, according to results
based on 95% of the ballots. Right-wing rival Jaroslaw Kaczynski
performed much better than expected.
(Reuters, 7/4/10)
2010 Jul 4, Russia’s NTV, a TV
channel controlled by Gazprom, aired “Godfather,” a documentary that
portrayed Belarus Pres. Lukashenka as a brutal election-rigging,
opposition-repressing tyrant.
(Econ, 7/24/10, p.53)
2010 Jul 4, In Zimbabwe a
collision involving 2 buses and a truck killed 18 people and injured
30 others 50 miles west of Harare.
(SFC, 7/5/10, p.A2)
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