Today in History - July 5
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649 Jul 5, St.
Martin I began his reign as Pope.
(MC, 7/5/02)
1201 Jul 5, An earthquake in
Syria and upper Egypt killed some 1.1 million people.
(www.geohaz.org/member/news/signif.htm)
1294 Jul 5, Pietro di Murrone,
a pious hermit, was elected as Pope Celestine V. He was so besieged
by the political, social and religious challenges of the position
that just five months later, on December 13, he became the first
pope to resign, for which he was imprisoned by his successor,
Boniface VIII. He died in the castle of Fumone, May 19, 1296.
(www.newadvent.org/cathen/03479b.htm)
1539 Jul 5, Antonio M.
Zaccaria, Italian physician, saint, died.
(MC, 7/5/02)
1643 Jul 5, 1st recorded
tornado in US was at Essex County, Massachusetts.
(MC, 7/5/02)
1694 Jul 5, Composer
Louis-Claude Daquin was born.
(DataDragon)
1709 Jul 5, Etienne de
Silhouette, French minister of finance, outline portrait artist, was
born.
(HN, 7/5/98)
1755 Jul 5, Sarah Siddons,
Welsh actress, gained fame playing Lady Macbeth in Macbeth, was
born.
(HN, 7/5/98)
1775 Jul 5, William Crotch,
composer, was born.
(MC, 7/5/02)
1775 Jul 5, The Olive Branch
Petition was adopted by the Continental Congress and professed the
attachment of the American people to George III. It expressed hope
for the restoration of harmony and begged the king to prevent
further hostile actions against the colonies. The following day,
Congress passed a resolution written by Thomas Jefferson and John
Dickinson, a "Declaration of the Causes and Necessities of Taking Up
Arms," which rejected independence but asserted that Americans were
ready to die rather than be enslaved. King George refused to receive
the Olive Branch Petition on August 23 and proclaimed the American
colonies to be in open rebellion.
(HNQ, 7/2/99)
1776 Jul 5, The Declaration of
Independence was first printed by John Dunlop in Philadelphia. 200
copies were prepared July 5-6 and distributed to the states.
(HN, 7/5/98)(HNQ, 7/4/99)(SFC, 7/4/01, p.A3)
1781 Jul 5, Stamford Raffles,
founder of Singapore, was born.
(MC, 7/5/02)
1794 Jul 5, Sylvester Graham,
developed graham cracker, was born.
(MC, 7/5/02)
1801 Jul 5, David G. Farragut
(d.1870), American naval hero, was born in Knoxville, Tenn.
(AP, 7/5/97)
1806 Jul 5, A Spanish army
repelled the British during their attempt to retake Buenos Aires,
Argentina.
(HN, 7/5/98)
1809 Jul 5, Pope Pius VII was
taken prisoner to France and held there until 1814.
(PC, 1992 ed, p.371)
1809 Jul 5-6, Napoleon
beat archduke Charles at the Battle of Wagram.
(MC, 7/5/02)
1810 Jul 5, P.T. Barnum,
American showman who formed the Barnum and Bailey Circus, was born.
(HN, 7/5/98)
1811 Jul 5, Venezuela became
the first South American country to declare independence from Spain.
(AP, 7/5/97)
1814 Jul 5, US troops under
Gen. Jacob Brown and Gen. Winfield Scott defeated a superior British
force under Maj. Gen. Phineas Riall near the Niagara River at
Chippewa, Canada. British casualties exceeded 500 compared to some
300 Americans.
(AH, 10/07, p.53)
1830 Jul 5, The French occupied
the North African city of Algiers.
(AP, 7/5/97)
1832 Jul 5, The German
government began curtailing freedom of the press after German
Democrats advocate a revolt against Austrian rule.
(HN, 7/5/98)
1833 Jul 5, Joseph Nicephore
Niepce (b.1765), French inventor most noted as the inventor of
photography, died. He is well-known for taking some of the earliest
photographs, dating to the 1820s.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nic%C3%A9phore_Ni%C3%A9pce)
1908 Jul 5, In Fairmont, West
Virginia, a special day was organized by Mrs. Grace Golden Clayton,
who wanted to celebrate the lives of the 210 fathers who had been
lost in the Monongah Mining disaster several months earlier, on
December 6, 1907. A general Father’s Day was organized in Spokane,
Wa., on June 19, 1910.
(AP,
6/19/98)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Father%27s_Day)
1839 Jul 5, British naval
forces bombarded Dingai on Zhoushan Island in China and occupy it.
(HN, 7/5/98)
1841 Jul 5, Thomas Cook
(1808-1892) opened the 1st travel agency as he arranged for the rail
company to charge one shilling per person for rail tickets and food
for a group of 540 temperance campaigners from Leicester Campbell
Street station to a rally in Loughborough.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Cook)
1849 Jul 5, The sailing ship
Niantic arrived in SF, Ca, and anchored in Yerba Buena Cove. The
ship’s owners soon converted her to a storage and auction house for
imported goods and built a hotel on her deck.
(SFC, 5/9/03, p.E5)(SFC, 2/4/05, p.E16)
1852 Jul 5, Johann Baptist
Weigl (69), composer, died.
(MC, 7/5/02)
1853 Jul 5, Cecil John Rhodes
(d.1902), politician, diamond merchant, was born in South Africa. He
discovered a vast lode of diamonds at Kimberley and founded the De
Beers Mining Co. He ran for Cape parliament in 1881 and was prime
minister of the Cape Colony from 1890-1896. He founded Rhodesia
(later Zimbabwe) for mineral speculation and endowed the Rhodes
scholarships upon his death with £3 million.
(WSJ, 1/11/98, p.R18)(MC, 7/5/02)
1863 Jul 5, Federal troops
occupied Vicksburg, Mississippi, and distributed supplies to the
citizens. The battles of Jackson and Birdsong Ferry, were fought in
Mississippi.
(HN, 7/5/98)(MC, 7/5/02)
1865 Jul 5, The US Secret
Service began operating under the Treasury Department. The Secret
Service Division began in Washington, D.C., to suppress counterfeit
currency. Chief William P. Wood was sworn in by Secretary of the
Treasury Hugh McCulloch.
(MC,
7/5/02)(http://www.ustreas.gov/usss/history.shtml)
1865 Jul 5, Great Britain
imposed world’s 1st maximum speed laws.
(MC, 7/5/02)
1865 Jul 5, William Booth
founded the Salvation Army in east London to serve the poor and
homeless. [see Jul 23]
(AP, 7/5/97)(SFC, 9/15/98, p.A9)
1867 Jul 5, Andrew Ellicott
Douglass, astronomer and archaeologist, was born.
(HN, 7/5/01)
1877 Jul 5, Wanda A. Landowska,
Warsaw Poland, harpsichordist (Musique Ancienne), was born.
(MC, 7/5/02)
1879 Jul 5, Dwight Filley Davis
(d. Nov 28, 1945 at 66), hall of famer, tennis player, presidential
aide, and Sec of War under Coolidge. He donated tennis’s Davis Cup
in 1945.
(DTnet, 11/28/97)(MC, 7/5/02)
1880 Jul 5, Jan Kubelik,
composer, was born.
(MC, 7/5/02)
1884 Jul 5, US Congress
accepted a 2nd Chinese Exclusion Act.
(MC, 7/5/02)
1889 Jul 5, Jean Cocteau
(d.1963), French artist, writer and actor, was born. “History is a
combination of reality of History becomes a lie. The unreality of
the fable becomes the truth.”
(AP, 11/16/00)(HN, 7/5/01)
1891 Jul 5, John Northrop, US
biochemist, crystallized enzymes (Nobel 1946), was born.
(MC, 7/5/02)
1892 Jul 5, Andrew Beard was
issued a patent for the rotary engine.
(HN, 7/5/98)
1895 Jul 5, Gordon Jacob,
composer (William Byrd Suite), was born.
(MC, 7/5/02)
1904 Jul 5, Ernst Mayr,
biologist, was born in Germany. He emigrated to the US in 1931. Mayr
helped define the concept of species as a group of interbreeding
populations. He helped found the modern evolutionary synthesis with
Theodosius Dobzhansky, Julian Huxley and George Gaylord Simpson,
that brought together a genetic understanding of how species adopt
to their environment.
(NH, 5/97, p.8)(SFC, 7/5/04, p.A6)
1909 Jul 5, Andrei Gromyko,
diplomat, USSR President (1985-89), was born. [see Jul 18]
(MC, 7/5/02)
1911 Jul 5, George Pompidou,
Prime Minister of France, 1968, was born.
(HN, 7/5/98)
1923 Jul 5, Edward Robeson
Taylor (b.1838), former mayor of San Francisco (1907-1910), died.
Taylor, a doctor and lawyer, had also served as dean of Hastings
College of the Law and was a founder of the Book Club of California
as well as a published poet.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Robeson_Taylor)
1924 Jul 5, Janos Starker,
cellist (Chic Symph 1953-58), was born in Budapest, Hungary.
(MC, 7/5/02)
1932 Jul 5, Antonio de Oliveira
Salazar became premier and dictator of Portugal.
(MC, 7/5/02)
1934 Jul 5, During the West
Coast maritime strike Mayor Angelo J. Rossi, a former florist,
unleashed the city’s violently anti-union police department on the
workers. 33 people were shot with 2 men killed in what came to be
called "Bloody Thursday." Police fired into a crowd of strikers at
Steuart and Mission streets and killed Howard S. Sperry and Nickolas
Bordoise. Another 109 strikers were wounded. Police had tried to
escort scabs to the docks. Civil liberties attorneys Ernest Besig
(d.1998 at 94), and Chester Williams were called in from New York.
They founded a local American Civil Liberties Union and sued SF and
Oakland for failure to protect striker’s First Amendment rights.
(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W31)(SFC, 11/21/98, p.C2)(SFC,
9/27/02, p.D11)(SSFC, 7/3/11, DB p.38)
1935 Jul 5, President Roosevelt
signed the National Labor Relations Act (Wagner Act), which provided
for a National Labor Relations Board and authorized labor to
organize for the purpose of collective bargaining. The National
Labor Relations Board (NLRB) was created by a statute as an
independent federal agency that conducts secret-ballot elections to
determine whether employees desire union representation. This
inaugurated the "pink decade" of Soviet espionage and penetration of
America's labor movement by Communists.
(WSJ, 5/12/97, p.A15)(AP, 7/5/97)(SFC, 11/27/99,
p.C4)(SSFC, 1/11/04, p.M6)
1937 Jul 5, Joe DiMaggio hit
his 1st grand slammer.
(MC, 7/5/02)
1937 Jul 5, There was a
Republican offensive by Brunete in Spain.
(MC, 7/5/02)
1940 Jul 5, During World War
II, Britain and Marshal Henri Petain's Vichy government in France
broke diplomatic relations.
(AP, 7/5/97)(HN, 7/5/98)
1941 Jul 5, German troops
reached the Dnieper River in the Soviet Union.
(HN, 7/5/98)
1942 Jul 5, 1st performance of
Heitor Villa-Lobos' Choros 6/9/11.
(MC, 7/5/02)
1942 Jul 5, Ian Fleming
graduated from a training school for spies in Canada.
(MC, 7/5/02)
1943 Jul 5, US invasion fleet
(96 ships) sailed to Sicily.
(MC, 7/5/02)
1943 Jul 5, The battle of
Kursk, the largest tank battle in history, began as German tanks
attacked the Soviet salient.
(HN, 7/5/98)
1944 Jul 5, The Japanese
garrison on Numfoor, New Guinea, tried to counterattack but was soon
beaten back by U.S. forces.
(HN, 7/5/98)
1945 Jul 5, US General Douglas
MacArthur announced that the liberation of the Philippines from its
Japanese occupiers was complete.
(MC, 7/5/02)
1945 Jul 5, Labour Party won
British parliamentary election.
(MC, 7/5/02)
1946 Jul 5, The bikini bathing
suit, created by former civil engineer Louis Reard, made its debut
during a fashion show at the Molitor Pool in Paris. Model Micheline
Bernardini wore the skimpy two-piece outfit. Its name correlated
with the July 1 American atom bomb test on Bikini Atoll.
Réard wanted his design to have a similar explosive affect.
According to New York Times columnist William Safire, the swimsuit
caused more debate, concern and condemnation than the atomic bomb.
(SFC, 7/5/96, p.D17)(TMC, 1994, p.1946)(AP,
7/5/97)(SFEC, 1/17/99, Z1 p.1)(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R14)(WSJ, 1/11/99,
p.R14)(HNQ, 4/6/02)
1947 Jul 5, Larry Doby
signed a contract with the Cleveland Indians, becoming the first
black player in the American League.
(AP, 7/5/97)
1947 Jul 5, Rancher Mac Brazel
found unusual debris 75 miles northwest of Roswell, NM, scattered
over an area 300 years wide and ¾ of a mile long. This led to
rumors of an alien crash. The military said it was a crashed weather
balloon.
(SSFC, 8/1/04, p.D8)
1948 Jul 5, The pilot episode
of “My Favorite Husband,” with Lucille Ball, aired. It was entitled
“The Cugat's Tenth Wedding Anniversary” It became the gifted
redhead’s first regular radio program on CBS. Regular broadcasting
began on July 23, 1948 and aired on various nights through March 31,
1951. Through most of its life it was sponsored by Jello.
(www.geocities.com/TelevisionCity/6066/epguhuby.html)
1948 Jul 5, Britain's National
Health Service Act went into effect, providing government-financed
medical and dental care. Aneurin Bevan was its political founder.
The first NHS patient was treated at Trafford hospital near
Manchester.
(AP, 7/5/98)(Econ, 5/7/11, p.62)
1950 Jul 5, American forces
engaged the North Koreans for the first time at Osan, South Korea.
(HN, 7/5/98)
1950 Jul 5, Private Kenneth
Shadrick of Skin Fork, West Virginia, became the first US serviceman
to die in the Korean War.
(AP, 7/5/00)
1950 Jul 5, Salvatore Giuliano
(b.1922), Sicilian bandit, was shot by police in Castelvetrano.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvatore_Giuliano)
1951 Jul 5, Dr. William
Shockley invented junction transistor at Murray Hill, NJ.
(MC, 7/5/02)
1954 Jul 5, Elvis Presley's
first commercial recording session took place at Sun Records in
Memphis, Tenn.; the song he recorded was "That's All Right (Mama)."
(AP, 7/5/97)
1954 Jul 5, The B-52A bomber
made its maiden flight.
(MC, 7/5/02)
1955
Jul 5, By this day, a day before Bill Haley’s 30th birthday, "Rock
Around the Clock" topped the US billboards chart and stayed there
for 8 weeks. The film “Blackboard Jungle,” released in March, helped
propel it to the top.
(www.rockabillyhall.com/RockClockTribute.html)
1956 Jul 5, France raised the
tobacco tax 20% to support war in Algeria.
(MC, 7/5/02)
1959 Jul 5, Ben-Gurion's
Israeli government resigned.
(MC, 7/5/02)
1962 Jul 5, Algeria’s
Provisional Executive proclaimed July 5, the 132nd anniversary of
the French entry into Algeria, as the day of national independence.
French Pres. Charles De Gaulle had pronounced Algeria an independent
country on Jul 3 following the July 1 elections. A massacre in
Oran, Algeria, left 96 dead.
(www.onwar.com/aced/data/alpha/falgeria1954.htm)(http://tinyurl.com/a5ky8)
1966 Jul 5, National Guard was
mobilized in Omaha after a 3rd night of rioting.
(MC, 7/5/02)
1969 Jul 5, Wilhelm Backhaus
(b.1884), German pianist (Rubinstein-1905), died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Backhaus)
1969 Jul 5, Walter Gropius
(b.1883), architect, founder (Bauhaus school of design), died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Gropius)
1969 Jul 5, Tom Mboya (b.1930)
of Kenya’s Luo tribe was assassinated in Nairobi. He was the
expected successor to Pres. Jomo Kenyatta (1894-1978).
(SFC,12/23/97,
p.D2)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Mboya)
1975 Jul 5, Arthur Ashe became
the first black man to win a Wimbledon singles title as he defeated
Jimmy Connors.
(AP, 7/5/97)
1975 Jul 5, The Cape Verde
Islands officially became independent after 500 years of Portuguese
rule. Aristides Pereira, a former guerrilla fighter against the
Portuguese colonial administration, became head of state following
independence. He ruled until 1991 when he lost the country's first
democratic elections.
(SFC, 8/5/9, p.A8)(AP, 7/5/00)(AP, 9/22/11)
1976 Jul 5, In SF the body of
Wanda Baun (19), a prostitute, was found dead. She had been stabbed
over 50 times. In 2007 Darrell Sweigart was convicted of 2nd degree
murder after DNA evidence linked to the murder. He was already
serving a 25 year to life sentence for rape and robbery.
(SFC, 7/4/07, p.B3)
1977 Jul 5, Pakistan's army
under Gen Mohammad Zia ul-Haq seized power. The civilian government
was ousted by the military and martial law was imposed.
(SFC, 1/30/97, p.B3)(SFEC, 8/3/97,
p.A15)(www.ppp.org.pk/history.html)
1978 Jul 5, In Ghana Gen’l.
Acheampong resigned as head of state. He was succeeded by Lt.-Col.
Fred W.K. Akuffo.
(WUD, 1994, p.1691)
1978 Jul 5, A Soviet Soyuz
spacecraft touched down safely in Soviet Kazakhstan with its
two-member crew, including the first Polish space traveler -- Major
Miroslaw Hermaszewski.
(AP, 7/5/98)
1980 Jul 5, In Mauritania, a
west African republic, the regime of colonel Ould Haidalla decreed
abolition and the imposition of the Islamic Sharia Law. Slavery was
technically abolished. Prior to the 1980 abolition, slavery had been
declared illegal in 1960 and 1966, but only on paper.
(WSJ, 7/11/96,
p.A10)(www.cwo.com/~lucumi/mauritania.html)
1983 Jul 5, Harry James
(b.1916), American band leader and trumpet player, died, He is best
remembered for his hit "You Made Me Love You." In 1999 Peter J.
Levinson authored “Trumpet Blues: The Life of Harry James.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_James)(SFC,
11/18/08, p.B4)
1984 Jul 5, The Supreme Court
weakened the 70-year-old "exclusionary rule," deciding that evidence
seized with defective court warrants could be used against
defendants in criminal trials.
(AP, 7/5/97)
1986 Jul 5, Statue of Liberty
was reopened after being refurbished.
(http://www.nps.gov/archive/stli/prod02.htm)
1987 Jul 5, Pat Cash of
Australia defeated Ivan Lendl in straight sets to win the Wimbledon
men's singles final.
(AP, 7/5/97)
1988 Jul 5, US Attorney General
Edwin Meese III announced he would resign, saying he had been
vindicated by an independent prosecutor's 14-month probe into his
official conduct.
(AP, 7/5/98)
1989 Jul 5, Former National
Security Council aide Oliver North received a $150,000 fine and a
suspended prison term for his part in Iran-Contra. The convictions
were later overturned.
(AP, 7/5/99)
1989 Jul 5, South-African Pres
Pieter Botha visited ANC leader Nelson Mandela.
(www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/mandela/etc/cron.html)
1990 Jul 5, NATO leaders opened
a two-day meeting in London to revise the alliance’s strategy in
light of easing East-West tensions in Europe and the unraveling of
the Warsaw Pact.
(AP, 7/5/00)
1991 Jul 5, A worldwide
financial scandal erupted as regulators in eight countries shut down
the Bank of Credit and Commerce International, charging it with
fraud, drug money laundering and illegal infiltration into the U.S.
banking system. BCCI, headquartered in Abu Dhabi, United Arab
Emirates, failed. It was chartered in Luxembourg and the Cayman
Islands and had offices in 70 countries. The ruling family of Abu
Dhabi was the major investor and faced huge liability claims from
depositors around the world. In 1997 a British court convicted
Pakistani shipping tycoon, Abbas Gokal -chairman of the defunct Gulf
Group, of a 1.2 billion fraud that led to the collapse. Larry Gurwin
later co-authored “False Profits: The Inside Story of BCCI, The
World’s Most Corrupt empire.”
(WSJ, 6/11/96, p.A9B)(WSJ, 4/4/97, p.A1)(AP,
7/5/97)(SFEC, 10/11/98, p.A2)(WSJ, 5/1/02, p.AD7)
1992 Jul 5, Leaders of the
world's seven richest nations gathered in Munich, Germany, for their
18th annual economic summit. President Bush, en route to the summit,
told cheering Poles in Warsaw that "America shares Poland's dream."
(AP, 7/5/97)
1992 Jul 5, Andre Agassi won
his first Grand Slam title, defeating Goran Ivanisevic at Wimbledon.
(AP, 7/5/97)
1993 Jul 5, President Clinton
left Washington for a Group of Seven summit in Japan.
(AP, 7/5/98)
1993 Jul 5, Harrison E.
Salisbury (b.1908), US journalist (NY Times), died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrison_E._Salisbury)
1993 Jul 5, A United Nations
team left Iraq after trying for more than a month to persuade the
Baghdad government to allow surveillance cameras at two former
missile test sites.
(AP, 7/5/98)
1993 Jul 5, In eight separate
incidents, the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) kidnapped a total of
19 Western tourists traveling in southeastern Turkey. The hostages,
including U.S. citizen Colin Patrick Starger, were released unharmed
after spending several weeks in captivity.
(http://meria.idc.ac.il/journal/2001/issue4/jv5n4a5.htm)
1994 Jul 5, In an attempt to
halt a surge of Haitian refugees, the Clinton administration
announced it was refusing entry to new Haitian boat people.
(AP, 7/5/99)
1994 Jul 5, President Clinton
set out on a four-nation European trip that included a Group of
Seven summit in Naples, Italy.
(AP, 7/5/99)
1995 Jul 5, More than 100
Grateful Dead fans were injured when a deck on which they were
gathered collapsed at a campground near Wentzville, Missouri.
(AP, 7/5/00)
1996 Jul 5, An essay by SB
Stewart discussed the history of Betty Crocker and showed the latest
8th Betty Crocker [General Mills advertising icon]. She was put
together from the features of 75 women from around the country.
(WSJ, 7/5/96, p.A6)
1996 Jul 5, The US government
reported the nation's unemployment rate fell to a six-year low to
5.3% in June 1996; nervous investors, fearing higher interest rates,
gave the stock market its worst beating in four months, sending the
Dow industrials down 114 points.
(SFC, 7/6/96, p.A1)(AP, 7/5/97)
1996 Jul 5, An LA County woman
was identified as the first person in the US to carry the rare AIDS
virus strain known as Group O. She was discovered by epidemiologists
several months ago. Group O is only detected in 4 of 5 cases with
current testing methods. Blood supply tests will need to be changed.
(SFC, 7/5/96, p.A5)
1996 Jul 5, A cloned lamb,
named Dolly (d.2003) after Dolly Pardon, was born in Edinburgh
Scotland. The event was not announced until Feb 23, 1997 when it was
made public that researchers under Dr. Ian Wilmut at Edinburgh,
Scotland, created a clone lamb from adult sheep DNA. In 2001 it was
reported that Dolly suffered from arthritis, a sign of premature
aging.
(SFEC, 2/23/96, p.C1)(SFC, 1/5/02, p.A2)(SFC,
2/15/03, p.A2)
1996 Jul 5, A report stated
that 740 metric tons of cocaine was being produced each year in
South America and that the US took in less than half.
(WSJ, 7/5/96, p.A4)
1996 Jul 5, The world’s 5 most
expensive cities were reported to be in Asia. Tokyo and Osaka kept
their No. 1 & 2 position while Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong
moved into the top 5.
(WSJ, 7/5/96, p.A4)
1996 Jul 5, Vival Exports from
Vlora, Albania, was sending 6 tons a week of live frogs to Lyon,
France. “But how long will this resource last?”
(SFC, 7/5/96, p.A12)
1996 Jul 5, In Columbia the
government released Jorge Luis Ochoa, aka The Fat Man, from prison
after 5 1/2 years for drug-trafficking.
(SFC, 7/6/96, p.A10)
1996 Jul 5, In South Africa
Anglo American Platinum Corp. fired an additional 7,000 striking
workers. That makes the total 28,261 fired workers since the strike
began Jun 25.
(WSJ, 7/5/96, p.A4)
1996 Jul 5, In Tatarstan a new
law was enacted that will charge $800 for insulting the president.
Subsequent offenses could cost $1400. A printed insult could cost
$6,000.
(SFC, 7/5/96, p.A16)
1996 Jul 5, In Uruguay the
Fasano brothers, editor and publisher of the daily La Republica,
were jailed for 15 days for printing a story that Paraguay’s
president Wasmosy took payments from a hydroelectric project.
(SFC, 7/5/96, p.A12)
1997 Jul 5, It was reported
that as many as 100 paintings and drawings by Dutch artist Vincent
Van Gogh (1853-1890) may be fakes.
(SFC, 7/5/97, p.A8)
1997 Jul 5, From Columbus,
Ohio, The United Church of Christ decided to unite with 3 other
protestant denominations that include the Presbyterian Church, the
Reformed Church of America, and the Evangelical Lutheran Church of
America.
(SFEC, 7/6/97, p.B10)
1997 Jul 5, Sixteen-year-old
Martina Hingis became the youngest Wimbledon singles champion this
century as she beat Jana Novotna in the women's finals. (Charlotte
"Lottie" Dod won in 1887 at age 15.)
(AP, 7/5/98)
1997 Jul 5, NASA scientists
brainstormed to fix problems that left Mars Pathfinder's robot rover
stuck aboard the lander.
(AP, 7/5/98)
1997 Jul 5, An editorial stated
that Governor Fob James had declared Alabama to be a rights-free
zone. In a letter to a federal judge Gov. James stated that the
Constitution’s Bill of Rights does not apply to the states.
(SFC, 7/5/97, p.A16)
1997 Jul 5, Cambodia's Second
Prime Minister Hun Sen launched a bloody coup that toppled First
Prime Minister Norodom Ranariddh. The heavy fighting in Phnom Penh
indicated the collapse of the fragile coalition.
(SFEC, 7/6/97, p.A3)(AP, 7/5/98)
1997 Jul 5, From Taiwan it was
reported that the ruling party and the opposition pro-independence
party had joined behind a plan to change the constitution and scrap
the provincial government, a vestige of an old arrangement that
considered Taiwan a part of China.
(SFC, 7/5/97, p.C2)
1997 Jul 5, In Tokyo top
electronics manufacturers agreed on standards for a new computer
disk. The new magneto-optical disk will battle against the DVD-RAM
disks as the preferred data storage format. Both disks will feature
read and rewrite capabilities.
(SFC, 7/5/97, p.D6)
1998 Jul 5, Pete Sampras won
Wimbledon for the fifth time in six years with a 6-7 (2-7), 7-6
(11-9), 6-4, 3-6, 6-2 triumph over Goran Ivanisevic.
(AP, 7/5/99)
1998 Jul 5, Algeria celebrated
independence and put into effect a new law making Arabic the
country’s sole official language. The Berber minority struggled to
have the government recognize their own language, Tamazight.
(SFC, 6/27/98, p.A13)(SFEC, 7/5/98, p.A18)
1998 Jul 5, In Bangladesh a
memorandum of understanding was signed with the US that would allow
Peace Corps volunteers to work here.
(SFC, 7/6/98, p.A9)
1998 Jul 5, In Hong Kong the
73-year-old Kai Tak Airport closed after 73 years of operation.
(SFC, 3/18/98, p.A10)(SFEC, 7/5/98, p.A9)
1998 Jul 5, In India the
government announced that it would ban all lotteries.
(SFC, 7/6/98, p.A9)
1998 Jul 5, Voters in Mexico
elected governors in 10 states. The PRI won in Chihuahua with
Patricio Martinez Garcia and in Durango. The PRD won in Zacatecas
with Ricardo Monreal.
(SFC, 7/4/98, p.A8)(SFC, 7/7/98, p.A9)
1998 Jul 5, In Northern Ireland
British forces blocked the Protestant march by the Orangemen outside
the main Catholic neighborhood of Portadown. Some 1,000 members of
the Orange Order began a protest and threatened violence. Rioting
erupted in south-central Belfast.
(SFC, 7/6/98, p.A1)(AP, 7/5/99)
1998 Jul 5, In the Philippines
Pres. Estrada announced that a yacht would be equipped as an office
to allow him to spend months in the central Visayas and Mindanao
regions.
(SFC, 7/6/98, p.A9)
1999 Jul 5, President Clinton
began a four-day, cross-country tour to promote a plan for drawing
jobs and investment to areas that had not shared in the prosperity
of the 1990’s.
(AP, 7/5/00)
1999 Jul 5, It was reported
that Norman Nixon (57) of Sarasota, Fla., planned to build a
live-at-sea Freedom Ship to house some 50,000 people. The project
was estimated at $6 billion. As of 2008 he was still working on
realizing his dream. He was also suing several people who fleeced
his company out of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
(SFC, 7/5/99, p.A3)(www.freedomship.com/)
1999 Jul 5, In Fort Campbell,
Ky., Pvt. Calvin Glover (18) beat to death Pfc. Barry Winchell (21)
with a baseball bat. Glover was later convicted of pre-meditated
murder and sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of
parole.
(SFC, 12/9/99, p.A1)(SFC, 12/10/99, p.A3)
1999 Jul 5, In China a
landslide caused a cave dormitory at a cement factory to collapse in
Dengfeng and 17 people were killed.
(SFC, 7/9/99, p.A15)
1999 Jul 5, NATO and Russia
resolved their differences and cleared the way for some 3,600
Russian troops to arrive in Kosovo.
(SFC, 7/6/99, p.A1)
1999 cJul 5, Russian troops
attacked some 150 militants in Chechnya and a number of people were
killed.
(WSJ, 7/6/99, p.A1)
1999 Jul 5, In Turkey Rusen
Tabanci (19), a PKK suicide bomber, killed herself and injured 17
others in Adana. There were over 30 bombings in the last 2 days.
(SFC, 7/6/99, p.A8)
2000 Jul 5, At the United
Nations, President Clinton signed an international agreement to ban
the forcible recruitment of youths as soldiers in armed conflict,
and a companion accord to protect children from being forced into
slavery, prostitution and pornography.
(AP, 7/5/01)
2000 Jul 5, Thomas Junta, a
hockey father, killed coach Michael Costin (40) following a practice
hockey match in Reading, Mass. Junta went on trial in 2001. In 2001
Junta was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter. In 2002 Junta
was sentenced 6 to 10 years in prison.
(SFC, 1/3/02, p.A3)(SFC, 1/11/02, p.A3)(SFC,
1/12/02, p.A1)(SFC, 1/26/02, p.A3)
2000 Jul 5, In Northern Ireland
rioting continued for a 4th day to force authorities to allow the
Orange Order to parade down Garvaghy Road in Portadown.
(SFC, 7/6/00, p.A12)
2000 In the Ivory Coast the
military reached an agreement with mutinous soldiers. Lump sum
payments of $1,600 were promised to soldiers, who had demanded
$9000.
(SFC, 7/6/00, p.A13)
2000 Jul 5, In the Philippines
the army carried out a large offensive against Muslim separatists
and bombarded the 25,000-acre Camp Abubakar on southern Mindanao.
(SFC, 7/6/00, p.A13)
2000 Jul 5, The UN Security
Council placed a diamond ban on the rebels of Sierra Leone to
strangle their ability to finance the civil war. 90% of the diamond
mines were in rebel hands.
(SFC, 7/6/00, p.A12)(AP, 7/5/01)
2000 Jul 5, In Ukraine the
Chernobyl nuclear plant drew pledges of $715 million from Western
nations for a 5-year project to replace the protective tomb built to
close off the 1986 nuclear accident.
(WSJ, 7/6/00, p.A1)
2001 Jul 5, Pres. Bush
appointed Robert S. Mueller III, a US attorney in SF, as the new
head of the FBI. If confirmed he would become the 9th director.
(SFC, 7/6/01, p.A1)(WSJ, 7/6/01, p.A1)
2001 Jul 5, Condoleeza Rice,
National Security Advisor, and Andrew Card Jr., white House chief of
Staff, asked Richard Clarke, head of counter-terrorism, to alert top
officials of the country's domestic agencies on increased terrorist
threats.
(SSFC, 4/18/04, p.A5)
2001 Jul 5, Kenneth Williams,
an FBI agent in Phoenix, Arizona, wrote to bureau headquarters that
al Qaeda could be sending terrorists to train as student pilots. He
urged the investigation of Middle Eastern men enrolled in American
flight schools. [see Jul 10]
(SFC, 5/17/02, p.A19)(SFC, 5/22/02, p.A18)
2001 Jul 5, The US spy plane
from China arrived at Dobbins Air Reserve Base in Georgia aboard a
Russian Antonov-124 transport plane.
(SFC, 7/6/01, p.A9)
2001 Jul 5, Researchers
reported that cloned mice have profound genetic abnormalities not
apparent at birth.
(SFC, 7/6/01, p.A1)
2001 Jul 5, Ely Callaway
(b.1919), founder of Callaway golfing equipment, died. His Big
Bertha golf club was launched in 1991.
(Econ, 4/12/08,
p.78)(www.cbc.ca/sports/story/2001/07/05/callaway010705.html)
2001 Jul 5, In the Central
African Republic Jean-Pierre Lhomme, a UN security chief, was shot
and killed in Bangui as he aided a fellow worker.
(SFC, 7/7/01, p.B1)
2001 Jul 5, In Germany
Hannelore Kohl (68), the wife of Chancellor Kohl, was found dead
from suicide in Oggersheim. She suffered from a rare light allergy.
(SFC, 7/6/01, p.A18)
2001 Jul 5, Iraq accepted a
5-month UN extension for the oil-for-food program.
(SFC, 7/6/01, p.D6)
2001 Jul 5, In Macedonia the
government and ethnic Albanian rebels signed a cease-fire agreement
under pressure from Western powers. Fighting continued.
(SFC, 7/6/01, p.A16)
2001 Jul 5, Scientists at Delft
Univ. of Tech. in the Netherlands reported the creation of
nanotechnology transistors built from a single molecule.
(SFC, 7/6/01, p.B3)
2001 Jul 5, In Russia top
journalists at Echo Moskvy resigned to protest a takeover by the
Gazprom state monopoly.
(SFC, 7/6/01, p.D4)
2001 Jul 5, In South Korea 8
people died when a helicopter crashed into a power tower. Among the
dead was Kim Jong-jin, head of the Dongkuk Steel Mill.
(SFC, 7/6/01, p.D6)
2001 Jul 5, Flooding from
Typhoon Durian killed 25 people in Vietnam.
(WSJ, 7/6/01, p.A1)
2002 Jul 5, Pres. Bush
telephoned Afghan Pres. Hamid Karzai to express condolences for the
deaths of Afghan civilians killed in a US bombing 4 days earlier
that killed 48 civilians.
(AP, 7/5/03)
2002 Jul 5, The Arkansas state
Supreme Court ruled that a law banning sexual relations between
people of the same sex was an unconstitutional invasion of privacy.
(SFC, 7/6/02, p.A5)
2002 Jul 5, The Medina River
near San Antonio, Texas, overflowed along with the Guadalupe River
and flooding left at least 7 people dead.
(SFC, 7/6/02, p.A3)
2002 Jul 5, Ted Williams (83),
baseball Hall of Famer, died in Florida.
(SFC, 7/6/02, p.A1)
2002 Jul 5, A bomb ripped
through an open-air market in Larba, 15 miles SE of Algiers on
Algeria's independence day, killing 49 people and wounding 36
others.
(AP, 7/5/02)(SFC, 7/6/02, p.A6)(AP, 7/7/02)
2002 Jul 5, Twenty vehicles
piled up in early morning fog in southeastern Brazil, killing at
least 13 people, including a pregnant woman and six police officers.
(AP, 7/5/02)
2002 Jul 5, Croatian Prime
Minister Ivica Racan resigned in a political maneuver apparently
aimed at forcing a rival party out of his coalition government.
(AP, 7/5/02)
2002 Jul 5, In Chechnya rebel
ambushes killed 11 Russian soldiers and police officers.
(SFC, 7/6/02, p.A7)
2002 Jul 5, In southern Egypt a
minibus and a truck collided head-on, killing all 18 people aboard
the bus.
(AP, 7/5/02)
2002 Jul 5, In Guyana the
Caribbean Community trading bloc wrapped up a summit that was marred
early on by violence and admitted Haiti as its 15th member.
(AP, 7/5/02)
2002 Jul 5, Former Madagascar
President Didier Ratsiraka fled to the Seychelles with his family,
apparently ending more than six months of turmoil in his island
nation.
(AP, 7/5/02)
2002 Jul 5, In Mexico Katy
Jurado (78), the actress who played a sultry wildcat in some of the
top American films of the 1950s and gained an Academy Award
nomination, died.
(AP, 7/5/02)
2002 Jul 5, In Somalia a mutiny
against a prominent faction leader entered a second day, with street
fighting in the city of Baidoa leaving eight militiamen dead and
injuring 25 others, including civilians.
(AP, 7/5/02)
2002 Jul 5, In Spain a judge
froze all bank accounts of Batasuna, the radical Basque political
party.
(SSFC, 7/7/02, p.A18)
2002 Jul 5, The United States
has forgiven all of the remaining $21.3 million in debt owed by the
Tanzanian government, the U.S embassy said.
(AP, 7/5/02)
2002 Jul 5, In Turkey 3 police
officers and a suspected Islamic militant were killed in a shootout
during a raid on an apartment in the southeastern Turkish city of
Elazig.
(AP, 7/5/02)
2003 Jul 5, Serena Williams
beat sister Venus for her 2nd straight Wimbledon title.
(AP, 7/5/04)
2003 Jul 5, Caribbean leaders
agreed to establish a commission like the European Union to oversee
their 15-member, single market economy, allowing the free movement
of goods, services and professional workers.
(AP, 7/6/03)
2003 Jul 5, In Ramadi, Iraq, an
explosion struck a ceremony for Iraqi policemen graduating from US
training, killing at least seven recruits and wounding dozens. In
Baghdad a British TV journalist was shot dead near the national
museum.
(AP, 7/5/03)(WSJ, 7/7/03, p.A1)
2003 Jul 5, In Kuwait Islamists
and supporters of the royal-led Cabinet kept their grip the all-male
parliament in elections, while liberals urging voting rights for
women suffered major losses.
(AP, 7/6/03)
2003 Jul 5, Police in Namibia
reported the recent death of N!xau, the diminutive bushman
catapulted to international stardom in the film "The Gods Must Be
Crazy" — he was thought to be about 59 years old.
(AP, 7/5/04)
2003 Jul 5, In Russia 2 women
suicide bombers blew themselves up at a giant rock festival in
suburban Moscow, leaving 14 victims killed.
(AP, 7/6/08)
2003 Jul 5, Delegates at a
Somali peace conference agreed to create a federal government.
(AP, 7/6/03)
2003 Jul 5, The WHO removed
Taiwan from its list of SARS-infected areas and declared a
provisional victory over the epidemic, which had killed 812 people
over 5 continents. The economic losses from SARS was later estimated
at about $200 billion. SARS was later classified as one of a number
of zoonoses, i.e. diseases that come from animals.
(SSFC, 7/6/03, p.A3)(Econ, 11/19/05, p.84)
2004 Jul 5, Gov. Ed Rendell
signed laws authorizing 61,000 slot machines in Pennsylvania, more
than any other state except Nevada. Most of the state's share will
pay for a $1 billion cut in property taxes a year.
(AP, 7/5/04)
2004 Jul 5, Ernst Mayr,
German-born American biologist, celebrated his 100th birthday. His
books included “Evolution and the Diversity of Life” (1976), “The
Growth of Biological Thought” (1982), “Toward a new Philosophy of
Biology” (1988) and “What Makes Biology Unique” (2204).
(NH, 5/97, p.8)(SFC, 7/5/04, p.A6)
2004 Jul 5, US military
families planned to leave Bahrain in the next few days following
reports terrorists were planning attacks here.
(AP, 7/5/04)
2004 Jul 5, It was reported
that India was logging nearly 1000 new AIDS cases a month and that
there were an estimated 5.1 million people infected with HIV.
(SFC, 7/5/04, p.A8)(AP, 7/6/04)
2004 Jul 5, In India a
landslide swept a busload of pilgrims into a river in Uttaranchal
killing at least 18 people and leaving hundreds of others stranded
deep in the Himalayas.
(Reuters, 7/7/04)
2004 Jul 5, Former army Gen.
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY) won the first round in Indonesia's
presidential election. A Sep 20 showdown set Megawati Sukarnoputri
against SBY.
(SFC, 7/3/04, p.A14)(AP, 7/5/04)(SFC, 7/7/04,
p.A3)
2004 Jul 5, US-led coalition
forces launched an air strike in the restive city of Fallujah on a
suspected safe house used by followers of al-Zarqawi. The attack
killed 15 people.
(AP, 7/6/04)
2004 Jul 5, Rwaida Al Shemre
(33), an Iraqi interpreter for the US 3rd Battalion, was
assassinated as she was driven to work.
(SSFC, 8/1/04, p.A1)
2004 Jul 5, Italian Premier
Silvio Berlusconi won an endorsement from his EU colleagues for
plans to narrow Italy's budget deficit with $9.2 billion in new
spending cuts and tax measures.
(AP, 7/5/04)
2004 Jul 5, Hugh Shearer (81),
a prime minister (1967-1972) in the early stages of Jamaica's
independence, died. Shearer had succeeded Donald Sangster, who died
in office.
(AP, 7/5/04)
2004 Jul 5, A suspicious fire
gutted Kashmir's oldest educational institution, destroying 30,000
rare books on Islam, including some of the world's oldest copies of
the Quran.
(AP, 7/5/04)
2004 Jul 5, Pres. Fox named
Emilio Goicoechea Luna, a business chamber leader and senator, as
the new chief of staff, and Ruben Aguilar Valenzuela, a presidential
analyst, as media relations chief. The 2 positions were held by
Alfonso Durazo who resigned saying that the first lady's political
ambitions are out of control and Fox is acting like the autocrats he
replaced.
(AP, 7/6/04)
2004 Jul 5, Voters in
Zacatecas, Mexico, elected Amalia Garcia (PRD), the country's first
female governor since the end of one-party dominance. Pres. Fox's
National Action Party lost badly in Chihuahua and Durango. It
finished a distant third in Zacatecas,
(AP, 7/5/04)
2004 Jul 5, Animal rights
activists protested in Pamplona, Spain, on the eve of the start of
the famous running of the bulls 'San Fermin' festival.
(Reuters, 7/5/04)
2004 Jul 5, In Sierra Leone a
UN-sponsored war crimes court opened the first trials for rebel
military commanders accused in the 10-year campaign for control of
the diamond-rich country.
(AP, 7/5/04)
2005 Jul 5, President Bush
thanked Iraq war ally Denmark during a stopover in Copenhagen while
en route to an international economic summit in Scotland.
(AP, 7/5/06)
2005 Jul 5, A survey of US
sheriffs was released in which most considered methamphetamine as
the most serious problem facing their departments.
(SFC, 7/6/05, p.A2)
2005 Jul 5, Police in Torrance,
Ca., arrested 2 men for robbing gas stations. Investigations soon
revealed that they were associated with Kevin James, an inmate at
California State Prison in Sacramento, a founder of Jamiyyat
Ul-Islam Is Saheeh (JIS). The group was planning terrorist attacks
in the LA area. Another participant was arrested Aug 2. In 2007
Kevin James (31) and Levar Haley Washington (28) pleaded guilty to
conspiring to levy war against the US.
(SFC, 9/1/05, p.A4)(SFC, 12/15/07, p.A3)
2005 Jul 5, At its Synod in
Georgia(US) the United Church of Christ voted to use "economic
leverage" to promote peace between Israel and Palestinians and to
call for the dismantling of the Jewish state's security fence.
(AP, 7/6/05)
2005 Jul 5, A judge in Kentucky
authorized a $120 million settlement between the Roman Catholic
Diocese of Covington and hundreds of victims in child-molesting
cases.
(SFC, 7/6/05, p.A3)
2005 Jul 5, Tropical Storm
Cindy moved ashore, pelting the Louisiana coast with sideways rain
and intermittent squalls.
(AP, 7/5/06)
2005 Jul 5, James Stockdale
(81), ex-POW and 1992 vice-presidential candidate with Ross Perot,
died in Colorado. His 1984 autobiography was titled “In Love and
War.”
(SFC, 7/6/05, p.B7)
2005 Jul 5, An alliance of
Russia, China and central Asian nations called for the US and
coalition members in Afghanistan to set a date for withdrawing from
member states, reflecting growing unease over America's regional
military presence. The Shanghai Cooperation Organization includes
China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
(AP, 7/5/05)
2005 Jul 5, It was reported
that French and South African researchers had found that
circumcision reduces the risk of AIDS by 70%.
(WSJ, 7/5/05, p.A1)
2005 Jul 5, Albania's
opposition party headed by Sali Berisha, the country's former
president (1992-1997), took the lead in parliamentary elections, but
foreign monitors criticized the vote as falling short of
international standards.
(AP, 7/5/05)(Econ, 7/25/05, p.43)
2005 Jul 5, In Brazil a top
official of the ruling Workers' Party stepped down, the second ally
of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to resign this week amid new
allegations regarding a bribes-for-votes scandal.
(AP, 7/5/05)
2005 Jul 5, Workers began
removing a field of crosses at Berlin's former Checkpoint Charlie
after a privately run museum lost a court battle to keep the
memorial to people killed at the East German border during the Cold
War.
(AP, 7/5/05)
2005 Jul 5, In India a suicide
bomber blew up a security fence and gunmen used the breach to storm
the Ram Janmabhoomi shrine complex in Ayodhya, setting off a
two-hour gunbattle that left all six attackers dead. A Hindu mob
razed a mosque at the site on Dec 6, 1992. Police later said that
the 5 gunmen who attacked the site in Uttar Pradesh state were
Islamic militants who came from Pakistan, adding that two
gun-runners linked to the assault have been arrested in Kashmir.
(AP, 7/5/05)(WSJ, 7/6/05, p.A1)(AP, 7/15/05)
2005 Jul 5, At least 100
suspected insurgents, including foreigners, were arrested in a new
military operation by US and Iraqi security forces. Insurgents
mounted attacks against Arab and Muslim diplomats in Iraq, wounding
Bahrain's top envoy in a kidnapping attempt. Pakistan's ambassador
also escaped an assault on his convoy.
(AP, 7/5/05)
2005 Jul 5, Abu Musab
al-Zarqawi issued an audiotape announcing the formation of the Omar
Brigade to kill Shia. Sunni clerics had recently accused the Shia
Badr Brigade of sending hit squads against Sunnis.
(Econ, 7/16/05, p.41)
2005 Jul 5, A US soldier from
Task Force Liberty was killed and two were wounded by a roadside
bomb northeast of Baghdad.
(AP, 7/5/05)
2005 Jul 5, In Kashmir
suspected Islamic militants shot dead five people, two of them
Indian soldiers guarding the de facto border with Pakistan. The
soldiers were killed during a clash with militants near the Line of
Control (LoC) that divides Kashmir.
(AP, 7/6/05)
2005 Jul 5, In Pakistan police
arrested 7 men in Chaniot, Punjab province, who a week earlier
allegedly kidnapped and gang-raped a married woman in retaliation
for her cousin's affair with one of the suspect's daughters.
(AP, 7/6/05)
2005 Jul 5, Hamas rejected an
invitation from Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas to join his
government.
(AP, 7/5/05)
2005 Jul 5, A Peruvian judge
ordered the arrest of 118 current and retired military officials for
their alleged involvement in the May 14, 1988, massacre of peasants
in an Andean village and subsequent violations in the area.
(AP, 7/6/05)
2005 Jul 5, In the southern
Russian region of Dagestan an explosion tore through a police post,
killing at least one officer and wounding 3.
(AP, 7/5/05)
2005 Jul 5, Sudan and two
Darfur rebel groups signed a "declaration of principles" aimed at
helping bring peace to Darfur, but failed to reach a comprehensive
deal to stop the violence that has left tens of thousands dead.
(AP, 7/6/05)
2005 Jul 5, Thousands of poor
ethnic Hmong refugees from Laos were living without shelter in
northern Thailand, forced from their homes under a Thai campaign to
pressure them to return to their native land. Landlords said the
government had set a July 4 deadline for them to evict the some
6,500 refugees from their bamboo shelters.
(AP, 7/6/05)
2005 Jul 5, The United Arab
Emirates (UAR), under international pressure to stop child abuse in
a traditional desert sport, banned the use of underage riders in
camel racing.
(AP, 7/5/05)
2006 Jul 5, Pres. Bush met with
Pres. Saakashvili and backed Georgia’s bid to join NATO.
(WSJ, 7/6/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 5, Japan, the United
States and Britain readied a UN Security Council resolution
demanding that nations withhold all funds, goods and technology that
could be used for North Korea's missile program.
(AP, 7/5/06)
2006 Jul 5, New Jersey's
casinos ushered the last of the gamblers away from slot machines and
tables, and janitors locked the doors behind them as a state
government shutdown claimed its latest victims.
(AP, 7/5/06)
2006 Jul 5, Greg Anderson,
weight trainer for Barry Bonds, was sent to federal prison fro
refusing to testify before a grand jury investigating Bonds and
steroid use.
(SFC, 7/6/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 5, Crude oil for
August delivery jumped to a record close of $75.19 per barrel. The
previous high was $75.15. The DJIA closed down 76 to 11,151.
(SFC, 7/6/06, p.C1)
2006 Jul 5, Researchers
reported that carbon dioxide, the major greenhouse gas, from
industrial emissions was raising the acidity of the world’s oceans
and threatening organisms that form the base of the entire marine
food web.
(SFC, 7/6/06, p.A4)
2006 Jul 5, Kenneth Lay
(b.1942). Enron Corp. founder and chief executive, died of a heart
attack at his vacation home in Colorado. He was convicted in May for
his role in the in the Houston-based company's downfall.
(Reuters, 7/5/06)(Econ, 7/8/06, p.81)
2006 Jul 5, Prince Tu'ipelehake
(56), a Tongan prince known for promoting political reform in his
South Pacific island nation, died in a car crash along with his
wife, Princess Kaimana (46) and driver Vinisia Hefa when a teenage
driver, Edith Delgado (18), slammed into them on Highway 101 in
Menlo Park, Ca. In 2007 Delgado was sentenced to 2 years in jail and
3 years probation.
(AP, 7/7/06)(SFC, 7/7/06, p.B3)(SFC, 11/6/08,
p.B2)
2006 Jul 5, In Afghanistan 3
bombs targeting government workers and security forces exploded in
Kabul, killing one bystander and wounding at least 47 other people.
A coalition soldier and eight rebels were killed in new clashes in
Paktika province. A British soldier and six more militants were
killed and six captured in two separate incidents southern Zabul
province. The family of Abdul Khaliq, a legislator from Uruzgan
province, was fired upon killing Khaliq’s brother-in-law. Khaliq put
the blame on American and Australian troops.
(AP, 7/5/06)(AFP, 7/6/06)(SFC, 7/8/06, p.A3)
2006 Jul 5, Afghan President
Hamid Karzai met Japanese Emperor Akihito in Tokyo and said he
wanted to build peace in the war-torn nation so he could some day
invite the emperor and empress. Tokyo has provided about $1 billion
in assistance for security and development, and in January pledged
another $450 million.
(AP, 7/6/06)
2006 Jul 5, In El Salvador
violence broke out after police fired tear gas to disperse students
protesting against a hike in electricity rates and public
transportation fees. Two officers were killed and 10 others were
wounded by gunshots. The next day police arrested Luis Antonio
Herrador Funes (37), who allegedly was captured on tape shielding a
man who was shooting an M-16 rifle. Police were still looking for
the shooter.
(AP, 7/6/06)
2006 Jul 5, A France court
convicted 38 people in a vast party financing scandal centered on
Paris City Hall from 1987 to 1993, when Jacques Chirac was mayor.
(AP, 7/5/06)
2006 Jul 5, France beat
Portugal 1-0 and will play Italy for Soccer’s World Cup on July 9.
(WSJ, 7/6/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 5, Germany's Cabinet
approved a 2007 budget that foresees trimming the deficit to comply
with EU rules, and the finance minister said Berlin likely would hit
the target this year.
(AP, 7/5/06)
2006 Jul 5, In India heavy
rains kept schools and colleges shut for a third day and
meteorologists forecast more downpours in Bombay, as the nationwide
death toll rose to more than 250 since the monsoon began in June.
(AP, 7/5/06)
2006 Jul 5, An Iraqi vice
president said kidnappers of a Sunni legislator have demanded the
release of all detainees, a timetable for the withdrawal of foreign
troops and an end to attacks on Shiite mosques in exchange for her
freedom.
(AP, 7/5/06)
2006 Jul 5, Israeli leaders
authorized troops to move into residential areas of the Gaza Strip
as they increase pressure on militants holding an Israeli soldier
and look to create a security zone to prevent Palestinians from
firing rockets into Israel.
(AP, 7/5/06)
2006 Jul 5, Italian prosecutors
said they had arrested two Italian intelligence officers and were
seeking four more Americans as part of an investigation into the
alleged CIA kidnapping of an Egyptian cleric in Milan in 2003.
(AP, 7/5/06)
2006 Jul 5, Macedonia held
parliamentary elections. President Branko Crvenkovski urged a free
and fair vote in a country struggling to ease tensions between
majority Macedonian Slavs and the ethnic Albanian minority, which
makes up about a quarter of the nation's population.
(AP, 7/6/06)
2006 Jul 5, Mexico’s recount of
election results put Lopez Obrador ahead of Louis Calderon with 83%
of the votes tallied.
(WSJ, 7/6/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 5, North Korea
test-fired a long-range missile that may be capable of reaching
America, but it failed seconds after launch. North Korea also tested
shorter range missiles in an exercise the White House termed "a
provocation" but not an immediate threat. The early morning tests
came as the US celebrated the Fourth of July and just minutes ahead
of the US launch of the space shuttle Discovery.
(AP, 7/4/06)(AP, 7/5/06)(SFC, 7/5/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 5, In southwestern
Pakistan security forces backed by helicopter gunships targeted
hideouts of tribal militants accused of blowing up gas pipelines and
attacking officials, killing 25 suspects in a 2-day operation.
(AP, 7/5/06)
2006 Jul 5, Venezuela marked
its Independence Day showcasing recent arms deals that have alarmed
Washington. Pres. Chavez proposed that Mercosur members: Brazil,
Argentina, Venezuela, Uruguay and Paraguay, should one day join
their militaries to guarantee the region's security.
(AP, 7/5/06)
2007 Jul 5, In a setback to
President Bush's war strategy, GOP stalwart Sen. Pete Domenici said
he wanted to see an end to combat operations and US troops heading
home from Iraq by spring 2008.
(AP, 7/5/08)
2007 Jul 5, Captain America was
laid to rest in the latest issue of Marvel Comics' "Fallen Son." He
landed on newsstands in March 1941, nine months before Pearl Harbor,
delivering a punch to Hitler on the cover of his first issue.
(AP, 7/1/07)
2007 Jul 5, It was reported
that SF faced a $4.9 billion unfunded liability for health care for
retiring city workers. Other local governments and school districts
in California also faced unfunded costs.
(SFC, 7/5/07, p.A1)
2007 Jul 5, In Cleveland, Ohio,
Terrance Hough (35), an off-duty fireman angered by a noisy Fourth
of July party, shot and killed 3 people.
(SFC, 7/6/07, p.A7)
2007 Jul 5, Kerwin Mathews 81,
film star, died in SF. His 32 films included “The 7th Voyage of
Sinbad” (1958) and “The 3 Worlds of Gulliver” (1960).
(SSFC, 7/8/07, p.B6)
2007 Jul 5, Kingsley Wightman
(91), longtime math and astronomy teacher at Chabot Space &
Science Center in Oakland, Ca., died (www.chabotspace.org).
(SFC, 7/9/07, p.C4)
2007 Jul 5, A suicide bomber in
southern Afghanistan blew himself up at a checkpoint, killing 10
police and wounding 11. A roadside bomb and clashes in the east left
3 NATO soldiers dead. In Uruzgan province 33 Taliban fighters were
killed.
(AP, 7/6/07)(AFP, 7/6/07)(AP, 7/7/07)
2007 Jul 5, Ali Asgar Lobi, a
former Bangladeshi MP who dodged more than 2.4 million dollars in
unpaid tax, was sentenced to eight years in jail.
(AFP, 7/5/07)
2007 Jul 5, A Belgian court
sentenced Bernard Ntuyahaga (55), a former Rwandan army major, to 20
years in prison on for the murder of 10 Belgian peacekeepers and an
undetermined number of Rwandan civilians at the start of the 1994
genocide.
(Reuters, 7/5/07)
2007 Jul 5, British media
reported that a Scottish house had been used as a makeshift bomb
factory to carry out the terror attacks in London and Scotland.
Three "cyber-jihadis" who used the Internet to urge Muslims to wage
holy war on non-believers were jailed for between six-and-a-half and
10 years in the first case of its kind in Britain. Morocco-born
Younis Tsouli (23), an al-Qaida-inspired computer expert who dubbed
himself "the jihadist James Bond," was sentenced to 10 years in
prison for running a network of extremist Web sites. Accomplices
Tariq al-Daour and Waseem Mughal also got prison terms.
(AP, 7/5/07)(AFP, 7/5/07)(Econ, 7/14/07, p.29)
2007 Jul 5, Two thieves showed
up at a London jeweler in a flashy car and made off with an even
flashier haul, stealing about $20 million worth of diamonds and
gems.
(AP, 7/11/07)
2007 Jul 5, The Bank of England
raised its key interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point to
5.75 percent, the fifth increase this year, in an attempt to curb
inflation.
(AP, 7/5/07)
2007 Jul 5, George Melly,
English jazzman and writer, died in London of lung cancer.
(Econ, 7/14/07,
p.92)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Melly)
2007 Jul 5, China's Foreign
Minister Yang Jiechi visited Indonesia and said their countries
should cooperate to defend the interests of developing nations as
they work to enhance bilateral ties.
(AFP, 7/5/07)
2007 Jul 5, Over a million
people marched in Bogota, Colombia, to protest kidnappings and the
recent killing of abducted politicians.
(SFC, 7/6/07, p.A10)
2007 Jul 5, France’s
Agriculture Ministry said 3 swans found dead in a pond in eastern
France have tested positive for the H5N1 strain of bird flu.
(AP, 7/5/07)
2007 Jul 5, Regine Crespin
(80), the French opera great who took her personal magnetism and
soprano voice to the world's leading stages, died.
(AP, 7/5/07)
2007 Jul 5, Shares of top
real-estate firm DLF, which raised 2.24 billion dollars in India's
biggest ever public share offering, leapt 36% on their first day of
trade before retreating.
(AP, 7/5/07)
2007 Jul 5, Human Rights Watch
released a report saying Indonesian security forces have killed and
beat unarmed civilians, and on two occasions raped women during
recent operations against separatists in Papua province. The 96-page
report detailed 8 alleged killings by police and military officers
in the province's central highlands since 2005 and several vicious
beatings.
(AP, 7/5/07)
2007 Jul 5, In northern Iran
Jafar Kiani, a man convicted of adultery, was stoned to death in
Aghchekand, the first time in years that the country has confirmed
such an execution.
(AP, 7/10/07)
2007 Jul 5, In southern Baghdad
18 people died after a car bomb blew up outside a photo shop where a
wedding party waited as newlyweds had their pictures taken. Security
forces found 24 bodies around Baghdad. US forces killed one militant
and wounded 6 others in Sadr City. A bomb in Baghdad killed 2 US
soldiers. 2 US Marines were killed in western Anbar province and a
US soldier died in Baghdad.
(SFC, 7/6/07, p.A3)(AP, 7/7/07)
2007 Jul 5, Israeli troops
crossed into the Gaza Strip and engaged Hamas militants in a fierce
gunbattle that drew in Israeli aircraft, tanks and bulldozers. 11
militants were killed. A cameraman for Hamas TV, who lay wounded on
the ground, came under more fire during a clash with Israeli troops.
The shooting was captured on film and broadcast on al-Jazeera
satellite television. Imad Ghanem had to have both legs amputated as
a result of his injuries. Israel repatriated 4 Jordanian
infiltrators who were serving life sentences in Israeli prisons for
killing Israeli soldiers.
(AP, 7/5/07)(AP, 7/6/07)(AP, 7/7/07)
2007 Jul 5, Japanese police
arrested an American sailor on suspicion of attempted murder after
two women were stabbed near a naval base south of Tokyo. In 2008 a
Japanese court found sailor Joshua David Williams (20) guilty of
stabbing the two Japanese women sentenced him to eight years in
prison.
(AP, 7/5/07)(AP, 6/19/08)
2007 Jul 5, Mine workers across
Mexico waged a 24-hour strike, hoping to achieve better safety
standards and to improve collective labor's footing in the industry.
(AP, 7/6/07)
2007 Jul 5, In Mexico a small
cargo jet failed to take off in Culiacan and barreled onto an
adjacent highway, killing at least 9 people, including two soldiers
assigned to the Mexican president's security detail.
(AP, 7/6/07)
2007 Jul 5, In Nigeria
kidnappers snatched the 3-year-old daughter of a British worker as
she was being taken to school.
(AP, 7/5/07)
2007 Jul 5, Peruvian public
school teachers walked off the job to protest an education reform
proposal that would require them to pass periodic competency exams.
Education Minister Jose Antonio Chang called the effort a failure,
saying only 15% of Peru's approximately 350,000 teachers failed to
show up for work in the country.
(AP, 7/6/07)
2007 Jul 5, In the southern
Philippines 9 inmates fled jail after attacking guards. Pursuing
police officers fatally shot three of the escaped convicts and
recaptured four others. Two other inmates from the jail in southern
Cagayan de Oro city remained at large.
(AP, 7/6/07)
2007 Jul 5, Larisa Arap, a
member of a Russian opposition group, was hospitalized in a
psychiatric facility for criticizing a clinic's use of violence
against mentally ill patients.
(Reuters, 7/30/07)
2007 Jul 5, Thailand's military
junta unveiled a new outline constitution with controversial
proposals that could limit the role of any future elected prime
minister.
(AFP, 7/5/07)
2008 Jul 5, Kent Couch (48), a
gas station owner, flew a lawn chair rigged with helium-filled
balloons more than 200 miles across the Oregon desert, landing in a
field in Idaho. He used his trusty BB gun to help him return to
Earth.
(AP, 7/6/08)(www.couchballoons.com/)
2008 Jul 5, In Afghanistan a
clash killed seven Taliban and two police in Helmand province. Five
other officers were wounded during the fight in Nawa district. A
Canadian military medic was killed when an explosive device
detonated in the Panjwayi District.
(AP, 7/6/08)(Reuters, 7/7/08)
2008 Jul 5, Argentina's lower
house of Congress approved a package of grain-export taxes that have
sparked nationwide farm protests and food shortages.
(AP, 7/5/08)
2008 Jul 5, A small boat packed
with at least 148 illegal immigrants from Africa landed on a beach
in the Canary Islands.
(AP, 7/5/08)
2008 Jul 5, In northern China
an apparent blast at a coal mine killed 21 workers at the Wujiu coal
mine outside Datong city in Shanxi province. In central China a
four-story building under construction in a suburb of Wuhan city
collapsed and killed eight people.
(AP, 7/6/08)
2008 Jul 5, Dagestan's Interior
Ministry says three policemen were wounded when a bomb went off near
their vehicle in the town of Khasavyurt.
(AP, 7/5/08)
2008 Jul 5, In northern India
flooding, house collapses and lightning strikes from heavy rains
killed at least 14 people, raising the reported death toll in the
annual monsoon season to 79.
(AP, 7/6/08)
2008 Jul 5, In Ingushetia a
police officer was killed and another was injured when their armored
vehicle came under grenade fire.
(AP, 7/5/08)
2008 Jul 5, An Iranian
government spokesman says the country's nuclear program remains
unchanged, indicating that Tehran has no plans to stop enriching
uranium.
(AP, 7/5/08)
2008 Jul 5, The last major
remnant of Saddam Hussein's nuclear program — a huge stockpile of
concentrated natural uranium, reached a Canadian port to complete a
secret US operation that included a two-week airlift from Baghdad
and a ship voyage crossing two oceans. In Iraq one American soldier
died of a non-combat cause.
(AP, 7/6/08)(AP, 7/5/08)
2008 Jul 5, In northern Japan
more than 1,000 people marched to protest an upcoming summit of the
G8 industrialized countries. Police arrested four protesters after a
brief scuffle.
(AP, 7/5/08)
2008 Jul 5, In Kashmir
thousands of protesters clashed with police in Srinagar over
allegations that government forces set fire to Jenab Sahib, a local
Muslim shrine.
(AP, 7/5/08)
2008 Jul 5, Macedonia’s leading
party said PM Nikola Gruevski has agreed to form a coalition
government with the main ethnic Albanian party to aim at getting its
NATO and EU bids back on track.
(Reuters, 7/5/08)
2008 Jul 5, Nigerian officials
said radioactive materials in abandoned mining fields in central
Nigeria's Plateau state pose a serious health hazard to two million
people. Police said Nigeria has deployed troops in the remote
southeastern state of Ebonyi after 14 people were killed and scores
of buildings destroyed in clashes between rival groups feuding over
land.
(AP, 7/5/08)(Reuters, 7/5/08)
2008 Jul 5, Pakistan's Foreign
Ministry insisted that its nuclear proliferation case was closed, a
day after the disgraced architect of its atomic program claimed the
army under President Pervez Musharraf helped spread the technology
to North Korea in 2000. A government official said Pakistani
security forces have eased an operation against insurgents in a
tribal region near the border with Afghanistan as local elders try
to negotiate peace with a militant leader.
(AP, 7/5/08)
2008 Jul 5, South Korean police
said about 50,000 people protested in Seoul against a US beef import
deal and the policies of the new president, whose government has
faced weeks of street rallies.
(AP, 7/5/08)
2008 Jul 5, In Sri Lanka
clashes were reported in several villages in Vavuniya district where
12 rebels were killed. 3 rebels were killed in Mannar and 4 rebels
and a soldier were killed in Welioya.
(AP, 7/6/08)
2008 Jul 5, In southern
Thailand suspected insurgents shot up a bustling cafe, killing three
customers and injuring four others.
(AP, 7/5/08)
2008 Jul 5, In northern Yemen
an explosion at the main post office building of Saada killed at
least five people.
(AP, 7/5/08)
2009 Jul 5, In Florida 2
monorail trains crashed in the Magic Kingdom section of Walt Disney
World, killing one train's operator.
(AP, 7/5/09)
2009 Jul 5, John Bachar
(b.1957), free-style rock climber, fell to his death from a dike
wall in the eastern Sierra near Mammoth Lakes, Ca.
(Econ, 7/18/09,
p.84)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bachar)
2009 Jul 5, Terry Herbert (55),
an unemployed treasure hunter, unearthed the biggest hoard of
Anglo-Saxon gold and silver ever found in a country field in
Staffordshire. The trove of at least 1,350 items, including five
kilos (11 pounds) of gold and a smaller amount of silver, was found
by Herbert with a metal detector near his home in Burntwood, some 15
miles north of Birmingham. It is believed to date from the seventh
century AD, and may have belonged to Saxon royalty. It was later
valued at more than three million pounds, to be split equally
between the man who found it and the owner of the land.
(AFP, 9/24/09)(AFP,
11/26/09)(www.nydailynews.com/topics/Terry+Herbert)
2009 Jul 5, Bulgaria held
parliamentary elections. The Conservative opposition center-right
GERB party, led by ex-wrestler Boyko Borisov, won elections with
39.7% of the vote as voters punished the governing Socialists for
failing to crack down on corruption.
(Reuters, 7/5/09)(AP, 7/6/09)(Econ, 7/11/09,
p.52)(Econ, 1/9/10, p.51)
2009 Jul 5, In China’s far west
protesters from a Muslim ethnic group clashed with police, with
activists saying police fired shots in the air and used batons to
disperse a crowd that had swelled to nearly 1,000. Over the next few
days some 192 people were killed and over 800 wounded in protests
that roiled Urumqi, the capital of western Xinjiang province. State
media said at least 20 people have died and more than 670,000 had to
be evacuated in China after torrential rain and floods destroyed
houses, damaged roads and caused rivers to overflow.
(AP, 7/5/09)(AFP, 7/5/09)(Time.com, 7/6/09)(AP,
7/16/09)
2009 Jul 5, Guinea-Bissau said
the second round of presidential elections has been brought forward
to July 26 to enable farmers to continue harvesting unhindered.
(AFP, 7/5/09)
2009 Jul 5, Honduras' ousted
President Manuel Zelaya said he was getting on a flight home to
reclaim his post, accompanied by the UN General Assembly president
and a group of journalists. The interim government said it ordered
the military to prevent the landing of Zelaya's plane. Soldiers
clashed with thousands of Zelaya backers massed at the airport in
hopes of welcoming home the deposed leader removed a week earlier.
Isis Obed Murillo Mencia (19) was killed by soldiers as a crowd
tried to break through an airport fence. Pilots of the plane loaned
by Venezuelan Pres. Hugo Chavez circled the airport and decided not
to risk a crash.
(AP, 7/5/09)(AP, 7/6/09)(SFC, 7/7/09, p.A3)
2009 Jul 5, Iran said it has
released a British-Greek journalist held for more than two weeks
following its disputed presidential elections as dissent continued.
Ali Reza Beheshti, the son of a prominent Iranian revolutionary
icon, made a rare public push for President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's
removal from office. The Assembly of Qom Seminary Scholars and
Researchers, a pro-reform Iranian clerical group, said the outcome
of last month's presidential vote was "invalid," even though Supreme
Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has upheld the result.
(AP, 7/5/09)(Reuters, 7/5/09)
2009 Jul 5, In Iraq an attack
on the checkpoint in western Baghdad killed two Iraqi police
officers and three soldiers.
(AP, 7/6/09)
2009 Jul 5, Mexicans voted in
midterm congressional elections. The old Institutional Revolutionary
Party made a big comeback in defiance of those who had written off
what is still the country's biggest and most representative party.
The PAN will lose some of its 206 seats in the lower house, and the
PRI stands to more than double its 106 seats.
(AP, 7/5/09)(AP, 7/6/09)
2009 Jul 5, Nigerian rebels
announced they had launched a fresh attack on an oil facility run by
the Anglo-Dutch group Shell in the restive Niger Delta. The
militants destroyed a Chevron oil pipeline junction in the latest
attack on Nigeria's key money earner since the government offered an
amnesty.
(AP, 7/5/09)(AFP, 7/6/09)
2009 Jul 5, Pakistani fighter
jets targeted suspected Taliban hide-outs in a tribal region near
Afghanistan, killing as many as six people in North Waziristan.
Gunship helicopters shelled militant hideouts at Mangaltan area of
Charbagh town. At least ten militants were killed in the shelling.
At least three militants were killed and many injured in shelling in
the Orakzai region. Elsewhere in the northwest, two bomb explosions
killed two people and wounded 15 more in Upper Dir district.
(AP, 7/5/09)(AFP, 7/5/09)
2009 Jul 5, In the southern
Philippines suspected Muslim guerrillas detonated a bomb near a
Roman Catholic cathedral in Cotabato city, killing at least five
people and wounding 46.
(AP, 7/5/09)
2009 Jul 5, In Somalia heavy
shelling between rebels and government forces near the presidential
palace killed at least 12 people. PM Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke
looked for help from more African Union peacekeepers.
(AP, 7/5/09)
2009 Jul 5, An official
Zimbabwe newspaper reported that the government has promised to
withdraw soldiers from diamond fields in the east, a week after a
rights group alleged the military was committing killings and abuses
in the area.
(AP, 7/5/09)
2010 Jul 5, US government
estimates said the first stage of President Barack Obama's health
care overhaul would provide coverage to about 1 million uninsured
Americans by next year. Many others, more than 100 million people,
are getting new benefits that improve their existing coverage.
(AP, 7/5/10)
2010 Jul 5, The US deported
Imam Ahmad Afzali to Saudi Arabia. He had admitted to lying to the
FBI during an investigation into a suicide bomb plot against NYC
subway stations in 2009.
(SFC, 7/6/10, p.A4)
2010 Jul 5, BP's costs
for the Gulf of Mexico oil spill climbed nearly half a billion
dollars in the past week, raising the oil giant's tab to just over
$3 billion for work on cleaning and capping the gusher and payouts
to individuals, businesses and governments. Tar balls from the Gulf
oil spill found on a Texas beach were the first evidence that
gushing crude from the Deepwater Horizon well has reached all the
Gulf states.
(AP, 7/06/10)
2010 Jul 5, Newspapers reported
that at least $4.2 billion in cash have left Kabul airport in the
past three-and-a-half years, raising fresh concerns about corruption
in war-torn Afghanistan.
(AFP, 7/5/10)
2010 Jul 5, Australia's new
leader launched a plan to make East Timor a hub for processing
asylum seekers fleeing war and persecution across Asia while a
debate rages in her country over illegal migration.
(AP, 7/5/10)
2010 Jul 5, In Australia
Brendan Sokaluk pleaded not guilty to charges that he deliberately
started one of the deadly wildfires that swept through southern
Australia last year. The fires in Victoria state in February 2009
were Australia's deadliest, killing 173 people and destroying more
than 2,000 homes. Brendan Sokaluk is accused of starting one blaze
that investigators say killed 10 people.
(AP, 7/5/10)
2010 Jul 5, Belarus signed a
customs union with Russia and Kazakhstan.
(Econ, 7/24/10, p.53)
2010 Jul 5, Brazil’s Pres. Luiz
Inacio Lula da Silva wrapped up a state visit to Equatorial Guinea
(Republica de Guinea Ecuatorial), which included the signing of
multiple cooperation agreements, economic meetings, and festivities.
(PR Newswire, 7/6/10)
2010 Jul 5, In Ottawa the
operator of a dormant Canadian nuclear reactor that once supplied a
third of the world's medical isotopes formally applied to restart
the plant, saying it was safe again after lengthy repairs. Atomic
Energy of Canada Ltd shut down the aging Chalk River facility in
eastern Ontario in May 2009 after discovering a leak of heavy water,
used as a moderator and coolant in the reaction process.
(Reuters, 7/5/10)
2010 Jul 5, In Canada a fire at
a Toronto transformer station knocked out power to much of the city,
snarling traffic in the midst of a blistering heatwave. The outage
hit around 4:45 p.m. on the hottest day of the year so far in
Toronto.
(Reuters, 7/5/10)
2010 Jul 5, The Central African
Republic said it has called on the United States for military
support to help "neutralize" LRA rebels terrorizing the country.
(AFP, 7/5/10)
2010 Jul 5, In China Xue Feng
(44), an American geologist detained and tortured by China's state
security agents over an oil industry database, was sentenced in
Beijing to 8 years in jail.
(SFC, 7/6/10, p.A3)
2010 Jul 5, In Cairo, Egypt,
religious liberal Nasr Abu Zayd (66), a Koranic scholar declared an
apostate for challenging mainstream Muslim views on the holy book,
died.
(Reuters, 7/5/10)
2010 Jul 5, Authorities in
Iceland exhumed the body of American chess champion Bobby Fischer to
determine whether he is the father of a 9-year-old girl from the
Philippines.
(AP, 7/5/10)
2010 Jul 5, In Tbilisi,
Georgia, US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton pledged US
support for the former Soviet state.
(AP, 7/5/10)
2010 Jul 5, It was reported
that three decades of wars, massacres and sectarian killings in Iraq
have left as many as a million widows. More than 100,000 lost their
husbands in the US-led invasion and violent aftermath. The
struggling postwar government was of little help.
(AP, 7/5/10)
2010 Jul 5, Israel dropped its
long-standing restrictions on allowing consumer goods into the Gaza
Strip but retained limits on desperately needed construction
materials. Thousands of marchers brought the cultural and financial
capital to a standstill, urging the government to do whatever it
takes to win freedom for a soldier captured four years ago by Gaza
militants. Near Israel's border with Gaza, thousands more gathered
for a concert led by a world-famous conductor to press Hamas to let
the Red Cross visit the soldier for the first time.
(AP, 7/05/10)(AP, 7/06/10)
2010 Jul 5, In Kosovo a gunman
wounded legislator Petar Miletic (35), a Serb member of Kosovo’s
parliament, as he walked out of his home in Mitrovica.
(SFC, 7/6/10, p.A2)
2010 Jul 5, Mexico’s
Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which ruled for seven
decades before voters threw it out a decade ago, gained some
momentum in state elections where the dominant issue was the
country's skyrocketing drug violence. Police found the decapitated
bodies of three men inside a burned-out car in the drug gang-plagued
Mexican state of Sinaloa. The heads had been put on the vehicle's
hood.
(McClatchy, 7/05/10)(AP, 7/05/10)
2010 Jul 5, Nigeria’s
anti-human trafficking agency ruled that it lacks sufficient
evidence to criminally charge Senator Ahmed Sani Yerima (49) for
marrying a 13-year-old Egyptian girl, the daughter of his driver, to
whom Yerima allegedly paid a $100,000 dowry.
(AP, 5/11/10)(SFC, 7/6/10, p.A2)
2010 Jul 5, In Pakistan a
Taliban suicide bomber detonated his explosives at a paramilitary
base killing one soldier and wounding at least 7 others. The army
said it killed Taliban commander Amir Ullah Mehsud during a clash in
Miran Shah.
(SFC, 7/6/10, p.A2)
2010 Jul 5, A Romanian military
plane crashed near the Black Sea, killing 10 people and injuring
three. The Antonov AN-2 plane with 13 people on board took off for
parachuting training and crashed soon after takeoff.
(AP, 7/5/10)
2010 Jul 5, In Venezuela Carlos
Alberto "Beto" Renteria (65), last remaining fugitive capo of
Colombia's Norte del Valle drug cartel, was arrested after he
traveled to Margarita Island. The next day Pres. Chavez announced
that would be extradited to the US, which has offered a $5 million
reward for information leading to his arrest. The cartel is accused
in a 2004 US indictment of shipping some 500 metric tons of cocaine
to the US beginning in 1990.
(AP, 7/7/10)
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