Today in History - July 7
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1124 Jul 7,
Tyre [Tyrus] surrendered to the Crusaders.
(MC, 7/7/02)
1307 Jul 7, Edward I (b.1239),
King (Longshanks) of England (1272-1307), died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_I_of_England)
1456 Jul 7, Joan of Arc was
acquitted, even though she had already been burnt at the stake on
May 30, 1431.
(MC, 7/7/02)
1550 Jul 7, Chocolate was
introduced (Europe).
(MC, 7/7/02)
1585 Jul 7, King Henri III
& Duke De Guise signed the Treaty of Nemours: French Huguenots
lost all freedoms.
(MC, 7/7/02)
1607 Jul 7, "God Save the King"
was 1st sung.
(MC, 7/7/02)
1690 Jul 7, Johann Tobias
Krebs, composer, was born.
(MC, 7/7/02)
1713 Jul 7, The 1st performance
of Georg F Handel's "To Deum" & "Jubilate."
(MC, 7/7/02)
1742 Jul 7, A Spanish force
invading Georgia ran headlong into the colony's British defenders. A
handful of British and Spanish colonial troops faced each other on a
Georgia coastal island and decided the fate of a colony.
(HN, 5/3/98)(HN, 7/7/99)
1753 Jul 7, English parliament
granted Jews English citizenship.
(MC, 7/7/02)
1754 Jul 7, King's College in
New York City opened. The school was renamed Columbia College 30
years later.
(AP, 7/7/97)
1752 Jul 7, Joseph Marie
Jacquard, inventor of the first loom that could weave patterns, was
born.
(HN, 7/7/98)
1777 Jul 7, American troops
gave up Fort Ticonderoga, on Lake Champlain, to the British.
(HN, 7/7/98)
1791 Jul 7, Benjamin Rush,
Richard Allen and Absalom Jones founded the Non-denominational
African Church.
(HN, 7/7/98)
1795 Jul 7, Thomas Paine
defended the principal of universal suffrage at the Constitutional
Convention in Paris.
(HN, 7/7/98)
1797 Jul 7, The US House of
Representatives exercised its constitutional power of impeachment,
and voted to charge Senator William Blount of Tennessee with "a high
misdemeanor, entirely inconsistent with his public duty and trust as
a Senator." Blount had financial problems which led him to enter
into a conspiracy with British officers to enlist frontiersmen and
Cherokee Indians to assist the British in conquering parts of
Spanish Florida and Louisiana.
(MC, 7/7/02)
1798 Jul 7, Napoleon
Bonaparte's army began its march towards Cairo, Egypt, from
Alexandria.
(HN, 7/7/98)
1801 Jul 7, A new constitution,
drafted by a committee appointed by Toussaint Louverture
(L’Ouverture), went into effect and declared the independence of
Hispaniola. The constitution made him governor general for life with
near absolute powers.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toussaint_L'Ouverture)(WSJ, 3/1/04,
p.A16)
1802 Jul 7, The first comic
book was published in Hudson, NY. "The Wasp" was created by Robert
Rusticoat.
(MC, 7/7/02)
1807 Jul 7, Napoleon I of
France and Czar Alexander I of Russia signed a treaty at Tilsit
ending war between their empires. It divided Europe among themselves
and isolated Britain.
(HN, 7/7/98)(AP, 7/7/07)
1814 Jul 7, Sir Walter Scott's
novel Waverly was published anonymously so as not to damage his
reputation as a poet.
(HN, 7/7/01)
1815 Jul 7, After defeating
Napoleon at Waterloo, the victorious Allies marched into Paris.
(HN, 7/7/98)
1846 Jul 7, U.S. annexation of
California was proclaimed at Monterey after Commodore Sloat reached
Monterey and claimed California for the US.
(HFA, '96, p.48)(AP, 7/7/97)
1860 Jul 7, Gustav Mahler,
conductor of the Vienna State Opera House, was born in Kalischat,
Bohemia, Austria.
(HN, 7/7/98)(MC, 7/7/02)
1863 Jul 7, Confederate General
Robert E. Lee, in Hagerstown, Maryland, reported his defeat at
Gettysburg to President Jefferson Davis.
(HN, 7/7/98)
1863 Jul 7, The 1st military
draft was called by the US. It allowed exemptions for $100.
(MC, 7/7/02)
1863 Jul 7, Orders barring Jews
from serving under US Grant were revoked.
(MC, 7/7/02)
1865 Jul 7, The trap doors of
the scaffold in the yard of Washington's Old Penitentiary were
sprung, and Mary Surratt, Lewis Paine, David Herold and George
Atzerodt dropped to their deaths. The four had been convicted of
"treasonable conspiracy" in the assassination of President Abraham
Lincoln, and had learned that they were to be hanged only a day
before their execution. Shortly after 1 p.m. the prisoners were led
onto the scaffold and prepared for execution. The props supporting
the platform were knocked away at about 2 p.m. Assassin John Wilkes
Booth had been killed on April 26, 12 days after Lincoln's
assassination. Other convicted conspirators--Edman Spangler, Dr.
Samuel Mudd, Samuel Arnold and Michael O'Laughlin--were imprisoned.
(AP, 7/7/97)(HNPD, 7/7/98)
1875 Jul 7, Jesse James robbed
a train in Otterville, Missouri.
(MC, 7/7/02)
1879 Jul 7, George Caleb
Bingham (b.1811), artist and legislator, died in Kansas City, Mo.
His paintings included “The Jolly Flatboatmen,” which became a
best-seller in 1846 after it was chosen by the American Art Union
for its annual engraving.
(WSJ, 11/3/07,
p.W16)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Caleb_Bingham)
1884 Jul 7, Lion Feuchtwanger,
German philosopher, writer (Jud Suss), was born.
(MC, 7/7/02)
1887 Jul 7, Marc Chagall
(d.1985), French painter and designer, was born in Vitebsk, Belarus,
Russia, as Moishe Shagal. He left there in 1907 to attend art school
in St. Petersburg. He was sent to Paris by a benefactor and
befriended Chaim Soutine and Alexander Archipenko and stayed until
1914. "From late cubism he adopted a manner of making forms and
space interpenetrate." His work included "Les Amoureux" (The Lovers
- 1916), a portrait of himself and his wife. In 1996 it sold for
$4.2 mil. In 1997 Mikhail Guerman published "Marc Chagall: The Land
of My Heart - Russia."
(SFC,7/2/96,p.E3)(WSJ,10/8/96,p.A20)(SFEC,12/797,Par p.6)(HN,
7/7/01)
1893 Jul 7, In Bardwell, Ky.,
C.J. Miller, a black man accused of murdering two white girls, was
mutilated, torched and left hanging from a telegraph pole. Ida Wells
(1862-1931) was commissioned to investigate the story by the Chicago
Inter-Ocean newspaper and published her findings under the title
“History Is a Weapon.”
(WSJ, 3/8/08,
p.W8)(www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/wellslynchlaw.html)
1893 Jul 7, Guy de Maupassant
(42), writer, died.
(MC, 7/7/02)
1896 Jul 7, The Democratic
National Convention opened in Chicago. The National Democratic Party
formed to run a slate of candidates in 1896 because the Democratic
Party had been taken over by the free-silver faction, which called
for the free and unlimited coinage of silver at the 16 to 1 ratio.
They also condemned trusts, monopolies, high protective tariffs and
the use of injunctions against labor. The “sound money” or gold
Democrats withdrew from the party convention, organized the National
Democratic Party and nominated John M. Palmer of Illinois its
presidential candidate. The gold plank in the Republican Party
caused a similar split, with free-silver Republicans bolting the
party and forming the National Silver Republicans, who endorsed the
Democratic Party candidate for president, William Jennings Bryan.
Republican William McKinley won the presidential election.
(AP, 7/7/97)(HNQ, 8/23/99)
1898 Jul 7, The United States
annexed Hawaii.
(HFA, '96, p.34)(AP, 7/7/97)
1899 Jul 7, George Cukor
(d.1983), film director, was born in New York City.
(AP, 7/7/99)(MC, 7/7/02)
1905 Jul 7, The International
Workers of the World founded their labor organization in Chicago.
The IWW was formed by William Haywood of the Western Federation of
Miners, Daniel De Leon of the Socialist Labor Party and Eugene V.
Debs of the Socialist Party. Members of the Industrial Workers of
the World (IWW) were also known as Wobblies. The Wobblies were
formed partly in response to the American Federation of Labor’s
opposition to the unionization of unskilled labor. As an
organization that advocated sabotage, they were suppressed and
prosecuted by the federal government from 1917-18 and were driven
underground by the "Red Scare" that started in the United States in
1919. Ideological disputes with the newly formed U.S. Communist
Party dissipated their remaining energies so that they ceased to be
a force of any significance past the mid-1920s. In 1969 Melvyn
Dublfsky authored its definitive history "We Shall Overcome."
(HNQ, 10/16/00)(SSFC, 1/7/01, p.A24)(HN, 7/7/01)
1906 Jul 7, Leroy "Satchel"
Page, baseball pitcher for the Negro Leagues and the Major League,
was born.
(HN, 7/7/98)
1907 Jul 7, Robert Heinlein
(d.1988), science-fiction author, was born in Butler, Miss.
"Goodness without wisdom always accomplishes evil."
(V.D.-H.K.p.383)(AP, 5/25/99)(AP, 7/7/07)
1908 Jul 7, Great White Fleet
left SF Bay.
(MC, 7/7/02)
1908 Jul 7, The Democratic
National Convention opened in Denver.
(AP, 7/7/08)
1911 Jul 7, Gian-Carlo Menotti,
composer (Amahl & Night Visitors), was born in Italy.
(MC, 7/7/02)
1913 Jul 7, British House of
Commons accepted Home-Rule Law.
(MC, 7/7/02)
1919 Jul 7, William Moses
Kunstler, defense attorney (Chicago 8), was born.
(MC, 7/7/02)
1919 Jul 7, The U.S. Army’s
First Transcontinental Motor Train left Washington, D.C., bound for
San Francisco. The 62-day journey crossed 3,250 miles. In 2002 Peter
Davies authored "American Road," an account of the trip.
(HN, 3/7/01)(WSJ, 7/19/02, p.W9)
1920 Jul 7, A device known as
the radio compass was used for the first time on a U.S. Navy
airplane.
(MC, 7/7/02)
1922 Jul 7, Pierre Cardin,
fashion designer (Unisex), was born in Paris, France.
(AP, 7/7/02)(MC, 7/7/02)
1925 Jul 7, Afrikaans was
recognized as one of the official languages of South Africa, along
with English and Dutch.
(HN, 7/7/98)
1927 Jul 7, Doc Severinson,
[Carl], bandleader, trumpeter (Tonight), was born in Arlington, Or.
(MC, 7/7/02)
1927 Jul 7, Christopher Stone
became the first British ‘disc jockey’ when he played records for
the BBC.
(HN, 7/7/98)
1930 Jul 7, Construction began
on Boulder Dam on the Colorado River. It is now known as Hoover Dam.
(AP, 7/7/97)
1930 Jul 7, Arthur Conan Doyle
(b.1859), British novelist, died. His work included 4 Sherlock
Holmes mystery novels and 56 short stories about Holmes. Doyle was
an eye doctor. In 1999 Daniel Stashower published "Teller of Tales:
The Life of Arthur Conan Doyle." In 2007 Andrew Lycett authored
“Conan Doyle: The Man who Created Sherlock Holmes.”
(SFEC, 6/13/99, Par
p.12)(www.sherlockian.net/acd/)(ON, 3/06, p.12)(Econ, 10/6/07, p.98)
1937 Jul 7, A conflict between
troops of China and Japan came to be known as the Marco Polo Bridge
Incident. The incident occurred near the Marco Polo Bridge outside
of Beijing and eventually escalated into warfare between the two
countries and was the prelude to the Pacific side of World War II.
(HNQ, 9/22/99)
1940 Jul 7, Ringo Starr,
drummer for the Beatles, was born. He went on to a solo career and
acting.
(HN, 7/7/99)
1941 Jul 7, Although a neutral
country, the United States sent troops to occupy Iceland to keep it
out of Germany's hands.
(WUD, 1944, p.1683)(HN, 7/7/98)
1941 Jul 7, Nazis executed
5,000 Jews in Kovno, Lithuania.
(MC, 7/7/02)
1943 Jul 7, Adolf Hitler made
the V-2 missile program a top priority in armament planning.
(HN, 7/7/98)
1943 Jul 7, In the 3rd day of
battle at Kursk the Germans occupied Dubrova. Erich Hartmann shot 7
Russian aircraft at Kursk.
(MC, 7/7/02)
1944 Jul 7, Bomber Command
dropped 2,572 tons of bombs on Caen, France.
(MC, 7/7/02)
1944 Jul 7, There was a heavy
Japanese counter offensive on Saipan.
(MC, 7/7/02)
1945 Jul 7, Matti Salminen,
operatic basso (King Philip-Don Carlos), was born in Turku, Finland.
(MC, 7/7/02)
1946 Jul 7, William Durkin
(1916-2006) rescued Howard Hughes (1905-1976) from the fiery
wreckage of an XF-11 reconnaissance plane that Hughes was testing
over Beverly Hills.
(SFC, 5/1/06, p.B8)
1946 Jul 7, Italian-born Mother
Frances Xavier Cabrini was canonized as the first American saint.
She was the founder of the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart.
(AP, 7/7/97)(SFEC, 9/14/97, p.A18)
1947 Jul 7, A made-up photo in
Life magazine featured a biker in Hollister, Ca. In 1997 bikers
returned to Hollister for a 50-year anniversary and began an annual
tradition. [see Jul 4]
(SFC, 7/4/02, p.A18)
1948 Jul 7, Six female
reservists became the first women to be sworn into the regular U.S.
Navy.
(AP, 7/7/98)
1949 Jul 7, The police drama
"Dragnet," starring Jack Webb and Barton Yarborough, premiered on
NBC radio. It became a TV series in 1951 and 1967.
(AP, 7/7/99)(MC, 7/7/02)
1950 Jul 7, South Africa’s
Population Registration Act commenced. It required that each
inhabitant of South Africa be classified and registered in
accordance with their racial characteristics as part of the system
of apartheid. It was repealed by section 1 of the Population
Registration Act, Repeal Act No 114 of 1991.
(http://africanhistory.about.com/od/apartheidlaws/g/No30of50.htm)
1952 Jul 7, The American ocean
liner SS United States, known as "the Big U," crossed the Atlantic
in record 82:40, while on her maiden voyage.
(USAT, 1/20/04, p.14A)
1956 Jul 7, The Douglas Moore
and John Latouche opera "Ballad of Baby Doe," premiered.
(MC, 7/7/02)
1956 Jul 7, Seven Army trucks
loaded with dynamite exploded in middle of Cali, Columbia, killing
1,100-1,200. 2000 buildings were destroyed.
(MC, 7/7/02)
1954 Jul 7, Elvis Presley made
his radio debut as Memphis, Tennessee, station WHBQ played his first
recording for Sun Records, "That’s All Right (Mama)."
(AP, 7/7/00)
1958 Jul 7, President Dwight D.
Eisenhower signed the Alaska statehood bill. Alaska became the 49th
state in January 1959.
(AP, 7/7/07)
1961 Jul 7, James R. Hoffa was
elected president of Teamsters.
(MC, 7/7/02)
1962 Jul 7-1962 Jul 17,
Operation Sunbeam was a series of four nuclear tests conducted at
the United States of America's Nevada Test Site.
(www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Operation_Sunbeam)
1962 Jul 7, In Burma Sein Lwin
headed the army unit that shot dead Rangoon University students
protesting Ne Win's rule.
(AP, 4/10/04)
1966 Jul 7, The U.S. Marine
Corps launched Operation Hasting to drive the North Vietnamese Army
back across the Demilitarized Zone in Vietnam.
(HN, 7/7/98)
1967 Jul 7, Beatles' "All You
Need is Love" was released.
(MC, 7/7/02)
1967 Jul 7, Vivian Leigh (53),
actress (Scarlet-Gone with the Wind), died.
(MC, 7/7/02)
1969 Jul 7, The first U.S.
troops to withdraw from South Vietnam left Saigon.
(HN, 7/7/98)
1969 Jul 7, Canada's House of
Commons gave final approval to a measure making the French language
equal to English throughout the national government.
(AP, 7/7/97)
1969 Jul 7, Der Spiegel
revealed Munich's Bishop Defregger as a war criminal. Charges
against Defregger were dropped in 1970.
(http://tinyurl.com/5f8qts)www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,909636,00.html?iid=chix-sphere)
1972 Jul 7, Athenagoras
(b.1886), 268th patriarch of Constantinople, died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patriarch_Athenagoras)
1976 Jul 7, The US 94th
Congress amended the Flag Code.
(SFC, 6/14/11,
p.E6)(http://uscode.house.gov/download/pls/04C1.txt)
1976 Jul 7, The 1st female
cadets enrolled at the West Point Military Academy in NY. West Point
Military Academy admitted 119 women out of a class of 1367. Four
years later 62 women graduated.
(www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=Article&id=5159)(SFEC,
2/16/97, p.A12)
1977 Jul 7, Sir Michael Tippett
(1905-1998), British composer, premiered his 4th opera "The Ice
Break," which featured a race riot and a psychedelic sequence.
(www.michael-tippett.com/operaintroibreng.htm)
1978 Jul 7, China cut off all
aid to Albania after a dispute and left it completely isolated.
(WUD, 1994, p.1691)(CO, GAAE/Albania)
1978 Jul 7, The Solomon Islands
gained independence from Britain.
(SFC, 7/1/97,
p.A9)(www.worldstatesmen.org/Solomon_Islands.html)
1981 Jul 7, President Reagan
announced he was nominating Arizona Judge Sandra Day O'Connor to
become the first female justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.
(AP, 7/7/97)(HN, 7/7/98)
1981 Jul 7, The 1st
solar-powered aircraft, Solar Challenger, crossed the English
Channel flying 163 miles from Paris to Canterbury. It was created by
Dupont and Paul MacCready.
(www.nasa.gov/centers/dryden/news/FactSheets/FS-054-DFRC.html)(Econ,
9/8/07, p.88)
1983 Jul 7, Samantha Smith (11)
of Manchester, Maine, left for a visit to the Soviet Union at the
personal invitation of Soviet leader Yuri V. Andropov.
(AP, 7/7/97)
1986 Jul 7, The US Supreme
Court struck down Gramm-Rudman deficit-reduction law.
(www.answers.com/topic/gramm-rudman-act)
1986 Jul 7, Jordan’s government
shut down all 25 offices of al-Fatah, the mainstream group in the
divided Palestine Liberation Organization.
(http://tinyurl.com/ycprwn)
1987 Jul 7, Lt. Col. Oliver
North began his long-awaited public testimony at the Iran-Contra
hearing, telling Congress that he had "never carried out a single
act, not one," without authorization.
(AP, 7/7/97)
1988 Jul 7, Russia’s PHOBOS 1
Mars Orbiter and lander was launched. Contact was lost on September
2, 1988.
(SFC, 11/19/96,
p.B1)(www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/mars/space_missions.html)
1988 Jul 7, The European
Parliament adopted a resolution condemning brutalities against
Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh.
(www.armeniaforeignministry.com/pr_04/040227sumgait.html)
1988 Jul 7, The candidate of
Mexico's ruling party, Carlos Salinas de Gortari, claimed a
"national victory" one day after presidential elections that
opponents charged were riddled by fraud.
(AP, 7/7/98)
1989 Jul 7, The US Labor Dept.
reported that unemployment rose 0.1% in June to 5.2%.
(AP, 7/7/99)
1990 Jul 7, President Bush
welcomed fellow leaders of the Group of Seven countries, who were
gathering in Houston for their 16th annual economic summit.
(AP, 7/7/00)
1990 Jul 7, Martina Navratilova
captured a record-breaking ninth women’s title at Wimbledon,
outplaying Zina Garrison, 6-4, 6-1.
(AP, 7/7/00)
1991 Jul 7, Responding to
President Bush’s call for stepped-up efforts on arms control talks,
Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev told the White House he was
sending Foreign Minister Alexander Bessmertnykh and other officials
for talks with Secretary of State James A. Baker the Third.
(AP, 7/6/01)
1991 Jul 7, Michael Stich
defeated Boris Becker, 6-4, 7-6, 6-4, to win the men’s singles title
at Wimbledon.
(AP, 7/7/01)
1992 Jul 7, Group of Seven
leaders meeting in Munich, Germany, condemned the carnage in former
Yugoslavia and warned Serb-led troops that U.N. military force would
be used if needed to keep relief operations going.
(AP, 7/7/97)
1993 Jul 7, The Group of Seven
nations, on the first day of their economic summit in Tokyo,
unveiled a long-sought agreement on world trade. Prior to the summit
opening, President Clinton delivered a speech at Waseda University.
(AP, 7/7/03)
1993 Jul 7, Mia Zapata (27), a
rising punk-rock star, was last seen alive in Seattle. In 2003 Jesus
C. Mezquia (b.1965), who lived in Seattle at the time of the rape
and murder, was arrested in Florida on DNA evidence. On March 25,
2004, a jury convicted Florida fisherman Jesus Mezquia of her murder
and he was sentenced to 36 years in prison.
(SSFC, 1/12/03,
p.A6)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mia_Zapata#Death)
1994 Jul 7, President Clinton,
visiting Poland, assured the parliament that the U.S. would "not let
the Iron Curtain be replaced by a veil of indifference."
(AP, 7/7/99)
1994 Jul 7, Panama withdrew its
offer to the United States to accept thousands of Haitian refugees.
(AP, 7/7/99)
1995 Jul 7, The space shuttle
"Atlantis" landed at Cape Canaveral, Florida, bringing back American
astronaut Norman Thagard, who’d spent three and a-half months aboard
the Russian space station "Mir."
(AP, 7/7/00)
1995 Jul 7, UN military
observers in Bosnia appealed to the UN to "stop the carnage and
damage in a UN declared safe zone."
(SFC, 6/4/96, p.A12)
1996 Jul 7, Dutch tennis player
Richard Krajicek won the Wimbledon men's title, defeating American
MaliVai Washington 6-3, 6-4, 6-3.
(AP, 7/7/97)
1996 Jul 7, President Clinton
delivered more Whitewater trial testimony before video cameras, this
time testifying in the case of two Arkansas bankers accused of
making political contributions with bank funds; a jury later
acquitted Herby Branscum Jr., and Robert M. Hill of four counts and
was deadlocked on seven other counts. Whitewater prosecutor Kenneth
Starr decided against retrying the bankers
(AP, 7/7/97)
1996 Jul 7, The average cost of
a Big Mac in the US was $2.36. In Germany it was $3.22.
(SFC, 7/7/96, Par, p.17)
1996 Jul 7, In Ecuador lawyer
Abdala Bucaram, aka El Loco, was elected president with 54% of the
vote. He led the center-left Roldosista party.
(SFC, 7/8/96, p.A8)
1997 Jul 7, Montgomery Wards,
the nation’s largest privately owned retailer, filed for Chapter 11
bankruptcy protection.
(SFC, 7/8/97, p.A1)
1997 Jul 7, It was reported
that toxic waste was being used across the country in fertilizers
with no regulation. Substances being recycled in fertilizer included
low level radioactive waste from a uranium processing plant in Gore,
Okla.; lead-laced waste from a pulp mill in Camas, Wash.; and toxic
byproducts from steel-making in Moxee City, Wash.
(SFC, 7/7/97, p.A2)
1997 Jul 7, In California it
was reported that the state’s million plus cows were churning out $3
billion worth of milk and leaking harmful nitrates into the ground
water of the Central Valley. Years ago the Chino basin was forced to
write off vast quantities of tainted ground water due to dairies.
(SFC, 7/7/97, p.A8)
1997 Jul 7, Three days after
landing on Mars, the Pathfinder spacecraft yielded what scientists
said was unmistakable photographic evidence that colossal floods
scoured the Red Planet's now-barren landscape more than a billion
years ago.
(AP, 7/7/98)
1997 Jul 7, In Chile the
government agreed to back the 670,000 acre nature preserve of Doug
Tompkins, founder of the Esprit clothing chain.
(SFC, 7/8/97, p.A7)
1997 Jul 7, Abdul Rashid Wani
(30) disappeared in Srinagar, Kashmir, while running an errand on
the day of his niece’s wedding.
(SSFC, 12/2/07, p.A17)
1997 Jul 7, In Kenya 9 people
died during protests for constitutional reform.
(SFC, 7/8/97, p.A8)(SFC, 7/12/97, p.A10)
1998 Jul 7, The American League
defeated the National League 13-8 in baseball's All-Star Game,
played in Denver.
(AP, 7/7/99)
1998 Jul 7, A jury in Santa
Monica, Calif., convicted Mikail Markhasev of murdering Ennis Cosby,
Bill Cosby's only son, during a roadside robbery.
(AP, 7/7/99)
1998 Jul 7, The American League
defeated the National League 13-8 in baseball's All-Star Game,
played in Denver.
(AP, 7/7/08)
1998 Jul 7, The US Court of
Appeals ruled that condemned prisoners have the option to choose
death by lethal injection or by gas in San Quentin’s death chamber.
The gas chamber was shut down in 1994.
(SFC, 7/8/98, p.A17)
1998 Jul 7, A jury in Santa
Monica, Calif., convicted Mikhail Markhasev of murdering Ennis
Cosby, Bill Cosby's only son, during a roadside robbery. Markhasev
was sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole.
(AP, 7/7/08)
1998 Jul 7, In Texas 2 Border
Patrol agents were killed in a gun battle with Ernest Moore who was
suspected of killing a woman and her daughter. Moore soon after died
of wounds at a hospital.
(SFC, 7/8/98, p.A2)
1998 Jul 7, In Angola 16
policemen were killed in an ambush by Unita.
(WSJ, 7/7/98, p.A1)
1998 Jul 7, In Australia the
Senate passed a law that scaled back Aboriginal land rights under
threat by Prime Minister John Howard to dissolve both houses and
call for new elections.
(SFC, 7/8/98, p.A12)
1998 Jul 7, Britain sent more
troops to Northern Ireland to help quell the rioting.
(SFC, 7/8/98, p.A10)
1998 Jul 7, In Indonesia troops
battled protestors on Irian Jaya who demanded independence.
(WSJ, 7/8/98, p.A1)
1998 Jul 7, In Italy Silvio
Berlusconi, media tycoon and former prime minister, was sentenced to
2 years and 9 months in prison for bribing tax officials.
(WSJ, 7/8/98, p.A1)
1998 Jul 7, Mexican courts
ordered the attorney general’s office to rehire more than half the
826 agents dismissed 6 months ago for failed drug tests and alleged
corruption.
(SFC, 7/10/98, p.A16)
1998 Jul 7, In Nigeria
opposition leader Moshood Abiola (60) died of a heart attack while
still in prison and his death sparked rioting in Lagos that left at
least 19 people dead. Gen’l. Abubakar dissolved his cabinet,
inherited from Abacha, but left intact the Provisional Ruling
Council. He called the death a tragedy and appealed for calm.
(SFC, 7/8/98, p.A1)(SFC, 7/9/98, p.A1)(AP,
7/7/99)
1998 Jul 7, In Puerto Rico a
general 2 day strike was called against the sale of the phone
company and the San Juan Int’l. Airport was blocked for a short
time.
(SFC, 7/8/98, p.A3)
1998 Jul 7, The UN voted to
grant the Palestinian delegation nearly the same rights as given to
independent states.
(SFC, 7/8/98, p.A10)
1999 Jul 7, In NYC "The Peony
Pavilion," a 22-hour Chinese opera, opened at the LaGuardia Theater.
(WSJ, 7/7/99, p.A20)
1999 Jul 7, President Clinton
became the first president since Franklin D. Roosevelt to visit an
Indian reservation as he toured the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in
South Dakota.
(AP, 7/7/00)
1999 Jul 7, In the first
class-action lawsuit by smokers to go to trial, a jury in Miami held
cigarette makers liable for making a defective product that causes
emphysema, lung cancer and other illnesses.
(SFC, 7/8/99, p.A1)(AP, 7/7/00)
1999 Jul 7, In Bahrain the top
dissident, Sheik Abdul-Ameer al-Jamri, was sentenced to 10 years in
prison and fined $15 million after he was convicted of spying and
inciting unrest. He was freed the next day with an amnesty.
(WSJ, 7/8/99, p.A1)(WSJ, 7/9/99, p.A1)
1999 Jul 7, Britain and Libya
announced a resumption of diplomatic relations.
(SFC, 7/8/99, p.A8)
1999 Jul 7, From China it was
reported that flooding on the Yangtze River since late June had
killed 240 people and caused over $3 billion in damage.
(WSJ, 7/7/99, p.A1)
1999 Jul 7, In Iran the
parliament approved general outlines for new press restrictions.
(SFC, 7/8/99, p.A9)
1999 Jul 7, From Kazakstan it
was reported that a rocket carrying a telecom satellite blew up and
that launches at Baikonur would be suspended.
(WSJ, 7/7/99, p.A1)
1999 Jul 7, Pres. Ahmed Tejan
Kabbah of Sierra Leone signed a peace accord with rebel leader Foday
Sankoh in Togo. Sankoh was given the vice-presidency and the rebels
were promised 4 ministerial and 4 deputy ministerial posts.
(SFC, 7/8/99, p.A8)
2000 Jul 7, The 4th installment
of the "Harry Potter" series, "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire,"
by J.K. Rowling went on sale.
(SFC, 7/8/00, p.A1)
2000 Jul 7, In Denver Episcopal
bishops approved an alliance with the nation’s largest Lutheran
denomination.
(SFC, 7/8/00, p.A3)
2000 Jul 7, President Clinton
postponed the first federal execution since 1963 so that death row
inmate Juan Raul Garza could ask for clemency under guidelines being
updated by the government. Garza was executed June 19, 2001.
(AP, 7/7/01)
2000 Jul 7, A$100 million US
test missile failed to hit a dummy warhead from another missile. It
was the 2nd failure of 3 tests.
(SFC, 7/8/00, p.A1)
2000 Jul 7, In West Virginia 2
teenagers (17) in Grant Town confessed to killing Arthur Warren Jr.
(26), a gay man. They beat him to death and then drove over his body
several times to make it look like a hit-and-run.
(SFC, 7/8/00, p.A4)
2000 Jul 7, Stock car driver
Kenny Irwin was killed when his car slammed into a wall during
practice at New Hampshire International Speedway; he was 30.
(AP, 7/7/01)
2000 Jul 7, In Austria the
parliament approved a $415 million fund to compensate Nazi-era
victims of forced labor.
(SFC, 7/8/00, p.C14)
2000 Jul 7, Three days of
torrential rains over central China left at least 22 people dead in
Sichuan. Thousands of buildings, 17 bridges and 7 hydroelectric
power stations were damaged. In Guangxi Zhuang a bus fell into the
Liujiang River in Liuzhou and at least 65 people were killed.
(SFC, 7/8/00, p.D8)(SFC, 7/10/00, p.A9)
2000 Jul 7, German drug maker
Boehringer Ingelheim said it would donate nevirapine, a drug to help
prevent the transmission of AIDS from mothers to infants, to every
nation in the developing world that asks for it.
(SFC, 7/8/00, p.A1)
2000 Jul 7, In Fiji supporters
of George Speight seized up to 30 hostages at Korovou.
(SFC, 7/8/00, p.A11)
2000 Jul 7, In Nicaragua
another earthquake struck and at least 2 people were killed.
(SFC, 7/8/00, p.A12)
2000 Jul 7, Typhoon Kai Tak
killed at least 39 people in the Philippines and moved on to Japan.
(SFC, 7/8/00, p.A11)(WSJ, 7/10/00, p.A1)
2000 Jul 7, The World Bank
cancelled its Chinese resettlement project for Tibet. China then
withdrew its request for a $40 million loan and vowed to proceed
with its own development program.
(SFC, 7/8/00, p.A10)
2001 Jul 7, Bolivia’s Pres.
Banzer (75) was reported to be hospitalized in Washington DC with
cancer in his lung and liver.
(SFC, 7/7/01, p.B1)(SSFC, 7/8/01, p.A16)
2001 Jul 7, It was reported
that China had executed 1,781 people over the last 3 months.
(SFC, 7/7/01, p.A8)
2001 Jul 7, In Croatia PM Ivica
Racan announced that citizens indicted by the UN War Crimes tribunal
could be extradited to the Hague.
(SSFC, 7/8/01, p.A16)
2001 Jul 7, In Bradford,
England, 80 police officers were injured in race riots, later known
as the “Bradford riots.” They began after a rally by the far-right
National Front was banned. Asian and white youths ran amok in the
streets armed with firebombs and baseball bats. The Manningham Labor
Club was firebombed.
(SSFC, 7/8/01, p.A16)(AP, 7/6/02)(Econ, 3/5/11,
p.63)
2001 Jul 7, In Jamaica a police
crackdown began in Kingston following 2 months of fighting between
gangs that killed 37 people. The murder rate for the country had
reached 530 for the half year.
(SFC, 7/11/01, p.A8)
2001 Jul 7, In the Gaza Strip a
Palestinian boy was shot and killed and 2 others injured by Israeli
soldiers. Palestinian militants were said to have been shooting in
the Raffah refugee camp area.
(SSFC, 7/8/01, p.A13)
2001 Jul 7, In Puerto Rico
Parmenio Medina (62), a Colombian-born journalist, was gunned down
in his car. He ran a radio program called "La Patada," or "The
Kick," which denounced fraud at a religious radio station. In 2007 a
court convicted Omar Chaves, a businessman, of ordering the murder
of the journalist. Chaves also got a 12-year prison sentence on a
fraud count. His partner, Father Minor de Jesus Calvo, was acquitted
of the killing, but was convicted of fraud and sentenced to 15 years
in jail.
(AP, 12/19/07)
2002 Jul 7, Lleyton Hewitt
crushed David Nalbandian in straight sets, 6-1, 6-3, 6-2, in the
Wimbledon final to win his second Grand Slam title.
(AP, 7/7/03)
2002 Jul 7, Texas Gov. Rick
Perry saw by helicopter the devastation days of torrential rain had
brought to central and southern Texas.
(AP, 7/7/03)
2002 Jul 7, Afghanistan's vice
president, Abdul Qadir, was buried with full military honors one day
after being assassinated.
(AP, 7/7/07)
2002 Jul 7, Nearly two dozen
people were killed and thousands left homeless as torrential monsoon
rains lashed large parts of Asia over the weekend, worsening floods
and triggering fresh storms and landslides. Monsoon flooding killed
at least 11 in Bangladesh.
(Reuters, 7/7/02)(Reuters, 7/8/02)
2002 Jul 7, In southern China
13 people were killed when a wall being demolished at a vegetable
market crumbled after heavy rain, burying vendors and workers under
a mound of rubble.
(Reuters, 7/7/02)
2002 Jul 7, In Hong Kong tens
of thousands of civil servants staged a huge street protest against
a government plan to pass a law that would cut their pay by up to
4.42 percent.
(Reuters, 7/7/02)
2002 Jul 7, In Indonesia 53
people burned alive or jumped to their deaths when fire ripped
through a crowded Palembang karaoke bar on Sumatra island but the
final death toll could be double that.
(AP, 7/8/02)(Reuters, 7/9/02)(WSJ, 7/9/02, p.A1)
2002 Jul 7, In Northern Ireland
Protestant hard-liners battled riot police after being barred from
parading through the main Catholic section of Portadown.
(AP, 7/7/02)
2002 Jul 7, The 14th Int'l.
AIDS Conference opened in Barcelona. Estimates said AIDS had claimed
20 million lives to date and threatened 40 million currently
infected. African cases were estimated at 28.5 million.
(SFC, 7/5/02, p.A1)(SSFC, 7/7/02, p.A6)
2002 Jul 7, In eastern Ukraine
rescue workers found the bodies of 35 miners killed in one of two
fires over the weekend in mines.
(AP, 7/7/02)(AP, 7/8/02)
2003 Jul 7, Hilary Lunke won
the U.S. Women's Open.
(AP, 7/7/04)
2003 Jul 7, Pres. Bush departed
for a 5-country African tour. In 2007 Ari Fleischer, former White
House press secretary, said he had lunch with Scooter Libby on this
day and was told by Libby that Ambassador Wilson had been sent to
Africa by his wife, Valerie Plame, who worked for the CIA. Wilson
had criticized the Bush administration the previous day for the way
it used intelligence to justify the war in Iraq.
(SFC, 7/7/03, p.A8)(SFC, 1/30/07, p.A3)
2003 Jul 7, A federal judge
approved a settlement fining WorldCom $750 million for its
$11-billion accounting scandal.
(AP, 7/7/04)
2003 Jul 7, A chunk of foam
insulation fired at shuttle wing parts blew open a gaping 16-inch
hole, yielding what one member of the Columbia investigation team
said was the "smoking gun" proving what brought down the spaceship
on Feb 1.
(AP, 7/7/04)
2003 Jul 7, The CDC confirmed
the year's 1st case of West Nile Virus, which killed 284 in the US
in 2002.
(SFC, 7/8/03, p.A6)
2003 Jul 7, NASA's 2nd Mars
Lander, named Opportunity, was launched.
(SFC, 7/8/03, p.A1)
2003 Jul 7, In Corsica
explosions rocked vacation homes owned by mainland French in new
nationalist violence a day after Corsicans rejected a plan designed
to set up a single executive body to run Corsican affairs.
(AP, 7/7/03)
2003 Jul 7, In Indonesia
gunbattles between soldiers and rebels in Aceh province left 18
insurgents dead, and the bodies of five civilians were discovered in
the region.
(AP, 7/8/03)
2003 Jul 7, In northwestern
Tanzania a bus rolled several times after one of its front tires
burst, killing at least 19 people and injuring 23 others.
(AP, 7/8/03)
2004 Jul 7, Former Enron
chairman Kenneth Lay was indicted on criminal charges related to the
energy company's collapse.
(AP, 7/7/05)
2004 Jul 7, Jeff Smith (65), a
white-bearded minister who became public television's popular
"Frugal Gourmet" (1983-1997) before a sex scandal ruined his career,
died.
(AP, 7/9/04)
2004 Jul 7, The Iraqi
government issued a long-anticipated package of security laws to
help crush insurgents, including a provision allowing interim PM
Iyad Allawi to impose martial law. 4 Iraqi National Guard soldiers
were killed and 20 injured from a gunbattle in central Baghdad.
(AP, 7/7/04)(SFC, 7/8/04, p.A15)
2004 Jul 7, In Russia the board
of Guta Bank approved its sale to the state-owned Vneshtorgbank. A
day earlier Guta had announced a suspension of payments.
(Econ, 7/10/04, p.66)
2004 Jul 7, In Sri Lanka a
Tamil Tiger suicide bomber detonated explosives at a police station,
killing herself and 4 officers.
(AP, 7/7/04)
2004 Jul 7, It was reported
that fighting between Arab and African tribes has killed at least 70
people and displaced thousands more this week in the Darfur region
of western Sudan.
(Reuters, 7/7/04)
2005 Jul 7, Morgan Stanley
disclosed that Philip Purdell had been given an exit package worth
an estimated $113.7 million. 2 days earlier John Mack was signed on
as CEO on a contract worth as much as $25 million a year.
(SFC, 7/8/05, p.C1)
2005 Jul 7, Gustaf Sobin (69),
American-born writer and poet, died in France. His work included the
2000 novel “The Fly-Truffler.”
(SFC, 7/13/05, p.B7)
2005 Jul 7, A Human Rights
Watch report said numerous officials in Afghan President Hamid
Karzai's government are implicated in war crimes that took place at
the start of the country's bloody civil war in the early 1990s.
(AP, 7/7/05)
2005 Jul 7, In Pale,
Bosnia-Herzegovina, NATO troops arrested Aleksandar Karadzic, the
son of top Bosnian Serb war crimes fugitive Radovan Karadzic, who is
wanted for alleged genocide including the 1995 Srebrenica massacre.
(AFP, 7/7/05)
2005 Jul 7, Four blasts rocked
the London subway and tore open a packed double-decker bus during
the morning rush hour, sending bloodied victims fleeing. 56 were
killed in the subway blasts, including 13 on the bus, and London
hospitals reported more than 700 wounded. A group calling itself
"The Secret Organization of al-Qaida in Europe" posted a claim of
responsibility, saying they were in retaliation for Britain's
involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2007 British police arrested
3 suspects. [see ref URL for CNN timeline on the bombing] In 2008 a
jury failed to convict 3 Britons accused of helping the suicide
bombers. In 2009 three men were found not guilty of helping to plan
the suicide bombings, although two were convicted on lesser charges.
(AP, 7/7-8/05)(http://tinyurl.com/dxvlb)(AP,
7/11/05)(WSJ, 3/23/07, p.A1)(WSJ, 8/2/08, p.A6)
(AFP, 4/28/09)
2005 Jul 7, Al-Qaida in Iraq
said in a Web statement that it has killed Ihab al-Sherif, Egypt's
top envoy in Iraq, posting a video of the blindfolded diplomat
identifying himself.
(AP, 7/7/05)
2005 Jul 7, Egypt recalled its
staff to Cairo and said it will temporarily shut its diplomatic
mission in Iraq.
(AP, 7/7/05)
2005 Jul 7, Hurricane Dennis, a
Category 4 storm with 135-mph winds, left 10 people dead in
Haiti and some 100 missing.
(AP, 7/9/05)
2005 Jul 7, The 150-ton KMP
Digul sank off Papua province, Indonesia, while en route from the
port town of Merauke to Tanah Merah. As many as 200 were feared
dead.
(AP, 7/9/05)(AP, 7/10/05)
2005 Jul 7, Iraq's president
called for national unity as mortar attacks killed 4 civilians in
the northern city of Mosul and police opened fire on demonstrators
in Saddam Hussein's hometown Tikrit, wounding 4.
(AP, 7/7/05)
2005 Jul 7, About 600 US
Marines and Iraqi soldiers launched Operation Scimitar near
Fallujah, the fourth counterinsurgency operation in less than a
month.
(AP, 7/9/05)
2005 Jul 7, Ali Shakir, the
head of Iraq's karate union, was kidnapped south of Baghdad.
(AP, 7/9/05)
2005 Jul 7, Saddam Hussein's
chief lawyer quit the Iraqi dictator's Jordan-based legal team,
saying some of the team's American members were trying to control
the defense and tone down his criticism of the U.S. presence in
Iraq.
(AP, 7/7/05)
2005 Jul 7, Luxembourg PM
Jean-Claude Juncker asked his citizens to pass a referendum in favor
of the EU Constitution.
(WSJ, 7/8/05, p.A5)
2005 Jul 7, In Pakistan 2
masked gunmen opened fire on an intelligence officer in a remote
northwestern tribal region, killing him before fleeing.
(AP, 7/7/05)
2005 Jul 7, Romania's PM Calin
Popescu Tariceanu said his Cabinet would resign and early elections
would be called after a court blocked essential justice reforms
required by the EU.
(AP, 7/7/05)
2005 Jul 7, In Scotland world
leaders united in a show of solidarity to condemn the deadly
bombings in London as an attack on all nations and vowed to defeat
the terrorists responsible.
(AP, 7/7/05)
2006 Jul 7, The Arkansas state
board barred Dr. Randeep Mann from prescribing narcotics after
officials said 10 of his patients died from a lethal mix of drugs or
an overdose of prescription medicines.
(AP, 7/7/06)
2006 Jul 7, Louisiana joined 21
other states in banning Internet hunting, the practice of using a
mouse click to kill animals on a distant game farm.
(www.livescience.com/othernews/060707_internet_hunting.html)
2006 Jul 7, Oil hit a fresh
record high of $75.78 a barrel, boosted by strong demand in the US
and global tension ranging from Iran's nuclear work to North Korea's
missile tests.
(Reuters, 7/7/06)
2006 Jul 7, Fighting in
southern Afghanistan killed a US-led coalition soldier and at least
eight suspected Taliban militants.
(AP, 7/8/06)
2006 Jul 7, Syd Barrett (60), a
founding member of the rock group Pink Floyd, died at his home in
Cambridge, England. The band’s first album was “The Piper at the
Gates of Dawn.”
(Reuters, 7/11/06)(SFC, 7/12/06, p.B7)(Econ,
7/22/06, p.83)
2006 Jul 7, In Canada 2
Mounties were wounded near the Saskatchewan community of Spiritwood
as they investigated what appeared to be a family dispute.
Constables Robin Cameron (29) and Marc Bourdages (26) died from
their wounds on July 15 and 16.
(AP, 7/17/06)
2006 Jul 7, In northern China a
fire ignited explosives at a home in Dongzhai, a village in the
coal-mining province of Shanxi, killing at least 47 people, many of
them neighbors who had rushed to the scene to battle the flames. A
seven-story apartment building collapsed in the major city of
Zhengzhou in central China, killing at least two people and burying
an unknown number of others.
(AP, 7/7/06)
2006 Jul 7, UN peacekeepers in
Haiti found the bodies of 16 people believed killed in a surge of
gang violence.
(AP, 7/8/06)
2006 Jul 7, Iraqi forces backed
by US aircraft battled militants in a Shiite stronghold of eastern
Baghdad, killing or wounding more than 30 fighters and capturing an
extremist leader who was the target of the raid. Residents claimed
up to 11 civilians died. A series of bombs and a mortar round
targeting the main Islamic weekly service struck four Sunni mosques
in the Baghdad area and a Shiite mosque in northern Iraq, killing 17
people and wounding more than 50.
(AP, 7/7/06)(AP, 7/8/06)
2006 Jul 7, Israel launched an
airstrike in the northern Gaza Strip. Witnesses said three
Palestinians were killed. The Israeli military said the attack on
the town of Beit Lahiya targeted a group of militants. Palestinians
said 32 people had died in days of Gaza fighting.
(AP, 7/7/06)(WSJ, 7/8/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 7, Former Italian PM
Silvio Berlusconi was ordered to stand trial following an
investigation into the sale of television rights at Mediaset SpA.
(AP, 7/7/06)
2006 Jul 7, The first batch of
Japanese troops began pulling out of Iraq.
(AP, 7/7/06)
2006 Jul 7, North Korea
announced a scientific breakthrough. State-run media boasted
that researchers developed a new cosmetic agent to make skin supple.
(AP, 7/7/06)
2006 Jul 7, Pakistan's
president amended a controversial Islamic law so that women facing
charges for adultery and other minor crimes can be released on bail.
The much-awaited amendment by President Gen. Pervez Musharraf to the
Hadood Ordinance will initially affect 1,300 female prisoners.
(AP, 7/7/06)
2006 Jul 7, In the Philippines
6 fugitive military officers linked to a failed 2003 mutiny against
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo were arrested.
(AP, 7/7/06)
2006 Jul 7, Officials said
Russian authorities have dramatically curtailed the number of
stations broadcasting Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Voice of
America news programs, sending an unsettling signal about the state
of press freedoms in Russia.
(AP, 7/8/06)
2006 Jul 7, A Spanish judge
charged two former Guatemalan dictators with genocide and issued
international warrants for their arrest. National Court Judge
Santiago Pedraz issued warrants on charges of genocide, torture,
terrorism and illegal detention against Gen. Efrain Rios Montt, Gen.
Oscar Humberto Mejia Victores and six other men.
(AP, 7/7/06)
2006 Jul 7, Spain’s Agriculture
Ministry said it has recorded its first case of H5N1 bird flu. The
deadly strain was found in a water fowl in a marsh area outside the
northern city of Vitoria.
(AP, 7/7/06)
2006 Jul 7, The UN General
Assembly unanimously approved a series of reforms that were welcomed
by the US as a long overdue step toward greater efficiency and
accountability. A two-week UN conference reviewing efforts to fight
the illegal weapons trade ended in failure, with nations too divided
on too many contentious issues to agree on the best way to combat a
scourge that fuels conflict worldwide. Japan introduced a draft UN
Security Council resolution to sanction North Korea for
test-launching a series of missiles. The Council unanimously adopted
a compromise resolution on July 15.
(AP, 7/8/06)(AP, 7/7/07)
2007 Jul 7, The 24-hour Live
Earth music marathon reached the Western Hemisphere with rappers,
rockers and country stars taking the stage at Live Earth concerts to
fight climate change.
(SSFC, 7/8/07, p.A4)(AP, 7/7/08)
2007 Jul 7, A Big Mac in the US
cost an average $3.41. At current exchange rates the cheapest Big
Mac was in China at $1.45, and the most expensive in New Zealand at
$5.89.
(Econ, 7/7/07, p.74)
2007 Jul 7, Wildfires in
California consumed 17,000 acres in Inyo National Forest and 7,500
acres in Los Padres National Forest. An 8,000-acre wildfire forced
hundreds of people in the town of Winnemucca to leave their homes,
one of more than a dozen blazes that charred a combined 55 square
miles in northern Nevada. In Utah a 160,000-acre wildfire forced
evacuations at Cove Fort and the Blundell Geothermal Power Plant.
Wildfires also burned in Colorado, Arizona, Oregon and Washington
states.
(AP, 7/8/07)(SSFC, 7/8/07, p.A5)
2007 Jul 7, In Oregon Kent
Couch (47) in his lawn chair with some snacks and a parachute rose
to the sky under 105 large helium balloons. Nearly 9 hours later the
gas station owner came back to earth in a farmer's field near Union,
193 miles from home. In September he had gotten off the ground for
six hours.
(AP, 7/10/07)
2007 Jul 7, A global poll
picked the Great Wall of China, Rome's Colosseum, India's Taj Mahal,
Peru’s Macchu Picchu, Jordan’s Petra, Brazil's Statue of Christ
Redeemer and Mexico's Chichen Itza pyramid as the new seven wonders
of the world. The campaign to name the new wonders was launched in
1999 by the Swiss adventurer Bernard Weber.
(AP, 7/8/07)
2007 Jul 7, Barton Shackelford,
former president of PG&E (1979-1985), died in Kentfield, Ca.
(SFC, 7/16/07, p.C6)
2007 Jul 7, In Kandahar
province Taliban fighters ambushed police traveling in between
Ghorak and Mawiwand, sparking a six-hour battle. About 20 Taliban
fighters were wounded in the engagement, and several police were
missing. Taliban fighters beheaded two civilians they accused of
being spies for the government or NATO. A roadside blast struck a
NATO convoy in southern Afghanistan and wounded four alliance
soldiers.
(AP, 7/7/07)(AP, 7/9/07)
2007 Jul 7, A court in
Algeria's Kabylie region sentenced Said Sahnoun, a correspondent for
newspapers in sub-Saharan Africa, to 10 years in prison for spying
for Israel.
(Reuters, 7/8/07)
2007 Jul 7, Algeria's state oil
and gas company and KBR Inc., a former Halliburton Co. subsidiary,
signed a $2.88 billion deal for a liquefied natural gas plant.
(AP, 7/7/07)
2007 Jul 7, Britain’s PM Gordon
Brown pledged 14 million pounds in extra aid for parts of northern
England hit by floods which killed at least four people.
(AFP, 7/7/07)
2007 Jul 7, Jack Odell
(b.1920), British creator of the Matchbox miniature toys (1953),
died. The toys were made by Lesney Products, founded by Leslie and
Rodney Smith in 1947. The company went public in 1960 and bankrupt
in 1982, when it was sold to Hong Kong’s Universal International
Ltd. In 1997 Mattel acquired Matchbox.
(WSJ, 1/14/07, p.A4)
2007 Jul 7, German scientists
said a genetically engineered herpes virus, designed to kill cancer
cells but leave normal tissue unharmed, has shown early promise in
clinical tests.
(Reuters, 7/7/07)
2007 Jul 7, Authorities said
floods in eastern India have left nearly a million people stranded
from torrential monsoon rains.
(AFP, 7/7/07)
2007 Jul 7, In Iraq a bombing
in Armili, a farming town of 26,000, mostly Shiites from Iraq's
ethnic Turkoman minority, killed over 130 people. Another car bomb
attack against a military checkpoint in Baghdad killed at least 3
people and wounded 10. British troops came under heavy attack by
militants in Basra, killing one soldier and wounding 3. An American
soldier was killed in combat in Salahuddin province.
(AFP, 7/7/07)(AP, 7/8/07)
2007 Jul 7, In
Indian-controlled Kashmir protesters clashed with police in Srinagar
a day after a teenager was killed when police fired on a crowd
protesting alleged human rights abuses.
(AP, 7/7/07)
2007 Jul 7, In Indonesia a
speeding bus carrying a group of junior high school students and
their teachers plunged into a 30-foot ravine on the main island of
Java, killing 14 people. Poisonous fumes from the Indonesia’s Salak
volcano killed six teenagers who were camping on the mountain.
(AP, 7/7/07)(AP, 7/8/07)
2007 Jul 7, Nepal's king
celebrated his 60th birthday with a lavish ceremony at his palace
that set off protests in the streets of Katmandu.
(AP, 7/7/07)
2007 Jul 7, President Pervez
Musharraf told Islamist militants barricaded in a mosque to
surrender or die, while concern grew for hundreds of women and
children inside the besieged compound in the Pakistani capital.
(Reuters, 7/7/07)
2007 Jul 7, Pope Benedict XVI
removed restrictions on celebrating the old form of the Latin Mass
in a concession to traditional Catholics, but he stressed that he
was in no way rolling back the reforms of the Second Vatican
Council.
(AP, 7/7/07)
2007 Jul 7, Zimbabwe's
government announced a new law making it an offense to defy steep
price cuts ordered in an effort to control runaway inflation and a
growing economic crisis.
(AP, 7/7/07)
2008 Jul 7, Tropical storm
Bertha strengthened to become the first hurricane of the Atlantic
season.
(AP, 7/7/08)
2008 Jul 7, Bruce Conner
(b.1933), SF-based artist, died. His collages and prints looked back
to classics of surrealism. His work was later said to look like a
bridge between the Beat generation and postmodernism.
(http://daily.greencine.com/archives/006353.html)(SFC, 7/8/08,
p.B5)(SFC, 5/4/09, p.E3)
2008 Jul 7, In Afghanistan a
car bomb detonated by a suicide bomber ripped through the front wall
of the Indian Embassy in central Kabul, killing 41 people in the
deadliest attack in the capital since the fall of the Taliban.
(AP, 7/7/08)(AP, 7/8/08)
2008 Jul 7, Austria’s ruling
coalition crumbled and new elections were expected as early as
September. The left-right alliance broke up after 18 months in
office.
(WSJ, 7/8/08, p.A12)(Econ, 7/12/08, p.63)
2008 Jul 7, In central
Bangladesh 2 passenger buses collided head-on, killing at least 20
people and wounding dozens more.
(AP, 7/7/08)
2008 Jul 7, The Church of
England's ruling body voted its support for women to become bishops
without giving traditionalist supporters of male-only priesthood the
concessions they had sought.
(AP, 7/8/08)
2008 Jul 7, In China Diana
O'Brien (22), a Canadian model, was found murdered in her Shanghai
apartment. On Jul 11 police arrested Chen Jun (18), who confessed to
killing the woman during a robbery.
(AP, 7/11/08)
2008 Jul 7, In Colombia a
rose-laden US cargo plane headed for Miami crashed before dawn near
Bogota, killing a father and son in their home on the ground. It was
the second time in six weeks that a Boeing 747 flown by Ypsilanti,
Michigan-based Kalitta Air has crashed.
(AP, 7/8/08)
2008 Jul 7, In Congo (DRC)
unidentified gunmen ambushed a vehicle belonging to the World
Wildlife Fund in Virunga national Park, killing two people and
wounding three others.
(AP, 7/9/08)
2008 Jul 7, Police in East
Timor's capital fired tear gas to disperse students protesting a
plan by lawmakers to buy themselves new cars with state funds.
(AP, 7/7/08)
2008 Jul 7, In Egypt smugglers
killed a police officer during a shootout on the border with Israel.
(AP, 7/7/08)
2008 Jul 7, A court in
Equatorial Guinea convicted former British officer Simon Mann on of
being the key player in a failed 2004 coup plot in this Central
African nation and sentenced him to 34 years and four months in
prison.
(AP, 7/7/08)
2008 Jul 7, European Union
nations gave their backing to a French-drafted pact calling for
tightening immigration and asylum rules across the 27-nation bloc.
(AP, 7/8/08)
2008 Jul 7, In Germany war
crimes suspect Callixte Mbarushimana, a former UN employee wanted
for his alleged role in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, was arrested in
Frankfurt.
(AFP, 7/8/08)
2008 Jul 7, Germany’s Fresenius
SE said it has agreed to buy US generic drug maker APP
Pharmaceuticals for $3.7 billion in cash in a deal that will give
the health care company more opportunities in the North American
market for drugs administered intravenously.
(AP, 7/7/08)
2008 Jul 7, PM al-Maliki said
Iraq has proposed a short-term memorandum of understanding with the
US rather than trying to hammer through a formal agreement on the
presence of US forces. A roadside bomb near a dress shop in Baqouba
killed a woman and injured 14 others.
(AP, 7/7/08)
2008 Jul 7, Israeli troops in
jeeps swooped down on the West Bank town of Nablus, shutting down a
girls' school, a medical center and two other facilities of a
Hamas-affiliated charity. Palestinian militants fired a mortar shell
at a border crossing with the Gaza Strip. Israel's military said it
had begun digging up the bodies of Lebanese fighters after the
government struck a deal with Hezbollah guerrillas to swap five
living prisoners and dozens of bodies for two Israeli soldiers
captured in 2006.
(AP, 7/7/08)
2008 Jul 7, Israeli Lt. Col.
Omri Borberg was caught on video holding the arm of Ashraf Abu
Rahmeh while he was shot in the foot with a rubber-coated bullet in
the West Bank village of Naalin. On Jan 27, 2011, an Israeli
military court sentenced two soldiers, convicted in the close-range
shooting of a bound and blindfolded Palestinian man, but spared them
jail time.
(AP, 1/27/11)(http://tinyurl.com/45ufwxq)
2008 Jul 7, In Italy transport
workers went on strike, forcing the cancellation of thousands of
bus, tram and subway lines and snarling traffic across the country.
(AP, 7/7/08)
2008 Jul 7, In Japan G8 leaders
raised the prospect of more sanctions against Zimbabwe unless quick
progress is made to end a political crisis after a violent election
that extended President Robert Mugabe's 28-year rule. The G8 met
with seven African leaders at its annual summit. African leaders
urged the Group of Eight nations to tackle spiking oil and food
prices. Japan included 5 “outreach” countries (Brazil, China, India,
Mexico and South Africa) for brief discussions with the G8.
(Reuters, 7/7/08)(AFP, 7/7/08)(Econ, 7/5/08,
p.33)
2008 Jul 7, In Indian Kashmir
Ghulam Nabi Azad, the chief minister said he was stepping down
following protests over the government’s handling of the transfer of
government land to the Shiri Amarnath Shrine Board, a trust running
the revered Hindu shrine.
(WSJ, 7/8/08, p.A12)
2008 Jul 7, Mexican police
found six charred bodies on a Tijuana street following a bloody
weekend that left 14 people dead.
(AP, 7/7/08)
2008 Jul 7, In Pakistan a total
of seven small blasts left 43 people wounded in the commercial
capital of Karachi.
(AP, 7/8/08)
2008 Jul 7, Serbia's parliament
approved a new government that includes a pro-Western group and the
political party of the late strongman Slobodan Milosevic.
(AP, 7/8/08)
2008 Jul 7, The South African
Reserve Bank said 5 million coins featuring a smiling Nelson Mandela
will go into circulation on July 18, the former president's 90th
birthday.
(AP, 7/7/08)
2008 Jul 7, Sudan's parliament
approved a new electoral law, a crucial step towards scheduled
national elections and a democratic transition laid out in peace
arrangements after a 21-year civil war.
(AP, 7/7/08)
2008 Jul 7, A UNESCO official
said that an 11th century temple that sits on Cambodia's disputed
border zone with Thailand has been designated as a world heritage
site. Hindu-themed Preah Vihear reflects the beliefs of the kings
who ruled what was then the Angkorean empire.
(AP, 7/8/08)
2009 Jul 7, Google announced
its new operating system, Google Chrome OS, which would initially
target low cost netbooks.
(SFC, 7/9/09, p.C1)
2009 Jul 7, Ron Nicolino
(b.1939), artist and former resident of Point Richmond, Ca., died of
cancer. He had attempted to string a collection of bras across the
Grand Canyon in the mid-1990s, but was unable to get federal
permission. Instead he and Ellen Duffy concocted the creation of a
bra ball. A dispute led each one to create their own versions.
Nicolino’s 1,600 pound “Big Giant Bra Ball” was left with his mother
in Washington state.
(SFC, 7/16/09, p.D7)
2009 Jul 7, In eastern
Afghanistan a hand grenade thrown at a police vehicle exploded in a
crowd, killing one civilian and wounding 28 others in Khost
province. A British soldier died in an explosion in Helmand
province. He was the 7th British soldier killed in Afghanistan in a
week. Hundreds of insurgents attacked police posts and a government
building in eastern Nuristan province. The attacks continued into
the next day leaving 6 policemen and 21 insurgents dead. (AP,
7/7/09)(AP, 7/8/09)
2009 Jul 7, British officials
unveiled a memorial of 52 steel pillars in a London park, one for
each victim of the July 7, 2005, attacks on the city's transit
system.
(AP, 7/7/09)
2009 Jul 7, The Cameroonian
newspaper Le Jour said five Chinese workers were abducted off the
oil-rich Bakassi peninsula in Cameroon near the border with Nigeria.
(AFP, 7/8/09)
2009 Jul 7, Canadian officials
said they had identified yet another new flu virus, this one a
mixture of human and swine influenzas, in two farm workers in
Western Canada.
(Reuters, 7/8/09)
2009 Jul 7, In China mobs of
Han Chinese wielding meat cleavers and clubs and groups of Muslim
Uighur men beat people in the streets of Urumqi, the capital of
Xinjiang region. The government imposed a curfew as it tried to stem
communal violence. The official Xinhua News Agency said that 1,434
suspects had been arrested, and that checkpoints had been set up to
stop rioters from escaping.
(AP, 7/7/09)
2009 Jul 7, In Egypt 22 people
were killed in two separate accidents on the notoriously dangerous
road between the capital Cairo and the southern city of Minya.
(AP, 7/7/09)
2009 Jul 7, Ethiopia's
parliament adopted a new anti-terrorism bill despite criticism by
rights groups that the legislation violates civil liberties.
(AFP, 7/7/09)
2009 Jul 7, In India at least
16 people were killed and 25 injured after a fire tore through a
firecracker factory in Madurai.
(SFC, 7/9/09, p.A2)
2009 Jul 7, In Italy Matteo
Salvini, a member of the often xenophobic, anti-immigrant Northern
League party, resigned his seat in the lower chamber of Parliament
after being filmed singing a racist chant about Naples and its
residents.
(AP, 7/8/09)
2009 Jul 7, In northern Mexico
an anti-crime activist and a neighbor were killed by gunmen believed
linked to a drug cartel. Anti-crime activists said the slaying of
Benjamin LeBaron, a US citizen, in Chihuahua state was the first
time one of their own had been killed for denouncing crime and
called it a chilling warning. Jose Rodolfo Escajeda, a lieutenant
and one of the main operators of the Juarez cartel, was later
presumed responsible for the killing of LeBaron and a neighbor near
Nuevo Casas Grandes.
(AP, 7/8/09)(AP, 9/6/09)
2009 Jul 7, In Pakistan a US
missile strike pulverized a compound in a stronghold of Taliban
warlord Baitullah Mehsud, killing 16 foreign and local militants in
South Waziristan. Two paramilitary soldiers were killed and nine
security personnel wounded in three bomb attacks in North and South
Waziristan. The military said that four militants were killed,
including a brother of Ibn-e-Amin, one of the most-wanted Taliban
commanders in the Swat valley.
(AFP, 7/7/09)
2009 Jul 7, In the Philippines
a crude bomb hidden on a motorcycle exploded in a port city on
southern Jolo island where al-Qaida-linked militants are active,
killing at least two people and wounding 24.
(AP, 7/7/09)
2009 Jul 7, In Moscow President
Barack Obama asked the Russian people to "forge a lasting
partnership" with the US, but he acknowledged after talks with PM
Vladimir Putin that on divisive issues there won't be "a meeting of
the minds anytime soon.
(AP, 7/7/09)
2009 Jul 7, Spanish police
arrested Jorge Alberto Soza (72), an ex-Argentine police official
suspected of human rights abuses committed during the South American
country's dirty war. Soza was wanted in Argentina in connection with
18 cases of kidnapping and torture between 1975 and 1977 when he was
an assistant Federal Police commissioner and chief delegate in the
southern Argentine city of Neuquen.
(AP, 7/24/09)
2009 Jul 7, Pope Benedict XVI
called for a radical rethinking of global economy in “Caritas et
Verite” (Charity in Truth) his 3rd encyclical.
(SFC, 7/8/09, p.A2)
2010 Jul 7, At a US military
tribunal Ibrahim Gitmo detainee Ahmed Mahmoud, a Sudanese man who
was said to have worked in Afghanistan as Osama bin Laden’s
bodyguard, driver, cook and paymaster, pleaded guilty to charges of
conspiracy and supporting terrorism.
(Econ, 7/31/10, p.23)
2010 Jul 7, In Philadelphia,
Pa., a 250-foot barge collided on the Delaware River with a stalled
amphibious sightseeing boat. 2 visitors from Hungary were killed. In
2011 tug pilot Matt Devlin agreed to plead guilty to involuntary
manslaughter following evidence that he was talking on a cell phone
during the accident.
(AP, 7/9/10)(SFC, 7/15/11, p.A7)
2010 Jul 7, In Brazil Bruno
Souza, a star goalkeeper and captain of defending club champion
Flamengo, surrendered to police to face questioning in connection
with the disappearance and suspected death of his ex-lover, Eliza
Samudio, last seen alive on June 7. Police believed Bruno was in a
home near Belo Horizonte home with Samudio at the time of her
murder, and that her body was later cut into pieces, some of which
were fed to dogs in a bid to cover the murder.
(AFP, 7/9/10)
2010 Jul 7, Police in northeast
England detained Abid Naseer (24), the alleged ringleader of an
al-Qaida bomb plot, at the request of the US government. He
was among 12 people arrested last year in raids across northern
England. All were released without charge.
(AP, 7/7/10)
2010 Jul 7, In Britain
scientists at a top research unit embroiled in a row over climate
research were cleared of dishonesty, but their lack of openness was
criticized. The Independent Climate Change Email Review found
nothing in the emails to undermine reports from the United Nations'
climate change panel.
(AFP, 7/7/10)
2010 Jul 7, China executed the
former top justice official in the southwestern city of Chongqing,
the highest ranking person caught in a massive crackdown on violent
gangs and corrupt officials who protect them. Wen Qiang (55), former
director of the Chongqing Municipal Judicial Bureau, was convicted
in April of corruption charges involving organized crime.
(AP, 7/7/10)
2010 Jul 7, Cuba promised the
Roman Catholic Church it will free 52 political prisoners, slashing
the number held by nearly a third in what would be the communist-led
island's largest release of dissidents since Pope John Paul II
visited in 1998.
(AP, 7/8/10)
2010 Jul 7, East Timor's Pres.
Jose Ramos Horta said he supports in principle an Australian plan to
turn his country into a regional center for processing asylum
seekers but does not want his tiny, impoverished nation to become an
"island prison."
(AP, 7/7/10)
2010 Jul 7, European Union
lawmakers voted overwhelmingly to cap bankers' short-term cash
bonuses from next year, a move that European leaders hope other
parts of the world will follow.
(AP, 7/7/10)
2010 Jul 7, A French court
convicted Manuel Noriega of money-laundering and sentenced Panama's
former dictator to seven years in jail after he spent two decades in
a US prison.
(AFP, 7/7/10)
2010 Jul 7, Germany's interior
minister Thomas de Maiziere said his country plans to take in two
inmates from the United States' Guantanamo Bay detention facility.
(AP, 7/7/10)
2010 Jul 7, Iranian media
reported that the Veil and Modesty Festival, a fashion
organization, has issued a new list of culturally appropriate
haircuts for men, possibly indicating a new crackdown on male attire
after years of strict rules for women, Iranian media reported.
(AP, 7/7/10)
2010 Jul 7, In Iraq militants
targeted the homes of security forces west of Baghdad, blowing them
up and killing three family members despite heightened security
around the capital for a Shiite religious occasion. In a separate
attack in the predominantly Sunni neighborhood of Dora in southern
Baghdad, police Maj. Abdul-Rahman Sobhi was killed when a bomb
attached to his car detonated as he drove to work. Nearly 60 people
were killed in attacks in and around Baghdad, including 35 by a
suicide bomber who targeted pilgrims heading to a mosque in northern
Baghdad. Two people were killed near Ramadi, when insurgents blew up
the houses of three policemen.
(AP, 7/7/10)(AP, 7/8/10)
2010 Jul 7, Israel said that
its moves to ease its blockade on Gaza do not include relaxing
regulations on Palestinians looking to travel out of the enclave.
Israel's military released maps and aerial photographs showing what
it described as a network of Hezbollah weapons depots and command
centers inside villages in south Lebanon, near the Israeli border.
(AFP, 7/7/10)(AP, 7/7/10)
2010 Jul 7, A Tokyo court
convicted a New Zealand activist of assault and obstructing Japanese
whaling ships in the Antarctic Ocean, and sentenced him to a
suspended prison term. Peter Bethune (45) was also found guilty on
three other charges: trespassing, vandalism and possession of a
knife. Bethune was deported 2 days later.
(AP, 7/7/10)(AP, 7/9/10)
2010 Jul 7, In Indian Kashmir 2
people were killed and anger increased when security forces
beat people in funeral processions.
(Econ, 7/10/10, p.42)
2010 Jul 7, In Mexico a judge
acquitted Juan Llaca Diaz, a man charged with dealing in precursor
drug chemicals and allegedly linked to the bust of a Chinese-Mexican
businessman who hid $205 million at his Mexico City mansion.
(AP, 7/9/10)
2010 Jul 7, A Mexican air force
helicopter crashed in the western state of Jalisco, killing three
military personnel on board.
(AP, 7/10/10)
2010 Jul 7, Royal Dutch Shell
said it has begun production at a major project in Nigeria that
should eventually provide up to 70,000 barrels of oil per day and
help boost electricity for the power-starved nation.
(AFP, 7/8/10)
2010 Jul 7, The UN WHO said at
least 2,000 lead-poisoning victims in northern Nigeria may require
treatment to remove brain-damaging lead. The poisoning was believed
to be related to the processing of lead-rich ore for the extraction
of gold.
(SFC, 7/8/10, p.A4)
2010 Jul 7, A Peruvian judge
halted the expulsion of Paul McAuley (62), a British religious
activist. He was accused by the government of inciting unrest among
indigenous groups protesting environmental damage to the Amazon rain
forest.
(AP, 7/7/10)
2010 Jul 7, In the Philippines
officials said Nicanor Faeldon (44), a rebel soldier accused of
leading two failed coup attempts, has turned himself in to
authorities after 3 years on the run. Faeldon, a former bomb making
trainer with the marines, was accused of helping lead 300 soldiers
in taking over the upscale Oakwood Hotel and a nearby shopping
center in Manila's financial district of Makati in July 2003,
rigging the area with bombs.
(AP, 7/7/10)
2010 Jul 7, In Poland Warsaw
district court Judge Tomasz Calkiewicz ordered that Uri Brodsky, a
Mossad agent, be extradited to Germany on charges of forgery.
Brodsky was suspected of helping fake a German passport that was
used by a member of a hit squad believed to be behind the
killing of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai in January.
(AP, 7/7/10)
2010 Jul 7, Thailand police
said Russian pianist and composer Mikhail Vasilievich Pletnev,
founder of the Russian National Orchestra, has been charged with
raping a 14-year-old boy at a beach resort.
(SFC, 7/8/10, p.A2)
2010 Jul 7, A Yemeni court
convicted two al-Qaida militants for the killing of senior police
and army officers and sentenced them to death. Mubarak
el-Shabawni (23) and Mansour Salem (18), arrested last December,
denounced the verdict and shouted 'God is Great' afterward.
(AP, 7/7/10)
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