Today in History - July 15
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668 Jul 15,
Constantine II (37), emperor of Byzantium, died.
(MC, 7/15/02)
1099 Jul 15, Jerusalem fell to
the crusaders who slaughtered the Jewish and Muslim inhabitants. The
dead numbered about 3,000.
(V.D.-H.K.p.109)(HN, 7/15/98)(SSFC, 4/13/03,
p.E3)
1174 Jul 15, Baldwin (13), son
of Amalric I, was crowned Baldwin IV, king of Jerusalem.
(ON, 6/07, p.5)
1205 Jul 15, Pope Innocent III
decreed that the Jews were doomed to perpetual servitude and
subjugation due to crucifixion of Jesus.
(MC, 7/15/02)
1410 Jul 15, Lithuanian-Polish
forces defeated the Teutonic Knights at the Battle of Tannenberg,
Prussia, thereby halting the Knights’ eastward expansion along the
Baltic and hastening their decline. Vytautas and Jogaila with hired
mercenaries from Belarus along with Tartars and Czechs defeated the
Teutonic Knights between Grunvald (Zalgiriai) and Tannenberg
southeast of Malburg. Grand Master Ulrich von Jungingen and many of
his nobles were killed. The war officially ended with the Treaty of
Thorn in which the Knights gave up Zemaitija to Vytautas.
(COE)(H of L, 1931, p.52)(DrEE, 11/9/96, p.6)
1471 Jul 15, Eskender (d.1494),
Emperor of Ethiopia, was born. Eskender was killed at age 22
fighting the Maya, a vanished ethnic group known for using poisoned
arrows.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eskender)
1542 Jul 15, In 2007 an expert
on the "Mona Lisa" says he had ascertained with certainty that Lisa
Gherardini (b.1479), the symbol of feminine mystique, died on this
day, and was buried at the Sant'Orsola convent in central Florence
where she spent her final days.
(AFP, 1/19/07)
1573 Jul 15, Inigo Jones
(d.1652), father of English classical architecture, was born in
London. He restored St. Paul's Cathedral.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.14)(MC, 7/15/02)
1606 Jul 15, The painter
Rembrandt (d.1669) Harmenszoom van Rizn (Rijn), was born in Leiden,
Netherlands. His paintings included "Old Woman Cutting Her Nails,"
"Night Watch," "Self Portrait Leaning Forward" (1628), "Two Studies
of Saskia Asleep" (1635-1637), "Jupiter and Antiope" (1659) and
"Aristotle Contemplating the Bust of Homer." He started making
etchings in the 1620s when the medium was barely a 100 years old.
(WSJ, 10/1/96, p.A20)(SFC, 10/12/96, p.E3)(SFC,
5/17/97, p.E1)(AP, 7/15/97)
1609 Jul 15, Annibale Carracci
(b.1560), Italian Baroque painter, died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annibale_Carracci)
1663 Jul 15, King Charles II of
England granted John Clarke a charter for the colony of Rhode Island
guaranteeing freedom of worship. He granted the charter giving the
Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations an elected
governor and legislature. Roger Williams (1603-1683) authored the
Rhode Island and Providence Plantation Charter, which stated that
religion and conscience should never be restrained by civil
supremacy.
(http://avalon.law.yale.edu/17th_century/ri04.asp)(AH, 4/07, p.21)
1685 Jul 15, James Scott, the
Duke of Monmouth and illegitimate son of Charles II, was executed on
Tower Hill in England, after his army was defeated at Sedgemoor.
(HN, 7/15/98)(MC, 7/15/02)
1700 Jul 15, Johann Christoph
Richter, composer, was born.
(MC, 7/15/02)
1741 Jul 15, George Steller, an
observer with Vitus Bering (1680-1741), claimed to see the American
mainland (Alaska). Bering, a Danish-born mariner, was on an
exploratory mission on behalf of Russia.
(WSJ, 9/12/00, p.A24)(SFEC, 3/23/97, p.T5)(ON,
2/06, p.2)
1779 Jul 15, Clement Moore,
founder of the General Theological Seminary in New York City, was
born.
(HN, 7/15/98)
1782 Jul 15, Farinelli (77),
Italian castrato, died.
(MC, 7/15/02)
1788 Jul 15, Louis XVI jailed
12 deputies who protest new judicial reforms.
(HN, 7/15/98)
1789 Jul 15, The electors of
Paris set up a "Commune" to live without the authority of the
government.
(HN, 7/15/98)
1796 Jul 15, Thomas Bulfinch,
historian and mythologist (The Age of Fable), was born.
(HN, 7/15/01)
1806 Jul 15, Lieutenant Zebulon
Pike began his famous western expedition from Fort Belle Fountaine,
near St. Louis, Missouri. Pike was the US Army officer who in 1805
led an exploring party in search of the source of the Mississippi
River.
(HN, 7/15/99)(MC, 7/15/02)
1813 Jul 15, Napoleon
Bonaparte's representatives met with the Allies in Prague to discuss
peace terms.
(HN, 7/15/98)
1815 Jul 15, Napoleon Bonaparte
was captured by the British Navy at Rochefort, France, while
attempting to escape to America.
(ON, 4/06,
p.5)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleon)
1830 Jul 15, 3 Indian tribes,
Sioux, Sauk & Fox, signed a treaty giving the US most of
Minnesota, Iowa & Missouri.
(MC, 7/15/02)
1834 Jul 15, Lord Napier of
England arrived at Macao, China as the first chief superintendent of
trade.
(HN, 7/15/98)
1836 Jul 15, William Winter,
drama critic and essayist for The New York Times, was born.
(HN, 7/15/98)
1850 Jul 15, Mother Francis
Xavier Cabrini, the first American canonized saint, was born.
(HN, 7/15/98)
1855 Jul 15, In San Francisco
St. Ignatius Church on Market St. was dedicated by Archbishop
Alemany. The simple wood and plaster structure cost $4,000. Anthony
Maraschi, SJ, soon began construction for a school and residence.
(GenIV, Winter 04/05)
1857 Jul 15, British women and
children were murdered in the second Cawnpore Massacre during the
Indian Mutiny.
(HN, 7/15/98)
1857 Jul 15, Carl Czerny (66),
Austrian pianist, composer, died.
(MC, 7/15/02)
1862 Jul 15, Lt. Isaac Brown
took the Confederate ironclad C.S.S. Arkansas into the Mississippi
River and engaged 3 Union ships near Vicksburg. The CSS Arkansas vs.
USS Carondelet and Queen of the West engaged at Yazoo River.
(ON, 10/02, p.12)(MC, 7/15/02)
1863 Jul 15, Confederate raider
Bill Anderson and his Bushwackers attacked Huntsville, Missouri,
stealing $45,000 from the local bank.
(HN, 7/15/99)
1868 Jul 15, William Thomas
Morton (b.1819), dentist, died in NYC. He was responsible for the
first successful public demonstration of ether as an inhalation
anesthetic. Morton's accomplishment was the key factor to the
medical and scientific pursuit that we now refer to as
anesthesiology.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Thomas_Green_Morton)
1868 Jul 15, The Torrent sank
in Alaska’s Cook Inlet after tidal currents, among the world's most
powerful, rammed it into a reef south of the Kenai Peninsula. About
130 Army soldiers had come north on the Torrent to build the first
US military fort in south-central Alaska. About 20 sailors and 15 of
the soldiers wives and children were also on board. All 155 people
on board survived. Remnants of the wreckage were found in 2007.
(AP,
10/8/07)(www.adn.com/life/story/9364436p-9278126c.html)
1869 Jul 15, Margarine was
patented by Hippolye Mega-Mouriss for use by French Navy.
(MC, 7/15/02)
1870 Jul 15, Georgia became the
last of the Confederate states to be admitted to the Union.
(AP, 7/15/97)
1870 Jul 15, Manitoba entered
confederation as the fifth Canadian province.
(AP, 7/15/07)
1883 Jul 15, Tom Thumb (44),
famous small person (40"), died of a stroke.
(MC, 7/15/02)
1895 Jul 15, Ex-prime minister
of Bulgaria Stephen Stambulov was murdered by Macedonian rebels.
(HN, 7/15/98)
1895 Jul 15, Stephen Stambulov,
ex-prime minister of Bulgaria was murdered by Macedonian rebels.
(HN, 7/15/98)
1897 Jul 15, The gold-laden
ship Excelsior from Alaska landed in San Francisco. Seattle mayor
W.D. Wood was visiting and immediately resigned his job, hired a
ship, and organized an expedition from SF to the Yukon territory.
(WSJ, 7/17/97, p.A20)
1897 Jul 15, W. Sheldon of NY
patented a seed counter for retail seed sales.
(SFC, 4/13/05, p.G4)
1901 Jul 15, Over 74,000
Pittsburgh steel workers went on strike.
(HN, 7/15/98)
1904 Jul 15, Dorothy Fields,
songwriter, was born.
(HN, 7/15/01)
1904 Jul 15, Anton Pavlovich
Chekhov (44), Russian writer (Uncle Vanya), died of tuberculosis.
Chekhov wrote his play "The Cherry Orchard" in this year. In 1998
Donald Rayfield published "Anton Chekhov: A Life." An assay of his
plays was written by Maurice Vallency: "The Breaking string."
Vladimir Nabokov examined his short stories in "Lectures on Russian
Literature." In 1988 V.S. Pritchett wrote a biography. In 1998
Philip Callow published "Chekhov: The Hidden Ground," and Donald
Rayfield published "Anton Chekhov: A Life." In 1999 Peter
Constantine translated and published "Undiscovered Chekhov:
Thirty-Eight New Stories."
(WUD, 1994, p.252)(WSJ, 11/5/97, p.A20)(WSJ,
3/9/98, p.A16)(SFEC, 5/31/98, p.8)(SFEC, 2/14/99, BR p.6)(MC,
7/15/02)
1906 Jul 15, Richard W. Armour,
humorist, author of "Twisted Tales from Shakespeare," was born.
(HN, 7/15/98)
1907 Jul 15, The London
Electrobus Company began picking up passengers in the world’s
biggest trials of battery-powered buses. The service collapsed in
1909. It suffered from an investment scam led by Baron de Martigny,
a Canadian music-hall artist, the front man for Edward Lehwess, a
German lawyer and con-artist. In 1906 Lehwess had sold the company a
worthless patent that caused investors to demand the return of some
80,000 pounds.
(Econ, 9/8/07, TQ p.10)
1912 Jul 15, British National
Health Insurance Act went into effect.
(MC, 7/15/02)
1913 Jul 15, Hammond Innes,
English novelist, was born.
(HN, 7/15/01)
1914 Jul 15, Gavin Maxwell,
Scottish writer and naturalist (Ring of Bright Water), was born.
(HN, 7/15/01)
1914 Jul 15, Mexican president
Huerta fled with 2 million pesos to Europe.
(MC, 7/15/02)
1916 Jul 15, The Boeing Co.,
originally known as Pacific Aero Products, was founded in Seattle by
William Boeing.
(AP, 7/15/97)
1917 Jul 15, Robert Conquest,
English author (Back to Life), was born.
(MC, 7/15/02)
1918 Jul 15, The Second Battle
of the Marne began during World War I.
(AP, 7/15/97)
1919 Jul 15, Iris Murdoch
(d.1999), philosopher-novelist, was born in Dublin. She wrote 28
novels and in 1998 published "Existentialists and Mystics," a
collection of writings from 1950 to the 1980s. Herein she tried to
"recover the moral dimension of art."
(WSJ, 2/17/98,
p.A20)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iris_Murdoch)(SFC, 2/9/99,
p.A20)
1922 Jul 15, 1st duck-billed
platypus was publicly exhibited in US at a NY zoo.
(MC, 7/15/02)
1929 Jul 15, Hugo Von
Hofmannsthal, playwright, poet, died.
(MC, 7/15/02)
1933 Jul 15, Julian Bream,
guitarist, was born.
(MC, 7/15/02)
1933 Jul 15, Wiley Post began
the 1st solo flight around world.
(MC, 7/15/02)(ON, 12/03, p.12)
1937 Jul 15, Japanese attacked
the Marco Polo Bridge and invaded China.
(MC, 7/15/02)
1941 Jul 15, Florey and Heatley
presented freeze dried mold cultures (Penicillin).
(MC, 7/15/02)
1942 Jul 15, The first supply
flight from India to China over the 'Hump' was flown to help China's
war effort.
(HN, 7/15/99)
1944 Jul 15, In Amsterdam Anne
Frank (1929-1945) entered this in her diary: "In spite of everything
I still believe that people are really good at heart." In 1998 5
additional pages to her diary were reported. She died of typhoid in
the spring of 1945 at the Bergen-Belson concentration camp.
(AP, 8/4/98)(SFC, 8/19/98, p.A16)
1944 Jul 15, Greenwich
Observatory was damaged by German V1 rocket.
(MC, 7/15/02)
1946 Jul 15, Linda Ronstadt
(singer: group: The Stone Poneys: Different Drum; solo: Blue Bayou,
You're No Good, When Will I Be Loved, It's So Easy, Ooh Baby Baby,
Hurt So Bad; actress: Pirates of Penzance), was born in Tucson,
Arizona.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linda_Ronstadt)
1947 Jul 15, Convertibility of
British sterling into US dollars, negotiated as part of a $5 billion
US loan to Britain in 1946, came into effect. It caused an immediate
run on the pound and was abandoned on August 20.
(WSJ, 6/20/08, p.A11)
1948 Jul 15, President Truman
was nominated for another term of office by the Democratic National
Convention in Philadelphia.
(AP, 7/15/97)
1948 Jul 15, John J. Pershing
(87), [Black Jack], US general (Mexico, WW I), died.
(MC, 7/15/02)
1952 Jul 15, Jesse Ventura,
[James Janos], wrestler, actor, politician (MN Governor), was born.
(MC, 7/15/02)
1953 Jul 15, Jean-Bertrand
Aristide, president of Haiti (1991, 1994-1995 ), was born.
(MC, 7/15/02)
1953 Jul 15, Eugenio Balzan
(b.1874), Italian journalist, died in Lugano. In 1933 he moved to
Switzerland, living in Zurich and Lugano, where he invested his
fortune with success. He left a substantial inheritance to his
daughter Angela Lina Balzan (1892–1956), who at the time was
suffering an incurable disease. Before her death, she left
instructions for a foundation, the Balzan Prize Foundation. Since
then it has two headquarters, the Prize administered from Milan, the
Fund from Zurich.
(AP, 9/6/10)(www.balzan.org/en/history_1698.html)
1954 Jul 15, The Boeing “Dash
80,” a prototype of the 707, made its first test flight.
(NPub, 2002, p.17)
1957 Jul 15, James M. Cox
(b.1870), 3-time Ohio governor and founder of Cox Enterprises, died.
Cox was defeated in the 1920 Presidential Election by fellow Ohioan
Senator Warren G. Harding of Marion, Ohio. He left his family a
business that included broadcast properties and a string of
newspapers.
(WSJ, 6/2/07,
p.A5)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_M._Cox)
1958 Jul 15, President
Eisenhower ordered 5,000 U.S. Marines to Lebanon, at the request of
that country's president, Camille Chamoun, in the face of a
perceived threat by Muslim rebels; to help end a short-lived civil
war.
(SFEC, 4/13/97, p.T8)(AP, 7/15/98)(HN, 7/15/98)
1960 Jul 15, John F. Kennedy
accepted the Democratic nomination for president of the United
States.
(HN, 7/15/98)
1960 Jul 15, Lawrence Mervil
Tibbett (63), baritone, died after surgery.
(MC, 7/15/02)
1961 Jul 15, Spain accepted
equal rights for men and women.
(MC, 7/15/02)
1964 Jul 15, The Republican
National Convention was held at the Cow Palace in Daly City, Ca. It
elected Barry Goldwater as its presidential candidate. John
Chancellor was ejected from the convention for blocking an aisle
during a demonstration by the delegates. Here Goldwater proclaimed
"Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice."
(SFC, 7/13/96, p.A5)(WSJ, 8/5/96, p.A10)(AP,
7/15/97)
1965 Jul 15, US scientists
displayed close-up photographs of the planet Mars taken by "Mariner
Four." It passed over Mars at an altitude of 6,000 feet.
(AP, 7/15/00)
1967 Jul 15, In Alaska a major
blizzard caught 7 climbers high on Mount McKinley (Denali). Five of
12 climbers managed to reach safety, but 7 were caught and froze to
death. In 2007 James M. Tabor’s: “Forever on the Mountain: The Truth
Behind One of Mountaineering's Most Controversial and Mysterious
Disasters,” was published.
(WSJ, 1/17/07, p.D6)
1968 Jul 15, The TV soap opera
“One Life to Live” premiered. Its final episode was scheduled in the
Fall of 2011.
(SFC, 4/15/11,
p.F2)(www.ovguide.com/tv/one_life_to_live.htm)
1968 Jul 15, Commercial air
travel began between US & USSR.
(www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1968/1968%20-%201275.html)
1968 Jul 15, Intel was founded.
Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore had left Fairchild Semiconductor to
form NM Electronics in Mountain View, Ca. In 1997 Tim Jackson
published "Inside Intel: Andrew Grove and the Rise of the World’s
Most Powerful Chip Company." Grove joined Intel in this year and
became its president in 1979. They bought the rights to the name
Intel from Intelco fro $15,000.
(SFEC,10/26/97, BR p.3)(SFEC,12/21/97, p.A2)(SFC,
10/11/00, p.A6)(SFC, 7/16/03, p.B1)
1970 Jul 15, Frederik Lugt
(b.1884), Dutch founder of the Fondation Custodia (1947), died in
Paris. The foundation, which he founded with his wife, kept intact
his collection of Old Master drawings at the Institut Neederlandais,
the Dutch cultural center in Paris.
(Econ, 2/13/10,
p.86)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frits_Lugt)
1971 Jul 15, President Nixon
announced he would visit the People's Republic of China to seek a
"normalization of relations."
(AP, 7/15/97)
1974 Jul 15, A military coup
took place on Cyprus and archbishop-president Makarios fled. Nikos
Giorgiades Sampson (d.2001 at 66) served as president for 8 days
following the military coup that overthrew Archbishop Makarios. PM
Bulent Ecevit ordered Turkish troops to invade Cyprus following the
Greek Cypriot coup.
(www.cyprus-conflict.net/Greek%20v%20Turk%20narr%20-%201974.htm)
1975 Jul 15, Three American
astronauts blasted off aboard an Apollo spaceship hours after two
Soviet cosmonauts were launched aboard a Soyuz spacecraft for a
mission that included a linkup of the two ships in orbit.
(AP, 7/15/97)
1976 Jul 15, School Children in
Chowchilla, CA. were kidnapped by 3 young men, Richard (22) and
James Schoenfeld (24) and Newhall Woods (24). The 26 children were
herded into a moving van that was buried in a quarry near Livermore,
Ca. and held for $5 million ransom. The children escaped after 16
hours and their captors were captured within 2 weeks. The men were
sentenced to life in prison.
(SFC, 7/14/96, Z1 p.1)(AP, 7/15/97)
1976 Jul 15, Indonesia passed a
law providing for annexation of East Timor, which the President of
Indonesia signed on 17 July. East Timor became the 27th province of
the Republic of Indonesia. The act was not recognized by the UN.
(G&M, 1/31/96,
p.A-9)(www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/war/timor-bkg.htm)
1978 Jul 15, President Carter,
in West Germany for an economic summit, presided over a "town
meeting" during which he fielded questions from about 1,000
Berliners.
(AP, 7/15/04)
1978 Jul 15, Bob Dylan
performed before some 200,000 fans at Blackbushe Airport, England,
in the largest open-air concert audience at the time (for a single
artist).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackbushe_Airport)
1979 Jul 15, President Carter
delivered his "malaise" speech in which he lamented what he called a
"crisis of confidence" in America.
(AP, 7/15/97)
1983 Jun 15, The US Supreme
Court struck down state & local restrictions on abortion.
(www.rtl.org/html/hot_topics_html/supreme_court_decisions.html)
1983 Jul 15, In France a bomb
explodes in front of the THY counter at Orly airport. 8 people were
killed and more than sixty injured. A 29 years old Syrian-Armenian
named Varadjian Garbidjian confessed to having planted the bomb. He
admitted that the bomb was intended to have exploded once the plane
was airborne.
(http://armenians-1915.blogspot.com/2006/12/1273-this-month-in-history-armenian.html)
1985 Jul 15, A gaunt-looking
Rock Hudson appeared at a news conference with actress Doris Day to
promote her cable television program. It was later revealed Hudson
was suffering from AIDS.
(AP, 7/15/99)
1987 Jul 15, Former National
Security Adviser John Poindexter testified at the Iran-Contra
hearings that he had never told President Reagan about using Iranian
arms sales money for the Contras in order to protect the president
from possible political embarrassment.
(AP, 7/15/97)
1987 Jul 15, Izzatullah Wasifi
(29) was arrested at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas for selling 650
grams (23 ounces) of heroin. Prosecutors said the drugs were worth
$2 million on the street. Wasifi served three years and eight months
in prison before winning parole. In 2007 Wasifi, a long time friend
of Afghan Pres. Hamid Karzai, was appointed as general-director of
Afghanistan’s General Independent Administration of Anti-Corruption
and Bribery.
(AP, 3/9/07)
1987 Jul 15, In South Africa
Ashley Kriel, an anti-apartheid activist was killed. Police officer
Jeffrey Benzien later confessed to the killing and was absolved by
the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 1999.
(SFC, 2/19/99,
p.B12)(www.doj.gov.za/trc/decisions/1999/99_benzien.html)
1987 Jul 15, Taiwan ended 37
years of martial law.
(www.gio.gov.tw/taiwan-website/5-gp/rights/politics_01.htm)
1988 Jul 15, The leadership of
the Teamsters Union chose William J. McCarthy to fill out the
remaining term of the late Jackie Presser as president, narrowly
rejecting Secretary-Treasurer Weldon Mathis, Presser's hand-picked
successor.
(AP, 7/15/98)
1989 Jul 15, Leaders of the
seven major industrial democracies, meeting in Paris, voiced support
for democracy behind the Iron Curtain and condemned repression in
China.
(AP, 7/15/99)
1990 Jul 15, Soviet President
Mikhail S. Gorbachev and visiting West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl
held talks on the issue of a united Germany’s membership in NATO.
(AP, 7/15/00)
1990 Jul 15, East Germany
opened its borders fully to Jews from the former Soviet republics.
(Econ, 5/7/05, p.48)
1990 Jul 15, Tens of thousands
of people marched in Moscow to protest the Communist Party’s control
of the government, the army and the KGB.
(AP, 7/15/00)
1991 Jul 15, Group of Seven
leaders opened their 17th annual economic summit in London, plunging
into debate over aid to the Soviet Union.
(AP, 7/15/01)
1991 Jul 15, Actor and
game-show host Bernard Whalen Convy (57) died in Los Angeles, Ca.,
of a brain tumor. Early in his career, Convy was a member of a
singing trio named the Cheers. Their “Black Denim Trousers” was a
top-ten hit (1955). He was born July 23, 1933 in St. Louis,
Missouri.
(www.imdb.com/name/nm0176622/)
1992 Jul 15, Arkansas Gov. Bill
Clinton claimed the Democratic presidential nomination at the
party's convention in New York City.
(AP, 7/15/97)
1993 Jul 15, Authorities in Los
Angeles announced eight arrests in connection with an alleged plot
by white supremacists to ignite a race war by bombing a black church
and killing prominent black Americans. Christopher Fisher, leader of
the Fourth Reich Skinheads, was later sentenced to more than 8 years
in federal prison while defendant Carl Daniel Boese was sentenced to
nearly 5 years in prison; both had pleaded guilty to arson and
conspiracy charges.
(AP, 7/15/03)
1994 Jul 15, During a baseball
game between the Cleveland Indians and the Chicago White Sox in
Chicago's Comiskey Park, umpire Dave Phillips ordered the bat of
Albert Belle of the Indians to be removed from the game for later
examination for illegal cork. The bat was then stolen by pitcher
Jason Grimsley, who crawled through air ducts to take it. The
Indians won the game 3-2 and later returned the bat under umpire
threats and Belle was given a 10-game suspension that was reduced to
7 games.
(SFEC, 4/11/99, p.A3)
1994 Jul 15, Microsoft Corp.
reached a settlement with the Justice Department, promising to end
practices it used to corner the market for personal computer
software programs. In a consent decree with the Justice Dept.
Microsoft agreed to change contracts with PC makers and other
software companies ending the government's antitrust investigation.
(AP, 7/15/99)(WSJ, 4/4/00, p.A16)
1995 Jul 15, A 19-year-old
sales clerk was rescued after being buried in the rubble of a
collapsed shopping mall in Seoul, South Korea, for 16 days.
(AP, 7/15/00)
1996 Jul 15, Republican
presidential candidate Bob Dole picked New York congresswoman Susan
Molinari to deliver the keynote address at the upcoming GOP
convention.
(AP, 7/15/97)
1996 Jul 15, Arkansas Gov. Guy
Tucker stepped down following a felony conviction in the Whitewater
scandal. Lt. Gov. Mike Huckabee became governor.
(WSJ, 1/2/97, p.R2)(Econ, 2/3/07, p.33)
1996 Jul 15, The stock market
took a tumble. The Nasdaq index dropped 43.11 points, its 2nd
largest decline since 10/19/87 when it dropped 46.12 points.
(SFC, 7/16/96, p.A1)
1996 Jul 15 MSNBC, a 24-hour
all-news network, made its debut on cable and the Internet.
(AP, 7/15/97)
1996 Jul 15, An Algerian court
sentenced 128 Muslim militants to death in absentia for their
involvement in guerilla activities. Another 67 were sentenced in
absentia to life imprisonment.
(SFC, 7/16/96, p.A7)
1996 Jul 15, A Belgian plane,
Lockheed C-130, crashed during landing in the Netherlands and killed
32 people.
(WSJ, 7/16/96, p.A1)
1996 Jul 15, In India 58 Hindu
pilgrims died in stampedes during religious festivals at Ujjain, 465
miles south of New Delhi, and Hardwar, 125 miles north.
(WSJ, 7/16/96, p.A1)
1996 Jul 15, In
Israel/Palestine 135,000 Jewish settlers live in the West Bank and
5,000 live in Gaza. About 160,000 Israelis live in east Jerusalem,
captured from Jordan in 1967 and then annexed. New settlements were
being planned.
(SFC, 7/15/96, p.A10)
1996 Jul 15, In Nicaragua 6
soldiers were killed and one injured in an ambush in central
Matagalpa province.
(SFC, 7/16/96, p.A7)
1997 Jul 15, Marine biologists
diving from the Johnson Sea Link in the Gulf of Mexico discovered
what appeared to be a new species of worm of the family polychaetes.
The worms lived on top of frozen mounds of gas hydrates.
(SFC, 7/30/97, p.A11)
1997 Jul 15, Gianni Versace,
Italian fashion designer, was shot to death outside his home in
Miami Beach, Fla. Police searched for Andrew Philip Cunanan, 27, of
San Diego as the primary suspect. Suspected serial killer Andrew
Phillip Cunanan, was found dead eight days later. In 1999 Maureen
Orth authored "Vulgar Favors: Andrew Cunanan, Gianni Versace and the
Largest Failed Manhunt in US History."
(SFC, 7/17/97, p.A1)(AP, 7/15/98)(SFEC, 3/28/99,
p.D9)
1997 Jul 15, In Algeria Abassi
Madani, former leader of the Islamic Salvation Front, was released
after serving 5 years of a 12 year sentence.
(SFC, 7/16/97, p.C12)
1997 Jul 15, In Algeria a court
condemned 24 Muslim militants to death for their involvement in
guerrilla activities.
(SFC, 7/16/97, p.A10)
1997 Jul 15-1997 Jul 20, In
Colombia a right-wing death squad under Carlos Castano killed at
least 49 suspected guerrilla sympathizers in Mapiripan, Meta
province. In 1998 2 army sergeants, Juan Carlos Gamarra and Jose
Miller Urena, were linked to the massacre. In 2001 Gen. Jaime
Humberto Uscategui was given a 40-month sentence for failing to
defend the town. In 2009 a court convicted Uscategui of murder and
sentenced him to 40 years in prison for his role in the notorious
massacre.
(SFC, 2/14/98, p.A8)(SFC, 7/11/98, p.A11)(SFC,
2/14/01, p.A16)(http://tinyurl.com/coyuh)(AP, 11/26/09)
1997 Jul 15, The Czech trade
deficit was labeled as the largest in the world relative to its
economy.
(SFC, 7/16/97, p.A1)
1997 Jul 15, In Liberia pres.
candidate Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf (58), a banker and UN official, led
a women’s solidarity march. She had recently emerged as the leading
rival of warlord Charles Taylor.
(SFC, 7/16/97, p.A9)(SFC, 7/19/97, p.A9)
1997 Jul 15, In Northern
Ireland pro-British militants shot and killed Bernadette Martin
while she slept beside her Protestant boyfriend.
(SFEC,10/26/97, p.A20)
1997 Jul 15, In Serbia Slobodan
Milosevic was elected president of the Yugoslav federation in a vote
that opposition parties said was illegal.
(SFC, 7/16/97, p.C12)
1997 Jul 15, Eastern Slavonia
was scheduled to be handed over to Croatian authorities. It had been
seized by the Serbs in 1991. [see Jan 15, 1998]
(SFC, 1/22/96, p.C1)
1998 Jul 15, The Congressional
Budget Office estimated federal surpluses of $1.55 trillion over the
next decade.
(AP, 7/15/99)
1998 Jul 15, Direct flights
between the US and Cuba resumed after 2 years. US authorities
expanded a "security zone" to include most of the Florida coast to
prevent anti-Castro protestors from entering Cuban waters.
(SFC, 7/16/98, p.A10)
1998 cJul 15, Richard Butler,
chief of UNSCOM, ordered Scott Ritter in mid-July to place a
listening device in Baghdad to enable the Americans to eavesdrop on
Saddam Hussein.
(SFEC, 1/10/99, p.A24)
1998 Jul 15, A letter,
supposedly written by Jo Byong Ho, a North Korean official, was said
to be addressed to Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan. It
said that the chief of the Pakistani Army, Gen. Jehangir Karamat,
had been paid $3 million and asked that “agreed documents and
components” be placed on a North Korean plane after delivering
missile parts to Pakistan. The evidence suggested that Pakistan’s
top military officials were involved in the secret sale of equipment
to North Korea that enabled it to begin enriching uranium.
(SFC, 7/8/11, p.A4)
1998 Jul 15, Three days of
ceremonies to bury Russia's last czar and his family, who were
killed by the Bolsheviks, began in the city of Yekaterinburg.
(AP, 7/15/99)
1998 Jul 15, Sudanese rebels
declared a 3 month cease fire to allow food shipments to reach
hundreds of thousands hungry people in the southwest.
(WSJ, 7/16/98, p.A1)
1998 Jul 15, It was reported
that Sweden’s highest administrative court ruled that anyone can
read “sacred documents” of the Church of Scientology. 150
confidential pages of the “sacred documents” were restricted to only
some 350 of 8 million Scientologists. Copies were given to the
Swedish parliament by a Church enemy and made public. Scientology
asserts, and the US agrees, that copyright was violated. The case
may wind up in the European Court of Justice.
(SFC, 7/15/98, p.A8)(http://tinyurl.com/oq3lr)
1999 Jul 15, The Seattle
Mariners played their first game in their new home, Safeco Field,
losing to the San Diego Padres, 3-to-2.
(AP, 7/15/00)
1999 Jul 15, The Clinton
administration conceded that workers exposed to beryllium deserved
compensation for induced beryllium disease. Some 26,000 workers had
been exposed over the last 50 years and there were an estimated 500
to 1000 cases of the disease.
(SFC, 7/16/99, p.A5)
1999 Jul 15, The US House voted
to give Congress a pay raise of $4,600 in January and to double the
next president's salary to $400,000.
(WSJ, 7/16/99, p.A1)
1999 Jul 15, The Religious
Liberty Protection Act was signed by 107 House Democrats and 199
Republicans. It said local and state officials must bend their rules
to accommodate religious claims.
(SFC, 8/14/99, p.C14)
1999 Jul 15, Pres. Clinton met
with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak for the beginning of 5 days
of talks.
(SFC, 7/16/99, p.A10)
1999 Jul 15, In Indonesia final
election results showed Megawati's PDI-P party winning 34% of 122
million votes with Golgar at 22%.
(SFC, 7/16/99, p.A10)
2000 Jul 15, Lennox Lewis
stopped Francois Botha at 2:39 of the second round to retain his WBC
and IBF heavyweight titles in London.
(AP, 7/15/01)
2000 Jul 15, Former Rhode
Island governor and longtime US senator John O. Pastore died at age
93.
(AP, 7/15/01)
2000 Jul 15, From China it was
reported that an attack force of 700,000 ducks and chickens, trained
to hunt and eat insects at the sound of a whistle, were placed in
the locust-plagued fields of Xinjiang province.
(SFC, 7/15/00, p.A24)
2000 Jul 15, In Colombia 13
police officers were executed by rebels following their surrender to
a missile attack in Roncesvalles.
(SFC, 7/17/00, p.A13)
2000 Jul 15, Iran test-fired an
upgraded version of its 800-mil range, Shabab-3 missile.
(SFEC, 7/16/00, p.B9)
2000 Jul 15, In Sierra Leone UN
troops freed 222 Indian peacekeepers and 11 military observers held
by rebels since May 1. One Indian peacekeeper was killed and 7
others injured.
(SFEC, 7/16/00, p.B9)(SFC, 7/18/00, p.A12)
2001 Jul 15, In Bangladesh PM
Sheikh Hasina left office. Pres. Shahabuddin Ahmad appointed Latifur
Rahman to head a caretaker administration. At least 4 people were
killed in street clashes.
(SFC, 7/16/01, p.A9)
2001 Jul 15, China's President
Jiang Zemin arrived in Russia to sign a friendship treaty, the first
between the former Communist rivals in more than 50 years.
(SFC, 7/16/01, p.A9)(AP, 7/14/02)
2001 Jul 15, In Colombia FARC
guerrillas kidnapped Alam Jara, former governor of Meta state.
(SFC, 7/17/01, p.A7)
2001 Jul 15, In Israel PM
Sharon and his Cabinet decided to build new towns in the Halutza
Sands region of the Negev Desert. Shimon Peres met with Arafat in
Cairo and a gun battle in Hebron left 20 Palestinians wounded.
(SFC, 7/16/01, p.A8)
2001 Jul 15, Gen. Pervez
Musharraf of Pakistan met with PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee and talked on
issues including, Kashmir, trade, terrorism and nuclear safeguards.
They also agreed to continue discussions for a 2nd day.
(SFC, 7/16/01, p.A12)
2001 Jul 15, In South Korea
landslides and flooding killed at least 40 people.
(SFC, 7/16/01, p.A9)
2002 Jul 15, The US Senate
voted 97-0 for a bill to crack down on corporate accounting
abuses.
(WSJ, 7/16/02, p.A1)
2002 Jul 15, John Walker Lindh
agreed to serve 20 years in prison for fighting in Afghanistan in a
plea bargain with the government. He was sentenced to 20 years in
prison on Oct 4.
(WSJ, 7/16/02, p.A1)(SFC, 10/5/02, p.A1)
2002 Jul 15, A federal agency
approved Navy plans for a sonar system to search out enemy
submarines despite potential injury to whales and dolphins.
(SFC, 7/16/02, p.A1)
2002 Jul 15, In Stanton, Ca.,
Samantha Runnion (5) was kidnapped. Her body was found the next day
in Riverside county. An autopsy revealed that she had been sexually
abused and died from a crushed abdomen. A sample of DNA was also
found under her fingernail. On July 19 police arrested Alejandro
Avila (27), previously acquitted for child molestation. In 2005
Avila was convicted of kidnapping, murder and sexual assault. On May
16 a jury called for the death penalty. He was sentenced to death on
July 22.
(SFC, 7/17/02, p.A2)(SFC, 7/20/02, p.A1)(SFC,
4/29/05, p.A4)(SFC, 5/17/05, p.B8)(SFC, 7/23/05,
p.B7)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samantha_Runnion)
2002 Jul 15, A Canadian
National freight train derailed and caught fire near Allenton,
Wisc., and 34 of 107 cars jumped the tracks.
(SFC, 7/16/02, p.A4)
2002 Jul 15, Osama bin Laden is
alive and planning another attack on the United States, said an Arab
journalist with close ties to the militant's associates.
(Reuters, 7/15/02)
2002 Jul 15, Pfizer Corp.
agreed to buy Pharmacia Corp. for stock valued at $60 billion.
(WSJ, 7/15/02, p.A1)
2002 Jul 15, In Mexico farmers
ended their protest of a proposed new airport for Mexico City and
released 19 hostages after the government promised to reconsider
construction terms.
(SFC, 7/16/02, p.A5)
2002 Jul 15, In Nigeria women
occupying a ChevronTexaco oil terminal agreed to end their eight-day
siege after the company offered to hire at least 25 villagers and to
build schools, electrical and water systems.
(AP, 7/15/02)
2002 Jul 15, A court in
Pakistan sentenced British-born Islamic militant Sheikh Ahmed Omar
Saeed to death for the kidnap and murder of U.S. reporter Daniel
Pearl, drawing a threat of reprisals and calls for Muslims to
respond. A Pakistani judge convicted four Islamic militants in the
kidnap-slaying of Wall Street Journal correspondent Daniel Pearl.
(Reuters, 7/15/02)(SFC, 7/15/02, p.A1)(AP,
7/15/03)
2002 Jul 15, Nationwide
demonstrations in Paraguay called for the ouster of Pres. Luis
Gonzalez Macchi, who imposed a state of emergency.
(SFC, 7/16/02, p.A4)(SFC, 7/17/02, p.A9)
2002 Jul 15, Philippine gunmen
shot dead four supporters of candidates as Filipinos voted in local
community elections after a bloody campaign that left scores of
people dead. The 90 day election campaign left 71 people dead.
(Reuters, 7/15/02)
2003 Jul 15, The American
League beat the National League in the All-Star Game 7-6.
(AP, 7/15/04)
2003 Jul 15, Scott McClellan
assumed his duties as White House press secretary.
(AP, 7/15/04)
2003 Jul 15, The Bush
administration reported that this year's deficit will reach $445
billion. The Bush administration dramatically raised its budget
deficit projections to $455 billion for the current fiscal year and
$475 billion for the next, record levels fed by the limp economy,
tax cuts and the battle against terrorism.
(SFC, 7/16/03, p.A1)(AP, 7/15/04)
2003 Jul 15, Tex Schramm (83),
who turned the Dallas Cowboys into "America's Team," died in Dallas.
(AP, 7/15/04)
2003 Jul 15, Elisabeth Welch
(99), American-born singer, died in London.
(AP, 7/15/04)
2003 Jul 15, Four US crew
members were killed in a fiery crash of a Navy helicopter in Italy.
(AP, 7/16/03)
2003 Jul 15, Chad began pumping
oil to Cameroon, part of a project to help alleviate crushing
poverty in the two countries. The 4.2 billion project was funded by
the World Bank on the condition that the oil money be used for
development. Pres. Idris Deby later diverted the money to the
general budget and for weapons.
(AP, 7/16/03)(SFC, 12/21/07, p.A31)
2003 Jul 15, Roberto Bolano
(b.1953), Chilean author, died in Spain. His novel “2666” was
published posthumously in 2006. In 2007 his novel “The Savage
Detectives” (1998) was made available in English.
(www.absoluteastronomy.com/enc3/roberto_bola%C3%B1o)(SSFC, 4/1/07,
p.M1)
2003 Jul 15, The Colombian
government and right-wing paramilitary fighters agreed to begin
peace talks.
(AP, 7/16/03)
2003 Jul 15, In India health
officials reported that mosquito-borne encephalitis had killed at
least 110 children in Andhra Pradesh over the last 6 weeks.
(WSJ, 7/16/03, p.A1)
2003 Jul 15, Montserrat's
governor declared the Caribbean island a disaster zone, days after a
volcanic eruption spewed clouds of rock and ash over the British
territory.
(AP, 7/16/03)
2003 Jul 15, Officials reported
that Syrian troops had begun dismantling bases in Lebanon.
(SFC, 7/16/03, p.A3)
2004 Jul 15, President Bush
signed into law a measure imposing mandatory prison terms for
criminals who use identity theft in committing terrorist acts and
other offenses.
(AP, 7/15/05)
2004 Jul 15, The Senate
approved a plan to pay tobacco farmers $12 billion to give up
federal quotas propping up their prices.
(AP, 7/15/05)
2004 Jul 15, The new $650
million, 4.4-mile Las Vegas Monorail began operations with stops at
7 stations between Sahara and Tropicana avenues.
(SSFC, 7/25/04, p.D2)
2004 Jul 15, Scientists
reported that excess carbon dioxide spilled into the air by humans
over the past 2 centuries has been taken up by the oceans. They
warned that a continuation of this process could damage the ability
of ocean creatures to make their shells.
(SFC, 7/16/04, p.A4)
2004 Jul 15, The Gates
Foundation announced a $44.7 million award at the AIDS Conference in
Bangkok to a consortium of TB and AIDS researchers. The 2 diseases
were often linked. A UN report cited 7 countries as the hardest hit
by the AIDS pandemic: Zimbabwe, Swaziland, Lesotho, Zambia, Malawi,
the Central African Republic and Mozambique.
(WSJ, 7/15/04, p.B1)(SFC, 7/16/04, p.A6)
2004 Jul 15, Retired Air Force
Gen. Charles W. Sweeney, who piloted the plane that dropped the
atomic bomb on Nagasaki in the final days of World War II, died in
Boston at age 84.
(AP, 7/15/05)
2004 Jul 15, In Kumbakonam,
southern India, a short circuit ignited a thatched roof and fire
raged through the Lord Krishna Middle School, killing 94 children
and injuring more than 100. The children were trapped inside a
locked building. In 2006 an inquiry commission found that a mixture
of avarice, dishonesty and a blatant disregard of safety standards
caused the devastating fire.
(AP, 7/17/04)(SFC, 7/17/04, p.A3)(Reuters,
9/4/06)
2004 Jul 15, In Iraq attackers
detonated a car bomb near police and government buildings in the
western city of Haditha, killing 10 people. PM Alawi announced the
formation of a new national security agency to fight the insurgency.
(AP, 7/15/04)(SFC, 7/16/04, p.A12)
2004 Jul 15, Israel said it
will spend $11.1 million to change completed portions of its West
Bank barrier, building new roads, underpasses and tunnels to try to
ease Palestinian conditions.
(AP, 7/15/04)
2004 Jul 15, In western Nepal
11 suspected Maoist rebels including two local leaders were killed
in armed clashes with security forces.
(AFP, 7/15/04)
2004 Jul 15, In Tanzania the
International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) sentenced former
finance minister Emmanuel Ndindabahizi to life imprisonment for his
role in the east African country's 1994 genocide.
(AP, 7/15/04)
2004 Jul 15, Thailand officials
said avian flu had been detected in 10 of its 76 provinces.
(SFC, 7/16/04, p.A3)
2005 Jul 15, A US federal
appeals court ruled that a Guantanamo detainee who once was Osama
bin Laden's driver could be tried by military tribunal. However, the
Supreme Court in June 2006 struck down the tribunals, saying they
violated U.S. and international law.
(AP, 7/15/06)
2005 Jul 15, In SF District
Court federal prosecutors in the BALCO case dropped 40 of 42
indictments against 3 men accused of providing performance-enhancing
drugs to elite athletes.
(SFC, 7/16/05, p.A1)
2005 Jul 15, Bankrupt Enron
Corp. agreed to pay up to 1.52 billion dollars to settle charges of
market manipulation during the energy crisis that hit California and
other western US states in 2000 and 2001.
(AFP, 7/16/05)
2005 Jul 15, California Gov.
Schwarzenegger said he would quit his 2nd job as editor of two
bodybuilding magazines following criticism of the lucrative
moonlighting. Following this he soon severed ties with the Arnold
Classic, a premier bodybuilding event.
(SFC, 7/15/05, p.A1)(SFC, 7/23/05, p.A1)
2005 Jul 15, Suspected Taliban
gunmen kidnapped and hanged a pro-government tribal leader in
southern Afghanistan. Agha Jan was kidnapped the previous day with
his two sons, brother and two nephews from his home in southern
Zabul province. The relatives were released unharmed. Suspected
Taliban fighters raided a police post in southern Afghanistan,
killing 7 policemen and losing 5 of their own men.
(AP, 7/15/05)(AP, 7/16/05)
2005 Jul 15, Officials said
heavy rains and flash floods have killed 20 people and inundated
tens of thousands of homes in Bulgaria and Romania.
(AP, 7/15/05)
2005 Jul 15, An official said
police in Egypt said they had arrested Magdy el-Nashar (33), an
Egyptian biochemist, sought in the probe of the London bombings. He
was taken into custody upon his arrival in Cairo from abroad.
(AP, 7/15/05)
2005 Jul 15, Hurricane Emily
blew over Grenada and gathered force in the eastern Caribbean with
winds of 135 mph. At least one person was killed.
(AP, 7/15/05)
2005 Jul 15, In India hardline
Hindu activists broke the windows of a cinema, burned posters and
shouted "traitor" in protests against leading actor Salman Khan who
Indian media said had boasted of links with the underworld.
(Reuters, 7/15/05)
2005 Jul 15, Indonesian
authorities said 3 people had died of suspected bird flu in the last
10 days. They had no contact with poultry and raised concern over
human-to-human transmission. A small farm nearby was hit by the
virus a few months earlier. This raised the regionwide deaths from
bird flu to 57, mostly in Thailand and Vietnam
(WSJ, 7/18/05, p.A10)(WSJ, 7/22/05, p.A10)
2005 Jul 15, In Iraq a frenzy
of attacks killed at least 30 people in 12 suicide bombings. 2 US
Marines were killed in a roadside bombing near the Jordanian border.
A suicide car bomb exploded on a bridge overlooking the home of
President Jalal Talabani, killing three of his guards. In Nasiriyah,
judge Nurredin Ahmed, a Kurd from the northern oil centre of Kirkuk,
was shot dead at his home. Akram Ahmed Rasul al-Bayati, a major
general in the old regime's disbanded military, and his son Ali, a
policeman, were killed after being arrested by police commandos on
July 10.
(AP, 7/16/05)(AFP, 7/16/05)(SFC, 7/16/05, p.A3)
2005 Jul 15, The Israeli
military launched an airstrike at a van carrying a group of Hamas
militants and a cache of homemade rockets in a Gaza City street,
killing 4 people.
(AP, 7/15/05)
2005 Jul 15, Two Japanese
tankers collided in the Pacific Ocean off the central Japan coast,
sparking a blaze that killed one sailor and left five others
missing.
(AP, 7/15/05)
2005 Jul 15, Nepal's king
appointed a dozen loyalists to ministerial jobs.
(AP, 7/15/05)
2005 Jul 15, In Serbia a court
convicted 4 former members of the Avengers, a Serbian paramilitary
force, of abducting 16 Muslims from a bus in October, 1992, and
taking them to Bosnia to be tortured and executed. The men in
custody, Djordje Sevic and Dragutin Dragicevic, got 15 and 20 years
respectively. Two others, Milan Lukic and Oliver Krsmanovic, were on
the run and were tried in absentia, and received 20-year jail terms
(AP, 7/16/05)
2005 Jul 15, In South Africa a
passenger bus plunged down a ravine near the southcentral coast,
killing at least 24 people.
(AP, 7/15/05)
2005 Jul 15, Thailand's
government, reeling from bold attacks by suspected separatists in
the Muslim-dominated south, granted PM Thaksin Shinawatra sweeping
powers to tap phones, directly command security forces and order
curfews.
(AP, 7/15/05)
2006 Jul 15, In a chilly
prelude to a Group of Eight (G8) summit in St. Petersburg, President
Bush blocked Russia's entry into the World Trade Organization.
Russia and the US failed to strike a bilateral deal allowing Russia
to join the WTO but agreed to set a deadline to wrap up talks within
three months.
(AP, 7/15/07)(Reuters, 7/15/06)
2006 Jul 15, US authorities
extradited Jean Succar Kuri, a Mexican businessman with alleged ties
to associates of a powerful state governor, to face charges in
Mexico of child pornography, statutory rape and corruption of
minors.
(AP, 7/16/06)
2006 Jul 15, Robert Wilson
(64), theater and opera director, opened his $12 million Watermill
Center on Long Island, NY. The arts center was setup to host
conferences, student workshops and serve as an intercultural
exchange.
(Econ, 7/22/06, p.82)
2006 Jul 15, Phoenix, Ariz.,
residents were reported to be in fear of 2 serial killers, who have
struck in recent months. Six killings were being attributed to the
"Baseline Killer," whose name refers to the street where he is
believed to have committed his first crimes. The 2nd suspected
predator, dubbed the "Serial Shooter," has been definitively linked
to the Dec. 29 wounding of one man and authorities believe he could
be responsible for a total of five shooting deaths.
(AP, 7/15/06)
2006 Jul 15, The space shuttle
Discovery undocked from the international space station.
(AP, 7/15/07)
2006 Jul 15, More than 40
insurgents were killed as hundreds of coalition troops, many dropped
by helicopter, wrested a desert town from the Taliban and U.S.
forces battled militants across southern Afghanistan.
(AP, 7/16/06)
2006 Jul 15, Arab foreign
ministers held an emergency summit in Cairo over Israel's expanding
assault on Lebanon, the worst Israeli attack on its neighbor in 24
years.
(AP, 7/15/06)
2006 Jul 15, A gas explosion in
a coal mine in Shanxi province killed at least 50 miners in the
Linjiazhuang Coal Mine in Jinzhong. In Hunan province 14 coal miners
were killed after rains burst a dam, flooding the pit and collapsing
buildings above ground at the Shenjiawan Colliery.
(AP, 7/17/06)
2006 Jul 15, Thousands of
Ecuadorian villagers fled their homes on the slopes of the
Tungurahua volcano since it began erupting lava and toxic gases.
(AP, 7/16/06)
2006 Jul 15, GDP for the
Falkland Islands was estimated at $25,000 per head. Fishing licenses
around the Falkland Islands generated some $40 million a year.
Seismic studies indicated a possible 500,000 barrels of oil in the
surrounding waters. Britain insisted that it would not discuss
sovereignty of the islands unless its 3,000 citizens there requested
it.
(Econ, 7/15/06, p.38)
2006 Jul 15, In Haiti thousands
of demonstrators demanding the return of ousted president
Jean-Bertrand Aristide marched to the National Palace, pushing past
riot police in a dramatic show of support for the exiled former
leader.
(AP, 7/16/06)
2006 Jul 15, A Honduras
newspaper quoted a senior military official that the United States
is helping Honduras establish a new military base to combat
international drug trafficking in the northeastern province of
Gracias a Dios.
(AP, 7/15/06)
2006 Jul 15, Police
investigating Bombay's deadly train bombings swept through several
neighborhoods, rounding up more than 300 people for questioning.
(AP, 7/15/06)
2006 Jul 15, Heavy clashes
between Iraqi soldiers and gunmen in downtown Baghdad left 11 people
wounded. Provincial police in Ramadi confirmed that gunmen had
killed a member of the Iraqi Islamic Party. Gunmen kidnapped Ahmed
al-Sammarai, the head of Iraq's Olympic committee, and more than a
dozen employees storming a sports conference in Baghdad. The
kidnappers wore camouflage Iraqi police uniforms and security guards
outside the meeting said they did not interfere because they thought
the gunmen were legitimate law enforcement.
(AP, 7/15/06)(AP, 8/22/08)
2006 Jul 15, Israeli warplanes
pounded Hezbollah's south Beirut stronghold and roads around the
country killing at least 33 people. At least 12 Lebanese villagers,
including women and children, were killed in what appeared to be an
Israeli airstrike on a convoy of vehicles fleeing a village near the
border with Israel in southern Lebanon. Hezbollah expanded its
rocket fire, hitting another of Israel's main cities, and Israel
warned that the guerrillas could strike Tel Aviv. At least 88 people
have died in Lebanon, most of the them civilians, in the four-day
Israeli offensive, sparked by Hezbollah's capture of two Israeli
soldiers. On the Israeli side, at least 15 have been killed, four
civilians and 11 soldiers.
(AP, 7/15/06)(SSFC, 7/16/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 15, Israeli aircraft
fired at least one missile at a house in Gaza City. Palestinian
rescue workers said two Palestinians were killed and many others
wounded. Since the offensive began in Gaza, 86 Palestinians have
been killed, many of them gunmen.
(AP, 7/15/06)
2006 Jul 15, US Middle East
envoy David Welch flew into Tripoli for talks with Libyan officials
on strengthening economic and financial ties between the two
countries.
(AFP, 7/16/06)
2006 Jul 15, A landslide
triggered by monsoon rains swept through a village in northwest
Nepal before dawn, killing at least 17 people as they slept.
(AP, 7/15/06)
2006 Jul 15, In Karachi,
Pakistan, hundreds of youths set fire to a Pizza Hut, two gas
stations and a dozen vehicles after a funeral for an Islamic Shiite
cleric killed in a suicide attack.
(AP, 7/15/06)
2006 Jul 15, In St. Petersburg,
Russia, world leaders tore up a carefully prepared G8 summit agenda
and turned their attention to a growing crisis in the Middle East,
hoping to reach common ground on ways to stop the fighting. About
150 protesters faced off with police as they tried to exercise their
right of assembly.
(AP, 7/15/06)
2006 Jul 15, The UN Security
Council unanimously passed resolution 1718 condemning North Korea's
multiple missile launches on July 5 and imposed limited sanctions; a
defiant North said it would launch more missiles.
(AP, 7/16/07)(Econ, 2/28/09, p.63)
2007 Jul 15, The Los Angeles
Times reported that about 45 percent of all foreign militants
targeting US troops and Iraqi security forces were from Saudi
Arabia, 15 percent from Syria and Lebanon, and 10 percent from North
Africa.
(AFP, 7/15/07)
2007 Jul 15, In SF 2 coyotes, a
male and female, were shot and killed in Golden Gate Park following
recent attacks on leashed dogs.
(SFC, 7/17/07, p.D1)
2007 Jul 15, In Cheyenne,
Wyoming, Robin Munis was shot in the head just after midnight
Saturday as she sang with the classic rock and country group Ty and
the Twisters. Police searched for David Munis (36), a National
Guardsman with sniper training who they suspect shot his wife.
Police located David Munis’ pickup truck the next in rural Albany
County. As they closed in on the suspect and called for him to
surrender, Munis shot himself in the chest. He was flown to Laramie,
Wyoming, where he was pronounced dead on July 18th.
(AP, 7/15/07)(http://tinyurl.com/6669k3)
2007 Jul 15, A roadside bomb
killed six Afghans working for a Western security company in the
east of the country.
(Reuters, 7/15/07)
2007 Jul 15, Antun Gudelj (59),
a Croatian man charged with killing three police officials in the
early days of the 1991 Serb-Croat war, was extradited from Australia
to Croatia to face a new trial after an earlier pardon.
(AP, 7/15/07)
2007 Jul 15, Botswana's
President Festus Mogae (67) announced that he is to stand down next
year after a decade at the helm of the diamond-rich southern African
nation.
(AFP, 7/15/07)
2007 Jul 15, Britain released
without charge 2 suspects in the failed car bomb attacks in London
and Glasgow last month.
(AFP, 7/15/07)
2007 Jul 15, JCDecaux launched
a bike rental system in Paris.
(Econ, 9/22/07, p.76)
2007 Jul 15, A minister said
India's southern coastal Kerala state was reeling from an outbreak
of mosquito-borne Chikungunya viral fever infections that have
claimed 193 lives. Chikungunya, transmitted by the Aedes aegypti
mosquito, was first detected in 1955 in Africa and last year caused
the deaths of some 200 people on the French Indian ocean island of
Reunion. Federal health minister Anbumani Ramadoss told parliament
last year that some 1.1 million Indians were infected with
Chikungunya.
(AFP, 7/16/07)
2007 Jul 15, A car bomb packed
with explosives detonated in a central Baghdad square, killing 10
people and wounding 25. At least 18 other people were killed
including 7 border guards in the northern Kani Khal area and 8 in
shootings in the northern cities of Mosul and Kirkuk and several
areas south of Baghdad. 22 bullet-riddled bodies were found dumped
in various locations of Baghdad, apparently the latest victims of
sectarian violence.
(AP, 7/15/07)(AP, 7/16/07)
2007 Jul 15, Mahmoud Darwish,
the world's most recognized Palestinian poet, delivered a stinging
tirade against Palestinian infighting in his first public appearance
in decades in the Israeli city of Haifa.
(AP, 7/16/07)
2007 Jul 15, Typhoon Man-yi,
one of the most powerful storms to hit Japan in decades, headed away
from Tokyo after leaving four people dead or missing.
(AFP, 7/15/07)
2007 Jul 15, A Libyan
foundation confirmed that families of Libyan children infected with
AIDS have accepted compensation topping 460 million dollars, which
could lead to a death sentence on six foreign medics being lifted.
(AFP, 7/15/07)
2007 Jul 15, Militants holed up
in a Palestinian refugee camp in north Lebanon fired more rockets
that landed in farm fields outside the camp as the army bombarded
suspected hideouts inside the besieged settlement. Politicians from
Lebanon's divided factions held a second day of talks in France to
try to ease 8 months of deadlock.
(AP, 7/15/07)(AFP, 7/15/07)
2007 Jul 15, North Korea
confirmed it has shut its nuclear reactor that provides the
secretive state with material to make weapons-grade plutonium.
(Reuters, 7/15/07)
2007 Jul 15, Militants in
northwest Pakistan disavowed a peace pact with the government.
Suicide attacks and a roadside bomb together killed 44 people and
wounded more than 100.
(AP, 7/15/07)
2007 Jul 15, Marina Pisareva
(47), the deputy head of a small Russian division of German media
company Bertelsmann AG, was found dead at her summer house near
Moscow, possibly stabbed with her own dagger.
(AP, 7/16/07)
2007 Jul 15, Spanish officials
said police investigating a child pornography ring have arrested 66
people and seized computer hard drives containing 48 million
photographs and video images. The nationwide sweep came after a
10-month investigation.
(AP, 7/15/07)
2007 Jul 15, UN and African
Union representatives gathered in Tripoli to evaluate Darfur.
(AP, 7/15/07)
2008 Jul 15, US Federal Reserve
Chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress the fragile economy is facing
"numerous difficulties" including persistent strains in financial
markets, rising joblessness and housing problems — despite the Fed's
aggressive interest rate reductions and other fortifying steps.
(AP, 7/15/08)
2008 Jul 15, The SEC said it
would immediately move to curb improper short selling in Fannie Mae
and Freddie Mac as well as those of 17 financial firms. The move
would be effective July 21 and expire after 30 days. The SEC also
planned to consider extending the requirements to all stocks traded
in the US.
(WSJ, 7/16/08, p.A1)
2008 Jul 15, Mei Ling Chen (46)
of Taiwan was arrested in Sunnyvale, Ca., after customs inspectors
at SF Int’l. Airport found $380,000 in counterfeit $100 bills in a
package of dried seafood.
(SFC, 7/18/08, p.B11)
2008 Jul 15, Robin Long (25), a
US Army deserter who had fled to Canada in 2005, was deported from
British Columbia back to the US.
(SFC, 7/16/08, p.A9)
2008 Jul 15, General Motors
Corp. said it will lay off salaried workers, cut truck production,
suspend its dividend and borrow $2 billion to $3 billion to weather
a severe downturn in the US market.
(AP, 7/15/08)
2008 Jul 15, Volkswagen
announced that it would build a $1 billion car plant in Chattanooga,
Tenn., and expected to open it as soon as 2011.
(WSJ, 7/30/08,
p.C10)(www.youtube.com/watch?v=IiFdSOp19gU)
2008 Jul 15, It was reported
that Hawaii’s Oahu island planned to export some 100,000 tons of
trash a year to the mainland. At current rates its 200-acre
municipal landfill would reach capacity in 15 years. Expanded
recycling and a new boiler were also in the works.
(WSJ, 7/15/08, p.A2)
2008 Jul 15, In California 2
vehicles collided on a bridge and fell into the Delta-Mendota Canal
near Westley. 6 farm workers and a septic truck driver died.
(SFC, 7/16/08, p.B3)(SFC, 7/17/08, p.B2)
2008 Jul 15, Gee Gee Engesser
(b.19126), animal trainer and “Blond Bombshell” of the circus, died
in Florida.
(WSJ, 8/23/08, p.A7)
2008 Jul 15, In Pennsylvania
Betty Schirmer (56) was killed in an apparent car accident. In 2010
her husband, Pastor Arthur Burton Schirmer, was charged with killing
her and staging the car accident. The charge also prompted an
investigation into the suspicious death of his 1st wife, Jewel
Schirmer, in 1999.
(SFC, 9/14/10,
p.A4)(www.delmarvanow.com/article/20100914/NEWS01/100914005)
2008 Jul 15, In southwestern
Afghanistan air strikes against extremist rebels killed 4 women and
5 children as well as several insurgents. NATO pulled soldiers out
of the outpost in Wanat village in northeastern Kunar province,
which militants had breached killing 9 US soldiers.
(AP, 7/16/08)
2008 Jul 15, Tens of thousands
of Argentine farmers and government supporters staged dueling
protests ahead of a Senate vote on a package of grain-export taxes
that generated months of bitter farm strikes.
(AP, 7/15/08)
2008 Jul 15, In Australia the
world's biggest Christian festival opened with a spectacular
harbor-side mass for up to 150,000 pilgrims taking part in World
Youth Day celebrations in Sydney headed by Pope Benedict XVI.
(AP, 7/15/08)
2008 Jul 15, Belgium PM Yves
Leterme offered King Albert the resignation of his government after
he acknowledged he would not make a deadline for a constitutional
reform deal despite months of talks. He offered to resign after
realizing it would be impossible to resolve deep divisions over
increased autonomy for French- and Dutch-speaking Belgians.
(AP, 7/15/08)
2008 Jul 15, Tropical Storm
Bertha headed back out over open ocean and away from the US mainland
after it battered Bermuda, knocking out electricity to thousands on
the Atlantic tourist island. Bertha entered its 13th day becoming
the longest-lived July tropical storm in history.
(AP, 7/15/08)
2008 Jul 15, China voiced
concern over an International Criminal Court prosecutor's decision
to seek an arrest warrant for Sudan's president on charges of
genocide in the African country's war-torn Darfur region.
(AP, 7/15/08)
2008 Jul 15, Croatia adopted a
law that allows Sunday shopping only over the summer and Christmas
holidays. It goes into effect January 1. The law also allows stores
in gas, bus and train stations to open on Sundays year-round, along
with those in hospitals. Bakeries, newsstands and flower shops are
also exempt from the ban.
(AP, 7/16/08)
2008 Jul 15, The EU agreed to
an emergency aid package for its fishing industry to cope with fuel
prices.
(WSJ, 7/17/08, p.A8)
2008 Jul 15, In eastern India
at least 20 members of a wedding party were killed when the jeep
carrying them plunged into a roadside canal outside Patna, the
capital of Bihar state.
(AP, 7/15/08)
2008 Jul 15, Indonesia's
president acknowledged that his country carried out gross human
rights abuses during East Timor's 1999 break for independence, but
stopped short of offering a full apology and said no one would be
prosecuted.
(AP, 7/15/08)
2008 Jul 15, In Iraq 2 suicide
bombers blew themselves up in a crowd of army recruits at the Saad
military camp in Baqouba, where devastating attacks persist despite
security improvements elsewhere. At least 28 people died. In western
Mosul, a bomb near an Iraqi police station killed four Iraqi
civilians. Half an hour later, one Iraqi police officer and seven
civilians died in a suicide car bombing in the east of the city.
Three other bombs in Mosul wounded 15 people. The US military said
it had captured the Iranian-trained leader of an explosives cell in
Baghdad.
(AP, 7/15/08)
2008 Jul 15, Israel's Cabinet
overwhelmingly approved an emotionally charged deal to trade a
Lebanese militant convicted of killing three people for two Israeli
soldiers captured by Hezbollah guerrillas and believed to be dead.
Israeli troops arrested three Hamas council members in a dawn raid
on the West Bank city of Nablus. Witnesses and residents said a
total of 12 Hamas members were arrested.
(AP, 7/15/08)
2008 Jul 15, In Italy a judge
in Venice indicted Saber Fadhil Hussein for plotting a terrorist
attack on US bases in Iraq using ultra-light aircraft.
(SFC, 7/16/08, p.A9)
2008 Jul 15, Fishermen across
Japan went on a massive one-day strike to protest skyrocketing fuel
prices, the latest blow to the country's foundering fishing
industry.
(AP, 7/15/08)
2008 Jul 15, Malaysian police
issued an arrest warrant for opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim in
connection with a sodomy accusation by a male former aide.
(AP, 7/15/08)
2008 Jul 15, In South Korea Won
Jeong-hwa (34) was arrested and later confessed that she was a spy
trained and commissioned by North Korea's intelligence agency. On
Oct 15 she was sentenced to five years in prison for spying.
(AP, 8/27/08)(AP, 10/15/08)
2008 Jul 15, A plan for a
referendum on self-determination in Spain's northern Basque Country
became law in the region, setting the stage for a confrontation with
the government in Madrid which has termed the poll illegal.
(AP, 7/15/08)
2008 Jul 15, In Sri Lanka
fighting reportedly killed a total of 51 rebels and a soldier.
(AP, 7/16/08)
2008 Jul 15, In Switzerland
Hannibal Kadhafi (32), the son of Libya’s leader, was arrested along
with his wife Aline at a luxury hotel in Geneva after the servants,
a Moroccan and a Tunisian, alleged they had been abused by the
couple. The 2-day detention led to reprisals by Libya. Days after
Hannibal Kadhafi’s arrest, Swiss businessmen Max Goeldi and Rachid
Hamdani were detained in Libya on alleged visa violations. The
servants later dropped their legal complaints after receiving some
compensation. In November, 2009, Goeldi and Hamdani were handed over
to the Swiss embassy in Tripoli. Libya then announced that they
would go on trial on accusations of tax evasion and violating
residency laws.
(AP, 9/2/08)(AP, 11/9/09)(AP, 11/12/09)
2008 Jul 15, Taiwan indicted 5
former ministers, who had served under former Pres. Chen Shui-bian,
on corruption charges relating to misuse of special expense
accounts.
(SFC, 7/16/08, p.A15)
2008 Jul 15, Turkey’s military
said aircraft and artillery units had shelled rebel positions in
Sirnak province, killing 22 rebels.
(AP, 7/15/08)
2009 Jul 15, Space shuttle
Endeavour rocketed toward the international space station as
engineers on Earth pored over launch pictures that showed debris
breaking off the fuel tank and striking the craft.
(AP, 7/16/09)
2009 Jul 15, In Alaska Anthony
Rollins, a 13-year decorated Anchorage police officer, was arrested
after being indicted for assaulting multiple women while on duty.
(SFC, 7/16/09, p.A6)
2009 Jul 15, California tax
officials said a bill to tax and regulate marijuana in California
like alcohol would generate nearly $1.4 billion in revenue for the
cash-strapped state.
(AP, 7/16/09)
2009 Jul 15, In Afghanistan at
least 4 civilians were killed and 13 were wounded in a late night
airstrike on the southern village of Shawalikot. 3 police were
killed by a suicide car bomber in Nimroz province, and two Afghan
army soldiers died in two other attacks in the south. NATO forces
killed two insurgents in an attack in the east.
(AP,
7/16/09)(http://news.yahoo.com/s/mcclatchy/20090717/wl_mcclatchy/3274354)
2009 Jul 15, Luxury carmaker
Jaguar, owned by India's Tata Motors, announced it would end
Liverpool production of its X-Type car by the end of the year with
the loss of up to 300 jobs.
(AFP, 7/15/09)
2009 Jul 15, In China the
former head of oil giant Sinopec was sentenced to death after being
found guilty of corrupt practices over many years, but state press
reported that he will likely not be executed. The Beijing court had
found Chen Tonghai guilty of graft amounting to 195.7 million yuan
(28.8 million dollars) when he served in top Sinopec ranks from 1999
to 2007.
(AFP, 7/15/09)
2009 Jul 15, In Egypt the
two-day Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) opened in Sharm-El-Sheik. 50
leaders from the 118-nation grouping of mostly of African, Asian and
Latin American nations gathered for their 15th meeting to address
the world's biggest problems, such as terrorism and financial
instability. Cuba's Pres. Raul Castro called for an international
financial system that better takes into account developing countries
interests.
(AP, 7/15/09)
2009 Jul 15, The EU urged
Canada to restore visa-free travel for Czech visitors, removed by
Ottawa after hundreds of Roma from the central European country
sought asylum.
(Reuters, 7/15/09)
2009 Jul 15, Honduras' interim
government suggested that backers of ousted President Manuel Zelaya
were taking up arms to return him to power and it reinstated an
overnight curfew it had lifted only days earlier.
(AP, 7/16/09)
2009 Jul 15, In Ingushetia
police officials said that the body of Natalya Estemirova (b.1959),
a prominent rights activist, was found not far from the main city of
Nazran, hours after she was kidnapped in Chechnya.
(AP, 7/15/09)(Econ, 7/25/09, p.23)
2009 Jul 15, In Iran a
Russian-made Caspian Airlines TU-154 jet plane carrying nearly 170
people crashed shortly after takeoff from Tehran's Imam Khomeini
International Airport. It was headed to the Armenian capital
Yerevan. All on board were killed.
(AP, 7/15/09)
2009 Jul 15, In Iraq a suicide
bomber killed six people, including an Iraqi policeman, in an attack
on security forces in Ramadi, a former insurgent stronghold in
western Anbar province. A bombing in Sadr City killed 5 people.
(AP, 7/15/09)(SFC, 7/16/09, p.A2)
2009 Jul 15, A court in
Indian-run Kashmir ordered the arrest of four police officers for
allegedly destroying evidence in the rape and murder of two women
that triggered violent protests last month.
(AP, 7/15/09)
2009 Jul 15, In northwest
Pakistan a roadside bomb exploded at a police checkpoint, killing a
paramilitary soldier and a police officer and wounding six policemen
in the Bannu area.
(AP, 7/15/09)
2009 Jul 15, In the Philippines
five employees of a logging company, including a woman, were seized
by eight guerrillas belonging to the Moro Islamic Liberation Front
in Kapai township in Lanao del Sur province. Army troops and police
rescued the victims on July 18 near Kapai without a fire fight.
Basit Kauyag was identified as the leader of the kidnappers.
(AP, 7/19/09)
2009 Jul 15, Mazen Abdul-Jawad
(32), a Saudi man, appeared on the Lebanese-based LBC satellite TV
station’s "Bold Red Line" program and shocked Saudis by publicly
confessing to sexual exploits. More than 200 people soon filed legal
complaints against Abdul-Jawad, dubbed a "sex braggart" by the
media, and many Saudis said he should be severely punished. On July
31 Abdul-Jawad was detained for questioning. The Jiddah offices of
the LBC station were closed soon thereafter.
(AP, 8/6/09)(AP, 8/9/09)
2009 Jul 15, In Turkmenistan
President Gurbanguli Berdymukhamedov led a ceremony for channeling
water across hundreds of miles to create Golden Age Lake in the
heart of the barren Karakum Desert, in a Soviet-style engineering
feat that some experts fear could unleash an environmental
catastrophe.
(AP, 7/16/09)
2009 Jul 15, In Venezuela
National Guard troops seized a police station controlled by a
leading opponent of President Hugo Chavez, sparking clashes between
soldiers and protesters that authorities said injured eight people.
(AP, 7/15/09)
2010 Jul 15, The US Senate
approved a 2,300 page bill for financial overhaul. The House passed
the bill last month and Pres. Obama was expected to sign it into
law.
(SFC, 7/16/10, p.A7)
2010 Jul 15, Hassan Nemazee
(60), a wealthy Manhattan investment banker and former top
Democratic fundraiser, was sentenced to 12 years in prison for
defrauding banks of $292 million, some of which he donated to
politicians including Barack Obama, Hillary Rodham Clinton and Al
Gore.
(AP, 7/15/10)
2010 Jul 15, Goldman Sachs
Group Inc. agreed to pay $550 million and change its business
practices to settle US regulatory claims it misled investors in
collateralized debt obligations linked to subprime mortgages.
(SFC, 7/16/10, p.D1)
2010 Jul 15, Joe Jacob (54),
venture capitalist, and Peter Gruber (68), chairman of Mandalay
Entertainment, led a record $450 million investor group purchase of
the Golden Gate Warriors basketball team based in Oakland, Ca.
(SFC, 7/16/10, p.A13)
2010 Jul 15, BP finally stopped
oil from spewing into the sea, for the first time since an April 20
explosion on the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon oil rig killed 11
workers and unleashed the spill 5,000 feet beneath the water's
surface.
(AP, 7/16/10)
2010 Jul 15, In Afghanistan
police said they have killed a local Taliban commander, identified
as Mullah Dawood, in a gunbattle. A NATO airstrike killed a Taliban
commander, alias Qari Latif, responsible for a suicide attack
on a US aid program. 12 other insurgents were also killed in the
attack in Kunduz. A raid killed insurgent, Mullah Akhtar, who
smuggled in foreign fighters through Iran, along with several other
insurgents in Farah province.
(AP, 7/15/10)(AP, 7/16/10)
2010 Jul 15, Argentina
legalized same-sex marriage, becoming the first country in Latin
America to grant gays and lesbians all the legal rights,
responsibilities and protections that marriage brings to
heterosexual couples.
(AP, 7/15/10)
2010 Jul 15, Australian
scientists reported their discovery of bizarre prehistoric sea life
hundreds of kilometers below the Great Barrier Reef, in an
unprecedented mission to document species under threat from ocean
warming.
(AFP, 7/15/10)
2010 Jul 15, In Makhachkala,
Dagestan, Artur Suleimanov, a bishop for the Russian evangelical
denomination Osanna. was killed in a shooting. 2 militants were
killed by police in a clash in the town of Khasavyurt the previous
day.
(AP, 7/16/10)
2010 Jul 15, French oil firm
Total SA said it has signed a deal to acquire Chevron Corp.'s stake
in an offshore oil block near Nigeria's coastline.
(AP, 7/15/10)
2010 Jul 15, German Chancellor
Angela Merkel and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev met for talks
and are expected to oversee the signing of an array of deals between
German and Russian companies worth billions of dollars.
(AP, 7/15/10)
2010 Jul 15, India unveiled a
symbol for its rupee currency that it hopes will become as globally
recognized as signs for the dollar, the yen, the pound and the euro.
The symbol was designed by research student D Udaya Kumar, who
earned $5,300 for his pains.
(AP, 7/15/10)(Econ, 7/24/10, p.43)
2010 Jul 15, In Iraq the US
handed over the last detention facility under its control to Iraqi
authorities, a milestone in Iraq's push for complete sovereignty. A
car bomb in Tikrit and two other attacks killed 8 people, including
4 police officers, and wounded 14 others. A double suicide bombing
against a Shiite mosque in southeast Iran killed 27 people,
including members of the elite Revolutionary Guard in the provincial
capital Zahedan. The insurgent group, Jundallah, claimed
responsibility.
(AP, 7/15/10)(AP, 7/16/10)
2010 Jul 15, In northern Iraq a
fire in a five-story hotel killed 28 people, half of them
foreigners, in a harrowing blaze that forced several victims to jump
to their deaths to escape a building without fire escapes in the
Kurdish city of Sulaimaniyah.
{Iraq, Fire}
(AP, 7/16/10)
2010 Jul 15, An Israeli
lieutenant colonel and one of his soldiers were convicted in a 2008
shooting of a bound and blindfolded Palestinian demonstrator. Video
taken by a local resident showed the soldier firing a rubber-coated
bullet from close range at the feet of the Palestinian man, whose
hands were tied behind his back.
(AP, 7/15/10)
2010 Jul 15, Lebanon arrested a
third person in a widening probe into a suspected network of Israeli
spies employed in the country's telecom sector.
(AFP, 7/16/10)
2010 Jul 15, In Mexico members
of a northern drug gang rammed a car that may have been packed with
explosives or inflammable material into two police patrol trucks in
the border city of Ciudad Juarez, killing two officers and a medical
technician, and wounding nine people. The attack was said to be in
retaliation for the arrest of a top leader of the La Linea drug
gang, Jesus Acosta Guerrero, earlier in the day. It was the first
time a drug cartel has used a car bomb to attack Mexican security
forces. On Oct 20 Fernando Contreras was arrested in Chihuahua along
with 14 others, several weapons and drugs. Police said Contreras had
detonated the car bomb.
(AP, 7/16/10)(AP, 7/17/10)(AP, 10/21/10)
2010 Jul 15, In Myanmar Win
Htein, a former aide to Myanmar's detained opposition leader Aung
San Suu Kyi, was released from prison after 14 years behind bars.
(AP, 7/15/10)
2010 Jul 15, In Pakistan an
apparent suicide bombing near a bus terminal in the Swat Valley
killed five people and wounded at least 58.
(AP, 7/15/10)
2010 Jul 15, North Korea's
military renewed its call for its own investigation into the March
deadly sinking of a South Korean warship as it met with the US-led
UN Command for the first time since the incident raised tensions on
the Korean peninsula.
(AP, 7/15/10)
2010 Jul 15, Pakistan and India
sought to improve their strained relationship with high-level talks
aimed at rebuilding trust that was fractured by the terrorist
attacks that killed 166 people in the Indian city of Mumbai nearly
two years ago.
(AP, 7/15/10)
2010 Jul 15, A last-minute deal
at a meeting of the Kimberley Process certification scheme in Russia
authorized Zimbabwe to sell two batches of diamonds under strict
monitoring and regulation through Sept. 1.
(AP, 7/16/10)
2010 Jul 15, In Sudan aid
officials said the government has issued expulsion orders against
two top relief officials in Darfur after the International Criminal
Court charged President Omar al-Beshir with genocide over the
seven-year conflict there. When the ICC issued a warrant for
Beshir's arrest for the other charges in March last year, the
Sudanese government expelled 13 relief organizations from Darfur.
Three journalists working for the opposition Rai al-Shaab newspaper
were handed jail terms ranging from two to five years for publishing
"false reports."
(AFP, 7/15/10)
2010 Jul 15, Sudanese police
said at least 33 people have been killed and several others were
missing following powerful floods in eastern Sudan.
(AFP, 7/15/10)
2010 Jul 15, The Vatican issued
a new set of norms to respond to the worldwide clerical abuse
scandal. The norms extend from 10 to 20 years the statute of
limitations on priestly abuse and also codify for the first time
that possessing or distributing child pornography is a canonical
crime.
(AP, 7/15/10)
2010 Jul 15, Vietnam’s state
media reported that Vietnam has published the first issue of a human
rights magazine to help counter what it calls "erroneous and hostile
allegations."
(AP, 7/15/10)
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