Today in History - July 17
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180 Jul 17,
Christenen Cittinus Donatus Natzalus Secunda Speratus Vestia was
sentenced to death in Carthage.
(MC, 7/17/02)
924 Jul 17, Edward the Older,
English king (899-924) and son of Alfred the Great, died. He was
succeeded by his son Athelston.
(PC, 1992, p.75)
1212 Jul 17, Moslems were
crushed in the Spanish crusade.
(HN, 7/17/98)
1345 Jul 17, Jacob Van
Artevelde, [Manner Man], Flemish broker, was lynched.
(MC, 7/17/02)
1429 Jul 17, The dauphin, son
of Charles VI, was crowned as king of France.
(PCh, 1992, p.144)(MC, 7/17/02)
1453 Jul 17, France defeated
England at the 1st Battle at Castillon, France, ending the 100
Years' War. [see Oct 19]
(HN, 7/17/98)
1585 Jul 17, English secret
service discovered Anthony Babington's murder plot against queen
Elizabeth I.
(MC, 7/17/02)
1603 Jul 17, Sir Walter Raleigh
(1552-1618) was arrested. He was prosecuted by Sir Edward Coke.
James I suspended his death sentence and had him incarcerated in the
Tower of London for 13 years during which time he wrote his "History
of the World."
(www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/TUDrayleigh.htm)(WSJ, 1/6/04, p.D10)
1674 Jul 17, Isaac Watts,
English minister and hymn writer, was born.
(HN, 7/17/01)
1717 Jul 17, Handel's "Water
Music" was played for George I on the occasion of a royal barge trip
on the Thames.
(LGC-HCS, p.40)(Internet)
1762 Jul 17, Peter III of
Russia was murdered and his wife, Catherine II, took the throne.
(HN, 7/17/98)
1763 Jul 17, John Jacob Astor,
American fur trader who died the richest man in the country, was
born.
(HN, 7/17/98)
1774 Jul 17, Capt Cook arrived
at New Hebrides (Vanuatu).
(MC, 7/17/02)
1785 Jul 17, France limited the
importation of goods from Britain.
(HN, 7/17/98)
1790 Jul 17, Economist Adam
Smith (b.1723), Scottish moral philosopher and a pioneer of
political economy, died. In 2001 Emma Rothschild authored "Economic
Sentiments: Adam Smith, Condorcet, and the Enlightenment." In 2002
Peter J. Dougherty authored "Who’s Afraid of Adam Smith." In 2010
Nicholas Phillipson authored “Adam Smith: An Enlightened Life.”
(WSJ, 6/21/01, p.A16)(WSJ, 11/13/02,
p.D10)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Smith)(Econ, 8/7/10, p.84)
1791 Jul 17, National Guard
troops opened fire in Paris on a crowd of demonstrators calling for
the deposition of the king.
(HN, 7/17/99)
1799 Jul 17, Ottoman forces,
supported by the British, captured Aboukir, Egypt from the French.
(HN, 7/17/99)
1801 Jul 17, The U.S. fleet
arrived in Tripoli after Pasha Yusuf Karamanli declared war for
being refused tribute.
(HN, 7/17/99)
1821 Jul 17, Spain ceded
Florida to the United States.
(AP, 7/17/97)
1821 Jul 17, Andrew Jackson
became the governor of Florida.
(HN, 7/17/98)
1841 Jul 17, The British humor
magazine Punch was first published.
(AP, 7/17/97)
1845 Jul 17, Earl Grey
(b.1764), former British prime minister (1830-1834), died. A member
of the Whig Party, he backed significant reform of the British
government and was among the primary architects of the Reform Act of
1832. In addition to his political achievements, Earl Grey famously
gives his name to an aromatic blend of tea.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Grey,_2nd_Earl_Grey)
1850 Jul 17, Statesman Daniel
Webster said: "I was born an American; I will live an American; I
shall die an American."
(HNQ, 2/15/02)
1861 Jul 17, At Manassas, VA,
Gen Beauregard requested reinforcements for his 22,000 men and Gen
Johnston was ordered to Manassas.
(MC, 7/17/02)
1862 Jul 17, US army was
authorized to accept blacks as laborers.
(MC, 7/17/02)
1862 Jul 17, James Glaisher
(52), British meteorologist, rose to some 22,000 over Wolverhampton
with balloonist Henry Tracy Coxwell in an attempt to set an altitude
record. They reached 24,000 feet in a 2nd attempt on Aug 18. On Sep
5 Glaisher passed out as they reached 29,000 feet. At a record 7
miles Coxwell managed to begin their descent.
(ON, 4/03, p.11)
1864 Jul 17, Confederate
President Jefferson Davis replaced General Joseph E. Johnston with
General John Bell Hood in hopes of defeating Union General William
T. Sherman outside Atlanta.
(HN, 7/17/98)
1877 Jul 17, Riots and violence
erupted in several major American cities stemming from strikes
against railroads in protest of wage cuts. Strikes started against
the Baltimore & Ohio, and quickly spread west, with riots
erupting in Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Chicago and St. Louis. Nine were
killed when Federal troops were sent into Martinsburg, West
Virginia. On July 21, 26 were killed and the Union Depot and machine
shops were burned down.
(HNQ, 12/11/98)
1888 Jul 17, S.Y. Agnon,
Israeli writer (The Day Before Yesterday), was born.
(HN, 7/17/01)
1889 Jul 17, Erle Stanley
Gardner, writer of detective stories and creator of Perry Mason, was
born.
(HN, 7/17/98)
1894 Jul 17, Georges Lemaitre,
Belgian astronomer, was born.
(HN, 7/17/01)
1897 Jul 17, The Steamer
Portland arrived into Seattle from Alaska with 68 prospectors
carrying more than a ton of gold. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer
announced that men with gold from Alaska were landing. This
unleashed the Klondike gold rush and tens of thousands headed for
the Yukon. The Klondike gold rush gave America and Canada a
psychological boost in getting the economy moving again after the
terrible depression that followed the 1893 crash.
(CFA, ‘96, p.88)(Hem., 7/95, p.79)(CFA, ‘96,
p.89)(WSJ, 5/1/97, p.A16)(WSJ, 7/17/97, p.A20)
1898 Jul 17, Bernice Abbott,
photographer, was born.
(HN, 7/17/01)
1898 Jul 17, U.S. troops under
General William R. Shafter took Santiago de Cuba during the
Spanish-American War.
(HN, 7/17/98)
1898 Jul 17, During the
Spanish-American War, Spain surrendered to the United States at
Santiago, Cuba.
(AP, 7/17/97)
1899 Jul 17, James Cagney
(d.1986), American actor famous for his role in "Yankee Doodle
Dandy," was born.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Cagney)
1902 Jul 17, Christina E.
Stead, novelist and screenwriter who wrote "The Man Who Loved
Women," was born.
(HN, 7/17/98)
1903 Jul 17, James Abbott
McNeil Whistler (b.1834), expatriate painter famous for painting his
mother (1872), died.
(www.artrenewal.org/asp/database/art.asp?aid=652)(ON, 4/03, p.9)
1905 Jul 17, Edgar Snow,
American author and journalist, was born in Kansas City, Missouri.
(www.umkc.edu)
1912 Jul 17, Art Linkletter,
radio and television personality, was born.
(HN, 7/17/98)
1917 Jul 17, The British royal
family adopted the Windsor name. King George V changed the family
name to the House of Windsor from the German-sounding House of
Saxe-Coburg & Gotha. [see Jun 17,19]
(AP, 7/17/97)(SFEC, 1/19/97, Par p.2)(DTnet,
6/19/97)
1918 Jul 17, Russian Tsar,
Nicholas II, was executed at Ekaterinburg by the Bolsheviks under
orders from Lenin. His wife, son, 4 daughters, and 4 servants were
also executed. The family mass grave was discovered by a former KGB
agent in 1979 in the Urals and only 9 bodies were found. The bodies
were dug up in 1991. A 1997 documentary film by Victoria Lewis,
"Mystery of the Last Tsar," told the story. The Czar, his wife,
three children and four servants were executed by a 12-man firing
squad in the Ipatiev House in Yekaterinburg. A reburial of the
family was scheduled in St. Petersburg for Jul 17, 1998.
(SFC, 4/5/97, p.E3)(SFC, 2/28/98, p.A8)(SFC,
7/15/98, p.A9)(AP, 7/17/07)
1918 Jul 17, Grand Duchess
Elizabeth Feodorovna (b.1864) was murdered at a mine the village of
Siniachikha. The Cheka beat Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich Romanov,
Princes Ioann Konstantinovich, Konstantin Konstantinovich, Igor
Konstantinovich, Vladimir Pavlovich Paley, Feodor Remez (Grand Duke
Sergei's secretary), and Varvara Yakovleva, a sister from the Grand
Duchess's convent, before throwing their victims into a pit,
Elizabeth being the first. Hand grenades were then hurled down the
shaft, but only one victim, Feodor Remez, died as a result of the
grenades. Finally a large quantity of brushwood was shoved into the
opening and set alight.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_Elisabeth_of_Hesse_and_by_Rhine_%281864%E2%80%931918%29)
1922 Jul 17, Donald Davie,
English poet and literary critic, was born.
(HN, 7/17/01)
1923 Jul 17, James Purdy,
writer (Cabot Wright Begins), was born.
(HN, 7/17/01)
1925 Jul 17, Laszlo Nagy,
Hungarian poet, was born.
(HN, 7/17/01)
1930 Jul 17, A natural gas
explosion in the Mitchell ravine tunnel of the Hetch Hetchy water
project in California killed 12 men. 35 other workers quit charging
that carelessness and lack of equipment was responsible for the
tragedy.
(SFC, 7/15/05, p.F6)
1934 Jul 17, Donald Sutherland,
actor (M*A*S*H, Body Snatchers), was born in St John, NB.
(MC, 7/17/02)
1935 Jul 17, Diahann Carroll,
actress, was born in NYC, NY, as Carol Diann Johnson.
(http://www.africanpubs.com/Apps/bios/0144CarrollDiahann.asp?pic=none)
1935 Jul 17, Peter Schickele,
composer, creator of P.D.Q. Bach, was born.
(HN, 7/17/01)
1935 Jul 17, The entertainment
trade publication Variety ran its famous headline, "Sticks Nix Hick
Pix," which might be translated as "rural America dislikes
rural-themed movies."
(AP, 7/17/97)
1936 Jul 17, Gen. Francisco
Franco was flown from the Canary Islands, where he served as
military governor, to Spanish Morocco where he led a rebellion
against the elected Popular Front. This began the Spanish civil war.
The first word of the rebellion was reported by Lester Ziffren
(1906-2007) of the United Press. The rebel Nationalist movement
under Francisco Franco gained support from the fascist regimes in
Italy and Germany in opposition.
(SFC, 11/12/96, p.A12)(SFC, 7/13/01, WBb
p.3)(WSJ, 11/24/07, p.A8)
1938 Jul 17, Pilot Douglas
Corrigan sought permission from the Civil Aviation Authority to fly
across the Atlantic from New York to Ireland, but he was turned down
on the grounds that his plane was in poor condition. Corrigan seemed
to accept the ruling, but when he took off from New York on this
day, saying he was headed for California, he banked sharply to the
east and headed out over the ocean. Twenty-eight hours and 13
minutes later, Corrigan landed in Ireland, innocently explaining
that his 180-degree wrong turn must have been due to a faulty
compass. No one believed Corrigan's explanation, especially the
aviation authorities in both Ireland and America, who suspended the
rebellious pilot's license and ordered his aircraft dismantled. Upon
his return to America, "Wrong-Way" Corrigan was greeted as a hero.
More than a million people lined New York's Broadway for a
ticker-tape parade honoring the man who had flown in the face of
authority.
(AP, 7/17/97)(HNPD, 7/178)
1939 Jul 17, Spencer Davis,
vocalist (Spencer Davis Group-Gimme Some Lovin), was born in Wales.
(MC, 7/17/02)
1941 Jul 17, The longest
hitting streak in baseball history ended when the Cleveland Indians
pitchers held NY Yankee Joe DiMaggio, the Yankee Clipper, hitless
for the first time in 57 games. His hitting strike ended with 56
games.
(www.baseball-almanac.com/feats/feats3.shtml)(SFC, 3/9/99, p.A10)
1941 Jul 17, Brigadier-General
Brehon Somervell gathered a small group of officer’s from the army’s
construction division and told them they were to build a single
headquarters to house the entire war department, then scattered over
sites, in Virginia.
(Econ, 6/30/07, p.93)
1941 Jul 17, Jelly Roll Morton
1944 Jul 17, An explosion at
Port Chicago, now the Concord Naval Weapons Station in Ca., killed
320 seamen when a pair of ammunition ships exploded. 10,000 tons of
ammunition exploded. 202 of the victims were black enlisted men. The
Navy court-martialed 50 black sailors for refusing to go back to
work after the catastrophe. They were released from prison in 1946
with dishonorable discharges and reductions in rank. The story was
later described by Robert Allen in his 1989 "The Port Chicago
Mutiny." In 1999 Pres. Clinton issued a pardon to Freddie Meeks, one
of the last living convicted African American sailors.
(SFEC, 3/2/97, z1 p.3)(SFC, 2/24/98, p.A15)(SFC,
12/24/99, p.A1)(SSFC, 2/6/05, Par p.6)
1944 Jul 17, Field Marshall
Erwin Rommel was wounded when an Allied fighter strafes his staff
car in France.
(HN, 7/17/98)
1945 Jul 17, President Truman,
Soviet leader Josef Stalin and British Prime Minister Winston S.
Churchill began meeting at Potsdam in the final Allied summit of
World War II.
(AP, 7/17/97)
1945 Jul 17-Aug 2, The
Potsdam Conference convened. It re-established the European borders
that were in effect as of Dec 31, 1937.
(WSJ, 5/5/95, p.A-12)(Voruta #27-28, Jul 1996,
p.2)
1946 Jul 17, Chinese communists
opened a drive against the Nationalist army on the Yangtze River.
(HN, 7/17/98)
1946 Jul 17, Dragoljub "Draza"
Mihailovic (53), Yugoslav gen. (Nazi), was executed.
(MC, 7/17/02)
1947 Jul 17, Sheik Saqr bin
Mohammed Al Qasimi (1918-2010) became the Ruler of Ras al-Khaimah
(UAR) when he overthrew his uncle and father-in-law Shaykh Sultan
Bin Salem (or Salim) al-Qassimi in a bloodless coup d'etat. Shaykh
Saqr exiled the Sultan to Sharjah. Ras al-Khaimah joined the United
Arab Emirates in 1972.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saqr_bin_Mohammad_al-Qassimi)
1948 Jul 17, Southern Democrats
opposed to the nomination of President Truman met in Birmingham,
Ala., to endorse South Carolina Gov. Strom Thurmond.
(AP, 7/17/97)
1951 Jul 17, Lucie Arnaz
(actress and Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz' daughter), was born.
(MC, 7/17/02)
1954 Jul 17, The 1st major
league baseball game was played where a majority of a team was black
(Dodgers).
(MC, 7/17/02)
1954 Jul 17, Gen. Joseph Swing,
appointed by Pres. Eisenhower to head the INS, began "Operation
Wetback." Because political resistance was lower in California and
Arizona, the roundup of aliens began there. Some 750 agents swept
northward through agricultural areas with a goal of 1,000
apprehensions a day. By the end of July, over 50,000 aliens were
caught in the two states. Another 488,000, fearing arrest, had fled
the country.
(CSM, 7/6/06)
1955 Jul 17, Walt Disney’s
Disneyland opened to the public in Anaheim, Calif.
(SSFC, 5/1/05, p.F3)(AP, 7/17/08)
1957 Jul 17, Leona Gage
(1939-2010) of Maryland won the Miss USA title as part of the Miss
Universe Pageant in Long Beach, Ca. Officials soon stripped her of
the title after learning that she was a mother of two and had lied
about her age.
(SFC, 10/13/10,
p.C5)(www.oocities.com/televisioncity/9699/mc57.htm)
1957 Jul 17, Lila Bliss found
her daughter, Juliette Hampton Morgan (b.1914), dead next to an
empty bottle of sleeping pills. In 1936 Juliette had signed a pledge
with other women in Montgomery, Alabama, to no longer remain silent
in the face of crime done in their name. In 2007 Mary Stanton
authored “Journey Toward Justice,” a biography of Juliette Hampton
Morgan.
(WSJ, 2/17/07, p.P13)
1959 Jul 17, Dr. Leakey
discovered oldest human skull (600,000 years old) to date.
(MC, 7/17/02)
1959 Jul 17, Billie Holiday
(b.1915), jazz and blues singer, died in NYC at age 44. In 1956
William Dufty (d.2002) authored the biography "Lady Sings the
Blues." In 2000 Robert O’Meally authored "Lady Day: The Many Faces
of Billie Holiday."
(SFEM, 10/1/00, p.4)(SFC, 7/5/02, p.A24)(SSFC,
7/12/09, p.42)
1959 Jul 17, Tibet abolished
serfdom.
(MC, 7/17/02)
1960 Jul 17, Francis Gary
Powers pleaded guilty to spying charges in a Moscow court after his
U-2 spy plane was shot down over the Soviet Union.
(HN, 7/17/98)
1961 Jul 17, Ty Cobb (74),
baseball great (Detroit Tigers), died of cancer in Atherton, Ca. He
was the first man elected into Baseball’s Hall of Fame.
(SSFC, 7/17/11, p.42)
1962 Jul 17, Air Force pilot
Robert White (1924-2010) flew the rocket-powered X-15 to an altitude
of 314,750 feet (59.6 miles).
(SFC, 3/24/10, p.C4)
1966 Jul 17, Ho Chi Minh
ordered a partial mobilization of North Vietnam to defend against
American airstrikes.
(HN, 7/17/98)
1967 Jul 17, Race riots took
place in Cairo, Illinois.
(MC, 7/17/02)
1967 Jul 17, John Coltrane
(b.1926), jazz composer-musician died in Huntington, N.Y. He gained
attention through recordings as part of Miles Davis’ quintet in the
50s. By 1960, following critical acclaim, Coltrane was leading his
own quartet that eventually dissolved in 1965. He worked with
various musicians for the next two years until succumbing to liver
cancer in 1967. Coltrane’s style, developed over the years from
influences ranging from Miles Davis’ forms of modal improvisation to
Eastern musical theory, has influenced and been imitated by numerous
jazz musicians since. His album’s included "Kulu Se Mama" written by
Juno Lewis (d.2002). In 2002 Ashley Kahn authored "A Love Supreme:
The Story of John Coltrane’s Signature Album.” In 2007 Ben Ratliff
authored “Coltrane: The Story of Sound.”
(SFC, 4/23/02, p.A18)(SSFC, 12/8/02, p.M5)(AP,
7/17/07)(Econ, 11/10/07, p.104)
1968 Jul 17, Beatle's animated
film "Yellow Submarine" premiered in London. The US premiere was on
November 13.
(www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqUKJj0gGkM)(www.imdb.com/title/tt0063823/releaseinfo)
1968 Jul 17, The Arab
Socialist Baath Party staged a bloodless coup in Iraq and gained
control as the Revolution Command Council. Abdul Rahman Arif,
brother of Abdul Salam Arif (d.1966), was ousted in the Baathist
coup and exiled to Istanbul. Ahmed Hasan-al-Bakr became president of
Iraq after the July 17 coup. This became a national holiday until it
was abolished in 2003. Saddam Hussein soon became recognized as the
strongman of the regime.
(NG, 5/88, p.653)(SFC, 9/24/02, p.A10)(AP,
7/13/03)(NW, 9/8/03, p.32)
1969 Jul 17, An FBI memo titled
"New Left and Extremist Movements" revealed Gov. Reagan’s plans for
the destruction of disruptive elements on California college
campuses through "psychological warfare" and other methods.
(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.F8)
1972 Jul 17, The first women
since the 1920s were officially hired as special FBI
agents.
(www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/dillinger/peopleevents/p_women.html)
1973 Jul 17, Zahir Shah
(1914-2007) was on vacation in Europe, when his government was
overthrown in a military coup headed by his relative Daoud Khan and
PDPA (Afghan Communist Party). Zahir Shah fled to Italy where he
lived until his return in 2002. Daoud Khan abolished the monarchy
and declared himself President of the Republic of Afghanistan.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)(SFC, 9/22/01,
p.A7)(AP, 7/23/07)
1974 Jul 17, Jay Hanna "Dizzy"
Dean (b.1910), pitcher (St Louis Cards), died in Nevada.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dizzy_Dean)
1975 Jul 17, An Apollo
spaceship docked with a Soyuz spacecraft in orbit in the first
superpower linkup of its kind.
(AP, 7/17/97)
1976 Jul 17, The XX1 Olympiad,
opened in Montreal. Closing ceremonies for the summer Olympics were
held August 1. 26 African nations boycotted the games after the IOC
failed to bann New Zealand after its rugby team toured South Africa.
Taiwan withdrew after it was denied the right to compete as the
Republic of China. In 1998 it was revealed that 143 members of
the East German team had taken performance-enhancing drugs.
(WSJ, 7/15/96, p.B1)(WSJ, 10/21/98, p.A1)(WSJ,
4/12/08, p.R2)
1979 Jul 17, Nicaraguan
President Anastasio Somoza Debayle resigned and fled to Miami in
exile.
(AP, 7/17/97)(HNQ, 6/29/99)
1980 Jul 17, Ronald Reagan
formally accepted the Republican nomination for president.
(http://millercenter.virginia.edu/scripps/digitalarchive/speechDetail/32)
1980 Jul 17, In Bolivia a
bloody coup installed a reactionary (and cocaine-tainted)
dictatorship led by general Luis Garcia Meza. Former president
(1956-1960) Hernan Siles Zuazo (1914-1996), who had won the most
votes in elections flew to exile. He returned in 1982, when the
military's experiment had ran its course and the Bolivian economy
was on the verge of collapse. He served a 2nd term from 1982-1985.
(SFC, 8/8/96, p.A22)(http://tinyurl.com/3andtr)
1980 Jul 17, Zenko Suzuki
(1911-2004) was appointed prime minister of Japan. He resigned after
2 years.
(SFC, 7/21/04,
p.B7)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zenko_Suzuki)
1981 Jul 17, In Missouri 114
people were killed when a pair of walkways above the lobby of the
Kansas City Hyatt Regency Hotel collapsed during a tea dance.
(AP,
7/17/97)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyatt_Regency_walkway_collapse)
1986 Jul 17, White House chief
of staff Donald Regan drew criticism for suggesting in an interview
that American women would not be prepared to “give up all their
jewelry” if the U.S. were to impose economic sanctions against South
Africa.
(AP, 7/17/06)
1987 Jul 17, 10 teen-agers were
killed when raging floodwaters from the Guadalupe River near
Comfort, Texas, swept away a church bus and van holding 43 people.
(AP, 7/17/97)
1988 Jul 17, Michael Dukakis
arrived in Atlanta to claim the Democratic nomination for president,
saying, "We're working hard to make sure we have a good convention,
a strong and united party."
(AP, 7/17/98)
1989 Jul 17, The controversial
B-2 Stealth bomber underwent its first test flight at Edwards Air
Force Base in California, two days after a technical problem forced
a postponement.
(AP, 7/17/99)
1989 Jul 17, Isidore Feinstein
Stone (b.1907), author (I.F. Stone's Weekly), died in Boston. In
2006 Myra MacPherson authored “All Governments Lie,” a biography of
Stone. In 2009 D.D. Guttenplan authored “American Radical: The Life
and Times of I.F. Stone.”
(http://tinyurl.com/nm97z)(WSJ, 9/30/06,
p.P8)(Econ, 5/16/09, p.90)
1990 Jul 17, The seven nations
negotiating German unification reached agreement in Paris on
Poland’s permanent border, clearing the way for the merger of East
and West Germany.
(AP, 7/17/00)
1991 Jul 17, The US Senate
voted 53-to-45 to give itself a $23,200 pay raise while at the same
time banning outside speaking fees.
(AP, 7/17/01)
1991 Jul 17, Soviet President
Mikhail S. Gorbachev made a personal appeal for Western aid at the
conclusion of the Group of Seven economic summit in London.
(AP, 7/17/01)
1992 Jul 17, Donna Ferguson
(18) and Todd Rudiger (29) were murdered in Portland, Ore. In 1998
Sebastian Shaw was indicted for the murders. He pleaded guilty in
2000 and was sentenced to two life terms. Later, his DNA would be
conclusive evidence that he also killed one Jay Rickbeil in July
1991. He would receive a third sentence of life in prison. Shaw,
born in Vietnam in 1967 as Chau Quong, had been airlifted from the
roof of the US Embassy on the day Saigon fell.
(SFC, 5/25/06, p.B1)(http://tinyurl.com/h5n45)
1992 Jul 17, A historic accord
for deep cuts in tanks and other non-nuclear arms in Europe went
into effect, nearly two years after it was signed by NATO and the
Warsaw Pact.
(AP, 7/17/97)
1992 Jul 17, Slovakia's
government decreed its independence from Czechoslovakia. The
independence did not become official until January 1, 1993.
(www.slovakia.org/society-hungary2.htm)
1993 Jul 17, President Clinton,
with several Cabinet members in tow, traveled to Arnold, Mo., where
he heard the governors of eight flood-stricken states appeal for
more financial assistance; however, he held out little hope the
government could offer a total bailout.
(AP, 7/17/98)
1994 Jul 17, Fragments of comet
Shoemaker-Levy continued to smash into Jupiter, sending up towering
fireballs.
(AP, 7/17/99)
1994 Jul 17, Brazil defeated
Italy to win its fourth World Cup title.
(AP, 7/17/99)
1994 Jul 17, Hutus left Rwanda
for refugee camps in Zaire.
(SFC, 11/19/96, p.A16)
1995 Jul 17, Thirty-two people
were injured when a Boston Green Line trolley rammed another train
under Copley Square.
(AP, 7/17/00)
1996 Jul 17, Interior Sec.
Bruce Babbitt signed an agreement to put 58 sq. miles of land in
Orange county under a new Natural Community Conservation Planning
program designed to protect entire ecosystems.
(SFC, 7/18/96, p.A4)
1996 Jul 17, TWA flight 800
crashed off of Long Island, N.Y., shortly after leaving John F.
Kennedy International Airport and 230 people died. It was a
25-year-old Paris-bound Boeing 747 whose previous flight had been
from Greece. Later reports of a missile attack were tracked to a
Navy P-3 Orion flying at 20,000 feet as opposed to the altitude of
the Boeing at 13,600 feet. In 1997 the FBI issued a report that the
disaster was caused by an explosion in the central fuel tank and was
not the result of sabotage.
(WSJ, 7/18/96, p.A1)(SFC, 3/21/97, p.A7)(AP,
7/17/97)(SFC,11/19/97, p.A3)
1996 Jul 17, Scientists
discovered that the earth’s solid-iron core rotates 12 miles a year
faster than the liquid-iron outer core. The inner core grows about
an inch in radius every 50 years. A report was published in Nature.
(WSJ, 7/18/96, p.A1)(SFC, 7/18/96, p.A6)
1996 Jul 17, The Community of
Portuguese-Speaking countries was formed. It included Portugal,
Brazil, Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde and Sao Tome
and Principe. Leaders then held their first summit meeting.
(WSJ, 7/18/96, p.E6)
1997 Jul 17, President Clinton
nominated Army Gen. Henry Shelton to be the next chairman of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff.
(AP, 7/17/98)
1997 Jul 17, Woolworth Corp.
announced that it would close more than 400 of its five-and-dime
retail stores, ending 117 years in business.
(WSJ, 7/17/97, p.A1)(AP, 7/17/98)
1997 Jul 17, The Columbia space
shuttle and it crew of 7 returned after a 16-day mission. On the Mir
space station, the 3-man crew struggled to stabilize a free-spin
after a cable to a key computer system was mistakenly pulled.
(SFC, 7/18/97, p.A1,9)(AP, 7/17/98)
1997 Jul 17, Disney
sub-contractor H.H. Cutler announced that it would terminate its
business in Haiti due to slumping sales of children’s clothes. Some
2,300 jobs would be lost. Int’l. activists had criticized the
operations for wages as low as $.28 per hour. The unemployment rate
was at 80%.
(SFC, 7/18/97, p.A12)
1997 Jul 17, Dr. Robert C.
Weaver (b.1907), the first African American to serve on a
president’s cabinet, died in NYC. He was the administrator of the
federal Housing and Home Finance Agency, the predecessor to HUD,
under President John F. Kennedy. He was named national chairman of
the NAACP in 1960 and in 1962 he was awarded the NAACP Spingarn
Medal. Weaver wrote more than 175 articles and four books on housing
and urban issues. [see Jan 18,1966]
(http://search.eb.com/Blackhistory/article.do?nKeyValue=76375)
1997 Jul 17, In India K.R.
Narayannan, a member of the Dalits, was elected president by the
national and state legislatures. The Dalits, or "oppressed people,"
were according to Hinduism the lowest class of people, a fifth class
below the 4 main castes. He will replace Pres. Shanker Dayal Sharma
whose 5-year term expires Jul 25.
(SFC, 7/18/97, p.A10)
1997 Jul 17, In Peru thousands
of demonstrators protested against Pres. Fujimori chanting "Down
with the dictatorship." Three cabinet ministers had also resigned in
the last 24 hours. Pres. Fujimori named 5 new ministers including 2
generals and sparked concern that he was moving even closer to the
armed forces.
(SFC, 7/18/97, p.A10)(SFC, 7/19/97, p.A11)
1997 Jul 17, In Russia Boris
Yeltsin signed decrees to cut the size of the armed forces by
one-third and installed plans to boost tax collection.
(WSJ, 7/17/97, p.A1)
1997 Jul 17, In the Ukraine the
parliament confirmed Valery Pustovoitenko as prime minister. He was
an ally of Pres. Kuchma and vowed to work with lawmakers.
(WSJ, 7/17/97, p.A1)
1998 Jul 17, Prosecutors in the
Monica Lewinsky case questioned President Clinton's Secret Service
protectors before a grand jury.
(AP, 7/17/99)
1998 Jul 17, The Clinton
administration sought approval to use funds for covert operations
against Iraqi Pres. Saddam Hussein.
(SFC, 7/18/98, p.A3)
1998 Jul 17, Scientists
reported in the journal Science that the syphilis genome, 1.1
million base pairs of DNA, had been mapped.
(SFC, 7/17/98, p.A7)
1998 Jul 17, In Bangladesh a
week of flooding left 54 people dead.
(SFC, 7/18/98, p.A14)
1998 Jul 17, In Cambodia Khmer
Rouge guerrillas under Ta Mok attacked a convoy of election workers
and killed 2 people.
(SFEC, 7/19/98, p.A24)
1998 Jul 17, In Eritrea a
Ukrainian IL-78 transport plane crashed near Asmara and killed 9
people.
(SFC, 7/18/98, p.A14)
1998 Jul 17, In Rome UN
delegates from more than 100 countries overwhelmingly approved
(120-7) a historic treaty, the Statute of Rome, creating the world's
first permanent war crimes tribunal, with jurisdiction over
individuals, ignoring strenuous U.S. objections over certain
provisions. It was to be located in the Hague with 18 judges from 18
countries serving 9 year terms. It still required ratification
by 60 countries to become effective. The vote passed 120 to 7 with
21 abstentions. The US, China, Iraq, Israel, Libya, Qatar and Yemen
voted against the International Criminal Court Treaty (ICC). In 2002
the US moved to withdraw its signature.
(SFC, 7/18/98, p.A10)(WSJ, 7/20/98, p.A1)(WSJ,
5/6/02, p.A1,4)(Econ, 11/22/03, p.27)
1998 Jul 17, Rising seawater
was attacking the coastline of the Marshall islands.
(SFC, 7/18/98, p.A1)
1998 Jul 17, In Papua New
Guinea a 23-foot tidal wave followed a 7.0 earthquake at the Solomon
Islands and killed at 2,500-3,000 people. The villages of Malol,
Arop, Otto, Warupu and Sissano were turned into barren strips of
sand.
(SFC, 7/18/98, p.A10)(SFEC, 7/20/98, p.A1)(AP,
7/18/99)
1998 Jul 17, Nicholas II, Czar
of Russia, executed with his wife Alexandra, their five children and
four servants in 1918, was buried in St. Petersburg.
(SFC, 10/16/96, p.A10)(SFC, 2/28/98, p.A8)(AP,
7/17/99)
1998 Jul 17, A 6.2 earthquake
in Taiwan triggered falling rock that killed 4 people and injured
19.
(SFC, 7/18/98, p.A14)
1998 Jul 17, In Uganda Pres.
Museveni proposed a single continental army and government for
Africa with headquarters in Kampala.
(SFC, 7/18/98, p.A12)
1999 Jul 17, A search began for
the missing plane that was carrying John F. Kennedy Junior, his
wife, Carolyn, and her sister, Lauren Bessette, on a flight from New
Jersey to Massachusetts. The plane had crashed into the Atlantic
Ocean near Martha’s Vineyard the night before, killing all three
aboard.
(AP, 7/17/00)
1999 Jul 17, The body of
Canadian singer Fatima Kama (28) was found when a member of the
public spotted a black suitcase abandoned on the third floor of a
Heathrow Airport parking lot. Youssef Ahmed Wahid, a former Kuwait
Airways steward, was arrested within days of the discovery at his
hometown of Ramadiyeh in southern Lebanon. He reportedly denied
having anything to do with the killing, and was eventually released
and then went on the run. In 2010 authorities in Bahrain arrested
Wahid as a suspect in the case.
(AP, 8/24/10)
1999 Jul 17, In Colombia FARC
and government negotiators failed to agree on observers for peace
talks and the talks were put on hold.
(SFC, 7/19/99, p.A12)
1999 Jul 17, In Iran the Select
Council of Sit-In Students called off student protests and faxed a
communique to news organizations calling for meetings with
government leaders.
(SFEC, 7/18/99, p.A21)
1999 Jul 17, In Nigeria
fighting erupted when a Hausa woman was caught watching a Yoruba
ritual. Over the next days hundreds of Hausa tribes people fled
Shagamu to escape fighting with their Yoruba neighbors.
(SFC, 7/21/99, p.C2)
2000 Jul 17, In India an
Alliance Air Boeing 737 jet with 58 people caught fire and crashed
into two homes just before landing at Patna airport. 7 people
survived and another 4 were killed on the ground. A total of 56
people were killed on board and on the ground.
(SFC, 7/17/00, p.A15)(SFC, 7/18/00, p.A12)(AP,
7/17/01)
2000 Jul 17, Nepal’s King
Birendra abolished debt-bondage slavery following efforts by Kevin
Bales, an American anti-slavery activist. Soon some 40,00 families
in 5 districts suddenly found themselves emancipated and evicted by
slaveholders. They moved into refugee camps and by 2007 a third
still lived in the camps. In 2007 Bales authored “Ending Slavery:
How We Free Today’s Slaves.”
(SSFC, 9/30/07, p.M1)
2000 Jul 17, In Russia Boris
Berezovsky planned to resign his seat in the Duma and launch an
opposition movement against Pres. Putin.
(SFC, 7/18/00, p.A12)(WSJ, 7/18/00, p.A1)
2000 Jul 17, Bashar Assad, son
of Hafez Assad, began a seven-year term as Syria’s 16th head of
state.
(AP, 7/17/01)
2001 Jul 17, John Ashcroft, US
Attorney Gen’l. reported that 184 FBI laptops and nearly 450 guns
were stolen or lost over the last decade.
(SFC, 7/18/01, p.A1)
2001 Jul 17, A USAF F-16
crashed in northeast San Bernadino County, Ca. Maj. Aaron George,
pilot, and Judson Brohmer, photographer, were killed.
(SFC, 7/18/01, p.A5)
2001 Jul 17, Katharine Graham,
Pulitzer Prize winner and publisher of the Washington Post, died at
age 84 in Boise, Idaho.
(SFC, 7/18/01, p.A6)
2001 Jul 17, In Argentina Pres.
De la Rua signed a plan to slash the deficit.
(SFC, 7/18/01, p.C4)
2001 Jul 17, In Guangxi, China,
the Lajiapo and Longshan mines flooded and 81 miners were killed.
Immediate news was covered up. In Aug 20 company employees and 70
suspected gang members were arrested for the coverup. 11 mine
officials and 4 county political leaders were arrested.
(SFC, 8/7/01, p.A7)(SFC, 8/15/01, p.A7)(SFC,
9/1/01, p.A10)(SFC, 9/1/01, p.A10)
2001 Jul 17, An Israeli
helicopter fired missiles at a hut in Bethlehem and 4 Palestinians
were killed. A few hours later Palestinians fired a mortar shell
into a Jewish neighborhood of Jerusalem.
(SFC, 7/18/01, p.A12)
2001 Jul 17, In Montenegro
Pres. Kostunica appointed Dragisa Pesic as the new Prime Minister.
(SFC, 7/18/01, p.C4)
2001 Jul 17, In Moscow Russia
and China agreed to plan a $1.7 billion pipeline for oil from
Siberia to northeastern China.
(SFC, 7/18/01, p.C4)
2002 Jul 17, Sen. Charles
Grassley of Iowa reported that some 200 Army personnel had used
government charge cards to get cash to spend at strip clubs near
military bases. Soldiers ran up a $38,000 bill.
(WSJ, 7/18/02, p.A1)(SFC, 7/18/02, p.A6)
2002 Jul 17, The National
Cancer Institute published a report that linked estrogen used for
hormone replacement to ovarian cancer.
(SFC, 7/17/02, p.A1)
2002 Jul 17, In Britain, a
one-day strike by 750,000 municipal employees closed schools,
libraries and recreation centers in their first national walkout in
more than two decades.
(AP, 7/17/03)
2002 Jul 17, In Israel a double
suicide bombing in Tel Aviv killed two foreign workers and one
Israeli. Over 40 people were injured.
(WSJ, 7/18/02, p.A1)(SFC, 7/18/02, p.A1)(AP,
7/17/07)
2002 Jul 17, In Nigeria
hundreds of unarmed women of the Ijaw tribe seized control of at
least 4 more ChevronTexaco facilities in the Niger Delta.
(SFC, 7/18/02, p.A17)
2002 Jul 17, In Paraguay Pres.
Macchi announced the lifting of a state of emergency following 2
days of protests over his economic policies.
(SFC, 7/18/02, p.A15)
2002 Jul 17, Spanish troops
reclaimed the island of Perejil off the coast of Morocco, a week
after it was occupied by Moroccan troops.
(WSJ, 7/18/02, p.A1)(SFC, 7/18/02, p.A17)
2002 Ju 17, Switzerland
formally requested membership to the United Nations.
(SFC, 7/18/02, p.A15)
2003 Jul 17, President Bush and
British Prime Minister Tony Blair forcefully defended their decision
to topple Saddam Hussein during a joint White House news conference.
In a speech to the U.S. Congress, Blair said even if they were
proven wrong about Iraq's weapons capabilities, "We will have
destroyed a threat that at its least is responsible for inhuman
carnage and suffering."
(SFC, 7/18/03, p.A1)(AP, 7/17/04)
2003 Jul 17, Democrats Joe
Lieberman, Dick Gephardt and Dennis Kucinich apologized to the NAACP
for bypassing a presidential forum.
(AP, 7/17/04)
2003 Jul 17, The US combat
death toll in Iraq hit a milestone as the Pentagon acknowledged its
casualties from hostile fire reached 147, the same number of troops
who died at enemy hands in the first Gulf War. Gen. John Abizaid,
head of central command, said loyalists are fighting an increasingly
organized "guerrilla-type campaign."
(AP, 7/17/03)
2003 Jul 17, Afghan President
Hamid Karzai announced the creation of a 500-member grand council,
or loya jirga, to approve a new constitution for the country this
year.
(AP, 7/17/03)
2003 Jul 17, The leaders of an
Australian Christian church voted to allow homosexuals to become
priests, drawing protest from within the congregation.
(AP, 7/17/03)
2003 Jul 17, In Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil, police killed 3 alleged gang members and pulled the
bullet-riddled bodies of 7 others from a sludge-filled river in 2
notorious shantytowns due to an escalating gang war over drug
control between The Red Command and Third Command.
(AP, 7/18/03)
2003 Jul 17, David Kelly (59),
the British Ministry of Defense adviser, was reported missing. He
was a possible source for news that claimed the government had
doctored intelligence on Iraqi weapons to strengthen the case for
war. His body was found the next day. Weapons expert David Kelly
apparently committed suicide by slashing his left wrist. In 2010 the
British government released a formerly secret autopsy report in an
attempt to end speculation that Kelly’s was not a suicide.
(AP, 7/18/03)(AP, 7/19/03)(AP, 10/22/10)
2003 Jul 17, Congo's main rebel
leaders were sworn as vice presidents in a new power-sharing
government, designed to end the country's nearly 5-year civil war. 4
vice presidents represented the ruling party, the opposition party
and 2 rebel groups.
(AP, 7/17/03)(Econ, 8/9/03, p.39)
2003 Jul 17, A US company
launched Mexican sales of microchips that can be implanted under a
person's skin and used to confirm health history and identity.
(AP, 7/17/03)
2003 Jul 17, In Mexico a
landslide triggered by heavy rains in the southern state of Oaxaca
swept away two houses and killed nine people, including five
children.
(AP, 7/18/03)
2003 Jul 17, Philippine
president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said that police corruption likely
led to the escape from prison of three terror suspects, including a
top bomb expert, and threatened to shake up the police force.
(AP, 7/17/03)
2003 Jul 17, In Russia's
Dagestan region a shrapnel-filled bomb exploded near a police
station, killing at least four people and injuring 18 others.
(AP, 7/17/03)
2003 Jul 17, Walter Zapp (97),
inventor of the Minox mini camera featured in spy movies, died, in
northern Switzerland. Zapp was born in 1905 in Riga, Latvia.
(AP, 7/28/03)
2004 Jul 17, California Gov.
Arnold Schwarzenegger mockingly used the term "girlie men" during a
rally as he claimed Democrats were delaying the state budget by
catering to special interests.
(AP, 7/17/05)
2004 Jul 17, Office Depot and
Hewlett-Packard launched the country's first free, nationwide,
in-store electronics recycling program. The program ran to Sep 6.
(TechWeb, 7/19/04)
2004 Jul 17, Monsoon rains
submerged new areas of Bangladesh and India, killing at least 13
people, as the death toll from flooding in South Asia rose to more
than 400.
(AP, 7/17/04)
2004 Jul 17, French Defence
Minister Michele Alliot-Marie proposed a defense partnership between
3 North African countries, Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia -- and four
southern European countries, France, Italy, Portugal and Spain,
preferably at defense minister level.
(AP, 7/18/04)
2004 Jul 17, An Ariane 5 rocket
took off from French Guyana carrying the heaviest commercial telecom
satellite ever.
(WSJ, 7/19/04, p.A1)
2004 Jul 17, In Germany
thousands of DaimlerChrysler workers walked off the job, extending
protests against threats to cut jobs if employees don't accept steps
to cut labor costs.
(AP, 7/17/04)
2004 Jul 17, A car bomb struck
the Iraqi justice minister's convoy as it passed through western
Baghdad, killing four of his bodyguards. The minister was unhurt in
the blast. A roadside bomb hit a U.S. convoy, killing one U.S.
soldier.
(AP, 7/17/04)
2004 Jul 17, Japan’s NTT DoCoMo
launched a wallet phone aimed to combine cash and cell phones with a
small embedded chip that can store money and personal information.
(Reuters, 7/18/04)
2004 Jul 17, At least 15 people
were killed and many more injured when a crowded bus skidded off a
road and fell into a gorge in Kashmir.
(AP, 7/17/04)
2004 Jul 17, A court in Oman
convicted an American woman of murdering her husband and sentenced
her to death. Rebecca Thompson, along with her 14-year-old son,
Derrick, and two Omani men, were convicted for the Jan 1 killing of
Mark Thompson.
(AP, 7/17/04)
2004 Jul 17, A Palestinian
security panel under Yasser Arafat declared a state of emergency
after a spate of kidnappings.
(SFC, 7/17/04, p.A11)
2004 Jul 17, Palestinian PM
Ahmed Qureia submitted his resignation to Yasser Arafat, who
rejected it the next day.
(AP, 7/17/05)
2004 Jul 17, Sudanese rebels
walked out of peace talks, saying government representatives had
refused to meet their conditions for a new round of negotiations.
(AP, 7/17/04)
2005 Jul 17, Time magazine's
Matthew Cooper said a 2003 phone call with White House political
adviser Karl Rove was the first he heard about the wife of Bush
administration critic Joseph Wilson apparently working for the CIA.
(AP, 7/18/05)
2005 Jul 17, Whirlpool Corp.
offered to buy fellow appliance maker Maytag Corp. for $1.37 billion
in cash and stock, topping an earlier offer that Maytag had accepted
from an investment group.
(AP, 7/18/05)
2005 Jul 17, The North American
Solar Challenge, a race for solar powered cars, began in Austin,
Texas. It was set to end Jul 27 in Calgary, Canada.
(SFC, 7/22/05, p.A13)
2005 Jul 17, Meleia
Willis-Starbuck (19) was shot dead on College Ave. in Berkeley, Ca.,
by Christopher Hollis (21), a close friend. In 2008 a jury convicted
Hollis of voluntary manslaughter.
(SFC, 7/18/05, p.A1)(SFC, 7/22/05, p.A1)(SFC,
4/30/08, p.B1)
2005 Jul 17, Geraldine
Fitzgerald (91), stage and screen actress, died in NYC. Her films
included “Dark Victory” (1939), “Ten North Frederick” (1958) and
“Rachel Rachel” (1968).
(SFC, 7/20/05, p.B7)
2005 Jul 17, The 168-page
Afghanistan Justice Project report was issued and covered human
rights abuses since the late 1970s. It holds several top officials
and candidates in national elections, scheduled for September, among
those responsible for mass arrests, tortures and executions.
(AP, 7/18/05)
2005 Jul 17, Tiger Woods closed
with a 2-under 70 to win the British Open for his tenth career
major.
(AP, 7/17/06)
2005 Jul 17, Sir Edward Heath
(b.1916), PM of England (1970-1974), died. He led England into what
is now the EU but lost the Conservative Party leadership to Margaret
Thatcher.
(AP, 7/17/05)(SFC, 7/18/05, p.B6)(Econ, 7/23/05,
p.80)
2005 Jul 17, Egypt demanded
that institutions in Britain and Belgium return two pharaonic
reliefs it says were chipped off tombs and stolen 30 years ago,
threatening to end their archaeological work here if they refuse.
(AP, 7/17/05)
2005 Jul 17, In Iraq The Iraqi
Special Tribunal filed its first criminal case against Saddam
Hussein for a 1982 massacre of Shiites. Adel Karim, a deputy
minister for industrial development, said Iraq wants to launch a
privatization program that would end state monopolies over industry.
Suicide strikes killed 22 people in the Baghdad area.
(AP, 7/17/05)(AP, 7/17/06)
2005 Jul 17, In Paraguay some
360 villagers marched on Asuncion to lobby for the expropriation of
128,500 acres of land containing their town of Puerto Casado, owned
by Rev. Sun Myung Moon’s Unification Church. The South Korean based
church had purchased a 1.48 million-acre property in 2000.
(WSJ, 7/18/05, p.A10)
2005 Jul 17, Officials said
heavy rains and flash floods have killed 20 people in the past week
and inundated tens of thousands of homes in Romania. Death for the
month reached 26.
(AP, 7/17/05)
2005 Jul 17, Pilots at Asiana
Airlines, South Korea's No. 2 carrier, went on strike.
(AP, 7/20/05)
2005 Jul 17, In central Spain
11 firefighters trying to extinguish a forest fire sparked by a
smoldering barbeque were killed.
(AP, 7/17/05)
2005 Jul 17, The Sudanese
council of ministers held its last meeting in Khartoum ahead of the
formation of a power-sharing cabinet that will include southern
former rebels.
(AP, 7/17/05)
2005 Jul 17, In Thailand an
emergency decree was signed into law that granted PM Shinawatra
sweeping powers to tap phones, directly command security forces and
order curfews. It also granted immunity to security forces in
emergency zones.
(Econ, 7/23/05, p.40)
2005 Jul 17, Yemeni President
Ali Abdullah Saleh, leader of this Arab nation for more than a
quarter-century, said he will not run in next year's elections, and
he urged political parties to nominate "young blood" to lead the
country.
(AP, 7/17/05)
2006 Jul 17, US Attorney
General Alberto Gonzales said President George W. Bush blocked a
Justice Department probe into a secret program to tap international
phone calls and electronic communications of US citizens.
(AFP, 7/18/06)
2006 Jul 17, Louisiana Attorney
General Charles Foti alleged that a doctor and two nurses decided to
administer lethal doses of morphine and a sedative to at least four
trapped and desperately ill patients during Hurricane Katrina.
(AP, 7/18/06)
2006 Jul 17, Space shuttle
Discovery and its crew of 6 returned to Earth through thick clouds,
ending an impressive mission that put NASA's space program back on a
solid, safer course.
(AP, 7/17/06)
2006 Jul 17, Mickey Spillane
(b.1918), American mystery writer, died in South Carolina. His 13
Mike Hammer novels began with “I, the Jury” (1946). A number of his
books were made into films including “The Girl Hunters” (1963) in
which he played the starring role.
(SFC, 7/18/06, p.B5)(Econ, 7/29/06, p.78)
2006 Jul 17, In southeastern
Afghanistan coalition forces killed four al-Qaida suspects and
captured three others. Separate attacks killed three Afghan soldiers
and three government employees in the south.
(AP, 7/17/06)
2006 Jul 17, In China tropical
storm Bilis left at least 612 people dead as it pounded the
southeast over the weekend, toppling houses and forcing the
evacuation of a prison and thousands of villages.
(AP, 7/18/06)(AP, 7/24/06)
2006 Jul 17, Congo officials
said Peter Karim, a warlord accused of kidnapping seven UN
peacekeepers, has agreed to disband his militia and become a colonel
in Congo's army. Gunmen opened fire on an election rally and killed
several people in Congo's volatile east, the latest outburst of
violence as the nation prepares for its first free legislative and
presidential balloting in 46 years.
(AP, 7/17/06)(AP, 7/19/06)
2006 Jul 17, Europe’s Airbus,
reeling from a management shakeup that followed delays in its
flagship superjumbo jet program, unveiled a long-awaited revamp of
its mid-sized A350 at the Farnborough Air Show in England.
(AP, 7/17/06)(WSJ, 7/17/06, p.A3)
2006 Jul 17, In India some 500
suspected communist rebels attacked a government-run relief camp and
two police stations in eastern Chattisgarh state, killing at least
26 villagers. Four rebels also died.
(AP, 7/17/06)
2006 Jul 17, In Indonesia a
magnitude 7.7 earthquake sent a 6-foot-high tsunami crashing into
Pangandaran on Java island, killing at least 659 people with some
330 missing.
(AP, 7/19/06)(AP, 7/22/06)
2006 Jul 17, Iraq and the US
signed a commercial cooperation agreement. In Mahmoudiya dozens of
heavily armed attackers raided an open air market, killing at least
41 people and wounding about 90. Police said they found 12 bodies in
different parts Mahmoudiya, possible victims of reprisal
killings. A bomb killed two people and wounded nine in east
Baghdad. 3 American soldiers were killed in separate attacks, two in
the Baghdad area and one in Anbar province west of the capital.
(AP, 7/17/06)(AP, 7/18/06)
2006 Jul 17, Israeli warplanes
pummeled Lebanese infrastructure, killing at least 17 people.
Hezbollah patron Iran said a cease-fire and a prisoner swap were
possible, and the international community signaled willingness to
send peacekeepers to back a diplomatic solution. 3 rounds of rockets
fired by Hezbollah guerrillas struck Haifa, with one destroying a
three-story building and wounding three people. Hezbollah fired a
total of 50 rockets in to Israel. Total deaths in Lebanon reached
210 and 24 in Israel.
(AP, 7/17/06)(WSJ, 7/18/06, p.A1,7)
2006 Jul 17, Israel bombed the
Palestinian Foreign Ministry building in Gaza City, pushing ahead
with its 3-week offensive in Gaza.
(AP, 7/17/06)
2006 Jul 17, British PM Tony
Blair and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan called for the deployment
of international forces to stop Hezbollah from bombing Israel, a
proposal that Israel quickly rejected.
(AP, 7/17/06)
2006 Jul 17, One of two young
twin brothers who led a small band of ethnic rebels calling
themselves "God's Army" surrendered to Myanmar's military
government. Johnny Htoo (18) and 8 fellow members of the group
surrendered with weapons in two separate groups on July 17 and 19 at
the coastal region military command in southeastern Myanmar.
(AP, 7/25/06)
2006 Jul 17, Nigeria signed a
deal with the Clinton Foundation to make cheap AIDS drugs available
to fight the disease.
(AFP, 7/17/06)
2006 Jul 17, G8 leaders called
on North Korea to stop its missile tests and to abandon its nuclear
weapons program.
(AP, 7/17/06)
2006 Jul 17, The presidents of
Russia and Kazakhstan agreed at the G8 summit to create a joint
venture to process natural gas from Kazakhstan's Karachaganak gas
field.
(AP, 7/17/06)
2006 Jul 17, In Moscow full
trading began in the shares of Rosneft Oil Co. The company raised
$10.4 billion with shares at $7.55. The next day a London court
dismissed a blocking plea by Yukos and full trading began in London.
(Econ, 7/22/06, p.71)
2006 Jul 17, A Serbian court
issued an international arrest warrant for the widow of former
President Slobodan Milosevic, who now lives in Moscow.
(AP, 7/17/06)
2006 Jul 17, In western
Venezuela a fire broke out at the Amuay oil refinery. Officials said
it was soon extinguished without reported injuries or loss of
deliveries.
(AP, 7/17/06)
2007 Jul 17, The US offered
additional food aid to Zimbabwe to ease its famine but criticized
what it said were reckless actions by Pres. Robert Mugabe to try to
deal with the problem.
(AP, 7/17/07)
2007 Jul 17, Jim Nicholson,
Secretary of the US Veteran’s Administration abruptly resigned in
the wake of charges of shoddy health care for veterans injured in
the Iraq war.
(AP, 7/17/08)
2007 Jul 17, The Dow Jones
industrial average crossed 14,000 for the first time before ending
the day at 13,918.22.
(AP, 7/17/08)
2007 Jul 17, The California
State Water Resources Control board passed a 70-year mercury cleanup
plan for the SF Bay.
(SFC, 7/19/07, p.B1)
2007 Jul 17, In Virginia
Michael Vick, quarterback of the Atlanta Falcons, was indicted by a
federal grand jury along with 3 others on charges related to
competitive dog fighting. In Dec. Vick was sentenced to 23 months in
prison for his role in a dogfighting conspiracy that involved
gambling and killing pit bulls.
(SFC, 7/19/07, p.A6)(AP, 12/10/07)
2007 Jul 17, Whole Foods
launched an internal investigation after it became public that CEO
John Mackey had for many years posted critical comments online
against Wild Oats prior to a planned acquisition of the firm this
year.
(Econ, 7/21/07, p.62)
2007 Jul 17, In Sao Paulo,
Brazil, a TAM airlines Airbus-320 slammed into a gas station and a
TAM building and burst into flames after trying to land on a short,
rain-slicked runway at Congonhas airport. All 187 people aboard were
killed along with 12 on the ground.
(AP, 7/18/07)(AP, 7/17/08)
2007 Jul 17, A British court
sentenced Yassin Nassari (27), a British-born Syrian cleric, to
3½ years in prison for bringing missile plans into Britain in
2006. He had led a branch of the Islamic Society at the Univ. of
Westminster. Nassari served just over seven months of his sentence.
(Econ, 1/9/10,
p.61)(www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/mar/28/terror.release)
2007 Jul 17, Cambodia's
government issued a directive preventing Christians from promoting
their religion in public places, or using money or other means to
persuade people to convert.
(AP, 7/17/07)
2007 Jul 17, A foreman from a
kiln in north China where workers were beaten and forced to work
18-hour days was sentenced to life in jail and another man was
sentenced to death for the beating death of a laborer. A total of 29
people were convicted in seven different courts in Shanxi for their
roles in the slavery scandal.
(AP, 7/17/07)
2007 Jul 17, An international
think-tank said China's smog-choked cities and contaminated
waterways are leaving many people sick and unable to work, in turn
fomenting unrest and threatening the country's economic growth.
(AP, 7/17/07)
2007 Jul 17, It was reported
that the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization and WFP estimated
that the cereal deficit for East Timor this year and next will reach
86,364 tons. With commercial imports anticipated at 71,000 tons, the
shortfall needs to be filled through food assistance.
(AFP, 7/17/07)
2007 Jul 17, Lawmakers loyal to
anti-US cleric Muqtada al-Sadr said they are ending a nearly
five-week boycott of parliament sessions after officials accepted
their demands for rebuilding a Shiite shrine damaged by bombings. In
eastern Baghdad a suicide driver detonated his vehicle near an Iraqi
army patrol in Zayouna, a mostly Shiite area, killing 10 people
including six civilians. The bodies of two security guards were
found in the western Baghdad neighborhood of Mansour, two days after
they were kidnapped from the office of a cell phone company where
they worked. 29 members of a Shiite tribe were massacred overnight
in Diyala province when dozens of suspected Sunni gunmen raided
their village near Muqdadiyah. The dead included four women. 3
American soldiers were killed in separate bombings in Baghdad.
(AP, 7/17/07)(AP, 7/18/07)
2007 Jul 17, In Lebanon
militants continued to resist the army's advance. Security officials
said Army troops are making "significant" gains in their
long-running battle against al-Qaida-inspired fighters barricaded
inside a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon. At least 60
militants and more than 20 civilians have been killed in fighting
since May 20.
(AP, 7/17/07)
2007 Jul 17, Libya's foreign
minister said the death sentences for five Bulgarian nurses and a
Palestinian doctor accused of infecting hundreds of Libyan children
with HIV have been commuted to life in prison. The ruling came after
the families of the children each received $1 million and agreed to
drop their demand for the execution of the six.
(AP, 7/17/07)
2007 Jul 17, Najib Razak,
Malaysia’s deputy prime minister, said Malaysia is an Islamic state
and not a secular one, while carefully assuring members of minority
faiths that their rights will be protected. More than 60% of
Malaysia's 27 million people are Muslim Malays and Islam is the
official religion under the country's constitution. But while the
constitution defines the ethnic majority Malays as Muslims it also
guarantees freedom of religion.
(AFP, 7/17/07)
2007 Jul 17, Anglo-Dutch oil
giant Shell said it has been unable to fight a major fire along a
key oil supply pipeline because of unrest in southern Nigeria's
Ogoniland region. The fire, raging for more than a month, has
affected the company's Trans-Niger pipeline that passes through six
villages whose residents are hostile to the company.
(AFP, 7/17/07)
2007 Jul 17, A suicide bomber
killed four Pakistanis, including three soldiers, in the North
Waziristan region on the Afghan border, hours after pro-Taliban
militants vowed to launch attacks on security forces. An apparent
suicide bomber in Islamabad killed 16 people and injured 44 at a
rally where the former chief justice was scheduled to speak.
(SFC, 7/18/07, p.A13)(AP, 7/19/07)
2007 Jul 17, Russia vowed a
"targeted and appropriate" response to Britain's expulsion of four
diplomats in a mounting confrontation over the probe into the
radiation poisoning death of a former KGB officer.
(AP, 7/17/07)
2007 Jul 17, Syria’s Pres.
Bashar Assad was sworn in for a 2nd, seven-year term in office.
(AP, 7/17/07)
2007 Jul 17, In southern
Thailand twin bomb attacks killed one policeman and wounded 18 other
people, as the junta formally extended a state of emergency in the
region.
(AP, 7/17/07)
2007 Jul 17, In western Ukraine
a train carrying yellow phosphorus derailed, releasing a cloud of
toxic gas into the air over 14 villages. 20 people were hospitalized
and hundreds evacuated.
(AP, 7/17/07)
2008 Jul 17, Kay Ryan (b.1945)
of Fairfax, Ca., was named the 16th poet laureate of the US. She was
selected by James Billington, the Librarian of Congress.
(SFC, 7/18/08, p.A6)
2008 Jul 17, The US Treasury
moved to freeze assets of four Algerians it said were leaders of an
al Qaeda-affiliated group responsible for deadly bombings in Algeria
last month.
(Reuters, 7/17/08)
2008 Jul 17, The US government
lifted a salmonella warning on tomatoes, but still warned caution on
fresh jalapeno and serrano peppers.
(SFC, 7/18/08, p.A6)
2008 Jul 17, It was reported
that the US debt amounted to $455,000 per household. By September
the national debt reached $10 trillion and obliged the national debt
clock in New York’s Times Square to move its dollar sign to make
room.
(SFC, 7/17/08, p.A10)(Econ, 10/9/10, SR p.6)
2008 Jul 17, Andy Stern, head
of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), led a global
day of action targeting KKR-owned sites in 25 countries, calling for
an end to favorable tax treatment of private equity.
(Econ, 8/2/08, p.70)
2008 Jul 17, California became
the first US state to approve green building standards.
(SFC, 7/18/08, p.A1)
2008 Jul 17, In western
Afghanistan US Special Forces and Afghan troops called in airstrikes
during a raid on a militant cell, killing 15 insurgents while
freeing 15 hostages in Herat province. Taliban militants attacked a
convoy carrying supplies for NATO forces in Zabul. A following
gunbattle killed an Afghan security worker and wounded five.
(AP, 7/17/08)(AP, 7/18/08)
2008 Jul 17, Aafia Siddiqui, a
Pakistani woman once identified as a possible al-Qaida associate,
was arrested by Afghan police, who found recipes for explosives and
descriptions of New York landmarks in her handbag. [see Aug 5]
(SSFC, 8/24/08, p.A5)(AFP, 8/30/08)
2008 Jul 17, Algeria and
Germany wound up two days of talks in Algiers with a call for more
economic cooperation between the two countries.
(AP, 7/17/08)
2008 Jul 17, In Algeria a truck
and a bus collided on one of the main highways in the Relizane
region killing 7 people with 28 seriously injured.
(AFP, 7/17/08)
2008 Jul 17, Argentina's Senate
narrowly rejected a grain-export tax package, a government-backed
proposal that has led to nationwide farm strikes and regional food
shortages.
(AP, 7/17/08)
2008 Jul 17, In Sidney,
Australia, Pope Benedict XVI delivered a stinging attack on pop
culture, consumerism and "false idols" to 150,000 mainly teenaged
Catholic pilgrims gathered for World Youth Day.
(AFP, 7/17/08)
2008 Jul 17, Belgium's King
Albert II refused to accept the resignation of the prime minister
and his government, calling on key officials to redouble efforts to
resolve an longtime disagreement over more self-rule for the
country's Dutch and French speakers.
(AP, 7/18/08)
2008 Jul 17, A new company of
Chinese engineers deployed to Sudan's war-torn western region of
Darfur, boosting the number of UN-led peacekeeping troops to 8,000.
(AP, 7/17/08)
2008 Jul 17, Wikimania 2008
opened in to Alexandria, Egypt, for a 3-day tradecraft meeting. The
gathering of online encyclopedia creators drew some 650 Wikipedians
from 45 countries.
(WSJ, 8/8/08,
p.W1)(http://wikimania2008.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page)
2008 Jul 17, In Amman, Jordan,
a gunman shot and wounded six people near a Roman amphitheater. He
shot himself in the head as he was chased by police, and was in
critical condition. A police official identified the assailant as
Thaer al-Weheidi (19), a resident of Baqaa camp, the largest of 11
Palestinian refugee settlements in Jordan. Al-Weheidi died on July
22.
(AP, 7/17/08)(AP, 7/22/08)
2008 Jul 17, Kuwait's official
news agency says the tiny Gulf country has named an ambassador to
Iraq for the first time since the 1991 Gulf War.
(AP, 7/17/08)
2008 Jul 17, Macedonia's main
opposition party walked out of parliament after its deputy leader
was arrested and charged in a corruption probe.
(AP, 7/18/08)
2008 Jul 17, Six prominent
members of Colombia’s largest rebel group FARC met this day with
Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega according to Nicaragua’s La
Prensa newspaper. The members of the guerrilla organization arrived
in Nicaragua in a Cessna airplane from Venezuela. Both Ortega and
Venezuela denied the newspaper report.
(http://colombiareports.com/2008/07/23/ortega-met-with-farc-delegation-says-la-prensa/)
2008 Jul 17, Nigerian villagers
blew up a key crude oil supply pipeline operated by Agip, the
Nigerian subsidiary of Italian group Eni, cutting production.
(AFP, 7/17/08)
2008 Jul 17, Violent protests
erupted at Pakistan's main stock market as growing economic and
political uncertainty pushed Pakistani shares to a new 18-month low.
(AP, 7/17/08)
2008 Jul 17, A survey team
member said a Russian government audit has revealed that up to
50,000 pieces are missing from the country’s museums, everything
from Pre-Revolutionary medals and weapons to precious works of art.
(AP, 7/18/08)
2008 Jul 17, Sri Lankan air
force jets bombed a group of ethnic Tamil rebels. Troops attacked
rebel bunkers along the front lines in the Vavuniya area, killing 10
Tamil Tiger fighters. Fighting in the area also killed four
soldiers, while a fifth soldier was missing in action. Fighting in
Welioya killed nine rebels and one soldier, while another rebel was
killed in Jaffna.
(AP, 7/17/08)(AFP, 7/18/08)
2008 Jul 17, An official of the
Swiss bank UBS announced that it was halting its offshore banking
services for US citizens after it came under scathing criticism for
facilitating massive tax evasion.
(AFP, 7/18/08)
2008 Jul 17, An organization
claiming to represent groups involved in southern Thailand's Muslim
insurgency announced it will end all violence in the region as of
July 14. Former army commander and Defense Minister Chetta Thanajaro
said the organization that made the announcement represented 11
different underground groups operating in southern Thailand.
(AP, 7/17/08)
2008 Jul 17, Venezuela's ruling
party pledged to seek to reform the nation's constitution to let
President Hugo Chavez seek indefinite re-election.
(AP, 7/18/08)
2009 Jul 17, In Douglas,
Georgia, federal authorities arrested Cecil Stephen Haire (51), the
so-called “limping bandit.” He was said to have robbed 23 banks
across the Southwest over the last 3 years.
(SFC, 7/22/09, p.A4)
2009 Jul 17, Walter
Cronkite (b.1916), TV journalist, died with his family by his side
at his Manhattan home after a long illness. On April 16, 1962, he
replaced Douglas Edwards as anchor of the CBS "Evening News." Polls
in 1972 and 1974 had pronounced Cronkite the "most trusted man in
America."
(AP, 7/18/09)
2009 Jul 17, In southern
Afghanistan a roadside bomb tore through a vehicle, killing a
British soldier and 11 civilians, including five children. In
Nangarhar province, a gunfight broke out between Taliban fighters
and local civilians after militants fired at an Afghan army officer
who had come to visit his relatives. 3 militants and two civilians
were killed and one civilian was missing. Eleven militants were
captured, eight of them Pakistanis.
(AP, 7/17/09)(AP, 7/18/09)(SFC, 7/18/09, p.A2)
2009 Jul 17, Leszek Kolakowski
(b.1927), Polish-born Oxford philosopher and historian of ideas,
died in Oxford. “We Learn history not in order to know how to behave
or how to succeed, but to know who we are.” His work included the
3-volume series “Main currents of Marxism: Its Rise, Growth and
Dissolution” (1976).
(Econ, 8/1/09,
p.76)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leszek_Ko%C5%82akowski)
2009 Jul 17, In China
government officials in Beijing descended on the Open Constitution
Initiative (OCI), a public interest lawyer’s group that challenged
abuse and corruption by state and local governments. They took away
almost everything the group owned and tax authorities ordered it to
pay $207,900.
(Econ, 7/25/09, p.38)
2009 Jul 17, The Republic of
Congo's top opposition politician, Mathias Dzon, filed for an
annulment of the incumbent president's re-election and claimed there
had been vote-rigging and intimidation.
(AP, 7/17/09)
2009 Jul 17, In Ecuador a US
anti-narcotics force flew its last surveillance mission from
Ecuador's Pacific Coast. The force had begun dismantling its
operation and would be out of the country by September, two months
before the end of its lease.
(AP, 7/19/09)
2009 Jul 17, In Indonesia
suicide attacks at the Marriott and the Ritz-Carlton hotels in
Jakarta killed 9 people including 2 suspected suicide bombers and
wounded 53. Suspicion quickly fell on Jemaah Islamiyah and
anti-terror desk chief, Ansyaad Mbai, said evidence pointed to
Malaysian-born extremist Noordin Mohammed Top. In 2010 the South
Jakarta District Court found Amid Abdillah guilty of violating the
Anti-Terror Law by helping a splinter of the Southeast Asian terror
network Jemaah Islamiyah plan the suicide bombings. The same court
has earlier sentenced Saefudin Zuhri, an in-law of Top, and Aris
Susanto to eight years in prison for assisting and harboring Top and
two other suspects.
(AP, 7/17/09)(AFP, 7/18/09)(AP, 7/21/09)(AP,
8/7/09)(AP, 6/14/10)
2009 Jul 17, In Iran tens of
thousands of government opponents packed Iran's main Islamic prayer
sermon, chanting "freedom, freedom" and other slogans as their top
clerical backer Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani delivered a sermon bluntly
criticizing the country's leadership over the crackdown on election
protests. Outside, pro-government Basiji militiamen in front of a
line of riot police fired tear gas at thousands of protesters who
chanted "death to the dictator" and called on President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad to resign.
(AP, 7/17/09)
2009 Jul 17, In Iraq two bombs
exploded around 3 a.m. in Karmah near the house of police Capt.
Bahjat Khawam. The bombs were planted under the police officer's car
and near a gate to his house. The officer's daughter (12) and a
granddaughter (4) were killed in the attack. In Baghdad bombings
killed 3 Iraqis and injured over 40 others. One bomb planted under a
bridge killed a married couple who were among hundreds of thousands
of Shiite pilgrims heading to a shrine to commemorate Imam Mousa
al-Kazim.
(AP, 7/17/09)(SFC, 7/18/09, p.A2)
2009 Jul 17, In Japan 10 senior
citizen climbers were found dead in the northern mountains of
Hokkaido, apparently from hypothermia. Police began investigating
possible negligence by the tour organizers.
(AP, 7/17/09)
2009 Jul 17, The Malian army
announced that it had killed 26 "Islamist fighters" in the far north
of the country.
(AFP, 7/21/09)
2009 Jul 17, In Nouakchott,
Mauritania, police exchanged fire with suspected Islamic extremists,
killing one and wounding another who was wearing explosives wrapped
around his body. A 3rd suspect reportedly escaped.
(AP, 7/18/09)
2009 Jul 17, Mexico's central
bank cut its benchmark interest rate by a quarter percentage point,
dropping the interbank rate to 4.5% to stimulate a recession-dogged
economy.
(AP, 7/18/09)
2009 Jul 17, In Namibia 2
European journalists were fined $625 (US) by a court for filming the
annual seal hunt along the coast of the southern African nation. On
July 31 British investigative journalist Jim Wilckens and South
African cameraman Bart Smithers were found guilty of violating the
Marine Resources Act by entering a restricted area without
permission.
(AFP, 7/18/09)(AFP, 8/4/09)
2009 Jul 17, In Pakistan a
missile believed to have been fired by a US drone killed five
militants in North Waziristan, a tribal region known as a haven for
Taliban and al Qaeda fighters. Militants destroyed two NATO fuel
tankers in separate roadside bomb attacks in the Khyber tribal
region, one of the two land routes for supplies going to
Afghanistan.
(Reuters, 7/17/09)
2009 Jul 17, Russia said it
would lift a ban on live pigs and raw pork imports from the US state
of Wisconsin and Canada's Ontario province from July 18 due to what
it said was a "stabilization" of the situation of the H1N1 virus in
those places.
(Reuters, 7/17/09)
2009 Jul 17, The UN said an
international accord requiring governments to publicly identify
sites of environmental pollution will come into force on Oct. 8.
(AP, 7/17/09)
2010 Jul 17, In Afghanistan a
British and an American soldier died in Taliban-style bomb attacks.
Another NATO soldier was killed in a separate attack. 4 Afghan
policemen died when insurgents attacked a checkpoint in Gereshk
district of Helmand province. One Afghan soldier died and another
was wounded in Sabari district of Khost province after their vehicle
hit a roadside bomb.
(AFP, 7/17/10)(AP, 7/18/10)
2010 Jul 17, In Albania 14
people died and 12 others were injured, many of them seriously, when
a bus fell off a cliff 140 km (87 miles) north of the capital,
Tirana.
(AP, 7/17/10)
2010 Jul 17, In China 28 miners
were killed when an electrical cable caught fire inside a coal shaft
in northern Shaanxi province. There were no survivors. 8 coal miners
died when a blaze engulfed a mine in central Henan province.
(AP, 7/18/10)
2010 Jul 17, Typhoon Conson
weakened as it headed toward Vietnam, after passing over the Chinese
island of Hainan where falling billboards killed at least two
people.
(Reuters, 7/17/10)
2010 Jul 17, In France rioters
exchanged gunfire with police in Grenoble early in the day, setting
fire to shops and cars after police shot dead a man accused of
robbing a casino.
(AP, 7/17/10)
2010 Jul 17, Hong Kong adopted
its first minimum wage law, but no rate was yet set
(Econ, 7/17/10, p.73)(http://tinyurl.com/2cx6os2)
2010 Jul 17, In Kenya Pastor
John Kamau and accomplice Samuel Chege Gitau were arrested with a
substance believed to be ammonium nitrate, a detonator and a safety
fuse.
(AP, 7/18/10)
2010 Jul 17, Lithuania’s
state-owned forests reportedly amounted to 830,000 hectares or 3204
square miles and were operated by 42 companies. Government plans
called for a single forestry company charged with managing the
industry on a commercial basis.
(Econ, 7/17/10, p.57)
2010 Jul 17, In Mexico 4
policemen were shot dead by unknown assailants on a rural road near
the port of Acapulco. Six other violent deaths were recorded in
Ciudad Juarez including a man and his daughter were shot by gunmen
who entered his home early in the day.
(AP, 7/18/10)
2010 Jul 17, In central Nigeria
Muslims attacked a Christian village, killing eight people with
machetes and burning seven houses and a church in fresh religious
violence.
(AFP, 7/18/10)
2010 Jul 17, In northwest
Pakistan suspected militants ambushed a convoy of vehicles being
escorted by security forces, killing 18 people, including two women
in the Kurram region. 6 people were injured when two bomb blasts hit
a market in Lahore, damaging two Internet cafes. Jet fighters killed
18 militants in strikes on suspected hideouts in the Orakzai region.
(Reuters, 7/17/10)(AFP, 7/17/10)
2010 Jul 17, Gaza's Hamas
rulers banned women from smoking water pipes in cafes, calling it a
practice that destroys marriages and sullies the image of the
Palestinian people.
(AP, 7/18/10)
2010 Jul 17, In Poland
thousands of gays and lesbians from around Europe marched through
Warsaw to demand equal rights and more tolerance toward homosexuals.
(AP, 7/17/10)
2010 Jul 17, In Puerto Rico US
federal authorities arrested Jose Figueroa Agosto (45), a fugitive
alleged drug kingpin, after a decade-long chase through the
Caribbean marked by his narrow escapes and public taunting that he
paid off police to remain free.
(AP, 7/17/10)
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