Today in History - July 24
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1380 Jul 24, Giovanni da
Capistrano, Italian monk, was born. He liberated Belgrade from the
Turks and was later canonized a saint as San Juan de Capistrano. His
name was applied to the southern California mission, best known for
its annual convocation of swallows.
(MC, 7/24/02)
1505 Jul 24, On their way to
India, a group of Portuguese explorers sacked the city-state of
Kilwa, East Africa, and killed the king for failing to pay tribute.
(HN, 7/24/98)
1534 Jul 24, Jacques Cartier
landed in Canada and claimed it for France. Jacques Cartier while
probing for a northern route to Asia visited Labrador and said: "Fit
only for wild beasts... This must be the land God gave to Cain."
[see May 10]
(NG, V184, No. 4, 10/1993, p. 4)(MC, 7/24/02)
1554 Jul 24, Queen Mary of
England married Philip II, king of Spain and the Catholic son of
Emp. Charles V.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.18)(ON, 5/00, p.5)(MC, 7/24/02)
1567 Jul 24, Mary, Queen of
Scots, was imprisoned and forced to abdicate her throne to her
1-year-old son James VI.
(HN, 7/24/98)
1673 Jul 24, Edmund Halley
entered Queen's College, Oxford, as an undergraduate.
(MC, 7/24/02)
1683 Jul 24, The 1st settlers
from Germany to US left aboard the ship Concord.
(www.ulib.iupui.edu/kade/germantown.html)
1686 Jul 24, Benedetto
Marcello, composer, was born. [see Aug 1]
(MC, 7/24/02)
1701 Jul 24, Antoine de la
Mothe Cadillac established Fort Ponchartrain for France on the
future site of the city of Detroit, Michigan, in an attempt to halt
the advance of the English into the western Great Lakes region.
(HN, 7/24/98)
1704 Jul 24, Admiral George
Rooke took Gibraltar from the Spanish.
(HN, 7/24/98)
1739 Jul 24, Benedetto
Marcello, composer, died on 53rd birthday.
(MC, 7/24/02)
1749 Jul 24, Denis Diderot was
arrested in Paris during a government crackdown on writers and
publishers of subversive books. He was released Nov 3 to continued
his work on the Encyclopedie.
(ON, 4/05, p.8)
1758 Jul 24, George Washington
was admitted to Virginia House of Burgesses.
(MC, 7/24/02)
1759 Jul 24, Victor Emmanuel I,
King of Sardinia (1802-21), was born.
(MC, 7/24/02)
1763 Jul 24, Ottawa Chief
Pontiac led an uprising in the wild, distant lands that would one
day become Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
(HN, 7/24/98)
1766 Jul 24, At Fort Ontario,
Canada, Ottawa chief Pontiac and William Johnson signed a peace
agreement.
(HN, 7/24/98)
1779 Jul 24, The Siege of
Gibraltar by the Spanish and French was begun. British Gen. George
Eliott led the 5,000 man Gibraltar garrison. The siege was finally
lifted on Feb 7, 1783. In 1965 T.H. McGuffie authored "The Siege of
Gibraltar, 1779-1783).
(HN, 2/7/99)(ON, 7/01, p.8)
1783 Jul 24, Simon Bolivar
(1783-1830), was born in Caracas, Venezuela. He was a soldier
and statesmen who led armies of liberation throughout much of South
America, including Ecuador, Venezuela, Colombia, Panama, Peru and
Bolivia, which took its name from Bolivar. Bolivar, called "the
Liberator," was a leader in Venezuela for struggles of national
independence in South America. He formed a Gran Colombia that lasted
8 years but broke apart into Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador.
Bolivar died of tuberculosis.
(AHD, p.148)(SFC, 6/14/97, p.E3)(AP,
7/24/97)(HNQ, 3/30/00)
1783 Jul 24, Georgia became a
protectorate of tsarist Russia.
(MC, 7/24/02)
1786 Jul 24, Jean-Louis
Nicollet, French explorer, was born.
(HN, 7/24/02)
1791 Jul 24, Robespierre
expelled all Jacobins opposed to the principles of the French
Revolution.
(HN, 7/24/98)
1793 Jul 24, France passed the
1st copyright law.
(MC, 7/24/02)
1802 Jul 24, Alexandre Dumas
(d.1870), French novelist and dramatist who wrote "The Count of
Monte Cristo" and "The Three Musketeers," was born. Alexandre Dumas,
pere, French author of romantic plays and novels. He wrote "The Man
in the Iron Mask." He was the father of Alexandre Dumas fils
(1824-1895), French author of plays of social realism.
(HFA, '96, p.34)(AHD, 1971, p.403)(WUD, 1994,
p.441)(HN, 7/24/98)
1831 Jul 24, Maria Agata
Szymanowska (41), composer, died.
(MC, 7/24/02)
1847 Jul 24, Mormon leader
Brigham Young and his followers, the first members of Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormons), arrived in the valley
of the Great Salt Lake in present-day Utah.
(AP, 7/24/97)(HN, 7/24/98)
1858 Jul 24, During the
Illinois senatorial campaign Republican candidate Abraham Lincoln
challenged Democrat Steven Douglas to a series of joint debates,
which covered the slavery controversy and its impact on the nation.
The debates illuminated the positions of Lincoln and Douglas on
slavery, which Lincoln regarded as "a moral, a social and a
political wrong," while Douglas evaded the moral issue. Even though
Lincoln narrowly won the popular vote, Douglas prevailed in the
state legislature 54-41 and thus the election. The debates propelled
Lincoln to national prominence.
(HNPD, 9/4/99)(AP, 7/24/08)
1862 Jul 24, Union fleets
abandoned their attack on Vicksburg, Miss.
(ON, 10/02, p.12)
1862 Jul 24, Martin Van Buren
(79), the eighth president of the United States, died in Kinderhook,
N.Y.
(AP, 7/24/97)(HN, 7/24/98)
1863 Jul 24, Battle at Battle
Mountain, Virginia.
(MC, 7/24/02)
1864 Jul 24, In the Battle of
Winchester, VA, casualties numbered US1200 and CS600.
(MC, 7/24/02)
1866 Jul 24, Tennessee became
the first state to be readmitted to the Union after the Civil War.
(AP, 7/24/97)
1870 Jul 24, The 1st trans-US
rail service began.
(MC, 7/24/02)
1883 Jul 24, Matthew Webb
(b.1848), the 1st person to swim the English Channel (1875), drowned
while trying to swim across the Niagara River just below the falls.
(ON, 2/05,
p.12)(www.telfordlife.com/Capt%20Webb.htm)
1895 Jul 24, Robert Graves,
poet and novelist (Goodbye to All That), was born.
(HN, 7/24/02)
1897 Jul 24, Amelia Earhart was
born in Kansas. She was the first woman to fly solo across the
Atlantic and disappeared in the South Pacific while trying to fly
around the world. Her sister Muriel (d.1998 at 98) wrote a biography
of Amelia titled: "Courage Is the Price."
(SFC, 3/6/98, p.E2)(HN,
7/24/02)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amelia_Earhart)
1897 Jul 24, African-American
soldiers of the 25th Infantry Bicycle Corps arrived in St.
Louis, Mo., after completing a 40-day bike ride from Missoula,
Montana.
(HN, 7/24/99)
1900 Jul 24, Zelda Sayre,
writer (Save me the Waltz) was born.
(HN, 7/24/02)
1911 Jul 24, Hiram Bingham,
American explorer, was led by local guides to a Lost City of the
Incas. He explored several Inca ruins and the mountaintop citadel of
Machu Pichu. He was in search of the lost city of Vilcabamba, the
Inca’s legendary last refuge from the invading Spaniards. Bingham
was an archeologist from Yale and later served as a Connecticut
governor and US senator. In 1948 Bingham authored “Lost City of the
Incas.”
(NG, Oct. 1988, p. 543)(SFC, 5/13/98,
p.C4)(www.tambotours.com/binghamtrek.html)(WSJ, 11/1/08, p.W18)
1915 Jul 24, Excursion ship
Eastland capsized in Lake Michigan and 852 die.
(MC, 7/24/02)
1916 Jul 24, John D. MacDonald,
author was born.
(HN, 7/24/02)
1917 Jul 24, The sailing vessel
R.P. Rithet caught fire and burned at sea. Captain Knut Lindberg
(1865-1935) and crew took to a lifeboat and sailed nearly 1000 miles
to Port Allen, Kauai, Hawaii. All 14 men and officers survived. The
1080 ton steel bark was built at Port Glasgow in 1892 for C. Brewer
& Co. Matson bought it in 1908 and installed auxiliary diesel
engines c. 1916.
(SSFC, 10/17/10, DB
p.46)(www.usmm.org/matson.html)
1919 Jul 24, A race riot in
Washington, DC, left 6 killed and 100 wounded.
(MC, 7/24/02)
1919 Jul 24, LaVerne Noyes
(b.1849), American inventor, died. His inventions included the
akromotor, a device that converted wind to electricity, and a
dictionary holder.
(http://eos.lib.uchicago.edu/e/spcl/excat/donors2.html#d)
1920 Jul 24, Bella Abzug, the
first Jewish woman elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, was
born.
(HN, 7/24/98)
1923 Jul 24, The Treaty of
Lausanne, which settled the boundaries of modern Greece and Turkey,
was concluded in Switzerland. It replaced the Treaty of Sevres and
divided the lands inhabited by the Kurds between Turkey, Iraq and
Syria. Article 39 allowed Turkish nationals to use any language they
wished in commerce, public and private meetings, and publications.
The treaty specifically protected the rights of the Armenian, Greek
and Jewish communities. The former provinces of Baghdad, Basra and
Mosul were lumped together to form Iraq. Both countries agreed to a
massive exchange of religious minorities. Christians were deported
from Turkey to Greece and Muslims from Greece to Turkey. In 2006
Bruce Clark authored “Twice a Stranger: The Mass Expulsions that
Forged Modern Greece and Turkey.”
(WSJ, 3/20/97, p.A17)(AP, 7/24/97)(SSFC,
12/22/02, p.A14)(Econ, 3/19/05, Survey p.9)(Econ, 10/14/06,
p.50)(Econ, 12/9/06, p.92)
1924 Jul 24, Palmer Cox
(b.1840), Canadian artist and writer, died. He wrote and illustrated
children’s stories about brownies, little elves from Scottish
folklore. 2 dozen of his stories were collected and published in
1887 as “The Brownies: Their Book.” His characters inspired the name
for a Kodak camera and for young girl scouts.
(SFC, 10/19/05,
p.G2)(http://freemasonry.bcy.ca/biography/cox_p/cox_p.html)
1927 Jul 24, In Ypres, Belgium,
the Menin Gate was unveiled. it built to honor the soldiers who died
at the Ypres Salient front during WWI. The gate is inscribed with
the names of 54,896 soldiers who died but have no graves.
(SSFC, 11/7/10,
p.M2)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menin_Gate)
1929 Jul 24, President Hoover
proclaimed the Kellogg-Briand Pact, which renounced war as an
instrument of foreign policy.
(AP, 7/24/97)
1935 Jul 24, Pat Oliphant,
political cartoonist, was born.
(MC, 7/24/02)
1935 Jul 24, Mel Ramos, pop
artist, was born in Sacramento, Ca.
(www.rogallery.com/ramos_mel/ramos_biography.htm)
1937 Jul 24, The state of
Alabama dropped charges against 4 black men accused of raping two
white women in the so-called Scottsboro case.
(AP,
7/24/97)(www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/FTrials/scottsboro/SB_chron.html)
1938 Jul 24, Instant coffee was
invented. Nestle came up with the first instant coffee after 8 years
of experiments.
(SFEC, 2/7/99, Z1 p.8)(MC, 7/24/02)
1941 Jul 24, The U.S.
government denounced Japanese actions in Indochina.
(HN, 7/24/98)
1941 Jul 24, Nazis massacred
the entire Jewish population of Grodz, Lithuania.
(MC, 7/24/02)
1942 Jul 24, The Soviet city of
Rostov was captured by German troops.
(HN, 7/24/98)
1943 Jul 24, The U.S. submarine
Tinosa fired 15 torpedoes at a lone Japanese merchant ship, but none
detonated.
(HN, 7/24/98)
1943 Jul 24-1943-Aug 2, The RAF
and American planes bombed Hamburg. Firestorms from the bombing left
at least 40,000 dead in the 1st 3 days. American B-17 Fortresses
flew 252 daylight sorties in the two days following the first of 4
RAF night raids. Sir Arthur Harris directed 4 major raids against
Hamburg in the space of ten nights, known as “Operation Gomorrah.”
(www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/2WWhamburg.htm)
1944 Jul 24, Soviet forces
liberated the Majdanek concentration camp.
(MC, 7/24/02)
1945 Jul 24, U.S. Navy bombers
sank the Japanese battleship-carrier Hyuga in shallow waters off
Kure, Japan.
(HN, 7/24/00)
1948 Jul 24, Henry A. Wallace
accepted the presidential nomination of the Progressive Party in
Philadelphia.
(AP, 7/24/08)
1950 Jul 24, The U.S. Fifth Air
Force relocated from Japan to Korea.
(HN, 7/24/98)
1950 Jul 24, Robert W.
Lehnhoff, [Executioner of Groningen], SS Führer, was executed.
(www.homestead.com/andakerkhoven/Story6.html)
1951 Jul 24, Dr. Albert C.
Barnes, eccentric collector of impressionist art, died in an
automobile crash. [see 1925 Barnes] His will specified that his art
collection be kept forever in Lower Merion Township, Pa. In 2004 a
judge allowed trustees to move the collection to Philadelphia.
(WSJ, 11/28/95, p.A-12)(SFC, 12/15/04,
p.E5)(www.barnesfoundation.org/h_bio.html)
1952 Jul 24, President Truman
announced a settlement in a 53-day steel strike.
(AP, 7/24/02)
1952 Jul 24, Pres. Truman
commuted Oscar Collazo’s death sentence to life imprisonment. On the
same day he signed an act enlarging the self-government of Puerto
Rico. [See Nov 1, 1950]
(AP, 11/1/97)(HN, 11/1/98)(HNQ, 1/24/02)
1952 Jul 24, In Iraq-Jordan a
disgusted military overthrew the corrupt government of King Farouk.
(MC, 7/24/02)
1956 Jul 24, Dean Martin and
Jerry Lewis performed for the last time at the Copacabana Club in
NYC after a decade together as the country's most popular comedy
team.
(SSFC, 10/23/05, Par p.5)
1956 Jul 24, Brendan Behan's
"Quare Fellow," premiered in London.
(MC, 7/24/02)
1958 Jul 24, Jack Kilby
(1923-2005) of Texas Instruments came up with the idea for creating
the 1st integrated circuit on a piece of silicon. By September 12 he
made a working prototype.
(SFC, 10/11/00, p.A6)(SFC, 6/22/05, p.A5)(Econ,
7/25/05, p.75)
1959 Jul 24, During a visit to
the Soviet Union, VP Richard M. Nixon got into a "kitchen debate"
with Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev at a US exhibition. Nixon
correctly said that the $100-a-month mortgage for the model ranch
house was well within the reach of a typical American steelworker.
(AP, 7/24/97)(Econ, 5/26/07, p.33)
1961 Jul 24, Roger Maris hit 4
home runs in a doubleheader.
(MC, 7/24/02)
1961 Jul 24, A US commercial
plane was hijacked to Cuba and began a trend.
(MC, 7/24/02)
1964 Jul 24-27, A race riot
took place in Rochester, New York, and 4 people were killed.
(MC, 7/24/02)
1966 Jul 24, Oakland-born
golfer Tony Lema (32), while flying with his wife Betty to an
exhibition match in Chicago, Illinois, crashed on the seventh hole
of a golf course in Lansing, Illinois, after their chartered
twin-engine Beechcraft Bonanza ran out of fuel. All four people on
board were killed.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Lema)
1967 Jul 24, Race riots took
place in Cambridge, Maryland.
(MC, 7/24/02)
1967 Jul 24, Race riots in
Detroit forced the postponement of a Tigers-Orioles baseball game.
[see Jul 23-30]
(MC, 7/24/02)
1967 Jul 24, French President
Charles de Gaulle stirred controversy during a visit to Montreal,
Canada, when he declared, ''Vive le Quebec libre!'' (Long live free
Quebec!).
(AP, 7/24/07)
1969 Jul 24, The Apollo XI
astronauts, two of whom had been the first men to set foot on the
moon, splashed down safely in the Pacific.
(V.D.-H.K.p.182, 341)(AP, 7/24/97)
1969 Jul 24, Petroleos del Peru
(PETROPERU S.A.) was created (law No.17753) as a state-owned entity.
(http://tinyurl.com/554vke)
1970 Jul 24, Pres. Nixon signed
the Failing Newspaper Act (Newspaper Preservation Act) allowing
papers in the same market to cut costs by merging some of their
operations.
(SFC, 10/21/09,
p.D5)(www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-25372134_ITM)
1970 Jul 24, Freddie Mac
(Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp.), a stockholder-owned corporation,
was chartered by Congress to keep money flowing to mortgage lenders
in support of homeownership and rental housing. Preston Martin
(1923-2007) helped spearhead its creation. It was listed as a public
company in 1989.
(WSJ, 6/2/07,
p.A5)(www.freddiemac.com/investors/faq.html)(Econ, 7/19/08, p.80)
1970 Jul 24, Robert B. Choate
(d.2009 at 84), an engineer turned consumer advocate, testified on
nutrition information for consumers at a Senate subcommittee hearing
and used data supplied by cereal manufacturers. He ranked 60
cereals, including Sugar Smacks, Froot Loops, and Lucky charms, by
their nutritive value, showing that 40 products offered such poor
nourishment that they were essentially “empty calories.”
(SFC, 5/22/09, p.B6)(http://tinyurl.com/qy7rgb)
1970 Jul 24, In Laos Capt.
Donald Bloodworth and his pilot were lost on a night reconnaissance
mission in a F-4D fighter-bomber. Bloodworth’s remains were returned
to the US in 1998.
(SFEC, 2/1/98, p.A14)
1971 Jul 24, The White House
Plumbers unit formed to stop the leaking (hence "plumbers") of
classified information to the news media during the Nixon
administration.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_House_Plumbers)
1971 Jul 24, The Berne
Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works was
promulgated in Paris. It was first accepted in Berne in 1886 at the
instigation of Victor Hugo.
(www.ifla.org.sg/documents/infopol/copyright/ucc.txt)(PNI, 2/5/97,
p.4)
1972 Jul 24, Bhutan’s King
Jigme Dorji Wangchuck died while on safari in Kenya. His son Jigme
Druk Gyalpo Jigme Singye Wangchuck (b.1955), the 4th of his dynasty,
became king.
(WSJ, 3/6/97, p.A1)(SFEC, 2/23/96, p.T5)(SSFC,
3/17/02, p.C10)
1973 Jul 24, Testifying before
the Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities (the Ervin
Committee), John Ehrlichman, aide to President Richard Nixon,
asserted that the burglary of anti-war activist Daniel Ellsberg's
psychiatrist's office was within the constitutional powers of the
president. The televised committee hearings exposed a wide range of
activities, including a secret White House program of harassment and
IRS audits of political enemies, burglaries, wiretaps, forging of
State Department documents, a secret fund to finance spying and
sabotage of Democratic Party primary campaigns and more that
culminated in the House vote for impeachment and the Nixon's
resignation on August 9, 1974.
(HNQ,
10/9/98)(www.watergate.info/chronology/1973.shtml)
1974 Jul 24, The U.S. Supreme
Court unanimously ruled that President Nixon had to turn over
subpoenaed White House tape recordings to the Watergate special
prosecutor.
(AP, 7/24/97)(HN, 7/24/98)
1975 Jul 24, An "Apollo"
spacecraft splashed down in the Pacific, completing a mission which
included the first-ever docking with a "Soyuz" capsule from the
Soviet Union.
(AP, 7/24/00)
1978 Jul 24, The Beatles’
animated film "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" premiered in
the US.
(www.imdb.com/title/tt0078239/)
1978 Jul 24, Chile’s Air Force
Gen'l. Gustavo Leigh Guzman was demoted. He was the first junta
member to urge the restoration of civilian rule.
(SFC, 9/30/99,
p.A31)(www.chipsites.com/derechos/1978_eng.html)
1980 Jul 24, Peter Sellers
(b.1925), British actor, died in London of a heart attack. His films
included the Pink Panther series, “The Mouse that Roared” (1959) and
“Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the
Bomb” (1964).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Sellers)
1982 Jul 24, Anna Paquin, Oscar
winning actress (Piano), was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Paquin)
1983 Jul 24, In Sri Lanka
island-wide anti-Tamil riots broke out in retaliation for the deaths
of soldiers the day before and some 400 people died. This marked the
beginning of the civil war.
(SFC, 7/24/96, p.A9)(WSJ, 6/29/95, p.A-1)
1984 Jul 24, In American Fort,
Utah, Ron and Dan Lafferty stabbed to death their sister-in-law,
Brenda Lafferty, and her daughter Erica, aged 15 months. In 2003 Jon
Krakauer authored "Under the Banner of Heaven," an account of the
murder and the Mormon background of the Laffertys.
(WSJ, 7/11/03, p.W15)
1986 Jul 24, Jerry A. Whitworth
(47), retired US Navy warrant officer, was convicted in SF for his
role in a Soviet spy ring. The government called it the most
damaging espionage case since World War II. On August 28 Whitworth
was given a 365-year sentence and ordered to pay $410,000.
(http://tinyurl.com/5r9fq8)(AP, 8/28/06)
1987 Jul 24, The re-flagged
Kuwaiti supertanker Bridgeton was damaged after hitting a mine in
the Persian Gulf.
(AP, 7/24/97)
1987 Jul 24,
Hulda Crooks, a 91-year-old mountaineer from California, became the
oldest woman to conquer Mount Fuji, Japan's highest peak.
(AP, 7/24/97)
1987 Jul 24, Tamil Tiger leader
Velupillai Prabhakaran arrived in India to sign a peace agreement
with the Sri Lankan government. Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi
brokered the agreement with Sri Lanka delivering autonomy to Tamil
areas in exchange for an end to the war. The peace agreement was
signed by Junius Richard Jayewardene, president of Sri Lanka.
(SFC, 7/24/96, p.A9)(SFE, 9/16/96, p.A9)(SFC,
11/2/96, p.A21)
1988 Jul 24, On the campaign
trail, Republican George Bush heard chants of "ERA," a reference to
the proposed Equal Rights Amendment, from members of a professional
women's group in Albuquerque, N.M. Democratic nominee Michael
Dukakis was heckled by anti-abortion protesters in St. Louis.
(AP, 7/24/98)
1989 Jul 24, President Bush
said he was "aggrieved" about allegations that veteran U.S. diplomat
Felix S. Bloch might have spied for the Soviet Union.
(AP, 7/24/99)
1989 Jul 24, Japan’s PM Sousuke
Uno (1922-1998) resigned in the wake of Japan's ruling party's
defeat. Uno resigned amid a scandal involving his geisha mistress.
Criticism focused on allegations that he treated her in a miserly
fashion.
(http://openweb.tvnews.vanderbilt.edu/1989-7/1989-07-24-ABC-11.html)(SFC,
8/20/96, p.A18)
1990 Jul 24, Iraq, accusing
Kuwait of conspiring to harm its economy through oil overproduction,
massed tens of thousands of troops and hundreds of tanks along the
Iraqi-Kuwaiti border. US warships in Persian Gulf were placed on
alert.
(AP, 7/24/00)
1991 Jul 24, Isaac
Bashevis Singer (87), Nobel Prize-winning author (1978), died in
Miami. In 2006 Florence Noiville authored “Isaac B. Singer: A Life.”
(AP, 7/24/01)(SSFC, 10/8/06, p.G6)
1991 Jul 24, India’s finance
minister Manmohan Singh presented a budget to parliament. Singh said
“the room for maneuver, to live on borrowed money or time, does not
exist anymore.” His speech marked India’s entry into global
capitalism.
(Econ, 7/23/11, p.10, 59)
1991 Jul 24, Soviet President
Mikhail S. Gorbachev announced a final agreement on a treaty
designed to preserve the Soviet federation while giving more power
to the republics.
(AP, 7/24/01)
1992 Jul 24, Members of POW-MIA
families disrupted a speech by President Bush, prompting Bush to
snap, "Would you please shut up and sit down?"
(AP, 7/24/97)
1992 Jul 24, In Bosnia Serb
prison guards at the former ceramics factory of Keraterm fired
machine guns through metal doors of "Room 3" where over 200
prisoners were trapped. The carnage continued for hours. In 2001
Dusko Sikirica (camp commander), Dragan Kolundzija and Damir Dosen
were tried at the Hague for their roles in the slaughter. Sikirica
was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Dosen and Kolundzija received 5
and 3 year sentences.
(SFC, 3/20/01, p.A11)(SFC, 11/14/01, p.A19)
1993 Jul 24, US House Ways and
Means Chairman Dan Rostenkowski denied allegations he'd received
embezzled funds, saying he had engaged in "no illegal or unethical
conduct."
(AP, 7/24/98)
1993 Jul 24, The Russian
government announced it would invalidate billions of pre-1993
rubles.
(AP, 7/24/98)
1994 Jul 24, Miguel Indurain
won his fourth consecutive Tour de France victory.
(AP, 7/24/99)
1994 Jul 24, S.F. Bailey walked
from the village of Mokwam in the Arfak Mountains of the Vogelkop
(Bird’s Head) Peninsula in Irian Jaya, Indonesia, to observe the
courtship performance of Bower bird number 4, Amblyornis inornatus.
(PacDisc. Spring/’96, p.41)
1994 Jul 24, Rwandan refugees
began trickling home after Zaire reopened the border between the two
countries; meanwhile, the first wave of a U.S. airlift arrived.
(AP, 7/24/99)
1995 Jul 24, A Palestinian
suicide bomber blew up a crowded commuter bus in Tel Aviv and killed
six Israelis and wounded 28. Hamas took responsibility.
(WSJ, 3/6/96, p. A-15)(G&M, 7/31/97,
p.A8)(AP, 7/24/00)
1996 Jul 24, Two bombs blamed
on Tamil separatists ripped through a commuter train near Colombo,
Sri Lanka, killing 64 civilians and wounding more than 400.
(WSJ, 7/25/96, p.A1)(AP, 7/24/97)
1996 Jul 24, it was reported
that 3 prisoners in Turkey have died during a hunger strike by 1,900
inmates in 33 prisons. The protests were for government transfers of
prisoners to remote locations and cancellation of visiting rights
for political prisoners.
(WSJ, 7/25/96, p.A1)
1997 Jul 24, Pres. Clinton held
a White House symposium on global warming.
(WSJ, 7/25/97, p.A1)
1997 Jul 24, William J. Brennan
(91), retired Supreme Court Justice (1956-1990), died in Arlington,
Va.
(AP,
7/24/98)(www.oyez.org/oyez/resource/legal_entity/90/)
1997 Jul 24, A Dallas jury
awarded $120 million in damages against the local Roman Catholic
diocese that ignored evidence that the priest, Rudolph Kos, sexually
abused a number of altar boys from 1977-1992. Kos was suspended in
1992. Kos pleaded guilty to 3 sex abuse charges in 1998.
(SFC, 7/25/97, p.A1)(SFC, 3/25/98, p.A3)
1997 Jul 24, In Albania a
5-month long curfew was lifted and Rexhep Mejdani, the
secretary-general of the Socialist Party and former physics
professor, was elected President by the Parliament. Since Jan. some
1,800 killings had occurred.
(SFC, 7/25/97, p.A11)
1997 Jul 24, From Algeria it
was reported that security forces killed Antar Zouabri (26), the
chief of the Armed Islamic Group.
(SFC, 7/25/97, p.A11)
1997 Jul 24, Britain proposed
to the Scots the power to legislate, tax and speak for themselves in
the European Union.
(SFC, 7/25/97, p.A10)
1998 Jul 24, A gunman burst
past a metal detector at the US Capital and killed 2 policemen,
officers Jacob Chestnut and John Gibson, and wounded a visitor.
Russell Eugene Weston Jr. (41) was captured after being shot.
(SFC, 7/25/98, p.A1)
1998 Jul 24, The motion picture
"Saving Private Ryan," starring Tom Hanks and directed by Steven
Spielberg, was released.
(AP, 7/24/08)
1998 Jul 24, A report on the
West Antarctic Ice Sheet in Science said that changes have been
detected by satellite that might indicate a future collapse.
(SFEC, 8/2/98, p.A4)
1998 Jul 24, Keizo Obuchi,
Japan’s foreign minister, won the ruling party nomination for prime
minister.
(SFC, 7/24/98, p.A14)
1999 Jul 24, President Clinton
attacked the Republicans’ $792 billion tax-cut plan in fund-raising
speeches and his weekly radio address, saying it would "imperil the
future stability of the country." House Majority Leader Dick Armey
replied that the GOP plan would help fix an unfair tax system.
(AP, 7/24/00)
1999 Jul 24, In China the
government arrested some 1,200 government officials accused of
associating with the Falun Gong.
(SFC, 7/27/99, p.A8)
1999 Jul 24, Shoukry Ayyad,
Egyptian poetry critic, died at age 78. His 20 books on Arabic
poetry, language and theater included "The Hero in Literature and
Fables," "Music of Poetry," and Language and Creativity."
(SFC, 7/27/99, p.A17)
1999 Jul 24, In Indonesia
troops killed as many as 41 people during a raid on a rebel base in
Beutong village in Aceh province. Separatist leader Teungku
Bantaqiah was among the dead. A Jakarta inquiry in Oct. found that
troops killed 54 civilians, not rebels, in Aceh. 56 students and a
teacher from an Islamic boarding school in Beutong Ateuh village
were executed. In 2000 24 soldiers and a civilian were convicted for
the June murders.
(SFC, 7/27/99, p.A10)(WSJ, 11/1/99, p.A1)(SFC,
5/18/00, p.A14)
2000 Jul 24, President Clinton
continued to mediate the Camp David Mideast summit, meeting with
Israeli, Palestinian and US negotiators.
(AP, 7/24/01)
2000 Jul 24, Georgia’s
Democratic Governor Zell Miller was appointed to the late Republican
Paul Coverdell’s Senate seat. In 2003 Miler authored "A National
Party No More."
(AP, 7/24/01)(WSJ, 11/4/03, p.D8)
2000 Jul 24, In Minneapolis,
Minn., 80 people were arrested as demonstrators protested against a
meeting of the Int’l. Society for Animal Genetics.
(SFC, 7/25/00, p.A4)
2000 Jul 24, Myanmar university
students returned to classes nearly 3.5 years after the military
shut down schools due to antigovernment protests. Loyalty pledges to
the government were required and political activity was barred.
(WSJ, 7/25/00, p.A1)(SFC, 8/23/00, p.A12)
2000 Jul 24, Michael Stone, a
pro-British paramilitary member, was freed from prison as part of
Northern Ireland’s 1998 peace accord after serving eleven years of a
life sentence for murder.
(AP, 7/24/01)
2000 Jul 24, Philippine Pres.
Joseph Estrada arrived in SF for his 1st official visit to the US.
(SFC, 7/24/00, p.A1)
2000 Jul 24, A New Zealand
soldier was killed during a clash with opponents for independence,
the 1st UN peacekeeper killed in East Timor.
(SFC, 7/25/00, p.A14)
2001 Jul 24, Larry Silverstein
signed a $3.2 billion, 99-year lease for the NYC World Trade
Center (WTC).
(WSJ, 4/30/04, p.A11)
2001 Jul 24, Victor Arimondi
(b.1942), professional model a fashion photographer, died of AIDS in
SF.
(SFC, 12/12/09, p.E4)(http://tinyurl.com/ybqcums)
2001 Jul 24, A Chinese court
sentenced two US residents to 10 years in prison on charges of
spying for Taiwan. China released Gao Zhan and Qin Guangguang two
days later.
(SFC, 7/25/01, p.A1)(AP, 7/24/02)
2001 Jul 24, In Indonesia
Megawati Sukarnoputri began her presidency while Wahid refused to
leave the presidential palace.
(WSJ, 7/25/01, p.A1)
2001 Jul 24, The Taiwan
Solidarity Union (TSU) was founded by former Pres. Lee Teng-hui. It
actively campaigned for the creation of a de jure Republic of
Taiwan. The party prided itself on being the first to include
"Taiwan" in its name.
(Econ, 7/9/11,
p.42)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiwan_Solidarity_Union)
2002 Jul 24, The US House voted
420-1 to oust Rep. James Traficant, an Ohio Democrat. On July
30 Traficant was sentenced to 8 years in prison for bribery and
racketeering.
(SFC, 7/25/02, p.A1)(SFC, 7/31/02, p.A4)(SFC,
9/2/09, p.A6)
2002 Jul 24, John Rigas (78),
CEO of Adelphia Comm. Corp., was arrested with his 2 sons on charges
of that they looted the company of more than $1 billion.
(SFC, 7/25/02, p.A1)
2002 Jul 24, The DJIA rose 488
to 8,191 and Nasdaq rose 61 to 1,290.
(SFC, 7/25/02, p.A1)
2002 Jul 24, In Pennsylvania 9
coal miners were trapped by a flood 240 feet underground. All 9 were
rescued Jul 27.
(WSJ, 7/26/02, p.A1)(SSFC, 7/28/02, p.A1)
2002 Jul 24, In Houston, Texas,
Clara Harris ran over her cheating husband with her Mercedes after
catching him with his mistress. Harris (45) was convicted of murder
Feb 13, 2003.
(SFC, 2/15/03, p.A5)
2002 Jul 24, A truck bomb
exploded in San Juan de Rioseco, Colombia, and 2 police officers
were killed.
(SFC, 7/25/02, p.A13)
2002 Jul 24, In Congo Hutu
rebels rejected a peace deal that would force them back to Rwanda.
(WSJ, 7/25/02, p.A1)
2002 Jul 24, The European Union
will give an extra $32 million to the U.N. Population Fund to help
replace the U.S. money being withheld because of concerns about
coercive abortions.
(AP, 7/24/02)
2002 Jul 24, Indonesian
prosecutors demanded that parliament speaker Akbar Tandjung be
jailed for four years over the alleged misuse of $4 million in a
politically sensitive graft scandal.
(Reuters, 7/24/02)
2002 Jul 24, In Russia PM
Mikhail Kasyanov ordered all businesses to adopt international
accounting standards by 2004.
(WSJ, 7/25/02, p.A9)
2002 Jul 24, In northern Uganda
a group of Lord's Resistance Army rebels entered Muchwini, 285 miles
north of Kampala, and killed at least 42 people.
(AP, 7/26/02)
2002 Jul 24, The UN voted 35-8
on a plan to enforce a convention on torture that called for
independent visits to prisons. The US failed to block the vote.
(SFC, 7/25/02, p.A10)(WSJ, 7/25/02, p.A1)
2003 Jul 24, The House and
Senate intelligence committees issued their final report on the
attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, citing countless blunders, oversights and
miscalculations that prevented authorities from stopping the
attackers.
(AP, 7/24/04)
2003 Jul 24, In northern Iraq 3
US soldiers died in the 2nd fatal attack on troops from the
101st Airborne Division since they tracked down and killed Saddam
Hussein's sons Uday and Qusai.
(Reuters, 7/24/03)
2003 Jul 24, Two hand grenades
exploded outside a UN police station in northern Kosovo, killing one
person and injuring four others.
(AP, 7/24/03)
2003 Jul 24, Colin McMillan, an
oilman awaiting confirmation as US Navy secretary, was found dead at
his 55,000-acre ranch in New Mexico. His death was ruled a suicide.
(SFC, 7/26/03, p.A3)
2003 Jul 24, Eleven aid workers
believed abducted by Rwandan and Burundian rebels in a restive
eastern province of war-ravaged Congo were killed.
(AP, 8/7/03)
2003 Jul 24, French lawmakers
overwhelmingly passed a pension reform bill despite weeks of
protests by people angry about having to work longer to get full
retirement benefits. PM Rafarrin managed to push through a pension
reform against union resistance with the support of CFDP, the French
Defense and Protection Company.
(AP, 7/24/03)(Econ, 4/8/06, p.49)
2003 Jul 24, The French Senate
passed a law banning the sale of cigarettes to minors under 16 and
raises the price per pack for the second time this year.
(AP, 7/24/03)
2003 Jul 24, In Guatemala
protesters demanding that former dictator Rios Montt be allowed to
run for president touched off a wave of violence that paralyzed the
capital.
(AP, 7/25/03)
2003 Jul 24, In Monrovia,
Liberia, the bloodiest mortar attack in days killed at least 12 men,
women and children.
(AP, 7/25/03)
2004 Jul 24, President Bush
said in his weekly radio address that his administration was
committed to relying on the recommendations of the Sept. 11
commission in waging the war on terrorism.
(AP, 7/24/05)
2004 Jul 24, Fred LaRue (75),
former Nixon administration official, died in Biloxi, Mississippi.
He served a prison term for Watergate.
(AP, 7/24/05)
2004 Jul 24, An online
statement by a group representing itself as al-Qaida's European
branch threatened to turn Australia into "pools of blood" if it
doesn't withdraw its troops from Iraq.
(AP, 7/25/04)
2004 Jul 24, A Tehran court
acquitted the sole defendant in the July 10, 2003, murder of an
Iranian-Canadian photojournalist. Mohammad Reza Aghdam Ahmadi had
pleaded innocent on July 17 and the trial was abruptly ended the
next day.
(AP, 7/25/04)
2004 Jul 24, Gunmen kidnapped
the head of an Iraqi government-owned construction company in
Baghdad.
(AP, 7/24/04)
2004 Jul 24, The 16th edition
of Italy's Miss Cicciona contest (Italy's Miss Chubby) began in
Forcoli, central Italy.
(AP, 7/25/04)
2004 Jul 24, In India Coal and
Mines Minister Shibu Soren resigned after an arrest warrant was
issued against him on charges of inciting arson and violence during
a rally in 1975.
(Reuters, 7/24/04)
2004 Jul 24, Militants torched
a Palestinian police station south of Gaza City.
(AP, 7/24/04)
2004 Jul 24, Sri Lanka's Tamil
Tiger rebels killed eight rivals in the worst outbreak of violence
in three months.
(AP, 7/25/04)
2004 Jul 24, It was reported
that rebels fighting an 18-year insurgency in northern Uganda have
killed at least 42 civilians in southern Sudan in the past week.
(AP, 7/24/04)
2005 Jul 24, Lance Armstrong
closed out his amazing career with a 7th consecutive Tour de France
victory.
(AP, 7/24/05)
2005 Jul 24, Four unions said
they would boycott the AFL-CIO convention in Chicago. The Service
Employees and Teamsters said they would quit the group.
(SFC, 7/25/05, p.A1)
2005 Jul 24, In southern
Afghanistan more than a dozen suspected militants attacked a US
patrol, and the resulting firefight left one American soldier dead
and another wounded. A roadside bomb exploded in eastern
Afghanistan, striking a US military convoy and wounding six American
troops.
(AP, 7/24/05)(AP, 7/25/05)
2005 Jul 24, Sir Richard Doll
(92), the British scientist who first established a link between
smoking and lung cancer, died in Oxford, England.
(AP, 7/24/06)
2005 Jul 24, In Egypt an
explosive detonated as it was being carried by Sami Gamal Ahmad
(33), to the tourist area of Kerdassa, a bazaar of souvenir shops
near the Pyramids of Giza. Ahmad was severely injured.
(AP, 7/24/05)
2005 Jul 24, In Ethiopia 6
separate bombings hit across the country's ethnic Somali province. A
5-year-old girl was among those killed in the wave of violence,
which took place before a voter registration drive.
(AP, 7/27/05)
2005 Jul 24, A 7.2 earthquake
hit India's southern Andaman and Nicobar Islands and part of
Indonesia. No tsunami came, and no injuries or damage were reported.
(AP, 7/25/05)
2005 Jul 24, Indian troops in
Kashmir killed 3 innocent teenagers after troops mistook them for
militants. Demonstrations followed among angry Kashmiri Muslims in
Jammu and Kashmir, largely Hindu India's only Muslim-majority state.
(Reuters, 7/25/05)
2005 Jul 24, Iran's state-run
media reported that its hard-line judiciary had acknowledged
widespread human rights violations in prisons, including the use of
torture.
(AP, 7/25/05)
2005 Jul 24, Iraqi police said
a suicide attacker slammed a truck loaded with explosives into sand
barriers outside a Baghdad police station, killing at least 39
people and wounding 30. A US Marine was killed in combat operations
near Rutbah. 4 US troops were killed by an improvised explosive
device (IED) in Baghdad.
(AP, 7/24/05)(SFC, 7/25/05, p.A1)(WSJ, 7/27/05,
p.A1)
2005 Jul 24, In Nepal police
used batons to break up a protest by supporters of the detained
former prime minister, leaving about 15 demonstrators and 10 police
injured.
(AP, 7/24/05)
2005 Jul 24, In northern
Nigeria a long-haul passenger bus skidded off a bridge and tumbled
into a river after the driver fell asleep, and 56 people were
killed.
(AP, 7/24/05)
2005 Jul 24, Palestinian
militants killed two Israeli motorists in the Gaza Strip. Israeli
troops killed 2 of the gunmen. A suicide bomber was caught near an
Israeli communal farm with a belt packed with 11 pounds of
explosives.
(AP, 7/24/05)(WSJ, 7/25/05, p.A1)
2005 Jul 24, Telesur, a new TV
station backed by Venezuela's government, began transmitting in
various countries across Latin America. The station, funded by
Venezuela and also backed by Argentina, Uruguay and Cuba, has drawn
concern in the US Congress, where House members last week approved a
measure to transmit radio and television broadcasts to Venezuela to
ensure citizens receive "accurate news."
(AP, 7/24/05)(Econ, 7/30/05, p.33)
2006 Jul 24, US Secretary of
State Condoleezza Rice made a surprise visit to Lebanon to launch
diplomatic efforts aimed at ending 13 days of warfare.
(AP, 7/24/06)
2006 Jul 24, Amnesty Int’l.
issued a report saying security agents in Jordan were torturing
terrorism suspects on behalf of the US.
(WSJ, 7/24/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 24, The US FDA
approved Anthelios SX, a sunscreen that protects against a type of
ultra-violet radiation linked to skin cancer.
(SFC, 7/25/06, p.A4)
2006 Jul 24, Rescuers from the
US Coast Guard and Alaska Air National Guard saved 23 crew members
from a cargo ship taking on water south of the Aleutian Islands.
(AP, 7/24/07)
2006 Jul 24, Police officers in
Salt Lake City found the body of missing 5-year-old Destiny Norton
in the basement of a home in her neighborhood and arrested Craig R.
Gregerson (20) who lived there. Destiny disappeared from outside her
house on July 16.
(AP, 7/25/06)
2006 Jul 24, SF City Attorney
Dennis Herrera announced that his office had obtained a civil
injunction and $20,000 in penalties against Carlos Romero for his
graffiti. This marked the 1st time SF has filed a civil suit against
a graffiti tagger.
(SFC, 7/25/06, p.A4)
2006 Jul 24, HCA Inc., the
largest US for-profit hospital operator, has agreed to be purchased
by a group of investors for about $21.3 billion plus the assumption
of $11.7 billion in debt. Shareholders of the Nashville-based
company, which was founded by the family of Senate Majority Leader
Bill Frist, will receive $51 in cash for each share of common stock.
(AP, 7/24/06)
2006 Jul 24, Power companies
worked to restore electricity to thousands of customers throughout
California as a scorching heat wave threatened to push the state
into a power emergency with the potential for more blackouts. Storm
problems cut power to areas of New York and Missouri.
(AP, 7/24/06)(WSJ, 7/25/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 24, It was reported
that Jeff Bezos (42), founder of Amazon.com, planned to develop a
private spaceport at his private ranch in West Texas. A draft
environmental review was filed with the FAA and a timetable set
commercial flights to begin in 2010.
(SFC, 7/24/06, p.A2)
2006 Jul 24, In southwestern
Afghanistan hundreds of Taliban fighters firing rocket-propelled
grenades attacked a district headquarters overnight in Farah,
killing 3 police and wounding 7. Four suspected suicide attackers
riding two motorcycles died in a confrontation with Afghan police.
In the west, gunmen killed two Afghans working for international aid
agency World Vision who had been delivering medicine. Fighting in
Kunar province left a US soldier dead. 7 suspected Taliban were
killed in Paktika province.
(AP, 7/25/06)(WSJ, 7/25/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 24, In Belarus leftist
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez exchanged declarations of
solidarity with the authoritarian leader of isolated Belarus, who
shares his anti-US views. During the talks with Lukashenko, the two
sides signed seven agreements on military-technical cooperation,
economic and other ties as well as a declaration pledging a
strategic partnership. Bilateral trade was just under $16 million in
2005.
(AP, 7/24/06)
2006 Jul 24, In Colombia 13
doctors were abducted by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia,
or FARC. They were on a 10-day mission to remote communities and
Indian tribes in Putumayo province.
(AP, 7/25/06)
2006 Jul 24, A UNICEF report
said more than 600 children die every day in war-ravaged Congo and
even more are displaced, sexually abused or swept into the camps of
combatant groups.
(AP, 7/24/06)
2006 Jul 24, Costa Rica relaxed
visa requirements for visitors from 102 nations, in the Central
American country's most sweeping migration reform in decades.
(AP, 7/24/06)
2006 Jul 24, Hungary’s central
bank raised its core interest rate half a percentage point to 6.75%
in an aggressive move to stabilize its currency. This followed a
quarter point raise in June. Inflation stood at 2.8%.
(WSJ, 7/25/06, p.A8)(Econ, 8/5/06, p.64)
2006 Jul 24, A UN report on the
economic impact of HIV/AIDS in India estimated infections there,
currently over 5 million, could increase to 20-25 million by 2010.
(WSJ, 7/24/06, p.A6)
2006 Jul 24, Hezbollah's
representative in Iran struck a defiant tone, warning that his
Islamic militant group plans to widen its attacks on Israel until
"no place" is safe for Israelis.
(AP, 7/24/06)
2006 Jul 24, Iraqi PM Nuri
al-Maliki condemned Israel's bombing of Lebanon's civilian
infrastructure and vowed to push for a ceasefire during talks with
his British PM Tony Blair. Gunmen ambushed an Iraqi police unit in
central Baghdad, triggering a gunbattle in which six officers were
killed and 30 were wounded. Mahmoud Ali Hussein al-Nida, the head of
Saddam Hussein's Baijat tribe, was killed when gunmen attacked a
meeting in the office of a prominent sheik in Tikrit. The gunmen
also killed a lawyer and wounded sheik Mizahim al-Mustafa. Two other
civilians caught in the crossfire also were killed.
(AFP, 7/24/06)(AFP, 7/25/06)(AP, 7/25/06)
2006 Jul 24, Israeli ground
forces pushed deeper into Lebanon in heavy fighting with Hezbollah
guerrillas. An Israeli Apache helicopter crashed near the Lebanese
border while attempting an emergency landing, and there were two
casualties.
(AP, 7/24/06)
2006 Jul 24, Israeli artillery
shelled a town in the Gaza Strip used by Palestinian militants to
fire rockets, and hospital officials said three Palestinians were
killed and eight were wounded.
(AP, 7/24/06)
2006 Jul 24, Kosovo formally
made its pitch for independence in Vienna, Austria, face-to-face
with Serbia at their 1st top-level talks since NATO bombs drove Serb
forces from the province in 1999.
(AP, 7/24/06)
2006 Jul 24, Liberia began
training the first soldiers of a post-war army that officials hope
will grow into a small but effective force to take over peacekeeping
from UN troops.
(AP, 7/24/06)
2006 Jul 24, A Malaysian
princess was stabbed to death by her son as she tried to stop him
from attacking her husband (74). The son (21) later died of an
apparent drug overdose. Tengku Puteri Kamariah, whose brother is
Sultan Ahmad Shah, ruler of the eastern state of Pahang, died at her
home in Pekan town, Pahang.
(AP, 7/25/06)
2006 Jul 24, Gunmen raided a
pharmaceutical laboratory in Mexico City, killing four guards and
stealing about a ton of ephedrine, a key ingredient in making
methamphetamine.
(AP, 7/24/06)
2006 Jul 24, In Sudan’s South
Darfur's vast Kalma camp, 17 women were raped by armed militiamen as
they went out to collect firewood.
(Reuters, 7/29/06)
2006 Jul 24, WTO members in
Geneva called a halt to more than five years of commerce
liberalization talks (the Doha talks) as differences over farm aid
proved unbridgeable. The 25-nation EU criticized US intransigence
over agricultural subsidies for the breakdown, while the US blamed
Brazil and India for being inflexible on cutting barriers to
industrial imports and the EU for refusing to make deeper cuts in
its farm import tariffs.
(AP, 7/24/06)
2007 Jul 24, President Bush,
speaking at Charleston Air Force Base in South Carolina, sought to
justify the Iraq war by citing intelligence reports he said showed a
link between al-Qaida's operation in Iraq and the terror group that
attacked the United States on Sept. 11.
(AP, 7/24/08)
2007 Jul 24, The US minimum
wage rose 70 cents to $5.85 an hour, the first increase in a decade.
(AP, 7/24/07)
2007 Jul 24, A grand jury in
New Orleans refused to indict Dr. Anna Pou, who was accused of
murdering four seriously ill hospital patients with drug injections
during the desperate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
(AP, 7/24/08)
2007 Jul 24, Prosecutor’s in
California’s Contra Costa County announced charges against 34
students of graduates of Pleasant Hill community college for changes
to transcript grades in exchange for cash.
(SFC, 7/25/07, p.A1)
2007 Jul 24, Florida began
distributing playing cards to prison inmates with pictures and
information regarding unsolved murder and missing person cases.
(SFC, 7/25/07, p.A5)
2007 Jul 24, Westinghouse
Electric Co., majority-owned by Toshiba Corp., signed a
multi-billion-dollar contract to build 4 nuclear reactors in China.
(WSJ, 1/25/07, p.A10)
2007 Jul 24, Intel Corp. said
it has fabricated the first modulator made from silicon that can
encode data onto a beam of light at a rate of 40 billion bits per
second (gigabits). Such speeds represented a rate 40 times faster
than most corporate data networks.
(WSJ, 1/25/07, p.B4)
2007 Jul 24, Albert Ellis
(b.1913), influential founded of a school of psychotherapy, died in
NYC. In 1955 developed Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy, which
stressed self-control.
(WSJ, 1/25/07,
p.A1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Ellis)
2007 Jul 24, Jolee Mohr (36)
died in Chicago just weeks after beginning an experimental gene
therapy treatment from Targeted Genetics to ease the pain the
rheumatoid arthritis in her knee. Doctors later suspected an
infection of Histoplasma capsulatum.
(SSFC, 9/16/07, p.A21)(SFC, 9/18/07, p.A4)
2007 Jul 24, Riley Ann Sawyers
(2) died after being whipped with belts and flung across a room like
a rag doll. On October 29 her body, dubbed Baby Grace, was found
inside a plastic box in Galveston Bay. In 2009 a jury convicted
Riley's mother, Kimberly Dawn Trenor (20), of capital murder. The
conviction brought an automatic sentence of life in prison without
parole. Her husband, Royce Clyde Zeigler II (25), was convicted of
capital murder on Nov 6, 2009, and was also expected to receive a
life sentence.
(AP, 2/3/09)(SFC, 11/7/09,
p.A4)(http://baby.grace.50megs.com/)
2007 Jul 24, Bamir Topi (50), a
biologist, was sworn in as Albania's president, promising to help
the poor Balkan country to become a member of NATO and the European
Union. Topi was elected to a five-year term by parliament on July 20
after some opposition lawmakers ended their coalition's boycott and
supported his appointment.
(AP, 7/25/07)(Econ, 8/18/07, p.43)
2007 Jul 24, Former Bangladesh
PM Sheikh Hasina was charged with extortion for allegedly demanding
hundreds of thousands of dollars from a company seeking to build a
power station.
(AP, 7/24/07)
2007 Jul 24, Five Bulgarian
nurses and a Palestinian doctor, sentenced to life in prison in
Libya for allegedly infecting children with HIV, came home to
Bulgaria and were greeted with tears and hugs, and a presidential
pardon that allowed them to walk free after 8 1/2 years behind bars.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Qatar mediated the release and
hinted the Gulf country may have had a broader role in resolving the
crisis.
(AP, 7/24/07)
2007 Jul 24, Cameroon President
Paul Biya's governing party won a crushing victory in weekend polls
as the opposition cried foul, saying the west African nation had not
staged fair elections in years.
(AP, 7/24/07)
2007 Jul 24, In Canada a
pipeline in a Vancouver suburb was ruptured, sending a geyser of oil
shooting 12 meters (40 feet) into the air, coating neighborhood
streets and spilling crude into an ocean inlet.
(Reuters, 7/24/07)
2007 Jul 24, Chinese officials
said the FBI and Chinese police have busted two software piracy
gangs and seized programs worth an estimated $500 million in a joint
campaign that began in 2005.
(AP, 7/24/07)
2007 Jul 24, Heavy rain and
extreme temperatures continued to batter Europe, with Britain caught
in its worst floods in living memory while the Balkans sizzled in
heatwaves that killed at least 35 people.
(AP, 7/24/07)
2007 Jul 24, The US and Iranian
ambassadors to Iraq also began talks in Baghdad in a bid to find
ways to use their influence to bring stability to Iraq. A suicide
bomber struck a busy commercial center in the Shiite city of Hillah,
killing at least 24 people and wounding dozens as the streets were
packed with shoppers and commuters.
(AP, 7/24/07)
2007 Jul 24, Nigerian President
Umaru Yar'Adua ordered the release of funds belonging to the
government of the economic capital Lagos seized three years ago by
his predecessor. Suspected ransom-seekers kidnapped the mother of
the speaker of the state house of assembly in neighboring Bayelsa
state.
(AP, 7/24/07)(AP, 7/25/07)
2007 Jul 24, Abdullah Mehsud, a
former Guantanamo Bay inmate who led pro-Taliban militants in
Pakistan after his release, died when he blew himself up with a
grenade to avoid arrest. He was released in March 2004 and quickly
took up arms again, leading militants in South Waziristan. The
beheaded bodies of two soldiers abducted the previous night were
found in the Bajur tribal area.
(AP, 7/24/07)
2007 Jul 24, Mohammed Radad
(20), was shot by Fatah-allied gunmen, when students aligned with
the rival groups clashes on the campus of An Najah University in
Nablus. Radad died from his wounds on July 27.
(AP, 7/27/07)
2007 Jul 24, Human Rights Watch
said Rwandan police have killed at least 20 detainees in custody
since November.
(AFP, 7/24/07)
2007 Jul 24, Barcelona, Spain,
faced Day Two of a major power outage.
(AP, 7/24/07)
2008 Jul 24, The US confirmed
that it planned to shift 230 million dollars in aid to Pakistan from
counter-terrorism programs to upgrading the country's F-16 fighter
jets.
(AFP, 7/24/08)
2008 Jul 24, New York Attorney
General Andrew Cuomo sued banking giant UBS for fraud, accusing the
company of marketing tens of billions of dollars of auction-rate
securities as safe even when they knew the investments were in
trouble.
(AP, 7/25/08)
2008 Jul 24, The US CDC
reported that at least 1,013 people had died between 2005 and 2007 a
street version of the painkiller fentanyl. Many deaths were likely
unreported.
(WSJ, 7/25/08, p.A12)
2008 Jul 24, NASA released
findings that indicate magnetic explosions about one-third of the
way to the moon cause the northern lights, or aurora borealis, to
burst in spectacular shapes and colors, and dance across the sky.
(AP, 7/24/08)
2008 Jul 24, Ford Motor Co.
posted the worst quarterly performance in its history, losing $8.67
billion in the second quarter.
(AP, 7/24/08)
2008 Jul 24, It was reported
that the sabal palm, the Florida’s state tree, was under attack by a
microscopic killer and had scientists stumped.
(SFC, 7/24/08, p.A6)
2008 Jul 24, In southern
Afghanistan insurgents attacked an Afghan military convoy in Zabul
province and 35 militants were killed after the army called for
assistance from the US-led coalition. A British army dog handler was
fatally shot by insurgents.
(AP, 7/24/08)(AP, 7/25/08)
2008 Jul 24, Hundreds of
Anglican bishops from around the world were among 1,500 people who
marched through central London calling for urgent action to tackle
global poverty.
(AFP, 7/24/08)
2008 Jul 24, Max Mosley (68),
motor racing chief and son of Britain's 1930s Fascist leader Oswald
Mosley, won 60,000 pounds ($119,100) in damages at London's High
Court from the News of the World newspaper for breaching his privacy
by reporting details of a German-themed sex session with five
prostitutes.
(Reuters, 7/26/08)
2008 Jul 24, Ten insurgents and
two Cameroonian soldiers were killed in a rebel attack in the
oil-rich Bakassi peninsula. The rebels, who call themselves the
Niger Delta Defense and Security Council, oppose Cameroon's
ownership of the West African peninsula, which is also claimed by
Nigeria.
(AP, 7/25/08)
2008 Jul 24, In Ecuador a
special assembly approved a new 444-article draft constitution
granting its leftist president broad powers, including the ability
to dissolve Congress and set monetary policy, and freeing him to run
for office through 2017.
(AP, 7/25/08)(Econ, 8/2/08, p.40)
2008 Jul 24, French PM Francois
Fillon said a 15% cut in military manpower and base closings will
save billions of dollars. The military ranks will be cut by 54,000.
(SFC, 7/25/08, p.A12)
2008 Jul 24, French giant
automaker Renault said it will cut about 5,000 jobs in Europe among
measures to reduce costs by 10 percent as it prepares for a sharp
and possibly rocky downturn.
(AFP, 7/24/08)
2008 Jul 24, In Germany US
presidential candidate Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela
Merkel discussed the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as climate
and energy issues at Germany's chancellery. Obama stood before an
enormous crowd in Berlin and summoned Europeans and Americans to
work together to "defeat terror and dry up the well of extremism
that supports it."
(AP, 7/24/08)
2008 Jul 24, In northern
Baghdad gunmen in a speeding car opened fire on two different
awakening council checkpoints in the Azamiyah neighborhood killing
three of its guards and leaving another wounded. A female suicide
bomber blew herself up near US-allied Sunni Arab fighters walking in
a crowded area of Baqouba, killing at least eight of the guards and
wounding 24 other people.
(AP, 7/24/08)
2008 Jul 24, Iraq was told it's
not welcome to the Beijing Olympics because of a political feud in
Baghdad that angered the games' guardians and exiled a country that
arrived to a roaring ovation at the opening ceremony four years ago.
(AP, 7/25/08)
2008 Jul 24, An Israeli
official said a key committee has approved construction of the first
new Jewish settlement in the West Bank in a decade. The news
infuriated Palestinians, who said the decision could cripple peace
efforts.
(AP, 7/24/08)
2008 Jul 24, In Indian Kashmir
a suspected Islamic militant threw a hand grenade at a group of
migrant laborers, killing a woman and her four children in one of
two attacks that claimed a total of nine lives.
(AP, 7/24/08)
2008 Jul 24, Libya said it will
halt fuel supplies to key oil client Switzerland in the latest
reprisal for last week's brief detention in Geneva of a son of
Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi.
(AFP, 7/24/08)
2008 Jul 24, In Mexico state
prison chief Salvador Barreno was shot and killed as he drove in
Ciudad Juarez, across from El Paso, Texas. His bodyguard was also
killed. 3 other men died in a separate shooting minutes later.
(AP, 7/25/08)
2008 Jul 24, In Nigeria a
petrol tanker burst into flames main in the main city of Lagos,
killing at least 12 people and leaving several others with severe
burns. 5 eastern European oil workers were abducted from a Swedish
boat in the Niger delta. The 5 Russian oil workers were released on
July 26.
(AFP, 7/24/08)(AP, 7/26/08)(AP, 7/28/08)
2008 Jul 24, In southern Norway
a group of men armed with bats and iron bars attacked a center for
political asylum-seekers, leaving more than 20 people injured.
(AP, 7/25/08)
2008 Jul 24, In the southern
Philippines a homemade bomb ripped through a commuter bus, wounding
27 people. In North Cotabato province communist rebels attacked a
banana farm associated with Dole Foods Co. and a land mine hit a
security vehicle rushing to intervene, killing one and wounding
three others.
(AP, 7/24/08)
2008 Jul 24, In Singapore North
Korea's reclusive communist regime, long seen as a nuclear threat to
the region, signed a nonaggression pact with Southeast Asia, in a
largely symbolic move. The Treaty of Amity and Cooperation (TAC)
with the Association of the Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) came
into force in 1976, requires signatories to renounce the use or
threat of force and calls for the peaceful settlement of conflicts.
(AP, 7/24/08)
2008 Jul 24, In South Africa
talks began in earnest on resolving Zimbabwe's political crisis
after President Robert Mugabe gave his senior lieutenants the final
go-ahead to negotiate power-sharing with the opposition.
(AP, 7/24/08)
2008 Jul 24, Sri Lankan forces
battled rebel gunmen deep inside the nation's northern jungles,
killing 25 guerrilla fighters and seizing new territory. Battles in
other parts of the war zone killed 13 rebels and three soldiers.
(AP, 7/24/08)(AP, 7/25/08)
2008 Jul 24, In Suriname a boy
(12) stabbed and killed a 9-year-old girl in front of her classmates
and teacher at a rural elementary school.
(AP, 7/25/08)
2009 Jul 24, President Barack
Obama conceded his words, that a white police officer "acted
stupidly" when he arrested a black university scholar in his own
home, were ill-chosen. He invited both men to visit him at the White
House, but stopped short of publicly apologizing for his remark.
Obama said he had personally telephoned the two men, Harvard
professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Cambridge, Mass., police Sgt.
James Crowley, in an effort to end the rancorous back-and-forth over
the issue. The case began on July 20, when word broke that Gates
(58) had been arrested five days earlier at the 2-story home he
rents from Harvard.
(AP, 7/25/09)
2009 Jul 24, Pres. Obama
challenged states and school districts to raise academic standards
and improve teacher quality if they want a chance at some $5 billion
in new grants in the administration’s “Race to the Top” program.
(SFC, 7/25/09, p.A3)
2009 Jul 24, The United States
transferred $200 million to the Palestinian government to help ease
a growing budget deficit.
(AP, 7/24/09)
2009 Jul 24, A federal minimum
wage increase took effect. Some economists said it could prolong the
recession by forcing small businesses to lay off the same workers
that the pay hike passed in better times was meant to help. The
increase to $7.25 meant 70 cents more an hour for the lowest-paid
workers in the 30 states that have lower minimums or no minimum
wage.
(AP, 7/24/09)
2009 Jul 24, The California
Senate approved a plan to close the state's $26 billion budget
deficit, providing a glimmer of hope after weeks of fiscal gloom.
(AP, 7/24/09)
2009 Jul 24, In Oakland, Ca., a
city parking department memo ordered parking officers to avoid
enforcing neighborhood parking violations in some wealthier
neighborhoods, but to continue enforcing the same violations in the
rest of the city.
(SFC, 2/25/10, p.A1)
2009 Jul 24, Isaiah M.K. Kalebu
(23) was arrested for breaking into a Seattle home and stabbing 2
women, one fatally. Kalebu had a history of mental illness.
(SSFC, 7/26/09, p.A12)
2009 Jul 24, In Afghanistan
four Taliban were killed in a clash with foreign forces In northern
Balkh province. Fighting killed two US soldiers. NATO troops came
under fire in the east and one NATO soldier was killed. Air strikes
followed killing several insurgents. Up to 12 insurgents were killed
in a gun battle with US-led troops in the eastern province of
Nangarhar.
(AFP, 7/24/09)(AP, 7/25/09)
2009 Jul 24, Burundi army
officials said 3 of its soldiers serving with African Union
peacekeepers in Somalia have died of a mysterious illness in a
Kenyan hospital where more than 10 others are being treated.
(AFP, 7/24/09)
2009 Jul 24, Via Rail, Canada's
national passenger rail service, said it was shutting down service
after mediated talks with the Teamsters union failed to resolve a
contract dispute, and locomotive engineers walked off the job.
(Reuters, 7/24/09)
2009 Jul 24, A senior Chechen
official held talks in Norway with prominent separatist figure
Akhmed Zakayev, who said they had agreed to seek a political
settlement of rebellion in the south Russian region.
(Reuters, 7/24/09)
2009 Jul 24, In China some
30,000 steelworkers in Tonghua clashed with police in a protest over
plans to merge their mill with another company. Angry employees of
Tonghua Iron and Steel Group attacked Jianlong Steel general manager
Chen Guojun during the protest and beat him to death.
(AP, 7/25/09)
2009 Jul 24, The UN refugee
agency said 536,000 people have been chased from their homes in
eastern Congo this year as a result of clashes between government
forces and rebels linked to neighboring Rwanda's 1994 genocide.
(AP, 7/24/09)
2009 Jul 24, In southern
Croatia a passenger train derailed, killing at least six people and
injuring about 20.
(AP, 7/24/09)
2009 Jul 24, In Europe deadly
summer wild fires spread across Spain, France, Italy and Greece with
holidaymakers rescued from beaches and thousands of firefighters
brought into the battle.
(AFP, 7/24/09)
2009 Jul 24, Ousted Honduras
President Manuel Zelaya stood on the edge of his country and called
on his fellow Hondurans to resist the coup-installed government. He
then quickly retreated back to Nicaraguan territory, saying he
wanted to avoid bloodshed and give negotiations another try.
(AP, 7/25/09)
2009 Jul 24, Iran’s President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad caved into pressure from hardline clerics and
the country's supreme leader and allowed the resignation of his top
deputy, Esfandiar Rahim Mashai, who last year angered conservatives
when he made friendly comments toward Israel.
(AP, 7/25/09)
2009 Jul 24, In Iran a Russian
Ilyushin-62 plane, operated by Tehran-based Aria Airlines and
carrying 153 passengers and crew, skidded off the runway and hit a
wall while landing in the northeastern city of Mashhad. 13 of the 16
people killed in the crash were members of the crew, 9 of them from
Kazakhstan. The plane landed at high speed and the tires failed.
(AP, 7/25/09)
2009 Jul 24, In northern Iraq
Fakri Hadi Gari, the deputy commander of a radical Sunni Islamic
group linked to al-Qaida, was arrested. Ansar al-Islam is believed
by the military to be behind attacks on US and Iraqi troops in
Mosul. Gari, also known as Abu Abbas and Mullah Halgurd, was
arrested with nine other suspected members. An American soldier died
of non-combat related injuries.
(AP, 8/4/09)(AP, 7/24/09)
2009 Jul 24, In Pakistan 10
militants were killed in Buner district and 29 were arrested
elsewhere in the region. Troops killed four militants in Swat and
destroyed a training camp and a militants' cave. In Upper Dir jets
pounded a suspected Taliban base, killing at least four militants.
(AFP, 7/24/09)(AFP, 7/25/09)
2009 Jul 24, The Arctic Sea, a
Maltese-flagged bulk carrier, was boarded by 8 attackers posing as
police. The timber carrying vessel was boarded off the Swedish
coast, searched by attackers, who reportedly tied up the crew for 12
hours. It disappeared following its last communication on July 28.
The failed to arrive at the Algerian port of Bejaia on August 4 as
planned. The 4,700-ton ship, originally called Okhotsk, built in
1991, had a Russian crew of 13 and was operated by a firm based in
the Russian port of Arkhangelsk. Russian naval warships tracked down
the ship off the Cape Verde islands and freed the crew. On August 18
Russia reported that eight people from Latvia, Estonia and Russia
had been arrested for piracy. On Aug 19 Yulia Latynina, a leading
Russian opposition journalist and commentator, reported that “the
Arctic Sea was carrying some sort of anti-aircraft or nuclear
contraption intended for a nice, peaceful country like Syria, and
they were caught with it." In March 2011 six men were convicted and
sentenced to 6-12 years in prison. Two others were already
convicted.
(Reuters, 8/9/09)(Reuters, 8/18/09)(AP,
8/19/09)(AP, 3/24/11)
2009 Jul 24, The IMF approved a
$2.6 billion loan to Sri Lanka.
(Econ, 8/8/09, p.35)
2009 Jul 24, Turkish commandos
captured five pirates in the Gulf of Aden as part of an
international mission to curb piracy off the coast of Somalia.
(AP, 7/24/09)
2009 Jul 24, Zimbabwe's
coalition government launched a campaign of "national healing" and
reconciliation, with political leaders urging supporters to end
years of political violence and intimidation.
(AP, 7/24/09)
2010 Jul 24, In Iowa the Lake
Delhi dam in Delaware County gave way under the rising Maquoketa
River decimating the 9-mile long lake and adjacent property values.
(SFC, 7/27/10, p.A6)
2010 Jul 24, Australia’s PM
Julia Gillard pledged 400 million dollars (360 million US) to take
old cars off the road and vowed to impose tougher fuel standards as
part of her election policy on climate change.
(AP, 7/24/10)
2010 Jul 24, Congolese rebels
took an Indian pilot hostage when they attacked an aircraft on a
remote airstrip in a tin mining zone in the country's North Kivu
province.
(Reuters, 7/25/10)
2010 Jul 24, French-backed
Mauritanian military operations against al Qaeda fighters in the
Sahara desert wound up after four days of hunting Islamists deep
inside Mali.
(AP, 7/24/10)
2010 Jul 24, The German
government said it is offering asylum to 50 Iranian dissidents who
took part in the massive street protests that erupted after
elections there last year.
(AP, 7/24/10)
2010 Jul 24, In Germany a
stampede at the Love Parade techno music festival in Duisberg ended
with at least 19 young people dead and more than 300 injured. Within
days the death toll rose to 21 as more died from their injuries.
(Reuters,
7/25/10)(http://tinyurl.com/27m7e9l)(Reuters, 7/28/10)
2010 Jul 24, Theo Albrecht
(88), the secretive co-founder of Germany's worldwide discount
supermarket chain Aldi, a co-owner of Trader Joe's in the United
States and one of Europe's richest men, died in Essen.
(AP, 7/30/10)
2010 Jul 24, India’s
Chhattisgarh state, seen as a bastion of an increasingly deadly
Maoist revolt, said it was seeking one billion dollars to counter
the left-wing insurgency with a surge in development.
(AFP, 7/24/10)
2010 Jul 24, Iran warned it
would stop trading with countries that impose restrictions on its
assets abroad in the face of tightening international sanctions over
the Islamic state's disputed nuclear activities.
(Reuters, 7/24/10)
2010 Jul 24, Iran hanged three
drug traffickers identified only by their initials as A.A., S.Z. and
S.M., in the city of Ahvaz in the southwestern province of
Khuzestan.
(AFP, 7/31/10)
2010 Jul 24, North Korea vowed
to respond with "powerful nuclear deterrence" to joint US and South
Korean military exercises poised to begin this weekend, saying the
drills amount to a provocation that would prompt "retaliatory sacred
war."
(AP, 7/24/10)
2010 Jul 24, In northwest
Pakistan gunmen killed the son of Information Minister Mian Iftikhar
Hussain of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. US missiles hit a suspected
militant hide-out, killing 12 insurgents in a compound in the Nazai
Narai area of South Waziristan.
(AP, 7/24/10)(AP, 7/25/10)
2010 Jul 24, Russia said it
plans its biggest sell-off of state assets since the early 1990s as
it seeks to raise over $29 billion to plug budget gaps over the next
three years.
(Reuters, 7/24/10)
2010 Jul 24, In southern Russia
gunmen opened fire on security guards at a provincial food market in
the city of Samara, killing at least two and wounding at least five
other people. 3 soldiers in Dagestan were killed when assailants
attacked their convoy in a drive-by shooting.
(AP, 7/24/10)
2010 Jul 24, Ugandan forces
imposed tight security in the capital as more than 30 heads of state
began converging on Kampala for an African Union summit barely two
weeks after deadly suicide attacks. The African Union said Africa
must turn ever more to China for its development because conditions
and checks often stalled the flow of funds from Western nations and
the World Bank.
(AFP, 7/24/10)(Reuters, 7/24/10)
2010 Jul 24, In Yemen tribal
mediators succeeded in reaching a ceasefire between northern Shiite
rebels and an army-backed tribe after days of fighting that killed
at least 70 people.
(AFP, 7/24/10)
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