Today in History - July 31
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904 Jul 31,
Arabs captured Thessalonica of the Byzantine Empire.
(HN, 7/31/98)
1396 Jul 31, Philip the Good,
Duke of Burgundy, Brabant, Limburg, count, was born.
(MC, 7/31/02)
1498 Jul 31, During his third
voyage to the Western Hemisphere, Christopher Columbus arrived at an
island he named Trinidad because of its 3 hills.
(AP,
7/31/98)(http://www1.minn.net/~keithp/v3.htm)
1556 Jul 31, St. Ignatius of
Loyola (65), founder of the Society of Jesus, the Jesuit order of
Catholic priests and brothers, died in Rome.
(AP, 7/31/97)(MC, 7/31/02)
1629 Jul 31, Johann Jakob Lowe
von Eisenach, composer, was born.
(MC, 7/31/02)
1703 Jul 31, English novelist
Daniel Defoe was made to stand in the pillory as punishment for
offending the government and church with his satire "The Shortest
Way With Dissenters."
(HN, 7/31/01)
1760 Jul 31, Ferdinand, Duke of
Brunswick, foiled last French threat at Warburg and drove the French
army back to Rhine River.
(HN, 7/31/98)
1777 Jul 31, The Marquis de
Lafayette, a 19-year-old French nobleman, was made a major-general
in the American Continental Army.
(AP, 7/31/97)
1790 Jul 31, The U.S. Patent
Office granted its first patent to Samuel Hopkins of Vermont,
developer of a new method the manufacture of pot and pearl ash,
potash. [see Apr 10]
(HN, 7/31/98)(HNQ, 8/6/99)
1792 Jul 31, The
foundation-stone was laid for the US Mint by David Rittenhouse, Esq.
The property was paid for and deeded to the United States of America
for a consideration of $4266.67 on July 18, 1792. The money for the
Mint was the first money appropriated by Congress for a building to
be used for a public purpose.
(www.coinfacts.com/mint_history/mint_history_1792/mint_history_1792.htm)
1803 Jul 31, John
Ericsson, inventor of the screw propeller, was born.
(HN, 7/31/98)
1811 Jul 31, Miguel Hidalgo y
Costilla, Mexican hero priest, was executed by Spanish.
(MC, 7/31/02)
1813 Jul 31, British invaded
Plattsburgh, NY.
(MC, 7/31/02)
1816 Jul 31, George Henry
Thomas (d.1870), Union general in the Civil War whose bravery at the
battle of Chickamauga earned him the nickname "the Rock of
Chickamauga," was born.
(HN, 7/31/98)(MC, 7/31/02)
1830 Jul 31, Charles X of
France was forcibly ejected from the French throne. [see Jul 28]
(MC, 7/31/02)
1837 Jul 31, William Clarke
Quantrill (d.1865), Confederate guerrilla leader, was born at Canal
Dover, Ohio.
(www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/QQ/fqu3.html)
1849 Jul 31, Benjamin Chambers
patented a breech loading cannon.
(MC, 7/31/02)
1864 Jul 31, Ulysses S. Grant
was named General of Volunteers.
(MC, 7/31/02)
1864 Jul 31, Louis Hachette
(64), French publisher, died.
(MC, 7/31/02)
1867 Jul 31, S.S. Kresge,
American businessman who owned five-and-ten stores across the
country, was born.
(HN, 7/31/98)
1875 Jul 31, Andrew Johnson,
the 17th president of the United States, died in Carter Station,
Tenn., at age 66. He succeeded Abraham Lincoln and was the only
president to face impeachment proceedings.
(AP, 7/31/97)(HN, 7/31/98)
1876 Jul 31, US Coast Guard
officers' training school was established at New Bedford, MA.
(MC, 7/31/02)
1880 Jul 31, Fancy Farm in
Kentucky announced in a local newspaper upcoming barn dance, picnic
and gander pulling. The event grew to become a major event and its
1982 event was certified in the Guinness Book of Records as the
world’s largest picnic.
(Econ, 8/14/10, p.26)
1882 Jul 31, Belle and Sam
Starr were charged with Horse stealing in the Indian territory. Myra
Maybelle Shirley (Belle Starr) was neither a belle nor the star of
any outlaw band and still remains a legendary wild woman of the Old
West.
(HN, 7/31/98)
1886 Jul 31, Franz Liszt,
composer, died in Bayreuth. His work included the symphonic poem
"Les Preludes" and the "Faust Symphony." Cosima-von-Bulow was a
illegitimate daughter of Liszt and married to Richard Wagner. A 3
volume biography of Liszt (1977, 1983, 1996) was written by Alan
Walker, Vol 3 was titled: "Franz Liszt: The final Years." Deszno
Legany of Hungary earlier wrote: "Liszt and His country: 1874-1866."
(WSJ, 6/18/96, p.A14)
1891 Jul 31, Great Britain
declared territories in Southern Africa up to the Congo to be within
their sphere of influence.
(HN, 7/31/98)
1901 Jul 31, Jean Dubuffet,
French sculptor and painter, was born.
(HN, 7/31/01)
1904 Jul 31, The Trans-Siberian
railroad connecting the Ural mountains with Russia’s Pacific coast,
was completed. [see Jul 21]
(HN, 7/31/98)
1911 Jul 31, George Liberace,
violinist (Liberace Show), was born in Menasha, Wisc.
(MC, 7/31/02)
1912 Jul 31, Milton Friedman
(d.2006), Nobel Prize winning economist (1976), was born. He became
the premier spokesman for the monetarist school of economics. He
argued that changes in money supply precede changes in the overall
economic conditions. He argued that all social welfare programs
should be replaced with a negative income tax. He held that there
was a natural rate of unemployment that depended on the given
economic structure.
(HN, 7/31/98)(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R20)
1913 Jul 31, Bulgaria signed an
armistice concluding the 2nd Balkan War. [see Aug 10]
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balkan_Wars)
1914 Jul 31, German Kaiser
Wilhelm II threatened war and ordered Russia to demobilize.
(MC, 7/31/02)
1917 Jul 31, The third Battle
of Ypres commenced as the British attacked the German lines.
(HN, 7/31/98)
1919 Jul 31, Curt Gowdy
(d.2006), later leading sports announcer, was born in Green River,
Wyo.
(SFC, 2/21/06, p.B5)
1919 Jul 31, Primo Levi,
Italian writer and scientist (Survival in Auschwitz), was born.
(HN, 7/31/01)
1919 Jul 31, Germany's Weimar
Constitution was adopted by the republic's National Assembly. The
Weimar Republic became Germany’s 1st democratic government.
(AP, 7/31/97)(SFC, 8/3/99, p.A8)(SSFC, 8/1/04,
p.D10)
1921 Jul 31, Whitney Young,
Jr., civil rights leader and executive director of the National
Urban League, was born.
(HN, 7/31/98)
1922 Jul 31, Ralph Samuelson
(18) rode the world's 1st water skis in Minn.
(MC, 7/31/02)
1925 Jul 31, An Unemployment
Insurance Act was passed in England.
(MC, 7/31/02)
1928 Jul 31, Horace Silver,
jazz pianist, composer and bandleader, was born.
(HN, 7/31/01)
1932 Jul 31, The George
Washington quarter went into circulation as a 200 year commemorative
of G. Washington’s birth. It has been in use ever since.
(WSJ, 7/12/96, p.B5B)(MC, 7/31/02)
1932 Jul 31, Adolf Hitler's
Nationalist Socialist German Workers' Party (Nazis) doubled its
strength in legislative elections. Nazi Party won 37.3% of the vote.
(HN,
7/31/98)(www.germanculture.com.ua/july/july31.htm)
1937 Jul 31, The Russian
Politburo enabled Operative Order 00447. This led to the execution
of some 193,000 people.
(MC, 7/31/02)
1940 Jul 31, Reich's Kommissar
Seyss-Inquart banned homosexuals.
(MC, 7/31/02)
1941 Jul 31, The U.S. Army
established the Military Police Corps.
(HN, 7/31/98)
1942 Jul 31, At midnight the
record studios fell silent in a struggle with James Caesar Petrillo,
head of the American Federation of Musicians. Petrillo insisted that
the record industry pay a ¼ to ¾ cent royalty to the
musicians union. Decca signed an agreement in Aug, 1943, and
Columbia and Victor surrendered Nov 11, 1944.
(WSJ, 7/31/02, p.D10)
1942 Jul 31, The German SS
gassed some 1,000 Jews in Minsk, Belorussia.
(MC, 7/31/02)
1944 Jul 31, A large number of
children were deported to Auschwitz from France by Alois Brunner,
deputy to Adolf Eichmann.
(SFC, 3/3/01, p.A10)
1944 Jul 31, Antoine de
Saint-Exupery (44), author of "The Little Prince," died in a plane
crash during reconnaissance off Marseilles. In 1949 Nelly de Vogue,
his longtime mistress, authored the 1st Exupery biography. In 2001 a
memoir by his widow, Consuelo de Saint-Exupery (d.1979) titled "The
Tale of the Rose: The Passion That Inspired the Little Prince," was
published. Saint-Exupery's plane was found in 2004.
(SFEC, 2/27/00, BR p.12)(SFEC, 5/28/00,
p.A15)(SSFC, 8/5/01, DB p.63)(SFC, 4/8/04, p.A2)
1944 Jul 31, The Soviet army
took Kovno [Kaunas], the capital of Lithuania.
(HN, 7/31/98)
1945 Jul 31, Pierre Laval,
premier of the pro-Nazi Vichy government, surrendered to U.S.
authorities in Austria; he was turned over to France, which later
tried and executed him.
(AP, 7/31/05)
1947 Jul 31, The Jewish
underground Irgun Zvai Leumi said it hanged 2 British sergeants in
Palestine.
(G&M, 7/31/97, p.A20)
1948 Jul 31, "Brigadoon" closed
at Ziegfeld Theater in NYC after 581 performances.
(MC, 7/31/02)
1948 Jul 31, President Truman
helped dedicate New York International Airport (later John F.
Kennedy International Airport) at Idlewild Field.
(HFA, ‘96, p.34)(AP, 7/31/97)
1951 Jul 31, Evonne Goolagong,
Australian tennis player and first aborigine in an international
sport, was born.
(HN, 7/31/98)
1953 Jul 31, Sen. Robert A.
Taft of Ohio (63), known as "Mr. Republican," died in New York. His
successor was named by a Democratic governor.
(AP, 7/31/97)(WSJ, 5/25/01, p.A14)
1954 Jul 31, Italians Lino
Lacedelli (1925-2009) and Achille Compagnoni (1915-2009) first
scaled Pakistan’s K-2, the world's second-highest mountain. In 2004
Lacedelli authored “K2: The Price of Conquest.”
(AP, 7/27/04)(SSFC, 11/29/09, p.C8)
1957 Jul 31, The Distant Early
Warning Line, a system of radar stations designed to detect Soviet
bombers approaching North America, went into operation.
(AP, 7/31/07)
1958 Jul 31, There was an
anti-Chinese uprising in Tibet.
(MC, 7/31/02)
1959 Jul 31, In Spain dissident
student members of the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV), inspired by
Marxist-Leninist teachings, formally founded ETA, which stands for
Euskadi ta Askatasuna, meaning Basque Fatherland and Liberty in the
Basque language. Its founders focused on Gen. Francisco Franco's
suppression of the Basque language and culture.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ETA)(AP,
7/30/09)(www.cfr.org/publication/9271/)
1960 Jul 31, Elijah Muhammad,
leader of Nation of Islam, called for a black state.
(MC, 7/31/02)
1961 Jul 31, Israel welcomed
its 1,000,000th immigrant.
(MC, 7/31/02)
1964 Jul 31, The American space
probe Ranger 7 transmitted pictures of the moon's surface.
(AP, 7/31/97)
1965 Jul 31, J. K. Rawling,
British writer, was born in Yate, Gloucestershire. She became famous
for her Harry Potter fantasy series.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._K._Rowling)
1966 Jul 31, Alabamans burned
Beatle products due to John Lennon's remark that the Beatles are
more popular than Jesus.
(MC, 7/31/02)
1968 Jul 31, The Beatle's
recorded Hey Jude.
(http://oldies.about.com/od/thebeatlessongs/a/heyjude.htm)
1968 Jul 31, In Boston 4 men
were convicted for shooting Edward "Teddy" Deegan in a Chelsea,
Mass., alley in 1965. In 2007 a federal judge in Boston ordered the
government to pay a record nearly $102 million for the FBI's role in
the wrongful murder convictions of the 4 men. Two of the men
convicted, Louis Greco and Henry Tameleo, died behind bars. The
others, Peter Limone (73) and Joseph Salvati (74) spent three
decades in prison.
(www.justicedenied.org/issue/issue_27/fbi%27s_legacy_of_shame.html)
1969 Jul 31, The Zodiac killer
sent a poorly-spelled letter to the SF Chronicle, Examiner and
Vallejo Times-Herald and took responsibility for the July 5
shootings along with a portion of a cipher.
(SFC, 10/2/00, p.A19)
1969 Jul 31, Gary Allen Hinman,
a California musician and UCLA Ph.D. candidate, was found murdered
at his home in Topanga Canyon, Ca. Bruce Davis, a member of
Charles Manson’s murderous cult, was later convicted for the murder
of Gary Hinman as well as stuntman Donald “Shorty” Shea.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Brunner)(SFC,
1/29/10, p.A6)
1971 Jul 31, Apollo 15
astronauts (Dave Scott) took a drive on the moon in their land
rover.
(HN,
7/31/98)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_rover)
1972 Jul 31, Thomas F. Eagleton
was chosen by the Democratic Party convention and presidential
candidate George McGovern on July 31, 1972 as the Vice presidential
candidate. He withdrew from the 1972 Democratic Party ticket because
of publicity surrounding his hospitalization for psychiatric
treatment. The senator from Missouri was asked to withdraw by
McGovern after reporters discovered and published information about
his three hospitalizations for psychiatric disorders.
(AP, 7/31/97)(HNQ, 4/25/00)
1972 Jul 31, George Wright,
dressed as a priest and using an alias, hijacked a Delta flight from
Detroit to Miami with four other BLA members and three children.
They released 86 other passengers in exchange for a $1 million
ransom and forced the plane to fly to Boston. There an international
navigator was taken aboard, and the plane was flown to Algeria,
where the hijackers sought asylum. Wright's associates were tracked
down, arrested, tried and convicted in Paris in 1976.
(www.edmontonsun.com/2011/09/27/us-fugitive-caught-after-41-years)
1972 Jul 31, The British army
launched "Operation Motorman" to regain control of Catholic parts of
Belfast and Londonderry that had been closed off by IRA road
barricades since 1971. An IRA attack followed in Claudy,
Northern Ireland, and 3 car bombs killed 9 people. In 2002 a court
case was reopened following allegations that Rev. Jim Chesney
(d.1980), a deceased Roman Catholic priest, had led the Claudy
attack. In 2010 a new report said the British government and the
Roman Catholic church colluded to cover up the involvement of Rev.
Jim Chesney.
(AP, 10/1/02)(AP, 11/29/05)(AP, 8/24/10)(Econ,
8/28/10, p.46)
1975 Jul 31, The Bangkok
Agreement was signed as an initiative of the Economic and Social
Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP). As Asia’s 1st
preferential trade agreement between developing countries it aimed
at promoting intra-regional trade through exchange of mutually
agreed concessions by member countries. Five countries, Republic of
Korea, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Lao People’s Democratic
Republic, were the initial signatories. China joined in April, 2000.
Thailand and the Philippines did not ratify the agreement due to
their ASEAN commitments.
(www.unescap.org/tid/apta.asp)(www.siamindia.com/scripts/Bankong.aspx)
1976 Jul 31, "Sugar" Ray
Charles Leonard (b.1956), American boxer, won an Olympic gold medal
in Montreal.
(http://dcboxing.blogspot.com/2008/03/1976-olympic-final-sugar-ray-leonard-vs.html)
1979 Jul 31, Cesar Chavez began
a 12-day march from SF to Salinas to dramatize the 6-month strike of
the United Farm Workers.
(SFC, 7/30/04, p.F2)
1981 Jul 31, A seven-week-old
Major League Baseball strike ended.
(AP, 7/31/99)
1981 Jul 31, The leader of
Panama, General Omar Torrijos, died in a plane crash.
(SFC, 1/2/97, p.A20)(AP, 7/31/99)
1982 Jul 31, Jai Alai executive
John B. Callahan (45) was fatally shot in Miami by mob hit man John
Martorano. Callahan’s body was found Aug 2 in the trunk of his
Cadillac. In 2008 former FBI agent John Connolly was convicted of
2nd degree murder for leaking information to mobsters that led to
the shooting death of Callahan. In Jan, 2009, Connolly was sentenced
to 40 years in prison.
(SFC, 11/6/08,
p.A9)(http://mafiatoday.com/?p=442)(SFC, 1/16/09, p.A2)
1987 Jul 31, Iranian pilgrims
and riot police clashed in the Muslim holy city of Mecca in Saudi
Arabia. The Saudi government blamed Iranians for the resulting 402
deaths.
(AP, 7/31/97)(AP, 2/1/04)
1988 Jul 31, The last US
Playboy Club closed in Lansing, Mich.
(www.michiganhistorymagazine.com/date/july03/07_31_1988.html)
1988 Jul 31, In a televised
speech, Jordan's King Hussein called for an independent Palestinian
state in the Israeli-occupied territories as he told the
Palestinians to take affairs into their own hands.
(HN, 7/31/98)
1989 Jul 31, A pro-Iranian
group in Lebanon released a grisly videotape purportedly showing the
body of American hostage William R. Higgins dangling from a rope, a
day after his kidnappers threatened to kill him.
(AP, 7/31/99)
1990 Jul 31, Pitcher Nolan Ryan
of the Texas Rangers became the 20th major leaguer to win 300 games
as he led his team to victory over the Milwaukee Brewers 11-to-3.
(AP, 7/31/00)
1990 Jul 31, Shoal Creek, a
private club in Birmingham, Alabama, that drew criticism for being
all-white, announced it had accepted a black businessman as an
honorary member.
(AP, 7/31/00)
1990 Jul 31, The Assembly of
Bosnia-Herzegovina adopted constitutional amendments by which
Bosnia-Herzegovina was declared a democratic state of equal citizens
of the peoples of BH, Moslems, Serbs, Croats and others.
(www.balkan-archive.org.yu/politics/chronology/chron90.html)
1991 Jul 31, A volleyball court
was installed at People’s Park in Berkeley at a cost of over $1
million due to the ensuing 12 days of rioting and arrests. The city
established a five year lease with the Univ. to manage the 2.3 acre
park.
(SFC, 1/4/97, p.A17)(SFEC, 1/5/97, p.B3)
1991 Jul 31, President Bush and
Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev signed START I, the Strategic
Arms Reduction Treaty in Moscow. The agreement included the
deactivation and removal by May, 1995, of 150 Minuteman II missiles
in Missouri. The treaty was set to expire in Dec, 2009.
(AP, 7/31/01)(WSJ, 5/23/96, p.A-1)(WSJ, 12/1/07,
p.A8)(Econ, 3/14/09, p.64)
1991 Jul 31, The US Senate
voted to allow women to fly combat aircraft.
(http://library.osu.edu/sites/archives/glenn/collection/senate/speeches3.htm)
1991 Jul 31, Seven people were
killed when an Amtrak passenger train derailed near Camden, South
Carolina.
(AP, 7/31/01)
1991 Jul 31, Seven people were
killed when a bus carrying Girl Scouts crashed in Palm Springs,
California.
(AP, 7/31/01)
1991 Jul 31, In Lithuania 7
border guards were shot to death and one was wounded as OMON
commandos from the Soviet Interior Ministry raided the Medininkai
checkpoint on the border of Lithuania and Belarus.
(AP,
5/11/11)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medininkai)
1992 Jul 31, Summer Sanders
became the first American athlete to win four medals at the
Barcelona Olympics as she won the gold in the women's 200-meter
butterfly.
(AP, 7/31/97)
1992 Jul 31, The space shuttle
Atlantis blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on a problem-plagued
scientific mission.
(AP, 7/31/97)
1992 Jul 31, In Italy the scala
mobile wage index, which maintained a rigid link between Italian
wages and prices, was scrapped after a long struggle.
(www.eurofound.europa.eu/emire/ITALY/SLIDINGSCALEMECHANISM-IT.htm)(Econ,
6/13/09, SR p.9)
1993 Jul 31, The Missouri River
overflowed. It was just part of the massive flooding throughout the
Midwest.
(WSJ, 9/11/96, p.A20)
1993 Jul 31, A U.S.-brokered
truce halted Israel's weeklong military offensive in southern
Lebanon, which was launched in retaliation for guerrilla attacks
that killed seven Israeli troops.
(HN, 7/31/98)
1993 Jul 31, Belgium's King
Baudouin I died at age 62; he was succeeded by his brother, Prince
Albert.
(AP, 7/31/03)
1994 Jul 31, The U.N. Security
Council voted 12-0 with 2 abstentions to authorize member states to
use "all necessary means" to oust the military leadership in Haiti.
(AP, 7/31/99)(MC, 7/31/02)
1995 Jul 31, The Walt Disney
Company agreed to acquire Capital Cities-ABC Inc. in a $19 billion
deal. The deal included the ESPN sports cable network.
(AP, 7/31/97)(Econ, 9/18/04, p.70)
1996 Jul 31, After Pres.
Clinton's announcement that he would sign it, 98 Democrats joined
the House's Republican majority to pass a historic welfare overhaul
bill. The White House won agreement with key Republican lawmakers on
a package of anti-terrorism measures.
(AP, 7/31/06)
1996 Jul 31, Mahmoud Jumayal
died under interrogation by the Palestinian security forces. He was
the 8th in 2 years.
(SFC, 8/21/96, p.A8,10)
1996 Jul 31, In South Africa
rush-hour crowds panicked when guards used electric prods to drive
off fare-beaters. At least 15 died and 65 were injured in a
stampede.
(WSJ, 8/1/96 p.A1)
1997 Jul 31, In New York City,
police seized five bombs believed bound for terrorist attacks on
city subways. 2 potential suicide bombers were shot and wounded in
an explosives laden Brooklyn apartment. Gazi Ibrahim Abu Mezer (23)
and Lafi Khalil (22) were recovering from wounds. In 1998 Khalil was
acquitted and Gazi Ibrahim Aby Mezer was convicted of plotting to
bomb a subway station.
(SFC, 8/1/97, p.A1)(SFC, 8/4/97, p.A3)(WSJ,
7/24/98, p.A1)(HN, 7/31/98)
1997 Jul 31, Bao Dai (85),
former emperor of Annam [now Vietnam] and chief of state of French
Indochina, died in France.
(SFC, 8/2/97, p.A21)(MC, 7/31/02)
1997 Jul 31, Nigeria was named
the most corrupt country in the world by business people in a report
released by the German-based Transparency Int’l. Denmark was named
the least corrupt.
(SFC, 8/1/97, p.B3)
1998 Jul 31, President Clinton
said he would "completely and truthfully" answer prosecutors'
questions about Monica Lewinsky in testimony to be beamed by
closed-circuit television to a grand jury.
(AP, 7/31/99)
1998 Jul 31, IBM's Russian
subsidiary agreed to pay $8.5 million in federal fines for selling
powerful computers ultimately destined for a Russian nuclear weapons
laboratory.
(AP, 7/31/99)
1998 Jul 31, Bicycle production
at the Huffy plant in Celina, Ohio, ended 44 years of production and
650 workers lost their jobs.
(SFC, 8/6/93, p.A8)
1998 Jul 31, In Algeria 6
civilians were killed and 23 wounded in 2 overnight attacks. In
Malakou village in Tiaret province 4 villagers had their throats cut
and in Algiers a parcel bomb killed 2.
(SFC, 8/1/98, p.A11)
1998 Jul 31, The British
government banned the manufacture, sale and use of land mines by its
military.
(SFC, 8/1/98, p.A11)
1998 Jul 31, In China Chen
Xitong, former mayor of Beijing, was sentenced to 16 years in prison
for graft. The bribes were to be confiscated and handed over to the
state treasury.
(SFC, 7/31/98, p.D2)
1998 Jul 31, The Canadian
dollar hit a historical low of 66.10 cents to $1US.
(SFC, 8/1/98, p.A10)
1998 Jul 31, In China it was
reported that floods on the Yangtze River had killed 1,261 people in
Hubei, Hunan and Jiangxi provinces.
(SFC, 7/31/98, p.D3)
1998 Jul 31, Talks between
India and Pakistan broke down following border fighting in Kashmir
that killed 50 people.
(SFC, 8/1/98, p.A10)
1998 Jul 31, In Italy over
10,000 members of the nation’s beach workers (bagnini) went on
strike and closed their umbrella stands.
(WSJ, 8/3/98, p.A1)
1998 Jul 31, In Japan Asa
Takii, the oldest person in the country and a survivor of the
Hiroshima blast, died at age 114.
(SFC, 8/1/98, p.A19)
1998 Jul 31, In Kosovo refugees
fled Serb attacks one day after Serbia declared that the military
offensive was over.
(SFC, 8/1/98, p.A10)
1998 Jul 31, In South Africa
the Truth and Reconciliation Commission closed down after 2 years of
hearings. A report was due in October.
(SFC, 8/1/98, p.A12)
1999 Jul 31, NASA controllers
planned to send the $63 million Lunar Prospector crashing into the
Mawson crater located in the Moon’s south pole. They hoped to churn
up some water vapor for possible detection. Evidence of the crash at
2:51 PDT was not detected.
(SFC, 6/3/99, p.A4)(SFEC, 8/1/99, p.A3)
1999 Jul 31, Chicago
authorities said as many as 46 more residents had died as a result
of a relentless heat wave that enveloped much of the nation and
produced the hottest July on record in New York City.
(AP, 7/31/00)
1999 Jul 31, In Cottrellville
Township, Mich., 10 people died from a skydiving plane crash shortly
after takeoff from Marine City Airport, 40 miles north of Detroit.
(SFEC, 8/1/99, p.A5)
1999 Jul 31, Chinese
authorities seized a Taiwanese freighter near the Taiwanese military
post of Matsu Island with accusations of smuggling.
(SFC, 8/2/99, p.A10)
1999 Jul 31, The Ukraine and
the US agreed to extend the nuclear weapon and ballistic missile
dismantling program for 6 years.
(SFEC, 8/1/99, p.A20)
2000 Jul 31, The Republican
national convention opened in Philadelphia, with George W. Bush’s
name put into nomination for president.
(SFEC, 7/30/00, p.A1)(AP, 7/31/01)
2000 Jul 31, William Maxwell
(b.1908) novelist and editor for the New Yorker, died in NYC. In
2008 the Library of America published a 2-volume edition of his
fiction.
(WSJ, 9/5/08,
p.W6)(www.answers.com/topic/maxwell-william-keepers-jr)
2000 Jul 31, US and British
diplomats accused the Pres. Charles Taylor of Liberia and Pres.
Blaise Compaore of Burkina Faso of trading arms for diamonds and
aiding the rebels in Sierra Leone.
(SFC, 8/1/00, p.A8)
2000 Jul 31, A Beijing court
sentenced Cheng Kejie (66) to death for corruption. He was a former
deputy chairman of the national legislature and headed the southern
region of Guangxi from 1990-1998. Over the last week 48 people were
executed for drug trafficking. Kejie was executed in Sept.
(SFC, 8/1/00, p.A10)(SFC, 9/15/00, p.A14)
2000 Jul 31, In Israel Moshe
Katsav of the opposition Likud Party was elected president over
Shimon Peres. Prime Minister Barak survived an attempt to oust his
government.
(SFC, 8/1/00, p.A1)
2000 Jul 31, North and South
Korea agreed to reopen border liaison offices and reconnect a
railway linking their capitals.
(AP, 7/31/01)
2000 Jul 31, In Mexico aides of
Vincente Fox announced plans to transform the police and judiciary
and to demilitarize the anti-narcotics programs.
(SFC, 8/1/00, p.A8)
2000 Jul 31, Yugoslavia
announced that it had arrested 4 Dutch men for plotting to kidnap or
kill Pres. Milosevic to win a $5 million US reward.
(WSJ, 8/1/00, p.A1)
2000 Jul 31, In Zimbabwe Vice
President Joseph Msika announced that 3,000 white-owned farms would
be resettled by landless black families.
(SFC, 8/2/00, p.A13)
2001 Jul 31, Pres. Bush issued
Executive Order 13221. It instructed government agencies that used
external standby power devices to purchase products that use no more
than one watt in their standby power consuming mode.
(www.ofee.gov/eo/eo.htm)
2001 Jul 31, The US House of
Representatives voted 265-102 to criminalize all human cloning.
(SFC, 8/1/01, p.A1)
2001 Jul 31, Poul Anderson,
science fiction writer, died at age 74.
(WSJ, 8/3/01, p.A1)
2001 Jul 31, In Colombia 4
rebels and 2 soldiers were killed in fighting in southern and
northwestern areas.
(SFC, 8/1/01, p.A9)
2001 Jul 31, In Indonesia at
least 62 people were killed when a mudslide buried the village of
Sambulu. At least 35 people were killed and some 200 missing.
(SFC, 8/1/01, p.A9)(AP, 7/31/02)
2001 Jul 31, In the West Bank
Israeli gunships killed 8 people in Nablus including 2 Hamas
leaders, Jamal Mansour and Jamal Salim, and 2 children.
(SFC, 8/1/01, p.A1)(SFC, 8/2/01, p.A7)
2001 Jul 31, Russian commandos
freed 25 [41] hostages held by 2 hijackers in Mineralniye Vody,
Chechnya.
(SFC, 8/1/01, p.A8)(WSJ, 8/1/01, p.A1)
2002 Jul 31, The US Senate
rejected a Medicare drug-benefit bill but passed a bill to speed
generic drugs to market.
(WSJ, 8/1/02, p.A1)
2002 Jul 31, US court papers
alleged that Russia's Alimzhan Tokhtakhounov (53) used his influence
with members of the Russian and French skating federations to fix
the outcome of the pairs and ice dancing competitions at the Salt
Lake City Winter Olympics last February. Tokhtakhounov was arrested
in Italy. Italy’s highest court denounced an extradition bid and
freed Tokhtakhounov.
(Reuters, 7/31/02)(SFC, 8/1/02,
p.A1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alimzhan_Tokhtakhounov)
2002 Jul 31, In Chicago a mob
beat Anthony Stuckey (49) and Jack Moore (62) to death after their
van veered into over a curb and injured 3 women on the South Side.
One woman later died from her injuries. On August 3, seven people
were charged with 1st degree murder. In 2003 Antonio Fort (16) was
cleared of 34 charges, including first-degree murder. Fort had been
charged as an adult.
(SFC, 8/1/02, p.A3)(SSFC, 8/4/02,
p.A13)(http://tinyurl.com/59zyfm)
2002 Jul 31, In Brunei U.S.
Secretary of State Colin Powell met his North Korean counterpart for
an informal chat, as easing inter-Korean tensions stole the
spotlight at an Asia-Pacific security forum.
(Reuters, 7/31/02)
2002 Jul 31, Southeast Asian
nations signed an anti-terror pact on with U.S. Secretary of State
Colin Powell ahead of his visit to Indonesia.
(AP, 8/1/02)
2002 Jul 31, In Israel a bomb
exploded in a crowded cafeteria at Hebrew University during
lunchtime, killing 9 people including 5 Americans and wounding more
than 70. Hamas claimed responsibility. The dead included a peace
activist named Dafna, who was a close friend of Israeli novelist
Avraham Yehoshua. His novel “A Woman in Israel,” translated to
English in 2006, was dedicated to Dafna.
(SFC, 8/2/02, p.A1)(AP, 7/31/03)(Econ, 8/5/06,
p.73)
2002 Jul 31, An Israeli man,
his hands and feet bound, was found shot and killed in his factory
office near the West Bank town of Tulkarem.
(AP, 8/1/02)
2002 Jul 31, In Lebanon a
disgruntled Education Ministry employee opened fire at colleagues at
a ministry office in Beirut, killing eight people and wounding five
before he was apprehended by police.
(AP, 7/31/02)
2002 Jul 31, Thousands of
illegal immigrants headed for Malaysia's ports to meet a midnight
deadline for them to leave the country or risk a caning.
(Reuters, 7/31/02)
2002 Jul 31, Pope John Paul II
canonized Juan Diego, an Indian peasant to whom church tradition
says the Virgin Mary appeared 500 years ago, in a ceremony in Mexico
that drew more than 1 million believers into the streets.
(AP, 8/1/02)
2002 Jul 31, In Mexico 6 masked
gunmen kidnapped a federal congressman from a town in the Pacific
coast state of Guerrero.
(AP, 8/1/02)
2002 Jul 31, In eastern Niger
disgruntled soldiers began a mutiny in N'gourti to protest months of
unpaid salaries, seizing senior officials in the region and taking
control of a radio station.
(AP, 8/2/02)
2002 Jul 31, South Korean
lawmakers vetoed the country's first female prime minister, dealing
a blow to President Kim Dae-jung, who had nominated her to boost his
beleaguered government's image in an election year.
(Reuters, 7/31/02)
2002 Jul 31, Sudanese rebels
claimed that government troops using bombers and helicopter gunships
attacked areas of a town in Sudan's oil-producing Western Upper Nile
Province.
(AP, 7/31/02)
2002 Jul 31, Uruguay prepared
to keep banks closed for a second day in an attempt to stanch the
flow of capital in the midst of a growing financial crisis.
(AP, 7/31/02)
2002 Jul 31, In Ukraine a coal
mine blast killed 19 miners, 3,557 underground.
(SFC, 8/1/02, p.A14)
2003 Jul 31, Two of ousted
Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's daughters and their nine children were
granted refuge in Jordan.
(AP, 7/31/04)
2003 Jul 31, The Israeli
parliament voted to block Palestinians who marry Israelis from
becoming Israeli citizens of residents. The legislation was enacted
for one year.
(SFC, 8/1/03, p.A20)
2003 Jul 31, In Nepal monsoon
rains triggered landslides, killing at least 48 villagers over the
last 2 days, burying houses and blocking a key highway.
(AP, 7/31/03)
2003 Jul 31, The Vatican
launched a global campaign against gay marriages, warning Catholic
politicians that support of same-sex unions was "gravely immoral"
and urging non-Catholics to join the offensive.
(SFC, 8/1/03, p.A1)(AP, 7/31/04)
2004 Jul 31, Virginia Grey
(87), American film actress, died in LA. She had appeared in over
100 films and 40 TV shows.
(SFC, 8/7/04, p.B6)
2004 Jul 31, In southern
Afghanistan gunmen killed a local government leader and four of his
bodyguards in an ambush.
(AP, 7/31/04)
2004 Jul 31, Gunmen killed the
head of a state-run teacher's institute as he left a mosque after
prayers, an attack in apparent retribution for his refusal to stop
working for Iraqi authorities.
(AP, 7/31/04)
2004 Jul 31, A 10-day manhunt
for a murder suspect ended in a shootout near the Circus Maximus in
central Rome. Luciano Liboni had allegedly killed a policeman July
22.
(AP, 7/31/04)
2004 Jul 31, Laura Betti (70),
Italian film actress, died. Her debut was in Fellini’s “La Dolce
Vita” (1960).
(SFC, 8/3/04, p.B6)
2004 Jul 31, In Poland some
200,000 people gathered for the 10th annual weekend concert called
Woodstock in Kostrzyn.
(AP, 7/31/04)
2004 Jul 31, Flood-weakened
riverbanks in South Asia collapsed around villages, pushing the
death toll from this season's monsoons above 1,500 and stranding
more than 30 million people.
(AP, 8/1/04)
2004 Jul 31, World Trade
negotiators in Geneva broke months of deadlock and put together a
framework for the rest of the Doha trade round.
(Econ, 8/7/04, p.59)
2004 Jul 31, The Vatican issued
a document denouncing feminism for trying to blur differences
between men and women and threatening the institution of families
based on a mother and a father.
(AP, 7/31/05)
2005 Jul 31, The US Dept. of
Justice released its 1st statistical report on rape behind bars. It
estimated 8,210 allegations of sexual violence in American jails in
2004.
(Econ, 8/6/05, p.25)
2005 Jul 31, The HMAS Brisbane,
a decommissioned U.S.-built Australian naval destroyer (1966-2001),
was scuttled with explosives off the coast of Queensland. The vessel
sank evenly to its resting point about 115 feet beneath the surface
to become an artificial reef and a major diving attraction.
(AP, 7/31/05)
2005 Jul 31, Police arrested
seven people during a raid on an apartment in southern England,
bringing to 21 the number in custody in the relentless hunt for
accomplices in the failed July 21 transit bombings in London.
(AP, 7/31/06)
2005 Jul 31, Jeong Jang shot a
3-under 69 to win the Women's British Open by four strokes.
(AP, 7/31/06)
2005 Jul 31, Police in eastern
Germany found the remains of nine newborn babies buried in a garden
and arrested a woman (39) believed to be their mother.
(AP, 8/1/05)
2005 Jul 31, A Honduran
official said police had arrested Erlan Colindres, a 13-year-old
gang member, and Manuel Romero, his teenaged bodyguard, for the July
29 killing of Timothy Markey, a US Drug Enforcement Administration
agent, during an apparent bungled robbery.
(AP, 7/31/05)
2005 Jul 31, In India
authorities warned residents to remain home after new heavy rains
pounded Bombay and the surrounding state, as the official death toll
from last week's record-breaking monsoon rains hit 910.
(AP, 7/31/05)
2005 Jul 31, Hasan Rowhani,
Iran's top nuclear negotiator, said his European counterparts have
proposed a guarantee that Iran will not be invaded if Tehran agrees
to permanently halt uranium enrichment.
(AP, 7/31/05)
2005 Jul 31, A car bomb
exploded south of Baghdad, killing five civilians and wounding 10,
including two policemen.
(AP, 7/31/05)
2005 Jul 31, In southern Mexico
former soldier Oscar Flores (35) killed his wife, infant nephew and
a police officer in a vicious rampage that left 10 people dead
before being wounded by police and killed by an angry crowd.
(AP, 8/1/05)
2005 Jul 31, Maoist rebels
freed seven government officials they had seized in eastern Nepal,
and all were safe and in good health.
(AP, 7/31/05)
2005 Jul 31, John Garang (60),
Sudan's vice president and former southern rebel leader, died when
the helicopter he was flying in crashed into a mountain in southern
Sudan in bad weather killing him and the other 13 people on board.
(AP, 8/1/05)
2006 Jul 31, In California PM
Blair and Gov. Schwarzenegger committed to a number of actions to
fight global warming including a look for market-based ways to stem
emissions of the gases believed to cause global warming.
(WSJ, 8/1/06, p.A8)
2006 Jul 31, In Los Angeles 2
women, Olga Rutterschmidt (73) and Helen Golay (75), were charged
with killing homeless men in hit-and-run car crashes in order to
collect over $2 million in life insurance. In 2008 both women were
convicted of murder and conspiracy. They were sentenced to spend the
rest of their lives in prison.
(SFC, 8/1/06, p.A3)(SFC, 4/18/08, p.B6)(SFC,
7/16/08, p.B5)
2006 Jul 31, SanDisk Corp. of
Milpitas, Ca., agreed to buy M-Systems Flash Disk Pioneers Ltd. of
Israel for $1.56 billion in stock.
(SFC, 8/1/06, p.D1)
2006 Jul 31, Scientists
reported the development of a vaccine to control obesity in rats.
The vaccine produced antibodies against ghrelin, a hormone that
stimulates hunger and fat storage.
(SFC, 8/1/06, p.A2)
2006 Jul 31, NATO took command
of southern Afghanistan from the United States, and the new
commander of the push to pacify the insurgency-wracked region vowed
that he would not fail millions of Afghans seeking peace and
stability. A bomb exploded outside a mosque in eastern Afghanistan
during a memorial service for a mujahedeen commander, killing at
least eight people and wounding 16.
(AP, 7/31/06)
2006 Jul 31, Australian PM John
Howard said he would seek a fifth straight term, ending his
ambitious deputy's leadership hopes and cementing his place as one
of the world's most successful conservative leaders.
(Reuters, 7/31/06)
2006 Jul 31, A lesbian couple
lost a legal battle to have their Canadian marriage legally
recognized in Britain.
(Reuters, 7/31/06)
2006 Jul 31, The Canadian Food
Inspection Agency said two separate anthrax outbreaks in the
Canadian Prairies have killed about 500 animals on an estimated 100
farms.
(Reuters, 7/31/06)
2006 Jul 31, In Colombia
suspected rebels ambushed an army patrol, exploded a car bomb in
Bogota and another bomb in the southwest, killing at least 18 people
in a wave of attacks a week before the presidential inauguration.
(AP, 7/31/06)
2006 Jul 31, Dozens of polling
stations reopened in Congo’s second-largest city, offering citizens
stymied by violence during their nation’s historic elections another
chance to vote.
(AP, 7/31/06)
2006 Jul 31, Cuban President
Fidel Castro temporarily ceded power to his brother, Raul, after
gastrointestinal surgery. In 2011 Fidel Castro said he resigned five
years ago from all his official positions, including head of Cuba's
Communist Party.
(AP, 7/31/07)(AP, 3/22/11)
2006 Jul 31, France's
agriculture minister condemned the destruction of two fields of
genetically modified corn by activists in southwestern France.
(AP, 7/31/06)
2006 Jul 31, Akbar Mohammadi
(34) died in Tehran’s Evin Prison after a nine-day hunger strike to
protest a lack of medical care. Mohammadi had been arrested for
taking part in protests at Tehran University in July 1999, Iran's
biggest anti-government demonstrations since the 1979 Islamic
revolution. The EU later expressed grave concern regarding the harsh
treatment of dissidents, opposition leaders, student activists and
all human rights defenders in Iranian prisons.
(AP, 8/24/06)
2006 Jul 31, In Iraq gunmen
wearing military fatigues kidnapped 26 employees and customers from
a mobile phone store in the main shopping area of Baghdad. Sectarian
killings claimed 30 lives.
(AP, 8/1/06)(WSJ, 8/1/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 31, Israeli warplanes
carried out airstrikes in southern Lebanon, hours after agreeing to
temporarily halt raids while investigating a bombing that killed
nearly 60 Lebanese civilians. Israel accidentally killed a Lebanese
soldier when it hit a car that it believed was carrying a senior
Hezbollah official.
(AP, 7/31/06)
2006 Jul 31, In Indian Kashmir
four rebels and a policeman were killed in three separate gunbattles
in southern Poonch and Pulwama districts.
(AP, 8/1/06)
2006 Jul 31, Every Kuwaiti
citizen will get a $694 gift from the government after parliament
unanimously backed the one-time payout. 2 million foreign workers,
who make up the rest of Kuwait's population of 3 million, do not get
the payment.
(AP, 7/31/06)
2006 Jul 31, Malawi's top
prosecutor said theft and corruption charges against the former
president Bakili Muluzi have been dropped after Pres. Bingu wa
Mutharika suspended the chief investigator in the case.
(AP, 7/31/06)
2006 Jul 31, In Mexico
supporters of the country’s leftist presidential candidate paralyzed
the Mexico City’s financial district and said they won’t leave until
the top electoral court rules on their demands for a recount in the
disputed race.
(AP, 7/31/06)
2006 Jul 31, Mexican police
found the body of a woman on a dirt road in the border city of
Ciudad Juarez. Abigail Rodriguez (29), who apparently had been
killed by a blow to the head and thrown out of a moving car, was the
14th woman found dead in Juarez so far this year.
(AP, 8/1/06)
2006 Jul 31, Peru’s President
Alan Garcia cut government salaries, including his own, three days
after announcing a long list of austerity measures in his inaugural
address.
(AP, 7/31/06)
2006 Jul 31, Russian officials
said more than 220 pieces, including jewelry and enameled objects
worth about $5 million, stolen from the State Hermitage Museum in
St. Petersburg, were not insured. The theft was discovered after a
routine inventory check that began in October 2005 and was completed
at the end of July.
(AP, 8/1/06)(SFC, 8/1/06, p.A3)
2006 Jul 31, Serbia’s PM
Vojislav Kostunica said in published remarks that Serbia will reject
independence as a solution for Kosovo and continue to consider the
province part of its territory.
(AP, 7/31/06)
2006 Jul 31, In South Korea
Jeong Kyung-hak (48) was arrested on charges of being a spy for
North Korea and having illegally arrived on Jul 27 with forged
Philippines identity documents.
(AP, 8/21/06)
2006 Jul 31, In northeastern
Sri Lanka heavy fighting over control of a water supply killed 35
Tamil rebels and seven soldiers. A rebel leader declared the island
nation's four-year-old cease-fire over.
(AP, 7/31/06)
2006 Jul 31, Turkey named Gen.
Yasar Buyukanit as the new military chief. He favored a tougher line
against Kurdish rebels and negotiations on joining the EU.
(AP, 7/31/06)
2006 Jul 31, The UN passed
Resolution 1696, which demanded that Iran suspend uranium enrichment
by the end of August.
(www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2006/sc8792.doc.htm)
2006 Jul 31, The UN scrapped a
meeting of nations that might contribute troops to help stabilize
south Lebanon, a decision that reflected the deep divisions among
key nations on how to end the three-week war between Israel and
Hezbollah.
(AP, 7/31/06)
2006 Jul 31, Venezuelan
President Hugo Chavez praised Vietnam for its battle against
"imperialism" and pledged to help the communist country develop its
nascent oil and gas industry during a two-day state visit.
(AP, 8/1/06)
2006 Jul 31, Zimbabwe devalued
its currency by 60% and slashed loan rates 550 points to 300%. 3
zeroes were off denominations amid 1200% inflation.
(WSJ, 8/1/06, p.A1)
2007 Jul 31, A US government
watchdog group called for the removal of GOP Sen. Ted Stevens from
his Senate committees, less than 24 hours after the FBI and IRS
raided the senator’s Alaska home in connection with a public
corruption probe centered in the state.
(www.cqpolitics.com/2007/07/ethics_flaps_could_stir_compet.html)
2007 Jul 31, The Government
Accountability Office, the investigative arm of the US Congress,
issued a report saying it could not account for 190,000 AK-47 rifles
and pistols given to Iraqi security forces in 2004 and 2005, or
about half the weapons earmarked for soldiers and police.
(Reuters, 8/6/07)
2007 Jul 31, The US Army
censured retired three-star Lt. Gen. Philip Kensinger for a "perfect
storm of mistakes, misjudgments and a failure of leadership" after
the 2004 friendly-fire death in Afghanistan of Army Ranger Pat
Tillman.
(AP, 7/31/08)
2007 Jul 31, In California
Michael Schneider (44), a Hillsborough real estate broker, pleaded
no contest in Santa Clara County to 173 felony counts related to
bilking investors out of more than $43 million. He faced as much as
169 years in prison.
(SFC, 8/2/07, p.B3)
2007 Jul 31, In northern
California the governing board of Oakland’s troubled Univ.
Preparatory Charter Academy closed the school leaving over 400
students in the lurch.
(SFC, 8/1/07, p.A1)
2007 Jul 31, Johnson &
Johnson said it would reduce its global work force by up to 4
percent, or up to 4,820 jobs, to cut costs due to slumping sales of
heart stents and its No. 2 drug, plus looming patent expirations.
(AP, 7/31/07)
2007 Jul 31, Rupert Murdoch's
News Corp. was expected to reach a definitive agreement to buy Dow
Jones & Co. Inc., capping his three-month pursuit of the
publisher of the Wall Street Journal, as the Bancroft gave approval
for Murdoch's $60-per-share bid.
(Reuters, 7/31/07)
2007 Jul 31, A new study
reported that drinking wine or beer every day increases the risk of
bowel cancer. The British Daily Telegraph reported 35,000 people are
diagnosed each year with bowel cancer and that it kills 16,100
a year.
(AP, 7/31/07)
2007 Jul 31, Norman Cohn (92),
English historian, died. He studied the links between apocalyptic
Medieval sects and 20th century totalitarianism and genocide. His
1957 book: "Pursuit of the Millennium: Revolutionary Millenarians
and Mystical Anarchists of the Middle Ages" drew parallels between
millenarian movements in the Middle Ages and the rise of
20th-century totalitarianism.
(AP, 8/27/07)
2007 Jul 31, In central
Afghanistan police discovered the body of a second South Korean
hostage, and the Taliban threatened to kill more captives if their
demands were not met by a new deadline. A suicide car bomber blew
himself up near a convoy of US troops on the outskirts of Kabul,
leaving up to 7 civilians and three soldiers wounded.
(AP, 7/31/07)
2007 Jul 31, ASEAN Plus Three
foreign ministers gathered in Manila on the eve of high-level
security talks. ARF, which includes the United States, European
Union, India, Pakistan, North and South Korea and other countries,
and will also hold talks here on Aug 1-2.
(AP, 7/31/07)
2007 Jul 31, The British army
marked a milestone of peacemaking as it formally ended its 38-year
mission to bolster security in Northern Ireland.
(AP, 7/31/07)
2007 Jul 31, In Cambodia Kang
Kek Ieu (alias Duch), a former Khmer Rouge prison chief, was charged
with crimes against humanity and detained by Cambodia's UN-backed
tribunal in the first legal action taken by the court against regime
leaders.
(AFP, 7/31/07)
2007 Jul 31, In Canada John
Felderhof, the lone remaining key figure in the multibillion-dollar
Bre-X gold fraud, was found not guilty. It took almost seven years
to reach the not guilty verdict in the trial of the only person to
be prosecuted in the massive Bre-X gold fraud, leading Canadians to
ask once again if the country isn't too soft on corporate crime.
(Reuters, 7/31/07)
2007 Jul 31, China’s state
media reported another 27 deaths from flooding and landslides in
different parts of the country.
(AP, 7/31/07)
2007 Jul 31, In Egypt US Sec.
of State Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates made a joint show
of diplomatic force during two days of meetings with Arab allies,
part of an 11th-hour effort to rally diplomatic and practical help
for the US-backed Shiite-led government in Baghdad. The tour opened
talks on a proposed US arms package for Arab states worth more than
$20 billion. US officials extended a 10-year pledge to continue $1.3
billion in annual aid to Egypt’s military. Military aid to Israel
was raised to $3 billion. Weapons sales to Saudi Arabia and 5
smaller monarchies was said to be $20 billion. Total US military aid
to the region over the next decade amounted to $63 billion.
(AP, 7/31/07)(Econ, 8/4/07, p.39)
2007 Jul 31, An Indian
anti-terror court sentenced Bollywood film star Sanjay Dutt to six
years in jail for illegal weapons possession in connection with
serial bombings in Mumbai in 1993. Dutt was freed on bail after 22
days in jail.
(AP, 7/31/07)(Econ, 8/4/07, p.38)(AP, 8/23/07)
2007 Jul 31, In Iraq
al-Maliki's government faced a threat by the main Sunni bloc in
parliament to withdraw its Cabinet members if he doesn't meet a
series of demands. At least 11 people were killed or found dead
nationwide, including three Iraqi police in a drive-by shooting and
one soldier in a roadside bombing. A teacher also was shot to death
while driving to work in a mainly Sunni neighborhood in Baghdad. An
explosively-formed penetrator, or EFP, detonated near a US soldiers'
patrol during combat operations, killing 3 with 6 wounded. Another
US soldier was killed by small arms fire in a separate incident. Two
US soldiers were killed in a mortar or rocket attack.
(AP, 7/31/07)(AP, 8/1/07)(AP, 8/2/07)
2007 Jul 31, Pro-government and
independent candidates swept local elections in Jordan, including
the first-ever vote for city mayors. The Islamist main opposition
group withdrew from Jordan's first mayoral elections and accused the
government of fraud.
(AP, 7/31/07)(AP, 8/2/07)
2007 Jul 31, In Mexico the
bodies of Josue Hernandez (32) and Anibal Sanchez (30), both agents
with Mexico's Federal Agency of Investigation, were found in
Guerrero state, where they were gathering intelligence on drug
traffickers. The agents had taken part in a raid that discovered
$205 million in cash in a Mexico City mansion.
(AP, 8/2/07)
2007 Jul 31, In Mozambique 5
soldiers were killed when an army truck carrying munitions that were
about to be destroyed exploded near the country's main airport.
(AP, 7/31/07)
2007 Jul 31, In Nigeria Peter
Ogwuma, a staff (member) of Elf Petroleum, was abducted as he was
about to leave the church for home.
(AFP, 8/2/07)
2007 Jul 31, In northwestern
Pakistan government troops backed by helicopter gunships repelled an
attack on a military checkpoint near Miran Shah, killing 18 Islamic
militants. A local lawmaker said the 18 people killed were tribesmen
and not militants.
(AP, 7/31/07)(SFC, 8/1/07, p.A15)(AFP, 8/2/07)
2007 Jul 31, In northern Sri
Lanka hundreds of ethnic Sinhalese civilians fled three villages,
claiming the government had failed to protect them from attacks by
Tamil Tiger rebels.
(AP, 7/31/07)
2007 Jul 31, A senior Sudanese
official said floods and heavy rains have caused 23,000 mudbrick
homes to collapse and killed at least 62 people across Sudan this
month. In southern Darfur Mahria Arab tribesmen attacked Terjem
Arabs killing over 60 Terjem. Conflict between Arab tribes was on
the increase and included clashes between the Habanniya and Salamat
tribes.
(AP, 7/31/07)(SFC, 9/3/07, p.A16)
2007 Jul 31, The UN Security
Council approved a 26,000 strong peacekeeping force for Darfur, to
try to end 4 years of fighting that has killed over 200,000.
(SFC, 8/1/07, p.A13)
2007 Jul 31, Zimbabwe's central
bank introduced yet another higher denomination banknote as it
grappled with runaway inflation which is rendering lower-value
banknotes useless. The new 200,000-Zimbabwe dollar bearer check is
worth 800 US dollars at the official rate and one US dollar at the
parallel market rate.
(AFP, 7/31/07)
2008 Jul 31, The US Congress
approved legislation that will allow the State Department to settle
all remaining lawsuits against Libya by US terrorism victims.
(AP, 7/31/08)
2008 Jul 31, California’s Gov.
Schwarzenegger ordered the layoffs of thousands of state workers
along with steep pay cuts for most other state employees to ease the
state’s budget gap of $17.2 billion.
(SFC, 8/1/08, p.A1)
2008 Jul 31, A US Virgin
Islands hospital fired four board members after a US government
audit found alleged financial mismanagement and the use of taxpayer
money to fund lucrative pay packages for top administrators.
(AP, 7/31/08)
2008 Jul 31, Booz Allen
Hamilton, a consulting firm on cybersecurity, split from Booz &
Co., in order to focus on the public sector. Booz & Co.
continued focused on the private sector. Their non-compete agreement
expired in August, 2011.
(Econ, 7/16/11,
p.69)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Booz_Allen_Hamilton)
2008 Jul 31, Exxon Mobil Corp.
reported second-quarter earnings of $11.68 billion, the biggest
quarterly profit ever by any US corporation, but the results were
well short of Wall Street expectations and its shares fell.
(AP, 7/31/08)
2008 Jul 31, Scientists
reported that Phoenix spacecraft robot has confirmed the presence of
frozen water lurking below the Martian permafrost.
(AP, 7/31/08)
2008 Jul 31, Ivan Miranda (14)
was killed in the SF Excelsior district in a gang motivated attack.
Rony Aguilera (17), an illegal immigrant from Honduras, was charged
in the sword attack. Aguilera had veen arrested in 2007 in an
assault case, but was not referred to federal authorities under a
recently discarded city sanctuary ordnance. In 2009 Walter
Chinchilla-Linar (23) and Cesar Alvarado (19), alleged members of
MS-13 street gang, were charged with the stabbing death of Miranda.
(SFC, 11/14/08, p.A1)(SFC, 10/23/09, p.A12)
2008 Jul 31, In Wisconsin a
gunman opened fire on a group of young adults from Michigan killing
3, aged 17-19, along the Menominee riverbank in the town of Niagara.
The next day police arrested Scott J. Johnson (38). He had a raped a
woman near the same site the evening before the murders. In 2009
Johnson was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
(AP, 8/2/08)(SFC, 5/22/09, p.A6)
2008 Jul 31, A small jet
crashed while preparing to land at Degner Regional Airport in
Minnesota killing 8 people including several casino and construction
executives.
(WSJ, 7/31/08, p.A2)
2008 Jul 31, Brazilian
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva launched the Amazon Fund to
provide grants to projects intended to stop the Amazon rainforest
from shrinking.
(Econ, 8/9/08, p.37)
2008 Jul 31, Haitian lawmakers
ratified Michele Pierre-Louis to be the country's prime minister,
ending more than three months of political bickering and deadlock in
Parliament.
(AP, 8/1/08)
2008 Jul 31, At least 36 Hindu
pilgrims from Nepal were killed when their bus plunged into a river
in the mountainous northern Indian state of Uttarakhand.
(AFP, 7/31/08)
2008 Jul 31, In Iraq a
suicide car bomber rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into the wall
of a police station near the northern city of Mosul, killing three
policemen and wounding four. A judge died of wounds suffered in an
attack the day before in Mosul. Insurgents clashed with US-allied
Sunni Arab fighters and killed one of them near the village of
al-Waib, south of Baqouba.
(AP, 7/31/08)
2008 Jul 31, A mortar shell hit
a house in the Swat valley where Pakistani security forces are
battling Islamic militants, killing a family of seven. Another 10
civilians died in fighting in the region. Militants torched a nearby
girls school.
(AP, 7/31/08)(SFC, 8/1/08, p.A10)
2008 Jul 31, Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas ordered the release of all Hamas activists
detained in recent days by his security forces.
(AP, 7/31/08)
2008 Jul 31, Russia’s
Pres. Medvedev said that he had signed an anticorruption plan and
that he was serious about clamping down on graft.
(WSJ, 7/31/08, p.A6)
2008 Jul 31, South Korea's
Constitutional Court overturned a ban on doctors telling parents the
gender of unborn babies, saying the country has grown out of a
preference for sons and that the restriction violates parents' right
to know.
(AP, 7/31/08)
2008 Jul 31, Sri Lanka’s army
troops crossed into Kilinochchi district, where the rebels' de facto
capital is located, in fighting for the first time in 11 years.
(AP, 8/2/08)
2008 Jul 31, Sudanese courts
sentenced another 22 alleged Darfur rebels to death over an
unprecedented attack on the capital last May in which more than 222
people were killed.
(AFP, 7/31/08)
2008 Jul 31, In Thailand the
wife of ousted PM Thaksin Shinawatra was found guilty of evading
millions of dollars in taxes and sentenced to three years in prison,
dealing a staggering blow to a man who was once one of the richest
and most powerful in Thailand.
(AP, 7/31/08)
2008 Jul 31, Turkey’s Deputy PM
Cemil Cicek signaled the government would not push for a fresh round
of legislation to lift the head scarf ban.
(AP, 7/31/08)
2008 Jul 31, Fourteen of the UN
security council's 15 members voted in favor of Resolution 1828 to
extends the mandate of the joint UN-African Union peacekeeping force
in Darfur (UNAMID) for one year from this day, when it had been set
to expire. The United States abstained in the vote because language
added to the resolution noting concern that any indictment of Beshir
might jeopardize the Darfur peace process.
(AFP, 8/1/08)
2008 Jul 31, Venezuela’s Pres.
Chavez said his government will nationalize Banco de Venezuela, the
local unit of the Spanish banking giant Banco Santander.
(WSJ, 7/31/08, p.A6)
2009 Jul 31, California
authorities said the white striped fruit fly has been found in
Southern California, marking the first detection of the Southeast
Asian pest in the Western Hemisphere. Several thousand traps were
soon placed in the La Verne area of eastern Los Angeles County,
where 7 of the flies were found.
(SFC, 8/1/09, p.A4)
2009 Jul 31, A jury ordered
Joel Tenenbaum (b.1983), a student at Boston Univ., to pay damages
of $675,000 for sharing 30 songs over the Internet. He was later
ordered to destroy his illegal music files — but a judge declined to
force him to stop promoting the activity.
(Econ, 9/5/09, TQ
p.4)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joel_Tenenbaum)(AP, 12/7/09)
2009 Jul 31, The space shuttle
Endeavour returned to Florida after over 2 weeks aloft and a
successful construction job that boosted the size and power of the
international space station.
(AP, 8/1/09)
2009 Jul 31, In Afghanistan a
US service member died in the south of the country. In Geneva the UN
issued a report stating that the number of civilians killed in
conflict in Afghanistan has jumped 24% so far this year, with
bombings by insurgent and airstrikes by international forces the
biggest single killers.
(AP, 7/31/09)
2009 Jul 31, UN human rights
experts asked Azerbaijan to stop curbing free speech and to protect
journalists from harassment, violence and even murder.
(Reuters, 7/31/09)
2009 Jul 31, In southeastern
Bangladesh landslides caused by heavy monsoon rains killed 10
people.
(AP, 7/31/09)
2009 Jul 31, Britain's defense
ministry said Sikh soldiers have begun guarding the monarch and her
treasures. “Regiments take it in turn to stand in for the Household
Division and it just happens that two of the soldiers this time
round are Sikh.”
(AP, 7/31/09)
2009 Jul 31, In Colombia at
least eight former officials of the domestic intelligence agency
surrendered to face criminal charges for allegedly spying illegally
on opponents of President Alvaro Uribe including judges, journalists
and human rights workers.
(AP, 8/1/09)
2009 Jul 31, Cuba suspended
plans for a Communist Party congress and lowered its 2009 economic
growth projection from 2.5% to 1.7%, as the island's economy
struggled through a "very serious" crisis.
(AP, 7/31/09)
2009 Jul 31, An Indian court
issued a warrant for the arrest of Warren Anderson, the former head
of the American chemical company responsible for a gas leak that
killed at least 10,000 people in Bhopal 25 years ago. Anderson was
the head of Union Carbide Corp. when its factory in the central
Indian city leaked 40 tons of poisonous gas on Dec. 3, 1984, in the
world's worst industrial disaster. In 1989, Union Carbide paid $470
million in compensation to the Indian government and said officials
were responsible for the cleanup. India said its efforts were slowed
when Midland, Mich.-based Dow Chemical Co. took over Union Carbide
in 2001, seven years after Union Carbide sold its interest in the
Bhopal plant.
(AP, 7/31/09)
2009 Jul 31, Iran detained 3
Americans after they mistakenly crossed the border from northern
Iraq. They crossed into Iranian territory while hiking in a
mountainous area near the town of Ahmed Awaa. Freelance journalist
Shane Bauer, Sara Shourd and Josh Fattal, all graduates of the
University of California, Berkeley, were detained after apparently
straying across the border while hiking in Iraq's northern Kurdish
region.
(AP, 8/1/09)(AP, 11/9/09)
2009 Jul 31, In Iraq bombs
exploded near five Shiite mosques in Baghdad, killing at least 29
people, in an apparent coordinated attack that targeted worshippers
leaving Friday prayers. Iraqi police announced they had recovered
millions of dollars stolen on July 28 from a state-run bank in a
robbery that left eight guards dead.
(AP, 7/31/09)
2009 Jul 31, The Irish Times
newspaper won a long-running legal battle to protect the identity of
a key source who provided documents showing that former PM Bertie
Ahern was under investigation for corruption. Colm Keena and
Geraldine Kennedy had refused to comply with an October 2007 High
Court judgment ordering them to identify their source for the
confidential documents from a fact-finding tribunal into political
corruption. The scandal spurred Ahern to resign in May 2008 after 11
years in power.
(AP, 7/31/09)
2009 Jul 31, In Mexico
assailants gunned down five men and a woman in a pool hall in the
border city of Ciudad Juarez.
(AP, 7/31/09)
2009 Jul 31, Anuradha Koirala,
the founder of Nepalese charity Maiti Nepal, said British actress
Joanna Lumley has agreed to be its international ambassador. The
charity helps victims of human trafficking.
(AFP, 7/31/09)
2009 Jul 31, Nigeria's national
police claimed victory over a radical Islamist sect after its leader
was killed by security forces. Experts warned revenge attacks could
occur and a leading human rights group demanded a probe into the
killing. At least 300 people were killed in violence that erupted in
several states around northern Nigeria since July 26.
(Reuters, 7/31/09)
2009 Jul 31, Pakistan's Supreme
Court ruled that former Pres. Pervez Musharraf's imposition of
emergency rule in 2007 was unconstitutional.
(AP, 7/31/09)
2009 Jul 31, Turkey's navy
commandos aboard a frigate captured seven pirates in the Gulf of
Aden off Somalia's coast. Turkish commandos had captured five other
pirates in a similar operation in the Gulf of Aden a week ago.
(AP, 7/31/09)
2009 Jul 31, Venezuelan
regulators revoked the broadcast rights of 34 radio stations for
allegedly failing to submit the proper paperwork to the broadcasting
regulator, deepening a rift between President Chavez's government
and the private media. Venezuelan lawmakers approved an election law
to redraw voting districts, a step that President Hugo Chavez's
opponents say will give his party a big advantage in next year's
congressional vote.
(AP, 7/31/09)(AP, 8/1/09)(Econ, 8/8/09, p.32, 34)
2009 Jul 31, A new study by the
Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation and Vietnam's ministry of
defense said more than one-third of the land in six central
Vietnamese provinces remained contaminated with land mines and
unexploded bombs from the Vietnam War.
(AP, 7/31/09)
2009 Jul 31, Global Witness,
which monitors the exploitation of natural resources, backed calls
for a ban on trading in Zimbabwe diamonds due to human rights abuses
in mining of the gem.
(AFP, 7/31/09)
2010 Jul 31, Mitch Miller
(b.1911), musician, conductor and producer, died in New York. His TV
show, “Sing Along With Mitch” aired from 1961-1964.
(SFC, 8/3/10, p.C3)
2010 Jul 31, Afghanistan’s
national disaster authority chief said flash floods have killed at
least 65 people and affected more than 1,000 families.
(AFP, 7/31/10)
2010 Jul 31, A Canadian
waterbombing plane with 2 crew members crashed while fighting the
blaze in British Columbia. 318 forest fires were burning across
British Columbia, with the largest covering 25 square km (10 square
miles).
(AP, 8/1/10)
2010 Jul 31, In northern China
an explosion ripped through a workers' dormitory area in Linfen
city, Shanxi province, and killed at least 15 people at the Liugou
mine, a coal mine notorious for mining disasters.
(AP, 7/31/10)
2010 Jul 31, Across Indian
Kashmir violence continued to rage with two people shot dead and
five wounded after police in two towns opened fire on protesters who
attacked their camps and pelted them with rocks.
(AP, 7/31/10)
2010 Jul 31, A senior Iranian
official said China has invested around 40 billion dollars in the
Islamic republic's oil and gas sector.
(AFP, 7/31/10)
2010 Jul 31, In Iraq a roadside
bomb killed four people, including three army soldiers, and wounded
11 people south of Baghdad.
(AP, 7/31/10)
2010 Jul 31, Israeli warplanes
fired missiles killing Issa Batran (42), a senior commander of the
Hamas military wing, and wounding 11 people in five targets hit
across Gaza overnight. Hamas said 8 of its supporters and 3
civilians were also wounded in the overnight airstrikes and vowed
revenge.
(AP, 7/31/10)
2010 Jul 31, In southern Italy
an apartment building collapsed in Afragola, a small town near
Naples. Rescue workers said they have pulled the bodies of 3 people
from the wreckage, including a little girl.
(AP, 7/31/10)
2010 Jul 31, Mexican federal
police rescued two kidnapped news cameramen in the northern city of
Gomez Palacio, Coahuila state, five days after they were seized by
drug traffickers in a bid to get their employers to broadcast cartel
messages.
(AP, 7/31/10)
2010 Jul 31, Mexico said it
will send its ambassador back to Honduras next week, recognizing the
government of Honduran President Porfirio Lobo a year after his
predecessor was ousted by a military-backed coup.
(AP, 7/31/10)
2010 Jul 31, Pakistani
officials said flooding has killed more than 800 people in a week as
rescuers struggled to reach marooned victims and some evacuees
showed signs of fever, diarrhea and other waterborne diseases.
(AP, 7/31/10)
2010 Jul 31, Qatar's emir made
a high-profile visit to south Lebanon, a Hezbollah stronghold
destroyed in a 2006 war with Israel and whose rebuilding the emirate
is helping finance.
(AFP, 7/31/10)
2010 Jul 31, Russian police
arrested a leading Kremlin opponent and dozens of fellow activists
at a demonstration demanding freedom of assembly.
(AP, 7/31/10)
2010 Jul 31, In Russia raging
wildfires spread across parts of western Russia, engulfing 30
percent more land in just 24 hours. PM Vladimir Putin described the
situation as very difficult.
(AP, 7/31/10)
2010 Jul 31, Land mines began
washing up on South Korean shores, apparently swept down from North
Korea by torrential rains. One killed a man and wounded another.
(AP, 8/1/10)
2010 Jul 31, The Tanzanian
island of Zanzibar voted to form a unity government after
October elections in an effort to avoid a repeat of previous
electoral violence that killed dozens of people.
(AP, 8/1/10)
2010 Jul 31, In Uganda more
than 50 people died after a boat they were traveling in capsized on
Lake Albert. The boat was carrying between 70 and 80 people, but
only five survivors have been found and 17 bodies recovered.
(AP, 8/2/10)
2010 Jul 31, UNESCO added seven
cultural sites to its World Heritage List including Bikini Atoll in
the Marshall Islands, home to nuclear bomb testing in the 1940s and
1950s. Also added to the list were the Turaif District in Saudi
Arabia; Australia's penal colony sites; the Jantar Mantar
astronomical observation site in India; a shrine in Ardabil in Iran;
the Tabriz historic bazaar complex, also in Iran; and the historic
villages of Hahoe and Yangdong in South Korea.
(AP, 8/1/10)
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