Today in History - August 4
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1060 Aug 4,
Henry I (52), King of France (1027-60), died.
(MC, 8/4/02)
1181 Aug 4, A supernova was
seen in Cassiopeia. Chinese and Japanese astronomers observed a
supernova. The star 3C58 was later identified as the heart of the
explosion in the constellation Cassiopeia. In 2002 it was thought to
be composed of quarks.
(MC, 8/4/02)(SFC, 4/11/02, p.A2)
1265 Aug 4, King Henry III in
the Battle at Evesham put down a revolt of English barons lead by
Simon de Montfort. Montfort, the English earl of Leicester, died in
the battle.
(HN, 8/4/98)(MC, 8/4/02)
1347 Aug 4, English troops
conquered Ft. Calais. After an 11 month siege, French Calais fell to
England's King Edward III. English rule lasted for more than two
centuries.
(WSJ, 11/6/95, p. A-1)(MC, 8/4/02)
1476 Aug 4, Jacob van
Armagnac-Pardiac, French duke of Nemours, was beheaded.
(MC, 8/4/02)
1498 Aug 4-1498 Aug 12,
Christopher Columbus explored the Gulf of Paria (Venezuela) between
Trinidad and South America.
(http://www1.minn.net/~keithp/v3.htm)
1558 Aug 4, 1st printing of
Zohar (Jewish Kabala).
(MC, 8/4/02)
1578 Aug 4, A crusade against
the Moors of Morocco was routed at the Battle of Alcazar-el-Kebir.
King Sebastian of Portugal and 8,000 of his soldiers were killed.
Sebastian was killed along with the King of Fez and the Moorish
Pretender in the Battle of Alcazar. He was succeeded by Cardinal
Henry.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.22)(HN, 8/4/98)
1664 Aug 4, Louis Lully,
composer, was born.
(MC, 8/4/02)
1666 Aug 4, Johan Evertsen,
Italian admiral of Zeeland, was lynched in Brielle.
(MC, 8/4/02)
1689 Aug 4-5, War between
England and France led them to use their native American allies as
proxies. In retaliation for the French attack on the Seneca in 1687,
one thousand, five hundred Iroquois, with English support, attacked
Lachine down river from the mission of the Mountain of Ville-Marie
(Montreal), killing some 400. They put everything to fire and
axe. Some suggest that this is a gross exaggeration and that
only 24-25 were killed and likely 90 were captured by the Iroquois,
but never returned.
(www.telusplanet.net/public/dgarneau/french23.htm)
1693 Aug 4, Dom Perignon
invented champagne. [see 1688]
(MC, 8/4/02)
1704 Aug 4, In the War of
Spanish Succession, an Anglo-Dutch fleet captured Gibraltar.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Gibraltar)(AP, 9/19/06)
1705 Aug 4, Vaclav Matyas
Gurecky, composer, was born.
(MC, 8/4/02)
1717 Aug 4, A friendship treaty
was signed between France and Russia.
(HN, 8/4/98)
1735 Aug 4, A jury acquitted
John Peter Zenger of the New York Weekly Journal of seditious libel.
(AP, 8/4/97)
1753 Aug 4, George Washington
became a master mason.
(MC, 8/4/02)
1789 Aug 4, The Constituent
Assembly in France dissolved feudal system by abolishing the
privileges of nobility.
(HN, 8/4/98)(MC, 8/4/02)
1790 Aug. 4, US Treasury
Secretary Alexander Hamilton urged that ten boats for the collection
of revenue be built. This was to stop smuggling, especially of
coffee, which was hampering trade. The Coast Guard was born as the
Revenue Cutter Service. The Coast Guard was empowered to board and
inspect any vessel in US waters and any US boat anywhere in the
world.
(Smith., 8/95, p.25)(HFA, '96, p.36)(SFC,
5/20/96, p.A-16)(AP, 8/4/00)
1792 Aug 4, Percy Bysshe
Shelley (d.1822), English poet and author who wrote "Prometheus
Unbound," was born in Field Place, England. He married Mary
Wollstonecraft Godwin, author of "Frankenstein." He wrote the poem
"Adonais."
(WUD, 1994, p.1314)(HN, 8/4/98)
1805 Aug 4, William Rowan
Hamilton (d.1865), Irish scientist, was born.
(HN, 8/4/00)
1809 Aug 4, Hapsburg Emp.
Francis I appointed Count Clemens von Metternich (36) minister of
state.
(PC, 1992 ed, p.371)
1821 Aug 4, The 1st edition of
Saturday Evening Post was published. It continued until 1969.
(MC, 8/4/02)
1830 Aug 4, Plans for the city
of Chicago were laid out.
(AP, 8/4/97)
1855 Aug 4, John Bartlett, a
Cambridge bookseller, published the 1st edition of "Bartlett’s
Familiar Quotations."
(WSJ, 10/18/02, p.W17)(MC, 8/4/02)
1864 Aug 4, Federal troops fail
to capture Fort Gaines on Dauphin Island, one of the Confederate
forts defending Mobile Bay. [see Aug 3]
(HN, 8/4/99)
1875 Aug 4, The first
Convention of Colored Newspapermen was held in Cincinnati, Ohio.
(HN, 8/4/98)
1875 Aug 4, Hans Christian
Andersen (b.1805), Danish fairy tale writer, died. His biography was
later written by Elias Bredsdorff (d.2002 at 90).
(SFC, 8/23/02, p.A27)(MC, 8/4/02)
1879 Aug 4, A law was passed in
Germany making Alsace Lorraine a territory of the empire.
(HN, 8/4/98)
1884 Aug 4, Thomas Stevens
(1853-1935) arrived in Boston after 104 days from SF in the 1st
bicycle trip to cross the US. He later continued around world (2 yrs
9 mos) on a trip financed with articles for "Outing and the
Wheelman" magazine.
(MC, 4/22/02)(ON, 9/03, p.12)
1892 Aug 4, Lizzie Borden’s
father and stepmother, Andrew and Abby Durfee Gray Borden, were
killed with an ax in Fall River, Mass. Based on strong
circumstantial evidence, Sunday school teacher Lizzie (32), Andrew
Borden's daughter from a previous marriage, was charged and
acquitted of the murders by an all-male jury. Later an opera titled
"Lizzie Borden" by Jack Beeson drew a portrait of family pathology
that depicted her as guilty of the crime.
(WSJ,3/13/95, p.A-13)(AP, 8/4/97)(SFC, 9/17/97,
p.A16)(HNPD, 8/4/98)
1900 Aug 4, Louis "Satchmo"
Armstrong, (Daniel Louis Armstrong, d.1971) jazz trumpet player, was
born in New Orleans. He developed a vocal style called "scat
singing"; was a band leader, film star and worldwide celebrity; his
career spanned five decades. His autobiography “Satchmo” was
published in 1954. "I got a simple rule about everybody. If you
don't treat me right, shame on you." Laurence Bergreen in 1997 wrote
a biography titled: "Louis Armstrong: An Extravagant Life."
(SFEC, 6/29/97, BR p.4)(AP,
12/1/99)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Armstrong)
1900 Aug 4, Elizabeth
Bowes-Lyon (d.2002), later known as the Queen Mum (mother of Queen
Elizabeth II), was born in Scotland as the daughter of Lord Glamis,
who became the 14th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne. She later
became the wife of King George VI.
(SFC, 8/4/00, p.A18)(SFC, 8/5/00, p.A12)(WSJ,
8/10/00, p.A16)(MC, 8/4/02)
1901 Aug 4, Louis Armstrong,
jazz trumpet player, was born. Laurence Bergreen in 1997 wrote a
biography titled: "Louis Armstrong: An Extravagant Life." [see Jul
4, 1900]
(SFEC, 6/29/97, BR p.4)(HN, 8/4/01)
1903 Aug 4, Cardinal Giuseppe
Sarto of Venice was elected Pope Pius X.
(MC, 8/4/02)
1908 Aug 4, Bronson Howard
(b.1842), playwright and Detroit-born founder of the American
Dramatist’s Club, died in New Jersey.
(www.theatredatabase.com/19th_century/bronson_howard_001.html)
1909 Aug 4, Baseball umpire Tim
Hurst instigated a riot by spitting at A's 2nd baseman Eddie
Collins, who had questioned a call. This lead to Hurst's
banishment.
(MC, 8/4/02)
1912 Aug 4, Raoul Wallenberg,
Swedish diplomat credited with saving nearly 100,000 Budapest Jews
during World War II, was born.
(HN, 8/4/98)
1912 Aug 4, The 1st detachment
of American forces requested by President Diaz, arrived at Managua,
Nicaragua, from Corinto. It was a handful of seamen from the USS
ANNAPOLIS.
(http://www.scuttlebuttsmallchow.com/usmcnic3.html)
1914 Aug 4, Britain and Belgium
declared war after German troops entered Belgium. The United States
proclaimed its neutrality.
(HNQ, 7/24/98)(AP, 8/4/97)
1916 Aug 4, The United States
signed a treaty to purchase the Danish Virgin Islands for $25
million. The US purchased the southern Virgin Islands including St.
Thomas, St. John, St. Croix and about 50 other small Caribbean
islets and cays from Denmark. They were then known as the Danish
West Indies. The Act of March 3, 1917, authorized payment by the US
of $25 million for the Virgin Islands.
(WUD, 1994, p.1595)(AP, 8/4/97)(HNQ, 11/20/99)
1917 Aug 4, Pravda called for
the killing of all capitalists, priests and officers.
(MC, 8/4/02)
1929 Aug 4, Some 60,000 SA and
SS storm troopers marched in Munich.
(MC, 8/4/02)
1930 Aug 4, Michael Cullen
introduced King Kullen in queens, NYC, the 1st US supermarket.
(SFC, 8/4/05, p.C1)
1930 Aug 4, Siegfried Wagner
(61), German opera composer and son of Richard Wagner, died.
(MC, 8/4/02)
1932 Aug 4, Luigi Beccali
(1907-1990), Italian athlete, won Olympic gold in the 1500 meters.
He gave a Fascist salute at the winners’ podium.
(WSJ, 4/12/08, p.R2)(http://tinyurl.com/6al4up)
1936 Aug 4, Jesse Owens
(1913-1980) won his 2nd Olympic medal (long jump) at the Berlin
Olympics.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_Owens)
1940 Aug 4, The Paris Soir
reported that Gen. Charles de Gaulle had been condemned to death in
absentia for treason by a Vichy military court.
(WSJ, 8/2/00, p.A12)
1942 Aug 4, The British
government charged that Mohandas Gandhi and his All-Indian Congress
Party favored "appeasement" with Japan.
(HN, 8/4/98)
1942 Aug 4, The 1st train with
Jews departed Mechelen, Belgium, to Auschwitz.
(MC, 8/4/02)
1944 Aug 4, RAF pilot T. D.
Dean became the first pilot to destroy a V-1 buzz bomb when he
tipped the pilotless craft's wing, sending it off course.
(HN, 8/4/98)
1944 Aug 4, British 8th army
reached the suburbs of Florence, Italy.
(MC, 8/4/02)
1944 Aug 4, Nazi police
raided the secret annex of a building in Amsterdam and arrested
eight people, including 15-year-old Anne Frank, whose diary became a
famous account of the Holocaust. She died at the Bergen-Belsen
concentration camp in the spring of 1945, just weeks before the camp
was liberated. Miep Gies (1909-2010), secretary to Anne’s father
Otto, collected the scattered pages of Anne’s diary and returned
them to Otto Frank after the war.
(AP, 8/4/02)(Econ, 1/30/10, p.95)
1944 Aug 4, A Halifax JP-276A
took off on its final flight from the Italian city of Brindisi
around 8 p.m., to drop weapons, ammunition and medical supplies for
resistance fighters involved in the Warsaw Uprising against the
Nazis. The plane was shot down by Poland's Nazis occupiers and
crashed near the town of Dabrowa Tarnowska, in southern Poland.
Remnants were recovered in 2006 and the remains of the crew, 5
Canadians and 2 Britons, were formally buried in 2007.
(AP, 10/4/07)
1948 Aug 4, A 5 day US southern
filibuster succeeded in maintaining the poll tax.
(MC, 8/4/02)
1952 Aug 4, Helicopters from
the U.S. Air Force Air Rescue Service landed in Germany, completing
the first transatlantic flight by helicopter in 51 hours and 55
minutes of flight time.
(HN, 8/4/00)
1953 Aug 4, Black families
moved into the Trumbull Park housing project in Chicago.
(MC, 8/4/02)
1954 Aug 4, A uranium rush
began in Saskatchewan, Canada.
(MC, 8/4/02)
1955 Aug 4, Billy Bob Thornton,
American actor, was born. He became an occasional director,
playwright, screenwriter and singer. By 2009 he was married five
times, his most recent ex-wife being actress Angelina Jolie.
(www.spiritus-temporis.com/billy-bob-thornton/)
1955 Aug 4, Eisenhower
authorized $46 million for the construction of CIA headquarters.
(MC, 8/4/02)
1955 Aug 4, The U-2
reconnaissance prototype made its first flight.
(NPub, 2002, p.17)
1956 Aug 4, Elvis Presley
released "Hound Dog."
(MC, 8/4/02)
1958 Aug 4, Mary Decker
Stanley, winner of seven track and field records, was born.
(HN, 8/4/98)
1958 Aug 4, Billboard, founded
in 1894, premiered its all-genre singles Hot 100 chart.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billboard_Hot_100)
1961 Aug 4, Barack Obama, later
US Senator from Illinois, was born in Honolulu to a black Kenyan
father and a white American mother. He lived most of his early life
in Hawaii. From ages six to ten, he lived in Jakarta, Indonesia with
his mother and Indonesian stepfather.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barack_Obama)
1962 Aug 4, Nelson Mandela was
captured by South African police.
(MC, 8/4/02)
1964 Aug 4, Pres. Johnson
ordered an immediate retaliation for the Aug 2 attack on the US
destroyer Maddox in the Gulf of Tonkin off North Vietnam.
(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.F5)
1964 Aug 4, The destroyers
U.S.S. Maddox and Turner Joy allegedly exchanged fire with supposed
North Vietnamese patrol boats. At the time it was taken as evidence
that Hanoi was raising the stakes against the United States. The
destroyers were in effect shooting at false radar contacts. In 2005
it was reported that a secret 2001 report had concluded that the NSA
officers deliberately distorted the Aug 4 data to support the belief
that North Vietnamese ships attacked American destroyers 2 days
after a previous clash.
(www.usni.org/navalhistory/articles99/nhandrade.htm#tx17)(SFC,
10/31/05, p.A3)
1964 Aug 4, The bodies of
missing civil rights workers Michael H. Schwerner, Andrew Goodman
and James E. Chaney were found buried in an earthen dam in Nashoba
County, Mississippi. Schwerner and Goodman were Jewish-Americans
from Pelham and New York City respectively and Chaney was a Black
from Meridian, Mississippi. The three civil rights workers had
disappeared from Philadelphia, Mississippi, on June 21, 1964, not
long after they had been held for six hours in the Neshoba County,
Mississippi jail on charges of speeding. Their burned car was
discovered on June 23rd, prompting a search by the FBI for the
three young men. Their story became the basis for the movie
Mississippi Burning, starring Gene Hackman, Willem Defoe and Frances
McDormand in 1988. In 2005, on the forty-first anniversary of the
crime, Edgar Ray Killen (80) an ordained Baptist minister, was found
guilty of three counts of manslaughter.
(AP, 8/4/97)(WSJ, 1/16/98, p.A12)
1972 Aug 4, Arthur Bremer
(b.1950) was sentenced to 63 years for shooting Alabama Gov.
Wallace and 3 bystanders on May 15, 1972, in Laurel, Maryland. An
appeal reduced the sentence to 53 years. After 35 years of
incarceration, Bremer was released from prison on parole on November
9, 2007. He remains on probation until 2025 and resides in a halfway
house in Cumberland, Maryland.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Bremer#Release)
1972 Aug 4, Uganda’s president
Idi Amin gave some 50,000 Asians 90 days to leave the country
following an alleged dream in which, he claimed, God told him to
expel them.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idi_Amin)
1975 Aug 4, In Malaysia the
Japanese Red Army raided a building in Kuala Lumpur that housed US,
Swedish, Japanese and Canadian embassies. 52 hostages were exchanged
for Red Army members.
(http://www.ioss.gov/docs/julytodecember.html)
1977 Aug 4, President Carter
signed a measure establishing the Department of Energy.
(AP, 8/4/97)
1977 Aug 4, In San Francisco
some 50 elderly tenants of the International Hotel in Chinatown were
forcefully evicted by police as thousands of protestors filled the
streets. The structure was demolished in 1979 and a hole occupied
the site. In 2004 city officials declared a 2-block corridor on
Kearny as “Manilatown” as construction rose on 14-story Int’l. Hotel
Senior Residences. In 2007 Estella Habal authored “San Francisco’s
International Hotel: Mobilizing the Filipino American Community in
the Anti-Eviction Movement.”
(SFC, 12/13/96, p.A30)(SFC, 8/1/97,
p.A25)(eyewitness)(SFC, 6/8/01, WBa p.6)(SFC, 7/24/02, p.A17)(SFC,
7/28/04, p.B1)(SSFC, 8/19/07, p.M1)
1980 Aug 4, Susan G. Komen (36)
died of breast cancer. Her sister Nancy G. Brinker went on to found
the Susan B. Komen for the Cure breast cancer charity. In 2010 she
authored her memoir “Promise Me.”
(SSFC, 8/8/10, Par p.8)
1981 Aug 4, In Bolivia Pres.
Luis Garcia Meza, 1980 military coup leader, was succeeded by Gen.
Celso Torrelio (1933-1999).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_Garc%C3%ADa_Meza_Tejada)
1982 Aug 4, Ronald Smith of
Canada killed two Americans in Montana during a drunken road trip.
In March 1893 Smith was convicted and sentenced to death.
(Econ, 5/24/08,
p.55)(http://bulk.resource.org/courts.gov/c/F2/914/914.F2d.1153.88-4115.html)
1983 Aug 4, In Burkina Faso
Blaise Compaore played a key role in a coup that brought Thomas
Sankara (1949-1987) to power.
(Econ, 3/21/09,
p.49)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Sankara)
1984 Aug 4, In Germany Robert
Brown (24), a former American soldier, struck Nicola Stiel (19) and
raped her, then strangled her to prevent her from reporting the
rape. In 2009 Brown was extradited to Germany to face charges that
he raped and murdered the woman near where he worked on a US
military base in Hesse state.
(AP, 8/17/09)
1987 Aug 4, The Federal
Communications Commission voted 4-0 to rescind the Fairness
Doctrine, which required radio and television stations to present
balanced coverage of controversial issues. The US Supreme Court had
ruled it constitutional in 1969.
(AP, 8/4/97)(SFC, 5/5/03, p.B4)
1987 Aug 4, Carlina White (19
days) was abducted from a Harlem hospital. In 2011 Ann Pettway of
North Carolina surrendered to authorities days after White (23),
raised as Nejdra Nance, re-united with her biological mother Joy
White.
(www.nytimes.com/2011/01/20/nyregion/20kidnap.html?_r=1)
1987 Aug 4, Jesse Unruh
(b.1922), Democrat and the 54th speaker of the California state
Assembly (1961-1969), died while serving as California state
treasurer (1975-1987). In 2007 Bill Boyarsky authored “Big Daddy:
Jesse Unruh and the Art of Power Politics.”
(SSFC, 11/11/07,
p.M1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_Unruh)
1988 Aug 4, Hertz car rental
agreed to pay out $23 million in a consumer fraud case.
(www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1282/is_n18_v40/ai_6636696)
1989 Aug 4, Iranian President
Hashemi Rafsanjani offered to help end the hostage crisis in
Lebanon, prompting President Bush to say he was "encouraged."
(AP, 8/4/99)
1990 Aug 4, In Armenia Levon
Ter-Petrosyan (52) was elected Chairman of the Armenian Supreme
Soviet.
(www.armeniapedia.org/index.php?title=Levon_Ter_Petrosian)
1990 Aug 4, The European
Community imposed an embargo on imports of oil from Iraq and Kuwait
to protest the Baghdad government’s invasion of its oil-rich
neighbor.
(AP, 8/4/00)
1991 Aug 4, The Greek luxury
liner "Oceanos" sank in heavy seas off South Africa’s southeast
coast; all 402 passengers and 179 crew members survived.
(AP, 8/4/01)
1991 Aug 4, Israeli Cabinet
members overwhelmingly backed a Middle East peace conference under
conditions set by Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir.
(AP, 8/4/01)
1992 Aug 4, The crew of the
space shuttle Atlantis encountered difficulties as they tried to
reel out a satellite attached to miles of thin cord as part of an
electricity-producing experiment.
(AP, 8/4/97)
1993 Aug 4, The US Senate
approved a $5.8 billion disaster bill for Midwestern flood victims.
(AP, 8/4/98)
1993 Aug 4, A federal judge
sentenced Los Angeles police officers Stacey Koon and Laurence
Powell to 2 1/2 years in prison for violating Rodney King's civil
rights.
(AP, 8/4/98)
1993 Aug 4, Rwandan Hutu's and
Tutsi's negotiated power-sharing agreement in Arusha, Tanzania. It
was viewed as a sellout by extremist leaders of the Hutu majority.
(WSJ, 11/15/96, p.A16)(MC, 8/4/02)
1994 Aug 4, Howard Stern
dropped out of the NY gubernatorial race.
(MC, 8/4/02)
1994 Aug 4, Serb-dominated
Yugoslavia withdrew its support for Bosnian Serbs, sealing the
300-mile border between Yugoslavia and Serb-held Bosnia.
(AP, 8/4/99)
1995 Aug 4, A US judge ruled
that Oregon's assisted-suicide law, approved by the voters last
Nov., is unconstitutional. The law would have allowed doctors to
prescribe lethal doses of drugs for dying patients.
(WSJ, 8/4/95, p.B-1)
1995 Aug 4, That 1% of
Americans own 40% of the nation's wealth is uncontested as fact.
(WSJ, 8/4/95, p.A-11)
1995 Aug 4, J. Howard Marshall
II, Texas oil tycoon and alumnus of Haverford College, Pa., died. In
1994 Marshall had married Playboy Playmate Anna Nicole Smith (26).
In 2002, a federal judge ruled that the dying 90-year-old truly
loved his then 26-year-old wife and awarded her $88 million in a
court fight with Marshall’s son. In 2004 an appeals court reversed
the judgment. In 2010 a federal appeals court recognized a 2001 jury
verdict in Texas that determined an irrevocable trust and will
leaving $1.6 billion to Pierce Marshall was valid.
(www.lasc.org/opinions/97cc1718.opn.pdf)(AP,
12/31/04)(SFC, 3/20/10, p.A6)
1995 Aug 4, Croatia launched an
offensive against Krajina, Operation Storm, and captured in days a
region that Serb rebels had held for 4 years. Most of its province
of Krajina, including the Serb stronghold Knin, was taken in a 3-day
offensive. Some 3,000 shells were fired into Knin and less than 250
hit military targets. Some 100,000 Croatian Serbs were driven from
the area. Up to 600 Serb civilians were killed. A report on the
events was published in 1999: "Report on the Military Operation
Storm and its Aftermath" by the Croatian Helsinki Committee for
Human Rights.
(WSJ, 6/11/96, p.A14)(SFC,10/16/97, p.A12)(SFEC,
3/21/99, p.A17)(SFC, 4/27/99, p.A10)
1996 Aug 4, On the final day of
the Atlanta Olympics, Josia Thugwane became the first black South
African to win a gold medal as he finished first in the marathon;
the U.S. women's basketball team defeated Brazil 111-87 to win the
gold; David Reid won the only boxing gold medal for the United
States. A three-hour closing ceremony of music, dance and light,
attended by at least 80,000 people, brought the games to an official
close with a final ceremony.
(WSJ, 8/5/96, p.A1)(AP, 8/4/97)
1996 Aug 4, In San Francisco
the Cannabis Buyer’s Club at 1444 Market St. was raided by agents of
the California Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement.
(SFC, 8/5/96, p.A1)
1997 Aug 4, US Teamsters under
Ron Carey (1935-2008) went on a 15-day strike against United Parcel
Service after talks broke down with nation's largest package
delivery service.
(AP, 8/4/98)(SFC, 12/13/08, p.B5)
1997 Aug 4, From Bosnia it was
reported that Croats near Jajce had driven out hundreds of Muslims
who had recently returned to their homes.
(WSJ, 8/4/97, p.A1)
1997 Aug 4, In Cuba a small
explosion damaged a lobby in a Havana hotel. US-based groups were
blamed for this and a pair of bombings from 3 weeks ago.
(WSJ, 8/5/97, p.A1)
1997 Aug 4, In France the
world’s oldest person, Jeanne Calment (122), died in a retirement
home in Arles. The title was passed on to Christien Mortensen of San
Rafael, Ca., (115). It was later found that Marie-Louise Febronie
Meilleur of Ontario was to turn 117 in August.
(SFC, 8/5/97, p.A18)(SFC, 8/15/97, p.A20)(AP,
8/4/98)
1997 Aug 4, From Mexico it was
reported that the Lacandon Jungle rain forest was 40% destroyed from
its original 4 million acres. Poor peasants were clearing the jungle
by fire to provide for agricultural needs.
(SFC, 8/4/97, p.A8)
1997 Aug 4, In Mexico gunmen
killed 6 people in the Max Fim restaurant in Ciudad Juarez.
(SFC, 8/5/97, p.A9)
1997 Aug 4, In Montserrat
superheated rock from the Soufriere Hills volcano flowed into the
abandoned capital of Plymouth.
(SFC, 8/5/97, p.A9)
1997 Aug 4, Russia announced
that it would redenominate the ruble at the beginning of 1998. Three
zeroes would be taken off the bills with current inflation at about
12%.
(WSJ, 8/5/97, p.A1)
1997 Aug 4, In Sri Lanka
weekend fighting reportedly left 200 Tamil Tigers and 67 government
troops dead. The rebel bodies were severely disfigured.
(SFC, 8/5/97, p.A9)
1997 Aug 4, In Turkey 76
military officers and nco’s were dismissed in a continuing effort to
root out Islamic activism in the ranks.
(WSJ, 8/5/97, p.A1)
1998 Aug 4, Turning aside an
urgent White House appeal, Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist
cleared the way for prosecutors to question White House lawyers
about their advice to President Clinton in the Monica Lewinsky case.
(AP, 8/4/99)
1998 Aug 4, In Michigan
Geoffrey Fieger, a defense lawyer for Dr. Jack Kevorkian, won the
Democratic nomination for governor.
(SFC, 8/6/93, p.A5)
1998 Aug 4, The US Air Force
announced plans to group its combat aircraft into ten teams over the
next 2 years.
(SFC, 8/5/98, p.A4)
1998 Aug 4, The Dow Jones
industrial average plunged 299.43 points, the third-biggest point
drop to that time finishing at 8,487.31.
(SFC, 8/5/98, p.A1)(AP, 8/4/99)
1998 Aug 4, In Colombia over 2
dozen attacks in half of the nation’s 32 provinces left at least 76
people dead.
(SFC, 8/5/98, p.A10)(WSJ, 8/5/98, p.A1)
1998 Aug 4, The Egyptian Jihad
under Dr. Zawahri denounced the CIA-led arrests in Albania and said
Americans should soon receive a response "in the only language that
they understand."
(WSJ, 7/2/02, p.A8)
1998 Aug 4, Japan announced
that it will begin a new nuclear power plant in Higashidori in Dec.
51 nuclear power plants currently supply about 1/3 of the nation’s
power.
(SFC, 8/5/98, p.A10)
1998 Aug 4, A heat wave swept
over Eastern Europe and caused 20 deaths in Romania.
(SFC, 8/5/98, p.A10)
1998 Aug 4, In Sri Lanka Pres.
Kumaratunga ordered a month-long state of emergency and effectively
postponed provincial elections scheduled for August.
(SFC, 8/8/98, p.B1)
1999 Aug 4, On the eve of
congressional votes on the Republicans’ $792 billion tax cut
proposal, President Clinton again pledged a veto, saying the GOP
package was "risky and plainly wrong."
1999 Aug 4, The New Jersey
Supreme Court ruled that the 1990 expulsion of a gay assistant
scoutmaster by the Boy Scouts of America violated the state's
anti-discrimination law.
(SFC, 8/5/99, p.A3)
1999 Aug 4, Dow Chemical said
it was acquiring Union Carbide for $9.3 billion in stock.
(SFC, 8/5/99, p.A1)
1999 Aug 4, Victor Mature
(b.1913), film star died in San Diego County, California. His career
included 55 movies, 5 marriages and $18 million which he invested
wisely.
(www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=8698)
1999 Aug 4, George Robertson,
British Defense Minister, was chosen as the new secretary general of
NATO.
(SFC, 8/5/99, p.A10)
1999 Aug 4, It was reported
that flooding of the Yangtze River had left 1.8 million people
homeless. Summer flooding left some 725 people dead.
(WSJ, 8/5/99, p.A1)(SFC, 8/6/99, p.A12)
1999 Aug 4, In Congo at least
518 people, mostly civilians, were killed when Sudanese planes, at
the request of Congo's government, bombed the rebel-held towns of
Makanza and Bogbonga. Sudan denied the charges and Congolese Pres.
Kabila denied responsibility.
(SFC, 8/5/99, p.A12)(SFC, 8/7/99, p.A12)
1999 Aug 4, Cuban high jumper
Javier Sotomajor was stripped of his gold medal from the Pan
American Games after he tested positive for cocaine.
(WSJ, 8/5/99, p.A1)
1999 Aug 4, In Iran the daily
Salam newspaper was banned for 5 years and publisher
Mousavi-Khoeiniha was barred from journalism.
(SFC, 8/5/99, p.A14)
1999 Aug 4, In Kashmir 4 days
of fighting left at least 50 people dead including 32 militants and
7 Indian soldiers.
(SFC, 8/6/99, p.A16)
1999 Aug 4, It was reported
that flooding in North Korea had claimed 42 lives.
(WSJ, 8/4/99, p.A1)
1999 Aug 4, In Russia the
Fatherland Party of Yuri Luzhkov merged with the governor's All
Russia movement.
(SFC, 8/5/99, p.A12)
2000 Aug 4, Fresh from the
Republican national convention in Philadelphia, GOP presidential
nominee George W. Bush and running mate Dick Cheney began an air and
rail tour of four swing states: Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan and
Illinois. For his part, Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore
mocked the Republican gathering as a special-interests-sponsored
sham.
(AP, 8/4/01)
2000 Aug 4, NY officials issued
a statewide alert for West Nile encephalitis after the 1st case of
the year was reported on Staten Island.
(SFC, 8/5/00, p.A3)
2000 Aug 4, In England the
Queen Mum celebrated her 100th birthday.
(SFC, 8/4/00, p.A18)
2000 Aug 4, It was reported
that the war in Chechnya had killed 2,508 Russian soldiers since
8/2/99. A mother’s group put the figure up to 6,000.
(WSJ, 8/4/00, p.A1)
2000 Aug 4, In Georgia three
Red Cross workers were believed to have been kidnapped. Their car
was found the next day near the border with Chechnya.
(SFC, 8/7/00, p.C16)(WSJ, 8/7/00, p.A1)
2000 Aug 4, Ildefonso Salido
Ibarra, owner of the El Debate newspaper, was kidnapped in Sinaloa
state. He was released after 4 days.
(SFEC, 11/12/00,
p.A19)(http://tinyurl.com/25oh9b)
2000 Aug 4, Russia reported
that Chechen rebels had decapitated 2 Russian colonels, who had been
seized earlier in the Vedeno region.
(SFC, 8/5/00, p.C1)
2001 Aug 4, In Florida an
immigration official turned back Muhammed al-Kahtani (al-Qahtani), a
Saudi who had flown in from London with $2,800 in cash and no return
ticket. He was later captured in Afghanistan and detained at
Guantanamo after officials suspected that he was the intended 20th
hijacker for the Nov 11 attacks. In 2008 the Pentagon dropped
charges against al-Qahtani.
(Econ, 2/16/08, p.39)(AP, 5/13/08)
2001 Aug 4, Steve Fossett
launched his 5th bid to circle the globe in an unpressurized gondola
from Australia. He set a duration record on Aug 16 over Argentina.
He was forced down over Brazil on Aug 17.
(SFC, 8/17/01, p.D1)(SFC, 8/18/01, p.A8)
2001 Aug 4, In NYC police
officer Joseph Gray (40) ran over Maria Herrera (24), her son Andy
and her sister (16). A baby boy was delivered by c-section but did
not survive. Gray had been drinking with fellow officers at a strip
club and was later charged with manslaughter for killing the family
while driving drunk on his way to work. 17 cops at the 72nd precinct
were soon disciplined transferred or suspended. Gray was convicted
of manslaughter in 2002 and sentenced to five to 15 years in prison.
Ms. Herrera's husband, Victor, and his mother-in-law, Maria
Peña, later filed lawsuits. The city settled the civil
lawsuit for $1.5 million.
(www.courttv.com/trials/gray_joseph/chronology.html)(AP,
8/5/02)(http://tinyurl.com/5oa8lz)
2001 Aug 4, Thousands of
admirers turned out in London to celebrate the 101st birthday of
Britain's Queen Mother Elizabeth in what would be the last such
celebration. The Queen Mother died March 30, 2002.
(AP, 8/4/02)
2001 Aug 4, In India torrential
rains and floods swept over Bihar state and at least 3 people were
killed. Thousands were marooned.
(SSFC, 8/5/01, p.A14)
2001 Aug 4, The Israeli army
fired missiles at a convoy carrying the Palestinian West Bank leader
Marwan Barghouti.
(SSFC, 8/5/01, p.A12)
2001 Aug 4, In Macedonia ethnic
Albanian rebels lobbed mortars at police stations near Tetovo.
(SSFC, 8/5/01, p.A14)
2001 Aug 4, Philippine soldiers
rescued 13 hostages of the 36 seized by Abu Sayyaf rebels on Aug 2.
(SSFC, 8/5/01, p.A14)
2001 Aug 4, In Moscow Kim Jong
Il and Pres. Putin signed a joint statement declaring that North
Korea’s missile program is not designed to threaten any nation.
(SSFC, 8/5/01, p.A12)(AP, 8/4/02)
2002 Aug 4, US Treasury Sec.
Paul O'Neill arrived in Uruguay and announced a $1.5 billion
temporary loan to stabilize the financial crises.
(SFC, 8/5/02, p.A10)
2002 Aug 4, It was reported
that low-grade inflammation is worse for human health than high
cholesterol levels. Increases of C-reactive protein from the
inflammation could trigger the release of lumps of plaque and cause
arterial clots leading to heart attacks. Associated factors included
high blood pressure, smoking and chronic gum disease.
(SSFC, 8/4/02, p.A9)
2002 Aug 4, In Dallas, Tx., a
man, woman and 3 children were shot to death. The woman's husband
was taken into custody.
(SFC, 8/5/02, p.A7)
2002 Aug 4, In Bolivia Gonzalo
Sanchez de Lozada (72), a wealthy businessman who grew up in the
United States and former president (1882-1997), was voted by
Congress (84-43) to the presidency for a second time.
(AP, 8/5/02)
2002 Aug 4, Britain's Queen
Elizabeth closed Manchester's hugely successful Commonwealth Games
after 11 days of sport and ceremony.
(Reuters, 8/4/02)
2002 Aug 4, Holly Wells and
Jessica Chapman vanished while walking near their homes in Soham, 12
miles northeast of Cambridge, England. [see Aug 16] On August 17,
2002 a game warden found their partially burned bodies in a
six-foot-deep ditch close to the RAF Lakenheath airbase in Suffolk.
(AP,
8/9/02)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Huntley)
2002 Aug 4, India's federal
government planned to distribute 7.142 billion rupees ($147 million)
to 12 states to tackle problems arising out of a failed monsoon.
Much of India was facing the worst drought in a decade due to
erratic monsoon rains. An outbreak of encephalitis in India's remote
northeastern state of Assam rose to 100 on Sunday, as heavy monsoon
rains wreaked havoc in large parts of the region.
(Reuters, 8/4/02)
2002 Aug 4, In northern Israel
a Palestinian suicide bomber blew apart a bus during rush hour,
killing at least nine people, wounding dozens. 3 more people died in
a gun battle outside the Damascus Gate. 7 Arabs with Israeli
citizenship were later arrested for assisting the bomber.
(AP, 8/4/02)(SFC, 8/5/02, p.A1)(SFC, 8/27/02,
p.A10)
2002 Aug 4, In southeastern
Spain 2 people, including a 6-year-old girl, were killed and several
others were injured when a car bomb exploded in front of a military
police barracks. Twenty-five others were injured.
(AP, 8/5/02)
2003 Aug 4, California Governor
Gray Davis asked the state Supreme Court to delay his Oct. 7 recall
election until the following March. The recall went ahead as
originally scheduled.
(AP, 8/5/04)
2003 Aug 4, In northern
Afghanistan a soldier of warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum mishandled a
mortar and the shell exploded, killing 13 troops and injuring nine
others.
(AP, 8/5/03)
2003 Aug 4, Azerbaijan's
parliament named ailing President Geidar Aliev's son, Ilham Geidar
Oglu Aliev (b.1961), as PM.
(AP, 8/4/03)
2003 Aug 4, Brazilian novelist
Ruben Fonseca (b.1925) won Mexico's prestigious Juan Rulfo Prize for
literature.
(AP, 8/4/03)
2003 Aug 4, In China’s Qiqihar
city one person died and 43 people were injured after construction
workers broke open several barrels of World War II mustard gas
abandoned by Japanese troops. In 2010 a Tokyo court rejected
compensation claims by a group of Chinese plaintiffs, who demanded
the Japanese government pay 1.43 billion yen ($16 million) in
damages.
(www.chinadaily.com.cn/en/doc/2003-08/12/content_254104.htm)(AP,
5/24/10)
2003 Aug 4, In Honduras 9
members of a family were shot to death by suspected gang that raided
their home in San Pedro Sula.
(AP, 8/4/03)
2003 Aug 4, West African forces
arrived in Liberia to oversee the departure of President Charles
Taylor.
(AP, 8/4/08)
2003 Aug 4, Chung Mong-hun (54)
a top executive of the Hyundai conglomerate, whose business
spearheaded reconciliation efforts with North Korea but ended up
tangled in debt and scandal, plunged to his death from his office
window.
(AP, 8/4/03)
2003 Aug 4, Mexico's federal
government dispatched some 650 federal agents to Tijuana in the
latest attempt to curb smuggling and corruption in the rough border
city.
(AP, 8/4/03)
2003 cAug 4, Pres. Putin
visited Malaysia to seal a $900 million sale of Sukhoi fighter jets
and tout Russia's liberal sale policies.
(WSJ, 8/5/03, p.A1)
2004 Aug 4, Richard Smith, a
Staten Island ferry pilot, pleaded guilty to manslaughter charges in
a crash that killed 11 commuters in the October 15, 2003, wreck of
the Andrew J. Barberi Staten Island ferry, acknowledging that he'd
passed out at the helm after arriving at work with medication in his
system.
(AP, 8/4/05)
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_Staten_Island_Ferry_crash)
2004 Aug 4, Former teacher Mary
Kay Letourneau, convicted of having sex with a sixth-grade pupil,
was released from a Washington state prison.
(AP, 8/4/05)
2004 Aug 4, It was reported
that LeapFrog Enterprises would donate 20,000 interactive women’s
health books to Afghan women under a $1.25 million development and
distribution grant from the US Dept. of health and Human Services.
(SFC, 8/4/04, p.C1)
2004
Aug 4, In China a school employee with a history of schizophrenia
slashed 15 students and three teachers with a kitchen knife at a
Beijing kindergarten, killing one child and leaving terrified
classmates covered in blood.
(AP, 8/4/03)
2004 Aug 4, Fighting between
insurgents and Iraqi security forces in Mosul left at least 22 dead.
At least 14 of the dead were civilians.
(SFC, 8/5/04, p.A12)
2004 Aug 4, In Kashmir Muslim
militants killed nine Indian troopers in an attack on a paramilitary
camp, just hours before India and Pakistan, which both claim the
region, began a round of peace talks.
(AP, 8/5/04)
2004 Aug 4, Police in eastern
Nigeria discovered skulls and corpses of at least 83 people in
shrines where a secretive cult was believed to have carried out
traditional ritual killings. 30 shamans were arrested in a part of
Anambra state called “the evil forest.”
(AP, 8/5/04)(WSJ, 8/6/04, p.A1)(CP, 8/13/04)
2004 Aug 4, Clashes in the Gaza
Strip left 4 Palestinians dead including a 10-year-old boy. Israeli
forces uncovered a smuggling tunnel on the border with Egypt.
(SFC, 8/5/04, p.A3)
2004 Aug 4, The official Saudi
Press reported that municipal elections across Saudi Arabia, the
first such polls in decades, have been have been pushed back two
months to November.
(AP, 8/4/04)
2004 Aug 4, In southern
Tanzania some 22 villagers appeared in court on charges of killing 7
people who allegedly practiced witchcraft. Villagers said the
witches cut off the sexual organs of dead villagers and used them to
concoct charms intended to bring good harvests and fortune.
(AP, 8/5/04)
2005 Aug 4, In Washington DC
Steven Rosen (53) and Keith Weissman (53), former employees of a
pro-Israeli lobbying group, were indicted for passing classified
information to foreign officials beginning in 1999.
(SFC, 8/4/05, p.A11)
2005 Aug 4, Mayor Gavin Newsom
signed a $5.3 billion SF city budget.
(SFC, 8/5/05, p.B4)
2005 Aug 4, Milton Campbell
(70), blues singer, died in Memphis, Ten.
(SFC, 8/5/05, p.B7)
2005 Aug 4, A roadside bomb
exploded near a US military vehicle near the Afghan border with
Pakistan, killing an American service member and wounding another. 2
US service members drowned after their Humvee slid into a river
during an operation targeting insurgents in eastern Afghanistan.
(AP, 8/5/05)
2005 Aug 4, Al-Qaida's No. 2,
Ayman al-Zawahri, threatened more destruction in London in a
videotape aired on Al-Jazeera. He also threatened the United States
with tens of thousands of military dead if it did not withdraw from
Iraq; President Bush responded by saying, "We will stay the course,
we will complete the job."
(AP, 8/4/06)
2005 Aug 4, The Bank of England
cut official interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point to
4.5 percent, noting the risk that already sluggish household
spending and investment growth in Britain could slow further.
(AP, 8/4/05)
2005 Aug 4, India’s Supreme
Court upheld a lower court's death sentence on Mohammed Afzal, a
resident of south Kashmir. Afzal was found guilty of involvement in
the December 2001 parliament raid in which five gunmen killed nine
people before being shot dead.
(AP, 8/5/05)
2005 Aug 4, In Bali a truth
commission set up by Indonesia and East Timor began work, seeking to
deflect growing calls for an international tribunal to probe the
tiny territory's bloody independence vote in 1999.
(AP, 8/4/05)
2005 Aug 4, A car bomb hit
members of a radical Shiite militia in northern Iraq as attacks
nationwide killed at least 11 people. Unidentified gunmen attacked
an Iraqi army patrol in a town north of Baghdad, killing four Iraqi
troops. An American soldier assigned to a unit in Mosul was killed
in action.
(AP, 8/4/05)(AP, 8/6/05)
2005 Aug 4, Israel announced
plans to expand a settlement near Jerusalem even as it prepares to
withdraw from the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 8/4/05)
2005 Aug 4, Eden Natan Zada
(19), an Israeli soldier absent without leave, opened fire while
riding a bus in Shfaram, killing 4 Israeli Arabs and wounding 13. A
video released later shows him being beaten to death by the crowd
immediately after, while he was still on the bus.
(AP, 8/4/05)(SFC, 8/5/05,
p.A1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eden_Natan-Zada)
2005 Aug 4, A Jordanian
prosecutor said Jordan has arrested 17 militants linked to al-Qaida
who were allegedly plotting to attack U.S. troops and Jordanian
intelligence agents.
(AP, 8/4/05)
2005 Aug 4, In Northern Ireland
some 40 police officers were injured trying to break up a five-hour
riot by Protestant militants who burned 10 cars and a double-decker
bus in Belfast. The mob claimed to be venting their anger over
recent police raids on the homes of Protestant paramilitary figures
in the area. About 15 homes were raided and six men arrested shortly
before the riot began.
(AP, 8/5/05)
2005 Aug 4, North Korea's envoy
to disarmament talks said that Pyongyang insists on retaining the
right to "peaceful nuclear activities," a condition that other
delegates say has deadlocked the talks.
(AP, 8/4/05)
2005 Aug 4, Pakistan's Supreme
Court blocked a proposal by an Islamist-controlled provincial
government to introduce what critics say would be a Taliban-style
judicial system enforced by religious police.
(AP, 8/4/05)
2005 Aug 4, A mini-submarine
carrying seven Russians became caught on an underwater antenna 600
feet below the surface of the Pacific Ocean; the men were rescued
three days later with help from a British vessel.
(AP, 8/4/06)
2005 Aug 4, South Korean
researchers reported their successful cloning of a dog. The puppy
was born 3 months earlier and was the only success of 1,095 embryos.
In 2006 Dr. Hwang Woo Suk’s stem cell work was discredited but the
cloning of Snuppy supported.
(SFC, 8/4/05, p.A15)(WSJ, 12/24/05, p.A1)(WSJ,
1/10/06, p.A1)
2005 Aug 4, The Sudanese Red
Crescent (SRC) said at least 130 people have been killed and around
350 injured after 3 days of violence following the death of former
rebel leader and First Vice President John Garang.
(Reuters, 8/4/05)
2005 Aug 4, In Turkey an
explosion in a trash can in an Istanbul suburb killed a mother and
daughter and injured five others as they left a wedding party.
(AP, 8/4/05)
2006 Aug 4, The US placed
sanctions on 7 firms from North Korea, Russia, India and Cuba for
arms dealings with Iran.
(WSJ, 8/5/06, p.A1)
2006 Aug 4, In Philadelphia
Danieal Kelly (14), a disabled girl, was found dead in her mother's
squalid house covered with bone-deep, maggot-infested bedsores. She
weighed 42 pounds. In 2008 4 social workers were among 9 people
charged in relation to her death. In 2008 Andrea Kelly, the mother,
was charged with murder and Daniel, the father, was charged with
child endangerment. Both parents retained lawyers who filed suits
against their criminal co-defendants, blaming them for the girl's
demise. In 2009 mother Andrea Kelly pleaded guilty and was sentenced
to 20-40 years in prison. In 2010 case worker Julius Murray was
sentenced to 11 years in prison on fraud and obstruction in the
case. He had skipped visits and still faced involuntary manslaughter
charges.
(AP,
8/1/08)(www.philly.com/philly/news/26859869.html)(SFC, 4/30/09,
p.A4)(SFC, 6/12/10, p.A9)
2006 Aug 4, In southern
Afghanistan 2 police officers were killed and eight others wounded
in a roadside bomb aimed at a district governor. UNICEF said schools
are increasingly being attacked across Afghanistan and an estimated
100,000 children in the south are shut out of the classroom due to
closures.
(AFP, 8/5/06)(Reuters, 8/4/06)
2006 Aug 4, In Argentina Julio
Simon, a former police officer, was sentenced to 25 years in prison
for human rights abuses in connection with the 1978 disappearance of
Chilean Jose Poblete and his Argentine wife, Gertrudis Hlaczik,
during the military dictatorship.
(AP, 8/5/06)
2006 Aug 4, Bangladesh
announced a fresh round of polio vaccination drives amid growing
signs that the lethal disease has staged a comeback in the
impoverished South Asian country.
(AFP, 8/4/06)
2006 Aug 4, In Colombia leftist
rebels were blamed for two attacks, a car bomb that killed four
officers outside a Cali police station and an attack that killed two
soldiers in a western province.
(AP, 8/4/06)
2006 Aug 4, In India floods
caused by heavy monsoon rains swept away people and destroyed homes
in the southern coastal area of Andhra Pradesh, killing at least 31
people over the last 2 days.
(AP, 8/4/06)
2006 Aug 4, Hundreds of
thousands of Shiites chanting "Death to Israel" and "Death to
America" marched through the streets of Baghdad's biggest Shiite
district in a massive show of support for Hezbollah in its battle
against Israel. At least 35 people were killed elsewhere in Iraq,
many of them in a car bombing and gunbattle in the northern city of
Mosul. Some 3,700 soldiers of the Army's 172nd Stryker Brigade moved
into Baghdad from the northern city of Mosul. In Mosul 20 militants
were believed to have been killed during prolonged street gunfights
with security forces in the city's eastern neighborhoods. Gunmen
killed a bodyguard of a senior Justice Ministry official in western
Baghdad, and a police commando was killed by a roadside bomb in the
central city of Samarra.
(AP, 8/4/06)(AP, 8/5/06)
2006 Aug 4, Israel expanded its
assault on Lebanon, launching its first major attack on the
Christian heartland north of Beirut and severing the last
significant road link to Syria. Hezbollah renewed attacks on
northern Israel, killing two civilians in a barrage of 120 rockets.
An Israeli airstrike hit dozens of farm workers loading vegetables
near the Lebanon-Syria border, killing as many as 33. Five
Lebanese civilians were killed and 19 wounded in the Israeli
airstrikes north of Beirut in Christian areas where Hezbollah has
little support. Hezbollah's leader offered to stop attacking if
Israel ends its airstrikes. Israeli airstrikes flattened two
southern Lebanese houses and more than 50 people were buried in the
rubble, security officials and the state news agency said. Israel
denied attacking the villages.
(AP, 8/4/06)(SFC, 8/5/06, p.A11)
2006 Aug 4, Israel began
pulling tanks out of southern Gaza after a two-day incursion.
Israeli troops conducted house-to-house searches in the southern
Gaza Strip and killed three Palestinians with tanks and air strikes.
(AP, 8/4/06)
2006 Aug 4, In Mexico's
southernmost Chiapas state a 7-year-old boy and his father died,
bringing to 10 the number of people killed after eating poisonous
mushrooms. Officials said recent genetic mutations have made some
mushrooms, consumed for years in Indian communities, newly
poisonous.
(AP, 8/4/06)
2006 Aug 4, In southern Nigeria
3 Filipinos working for a US construction firm were kidnapped, a day
after a German was abducted in the same region.
(AP, 8/4/06)
2006 Aug 4, In northern
Pakistan monsoon rains triggered fresh landslides and floods, as
officials and reports said 37 people had died over the last 4 days
in weather-related incidents.
(AP, 8/4/06)
2006 Aug 4, Sri Lankan troops
thwarted a Tamil Tiger rebel attack in northeastern Muttur, killing
35 insurgents. The Red Cross said 6,000 to 7,000 families were still
trying to flee Muttur.
(AP, 8/5/06)(AP, 8/7/06)
2006 Aug 4, In Turkey 2
explosives detonated within minutes of each other in a southern city
of Adana, seriously wounding one person and injuring 16 others.
(AP, 8/4/06)
2006 Aug 4, In Uganda Vincent
Otti, deputy leader of The Lord's Resistance Army, said his group
has declared a unilateral cease-fire, but government negotiators
said they have not yet agreed to peace.
(AP, 8/4/06)
2006 Aug 4, The Ukraine
Parliament named Viktor Yanukovych prime minister. His fraud-tainted
2004 presidential victory was turned back by the Orange Revolution.
(AP, 8/4/06)
2007 Aug 4, President Bush
toured the site of a collapsed highway bridge in Minneapolis,
pledging to cut red tape that could delay rebuilding.
(AP, 8/4/08)
2007 Aug 4, Barry Bonds tied
Hank Aaron's 755 career home runs as his San Francisco Giants lost
3-2 to the San Diego Padres.
(AP, 8/4/08)
2007 Aug 4, Alex Rodriguez
became at age 32 the youngest player in major league history to hit
500 home runs with a first-inning homer in a 16-8 NY Yankee victory
over Kansas City.
(AP, 8/4/08)
2007 Aug 4, In Newark, New
Jersey, 3 friends were forced to kneel against a wall behind an
elementary school and were shot to death at close range, and a
fourth was found about 30 feet away with gunshot and knife wounds to
her head. Natasha Aerial (19) was listed in fair condition at
Newark's University Hospital. Police identified her companions as
her brother, Terrance Aerial (18), Ofemi Hightower (20), and Deshawn
Harvey (20). On Aug 7 a 15-year-old boy was arrested in the case. On
Aug 8 Jose Carranza (28), an illegal immigrant from Peru, was also
arrested as a suspect. Two more suspects were arrested in suburban
DC on Aug 18.
(AP,
8/6/07)(www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,292911,00.html)(AP, 8/18/07)
2007 Aug 4, Oakland, Ca.,
police said they have identified Devaughndre Broussard (19), a
handyman at Your Black Muslim Bakery, as the person responsible for
the Aug 2, murder of journalist Chauncey Bailey. He was one of 7 men
arrested a day earlier. It was later learned that Broussard falsely
confessed to the killing at the urging of Yusuf Bey IV, head of the
bakery.
(SSFC, 8/5/07, p.A1)(SFC, 8/21/07, p.B1)
2007 Aug 4, Yousef Megahed (21)
of Egypt and Ahmed Mohamed (24) of Kuwait, students from the Univ.
of South Florida, were arrested following a speeding stop in the
vicinity of the Naval Weapons Station, located in Goose Creek, South
Carolina. Pipe bombs were found in their vehicle. They were later
indicted for carrying explosives across state lines. In 2008 Ahmed
Abdellatif Sherif Mohamed pleaded guilty in a Tampa court to making
a video demonstrating how to build a remote bomb detonator to help
terrorists.
(www.charleston.net/news/2007/aug/17/fbi_backs_off_arrests13265/)(WSJ,
9/1/07, p.A1)(WSJ, 6/19/08, p.A2)
2007 Aug 4, NASA launched its
Phoenix Mars Lander, a robotic dirt and ice digger, scheduled to
land on Mars on May 25, 2008.
(SSFC, 8/5/07, p.A10)
2007 Aug 4, Lee Hazlewood
(b.1929), songwriter, died in Henderson, Nev. His songs included
“These Boots Are Made for Walkin’,” sung by Nancy Sinatra in 1966.
(SFC, 8/7/07,
p.D9)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Hazlewood)
2007 Aug 4, A suicide car
bomber blew himself up next to a convoy of foreign troops just west
of Kandahar city, killing two civilians who were nearby. Four
civilians were killed in a roadside blast in Zhari district of
Kandahar province.
(AP, 8/4/07)(AFP, 8/5/07)
2007 Aug 4, Algerian newspapers
reported that the army, stepping up a counter-offensive after
attacks by al Qaeda's north Africa wing, has killed around 16 of the
group's fighters in the past three days.
(AP, 8/4/07)
2007 Aug 4, In Bangladesh
deaths from monsoon rains topped 200, with at least 16 more
fatalities reported overnight. 7.5 million people have been either
marooned or displaced from their homes.
(AP, 8/4/07)
2007 Aug 4, Thousands of
Brazilians marched in Sao Paulo to denounce President Luiz Inacio
Lula da Silva's government as corrupt and indifferent.
(AP, 8/5/07)
2007 Aug 4, British PM Gordon
Brown said that authorities were doing "everything in our power" to
track the source of a foot-and-mouth disease outbreak and wipe out
the animal illness before it wreaked economic devastation.
(AP, 8/4/07)
2007 Aug 4, A Hong Kong
newspaper reported that China is cracking down on cable television
operators who offer unauthorized foreign satellite broadcasts, the
communist government's latest bid to maintain its monopoly on
information.
(AP, 8/4/07)
2007 Aug 4, A roadside bomb
targeting an Iraqi Army convoy killed one civilian and wounded five
others at a busy intersection in central Baghdad. In western Baghdad
a mortar round landed on a house in Ghazaliyah, killing another
civilian. In northern Iraq Salim Khudaeir, a police lieutenant
colonel, was gunned down on his way to work. US forces killed four
suspects in a raid targeting an insurgent group believed to be
coordinating logistical support from Iran for Shiite militias in
Iraq. The killings took place in the town of Qasirin in Diyala
province. West of Tarmiyah US troops captured 20 suspects accused of
having ties to a high-ranking al-Qaida in Iraq figure. Two more
suspects were also arrested for alleged ties to another leader from
the same group. Four more suspects were detained for alleged
involvement in a sniper cell that employed 35 gunmen. In Kirkuk five
people were captured, three accused of association with an al-Qaida
media cell, and two for involvement in car bomb attacks. 3 US
soldiers died Saturday south of Baghdad.
(AP, 8/4/07)(AP, 8/7/07)
2007 Aug 4, In Nepal the toll
from monsoon-triggered flooding and landslides stood at 91, with
most of the deaths in the Terai plains region on Nepal's southern
border with India.
(AP, 8/4/07)
2007 Aug 4, Javed Hashmi, one
of Pakistan's top opposition leaders, was released to the raucous
cheers of supporters after four years in prison and immediately
vowed to resume his campaign against President Gen. Pervez
Musharraf. He left prison a day after the Supreme Court granted him
bail in his 23-year sentence on charges of treason and inciting an
army mutiny against Musharraf. A suicide attacker detonated a car
bomb at a busy bus station in Parachinar, North West Frontier
Province, killing at least nine people and wounding 35 others. 4
soldiers and 10 militants were killed in a checkpoint shootout.
(AP, 8/4/07)
2007 Aug 4, Two Palestinians
were killed and six wounded in an Israeli air strike on two vehicles
near the southern Gaza Strip's border with Egypt.
(AP, 8/5/07)
2007 Aug 4, Zbigniew Krakowski
(56), a Polish sea captain in charge of the 2,000-ton Jork, crashed
his ship into an unmanned gas platform in the North Sea while drunk.
The platform, owned by US firm ConocoPhillips, went out of action
with losses at 615,000 pounds a month in revenue. In November
Krakowski was jailed for 12 months.
(AFP, 11/2/07)
2007 Aug 4, Serbian police
exchanged fire with uniformed gunmen in an ethnic Albanian area of
southern Serbia bordering the breakaway Kosovo province. One person
was killed.
(Reuters, 8/5/07)
2007 Aug 4, Unemployment in
Sierra Leone, with a population of some 6 million, stood at close to
80% with poverty and corruption widespread and endemic. The
country’s Anti-Corruption Commission was now a lame duck as its $2
million annual funding was suspended by exasperated British donors.
(Econ, 8/4/07, p.42)
2008 Aug 4, President George W.
Bush signed into law legislation paving the way for Libya to pay
hundreds of millions of dollars to compensate US victims of bombing
attacks that Washington blames on Tripoli.
(Reuters, 8/4/08)
2008 Aug 4, Alaska sued the US
government saying its listing of polar bears as a threatened species
will hurt oil exploration and tourism.
(WSJ, 8/6/08,
p.A1)(www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/49694/story.htm)
2008 Aug 4, In SF Mayor Newsom
signed into law stringent green building codes for new construction
and renovations of existing structures in the city.
(SFC, 8/5/08, p.B1)
2008 Aug 4, In Afghanistan a
pair of Taliban fighters died when a mine they were planting
exploded prematurely in the Spin Boldak district of Kandahar
province. Police killed five Taliban fighters after the militants
ambushed a police patrol in Kandahar’s Panjwayi district.
(AP, 8/4/08)(AP, 8/5/08)
2008 Aug 4, Bangladesh held
local elections that observers hailed as a success. A fire swept
through a five-story building in a crowded section of the capital,
Dhaka, killing at least 10 people and injuring five others.
(AFP, 8/5/08)(AP, 8/4/08)(Econ, 8/9/08, p.42)
2008 Aug 4, In Chile Alberto
Achacaz Walakial, one of the last surviving members of the nomadic
Kaweskar tribe, died of blood poisoning. Government documents listed
Achacaz's age at 79, but some believe he was close to 90. The tribe
once plied the waters off Chile's Patagonian coast. Experts estimate
that only about a dozen full-blooded Kaweskars, or Alacalufes,
survive and the group appears destined to disappear in the near
future as there are no women of fertile age left. Since the arrival
of the first Europeans, Chile has lost five of its original 14
indigenous tribes to disease, displacement or the overuse of their
natural resources.
(AP, 8/5/08)
2008 Aug 4, In western China 2
Uighur men rammed a truck into a clutch of jogging policemen and
tossed explosives, killing 17 officers, in an attack in Kashgar,
Xinjiang province, just days before the Beijing Olympics. The 2 men
were sentenced to death on Dec 17.
(AP, 8/4/08)(SFC, 8/5/08, p.A11)(AP, 12/17/08)
2008 Aug 4, Ecuador's
government said it would seize a family business group's stock
shares in 58 companies to help recover debts generated by the
collapse of the family's former bank. The action came a little less
than a month after authorities seized 200 businesses linked to the
family of William and Roberto Isaias, who fled to the US in 2000
shortly after their bank collapsed.
(AP, 8/4/08)
2008 Aug 4, India announced an
additional $450 million in aid for development projects in
Afghanistan. PM Singh met with Afghan Pres. Karzai in New Delhi and
both countries pledged to fight terrorism.
(WSJ, 8/4/08, p.A10)
2008 Aug 4, Indian officials
pledged to stop Hindus from imposing an economic blockade on the
mainly Muslim Kashmir valley as tensions heightened with the deaths
of protesters. Police opened fire at hundreds of stone-throwing
Hindu protesters angry over a government decision to not transfer
land to a Hindu shrine, killing two people. A Muslim protester was
also killed by a tear gas shell.
(AFP, 8/4/08)(AP, 8/4/08)(WSJ, 8/6/08, p.A10)
2008 Aug 4, In Iran journalist
Yaghoob Mirnehad was executed in the city of Zahedan after being
sentenced to death earlier this year. Iran accused Mirnehad of being
involved in the armed Jundallah group, which operates along the
Iranian-Pakistani border. The Jundallah group, or God's Brigade, has
launched attacks against Iranian soldiers and police in the area
near Pakistan and Afghanistan, which is a key crossing point for
narcotics.
(AP, 8/5/08)
2008 Aug 4, Iraqi officials
reported that at least nine Iraqis died in a separate series of
bombings. 2 American soldiers were killed and one was wounded by a
roadside bomb in Baghdad that also killed 2 Iraqis.
(AP, 8/4/08)
2008 Aug 4, Israel's defense
minister said a group of around 150 Fatah fighters who fled to
Israel from the Gaza Strip will be allowed to relocate to the West
Bank because they face "immediate danger" from Gaza's Hamas rulers.
(AP, 8/4/08)
2008 Aug 4, Italy’s Defense
Ministry deployed some 3,000 soldiers in cities across the country
as part of government measures to fight street crime.
(AP, 8/4/08)
2008 Aug 4, A Jordanian
military court sentenced 12 men to up to five years in jail for
planning to join Iraq's insurgency and carry out attacks against US
and Iraqi forces. The five men who received the longest jail terms
were at large and tried in absentia.
(AP, 8/4/08)
2008 Aug 4, A shootout between
Mexican police and smugglers driving a truck carrying illegal
immigrants left 2 people dead near Agua Dulce.
(AP, 8/4/08)
2008 Aug 4, A Nigerian
presidential panel on oil and gas sector reform recommended that the
state oil company be transformed into an "independent limited
liability company."
(AFP, 8/4/08)
2008 Aug 4, In Pakistan a
remote-controlled bomb explosion struck a military convoy and
wounded eight soldiers in South Waziristan. Militants torched four
girls' schools, a health office and a forestry office. A senior
officer said that over the past week 94 Islamist militants were
killed and 14 soldiers lost in fighting in the northwestern Swat
valley. At least 25 civilians and eight policemen were also killed
in the fighting. Brigadier Zia Bodla said the army planned a major
operation against the insurgents.
(Reuters, 8/4/08)
2008 Aug 4, The Philippine
Supreme Court, acting on a petition by Christian politicians,
blocked the signing of a key accord granting an expanded southern
homeland to minority Muslims as part of a deal to end decades of
bloody Islamic rebellion.
(AP, 8/4/08)(Econ, 8/9/08, p.41)
2008 Aug 4, In Venezuela
changes in areas from the military to small business loans were
pushed through by the president in 26 laws released in the official
gazette. Chavez approved them on the final day of an 18-month period
during which lawmakers had granted him special legislative powers.
(AP, 8/4/08)
2009 Aug 4, A US federal court
panel ordered California to reduce its prison population by 40,000
over the next 2 years to meet constitutional standards for inmate
health care.
(SFC, 8/5/09, p.A1)
2009 Aug 4, Sen. Charles
Schumer, D-N.Y., said that the SEC plans to ban so-called "flash
trading," where high-frequency traders can get information just
before it becomes public.
(www.marketwatch.com/story/schumer-sec-to-ban-flash-trading-2009-08-04)
2009 Aug 4, SF Mayor Gavin
Newsom signed a $6.6 billion city budget, making it the city’s
biggest budget ever.
(SFC, 8/5/09, p.D1)
2009 Aug 4, In Bridgeville,
Pennsylvania, George Sodini (48) sprayed bullets into a fitness
class filled with women, killing three and then himself. He kept a
Web page in which he wrote about years of rejection by women and an
earlier plan for violence at the gym.
(AP, 8/5/09)
2009 Aug 4, In Afghanistan a
string of rockets slammed into Kabul at daybreak in the first major
attack on the relatively calm Afghan capital in the run-up to this
month's presidential election. A child and a man were lightly
wounded when they were hit by flying glass in residential areas next
to the airport, where most of the rockets landed. A suicide bomber
killed five people and wounded 18 in southern Zabul province.
(AP, 8/4/09)
2009 Aug 4, Antigua's highest
mountain, Boggy Peak, officially became "Mount Obama" as the small
Caribbean nation celebrated the American president on his birthday
and saluted him as a symbol of black achievement.
(AP, 8/4/09)(SFC, 8/5/09, p.A2)
2009 Aug 4, Australian police
said they thwarted a terrorist plot in which extremists with ties to
an al-Qaida-linked Somali Islamist group planned to invade a
military base and open fire with automatic weapons until they were
shot dead themselves. Some 400 officers from state and national
security services took part in 19 raids on properties in Melbourne,
before dawn, arresting four men and detaining several others for
questioning. Police said all four arrested are Australian citizens
of Somali or Lebanese descent aged between 22 and 26.
(AP, 8/4/09)
2009 Aug 4, In Belgium three
prisoners escaped from the sprawling Palace of Justice courthouse in
central Brussels when two armed men burst into a court hearing and
took them with them, bringing the total to 12 over the past two
weeks. Five of the escaped inmates have been caught again, but seven
remained at large.
(AP, 8/4/09)
2009 Aug 4, Officials said a
forest fire on the Canary Island of La Palma was brought under
control and another that raged for two weeks in Spain's northern
Catalonia region has been extinguished.
(AP, 8/4/09)
2009 Aug 4, China’s state media
reported that police have formally arrested 83 people on charges
including murder and arson in connection with last month's deadly
rioting in the western region of Xinjiang.
(AP, 8/4/09)
2009 Aug 4, In northern China
an unfinished factory building collapsed as torrential rain hit the
city of Shijiazhuang. 17 people were reported killed.
(AP, 8/4/09)
2009 Aug 4, Haiti’s lawmakers
voted to more than double the minimum wage after long hours of
debate and clashes between police and protesters, who complained
they can't feed and shelter their families on the current pay of
about $1.75 a day.
(AP, 8/4/09)
2009 Aug 4, In eastern India at
least 11 people were killed and 15 others seriously injured after
being struck by lightning in Burdwan district in West Bengal state.
(AP, 8/5/09)
2009 Aug 4, The Lithuanian
ministry said that the Lithuanian-flagged refrigerator vessel
Saturnas, with a crew of 14, was attacked by unidentified
perpetrators off the coast of Nigeria. Five crew members were said
to have been taken hostage. The attackers did not seize the vessel
itself but left in a high-speed boat with the hostages. The 5
Lithuanian sailors were reported freed on Aug 14, ending their
11-day ordeal.
(AFP, 8/4/09)(AFP, 8/14/09)
2009 Aug 4, In Mexico 4 bodies
were found in the border city of Ciudad Juarez. In the nearby town
of Llano Blanco, police chief Gerardo Silva (40) was found dead in a
pickup truck, shot five times.
(AP, 8/5/09)
2009 Aug 4, NATO's governing
body approved a plan to reorganize the alliance's command structure
in Afghanistan by setting up a new headquarters to handle the
day-to-day running of the war.
(AP, 8/4/09)
2009 Aug 4, In Niger clashes
erupted as citizens voted in a constitutional referendum to extend
President Mamadou Tandja's long rule amid low turnout after an
opposition boycott in the uranium-rich African nation. On Aug 7 the
Electoral Commission released provisional results saying that 92.5%
of votes cast supported a new constitution that would allow
President Mamadou Tandja to stay in power. About 68.3% of all
registered voters participated.
(AP, 8/4/09)(AP, 8/7/09)
2009 Aug 4, In North Korea
former US Pres. Bill Clinton met with North Korean leader Kim Jong
Il on the first day of a surprise visit to Pyongyang, with the
"exhaustive" talks covering a wide range of topics. Clinton was in
communist North Korea on a mission to secure the release of
Americans , who were arrested along the Chinese-North Korean border
in March and sentenced in June to 12 years of hard labor for illegal
entry and engaging in "hostile acts." After 140 days in custody, the
reporters were granted a pardon by North Korea.
(AP, 8/4/09)(AP, 8/5/09)
2009 Aug 4, Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas launched his Fatah movement's first
conference in two decades with a call for his people to limit their
resistance to Israel to marches and protests and not to abandon
peace talks despite years of setbacks. The 3-day general assembly’s
main task was to elect a new central committee.
(AP, 8/4/09)(Econ, 8/8/09, p.42)
2009 Aug 4, Sudanese police
fired tear gas and beat women protesting outside a Sudanese court
during the trial of a female journalist accused of violating the
Islamic dress code by wearing trousers in public. The judge
adjourned Lubna Hussein's trial for a month to seek clarification
from Sudan's foreign ministry.
(AP, 8/4/09)
2009 Aug 4, In Thailand a
passenger plane skidded off the runway and crashed into a building
after landing on the Thai resort island of Samui, killing the chief
pilot and injuring at least seven people including foreign tourists.
(AP, 8/4/09)
2010 Aug 4, BP PLC reached what
it called a significant milestone overnight when mud that was forced
down the well held back the flow of crude. A government report said
much of the spilled oil is gone, though what's left is still at
least quadruple the amount that poured from the Exxon Valdez.
(AP, 8/4/10)
2010 Aug 4, A judge struck down
California's same-sex marriage ban as an unconstitutional violation
of gay couples' civil rights, but a pending appeal of the landmark
ruling could prevent gay weddings from resuming in the state any
time soon.
(AP, 8/5/10)
2010 Aug 4, In Afghanistan NATO
operations killed as many as 26 civilians. 9 civilians travelling to
collect voting cards were killed in southern Helmand province when
their vehicle struck an insurgent-placed roadside bomb.
(AFP, 8/5/10)
2010 Aug 4, In China heavy
rains hindered efforts by workers to repair reservoirs and place
sandbags along breached riverbanks as the death toll from China's
worst flooding in a decade climbed above 1,000.
(AP, 8/4/10)
2010 Aug 4, Indian police
battled Maoist rebels who ambushed their patrol in dense jungle, as
violence worsens in an insurgency that has seen bigger and bolder
attacks on government forces this year. 5 people were killed when
the rebels blasted a vehicle carrying security guards of a bank in
the eastern state of Jharkhand.
(Reuters, 8/4/10)
2010 Aug 4, In Indonesia the
Trisal Pratama sank shortly after a collision with another cargo
vessel near Selayar island off South Sumatra province. Rescuers
saved 11 people, including a 1-year-old girl, but searched the next
day for nine others still missing.
(AP, 8/5/10)
2010 Aug 4, In Iraq a judge
said Khamis Sirhan al-Muhammadi, No. 54 out of 55 on a former US
military list of most-wanted Saddam officials, has been released
from prison after he was found innocent of helping the former regime
punish opponents by draining the country's fabled marshlands. 3
traffic policemen were killed in drive-by shootings in western
Baghdad while gunmen stormed the house of a policeman, killing him,
his wife and a relative.
(AP, 8/4/10)(AP, 8/5/10)
2010 Aug 4, Israeli soldiers
killed a Gaza Strip militant was killed. The Israeli military said
soldiers saw a group of men approach Israel's border fence with Gaza
and launched an airstrike against them before dawn. 3 other
militants were wounded in the attack.
(AP, 8/4/10)
2010 Aug 4, In Kashmir tens of
thousands of Kashmiri Muslims marched to a town where seven people
were killed over the weekend, defying a curfew in another day of
massive protests against Indian rule in the Himalayan region. The
Indian government warned that further "mindless violence" in Indian
Kashmir could only lead to more deaths after two months of unrest
that has already claimed 45 lives.
(AP, 8/4/10)(AFP, 8/4/10)
2010 Aug 4, Kenyans formed long
lines before sunrise across the country to vote on a new
constitution that would reduce the powers of the presidency in the
nation's first ballot since postelection violence left more than
1,000 dead. 67% of Kenyans backed the new constitution to replace a
British colonial-era draft that inflated the powers of the
president. The new constitution provided for a wider measure of
devolution to 47 new counties.
(AP, 8/4/10)(AP, 8/6/10)(SFC, 8/6/10, p.A3)(Econ,
10/30/10, p.46)
2010 Aug 4, Mexican authorities
said 7 bodies were found in a clandestine grave in Mazatlan, Sinaloa
state. The bodies were found after an anonymous tip and showed signs
of having been tortured prior to their death.
(SFC, 8/5/10, p.A2)
2010 Aug 4, In Nigeria Erastus
Akingbola, ex-chief executive of Intercontinental Bank, turned
himself in after returning from Britain. He was accused of taking
part in corruption blamed for helping cause a financial crisis. The
central bank removed a list of executives from their jobs at
financial institutions, including Akingbola, in 2009 in a bid to
clean up the banking sector.
(AP, 8/4/10)
2010 Aug 4, In Pakistan a
suicide bomber struck a vehicle carrying the chief of a paramilitary
police force in Peshawar, killing him and four others in an attack
that ended a relative lull in violence in a city often targeted by
the Taliban.
(AP, 8/4/10)
2010 Aug 4, Moscow was engulfed
by the thickest blanket of smog yet this summer, an acrid, choking
haze from wildfires that have wiped out Russian forests, villages
and a military base.
(AP, 8/4/10)
2010 Aug 4, In Edinburgh,
Scotland, the 3 children Theresa Riggi (46), an American mother,
were found dead after a suspected gas explosion. On Aug 6 she was
charged with murder. On March 7, 2010, California-born Theresa Riggi
pled guilty to a charge of culpable homicide on the grounds of
diminished responsibility at the High Court in Edinburgh. On April
27, 2011, Riggi was sentenced to 16 years in prison.
(SFC, 8/7/10, p.A2)(AFP, 3/7/11)(AP, 4/27/11)
2010 Aug 4, In South Africa
vigilantes used whistles and vuvuzelas, the deafening horns used by
fans during the World Cup, to arouse a mob to assault and kill 3
suspected thieves in their neighborhood. The victims, suspected of
stealing power cables in the Lenasia district of southern
Johannesburg, were burned alive. 2 others were beaten to death for
wearing stolen clothes.
(AP, 8/4/10)
2010 Aug 4, A Sudanese court
sentenced 19 young Muslim men to 30 lashes and a fine for breaking
moral codes by wearing women's clothes and makeup, a case exposing
Sudanese sensitivity toward homosexuality.
(Reuters, 8/4/10)
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