Today in History - August 9
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480BC Aug 9,
The Persian army defeated Leonidas and his Spartan army at the
battle Thermopylae, Persia. In 1998 Steven Pressfield authored:
"Gates of Fire, An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae." In 2006
Paul Cartledge authored “Thermopylae: The Battle That Changed the
World.”
(HN, 8/9/98)(SFEC, 11/29/98, BR p.3)(WSJ,
11/11/06, p.P11)
48BC Aug 9, Julius Caesar
defeated Gnaius Pompey at Pharsalus.
(HN, 8/9/98)
378 Aug 9, In the Battle of
Adrianople the Visigoth Calvary defeated Roman Army.
(MC, 8/9/02)
1378 Aug 9, Cardinals declared
pope Urbanus VI lawless (anti-Christian, devil).
(MC, 8/9/02)
1387 Aug 9, Henry V, British
king famous for his victory at Agincourt, France, was born. [see Aug
29]
(HN, 8/9/98)
1483 Aug 9, Pope Sixtus IV
celebrated the first mass in the Sistine Chapel, which was named in
his honor.
(HN, 8/9/98)
1549 Aug 9, France declared war
on England. England declared war on France.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.17)(HN, 8/9/98)
1593 Aug 9, Izaak Walton
(d.1683), biographer, fisherman, writer (Compleat Angler), was born
in England. "That which is everybody's business is nobody's
business."
(AP, 8/29/98)(MC, 8/9/02)
1631 Aug 9, John Dryden, the
1st official poet laureate of England (1668-1700), was born at
Aldwinkle, Northamptonshire.
(HN, 8/9/02)
1638 Aug 9, Jonas Bronck of
Holland became the 1st European settler in the Bronx.
(MC, 8/9/02)
1645 Aug 9, Settlers in New
Amsterdam gained peace with the Indians after conducting talks with
the Mohawks.
(HN, 8/9/98)
1672 Aug 9, Jose Ximenez (70),
Spanish composer, died.
(MC, 8/9/02)
1673 Aug 9, Dutch recapture NY
from English. It was regained by English in 1674.
(MC, 8/9/02)
1757 Aug 9, English Ft. William
Henry, NY, surrendered to French and Indian troops.
(MC, 8/9/02)
1778 Aug 9, Captain Cook
reached Cape Prince of Wales in the Bering straits.
(MC, 8/9/02)
1790 Aug 9, The Columbia
returned to Boston Harbor after a three-year voyage, becoming the
first ship to carry the American flag around the world.
(AP, 8/9/97)
1805 Aug 9, Austria joined
Britain, Russia, Sweden and the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia in the
third coalition against France.
(HN, 8/9/98)
1813 Aug 9, After reports that
British naval vessels were nearing St. Michaels, Md., to attack the
shipbuilding town that night, the county militia placed lanterns on
the tops of the tallest trees and on the masts of vessels in the
harbor; and had all other lights extinguished. When the British
attacked, they directed their fire too high and overshot the town.
(HNQ, 11/25/02)
1814 Aug 9, Andrew Jackson and
the Creek Indians signed the Treaty of Fort Jackson, giving the
whites 23 million acres of Creek territory.
(HN, 8/9/98)
1819 Aug 9, William Thomas
Green Morton (d.1868), American dentist who 1st used ether on a
patient (1846), was born.
(WUD, 1994, p.932)(MC, 8/9/02)
1829 Aug 9, The locomotive
"Stourbridge Lion" went into service.
(MC, 8/9/02)
1830 Aug 9, Louis-Philippe
formally accepted the crown of France, following abdication of
Charles X, last brother of guillotined Louis XVI. He was the son of
the opportunistic Duke d'Orleans, first cousin to the late king, who
renounced his royal heritage and called himself plain Phillipe
Egalite. Louis-Philippe voted for his cousin's death in 1793, but
followed him to the guillotine in 1794.
(MC, 8/9/02)
1831 Aug 9, 1st US steam engine
train run was from Albany to Schenectady, NY.
(MC, 8/9/02)
1842 Aug 9, The United States
and Canada signed the Webster-Ashburton Treaty, resolving a border
dispute between Maine and Canada's New Brunswick.
(AP, 8/9/97)(HN, 8/9/98)
1848 Aug 9, The Barnburners
(anti-slavery) party merged with the Free Soil Party and nominated
Martin Van Buren for president at its convention in Buffalo, N.Y.
The Hunkers and the Barnburners were two factions within the
Democratic Party of New York split over the slavery issue in 1848.
They injected the issue into the Democratic National Convention held
in Baltimore in 1848 when they both sent delegations. The
Barnburners (who were also known as the "Softs" while the Hunkers
were called the "Hards") were firm supporters of the Wilmot Proviso
of 1846 that sought to restrict the spread of slavery to newly
acquired territory.
(AP, 8/9/97)(HNQ, 11/28/98)(MC, 8/9/02)
1854 Aug 9, Henry David Thoreau
published "Walden," in which he described his experiences while
living near Walden Pond on Cape Cod in Massachusetts.
(Hem, Dec. 94, p.44)(AP, 8/9/97)
1859 Aug 9, The escalator was
patented. The first working escalator appeared in 1900.
Manufactured by the Otis Elevator Company for the Paris Exposition,
it was installed in a Philadelphia office building the following
year.
(HN, 8/9/00)
1862 Aug 9, Hector Berlioz'
opera "Beatrice et Benedict," premiered in Baden-Baden.
(MC, 8/9/02)
1862 Aug 9, At Cedar Mountain,
Virginia, Confederate General "Stonewall" Jackson repelled an attack
by Union forces. Gen. Charles S. Winder was killed.
(HN, 8/9/98)(MC, 8/9/02)
1875 Aug 9, Albert William
Ketelbey, composer (In a Monastery Garden), was born in Aston,
England.
(MC, 8/9/02)
1896 Aug 9, Leonide Massine,
Russian-born US choreographer (Diaghilev Ballet Russe 1914-20), was
born.
(WUD, 1994, p.882)(MC, 8/9/02)
1896 Aug 9, Jean Piaget,
psychologist who did pioneering work on the development of
children's intellectual faculties, was born.
(HN, 8/9/98)
1896 Aug 9, Otto Lilienthal,
German aerodynamic engineer, made his last glide when his glider No.
11 was upset by a sudden gust of wind and he was unable to regain
control. Lilienthal broke his back in the crash and died the next
day in a Berlin clinic. He had made more than 2,000 test flights in
gliders and convinced many people that flight was possible and set
the stage for early aviation. He once wrote that "we must fly and
fall, fly and fall until we can fly without falling." He also
influenced flight theory by using bird flight as a model for the
basis of aviation.
(HNPD, 8/9/98)
1899 Aug 9, Pamela Lyndon
Travers (P.L. Travers), author of the Mary Poppins books, was born.
(HN, 8/9/00)
1902 Aug 9, Edward VII was
crowned king of England following the death of his mother, Queen
Victoria.
(SFEM, 1/26/97, p.40)(AP, 8/9/98)
1904 Aug 9, Friedrich Ratzel
(59), German social-geographer (Lebensraum), died.
(MC, 8/9/02)
1910 Aug 9, Alva Fisher
patented the first complete, self-contained electric washing
machine.
(HN, 8/9/00)(MC, 8/9/02)
1913 Aug 9, Herman Eugene
Talmadge (d.2002), later George state governor and US Senator, was
born.
(SFC, 3/22/02, p.A27)
1919 Aug 9, Ruggiero
Leoncavallo (62), Italian composer (Pagliacci), died.
(MC, 8/9/02)
1927 Aug 9, Robert Shaw, actor
and writer, was born in England.
(HN, 8/9/00)(MC, 8/9/02)
1928 Aug 9, Bob Cousey, Hall of
Fame basketball player and coach of the Boston Celtics , was born.
(HN, 8/9/98)
1930 Aug 9, A forerunner of the
cartoon character Betty Boop made her debut in Max Fleischer’s
animated short "Dizzy Dishes."
(AP, 8/9/00)
1931 Aug 9, In Germany two
Berlin police officers were shot and killed during a Communist
demonstration. In 1993 Erich Mielke (d.2000 at 92), former head of
the East German Stasi, was convicted for participating in the
shooting.
(SFC, 5/26/00, p.D3)
1936 Aug 9, Jesse Owens won his
fourth gold medal at the Berlin Olympics as the United States took
first place in the 400-meter relay.
(AP, 8/9/97)(HN, 8/9/98)
1938 Aug 9, Leo Frobenius
(1873-1938), German ethnologist and archaeologist, died in Italy. He
undertook his first expedition to Africa in 1904 to the Kasai
district in Congo. Frobenius had taught at the University of
Frankfurt. In 1925, the city acquired his collection of about 4700
prehistorical African stone paintings, which are currently at the
University's institute of ethnology, which was named the Frobenius
Institute in his honor in 1946.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Frobenius)
1941 Aug 9, US President
Franklin Roosevelt and PM Winston Churchill met at Placentia Bay,
Newfoundland. Their meeting produced the August 14 Atlantic Charter,
an agreement between the two countries on war aims, even though the
US was still a neutral country.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_Charter)
1942 Aug 9, Mahatma Gandhi and
50 others were arrested in Bombay after the passing of a "quit
India" campaign by the All-India Congress.
(MC, 8/9/02)
1943 Aug 9, Bertolt Brecht's
"Galileo," premiered in Zurich.
(MC, 8/9/02)
1943 Aug 9, Franz
Jaegerstaetter, an avowed conscientious objector, was executed
outside Berlin for treason after his request to be excused from
regular army service for religious reasons was denied. The married
father of four was posthumously exonerated in 1997 by a Berlin
court. In 2007 he was beatified by the Roman Catholic Church.
(AP, 10/27/07)
1943 Aug 9, Chaim Soutine
(b.1893), Jewish expressionist painter, died in Paris of a
perforated ulcer.
(WSJ, 5/14/98,
p.A20)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaim_Soutine)
1944 Aug 9, Smokey Bear debuted
as spokesman for fire prevention. The image of "Smokey the Bear" was
created by an artist as the official forest-fire spokesbear. He was
named in 1945 reportedly in honor of Smokey Joe Martin, asst. chief
of the New York City Fire Dept. A real bear from a 1950 New Mexico
fire was pressed into service and lived until 1976 at the Washington
National Zoo. [see 1945]
(SFEC, 6/22/97, p.T6)(ON, 4/03, p.9)
1944 Aug 9, 258 black American
sailors based at Port Chicago, Calif., refused to load a munitions
ship following the Jul 17 explosion of another ship that killed 320
men, two-thirds of them black. The sailors were court-martialed,
fined and imprisoned for their refusal.
(AP, 8/9/04)
1944 Aug 9, The Halyard Mission
began rescuing over 500 bomber fliers shot down over Serbia. This
mission was a combined project of the American Strategic Services
(OSS - precursor of the CIA) under the command of General William J.
Donovan, Lt. George (Guv) S. Musulin, of the OSS and an American of
Serbian descent, and General Draza Mihailovich and his Serbian
chetnik freedom fighters in the former Yugoslavia. In 2007 Gregory A
Freeman authored “The Forgotten 500: The Untold Story of the Men Who
risked All for the Greatest Rescue Mission of World War II.”
(www.generalmihailovich.com/2006/09/halyard-mission-rescue-operation.html)(SFC,
10/18/10, p.A5)
1945 Aug 9, The 10,000 lb.
plutonium bomb, Fat Man, was dropped over Nagasaki after the primary
objective of Kokura was passed due to visibility problems. It killed
an estimated 74,000 people. The B-29 bomber plane Bock's Car so
named for its assigned pilot, Fred Bock, was piloted by Captain
Charles W. Sweeney (d.2004). Kermit Beahan (d.1989) was the
bombardier.
(WSJ, 7/19/95, p.A-12)(AP, 8/9/97)(HN,
8/9/98)(SFC, 3/17/00, p.D6)(HNQ, 3/31/00)
1960 Aug 9, There was a race
riot in Jacksonville Florida.
(MC, 8/9/02)
1961 Aug 9, The United Kingdom
applied for membership in the European Community.
(http://europa.eu.int/abc/history/1961/index_en.htm)
1962 Aug 9, Hermann Hesse (85),
winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature (1946), died in Switzerland.
(iUniv. 7/2/00)(MC, 8/9/02)
1965 Aug 9, Singapore
proclaimed its independence from the Malaysian Federation. Singapore
became independent from Britain and was booted from the Malayan
federation. Lee Kuan Yew became the new prime minister.
(AP,8/9/97)(WSJ,6/11/96,p.A9A)(SFC,6/8/96,p.A11)(WSJ,12/31/96, p.1)
1967 Aug 9, Joe Orton (34),
English actor, playwright (What the Butler Saw, Loot), was murdered
(bludgeoned with a hammer) while he slept by his male lover. In 1978
John Lahr authored “Prick Up Your Ears,” a biography of Orton.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Orton)(WSJ,
1/13/06, p.P8)
1968 Aug 9, The 267-day Detroit
newspaper strike ended.
(www.loc.gov/rr/news/chronological/exception_report.html)
1969 Aug 9, Actress Sharon Tate
and four other people were found brutally murdered in her Los
Angeles home; cult leader Charles Manson and a group of his
disciples were later convicted of the crime. Charles Manson's
followers killed actress Sharon Tate and her three guests in her
Beverly Hills home. The dead included Abigail Folger and Voyteck
Freykowski.
(SFEC, 3/16/97, z1 p.4)(AP, 8/9/97)(HN,
8/9/98)(MC, 8/9/02)
1971 Aug 9, British begin
internment without trial in Northern Ireland when almost 300 men
were arrested and interned under the Special Powers Act in dawn
swoops that ended around August 14th. Not one unionist
extremist was interned. Word soon got out of the internment camps
that the men were being routinely mistreated and tortured. Sectarian
attacks continued, supported by the British army. These actions and
other repressive actions by the British administration of the time
lead to the peaceful march which turned bloody on 30 January
1972, now known as Bloody Sunday.
(SFC, 1/30/97,
p.A18)(www.bloodysundaytrust.org/eduintern.htm)
1972 Aug 9, The pesticide
Compound 1080, or sodium fluoroacetate, was banned as of this day by
the EPA. It had been used against coyotes but other animals were
dying from its use. It was reinstated in 1985 for use in livestock
protection collars. DDT was banned.
{Chemistry, Environment, USA, Animals}
(http://fluoridealert.org/pesticides/sodium.fluoroacetate.epa.90.htm)(SFC,
5/17/97, p.A17)(SFC, 6/18/99, p.A3)
1974 Aug 9, President Nixon's
resignation took effect. Gerald R. Ford was sworn in as the 38th US
President (1974-1976). Ford said "Our long national nightmare is
over" after he assumed the presidency following Richard Nixon‘s
resignation. After being sworn in, Ford spoke in the White House‘s
East Room and said, "My fellow Americans, our long national
nightmare is over." It was a line that Ford initially objected to
saying, feeling it was a little hard on Nixon. In 2007 Robert Dallek
authored “Nixon and Kissinger: Partners in Power.”
(SFEC, 5/11/97, p.T8,9)(HN, 8/9/98)(HNQ,
6/23/00)(Econ, 5/19/07, p.87)
1974 Aug 9, Trumpeter Bill
Chase (b.1934) and 3 members of the Chase Band died in a plane crash
while enroute to a performance in Minnesota. Lead guitarist Angel
South (aka Lucien Gondron d. 1998 at 55) had struck out on his own
solo career.
(http://jazzworks.wordpress.com/2007/11/02/bill-chase-1934-1974/)
1975 Aug 9, Samuel Bronfman
(21), the eldest son of Seagram distillery owner, Edgar Bronfman,
was kidnapped in suburban New York and held for ransom for over a
week. A $2.3 million ransom was paid. Samuel was rescued in a raid
on a Brooklyn apartment. a former limousine operator and former
fireman were later convicted of extortion and spent several years in
prison.
(SSFC, 4/10/11, p.C8)
1975 Aug 9, Dimitri D.
Shostakovitch (b.1906) Soviet composer of 15 symphonies, died. His
work included Sun Over Motherland and the Violin Concerto No. 2.
Symphony No. 13, "Babi Yar," written to commemorate the massacre of
Jews during WW II. It premiered in the US in 1970. Symphony No. 12,
"The Year 1917," was dedicated to the memory of Lenin. In 2004
Solomon Volkov authored Shostakovich and Stalin: The Extraordinary
Relationship Between the Great Composer and the Brutal Dictator."
(WUD, 1994, p.1320)(SFC, 1/30/98, p.E5)(HN,
9/25/98)(WSJ, 6/29/99, p.A12)(SSFC, 3/28/04, p.M3)
1976 Aug 9, John Roselli
(b.1905), Chicago mobster hired by the CIA to kill Castro, was found
murdered. His decomposing body was found in a 55-gallon steel fuel
drum floating in Dumfounding Bay near Miami, Florida. Roselli had
been strangled and stabbed and his legs were sawed off.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Roselli)
1978 Aug 9, A California
statewide Teamsters warehouse workers strike began.
(SFC, 8/15/03, p.E9)
1978 Aug 9, James G. Cozzens
(b.1903), US writer (Guard of Honor, Pulitzer), died. His novels
included “The Last Adam” (1933), “The Just and the Unjust” (1942),
“Guard of Honor” (1948; Pulitzer Prize), “By Love Possessed” (1957),
and “Morning, Noon, and Night” (1968).
(http://libweb.princeton.edu/libraries/firestone/rbsc/aids/cozzens.html)
1979 Aug 9, In California
Forrest Silva Tucker, William McGirk and John Waller escaped from
San Quentin prison in a hand made kayak named Rub-a-Dub-Dub. McGirk
(38) was captured Oct 31. Waller was recaptured within months.
Tucker was caught after a few years in Boston in a credit scam but
was released in error. He was later identified as a member of the
Massachusetts "Over the Hill Gang" and in 1999 was caught on
suspicion of robbing a Florida bank.
(SFC, 4/27/99, p.A1,4)(SFC, 10/29/04, p.F11)
1982 Aug 9, A federal judge in
Washington ordered John W. Hinckley Jr., who had been acquitted of
shooting President Ronald Reagan and three others by reason of
insanity, committed to a mental hospital.
(AP, 8/9/07)
1985 Aug 9, A federal judge in
Norfolk, Va., found retired Navy officer Arthur J. Walker guilty of
seven counts of spying for the Soviet Union.
(AP, 8/9/97)
1987 Aug 9, Independent Counsel
Lawrence E. Walsh, vowing to investigate the Iran-Contra affair
"vigorously but fairly," told a meeting of the American Bar
Association in San Francisco that he would not be deterred by the
"popularity of persons involved."
(AP, 8/9/97)
1988 Aug 9, President Reagan
nominated Lauro Cavazos to be secretary of education; Cavazos became
the first Hispanic to serve in the Cabinet.
(AP, 8/9/98)
1988 Aug 9, Hockey star Wayne
Gretzky of the Edmonton Oilers was traded to the Los Angeles Kings.
(AP, 8/9/98)
1989 Aug 9, Toshiki Kaifu was
elected prime minister of Japan, succeeding Sousuke Uno.
(AP, 8/9/99)
1989 Aug 9, In Mexico, a train
fell into the San Rafael River after a bridge collapsed, killing 112
people.
(AP, 8/9/99)
1990 Aug 9, A week after Iraq
invaded Kuwait, Western European diplomats and Arab witnesses
reported that Iraq had virtually sealed its borders, preventing
thousands of foreigners from leaving Iraq or Kuwait.
(AP, 8/9/00)
1991 Aug 9, In South Africa,
hundreds of police battled neo-Nazis as pro-apartheid extremists
tried to stop a speech by President F.W. de Klerk.
(AP, 8/9/01)
1992 Aug 9, Closing ceremonies
were held for the Barcelona Summer Olympics, with the Unified Team
of former Soviet republics winning 112 medals to 108 for the United
States.
(AP, 8/9/97)
1993 Aug 9, Reputed "Hollywood
Madam" Heidi Fleiss pleaded innocent in Los Angeles to five counts
of pandering and one count of selling cocaine. Fleiss was convicted
in 1994 of three counts of pandering and acquitted of the drug
charge, but the verdicts were later thrown out due to jury
misconduct. She eventually pleaded guilty to attempted pandering.
(AP, 8/9/98)
1993 Aug 9, Mohamed M. Tabet
(54), commissar of Casablanca, was executed by firing squad. He had
committed violent acts against some 16000 women.
(http://tinyurl.com/7lwt4)
1994 Aug 9, A divided US Senate
opened formal debate on legislation to provide health insurance for
millions of Americans without it.
(AP, 8/8/99)
1994 Aug 9, Sen. Manuel Cepeda
was gunned down on his way to work in Bogota. In 1999 Sgt. Justo
Zuniga and Sgt. Hernando Medina were found guilty of participating
in the murder. They acted on orders from Col. Rodolfo Herrera Luna,
commander of the Ninth Brigade, who died of a heart attack in 1996.
In 2010 Colombia's government acknowledged responsibility in the
killing and asked forgiveness.
(SFC, 12/21/99, p.C20)(AP, 1/29/10)
1995 Aug 9, Netscape
Communications went public and was valued at $2.2 billion. In 1999
Jim Clark and Owen Edwards authored "Netscape Time: The Making of
the Billion-Dollar Start-Up That Took on Microsoft."
(WSJ, 11/25/98, p.B1)(SFEC, 6/27/99, BR p.6)
1995 Aug 9, A Boeing 737
belonging to Guatemala’s Aviateca airline hit the Chichontepec
volcano in El Salvador on a flight from Miami and killed all 65 on
board.
(SFC, 11/1/96, p.A18)
1995 Aug 9, Jerry Garcia,
guitarist and lead singer of the Grateful Dead, died in San
Francisco of a heart attack at age 53. In 1999 Blair Jackson
authored "Garcia: An American Life." In 2002 Dennis McNally authored
"A Long Strange Trip: The Inside History of the Grateful Dead."
(WSJ, 8/11/95, p.A7)(AP, 8/9/97)(SFEC, 8/29/99,
BR p.1)(SSFC, 8/11/02, p.M1)
1996 Aug 9, In Jacksonville,
Fla., a jury held the Brown and Williamson Tobacco Co. liable for
the lung cancer of Grady Carter and awarded damages of $750,000.
(WSJ, 8/12/96, p.A1)
1996 Aug 9, Bob Dole telephoned
Jack Kemp to ask him to be his running mate; Kemp accepted.
(AP, 8/9/97)
1996 Aug 9, Frank A. Whittle
(89), inventor of the Jet engine, died.
(www.allstar.fiu.edu/aerojava/whittle.htm)
1996 Aug 9, In Burundi
suspected Hutu rebels killed 22 in Cibitoke province.
(WSJ, 8/12/96, p.A1)
1996 Aug 9, In India there was
an incident of food poisoning caused by Clostridium botulinum. 106
people fell ill and 6 died after eating at a canteen in the
town of Bhiwandi, 80 miles north of Bombay. Seeds from a poisonous
weed also became suspect.
(SFEC, 8/11/96, p.A20) (WSJ, 8/12/96, p.A1)
1996 Aug 9, A weary-looking
Boris Yeltsin was sworn into his second term as president of Russia.
(AP, 8/9/97)
1996 Aug 9, Pyotr Karpov, a
Russian deputy agent in declaring whether state-owned firms should
be declared bankrupt, was charged with taking bribes in 1994 in
Saratov. He was arrested 2 weeks ago and sent to prison in Saratov.
(SFEC, 8/11/96, p.A16)
1997 Aug 9, In NYC police
officer Justin Volpe sodomized Abner Louima in the bathroom of the
70th precinct in Brooklyn. [see Aug 13] In 1999 Volpe was sentenced
to 30 years in prison and ordered to pay $277,495 in restitution. In
2001 a tentative settlement awarded Abner Louima $9 million.
(SFC, 5/26/99, p.A1)(SFC, 12/14/99, p.A3)(SFC,
3/23/01, p.A4)
1997 Aug 9, An Amtrak train
derailed on a bridge near Kingman, Arizona, and 183 of 350
passengers were injured. A flash flood had undermined supports for a
small bridge.
(WSJ, 8/11/97, p.A1)(AP, 8/9/07)
1997 Aug 9, In Brazil Herbert
Jose de Souza, sociologist, died at age 60 of AIDS that he acquired
as a hemophiliac from contaminated blood. He spent his life fighting
inequality, hunger and police brutality.
(SFC, 8/11/97, p.A15)
1997 Aug 9, It was reported
that 800,000 children of North Korea were in immediate danger of
dying from malnutrition. UNICEF was appealing for a $14.3 million
emergency fund for supplies such as high-energy milk.
(SFC, 8/9/97, p.A9)
1998 Aug 9, Americans, Kenyans
and Tanzanians held church and memorial services to mourn those
killed in bombing attacks on two U.S. embassies.
(AP, 8/9/99)
1998 Aug 9, A strike by 73,000
telephone workers of NYC-based Bell Atlantic began.
(SFC, 8/10/98, p.A2)
1998 Aug 9, In Afghanistan
victory in the battle for Mazar-i-Sharif was claimed by both sides.
(WSJ, 8/10/98, p.A1)
1998 Aug 9, In London, England,
the 13th Anglican Lambeth Conference, which had opened on July 18,
closed. The 749 bishops present declared that homosexual acts were
incompatible with scripture, but that gays were loved by God.
(Econ, 3/29/08,
p.50)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lambeth_Conferences)
1998 Aug 9, In China engineers
blew up secondary dikes in Jianli County, 90 miles upriver from
Wushan, to relieve pressure from the swollen Yangtze and the worst
floods in 44 years.
(SFC, 8/10/98, p.A12)(AP, 8/9/99)
1998 Aug 9, In Peru Pres.
Pastrana replaced the top leaders of the military.
(WSJ, 8/10/98, p.A1)(WSJ, 8/11/98, p.A1)
1998 Aug 9, In South Korea
flooding over the last 7 days claimed 165 lives that included 3 US
soldiers.
(WSJ, 8/10/98, p.A1)
1999 Aug 9, Pres. Clinton
presented former Pres. Jimmy Carter and Rosalynn Carter the Medal of
Freedom, the highest US civilian award. Other recipients included
Lloyd Bentson, former US Treasury secretary; Gerald Ford, former US
president; Edgar M. Bronfman, Pres. of the World Jewish Congress;
Evy Dubrow, International Ladies Garment Workers Union
representative; Sister M. Isolina Ferre, founder and chief executive
officer of four community service centers in Puerto Rico; Oliver
White Hill, civil rights lawyer; Max Kampelman lawyer, negotiator
and diplomat; and Edgar Wayburn, five time president and a member of
the board of directors of the Sierra Club.
(SFC, 8/10/99,
p.A3)(www.medaloffreedom.com/1999Recipients.htm)
1999 Aug 9, In Algiers 2
bombings left 3 people dead and 10 wounded.
(SFC, 8/11/99, p.C4)
1999 Aug 9, In Angola police
shut down Radio Ecclesia, a Roman Catholic radio station that was
one of the few independent sources of information in the country.
(SFC, 8/10/99, p.A10)
1999 Aug 9, In Japan the
parliament adopted the Rising Sun flag as the national symbol and an
ode to the emperor.
(WSJ, 8/10/99, p.A1)
1999 Aug 9, Russian President
Boris Yeltsin dismissed Prime Minister Sergei Stepashin and the
entire Cabinet, marking the fourth time in 17 months he had fired
the government. Yeltsin named Vladimir Putin, a former KGB agent,
the new prime minister.
(SFC, 8/9/99, p.A1)(AP, 8/9/00)
1999 Aug 9, Four large apparel
corporations settled out of court in a suit to end sweatshop labor
in Saipan. Nordstrom, J. Crew, Cutter & Buck and Gymboree agreed
to pay $1.25 million to reimburse workers for recruitment fees and
to set up a program to monitor island contractors.
(SFC, 8/10/99, p.A1)
1999 Aug 9, In Yemen 8 Britons
and 2 Algerians were convicted and sentenced to 7 years in prison
for plotting terrorist acts.
(SFC, 8/10/99, p.A10)
2000 Aug 9, Bridgestone /
Firestone Inc. announced the recall of 6.5 million tires used mainly
on Ford SUVs and light trucks due to 46 [88] deaths and over [250]
300 accidents related to the tires.
(SFC, 8/10/00, p.A2)(SFC, 9/6/00, p.A1)
2000 Aug 9, Nicholas Samuel
Markowitz (b.1984), having been kidnapped in Los Angeles, was
murdered near Santa Barbara after a feud over drug money between his
half-brother Benjamin Markowitz and Jesse James Hollywood (20). The
murder inspired the 2006 film “Alpha Dog.” Hollywood was not present
at the murder, but ordered it. He immediately skipped town, but was
arrested five years later in Saquarema, Brazil, with his pregnant
girlfriend Marcia Reis. In July, 2009, he was convicted of
first-degree murder and kidnapping and jurors recommended life in
prison. In 2010 Hollywood was sentenced to life in prison.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_Markowitz)(SFC, 7/16/09,
p.A6)(SFC, 2/6/10, p.A6)
2000 Aug 9, In New Jersey 2
small planes collided in midair and the bulk of one plane crashed
through the roof a house. All 11 passengers were killed.
(SFC, 8/10/00, p.A3)
2000 Aug 9, In Texas Brian
Keith Roberson (36) was executed for the 1986 stabbing deaths of an
elderly couple in Dallas. Oliver Cruz (33) was executed for the 1988
abduction, rape and fatal stabbing of a 24-year-old woman in San
Antonio.
(SFC, 8/10/00, p.A2)
2000 Aug 9, In Indonesia Pres.
Wahid announced that he would hand over daily government operations
to Vice Pres. Megawati Sukarno.
(SFC, 8/10/00, p.A10)
2000 Aug 9, In Spain Francisco
Casanova Vicente, army officer, was shot twice in the back as he
arrived home in Pamplona. The murder was blamed on the ETA.
(SFC, 8/10/00, p.A11)
2001 Aug 9, Pres. Bush
announced that he would allow taxpayer dollars to be used for stem
cell research limited to some 5 dozen existing stem cell lines.
(SFC, 8/10/01, p.A1)(WSJ, 8/10/01, p.A1)
2001 Aug 9, It was reported
that the US had decided to pay China $34,567 to cover the costs of
the spy plane that was detained on Hainan island. China had asked
for $1 million and rejected the offer.
(SFC, 8/10/01, p.A12)(SFC, 8/13/01, p.A12)
2001 Aug 9, In Colombia an
explosion killed 3 children and injured 35 in the northern town of
San Francisco. Police blamed the ELN.
(SFC, 8/10/01, p.A18)
2001 Aug 9, In the Comoros
islands military troops staged a bloodless coup on the island of
Anjouan due to grievances over promotions and pay.
(SFC, 8/10/01, p.A18)
2001 Aug 9, In Indonesia Pres.
Sukarnoputri named a new Cabinet stacked with specialists instead of
politicians. In Aceh province police and rebels accused each other
of massacring 31 people.
(SFC, 8/10/01, p.A16)(WSJ, 8/10/01, p.A1)
2001 Aug 9, The IRA offered
publicly to put its arsenal of weapons "completely and verifiably
beyond use."
(SFC, 8/10/01, p.A16)
2001 Aug 9, In Jerusalem a
Palestinian suicide bomber, Izzadine Masri, killed himself and 15
others at the Sbarro pizzeria. 90 people were wounded. Hamas claimed
responsibility.
(WSJ, 8/10/01, p.A1)(SFC, 7/24/02, p.A14)(AP,
8/9/06)
2001 Aug 9, In Macedonia
government forces battled rebels for control of Tetovo and one
policeman was killed. A peace agreement was scheduled to be formally
signed Aug 13.
(SFC, 8/10/01, p.A12)
2002 Aug 9, Oscar-winning actor
and National Rifle Association president Charlton Heston, 78,
revealed that doctors had told him he had symptoms consistent with
Alzheimer's disease.
(AP, 8/8/03)
2002 Aug 9, Barry Bonds of the
SF Giants hit his 600th homerun and joined the ranks of Henry Aaron
(660), Babe Ruth (714) and Willie Mays (755).
(SFC, 8/10/02, p.A1)
2002 Aug 9, The Bush
administration said the 1969 National Environmental Policy Act does
not extend beyond the few miles of territorial waters.
(SFC, 8/10/02, p.A3)
2002 Aug 9, US officials said
they broke up an int'l. child pornography ring headquartered in
Clovis, Ca. 10 Americans were arrested in Operation Hamlet. Lloyd
Alan Emmerson (45), chiropractor, was arrested Jan 26 on a tip from
Danish police.
(SFC, 8/10/02, p.A1,11)(SFC, 8/13/02, p.A13)
2002 Aug 9, Kris Eggle (28),
Arizona park ranger, was killed by a gunman at the Mexican border of
organ Pipe Cactus National Monument.
(WSJ, 1/22/03, p.A1)
2002 Aug 9, In eastern
Afghanistan a powerful explosion ripped through an Afghan
construction firm's building in the city of Jalalabad, killing 21
people and injuring 85 others.
(AP, 8/9/02)(SFC, 8/10/02, p.A8)
2002 Aug 9, China reported 70
people dead from landslides and flooding in Hunan province.
(SFC, 8/10/02, p.A9)
2002 Aug 9, In Colombia
fighting among outlaw groups for control of a gold mine and cocaine
crops in the mountainous north killed 50 fighters. 4 policemen were
killed in a rebel ambush in central Colombia in the town of Paz de
Ariporo. Army soldiers killed two rebels in the southern town of San
Vicente del Caguan.
(AP, 8/9/02)
2002 Aug 9, In central Colombia
hundreds of soldiers attacked the Metro Block right-wing
paramilitary force, killing and capturing dozens of fighters outside
Segovia. Paramilitary commander Rodrigo later said that an army
soldier executed 24 paramilitary men along a roadside near Segovia.
(AP, 8/10/02)(SSFC, 8/11/02, p.A16)(AP, 8/18/02)
2002 Aug 9, In northeastern
Congo United Nations observers discovered a grave containing the
hacked bodies of 38 women and children outside Bunia.
(AP, 8/10/02)
2002 Aug 9, Makiko Tanaka,
former Japanese foreign minister, resigned as a member of parliament
after failing to clear up allegations she had misused state funds.
(AP, 8/9/02)
2002 Aug 9, Myanmar's junta
freed 14 political prisoners, but the move was far short of the
release of all prisoners of conscience that opposition leader Aung
San Suu Kyi has demanded as a precondition for national
reconciliation.
(AP, 8/9/02)
2002 Aug 9, Three Pakistani
nurses were killed when militants lobbed two grenades at a crowd of
women leaving a missionary hospital chapel, the second assault on a
Christian target in Pakistan in less than a week.
(AP, 8/9/02)
2002 Aug 9, President Kim
Dae-jung named the head of South Korea's largest business newspaper
as prime minister, the day after the opposition took control of
parliament in a by-election landslide.
(Reuters, 8/9/02)
2002 Aug 9, Rescue workers
found the bodies of 19 people killed swept away by rushing water
near Russia's Black Sea coast after some of Europe's worst flooding
in decades turned rivers and streets into torrents. At least 27
people died, 21 of them in Russia.
(AP, 8/9/02)
2002 Aug 9, In Zimbabwe a
government deadline for the white farmers to give up their land
passed without incident, and it remained uncertain if police would
try to forcibly evict them.
(AP, 8/9/02)
2003 Aug 9, The US Army fired
up its first chemical weapons incinerator located near a residential
area, outside Anniston, Ala., to destroy two rockets loaded with
enough sarin nerve agent to wipe out a city.
(SSFC, 8/10/03, p.A4)(AP, 8/9/08)
2003 Aug 9, Gregory Hines (57),
considered the greatest tap dancer of his generation, died of cancer
in Los Angeles.
(AP, 8/11/03)
2003 Aug 9, In northeastern
Brazil 84 inmates from a maximum security prison escaped through a
tunnel.
(AP, 8/9/03)
2003 Aug 9, Mitar Rasevic,
Bosnian Serb prison chief of 37 guards at the KP-Dom detention
facility in Foca, surrendered in Belgrade to the Yugoslav war crimes
tribunal. He was wanted on charges of enslavement, torture and
murder at the wartime prison.
(AP, 8/15/03)
2004 Aug 9, Oil prices for
September delivery of light crude hit a record high of $44.98 since
trading began in NYC in 1983.
(SFC, 8/10/04, p.A1)
2004 Aug 9, In McAlester,
Oklahoma, District Judge Steven Taylor sentenced Terry Nichols to
161 consecutive life sentences for the 1995 Oklahoma City federal
building bombing. Terry Nichols, addressing a court for the first
time, asked victims of the blast for forgiveness
(SFC, 8/10/04, p.A3)(AP, 8/9/05)
2004 Aug 9, Trump Hotels and
Casino Resorts Inc. announced it would soon file for Chapter 11
bankruptcy. 3 Trump properties had filed for bankruptcy in 1992.
(SFC, 8/11/04, p.C1)
2004 Aug 9, David Raksin (92),
Oscar-nominated movie and TV composer, died in Van Nuys, Calif.
(AP, 8/9/05)
2004 Aug 9, The death toll from
this season's monsoon rains across South Asia passed 2,000, as
authorities in India reported that 39 bodies were found floating in
receding flood waters and four children were killed when a house
collapsed.
(AP, 8/9/04)
2004 Aug 9, Forensic experts
said they found a mass grave in the waste dump of a coal mine in
eastern Bosnia, which they suspect may contain the bodies of about
350 Muslims who disappeared from a Bosnian Serb detention centre
during the Bosnian war.
(AP, 8/9/04)
2004 Aug 9, Al Sadr, whose
loyalists battled U.S. troops for a fifth straight day, vowed to
fight to the death. A suicide attacker detonated a car bomb
northeast of Baghdad, killing six people and wounding the deputy
governor who was the intended target.
(AP, 8/9/04)
2004 Aug 9, Four masked,
black-clad men who said they belong to a group that has claimed
responsibility for kidnappings and killings in Iraq beheaded a man
identified only as a Bulgarian in a video posted on the Internet.
(AP, 8/9/04)
2004 Aug 9, In Japan a
nonradioactive steam leak killed 5 people and injured seven in the
worst-ever accident at a nuclear power plant in Fukui prefecture.
The No. 3 reactor of the Mihama Nuclear Power Plant was shutdown and
not restarted until January 2007.
(AP, 8/9/04)(Econ, 8/14/04, p.54)(AP, 1/9/07)
2004 Aug 9, Mauritania arrested
renegade officers and Islamic extremists to break up what officials
said was a brewing coup involving a terror campaign.
(WSJ, 8/10/04, p.A1)
2004 Aug 9, Officials in South
Africa prepared to kill some 30,000 ostriches following the deaths
of over 1,500 due to avian influenza.
(SFC, 8/10/04, p.A3)
2005 Aug 9, The US Federal
Reserve raised interest rates by a quarter point to 3.5%. It marked
the 10th increase since tightening began in 2004.
(SFC, 8/10/05, p.C1)
2005 Aug 9, The US State
Department said the US will begin issuing electronic passports in
December to help tighten border and identity security.
(AP, 8/9/05)
2005 Aug 9, A three-judge panel
of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta ordered a new
trial after agreeing with defense attorneys who challenged the 2001
convictions five Cuban intelligence agents. All five acknowledged
being Cuban agents but said they were spying on "terrorist" exile
groups opposed to Castro, not the U.S. government.
(AP, 8/10/05)
2005 Aug 9, Charles McCoy Jr.
pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and 10 other charges in a
series of Ohio highway shootings and was sentenced to 27 years in
prison.
(AP, 8/9/06)
2005 Aug 9, Officials in San
Jose, Ca., opened their new $390 million, 18-story City Hall. It was
designed by Richard Meier with an original budget of $214 million.
(SFC, 8/10/05, p.B4)
2005 Aug 9, In Tennessee inmate
George Hyatte escaped after his wife shot and killed a guard
escorting him outside the Kingston courthouse. A tip from a cabbie
the next day led police to arrest George and Jennifer Hyatte at a
budget motel in Columbus, Ohio.
(SFC, 8/10/05, p.A6)(AP, 8/11/05)
2005 Aug 9, Discovery and its
crew of seven glided back to Earth ending a 14-day test of space
shuttle safety. NASA’s STS 114 flight was shadowed by the ghosts of
Columbia
(AP, 8/9/05)(Econ, 8/13/05, p.68)
2005 Aug 9, Abe Hirschfield,
immigrant multi-millionaire, died in NYC. Hirschfield was born in
Poland but grew up in Israel. His 1986 autobiography was titled “An
Accidental Wedding.”
(SFC, 8/10/05, p.B7)
2005 Aug 9, Matthew McGrory
(32), the deep-voiced 7-foot-plus actor who moved from appearances
on Howard Stern's radio show to a high-profile role as a gentle
giant in the movie "Big Fish," died in Los Angeles.
(AP, 8/10/05)
2005 Aug 9, Judith Rossner
(b.1935) author of "Looking for Mr. Goodbar" (1975), died.
(SFEC, 10/5/97, BR p.4)(SFC, 8/12/05, p.B9)
2005 Aug 9, A roadside bomb
attack in eastern Afghanistan killed a US service member, the fifth
American casualty in a week. Suspected Taliban rebels gunned down an
Afghan woman accused of spying for the coalition.
(AP, 8/10/05)
2005 Aug 9, Qari Amadullah, a
suspected Taliban rebel leader, died in heavy fighting in eastern
Afghanistan. 5 other militants were killed and 3 US soldiers were
wounded during the clash.
(AP, 8/12/05)
2005 Aug 9, Australia’s Foreign
Minister Alexander Downer said Australia and China are negotiating
an agreement to allow Australia to export uranium to China for
peaceful purposes.
(AP, 8/9/05)
2005 Aug 9, In Chechnya gunmen
sprayed bullets at a car in Grozny, killing one person, wounding a
child in the head, and setting the vehicle ablaze.
(AP, 8/9/05)
2005 Aug 9, China’s official
media reported that 123 miners trapped in south China have little
chance of survival. One body was recovered the next day.
(AP, 8/9/05)(AP, 8/11/05)
2005 Aug 9, In Ethiopia the
National Electoral Board released results for the May 15 election.
The ruling coalition captured a majority in parliamentary elections
shadowed by fraud allegations and deadly violence.
(AP, 8/9/05)
2005 Aug 9, Suez, a French
water and power company, announced a $14 billion purchase of 49.9%
of the shares of Electrabel, a Belgian electricity firm.
(Econ, 8/13/05, p.52)
2005 Aug 9, A suicide bomber
struck near a US convoy in Baghdad and gunmen opened fire on police
patrols around the city in attacks that killed at least 16 people.
(AP, 8/9/05)
2005 Aug 9, In Iraq 4 American
soldiers were killed when insurgents attacked their patrol in the
northern city of Beiji, and a car bomb targeting a joint U.S.-Iraqi
patrol in Baghdad killed seven people, including one US soldier.
(AP, 8/10/05)
2005 Aug 9, Murders in Jamaica
reached 1,028, up 25% from 2004.
(Econ, 8/13/05, p.32)
2005 Aug 9, In Pakistan Derik
Cyprian, a former Cabinet minister who disappeared Aug. 2, was found
strangled to death on a dirt road on the outskirts of Lahore.
(AP, 8/9/05)
2005 Aug 9, South Africa’s
Johannesburg Women’s Jail reopened its doors as a museum.
(Econ, 8/13/05, p.74)
2005 Aug 9, In Sudan Lt. Gen.
Salva Kiir Mayardit, the commander of the Sudan People's Liberation
Army was inaugurated as Sudan's first vice president and president
of the new, autonomous southern government.
(AP, 8/9/05)
2005 Aug 9, Francois Dalle
(87), former chief executive of L'Oreal (1957-1984) and credited
with transforming the French cosmetics company into a global giant,
died in Geneva.
(AP, 8/22/05)
2005 Aug 9, Six of Venezuela's
indigenous communities received title to their ancestral lands in a
ceremony that Venezuela's president said reversed centuries of
injustice. An estimated 300,000 Venezuelans belong to 28 indigenous
groups, many living in the country's sparsely populated southeast.
(AP, 8/9/05)
2006 Aug 9, The White House
said neither Israel nor Hezbollah should escalate their month-old
war, as Israel decided to widen its ground invasion in southern
Lebanon.
(AP, 8/9/07)
2006 Aug 9, In Ohio Osama Sabhi
Abulhassan (20) and Ali Houssaiky (20), both of Dearborn, Mich.,
were charged with money laundering in support of terrorism after
authorities said they found airplane passenger lists and information
on airport security checkpoints in their car.
(AP, 8/9/06)
2006 Aug 9, The American Humane
Society said it will give China $100,000 to vaccinate dogs against
rabies if it promises to immediately stop their mass slaughter in
areas where humans have died from the disease.
(AP, 8/9/06)
2006 Aug 9, Physicist James A.
Van Allen (91), who discovered the radiation belts surrounding the
Earth that now bear his name, died in Iowa City, Iowa.
(AP, 8/9/07)
2006 Aug 9, Hamid Karzai,
Afghanistan's first democratically elected president, strongly
hinted in an interview that he will not run for another term in
office. A roadside bomb killed 2 Afghan soldiers and wounded 3 as
they returned after a mission to help police surrounded by
insurgents in Paktika province. In the eastern province of Nuristan
US soldiers and warplanes drove off an insurgent attack on a new
American base, killing 19 militants. Local authorities pleaded for
emergency relief for thousands of villagers made homeless by heavy
rain and flooding that has ravaged provinces in eastern Afghanistan
and left at least 35 people dead.
(AP, 8/9/06)(AP, 8/10/06)
2006 Aug 9, Roland Horngacher,
Vienna's top police commander, was suspended from duty on suspicion
of improperly accepting gifts, including travel vouchers from the
former head of an Austrian bank linked to the collapse of U.S.
commodities broker Refco Inc.
(AP, 8/10/06)
2006 Aug 9, In Buenos Aires
Raul Antonio Guglielminetti, a former intelligence agent and two
retired military officers, were arrested in connection with human
rights abuses dating to Argentina's "Dirty War" against political
dissent.
(AP, 8/11/06)
2006 Aug 9, In Brazil suspected
gang members threw homemade bombs, sent banks on fire, and torched
buses in the region and two other cities overnight in Sao Paulo
state. In Rio de Janeiro gunbattles between gangs vying for control
of the city's lucrative drug trade have resulted in the deaths of 19
people since Aug 6.
(AP, 8/10/06)
2006 Aug 9, Brazil’s
environment ministry said police had arrested 46 people, including
16 agents of the federal environmental protection agency, for
allegedly operating illegal logging operations in the Amazon
rainforest and in southern Brazil.
(AP, 8/10/06)
2006 Aug 9, Two teenage Britons
were finally found guilty of killing 10-year-old Nigerian schoolboy
Damilola Taylor following a six-year investigation marred by legal
and forensic blunders. Danny Preddie (18) and Ricky Preddie (19)
from Peckham, south London, were convicted of the manslaughter of
Taylor who died in November, 2000, after being stabbed in the leg
with a broken bottle.
(Reuters, 8/9/06)
2006 Aug 9, Masked gunmen
killed five Indians in Colombia even as UN officials marked World
Indigenous Day with a call for illegal combat groups to keep Indians
out of the country's armed conflict. Colombian rebels kidnapped two
engineers and a helicopter pilot who were part of a seismographic
oil exploration crew in Choco state. The National Liberation Army
(ELN) was believed to be responsible.
(AP, 8/10/06)
2006 Aug 9, Ethiopia’s army
killed 13 rebels and caught other commanders of the eastern Ogaden
National Liberation Front, a separatist movement, after they crossed
from Somalia.
(Reuters, 8/12/06)
2006 Aug 9, Kerala, a southern
Indian state, banned the sale and production of Coke, Pepsi, Sprite
and other soft drinks because of concerns over pesticide
contamination. Four Indian states, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya
Pradesh and Chattisgarh, have already imposed a ban on sale of Coke
and Pepsi at colleges, schools and government offices. Several other
states have said they are examining the issue.
(AP, 8/9/06)
2006 Aug 9, In India
authorities arrested Pritam Singh, a former army soldier and his
wife, for allegedly aborting female fetuses, several of which were
found dumped in a well behind an illegal clinic in Patran town,
Punjab.
(AP, 8/10/06)
2006 Aug 9, Swollen rivers
swamped thousands of villages and towns across India's south and
west, forcing 4.5 million from their homes as rescuers struggled to
bring them food and drinking water.
(Reuters, 8/9/06)
2006 Aug 9, Gunmen on two
motorcycles assassinated Col. Qassim Abdel-Qadir, administrative
head of an Iraqi army division in the southern city of Basra. A
roadside bomb exploded near a US patrol in eastern Baghdad's Shiite
neighborhood of Habibiya, killing one bystander and wounding one US
soldier. Police found the bodies of three men who were shot in the
head and dumped in two locations in southwestern Baghdad.
(AP, 8/9/06)
2006 Aug 9, Israel's Security
Cabinet approved a wider ground offensive in south Lebanon that was
expected to take 30 days as part of a new push to badly damage
Hezbollah. Israeli's military struck Lebanon's largest Palestinian
refugee camp, killing at least one person and wounding three others.
An Israeli airstrike killed a family of 7 in the Bekaa Valley. 15
Israeli soldiers were killed in a single day of fighting. Israel
said it killed as many as 40 Hezbollah fighters but a Hezbollah
spokesman said only 3 had been killed. Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan
Nasrallah warned all Israeli Arabs to leave the port city of Haifa
so the militant group could step up attacks without fear of shedding
the blood of fellow Muslims.
(AP, 8/9/06)(SFC, 8/10/06, p.A10)
2006 Aug 9, In Mexico the body
of Enrique Perea Quintanilla (50), publisher of the magazine Dos
Caras, Una Verdad (Two Faces, One Truth) was found on a dirt road
about 10 miles from Chihuahua City. Authorities said that organized
crime was likely behind the killing.
(AP, 8/11/06)
2006 Aug 9, Maoist rebels and
the Nepal government said they had settled a dispute over monitoring
each other's fighters and weapons, a move which revives their peace
process and power-sharing plans.
(AFP, 8/9/06)
2006 Aug 9, Two Norwegians and
two Ukrainians were kidnapped at gunpoint from an oil services ship
off the coast of Nigeria.
(Reuters, 8/9/06)
2006 Aug 9, In Poland the US
specialists secretly removed 90 pounds of weapons-grade uranium from
a research reactor and transferred it to Russia for re-processing.
(SFC, 8/10/06, p.A8)(WSJ, 8/10/06, p.A1)
2006 Aug 9, Sergei Skripal
(55), a retired colonel in the Russian military intelligence, was
sentenced by a military court in Moscow to 13 years imprisonment for
passing along state secrets to Britain. He was accused of revealing
the names of several dozen Russian agents working in Europe. In 2010
he was released as part of a spy swap with the US.
(AP, 8/9/06)(AP, 7/9/10)
2006 Aug 9, A South Korean
citizens' group said North Korea has requested help from South Korea
to cope with devastating floods.
(AP, 8/9/06)
2006 Aug 9, A Justice Ministry
official said Swiss authorities will provide the US with details
from bank accounts US investigators suspect of being used for
terrorist funding.
(AP, 8/9/06)
2006 Aug 9, In Venezuela 8
candidates opposing Pres. Chavez called off a primary and agreed to
support front runner Gov. Manuel Rosales in the Dec 3 presidential
balloting.
(SFC, 8/10/06, p.A8)
2007 Aug 9, President Bush held
a news conference in which he publicly prodded Pakistani President
Pervez Musharraf, his embattled war-on-terror partner, to hold free
presidential elections, share intelligence and take "swift action"
against terrorist leaders in his country.
(AP, 8/9/08)
2007 Aug 9, David Beckham made
his long-awaited Major League Soccer debut, entering in the 72nd
minute of the Los Angeles Galaxy's 1-0 loss to D.C. United.
(AP, 8/9/08)
2007 Aug 9, The US Federal
Reserve injected $24 billion to the banking system in the wake of a
credit squeeze due to failing subprime mortgages and another $38
billion the next day. The European Central Bank (ECB) offered
unlimited loans at 4% to stem the credit squeeze as it extended to
Europe.
(Econ, 8/18/07, p.64)(WSJ, 11/6/07, p.A1)
2007 Aug 9, WuXi PharmaTech, a
Chinese pharmaceutical research firm, began trading on the NYSE at
$14 per share. By Sep 22 its shares had doubled in value.
(Econ, 9/22/07, p.79)
2007 Aug 9, President Hamid
Karzai said extremism that plagues Afghanistan has crept across the
border into Pakistan, at the opening of a 4-day meeting between more
than 600 Pakistani and Afghan tribal leaders.
(AP, 8/9/07)
2007 Aug 9, China banned
exports by two toy manufacturers whose products were subject to
major recalls in the United States.
(AP, 8/9/08)
2007 Aug 9, A government news
agency reported that 2 former bank employees were sentenced to death
for stealing $6.7 million from their branch's vault in northern
China. Most of the money was spent on lottery tickets.
(AP, 8/9/07)
2007 Aug 9, The death toll from
the worst monsoon floods to hit South Asia in decades passed 2,000
even as torrents of muddy water receded from millions of acres of
farmland and rains shifted west.
(AFP, 8/9/07)
2007 Aug 9, Newly declassified
documents said Canadian intelligence officials suspected that Maher
Arar, a Syrian-born Canadian citizen detained by the US in 2002 as a
terror suspect and deported, had been sent to a third country for
torture as part of the CIA's "extraordinary rendition" program. Arar
was detained in September 2002 by US authorities during a flight
stopover in New York while returning home to Canada from a vacation
in Tunisia.
(AP, 8/10/07)
2007 Aug 9, In Canada 2 people
were killed and six people wounded in an early-morning shooting in a
Vancouver restaurant.
(Reuters, 8/9/07)
2007 Aug 9, In Ecuador
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez offered to help Ecuador build a $5
billion oil refinery, as the socialist leader pledged to spread his
government's oil wealth to another South American ally.
(AP, 8/10/07)
2007 Aug 9, Iranian officials
told Iraqi PM Nouri al-Maliki that they were doing everything they
could to help stabilize his nation, but only a US pullout would
bring true peace.
(AP, 8/9/07)
2007 Aug 9, In Iraq tens of
thousands of Shiite pilgrims converged on a golden-domed shrine in
northern Baghdad. 7 pilgrims were killed and four wounded when
gunmen in a speeding car opened fire and threw hand grenades at them
as they were en route to Baghdad from the Dabouniyah area. Gunmen
fired on Iraqi soldiers guarding pilgrims in the predominantly Sunni
neighborhood of Yarmouk in western Baghdad, prompting a battle and
panic that left one attacker dead and one soldier and three pilgrims
wounded. A bomb exploded near the house of a Shiite family, killing
a man and his wife, and wounding three, including a 5-year-old
child, in the religiously mixed neighborhood of Baiyaa in western
Baghdad. 2 British soldiers were killed and two others were
seriously wounded when a roadside bomb hit their convoy north of the
Rumaylah oil fields west of Basra.
(AP, 8/9/07)
2007 Aug 9, Lithuanian military
leaders welcomed home its small contingent of combat troops from
Iraq. The 50 troops were withdrawn last week from the southern Iraqi
city of Basra, where they had been serving under Danish command.
Lithuania also has 137 soldiers and officers deployed in
Afghanistan. In June lawmakers approved plans to send 420 troops to
the Middle East, the Balkans, the trans-Caucasus republics and other
locations.
(AP, 8/9/07)
2007 Aug 9, A disaster
management agency said more than 520,000 people need urgent food aid
in Mozambique while 600,000 face famine between now and April next
year.
(AP, 8/9/07)
2007 Aug 9, President Gen.
Pervez Musharraf decided against declaring a state of emergency in
Pakistan and will press ahead with plans to hold free and fair
elections.
(AP, 8/9/07)
2007 Aug 9, In the Philippines
Abu Sayyaf extremists ambushed a truckload of troops going to
market, then fought a gunbattle with soldiers in pursuit. The death
toll included 25 soldiers and 27 militants on the volatile southern
island of Jolo.
(AP, 8/9/07)(AP, 8/10/07)
2007 Aug 9, A small airplane
plunged into the sea moments after taking off from the French
Polynesian resort island of Moorea, apparently killing all 20 people
aboard in the territory's worst-ever plane crash.
(AP, 8/10/07)
2007 Aug 9, Officials said a
total of 28 people died and hundreds of homes were destroyed by a
series of forest fires which swept through parts of South Africa and
Swaziland since the end of last month.
(AP, 8/9/07)
2007 Aug 9, The International
Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies more than doubled
its Sudan floods appeal to almost 5.5 million Swiss francs (4.6
million dollars, 3.3 million euros) after flood waters rose above
levels set in 1988.
(AP, 8/9/07)
2008 Aug 9, In SF the 10th
annual Gumball 3000 Rally, an 8-day, 3,000 mile trip across the West
Coast, North Korea and China, began with a parade that included some
100 participants who had apparently paid the $120,000 entrance fee.
(SSFC, 8/10/08, p.B3)
2008 Aug 9, Bernie Mac (50),
the actor and comedian, died in Chicago. He had teamed up in the
casino heist caper "Ocean's Eleven" and gained a prestigious Peabody
Award for his sitcom "The Bernie Mac Show."
(AP, 8/9/08)
2008 Aug 9, Mahmoud Darwish
(67), a Palestinian poet, died, died in Houston, Texas. His poetry
eloquently told of his people's experiences of exile, occupation and
infighting. His 1973 work “Journal of an Ordinary Grief” was
translated to English in 2010.
(AP, 8/10/08)(Econ, 8/23/08, p.75)(Econ,
10/23/10, p.103)
2008 Aug 9, In Afghanistan
airstrikes and clashes north of Kabul killed 11 people, some of whom
were believed to be civilians.
(AP, 8/10/08)
2008 Aug 9, In Algeria a
suicide car bomb attack on security forces killed at least eight
people and injured 19 others in the coastal town of Zemmouri el
Bahri, east of Algiers, the second such blast this month.
(AFP, 8/10/08)
2008 Aug 9, AU spokesman
El-Ghassim Wane said the African Union has frozen Mauritania's
membership in the wake of a coup in the country.
(AP, 8/9/08)
2008 Aug 9, In northeast
England Xi Zhou and Zhen Xing Yang, both 25, were found murdered
with serious head injuries in Newcastle.
(AFP, 8/11/08)
2008 Aug 9, In Burkina Faso
heavy rains caused a mudslide at an illegal gold mine that killed at
least 31 people.
(SSFC, 8/10/08, p.A4)
2008 Aug 9, Tang Yongming (47),
a knife-wielding Chinese man, attacked two relatives of a coach for
the US Olympic men's volleyball team at a tourist site in Beijing,
killing Todd Bachman (62) and injuring his wife on the first day of
the Olympics. Yongming then committed suicide by throwing himself
from the second story of the site, the 13th century Drum Tower just
five miles from the main Olympics site.
(AP, 8/9/08)(SFC, 8/11/08, p.A12)
2008 Aug 9, Georgia, the third
largest contributor to the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq, said it's
pulling out its 2,000-strong contingent from Iraq to join the
fighting in the breakaway province of South Ossetia.
(AP, 8/9/08)
2008 Aug 9, Separatist forces
in Georgia's breakaway province of Abkhazia launched air and
artillery strikes to drive Georgian troops from their bridgehead in
the region. The Abkhazian move was prompted by Georgia's military
action to regain control over another breakaway province, South
Ossetia.
(AP, 8/9/08)
2008 Aug 9, In northeastern
Guatemala robbers armed with machetes hacked a US tourist to death
and seriously wounded his wife in an attack aboard the couple's
sailboat on Lake Izabal.
(AP, 8/10/08)
2008 Aug 9, In India an
official said monsoon rains had crumpled homes and triggered flash
floods in southern India, killing 18 people. Floods, mudslides,
house collapses and lightning strikes have killed at least 184
people across the country so far this year.
(AP, 8/9/08)
2008 Aug 9, In Iraq a bodyguard
who works for Youth and Sports minister Jassim Mohammed Ja'afar was
gunned down outside his home near the city of Kirkuk. Unidentified
gunmen shot dead a 50-year-old woman outside her home in the
al-Maamoun district in Mosul.
(AP, 8/9/08)
2008 Aug 9, Russia sent
hundreds of tanks and troops into the separatist province of South
Ossetia and bombed Georgian towns in a major escalation of the
conflict that has left scores of civilians dead and wounded. Russian
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told reporters in Moscow that some
1,500 people have been killed, with the death toll rising. Russian
military aircraft bombed the Georgian town of Gori. Georgia's
President Mikhail Saakashvili proposed a cease-fire. As part of his
proposal, Georgian troops were pulled out of Tskhinvali and had been
ordered to stop responding to Russian shelling.
(AP, 8/9/08)
2008 Aug 9, In Sri Lanka air
force fighter jets pounded a Tamil Tiger supply base and an
intelligence operation center deep in rebel-held Mullaitivu
district. Separately, helicopter gunships overnight hit a radio
center operated by the Sea Tigers. Scattered battles in Vavuniya
killed 16 rebels and one soldier while three rebels died in
Mullaitivu. Separate clashes killed five insurgents in Welioya and
Jaffna.
(AP, 8/9/08)(AP, 8/10/08)
2008 Aug 9, Syria said it would
bar UN nuclear investigators from revisiting a site bombed by
Israeli jets on suspicion it was a secretly built atomic reactor.
(AP, 8/9/08)
2008 Aug 9, Disaster officials
said landslides and floods killed at least 101 people in northern
Vietnam, covering the homes of some victims as they slept in their
beds.
(AP, 8/10/08)(WSJ, 8/12/08, p.A8)
2009 Aug 9, In San Francisco
Bruce Sherman (66), accordionist and singer of sea chanteys,
committed suicide.
(SSFC, 9/6/09, p.A2)
2009 Aug 9, In Afghanistan a
suicide attacker in a bomb-filled vehicle blew up close to a US-led
coalition military convoy in Nangarhar province, but did no harm to
the troops. 3 Afghan army soldiers were killed after their vehicle
was struck by a roadside bomb in Shahjoy district, Zabul province. A
US soldier was killed in the south in a hostile fire incident.
(AFP, 8/9/09)(AP, 8/11/09)
2009 Aug 9, US Secretary of
State Hillary Rodham Clinton arrived in oil-rich Angola to
underscore America's presence in one of sub-Saharan Africa's largest
energy producers where America is competing with China for
resources.
(AP, 8/9/09)
2009 Aug 9, Typhoon Morakot
slammed into China's eastern coast, forcing the evacuation of nearly
a million people after earlier lashing Taiwan with torrential rains
that caused the island's worst flooding in 50 years and left dozens
missing and feared dead.
(AP, 8/9/09)
2009 Aug 9, The French
advertising group Publicis said it would buy the digital advertising
agency Razorfish from Microsoft for 530 million dollars (380 million
euros).
(AFP, 8/9/09)
2009 Aug 9, Iran's police chief
acknowledged that detained protesters were abused in prison and the
country's top prosecutor said those responsible for the mistreatment
should be punished, in unusually pointed criticism of security
officials. Revolutionary Guard Commander Yadollah Javani called for
opposition leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and former President Mohammad
Khatami to be put on trial.
(AP, 8/9/09)
2009 Aug 9, Iraqi authorities
arrested Daniel Fitzsimmons, a British contractor, on murder charges
over the shooting deaths of a British and an Australian contractor
in Baghdad's protected Green Zone. Two employees of ArmorGroup Iraq,
identified as Paul McGuigan of Britain and Darren Hoare of
Australia, were killed in the firearms incident. On Feb 28, 2011, An
Iraqi court convicted Fitzsimmons and sentenced him to 20 years in
prison, making him the first Westerner convicted in an Iraqi court
since the 2003 US invasion.
(AP, 8/9/09)(AP, 8/10/09)(AP, 2/28/11)
2009 Aug 9, Italians newspapers
reported that burglars earlier in the week had made off with jewels
and cash worth 11 million euros (15.6 million dollars) from the
hotel room of a Saudi princess in Sardinia, sparking a diplomatic
incident. On Sep 15 Sardinia police said most of the jewels had been
recovered.
(AFP, 8/9/09)(AP, 9/15/09)
2009 Aug 9, Madagascar's bitter
political rivals signed a power-sharing deal, agreeing to create an
interim government to end months of violence.
(AP, 8/9/09)
2009 Aug 9, In Mexico some 400
people marched in Guadalajara to protest the negative affects of
free trade and to demand benefits for retired Mexican laborers who
worked in the US as Pres. Barack Obama, Mexican President Felipe
Calderon and Canadian PM Stephen Harper arrived for a two-day
summit.
(AP, 8/9/09)
2009 Aug 9, Mexican lawyer
Silvia Raquenel Villanueva, known for defending high-profile drug
trafficking suspects, was shot to death at a street market in the
northern city of Monterrey. Army soldiers killed two suspects in a
shootout with gunmen in the western state of Michoacan. Federal
police arrested Dimas Diaz, a drug cartel suspect they believe was
behind a plot to kill President Felipe Calderon in retaliation for
his crackdown on organized crime. Dia was the alleged financial
operator of the Pacific cartel.
(AP, 8/10/09)
2009 Aug 9, In Pakistan two
civilians and a policeman were killed when militants ambushed a
police convoy in the northwestern town of Bannu. Two Pakistani
soldiers were killed and four were wounded near Naurak village in
the troubled North Waziristan tribal district when a remote-control
bomb targeting a military convoy exploded. At least eight dead
bodies of suspected Taliban militants were found in different areas
of the northwestern Swat valley.
(AFP, 8/9/09)
2009 Aug 9, Gaza militants
launched mortar shells at a border crossing between Gaza and Israel
just as Palestinian patients were being transferred into Israel for
medical treatment.
(AP, 8/10/09)
2009 Aug 9, On the Spanish
island of Mallorca a small bomb exploded in a restaurant, causing
minor damage and no injuries. A caller, who said he was calling on
ETA's behalf, warned of the bomb.
(AP, 8/9/09)
2009 Aug 9, In southern Taiwan
Typhoon Morakot spawned a mudslide engulfing the mountain village of
Shiao Lin, burying up to 600 people. The official death toll from
Morakot stood at 14. Another 51, not including the people in Shiao
Lin.
(AP, 8/10/09)
2010 Aug 9, The US federal
court in Hawaii found Noshir Gowadia (66), a former B-2 stealth
bomber engineer, guilty of selling sensitive military technology to
China. Gowadia was arrested in October 2005 and accused of
communicating national defense information to a person not entitled
to receive it. Further charges were added on subsequent indictments
issued up until 2007.
(AFP, 8/9/10)
2010 Aug 9, In California a
federal grand jury charged Samuel “Maoli” Cohen of Belvedere, Marin
County, with 32 counts of wire fraud and money laundering related to
defrauding over 55 victims of some $30 million.
(SFC, 8/9/10, p.D1)
2010 Aug 9, BP made its first
deposit, $3 billion, into the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster fund,
while top executives were summoned to the White House to pledge
their long-term commitment to restoring the region.
(AFP, 8/9/10)
2010 Aug 9, Skype SA, the
Internet calling service that was controlled until last year by eBay
Inc., filed for a US initial public offering.
(AP, 8/9/10)
2010 Aug 9, Honda Motor Co said
it was recalling more than 428,000 vehicles in the United States and
Canada because of a defect that could cause the cars to roll away if
they are parked incorrectly.
(AP, 8/10/10)
2010 Aug 9, In USA a tour bus
crash killed 3 Japanese tourists. Driver Yasushi Mikuni (26) was
later charged with 10 felony counts of negligent driving and one
misdemeanor charge of having marijuana residue in his system.
(SFC, 9/23/10, p.A11)
2010 Aug 9, In Alaska a small
plane crashed killing former US Sen. Ted Stevens (86) and 4 others
at a mountainside on Bristol Bay. 4 others survived the crash of the
1957 De Havilland DHC-3T.
(SFC, 8/11/10, p.A4)
2010 Aug 9, Bibi Aisha, a young
Afghan woman who said her nose and ears were sliced off last year to
punish her for running away from her violent husband, gained
worldwide attention when she appeared on the cover of Time magazine.
She was sent to Los Angeles over the summer for reconstructive
surgery. In November her father-in-law was arrested on charges of
disfiguring Aisha and of being part of a Taliban network in Uruzgan
province. The only suspect arrested in the case was released in
July, 2011.
(AP, 12/8/10)(SFC, 7/12/11, p.A2)
2010 Aug 9, Brazil formally
offered asylum to Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, a woman sentenced to
death in Iran on an adultery conviction. On July 31 Brazilian
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva suggested he would be willing to
provide the woman refuge.
(AP, 8/10/10)
2010 Aug 9, In Brazil Ed
Stafford (34), former British army captain, ended his 2 1/2-year
journey as he planned, leaping into the sea as the first man known
to walk the length of the Amazon River.
(AP, 8/9/10)
2010 Aug 9, A leading Chinese
general urged closer ties with Australia's military, amid a
continuing freeze on Beijing's contacts with the Pentagon.
(AP, 8/9/10)
2010 Aug 9, In central Europe
swollen rivers surged north after carving a swath of destruction
across Poland, Germany and the Czech Republic. At least 11 people
were reported killed.
(AP, 8/9/10)(SFC, 8/9/10, p.A2)
2010 Aug 9, in Guatemala 7 of
19 suspects were detained after a court issued arrest warrants for
19 people including a former interior minister and a top police
official for allegedly participating in the killing of inmates
during a 2005 prison escape and a 2007 uprising. Those arrested
included two civilians, two former policeman and an officer still on
the force.
(AP, 8/11/10)
2010 Aug 9, Indonesian police
arrested top radical Islamist preacher Abu Bakar Bashir. He was
accused of funding and training extremists who were planning a wave
of attacks in Jakarta.
(AFP, 8/10/10)
2010 Aug 9, In Indonesia the
Hastina III sunk off East Nusatenggara province after a large wave
slammed into the wooden ship, sending panicked passengers running to
one side. It capsized between Adonara and Lembata islands. 10 people
were killed with one missing.
(AP, 8/9/10)
2010 Aug 9, Iran announced
plans to get rid of its dollar and euro reserves in response to the
latest UN sanctions over its contested nuclear program. The IAEA
said Iran has activated equipment to enrich uranium more efficiently
in a move that defies the UN Security Council.
(AP, 8/9/10)
2010 Aug 9, Two Bahai activists
said an Iranian court has sentenced seven leaders of their faith to
20 years in prison after charging them with espionage and engaging
in propaganda against Islam.
(Reuters, 8/9/10)
2010 Aug 9, In Iraq a rush-hour
bombing at a western Baghdad police precinct killed two traffic cops
and one civilian. Iraqi traffic police began to arm themselves with
high-powered weapons for the first time in two years following an
escalation in attacks against the force.
(AP, 8/9/10)(AFP, 8/9/10)
2010 Aug 9, Israeli
photographer Rafael Rafram Chaddad, jailed by Libya for five months,
returned home after an Austrian tycoon brokered a deal for his
freedom that involved the delivery of 20 prefabricated homes from a
Libyan charity to the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 8/9/10)
2010 Aug 9, In Paraguay a
presidential doctor said that Fernando Lugo's lymphatic cancer is
more advanced than initially thought, but the chemotherapy he will
undergo should not affect his ability to do his job.
(Reuters, 8/10/10)
2010 Aug 9, A top Russian
health official said deaths in Moscow have doubled to an average of
700 people a day as the city is engulfed by poisonous smog from
wildfires and a sweltering heat wave. Some 830 forest fires were
burning nationwide.
(AP, 8/9/10)(SFC, 8/9/10, p.A2)
2010 Aug 9, Rwandans voted in
large numbers after a presidential election campaign that rights
groups said was marred by repression and violence against critics of
incumbent Paul Kagame, who is expected to win by a landslide. The
bush war veteran won 93 percent of the vote in more than a third of
country's districts.
(Reuters, 8/9/10)(Reuters, 8/11/10)
2010 Aug 9, A Somali militant
group with links to al-Qaida announced it had banned three Christian
aid agencies from its territory, and one aid group said militants
had occupied their offices in southern Somalia.
(AP, 8/9/10)
2010 Aug 9, In South Africa 4
miners were shot dead by mine guards in an abandoned gold mine near
Johannesburg. Their bodies were found on Aug 12. The mine is owned
by Zuma's nephew Khulubuse Zuma and Mandela's grandson Zondwa
Mandela. Their company is embroiled in a pay dispute with
mineworkers they inherited from several mines they bought from an
insolvent company.
(AP, 8/13/10)
2010 Aug 9, Sudan halted BBC
broadcasts in Arabic on FM radio frequencies after suspending its
agreement with the British public broadcaster for reasons it said
had nothing to do with its newscasts.
(AFP, 8/9/10)
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