Today in History - August 18

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410        Aug 18, King Alaric I's Visigoths occupied and plundered Rome. [see Aug 24]
    (PC, 1992, p.50)

472        Aug 18, Flavius Ricimer, general of the Western Roman Empire, kingmaker, was born.
    (MC, 8/18/02)

1227        Aug 18, Genghis Khan (Chinggis), Mongol conqueror, died in his sleep at his camp, during his siege of Ningxia, the capital of the rebellious Chinese kingdom of Xi Xia. Subotai was one of Genghis Khan's ablest lieutenants, and went on to distinguish himself after the khan's death. In Khan's lifetime he and his warriors had conquered the majority of the civilized world, ruling an empire that stretched from Poland down to Iran in the west, and from Russia's Arctic shores down to Vietnam in the east.  Russian archaeologist Peter Kozloff uncovered the tomb of Genghis Khan in the Gobi Desert in 1927. In 2006 Zhu Yaoting, a Beijing academic, authored a biography of Genghis Khan.
    (AP, 8/18/97)(HN, 10/29/98)(Econ, 12/23/06, p.61)

1503        Aug 18, Pope Alexander VI (1492-1503), born in Spain as Rodrigo di Borgia (1431),  died. He had recently authorized the building of a prison in the cellars of Castel Sant’Angelo in Rome.
    (PTA, p.424)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Alexander_VI)(SSFC, 7/22/07, p.G2)

1564        Aug 18, Spanish king Philip II joined the Council of Trent.
    (MC, 8/18/02)

1587        Aug 18, In the Roanoke Island colony, Ellinor and Ananias Dare became parents of a baby girl whom they name Virginia Dare, the first English child born on what is now Roanoke Island, N.C., then considered Walter Raleigh’s second settlement in Roanoke, Virginia. Virginia Dare, born to the daughter of John White, became the first child of English parents to be born on American soil. However, the colony she was born into ended up mysteriously disappearing.
    (HN, 8/18/98)(PC, 1992, p.203)(AP, 8/18/07)

1588        Aug 18, A storm struck the remaining 60 ships of the Spanish Armada under the Duke of Medina Sidonia after which only 11 were left. Many of the ships went to Ireland where most of the Spaniards were killed by the English.
    (ON, 3/02, p.6)

1674        Aug 18, Jean Racine's "Iphigenie," premiered in Versailles.
    (MC, 8/18/02)

1698        Aug 18, After invading Denmark and capturing Sweden, Charles XII of Sweden forced Frederick IV of Denmark to sign the Peace of Travendal.
    (HN, 8/18/98)

1735        Aug 18, The Evening Post began publishing in Boston, Mass.
    (MC, 8/18/02)

1750        Aug 18, Antonio Salieri (d.1825), Italian composer (Tatare), was born.
    (WSJ, 1/14/04, p.D10)(MC, 8/18/02)

1759        Aug 18, The French fleet was destroyed by the British under "Old Dreadnought" Boscawen at the battle of Lagos Bay.
    (HN, 8/18/98)

1769        Aug 18, Gunpowder in Brescia, Italy, church exploded and some 3,000 were killed.
    (MC, 8/18/02)

1774         Aug 18, Meriwether Lewis, American explorer, was born in Charlottesville, VA. He led the Corps of Discovery with William Clark.
    (HN, 8/18/00)(MC, 8/18/02)

1782         Aug 18, Poet and artist William Blake married Catherine Sophia Boucher.
    (HN, 8/18/00)

1792        Aug 18, Lord John Russel, Prime Minister of England from 1846 to 1852 and 1865 to 1866, was born.
    (HN, 8/18/98)

1807        Aug 18, Charles Francis Adams (d.1886), U.S. diplomat and public official whose father was John Quincy Adams, was born.
    (AHD, 1971, p.14)(HN, 8/18/98)
1807        Aug 18, Robert Stevenson (1772-1850) began work on the 117-foot Bell Rock lighthouse at the mouth of Scotland’s Firth of Forth based on a proposal he submitted in 1800. The lighthouse began operating on Feb 1, 1811.
    (ON, 5/06, p.6)

1812        Aug 18, Returning from a cruise into Canadian waters Captain Isaac Hull's USS Constitution of the fledgling U.S. Navy encountered British Captain Richard Dacre's HMS Guerriere about 750 miles out of Boston. After a frenzied 55-minute battle that left 101 dead, Guerriere rolled helplessly in the water, smashed beyond salvage. Dacre struck his colors and surrendered to Hull's boarding party. In contrast, Constitution suffered little damage and only 14 casualties. The fight's outcome shocked the British Admiralty while it heartened America through the dark days of the War of 1812. [see Aug 19]
    (HNPD, 8/18/98)

1817        Aug 18, Gloucester, Mass., newspapers told of a wild sea serpent seen offshore.
    (MC, 8/18/02)

1834        Aug 18, Mt. Vesuvius erupted.
    (MC, 8/18/02)

1835        Aug 18, The last Potawatomi Indians left Chicago.
    (MC, 8/18/02)

1838        Aug 18, Six US Navy ships departed Hampton Roads, Va., led by Lt. Charles Wilkes on a 3-year mission called the US South Seas Exploring Expedition, the "U.S. Ex. Ex." The mission proved Antarctica to be a continent. Wilkes was tried in a military court for abuses of power, but was generally acquitted. In 2003 Nathaniel Philbrick authored "Sea of Glory," an account of the expedition.
    (Econ, 11/8/03, p.80)(WSJ, 11/12/03, p.D12)(www.sil.si.edu/DigitalCollections/usexex/)

1846        Aug 18, U.S. forces led by Gen. Stephen W. Kearney captured Santa Fe, N.M.
    (AP, 8/18/97)

1849        Aug 18, Benjamin Louis Paul Godard, composer, was born in Paris.
    (MC, 8/18/02)

1850        Aug 18, Honore de Balzac (b.1799), French novelist, died at age 51.
    (WUD, 1994, p.115)(MC, 8/18/02)

1856        Aug 18, In SF thousands of armed men paraded through the streets and then formally dissolved the second Committee of Vigilance. They had run SF for nearly 4 months much to the distress of Mayor James Van Ness and militia officer William T. Sherman.
    (SFC, 8/18/06, p.B1)

1862        Aug 18, Confederate General J.E.B. Stuart’s headquarters was raided by Union troops of the 5th New York and 1st Michigan cavalries.
    (HN, 8/18/98)
1862        Aug 18, A Sioux Uprising began uprising in Minnesota. It resulted in more than 800 white settlers dead and 38 Sioux Indians condemned and hanged. The Minnesota Uprising began when four young Sioux murdered five white settlers at Acton. The Santee Sioux, who lived on a long, narrow reservation on the south side of the Minnesota River, were reacting to broken government promises and corrupt Indian agents. a military court sentenced 303 Sioux to die, but President Abraham Lincoln reduced the list. The 38 hangings took place on December 26, 1862, in Mankato, Minn.
    (MC, 8/18/02)(HNQ, 1/4/00)

1864        Aug 18, Union General William T. Sherman sent General Judson Kilpatrick to raid Confederate lines of communication outside Atlanta. The raid was unsuccessful. Union General William Sherman considered Judson Kilpatrick, his cavalry chief, 'a hell of a damn fool.'
    (HN, 8/18/98)
1864        Aug 18,  Day 1 of 3 day Petersburg Campaign-Battle of Weldon Railroad, Va.
    (MC, 8/18/02)

1870        Aug 18, Prussian forces defeated the French at the Battle of Gravelotte during the Franco-Prussian War. French Commander Bazaine's efforts to break his soldiers through the German lines were bloodily defeated at Mars-la-Tour and Gravelotte. The Prussians advanced on Chalons.
    (HN, 8/18/98)(www.marxists.org/history/france/paris-commune/timeline.htm)

1873        Aug 18, Leo Slezak, Austria tenor, actor (Othello), was born.
    (MC, 8/18/02)
1873        Aug 18, Otto Harbach, songwriter (Smoke Gets in Your Eyes), was born in, SLC, Utah.
    (MC, 8/18/02)

1894        Aug 18, US Congress established the Bureau of Immigration.
    (AP, 8/18/97)

1896         Aug 18, Adolph Ochs (39) took over the New York Times. He served as publisher until 1935.
    (HN, 8/18/00)(SFC, 4/6/01, p.D3)
1896        Aug 18, The northern California Mount Tamalpais and Muir Woods railroad was completed. It was 8 ½ miles long. The Mount Tamalpais Scenic Railroad attracted visitors to what later became known as Stinson Beach. The railway continued operating to 1930.
    (SFC, 8/17/96, p.A17)(SFC, 11/27/07, p.A13)(SFC, 2/24/09, p.B1)

1904        Aug 18, [Francis] Max Factor (d.1996), cosmetics manufacturer (Max Factor), was born. His father, Max Factor (d.1938), was born in Lodz, Russia, in 1877 and came to the US with his family in 1902.
    (MC, 8/18/02)(Internet)

1908        Aug 18, Edgar Faure (d.1988), thriller writer, PM of France (1952, 52-56), was born.
    (MC, 8/18/02)

1914        Aug 18, President Wilson issued his Proclamation of Neutrality, aimed at keeping the United States out of World War I.
    (AP, 8/18/97)
1914        Aug 18, Germany declared war on Russia.
    (HN, 8/18/00)

1918        Aug 18, Elsa Morante, Italian writer and author of "History: A Novel," was born.
    (HN, 8/18/00)

1919        Aug 18, Anti-Cigarette League of America formed in Chicago, Illinois.
    (MC, 8/18/02)

1920            Aug 18, Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, which guaranteed the right of all American women to vote. This completed the three-quarters necessary to put the amendment into effect.  Aaron Sargent, who wrote the 19th amendment, also built Grandmere's Inn in Nevada City. Carrie Chapman Catt, founder of the League of Women Voters, played a crucial role in its passage. She also held some very racist views: she called the ballots of proletarian voters "undesirable" and referred to Indians as "savages." [see Aug 26, 1920]
    (SFC, 4/14/96, T-3)(SFC, 6/9/96, p.B-11)(AP, 8/18/97)(HN, 8/18/01)

1922        Aug 18, Shelly Winters, actress who won an Academy Award for The Diary of Anne Frank, was born.
    (HN, 8/18/98)

1923        Aug 18, Jimmy Witherspoon, blues singer, was born.
    (HN, 8/18/00)

1927        Aug 18, Rosalynn Smith Carter, 1st lady (1977-1981), was born in Plains, Georgia.
    (MC, 8/18/02)

1929        Aug 18, The first cross-country women's air derby began. Louise McPhetride Thaden won first prize in the heavier-plane division, while Phoebe Fairgrave Omlie finished first in the lighter-plane category.
    (HN, 8/18/98)

1930        Aug 18, Eastern Airlines began passenger service.
    (MC, 8/18/02)

1932        Aug 18, Luc Montagnier, virologist, was born. He discovered the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).
    (HN, 8/18/00)
1932        Aug 18, Auguste Piccard and Max Cosijns reached 16,201m in a balloon.
    (MC, 8/18/02)

1933        Aug 18, Roman Polanski, Polish film director best known for Rosemary's Baby and Chinatown, was born.
    (HN, 8/18/98)

1934        Aug 18, Vincent Bugliosi, attorney, author (Helter-Skelter), was born in Hibbing, Minn.
    (MC, 8/18/02)

1936        Aug 18, Federico Garcia Lorca was shot and killed by a Francoist squad on the outskirts of Grenada and buried in an unmarked grave along with 3 other prisoners. His dramatic works included "Blood Wedding," "Yerma," Dona Rosita the Spinster," and "The House of Bernarda Alba." In 1998 the biography "Lorca: A Dream of Life" by Leslie Stainton was published in London.
    (MT, Spg. ‘99, p.3)

1937        Aug 18, Robert Redford, actor (Sting, Candidate, Natural, Great Gatsby), was born in Calif.
    (MC, 8/18/02)

1938        Aug 18, President Roosevelt and Canadian PM William Lyon Mackenzie King dedicated the Thousand Islands Bridge connecting the United States and Canada.
    (AP, 8/18/07)

1940        Aug 18, Walter Chrysler (b.1875), the founder of Chrysler Corporation, died. He was a locomotive mechanic who founded Chrysler in 1924 with money and experience gained as general manager of Buick and executive VP of GM. He oversaw the purchase of Dodge Brothers, which was much bigger than Chrysler at the time. In 2000 Vincent Curcio authored "Chrysler: The Life and Times of an Automotive Genius."
    (WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)(HNQ, 8/21/99)(WSJ, 8/10/00, p.A16)
1940        Aug 18, 71 German aircraft were shot down above England.
    (MC, 8/18/02)

1941        Aug 18, The concentration camp at Amersfoort, Netherlands, opened.
    (MC, 8/18/02)

1942        Aug 18, Carlson's Raiders landed on Makin (Kiribati) in the Gilbert islands and killed 350 Japanese. [see Aug 17]
    (MC, 8/18/02)
1942         Aug 18, Japan sent a crack army to Guadalcanal to repulse the U.S. Marines fighting there.
    (HN, 8/18/98)

1943        Aug 18, The Royal Air Force Bomber Command completed the first major strike against the German missile development facility at Peenemunde.
    (HN, 8/18/98)
1943        Aug 18, Final convoy of Jews from Salonika, Greece, arrived at Auschwitz.
    (MC, 8/18/02)
1943        Aug 18, The Heinkel-111 of Otto Skorzeny, Waffen SS commander, was shot down at Sardinia.
    (MC, 8/18/02)
1943        Aug 18, Hans Jeschonnek, German air force general, chief-staff, committed suicide.
    (MC, 8/18/02)

1945        Aug 18, Subhas Chandra Bose (b.1897), a leader of the Indian Independence Movement, died about this time. He attempted to drive the British out of India by force.
    (Econ, 5/23/09, p.92)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subhas_Chandra_Bose)

1947        Aug 18, The Hewlett-Packard Company was incorporated and reported revenues of $1.5 million. The 111 employees recorded sales of $679,000. In 2007 Michael S. Malone authored “Bill & Dave: How Hewlett and Packard Built the World’s Greatest Company.”
    (SFC, 3/3/99, p.A11)(SFC, 1/13/01, p.A15)(SSFC, 4/22/07, p.M3)
1947        Aug 18, Naval torpedo and mine factory exploded at Cadiz, Spain, killing 300.
    (MC, 8/18/02)

1951        Aug 18, The 1st transcontinental wireless phone call was made from SF to NYC by Mark Sullivan, president of PT&T, and H.T. Killingworth of AT&T.
    (SFC, 8/17/01, p.WB6)

1954        Aug 18, Assistant Secretary of Labor James E. Wilkins became the first black to attend a meeting of a president's Cabinet as he sat in for Labor Secretary James P. Mitchell.
    (AP, 8/18/97)

1955        Aug 18, South Sudanese openly open fire and told the government in Khartoum that enough is enough. Southern Sudanese were transported in thousands to Port Sudan to dig salt for the survival of the northern government. Regions in South Sudan come together to give support to Torit mutineers. The Torit mutiny resulted into the Anya-nya I war that ended with the Addis Ababa Agreement in 1972.
    (www.sudantribune.com/18-August-1955-South-Sudan-heroes,23627)

1956        Aug 18, Elvis Presley's "Hound Dog" and "Don't Be Cruel" reached #1.
    (MC, 8/18/02)

1958        Aug 18, The 1st US edition of the novel "Lolita" by Vladimir Nabokov was published by Putnam. The 1st French edition was in 1955.
    (WSJ, 3/20/97, p.A14)(www.loa.org/volume.jsp?RequestID=9&section=notes)
1958        Aug 18, An American TV game show scandal investigation started.
    (MC, 8/18/02)
1958        Aug 18, Fidel Castro made a speech on Cuban pirate radio Rebelde.
    (MC, 8/18/02)

1959        Aug 18, A magnitude 7.3 quake near Hebgen Lake, Montana, just west of Yellowstone National Park triggered a landslide that killed 28 people.
    (http://earthquake.usgs.gov/regional/states/events/1959_08_18.php)

1960        Aug 18, Enovid 10, the 1st commercial oral contraceptive, debuted in Skokie, Ill.
    (MC, 8/18/02)
1960        Aug 18, Beatles gave their 1st public performance at Kaiser Keller in Hamburg.
    (MC, 8/18/02)

1961        Aug 18, Learned Hand (b.1872), Chief judge of US court of Appeals, died. Stanford Prof. Gerald Gunther (d.2002) later authored the biography "Learned Hand, the Man and the Judge."
    (AP, 12/13/97)(SFC, 8/2/02, p.A27)(MC, 8/18/02)

1962        Aug 18, Peter, Paul and Mary released their 1st hit "If I Had a Hammer."
    (MC, 8/18/02)
1962        Aug 18, Pres. J.F. Kennedy led the official groundbreaking ceremonies for the San Luis Joint-Use Complex, Ca. In 1961 the state and feds had agreed to the project which required the B.F. Sisk San Luis Dam for storage of flows pumped from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The Sisk Dam was named after Congressman B.F. Sisk of Fresno.
    (CDWR, brochure)
1962        Aug 18, In Iran brothers, Ahmad and Mahmoud Khayami founded "Iran National" to manufacture cars. After the 1979 Islamic Revolution it became known as Iran Khodro. Their later Paykan design was based on the 1967 Hillman Hunter, which was originally designed and manufactured by the British Rootes Group. Mahmoud Khayami is also known for starting the Kourosh Department Stores: the first large retail chain stores of Iran, not unlike their American counterparts Sears and Kmart.
    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahmoud_Khayami)

1963        Aug 18, James Meredith became the first black to graduate from the University of Mississippi.
    (AP, 8/18/97)(HN, 8/18/98)

1964        Aug 18, South Africa was banned from Olympic Games because of apartheid policies.
    (MC, 8/18/02)

1965        Aug 18, Operation Starlite marked the beginning of major U.S. ground combat operations in Vietnam.
    (HN, 8/18/98)

1966        Aug 18, Australians bloodily repulsed a Viet Cong attack at Long Tan, South Vietnam.
    (HN, 8/18/98)

1969        Aug 18, Two concert goers died at the Woodstock Music and Art Fair in Bethel, New York, one from an overdose of heroin, the other from a burst appendix. The Woodstock Music and Art Fair ended in Sullivan County, NY, with a mid-morning set performed by Jimi Hendrix. 
    (HN, 8/18/99)(AP, 8/18/07)

1971        Aug 18, Joel David Kaplan (44), a NY businessman and Carlos Antonio Contreras Castro, a Venezuelan counterfeiter, escaped by helicopter from Mexico’s Santa Maria Acatitla Federal Prison. Vasilios Basil Choulos (d.2003), SF lawyer, plotted out the helicopter jailbreak. Kaplan was allegedly framed and serving 28 years for murder in the Mexican prison. The successful break led to the 1973 book "Ten-Second Jailbreak" and the 1975 film "Breakout."
    (SFC, 1/21/02, p.A21)(www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,909935,00.html)

1973        Aug 18, Gene Krupa (1909-1973), drummer, played for the final time with Benny Goodman Quartet.
    (www.drummerman.net/)

1976        Aug 18, Two U.S. Army officers were killed in Korea's demilitarized zone as a group of North Korean soldiers wielding axes and metal pikes attacked U.S. and South Korean soldiers. Major Arthur G. Bonifas was attacked and beaten to death by North Korean soldiers as he attempted to cut down a poplar tree in the DMZ.
    (SFEC, 6/25/00, p.T8)(AP, 8/18/02)

1977        Aug 18, In South Africa Steve Biko and Peter Jones were picked up by police at Grahamstown. They were arrested at a police roadblock under the Terrorism Act No 83 of 1967. Biko suffered a major head injury while in police custody, was chained to a window grille for a day and died on Sep 12.
    (WSJ, 2/6/97, p.A9)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Biko)

1979        Aug 18, In Los Angeles singer Nick Lowe married singer Carlene Carter, the stepdaughter of Johnny Cash.
    (http://tinyurl.com/2s4gxj)
1979        Aug 18, Iran Ayatollah Khomeini sent the army to attack and occupy Paveh, Sanandaj and Saghez. Having defeated the Kurds in the cities, he appointed Khalkhali, as head of security for Kurdistan, who proceeded with a series of summary trials and executions.
    (www.sarbazan.com/Massacre.asp)
1979        Aug 18, USSR performed a nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh, Semipalitinsk, USSR.
    (www.iss.niiit.ru/ksenia/catal_nt/3_8.htm)

1981        Aug 18, Anita Loos (b.1888), American writer, died. Her novels included “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” (1925). It was made into eponymous films in 1928 and 1953. Loos started writing scenarios for D. W. Griffith while in her teens, and eventually worked on over sixty films.
    (WSJ, 6/24/06, p.P13)(http://imdb.com/name/nm0002616/)

1982        Aug 18, For the first time, volume on the New York Stock exchange topped the $100 million level as 132.69 million shares were traded.
    (AP, 8/18/02)

1983        Aug 18, Hurricane Alicia slammed into the Texas coast, leaving 21 dead and causing more than $1 billion damage.
    (AP, 8/18/08)
1983        Aug 18, Samantha Druce earned a place in the Guinness Book of Records as the youngest person to swim the English Channel. She completed the crossing in 15 hours 26 minutes at the age of 12 years 118 days.
    (http://tinyurl.com/6kgow4)

1984        Aug 18, A Triangle Oil Corp. above-ground storage tank at Jacksonville, Fla., spilled 2.5 million gallons of oil and burned after lightning sparked a fire.
    (www.jacksonvillefiremuseum.com/history_1951.html)(http://tinyurl.com/2pwmtm)

1985        Aug 18, Peter and Barbara Pan were found in their blood-soaked bed in Lake Merced, a housing development in San Francisco. Both had been shot in the head. Peter Pan (66), an accountant, was pronounced dead at the scene. Mrs. Pan (64) survived but would be an invalid for the rest of her life. Scrawled on the wall in lipstick were an inverted pentagram and the words "Jack the Knife." The murder was later attributed to Richard Ramirez, the “night stalker.”
    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Ramirez#Peter_and_Barbara_Pan)(SSFC, 8/22/10, DB p.42)

1987        Aug 18, American journalist Charles Glass escaped his kidnappers in Beirut after 62 days in captivity. Glass had been abducted June 17 with two Lebanese, who were released after a week.
    (AP, 8/18/97)

1988        Aug 18, Indiana Sen. Dan Quayle was nominated to be George Bush's running mate during the Republican convention in New Orleans; meanwhile, questions were being raised about Quayle's service in the Indiana National Guard during the Vietnam War.
    (AP, 8/18/98)
1988        Aug 18, Frederick Ashton (b.1904), Ecuador-born dancer and choreographer, died in England.
    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Ashton)
1988        Aug 18, Hamas published a manifesto calling for a holy war to create an Islamic state from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, including Israel. It challenged the PLO's claim as the sole representative of the Palestinian people. The Hamas charter declared that all Palestine is Islamic trust land, can never be surrendered to non-Muslims and  is an integral part of Muslim world.
    (SFC, 3/23/04, p.A11)(www.mideastweb.org/hamashistory.htm)

1989        Aug 18, The US Labor Department reported that the Consumer Price Index rose only 0.2% in July 1989, easing fears of a recession.
    (AP, 8/18/99)
1989        Aug 18, In Colombia, leading presidential hopeful Luis Carlos Galan was assassinated outside Bogota; the Medellin drug cartel was strongly suspected. On May 12, 2005, Alberto Santofimio Botero, former justice minister, was arrested in connection with the assassination. In 2008 a court overturned the conviction of Alberto Santofimio for lack of evidence. In 2010 Colombian prosecutors issued an arrest warrant for retired Gen. Miguel Maza Marquez (73), a former domestic security chief, who they say participated in the assassination of Galan. In 2011 the Supreme Court reinstated Galan’s murder conviction and reinstated the 24-year prison sentence a lower court imposed in 2007 on Alberto Santofimio.
    (AP, 8/18/99)(AP, 12/22/05)(AP, 10/22/08)(AP, 11/25/10)(AP, 9/1/11)

1990        Aug 18, A US frigate fired warning shots across the bow of an Iraqi oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman, apparently the first shots fired by the US in the Persian Gulf crisis.
    (AP, 8/18/00)

1991        Aug 18, Soviet hard-liners (State Emergency Committee), led in part by PM Valentin Pavlov, launched a coup aimed at toppling President Mikhail S. Gorbachev, who was vacationing in the Crimea. They were unhappy with the drift toward the collapse of the USSR. Gorbachev and members of his family remained effectively imprisoned until the coup collapsed three days later.
    (AP, 8/18/97)(HN, 8/18/98)(AP, 4/1/03)

1992        Aug 18, Basketball star Larry Bird announced his retirement after 13 years with the Boston Celtics.
    (AP, 8/18/97)
1992        Aug 18, On the second night of the Republican National Convention in Houston, U.S. Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Texas, delivered the keynote address, denouncing Bill Clinton's economic program as "worse than sleaze."
    (AP, 8/18/97)
1992        Aug 18, John Sturges (82), director (Gunfight at OK Corral), died of emphysema.
    (www.imdb.com/name/nm0836328/)

1993        Aug 18, A judge in Sarasota, Fla., ruled that Kimberly Mays, the 14-year-old girl switched at birth with another baby, need never see her biological parents again, in accordance with her stated wishes. However, she later moved in with Ernest and Regina Twigg.
    (AP, 8/18/98)

1994        Aug 18, Florida Gov. Lawton Chiles declared an immigration emergency and demanded federal help to cope with the largest surge of Cuban refugees since the 1980 Mariel boat-lift.
    (AP, 8/18/99)
1994        Aug 18, Gottlob Frick (b.1906), German operatic basso, died.
    (www.iclassics.com/artistBio?contentId=304)

1995        Aug 18, Shannon Faulkner, who’d won a two-and-a-half-year legal battle to become the first female cadet at The Citadel, quit the South Carolina military college after less than a week, most of it spent in the infirmary. After her departure, the male cadets openly celebrated on the campus. By May 2005, The Citadel's Corps of Cadets included 118 female cadets, 6% of the total student population.
    (AP, 8/18/00)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shannon_Faulkner)
1995        Aug 18, Premier John Swan of Bermuda promised to resign after voters rejected a vote for independence from Britain with 76% voice.
    (WSJ, 8/18/95, p.A-1)

1996        Aug 18, "Dinosaurs of the Flaming Cliffs" by Michael Novacek was reviewed. It told of the author’s work as a fossil hunter in the Mongolian valley of Ukhaa Tolgod.
    (SFEC, 8/18/96, BR p.5)
1996        Aug 18, "Where Wizards stay Up Late, The Origins of the Internet" by Katie Hafner and Matthew Lyon was reviewed.
    (SFEC, 8/18/96, BR p.3)
1996        Aug 18, The film "The Spitfire Grill" with Ellen Burstyn was the most popular movie at the Sundance Film Festival. It was produced by a religious group, Gregory Productions, owned by the Mississippi-based Sacred Heart League.
    (SFEC, 8/18/96, PM p. 2)
1996        Aug 18, On the eve of his 50th birthday, President Clinton was guest of honor at a trio of events in New York that combined celebrating with fund-raising. Ross Perot, the presidential nominee of the Reform Party, launched his campaign with a speech in which he criticized the Republican and Democratic parties as captives of special interests.
    (AP, 8/18/97)
1996        Aug 18, In Pakistan 18 people were killed when 7 masked gunmen opened fire on a group of Shiite worshipers in central Punjab province. 100 were injured. The militant Sunni group Sipah-e-Sahaba, or Guardians of the Friends of the prophet were blamed.
    (SFC, 8/19/96, p.A9)
1996        Aug 18, In South Korea police cut off food and medicine to students and raided the offices of the largest student organization.
    (WSJ, 8/19/96, p.A1)

1997        Aug 18, The Lutheran Church approved a Formula of Agreement document that called for closer cooperation with the Presbyterian Church (USA), the United Church of Christ and the Reformed Church in America. A separate document called the Concordat of Agreement for closer ties with the Episcopal Church was 6 votes short of a required majority.
    (SFC, 8/19/97, p.A3)
1997        Aug 18, UPS management agreed to a tentative contract with the striking Teamsters Union to end a 15-day-old strike. New full-time jobs and  pay raises were part of the settlement.
    (SFC, 8/19/97, p.A1)(AP, 8/18/98)
1997        Aug 18, In Virginia the VMI class of 2001 included 30 women among the 460 freshman students. Beth Ann Hogan became the first coed in the Virginia Military Institute's 158-year history.
    (SFC, 8/18/97, p.A3)(AP, 8/18/98)
1997        Aug 18, Burnum Burnum (b.1936 as Henry James Penrith), Australian Aboriginal activist, died at age 61. He had been a member of the "stolen generation," Aborigine children taken from their families into government welfare.
    (SFC, 8/19/97, p.A20)
1997        Aug 18, Militiamen under the South Lebanon Army, a key ally of Israel, shelled the port city of Sidon and killed at least 6 people while injuring over 3 dozen. In apparent retaliation northern Israel was hit by dozens of Katyusha rockets fired from Lebanon.
    (SFC, 8/19/97, p.A8)
1997        Aug 18, In Taiwan typhoon Winnie swept over the island and left 24 people dead.
    (SFC, 8/19/97, p.A9)
1997        Aug 18, In Tajikistan government forces killed 50 mutinous troops in a battle over a bridge on the Vakhsh River.
    (SFC, 8/19/97, p.A9)

1998        Aug 18, A day after his grand jury testimony, President Clinton left Washington on a vacation with his family. Meanwhile, some lawmakers called for Clinton to resign in the wake of his admissions concerning Monica Lewinsky while a spokeswoman for Hillary Rodham Clinton said the first lady "believes in this marriage."
    (AP, 8/18/99)
1998        Aug 18, In China the Songhua River rose to 397 1/2 feet and threatened the provincial capital of Harbin.
    (SFC, 8/19/98, p.C16)
1998        Aug 18, In India a flash flood swept up some 100 Hindu pilgrims in Uttar Pradesh. 182 people were feared dead.
    (SFC, 8/19/98, p.C16)
1998        Aug 18, In Kenya FBI agents, acting on a tip from Mohammed Saddiq Odeh, raided The Hilltop Hotel in Nairobi and confiscated 175 pounds of TNT. The room was reported to have been occupied by 2 Palestinians, a Saudi and an Egyptian from Aug 3 to Aug 7.
    (SFC, 8/19/98, p.A1)
1998        Aug 18, In Mexico police nabbed Daniel Arizmendi (39) and 9 others. Arizmendi was the leader of a kidnapping gang that sent the ears of victims to their families to pressure for ransom.
    (SFC, 8/19/98, p.A12)
1998        Aug 18, In Northern Ireland a splinter group claimed responsibility for the bombing in Omagh. The group offered apologies for the dead and declared an immediate cease-fire.
    (SFC, 8/19/98, p.A12)
1998        Aug 18, In Paraguay newly elected Pres. Grau freed Linio Oviedo, the leader of a 1996 coup attempt, and within days faced a move by Congress for impeachment.
    (WSJ, 8/21/98, p.A1)

1999        Aug 18, Ramos Horta of Indonesia, 1996 Nobel Prize winner, warned the government that computer hackers would wreak electronic mayhem on the country if voting in the East Timor referendum is hampered.
    (SFC, 8/19/99, p.D10)
1999        Aug 18, Russian forces lost 8 soldiers in Dagestan as they tried to storm Tando village.
    (SFC, 8/19/99, p.D10)
1999        Aug 18, In Singapore S.R. Nathan was declared president without elections.
    (WSJ, 8/20/99, p.A1)
1999        Aug 18, In Turkey the Tupras oil refinery near Ismit burned out of control as the death toll passed 4,000 from the 7.4 earthquake centered on Izmit. A day after a deadly earthquake struck western Turkey, survivors denounced the rescue effort as sluggish and disorganized. The death toll eventually topped 17,000.
    (SFC, 8/19/99, p.A1,15)(AP, 8/18/00)
1999        Aug 18, In Uzbekistan 6 members of a banned opposition group, Erk (Freedom), were convicted for involvement in several bombings and sentenced to 8-15 years in prison.
    (SFC, 8/19/99, p.D10)

2000        Aug 18, Fresh from the Democratic National Convention, Al Gore and Joseph Lieberman shoved off from the banks of the Mississippi on a riverboat cruise to stir excitement for their freshly launched White House campaign.
    (AP, 8/18/05)
2000        Aug 18, In Chechnya rebels killed 8 Russian soldiers in several attacks on checkpoints and roadblocks.
    (SFC, 8/19/00, p.A10)
2000        Aug 18, Alberto Orlandez Gamboa, a Colombian drug cartel leader known as "The Snail," was extradited to the US to stand trial for drug trafficking and money laundering.
    (SFC, 8/19/00, p.A10)
2000        Aug 18, In Indonesia the 700-member People’s Consultative Assembly passed a decree that allowed the security forces to keep 38 seats in the legislature until 2009 and banned retroactive prosecution of human rights cases.
    (SFC, 8/19/00, p.A8)
2000        Aug 18, In Japan the Mount Oyama volcano erupted for a 5th time on the island of Miyake. The eruptions began July 9 after 17 years of dormancy.
    (SFC, 8/19/00, p.A9)
2000        Aug 18, In Mexico at least 4 people were killed when violence broke out during the inauguration of Mayor Jesus Tolentino in Chimalhuacan, a suburb of Mexico City and part of the area known as the misery belt.
    (SFC, 8/19/00, p.A9)
2000        Aug 18, In the Philippines 3 Malaysians were released by Abu Sayyaf rebels.
    (WSJ, 8/21/00, p.A12)
2000        Aug 18, Government forces seized 5 tons of cocaine as part of the "Orinoco 2000" probe financed by the US DEA. Another 5 tons was discovered at the Doble Uno ranch just days later. The cocaine was suspected to have been dropped from Colombia.
    (SFC, 8/21/00, p.A10)(SFC, 8/26/00, p.A10)

2001        Aug 18, It was reported that a month-long drought ravaged Central America. Honduras lost 80% of its basic grains, El Salvador lost 80% of grains in its eastern provinces, Nicaragua lost 50% and Guatemala lost 80% of its beans in the eastern provinces. Hundreds of thousands of peasants were affected.
    (SFC, 8/18/01, p.A1)
2001        Aug 18, In Luanda, Angola, some 10,000 people marched in a government-organized protest against the Aug 11 train ambush.
    (SSFC, 8/19/01, p.A16)
2001        Aug 18, In the Philippines a pre-dawn fire swept through the Manor Hotel in Quezon City and 75 people, trapped behind security bars, were killed
    (SFC, 8/18/01, p.A10)(AP, 8/18/02)
2001        Aug 18, In Spain a Basque rebel car bomb exploded outside 2 resort hotels in Salou.
    (WSJ, 8/20/01, p.A1)

2002        Aug 18, Rich Beem beat Tiger Woods to capture the PGA Championship.
    (AP, 8/18/03)
2002        Aug 18, US federal agents said they had seized over 2,300 unregistered missiles at a counter-terrorism school, High Energy Access Tools (HEAT), in Roswell, New Mexico, that was training students from Arab countries and arrested its Canadian leader.
    (Reuters, 8/18/02)(WSJ, 8/19/02, p.A1)
2002        Aug 18, In Britain detectives announced that two bodies found in a nature reserve almost certainly belong to a pair of missing 10-year-olds. Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman had been missing since August 4.
    (AP, 8/19/02)(www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/predators/ian_huntley/index.html)
2002        Aug 18, Turpal-Ali Atgeriyev (b.1969), a former Chechen rebel commander and top official in the region's rebel government, died of complications from leukemia while serving a 15-year prison term for terrorism in Yekaterinburg.
    (AP, 8/22/02)
2002        Aug 18, Israel agreed to a partial withdrawal from Palestinian territory in exchange for reduced tensions in the areas.
    (SFC, 8/19/02, p.A1)
2002        Aug 18, In a tearful, farewell Mass in his beloved Krakow, Pope John Paul II told more than 2 million Poles that he would like to return one day — but that "this is entirely in God's hands."
    (AP, 8/18/03)
2002        Aug 18, In central Russia a bus drove into a ditch in the republic of Chuvashia and overturned, killing 22 people and injuring 38.
    (AP, 8/18/02)

2003        Aug 18, Suspected Taliban insurgents killed at least nine policemen in an ambush in Logar province's Kharwar village, about 55 miles south of Kabul.
    (AP, 8/19/03)
2003        Aug 18, A 24-year-old woman from China tipped over 303,621 dominos, breaking a long-standing record for the world's longest solo domino topple.
    (AP, 8/18/03)
2003        Aug 18, In Shanxi province, China, there was a gas explosion in a coal mine where 27 miners were working. At least 25 were killed.
    (AP, 8/20/03)
2003        Aug 18, Lucien Abenhaim, a senior French health official resigned after the health minister admitted that up to 5,000 people, many of them elderly and alone, might have died in the recent heat wave.
    (AP, 8/19/03)
2003        Aug 18, All of Georgia was without power for the entire day, and officials in the impoverished former Soviet republic were struggling to determine the cause of the blackout.
    (AP, 8/19/03)
2003        Aug 18, Israel delayed plans to hand over Jericho and Qalqiliya, two West Bank towns to Palestinian control.
    (AP, 8/19/03)
2003        Aug 18, In Accra, Ghana, Liberia's government and rebels signed a peace accord to end 14 years of vicious war with plans for elections in 2 years.
    (AP, 8/19/03)
2003        Aug 18, A six-month ordeal for 14 European tourists kidnapped by Islamic extremists while on desert safaris in Algeria has ended with their release to officials in neighboring Mali.
    (AP, 8/19/03)
2003        Aug 18, In Venezuela 9 workers died as 8 tried to rescue a comrade who was felled by toxic industrial gases at an animal feed plant outside Caracas.
    (WSJ, 8/19/03, p.A1)

2004        Aug 18, Google said it now expects its stock to trade between $85 and $95 per share, down from its old forecast of between $108 and $135. It also said the total number of shares to be sold will be cut to 19.6 million, down from 25.7 million.
    (AP, 8/18/04)
2004        Aug 18, In California federal agents raided a farm in lake County where Charles Lepp grew over 32,000 marijuana plants. He said he had informed local authorities that his land would be used to enable patients who didn’t own land to grow marijuana for medical purposes. In 2009 Lepp (56) was sentenced to 10 years in prison under federal law that required a 10-year term for growing at least 1,000 marijuana plants.
    (http://fugitive.com/archives/6212)(SFC, 5/19/09, p.B4)
2004        Aug 18, Two campers were found slain at Fish Head Beach in Sonoma Ct., Ca. Lindsay Cutshall (23) of Fresno, Ohio, and Jason Allen (26) of Holland, Mich., were found with gunshots to the head. They had planned a wedding next month.
    (SFC, 8/21/04, p.A1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jenner,_California_Double-Murder_of_2004)
2004        Aug 18, Elmer Bernstein (82), film composer, died in Ojai, Ca. His work included over 200 film and TV scores. He received an Academy Award in 1967 for his score in “Thoroughly Modern Millie.”
    (SFC, 8/20/04, p.B6)
2004        Aug 18, Hiram L. Fong (97), Hawaii's first U.S. senator, died.
    (AP, 8/18/05)
2004        Aug 18, Afghan President Hamid Karzai's 17 rivals in the presidential race threatened to boycott landmark October 9 elections unless he stepped down before the vote.
    (AP, 8/18/04)
2004        Aug 18, In El Salvador rival inmates fought each other with knives and sticks at a San Salvador prison, leaving at least 31 people dead and two dozen injured.
    (AP, 8/18/04)
2004        Aug 18, In South Ossetia 3 Georgian peacekeepers were killed in overnight shooting.
    (AP, 8/18/04)
2004        Aug 18, In Athens Paul Hamm won the men's gymnastics all-around Olympic gold medal by the closest margin ever in the event; controversy followed after it was discovered a scoring error might have cost Yang Tae-young of South Korea the title.
    (AP, 8/18/05)
2004        Aug 18, Indian shares slid as oil prices surged to a new high of $47 a barrel, threatening domestic demand and growth in Asia's fourth-largest economy.
    (AP, 8/18/04)
2004        Aug 18, Iraq's new air force took to the skies for the 1st time since the 2003 US invasion. The limited operations were intended to protect infrastructure facilities and borders.
    (AP, 8/21/04)
2004        Aug 18, In Iraq a rocket slammed into a busy market in the northern city of Mosul, killing at least five civilians. U.S. forces clashed with insurgents southeast of Baghdad in fighting that left up to five civilians dead.
    (AP, 8/18/04)
2004        Aug 18, Communist rebels isolated Nepal's capital from the rest of the country, stopping all road traffic near Katmandu by threatening to attack vehicles. The campaign, announced last week, was aimed at pressuring the government to free jailed guerrillas.
    (AP, 8/18/04)
2004        Aug 18, Five Palestinians were killed in a blast outside the house of a well-known Hamas militant in Gaza City.
    (AP, 8/17/04)
2004        Aug 18, In Venezuela opposition leaders charged that as many as 500 of 8,900 polling stations used voting machines that were programmed with an artificial cap to limit the number of votes cast in favor of recalling Pres. Chavez. In 2003 the Chavez regime has purchased 28% of Bizta Software, owned and operated by 2 Venezuelans, who also supplied the election machinery (Smartmatic Corp). Bizta bought back the shares after the story broke and after the 2 companies received a significant part of the $91 million referendum contract.
    (WSJ, 8/19/04, p.A11,12)

2005        Aug 18, It was reported that US Defense Dept. data-mining operation, Able Danger, had identified Mohamed Atta and 3 other Sep 11 hijackers by name in mid-2000.
    (SFC, 8/17/05, p.A5)
2005        Aug 18, Cindy Sheehan, who'd started an anti-war demonstration near President Bush's Texas ranch nearly two weeks earlier, left the camp after learning her mother had suffered a stroke, but told supporters the protest would go on.
    (AP, 8/18/06)
2005        Aug 18, In Kansas BTK killer Dennis Rader (60) was sentenced to 10 consecutive life terms after a hearing where family members spoke of their grief and loss from his 1974-1991 murder spree.
    (AP, 8/19/05)(WSJ, 8/19/05, p.A1)
2005        Aug 18, Ohio Gov. Bob Taft pleaded no contest to charges that he broke state ethics law by failing to report golf outings and other gifts. A judge found him guilty and fined him $4,000.
    (AP, 8/18/05)
2005        Aug 18, It was reported that an anthrax outbreak had killed hundreds of cattle in parts of the Great Plains, forcing quarantines and devastating Dakota ranchers who worry how they will recover financially. Two ranches in Texas were quarantined last month after anthrax was found in cattle, horses and deer.
    (AP, 8/18/05)
2005        Aug 18, In Afghanistan a US Marine and an Afghan soldier were killed during battles with militants in eastern Kunar province ahead of next month's landmark elections. 2 American soldiers were killed in the south.
    (AP, 8/19/05)
2005        Aug 18, British bank Royal Bank of Scotland (RBoS) announced that it would lead a consortium to buy a 10-percent stake in Bank of China for 3.1 billion dollars (2.5 billion euros).
    (AP, 8/18/05)
2005        Aug 18, Andronico Luksic (78), Chilean billionaire, died. His holding included beach resorts in Croatia, where his father was born.
    (SFC, 8/30/05, p.B4)
2005        Aug 18, China and Russia began unprecedented joint military exercises involving air, sea and land forces, as commanders from both nations insisted the war games weren't meant to intimidate other countries.
    (AP, 8/18/05)
2005        Aug 18, In rural Colombia gunmen dragged a Catholic priest out of a classroom and shot him to death, bringing to 3 the number of clergy killed there this week.
    (AP, 8/19/05)
2005        Aug 18, Ecuador’s president said protests have completely halted national oil production despite imposition of emergency rule in 2 Amazon provinces.
    (WSJ, 8/19/05, p.A1)
2005        Aug 18, Egyptian police detained Hassan el-Arishi, a suspected mastermind behind the July 23 deadly attacks in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik.
    (AP, 8/19/05)
2005        Aug 18, Pope Benedict XVI began his first foreign trip as pontiff, leaving Rome to take part in the Roman Catholic Church's World Youth Day in Cologne, Germany.
    (AP, 8/18/05)
2005        Aug 18, In India the death toll in an encephalitis outbreak in Uttar Pradesh rose to 90 with more deaths being reported due to the water-born disease.
    (AP, 8/18/05)
2005        Aug 18, In Iraq 4 American soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb in Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad. Jasim Waheeb, an investigative judge from Baghdad, was shot to death with his.
    (AP, 8/18/05)(SFC, 8/19/05, p.A3)
2005         Aug 18, Israeli forces stormed the synagogue Neve Dekalim to remove about 1,500 protesters inside. This was the main synagogue of the Gaza Strip Jewish settlement and one of the last bastions of resistance to the Gaza pullout.
    (AP, 8/18/05)
2005        Aug 18, The three IRA-linked fugitives who fled convictions in Colombia surrendered to Irish police after eight months on the run.
    (AP, 8/18/05)
2005        Aug 18, In Nicaragua Miskito Indian leaders asked government and human rights investigators to probe allegations that at least 150 of their people were killed under the Sandinistas during the 1980s.
    (AP, 8/18/05)
2005        Aug 18, Nigerian media quoted Pres. Obasanjo as saying police violations "ranged from extra-judicial killings to torture and unlawful detention." He singled out an incident in June in which policemen in the capital, Abuja, allegedly killed six people returning from a night outing after branding them armed robbers. Six policemen were charged in the killings. Among those accused is Danjuma Ibrahim, the second-ranking policeman in the city.
    (AP, 8/23/05)
2005        Aug 18, In Pakistan a homemade bomb exploded near a polling station as clashes between supporters of rival candidates in Pakistani municipal elections left 7 dead and 82 injured.
    (AP, 8/19/05)
2005        Aug 18, In Peru US Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, seeking to promote stability in Latin America, met with Pres. Alejandro Toledo.
    (AP, 8/18/05)
2005        Aug 18, Saleh Mohammed al-Aoofi, Al-Qaida's leader in Saudi Arabia, was killed along with 5 others during clashes with police in the western city of Medina. Majed Hamed Abdullah al-Haasiri (29), who was No. 14 on a list of 36 most wanted terrorists sought for connection to terror attacks in the kingdom dating back to 2003, was killed in a shootout with police in Riyadh.
    (AP, 8/18/05)(AP, 8/27/05)
2005        Aug 18, Western Sahara guerrillas released their last Moroccan prisoners, 404 soldiers held for up to 20 years from a long-ended war over the barren but phosphate-rich region.
    (AP, 8/18/05)
2005        Aug 18, A pride of lions attacked a Japanese woman (50) visiting the Lion and Cheetah Park at Norton, a Zimbabwe wildlife park. She died the next day.
    (AP, 8/21/05)

2006        Aug 18, President George W. Bush criticized a federal court ruling the day before that his warrantless wiretapping program was unconstitutional, declaring that opponents "do not understand the nature of the world in which we live."
    (AP, 8/18/07)
2006        Aug 18, The US FDA approved a mix of bacteria-killing viruses for spraying on cold cuts, hot dogs and sausages to combat deadly microbes.
    (SFC, 8/19/06, p.A4)
2006        Aug 18, Raymond Payne, a former HSBC Bank USA vice president, pleaded guilty in Manhattan federal court to a conspiracy charge over his role in a $30 million telemarketing fraud targeting low-income people with poor credit histories. Prosecutors said First Choice, run by Canadian co-defendants Stephen Clark and Leslie Pinsky, extracted $30 million from people, and transferred the money to the HSBC account. In 2007 Clark was sentenced just over 11 years in prison.
    (Reuters, 8/18/06)(Reuters, 6/15/07)
2006        Aug 18, In western Missouri bone fragments from at least two people were found on a three-acre wooded property northeast of Drexel. Michael Lee Shaver Jr. (33) was arrested the next day and charged with murder for a killing in 2001. Shaver claimed that he had killed, dismembered and burned 7 men in his home following drug transactions.
    (AP, 8/20/06)(SFC, 8/21/06, p.A3)
2006        Aug 18, In Bristow, Oklahoma, Donald Thompson (59), a former judge convicted of exposing himself while presiding over jury trials, was sentenced to four years in prison and ordered to pay a fine of $40,000.
    (SFC, 8/19/06, p.A2)
2006        Aug 18, The Washington Post reported that sprinter Marion Jones had tested positive for the endurance drug EPO at the US Track and Field Championships on June 23. A 2nd test came back negative and cleared the allegations. On October 5, 2007, Jones pleaded guilty to using steroids before the Sydney 2000 Summer Olympics and acknowledged that she had, in fact, lied when she previously denied steroid use. Her sanction required disqualification of all her competitive results obtained after September 1, 2000, and forfeiture of all medals, results, points and prizes.  On January 11, 2008, Jones was sentenced to 6 months in jail. She began her sentence on March 7, 2008 and was released on September 5, 2008.
    (SFC, 8/19/06, p.A1)(SFC, 9/7/06, p.A1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marion_Jones)
2006        Aug 18, Ford Motor Co. announced sharp cuts in its North American production that would force it to partially shut down plants in the US and Canada in the fourth quarter.
    (AP, 8/18/06)
2006        Aug 18, Boeing took steps toward shutting down production of its C-17 military cargo plane. Production would continue until mid-2009 for the $200 million planes.
    (WSJ, 8/19/06, p.A8)
2006        Aug 18, Afghanistan Education Minister Mohammed Hanif Atmar said attacks have closed more than 208 schools, including 144 burned down, in the past year as militants changed tactics to hit soft targets. At least 41 teachers and students have been killed over the past 12 months in a wave of attacks on the country's schools.
    (Reuters, 8/18/06)
2006        Aug 18, Anglo-Australian resources giant BHP Billiton closed its operations at the world's biggest copper mine in Chile and ended negotiations with striking workers. The strike began on August 7 at the Escondida Mine, majority owned by BHP. The Chilean government has signaled it was ready to intervene.
    (AP, 8/18/06)
2006        Aug 18, The Financial Times reported that Britain has agreed to a multi-billion-dollar defense deal to supply 72 Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft to Saudi Arabia.
    (AP, 8/18/06)
2006        Aug 18, In Canada the 16th International AIDS Conference ended in a firestorm with vitriol hurled at G8 countries and South Africa over lapses in the battle against the disease that has claimed 25 million lives.
    (Reuters, 8/18/06)
2006        Aug 18, Chile's Supreme Court voted to strip Gen. Augusto Pinochet of immunity from prosecution, allowing him to be tried on corruption charges for his once-secret multimillion dollar overseas bank accounts.
    (AP, 8/18/06)
2006        Aug 18, China’s central bank announced its 2nd interest rate hike in 4 months to choke off excess investment. The benchmark lending rate rose .27% to 6.12% effective Aug 19.
    (WSJ, 8/19/06, p.A4)
2006        Aug 18, The death toll from Typhoon Saomai, the strongest storm to hit China in more than five decades, jumped to 436 after more than 100 new deaths were confirmed in the country's east.
    (AP, 8/18/06)
2006        Aug 18, In southwest Ethiopia search and rescue teams kept up frantic efforts to save thousands marooned by fatal flash floods, where relief workers reported near-total devastation. Some 73,000 people had been affected by raging waters from unusually heavy seasonal rains.
    (AFP, 8/18/06)
2006        Aug 18, In Greece a 700-year-old icon, said to have the power to work miracles, was discovered stolen from the cliff-side Elona Monastery. In September police arrested a Romanian national in Crete and recovered the Madonna and Child icon.
    (SSFC, 10/8/06, p.A26)(http://tinyurl.com/grxc8)
2006        Aug 18, The United Liberation Front of Asom announced that it would stop attacking the forces of the Indian government, which announced a unilateral cease-fire Aug. 13. It was the first truce announced by the rebel group since its formation in 1979.
    (AP, 8/19/06)
2006        Aug 18, In Iraq 7 pilgrims heading to a major Shiite religious gathering were shot dead in a Sunni neighborhood.
    (AP, 8/19/06)
2006        Aug 18, Steorn, an Irish company, said it has developed technology that it claims produces free energy. The company said its discovery is based on the interaction of magnetic fields and allows the production of clean, free and constant energy.
    (AFP, 8/18/06)
2006        Aug 18, Israeli soldiers killed 3 Palestinian gunmen and wounded 2 others in confrontations in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
    (WSJ, 8/19/06, p.A1)
2006        Aug 18, At least 10 people died and as many as 40 were feared missing when a small boat packed with illegal immigrants sank off Sicily, prompting Italy to call for greater cooperation to fight human trafficking.
    (Reuters, 8/19/06)
2006        Aug 18, The Lebanese army reached the country's southern border with Israel for the first time in decades, sending a lone jeep on patrol through Kfar Kila, a battered stronghold of support for Hezbollah militants. At least 845 Lebanese were killed in the 34-day war: 743 civilians, 34 soldiers and 68 Hezbollah. Israel says it killed about 530 guerrillas. On the Israeli side, 157 were killed, 118 soldiers and 39 civilians, many from the 3,970 Hezbollah rockets. The Lebanese government estimated infrastructure damages at $2.5 billion. The Lebanese death toll was later raised to 1200 and economic costs put to some $12 billion. 
    (AP, 8/18/06)(SFC, 8/19/06, p.C1)(Econ, 11/11/06, p.51)
2006        Aug 18, In Lesotho a 14-nation southern Africa summit closed with a pledge to speed up regional economical integration, even as leaders expressed concern about crisis-plagued member-state Zimbabwe.
    (AFP, 8/18/06)
2006        Aug 18, Nigeria’s military launched a crackdown on suspected militants in the oil-rich south as militants released another foreign hostage taken in a spate of kidnappings.
    (AP, 8/18/06)
2006        Aug 18, Greenpeace warned a sunken Philippine oil tanker was a pollution timebomb as oil from its punctured tanks destroyed coral reefs and washed up blackened fish on pristine beaches. Oil trapped in the tanks of the Solar I, which went down last week with 500,000 gallons of industrial oil on board, could pour out at any time. To date some 50,000 gallons had leaked into the sea close to the central island of Guimaras.
    (AP, 8/18/06)
2006        Aug 18, The UN said more than 41,000 people on Sri Lanka’s Jaffna peninsula, about 10 percent of its population, were believed to have fled their homes and warned that supplies in the area had reached "alarmingly low levels".
    (AFP, 8/19/06)
2006        Aug 18, A bus carrying Iranian tourists crashed into a truck in eastern Turkey, killing 18 and injuring 29.
    (AP, 8/18/06)

2007        Aug 18, A seven-alarm fire ripped through the former Deutsche Bank next to ground zero in Lower Manhattan, killing two firefighters who were responding to the blaze.
    (AP, 8/19/07)(Econ, 9/8/07, p.34)
2007        Aug 18, Michael K. Deaver (69), adviser to President Reagan, died in Bethesda, Md.
    (AP, 8/18/08)
2007        Aug 18, Hurricane Dean barreled across the eastern Caribbean and took aim at Hispaniola, Jamaica and Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, with forecasters saying it could turn into a monster Category 5 storm within 72 hours. Dean claimed at least six lives as it began sweeping past the Dominican Republic and Haiti.
    (AP, 8/18/07)
2007        Aug 18, In southern Afghanistan a suicide car bomber detonated near a convoy of private security forces, killing four Afghan guards and 11 civilians, including 3 women and 2 children. Armed assailants abducted a German woman from a restaurant in Kabul.
    (AP, 8/18/07)
2007        Aug 18, It was reported that Albanian migrants sent home almost $1 billion a year to support jobless family members and to build homes. New business was said to be discouraged by blackmail and intimidation from existing firms with licenses going to political cronies in the face of a corrupt judiciary.
    (Econ, 8/18/07, p.46)
2007        Aug 18, In Britain a man died and six other people were missing after a fire gutted a hotel in the popular seaside resort of Newquay.
    (AP, 8/18/07)
2007        Aug 18, Chile’s national poverty line was reported to be $90 per month. The richest tenth of the population garnered 38.6% of the national income.
    (Econ, 8/18/07, p.23)
2007        Aug 18, It was reported that China faced a major shortage of skilled talent including doctors with only 4,000 general practitioners. Lawyers numbered about 122,000. An average of 2,200 new pilots per year will be needed to keep up with the growth in air travel. Accountants, technicians and good managers were also reported to be in short supply.
    (Econ, 8/18/07, p.59)
2007        Aug 18, UNESCO said a joint mission of several UN agencies is conducting an emergency investigation into the shooting of endangered mountain gorillas in a Democratic Republic of Congo national park. In the last two months, seven of the primates have been killed in separate incidents in the Virunga park.
    (AP, 8/19/07)
2007        Aug 18, Two men hijacked a Turkish passenger plane from Cyprus bound for Istanbul, holding several people hostage for more than four hours before surrendering.
    (AP, 8/18/07)
2007        Aug 18, Ethiopia freed 32 opposition members who had been detained for post-election violence in 2005.
    (AP, 8/18/07)
2007        Aug 18, In Germany 2 Africans were attacked by right-wing extremists in Mainz, the same night as a brutal mob assault on eight Indians in the country's former communist east.
    (AFP, 8/25/07)
2007        Aug 18, About 16 mortar shells rained on houses in the Sharqiya residential area in Khalis, a Shiite enclave north of Baghdad, killing at least 7 people. Overnight a series of bombs struck commercial areas in Kirkuk, killing at least four people and wounding 38.
    (AP, 8/18/07)
2007        Aug 18, Kazakhs headed to the polls in parliamentary elections seen as a key test of authoritarian Pres. Nursultan Nazarbayev's pledge to boost democracy in this oil-rich nation. Nur Otan, the party of President Nursultan Nazarbayev, won all 98 available seats in the lower parliament. The tally was quickly condemned by the opposition.
    (AFP, 8/18/07)(AP, 8/19/07)(Econ, 8/25/07, p.42)
2007        Aug 18, In northern Lebanon gunbattles with Islamic extremists in a Palestinian refugee camp left one soldier dead. Another died of wounds the next day.
    (AP, 8/19/07)
2007        Aug 18, In Peru President Alan Garcia called for the orderly distribution of emergency supplies as desperate victims of a magnitude-8 earthquake on the southern coast looted markets and blocked arriving aid trucks. The death toll climbed to 540.
    (AP, 8/18/07)(AP, 8/20/07)
2007        Aug 18, In the Philippines 16 troops and dozens of Muslim extremists were killed in clashes between government forces and Al-Qaeda-linked rebels on the southern island of Basilan.
    (AP, 8/18/07)
2007        Aug 18, Rival clan militias fought over scarce pasture land and wells in central Somalia, leaving 18 people dead and 15 wounded.
    (AP, 8/18/07)
2007        Aug 18, A powerful typhoon slammed into Taiwan, killing at least one person, forcing thousands to evacuate and disrupting power supplies across the already-saturated landscape.
    (AP, 8/18/07)

2008        Aug 18, US and Liberian officials said US Peace Corps volunteers will return to Liberia for the first time since civil war broke out in this West African nation nearly two decades ago.
    (AP, 8/18/08)
2008        Aug 18, California’s supreme court barred doctors from denying medical care to gays and lesbians based on religious beliefs.
    (WSJ, 8/19/08, p.A1)
2008        Aug 18, In eastern Afghanistan a suicide car bomb blew up outside Camp Salerno, a US military base in Khost, killing 12 civilian laborers, as the country marked Independence Day. A mine blew up a police vehicle in the province of Nangarhar and killed two policemen. About 100 insurgents ambushed a group of French paratroopers, killing 10 soldiers in an area outside the capital known as a militant stronghold. An Afghan official said insurgents kidnapped four of the soldiers and later killed them. 13 militants were reported killed [see Oct 15, 2009].
    (AFP, 8/18/08)(AP, 8/19/08)(Econ, 8/34/08, p.34)
2008        Aug 18, Argentina announced its first nationwide gay-rights measure: granting same-sex couples the right to claim their deceased partners' pensions.
    (AP, 8/19/08)
2008        Aug 18, In southeastern Bangladesh chunks of earth loosened by heavy rains buried several hillside thatched huts, killing five people and injuring seven.
    (AP, 8/18/08)
2008        Aug 18, In Britain Philip Thompson (27), a pedophile who acted as a "librarian" for a global Internet child abuse ring, was jailed after one of the biggest undercover police investigations into online abuse.
    (Reuters, 8/18/08)
2008        Aug 18, State media reported that Chinese authorities have not approved any of the 77 applications they received from people who wanted to hold protests during the Beijing Olympics.
    (AP, 8/18/08)
2008        Aug 18, In northeast China a gas explosion tore through a coal mine, leaving 24 workers trapped.
    (AP, 8/18/08)
2008        Aug 18, Equatorial Guinea's exiled opposition leader Severo Moto was released from a Spanish jail four months after he was detained for allegedly trying to send weapons to the oil-rich African nation.
    (AFP, 8/18/08)
2008        Aug 18, In southern Iraq masked gunmen ambushed a bus carrying electoral officials south of Basra, killing two and seriously wounding a third. A suicide bombing killed 7 policemen in Ramadi.
    (AP, 8/18/08)(WSJ, 8/19/08, p.A1)
2008        Aug 18, Tens of thousands of Muslims waving green and black protest flags gathered in Indian Kashmir's main city for a march to UN offices demanding freedom from India and intervention by the world body.
    (AP, 8/18/08)
2008        Aug 18, The river Kosi, a tributary to the Ganges, burst an embankment on the Nepali side of the border with India and flowed into a channel it had abandoned a century earlier. Water flooded into Bihar state and displaced over 3 million people.
    (Econ, 9/6/08, p.51)
2008        Aug 18, Mexican soldiers rescued 25 Central Americans kidnapped in the Gulf coast state of Veracruz. One man was arrested in the raid in Tierra Blanca.
    (AP, 8/19/08)
2008        Aug 18, Mexico’s Cemex SAB rejected Venezuela’s $500 bid for the companies assets in Venezuela. At midnight oil workers and Venezuelan soldiers occupied Cemex facilities around the country.
    (WSJ, 8/19/08, p.A10)
2008        Aug 18, The leader of Nepal's Maoists, Prachanda, was sworn in as prime minister, finalizing his transformation from warlord to the country's most powerful politician.
    (AFP, 8/18/08)
2008        Aug 18, Niger's Tuareg rebel leader Aghaly ag Alambo said his fighters would lay down their guns and, together with neighboring Mali's Tuareg rebellion, submit to mediation by Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
    (AP, 8/19/08)
2008        Aug 18, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf announced that he will resign, just days ahead of impeachment in parliament over attempts by the US-backed leader to impose authoritarian rule on his turbulent nation.
    (AP, 8/18/08)
2008        Aug 18, Peru's government declared a state of emergency in remote jungle regions where Indian groups are blocking highways and oil and gas installations to protest a law that makes it easier to sell their lands.
    (AP, 8/19/08)
2008        Aug 18, In the southern Philippines separatists of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) attacked several towns and villages on Mindanao and killed 38 people.
    (SFC, 8/19/08, p.A9)(AP, 8/20/08)
2008        Aug 18, Heads of state and other dignitaries from African countries and Turkey started an economic cooperation summit in Istanbul.
    (AP, 8/18/08)
2008        Aug 18, Russia said its military began to withdraw from the conflict zone in Georgia, but left unclear exactly where troops and tanks will operate under the cease-fire that ended days of fighting in the former Soviet republic.
    (AP, 8/18/08)

2009        Aug 18, Robert Novak (78), political columnist, died in Washington DC after a battle with brain cancer that was diagnosed in July 2008. He was a conservative, pugilistic debater and proud owner of the "Prince of Darkness" moniker, which he used in his 2007 memoir: "The Prince of Darkness: 50 Years Reporting in Washington." A column of his in 2003 outed Valerie Plame as a CIA agent.
    (AP, 8/18/09)
2009        Aug 18, A Taliban suicide bomber attacked a NATO convoy on the outskirts of Kabul, killing 8 people and wounding more than 50, just days before the presidential election that the militant group has vowed to disrupt. A suicide bomber struck the gates of an Afghan army base in the southern Uruzgan province, killing 3 Afghan soldiers and two civilians. Two US soldiers were killed and 3 wounded in a separate blast in eastern Afghanistan.
    (AP, 8/18/09)(SFC, 8/19/09, p.A3)
2009        Aug 18, An international claims commission in The Hague awarded Ethiopia slightly more than Eritrea as it settled mutual claims worth hundreds of millions of dollars for death, injury, rape, looting and destruction during their two-year border conflict. This concluded a complex arbitration that was part of the 2000 peace agreement closing out a border conflict that cost tens of thousands of lives.
    (AP, 8/19/09)
2009        Aug 18, In Indonesia a dump truck, packed with more than 60 plantation workers and their families, overturned and killing at least 25 with dozens injured. At least three children were among the dead near Sampit town in Central Kalimantan.
    (AP, 8/19/09)
2009        Aug 18, Iraqi forces seized a launcher loaded with 13 Iranian-made rockets after an attack the previous day against the US base outside the southern city of Basra.
    (AP, 8/18/09)
2009        Aug 18, Israeli government officials said Israel has quietly stopped approving new building projects in the West Bank while publicly still refusing US demands for an official settlement freeze.
    (AP, 8/18/09)
2009        Aug 18, In Lebanon 8 members of an al-Qaida-inspired group sawed bars off their cell windows in a high-security prison, scaled down the building using blankets tied together, then stood on each other's shoulders to help one jump over a wall and escape. Prison guards managed to stop the other seven from fleeing. Officials described the escaped prisoner, Taha al-Hajj Suleiman, as a Syrian militant and a "dangerous" member of the Fatah Islam group. Suleiman was caught the next day in the woods just north of the Roumieh prison.
    (AP, 8/18/09)(AP, 8/19/09)
2009        Aug 18, In Mexico gunmen shot up the offices of the Siglo de Torreon newspaper in Torreon, Coahuila state.
    (SFC, 8/19/09, p.A2)
2009        Aug 18, In Mozambique an overcrowded ferry with 50 people went down off the coast in a northern province. 17 people were feared drowned.
    (AP, 8/19/09)
2009        Aug 18, Pakistani government and UN officials said flash floods have killed at least 27 people in the northwest, and that more than 80,000 have seen their homes or crops destroyed.
    (AP, 8/18/09)
2009        Aug 18, Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev hosted Israeli counterpart Shimon Peres for talks that were expected to focus on the Middle East and the Iranian nuclear standoff.
    (AP, 8/18/09)
2009        Aug 18, Former South Korean Pres. Kim Dae-jung (85) died. He spent years as a dissident under a military dictatorship and later won the Nobel Peace Prize for seeking reconciliation with communist North Korea.
    (AP, 8/18/09)
2009        Aug 18, In Sudan clashes between rival militias broke out in the southern oil-rich Unity state, the latest to hit a region still recovering from two decades of civil war.
    (AFP, 8/18/09)
2009        Aug 18, In Zimbabwe a truck hit a bus head-on, killing 11 people including six members of a family returning from a funeral.
    (AP, 8/19/09)

2010        Aug 18, CIA Director Leon Panetta said the CIA is opening a counterproliferation center to combat the spread of dangerous weapons and technology, a move that comes as Iran is on the verge of fueling up a new nuclear power plant.
    (AP, 8/18/10)
2010        Aug 18, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said the US Army has expressed willingness to discuss the online whistleblower's request for help in reviewing classified documents from the Afghan war and removing information that could harm civilians. The Pentagon said it would not negotiate with WikiLeaks to create "a sanitized version" of a second batch of classified Afghan war documents the whistleblower website plans to release.
    (AP, 8/18/10)(AFP, 8/18/10)
2010        Aug 18, The US FDA said some 380 million eggs have been recalled nationwide due to salmonella contamination. Officials soon confirmed that over 2,000 people had been sickened by salmonella from May to July and over 500m eggs were recalled. The affected eggs were all traced back to two farms in Iowa.
    (SFC, 8/19/10, p.C3)(Econ, 9/4/10, p.32)
2010        Aug 18, The North Carolina justice system shook as an audit commissioned by Attorney General Roy Cooper revealed that the State Bureau of Investigation withheld or distorted evidence in more than 200 cases at the expense of potentially innocent men and women. 3 defendants in botched cases have been executed.
    (SFC, 8/19/10, p.A6)
2010        Aug 18, In Wisconsin the bodies of a couple, their 13-month-old daughter, and their three dogs were found dead at their home in Superior. Matthew Magdzas (23), an Iraq war veteran, apparently shot and killed his pregnant wife and young daughter before turning the gun on himself. He left behind no clues to explain what might have prompted the bloodshed.
    (AP, 8/20/10)
2010        Aug 18, In Afghanistan a suicide bomber rammed a car into a police vehicle, killing a district police chief, two other policemen and a civilian on a bridge leading into Kandahar city. An American service member was killed in fighting in the south. A joint Afghan and NATO force killed 12 insurgents in Puli Alam district of Logar province.
    (AP, 8/18/10)(AP, 8/19/10)
2010        Aug 18, Anglo-Australian mining giant BHP Billiton launched an enormous hostile takeover bid for Canada's Potash Corp which values the world's largest fertilizer producer at 40 billion dollars.
    (AP, 8/18/10)
2010        Aug 18, In the Democratic of Republic of Congo 3 Indian UN peacekeepers were killed in a surprise attack on their base by 50 fighters armed with machetes, spears and traditional weapons. The next day Congolese soldiers arrested two suspects in the killing of the Indian  peacekeepers.
    (Reuters, 8/18/10)(AFP, 8/19/10)
2010        Aug 18, Crowds of Egyptians angered by daily power outages at the height of a scorching summer blocked a major highway south of Cairo with barricades of burning tires.
    (AP, 8/18/10)
2010        Aug 18, In Germany a former Rwandan mayor living in Germany was charged for allegedly organizing massacres and inciting killings during the African country's 1994 genocide. Prosecutors alleged that the former Hutu mayor, identified as Onesphore R. (53), called for pogroms against the Tutsi minority on three occasions. Prosecutors asserted that the man ordered and coordinated three massacres between April 11 and 15, 1994, in which at least 3,730 Tutsis were killed.
    (AP, 8/18/10)
2010        Aug 18, Indian tycoon Anil Ambani's Reliance Broadcast Network Ltd and CBS Studios International announced plans to launch three new television channels in India and South Asia.
    (AFP, 8/18/10)
2010        Aug 18, In northern India a mudslide triggered by heavy rains demolished a school building, killing at least 18 children.
    (AP, 8/18/10)
2010        Aug 18, Iran took its case against the United States to the UN and strongly condemned the top US military chief for saying military action remains a possibility if the country develops nuclear weapons.
    (AP, 8/18/10)
2010        Aug 18, In Iraq 3 farmers were killed and leaflets pinned to their bodies warning against cooperation with American and Iraqi forces in a brutal act of intimidation as thousands of US troops leave.
    (AFP, 8/18/10)
2010        Aug 18, Officials with Nigeria's security services say they've intercepted 52 Kalashnikov rifles and tens of thousands of ammunition rounds heading for Kos, an area that has been the scene of religious violence. They said five men were arrested for trying to bring the weapons from neighboring Chad.
    (AP, 8/18/10)
2010        Aug 18, Shell in Nigeria said it has warned it may not meet contractual obligations on Bonny Light crude, after oil thieves sabotaged two pipelines in the country's south.
    (AFP, 8/18/10)
2010        Aug 18, In Pakistan militants exploiting the flooding chaos clashed with police overnight, as desperately needed international donations for the millions of victims picked up pace three weeks after the deluge began.
    (AP, 8/18/10)
2010        Aug 18, In Peru American activist Lori Berenson, convicted of aiding leftist rebels, surrendered to police after a court struck down a decision granting her parole and ordered her to return to prison, where she is to remain with her 15-month-old son for the time being.
    (AP, 8/18/10)
2010        Aug 18, In the Philippines a packed passenger bus negotiating a downhill curve plunged off a Philippine mountain highway into a 100-foot (30-meter) ravine, killing 41 people.
    (AP, 8/18/10)
2010        Aug 18, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev offered Pakistan support in dealing with catastrophic floods as he hosted the leaders of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Tajikistan for talks on efforts to stabilize the region.
    (AP, 8/18/10)
2010        Aug 18, In South Africa teachers left their classrooms and trials were postponed after court workers walked out when hundreds of thousands of civil servants went on strike for higher wages across the country.
    (AP, 8/18/10) 
2010        Aug 18, In Spain a bull leapt into the packed grandstands of a bullring at the Tafalla arena in the northern region of Navarra and ran amok, charging and trampling spectators and leaving 40 people injured.
    (AP, 8/19/10)
2010        Aug 18, Sudan's government confirmed it will expel a number of international aid workers from the restive western region of Darfur, without specifying how many.
    (AP, 8/18/10)
2010        Aug 18, A leading Venezuelan newspaper replaced front-page photos with the word "censored" to protest a court's monthlong ban on the publication of information and photos about violence.
    (AP, 8/18/10)
2010        Aug 18, In Yemen a woman was killed and two police officers wounded when a wanted southern militant fired at a security patrol which was attempting to arrest him in Al-Afar area of the Lahj province. Five policemen were wounded in an explosion when a masked biker hurled a hand grenade through the window of a police station in Zinjibar.
    (AFP, 8/19/10)

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