Today in History - August 23
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406 Aug 23, At
the Battle at Florence the Roman army under Stilicho beat the
Barbarians under Radagaisus.
(PC, 1992, p.50)
1244 Aug 23, Khwarezmian Turks
expelled the crusaders under Frederick II from Jerusalem.
Jerusalem’s citadel, the Tower of David, surrendered. The Turks
ruthlessly decimated the population, leaving only 2,000 people,
Christians and Muslims, still living in the city. This attack
triggered the Europeans to respond with the Seventh Crusade.
(HN,
8/23/98)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khwarezmian_Empire)
1305 Aug 23, Scottish patriot
William Wallace was hanged, drawn, beheaded, and quartered in
London.
(HN, 8/23/98)
1514 Aug 23, Selim I (the
Grim), Ottoman Sultan, routed a Persian army in the Battle of
Chaldiran.
(TL-MB, p.10)(PCh, 1992, p.168)
1541 Aug 23, Jacques Cartier
landed near Quebec on his third voyage to North America and
established a short-lived community there.
(HN, 8/23/98)(TL-MB, 1988, p.16)
1553 Aug 23, John Dudley, the
Duke of Northumberland, English Lord Admiral, premier (1551-53), was
beheaded on Tower Hill in front of 10,000 onlookers.
(ON, 5/00, p.5)(Internet)
1593 Aug 23, Fulvio Testi,
Italian poet (Pianto d'Italia), was born.
(MC, 8/23/02)
1617 Aug 23, The 1st one-way
streets opened in London.
(MC, 8/23/02)
1711 Aug 23, A British attempt
to invade Canada by sea failed.
(HN, 8/23/98)
1754 Aug 23, Louis XVI
(d.1793), King of France (1774-1793), was born at Versailles.
During the French Revolution he met his fate at the guillotine. He
was the grandson of Louis XV and married Marie Antoinette.
(AP, 8/23/97)(HN, 8/23/98)
1755 Aug 23, Jean Baptiste
Lislet-Geoffroy, French geographer, was born.
(HN, 8/23/98)
1775 Aug 23, Britain's King
George III refused the American colonies' offer of peace and
proclaimed the American colonies in a state of "open and avowed
rebellion."
(HN, 8/23/98)(AP, 8/23/07)
1784 Aug 23, Eastern Tennessee
settlers declared their area an independent state and named it
Franklin; a year later the Continental Congress rejected it.
(MC, 8/23/02)
1813 Aug 23, At the Battle of
Grossbeeren Prussians under Von Bulow repulsed the French.
(MC, 8/23/02)
1813 Aug 23, Alexander Wilson
(b.1766), Scottish-born poet and naturalist, died in Philadelphia.
He had completed 7 volumes of “American Ornithology” and was working
on a 8th volume when he died.
(AH, 10/04,
p.23)(www.dep.state.pa.us/dep/PA_Env-Her/alexandar_wilson.htm)
1819 Aug 23, Oliver Hazard
Perry, naval hero, died on his 34th birthday.
(MC, 8/23/02)
1821 Aug 23, After 11 years of
war, Spain granted Mexican independence as a constitutional
monarchy. Spanish Viceroy Juan de O'Donoju signed the Treaty of
Cordoba, which approved a plan to make Mexico an independent
constitutional monarchy.
(HN, 8/23/00)(MC, 8/23/02)
1833 Aug 23, The British
Parliament ordered the abolition of slavery in its colonies by Aug
1, 1834. This would free some 700,000 slaves, including those in the
West Indies. The Imperial Emancipation Act also allowed blacks to
enjoy greater equality under the law in Canada as opposed to the US.
(V.D.-H.K.p.276)(MT, 3/96, p.14)(PC, 1992,
p.412)(AH, 10/02, p.54)
1838 Aug 23, One of the first
colleges for women, Mount Holyoke Female Seminary in South Hadley,
Mass., graduated its first students.
(AP, 8/23/97)
1839 Aug 23, British captured
Hong Kong from China.
(MC, 8/23/02)
1850 Aug 23, The 1st national
women's rights convention convened in Worcester, Mass.
(MC, 8/23/02)
1858 Aug 23, "Ten Nights in a
Bar-room," a play about the tragic consequences of consuming
alcohol, opened in New York.
(AP, 8/23/08)
1861 Aug 23, Union intelligence
chief Allan Pinkerton placed Rose O’Neal Greenhow (1813/1814-1864)
under house arrest for working as a southern spy working in
Washington DC. She was sent to the Old Capitol Prison and then was
banished to Richmond, Va., in May, 1963. She had supplied Gen.
P.G.T. Beauregard with a warning that Union General Irvin McDowell
was planning an attack on Manassas in July 1861. Greenhow, a
44-year-old widow with four daughters, was recruited in 1861 to be
the operating head of the Confederacy’s first spy ring. A Washington
socialite with many friends in high government circles, Rose was
perfectly placed to gather intelligence about Federal troop
strengths and movements. She drowned in a shipwreck on September 30,
1864.
(ON, 12/10,
p.10)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rose_O%27Neal_Greenhow)
1863 Aug 23, Union batteries
ceased their first bombardment of Fort Sumter, leaving it a mass of
rubble but still unconquered by the Northern besiegers.
(HN, 8/23/00)
1864 Aug 23, Union troops and
fleet occupied Fort Morgan, Alabama.
(MC, 8/23/02)
1866 Aug 23, Treaty of Prague
ended the Austro-Prussian war.
(MC, 8/23/02)
1868 Aug 23, Edgar Lee Masters
(d.1950), poet, novelist, was born in Garnett, Kansas.
(http://www.nybooks.com/articles/3088)
1872 Aug 23, The 1st Japanese
commercial ship visited SF carrying tea.
(MC, 8/23/02)
1879 Aug 23, Governor-general
Charles Gordon of Sudan returned to Cairo.
(MC, 8/23/02)
1883 Aug 23, Jonathan
Wainwright, U.S. general who fought against the Japanese on
Corregidor in the Philippines and was forced to surrender, was born.
(HN, 8/23/98)
1889 Aug 23, The 1st
ship-to-shore wireless message was received in US in SF.
(MC, 8/23/02)
1899 Aug 23, Albert Claude
(d.1983), biologist, was born in Belgium. He never graduated from
high school and won the 1974 Nobel for his work on the sub-structure
of the cell.
(www.belgium.be)
1900 Aug 23, Booker T.
Washington formed the National Negro Business League in Boston,
Massachusetts.
(HN, 8/23/98)
1902 Aug 23, Fanny Farmer,
among the first to emphasize the relationship of diet to health,
opened her School of Cookery in Boston.
(HN, 8/23/00)
1902 Aug 23, Gold was
discovered in Goldfield, Nv., near Tonopah. By 1907 Goldfield grew
to 20,000 residents.
(SFC, 8/31/02, p.A2)
1903 Aug 23, William Primrose,
violist (Method for Violin & Viola), was born in Glasgow,
Scotland.
(MC, 8/23/02)
1912 Aug 23, Gene Kelly, dancer
and actor who starred in "An American in Paris" and "Singing in the
Rain," was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, as Eugene Curan. Kelly
debuted on Broadway in 1938 musical "Pal Joey" and in the film "For
Me and My Gal" four years later
(HN, 8/23/98)(MC, 8/23/02)
1914 Aug 23, Gen. von Hausen
executed 612 inhabitants of Dinant, Belgium. Felix Fivet (3 weeks
old), Belgian baby, was among those executed by German troops.
(MC, 8/23/02)
1914 Aug 23, The Emperor of
Japan sided with the Allies and declared war on Germany in World War
I.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 215)(AP, 8/23/97)(HN,
8/23/98)
1915 Aug 23, Czar Nicolaas II
took control of the Russian Army.
(MC, 8/23/02)
1920 Aug 23, M.R. Rinehart and
A. Hopwood's "Bat," premiered in NYC.
(MC, 8/23/02)
1921 Aug 23, In the great
battle of Sakarya, which continued without interruption from the
23rd of August to the 13th of September, Turkey defeated the Greek
Army.
(www.allaboutturkey.com/ata_life.htm)
1923 Aug 23, Richard Adler,
composer, songwriter (Damn Yankees, Pajama Game), was born.
(MC, 8/23/02)
1923 Aug 23, Wolfgang
Sawallisch, conductor (Vienna Symph 1960-70), was born in Munich,
Germany.
(MC, 8/23/02)
1926 Aug 23, The death of
silent film actor Rudolph Valentino caused a worldwide frenzy among
his fans. Valentino, who appeared in only 14 major films during his
brief seven-year movie career, was idolized by countless women as
the "Great Lover" of the 1920s. Born in 1895 in Castellaneta, Italy,
Rodolfo di Valentina D’Antonguolla came to America in 1913 and
worked as a gardener, dishwasher and vaudeville dancer until he
moved to Hollywood and obtained his first important film role in
1921. In films like 1921’s The Sheik, Valentino mesmerized female
fans with his sex appeal and exotic good looks. In New York for the
1926 premiere of Son of the Sheik, the 31-year-old Valentino became
ill on August 15 and died of peritonitis on August 23. Valentino’s
death caused worldwide hysteria, with several women reportedly
committing suicide and riots breaking out in New York as thousands
of fans tried to view the body. In 2003 Emily Leider authored "Dark
Lover: The Life and Death of Rudolph Valentino."
(AP, 8/23/97)(HN, 8/23/98)(HNPD, 8/29/98)(SFC,
6/16/03, p.D1)
1927 Aug 23, Italian-born
anarchist immigrants Nicola Sacco (right) and Bartolomeo Vanzetti,
convicted of murder in 1921, were executed in Boston in spite of
worldwide protests. On April 15, 1920, a paymaster and his guard at
a shoe factory in Braintree, Massachusetts, were killed in a
robbery. In the national climate of suspicion of anarchists,
communists and foreigners in general, Sacco and Vanzetti, two
admitted radicals, were arrested for the crime and convicted on
flimsy circumstantial evidence in a trial presided over by the
openly prejudiced Judge Webster Thayer. For six years, the two
gained support as they attempted to obtain a new trial, but their
request was denied even after a convicted killer confessed to the
1920 murders. In April 1927, Judge Thayer sentenced Sacco and
Vanzetti to die in the electric chair. In 1977 Sacco and Vanzetti
were vindicated when Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis
established a memorial in the victims’ honor. In 2007 Bruce Watson
authored “Sacco & Vanzetti.”
(TMC, 1994, p.1927)(AP, 8/23/97)(HNPD,
8/23/98)(HN, 8/23/98)(WSJ, 8/18/07, p.P8)
1931 Aug 23, Hamilton O. Smith,
molecular biologist, was born in NYC. He is credited with helping
‘open the door’ on genetic engineering.
(HN, 8/23/00)(
http://www.genomenewsnetwork.org/timeline/1970_Smith.shtml)
1934 Aug 23, Sonny (Christian)
Jurgensen, professional football player and sports announcer, was
born in North Carolina.
(HN, 8/23/00)
1935 Aug 23, The US Banking Act
of 1935 revised the operation of the Federal Reserve System.
(SSFC, 1/18/09, p.D6)
1937 Aug 23, Albert Charles
Paul Marie Roussel (68), French composer, died.
(MC, 8/23/02)
1939 Aug 23, Zane Grey
(b.1872), American novelist, died. He best known for his popular
adventure novels and stories that presented an idealized image of
the rugged Old West. He authored over 90 books, some published
posthumously and/or based on serials originally published in
magazines. Grey was one of the first millionaire authors.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zane_Grey)
1939 Aug 23, Sidney Coe Howard
(b.1891), US playwright and short story writer, died. He adapted
“Gone With the Wind” into the 1939 film. "Half of knowing what you
want is knowing what you have to give up to get it."
(SFEC, 2/6/00, Z1 p.2)(SFC, 1/27/05, p.E1)
1939 Aug 23, German Foreign
Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop and Soviet Commissar for Foreign
Affairs Vyacheslav M. Molotov signed a Treaty of Non-Aggression, the
Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact freeing Hitler to invade Poland and Stalin
to invade Finland. Secret protocols, made public years later, were
added that assigned Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Bessarabia to be
within the Soviet sphere of influence. Poland was partitioned along
the rivers Narev, Vistula and San. Germany retained Lithuania
enlarged by the inclusion of Vilnius. Just days after the signing,
Germany invaded Poland, and by the end of September, both powers had
claimed sections of Poland.
(WP, 6/29/96, p.A16)(AP, 8/23/97) (HNPD,
8/22/98)(HN, 8/23/98)
1940 Aug 23, German Luftwaffe
began night bombing on London.
(MC, 8/23/02)
1942 Aug 23, Patricia McBride,
ballerina (NYC Ballet Co), was born in Teaneck, NJ.
(MC, 8/23/02)
1942 Aug 23, The 1st US flights
landed on Guadalcanal.
(MC, 8/23/02)
1942 Aug 23, German forces
began an assault on the major Soviet industrial city of Stalingrad.
From Aug. to Feb. 1943, The Battle of Stalingrad, 600 miles
southeast of Moscow, was fought and ended with the encirclement and
destruction of the German 6th Army Group. Stalingrad has since been
renamed to Volgograd. In 1998 Antony Beevor published "Stalingrad:
The Fateful Siege." The German in charge was Gen’l. Friedrich
Paulus. 600 Luftwaffe bombers killed some 40,000 people in the first
week of fighting.
(WSJ, 2/21/96, p.A-15)(WSJ, 7/8/98, p.A13)(HN,
8/23/98)(MC, 8/23/02)
1944 Aug 23, Allied troops
captured Marseilles, France.
(MC, 8/23/02)
1944 Aug 23, General George
Leclerc's troops advanced towards Paris.
(MC, 8/23/02)
1944 Aug 23, A US B-24 crashed
into a school in Freckelton, England, and 76 were killed.
(MC, 8/23/02)
1944 Aug 23, German SS
engineers began placing explosive charges around the Eiffel Tower in
Paris. Adolf Hitler had decreed that Paris should be left a smoking
ruin, but Dietrich von Choltitz thought better of his Fuehrer’s
order.
(HN, 8/23/98)
1944 Aug 23, Romanian PM Ion
Antonescu was dismissed by King Michael, paving the way for Romania
to abandon the Axis in favor of the Allies. King Michael organized a
coup against the pro-Nazi dictator, Marshal Ion Antonescu, but was
double-crossed by Joseph Stalin and betrayed by the Allies who ceded
the country to the Russians at the Yalta summit in 1945.
(SFC, 6/27/97, p.A16)(AP, 8/23/97)
1947 Aug 23, An audience at the
Hollywood Bowl heard President Truman's daughter, Margaret, give her
first public concert as a singer.
(AP, 8/23/97)
1948 Aug 23, Count Bernadotte
asked for aid for fugitives to Palestine. [see Sep 17]
(MC, 8/23/02)
1948 Aug 23, The World Council
of Churches (WCC) was formed in Amsterdam to help reconcile
differences among Christians. Delegates of 147 churches assembled to
merge the Faith and Order Movement and Life and Work Movement.
Church leaders had agreed in 1937 to establish a World Council of
Churches, based on a merger of the Faith and Order Movement and Life
and Work Movement organizations. Headquarters were later established
in Geneva.
(Econ, 2/23/08,
p.79)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Council_of_Churches)
1950 Aug 23, Up to 77,000
members of the U.S. Army Organized Reserve Corps were called
involuntarily to active duty to fight the Korean War.
(HN, 8/23/98)
1952 Aug 23, Arab League
security pact went into effect.
(MC, 8/23/02)
1954 Aug 23, The small
community of Charleston, Arkansas, became the first in the South to
end segregation in its schools. This was in response to the May 17
US Supreme Court ruling on Brown vs. Board of Education.
(Econ, 9/22/07,
p.44)(http://ideas.aetn.org/productions/virtualtours/lrcentral/10)
1956 Aug 23, US Navy pilot Lt.
James B. Deane Jr. was shot out of the sky on a nighttime spy flight
off the coast of China. The Martin P4M-1Q Mercator in which Deane
and 15 other men were flying was shot down over the East China Sea.
China later acknowledged that its jet fighters attacked the Mercator
as it scooped up electronic intelligence on military radars and
other sensitive Chinese systems. The remains of four crew members
were recovered, two by the crew of a U.S. search vessel and two by
China, which returned the bodies through British authorities in
Shanghai. The other 12 were never found.
(AP, 5/6/06)
1958 Aug 23, China resumed fire
on Quemoi and Matsu.
(MC, 8/23/02)
1960 Aug 23, World's largest
frog (3.3 kg) was caught in Equatorial Guinea.
(MC, 8/23/02)
1960 Aug 23, Broadway
librettist Oscar Hammerstein II (65) died in Doylestown, Pa.
(AP, 8/23/08)
1961 Aug 23, East Germany
imposed new curbs on travel between West and East Berlin.
(MC, 8/23/02)
1962 Aug 23, A Colombian DC-3
plane crashed in the Choco jungle killing over 30 people including
two Americans, the first Peace Corps volunteers to die in service.
(SFC, 8/25/11, p.A3)
1963 Aug 23, Beatles released
"She Loves You" in UK.
(MC, 8/23/02)
1971 Aug 23, Shamu the Whale,
the 1st of a number of Shamus, died at Sea World in San Diego, Ca.,
after 6 years in captivity.
(www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=8934865)
1971 Aug 23, South
Korea's Silmido Unit, organized in 1968 to kill North Korea's Kim Il
Sung, rebelled and murdered 18 of its 24 trainers. A film titled
"Silmido" was released Dec 24, 2003.
(AP, 12/25/03)
1972 Aug 23, The Republican
National Convention, meeting in Miami Beach, Fla., nominated Vice
President Spiro T. Agnew for a second term.
(AP, 8/23/97)
1973 Aug 23, The Intelsat 4 F-7
communications satellite was launched at Cape Canaveral.
(www.astronautix.com/craft/intlsat4.htm)
1973 Aug 23, Gen'l. Augusto
Pinochet was named commander-in-chief of the Chilean army by Pres.
Salvadore Allende.
(SFC, 3/25/99, p.A3)
1973 Aug 23, A bank
robbery-turned-hostage standoff began in Stockholm, Sweden; by the
time the crisis ended, the four hostages had come to empathize with
their captors, an occurrence that came to be known as "Stockholm
Syndrome."
(AP, 8/23/07)
1975 Aug 23, In Greece Col.
Papadopoulos (d.1999 at 80) was sentenced to death for insurrection
and high treason. He had refused to testify: "let history judge my
action." The sentence was later commuted to life in prison.
(SFC, 6/28/99,
p.A19)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Papadopoulos)
1975 Aug 23, In Laos Communists
took over the administration of Vientiane city.
(http://countrystudies.us/laos/39.htm)
1977 Aug 23, The Gossamer
Condor 2 flew the first figure-of-eight, a distance of 2,172 meters
winning the first Kremer prize at Minter Field in Shafter,
California. It was built by Dr Paul B. MacCready and piloted by
amateur cyclist and hang-glider pilot Bryan Allen.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gossamer_Condor)
1977 Aug 23, Marxist
philosopher Rudolf Bahro was imprisoned in German DR.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_Bahro)
1979 Aug 23, Iranian troops
entered Iraqi Kurdish territory.
(www.jamestown.org/terrorism/news/article.php?articleid=2373658&printthis=1)
1979 Aug 23, Soviet dancer
Alexander Godunov defected while the Bolshoi Ballet was on tour in
New York.
(AP, 8/23/99)
1982 Aug 23, Lebanon's
parliament elected Christian militia leader Bashir Gemayel
president. His inauguration was scheduled for 23 September. Gemayel
was assassinated some three weeks later.
(AP, 8/23/97)(http://tinyurl.com/2nba4o)
1986 Aug 23, Gennadiy Zakharov,
a Soviet physicist employed at the UN Secretariat, was arrested as
he handed classified documents to a US defense contractor.
(www.dss.mil/training/espionage/1986-87.htm)
1987 Aug 23, Seven Democratic
presidential hopefuls traded gentle barbs at a debate in Des Moines,
Iowa, with Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis repeatedly called
upon to defend his claims of economic revival in his state.
(AP, 8/23/97)
1987 Aug 23, Two teenagers in
Alexander, Arkansas, Kevin Ives and Don Henry were run over by a
train. Fahmy Malak, the medical examiner of Gov. Clinton, ruled the
Aug 23 deaths of the teenagers as accidental. Malak was investigated
and cleared of improprieties. Later investigations indicated that
they were murdered prior to being run over.
(WSJ, 4/15/97, p.A18)(WSJ, 4/18/96, p.A-18)
1988 Aug 23, Some striking
workers in Poland ended a walkout that had begun a week earlier, but
125 miners barricaded themselves in an underground shaft, vowing to
stay until they'd won their demands.
(AP, 8/23/98)
1989 Aug 23, In a case that
inflamed racial tensions in New York City, Yusuf Hawkins, a black
teen-ager, was shot dead after he and his friends were confronted by
white youths in a Brooklyn neighborhood.
(AP, 8/23/99)
1989 Aug 23, Approximately two
million people joined their hands to form an over 600 km (373 mi)
long human chain across the three Baltic states: Estonia, Latvia,
and Lithuania. This original demonstration was organized to draw the
world's attention to the common historical fate which these three
countries suffered. It marked the 50th anniversary of August 23,
1939, when the Soviet Union and Germany in the secret protocol of
the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact divided spheres of interest in Eastern
Europe, which led to the occupation of these three states.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baltic_Way)
1989 Aug 23, Hungary removed
its physical border defenses with Austria, and in September more
than 13,000 East German tourists in Hungary escaped to Austria.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Wall)
1990 Aug 23, David Rose
(b.1910), composer (Holiday for Strings, Stripper), died.
(www.classicthemes.com/majorComposers.html)
1990 Aug 23, Armenia declared
independence.
(www.armeniapedia.org/index.php?title=Soviet_Armenian_History)
1990 Aug 23, East and West
Germany announced that they would unite Oct 3.
(www.mofa.go.jp/policy/other/bluebook/1990/1990-2-1.htm)
1990 Aug 23, Iraqi state
television showed President Saddam Hussein meeting with a group of
about 20 Western detainees, telling the group—whom he described as
"guests"—that they were being held "to prevent the scourge of war."
(AP, 8/23/00)
1991 Aug 23, In the wake of a
failed coup by hard-liners in the Soviet Union, President Mikhail S.
Gorbachev and Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin acted to strip the
Communist Party of its power and take control of the army and the
KGB.
(AP, 8/23/01)
1992 Aug 23, James A. Baker III
bowed out as secretary of state after three-and-a-half years to
become White House chief of staff.
(AP, 8/23/97)
1992 Aug 23, Hurricane Andrew
slammed into the Bahamas with 120 mph winds.
(AP, 8/23/97)
1993 Aug 23, Former Detroit
police officers Larry Nevers and Walter Budzyn were convicted of
second-degree murder in the fatal beating of black motorist Malice
Green. Both convictions were later overturned. On retrial, Budzyn
was convicted of involuntary manslaughter and sentenced to time
served; Nevers was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in April
2000, but had that conviction reversed by an appeals court in March
2003.
(AP, 8/23/03)
1993 Aug 23, Los Angeles police
confirmed that pop star Michael Jackson was the subject of a
criminal investigation. Prosecutors began investigating Michael
Jackson after a 13-year-old boy said Jackson had sex with him. An
out of court settlement was reached for $15-20 mil. The boys father
later filed suit against Jackson for violating a promise not to
discuss the settlement.
(AP, 8/23/98)(SFC, 6/12/96, p.E3)
1994 Aug 23, Republican
senators threatened to thwart a $30 billion anti-crime bill unless
Democrats accepted changes in the House-passed measure; President
Clinton appealed for bipartisan cooperation.
(AP, 8/23/99)
1995 Aug 23, During a memorial
service at Fort Myer, Virginia, President Clinton eulogized three US
diplomats killed in a road accident near Sarajevo,
Bosnia-Herzegovina, and vowed to carry on the struggle for peace in
the Balkans.
(AP, 8/23/00)
1995 Aug 23, Alfred Eisenstaedt
(96), "Life" magazine photographer, died on Martha’s Vineyard. His
picture of a sailor kissing a nurse in Times Square became one of
the best-known images of America's joy at the end of World War Two.
(AP,
8/23/00)(www.cnn.com/EVENTS/year_in_review/passages/)
1996 Aug 23, President Clinton
imposed limits on peddling cigarettes to children as he unveiled
Food and Drug Administration regulations declaring nicotine an
addictive drug. The same day, a jury in Indianapolis found cigarette
companies were not responsible for the lung cancer death of a
52-year-old lawyer who began smoking at age 5.
(AP, 8/23/97)
1996 ~Aug 23, The Nation of
Islam applied to the US Treasury Dept. for permission to accept a $1
bil donation from Col. Moammar Gadhafi that was promised to Rev.
Louis Farrakhan in Jan. to help America’s black people.
(WSJ, 8/26/96, p.A1)
1996 Aug 23, It was reported
that British Petroleum signed a 3-year agreement with the defense
ministry of Columbia for $60 mil. for a battalion of soldiers
to protect expansion and construction of new drilling sites.
(SFC, 8/23/96, p.A20)
1997 Aug 23, In his weekly
radio address, President Clinton said he would ask Congress to renew
his authority for speedy negotiation of trade agreements, saying the
"fast track" approach would make U.S. companies more competitive
worldwide.
(AP, 8/23/98)
1997 Aug 23, In Iran Pres.
Khatami appointed the first woman vice-president and ended an
18-year ban on commercial flights to Saudi Arabia.
(WSJ, 8/25/97, p.A1)
1998 Aug 23, Retailers began
marketing computers with the new 450 MHz Intel Pentium II.
(SFC, 8/25/98, p.D3)
1998 Aug 23, In Congo rebels
appeared to have seized Kisangani while government soldiers
recaptured Kitona, a military base near the coast. Troops from
Zimbabwe fought rebels advancing on Kinshasa. The capture of
Kisangani effectively splitting Congo and cut off commerce with
government-held territory and Kinshasa, the capital 900 miles
downriver.
(SFC, 8/24/98, p.A8)(WSJ, 8/24/98, p.A1)(AP,
8/18/03)
1998 Aug 23, In North Korea
heavy flooding was reported with five times the annual rainfall. The
rice crop was expected to decrease by 60%.
(SFC, 8/24/98, p.A10)
1998 Aug 23, Russia’s Pres.
Yeltsin dismissed the government. He fired PM Kiriyenko (b.1962) and
replaced him with Viktor Chernomyrdin the Soviet-style leader he'd
fired five months earlier. The move was said to have been
orchestrated by Boris Berezovsky, a wealthy financier.
(SFC, 8/24/98, p.A1)(SFC, 8/28/98, p.A12)(AP,
8/23/99)
1999 Aug 23, The Dow Jones
industrial average soared 199.15 to a new record of 11,209.84.
(AP, 8/23/00)
1999 Aug 23, US and British
warplanes killed 2 people in northern Iraq after being fired upon by
an Iraqi military radar station. The Pentagon later claimed that the
2 civilians were killed by Iraq's own anti-aircraft artillery.
(SFC, 8/24/99, p.A11)(SFC, 8/25/99, p.A16)
1999 Aug 23, It was reported
that the US was training a 950-man Colombian army counter narcotics
battalion to regain control of guerrilla controlled territory.
(SFC, 8/23/99, p.A10)
1999 Aug 23, In Bolivia fires
were reported to have destroyed 350,000 acres of farmland, at least
500 homes and much of the town of Ascencion de Guarayos. Thousands
of residents were left homeless.
(SFC, 8/24/99, p.A11)
1999 Aug 23, In Jordan the
National Popular Campaign for Ending So-Called Honor Crimes began
efforts to get rights for women and harsher laws against men who
kill female relatives for family honor.
(SFC, 8/24/99, p.A12)
1999 Aug 23, Fifty years after
the German government moved to the capital of Bonn, Berlin reclaimed
its role as a center of power in Germany with the arrival of
Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.
(AP, 8/23/00)
1999 Aug 23, Militants from
Tajikistan crossed into Kyrgyzstan taking hostages and claiming
control of several villages. Some 1,000 religious fighters took a
swath of land and 13 hostages that included a Kyrgyz general and 4
Japanese geologists.
(SFC, 8/24/99, p.A11)(SFC, 10/21/99, p.AA5)
2000 Aug 23, The Clinton
administration released guidelines for federally funded scientists
to conduct research on human embryonic stem cells.
(SFC, 8/23/00, p.A1)
2000 Aug 23, Pres. Clinton
ordered millions in relief funds for electricity users in southern
California and an investigation into the state’s power market.
(SFC, 8/24/00, p.A1)
2000 Aug 23, The final winner
of the "Survivor" TV contest set on Pulau Tiga island was broadcast
to as many as 40-50 million viewers. Richard Hatch (39), a corporate
trainer from Newport, R.I., won the $1 million grand prize. In 2006
Hatch was convicted on three counts related to tax evasion and was
sentenced to 51 months in federal prison plus three years of
supervised probation.
(SFC, 8/23/00, p.A1)(SFC, 8/24/00,
p.A1)(http://tinyurl.com/4sna5j)
2000 Aug 23, Negotiators for
Verizon and more than 35,000 telephone workers reached tentative
agreement on a new contract, ending an 18-day strike.
(AP, 8/23/01)
2000 Aug 23, Boeing made the
first successful launch of its Delta III rocket.
(SFC, 8/24/00, p.A3)
2000 Aug 23, In Bahrain a Gulf
Air Airbus A320 crashed on approach to Manama and all 143 people
aboard were killed including 36 children.
(SFC, 8/24/00, p.A1)
2000 Aug 23, A boat from
Indonesia capsized in the Strait of Malucca and Malaysian
authorities rescued 7 of 100 passengers.
(SFC, 8/26/00, p.A9)
2000 Aug 23, In Russia Pres.
Putin took responsibility for the Kursk nuclear submarine disaster.
(SFC, 8/24/00, p.A12)
2000 Aug 23, In Sudan a boat
capsized on the Blue Nile near Sinja and 35 people, mostly
schoolchildren, died.
(SFC, 8/25/00, p.D8)
2001 Aug 23, Modesto Democratic
Rep. Gary Condit acknowledged on a TV interview with Connie Chung
that he had made mistakes but that he had nothing to do with the
disappearance of Chandra Levy.
(SFC, 8/24/01, p.A1)
2001 Aug 23, Brian Regan (38),
retired US Air Force master sergeant and cryptanalyst, was arrested
by the FBI at Dulles Int’l. Airport on charges of spying. In 2002
Regan was accused of trying to spy for Iraq, Libya and China. On
February 20, 2003, Regan was found guilty of three charges of
attempted espionage. Regan was found guilty of two counts of
attempted espionage related to attempts to sell information to Iraq
and China, and one count of gathering national defense information.
He was acquitted of attempting to provide US secrets to Libya. On
March 20, 2003, Regan was sentenced to life in prison without
parole.
(http://cicentre.com/Documents/DOC_Regan_1.htm)(SFC, 8/29/01,
p.A6)(WSJ, 2/15/02, p.A1)
2001 Aug 23, Thierry Devaux
(41), a French stuntman, got snagged on the Statue of Liberty arm
while trying to land there using a motor-driven parachute. He was
rescued and arrested.
(SFC, 8/24/01, p.A3)(AP, 8/23/02)
2001 Aug 23, Peter Maas,
novelist and non-fiction writer, died at age 72. His work included
"The Valachi Papers" (1969), "Serpico," "The King of Gypsies," and
"Underboss: Sammy the Bull Gravano’s Story of Life in the Mafia."
(SFC, 8/24/01, p.D7)
2001 Aug 23, Frank Emilio
Flynn, blind pianist and Latin jazz pioneer, died at age 80 in
Havana.
(SFC, 8/30/01, p.C2)
2001 Aug 23, In Brazil
Francisco de Assis Santana (56), a Xukuru Indian leader aka Chico
Quele, was killed in an ambush near Pe de Serra in Penambuco state.
(SFC, 8/25/01, p.A9)
2001 Aug 23, The Chinese
government reported that some 600,000 people have been infected with
AIDS with nearly as many from selling their blood as from sexual
contact.
(SFC, 8/24/01, p.A1)(WSJ, 8/24/01, p.A1)
2001 Aug 23, In Colombia a
suspected ELN car bomb killed a woman and wounded over 20 people in
Marinilla. Separately 15-20 suspected ELN members were killed when
explosives in their truck went off in Santander state.
(SFC, 8/24/01, p.D2)
2001 Aug 23, Israeli forces
raided Palestinian neighborhoods in Hebron following the shooting of
2 young Jewish brothers. One Palestinian was reported killed and a
dozen wounded. In Gaza Israeli forces killed Mahmoud Zourab (11), a
Palestinian boy throwing stones.
(SFC, 8/24/01, p.A16)
2001 Aug 23, Japanese Novelist
Ryu Murakami was featured in the WSJ and quoted to say: "Who cares
about fitting into the system? Think for yourself."
(WSJ, 8/23/01, p.A1)
2001 Aug 23, NATO soldiers
streamed into Macedonia as part of a mission to help end 6 months of
ethnic hostilities by collecting and destroying rebel weapons.
(AP, 8/23/02)
2001 Aug 23, The Norwegian
government established the Abel Prize in mathematics in honor of the
Niels Henrik Abel (1802-1829).
(www.abelprisen.no/en/abelprisen/historie.html)
2002 Aug 23, U.S. warplanes
bombed an air defense site in northern Iraq after being targeted by
an Iraqi missile guidance radar system.
(AP, 8/23/02)
2002 Aug 23, The United States
imposed symbolic sanctions on a North Korean company and the North
Korean government for exporting medium or long-range missile
components.
(Reuters, 8/23/02)
2002 Aug 23, New York publicist
Lizzie Grubman pleaded guilty in a hit-and-run crash that injured 16
people outside a Hamptons nightclub. Grubman ended up serving 37
days of a 60-day sentence at the Suffolk County, N.Y., Jail, with
time off for good behavior.
(AP, 8/23/03)
2002 Aug 23, Canada confirmed
prairie farmers' worst fears in a report that slashed crop
production forecasts after one of worst growing seasons since the
dust bowl of the 1930s.
(Reuters, 8/23/02)
2002 Aug 23, In southern
Colombia a bus veered off a mountain road in Papagayo after one of
its tires burst, plunging 1,000 feet and killing at least 12 people.
(AP, 8/24/02)
2002 Aug 23, An anti-graft
court in the Philippines froze the assets of former president Joseph
Estrada in connection with charges that he illegally amassed over
four billion pesos ($76.48 million) during his 31-month rule.
(Reuters, 8/26/02)
2002 Aug 23, Pres. Shevardnadze
accused Russia of bombing inside Georgia's border. One person was
reported killed.
(SFC, 8/24/02, p.A7)
2002 Aug 23, North Korean
leader Kim Jong Il capped his second visit to Russia in a year with
a long meeting with President Vladimir Putin and a taste of the
consumer delights that are in short supply in his country. Putin
pressed North Korea on Friday to forge a new Asia-Europe freight
route by extending Russia's trans-Siberian railway across the Korean
peninsula to bypass China.
(AP, 8/23/02)(Reuters, 8/23/02)
2002 Aug 23, Pakistan accused
India of launching a heavy ground an air attack on northern Kashmir.
(SFC, 8/24/02, p.A8)
2002 Aug 23, Russian troops
battled rebels for the fourth straight day outside a Chechen
village, while eight soldiers were killed in the last 24 hours.
(AP, 8/23/02)
2002 Aug 23, In Venezuela
subway and bus workers in Caracas unexpectedly walked off the job,
forcing more than a million people to find other ways to work.
(AP, 8/23/02)
2002 Aug 23, In Yugoslavia
thousands of ethnic Albanians gathered in Pristina to protest the
recent arrests of rebel leaders who fought during Kosovo's 1998-1999
war.
(AP, 8/23/02)
2003 Aug 23, Former priest John
Geoghan (67), a convicted child molester, died after being attacked
by Joseph L. Druce (37), a fellow inmate, at the Souza-Baranowski
state prison in Shirley, Mass. Druce was convicted of murder in
2006.
(SSFC, 8/24/03, p.A1)(SFC, 1/26/06, p.A3)
2003 Aug 23, Taliban fighters
ambushed a truck full of government soldiers in the southern
province of Zabul. Gov. Hafizullah Khan said five soldiers and three
Taliban were killed.
(AP, 8/24/03)
2003 Aug 23, In Iraq a
guerrilla attack killed 3 British soldiers and seriously wounded one
in the southern port city of Basra.
(AP, 8/23/03)(SSFC, 8/24/03, p.A6)
2003 Aug 23, Michael Kijana
Wamalwa (58), Kenya's 8th Vice President, died of an undisclosed
illness after several months of treatment in a hospital near London.
(AP, 8/23/03)
2003 Aug 23, Emergency
officials discovered the wreckage of a helicopter that crashed Aug
20 in the Russian Far East. All 20 people aboard were killed. Among
the dead were Igor Farkhutdinov, governor of the oil-rich Sakhalin
region, and top regional officials and business leaders.
(AP, 8/23/03)
2004 Aug 23, President Bush
criticized a commercial that had accused Democrat John Kerry of
inflating his own Vietnam War record, more than a week after the ad
stopped running, and said broadcast attacks by outside groups had no
place in the race for the White House.
(AP, 8/23/05)
2004 Aug 23, New US rules on
overtime pay went into effect. Under the new FairPay rules, workers
earning less than $23,660 per year, or $455 per week, were
guaranteed overtime protection.
(SFC, 8/24/04,
p.C1)(www.dol.gov/esa/WHD/regs/compliance/fairpay/)
2004 Aug 23, Researchers
presented results on genetically engineered mice capable of running
farther and longer than those bred naturally.
(SFC, 8/24/04, p.A2)
2004 Aug 23, Afghan Pres. Hamid
Karzai arrived in Pakistan for talks with his Pres. Pervez Musharraf
on eradicating Al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters from their common
border.
(AP, 8/23/04)
2004 Aug 23, Antigua and
Barbuda's prime minister and American officials signed an agreement
extending the lease of the U.S. Air Force base in the Caribbean
country until 2008.
(AP, 8/23/04)
2004 Aug 23, Electricity went
out across Bahrain, snarling rush hour traffic and leaving residents
without air conditioning as temperatures climbed toward 130
Fahrenheit.
(AP, 8/23/04)
2004 Aug 23, It was reported
that China recorded its 1st ever agricultural trade deficit, $3.73
billion, for the 1st half of this year.
(WSJ, 8/23/04, p.A1)
2004 Aug 23, Azarias Ruberwa,
prominent Tutsi and one of Congo’s 4 vice-presidents, announced that
he and his party (RCD-Goma) were walking out of the transitional
government.
(Econ, 8/28/04, p.40)
2004 Aug 23, Israel announced
plans for more than 500 new housing units in the West Bank,
following an apparent US policy shift on Jewish settlements that has
infuriated the Palestinians.
(AP, 8/23/04)
2004 Aug 23, In Athens, Jeremy
Wariner became the sixth consecutive American to win the Olympic
title in the 400 meters, leading a US sweep of the medals. The US
softball team won its third straight gold medal with a 5-1 victory
over Australia.
(AP, 8/23/05)
2005 Aug 23, President Bush
said he understood the anguish of war protester Cindy Sheehan, but
said fulfilling demands like hers for withdrawal from Iraq would
weaken the US.
(AP, 8/23/06)
2005 Aug 23, The Bush
administration announced new rules for the corporate Average Fuel
Economy (CAFE) standards, first created in the 1970s.
(SFC, 8/24/05, p.A1)
2005 Aug 23, NYC said it will
install 1,000 surveillance cameras and 3,000 motion sensors in its
subways and rail stations in a new deal with Lockheed Martin.
(SFC, 8/24/05, p.A3)
2005 Aug 23, Brock Peters
(b.1927), who gave a heartbreaking performance as the black man
falsely accused of rape in "To Kill a Mockingbird," died. He began
his Hollywood career in the landmark productions of "Carmen Jones"
and "Porgy and Bess."
(AP, 8/24/05)
2005 Aug 23, In Arizona 2
employees were gunned down outside a Wal-Mart store in Glendale, a
Phoenix suburb. In 2009 Ed Liu, the accused gunman, was committed to
a mental hospital instead of a trial on murder charges. Liu
was accused of shooting Patrick Graham (35) and Anthony Spangler
(18) as they collected shopping carts.
(http://tinyurl.com/boc95v)(SSFC, 2/22/09, p.A8)
2005 Aug 23, In Richmond, Ca.,
Glenn Wilson (17) shot and killed Terence Lionel Martin, a
maintenance worker for the West Contra Costa School District, after
Martin tried to break up a fight between Wilson and his pregnant
girlfriend. In 2007 Wilson was convicted of 2nd degree murder and
faced up to 40 years in prison.
(SFC, 12/6/07,
p.B3)(http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4176/is_/ai_n15813134)
2005 Aug 23, In Aruba a court
ruled that lesbian couple has the right to register their marriage
rejecting a government appeal in a case that has exposed a cultural
rift between Holland and its former colony.
(AP, 8/23/05)
2005 Aug 23, Australians who
take drugs into Asia are stupid and should not expect to be bailed
out by the Australian government, PM John Howard said after another
two Australians were detained in Indonesia over drugs.
(Reuters, 8/23/05)
2005 Aug 23, Australia’s
government and moderate Muslim leaders pledged to join forces in the
fight against terrorism and blend Australian values with Islamic
teachings at mosques and schools.
(AP, 8/23/05)
2005 Aug 23, A British woman
who can only move her head, eyes and mouth sailed across the English
Channel and into the record books on board a modified boat she
controlled by sucking or blowing into straws.
(AFP, 8/23/05)
2005 Aug 23, China submitted
legislation to cut income taxes on its poorest workers.
(WSJ, 8/24/05, p.A9)
2005 Aug 23, Egypt's President
Hosni Mubarak vowed to work towards a long-envisaged free trade
agreement with the US as he called for stronger economic ties with
Washington.
(AFP, 8/23/05)
2005 Aug 23, A week of heavy
flooding in Western and Central Europe left at least 26 people dead.
(WSJ, 8/24/05, p.A1)
2005 Aug 23, India’s Lok Sabha
approved legislation which seeks to guarantee 100 days of employment
a year to every rural household across the country.
(AP, 8/23/05)
2005 Aug 23, In India an
apartment building collapse in downtown Bombay, killed 11 people,
injured 17 and left more than a dozen trapped under the rubble.
(AP, 8/23/05)
2005 Aug 23, Iraq's al-Qaida
wing claimed responsibility for the Aug 19 rocket attack that barely
missed U.S. warships docked in the Jordanian port of Aqaba.
(AP, 8/23/05)
2005 Aug 23, A US soldier, an
American contractor and five Iraqis were killed when a suicide
bomber detonated an explosive device in a city north of Baghdad.
(AP, 8/23/05)
2005 Aug 23, Israeli soldiers
cleared 2 militant strongholds without major violence, completing
the country's historic evacuation of 25 settlements in the Gaza
Strip and West Bank.
(AP, 8/23/05)
2005 Aug 23, Japanese
electronics giants Sony and Toshiba said they would go ahead with
incompatible formats for next-generation DVDs after talks to reach a
common standard failed.
(AP, 8/23/05)
2005 Aug 23, Stores across
Japan started taking orders for the Roborior, a watermelon-sized
eyeball on wheels that glows purple, blue and orange. Roborior can
function as a virtual guard dog that can sense break-ins using
infrared sensors, notify homeowners by calling their cellular
phones, and send the owner's cell phone videos from its digital
camera.
(AP, 8/23/05)
2005 Aug 23, Officials said
Nepal's main political parties will hold talks with Maoists on
forming a broad front against King Gyanendra provided the rebels
keep to their promise to stop killing civilians.
(AP, 8/23/05)
2005 Aug 23, TANS Peru Flight
204, a Boeing 737-200 with 100 people on board, split in two after
an emergency landing during a fierce storm, killing at least 41
people. The pilot tried to land in a marsh to soften the impact but
the landing split the aircraft in two. The plane was enroute from
Lima to Pucallpa and landed 20 miles from Pucallpa.
(AP, 8/24/05)
2005 Aug 23, UN officials
called on African ministers meeting in Mozambique to declare TB and
emergency in the area.
(WSJ, 8/24/05, p.A1)
2006 Aug 23, In Alaska
Republican Gov. Frank Murkowski finished last in a 3-day primary
election. Sarah Palin, a former Wasilla mayor, won with over 50% of
the vote.
(SFC, 8/24/06, p.A3)
2006 Aug 23, Annie Donnelly
(38) of Long Island, NY, pleaded guilty to stealing $2.3 million
(1.2 million pounds) from her employers. She spent the money on
lottery tickets, buying as much as $6,000 worth of tickets a day in
a bid to hit the jackpot.
(Reuters, 8/24/06)
2006 Aug 23, The Citadel
released the results of a survey in which almost 20% of female
cadets reported being sexually assaulted since enrolling at the
South Carolina military college.
(AP, 8/23/07)
2006 Aug 23, In Washington
state Gov. Gregoire declared a state of emergency due to a group of
southeastern wildfires that had covered 70 square miles near Dayton.
(SFC, 8/25/06, p.A3)
2006 Aug 23, Maynard Ferguson
(78), Canadian-born jazz trumpeter, died in Ventura, Ca.
(SFC, 8/25/06, p.B11)
2006 Aug 23, The Afghan and
Pakistani armies agreed to conduct coordinated and simultaneous
patrols with the US alongside their volatile border. The accord was
reached during the 17th meeting of Tripartite Commission. In
southern Afghanistan 18 Taliban rebels and an Afghan soldier were
killed in a clash that erupted after the militants attacked an army
post in Zabul province.
(AP, 8/23/06)(AFP, 8/23/06)
2006 Aug 23, Argentina
announced an ambitious plan to expand its nuclear program to meet
rising energy demands, including extending the life of existing
plants and possibly resuming uranium mining.
(AP, 8/23/06)
2006 Aug 23, Vytautas Pociunas,
a top Lithuanian spy posted to Belarus, was found dead in Brest.
Some linked his death to feuds within the Lithuanian security
service (VSD) over freight contracts. A parliamentary committee
called for Arvydas Pocius, the VSD chief, to go.
(Econ, 12/23/06,
p.74)(www.data.minsk.by/belarusnews/092006/25.html)
2006 Aug 23, The Canadian Food
Inspection Agency confirmed that a mature beef cow in the Prairie
province Alberta tested positive for mad cow case. It was the 8th
case since 2003.
(Reuters, 8/23/06)
2006 Aug 23, In western India
17 people were killed when a truck overturned and fell into a deep
ditch. Victims were sitting on top of sacks of salt that the truck
was transporting when it overturned into a ditch flooded from recent
monsoon rains.
(AP, 8/23/06)
2006 Aug 23, Iran urged Europe
to pay attention to what it called "positive" signals in its
counterproposal to a nuclear incentives package aimed at persuading
Tehran to roll back its nuclear program. Russia and China backed
Iran's call for negotiations to end the standoff.
(AP, 8/23/06)
2006 Aug 23, A roadside bomb
exploded in Baghdad and narrowly missed the interior minister's
convoy, killing two civilians and wounding several traffic
policemen. A suicide bomber blew himself up outside a police
headquarters in Mosul, killing at least one person. An Iraqi army
officer, 1st Lt. Hassanein Saadi al-Zerjawi (29) was gunned down in
a drive-by shooting in Amarah. A roadside bomb missed a US military
convoy in Fallujah, 40 miles west of Baghdad, killing two
pedestrians and injuring 12. One US soldier was killed during a raid
to capture "foreign terrorists." Two militants also were killed.
(AP, 8/23/06)(AP, 8/24/06)
2006 Aug 23, In
Indian-controlled Kashmir a crowded bus swerved off a steep mountain
road and plunged into a gorge, killing at least 16 people and
injuring 35 others.
(AP, 8/23/06)
2006 Aug 23, A leader of
Kurdish rebels battling Turkey's government said in a rare interview
that his guerrillas will not give in to US pressure to disarm
without a "political project" that fulfills their calls for
autonomy. PKK party officials met with a group of journalists in the
rugged, isolated Qandil Mountain in Iraq's northeast corner where
the group is based.
(AP, 8/24/06)
2006 Aug 23, In southern
Lebanon 3 Lebanese soldiers were killed while they dismantled an
unexploded missile. An Israeli soldier was killed and three others
wounded in southern Lebanon when their tank drove over a land mine.
(AP, 8/23/06)
2006 Aug 23, Assailants threw
grenades at the offices of a newspaper in the resort city of Cancun
in the latest in a series of attacks on news outlets across Mexico.
(AP, 8/24/06)
2006 Aug 23, In Oslo Villa
Grande, a sprawling mansion used by Norwegian Nazi collaborator
Vidkun Quisling during World War II, opened as a center to oppose
the intolerance, hatred and treachery he represented.
(AP, 8/23/06)
2006 Aug 23, A previously
unknown Palestinian group released the first video of two kidnapped
Fox News journalists and demanded that Muslim prisoners in US jails
be released within 72 hours in exchange for the men. Correspondent
Steve Centanni and cameraman Olaf Wiig were later freed.
(AP, 8/23/06)(AP, 8/23/07)
2006 Aug 23, Russia’s Gazprom
threatened to cut off gas exports to Bosnia on Oct 1 if strides
toward repaying $104.8 million in debts, incurred during wars that
ended in 1995, were not met.
(WSJ, 8/24/06, p.A6)
2006 Aug 23, Somalia’s seaport
in Mogadishu reopened for the first time in 11 years, the latest
sign that the city's Islamic fundamentalist rulers are trying to
restore confidence after more than a decade of anarchy.
(AP, 8/23/06)
2006 Aug 23, Sudan's ruling
party rejected a proposed Security Council resolution to transfer
peacekeeping duties in conflict-wracked Darfur to a UN force, saying
it would violate national sovereignty.
(AP, 8/24/06)
2006 Aug 23, Syria opposed
deployment of an international force along its border to prevent
arms shipments to Hezbollah, and Israel called the situation in
Lebanon "explosive." In southern Lebanon 3 Lebanese soldiers were
killed while they dismantled an unexploded missile. An Israeli
soldier was killed and three others wounded in southern Lebanon when
their tank drove over a land mine.
(AP, 8/23/06)(AP, 8/24/06)
2006 Aug 23, Taiwan's cabinet
decided to increase military spending by nearly 30% next year as
President Chen Shui-bian warned of rival China's continuing
hostility towards the island.
(AP, 8/23/06)
2007 Aug 23, Ohio’s Gov. Ted
Strickland said more than 1,000 people were flooded out of their
homes after heavy rain that swamped communities across the Midwest
sent Ohio's rivers spilling over their banks.
(AP, 8/23/07)
2007 Aug 23, University of
Minnesota astronomers announced that they have stumbled upon a
tremendous hole in the universe. The cosmic blank spot has no stray
stars, no galaxies, no sucking black holes, not even mysterious dark
matter. The 1 billion light years across of nothing represented an
expanse of nearly 6 billion trillion miles of emptiness.
(AP, 8/24/07)
2007 Aug 23, In southern
Afghanistan a bomb dropped by a US fighter jet was believed to have
killed 3 British soldiers in Helmand province. Two other soldiers
were injured.
(AP, 8/24/07)
2007 Aug 23, Bangladesh's
army-backed interim government briefly relaxed a curfew, allowing
residents of the capital the chance to stock up on essentials and
those stranded at airports and elsewhere to return home.
(AP, 8/23/07)
2007 Aug 23, In Ponte Nova,
Brazil, at least 25 prisoners died after inmates broke out of a
cellblock and set a fire in an apparent attempt to settle scores
with a rival gang.
(AP, 8/23/07)
2007 Aug 23, The Montreal World
Film Festival, which endured a near-death experience two years ago
when key government subsidies were suspended, kicked off its 31st
edition with a new lease on life.
(AP, 8/24/07)
2007 Aug 23, The government of
Chad said it will adhere to a program designed to put pressure on
countries to be open about revenues from exports of oil, natural gas
and minerals.
(AP, 8/23/07)
2007 Aug 23, The Bank of China
revealed that it held a $9.6 billion exposure to securities backed
by American subprime mortgages.
(Econ, 9/1/07, p.67)
2007 Aug 23, More than 800
Colombian refugees crossed over the border to Ecuador from the
violence-ravaged department of Narino. The UN estimated that about 3
million Colombians have been driven from their homes by violence
without leaving the country, making it the largest internal refugee
population in the world after Sudan.
(AP, 8/25/07)
2007 Aug 23, A shootout in
Chechnya's capital left two policemen and a rebel dead. A group of
about 30 camouflage-clad gunmen set on fire the houses of two police
officers and the local administration building in the Chechen
village of Yandi.
(AP, 8/24/07)
2007 Aug 23, In Dagestan,
Russia, gunmen ambushed security forces, killing three people and
wounding 17.
(AP, 8/24/07)
2007 Aug 23, Hundreds of
rampaging youths torched dozens of houses and clashed across East
Timor, leaving at least two people dead, in violence sparked by the
appointment of independence hero Xanana Gusmao as prime minister.
(AP, 8/23/07)
2007 Aug 23, The EU relaxed a
ban on exports of British livestock, meat and dairy products that
was imposed after an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in
southeastern England earlier this month.
(AP, 8/23/07)
2007 Aug 23, State-run TV
reported that Iran has developed a new 2,000-pound "smart" bomb, the
latest in a recent series of announcements heralding new weapons
systems.
(AP, 8/23/07)
2007 Aug 23, Suspected al-Qaida
fighters attacked the Sunni Ibrahim al-Yahya village east of Baqouba
and killed a leader who had led the community in an uprising against
the terrorist organization. A nearby Shiite village came under
attack, again by suspected al-Qaida fighters, and a total of 17
people, including seven women, were killed. 7 people were kidnapped.
Two of the abducted men were later found shot in the head on a road
leading out of town. The rest of the captives were women, and their
fate was unknown. 10 attackers were killed as villagers fought back.
A police vehicle rushing to the attack scene crashed and 2 policemen
were killed. 60 suspected al-Qaida in Iraq fighters hit national
police facilities in a coordinated attack in Samarra, sparking two
hours of fighting that saw three people killed and more than a dozen
insurgents captured.
(AP, 8/23/07)(Reuters, 8/23/07)(AP, 8/24/07)
2007 Aug 23, A cluster bomb
left over from last year's Hezbollah-Israel war exploded in southern
Lebanon, killing a Lebanese mine-clearing expert and wounding three
others who were trying to dismantle it.
(AP, 8/23/07)
2007 Aug 23, The remnants of
Hurricane Dean dumped heavy rain across central Mexico, drenching
mudslide-prone mountains as it pushed its way inland after slamming
into the nation's Gulf Coast as a Category 2 storm. Thousands of
Mayan Indians lost homes as Hurricane Dean blew through the Yucatan
peninsula, but their real wealth was the trees, now scattered and
broken in the storm's wake. Village after village is carpeted with
fallen mangoes, oranges, guanabanas and mameys that will never be
harvested. Across Mexico at least 10 people died from the storm.
(AP, 8/23/07)(WSJ, 8/24/07, p.A1)
2007 Aug 23, In Myanmar defiant
pro-democracy activists took to the streets for the third time this
week, forming a human chain to try to prevent officers from dragging
them into waiting trucks and buses.
(AP, 8/23/07)
2007 Aug 23, In Pakistan a
Supreme Court ruling said former PM Nawaz Sharif, a key rival to
President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, can return to Pakistan from exile.
(AP, 8/23/07)
2007 Aug 23, A Russian
scientist said that fresh test results back his country's legal bid
to take control of the Arctic. Russian geologists have previously
estimated the Arctic seabed has at least 9 to 10 billion tons of
fuel equivalent, about the same as Russia's total oil reserves.
(AP, 8/23/07)
2007 Aug 23, Rwanda's exiled
opposition groups dismissed as insulting the appointment of General
Kerenzi Karake, a Rwandan general, as deputy chief of a planned
peace force for Sudan's war-torn Darfur region.
(AFP, 8/23/07)
2007 Aug 23, Sudan summoned the
envoy of the European Commission and the Canadian charge d'affaires
and informed them they were considered persona non grata because
they interfered in Sudanese affairs. The UN chief called on the
Sudanese military to remove troops remaining in southern Sudan,
expressing disappointment that a July 9 deadline was not met as
called for in a 2005 peace deal.
(AFP, 8/24/07)(AP, 8/24/07)
2008 Aug 23, Democrats
coalesced around Barack Obama's selection of Delaware Senator Joe
Biden (b.1942) as his running mate while Republicans quickly seized
on the Delaware senator's past criticism of the presidential
candidate's inexperience.
(AP, 8/23/08)
2008 Aug 23, In Utah a small
plane crashed and burned shortly after takeoff from Canyonlands
Field airport. All 10 aboard, including 9 employees of a Cedar City
dermatology company, who traveled to remote areas to provide medical
treatments.
(SSFC, 8/24/08, p.A2)
2008 Aug 23, Dr. Thomas Weller
(b.1915) co-winner of the 1954 Nobel Prize in Medicine, died in
Massachusetts. He shared the Nobel Prize with 2 co-workers for their
discovery of the ability of poliomyelitis viruses to grow in
cultures of various types of tissue.
(http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1954/)(LSA,
Spring, 2009, p.56)
2008 Aug 23, Azizabad villagers
threw stones at Afghan soldiers who tried to give them food and
clothes. The soldiers fired into the crowd and wounded eight people,
including one child critically wounded. This was the village in
Herat province where the day before a US-Afghan operation took place
leaving many civilians dead.
(AP, 8/23/08)
2008 Aug 23, Public health
officials in Canada said they have linked a deadly bacterial
outbreak to recalled meat products from Maple Leaf Foods. At least
12 people died out of 26 confirmed cases of food poisoning.
(AP, 8/24/08)(Reuters, 8/25/08)
2008 Aug 23, In Beijing Angel
Matos, a Cuban taekwondo athlete, and his coach Leudis Gonzalez were
banned for life after Matos kicked the referee in the face following
his bronze-medal match disqualification.
(AP, 8/23/08)
2008 Aug 23, The US military
released Ahmed Nouri Raziak (38), a cameraman for Associated Press
Television News, without charges after detaining him for nearly
three months. Gunmen in Basra killed Haider al-Saymari (38), a
Shiite cleric and outspoken critic of sectarian militias, in an
ambush on a car that also carried his wife, mother and sister, who
were not harmed.
(AP, 8/23/08)(AP, 8/24/08)
2008 Aug 23, In Italy a gang of
men badly beat a Dutch couple and raped the woman while they camped
in an isolated field outside Rome during a cycling tour of Europe.
The attackers also stole some US$2,200. Two Romanian men were soon
arrested.
(AP, 8/23/08)(Reuters, 8/25/08)
2008 Aug 23, Environmental
experts said Nigeria and South Africa are the main emitters of
greenhouse gases in Africa, accounting for almost 90 percent of the
emissions in the continent.
(AFP, 8/23/08)
2008 Aug 23, Pakistani troops
pounded Islamic militants in the volatile northwest, killing 37 in
retaliation for suicide attacks that have put pressure on the new
government to counter a growing extremist threat. 2 soldiers were
killed. A civilian and her four children were killed when security
forces fired a mortar that accidentally hit a home in Khar, near the
Afghan border. A car packed with explosives rammed into a police
station in Swat, a former tourist destination, killing six officers
and injuring several others. A roadside bomb in the nearby village
of Bari Kot killed one civilian and injured four.
(AP, 8/23/08)
2008 Aug 23, Two boats carrying
dozens of international activists sailed into the Gaza Strip in
defiance of an Israeli blockade, receiving a jubilant welcome from
thousands of Palestinians. Israel said it would permit the boats to
dock in Gaza after determining the activists did not pose a security
threat. The group delivered a symbolic shipment of hearing aids and
balloons.
(AP, 8/23/08)
2008 Aug 23, The Philippine
government said at least 48 soldiers and civilians and scores of
Muslim rebels have been killed in the southern Philippines in a week
of fighting triggered by the collapse of a peace deal. Muslim rebels
urged the Philippine government to halt a military offensive they
say threatens a years-long peace process and escalates violence in
the archipelago's troubled south.
(Reuters, 8/23/08)(AP, 8/23/08)
2008 Aug 23, A top Russian
general said his country's forces will keep patrolling the key
Georgian Black Sea port of Poti even though it lies outside the
areas where Russia claims it has the right to station soldiers in
Georgia.
(AP, 8/23/08)
2008 Aug 23, Pirates fired on a
Japanese-operated cargo ship off Somalia and attempted to board the
vessel but failed to seize it.
(AP, 8/23/08)
2008 Aug 23, In Somalia 2
Western reporters were kidnapped near Mogadishu. The next day the
National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) named them as Amanda
Lindhout, a Canadian reporter based in Baghdad but freelancing for
French television and Canada's Global National News, and Nigel
Brennan, a freelance Australian photojournalist. Both were released
after 15 months and arrived in Kenya on Nov 25, 2009.
(Reuters, 8/24/08)(AP, 11/26/09)
2008 Aug 23, Sri Lanka staged
local elections under tight security as troops pushed deeper into
Tamil Tiger territory, closing in on the rebel capital in the
war-ravaged north. The defense ministry said a total of 28 rebels
and two soldiers were killed in clashes over the last 24 hours
across the island's north.
(AFP, 8/23/08)
2008 Aug 23, The Tibetan
spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, left Paris on a flight bound for
New Delhi after concluding a 12-day visit that fuelled tensions
between Paris and Beijing.
(AP, 8/23/08)
2008 Aug 23, A Tunisian court
convicted 13 Islamic militants on charges linked to plots to carry
out attacks in the north African country. 6 more were convicted on
Aug 26 for establishing a military camp in Tunisia's northeastern
Kef region designed to train fighters to be sent to Iraq.
(AP, 8/28/08)
2009 Aug 23, Afghan former
Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah, President Karzai's main
challenger, said he had evidence last week's election had been
widely rigged by the incumbent and that he had lodged more than 100
complaints. The Election Complaints Commission (ECC) said it had
received 225 complaints of which 35 had been labeled a priority. An
American service member died in an insurgent attack. Two Estonian
soldiers were killed after their unit stumbled on a roadside bomb in
southern Helmand province.
(Reuters, 8/23/09)(AP, 8/24/09)
2009 Aug 23, NATO military
commanders told US President Barack Obama's envoy on that they
needed more troops and other resources to beat back a resurgent
Taliban, particularly in eastern Afghanistan near the Pakistan
border.
(Reuters, 8/23/09)
2009 Aug 23, In the Bahamas
Stefania Fernandez (18), Miss Venezuela, was the fairest of them all
once again, winning the 2009 Miss Universe crown for the second year
straight and the sixth time since the pageant's creation.
(AP, 8/24/09)
2009 Aug 23, A Chinese state
news agency reported that a drought in the north has left nearly 5
million people short of drinking water and damaged crops, while dry
weather in the south could cause more shortages.
(AP, 8/23/09)
2009 Aug 23, In Greece a raging
fire bore down on Athens' northern suburbs, prompting panicked
residents to battle the flames with tree limbs and buckets, and
police to order 10,000 people to evacuate one town immediately. The
fires ignited late on Aug 21; by today they were reported across an
area more than 25 miles (40 kilometers) wide.
(AP, 8/23/09)
2009 Aug 23, The Iraqi military
broadcast the confession of a Sunni man, Wisam Ali Khazim Ibrahim
(57), identified as the mastermind of one of two Aug 19 suicide
truck bombings targeting government buildings in Baghdad. In
northern Iraq gunmen attacked a police checkpoint in Mosul, killing
one police officer. An American soldier died of injuries sustained
during an attack on a US patrol in the Iraqi capital.
(AP, 8/23/09)
2009 Aug 23, Mexican army
soldiers captured Luis Ricardo Magana. Prosecutors described him as
a leading member of the violent La Familia drug cartel. A team of
top US law enforcement officials began a three-day visit to Mexico
to explore ways to improve efforts against arms smuggling into
Mexico as part of joint efforts to combat drug gangs.
(AP, 8/24/09)
2009 Aug 23, In Pakistan a
suicide bombing on the outskirts in the northwestern city of
Peshawar killed three people and wounded 15 others. Police in
Karachi arrested seven members of the banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi
movement in a raid. The al-Qaida-linked movement is blamed for two
failed assassination attempts against former President Pervez
Musharraf and the beheading of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel
Pearl.
(AP, 8/23/09)(AP, 8/24/09)
2009 Aug 23, In Zimbabwe a
cabinet retreat by the unity government collapsed this weekend as
President Robert Mugabe's ministers walked out after the deputy
prime minister said last year's polls were fraudulent.
(AP, 8/23/09)
2010 Aug 23, A US district
court issued a preliminary injunction stopping federal funding of
human embryonic stem cell research, in a slap to the Obama
administration's new guidelines on the sensitive issue.
(Reuters, 8/24/10)
2010 Aug 23, California
Attorney Gen’l. Jerry Brown sued Roni Deutch for $34 million for
allegedly swindling thousands of people. Deutch, who billed herself
as the “tax lady,” has appeared in nationwide TV ads to help people
with tax problems.
(SFC, 8/24/10, p.C3)
2010 Aug 23, In Las Vegas
Mexico's Jimena Navarrete (22) was crowned Miss Universe in an upset
victory that stunned a pageant world which had predicted a winner to
emerge from Ireland, Venezuela or the United States.
(AFP, 8/24/10)
2010 Aug 23, In Afghanistan
roadside bombs killed four members of the international security
force in Afghanistan, including an American, two French marines, and
a Hungarian soldier. US troops fired warning shots to disperse a
protest near Bagram air base over the arrest of a religious leader
suspected of a rocket attack.
(AP, 8/23/10)
2010 Aug 23, Gareth Williams
(31), an employee of code-breaking agency GCHQ, was found murdered
at a flat near the agency's headquarters in the upmarket Pimlico
area of London. Williams was working on attachment for Britain's
Secret Intelligence Service MI6 when he died.
(Reuters, 8/25/10)(AP, 2/15/11)
2010 Aug 23, China cut 13
non-violent crimes from the list of 64 offences punishable by death.
State media said flooding has forced the evacuation of more than a
quarter-million people in northern China along its border with North
Korea.
(Econ, 8/28/10, p.35)(AP, 8/23/10)
2010 Aug 23, President Raul
Castro ordered Max Marambio, a Chilean businessman, to return to
Cuba for questioning about bribery and fraud at Rio Zaza, which was
shut down earlier this year. For years the company had enjoyed a
near monopoly on sales of packaged fruit juice and milk. Marambio
declined the offer.
(Econ, 8/28/10, p.29)
2010 Aug 23, In Dagestan at
least 3 people were wounded in other attacks, while four suspected
militants died when explosives they were transporting by car
unexpectedly blew up.
(AP, 8/23/10)
2010 Aug 23, Iran media
reported the suspension of three senior judiciary officials over
last year's torture deaths of three imprisoned anti-government
protesters. On Aug 30 they were identified as former prosecutor
Saeed Mortazavi and two judges.
(AP, 8/23/10)(AP, 8/30/10)
2010 Aug 23, Iran kicked off
mass production of two high-speed missile-launching assault boats,
warning its enemies not to "play with fire" as it boosts security
along its coastline.
(AFP, 8/23/10)
2010 Aug 23, In Iraq unknown
attackers in a speeding car threw a grenade in the mixed
Sunni-Shiite eastern neighborhood of New Baghdad. The blast killed
one policeman and wounded another.
(AP, 8/23/10)
2010 Aug 23, Mexican police in
the border city of Tijuana found two bodies on the outskirts of town
and were searching for more. Baja California state prosecutors said
recently arrested suspects told authorities at least four more
bodies had been buried in the same area. A judge ordered the
released of 13 Tijuana city police officers who were arrested by
soldiers and sent to prison more than a year ago on charges of
protecting drug traffickers. The judge ruled there wasn't enough
evidence.
(AP, 8/23/10)
2010 Aug 23, In the Netherlands
the monumental chestnut tree that cheered Anne Frank while she was
in hiding from the Nazis in Amsterdam was toppled by wind and heavy
rain.
(AP, 8/23/10)
2010 Aug 23, Officials said the
United States has granted Nigerian airlines permission for direct US
flights.
(AFP, 8/24/10)
2010 Aug 23, In Pakistan 3 bomb
attacks in the northwest killed at least 36 people. A bomb exploded
inside a school during a meeting of elders in Kurram tribal region,
killing seven people. An attack on the outskirts of Peshawar killed
the leader of an anti-Taliban militia, Israr Khan, and two aides as
he passed through a market in the village of Matni. The deadliest
blast was a suicide attack at a mosque inside a religious school in
South Waziristan that killed 26 people and injured 40 more.
(AP, 8/23/10)
2010 Aug 23, Philippine police
stormed a bus in downtown Manila after shots were heard from the
hostage-taker of 15 Chinese tourists. Former Senior Inspector
Rolando Mendoza (55), armed with a M16 rifle, had seized the busload
of Hong Kong tourists to demand his reinstatement in the force. 8
tourists were killed along with Mendoza. Ken Leung died trying to
subdue the gunman, who then killed his two daughters, Doris (21) and
Jessie (14). The only survivors were the mother, Amy, and son Jason
(18), who fell into a coma after suffering a head wound. Jason awoke
from his coma around mid October. On Dec 16 Manila said it will pay
compensation to the families of 8 Hong Kong tourists killed during
the botched hostage rescue.
(AP, 8/23/10)(AP, 8/24/10)(AP, 10/20/10)(AFP,
12/16/10)
2010 Aug 23, Saudi low-cost
private airline Sama, launched in 2007 to serve Gulf and other Arab
states, said it is to suspend services from Aug 24 due to financial
problems.
(AP, 8/23/10)
2010 Aug 23, South African
President Jacob Zuma flew to China on a three-day trip aimed at
strengthening business ties. Zuma was accompanied by a delegation of
over 370 business representatives - the biggest ever for a South
African leader's visit abroad.
(www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-11067072)
2010 Aug 23, South Africa
deployed soldiers to 37 hospitals to help keep basic health services
running, as a nationwide strike by more than one million public
workers entered its sixth day.
(AFP, 8/23/10)
2010 Aug 23, Two Spanish aid
workers held by al Qaeda's North African wing were freed in Mali,
ending a kidnapping that lasted nearly nine months, the longest
period of captivity in the Sahara desert. Al Qaeda in the Islamic
Maghreb (AQIM) said it seized Albert Vilalta and Roque Pascual while
they were traveling through Mauritania with a relief aid convoy last
November.
(AP, 8/23/10)
2010 Aug 23, The southern Sudan
finance minister said the fledgling economy is being "deliberately"
weakened by former civil war enemies in the north who are paying
Juba's share of oil revenues in local currency.
(AFP, 8/23/10)
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