Today in History - August 26
Return to home
55 BC Aug 26,
Roman forces under Julius Caesar invaded Britain.
(AP, 8/26/97)
1071 Aug 26, Turks defeated the
Byzantine army under Emperor Romanus IV at Manzikert (Malaz Kard),
Eastern Turkey. Romanus was taken prisoner.
(PCh, 1992, p.85)(Ot, 1993, p.4)
1346 Aug 26, During the Hundred
Years War, King Edward III's 9,000-man English army annihilated a
French force of 27,000 under King Philip VI at the Battle of Crecy
in Normandy. The battle is regarded as one of the most decisive in
history. [see Aug 25]
(PC, 1992, p.128)(WSJ, 11/4/04, p.D10)
1429 Aug 26, Joan of Arc makes
a triumphant entry into Paris.
(HN, 8/26/99)
1648 Aug 26, There was a
people's uprising, the Fronde, against Anna of Austria, regent for
Louis XIV of France, and Cardinal Mazarin (d.1661), the effective
ruler.
(PC, 1992, p.241)(MC, 8/26/02)
1676 Aug 26, Sir Robert Walpole
(d.1745), the first and longest serving prime minister of England,
was born. He was not then called the prime minister as the king held
all honors. He collected a large number of paintings by old masters
at his Houghton Hall home in Norfolk.
(WSJ, 3/3/97,
p.A16)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Walpole)
1723 Aug 26, Anton van
Leeuwenhoek (b.1632), Dutch biologist, inventor (microscope), died
in Delft, Netherlands. [some sources say Aug 30]
(www.es.rice.edu/ES/humsoc/Galileo/Catalog/Files/leewnhok.html)
1740 Aug 26, Joseph-Michel
Montgolfier, French inventor, born. He and his brother
Jacques-Etienne invented the hot air balloon in 1783.
(RTH, 8/26/99)
1743 Aug 26, Antoine Laurent
Lavoisier, the father of modern chemistry, was born. He discovered
"dephlogisticated air" which he called oxygen and was executed by
the revolution in 1794.
(HN, 8/26/99)(RTH, 8/26/99)
1768 Aug 26, Capt James Cook
departed from Plymouth with Endeavour to the Pacific Ocean. Daniel
Solander and Joseph Banks accompanied Cook to catalog plants and
animals of Australia and New Zealand on the 3-year journey.
(www.artstor.org/what-is-artstor/w-html/col-endeavour-london.shtml)(SSFC,
4/19/09, Books p.J7)
1789 Aug 26, The Constituent
Assembly in Versailles, France, approved the final version of the
Declaration of Human Rights.
(HN, 8/26/99)
1791 Aug 26, John Fitch and
James Rumsey, rival inventors, were both granted a US patent for a
working steamboat.
(MC, 8/26/02)(WSJ, 7/27/04, p.D10)
1813
Aug 26-1813 Aug 27, The Battle of Dresden was Napoleon’s last major
victory against the allied forces of Austria, Russia and Prussia.
(www.napoleonguide.com/battle_dresden.htm)
1819 Aug 26, Albert "Bertie"
von Saxon-Coburg-Gotha (d.1861), husband of queen Victoria, was born
at Schloss Rosenau, near Coburg, Bavaria.
(WUD, 1994,
p.34)(www.encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com)
1839 Aug 26, The slave ship La
Amistad was captured off Long Island. The USS Washington, an
American Navy brig, seized the Amistad, and escorted it to New
London, Connecticut.
(http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/amistad/AMI_BCIN.HTM)
1843 Aug 26, Charles Thurber
patented a typewriter.
(MC, 8/26/02)
1846 Aug 26, Felix
Mendelssohn's "Elijah," premiered.
(MC, 8/26/02)
1847 Aug 26, Liberia was
proclaimed an independent republic. Freed American slaves founded
Liberia. They modeled their constitution after that of the US,
copied the US flag, and named their capital Monrovia, after James
Monroe, who financed early settlers. Over the decades 16,400 former
slaves made the voyage. They assumed that the 16 native tribes were
there to be exploited.
(AP, 8/26/97)(SFC, 4/10/96, p.A-4)(SFC, 4/16/96,
p.A-9)
1850 Aug 26, Charles Richet,
French physiologist (anaphylaxis-Nobel 1913), was born.
(MC, 8/26/02)
1862 Aug 26, Confederate
General Thomas ‘Stonewall’ Jackson encircles the Union Army under
General John Pope at the Second Battle of Bull Run.
(HN, 8/26/99)
1863 Aug 26, Battle of Rocky
Gap, WV, (White Sulphur Springs).
(MC, 8/26/02)
1873 Aug 26, Lee De Forest
(d.1961), inventor of the Audion vacuum tube, was born in Council
bluffs, Iowa. He is considered the father of radio.
(WUD, 1994 p.379)(www.britannica.com)
1875 Aug 26, John Buchan
(d.1940), Lord Tweedsmuir, was born in Perth, Scotland. He became a
writer and governor general of Canada (1935), and was famous for his
spy story "The Thirty-Nine Steps" (1915). "There may be Peace
without Joy, and Joy without Peace, but the two combined make
Happiness."
(HN, 8/26/99)(WSJ, 12/9/06, p.P12)(AP, 1/7/98)
1883 Aug 26, The island volcano
Krakatoa in Indonesia began erupting with increasingly large
explosions and killed some 36,000 people, both on the island itself
and from the resulting 131-foot tidal waves that obliterated 163
villages on the shores of nearby Java and Sumatra. A book by Ian
Thornton: "Krakatau: The Destruction and Reassembly of an Island
Ecosystem" was published in 1996. [see Aug 27] The history of
hundreds of volcanoes is at a Volcano World Web page:
(www.volcano.und.nodak.edu/vw.html).
(AP, 8/26/97)(Nat. Hist, 3/96, p.6)(HN, 8/26/02)
1884 Aug 26, Earl Biggers,
author ("Charlie Chan" detective series), was born.
(MC, 8/26/02)
1898 Aug 26, Peggy Guggenheim,
art patron and collector, was born.
(HN, 8/26/00)
1901 Aug 26, Maxwell Taylor,
U.S. general and diplomat, born. As commanding general of the 8th
Army in 1953, he directed U.N. forces during the latter stages of
the Korean War.
(RTH, 8/26/99)
1906 Aug 26, Christopher
Isherwood, English-US novelist and playwright, was born. He wrote
"Goodbye to Berlin" (Berlin Stories), the inspiration for the play
"I am a Camera" and the musical and film "Cabaret." [1904 also given
as birth year]
(WUD, 1994 p.755)(HN, 8/26/00)
1906 Aug 26, Albert Bruce
Sabin, U.S. virologist, born in Poland. In 1955, he developed an
oral vaccine against polio.
(RTH, 8/26/99)
1907 Aug 26, Harry Houdini
escaped from chains underwater at Aquatic Park in 57 sec.
(MC, 8/26/02)
1908 Aug 26, Tony Pastor
(b.1837), singer and actor, died. He is considered to be the father
of American vaudeville.
(www.britannica.com/eb/article-9058682/Tony-Pastor)
1910 Aug 26, William James
(b.1842), American psychologist and philosopher, died. His work
included “the Principles of Psychology” (1890) and “The Varieties of
Religious Experience” (1902). William James was the older brother of
novelist Henry James. In 2006 Robert D. Richardson authored the
biography: “William James.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_James)
1910 Aug 26, Agnes Gonxhe
Bojaxhiu (d.1997), later known as Mother Teresa and care-taker of
the poor in Calcutta, was born to an ethnic Albanian family in Uskub
(later Skopje, Macedonia). In 1950 she founded the Missionaries of
Charity in Calcutta and in 1979 was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize for
her work.
(SFC, 8/26/97, p.C3)(AP,
9/26/04)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_Teresa)
1914 Aug 26, The French
government appointed Gen. Joseph Simon Gallieni (65) as military
governor of Paris. He had been called out of retirement at the onset
of war to serve in the Ministry of War in Paris.
(ON, 8/08, p.4)
1915 Aug 26, Gre [Gerarda D]
Brouwenstijn, Dutch opera soprano, was born.
(MC, 8/26/02)
1920
Aug 26, US Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby certified
ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment. The amendment had been
first introduced in Congress in 1878, setting in motion supporters
who demonstrated, lobbied, marched and spoke out for woman suffrage.
They were often met with venomous opposition. Early on, the two main
factions of the movement disagreed about how to achieve their goal,
but they ultimately united in 1890 to form the National American
Woman Suffrage Association and worked together to get the amendment
passed. By August 18, 1920, three-fourths of the United States had
agreed to the bill.
(AP, 8/26/97)(HNPD, 8/26/99)
1921 Aug 26, Ben Bradlee,
editor, journalist, executive (Washington Post), was born in Boston.
(MC, 8/26/02)
1929 Aug 26, The 1st US roller
coaster was built.
(MC, 8/26/02)
1930 Aug 26, Lon Chaney (47),
actor (Thunder, Big City, Unholy 3), died.
(MC, 8/26/02)
1935 Aug 26, Geraldine Ferraro,
(Rep-D-NY) 1st female dem VP candidate (1984), was born.
(MC, 8/26/02)
1935 Aug 26, The US Public
Utilities Act gave federal agencies powers to regulate gas and
electric companies.
(SSFC, 1/18/09, p.D6)
1936 Aug 26, The Anglo-Egyptian
Treaty, calling for most British troops to leave Egypt, except those
guarding the Suez Canal, was signed in Montreux, Switzerland. It was
abrogated by Egypt in 1951.
(AP, 8/26/05)
1937 Aug 26, President
Roosevelt signed the Judicial Procedure Reform Act, a compromise on
his judicial reorganization plan.
(SSFC, 1/18/09, p.D6)
1939 Aug 26, The first
televised major league baseball games were shown on experimental
station W2XBS, a double-header between the Cincinnati Reds and the
Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field. The Reds won first, 5-2; the
Dodgers, second, 6-1.
(AP, 8/26/98)
1942 Aug 26, 7,000 Jews were
rounded up in Vichy, France.
(MC, 8/26/02)
1942 Aug 26, Japanese troops
landed on New Guinea, Milne Bay.
(MC, 8/26/02)
1942 Aug 26, A Russian counter
offensive began in Moscow.
(MC, 8/26/02)
1943 Aug 26, The United States
recognizes the French Committee of National Liberation.
(HN, 8/26/99)
1944 Aug 26, US 12th Army Corps
crossed the river Seine East of Paris.
(MC, 8/26/02)
1944 Aug 26, In World War Two,
Bulgaria announced that it had withdrawn from the war and that
German troops in the country were to be disarmed.
(RTH, 8/26/99)
1945 Aug 26, Japanese diplomats
boarded the Missouri to receive instructions on Japan's surrender at
the end of WW II.
(MC, 8/26/02)
1945 Aug 26, Franz Werfel (54),
Czech-German-US poet, writer (Mirror Man), died.
(MC, 8/26/02)
1949 Aug 26, The US submarine
Cochino (SS-345) sank off Norway following an electrical fire and
battery explosion a day earlier. A 2nd battery explosion made
"Abandon Ship" the only possible order, and Cochino sank. The crew
of the Tusk rescued all of Cochino's men except for Robert
Wellington Philo, a civilian engineer. 6 sailors from Tusk were lost
during the rescue.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Cochino_%28SS-345%29)
1957 Aug 26, Ford Motor Company
revealed the Edsel, its latest luxury car.
(HN, 8/26/99)
1957 Aug 26, The Soviet Union
announced it had successfully tested an intercontinental ballistic
missile.
(AP, 8/26/97)
1958 Aug 26, Alaskans went to
the polls to overwhelmingly vote in favor of statehood.
(AP, 8/26/08)
1958 Aug 26, Ralph Vaughan
Williams (85), English composer (Fantasia on Themes of Thomas
Tallis), died.
(MC, 8/26/02)
1960 Aug 26, Knud Jensen (23),
Danish cyclist, collapsed while riding in a 100-km team trial at the
Olympics in Rome. He fractured his skull and died. An autopsy
revealed amphetamines in his blood. His death would led the
International Olympic Committee to begin a program of drug testing
beginning with the 1968 Games held in Grenoble, France and Mexico
City, Mexico.
(WSJ, 8/7/06,
p.B1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knud_Enemark_Jensen)
1961 Aug 26, The official
International Hockey Hall of Fame opened in Toronto.
(AP, 8/26/97)
1964 Aug 26, President Johnson
was nominated for a term of office in his own right at the
Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City, N.J.
(AP, 8/26/97)
1968 Aug 26, The Democratic
National Convention opened in Chicago. Thousands of antiwar
demonstrators took to Chicago's streets to protest the Vietnam War
during the Democratic National Convention.
(AP, 8/26/08)(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.F6)
1969 Aug 26, Donald
“Shorty” Shea (b.1933), a Hollywood stuntman, was murdered about
this time. The location of his body was not discovered until 1977.
Manson family leader Charles Manson and family members Tex Watson,
Steve Grogan aka Clem and Bruce Davis were eventually convicted of
murdering Shea.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_%22Shorty%22_Shea)
1971 Aug 26, New Jersey Gov.
William T. Cahill announced that the New York Giants football team
had agreed to leave Yankee Stadium for a new sports complex to be
built in East Rutherford.
(AP, 8/24/01)
1972 Aug 26, The XX Olympiad
opened in Munich, Germany. The IOC had withdrawn Rhodesia’s
invitation to the summer Olympics after several African nations
threatened a boycott.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1972_Summer_Olympics)
1972 Aug 26, Sir Francis
Chichester (b.1901), English adventurer, died. In 1966-67 he sailed
around the world alone in his 53-foot yacht, Gypsy Moth IV.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Chichester)
1973 Aug 26, The Univ. of Texas
at Arlington became the 1st accredited school to offer belly
dancing.
(www.celebratetoday.com/celebrate.html)(http://tinyurl.com/696e4t)
1974 Aug 26, Charles Lindbergh
(72), the first man to fly solo, nonstop across the Atlantic, died
at his home in Hawaii. Lindbergh had 3 illegitimate children in
Germany with Brigitte Hesshaimer, a Munich hat maker. In 1998 A.
Scott Berg authored "Lindbergh." Earlier Lindbergh's daughter
authored her memoir "Under a Wing."
(AP, 8/26/97)(SFEC, 11/15/98, Par p.29)(SSFC,
10/24/04, Par p.2)
1975 Aug 26, An international
plan began to show significant results to stop Venice from sinking
into the sea. Venice was built on 118 small islands. By the early
1960s, rising seawater and floods threatened Venice. Scientists
determined that Venice was sinking, and that much of the city would
disappear if swift measures were not taken.
(http://twotrees.www.50megs.com/attic/history/08/26.html)
1976 Aug 26, In France Raymond
Barre (1924-2007) began serving as prime minister and continued to
1981.
(Econ, 11/20/10,
p.58)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_Barre)
1976 Aug 26, Prince Bernhard,
husband of Queen Juliana of the Netherlands, agreed to resign his
positions with the Dutch armed forces and industry following severe
criticism of his behavior by a commission of enquiry into a Lockheed
bribery scandal. Bernhard had allegedly received $1.1 million as a
gift from Lockheed.
(RTH, 8/26/99)(SFC, 12/24/08, p.B7)
1978 Aug 26, Charles Boyer
(b.1897), French-born film actor (Gaslight, Rogues), committed
suicide in Phoenix, Az., 2 days after his wife's death from cancer.
Boyer and actress Pat Robertson lost their only child in 1965, when
their son shot himself playing Russian roulette.
(http://www.imdb.com)(SSFC, 1/21/07, Par p.2)
1978 Aug 26, Cardinal Albino
Luciani of Venice was elected the 264th Pope of the Roman Catholic
Church following the death of Paul VI. The new pontiff took the name
John Paul I. He served only 33 days before dying of a heart attack
on September 28.
(AP, 8/26/97)(RTH, 8/26/99)
1978 Aug 26, Sigmund Jahn
became the first German in space when he blasted off aboard Russia’s
Soyuz 31.
(RTH, 8/26/99)
1979 Aug 26, Alvin Karpis
(1907-1979), Canadian-born US gangster, died. His autobiography,
“The Alvin Karpis Story,” was completed in 1971.
(WSJ, 7/15/04,
p.D8)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alvin_Karpis)
1981 Aug 26, Roger Nash Baldwin
(b.1884), one of the founders of the ACLU, died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Nash_Baldwin)
1982 Aug 26, The Argentine
government lifted a ban on political parties.
(RTH, 8/26/99)
1985 Aug 26, Thirteen-year-old
AIDS patient Ryan White began "attending" classes at Western Middle
School in Kokomo, Indiana, via a telephone hook-up at his home.
School officials had barred Ryan from attending classes in person.
(AP, 8/26/00)
1985 Aug 26, French government
claimed no knowledge of assault on Rainbow Warrior.
(www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-1689202,00.html)
1986 Aug 26, In the so-called
"preppie murder" case, 18-year-old Jennifer Levin was found
strangled in New York's Central Park; Robert Chambers later pleaded
guilty to manslaughter for strangling Jennifer Levin during a tryst
in Central Park. Chambers was released from prison in 2003 after
serving a 15-year sentence. He owed the Levin family $25 million
from a wrongful death suit [see Mar 25, 1988]. In 2007 Chambers was
arrested for dealing cocaine. He pleaded guilty and faced another
long term in prison.
(SFC, 2/15/03, p.A4)(AP, 8/26/04)(SFC, 8/12/08,
p.A6)
1986 Aug 26, Ted Knight
(b.1923), [Tadeus Konopka], actor (Mary Tyler Moore), died.
(www.infoplease.com/biography/var/tedknight.html)
1987 Aug 26, The US stock
market began a 2 month decline of 41%.
{DJIA, USA}
(SFC,10/17/97,
p.B2)(www.financialsense.com/Market/wood/2003/0905.htm)
1987 Aug 26, In an attempt to
eliminate a superpower stumbling block, West German Chancellor
Helmut Kohl said his country would destroy its 72 Pershing 1A
rockets if Washington and Moscow scrapped all their
intermediate-range nuclear weapons.
(AP, 8/26/97)
1988 Aug 26, Republican
presidential nominee George Bush denounced Democrat Michael Dukakis'
criticism of Reagan administration drug policies as "an insult," one
day after the Massachusetts governor called U.S. dealings with
Panamanian General Manuel Noriega "criminal."
(AP, 8/26/98)
1989 Aug 26, A team from
Trumbull, Conn., became the first American team since 1983 to win
the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pa.
(AP, 8/26/99)
1989 Aug 26, Irving Stone, US
writer born as Irving Tennenbaum (Love is Eternal, Lust for Life),
died in Los Angeles.
(www.absoluteastronomy.com/i/irving_stone)
1990 Aug 26, Fifty-five
Americans, who had been evacuated from the US Embassy in Kuwait,
left Baghdad by car and headed for the Turkish border.
(AP, 8/26/00)
1990 Aug 26, The bodies of two
slain college students were found in their off-campus apartment in
Gainesville, Florida; three more bodies were discovered in the days
that followed, setting off a wave of panic.
(AP, 8/26/00)
1991 Aug 26, In an address to
the Supreme Soviet, President Mikhail S. Gorbachev promised national
elections in a last-ditch effort to preserve his government, but
leaders of Soviet republics told him the hour of central power had
passed.
(AP, 8/24/01)
1992 Aug 26, A federal judge
declared a mistrial in the Iran-Contra cover-up trial of former CIA
spy chief Clair George. George was convicted of perjury in a
retrial, but was then pardoned by President H.W. Bush.
(AP, 8/26/97)
1992 Aug 26, The United States,
Britain and France imposed a 2nd no-fly zone south of the 32nd
parallel, the southern one-third of Iraq aimed at protecting Iraqi
Shiite Muslims.
(AP, 8/26/97)(SFC, 9/24/02, p.A11)
1992 Aug 26, Arthur Leigh Allen
(b.1933) of Vallejo, a convicted child molester and alleged Zodiac
killer, died in Vallejo, Ca. In 1985 Robert Graysmith authored
"Zodiac" in which he identified the killer with the pseudonym of
"Robert Starr." Graysmith authored "Zodiac Unmasked" in 2002. In
2009 lawyer Robert Tarbox said a merchant seaman had identified
himself as the Zodiac killer as a walk-in client at his SF
Montgomery Street office in the early 1970s.
(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W20)(SSFC, 5/12/02, p.M6)(SSFC,
7/19/09, p.A18)
1993 Aug 26, Sheik Omar
Abdel-Rahman and 14 co-defendants entered innocent pleas in federal
court in New York, a day after their indictment on charges of
conspiring to wage terrorism against the United States.
(AP, 8/26/98)
1993 Aug 26, Landlady Dorothea
Puente was convicted in Monterey, Calif., of murdering three of her
boardinghouse tenants; she was later sentenced to life without
parole.
(AP, 8/26/98)
1993 Aug 26, Russian President
Boris Yeltsin signed a friendship treaty with the Czech Republic
after condemning the 1968 Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia.
(RTH, 8/26/99)
1994 Aug 26, US Congressional
leaders and White House officials all but conceded that a health
reform bill was dead.
(AP, 8/26/99)
1994 Aug 26, In Egypt a
13-year-old Spanish boy was killed and 3 others injured in a tour
bus attack by Islamic extremists at Nag Hammadi.
(SFC,11/19/97, p.C2)
1995 Aug 26, In his weekly
radio address, President Clinton explained his decision to impose a
two-year moratorium on mining claims on 4500 acres of federal land
near the northeast corner of Yellowstone National Park, saying the
land was "more priceless than gold."
(AP, 8/26/00)
1995 Aug 26, John Costello
(b.1943), British historian, died.
(www.ihr.org/jhr/v20/v20n2p40_Douglas.html)(http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Obituary/1995/misc.html)
1995 Aug 26, Evelyn Wood (86),
speed reading guru, died in Tucson, Arizona. The Salt Lake City
school teacher, began popularizing her “Evelyn Wood Reading
Dynamics” in the late 1950s after seeing her graduate-school
professors speed-read through a paper.
(www.readfaster.com/evelynwood.asp)(WSJ, 7/25/06,
p.D1)
1996 Aug 26, There was a review
of Public Television’s new program "Adventures from the Book of
Virtues" based on the anthology by William J. Bennett "The Book of
Virtues: A Treasury of Great Moral Stories."
(WSJ, 8/26/96, p.A10)
1996 Aug 26, Democrats opened
their 42nd national convention in Chicago.
(SFC, 8/26/96, p.A4)(AP, 8/26/97)
1996 Aug 26, A new fake fat,
Z-trim, was announced. It was developed by a researcher of the US
Dept. of Agriculture.
(SFC, 8/26/96, p.A4)
1996 Aug 26, Barbara Jewell,
mother of security guard Richard Jewell, tearfully called on
President Clinton to clear her son's name in connection with the
Centennial Olympic Park bombing. Jewell was later cleared by the
Justice Department.
(AP, 8/26/97)
1996 Aug 26, A Cuban court
convicted fugitive U.S. financier Robert Vesco of economic crimes.
He was sentenced to 13 years in prison for economic crimes against
the state.
(AP, 8/26/97)(SFC, 8/27/96, p.A8)
1996 Aug 26, In Seoul, South
Korea, former Pres. Chun Doo Hwan was sentenced to death for mutiny,
treason and corruption. His successor, Roh Tae Woo, was sentenced to
22 1/2 years in prison. Nine leading businessman were also
convicted. They included Lee Kin Hee, chairman of Samsung Group, and
Kim Woo Choong, chairman of Daewoo Group. The death sentence was
later commuted, and Chun was freed as part of an amnesty in 1997.
(SFC, 8/26/96, p.A1)(AP, 8/26/06)
1996 Aug 26, In Sierra Leone
rebels killed 31 villagers and 7 soldiers in the eastern village of
Foindu.
(SFC, 8/29/96, p.A14)(AP, 8/26/97)
1996 Aug 26, In South Africa
Eugene de Kock, former police colonel, was found guilty of 5 counts
of murder. He still face 116 charges that included 3 for murder.
(WSJ, 8/27/96, p.A1)
1997 Aug 26, It was announced
that researchers at Johns Hopkins had found a gene that causes colon
cancer in some people of Jewish ancestry.
(WSJ, 8/26/97, p.A1)
1997 Aug 26, In Columbia Mayor
Mauricio Guzman of Cali was arrested for allegedly accepting money
from a drug cartel.
(SFC, 8/26/97, p.C3)
1997 Aug 26, It was reported
that China executed at least 4,367 people in 1996.
(SFC, 8/26/97, p.A9)
1997 Aug 26, It was reported
that Israel planned to proceed with the building of a dam on the
Yarmuk River. The territory is claimed by Syria.
(SFC, 8/26/97, p.A10)
1997 Aug 26, Two defectors and
their families from North Korea were accepted by the US. One was
Chang Sung Gil, the ambassador to Egypt, the other was his
brother Chang Sung Ho, a commercial councilor at the North Korean
mission in Paris. High level arms talks were immediately terminated.
(SFC, 8/26/97, p.A1)
1997 Aug 26, Former South
African President F.W. de Klerk, who shared the Nobel Peace Prize
for helping to end apartheid, announced his retirement from politics
and his leading role in the National Party which had created the
practice of apartheid.
(SFC, 8/26/97, p.C2)(AP, 8/26/98)
1998 Aug 26, Attorney General
Janet Reno reopened the investigation of the assassination of civil
rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., focusing on two allegations of
a conspiracy beyond James Earl Ray. A Justice Department
investigation later rejected allegations that conspirators had aided
or framed James Earl Ray in King's assassination.
(AP, 8/26/08)
1998 Aug 26, American U.N.
weapons inspector Scott Ritter, at the center of several standoffs
with Iraq, resigned his U.N. post.
(RTH, 8/26/99)
1998 Aug 26, In NYC a judge
ruled to allow a Million Youth March for Sep 5. It was being
organized by Khalid Abdul Muhammad and was opposed by Mayor Rudolph
Giuliani.
(SFC, 8/28/98, p.A3)
1998 Aug 26, Hurricane Bonnie
drifted ashore in North Carolina and began creeping up the coast,
packing heavy rains and high winds.
(AP, 8/26/99)
1998 Aug 26, A Yemeni national,
Mohammed Rashed Daoud Owhali, aka Khalid Salim, suspected in the
bombing of the US embassy at Nairobi, was flown to the US from
Kenya.
(SFC, 8/27/98, p.A14)(SFC, 8/28/98, p.A1)
1998 Aug 26, A $225 million
rocket and communication satellite exploded after take-off at Cape
Canaveral.
(SFC, 8/27/98, p.A3)
1998 Aug 26, In China the
government revised its death toll from the floods to over 3,000
[4,150] people.
(SFC, 8/27/98, p.a14)(SFC, 8/6/99, p.A12)
1998 Aug 26, In Congo
Rwandan-backed rebels attempted an assault on Kinshasa but were held
off by government soldiers and troops from Zimbabwe and Namibia.
(SFC, 8/27/98, p.A10)
1998 Aug 26, Libya indicated
that it would accept an American and British proposal that 2
suspects of the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am jet be tried in the
Netherlands by Scottish judges.
(SFC, 8/27/98, p.A10)
1998 Aug 26, The Russian ruble
fell another 5% as government attempts to support it failed.
(SFC, 8/27/98, p.A1)
1999 Aug 26, Attorney General
Janet Reno pledged that a new investigation of the 1993 Waco, Texas,
siege would "get to the bottom" of how the FBI used potentially
flammable tear gas grenades against her wishes and then took six
years to admit it.
(AP, 8/26/00)
1999 Aug 26, US officials
reported that its permanent military presence in Haiti would be
replaced by temporary missions.
(SFC, 8/27/99, p.A14)
1999 Aug 26, American Home
Products, the parent company of Wyeth-Ayerst was reported to have
agreed to pay over $50 million to over 36,000 women to settle claims
against the Norplant implantable contraceptive.
(SFC, 8/27/99, p.A5)
1999 Aug 26, In Australia the
Parliament recognized 200 years of injustice to its indigenous
people.
(SFC, 8/27/99, p.D3)
1999 Aug 26, In Senegal the
army reported 29 dead fisherman from recent storms and that another
100 were missing.
(SFC, 8/27/99, p.D3)
1999 Aug 26, In East Timor
anti-independence militiamen left 6 people dead in Dili.
(SFC, 8/27/99, p.A1)
1999 Aug 26, In Tibet Tashi
Tsering, a carpenter, lowered the Chinese flag in the capital and
attempted to put up the banned Tibetan flag. He was arrested and
died on Oct 13 from beatings while under Chinese police custody.
(SFC, 10/14/99, p.A14)
1999 Aug 26, The Turkey quake
death toll was lowered to 13,040 with 26,630 injured. The parliament
passed a law to give amnesty to Kurdish rebels with no criminal
record. The death toll was later raised to over 17,000.
(SFC, 8/27/99, p.A14)(SFC, 10/15/99, p.A19)
2000 Aug 26, The Houston Comets
won their fourth straight WNBA championship by defeating the New
York Liberty 79-73.
(AP, 8/24/01)
2000 Aug 26, Maracaibo,
Venezuela, won the Little League World Series title, defeating
Bellaire, Texas, 3-2.
(AP, 8/24/01)
2000 Aug 26, Pres. Clinton
visited Nigeria. Pres. Obasanjo, head of 110 million people, pressed
Clinton to help reduce the country’s $32 billion debt. Clinton
appealed to the leaders of the oil-rich nation to set aside
political acrimony so that their citizens could lift themselves from
poverty and isolation.
(SFEC, 8/27/00, p.A14)(AP, 8/24/01)
2000 Aug 26, United Airlines
signed a tentative accord with its 10,000 pilots following 20 months
of negotiations.
(SFEC, 8/27/00, p.A1)
2000 Aug 26, In Israel 3
Israeli soldiers were killed in a West Bank shootout with
Palestinian militants of Hamas. The Israeli raid was an attempt to
capture Mahmoud Abu Hanoud near Nablus. Hanoud was wounded and
escaped.
(SFEC, 8/27/00, p.C12)(SFC, 8/28/00, p.A11)
2000 Aug 26, In Sierra Leone 11
British soldiers were seized by the "West side Boys," a faction of a
former pro-government alliance.
(SFEC, 8/27/00, p.C11)
2000 Aug 26, In Somalia
Abdiqasim Salad Hassan, a former interior minister, won the
presidential elections.
(SFEC, 8/27/00, p.C12)
2000 Aug 26, In Sasolburg,
South Africa, black employee John Mosoko Rampuru (37) died after
being dragged behind a pickup for over 3 miles by white building
contractor Pieter Odendaal (44). On November 12, 2001, the
Bloemfontein High Court sentenced Odendaal to 10 years in jail after
finding him guilty of culpable homicide but not murder with intent.
Judge AP van Coller suspended 3 years of Odendaal's sentence and
freed him on bail pending appeal.
(SFEC, 9/10/00,
p.C12)(http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/1651683.stm)
2001 Aug 26, The Tokyo Kitasuna
beat Apopka, Fla., 2-1 to win the Little League championship in
South Williamsport, Pa.
(AP, 8/26/02)
2001 Aug 26, President Bush
admitted he was worried about the economy's "paltry" growth and,
without making promises, assured steel company executives and
workers that protecting domestic steel was a national security
priority.
(AP, 8/26/02)
2001 Aug 26, IBM computer
scientists reported that they had constructed a working logic
circuit within a single molecule of carbon fiber known as a carbon
nanotube.
(SSFC, 8/26/01, p.A20)(SFC, 8/27/01, p.D1)
2001 Aug 26, The San Francisco
Board of Supervisors proclaimed the City Lights Bookstore at 261
Columbus Ave. as Landmark No. 228.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_San_Francisco_Designated_Landmarks)(SSFC,
5/31/09, p.B2)
2001 cAug 26, In the French
Alps a hot-air balloon caught fire after apparently hitting a high
voltage wire and 6 people were killed.
(WSJ, 8/27/01, p.A1)
2001 Aug 26, In Iran film
director Tahmineh Milani was arrested on charges of supporting
counterrevolutionary and armed opposition groups. A relative said it
was due to her stand on the clerical oppression of women.
(WSJ, 8/31/01, p.A1)(SFC, 9/1/01, p.A10)
2001 Aug 26, Israeli jets
flattened the Palestinian Gaza City police headquarters in
retaliation for the shooting ambush of a settler family. Other
Palestinian police buildings and checkpoints were bombed.
(SFC, 8/27/01, p.A6)
2001 Aug 26, In Macedonia an
explosion at a hotel in Celopek killed 2 Macedonian Slavs.
(SFC, 8/27/01, p.A6)
2001 Aug 26, In Taiwan Pres.
Chen Shui-bian endorsed an economic council’s proposals to expand
commercial ties with China.
(SFC, 8/27/01, p.A6)
2002 Aug 26, US VP Cheney,
speaking at a Veterans of Foreign Wars convention in Tennessee,
warned that there is "no doubt" that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein is
amassing weapons of mass destruction for use against America and its
allies.
(SFC, 8/27/02, p.A1)(AP, 8/26/03)
2002 Aug 26, In Bangui, Central
African Republic, former military ruler Gen. Andre Kolingba was
convicted in absentia of taking part in a failed 2001 coup and was
sentenced to death.
(AP, 8/26/02)
2002 Aug 26, In San Antonio,
Honduras, Jose Callejas (46), director of a Human Rights Committee,
was killed. Organized crime was blamed.
(SFC, 8/29/02, p.A12)
2002 Aug 26, Israeli troops
arrested Jamal Abdel Salam Abu el-Heijah, leader of Hamas in the
Jenin region in a West Bank raid as Israel's defense minister said a
security deal to ease violence was still in force.
(AP, 8/26/02)
2002 Aug 26, In Nigeria an
Islamic court has sentenced a couple to death by stoning for having
an affair, marking the first time in Nigeria that a man has been
sentenced to death for adultery.
(AP, 8/29/02)
2002 Aug 26, The 4th UN World
Summit on Sustainable Development opened in Johannesburg, SA, with a
call from South African President Thabo Mbeki for coordinated
international action to fight poverty and protect the world's
natural resources. Pres. Bush sent Colin Powell as his stand-in. The
3rd gathering was in Rio de Janeiro in 1992.
(SSFC, 8/25/02, p.A3)(AP, 8/26/03)
2002 Aug 26, As Zimbabwean and
Ethiopian activists staged protests, South African security
officials promised to clamp down on any protesters demonstrating at
the U.N. development summit without government approval.
(AP, 8/26/02)
2003 Aug 26, In the face of
criticism, President Bush defended his handling of the war and
reconstruction of Iraq, telling an American Legion conference in St.
Louis the fight was essential to the U.S. campaign against
terrorism.
(AP, 8/26/04)
2003 Aug 26, Investigators
concluded that NASA's overconfident management and inattention to
safety doomed the space shuttle Columbia as much as did damage to
the craft.
(AP, 8/26/04)
2003 Aug 26, The CBO forecast a
US deficit of $401 billion this year and $480 billion in 2004.
(WSJ, 8/27/03, p.A1)
2003 Aug 26, The toll of U.S.
troops killed in postwar Iraq surpassed the number killed in major
combat, reaching 139.
(AP, 8/26/03)
2003 Aug 26, In northern Iraq
the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and the Iraqi Turkmen Front signed
an agreement in Kirkuk aimed at preventing ethnic violence after
clashes left 11 people dead last week.
(AP, 8/28/03)
2003 Aug 26, A hidden cache of
fireworks exploded in a town in China's southeast, killing at least
20 people in the 2nd such disaster to strike the same county in one
month.
(AP, 8/27/03)
2003 Aug 26, Two Russian
military helicopters collided over an airfield in Russia's Far East,
killing five people and injuring one.
(AP, 8/26/03)
2004 Aug 26, The US supply of
vaccine for the impending flu season took a big hit when Chiron
Corp. announced it had found tainted doses in its factory, and would
hold up shipment of about 50 million shots.
(AP, 8/26/05)
2004 Aug 26, MIT named Yale
neuroscientist Susan Hockfield as its new president, the 1st woman
to ever hold that job.
(WSJ, 8/27/04, p.A1)
2004 Aug 26, Laura Branigan
(b.1957), a Grammy-nominated pop singer best known for her 1982
platinum hit "Gloria," died in East Quogue, N.Y.
(AP, 8/29/04)(SFC, 8/30/04, p.B4)
2004 Aug 26, Australia
announced a cruise missile program to give it the region's "most
lethal" air combat capacity, a move that further strained awkward
relations with Indonesia.
(AP, 8/26/04)
2004 Aug 26, Chile’s Supreme
Court stripped Pinochet of his immunity.
(WSJ, 8/27/04, p.A1)
2004 Aug 26, Typhoon Aere
crashed into mainland China prompting the evacuation of nearly a
million people, as the death toll climbed to 35 after a mudslide
killed 15 villagers in Taiwan.
(AP, 8/26/04)
2004 Aug 26, In Colombia a bomb
exploded in front of a beauty salon in Bogota as a police car drove
by, killing two officers and wounding two other people.
(AP, 8/27/04)
2004 Aug 26, Cuba broke
diplomatic ties with Panama after the outgoing Panamanian president
Mireya Moscoso pardoned four Cuban exiles, including Luis Posada
Carriles, the communist government accuses of trying to assassinate
President Fidel Castro.
(AP, 8/27/04)(SFC, 5/18/05, p.A9)
2004 Aug 26, At the Athens
Olympics, the US women's soccer team won the gold medal by beating
Brazil, 2-1, in overtime; Shawn Crawford led a U.S. sweep of the 200
meters.
(AP, 8/26/05)
2004 Aug 26, In India a
passenger bus and another carrying paramilitary soldiers and their
families were blown up in separate explosions in the
insurgency-wracked Assam state, killing four people and wounding 39.
(AP, 8/26/04)
2004 Aug 26, Grand Ayatollah
Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani arranged a peace pact with Muqtada
al-Sadr. The 5-point plan called for Kufa and Najaf to be declared
weapons-free.
(SFC, 8/27/04, p.A1)(WSJ, 8/27/04, p.A1)
2004 Aug 26, A mortar barrage
hit a mosque in Kufa filled with Iraqis preparing to join a march in
Najaf by Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani, killing 27
people and wounding 63.
(AP, 8/26/04)
2004 Aug 26, The Arabic TV
network Al-Jazeera reported it had received a video that appeared to
show the killing of Italian journalist Enzo Baldoni (56).
(AP, 8/27/04)
2004 Aug 26, In northern
Vietnam a boat capsized in heavy winds on a river, killing 16
people.
(AP, 8/28/04)
2005 Apr 26, Florida’s Gov.
Bush signed legislation giving people the right to meet “force with
force,” effective Oct 1. Utility crews in South Florida scrambled to
restore power to more than 1 million customers blacked out by
Hurricane Katrina, which continued to churn in the Gulf of Mexico.
(SFC, 4/27/05, p.A5)(AP, 8/26/06)
2005 Aug 26, In SF the new
Int’l. Hotel, with 88 studio and 16 one-bedroom apartments,
re-opened at 848 Kearny Street. Over 50 tenants from the original
“I-Hotel” were evicted Aug 4, 1977. 12 people from the original
hotel were 1st in line as 7,500 applicants vied for apartments.
(SFC, 8/27/05, p.B1)
2005 Aug 26, In eastern
Afghanistan a bomb killed a US service member and wounded four when
it exploded near their armored vehicle in Paktika province.
(AP, 8/27/05)
2005 Aug 26, Fire raced through
a crowded Paris apartment building housing African immigrants,
trapping residents in their sleep and killing 17 people, most of
them believed to be children.
(AP, 8/26/05)
2005 Aug 26, India’s
Maharashtra government planned to ban most plastic bags, blaming
them for choking drains and causing floods a month ago that left
more than 1,000 people dead.
(Reuters, 8/26/05)
2005 Aug 26, In India nearly
5,000 people held a rally as shops and businesses shut down in
Amritsar, the hometown of Sarabjeet Singh facing death by hanging in
Pakistan for allegedly spying. They demanded clemency and his
immediate return home.
(AP, 8/26/05)
2005 Aug 26, In India 24 people
were drowned when flash floods inundated hundreds of villages around
a commercial town in Uttar Pradesh.
(AP, 8/27/05)
2005 Aug 26, In Indian Kashmir
at least 15 people, including three soldiers, were wounded when
suspected Islamist rebels threw five grenades at different places in
Sopore. 4 people, including 2 militants, were killed in separate
shootouts across the region in the past 24 hours.
(AP, 8/26/05)
2005 Aug 26, An Iranian
daredevil died while attempting to break the world record for
jumping over buses on a motorcycle. Javad Palizbanian (44) was
trying to leap over 22 buses parked side-by-side when his motorbike
came down on the 13th bus.
(AP, 8/28/05)
2005 Aug 26, Shiite
negotiators, prodded by Pres. Bush, offered what they called their
final compromise proposal to Sunnis Arabs to try to break the
impasse over Iraq's new constitution.
(AP, 8/26/05)
2005 Aug 26, In Iraq US
warplanes launched multiple airstrikes against a suspected
"terrorist safe house" in the western Anbar province, destroying the
building where up to 50 militants were believed to be hiding.
(AP, 8/26/05)
2005 Aug 26, A Pakistani
military court sentenced five men to death for their roles in a 2003
suicide plot to kill President Gen. Pervez Musharraf.
(AP, 8/26/05)
2005 Aug 26, Jailed Russian
tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky ended his nearly weeklong hunger strike
after hearing that his business partner Platon Lebedev was
transferred from solitary confinement to a regular cell.
(AP, 8/26/05)
2005 Aug 26, In Kazan, Russia,
tens of thousands of Tatars, Russians and others packed the main
square for a gala concert to celebrate the millennial anniversary of
the Volga River city.
(AP, 8/26/05)
2005 Aug 26, The first South
Korean tourists visited historic sites in Kaesong, North Korea, set
to become only the 2nd destination in the communist nation that can
be visited by ordinary citizens of its southern neighbor.
(AP, 8/27/05)
2005 Aug 26, Sri Lanka's
Supreme Court ruled that President Chandrika Kumaratunga's final
term expires in December, ending her controversial 11-year reign and
clearing the way for a vote before November 21.
(AP, 8/26/05)
2005 Aug 26, The UN food relief
agency said that it's battling to feed 90,000 Eritrean and Ethiopian
refugees displaced in eastern Sudan mainly due to a serious funding
shortfall.
(AP, 8/27/05)
2006 Aug 26, Tropical Storm
Ernesto strengthened over the Caribbean as it headed toward Jamaica
and the Cayman Islands, threatening to become the first hurricane of
the 2006 Atlantic season.
(AP, 8/26/06)
2006 Aug 26, In Afghanistan a
large number of militants attacked the Musa Qala district government
compound in Helmand, provoking a clash with police that left 10
insurgents dead.
(AP, 8/27/06)
2006 Aug 26, Thousands of
farmers took to the streets across northern Bangladesh over the
fatal shooting of at least five people protesting against an
open-pit coal mine.
(AFP, 8/27/06)
2006 Aug 26, Chad ordered US
energy giant Chevron and Malaysia's Petronas to leave the country
within 24 hours for failing to honor tax obligations, a move
apparently aimed at increasing control over its oil output. Chad's
president Idriss Deby suspended the oil minister and two other
Cabinet members who negotiated deals with the two foreign oil firms.
(AP, 8/27/06)
2006 Aug 26, Iran's hard-line
president inaugurated a heavy-water production plant, a facility the
West fears will be used to develop a nuclear bomb, as Tehran
remained defiant ahead of a UN deadline that could lead to
sanctions.
(AP, 8/26/06)
2006 Aug 26, Iraq's PM Nouri
al-Maliki urged hundreds of tribal leaders to join his efforts to
end sectarian strife and terrorism Kidnapped Sunni lawmaker Tayseer
al-Mashhadani was released after being held for nearly two months.
Al-Mashhadani and 7 of her bodyguards were seized July 1 by gunmen
in a Shiite area of east Baghdad. Gunmen in a speeding car opened
fire on two sisters working as translators for the British
consulate, killing one of them and seriously wounding the other. 26
people were killed in dozens of attacks across Iraq. One US soldier
was killed by a roadside bomb.
(AP, 8/26/06)(AP, 8/27/06)(AP, 8/28/06)
2006 Aug 26, In Nepal a
landslide in a mountainous western village killed at least 10 people
and injured three others.
(AP, 8/26/06)
2006 Aug 26, In Pakistan
government forces killed Nawab Akbar Bugti (79), the most prominent
leader in the rebellion by Baluch tribesmen, in a raid on his cave
hideout in the mountainous area of the southwestern provinces of
Baluchistan. A top security official said at least 16 security
forces, including four officers, were killed.
(AP, 8/27/06)
2006 Aug 26, In the West Bank,
Israeli troops and Palestinian gunmen traded heavy fire during a
standoff at a fugitives' hideout and doctors said a 16-year-old
Palestinian was killed. Twenty Palestinians were wounded in the
clashes in the West Bank city of Nablus.
(AP, 8/27/06)
2006 Aug 26, In Russia's
Dagestan region police surrounded a home and exchanged gunfire with
suspected militants, killing four and wounding a woman who was with
the gunmen.
(AP, 8/27/06)
2006 Aug 26, In Sri Lanka
police found a large weapons cache hidden in a house on the
outskirts of Colombo, and arrested 17 people suspected of planning a
major attack. Sporadic fighting left 12 rebels killed and 20 injured
during a battle in the northeastern Batticaloa district. A
bomb killed six Sri Lankan soldiers and wounded 11 as they cleared
up after fierce fighting with Tamil Tiger rebels in the besieged
northern Jaffna peninsula.
(AP, 8/26/06)(AFP, 8/27/06)
2006 Aug 26, A Sudanese court
charged reporter Paul Salopek (44) with espionage. He was detained
by pro-government forces in Darfur on Aug 6. Salopek was on
freelance assignment for National Geographic magazine.
(SSFC, 8/27/06, p.A19)
2006 Aug 26, An international
rights groups said a court in tightly controlled Turkmenistan has
sentenced three rights defenders to jail terms of six to seven
years.
(AP, 8/26/06)
2006 Aug 26, Officials said
Uganda and the rebel Lord's Resistance Army have signed a truce to
end a 19-year conflict that killed thousands of people.
(AP, 8/26/06)
2007 Aug 26, In northern
California the 17th annual Cotati Accordion Festival ended with some
5,000 people and 30 bands attending the 2-day event. Day tickets
rose to $17.50.
(SFC, 8/27/07, p.D2)
2007 Aug 26, The $95 million
Hawaii Superferry made its maiden run from Honolulu to Maui as
environmentalists protested. The 349-foot giant catamaran, named
Alakai, carried over 500 passengers and 150 cars for the 3-hour
trip. The special one-way $5 fares will soon rise to over $240 for
one passenger and a car.
(SFC, 8/27/07, p.A4)
2007 Aug 26, Afghan police
killed six suspected militants during a one-hour gunbattle in
Paktika province, which borders Pakistan. Unidentified assailants
shot and killed a soldier from the 37-nation strong security
assistance force during a foot patrol in eastern Afghanistan. A
Dutch soldier was killed by a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan.
In southern Zabul province, Afghan and coalition troops clashed with
insurgents in Daychopan district, killing four suspected Taliban and
wounding four others. Afghan troops destroyed a heroin laboratory in
Helmand province after battling Taliban fighters guarding the
facility.
(AP, 8/27/07)
2007 Aug 26, A road bridge
linking Tajikistan and Afghanistan paid for by the US was officially
opened at a ceremony attended by the presidents of the two Central
Asian countries.
(AP, 8/26/07)
2007 Aug 26, Australia released
a new draft citizenship test. The 40-page document outlining
citizenship application procedures said migrants who want to become
Australian citizens will have to be able to correctly identify the
country's prime minister and national flower.
(AFP, 8/26/07)
2007 Aug 26, Massive fires
consuming large areas of southern Greece for a third day raced
toward the site of the ancient Olympics, engulfing villages and
forests as the flames reached one of the most revered sites of
antiquity.
(AP, 8/26/07)
2007 Aug 26, Iran vowed to use
a new 2,000-pound "smart" bomb against its enemies and unveiled mass
production of the new weapon.
(AP, 8/26/07)
2007 Aug 26, Iraqi PM Nouri
al-Maliki lashed out at American critics, saying Sen. Hillary
Clinton and other Democrats who had called for his ouster should
"come to their senses." A US helicopter attacked two Kurdish police
outposts, killing four policemen and wounding eight. A spokesman for
the Kurdish Peshmerga militia believed the attack was mistaken
friendly fire. Waves of Shiite pilgrims descended on Karbala for the
Shabaniyah festival marking the birth of the 9th century Hidden
Imam. A woman making the 50-mile trek from Baghdad was shot to death
by men in a passing car in the southwest of the capital.
(AP, 8/26/07)(AP, 8/26/08)
2007 Aug 26, In northwestern
Pakistan a suicide bomber in a car killed four policemen and wounded
two in an attack in Swat.
(Reuters, 8/26/07)
2007 Aug 26, The moderate
Palestinian government began implementing the closure of 103
institutions in the West Bank and Gaza in an apparent crackdown
against the Islamic Hamas.
(AP, 8/27/07)
2007 Aug 26, In Manila,
Philippines, economic ministers of Southeast Asian countries (ASEAN)
and China agreed to strengthen product standards and safety. The
move follows recalls of several tainted Chinese products from
international markets.
(AP, 8/26/07)
2007 Aug 26, In Somalia
bombings and grenade attacks killed two schoolboys and three other
people in Mogadishu.
(AP, 8/26/07)
2007 Aug 26, In eastern Uganda
a truck carrying soldiers and their families overturned, killing 72
people and injuring 40 others.
(AP, 8/27/07)
2008 Aug 26, The Pentagon said
two men were cleared for release to Algeria from Guantanamo, Cuba,
where about 260 detainees remained.
(AP, 8/26/08)
2008 Aug 26, In the 2nd day of
the Democratic Convention in Denver Sen. Hillary Clinton endorsed
Sen. Barack Obama for the US presidential nomination.
(SFC, 8/27/08, p.A1)
2008 Aug 26, California’s Gov.
Schwarzenegger signed a measure for a statewide bullet train system
to be placed on the November ballot.
(SFC, 8/27/08, p.A1)
2008 Aug 26, California
Attorney General Jerry Brown said he expected raids on medical pot
clubs that sell for big profits in the Bay Area. He had recently
issued guidelines on sales of medical marijuana and state officials
over the weekend raided a club in Los Angeles County.
(SFC, 8/27/08, p.B1)
2008 Aug 26, An Ohio jury
convicted Andrew Siemaszko, a former nuclear plant engineer, of
hiding information in 2001 about reactor corrosion at the
Davis-Besse plant along Lake Erie. Siemaszko’s attorney’s said the
plant’s owner set him up as a scapegoat because he spoke out about
safety concerns.
(WSJ, 8/27/08, p.A1)
2008 Aug 26, A UN team in
Herat, Afghanistan, said it found "convincing evidence" that 90
civilians, including 60 children, were killed in US-led air strikes
last week. Aerial bombardment was clearly evident with some 78
houses having been totally destroyed and serious damage to many
others. Kazuya Ito (31), a Japanese aid worker, was kidnapped at
gunpoint with his driver near Jalalabad. Ito was found killed the
next day. A group of Taliban fighters attacked a police checkpoint
in Nad Ali district of Helmand province, sparking a clash that
killed 18 militants. An air strike killed 30 Taliban in southeastern
Afghanistan close to the border with Pakistan.
(AP, 8/26/08)(AP, 8/27/08)(Reuters, 8/27/08)
2008 Aug 26, Brazil asked the
WTO for the right to impose $4 billion in annual sanctions against
US goods and services to penalize the US for handing out illegal
cotton subsidies.
(WSJ, 8/27/08, p.A9)
2008 Aug 26, In Brazil Olavo
Egydio Setubal (b.1923), industrialist and former mayor of Sao
Paulo, died. His industrial and financial empire, which grew up from
a metal shop, included Banco Itau Holding Financiera SA, Brazil’s
2nd largest bank.
(www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=29439734)(WSJ,
8/30/08, p.A5)
2008 Aug 26, In southwest China
explosions ripped through a chemical plant, killing at least 11
people, injuring dozens and forcing the evacuation of thousands of
nearby residents.
(AP, 8/26/08)
2008 Aug 26, In Dubai a
fire in a building packed with foreign laborers killed 11 people. 10
of the victims were Indian.
(AP, 8/27/08)
2008 Aug 26, Hurricane Gustav
hit Haiti and triggered flooding and landslides that killed 15
people before weakening to a tropical storm.
(AP, 8/27/08)(SFC, 8/28/08, p.A2)
2008 Aug 26, In India
Christians clashed with Hindu mobs who attacked churches, and eight
people died in the violence in Kandhamal district of Orissa state, a
region known for deadly religious fighting.
(AP, 8/27/08)
2008 Aug 26, Andhra Chiranjeevi
(53), Indian film star, launched his People’s Rule Party
(Prajarajyam) in southern Andhra Pradesh state.
(Econ, 3/14/09, p.43)
2008 Aug 26, In Iraq a suicide
bomber attacked police recruits in Jalula in Diyala province killing
28 people and wounding 25. A bomb planted in a parked car killed 5
people and wounded 8, including three policemen, in the city of
Tikrit.
(AP, 8/26/08)(SFC, 8/27/08, p.A7)
2008 Aug 26, Israel ordered the
Gaza Strip's border crossings closed after militants violated a
cease-fire by launching two rockets the previous evening, bringing
to 46 the number of rockets launched by militants since the truce
began.
(AP, 8/26/08)
2008 Aug 26, Malaysia's
opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim won a "landslide" victory in a
by-election to return him to parliament, and said he was on track to
oust a weakened government. The Malays National Organization (UMNO)
and its allies had ruled since independence in 1957.
(AFP, 8/26/08)(Econ, 8/30/08, p.39)
2008 Aug 26, A Maltese fishing
trawler rescued the migrants. Authorities said the survivors first
told the fishermen that 10 people were missing, but later said as
many as 70 people from Somalia, Eritrea and Sudan made the sea
voyage with them.
(AP, 8/28/08)
2008 Aug 26, In Mexico 3
decapitated bodies were found in an empty lot on the eastern
outskirts of Tijuana. The bodies had messages written on their backs
in permanent marker saying they worked for "the weakened
'engineer,'" a nickname for Francisco Sanchez Arellano, a top
lieutenant in Tijuana's powerful Arellano Felix drug cartel. A day
earlier 2 bodies were found in Tijuana, one with the head placed on
the upper back.
(AP, 8/27/08)(SFC, 8/27/08, p.A11)
2008 Aug 26, North Korea said
it has suspended work on disabling its nuclear facilities as of
August 14 and is considering restoration of the Yongbyon reactor
that can make material for atomic bombs, accusing the US of
violating a disarmament deal by failing to delist North Korea as a
state sponsor of terrorism.
(AP, 8/26/08)
2008 Aug 26, In Pakistan an
explosion on the outskirts of Islamabad killed at least seven people
and wounded 20. Around midnight 75-100 militants attacked the Tiarza
Fort in South Waziristan. The attack was repulsed with 11 militants
killed.
(AP, 8/27/08)(SFC, 8/28/08, p.A5)
2008 Aug 26, Russia formally
recognized Abkhazia and South Ossetia, the breakaway Georgian
territories at the heart of its war with Georgia, heightening
tensions with the West as the US dispatched a military ship bearing
aid to a port city still patrolled by Russian troops. In a direct
challenge to Russia, the US announced it intends to deliver
humanitarian aid to the beleaguered Georgian port city of Poti,
which Russian troops still control through checkpoints on the city's
outskirts.
(AP, 8/26/08)
2008 Aug 26, In Sri Lanka
ground battles in the northern regions of Jaffna, Vavuniya,
Mullaitivu, Kilinochchi and Welioya killed 27 rebels and two
soldiers.
(AP, 8/27/08)
2008 Aug 26, Sudanese hijackers
commandeered the Boeing 737 jetliner, which was carrying 95
passengers and crew, soon after it took off from the southern Darfur
town of Nyala, not far from a refugee camp that the Sudanese
military attacked a day earlier.
(AP, 8/27/08)
2008 Aug 26, In Thailand
thousands of anti-government demonstrators pushed into the Thai
prime minister's office compound and rallied outside several
ministries. A violent masked mob from the same protest group forced
a state-run TV station off the air.
(AP, 8/26/08)
2008 Aug 26, Zimbabwe's
opposition heckled Robert Mugabe in an unprecedented show of
defiance when the president opened parliament with traditional pomp
and his familiar denunciations of the West.
(AP, 8/26/08)
2009 Aug 26, In California
Phillip Garrido (58) and his wife Nancy (55) were arrested for their
1991 kidnapping of Jaycee Lee Dugard (11) from a bus stop
outside her home in South Lake Tahoe. Police freed Dugard and her 2
children who were fathered by Dugard, who had kept them in tents in
a fenced, backyard compound in Antioch, Ca.
(AP, 8/28/09)
2009 Aug 26, In southern
California the Station Fire began in Los Angeles County and soon
grew to become the largest wildfire in county history. It did not
get contained until Sep 1.
(SFC, 11/14/09, p.A4)
2009 Aug 26, Dominick Dunne
(b.1925), novelist and Vanity Fair columnist, died. His books
included “The Two Mrs. Grenvilles” (1985), based on the 1955
Woodward murder case.
(SFC, 8/27/09, p.A9)
2009 Aug 26, Ellie Greenwich
(b.1940), songwriter, died. Her string of hits in the 1960s included
“Da Doo Ron Ron” (1963), “Chapel of Love” (1964) and “Be My Baby”
(1963). Many of her songs were done in collaboration with producer
Phil Spector and her husband Jeff Barry.
(SFC, 8/28/09, p.D5)
2009 Aug 26, Afghan President
Hamid Karzai widened his lead after officials released more partial
vote results. The latest returns boosted Karzai's standing to 44.8%
and Abdullah’s at 35.1%. The count was based on returns from 17% of
polling stations nationwide. In eastern Afghanistan a firefight left
as many as 12 militants dead. Reports of the death toll varied
widely. A spokesman of the governor of Paktika province said 12
militants died, while police said two were killed. The US military
did not report any deaths. 7 insurgents, including a wounded
commander, were detained.
(AP, 8/26/09)(AP, 8/27/09)
2009 Aug 26, Australia's
highest court ruled that the country's military justice system is
unconstitutional because its judges are not independent of the
military command, throwing into doubt 171 cases judged in the past
two years.
(AP, 8/26/09)
2009 Aug 26, A Brazilian
prosecutor in Amazonas state accused Wallace Souza, a former police
officer and TV crime show host, of attempting to have a federal
judge assassinated in 2007. Souza was already accused of setting up
at least 5 killings to boost his TV ratings. Souza was soon kicked
out of the state legislature and on Oct 5 police issued a warrant
for his arrest.
(SFC, 8/27/09, p.A2)(AP, 10/7/09)
2009 Aug 26, In Cambodia a
Phnom Penh Municipal Court Judge found Michael James Dodd of
Washington, DC, guilty of soliciting sex from a 14-year-old girl. He
was arrested in October 2008 at his rented house in Phnom Penh, in
the girl's company. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison and
ordered to pay 20 million riel ($4,878) in compensation to the
girl's family.
(AP, 8/26/09)
2009 Aug 26, China’s state
media reported that the majority of transplanted organs in China
come from executed prisoners in a rare disclosure about an industry
often criticized for being opaque and unethical.
(AP, 8/26/09)
2009 Aug 26, In China six
members of an alleged "terror gang" were detained in the suburbs of
the city of Aksu, 675km (420 miles) southwest of Urumqi. The
Ministry of Public Security later said a "large quantity" of
materials and tools needed to make explosive devices was seized.
(AFP, 9/16/09)
2009 Aug 26, In Colombia hooded
men in uniforms without insignias shot and killed 12 members of the
Awa indigenous group, including five children, on a reserve in a
region plagued by the cocaine trade.
(AP, 8/26/09)
2009 Aug 26, In the Republic of
Congo 7 people, including five Russian crew members, were killed
when a cargo plane crashed on the outskirts of Brazzaville.
(AFP, 8/26/09)
2009 Aug 26, In Greece the
fires around Athens were put out or contained to small areas after
razing 80 square miles (210 square km) of forest and hillside scrub,
an area more than three times the size of Manhattan. It was the most
destructive blaze in decades in the Attica region, and the worst in
Greece since wildfires in 2007 killed 76 people and blackened 1,060
square miles (2,750 square km).
(AP, 8/26/09)
2009 Aug 26, Central America's
development bank said it is freezing credits to Honduras following
the June 28 coup that ousted President Manuel Zelaya. Many other
multilateral agencies and foreign governments have put Honduras aid
projects on hold, in the face of the interim government's refusal to
reinstate Zelaya.
(AP, 8/26/09)
2009 Aug 26, A small Indonesian
ferry sank off the resort island of Bali, killing nine people while
three others are still missing.
(Reuters, 8/26/09)
2009 Aug 26, Abdul-Aziz
al-Hakim (b.1950), the scion of a revered clerical family, died of
lung cancer in Iran, the country that was long his key ally. He
channeled rising Shiite Muslim power after the fall of Saddam
Hussein to become one of Iraq's most influential politicians.
(AP, 8/26/09)
2009 Aug 26, In Mexico gunmen
in Ciudad Juarez killed Pablo Pasillas (33), the aide of a Mexican
federal agent investigating the death of a crime reporter, a month
after the first agent assigned to the case was shot dead. In a
separate attack, gunmen in the western town of Tlaquepaque wounded
Maximiano Barbosa, the founder of Mexico's most influential debtors
group, as well as his son.
(AP, 8/27/09)
2009 Aug 26, Nigerian
authorities arrested two dozen people wanted over massive debts owed
to troubled banks in a scandal that has rocked the country's
financial industry.
(AFP, 8/26/09)
2009 Aug 26, In Bucharest,
Romania, fans at first politely applauded the Roma performers
sharing a stage with Madonna. Then the pop star condemned widespread
discrimination against Roma, or Gypsies, and the cheers gave way to
jeers. Official Romanian data put the local Roma population at
500,000.
(AP, 8/27/09)
2009 Aug 26, Top Russian
officials acknowledged for the first time that the Arctic Sea, a
ship hijacked last month in the Baltic Sea, might have been carrying
a suspicious cargo, deepening the mystery around its seizure.
(AFP, 8/26/09)
2009 Aug 26, Russia, worried
about North Korean missile and nuclear tests, said it has deployed
sophisticated air defenses in its Far East region to protect against
any potential test mishap.
(AFP, 8/26/09)
2009 Aug 26, Somali pirates in
the Gulf of Aden fired at a US Navy helicopter as it made a
surveillance flight over the Win Far, a Taiwanese-flagged fishing
vessel seized in April, the first such attack by pirates on an
American military aircraft.
(AP, 8/27/09)
2009 Aug 26, In South Africa
soldiers, demanding higher wages, tried to scale the fence at the
Union Buildings where President Jacob Zuma has his office. Police
used teargas, rubber bullets and water cannons to disperse the
soldiers, who marched despite a court order barring their protest.
(AP, 9/1/09)
2009 Aug 26, In Spain Bunol's
town hall estimated more than 40,000 people, some from as far away
as Japan and Australia, took up arms with 100 tons of tomatoes in
the yearly food fight known as the "Tomatina," now in its 64th year.
(AP, 8/26/09)
2009 Aug 26, In Thailand
suspected Muslim insurgents detonated a car bomb outside a crowded
open-air restaurant during lunchtime, wounding 26 people.
(SFC, 8/26/09, p.A2)
2009 Aug 26, Doctors at
Zimbabwe's state hospitals called off a crippling two-week strike,
broken by the reality that the government had no money to meet their
wage demands.
(AFP, 8/26/09)
northern city of Kunduz. Police suspected the attackers were
jihadists from Russia's Chechnya region who are active in the
surrounding province, also called Kunduz. The attack killed 8 Afghan
police. A roadside blast tore through a crowded market, killing 3
police and 2 civilians in Archi town, Kunduz province. In eastern
Ghazni province's Andar district, two Afghan guards working for a
private security company were killed in a Taliban attack on a supply
convoy. Two attackers were killed, including a senior regional
commander, Mullah Mohmmadi.
(AP, 8/26/10)(AP, 8/27/10)
2010 Aug 26, Bolivia’s
government said it has confiscated 280,000 more acres of allegedly
fallow or ill-gotten land. The seizure included 51,000 acres from
the ranching company of prominent opposition figure Osvaldo
Monasterio.
(SFC, 8/27/10, p.A2)
2010 Aug 26, Interpol said
police have seized about 10 metric tons of counterfeit medicines and
arrested 80 people in a sweep across eastern Africa. Authorities
across Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and Zanzibar took
part in the bust.
(Reuters, 8/26/10)
2010 Aug 26, Asil Nadir (69), a
Turkish Cypriot businessman, returned to London to face charges of
fraud. He had fled Britain almost two decades ago following the
spectacular collapse of his business empire. Nadir fled the country
in May of 1993, four months before he was scheduled to face trial.
(AP, 8/26/10)
2010 Aug 26, Canada-based
Research in Motion said it was willing to work with India to support
the country's needs to lawfully access encrypted services on the
company's Blackberry smartphone.
(Reuters, 8/26/10)
2010 Aug 26, The archbishop of
Paris joined the tide of criticism over France's crackdown on
Gypsies, calling it a "circus," while the EU's justice commissioner
denounced French officials' discriminatory tone about the vulnerable
minority.
(AP, 8/26/10)
2010 Aug 26, In Germany Nadja
Benaissa (28), a member of girl group No Angels, broke down in tears
after a German court handed her a two-year suspended sentence for
infecting a former sex partner with the AIDS HIV virus.
(AFP, 8/26/10)
2010 Aug 26, Two Greek fighter
jets crashed in mid-air during a training exercise south of the
island of Crete, killing one of the three crew members and leaving
the other two injured.
(AP, 8/26/10)
2010 Aug 26, An Iranian
government newspaper reported that 5 rebels and 2 members of the
Revolutionary Guards have been killed in clashes in Iran's Kordestan
province near the Iraqi border.
(AFP, 8/26/10)
2010 Aug 26, In Iraq insurgents
killed six members of a government-allied Sunni militia using a
roadside bomb and ambush near the town of Muqdadiyah.
(AP, 8/26/10)
2010 Aug 26, A Malaysian man
was arrested after his bag bursting with 95 live boa constrictors
broke open on a luggage conveyer belt at Kuala Lumpur International
Airport. Keng Liang "Anson" Wong (52), who had been previously
convicted of wildlife trafficking in the United States, later
pleaded guilty to wildlife smuggling.
(AP, 9/4/10)
2010 Aug 26, In Mexico at least
16 people were injured, some seriously, after a grenade was thrown
into a crowded bar in the internationally-popular beach resort of
Puerto Vallarta. 5 of the injured were detained as part of an
investigation. Four of those detained each lost a leg in the
explosion.
(Reuters, 8/26/10)(AP, 8/26/10)
2010 Aug 26, North Korea's
reclusive leader Kim Jong Il was in China on his second visit this
year to his country's biggest source of diplomatic and financial
support.
(AP, 8/26/10)
2010 Aug 26, Nigerian President
Goodluck Jonathan laid out plans to privatize most of the country's
power sector, as corruption and mismanagement continued to cause
daily outages in the oil-rich nation.
(AFP, 8/26/10)
2010 Aug 26, Pakistani Taliban
spokesman Azam Tariq claimed that the United States and other
countries were not really focused on providing aid to flood victims
but had other "intentions" he did not specify. The death toll in the
floods stood around 1,500 people. Officials ordered nearly half a
million people to evacuate towns as rising floods threaten further
havoc.
(AP, 8/26/10)(AFP, 8/26/10)
2010 Aug 26, In the Philippines
fire broke out late at night, possibly when gasoline a man was
pouring into a container near an open stove caught alight, in two
crowded villages in Navotas city, north of the capital Manila. 2
people were killed and thousands left homeless.
(AP, 8/27/10)
2010 Aug 26, Puerto Rican
teachers walked off their jobs in a one-day strike over staff and
funding levels, giving students a day off barely 3 weeks into the
new academic year.
(AP, 8/26/10)
2010 Aug 26, In South Africa
thousands of civil servants took to the streets across the country
in a peaceful demonstration for higher wages. Police management
tried to bar officers from joining the nationwide strike entering
its second week.
(AP, 8/26/10)
2010 Aug 26, A Sri Lankan
housemaid, L. T. Ariyawathi (49), was admitted to a hospital and
planned to undergo surgery to remove 24 nails embedded in her body.
Ariyawathi said her employer in Saudi Arabia had inflicted the
injuries on her as a punishment. The woman traveled to Saudi Arabia
in March and returned home last week, complaining of abuse by her
employer.
(AFP, 8/26/10)
2010 Aug 26, Venezuelan
authorities seized more than 4.4 tons (4 metric tons) of cocaine at
a ranch after F-16 fighter jets intercepted a plane that was flying
to pick up the load.
(AP, 8/26/10)
2010 Aug 26, Yemeni Shiite
rebels signed an agreement with the government laying out a
timetable for implementing previous accords. The agreement was
signed in Doha, Qatar.
(AFP, 8/26/10)
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