Today in History - May 4
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For Asia History: https://www.asiaobserver.org/category/news/on-this-day-in-asian-history
1471 May 4, The Yorkists defeated the Lancastrians in the Battle of Tewkesbury between the English House of Lancaster and House of York. King Edward IV routed the forces of ex-queen Margaret. The Lancastrian forces were led by Edmund Beaufort, 4th Duke of Somerset. Edward, the 17-year-old prince of Wales, was killed at the battle of Tewkesbury.
(www.britainexpress.com/History/battles/tewkesbury.htm)(MH, 12/96)(HN, 5/4/99)
1493 May 4, The Discovery Doctrine, a legal doctrine claiming the right and duty of Christian states to rule newly discovered territories and their peoples, was first issued by Pope Alexander VI regarding the Americas. The Papal Bull Inter caetera ("Among other [works]") granted to the Catholic Majesties of Ferdinand and Isabella (as sovereigns of Castile) all lands to the "west and south" of a pole-to-pole line 100 leagues west and south of any of the islands of the Azores or the Cape Verde islands. “Inter Caetera" was amended in Sep. granting Spain the right to hold lands to the “western regions and to India." The Patronata Real granted the Spanish throne the privilege and duty of overseeing propagation of Christianity among Spain’s subjects in the New World.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inter_caetera)(SFC, 3/5/11, p.E3)
1604 May 4, Claudio Merulo (71), Italian organist, composer, died.
(MC, 5/4/02)
1607 May 4, Jamestown was established by the Virginia Company of London as "James Fort" on May 4 O.S. (May 14, 1607 N.S.) and was considered permanent after a brief abandonment in 1610.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamestown,_Virginia)
1626 May 4, Dutch explorer Peter Minuit (~1594-1638), director-general of New Netherlands, bought Manhattan Island for 60 guilders (about $24 in 1839 dollars) worth of cloth and buttons. Minuit conducted the transaction with Seyseys, chief of the Canarsees, who were only too happy to accept valuable merchandise in exchange for an island that was actually mostly controlled by the Weckquaesgeeks. The Sixty guilders were valued at approximately $1,060 in 2013. The site of the deal was later marked by Peter Minuit Plaza at South Street and Whitehall Street.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Minuit)(AP, 5/4/97)(HN, 5/4/98)(WSJ, 11/19/99, p.W10)
1631 May 4, Mary I Henriette Stuart, daughter of Charles I (later queen of England), was born.
(MC, 5/4/02)
1715 May 4, A French manufacturer debuted the first folding umbrella.
(HN, 5/4/98)
1728 May 4, Georg F. Handel's opera "Tolomeo, re di Egitto," premiered in London.
(MC, 5/4/02)
1752 May 4, Pieter Snyers (71), Flemish painter, engraver, died.
(MC, 5/4/02)
1776 May 4, Rhode Island declared its freedom from England, two months before the Declaration of Independence was adopted.
(AP, 5/4/97)(HN, 5/4/98)
1780 May 4, American Academy of Arts & Science was founded.
(MC, 5/4/02)
1783 May 4, In India Tipu Sultan was enthroned as the ruler of Mysore after the death of Haider Ali in a simple ceremony at Bednur.
(www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20080048779)
1795 May 4, Thousands of rioters entered jails in Lyons, France, and massacred 99 Jacobin prisoners.
(HN, 5/4/99)
1796 May 4, Horace Mann, "the father of American Public Education" educator and author, was born.
(HN, 5/4/99)
1814 May 4, Napoleon Bonaparte disembarked at Portoferraio on the island of Elba in the Mediterranean.
(HN, 5/4/99)
1814 May 4, Bourbon reign was restored in France. Louis XVIII was crowned as successor to his guillotined brother.
(MC, 5/4/02)
1820 May 4, Joseph Whitaker, bookseller and publisher, was born. He founded Whitaker's Almanac.
(HN, 5/4/99)
1825 May 4, Thomas Henry Huxley (d.1895), British biologist, naturalist and author, was born. "God give me strength to face a fact though it slay me." "My experience of the world is that things left to themselves don't get right." His work includes the collected Essays in nine volumes: 1. Method and Results, 2. Darwiniana, 3. Science and Education, 4. Science and the Hebrew Tradition, 5. Science and the Christian Tradition, 6. Hume, with Helps to the Study of Berkeley, 7. Man’s Place in Nature, 8. Discourses, Biological and Geological, 9. Evolution and Ethics and Other Essays. In 1997 Adrian Desmond wrote the biography: “Huxley." “God give me strength to face a fact though it slay me."
(OAPOC-TH, p.71)(WSJ, 10/10/97, p.A20)(AP, 11/1/97)(AP, 1/26/99)(HN, 5/4/01)
1826 May 4, Frederick Church, US romantic landscape painter (Hudson River School), was born.
(MC, 5/4/02)
1827 May 4, John Hanning Speke, English explorer, was born. He discovered Lake Victoria and the source of the Nile.
(HN, 5/4/99)
1846 May 4, Michigan ended its death penalty.
(MC, 5/4/02)
1850 May 4, A 2nd great fire broke out in San Francisco on Portsmouth Square. It consumed 16 blocks and 300 buildings with damages estimated at $4 million.
(SFC, 12/24/99, p.A24)(SFC, 4/17/21, p.B3)
1851 May 4, The Sydney Ducks set fire to a store on San Francisco’s Portsmouth Square. Most of the dwellings on Telegraph Hill were destroyed. The heart of SF was destroyed and some 2000 buildings burned down. This led to the formation of the secret Committee of Vigilance, which hung several criminals and drove others out of the city. Remnants from Hoff's store, built on a wharf over the bay, were found in 1986 during excavations for the Embarcadero West 33-story high-rise. Damage was estimated at $12 million.
(SFC, 12/24/99, p.A24)(SFC, 11/27/00, p.A18)(SFC, 10/13/18, p.C1)(SFC, 4/17/21, p.B3)
1851 May 4, The 1840-ship General Harrison burned to the water line. It was salvaged for parts, buried and not seen again until 2001 when construction at Battery and Clay revealed its remains. The whaling ship Niantic, already converted to a waterfront hotel, burned and sank into the bay. The Niantic Hotel was rebuilt and operated until 1872. In 1977 new construction uncovered the Niantic’s burned remains.
(SFC, 9/8/01, p.A11)(SFC, 2/4/05, p.E16)(SFC, 2/17/18, p.C1)
1855 May 4, Camille Pleyel (66), Austrian piano builder, composer, died.
(MC, 5/4/02)
1858 May 4, In the Mexican War of Reform liberals established their capital at Vera Cruz.
(MC, 5/4/02)
1862 May 4, Battle at Williamsburg, Virginia. [see May 5]
(MC, 5/4/02)
1862 May 4, At Yorktown, VA., McClellan halted his troop before town as it was full of armed land mines left by CS Brig. general Gabrial Rains.
(MC, 5/4/02)
1863 May 4, Battle of Chancellorsville ended when the Union Army retreated.
(HN, 5/4/98)
1863 May 4, War correspondents Richard T. Colburn, Junius H. Brown and Albert Dean Richardson were captured enroute to Grant’s headquarters by a Confederate patrol near Vicksburg, Miss. Colburn was soon released but Brown and Richardson were sent to Libby Prison in Richmond, Va., and later to Salisbury Prison in North Carolina. They managed to escape in Dec 1864 and arrived in Knoxville, Tenn., on Jan 13, 1865.
(ON, 4/03, p.12)
1864 May 4, Ulysses S. Grant crossed Rapidan and began his duel with Robert E. Lee’s Confederate army.
(HN, 5/4/98)
1865 May 4, Abraham Lincoln was buried in a temporary tomb in Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield, Illinois.
(SFEC, 3/22/98, p.T4)(www.state.il.us/HPA/hs/Tomb.htm)
1865 May 4, Battle of Mobile, AL. [see Apr 11,14]
(MC, 5/4/02)
1874 May 4, Frank Conrad, electrical engineer and broadcasting pioneer, was born.
(HN, 5/4/01)
1881 May 4, Aleksandr F. Kerenski, Russian premier (1917) Predecessor to Bolshevist coup), was born.
(MC, 5/4/02)
1884 May 4, Agnes Fay Morgan, American nutritionist and biochemist, was born.
(HN, 5/4/01)
1884 May 4, Ferdinand Ward came by the NYC home of Pres. Ulysses S. Grant and told him that the Marine National Bank was having temporary difficulties because of a large unexpected withdrawal by one of its clients. He asked Grant if he could come up with $150,000 for only 24 hours and by Monday or Tuesday the situation would be all cleared up. Grant, that same day, limped from his home and went to see his friend William Henry Vanderbilt. He asked Vanderbilt to lend him $150,000, telling him the same story Ward had fabricated. Vanderbilt told Grant he did not care one bit about the Marine National Bank, but that he would be pleased to make a personal loan to Grant for the amount requested.
(http://faculty.css.edu/mkelsey/usgrant/lastyears.html)
1886 May 4, At Haymarket Square in Chicago, a labor demonstration for an 8-hour workday turned into a riot when a bomb exploded. Seven policemen were killed and some 60 others injured. Only one policeman was killed in the strike. 3 labor leaders were executed Nov 10, 1887, for the bombing. The Haymarket affair is generally considered to have been an important influence on the origin of international May Day observances for workers.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haymarket_Riot)(AP, 5/4/97)(WSJ, 2/6/98, p.A20)
1891 May 4, The schooner-barge Atlanta carrying a load of coal sank in a storm off Deer Park, Michigan. In 2022 it was discovered in Lake Superior off Michigan's Upper Peninsula.
(AP, 3/3/22)(https://tinyurl.com/yckudcvj)
1891 May 4, Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Conan Doyle’s fictional detective, "died" at Reichenbach Falls.
(MC, 5/4/02)
1904 May 4, The United States took over construction of the Panama Canal.
(AP, 5/4/08)
1910 May 4, Tel Aviv was founded.
(MC, 5/4/02)
1911 May 4, In San Francisco Police chief Seymour instructed Capt. Thomas Duke of Central Station to notify the proprietors of brothels that $2 per day would be the maximum they would be allowed to charge the 100 prostitutes at 633 Jackson and 719 Commercial Street. Current charges for the women were $5 per day.
(SSFC, 5/1/11, DB p.46)
1912 May 4, More than ten thousand women and about a thousand men marched down Fifth Avenue in NYC to support woman's suffrage.
(NYT, 5/5/1912, p1)
1916 May 4, Responding to a demand from Pres. Wilson, Germany agreed to limit its submarine warfare, averting a diplomatic break with Washington. However, Germany resumed unrestricted submarine warfare the following year.
(AP, 5/4/07)
1919 May 4, Some 3,000 young scholars from 13 colleges and universities rallied at Tiananmen Square to protest the loss of Shandong province to the Japanese under the Versailles Treaty at the Paris Peace Conference. German concessions in China were bequeathed to Japan. Among the protestors were people who helped form the Communist Party.
(SFC, 6/25/98, p.A8)(WSJ, 5/17/99, p.A21)(Econ, 5/3/08, p.13)
1923 May 4, In Vienna, Austria, bloody street battles took place between Nazis, socialists and police.
(MC, 5/4/02)
1924 May 4, The summer Olympics opened in Paris. The French rugby team beat the Rumanians 61-3.
(Ind, 2/16/02, 6A)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1924_Summer_Olympics)
1924 May 4, Fascists and communists gained power in the German Republic elections.
(MC, 5/4/02)
1927 May 4, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was incorporated. [see May 11] Louis B. Mayer, Mayer and three of his guests – actor Conrad Nagel, director Fred Niblo and producer Fred Beetson, had initiated discussions for the organization earlier in the year.
(http://www.oscars.org/academy/history-organization/history.html)(AP, 5/4/97)
1927 May 4, The first balloon flight over 40,000 feet was made.
(HN, 5/4/98)
1928 May 4, Maynard Ferguson, jazz trumpeter (Roulette), was born in Verdun, Quebec.
(MC, 5/4/02)
1928 May 4, Hosni Mubarak, Egyptian president (1981-2011), was born in the village of Kafr el-Moseilha in the Nile delta province of Menoufia.
(AP, 7/9/04)(SFC, 2/12/11, p.A4)
1928 May 4, Hennie Youngman, comedian, married Sadie Cohen. They met in a Kresge’s 5 & 10 cent store in Brooklyn where they both worked. He later made famous the line: “Take my wife... Please!"
(SFEM, 1/25/98, p.66)
1929 May 4, Audrey Hepburn (Edda van Heemstra Hepburn-Rusten), Belgian-born actress, was born. She won an Oscar for her role Roman Holiday and later became a Special Ambassador for UNICEF.
(HN, 5/4/99)
1930 May 4, Roberta Peters, operatic soprano (NY Met), was born in NYC.
(MC, 5/4/02)
1930 May 4, In India Mahatma Gandhi was arrested by the British.
(HN, 5/4/98)
1932 May 4, Mobster Al Capone, convicted of income-tax evasion, entered the federal penitentiary in Atlanta. Capone was later transferred to Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay.
(AP, 5/4/08)
1933 May 4, Pulitzer prize was awarded to Archibald Macleish (Conquistador).
(MC, 5/4/02)
1936 May 4, El Cordobes (Manuel Benitez), Spanish matador, was born.
(MC, 5/4/02)
1938 May 4, Carl Von Ossietzky (b.1889), German pacifist, anti-fascist writer and 1935 Nobel Peace Prize winner, succumbed to tuberculosis and from the after-effects of the abuse he suffered in the concentration camps.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_von_Ossietzky)(Econ 7/15/17, p.38)
1939 May 4, Amos Oz, Israeli novelist (The Black Box, The Third State), was born.
(HN, 5/4/01)
1942 May 4, The U.S. began food rationing.
(HN, 5/4/98)
1942 May 4, The Battle of the Coral Sea, the first naval clash fought entirely with carrier aircraft, began during World War II.
(AP, 5/4/97)(HN, 5/4/98)
1945 May 4, John F. Kennedy, correspondent for the Hearst Newspapers, filed a dispatch on the founding of the UN in San Francisco in which he said: Any organization drawn up here will be merely a skeleton. Its powers will be limited… The hope is however, that this skeleton will put on flesh as time goes by.
(SSFC, 6/26/05, p.F6)
1945 May 4, German forces in the Netherlands, Denmark and northwest Germany agreed to surrender.
(AP, 5/4/00)
1946 May 4, A two-day riot at Alcatraz prison in San Francisco Bay ended after five people were killed.
(AP, 5/4/97)
1948 May 4, The Hague Court of Justice convicted Hans Rauter (SS) of war crimes.
(MC, 5/4/02)
1949 May 4, Graham Swift, British novelist (The Sweet Shop Owner, Out of this World), was born.
(HN, 5/4/01)
1953 May 4, Pulitzer prize was awarded to E. Hemingway (Old Man & The Sea).
(MC, 5/4/02)
1955 May 4, Georges Enescu (73), Romanian-French violist, composer (Oedipe), died.
(MC, 5/4/02)
1957 May 4, It was reported that NATO has warned the Soviet Union that it would meet any attack with all available meads including nuclear weapons.
(SFC, 5/4/09, p.B2)
1957 May 4, The Anne Frank Foundation formed in Amsterdam.
(MC, 5/4/02)
1959 May 4, The 1st Annual Grammy Awards were held in Los Angeles. They recognized musical accomplishments by performers for the year 1958. "Nel Blu Dipinto di Blu (Volare)" – Domenico Modugno won as record of the year.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1st_Annual_Grammy_Awards)
1959 May 4, Randy Travis, country singer (Diggin' Up Bones), was born in Marshville, NC.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randy_Travis)
1959 May 4, Pulitzer prize was awarded to Archibald Macleish (again) for his poetic drama, J.B. (1958) based on the Book of Job.
(https://tinyurl.com/y6ye6g9g)
1961 May 4, A group of 13 CORE civil rights activists, dubbed "Freedom Riders" left Washington, D.C., for New Orleans to challenge racial segregation on buses and in bus terminals.
(AP, 5/4/97)(HN, 5/4/98)(MC, 5/4/02)
1965 May 4, Willie Mays hit his 512th HR and broke Mel Ott's 511 NL record.
(MC, 5/4/02)
1968 May 4, Ismael Valenzuela (1935-2009) rode Forward Pass to victory in the Kentucky Derby.
(SFC, 9/4/09, p.D6)(www.kentuckyderby.com/2009/history/statistics/1951-1975)
1969 May 4, F. Osbert S. Sitwell (b.1892), English poet (Who Killed Cock Robin?), died at castle Montegufoni near Florence, Italy.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osbert_Sitwell)
1970 May 4, At Kent State Univ. on Monday, a peaceful noontime rally was ordered to disburse by guardsmen. At 12:20 p.m., a small group of Guardsmen suddenly wheeled and fired into a group of protesters, killing four and wounding 9-11 others. One wounded student was crippled for life with damage to his spinal column. In the days that followed, hundreds of colleges were shut down by student strikes and more than 100,000 demonstrators marched on Washington, D.C. Twenty-five years after the event the National Guard insisted that it was provoked into attacking the students contrary to eye-witnesses, photographs, and later investigations. Renowned American sculptor George Segal's bronze Abraham and Isaac was commissioned to commemorate the killing of four Vietnam War protesters at Ohio's Kent State University. The finished bronze is now part of Princeton University's modern sculpture garden.
(NPR interview with the crippled survivor 5/4/95)(HFA, '96, p.30)(AP, 5/4/97)(HN, 5/4/98)(HNQ, 8/24/98) (HNPD, 5/4/99)
1970 May 4, The US FCC adopted the prime time access rule (PTAR), to be fully effective as of October 1, 1971. Four months after its adoption, however, the Commission on August 7, 1970, significantly amended the rule, delaying until October 1, 1972, the effective date of the off-network and feature films provisions.
(http://tinyurl.com/5lefgv)
1970 May 4, A dispatch filed from Saigon described looting by US soldiers at the Cambodian town of Snuol. The mention of looting was removed by an editor in New York before the story was transmitted to newspapers in the United States. An AP story was killed by Wes Gallagher (d.1997 at 86), general manager of the new service.
(AP, 7/11/07)(SFC, 10/12/97, p.B5)
1972 May 4, The remains of the ship Gjoe, a converted herring boat used by Roald Amundsen to cross the Northwest Passage (1903-1905), departed San Francisco for Oslo, Norway. A commemorative sculpture was left next to the Beach Chalet at Ocean Beach.
(SFC, 4/17/00, p.D8)(WSJ, 4/18/00, p.A16)(Ind, 4/27/02, 5A)
1973 May 4, The 1st TV network female nudity appeared in Bruce Jay Smith's Steambath (PBS) with Valerie Perrine.
(www.imdb.com/title/tt0167415/trivia)
1976 May 4, Australian PM Malcolm Fraser announced that "Waltzing Matilda" would serve as his country's national anthem at the upcoming Olympic Games.
(AP, 5/4/06)
1977 May 4, A large tornado swept through Pleasant Hill, Mo., hitting the city’s high school and grade school. Only minor injuries occurred due to superb tornado warnings and drills.
(SFC, 5/4/09, p.D8)
1978 May 4, The Hispanic ethnic group was created when the US Office of Management and Budget published the following regulation in the Federal Register: "Directive 15: Race and Ethnic Standards for Federal Statistics and Administrative Reporting" that defined a Hispanic to be "a person of Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Central or South American, or other Spanish culture … In 1981 a US federal law stated that Spaniards are part of the Hispanic group.
(http://family.jrank.org/pages/778/Hispanic-American-Families.html#ixzz0wE9Irnns)
1978 May 4, The South African Air Force (SAAF) engaged in air to ground combat at the Battle of Cassinga in Angola.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_African_Border_War)
1979 May 4, Margaret Thatcher (b.1925), leader of the Conservative Party, was sworn in as Britain's first female prime minister. She continued in office for 3 terms until 1990.
(www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/thatcher_margaret.shtml)
1980 May 4, Marshal Josip Broz Tito (b.1892), Communist dictator of Yugoslavia (1943-1980), died three days before his 88th birthday. He was a Croat and tried to spread the Serbs out over the six Yugoslav republics so that they would not dominate the country. His policy was considered a major cause of the Bosnian war in the '90s. His funeral four days later was attended by presidents, prime ministers and kings from 128 countries, and about 700,000 people.
(AP, 5/4/97)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josip_Broz_Tito)(WSJ, 8/8/95, p. A-10)(WSJ, 6/11/96, p.A14)(Reuters, 5/4/20)
1980 May 4, Nine people were killed at Kinshasa, Zaire (later the Democratic Republic of Congo) during a stampede to attend mass given by Pope John Paul II.
(http://africanhistory.about.com/od/may/a/td0504.htm)
1982 May 4, The British destroyer HMS Sheffield was hit by Exocet rocket off the Falkland Islands. 20 men died and a further 24 were injured in the sinking of the Sheffield, the first British warship to be lost in 37 years.
(http://tinyurl.com/htt3d)
1987 May 4, Pope John Paul II ended his five-day visit to West Germany with a call for religious freedom in the Soviet bloc and praise for those who had opposed the "mass hysteria and propaganda" of the Nazi era.
(AP, 5/4/97)
1988 May 4, As a year-long amnesty program for certain illegal aliens in the United States came to a close, thousands of applicants lined up nationwide on the last day.
(AP, 5/4/98)
1988 May 4, A spectacular explosion occurred at the Shell oil refinery in Norco, La., on the Mississippi river just north of New Orleans. 8 people were killed and over 40 injured.
(http://www.shellfacts.com/Chatterjee_review.html)
1988 May 4, Three French hostages were released in Beirut by pro-Iranian kidnappers.
(AP, 5/4/98)
1989 May 4, Fired White House aide Oliver North was convicted of shredding documents and two other crimes and acquitted of nine other charges stemming from the Iran-Contra affair. The 3 convictions were later overturned on appeal.
(AP, 5/4/99)
1989 May 4, The US launched its Magellan spacecraft to Venus.
{USA, NASA, Venus, Space}
(www.solarviews.com/eng/magellan.htm)
1990 May 4, Latvia's parliament voted 138-0 (1 abstention) for Independence. The Russophone Ravnopraviye (Equal Rights Movement) boycotted this resolution by walking out of parliament.
(http://countrystudies.us/latvia/20.htm)
1990 May 4, The South African government and the African National Congress concluded historic talks in Cape Town with a joint statement agreeing on a "common commitment toward the resolution of the existing climate of violence."
(AP, 5/4/00)
1991 May 4, “Strike the Gold" won the 117th Kentucky Derby.
(AP, 5/4/01)
1991 May 4, President George H.W. Bush suffered shortness of breath while jogging at Camp David; he was rushed to Bethesda Naval Hospital, where doctors found he was experiencing an irregular heartbeat. He was diagnosed with a thyroid condition called Graves Disease.
(AP, 5/4/01)(SSFC, 12/2/18, p.A13)
1991 May 4, Morris K. Udall (d.1998), (Rep-D-Ariz), resigned due to Parkinson's disease.
(http://dizzy.library.arizona.edu/branches/spc/udall/mobio.html)
1992 May 4, Democratic presidential candidate Bill Clinton toured riot-ravaged Los Angeles streets, blaming the destruction on what he called 12 years of Republican neglect.
(AP, 5/4/97)
1992 May 4, India and Russia sign a five-year agreement on trade and economic cooperation.
(www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20080048779)
1993 May 4, The United States handed over control of the relief effort in Somalia to the United Nations.
(AP, 5/4/98)
1994 May 4, India made its 4th developmental launch of ASLV. The 113 kg Stretched Rohini Satellite Series (SROSS-C2) was launched by fourth developmental flight of ASLV-D4 from Sriharikota.
(www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20080048779)
1994 May 4, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO leader Yasser Arafat signed a historic accord on Palestinian autonomy that granted self-rule in the Gaza Strip and Jericho.
(AP, 5/4/97)
1995 May 4, India launched the fourth ASLV-D4 from Sriharikota, successfully placing the SROSS-C2 satellite in orbit.
(www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20080048779)
1995 May 4, An Iranian nuclear official said spent fuel from Iran's Russian-made reactors, potential raw material for nuclear bombs, would be returned to Russia for safeguarding.
(AP, 5/4/00)
1996 May 4, In Alaska Jessica Baggen was raped and murdered after she celebrated her 17th birthday. Her body was found two days later. On August 3, 2020, suspect Steve Branch (66) died by suicide after state police investigators traveled to his home in Austin, Arkansas, to interview him about Baggen’s murder in the city of Sitka.
(NBC News, 8/11/20)
1996 May 4, Grindstone won the Kentucky Derby, giving trainer D. Wayne Lukas a sixth straight victory in a Triple Crown race. Grindstone was injured ahead of the Preakness and retired.
(AP, 5/4/97)(SFC, 5/4/09, p.D6)
1996 May 4, Nigerian and Cameroon forces clashed over the Bakassi region on the fishing and oil-rich Gulf of Guinea.
(SFC, 5/7/96, p.A-10)
1996 May 4, A Sudanese passenger plane crashed and killed all 53 onboard. The plane was a Russian Antonov-24 and had tried to land outside of Khartoum in an area cleared for a new airport because sand covered the runways at Khartoum.
(SFC, 5/5/96, p.A-14)
1997 May 4, IBM's Deep Blue computer defeated world chess champion Garry Kasparov, evening their six-game series at one game apiece.
(AP, 5/4/98)
1997 May 4, Pope John Paul beatified the first Gypsy Jimenez Malla, killed by Republican forces in the 1936 Spanish Civil War. Also beatified were Florentino Asensio Barroso, bishop of Barbastro, Spain, where Malla died; Enrico Rebuschini, a northern Italian priest who died in 1938; and Maria Encarnacion Rosal, a 19th century Guatemalan nun.
(SFC, 5/5/97, p.A8)(AP, 5/4/98)
1998 May 4, The FDA approved the first commercial surgical glue, Tisseel, made by Baxter Labs.
(USAT, 5/4/98, p.10D)
1998 May 4, Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski was given four life sentences plus 30 years by a federal judge in Sacramento, Calif., under a plea agreement that spared him the death penalty.
(AP, 5/4/99)
1998 May 4, The Clinton administration invoked sanctions against North Korea and Pakistan for a secret 1997 missile deal. Pakistan’s military named the acquired missile, Ghauri, after a famous Muslim warrior who slew a Hindu emperor named Prithvi, the name of a Russian made Indian missile.
(SFC, 5/14/98, p.A16)
1998 May 4, In Columbia gunmen killed 21 people in the province of Meta. Some 200 members of a right-wing paramilitary unit laid siege to the village of Puerta Alvira for 3 hours.
(WSJ, 5/6/98, p.A1)
1998 May 4, The IMF resumed lending to Indonesia with the release of almost $1 billion.
(USAT, 5/5/98, p.1B)
1998 May 4, In Vatican City Alois Estermann (43), the pope’s top bodyguard, was shot and killed along with his wife, Gladys Meza Romero (49) in their apartment by Cedrich Tornay (23), who then shot himself. Estermann had just been appointed the head of the Swiss Guards and was killed by Tornay due to damaged professional pride. An investigation was concluded in 1999 and suggested that marijuana and a brain cyst impaired Tornay.
(WSJ, 5/5/98, p.A1)(USAT, 5/6/98, p.6A)(SFC, 2/9/99, p.A10)(AP, 5/4/99)
1998 May 4, From Zimbabwe it was reported that the United Merchant Bank of tycoon Roger Boka was shut down when a government audit found it incapable of paying its debts.
(WSJ, 5/4/98, p.A17)
1999 May 4, Pres. Clinton authorized a Congressional Gold Medal for Rosa Parks.
(SFC, 5/5/99, p.A3)
1999 May 4, Five New York police officers went on trial for the torture of Haitian immigrant Abner Louima. One officer later pleaded guilty; a second was eventually convicted of perjury; the remaining three were acquitted of brutality charges. Two of those three were later convicted of conspiring to obstruct justice; those convictions were overturned.
(AP, 5/4/04)
1999 May 4, Martin Frankel flew to Rome on a chartered jet from White Plains N.Y. with two women, Mona Kim and Jackie Ju. It was later learned that he was responsible for over 200 million in missing insurance funds. [see May 5]
(WSJ, 7/16/99, p.A1)
1999 May 4, Goldman Sachs began trading on the NYSE as a publicly owned company. Its prospectus began: “Our clients interests always come first."
(http://marketplace.publicradio.org/shows/1999/05/04_mpp.html)(Econ, 4/24/10, p.13)
1999 May 4, Tornadoes roared across the Plains for a second straight day.
(AP, 5/4/00)
1999 May 4, Manuel Babbitt (50), a Vietnam veteran, was executed at San Quentin, Ca., the day after his birthday, for the 1980 murder of an elderly grandmother in Sacramento. He refused his last meal and asked that the $50 allotted be given to homeless Vietnam vets. Babbitt was buried May 10 in Wareham, Mass., with full military honors
(SFC, 5/4/99, p.A1,7)(SFC, 5/11/99, p.A4)
1999 May 4, In Lebanon a roadside bomb killed 2 Israeli-backed militiamen. Hezbollah claimed responsibility.
(WSJ, 5/5/99, p.A1)
1999 May 4, Yasser Arafat promised in 1997 to declare statehood, unilaterally if necessary. The five year interim period of Palestinian autonomy was to end. The declaration was deferred on April 28.
(WSJ, 11/14/97, p.A1)(SFC, 5/20/98, p.A12)(SFC, 5/4/99, p.A11,14)
1999 May 4, Allied forces bombed fixed and mobile targets and downed a Yugoslav MigG-29. The US considered freeing 2 prisoners of war and another 5,000 refugees crossed into Albania.
(SFC, 5/5/99, p.A12)
1999 May 4, Work crews struggled to restore electricity across Serbia after NATO strikes on major power grids left Belgrade and other cities in the dark.
(AP, 5/4/00)
2000 May 4, The e-mail virus “ILOVEYOU" bug hit millions of computers around the world. It was considered the most virulent, most damaging ($2.6 bil), most costly and most rapidly spread virus to date. In Manila Onel de Guzman, a former computing student, was later released with all charges dismissed due to lack of evidence.
(SFC, 5/5/00, p.A1)(SFC, 5/6/00, p.A1)(SFC, 8/22/00, p.A11)
2000 May 4, In London Ken Livingston (54), a socialist member of parliament, was elected mayor.
(SFC, 5/5/00, p.A14)(AP, 5/4/01)
2000 May 4, Congo agreed to cooperate with UN plans for a 5,500 member observer force to monitor the cease-fire.
(SFC, 5/5/00, p.A18)
2000 May 4, In Indonesia the government announced an agreement for a cease-fire with separatists in Aceh province.
(SFC, 5/5/00, p.A18)
2000 May 4, In Indonesia a 6.5 earthquake was centered in the Maluku Sea off Pelang Island and at least 17 people were killed.
(SFC, 5/5/00, p.A18)
2000 May 4, It was reported that Israel planned to deploy a laser shield named THEL, Tactical High Energy Laser (TRW Inc.), to shoot down rockets fired by guerrillas following its withdrawal from southern Lebanon.
(SFC, 5/4/00, p.A16)
2000 May 4, Lebanese guerrillas fired some 20 Katyusha rockets into Kiryat Shemona, a town in northern Israel. One Israeli soldier was killed and over 24 people were injured. Israel retaliated with heavy air strikes.
(SFC, 5/5/00, p.A14)(WSJ, 5/5/00, p.A1)
2000 May 4, Hendrik Casimir (b.1909), Dutch physicist, died. He was best known for his research on the two-fluid model of superconductors (together with C. J. Gorter) in 1934 and the Casimir effect (together with D. Polder) in 1946.
(Econ, 5/24/08, p.105)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hendrik_Casimir)
2000 May 4, In Puerto Rico US federal agents moved and arrested 216 protestors from the bombing range on Vieques Island.
(SFC, 5/5/00, p.A1)
2000 May 4, In Sierra Leone rebels seized more UN troops and brought the total of hostages to 90.
(SFC, 5/5/00, p.A18)
2000 May 4, In Sri Lanka the government imposed censorship on the foreign media and gave wide powers to the military as rebels poised to recapture Jaffna.
(SFC, 5/5/00, p.A18)
2001 May 4, US experts, following 3 days of inspections, said the US spy plane on China’s Hainan Island could be repaired and flown home.
(SFC, 5/5/01, p.D1)
2001 May 4, Sen. George Mitchell, head of the US-led mission on Israeli-Palestinian fighting, issued a report and said Israel should freeze settlement constructions.
(SFC, 5/5/01, p.D1)
2001 May 4, The US unemployment rate went up .2% to 4.5%, its highest level in 2 ½ years. The DJIA rose 154 to 10,951. The Nasdaq rose 45 to 2,191.
(SFC, 5/5/01, p.A1)
2001 May 4, The Writers Guild of America agreed to a new contract with the major movie studios and television networks.
(SFC, 5/5/01, p.A1)
2001 May 4, It was reported that the hydroxyl radical, a critical air-cleaning molecule, was decreasing.
(SFC, 5/4/01, p.D4)
2001 May 4, Bonny Lee Bakley (44), the wife of actor Robert Blake (67), died from a bullet wound to the head as she sat in a car near a restaurant in Los Angeles. Blake and his bodyguard, Earle Caldwell, were arrested April 18, 2002, in connection with Bakley's death. Blake, accused of the killing, was acquitted in a 2005 criminal trial but was found liable by a civil jury and ordered to pay damages.
(BS, 5/12/01, p.3A)(SFC, 4/23/02, p.A3)(SFC, 3/17/05, p.A1)(AP, 5/4/07)
2001 May 4, In Afghanistan a bomb killed at least 8 people at a Sunni Muslim mosque in Herat. Hundreds of people soon set fire to Shiite mosques and marched on the Iranian Consulate.
(SFC, 5/5/01, p.D1)
2001 May 4, In Goma, Congo, a ferry flipped at a dock on Lake Kivu and at least 19 people died.
(SFC, 5/5/01, p.D1)
2001 May 4, Pope John Paul II visited Athens and apologized for Roman Catholic sins of “action or omission" against Orthodox Christians. A day earlier some 1,000 Orthodox conservatives took to the streets to denounce his visit.
(SFC, 5/4/01, p.D3)(AP, 5/4/02)
2001 May 4, The UN Security Council imposed sanctions against Liberia for failing to sever ties with rebels in Sierra Leone.
(SFC, 5/5/01, p.D2)
2002 May 4, War Emblem, a 20-1 shot, scored a down-to-the-wire, four-length victory over Proud Citizen in the Kentucky Derby.
(AP, 5/4/03)
2002 May 4, In southern California four family members were murdered. Virendra, his brother Pravin and Carlos Amador were later found guilty of strangling Gita Kumar (42), her son Paras (18), her daughter Tulsi (16), and her mother in law, Sitaben Patel (62) at their house in the Hollywood Hills and then burning the house down. On Nov 4, 2018, Virendra (51) was found dead in his San Quentin Prison cell.
(http://tinyurl.com/ybmh5cae)(SFC, 11/6/18, p.C2)
2002 May 4, Five pipe bombs were found in rural Nebraska mailboxes.
(SSFC, 5/5/02, p.A6)
2002 May 4, In China 2 explosions killed at 34 miners in Guizhou and Hunan.
(SFC, 5/8/02, p.A13)
2002 May 4, In the West Bank Arafat ordered his negotiators to provide a list of the Palestinians inside the Church of the Natividad. 123 names were turned over. Israeli snipers killed one Palestinian inside the compound.
(SSFC, 5/5/02, p.A1,14)
2002 May 4, In Nepal security forces increased the number of rebels killed in 2 days of fighting to 350.
(SSFC, 5/5/02, p.A16)
2002 May 4, A Nigerian jet crashed in Kano. 4 of 76 onboard survived. Nigeria's EAS Airlines owned the British Aerospace twin-engine jet. The Red Cross reported 145 dead. A total of 154 people on the plane and the ground were killed.
(SSFC, 5/5/02, p.A16)(SFC, 5/6/02, p.A3)(AP, 5/4/03)
2003 May 4, In Glenbrook, Ill., senior girls of Glenbrook North High engaged in a "powder puff" football game with junior girls that turned into a hazing melee that was caught on video and shown on national TV. Several seniors were later suspended for 10 days. A Civil Suit was later filed on behalf of 3 of the juniors girls.
(SFC, 5/13/03, p.A4)
2003 May 4, New lab studies reported that the SARS virus can survive outside an infected body for hours to days.
(SSFC, 5/4/03, p.A1)
2003 May 4, Idaho Gem, the 1st cloned mule, was born at the Univ. of Idaho.
(SFC, 5/30/03, p.A2)
2003 May 4, Swarms of violent thunderstorms and tornadoes crashed through the nation's midsection, killing at least 30 people in Kansas, Missouri and Tennessee. 8 people were missing in Pierce City, Mo.
(AP, 5/5/03)
2003 May 4, In eastern Bangladesh a tropical storm flattened hundreds of flimsy huts in several villages, killing 19 people.
(AP, 5/5/03)
2003 May 4, Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash (49), a top biological weapons scientist and among the top 55 most wanted members of Saddam Hussein's fallen regime, was taken into custody.
(AP, 5/5/03)
2003 May 4, Police in Baghdad, Iraq, returned to work in force.
(AP, 5/4/04)
2003 May 4, In Ivory Coast a new cease-fire agreement took effect, just hours after rebels accused government forces of fresh attacks.
(AP, 5/4/03)
2003 May 4, In Kenya floods caused by two weeks of heavy rain have washed out roads and submerged entire villages, killing at least 30 people and forcing thousands from their homes.
(AP, 5/5/03)
2003 May 4, In the Philippines Muslim guerrillas attacked the town of Siocon in the southern province of Zamboanga del Norte, and took hostages as they withdrew from fighting that killed at least 22 people.
(AP, 5/4/03)
2003 May 4, A Soyuz spacecraft safely delivered a three-man, US-Russian crew to Earth in the first landing since the Columbia space shuttle disaster.
(AP, 5/4/03)
2003 May 4, In Spain Pope John Paul II proclaimed five new saints and urged Spaniards to emulate them. They included: Pedro Poveda, a priest killed in 1936; Angela de la Cruz, who founded the Sisters of the Company of the Cross; Genoveva Torres, who founded the Sisters of the Sacred Heart and of the Holy Angels; Maravillas de Jesus, who founded convents for the Order of Barefoot Carmelites, and Jose Maria Rubio, a Jesuit priest.
(AP, 5/4/03)
2004 May 4, The US Army disclosed that the deaths of 10 prisoners and abuse of 10 more in Iraq and Afghanistan were under criminal investigation, as US commanders in Baghdad announced interrogation changes.
(AP, 5/4/05)
2004 May 4, The United States walked out of a U.N. meeting to protest its decision minutes later to give Sudan a third term on the Human Rights Commission.
(AP, 5/4/05)
2004 May 4, William J. Krar (63) of East Texas was sentenced to 11 years in federal prison for stockpiling weapons that included a sodium-oxide bomb capable of killing everyone inside a midsize civic building.
(SFC, 5/5/04, p.A9)
2004 May 4, Oil prices for June delivery rose to $38.98 a barrel.
(WSJ, 5/5/04, p.A1)
2004 May 4, Some 3,000 firefighters battled wildfires in Southern California.
(SFC, 5/5/04, p.A7)
2004 May 4, In Afghanistan 2 foreign contractors helping the UN prepare for landmark elections and their Afghan driver were killed in an attack in a remote eastern province. The bullet-ridden bodies of 10 government soldiers were found in southern Afghanistan, hours after the men were abducted in two raids by suspected Taliban militants.
(AP, 5/5/04)
2004 May 4, In Australia 800 delegates of the Country Women's Association of New South Wales voted to drop the singing of "God Save the Queen" altogether and only permit renditions of "Advance Australia Fair", the national anthem.
(AFP, 5/4/04)
2004 May 4, In Bogota Famed Colombian painter Fernando Botero opened a new exhibition that graphically depicts the bloodshed of his nation's war and the cruel crime of kidnapping.
(AP, 5/4/04)
2004 May 4, In Greece 3 bombs exploded outside a police station near Athens in a series of timed blasts, causing serious damage just 100 days before the Olympic Games.
(AP, 5/5/04)
2004 May 4, In Haiti a provisional council was sworn to oversee fresh elections.
(AP, 5/4/04)
2004 May 4, Shiite militiamen fired several mortar shells at a U.S. base in Najaf and at a city hall guarded by Bulgarian troops in another Shiite city. Elsewhere, four U.S. soldiers died after their Humvee overturned during a combat patrol.
(AP, 5/4/04)
2004 May 4, Pakistan and China signed a deal for the construction of a nuclear power plant, the second such plant to be built in Pakistan with Beijing's help.
(AP, 5/4/04)
2005 May 4, Constantin Brancusi's "Bird in Space" shattered the record for a sculpture at auction when it soared to an astonishing $27,450,000 at Christie's sale of Impressionist and modern art.
(Reuters, 5/5/05)
2005 May 4, A military judge at Fort Hood, Texas, threw out Pvt. 1st Class Lynndie England's guilty plea to abusing Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib prison, saying he was not convinced the Army reservist knew her actions were wrong at the time. England was later convicted in a court-martial and sentenced to three years in prison.
(AP, 5/4/06)
2005 May 4, Prosecutors rested their case in the Michael Jackson molestation trial.
(AP, 5/4/06)
2005 May 4, ABC aired a segment of "Primetime Live" in which former "American Idol" contestant Corey Clark claimed an affair with judge Paula Abdul, who denied the allegation.
(AP, 5/4/06)
2005 May 4, Col. David H. Hackworth (1931-2005), Vietnam war veteran, died. His books included “About Face: The Odyssey of an American Warrior" (1990) and “Hazardous Duty: America's Most Decorated Living Soldier Reports from the Front and Tells It the Way It Is," (1996) co-authored with Tom Matthews.
(SFC, 5/7/05, p.B5)
2005 May 4, In China 178 birds were found dead at Bird Island in Qinghai province in a lake that served as a major area for research on migratory water fowl. They were killed by the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu virus. The number of dead birds was later raised to 1,500 with bar-headed geese among the most dead.
(WSJ, 5/23/05, p.A11)(SFC, 7/7/05, p.A5)
2005 May 4, Chinese authorities confined residents in Yanqing, 50 miles north of Beijing, to their homes following the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in cattle. Numerous farms were put under quarantine.
(WSJ, 5/24/05, p.A10)
2005 May 4, It was reported that Cuba and Venezuela agreed to start a joint shipyard in Venezuela, the latest sign of strengthening economic ties between the Latin nations.
(AP, 5/4/05)
2005 May 4, The Danish government said that the mission of Denmark's 530 troops in southern Iraq would be extended until Feb 1.
(AP, 5/4/05)
2005 May 4, Thousands of supporters of the banned Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's largest Islamic group, protested across the country in an escalation of the opposition campaign demanding political reform. Police arrested hundreds of protesters.
(AP, 5/4/05)
2005 May 4, An Iraqi carrying hidden explosives detonated them outside a police recruitment center in Arbil where people were applying for jobs, killing at least 60 Iraqis and wounding some 100. The Iraqi militant group Ansar al-Sunnah claimed responsibility for the bombing saying in a Web statement the attack was revenge for the Kurds' alliance with US forces.
(AP, 5/4/05)(SFC, 5/5/05, p.A1)(Econ, 5/7/05, p.19)
2005 May 4, Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said he is freezing the handover of West Bank towns to Palestinian security control because the Palestinians have failed to honor their promise to disarm militants.
(AP, 5/4/05)
2005 May 4, Israeli soldiers shot and killed two Palestinian youths in a West Bank village near the city of Ramallah.
(AP, 5/5/05)
2005 May 4, Japanese media reported Japan will withdraw its 550 soldiers from their non-combat mission in Iraq in December.
(AP, 5/4/05)
2005 May 4, Mexico's government cleared the capital's mayor of wrongdoing, conceding defeat in a nasty political fight that ousted an attorney general and raised criticisms that President Vicente Fox was trying to block his top rival from running for president.
(AP, 5/5/05)
2006 May 4, In Virginia US Judge Leonie Brinkema sent Zacarias Moussaoui to prison for life, to "die with a whimper," for his role in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. He declared: "God save Osama bin Laden, you will never get him." The US military released video footage of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in which the al-Qaida leader was seen wearing American tennis shoes and unable to operate his automatic rifle.
(AP, 5/4/07)
2006 May 4, A US federal court ruled that over 9,500 victims of human rights abuses under Ferdinand Marcos (1917-1989) were entitled to $35 million in a US account, which he established in 1972. Damages awarded in 1995 reached nearly $2 million.
(SFC, 5/5/06, p.B7)
2006 May 4, A US government study said some 300,000 US children have been diagnosed with autism.
(SFC, 5/5/06, p.A8)
2006 May 4, Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar pledged fealty to al Qaeda. He controlled a large network in eastern Afghanistan.
(WSJ, 5/5/06, p.A1)
2006 May 4, Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva met with Argentina’s Pres. Nestor Kirchner, Venezuela’s Pres. Chavez and Bolivia’s Pres. Morales in response to Bolivia’s decision to nationalize its oil and gas industry. Morales offered to refrain from cutting off supplies and to negotiate prices.
(Econ, 5/13/06, p.43)
2006 May 4, Britain took command of NATO's Afghan peacekeeping force as a tide of violence raised apprehension about the alliance's planned takeover of security duties across the country from US forces.
(AP, 5/4/06)
2006 May 4, Cambodia's highest judicial body approved 30 Cambodian and UN judges to preside over a long-awaited genocide tribunal for surviving Khmer Rouge leaders.
(AP, 5/4/06)
2006 May 4, Chinese weather specialists used chemicals to engineer Beijing's heaviest rainfall of the year, helping to relieve drought and rinse dust from China's capital.
(AP, 5/5/06)
2006 May 4, Over Chinese and Russian opposition, Western nations circulated a UN Security Council resolution that would demand Iran abandon uranium enrichment or face the threat of unspecified further measures, a possible reference to sanctions.
(AP, 5/4/06)
2006 May 4, Palaniappan Chidambaram, India's finance minister, warned that a slowdown in the US may trigger a worldwide recession that if "disorderly" will hit emerging market economies hard. Speaking at the 39th annual meeting of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), he said global economic growth continued to depend heavily on the US economy.
(AP, 5/4/06)
2006 May 4, A suicide bomber attacked a crowd of people waiting outside a heavily guarded court building in Baghdad, killing 10 Iraqis and wounding 52. Two US soldiers died in a roadside bomb attack.
(AP, 5/4/06)
2006 May 4, Lithuania hosted leaders from the European Union, United States and the burgeoning democracies in the Black Sea region at a summit on the future of the EU and the NATO military alliance. Vice President Dick Cheney, in remarks that caused a stir in neighboring Russia, accused President Vladimir Putin of restricting the rights of citizens and said that "no legitimate interest is served" by turning energy resources into implements of blackmail.
(www.defensenews.com/story.php?F=1746272&C=europe)(AP, 5/4/06)
2006 May 4, Just before dawn hundreds of law enforcement officials fired tear gas and crashed through human barricades to take control of San Salvador Atenco, a rebellious town outside Mexico City, hours after protesters released six badly beaten police hostages.
(AP, 5/4/06)
2006 May 4, In Nepal Communist rebels agreed to a new round of peace talks with the government, raising hopes for an end to a decade-old insurgency that has killed 13,000 people.
(AP, 5/4/06)
2006 May 4, Nicaraguan Foreign Minister Norman Caldera asked Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to butt out of his country's political affairs after Chavez signed a favorable oil pact with dozens of leftist Nicaraguan mayors.
(AP, 5/5/06)
2006 May 4, Puerto Rico moved a step closer to resolving a partial government shutdown as the island's Senate voted to impose a sales tax of 5.9% and a new levy on large corporations.
(AP, 5/4/06)
2006 May 4, Thousands of police armed with batons stormed an abandoned school in South Korea to evict activists who were protesting plans to expand a US military base, sparking clashes that resulted in dozens of injuries.
(AP, 5/4/06)
2006 May 4, The Vatican excommunicated two bishops ordained by China's state-controlled church without the pope's consent, escalating tensions as the two sides explored preliminary moves toward improving ties.
(AP, 5/4/06)
2006 May 4, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said he was withdrawing his ambassador from Peru as a matter of principle after Peru called home its ambassador.
(AP, 5/4/06)
2007 May 4, US federal officials placed a hold on 20 million chickens raised for market in several states because their feed was mixed with pet food containing an industrial chemical.
(AP, 5/5/07)
2007 May 4, The United States said it will provide more than $14 million in security assistance to Kenya to boost efforts to combat terrorist activities in the east African nation.
(AP, 5/5/07)
2007 May 4, An Alaska lawmaker and two of his former colleagues were arrested for allegedly soliciting and accepting bribes from VECO Corp., a private oil services company, to pass a new oil-tax system.
(Reuters, 5/4/07)
2007 May 4, Reuters Group PLC said that it had received a preliminary takeover approach. The bidder was identified as Thomson Corp., a financial data and information provider based in Stamford, Conn., owned by the Thomson family of Canada.
(AP, 5/4/07)(http://tinyurl.com/2m8qt5)
2007 May 4, Tornadoes in southwest Kansas killed at least seven people and leveled most of Greensburg.
(AP, 5/5/07)
2007 May 4, In Austria a standoff pitting Iran against most others delegations at a 130-nation nuclear conference deepened, with organizers adjourning the third straight session in as many days without breaking a deadlock over the language of the meeting's agenda.
(AP, 5/4/07)
2007 May 4, Two Azerbaijani journalists were convicted and sentenced to prison for inciting hatred with an article criticizing Islam.
(AP, 5/4/07)
2007 May 4, Brazil’s Pres. Lula da Silva issued a license allowing Brazil to buy or produce a cheap generic version of AIDS drug efavirenz, bypassing Merck’s patent. The compulsory licensing for efavirenz will allow Brazil to import unbranded copies at a quarter of current prices while paying Merck a nominal royalty.
(WSJ, 5/5/07, p.A1)(Econ, 5/12/07, p.42)
2007 May 4, A British court found Frederick Chiluba, Zambia's first democratically elected president (1991-2001), guilty of stealing $46 million in government funds and ordered him to repay the entire sum. He had gone on trial in Zambia in 2003, accused of 169 counts of corruption, abuse of power and theft, but was declared unfit to stand trial on the grounds of ill health.
(AP, 5/4/07)(Econ, 11/21/09, p.51)
2007 May 4, A rebel spokesman said a Saudi-brokered reconciliation deal signed by Chad with its neighbor Sudan will not halt a guerrilla war by Chadian rebels aimed at toppling President Idriss Deby.
(Reuters, 5/4/07)
2007 May 4, In Guinea soldiers protesting the government's failure to give them promised pay raises beat a shopkeeper to death as they looted his store and fired shots in the air, wounding at least 25 civilians.
(AP, 5/4/07)
2007 May 4, A boat loaded with Haitian migrants capsized while being towed by a police boat from the Turks and Caicos Islands. 78 of some 160 people survived. Haitian migrants later claimed a Turks and Caicos naval vessel rammed their crowded sailboat twice before it capsized.
(AP, 5/4/07)(SFC, 5/5/07, p.A8)(AP, 5/8/07)
2007 May 4, A roadside bomb killed five Iraqi policemen on a patrol in western Baghdad. US forces broke up a Shiite militant cell believed to be smuggling an armor-piercing Iranian weapon responsible for an increasing number of American and Iraqi deaths. 16 suspected militants were arrested in the Baghdad raid. 7 bodies were found floating in the Diyala River in Baqouba. The bullet-riddled bodies of five police officers, dressed in civilian clothes, were discovered outside the city of Beiji. The US military identified two more top al-Qaida aides killed during an operation earlier this week targeting Muharib Abdul-Latif al-Jubouri. A US soldier was killed and two were wounded when their patrol was hit by a roadside bomb south of Baghdad. A roadside bomb killed a US soldier and wounded four others in western Baghdad.
(AP, 5/4/07)(AP, 5/5/07)(AP, 5/6/07)
2007 May 4, Assailants in western Baghdad looted and burned the building which housed independent Radio Dijla, founded by Ahmed Rikaby in 2004. The attack came one day after staffers fought off some 2 dozen gunmen. Staff moved to new quarters in Sulaymaniya and within 9 days resumed broadcasting.
(SFC, 11/22/07, p.A25)
2007 May 4, The divided Koreas agreed to discuss historic trial runs of cross-border railways, as Washington cautioned Seoul against rushing to embrace Pyongyang before it takes steps to dismantle its nuclear program.
(AP, 5/4/07)
2007 May 4, In Somalia Mohamed Dheere, a former warlord, was sworn in as mayor of Mogadishu and immediately ordered residents to get rid of their weapons. Aid groups said 1,670 people were killed between March 12 and April 26 and more than 340,000 of the city's 2 million residents fled for safety as the government, backed by Ethiopian troops, pressed to wipe out an Islamic insurgency.
(AP, 5/4/07)
2007 May 4, Delegates meeting in Thailand from 120 countries approved the first roadmap for stemming greenhouse gas emissions, laying out what they said was an affordable arsenal of anti-warming measures that must be rushed into place to avert a disastrous spike in global temperatures.
(AP, 5/4/07)
2007 May 4, Ukraine's president and prime minister reached agreement on holding early parliamentary elections in a bid to end a political standoff between the rival leaders.
(AP, 5/4/07)
2007 May 4, Former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami met with Pope Benedict XVI for talks the Vatican hoped would help heal tensions left from the pontiff's remarks on Islam and violence, but the Iranian said the wounds were still very deep.
(AP, 5/4/07)
2007 May 4, The UN agency for refugees began repatriating thousands of Congolese refugees in Zambia to the Democratic Republic of Congo.
(AFP, 5/4/07)
2008 May 4, Democrat Barack Obama beat rival Hillary Clinton by just 7 votes in Guam's nominating contest after record numbers of residents voted in the tiny US territory's primary.
(AP, 5/4/08)
2008 May 4, Abkhazian anti-aircraft forces shot down 2 unmanned Georgian spy planes. A Georgian Foreign Ministry official, dismissed the claims as "completely absurd disinformation" aimed at increasing tension in the area.
(AP, 5/4/08)
2008 May 4, In Afghanistan an accidental explosion left 2 people dead and 13 wounded at a refuse dump in Kabul’s northern outskirts.
(AP, 5/5/08)
2008 May 4, Residents of Bolivia voted on an autonomy referendum whose likely passage is seen as a rebuke to the country's leftist president. Exit polls showed the Santa Cruz referendum would pass in a landslide. Pres. Morales denounced the vote but quickly invited state governors for further negotiations.
(AP, 5/4/08)(AP, 5/5/08)
2008 May 4, In Brazil a boat ferrying people home from a religious festival sank in the Amazon region on the Solimoes River leaving at least 41 dead and dozens missing.
(AP, 5/5/08)(AP, 5/7/08)
2008 May 4, In the Cayman Islands 5 captive Grand Cayman Blue Iguanas, critically endangered lizards that resemble miniature turquoise dragons, were found scattered across a breeding park in the British dependency after they apparently were stomped and gouged.
(AP, 5/7/08)
2008 May 4, In Chechnya a remote-controlled bomb exploded on a roadside in Grozny, leaving five police officers dead, while another officer was fatally shot near the city.
(AP, 5/5/08)
2008 May 4, China's Pres. Hu Jintao said he was hoping for positive results with envoys of the Dalai Lama, as talks opened, but state media kept up a barrage of attacks on Tibet's exiled spiritual leader. In Shenzhen envoys of the Dalai Lama and Chinese officials held a day of talks aimed at mending fences following a wave of unrest that pushed Tibet to centre stage ahead of the 2008 Olympics. They agreed to further contact.
(Reuters, 5/4/08)(Reuters, 5/5/08)
2008 May 4, China's Health Ministry issued a nationwide alert after the enterovirus 71 virus, or EV-71, which causes hand, foot and mouth disease, infected more than 4,500 children in central Anhui province. The outbreak was centered around Fuyang city, where 22 deaths have occurred.
(AP, 5/4/08)
2008 May 4, In India 16 people, including three children, were killed when an overcrowded jeep crashed into a truck outside Mumbai. The jeep was filled with members of a family traveling to a wedding party.
(AP, 5/4/08)
2008 May 4, A bomb hit a motorcade carrying Iraq's first lady through Baghdad. Iraqi health officials said at least 10 people, including two children, were killed in the past 24 hours in the Baghdad neighborhood of Sadr City. 2 Iraqi civilians were wounded in a Hellfire missile attack in Baghdad's southwestern Aamel neighborhood and were evacuated to a military hospital.
(AP, 5/4/08)(AP, 5/5/08)
2008 May 4, In Japan thousands of activists, artists and scholars gathered for an international peace conference outside Tokyo, vowing to promote the Japanese Constitution's war-renouncing Article 9 as a global standard and prevent the clause from being weakened.
(AP, 5/4/08)
2008 May 4, Senegal’s Pres. Abdoulaye Wade called the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) a “bottomless pit of money largely spent on its own functioning."
(Econ, 5/10/08, p.69)
2008 May 4, In Somalia Islamic insurgents killed at least three Ethiopian soldiers during a gunfight in Mogadishu. Inter-clan fighting in western Somalia, which broke out the previous evening, left at least 12 people dead and at least 15 others wounded in a land dispute.
(AP, 5/4/08)
2008 May 4, In South Korea at least eight were people killed when they were swept away by high waves that hit the port of Boryeong Namdo on the west coast.
(Reuters, 5/4/08)
2008 May 4, In Sudan government bombs hit a primary school and a busy market place in Darfur, killing at 12 people, including 6 children. Darfur rebels said three other areas were also bombed: Ein Sirro and Jabel Medop in North Darfur and an area in West Darfur near rebel-held Jabel Moun.
(Reuters, 5/5/08)(AP, 5/6/08)
2008 May 4, A Shiite rebel leader in Yemen warned that his group will escalate its fight against the government if the army continues an offensive that has left almost 20 rebels and soldiers dead over the past two days.
(AP, 5/4/08)
2009 May 4, President Barack Obama proposed changing provisions in the tax code that he says encourage US companies to move jobs overseas, as part of a broader package aimed at saving $210 billion over 10 years.
(Reuters, 5/4/09)
2009 May 4, An analysis of "real-world" clinical data indicated that vitamin E, and drugs that reduce generalized inflammation, may slow the decline of mental and physical abilities in people with Alzheimer's disease (AD) over the long term according to National Institutes of Health-sponsored research.
(Reuters, 5/4/09)
2009 May 4, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation awarded eighty one $100,000 grants in a bid to support innovative, unconventional global health research. The foundation also announced plans to spend $73 million over the next five years to help small farmers in impoverished countries.
(AP, 5/5/09)
2009 May 4, Wolves in parts of the northern Rockies and the Great Lakes region come off the endangered species list, opening them to public hunts in some states for the first time in decades. States such as Idaho and Montana planned to resume hunting the animals this fall, but no hunting has been proposed in the Great Lakes region. About 300 wolves in Wyoming will remain on the list because the US Fish and Wildlife Service rejected the state's plan for a "predator zone" where wolves could be shot on sight. An estimated 4,000 wolves lived in Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota.
(AP, 5/4/09)
2009 May 4, California’s State Water Resources Control board released a study that said only 21 of 152 lakes studied were free of mercury and other contaminants. 131 lakes showed one or more pollutants above state health guidelines.
(SFC, 5/5/09, p.A1)
2009 May 4, In Kentucky Amanda Hornsby-Smith (28) was strangled to death. In 2010 her husband, Woody Will Smith (33), went on trial for her murder. He claimed excessive caffeine from sodas, energy drinks and diet pills left him so mentally unstable he couldn't have knowingly killed her.
(AP, 9/20/10)
2009 May 4, Dom DeLuise (b.1933), film and TV actor, died. Though lighthearted onscreen, the prolific actor was deeply passionate about food, forging a second career as a popular chef and cookbook author.
(AP, 5/5/09)
2009 May 4, In Afghanistan bombing runs by US-led coalition jets killed dozens of civilians taking shelter from a fierce ground battle between Taliban militants and Afghan and international forces. The US confirmed fighting in western Farah province and opened an investigation into the overnight operation. Over 100 people were killed including 25-30 Taliban. A senior US defense official later said that Marine special operations forces believe that the Afghan civilians were killed by grenades hurled by Taliban militants, who then loaded some of the bodies into a vehicle and drove them around the village, claiming the dead were victims of an American airstrike. On May 20 the US military said at least 20 civilians and 60 insurgents had died in the clash.
(AP, 5/5/09)(AFP, 5/6/09)(AP, 5/7/09)(AP, 5/20/09)
2009 May 4, An Afghan guard was killed by Australian Robert William Langdon as he worked for US-based private security company Four Horsemen International. A court later heard that Langdon threw a hand grenade into the truck carrying the guard's body and ordered other guards to fire into the air to simulate a Taliban attack. Langdon allegedly admitted killing the Afghan guard during a heated argument about security for a convoy. In October Langdon was convicted of murder and sentenced to death in a court in Kabul. He paid a "sizeable" compensation to the victim's family and the sentenced was reduced to 20 years.
(AP, 1/27/10)(http://tinyurl.com/ybfe5lu)(AFP, 1/6/11)
2009 May 4, Australia's government put back its much-vaunted carbon-emissions trading scheme by a year, bowing to industry demands for more relief amid a recession while opening the door to an even deeper long-term reduction.
(Reuters, 5/4/09)
2009 May 4, The EU admitted that its previous forecasts were way off the mark. It now predicts "a deep and widespread recession" across the continent and said unemployment among the 16 nations that use the euro will rise to a postwar record of 11.5 percent in 2010.
(AP, 5/4/09)
2009 May 4, In Germany Sergio Marchionne, the boss of Italy's Fiat, drummed up support in Berlin for audacious plans to snap up General Motors' European arm and merge it with the bankrupt Chrysler to create a new global auto giant. Germany's economy minister said Fiat Group SpA wants to take over GM's Opel unit without running up debt and would preserve the three main German assembly plants if successful.
(AFP, 5/4/09)(AP, 5/4/09)
2009 May 4, Indonesia's top graft-buster, Antasari Azhar (56), was arrested as a suspect and a mastermind in the March 14 murder of businessman Nasrudin Zulkarnaen.
(AP, 5/5/09)
2009 May 4, Iraq’s Foreign Ministry summoned the Iranian ambassador to Baghdad and handed him a letter of protest, demanding that Iran halt shelling against Kurdish rebels in the country's north and warned the "extremely dangerous violations" of Iraqi territory could harm relations between the two countries.
(AP, 5/5/09)
2009 May 4, Mexico's health secretary said most businesses will reopen May 6 nationwide, citing ebb in the swine flu outbreak. The World Health Organization chief warned that swine flu could return with a vengeance despite Pres. Felipe Calderon insisting his country has contained the epidemic.
(AP, 5/4/09)(AFP, 5/4/09)
2009 May 4, Nepal's PM Pushpa Kamal Dahal resigned amid a power struggle over his firing of the army chief, saying he was stepping down to "save the peace process" that brought the Himalayan nation out of a bloody decade-long civil war.
(AP, 5/4/09)
2009 May 4, Niger’s Pres. Mamadou Tandja accompanied representatives of French energy giant Areva at a ceremony marking the beginning of a new uranium project in Imoraren. The site is expected to boost Niger's uranium production from 3,000 to 5,000 tons per year.
(AP, 5/4/09)
2009 May 4, In Pakistan clashes in a northwestern region covered by an increasingly fragile peace pact killed seven militants and one soldier. The Taliban ambushed an army convoy in Swat and armed Taliban appeared on the streets of Mingora.
(AP, 5/4/09)(Econ, 5/9/09, p.45)
2009 May 4, South Korean snipers hovering in a helicopter chased away pirates pursuing a North Korean freighter, while the Russian destroyer Admiral Panteleyev freed eight Iranian citizens held hostage for more than three months.
(AP, 5/4/09)
2009 May 4, South Korean news reported that North Korea runs a cyber warfare unit that tries to hack into US and South Korean military networks to gather confidential information and disrupt service.
(AP, 5/5/09)
2009 May 4, Sri Lankan forces battled Tamil Tiger insurgents, pushing deeper into rebel-held territory amid a report that navy gunboats heavily shelled an area packed with civilians.
(AP, 5/4/09)
2009 May 4, In Turkey masked assailants with automatic weapons attacked an engagement celebration in the village of Bilge, near the city of Mardin, fatally shooting 44 people.
(AP, 5/5/09)
2009 May 4, In southern Yemen armed protesters ambushed a military camp in Radfan killing one soldier, as separatist sentiment mounted against the weak central government.
(SFC, 5/5/09, p.A2)
2010 May 4, Ohio voters passed ballot proposal Issue 1. It allowed the state to issue $700 million of bonds to finance research and development for the so-called “Third Frontier" program, which was launched in 2002
(Econ, 5/1/10, p.34)(http://tinyurl.com/25tu3te)
2010 May 4, In Afghanistan Hayat Khan, a tribal elder, was gunned down while he was shopping in the volatile southern city of Kandahar, the latest targeted killing ahead of a NATO-led operation there that will be a critical test of the Afghan war. A former member of southern Zabul province's women's affairs department was fatally shot. In northern Kunduz province Taliban militants killed two civilians they accused of spying for the government.
(AP, 5/4/10)
2010 May 4, The leaders of South America named former Argentine President Nestor Kirchner as their secretary-general, setting aside their differences in hopes that the 12-nation Unasur group can consolidate into a regional force for unity, development and democracy-building.
(AP, 5/4/10)
2010 May 4, Alfredo Martinez de Hoz (84), the powerful economy minister who ran Argentina's finances during most of the dictatorship (1976-1983), was arrested and his bank accounts were frozen. The arrest followed a Supreme Court ruling last week deeming unconstitutional a 1990 presidential pardon granted to Martinez de Hoz and former dictator Jorge Videla.
(AFP, 5/4/10)(AP, 5/6/10)
2010 May 4, British Petroleum said efforts to contain a giant oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico are costing nearly four million pounds a day. Winds pushed a giant slick towards fragile wetlands on the US coast as efforts intensified to bottle up a ruptured oil well causing the growing environmental disaster.
(AFP, 5/4/10)
2010 May 4, The Croatian government and the UN said Justice Minister Ivan Simonovic has been chosen to be assistant UN secretary-general for human rights.
(AP, 5/4/10)
2010 May 4, French lawmakers decided to return 16 tattooed and mummified Maori heads to New Zealand, ending years of debate on what to do with the human remains acquired long ago by French museums seeking exotic curiosities.
(AP, 5/4/10)
2010 May 4, Greek protesters unfurled banners over the defensive walls of the ancient Acropolis, the country's most famous monument, to protest harsh new austerity measures as strikes began across the country.
(AP, 5/4/10)
2010 May 4, Iceland's volcanic ash renewed its threat to European air space, forcing Ireland to shut services temporarily for the first time in 12 days. Ireland and Britain lifted flight restrictions after temporarily closing airspace due to the return of ash.
(AP, 5/4/10)(AFP, 5/4/10)
2010 May 4, Iran called for independent verification of US claims it has pared its stockpile of nuclear warheads back to 5,113 and queried whether Washington was justified in holding such a lethal load.
(AFP, 5/4/10)
2010 May 4, In Iran 5 Kurdish rebels, including two women, were killed after they battled Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards in the western province of Kermanshah.
(AFP, 5/5/10)
2010 May 4, Iraq's two main Shiite blocs seeking to govern the country signed an agreement that gives the final decision on all their political disputes to top Shiite clerics. The provision would likely further alienate Iraq's Sunni minority, which already feels excluded by Shiite dominance and had been hoping that March's election would boost their say in power. Sardasht Osman (22) was kidnapped in the regional capital Arbil. He had written articles critical of the rule of Kurdish regional president Massud Barzani. His corpse was found a day later in Mosul with a single bullet to the head. On Sep 15 an investigative committee formed by Barzani said that Osman was killed because of his ties to an extremist group.
(AP, 5/5/10)(AFP, 9/16/10)
2010 May 4, In Mexico two Colombians were arrested at Mexico City's international airport as they allegedly prepared to board a flight to Panama trying to smuggle out more than $350,000 in cash in various currencies.
(AP, 5/15/10)
2010 May 4, Tin Tun Aung, secretary of the Myanmar Travel Entrepreneurs Association, said tourist visas, which are normally arranged days in advance at an embassy abroad, will be now be available at international airports in Mandalay and the biggest city, Yangon.
(Reuters, 5/4/10)
2010 May 4, In Nepal armed police escorted fuel and food trucks into Katmandu on the third day of a crippling general strike called by former Maoist rebels demanding the PM's resignation.
(AP, 5/4/10)
2010 May 4, Royal Dutch Shell said it spilled nearly 14,000 tons of oil into the creeks of the Niger Delta in 2009 and blamed thieves and militants for the environmental damage.
(SFC, 5/5/10, p.A2)
2010 May 4, Fires ripped through a mosque and an olive grove in two West Bank villages, and local Palestinians accused Jewish settlers of deliberately setting the blazes.
(AP, 5/4/10)
2010 May 4, The Philippine election commission ordered the recall of 76,000 memory cards to be used in the country's first automated elections next week after some were found to be defective, heightening jitters over a possible failure of the new system.
(AP, 5/4/10)
2010 May 4, Spain’s Interior Ministry said Spain has taken in a second former inmate from the Guantanamo Bay prison for terrorism suspects. Another Guantanamo detainee was sent to Bulgaria. This left about 181 prisoners at Guantanamo Bay prison.
(AP, 5/4/10)(SFC, 5/5/10, p.A2)
2010 May 4, Taiwan opened a tourism office in Beijing that represents the island's first official presence in China's capital since the two sides split amid civil war in 1949.
(AP, 5/4/10)
2010 May 4, Thai anti-government protesters welcomed a proposed compromise to end the violent political crisis that has paralyzed central Bangkok for nearly two months, but asked for more details on the plan before wrapping up their demonstrations.
(AP, 5/4/10)
2010 May 4, In Venezuela a riot at the Santa Ana Prison in the western state of Tachira, one of the country’s most violent prisons, left eight inmates dead and three injured.
(AP, 5/5/10)
2011 May 4, President Barack Obama declared parts of Kentucky, Mississippi and Tennessee as disaster areas due to flooding, freeing up federal aid to help those affected.
(Reuters, 5/5/11)
2011 May 4, The US Interior Dept. declared wolves fully recovered in most of the Northern Rockies, opening the door for hunts in the Fall.
(SFC, 5/5/11, p.A7)
2011 May 4, A San Ramon, Ca., police officer, Louis Lombardi (38), was arrested after he was linked to an ongoing probe into the theft of confiscated drugs. On Jan 26, 2012, Lombardi pleaded guilty to charges that he sold drugs with his commanding officer, stole jewelry and cash from crime scenes and possessed stolen guns.
(SFC, 5/5/11, p.C1)(SFC, 1/27/12, p.C1)
2011 May 4, In Oklahoma Sandlin Matthews Smith was shot and killed after he pulled a gun on federal agents trying to arrest him. Smith faced federal charges in connection with the bombing of the Islamic Center of Northeast Florida last May.
(SFC, 5/6/11, p.A8)
2011 May 4, In Texas Jacob Gonzalez (21) fatally shot three women riding with him in a car in Corpus Christi. Gonzalez fled on foot after his vehicle smashed into a pole and was tackled by a bystander.
(SFC, 5/7/11, p.A4)
2011 May 4, Applied Materials said it has agreed to pay $4.9 billion for Varian Semiconductor Equipment Associates Inc.
(SFC, 5/5/11, p.D2)
2011 May 4, Intel unveiled its new Ivy Bridge processor made with a 3-D manufacturing technique that increases chip performance as much as 37% while using less power.
(SFC, 5/5/11, p.D3)
2011 May 4, Actress Mary Murphy (80) died of heart disease in Beverly Hills. She was discovered in a coffee shop and landed a role as the small-town wholesome girl opposite Marlon Brando in "The Wild One." Murphy had several roles in 1950s films, including "The Desperate Hours," "Beachhead," "A Man Alone," "Sitting Bull" and "The Mad Magician."
(AP, 5/16/11)
2011 May 4, The Chinese Embassy in Oslo said Sino-Norwegian relations are "in difficulty" because the peace prize was given to "a Chinese criminal ... and the Norwegian government supported this wrong decision." Norwegian salmon exporters were having their fish held up for days or even weeks by Chinese food safety inspectors, devastating its freshness.
(AP, 5/6/11)
2011 May 4, In Costa Rica Ohio teenager Caity Jones died in the Pacific Ocean when she was pulled by an undertow current. Two other students, on a school mission trip, were swept out with her. The body of James Smith was recovered the next day. The body of Kai Lamar was recovered on May 6.
(AP, 5/5/11)(AP, 5/6/11)
2011 May 4, A Gervais beaked whale washed up on the southeastern coast of Puerto Rico. A necropsy of the whale found more than 10 pounds (4.5 kg) of twisted plastic inside its stomach.
(AP, 5/7/11)
2011 May 4, In Egypt hundreds of diehard supporters of ousted president Hosni Mubarak clashed with his foes in central Cairo leaving dozens injured.
(AFP, 5/5/11)
2011 May 4, The European Union said six Zimbabwean state-media journalists are on a sanctions list because they incite hatred in their reporting. The journalists who fiercely support President Robert Mugabe are among some 200 individuals linked to Mugabe's party who face banking and travel bans from the EU, the US and Britain.
(AP, 5/4/11)
2011 May 4, New computer modeling showed that Japan's many language variants descended from a common ancestor some 2,182 years ago -- coinciding with the major wave of migration from the Korean Peninsula.
(AP, 5/5/11)
2011 May 4, In Libya Gadhafi's forces shelled Zintan a rebel town and a key supply route, part of a push to crush stubborn resistance in the mountains of western Libya.
(AP, 5/4/11)
2011 May 4, In western Nepal a bus veered off a mountain road, killing at least 16 people and injuring 20 others in the country's second serious bus accident in two days.
(AP, 5/4/11)
2011 May 4, Rival Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas proclaimed a landmark, Egyptian-mediated reconciliation pact signed in Cairo aimed at ending their bitter four-year rift. Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal said that his Islamist movement would work to achieve the "Palestinian national goal" of a sovereign state on the Gaza Strip and West Bank. Gaza's Hamas rulers executed a man convicted of collaborating with Israel. His execution was the 11th in Gaza since Hamas violently wrested control of the territory in June 2007.
(AP, 5/4/11)(AFP, 5/4/11)(AP, 5/5/11)(Econ, 5/7/11, p.51)
2011 May 4, South Korean police said the body of a man with his hands and feet nailed to a wooden cross and a crown of thorns on his head has been found in an abandoned stone quarry in Mungyong.
(AP, 5/4/11)
2011 May 4, A Turkish police officer was shot dead by unidentified assailants in the northern city of Kastamonu, where PM Tayyip Erdogan had been speaking earlier in the day.
(Reuters, 5/4/11)
2011 May 4, In Uganda some 300 lawyers gathered in Kampala to protest the arrest of the country's top opposition leader and a crackdown on demonstrations.
(AP, 5/4/11)
2011 May 4, Ukrainian prosecutors said they have opened a criminal investigation against the former head of the Kiev Zoo, where hundreds of animals have died or gone mysteriously missing in recent years. Svitlana Berzina was suspected of embezzling some $47,000 (euro32,000) from the zoo by commissioning projects that weren't fully carried out, if at all. Berzina was fired last year after nearly one-half of the zoo's animals either died or disappeared.
(AP, 5/4/11)
2011 May 4, The Vatican condemned former Canadian Bishop Raymond Lahey after he pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography and said it planned to take disciplinary action against him.
(Reuters, 5/4/11)
2011 May 4, Vietnam’s central bank raised a key interest rate to 14% presented a package of commitments, titled Resolution II, to tighten money and credit. Consumer prices had risen 17.5% in the year to April.
(Econ, 5/7/11, p.79)
2011 May 4, In Yemen an explosion ripped through a military vehicle in Zinjibar killing 5 soldiers. 4 other civilians died in an ensuing firefight.
(SFC, 5/5/11, p.A2)
2012 May 4, The United States said that China had indicated it would let blind activist Chen Guangcheng and his family leave the country soon, raising hopes of a resolution to a damaging diplomatic crisis.
(AFP, 5/4/12)
2012 May 4, Disgraced former press baron Conrad Black (67) was released from a Florida prison after ending his sentence and flown to his home in Canada, which has granted him a temporary resident permit despite his criminal record.
(Reuters, 5/4/12)
2012 May 4, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed into law a bill banning abortion providers like Planned Parenthood from receiving money through the state, her office said in a statement.
(Reuters, 5/5/12)
2012 May 4, Federal agents in southern California arrested Michael Franks (29), suspected in 10 bank heists. He was dubbed the Snowboarder Bandit for often wearing snowboarder cloths.
(SSFC, 5/6/12, p.A9)
2012 May 4, A federal jury in Nashville split its verdict against 9 people accused of operating a sex trafficking ring run mostly by Somali refugee gang members. 3 men were convicted of conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of children. 6 men were acquitted.
(SFC, 5/5/12, p.A5)
2012 May 4, Adam Yauch (47), the gravelly voiced rapper, aka MCA), who helped make the Beastie Boys one of the seminal groups in hip-hop, died of cancer.
(AP, 5/4/12)
2012 May 4, In southern Afghanistan two NATO coalition service members were killed in an insurgent attack. A remote-controlled roadside bomb killed five border police in Nangarhar province near the border with Pakistan.
(AP, 5/4/12)(AP, 5/5/12)
2012 May 4, Australian Police hunted for a gang of Sydney street robbers who threw feces at their victims to distract them before grabbing their money.
(AFP, 5/4/12)
2012 May 4, British PM David Cameron's Conservative Party took an electoral bruising, suffering widespread losses in local elections as voters punished the leader for biting austerity measures and a stalled economy. Deputy PM Nick Clegg's Liberal Democrats suffered similar woes. In London Cameron's Conservative Party colleague Boris Johnson swept to a second four-year term as the British capital's mayor.
(AP, 5/4/12)
2012 May 4, Canada minted its final one-cent coin and urged people to donate the little copper-covered coins to charity rather than let them go to waste.
(Reuters, 5/4/12)
2012 May 4, In Egypt thousands rallied against the country's ruling military council, two days after a flare-up of street violence left at least nine dead and fueled a wave of Islamist-led opposition to the generals ahead of presidential elections. Military prosecutors detained some 320 Egyptian protesters following clashes outside the country's Defense Ministry. Two people were reported killed and over 300 people injured.
(AP, 5/4/12)(AFP, 5/5/12)
2012 May 4, In India a Reliance company executive said the government has asked the energy giant to pay a $1.25 billion penalty for a fall in gas production from its main oil fields.
(AFP, 5/4/12)
2012 May 4, Iranians lined up at polling stations for a second round of parliamentary elections. Conservative opponents of Pres. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad already won an outright majority of seats of the new parliament in the first round of elections held in March. Of 65 seats up for grabs Ahmadinejad's opponents won 41 while the president's supporters got only 13.
(AP, 5/4/12)(AP, 5/5/12)
2012 May 4, Israel freed from jail Haggai Amir, the brother and key accomplice of the man who assassinated Israeli PM Yitzhak Rabin in 1995, after more that 16 years in jail.
(AFP, 5/4/12)
2012 May 4, In Ivory Coast about 50 inmates staged a jailbreak from the main prison on the fringes of Abidjan. About 20 were apprehended.
(AFP, 5/4/12)
2012 May 4, Malaysia’s PM Najib Razak said a quashed election reform rally was being used to topple the government ahead of polls expected in June.
(AFP, 5/7/12)
2012 May 4, In Timbuktu, Mali, the tomb of Sidi Mahmoud Ben Amar (d.1458), classified as a World Heritage site, was attacked by an Islamist group.
(SFC, 5/7/12, p.A2)(www.exploretimbuktu.com/culture/culture/saints.html)
2012 May 4, A Myanmar state-run newspaper said recent battles between government troops and Kachin ethnic rebels had killed 31 people. The New Light of Myanmar reported 11 clashes in the last week of April, including what it said was an attack by rebels of the Kachin Independence Army on a government border guard base.
(AP, 5/4/12)
2012 May 4, In Nigeria suspected Boko Haram gunmen killed 2 warders and freed all inmates from a local jail in Kumshe town, Borno state. 23 Boko Haram suspects were arrested during an attack on a police station in Banki. In the eastern state of Taraba, gunmen disguised in military uniforms shot dead five residents near Babban Mutum town.
(AFP, 5/4/12)
2012 May 4, Shell announced a significant cut in its Nigerian oil production due to pipeline damage caused by theft, and warned that it might not meet contractual obligations as a result.
(AFP, 5/4/12)
2012 May 4, In Pakistan a teenage suicide bomber targeted police in Khar, Bajaur district, killing 29 people and wounding dozens.
(AFP, 5/4/12)(AFP, 5/5/12)
2012 May 4, Syrian security forces killed several demonstrators.
(AFP, 5/5/12)
2012 May 4, Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete sacked six ministers over graft allegations after a report by the auditor-general implicated numerous officials in cases of bribery and suspect procurements. Kikwete also transferred an additional eight ministers to new portfolios and appointed seven new ones.
(AFP, 5/4/12)
2012 May 4, In Tunisia an official tally said 338 Tunisians were killed and 2,174 were injured during the popular uprising that led to the fall of president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
(AFP, 5/4/12)
2012 May 4, Ukraine's jailed and ailing ex-PM Yulia Tymoshenko tentatively agreed to have her back condition treated at a local hospital under the supervision of a German doctor.
(AP, 5/4/12)
2013 May 4, In the SF Bay Area a stretch limo caught fire on the San Mateo Bridge. The driver and 4 women in a bridal party escaped, but 5 others, including the bride, died in the fire.
(SFC, 5/6/13, p.A1)
2013 May 4, In Utah soccer referee Ricardo Portillo (46) died following an April 27 assault by teen-age player (17). On May 8 the teen was charged with homicide by assault.
(SFC, 5/9/13, p.A6)(http://tinyurl.com/cqgz2xl)
2013 May 4, In southern Afghanistan 5 US troops were killed by a roadside bomb in Kandahar province. 2 others died as a soldier with the Afghan National Army turned his weapon on coalition troops in the west.
(AP, 5/4/13)(AP, 5/5/13)
2013 May 4, In Afghanistan insurgents in Baghlan province killed a German special forces soldier and wounded another. This marked the first death in combat of a member of Germany's special forces in Afghanistan. Several insurgents are believed to have been killed in the fighting.
(AP, 5/5/13)
2013 May 4, In northern Belgium hundreds of people were evacuated after a train carrying chemicals derailed and caught fire.
(AP, 5/4/13)
2013 May 4, Belgian biochemist Christian de Duve (95), Nobel Prize winner in physiology or medicine (1974), died in an act of euthanasia.
(AP, 5/6/13)
2013 May 4, Nigel Evans (55), a member of PM David Cameron's Conservative party, was detained over sexual attacks allegedly carried out at his home in Lancashire, northern England between July 2009 and March of this year. Evans had announced in 2010 that he was gay.
(AP, 5/5/13)
2013 May 4, Ethiopian authorities detained reporter Muluken Tesfaw of the private weekly Ethio-Mehedar as he covered evictions 100 km from the site of the construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. The government has acknowledged the March evictions were illegal and Tesfaw was later released.
(AP, 5/31/13)(AP, 6/7/13)
2013 May 4, In Pakistan two blasts in the southern city of Karachi killed three people near the office of a political party critical of the Taliban.
(AP, 5/5/13)
2013 May 4, In Puerto Rico 4 people were killed and 6 others injured in a drive-by shooting in Aguas Buenas.
(SSFC, 5/5/13, p.A7)
2013 May 4, Saudi Arabian officials announced that Saudi girls will be allowed to play sports in private schools for the first time.
(SSFC, 5/5/13, p.A5)
2013 May 4, Twelve Senegalese employees of a South African demining company were kidnapped in Senegal's southern Casamance region. On May 29 the rebels released 3 women who were kidnapped with the group. The 9 remaining employees were freed on July 12 in Guinea-Bissau.
(AP, 5/6/13)(http://tinyurl.com/dx24cfh)(Reuters, 7/12/13)
2013 May 4, In Sudan 21 people were killed in Abyei district, including Koul Deng Majok, an ethnic Ngok Dinka from neighboring South Sudan, two peacekeepers, and 17 members of the Misseriya tribe. Majok's tribe had failed to inform Misseriya tribesmen they would be visiting the area.
(AP, 5/5/13)
2013 May 4, In Syria Alawite paramilitaries continued their rampage against Sunnis in al-Bayda and Banias leaving at least 100 dead.
(Econ, 5/11/13, p.42)
2014 May 4, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang set off for a four-country tour of Africa (Ethiopia, Nigeria, Angola and Kenya), acknowledging "growing pains" in China-Africa relations amid labor conflicts and other problems stemming from Chinese investment.
(AP, 5/4/14)
2014 May 4, A Chinese vessel intentionally rammed two Vietnamese Sea Guard vessels in a part of the disputed South China Sea where Beijing has deployed a giant oil rig, sending tensions spiraling in the region.
(Reuters, 5/7/14)
2014 May 4, India’s police said they have killed 3 suspected rebels and arrested eight forest guards for alleged involvement in the killings of 31 Muslims in northeastern Assam state.
(AP, 5/4/14)
2014 May 4, In western India a passenger train derailed, killing at least 18 people and injuring more than 100 as rescue workers raced to free those still trapped in Maharashtra state.
(AP, 5/4/14)
2014 May 4, In Iraq shelling in Fallujah, held by anti-government fighters for over four months, killed 11 people over the last 24 hours.
(AFP, 5/4/14)
2014 May 4, In Kenya two buses driving along a busy highway in Nairobi were struck by explosive devices thrown at them.
(Reuters, 5/4/14)
2014 May 4, Israeli police looking for evidence linked to a recent attack on a mosque were mobbed overnight by around 100 demonstrators at the at Yitzhar West Bank settlement.
(AFP, 5/4/14)
2014 May 4, Libyan businessman Ahmed Maiteeq (Miitig) was sworn in as the country’s new prime minister after a chaotic vote in parliament.
(Reuters, 5/4/14)
2014 May 4, Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan ordered top security chiefs and officials to secure the safe release of 223 schoolgirls abducted three weeks ago by suspected Islamists.
(AFP, 5/4/14)
2014 May 4, In northeastern Nigeria suspected Boko Haram gunmen kidnapped eight girls from a village late today near one of their strongholds. After leaving Warabe the gunmen stormed the Wala village, five km. (three miles) away, and abducted three more girls.
(Reuters, 5/6/14)(AFP, 5/7/14)
2014 May 4, Panamanians voted in presidential elections. Conservative Juan Carlos Varela won the election easily defeating Jose Domingo Arias, Pres. Martinelli's hand-picked successor 39% to 32%.
(AP, 5/4/14)(AFP, 5/514)(SSFC, 7/6/14, p.A4)
2014 May 4, Saudi Arabia's health ministry said one more patient who contracted the potentially fatal Middle East virus related to SARS has died and that 14 new cases have been detected. The new 14 cases raised the number of those infected in Saudi Arabia to 411.
(AP, 5/514)
2014 May 4, In Saudi Arabia a maid (23) from the Philippines was allegedly scalded with water deliberately poured down her back. An investigation was launched jointly by Riyadh police and the Philippines embassy after images of burns allegedly suffered by the woman, who had arrived in the kingdom in March, surfaced on social media and online.
(Reuters, 5/22/14)
2014 May 4, South Sudanese government forces overran Nasir, a key rebel base and moved to recapture Bentiu, the capital of the oil-producing Unity state, from rebel control.
(AFP, 5/4/14)(AP, 5/514)
2014 May 4, The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said heavy fighting between rival Islamic rebel groups in eastern Syria has killed 62 fighters and forced tens of thousands to flee their homes over the last four days.
(AP, 5/4/14)
2014 May 4, In Ukraine pro-Russian militants stormed a police station in Odessa and freed 30 fellow activists as the prime minister blamed police corruption there for dozens of deaths in rioting on May 2.
(AP, 5/4/14)
2014 May 4, Yemen's military says it has killed 37 suspected al-Qaida fighters overnight in the town of Meyfaa in an ongoing offensive in Shabwa southern province.
(AP, 5/4/14)
2015 May 4, The US said it will give $45 million to UN refugee operations in Kenya to help the country deal with a growing refugee crisis.
(SFC, 5/5/15, p.A2)
2015 May 4, The US Supreme Court let stand a lower court's ban on therapy intended to change the sexual orientation of gay youths under the age of 18.
(AFP, 5/4/15)
2015 May 4, NYPD officer Brian Moore (25) died, two days after being shot in the head while sitting in an unmarked car in Queens. Demetrius Blackwell (35) was arrested and held without bail.
(SFC, 5/5/15, p.A6)
2015 May 4, A report on drinking water in Bradford County, Pa., revealed traces of a compound commonly found in Marcellus Shale drilling fluids.
(SFC, 5/5/15, p.A6)
2015 May 4, In Afghanistan a Taliban suicide bomber struck a bus carrying government workers in Kabul, killing one person and wounding thirteen.
(SFC, 5/5/15, p.A4)
2015 May 4, Burundi police shot dead at least 3 demonstrators and wounded dozens of others, in running battles with protesters angry at a bid by President Pierre Nkurunziza to extend his rule.
(AFP, 5/4/15)
2015 May 4, An Egyptian court sentenced to death five men convicted of killing 13 policemen in a town near Cairo during a deadly security crackdown on ousted president Mohamed Morsi's supporters on August 14, 2013.
(AFP, 5/4/15)
2015 May 4, The European Union approved 20 million euros ($22 million) in financial support and emergency aid to help Nepal deal with the April 25 earthquake.
(AP, 5/4/15)
2015 May 4, In Greece a nationwide hunt for young Anny, a Bulgarian citizen reported missing by her mother on April 24, ended today when both her parents were arrested and her father charged with murder and defiling a body. The girl was believed to have been killed around April 8-9 and that her father (27) confessed to disposing of his daughter's remains over several days.
(AP, 5/5/15)
2015 May 4, In central India at least 21 people were burned to death when a bus fell into a ditch and caught fire in Panna district, Madhya Pradesh state.
(AP, 5/4/15)
2015 May 4, Indonesian police arrested a suspected wildlife smuggler after discovering nearly 22 rare live birds, mostly yellow-crested cockatoos, jammed inside plastic water bottles in his luggage.
(AFP, 5/6/15)
2015 May 4, Israeli security guards shot and wounded a Palestinian after he allegedly tried to stab people waiting at a light railway station in east Jerusalem.
(AFP, 5/4/15)
2015 May 4, Italy's parliament approved a radical new electoral law designed to end decades of political instability by ensuring that elections always produce governments with working majorities.
(AFP, 5/4/15)
2015 May 4, In northwest Kenya suspected Turkana cattle rustlers ambushed villages and drove away hundreds of livestock. 54 people lost their lives in the two communities of Pokot and Turkana. The violence reportedly started after an attack by Pokot warriors on a Turkana village in which 100 goats were stolen.
(Reuters, 5/5/15)(AFP, 5/6/15)
2015 May 4, In Mexico the body of radio journalist Armando Saldana Morales (52) was found in Acatlan de Perez Figueroa, Oaxaca state.
(AP, 5/5/15)(SSFC, 5/21/17, p.E7)
2015 May 4, NATO launched one of its biggest-ever anti-submarine exercises in the North Sea.
(Reuters, 5/4/15)
2015 May 4, Nepal officials said the death toll from the April 25 earthquake has reached 7,366 people and wounded nearly 14,500.
(Reuters, 5/4/15)
2015 May 4, Niger said it was planning a military operation to remove Boko Haram extremists. Soldiers arrived at the fishing village of Lelewa on Lake Chad and ordered some 3,000 Nigerian fisherman and refugees to return to Nigeria. A dozen people were later reported to have died on the 3-day trek.
(SFC, 5/7/15, p.A4)
2015 May 4, A bomb blast targeted Hamas's security headquarters in Gaza City, after radical Islamists issued a threatening message calling for the release of prisoners.
(AFP, 5/4/15)
2015 May 4, In the southern Philippines gunmen clad in military uniform abducted two Philippine coast guard personnel and a village chief on Aliguay island then sped away in two motorboats.
(AP, 5/4/15)
2015 May 4, Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski approved a resolution that gave his formal consent to the establishment of a joint Polish-Lithuanian-Ukrainian military unit. The joint brigade will serve separately from the three countries’ military commands, but will participate in NATO, United Nations and European Union operations.
(Reuters, 5/4/15)
2015 May 4, In southern Poland nine people were arrested following the third night of violence in Knurow, in southern Poland, triggered by the death of a football fan hit by a rubber bullet fired by police.
(AP, 5/5/15)
2015 May 4, In Qatar the CEO of French aerospace firm Dassault, Eric Trappier, signed a 6.3-billion-euro ($7-billion) deal with Qatari defense officials in Doha. The agreement includes an order for 24 Rafale fighter jets, with an option on a further 12. French President Francois Hollande oversaw the signing.
(AFP, 5/4/15)
2015 May 4, Senegal said it will send 2,100 troops to Saudi Arabia as part of an international coalition combating Houthi rebels in Yemen.
(Reuters, 5/4/15)
2015 May 4, Somalia's al Shabaab militants stormed a police station in the country's semi-autonomous region of Puntland and killed 3 policemen.
(Reuters, 5/5/15)
2015 May 4, In Syria a small group of insurgents, including a suicide bomber, carried out an attack in Damascus targeting a Syrian military logistics and supply facility.
(AP, 5/4/15)
2015 May 4, A series of raids, codenamed "COBRA III" and organized by Thailand, began across Asia, Africa and Europe. By May 27 they resulted in more than 300 arrests and over 600 seizures of assorted wildlife contraband — from several tons of ivory and rhino horns to whale ribs and sea horses.
(AP, 6/18/15)
2015 May 4, Thailand police arrested two Padang Besar deputy village chiefs and a member of the Padang Besar municipal council a day earlier. They faced a variety of charges related to human trafficking. Police said they also arrested a Myanmar citizen, Zaw Naing Anu (40), or Anwar, who had previously been arrested in Thailand for fraud and for kidnapping Rohingyas.
(AP, 5/4/15)
2015 May 4, Ukraine's army said two soldiers have died in renewed bouts of fighting in the east, where skirmishes between government and separatist forces are increasing and intensifying despite a February peace deal.
(AP, 5/4/15)
2015 May 4, In Yemen heavy airstrikes hit several airports across the country, as a Saudi-led military coalition continued to target the country's Shiite rebels and their allied forces.
(AP, 5/4/15)
2016 May 4, Pres. Obama visited Flint, Michigan, showing support for the local residents by drinking filtered city water.
(SFC, 5/5/16, p.A6)
2016 May 4, The US government said Japanese-based Takata Corp. will recall another 35-40 million air bag inflators bringing the total recall to as many as 69 million.
(SFC, 5/5/16, p.C1)
2016 May 4, The United States and its allies conducted 18 strikes against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
(Reuters, 5/5/16)
2016 May 4, US Army Gen. Curtis M. Scaparrotti (60) took over as the military leader responsible for the overall direction and conduct of NATO's global military operations.
(AP, 5/4/16)
2016 May 4, California’s Gov. Jerry Brown signed anti-tobacco legislation raising the smoking age from 18 to 21 effective June 9.
(SFC, 5/5/16, p.A1)
2016 May 4, Shares in miner BHP Billiton tumbled after Brazil's federal prosecutor launched a $43 billion civil suit for a dam break last November that killed 19 people and caused the worst environmental disaster in the country's history.
(AP, 5/4/16)
2016 May 4, Three Bulgarian police officers were injured when anti-Roma protesters tried to break through a cordon during a demonstration in the southern town of Radnevo. Some 2,000 people took part in the protest over an incident two days earlier in which four Roma men have been charged with the attempted murder of three young men.
(Reuters, 5/5/16)
2016 May 4, In western Canada a wildfire raged out of control destroying much of one neighborhood in the remote city of Fort McMurray and badly damaging others, with all 80,000 residents ordered to leave in the biggest evacuation in the area's history.
(Reuters, 5/4/16)
2016 May 4, China’s state media said China and Laos have agreed to step up security cooperation after attacks on Chinese nationals in the poor, landlocked Southeast Asian nation in recent weeks, as Laos' new president visited Beijing.
(Reuters, 5/4/16)
2016 May 4, Colombian authorities in Bogota arrested Nidal Waked (46), a prominent Panama businessman sought by the United States, and dismantled an empire of businesses that the US says were part of a top worldwide money-laundering organization for drug traffickers.
(AP, 5/6/16)
2016 May 4, In Dubai a man was shot seven times in the head in the marina neighborhood of luxury high-rise buildings and beachfront property. Authorities believed the man also was allegedly involved in the killing of someone's daughter in Turkey.
(AP, 5/12/16)
2016 May 4, An Egyptian court acquitted former PM Ahmed Nazif (2004-2011) of graft charges in the latest retrial linked to his time serving under longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak. The ruling was final and could not be appealed.
(AP, 5/4/16)
2016 May 4, Ethiopian media reported that a ban on smoking at public gatherings has been announced by the mayor of Addis Ababa. The new law makes smoking illegal in bars, cafés, restaurants, schools, hospitals and stadiums as well as cultural and religious events, but smoking on the streets is still permitted.
(AFP, 5/4/16)
2016 May 4, The European Union's top court dealt a blow to the tobacco industry by approving sweeping new rules that will require plain cigarette packs, ban menthol cigarettes and regulate the growing electronic cigarette market.
(AP, 5/4/16)
2016 May 4, Central European countries dismissed the EU executive's proposals to share out migrants among member states, saying any plans for forced relocation of people were unacceptable or, in Hungary's view, amounted to blackmail.
(Reuters, 5/4/16)
2016 May 4, The European Commission, the executive arm of the 28-nation EU, gave conditional backing for Turks to get visa-free travel as part of a deal to solve the migrant crisis.
(AFP, 5/4/16)
2016 May 4, French riot police clashed with demonstrators outside a school building in Paris, prompting government and police calls for an end to weeks of violent protests mainly linked to plans for a loosening of France's highly protective labor laws.
(Reuters, 5/4/16)
2016 May 4, Germany’s Health Ministry said the Cabinet has approved a bill that will allow patients to get cannabis as a prescription-only medication.
(AP, 5/4/16)
2016 May 4, In Guam Ricky Sanchez (39), a former Guam Office of Homeland Security employee, pleaded guilty to charges that he conspired to have a package of methamphetamine mailed to the office.
(AP, 5/6/16)
2016 May 4, India's highest court ordered cigarette manufacturers to comply with controversial new rules requiring bigger health warnings on packets that sparked weeks-long factory shutdowns.
(AFP, 5/4/16)
2016 May 4, In central India a passenger bus fell into a dry river bed after crashing through the railing of a bridge, killing 16 people in Chhattisgarh state.
(AP, 5/5/16)
2016 May 4, It was reported that sewage has damaged Gaza’s limited fresh water supplies, decimated fishing zones and is now floating northward and affecting Israel.
(SFC, 5/4/16, p.A3)
2016 May 4, Jamaica sentenced Dalton Forrester of Brooklyn to three years in prison and fined him about $6,000 after authorities found more than $100,000 in undeclared cash in his luggage on April 9. Forrester pleaded guilty to charges that included possession of criminal property.
(AP, 5/4/16)
2016 May 4, Malaysia's finance ministry said it would dissolve the board of advisers at 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) and take over its remaining assets, in an apparent move to scale down a state fund whose scandals have rocked the government.
(Reuters, 5/4/16)
2016 May 4, In southern Nigeria militants used explosives to blow up the Okan platform, a collection facility for offshore oil and gas that feeds the Escravos terminal. This caused Chevron to lose 35,000 barrels per day (bpd) of net crude oil production.
(AFP, 5/7/16)
2016 May 4, In Qatar French Pres. Francois Hollande attended a ceremony to mark the sale of 24 Rafale combat jets plus missiles to the United Arab Emirates.
(Econ, 5/14/16, p.55)
2016 May 4, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Russia will form three new military divisions to counter what it believes is the growing strength of The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) near its borders.
(Reuters, 5/4/16)
2016 May 4, Russia said it has withdrawn around 30 aircraft from Syria, including all of its Su-25 attack planes stationed in the country.
(Reuters, 5/4/16)
2016 May 4, In Syria at least 22 suspected regime air strikes pounded a key rebel bastion east of Damascus after a local freeze on fighting expired overnight. Rebel forces pressed an offensive against regime troops on the western outskirts of Aleppo.
(AFP, 5/4/16)
2016 May 4, A truce was announced for Aleppo, Syria, by US officials in agreement with Russia, in an effort to extend a fragile cease-fire to the deeply contested city. The Syrian military said the truce would last only 48 hours.
(AP, 5/5/16)
2016 May 4, Turkey said its warplanes have destroyed targets belonging to the militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in southeast Turkey.
(Reuters, 5/4/16)
2016 May 4, Yemen's warring parties resumed face-to-face peace talks in Kuwait after a three-day break triggered by a walkout by the government delegation.
(AFP, 5/4/16)
2017 May 4, Pres. Trump marked the National Day of Prayer by signing an executive order asking the IRS to use “maximum enforcement discretion" on the Johnson Amendment, which barred churches and tax-exempt groups from endorsing political candidates.
(SFC, 5/5/17, p.A6)
2017 May 4, US House Representatives voted 217-213 to gut the Affordable Care Act. The legislation moved to the Senate. Pres. Trump told The Economist that “Obamacare is absolutely dead."
(SFC, 5/5/17, p.A1)(Econ 5/27/17, p.25)
2017 May 4, A US House panel approved legislation that would gut much of the Dodd-Frank law enacted after the 2008 economic meltdown.
(SFC, 5/5/17, p.A6)
2017 May 4, US Navy Lt. Cmdr. Edward Lin agreed to plead guilty to mishandling classified information, communicating national defense information, failing to report foreign contacts and lying about his whereabouts while on leave during his court martial in Norfolk, Va.
(SFC, 5/5/17, p.A6)
2017 May 4, In San Francisco plans were unveiled for an ever-changing LED light sculpture, by SF artist Jim Campbell, for the top nine stories of the new Salesforce Tower.
(SFC, 5/5/17, p.C1)
2017 May 4, In NYC a man punched and sexually assaulted a German tourist (31) early today as she walked backed to her Airbnb rental in Harlem.
(SFC, 5/6/17, p.A5)
2017 May 4, William Baumol (b.1922), one of the great economists of the 20th century, died in NYC. His more than 500 papers included a description of “cost disease," on the rising costs associated with service industries.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Baumol)(Econ 5/13/17, p.69)
2017 May 4, In Texas office workers found nearly 400 migratory birds of brilliant plumage killed after they smashed into an office tower in Galveston while flying in a storm. More than 20 species were represented among the 395 birds that died.
(Reuters, 5/6/17)
2017 May 4, Former Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar returned to Kabul on after two decades in hiding, calling for peace with Taliban insurgents and criticizing the Western-backed government, which he said was not working.
(Reuters, 5/4/17)
2017 May 4, Albania’s Serious Crime Court sentenced in absentia Almir Daci, a former Muslim imam, to 15 years in prison on terrorism charges including recruiting and sending men to fight with rebel groups in Syria.
(AP, 5/4/17)
2017 May 4, Algerians voted in parliamentary elections. President Abdelaziz Bouteflika's party and its coalition ally won a clear majority in parliamentary elections in a vote marred by low turnout.
(AP, 5/4/17)(AFP, 5/5/17)
2017 May 4, Electoral contests were held for local councils in Scotland, Wales and many parts of England, as well as mayoral competitions in several cities. PM Theresa May's Conservatives scored big gains in the local elections.
(AP, 5/5/17)
2017 May 4, Buckingham Palace announced that Prince Philip (95), also known as the Duke of Edinburgh, will retire from public life.
(AP, 5/4/17)
2017 May 4, China said it wants to be good neighbors with North Korea, after the isolated country's state news agency published a rare criticism of Chinese state media commentaries calling for tougher sanctions over the North's nuclear program.
(Reuters, 5/4/17)
2017 May 4, Finland's government held its weekly cabinet meeting in front of the glare of a live audience for the first time, part of celebrations for the Nordic country's first hundred years of independence.
(Reuters, 5/4/17)
2017 May 4, It was reported that France has granted political asylum to Russian artist Pyotr Pavlensky (33), who once memorably nailed his scrotum to Red Square to denounce state power.
(AFP, 5/4/17)
2017 May 4, The head of Germany's domestic intelligence agency accused Russian rivals of gathering large amounts of political data in cyber-attacks and said it was up to the Kremlin to decide whether it wanted to put it to use ahead of Germany's September elections.
(Reuters, 5/4/17)
2017 May 4, Thousands of Indian government forces cordoned off at least two dozen villages in southern Kashmir while they hunted for separatist militants believed to be hiding in the area, but called off the operation after about 10 hours without finding any.
(AP, 5/4/17)
2017 May 4, Iran, Russia and Turkey signed an agreement calling for the setting up of four "de-escalation zones" in war-torn Syria at the cease-fire talks in Kazakhstan and said that President Bashar Assad's air force would halt flights over the designated areas in the country's north, center and south. Members of the Syrian opposition delegation shouted in protest and walked out of the conference room in Astana. The opposition said it could not accept creating safe zones in Syria because it threatens the country's territorial integrity and said it would also not recognize Iran as a guarantor of the peace plan.
(AP, 5/4/17)(Reuters, 5/4/17)
2017 May 4, Iraqi forces rescued 1,000 families as they pushed into Mosul from the north.
(Reuters, 5/5/17)
2017 May 4, Rescuers picked up 560 migrants from unsafe boats off the coast of Libya, including the body of a Gambian teenager who the migrants said had been shot by smugglers on the beach for his baseball cap.
(Reuters, 5/5/17)
2017 May 4, The leader of Mozambique's Renamo opposition party and rebel movement said he was extending a ceasefire indefinitely, part of an agreement reached in talks with the government to end violence since a disputed 2014 election.
(Reuters, 5/4/17)
2017 May 4, In the Netherlands an asylum-seeker (33) from Eritrea was sentenced to 12 years in prison for raping a 17-year-old woman last September after attempting to strangle and drown her.
(AP, 5/4/17)
2017 May 4, Pakistani authorities executed three Pakistani Taliban militants after they were convicted by military courts over links to acts of terrorism.
(AP, 5/4/17)
2017 May 4, Russia blocked access to Chinese social media app WeChat, developed by Tencent Holdings, for failing to give its contact details to Roskomnadzor, the Russian communications watchdog.
(Reuters, 5/6/17)
2017 May 4, In Somalia US Navy SEAL Kyle Milliken (38) was killed and two were wounded in a clash with al Shabaab militants, in what appeared to be the first American casualties in the country since the 1993 "Black Hawk Down" disaster.
(Reuters, 5/5/17)(Reuters, 5/7/17)(SSFC, 5/7/17, p.A10)
2017 May 4, South Africa's High Court ordered President Jacob Zuma to provide reasons for his decision last month to fire finance minister Pravin Gordhan in a cabinet reshuffle that led to sovereign debt downgrades.
(Reuters, 5/4/17)
2017 May 4, Thai police said Vorayuth "Boss" Yoovidhya (32), a fugitive heir to the Red Bull energy drink fortune, had left Singapore after abandoning his private jet and disappeared.
(AP, 5/4/17)(AP, 5/5/17)
2017 May 4, The Vatican and Myanmar announced an agreement to establish diplomatic relations as Pope Francis met with Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, the country's top civilian leader.
(AP, 5/4/17)
2017 May 4, Thousands of southern Yemenis who support the secession of their region rallied in Aden against the sacking of the city's governor. President Abed Rabbo Mansour last week fired Aden's governor, Aidarous al-Zubaidi, along with a Cabinet minister.
(AP, 5/4/17)
2018 May 4, US President Donald Trump shifted his position over possible talks with US Special Counsel Robert Mueller, saying his lawyers have advised him against any talks but that he would submit to questioning if it was "fair".
(Reuters, 5/4/18)
2018 May 4, US President Donald Trump, in a speech to the National Rifle Association (NRA), suggested looser gun laws could have helped prevent deadly attacks in Paris in 2015 and linked knife crime in London to a handgun ban. His comments caused anger in France and Britain.
(Reuters, 5/6/18)
2018 May 4, The Trump administration announced that it was ending temporary protected status (TPS) for the 57,000 Hondurans covered under the program. They now have until Jan. 5, 2020, to sort out their affairs before returning home — or try to normalize their migratory status in other ways, such as through marriage or sponsorship.
(AP, 5/5/18)
2018 May 4, The Pentagon announced the official launch of a new naval command that will bolster the US and NATO presence in the Atlantic Ocean.
(AP, 5/4/18)
2018 May 4, The last 83 members of a group of 228 Central American migrants who had camped out on the US-Mexican border after crossing Mexico in a caravan entered the United States to request asylum.
(AFP, 5/5/18)
2018 May 4, The Connecticut Supreme Court vacated Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel's 2002 murder conviction for the 1975 bludgeoning death of Martha Moxley and ordered a new trial.
(SFC, 5/5/18, p.A7)
2018 May 4, The US state of Georgia executed Robert Earl Butts Jr. (40) for the 1996 slaying of off-duty prison guard Donovan Corey Parks. A case against Marion Wilson Jr., also convicted in the slaying, was still pending.
(SFC, 5/5/18, p.A6)
2018 May 4, In Hawaii magnitude 6.9 temblor rocked the Big Island as the Kilauea volcano continued erupting.
(AP, 5/6/18)
2018 May 4, In Indiana police Officer Robert Pitts was killed in a shootout as he and other oficers approached an Apartment complex in Terre Haute. The suspect was killed.
(SSFC, 5/6/18, p.A14)
2018 May 4, Iowa GOP Gov. Kim Reynolds signed a six-week abortion ban into law, marking the strictest abortion regulation in the nation.
(SFC, 5/5/18, p.A6)
2018 May 4, In Kansas Adam Purinton (52), who shot dead Indian immigrant Srinivas Kuchibhotla (32) while shouting "get out of my country," was sentenced to life in prison.
(AFP, 5/4/18)
2018 May 4, In Afghanistan two civilians were killed and four were injured when a mortar shell hit a home in the Andar district of Ghazni province. Two militants were killed when explosives went off on a highway in Ghazni.
(Reuters, 5/5/18)
2018 May 4, Albanian police said Arber Cekaj, owner of the Arbi Garden company, has been arrested near Duesseldorf. His company owned a container with 613 kg (1,350 pounds) of cocaine that was discovered in February.
(AP, 5/4/18)
2018 May 4, Argentina's central bank hiked its benchmark interest rate to 40 percent to support the peso after it plunged in value the day before.
(AFP, 5/4/18)
2018 May 4, In Australia Moutia Elzahed (50), the wife of an Islamic State group recruiter, gave the militants' single-finger salute outside a Sydney court after becoming the first person convicted under a new state law criminalizing the refusal to stand for a judge. Her husband Hamdi Alqudsi was sentenced in 2016 to eight years in prison for helping young Australians reach Syria to fight for extremists.
(AP, 5/4/18)
2018 May 4, Chad President Idriss Deby vowed to crack down on entrenched graft as he signed a decree to create a new republic based on constitutional changes attacked by the opposition.
(AFP, 5/4/18)
2018 May 4, Online donations to help French rail workers topped one million euros, a month after they began rolling strikes over President Emmanuel Macron's drive to transform the heavily indebted state rail monopoly into a profit-making company.
(Reuters, 5/4/18)
2018 May 4, A new interim government was installed in Gabon, three days after the former administration resigned over delays in holding legislative elections.
(AFP, 5/4/18)
2018 May 4, Munich-based Allianz said it will stop insuring coal-fired power plants and coal mines as part of its contribution to combating climate change.
(AP, 5/4/18)
2018 May 4, Guatemalan authorities said they have arrested three current and former army officers on suspicion of corruption involving the Defense Ministry.
(AP, 5/4/18)
2018 May 4, In eastern India a girl (17) was raped, doused in kerosene and set alight. Police soon arrested a 19-year-old man who lives in the same neighbourhood as the girl struggled to survive. On the same day another girl (16) was raped and burned to death, both in the state of Jharkhand. Fifteen people were soon detained in the case of the 16-year-old, who was torched to death in the state's Chatra district.
(AFP, 5/7/18)
2018 May 4, Toyota announced it would invest Can$1.4 billion ($1.09 billion) in two factories in central Canada where the Japanese manufacturer plans to build its largest hybrid hub in North America.
(AFP, 5/4/18)
2018 May 4, Kosovo's President Hashim Thaci agreed the country's border with Montenegro, a development that takes Kosovo one step nearer to joining Europe's free travel Schengen zone. Montenegro has already approved the deal.
(AP, 5/4/18)
2018 May 4, In northern Myanmar a landslide of a mound of mining waste killed at least 14 people near the Waikha mine in the jade mining region in Kachin state's Hpakant township.
(AP, 5/4/18)
2018 May 4, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas apologized over alleged anti-Semitic comments that drew global condemnation.
(AFP, 5/4/18)
2018 May 4, Thousands of Palestinians staged a sixth weekly protest near Gaza's border with Israel, some throwing stones and burning tires as Israeli soldiers fired live rounds and volleys of tear gas from across the border fence.
(AP, 5/4/18)
2018 May 4, Hundreds of Korean Air Lines Co. pilots, cabin crew and other workers staged a rally in Seoul saying they can't take any more abuse from the company's founding family.
(AP, 5/4/18)
2018 May 4, In Spain the Catalan regional parliament approved a law giving members the right to vote for a leader in absentia, a move aimed at allowing former head Carles Puigdemont to be voted leader even though he is in self-imposed exile.
(Reuters, 5/4/18)
2018 May 4, In Spain police detained Jamie Acourt (41), one of Britain's most wanted fugitives, as he left a gym in Barcelona. Acourt was accused of large scale drug offenses.
(AP, 5/5/18)
2018 May 4, The Swedish Academy which decides the Nobel Prize for Literature said it would not make the award this year because of a sexual misconduct scandal that has caused turmoil in its ranks and led to a string of board members stepping down.
(Reuters, 5/4/18)
2018 May 4, In Uganda a leopard snatched and ate the three-year-old son of a female ranger working in the popular Queen Elizabeth National Park.
(AFP, 5/7/18)
2018 May 4, The chairman of Venezuela's top bank Banesco condemned a 90-day state takeover and arrest of 11 executives as locals thronged cash machines and sped up transfers to other institutions.
(Reuters, 5/4/18)
2019 May 4, US President Donald Trump says he still believes a nuclear deal with North Korea will happen, after the country fired several unidentified short-range projectiles into the sea off its eastern coast.
(AP, 5/4/19)
2019 May 4, A helicopter carrying two people crashed into Maryland's Chesapeake Bay. Rescue workers searched for survivors.
(SSFC, 5/5/19, p.A6)
2019 May 4, SpaceX launched a load of supplies to the ISS. A recycled Dragon capsule carried 5,500 pounds of goods.
(SSFC, 5/5/19, p.A6)
2019 May 4, In Afghanistan Taliban insurgents killed seven Afghan policemen after storming security checkpoints overnight in western Badghis province. The Afghan defense ministry also said that 43 militants from the Islamic state group, including foreign fighters, were killed in two separate coalition airstrikes during the night in coordination with Afghan forces.
(AP, 5/4/19)
2019 May 4, In Bosnia thousands of Muslims flocked to the town of Foca for the reopening of a historic mosque leveled at the beginning of the Bosnian war. The 16th century Aladza Mosque was one of the most prominent masterpieces of classical Ottoman architecture in the Balkans before its destruction in the 1992-95 war by Bosnian Serb forces.
(AP, 5/4/19)
2019 May 4, Authorities in Curacao boarded the Freewinds ship that arrived in the Dutch Caribbean island under quarantine, to start vaccinating people to prevent a measles outbreak.
(AP, 5/4/19)
2019 May 4, In France demonstrators marched for a 25th straight weekend. Several dozen rallied at Paris' Charles de Gaulle Airport to denounce privatization plans.
(SSFC, 5/5/19, p.A4)
2019 May 4, In France a Norwegian student filed a complaint for alleged rape in a fire hall in the Plaisance district of southern Paris. French newspaper Le Parisien reported that the woman told police she had consensual sex with one firefighter but then was raped by several others. Six firefighters faced charges in a following investigation.
(AP, 5/06/19)
2019 May 4, Tropical cyclone Fani, the strongest to hit India in five years, killed at least 12 people in eastern Odisha state before swinging north-eastwards into Bangladesh where five more people died and more than a million were moved to safety.
(Reuters, 5/4/19)
2019 May 4, Indonesian authorities resumed their tough stance against illegal fishing in the country's waters by sinking 51 foreign ships. The seized ships were sunk at five ports across the archipelago.
(AP, 5/4/19)
2019 May 4, Iranian state news reported that a court has sentenced Hossein Fereydoun, President Hassan Rouhani’s brother, to an unspecified jail term, in a corruption case the president’s supporters allege is politically motivated.
(Reuters, 5/4/19)
2019 May 4, Israel said around 150 rockets were fired from the Palestinian enclave by late this afternoon and that its air defenses intercepted dozens of them. Retaliatory airstrikes killed six Palestinians including a pregnant mother and her baby.
(AFP, 5/4/19)(SSFC, 5/5/19, p.A5)
2019 May 4, Interstellar Technology Inc., a Japanese aerospace startup funded by a former internet maverick, successfully launched a small rocket into space, making it the first commercially developed Japanese rocket to reach orbit.
(AP, 5/4/19)
2019 May 4, The Japanese government said the nation's child population has declined for the 38th year in a row and is now at a record low.
(AP, 5/4/19)
2019 May 4, In Libya Islamic State militants killed at least nine soldiers in an attack on a training camp for the self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA) in the southwestern desert. A military source said Islamic State militants and Chadian opposition fighters were responsible for the attack.
(AP, 5/4/19)(Reuters, 5/4/19)
2019 May 4, Syrian government forces and their Russian allies pounded the rebel-held northwest with fresh air strikes. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported more than 115 strikes against rebel-held areas. It said six civilians were killed raising to 67 the number of civilians and insurgents killed since April 30 when the government began its new campaign.
(Reuters, 5/4/19)(AP, 5/4/19)
2019 May 4, Thailand's King Maha Vajiralongkorn (66) completed Buddhist and Brahmin rituals to symbolically transform him into a living god as the Southeast Asian nation crowned its first monarch in nearly seven decades.
(Reuters, 5/4/19)
2019 May 4, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan called for the opposition's local election victory in Istanbul to be declared invalid and the vote re-run, increasing the pressure on the country's electoral authorities.
(AFP, 5/4/19)
2019 May 4, Four Turkish soldiers were killed and two others wounded in two separate cross-border attacks by Kurdish militants.
(Reuters, 5/4/19)
2019 May 4, Seven Venezuelan military officers were killed when their helicopter crashed while heading to a state where Pres. Nicolás Maduro appeared alongside troops.
(AP, 5/04/19)
2020 May 4, The US National Institutes of Health said it has started enrolling participants in a study to find out the infection rate of COVID-19, caused by the new coronavirus, in children and their families in the United States. Global coronavirus cases surpassed 3.5 million and deaths neared a quarter of a million.
(Reuters, 5/4/20)
2020 May 4, US Supreme Court justices began hearing arguments by telephone for the first time.
(AP, 5/4/20)
2020 May 4, California to date had 55,657 cases of coronavirus and 2,254 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 8,763 cases and 312 deaths. The United States recorded more than 22,000 new cases of COVID-19. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,180,000 with the death toll at 68,689.
(sfist.com, 5/4/20)(Good Morning America, 5/5/20)
2020 May 4, In San Francisco Courtney Brousseau (22), a transit advocate and Twitter employee, died 3 days after being hit by a barrage of gunfire at the intersection of Rosa Parks Lane and Guerrero St.
(SFC, 5/6/20, p.B1)
2020 May 4, Michael McClure (87), Beat poet, died at his home in the Oakland Hills. He put together the famed Six Gallery readings in 1955 that launched the San Francisco Rennaisance and the legend of the Beats.
(SFC, 5/7/20, p.B1)
2020 May 4, Michigan has reported 43,754 confirmed COVID-19 virus cases and 4,049 deaths due to complications from the disease.
(AP, 5/4/20)
2020 May 4, Missouri Gov. Mike Parson lifted many of the state's coronavirus restrictions and its stay-at-home order.
(AP, 5/23/20)
2020 May 4, New York state reported more than 1,700 previously undisclosed deaths at nursing homes and adult care facilities. At least 4,813 people have died from COVID-19 in the state's nursing homes since March 1.
(AP, 5/5/20)
2020 May 4, NYC health officials said 15 children, many of whom tested positive for or had previously been exposed to the novel coronavirus, have recently been admitted to city hospitals with a mysterious illness possibly linked to COVID-19. They showed various symptoms associated with toxic shock or Kawasaki disease, a rare inflammatory syndrome typically affecting children under the age of 5.
(ABC News, 5/5/20)
2020 May 4, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine allowed construction and manufacturing to reopen, and let office workers return. He said businesses must meet state requirements that workers wear face coverings and stay at least six feet apart, and employers sanitize their workplaces.
(Reuters, 5/4/20)
2020 May 4, Apple and Google shared more details about the technological tools they’ve been developing to help governments and public health authorities trace the spread of the coronavirus and notify citizens about exposure, including a set of privacy requirements for use of those tools. If countries want to adopt the technology, location services are forbidden.
(Yahoo News, 5/4/20)
2020 May 4, J. Crew, the mass-market clothing company whose preppy-with-a-twist products were worn by Michelle Obama and appeared at New York Fashion Week, filed for bankruptcy protection. J. Crew announced that its parent company, Chinos Holdings, had filed for Chapter 11 protection in federal bankruptcy court for the Eastern District of Virginia.
(NY Times, 5/4/20)
2020 May 4, Argentina's biggest bondholders reiterated that they would not accept the government's offer to restructure $65 billion of its foreign debt. The standoff raised the risk Argentina will fall into a record ninth sovereign debt default on May 22, when a grace period on a missed interest payment runs out.
(Reuters, 5/4/20)
2020 May 4, The Australian government set aside A$300 million ($191 million) to jumpstart hydrogen projects with the help of low-cost financing as the country aims to build the industry by 2030.
(Reuters, 5/4/20)
2020 May 4, Bangladesh reported more than 10,000 coronavirus cases.
(Reuters, 5/4/20)
2020 May 4, Belgium began a cautious easing of its coronavirus lockdown, allowing some businesses to reopen while obliging all passengers on public transport to wear a mask under a new rule to minimize the risk of a new outbreak.
(Reuters, 5/4/20)
2020 May 4, Britain as of today had recorded nearly 190,000 coronavirus cases and almost 28,500 deaths.
(Reuters, 5/4/20)
2020 May 4, In El Salvador at least 300 people held in two centers set up by the government protested, demanding to be released and given their test results.
(Reuters, 5/5/20)
2020 May 4, France reported 306 new deaths from COVID-19, bringing the nationwide tally to 25,201.
(AP, 5/5/20)
2020 May 4, Chancellor Angela Merkel said that Germany would contribute 525 million euros ($573.51 million) to a global fund-raising push to search for vaccines and for a treatment for the novel coronavirus. World leaders in a video conference launched a pledging "marathon" - without the United States - to raise at least $8.2 billion for research into a possible vaccine and treatments for the coronavirus, but warned that it is just the start of an effort that must be sustained over time to beat the disease.
(AP, 5/4/20)(Reuters, 5/4/20)
2020 May 4, In Iceland high schools, hair salons, dentists and other businesses began reopening after six weeks of lockdown. Iceland has confirmed 1,799 cases of the coronavirus, but just 10 people have died.
(AP, 5/4/20)
2020 May 4, Iran reopened mosques in parts of the country deemed at low risk from coronavirus, as it said almost 80,000 people hospitalized with the illness had recovered and been released. 74 new fatalities brought the total to 6,277. Another 1,223 cases of COVID-19 infections were recorded in the past 24 hours, raising that total to 98,647.
(AFP, 5/4/20)
2020 May 4, Israeli airstrikes late today in eastern Syria killed 14 Iranian and Iraqi fighters and wounded others, some seriously. The strikes in eastern Deir el-Zour province targeted positions of Iranian and Iran-backed fighters.
(AP, 5/5/20)
2020 May 4, In Israel former Soviet dissident Natan Sharansky, winner of the 2020 Genesis Prize, announced that he will donate the $1 million award to organizations fighting the coronavirus pandemic and assisting people most affected by the outbreak.
(AP, 5/4/20)
2020 May 4, Millions of people were allowed to return to work in Italy as Europe’s longest lockdown started to ease. Italy's statistics bureau ISTAT said the coronavirus death toll is much higher than reported, in an analysis pointing to thousands of fatalities that have never been officially attributed to COVID-19.
(AP, 5/4/20)(Reuters, 5/4/20)
2020 May 4, A private Kenyan African Express aircraft with coronavirus medical supplies crashed in Somalia near the city of Baidoa, killing all six on board. A report from the African Union later said the plane may have been shot down by Ethiopian troops.
(AP, 5/5/20)(SFC, 5/6/20, p.A2)(SFC, 5/12/20, p.A2)
2020 May 4, Kuwaiti said security officials have dispersed what they described as a riot by stranded Egyptians unable to return home amid the coronavirus pandemic.
(https://tinyurl.com/yd8a8tee)(SFC, 5/5/20, p.A5)
2020 May 4, Lebanon entered a new phase of its coronavirus lockdown, allowing restaurants to open at 30% capacity during the day. But many business owners say they will not reopen because they would be losing more money if they operate under such restrictions during a faltering economy.
(AP, 5/4/20)
2020 May 4, Thousands of Malaysians joined the morning rush hour as the government eased curbs on movement and businesses for the first time in six weeks.
(Reuters, 5/4/20)
2020 May 4, Malaysia criticized the World Health Organization for advising adults to avoid palm oil in their diet during the COVID-19 outbreak and use alternatives such as olive oil.
(Reuters, 5/4/20)
2020 May 4, In Mexico Giovanni Lopez was detained by police in Ixtlahuacan de los Membrillos and died under police custody. An autopsy found that he had died from a head injury. Protests against police brutality erupted on June 4 in Guadalajara, calling for authorities to be held accountable for the death of Lopez, allegedly arrested for not wearing a face mask. On June 5 three police officers were arrested in connection with the beating death.
(AP, 6/5/20)(SFC, 6/6/20, p.A2)
2020 May 4, In the Netherlands the number of confirmed coronavirus cases rose by 199 to 40,770, with 26 new deaths. Total deaths in the country rose to 5,082.
(Reuters, 5/4/20)
2020 May 4, In Nigeria businesses reopened on the first working day after the easing of a lockdown imposed on key urban areas in a bid to restart Africa's largest economy. The government said this is the first phase of easing the lockdown and that the situation will be assessed in the next two weeks. Nigeria has recorded 2,558 cases of coronavirus and 87 deaths.
(AP, 5/4/20)
2020 May 4, PM Erna Solberg said Norway will give $1 billion to support the distribution worldwide of any vaccine developed against COVID-19 as well as for vaccines against other diseases. The $1 billion will go to GAVI, the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization. Norway has financed GAVI since its inception in 2000.
(Reuters, 5/4/20)
2020 May 4, Portugal began to slowly ease its lockdown measures imposed to fight the coronavirus. A three-phase plan began to open up different sectors every 15 days, starting with hairdressers, small neighborhood shops, car dealerships and bookshops. Portugal has so far reported 25,525 cases of the coronavirus and 1,063 deaths.
(Reuters, 5/4/20)
2020 May 4, In Russia the number of cases rose by 10,581 over the past 24 hours compared with a record of 10,633 the previous day.
(Reuters, 5/4/20)
2020 May 4, Swiss environmental activists delivered a petition to a special session of the Swiss parliament demanding that a government aid package should promote a "green recovery" from the coronavirus crisis.
(Reuters, 5/4/20)
2020 May 4, In southern Syria unknown gunmen killed 9 policemen in the village of Muzayreeb, Daraa province, close to the border with Jordan.
(AP, 5/4/20)
2020 May 4, The UN migration agency said at least 78 migrants fleeing war-torn Libya for Europe remain stuck at sea without a designated port to dock.
(AP, 5/4/20)
2020 May 4, Venezuelan authorities arrested two US citizens among a group of “mercenaries," a day after a beach raid purportedly aimed at capturing the socialist leader that authorities say they foiled. They were identified as Luke Denman and Airan Berry, both former US special forces soldiers.
(AP, 5/4/20)
2021 May 4, President Joe Biden issued a proclamation on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons Awareness Day. He has promised to bolster resources to address the crisis and better consult with tribes to hold perpetrators accountable and keep communities safe.
(AP, 5/4/21)
2021 May 4, San Francisco advanced into the least restrictive tier of California's color-coded reopening system, allowing most businesses to expand capacity. Mayor London Breed said the changes will take effect under yellow-tier guidelines on May 6.
(SFC, 5/5/21, p.A1)
2021 May 4, In San Francisco two women were hospitalized after they were stabbed at a bus stop on Market Street in the latest attacks against Asian Americans nationwide since the start of the pandemic. Police soon arrested a 54-year-old man after they obtained an image of the suspect and recognized him from prior encounters.
(The Guardian, 5/6/21)
2021 May 4, California to date had 3,723,265 cases of coronavirus and 61,619 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 438,243 cases and 6,310 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 32,507,113 with the death toll at 578,319.
(sfist.com, 5/4/21)
2021 May 4, It was reported that former New York Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (77) has been released from a federal prison on furlough while he awaits potential placement to home confinement.
(AP, 5/4/21)
2021 May 4, In Tennessee a woman died when a tree fell on her home as storms moved through the large swaths of the southern US.
(SFC, 5/5/21, p.A5)
2021 May 4, HP, Microsoft and other businesses called for expanded voter access in Texas, and a group of Houston executives criticized Republican-backed voting bills in the state Legislature.
(NY Times, 5/4/21)
2021 May 4, The top international official in Bosnia warned that ethnic Serb leaders are making a concerted effort to split the country, or failing that to roll back many reforms achieved during the last 25 years, and he called for “a decisive stand" to stop any division.
(AP, 5/4/21)
2021 May 4, Two former British paratroopers accused of the 1972 murder of Joe McCann (24), an Official IRA leader in Belfast, were formally acquitted after the veterans’ trial collapsed. A judge ruled that evidence implicating the former soldiers was not admissible and prosecutors said they would not offer further evidence at the trial.
(AP, 5/4/21)
2021 May 4, Sotheby's said it would accept bitcoin and ethereum as payment for Banksy's iconic artwork "Love is in the Air", a first for a physical art auction and the latest sign of growing mainstream acceptance of cryptocurrencies.
(Reuters, 5/4/21)
2021 May 4, Britain and India signed an accord on migration and mobility, as they look to deepen economic, cultural and other ties following the UK's departure from the EU.
(Reuters, 5/4/21)
2021 May 4, Foreign ministers from the Group of Seven wealthy industrialized nations gathered in London - their first face-to-face meeting in more than two years - to grapple with threats to health, prosperity and democracy.
(AP, 5/4/21)
2021 May 4, Egypt confirmed that it is buying another 30 Rafale fighter jets from France, building up its fleet of the advanced warplane to 54, second only to the French air force.
(AP, 5/4/21)
2021 May 4, Eritrea’s Pres. Isaias Afwerki arrived in Khartoum for talks with Sudanese officials amid tensions over a longtime border dispute between Sudan and Ethiopia. He was received by Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, head of Sudan's ruling sovereign council.
(AP, 5/4/21)
2021 May 4, India's official count of coronavirus cases surpassed 20 million, nearly doubling in the past three months, while deaths officially have passed 220,000.
(AP, 5/4/21)
2021 May 4, India's government said 8 Asiatic lions at a zoo in Hyderabad have contracted the coronavirus, adding that there was no evidence that animals could transmit the disease to humans. The Nehru Zoological Park has now been closed.
(AP, 5/4/21)
2021 May 4, India said it will allow foreign mobile carriers to carry out 5G trials with equipment makers, but did not name China's Huawei among the participants.
(Reuters, 5/5/21)
2021 May 4, Iranian police started investigating the death of a Swiss diplomat who died after reportedly falling from a high rise in Tehran.
(AP, 5/4/21)
2021 May 4, Iran's semi-official Tasnim news agency reported that police arrested 16 men and women at a mixed-gender party in the northeastern province of Khorasan Razavi. The 16 were detained while they were dancing at a party. Such parties are illegal under Iranian law.
(AP, 5/4/21)
2021 May 4, Israel's PM Benjamin Netanyahu failed to form a new government by today's midnight deadline, putting his political future in jeopardy as he stands trial on corruption charges and prolonging a political deadlock that has only worsened after four elections in two years.
(NY Times, 5/5/21)
2021 May 4, Italy reported 305 coronavirus-related deaths against 256 the day before, while the daily tally of new infections rose to 9,116 from 5,948.
(AP, 5/4/21)
2021 May 4, Lebanon and Israel resumed indirect talks with US mediation over their disputed maritime border.
(AP, 5/4/21)
2021 May 4, In Morocco Halima Cissé of Mali (25) gave birth to nine babies - two more than doctors had detected during scans. A year later the five girls and four boys, born by Caesarean section, were doing well.
(BBC, 5/5/21)(BBC, 5/4/22)
2021 May 4, Nepal halted domestic flights due to spiking cases of the coronavirus. Int'l. flights would cease on May 6.
(SFC, 5/4/21, p.A4)
2021 May 4, A Dutch court convicted five teens for their involvement in the fatal beating last year of a 73-year-old man in what they described as a “pedophile hunt." The youths were given sentences ranging from six months to a year in juvenile detention.
(AP, 5/4/21)
2021 May 4, A 30-year-old Norwegian woman who was repatriated by Norway from a refugee camp in Syria because her son was sick was sentenced to 3 1/2 years in prison by an Oslo court for participating in the Islamic State group.
(AP, 5/4/21)
2021 May 4, In Qatar Malcolm Bidali, a Kenyan security guard, was arrested and faced charges after writing compelling, anonymous accounts of being a low-paid worker there. He found himself targeted by a phishing attack that could have revealed his location just before his arrest.
(AP, 5/30/21)
2021 May 4, Mohammed Deif, the shadowy leader of the armed wing of the Islamic militant group Hamas, issued his first public statement in nearly seven years, warning Israel it will pay a “heavy price" if it evicts Palestinians from their homes in east Jerusalem.
(AP, 5/5/21)
2021 May 4, The Seychelles, which has fully vaccinated over 60% of its population against Covid-19, said it is bringing back restrictions amid a rise in cases.
(BBC, 5/5/21)
2021 May 4, Sicily said it will start offering COVID-19 vaccines to people over 50 to speed up its inoculation program which is being hampered by a reluctant older population who fear potentially severe side effects. Five people in Sicily have died after receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine.
(AP, 5/4/21)
2021 May 4, Madrid residents voted in droves for a new regional assembly in an election that tests the depths of resistance to virus lockdown measures and the divide between left-wing and right-wing parties.
(AP, 5/4/21)
2021 May 4, Thailand launched a campaign to vaccinate 50,000 people living in a crowded river-side district of the capital Bangkok, as the country tries to contain a third wave of coronavirus infections. Thailand reported 1,763 new coronavirus cases and 27 deaths, bringing the total to 72,788 cases and 303 fatalities since the pandemic began.
(Reuters, 5/4/21)
2022 May 4, US President Joe Biden approved a disaster declaration for parts of drought-parched New Mexico hit by wildfires and ordered federal aid be made available for recovery efforts.
(Reuters, 5/5/22)
2022 May 4, The White House announced a slate of measures to support quantum technology in the United States while laying out steps to boost cybersecurity to defend against the next generation of supercomputers.
(Reuters, 5/4/22)
2022 May 4, The US Federal Reserve said it would lift interest rates by half a percentage point, an increase that was widely expected, and that it plans to shrink its bond holdings.
(NY Times, 5/4/22)
2022 May 4, Officials said the Biden administration has begun expelling Cubans and Nicaraguans to Mexico under pandemic-related powers to deny migrants a chance to seek asylum, expanding use of the rule even as it publicly says it has been trying to unwind it.
(AP, 5/4/22)
2022 May 4, It was reported that the rate of plastic waste recycling in the United States fell to between 5%-6% in 2021 as some countries stopped accepting US waste exports and as plastic waste generation surged to new highs.
(Reuters, 5/4/22)
2022 May 4, Total US COVID-19 cases reached over 81,524,329 with the death toll at 994,809.
(sfist.com, 5/4/22)
2022 May 4, New York's attorney gen'l. announced that Intuit Inc. of Mt. View, Ca., will suspend Turbo Tax's "free, free, free" ad campaign and pay $141 million to customers across the US who were deceived by misleading promises of free tax-filing services.
(SFC, 5/5/22, p.C2)
2022 May 4, William Todd Wilson of North Carolina, a member of the far-right Oath Keepers militia, admitted to engaging in seditious conspiracy during last year's attack on the US Capitol, the latest in a string of courtroom victories for the Justice Department.
(Reuters, 5/4/22)
2022 May 4, Several tornados whipped through areas of Oklahoma and Texas. Significant damage was reported in Seminole, Oklahoma, but there were no reports of serious injuries.
(SFC, 5/6/22, p.A7)
2022 May 4, Rhode Island's highest court upheld a state law guaranteeing its citizens' right to abortion, just as abortion rights at the national level appear to be in jeopardy.
(Reuters, 5/4/22)
2022 May 4, The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) said COVID-19 cases in the Americas increased by 12.7% last week from the prior week, as infections continued to rise in Central and North America.
(Reuters, 5/4/22)
2022 May 4, Britain banned all service sector exports to Russia and imposed sanctions on 63 individuals and organizations, its latest wave of measures to increase pressure on Moscow to reverse course and pull back from Ukraine.
(Reuters, 5/4/22)
2022 May 4, Britain said Russia has deployed 22 battalion tactical groups near Ukraine's eastern city of Izium in an effort to advance along the northern axis of the Donbas region. British military intelligence said it was highly likely that Russia intended to move beyond Izium to capture the cities of Kramatorsk and Severodonetsk.
(Reuters, 5/4/22)
2022 May 4, China's central bank pledged monetary policy support to ensure ample liquidity, help businesses badly hit by the latest COVID-19 outbreak in the country and support a recovery in consumption.
(Reuters, 5/4/22)
2022 May 4, Beijing shut 60 metro stations and bus routes and extended COVID-19 curbs on many public venues, focusing efforts to avoid the fate of Shanghai, where millions have been under strict lockdown for more than a month.
(Reuters, 5/4/22)(SFC, 5/5/22, p.A4)
2022 May 4, The European Union took a major step toward weakening President Vladimir V. Putin’s ability to finance the war in Ukraine, proposing a total embargo on Russian oil, as Moscow demonstrated its destructive power with missile strikes in the west of the country and deadly attacks in the east.
(NY Times, 5/4/22)
2022 May 4, Guinea's attorney general ordered legal proceedings against ousted President Alpha Conde (84) and 26 of his former officials over violence surrounding Conde's disputed bid for a third term.
(Reuters, 5/4/22)
2022 May 4, India's central bank raised its main lending rate off record lows in a surprise move to contain rising inflation, shocking markets and pushing the benchmark 10-year bond yield to its highest levels in three years.
(Reuters, 5/4/22)
2022 May 4, Indian police arrested an officer accused of raping a girl (13) in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh after she went to him to report her gang rape, an incident that sparked outrage in a country notorious for assaults on women. The head of a rural police station in Lalitpur, a district about 580 km (360 miles) south of New Delhi, was among four people arrested.
(Reuters, 5/5/22)
2022 May 4, Israel's Supreme Court rejected a petition against the eviction of more than 1,000 Palestinian inhabitants of a rural part of the occupied West Bank in an area which Israel has designated for military exercises.
(Reuters, 5/5/22)
2022 May 4, An Italian parliamentary panel opened an investigation into "disinformation" on television amid a heated debate over the frequent appearance of Russian guests on the country's news programs during the war in Ukraine.
(Reuters, 5/5/22)
2022 May 4, State media reported that North Korea's office workers and factory laborers have been dispatched to farming areas around the country to join a fight against drought, amid concerns over prolonged food shortages.
(Reuters, 5/4/22)
2022 May 4, North Korea fired a ballistic missile toward the sea off its east coast, its 14th known weapons test.
(Reuters, 5/4/22)
2022 May 4, It was reported that that coronavirus cases are surging in Puerto Rico. New cases started climbing on March 15, five days after Gov. Pedro Pierluisi lifted COVID-19 restrictions.
(SFC, 5/4/22, p.A4)
2022 May 4, Russia's foreign ministry announced sanctions against 63 Japanese officials, journalists and professors for engaging in what it called "unacceptable rhetoric" against Moscow.
(Reuters, 5/4/22)
2022 May 4, Ukraine's defense ministry said that Russia was attempting to increase the tempo of its offensive in the east of the country. The mayor of Mariupol said there was heavy fighting at the Azovstal steel works where the city's last defenders and some civilians are holding out. More than 30 children were among those awaiting evacuation from the plant.
(Reuters, 5/4/22)
2022 May 4, The United Nations said that the number of people without enough to eat on a daily basis reached all-time high last year and is poised to hit “appalling" new levels as the Ukraine war affects global food production.
(Reuters, 5/4/22)
2022 May 4, Pope Francis and Japan's PM Fumio Kishida met and discussed their common hope for a world free of nuclear weapons.
(Reuters, 5/4/22)
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1471 May 4, The Yorkists defeated the Lancastrians in the Battle of Tewkesbury between the English House of Lancaster and House of York. King Edward IV routed the forces of ex-queen Margaret. The Lancastrian forces were led by Edmund Beaufort, 4th Duke of Somerset. Edward, the 17-year-old prince of Wales, was killed at the battle of Tewkesbury.
(www.britainexpress.com/History/battles/tewkesbury.htm)(MH, 12/96)(HN, 5/4/99)
1493 May 4, The Discovery Doctrine, a legal doctrine claiming the right and duty of Christian states to rule newly discovered territories and their peoples, was first issued by Pope Alexander VI regarding the Americas. The Papal Bull Inter caetera ("Among other [works]") granted to the Catholic Majesties of Ferdinand and Isabella (as sovereigns of Castile) all lands to the "west and south" of a pole-to-pole line 100 leagues west and south of any of the islands of the Azores or the Cape Verde islands. “Inter Caetera" was amended in Sep. granting Spain the right to hold lands to the “western regions and to India." The Patronata Real granted the Spanish throne the privilege and duty of overseeing propagation of Christianity among Spain’s subjects in the New World.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inter_caetera)(SFC, 3/5/11, p.E3)
1604 May 4, Claudio Merulo (71), Italian organist, composer, died.
(MC, 5/4/02)
1607 May 4, Jamestown was established by the Virginia Company of London as "James Fort" on May 4 O.S. (May 14, 1607 N.S.) and was considered permanent after a brief abandonment in 1610.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamestown,_Virginia)
1626 May 4, Dutch explorer Peter Minuit (~1594-1638), director-general of New Netherlands, bought Manhattan Island for 60 guilders (about $24 in 1839 dollars) worth of cloth and buttons. Minuit conducted the transaction with Seyseys, chief of the Canarsees, who were only too happy to accept valuable merchandise in exchange for an island that was actually mostly controlled by the Weckquaesgeeks. The Sixty guilders were valued at approximately $1,060 in 2013. The site of the deal was later marked by Peter Minuit Plaza at South Street and Whitehall Street.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Minuit)(AP, 5/4/97)(HN, 5/4/98)(WSJ, 11/19/99, p.W10)
1631 May 4, Mary I Henriette Stuart, daughter of Charles I (later queen of England), was born.
(MC, 5/4/02)
1715 May 4, A French manufacturer debuted the first folding umbrella.
(HN, 5/4/98)
1728 May 4, Georg F. Handel's opera "Tolomeo, re di Egitto," premiered in London.
(MC, 5/4/02)
1752 May 4, Pieter Snyers (71), Flemish painter, engraver, died.
(MC, 5/4/02)
1776 May 4, Rhode Island declared its freedom from England, two months before the Declaration of Independence was adopted.
(AP, 5/4/97)(HN, 5/4/98)
1780 May 4, American Academy of Arts & Science was founded.
(MC, 5/4/02)
1783 May 4, In India Tipu Sultan was enthroned as the ruler of Mysore after the death of Haider Ali in a simple ceremony at Bednur.
(www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20080048779)
1795 May 4, Thousands of rioters entered jails in Lyons, France, and massacred 99 Jacobin prisoners.
(HN, 5/4/99)
1796 May 4, Horace Mann, "the father of American Public Education" educator and author, was born.
(HN, 5/4/99)
1814 May 4, Napoleon Bonaparte disembarked at Portoferraio on the island of Elba in the Mediterranean.
(HN, 5/4/99)
1814 May 4, Bourbon reign was restored in France. Louis XVIII was crowned as successor to his guillotined brother.
(MC, 5/4/02)
1820 May 4, Joseph Whitaker, bookseller and publisher, was born. He founded Whitaker's Almanac.
(HN, 5/4/99)
1825 May 4, Thomas Henry Huxley (d.1895), British biologist, naturalist and author, was born. "God give me strength to face a fact though it slay me." "My experience of the world is that things left to themselves don't get right." His work includes the collected Essays in nine volumes: 1. Method and Results, 2. Darwiniana, 3. Science and Education, 4. Science and the Hebrew Tradition, 5. Science and the Christian Tradition, 6. Hume, with Helps to the Study of Berkeley, 7. Man’s Place in Nature, 8. Discourses, Biological and Geological, 9. Evolution and Ethics and Other Essays. In 1997 Adrian Desmond wrote the biography: “Huxley." “God give me strength to face a fact though it slay me."
(OAPOC-TH, p.71)(WSJ, 10/10/97, p.A20)(AP, 11/1/97)(AP, 1/26/99)(HN, 5/4/01)
1826 May 4, Frederick Church, US romantic landscape painter (Hudson River School), was born.
(MC, 5/4/02)
1827 May 4, John Hanning Speke, English explorer, was born. He discovered Lake Victoria and the source of the Nile.
(HN, 5/4/99)
1846 May 4, Michigan ended its death penalty.
(MC, 5/4/02)
1850 May 4, A 2nd great fire broke out in San Francisco on Portsmouth Square. It consumed 16 blocks and 300 buildings with damages estimated at $4 million.
(SFC, 12/24/99, p.A24)(SFC, 4/17/21, p.B3)
1851 May 4, The Sydney Ducks set fire to a store on San Francisco’s Portsmouth Square. Most of the dwellings on Telegraph Hill were destroyed. The heart of SF was destroyed and some 2000 buildings burned down. This led to the formation of the secret Committee of Vigilance, which hung several criminals and drove others out of the city. Remnants from Hoff's store, built on a wharf over the bay, were found in 1986 during excavations for the Embarcadero West 33-story high-rise. Damage was estimated at $12 million.
(SFC, 12/24/99, p.A24)(SFC, 11/27/00, p.A18)(SFC, 10/13/18, p.C1)(SFC, 4/17/21, p.B3)
1851 May 4, The 1840-ship General Harrison burned to the water line. It was salvaged for parts, buried and not seen again until 2001 when construction at Battery and Clay revealed its remains. The whaling ship Niantic, already converted to a waterfront hotel, burned and sank into the bay. The Niantic Hotel was rebuilt and operated until 1872. In 1977 new construction uncovered the Niantic’s burned remains.
(SFC, 9/8/01, p.A11)(SFC, 2/4/05, p.E16)(SFC, 2/17/18, p.C1)
1855 May 4, Camille Pleyel (66), Austrian piano builder, composer, died.
(MC, 5/4/02)
1858 May 4, In the Mexican War of Reform liberals established their capital at Vera Cruz.
(MC, 5/4/02)
1862 May 4, Battle at Williamsburg, Virginia. [see May 5]
(MC, 5/4/02)
1862 May 4, At Yorktown, VA., McClellan halted his troop before town as it was full of armed land mines left by CS Brig. general Gabrial Rains.
(MC, 5/4/02)
1863 May 4, Battle of Chancellorsville ended when the Union Army retreated.
(HN, 5/4/98)
1863 May 4, War correspondents Richard T. Colburn, Junius H. Brown and Albert Dean Richardson were captured enroute to Grant’s headquarters by a Confederate patrol near Vicksburg, Miss. Colburn was soon released but Brown and Richardson were sent to Libby Prison in Richmond, Va., and later to Salisbury Prison in North Carolina. They managed to escape in Dec 1864 and arrived in Knoxville, Tenn., on Jan 13, 1865.
(ON, 4/03, p.12)
1864 May 4, Ulysses S. Grant crossed Rapidan and began his duel with Robert E. Lee’s Confederate army.
(HN, 5/4/98)
1865 May 4, Abraham Lincoln was buried in a temporary tomb in Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield, Illinois.
(SFEC, 3/22/98, p.T4)(www.state.il.us/HPA/hs/Tomb.htm)
1865 May 4, Battle of Mobile, AL. [see Apr 11,14]
(MC, 5/4/02)
1874 May 4, Frank Conrad, electrical engineer and broadcasting pioneer, was born.
(HN, 5/4/01)
1881 May 4, Aleksandr F. Kerenski, Russian premier (1917) Predecessor to Bolshevist coup), was born.
(MC, 5/4/02)
1884 May 4, Agnes Fay Morgan, American nutritionist and biochemist, was born.
(HN, 5/4/01)
1884 May 4, Ferdinand Ward came by the NYC home of Pres. Ulysses S. Grant and told him that the Marine National Bank was having temporary difficulties because of a large unexpected withdrawal by one of its clients. He asked Grant if he could come up with $150,000 for only 24 hours and by Monday or Tuesday the situation would be all cleared up. Grant, that same day, limped from his home and went to see his friend William Henry Vanderbilt. He asked Vanderbilt to lend him $150,000, telling him the same story Ward had fabricated. Vanderbilt told Grant he did not care one bit about the Marine National Bank, but that he would be pleased to make a personal loan to Grant for the amount requested.
(http://faculty.css.edu/mkelsey/usgrant/lastyears.html)
1886 May 4, At Haymarket Square in Chicago, a labor demonstration for an 8-hour workday turned into a riot when a bomb exploded. Seven policemen were killed and some 60 others injured. Only one policeman was killed in the strike. 3 labor leaders were executed Nov 10, 1887, for the bombing. The Haymarket affair is generally considered to have been an important influence on the origin of international May Day observances for workers.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haymarket_Riot)(AP, 5/4/97)(WSJ, 2/6/98, p.A20)
1891 May 4, The schooner-barge Atlanta carrying a load of coal sank in a storm off Deer Park, Michigan. In 2022 it was discovered in Lake Superior off Michigan's Upper Peninsula.
(AP, 3/3/22)(https://tinyurl.com/yckudcvj)
1891 May 4, Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Conan Doyle’s fictional detective, "died" at Reichenbach Falls.
(MC, 5/4/02)
1904 May 4, The United States took over construction of the Panama Canal.
(AP, 5/4/08)
1910 May 4, Tel Aviv was founded.
(MC, 5/4/02)
1911 May 4, In San Francisco Police chief Seymour instructed Capt. Thomas Duke of Central Station to notify the proprietors of brothels that $2 per day would be the maximum they would be allowed to charge the 100 prostitutes at 633 Jackson and 719 Commercial Street. Current charges for the women were $5 per day.
(SSFC, 5/1/11, DB p.46)
1912 May 4, More than ten thousand women and about a thousand men marched down Fifth Avenue in NYC to support woman's suffrage.
(NYT, 5/5/1912, p1)
1916 May 4, Responding to a demand from Pres. Wilson, Germany agreed to limit its submarine warfare, averting a diplomatic break with Washington. However, Germany resumed unrestricted submarine warfare the following year.
(AP, 5/4/07)
1919 May 4, Some 3,000 young scholars from 13 colleges and universities rallied at Tiananmen Square to protest the loss of Shandong province to the Japanese under the Versailles Treaty at the Paris Peace Conference. German concessions in China were bequeathed to Japan. Among the protestors were people who helped form the Communist Party.
(SFC, 6/25/98, p.A8)(WSJ, 5/17/99, p.A21)(Econ, 5/3/08, p.13)
1923 May 4, In Vienna, Austria, bloody street battles took place between Nazis, socialists and police.
(MC, 5/4/02)
1924 May 4, The summer Olympics opened in Paris. The French rugby team beat the Rumanians 61-3.
(Ind, 2/16/02, 6A)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1924_Summer_Olympics)
1924 May 4, Fascists and communists gained power in the German Republic elections.
(MC, 5/4/02)
1927 May 4, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was incorporated. [see May 11] Louis B. Mayer, Mayer and three of his guests – actor Conrad Nagel, director Fred Niblo and producer Fred Beetson, had initiated discussions for the organization earlier in the year.
(http://www.oscars.org/academy/history-organization/history.html)(AP, 5/4/97)
1927 May 4, The first balloon flight over 40,000 feet was made.
(HN, 5/4/98)
1928 May 4, Maynard Ferguson, jazz trumpeter (Roulette), was born in Verdun, Quebec.
(MC, 5/4/02)
1928 May 4, Hosni Mubarak, Egyptian president (1981-2011), was born in the village of Kafr el-Moseilha in the Nile delta province of Menoufia.
(AP, 7/9/04)(SFC, 2/12/11, p.A4)
1928 May 4, Hennie Youngman, comedian, married Sadie Cohen. They met in a Kresge’s 5 & 10 cent store in Brooklyn where they both worked. He later made famous the line: “Take my wife... Please!"
(SFEM, 1/25/98, p.66)
1929 May 4, Audrey Hepburn (Edda van Heemstra Hepburn-Rusten), Belgian-born actress, was born. She won an Oscar for her role Roman Holiday and later became a Special Ambassador for UNICEF.
(HN, 5/4/99)
1930 May 4, Roberta Peters, operatic soprano (NY Met), was born in NYC.
(MC, 5/4/02)
1930 May 4, In India Mahatma Gandhi was arrested by the British.
(HN, 5/4/98)
1932 May 4, Mobster Al Capone, convicted of income-tax evasion, entered the federal penitentiary in Atlanta. Capone was later transferred to Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay.
(AP, 5/4/08)
1933 May 4, Pulitzer prize was awarded to Archibald Macleish (Conquistador).
(MC, 5/4/02)
1936 May 4, El Cordobes (Manuel Benitez), Spanish matador, was born.
(MC, 5/4/02)
1938 May 4, Carl Von Ossietzky (b.1889), German pacifist, anti-fascist writer and 1935 Nobel Peace Prize winner, succumbed to tuberculosis and from the after-effects of the abuse he suffered in the concentration camps.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_von_Ossietzky)(Econ 7/15/17, p.38)
1939 May 4, Amos Oz, Israeli novelist (The Black Box, The Third State), was born.
(HN, 5/4/01)
1942 May 4, The U.S. began food rationing.
(HN, 5/4/98)
1942 May 4, The Battle of the Coral Sea, the first naval clash fought entirely with carrier aircraft, began during World War II.
(AP, 5/4/97)(HN, 5/4/98)
1945 May 4, John F. Kennedy, correspondent for the Hearst Newspapers, filed a dispatch on the founding of the UN in San Francisco in which he said: Any organization drawn up here will be merely a skeleton. Its powers will be limited… The hope is however, that this skeleton will put on flesh as time goes by.
(SSFC, 6/26/05, p.F6)
1945 May 4, German forces in the Netherlands, Denmark and northwest Germany agreed to surrender.
(AP, 5/4/00)
1946 May 4, A two-day riot at Alcatraz prison in San Francisco Bay ended after five people were killed.
(AP, 5/4/97)
1948 May 4, The Hague Court of Justice convicted Hans Rauter (SS) of war crimes.
(MC, 5/4/02)
1949 May 4, Graham Swift, British novelist (The Sweet Shop Owner, Out of this World), was born.
(HN, 5/4/01)
1953 May 4, Pulitzer prize was awarded to E. Hemingway (Old Man & The Sea).
(MC, 5/4/02)
1955 May 4, Georges Enescu (73), Romanian-French violist, composer (Oedipe), died.
(MC, 5/4/02)
1957 May 4, It was reported that NATO has warned the Soviet Union that it would meet any attack with all available meads including nuclear weapons.
(SFC, 5/4/09, p.B2)
1957 May 4, The Anne Frank Foundation formed in Amsterdam.
(MC, 5/4/02)
1959 May 4, The 1st Annual Grammy Awards were held in Los Angeles. They recognized musical accomplishments by performers for the year 1958. "Nel Blu Dipinto di Blu (Volare)" – Domenico Modugno won as record of the year.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1st_Annual_Grammy_Awards)
1959 May 4, Randy Travis, country singer (Diggin' Up Bones), was born in Marshville, NC.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randy_Travis)
1959 May 4, Pulitzer prize was awarded to Archibald Macleish (again) for his poetic drama, J.B. (1958) based on the Book of Job.
(https://tinyurl.com/y6ye6g9g)
1961 May 4, A group of 13 CORE civil rights activists, dubbed "Freedom Riders" left Washington, D.C., for New Orleans to challenge racial segregation on buses and in bus terminals.
(AP, 5/4/97)(HN, 5/4/98)(MC, 5/4/02)
1965 May 4, Willie Mays hit his 512th HR and broke Mel Ott's 511 NL record.
(MC, 5/4/02)
1968 May 4, Ismael Valenzuela (1935-2009) rode Forward Pass to victory in the Kentucky Derby.
(SFC, 9/4/09, p.D6)(www.kentuckyderby.com/2009/history/statistics/1951-1975)
1969 May 4, F. Osbert S. Sitwell (b.1892), English poet (Who Killed Cock Robin?), died at castle Montegufoni near Florence, Italy.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osbert_Sitwell)
1970 May 4, At Kent State Univ. on Monday, a peaceful noontime rally was ordered to disburse by guardsmen. At 12:20 p.m., a small group of Guardsmen suddenly wheeled and fired into a group of protesters, killing four and wounding 9-11 others. One wounded student was crippled for life with damage to his spinal column. In the days that followed, hundreds of colleges were shut down by student strikes and more than 100,000 demonstrators marched on Washington, D.C. Twenty-five years after the event the National Guard insisted that it was provoked into attacking the students contrary to eye-witnesses, photographs, and later investigations. Renowned American sculptor George Segal's bronze Abraham and Isaac was commissioned to commemorate the killing of four Vietnam War protesters at Ohio's Kent State University. The finished bronze is now part of Princeton University's modern sculpture garden.
(NPR interview with the crippled survivor 5/4/95)(HFA, '96, p.30)(AP, 5/4/97)(HN, 5/4/98)(HNQ, 8/24/98) (HNPD, 5/4/99)
1970 May 4, The US FCC adopted the prime time access rule (PTAR), to be fully effective as of October 1, 1971. Four months after its adoption, however, the Commission on August 7, 1970, significantly amended the rule, delaying until October 1, 1972, the effective date of the off-network and feature films provisions.
(http://tinyurl.com/5lefgv)
1970 May 4, A dispatch filed from Saigon described looting by US soldiers at the Cambodian town of Snuol. The mention of looting was removed by an editor in New York before the story was transmitted to newspapers in the United States. An AP story was killed by Wes Gallagher (d.1997 at 86), general manager of the new service.
(AP, 7/11/07)(SFC, 10/12/97, p.B5)
1972 May 4, The remains of the ship Gjoe, a converted herring boat used by Roald Amundsen to cross the Northwest Passage (1903-1905), departed San Francisco for Oslo, Norway. A commemorative sculpture was left next to the Beach Chalet at Ocean Beach.
(SFC, 4/17/00, p.D8)(WSJ, 4/18/00, p.A16)(Ind, 4/27/02, 5A)
1973 May 4, The 1st TV network female nudity appeared in Bruce Jay Smith's Steambath (PBS) with Valerie Perrine.
(www.imdb.com/title/tt0167415/trivia)
1976 May 4, Australian PM Malcolm Fraser announced that "Waltzing Matilda" would serve as his country's national anthem at the upcoming Olympic Games.
(AP, 5/4/06)
1977 May 4, A large tornado swept through Pleasant Hill, Mo., hitting the city’s high school and grade school. Only minor injuries occurred due to superb tornado warnings and drills.
(SFC, 5/4/09, p.D8)
1978 May 4, The Hispanic ethnic group was created when the US Office of Management and Budget published the following regulation in the Federal Register: "Directive 15: Race and Ethnic Standards for Federal Statistics and Administrative Reporting" that defined a Hispanic to be "a person of Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Central or South American, or other Spanish culture … In 1981 a US federal law stated that Spaniards are part of the Hispanic group.
(http://family.jrank.org/pages/778/Hispanic-American-Families.html#ixzz0wE9Irnns)
1978 May 4, The South African Air Force (SAAF) engaged in air to ground combat at the Battle of Cassinga in Angola.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_African_Border_War)
1979 May 4, Margaret Thatcher (b.1925), leader of the Conservative Party, was sworn in as Britain's first female prime minister. She continued in office for 3 terms until 1990.
(www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/thatcher_margaret.shtml)
1980 May 4, Marshal Josip Broz Tito (b.1892), Communist dictator of Yugoslavia (1943-1980), died three days before his 88th birthday. He was a Croat and tried to spread the Serbs out over the six Yugoslav republics so that they would not dominate the country. His policy was considered a major cause of the Bosnian war in the '90s. His funeral four days later was attended by presidents, prime ministers and kings from 128 countries, and about 700,000 people.
(AP, 5/4/97)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josip_Broz_Tito)(WSJ, 8/8/95, p. A-10)(WSJ, 6/11/96, p.A14)(Reuters, 5/4/20)
1980 May 4, Nine people were killed at Kinshasa, Zaire (later the Democratic Republic of Congo) during a stampede to attend mass given by Pope John Paul II.
(http://africanhistory.about.com/od/may/a/td0504.htm)
1982 May 4, The British destroyer HMS Sheffield was hit by Exocet rocket off the Falkland Islands. 20 men died and a further 24 were injured in the sinking of the Sheffield, the first British warship to be lost in 37 years.
(http://tinyurl.com/htt3d)
1987 May 4, Pope John Paul II ended his five-day visit to West Germany with a call for religious freedom in the Soviet bloc and praise for those who had opposed the "mass hysteria and propaganda" of the Nazi era.
(AP, 5/4/97)
1988 May 4, As a year-long amnesty program for certain illegal aliens in the United States came to a close, thousands of applicants lined up nationwide on the last day.
(AP, 5/4/98)
1988 May 4, A spectacular explosion occurred at the Shell oil refinery in Norco, La., on the Mississippi river just north of New Orleans. 8 people were killed and over 40 injured.
(http://www.shellfacts.com/Chatterjee_review.html)
1988 May 4, Three French hostages were released in Beirut by pro-Iranian kidnappers.
(AP, 5/4/98)
1989 May 4, Fired White House aide Oliver North was convicted of shredding documents and two other crimes and acquitted of nine other charges stemming from the Iran-Contra affair. The 3 convictions were later overturned on appeal.
(AP, 5/4/99)
1989 May 4, The US launched its Magellan spacecraft to Venus.
{USA, NASA, Venus, Space}
(www.solarviews.com/eng/magellan.htm)
1990 May 4, Latvia's parliament voted 138-0 (1 abstention) for Independence. The Russophone Ravnopraviye (Equal Rights Movement) boycotted this resolution by walking out of parliament.
(http://countrystudies.us/latvia/20.htm)
1990 May 4, The South African government and the African National Congress concluded historic talks in Cape Town with a joint statement agreeing on a "common commitment toward the resolution of the existing climate of violence."
(AP, 5/4/00)
1991 May 4, “Strike the Gold" won the 117th Kentucky Derby.
(AP, 5/4/01)
1991 May 4, President George H.W. Bush suffered shortness of breath while jogging at Camp David; he was rushed to Bethesda Naval Hospital, where doctors found he was experiencing an irregular heartbeat. He was diagnosed with a thyroid condition called Graves Disease.
(AP, 5/4/01)(SSFC, 12/2/18, p.A13)
1991 May 4, Morris K. Udall (d.1998), (Rep-D-Ariz), resigned due to Parkinson's disease.
(http://dizzy.library.arizona.edu/branches/spc/udall/mobio.html)
1992 May 4, Democratic presidential candidate Bill Clinton toured riot-ravaged Los Angeles streets, blaming the destruction on what he called 12 years of Republican neglect.
(AP, 5/4/97)
1992 May 4, India and Russia sign a five-year agreement on trade and economic cooperation.
(www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20080048779)
1993 May 4, The United States handed over control of the relief effort in Somalia to the United Nations.
(AP, 5/4/98)
1994 May 4, India made its 4th developmental launch of ASLV. The 113 kg Stretched Rohini Satellite Series (SROSS-C2) was launched by fourth developmental flight of ASLV-D4 from Sriharikota.
(www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20080048779)
1994 May 4, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO leader Yasser Arafat signed a historic accord on Palestinian autonomy that granted self-rule in the Gaza Strip and Jericho.
(AP, 5/4/97)
1995 May 4, India launched the fourth ASLV-D4 from Sriharikota, successfully placing the SROSS-C2 satellite in orbit.
(www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20080048779)
1995 May 4, An Iranian nuclear official said spent fuel from Iran's Russian-made reactors, potential raw material for nuclear bombs, would be returned to Russia for safeguarding.
(AP, 5/4/00)
1996 May 4, In Alaska Jessica Baggen was raped and murdered after she celebrated her 17th birthday. Her body was found two days later. On August 3, 2020, suspect Steve Branch (66) died by suicide after state police investigators traveled to his home in Austin, Arkansas, to interview him about Baggen’s murder in the city of Sitka.
(NBC News, 8/11/20)
1996 May 4, Grindstone won the Kentucky Derby, giving trainer D. Wayne Lukas a sixth straight victory in a Triple Crown race. Grindstone was injured ahead of the Preakness and retired.
(AP, 5/4/97)(SFC, 5/4/09, p.D6)
1996 May 4, Nigerian and Cameroon forces clashed over the Bakassi region on the fishing and oil-rich Gulf of Guinea.
(SFC, 5/7/96, p.A-10)
1996 May 4, A Sudanese passenger plane crashed and killed all 53 onboard. The plane was a Russian Antonov-24 and had tried to land outside of Khartoum in an area cleared for a new airport because sand covered the runways at Khartoum.
(SFC, 5/5/96, p.A-14)
1997 May 4, IBM's Deep Blue computer defeated world chess champion Garry Kasparov, evening their six-game series at one game apiece.
(AP, 5/4/98)
1997 May 4, Pope John Paul beatified the first Gypsy Jimenez Malla, killed by Republican forces in the 1936 Spanish Civil War. Also beatified were Florentino Asensio Barroso, bishop of Barbastro, Spain, where Malla died; Enrico Rebuschini, a northern Italian priest who died in 1938; and Maria Encarnacion Rosal, a 19th century Guatemalan nun.
(SFC, 5/5/97, p.A8)(AP, 5/4/98)
1998 May 4, The FDA approved the first commercial surgical glue, Tisseel, made by Baxter Labs.
(USAT, 5/4/98, p.10D)
1998 May 4, Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski was given four life sentences plus 30 years by a federal judge in Sacramento, Calif., under a plea agreement that spared him the death penalty.
(AP, 5/4/99)
1998 May 4, The Clinton administration invoked sanctions against North Korea and Pakistan for a secret 1997 missile deal. Pakistan’s military named the acquired missile, Ghauri, after a famous Muslim warrior who slew a Hindu emperor named Prithvi, the name of a Russian made Indian missile.
(SFC, 5/14/98, p.A16)
1998 May 4, In Columbia gunmen killed 21 people in the province of Meta. Some 200 members of a right-wing paramilitary unit laid siege to the village of Puerta Alvira for 3 hours.
(WSJ, 5/6/98, p.A1)
1998 May 4, The IMF resumed lending to Indonesia with the release of almost $1 billion.
(USAT, 5/5/98, p.1B)
1998 May 4, In Vatican City Alois Estermann (43), the pope’s top bodyguard, was shot and killed along with his wife, Gladys Meza Romero (49) in their apartment by Cedrich Tornay (23), who then shot himself. Estermann had just been appointed the head of the Swiss Guards and was killed by Tornay due to damaged professional pride. An investigation was concluded in 1999 and suggested that marijuana and a brain cyst impaired Tornay.
(WSJ, 5/5/98, p.A1)(USAT, 5/6/98, p.6A)(SFC, 2/9/99, p.A10)(AP, 5/4/99)
1998 May 4, From Zimbabwe it was reported that the United Merchant Bank of tycoon Roger Boka was shut down when a government audit found it incapable of paying its debts.
(WSJ, 5/4/98, p.A17)
1999 May 4, Pres. Clinton authorized a Congressional Gold Medal for Rosa Parks.
(SFC, 5/5/99, p.A3)
1999 May 4, Five New York police officers went on trial for the torture of Haitian immigrant Abner Louima. One officer later pleaded guilty; a second was eventually convicted of perjury; the remaining three were acquitted of brutality charges. Two of those three were later convicted of conspiring to obstruct justice; those convictions were overturned.
(AP, 5/4/04)
1999 May 4, Martin Frankel flew to Rome on a chartered jet from White Plains N.Y. with two women, Mona Kim and Jackie Ju. It was later learned that he was responsible for over 200 million in missing insurance funds. [see May 5]
(WSJ, 7/16/99, p.A1)
1999 May 4, Goldman Sachs began trading on the NYSE as a publicly owned company. Its prospectus began: “Our clients interests always come first."
(http://marketplace.publicradio.org/shows/1999/05/04_mpp.html)(Econ, 4/24/10, p.13)
1999 May 4, Tornadoes roared across the Plains for a second straight day.
(AP, 5/4/00)
1999 May 4, Manuel Babbitt (50), a Vietnam veteran, was executed at San Quentin, Ca., the day after his birthday, for the 1980 murder of an elderly grandmother in Sacramento. He refused his last meal and asked that the $50 allotted be given to homeless Vietnam vets. Babbitt was buried May 10 in Wareham, Mass., with full military honors
(SFC, 5/4/99, p.A1,7)(SFC, 5/11/99, p.A4)
1999 May 4, In Lebanon a roadside bomb killed 2 Israeli-backed militiamen. Hezbollah claimed responsibility.
(WSJ, 5/5/99, p.A1)
1999 May 4, Yasser Arafat promised in 1997 to declare statehood, unilaterally if necessary. The five year interim period of Palestinian autonomy was to end. The declaration was deferred on April 28.
(WSJ, 11/14/97, p.A1)(SFC, 5/20/98, p.A12)(SFC, 5/4/99, p.A11,14)
1999 May 4, Allied forces bombed fixed and mobile targets and downed a Yugoslav MigG-29. The US considered freeing 2 prisoners of war and another 5,000 refugees crossed into Albania.
(SFC, 5/5/99, p.A12)
1999 May 4, Work crews struggled to restore electricity across Serbia after NATO strikes on major power grids left Belgrade and other cities in the dark.
(AP, 5/4/00)
2000 May 4, The e-mail virus “ILOVEYOU" bug hit millions of computers around the world. It was considered the most virulent, most damaging ($2.6 bil), most costly and most rapidly spread virus to date. In Manila Onel de Guzman, a former computing student, was later released with all charges dismissed due to lack of evidence.
(SFC, 5/5/00, p.A1)(SFC, 5/6/00, p.A1)(SFC, 8/22/00, p.A11)
2000 May 4, In London Ken Livingston (54), a socialist member of parliament, was elected mayor.
(SFC, 5/5/00, p.A14)(AP, 5/4/01)
2000 May 4, Congo agreed to cooperate with UN plans for a 5,500 member observer force to monitor the cease-fire.
(SFC, 5/5/00, p.A18)
2000 May 4, In Indonesia the government announced an agreement for a cease-fire with separatists in Aceh province.
(SFC, 5/5/00, p.A18)
2000 May 4, In Indonesia a 6.5 earthquake was centered in the Maluku Sea off Pelang Island and at least 17 people were killed.
(SFC, 5/5/00, p.A18)
2000 May 4, It was reported that Israel planned to deploy a laser shield named THEL, Tactical High Energy Laser (TRW Inc.), to shoot down rockets fired by guerrillas following its withdrawal from southern Lebanon.
(SFC, 5/4/00, p.A16)
2000 May 4, Lebanese guerrillas fired some 20 Katyusha rockets into Kiryat Shemona, a town in northern Israel. One Israeli soldier was killed and over 24 people were injured. Israel retaliated with heavy air strikes.
(SFC, 5/5/00, p.A14)(WSJ, 5/5/00, p.A1)
2000 May 4, Hendrik Casimir (b.1909), Dutch physicist, died. He was best known for his research on the two-fluid model of superconductors (together with C. J. Gorter) in 1934 and the Casimir effect (together with D. Polder) in 1946.
(Econ, 5/24/08, p.105)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hendrik_Casimir)
2000 May 4, In Puerto Rico US federal agents moved and arrested 216 protestors from the bombing range on Vieques Island.
(SFC, 5/5/00, p.A1)
2000 May 4, In Sierra Leone rebels seized more UN troops and brought the total of hostages to 90.
(SFC, 5/5/00, p.A18)
2000 May 4, In Sri Lanka the government imposed censorship on the foreign media and gave wide powers to the military as rebels poised to recapture Jaffna.
(SFC, 5/5/00, p.A18)
2001 May 4, US experts, following 3 days of inspections, said the US spy plane on China’s Hainan Island could be repaired and flown home.
(SFC, 5/5/01, p.D1)
2001 May 4, Sen. George Mitchell, head of the US-led mission on Israeli-Palestinian fighting, issued a report and said Israel should freeze settlement constructions.
(SFC, 5/5/01, p.D1)
2001 May 4, The US unemployment rate went up .2% to 4.5%, its highest level in 2 ½ years. The DJIA rose 154 to 10,951. The Nasdaq rose 45 to 2,191.
(SFC, 5/5/01, p.A1)
2001 May 4, The Writers Guild of America agreed to a new contract with the major movie studios and television networks.
(SFC, 5/5/01, p.A1)
2001 May 4, It was reported that the hydroxyl radical, a critical air-cleaning molecule, was decreasing.
(SFC, 5/4/01, p.D4)
2001 May 4, Bonny Lee Bakley (44), the wife of actor Robert Blake (67), died from a bullet wound to the head as she sat in a car near a restaurant in Los Angeles. Blake and his bodyguard, Earle Caldwell, were arrested April 18, 2002, in connection with Bakley's death. Blake, accused of the killing, was acquitted in a 2005 criminal trial but was found liable by a civil jury and ordered to pay damages.
(BS, 5/12/01, p.3A)(SFC, 4/23/02, p.A3)(SFC, 3/17/05, p.A1)(AP, 5/4/07)
2001 May 4, In Afghanistan a bomb killed at least 8 people at a Sunni Muslim mosque in Herat. Hundreds of people soon set fire to Shiite mosques and marched on the Iranian Consulate.
(SFC, 5/5/01, p.D1)
2001 May 4, In Goma, Congo, a ferry flipped at a dock on Lake Kivu and at least 19 people died.
(SFC, 5/5/01, p.D1)
2001 May 4, Pope John Paul II visited Athens and apologized for Roman Catholic sins of “action or omission" against Orthodox Christians. A day earlier some 1,000 Orthodox conservatives took to the streets to denounce his visit.
(SFC, 5/4/01, p.D3)(AP, 5/4/02)
2001 May 4, The UN Security Council imposed sanctions against Liberia for failing to sever ties with rebels in Sierra Leone.
(SFC, 5/5/01, p.D2)
2002 May 4, War Emblem, a 20-1 shot, scored a down-to-the-wire, four-length victory over Proud Citizen in the Kentucky Derby.
(AP, 5/4/03)
2002 May 4, In southern California four family members were murdered. Virendra, his brother Pravin and Carlos Amador were later found guilty of strangling Gita Kumar (42), her son Paras (18), her daughter Tulsi (16), and her mother in law, Sitaben Patel (62) at their house in the Hollywood Hills and then burning the house down. On Nov 4, 2018, Virendra (51) was found dead in his San Quentin Prison cell.
(http://tinyurl.com/ybmh5cae)(SFC, 11/6/18, p.C2)
2002 May 4, Five pipe bombs were found in rural Nebraska mailboxes.
(SSFC, 5/5/02, p.A6)
2002 May 4, In China 2 explosions killed at 34 miners in Guizhou and Hunan.
(SFC, 5/8/02, p.A13)
2002 May 4, In the West Bank Arafat ordered his negotiators to provide a list of the Palestinians inside the Church of the Natividad. 123 names were turned over. Israeli snipers killed one Palestinian inside the compound.
(SSFC, 5/5/02, p.A1,14)
2002 May 4, In Nepal security forces increased the number of rebels killed in 2 days of fighting to 350.
(SSFC, 5/5/02, p.A16)
2002 May 4, A Nigerian jet crashed in Kano. 4 of 76 onboard survived. Nigeria's EAS Airlines owned the British Aerospace twin-engine jet. The Red Cross reported 145 dead. A total of 154 people on the plane and the ground were killed.
(SSFC, 5/5/02, p.A16)(SFC, 5/6/02, p.A3)(AP, 5/4/03)
2003 May 4, In Glenbrook, Ill., senior girls of Glenbrook North High engaged in a "powder puff" football game with junior girls that turned into a hazing melee that was caught on video and shown on national TV. Several seniors were later suspended for 10 days. A Civil Suit was later filed on behalf of 3 of the juniors girls.
(SFC, 5/13/03, p.A4)
2003 May 4, New lab studies reported that the SARS virus can survive outside an infected body for hours to days.
(SSFC, 5/4/03, p.A1)
2003 May 4, Idaho Gem, the 1st cloned mule, was born at the Univ. of Idaho.
(SFC, 5/30/03, p.A2)
2003 May 4, Swarms of violent thunderstorms and tornadoes crashed through the nation's midsection, killing at least 30 people in Kansas, Missouri and Tennessee. 8 people were missing in Pierce City, Mo.
(AP, 5/5/03)
2003 May 4, In eastern Bangladesh a tropical storm flattened hundreds of flimsy huts in several villages, killing 19 people.
(AP, 5/5/03)
2003 May 4, Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash (49), a top biological weapons scientist and among the top 55 most wanted members of Saddam Hussein's fallen regime, was taken into custody.
(AP, 5/5/03)
2003 May 4, Police in Baghdad, Iraq, returned to work in force.
(AP, 5/4/04)
2003 May 4, In Ivory Coast a new cease-fire agreement took effect, just hours after rebels accused government forces of fresh attacks.
(AP, 5/4/03)
2003 May 4, In Kenya floods caused by two weeks of heavy rain have washed out roads and submerged entire villages, killing at least 30 people and forcing thousands from their homes.
(AP, 5/5/03)
2003 May 4, In the Philippines Muslim guerrillas attacked the town of Siocon in the southern province of Zamboanga del Norte, and took hostages as they withdrew from fighting that killed at least 22 people.
(AP, 5/4/03)
2003 May 4, A Soyuz spacecraft safely delivered a three-man, US-Russian crew to Earth in the first landing since the Columbia space shuttle disaster.
(AP, 5/4/03)
2003 May 4, In Spain Pope John Paul II proclaimed five new saints and urged Spaniards to emulate them. They included: Pedro Poveda, a priest killed in 1936; Angela de la Cruz, who founded the Sisters of the Company of the Cross; Genoveva Torres, who founded the Sisters of the Sacred Heart and of the Holy Angels; Maravillas de Jesus, who founded convents for the Order of Barefoot Carmelites, and Jose Maria Rubio, a Jesuit priest.
(AP, 5/4/03)
2004 May 4, The US Army disclosed that the deaths of 10 prisoners and abuse of 10 more in Iraq and Afghanistan were under criminal investigation, as US commanders in Baghdad announced interrogation changes.
(AP, 5/4/05)
2004 May 4, The United States walked out of a U.N. meeting to protest its decision minutes later to give Sudan a third term on the Human Rights Commission.
(AP, 5/4/05)
2004 May 4, William J. Krar (63) of East Texas was sentenced to 11 years in federal prison for stockpiling weapons that included a sodium-oxide bomb capable of killing everyone inside a midsize civic building.
(SFC, 5/5/04, p.A9)
2004 May 4, Oil prices for June delivery rose to $38.98 a barrel.
(WSJ, 5/5/04, p.A1)
2004 May 4, Some 3,000 firefighters battled wildfires in Southern California.
(SFC, 5/5/04, p.A7)
2004 May 4, In Afghanistan 2 foreign contractors helping the UN prepare for landmark elections and their Afghan driver were killed in an attack in a remote eastern province. The bullet-ridden bodies of 10 government soldiers were found in southern Afghanistan, hours after the men were abducted in two raids by suspected Taliban militants.
(AP, 5/5/04)
2004 May 4, In Australia 800 delegates of the Country Women's Association of New South Wales voted to drop the singing of "God Save the Queen" altogether and only permit renditions of "Advance Australia Fair", the national anthem.
(AFP, 5/4/04)
2004 May 4, In Bogota Famed Colombian painter Fernando Botero opened a new exhibition that graphically depicts the bloodshed of his nation's war and the cruel crime of kidnapping.
(AP, 5/4/04)
2004 May 4, In Greece 3 bombs exploded outside a police station near Athens in a series of timed blasts, causing serious damage just 100 days before the Olympic Games.
(AP, 5/5/04)
2004 May 4, In Haiti a provisional council was sworn to oversee fresh elections.
(AP, 5/4/04)
2004 May 4, Shiite militiamen fired several mortar shells at a U.S. base in Najaf and at a city hall guarded by Bulgarian troops in another Shiite city. Elsewhere, four U.S. soldiers died after their Humvee overturned during a combat patrol.
(AP, 5/4/04)
2004 May 4, Pakistan and China signed a deal for the construction of a nuclear power plant, the second such plant to be built in Pakistan with Beijing's help.
(AP, 5/4/04)
2005 May 4, Constantin Brancusi's "Bird in Space" shattered the record for a sculpture at auction when it soared to an astonishing $27,450,000 at Christie's sale of Impressionist and modern art.
(Reuters, 5/5/05)
2005 May 4, A military judge at Fort Hood, Texas, threw out Pvt. 1st Class Lynndie England's guilty plea to abusing Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib prison, saying he was not convinced the Army reservist knew her actions were wrong at the time. England was later convicted in a court-martial and sentenced to three years in prison.
(AP, 5/4/06)
2005 May 4, Prosecutors rested their case in the Michael Jackson molestation trial.
(AP, 5/4/06)
2005 May 4, ABC aired a segment of "Primetime Live" in which former "American Idol" contestant Corey Clark claimed an affair with judge Paula Abdul, who denied the allegation.
(AP, 5/4/06)
2005 May 4, Col. David H. Hackworth (1931-2005), Vietnam war veteran, died. His books included “About Face: The Odyssey of an American Warrior" (1990) and “Hazardous Duty: America's Most Decorated Living Soldier Reports from the Front and Tells It the Way It Is," (1996) co-authored with Tom Matthews.
(SFC, 5/7/05, p.B5)
2005 May 4, In China 178 birds were found dead at Bird Island in Qinghai province in a lake that served as a major area for research on migratory water fowl. They were killed by the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu virus. The number of dead birds was later raised to 1,500 with bar-headed geese among the most dead.
(WSJ, 5/23/05, p.A11)(SFC, 7/7/05, p.A5)
2005 May 4, Chinese authorities confined residents in Yanqing, 50 miles north of Beijing, to their homes following the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in cattle. Numerous farms were put under quarantine.
(WSJ, 5/24/05, p.A10)
2005 May 4, It was reported that Cuba and Venezuela agreed to start a joint shipyard in Venezuela, the latest sign of strengthening economic ties between the Latin nations.
(AP, 5/4/05)
2005 May 4, The Danish government said that the mission of Denmark's 530 troops in southern Iraq would be extended until Feb 1.
(AP, 5/4/05)
2005 May 4, Thousands of supporters of the banned Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's largest Islamic group, protested across the country in an escalation of the opposition campaign demanding political reform. Police arrested hundreds of protesters.
(AP, 5/4/05)
2005 May 4, An Iraqi carrying hidden explosives detonated them outside a police recruitment center in Arbil where people were applying for jobs, killing at least 60 Iraqis and wounding some 100. The Iraqi militant group Ansar al-Sunnah claimed responsibility for the bombing saying in a Web statement the attack was revenge for the Kurds' alliance with US forces.
(AP, 5/4/05)(SFC, 5/5/05, p.A1)(Econ, 5/7/05, p.19)
2005 May 4, Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said he is freezing the handover of West Bank towns to Palestinian security control because the Palestinians have failed to honor their promise to disarm militants.
(AP, 5/4/05)
2005 May 4, Israeli soldiers shot and killed two Palestinian youths in a West Bank village near the city of Ramallah.
(AP, 5/5/05)
2005 May 4, Japanese media reported Japan will withdraw its 550 soldiers from their non-combat mission in Iraq in December.
(AP, 5/4/05)
2005 May 4, Mexico's government cleared the capital's mayor of wrongdoing, conceding defeat in a nasty political fight that ousted an attorney general and raised criticisms that President Vicente Fox was trying to block his top rival from running for president.
(AP, 5/5/05)
2006 May 4, In Virginia US Judge Leonie Brinkema sent Zacarias Moussaoui to prison for life, to "die with a whimper," for his role in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. He declared: "God save Osama bin Laden, you will never get him." The US military released video footage of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in which the al-Qaida leader was seen wearing American tennis shoes and unable to operate his automatic rifle.
(AP, 5/4/07)
2006 May 4, A US federal court ruled that over 9,500 victims of human rights abuses under Ferdinand Marcos (1917-1989) were entitled to $35 million in a US account, which he established in 1972. Damages awarded in 1995 reached nearly $2 million.
(SFC, 5/5/06, p.B7)
2006 May 4, A US government study said some 300,000 US children have been diagnosed with autism.
(SFC, 5/5/06, p.A8)
2006 May 4, Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar pledged fealty to al Qaeda. He controlled a large network in eastern Afghanistan.
(WSJ, 5/5/06, p.A1)
2006 May 4, Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva met with Argentina’s Pres. Nestor Kirchner, Venezuela’s Pres. Chavez and Bolivia’s Pres. Morales in response to Bolivia’s decision to nationalize its oil and gas industry. Morales offered to refrain from cutting off supplies and to negotiate prices.
(Econ, 5/13/06, p.43)
2006 May 4, Britain took command of NATO's Afghan peacekeeping force as a tide of violence raised apprehension about the alliance's planned takeover of security duties across the country from US forces.
(AP, 5/4/06)
2006 May 4, Cambodia's highest judicial body approved 30 Cambodian and UN judges to preside over a long-awaited genocide tribunal for surviving Khmer Rouge leaders.
(AP, 5/4/06)
2006 May 4, Chinese weather specialists used chemicals to engineer Beijing's heaviest rainfall of the year, helping to relieve drought and rinse dust from China's capital.
(AP, 5/5/06)
2006 May 4, Over Chinese and Russian opposition, Western nations circulated a UN Security Council resolution that would demand Iran abandon uranium enrichment or face the threat of unspecified further measures, a possible reference to sanctions.
(AP, 5/4/06)
2006 May 4, Palaniappan Chidambaram, India's finance minister, warned that a slowdown in the US may trigger a worldwide recession that if "disorderly" will hit emerging market economies hard. Speaking at the 39th annual meeting of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), he said global economic growth continued to depend heavily on the US economy.
(AP, 5/4/06)
2006 May 4, A suicide bomber attacked a crowd of people waiting outside a heavily guarded court building in Baghdad, killing 10 Iraqis and wounding 52. Two US soldiers died in a roadside bomb attack.
(AP, 5/4/06)
2006 May 4, Lithuania hosted leaders from the European Union, United States and the burgeoning democracies in the Black Sea region at a summit on the future of the EU and the NATO military alliance. Vice President Dick Cheney, in remarks that caused a stir in neighboring Russia, accused President Vladimir Putin of restricting the rights of citizens and said that "no legitimate interest is served" by turning energy resources into implements of blackmail.
(www.defensenews.com/story.php?F=1746272&C=europe)(AP, 5/4/06)
2006 May 4, Just before dawn hundreds of law enforcement officials fired tear gas and crashed through human barricades to take control of San Salvador Atenco, a rebellious town outside Mexico City, hours after protesters released six badly beaten police hostages.
(AP, 5/4/06)
2006 May 4, In Nepal Communist rebels agreed to a new round of peace talks with the government, raising hopes for an end to a decade-old insurgency that has killed 13,000 people.
(AP, 5/4/06)
2006 May 4, Nicaraguan Foreign Minister Norman Caldera asked Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to butt out of his country's political affairs after Chavez signed a favorable oil pact with dozens of leftist Nicaraguan mayors.
(AP, 5/5/06)
2006 May 4, Puerto Rico moved a step closer to resolving a partial government shutdown as the island's Senate voted to impose a sales tax of 5.9% and a new levy on large corporations.
(AP, 5/4/06)
2006 May 4, Thousands of police armed with batons stormed an abandoned school in South Korea to evict activists who were protesting plans to expand a US military base, sparking clashes that resulted in dozens of injuries.
(AP, 5/4/06)
2006 May 4, The Vatican excommunicated two bishops ordained by China's state-controlled church without the pope's consent, escalating tensions as the two sides explored preliminary moves toward improving ties.
(AP, 5/4/06)
2006 May 4, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said he was withdrawing his ambassador from Peru as a matter of principle after Peru called home its ambassador.
(AP, 5/4/06)
2007 May 4, US federal officials placed a hold on 20 million chickens raised for market in several states because their feed was mixed with pet food containing an industrial chemical.
(AP, 5/5/07)
2007 May 4, The United States said it will provide more than $14 million in security assistance to Kenya to boost efforts to combat terrorist activities in the east African nation.
(AP, 5/5/07)
2007 May 4, An Alaska lawmaker and two of his former colleagues were arrested for allegedly soliciting and accepting bribes from VECO Corp., a private oil services company, to pass a new oil-tax system.
(Reuters, 5/4/07)
2007 May 4, Reuters Group PLC said that it had received a preliminary takeover approach. The bidder was identified as Thomson Corp., a financial data and information provider based in Stamford, Conn., owned by the Thomson family of Canada.
(AP, 5/4/07)(http://tinyurl.com/2m8qt5)
2007 May 4, Tornadoes in southwest Kansas killed at least seven people and leveled most of Greensburg.
(AP, 5/5/07)
2007 May 4, In Austria a standoff pitting Iran against most others delegations at a 130-nation nuclear conference deepened, with organizers adjourning the third straight session in as many days without breaking a deadlock over the language of the meeting's agenda.
(AP, 5/4/07)
2007 May 4, Two Azerbaijani journalists were convicted and sentenced to prison for inciting hatred with an article criticizing Islam.
(AP, 5/4/07)
2007 May 4, Brazil’s Pres. Lula da Silva issued a license allowing Brazil to buy or produce a cheap generic version of AIDS drug efavirenz, bypassing Merck’s patent. The compulsory licensing for efavirenz will allow Brazil to import unbranded copies at a quarter of current prices while paying Merck a nominal royalty.
(WSJ, 5/5/07, p.A1)(Econ, 5/12/07, p.42)
2007 May 4, A British court found Frederick Chiluba, Zambia's first democratically elected president (1991-2001), guilty of stealing $46 million in government funds and ordered him to repay the entire sum. He had gone on trial in Zambia in 2003, accused of 169 counts of corruption, abuse of power and theft, but was declared unfit to stand trial on the grounds of ill health.
(AP, 5/4/07)(Econ, 11/21/09, p.51)
2007 May 4, A rebel spokesman said a Saudi-brokered reconciliation deal signed by Chad with its neighbor Sudan will not halt a guerrilla war by Chadian rebels aimed at toppling President Idriss Deby.
(Reuters, 5/4/07)
2007 May 4, In Guinea soldiers protesting the government's failure to give them promised pay raises beat a shopkeeper to death as they looted his store and fired shots in the air, wounding at least 25 civilians.
(AP, 5/4/07)
2007 May 4, A boat loaded with Haitian migrants capsized while being towed by a police boat from the Turks and Caicos Islands. 78 of some 160 people survived. Haitian migrants later claimed a Turks and Caicos naval vessel rammed their crowded sailboat twice before it capsized.
(AP, 5/4/07)(SFC, 5/5/07, p.A8)(AP, 5/8/07)
2007 May 4, A roadside bomb killed five Iraqi policemen on a patrol in western Baghdad. US forces broke up a Shiite militant cell believed to be smuggling an armor-piercing Iranian weapon responsible for an increasing number of American and Iraqi deaths. 16 suspected militants were arrested in the Baghdad raid. 7 bodies were found floating in the Diyala River in Baqouba. The bullet-riddled bodies of five police officers, dressed in civilian clothes, were discovered outside the city of Beiji. The US military identified two more top al-Qaida aides killed during an operation earlier this week targeting Muharib Abdul-Latif al-Jubouri. A US soldier was killed and two were wounded when their patrol was hit by a roadside bomb south of Baghdad. A roadside bomb killed a US soldier and wounded four others in western Baghdad.
(AP, 5/4/07)(AP, 5/5/07)(AP, 5/6/07)
2007 May 4, Assailants in western Baghdad looted and burned the building which housed independent Radio Dijla, founded by Ahmed Rikaby in 2004. The attack came one day after staffers fought off some 2 dozen gunmen. Staff moved to new quarters in Sulaymaniya and within 9 days resumed broadcasting.
(SFC, 11/22/07, p.A25)
2007 May 4, The divided Koreas agreed to discuss historic trial runs of cross-border railways, as Washington cautioned Seoul against rushing to embrace Pyongyang before it takes steps to dismantle its nuclear program.
(AP, 5/4/07)
2007 May 4, In Somalia Mohamed Dheere, a former warlord, was sworn in as mayor of Mogadishu and immediately ordered residents to get rid of their weapons. Aid groups said 1,670 people were killed between March 12 and April 26 and more than 340,000 of the city's 2 million residents fled for safety as the government, backed by Ethiopian troops, pressed to wipe out an Islamic insurgency.
(AP, 5/4/07)
2007 May 4, Delegates meeting in Thailand from 120 countries approved the first roadmap for stemming greenhouse gas emissions, laying out what they said was an affordable arsenal of anti-warming measures that must be rushed into place to avert a disastrous spike in global temperatures.
(AP, 5/4/07)
2007 May 4, Ukraine's president and prime minister reached agreement on holding early parliamentary elections in a bid to end a political standoff between the rival leaders.
(AP, 5/4/07)
2007 May 4, Former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami met with Pope Benedict XVI for talks the Vatican hoped would help heal tensions left from the pontiff's remarks on Islam and violence, but the Iranian said the wounds were still very deep.
(AP, 5/4/07)
2007 May 4, The UN agency for refugees began repatriating thousands of Congolese refugees in Zambia to the Democratic Republic of Congo.
(AFP, 5/4/07)
2008 May 4, Democrat Barack Obama beat rival Hillary Clinton by just 7 votes in Guam's nominating contest after record numbers of residents voted in the tiny US territory's primary.
(AP, 5/4/08)
2008 May 4, Abkhazian anti-aircraft forces shot down 2 unmanned Georgian spy planes. A Georgian Foreign Ministry official, dismissed the claims as "completely absurd disinformation" aimed at increasing tension in the area.
(AP, 5/4/08)
2008 May 4, In Afghanistan an accidental explosion left 2 people dead and 13 wounded at a refuse dump in Kabul’s northern outskirts.
(AP, 5/5/08)
2008 May 4, Residents of Bolivia voted on an autonomy referendum whose likely passage is seen as a rebuke to the country's leftist president. Exit polls showed the Santa Cruz referendum would pass in a landslide. Pres. Morales denounced the vote but quickly invited state governors for further negotiations.
(AP, 5/4/08)(AP, 5/5/08)
2008 May 4, In Brazil a boat ferrying people home from a religious festival sank in the Amazon region on the Solimoes River leaving at least 41 dead and dozens missing.
(AP, 5/5/08)(AP, 5/7/08)
2008 May 4, In the Cayman Islands 5 captive Grand Cayman Blue Iguanas, critically endangered lizards that resemble miniature turquoise dragons, were found scattered across a breeding park in the British dependency after they apparently were stomped and gouged.
(AP, 5/7/08)
2008 May 4, In Chechnya a remote-controlled bomb exploded on a roadside in Grozny, leaving five police officers dead, while another officer was fatally shot near the city.
(AP, 5/5/08)
2008 May 4, China's Pres. Hu Jintao said he was hoping for positive results with envoys of the Dalai Lama, as talks opened, but state media kept up a barrage of attacks on Tibet's exiled spiritual leader. In Shenzhen envoys of the Dalai Lama and Chinese officials held a day of talks aimed at mending fences following a wave of unrest that pushed Tibet to centre stage ahead of the 2008 Olympics. They agreed to further contact.
(Reuters, 5/4/08)(Reuters, 5/5/08)
2008 May 4, China's Health Ministry issued a nationwide alert after the enterovirus 71 virus, or EV-71, which causes hand, foot and mouth disease, infected more than 4,500 children in central Anhui province. The outbreak was centered around Fuyang city, where 22 deaths have occurred.
(AP, 5/4/08)
2008 May 4, In India 16 people, including three children, were killed when an overcrowded jeep crashed into a truck outside Mumbai. The jeep was filled with members of a family traveling to a wedding party.
(AP, 5/4/08)
2008 May 4, A bomb hit a motorcade carrying Iraq's first lady through Baghdad. Iraqi health officials said at least 10 people, including two children, were killed in the past 24 hours in the Baghdad neighborhood of Sadr City. 2 Iraqi civilians were wounded in a Hellfire missile attack in Baghdad's southwestern Aamel neighborhood and were evacuated to a military hospital.
(AP, 5/4/08)(AP, 5/5/08)
2008 May 4, In Japan thousands of activists, artists and scholars gathered for an international peace conference outside Tokyo, vowing to promote the Japanese Constitution's war-renouncing Article 9 as a global standard and prevent the clause from being weakened.
(AP, 5/4/08)
2008 May 4, Senegal’s Pres. Abdoulaye Wade called the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) a “bottomless pit of money largely spent on its own functioning."
(Econ, 5/10/08, p.69)
2008 May 4, In Somalia Islamic insurgents killed at least three Ethiopian soldiers during a gunfight in Mogadishu. Inter-clan fighting in western Somalia, which broke out the previous evening, left at least 12 people dead and at least 15 others wounded in a land dispute.
(AP, 5/4/08)
2008 May 4, In South Korea at least eight were people killed when they were swept away by high waves that hit the port of Boryeong Namdo on the west coast.
(Reuters, 5/4/08)
2008 May 4, In Sudan government bombs hit a primary school and a busy market place in Darfur, killing at 12 people, including 6 children. Darfur rebels said three other areas were also bombed: Ein Sirro and Jabel Medop in North Darfur and an area in West Darfur near rebel-held Jabel Moun.
(Reuters, 5/5/08)(AP, 5/6/08)
2008 May 4, A Shiite rebel leader in Yemen warned that his group will escalate its fight against the government if the army continues an offensive that has left almost 20 rebels and soldiers dead over the past two days.
(AP, 5/4/08)
2009 May 4, President Barack Obama proposed changing provisions in the tax code that he says encourage US companies to move jobs overseas, as part of a broader package aimed at saving $210 billion over 10 years.
(Reuters, 5/4/09)
2009 May 4, An analysis of "real-world" clinical data indicated that vitamin E, and drugs that reduce generalized inflammation, may slow the decline of mental and physical abilities in people with Alzheimer's disease (AD) over the long term according to National Institutes of Health-sponsored research.
(Reuters, 5/4/09)
2009 May 4, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation awarded eighty one $100,000 grants in a bid to support innovative, unconventional global health research. The foundation also announced plans to spend $73 million over the next five years to help small farmers in impoverished countries.
(AP, 5/5/09)
2009 May 4, Wolves in parts of the northern Rockies and the Great Lakes region come off the endangered species list, opening them to public hunts in some states for the first time in decades. States such as Idaho and Montana planned to resume hunting the animals this fall, but no hunting has been proposed in the Great Lakes region. About 300 wolves in Wyoming will remain on the list because the US Fish and Wildlife Service rejected the state's plan for a "predator zone" where wolves could be shot on sight. An estimated 4,000 wolves lived in Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota.
(AP, 5/4/09)
2009 May 4, California’s State Water Resources Control board released a study that said only 21 of 152 lakes studied were free of mercury and other contaminants. 131 lakes showed one or more pollutants above state health guidelines.
(SFC, 5/5/09, p.A1)
2009 May 4, In Kentucky Amanda Hornsby-Smith (28) was strangled to death. In 2010 her husband, Woody Will Smith (33), went on trial for her murder. He claimed excessive caffeine from sodas, energy drinks and diet pills left him so mentally unstable he couldn't have knowingly killed her.
(AP, 9/20/10)
2009 May 4, Dom DeLuise (b.1933), film and TV actor, died. Though lighthearted onscreen, the prolific actor was deeply passionate about food, forging a second career as a popular chef and cookbook author.
(AP, 5/5/09)
2009 May 4, In Afghanistan bombing runs by US-led coalition jets killed dozens of civilians taking shelter from a fierce ground battle between Taliban militants and Afghan and international forces. The US confirmed fighting in western Farah province and opened an investigation into the overnight operation. Over 100 people were killed including 25-30 Taliban. A senior US defense official later said that Marine special operations forces believe that the Afghan civilians were killed by grenades hurled by Taliban militants, who then loaded some of the bodies into a vehicle and drove them around the village, claiming the dead were victims of an American airstrike. On May 20 the US military said at least 20 civilians and 60 insurgents had died in the clash.
(AP, 5/5/09)(AFP, 5/6/09)(AP, 5/7/09)(AP, 5/20/09)
2009 May 4, An Afghan guard was killed by Australian Robert William Langdon as he worked for US-based private security company Four Horsemen International. A court later heard that Langdon threw a hand grenade into the truck carrying the guard's body and ordered other guards to fire into the air to simulate a Taliban attack. Langdon allegedly admitted killing the Afghan guard during a heated argument about security for a convoy. In October Langdon was convicted of murder and sentenced to death in a court in Kabul. He paid a "sizeable" compensation to the victim's family and the sentenced was reduced to 20 years.
(AP, 1/27/10)(http://tinyurl.com/ybfe5lu)(AFP, 1/6/11)
2009 May 4, Australia's government put back its much-vaunted carbon-emissions trading scheme by a year, bowing to industry demands for more relief amid a recession while opening the door to an even deeper long-term reduction.
(Reuters, 5/4/09)
2009 May 4, The EU admitted that its previous forecasts were way off the mark. It now predicts "a deep and widespread recession" across the continent and said unemployment among the 16 nations that use the euro will rise to a postwar record of 11.5 percent in 2010.
(AP, 5/4/09)
2009 May 4, In Germany Sergio Marchionne, the boss of Italy's Fiat, drummed up support in Berlin for audacious plans to snap up General Motors' European arm and merge it with the bankrupt Chrysler to create a new global auto giant. Germany's economy minister said Fiat Group SpA wants to take over GM's Opel unit without running up debt and would preserve the three main German assembly plants if successful.
(AFP, 5/4/09)(AP, 5/4/09)
2009 May 4, Indonesia's top graft-buster, Antasari Azhar (56), was arrested as a suspect and a mastermind in the March 14 murder of businessman Nasrudin Zulkarnaen.
(AP, 5/5/09)
2009 May 4, Iraq’s Foreign Ministry summoned the Iranian ambassador to Baghdad and handed him a letter of protest, demanding that Iran halt shelling against Kurdish rebels in the country's north and warned the "extremely dangerous violations" of Iraqi territory could harm relations between the two countries.
(AP, 5/5/09)
2009 May 4, Mexico's health secretary said most businesses will reopen May 6 nationwide, citing ebb in the swine flu outbreak. The World Health Organization chief warned that swine flu could return with a vengeance despite Pres. Felipe Calderon insisting his country has contained the epidemic.
(AP, 5/4/09)(AFP, 5/4/09)
2009 May 4, Nepal's PM Pushpa Kamal Dahal resigned amid a power struggle over his firing of the army chief, saying he was stepping down to "save the peace process" that brought the Himalayan nation out of a bloody decade-long civil war.
(AP, 5/4/09)
2009 May 4, Niger’s Pres. Mamadou Tandja accompanied representatives of French energy giant Areva at a ceremony marking the beginning of a new uranium project in Imoraren. The site is expected to boost Niger's uranium production from 3,000 to 5,000 tons per year.
(AP, 5/4/09)
2009 May 4, In Pakistan clashes in a northwestern region covered by an increasingly fragile peace pact killed seven militants and one soldier. The Taliban ambushed an army convoy in Swat and armed Taliban appeared on the streets of Mingora.
(AP, 5/4/09)(Econ, 5/9/09, p.45)
2009 May 4, South Korean snipers hovering in a helicopter chased away pirates pursuing a North Korean freighter, while the Russian destroyer Admiral Panteleyev freed eight Iranian citizens held hostage for more than three months.
(AP, 5/4/09)
2009 May 4, South Korean news reported that North Korea runs a cyber warfare unit that tries to hack into US and South Korean military networks to gather confidential information and disrupt service.
(AP, 5/5/09)
2009 May 4, Sri Lankan forces battled Tamil Tiger insurgents, pushing deeper into rebel-held territory amid a report that navy gunboats heavily shelled an area packed with civilians.
(AP, 5/4/09)
2009 May 4, In Turkey masked assailants with automatic weapons attacked an engagement celebration in the village of Bilge, near the city of Mardin, fatally shooting 44 people.
(AP, 5/5/09)
2009 May 4, In southern Yemen armed protesters ambushed a military camp in Radfan killing one soldier, as separatist sentiment mounted against the weak central government.
(SFC, 5/5/09, p.A2)
2010 May 4, Ohio voters passed ballot proposal Issue 1. It allowed the state to issue $700 million of bonds to finance research and development for the so-called “Third Frontier" program, which was launched in 2002
(Econ, 5/1/10, p.34)(http://tinyurl.com/25tu3te)
2010 May 4, In Afghanistan Hayat Khan, a tribal elder, was gunned down while he was shopping in the volatile southern city of Kandahar, the latest targeted killing ahead of a NATO-led operation there that will be a critical test of the Afghan war. A former member of southern Zabul province's women's affairs department was fatally shot. In northern Kunduz province Taliban militants killed two civilians they accused of spying for the government.
(AP, 5/4/10)
2010 May 4, The leaders of South America named former Argentine President Nestor Kirchner as their secretary-general, setting aside their differences in hopes that the 12-nation Unasur group can consolidate into a regional force for unity, development and democracy-building.
(AP, 5/4/10)
2010 May 4, Alfredo Martinez de Hoz (84), the powerful economy minister who ran Argentina's finances during most of the dictatorship (1976-1983), was arrested and his bank accounts were frozen. The arrest followed a Supreme Court ruling last week deeming unconstitutional a 1990 presidential pardon granted to Martinez de Hoz and former dictator Jorge Videla.
(AFP, 5/4/10)(AP, 5/6/10)
2010 May 4, British Petroleum said efforts to contain a giant oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico are costing nearly four million pounds a day. Winds pushed a giant slick towards fragile wetlands on the US coast as efforts intensified to bottle up a ruptured oil well causing the growing environmental disaster.
(AFP, 5/4/10)
2010 May 4, The Croatian government and the UN said Justice Minister Ivan Simonovic has been chosen to be assistant UN secretary-general for human rights.
(AP, 5/4/10)
2010 May 4, French lawmakers decided to return 16 tattooed and mummified Maori heads to New Zealand, ending years of debate on what to do with the human remains acquired long ago by French museums seeking exotic curiosities.
(AP, 5/4/10)
2010 May 4, Greek protesters unfurled banners over the defensive walls of the ancient Acropolis, the country's most famous monument, to protest harsh new austerity measures as strikes began across the country.
(AP, 5/4/10)
2010 May 4, Iceland's volcanic ash renewed its threat to European air space, forcing Ireland to shut services temporarily for the first time in 12 days. Ireland and Britain lifted flight restrictions after temporarily closing airspace due to the return of ash.
(AP, 5/4/10)(AFP, 5/4/10)
2010 May 4, Iran called for independent verification of US claims it has pared its stockpile of nuclear warheads back to 5,113 and queried whether Washington was justified in holding such a lethal load.
(AFP, 5/4/10)
2010 May 4, In Iran 5 Kurdish rebels, including two women, were killed after they battled Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards in the western province of Kermanshah.
(AFP, 5/5/10)
2010 May 4, Iraq's two main Shiite blocs seeking to govern the country signed an agreement that gives the final decision on all their political disputes to top Shiite clerics. The provision would likely further alienate Iraq's Sunni minority, which already feels excluded by Shiite dominance and had been hoping that March's election would boost their say in power. Sardasht Osman (22) was kidnapped in the regional capital Arbil. He had written articles critical of the rule of Kurdish regional president Massud Barzani. His corpse was found a day later in Mosul with a single bullet to the head. On Sep 15 an investigative committee formed by Barzani said that Osman was killed because of his ties to an extremist group.
(AP, 5/5/10)(AFP, 9/16/10)
2010 May 4, In Mexico two Colombians were arrested at Mexico City's international airport as they allegedly prepared to board a flight to Panama trying to smuggle out more than $350,000 in cash in various currencies.
(AP, 5/15/10)
2010 May 4, Tin Tun Aung, secretary of the Myanmar Travel Entrepreneurs Association, said tourist visas, which are normally arranged days in advance at an embassy abroad, will be now be available at international airports in Mandalay and the biggest city, Yangon.
(Reuters, 5/4/10)
2010 May 4, In Nepal armed police escorted fuel and food trucks into Katmandu on the third day of a crippling general strike called by former Maoist rebels demanding the PM's resignation.
(AP, 5/4/10)
2010 May 4, Royal Dutch Shell said it spilled nearly 14,000 tons of oil into the creeks of the Niger Delta in 2009 and blamed thieves and militants for the environmental damage.
(SFC, 5/5/10, p.A2)
2010 May 4, Fires ripped through a mosque and an olive grove in two West Bank villages, and local Palestinians accused Jewish settlers of deliberately setting the blazes.
(AP, 5/4/10)
2010 May 4, The Philippine election commission ordered the recall of 76,000 memory cards to be used in the country's first automated elections next week after some were found to be defective, heightening jitters over a possible failure of the new system.
(AP, 5/4/10)
2010 May 4, Spain’s Interior Ministry said Spain has taken in a second former inmate from the Guantanamo Bay prison for terrorism suspects. Another Guantanamo detainee was sent to Bulgaria. This left about 181 prisoners at Guantanamo Bay prison.
(AP, 5/4/10)(SFC, 5/5/10, p.A2)
2010 May 4, Taiwan opened a tourism office in Beijing that represents the island's first official presence in China's capital since the two sides split amid civil war in 1949.
(AP, 5/4/10)
2010 May 4, Thai anti-government protesters welcomed a proposed compromise to end the violent political crisis that has paralyzed central Bangkok for nearly two months, but asked for more details on the plan before wrapping up their demonstrations.
(AP, 5/4/10)
2010 May 4, In Venezuela a riot at the Santa Ana Prison in the western state of Tachira, one of the country’s most violent prisons, left eight inmates dead and three injured.
(AP, 5/5/10)
2011 May 4, President Barack Obama declared parts of Kentucky, Mississippi and Tennessee as disaster areas due to flooding, freeing up federal aid to help those affected.
(Reuters, 5/5/11)
2011 May 4, The US Interior Dept. declared wolves fully recovered in most of the Northern Rockies, opening the door for hunts in the Fall.
(SFC, 5/5/11, p.A7)
2011 May 4, A San Ramon, Ca., police officer, Louis Lombardi (38), was arrested after he was linked to an ongoing probe into the theft of confiscated drugs. On Jan 26, 2012, Lombardi pleaded guilty to charges that he sold drugs with his commanding officer, stole jewelry and cash from crime scenes and possessed stolen guns.
(SFC, 5/5/11, p.C1)(SFC, 1/27/12, p.C1)
2011 May 4, In Oklahoma Sandlin Matthews Smith was shot and killed after he pulled a gun on federal agents trying to arrest him. Smith faced federal charges in connection with the bombing of the Islamic Center of Northeast Florida last May.
(SFC, 5/6/11, p.A8)
2011 May 4, In Texas Jacob Gonzalez (21) fatally shot three women riding with him in a car in Corpus Christi. Gonzalez fled on foot after his vehicle smashed into a pole and was tackled by a bystander.
(SFC, 5/7/11, p.A4)
2011 May 4, Applied Materials said it has agreed to pay $4.9 billion for Varian Semiconductor Equipment Associates Inc.
(SFC, 5/5/11, p.D2)
2011 May 4, Intel unveiled its new Ivy Bridge processor made with a 3-D manufacturing technique that increases chip performance as much as 37% while using less power.
(SFC, 5/5/11, p.D3)
2011 May 4, Actress Mary Murphy (80) died of heart disease in Beverly Hills. She was discovered in a coffee shop and landed a role as the small-town wholesome girl opposite Marlon Brando in "The Wild One." Murphy had several roles in 1950s films, including "The Desperate Hours," "Beachhead," "A Man Alone," "Sitting Bull" and "The Mad Magician."
(AP, 5/16/11)
2011 May 4, The Chinese Embassy in Oslo said Sino-Norwegian relations are "in difficulty" because the peace prize was given to "a Chinese criminal ... and the Norwegian government supported this wrong decision." Norwegian salmon exporters were having their fish held up for days or even weeks by Chinese food safety inspectors, devastating its freshness.
(AP, 5/6/11)
2011 May 4, In Costa Rica Ohio teenager Caity Jones died in the Pacific Ocean when she was pulled by an undertow current. Two other students, on a school mission trip, were swept out with her. The body of James Smith was recovered the next day. The body of Kai Lamar was recovered on May 6.
(AP, 5/5/11)(AP, 5/6/11)
2011 May 4, A Gervais beaked whale washed up on the southeastern coast of Puerto Rico. A necropsy of the whale found more than 10 pounds (4.5 kg) of twisted plastic inside its stomach.
(AP, 5/7/11)
2011 May 4, In Egypt hundreds of diehard supporters of ousted president Hosni Mubarak clashed with his foes in central Cairo leaving dozens injured.
(AFP, 5/5/11)
2011 May 4, The European Union said six Zimbabwean state-media journalists are on a sanctions list because they incite hatred in their reporting. The journalists who fiercely support President Robert Mugabe are among some 200 individuals linked to Mugabe's party who face banking and travel bans from the EU, the US and Britain.
(AP, 5/4/11)
2011 May 4, New computer modeling showed that Japan's many language variants descended from a common ancestor some 2,182 years ago -- coinciding with the major wave of migration from the Korean Peninsula.
(AP, 5/5/11)
2011 May 4, In Libya Gadhafi's forces shelled Zintan a rebel town and a key supply route, part of a push to crush stubborn resistance in the mountains of western Libya.
(AP, 5/4/11)
2011 May 4, In western Nepal a bus veered off a mountain road, killing at least 16 people and injuring 20 others in the country's second serious bus accident in two days.
(AP, 5/4/11)
2011 May 4, Rival Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas proclaimed a landmark, Egyptian-mediated reconciliation pact signed in Cairo aimed at ending their bitter four-year rift. Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal said that his Islamist movement would work to achieve the "Palestinian national goal" of a sovereign state on the Gaza Strip and West Bank. Gaza's Hamas rulers executed a man convicted of collaborating with Israel. His execution was the 11th in Gaza since Hamas violently wrested control of the territory in June 2007.
(AP, 5/4/11)(AFP, 5/4/11)(AP, 5/5/11)(Econ, 5/7/11, p.51)
2011 May 4, South Korean police said the body of a man with his hands and feet nailed to a wooden cross and a crown of thorns on his head has been found in an abandoned stone quarry in Mungyong.
(AP, 5/4/11)
2011 May 4, A Turkish police officer was shot dead by unidentified assailants in the northern city of Kastamonu, where PM Tayyip Erdogan had been speaking earlier in the day.
(Reuters, 5/4/11)
2011 May 4, In Uganda some 300 lawyers gathered in Kampala to protest the arrest of the country's top opposition leader and a crackdown on demonstrations.
(AP, 5/4/11)
2011 May 4, Ukrainian prosecutors said they have opened a criminal investigation against the former head of the Kiev Zoo, where hundreds of animals have died or gone mysteriously missing in recent years. Svitlana Berzina was suspected of embezzling some $47,000 (euro32,000) from the zoo by commissioning projects that weren't fully carried out, if at all. Berzina was fired last year after nearly one-half of the zoo's animals either died or disappeared.
(AP, 5/4/11)
2011 May 4, The Vatican condemned former Canadian Bishop Raymond Lahey after he pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography and said it planned to take disciplinary action against him.
(Reuters, 5/4/11)
2011 May 4, Vietnam’s central bank raised a key interest rate to 14% presented a package of commitments, titled Resolution II, to tighten money and credit. Consumer prices had risen 17.5% in the year to April.
(Econ, 5/7/11, p.79)
2011 May 4, In Yemen an explosion ripped through a military vehicle in Zinjibar killing 5 soldiers. 4 other civilians died in an ensuing firefight.
(SFC, 5/5/11, p.A2)
2012 May 4, The United States said that China had indicated it would let blind activist Chen Guangcheng and his family leave the country soon, raising hopes of a resolution to a damaging diplomatic crisis.
(AFP, 5/4/12)
2012 May 4, Disgraced former press baron Conrad Black (67) was released from a Florida prison after ending his sentence and flown to his home in Canada, which has granted him a temporary resident permit despite his criminal record.
(Reuters, 5/4/12)
2012 May 4, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed into law a bill banning abortion providers like Planned Parenthood from receiving money through the state, her office said in a statement.
(Reuters, 5/5/12)
2012 May 4, Federal agents in southern California arrested Michael Franks (29), suspected in 10 bank heists. He was dubbed the Snowboarder Bandit for often wearing snowboarder cloths.
(SSFC, 5/6/12, p.A9)
2012 May 4, A federal jury in Nashville split its verdict against 9 people accused of operating a sex trafficking ring run mostly by Somali refugee gang members. 3 men were convicted of conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of children. 6 men were acquitted.
(SFC, 5/5/12, p.A5)
2012 May 4, Adam Yauch (47), the gravelly voiced rapper, aka MCA), who helped make the Beastie Boys one of the seminal groups in hip-hop, died of cancer.
(AP, 5/4/12)
2012 May 4, In southern Afghanistan two NATO coalition service members were killed in an insurgent attack. A remote-controlled roadside bomb killed five border police in Nangarhar province near the border with Pakistan.
(AP, 5/4/12)(AP, 5/5/12)
2012 May 4, Australian Police hunted for a gang of Sydney street robbers who threw feces at their victims to distract them before grabbing their money.
(AFP, 5/4/12)
2012 May 4, British PM David Cameron's Conservative Party took an electoral bruising, suffering widespread losses in local elections as voters punished the leader for biting austerity measures and a stalled economy. Deputy PM Nick Clegg's Liberal Democrats suffered similar woes. In London Cameron's Conservative Party colleague Boris Johnson swept to a second four-year term as the British capital's mayor.
(AP, 5/4/12)
2012 May 4, Canada minted its final one-cent coin and urged people to donate the little copper-covered coins to charity rather than let them go to waste.
(Reuters, 5/4/12)
2012 May 4, In Egypt thousands rallied against the country's ruling military council, two days after a flare-up of street violence left at least nine dead and fueled a wave of Islamist-led opposition to the generals ahead of presidential elections. Military prosecutors detained some 320 Egyptian protesters following clashes outside the country's Defense Ministry. Two people were reported killed and over 300 people injured.
(AP, 5/4/12)(AFP, 5/5/12)
2012 May 4, In India a Reliance company executive said the government has asked the energy giant to pay a $1.25 billion penalty for a fall in gas production from its main oil fields.
(AFP, 5/4/12)
2012 May 4, Iranians lined up at polling stations for a second round of parliamentary elections. Conservative opponents of Pres. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad already won an outright majority of seats of the new parliament in the first round of elections held in March. Of 65 seats up for grabs Ahmadinejad's opponents won 41 while the president's supporters got only 13.
(AP, 5/4/12)(AP, 5/5/12)
2012 May 4, Israel freed from jail Haggai Amir, the brother and key accomplice of the man who assassinated Israeli PM Yitzhak Rabin in 1995, after more that 16 years in jail.
(AFP, 5/4/12)
2012 May 4, In Ivory Coast about 50 inmates staged a jailbreak from the main prison on the fringes of Abidjan. About 20 were apprehended.
(AFP, 5/4/12)
2012 May 4, Malaysia’s PM Najib Razak said a quashed election reform rally was being used to topple the government ahead of polls expected in June.
(AFP, 5/7/12)
2012 May 4, In Timbuktu, Mali, the tomb of Sidi Mahmoud Ben Amar (d.1458), classified as a World Heritage site, was attacked by an Islamist group.
(SFC, 5/7/12, p.A2)(www.exploretimbuktu.com/culture/culture/saints.html)
2012 May 4, A Myanmar state-run newspaper said recent battles between government troops and Kachin ethnic rebels had killed 31 people. The New Light of Myanmar reported 11 clashes in the last week of April, including what it said was an attack by rebels of the Kachin Independence Army on a government border guard base.
(AP, 5/4/12)
2012 May 4, In Nigeria suspected Boko Haram gunmen killed 2 warders and freed all inmates from a local jail in Kumshe town, Borno state. 23 Boko Haram suspects were arrested during an attack on a police station in Banki. In the eastern state of Taraba, gunmen disguised in military uniforms shot dead five residents near Babban Mutum town.
(AFP, 5/4/12)
2012 May 4, Shell announced a significant cut in its Nigerian oil production due to pipeline damage caused by theft, and warned that it might not meet contractual obligations as a result.
(AFP, 5/4/12)
2012 May 4, In Pakistan a teenage suicide bomber targeted police in Khar, Bajaur district, killing 29 people and wounding dozens.
(AFP, 5/4/12)(AFP, 5/5/12)
2012 May 4, Syrian security forces killed several demonstrators.
(AFP, 5/5/12)
2012 May 4, Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete sacked six ministers over graft allegations after a report by the auditor-general implicated numerous officials in cases of bribery and suspect procurements. Kikwete also transferred an additional eight ministers to new portfolios and appointed seven new ones.
(AFP, 5/4/12)
2012 May 4, In Tunisia an official tally said 338 Tunisians were killed and 2,174 were injured during the popular uprising that led to the fall of president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
(AFP, 5/4/12)
2012 May 4, Ukraine's jailed and ailing ex-PM Yulia Tymoshenko tentatively agreed to have her back condition treated at a local hospital under the supervision of a German doctor.
(AP, 5/4/12)
2013 May 4, In the SF Bay Area a stretch limo caught fire on the San Mateo Bridge. The driver and 4 women in a bridal party escaped, but 5 others, including the bride, died in the fire.
(SFC, 5/6/13, p.A1)
2013 May 4, In Utah soccer referee Ricardo Portillo (46) died following an April 27 assault by teen-age player (17). On May 8 the teen was charged with homicide by assault.
(SFC, 5/9/13, p.A6)(http://tinyurl.com/cqgz2xl)
2013 May 4, In southern Afghanistan 5 US troops were killed by a roadside bomb in Kandahar province. 2 others died as a soldier with the Afghan National Army turned his weapon on coalition troops in the west.
(AP, 5/4/13)(AP, 5/5/13)
2013 May 4, In Afghanistan insurgents in Baghlan province killed a German special forces soldier and wounded another. This marked the first death in combat of a member of Germany's special forces in Afghanistan. Several insurgents are believed to have been killed in the fighting.
(AP, 5/5/13)
2013 May 4, In northern Belgium hundreds of people were evacuated after a train carrying chemicals derailed and caught fire.
(AP, 5/4/13)
2013 May 4, Belgian biochemist Christian de Duve (95), Nobel Prize winner in physiology or medicine (1974), died in an act of euthanasia.
(AP, 5/6/13)
2013 May 4, Nigel Evans (55), a member of PM David Cameron's Conservative party, was detained over sexual attacks allegedly carried out at his home in Lancashire, northern England between July 2009 and March of this year. Evans had announced in 2010 that he was gay.
(AP, 5/5/13)
2013 May 4, Ethiopian authorities detained reporter Muluken Tesfaw of the private weekly Ethio-Mehedar as he covered evictions 100 km from the site of the construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. The government has acknowledged the March evictions were illegal and Tesfaw was later released.
(AP, 5/31/13)(AP, 6/7/13)
2013 May 4, In Pakistan two blasts in the southern city of Karachi killed three people near the office of a political party critical of the Taliban.
(AP, 5/5/13)
2013 May 4, In Puerto Rico 4 people were killed and 6 others injured in a drive-by shooting in Aguas Buenas.
(SSFC, 5/5/13, p.A7)
2013 May 4, Saudi Arabian officials announced that Saudi girls will be allowed to play sports in private schools for the first time.
(SSFC, 5/5/13, p.A5)
2013 May 4, Twelve Senegalese employees of a South African demining company were kidnapped in Senegal's southern Casamance region. On May 29 the rebels released 3 women who were kidnapped with the group. The 9 remaining employees were freed on July 12 in Guinea-Bissau.
(AP, 5/6/13)(http://tinyurl.com/dx24cfh)(Reuters, 7/12/13)
2013 May 4, In Sudan 21 people were killed in Abyei district, including Koul Deng Majok, an ethnic Ngok Dinka from neighboring South Sudan, two peacekeepers, and 17 members of the Misseriya tribe. Majok's tribe had failed to inform Misseriya tribesmen they would be visiting the area.
(AP, 5/5/13)
2013 May 4, In Syria Alawite paramilitaries continued their rampage against Sunnis in al-Bayda and Banias leaving at least 100 dead.
(Econ, 5/11/13, p.42)
2014 May 4, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang set off for a four-country tour of Africa (Ethiopia, Nigeria, Angola and Kenya), acknowledging "growing pains" in China-Africa relations amid labor conflicts and other problems stemming from Chinese investment.
(AP, 5/4/14)
2014 May 4, A Chinese vessel intentionally rammed two Vietnamese Sea Guard vessels in a part of the disputed South China Sea where Beijing has deployed a giant oil rig, sending tensions spiraling in the region.
(Reuters, 5/7/14)
2014 May 4, India’s police said they have killed 3 suspected rebels and arrested eight forest guards for alleged involvement in the killings of 31 Muslims in northeastern Assam state.
(AP, 5/4/14)
2014 May 4, In western India a passenger train derailed, killing at least 18 people and injuring more than 100 as rescue workers raced to free those still trapped in Maharashtra state.
(AP, 5/4/14)
2014 May 4, In Iraq shelling in Fallujah, held by anti-government fighters for over four months, killed 11 people over the last 24 hours.
(AFP, 5/4/14)
2014 May 4, In Kenya two buses driving along a busy highway in Nairobi were struck by explosive devices thrown at them.
(Reuters, 5/4/14)
2014 May 4, Israeli police looking for evidence linked to a recent attack on a mosque were mobbed overnight by around 100 demonstrators at the at Yitzhar West Bank settlement.
(AFP, 5/4/14)
2014 May 4, Libyan businessman Ahmed Maiteeq (Miitig) was sworn in as the country’s new prime minister after a chaotic vote in parliament.
(Reuters, 5/4/14)
2014 May 4, Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan ordered top security chiefs and officials to secure the safe release of 223 schoolgirls abducted three weeks ago by suspected Islamists.
(AFP, 5/4/14)
2014 May 4, In northeastern Nigeria suspected Boko Haram gunmen kidnapped eight girls from a village late today near one of their strongholds. After leaving Warabe the gunmen stormed the Wala village, five km. (three miles) away, and abducted three more girls.
(Reuters, 5/6/14)(AFP, 5/7/14)
2014 May 4, Panamanians voted in presidential elections. Conservative Juan Carlos Varela won the election easily defeating Jose Domingo Arias, Pres. Martinelli's hand-picked successor 39% to 32%.
(AP, 5/4/14)(AFP, 5/514)(SSFC, 7/6/14, p.A4)
2014 May 4, Saudi Arabia's health ministry said one more patient who contracted the potentially fatal Middle East virus related to SARS has died and that 14 new cases have been detected. The new 14 cases raised the number of those infected in Saudi Arabia to 411.
(AP, 5/514)
2014 May 4, In Saudi Arabia a maid (23) from the Philippines was allegedly scalded with water deliberately poured down her back. An investigation was launched jointly by Riyadh police and the Philippines embassy after images of burns allegedly suffered by the woman, who had arrived in the kingdom in March, surfaced on social media and online.
(Reuters, 5/22/14)
2014 May 4, South Sudanese government forces overran Nasir, a key rebel base and moved to recapture Bentiu, the capital of the oil-producing Unity state, from rebel control.
(AFP, 5/4/14)(AP, 5/514)
2014 May 4, The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said heavy fighting between rival Islamic rebel groups in eastern Syria has killed 62 fighters and forced tens of thousands to flee their homes over the last four days.
(AP, 5/4/14)
2014 May 4, In Ukraine pro-Russian militants stormed a police station in Odessa and freed 30 fellow activists as the prime minister blamed police corruption there for dozens of deaths in rioting on May 2.
(AP, 5/4/14)
2014 May 4, Yemen's military says it has killed 37 suspected al-Qaida fighters overnight in the town of Meyfaa in an ongoing offensive in Shabwa southern province.
(AP, 5/4/14)
2015 May 4, The US said it will give $45 million to UN refugee operations in Kenya to help the country deal with a growing refugee crisis.
(SFC, 5/5/15, p.A2)
2015 May 4, The US Supreme Court let stand a lower court's ban on therapy intended to change the sexual orientation of gay youths under the age of 18.
(AFP, 5/4/15)
2015 May 4, NYPD officer Brian Moore (25) died, two days after being shot in the head while sitting in an unmarked car in Queens. Demetrius Blackwell (35) was arrested and held without bail.
(SFC, 5/5/15, p.A6)
2015 May 4, A report on drinking water in Bradford County, Pa., revealed traces of a compound commonly found in Marcellus Shale drilling fluids.
(SFC, 5/5/15, p.A6)
2015 May 4, In Afghanistan a Taliban suicide bomber struck a bus carrying government workers in Kabul, killing one person and wounding thirteen.
(SFC, 5/5/15, p.A4)
2015 May 4, Burundi police shot dead at least 3 demonstrators and wounded dozens of others, in running battles with protesters angry at a bid by President Pierre Nkurunziza to extend his rule.
(AFP, 5/4/15)
2015 May 4, An Egyptian court sentenced to death five men convicted of killing 13 policemen in a town near Cairo during a deadly security crackdown on ousted president Mohamed Morsi's supporters on August 14, 2013.
(AFP, 5/4/15)
2015 May 4, The European Union approved 20 million euros ($22 million) in financial support and emergency aid to help Nepal deal with the April 25 earthquake.
(AP, 5/4/15)
2015 May 4, In Greece a nationwide hunt for young Anny, a Bulgarian citizen reported missing by her mother on April 24, ended today when both her parents were arrested and her father charged with murder and defiling a body. The girl was believed to have been killed around April 8-9 and that her father (27) confessed to disposing of his daughter's remains over several days.
(AP, 5/5/15)
2015 May 4, In central India at least 21 people were burned to death when a bus fell into a ditch and caught fire in Panna district, Madhya Pradesh state.
(AP, 5/4/15)
2015 May 4, Indonesian police arrested a suspected wildlife smuggler after discovering nearly 22 rare live birds, mostly yellow-crested cockatoos, jammed inside plastic water bottles in his luggage.
(AFP, 5/6/15)
2015 May 4, Israeli security guards shot and wounded a Palestinian after he allegedly tried to stab people waiting at a light railway station in east Jerusalem.
(AFP, 5/4/15)
2015 May 4, Italy's parliament approved a radical new electoral law designed to end decades of political instability by ensuring that elections always produce governments with working majorities.
(AFP, 5/4/15)
2015 May 4, In northwest Kenya suspected Turkana cattle rustlers ambushed villages and drove away hundreds of livestock. 54 people lost their lives in the two communities of Pokot and Turkana. The violence reportedly started after an attack by Pokot warriors on a Turkana village in which 100 goats were stolen.
(Reuters, 5/5/15)(AFP, 5/6/15)
2015 May 4, In Mexico the body of radio journalist Armando Saldana Morales (52) was found in Acatlan de Perez Figueroa, Oaxaca state.
(AP, 5/5/15)(SSFC, 5/21/17, p.E7)
2015 May 4, NATO launched one of its biggest-ever anti-submarine exercises in the North Sea.
(Reuters, 5/4/15)
2015 May 4, Nepal officials said the death toll from the April 25 earthquake has reached 7,366 people and wounded nearly 14,500.
(Reuters, 5/4/15)
2015 May 4, Niger said it was planning a military operation to remove Boko Haram extremists. Soldiers arrived at the fishing village of Lelewa on Lake Chad and ordered some 3,000 Nigerian fisherman and refugees to return to Nigeria. A dozen people were later reported to have died on the 3-day trek.
(SFC, 5/7/15, p.A4)
2015 May 4, A bomb blast targeted Hamas's security headquarters in Gaza City, after radical Islamists issued a threatening message calling for the release of prisoners.
(AFP, 5/4/15)
2015 May 4, In the southern Philippines gunmen clad in military uniform abducted two Philippine coast guard personnel and a village chief on Aliguay island then sped away in two motorboats.
(AP, 5/4/15)
2015 May 4, Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski approved a resolution that gave his formal consent to the establishment of a joint Polish-Lithuanian-Ukrainian military unit. The joint brigade will serve separately from the three countries’ military commands, but will participate in NATO, United Nations and European Union operations.
(Reuters, 5/4/15)
2015 May 4, In southern Poland nine people were arrested following the third night of violence in Knurow, in southern Poland, triggered by the death of a football fan hit by a rubber bullet fired by police.
(AP, 5/5/15)
2015 May 4, In Qatar the CEO of French aerospace firm Dassault, Eric Trappier, signed a 6.3-billion-euro ($7-billion) deal with Qatari defense officials in Doha. The agreement includes an order for 24 Rafale fighter jets, with an option on a further 12. French President Francois Hollande oversaw the signing.
(AFP, 5/4/15)
2015 May 4, Senegal said it will send 2,100 troops to Saudi Arabia as part of an international coalition combating Houthi rebels in Yemen.
(Reuters, 5/4/15)
2015 May 4, Somalia's al Shabaab militants stormed a police station in the country's semi-autonomous region of Puntland and killed 3 policemen.
(Reuters, 5/5/15)
2015 May 4, In Syria a small group of insurgents, including a suicide bomber, carried out an attack in Damascus targeting a Syrian military logistics and supply facility.
(AP, 5/4/15)
2015 May 4, A series of raids, codenamed "COBRA III" and organized by Thailand, began across Asia, Africa and Europe. By May 27 they resulted in more than 300 arrests and over 600 seizures of assorted wildlife contraband — from several tons of ivory and rhino horns to whale ribs and sea horses.
(AP, 6/18/15)
2015 May 4, Thailand police arrested two Padang Besar deputy village chiefs and a member of the Padang Besar municipal council a day earlier. They faced a variety of charges related to human trafficking. Police said they also arrested a Myanmar citizen, Zaw Naing Anu (40), or Anwar, who had previously been arrested in Thailand for fraud and for kidnapping Rohingyas.
(AP, 5/4/15)
2015 May 4, Ukraine's army said two soldiers have died in renewed bouts of fighting in the east, where skirmishes between government and separatist forces are increasing and intensifying despite a February peace deal.
(AP, 5/4/15)
2015 May 4, In Yemen heavy airstrikes hit several airports across the country, as a Saudi-led military coalition continued to target the country's Shiite rebels and their allied forces.
(AP, 5/4/15)
2016 May 4, Pres. Obama visited Flint, Michigan, showing support for the local residents by drinking filtered city water.
(SFC, 5/5/16, p.A6)
2016 May 4, The US government said Japanese-based Takata Corp. will recall another 35-40 million air bag inflators bringing the total recall to as many as 69 million.
(SFC, 5/5/16, p.C1)
2016 May 4, The United States and its allies conducted 18 strikes against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
(Reuters, 5/5/16)
2016 May 4, US Army Gen. Curtis M. Scaparrotti (60) took over as the military leader responsible for the overall direction and conduct of NATO's global military operations.
(AP, 5/4/16)
2016 May 4, California’s Gov. Jerry Brown signed anti-tobacco legislation raising the smoking age from 18 to 21 effective June 9.
(SFC, 5/5/16, p.A1)
2016 May 4, Shares in miner BHP Billiton tumbled after Brazil's federal prosecutor launched a $43 billion civil suit for a dam break last November that killed 19 people and caused the worst environmental disaster in the country's history.
(AP, 5/4/16)
2016 May 4, Three Bulgarian police officers were injured when anti-Roma protesters tried to break through a cordon during a demonstration in the southern town of Radnevo. Some 2,000 people took part in the protest over an incident two days earlier in which four Roma men have been charged with the attempted murder of three young men.
(Reuters, 5/5/16)
2016 May 4, In western Canada a wildfire raged out of control destroying much of one neighborhood in the remote city of Fort McMurray and badly damaging others, with all 80,000 residents ordered to leave in the biggest evacuation in the area's history.
(Reuters, 5/4/16)
2016 May 4, China’s state media said China and Laos have agreed to step up security cooperation after attacks on Chinese nationals in the poor, landlocked Southeast Asian nation in recent weeks, as Laos' new president visited Beijing.
(Reuters, 5/4/16)
2016 May 4, Colombian authorities in Bogota arrested Nidal Waked (46), a prominent Panama businessman sought by the United States, and dismantled an empire of businesses that the US says were part of a top worldwide money-laundering organization for drug traffickers.
(AP, 5/6/16)
2016 May 4, In Dubai a man was shot seven times in the head in the marina neighborhood of luxury high-rise buildings and beachfront property. Authorities believed the man also was allegedly involved in the killing of someone's daughter in Turkey.
(AP, 5/12/16)
2016 May 4, An Egyptian court acquitted former PM Ahmed Nazif (2004-2011) of graft charges in the latest retrial linked to his time serving under longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak. The ruling was final and could not be appealed.
(AP, 5/4/16)
2016 May 4, Ethiopian media reported that a ban on smoking at public gatherings has been announced by the mayor of Addis Ababa. The new law makes smoking illegal in bars, cafés, restaurants, schools, hospitals and stadiums as well as cultural and religious events, but smoking on the streets is still permitted.
(AFP, 5/4/16)
2016 May 4, The European Union's top court dealt a blow to the tobacco industry by approving sweeping new rules that will require plain cigarette packs, ban menthol cigarettes and regulate the growing electronic cigarette market.
(AP, 5/4/16)
2016 May 4, Central European countries dismissed the EU executive's proposals to share out migrants among member states, saying any plans for forced relocation of people were unacceptable or, in Hungary's view, amounted to blackmail.
(Reuters, 5/4/16)
2016 May 4, The European Commission, the executive arm of the 28-nation EU, gave conditional backing for Turks to get visa-free travel as part of a deal to solve the migrant crisis.
(AFP, 5/4/16)
2016 May 4, French riot police clashed with demonstrators outside a school building in Paris, prompting government and police calls for an end to weeks of violent protests mainly linked to plans for a loosening of France's highly protective labor laws.
(Reuters, 5/4/16)
2016 May 4, Germany’s Health Ministry said the Cabinet has approved a bill that will allow patients to get cannabis as a prescription-only medication.
(AP, 5/4/16)
2016 May 4, In Guam Ricky Sanchez (39), a former Guam Office of Homeland Security employee, pleaded guilty to charges that he conspired to have a package of methamphetamine mailed to the office.
(AP, 5/6/16)
2016 May 4, India's highest court ordered cigarette manufacturers to comply with controversial new rules requiring bigger health warnings on packets that sparked weeks-long factory shutdowns.
(AFP, 5/4/16)
2016 May 4, In central India a passenger bus fell into a dry river bed after crashing through the railing of a bridge, killing 16 people in Chhattisgarh state.
(AP, 5/5/16)
2016 May 4, It was reported that sewage has damaged Gaza’s limited fresh water supplies, decimated fishing zones and is now floating northward and affecting Israel.
(SFC, 5/4/16, p.A3)
2016 May 4, Jamaica sentenced Dalton Forrester of Brooklyn to three years in prison and fined him about $6,000 after authorities found more than $100,000 in undeclared cash in his luggage on April 9. Forrester pleaded guilty to charges that included possession of criminal property.
(AP, 5/4/16)
2016 May 4, Malaysia's finance ministry said it would dissolve the board of advisers at 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) and take over its remaining assets, in an apparent move to scale down a state fund whose scandals have rocked the government.
(Reuters, 5/4/16)
2016 May 4, In southern Nigeria militants used explosives to blow up the Okan platform, a collection facility for offshore oil and gas that feeds the Escravos terminal. This caused Chevron to lose 35,000 barrels per day (bpd) of net crude oil production.
(AFP, 5/7/16)
2016 May 4, In Qatar French Pres. Francois Hollande attended a ceremony to mark the sale of 24 Rafale combat jets plus missiles to the United Arab Emirates.
(Econ, 5/14/16, p.55)
2016 May 4, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Russia will form three new military divisions to counter what it believes is the growing strength of The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) near its borders.
(Reuters, 5/4/16)
2016 May 4, Russia said it has withdrawn around 30 aircraft from Syria, including all of its Su-25 attack planes stationed in the country.
(Reuters, 5/4/16)
2016 May 4, In Syria at least 22 suspected regime air strikes pounded a key rebel bastion east of Damascus after a local freeze on fighting expired overnight. Rebel forces pressed an offensive against regime troops on the western outskirts of Aleppo.
(AFP, 5/4/16)
2016 May 4, A truce was announced for Aleppo, Syria, by US officials in agreement with Russia, in an effort to extend a fragile cease-fire to the deeply contested city. The Syrian military said the truce would last only 48 hours.
(AP, 5/5/16)
2016 May 4, Turkey said its warplanes have destroyed targets belonging to the militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in southeast Turkey.
(Reuters, 5/4/16)
2016 May 4, Yemen's warring parties resumed face-to-face peace talks in Kuwait after a three-day break triggered by a walkout by the government delegation.
(AFP, 5/4/16)
2017 May 4, Pres. Trump marked the National Day of Prayer by signing an executive order asking the IRS to use “maximum enforcement discretion" on the Johnson Amendment, which barred churches and tax-exempt groups from endorsing political candidates.
(SFC, 5/5/17, p.A6)
2017 May 4, US House Representatives voted 217-213 to gut the Affordable Care Act. The legislation moved to the Senate. Pres. Trump told The Economist that “Obamacare is absolutely dead."
(SFC, 5/5/17, p.A1)(Econ 5/27/17, p.25)
2017 May 4, A US House panel approved legislation that would gut much of the Dodd-Frank law enacted after the 2008 economic meltdown.
(SFC, 5/5/17, p.A6)
2017 May 4, US Navy Lt. Cmdr. Edward Lin agreed to plead guilty to mishandling classified information, communicating national defense information, failing to report foreign contacts and lying about his whereabouts while on leave during his court martial in Norfolk, Va.
(SFC, 5/5/17, p.A6)
2017 May 4, In San Francisco plans were unveiled for an ever-changing LED light sculpture, by SF artist Jim Campbell, for the top nine stories of the new Salesforce Tower.
(SFC, 5/5/17, p.C1)
2017 May 4, In NYC a man punched and sexually assaulted a German tourist (31) early today as she walked backed to her Airbnb rental in Harlem.
(SFC, 5/6/17, p.A5)
2017 May 4, William Baumol (b.1922), one of the great economists of the 20th century, died in NYC. His more than 500 papers included a description of “cost disease," on the rising costs associated with service industries.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Baumol)(Econ 5/13/17, p.69)
2017 May 4, In Texas office workers found nearly 400 migratory birds of brilliant plumage killed after they smashed into an office tower in Galveston while flying in a storm. More than 20 species were represented among the 395 birds that died.
(Reuters, 5/6/17)
2017 May 4, Former Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar returned to Kabul on after two decades in hiding, calling for peace with Taliban insurgents and criticizing the Western-backed government, which he said was not working.
(Reuters, 5/4/17)
2017 May 4, Albania’s Serious Crime Court sentenced in absentia Almir Daci, a former Muslim imam, to 15 years in prison on terrorism charges including recruiting and sending men to fight with rebel groups in Syria.
(AP, 5/4/17)
2017 May 4, Algerians voted in parliamentary elections. President Abdelaziz Bouteflika's party and its coalition ally won a clear majority in parliamentary elections in a vote marred by low turnout.
(AP, 5/4/17)(AFP, 5/5/17)
2017 May 4, Electoral contests were held for local councils in Scotland, Wales and many parts of England, as well as mayoral competitions in several cities. PM Theresa May's Conservatives scored big gains in the local elections.
(AP, 5/5/17)
2017 May 4, Buckingham Palace announced that Prince Philip (95), also known as the Duke of Edinburgh, will retire from public life.
(AP, 5/4/17)
2017 May 4, China said it wants to be good neighbors with North Korea, after the isolated country's state news agency published a rare criticism of Chinese state media commentaries calling for tougher sanctions over the North's nuclear program.
(Reuters, 5/4/17)
2017 May 4, Finland's government held its weekly cabinet meeting in front of the glare of a live audience for the first time, part of celebrations for the Nordic country's first hundred years of independence.
(Reuters, 5/4/17)
2017 May 4, It was reported that France has granted political asylum to Russian artist Pyotr Pavlensky (33), who once memorably nailed his scrotum to Red Square to denounce state power.
(AFP, 5/4/17)
2017 May 4, The head of Germany's domestic intelligence agency accused Russian rivals of gathering large amounts of political data in cyber-attacks and said it was up to the Kremlin to decide whether it wanted to put it to use ahead of Germany's September elections.
(Reuters, 5/4/17)
2017 May 4, Thousands of Indian government forces cordoned off at least two dozen villages in southern Kashmir while they hunted for separatist militants believed to be hiding in the area, but called off the operation after about 10 hours without finding any.
(AP, 5/4/17)
2017 May 4, Iran, Russia and Turkey signed an agreement calling for the setting up of four "de-escalation zones" in war-torn Syria at the cease-fire talks in Kazakhstan and said that President Bashar Assad's air force would halt flights over the designated areas in the country's north, center and south. Members of the Syrian opposition delegation shouted in protest and walked out of the conference room in Astana. The opposition said it could not accept creating safe zones in Syria because it threatens the country's territorial integrity and said it would also not recognize Iran as a guarantor of the peace plan.
(AP, 5/4/17)(Reuters, 5/4/17)
2017 May 4, Iraqi forces rescued 1,000 families as they pushed into Mosul from the north.
(Reuters, 5/5/17)
2017 May 4, Rescuers picked up 560 migrants from unsafe boats off the coast of Libya, including the body of a Gambian teenager who the migrants said had been shot by smugglers on the beach for his baseball cap.
(Reuters, 5/5/17)
2017 May 4, The leader of Mozambique's Renamo opposition party and rebel movement said he was extending a ceasefire indefinitely, part of an agreement reached in talks with the government to end violence since a disputed 2014 election.
(Reuters, 5/4/17)
2017 May 4, In the Netherlands an asylum-seeker (33) from Eritrea was sentenced to 12 years in prison for raping a 17-year-old woman last September after attempting to strangle and drown her.
(AP, 5/4/17)
2017 May 4, Pakistani authorities executed three Pakistani Taliban militants after they were convicted by military courts over links to acts of terrorism.
(AP, 5/4/17)
2017 May 4, Russia blocked access to Chinese social media app WeChat, developed by Tencent Holdings, for failing to give its contact details to Roskomnadzor, the Russian communications watchdog.
(Reuters, 5/6/17)
2017 May 4, In Somalia US Navy SEAL Kyle Milliken (38) was killed and two were wounded in a clash with al Shabaab militants, in what appeared to be the first American casualties in the country since the 1993 "Black Hawk Down" disaster.
(Reuters, 5/5/17)(Reuters, 5/7/17)(SSFC, 5/7/17, p.A10)
2017 May 4, South Africa's High Court ordered President Jacob Zuma to provide reasons for his decision last month to fire finance minister Pravin Gordhan in a cabinet reshuffle that led to sovereign debt downgrades.
(Reuters, 5/4/17)
2017 May 4, Thai police said Vorayuth "Boss" Yoovidhya (32), a fugitive heir to the Red Bull energy drink fortune, had left Singapore after abandoning his private jet and disappeared.
(AP, 5/4/17)(AP, 5/5/17)
2017 May 4, The Vatican and Myanmar announced an agreement to establish diplomatic relations as Pope Francis met with Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, the country's top civilian leader.
(AP, 5/4/17)
2017 May 4, Thousands of southern Yemenis who support the secession of their region rallied in Aden against the sacking of the city's governor. President Abed Rabbo Mansour last week fired Aden's governor, Aidarous al-Zubaidi, along with a Cabinet minister.
(AP, 5/4/17)
2018 May 4, US President Donald Trump shifted his position over possible talks with US Special Counsel Robert Mueller, saying his lawyers have advised him against any talks but that he would submit to questioning if it was "fair".
(Reuters, 5/4/18)
2018 May 4, US President Donald Trump, in a speech to the National Rifle Association (NRA), suggested looser gun laws could have helped prevent deadly attacks in Paris in 2015 and linked knife crime in London to a handgun ban. His comments caused anger in France and Britain.
(Reuters, 5/6/18)
2018 May 4, The Trump administration announced that it was ending temporary protected status (TPS) for the 57,000 Hondurans covered under the program. They now have until Jan. 5, 2020, to sort out their affairs before returning home — or try to normalize their migratory status in other ways, such as through marriage or sponsorship.
(AP, 5/5/18)
2018 May 4, The Pentagon announced the official launch of a new naval command that will bolster the US and NATO presence in the Atlantic Ocean.
(AP, 5/4/18)
2018 May 4, The last 83 members of a group of 228 Central American migrants who had camped out on the US-Mexican border after crossing Mexico in a caravan entered the United States to request asylum.
(AFP, 5/5/18)
2018 May 4, The Connecticut Supreme Court vacated Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel's 2002 murder conviction for the 1975 bludgeoning death of Martha Moxley and ordered a new trial.
(SFC, 5/5/18, p.A7)
2018 May 4, The US state of Georgia executed Robert Earl Butts Jr. (40) for the 1996 slaying of off-duty prison guard Donovan Corey Parks. A case against Marion Wilson Jr., also convicted in the slaying, was still pending.
(SFC, 5/5/18, p.A6)
2018 May 4, In Hawaii magnitude 6.9 temblor rocked the Big Island as the Kilauea volcano continued erupting.
(AP, 5/6/18)
2018 May 4, In Indiana police Officer Robert Pitts was killed in a shootout as he and other oficers approached an Apartment complex in Terre Haute. The suspect was killed.
(SSFC, 5/6/18, p.A14)
2018 May 4, Iowa GOP Gov. Kim Reynolds signed a six-week abortion ban into law, marking the strictest abortion regulation in the nation.
(SFC, 5/5/18, p.A6)
2018 May 4, In Kansas Adam Purinton (52), who shot dead Indian immigrant Srinivas Kuchibhotla (32) while shouting "get out of my country," was sentenced to life in prison.
(AFP, 5/4/18)
2018 May 4, In Afghanistan two civilians were killed and four were injured when a mortar shell hit a home in the Andar district of Ghazni province. Two militants were killed when explosives went off on a highway in Ghazni.
(Reuters, 5/5/18)
2018 May 4, Albanian police said Arber Cekaj, owner of the Arbi Garden company, has been arrested near Duesseldorf. His company owned a container with 613 kg (1,350 pounds) of cocaine that was discovered in February.
(AP, 5/4/18)
2018 May 4, Argentina's central bank hiked its benchmark interest rate to 40 percent to support the peso after it plunged in value the day before.
(AFP, 5/4/18)
2018 May 4, In Australia Moutia Elzahed (50), the wife of an Islamic State group recruiter, gave the militants' single-finger salute outside a Sydney court after becoming the first person convicted under a new state law criminalizing the refusal to stand for a judge. Her husband Hamdi Alqudsi was sentenced in 2016 to eight years in prison for helping young Australians reach Syria to fight for extremists.
(AP, 5/4/18)
2018 May 4, Chad President Idriss Deby vowed to crack down on entrenched graft as he signed a decree to create a new republic based on constitutional changes attacked by the opposition.
(AFP, 5/4/18)
2018 May 4, Online donations to help French rail workers topped one million euros, a month after they began rolling strikes over President Emmanuel Macron's drive to transform the heavily indebted state rail monopoly into a profit-making company.
(Reuters, 5/4/18)
2018 May 4, A new interim government was installed in Gabon, three days after the former administration resigned over delays in holding legislative elections.
(AFP, 5/4/18)
2018 May 4, Munich-based Allianz said it will stop insuring coal-fired power plants and coal mines as part of its contribution to combating climate change.
(AP, 5/4/18)
2018 May 4, Guatemalan authorities said they have arrested three current and former army officers on suspicion of corruption involving the Defense Ministry.
(AP, 5/4/18)
2018 May 4, In eastern India a girl (17) was raped, doused in kerosene and set alight. Police soon arrested a 19-year-old man who lives in the same neighbourhood as the girl struggled to survive. On the same day another girl (16) was raped and burned to death, both in the state of Jharkhand. Fifteen people were soon detained in the case of the 16-year-old, who was torched to death in the state's Chatra district.
(AFP, 5/7/18)
2018 May 4, Toyota announced it would invest Can$1.4 billion ($1.09 billion) in two factories in central Canada where the Japanese manufacturer plans to build its largest hybrid hub in North America.
(AFP, 5/4/18)
2018 May 4, Kosovo's President Hashim Thaci agreed the country's border with Montenegro, a development that takes Kosovo one step nearer to joining Europe's free travel Schengen zone. Montenegro has already approved the deal.
(AP, 5/4/18)
2018 May 4, In northern Myanmar a landslide of a mound of mining waste killed at least 14 people near the Waikha mine in the jade mining region in Kachin state's Hpakant township.
(AP, 5/4/18)
2018 May 4, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas apologized over alleged anti-Semitic comments that drew global condemnation.
(AFP, 5/4/18)
2018 May 4, Thousands of Palestinians staged a sixth weekly protest near Gaza's border with Israel, some throwing stones and burning tires as Israeli soldiers fired live rounds and volleys of tear gas from across the border fence.
(AP, 5/4/18)
2018 May 4, Hundreds of Korean Air Lines Co. pilots, cabin crew and other workers staged a rally in Seoul saying they can't take any more abuse from the company's founding family.
(AP, 5/4/18)
2018 May 4, In Spain the Catalan regional parliament approved a law giving members the right to vote for a leader in absentia, a move aimed at allowing former head Carles Puigdemont to be voted leader even though he is in self-imposed exile.
(Reuters, 5/4/18)
2018 May 4, In Spain police detained Jamie Acourt (41), one of Britain's most wanted fugitives, as he left a gym in Barcelona. Acourt was accused of large scale drug offenses.
(AP, 5/5/18)
2018 May 4, The Swedish Academy which decides the Nobel Prize for Literature said it would not make the award this year because of a sexual misconduct scandal that has caused turmoil in its ranks and led to a string of board members stepping down.
(Reuters, 5/4/18)
2018 May 4, In Uganda a leopard snatched and ate the three-year-old son of a female ranger working in the popular Queen Elizabeth National Park.
(AFP, 5/7/18)
2018 May 4, The chairman of Venezuela's top bank Banesco condemned a 90-day state takeover and arrest of 11 executives as locals thronged cash machines and sped up transfers to other institutions.
(Reuters, 5/4/18)
2019 May 4, US President Donald Trump says he still believes a nuclear deal with North Korea will happen, after the country fired several unidentified short-range projectiles into the sea off its eastern coast.
(AP, 5/4/19)
2019 May 4, A helicopter carrying two people crashed into Maryland's Chesapeake Bay. Rescue workers searched for survivors.
(SSFC, 5/5/19, p.A6)
2019 May 4, SpaceX launched a load of supplies to the ISS. A recycled Dragon capsule carried 5,500 pounds of goods.
(SSFC, 5/5/19, p.A6)
2019 May 4, In Afghanistan Taliban insurgents killed seven Afghan policemen after storming security checkpoints overnight in western Badghis province. The Afghan defense ministry also said that 43 militants from the Islamic state group, including foreign fighters, were killed in two separate coalition airstrikes during the night in coordination with Afghan forces.
(AP, 5/4/19)
2019 May 4, In Bosnia thousands of Muslims flocked to the town of Foca for the reopening of a historic mosque leveled at the beginning of the Bosnian war. The 16th century Aladza Mosque was one of the most prominent masterpieces of classical Ottoman architecture in the Balkans before its destruction in the 1992-95 war by Bosnian Serb forces.
(AP, 5/4/19)
2019 May 4, Authorities in Curacao boarded the Freewinds ship that arrived in the Dutch Caribbean island under quarantine, to start vaccinating people to prevent a measles outbreak.
(AP, 5/4/19)
2019 May 4, In France demonstrators marched for a 25th straight weekend. Several dozen rallied at Paris' Charles de Gaulle Airport to denounce privatization plans.
(SSFC, 5/5/19, p.A4)
2019 May 4, In France a Norwegian student filed a complaint for alleged rape in a fire hall in the Plaisance district of southern Paris. French newspaper Le Parisien reported that the woman told police she had consensual sex with one firefighter but then was raped by several others. Six firefighters faced charges in a following investigation.
(AP, 5/06/19)
2019 May 4, Tropical cyclone Fani, the strongest to hit India in five years, killed at least 12 people in eastern Odisha state before swinging north-eastwards into Bangladesh where five more people died and more than a million were moved to safety.
(Reuters, 5/4/19)
2019 May 4, Indonesian authorities resumed their tough stance against illegal fishing in the country's waters by sinking 51 foreign ships. The seized ships were sunk at five ports across the archipelago.
(AP, 5/4/19)
2019 May 4, Iranian state news reported that a court has sentenced Hossein Fereydoun, President Hassan Rouhani’s brother, to an unspecified jail term, in a corruption case the president’s supporters allege is politically motivated.
(Reuters, 5/4/19)
2019 May 4, Israel said around 150 rockets were fired from the Palestinian enclave by late this afternoon and that its air defenses intercepted dozens of them. Retaliatory airstrikes killed six Palestinians including a pregnant mother and her baby.
(AFP, 5/4/19)(SSFC, 5/5/19, p.A5)
2019 May 4, Interstellar Technology Inc., a Japanese aerospace startup funded by a former internet maverick, successfully launched a small rocket into space, making it the first commercially developed Japanese rocket to reach orbit.
(AP, 5/4/19)
2019 May 4, The Japanese government said the nation's child population has declined for the 38th year in a row and is now at a record low.
(AP, 5/4/19)
2019 May 4, In Libya Islamic State militants killed at least nine soldiers in an attack on a training camp for the self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA) in the southwestern desert. A military source said Islamic State militants and Chadian opposition fighters were responsible for the attack.
(AP, 5/4/19)(Reuters, 5/4/19)
2019 May 4, Syrian government forces and their Russian allies pounded the rebel-held northwest with fresh air strikes. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported more than 115 strikes against rebel-held areas. It said six civilians were killed raising to 67 the number of civilians and insurgents killed since April 30 when the government began its new campaign.
(Reuters, 5/4/19)(AP, 5/4/19)
2019 May 4, Thailand's King Maha Vajiralongkorn (66) completed Buddhist and Brahmin rituals to symbolically transform him into a living god as the Southeast Asian nation crowned its first monarch in nearly seven decades.
(Reuters, 5/4/19)
2019 May 4, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan called for the opposition's local election victory in Istanbul to be declared invalid and the vote re-run, increasing the pressure on the country's electoral authorities.
(AFP, 5/4/19)
2019 May 4, Four Turkish soldiers were killed and two others wounded in two separate cross-border attacks by Kurdish militants.
(Reuters, 5/4/19)
2019 May 4, Seven Venezuelan military officers were killed when their helicopter crashed while heading to a state where Pres. Nicolás Maduro appeared alongside troops.
(AP, 5/04/19)
2020 May 4, The US National Institutes of Health said it has started enrolling participants in a study to find out the infection rate of COVID-19, caused by the new coronavirus, in children and their families in the United States. Global coronavirus cases surpassed 3.5 million and deaths neared a quarter of a million.
(Reuters, 5/4/20)
2020 May 4, US Supreme Court justices began hearing arguments by telephone for the first time.
(AP, 5/4/20)
2020 May 4, California to date had 55,657 cases of coronavirus and 2,254 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 8,763 cases and 312 deaths. The United States recorded more than 22,000 new cases of COVID-19. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,180,000 with the death toll at 68,689.
(sfist.com, 5/4/20)(Good Morning America, 5/5/20)
2020 May 4, In San Francisco Courtney Brousseau (22), a transit advocate and Twitter employee, died 3 days after being hit by a barrage of gunfire at the intersection of Rosa Parks Lane and Guerrero St.
(SFC, 5/6/20, p.B1)
2020 May 4, Michael McClure (87), Beat poet, died at his home in the Oakland Hills. He put together the famed Six Gallery readings in 1955 that launched the San Francisco Rennaisance and the legend of the Beats.
(SFC, 5/7/20, p.B1)
2020 May 4, Michigan has reported 43,754 confirmed COVID-19 virus cases and 4,049 deaths due to complications from the disease.
(AP, 5/4/20)
2020 May 4, Missouri Gov. Mike Parson lifted many of the state's coronavirus restrictions and its stay-at-home order.
(AP, 5/23/20)
2020 May 4, New York state reported more than 1,700 previously undisclosed deaths at nursing homes and adult care facilities. At least 4,813 people have died from COVID-19 in the state's nursing homes since March 1.
(AP, 5/5/20)
2020 May 4, NYC health officials said 15 children, many of whom tested positive for or had previously been exposed to the novel coronavirus, have recently been admitted to city hospitals with a mysterious illness possibly linked to COVID-19. They showed various symptoms associated with toxic shock or Kawasaki disease, a rare inflammatory syndrome typically affecting children under the age of 5.
(ABC News, 5/5/20)
2020 May 4, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine allowed construction and manufacturing to reopen, and let office workers return. He said businesses must meet state requirements that workers wear face coverings and stay at least six feet apart, and employers sanitize their workplaces.
(Reuters, 5/4/20)
2020 May 4, Apple and Google shared more details about the technological tools they’ve been developing to help governments and public health authorities trace the spread of the coronavirus and notify citizens about exposure, including a set of privacy requirements for use of those tools. If countries want to adopt the technology, location services are forbidden.
(Yahoo News, 5/4/20)
2020 May 4, J. Crew, the mass-market clothing company whose preppy-with-a-twist products were worn by Michelle Obama and appeared at New York Fashion Week, filed for bankruptcy protection. J. Crew announced that its parent company, Chinos Holdings, had filed for Chapter 11 protection in federal bankruptcy court for the Eastern District of Virginia.
(NY Times, 5/4/20)
2020 May 4, Argentina's biggest bondholders reiterated that they would not accept the government's offer to restructure $65 billion of its foreign debt. The standoff raised the risk Argentina will fall into a record ninth sovereign debt default on May 22, when a grace period on a missed interest payment runs out.
(Reuters, 5/4/20)
2020 May 4, The Australian government set aside A$300 million ($191 million) to jumpstart hydrogen projects with the help of low-cost financing as the country aims to build the industry by 2030.
(Reuters, 5/4/20)
2020 May 4, Bangladesh reported more than 10,000 coronavirus cases.
(Reuters, 5/4/20)
2020 May 4, Belgium began a cautious easing of its coronavirus lockdown, allowing some businesses to reopen while obliging all passengers on public transport to wear a mask under a new rule to minimize the risk of a new outbreak.
(Reuters, 5/4/20)
2020 May 4, Britain as of today had recorded nearly 190,000 coronavirus cases and almost 28,500 deaths.
(Reuters, 5/4/20)
2020 May 4, In El Salvador at least 300 people held in two centers set up by the government protested, demanding to be released and given their test results.
(Reuters, 5/5/20)
2020 May 4, France reported 306 new deaths from COVID-19, bringing the nationwide tally to 25,201.
(AP, 5/5/20)
2020 May 4, Chancellor Angela Merkel said that Germany would contribute 525 million euros ($573.51 million) to a global fund-raising push to search for vaccines and for a treatment for the novel coronavirus. World leaders in a video conference launched a pledging "marathon" - without the United States - to raise at least $8.2 billion for research into a possible vaccine and treatments for the coronavirus, but warned that it is just the start of an effort that must be sustained over time to beat the disease.
(AP, 5/4/20)(Reuters, 5/4/20)
2020 May 4, In Iceland high schools, hair salons, dentists and other businesses began reopening after six weeks of lockdown. Iceland has confirmed 1,799 cases of the coronavirus, but just 10 people have died.
(AP, 5/4/20)
2020 May 4, Iran reopened mosques in parts of the country deemed at low risk from coronavirus, as it said almost 80,000 people hospitalized with the illness had recovered and been released. 74 new fatalities brought the total to 6,277. Another 1,223 cases of COVID-19 infections were recorded in the past 24 hours, raising that total to 98,647.
(AFP, 5/4/20)
2020 May 4, Israeli airstrikes late today in eastern Syria killed 14 Iranian and Iraqi fighters and wounded others, some seriously. The strikes in eastern Deir el-Zour province targeted positions of Iranian and Iran-backed fighters.
(AP, 5/5/20)
2020 May 4, In Israel former Soviet dissident Natan Sharansky, winner of the 2020 Genesis Prize, announced that he will donate the $1 million award to organizations fighting the coronavirus pandemic and assisting people most affected by the outbreak.
(AP, 5/4/20)
2020 May 4, Millions of people were allowed to return to work in Italy as Europe’s longest lockdown started to ease. Italy's statistics bureau ISTAT said the coronavirus death toll is much higher than reported, in an analysis pointing to thousands of fatalities that have never been officially attributed to COVID-19.
(AP, 5/4/20)(Reuters, 5/4/20)
2020 May 4, A private Kenyan African Express aircraft with coronavirus medical supplies crashed in Somalia near the city of Baidoa, killing all six on board. A report from the African Union later said the plane may have been shot down by Ethiopian troops.
(AP, 5/5/20)(SFC, 5/6/20, p.A2)(SFC, 5/12/20, p.A2)
2020 May 4, Kuwaiti said security officials have dispersed what they described as a riot by stranded Egyptians unable to return home amid the coronavirus pandemic.
(https://tinyurl.com/yd8a8tee)(SFC, 5/5/20, p.A5)
2020 May 4, Lebanon entered a new phase of its coronavirus lockdown, allowing restaurants to open at 30% capacity during the day. But many business owners say they will not reopen because they would be losing more money if they operate under such restrictions during a faltering economy.
(AP, 5/4/20)
2020 May 4, Thousands of Malaysians joined the morning rush hour as the government eased curbs on movement and businesses for the first time in six weeks.
(Reuters, 5/4/20)
2020 May 4, Malaysia criticized the World Health Organization for advising adults to avoid palm oil in their diet during the COVID-19 outbreak and use alternatives such as olive oil.
(Reuters, 5/4/20)
2020 May 4, In Mexico Giovanni Lopez was detained by police in Ixtlahuacan de los Membrillos and died under police custody. An autopsy found that he had died from a head injury. Protests against police brutality erupted on June 4 in Guadalajara, calling for authorities to be held accountable for the death of Lopez, allegedly arrested for not wearing a face mask. On June 5 three police officers were arrested in connection with the beating death.
(AP, 6/5/20)(SFC, 6/6/20, p.A2)
2020 May 4, In the Netherlands the number of confirmed coronavirus cases rose by 199 to 40,770, with 26 new deaths. Total deaths in the country rose to 5,082.
(Reuters, 5/4/20)
2020 May 4, In Nigeria businesses reopened on the first working day after the easing of a lockdown imposed on key urban areas in a bid to restart Africa's largest economy. The government said this is the first phase of easing the lockdown and that the situation will be assessed in the next two weeks. Nigeria has recorded 2,558 cases of coronavirus and 87 deaths.
(AP, 5/4/20)
2020 May 4, PM Erna Solberg said Norway will give $1 billion to support the distribution worldwide of any vaccine developed against COVID-19 as well as for vaccines against other diseases. The $1 billion will go to GAVI, the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization. Norway has financed GAVI since its inception in 2000.
(Reuters, 5/4/20)
2020 May 4, Portugal began to slowly ease its lockdown measures imposed to fight the coronavirus. A three-phase plan began to open up different sectors every 15 days, starting with hairdressers, small neighborhood shops, car dealerships and bookshops. Portugal has so far reported 25,525 cases of the coronavirus and 1,063 deaths.
(Reuters, 5/4/20)
2020 May 4, In Russia the number of cases rose by 10,581 over the past 24 hours compared with a record of 10,633 the previous day.
(Reuters, 5/4/20)
2020 May 4, Swiss environmental activists delivered a petition to a special session of the Swiss parliament demanding that a government aid package should promote a "green recovery" from the coronavirus crisis.
(Reuters, 5/4/20)
2020 May 4, In southern Syria unknown gunmen killed 9 policemen in the village of Muzayreeb, Daraa province, close to the border with Jordan.
(AP, 5/4/20)
2020 May 4, The UN migration agency said at least 78 migrants fleeing war-torn Libya for Europe remain stuck at sea without a designated port to dock.
(AP, 5/4/20)
2020 May 4, Venezuelan authorities arrested two US citizens among a group of “mercenaries," a day after a beach raid purportedly aimed at capturing the socialist leader that authorities say they foiled. They were identified as Luke Denman and Airan Berry, both former US special forces soldiers.
(AP, 5/4/20)
2021 May 4, President Joe Biden issued a proclamation on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons Awareness Day. He has promised to bolster resources to address the crisis and better consult with tribes to hold perpetrators accountable and keep communities safe.
(AP, 5/4/21)
2021 May 4, San Francisco advanced into the least restrictive tier of California's color-coded reopening system, allowing most businesses to expand capacity. Mayor London Breed said the changes will take effect under yellow-tier guidelines on May 6.
(SFC, 5/5/21, p.A1)
2021 May 4, In San Francisco two women were hospitalized after they were stabbed at a bus stop on Market Street in the latest attacks against Asian Americans nationwide since the start of the pandemic. Police soon arrested a 54-year-old man after they obtained an image of the suspect and recognized him from prior encounters.
(The Guardian, 5/6/21)
2021 May 4, California to date had 3,723,265 cases of coronavirus and 61,619 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 438,243 cases and 6,310 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 32,507,113 with the death toll at 578,319.
(sfist.com, 5/4/21)
2021 May 4, It was reported that former New York Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (77) has been released from a federal prison on furlough while he awaits potential placement to home confinement.
(AP, 5/4/21)
2021 May 4, In Tennessee a woman died when a tree fell on her home as storms moved through the large swaths of the southern US.
(SFC, 5/5/21, p.A5)
2021 May 4, HP, Microsoft and other businesses called for expanded voter access in Texas, and a group of Houston executives criticized Republican-backed voting bills in the state Legislature.
(NY Times, 5/4/21)
2021 May 4, The top international official in Bosnia warned that ethnic Serb leaders are making a concerted effort to split the country, or failing that to roll back many reforms achieved during the last 25 years, and he called for “a decisive stand" to stop any division.
(AP, 5/4/21)
2021 May 4, Two former British paratroopers accused of the 1972 murder of Joe McCann (24), an Official IRA leader in Belfast, were formally acquitted after the veterans’ trial collapsed. A judge ruled that evidence implicating the former soldiers was not admissible and prosecutors said they would not offer further evidence at the trial.
(AP, 5/4/21)
2021 May 4, Sotheby's said it would accept bitcoin and ethereum as payment for Banksy's iconic artwork "Love is in the Air", a first for a physical art auction and the latest sign of growing mainstream acceptance of cryptocurrencies.
(Reuters, 5/4/21)
2021 May 4, Britain and India signed an accord on migration and mobility, as they look to deepen economic, cultural and other ties following the UK's departure from the EU.
(Reuters, 5/4/21)
2021 May 4, Foreign ministers from the Group of Seven wealthy industrialized nations gathered in London - their first face-to-face meeting in more than two years - to grapple with threats to health, prosperity and democracy.
(AP, 5/4/21)
2021 May 4, Egypt confirmed that it is buying another 30 Rafale fighter jets from France, building up its fleet of the advanced warplane to 54, second only to the French air force.
(AP, 5/4/21)
2021 May 4, Eritrea’s Pres. Isaias Afwerki arrived in Khartoum for talks with Sudanese officials amid tensions over a longtime border dispute between Sudan and Ethiopia. He was received by Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, head of Sudan's ruling sovereign council.
(AP, 5/4/21)
2021 May 4, India's official count of coronavirus cases surpassed 20 million, nearly doubling in the past three months, while deaths officially have passed 220,000.
(AP, 5/4/21)
2021 May 4, India's government said 8 Asiatic lions at a zoo in Hyderabad have contracted the coronavirus, adding that there was no evidence that animals could transmit the disease to humans. The Nehru Zoological Park has now been closed.
(AP, 5/4/21)
2021 May 4, India said it will allow foreign mobile carriers to carry out 5G trials with equipment makers, but did not name China's Huawei among the participants.
(Reuters, 5/5/21)
2021 May 4, Iranian police started investigating the death of a Swiss diplomat who died after reportedly falling from a high rise in Tehran.
(AP, 5/4/21)
2021 May 4, Iran's semi-official Tasnim news agency reported that police arrested 16 men and women at a mixed-gender party in the northeastern province of Khorasan Razavi. The 16 were detained while they were dancing at a party. Such parties are illegal under Iranian law.
(AP, 5/4/21)
2021 May 4, Israel's PM Benjamin Netanyahu failed to form a new government by today's midnight deadline, putting his political future in jeopardy as he stands trial on corruption charges and prolonging a political deadlock that has only worsened after four elections in two years.
(NY Times, 5/5/21)
2021 May 4, Italy reported 305 coronavirus-related deaths against 256 the day before, while the daily tally of new infections rose to 9,116 from 5,948.
(AP, 5/4/21)
2021 May 4, Lebanon and Israel resumed indirect talks with US mediation over their disputed maritime border.
(AP, 5/4/21)
2021 May 4, In Morocco Halima Cissé of Mali (25) gave birth to nine babies - two more than doctors had detected during scans. A year later the five girls and four boys, born by Caesarean section, were doing well.
(BBC, 5/5/21)(BBC, 5/4/22)
2021 May 4, Nepal halted domestic flights due to spiking cases of the coronavirus. Int'l. flights would cease on May 6.
(SFC, 5/4/21, p.A4)
2021 May 4, A Dutch court convicted five teens for their involvement in the fatal beating last year of a 73-year-old man in what they described as a “pedophile hunt." The youths were given sentences ranging from six months to a year in juvenile detention.
(AP, 5/4/21)
2021 May 4, A 30-year-old Norwegian woman who was repatriated by Norway from a refugee camp in Syria because her son was sick was sentenced to 3 1/2 years in prison by an Oslo court for participating in the Islamic State group.
(AP, 5/4/21)
2021 May 4, In Qatar Malcolm Bidali, a Kenyan security guard, was arrested and faced charges after writing compelling, anonymous accounts of being a low-paid worker there. He found himself targeted by a phishing attack that could have revealed his location just before his arrest.
(AP, 5/30/21)
2021 May 4, Mohammed Deif, the shadowy leader of the armed wing of the Islamic militant group Hamas, issued his first public statement in nearly seven years, warning Israel it will pay a “heavy price" if it evicts Palestinians from their homes in east Jerusalem.
(AP, 5/5/21)
2021 May 4, The Seychelles, which has fully vaccinated over 60% of its population against Covid-19, said it is bringing back restrictions amid a rise in cases.
(BBC, 5/5/21)
2021 May 4, Sicily said it will start offering COVID-19 vaccines to people over 50 to speed up its inoculation program which is being hampered by a reluctant older population who fear potentially severe side effects. Five people in Sicily have died after receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine.
(AP, 5/4/21)
2021 May 4, Madrid residents voted in droves for a new regional assembly in an election that tests the depths of resistance to virus lockdown measures and the divide between left-wing and right-wing parties.
(AP, 5/4/21)
2021 May 4, Thailand launched a campaign to vaccinate 50,000 people living in a crowded river-side district of the capital Bangkok, as the country tries to contain a third wave of coronavirus infections. Thailand reported 1,763 new coronavirus cases and 27 deaths, bringing the total to 72,788 cases and 303 fatalities since the pandemic began.
(Reuters, 5/4/21)
2022 May 4, US President Joe Biden approved a disaster declaration for parts of drought-parched New Mexico hit by wildfires and ordered federal aid be made available for recovery efforts.
(Reuters, 5/5/22)
2022 May 4, The White House announced a slate of measures to support quantum technology in the United States while laying out steps to boost cybersecurity to defend against the next generation of supercomputers.
(Reuters, 5/4/22)
2022 May 4, The US Federal Reserve said it would lift interest rates by half a percentage point, an increase that was widely expected, and that it plans to shrink its bond holdings.
(NY Times, 5/4/22)
2022 May 4, Officials said the Biden administration has begun expelling Cubans and Nicaraguans to Mexico under pandemic-related powers to deny migrants a chance to seek asylum, expanding use of the rule even as it publicly says it has been trying to unwind it.
(AP, 5/4/22)
2022 May 4, It was reported that the rate of plastic waste recycling in the United States fell to between 5%-6% in 2021 as some countries stopped accepting US waste exports and as plastic waste generation surged to new highs.
(Reuters, 5/4/22)
2022 May 4, Total US COVID-19 cases reached over 81,524,329 with the death toll at 994,809.
(sfist.com, 5/4/22)
2022 May 4, New York's attorney gen'l. announced that Intuit Inc. of Mt. View, Ca., will suspend Turbo Tax's "free, free, free" ad campaign and pay $141 million to customers across the US who were deceived by misleading promises of free tax-filing services.
(SFC, 5/5/22, p.C2)
2022 May 4, William Todd Wilson of North Carolina, a member of the far-right Oath Keepers militia, admitted to engaging in seditious conspiracy during last year's attack on the US Capitol, the latest in a string of courtroom victories for the Justice Department.
(Reuters, 5/4/22)
2022 May 4, Several tornados whipped through areas of Oklahoma and Texas. Significant damage was reported in Seminole, Oklahoma, but there were no reports of serious injuries.
(SFC, 5/6/22, p.A7)
2022 May 4, Rhode Island's highest court upheld a state law guaranteeing its citizens' right to abortion, just as abortion rights at the national level appear to be in jeopardy.
(Reuters, 5/4/22)
2022 May 4, The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) said COVID-19 cases in the Americas increased by 12.7% last week from the prior week, as infections continued to rise in Central and North America.
(Reuters, 5/4/22)
2022 May 4, Britain banned all service sector exports to Russia and imposed sanctions on 63 individuals and organizations, its latest wave of measures to increase pressure on Moscow to reverse course and pull back from Ukraine.
(Reuters, 5/4/22)
2022 May 4, Britain said Russia has deployed 22 battalion tactical groups near Ukraine's eastern city of Izium in an effort to advance along the northern axis of the Donbas region. British military intelligence said it was highly likely that Russia intended to move beyond Izium to capture the cities of Kramatorsk and Severodonetsk.
(Reuters, 5/4/22)
2022 May 4, China's central bank pledged monetary policy support to ensure ample liquidity, help businesses badly hit by the latest COVID-19 outbreak in the country and support a recovery in consumption.
(Reuters, 5/4/22)
2022 May 4, Beijing shut 60 metro stations and bus routes and extended COVID-19 curbs on many public venues, focusing efforts to avoid the fate of Shanghai, where millions have been under strict lockdown for more than a month.
(Reuters, 5/4/22)(SFC, 5/5/22, p.A4)
2022 May 4, The European Union took a major step toward weakening President Vladimir V. Putin’s ability to finance the war in Ukraine, proposing a total embargo on Russian oil, as Moscow demonstrated its destructive power with missile strikes in the west of the country and deadly attacks in the east.
(NY Times, 5/4/22)
2022 May 4, Guinea's attorney general ordered legal proceedings against ousted President Alpha Conde (84) and 26 of his former officials over violence surrounding Conde's disputed bid for a third term.
(Reuters, 5/4/22)
2022 May 4, India's central bank raised its main lending rate off record lows in a surprise move to contain rising inflation, shocking markets and pushing the benchmark 10-year bond yield to its highest levels in three years.
(Reuters, 5/4/22)
2022 May 4, Indian police arrested an officer accused of raping a girl (13) in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh after she went to him to report her gang rape, an incident that sparked outrage in a country notorious for assaults on women. The head of a rural police station in Lalitpur, a district about 580 km (360 miles) south of New Delhi, was among four people arrested.
(Reuters, 5/5/22)
2022 May 4, Israel's Supreme Court rejected a petition against the eviction of more than 1,000 Palestinian inhabitants of a rural part of the occupied West Bank in an area which Israel has designated for military exercises.
(Reuters, 5/5/22)
2022 May 4, An Italian parliamentary panel opened an investigation into "disinformation" on television amid a heated debate over the frequent appearance of Russian guests on the country's news programs during the war in Ukraine.
(Reuters, 5/5/22)
2022 May 4, State media reported that North Korea's office workers and factory laborers have been dispatched to farming areas around the country to join a fight against drought, amid concerns over prolonged food shortages.
(Reuters, 5/4/22)
2022 May 4, North Korea fired a ballistic missile toward the sea off its east coast, its 14th known weapons test.
(Reuters, 5/4/22)
2022 May 4, It was reported that that coronavirus cases are surging in Puerto Rico. New cases started climbing on March 15, five days after Gov. Pedro Pierluisi lifted COVID-19 restrictions.
(SFC, 5/4/22, p.A4)
2022 May 4, Russia's foreign ministry announced sanctions against 63 Japanese officials, journalists and professors for engaging in what it called "unacceptable rhetoric" against Moscow.
(Reuters, 5/4/22)
2022 May 4, Ukraine's defense ministry said that Russia was attempting to increase the tempo of its offensive in the east of the country. The mayor of Mariupol said there was heavy fighting at the Azovstal steel works where the city's last defenders and some civilians are holding out. More than 30 children were among those awaiting evacuation from the plant.
(Reuters, 5/4/22)
2022 May 4, The United Nations said that the number of people without enough to eat on a daily basis reached all-time high last year and is poised to hit “appalling" new levels as the Ukraine war affects global food production.
(Reuters, 5/4/22)
2022 May 4, Pope Francis and Japan's PM Fumio Kishida met and discussed their common hope for a world free of nuclear weapons.
(Reuters, 5/4/22)
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