Today in History - July 8
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810 Jul 8, Pepin, son of Charlemagne and King of Italy, died.
(MC, 7/8/02)
1099 Jul 8, In Jerusalem 15,000 starving Christian soldiers marched around barefoot while the Muslim defenders mocked them from the battlements.
(HN, 5/23/99)
1497 Jul 8, Vasco da Gama, Portuguese explorer, departed on a trip to India. He sailed from Lisbon enroute to Calicut, India. His journey took him around South Africa and opened the Far East to European trade and colonial expansion.
(V.D.-H.K.p.143)(WUD, 1994, p.1672)(www.indhistory.com/vasco-da-gama.html)
1538 Jul 8, Diego de Almagro (63), Spanish conquistador (Chile and Peru), died.
(MC, 7/8/02)
1545 Jul 8, Don Carlos, son of Spanish king Philip II (protagonist in Schiller's drama; hero in Verdi opera), was born.
(MC, 7/8/02)
1549 Jul 8, Kett's Rebellion began in Norfolk, England, during the reign of Edward VI, largely in response to the enclosure of land. It started at Wymondham when a group of rebels destroyed fences that had been put up by wealthy landowners. One of their targets was yeoman farmer Robert Kett who, instead of resisting the rebels, agreed to their demands and offered to lead them.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kett%27s_Rebellion)
1621 Jul 8, Jean La Fontaine, poet and author of Fables, was born.
(HN, 7/8/98)
1686 Jul 8, The Austrians took Budapest, Hungary, from the Turks and annexed the country.
(HN, 7/8/01)
1695 Jul 8, Christian Huygens (66), Dutch inventor, astronomer, died. He generally wrote his name as Christiaan Hugens, and it is also sometimes written as Huyghens. In his book “Cosmotheros," published in 1698, he speculated on life on other planets.
(http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bl_huygens.htm)
1709 Jul 8, Peter the Great defeated Charles XII at Poltava, in the Ukraine, effectively ending the Swedish empire. [N.S. see June 28].
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Poltava)
1730 Jul 8, A magnitude 8.7 earthquake in Valparasio, Chile, killed at least 3,000 people.
(AP, 2/27/10)
1740 Jul 8, Pierre Vigne (b.1670), Frenchman, died. He founded the Congregation of Sisters of the Most Holy Sacrament. In 2004 he was beatified by Pope John Paul VI.
(AP, 10/3/04)(www.catholic-forum.com)
1755 Jul 8, Britain broke off diplomatic relations with France as their disputes in the New World intensified.
(HN, 7/8/98)
1758 Jul 8, During the French and Indian War a British attack on Fort Carillon at Ticonderoga, New York, was foiled by the French. Some 3,500 Frenchmen defeated the British army of 15,000, which lost 2,000 men.
(HN, 7/8/98)(AH, 10/02, p.27)
1776 Jul 8, Col. John Nixon gave the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence to a crowd gathered at Independence Square in Philadelphia. The reading was announced by the "Liberty Bell." The bell had the inscription: "proclaim liberty throughout all the land onto all the inhabitants thereof."
(AP, 7/8/97)(SFEC, 8/16/98, p.T5)
1777 Jul 8, Vermont became the 1st American colony to abolish slavery.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Vermont)
1778 Jul 8, George Washington headquartered his Continental Army at West Point.
(MC, 7/8/02)
1794 Jul 8, French troops captured Brussels, Belgium.
(HN, 7/8/98)
1800 Jul 8, Dr. Benjamin Waterhouse gave the 1st cowpox vaccination to his son to prevent smallpox. [see May 14, 1796]
(MC, 7/8/02)
1802 Jul 8, Gen. Toussaint L'Ouverture of Saint-Domingue (later Haiti) was sent to France in chains.
(AP, 4/7/03)(ON, 2/10, p.9)
1803 Jul 8, Frederick Augustus Hervey (b.1730), the 4th Earl of Bristol and Bishop of Derry, died. He had toured Europe with his own cook and entourage and inspired a number of hotels to take on the Bristol name.
(WSJ, 9/27/08, p.A1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Hervey,_4th_Earl_of_Bristol)
1815 Jul 8, With Napoleon defeated, Louis XVIII returned to Paris.
(HN, 7/8/98)
1822 Jul 8, Percy Bysshe Shelley (b.1792), English poet, drowned while sailing in Italy at age 29.
(HN, 7/8/01)
1826 Jul 8, Luther Martin (b.1748), Maryland lawyer and former delegate to the Constitutional Convention, died in NYC. In 2008 Bill Kaufman authored “Forgotten Founder, Drunken Prophet: The Life of Luther Martin."
(WSJ, 9/20/08, p.A21)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luther_Martin)
1835 Jul 8, The US Liberty Bell in Philadelphia cracked while being tolled for Chief Justice John Marshall. It was never rung again.
(HFA, ‘96, p.34)(HN, 7/6/98)(WSJ, 12/10/96, p.A20)
1838 Jul 8, Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin (d.1917), German designer and manufacturer of airships, was born.
(HN, 7/8/98)(WUD, 1994, p.1660)
1839 Jul 8, John D. Rockefeller (d.1937), financier, philanthropist, founder of Standard Oil, was born on a farm in Richford, New York. He moved into the refining end of the oil business and gobbled up competitors. The 1890 Sherman Anti-Trust Act forced the breakup of his Standard Oil Co. Ron Chernow later published "Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller." His philanthropy totaled over $500 million and included the founding of the Univ. of Chicago and the Rockefeller Inst. For medical Research, later Rockefeller Univ.
(HN, 7/8/98)(WSJ, 1/11/98, p.R18)(AP, 7/8/99)
1851 Jul 8, Sir Arthur John Evans, English archaeologist who excavated Knossos, Crete, was born.
(MC, 7/8/02)
1853 Jul 8, An expedition led by Commodore Matthew Perry arrived in Edo Bay, Uraga, Japan, on a mission to seek diplomatic and trade relations with the Japanese. Perry sailed his flagship USS Susquehanna into Edo Bay. He soon forced Japan to open its ports with his big gunboats, the steam-powered “Black Ships."
(AP, 7/8/97)(SFEC, 1/25/98, Z1 p.2)(ON, 11/04, p.9)
1859 Jul 8, With the signing of the truce at Villafranca Austria ceded Lombardy to France. France also received Nice and Savoy.
(HN, 7/8/99)
1862 Jul 8, Odore R. Timby patented a revolving gun turret.
(MC, 7/8/02)
1863 Jul 8, Discouraged by the surrender of Vicksburg, Mississippi, Confederates in Port Hudson, Louisiana, surrendered to Union forces.
(HN, 7/8/98)
1864 Jul 8, Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston retreated into Atlanta to prevent being flanked by Union General William T. Sherman.
(HN, 7/8/98)
1865 Jul 8, C.E. Barnes of Lowell, MA, patented the machine gun.
(MC, 7/8/02)
1869 Jul 8, William Vaughan Moody, poet and playwright (The Great Divide), was born.
(HN, 7/8/01)
1876 Jul 8, White terrorists attacked Black Republicans in Hamburg, SC, and killed 5.
(MC, 7/8/02)
1879 Jul 8, The first ship to use electric lights departed from San Francisco, California.
(HN, 7/8/98)
1879 Jul 8, The steamship USS Jeannette under Lt. George W. De Long departed San Francisco on an expedition to reach the North Pole. [see June 12, 1881]
(ON, 2/05, p.1)
1881 Jul 8, Edward Berner of Two Rivers, Wisconsin, created the Sundae.
(MC, 7/8/02)
1882 Jul 8, Percy Grainger, composer, pianist, conductor (Hill Songs), was born in Melbourne.
(MC, 7/8/02)
1889 Jul 8, In Mississippi Jake Kilrain (1859-1937) fought boxing champion John L. Sullivan in the last world heavyweight championship prizefight decided with bare knuckles under London Prize Ring rules in history. Sullivan defeated Kilrain in a match that went to 75 rounds.
(AH, 2/06, p.29)(http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Sullivan_-_Kilrain_Fight)
1889 Jul 8, Dow Jones & Co. turned its “Customer’s Afternoon Letter" into a full-fledged newspaper and co-founder Charles Bergstresser dubbed it the Wall Street Journal.
(AP, 7/8/97)(WSJ, 5/2/07, p.C1)
1889 Jun 8, Gerard Manley Hopkins (54), poet, died.
(MC, 6/8/02)
1891 Jul 8, Warren G. Harding married Florence K. DeWolfe in Marion, Ohio.
(AP, 7/8/97)
1896 Jun 8, William Jennings Bryan propelled himself to presidential candidacy when he stood before the Democratic Convention and made his famous “Cross of Gold" speech. The paramount issue in the 1896 presidential election was one of economics—the U.S. government promised to pay the holder of one dollar bill one dollar in gold. Democrats, farmers and westerners demanded that the government redeem paper money in silver as well, while Republicans and easterners protested that this policy would destroy the economy. It was on this dull, technical issue that 36-year-old William Jennings Bryan, a former congressman from Nebraska, launched his national political career. When he made his “Cross of Gold" speech, the Democrats had no strong presidential candidate. His dramatic words—“You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns; you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold!"—electrified his audience and resulted in his nomination for president in 1896. [see Jul 9]
(HNQ, 6/8/98)(MC, 7/8/02)
1898 Jul 8, Alec Waugh (d.1981), novelist (Island in the Sun); brother of Evelyn, was born in London. "If we knew where opinion ended and fact began, we should have discovered, I suppose, the absolute."
(AP, 2/9/00)(MC, 7/8/02)
1898 Jul 8, US battle fleet under Adm. Dewey occupied Isla Grande at Manila.
(MC, 7/8/02)
1905 Jul 8, The mutinous crew of the battleship Potemkin surrendered to Rumanian authorities.
(HN, 7/8/98)
1906 Jul 8, Philip C. Johnson, architect, was born.
(HN, 7/8/01)
1907 Jul 8, SF Mayor Eugene Schmitz was sentenced to 5 years in San Quentin for graft and bribery, but the conviction was later overturned. Others were forced out of office for accepting bribes from the telephone company, gas company, trolley company, local skating rinks and boxing promoters. Dr. Charles A. Boxton (d.1927) admitted to taking bribes and was granted immunity by District Attorney W.H. Langdon for his testimony. Boxton was then appointed temporary mayor for one week in place of Mayor Schmitz and then resigned. The Native Sons of California promptly struck Boxton from their rolls. Schmitz was later elected to the SF Board of Supervisors. One of the bribes was a $200,000 payment to the SF supervisors from Patrick Henry Calhoun, president of the United Railroads, which operated nearly all of the city’s public transit lines.
(SFC, 9/9/96, p.E8)(SFC, 9/30/99, p.E5)(SFEC, 12/26/99, p.W3)(SSFC, 4/15/07, p.B5)
1907 Jul 8, George W. Romney, later governor of Michigan, was born into a Mormon family in Chihuahua, Mexico. He later was a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination until he admitted that he had been "brainwashed" by the military on the Vietnam War.
(HN, 7/8/98)(SSFC, 2/25/07, p.A4)(SSFC, 2/25/07, p.A4)
1907 Jul 8, Florenz Ziegfeld staged his first "Follies" on the roof of the New York Theater in New York City.
(AP, 7/8/97)
1908 Jul 8, Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller, businessman and philanthropist, was born in Bar Harbor, Maine. The liberal Republican served as governor of New York and then as vice president of the United States under Pres. Gerald Ford (1974-77).
(AP, 7/8/08)
1915 Jul 8, Charles Hard Townes, physicist (developed lasers), was born in Greenville, SC.
(MC, 7/8/02)
1918 Jul 8, Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961), Nobel Prize winning writer, was wounded in Italy while working as an ambulance driver for the American Red Cross. He was later awarded the Italian Silver Medal of Military Valor. Hemingway enlisted in a Red Cross ambulance unit in 1917 during World War I. He was commissioned a second lieutenant and served on the Italian front. After WWI he reported from the battlefields of the Spanish Civil War for American newspapers. His book "Farewell to Arms" was based on his experiences in WWI.
(HNQ, 7/28/99)(HN, 7/8/01)
1919 Jul 8, President Wilson received a tumultuous welcome in New York City after his return from the Versailles Peace Conference in France.
(AP, 7/8/97)
1921 Jul 8, Great Britain and Ireland agreed to end hostilities after centuries of strife. In December British and Irish representatives signed a treaty in London providing for creation of an Irish Free State a year later on the same date. Southern Ireland was granted independence and 6 counties in Northern Ireland remained part of the UK.
(SFC, 10/14/99, p.C5)(AP, 12/6/06)
1926 Jul 8, Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, author, physician, educator, was born.
(MC, 7/8/02)
1932 Jul 8, The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 41.22, with an intra-day low of 40.56, its lowest point during the Great Depression.
(WSJ, 11/22/08, p.B1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dow_Jones_Industrial_Average)
1937 Jul 8, In San Francisco a 3-month hotel strike continued as union members demonstrated in front of the Hotel Manx on Powell St. Owner Harvey M. Toy protested with a telegram to Mayor Rossi.
(SSFC, 7/8/12, p.42)
1939 Jul 8, Henry Havelock Ellis (80), English sexologist (Man & Woman), died.
(MC, 7/8/02)
1941 Jul 8, Twenty B-17s flew in their first mission with the Royal Air Force over Wilhelmshaven, Germany.
(HN, 7/8/98)
1941 Jul 8, All Jews living in Baltic States were obligated to wear Star of David.
(MC, 7/8/02)
1943 Jul 8, Faye Wattleton, women's rights advocate, was born.
(HN, 7/8/98)
1943 Jul 8, American B-24 bombers struck Japanese-held Wake Island for the first time. An obscure U.S. Navy fighter did yeoman duty when times were toughest early in World War II.
(HN, 7/8/98)
1943 Jul 8, US invasion fleet passed Bizerta, Tunisia.
(MC, 7/8/02)
1943 Jul 8, The 4th day of battle at Kursk: Gen Model used his last tank reserve.
(MC, 7/8/02)
1943 Jul 8, Jean "Max" Moulin (b. Jun 20, 1899), French resistance fighter, was executed.
(www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/moulin_jean.shtml)
1944 Jul 8, Japanese kamikaze attacked US lines at Saipan.
(MC, 7/8/02)
1946 Jul 8, Aleksander V. Aleksandrov (63), Russian composer, conductor, died.
(MC, 7/8/02)
1947 Jul 8, The American League defeated the National League, 2-1, in the All-Star game played at Chicago's Wrigley Field.
(AP, 7/8/97)
1947 Jul 8, Demolition work began in New York City to make way for the new permanent headquarters of the United Nations.
(AP, 7/8/97)
1947 Jul 8, In New Mexico the Roswell Daily Record reported the military’s capture of a flying saucer. It became know as the Roswell Incident. Officials later called the debris a "harmless, high-altitude weather balloon. In 1994 the Air Force released a report saying the wreckage was part of a device used to spy on the Soviets.
(SFC, 6/23/96, p.T4)(USAT, 6/28/96, p.7D)
1948 Jul 8, The 500th anniversary of the Russian orthodox church was celebrated in Moscow.
(MC, 7/8/02)
1949 Jul 8, Vietta M. Bates became the first enlisted woman sworn into the U.S. Army when legislation was passed making the Women's Auxiliary Army Corps part of the regular Army.
(HN, 7/8/98)
1950 Jul 8, President Harry Truman named US Gen. Douglas MacArthur as commander-in-chief of United Nations forces assisting the South Koreans.
(WSJ, 6/24/96, C1)(AP, 7/8/97)(HN, 7/8/99)
1953 Jul 8, Anna Quindlen, novelist, was born.
(HN, 7/8/01)
1953 Jul 8, Neill Sheridan (31), a baseball player for the Pacific Coast League Sacramento Solons, hit a home run against the SF Seals at Sacramento’s Edmond’s Field. The ball reportedly flew a record 613.8 feet.
(SSFC, 1/26/14, p.B1)
1954 Jul 8, The raft Lehi with 5 amateur sailors was towed out of SF Bay to attempt a 2,200 drifting voyage to Hawaii. Mormon elder DeVere Baker (38) led the expedition. The freighter Metapan rescued the crew on July 14.
(SFC, 7/9/04, p.F5)
1954 Jul 8, Carlos Castillo Armas of Guatemala became president. He was assassinated in 1957.
(WUD, 1994, p.1685)
1957 Jul 8, Irish premier Eamon de Valera arrested Sinn-Fein leaders.
(MC, 7/8/02)
1957 Jul 8, William Cadbury (89), chocolate maker, died.
(MC, 7/8/02)
1958 Jul 8, President Eisenhower began a visit to Canada, where he conferred with Prime Minister John Diefenbaker and addressed the Canadian Parliament.
(AP, 7/8/08)
1960 Jul 8, The Soviet Union charged Francis Gary Powers, whose U-2 spy plane was shot down over the country, with espionage.
(HN, 7/8/98)
1961 Jul 8, John Profumo, Britain’s Secretary of State for War, met Christine Keeler, at a party at Cliveden. Profumo kept in contact with Keeler and they eventually began an affair.
(http://spartacus-educational.com/PRprofumo.htm)
1963 Jul 8, Reports were made of Charlie Finley's intention to move KC A's baseball team to Oakland.
(MC, 7/8/02)
1963 Jul 8, US banned all monetary transactions with Cuba.
(MC, 7/8/02)
1966 Jul 8, A US airline strike began and lasted until Aug 19th.
(MC, 7/8/02)
1968 Jul 8, Golda Meir resigned from her post as secretary of the Labor Party.
(www.jafi.org.il/education/jafi75/timeline5i.html)
1971 Jul 8, In Northern Ireland the British army used lead bullets for the first time. Seamus Cusack (28) and Desmond Beattie (19) were killed.
(http://tinyurl.com/ya9evj75)(Econ, 3/25/17, p.82)
1972 Jul 8, The US signed an agreement to sell grain to USSR for $750 million. Soviet grain buyers over 6 weeks purchased the US grain. This was later called the "great grain robbery" and the privately-held agribusiness giant Cargill played a major role. The story of Cargill was told in the 1998 book "Cargill Going Global" by Wayne Broehl Jr.
(http://tinyurl.com/5qvx8c)(PC, 1992, p.1040)
1972 Jul 8, In Illinois Julie Ann Hanson (15) was reported missing after last being seen riding her brother's bicycle away from her home to go to a baseball game. Her body was discovered the following day in a field in Naperville. She had been stabbed 36 times and sexually assaulted. In 2021 DNA evidence and genetic genealogy led to the arrest of Barry Lee Whelpley (76) of Mounds View, Minn.
(Fox News, 6/4/21)
1974 Jul 8, Trudeau's Liberal Party won Canadian parliamentary election.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_federal_election,_1974)
1975 Jul 8, President Ford announced he would seek the Republican nomination for the presidency in 1976.
(AP, 7/8/97)
1975 Jul 8, An earthquake struck Pagan (Bagan), Burma, and destroyed many monuments.
(Econ, 2/28/04, p.42)(www.myanmars.net/travel/bagan.htm)
1975 Jul 8, Israeli premier Yitzhak Rabin began a 4-day visit to West-Germany.
(http://tinyurl.com/4c5zyo)
1976 Jul 8, A volcano erupted on Guadeloupe and frightened the capital, Basse-Terre. A phreatic eruption of the Soufriere volcano cracked open the summit dome
(www.ipgp.jussieu.fr/~beaudu/soufriere/smithsonian76.html#sean_0109)
1982 Jul 8, In Dujail, Iraq, 17 Islamic militants, furious over the execution of a Shiite leader, opened fire on a presidential convoy and killed several people, but Saddam Hussein escaped. In retaliation 247,000 acres of orchards and palm groves, the town's primary source of income, were destroyed in retribution. 386 people were locked up until 1986. Some 900 people were taken away and about 380 were killed.
(AP, 5/28/03)(SFC, 3/8/05, p.A10)
1986 Jul 8, Kurt Waldheim was inaugurated as president of Austria despite controversy over his alleged ties to Nazi war crimes. He was barred from entering the US due to his services as an officer in a German army unit implicated in war crimes in the Balkans. Waldheim served to 1992.
(SFC, 2/17/96, p.A14)(AP, 7/8/97)
1986 Jul 8, Admiral Hyman G. Rickover (86), widely regarded as "father of the nuclear navy," died in Arlington, Va.
(AP, 7/8/06)
1987 Jul 8, Lt. Col. Oliver North became a daytime TV star as the Iran-Contra hearings were televised throughout the US. Under questioning by committee counsel John Nields, North said the issue of his security system was first broached immediately after a threat by Abu Nidal.
(http://www.talkleft.com/new_archives/000742.html)
1987 Jul 8, Kitty Dukakis, wife of Massachusetts governor and Democratic presidential candidate Michael S. Dukakis, revealed she'd been addicted to amphetamines for 26 years but had sought help and was drug-free. She later admitted to dependence on alcohol, and entered a recovery program.
(AP, 7/8/97)
1987 Jul 8, Kiwanis Clubs voted to admit women and ended its men-only tradition.
(www.tcfn.org/kiwanistci/about.html)
1988 Jul 8, Iran's parliamentary speaker, Hashemi Rafsanjani, said his nation would not seek revenge against the United States for shooting down an Iranian jetliner over the Persian Gulf, killing 290 people.
(AP, 7/8/98)
1989 Jul 8, Carlos Saul Menem was inaugurated as president of Argentina in the country's first transfer of power from one democratically elected civilian leader to another in six decades.
(AP, 7/8/99)
1990 Jul 8, Sweden’s Stefan Edberg beat Boris Becker of West Germany to capture his second men’s tennis championship at Wimbledon.
(AP, 7/8/00)
1990 Jul 8, West Germany won the World Cup soccer championship by defeating Argentina, 1-to-0.
(AP, 7/8/00)
1991 Jul 8, Reversing earlier denials, Iraq disclosed for the first time that it was carrying out a nuclear weapons program, including the production of enriched uranium.
(AP, 7/8/01)
1992 Jul 8, Russian President Boris Yeltsin met with Group of Seven leaders holding their economic summit in Munich, Germany, where he offered a startling proposal to swap factories, energy resources and other properties for Russian debt.
(AP, 7/8/97)
1993 Jul 8, A jury in Boise, Idaho, acquitted white separatist Randy Weaver and a co-defendant of slaying a federal marshal in a shootout at a remote mountain cabin.
(AP, 7/8/03)
1993 Jul 8, Leaders of the Group of Seven, in the second day of their Tokyo summit, warned against the dismembering of Bosnia, but backed away from a threat to use force.
(AP, 7/8/03)
1993 Jul 8, In Latvia Guntis Ulmanis was sworn in as president.
(BN, 10/97, p.3)
1994 Jul 8, O.J. Simpson was ordered to stand trial on charges of murdering his ex-wife, Nicole, and her friend, Ronald Goldman.
(AP, 7/8/99)
1994 Jul 8, The space shuttle "Columbia" blasted off on a two-week mission.
(AP, 7/8/99)
1994 Jul 8, Leaders of the Group of Seven nations opened their 20th annual economic summit in Italy. Silvio Berlusconi hosted the G-7 summit in Naples.
(SFC, 2/13/98, p.A12)(AP, 7/8/99)(Econ, 1/22/05, p.46)
1994 Jul 8, Kim Il Sung ("Great Leader"), North Korea's communist leader since 1948, died at age 82. His son Kim Jong Il ("The Dear Leader") succeeded him.
(AP, 7/8/97)(WSJ, 6/26/97, p.A14)
1995 Jul 8, Steffi Graf won the women’s singles title at Wimbledon, defeating Arantxa Sanchez Vicario.
(AP, 7/8/00)
1995 Jul 8, Chinese-American human rights activist Harry Wu, detained on June 19, was arrested in China and charged with obtaining state secrets. He was later convicted of espionage and deported.
(AP, 7/8/00)
1995 Jul 8, A deadly heat wave began in the midsection of the US. It claimed more than 800 lives, more than half of them in Illinois.
(AP, 7/8/00)
1995 Jul 8, In Bosnia shelling resumed and the Dutch abandoned 3 posts under direct fire. 30 Dutch troops were taken by the Serbs to Bratunac.
(SFC, 6/4/96, p.A12)
1996 Jul 8, The Shuttle Columbia landed after a record flight of 16 days, 21 hours, 48 minutes and 30 sec.
(SFC, 7/8/96, p.A2)
1996 Jul 8, Hurricane Bertha slammed into the US Virgin Islands with torrential rains and winds that gusted to 105 mph.
(WSJ, 7/9/96, p.A1)(AP, 7/8/97)
1996 Jul 8, A 1975 JetRanger Bell Helicopter crashed in Salem, Ohio and killed all 5 people onboard.
(SFC, 7/9/96, p.A3)
1996 Jul 8, In Niger the military ruler suspended the Independent National electoral commission after early results showed him losing.
(WSJ, 7/9/96, p.A1)(WSJ, 1/2/98, p.8)
1996 Jul 8, In Northern Ireland Michael McGoldrick Jr. (31), a taxi driver, was abducted and fatally shot, two days after graduating from a Belfast university. He was the first victim of the Loyalist Volunteer Force, an outlawed Protestant gang that opposed Northern Ireland's peace process.
(AP, 4/5/06)
1997 Jul 8, The Senate Governmental Affairs Committee opened politically charged hearings into fund-raising abuses, with chairman Fred Thompson accusing China of trying to influence the 1996 U.S. elections.
(AP, 7/8/98)
1997 Jul 8, The Mayo Clinic and the government warned the diet-drug combination known as "fen-phen" could cause serious heart and lung damage. The drugs were withdrawn in September. In 2000 a federal judge approved a $3.75 billion national settlement of health claims due to use of the drugs.
(AP, 7/8/98)(SFC, 8/29/00, p.A4)
1997 Jul 8, Michelle Moore-Bosko (18) of Pittsburgh, who had recently moved to Norfolk, Va., and secretly married her longtime boyfriend, William Bosko, was found raped and killed. 4 sailors, who became known as the Norfolk Four, were later convicted for her rape and murder. In 2009 Danial Williams (37), Derek Tice (39) and Joseph Dick (33) were pardoned, culminating a four-year campaign for clemency based on the sailors' claims that they were coerced into falsely admitting their involvement, that the details they provided were wrong and that there was no physical evidence linking them to the crime. A fourth sailor, Eric Wilson (33), served more than eight years in prison and has been released. A fifth man, Omar Ballard, was also convicted in the crime, and was sentenced to 100 years in prison, 59 of which were suspended. He is the only man whose DNA matched that found at the scene. His confession stated that he committed the crime by himself.
(SFC, 8/7/09, p.A5)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Norfolk_Four)
1997 Jul 8, A US Army Black Hawk helicopter crashed at Fort Bragg, NC, and killed 8 soldiers.
(SFC, 7/9/97, p.A3)
1997 Jul 8, NATO issued formal membership invitations to Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary.
(SFC, 7/9/97, p.A1)(AP, 7/8/98)
1997 Jul 8, In Cambodia Interior Minister Ho Sok was seized and executed by forces loyal to Hun Sen. Some 30 soldiers loyal to Ranariddh were captured and tortured by Regiment 911 at Kambol
(SFC, 7/9/97, p.A6)(SFC, 7/21/97, p.A8)
1997 Jul 8, In Dagestan a bomb blew up on a bus carrying Russian border police and 9 officers were killed. Sporadic violence continued along with kidnappings.
(SFC, 7/9/97, p.A8)
1997 Jul 8, In India a bomb exploded on a passenger train in the Punjab at Bhatinda and killed 36 people and wounded 70.
(SFC, 7/9/97, p.A8)
1997 Jul 8, In Northern Ireland masked members of the IRA boarded, cleared and set fire to a Dublin to Belfast train.
(SFC, 7/9/97, p.A6)
1997 Jul 8, A report on Transnistria, between Moldova and the Ukraine, described it as a haven for arms smugglers, money launderers and outlaws on the lam.
(WSJ, 7/8/97, p.A1,8)
1998 Jul 8, Dow Corning agreed to settle a suit with women claiming injury from silicone breast implants for $3.2 billion. A federal bankruptcy judge tentatively approved a settlement under which an estimated 170,000 women, who said silicone breast implants had made them sick, would get $3.2 billion dollars from Dow Corning Corp.
(SFC, 7/9/98, p.A1)(AP, 7/8/99)
1998 Jul 8, The US and European countries demanded an immediate cease fire in Kosovo and called for a crackdown on the flow of funds to ethnic Albanian rebels.
(SFC, 7/9/98, p.A10)
1998 Jul 8, In Afghanistan the Taliban decreed that television was corrupting Afghan society and issued an edict that banned televisions, videocassette recorders, videos and satellite dishes.
(SFC, 7/9/98, p.A11)
1998 Jul 8, In Algeria Khalifi Athmani (24), a leading member of the Armed Islamic Group (GIA), was killed outside the capital. Athmani’s nom de guerre was Hossein Flicha and he was believed to have led the Sep. ‘97 killings at Beni Messous.
(SFC, 7/10/98, p.A18)
1998 Jul 8, China announced that it would broadcast its first live court trial on Jul 11.
(SFC, 7/9/98, p.A15)
1998 Jul 8, It was reported that elephant poaching had increased in Kenya.
(SFC, 7/9/98, p.A11)
1998 Jul 8, Thailand was expected to withdraw a plan to deport foreign workers and planned to announce proposals to widen work opportunities for migrant workers from Burma, Cambodia, Laos and Bangladesh.
(SFC, 7/9/98, p.A10)
1999 Jul 8, An Air Force cargo jet took off from Seattle on a dangerous mission to Antarctica to drop medicine for Dr. Jerri Nielsen, a physician at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Research Center who had discovered a lump in her breast. The mission was successful; Nielsen was evacuated the following October.
(AP, 7/8/00)
1999 Jul 8, Astronaut Charles "Pete" Conrad Junior, the third man to walk on the moon, died after a motorcycle accident near Ojai, California; he was 69.
(SFC, 7/9/99, p.A1)(AP, 7/8/00)
1999 Jul 8, In Columbia heavy fighting in Gutierrez between the government and FARC killed as many as 78 soldiers.
(SFC, 7/9/99, p.A14)(SFC, 7/10/99, p.A10)
1999 Jul 8, In Malaysia Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad unveiled phase one of Cyberjaya, a futuristic high-tech city expected to cost some $5.3 billion.
(SFC, 7/9/99, p.D2)
1999 Jul 8, In southern Nigeria activists claimed to have captured and shut down 61 oil wells operated by Shell Co. Shell workers were also ejected from wells in the states of Egbema East and Egbema West.
(SFC, 7/9/99, p.D5)
1999 Jul 8, It was reported that Palestinian water shortages were due Israeli diversions of 80% of West Bank aquifer water.
(SFC, 7/8/99, p.A10)
1999 Jul 8, In Yugoslavia some 4,000 protested against Pres. Milosevic in Prokupje.
(SFC, 7/9/99, p.A12)
2000 Jul 8, Venus Williams beat Lindsay Davenport 6-3, 7-6 (3) for her first Grand Slam title, becoming the first black women’s champion at Wimbledon since Althea Gibson in 1957-58.
(WSJ, 7/10/00, p.A1)(AP, 7/8/01)
2000 Jul 8, The Pentagon’s missile defense project suffered its latest setback when a rocket that had taken off from Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific failed to intercept a target missile launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
(AP, 7/8/01)
2000 Jul 8, F.M. Esfandiary, "chronic optimist," died at age 69. "There is no scarcity, there is only the psychology of scarcity." His written works included "Days of Sacrifice" and "Optimism One."
(SFC, 7/12/00, p.A17)
2000 Jul 8, In Germany over a million people gathered in Berlin for the techno music Love Parade at Tiergarten park.
(SFEC, 7/9/00, p.C11)
2000 Jul 8, In Iran a student march to mark a bloody rally one year ago turned violent as police charged thousands of students in Tehran.
(SFEC, 7/9/00, p.C11)
2000 Jul 8, In Japan a Typhoon Kirogi hit the eastern coast and left 3 people dead.
(SFEC, 7/9/00, p.C11)
2000 Jul 8, A bomb exploded at the Stewartstown Royal Ulster Constabulary station with no injuries. The Orange Order announced plans to bring the country to a halt the next day if they are not allowed to march down Garvaghy Road in Portadown.
(SFEC, 7/9/00, p.C12)
2000 Jul 8, In Russia Pres. Putin made his first state of the nation address and called for increased power to the central government to overcome a bleak diagnosis of the country’s ills.
(SFEC, 7/9/00, p.C11)
2001 Jul 8, Venus Williams won her second consecutive Wimbledon title by beating Belgian Justine Henin.
(AP, 7/8/02)
2001 Jul 8, In West Virginia Gov. Bob Wise declared a state of emergency due to flooding in 8 counties.
(SFC, 7/9/01, p.A4)
2001 Jul 8, Cable operator Comcast mounted a $41 billion hostile bid to merge with AT&T Broadband. Although AT&T spurned that offer, the company's board ultimately agreed to merge the cable unit with Comcast, subject to approval by federal regulators.
(AP, 7/8/02)
2001 Jul 8, In Brazil some 100 inmates escaped through a tunnel from Latin America’s largest prison in Sao Paulo. 35 were soon captured.
(WSJ, 7/10/01, p.A1)
2001 Jul 8, In England race rioting continued in Bradford with injured police rising to a total of 120.
(SFC, 7/9/01, p.A8)
2001 Jul 8, In Northern Ireland some 500 Orangemen marched at Drumcree and dispersed when confronted by police at Portadown.
(SFC, 7/9/01, p.A8)
2001 Jul 8, Israeli agents in Hebron abducted Ayoub Sharawi, a member of Hamas. In Gaza Palestinians and Israelis exchanged gunfire in Rafah.
(SFC, 7/9/01, p.A8)
2001 Jul 8, Israeli wrecking crews destroyed 14 Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem at the edge of the Shuafat refugee camp.
(SFC, 7/10/01, p.A7)
2001 Jul 8, In the Philippines police in General Santos City arrested Nadzmie Sabtulah, a high-ranking member of the Abu Sayyaf Muslim extremists.
(SFC, 7/9/01, p.A8)
2002 Jul 8, WorldCom and its former auditors clashed over responsibility for nearly 4 billion dollars in accounting improprieties, as WorldCom's former CEO and finance chief, Scott Sullivan, refused to testify to a House panel investigating the debacle.
(AP, 7/8/03)
2002 Jul 8, African leaders gathered in South Africa to form the new African Union and to bid farewell to the Organization of African Unity, a much-criticized regional body formed nearly four decades ago to usher the continent out of colonialism.
(AP, 7/8/02)
2002 Jul 8, In China a gas explosion at a coal mine killed 44 miners at the Dingsheng mine in northeastern Heilongjiang province.
(Reuters, 7/9/02)(SFC, 7/9/02, p.A10)
2002 Jul 8, Ralph Nader attended a dinner with Cuban leader Fidel Castro as the consumer advocate began a three-day visit to the communist nation.
(AP, 7/8/02)
2002 Jul 8, Cuban poet and writer Cintio Vitier was named winner of Mexico's Juan Rulfo Prize for literature.
(AP, 7/8/02)
2002 Jul 8, In the Ivory Coast local elections meant to close the door on years of turbulence ended with complaints by angry crowds that they were not allowed to vote.
(AP, 7/8/02)
2002 Jul 8, Typhoon Chata'an headed towards southern Japan after battering the Philippines, where officials said it had killed 17 people -- including three South Korean tourists who died when their boat capsized.
(Reuters, 7/8/02)
2002 Jul 8, In Nigeria unarmed women, from the Arutan and Igborodo communities occupied a Chevron-Texaco oil terminal, preventing 700 workers, including Americans, Britons, and Canadians, from leaving. Their number soon reached as many as 2,000.
(AP, 7/11/02)
2002 Jul 8, Peter Friedrich, Switzerland's ambassador to Luxembourg, was arrested on suspicion of money laundering.
(AP, 7/11/02)
2002 Jul 8, In southern Thailand a bomb tore through a parked passenger railway coach injuring a policeman and a security guard.
(Reuters, 7/8/02)
2002 Jul 8, In Turkey 3 ministers resigned in a growing push for early elections.
(WSJ, 7/9/02, p.A1)
2003 Jul 8, Pres. Bush met with Pres. Abdoulaye Wade in Senegal. Bush visited Senegal's notorious Goree Island, for several centuries a processing station for African slaves bound in chains for the Western Hemisphere.
(SFC, 7/7/03, p.A8)(AP, 7/8/03)
2003 Jul 8, In Meridian, Miss., Doug Williams (48), a white factory worker known as a racist who talked about murdering others opened fire with a shotgun and a rifle at a Lockheed Martin plant, killing four blacks and one white before committing suicide.
(AP, 7/8/03)(SFC, 7/9/03, p.A6)
2003 Jul 8, Joanie Harper (39), and her 3 children aged 2 months to 4 years, were shot and killed in Bakersfield, Ca. Husband Vincent E. Brothers (41), a Bakersfield teacher and administrator, was arrested and released, but remained a prime suspect. In 2007 Brothers was convicted and a jury said he deserved to die for the murders.
(SFC, 7/9/03, p.A13)(SFC, 7/11/03, p.A17)(SFC, 5/30/07, p.B4)
2003 Jul 8, Lewis Coser (89), leftist sociologist, died. His books included "American Communist Party: A Critical History (1919-1957)" (1958), and "Men of Ideas: A Sociologist's View" (1966).
(SSFC, 7/13/03, p.A27)
2003 Jul 8, In Bangladesh a ferry, with an estimated 750 passengers, sank at the confluence of the Padma, Meghna and Dakatia rivers about 40 miles south of the capital, Dhaka. Some 220 survivors were counted.
(AP, 7/9/03)
2003 Jul 8, In Burundi Hutu rebels fought their way into part of the capital, trading gun, mortar and grenade fire with the Tutsi-dominated army. Thousands fled their homes.
(AP, 7/8/03)
2003 Jul 8, Antonis Samarakis (84), Greek writer and children's rights activist, died. His books included the novel "Mistake" (1965).
(SFC, 8/11/03, p.A17)
2003 Jul 8, In Iraq Mizban Khadr Hadi (No. 23), a high-ranking member of the Baath Party regional command and Mahmud Diab al-Ahmed (No. 29), the former interior minister, were taken into custody. The capture of Al-Ahmed was reported in error. He surrendered Aug 8.
(AP, 7/9/03)(AP, 8/10/03)
2003 Jul 8, US military experts arrived in Liberia to assess the need for help in the local civil war.
(AP, 7/8/03)
2003 Jul 8, Nigeria's main trade unions accepted a government compromise on fuel prices and ended a crippling eight-day strike.
(AP, 7/8/03)
2003 Jul 8, Palestinian PM Mahmoud Abbas resigned from a top post in the Fatah movement.
(AP, 7/8/03)
2003 Jul 8, Ladan and Laleh Bijani (29), Iranian twin sisters, joined at the head, died within 90 minutes of each other as neurosurgeons in Singapore worked into a 3rd day to separate them.
(AP, 7/7/03)(AP, 7/8/03)
2003 Jul 8, A Sudanese airliner crashed minutes after its captain reported technical problems following takeoff, killing 116 people. The only survivor was a 2-year-old boy.
(AP, 7/8/03)
2003 Jul 8, In Switzerland a swerving car plowed through pedestrians on a downtown bridge in Lausanne. Two people were killed, including a woman pushing her child in a stroller.
(AP, 7/8/03)
2004 Jul 8, New Jersey became the 2nd state in the nation after New York to ban the use of handheld cell phones while driving.
(USAT, 6/29)
2004 Jul 8, John Rigas (79), founder of Adelphia Communications Corp. (1952), was convicted along with his son Timothy of looting the cable company to line their own pockets.
(SFC, 7/9/04, p.C1)(USAT, 7/9/04, p.1B)
2004 Jul 8, Kenneth Lay, former CEO of Enron Corp., was charged in Houston, Texas, with 11 counts of conspiracy and fraud.
(WSJ, 7/8/04, p.A1)(USAT, 7/9/04, p.1B)
2004 Jul 8, It was reported that a strain of syphilis has proved resistant to azithromycin.
(WSJ, 7/8/04, p.A1)
2004 Jul 8, Iranian troops killed two Turkish Kurdish rebels in clashes close to the Iraqi border, amid reports of a major offensive by Tehran on Ankara's behalf.
(AP, 7/10/04)
2004 Jul 8, In Iraq insurgents hit a military compound in Samarra with a car bomb and mortar fire. 5 US soldiers were killed and 20 wounded.
(SFC, 7/9/04, p.A14)
2004 Jul 8, Israeli troops killed 7 Palestinians in northern Gaza.
(WSJ, 7/9/04, p.A1)
2004 Jul 8, A Swedish appeals court threw out a life prison sentence for the convicted killer of Foreign Minister Anna Lindh, ruling that Mijailo Mijailovic should receive treatment for his "significant psychiatric problems."
(AP, 7/8/05)
2005 Jul 8, Australia granted fugitive former Chinese diplomat Chen Yonglin a permanent visa allowing him to stay in the country indefinitely.
(AFP, 7/8/05)
2005 Jul 8, In Austria an 89-nation UN conference approved broadening a treaty meant to keep nuclear material from the hands of terrorists, opening the way for states to ratify the agreement. The Convention of the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material originally obligated the 112 countries that have accepted it to protect nuclear material during international transport. The amended version expands such protection to materials at nuclear facilities, in domestic storage and during domestic transport or use.
(AP, 7/8/05)
2005 Jul 8, Jorge Alberto Uribe, Colombia's defense minister, resigned amid criticism over his handling of the country's counterinsurgency war and his alleged relationship with a jailed female drug trafficker.
(AP, 7/8/05)
2005 Jul 8, Police said that the bombs used in London's terrorist attacks held less than 10 pounds of explosives each.
(AP, 7/8/05)
2005 Jul 8, In China Exxon Mobil Corp., Saudi Aramco and top Asian refiner Sinopec signed a $3.5 billion deal to expand a refinery in south China, sealing what they called the country's largest oil project.
(Reuters, 7/8/05)
2005 Jul 8, Hurricane Dennis slammed Cuba, sweeping away coastal homes and sending waves crashing over Havana's seawall. At least 10 people were killed.
(AP, 7/9/05)
2005 Jul 8, Shares of Gas de France (GDF), a 20% stake in the state monopoly, began to trade following the plans of PM Dominique de Villepin. The IPO was expected to fetch up to $6 billion. A sale of shares in Electricite de France was set for October.
(Econ, 7/25/05, p.56)
2005 Jul 8, An Israeli security guard shot dead a Palestinian teenager during a protest against Israel's West Bank separation barrier.
(AP, 7/9/05)
2005 Jul 8, In Italy a judge convicted and sentenced to life in prison three members of the Red Brigades terrorist group for the 1999 killing of a government labor adviser, court officials said. A fourth was convicted and sentenced to nine years.
(AP, 7/8/05)
2005 Jul 8, In rural southeastern Mexico a series of explosions at a natural gas pipeline killed two people and set fire to houses, cars and cattle near Cunduacan.
(AP, 7/10/05)
2005 Jul 8, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's presidency was in tatters, her base of support eroding by the hour, as former backers abandoned the Philippine leader and added to calls for her resignation over an election scandal.
(AP, 7/8/05)
2005 Jul 8, In Scotland G8 world leaders concluded an economic summit shaken by terrorism, offering an "alternative to the hatred," a $50 billion aid package for Africa and up to $3 billion in additional support for the Palestinians. They pledged new joint efforts against terrorism in response to the deadly London bombings the day before.
(AP, 7/8/05)
2005 Jul 8, John Garang, the rebel leader in a two-decade civil war for southern autonomy, returned to Sudan's capital for the first time in 22 years to take up his new position as first vice president in the government he once fought.
(AP, 7/8/05)
2006 Jul 8, The US military charged 4 more US soldiers with rape and murder and a fifth with dereliction of duty in the alleged rape-slaying of a young Iraqi woman and the March killings of her relatives in Mahmoudiya.
(AP, 7/9/07)
2006 Jul 8, New Jersey Gov. Jon S. Corzine issued an executive order that ended a weeklong state government shutdown, bringing slot machine bells noisily to life as Atlantic City casinos reopened.
(AP, 7/8/06)
2006 Jul 8, Georgia police found the decomposed body of Carlnell Walker (23), a Morehouse student from Richmond, Ca., in the trunk of his car in Riverdale. On July 21, 2006, 3 men were arrested for his murder. In 2007 4 men were indicted for the murder.
(SFC, 7/12/06, p.B1)(SFC, 7/22/06, p.A1)(SFC, 3/23/07, p.A2)
2006 Jul 8, Discovery astronauts Piers Sellers and Michael Fossum went on a 7 1/2-hour spacewalk to test a repair technique for space shuttles.
(AP, 7/8/07)
2006 Jul 8, June Allyson (b.1917), chorus girl and film star, died in Ojai, Ca. her films included “The Glenn Miller Story" (1953).
(SFC, 7/11/06, p.B5)
2006 Jul 8, The Guggenheim Foundation announced it had commissioned American architect Frank Gehry to build a new branch of the Guggenheim modern and contemporary art museum in Abu Dhabi.
(AP, 7/8/06)
2006 Jul 8, Afghan and coalition forces pounded a Taliban stronghold in southern Afghanistan, killing five rebels and leaving an Afghan and three foreign soldiers wounded. An explosion attributed to a land mine in western Afghanistan killed a Peruvian solder and slightly wounded four Spanish troops.
(AFP, 7/8/06)(AP, 7/9/06)
2006 Jul 8, China launched a Web site, www.linese.com, offering free Chinese lessons and materials to promote the study and use of the language abroad.
(Reuters, 7/8/06)
2006 Jul 8, In central China a landslide at a construction site buried migrant workers sleeping in a tent, killing 11 of them.
(AP, 7/8/06)
2006 Jul 8, In Kinshasa, Congo, gunmen killed Mwamba Bapuwa (64), an independent journalist, a day after foreign donors called on the government to guarantee press freedoms ahead of historic elections this month. Bapuwa had recently criticized the government and survived a previous attack several months ago.
(Reuters, 7/8/06)
2006 Jul 8, Jose Ramos-Horta, Nobel peace laureate, was named East Timor's new prime minister.
(AP, 7/8/06)
2006 Jul 8, In Hungary several thousand labor union members demonstrated in Budapest against a government austerity package they say requires a disproportionate sacrifice from workers.
(AFP, 7/8/06)
2006 Jul 8, In northern India 15 people were killed and eight injured when the bus they were traveling in plunged into a gorge and fell into Bhagirathi river.
(AFP, 7/8/06)
2006 Jul 8, In Iraq 3 American soldiers were killed in fighting in the western province of Anbar. Gunmen in two cars stopped a vehicle in Baghdad's Dora neighborhood, forced the two passengers to get out and killed them in front of horrified bystanders. Gunmen killed three people working in an ice cream shop in the mostly Shiite Baghdad neighborhood of Nahrawan. Police also reported finding two bodies in separate locations in eastern Baghdad. At least 17 others died in a wave of bombings and mortar attacks against mostly Sunni mosques in the Baghdad area and northern Iraq. Iraqi and US authorities released 368 prisoners as they continue to whittle down the number of inmates.
(AP, 7/8/06)
2006 Jul 8, In Indian Kashmir a politician and four civilians died and at least 45 others were injured when suspected Islamic rebels hurled a grenade outside a Muslim shrine.
(AFP, 7/8/06)
2006 Jul 8, Leftist presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador urged his supporters to take to the streets, claiming the governing party stole his victory in Mexico's extremely narrow elections. Obrador called on a huge crowd of supporters to keep peacefully protesting as he goes to court to challenge what he called his fraudulent electoral defeat.
(AP, 7/8/06)(AP, 7/9/06)
2006 Jul 8, A Mexican federal judge threw out genocide charges against former President Luis Echeverria, ruling that a 30-year statute of limitations had run out.
(AP, 7/9/06)
2006 Jul 8, In western Mexico 4 children, who won an airplane ride for good grades at school, were killed along with the pilot when the small aircraft crashed near Tepic.
(AP, 7/12/06)
2006 Jul 8, The Hamas-led Palestinian government called for a cease-fire in its violent two-week standoff with Israel but stopped short of offering to release an Israeli soldier held by Hamas militants. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert rejected the proposal by Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh. Olmert will not agree to a truce until Hamas releases the soldier. Israeli tanks and troops clashed with militants in eastern Gaza.
(AP, 7/8/06)
2006 Jul 8, Poland's governing party accepted the resignation of PM Marcinkiewicz and recommended party chairman Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the president's twin brother, to replace him. A group with roots in Poland's anti-communist Solidarity trade union movement signed an unprecedented accord to join forces with the country's two main post-communist parties.
(AP, 7/8/06)
2006 Jul 8, Saudi officials said 7 suspected terrorists had escaped from a prison in Riyadh a few days earlier.
(AP, 7/8/06)
2006 Jul 8, The Islamic militiamen controlling the Somali capital broke up a wedding celebration because a band, the Mogadishu Stars, was playing and women and men were socializing together. Band members were flogged with electric cables.
(AP, 7/8/06)(Econ, 7/15/06, p.47)
2006 Jul 8, Pope Benedict XVI stressed family values during a visit to Spain, where church influence has waned and the government has angered the Vatican with its liberal take on issues including gay marriage.
(AP, 7/8/06)
2006 Jul 8, A Yemeni court acquitted 19 alleged al-Qaida members of charges they plotted to blow up a hotel frequented by Americans, citing a lack of evidence. The state prosecutor appealed the collective acquittal, and the defendants were returned to their cells at the intelligence services' jail where they have been held for more than two years. 14 Yemenis and 5 Saudis had been caught with guns and fake Iraqi passports.
(AP, 7/8/06)(WSJ, 8/14/06, p.A1)
2007 Jul 8, In Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell ordered a range of government services shutdown after last minute negotiations failed to break a budget stalemate. The shutdown took about 24,000 workers off the job. A budget deal was hammered out the following night.
(AP, 7/9/07)(SFC, 7/9/07, p.A3)(AP, 7/8/08)
2007 Jul 8, SF Bay Area police and FBI completed Operation Strikeout, a 3-day prostitution sweep that netted over 140 pimps, prostitutes and their customers. This included 50 prostitutes and 7 alleged johns arrested in SF.
(SFC, 7/17/07, p.D3)
2007 Jul 8, Boeing unveiled its first fully assembled 787 Dreamliner in Everett, Wash.
(SFC, 7/9/07, p.A4)
2007 Jul 8, In Oakland, Ca., Odell Roberson Jr., a transient drug addict, was found shot and killed. Police later determined that his killer used an AK-47 assault rifle linked to Your Black Muslim Bakery. In 2009 an indictment accused Yusuf Bey IV (23), the leader of the bakery, of murder for allegedly ordering the killing.
(SFC, 10/15/07, p.A1)(SFC, 4/30/09, p.A1)
2007 Jul 8, Roger Federer won his fifth straight Wimbledon tennis championship, beating Rafael Nadal 7-6 (7), 4-6, 7-6 (3), 2-6, 6-2.
(AP, 7/8/08)
2007 Jul 8, China’s state media said nearly 2,000 officials in central China's Hunan province have been caught breaking China's strict one-child policy. State media also said floods and landslides triggered by heavy rains have killed at least 26 people and left 17 missing in southwest Sichuan province in the last week.
(AP, 7/8/07)
2007 Jul 8, France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy said he will not offer mass pardons to prisoners on Bastille Day, keeping up his law-and-order reputation and breaking with tradition.
(AP, 7/8/07)
2007 Jul 8, In India at least four people drowned or were electrocuted over the weekend in the northwestern desert state of Rajasthan, bringing India's overall monsoon death toll to 177.
(AP, 7/9/07)
2007 Jul 8, Chandra Shekhar (b.1927), former Indian prime minister (1990), died from a blood-related illness. He served briefly during a period of political turmoil.
(AFP, 7/8/07)
2007 Jul 8, Iran’s state TV said 4 fuel-smuggling trucks crashed into each other and caught fire in southeastern Iran, killing 13 people.
(AP, 7/9/07)
2007 Jul 8, Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, who leads the group Islamic State in Iraq, said in an audiotape that his Sunni fighters have been preparing for four years to wage a battle against Shiite-dominated Iran. He threatened to wage war against Iran unless it stops supporting Shiites in Iraq within two months. A suicide truck bomber killed 23 new Iraqi army recruits when he rammed into their vehicle south of Baghdad. A flurry of bombings in Baghdad killed 26 people. American special operations forces in a raid captured 12 militants in Baghdad who had broken away from the Mahdi Army, and had carried out attacks on US and Iraqi troops.
(AP, 7/8/07)(Reuters, 7/8/07)(AP, 7/10/07)
2007 Jul 8, The Israeli Cabinet approved the release of 250 Palestinian prisoners, in the government's latest gesture of support for moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in his struggle against the Hamas militant group.
(AP, 7/8/07)
2007 Jul 8, Valdis Zatlers, a trauma surgeon with no prior political experience and widely publicized tax problems, was sworn in as Latvia's third president since the Baltic state gained independence in 1991.
(AP, 7/8/07)
2007 Jul 8, Libya invited international tenders for exploration of its onshore and offshore gas fields covering an area almost the size of Scotland.
(AP, 7/9/07)
2007 Jul 8, Two gunmen attacked a German couple photographing wildlife in Namibia, killing Johannes Fellinger (56), in front of his wife and taking her on a high-speed chase.
(AP, 7/10/07)
2007 Jul 8, In southern Nigeria a British toddler was released by gunmen and reunited with her parents, who said she was fine but hungry and covered in mosquito bites.
(AP, 7/8/07)
2007 Jul 8, Pakistan's army tried to blast through the wall of a besieged radical Islamic seminary to help free hostages held by a cleric and his militant supporters, leaving one commando dead.
(AP, 7/8/07)
2007 Jul 8, In the Philippines 2 small planes collided in the air and crashed in a rice field north of Manila, killing two Indian citizens and a Filipino flight instructor.
(AP, 7/8/07)
2007 Jul 8, Russia’s top security agency said it has declassified documents on millions of victims of Soviet-era repression (1920-1950), allowing relatives to request information about those who were executed or died of disease and starvation in prison.
(AP, 7/8/07)
2007 Jul 8, Spain's largest fighting bulls lived up to their fearsome reputation, goring two and crushing at least seven people as thousands of daredevils sprinted down narrow streets Sunday in Pamplona's annual running of the bulls.
(AP, 7/8/07)
2007 Jul 8, Zimbabwe’s official media said police have arrested 16 more business leaders in a crackdown on those suspected of violating the government's order to slash prices by 50%.
(AP, 7/8/07)
2008 Jul 8, A report from a US Senate Homeland Security investigations subcommittee said sellers of medical supplies collected as much as $93 million in fraudulent Medicare claims based on prescriptions from doctors who were actually dead.
(SFC, 7/9/08, p.A6)
2008 Jul 8, Boeing announced a deal with SkyHook Int’l., a private Canadian firm, to develop a heavy lift rotorcraft capable of carrying 4o tons.
(Econ, 7/12/08, p.76)
2008 Jul 8, In California the Butte Lightning Complex Fire destroyed 41 homes overnight in and around Paradise. The next day 10,000 people were evacuated from the area.
(SFC, 7/10/08, p.A1)
2008 Jul 8, T. Boone Pickens, energy baron, announced his “Pickens Plan" for installing wind turbines in parts of four Texas Panhandle counties. The plans were scrapped in 2009 due to lack of transmission lines.
(AP, 7/7/09)
2008 Jul 8, John Templeton (b.1912), legendary mutual fund manager, died in Nassau. His Templeton Growth Fund in 1954 was among the first to invest in companies outside the US. In 1972 he started the Templeton Prize, which made its first award to Mother Teresa in 1973.
(WSJ, 7/9/08, p.C17)(Econ, 7/19/08, p.95)
2008 Jul 8, Abkhazia's leader Sergei Bagapsh rejected a US proposal to deploy an international police force there.
(AP, 7/8/08)
2008 Jul 8, In eastern Afghanistan a roadside bomb blast killed one NATO soldier and wounded four others. a provincial police chief said five insurgents and two policemen died during a clash in central Ghazni province.
(AP, 7/8/08)
2008 Jul 8, Brazilian police arrested a former Sao Paulo mayor and two prominent financiers in a case that grew out of an influence-peddling scandal involving senior government officials.
(AP, 7/9/08)
2008 Jul 8, A Chinese court jailed Xiong Zhengliang, a former anti-graft prosecutor for life, for torturing a suspect to death. His superior was sentenced to seven years in prison for trying to cover up the case. Liang Jiping, a deputy director of the county's electricity bureau, was detained in May 2007 on suspicion of taking bribes. Liang died on June 1, 2007, after being held in custody for nearly five days and in three separate places.
(Reuters, 7/9/08)
2008 Jul 8, Chinese police killed five Muslims who were planning a "holy war" in the latest alleged terror threat ahead of the Beijing Olympics. The five were shot dead when police raided their hide-out in Urumqi.
(AFP, 7/9/08)
2008 Jul 8, The United States and the Czech Republic signed a treaty in Prague allowing Washington to build part of a missile defense shield in the central European state despite opposition from its former Cold War master Russia.
(Reuters, 7/8/08)
2008 Jul 8, Ecuador's government seized 3 television stations and 195 businesses, owned by the Isaias family, to collect debts stemming from the 1998 failure of Filanbanco, owned by Roberto and William Isaias. The economy minister resigned just hours before the takeover.
(AP, 7/9/08)(Econ, 7/12/08, p.48)
2008 Jul 8, The EU formally invited Slovakia to join the euro zone on Jan. 1, 2009.
(AP, 7/8/08)
2008 Jul 8, Industrial conglomerate Siemens AG said it will cut 16,750 jobs, or 4.2 percent of its global work force, to streamline operations and slice nearly $2 billion in costs in the face of a slowing economy.
(AP, 7/8/08)
2008 Jul 8, A German cargo ship held captive for 41 days off the coast of Somalia was released and all aboard were safe and unharmed. A Somali official said the pirates received a ransom of $750,000. The Lehmann Timber was one of two ships hijacked on May 30 off the Horn of Africa.
(AP, 7/9/08)
2008 Jul 8, Tillman Thomas, former political detainee, returned his party to power in Grenada after 13 years in opposition. The apparent win by the National Democratic Congress was a stunning setback for PM Keith Mitchell's conservative New National Party, which was seeking an unprecedented 4th consecutive term in legislative elections.
(AP, 7/9/08)
2008 Jul 8, Indian PM Manmohan Singh's communist allies withdrew their support for his four-year-old coalition government to protest the government's plan to push forward with a controversial nuclear deal with the United States. The government had gained new support from the Samajwadi Party (SP) and submitted a draft request to the IAEA for a required safeguards accord on July 9.
(AP, 7/8/08)(Econ, 7/12/08, p.50)
2008 Jul 8, At Developing Eight summit of Islamic nations, meeting in Kuala Lumpur, the leaders of Indonesia and Malaysia called for boosting world food production and finding a permanent solution to skyrocketing oil prices, saying the twin problems have become "grave threats" to the world economy.
(AP, 7/8/08)
2008 Jul 8, Iraq's national security adviser said his country will not accept any security deal with the United States unless it contains specific dates for the withdrawal of US-led forces.
(AP, 7/8/08)
2008 Jul 8, The Israeli military said Gaza militants fired a mortar shell into Israel in another violation of a shaky truce.
(AP, 7/8/08)
2008 Jul 8, In Japan G8 leaders endorsed halving world emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050. The G8 also agreed to impose targeted sanctions against leading Zimbabwean officials after a violent election last month that extended President Robert Mugabe's 28-year rule.
(AP, 7/8/08)
2008 Jul 8, Amos Kimunya, Kenya’s finance minister, was forced to resign following the sale of the Grand Regency Hotel to Libyans, without taking bids and advertising the sale. The hotel had been confiscated from Kamlesh Paul Pattni, a businessman alleged to have paid hundreds of millions to individuals close to former Pres. Daniel arap Moi, for the export of gold and diamonds that did not exist.
(Econ, 7/12/08, p.60)
2008 Jul 8, The Mexican government said UNESCO has added a Monarch butterfly reserve in southern Mexico to its list of World Heritage sites.
(AP, 7/8/08)
2008 Jul 8, State-media said Myanmar's military regime has approved visas for more than 1,500 international aid workers to help victims of Cyclone Nargis, with half of them involved in relief operations in storm-hit regions.
(AP, 7/8/08)
2008 Jul 8, In northwest Pakistan unknown assailants fired on a vehicle carrying tribal police forces, killing four and wounding seven.
(AP, 7/808)
2008 Jul 8, In Russia’s Caucasus region the Interior Ministry of Kabardino-Balkaria province said unidentified gunmen had riddled the police car with bullets in the village of Baksan. 3 police officers were killed.
(AP, 7/8/08)
2008 Jul 8, A human rights group said domestic workers in Saudi Arabia often suffer abuse that in some cases amounts to slavery, as well as sexual violence and lashings for spurious allegations of theft or witchcraft.
(AP, 7/8/08)
2008 Jul 8, In Sudan about two hundred gunmen on horseback and in SUVs ambushed peacekeepers from a joint UN-African Union force in the Darfur region. Five Rwandan soldiers and two police officers, one from Ghana and the other from Uganda, were killed in fierce gunbattles that lasted more than two hours.
(AP, 7/9/08)
2008 Jul 8, Sudan's army spokesman claimed Ethiopian forces had attacked a police base 17 kilometers (11 miles) inside Sudanese territory, killing 19 people, including one police officer. Ethiopia denied the accusations.
(AFP, 7/9/08)
2008 Jul 8, In eastern Turkey Kurdish guerrillas kidnapped three German tourists on a climbing expedition. The Germans were released on July 20.
(AP, 7/20/08)
2009 Jul 8, In SF Philip Day (63), former head of SF City College, was charged with 8 felonies for using public funds for political donations and other banned expenditures.
(SFC, 7/9/09, p.A1)
2009 Jul 8, In Chesnee, North Carolina, Ricky Lee Blackwell shot a girl (8) twice in the driveway of a home where he had taken her and his estranged wife to swim and play. The girl's father was dating Blackwell's estranged wife. Blackwell shot himself as police closed in. He was taken to a hospital but his condition wasn't released.
(AP, 7/9/09)
2009 Jul 8, In Afghanistan a roadside bomb attack killed two NATO soldiers.
(AP, 7/9/09)
2009 Jul 8, Australia said Chinese authorities had detained Stern Hu, Rio Tinto Ltd's top iron ore negotiator, as well as three other Rio employees on suspicion of espionage and stealing state secrets, threatening to strain already fraying ties.
(Reuters, 7/8/09)
2009 Jul 8, Australian residents of rural Bundanoon, hoping to protect the earth and their wallets, voted to ban the sale of bottled water, the first community in the country, and possibly the world, to take such a drastic step in the growing backlash against the industry.
(AP, 7/9/09)
2009 Jul 8, Azerbaijan police arrested Adnan Hadzhizade, a video blogger and member of the "OL!" opposition movement, and Emin Milli, a youth activist who also runs an Internet TV program, after a fight in a Baku cafe with two unknown men. Both were charged with hooliganism. A Baku court decision soon ordered two months of pretrial detention for Milli and Hadzhizade, which prompted criticism from international journalism advocates.
(AP, 7/14/09)
2009 Jul 8, The British government set out plans to toughen regulation of its banking sector, including greater oversight of bonuses paid to staff.
(AFP, 7/8/09)
2009 Jul 8, British scientists claimed to have created human sperm from embryonic stem cells for the first time. Several critics said the sperm cells were clearly abnormal. The paper was retracted by the end of the month because two paragraphs in its introduction had been plagiarized. Experts acknowledged that concerns might be raised about the study's credibility.
(SFC, 7/9/09, p.A5)(AP, 7/31/09)
2009 Jul 8, In China hundreds of helmeted troops in riot gear swarmed the central square of Urumqi, capital of western Xinjiang, after ethnic riots left some 192 dead. The city's Communist Party boss promised those behind the killings would be executed. On July 11 China said 137 of the riot victims were Han while 46 were Uighurs and one was a Hui, another Muslim group. Uighurs on the streets of Urumqi, and from exile activist groups disputed the new figures.
(AP, 7/8/09)(AP, 7/11/09)(AP, 7/15/09)
2009 Jul 8, In France some 60 youths rioted outside Saint-Etienne after hearing that man had tried to hang himself in jail. Mohamed Benmouna (21) died soon after at a hospital.
(SFC, 7/9/09, p.A2)
2009 Jul 8, In Haiti Bill Clinton said a lack of coordination among aid groups and Haitian leaders is hurting efforts to ease poverty in the Caribbean nation, as he wrapped up his first trip here as a special UN envoy.
(AP, 7/8/09)
2009 Jul 8, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono won a second term. Exit polls gave him a massive lead in only the second presidential vote since the fall of Suharto. Yudhoyono won 61% of the vote. Jusuf Kalla, his former vice-president, won 12%. Megawati Sukarnoputri won 27%.
(AP, 7/8/09)(Econ, 9/12/09, SR p.4)
2009 Jul 8, In Iraq car bombs in two Shiite villages near Mosul killed 16 civilians and injured more than two dozen.
(AP, 7/10/09)
2009 Jul 8, The Irish government said Irish voters who rejected the EU's Lisbon Treaty last year will be asked to vote again Oct. 2 on the long-delayed blueprint for reform.
(AP, 7/8/09)
2009 Jul 8, G8 Leaders met in L'Aquila, Italy, for talks on threats to global security and stability at a summit where climate change, a continuing global economic crisis, nuclear proliferation and world hunger took top billing.
(AP, 7/8/09)
2009 Jul 8, Protesters in Indian Kashmir set fire to a police van and stoned other security vehicles after the body of a missing young man was recovered in the regional capital Srinagar.
(AFP, 7/8/09)
2009 Jul 8, Malaysian education officials announced that they will abandon the use of English to teach math and science, bowing to protesters who demanded more use of the national Malay language.
(SFC, 7/9/09, p.A2)
2009 Jul 8, In Mexico investigators found a severed head and two arms inside a plastic bag in the of Ario de Rosales, Michoacan state.
(AP, 7/9/09)
2009 Jul 8, Nigerian MEND militants said they blew up two key oil pipelines as they stepped up attacks in response to a government amnesty offer.
(AFP, 7/8/09)
2009 Jul 8, In Pakistan a US drone fired 6 missiles and killed 10 suspected militants at a training camp about 35 kilometers northeast of Wana. At least 35 suspected militants were killed in a second US missile strike targeting insurgents in the northwest tribal belt.
(AFP, 7/8/09)(SFC, 7/9/09, p.A4)
2009 Jul 8, Saudi officials said a criminal court has convicted and sentenced an al-Qaida militant to death and given more 330 others jail terms, fines and travel bans in the country's first known terrorism trials for suspected members of the terror network. The 330 are believed to be among the 991 suspected militants that Interior Minister Prince Nayef has said had been charged with participating in terrorist attacks over the past five years.
(AP, 7/8/09)
2009 Jul 8, Somali pirates seized a Turkish ship with 23 crew and were being shadowed by a Turkish warship in the Gulf of Aden. The pirates first surrounded the Horizon-1 in speed boats and then boarded the ship, which was carrying sulfate from Saudi Arabia to Jordan.
(AP, 7/8/09)
2009 Jul 8, A senior UN official said fighting between tribes in southern Sudan has increasingly targeted women and children and likely killed more than 1,000 people since January.
(AP, 7/8/09)
2009 Jul 8, Switzerland's government said it would forbid the Swiss bank UBS AG from complying with any court-ordered transfer of data on tens of thousands of American clients to the US government, and would consider seizing documents to prevent that.
(AP, 7/8/09)
2010 Jul 8, Cleveland Basketball star LeBron James said to a national TV audience. "I'm going to take my talents to South Beach and join the Miami Heat." Once James shared his secret, fans poured out of the same downtown bars and restaurants that have thrived during these tough economic times. A few set fire to his No. 23 jersey while others threw rocks at the 10-story-tall billboard featuring James with his head tossed back and arms pointing skyward.
(AP, 7/9/10)
2010 Jul 8, US District Court Judge Joseph Tauro ruled that the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which bars the federal government from recognizing gay marriage, is unconstitutional.
(www.aolnews.com/tag/Joseph-Tauro/)
2010 Jul 8, In California a Los Angeles jury found BART police Officer Johannes Mehserle guilty of involuntary manslaughter. The verdict sparked a riot in downtown Oakland, Ca., with at least 50-100 people arrested for smashing windows and looting.
(SFC, 7/9/10, p.A1)
2010 Jul 8, The curator of the Nieman Foundation at Harvard, which has offered mid-career Nieman fellowships since 1938, said that a consular official at the US Embassy in Bogota told him that Colombian journalist Hollman Morris has been ruled permanently ineligible for a visa under the "Terrorist activities" section of the USA Patriot Act. Hollman has been highly critical of ties between illegal far-right militias and allies of outgoing President Alvaro Uribe.
(AP, 7/8/10)
2010 Jul 8, Zap Inc., a Santa Rosa, Ca., electric vehicle manufacturer, announced a merger with China’s Jonway Automobile Co. Ltd. Zap Jonway will be 51% owned by Zap.
(SFC, 7/8/10, p.D1)
2010 Jul 8, US federal researchers said that they have identified a pair of naturally occurring antibodies that are able to kill more than 90% of all strains of the AIDS virus.
(SFC, 7/9/10, p.A6)
2010 Jul 8, In California Robert de Heer (b.1923), real estate broker, died in San Rafael. He created the Realty Bluebook, which became a standard for real estate people nationwide. He also devised a standard purchase order, which started with one page and grew to 7 to reflect changes in real estate law.
(SFC, 7/10/10, p.C3)
2010 Jul 8, Dr. Thomas Peebles (b.1921), measles researcher, died at his home in Port Charlotte, Fla. His work in the 1950s enabled researchers to develop a vaccine against measles.
(SFC, 8/6/10, p.C5)
2010 Jul 8, In Afghanistan two international troops died in insurgent attacks as violence spiraled across the country. NATO forces overnight captured a suspected Taliban-linked supplier of bomb-making materials in Khost province.
(AP, 7/8/10)
2010 Jul 8, In Argentina some of the most notorious figures of Argentina's "dirty war" were convicted of kidnapping, torturing and murdering 22 people at the beginning of the 1976-1983 military dictatorship. A judge handed down the sentences for Gen. Luciano Menendez and former police intelligence chief Roberto Albornoz: life in prison for crimes against humanity committed at a secret detention center in provincial Tucuman. Two former police officers, brothers Luis Armando de Candido and Carlos Esteban de Candido, were sentenced to 18 and 3 years, respectively.
(AP, 7/8/10)
2010 Jul 8, Australian police investigated the mysterious mass poisoning of seven million tomato, eggplant and other crops which is expected to send prices soaring. Detectives probed whether vandals or a competitor with a grudge had put herbicide in sprinklers at a nursery near the northeastern city of Cairns, wiping out 16 million tons of produce, mostly tomatoes.
(AFP, 7/8/10)
2010 Jul 8, A British court in London convicted Ibrahim Savant, Arafat Waheed Khan and Waheed Zaman of conspiracy to murder in a case linked to a 2006 plot to blow up transatlantic jet planes.
(AFP, 7/8/10)
2010 Jul 8, Canada named David Johnston (69), president of the University of Waterloo, to become the country's next acting head of state, who will have the final say in settling constitutional disputes.
(Reuters, 7/9/10)
2010 Jul 8, Chile's Supreme Court upheld murder convictions for the dictatorship's former secret police chief and his top agents in the 1974 assassination of Gen. Carlos Prats and his wife. The court also reduced Manuel Contreras' life sentence to just 20 years in prison.
(AP, 7/8/10)
2010 Jul 8, In northwest China local authorities said floods triggered by torrential rain in a remote part of Qinghai province have killed 25 people. According to the China News Service, the government has recorded 483 flood-related deaths in China so far this year, with 255 people still missing.
(AFP, 7/8/10)
2010 Jul 8, The International Criminal Court at The Hague suspended Congolese militia chief Thomas Lubanga's trial and rapped prosecutors for abusing court processes and ignoring judges' orders.
(AFP, 7/9/10)
2010 Jul 8, Cuban opposition activist Guillermo Farinas ended his 134-day hunger strike, following signs the communist government is making good on its promise to release 52 political prisoners. The court also reduced Manuel Contreras' life sentence to just 20 years in prison, reflecting a compromise between the right and left over how to punish "dirty war" crimes.
(AP, 7/9/10)
2010 Jul 8, In France exiled Darfur rebel leader Abdelwahid Nur announced his decision to join peace talks brokered by Qatar.
(AFP, 7/9/10)
2010 Jul 8, In Iran at least two people were arrested in Tehran's grand bazaar, the third day of a major strike that has alarmed the authorities. A wave of anti-tax strikes by merchants in Tehran unsettled government authorities.
(http://tinyurl.com/24nw65k)(SFC, 7/10/10, p.A4)
2010 Jul 8, In Iraq three separate roadside bombings in eastern and northern Baghdad left 14 people dead and at least 63 wounded. The attacks targeted the hundreds of thousands of pilgrims who defied violence to take part in the final day of a Shiite religious holiday.
(AP, 7/8/10)(AP, 7/9/10)
2010 Jul 8, In Israel police arrested overnight a pair of ultra-Orthodox Jewish men suspected of trying to smuggle $1 million of pure cocaine into Israel from Brazil. More than 15,000 Israelis marched into Jerusalem and rallied at a park downtown for the government to conclude a deal for the release of a captive soldier held by Palestinian militants.
(AP, 7/8/10)(AP, 7/9/10)
2010 Jul 8, Libya said that it has granted some 400 Eritreans permission to stay after human rights group warnings that refugees and asylum seekers among them risked abuse if forcibly repatriated.
(AFP, 7/8/10)
2010 Jul 8, In Mexico 4 suspects were killed in a shootout with police in the border state of Coahuila. 5 civilian bystanders were wounded.
(AP, 7/9/10)
2010 Jul 8, Mozambique’s transport minister said in a report that his country will overcome a shipping bottleneck to export its vast coal deposits by finding ways for barges to navigate the Zambezi River.
(AFP, 7/8/10)
2010 Jul 8, In Norway 2 suspected al-Qaida members were arrested for what Norwegian and US officials said was a terrorist plot linked to similar plans to bomb New York's subway and blow up a shopping mall in England. A 3rd suspect was arrested in Germany. Authorities later said the ringleader of the plot is Mikael Davud (39), an Uighur who came to Norway in 1999 as part of a UN refugee program and then became a Norwegian citizen eight years later. Davud was arrested along with suspected accomplices Shawan Sadek Saeed Bujak Bujak, an Iraqi Kurd (37), and Uzbek national, David Jakobsen (31). Norwegian and Danish police later said the 3 were likely planning an attack against a Danish newspaper that caricatured the Prophet Muhammad. Jakobsen was released on Oct 15 after prosecutors revealed that he had been a police informant in the case. Jakobsen still faced terrorism charges because the allegations against the group rely partly on events that took place before he approached police last year.
(AP, 7/8/10)(AP, 8/29/10)(AP, 9/28/10)(AP, 10/15/10)
2010 Jul 8, In western Panama striking banana plantation workers and police clashed, leaving one man dead and 100 people hurt. A 2nd man was killed by police on July 10.
(AP, 7/8/10)(Reuters, 7/10/10)
2010 Jul 8, Rwandan authorities arrested Agnes Uwimana, director of Umurabyo, a privately owned newspaper, on charges of incitement, denial of the 1994 genocide and contempt of the head of state.
(AFP, 7/9/10)
2010 Jul 8, In Switzerland an experimental solar-powered plane completed its first 24-hour test flight successfully, proving that the aircraft can collect enough energy from the sun during the day to stay aloft all night.
(AP, 7/8/10)
2010 Jul 8, In Uruguay 12 inmates burned to death in an overcrowded prison, just as the country’s congress debated a law to put the army in charge of prison security and relieve the pressure on civilian prisons by moving some inmates into military installations.
(AP, 7/8/10)
2011 Jul 8, US health officials confirmed the death of an Arizona man from the same E. coli bacteria blamed for an outbreak in Germany. He had visited Germany and died last month.
(SFC, 7/9/11, p.A5)
2011 Jul 8, US health officials confirmed the death of an Arizona man from the same E. coli bacteria blamed for an outbreak in Germany. He had visited Germany and died last month.
(SFC, 7/9/11, p.A5)
2011 Jul 8, At Cape Canaveral, Florida, Atlantis and four astronauts rocketed into orbit on NASA's last space shuttle voyage. 30 mice were also onboard to test a bone-loss drug in a project directed by Amgen and collaborator UCB SA in Brussels.
(AP, 7/8/11)(SFC, 7/9/11, p.D4)
2011 Jul 8, In Illinois Carolyn Towns (51), former director of a Chicago area cemetery, pleaded guilty to a scheme of digging up bodies and reselling plots at the Burr Oak Cemetery. She was sentenced to 12 years in prison.
(SFC, 7/9/11, p.A5)
2011 Jul 8, Former first lady Betty Ford (93) died. Her triumph over drug and alcohol addiction became a beacon of hope for addicts and the inspiration for her Betty Ford Center (1982) in California.
(AP, 7/9/11)(Econ, 7/23/11, p.84)
2011 Jul 8, A 225-page international review showing wide variances of Internet freedom gave Finland the best marks for making citizens' access to a broadband connection a legal right. The report was presented at OSCE headquarters in Vienna.
(AP, 7/8/11)
2011 Jul 8, Brazil's Supreme Court said a prosecutor has filed charges against Jose Dirceu, a former top presidential aide, and 36 other people in a 2005 cash-for-votes scandal that rocked the government of then-President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
(AP, 7/8/11)
2011 Jul 8, Britain’s PM David Cameron said he would establish a full public inquiry led by a judge into the News of the World scandal. London's Metropolitan Police arrested Andy Coulson (43), Cameron's ex-media chief, "in connection with allegations of corruption and phone hacking." Coulson was editor of Britain's biggest-selling Sunday newspaper from 2003 to 2007. Police also re-arrested Clive Goodman (53), the News of the World's former royal editor, who was jailed in 2007 for hacking the voicemails of Princes William and Harry.
(AFP, 7/8/11)
2011 Jul 8, In Canada a federal appeals court ruled that an illegal immigrant has no right to free medical intervention of ongoing health care.
(SSFC, 7/10/11, p.A4)
2011 Jul 8, In Colombia President Juan Manuel Santos asked for forgiveness from victims and survivors of a 2000 massacre by right-wing paramilitaries that is considered one of the bloodiest chapters in Colombia's long internal conflict. A report from the National Commission of Reparation and Reconciliation says at least 60 people were killed in the town of El Salado in northern Bolivar province between Feb. 16 and Feb. 21, 2000.
(AP, 7/8/11)
2011 Jul 8, In CongoDRC a Hewa Bora Airways plane crashed in a thunderstorm as it was attempting to land in Kisangani airport, killing at least 48 people, and leaving a dozen or more buried in the wreckage. 53 passengers survived.
(AP, 7/8/11)
2011 Jul 8, Egyptians held one of their biggest protests in months as tens of thousands took to the streets in Cairo and other cities to demand justice for victims of Hosni Mubarak's regime and press the country's new military rulers for a clear plan on transition to democracy.
(AP, 7/8/11)
2011 Jul 8, French police investigated a train robbery on the outskirts of Marseille in which a group of youths held up a passenger train and robbed a freight train following behind.
(SFC, 7/9/11, p.A2)
2011 Jul 8, In India heavy monsoon rains caused a stone wall to collapse, killing 10 construction workers, on the outskirts of Mumbai.
(AP, 7/8/11)
2011 Jul 8, In Iraq a roadside bombing west of Baghdad killed two Iraqi army officers.
(AP, 7/8/11)
2011 Jul 8, Hundreds of pro-reform Jordanians demonstrated in Amman and other cities, demanding the resignation of the government nearly a week after Prime Minister Maaruf Bakhit reshuffled his cabinet.
(AFP, 7/8/11)
2011 Jul 8, Andris Berzins (b.1944) took office as president of Latvia.
(Econ, 7/30/11, p.49)(http://tinyurl.com/6l7gnlx)
2011 Jul 8, Thousands of Libyans poured into Tripoli's main square for mass prayers and a rally in support of Moammar Gadhafi. Rebels battled to within two km (one mile) of the center of Zliten town with the loss of five dead and 17 wounded. NATO struck targets in several areas, including tanks, rocket launching sites, artillery pieces, military storage facilities and command and control centers. 4 boats carrying about 1,000 migrants fleeing the conflict arrived on the Italian island of Lampedusa.
(AP, 7/8/11)(AFP, 7/9/11)
2011 Jul 8, In Mexico the bodies of 10 men and a woman who had been shot with high-powered rifles were found piled near a water well on the outskirts of Mexico City. A survivor later said victims were kidnapped two days earlier in a bar by members of the Knights Templar. At least 20 people were killed in a bar massacre in the northern city of Monterrey when riflemen opened fire on the clientele and employees.
(AP, 7/8/11)(AP, 7/9/11)(AP, 7/11/11)
2011 Jul 8, Pakistan officials said that a four-day air and ground offensive against militants in a key tribal district had left 42 enemy fighters and eight soldiers dead on the Afghan border. The government ordered 1,000 extra troops to deploy in Karachi with instructions to shoot-to-kill. At least 80 people have been killed since July 6 in the deadliest six months of political violence since 1995. Security forces had already arrested 89 suspects over the killings.
(AFP, 7/8/11)(AP, 7/8/11)
2011 Jul 8, Scores of pro-Palestinian activists trying to reach Tel Aviv, as part of a coordinated protest, were blocked at European airports. 6 activists who managed to land were deported as Israel moved to defuse the mass arrival envisioned by organizers.
(AP, 7/8/11)
2011 Jul 8, In Sri Lanka a magistrate agreed to a police request to detain a British citizen of Sri Lankan origin accused of causing "disrepute to the country and the army by providing alleged videos to Britain's Channel 4 television" for its documentary "Sri Lanka's Killing Fields."
(AFP, 7/9/11)
2011 Jul 8, Tens of thousands of Syrians carrying olive branches and shouting for the downfall of President Bashar Assad's regime streamed into the flashpoint city of Hama. US and French ambassadors traveled to Hama a day earlier and left today before the protests began. Security forces killed three protesters in Maaret al-Numan, a town on the highway linking Damascus, the capital, with Syria's largest city, Aleppo. Two other people were killed in Damascus' central neighborhood of Midan and in the nearby town of Dumari. Activists said the crackdown killed at least 13 people.
(AP, 7/8/11)(AP, 7/9/11)
2011 Jul 8, In Yemen President Ali Abdullah Saleh's supporters opened fire, killing at least 11 people after their leader's first television appearance since his injury last month. 5 people died from gunshots in the capital Sanaa, 4 in the town of Ibb, and at least 2 others elsewhere.
(AP, 7/8/11)
2011 Jul 8, Zambian President Rupiah Banda opened the country's largest coal mine, after Singapore's Nava Bharat took over majority shares and invested $750 million (525 million euros) at the once defunct state entity.
(AFP, 7/8/11)
2012 Jul 8, A blistering heat wave finally showed signs of letting up across the US Midwest and Northeast, with more moderate temperatures bringing relief to overheated residents from Chicago to New York, according to meteorologists. The unrelenting heat left at least 30 people across half the country.
(AP, 7/8/12)
2012 Jul 8, Dozens of women who attended a Rhode Island high school run by the disgraced Legion of Christ religious order urged the Vatican to close the program, saying the psychological abuse they endured trying to live like teenage nuns led to multiple cases of anorexia, stress-induced migraines, depression and even suicidal thoughts. On July 12 The Legion's lay branch Regnum Christi posted a statement on its website outlining changes.
(AP, 7/9/12)(AP, 7/13/12)
2012 Jul 8, Ernest Borgnine (b.1917), American film and TV star, died. He created a variety of memorable characters in both movies and television and won the best-actor Oscar for his role as a lovesick butcher in "Marty" in 1955. He was also known as the Navy officer in the television series "McHale's Navy," which aired from 1962-66.
(SFC, 7/9/12, p.C4)
2012 Jul 8, In Afghanistan roadside bombs killed 18 civilians, including 7 women, traveling in three vehicles in southern Kandahar province close to the Pakistan border. A NATO service member was killed in southern Afghanistan during an insurgent attack. 5 Afghan policemen were killed while responding to a gun battle being waged against insurgents at a checkpoint in the Musa Qala district of Helmand province. 6 Americans were killed when their armored vehicle struck a bomb planted in Wardak province.
(AFP, 7/8/12)(AP, 7/8/12)(AP, 7/9/12)
2012 Jul 8, Donor nations meeting in Tokyo pledged $16 billion for Afghanistan to prevent the country from sliding back into turmoil when foreign combat troops depart, but called on Kabul to implement reforms to fight graft. The conference hosted representatives from about 80 nations and international organizations in a gathering aimed at adopting the "Tokyo Declaration," pledging support and cash.
(AFP, 7/8/12)
2012 Jul 8, China started work on a 30-billion-yuan ($4.8-billion) tourism project in Lhasa city, as it seeks to draw more travelers to the restive Tibet region.
(AFP, 7/8/12)
2012 Jul 8, In China a gas blast at a coal mine in the central province of Hunan killed seven people, the latest in a string of accidents in the country's dangerous mining industry.
(AFP, 7/8/12)
2012 Jul 8, In CongoDRC M23 rebels seized the eastern town of Rutshuru after the army fled their advance. A local official said the army looted during their retreat. M23 also took the towns of Ntamugenga and Rubare. 8 armored vehicles from the United Nations mission fled Rutshuru for a UN base five kilometers away in Kiwanja, where many local residents were sheltering in a camp for displaced people. Rebels said they would cede most of their gains to UN peacekeepers and police.
(AFP, 7/8/12)
2012 Jul 8, Egypt's new President Mohamed Morsi issued a decree annulling the Supreme Court's June 14 dissolution of the Islamist-dominated parliament.
(AFP, 7/8/12)
2012 Jul 8, Iraqi Kurdistan said it has begun sending oil produced in its three-province autonomous region out of the country without the express permission of the central government. It was being exported to Turkey so it could be refined into various products before being brought back to Kurdistan.
(AFP, 7/8/12)
2012 Jul 8, Israel PM Benjamin Netanyahu announced he will back a controversial plan to compel ultra-Orthodox Jews and Arab Israelis to complete compulsory military or community service.
(AFP, 7/8/12)
2012 Jul 8, Kuwait's Zain telecom said its Iraqi unit has been fined $12,877 a day since September 1 for failing to list on the Iraqi bourse but will seek to have the penalty that has reached $4 million scrapped.
(AFP, 7/8/12)
2012 Jul 8, In Nigeria a federal lawmaker and a state lawmaker were killed in an ambush on their way to a mass burial for victims near Jos. At least 20 others were killed when gunmen stormed the funeral of those killed a day earlier. Boko Haram later claimed that it was responsible for the attacks.
(AP, 7/9/12)(AFP, 7/9/12)(AP, 7/13/12)
2012 Jul 8, In Pakistan thousands of hardline Islamists streamed toward Islamabad in a massive convoy of vehicles to protest the government's decision to allow the US and other NATO countries to resume shipping troop supplies through the country to Afghanistan.
(AP, 7/8/12)
2012 Jul 8, In Saudi Arabia Sheik Nimr al-Nimr was arrested after he and followers exchanged fire with security forces and crashed into one of the patrol vehicles. Al-Nimr, who was wounded in the leg, faced charges of instigating unrest in the oil-rich eastern province.
(AP, 7/8/12)
2012 Jul 8, Saudi Arabia’s Prince Mohammed bin Saud (78), a senior prince and former defense minister, died. He wielded influence as part of a council of royal family members that helps select the heirs to rule the country.
(AP, 7/8/12)
2012 Jul 8, Sudanese security forces fired tear gas after demonstrations broke out at the University of Khartoum, where nationwide protests against high prices began last month.
(AFP, 7/8/12)
2012 Jul 8, Syrian forces pounded Aleppo and Deir Ezzor provinces as at least 35 people were killed across the country, among them 17 civilians.
(AFP, 7/8/12)
2012 Jul 8, In Vietnam Cuban President Raul Castro met with state leaders following a visit to China, as Havana looks to old communist allies while it attempts to push through historic economic reforms.
(AFP, 7/8/12)
2013 Jul 8, The US and 28 countries of the EU began negotiations on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership.
(SFC, 7/8/13, p.D1)
2013 Jul 8, SF Bay Bridge officials said repairs to cracked rods would delay the opening of the new $6.4 billion Bay Bridge by at least 3 months. Sep 3 had been the scheduled opening date.
(SFC, 7/9/13, p.A1)
2013 Jul 8, In Virginia three Somalis were convicted of piracy, kidnapping and murder in the 2011 shooting deaths of four Americans sailing in the Indian Ocean off of Oman and could face the death penalty.
(Reuters, 7/9/13)
2013 Jul 8, Afghan authorities said they have arrested Zakaria Kandahari, a man who served as a translator for US Special Forces and was wanted on allegations he tortured and killed civilians. The Wardak provincial governor's office said 16 Taliban were killed and two arrested in a 24-hour operation that ended today. 2 Afghan soldiers were killed and six others wounded. In Laghman province the Afghan intelligence service launched a pre-emptive strike on a group of Taliban after learning they were preparing to attack a police checkpoint. 2 militants were killed in the ensuing gunbattle and one captured. In Nangahar province 3 Afghan national police were killed and another wounded when their checkpoint was attacked.
(AP, 7/8/13)
2013 Jul 8, China handed down a suspended death sentence on a former railways minister for corruption, a case seen as a test of President Xi Jinping's resolve to crack down on pervasive graft.
(Reuters, 7/8/13)
2013 Jul 8, Egyptian soldiers and police clashed with Islamists protesting the military's ouster of the president. The bloodshed left 53 pro-Morsi protesters dead as well as 4 members of the security forces.
(AP, 7/8/13)(AP, 7/9/13)(AP, 7/12/13)
2013 Jul 8, The European Union Naval Force said the MV Albedo, a hijacked Malaysian-flagged ship that pirates have held off the coast of Somalia since November 2010, has sunk in rough seas. 2 of 15 crew members were reportedly rescued. A pirate commander said at least six pirates and two crew members had been killed.
(AP, 7/8/13)
2013 Jul 8, Greece's international debt inspectors reached a tentative agreement with the cash-strapped country on reforms needed to keep releasing vital bailout loans, although they warned it still faced an "uncertain" economic outlook and needed to sack thousands of state sector workers. Municipal workers went on strike to protest government plans to reduce the number of civil servants.
(AP, 7/8/13)
2013 Jul 8, Iran’s communications minister said all citizens will be assigned an individual email address which the would aid interaction between state authorities and the people.
(Reuters, 7/8/13)
2013 Jul 8, In Iraq a bomb exploded near a youth center in Madain killing 6 civilians. In Mosul a car bomb exploded in a commercial area, killing one civilian. Also in Mosul two militant groups shot and killed a police officer and a civilian in two separate attacks.
(AP, 7/8/13)
2013 Jul 8, In Israel several thousand ultra-Orthodox protesters effectively blocked Jewish women activists campaigning for equal worship rights at the Western Wall from holding a monthly prayer session at the holy site.
(Reuters, 7/8/13)
2013 Jul 8, In Nigeria gunmen fired on the premises of Nigerian-owned but Lebanese-run construction firm Setraco in Benin city, killing two soldiers, wounding a third and seizing a Lebanese construction manager. The manager was released on July 25.
(Reuters, 7/25/13)
2013 Jul 8, In northwest Pakistan a suicide bomber on a motorcycle attacked a pro-government tribal elder's vehicle, killing at least 8 people in Hangu district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
(AP, 7/8/13)
2013 Jul 8, Syria's ruling Baath party announced it has elected a new regional command to replace its aging leadership, including the country's longtime vice president, as its two-year civil war raged on. 2 car bombs exploded in a predominantly Alawite and Christian neighborhood of Homs, killing at least four people and wounding 29.
(AP, 7/8/13)
2013 Jul 8, Ghassan Hitto, appointed last March as the notional prime minister of the interim government of Syria, resigned. He had been appointed to assemble an administration to govern rebel-held territory.
(SFC, 7/9/13, p.A3)
2013 Jul 8, Turkey reopened Istanbul’s Gezi Park at the heart of last month's demonstrations against PM Tayyip Erdogan. Protest leaders called a rally there for this evening in defiance of the city governor. Hours later police forced people out due to concerns about a planned protest rally. Clashes ensued in nearby streets before police allowed people back into the park around midnight.
(AP, 7/8/13)(Reuters, 7/9/13)
2013 Jul 8, Venezuela’s Pres. Nicolas Maduro said five officials have been arrested and charged with embezzling $84 million from a China-financed development fund administered by state-run development bank Bandes.
(Reuters, 7/8/13)
2013 Jul 8, In Yemen army commander Colonel Ahmed Mohammed al-Suhaili was shot dead as he was leaving home for work in Hadramout province.
(Reuters, 7/8/13)
2014 Jul 8, Federal water managers said drought in the southwestern US will deplete Nevada’s vast Lake Mead this week to levels not seen since the Great Depression in the 1930s.
(Reuters, 7/9/14)
2014 Jul 8, US East Coast states experienced severe storms and high winds. 4 people were killed in New York and one in Maryland. CNN reported nearly 500,000 homes and businesses without power, mostly in Pennsylvania and New York state.
(AP, 7/9/14)
2014 Jul 8, In Washington state the Mills Canyon Fire broke out near the tiny eastern town of Entiat, in Chelan County. By July 11 it burnt 18,000 acres and threatened over 200 homes.
(Reuters, 7/11/14)
2014 Jul 8, The US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) announced that health researchers in Maryland had discovered vials of smallpox, declared eradicated in 1977, sitting in a forgotten fridge in an FDA storehouse.
(Econ, 7/12/14, p.73)
2014 Jul 8, In eastern Afghanistan 4 NATO soldiers from the Czech Rep. were killed in an explosion. At least 10 civilians, and 2 police officers were also killed when a suicide bomber attacked Afghan and foreign forces near Charakar, the provincial capital of Parvan province. A 5th Czech soldier died of his wounds on July 14.
(Reuters, 7/8/14)(AP, 7/8/14)(AP, 7/10/14)(AP, 7/14/14)
2014 Jul 8, In Australia Japan's PM Shinzo Abe met with Australian PM Tony Abbott to sign agreements bolstering defense and trade ties between the countries.
(AP, 7/8/14)
2014 Jul 8, Bangladesh was awarded nearly four-fifths of an area sprawling over 25,000 sq km (9,700 sq miles) in the Bay of Bengal by a UN tribunal, ending a dispute over a sea border with India that has ruffled ties between the neighbors for more than three decades.
(Reuters, 7/8/14)
2014 Jul 8, In Brazil World Cup semifinals the German soccer team beat Brazil’s national team in a record-breaking 7-1 game.
(http://tinyurl.com/l5496fm)
2014 Jul 8, In Cambodia William Glenn (43), an American teacher from Mississippi, left his guesthouse in Phnom Penh on a motorcycle taxi and never returned. His body was discovered the next day at a garbage dump.
(AP, 7/11/14)
2014 Jul 8, In Iraq a suicide bomber detonated an explosives-rigged vehicle at a checkpoint south of Samarra, killing 5 people. A roadside bomb killed three federal police and wounded two more west of Samarra.
(AFP, 7/8/14)
2014 Jul 8, Israel launched Operation Protective Edge in response to rocket attacks by Hamas. Israeli warplanes pounded Gaza with more than 50 strikes early today after Hamas militants fired scores of rockets over the border. Palestinian officials said at least 10 people, including two children, were killed in the attacks from air and sea.
(AFP, 7/8/14)(AP, 7/8/14)(Econ, 7/11/15, p.45)
2014 Jul 8, Typhoon Neoguri pounded across the southern Japanese islands of Okinawa, as residents took refuge from destructive winds, towering waves and storm surges.
(AP, 7/8/14)
2014 Jul 8, Libya restarted production at the Sharara oilfield, one of the country’s largest oilfields, pumping at more than 90 percent of its capacity.
(AP, 7/9/14)
2014 Jul 8, North Korea’s 6,700-ton freighter "Mu Du Bong," which had come from Cuba, ran aground on a reef 8 miles (13 km) northeast of Tuxpan in Mexico's Veracruz state. On April 8, 2015, North Korea accused Mexico of illegally detaining the ship with some 50 crew.
(Reuters, 4/8/15)
2014 Jul 8, Pakistani jets bombed insurgent hideouts in a restive tribal area bordering Afghanistan and killed at least 13 militants in Degan village, North Waziristan.
(AFP, 7/8/14)
2014 Jul 8, In Somalia three of four extremist attackers were shot dead by soldiers after they forced their way into the presidential palace in Mogadishu. The fourth militant was wounded.
(AP, 7/9/14)
2014 Jul 8, In Thailand the body of a raped girl (13) was discovered early today near the train tracks in Prachuap Khirikhan province's Pranburi district. She had disappeared the night of July 5 from a sleeping berth en route from the southern province of Surat Thai to the capital, Bangkok. Railway worker Wanchai Saengkhao was arrested and faced charges of rape, concealing a body and murder. On Sep 30 Saengkhao (22) was sentenced to death.
(AP, 7/8/14)(AP, 9/30/14)
2014 Jul 8, Ukraine's government signaled its intention to press on with its campaign against pro-Russian rebels and the militants, regrouping after losing their stronghold, said they were preparing to fight back.
(Reuters, 7/8/14)
2014 Jul 8, The World Health Organization (WHO) said fifty new cases of Ebola and 25 deaths have been reported in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea since July 3.
(Reuters, 7/8/14)
2014 Jul 8, The Yemeni Red Crescent said some 10,000 families have fled the northern city of Amran in three days to escape an intensified battle between the army and Shiite rebels.
(AFP, 7/8/14)
2015 Jul 8, The United Arab Emirates and the US launched the Sawab Center in Abu Dhabi. The new digital communications effort focused on using social media to counter the Islamic State group’s propaganda efforts.
(SFC, 7/9/15, p.A4)
2015 Jul 8, The South Carolina House approved taking down the Confederate flag from the Capitol grounds. Gov. Nikki Haley was expected to sign it.
(SFC, 7/9/15, p.A5)
2015 Jul 8, The NYSE halted trading for over three hours to technical problems related to a software upgrade.
(SFC, 7/9/15, p.C1)(SFC, 7/10/15, p.C3)
2015 Jul 8, All United Continental flights in the US were grounded for about two hours due to computer network problems.
(SFC, 7/9/15, p.A5)
2015 Jul 8, Afghan lawmakers rejected the first ever female nominee for the country's Supreme Court, a setback to the government's efforts to promote women to high-profile positions. Anisa Rasouli, the head of the Afghan Woman Judges' Association and a juvenile court judge, needed 97 votes out of 193 to win, but managed only 88 votes.
(AFP, 7/8/15)
2015 Jul 8, In southern Algeria at least 22 people were reported killed in two days of clashes between Chaamba Arabs and Mozabite Berbers in the M'zab valley.
(AFP, 7/8/15)
2015 Jul 8, Australia extradited Dragan Vasiljkovic, also known as Captain Dragan and Daniel Snedden, to Croatia to face war crimes charges. He was a former Serb paramilitary commander during the 1991-1995 Balkan wars.
(AP, 7/8/15)
2015 Jul 8, In Bangladesh Samiul Islam Rajon (13), was tied to a pole and then subjected to a brutal assault in which he pleaded for his life. A 28-minute video of Samiul was widely circulated after being posted on social media. On July 14 authorities arrested prime suspect Moyna Chowkidar (38) on the outskirts of the northeastern city of Sylhet. Police later filed charges against 13 men.
(AFP, 7/15/15)(AP, 8/17/15)
2015 Jul 8, Pope Francis flew to Bolivia after drawing about 1.5 million people to Masses in Ecuador on the first leg of a "homecoming" tour.
(Reuters, 7/8/15)
2015 Jul 8, Britain’s Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne unveiled fresh austerity measures to slash the country's debt. Osborne said Britain will commit to maintaining defense spending at NATO's target of 2 percent of gross domestic product every year for the rest of the decade.
(AFP, 7/8/15)(Reuters, 7/8/15)
2015 Jul 8, Colombia's largest guerrilla army declared a month-long, unilateral cease-fire as of July 20.
(AP, 7/8/15)
2015 Jul 8, In Egypt 5 civilians were killed when a mortar round hit a house in a North Sinai village where the army is battling jihadist insurgents.
(AP, 7/8/15)
2015 Jul 8, The European Parliament approved a proposal to begin reform of the world's biggest carbon market in 2019.
(Reuters, 7/8/15)
2015 Jul 8, A French court suspended a postal ballot organized by the far-right National Front on whether to scrap founder Jean-Marie Le Pen's post as honorary president.
(AFP, 7/8/15)
2015 Jul 8, Greece made a request for aid from Europe's bailout fund as it rushed to deliver details of its proposed economic reforms in time to secure the country's future in the euro and avoid a descent into financial chaos. Greece promised to implement pension and tax reforms as early as next week as the first step to securing a three-year rescue loan to cover debt obligations.
(AP, 7/8/15)(Reuters, 7/8/15)
2015 Jul 8, India's leading crime-fighting agency registered a case against a prominent critic of PM Modi for accepting foreign funds, amid concerns that overseas charities are interfering in the country's domestic affairs. Teesta Setalvad faced charges of fraud, misappropriation of funds and violation of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act.
(Reuters, 7/8/15)
2015 Jul 8, An Iraqi court in Baghdad sentenced 24 suspected members of the Islamic State terror group to death for their role in the killing of hundreds of soldiers during the extremists' blitz across the country last year.
(AP, 7/8/15)
2015 Jul 8, Italian authorities said they have seized assets worth more than 1.6 billion euros ($1.75 billion) from a family of five Sicilian pensioners believed to have links to a prominent mafia clan. The haul belonged to Carmelo Virga (66), his brothers Vincenzo (78), and Francesco (71), and their sisters Anna (76) and Rosa (68).
(AFP, 7/8/15)
2015 Jul 8, In Libya fighting erupted in the center of Benghazi. At least 14 people were killed in battles between militiamen and forces loyal to the internationally recognized government. Taher Allush, a senior military intelligence officer, was killed in Misrata when a bomb concealed in his car exploded.
(AP, 7/9/15)
2015 Jul 8, Myanmar ratified the chemical weapons convention, bringing the treaty a step closer to its goal of acceptance by every country in the world. It will become the organization's 191st nation when it comes into force 30 days after the ratification.
(AP, 7/9/15)
2015 Jul 8, Pakistan said Afghan and Taliban representatives have agreed to meet again after landmark through-the-night talks aimed at ending a 13-year insurgency.
(AFP, 7/8/15)
2015 Jul 8, A Palestinian appeals court ruled in favor of maintaining parliamentary immunity for Mohammed Dahlan (53), a rival to President Mahmoud Abbas. Dahlan fell out of favor in 2011 and has been charged with corruption.
(Reuters, 7/8/15)
2015 Jul 8, Russian lawmakers in the pro-Kremlin upper chamber called on authorities to blacklist 12 foreign NGOs as "undesirable", the first proposals under a new law critics say is part of a clampdown on civil society.
(AFP, 7/8/15)
2015 Jul 8, South Sudan rebel leader Riek Machar called on President Salva Kiir to resign along with all ministers and the parliament or risk sparking a revolution.
(AP, 7/8/15)
2015 Jul 8, The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said a drone strike as part of a US-led campaign against Islamic State militants has killed a senior IS-Uzbek figure in Raqqa. Muhsin Al-Fadhli, leader of the Khorasan al-Qaeda cell, was killed while traveling in a vehicle near Sarmada. Hackers claiming to be affiliated with the Islamic State group took down the website of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor and threatened its director. At least 19 civilians, including 5 children, were killed by a regime barrel bomb attack and rebel rocket fire in Aleppo.
(Reuters, 7/8/15)(AFP, 7/8/15)(AFP, 7/9/15)(SFC, 7/23/15, p.A4)
2015 Jul 8, In Turkey Cilem Karabulut (28) killed her husband Hasan Karabulut (33) in the southern Adana region with a pistol stored at home. She was detained by police and admitted to murdering her husband out of "honor" after he repeatedly beat her and tried to force her into prostitution.
(AFP, 7/10/15)
2015 Jul 8, A UN resolution condemning the 1995 massacre of Bosnian Muslims at Srebrenica as a "crime of genocide" was vetoed by Russia, earning denunciations by the US and Britain and by international human rights groups like Amnesty International.
(SFC, 7/9/15, p.A2)
2015 Jul 8, In Yemen some 40 inmates escaped in a jailbreak after coalition jets bombed the area surrounding a prison in Mahawit province, northwest of Sanaa. Rebels fired rockets at a residential district killing 8 civilians, among them 3 children.
(AFP, 7/8/15)
2016 Jul 8, US President Barack Obama expressed concern about the state of democracy in Poland, publicly rebuking a right-wing government that has paralyzed the constitutional court and taken steps to control state run media. Obama shared his worries with Polish President Andrzej Duda in a one-on-one meeting before the opening of a NATO summit in Warsaw.
(AP, 7/8/16)
2016 Jul 8, Ten US states sued the federal government over rules requiring public schools to alow transgender students to use restrooms and locker rooms conforming to their gender identity.
(SFC, 7/9/16, p.A11)
2016 Jul 8, Thousands of protesters marched in US cities late today, one day after a black extremist shot dead five cops who were protecting a peaceful march against police brutality in Dallas, Texas.
(AP, 7/9/16)
2016 Jul 8, In Pennsylvania Grace Packer (14), the adopted daughter of Sara Packer, was raped and smothered to death in a “rape-murder fantasy" shared by the mother and her boyfriend Jacob Sullivan. The couple dismembered the body in October and it was found by two hunters in Luzerne County on Oct 31. On Jan 6 Sullivan began confessing to the murder.
(SFC, 1/9/17, p.A12)
2016 Jul 8, Austrian President Heinz Fischer ended his term, temporarily leaving official duties in the hands of the country's three parliamentary presidents pending a rerun of elections to succeed him.
(AP, 7/8/16)
2016 Jul 8, Bangladeshi teenager Zakir Hossain Shawon (18), who police say was a suspect in last week's deadly attack on a Dhaka café, died in custody. His family insisted he was a hostage and alleging torture by security forces.
(AFP, 7/9/16)
2016 Jul 8, PM David Cameron announced that Britain is lifting a ban on women serving in frontline combat roles in the army.
(AP, 7/8/16)
2016 Jul 8, President Raul Castro told Cubans to brace for tough times because the Communist-run country must cut spending and energy supply as it deals with a cash crunch and reduced oil imports from ally Venezuela.
(Reuters, 7/9/16)
2016 Jul 8, El Salvador authorities said they have arrested five police officers and five civilians for alleged ties to a death squad that killed as many as 40 gang members in the eastern part of the country. According to prosecutors, a group of businesspeople, whose identities were not released, had brought together national police in some towns to offer them money in exchange for killing gang members.
(AP, 7/8/16)
2016 Jul 8, Indian PM Narendra Modi took his Africa tour to South Africa, seeking to boost trade between two countries.
(AFP, 7/8/16)
2016 Jul 8, Indian security services Jammu and Kashmir state shot dead Burhan Wani (22), a militant known for his calls to arms on social media and leader of Hizb-ul Mujahideen, one of a number of groups fighting Indian control of the Muslim-majority region.
(Reuters, 7/9/16)
2016 Jul 8, In Indonesia a military helicopter crashed into a house in a village near the city of Yogyakarta, killing 3 of the six people aboard.
(AP, 7/8/16)
2016 Jul 8, Iraqi PM Haider al-Abadi fired Baghdad's security chief following a recent series of attacks.
(AP, 7/8/16)
2016 Jul 8, Mongolia's parliament appointed Jargaltulga Erdenebayar (42), a former finance minister, as the new prime minister amid near-flat growth and spiraling debt.
(Reuters, 7/8/16)
2016 Jul 8, Leaders of the NATO military alliance met in Warsaw and began a landmark summit that will order ambitious actions against a daunting array of dangers to the security of their nations and citizenry, including a rearmed and increasingly unfriendly Russia to Europe's east and violent Islamic extremism to the south. Finland and Sweden joined NATO leaders at the top table for the first time as Russia's military build-up pushed the two countries closer to the western military alliance.
(AP, 7/8/16)(Reuters, 7/8/16)
2016 Jul 8, In Nigeria a suicide bomber killed at least 9 people and injured around 12 others in an attack on a mosque in Damboa, Borno state, during early morning prayers.
(Reuters, 7/8/16)
2016 Jul 8, Nigerian militants said they have blown up a crude oil pipeline belonging to Italian oil company Agip in Bayelsa state.
(AP, 7/8/16)
2016 Jul 8, In Pakistan national hero Abdul Sattar Edhi (92), the founder of the country's largest welfare organisation, died in Karachi.
(AFP, 7/9/16)
2016 Jul 8, South Korea and the United States said they would deploy an advanced missile defense system in South Korea to counter a threat from North Korea, drawing a sharp and swift protest from neighboring China.
(Reuters, 7/8/16)
2016 Jul 8, In South Sudan at least 115 soldiers from rival factions were killed in gunbattles in the capital Juba as gunfire erupted near the state house where President Salva Kiir and vice president Riek Machar, former rivals, were meeting for talks.
(Reuters, 7/9/16)
2016 Jul 8, In Spain six foreigners, including three Americans, were among seven people gored in a hair-raising second running of the bulls at Pamplona's San Fermin festival.
(AP, 7/8/16)
2016 Jul 8, In northwestern Syria airstrikes on a village killed 23 people and wounded dozens in Darkoush, Idlib province, despite a declared 3-day truce. Syrian rebels fired a rocket barrage on residential areas in the government side of Aleppo, killing 44 according to state media.
(AP, 7/8/16)(AP, 7/9/16)
2016 Jul 8, In Syria militants shot down a military helicopter near Palmyra, killing 2 Russian pilots on board.
(Reuters, 7/10/16)
2016 Jul 8, Super typhoon Nepartak hit Taiwan, driving thousands of people from their homes, disrupting power supplies and grounding more than 600 flights. The storm caused at least 3 deaths and more than 300 injuries.
(Reuters, 7/8/16)(Reuters, 7/9/16)
2016 Jul 8, Tanzania's High Court raising the legal age of marriage for girls to 18 and ruled that two sections of the 1971 Marriage Act, that allow girls to marry at 15 with parental consent and 14 with the permission of a court, are unconstitutional.
(Reuters, 7/12/16)
2016 Jul 8, Turkish fighter jets struck Kurdish militant targets in southeastern Hakkari province and northern Iraq. The Turkish Army reportedly "neutralized 17 separatist terror organization members" in Hakkari province and two militants in Van province.
(Reuters, 7/8/16)(AP, 7/9/16)
2017 Jul 8, US President Donald Trump promised $639 million in funding for humanitarian programs, including $331 million to help feed starving people in four famine-hit countries - Somalia, South Sudan, Nigeria and Yemen. Trump's pledge came during a working session of the G20 summit of world leaders in Hamburg.
(AP, 7/8/17)
2017 Jul 8, The World Bank launched a public-private loan program, conceived by Ivanka Trump, to support women entrepreneurs in developing countries. Initial funding of $325 million for the project included large donations from Germany, the United States, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
(Reuters, 7/8/17)(SSFC, 7/9/17, p.A4)
2017 Jul 8, A federal judge in San Francisco gave preliminary approval for a $142 million settlement by Wells Fargo in a class-action fraud suit over unauthorized accounts.
(SFC, 7/10/17, p.A4)
2017 Jul 8, In Hawaii Sgt. 1st Class Ikaika Kang was arrested after he pledged loyalty to Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. A court appointed defense attorney later said Kang may be suffering from service-related mental health issues.
(SFC, 7/12/17, p.A5)
2017 Jul 8, In Ohio two men opened fire on a party in Colerain Township where a pregnant woman was to reveal her child’s gender. One woman was killed and eight people wounded. One pregnant woman said she lost her baby after being shot in the leg, but police later reported that she was not pregnant.
(SFC, 7/10/17, p.A4)(SFC, 7/18/17, p.A5)
2017 Jul 8, In South Dakota four children and an adult were killed in a traffic crash on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.
(SFC, 7/11/17, p.A6)
2017 Jul 8, In San Antonio, Texas, Jorge Gonzalez found his son Isaiah (15) hanging from the closet. A propped up cell phone next to him had broadcast the suicide, believed to be tied to an online spectacle known as the Blue Whale Challenge. On July 10 CNN reported that a girl (16) in Atlanta had also taken her life while participating in the challenge.
(SFC, 7/12/17, p.A11)
2017 Jul 8, Chinese President Xi Jinping stressed to US President Donald Trump China's adherence to resolving the North Korean nuclear issue via talks according to state news agency Xinhua.
(Reuters, 7/9/17)
2017 Jul 8, Egyptian state news said security forces have killed two men, members of a newly emerged militant group called Hasm, in an exchange of gunfire in Giza.
(Reuters, 7/8/17)
2017 Jul 8, In Egypt an explosive device struck a police vehicle late today in the northern Sinai town of al-Arish, killing two conscripts and wounding nine others.
(AP, 7/9/17)
2017 Jul 8, Eritrean officials claimed "victory" after the UN cultural agency unanimously decided to put the African nation's capital city of Asmara on the UNESCO World Heritage list — the result of years of lobbying by one of the world's most reclusive governments.
(AP, 7/8/17)
2017 Jul 8, In Germany a final statement agreed by the leaders of the Group of 20 economic powers exposed a divide between the United States and other G20 members on the Paris climate accord aimed at combating climate change. The leaders of the other G20 members stated that the Paris Agreement is irreversible.
(Reuters, 7/8/17)
2017 Jul 8, In Germany anti-globalization activists rioted violently for a second night as Hamburg hosted G20 leaders, setting up street barricades, looting supermarkets and attacking police with slingshots and firebombs.
(AP, 7/8/17)
2017 Jul 8, Iraqi military commanders said they would take full control of the city from the insurgents at any moment. Islamic State militants vowed to “fight to the death".
(AP, 7/8/17)
2017 Jul 8, In southwestern Japan the death toll from several days of freak weather rose to 16 as rescue crews took advantage of a break in the weather on Saturday to search for survivors. At least 14 others remained missing.
(Reuters, 7/8/17)(SSFC, 7/9/17, p.A4)
2017 Jul 8, In Kashmir seven people were killed in cross-border shelling by both Pakistan and India as hundreds of militants and political activists took to the streets in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir to commemorate the death of Burhan Wani.
(Reuters, 7/8/17)
2017 Jul 8, In Kenya at least nine people were shot and hacked to death in coastal Lamu County early today. Police sources said Shabaab militants were believed to be behind the killings.
(AFP, 7/8/17)
2017 Jul 8, Kenya's interior minister and a retired general, died in a Nairobi hospital a month before the East African country's presidential election. Joseph Nkaissery was 68.
(AFP, 7/8/17)
2017 Jul 8, Libyan strongman Khalifa Haftar met with UAE leaders for talks on military cooperation, days after announcing the retaking of second city Benghazi from jihadists.
(AFP, 7/9/17)
2017 Jul 8, In Libya the bodies of 19 migrants, believed to be Egyptians, were found in the eastern desert south of Tobruk.
(Reuters, 7/9/17)
2017 Jul 8, The Libyan coastguard said thirty-five migrants, including seven children, were feared drowned after their inflatable boat sank off the Libyan coast.
(AFP, 7/8/17)
2017 Jul 8, In the southern Philippines a hostage was killed during a gunbattle between his militant captors and government troops that also left four militants and a soldier dead in mountainous Patikul town, Sulu province. The victim was one of six Vietnamese crewmen abducted by the militants in an attack on their cargo ship in February.
(AP, 7/13/17)
2017 Jul 8, Venezuela's best-known jailed opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez was back home and hugging his family after being granted house arrest following three years in jail for leading anti-government protests.
(Reuters, 7/8/17)
2018 Jul 8, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, speaking in Hanoi, appealed for North Korea's leadership to follow Vietnam's path in overcoming past hostilities with the United States. Pompeo called on North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to replicate Vietnam's "miracle" of economic growth by improving ties with the US.
(AP, 7/8/18)
2018 Jul 8, American film star Tab Hunter (b.1931) died in Santa Barbara. His films included "Battle Cry" and "Damn Yankees!" (1958). His recording of "Young Love" toped the Billboard pop chart in 1957.
(SFC, 7/10/18, p.A6)
2018 Jul 8, In Williamsburg, Va., a helicopter crashed into a residence and ignited a fire. The pilot was killed.
(SFC, 7/9/18, p.A4)
2018 Jul 8, British Brexit minister David Davis resigned late today and launched a no-holds-barred attack on PM May's Brexit plan, calling it "dangerous" and one which would give "too much away, too easily" to EU negotiators, who would simply ask for more.
(Reuters, 7/9/18)
2018 Jul 8, British police announced the death of Dawn Sturgess (44) following an exposure to the Novichok nerve agent a week earlier in Amesbury.
(AFP, 7/9/18)
2018 Jul 8, In England embattled Indian tycoon Vijay Mallya (62) said he will comply fully with court enforcement officers seeking to seize his British assets, but there was not much for them to take as his family's lavish residences were not in his name.
(Reuters, 7/8/18)
2018 Jul 8, Canadian author Michael Ondaatje's "The English Patient," which won the British Man Booker Prize in 1992, was named winner of the Golden Man Booker winner, a special award to mark the Booker's 50th anniversary.
(AP, 7/24/18)
2018 Jul 8, Eritrean President Isaias Afkweri met with Ethiopian PM Abiy Ahmed for a summit in Asmara for the first time in two decades as direct international telephone connection was restored between the two countries.
(Reuters, 7/8/18)
2018 Jul 8, A French judicial source said judges have decided to block 2 million euros of state subsidies due to be handed out to Marine Le Pen's far-right party, leading Le Pen to say her party was "threatened with death".
(Reuters, 7/8/18)
2018 Jul 8, In Haiti fresh looting broke out on the streets of Port-au-Prince, despite calls for calm after two days of deadly protests over ultimately suspended fuel price hikes.
(AFP, 7/8/18)
2018 Jul 8, Iraqi police opened fire to disperse dozens of protesters near the southern oil hub of Basra as they demonstrated against a shortage of jobs, electricity, water and other basic services.
(Reuters, 7/8/18)
2018 Jul 8, Italy's Interior Minister Matteo Salvini said the new government wants to prevent ships operating for "international missions" from bringing migrants rescued off Libya to Italian ports.
(AFP, 7/8/18)
2018 Jul 8, In western Japan the death toll from torrential rain and landslides rose to 81 people, with dozens still missing after more than 2,000, temporarily stranded in the city of Kurashiki, were rescued.
(Reuters, 7/8/18)
2018 Jul 8, In Kashmir police and soldiers fanned out across much of the Indian-controlled territory to enforce a security lockdown as separatists challenging Indian rule called for a shutdown and protests on the second anniversary of the killing of a charismatic rebel leader.
(AP, 7/8/18)
2018 Jul 8, Kuwait's highest court ordered an opposition leader and two lawmakers imprisoned for 3 ½ years over the 2011 storming of parliament amid that year's Arab Spring protests, in a case involving nearly 70 politicians, activists and others.
(AP, 7/8/18)
2018 Jul 8, Police in Pakistan arrested Mohammad Safdar, the convicted son-in-law of former PM Nawaz Sharif, after he resurfaced in the garrison city of Rawalpindi leading a rally of supporters.
(AP, 7/8/18)
2018 Jul 8, South Sudan's the presidency said former vice president Riek Machar will be reinstated in his position as part of a peace deal to end a near five-year-old war following talks held in Entebbe, Uganda.
(Reuters, 7/8/18)
2018 Jul 8, In Syria regime air strikes in the south killed four civilians. A rebel official said the evacuation of opposition fighters and their families to rebel-held areas in northern Syria was temporarily put on hold. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said tens of thousands have returned to their homes in southern Syria since a ceasefire deal between regime ally Russia and rebels to end more than two weeks of deadly bombardment.
(AFP, 7/8/18)
2018 Jul 8, In Thailand rescue operations began for the 12 Thai schoolboys and their coach from a flooded cave as divers launched a daring and dangerous mission to free the children and their soccer coach who have been trapped underground for more than two weeks.
(Reuters, 7/8/18)
2018 Jul 8, In Tunisia at least six members of the national guard were killed in an apparent attack by an armed group near the Algerian border.
(AP, 7/8/18)
2018 Jul 8, Turkish authorities ordered the dismissal of more than 18,500 state employees, including police officers, soldiers and academics, ahead of the expected end of a two-year state of emergency this month.
(AP, 7/8/18)
2018 Jul 8, In western Turkey 24 people were killed when a multiple cars of a train derailed in Tekirdag province.
(SFC, 7/9/18, p.A2)(SFC, 7/10/18, p.A2)
2019 Jul 8, A US federal judge blocked a White House initiative on prescription drug costs, saying the Trump administration lacked the legal authority to require drug makers to disclose their prices in TV ads.
(SFC, 7/10/19, p.A7)
2019 Jul 8, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed a new law that directs state officials to share state returns of certain elected and appointed officials upon request from the chairpersons of several top congressional committees.
(SFC, 7/9/19, p.A5)
2019 Jul 8, Egypt said it has asked Interpol to help track down a 3,000-year-old sculpture of the famed boy pharaoh Tutankhamun after Christie's auctioned it off last week, for more than 4.7 million pounds ($5.9 million), despite Cairo's objections.
(AP, 7/9/19)
2019 Jul 8, A government spokesman says Germany isn't considering sending ground troops to Syria as part of its contribution to fighting the Islamic State group.
(AP, 7/8/19)
2019 Jul 8, Iran began enriching uranium to 4.5%, just breaking the limit set by its nuclear deal with world powers, while it is still seeking a way for Europe to help it bypass US sanctions amid heightened tensions between Tehran and Washington.
(AP, 7/8/19)
2019 Jul 8, Israel's military shot down a drone that crossed into its territory from the Gaza Strip and discovered an attack tunnel running under the Gaza perimeter fence.
(AP, 7/8/19)
2019 Jul 8, The Int'l. Criminal Court (ICC) in the Netherlands convicted Bosco Ntaganda, a former rebel commander known as "The Terminator," of 18 counts of crimes against humanity for his role in a bloody ethnic conflict in the Congo DRC in 2002-2003.
(SFC, 7/9/19, p.A4)
2019 Jul 8, Amnesty International urgently called for international pressure and an immediate UN investigation to help end what it says are possible crimes against humanity in the Philippine president's bloody anti-drug crackdown.
(AP, 7/8/19)
2019 Jul 8, The United Arab Emirates said it was redeploying and reducing troops across war-torn Yemen and moving from a "military-first" strategy to a "peace-first" plan.
(AFP, 7/8/19)
2019 Jul 8, UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet said that she was "deeply shocked" by conditions under which migrants and refugees are held at US detention centers, following reports of severe overcrowding and disease-ridden cells.
(AFP, 7/8/19)
2019 Jul 8, The UN Global Study on Homicide 2919 said some 464,000 homicides were recorded around the world in 2017, far more than the number pf people killed in armed conflicts and terrorist attacks.
(AP, 7/8/19)
2019 Jul 8, The UN said war-battered Yemen has been hit with more than 460,000 suspected cholera cases so far this year — a sharp rise from the 380,000 cases for all of 2018.
(AP, 7/9/19)
2020 Jul 8, President Donald Trump threatened to withhold federal funding if schools don’t reopen in the fall, and he lashed out at federal health officials over school reopening guidelines that he says are impractical and expensive.
(AP, 7/8/20)
2020 Jul 8, The US Supreme Court ruled 7-2 to uphold Trump administration rules allowing some employers to decline to provide contraceptive coverage on religious or moral grounds, which could leave more than 70,000 women without cost-free birth control.
(AP, 7/8/20)
2020 Jul 8, California to date had 290,199 cases of coronavirus and 6,575 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 31,808 cases and 626 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 3,046,351 with the death toll at 132,195.
(sfist.com, 7/8/20)
2020 Jul 8, TV show Glee star Naya Rivera disappeared at California's Lake Piru. A boat rental employee found her boat floating with only son Josey (4) asleep inside and alerted authorities.
(AP, 7/10/20)
2020 Jul 8, Police in Miami arrested the former governor of the Mexican state of Chihuahua, César Horacio Duarte Jáquez (b.1963), who is wanted on corruption charges in his homeland. Duarte governed the northern border state from 2010 to 2016.
(The Telegraph, 7/9/20)
2020 Jul 8, Florida announced nearly 9,000 new cases and 120 new coronavirus deaths, a record daily increase in lives lost. Positive test rates reached a new daily high of 18%, up from 12%-13% two weeks ago.
(AP, 7/9/20)(SFC, 7/9/20, p.A7)
2020 Jul 8, Dylan Jarrell (22) of Kentucky, who bought an AR-15 rifle that authorities alleged he planned to use to open fire at his former high school in 2018, was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
(NBC News, 7/8/20)
2020 Jul 8, Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology filed a federal lawsuit challenging the Trump administration's decision to bar international students from staying in the US if they take classes entirely online this fall.
(AP, 7/8/20)
2020 Jul 8, Two powerful tornadoes damaged farms, left one person dead and at least one other injured in western Minnesota as severe storms moved across parts of the Midwest.
(AP, 7/9/20)
2020 Jul 8, New York-based Brooks Brothers, a 202-year-old men's retailer, filed for bankruptcy and said it is closing 51 stores across the country.
(SFC, 7/9/20, p.C1)
2020 Jul 8, Tulsa City-County Health Department Director Dr. Bruce Dart said President Donald Trump's campaign rally in Tulsa in late June that drew thousands of participants and large protests "likely contributed" to a dramatic surge in new coronavirus cases.
(AP, 7/8/20)
2020 Jul 8, Texas executed its first death row inmate since it first confirmed a case of coronavirus after a Supreme Court ruling allowed his execution to go ahead. Billy Joe Wardlow (45) was sentenced to death in 1993 for a robbery and murder in which he and his girlfriend tried to rob 82-year-old Carl Cole of his truck using a .45-caliber gun.
(The Independent, 7/9/20)
2020 Jul 8, Texas has recorded over 200,000 confirmed coronavirus cases and more than 2,670 deaths.
(SFC, 7/9/20, p.A7)
2020 Jul 8, Work crews in Virginia took down the Confederate Soldiers and Sailors statue, installed in 1894, the 6th Confederate monument to be removed in Richmond amid national protests against police brutality and symbols many see as racist icons.
(SFC, 7/9/20, p.A5)
2020 Jul 8, Biogen Inc said it has submitted an application seeking US approval of its closely-watched Alzheimer's drug, as the company aims to be the first to bring a treatment to market that can alter the course of the mind-wasting disease.
(Reuters, 7/8/20)
2020 Jul 8, BlueCity listed on New York's NASDAQ at a market valley of over $600 million. BlueCity Holdings Limited is a China-based LGBTQ focused internet technology company dedicated to providing comprehensive services to diverse users around the world. Blued, launched in 2012, is china's most popular social networking site for homosexual men.
(Econ., 7/18/20, p.54)
2020 Jul 8, In Afghanistan a suicide truck bomber targeted a police district headquarters in southern Kandahar province, killing three officers. Three other police officers, including a district police chief, were killed in a roadside bombing in eastern Ghazni province.
(AP, 7/8/20)
2020 Jul 8, In Australia the city of Melbourne and part of its surroundings began a six-week lockdown. Victoria authorities announced 134 new cases in the past 24 hours.
(SFC, 7/9/20, p.A7)
2020 Jul 8, The Brazilian Supreme Court ruled that Brazil must take emergency measures to protect its Indigenous communities from the novel coronavirus.
(The Conversation, 7/9/20)
2020 Jul 8, Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported that at least 180 bodies have been found in mass graves in northern Burkina Faso where soldiers are fighting jihadists. The men had been found shot dead under bridges, in fields and along major roads within a 5km (three-mile) radius of Djibo between November 2019 and June 2020.
(BBC, 7/8/20)
2020 Jul 8, China defended the World Health Organization and lashed out at the US decision to withdraw from the UN body.
(AP, 7/8/20)
2020 Jul 8, It was reported that China has imported more than 300,000 tons of West African rosewood (Pterocarpus erinaceus) from The Gambia since President Adama Barrow came to power in 2017. The rosewood being shipped out of The Gambia to China comes from the Casamance region of southern Senegal, where it is illegal to fell or export a rosewood tree.
(BBC, 7/8/20)
2020 Jul 8, In Hong Kong Beijing's national security office was inaugurated. Hong Kong's educational bureau announced that schools must not allow students to play, sing or broadcast the protest anthem" Glory to Hong Kong," because it contains political images.
(SFC, 7/9/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 8, Iran said that its deaths from the novel coronavirus had surpassed 12,000, with authorities considering reimposing restrictive measures in Tehran to contain a resurgence of the disease. Another 153 deaths had been recorded over the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 12,084. Total cases had risen to 248,379 with 2,691 more people testing positive.
(AP, 7/8/20)
2020 Jul 8, Ivory Coast's PM Amadou Gon Coulibaly (61) died after falling ill at a ministerial meeting. Coulibaly had only just returned from France where he had received two-months' heart treatment.
(BBC, 7/8/20)(Econ., 8/15/20, p.43)
2020 Jul 8, Lebanese businessman Kassim Tajideen (64), serving a five-year sentence in the United States for providing millions of dollars to the militant Hezbollah group, arrived in Beirut after his early release.
(AFP, 7/8/20)
2020 Jul 8, Pakistan's national carrier said it is firing 28 pilots found to have tainted licenses. 262 pilots are currently grounded in the country.
(SFC, 7/9/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 8, Palestinian PM Mohammad Shtayyeh said 82 percent of new coronavirus cases in the West Bank were linked to weddings and funerals. Over the past few weeks more than 4,000 new cases and 15 deaths have been reported.
(SFC, 7/9/20, p.A7)
2020 Jul 8, It was reported that Ukraine's security service has detained a suspected Russian agent who was allegedly planning to blow up an ammonia tank in the country’s war-torn east.
(The Telegraph, 7/8/20)
2020 Jul 8, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned the Security Council that the conflict in Libya has entered a new phase "with foreign interference reaching unprecedented levels".
(Reuters, 7/8/20)
2020 Jul 8, The UN warned that lives are at risk as the new coronavirus pandemic has led to a surge in the trafficking of substandard masks, sanitizers and other medical products.
(AFP, 7/8/20)
2020 Jul 8, A Russian bid to get the United Nations to reduce cross-border humanitarian aid to war-torn Syria was voted down by the Security Council. Authorization for aid, which comes through two crossing points on the Turkish border, expires on July 10.
(AFP, 7/8/20)
2020 Jul 8, The WHO said Sri Lanka and Maldives have become the first two countries in the World Health Organization's South-East Asia region to eliminate both measles and rubella ahead of a 2023 target.
(AP, 7/8/20)
2020 Jul 8, Yemen's UN humanitarian coordinator said the country is once again on the brink of famine as donor funds that averted catastrophe just 18 months ago have dried up.
(AFP, 7/8/20)
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For Asian History: https://www.asiaobserver.org/category/news/on-this-day-in-asian-history
810 Jul 8, Pepin, son of Charlemagne and King of Italy, died.
(MC, 7/8/02)
1099 Jul 8, In Jerusalem 15,000 starving Christian soldiers marched around barefoot while the Muslim defenders mocked them from the battlements.
(HN, 5/23/99)
1497 Jul 8, Vasco da Gama, Portuguese explorer, departed on a trip to India. He sailed from Lisbon enroute to Calicut, India. His journey took him around South Africa and opened the Far East to European trade and colonial expansion.
(V.D.-H.K.p.143)(WUD, 1994, p.1672)(www.indhistory.com/vasco-da-gama.html)
1538 Jul 8, Diego de Almagro (63), Spanish conquistador (Chile and Peru), died.
(MC, 7/8/02)
1545 Jul 8, Don Carlos, son of Spanish king Philip II (protagonist in Schiller's drama; hero in Verdi opera), was born.
(MC, 7/8/02)
1549 Jul 8, Kett's Rebellion began in Norfolk, England, during the reign of Edward VI, largely in response to the enclosure of land. It started at Wymondham when a group of rebels destroyed fences that had been put up by wealthy landowners. One of their targets was yeoman farmer Robert Kett who, instead of resisting the rebels, agreed to their demands and offered to lead them.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kett%27s_Rebellion)
1621 Jul 8, Jean La Fontaine, poet and author of Fables, was born.
(HN, 7/8/98)
1686 Jul 8, The Austrians took Budapest, Hungary, from the Turks and annexed the country.
(HN, 7/8/01)
1695 Jul 8, Christian Huygens (66), Dutch inventor, astronomer, died. He generally wrote his name as Christiaan Hugens, and it is also sometimes written as Huyghens. In his book “Cosmotheros," published in 1698, he speculated on life on other planets.
(http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bl_huygens.htm)
1709 Jul 8, Peter the Great defeated Charles XII at Poltava, in the Ukraine, effectively ending the Swedish empire. [N.S. see June 28].
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Poltava)
1730 Jul 8, A magnitude 8.7 earthquake in Valparasio, Chile, killed at least 3,000 people.
(AP, 2/27/10)
1740 Jul 8, Pierre Vigne (b.1670), Frenchman, died. He founded the Congregation of Sisters of the Most Holy Sacrament. In 2004 he was beatified by Pope John Paul VI.
(AP, 10/3/04)(www.catholic-forum.com)
1755 Jul 8, Britain broke off diplomatic relations with France as their disputes in the New World intensified.
(HN, 7/8/98)
1758 Jul 8, During the French and Indian War a British attack on Fort Carillon at Ticonderoga, New York, was foiled by the French. Some 3,500 Frenchmen defeated the British army of 15,000, which lost 2,000 men.
(HN, 7/8/98)(AH, 10/02, p.27)
1776 Jul 8, Col. John Nixon gave the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence to a crowd gathered at Independence Square in Philadelphia. The reading was announced by the "Liberty Bell." The bell had the inscription: "proclaim liberty throughout all the land onto all the inhabitants thereof."
(AP, 7/8/97)(SFEC, 8/16/98, p.T5)
1777 Jul 8, Vermont became the 1st American colony to abolish slavery.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Vermont)
1778 Jul 8, George Washington headquartered his Continental Army at West Point.
(MC, 7/8/02)
1794 Jul 8, French troops captured Brussels, Belgium.
(HN, 7/8/98)
1800 Jul 8, Dr. Benjamin Waterhouse gave the 1st cowpox vaccination to his son to prevent smallpox. [see May 14, 1796]
(MC, 7/8/02)
1802 Jul 8, Gen. Toussaint L'Ouverture of Saint-Domingue (later Haiti) was sent to France in chains.
(AP, 4/7/03)(ON, 2/10, p.9)
1803 Jul 8, Frederick Augustus Hervey (b.1730), the 4th Earl of Bristol and Bishop of Derry, died. He had toured Europe with his own cook and entourage and inspired a number of hotels to take on the Bristol name.
(WSJ, 9/27/08, p.A1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Hervey,_4th_Earl_of_Bristol)
1815 Jul 8, With Napoleon defeated, Louis XVIII returned to Paris.
(HN, 7/8/98)
1822 Jul 8, Percy Bysshe Shelley (b.1792), English poet, drowned while sailing in Italy at age 29.
(HN, 7/8/01)
1826 Jul 8, Luther Martin (b.1748), Maryland lawyer and former delegate to the Constitutional Convention, died in NYC. In 2008 Bill Kaufman authored “Forgotten Founder, Drunken Prophet: The Life of Luther Martin."
(WSJ, 9/20/08, p.A21)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luther_Martin)
1835 Jul 8, The US Liberty Bell in Philadelphia cracked while being tolled for Chief Justice John Marshall. It was never rung again.
(HFA, ‘96, p.34)(HN, 7/6/98)(WSJ, 12/10/96, p.A20)
1838 Jul 8, Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin (d.1917), German designer and manufacturer of airships, was born.
(HN, 7/8/98)(WUD, 1994, p.1660)
1839 Jul 8, John D. Rockefeller (d.1937), financier, philanthropist, founder of Standard Oil, was born on a farm in Richford, New York. He moved into the refining end of the oil business and gobbled up competitors. The 1890 Sherman Anti-Trust Act forced the breakup of his Standard Oil Co. Ron Chernow later published "Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller." His philanthropy totaled over $500 million and included the founding of the Univ. of Chicago and the Rockefeller Inst. For medical Research, later Rockefeller Univ.
(HN, 7/8/98)(WSJ, 1/11/98, p.R18)(AP, 7/8/99)
1851 Jul 8, Sir Arthur John Evans, English archaeologist who excavated Knossos, Crete, was born.
(MC, 7/8/02)
1853 Jul 8, An expedition led by Commodore Matthew Perry arrived in Edo Bay, Uraga, Japan, on a mission to seek diplomatic and trade relations with the Japanese. Perry sailed his flagship USS Susquehanna into Edo Bay. He soon forced Japan to open its ports with his big gunboats, the steam-powered “Black Ships."
(AP, 7/8/97)(SFEC, 1/25/98, Z1 p.2)(ON, 11/04, p.9)
1859 Jul 8, With the signing of the truce at Villafranca Austria ceded Lombardy to France. France also received Nice and Savoy.
(HN, 7/8/99)
1862 Jul 8, Odore R. Timby patented a revolving gun turret.
(MC, 7/8/02)
1863 Jul 8, Discouraged by the surrender of Vicksburg, Mississippi, Confederates in Port Hudson, Louisiana, surrendered to Union forces.
(HN, 7/8/98)
1864 Jul 8, Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston retreated into Atlanta to prevent being flanked by Union General William T. Sherman.
(HN, 7/8/98)
1865 Jul 8, C.E. Barnes of Lowell, MA, patented the machine gun.
(MC, 7/8/02)
1869 Jul 8, William Vaughan Moody, poet and playwright (The Great Divide), was born.
(HN, 7/8/01)
1876 Jul 8, White terrorists attacked Black Republicans in Hamburg, SC, and killed 5.
(MC, 7/8/02)
1879 Jul 8, The first ship to use electric lights departed from San Francisco, California.
(HN, 7/8/98)
1879 Jul 8, The steamship USS Jeannette under Lt. George W. De Long departed San Francisco on an expedition to reach the North Pole. [see June 12, 1881]
(ON, 2/05, p.1)
1881 Jul 8, Edward Berner of Two Rivers, Wisconsin, created the Sundae.
(MC, 7/8/02)
1882 Jul 8, Percy Grainger, composer, pianist, conductor (Hill Songs), was born in Melbourne.
(MC, 7/8/02)
1889 Jul 8, In Mississippi Jake Kilrain (1859-1937) fought boxing champion John L. Sullivan in the last world heavyweight championship prizefight decided with bare knuckles under London Prize Ring rules in history. Sullivan defeated Kilrain in a match that went to 75 rounds.
(AH, 2/06, p.29)(http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Sullivan_-_Kilrain_Fight)
1889 Jul 8, Dow Jones & Co. turned its “Customer’s Afternoon Letter" into a full-fledged newspaper and co-founder Charles Bergstresser dubbed it the Wall Street Journal.
(AP, 7/8/97)(WSJ, 5/2/07, p.C1)
1889 Jun 8, Gerard Manley Hopkins (54), poet, died.
(MC, 6/8/02)
1891 Jul 8, Warren G. Harding married Florence K. DeWolfe in Marion, Ohio.
(AP, 7/8/97)
1896 Jun 8, William Jennings Bryan propelled himself to presidential candidacy when he stood before the Democratic Convention and made his famous “Cross of Gold" speech. The paramount issue in the 1896 presidential election was one of economics—the U.S. government promised to pay the holder of one dollar bill one dollar in gold. Democrats, farmers and westerners demanded that the government redeem paper money in silver as well, while Republicans and easterners protested that this policy would destroy the economy. It was on this dull, technical issue that 36-year-old William Jennings Bryan, a former congressman from Nebraska, launched his national political career. When he made his “Cross of Gold" speech, the Democrats had no strong presidential candidate. His dramatic words—“You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns; you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold!"—electrified his audience and resulted in his nomination for president in 1896. [see Jul 9]
(HNQ, 6/8/98)(MC, 7/8/02)
1898 Jul 8, Alec Waugh (d.1981), novelist (Island in the Sun); brother of Evelyn, was born in London. "If we knew where opinion ended and fact began, we should have discovered, I suppose, the absolute."
(AP, 2/9/00)(MC, 7/8/02)
1898 Jul 8, US battle fleet under Adm. Dewey occupied Isla Grande at Manila.
(MC, 7/8/02)
1905 Jul 8, The mutinous crew of the battleship Potemkin surrendered to Rumanian authorities.
(HN, 7/8/98)
1906 Jul 8, Philip C. Johnson, architect, was born.
(HN, 7/8/01)
1907 Jul 8, SF Mayor Eugene Schmitz was sentenced to 5 years in San Quentin for graft and bribery, but the conviction was later overturned. Others were forced out of office for accepting bribes from the telephone company, gas company, trolley company, local skating rinks and boxing promoters. Dr. Charles A. Boxton (d.1927) admitted to taking bribes and was granted immunity by District Attorney W.H. Langdon for his testimony. Boxton was then appointed temporary mayor for one week in place of Mayor Schmitz and then resigned. The Native Sons of California promptly struck Boxton from their rolls. Schmitz was later elected to the SF Board of Supervisors. One of the bribes was a $200,000 payment to the SF supervisors from Patrick Henry Calhoun, president of the United Railroads, which operated nearly all of the city’s public transit lines.
(SFC, 9/9/96, p.E8)(SFC, 9/30/99, p.E5)(SFEC, 12/26/99, p.W3)(SSFC, 4/15/07, p.B5)
1907 Jul 8, George W. Romney, later governor of Michigan, was born into a Mormon family in Chihuahua, Mexico. He later was a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination until he admitted that he had been "brainwashed" by the military on the Vietnam War.
(HN, 7/8/98)(SSFC, 2/25/07, p.A4)(SSFC, 2/25/07, p.A4)
1907 Jul 8, Florenz Ziegfeld staged his first "Follies" on the roof of the New York Theater in New York City.
(AP, 7/8/97)
1908 Jul 8, Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller, businessman and philanthropist, was born in Bar Harbor, Maine. The liberal Republican served as governor of New York and then as vice president of the United States under Pres. Gerald Ford (1974-77).
(AP, 7/8/08)
1915 Jul 8, Charles Hard Townes, physicist (developed lasers), was born in Greenville, SC.
(MC, 7/8/02)
1918 Jul 8, Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961), Nobel Prize winning writer, was wounded in Italy while working as an ambulance driver for the American Red Cross. He was later awarded the Italian Silver Medal of Military Valor. Hemingway enlisted in a Red Cross ambulance unit in 1917 during World War I. He was commissioned a second lieutenant and served on the Italian front. After WWI he reported from the battlefields of the Spanish Civil War for American newspapers. His book "Farewell to Arms" was based on his experiences in WWI.
(HNQ, 7/28/99)(HN, 7/8/01)
1919 Jul 8, President Wilson received a tumultuous welcome in New York City after his return from the Versailles Peace Conference in France.
(AP, 7/8/97)
1921 Jul 8, Great Britain and Ireland agreed to end hostilities after centuries of strife. In December British and Irish representatives signed a treaty in London providing for creation of an Irish Free State a year later on the same date. Southern Ireland was granted independence and 6 counties in Northern Ireland remained part of the UK.
(SFC, 10/14/99, p.C5)(AP, 12/6/06)
1926 Jul 8, Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, author, physician, educator, was born.
(MC, 7/8/02)
1932 Jul 8, The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 41.22, with an intra-day low of 40.56, its lowest point during the Great Depression.
(WSJ, 11/22/08, p.B1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dow_Jones_Industrial_Average)
1937 Jul 8, In San Francisco a 3-month hotel strike continued as union members demonstrated in front of the Hotel Manx on Powell St. Owner Harvey M. Toy protested with a telegram to Mayor Rossi.
(SSFC, 7/8/12, p.42)
1939 Jul 8, Henry Havelock Ellis (80), English sexologist (Man & Woman), died.
(MC, 7/8/02)
1941 Jul 8, Twenty B-17s flew in their first mission with the Royal Air Force over Wilhelmshaven, Germany.
(HN, 7/8/98)
1941 Jul 8, All Jews living in Baltic States were obligated to wear Star of David.
(MC, 7/8/02)
1943 Jul 8, Faye Wattleton, women's rights advocate, was born.
(HN, 7/8/98)
1943 Jul 8, American B-24 bombers struck Japanese-held Wake Island for the first time. An obscure U.S. Navy fighter did yeoman duty when times were toughest early in World War II.
(HN, 7/8/98)
1943 Jul 8, US invasion fleet passed Bizerta, Tunisia.
(MC, 7/8/02)
1943 Jul 8, The 4th day of battle at Kursk: Gen Model used his last tank reserve.
(MC, 7/8/02)
1943 Jul 8, Jean "Max" Moulin (b. Jun 20, 1899), French resistance fighter, was executed.
(www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/moulin_jean.shtml)
1944 Jul 8, Japanese kamikaze attacked US lines at Saipan.
(MC, 7/8/02)
1946 Jul 8, Aleksander V. Aleksandrov (63), Russian composer, conductor, died.
(MC, 7/8/02)
1947 Jul 8, The American League defeated the National League, 2-1, in the All-Star game played at Chicago's Wrigley Field.
(AP, 7/8/97)
1947 Jul 8, Demolition work began in New York City to make way for the new permanent headquarters of the United Nations.
(AP, 7/8/97)
1947 Jul 8, In New Mexico the Roswell Daily Record reported the military’s capture of a flying saucer. It became know as the Roswell Incident. Officials later called the debris a "harmless, high-altitude weather balloon. In 1994 the Air Force released a report saying the wreckage was part of a device used to spy on the Soviets.
(SFC, 6/23/96, p.T4)(USAT, 6/28/96, p.7D)
1948 Jul 8, The 500th anniversary of the Russian orthodox church was celebrated in Moscow.
(MC, 7/8/02)
1949 Jul 8, Vietta M. Bates became the first enlisted woman sworn into the U.S. Army when legislation was passed making the Women's Auxiliary Army Corps part of the regular Army.
(HN, 7/8/98)
1950 Jul 8, President Harry Truman named US Gen. Douglas MacArthur as commander-in-chief of United Nations forces assisting the South Koreans.
(WSJ, 6/24/96, C1)(AP, 7/8/97)(HN, 7/8/99)
1953 Jul 8, Anna Quindlen, novelist, was born.
(HN, 7/8/01)
1953 Jul 8, Neill Sheridan (31), a baseball player for the Pacific Coast League Sacramento Solons, hit a home run against the SF Seals at Sacramento’s Edmond’s Field. The ball reportedly flew a record 613.8 feet.
(SSFC, 1/26/14, p.B1)
1954 Jul 8, The raft Lehi with 5 amateur sailors was towed out of SF Bay to attempt a 2,200 drifting voyage to Hawaii. Mormon elder DeVere Baker (38) led the expedition. The freighter Metapan rescued the crew on July 14.
(SFC, 7/9/04, p.F5)
1954 Jul 8, Carlos Castillo Armas of Guatemala became president. He was assassinated in 1957.
(WUD, 1994, p.1685)
1957 Jul 8, Irish premier Eamon de Valera arrested Sinn-Fein leaders.
(MC, 7/8/02)
1957 Jul 8, William Cadbury (89), chocolate maker, died.
(MC, 7/8/02)
1958 Jul 8, President Eisenhower began a visit to Canada, where he conferred with Prime Minister John Diefenbaker and addressed the Canadian Parliament.
(AP, 7/8/08)
1960 Jul 8, The Soviet Union charged Francis Gary Powers, whose U-2 spy plane was shot down over the country, with espionage.
(HN, 7/8/98)
1961 Jul 8, John Profumo, Britain’s Secretary of State for War, met Christine Keeler, at a party at Cliveden. Profumo kept in contact with Keeler and they eventually began an affair.
(http://spartacus-educational.com/PRprofumo.htm)
1963 Jul 8, Reports were made of Charlie Finley's intention to move KC A's baseball team to Oakland.
(MC, 7/8/02)
1963 Jul 8, US banned all monetary transactions with Cuba.
(MC, 7/8/02)
1966 Jul 8, A US airline strike began and lasted until Aug 19th.
(MC, 7/8/02)
1968 Jul 8, Golda Meir resigned from her post as secretary of the Labor Party.
(www.jafi.org.il/education/jafi75/timeline5i.html)
1971 Jul 8, In Northern Ireland the British army used lead bullets for the first time. Seamus Cusack (28) and Desmond Beattie (19) were killed.
(http://tinyurl.com/ya9evj75)(Econ, 3/25/17, p.82)
1972 Jul 8, The US signed an agreement to sell grain to USSR for $750 million. Soviet grain buyers over 6 weeks purchased the US grain. This was later called the "great grain robbery" and the privately-held agribusiness giant Cargill played a major role. The story of Cargill was told in the 1998 book "Cargill Going Global" by Wayne Broehl Jr.
(http://tinyurl.com/5qvx8c)(PC, 1992, p.1040)
1972 Jul 8, In Illinois Julie Ann Hanson (15) was reported missing after last being seen riding her brother's bicycle away from her home to go to a baseball game. Her body was discovered the following day in a field in Naperville. She had been stabbed 36 times and sexually assaulted. In 2021 DNA evidence and genetic genealogy led to the arrest of Barry Lee Whelpley (76) of Mounds View, Minn.
(Fox News, 6/4/21)
1974 Jul 8, Trudeau's Liberal Party won Canadian parliamentary election.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_federal_election,_1974)
1975 Jul 8, President Ford announced he would seek the Republican nomination for the presidency in 1976.
(AP, 7/8/97)
1975 Jul 8, An earthquake struck Pagan (Bagan), Burma, and destroyed many monuments.
(Econ, 2/28/04, p.42)(www.myanmars.net/travel/bagan.htm)
1975 Jul 8, Israeli premier Yitzhak Rabin began a 4-day visit to West-Germany.
(http://tinyurl.com/4c5zyo)
1976 Jul 8, A volcano erupted on Guadeloupe and frightened the capital, Basse-Terre. A phreatic eruption of the Soufriere volcano cracked open the summit dome
(www.ipgp.jussieu.fr/~beaudu/soufriere/smithsonian76.html#sean_0109)
1982 Jul 8, In Dujail, Iraq, 17 Islamic militants, furious over the execution of a Shiite leader, opened fire on a presidential convoy and killed several people, but Saddam Hussein escaped. In retaliation 247,000 acres of orchards and palm groves, the town's primary source of income, were destroyed in retribution. 386 people were locked up until 1986. Some 900 people were taken away and about 380 were killed.
(AP, 5/28/03)(SFC, 3/8/05, p.A10)
1986 Jul 8, Kurt Waldheim was inaugurated as president of Austria despite controversy over his alleged ties to Nazi war crimes. He was barred from entering the US due to his services as an officer in a German army unit implicated in war crimes in the Balkans. Waldheim served to 1992.
(SFC, 2/17/96, p.A14)(AP, 7/8/97)
1986 Jul 8, Admiral Hyman G. Rickover (86), widely regarded as "father of the nuclear navy," died in Arlington, Va.
(AP, 7/8/06)
1987 Jul 8, Lt. Col. Oliver North became a daytime TV star as the Iran-Contra hearings were televised throughout the US. Under questioning by committee counsel John Nields, North said the issue of his security system was first broached immediately after a threat by Abu Nidal.
(http://www.talkleft.com/new_archives/000742.html)
1987 Jul 8, Kitty Dukakis, wife of Massachusetts governor and Democratic presidential candidate Michael S. Dukakis, revealed she'd been addicted to amphetamines for 26 years but had sought help and was drug-free. She later admitted to dependence on alcohol, and entered a recovery program.
(AP, 7/8/97)
1987 Jul 8, Kiwanis Clubs voted to admit women and ended its men-only tradition.
(www.tcfn.org/kiwanistci/about.html)
1988 Jul 8, Iran's parliamentary speaker, Hashemi Rafsanjani, said his nation would not seek revenge against the United States for shooting down an Iranian jetliner over the Persian Gulf, killing 290 people.
(AP, 7/8/98)
1989 Jul 8, Carlos Saul Menem was inaugurated as president of Argentina in the country's first transfer of power from one democratically elected civilian leader to another in six decades.
(AP, 7/8/99)
1990 Jul 8, Sweden’s Stefan Edberg beat Boris Becker of West Germany to capture his second men’s tennis championship at Wimbledon.
(AP, 7/8/00)
1990 Jul 8, West Germany won the World Cup soccer championship by defeating Argentina, 1-to-0.
(AP, 7/8/00)
1991 Jul 8, Reversing earlier denials, Iraq disclosed for the first time that it was carrying out a nuclear weapons program, including the production of enriched uranium.
(AP, 7/8/01)
1992 Jul 8, Russian President Boris Yeltsin met with Group of Seven leaders holding their economic summit in Munich, Germany, where he offered a startling proposal to swap factories, energy resources and other properties for Russian debt.
(AP, 7/8/97)
1993 Jul 8, A jury in Boise, Idaho, acquitted white separatist Randy Weaver and a co-defendant of slaying a federal marshal in a shootout at a remote mountain cabin.
(AP, 7/8/03)
1993 Jul 8, Leaders of the Group of Seven, in the second day of their Tokyo summit, warned against the dismembering of Bosnia, but backed away from a threat to use force.
(AP, 7/8/03)
1993 Jul 8, In Latvia Guntis Ulmanis was sworn in as president.
(BN, 10/97, p.3)
1994 Jul 8, O.J. Simpson was ordered to stand trial on charges of murdering his ex-wife, Nicole, and her friend, Ronald Goldman.
(AP, 7/8/99)
1994 Jul 8, The space shuttle "Columbia" blasted off on a two-week mission.
(AP, 7/8/99)
1994 Jul 8, Leaders of the Group of Seven nations opened their 20th annual economic summit in Italy. Silvio Berlusconi hosted the G-7 summit in Naples.
(SFC, 2/13/98, p.A12)(AP, 7/8/99)(Econ, 1/22/05, p.46)
1994 Jul 8, Kim Il Sung ("Great Leader"), North Korea's communist leader since 1948, died at age 82. His son Kim Jong Il ("The Dear Leader") succeeded him.
(AP, 7/8/97)(WSJ, 6/26/97, p.A14)
1995 Jul 8, Steffi Graf won the women’s singles title at Wimbledon, defeating Arantxa Sanchez Vicario.
(AP, 7/8/00)
1995 Jul 8, Chinese-American human rights activist Harry Wu, detained on June 19, was arrested in China and charged with obtaining state secrets. He was later convicted of espionage and deported.
(AP, 7/8/00)
1995 Jul 8, A deadly heat wave began in the midsection of the US. It claimed more than 800 lives, more than half of them in Illinois.
(AP, 7/8/00)
1995 Jul 8, In Bosnia shelling resumed and the Dutch abandoned 3 posts under direct fire. 30 Dutch troops were taken by the Serbs to Bratunac.
(SFC, 6/4/96, p.A12)
1996 Jul 8, The Shuttle Columbia landed after a record flight of 16 days, 21 hours, 48 minutes and 30 sec.
(SFC, 7/8/96, p.A2)
1996 Jul 8, Hurricane Bertha slammed into the US Virgin Islands with torrential rains and winds that gusted to 105 mph.
(WSJ, 7/9/96, p.A1)(AP, 7/8/97)
1996 Jul 8, A 1975 JetRanger Bell Helicopter crashed in Salem, Ohio and killed all 5 people onboard.
(SFC, 7/9/96, p.A3)
1996 Jul 8, In Niger the military ruler suspended the Independent National electoral commission after early results showed him losing.
(WSJ, 7/9/96, p.A1)(WSJ, 1/2/98, p.8)
1996 Jul 8, In Northern Ireland Michael McGoldrick Jr. (31), a taxi driver, was abducted and fatally shot, two days after graduating from a Belfast university. He was the first victim of the Loyalist Volunteer Force, an outlawed Protestant gang that opposed Northern Ireland's peace process.
(AP, 4/5/06)
1997 Jul 8, The Senate Governmental Affairs Committee opened politically charged hearings into fund-raising abuses, with chairman Fred Thompson accusing China of trying to influence the 1996 U.S. elections.
(AP, 7/8/98)
1997 Jul 8, The Mayo Clinic and the government warned the diet-drug combination known as "fen-phen" could cause serious heart and lung damage. The drugs were withdrawn in September. In 2000 a federal judge approved a $3.75 billion national settlement of health claims due to use of the drugs.
(AP, 7/8/98)(SFC, 8/29/00, p.A4)
1997 Jul 8, Michelle Moore-Bosko (18) of Pittsburgh, who had recently moved to Norfolk, Va., and secretly married her longtime boyfriend, William Bosko, was found raped and killed. 4 sailors, who became known as the Norfolk Four, were later convicted for her rape and murder. In 2009 Danial Williams (37), Derek Tice (39) and Joseph Dick (33) were pardoned, culminating a four-year campaign for clemency based on the sailors' claims that they were coerced into falsely admitting their involvement, that the details they provided were wrong and that there was no physical evidence linking them to the crime. A fourth sailor, Eric Wilson (33), served more than eight years in prison and has been released. A fifth man, Omar Ballard, was also convicted in the crime, and was sentenced to 100 years in prison, 59 of which were suspended. He is the only man whose DNA matched that found at the scene. His confession stated that he committed the crime by himself.
(SFC, 8/7/09, p.A5)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Norfolk_Four)
1997 Jul 8, A US Army Black Hawk helicopter crashed at Fort Bragg, NC, and killed 8 soldiers.
(SFC, 7/9/97, p.A3)
1997 Jul 8, NATO issued formal membership invitations to Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary.
(SFC, 7/9/97, p.A1)(AP, 7/8/98)
1997 Jul 8, In Cambodia Interior Minister Ho Sok was seized and executed by forces loyal to Hun Sen. Some 30 soldiers loyal to Ranariddh were captured and tortured by Regiment 911 at Kambol
(SFC, 7/9/97, p.A6)(SFC, 7/21/97, p.A8)
1997 Jul 8, In Dagestan a bomb blew up on a bus carrying Russian border police and 9 officers were killed. Sporadic violence continued along with kidnappings.
(SFC, 7/9/97, p.A8)
1997 Jul 8, In India a bomb exploded on a passenger train in the Punjab at Bhatinda and killed 36 people and wounded 70.
(SFC, 7/9/97, p.A8)
1997 Jul 8, In Northern Ireland masked members of the IRA boarded, cleared and set fire to a Dublin to Belfast train.
(SFC, 7/9/97, p.A6)
1997 Jul 8, A report on Transnistria, between Moldova and the Ukraine, described it as a haven for arms smugglers, money launderers and outlaws on the lam.
(WSJ, 7/8/97, p.A1,8)
1998 Jul 8, Dow Corning agreed to settle a suit with women claiming injury from silicone breast implants for $3.2 billion. A federal bankruptcy judge tentatively approved a settlement under which an estimated 170,000 women, who said silicone breast implants had made them sick, would get $3.2 billion dollars from Dow Corning Corp.
(SFC, 7/9/98, p.A1)(AP, 7/8/99)
1998 Jul 8, The US and European countries demanded an immediate cease fire in Kosovo and called for a crackdown on the flow of funds to ethnic Albanian rebels.
(SFC, 7/9/98, p.A10)
1998 Jul 8, In Afghanistan the Taliban decreed that television was corrupting Afghan society and issued an edict that banned televisions, videocassette recorders, videos and satellite dishes.
(SFC, 7/9/98, p.A11)
1998 Jul 8, In Algeria Khalifi Athmani (24), a leading member of the Armed Islamic Group (GIA), was killed outside the capital. Athmani’s nom de guerre was Hossein Flicha and he was believed to have led the Sep. ‘97 killings at Beni Messous.
(SFC, 7/10/98, p.A18)
1998 Jul 8, China announced that it would broadcast its first live court trial on Jul 11.
(SFC, 7/9/98, p.A15)
1998 Jul 8, It was reported that elephant poaching had increased in Kenya.
(SFC, 7/9/98, p.A11)
1998 Jul 8, Thailand was expected to withdraw a plan to deport foreign workers and planned to announce proposals to widen work opportunities for migrant workers from Burma, Cambodia, Laos and Bangladesh.
(SFC, 7/9/98, p.A10)
1999 Jul 8, An Air Force cargo jet took off from Seattle on a dangerous mission to Antarctica to drop medicine for Dr. Jerri Nielsen, a physician at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Research Center who had discovered a lump in her breast. The mission was successful; Nielsen was evacuated the following October.
(AP, 7/8/00)
1999 Jul 8, Astronaut Charles "Pete" Conrad Junior, the third man to walk on the moon, died after a motorcycle accident near Ojai, California; he was 69.
(SFC, 7/9/99, p.A1)(AP, 7/8/00)
1999 Jul 8, In Columbia heavy fighting in Gutierrez between the government and FARC killed as many as 78 soldiers.
(SFC, 7/9/99, p.A14)(SFC, 7/10/99, p.A10)
1999 Jul 8, In Malaysia Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad unveiled phase one of Cyberjaya, a futuristic high-tech city expected to cost some $5.3 billion.
(SFC, 7/9/99, p.D2)
1999 Jul 8, In southern Nigeria activists claimed to have captured and shut down 61 oil wells operated by Shell Co. Shell workers were also ejected from wells in the states of Egbema East and Egbema West.
(SFC, 7/9/99, p.D5)
1999 Jul 8, It was reported that Palestinian water shortages were due Israeli diversions of 80% of West Bank aquifer water.
(SFC, 7/8/99, p.A10)
1999 Jul 8, In Yugoslavia some 4,000 protested against Pres. Milosevic in Prokupje.
(SFC, 7/9/99, p.A12)
2000 Jul 8, Venus Williams beat Lindsay Davenport 6-3, 7-6 (3) for her first Grand Slam title, becoming the first black women’s champion at Wimbledon since Althea Gibson in 1957-58.
(WSJ, 7/10/00, p.A1)(AP, 7/8/01)
2000 Jul 8, The Pentagon’s missile defense project suffered its latest setback when a rocket that had taken off from Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific failed to intercept a target missile launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
(AP, 7/8/01)
2000 Jul 8, F.M. Esfandiary, "chronic optimist," died at age 69. "There is no scarcity, there is only the psychology of scarcity." His written works included "Days of Sacrifice" and "Optimism One."
(SFC, 7/12/00, p.A17)
2000 Jul 8, In Germany over a million people gathered in Berlin for the techno music Love Parade at Tiergarten park.
(SFEC, 7/9/00, p.C11)
2000 Jul 8, In Iran a student march to mark a bloody rally one year ago turned violent as police charged thousands of students in Tehran.
(SFEC, 7/9/00, p.C11)
2000 Jul 8, In Japan a Typhoon Kirogi hit the eastern coast and left 3 people dead.
(SFEC, 7/9/00, p.C11)
2000 Jul 8, A bomb exploded at the Stewartstown Royal Ulster Constabulary station with no injuries. The Orange Order announced plans to bring the country to a halt the next day if they are not allowed to march down Garvaghy Road in Portadown.
(SFEC, 7/9/00, p.C12)
2000 Jul 8, In Russia Pres. Putin made his first state of the nation address and called for increased power to the central government to overcome a bleak diagnosis of the country’s ills.
(SFEC, 7/9/00, p.C11)
2001 Jul 8, Venus Williams won her second consecutive Wimbledon title by beating Belgian Justine Henin.
(AP, 7/8/02)
2001 Jul 8, In West Virginia Gov. Bob Wise declared a state of emergency due to flooding in 8 counties.
(SFC, 7/9/01, p.A4)
2001 Jul 8, Cable operator Comcast mounted a $41 billion hostile bid to merge with AT&T Broadband. Although AT&T spurned that offer, the company's board ultimately agreed to merge the cable unit with Comcast, subject to approval by federal regulators.
(AP, 7/8/02)
2001 Jul 8, In Brazil some 100 inmates escaped through a tunnel from Latin America’s largest prison in Sao Paulo. 35 were soon captured.
(WSJ, 7/10/01, p.A1)
2001 Jul 8, In England race rioting continued in Bradford with injured police rising to a total of 120.
(SFC, 7/9/01, p.A8)
2001 Jul 8, In Northern Ireland some 500 Orangemen marched at Drumcree and dispersed when confronted by police at Portadown.
(SFC, 7/9/01, p.A8)
2001 Jul 8, Israeli agents in Hebron abducted Ayoub Sharawi, a member of Hamas. In Gaza Palestinians and Israelis exchanged gunfire in Rafah.
(SFC, 7/9/01, p.A8)
2001 Jul 8, Israeli wrecking crews destroyed 14 Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem at the edge of the Shuafat refugee camp.
(SFC, 7/10/01, p.A7)
2001 Jul 8, In the Philippines police in General Santos City arrested Nadzmie Sabtulah, a high-ranking member of the Abu Sayyaf Muslim extremists.
(SFC, 7/9/01, p.A8)
2002 Jul 8, WorldCom and its former auditors clashed over responsibility for nearly 4 billion dollars in accounting improprieties, as WorldCom's former CEO and finance chief, Scott Sullivan, refused to testify to a House panel investigating the debacle.
(AP, 7/8/03)
2002 Jul 8, African leaders gathered in South Africa to form the new African Union and to bid farewell to the Organization of African Unity, a much-criticized regional body formed nearly four decades ago to usher the continent out of colonialism.
(AP, 7/8/02)
2002 Jul 8, In China a gas explosion at a coal mine killed 44 miners at the Dingsheng mine in northeastern Heilongjiang province.
(Reuters, 7/9/02)(SFC, 7/9/02, p.A10)
2002 Jul 8, Ralph Nader attended a dinner with Cuban leader Fidel Castro as the consumer advocate began a three-day visit to the communist nation.
(AP, 7/8/02)
2002 Jul 8, Cuban poet and writer Cintio Vitier was named winner of Mexico's Juan Rulfo Prize for literature.
(AP, 7/8/02)
2002 Jul 8, In the Ivory Coast local elections meant to close the door on years of turbulence ended with complaints by angry crowds that they were not allowed to vote.
(AP, 7/8/02)
2002 Jul 8, Typhoon Chata'an headed towards southern Japan after battering the Philippines, where officials said it had killed 17 people -- including three South Korean tourists who died when their boat capsized.
(Reuters, 7/8/02)
2002 Jul 8, In Nigeria unarmed women, from the Arutan and Igborodo communities occupied a Chevron-Texaco oil terminal, preventing 700 workers, including Americans, Britons, and Canadians, from leaving. Their number soon reached as many as 2,000.
(AP, 7/11/02)
2002 Jul 8, Peter Friedrich, Switzerland's ambassador to Luxembourg, was arrested on suspicion of money laundering.
(AP, 7/11/02)
2002 Jul 8, In southern Thailand a bomb tore through a parked passenger railway coach injuring a policeman and a security guard.
(Reuters, 7/8/02)
2002 Jul 8, In Turkey 3 ministers resigned in a growing push for early elections.
(WSJ, 7/9/02, p.A1)
2003 Jul 8, Pres. Bush met with Pres. Abdoulaye Wade in Senegal. Bush visited Senegal's notorious Goree Island, for several centuries a processing station for African slaves bound in chains for the Western Hemisphere.
(SFC, 7/7/03, p.A8)(AP, 7/8/03)
2003 Jul 8, In Meridian, Miss., Doug Williams (48), a white factory worker known as a racist who talked about murdering others opened fire with a shotgun and a rifle at a Lockheed Martin plant, killing four blacks and one white before committing suicide.
(AP, 7/8/03)(SFC, 7/9/03, p.A6)
2003 Jul 8, Joanie Harper (39), and her 3 children aged 2 months to 4 years, were shot and killed in Bakersfield, Ca. Husband Vincent E. Brothers (41), a Bakersfield teacher and administrator, was arrested and released, but remained a prime suspect. In 2007 Brothers was convicted and a jury said he deserved to die for the murders.
(SFC, 7/9/03, p.A13)(SFC, 7/11/03, p.A17)(SFC, 5/30/07, p.B4)
2003 Jul 8, Lewis Coser (89), leftist sociologist, died. His books included "American Communist Party: A Critical History (1919-1957)" (1958), and "Men of Ideas: A Sociologist's View" (1966).
(SSFC, 7/13/03, p.A27)
2003 Jul 8, In Bangladesh a ferry, with an estimated 750 passengers, sank at the confluence of the Padma, Meghna and Dakatia rivers about 40 miles south of the capital, Dhaka. Some 220 survivors were counted.
(AP, 7/9/03)
2003 Jul 8, In Burundi Hutu rebels fought their way into part of the capital, trading gun, mortar and grenade fire with the Tutsi-dominated army. Thousands fled their homes.
(AP, 7/8/03)
2003 Jul 8, Antonis Samarakis (84), Greek writer and children's rights activist, died. His books included the novel "Mistake" (1965).
(SFC, 8/11/03, p.A17)
2003 Jul 8, In Iraq Mizban Khadr Hadi (No. 23), a high-ranking member of the Baath Party regional command and Mahmud Diab al-Ahmed (No. 29), the former interior minister, were taken into custody. The capture of Al-Ahmed was reported in error. He surrendered Aug 8.
(AP, 7/9/03)(AP, 8/10/03)
2003 Jul 8, US military experts arrived in Liberia to assess the need for help in the local civil war.
(AP, 7/8/03)
2003 Jul 8, Nigeria's main trade unions accepted a government compromise on fuel prices and ended a crippling eight-day strike.
(AP, 7/8/03)
2003 Jul 8, Palestinian PM Mahmoud Abbas resigned from a top post in the Fatah movement.
(AP, 7/8/03)
2003 Jul 8, Ladan and Laleh Bijani (29), Iranian twin sisters, joined at the head, died within 90 minutes of each other as neurosurgeons in Singapore worked into a 3rd day to separate them.
(AP, 7/7/03)(AP, 7/8/03)
2003 Jul 8, A Sudanese airliner crashed minutes after its captain reported technical problems following takeoff, killing 116 people. The only survivor was a 2-year-old boy.
(AP, 7/8/03)
2003 Jul 8, In Switzerland a swerving car plowed through pedestrians on a downtown bridge in Lausanne. Two people were killed, including a woman pushing her child in a stroller.
(AP, 7/8/03)
2004 Jul 8, New Jersey became the 2nd state in the nation after New York to ban the use of handheld cell phones while driving.
(USAT, 6/29)
2004 Jul 8, John Rigas (79), founder of Adelphia Communications Corp. (1952), was convicted along with his son Timothy of looting the cable company to line their own pockets.
(SFC, 7/9/04, p.C1)(USAT, 7/9/04, p.1B)
2004 Jul 8, Kenneth Lay, former CEO of Enron Corp., was charged in Houston, Texas, with 11 counts of conspiracy and fraud.
(WSJ, 7/8/04, p.A1)(USAT, 7/9/04, p.1B)
2004 Jul 8, It was reported that a strain of syphilis has proved resistant to azithromycin.
(WSJ, 7/8/04, p.A1)
2004 Jul 8, Iranian troops killed two Turkish Kurdish rebels in clashes close to the Iraqi border, amid reports of a major offensive by Tehran on Ankara's behalf.
(AP, 7/10/04)
2004 Jul 8, In Iraq insurgents hit a military compound in Samarra with a car bomb and mortar fire. 5 US soldiers were killed and 20 wounded.
(SFC, 7/9/04, p.A14)
2004 Jul 8, Israeli troops killed 7 Palestinians in northern Gaza.
(WSJ, 7/9/04, p.A1)
2004 Jul 8, A Swedish appeals court threw out a life prison sentence for the convicted killer of Foreign Minister Anna Lindh, ruling that Mijailo Mijailovic should receive treatment for his "significant psychiatric problems."
(AP, 7/8/05)
2005 Jul 8, Australia granted fugitive former Chinese diplomat Chen Yonglin a permanent visa allowing him to stay in the country indefinitely.
(AFP, 7/8/05)
2005 Jul 8, In Austria an 89-nation UN conference approved broadening a treaty meant to keep nuclear material from the hands of terrorists, opening the way for states to ratify the agreement. The Convention of the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material originally obligated the 112 countries that have accepted it to protect nuclear material during international transport. The amended version expands such protection to materials at nuclear facilities, in domestic storage and during domestic transport or use.
(AP, 7/8/05)
2005 Jul 8, Jorge Alberto Uribe, Colombia's defense minister, resigned amid criticism over his handling of the country's counterinsurgency war and his alleged relationship with a jailed female drug trafficker.
(AP, 7/8/05)
2005 Jul 8, Police said that the bombs used in London's terrorist attacks held less than 10 pounds of explosives each.
(AP, 7/8/05)
2005 Jul 8, In China Exxon Mobil Corp., Saudi Aramco and top Asian refiner Sinopec signed a $3.5 billion deal to expand a refinery in south China, sealing what they called the country's largest oil project.
(Reuters, 7/8/05)
2005 Jul 8, Hurricane Dennis slammed Cuba, sweeping away coastal homes and sending waves crashing over Havana's seawall. At least 10 people were killed.
(AP, 7/9/05)
2005 Jul 8, Shares of Gas de France (GDF), a 20% stake in the state monopoly, began to trade following the plans of PM Dominique de Villepin. The IPO was expected to fetch up to $6 billion. A sale of shares in Electricite de France was set for October.
(Econ, 7/25/05, p.56)
2005 Jul 8, An Israeli security guard shot dead a Palestinian teenager during a protest against Israel's West Bank separation barrier.
(AP, 7/9/05)
2005 Jul 8, In Italy a judge convicted and sentenced to life in prison three members of the Red Brigades terrorist group for the 1999 killing of a government labor adviser, court officials said. A fourth was convicted and sentenced to nine years.
(AP, 7/8/05)
2005 Jul 8, In rural southeastern Mexico a series of explosions at a natural gas pipeline killed two people and set fire to houses, cars and cattle near Cunduacan.
(AP, 7/10/05)
2005 Jul 8, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's presidency was in tatters, her base of support eroding by the hour, as former backers abandoned the Philippine leader and added to calls for her resignation over an election scandal.
(AP, 7/8/05)
2005 Jul 8, In Scotland G8 world leaders concluded an economic summit shaken by terrorism, offering an "alternative to the hatred," a $50 billion aid package for Africa and up to $3 billion in additional support for the Palestinians. They pledged new joint efforts against terrorism in response to the deadly London bombings the day before.
(AP, 7/8/05)
2005 Jul 8, John Garang, the rebel leader in a two-decade civil war for southern autonomy, returned to Sudan's capital for the first time in 22 years to take up his new position as first vice president in the government he once fought.
(AP, 7/8/05)
2006 Jul 8, The US military charged 4 more US soldiers with rape and murder and a fifth with dereliction of duty in the alleged rape-slaying of a young Iraqi woman and the March killings of her relatives in Mahmoudiya.
(AP, 7/9/07)
2006 Jul 8, New Jersey Gov. Jon S. Corzine issued an executive order that ended a weeklong state government shutdown, bringing slot machine bells noisily to life as Atlantic City casinos reopened.
(AP, 7/8/06)
2006 Jul 8, Georgia police found the decomposed body of Carlnell Walker (23), a Morehouse student from Richmond, Ca., in the trunk of his car in Riverdale. On July 21, 2006, 3 men were arrested for his murder. In 2007 4 men were indicted for the murder.
(SFC, 7/12/06, p.B1)(SFC, 7/22/06, p.A1)(SFC, 3/23/07, p.A2)
2006 Jul 8, Discovery astronauts Piers Sellers and Michael Fossum went on a 7 1/2-hour spacewalk to test a repair technique for space shuttles.
(AP, 7/8/07)
2006 Jul 8, June Allyson (b.1917), chorus girl and film star, died in Ojai, Ca. her films included “The Glenn Miller Story" (1953).
(SFC, 7/11/06, p.B5)
2006 Jul 8, The Guggenheim Foundation announced it had commissioned American architect Frank Gehry to build a new branch of the Guggenheim modern and contemporary art museum in Abu Dhabi.
(AP, 7/8/06)
2006 Jul 8, Afghan and coalition forces pounded a Taliban stronghold in southern Afghanistan, killing five rebels and leaving an Afghan and three foreign soldiers wounded. An explosion attributed to a land mine in western Afghanistan killed a Peruvian solder and slightly wounded four Spanish troops.
(AFP, 7/8/06)(AP, 7/9/06)
2006 Jul 8, China launched a Web site, www.linese.com, offering free Chinese lessons and materials to promote the study and use of the language abroad.
(Reuters, 7/8/06)
2006 Jul 8, In central China a landslide at a construction site buried migrant workers sleeping in a tent, killing 11 of them.
(AP, 7/8/06)
2006 Jul 8, In Kinshasa, Congo, gunmen killed Mwamba Bapuwa (64), an independent journalist, a day after foreign donors called on the government to guarantee press freedoms ahead of historic elections this month. Bapuwa had recently criticized the government and survived a previous attack several months ago.
(Reuters, 7/8/06)
2006 Jul 8, Jose Ramos-Horta, Nobel peace laureate, was named East Timor's new prime minister.
(AP, 7/8/06)
2006 Jul 8, In Hungary several thousand labor union members demonstrated in Budapest against a government austerity package they say requires a disproportionate sacrifice from workers.
(AFP, 7/8/06)
2006 Jul 8, In northern India 15 people were killed and eight injured when the bus they were traveling in plunged into a gorge and fell into Bhagirathi river.
(AFP, 7/8/06)
2006 Jul 8, In Iraq 3 American soldiers were killed in fighting in the western province of Anbar. Gunmen in two cars stopped a vehicle in Baghdad's Dora neighborhood, forced the two passengers to get out and killed them in front of horrified bystanders. Gunmen killed three people working in an ice cream shop in the mostly Shiite Baghdad neighborhood of Nahrawan. Police also reported finding two bodies in separate locations in eastern Baghdad. At least 17 others died in a wave of bombings and mortar attacks against mostly Sunni mosques in the Baghdad area and northern Iraq. Iraqi and US authorities released 368 prisoners as they continue to whittle down the number of inmates.
(AP, 7/8/06)
2006 Jul 8, In Indian Kashmir a politician and four civilians died and at least 45 others were injured when suspected Islamic rebels hurled a grenade outside a Muslim shrine.
(AFP, 7/8/06)
2006 Jul 8, Leftist presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador urged his supporters to take to the streets, claiming the governing party stole his victory in Mexico's extremely narrow elections. Obrador called on a huge crowd of supporters to keep peacefully protesting as he goes to court to challenge what he called his fraudulent electoral defeat.
(AP, 7/8/06)(AP, 7/9/06)
2006 Jul 8, A Mexican federal judge threw out genocide charges against former President Luis Echeverria, ruling that a 30-year statute of limitations had run out.
(AP, 7/9/06)
2006 Jul 8, In western Mexico 4 children, who won an airplane ride for good grades at school, were killed along with the pilot when the small aircraft crashed near Tepic.
(AP, 7/12/06)
2006 Jul 8, The Hamas-led Palestinian government called for a cease-fire in its violent two-week standoff with Israel but stopped short of offering to release an Israeli soldier held by Hamas militants. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert rejected the proposal by Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh. Olmert will not agree to a truce until Hamas releases the soldier. Israeli tanks and troops clashed with militants in eastern Gaza.
(AP, 7/8/06)
2006 Jul 8, Poland's governing party accepted the resignation of PM Marcinkiewicz and recommended party chairman Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the president's twin brother, to replace him. A group with roots in Poland's anti-communist Solidarity trade union movement signed an unprecedented accord to join forces with the country's two main post-communist parties.
(AP, 7/8/06)
2006 Jul 8, Saudi officials said 7 suspected terrorists had escaped from a prison in Riyadh a few days earlier.
(AP, 7/8/06)
2006 Jul 8, The Islamic militiamen controlling the Somali capital broke up a wedding celebration because a band, the Mogadishu Stars, was playing and women and men were socializing together. Band members were flogged with electric cables.
(AP, 7/8/06)(Econ, 7/15/06, p.47)
2006 Jul 8, Pope Benedict XVI stressed family values during a visit to Spain, where church influence has waned and the government has angered the Vatican with its liberal take on issues including gay marriage.
(AP, 7/8/06)
2006 Jul 8, A Yemeni court acquitted 19 alleged al-Qaida members of charges they plotted to blow up a hotel frequented by Americans, citing a lack of evidence. The state prosecutor appealed the collective acquittal, and the defendants were returned to their cells at the intelligence services' jail where they have been held for more than two years. 14 Yemenis and 5 Saudis had been caught with guns and fake Iraqi passports.
(AP, 7/8/06)(WSJ, 8/14/06, p.A1)
2007 Jul 8, In Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell ordered a range of government services shutdown after last minute negotiations failed to break a budget stalemate. The shutdown took about 24,000 workers off the job. A budget deal was hammered out the following night.
(AP, 7/9/07)(SFC, 7/9/07, p.A3)(AP, 7/8/08)
2007 Jul 8, SF Bay Area police and FBI completed Operation Strikeout, a 3-day prostitution sweep that netted over 140 pimps, prostitutes and their customers. This included 50 prostitutes and 7 alleged johns arrested in SF.
(SFC, 7/17/07, p.D3)
2007 Jul 8, Boeing unveiled its first fully assembled 787 Dreamliner in Everett, Wash.
(SFC, 7/9/07, p.A4)
2007 Jul 8, In Oakland, Ca., Odell Roberson Jr., a transient drug addict, was found shot and killed. Police later determined that his killer used an AK-47 assault rifle linked to Your Black Muslim Bakery. In 2009 an indictment accused Yusuf Bey IV (23), the leader of the bakery, of murder for allegedly ordering the killing.
(SFC, 10/15/07, p.A1)(SFC, 4/30/09, p.A1)
2007 Jul 8, Roger Federer won his fifth straight Wimbledon tennis championship, beating Rafael Nadal 7-6 (7), 4-6, 7-6 (3), 2-6, 6-2.
(AP, 7/8/08)
2007 Jul 8, China’s state media said nearly 2,000 officials in central China's Hunan province have been caught breaking China's strict one-child policy. State media also said floods and landslides triggered by heavy rains have killed at least 26 people and left 17 missing in southwest Sichuan province in the last week.
(AP, 7/8/07)
2007 Jul 8, France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy said he will not offer mass pardons to prisoners on Bastille Day, keeping up his law-and-order reputation and breaking with tradition.
(AP, 7/8/07)
2007 Jul 8, In India at least four people drowned or were electrocuted over the weekend in the northwestern desert state of Rajasthan, bringing India's overall monsoon death toll to 177.
(AP, 7/9/07)
2007 Jul 8, Chandra Shekhar (b.1927), former Indian prime minister (1990), died from a blood-related illness. He served briefly during a period of political turmoil.
(AFP, 7/8/07)
2007 Jul 8, Iran’s state TV said 4 fuel-smuggling trucks crashed into each other and caught fire in southeastern Iran, killing 13 people.
(AP, 7/9/07)
2007 Jul 8, Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, who leads the group Islamic State in Iraq, said in an audiotape that his Sunni fighters have been preparing for four years to wage a battle against Shiite-dominated Iran. He threatened to wage war against Iran unless it stops supporting Shiites in Iraq within two months. A suicide truck bomber killed 23 new Iraqi army recruits when he rammed into their vehicle south of Baghdad. A flurry of bombings in Baghdad killed 26 people. American special operations forces in a raid captured 12 militants in Baghdad who had broken away from the Mahdi Army, and had carried out attacks on US and Iraqi troops.
(AP, 7/8/07)(Reuters, 7/8/07)(AP, 7/10/07)
2007 Jul 8, The Israeli Cabinet approved the release of 250 Palestinian prisoners, in the government's latest gesture of support for moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in his struggle against the Hamas militant group.
(AP, 7/8/07)
2007 Jul 8, Valdis Zatlers, a trauma surgeon with no prior political experience and widely publicized tax problems, was sworn in as Latvia's third president since the Baltic state gained independence in 1991.
(AP, 7/8/07)
2007 Jul 8, Libya invited international tenders for exploration of its onshore and offshore gas fields covering an area almost the size of Scotland.
(AP, 7/9/07)
2007 Jul 8, Two gunmen attacked a German couple photographing wildlife in Namibia, killing Johannes Fellinger (56), in front of his wife and taking her on a high-speed chase.
(AP, 7/10/07)
2007 Jul 8, In southern Nigeria a British toddler was released by gunmen and reunited with her parents, who said she was fine but hungry and covered in mosquito bites.
(AP, 7/8/07)
2007 Jul 8, Pakistan's army tried to blast through the wall of a besieged radical Islamic seminary to help free hostages held by a cleric and his militant supporters, leaving one commando dead.
(AP, 7/8/07)
2007 Jul 8, In the Philippines 2 small planes collided in the air and crashed in a rice field north of Manila, killing two Indian citizens and a Filipino flight instructor.
(AP, 7/8/07)
2007 Jul 8, Russia’s top security agency said it has declassified documents on millions of victims of Soviet-era repression (1920-1950), allowing relatives to request information about those who were executed or died of disease and starvation in prison.
(AP, 7/8/07)
2007 Jul 8, Spain's largest fighting bulls lived up to their fearsome reputation, goring two and crushing at least seven people as thousands of daredevils sprinted down narrow streets Sunday in Pamplona's annual running of the bulls.
(AP, 7/8/07)
2007 Jul 8, Zimbabwe’s official media said police have arrested 16 more business leaders in a crackdown on those suspected of violating the government's order to slash prices by 50%.
(AP, 7/8/07)
2008 Jul 8, A report from a US Senate Homeland Security investigations subcommittee said sellers of medical supplies collected as much as $93 million in fraudulent Medicare claims based on prescriptions from doctors who were actually dead.
(SFC, 7/9/08, p.A6)
2008 Jul 8, Boeing announced a deal with SkyHook Int’l., a private Canadian firm, to develop a heavy lift rotorcraft capable of carrying 4o tons.
(Econ, 7/12/08, p.76)
2008 Jul 8, In California the Butte Lightning Complex Fire destroyed 41 homes overnight in and around Paradise. The next day 10,000 people were evacuated from the area.
(SFC, 7/10/08, p.A1)
2008 Jul 8, T. Boone Pickens, energy baron, announced his “Pickens Plan" for installing wind turbines in parts of four Texas Panhandle counties. The plans were scrapped in 2009 due to lack of transmission lines.
(AP, 7/7/09)
2008 Jul 8, John Templeton (b.1912), legendary mutual fund manager, died in Nassau. His Templeton Growth Fund in 1954 was among the first to invest in companies outside the US. In 1972 he started the Templeton Prize, which made its first award to Mother Teresa in 1973.
(WSJ, 7/9/08, p.C17)(Econ, 7/19/08, p.95)
2008 Jul 8, Abkhazia's leader Sergei Bagapsh rejected a US proposal to deploy an international police force there.
(AP, 7/8/08)
2008 Jul 8, In eastern Afghanistan a roadside bomb blast killed one NATO soldier and wounded four others. a provincial police chief said five insurgents and two policemen died during a clash in central Ghazni province.
(AP, 7/8/08)
2008 Jul 8, Brazilian police arrested a former Sao Paulo mayor and two prominent financiers in a case that grew out of an influence-peddling scandal involving senior government officials.
(AP, 7/9/08)
2008 Jul 8, A Chinese court jailed Xiong Zhengliang, a former anti-graft prosecutor for life, for torturing a suspect to death. His superior was sentenced to seven years in prison for trying to cover up the case. Liang Jiping, a deputy director of the county's electricity bureau, was detained in May 2007 on suspicion of taking bribes. Liang died on June 1, 2007, after being held in custody for nearly five days and in three separate places.
(Reuters, 7/9/08)
2008 Jul 8, Chinese police killed five Muslims who were planning a "holy war" in the latest alleged terror threat ahead of the Beijing Olympics. The five were shot dead when police raided their hide-out in Urumqi.
(AFP, 7/9/08)
2008 Jul 8, The United States and the Czech Republic signed a treaty in Prague allowing Washington to build part of a missile defense shield in the central European state despite opposition from its former Cold War master Russia.
(Reuters, 7/8/08)
2008 Jul 8, Ecuador's government seized 3 television stations and 195 businesses, owned by the Isaias family, to collect debts stemming from the 1998 failure of Filanbanco, owned by Roberto and William Isaias. The economy minister resigned just hours before the takeover.
(AP, 7/9/08)(Econ, 7/12/08, p.48)
2008 Jul 8, The EU formally invited Slovakia to join the euro zone on Jan. 1, 2009.
(AP, 7/8/08)
2008 Jul 8, Industrial conglomerate Siemens AG said it will cut 16,750 jobs, or 4.2 percent of its global work force, to streamline operations and slice nearly $2 billion in costs in the face of a slowing economy.
(AP, 7/8/08)
2008 Jul 8, A German cargo ship held captive for 41 days off the coast of Somalia was released and all aboard were safe and unharmed. A Somali official said the pirates received a ransom of $750,000. The Lehmann Timber was one of two ships hijacked on May 30 off the Horn of Africa.
(AP, 7/9/08)
2008 Jul 8, Tillman Thomas, former political detainee, returned his party to power in Grenada after 13 years in opposition. The apparent win by the National Democratic Congress was a stunning setback for PM Keith Mitchell's conservative New National Party, which was seeking an unprecedented 4th consecutive term in legislative elections.
(AP, 7/9/08)
2008 Jul 8, Indian PM Manmohan Singh's communist allies withdrew their support for his four-year-old coalition government to protest the government's plan to push forward with a controversial nuclear deal with the United States. The government had gained new support from the Samajwadi Party (SP) and submitted a draft request to the IAEA for a required safeguards accord on July 9.
(AP, 7/8/08)(Econ, 7/12/08, p.50)
2008 Jul 8, At Developing Eight summit of Islamic nations, meeting in Kuala Lumpur, the leaders of Indonesia and Malaysia called for boosting world food production and finding a permanent solution to skyrocketing oil prices, saying the twin problems have become "grave threats" to the world economy.
(AP, 7/8/08)
2008 Jul 8, Iraq's national security adviser said his country will not accept any security deal with the United States unless it contains specific dates for the withdrawal of US-led forces.
(AP, 7/8/08)
2008 Jul 8, The Israeli military said Gaza militants fired a mortar shell into Israel in another violation of a shaky truce.
(AP, 7/8/08)
2008 Jul 8, In Japan G8 leaders endorsed halving world emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050. The G8 also agreed to impose targeted sanctions against leading Zimbabwean officials after a violent election last month that extended President Robert Mugabe's 28-year rule.
(AP, 7/8/08)
2008 Jul 8, Amos Kimunya, Kenya’s finance minister, was forced to resign following the sale of the Grand Regency Hotel to Libyans, without taking bids and advertising the sale. The hotel had been confiscated from Kamlesh Paul Pattni, a businessman alleged to have paid hundreds of millions to individuals close to former Pres. Daniel arap Moi, for the export of gold and diamonds that did not exist.
(Econ, 7/12/08, p.60)
2008 Jul 8, The Mexican government said UNESCO has added a Monarch butterfly reserve in southern Mexico to its list of World Heritage sites.
(AP, 7/8/08)
2008 Jul 8, State-media said Myanmar's military regime has approved visas for more than 1,500 international aid workers to help victims of Cyclone Nargis, with half of them involved in relief operations in storm-hit regions.
(AP, 7/8/08)
2008 Jul 8, In northwest Pakistan unknown assailants fired on a vehicle carrying tribal police forces, killing four and wounding seven.
(AP, 7/808)
2008 Jul 8, In Russia’s Caucasus region the Interior Ministry of Kabardino-Balkaria province said unidentified gunmen had riddled the police car with bullets in the village of Baksan. 3 police officers were killed.
(AP, 7/8/08)
2008 Jul 8, A human rights group said domestic workers in Saudi Arabia often suffer abuse that in some cases amounts to slavery, as well as sexual violence and lashings for spurious allegations of theft or witchcraft.
(AP, 7/8/08)
2008 Jul 8, In Sudan about two hundred gunmen on horseback and in SUVs ambushed peacekeepers from a joint UN-African Union force in the Darfur region. Five Rwandan soldiers and two police officers, one from Ghana and the other from Uganda, were killed in fierce gunbattles that lasted more than two hours.
(AP, 7/9/08)
2008 Jul 8, Sudan's army spokesman claimed Ethiopian forces had attacked a police base 17 kilometers (11 miles) inside Sudanese territory, killing 19 people, including one police officer. Ethiopia denied the accusations.
(AFP, 7/9/08)
2008 Jul 8, In eastern Turkey Kurdish guerrillas kidnapped three German tourists on a climbing expedition. The Germans were released on July 20.
(AP, 7/20/08)
2009 Jul 8, In SF Philip Day (63), former head of SF City College, was charged with 8 felonies for using public funds for political donations and other banned expenditures.
(SFC, 7/9/09, p.A1)
2009 Jul 8, In Chesnee, North Carolina, Ricky Lee Blackwell shot a girl (8) twice in the driveway of a home where he had taken her and his estranged wife to swim and play. The girl's father was dating Blackwell's estranged wife. Blackwell shot himself as police closed in. He was taken to a hospital but his condition wasn't released.
(AP, 7/9/09)
2009 Jul 8, In Afghanistan a roadside bomb attack killed two NATO soldiers.
(AP, 7/9/09)
2009 Jul 8, Australia said Chinese authorities had detained Stern Hu, Rio Tinto Ltd's top iron ore negotiator, as well as three other Rio employees on suspicion of espionage and stealing state secrets, threatening to strain already fraying ties.
(Reuters, 7/8/09)
2009 Jul 8, Australian residents of rural Bundanoon, hoping to protect the earth and their wallets, voted to ban the sale of bottled water, the first community in the country, and possibly the world, to take such a drastic step in the growing backlash against the industry.
(AP, 7/9/09)
2009 Jul 8, Azerbaijan police arrested Adnan Hadzhizade, a video blogger and member of the "OL!" opposition movement, and Emin Milli, a youth activist who also runs an Internet TV program, after a fight in a Baku cafe with two unknown men. Both were charged with hooliganism. A Baku court decision soon ordered two months of pretrial detention for Milli and Hadzhizade, which prompted criticism from international journalism advocates.
(AP, 7/14/09)
2009 Jul 8, The British government set out plans to toughen regulation of its banking sector, including greater oversight of bonuses paid to staff.
(AFP, 7/8/09)
2009 Jul 8, British scientists claimed to have created human sperm from embryonic stem cells for the first time. Several critics said the sperm cells were clearly abnormal. The paper was retracted by the end of the month because two paragraphs in its introduction had been plagiarized. Experts acknowledged that concerns might be raised about the study's credibility.
(SFC, 7/9/09, p.A5)(AP, 7/31/09)
2009 Jul 8, In China hundreds of helmeted troops in riot gear swarmed the central square of Urumqi, capital of western Xinjiang, after ethnic riots left some 192 dead. The city's Communist Party boss promised those behind the killings would be executed. On July 11 China said 137 of the riot victims were Han while 46 were Uighurs and one was a Hui, another Muslim group. Uighurs on the streets of Urumqi, and from exile activist groups disputed the new figures.
(AP, 7/8/09)(AP, 7/11/09)(AP, 7/15/09)
2009 Jul 8, In France some 60 youths rioted outside Saint-Etienne after hearing that man had tried to hang himself in jail. Mohamed Benmouna (21) died soon after at a hospital.
(SFC, 7/9/09, p.A2)
2009 Jul 8, In Haiti Bill Clinton said a lack of coordination among aid groups and Haitian leaders is hurting efforts to ease poverty in the Caribbean nation, as he wrapped up his first trip here as a special UN envoy.
(AP, 7/8/09)
2009 Jul 8, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono won a second term. Exit polls gave him a massive lead in only the second presidential vote since the fall of Suharto. Yudhoyono won 61% of the vote. Jusuf Kalla, his former vice-president, won 12%. Megawati Sukarnoputri won 27%.
(AP, 7/8/09)(Econ, 9/12/09, SR p.4)
2009 Jul 8, In Iraq car bombs in two Shiite villages near Mosul killed 16 civilians and injured more than two dozen.
(AP, 7/10/09)
2009 Jul 8, The Irish government said Irish voters who rejected the EU's Lisbon Treaty last year will be asked to vote again Oct. 2 on the long-delayed blueprint for reform.
(AP, 7/8/09)
2009 Jul 8, G8 Leaders met in L'Aquila, Italy, for talks on threats to global security and stability at a summit where climate change, a continuing global economic crisis, nuclear proliferation and world hunger took top billing.
(AP, 7/8/09)
2009 Jul 8, Protesters in Indian Kashmir set fire to a police van and stoned other security vehicles after the body of a missing young man was recovered in the regional capital Srinagar.
(AFP, 7/8/09)
2009 Jul 8, Malaysian education officials announced that they will abandon the use of English to teach math and science, bowing to protesters who demanded more use of the national Malay language.
(SFC, 7/9/09, p.A2)
2009 Jul 8, In Mexico investigators found a severed head and two arms inside a plastic bag in the of Ario de Rosales, Michoacan state.
(AP, 7/9/09)
2009 Jul 8, Nigerian MEND militants said they blew up two key oil pipelines as they stepped up attacks in response to a government amnesty offer.
(AFP, 7/8/09)
2009 Jul 8, In Pakistan a US drone fired 6 missiles and killed 10 suspected militants at a training camp about 35 kilometers northeast of Wana. At least 35 suspected militants were killed in a second US missile strike targeting insurgents in the northwest tribal belt.
(AFP, 7/8/09)(SFC, 7/9/09, p.A4)
2009 Jul 8, Saudi officials said a criminal court has convicted and sentenced an al-Qaida militant to death and given more 330 others jail terms, fines and travel bans in the country's first known terrorism trials for suspected members of the terror network. The 330 are believed to be among the 991 suspected militants that Interior Minister Prince Nayef has said had been charged with participating in terrorist attacks over the past five years.
(AP, 7/8/09)
2009 Jul 8, Somali pirates seized a Turkish ship with 23 crew and were being shadowed by a Turkish warship in the Gulf of Aden. The pirates first surrounded the Horizon-1 in speed boats and then boarded the ship, which was carrying sulfate from Saudi Arabia to Jordan.
(AP, 7/8/09)
2009 Jul 8, A senior UN official said fighting between tribes in southern Sudan has increasingly targeted women and children and likely killed more than 1,000 people since January.
(AP, 7/8/09)
2009 Jul 8, Switzerland's government said it would forbid the Swiss bank UBS AG from complying with any court-ordered transfer of data on tens of thousands of American clients to the US government, and would consider seizing documents to prevent that.
(AP, 7/8/09)
2010 Jul 8, Cleveland Basketball star LeBron James said to a national TV audience. "I'm going to take my talents to South Beach and join the Miami Heat." Once James shared his secret, fans poured out of the same downtown bars and restaurants that have thrived during these tough economic times. A few set fire to his No. 23 jersey while others threw rocks at the 10-story-tall billboard featuring James with his head tossed back and arms pointing skyward.
(AP, 7/9/10)
2010 Jul 8, US District Court Judge Joseph Tauro ruled that the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which bars the federal government from recognizing gay marriage, is unconstitutional.
(www.aolnews.com/tag/Joseph-Tauro/)
2010 Jul 8, In California a Los Angeles jury found BART police Officer Johannes Mehserle guilty of involuntary manslaughter. The verdict sparked a riot in downtown Oakland, Ca., with at least 50-100 people arrested for smashing windows and looting.
(SFC, 7/9/10, p.A1)
2010 Jul 8, The curator of the Nieman Foundation at Harvard, which has offered mid-career Nieman fellowships since 1938, said that a consular official at the US Embassy in Bogota told him that Colombian journalist Hollman Morris has been ruled permanently ineligible for a visa under the "Terrorist activities" section of the USA Patriot Act. Hollman has been highly critical of ties between illegal far-right militias and allies of outgoing President Alvaro Uribe.
(AP, 7/8/10)
2010 Jul 8, Zap Inc., a Santa Rosa, Ca., electric vehicle manufacturer, announced a merger with China’s Jonway Automobile Co. Ltd. Zap Jonway will be 51% owned by Zap.
(SFC, 7/8/10, p.D1)
2010 Jul 8, US federal researchers said that they have identified a pair of naturally occurring antibodies that are able to kill more than 90% of all strains of the AIDS virus.
(SFC, 7/9/10, p.A6)
2010 Jul 8, In California Robert de Heer (b.1923), real estate broker, died in San Rafael. He created the Realty Bluebook, which became a standard for real estate people nationwide. He also devised a standard purchase order, which started with one page and grew to 7 to reflect changes in real estate law.
(SFC, 7/10/10, p.C3)
2010 Jul 8, Dr. Thomas Peebles (b.1921), measles researcher, died at his home in Port Charlotte, Fla. His work in the 1950s enabled researchers to develop a vaccine against measles.
(SFC, 8/6/10, p.C5)
2010 Jul 8, In Afghanistan two international troops died in insurgent attacks as violence spiraled across the country. NATO forces overnight captured a suspected Taliban-linked supplier of bomb-making materials in Khost province.
(AP, 7/8/10)
2010 Jul 8, In Argentina some of the most notorious figures of Argentina's "dirty war" were convicted of kidnapping, torturing and murdering 22 people at the beginning of the 1976-1983 military dictatorship. A judge handed down the sentences for Gen. Luciano Menendez and former police intelligence chief Roberto Albornoz: life in prison for crimes against humanity committed at a secret detention center in provincial Tucuman. Two former police officers, brothers Luis Armando de Candido and Carlos Esteban de Candido, were sentenced to 18 and 3 years, respectively.
(AP, 7/8/10)
2010 Jul 8, Australian police investigated the mysterious mass poisoning of seven million tomato, eggplant and other crops which is expected to send prices soaring. Detectives probed whether vandals or a competitor with a grudge had put herbicide in sprinklers at a nursery near the northeastern city of Cairns, wiping out 16 million tons of produce, mostly tomatoes.
(AFP, 7/8/10)
2010 Jul 8, A British court in London convicted Ibrahim Savant, Arafat Waheed Khan and Waheed Zaman of conspiracy to murder in a case linked to a 2006 plot to blow up transatlantic jet planes.
(AFP, 7/8/10)
2010 Jul 8, Canada named David Johnston (69), president of the University of Waterloo, to become the country's next acting head of state, who will have the final say in settling constitutional disputes.
(Reuters, 7/9/10)
2010 Jul 8, Chile's Supreme Court upheld murder convictions for the dictatorship's former secret police chief and his top agents in the 1974 assassination of Gen. Carlos Prats and his wife. The court also reduced Manuel Contreras' life sentence to just 20 years in prison.
(AP, 7/8/10)
2010 Jul 8, In northwest China local authorities said floods triggered by torrential rain in a remote part of Qinghai province have killed 25 people. According to the China News Service, the government has recorded 483 flood-related deaths in China so far this year, with 255 people still missing.
(AFP, 7/8/10)
2010 Jul 8, The International Criminal Court at The Hague suspended Congolese militia chief Thomas Lubanga's trial and rapped prosecutors for abusing court processes and ignoring judges' orders.
(AFP, 7/9/10)
2010 Jul 8, Cuban opposition activist Guillermo Farinas ended his 134-day hunger strike, following signs the communist government is making good on its promise to release 52 political prisoners. The court also reduced Manuel Contreras' life sentence to just 20 years in prison, reflecting a compromise between the right and left over how to punish "dirty war" crimes.
(AP, 7/9/10)
2010 Jul 8, In France exiled Darfur rebel leader Abdelwahid Nur announced his decision to join peace talks brokered by Qatar.
(AFP, 7/9/10)
2010 Jul 8, In Iran at least two people were arrested in Tehran's grand bazaar, the third day of a major strike that has alarmed the authorities. A wave of anti-tax strikes by merchants in Tehran unsettled government authorities.
(http://tinyurl.com/24nw65k)(SFC, 7/10/10, p.A4)
2010 Jul 8, In Iraq three separate roadside bombings in eastern and northern Baghdad left 14 people dead and at least 63 wounded. The attacks targeted the hundreds of thousands of pilgrims who defied violence to take part in the final day of a Shiite religious holiday.
(AP, 7/8/10)(AP, 7/9/10)
2010 Jul 8, In Israel police arrested overnight a pair of ultra-Orthodox Jewish men suspected of trying to smuggle $1 million of pure cocaine into Israel from Brazil. More than 15,000 Israelis marched into Jerusalem and rallied at a park downtown for the government to conclude a deal for the release of a captive soldier held by Palestinian militants.
(AP, 7/8/10)(AP, 7/9/10)
2010 Jul 8, Libya said that it has granted some 400 Eritreans permission to stay after human rights group warnings that refugees and asylum seekers among them risked abuse if forcibly repatriated.
(AFP, 7/8/10)
2010 Jul 8, In Mexico 4 suspects were killed in a shootout with police in the border state of Coahuila. 5 civilian bystanders were wounded.
(AP, 7/9/10)
2010 Jul 8, Mozambique’s transport minister said in a report that his country will overcome a shipping bottleneck to export its vast coal deposits by finding ways for barges to navigate the Zambezi River.
(AFP, 7/8/10)
2010 Jul 8, In Norway 2 suspected al-Qaida members were arrested for what Norwegian and US officials said was a terrorist plot linked to similar plans to bomb New York's subway and blow up a shopping mall in England. A 3rd suspect was arrested in Germany. Authorities later said the ringleader of the plot is Mikael Davud (39), an Uighur who came to Norway in 1999 as part of a UN refugee program and then became a Norwegian citizen eight years later. Davud was arrested along with suspected accomplices Shawan Sadek Saeed Bujak Bujak, an Iraqi Kurd (37), and Uzbek national, David Jakobsen (31). Norwegian and Danish police later said the 3 were likely planning an attack against a Danish newspaper that caricatured the Prophet Muhammad. Jakobsen was released on Oct 15 after prosecutors revealed that he had been a police informant in the case. Jakobsen still faced terrorism charges because the allegations against the group rely partly on events that took place before he approached police last year.
(AP, 7/8/10)(AP, 8/29/10)(AP, 9/28/10)(AP, 10/15/10)
2010 Jul 8, In western Panama striking banana plantation workers and police clashed, leaving one man dead and 100 people hurt. A 2nd man was killed by police on July 10.
(AP, 7/8/10)(Reuters, 7/10/10)
2010 Jul 8, Rwandan authorities arrested Agnes Uwimana, director of Umurabyo, a privately owned newspaper, on charges of incitement, denial of the 1994 genocide and contempt of the head of state.
(AFP, 7/9/10)
2010 Jul 8, In Switzerland an experimental solar-powered plane completed its first 24-hour test flight successfully, proving that the aircraft can collect enough energy from the sun during the day to stay aloft all night.
(AP, 7/8/10)
2010 Jul 8, In Uruguay 12 inmates burned to death in an overcrowded prison, just as the country’s congress debated a law to put the army in charge of prison security and relieve the pressure on civilian prisons by moving some inmates into military installations.
(AP, 7/8/10)
2011 Jul 8, US health officials confirmed the death of an Arizona man from the same E. coli bacteria blamed for an outbreak in Germany. He had visited Germany and died last month.
(SFC, 7/9/11, p.A5)
2011 Jul 8, US health officials confirmed the death of an Arizona man from the same E. coli bacteria blamed for an outbreak in Germany. He had visited Germany and died last month.
(SFC, 7/9/11, p.A5)
2011 Jul 8, At Cape Canaveral, Florida, Atlantis and four astronauts rocketed into orbit on NASA's last space shuttle voyage. 30 mice were also onboard to test a bone-loss drug in a project directed by Amgen and collaborator UCB SA in Brussels.
(AP, 7/8/11)(SFC, 7/9/11, p.D4)
2011 Jul 8, In Illinois Carolyn Towns (51), former director of a Chicago area cemetery, pleaded guilty to a scheme of digging up bodies and reselling plots at the Burr Oak Cemetery. She was sentenced to 12 years in prison.
(SFC, 7/9/11, p.A5)
2011 Jul 8, Former first lady Betty Ford (93) died. Her triumph over drug and alcohol addiction became a beacon of hope for addicts and the inspiration for her Betty Ford Center (1982) in California.
(AP, 7/9/11)(Econ, 7/23/11, p.84)
2011 Jul 8, A 225-page international review showing wide variances of Internet freedom gave Finland the best marks for making citizens' access to a broadband connection a legal right. The report was presented at OSCE headquarters in Vienna.
(AP, 7/8/11)
2011 Jul 8, Brazil's Supreme Court said a prosecutor has filed charges against Jose Dirceu, a former top presidential aide, and 36 other people in a 2005 cash-for-votes scandal that rocked the government of then-President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
(AP, 7/8/11)
2011 Jul 8, Britain’s PM David Cameron said he would establish a full public inquiry led by a judge into the News of the World scandal. London's Metropolitan Police arrested Andy Coulson (43), Cameron's ex-media chief, "in connection with allegations of corruption and phone hacking." Coulson was editor of Britain's biggest-selling Sunday newspaper from 2003 to 2007. Police also re-arrested Clive Goodman (53), the News of the World's former royal editor, who was jailed in 2007 for hacking the voicemails of Princes William and Harry.
(AFP, 7/8/11)
2011 Jul 8, In Canada a federal appeals court ruled that an illegal immigrant has no right to free medical intervention of ongoing health care.
(SSFC, 7/10/11, p.A4)
2011 Jul 8, In Colombia President Juan Manuel Santos asked for forgiveness from victims and survivors of a 2000 massacre by right-wing paramilitaries that is considered one of the bloodiest chapters in Colombia's long internal conflict. A report from the National Commission of Reparation and Reconciliation says at least 60 people were killed in the town of El Salado in northern Bolivar province between Feb. 16 and Feb. 21, 2000.
(AP, 7/8/11)
2011 Jul 8, In CongoDRC a Hewa Bora Airways plane crashed in a thunderstorm as it was attempting to land in Kisangani airport, killing at least 48 people, and leaving a dozen or more buried in the wreckage. 53 passengers survived.
(AP, 7/8/11)
2011 Jul 8, Egyptians held one of their biggest protests in months as tens of thousands took to the streets in Cairo and other cities to demand justice for victims of Hosni Mubarak's regime and press the country's new military rulers for a clear plan on transition to democracy.
(AP, 7/8/11)
2011 Jul 8, French police investigated a train robbery on the outskirts of Marseille in which a group of youths held up a passenger train and robbed a freight train following behind.
(SFC, 7/9/11, p.A2)
2011 Jul 8, In India heavy monsoon rains caused a stone wall to collapse, killing 10 construction workers, on the outskirts of Mumbai.
(AP, 7/8/11)
2011 Jul 8, In Iraq a roadside bombing west of Baghdad killed two Iraqi army officers.
(AP, 7/8/11)
2011 Jul 8, Hundreds of pro-reform Jordanians demonstrated in Amman and other cities, demanding the resignation of the government nearly a week after Prime Minister Maaruf Bakhit reshuffled his cabinet.
(AFP, 7/8/11)
2011 Jul 8, Andris Berzins (b.1944) took office as president of Latvia.
(Econ, 7/30/11, p.49)(http://tinyurl.com/6l7gnlx)
2011 Jul 8, Thousands of Libyans poured into Tripoli's main square for mass prayers and a rally in support of Moammar Gadhafi. Rebels battled to within two km (one mile) of the center of Zliten town with the loss of five dead and 17 wounded. NATO struck targets in several areas, including tanks, rocket launching sites, artillery pieces, military storage facilities and command and control centers. 4 boats carrying about 1,000 migrants fleeing the conflict arrived on the Italian island of Lampedusa.
(AP, 7/8/11)(AFP, 7/9/11)
2011 Jul 8, In Mexico the bodies of 10 men and a woman who had been shot with high-powered rifles were found piled near a water well on the outskirts of Mexico City. A survivor later said victims were kidnapped two days earlier in a bar by members of the Knights Templar. At least 20 people were killed in a bar massacre in the northern city of Monterrey when riflemen opened fire on the clientele and employees.
(AP, 7/8/11)(AP, 7/9/11)(AP, 7/11/11)
2011 Jul 8, Pakistan officials said that a four-day air and ground offensive against militants in a key tribal district had left 42 enemy fighters and eight soldiers dead on the Afghan border. The government ordered 1,000 extra troops to deploy in Karachi with instructions to shoot-to-kill. At least 80 people have been killed since July 6 in the deadliest six months of political violence since 1995. Security forces had already arrested 89 suspects over the killings.
(AFP, 7/8/11)(AP, 7/8/11)
2011 Jul 8, Scores of pro-Palestinian activists trying to reach Tel Aviv, as part of a coordinated protest, were blocked at European airports. 6 activists who managed to land were deported as Israel moved to defuse the mass arrival envisioned by organizers.
(AP, 7/8/11)
2011 Jul 8, In Sri Lanka a magistrate agreed to a police request to detain a British citizen of Sri Lankan origin accused of causing "disrepute to the country and the army by providing alleged videos to Britain's Channel 4 television" for its documentary "Sri Lanka's Killing Fields."
(AFP, 7/9/11)
2011 Jul 8, Tens of thousands of Syrians carrying olive branches and shouting for the downfall of President Bashar Assad's regime streamed into the flashpoint city of Hama. US and French ambassadors traveled to Hama a day earlier and left today before the protests began. Security forces killed three protesters in Maaret al-Numan, a town on the highway linking Damascus, the capital, with Syria's largest city, Aleppo. Two other people were killed in Damascus' central neighborhood of Midan and in the nearby town of Dumari. Activists said the crackdown killed at least 13 people.
(AP, 7/8/11)(AP, 7/9/11)
2011 Jul 8, In Yemen President Ali Abdullah Saleh's supporters opened fire, killing at least 11 people after their leader's first television appearance since his injury last month. 5 people died from gunshots in the capital Sanaa, 4 in the town of Ibb, and at least 2 others elsewhere.
(AP, 7/8/11)
2011 Jul 8, Zambian President Rupiah Banda opened the country's largest coal mine, after Singapore's Nava Bharat took over majority shares and invested $750 million (525 million euros) at the once defunct state entity.
(AFP, 7/8/11)
2012 Jul 8, A blistering heat wave finally showed signs of letting up across the US Midwest and Northeast, with more moderate temperatures bringing relief to overheated residents from Chicago to New York, according to meteorologists. The unrelenting heat left at least 30 people across half the country.
(AP, 7/8/12)
2012 Jul 8, Dozens of women who attended a Rhode Island high school run by the disgraced Legion of Christ religious order urged the Vatican to close the program, saying the psychological abuse they endured trying to live like teenage nuns led to multiple cases of anorexia, stress-induced migraines, depression and even suicidal thoughts. On July 12 The Legion's lay branch Regnum Christi posted a statement on its website outlining changes.
(AP, 7/9/12)(AP, 7/13/12)
2012 Jul 8, Ernest Borgnine (b.1917), American film and TV star, died. He created a variety of memorable characters in both movies and television and won the best-actor Oscar for his role as a lovesick butcher in "Marty" in 1955. He was also known as the Navy officer in the television series "McHale's Navy," which aired from 1962-66.
(SFC, 7/9/12, p.C4)
2012 Jul 8, In Afghanistan roadside bombs killed 18 civilians, including 7 women, traveling in three vehicles in southern Kandahar province close to the Pakistan border. A NATO service member was killed in southern Afghanistan during an insurgent attack. 5 Afghan policemen were killed while responding to a gun battle being waged against insurgents at a checkpoint in the Musa Qala district of Helmand province. 6 Americans were killed when their armored vehicle struck a bomb planted in Wardak province.
(AFP, 7/8/12)(AP, 7/8/12)(AP, 7/9/12)
2012 Jul 8, Donor nations meeting in Tokyo pledged $16 billion for Afghanistan to prevent the country from sliding back into turmoil when foreign combat troops depart, but called on Kabul to implement reforms to fight graft. The conference hosted representatives from about 80 nations and international organizations in a gathering aimed at adopting the "Tokyo Declaration," pledging support and cash.
(AFP, 7/8/12)
2012 Jul 8, China started work on a 30-billion-yuan ($4.8-billion) tourism project in Lhasa city, as it seeks to draw more travelers to the restive Tibet region.
(AFP, 7/8/12)
2012 Jul 8, In China a gas blast at a coal mine in the central province of Hunan killed seven people, the latest in a string of accidents in the country's dangerous mining industry.
(AFP, 7/8/12)
2012 Jul 8, In CongoDRC M23 rebels seized the eastern town of Rutshuru after the army fled their advance. A local official said the army looted during their retreat. M23 also took the towns of Ntamugenga and Rubare. 8 armored vehicles from the United Nations mission fled Rutshuru for a UN base five kilometers away in Kiwanja, where many local residents were sheltering in a camp for displaced people. Rebels said they would cede most of their gains to UN peacekeepers and police.
(AFP, 7/8/12)
2012 Jul 8, Egypt's new President Mohamed Morsi issued a decree annulling the Supreme Court's June 14 dissolution of the Islamist-dominated parliament.
(AFP, 7/8/12)
2012 Jul 8, Iraqi Kurdistan said it has begun sending oil produced in its three-province autonomous region out of the country without the express permission of the central government. It was being exported to Turkey so it could be refined into various products before being brought back to Kurdistan.
(AFP, 7/8/12)
2012 Jul 8, Israel PM Benjamin Netanyahu announced he will back a controversial plan to compel ultra-Orthodox Jews and Arab Israelis to complete compulsory military or community service.
(AFP, 7/8/12)
2012 Jul 8, Kuwait's Zain telecom said its Iraqi unit has been fined $12,877 a day since September 1 for failing to list on the Iraqi bourse but will seek to have the penalty that has reached $4 million scrapped.
(AFP, 7/8/12)
2012 Jul 8, In Nigeria a federal lawmaker and a state lawmaker were killed in an ambush on their way to a mass burial for victims near Jos. At least 20 others were killed when gunmen stormed the funeral of those killed a day earlier. Boko Haram later claimed that it was responsible for the attacks.
(AP, 7/9/12)(AFP, 7/9/12)(AP, 7/13/12)
2012 Jul 8, In Pakistan thousands of hardline Islamists streamed toward Islamabad in a massive convoy of vehicles to protest the government's decision to allow the US and other NATO countries to resume shipping troop supplies through the country to Afghanistan.
(AP, 7/8/12)
2012 Jul 8, In Saudi Arabia Sheik Nimr al-Nimr was arrested after he and followers exchanged fire with security forces and crashed into one of the patrol vehicles. Al-Nimr, who was wounded in the leg, faced charges of instigating unrest in the oil-rich eastern province.
(AP, 7/8/12)
2012 Jul 8, Saudi Arabia’s Prince Mohammed bin Saud (78), a senior prince and former defense minister, died. He wielded influence as part of a council of royal family members that helps select the heirs to rule the country.
(AP, 7/8/12)
2012 Jul 8, Sudanese security forces fired tear gas after demonstrations broke out at the University of Khartoum, where nationwide protests against high prices began last month.
(AFP, 7/8/12)
2012 Jul 8, Syrian forces pounded Aleppo and Deir Ezzor provinces as at least 35 people were killed across the country, among them 17 civilians.
(AFP, 7/8/12)
2012 Jul 8, In Vietnam Cuban President Raul Castro met with state leaders following a visit to China, as Havana looks to old communist allies while it attempts to push through historic economic reforms.
(AFP, 7/8/12)
2013 Jul 8, The US and 28 countries of the EU began negotiations on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership.
(SFC, 7/8/13, p.D1)
2013 Jul 8, SF Bay Bridge officials said repairs to cracked rods would delay the opening of the new $6.4 billion Bay Bridge by at least 3 months. Sep 3 had been the scheduled opening date.
(SFC, 7/9/13, p.A1)
2013 Jul 8, In Virginia three Somalis were convicted of piracy, kidnapping and murder in the 2011 shooting deaths of four Americans sailing in the Indian Ocean off of Oman and could face the death penalty.
(Reuters, 7/9/13)
2013 Jul 8, Afghan authorities said they have arrested Zakaria Kandahari, a man who served as a translator for US Special Forces and was wanted on allegations he tortured and killed civilians. The Wardak provincial governor's office said 16 Taliban were killed and two arrested in a 24-hour operation that ended today. 2 Afghan soldiers were killed and six others wounded. In Laghman province the Afghan intelligence service launched a pre-emptive strike on a group of Taliban after learning they were preparing to attack a police checkpoint. 2 militants were killed in the ensuing gunbattle and one captured. In Nangahar province 3 Afghan national police were killed and another wounded when their checkpoint was attacked.
(AP, 7/8/13)
2013 Jul 8, China handed down a suspended death sentence on a former railways minister for corruption, a case seen as a test of President Xi Jinping's resolve to crack down on pervasive graft.
(Reuters, 7/8/13)
2013 Jul 8, Egyptian soldiers and police clashed with Islamists protesting the military's ouster of the president. The bloodshed left 53 pro-Morsi protesters dead as well as 4 members of the security forces.
(AP, 7/8/13)(AP, 7/9/13)(AP, 7/12/13)
2013 Jul 8, The European Union Naval Force said the MV Albedo, a hijacked Malaysian-flagged ship that pirates have held off the coast of Somalia since November 2010, has sunk in rough seas. 2 of 15 crew members were reportedly rescued. A pirate commander said at least six pirates and two crew members had been killed.
(AP, 7/8/13)
2013 Jul 8, Greece's international debt inspectors reached a tentative agreement with the cash-strapped country on reforms needed to keep releasing vital bailout loans, although they warned it still faced an "uncertain" economic outlook and needed to sack thousands of state sector workers. Municipal workers went on strike to protest government plans to reduce the number of civil servants.
(AP, 7/8/13)
2013 Jul 8, Iran’s communications minister said all citizens will be assigned an individual email address which the would aid interaction between state authorities and the people.
(Reuters, 7/8/13)
2013 Jul 8, In Iraq a bomb exploded near a youth center in Madain killing 6 civilians. In Mosul a car bomb exploded in a commercial area, killing one civilian. Also in Mosul two militant groups shot and killed a police officer and a civilian in two separate attacks.
(AP, 7/8/13)
2013 Jul 8, In Israel several thousand ultra-Orthodox protesters effectively blocked Jewish women activists campaigning for equal worship rights at the Western Wall from holding a monthly prayer session at the holy site.
(Reuters, 7/8/13)
2013 Jul 8, In Nigeria gunmen fired on the premises of Nigerian-owned but Lebanese-run construction firm Setraco in Benin city, killing two soldiers, wounding a third and seizing a Lebanese construction manager. The manager was released on July 25.
(Reuters, 7/25/13)
2013 Jul 8, In northwest Pakistan a suicide bomber on a motorcycle attacked a pro-government tribal elder's vehicle, killing at least 8 people in Hangu district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
(AP, 7/8/13)
2013 Jul 8, Syria's ruling Baath party announced it has elected a new regional command to replace its aging leadership, including the country's longtime vice president, as its two-year civil war raged on. 2 car bombs exploded in a predominantly Alawite and Christian neighborhood of Homs, killing at least four people and wounding 29.
(AP, 7/8/13)
2013 Jul 8, Ghassan Hitto, appointed last March as the notional prime minister of the interim government of Syria, resigned. He had been appointed to assemble an administration to govern rebel-held territory.
(SFC, 7/9/13, p.A3)
2013 Jul 8, Turkey reopened Istanbul’s Gezi Park at the heart of last month's demonstrations against PM Tayyip Erdogan. Protest leaders called a rally there for this evening in defiance of the city governor. Hours later police forced people out due to concerns about a planned protest rally. Clashes ensued in nearby streets before police allowed people back into the park around midnight.
(AP, 7/8/13)(Reuters, 7/9/13)
2013 Jul 8, Venezuela’s Pres. Nicolas Maduro said five officials have been arrested and charged with embezzling $84 million from a China-financed development fund administered by state-run development bank Bandes.
(Reuters, 7/8/13)
2013 Jul 8, In Yemen army commander Colonel Ahmed Mohammed al-Suhaili was shot dead as he was leaving home for work in Hadramout province.
(Reuters, 7/8/13)
2014 Jul 8, Federal water managers said drought in the southwestern US will deplete Nevada’s vast Lake Mead this week to levels not seen since the Great Depression in the 1930s.
(Reuters, 7/9/14)
2014 Jul 8, US East Coast states experienced severe storms and high winds. 4 people were killed in New York and one in Maryland. CNN reported nearly 500,000 homes and businesses without power, mostly in Pennsylvania and New York state.
(AP, 7/9/14)
2014 Jul 8, In Washington state the Mills Canyon Fire broke out near the tiny eastern town of Entiat, in Chelan County. By July 11 it burnt 18,000 acres and threatened over 200 homes.
(Reuters, 7/11/14)
2014 Jul 8, The US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) announced that health researchers in Maryland had discovered vials of smallpox, declared eradicated in 1977, sitting in a forgotten fridge in an FDA storehouse.
(Econ, 7/12/14, p.73)
2014 Jul 8, In eastern Afghanistan 4 NATO soldiers from the Czech Rep. were killed in an explosion. At least 10 civilians, and 2 police officers were also killed when a suicide bomber attacked Afghan and foreign forces near Charakar, the provincial capital of Parvan province. A 5th Czech soldier died of his wounds on July 14.
(Reuters, 7/8/14)(AP, 7/8/14)(AP, 7/10/14)(AP, 7/14/14)
2014 Jul 8, In Australia Japan's PM Shinzo Abe met with Australian PM Tony Abbott to sign agreements bolstering defense and trade ties between the countries.
(AP, 7/8/14)
2014 Jul 8, Bangladesh was awarded nearly four-fifths of an area sprawling over 25,000 sq km (9,700 sq miles) in the Bay of Bengal by a UN tribunal, ending a dispute over a sea border with India that has ruffled ties between the neighbors for more than three decades.
(Reuters, 7/8/14)
2014 Jul 8, In Brazil World Cup semifinals the German soccer team beat Brazil’s national team in a record-breaking 7-1 game.
(http://tinyurl.com/l5496fm)
2014 Jul 8, In Cambodia William Glenn (43), an American teacher from Mississippi, left his guesthouse in Phnom Penh on a motorcycle taxi and never returned. His body was discovered the next day at a garbage dump.
(AP, 7/11/14)
2014 Jul 8, In Iraq a suicide bomber detonated an explosives-rigged vehicle at a checkpoint south of Samarra, killing 5 people. A roadside bomb killed three federal police and wounded two more west of Samarra.
(AFP, 7/8/14)
2014 Jul 8, Israel launched Operation Protective Edge in response to rocket attacks by Hamas. Israeli warplanes pounded Gaza with more than 50 strikes early today after Hamas militants fired scores of rockets over the border. Palestinian officials said at least 10 people, including two children, were killed in the attacks from air and sea.
(AFP, 7/8/14)(AP, 7/8/14)(Econ, 7/11/15, p.45)
2014 Jul 8, Typhoon Neoguri pounded across the southern Japanese islands of Okinawa, as residents took refuge from destructive winds, towering waves and storm surges.
(AP, 7/8/14)
2014 Jul 8, Libya restarted production at the Sharara oilfield, one of the country’s largest oilfields, pumping at more than 90 percent of its capacity.
(AP, 7/9/14)
2014 Jul 8, North Korea’s 6,700-ton freighter "Mu Du Bong," which had come from Cuba, ran aground on a reef 8 miles (13 km) northeast of Tuxpan in Mexico's Veracruz state. On April 8, 2015, North Korea accused Mexico of illegally detaining the ship with some 50 crew.
(Reuters, 4/8/15)
2014 Jul 8, Pakistani jets bombed insurgent hideouts in a restive tribal area bordering Afghanistan and killed at least 13 militants in Degan village, North Waziristan.
(AFP, 7/8/14)
2014 Jul 8, In Somalia three of four extremist attackers were shot dead by soldiers after they forced their way into the presidential palace in Mogadishu. The fourth militant was wounded.
(AP, 7/9/14)
2014 Jul 8, In Thailand the body of a raped girl (13) was discovered early today near the train tracks in Prachuap Khirikhan province's Pranburi district. She had disappeared the night of July 5 from a sleeping berth en route from the southern province of Surat Thai to the capital, Bangkok. Railway worker Wanchai Saengkhao was arrested and faced charges of rape, concealing a body and murder. On Sep 30 Saengkhao (22) was sentenced to death.
(AP, 7/8/14)(AP, 9/30/14)
2014 Jul 8, Ukraine's government signaled its intention to press on with its campaign against pro-Russian rebels and the militants, regrouping after losing their stronghold, said they were preparing to fight back.
(Reuters, 7/8/14)
2014 Jul 8, The World Health Organization (WHO) said fifty new cases of Ebola and 25 deaths have been reported in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea since July 3.
(Reuters, 7/8/14)
2014 Jul 8, The Yemeni Red Crescent said some 10,000 families have fled the northern city of Amran in three days to escape an intensified battle between the army and Shiite rebels.
(AFP, 7/8/14)
2015 Jul 8, The United Arab Emirates and the US launched the Sawab Center in Abu Dhabi. The new digital communications effort focused on using social media to counter the Islamic State group’s propaganda efforts.
(SFC, 7/9/15, p.A4)
2015 Jul 8, The South Carolina House approved taking down the Confederate flag from the Capitol grounds. Gov. Nikki Haley was expected to sign it.
(SFC, 7/9/15, p.A5)
2015 Jul 8, The NYSE halted trading for over three hours to technical problems related to a software upgrade.
(SFC, 7/9/15, p.C1)(SFC, 7/10/15, p.C3)
2015 Jul 8, All United Continental flights in the US were grounded for about two hours due to computer network problems.
(SFC, 7/9/15, p.A5)
2015 Jul 8, Afghan lawmakers rejected the first ever female nominee for the country's Supreme Court, a setback to the government's efforts to promote women to high-profile positions. Anisa Rasouli, the head of the Afghan Woman Judges' Association and a juvenile court judge, needed 97 votes out of 193 to win, but managed only 88 votes.
(AFP, 7/8/15)
2015 Jul 8, In southern Algeria at least 22 people were reported killed in two days of clashes between Chaamba Arabs and Mozabite Berbers in the M'zab valley.
(AFP, 7/8/15)
2015 Jul 8, Australia extradited Dragan Vasiljkovic, also known as Captain Dragan and Daniel Snedden, to Croatia to face war crimes charges. He was a former Serb paramilitary commander during the 1991-1995 Balkan wars.
(AP, 7/8/15)
2015 Jul 8, In Bangladesh Samiul Islam Rajon (13), was tied to a pole and then subjected to a brutal assault in which he pleaded for his life. A 28-minute video of Samiul was widely circulated after being posted on social media. On July 14 authorities arrested prime suspect Moyna Chowkidar (38) on the outskirts of the northeastern city of Sylhet. Police later filed charges against 13 men.
(AFP, 7/15/15)(AP, 8/17/15)
2015 Jul 8, Pope Francis flew to Bolivia after drawing about 1.5 million people to Masses in Ecuador on the first leg of a "homecoming" tour.
(Reuters, 7/8/15)
2015 Jul 8, Britain’s Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne unveiled fresh austerity measures to slash the country's debt. Osborne said Britain will commit to maintaining defense spending at NATO's target of 2 percent of gross domestic product every year for the rest of the decade.
(AFP, 7/8/15)(Reuters, 7/8/15)
2015 Jul 8, Colombia's largest guerrilla army declared a month-long, unilateral cease-fire as of July 20.
(AP, 7/8/15)
2015 Jul 8, In Egypt 5 civilians were killed when a mortar round hit a house in a North Sinai village where the army is battling jihadist insurgents.
(AP, 7/8/15)
2015 Jul 8, The European Parliament approved a proposal to begin reform of the world's biggest carbon market in 2019.
(Reuters, 7/8/15)
2015 Jul 8, A French court suspended a postal ballot organized by the far-right National Front on whether to scrap founder Jean-Marie Le Pen's post as honorary president.
(AFP, 7/8/15)
2015 Jul 8, Greece made a request for aid from Europe's bailout fund as it rushed to deliver details of its proposed economic reforms in time to secure the country's future in the euro and avoid a descent into financial chaos. Greece promised to implement pension and tax reforms as early as next week as the first step to securing a three-year rescue loan to cover debt obligations.
(AP, 7/8/15)(Reuters, 7/8/15)
2015 Jul 8, India's leading crime-fighting agency registered a case against a prominent critic of PM Modi for accepting foreign funds, amid concerns that overseas charities are interfering in the country's domestic affairs. Teesta Setalvad faced charges of fraud, misappropriation of funds and violation of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act.
(Reuters, 7/8/15)
2015 Jul 8, An Iraqi court in Baghdad sentenced 24 suspected members of the Islamic State terror group to death for their role in the killing of hundreds of soldiers during the extremists' blitz across the country last year.
(AP, 7/8/15)
2015 Jul 8, Italian authorities said they have seized assets worth more than 1.6 billion euros ($1.75 billion) from a family of five Sicilian pensioners believed to have links to a prominent mafia clan. The haul belonged to Carmelo Virga (66), his brothers Vincenzo (78), and Francesco (71), and their sisters Anna (76) and Rosa (68).
(AFP, 7/8/15)
2015 Jul 8, In Libya fighting erupted in the center of Benghazi. At least 14 people were killed in battles between militiamen and forces loyal to the internationally recognized government. Taher Allush, a senior military intelligence officer, was killed in Misrata when a bomb concealed in his car exploded.
(AP, 7/9/15)
2015 Jul 8, Myanmar ratified the chemical weapons convention, bringing the treaty a step closer to its goal of acceptance by every country in the world. It will become the organization's 191st nation when it comes into force 30 days after the ratification.
(AP, 7/9/15)
2015 Jul 8, Pakistan said Afghan and Taliban representatives have agreed to meet again after landmark through-the-night talks aimed at ending a 13-year insurgency.
(AFP, 7/8/15)
2015 Jul 8, A Palestinian appeals court ruled in favor of maintaining parliamentary immunity for Mohammed Dahlan (53), a rival to President Mahmoud Abbas. Dahlan fell out of favor in 2011 and has been charged with corruption.
(Reuters, 7/8/15)
2015 Jul 8, Russian lawmakers in the pro-Kremlin upper chamber called on authorities to blacklist 12 foreign NGOs as "undesirable", the first proposals under a new law critics say is part of a clampdown on civil society.
(AFP, 7/8/15)
2015 Jul 8, South Sudan rebel leader Riek Machar called on President Salva Kiir to resign along with all ministers and the parliament or risk sparking a revolution.
(AP, 7/8/15)
2015 Jul 8, The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said a drone strike as part of a US-led campaign against Islamic State militants has killed a senior IS-Uzbek figure in Raqqa. Muhsin Al-Fadhli, leader of the Khorasan al-Qaeda cell, was killed while traveling in a vehicle near Sarmada. Hackers claiming to be affiliated with the Islamic State group took down the website of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor and threatened its director. At least 19 civilians, including 5 children, were killed by a regime barrel bomb attack and rebel rocket fire in Aleppo.
(Reuters, 7/8/15)(AFP, 7/8/15)(AFP, 7/9/15)(SFC, 7/23/15, p.A4)
2015 Jul 8, In Turkey Cilem Karabulut (28) killed her husband Hasan Karabulut (33) in the southern Adana region with a pistol stored at home. She was detained by police and admitted to murdering her husband out of "honor" after he repeatedly beat her and tried to force her into prostitution.
(AFP, 7/10/15)
2015 Jul 8, A UN resolution condemning the 1995 massacre of Bosnian Muslims at Srebrenica as a "crime of genocide" was vetoed by Russia, earning denunciations by the US and Britain and by international human rights groups like Amnesty International.
(SFC, 7/9/15, p.A2)
2015 Jul 8, In Yemen some 40 inmates escaped in a jailbreak after coalition jets bombed the area surrounding a prison in Mahawit province, northwest of Sanaa. Rebels fired rockets at a residential district killing 8 civilians, among them 3 children.
(AFP, 7/8/15)
2016 Jul 8, US President Barack Obama expressed concern about the state of democracy in Poland, publicly rebuking a right-wing government that has paralyzed the constitutional court and taken steps to control state run media. Obama shared his worries with Polish President Andrzej Duda in a one-on-one meeting before the opening of a NATO summit in Warsaw.
(AP, 7/8/16)
2016 Jul 8, Ten US states sued the federal government over rules requiring public schools to alow transgender students to use restrooms and locker rooms conforming to their gender identity.
(SFC, 7/9/16, p.A11)
2016 Jul 8, Thousands of protesters marched in US cities late today, one day after a black extremist shot dead five cops who were protecting a peaceful march against police brutality in Dallas, Texas.
(AP, 7/9/16)
2016 Jul 8, In Pennsylvania Grace Packer (14), the adopted daughter of Sara Packer, was raped and smothered to death in a “rape-murder fantasy" shared by the mother and her boyfriend Jacob Sullivan. The couple dismembered the body in October and it was found by two hunters in Luzerne County on Oct 31. On Jan 6 Sullivan began confessing to the murder.
(SFC, 1/9/17, p.A12)
2016 Jul 8, Austrian President Heinz Fischer ended his term, temporarily leaving official duties in the hands of the country's three parliamentary presidents pending a rerun of elections to succeed him.
(AP, 7/8/16)
2016 Jul 8, Bangladeshi teenager Zakir Hossain Shawon (18), who police say was a suspect in last week's deadly attack on a Dhaka café, died in custody. His family insisted he was a hostage and alleging torture by security forces.
(AFP, 7/9/16)
2016 Jul 8, PM David Cameron announced that Britain is lifting a ban on women serving in frontline combat roles in the army.
(AP, 7/8/16)
2016 Jul 8, President Raul Castro told Cubans to brace for tough times because the Communist-run country must cut spending and energy supply as it deals with a cash crunch and reduced oil imports from ally Venezuela.
(Reuters, 7/9/16)
2016 Jul 8, El Salvador authorities said they have arrested five police officers and five civilians for alleged ties to a death squad that killed as many as 40 gang members in the eastern part of the country. According to prosecutors, a group of businesspeople, whose identities were not released, had brought together national police in some towns to offer them money in exchange for killing gang members.
(AP, 7/8/16)
2016 Jul 8, Indian PM Narendra Modi took his Africa tour to South Africa, seeking to boost trade between two countries.
(AFP, 7/8/16)
2016 Jul 8, Indian security services Jammu and Kashmir state shot dead Burhan Wani (22), a militant known for his calls to arms on social media and leader of Hizb-ul Mujahideen, one of a number of groups fighting Indian control of the Muslim-majority region.
(Reuters, 7/9/16)
2016 Jul 8, In Indonesia a military helicopter crashed into a house in a village near the city of Yogyakarta, killing 3 of the six people aboard.
(AP, 7/8/16)
2016 Jul 8, Iraqi PM Haider al-Abadi fired Baghdad's security chief following a recent series of attacks.
(AP, 7/8/16)
2016 Jul 8, Mongolia's parliament appointed Jargaltulga Erdenebayar (42), a former finance minister, as the new prime minister amid near-flat growth and spiraling debt.
(Reuters, 7/8/16)
2016 Jul 8, Leaders of the NATO military alliance met in Warsaw and began a landmark summit that will order ambitious actions against a daunting array of dangers to the security of their nations and citizenry, including a rearmed and increasingly unfriendly Russia to Europe's east and violent Islamic extremism to the south. Finland and Sweden joined NATO leaders at the top table for the first time as Russia's military build-up pushed the two countries closer to the western military alliance.
(AP, 7/8/16)(Reuters, 7/8/16)
2016 Jul 8, In Nigeria a suicide bomber killed at least 9 people and injured around 12 others in an attack on a mosque in Damboa, Borno state, during early morning prayers.
(Reuters, 7/8/16)
2016 Jul 8, Nigerian militants said they have blown up a crude oil pipeline belonging to Italian oil company Agip in Bayelsa state.
(AP, 7/8/16)
2016 Jul 8, In Pakistan national hero Abdul Sattar Edhi (92), the founder of the country's largest welfare organisation, died in Karachi.
(AFP, 7/9/16)
2016 Jul 8, South Korea and the United States said they would deploy an advanced missile defense system in South Korea to counter a threat from North Korea, drawing a sharp and swift protest from neighboring China.
(Reuters, 7/8/16)
2016 Jul 8, In South Sudan at least 115 soldiers from rival factions were killed in gunbattles in the capital Juba as gunfire erupted near the state house where President Salva Kiir and vice president Riek Machar, former rivals, were meeting for talks.
(Reuters, 7/9/16)
2016 Jul 8, In Spain six foreigners, including three Americans, were among seven people gored in a hair-raising second running of the bulls at Pamplona's San Fermin festival.
(AP, 7/8/16)
2016 Jul 8, In northwestern Syria airstrikes on a village killed 23 people and wounded dozens in Darkoush, Idlib province, despite a declared 3-day truce. Syrian rebels fired a rocket barrage on residential areas in the government side of Aleppo, killing 44 according to state media.
(AP, 7/8/16)(AP, 7/9/16)
2016 Jul 8, In Syria militants shot down a military helicopter near Palmyra, killing 2 Russian pilots on board.
(Reuters, 7/10/16)
2016 Jul 8, Super typhoon Nepartak hit Taiwan, driving thousands of people from their homes, disrupting power supplies and grounding more than 600 flights. The storm caused at least 3 deaths and more than 300 injuries.
(Reuters, 7/8/16)(Reuters, 7/9/16)
2016 Jul 8, Tanzania's High Court raising the legal age of marriage for girls to 18 and ruled that two sections of the 1971 Marriage Act, that allow girls to marry at 15 with parental consent and 14 with the permission of a court, are unconstitutional.
(Reuters, 7/12/16)
2016 Jul 8, Turkish fighter jets struck Kurdish militant targets in southeastern Hakkari province and northern Iraq. The Turkish Army reportedly "neutralized 17 separatist terror organization members" in Hakkari province and two militants in Van province.
(Reuters, 7/8/16)(AP, 7/9/16)
2017 Jul 8, US President Donald Trump promised $639 million in funding for humanitarian programs, including $331 million to help feed starving people in four famine-hit countries - Somalia, South Sudan, Nigeria and Yemen. Trump's pledge came during a working session of the G20 summit of world leaders in Hamburg.
(AP, 7/8/17)
2017 Jul 8, The World Bank launched a public-private loan program, conceived by Ivanka Trump, to support women entrepreneurs in developing countries. Initial funding of $325 million for the project included large donations from Germany, the United States, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
(Reuters, 7/8/17)(SSFC, 7/9/17, p.A4)
2017 Jul 8, A federal judge in San Francisco gave preliminary approval for a $142 million settlement by Wells Fargo in a class-action fraud suit over unauthorized accounts.
(SFC, 7/10/17, p.A4)
2017 Jul 8, In Hawaii Sgt. 1st Class Ikaika Kang was arrested after he pledged loyalty to Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. A court appointed defense attorney later said Kang may be suffering from service-related mental health issues.
(SFC, 7/12/17, p.A5)
2017 Jul 8, In Ohio two men opened fire on a party in Colerain Township where a pregnant woman was to reveal her child’s gender. One woman was killed and eight people wounded. One pregnant woman said she lost her baby after being shot in the leg, but police later reported that she was not pregnant.
(SFC, 7/10/17, p.A4)(SFC, 7/18/17, p.A5)
2017 Jul 8, In South Dakota four children and an adult were killed in a traffic crash on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.
(SFC, 7/11/17, p.A6)
2017 Jul 8, In San Antonio, Texas, Jorge Gonzalez found his son Isaiah (15) hanging from the closet. A propped up cell phone next to him had broadcast the suicide, believed to be tied to an online spectacle known as the Blue Whale Challenge. On July 10 CNN reported that a girl (16) in Atlanta had also taken her life while participating in the challenge.
(SFC, 7/12/17, p.A11)
2017 Jul 8, Chinese President Xi Jinping stressed to US President Donald Trump China's adherence to resolving the North Korean nuclear issue via talks according to state news agency Xinhua.
(Reuters, 7/9/17)
2017 Jul 8, Egyptian state news said security forces have killed two men, members of a newly emerged militant group called Hasm, in an exchange of gunfire in Giza.
(Reuters, 7/8/17)
2017 Jul 8, In Egypt an explosive device struck a police vehicle late today in the northern Sinai town of al-Arish, killing two conscripts and wounding nine others.
(AP, 7/9/17)
2017 Jul 8, Eritrean officials claimed "victory" after the UN cultural agency unanimously decided to put the African nation's capital city of Asmara on the UNESCO World Heritage list — the result of years of lobbying by one of the world's most reclusive governments.
(AP, 7/8/17)
2017 Jul 8, In Germany a final statement agreed by the leaders of the Group of 20 economic powers exposed a divide between the United States and other G20 members on the Paris climate accord aimed at combating climate change. The leaders of the other G20 members stated that the Paris Agreement is irreversible.
(Reuters, 7/8/17)
2017 Jul 8, In Germany anti-globalization activists rioted violently for a second night as Hamburg hosted G20 leaders, setting up street barricades, looting supermarkets and attacking police with slingshots and firebombs.
(AP, 7/8/17)
2017 Jul 8, Iraqi military commanders said they would take full control of the city from the insurgents at any moment. Islamic State militants vowed to “fight to the death".
(AP, 7/8/17)
2017 Jul 8, In southwestern Japan the death toll from several days of freak weather rose to 16 as rescue crews took advantage of a break in the weather on Saturday to search for survivors. At least 14 others remained missing.
(Reuters, 7/8/17)(SSFC, 7/9/17, p.A4)
2017 Jul 8, In Kashmir seven people were killed in cross-border shelling by both Pakistan and India as hundreds of militants and political activists took to the streets in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir to commemorate the death of Burhan Wani.
(Reuters, 7/8/17)
2017 Jul 8, In Kenya at least nine people were shot and hacked to death in coastal Lamu County early today. Police sources said Shabaab militants were believed to be behind the killings.
(AFP, 7/8/17)
2017 Jul 8, Kenya's interior minister and a retired general, died in a Nairobi hospital a month before the East African country's presidential election. Joseph Nkaissery was 68.
(AFP, 7/8/17)
2017 Jul 8, Libyan strongman Khalifa Haftar met with UAE leaders for talks on military cooperation, days after announcing the retaking of second city Benghazi from jihadists.
(AFP, 7/9/17)
2017 Jul 8, In Libya the bodies of 19 migrants, believed to be Egyptians, were found in the eastern desert south of Tobruk.
(Reuters, 7/9/17)
2017 Jul 8, The Libyan coastguard said thirty-five migrants, including seven children, were feared drowned after their inflatable boat sank off the Libyan coast.
(AFP, 7/8/17)
2017 Jul 8, In the southern Philippines a hostage was killed during a gunbattle between his militant captors and government troops that also left four militants and a soldier dead in mountainous Patikul town, Sulu province. The victim was one of six Vietnamese crewmen abducted by the militants in an attack on their cargo ship in February.
(AP, 7/13/17)
2017 Jul 8, Venezuela's best-known jailed opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez was back home and hugging his family after being granted house arrest following three years in jail for leading anti-government protests.
(Reuters, 7/8/17)
2018 Jul 8, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, speaking in Hanoi, appealed for North Korea's leadership to follow Vietnam's path in overcoming past hostilities with the United States. Pompeo called on North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to replicate Vietnam's "miracle" of economic growth by improving ties with the US.
(AP, 7/8/18)
2018 Jul 8, American film star Tab Hunter (b.1931) died in Santa Barbara. His films included "Battle Cry" and "Damn Yankees!" (1958). His recording of "Young Love" toped the Billboard pop chart in 1957.
(SFC, 7/10/18, p.A6)
2018 Jul 8, In Williamsburg, Va., a helicopter crashed into a residence and ignited a fire. The pilot was killed.
(SFC, 7/9/18, p.A4)
2018 Jul 8, British Brexit minister David Davis resigned late today and launched a no-holds-barred attack on PM May's Brexit plan, calling it "dangerous" and one which would give "too much away, too easily" to EU negotiators, who would simply ask for more.
(Reuters, 7/9/18)
2018 Jul 8, British police announced the death of Dawn Sturgess (44) following an exposure to the Novichok nerve agent a week earlier in Amesbury.
(AFP, 7/9/18)
2018 Jul 8, In England embattled Indian tycoon Vijay Mallya (62) said he will comply fully with court enforcement officers seeking to seize his British assets, but there was not much for them to take as his family's lavish residences were not in his name.
(Reuters, 7/8/18)
2018 Jul 8, Canadian author Michael Ondaatje's "The English Patient," which won the British Man Booker Prize in 1992, was named winner of the Golden Man Booker winner, a special award to mark the Booker's 50th anniversary.
(AP, 7/24/18)
2018 Jul 8, Eritrean President Isaias Afkweri met with Ethiopian PM Abiy Ahmed for a summit in Asmara for the first time in two decades as direct international telephone connection was restored between the two countries.
(Reuters, 7/8/18)
2018 Jul 8, A French judicial source said judges have decided to block 2 million euros of state subsidies due to be handed out to Marine Le Pen's far-right party, leading Le Pen to say her party was "threatened with death".
(Reuters, 7/8/18)
2018 Jul 8, In Haiti fresh looting broke out on the streets of Port-au-Prince, despite calls for calm after two days of deadly protests over ultimately suspended fuel price hikes.
(AFP, 7/8/18)
2018 Jul 8, Iraqi police opened fire to disperse dozens of protesters near the southern oil hub of Basra as they demonstrated against a shortage of jobs, electricity, water and other basic services.
(Reuters, 7/8/18)
2018 Jul 8, Italy's Interior Minister Matteo Salvini said the new government wants to prevent ships operating for "international missions" from bringing migrants rescued off Libya to Italian ports.
(AFP, 7/8/18)
2018 Jul 8, In western Japan the death toll from torrential rain and landslides rose to 81 people, with dozens still missing after more than 2,000, temporarily stranded in the city of Kurashiki, were rescued.
(Reuters, 7/8/18)
2018 Jul 8, In Kashmir police and soldiers fanned out across much of the Indian-controlled territory to enforce a security lockdown as separatists challenging Indian rule called for a shutdown and protests on the second anniversary of the killing of a charismatic rebel leader.
(AP, 7/8/18)
2018 Jul 8, Kuwait's highest court ordered an opposition leader and two lawmakers imprisoned for 3 ½ years over the 2011 storming of parliament amid that year's Arab Spring protests, in a case involving nearly 70 politicians, activists and others.
(AP, 7/8/18)
2018 Jul 8, Police in Pakistan arrested Mohammad Safdar, the convicted son-in-law of former PM Nawaz Sharif, after he resurfaced in the garrison city of Rawalpindi leading a rally of supporters.
(AP, 7/8/18)
2018 Jul 8, South Sudan's the presidency said former vice president Riek Machar will be reinstated in his position as part of a peace deal to end a near five-year-old war following talks held in Entebbe, Uganda.
(Reuters, 7/8/18)
2018 Jul 8, In Syria regime air strikes in the south killed four civilians. A rebel official said the evacuation of opposition fighters and their families to rebel-held areas in northern Syria was temporarily put on hold. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said tens of thousands have returned to their homes in southern Syria since a ceasefire deal between regime ally Russia and rebels to end more than two weeks of deadly bombardment.
(AFP, 7/8/18)
2018 Jul 8, In Thailand rescue operations began for the 12 Thai schoolboys and their coach from a flooded cave as divers launched a daring and dangerous mission to free the children and their soccer coach who have been trapped underground for more than two weeks.
(Reuters, 7/8/18)
2018 Jul 8, In Tunisia at least six members of the national guard were killed in an apparent attack by an armed group near the Algerian border.
(AP, 7/8/18)
2018 Jul 8, Turkish authorities ordered the dismissal of more than 18,500 state employees, including police officers, soldiers and academics, ahead of the expected end of a two-year state of emergency this month.
(AP, 7/8/18)
2018 Jul 8, In western Turkey 24 people were killed when a multiple cars of a train derailed in Tekirdag province.
(SFC, 7/9/18, p.A2)(SFC, 7/10/18, p.A2)
2019 Jul 8, A US federal judge blocked a White House initiative on prescription drug costs, saying the Trump administration lacked the legal authority to require drug makers to disclose their prices in TV ads.
(SFC, 7/10/19, p.A7)
2019 Jul 8, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed a new law that directs state officials to share state returns of certain elected and appointed officials upon request from the chairpersons of several top congressional committees.
(SFC, 7/9/19, p.A5)
2019 Jul 8, Egypt said it has asked Interpol to help track down a 3,000-year-old sculpture of the famed boy pharaoh Tutankhamun after Christie's auctioned it off last week, for more than 4.7 million pounds ($5.9 million), despite Cairo's objections.
(AP, 7/9/19)
2019 Jul 8, A government spokesman says Germany isn't considering sending ground troops to Syria as part of its contribution to fighting the Islamic State group.
(AP, 7/8/19)
2019 Jul 8, Iran began enriching uranium to 4.5%, just breaking the limit set by its nuclear deal with world powers, while it is still seeking a way for Europe to help it bypass US sanctions amid heightened tensions between Tehran and Washington.
(AP, 7/8/19)
2019 Jul 8, Israel's military shot down a drone that crossed into its territory from the Gaza Strip and discovered an attack tunnel running under the Gaza perimeter fence.
(AP, 7/8/19)
2019 Jul 8, The Int'l. Criminal Court (ICC) in the Netherlands convicted Bosco Ntaganda, a former rebel commander known as "The Terminator," of 18 counts of crimes against humanity for his role in a bloody ethnic conflict in the Congo DRC in 2002-2003.
(SFC, 7/9/19, p.A4)
2019 Jul 8, Amnesty International urgently called for international pressure and an immediate UN investigation to help end what it says are possible crimes against humanity in the Philippine president's bloody anti-drug crackdown.
(AP, 7/8/19)
2019 Jul 8, The United Arab Emirates said it was redeploying and reducing troops across war-torn Yemen and moving from a "military-first" strategy to a "peace-first" plan.
(AFP, 7/8/19)
2019 Jul 8, UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet said that she was "deeply shocked" by conditions under which migrants and refugees are held at US detention centers, following reports of severe overcrowding and disease-ridden cells.
(AFP, 7/8/19)
2019 Jul 8, The UN Global Study on Homicide 2919 said some 464,000 homicides were recorded around the world in 2017, far more than the number pf people killed in armed conflicts and terrorist attacks.
(AP, 7/8/19)
2019 Jul 8, The UN said war-battered Yemen has been hit with more than 460,000 suspected cholera cases so far this year — a sharp rise from the 380,000 cases for all of 2018.
(AP, 7/9/19)
2020 Jul 8, President Donald Trump threatened to withhold federal funding if schools don’t reopen in the fall, and he lashed out at federal health officials over school reopening guidelines that he says are impractical and expensive.
(AP, 7/8/20)
2020 Jul 8, The US Supreme Court ruled 7-2 to uphold Trump administration rules allowing some employers to decline to provide contraceptive coverage on religious or moral grounds, which could leave more than 70,000 women without cost-free birth control.
(AP, 7/8/20)
2020 Jul 8, California to date had 290,199 cases of coronavirus and 6,575 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 31,808 cases and 626 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 3,046,351 with the death toll at 132,195.
(sfist.com, 7/8/20)
2020 Jul 8, TV show Glee star Naya Rivera disappeared at California's Lake Piru. A boat rental employee found her boat floating with only son Josey (4) asleep inside and alerted authorities.
(AP, 7/10/20)
2020 Jul 8, Police in Miami arrested the former governor of the Mexican state of Chihuahua, César Horacio Duarte Jáquez (b.1963), who is wanted on corruption charges in his homeland. Duarte governed the northern border state from 2010 to 2016.
(The Telegraph, 7/9/20)
2020 Jul 8, Florida announced nearly 9,000 new cases and 120 new coronavirus deaths, a record daily increase in lives lost. Positive test rates reached a new daily high of 18%, up from 12%-13% two weeks ago.
(AP, 7/9/20)(SFC, 7/9/20, p.A7)
2020 Jul 8, Dylan Jarrell (22) of Kentucky, who bought an AR-15 rifle that authorities alleged he planned to use to open fire at his former high school in 2018, was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
(NBC News, 7/8/20)
2020 Jul 8, Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology filed a federal lawsuit challenging the Trump administration's decision to bar international students from staying in the US if they take classes entirely online this fall.
(AP, 7/8/20)
2020 Jul 8, Two powerful tornadoes damaged farms, left one person dead and at least one other injured in western Minnesota as severe storms moved across parts of the Midwest.
(AP, 7/9/20)
2020 Jul 8, New York-based Brooks Brothers, a 202-year-old men's retailer, filed for bankruptcy and said it is closing 51 stores across the country.
(SFC, 7/9/20, p.C1)
2020 Jul 8, Tulsa City-County Health Department Director Dr. Bruce Dart said President Donald Trump's campaign rally in Tulsa in late June that drew thousands of participants and large protests "likely contributed" to a dramatic surge in new coronavirus cases.
(AP, 7/8/20)
2020 Jul 8, Texas executed its first death row inmate since it first confirmed a case of coronavirus after a Supreme Court ruling allowed his execution to go ahead. Billy Joe Wardlow (45) was sentenced to death in 1993 for a robbery and murder in which he and his girlfriend tried to rob 82-year-old Carl Cole of his truck using a .45-caliber gun.
(The Independent, 7/9/20)
2020 Jul 8, Texas has recorded over 200,000 confirmed coronavirus cases and more than 2,670 deaths.
(SFC, 7/9/20, p.A7)
2020 Jul 8, Work crews in Virginia took down the Confederate Soldiers and Sailors statue, installed in 1894, the 6th Confederate monument to be removed in Richmond amid national protests against police brutality and symbols many see as racist icons.
(SFC, 7/9/20, p.A5)
2020 Jul 8, Biogen Inc said it has submitted an application seeking US approval of its closely-watched Alzheimer's drug, as the company aims to be the first to bring a treatment to market that can alter the course of the mind-wasting disease.
(Reuters, 7/8/20)
2020 Jul 8, BlueCity listed on New York's NASDAQ at a market valley of over $600 million. BlueCity Holdings Limited is a China-based LGBTQ focused internet technology company dedicated to providing comprehensive services to diverse users around the world. Blued, launched in 2012, is china's most popular social networking site for homosexual men.
(Econ., 7/18/20, p.54)
2020 Jul 8, In Afghanistan a suicide truck bomber targeted a police district headquarters in southern Kandahar province, killing three officers. Three other police officers, including a district police chief, were killed in a roadside bombing in eastern Ghazni province.
(AP, 7/8/20)
2020 Jul 8, In Australia the city of Melbourne and part of its surroundings began a six-week lockdown. Victoria authorities announced 134 new cases in the past 24 hours.
(SFC, 7/9/20, p.A7)
2020 Jul 8, The Brazilian Supreme Court ruled that Brazil must take emergency measures to protect its Indigenous communities from the novel coronavirus.
(The Conversation, 7/9/20)
2020 Jul 8, Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported that at least 180 bodies have been found in mass graves in northern Burkina Faso where soldiers are fighting jihadists. The men had been found shot dead under bridges, in fields and along major roads within a 5km (three-mile) radius of Djibo between November 2019 and June 2020.
(BBC, 7/8/20)
2020 Jul 8, China defended the World Health Organization and lashed out at the US decision to withdraw from the UN body.
(AP, 7/8/20)
2020 Jul 8, It was reported that China has imported more than 300,000 tons of West African rosewood (Pterocarpus erinaceus) from The Gambia since President Adama Barrow came to power in 2017. The rosewood being shipped out of The Gambia to China comes from the Casamance region of southern Senegal, where it is illegal to fell or export a rosewood tree.
(BBC, 7/8/20)
2020 Jul 8, In Hong Kong Beijing's national security office was inaugurated. Hong Kong's educational bureau announced that schools must not allow students to play, sing or broadcast the protest anthem" Glory to Hong Kong," because it contains political images.
(SFC, 7/9/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 8, Iran said that its deaths from the novel coronavirus had surpassed 12,000, with authorities considering reimposing restrictive measures in Tehran to contain a resurgence of the disease. Another 153 deaths had been recorded over the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 12,084. Total cases had risen to 248,379 with 2,691 more people testing positive.
(AP, 7/8/20)
2020 Jul 8, Ivory Coast's PM Amadou Gon Coulibaly (61) died after falling ill at a ministerial meeting. Coulibaly had only just returned from France where he had received two-months' heart treatment.
(BBC, 7/8/20)(Econ., 8/15/20, p.43)
2020 Jul 8, Lebanese businessman Kassim Tajideen (64), serving a five-year sentence in the United States for providing millions of dollars to the militant Hezbollah group, arrived in Beirut after his early release.
(AFP, 7/8/20)
2020 Jul 8, Pakistan's national carrier said it is firing 28 pilots found to have tainted licenses. 262 pilots are currently grounded in the country.
(SFC, 7/9/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 8, Palestinian PM Mohammad Shtayyeh said 82 percent of new coronavirus cases in the West Bank were linked to weddings and funerals. Over the past few weeks more than 4,000 new cases and 15 deaths have been reported.
(SFC, 7/9/20, p.A7)
2020 Jul 8, It was reported that Ukraine's security service has detained a suspected Russian agent who was allegedly planning to blow up an ammonia tank in the country’s war-torn east.
(The Telegraph, 7/8/20)
2020 Jul 8, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned the Security Council that the conflict in Libya has entered a new phase "with foreign interference reaching unprecedented levels".
(Reuters, 7/8/20)
2020 Jul 8, The UN warned that lives are at risk as the new coronavirus pandemic has led to a surge in the trafficking of substandard masks, sanitizers and other medical products.
(AFP, 7/8/20)
2020 Jul 8, A Russian bid to get the United Nations to reduce cross-border humanitarian aid to war-torn Syria was voted down by the Security Council. Authorization for aid, which comes through two crossing points on the Turkish border, expires on July 10.
(AFP, 7/8/20)
2020 Jul 8, The WHO said Sri Lanka and Maldives have become the first two countries in the World Health Organization's South-East Asia region to eliminate both measles and rubella ahead of a 2023 target.
(AP, 7/8/20)
2020 Jul 8, Yemen's UN humanitarian coordinator said the country is once again on the brink of famine as donor funds that averted catastrophe just 18 months ago have dried up.
(AFP, 7/8/20)
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