Today in History - August 7
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For Asia History: https://www.asiaobserver.org/category/news/on-this-day-in-asian-history
317 Aug 7, Flavius Julius Constantius II, Emperor Egypt, Byzantium, Rome (337-61), was born.
(MC, 8/7/02)
626 Aug 7, Battle at Constantinople: Slavs, Persians and Avars were defeated. Emp. Heraclius repelled the attacks. The attacks began in 625.
(PCh, 1992, p.60)(MC, 8/7/02)
1106 Aug 7, Henry IV (54), Holy Roman Emperor (1056/84-1105), died.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1485 Aug 7, Henry (VII) Tudor's army landed in Milford Haven, South-Wales.
(ON, 12/06, p.1)
1573 Aug 7, Francis Drake’s fleet returned to Plymouth.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1585 Aug 7, Tatar forces of Khan Kutchum attacked a sleeping Cossack expedition under Yermak near the mouth of the Vagay River in Siberia. The Cossacks were decimated and Yermak drowned wearing a suit of armor given him by Tsar Ivan.
(ON, 2/04, p.5)
1620 Aug 7, Kepler's mother was arrested for witchcraft.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1620 Aug 7, French king Louis XIII beat his mother Marie de Medici at the Battle at Ponts-the-Ca, Poitou.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1642 Aug 7, A Royalist force laid siege to Warwick Castle. Soldiers loyal to the king tried without success to unseat the Parliamentarian forces that held it. While a minor skirmish, the outcome would foreshadow the broader struggle for the country. The siege was lifted on 23 August 1642 when the garrison was relieved by the forces of Robert Devereux, 3rd Earl of Essex, and the Royalists were forced to retreat to Worcester.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warwick_Castle)
1661 Aug 7, Benedetta Carlini (b.1590), a Catholic mystic and lesbian nun who lived in counter-reformation Italy, died after having spent thirty-five years in prison. In 2021 a biographical film about Benedetta Carlini called Benedetta, directed by Paul Verhoeven, was released.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benedetta_Carlini)
1731 Aug 7, William Cosby arrived in New York to assume his post as Governor for the New York Province.
(www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/zenger/zengeraccount.html)
1742 Aug 7, Nathanael Greene, American Revolutionary War General, was born.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1760 Aug 7, Ft. Loudon, Tennessee, surrendered to Cherokee Indians.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1779 Aug 7, Carl Ritter, cofounder of modern science of geography, was born in Quedlinberg, Prussia.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1782 Aug 7, General George Washington created the Order of the Purple Heart, a decoration to recognize merit in enlisted men and noncommissioned officers. Washington authorized the award of the Purple Heart for soldiers wounded in combat.
(AP, 8/7/97)(HN, 8/7/98)
1782 Aug 7, A statue of Peter the Great was unveiled in St. Petersburg on the 100th anniversary of his accession to the throne. It was made by French sculptor Etienne-Maurice Falconet (1716-1791), who spent 12 years on the work. Empress Catherine commissioned it in 1765.
(WSJ, 8/5/06, p.P12)
1783 Aug 7, John Heathcoat (d.1861), English inventor of lace-making machinery (1809), was born. In 1816 Luddites burned down his Nottingham factory.
(MC, 8/7/02)(Internet)
1789 Aug 7, The U.S. War Department was established by Congress.
(AP, 8/7/97)
1794 Aug 7, George Washington issued a proclamation telling a group of Western Pennsylvania farmers to stop their Whiskey Rebellion. In the US in western Pennsylvania, angry farmers protested a new federal tax on whiskey makers. The protest flared into the open warfare known as the Whiskey Rebellion between US marshals and whiskey farmers.
(http://www.ttb.gov/public_info/whisky_rebellion.shtml)(A&IP, ESM, p.16)(HNQ, 10/14/99)
1802 Aug 7, Napoleon ordered the re-instatement of slavery on St. Domingue (Haiti).
(MC, 8/7/02)
1814 Aug 7, Pope Pius VII reinstated the Jesuits.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1818 Aug 7, Henri Charles Litolff, French composer, pianist, was born.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1819 Aug 7, South American liberator Simon Bolivar defeated Spanish forces under Gen. Jose Barreiro in New Granada (Colombia) at the Battle of Boyaca. The revolutionary army entered Bogota Aug 10.
(HNQ, 9/12/99)(ON, 3/05, p.2)
1820 Aug 7, The 1st potatoes were planted in Hawaii.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1821 Aug 7, Caroline of Brunswick (b.1768), wife of England’s King George IV, died. In 2006 Jane Robins authored “The Trial of Queen Caroline: The Scandalous Affair that Nearly Ended a Monarchy."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_IV_of_the_United_Kingdom)(Econ, 8/5/06, p.76)
1826 Aug 7, Marc Brunel hired his son, Isambard, to replace William Armstrong as chief engineer for building the tunnel under England’s Thames River.
(ON, 4/06, p.8)(www.bris.ac.uk/is/services/specialcollections/brunelchronology.html)
1833 Aug 7, Powell Clayton, Brig. General (Union volunteers), (Gov-R-Ark), was born in Pa.
(MC, 8/7/02)(Internet)
1836 Aug 7, Evander McIvor Law (d.1920), Brig General (Confederate Army), was born in South Carolina.
(MC, 8/7/02)(Internet)
1864 Aug 7, Union Gen. Philip Henry Sheridan took command of his 30,000-man army at Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia. His orders from Gen. Grant were to march into the Shenandoah Valley and destroy the army of Confederate Gen. Jubal Early.
(ON, 10/20/11, p.11)
1864 Aug 7, Union troops captured part of Confederate General Jubal Early's army at Moorefield, West Virginia.
(HN, 8/7/98)
1876 Aug 7, Margaretha Zelle (aka Mata Hari) was born in the Netherlands. Mata Hari, otherwise known as Margaretha G. Macleod, passed secrets to the Germans in World War I.
(WSJ, 1/16/97, p.A16)(HN, 8/7/98)
1882 Aug 7, Hatfields of south West Virginia and McCoys of eastern Kentucky re-engaged in a feud that dated back to 1865. Some 100 were wounded or died. In 2007 medical evidence indicated that many of the descendants of the McCoys suffered from an inherited disease that leads to hair-trigger rage and violent outbursts.
(www.tugvalleychamberofcommerce.com/tour.html)(SFC, 4/6/07, p.A16)
1888 Aug 7, The revolving door, the brainchild of Philadelphia inventor Theophilus Van Kannel (1841-1919), was patented. In 1889 he founded the Van Kannel Revolving Door Company.
(http://tinyurl.com/mdqrqxs)
1893 Aug 7, Alfredo Catalani (39), Italian composer, died.
(MC, 8/7/02)(Internet)
1896 Aug 7, Ernesto Lecuona, composer (Malaguena), was born in Havana, Cuba.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1903 Aug 7, Louis Leakey, anthropologist, archeologist and paleontologist, was born in Kenya. He believed that Africa was the cradle of mankind.
(HN, 8/7/98)(Internet)
1904 Aug 7, Ralph Bunche (d.1971), US diplomat and the first African-American Nobel Prize winner (1950), was born. "There are no warlike peoples- just warlike leaders."
(HN, 8/7/98)(AP, 12/7/99)(MC, 8/7/02)
1906 Aug 7, In North Carolina, a mob defies a court order and lynches three African Americans which becomes known as "The Lyerly Murders."
(HN, 8/7/99)
1909 Aug 7, Alice Huyler Ramsey (22) arrived in San Francisco on a ferry boat after driving a 1909 Maxwell Model DA across the country. She had left New York on June 9.
(SFC, 7/10/09, p.D3)
1910 Aug 7, In San Francisco the Chutes vaudeville theater on Fillmore St. attracted Sophie Tucker, who revived her career after being black-balled by Flo Ziegfeld back in New York. Tucker performed the Grizzly Bear song in San Francisco. Sophie Tucker at the Chutes theater creates a genuine furor with her rendition of “The Dance of the Grizzly Bear." She did two Sunday through Saturday runs, August 7 - 13, and September 18 - 24. in 1910.
(AJSF, Vol. 14. No. 2, Winter, 2003)(http://sfpl.org/index.php?pg=2000131701)
1912 Aug 7, The Progressive Party (Bull Moose Party) nominated Theodore Roosevelt for president. Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt had stormed the Republican convention but failed to wrest the nomination from William Howard Taft. He then founded his own, short-lived, Progressive Party. The party split allowed Taft to win the election.
(WSJ, 6/5/96, p.A12)(AP, 8/7/97)(SFEC, 3/5/00, p.D8)
1915 Aug 7, In the assault up Russell's Top at Gallipoli 232 Australians died.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1916 Aug 7, Persia formed an alliance with Britain and Russia.
(HN, 8/7/98)
1922 Aug 7, The Irish Republican Army cut the cable link between the United States and Europe at Waterville landing station.
(HN, 8/7/98)
1926 Aug 7, Stan Freberg, satirist, ad executive, cartoon voice (Bertie), was born in LA, Calif.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1926 Aug 7, The United States declared non-intervention in the Spanish Civil War.
(HN, 8/7/98)
1927 Aug 7, Edwin Edwards, governor of Louisiana (1972-1980, 1984-1988, 1992-1996), was born.
(HN, 8/7/98)
1927 Aug 7, US Major General Leonard Wood (b.1860) died in Boston, Mass. His military service included commands in Cuba (1900-1902) and the Philippines 1905 and 1921-1927. In 1910, he was named Chief of Staff of the Army, the only medical officer to ever hold the position. In 2005 Jack McCallum authored the biography “Leonard Wood."
(www.wood.army.mil/MGLeonardwood.htm)
1927 Aug 7, The Peace Bridge between the United States and Canada was dedicated during ceremonies attended by the Prince of Wales, Canadian PM William Lyon Mackenzie King and US Vice President Charles Dawes.
(AP, 8/7/07)
1927 Aug 7, Maia Wojciechowska (d.2002) was born in Warsaw. She moved to the US in 1942 and became an acclaimed author of children’s books. Her work included the memoir "Till the Break of Day: Memories, 1939-1942."
(SFC, 7/1/02, p.B5)
1928 Aug 7, Amazing Randi (James Randi), skeptic magician (Nova), was born in Toronto, Ontario.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1929 Aug 7, Ruth Carter-Stapleton, Pres. Carter’s sister, evangelist, was born in Plains, Ga.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1929 Aug 7, Germany’s Graf Zeppelin airship embarked from Lakehurst, New Jersey, on the first round-the-world passenger voyage.
(www.airships.net/blog/graf-zeppelin-round-the-world-flight-august-1929)(Hem., 2/96, p.43)
1930 Aug 7, In Marion, Indiana, a mob broke into a jail and beat to death 2 young black men and hung them from a tree in the courthouse square. Tommy Shipp and Abe Smith and a 3rd teenager had just been arrested for a botched robbery that left Claude Deeter, a white man, dead. James Cameron (16) was saved from hanging, even as a noose was on his neck. In 2006 Cynthia Carr authored “Our Town: A Heartland Lynching, a Haunted Town and the Hidden History of White America."
(SSFC, 3/26/06, p.M3)
1930 Aug 7, James D. Phelan (1897-1901), former 3-time mayor of SF, died. In 1914 he was elected and served a single term in the US Senate. His unsuccessful 1920 reelection campaign used the slogan "Keep California White."
(SFC, 11/7/00, p.A15)(SFC, 8/5/05, p.F4)
1931 Aug 7, Leon Bismarck "Bix" Beiderbecke (29), jazz cornetist (In Mist), died. In 1974 Richard M. Sudhalter authored "Bix: Man and Legend."
(WSJ, 6/13/03, p.W12)(MC, 8/7/02)
1932 Aug 7, American economist Fred Manville Taylor (b.1855), died in Los Angeles. He is best known for his contribution to the theory of market socialism. His “Principles of Economics" (1911) went through 9 editions.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_M._Taylor)
1932 Aug 7, Abebe Bikila (d.1973), barefoot runner from Ethiopia, winner of the 1960 Olympic marathon, was born.
(HN, 8/7/98)(www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7ZLB1-Ofyw)
1934 Aug 7, The U.S. Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling striking down the government's attempt to ban the controversial James Joyce novel "Ulysses."
(AP, 8/7/97)
1935 Aug 7, In Danzig (Gdansk) 60% of voters agreed to Nazism (NSDAP).
(MC, 8/7/02)
1936 Aug 7, The United States declared non-intervention in the Spanish Civil War.
(HN, 8/7/00)
1938 Aug 7, Nazi's closed the theology department of Innsbruck university.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1938 Aug 7, Konstantin S. Stanislavsky (75), Russian director (S Method), died.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1940 Aug 7, Churchill recognized the De Gaulle government in exile.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1941 Aug 7, Rabindranath Tagore (b.1861), a Bengali polymath who reshaped Bengali literature and music, as well as Indian art with Contextual Modernism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, died in Calcutta.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabindranath_Tagore)
1941 Aug 7, In Romania 551 Jews were shot in the Kishinev ghetto.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1942 Aug 7, Garrison Keillor, American humorist and writer, was born.
(HN, 8/7/00)
1942 Aug 7, B.J. (Billy Joe) Thomas, singer (Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head, Hooked on a Feeling), was born.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1942 Aug 7, The U.S. 1st Marine Division under General A. A. Vandegrift landed on the islands of Guadalcanal and Tulagi in the Solomon islands. This was the first American amphibious landing of the war and the start of the first major allied offensive in the Pacific during World War II. The initial landing party included Navajo Codetalkers. This was the 1st land Japanese defeat of WWII; Japan was building an air base with designs on isolating the Australian continent.
(AP, 8/7/97)(HN, 8/7/98)(WSJ, 10/12/99, p.A24)(MC, 8/7/02)
1942 Aug 7, The Nazi 36th Police Battalion, made up of ethnic Estonians, massacred some 2,500 Jews at Novogrudok, Belarus (according to the Simon Wiesenthal Foundation).
(SSFC, 2/15/04, p.A4)
1942 Aug 7, Transport 16 departed with French Jews to Nazi-Germany.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1943 Aug 7, US Major Gen. Lewis B. Hershey, the National Director of Selective Service, said: "There are too many middle-class morons in the country, people with mental diseases who can't pass Army tests."
(SSFC, 8/5/18, DB p.50)
1944 Aug 7, July 20th Plot trial under Nazi judge Roland Freisler began in Berlin.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1944 Aug 7, German forces launched a major counter attack against U.S. forces near Mortain, France.
(HN, 8/7/98)
1947 Aug 7, The balsa wood raft Kon-Tiki, which had carried a six-man crew 4,300 miles across the Pacific Ocean, crashed into a reef in a Polynesian archipelago. [see Apr 28]
(AP, 8/7/97)
1953 Aug 7, Eastern Airlines entered the jet age with the Electra prop-jet.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1956 Aug 7, British government sent 3 aircraft carriers to Egypt.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1957 Aug 7, Oliver Hardy (65), the heavier half of the Laurel and Hardy comedy team, died in North Hollywood, Calif.
(AP, 8/7/07)
1958 Aug 7, Alberto Lleras Camargo (1906-1990) began serving as President of Colombia and continued to August 7, 1962.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberto_Lleras_Camargo)
1959 Aug 7, The United States launched Explorer 6, which sent back a picture of the Earth. The satellite, popularly known as the "paddlewheel satellite," featured a photocell scanner that transmitted a crude picture of the earth's surface and cloud cover from a distance of 17,000 miles
(HFA, '96, p.36)(AP, 8/7/97)(MC, 8/7/02)
1960 Aug 7, Students staged kneel-in demonstrations in Atlanta churches.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1960 Aug 7, Vaino Hannikainen (60), Finnish composer, died.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1960 Aug 7, Ivory Coast became independent from France. Felix Houphouet-Boigny (b.1905) began to rule Ivory Coast as prime minister. Houphouet-Boigny led the country until his death in 1993. Encouragement of investment and stability made it one of region's most prosperous.
(SFC, 12/25/99, p.A12)(AP, 9/24/02)
1961 Aug 7, Soviet premier Khrushchev predicted that the USSR economy would surpass that of the US.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1964 Aug 7, Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin resolution, giving President Johnson broad powers in dealing with reported North Vietnamese attacks on U.S. forces. It allowed the president to use unlimited military force to prevent attacks on U.S. forces. U.S. Senators Wayne Morse of Oregon and Ernest Gruening of Alaska share the distinction of casting the only votes against the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. The resolution supported President Lyndon Johnson's military actions against North Vietnam in retaliation for its attack on a U.S. spy ship in the Tonkin Gulf. The resolution passed in the House 414-0 and the Senate 88-2. The resolution, which amounted to a declaration of war, was repealed by Congress on January 13, 1971.
(AP, 8/7/97)(HNQ, 6/24/98)(HN, 8/7/98)
1964 Aug 7, Turkey began an air attack on Greek-Cypriots.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1965 Aug 7, San Francisco police arrested Ronnie Davis, founder of the SF Mime Troupe, in Lafayette Park. He was charged with performing in a public park without a permit. The troupe’s permit had been revoked for its adoption of “Il Candelaio.," a 16th century play by Giordano Bruno. Bill Graham, manager of the troupe, soon threw a benefit for the troupe and hired an unknown band called the Jefferson Airplane. The benefit raised $4000 and led Graham to leave the Mime Troupe and open the Fillmore.
(SFC, 8/8/15, p.C1)
1966 Aug 7, The United States lost seven planes over North Vietnam, the most in the war up to this point.
(HN, 8/7/98)
1966 Aug 7, There was a race riot in Lansing, Michigan.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1969 Aug 7, The body of a Vermont man was discovered by a work crew in a water-filled pit off Interstate 93 in Salem, New Hampshire. In 2020 fingerprint evidence identified him as Winston “Skip" Morris (30). He had been released from prison three months earlier and was found shot at least six times in the head.
(AP, 4/6/20)
1970 Aug 7, At a hearing for the "Soledad Brothers," Jonathon P. Jackson (17), the younger brother of George L. Jackson, attempted an armed rescue attempt at the Marin Civic Center. A shootout in the parking lot followed and 4 people were killed and 5 injured. Assistant DA Gary Thomas (d.2017) grabbed a pistol from one of the convicts and shot dead three of them. Among the dead were Jackson, Judge Harold Haley, Black Panther James McClain, and convict William A. Christmas. Angela Davis was charged with murder, kidnapping and conspiracy, but was acquitted in 1972 after spending a year in jail.
(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W21)(SFC, 8/19/98, p.A18)(AP, 8/7/00)(SSFC, 4/23/17, p.C2)
1970 Aug 7, In Colombia Misael Pastrana (1923-1997), a member of the Conservative Party, began serving as the country’s 31st president. He was elected by a margin of 63,000 votes. Some who favored his opponent, Gen’l. Gustavo Rojas Pinilla, formed the M-19 rebel group and waged war for almost 2 decades before they disarmed in 1989.
(SFC, 8/23/97, p.A20)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misael_Pastrana_Borrero)
1970 Aug 7, Israel, Jordan and Egypt agreed to a ceasefire under the terms of the US proposed Roger Plan. The Roger Plan was originally proposed in a December 9, 1969, speech at an Adult Education conference. The plan was formally announced on 19 June 1970.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_Attrition)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogers_Plan)
1973 Aug 7, Hermine Braunsteiner Ryan (1919-1999) became the first Nazi war criminal extradited from the United States to Germany. A US judge had certified her extradition to the Secretary of State on May 1, 1973. She became the first Nazi war criminal to be extradited from the US. The NY Times had exposed the local housewife in 1964 as a former guard at the Nazi Majdanek death camp in Poland.
(SSFC, 4/4/10, Par. p.4)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermine_Braunsteiner)
1973 Aug 7, A US plane accidentally bombed a Cambodian village, killing 400 civilians.
(HN, 8/7/98)(www.massviolence.org/+-Cambodia-+?id_rubrique=6&artpage=11-18)
1973 Aug 7, Pat Halley (1950-2007), a Detroit reporter for the Fifth Estate, tossed a pie in the face of the teenage "Lord of the Universe" at a formal session of Common Council in protest of the Guru's claim of divinity. A week later Halley was savagely beaten and almost killed by two devotees of the Guru Maharaj Ji (15). Halley was released from Detroit General Hospital on Aug. 21 in good condition after undergoing surgery to repair a caved-in portion of his skull.
(www.ex-premie.org/pages/fifthestate4.htm)(http://tinyurl.com/2w98lt)
1974 Aug 7, French stuntman Philippe Petit walked a tightrope strung between the twin towers of New York's World Trade Center. In 2002 Petit authored "To Reach the Clouds: My High Wire Walk Between the Twin Towers." In 2003 Steven Galloway authored "Ascension," a novel that featured a fictional Gypsy tightrope walker named Ursari, who makes a final, fateful skywalk between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center on July 4, 1976. In 2008 James Marsh produced his documentary film of the event: Man On Wire."
(AP, 8/7/97)(SSFC, 9/8/02, p.M4)(SSFC, 10/11/03, p.M3)(WSJ, 8/8/08, p.W1)
1975 Aug 7, In China a dam collapse in Henan province killed tens of thousands of people. The event was covered up for many years. A typhoon from the South China Sea brought three successive days of enormous rain storms to the area of southern Henan Province. Altogether 62 dams failed in one night, including two major dams. As a result of this catastrophe 85,600 people died according to the official government figures but others place the toll at 230 thousand.
(WSJ, 8/29/07, p.A12)(www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/3gorges.htm)
1976 Aug 7, Scientists in Pasadena, Calif., announced that the Viking 1 spacecraft had found the strongest indications to date of possible life on Mars.
(AP, 8/7/97)
1977 Aug 7, "Shenandoah" closed at Alvin Theater in NYC after 1,050 performances.
(www.angelfire.com/stars/scottbakula/Theatrecredits.html)
1983 Aug 7, Some 675,000 employees struck ATT Corp.
(http://openweb.tvnews.vanderbilt.edu/1983-8/1983-08-07-CBS-4.html)
1983 Aug 7, Cynthia Munoz (17) of Campbell, Ca., was found raped and murdered with stab wounds. In 2007 prosecutors with DNA evidence charged Christopher Melvin Holland (52) with the murder and sought his arrest. Holland was arrested in San Jose, Ca., on Oct 18, 2007.
(http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=local&id=5710333)(SFC, 10/19/07, p.B5)
1985 Aug 7, Spc. Edward Pimental (20), a US Army soldier, left a discotheque in the western German city of Wiesbaden with a woman and was soon killed. Terrorists used Pimental's ID card to enter the US Rhein-Main air base in Frankfurt. The following day, explosives packed in a Volkswagen rocked the parking lot behind the base headquarters. Two Americans were killed and 23 people were injured. In 1994 a Frankfurt court found Eva Haule guilty of killing Pimental. In 1996 a judge said Birgit Hogefeld, who was also convicted in the Pimental killing and the Rhein-Main bombing, had lured Pimental out of the disco. In 2007 Haule (53) was released from jail after serving 21 years of a life sentence.
(AP, 8/17/07)
1987 Aug 7, Lynne Cox became the 1st to swim from US to Russia across the Bering Strait.
(http://tinyurl.com/lal2h)
1987 Aug 7, The presidents of 5 Central American nations, meeting in Guatemala City, signed an 11-point agreement designed to bring peace to their region.
(AP, 8/7/97)
1988 Aug 7, The Writers Guild of America ended their 6 months strike.
(http://tinyurl.com/zlxht)
1988 Aug 7, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Velayati signaled his government's acceptance of Iraq's modified peace proposal aimed at bringing about a cease-fire in the Persian Gulf.
(AP, 8/7/98)
1989 Aug 7, A small plane carrying Congressman Mickey Leland, D-Texas, and 15 others disappeared during a flight in Ethiopia. The wreckage of the plane was found six days later; there were no survivors.
(AP, 8/7/99)
1990 Aug 7, President Bush ordered US troops and warplanes to Saudi Arabia to guard the oil-rich desert kingdom against a possible invasion by Iraq. The US Persian Gulf War began. Operation Desert Shield ended Feb 28, 1991. It cost $8.1 billion and left 383 US casualties with 458 wounded.
(AP, 8/7/99)(WSJ, 9/22/99, p.A8)
1990 Aug 7, The UN imposed sanctions on Iraq and devastated the economy.
(SFC, 9/4/96, p.A8)
1991 Aug 7, The five permanent members of the UN Security Council agreed to authorize Iraq to sell as much as $1.6 billion in oil over six months to pay for food, humanitarian supplies and war reparations; however, Baghdad rejected the resolution.
(AP, 8/7/01)
1992 Aug 7, Jennifer Capriati won the gold medal in tennis at the Barcelona Olympics, beating Steffi Graf.
(AP, 8/7/02)
1992 Aug 7, The luxury liner Queen Elizabeth 2 ran aground off Massachusetts.
(AP, 8/7/97)
1992 Aug 7, The 39-nation Conference on Disarmament in Geneva produced the final draft of a treaty to ban chemical weapons, ending 24 years of talks.
(AP, 8/7/97)
1993 Aug 7, The public got its first glimpse inside Buckingham Palace as people were given the opportunity to tour the London home of Queen Elizabeth II. Proceeds from ticket sales were earmarked to help repair fire damage at Windsor Castle.
(AP, 8/7/98)
1994 Aug 7, The 10th International Conference on AIDS opened in Yokohama, Japan.
(AP, 8/7/99)
1995 Aug 7, Ten days before he was to be put to death for the murder of a police officer, black activist and radio reporter Mumia Abu-Jamal won a reprieve from the original trial judge in Philadelphia. As of 2008, his legal appeals are still unsettled and he is a prisoner at State Correctional Institution Greene near Waynesburg, Pennsylvania.
(AP, 8/7/00)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mumia_Abu-Jamal)
1996 Aug 7, More than 6 million American Online customers worldwide were left stranded when the system crashed for almost 19 hours.
(AP, 8/7/97)
1996 Aug 7, There was a report that cervical cancer in women was linked to the human papilloma virus (HPV). There is an estimated 75 different strains of HPV and that 97% of cervical cancers were due to the virus and commonly spread by sexual intercourse.
(SFC, 8/7/96, p.A5)
1996 Aug 7, NASA researchers formally presented their case for the existence of life long ago on Mars. [see Aug 6]
(AP, 8/7/01)
1996 Aug 7, The presidents of Serbia and Croatia agreed to establish diplomatic relations.
(SFC, 8/8/96, p.A11)
1996 Aug 7, In Honduras the attorney general accused the army of spying on thousands of public officials, judges, politicians and journalists.
(SFC, 8/8/96, p.C1)
1996 Aug 7, In Russia communist leader Gennady Zyuganov was elected to lead a coalition of Communists and nationalists under the banner of the Popular Patriotic Union.
(SFC, 8/8/96, p.A8)
1996 Aug 7, In Spain flash floods at a Pyrenees mountain campsite killed at least 71 [86] people at a campground.
(WSJ, 8/9/96, p.A1)(AP, 8/7/97)
1997 Aug 7, It was reported that US retail space and semiconductor manufacturing capacity far exceeded demand. A downturn in the economy was said to have already begun.
(WSJ, 8/7/97, p.A1)
1997 Aug 7, The space shuttle Discovery was launched with a crew of six. A satellite was dropped off to study the Earth’s ozone layer.
(SFC, 8/8/97, p.A3)
1997 Aug 7, A DC-8 cargo plane crashed on take-off at Miami Int’l. Airport. Four people were killed on the denim filled 29-year-old plane bound for the Dominican Republic.
(SFC, 8/8/97, p.A3)
1997 Aug 7, The US State Dept. expressed concern over reports of Chinese nuclear-capable M-11 missiles sold to Pakistan.
(SFC, 8/8/97, p.E3)
1997 Aug 7, In Argentina Pres. Eduardo Frei of Chile and Argentine Pres. Carlos Menem opened a $325 million pipeline for natural gas from Argentina to Santiago.
(SFC, 8/8/97, p.E3)
1997 Aug 7, From China it was reported that Zhu Qihua planned to move the Big Green Mountain by Lanzhou, a railroad hub, in order to clear the air of heavy smog.
(WSJ, 8/7/97, p.A1)
1997 Aug 7, In Mexico Jose Paoletti Moreda and his son Renato were arrested on charges of leading an operation that smuggled deaf people into the US and forced them to work under virtual slavery conditions. Another couple was arrested with ten deaf smuggled immigrants in Dallas on Aug 15.
(SFC, 8/8/97, p.A3)(SFC, 8/16/97, p.A2)
1997 Aug 7, In Romania Prime Minister Victor Ciorbea announced the closure of 17 factories at the urging of the IMF. 30,000 jobs would be lost and the following day thousands protested the closing of the essentially bankrupt companies.
(SFC, 8/9/97, p.C1)
1997 Aug 7, A Russian capsule on a fix-it mission docked gingerly with the crippled Mir space station, bringing a new crew to salvage the orbiting outpost.
(AP, 8/7/98)
1997 Aug 7, In Switzerland the measures to freeze the assets of deposed Zairean Pres. Mobuto Sese Seko were declared legal.
(SFC, 8/8/97, p.E3)
1998 Aug 7, The Federal Aviation Administration, in a follow-up to the probe of the 1996 explosion that destroyed TWA Flight 800, ordered the inspection of Boeing 747 fuel tanks.
(AP, 8/7/99)
1998 Aug 7, A fire in Tracy, Ca., burned some 2.5 million tires at Royster’s Tire Disposal. Some 6 million tires were expected to burn for weeks.
(SFC, 8/8/98, p.A21)(SFC, 8/10/98, p.A20)
1998 Aug 7, In Utah five young girls (ages 2-6) died from heat exposure after they were trapped in the trunk of a car in West Valley City.
(SFC, 8/8/98, p.A5)
1998 Aug 7, Steve Fossett departed from western Argentina on his 4th attempt to circle the world in a balloon.
(SFC, 8/12/98, p.A8)
1998 Aug 7, In China the death toll from the summer floods passed 2,000 and the Jingjiang flood plain was ordered evacuated.
(SFC, 8/8/98, p.A14)
1998 Aug 7, In Colombia Pres. Andres Pastrana took office. Following his inauguration Pastrana replaced the top leaders of the military.
(SFC, 8/5/98, p.A10)(WSJ, 8/10/98, p.A1)
1998 Aug 7, In Congo Pres. Kabila left Kinshasa for Lubumbashi, his former rebel base, to meet with a visiting South African delegation.
(SFC, 8/8/98, p.A13)
1998 Aug 7, Two powerful bombs exploded at the US embassies in Nairobi, Kenya and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The bombings killed 224 people and marked the first large-scale attack by al Qaeda. Twelve Americans were among the dead, and over 4,800 were injured. In Nairobi at least 53 buildings were damaged. The adjacent Ufundi Cooperative House was demolished and the 22-story Cooperative Bank House had all its windows shattered. Haroun Fazil of the Comoros Islands was later the 3rd bombing suspect to be charged in the Kenya bombing. Ali Mohamed, a former US Army sergeant, was involved in the US Embassy bombings. In 2000 he pleaded guilty for his role under the direction of Osama bin Laden. In 2001 Mohamed Rashed Daoud Al-‘Owhali (24) of Saudi Arabia, Khalfan Khamis Mohamed (27) of Tanzania, Wadi El-Hage (40) of Texas, and Mohamed Sadeek Odeh (36) of Jordan were convicted on 302 counts. In 2007 Walid Muhammad bin Attash told a military tribunal at Guantanamo that he was responsible for organizing the 2000 Cole attack in Yemen as well as the 1998 bombings in Kenya and Tanzania. In 2014 Adel Abdul Bary, a suspect in the bombings, pleaded guilty to lesser charges of making threats against Americans. Plaintiffs began suing Sudan in 2001 in federal court in Washington for harboring and providing support to al Qaeda. In 2020 the US Supreme Court refused to hear Sudan's bid to avoid paying $3.8 billion in damages to family members of people killed or injured in the bombings.
(SFC, 8/8/98, p.A1)(SFEC, 8/9/98, p.A1)(WSJ, 9/18/98, p.A1)(AP, 8/7/99)(SFC, 10/21/00, p.A1)(SFC, 5/30/01, p.A13)(SFC, 9/21/01, p.A1)(SFC, 3/20/07, p.A3)(SFC, 9/20/14, p.A5)(Reuters, 1/13/20)
1998 Aug 7, In Nairobi Catherine Bwire (25) was one of 25 people blinded by the bombing. She was pregnant and gave birth to a daughter on Oct 27.
(SFC, 11/25/98, p.A16)
1998 Aug 7, In Pakistan Sadik Howaida (34), later named as Mohammed Saddiq Odeh, was detained at the Karachi airport. He reportedly confessed to participating in the bombing in Nairobi. He said that he and 2 coconspirators had left Nairobi and planned to enter Afghanistan a few days before the bombing. He acknowledged that the team was recruited and financed by Osama bin Laden who was ensconced in a fortress-style hideout in Kandahar. Odeh later refused to admit responsibility to American officials.
(SFEC, 8/16/98, p.A17)(SFC, 8/17/98, p.12,17)(SFC, 8/18/98, p.A6)
1998 Aug 7, In Peru Pres. Andres Pastrana took office.
(SFC, 8/5/98, p.A10)
1998 cAug 7, Immediately after the bombing of 2 US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, Sudanese authorities arrested 2 men suspected of being involved in the plot. [see Aug 21]
(SFC, 7/30/99, p.A12)
1998 Aug 7, Vietnam devalued its currency 7%.
(WSJ, 8/10/98, p.A10)
1999 Aug 7, President Clinton, during a visit to his home state of Arkansas, promised to devote the rest of his presidency to erasing poverty.
(AP, 8/7/00)
1999 Aug 7, The Southern Party held its inaugural rally in Flat Rock, North Carolina, pledging to work peacefully for a separate Southern nation.
(AP, 8/7/00)
1999 Aug 7, Wade Boggs became the first player to homer for his three-thousandth hit.
(AP, 8/7/00)
1999 Aug 7, Islamic fighters based in Chechnya seized at least 2 village in Dagestan. Warlords Shamil Basayev and Wahabi commander Amir Khattab (Hattab) were reported to be involved. This triggered the second Chechen war. The Wahabis are a puritan branch of Sunni Islam founded in the 18th century in Saudi Arabia.
(SFEC, 8/8/99, p.A20)(Econ, 4/9/11, p.28)
1999 Aug 7, In China Song Yongyi, a research librarian at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pa., was imprisoned while collecting data on the Cultural Revolution. On Dec 12 he was charged with "the purchase and illegal provision of intelligence to foreigners." Yongyi was released on Jan 28, 2000.
(SFC, 1/26/00, p.A8)(SFC, 1/29/00, p.A8)
1999 Aug 7, Pres. Isaias Afwerki of Eritrea made an unconditional offer for cooperation with the OAU to end its war with Ethiopia during a meeting with Algerian Pres. Bouteflika, the OAU chairman.
(SFC, 8/9/99, p.A10)
1999 Aug 7, In Indonesia a tugboat and oil tanker collided under thick haze and the tanker ignited killing 10 people.
(SFC, 8/10/99, p.A10)
1999 Aug 7, In Kosovo French troops kept ethnic Albanians away from Serbs on the Ibar River bridge at the Kosovska Mitrovica mining center. In Vrbas, Serbia, some 2,000 people rallied against Pres. Milosevic.
(SFEC, 8/8/99, p.A21)
1999 Aug 7, In Finland the village of Kutemajarvi planned a sex fair for people over age 45 to commemorate the UN designation of 1999 as the Int'l. Year of Older Persons.
(SFC, 1/16/99, p.A12)
2000 Aug 7, Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore selected Connecticut Senator Joseph Lieberman as his running mate; Lieberman was the first Jew on a major party’s presidential ticket.
(SFC, 8/8/00, p.A1)(AP, 8/7/01)
2000 Aug 7, It was reported that another 16 people were killed by rebels in northern Colombia and that Occidental Petroleum had halted production at its 2nd largest field due to rebel attacks. Rightist paramilitary killed 7 villagers in San Diego.
(WSJ, 8/7/00, p.A1)(SFC, 8/9/00, p.A14)
2000 Aug 7, Chechen rebels claimed 11 Russian soldiers in a military convoy were killed by a remote controlled mine.
(SFC, 8/8/00, p.A12)
2000 Aug 7, In Malaysia Anwar Ibrahim, former deputy prime minister, was convicted of sodomy and sentenced to 9 years in prison. Sukma Dermawan, Ibrahim’s codefendant and adopted brother, was also found guilty.
(SFC, 8/8/00, p.A11)
2000 Aug 7, In Spain a bomb exploded in Bilbao and killed 3 suspected Basque separatists, who appeared to be transporting explosives.
(SFC, 8/8/00, p.A12)
2000 Aug 7, Venezuela’s Pres. Hugo Chavez arrived in Saudi Arabia to begin a tour of 10 oil-producing nations that included Iraq.
(SFC, 8/8/00, p.A10)
2001 Aug 7, Three researchers told a committee at the National Academy of Sciences they were unswayed by arguments against human cloning and would soon try to clone human beings.
(AP, 8/7/02)
2001 Aug 7, Larry Adler (87), harmonica virtuoso, died in London.
(SFC, 8/11/01, p.A17)(AP, 8/7/02)
2001 Aug 7, In Cambodia the Constitutional Council approved legislation to establish a special court to try former Khmer Rouge leaders for crimes against humanity.
(SFC, 8/8/01, p.A9)
2001 Aug 7, In Colombia Pres. Pastrana announced that he was suspending talks with the 5,000 ELN rebels.
(SFC, 8/8/01, p.A8)
2001 Aug 7, Two Israelis were shot dead on the West Bank. Israel gave its soldiers a freer hand to fire on Palestinians.
(WSJ, 8/8/01, p.A1)
2001 Aug 7, In Macedonia police conducted a predawn raid in Skopje and 5 members of the National Liberation Army were killed.
(SFC, 8/8/01, p.A8)
2001 Aug 7, In Peru a gunfight between police and leftist rebels in the province of Satipo left 12 rebels and 4 police officers dead.
(SFC, 8/10/01, p.A18)
2001 Aug 7, In the Philippines the Islamic and National fronts signed a separate unity pact to bridge their 23-year split. Muslim separatists agreed to a cease-fire with the government. Only the Abu Sayyaf was left fighting the government.
(SFC, 8/8/01, p.A8)
2001 Aug 7, In Romania a gas explosion in the Vulcan coal mine killed at least 14 miners.
(SFC, 8/8/01, p.A9)
2001 Aug 7, The Vatican denounced what it called a "slanderous campaign" against the Roman Catholic Church over the Holocaust-era pope, Pius XII.
(AP, 8/7/02)
2002 Aug 7, Destiny Wright disappeared at a sleepover with other children in Philadelphia. Abdul El-Shabazz (18) was arrested the next day and led police to her body.
(SFC, 8/10/02, p.A5)
2002 Aug 7, Former ImClone Systems chief executive Samuel Waksal was indicted in New York on charges of obstruction of justice and bank fraud in addition to previous securities fraud and perjury charges. Waksal later pleaded guilty to securities fraud and was sentenced to more than seven years in prison.
(AP, 8/7/03)
2002 Aug 7, Ford Motor Co. and Canadian fuel cell developer Ballard Power Systems Inc. jointly unveiled a hydrogen-fueled internal combustion engine-driven generator they said could help pave the way toward the commercialization of fuel cell technology.
(Reuters, 8/7/02)
2002 Aug 7, A U.S. Air Force cargo plane crashed on a Puerto Rican mountaintop with at least 10 military personnel on board, and all were feared dead.
(AP, 8/8/02)
2002 Aug 7, Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill urged Argentina to adopt a sound recovery strategy. As O'Neill prepared to leave Argentina, more than 5,000 people rallied near the president's downtown offices to protest his visit.
(AP, 8/7/02)
2002 Aug 7, In Afghanistan at least 15 people were killed south of Kabul in a shootout between police and recently escaped Pakistani members of al Qaeda.
(Reuters, 8/7/02)(SFC, 8/9/02, p.A14)
2002 Aug 7, The first British Cabinet minister to visit this country in two decades met with Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, saying Libya was making a serious attempt to move away from its international pariah status.
(AP, 8/7/02)
2002 Aug 7, The IMF agreed to lend Brazil $30 billion to stem a financial panic. This was its biggest loan to date.
(SFC, 8/8/02, p.A10)
2002 Aug 7, In Colombia a remote-controlled mortar attack killed 21 people during the inauguration of Pres. Alvaro Uribe. 69 people were wounded.
(AP, 8/8/02)(SFC, 8/8/02, p.A1)(www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=2519)
2002 Aug 7, About 30 Israeli tanks firing heavy machineguns raided the northern Gaza Strip in a sweep for militants and troops shot dead a Palestinian policeman.
(AP, 8/7/02)
2002 Aug 7, The Palestinian Cabinet accepted Israel's proposal for a troop withdrawal from some areas of the West Bank and Gaza Strip in exchange for Palestinian security guarantees, even as Israeli troops hunting terror suspects killed five Palestinians in three raids.
(AP, 8/7/02)
2002 Aug 7, In the Philippines Marxist rebels vowed all-out resistance against the government's renewed campaign to crush their revolt after President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo ordered the deployment of troops in their strongholds.
(Reuters, 8/7/02)
2002 Aug 7, Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Prince Saud said his country had made it clear to Washington, publicly and privately, that the U.S. military will not be allowed to use the kingdom's soil in any way for an attack on Iraq. Saud said the longtime U.S. ally does not plan to expel American forces from an air base used for flights to monitor Iraq.
(AP, 8/7/02)(AP, 8/8/02)
2002 Aug 7, In eastern Tajikistan a dam holding water in a lake in the Pamir Mountains broke and flooded a village and killing 20 people.
(AP, 8/7/02)
2003 Aug 7, Scientists reported a new vaccine that was successful against the Ebola virus in monkeys.
(WSJ, 8/7/03, p.D6)
2003 Aug 7, In the August issue of Foundations of Physics Letters, Peter Lynds of New Zealand claimed to see time and motion in a new way. Lynds refutes an assumption dating back 2,500 years, that time can be thought of in physical, definable quantities. In essence, scientists have long assumed that motion can be considered in frozen moments, or instants, even as time flows on. "There isn't a precise instant underlying an object's motion," he said. "And as its position is constantly changing over time -- and as such, never determined -- it also doesn't have a determined position at any time."
(AP, 8/7/03)
2003 Aug 7, In Afghanistan some 40 suspected Taliban fighters killed 6 Afghan soldiers and a driver for a US aid organization.
(SFC, 8/8/03, p.A7)
2003 Aug 7, Bangladesh and Namibia pledged more than 6,000 troops for a UN peace-keeping force to replace multinational soldiers now deploying in war-torn Liberia.
(AP, 8/8/03)
2003 Aug 7, Chechen rebels using a shoulder-fired missile shot down a Russian military helicopter in the mountains, killing three of the crew.
(AP, 8/7/03)
2003 Aug 7, Gunmen ambushed a Russian military convoy near the border with Chechnya, killing six soldiers and wounding seven.
(AP, 8/8/03)
2003 Aug 7, Denmark's unemployment rate rose in June to 6.2 percent, the highest level in almost five years.
(AP, 8/7/03)
2003 Aug 7, An Indonesian court sentenced Amrozi bin Nurhasyim to death in the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people.
(AP, 8/7/04)
2003 Aug 7, In Iraq a car bomb shattered a street outside the walled Jordanian Embassy, killed 19 people — including two children.
(SFC, 8/9/03, p.A1)(AP, 8/7/08)
2003 Aug 7, In Liberia Charles Taylor picked Vice Pres. Moses Blah (56) as his successor. West African peacekeepers entered Liberia's rebel-besieged capital.
(AP, 8/7/04)
2003 Aug 7, An opposition party in the Turks and Caicos, a British territory, won legislative elections and will return to power after eight years out of office.
(AP, 8/8/03)
2004 Aug 7, Greg Maddux became the 22nd pitcher in major league history to reach 300 victories, leading the Chicago Cubs to an 8-4 victory over San Francisco.
(AP, 8/7/05)
2004 Aug 7, AP reported that a beheading was broadcast on 2 Arab TV stations. The video of the beheading was fake and had been initially made and posted on the Internet in May by 3 people from the SF Bay Area. Benjamin Vanderford of SF said he made the video to show how easy it is to spread lies over the Internet.
(SSFC, 8/8/04, p.A12)
2004 Aug 7, Paul N. Adair (b.1915), Texas oil field firefighter, died. The 1968 film “Hellfighter" with John Wayne was based on his life.
(SFC, 8/9/04, p.B6)(Econ, 8/14/04, p.78)
2004 Aug 7, Interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi signed a long-awaited amnesty law that would pardon Iraqis who have played minor roles in the country's 15-month-long insurgency. The Iraqi government closed the Iraqi offices of the Arab television station Al-Jazeera for 30 days, accusing it of inciting violence.
(AP, 8/7/04)
2004 Aug 7, Clashes between US-led forces and fighters loyal to al-Sadr continued for a 3rd day in Najaf and Sadr City. 23 civilians were killed and 121 wounded in the day’s fighting.
(SSFC, 8/8/04, p.A1)
2004 Aug 7, A bomb exploded outside a car dealership in Karachi, Pakistan, killing two people and wounding three.
(AP, 8/7/04)
2004 Aug 7, Nahed Arreyes, Palestinian justice minister, resigned to protest Yasser Arafat’s refusal to share power.
(SSFC, 8/8/04, p.A18)
2004 Aug 7, The Romanian sitcom "The Winding Road to Europe" featured villagers in the fictional La Europa pub and swapping stories about how joining the EU will change their lives. The European Union's Romania office has funded 12 15-minute episodes of "Winding Road" at $16,800 each, 4 of which had already aired.
(AP, 8/7/04)
2004 Aug 7, The Edinburgh Festival Fringe, a three-week cultural jamboree, began this weekend. This year's event featured 1,700 shows, a big jump on last year's 1,541.
(AP, 8/7/04)
2004 Aug 7, Some 6,000 people turned out for the start of a three-day gay and lesbian festival in Singapore, where homosexual acts are still illegal. "Nation.04" -- a festival of international DJs, podium dancers, pumping music and muscular boys stripping off their tops on packed dance floors -- has increased in size every year since it was launched four years ago.
(AP, 8/8/04)
2005 Aug 7, Peter Jennings (67), Canadian-born ABC broadcaster, died of cancer. He had delivered the news to Americans each night in five separate decades.
(AP, 8/8/05)
2005 Aug 7, A British remote-controlled vehicle cut away undersea cables that snarled a Russian mini-submarine in deep waters off the Kamchatka Peninsula allowing it to surface. 7 people trapped for nearly 3 days on the mini-sub were rescued.
(AP, 8/7/05)
2005 Aug 7, In southern China rescuers attempted to reach 123 miners trapped in a flooded coal mine.
(AP, 8/7/05)(AP, 8/9/05)
2005 Aug 7, In India's northeast Assam state suspected separatist rebels blew up a crucial oil pipeline and nearby homes, shutting down operations.
(AP, 8/7/05)
2005 Aug 7, In central Iraq a suicide bomber driving an empty fuel tanker detonated his vehicle near a police station, killing at least two people. Three Iraqi soldiers and two Oil Ministry employees were killed in two separate drive-by shootings in Baghdad.
(AP, 8/7/05)
2005 Aug 7, Israeli Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu resigned from his post to protest next week's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and part of the West Bank.
(AP, 8/7/05)
2005 Aug 7-2005 Aug 8, In Nepal communist insurgents overran about 200 troops 340 miles northwest of Kathmandu and killed at least 40 soldiers in fierce clashes between the military and Maoist rebels.
(AP, 8/9/05)(AP, 8/12/05)
2005 Aug 7, Envoys to North Korean disarmament talks suspended their meetings for three weeks, deadlocked over the North's insistence on retaining a peaceful nuclear program.
(AP, 8/7/05)
2005 Aug 7, Thousands of miners stopped work for the first strike in South Africa's key gold sector since 1987 after wage negotiations collapsed last week.
(AP, 8/7/05)
2005 Aug 7, Benon Sevan (67), the former head of the scandal-tainted oil-for-food program, resigned from the UN hours before he was expected to be accused of getting kickbacks from the $67 billion operation.
(AP, 8/8/05)
2005 Aug 7, Voters across Venezuela cast ballots to select thousands of local officials in elections that could predict how well President Hugo Chavez's political allies will fare in key congressional elections in December. Chavez accused the US Drug Enforcement Agency of using its agents as spies and said he was suspending cooperation with the DEA.
(AP, 8/7/05)(SFC, 8/8/05, p.A3)
2005 Aug 7, Zambia deported Haroon Rashid Aswat (31), a Briton who has been questioned in connection with the July 7 London transit bombings and is suspected of links to al-Qaida.
(AP, 8/7/05)
2006 Aug 7, In Arizona 9 illegal immigrants died when their SUV, crammed with up to 22 people, flipped while trying to evade pursuit by the Border Patrol.
(WSJ, 8/8/06, p.A1)
2006 Aug 7, In the SF Bay Area Santa Clara County sheriff’s deputies seized over 20,000 marijuana plants on Mount Hamilton. Street value at maturity was estimated at $80 million.
(SFC, 8/9/06, p.B5)
2006 Aug 7, Sue Bierman (82), former SF supervisor (1992-2000) died in a car crash in Cole Valley. A park created in the wake of the demolition ramps leading to and away from the Embarcadero Freeway (1959-1992) was soon renamed Sue Bierman Park, after the former supervisor (d. 2006 at 82) who battled city freeways.
(www.beyondchron.org/news/index.php?itemid=3563)(SSFC, 7/26/09, p.A16)
2006 Aug 7, Wal-Mart announced chainwide pay caps and said they were intended to move people up the company ladder.
(SFC, 8/15/06, p.D3)
2006 Aug 7, Utah doctors successfully separated conjoined twins Kendra and Maliyah Herrin. The 4-year-old sisters had been born fused at the midsection with just one kidney and one set of legs. Reconstruction surgery continued.
(AP, 8/8/06)
2006 Aug 7, A new finding implied that the universe is about 15.8 billion years old and about 180 billion light-years wide based on new evidence, which suggested that the Hubble constant, a number that measures the expansion rate and age of the universe, is actually 15% smaller than other studies have found.
(AP, 8/7/06)(http://tinyurl.com/jnc7x)
2006 Aug 7, Oil company BP scrambled to assess pipeline corrosion in Alaska that will shut shipments from the nation's biggest oil field, removing about 8% of daily US crude production and driving oil and gasoline prices sharply higher. BP said it would have to replace 16 miles of pipeline at the Prudhoe Bay field.
(AP, 8/7/06)(AP, 8/7/07)
2006 Aug 7, John Weinberg (81), former head of the Goldman Sachs investment firm, died. He and John Whitehead led the firm from 1976-1985. Weinberg led it by himself until 1990.
(Econ, 8/19/06, p.73)
2006 Aug 7, Suspected Taliban militants hanged a woman (70) and her son (30) from a tree in Helmand province after accusing them of spying for the government.
(AP, 8/9/06)
2006 Aug 7, Robert McNaught of the Siding Spring Observatory in Australia made the 1st sighting of a comet that came to be called Comet McNaught.
(Econ, 1/20/07, p.89)
2006 Aug 7, Belgian officials said thefts of drain covers in Charleroi have soared in recent days as skyrocketing metal prices have made them lucrative.
(Reuters, 8/8/06)
2006 Aug 7, In Brazil suspected PCC gang members in the pre-dawn hours attacked 78 symbols of government and businesses across Sao Paulo state, many in the city itself. Police killed two suspects after they allegedly opened fire on a gas station, torched a bus and tried to flee in a car as officers chased them. This marked the third time in four months that the gang has unleashed its fury on the streets to oppose the prison transfer of its leaders.
(AP, 8/8/06)
2006 Aug 7, China’s state media said the death toll from Tropical Storm Prapiroon, named after the Thai god of rain, rose to 80 with 9 more people missing.
(AFP, 8/6/06)(AP, 8/8/06)
2006 Aug 7, An explosion at a Chinese perfume factory killed at least seven people and left three hospitalized.
(AP, 8/7/06)
2006 Aug 7, Colombia’s President Alvaro Uribe inaugurated an unprecedented second term, promising to seek an elusive peace with leftist rebels while maintaining the hardline security policies credited with a sharp drop in murder and kidnappings.
(AP, 8/7/06)
2006 Aug 7, Gunmen in Haiti killed Guido Vitiello (67), an Italian businessman, and kidnapped his wife, Gigliola Martino (65), amid a spate of violence in the impoverished Caribbean nation. Martino was released Aug 10.
(AP, 8/8/06)(AP, 8/11/06)
2006 Aug 7, Indonesia barred Islamic militants from traveling to the Mideast to fight Israel after a Jakarta group said more than 200 had already gone.
(WSJ, 8/8/06, p.A1)
2006 Aug 7, A suicide truck bomber struck the provincial headquarters of an Iraqi police commando force north of Baghdad, killing ten policemen. In Baquba six Iraqi soldiers were killed and another 15 wounded when insurgents attacked their checkpoint. In all insurgent and militia attacks left at least 30 Iraqis killed or found dead. Two Iraqi journalists were killed in separate incidents in Baghdad. Mohammed Abbas Hamad (28), a journalist for the Shiite-owned newspaper Al-Bayinnah Al-Jadida, was shot by gunmen at he left his home. Police found the bullet-riddled body of freelance journalist Ismail Amin Ali (30), about a half mile from where he was abducted two weeks ago.
(AP, 8/7/06)(AFP, 8/7/06)(AP, 8/8/06)(WSJ, 8/8/06, p.A1)
2006 Aug 7, The death toll in an Israeli airstrike on a Shiite neighborhood in south Beirut reached 41. Across the country 77 Lebanese were killed along with three Israeli soldiers. The UN said an oil spill caused by Israeli raids on a Lebanese power plant could rival the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster that despoiled the Alaskan coast if not urgently addressed. the Jiyyeh plant, which was bombed by Israel on July 14 and July 15 a few days into its offensive against Hezbollah. 12,000 tons of leaking oil had already polluted more than 140 kilometers (87 miles) of the Lebanese coast and spread north into Syrian waters.
(AP, 8/8/06)(AP, 8/9/06)(AFP, 8/8/06)
2006 Aug 7, Morocco’s state news agency reported that security services have arrested 44 suspected terrorists and dismantled a network allegedly planning attacks.
(AP, 8/7/06)
2006 Aug 7, Dutch police arrested a Rwandan immigrant, identified as Joseph M. (38), and charged him with war crimes and torture for his alleged role in the 1994 genocide that tore apart his home country.
(AP, 8/10/06)
2006 Aug 7, A pro-North Korean newspaper in Japan said floods last month in North Korea killed at least 549 people and left 295 others still missing.
(AP, 8/7/06)
2006 Aug 7, In northwestern Pakistan a discarded ordnance shell exploded in a tribal village, killing three young brothers who were playing with the explosive. A relief official said flooding and heavy rains in northwestern Pakistan in recent days have left 144 people dead and 97 others injured.
(AP, 8/7/06)(AP, 8/8/06)
2006 Aug 7, In Sri Lanka 17 civilians working for a French aid agency were found slain execution style in Muttur after fierce battles between rebels and the government over water supplies. All but one were Tamils. In 2008 a local rights group accused Colombo of a major cover-up of the August 2006 killing of Action Against Hunger (ACF) workers and for the first time named a list of suspects.
(AP, 8/7/06)(AP, 8/29/06)(AFP, 4/3/08)
2006 Aug 7, The only rebel leader to have signed onto a peace deal for Darfur was sworn in as a senior aide to the Sudanese president as international aid groups said the fighting in the war-torn region has intensified.
(AP, 8/7/06)
2006 Aug 7, Venezuelan authorities captured Elias Verde, the alleged head of an international drug trafficking group that was involved in a major cocaine smuggling operation earlier this year in France.
(AP, 8/8/06)
2007 Aug 7, In SF Barry Bonds his record breaking 756th homerun. He had just tied Hank Aaron’s record on August 4. The Giants lost to the Washington Nationals 8-6. The ball was later auctioned to fashion designer Marc Ecko for a record $752,467, which included a 20% buyer’s premium.
(AP, 8/8/07)(SSFC, 9/16/07, p.B1)(SFC, 9/18/07, p.A1)
2007 Aug 7, A US jury convicted Gregory Reyes (44), the former chief executive of Brocade Communications Systems Inc., on all counts in the government's first criminal trial of options backdating.
(Reuters, 8/8/07)
2007 Aug 7, The US FDA approved a new drug to help patients with AIDS. Pfizer’s Selzentry is the first anti-AIDS drug that blocks the CCR5 receptor, often used by the HIV virus to enter white blood cells.
(SFC, 8/7/07, p.A4)
2007 Aug 7, Scientists reported that a widespread die-off of frogs, toads and salamanders is primarily due to the chytrid fungus, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis. Global climate change was believed to encourage the spread of the fungus.
(SFC, 8/7/07, p.A4)
2007 Aug 7, A group of 75 Taliban militants tried to overrun a US-led coalition base in southern Afghanistan, a rare frontal attack that left more than 20 militants dead. Taliban militants clashed with police in the same district where 23 South Koreans were abducted by Afghan insurgents. Four militants were killed and six wounded.
(AP, 8/7/07)(AP, 8/8/07)
2007 Aug 7, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Venezuela would invest in a regasification plant for liquid natural gas for Argentina, which is weathering an energy crisis. Chavez was in Argentina as part of a regional tour.
(AP, 8/8/07)
2007 Aug 7, Administers in Vienna said that the mid-Pacific nation of Palau has ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, bringing to 139 the number of countries that have fully endorsed the pact. The treaty, which bans all nuclear explosions, will not enter into force until it has been ratified by 44 states listed in an annex that participated in a 1996 disarmament conference and have nuclear power or research reactors. Only 34 of the 44 countries have both signed and ratified the pact. The holdouts are China, Colombia, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, Pakistan, North Korea and the United States.
(AP, 8/7/07)
2007 Aug 7, The toll from severe floods across South Asia soared to nearly 1,900 and although water levels in the region's swollen rivers started to recede, millions of people in Bangladesh, India and Nepal still faced hunger. About 40% of Bangladesh was under water.
(AFP, 8/7/07)(Econ, 8/11/07, p.34)
2007 Aug 7, Britain called for the Bush administration to release five British residents held at Guantanamo Bay, a policy reversal that suggests new PM Gordon Brown is pursuing a tougher line with the US than his predecessor.
(AP, 8/7/07)
2007 Aug 7, Britain’s Environment Secretary Hilary Benn said tests had confirmed a second foot-and-mouth outbreak in southern England as he awaited an initial report into biosecurity at a vaccine laboratory suspected of being at the center of the cases.
(AP, 8/7/07)
2007 Aug 7, Britain's GW Pharmaceuticals Plc said that Health Canada had approved its cannabis-based medicine Sativex for treatment of cancer patients.
(AP, 8/7/07)
2007 Aug 7, Juan Carlos Ramirez Abadia (44), an alleged Colombian drug kingpin wanted by the United States, was arrested in a luxury condominium on the outskirts of Sao Paulo, Brazil. He had extensive plastic surgery but was identified by Brazilian and American anti-drug agents using advanced voice recognition technology.
(AP, 8/7/07)(AP, 8/10/07)
2007 Aug 7, China Daily reported that foreign exchange and public security authorities had closed down the operations of an illegal bank based in Shenzhen, across the border from Hong Kong. It did business in every province of the country and in the year and half to May had done some $544 million in unspecified transactions.
(www.chinaknowledge.com/news/news-detail.aspx?ID=9654)
2007 Aug 7, State media said Chinese city traffic police have an average life expectancy of just 43 years because of the dire working conditions and pollution.
(AP, 8/7/07)
2007 Aug 7, Mobs torched government buildings and foreign aid offices, as street violence triggered by the appointment of East Timor's new PM spread to Baucau, the 2nd-largest city. The former ruling Fretilin party won 21 seats in the 65-member Parliament, well short of a majority, but insisted it had the right to form the next government. Gusmao's party won 18, but formed a coalition that now comprises 37 seats.
(AP, 8/7/07)
2007 Aug 7, A European diplomat said that Russian officials told the Iranians about two weeks ago that Russian fuel roads to the Bushehr reactor would be held back as long as unresolved questions about Tehran's past nuclear activities remained.
(AP, 8/7/07)
2007 Aug 7, Georgia accused Russia of "undisguised aggression," saying two Russian fighter jets intruded on its airspace and fired a missile that landed near a house. Russia denied the allegation.
(AP, 8/7/07)
2007 Aug 7, Indian communist parties, which shore up the government, rejected a landmark nuclear pact between New Delhi and Washington saying it compromised India's sovereignty and imposed US influence. In northeastern Assam state, gunmen killed 4 traders in the village of Harinagar after they refused to pay about $1,200 each. Police blamed the militant group Dima Halam Daogah, which demands an autonomous state for people of the Dimasa tribe.
(AP, 8/7/07)(AP, 8/9/07)
2007 Aug 7, Kurdish guerrillas killed a Turkish lieutenant in the southeast, as the Iraqi prime minister arrived for a visit. Turkey and Iraq agreed to try to root out a Kurdish rebel group from northern Iraq, but Iraq's prime minister said his parliament would have the final say on efforts to halt the guerrillas' cross-border attacks into Turkey. Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish government approved a regional oil law, paving the way for foreign investment in their northern oil and gas fields even as similar US-backed legislation for the entire country remained stalled. Two US Marines died west of Baghdad, one in fighting and the other in a non-combat incident that was under investigation.
(AP, 8/7/07)(AP, 8/9/07)
2007 Aug 7, Israeli police, using sledgehammers, chain saws and power clippers, stormed a building in the biblical city of Hebron and dragged out hundreds of Jewish settlers who had holed up there illegally.
(AP, 8/7/07)
2007 Aug 7, Ahmed Benchemsi, the publisher of two Moroccan weeklies charged with showing disrespect to the monarchy, defended himself, reserving the right to criticize his country's political system. A day earlier magistrates in Casablanca charged Benchemsi, the publisher of the Nishan and TelQuel weeklies, and ordered him to stand trial.
(AFP, 8/7/07)
2007 Aug 7, ECOWAS said the last refugees from Liberia and Sierra Leone in Nigeria have been allowed to settle and they will have access to work, education and health on the same terms as Nigerians, West African regional bloc.
(AP, 8/8/07)
2007 Aug 7, In Nigeria 6 Russian hostages, kidnapped on June 3, were freed in the oil producing Niger Delta after two months in captivity. Rusal, the world's largest aluminium producer, acquired 77 percent of the Nigerian company Alscon in February.
(AFP, 8/7/07)
2007 Aug 7, In Pakistan government forces attacked two militant bases with helicopter gunships and artillery in some of the army's toughest action in the lawless Afghan border region since militant attacks began surging last month. Low-level al-Qaida members, including Arabs and Chechens, were among 12 militant fighters killed. 2 gunmen on a motorcycle opened fire on paramilitary forces in a town in North West Frontier Province, killing one.
(AP, 8/7/07)(AP, 8/8/07)
2007 Aug 7, A large explosion in northern Gaza killed an 8-year-old boy and his 6-year-old sister and injured five other children. Witnesses said a group of children stumbled upon a homemade rocket or a mortar shell and began playing with it. The device exploded, injuring all seven children, two of whom died later of their wounds.
(AP, 8/7/07)
2007 Aug 7, Darfur rebel commanders shot down a government MiG 29 plane they say was bombing civilian villages in their areas in Sudan's Darfur region.
(Reuters, 8/8/07)
2007 Aug 7, A judge in Trinidad ordered three men extradited to the US to face charges in an alleged plot to attack New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, and a confidential US document said they planned to seek help from Iran.
(AP, 8/7/07)
2008 Aug 7, A US federal judge ruled that American Indian plaintiffs were entitled to $455 million, a fraction of the $47 billion they sought in a year trial for alleged losses on royalties overseen by the Interior Department since 1887.
(SFC, 8/8/08, p.A6)
2008 Aug 7, A federal judge ordered Detroit’s Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick to jail for violating the terms of his bond in his perjury case, a decision the judge said he would have made for any "John Six-Pack" defendant before him.
(AP, 8/7/08)
2008 Aug 7, In Arizona an SUV packed with suspected illegal immigrants flipped over southeast of Phoenix killing at least 9 people. There were 19 people in the vehicle.
(SFC, 8/8/08, p.A4)
2008 Aug 7, In northern California the Muir Heritage Land Trust said it will pay $1.8 million for 423 acres in Franklin Canyon, ending a long-standing land fight.
(SFC, 8/8/08, p.B1)
2008 Aug 7, Afghan and coalition forces killed at least four militants in Nahr Surkh district of Helmand province. In central Afghanistan US-led coalition forces "inadvertently" killed four women and a child during a clash that killed several militants.
(AP, 8/8/08)
2008 Aug 7, In Algeria 18 people were reported dead from a crash between a van and a bus near the city of Mascara, and 25 were reported injured. Three men who were in critical condition subsequently died.
(AFP, 8/8/08)
2008 Aug 7, It was reported that two subsidiaries of government-owned Dubai World have acquired a 20% stake in Canada’s circus operator Cirque du Soleil. In May the circus had agreed to perform on Palm Jumeirah, a man-made island, for 15 years starting in 2011.
(SFC, 8/7/08, p.C2)
2008 Aug 7, It was reported that the Dubai-based Al Yousuf Group has invested $10 million in Zap, a Santa Rosa, Ca., firm that makes electric cars.
(SFC, 8/7/08, p.C1)
2008 Aug 7, In Thailand first lady Laura Bush, meeting with refugees who fled a brutal campaign by Myanmar's military junta, urged China and other countries to join the US in imposing sanctions against the country.
(AP, 8/7/08)
2008 Aug 7, The US Olympic team chose Lopez Lomong, one of the "Lost Boys" of Sudan, to carry the flag at the Olympic opening ceremony, throwing the spotlight on China's much-criticized policy on Darfur.
(AFP, 8/7/08)
2008 Aug 7, A new US Embassy report released by the Japanese Foreign Ministry said the USS Houston submarine was already leaking during nine earlier port calls in Japan and the amount of radiation leaked was larger than initially reported. It "has been steadily leaking a small amount" of radiation from June 2006 to July 2008 when it entered a drydock in Hawaii.
(AP, 8/7/08)
2008 Aug 7, Critics of China's human rights record made sure they were not forgotten, a day before the grand opening of the Beijing Olympics, with protest actions the world over and in China itself. Thousands of Tibetan exiles demonstrated in Nepal and India.
(AFP, 8/7/08)(AP, 8/7/08)
2008 Aug 7, Heavy shelling overnight in the Georgian breakaway province of South Ossetia wounded at least 21 people. Cyber attacks from Russia began to target Georgian government Web sites. An organization known as the Russian Business Network was the leading suspect in the attacks. Georgia’s Pres. Saakashvili ordered the shelling of Tskhinvali, the capital of South Ossetia.
(AP, 8/7/08)(WSJ, 8/12/08, p.A9)(Econ, 8/30/08, p.49)
2008 Aug 7, Sheik Salah al-Obeidi said Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr will call on his fighters to maintain a cease-fire against American troops but may lift the order if a planned Iraq-US security agreement lacks a timetable for the withdrawal of American forces. A roadside bomb killed eight Bedouins, including three women and two children, on a remote desert highway west of Nasiriyah frequently used by US and Iraqi troops. Gunmen killed a senior member of the Sunni Iraqi Islamic Party, Mahmoud Younis Fathi, and a colleague as they were driving to work in the northern city of Mosul. Elsewhere in Mosul, three Iraqi policemen were killed when a booby-trapped wooden cart exploded after they arrived to collect a body that had been left on the street beside it.
(AP, 8/7/08)
2008 Aug 7, Japan accepted over 200 Indonesian nurses into the country, an unprecedented move as Tokyo struggles to quell a labor shortage triggered by sinking fertility rates.
(AP, 8/7/08)
2008 Aug 7, Maldives Pres. Maumoon Abdul Gayoom signed and adopted a new constitution that allows multiparty elections and other democratic reforms after decades of authoritarian rule. Under the constitution Islam is the only religion its people can legally practice.
(AP, 8/7/08)(AFP, 6/5/12)
2008 Aug 7, Pakistan's ruling coalition announced plans to seek the impeachment of Pres. Pervez Musharraf, alleging the US-backed former general had "eroded the trust of the nation" during his eight years in power. Musharraf cancelled his trip to the Olympics in Beijing.
(AP, 8/7/08)(SFC, 8/8/08, p.A2)
2008 Aug 7, A device exploded on a beach in Sochi, a Black Sea Russian resort that will host the 2014 Winter Olympics, killing two people and wounding three.
(AP, 8/7/08)
2008 Aug 7, In Sri Lanka army troops attacked and captured a rebel bunker in Welioya, where separate clashes killed 15 rebels and four soldiers. In nearby Vavuniya district, fighting killed two rebels and wounded two soldiers.
(AP, 8/8/08)
2008 Aug 7, In Turkey a series of explosions at a municipal government building in Istanbul slightly injured three people. Shells from a mortar-like mechanism were fired from a cemetery near a municipal government building.
(AP, 8/7/08)
2009 Aug 7, Pres. Obama signed into law a measure tripling the budget of the $1 billion incentive “cash for clunkers" program.
(SFC, 8/8/09, p.A5)
2009 Aug 7, The US Environmental Protection Agency said the US Department of Agriculture has agreed to pay $30,000 in penalties for alleged improper maintenance of underground storage tanks in Puerto Rico.
(AP, 8/8/09)
2009 Aug 7, In eastern Afghanistan an American service member was killed in an attack on a convoy. A blast in Kandahar's Zhari district killed an Afghan guard escorting a NATO supply convoy.
(AP, 8/7/09)
2009 Aug 7, Britain’s Ministry of Justice said Great Train Robber Ronnie Biggs (79) has been officially released from his prison sentence. Biggs earned notoriety for his role in the 1963 Great Train Robbery, for which he was sentenced to 30 years in prison. Escaping, he spent 35 years as a celebrity fugitive, living a party lifestyle in Brazil before returning home.
(AFP, 8/7/09)
2009 Aug 7, James Robinson (71), a former California priest, arrived at London's Heathrow Airport after being extradited from the United States. He was charged with sexually abusing young boys when he served in the United Kingdom between 1959 and 1983.
(AP, 8/8/09)
2009 Aug 7, In China Li Peiying (60), the former head of Beijing airport's management company, was executed following his conviction on corruption charges. He was found guilty in February of accepting almost $4 million in bribes and embezzling about $12 million in public money since 1995.
(AP, 8/7/09)
2009 Aug 7, Guatemala's top three police officials were fired after hundreds of pounds of cocaine allegedly disappeared from a shipment seized by authorities. Interior Minister Raul Velazquez said police made the 1-ton seizure on Aug 6, but when federal prosecutors weighed the drugs, 258 pounds (117 kilograms) were missing.
(AP, 8/7/09)
2009 Aug 7, Indonesia's anti-terrorism unit engaged in a shootout in Central Java during a raid targeting suspected militants behind deadly bomb attacks in Jakarta last month.
(Reuters, 8/7/09)
2009 Aug 7, In Iraq a suicide car bomb devastated a Shiite mosque in northern Iraq, one of a series of attacks that killed at least 37 Shiite pilgrims and worshippers. The deadliest blast occurred in Rasheediyah, north of Mosul, when a suicide car bomb struck a mosque, killing at least 30 people and trapping dozens more underneath the rubble. In Baghdad 3 roadside bombs targeting Shiite pilgrims killed 7 people returning from Karbala.
(AP, 8/7/09)
2009 Aug 7, In Mexico Zambrano Flores, a top lieutenant of the Tijuana-based Arellano Felix cartel, was arrested in Tijuana. Police seized 10 rifles, 7 pistols, almost 4,000 rounds of ammunition during his arrest.
(AP, 8/8/09)
2009 Aug 7, Nepal's Maoists launched a fresh round of protests, paralyzing parliament and accusing the new government of failing to address their demands.
(AFP, 8/7/09)
2009 Aug 7, Nigeria's President Umaru Yar'Adua formally received the first set of 32 Niger Delta militants who have surrendered their arms under an amnesty he offered them in June and commended them for their "patriotism."
(AP, 8/8/09)
2009 Aug 7, In Pakistan a deadly shooting reportedly took place at a meeting of top Taliban commanders Hakimullah Mehsud (28), a deputy to Baitullah Mehsud and the warlord's main spokesman, and Wali-ur Rehman, a senior commander in Mehsud's umbrella Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) movement. They had convened to discuss the choice of a successor to Baitullah Mehsud. Both commanders later phoned international media organizations to prove they were alive.
(AFP, 8/9/09)(AP, 8/12/09)(Econ, 10/17/09, p.34)
2009 Aug 7, A Peruvian government prosecutor presented homicide charges against two police generals and 15 other officers for a June government crackdown at an Amazon highway blockade manned by Indians protesting development on their ancestral lands. The criminal charges, which must be ratified by a judge, were the first to implicate police in violence that left at least 33 dead, including 23 police.
(AP, 8/12/09)
2009 Aug 7, Portugal said it has agreed to take two Syrian detainees from Guantanamo prison.
(AP, 8/7/09)
2009 Aug 7, Sri Lankan authorities questioned Selvarasa Pathmanathan, former chief arms smuggler the new leader of the Tamil Tiger rebels, after he was arrested 2 days earlier in Southeast Asia and flown to Sri Lanka. Rebels said he was arrested in Kuala Lumpur.
(AP, 8/7/09)
2009 Aug 7, International donor the Global Fund, which had a financial dispute with Zimbabwe's previous government, took the unusual step of giving $37.9 million in aid directly to Zimbabwe's new unity government instead of channeling it through private groups.
(AP, 8/7/09)
2010 Aug 7, Elena Kagan was sworn in as the 112th person to serve on the US Supreme Court.
(SSFC, 8/8/10, p.A7)
2010 Aug 7, San Francisco began charging a $7 fee for visitors to the arboretum in Golden Gate Park.
(SFC, 9/18/10, p.A1)
2010 Aug 7, The last bus departed the San Francisco Transbay Terminal allowing demolition to soon begin of the 71-year-old terminal.
(SFC, 12/2/10, p.C2)
2010 Aug 7, It was reported that an ice island measuring 100 square miles has broken off the Petermann Glacier in northern Greenland.
(SFC, 8/7/10, p.A2)
2010 Aug 7, The Panamanian-registered MSC Chitra smashed into the St. Kitts-registered MV-Khalijia-II near Mumbai's Jawahar Lal Nehru port. The environment minister of Maharashtra state told reporters the next day that about 2 tons of oil was pouring into the water every hour. Indian authorities plugged the fuel leak on Aug 9 after some 500 tons of oil had spewed into the Arabian Sea.
(AP, 8/9/10)(AP, 8/10/10)
2010 Aug 7, In Iraq explosions killed at least 20 people at Basra’s al-Ashaar market. 5 policemen were killed in an overnight shootout at a suspected bomb workshop in Baghdad. One policeman was shot dead at a checkpoint in Fallujah. A suicide bomber killed a policeman and injured 3 others on foot patrol in Mosul.
(SSFC, 8/8/10, p.A5)(AP, 8/7/10)
2011 Aug 7, Some 45,000 Verizon Communications Inc. workers from Massachusetts to Washington, D.C., went on strike after negotiations fizzled over a new labor contract for more than a fifth of the company's work force. The company's revenue rose 2.8% to $27.5 billion in the second quarter. Workers returned to work on Aug 22, despite not reaching an overall settlement.
(AP, 8/7/11)(SSFC, 8/21/11, p.A10)
2011 Aug 7, San Diego police officer Jeremy Henwood (36) died one day after being shot in the face while sitting in his patrol car. Suspect Dejon Marquee White (23) was fatally shot by police as he tried to avoid arrest.
(SFC, 8/8/11, p.A5)
2011 Aug 7, Marshall Grant, bassist in the original Johnny Cash trio, died in Jonesboro, Ark.
(SFC, 8/10/11, p.C8)
2011 Aug 7, Hugh L. Carey, former New York governor (1975-1982), died at his shelter Island summer home. Before becoming governor Carey spent 14 years representing Brooklyn districts in the US House of Representatives.
(SFC, 8/8/11, p.C3)
2011 Aug 7, In Ohio a family argument outside Akron ended in the shooting deaths of eight people in two places, including an 11-year-old. Two more people were wounded.
(AP, 8/8/11)
2011 Aug 7, Mark Hatfield (89), former Oregon governor (1958-1966) and US Senator (1967-1997), died in Portland. In 1965 Hatfield was the only US governor to vote against a resolution supporting Pres. Johnson’s policy in Vietnam.
(SFC, 8/9/11, p.C4)
2011 Aug 7, Texas billionaire and philanthropist Charles Wyly (77) died after a car accident in western Colorado. His family has donated millions of dollars to Republican causes and Dallas arts projects. Charles Wyly had helped his brother run their startup computer software company, University Computing, and later founded and led several other companies including arts and crafts retail chain Michaels Stores Inc., which was sold in 2006. He also was a former member of a White House Advisory Council for Management Improvement. Last summer, the SEC accused Wyly and his brother of using offshore havens to hide more than a half-billion dollars in profits over 13 years of insider stock trading.
(AP, 8/8/11)
2011 Aug 7, Nancy Wake (98), Australia's greatest World War II heroine, died in London. She was a prominent figure in the French Resistance.
(AFP, 8/8/11)(Econ, 8/13/11, p.82)
2011 Aug 7, In Afghanistan two French Foreign Legion soldiers and five others were injured in a clash with insurgents in the northeastern Tagab valley. They were among four NATO troops killed in two separate insurgent attacks.
(AFP, 8/7/11)(AP, 8/7/11)
011 Aug 7, Cape Verde islanders voted for a new president as Pedro Pires wrapped up two terms at the helm of a nation hailed for its stable democracy. His ruling party faced a split vote. A run-off was scheduled for August 21.
(AFP, 8/8/11)
2011 Aug 7, Typhoon Muifa blew down power lines and billboards in the Chinese financial hub of Shanghai and aimed at a northeast port city where beaches were closed and sandbags were piled on the waterfront. At least one death was reported with one person missing.
(AP, 8/7/11)
2011 Aug 7, In Dubai water pipes ruptured during maintenance at the seven-building Oceana complex on one of the iconic palm islands, forcing residents to bath in the sea and head to the malls to use the restroom.
(AP, 8/11/11)
2011 Aug 7, In Egypt a Coptic Christian was killed and four Muslims were wounded in clashes in the southern province of Minya after clashes triggered by a road accident.
(AFP, 8/8/11)
2011 Aug 7, Indian army and police claimed they killed a Pakistani commander of Lashkar-e-Taiba militants during a gunbattle in Poonch region of Kashmir. An investigation found the dead man was a local Hindu resident and mentally unsound. A soldier and police officer were arrested and investigated for murder.
(AP, 8/8/11)
2011 Aug 7, In Iraq insurgents killed at least two people and wounded 11 in an overnight bomb attack on the home of a Shiite family in the mainly Sunni town of Iskandiriyah.
(AFP, 8/7/11)
2011 Aug 7, Libyan PM Baghdadi Mahmudi said government troops have recaptured the strategic town of Bir Ghanam, southwest of Tripoli, from rebel forces.
(AFP, 8/7/11)
2011 Aug 7, In Nepal airports, hotels, restaurants, government offices and public transport became smoke-free under a new law that went into effect today.
(AP, 8/7/11)
2011 Aug 7, Rival Palestinian groups Fatah and Hamas opened talks in Egypt aimed at implementing a reconciliation agreement struck in May.
(AFP, 8/7/11)
2011 Aug 7, Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah demanded a stop to Syria’s “killing machine."
(Econ, 8/13/11, p.43)
2011 Aug 7, Sao Tome and Principe voted peacefully in the second round of a presidential election. Former strongman Manuel Pinto da Costa (75) was elected back to power.
(AP, 8/8/11)(AFP, 9/3/11)
2011 Aug 7, Tropical Storm Muifa battered South Korea with strong rain and winds leaving four people dead and two missing.
(AFP, 8/8/11)
2011 Aug 7, Syrian government forces killed at least 59 people including 42 in the eastern city of Deir el-Zour. 10 people were reported shot dead in Idlib while taking part in a funeral. The 22-member Arab League, which had been silent since the uprising began, said it is "alarmed" by the situation in Syria and called for the immediate halt of all violence. Saudi Arabia said it is recalling its ambassador to Syria for consultations.
(AP, 8/7/11)(AP, 8/8/11)
2011 Aug 7, Sudanese security forces seized all the copies of Al-Ahdath newspaper from the printers, in the latest sign of a clampdown on independent media in Khartoum.
(AFP, 8/7/11)
2012 Aug 7, The US Dept. of Justice reached a $60 million settlement with Pfizer for violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). This covered similar offences by Wyeth, which was acquired by Pfizer in 2009.
(Econ, 8/11/12, p.58)
2012 Aug 7, In Arizona Jared Lee Loughner pleaded guilty to 19 of 49 charges related to the Jan 8, 2011, shootings that killed 6 people and wounded then Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and 12 others. The government agreed not to seek the death penalty in the plea deal.
(SFC, 8/8/12, p.A4)
2012 Aug 7, In Louisiana police found the body of Michaela "Mickey" Shunick. She had been last seen riding her bicycle from a friend's house early May 19, days before her 22nd birthday. Eight days later, the bike was found partially submerged in a swampy area under a highway bridge. Brandon Lavergne (33), a registered sex offender, has been charged with first-degree murder and aggravated kidnapping in Shunick's death.
(Huffington, 8/10/12)
2012 Aug 7, In North Carolina Academi LLC, formerly knows as Blackwater, agreed to pay $7.5 million to settle federal crime charges related to arms smuggling and other crimes.
(SFC, 8/8/12, p.A4)
2012 Aug 7, In Texas Marvin Wilson (54), convicted of killing a police informant, was executed after the US Supreme Court rejected arguments that he was too mentally impaired to qualify for the death penalty. Wilson was convicted of murdering Jerry Williams (21) in November 1992, several days after police seized 24 grams of cocaine from Wilson's apartment and arrested him.
(AP, 8/7/12)
2012 Aug 7, DreamWorks Animation said it plans to build a $3.2 billion "entertainment zone" in Shanghai, as the US film giant seeks to bolster its presence in the booming Chinese market.
(AFP, 8/7/12)
2012 Aug 7, Shares in Standard Chartered PLC dropped 22% sharply as investors reacted to US charges that the bank was involved in laundering money for Iran.
(AP, 8/7/12)(Econ, 8/18/12, p.64)
2012 Aug 7, Judith Crist (b.1922), American film critic, died at her home in Manhattan.
(SFC, 8/8/12, p.C4)
2012 Aug 7, In Afghanistan an American soldier was killed when two individuals wearing Afghan National Army uniforms turned their weapons against ISAF service members in Paktia province. 9 civilians were killed in a roadside bomb explosion on the outskirts of Kabul. A suicide truck bomb attack was launched against a NATO base south of the capital. A French soldier and around 10 Taliban fighters were killed in an early morning ambush and subsequent firefight during a joint operation with the Afghan army in Kapisa province near Kabul.
(AFP, 8/7/12)(AFP, 8/10/12)
2012 Aug 7, Bahrain authorities charged 15 policemen with mistreating medics during last year's crackdown on opposition protesters. An independent commission found 3 protesters were shot at close range. Bahrain said in June that 3 police officers would be charged with murder.
(AP, 8/7/12)
2012 Aug 7, Jessica Harper (50), former security chief of Lloyds Banking Group, pleaded guilty at Southwark Crown Court in London to taking the money from her employers using false invoices over a four-year period from 2007 to 2011 and then laundering the cash.
(AFP, 8/7/12)
2012 Aug 7, In China Dolkar Kyi (26) immolated herself at Tso monastery in Kanlho prefecture (Gannan in Chinese), Gansu province, after chanting slogans calling for the return of the Dalai Lama.
(AFP, 8/7/12)
2012 Aug 7, In Egypt gunmen opened fire late this night on three security checkpoints around el-Arish, the capital of North Sinai province. Egypt’s military in response started a joint military-police ground operation in Sinai, backed by warplanes, to "restore stability and regain control" of the Sinai.
(AP, 8/8/12)
2012 Aug 7, In Italy official government statistics showed that the economy contracted by 0.7 percent in the second quarter compared with the previous three months, shrinking for the fourth quarter in a row.
(AP, 8/7/12)
2012 Aug 7, Hundreds of tourists evacuated beach resorts along Mexico's Caribbean coast as Hurricane Ernesto headed toward landfall near Mexico's border with Belize. It weakened to a tropical storm while moving over land the next day.
(AP, 8/8/12)
2012 Aug 7, In Nigeria assailants shot at troops on patrol, sparking an exchange of fire that left two soldiers and two of the gunmen dead in Okene city.
(AFP, 8/8/12)
2012 Aug 7, In the Philippines relentless rains submerged half of Manila, triggered a landslide that killed 8 people and sent emergency crews scrambling to rescue and evacuate tens of thousands of residents.
(AP, 8/7/12)
2012 Aug 7, Russia began hosting a 3-day meeting of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC) on Russky Island, just off the coast of Vladivostok. A 3,100 meter cable bridge to the island was the longest cable bridge in the world.
(Economist, 9/8/12, p.52)
2012 Aug 7, In Senegal at least 23 people were killed in a collision between a bus and a truck near the town of Kaffrine.
(AFP, 8/7/12)
2012 Aug 7, The Competition Tribunal of South Africa fined Telkom, the one-time monopoly state telephone company, with a $54.8 million fine over unfair competition.
(AP, 8/7/12)
2012 Aug 7, South African officials recorded snowfall across every South African province except Limpopo. South African Weather Service records show it has snowed in Johannesburg on only 22 other days in the last 103 years. The last snow fell there in June 2007.
(AP, 8/7/12)
2012 Aug 7, In Syria total of 225 people, mostly civilians, were reported killed. A Turkish government official said 1,328 Syrian refugees had crossed the border by midmorning, nearly double the number of refugees who reached Turkey a day earlier.
(AFP, 8/8/12)(AP, 8/7/12)
2012 Aug 7, A Turkish government official said 1,328 Syrian refugees had crossed the border by midmorning, nearly double the number of refugees who reached Turkey a day earlier.
(AP, 8/7/12)
2013 Aug 7, President Barack Obama canceled his Moscow summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The decision reflected both US anger over Russia's harboring of National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden and growing frustration within the Obama administration over what it sees as Moscow's stubbornness on other key issues, including missile defense and human rights.
(AP, 8/7/13)
2013 Aug 7, The United States updated sanctions on Myanmar to maintain a ban on importing rubies and jade amid a relaxation of curbs on US trade with the Southeast Asian nation.
(Reuters, 8/7/13)
2013 Aug 7, Arkansas-based Tyson Foods Inc, declared it would no longer accept cattle that had been fed the most popular brand of the feed additive, called Zilmax, a powerful and fast-selling product from pharmaceutical company Merck & Co.
(Reuters, 8/13/13)
2013 Aug 7, In Denver, at the National Cattlemen's Beef Association conference, meat producer JBS USA presented a video showing short clips of cows struggling to walk and displaying other signs of distress. It was shown as part of a panel discussion on the pros and cons of using a class of drugs known as beta-agonists - the additives fed to cattle in the weeks before slaughter to add up to 30 pounds to bodyweight and reduce fat content in the meat.
(Reuters, 8/13/13)
2013 Aug 7, In Afghanistan the Taliban ambushed a convoy of a female Afghan senator, seriously wounding her in the attack and killing her 8-year-old daughter and a bodyguard in the Muqur district of Gazni province. Senator Rouh Gul Khirzad's husband, son and another daughter were also wounded in the attack.
(AP, 8/7/13)
2013 Aug 7, British police arrested Domenico Rancadore (64), a senior member of an Italian mafia clan. He had been sentenced to seven years in jail while on the run and was detained in west London under a European arrest warrant.
(Reuters, 8/8/13)
2013 Aug 7, China fined six companies, including Mead Johnson Nutrition Co, Danone and New Zealand dairy giant Fonterra, a total of $110 million following an investigation into price fixing and anti-competitive practices by foreign baby formula makers.
(Reuters, 8/7/13)
2013 Aug 7, A new government of technocrats appointed by the left-leaning Czech president lost a parliamentary confidence vote, leaving the country stuck in a political crisis.
(AP, 8/7/13)
2013 Aug 7, In Tegucigalpa, Honduras, Edwin Mejia (15) shot and killed traffic officer Santos Arita (42) after he and gang partner Eduardo Aguilera (15) were stooped for illegally riding tandem on a stolen motorcyle. Aguilera was soon caught and beaten to death by police. Mejia was also beaten and faced trial.
(AP, 12/27/13)
2013 Aug 7, In Iraq a roadside bomb struck a police patrol in Mosul, killing 3 policemen and wounding two others. Another bomb in Mosul missed a police convoy but killed one civilian passer-by and wounded two others. Later, a bomb attached to a car killed two people in Musayyib. Gunmen attacked on a policeman's home in Tikrit killing the policeman, his wife, two sons and one daughter. As people gathered car bomb parked about 10 meters away exploded, killing 8 people and wounding 30.
(AP, 8/7/13)(AP, 8/8/13)
2013 Aug 7, Israel gave preliminary approval for the construction of more than 800 new homes in Jewish settlements on occupied West Bank land where Palestinians seek statehood.
(Reuters, 8/8/13)
2013 Aug 7, Italy allowed 102 migrants who were stranded on a tanker in the Mediterranean to disembark on the Sicilian coast after Malta refused them entry for three days despite European Union calls for it to help on humanitarian grounds.
(Reuters, 8/7/13)
2013 Aug 7, Japanese officials said highly radioactive water from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant was pouring out at a rate of 300 tons a day. PM Shinzo Abe ordered the government to step in and help in the clean-up.
(Reuters, 8/7/13)
2013 Aug 7, A fire engulfed Kenya's Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, forcing the indefinite suspension of international passenger flights and choking a vital travel gateway to east Africa. First responders looted electronics, a bank and an ATM during and after the blaze.
(Reuters, 8/7/13)(AP, 8/8/13)
2013 Aug 7, An explosion at the border with Lebanon wounded 4 Israeli soldiers. The Lebanese Army said the troops were 400 meters inside Lebanese territory when the blast occurred. The area was known for having land mines.
(Reuters, 8/7/13)
2013 Aug 7, North Korea said it is lifting a ban on operations at a jointly run factory park shuttered since Pyongyang pulled out its 53,000 workers in April amid tensions with South Korea. The rivals agreed to meet next week for talks meant to restart the complex.
(AP, 8/7/13)
2013 Aug 7, In southwestern Pakistan a bomb planted outside a shopping center killed a 13-year-old girl and wounded over 20 people in Mastung district, Baluchistan province. A bomb blast that appeared to be targeting a provincial government minister killed 11 people before dawn at a soccer field in Karachi.
(AP, 8/7/13)
2013 Aug 7, Syrian government forces killed at least 62 rebels in an ambush near Damascus, a blow to opposition fighters confronting a regime offensive in the capital. In the north a missile struck the rebel-held city of Raqqa, killing 3 people and wounding dozens including children. Kurdish gunmen captured about 70 government troops who fled the air base of Mannagh in the northern province of Aleppo.
(AP, 8/7/13)
2013 Aug 7, In Tanzania's semi-autonomous Zanzibar region men riding a motorbike threw acid at two British teenage girls (18) in leaving them with facial, chest and back injuries. The girls had been volunteering at a local school in Zanzibar.
(Reuters, 8/8/13)
2013 Aug 7, Togo’s environment minister said Emile N'Bouke, a high-profile ivory trafficker, has been arrested. Activists said his work has fueled the slaughter of more than 10,000 elephants dating back to the 1970s.
(AP, 8/8/13)
2013 Aug 7, In southern Yemen a US drone killed 7 suspected al Qaeda militants, a day after US and British embassies evacuated some staff because of growing fears of attacks.
(AP, 8/7/13)
2014 Aug 7, Pres. Obama said he has authorized targeted US airstrikes against Islamic State fighters in northern Iraq and military airdrops of humanitarian supplies to besieged religious minorities.
(Reuters, 8/7/14)
2014 Aug 7, Pres. Obama signed a $16.3 billion bipartisan measure to address health care for veterans.
(SFC, 8/8/14, p.A6)
2014 Aug 7, The US Justice Department said it has taken control of more than $480 million looted by former Nigerian dictator Sani Abacha and his associates after a court ruling. The money stolen during Abacha's 1993-1998 de facto presidency and stashed in banks around the world will be returned to the Nigerian government.
(Reuters, 8/8/14)
2014 Aug 7, In Central California seven robbers invaded a house used by pot growers and engaged the occupants in a gun battle that killed two of the attackers. Authorities soon arrested 3 of the suspected robbers.
(Reuters, 8/9/14)
2014 Aug 7, A New York district judge sentenced Rudy Kurniawan (37) to a decade in prison. He was convicted of making bogus vintage wine in his southern California kitchen and selling it for millions.
(SFC, 8/8/14, p.D8)
2014 Aug 7, In Washington state a four-day search for a missing girl who vanished from her Steele Creek Mobile Home Park home over the weekend came to a tragic end, as authorities said they believe they have found the body of 6-year-old Jenise Wright.
(AP, 8/8/14)
2014 Aug 7, In Brazil police in Rio said they have arrested over 20 people as alleged members of a paramilitary militia group that charged monthly fees for protection against drug gangs and for illegal services like cable TV connections. Members included former police, firefighters, private security and off-duty prison guards.
(SFC, 8/8/14, p.A2)
2014 Aug 7, In Cambodia a UN-backed war crimes tribunal sentenced Khmer Rouge leaders Khieu Samphan (83) and Nuon Chea (88) to life in prison on war crime charges from 1975-1979, when the Khmer Rouge held power under top leader Pol Pot (d.1998).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khieu_Samphan)(SFC, 8/7/14, p.A4)
2014 Aug 7, China’s state media said plans are in place to build lighthouses on five islands in the South China Sea, in defiance of calls from the United States and the Philippines for a freeze on such activity to ease tension over rival claims. At least two of the islands appear to be in waters also claimed by Vietnam.
(Reuters, 8/7/14)
2014 Aug 7, Colombia’s Pres. Juan Manuel Santos took the oath for his 2nd term and promised to redouble his efforts to end the nation’s half-century war with FARC.
(SSFC, 8/10/14, p.A4)
2014 Aug 7, In eastern Cuba a homemade boat carrying 32 people left Manzanillo. After three weeks 15 badly sunburned and dehydrated survivors were rescued by the Mexican Navy.
(Reuters, 9/5/14)(Reuters, 10/5/14)
2014 Aug 7, An oil company owned by Israeli billionaire Dan Gertler said it had discovered reserves of around 3 billion barrels in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
(Reuters, 8/7/14)
2014 Aug 7, Iraqi government forces, Shiite militiamen and Kurdish troops launched a large operation to free Amerli, a Turkmen town that has been besieged by jihadists for 50 days.
(AFP, 8/7/14)
2014 Aug 7, Jihadists seized Qaraqosh, Iraq's largest Christian town and surrounding areas, sending tens of thousands of panicked residents fleeing in what was being called a humanitarian disaster. In Kirkuk a blast ripped through a Shiite mosque where displaced people had sought refuge, killing at least eight and wounding 47.
(AFP, 8/7/14)
2014 Aug 7, Sunni militants from the Islamic State group seized the Mosul Dam, Iraq's largest dam, forcing Kurdish forces to withdraw from the area and placing them in control of enormous power and water resources and access to the river that runs through the heart of Baghdad.
(AP, 8/7/14)
2014 Aug 7, In Lebanon militants from Syria who overran the border town of Arsal mostly withdrew back across the rugged hills separating the two countries as a cease-fire appeared to hold, allowing Lebanese troops to free 7 fellow soldiers and ambulances to evacuate dozens of casualties. At least 17 soldiers were killed in the clashes, while 10 remained missing, along with an unknown number of policemen.
(AP, 8/7/14)
2014 Aug 7, Moscow imposed a total ban on imports of many Western foods in retaliation against sanctions over Ukraine, a stronger than expected measure that isolates Russian consumers from world trade to a degree unseen since Soviet days.
(Reuters, 8/7/14)
2014 Aug 7, It was reported that Russia has granted former US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden an extension to stay in Russia for three more years.
(Reuters, 8/7/14)
2014 Aug 7, In Sierra Leone police and soldiers blockaded rural areas hit by the deadly Ebola virus, after neighboring Liberia declared a state of emergency to tackle the worst-ever outbreak of the disease, which has killed 932 people.
(Reuters, 8/7/14)
2014 Aug 7, South Korea's Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning said China has confirmed it had blocked "some foreign messaging applications through which terrorism-related information" was circulating. These included KakaoTalk and Line. It named other blocked apps as Didi, Talk Box and Vower. The service disruptions in China began a month ago.
(Reuters, 8/7/14)
2014 Aug 7, Thai police said authorities are investigating the discovery of nine surrogate babies in a Bangkok condominium who are believed to share the same Japanese biological father. On Aug 22 Interpol said it has launched an investigation into the “Baby Factory" case in which Mitsutoki Shigeta (24), a Japanese businessman, fathered 16 surrogate babies.
(Reuters, 8/7/14)(SFC, 8/23/14, p.A2)
2014 Aug 7, Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan branded Amberin Zaman, a prominent female journalist, a "shameless woman" and told her "to know your place".
(AFP, 8/8/14)
2014 Aug 7, Turkish officials said up to 800 people from Iraq's Yazidi community have fled across the border to Turkey after escaping a lightning offensive by jihadists from the Islamic State (IS) group.
(AFP, 8/7/14)
2014 Aug 7, In eastern Ukraine a Dutch recovery team called off its work at the site where Malaysian airliner MH 17 was shot down over rebel held territory last month, saying the frontline location had become too dangerous. Ukraine said the halt to the recovery meant it would stop observing a ceasefire at the site. 7 more Ukrainian service members were killed in the past day of fighting. Sustained shelling in Donetsk struck residential buildings and a hospital, killing at least 4 people and wounding 10 others. Russian citizen Alexander Borodai, the PM of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, said he was stepping down in favor of a local field commander, Alexander Zakharchenko.
(Reuters, 8/7/14)(AP, 8/7/14)(AFP, 8/7/14)
2014 Aug 7, In southern Yemen troops defending Sayoun clashed for a 2nd day with suspected al-Qaida militants killing at least 7 and raising the militant death toll to 25.
(SFC, 8/8/14, p.A2)
2015 Aug 7, An “unprecedented" agreement between the Chicago Police Department and the American Civil Liberties Union went into effect. It will allow independent evaluations of the department’s controversial "stop and frisk" program.
(CSM, 8/8/15)
2015 Aug 7, Dallas police Officer Brad Miller shot and killed Christian Taylor (19), who was found roaming inside a car dealership in the early hours of the morning. The FBI was called in to investigate the shooting. Miller was fired on August 10.
(SSFC, 8/9/15, p.A7)(SFC, 8/12/15, p.A5)
2015 Aug 7, In Vermont Jody Herring (40), upset about losing custody of her daughter, used a hunting rifle to fatally shoot child-welfare agency worker Lara Sobel, who had handled her case. Herring was detained by people in and around the building after the shooting in Barre City. Herring was soon also charged with the murder 3 women whose bodies were found earlier in the day.
(AP, 8/8/15)(SSFC, 8/9/15, p.A7)
2015 Aug 7, In Virginia a federal jury convicted Irek Hamidullin (55), a former Russian military tank commander, of planning and leading a Taliban attack on US forces in Afghanistan. He allegedly led three groups of insurgents in a 2009 attack on Afghan border police in Khost province.
(AP, 8/7/15)
2015 Aug 7, In Afghanistan an early morning truck bomb tore through buildings in central Kabul, killing at least 15 people and wounding 248 others. A suicide bombing at a police academy killed 27 people and wounded 28. One international service member and 8 Afghan contractors were killed in an attack on Camp Integrity.
(Reuters, 8/8/15)(AFP, 8/8/15)
2015 Aug 7, In Bangladesh a gang armed with machetes hacked secular blogger Niloy Chakrabarti (40) to death at his home in Dhaka, sparking protests in the capital over the fourth such murder in Bangladesh this year.
(AFP, 8/7/15)
2015 Aug 7, Arthur Finger (b.1926), former SF Bay Area media veteran, died at his home in Vancouver, BC. In 1963 and 1965 the State of California awarded him two gold medals for his “Mayor Art’s Almanac," the first TV newscast for children in the US.
(SFC, 8/10/15, p.C1)
2015 Aug 7, In Chile Manuel Contreras (86) died. He had led Chile's now-defunct and much feared secret police force for several years under the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. After his death was announced, dozens of people gathered outside the hospital to celebrate.
(Reuters, 8/8/15)
2015 Aug 7, In eastern Congo DRC an earthquake killed 2 children and a police officer and triggered fears that nearby volcano Mount Nyiragongo could erupt.
(Reuters, 8/7/15)
2015 Aug 7, The European Union appealed to member countries to live up to pledges to provide planes and other assets so that its border agency can help Greece and Hungary cope with a migrant influx.
(AP, 8/7/15)
2015 Aug 7, News weekly Der Spiegel said Germany's domestic spy agency named not just bloggers but also lawmakers in a criminal complaint that sparked a controversial treason probe.
(AFP, 8/7/15)
2015 Aug 7, Doctors in Ghana stopped providing emergency care in a strike over allowances and training.
(AFP, 8/7/15)
2015 Aug 7, PM Alexis Tsipras said Greece's infrastructure cannot handle the thousands of people landing on its shores from places like war-torn Syria and Afghanistan and needs European Union help.
(AP, 8/7/15)
2015 Aug 7, In northern India a building wall collapsed while being constructed, killing 10 workers near Narnaul, Haryana state.
(AP, 8/7/15)
2015 Aug 7, In Iraq several thousand demonstrators gathered in Baghdad to protest at rampant corruption and abysmal electricity services, calling for officials to be held to account.
(AFP, 8/7/15)
2015 Aug 7, In Iraq and Syria the US-led coalition conducted 19 air strikes on Islamic State targets with 10 in Iraq and nine in Syria.
(Reuters, 8/8/15)
2015 Aug 7, Italy arrested five North African men on suspicion of multiple homicide and human trafficking in the presumed drowning of more than 200 people, saying they used clubs and knives against migrants.
(Reuters, 8/7/15)
2015 Aug 7, In central Mali gunmen stormed a hotel in Sevare in an apparent attempt to kidnap Westerners, killing 4 soldiers, 4 UN contractors and a driver in an ongoing standoff with the army. 4 attackers were killed. The Macina Liberation Front (FLM) was suspected.
(AFP, 8/7/15) (AP, 8/8/15)(AFP, 8/9/15)(SSFC, 8/9/15, p.A6)(AP, 8/11/15)
2015 Aug 7, In western Nepal Dahlia Yehia (27), an American teacher from Texas, disappeared from the resort town of Pokhara. Police later arrested a local teacher, Narayan Paudel, who was hosting Yehia while she was in Pokhara to help victims of a devastating earthquake in April. Paudel confessed to hammering the victim to death and throwing her body into the Seti River.
(AP, 9/8/15)
2015 Aug 7, In Nigeria suspected pirates traveling by speedboat killed 4 soldiers and a policeman and stole weapons in a raid late today on a military base in the oil-rich southern delta region.
(Reuters, 8/8/15)
2015 Aug 7, North Korea announced that it will turn back its current standard time by 30 minutes effective August 15. The move will allow it to differentiate its time zone from that of Japan and South Korea.
(AP, 8/7/15)
2015 Aug 7, In Pakistan a suspected US drone strike killed 4 militants in the village of Datta Khel, North Waziristan.
(AP, 8/7/15)
2015 Aug 7, In the Philippines a homemade bomb believed to have been set off by Abu Sayyaf militants killed two soldiers in Basilan province.
(AP, 8/7/15)
2015 Aug 7, A Saudi soldier was killed by shelling from across the Yemeni border, becoming the third death this week.
(AFP, 8/7/15)
2015 Aug 7, It was reported that Thailand’s new Inheritance Tax Act 2015 has gone into effect and that it will start collecting inheritance tax for the first time next February.
(AP, 8/7/15)
2015 Aug 7, The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 230 people were kidnapped or detained, including dozens of Christians, some of whom were taken from a church in Qaryatain, the town captured overnight after heavy fighting with the Syrian army.
(Reuters, 8/7/15)
2015 Aug 7, Two Thailand military courts handed down the country’s harshest sentences in recent decades for insulting the monarchy. A man in Bangkok was sentenced to prison for 30 years for six Facebook postings, and a mother of two young girls in the province of Chiang Mai was sentenced to 28 years for seven postings.
(AP, 8/7/15)
2015 Aug 7, In Turkey 5 people including a Turkish soldier died and several others were injured in clashes in the restive Kurdish-majority southeast, as violence raged between Kurdish militants and security forces.
(AFP, 8/7/15)
2015 Aug 7, Turkey’s official Anatolia news agency reported that the government has frozen the assets of officials from Yemen's former regime including ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh, along with Huthi rebel leaders. The freeze will be in place until February 26, 2016.
(AP, 8/7/15)
2015 Aug 7, In Turkey an Iranian bus was hit in Dogubayazit district of the eastern Agri province. The driver was fatally shot in the head. Turkish authorities blamed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants. The passengers were unhurt.
(AFP, 8/8/15)
2015 Aug 7, Saudi-backed Yemeni officials said pro-government forces have retaken Labouza base, the last military base in the country's south that was held by Shiite rebels known as Houthis.
(AP, 8/7/15)
2015 Aug 7, The UN Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution aimed at identifying those responsible for using chlorine and other chemical weapons in attacks in Syria.
(SFC, 8/8/15, p.A3)
2016 Aug 7, In Kansas Caleb Schwab (10), the son of state Rep. Scott Schwab, was decapitated as he rode a 168-foot-tall water slide at the Schlitterbahn WaterPark in Kansas City. In 2018 the water park co-owner Jeff Henry was arrested. The slide's designer, John Schooley was also arrested.
(SFC, 8/11/16, p.A6)(SFC, 4/5/18, p.A5)
2016 Aug 7, The body of Vanessa Marcotte (27) of NYC was found in some woods in Princeton, Mass. She had been out for a run while visiting her mother. In 2017 DNA evidence from her hands identified Angelo Colon-Ortiz (31) of nearby Worcester as the suspect in her murder.
(SFC, 4/16/17, p.A7)
2016 Aug 7, Gen. Abdul Raziq, a senior Afghan police official regarded as one of the country's most powerful men, said he has banned the use of the Pakistani currency in the key southern province of Kandahar. Raziq said the currency ban is in retaliation against Pakistan's protection of the Taliban.
(AP, 8/7/16)
2016 Aug 7, Afghanistan five gunmen wearing Afghan military uniforms abducted an American and an Australian in Kabul.
(AP, 8/8/16)
2016 Aug 7, In Ethiopia about 50 people were killed in clashes between police and anti-government demonstrators as protests swept the vast Oromia region and Addis Ababa.
(AFP, 8/8/16)
2016 Aug 7, Iran said it has executed Shahram Amiri (39), a nuclear scientist convicted of handing over "confidential and vital" information to the United States. Amiri disappeared in Saudi Arabia in June 2009 and resurfaced a year later in the United States. He returned to Tehran in July 2010, saying he had been kidnapped at gunpoint by two Farsi-speaking CIA agents in the Saudi city of Medina.
(AFP, 8/7/16)
2016 Aug 7, In central Mali fighting broke out near the village of Tenenkou in the Mopti region and continued into the next day. Five soldiers were missing after the clashes with militants, in the latest in a string of attacks on army and UN forces claimed by the Islamist group Ansar Dine.
(Reuters, 8/9/16)
2016 Aug 7, In Pakistan a suicide bomber carried out the attack at the government-run hospital in the southwestern city of Quetta that killed 53 people and wounded dozens.
(AP, 8/8/16)
2016 Aug 7, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte publicly linked more than 150 judges, mayors, lawmakers, police and military personnel to illegal drugs, ordering them to surrender for investigation.
(AP, 8/7/16)
2016 Aug 7, Voters in the tiny west African archipelago of Sao Tome and Principe went to the polls to elect a new president, but only one candidate stood in a runoff the incumbent boycotted as fraudulent. Some 111,000 voters had originally been due to choose between Evaristo Carvalho, who won 49.8 percent in the first round, and President Manuel Pinto da Costa, who took 24.83 percent.
(AFP, 8/7/16)
2016 Aug 7, In Syria rebels breached the government siege on opposition neighborhoods in the city of Aleppo, marking a major military breakthrough that prompted an intense airstrike campaign.
(AP, 8/7/16)
2016 Aug 7, Thai voters overwhelmingly approved a new junta-backed constitution that lays the foundation for a civilian government influenced by the military and controlled by appointed, rather than elected, officials.
(AP, 8/7/16)
2016 Aug 7, In Turkey hundreds of thousands gathered in Istanbul summoned by President Tayyip Erdogan to denounce a failed coup.
(Reuters, 8/7/16)
2016 Aug 7, Ukraine’s military said 3 soldiers have been killed and four others injured over the last 24 hours in fresh clashes between pro-Russian rebels and government forces in the war-scarred east.
(AFP, 8/7/16)
2016 Aug 7, In Yemen a Saudi-led coalition air strike killed 9 civilians outside Sanaa this evening, as forces loyal to the exiled government stepped up an offensive in the area.
(Reuters, 8/8/16)
2017 Aug 7, Chantek (39), a male orangutan, died at Zoo Atlanta. He was among the first apes to learn sign language, could clean his room and memorized the way to a fast-food restaurant.
(Reuters, 8/8/17)
2017 Aug 7, Google fired James Damore, a software engineer, who had written a memo saying the company’s efforts to hire more women are biased.
(Econ, 8/12/17, p.10)
2017 Aug 7, China’s state news agency Xinhua said thunderstorms have battered northeastern Liaoning province for several days, killing three people and prompting the evacuation of almost 190,000.
(Reuters, 8/7/17)
2017 Aug 7, Congolese security forces killed at least 14 members of separatist sect Bundu dia Kongo (BDK) during clashes in the capital Kinshasa and southwestern city of Matadi in which at least one police officer also died.
(Reuters, 8/7/17)
2017 Aug 7, In Germany some 2,600 pigs and piglets died in a fire at a farm southwest of Berlin that caused an estimated 800,000 euros ($950,000) in damage in the area of Frankenfoerde.
(AP, 8/8/17)
2017 Aug 7, Indonesia said that it will barter coffee, palm oil and other commodities for 11 Russian-made Sukhoi fighter jets, calling US and European sanctions against Russia an opportunity to boost the Southeast Asian nation's trade.
(AP, 8/7/17)
2017 Aug 7, Iranian state news agency IRNA reported that security forces have broken up a group linked to Islamic State which was planning attacks in religious centers in the country and trying to hide weapons in home appliances. 27 militants were detained.
(Reuters, 8/7/17)
2017 Aug 7, Iran signed the country's biggest-ever car deal o build tens of thousands of cars annually under a joint venture with French automobile manufacturer Groupe Renault, buoying its manufacturing industry in defiance of the Trump administration's moves to isolate the country.
(AP, 8/7/17)
2017 Aug 7, Malaysia's deputy minister in charge of religious affairs said he is investigating an international atheist organization after a picture of the group's local chapter went viral, sparking claims that Muslim apostates were involved. The Kuala Lumpur chapter of Atheist Republic, a Canada-based organization, posted a picture of the group's members attending a gathering last week, sparking uproar among some Muslims and leading to threats of death and violence against the group on social media.
(Reuters, 8/7/17)
2017 Aug 7, In Morocco dozens of sub-Saharan migrants crossed into Spain in the early hours today after running through a border gate into the enclave of Ceuta.
(Reuters, 8/7/17)
2017 Aug 7, Nigerian protesters demanded that President Muhammadu Buhari, receiving treatment in London for an undisclosed ailment for more than three months, either return or resign.
(AFP, 8/7/17)
2017 Aug 7, In Pakistan the JuD charity said it has entered politics by forming a new party. The new Milli Muslim League party will follow the ideology of Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD), which the US says is a front for banned militant group Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LeT) and is run by Hafiz Saeed, the alleged mastermind of the 2008 attacks that killed 166 people.
(Reuters, 8/7/17)
2017 Aug 7, Pakistani security forces killed four Taliban militants in the eastern city of Lahore hours after a truck bomb killed one person and wounded 22.
(Reuters, 8/8/17)
2017 Aug 7, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Jordan’s King Abdullah II met for about two hours, after a red-carpet welcome for the monarch at the Palestinian government compound in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
(AP, 8/7/17)
2017 Aug 7, Russia said it will speed up work on reducing dependency on US payment systems and the dollar as a settling currency in response to the new sanctions.
(Reuters, 8/7/17)
2017 Aug 7, In Russia two members of the feminist punk band Pussy Riot were detained after a protest outside the prison colony in Siberia's Yakutia where Ukrainian filmmaker Oleg Sentsov is being held.
(AP, 8/7/17)
2017 Aug 7, In Sicily 15 firefighters were arrested on suspicion of deliberately setting fires or having friends or family call in false alarms so they could be called to work and earn money, announcing the arrest of the alleged ringleader.
(AP, 8/7/17)(AFP, 8/11/17)
2017 Aug 7, In Slovakia a junior partner in the ruling coalition, the Slovak National Party (SNS), surprised its partners by pulling out of an agreement underpinning the government and calling for a new deal.
(Reuters, 8/7/17)
2017 Aug 7, South Sudan's government forces overtook the rebel-held stronghold and opposition headquarters of Pagak, along the Ethiopian border. Opposition IO rebels still held territory in Panyijiar County in Unity state as well rural areas of Jonglei state and Akobo state, traditionally areas where South Sudan's Nuer people live.
(AP, 8/7/17)
2017 Aug 7, In Syria government warplanes bombed Ein Tarma, a suburb of Damascus and an area controlled by the Failaq al-Rahman rebel group, which does not recognize a recent truce.
(AP, 8/7/17)
2017 Aug 7, An attack near the Syrian border reportedly killed 36 members of an Iraqi Shi'ite militia and seven of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards. The US-led coalition fighting Islamic State denied responsibility. Islamic State claimed it was responsible for the attack near At Tanf.
(Reuters, 8/8/17)
2018 Aug 7, US President Donald Trump warned the world against doing business with Iran as he hailed the "most biting sanctions ever imposed", triggering a mix of anger, fear and defiance in Tehran.
(AFP, 8/7/18)
2018 Aug 7, The Trump administration announced that it will go ahead with imposing 24 percent tariffs on an additional $16 billion in Chinese imports.
(SFC, 8/8/18, p.A4)
2018 Aug 7, The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) said the Mendocino Complex grew to span 290,692 acres (117,639 hectares) by this morning, with barely a third of it contained since two wildfires merged at the southern tip of the Mendocino National Forest. The Carr Fire, which has torched 167,000 acres in the scenic Shasta-Trinity region north of Sacramento, was now 47 percent contained. The Ferguson Fire was 43 percent contained.
(Reuters, 8/7/18)(SFC, 8/8/18, p.A9)
2018 Aug 7, In Florida SpaceX used its newest style booster for a second time at Cape Canaveral to put a communications satellite into orbit for Indonesia.
(AP, 8/7/18)
2018 Aug 7, Arvonne Fraser (92), a leading voice on women's issues in Minnesota, nationally and abroad, died in Hudson, Wis.
(SSFC, 8/12/18, p.C10)
2018 Aug 7, A pharmaceutical company filed a lawsuit to prevent Nebraska from using lethal injection drugs next week in what would be the state's first execution in more than two decades. The federal lawsuit could delay the Aug. 14 execution of Carey Dean Moore, who was sentenced to death for killing two Omaha cab drivers in 1979. Germany-based Fresenius Kabi opposes the use of its drugs in executions.
(AP, 8/8/18)
2018 Aug 7, In Afghanistan a string of Taliban attacks killed 12 people overnight, including four women who died in the crossfire during a shootout between insurgents and soldiers. An errant NATO airstrike in Azrah, Logar province, killed nine Afghan police. Around 30 Taliban fighters were reported killed in the battle.
(AP, 8/7/18)(SFC, 8/8/18, p.A3)
2018 Aug 7, An Algerian court convicted human rights activist Salim Yezza to a one-year suspended prison sentence and fined him 100,000 dinars (about $115.00) for inciting violence more than four years after his statements in support of a minority. Yezza, who lives in France, was arrested July 16 at the airport in Biskra as he tried to return home after attending his father's funeral.
(AP, 8/7/18)
2018 Aug 7, New York-based Human Rights Watch said accused the Bangladesh government of using abusive measures in handling student-led protests calling for safer roads.
(AP, 8/7/18)
2018 Aug 7, In China six people were imprisoned for up to four years for their part in a scheme to cheat on the national graduate school exam.
(AP, 8/8/18)
2018 Aug 7, Ethiopia's government signed an agreement to end hostilities with the Oromo Liberation Front, which it had previously declared a terrorist movement. The government signed a reconciliation agreement to end hostilities with the OLF's exiled leader Dawud Ibsa, who lives in exile in Asmara, Eritrea.
(Reuters, 8/7/18)
2018 Aug 7, The European Union reiterated its "firm support to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Georgia within its internationally recognized borders" and lamented the Russian military presence in Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Russia's PM Dmitry Medvedev said an attempt by NATO to incorporate the former Soviet republic of Georgia could trigger a new, "horrible" conflict.
(AP, 8/7/18)
2018 Aug 7, In southwestern Germany a mother (48) and her partner were convicted and jailed for repeatedly raping the woman's young son, now 10, and selling him to pedophiles on the internet, abusing him for more than two years.
(AP, 8/7/18)
2018 Aug 7, Greece's PM Alexis Tsipras said the demolition of 3,200 buildings will start immediately in the Attica region, which includes the capital Athens, in response to the death of dozens of people who were unable to escape a maze of poorly planned streets in the country's worst wildfire disaster.
(AP, 8/7/18)
2018 Aug 7, In India Muthuvel Karunanidhi (94), a highly popular scriptwriter-turned-politician in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, died after a prolonged illness. He became the state's chief minister in 1969 and held that position five times for a total of 19 years.
(AP, 8/7/18)
2018 Aug 7, Iranians awoke to renewed US sanctions that had been lifted by Tehran's nuclear deal with world powers. The newly imposed American sanctions targeted US dollar financial transactions, Iran's automotive sector, and the purchase of commercial planes and metals, including gold.
(AP, 8/7/18)
2018 Aug 7, An Israeli strike killed two militants of the Gaza Strip's ruling Hamas movement after shots were fired at soldiers. The Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades confirmed in a statement that the dead men were its fighters, naming them as Ahmed Murjan and Abdel-Hafez al-Silawi.
(AFP, 8/7/18)
2018 Aug 7, Italy's Senate approved a decree curbing temporary job contracts and penalizing firms that move production abroad, passing the first major legislation by the new government.
(Reuters, 8/7/18)
2018 Aug 7, In Mexico Elba Esther Gordillo, the flamboyant former leader of the powerful teachers' union, was released from custody after a court determined there weren't sufficient grounds to proceed in a years-long money-laundering case.
(AP, 8/8/18)
2018 Aug 7, Authorities in Peru said at least nine people have died from food poisoning following a funeral ceremony. Another 20 people were hospitalized with stomach pains and vomiting after a wake the previous day in the Ayacucho region.
(AP, 8/7/18)
2018 Aug 7, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte threatened to kill corrupt police, including those accused of involvement in illegal drugs and other crimes, in an expletives-laden encounter on live TV.
(AP, 8/7/18)
2018 Aug 7, It was reported that Romanian and German archaeologists have discovered a prehistoric fortress dating back as far as 3,400 years in western Romania. Last week they completed a dig uncovering 55 hectares (135 acres) of the 80-hectare (198-acre) site, built between 1,400 BC and 1,200 BC, located near the town of Santana.
(AP, 8/7/18)
2018 Aug 7, In Russia Maria Alekhina, an activist from the Pussy Riot punk collective, led a protest outside the headquarters of the state penitentiary agency in response to torture and slave labor in Russian prisons.
(SFC, 8/8/18, p.A2)
2018 Aug 7, The lawyer for Ukrainian filmmaker Oleg Sentsov, hunger striking in a Russian jail for nearly three months, said that the prisoner has lost 30 kg from his original weight of 100 kg, his heart rate has slowed and he has very low levels of red blood cells. The 42-year-old was serving a 20-year sentence in the far north of Russia after being convicted three years ago of arson attacks in his native Crimea following its annexation by Moscow. According to Kiev's estimates, Russia is currently holding around 70 Ukrainian political prisoners.
(AFP, 8/8/18)
2018 Aug 7, Saudi Arabia began selling Canadian assets in an escalating row after Ottawa criticized the arrest of a female activist.
(Reuters, 8/8/18)
2018 Aug 7, Authorities in Spain said the death toll from a particularly virulent heatwave rose to nine in just one week, as the country suffered sky-high temperatures.
(AFP, 8/7/18)
2018 Aug 7, Swiss army helicopters began airlifting water to thousands of thirsty cows who are suffering in a drought and heatwave that has hit much of Europe.
(Reuters, 8/7/18)
2018 Aug 7, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he has chosen former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet to be the world body's new human rights chief.
(Reuters, 8/8/18)
2018 Aug 7, A Zimbabwe court freed on bail 27 opposition supporters arrested last week on accusations of fomenting violence in the aftermath of President Emmerson Mnangagwa's election victory over Nelson Chamisa.
(Reuters, 8/7/18)
2018 Aug 7, Joint statement by the heads of mission of EU states in Zimbabwe along with the US, Canada and Switzerland condemned the "violence, attacks, and acts of intimidation targeted at opposition leaders and supporters," saying such violations have no place in a democratic society. New York-based Human Rights Watch said Zimbabwean security forces and unidentified gunmen have beaten and harassed dozens of people in a crackdown on the political opposition following a disputed election.
(AP, 8/7/18)
2019 Aug 7, US President Donald Trump said the US Federal Reserve must cut rates "bigger and faster" for the United States to be competitive against other countries.
(Reuters, 8/7/19)
2019 Aug 7, President Donald Trump said that South Korea has agreed to pay the United States "substantially more" for protection against North Korea and that talks have begun to further increase payments.
(AP, 8/7/19)
2019 Aug 7, The US and Turkey announced they'd agreed to form a coordination center to set up the safe zone in northeastern Syria. The coordination center would be based in Turkey and would be set up "as soon as possible".
(AP, 8/8/19)
2019 Aug 7, Twitter temporarily locked the campaign account of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell after it shared a video in which some protesters spoke of violence outside his Kentucky home, where he was recovering from a shoulder fracture.
(SFC, 8/9/19, p.A6)
2019 Aug 7, In southern California Zachary Castaneda (33) was taken into custody after he went on a two-hour stabbing and robbery rampage, killing four people and wounding two others. The suspect and all the victims were Hispanic.
(AP, 8/8/19)(SFC, 8/9/19, p.A7)
2019 Aug 7, Kary Banks Mullis (b.1944), Nobel Prize winner (1993), died at his home in Newport Beach, Ca. He was awarded the prize in chemistry for developing polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technology, which allowed molecular biologists to create millions of copies of a single strand of DNA in a few hours.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kary_Mullis)(SFC, 8/13/19, p.C3)
2019 Aug 7, US immigration authorities arrested nearly 700 people at seven agricultural processing plants across Mississippi in what federal officials said could be the largest worksite enforcement operation in a single state.
(Reuters, 8/8/19)
2019 Aug 7, Cyntoia Brown (31), championed by celebrities as a symbol of unfair sentencing, was released from the Tennessee Prison for Women, where she had been serving a life sentence for killing a man when she was a 16-year-old prostitute. Brown was convicted in 2006 of murdering 43-year-old Nashville real estate agent Johnny Allen.
(AP, 8/7/19)
2019 Aug 7, Tennessee convict Curtis Ray Watson (44) was discovered missing, several hours after being seen near a house at West Tennessee State Penitentiary where employee Debra Johnson (64) lived. Authorities say Johnson was found sexually assaulted and deceased in the house with a cord around her neck. Watson, who had escaped on a tractor, was captured on August 11 in the town of Henning.
(AP, 8/11/19)(SFC, 8/12/19, p.A4)
2019 Aug 7, US firm FireEye said, a cybersecurity researcher, said one of the most effective teams of Chinese government-backed hackers is also conducting financially-motivated side operations. The findings were announced at the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas.
(Reuters, 8/7/19)
2019 Aug 7, In Afghanistan a suicide car-bomb attack on a police station in Kabul killed 14 people and wounded 145. The Taliban claimed responsibility. Separately, security forces conducted raids on two Islamic State militant hideouts in Kabul overnight and killed two militants and seized a large quantity of explosives and bomb-making equipment. Three members of the security forces were also killed.
(Reuters, 8/7/19)
2019 Aug 7, British Airways canceled almost 100 flights to and from London airports after its check-in systems were hit by computer problems.
(AP, 8/7/19)
2019 Aug 7, Bottles featuring busty blondes, raunchy taglines and lewd labels were banned from one of Britain's biggest beer festivals in a crackdown on sexist advertising.
(Reuters, 8/7/19)
2019 Aug 7, China's rare earths association said it would support Chinese counter-measures in the escalating trade row with the United States, which it accused of "bullying".
(Reuters, 8/7/19)
2019 Aug 7, Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi urged the nation to back his government's efforts to defeat Islamic militants, saying it's the mission of every Egyptian.
(AP, 8/7/19)
2019 Aug 7, Greek Energy Minister Kostis Hatzidakis said Greece, Israel, Cyprus and the United States have agreed to enhance cooperation in energy, cyber and infrastructure security following a meeting of the ministers from the four countries in Athens.
(AP, 8/7/19)
2019 Aug 7, Indonesia's capital announced new curbs on private cars as it moved to rein in choking air pollution. Experts warned the measures were unlikely to stamp out the problem.
(Reuters, 8/7/19)
2019 Aug 7, Kyrgyzstan special forces failed to capture former president Almazbek Atambayev during a raid on his compound outside Bishkek. One officer was left dead and a police chief in a critical condition.
(AP, 8/8/19)
2019 Aug 7, Jewish leaders in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius said they are indefinitely closing the city's sole synagogue and community center following threats sparked by an emotional debate over the country's World War II-era history.
(AP, 8/7/19)
2019 Aug 7, A Myanmar court jailed an Australian publisher for 13 years on drugs charges, a year after police uncovered a stash of methamphetamines and opium at his home. Ross Dunkley (62) was arrested along with business partner John Mackenzie and several Myanmar women in a June 2018 bust in Yangon.
(Reuters, 8/7/19)
2019 Aug 7, New Zealand's dollar fell heavily after its central bank stunned markets with an aggressive interest rate cut and said negative rates were possible, fuelling bets on more global easing. The RBNZ slashed rates by 50 basis points against an expected 25 basis points to 1%.
(Reuters, 8/7/19)
2019 Aug 7, Pakistan’s PM Imran Khan’s government announced a series of measures to oppose what it called “unilateral and illegal actions" by India. He also said Pakistan will review bilateral agreements, take the matter to the United Nations Security Council and ensure the army remains vigilant.
(Bloomberg, 8/8/19)
2019 Aug 7, Puerto Rico's Supreme Court overturned the swearing in of Pedro Pierluisi as the island's governor less than a week ago, clearing the way for Justice Sec. Wanda Vasquez to be sworn in after weeks of turmoil.
(SFC, 8/8/19, p.A5)
2019 Aug 7, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates state media said their countries are providing Sudan 540,000 tons of wheat to support the country whose president was ousted earlier this year.
(Reuters, 8/7/19)
2019 Aug 7, Spanish police arrested five French tourists, ages 18 to 19, on suspicion of gang-raping a 20-year-old Norwegian woman in the Costa Blanca resort of Benidorm.
(Reuters, 8/8/19)
2019 Aug 7, Syrian state media reported that government forces have captured two northwestern villages in an intensified offensive on the last rebel-held part of the country, inching closer to the town of Kfar Zeita which has been held by insurgents since 2012.
(AP, 8/7/19)
2019 Aug 7, Oleg Melnikov (28), founder of the anti-slavery group Alternativa, left Turkey for the Idlib province of Syria late today. The Russian vigilante activist who freed hundreds of people from slavery missed planned calls at 9am, 12pm and 3pm on the following day, after which colleague Maxim Vaganov followed the group's policy and informed the media and the Russian embassy that he had disappeared.
(The Telegraph, 8/9/19)
2019 Aug 7, Thailand delivered 4,500 bottles of cannabis oil to treat hospital patients, its first official use of marijuana for medical purposes since a measure legalizing such use took effect this year.
(Reuters, 8/7/19)
2019 Aug 7, Ukraine's new President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called Russian President Vladimir Putin to urge him to help halt fighting in eastern Ukraine.
(AP, 8/7/19)
2019 Aug 7, Members of the United Nations signed the Singapore Convention on Mediation, an agreement it hopes will make it easier to settle cross-border commercial disputes and stabilize trade relationships.
(Reuters, 8/7/19)
2019 Aug 7, It was reported that a confidential UN report reveals that North Korea has been employing a range of sophisticated cyberattacks in an effort to bankroll its development of weapons of mass destruction.
(BGR News, 8/7/19)
2019 Aug 7, UN political chief Rosemary DiCarlo said reports suggest more than 100,000 people in Syria have been detained, abducted or gone missing during the eight-year conflict, with the government mainly responsible.
(AP, 8/7/19)
2019 Aug 7, Venezuela's Pres. Nicolas Maduro suspended mediated talks with the opposition movement to protest US Pres. Trump's latest sanctions.
(SFC, 8/9/19, p.A2)
2019 Aug 7, In Yemen at least one presidential guard was killed and four people, including two civilians, were wounded as supporters of a killed militia commander marched on the presidential palace and clashed with troops stationed there.
(AP, 8/8/19)
2020 Aug 7, US treasury department head Steven Mnuchin said the US has imposed sanctions on Hong Kong’s leader Carrie Lam, and 10 other senior Chinese and Hong Kong officials, in response to the crackdown on free speech and political freedoms in the city.
(AP, 8/8/20)
2020 Aug 7, A US federal judge granted the government's request to immediately end the Paramount Decrees, a set of antitrust rules from the late 1940s and early 1950s that ended Hollywood's monopoly on producing, distributing and exhibiting movies.
(Reuters, 8/7/20)
2020 Aug 7, US Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said the USPS faces a "dire" financial position even as it posted a slightly narrower third-quarter loss amid soaring package demand during the coronavirus pandemic.
(Reuters, 8/7/20)
2020 Aug 7, Officials in Anchorage, Alaska, won a key ruling in favor of a ban on indoor restaurant dining after a standoff over COVID-19 restrictions moved to court.
(Reuters, 8/7/20)
2020 Aug 7, The California insurance commissioner's office said it has settled a case with drugmaker AbbVie. The company will pay $24 million to settle allegations of $1.2 billion in fraudulent insurance claims related to prescriptions of the arthritis drug Humira.
(SFC, 8/8/20, p.C1)
2020 Aug 7, California to date had 543,657 cases of coronavirus and 10,097 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 60,018 cases and 899 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 4,926,063 with the death toll at 160,980.
(sfist.com, 8/7/20)
2020 Aug 7, In Florida the Broward State Attorney’s Office said it is dropping the armed robbery case against Seattle Seahawks cornerback Quinton Dunbar (28), but will prosecute New York Giants cornerback Deandre Baker (22) for stealing jewelry and money from people, at gunpoint, nearly 3 months ago at a house party in Miramar.
(Miami Herald, 8/7/20)
2020 Aug 7, The Crow Tribe in Montana ordered its members to lock down for two weeks beginning today as tribal leaders moved to slow a sharp spike in coronavirus cases and deaths on yet another reservation in the country.
(AP, 8/7/20)
2020 Aug 7, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said that all school districts in his state, once the epicenter of the nation's COVID-19 crisis, could open for in-person learning in the fall based on their current low infection rates of the virus.
(Reuters, 8/7/20)
2020 Aug 7, Portland's nightly protests turned violent again even after the city's mayor pleaded for demonstrators to stay off the streets. A police officer hit by a rock early today suffered what was described as a serious injury. The overnight protest was in a residential neighborhood 6 miles away from the federal courthouse.
(AP, 8/7/20)
2020 Aug 7, Thousands of bikers poured into the small South Dakota city of Sturgis as the 80th Sturgis Motorcycle Rally rumbled to life despite fears it could lead to a massive coronavirus outbreak. Daily virus cases have been trending upward in South Dakota, but the seven-day average is still only around 84, with fewer than two deaths per day.
(AP, 8/7/20)
2020 Aug 7, Dalia Samoudi (23), a Palestinian woman, died after being shot in the chest by an apparent stray bullet during an Israeli raid in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin.
(AP, 8/7/20)
2020 Aug 7, Cincinnati-based Meridian Bioscience Inc. (VIVO) reported fiscal third-quarter profit of $27.5 million.
(AP, 8/7/20)
2020 Aug 7, Pfizer Inc said it has signed a multiyear agreement to make COVID-19 treatment remdesivir for developer Gilead Sciences Inc, which is under pressure to increase tight supplies of the antiviral drug.
(Reuters, 8/7/20)
2020 Aug 7, Bulgarian police removed dozens of tent camps that had blocked key city intersections across the country as part of antigovernment protests.
(SFC, 8/8/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 7, China sentenced a fourth Canadian citizen to death on drug charges in less than two years following a sharp downturn in ties over the arrest of an executive of Chinese tech giant Huawei. Ye Jianhui was sentenced by the Foshan Municipal Intermediate Court in the southern province of Guangdong. The court said he had been found guilty of manufacturing and transporting illegal drugs. Death sentences are automatically referred to China’s highest court for review.
(Politico, 8/7/20)
2020 Aug 7, Israeli operatives, at the behest of the United States, assassinated Abu Muhammad al-Masri, al Qaeda's second-highest leader, in Tehran according to a NY Times report in November. Iran at this time identified the victims as Habib Daoud, a Hezbollah-affiliated Lebanese history professor, and his daughter. Intelligence officials later said those were aliases. Al-Masri was a mastermind behind the 1998 attacks on American embassies in multiple African countries. Iran denied the NY Times report.
(NY Times, 11/14/20)
2020 Aug 7, In North Korea a train carrying goods arrived in the "totally blocked" city of Kaesong, following the discovery there of the country's first suspected coronavirus case.
(The Telegraph, 8/8/20)
2020 Aug 7, Pakistan recorded 782 new cases of the coronavirus in the past 24 hours and 17 deaths. In total Pakistan has reported 282,642 confirmed cases and 6,052 deaths.
(SFC, 8/8/20, p.A5)
2020 Aug 7, South Korea's Ministry of Food and Drug Safety said local biotech firm Genexine Inc has received regulatory approval for a Phase I human clinical trial of its experimental coronavirus treatment drug.
(AP, 8/7/20)
2020 Aug 7, Spain reported 1,895 new coronavirus infections in the past day, mainly in the regions of the Basque Country, Catalonia and Aragon. Spain has seen a total of 314,362 cases of COVID-19 and recorded 28,503 deaths.
(Reuters, 8/7/20)
2020 Aug 7, Switzerland said it has signed an agreement with Moderna to secure early access to the COVID-19 vaccine the US biotech company is developing.
(Reuters, 8/7/20)
2020 Aug 7, A Venezuelan court sentenced two former US special forces soldiers to 20 years in prison for their part in a failed beach attack aimed at overthrowing President Nicolás Maduro. Former Green Berets Luke Denman and Airan Berry admitted to taking part in the May 4 operation orchestrated by a third ex-US soldier who remains in the United States.
(AP, 8/7/20)
2021 Aug 7, The US is now averaging 100,000 new COVID-19 infections a day. Total US COVID-19 cases reached over 35,707,822 with the death toll at 616,547.
(AP, 8/7/21)(sfist.com, 8/8/21)
2021 Aug 7, It was reported that more than 65,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines have expired in Alabama due to low demand for inoculations. The state ranks last (34%) for the percentage of people fully vaccinated.
(AP, 8/7/21)
2021 Aug 7, In northern California Gary Maynard (47), man who taught criminal justice at Sonoma State University, was arrested on and charged with setting fire to public land around the massive Dixie Fire and in Shasta County.
(CBS News, 8/11/21)
2021 Aug 7, A Chicago police officer was killed and another fighting for their life after being shot late today during a traffic stop.
(AP, 8/8/21)
2021 Aug 7, In southeastern Minnesota, a single-engine plane crashed into a vacant lot and burst into flames, igniting a fire at a nearby house. No one on board survived.
(AP, 8/8/21)
2021 Aug 7, Dennis “Dee Tee" Thomas (70), a founding member of the long-running soul-funk band Kool & the Gang known for such hits as “Celebration" and “Get Down On It," died in New Jersey.
(AP, 8/8/21)
2021 Aug 7, Michael Thomas (85), investment banker, writer and Bête Noire of the Moneyed Class, died in Brooklyn. His books included "Green Monday (1980), "Someone Else’s Money" (1982) and "Hanover Place" (1990). As a trustee of the Robert Lehman Foundation, he helped prepare and publish a scholarly catalog of Mr. Lehman’s vast art collection at the Met. The catalog ran to 15 volumes and took several decades to complete.
(NY Times, 8/15/21)
2021 Aug 7, Texas Democrats again refused to return to the state Capitol as Gov. Greg Abbott began a 3rd attempt at passing new election laws.
(SSFC, 8/8/21, p.A9)
2021 Aug 7, In Texas three women were found killed at a condo on South Padre Island. Yordi Barthelemy (23) fled the scene of the shooting but later turned himself in and was arrested in the neighboring community of Port Isabel.
(The Grio, 8/12/21)
2021 Aug 7, In Afghanistan Taliban fighters entered the capital of northern Jawzjan province, after sweeping through nine of 10 districts in the province. More than half of Afghanistan’s 421 districts and district centers are now in Taliban hands.
(AP, 8/7/21)
2021 Aug 7, It was reported that around 50 bodies have been discovered over the last two weeks in the Setit River, which flows through some of the most troubled areas of the nine-month conflict in Ethiopia's Tigray region.
(AP, 8/7/21)
2021 Aug 7, In France thousands of people marched in Paris and other cities during a fourth consecutive week of protests against COVID-19 entrance requirements and what opponents see as restrictions on personal freedom.
(AP, 8/7/21)
2021 Aug 7, In Greece flames swept through a town near Athens overnight and hundreds of people were evacuated by ferry from the island of Evia east of the capital as wildfires burned across the country for a fifth day.
(Reuters, 8/7/21)
2021 Aug 7, India's health minister said Johnson & Johnson's single-dose COVID-19 vaccine has been approved for emergency use.
(Reuters, 8/7/21)
2021 Aug 7, Israeli warplanes struck two targets in the Gaza Strip early today, in response to incendiary balloons launched from Gaza into Israel.
(AP, 8/7/21)
2021 Aug 7, In Italy Maria Licciardi (70), reputed top Naples crime syndicate boss, was arrested as she was about to board a flight to Spain. Investigators have alleged that Licciardi ran extortion rackets as head of the Licciardi Camorra crime syndicate clan.
(AP, 8/7/21)
2021 Aug 7, In Japan Allyson Felix won her 11th medal, which made her the most decorated American track-and-field athlete in Olympic history.
(NY Times, 8/8/21)
2021 Aug 7, Top-ranked Japan prevailed over the US, 2-0, to win its first gold medal in baseball in the six trips to the Olympics since 1992.
(AP, 8/7/21)
2021 Aug 7, New Zealand immigration services said Larry Page, Google's co-founder and one of the world's richest men, has become a local resident. He had applied on November 3, 2020, under a category for wealthy investors and was approved on Feb. 4. The visa requires applicants to have NZ$10 million ($7 million) to invest in New Zealand over a three-year period.
(AP, 8/7/21)
2021 Aug 7, In southwestern Nigeria a Swiss national was kidnapped along with a Nigerian citizen. Two of the gunmen were shot dead by police while the others escaped with the hostages in Ogun state.
(AP, 8/9/21)
2021 Aug 7, In Russia wildfires in the Siberia region endangered a dozen villages and prompted authorities to evacuate some residents. 93 fires were active in the region.
(SSFC, 8/8/21, p.A8)
2021 Aug 7, In Thailand riot police fired water cannons teat gas and rubber bullets to repel antigovernment protesters who marched on an army base where PM Prayuth Chan-ocha has his residence.
(SSFC, 8/8/21, p.A8)
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317 Aug 7, Flavius Julius Constantius II, Emperor Egypt, Byzantium, Rome (337-61), was born.
(MC, 8/7/02)
626 Aug 7, Battle at Constantinople: Slavs, Persians and Avars were defeated. Emp. Heraclius repelled the attacks. The attacks began in 625.
(PCh, 1992, p.60)(MC, 8/7/02)
1106 Aug 7, Henry IV (54), Holy Roman Emperor (1056/84-1105), died.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1485 Aug 7, Henry (VII) Tudor's army landed in Milford Haven, South-Wales.
(ON, 12/06, p.1)
1573 Aug 7, Francis Drake’s fleet returned to Plymouth.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1585 Aug 7, Tatar forces of Khan Kutchum attacked a sleeping Cossack expedition under Yermak near the mouth of the Vagay River in Siberia. The Cossacks were decimated and Yermak drowned wearing a suit of armor given him by Tsar Ivan.
(ON, 2/04, p.5)
1620 Aug 7, Kepler's mother was arrested for witchcraft.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1620 Aug 7, French king Louis XIII beat his mother Marie de Medici at the Battle at Ponts-the-Ca, Poitou.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1642 Aug 7, A Royalist force laid siege to Warwick Castle. Soldiers loyal to the king tried without success to unseat the Parliamentarian forces that held it. While a minor skirmish, the outcome would foreshadow the broader struggle for the country. The siege was lifted on 23 August 1642 when the garrison was relieved by the forces of Robert Devereux, 3rd Earl of Essex, and the Royalists were forced to retreat to Worcester.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warwick_Castle)
1661 Aug 7, Benedetta Carlini (b.1590), a Catholic mystic and lesbian nun who lived in counter-reformation Italy, died after having spent thirty-five years in prison. In 2021 a biographical film about Benedetta Carlini called Benedetta, directed by Paul Verhoeven, was released.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benedetta_Carlini)
1731 Aug 7, William Cosby arrived in New York to assume his post as Governor for the New York Province.
(www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/zenger/zengeraccount.html)
1742 Aug 7, Nathanael Greene, American Revolutionary War General, was born.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1760 Aug 7, Ft. Loudon, Tennessee, surrendered to Cherokee Indians.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1779 Aug 7, Carl Ritter, cofounder of modern science of geography, was born in Quedlinberg, Prussia.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1782 Aug 7, General George Washington created the Order of the Purple Heart, a decoration to recognize merit in enlisted men and noncommissioned officers. Washington authorized the award of the Purple Heart for soldiers wounded in combat.
(AP, 8/7/97)(HN, 8/7/98)
1782 Aug 7, A statue of Peter the Great was unveiled in St. Petersburg on the 100th anniversary of his accession to the throne. It was made by French sculptor Etienne-Maurice Falconet (1716-1791), who spent 12 years on the work. Empress Catherine commissioned it in 1765.
(WSJ, 8/5/06, p.P12)
1783 Aug 7, John Heathcoat (d.1861), English inventor of lace-making machinery (1809), was born. In 1816 Luddites burned down his Nottingham factory.
(MC, 8/7/02)(Internet)
1789 Aug 7, The U.S. War Department was established by Congress.
(AP, 8/7/97)
1794 Aug 7, George Washington issued a proclamation telling a group of Western Pennsylvania farmers to stop their Whiskey Rebellion. In the US in western Pennsylvania, angry farmers protested a new federal tax on whiskey makers. The protest flared into the open warfare known as the Whiskey Rebellion between US marshals and whiskey farmers.
(http://www.ttb.gov/public_info/whisky_rebellion.shtml)(A&IP, ESM, p.16)(HNQ, 10/14/99)
1802 Aug 7, Napoleon ordered the re-instatement of slavery on St. Domingue (Haiti).
(MC, 8/7/02)
1814 Aug 7, Pope Pius VII reinstated the Jesuits.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1818 Aug 7, Henri Charles Litolff, French composer, pianist, was born.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1819 Aug 7, South American liberator Simon Bolivar defeated Spanish forces under Gen. Jose Barreiro in New Granada (Colombia) at the Battle of Boyaca. The revolutionary army entered Bogota Aug 10.
(HNQ, 9/12/99)(ON, 3/05, p.2)
1820 Aug 7, The 1st potatoes were planted in Hawaii.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1821 Aug 7, Caroline of Brunswick (b.1768), wife of England’s King George IV, died. In 2006 Jane Robins authored “The Trial of Queen Caroline: The Scandalous Affair that Nearly Ended a Monarchy."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_IV_of_the_United_Kingdom)(Econ, 8/5/06, p.76)
1826 Aug 7, Marc Brunel hired his son, Isambard, to replace William Armstrong as chief engineer for building the tunnel under England’s Thames River.
(ON, 4/06, p.8)(www.bris.ac.uk/is/services/specialcollections/brunelchronology.html)
1833 Aug 7, Powell Clayton, Brig. General (Union volunteers), (Gov-R-Ark), was born in Pa.
(MC, 8/7/02)(Internet)
1836 Aug 7, Evander McIvor Law (d.1920), Brig General (Confederate Army), was born in South Carolina.
(MC, 8/7/02)(Internet)
1864 Aug 7, Union Gen. Philip Henry Sheridan took command of his 30,000-man army at Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia. His orders from Gen. Grant were to march into the Shenandoah Valley and destroy the army of Confederate Gen. Jubal Early.
(ON, 10/20/11, p.11)
1864 Aug 7, Union troops captured part of Confederate General Jubal Early's army at Moorefield, West Virginia.
(HN, 8/7/98)
1876 Aug 7, Margaretha Zelle (aka Mata Hari) was born in the Netherlands. Mata Hari, otherwise known as Margaretha G. Macleod, passed secrets to the Germans in World War I.
(WSJ, 1/16/97, p.A16)(HN, 8/7/98)
1882 Aug 7, Hatfields of south West Virginia and McCoys of eastern Kentucky re-engaged in a feud that dated back to 1865. Some 100 were wounded or died. In 2007 medical evidence indicated that many of the descendants of the McCoys suffered from an inherited disease that leads to hair-trigger rage and violent outbursts.
(www.tugvalleychamberofcommerce.com/tour.html)(SFC, 4/6/07, p.A16)
1888 Aug 7, The revolving door, the brainchild of Philadelphia inventor Theophilus Van Kannel (1841-1919), was patented. In 1889 he founded the Van Kannel Revolving Door Company.
(http://tinyurl.com/mdqrqxs)
1893 Aug 7, Alfredo Catalani (39), Italian composer, died.
(MC, 8/7/02)(Internet)
1896 Aug 7, Ernesto Lecuona, composer (Malaguena), was born in Havana, Cuba.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1903 Aug 7, Louis Leakey, anthropologist, archeologist and paleontologist, was born in Kenya. He believed that Africa was the cradle of mankind.
(HN, 8/7/98)(Internet)
1904 Aug 7, Ralph Bunche (d.1971), US diplomat and the first African-American Nobel Prize winner (1950), was born. "There are no warlike peoples- just warlike leaders."
(HN, 8/7/98)(AP, 12/7/99)(MC, 8/7/02)
1906 Aug 7, In North Carolina, a mob defies a court order and lynches three African Americans which becomes known as "The Lyerly Murders."
(HN, 8/7/99)
1909 Aug 7, Alice Huyler Ramsey (22) arrived in San Francisco on a ferry boat after driving a 1909 Maxwell Model DA across the country. She had left New York on June 9.
(SFC, 7/10/09, p.D3)
1910 Aug 7, In San Francisco the Chutes vaudeville theater on Fillmore St. attracted Sophie Tucker, who revived her career after being black-balled by Flo Ziegfeld back in New York. Tucker performed the Grizzly Bear song in San Francisco. Sophie Tucker at the Chutes theater creates a genuine furor with her rendition of “The Dance of the Grizzly Bear." She did two Sunday through Saturday runs, August 7 - 13, and September 18 - 24. in 1910.
(AJSF, Vol. 14. No. 2, Winter, 2003)(http://sfpl.org/index.php?pg=2000131701)
1912 Aug 7, The Progressive Party (Bull Moose Party) nominated Theodore Roosevelt for president. Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt had stormed the Republican convention but failed to wrest the nomination from William Howard Taft. He then founded his own, short-lived, Progressive Party. The party split allowed Taft to win the election.
(WSJ, 6/5/96, p.A12)(AP, 8/7/97)(SFEC, 3/5/00, p.D8)
1915 Aug 7, In the assault up Russell's Top at Gallipoli 232 Australians died.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1916 Aug 7, Persia formed an alliance with Britain and Russia.
(HN, 8/7/98)
1922 Aug 7, The Irish Republican Army cut the cable link between the United States and Europe at Waterville landing station.
(HN, 8/7/98)
1926 Aug 7, Stan Freberg, satirist, ad executive, cartoon voice (Bertie), was born in LA, Calif.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1926 Aug 7, The United States declared non-intervention in the Spanish Civil War.
(HN, 8/7/98)
1927 Aug 7, Edwin Edwards, governor of Louisiana (1972-1980, 1984-1988, 1992-1996), was born.
(HN, 8/7/98)
1927 Aug 7, US Major General Leonard Wood (b.1860) died in Boston, Mass. His military service included commands in Cuba (1900-1902) and the Philippines 1905 and 1921-1927. In 1910, he was named Chief of Staff of the Army, the only medical officer to ever hold the position. In 2005 Jack McCallum authored the biography “Leonard Wood."
(www.wood.army.mil/MGLeonardwood.htm)
1927 Aug 7, The Peace Bridge between the United States and Canada was dedicated during ceremonies attended by the Prince of Wales, Canadian PM William Lyon Mackenzie King and US Vice President Charles Dawes.
(AP, 8/7/07)
1927 Aug 7, Maia Wojciechowska (d.2002) was born in Warsaw. She moved to the US in 1942 and became an acclaimed author of children’s books. Her work included the memoir "Till the Break of Day: Memories, 1939-1942."
(SFC, 7/1/02, p.B5)
1928 Aug 7, Amazing Randi (James Randi), skeptic magician (Nova), was born in Toronto, Ontario.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1929 Aug 7, Ruth Carter-Stapleton, Pres. Carter’s sister, evangelist, was born in Plains, Ga.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1929 Aug 7, Germany’s Graf Zeppelin airship embarked from Lakehurst, New Jersey, on the first round-the-world passenger voyage.
(www.airships.net/blog/graf-zeppelin-round-the-world-flight-august-1929)(Hem., 2/96, p.43)
1930 Aug 7, In Marion, Indiana, a mob broke into a jail and beat to death 2 young black men and hung them from a tree in the courthouse square. Tommy Shipp and Abe Smith and a 3rd teenager had just been arrested for a botched robbery that left Claude Deeter, a white man, dead. James Cameron (16) was saved from hanging, even as a noose was on his neck. In 2006 Cynthia Carr authored “Our Town: A Heartland Lynching, a Haunted Town and the Hidden History of White America."
(SSFC, 3/26/06, p.M3)
1930 Aug 7, James D. Phelan (1897-1901), former 3-time mayor of SF, died. In 1914 he was elected and served a single term in the US Senate. His unsuccessful 1920 reelection campaign used the slogan "Keep California White."
(SFC, 11/7/00, p.A15)(SFC, 8/5/05, p.F4)
1931 Aug 7, Leon Bismarck "Bix" Beiderbecke (29), jazz cornetist (In Mist), died. In 1974 Richard M. Sudhalter authored "Bix: Man and Legend."
(WSJ, 6/13/03, p.W12)(MC, 8/7/02)
1932 Aug 7, American economist Fred Manville Taylor (b.1855), died in Los Angeles. He is best known for his contribution to the theory of market socialism. His “Principles of Economics" (1911) went through 9 editions.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_M._Taylor)
1932 Aug 7, Abebe Bikila (d.1973), barefoot runner from Ethiopia, winner of the 1960 Olympic marathon, was born.
(HN, 8/7/98)(www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7ZLB1-Ofyw)
1934 Aug 7, The U.S. Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling striking down the government's attempt to ban the controversial James Joyce novel "Ulysses."
(AP, 8/7/97)
1935 Aug 7, In Danzig (Gdansk) 60% of voters agreed to Nazism (NSDAP).
(MC, 8/7/02)
1936 Aug 7, The United States declared non-intervention in the Spanish Civil War.
(HN, 8/7/00)
1938 Aug 7, Nazi's closed the theology department of Innsbruck university.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1938 Aug 7, Konstantin S. Stanislavsky (75), Russian director (S Method), died.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1940 Aug 7, Churchill recognized the De Gaulle government in exile.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1941 Aug 7, Rabindranath Tagore (b.1861), a Bengali polymath who reshaped Bengali literature and music, as well as Indian art with Contextual Modernism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, died in Calcutta.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabindranath_Tagore)
1941 Aug 7, In Romania 551 Jews were shot in the Kishinev ghetto.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1942 Aug 7, Garrison Keillor, American humorist and writer, was born.
(HN, 8/7/00)
1942 Aug 7, B.J. (Billy Joe) Thomas, singer (Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head, Hooked on a Feeling), was born.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1942 Aug 7, The U.S. 1st Marine Division under General A. A. Vandegrift landed on the islands of Guadalcanal and Tulagi in the Solomon islands. This was the first American amphibious landing of the war and the start of the first major allied offensive in the Pacific during World War II. The initial landing party included Navajo Codetalkers. This was the 1st land Japanese defeat of WWII; Japan was building an air base with designs on isolating the Australian continent.
(AP, 8/7/97)(HN, 8/7/98)(WSJ, 10/12/99, p.A24)(MC, 8/7/02)
1942 Aug 7, The Nazi 36th Police Battalion, made up of ethnic Estonians, massacred some 2,500 Jews at Novogrudok, Belarus (according to the Simon Wiesenthal Foundation).
(SSFC, 2/15/04, p.A4)
1942 Aug 7, Transport 16 departed with French Jews to Nazi-Germany.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1943 Aug 7, US Major Gen. Lewis B. Hershey, the National Director of Selective Service, said: "There are too many middle-class morons in the country, people with mental diseases who can't pass Army tests."
(SSFC, 8/5/18, DB p.50)
1944 Aug 7, July 20th Plot trial under Nazi judge Roland Freisler began in Berlin.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1944 Aug 7, German forces launched a major counter attack against U.S. forces near Mortain, France.
(HN, 8/7/98)
1947 Aug 7, The balsa wood raft Kon-Tiki, which had carried a six-man crew 4,300 miles across the Pacific Ocean, crashed into a reef in a Polynesian archipelago. [see Apr 28]
(AP, 8/7/97)
1953 Aug 7, Eastern Airlines entered the jet age with the Electra prop-jet.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1956 Aug 7, British government sent 3 aircraft carriers to Egypt.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1957 Aug 7, Oliver Hardy (65), the heavier half of the Laurel and Hardy comedy team, died in North Hollywood, Calif.
(AP, 8/7/07)
1958 Aug 7, Alberto Lleras Camargo (1906-1990) began serving as President of Colombia and continued to August 7, 1962.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberto_Lleras_Camargo)
1959 Aug 7, The United States launched Explorer 6, which sent back a picture of the Earth. The satellite, popularly known as the "paddlewheel satellite," featured a photocell scanner that transmitted a crude picture of the earth's surface and cloud cover from a distance of 17,000 miles
(HFA, '96, p.36)(AP, 8/7/97)(MC, 8/7/02)
1960 Aug 7, Students staged kneel-in demonstrations in Atlanta churches.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1960 Aug 7, Vaino Hannikainen (60), Finnish composer, died.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1960 Aug 7, Ivory Coast became independent from France. Felix Houphouet-Boigny (b.1905) began to rule Ivory Coast as prime minister. Houphouet-Boigny led the country until his death in 1993. Encouragement of investment and stability made it one of region's most prosperous.
(SFC, 12/25/99, p.A12)(AP, 9/24/02)
1961 Aug 7, Soviet premier Khrushchev predicted that the USSR economy would surpass that of the US.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1964 Aug 7, Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin resolution, giving President Johnson broad powers in dealing with reported North Vietnamese attacks on U.S. forces. It allowed the president to use unlimited military force to prevent attacks on U.S. forces. U.S. Senators Wayne Morse of Oregon and Ernest Gruening of Alaska share the distinction of casting the only votes against the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. The resolution supported President Lyndon Johnson's military actions against North Vietnam in retaliation for its attack on a U.S. spy ship in the Tonkin Gulf. The resolution passed in the House 414-0 and the Senate 88-2. The resolution, which amounted to a declaration of war, was repealed by Congress on January 13, 1971.
(AP, 8/7/97)(HNQ, 6/24/98)(HN, 8/7/98)
1964 Aug 7, Turkey began an air attack on Greek-Cypriots.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1965 Aug 7, San Francisco police arrested Ronnie Davis, founder of the SF Mime Troupe, in Lafayette Park. He was charged with performing in a public park without a permit. The troupe’s permit had been revoked for its adoption of “Il Candelaio.," a 16th century play by Giordano Bruno. Bill Graham, manager of the troupe, soon threw a benefit for the troupe and hired an unknown band called the Jefferson Airplane. The benefit raised $4000 and led Graham to leave the Mime Troupe and open the Fillmore.
(SFC, 8/8/15, p.C1)
1966 Aug 7, The United States lost seven planes over North Vietnam, the most in the war up to this point.
(HN, 8/7/98)
1966 Aug 7, There was a race riot in Lansing, Michigan.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1969 Aug 7, The body of a Vermont man was discovered by a work crew in a water-filled pit off Interstate 93 in Salem, New Hampshire. In 2020 fingerprint evidence identified him as Winston “Skip" Morris (30). He had been released from prison three months earlier and was found shot at least six times in the head.
(AP, 4/6/20)
1970 Aug 7, At a hearing for the "Soledad Brothers," Jonathon P. Jackson (17), the younger brother of George L. Jackson, attempted an armed rescue attempt at the Marin Civic Center. A shootout in the parking lot followed and 4 people were killed and 5 injured. Assistant DA Gary Thomas (d.2017) grabbed a pistol from one of the convicts and shot dead three of them. Among the dead were Jackson, Judge Harold Haley, Black Panther James McClain, and convict William A. Christmas. Angela Davis was charged with murder, kidnapping and conspiracy, but was acquitted in 1972 after spending a year in jail.
(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W21)(SFC, 8/19/98, p.A18)(AP, 8/7/00)(SSFC, 4/23/17, p.C2)
1970 Aug 7, In Colombia Misael Pastrana (1923-1997), a member of the Conservative Party, began serving as the country’s 31st president. He was elected by a margin of 63,000 votes. Some who favored his opponent, Gen’l. Gustavo Rojas Pinilla, formed the M-19 rebel group and waged war for almost 2 decades before they disarmed in 1989.
(SFC, 8/23/97, p.A20)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misael_Pastrana_Borrero)
1970 Aug 7, Israel, Jordan and Egypt agreed to a ceasefire under the terms of the US proposed Roger Plan. The Roger Plan was originally proposed in a December 9, 1969, speech at an Adult Education conference. The plan was formally announced on 19 June 1970.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_Attrition)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogers_Plan)
1973 Aug 7, Hermine Braunsteiner Ryan (1919-1999) became the first Nazi war criminal extradited from the United States to Germany. A US judge had certified her extradition to the Secretary of State on May 1, 1973. She became the first Nazi war criminal to be extradited from the US. The NY Times had exposed the local housewife in 1964 as a former guard at the Nazi Majdanek death camp in Poland.
(SSFC, 4/4/10, Par. p.4)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermine_Braunsteiner)
1973 Aug 7, A US plane accidentally bombed a Cambodian village, killing 400 civilians.
(HN, 8/7/98)(www.massviolence.org/+-Cambodia-+?id_rubrique=6&artpage=11-18)
1973 Aug 7, Pat Halley (1950-2007), a Detroit reporter for the Fifth Estate, tossed a pie in the face of the teenage "Lord of the Universe" at a formal session of Common Council in protest of the Guru's claim of divinity. A week later Halley was savagely beaten and almost killed by two devotees of the Guru Maharaj Ji (15). Halley was released from Detroit General Hospital on Aug. 21 in good condition after undergoing surgery to repair a caved-in portion of his skull.
(www.ex-premie.org/pages/fifthestate4.htm)(http://tinyurl.com/2w98lt)
1974 Aug 7, French stuntman Philippe Petit walked a tightrope strung between the twin towers of New York's World Trade Center. In 2002 Petit authored "To Reach the Clouds: My High Wire Walk Between the Twin Towers." In 2003 Steven Galloway authored "Ascension," a novel that featured a fictional Gypsy tightrope walker named Ursari, who makes a final, fateful skywalk between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center on July 4, 1976. In 2008 James Marsh produced his documentary film of the event: Man On Wire."
(AP, 8/7/97)(SSFC, 9/8/02, p.M4)(SSFC, 10/11/03, p.M3)(WSJ, 8/8/08, p.W1)
1975 Aug 7, In China a dam collapse in Henan province killed tens of thousands of people. The event was covered up for many years. A typhoon from the South China Sea brought three successive days of enormous rain storms to the area of southern Henan Province. Altogether 62 dams failed in one night, including two major dams. As a result of this catastrophe 85,600 people died according to the official government figures but others place the toll at 230 thousand.
(WSJ, 8/29/07, p.A12)(www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/3gorges.htm)
1976 Aug 7, Scientists in Pasadena, Calif., announced that the Viking 1 spacecraft had found the strongest indications to date of possible life on Mars.
(AP, 8/7/97)
1977 Aug 7, "Shenandoah" closed at Alvin Theater in NYC after 1,050 performances.
(www.angelfire.com/stars/scottbakula/Theatrecredits.html)
1983 Aug 7, Some 675,000 employees struck ATT Corp.
(http://openweb.tvnews.vanderbilt.edu/1983-8/1983-08-07-CBS-4.html)
1983 Aug 7, Cynthia Munoz (17) of Campbell, Ca., was found raped and murdered with stab wounds. In 2007 prosecutors with DNA evidence charged Christopher Melvin Holland (52) with the murder and sought his arrest. Holland was arrested in San Jose, Ca., on Oct 18, 2007.
(http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=local&id=5710333)(SFC, 10/19/07, p.B5)
1985 Aug 7, Spc. Edward Pimental (20), a US Army soldier, left a discotheque in the western German city of Wiesbaden with a woman and was soon killed. Terrorists used Pimental's ID card to enter the US Rhein-Main air base in Frankfurt. The following day, explosives packed in a Volkswagen rocked the parking lot behind the base headquarters. Two Americans were killed and 23 people were injured. In 1994 a Frankfurt court found Eva Haule guilty of killing Pimental. In 1996 a judge said Birgit Hogefeld, who was also convicted in the Pimental killing and the Rhein-Main bombing, had lured Pimental out of the disco. In 2007 Haule (53) was released from jail after serving 21 years of a life sentence.
(AP, 8/17/07)
1987 Aug 7, Lynne Cox became the 1st to swim from US to Russia across the Bering Strait.
(http://tinyurl.com/lal2h)
1987 Aug 7, The presidents of 5 Central American nations, meeting in Guatemala City, signed an 11-point agreement designed to bring peace to their region.
(AP, 8/7/97)
1988 Aug 7, The Writers Guild of America ended their 6 months strike.
(http://tinyurl.com/zlxht)
1988 Aug 7, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Velayati signaled his government's acceptance of Iraq's modified peace proposal aimed at bringing about a cease-fire in the Persian Gulf.
(AP, 8/7/98)
1989 Aug 7, A small plane carrying Congressman Mickey Leland, D-Texas, and 15 others disappeared during a flight in Ethiopia. The wreckage of the plane was found six days later; there were no survivors.
(AP, 8/7/99)
1990 Aug 7, President Bush ordered US troops and warplanes to Saudi Arabia to guard the oil-rich desert kingdom against a possible invasion by Iraq. The US Persian Gulf War began. Operation Desert Shield ended Feb 28, 1991. It cost $8.1 billion and left 383 US casualties with 458 wounded.
(AP, 8/7/99)(WSJ, 9/22/99, p.A8)
1990 Aug 7, The UN imposed sanctions on Iraq and devastated the economy.
(SFC, 9/4/96, p.A8)
1991 Aug 7, The five permanent members of the UN Security Council agreed to authorize Iraq to sell as much as $1.6 billion in oil over six months to pay for food, humanitarian supplies and war reparations; however, Baghdad rejected the resolution.
(AP, 8/7/01)
1992 Aug 7, Jennifer Capriati won the gold medal in tennis at the Barcelona Olympics, beating Steffi Graf.
(AP, 8/7/02)
1992 Aug 7, The luxury liner Queen Elizabeth 2 ran aground off Massachusetts.
(AP, 8/7/97)
1992 Aug 7, The 39-nation Conference on Disarmament in Geneva produced the final draft of a treaty to ban chemical weapons, ending 24 years of talks.
(AP, 8/7/97)
1993 Aug 7, The public got its first glimpse inside Buckingham Palace as people were given the opportunity to tour the London home of Queen Elizabeth II. Proceeds from ticket sales were earmarked to help repair fire damage at Windsor Castle.
(AP, 8/7/98)
1994 Aug 7, The 10th International Conference on AIDS opened in Yokohama, Japan.
(AP, 8/7/99)
1995 Aug 7, Ten days before he was to be put to death for the murder of a police officer, black activist and radio reporter Mumia Abu-Jamal won a reprieve from the original trial judge in Philadelphia. As of 2008, his legal appeals are still unsettled and he is a prisoner at State Correctional Institution Greene near Waynesburg, Pennsylvania.
(AP, 8/7/00)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mumia_Abu-Jamal)
1996 Aug 7, More than 6 million American Online customers worldwide were left stranded when the system crashed for almost 19 hours.
(AP, 8/7/97)
1996 Aug 7, There was a report that cervical cancer in women was linked to the human papilloma virus (HPV). There is an estimated 75 different strains of HPV and that 97% of cervical cancers were due to the virus and commonly spread by sexual intercourse.
(SFC, 8/7/96, p.A5)
1996 Aug 7, NASA researchers formally presented their case for the existence of life long ago on Mars. [see Aug 6]
(AP, 8/7/01)
1996 Aug 7, The presidents of Serbia and Croatia agreed to establish diplomatic relations.
(SFC, 8/8/96, p.A11)
1996 Aug 7, In Honduras the attorney general accused the army of spying on thousands of public officials, judges, politicians and journalists.
(SFC, 8/8/96, p.C1)
1996 Aug 7, In Russia communist leader Gennady Zyuganov was elected to lead a coalition of Communists and nationalists under the banner of the Popular Patriotic Union.
(SFC, 8/8/96, p.A8)
1996 Aug 7, In Spain flash floods at a Pyrenees mountain campsite killed at least 71 [86] people at a campground.
(WSJ, 8/9/96, p.A1)(AP, 8/7/97)
1997 Aug 7, It was reported that US retail space and semiconductor manufacturing capacity far exceeded demand. A downturn in the economy was said to have already begun.
(WSJ, 8/7/97, p.A1)
1997 Aug 7, The space shuttle Discovery was launched with a crew of six. A satellite was dropped off to study the Earth’s ozone layer.
(SFC, 8/8/97, p.A3)
1997 Aug 7, A DC-8 cargo plane crashed on take-off at Miami Int’l. Airport. Four people were killed on the denim filled 29-year-old plane bound for the Dominican Republic.
(SFC, 8/8/97, p.A3)
1997 Aug 7, The US State Dept. expressed concern over reports of Chinese nuclear-capable M-11 missiles sold to Pakistan.
(SFC, 8/8/97, p.E3)
1997 Aug 7, In Argentina Pres. Eduardo Frei of Chile and Argentine Pres. Carlos Menem opened a $325 million pipeline for natural gas from Argentina to Santiago.
(SFC, 8/8/97, p.E3)
1997 Aug 7, From China it was reported that Zhu Qihua planned to move the Big Green Mountain by Lanzhou, a railroad hub, in order to clear the air of heavy smog.
(WSJ, 8/7/97, p.A1)
1997 Aug 7, In Mexico Jose Paoletti Moreda and his son Renato were arrested on charges of leading an operation that smuggled deaf people into the US and forced them to work under virtual slavery conditions. Another couple was arrested with ten deaf smuggled immigrants in Dallas on Aug 15.
(SFC, 8/8/97, p.A3)(SFC, 8/16/97, p.A2)
1997 Aug 7, In Romania Prime Minister Victor Ciorbea announced the closure of 17 factories at the urging of the IMF. 30,000 jobs would be lost and the following day thousands protested the closing of the essentially bankrupt companies.
(SFC, 8/9/97, p.C1)
1997 Aug 7, A Russian capsule on a fix-it mission docked gingerly with the crippled Mir space station, bringing a new crew to salvage the orbiting outpost.
(AP, 8/7/98)
1997 Aug 7, In Switzerland the measures to freeze the assets of deposed Zairean Pres. Mobuto Sese Seko were declared legal.
(SFC, 8/8/97, p.E3)
1998 Aug 7, The Federal Aviation Administration, in a follow-up to the probe of the 1996 explosion that destroyed TWA Flight 800, ordered the inspection of Boeing 747 fuel tanks.
(AP, 8/7/99)
1998 Aug 7, A fire in Tracy, Ca., burned some 2.5 million tires at Royster’s Tire Disposal. Some 6 million tires were expected to burn for weeks.
(SFC, 8/8/98, p.A21)(SFC, 8/10/98, p.A20)
1998 Aug 7, In Utah five young girls (ages 2-6) died from heat exposure after they were trapped in the trunk of a car in West Valley City.
(SFC, 8/8/98, p.A5)
1998 Aug 7, Steve Fossett departed from western Argentina on his 4th attempt to circle the world in a balloon.
(SFC, 8/12/98, p.A8)
1998 Aug 7, In China the death toll from the summer floods passed 2,000 and the Jingjiang flood plain was ordered evacuated.
(SFC, 8/8/98, p.A14)
1998 Aug 7, In Colombia Pres. Andres Pastrana took office. Following his inauguration Pastrana replaced the top leaders of the military.
(SFC, 8/5/98, p.A10)(WSJ, 8/10/98, p.A1)
1998 Aug 7, In Congo Pres. Kabila left Kinshasa for Lubumbashi, his former rebel base, to meet with a visiting South African delegation.
(SFC, 8/8/98, p.A13)
1998 Aug 7, Two powerful bombs exploded at the US embassies in Nairobi, Kenya and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The bombings killed 224 people and marked the first large-scale attack by al Qaeda. Twelve Americans were among the dead, and over 4,800 were injured. In Nairobi at least 53 buildings were damaged. The adjacent Ufundi Cooperative House was demolished and the 22-story Cooperative Bank House had all its windows shattered. Haroun Fazil of the Comoros Islands was later the 3rd bombing suspect to be charged in the Kenya bombing. Ali Mohamed, a former US Army sergeant, was involved in the US Embassy bombings. In 2000 he pleaded guilty for his role under the direction of Osama bin Laden. In 2001 Mohamed Rashed Daoud Al-‘Owhali (24) of Saudi Arabia, Khalfan Khamis Mohamed (27) of Tanzania, Wadi El-Hage (40) of Texas, and Mohamed Sadeek Odeh (36) of Jordan were convicted on 302 counts. In 2007 Walid Muhammad bin Attash told a military tribunal at Guantanamo that he was responsible for organizing the 2000 Cole attack in Yemen as well as the 1998 bombings in Kenya and Tanzania. In 2014 Adel Abdul Bary, a suspect in the bombings, pleaded guilty to lesser charges of making threats against Americans. Plaintiffs began suing Sudan in 2001 in federal court in Washington for harboring and providing support to al Qaeda. In 2020 the US Supreme Court refused to hear Sudan's bid to avoid paying $3.8 billion in damages to family members of people killed or injured in the bombings.
(SFC, 8/8/98, p.A1)(SFEC, 8/9/98, p.A1)(WSJ, 9/18/98, p.A1)(AP, 8/7/99)(SFC, 10/21/00, p.A1)(SFC, 5/30/01, p.A13)(SFC, 9/21/01, p.A1)(SFC, 3/20/07, p.A3)(SFC, 9/20/14, p.A5)(Reuters, 1/13/20)
1998 Aug 7, In Nairobi Catherine Bwire (25) was one of 25 people blinded by the bombing. She was pregnant and gave birth to a daughter on Oct 27.
(SFC, 11/25/98, p.A16)
1998 Aug 7, In Pakistan Sadik Howaida (34), later named as Mohammed Saddiq Odeh, was detained at the Karachi airport. He reportedly confessed to participating in the bombing in Nairobi. He said that he and 2 coconspirators had left Nairobi and planned to enter Afghanistan a few days before the bombing. He acknowledged that the team was recruited and financed by Osama bin Laden who was ensconced in a fortress-style hideout in Kandahar. Odeh later refused to admit responsibility to American officials.
(SFEC, 8/16/98, p.A17)(SFC, 8/17/98, p.12,17)(SFC, 8/18/98, p.A6)
1998 Aug 7, In Peru Pres. Andres Pastrana took office.
(SFC, 8/5/98, p.A10)
1998 cAug 7, Immediately after the bombing of 2 US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, Sudanese authorities arrested 2 men suspected of being involved in the plot. [see Aug 21]
(SFC, 7/30/99, p.A12)
1998 Aug 7, Vietnam devalued its currency 7%.
(WSJ, 8/10/98, p.A10)
1999 Aug 7, President Clinton, during a visit to his home state of Arkansas, promised to devote the rest of his presidency to erasing poverty.
(AP, 8/7/00)
1999 Aug 7, The Southern Party held its inaugural rally in Flat Rock, North Carolina, pledging to work peacefully for a separate Southern nation.
(AP, 8/7/00)
1999 Aug 7, Wade Boggs became the first player to homer for his three-thousandth hit.
(AP, 8/7/00)
1999 Aug 7, Islamic fighters based in Chechnya seized at least 2 village in Dagestan. Warlords Shamil Basayev and Wahabi commander Amir Khattab (Hattab) were reported to be involved. This triggered the second Chechen war. The Wahabis are a puritan branch of Sunni Islam founded in the 18th century in Saudi Arabia.
(SFEC, 8/8/99, p.A20)(Econ, 4/9/11, p.28)
1999 Aug 7, In China Song Yongyi, a research librarian at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pa., was imprisoned while collecting data on the Cultural Revolution. On Dec 12 he was charged with "the purchase and illegal provision of intelligence to foreigners." Yongyi was released on Jan 28, 2000.
(SFC, 1/26/00, p.A8)(SFC, 1/29/00, p.A8)
1999 Aug 7, Pres. Isaias Afwerki of Eritrea made an unconditional offer for cooperation with the OAU to end its war with Ethiopia during a meeting with Algerian Pres. Bouteflika, the OAU chairman.
(SFC, 8/9/99, p.A10)
1999 Aug 7, In Indonesia a tugboat and oil tanker collided under thick haze and the tanker ignited killing 10 people.
(SFC, 8/10/99, p.A10)
1999 Aug 7, In Kosovo French troops kept ethnic Albanians away from Serbs on the Ibar River bridge at the Kosovska Mitrovica mining center. In Vrbas, Serbia, some 2,000 people rallied against Pres. Milosevic.
(SFEC, 8/8/99, p.A21)
1999 Aug 7, In Finland the village of Kutemajarvi planned a sex fair for people over age 45 to commemorate the UN designation of 1999 as the Int'l. Year of Older Persons.
(SFC, 1/16/99, p.A12)
2000 Aug 7, Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore selected Connecticut Senator Joseph Lieberman as his running mate; Lieberman was the first Jew on a major party’s presidential ticket.
(SFC, 8/8/00, p.A1)(AP, 8/7/01)
2000 Aug 7, It was reported that another 16 people were killed by rebels in northern Colombia and that Occidental Petroleum had halted production at its 2nd largest field due to rebel attacks. Rightist paramilitary killed 7 villagers in San Diego.
(WSJ, 8/7/00, p.A1)(SFC, 8/9/00, p.A14)
2000 Aug 7, Chechen rebels claimed 11 Russian soldiers in a military convoy were killed by a remote controlled mine.
(SFC, 8/8/00, p.A12)
2000 Aug 7, In Malaysia Anwar Ibrahim, former deputy prime minister, was convicted of sodomy and sentenced to 9 years in prison. Sukma Dermawan, Ibrahim’s codefendant and adopted brother, was also found guilty.
(SFC, 8/8/00, p.A11)
2000 Aug 7, In Spain a bomb exploded in Bilbao and killed 3 suspected Basque separatists, who appeared to be transporting explosives.
(SFC, 8/8/00, p.A12)
2000 Aug 7, Venezuela’s Pres. Hugo Chavez arrived in Saudi Arabia to begin a tour of 10 oil-producing nations that included Iraq.
(SFC, 8/8/00, p.A10)
2001 Aug 7, Three researchers told a committee at the National Academy of Sciences they were unswayed by arguments against human cloning and would soon try to clone human beings.
(AP, 8/7/02)
2001 Aug 7, Larry Adler (87), harmonica virtuoso, died in London.
(SFC, 8/11/01, p.A17)(AP, 8/7/02)
2001 Aug 7, In Cambodia the Constitutional Council approved legislation to establish a special court to try former Khmer Rouge leaders for crimes against humanity.
(SFC, 8/8/01, p.A9)
2001 Aug 7, In Colombia Pres. Pastrana announced that he was suspending talks with the 5,000 ELN rebels.
(SFC, 8/8/01, p.A8)
2001 Aug 7, Two Israelis were shot dead on the West Bank. Israel gave its soldiers a freer hand to fire on Palestinians.
(WSJ, 8/8/01, p.A1)
2001 Aug 7, In Macedonia police conducted a predawn raid in Skopje and 5 members of the National Liberation Army were killed.
(SFC, 8/8/01, p.A8)
2001 Aug 7, In Peru a gunfight between police and leftist rebels in the province of Satipo left 12 rebels and 4 police officers dead.
(SFC, 8/10/01, p.A18)
2001 Aug 7, In the Philippines the Islamic and National fronts signed a separate unity pact to bridge their 23-year split. Muslim separatists agreed to a cease-fire with the government. Only the Abu Sayyaf was left fighting the government.
(SFC, 8/8/01, p.A8)
2001 Aug 7, In Romania a gas explosion in the Vulcan coal mine killed at least 14 miners.
(SFC, 8/8/01, p.A9)
2001 Aug 7, The Vatican denounced what it called a "slanderous campaign" against the Roman Catholic Church over the Holocaust-era pope, Pius XII.
(AP, 8/7/02)
2002 Aug 7, Destiny Wright disappeared at a sleepover with other children in Philadelphia. Abdul El-Shabazz (18) was arrested the next day and led police to her body.
(SFC, 8/10/02, p.A5)
2002 Aug 7, Former ImClone Systems chief executive Samuel Waksal was indicted in New York on charges of obstruction of justice and bank fraud in addition to previous securities fraud and perjury charges. Waksal later pleaded guilty to securities fraud and was sentenced to more than seven years in prison.
(AP, 8/7/03)
2002 Aug 7, Ford Motor Co. and Canadian fuel cell developer Ballard Power Systems Inc. jointly unveiled a hydrogen-fueled internal combustion engine-driven generator they said could help pave the way toward the commercialization of fuel cell technology.
(Reuters, 8/7/02)
2002 Aug 7, A U.S. Air Force cargo plane crashed on a Puerto Rican mountaintop with at least 10 military personnel on board, and all were feared dead.
(AP, 8/8/02)
2002 Aug 7, Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill urged Argentina to adopt a sound recovery strategy. As O'Neill prepared to leave Argentina, more than 5,000 people rallied near the president's downtown offices to protest his visit.
(AP, 8/7/02)
2002 Aug 7, In Afghanistan at least 15 people were killed south of Kabul in a shootout between police and recently escaped Pakistani members of al Qaeda.
(Reuters, 8/7/02)(SFC, 8/9/02, p.A14)
2002 Aug 7, The first British Cabinet minister to visit this country in two decades met with Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, saying Libya was making a serious attempt to move away from its international pariah status.
(AP, 8/7/02)
2002 Aug 7, The IMF agreed to lend Brazil $30 billion to stem a financial panic. This was its biggest loan to date.
(SFC, 8/8/02, p.A10)
2002 Aug 7, In Colombia a remote-controlled mortar attack killed 21 people during the inauguration of Pres. Alvaro Uribe. 69 people were wounded.
(AP, 8/8/02)(SFC, 8/8/02, p.A1)(www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=2519)
2002 Aug 7, About 30 Israeli tanks firing heavy machineguns raided the northern Gaza Strip in a sweep for militants and troops shot dead a Palestinian policeman.
(AP, 8/7/02)
2002 Aug 7, The Palestinian Cabinet accepted Israel's proposal for a troop withdrawal from some areas of the West Bank and Gaza Strip in exchange for Palestinian security guarantees, even as Israeli troops hunting terror suspects killed five Palestinians in three raids.
(AP, 8/7/02)
2002 Aug 7, In the Philippines Marxist rebels vowed all-out resistance against the government's renewed campaign to crush their revolt after President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo ordered the deployment of troops in their strongholds.
(Reuters, 8/7/02)
2002 Aug 7, Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Prince Saud said his country had made it clear to Washington, publicly and privately, that the U.S. military will not be allowed to use the kingdom's soil in any way for an attack on Iraq. Saud said the longtime U.S. ally does not plan to expel American forces from an air base used for flights to monitor Iraq.
(AP, 8/7/02)(AP, 8/8/02)
2002 Aug 7, In eastern Tajikistan a dam holding water in a lake in the Pamir Mountains broke and flooded a village and killing 20 people.
(AP, 8/7/02)
2003 Aug 7, Scientists reported a new vaccine that was successful against the Ebola virus in monkeys.
(WSJ, 8/7/03, p.D6)
2003 Aug 7, In the August issue of Foundations of Physics Letters, Peter Lynds of New Zealand claimed to see time and motion in a new way. Lynds refutes an assumption dating back 2,500 years, that time can be thought of in physical, definable quantities. In essence, scientists have long assumed that motion can be considered in frozen moments, or instants, even as time flows on. "There isn't a precise instant underlying an object's motion," he said. "And as its position is constantly changing over time -- and as such, never determined -- it also doesn't have a determined position at any time."
(AP, 8/7/03)
2003 Aug 7, In Afghanistan some 40 suspected Taliban fighters killed 6 Afghan soldiers and a driver for a US aid organization.
(SFC, 8/8/03, p.A7)
2003 Aug 7, Bangladesh and Namibia pledged more than 6,000 troops for a UN peace-keeping force to replace multinational soldiers now deploying in war-torn Liberia.
(AP, 8/8/03)
2003 Aug 7, Chechen rebels using a shoulder-fired missile shot down a Russian military helicopter in the mountains, killing three of the crew.
(AP, 8/7/03)
2003 Aug 7, Gunmen ambushed a Russian military convoy near the border with Chechnya, killing six soldiers and wounding seven.
(AP, 8/8/03)
2003 Aug 7, Denmark's unemployment rate rose in June to 6.2 percent, the highest level in almost five years.
(AP, 8/7/03)
2003 Aug 7, An Indonesian court sentenced Amrozi bin Nurhasyim to death in the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people.
(AP, 8/7/04)
2003 Aug 7, In Iraq a car bomb shattered a street outside the walled Jordanian Embassy, killed 19 people — including two children.
(SFC, 8/9/03, p.A1)(AP, 8/7/08)
2003 Aug 7, In Liberia Charles Taylor picked Vice Pres. Moses Blah (56) as his successor. West African peacekeepers entered Liberia's rebel-besieged capital.
(AP, 8/7/04)
2003 Aug 7, An opposition party in the Turks and Caicos, a British territory, won legislative elections and will return to power after eight years out of office.
(AP, 8/8/03)
2004 Aug 7, Greg Maddux became the 22nd pitcher in major league history to reach 300 victories, leading the Chicago Cubs to an 8-4 victory over San Francisco.
(AP, 8/7/05)
2004 Aug 7, AP reported that a beheading was broadcast on 2 Arab TV stations. The video of the beheading was fake and had been initially made and posted on the Internet in May by 3 people from the SF Bay Area. Benjamin Vanderford of SF said he made the video to show how easy it is to spread lies over the Internet.
(SSFC, 8/8/04, p.A12)
2004 Aug 7, Paul N. Adair (b.1915), Texas oil field firefighter, died. The 1968 film “Hellfighter" with John Wayne was based on his life.
(SFC, 8/9/04, p.B6)(Econ, 8/14/04, p.78)
2004 Aug 7, Interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi signed a long-awaited amnesty law that would pardon Iraqis who have played minor roles in the country's 15-month-long insurgency. The Iraqi government closed the Iraqi offices of the Arab television station Al-Jazeera for 30 days, accusing it of inciting violence.
(AP, 8/7/04)
2004 Aug 7, Clashes between US-led forces and fighters loyal to al-Sadr continued for a 3rd day in Najaf and Sadr City. 23 civilians were killed and 121 wounded in the day’s fighting.
(SSFC, 8/8/04, p.A1)
2004 Aug 7, A bomb exploded outside a car dealership in Karachi, Pakistan, killing two people and wounding three.
(AP, 8/7/04)
2004 Aug 7, Nahed Arreyes, Palestinian justice minister, resigned to protest Yasser Arafat’s refusal to share power.
(SSFC, 8/8/04, p.A18)
2004 Aug 7, The Romanian sitcom "The Winding Road to Europe" featured villagers in the fictional La Europa pub and swapping stories about how joining the EU will change their lives. The European Union's Romania office has funded 12 15-minute episodes of "Winding Road" at $16,800 each, 4 of which had already aired.
(AP, 8/7/04)
2004 Aug 7, The Edinburgh Festival Fringe, a three-week cultural jamboree, began this weekend. This year's event featured 1,700 shows, a big jump on last year's 1,541.
(AP, 8/7/04)
2004 Aug 7, Some 6,000 people turned out for the start of a three-day gay and lesbian festival in Singapore, where homosexual acts are still illegal. "Nation.04" -- a festival of international DJs, podium dancers, pumping music and muscular boys stripping off their tops on packed dance floors -- has increased in size every year since it was launched four years ago.
(AP, 8/8/04)
2005 Aug 7, Peter Jennings (67), Canadian-born ABC broadcaster, died of cancer. He had delivered the news to Americans each night in five separate decades.
(AP, 8/8/05)
2005 Aug 7, A British remote-controlled vehicle cut away undersea cables that snarled a Russian mini-submarine in deep waters off the Kamchatka Peninsula allowing it to surface. 7 people trapped for nearly 3 days on the mini-sub were rescued.
(AP, 8/7/05)
2005 Aug 7, In southern China rescuers attempted to reach 123 miners trapped in a flooded coal mine.
(AP, 8/7/05)(AP, 8/9/05)
2005 Aug 7, In India's northeast Assam state suspected separatist rebels blew up a crucial oil pipeline and nearby homes, shutting down operations.
(AP, 8/7/05)
2005 Aug 7, In central Iraq a suicide bomber driving an empty fuel tanker detonated his vehicle near a police station, killing at least two people. Three Iraqi soldiers and two Oil Ministry employees were killed in two separate drive-by shootings in Baghdad.
(AP, 8/7/05)
2005 Aug 7, Israeli Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu resigned from his post to protest next week's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and part of the West Bank.
(AP, 8/7/05)
2005 Aug 7-2005 Aug 8, In Nepal communist insurgents overran about 200 troops 340 miles northwest of Kathmandu and killed at least 40 soldiers in fierce clashes between the military and Maoist rebels.
(AP, 8/9/05)(AP, 8/12/05)
2005 Aug 7, Envoys to North Korean disarmament talks suspended their meetings for three weeks, deadlocked over the North's insistence on retaining a peaceful nuclear program.
(AP, 8/7/05)
2005 Aug 7, Thousands of miners stopped work for the first strike in South Africa's key gold sector since 1987 after wage negotiations collapsed last week.
(AP, 8/7/05)
2005 Aug 7, Benon Sevan (67), the former head of the scandal-tainted oil-for-food program, resigned from the UN hours before he was expected to be accused of getting kickbacks from the $67 billion operation.
(AP, 8/8/05)
2005 Aug 7, Voters across Venezuela cast ballots to select thousands of local officials in elections that could predict how well President Hugo Chavez's political allies will fare in key congressional elections in December. Chavez accused the US Drug Enforcement Agency of using its agents as spies and said he was suspending cooperation with the DEA.
(AP, 8/7/05)(SFC, 8/8/05, p.A3)
2005 Aug 7, Zambia deported Haroon Rashid Aswat (31), a Briton who has been questioned in connection with the July 7 London transit bombings and is suspected of links to al-Qaida.
(AP, 8/7/05)
2006 Aug 7, In Arizona 9 illegal immigrants died when their SUV, crammed with up to 22 people, flipped while trying to evade pursuit by the Border Patrol.
(WSJ, 8/8/06, p.A1)
2006 Aug 7, In the SF Bay Area Santa Clara County sheriff’s deputies seized over 20,000 marijuana plants on Mount Hamilton. Street value at maturity was estimated at $80 million.
(SFC, 8/9/06, p.B5)
2006 Aug 7, Sue Bierman (82), former SF supervisor (1992-2000) died in a car crash in Cole Valley. A park created in the wake of the demolition ramps leading to and away from the Embarcadero Freeway (1959-1992) was soon renamed Sue Bierman Park, after the former supervisor (d. 2006 at 82) who battled city freeways.
(www.beyondchron.org/news/index.php?itemid=3563)(SSFC, 7/26/09, p.A16)
2006 Aug 7, Wal-Mart announced chainwide pay caps and said they were intended to move people up the company ladder.
(SFC, 8/15/06, p.D3)
2006 Aug 7, Utah doctors successfully separated conjoined twins Kendra and Maliyah Herrin. The 4-year-old sisters had been born fused at the midsection with just one kidney and one set of legs. Reconstruction surgery continued.
(AP, 8/8/06)
2006 Aug 7, A new finding implied that the universe is about 15.8 billion years old and about 180 billion light-years wide based on new evidence, which suggested that the Hubble constant, a number that measures the expansion rate and age of the universe, is actually 15% smaller than other studies have found.
(AP, 8/7/06)(http://tinyurl.com/jnc7x)
2006 Aug 7, Oil company BP scrambled to assess pipeline corrosion in Alaska that will shut shipments from the nation's biggest oil field, removing about 8% of daily US crude production and driving oil and gasoline prices sharply higher. BP said it would have to replace 16 miles of pipeline at the Prudhoe Bay field.
(AP, 8/7/06)(AP, 8/7/07)
2006 Aug 7, John Weinberg (81), former head of the Goldman Sachs investment firm, died. He and John Whitehead led the firm from 1976-1985. Weinberg led it by himself until 1990.
(Econ, 8/19/06, p.73)
2006 Aug 7, Suspected Taliban militants hanged a woman (70) and her son (30) from a tree in Helmand province after accusing them of spying for the government.
(AP, 8/9/06)
2006 Aug 7, Robert McNaught of the Siding Spring Observatory in Australia made the 1st sighting of a comet that came to be called Comet McNaught.
(Econ, 1/20/07, p.89)
2006 Aug 7, Belgian officials said thefts of drain covers in Charleroi have soared in recent days as skyrocketing metal prices have made them lucrative.
(Reuters, 8/8/06)
2006 Aug 7, In Brazil suspected PCC gang members in the pre-dawn hours attacked 78 symbols of government and businesses across Sao Paulo state, many in the city itself. Police killed two suspects after they allegedly opened fire on a gas station, torched a bus and tried to flee in a car as officers chased them. This marked the third time in four months that the gang has unleashed its fury on the streets to oppose the prison transfer of its leaders.
(AP, 8/8/06)
2006 Aug 7, China’s state media said the death toll from Tropical Storm Prapiroon, named after the Thai god of rain, rose to 80 with 9 more people missing.
(AFP, 8/6/06)(AP, 8/8/06)
2006 Aug 7, An explosion at a Chinese perfume factory killed at least seven people and left three hospitalized.
(AP, 8/7/06)
2006 Aug 7, Colombia’s President Alvaro Uribe inaugurated an unprecedented second term, promising to seek an elusive peace with leftist rebels while maintaining the hardline security policies credited with a sharp drop in murder and kidnappings.
(AP, 8/7/06)
2006 Aug 7, Gunmen in Haiti killed Guido Vitiello (67), an Italian businessman, and kidnapped his wife, Gigliola Martino (65), amid a spate of violence in the impoverished Caribbean nation. Martino was released Aug 10.
(AP, 8/8/06)(AP, 8/11/06)
2006 Aug 7, Indonesia barred Islamic militants from traveling to the Mideast to fight Israel after a Jakarta group said more than 200 had already gone.
(WSJ, 8/8/06, p.A1)
2006 Aug 7, A suicide truck bomber struck the provincial headquarters of an Iraqi police commando force north of Baghdad, killing ten policemen. In Baquba six Iraqi soldiers were killed and another 15 wounded when insurgents attacked their checkpoint. In all insurgent and militia attacks left at least 30 Iraqis killed or found dead. Two Iraqi journalists were killed in separate incidents in Baghdad. Mohammed Abbas Hamad (28), a journalist for the Shiite-owned newspaper Al-Bayinnah Al-Jadida, was shot by gunmen at he left his home. Police found the bullet-riddled body of freelance journalist Ismail Amin Ali (30), about a half mile from where he was abducted two weeks ago.
(AP, 8/7/06)(AFP, 8/7/06)(AP, 8/8/06)(WSJ, 8/8/06, p.A1)
2006 Aug 7, The death toll in an Israeli airstrike on a Shiite neighborhood in south Beirut reached 41. Across the country 77 Lebanese were killed along with three Israeli soldiers. The UN said an oil spill caused by Israeli raids on a Lebanese power plant could rival the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster that despoiled the Alaskan coast if not urgently addressed. the Jiyyeh plant, which was bombed by Israel on July 14 and July 15 a few days into its offensive against Hezbollah. 12,000 tons of leaking oil had already polluted more than 140 kilometers (87 miles) of the Lebanese coast and spread north into Syrian waters.
(AP, 8/8/06)(AP, 8/9/06)(AFP, 8/8/06)
2006 Aug 7, Morocco’s state news agency reported that security services have arrested 44 suspected terrorists and dismantled a network allegedly planning attacks.
(AP, 8/7/06)
2006 Aug 7, Dutch police arrested a Rwandan immigrant, identified as Joseph M. (38), and charged him with war crimes and torture for his alleged role in the 1994 genocide that tore apart his home country.
(AP, 8/10/06)
2006 Aug 7, A pro-North Korean newspaper in Japan said floods last month in North Korea killed at least 549 people and left 295 others still missing.
(AP, 8/7/06)
2006 Aug 7, In northwestern Pakistan a discarded ordnance shell exploded in a tribal village, killing three young brothers who were playing with the explosive. A relief official said flooding and heavy rains in northwestern Pakistan in recent days have left 144 people dead and 97 others injured.
(AP, 8/7/06)(AP, 8/8/06)
2006 Aug 7, In Sri Lanka 17 civilians working for a French aid agency were found slain execution style in Muttur after fierce battles between rebels and the government over water supplies. All but one were Tamils. In 2008 a local rights group accused Colombo of a major cover-up of the August 2006 killing of Action Against Hunger (ACF) workers and for the first time named a list of suspects.
(AP, 8/7/06)(AP, 8/29/06)(AFP, 4/3/08)
2006 Aug 7, The only rebel leader to have signed onto a peace deal for Darfur was sworn in as a senior aide to the Sudanese president as international aid groups said the fighting in the war-torn region has intensified.
(AP, 8/7/06)
2006 Aug 7, Venezuelan authorities captured Elias Verde, the alleged head of an international drug trafficking group that was involved in a major cocaine smuggling operation earlier this year in France.
(AP, 8/8/06)
2007 Aug 7, In SF Barry Bonds his record breaking 756th homerun. He had just tied Hank Aaron’s record on August 4. The Giants lost to the Washington Nationals 8-6. The ball was later auctioned to fashion designer Marc Ecko for a record $752,467, which included a 20% buyer’s premium.
(AP, 8/8/07)(SSFC, 9/16/07, p.B1)(SFC, 9/18/07, p.A1)
2007 Aug 7, A US jury convicted Gregory Reyes (44), the former chief executive of Brocade Communications Systems Inc., on all counts in the government's first criminal trial of options backdating.
(Reuters, 8/8/07)
2007 Aug 7, The US FDA approved a new drug to help patients with AIDS. Pfizer’s Selzentry is the first anti-AIDS drug that blocks the CCR5 receptor, often used by the HIV virus to enter white blood cells.
(SFC, 8/7/07, p.A4)
2007 Aug 7, Scientists reported that a widespread die-off of frogs, toads and salamanders is primarily due to the chytrid fungus, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis. Global climate change was believed to encourage the spread of the fungus.
(SFC, 8/7/07, p.A4)
2007 Aug 7, A group of 75 Taliban militants tried to overrun a US-led coalition base in southern Afghanistan, a rare frontal attack that left more than 20 militants dead. Taliban militants clashed with police in the same district where 23 South Koreans were abducted by Afghan insurgents. Four militants were killed and six wounded.
(AP, 8/7/07)(AP, 8/8/07)
2007 Aug 7, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Venezuela would invest in a regasification plant for liquid natural gas for Argentina, which is weathering an energy crisis. Chavez was in Argentina as part of a regional tour.
(AP, 8/8/07)
2007 Aug 7, Administers in Vienna said that the mid-Pacific nation of Palau has ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, bringing to 139 the number of countries that have fully endorsed the pact. The treaty, which bans all nuclear explosions, will not enter into force until it has been ratified by 44 states listed in an annex that participated in a 1996 disarmament conference and have nuclear power or research reactors. Only 34 of the 44 countries have both signed and ratified the pact. The holdouts are China, Colombia, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, Pakistan, North Korea and the United States.
(AP, 8/7/07)
2007 Aug 7, The toll from severe floods across South Asia soared to nearly 1,900 and although water levels in the region's swollen rivers started to recede, millions of people in Bangladesh, India and Nepal still faced hunger. About 40% of Bangladesh was under water.
(AFP, 8/7/07)(Econ, 8/11/07, p.34)
2007 Aug 7, Britain called for the Bush administration to release five British residents held at Guantanamo Bay, a policy reversal that suggests new PM Gordon Brown is pursuing a tougher line with the US than his predecessor.
(AP, 8/7/07)
2007 Aug 7, Britain’s Environment Secretary Hilary Benn said tests had confirmed a second foot-and-mouth outbreak in southern England as he awaited an initial report into biosecurity at a vaccine laboratory suspected of being at the center of the cases.
(AP, 8/7/07)
2007 Aug 7, Britain's GW Pharmaceuticals Plc said that Health Canada had approved its cannabis-based medicine Sativex for treatment of cancer patients.
(AP, 8/7/07)
2007 Aug 7, Juan Carlos Ramirez Abadia (44), an alleged Colombian drug kingpin wanted by the United States, was arrested in a luxury condominium on the outskirts of Sao Paulo, Brazil. He had extensive plastic surgery but was identified by Brazilian and American anti-drug agents using advanced voice recognition technology.
(AP, 8/7/07)(AP, 8/10/07)
2007 Aug 7, China Daily reported that foreign exchange and public security authorities had closed down the operations of an illegal bank based in Shenzhen, across the border from Hong Kong. It did business in every province of the country and in the year and half to May had done some $544 million in unspecified transactions.
(www.chinaknowledge.com/news/news-detail.aspx?ID=9654)
2007 Aug 7, State media said Chinese city traffic police have an average life expectancy of just 43 years because of the dire working conditions and pollution.
(AP, 8/7/07)
2007 Aug 7, Mobs torched government buildings and foreign aid offices, as street violence triggered by the appointment of East Timor's new PM spread to Baucau, the 2nd-largest city. The former ruling Fretilin party won 21 seats in the 65-member Parliament, well short of a majority, but insisted it had the right to form the next government. Gusmao's party won 18, but formed a coalition that now comprises 37 seats.
(AP, 8/7/07)
2007 Aug 7, A European diplomat said that Russian officials told the Iranians about two weeks ago that Russian fuel roads to the Bushehr reactor would be held back as long as unresolved questions about Tehran's past nuclear activities remained.
(AP, 8/7/07)
2007 Aug 7, Georgia accused Russia of "undisguised aggression," saying two Russian fighter jets intruded on its airspace and fired a missile that landed near a house. Russia denied the allegation.
(AP, 8/7/07)
2007 Aug 7, Indian communist parties, which shore up the government, rejected a landmark nuclear pact between New Delhi and Washington saying it compromised India's sovereignty and imposed US influence. In northeastern Assam state, gunmen killed 4 traders in the village of Harinagar after they refused to pay about $1,200 each. Police blamed the militant group Dima Halam Daogah, which demands an autonomous state for people of the Dimasa tribe.
(AP, 8/7/07)(AP, 8/9/07)
2007 Aug 7, Kurdish guerrillas killed a Turkish lieutenant in the southeast, as the Iraqi prime minister arrived for a visit. Turkey and Iraq agreed to try to root out a Kurdish rebel group from northern Iraq, but Iraq's prime minister said his parliament would have the final say on efforts to halt the guerrillas' cross-border attacks into Turkey. Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish government approved a regional oil law, paving the way for foreign investment in their northern oil and gas fields even as similar US-backed legislation for the entire country remained stalled. Two US Marines died west of Baghdad, one in fighting and the other in a non-combat incident that was under investigation.
(AP, 8/7/07)(AP, 8/9/07)
2007 Aug 7, Israeli police, using sledgehammers, chain saws and power clippers, stormed a building in the biblical city of Hebron and dragged out hundreds of Jewish settlers who had holed up there illegally.
(AP, 8/7/07)
2007 Aug 7, Ahmed Benchemsi, the publisher of two Moroccan weeklies charged with showing disrespect to the monarchy, defended himself, reserving the right to criticize his country's political system. A day earlier magistrates in Casablanca charged Benchemsi, the publisher of the Nishan and TelQuel weeklies, and ordered him to stand trial.
(AFP, 8/7/07)
2007 Aug 7, ECOWAS said the last refugees from Liberia and Sierra Leone in Nigeria have been allowed to settle and they will have access to work, education and health on the same terms as Nigerians, West African regional bloc.
(AP, 8/8/07)
2007 Aug 7, In Nigeria 6 Russian hostages, kidnapped on June 3, were freed in the oil producing Niger Delta after two months in captivity. Rusal, the world's largest aluminium producer, acquired 77 percent of the Nigerian company Alscon in February.
(AFP, 8/7/07)
2007 Aug 7, In Pakistan government forces attacked two militant bases with helicopter gunships and artillery in some of the army's toughest action in the lawless Afghan border region since militant attacks began surging last month. Low-level al-Qaida members, including Arabs and Chechens, were among 12 militant fighters killed. 2 gunmen on a motorcycle opened fire on paramilitary forces in a town in North West Frontier Province, killing one.
(AP, 8/7/07)(AP, 8/8/07)
2007 Aug 7, A large explosion in northern Gaza killed an 8-year-old boy and his 6-year-old sister and injured five other children. Witnesses said a group of children stumbled upon a homemade rocket or a mortar shell and began playing with it. The device exploded, injuring all seven children, two of whom died later of their wounds.
(AP, 8/7/07)
2007 Aug 7, Darfur rebel commanders shot down a government MiG 29 plane they say was bombing civilian villages in their areas in Sudan's Darfur region.
(Reuters, 8/8/07)
2007 Aug 7, A judge in Trinidad ordered three men extradited to the US to face charges in an alleged plot to attack New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, and a confidential US document said they planned to seek help from Iran.
(AP, 8/7/07)
2008 Aug 7, A US federal judge ruled that American Indian plaintiffs were entitled to $455 million, a fraction of the $47 billion they sought in a year trial for alleged losses on royalties overseen by the Interior Department since 1887.
(SFC, 8/8/08, p.A6)
2008 Aug 7, A federal judge ordered Detroit’s Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick to jail for violating the terms of his bond in his perjury case, a decision the judge said he would have made for any "John Six-Pack" defendant before him.
(AP, 8/7/08)
2008 Aug 7, In Arizona an SUV packed with suspected illegal immigrants flipped over southeast of Phoenix killing at least 9 people. There were 19 people in the vehicle.
(SFC, 8/8/08, p.A4)
2008 Aug 7, In northern California the Muir Heritage Land Trust said it will pay $1.8 million for 423 acres in Franklin Canyon, ending a long-standing land fight.
(SFC, 8/8/08, p.B1)
2008 Aug 7, Afghan and coalition forces killed at least four militants in Nahr Surkh district of Helmand province. In central Afghanistan US-led coalition forces "inadvertently" killed four women and a child during a clash that killed several militants.
(AP, 8/8/08)
2008 Aug 7, In Algeria 18 people were reported dead from a crash between a van and a bus near the city of Mascara, and 25 were reported injured. Three men who were in critical condition subsequently died.
(AFP, 8/8/08)
2008 Aug 7, It was reported that two subsidiaries of government-owned Dubai World have acquired a 20% stake in Canada’s circus operator Cirque du Soleil. In May the circus had agreed to perform on Palm Jumeirah, a man-made island, for 15 years starting in 2011.
(SFC, 8/7/08, p.C2)
2008 Aug 7, It was reported that the Dubai-based Al Yousuf Group has invested $10 million in Zap, a Santa Rosa, Ca., firm that makes electric cars.
(SFC, 8/7/08, p.C1)
2008 Aug 7, In Thailand first lady Laura Bush, meeting with refugees who fled a brutal campaign by Myanmar's military junta, urged China and other countries to join the US in imposing sanctions against the country.
(AP, 8/7/08)
2008 Aug 7, The US Olympic team chose Lopez Lomong, one of the "Lost Boys" of Sudan, to carry the flag at the Olympic opening ceremony, throwing the spotlight on China's much-criticized policy on Darfur.
(AFP, 8/7/08)
2008 Aug 7, A new US Embassy report released by the Japanese Foreign Ministry said the USS Houston submarine was already leaking during nine earlier port calls in Japan and the amount of radiation leaked was larger than initially reported. It "has been steadily leaking a small amount" of radiation from June 2006 to July 2008 when it entered a drydock in Hawaii.
(AP, 8/7/08)
2008 Aug 7, Critics of China's human rights record made sure they were not forgotten, a day before the grand opening of the Beijing Olympics, with protest actions the world over and in China itself. Thousands of Tibetan exiles demonstrated in Nepal and India.
(AFP, 8/7/08)(AP, 8/7/08)
2008 Aug 7, Heavy shelling overnight in the Georgian breakaway province of South Ossetia wounded at least 21 people. Cyber attacks from Russia began to target Georgian government Web sites. An organization known as the Russian Business Network was the leading suspect in the attacks. Georgia’s Pres. Saakashvili ordered the shelling of Tskhinvali, the capital of South Ossetia.
(AP, 8/7/08)(WSJ, 8/12/08, p.A9)(Econ, 8/30/08, p.49)
2008 Aug 7, Sheik Salah al-Obeidi said Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr will call on his fighters to maintain a cease-fire against American troops but may lift the order if a planned Iraq-US security agreement lacks a timetable for the withdrawal of American forces. A roadside bomb killed eight Bedouins, including three women and two children, on a remote desert highway west of Nasiriyah frequently used by US and Iraqi troops. Gunmen killed a senior member of the Sunni Iraqi Islamic Party, Mahmoud Younis Fathi, and a colleague as they were driving to work in the northern city of Mosul. Elsewhere in Mosul, three Iraqi policemen were killed when a booby-trapped wooden cart exploded after they arrived to collect a body that had been left on the street beside it.
(AP, 8/7/08)
2008 Aug 7, Japan accepted over 200 Indonesian nurses into the country, an unprecedented move as Tokyo struggles to quell a labor shortage triggered by sinking fertility rates.
(AP, 8/7/08)
2008 Aug 7, Maldives Pres. Maumoon Abdul Gayoom signed and adopted a new constitution that allows multiparty elections and other democratic reforms after decades of authoritarian rule. Under the constitution Islam is the only religion its people can legally practice.
(AP, 8/7/08)(AFP, 6/5/12)
2008 Aug 7, Pakistan's ruling coalition announced plans to seek the impeachment of Pres. Pervez Musharraf, alleging the US-backed former general had "eroded the trust of the nation" during his eight years in power. Musharraf cancelled his trip to the Olympics in Beijing.
(AP, 8/7/08)(SFC, 8/8/08, p.A2)
2008 Aug 7, A device exploded on a beach in Sochi, a Black Sea Russian resort that will host the 2014 Winter Olympics, killing two people and wounding three.
(AP, 8/7/08)
2008 Aug 7, In Sri Lanka army troops attacked and captured a rebel bunker in Welioya, where separate clashes killed 15 rebels and four soldiers. In nearby Vavuniya district, fighting killed two rebels and wounded two soldiers.
(AP, 8/8/08)
2008 Aug 7, In Turkey a series of explosions at a municipal government building in Istanbul slightly injured three people. Shells from a mortar-like mechanism were fired from a cemetery near a municipal government building.
(AP, 8/7/08)
2009 Aug 7, Pres. Obama signed into law a measure tripling the budget of the $1 billion incentive “cash for clunkers" program.
(SFC, 8/8/09, p.A5)
2009 Aug 7, The US Environmental Protection Agency said the US Department of Agriculture has agreed to pay $30,000 in penalties for alleged improper maintenance of underground storage tanks in Puerto Rico.
(AP, 8/8/09)
2009 Aug 7, In eastern Afghanistan an American service member was killed in an attack on a convoy. A blast in Kandahar's Zhari district killed an Afghan guard escorting a NATO supply convoy.
(AP, 8/7/09)
2009 Aug 7, Britain’s Ministry of Justice said Great Train Robber Ronnie Biggs (79) has been officially released from his prison sentence. Biggs earned notoriety for his role in the 1963 Great Train Robbery, for which he was sentenced to 30 years in prison. Escaping, he spent 35 years as a celebrity fugitive, living a party lifestyle in Brazil before returning home.
(AFP, 8/7/09)
2009 Aug 7, James Robinson (71), a former California priest, arrived at London's Heathrow Airport after being extradited from the United States. He was charged with sexually abusing young boys when he served in the United Kingdom between 1959 and 1983.
(AP, 8/8/09)
2009 Aug 7, In China Li Peiying (60), the former head of Beijing airport's management company, was executed following his conviction on corruption charges. He was found guilty in February of accepting almost $4 million in bribes and embezzling about $12 million in public money since 1995.
(AP, 8/7/09)
2009 Aug 7, Guatemala's top three police officials were fired after hundreds of pounds of cocaine allegedly disappeared from a shipment seized by authorities. Interior Minister Raul Velazquez said police made the 1-ton seizure on Aug 6, but when federal prosecutors weighed the drugs, 258 pounds (117 kilograms) were missing.
(AP, 8/7/09)
2009 Aug 7, Indonesia's anti-terrorism unit engaged in a shootout in Central Java during a raid targeting suspected militants behind deadly bomb attacks in Jakarta last month.
(Reuters, 8/7/09)
2009 Aug 7, In Iraq a suicide car bomb devastated a Shiite mosque in northern Iraq, one of a series of attacks that killed at least 37 Shiite pilgrims and worshippers. The deadliest blast occurred in Rasheediyah, north of Mosul, when a suicide car bomb struck a mosque, killing at least 30 people and trapping dozens more underneath the rubble. In Baghdad 3 roadside bombs targeting Shiite pilgrims killed 7 people returning from Karbala.
(AP, 8/7/09)
2009 Aug 7, In Mexico Zambrano Flores, a top lieutenant of the Tijuana-based Arellano Felix cartel, was arrested in Tijuana. Police seized 10 rifles, 7 pistols, almost 4,000 rounds of ammunition during his arrest.
(AP, 8/8/09)
2009 Aug 7, Nepal's Maoists launched a fresh round of protests, paralyzing parliament and accusing the new government of failing to address their demands.
(AFP, 8/7/09)
2009 Aug 7, Nigeria's President Umaru Yar'Adua formally received the first set of 32 Niger Delta militants who have surrendered their arms under an amnesty he offered them in June and commended them for their "patriotism."
(AP, 8/8/09)
2009 Aug 7, In Pakistan a deadly shooting reportedly took place at a meeting of top Taliban commanders Hakimullah Mehsud (28), a deputy to Baitullah Mehsud and the warlord's main spokesman, and Wali-ur Rehman, a senior commander in Mehsud's umbrella Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) movement. They had convened to discuss the choice of a successor to Baitullah Mehsud. Both commanders later phoned international media organizations to prove they were alive.
(AFP, 8/9/09)(AP, 8/12/09)(Econ, 10/17/09, p.34)
2009 Aug 7, A Peruvian government prosecutor presented homicide charges against two police generals and 15 other officers for a June government crackdown at an Amazon highway blockade manned by Indians protesting development on their ancestral lands. The criminal charges, which must be ratified by a judge, were the first to implicate police in violence that left at least 33 dead, including 23 police.
(AP, 8/12/09)
2009 Aug 7, Portugal said it has agreed to take two Syrian detainees from Guantanamo prison.
(AP, 8/7/09)
2009 Aug 7, Sri Lankan authorities questioned Selvarasa Pathmanathan, former chief arms smuggler the new leader of the Tamil Tiger rebels, after he was arrested 2 days earlier in Southeast Asia and flown to Sri Lanka. Rebels said he was arrested in Kuala Lumpur.
(AP, 8/7/09)
2009 Aug 7, International donor the Global Fund, which had a financial dispute with Zimbabwe's previous government, took the unusual step of giving $37.9 million in aid directly to Zimbabwe's new unity government instead of channeling it through private groups.
(AP, 8/7/09)
2010 Aug 7, Elena Kagan was sworn in as the 112th person to serve on the US Supreme Court.
(SSFC, 8/8/10, p.A7)
2010 Aug 7, San Francisco began charging a $7 fee for visitors to the arboretum in Golden Gate Park.
(SFC, 9/18/10, p.A1)
2010 Aug 7, The last bus departed the San Francisco Transbay Terminal allowing demolition to soon begin of the 71-year-old terminal.
(SFC, 12/2/10, p.C2)
2010 Aug 7, It was reported that an ice island measuring 100 square miles has broken off the Petermann Glacier in northern Greenland.
(SFC, 8/7/10, p.A2)
2010 Aug 7, The Panamanian-registered MSC Chitra smashed into the St. Kitts-registered MV-Khalijia-II near Mumbai's Jawahar Lal Nehru port. The environment minister of Maharashtra state told reporters the next day that about 2 tons of oil was pouring into the water every hour. Indian authorities plugged the fuel leak on Aug 9 after some 500 tons of oil had spewed into the Arabian Sea.
(AP, 8/9/10)(AP, 8/10/10)
2010 Aug 7, In Iraq explosions killed at least 20 people at Basra’s al-Ashaar market. 5 policemen were killed in an overnight shootout at a suspected bomb workshop in Baghdad. One policeman was shot dead at a checkpoint in Fallujah. A suicide bomber killed a policeman and injured 3 others on foot patrol in Mosul.
(SSFC, 8/8/10, p.A5)(AP, 8/7/10)
2011 Aug 7, Some 45,000 Verizon Communications Inc. workers from Massachusetts to Washington, D.C., went on strike after negotiations fizzled over a new labor contract for more than a fifth of the company's work force. The company's revenue rose 2.8% to $27.5 billion in the second quarter. Workers returned to work on Aug 22, despite not reaching an overall settlement.
(AP, 8/7/11)(SSFC, 8/21/11, p.A10)
2011 Aug 7, San Diego police officer Jeremy Henwood (36) died one day after being shot in the face while sitting in his patrol car. Suspect Dejon Marquee White (23) was fatally shot by police as he tried to avoid arrest.
(SFC, 8/8/11, p.A5)
2011 Aug 7, Marshall Grant, bassist in the original Johnny Cash trio, died in Jonesboro, Ark.
(SFC, 8/10/11, p.C8)
2011 Aug 7, Hugh L. Carey, former New York governor (1975-1982), died at his shelter Island summer home. Before becoming governor Carey spent 14 years representing Brooklyn districts in the US House of Representatives.
(SFC, 8/8/11, p.C3)
2011 Aug 7, In Ohio a family argument outside Akron ended in the shooting deaths of eight people in two places, including an 11-year-old. Two more people were wounded.
(AP, 8/8/11)
2011 Aug 7, Mark Hatfield (89), former Oregon governor (1958-1966) and US Senator (1967-1997), died in Portland. In 1965 Hatfield was the only US governor to vote against a resolution supporting Pres. Johnson’s policy in Vietnam.
(SFC, 8/9/11, p.C4)
2011 Aug 7, Texas billionaire and philanthropist Charles Wyly (77) died after a car accident in western Colorado. His family has donated millions of dollars to Republican causes and Dallas arts projects. Charles Wyly had helped his brother run their startup computer software company, University Computing, and later founded and led several other companies including arts and crafts retail chain Michaels Stores Inc., which was sold in 2006. He also was a former member of a White House Advisory Council for Management Improvement. Last summer, the SEC accused Wyly and his brother of using offshore havens to hide more than a half-billion dollars in profits over 13 years of insider stock trading.
(AP, 8/8/11)
2011 Aug 7, Nancy Wake (98), Australia's greatest World War II heroine, died in London. She was a prominent figure in the French Resistance.
(AFP, 8/8/11)(Econ, 8/13/11, p.82)
2011 Aug 7, In Afghanistan two French Foreign Legion soldiers and five others were injured in a clash with insurgents in the northeastern Tagab valley. They were among four NATO troops killed in two separate insurgent attacks.
(AFP, 8/7/11)(AP, 8/7/11)
011 Aug 7, Cape Verde islanders voted for a new president as Pedro Pires wrapped up two terms at the helm of a nation hailed for its stable democracy. His ruling party faced a split vote. A run-off was scheduled for August 21.
(AFP, 8/8/11)
2011 Aug 7, Typhoon Muifa blew down power lines and billboards in the Chinese financial hub of Shanghai and aimed at a northeast port city where beaches were closed and sandbags were piled on the waterfront. At least one death was reported with one person missing.
(AP, 8/7/11)
2011 Aug 7, In Dubai water pipes ruptured during maintenance at the seven-building Oceana complex on one of the iconic palm islands, forcing residents to bath in the sea and head to the malls to use the restroom.
(AP, 8/11/11)
2011 Aug 7, In Egypt a Coptic Christian was killed and four Muslims were wounded in clashes in the southern province of Minya after clashes triggered by a road accident.
(AFP, 8/8/11)
2011 Aug 7, Indian army and police claimed they killed a Pakistani commander of Lashkar-e-Taiba militants during a gunbattle in Poonch region of Kashmir. An investigation found the dead man was a local Hindu resident and mentally unsound. A soldier and police officer were arrested and investigated for murder.
(AP, 8/8/11)
2011 Aug 7, In Iraq insurgents killed at least two people and wounded 11 in an overnight bomb attack on the home of a Shiite family in the mainly Sunni town of Iskandiriyah.
(AFP, 8/7/11)
2011 Aug 7, Libyan PM Baghdadi Mahmudi said government troops have recaptured the strategic town of Bir Ghanam, southwest of Tripoli, from rebel forces.
(AFP, 8/7/11)
2011 Aug 7, In Nepal airports, hotels, restaurants, government offices and public transport became smoke-free under a new law that went into effect today.
(AP, 8/7/11)
2011 Aug 7, Rival Palestinian groups Fatah and Hamas opened talks in Egypt aimed at implementing a reconciliation agreement struck in May.
(AFP, 8/7/11)
2011 Aug 7, Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah demanded a stop to Syria’s “killing machine."
(Econ, 8/13/11, p.43)
2011 Aug 7, Sao Tome and Principe voted peacefully in the second round of a presidential election. Former strongman Manuel Pinto da Costa (75) was elected back to power.
(AP, 8/8/11)(AFP, 9/3/11)
2011 Aug 7, Tropical Storm Muifa battered South Korea with strong rain and winds leaving four people dead and two missing.
(AFP, 8/8/11)
2011 Aug 7, Syrian government forces killed at least 59 people including 42 in the eastern city of Deir el-Zour. 10 people were reported shot dead in Idlib while taking part in a funeral. The 22-member Arab League, which had been silent since the uprising began, said it is "alarmed" by the situation in Syria and called for the immediate halt of all violence. Saudi Arabia said it is recalling its ambassador to Syria for consultations.
(AP, 8/7/11)(AP, 8/8/11)
2011 Aug 7, Sudanese security forces seized all the copies of Al-Ahdath newspaper from the printers, in the latest sign of a clampdown on independent media in Khartoum.
(AFP, 8/7/11)
2012 Aug 7, The US Dept. of Justice reached a $60 million settlement with Pfizer for violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). This covered similar offences by Wyeth, which was acquired by Pfizer in 2009.
(Econ, 8/11/12, p.58)
2012 Aug 7, In Arizona Jared Lee Loughner pleaded guilty to 19 of 49 charges related to the Jan 8, 2011, shootings that killed 6 people and wounded then Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and 12 others. The government agreed not to seek the death penalty in the plea deal.
(SFC, 8/8/12, p.A4)
2012 Aug 7, In Louisiana police found the body of Michaela "Mickey" Shunick. She had been last seen riding her bicycle from a friend's house early May 19, days before her 22nd birthday. Eight days later, the bike was found partially submerged in a swampy area under a highway bridge. Brandon Lavergne (33), a registered sex offender, has been charged with first-degree murder and aggravated kidnapping in Shunick's death.
(Huffington, 8/10/12)
2012 Aug 7, In North Carolina Academi LLC, formerly knows as Blackwater, agreed to pay $7.5 million to settle federal crime charges related to arms smuggling and other crimes.
(SFC, 8/8/12, p.A4)
2012 Aug 7, In Texas Marvin Wilson (54), convicted of killing a police informant, was executed after the US Supreme Court rejected arguments that he was too mentally impaired to qualify for the death penalty. Wilson was convicted of murdering Jerry Williams (21) in November 1992, several days after police seized 24 grams of cocaine from Wilson's apartment and arrested him.
(AP, 8/7/12)
2012 Aug 7, DreamWorks Animation said it plans to build a $3.2 billion "entertainment zone" in Shanghai, as the US film giant seeks to bolster its presence in the booming Chinese market.
(AFP, 8/7/12)
2012 Aug 7, Shares in Standard Chartered PLC dropped 22% sharply as investors reacted to US charges that the bank was involved in laundering money for Iran.
(AP, 8/7/12)(Econ, 8/18/12, p.64)
2012 Aug 7, Judith Crist (b.1922), American film critic, died at her home in Manhattan.
(SFC, 8/8/12, p.C4)
2012 Aug 7, In Afghanistan an American soldier was killed when two individuals wearing Afghan National Army uniforms turned their weapons against ISAF service members in Paktia province. 9 civilians were killed in a roadside bomb explosion on the outskirts of Kabul. A suicide truck bomb attack was launched against a NATO base south of the capital. A French soldier and around 10 Taliban fighters were killed in an early morning ambush and subsequent firefight during a joint operation with the Afghan army in Kapisa province near Kabul.
(AFP, 8/7/12)(AFP, 8/10/12)
2012 Aug 7, Bahrain authorities charged 15 policemen with mistreating medics during last year's crackdown on opposition protesters. An independent commission found 3 protesters were shot at close range. Bahrain said in June that 3 police officers would be charged with murder.
(AP, 8/7/12)
2012 Aug 7, Jessica Harper (50), former security chief of Lloyds Banking Group, pleaded guilty at Southwark Crown Court in London to taking the money from her employers using false invoices over a four-year period from 2007 to 2011 and then laundering the cash.
(AFP, 8/7/12)
2012 Aug 7, In China Dolkar Kyi (26) immolated herself at Tso monastery in Kanlho prefecture (Gannan in Chinese), Gansu province, after chanting slogans calling for the return of the Dalai Lama.
(AFP, 8/7/12)
2012 Aug 7, In Egypt gunmen opened fire late this night on three security checkpoints around el-Arish, the capital of North Sinai province. Egypt’s military in response started a joint military-police ground operation in Sinai, backed by warplanes, to "restore stability and regain control" of the Sinai.
(AP, 8/8/12)
2012 Aug 7, In Italy official government statistics showed that the economy contracted by 0.7 percent in the second quarter compared with the previous three months, shrinking for the fourth quarter in a row.
(AP, 8/7/12)
2012 Aug 7, Hundreds of tourists evacuated beach resorts along Mexico's Caribbean coast as Hurricane Ernesto headed toward landfall near Mexico's border with Belize. It weakened to a tropical storm while moving over land the next day.
(AP, 8/8/12)
2012 Aug 7, In Nigeria assailants shot at troops on patrol, sparking an exchange of fire that left two soldiers and two of the gunmen dead in Okene city.
(AFP, 8/8/12)
2012 Aug 7, In the Philippines relentless rains submerged half of Manila, triggered a landslide that killed 8 people and sent emergency crews scrambling to rescue and evacuate tens of thousands of residents.
(AP, 8/7/12)
2012 Aug 7, Russia began hosting a 3-day meeting of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC) on Russky Island, just off the coast of Vladivostok. A 3,100 meter cable bridge to the island was the longest cable bridge in the world.
(Economist, 9/8/12, p.52)
2012 Aug 7, In Senegal at least 23 people were killed in a collision between a bus and a truck near the town of Kaffrine.
(AFP, 8/7/12)
2012 Aug 7, The Competition Tribunal of South Africa fined Telkom, the one-time monopoly state telephone company, with a $54.8 million fine over unfair competition.
(AP, 8/7/12)
2012 Aug 7, South African officials recorded snowfall across every South African province except Limpopo. South African Weather Service records show it has snowed in Johannesburg on only 22 other days in the last 103 years. The last snow fell there in June 2007.
(AP, 8/7/12)
2012 Aug 7, In Syria total of 225 people, mostly civilians, were reported killed. A Turkish government official said 1,328 Syrian refugees had crossed the border by midmorning, nearly double the number of refugees who reached Turkey a day earlier.
(AFP, 8/8/12)(AP, 8/7/12)
2012 Aug 7, A Turkish government official said 1,328 Syrian refugees had crossed the border by midmorning, nearly double the number of refugees who reached Turkey a day earlier.
(AP, 8/7/12)
2013 Aug 7, President Barack Obama canceled his Moscow summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The decision reflected both US anger over Russia's harboring of National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden and growing frustration within the Obama administration over what it sees as Moscow's stubbornness on other key issues, including missile defense and human rights.
(AP, 8/7/13)
2013 Aug 7, The United States updated sanctions on Myanmar to maintain a ban on importing rubies and jade amid a relaxation of curbs on US trade with the Southeast Asian nation.
(Reuters, 8/7/13)
2013 Aug 7, Arkansas-based Tyson Foods Inc, declared it would no longer accept cattle that had been fed the most popular brand of the feed additive, called Zilmax, a powerful and fast-selling product from pharmaceutical company Merck & Co.
(Reuters, 8/13/13)
2013 Aug 7, In Denver, at the National Cattlemen's Beef Association conference, meat producer JBS USA presented a video showing short clips of cows struggling to walk and displaying other signs of distress. It was shown as part of a panel discussion on the pros and cons of using a class of drugs known as beta-agonists - the additives fed to cattle in the weeks before slaughter to add up to 30 pounds to bodyweight and reduce fat content in the meat.
(Reuters, 8/13/13)
2013 Aug 7, In Afghanistan the Taliban ambushed a convoy of a female Afghan senator, seriously wounding her in the attack and killing her 8-year-old daughter and a bodyguard in the Muqur district of Gazni province. Senator Rouh Gul Khirzad's husband, son and another daughter were also wounded in the attack.
(AP, 8/7/13)
2013 Aug 7, British police arrested Domenico Rancadore (64), a senior member of an Italian mafia clan. He had been sentenced to seven years in jail while on the run and was detained in west London under a European arrest warrant.
(Reuters, 8/8/13)
2013 Aug 7, China fined six companies, including Mead Johnson Nutrition Co, Danone and New Zealand dairy giant Fonterra, a total of $110 million following an investigation into price fixing and anti-competitive practices by foreign baby formula makers.
(Reuters, 8/7/13)
2013 Aug 7, A new government of technocrats appointed by the left-leaning Czech president lost a parliamentary confidence vote, leaving the country stuck in a political crisis.
(AP, 8/7/13)
2013 Aug 7, In Tegucigalpa, Honduras, Edwin Mejia (15) shot and killed traffic officer Santos Arita (42) after he and gang partner Eduardo Aguilera (15) were stooped for illegally riding tandem on a stolen motorcyle. Aguilera was soon caught and beaten to death by police. Mejia was also beaten and faced trial.
(AP, 12/27/13)
2013 Aug 7, In Iraq a roadside bomb struck a police patrol in Mosul, killing 3 policemen and wounding two others. Another bomb in Mosul missed a police convoy but killed one civilian passer-by and wounded two others. Later, a bomb attached to a car killed two people in Musayyib. Gunmen attacked on a policeman's home in Tikrit killing the policeman, his wife, two sons and one daughter. As people gathered car bomb parked about 10 meters away exploded, killing 8 people and wounding 30.
(AP, 8/7/13)(AP, 8/8/13)
2013 Aug 7, Israel gave preliminary approval for the construction of more than 800 new homes in Jewish settlements on occupied West Bank land where Palestinians seek statehood.
(Reuters, 8/8/13)
2013 Aug 7, Italy allowed 102 migrants who were stranded on a tanker in the Mediterranean to disembark on the Sicilian coast after Malta refused them entry for three days despite European Union calls for it to help on humanitarian grounds.
(Reuters, 8/7/13)
2013 Aug 7, Japanese officials said highly radioactive water from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant was pouring out at a rate of 300 tons a day. PM Shinzo Abe ordered the government to step in and help in the clean-up.
(Reuters, 8/7/13)
2013 Aug 7, A fire engulfed Kenya's Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, forcing the indefinite suspension of international passenger flights and choking a vital travel gateway to east Africa. First responders looted electronics, a bank and an ATM during and after the blaze.
(Reuters, 8/7/13)(AP, 8/8/13)
2013 Aug 7, An explosion at the border with Lebanon wounded 4 Israeli soldiers. The Lebanese Army said the troops were 400 meters inside Lebanese territory when the blast occurred. The area was known for having land mines.
(Reuters, 8/7/13)
2013 Aug 7, North Korea said it is lifting a ban on operations at a jointly run factory park shuttered since Pyongyang pulled out its 53,000 workers in April amid tensions with South Korea. The rivals agreed to meet next week for talks meant to restart the complex.
(AP, 8/7/13)
2013 Aug 7, In southwestern Pakistan a bomb planted outside a shopping center killed a 13-year-old girl and wounded over 20 people in Mastung district, Baluchistan province. A bomb blast that appeared to be targeting a provincial government minister killed 11 people before dawn at a soccer field in Karachi.
(AP, 8/7/13)
2013 Aug 7, Syrian government forces killed at least 62 rebels in an ambush near Damascus, a blow to opposition fighters confronting a regime offensive in the capital. In the north a missile struck the rebel-held city of Raqqa, killing 3 people and wounding dozens including children. Kurdish gunmen captured about 70 government troops who fled the air base of Mannagh in the northern province of Aleppo.
(AP, 8/7/13)
2013 Aug 7, In Tanzania's semi-autonomous Zanzibar region men riding a motorbike threw acid at two British teenage girls (18) in leaving them with facial, chest and back injuries. The girls had been volunteering at a local school in Zanzibar.
(Reuters, 8/8/13)
2013 Aug 7, Togo’s environment minister said Emile N'Bouke, a high-profile ivory trafficker, has been arrested. Activists said his work has fueled the slaughter of more than 10,000 elephants dating back to the 1970s.
(AP, 8/8/13)
2013 Aug 7, In southern Yemen a US drone killed 7 suspected al Qaeda militants, a day after US and British embassies evacuated some staff because of growing fears of attacks.
(AP, 8/7/13)
2014 Aug 7, Pres. Obama said he has authorized targeted US airstrikes against Islamic State fighters in northern Iraq and military airdrops of humanitarian supplies to besieged religious minorities.
(Reuters, 8/7/14)
2014 Aug 7, Pres. Obama signed a $16.3 billion bipartisan measure to address health care for veterans.
(SFC, 8/8/14, p.A6)
2014 Aug 7, The US Justice Department said it has taken control of more than $480 million looted by former Nigerian dictator Sani Abacha and his associates after a court ruling. The money stolen during Abacha's 1993-1998 de facto presidency and stashed in banks around the world will be returned to the Nigerian government.
(Reuters, 8/8/14)
2014 Aug 7, In Central California seven robbers invaded a house used by pot growers and engaged the occupants in a gun battle that killed two of the attackers. Authorities soon arrested 3 of the suspected robbers.
(Reuters, 8/9/14)
2014 Aug 7, A New York district judge sentenced Rudy Kurniawan (37) to a decade in prison. He was convicted of making bogus vintage wine in his southern California kitchen and selling it for millions.
(SFC, 8/8/14, p.D8)
2014 Aug 7, In Washington state a four-day search for a missing girl who vanished from her Steele Creek Mobile Home Park home over the weekend came to a tragic end, as authorities said they believe they have found the body of 6-year-old Jenise Wright.
(AP, 8/8/14)
2014 Aug 7, In Brazil police in Rio said they have arrested over 20 people as alleged members of a paramilitary militia group that charged monthly fees for protection against drug gangs and for illegal services like cable TV connections. Members included former police, firefighters, private security and off-duty prison guards.
(SFC, 8/8/14, p.A2)
2014 Aug 7, In Cambodia a UN-backed war crimes tribunal sentenced Khmer Rouge leaders Khieu Samphan (83) and Nuon Chea (88) to life in prison on war crime charges from 1975-1979, when the Khmer Rouge held power under top leader Pol Pot (d.1998).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khieu_Samphan)(SFC, 8/7/14, p.A4)
2014 Aug 7, China’s state media said plans are in place to build lighthouses on five islands in the South China Sea, in defiance of calls from the United States and the Philippines for a freeze on such activity to ease tension over rival claims. At least two of the islands appear to be in waters also claimed by Vietnam.
(Reuters, 8/7/14)
2014 Aug 7, Colombia’s Pres. Juan Manuel Santos took the oath for his 2nd term and promised to redouble his efforts to end the nation’s half-century war with FARC.
(SSFC, 8/10/14, p.A4)
2014 Aug 7, In eastern Cuba a homemade boat carrying 32 people left Manzanillo. After three weeks 15 badly sunburned and dehydrated survivors were rescued by the Mexican Navy.
(Reuters, 9/5/14)(Reuters, 10/5/14)
2014 Aug 7, An oil company owned by Israeli billionaire Dan Gertler said it had discovered reserves of around 3 billion barrels in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
(Reuters, 8/7/14)
2014 Aug 7, Iraqi government forces, Shiite militiamen and Kurdish troops launched a large operation to free Amerli, a Turkmen town that has been besieged by jihadists for 50 days.
(AFP, 8/7/14)
2014 Aug 7, Jihadists seized Qaraqosh, Iraq's largest Christian town and surrounding areas, sending tens of thousands of panicked residents fleeing in what was being called a humanitarian disaster. In Kirkuk a blast ripped through a Shiite mosque where displaced people had sought refuge, killing at least eight and wounding 47.
(AFP, 8/7/14)
2014 Aug 7, Sunni militants from the Islamic State group seized the Mosul Dam, Iraq's largest dam, forcing Kurdish forces to withdraw from the area and placing them in control of enormous power and water resources and access to the river that runs through the heart of Baghdad.
(AP, 8/7/14)
2014 Aug 7, In Lebanon militants from Syria who overran the border town of Arsal mostly withdrew back across the rugged hills separating the two countries as a cease-fire appeared to hold, allowing Lebanese troops to free 7 fellow soldiers and ambulances to evacuate dozens of casualties. At least 17 soldiers were killed in the clashes, while 10 remained missing, along with an unknown number of policemen.
(AP, 8/7/14)
2014 Aug 7, Moscow imposed a total ban on imports of many Western foods in retaliation against sanctions over Ukraine, a stronger than expected measure that isolates Russian consumers from world trade to a degree unseen since Soviet days.
(Reuters, 8/7/14)
2014 Aug 7, It was reported that Russia has granted former US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden an extension to stay in Russia for three more years.
(Reuters, 8/7/14)
2014 Aug 7, In Sierra Leone police and soldiers blockaded rural areas hit by the deadly Ebola virus, after neighboring Liberia declared a state of emergency to tackle the worst-ever outbreak of the disease, which has killed 932 people.
(Reuters, 8/7/14)
2014 Aug 7, South Korea's Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning said China has confirmed it had blocked "some foreign messaging applications through which terrorism-related information" was circulating. These included KakaoTalk and Line. It named other blocked apps as Didi, Talk Box and Vower. The service disruptions in China began a month ago.
(Reuters, 8/7/14)
2014 Aug 7, Thai police said authorities are investigating the discovery of nine surrogate babies in a Bangkok condominium who are believed to share the same Japanese biological father. On Aug 22 Interpol said it has launched an investigation into the “Baby Factory" case in which Mitsutoki Shigeta (24), a Japanese businessman, fathered 16 surrogate babies.
(Reuters, 8/7/14)(SFC, 8/23/14, p.A2)
2014 Aug 7, Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan branded Amberin Zaman, a prominent female journalist, a "shameless woman" and told her "to know your place".
(AFP, 8/8/14)
2014 Aug 7, Turkish officials said up to 800 people from Iraq's Yazidi community have fled across the border to Turkey after escaping a lightning offensive by jihadists from the Islamic State (IS) group.
(AFP, 8/7/14)
2014 Aug 7, In eastern Ukraine a Dutch recovery team called off its work at the site where Malaysian airliner MH 17 was shot down over rebel held territory last month, saying the frontline location had become too dangerous. Ukraine said the halt to the recovery meant it would stop observing a ceasefire at the site. 7 more Ukrainian service members were killed in the past day of fighting. Sustained shelling in Donetsk struck residential buildings and a hospital, killing at least 4 people and wounding 10 others. Russian citizen Alexander Borodai, the PM of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, said he was stepping down in favor of a local field commander, Alexander Zakharchenko.
(Reuters, 8/7/14)(AP, 8/7/14)(AFP, 8/7/14)
2014 Aug 7, In southern Yemen troops defending Sayoun clashed for a 2nd day with suspected al-Qaida militants killing at least 7 and raising the militant death toll to 25.
(SFC, 8/8/14, p.A2)
2015 Aug 7, An “unprecedented" agreement between the Chicago Police Department and the American Civil Liberties Union went into effect. It will allow independent evaluations of the department’s controversial "stop and frisk" program.
(CSM, 8/8/15)
2015 Aug 7, Dallas police Officer Brad Miller shot and killed Christian Taylor (19), who was found roaming inside a car dealership in the early hours of the morning. The FBI was called in to investigate the shooting. Miller was fired on August 10.
(SSFC, 8/9/15, p.A7)(SFC, 8/12/15, p.A5)
2015 Aug 7, In Vermont Jody Herring (40), upset about losing custody of her daughter, used a hunting rifle to fatally shoot child-welfare agency worker Lara Sobel, who had handled her case. Herring was detained by people in and around the building after the shooting in Barre City. Herring was soon also charged with the murder 3 women whose bodies were found earlier in the day.
(AP, 8/8/15)(SSFC, 8/9/15, p.A7)
2015 Aug 7, In Virginia a federal jury convicted Irek Hamidullin (55), a former Russian military tank commander, of planning and leading a Taliban attack on US forces in Afghanistan. He allegedly led three groups of insurgents in a 2009 attack on Afghan border police in Khost province.
(AP, 8/7/15)
2015 Aug 7, In Afghanistan an early morning truck bomb tore through buildings in central Kabul, killing at least 15 people and wounding 248 others. A suicide bombing at a police academy killed 27 people and wounded 28. One international service member and 8 Afghan contractors were killed in an attack on Camp Integrity.
(Reuters, 8/8/15)(AFP, 8/8/15)
2015 Aug 7, In Bangladesh a gang armed with machetes hacked secular blogger Niloy Chakrabarti (40) to death at his home in Dhaka, sparking protests in the capital over the fourth such murder in Bangladesh this year.
(AFP, 8/7/15)
2015 Aug 7, Arthur Finger (b.1926), former SF Bay Area media veteran, died at his home in Vancouver, BC. In 1963 and 1965 the State of California awarded him two gold medals for his “Mayor Art’s Almanac," the first TV newscast for children in the US.
(SFC, 8/10/15, p.C1)
2015 Aug 7, In Chile Manuel Contreras (86) died. He had led Chile's now-defunct and much feared secret police force for several years under the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. After his death was announced, dozens of people gathered outside the hospital to celebrate.
(Reuters, 8/8/15)
2015 Aug 7, In eastern Congo DRC an earthquake killed 2 children and a police officer and triggered fears that nearby volcano Mount Nyiragongo could erupt.
(Reuters, 8/7/15)
2015 Aug 7, The European Union appealed to member countries to live up to pledges to provide planes and other assets so that its border agency can help Greece and Hungary cope with a migrant influx.
(AP, 8/7/15)
2015 Aug 7, News weekly Der Spiegel said Germany's domestic spy agency named not just bloggers but also lawmakers in a criminal complaint that sparked a controversial treason probe.
(AFP, 8/7/15)
2015 Aug 7, Doctors in Ghana stopped providing emergency care in a strike over allowances and training.
(AFP, 8/7/15)
2015 Aug 7, PM Alexis Tsipras said Greece's infrastructure cannot handle the thousands of people landing on its shores from places like war-torn Syria and Afghanistan and needs European Union help.
(AP, 8/7/15)
2015 Aug 7, In northern India a building wall collapsed while being constructed, killing 10 workers near Narnaul, Haryana state.
(AP, 8/7/15)
2015 Aug 7, In Iraq several thousand demonstrators gathered in Baghdad to protest at rampant corruption and abysmal electricity services, calling for officials to be held to account.
(AFP, 8/7/15)
2015 Aug 7, In Iraq and Syria the US-led coalition conducted 19 air strikes on Islamic State targets with 10 in Iraq and nine in Syria.
(Reuters, 8/8/15)
2015 Aug 7, Italy arrested five North African men on suspicion of multiple homicide and human trafficking in the presumed drowning of more than 200 people, saying they used clubs and knives against migrants.
(Reuters, 8/7/15)
2015 Aug 7, In central Mali gunmen stormed a hotel in Sevare in an apparent attempt to kidnap Westerners, killing 4 soldiers, 4 UN contractors and a driver in an ongoing standoff with the army. 4 attackers were killed. The Macina Liberation Front (FLM) was suspected.
(AFP, 8/7/15) (AP, 8/8/15)(AFP, 8/9/15)(SSFC, 8/9/15, p.A6)(AP, 8/11/15)
2015 Aug 7, In western Nepal Dahlia Yehia (27), an American teacher from Texas, disappeared from the resort town of Pokhara. Police later arrested a local teacher, Narayan Paudel, who was hosting Yehia while she was in Pokhara to help victims of a devastating earthquake in April. Paudel confessed to hammering the victim to death and throwing her body into the Seti River.
(AP, 9/8/15)
2015 Aug 7, In Nigeria suspected pirates traveling by speedboat killed 4 soldiers and a policeman and stole weapons in a raid late today on a military base in the oil-rich southern delta region.
(Reuters, 8/8/15)
2015 Aug 7, North Korea announced that it will turn back its current standard time by 30 minutes effective August 15. The move will allow it to differentiate its time zone from that of Japan and South Korea.
(AP, 8/7/15)
2015 Aug 7, In Pakistan a suspected US drone strike killed 4 militants in the village of Datta Khel, North Waziristan.
(AP, 8/7/15)
2015 Aug 7, In the Philippines a homemade bomb believed to have been set off by Abu Sayyaf militants killed two soldiers in Basilan province.
(AP, 8/7/15)
2015 Aug 7, A Saudi soldier was killed by shelling from across the Yemeni border, becoming the third death this week.
(AFP, 8/7/15)
2015 Aug 7, It was reported that Thailand’s new Inheritance Tax Act 2015 has gone into effect and that it will start collecting inheritance tax for the first time next February.
(AP, 8/7/15)
2015 Aug 7, The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 230 people were kidnapped or detained, including dozens of Christians, some of whom were taken from a church in Qaryatain, the town captured overnight after heavy fighting with the Syrian army.
(Reuters, 8/7/15)
2015 Aug 7, Two Thailand military courts handed down the country’s harshest sentences in recent decades for insulting the monarchy. A man in Bangkok was sentenced to prison for 30 years for six Facebook postings, and a mother of two young girls in the province of Chiang Mai was sentenced to 28 years for seven postings.
(AP, 8/7/15)
2015 Aug 7, In Turkey 5 people including a Turkish soldier died and several others were injured in clashes in the restive Kurdish-majority southeast, as violence raged between Kurdish militants and security forces.
(AFP, 8/7/15)
2015 Aug 7, Turkey’s official Anatolia news agency reported that the government has frozen the assets of officials from Yemen's former regime including ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh, along with Huthi rebel leaders. The freeze will be in place until February 26, 2016.
(AP, 8/7/15)
2015 Aug 7, In Turkey an Iranian bus was hit in Dogubayazit district of the eastern Agri province. The driver was fatally shot in the head. Turkish authorities blamed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants. The passengers were unhurt.
(AFP, 8/8/15)
2015 Aug 7, Saudi-backed Yemeni officials said pro-government forces have retaken Labouza base, the last military base in the country's south that was held by Shiite rebels known as Houthis.
(AP, 8/7/15)
2015 Aug 7, The UN Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution aimed at identifying those responsible for using chlorine and other chemical weapons in attacks in Syria.
(SFC, 8/8/15, p.A3)
2016 Aug 7, In Kansas Caleb Schwab (10), the son of state Rep. Scott Schwab, was decapitated as he rode a 168-foot-tall water slide at the Schlitterbahn WaterPark in Kansas City. In 2018 the water park co-owner Jeff Henry was arrested. The slide's designer, John Schooley was also arrested.
(SFC, 8/11/16, p.A6)(SFC, 4/5/18, p.A5)
2016 Aug 7, The body of Vanessa Marcotte (27) of NYC was found in some woods in Princeton, Mass. She had been out for a run while visiting her mother. In 2017 DNA evidence from her hands identified Angelo Colon-Ortiz (31) of nearby Worcester as the suspect in her murder.
(SFC, 4/16/17, p.A7)
2016 Aug 7, Gen. Abdul Raziq, a senior Afghan police official regarded as one of the country's most powerful men, said he has banned the use of the Pakistani currency in the key southern province of Kandahar. Raziq said the currency ban is in retaliation against Pakistan's protection of the Taliban.
(AP, 8/7/16)
2016 Aug 7, Afghanistan five gunmen wearing Afghan military uniforms abducted an American and an Australian in Kabul.
(AP, 8/8/16)
2016 Aug 7, In Ethiopia about 50 people were killed in clashes between police and anti-government demonstrators as protests swept the vast Oromia region and Addis Ababa.
(AFP, 8/8/16)
2016 Aug 7, Iran said it has executed Shahram Amiri (39), a nuclear scientist convicted of handing over "confidential and vital" information to the United States. Amiri disappeared in Saudi Arabia in June 2009 and resurfaced a year later in the United States. He returned to Tehran in July 2010, saying he had been kidnapped at gunpoint by two Farsi-speaking CIA agents in the Saudi city of Medina.
(AFP, 8/7/16)
2016 Aug 7, In central Mali fighting broke out near the village of Tenenkou in the Mopti region and continued into the next day. Five soldiers were missing after the clashes with militants, in the latest in a string of attacks on army and UN forces claimed by the Islamist group Ansar Dine.
(Reuters, 8/9/16)
2016 Aug 7, In Pakistan a suicide bomber carried out the attack at the government-run hospital in the southwestern city of Quetta that killed 53 people and wounded dozens.
(AP, 8/8/16)
2016 Aug 7, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte publicly linked more than 150 judges, mayors, lawmakers, police and military personnel to illegal drugs, ordering them to surrender for investigation.
(AP, 8/7/16)
2016 Aug 7, Voters in the tiny west African archipelago of Sao Tome and Principe went to the polls to elect a new president, but only one candidate stood in a runoff the incumbent boycotted as fraudulent. Some 111,000 voters had originally been due to choose between Evaristo Carvalho, who won 49.8 percent in the first round, and President Manuel Pinto da Costa, who took 24.83 percent.
(AFP, 8/7/16)
2016 Aug 7, In Syria rebels breached the government siege on opposition neighborhoods in the city of Aleppo, marking a major military breakthrough that prompted an intense airstrike campaign.
(AP, 8/7/16)
2016 Aug 7, Thai voters overwhelmingly approved a new junta-backed constitution that lays the foundation for a civilian government influenced by the military and controlled by appointed, rather than elected, officials.
(AP, 8/7/16)
2016 Aug 7, In Turkey hundreds of thousands gathered in Istanbul summoned by President Tayyip Erdogan to denounce a failed coup.
(Reuters, 8/7/16)
2016 Aug 7, Ukraine’s military said 3 soldiers have been killed and four others injured over the last 24 hours in fresh clashes between pro-Russian rebels and government forces in the war-scarred east.
(AFP, 8/7/16)
2016 Aug 7, In Yemen a Saudi-led coalition air strike killed 9 civilians outside Sanaa this evening, as forces loyal to the exiled government stepped up an offensive in the area.
(Reuters, 8/8/16)
2017 Aug 7, Chantek (39), a male orangutan, died at Zoo Atlanta. He was among the first apes to learn sign language, could clean his room and memorized the way to a fast-food restaurant.
(Reuters, 8/8/17)
2017 Aug 7, Google fired James Damore, a software engineer, who had written a memo saying the company’s efforts to hire more women are biased.
(Econ, 8/12/17, p.10)
2017 Aug 7, China’s state news agency Xinhua said thunderstorms have battered northeastern Liaoning province for several days, killing three people and prompting the evacuation of almost 190,000.
(Reuters, 8/7/17)
2017 Aug 7, Congolese security forces killed at least 14 members of separatist sect Bundu dia Kongo (BDK) during clashes in the capital Kinshasa and southwestern city of Matadi in which at least one police officer also died.
(Reuters, 8/7/17)
2017 Aug 7, In Germany some 2,600 pigs and piglets died in a fire at a farm southwest of Berlin that caused an estimated 800,000 euros ($950,000) in damage in the area of Frankenfoerde.
(AP, 8/8/17)
2017 Aug 7, Indonesia said that it will barter coffee, palm oil and other commodities for 11 Russian-made Sukhoi fighter jets, calling US and European sanctions against Russia an opportunity to boost the Southeast Asian nation's trade.
(AP, 8/7/17)
2017 Aug 7, Iranian state news agency IRNA reported that security forces have broken up a group linked to Islamic State which was planning attacks in religious centers in the country and trying to hide weapons in home appliances. 27 militants were detained.
(Reuters, 8/7/17)
2017 Aug 7, Iran signed the country's biggest-ever car deal o build tens of thousands of cars annually under a joint venture with French automobile manufacturer Groupe Renault, buoying its manufacturing industry in defiance of the Trump administration's moves to isolate the country.
(AP, 8/7/17)
2017 Aug 7, Malaysia's deputy minister in charge of religious affairs said he is investigating an international atheist organization after a picture of the group's local chapter went viral, sparking claims that Muslim apostates were involved. The Kuala Lumpur chapter of Atheist Republic, a Canada-based organization, posted a picture of the group's members attending a gathering last week, sparking uproar among some Muslims and leading to threats of death and violence against the group on social media.
(Reuters, 8/7/17)
2017 Aug 7, In Morocco dozens of sub-Saharan migrants crossed into Spain in the early hours today after running through a border gate into the enclave of Ceuta.
(Reuters, 8/7/17)
2017 Aug 7, Nigerian protesters demanded that President Muhammadu Buhari, receiving treatment in London for an undisclosed ailment for more than three months, either return or resign.
(AFP, 8/7/17)
2017 Aug 7, In Pakistan the JuD charity said it has entered politics by forming a new party. The new Milli Muslim League party will follow the ideology of Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD), which the US says is a front for banned militant group Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LeT) and is run by Hafiz Saeed, the alleged mastermind of the 2008 attacks that killed 166 people.
(Reuters, 8/7/17)
2017 Aug 7, Pakistani security forces killed four Taliban militants in the eastern city of Lahore hours after a truck bomb killed one person and wounded 22.
(Reuters, 8/8/17)
2017 Aug 7, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Jordan’s King Abdullah II met for about two hours, after a red-carpet welcome for the monarch at the Palestinian government compound in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
(AP, 8/7/17)
2017 Aug 7, Russia said it will speed up work on reducing dependency on US payment systems and the dollar as a settling currency in response to the new sanctions.
(Reuters, 8/7/17)
2017 Aug 7, In Russia two members of the feminist punk band Pussy Riot were detained after a protest outside the prison colony in Siberia's Yakutia where Ukrainian filmmaker Oleg Sentsov is being held.
(AP, 8/7/17)
2017 Aug 7, In Sicily 15 firefighters were arrested on suspicion of deliberately setting fires or having friends or family call in false alarms so they could be called to work and earn money, announcing the arrest of the alleged ringleader.
(AP, 8/7/17)(AFP, 8/11/17)
2017 Aug 7, In Slovakia a junior partner in the ruling coalition, the Slovak National Party (SNS), surprised its partners by pulling out of an agreement underpinning the government and calling for a new deal.
(Reuters, 8/7/17)
2017 Aug 7, South Sudan's government forces overtook the rebel-held stronghold and opposition headquarters of Pagak, along the Ethiopian border. Opposition IO rebels still held territory in Panyijiar County in Unity state as well rural areas of Jonglei state and Akobo state, traditionally areas where South Sudan's Nuer people live.
(AP, 8/7/17)
2017 Aug 7, In Syria government warplanes bombed Ein Tarma, a suburb of Damascus and an area controlled by the Failaq al-Rahman rebel group, which does not recognize a recent truce.
(AP, 8/7/17)
2017 Aug 7, An attack near the Syrian border reportedly killed 36 members of an Iraqi Shi'ite militia and seven of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards. The US-led coalition fighting Islamic State denied responsibility. Islamic State claimed it was responsible for the attack near At Tanf.
(Reuters, 8/8/17)
2018 Aug 7, US President Donald Trump warned the world against doing business with Iran as he hailed the "most biting sanctions ever imposed", triggering a mix of anger, fear and defiance in Tehran.
(AFP, 8/7/18)
2018 Aug 7, The Trump administration announced that it will go ahead with imposing 24 percent tariffs on an additional $16 billion in Chinese imports.
(SFC, 8/8/18, p.A4)
2018 Aug 7, The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) said the Mendocino Complex grew to span 290,692 acres (117,639 hectares) by this morning, with barely a third of it contained since two wildfires merged at the southern tip of the Mendocino National Forest. The Carr Fire, which has torched 167,000 acres in the scenic Shasta-Trinity region north of Sacramento, was now 47 percent contained. The Ferguson Fire was 43 percent contained.
(Reuters, 8/7/18)(SFC, 8/8/18, p.A9)
2018 Aug 7, In Florida SpaceX used its newest style booster for a second time at Cape Canaveral to put a communications satellite into orbit for Indonesia.
(AP, 8/7/18)
2018 Aug 7, Arvonne Fraser (92), a leading voice on women's issues in Minnesota, nationally and abroad, died in Hudson, Wis.
(SSFC, 8/12/18, p.C10)
2018 Aug 7, A pharmaceutical company filed a lawsuit to prevent Nebraska from using lethal injection drugs next week in what would be the state's first execution in more than two decades. The federal lawsuit could delay the Aug. 14 execution of Carey Dean Moore, who was sentenced to death for killing two Omaha cab drivers in 1979. Germany-based Fresenius Kabi opposes the use of its drugs in executions.
(AP, 8/8/18)
2018 Aug 7, In Afghanistan a string of Taliban attacks killed 12 people overnight, including four women who died in the crossfire during a shootout between insurgents and soldiers. An errant NATO airstrike in Azrah, Logar province, killed nine Afghan police. Around 30 Taliban fighters were reported killed in the battle.
(AP, 8/7/18)(SFC, 8/8/18, p.A3)
2018 Aug 7, An Algerian court convicted human rights activist Salim Yezza to a one-year suspended prison sentence and fined him 100,000 dinars (about $115.00) for inciting violence more than four years after his statements in support of a minority. Yezza, who lives in France, was arrested July 16 at the airport in Biskra as he tried to return home after attending his father's funeral.
(AP, 8/7/18)
2018 Aug 7, New York-based Human Rights Watch said accused the Bangladesh government of using abusive measures in handling student-led protests calling for safer roads.
(AP, 8/7/18)
2018 Aug 7, In China six people were imprisoned for up to four years for their part in a scheme to cheat on the national graduate school exam.
(AP, 8/8/18)
2018 Aug 7, Ethiopia's government signed an agreement to end hostilities with the Oromo Liberation Front, which it had previously declared a terrorist movement. The government signed a reconciliation agreement to end hostilities with the OLF's exiled leader Dawud Ibsa, who lives in exile in Asmara, Eritrea.
(Reuters, 8/7/18)
2018 Aug 7, The European Union reiterated its "firm support to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Georgia within its internationally recognized borders" and lamented the Russian military presence in Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Russia's PM Dmitry Medvedev said an attempt by NATO to incorporate the former Soviet republic of Georgia could trigger a new, "horrible" conflict.
(AP, 8/7/18)
2018 Aug 7, In southwestern Germany a mother (48) and her partner were convicted and jailed for repeatedly raping the woman's young son, now 10, and selling him to pedophiles on the internet, abusing him for more than two years.
(AP, 8/7/18)
2018 Aug 7, Greece's PM Alexis Tsipras said the demolition of 3,200 buildings will start immediately in the Attica region, which includes the capital Athens, in response to the death of dozens of people who were unable to escape a maze of poorly planned streets in the country's worst wildfire disaster.
(AP, 8/7/18)
2018 Aug 7, In India Muthuvel Karunanidhi (94), a highly popular scriptwriter-turned-politician in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, died after a prolonged illness. He became the state's chief minister in 1969 and held that position five times for a total of 19 years.
(AP, 8/7/18)
2018 Aug 7, Iranians awoke to renewed US sanctions that had been lifted by Tehran's nuclear deal with world powers. The newly imposed American sanctions targeted US dollar financial transactions, Iran's automotive sector, and the purchase of commercial planes and metals, including gold.
(AP, 8/7/18)
2018 Aug 7, An Israeli strike killed two militants of the Gaza Strip's ruling Hamas movement after shots were fired at soldiers. The Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades confirmed in a statement that the dead men were its fighters, naming them as Ahmed Murjan and Abdel-Hafez al-Silawi.
(AFP, 8/7/18)
2018 Aug 7, Italy's Senate approved a decree curbing temporary job contracts and penalizing firms that move production abroad, passing the first major legislation by the new government.
(Reuters, 8/7/18)
2018 Aug 7, In Mexico Elba Esther Gordillo, the flamboyant former leader of the powerful teachers' union, was released from custody after a court determined there weren't sufficient grounds to proceed in a years-long money-laundering case.
(AP, 8/8/18)
2018 Aug 7, Authorities in Peru said at least nine people have died from food poisoning following a funeral ceremony. Another 20 people were hospitalized with stomach pains and vomiting after a wake the previous day in the Ayacucho region.
(AP, 8/7/18)
2018 Aug 7, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte threatened to kill corrupt police, including those accused of involvement in illegal drugs and other crimes, in an expletives-laden encounter on live TV.
(AP, 8/7/18)
2018 Aug 7, It was reported that Romanian and German archaeologists have discovered a prehistoric fortress dating back as far as 3,400 years in western Romania. Last week they completed a dig uncovering 55 hectares (135 acres) of the 80-hectare (198-acre) site, built between 1,400 BC and 1,200 BC, located near the town of Santana.
(AP, 8/7/18)
2018 Aug 7, In Russia Maria Alekhina, an activist from the Pussy Riot punk collective, led a protest outside the headquarters of the state penitentiary agency in response to torture and slave labor in Russian prisons.
(SFC, 8/8/18, p.A2)
2018 Aug 7, The lawyer for Ukrainian filmmaker Oleg Sentsov, hunger striking in a Russian jail for nearly three months, said that the prisoner has lost 30 kg from his original weight of 100 kg, his heart rate has slowed and he has very low levels of red blood cells. The 42-year-old was serving a 20-year sentence in the far north of Russia after being convicted three years ago of arson attacks in his native Crimea following its annexation by Moscow. According to Kiev's estimates, Russia is currently holding around 70 Ukrainian political prisoners.
(AFP, 8/8/18)
2018 Aug 7, Saudi Arabia began selling Canadian assets in an escalating row after Ottawa criticized the arrest of a female activist.
(Reuters, 8/8/18)
2018 Aug 7, Authorities in Spain said the death toll from a particularly virulent heatwave rose to nine in just one week, as the country suffered sky-high temperatures.
(AFP, 8/7/18)
2018 Aug 7, Swiss army helicopters began airlifting water to thousands of thirsty cows who are suffering in a drought and heatwave that has hit much of Europe.
(Reuters, 8/7/18)
2018 Aug 7, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he has chosen former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet to be the world body's new human rights chief.
(Reuters, 8/8/18)
2018 Aug 7, A Zimbabwe court freed on bail 27 opposition supporters arrested last week on accusations of fomenting violence in the aftermath of President Emmerson Mnangagwa's election victory over Nelson Chamisa.
(Reuters, 8/7/18)
2018 Aug 7, Joint statement by the heads of mission of EU states in Zimbabwe along with the US, Canada and Switzerland condemned the "violence, attacks, and acts of intimidation targeted at opposition leaders and supporters," saying such violations have no place in a democratic society. New York-based Human Rights Watch said Zimbabwean security forces and unidentified gunmen have beaten and harassed dozens of people in a crackdown on the political opposition following a disputed election.
(AP, 8/7/18)
2019 Aug 7, US President Donald Trump said the US Federal Reserve must cut rates "bigger and faster" for the United States to be competitive against other countries.
(Reuters, 8/7/19)
2019 Aug 7, President Donald Trump said that South Korea has agreed to pay the United States "substantially more" for protection against North Korea and that talks have begun to further increase payments.
(AP, 8/7/19)
2019 Aug 7, The US and Turkey announced they'd agreed to form a coordination center to set up the safe zone in northeastern Syria. The coordination center would be based in Turkey and would be set up "as soon as possible".
(AP, 8/8/19)
2019 Aug 7, Twitter temporarily locked the campaign account of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell after it shared a video in which some protesters spoke of violence outside his Kentucky home, where he was recovering from a shoulder fracture.
(SFC, 8/9/19, p.A6)
2019 Aug 7, In southern California Zachary Castaneda (33) was taken into custody after he went on a two-hour stabbing and robbery rampage, killing four people and wounding two others. The suspect and all the victims were Hispanic.
(AP, 8/8/19)(SFC, 8/9/19, p.A7)
2019 Aug 7, Kary Banks Mullis (b.1944), Nobel Prize winner (1993), died at his home in Newport Beach, Ca. He was awarded the prize in chemistry for developing polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technology, which allowed molecular biologists to create millions of copies of a single strand of DNA in a few hours.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kary_Mullis)(SFC, 8/13/19, p.C3)
2019 Aug 7, US immigration authorities arrested nearly 700 people at seven agricultural processing plants across Mississippi in what federal officials said could be the largest worksite enforcement operation in a single state.
(Reuters, 8/8/19)
2019 Aug 7, Cyntoia Brown (31), championed by celebrities as a symbol of unfair sentencing, was released from the Tennessee Prison for Women, where she had been serving a life sentence for killing a man when she was a 16-year-old prostitute. Brown was convicted in 2006 of murdering 43-year-old Nashville real estate agent Johnny Allen.
(AP, 8/7/19)
2019 Aug 7, Tennessee convict Curtis Ray Watson (44) was discovered missing, several hours after being seen near a house at West Tennessee State Penitentiary where employee Debra Johnson (64) lived. Authorities say Johnson was found sexually assaulted and deceased in the house with a cord around her neck. Watson, who had escaped on a tractor, was captured on August 11 in the town of Henning.
(AP, 8/11/19)(SFC, 8/12/19, p.A4)
2019 Aug 7, US firm FireEye said, a cybersecurity researcher, said one of the most effective teams of Chinese government-backed hackers is also conducting financially-motivated side operations. The findings were announced at the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas.
(Reuters, 8/7/19)
2019 Aug 7, In Afghanistan a suicide car-bomb attack on a police station in Kabul killed 14 people and wounded 145. The Taliban claimed responsibility. Separately, security forces conducted raids on two Islamic State militant hideouts in Kabul overnight and killed two militants and seized a large quantity of explosives and bomb-making equipment. Three members of the security forces were also killed.
(Reuters, 8/7/19)
2019 Aug 7, British Airways canceled almost 100 flights to and from London airports after its check-in systems were hit by computer problems.
(AP, 8/7/19)
2019 Aug 7, Bottles featuring busty blondes, raunchy taglines and lewd labels were banned from one of Britain's biggest beer festivals in a crackdown on sexist advertising.
(Reuters, 8/7/19)
2019 Aug 7, China's rare earths association said it would support Chinese counter-measures in the escalating trade row with the United States, which it accused of "bullying".
(Reuters, 8/7/19)
2019 Aug 7, Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi urged the nation to back his government's efforts to defeat Islamic militants, saying it's the mission of every Egyptian.
(AP, 8/7/19)
2019 Aug 7, Greek Energy Minister Kostis Hatzidakis said Greece, Israel, Cyprus and the United States have agreed to enhance cooperation in energy, cyber and infrastructure security following a meeting of the ministers from the four countries in Athens.
(AP, 8/7/19)
2019 Aug 7, Indonesia's capital announced new curbs on private cars as it moved to rein in choking air pollution. Experts warned the measures were unlikely to stamp out the problem.
(Reuters, 8/7/19)
2019 Aug 7, Kyrgyzstan special forces failed to capture former president Almazbek Atambayev during a raid on his compound outside Bishkek. One officer was left dead and a police chief in a critical condition.
(AP, 8/8/19)
2019 Aug 7, Jewish leaders in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius said they are indefinitely closing the city's sole synagogue and community center following threats sparked by an emotional debate over the country's World War II-era history.
(AP, 8/7/19)
2019 Aug 7, A Myanmar court jailed an Australian publisher for 13 years on drugs charges, a year after police uncovered a stash of methamphetamines and opium at his home. Ross Dunkley (62) was arrested along with business partner John Mackenzie and several Myanmar women in a June 2018 bust in Yangon.
(Reuters, 8/7/19)
2019 Aug 7, New Zealand's dollar fell heavily after its central bank stunned markets with an aggressive interest rate cut and said negative rates were possible, fuelling bets on more global easing. The RBNZ slashed rates by 50 basis points against an expected 25 basis points to 1%.
(Reuters, 8/7/19)
2019 Aug 7, Pakistan’s PM Imran Khan’s government announced a series of measures to oppose what it called “unilateral and illegal actions" by India. He also said Pakistan will review bilateral agreements, take the matter to the United Nations Security Council and ensure the army remains vigilant.
(Bloomberg, 8/8/19)
2019 Aug 7, Puerto Rico's Supreme Court overturned the swearing in of Pedro Pierluisi as the island's governor less than a week ago, clearing the way for Justice Sec. Wanda Vasquez to be sworn in after weeks of turmoil.
(SFC, 8/8/19, p.A5)
2019 Aug 7, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates state media said their countries are providing Sudan 540,000 tons of wheat to support the country whose president was ousted earlier this year.
(Reuters, 8/7/19)
2019 Aug 7, Spanish police arrested five French tourists, ages 18 to 19, on suspicion of gang-raping a 20-year-old Norwegian woman in the Costa Blanca resort of Benidorm.
(Reuters, 8/8/19)
2019 Aug 7, Syrian state media reported that government forces have captured two northwestern villages in an intensified offensive on the last rebel-held part of the country, inching closer to the town of Kfar Zeita which has been held by insurgents since 2012.
(AP, 8/7/19)
2019 Aug 7, Oleg Melnikov (28), founder of the anti-slavery group Alternativa, left Turkey for the Idlib province of Syria late today. The Russian vigilante activist who freed hundreds of people from slavery missed planned calls at 9am, 12pm and 3pm on the following day, after which colleague Maxim Vaganov followed the group's policy and informed the media and the Russian embassy that he had disappeared.
(The Telegraph, 8/9/19)
2019 Aug 7, Thailand delivered 4,500 bottles of cannabis oil to treat hospital patients, its first official use of marijuana for medical purposes since a measure legalizing such use took effect this year.
(Reuters, 8/7/19)
2019 Aug 7, Ukraine's new President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called Russian President Vladimir Putin to urge him to help halt fighting in eastern Ukraine.
(AP, 8/7/19)
2019 Aug 7, Members of the United Nations signed the Singapore Convention on Mediation, an agreement it hopes will make it easier to settle cross-border commercial disputes and stabilize trade relationships.
(Reuters, 8/7/19)
2019 Aug 7, It was reported that a confidential UN report reveals that North Korea has been employing a range of sophisticated cyberattacks in an effort to bankroll its development of weapons of mass destruction.
(BGR News, 8/7/19)
2019 Aug 7, UN political chief Rosemary DiCarlo said reports suggest more than 100,000 people in Syria have been detained, abducted or gone missing during the eight-year conflict, with the government mainly responsible.
(AP, 8/7/19)
2019 Aug 7, Venezuela's Pres. Nicolas Maduro suspended mediated talks with the opposition movement to protest US Pres. Trump's latest sanctions.
(SFC, 8/9/19, p.A2)
2019 Aug 7, In Yemen at least one presidential guard was killed and four people, including two civilians, were wounded as supporters of a killed militia commander marched on the presidential palace and clashed with troops stationed there.
(AP, 8/8/19)
2020 Aug 7, US treasury department head Steven Mnuchin said the US has imposed sanctions on Hong Kong’s leader Carrie Lam, and 10 other senior Chinese and Hong Kong officials, in response to the crackdown on free speech and political freedoms in the city.
(AP, 8/8/20)
2020 Aug 7, A US federal judge granted the government's request to immediately end the Paramount Decrees, a set of antitrust rules from the late 1940s and early 1950s that ended Hollywood's monopoly on producing, distributing and exhibiting movies.
(Reuters, 8/7/20)
2020 Aug 7, US Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said the USPS faces a "dire" financial position even as it posted a slightly narrower third-quarter loss amid soaring package demand during the coronavirus pandemic.
(Reuters, 8/7/20)
2020 Aug 7, Officials in Anchorage, Alaska, won a key ruling in favor of a ban on indoor restaurant dining after a standoff over COVID-19 restrictions moved to court.
(Reuters, 8/7/20)
2020 Aug 7, The California insurance commissioner's office said it has settled a case with drugmaker AbbVie. The company will pay $24 million to settle allegations of $1.2 billion in fraudulent insurance claims related to prescriptions of the arthritis drug Humira.
(SFC, 8/8/20, p.C1)
2020 Aug 7, California to date had 543,657 cases of coronavirus and 10,097 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 60,018 cases and 899 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 4,926,063 with the death toll at 160,980.
(sfist.com, 8/7/20)
2020 Aug 7, In Florida the Broward State Attorney’s Office said it is dropping the armed robbery case against Seattle Seahawks cornerback Quinton Dunbar (28), but will prosecute New York Giants cornerback Deandre Baker (22) for stealing jewelry and money from people, at gunpoint, nearly 3 months ago at a house party in Miramar.
(Miami Herald, 8/7/20)
2020 Aug 7, The Crow Tribe in Montana ordered its members to lock down for two weeks beginning today as tribal leaders moved to slow a sharp spike in coronavirus cases and deaths on yet another reservation in the country.
(AP, 8/7/20)
2020 Aug 7, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said that all school districts in his state, once the epicenter of the nation's COVID-19 crisis, could open for in-person learning in the fall based on their current low infection rates of the virus.
(Reuters, 8/7/20)
2020 Aug 7, Portland's nightly protests turned violent again even after the city's mayor pleaded for demonstrators to stay off the streets. A police officer hit by a rock early today suffered what was described as a serious injury. The overnight protest was in a residential neighborhood 6 miles away from the federal courthouse.
(AP, 8/7/20)
2020 Aug 7, Thousands of bikers poured into the small South Dakota city of Sturgis as the 80th Sturgis Motorcycle Rally rumbled to life despite fears it could lead to a massive coronavirus outbreak. Daily virus cases have been trending upward in South Dakota, but the seven-day average is still only around 84, with fewer than two deaths per day.
(AP, 8/7/20)
2020 Aug 7, Dalia Samoudi (23), a Palestinian woman, died after being shot in the chest by an apparent stray bullet during an Israeli raid in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin.
(AP, 8/7/20)
2020 Aug 7, Cincinnati-based Meridian Bioscience Inc. (VIVO) reported fiscal third-quarter profit of $27.5 million.
(AP, 8/7/20)
2020 Aug 7, Pfizer Inc said it has signed a multiyear agreement to make COVID-19 treatment remdesivir for developer Gilead Sciences Inc, which is under pressure to increase tight supplies of the antiviral drug.
(Reuters, 8/7/20)
2020 Aug 7, Bulgarian police removed dozens of tent camps that had blocked key city intersections across the country as part of antigovernment protests.
(SFC, 8/8/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 7, China sentenced a fourth Canadian citizen to death on drug charges in less than two years following a sharp downturn in ties over the arrest of an executive of Chinese tech giant Huawei. Ye Jianhui was sentenced by the Foshan Municipal Intermediate Court in the southern province of Guangdong. The court said he had been found guilty of manufacturing and transporting illegal drugs. Death sentences are automatically referred to China’s highest court for review.
(Politico, 8/7/20)
2020 Aug 7, Israeli operatives, at the behest of the United States, assassinated Abu Muhammad al-Masri, al Qaeda's second-highest leader, in Tehran according to a NY Times report in November. Iran at this time identified the victims as Habib Daoud, a Hezbollah-affiliated Lebanese history professor, and his daughter. Intelligence officials later said those were aliases. Al-Masri was a mastermind behind the 1998 attacks on American embassies in multiple African countries. Iran denied the NY Times report.
(NY Times, 11/14/20)
2020 Aug 7, In North Korea a train carrying goods arrived in the "totally blocked" city of Kaesong, following the discovery there of the country's first suspected coronavirus case.
(The Telegraph, 8/8/20)
2020 Aug 7, Pakistan recorded 782 new cases of the coronavirus in the past 24 hours and 17 deaths. In total Pakistan has reported 282,642 confirmed cases and 6,052 deaths.
(SFC, 8/8/20, p.A5)
2020 Aug 7, South Korea's Ministry of Food and Drug Safety said local biotech firm Genexine Inc has received regulatory approval for a Phase I human clinical trial of its experimental coronavirus treatment drug.
(AP, 8/7/20)
2020 Aug 7, Spain reported 1,895 new coronavirus infections in the past day, mainly in the regions of the Basque Country, Catalonia and Aragon. Spain has seen a total of 314,362 cases of COVID-19 and recorded 28,503 deaths.
(Reuters, 8/7/20)
2020 Aug 7, Switzerland said it has signed an agreement with Moderna to secure early access to the COVID-19 vaccine the US biotech company is developing.
(Reuters, 8/7/20)
2020 Aug 7, A Venezuelan court sentenced two former US special forces soldiers to 20 years in prison for their part in a failed beach attack aimed at overthrowing President Nicolás Maduro. Former Green Berets Luke Denman and Airan Berry admitted to taking part in the May 4 operation orchestrated by a third ex-US soldier who remains in the United States.
(AP, 8/7/20)
2021 Aug 7, The US is now averaging 100,000 new COVID-19 infections a day. Total US COVID-19 cases reached over 35,707,822 with the death toll at 616,547.
(AP, 8/7/21)(sfist.com, 8/8/21)
2021 Aug 7, It was reported that more than 65,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines have expired in Alabama due to low demand for inoculations. The state ranks last (34%) for the percentage of people fully vaccinated.
(AP, 8/7/21)
2021 Aug 7, In northern California Gary Maynard (47), man who taught criminal justice at Sonoma State University, was arrested on and charged with setting fire to public land around the massive Dixie Fire and in Shasta County.
(CBS News, 8/11/21)
2021 Aug 7, A Chicago police officer was killed and another fighting for their life after being shot late today during a traffic stop.
(AP, 8/8/21)
2021 Aug 7, In southeastern Minnesota, a single-engine plane crashed into a vacant lot and burst into flames, igniting a fire at a nearby house. No one on board survived.
(AP, 8/8/21)
2021 Aug 7, Dennis “Dee Tee" Thomas (70), a founding member of the long-running soul-funk band Kool & the Gang known for such hits as “Celebration" and “Get Down On It," died in New Jersey.
(AP, 8/8/21)
2021 Aug 7, Michael Thomas (85), investment banker, writer and Bête Noire of the Moneyed Class, died in Brooklyn. His books included "Green Monday (1980), "Someone Else’s Money" (1982) and "Hanover Place" (1990). As a trustee of the Robert Lehman Foundation, he helped prepare and publish a scholarly catalog of Mr. Lehman’s vast art collection at the Met. The catalog ran to 15 volumes and took several decades to complete.
(NY Times, 8/15/21)
2021 Aug 7, Texas Democrats again refused to return to the state Capitol as Gov. Greg Abbott began a 3rd attempt at passing new election laws.
(SSFC, 8/8/21, p.A9)
2021 Aug 7, In Texas three women were found killed at a condo on South Padre Island. Yordi Barthelemy (23) fled the scene of the shooting but later turned himself in and was arrested in the neighboring community of Port Isabel.
(The Grio, 8/12/21)
2021 Aug 7, In Afghanistan Taliban fighters entered the capital of northern Jawzjan province, after sweeping through nine of 10 districts in the province. More than half of Afghanistan’s 421 districts and district centers are now in Taliban hands.
(AP, 8/7/21)
2021 Aug 7, It was reported that around 50 bodies have been discovered over the last two weeks in the Setit River, which flows through some of the most troubled areas of the nine-month conflict in Ethiopia's Tigray region.
(AP, 8/7/21)
2021 Aug 7, In France thousands of people marched in Paris and other cities during a fourth consecutive week of protests against COVID-19 entrance requirements and what opponents see as restrictions on personal freedom.
(AP, 8/7/21)
2021 Aug 7, In Greece flames swept through a town near Athens overnight and hundreds of people were evacuated by ferry from the island of Evia east of the capital as wildfires burned across the country for a fifth day.
(Reuters, 8/7/21)
2021 Aug 7, India's health minister said Johnson & Johnson's single-dose COVID-19 vaccine has been approved for emergency use.
(Reuters, 8/7/21)
2021 Aug 7, Israeli warplanes struck two targets in the Gaza Strip early today, in response to incendiary balloons launched from Gaza into Israel.
(AP, 8/7/21)
2021 Aug 7, In Italy Maria Licciardi (70), reputed top Naples crime syndicate boss, was arrested as she was about to board a flight to Spain. Investigators have alleged that Licciardi ran extortion rackets as head of the Licciardi Camorra crime syndicate clan.
(AP, 8/7/21)
2021 Aug 7, In Japan Allyson Felix won her 11th medal, which made her the most decorated American track-and-field athlete in Olympic history.
(NY Times, 8/8/21)
2021 Aug 7, Top-ranked Japan prevailed over the US, 2-0, to win its first gold medal in baseball in the six trips to the Olympics since 1992.
(AP, 8/7/21)
2021 Aug 7, New Zealand immigration services said Larry Page, Google's co-founder and one of the world's richest men, has become a local resident. He had applied on November 3, 2020, under a category for wealthy investors and was approved on Feb. 4. The visa requires applicants to have NZ$10 million ($7 million) to invest in New Zealand over a three-year period.
(AP, 8/7/21)
2021 Aug 7, In southwestern Nigeria a Swiss national was kidnapped along with a Nigerian citizen. Two of the gunmen were shot dead by police while the others escaped with the hostages in Ogun state.
(AP, 8/9/21)
2021 Aug 7, In Russia wildfires in the Siberia region endangered a dozen villages and prompted authorities to evacuate some residents. 93 fires were active in the region.
(SSFC, 8/8/21, p.A8)
2021 Aug 7, In Thailand riot police fired water cannons teat gas and rubber bullets to repel antigovernment protesters who marched on an army base where PM Prayuth Chan-ocha has his residence.
(SSFC, 8/8/21, p.A8)
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