Today in History - May 7
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399BC May 7,
Socrates (b.469BC), Greek philosopher, committed suicide. He had been
indicted for rejecting the Gods acknowledged by the State, of bringing
in strange deities, and of corrupting the youth. In 2007 Emily
Wilson authored “The Death of Socrates.”
(www.crystalinks.com/socrates.html)(WSJ, 11/24/07,
p.W8)
558 May 7, The dome of the church
of St. Sophia in Constantinople collapsed. Its immediate rebuilding was
ordered by Justinian.
(HN, 5/7/99)
1274 May 7, The Second Council of
Lyons opened in France to regulate the election of the pope.
(HN, 5/7/99)
1355 May 7, 1,200 Jews of Toledo,
Spain, were killed by Count Henry of Trastamara.
(MC, 5/7/02)
1416 May 7, Monk Nicolaas
Serrurier was arrested for heresy at Tournay.
(MC, 5/7/02)
1429 May 7, English siege of
Orleans was broken by Joan of Arc.
(HN, 5/7/98)
1525 May 7, The German peasants'
revolt was crushed by the ruling class and church.
(HN, 5/7/99)
1530 May 7, Louis I Conde, French
prince, leader of Huguenots, was born.
(MC, 5/7/02)
1617 May 7, David Fabricius (53),
German astronomer, died.
(MC, 5/7/02)
1660 May 7, Isaack B. Fubine of
Savoy, in The Hague, patented macaroni.
(MC, 5/7/02)
1663 May 7, Theatre Royal in Drury
Lane, London, opened.
(MC, 5/7/02)
1667 May 6-7, Johann Jakob
Froberger (b.1616), German organist, singer, composer, died.
(MC, 5/6/02)(MC, 5/7/02)
1700 May 7, Gerard van Swieten,
Dutch botanist, was born.
(MC, 5/7/02)
1700 May 7, William Penn began
monthly meetings for Blacks advocating emancipation.
(MC, 5/7/02)
1711 May 7, David Hume (d.1776),
Scottish historian and philosopher, was born. His work included the
“Treatise of Human Nature” and the 6-volume “History of England.”
The old style calendar puts his birthday on April 26.
(http://socserv.mcmaster.ca/~econ/ugcm/3ll3/hume/index.html)
1718 May 7, La Nouvelle-Orleans
(New Orleans) was founded by the French Mississippi Company, under the
direction of Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, on land inhabited by
the Chitimacha. It was named for Philippe II, Duke of Orleans, the
Regent of France.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Orleans)
1727 May 7, Jews were expelled
from Ukraine by Empress Catherine I of Russia.
(MC, 5/7/02)
1728 May 7, Rosa Venerini
(b.1656), Italian nun and founder of the Congregation of the Holy
Venerini Teachers, died. In 2006 Pope Benedict XVI named her a saint.
(SFC, 10/16/06,
p.A2)(www.korazym.org/news1.asp?Id=19552)
1763 May 7, Indian chief Pontiac
began his attack on a British fort in present-day Detroit, Michigan.
(HN, 5/7/99)
1765 May 7, Adm. Nelson's flagship
HMS Victory ran aground.
(MC, 5/7/02)
1769 May 7, Giuseppe Farinelli,
composer, singer, was born.
(MC, 5/7/02)
1789 May 7, The first inaugural
ball was held in New York in honor of President and Mrs. George
Washington.
(AP, 5/7/97)
1792 May 7, Capt. Robert Gray
discovered Gray's Harbor in Washington state.
(MC, 5/7/02)
1793 May 7, Pietro Nardini (71),
composer, died.
(MC, 5/7/02)
1800 May 7, Congress divided the
Northwest Territory into two parts. The western part became the Indiana
Territory and the eastern sections remained the Northwest Territory.
(HN, 5/7/99)
1800 May 7, Niccolo Piccinni
(72), Italian composer (Roland), died.
(MC, 5/7/02)
1803 May 7, Johan Peter Cronhamm,
composer, was born.
(MC, 5/7/02)
1812 May 7, Poet Robert Browning
was born in London. His works include "The Piper of Hamelin" and "The
Ring and the Book."
(AP, 5/7/97)(HN, 5/7/99)
1824 May 7, The Ninth Symphony by
Beethoven had its premiere. The “Ode to Joy” lyric was originally
written by Friedrich von Schiller as the “Ode to Freedom.”
(LGC, 1970, p.98)(WSJ, 12/10/01, p.A16)
1825 May 7, Italian composer
Antonio Salieri (74) died in Vienna, Austria.
(AP, 5/7/97)(MC, 5/7/02)
1826 May 7, Varina Howell Davis
(d.1905), 1st lady (Confederacy), was born.
(MC, 5/7/02)
1832 May 7, The Treaty of London
protocol was signed between Bavaria and the protecting Powers. It
basically dealt with the way in which the Regency of Bavaria was to be
managed until Otto of Bavaria reached his majority. Greece was defined
as an independent kingdom, with the Arta-Volos line as its northern
frontier and Otto as king.
(http://wiki.phantis.com/index.php/Treaty_of_London,_1832)
1833 May 7, Composer Johannes
Brahms was born in Hamburg, Germany, and died on Apr 3, 1897. His works
number through Opus 122 and included: the “Hungarian Dances,” the
“Haydn Variations,” the "Violin Concerto in D Major," "Lullaby" and
compositions for the pianoforte, organ, chamber music, orchestral
compositions, numerous songs, small and large choral works. A biography
of his life and work was written by Karl Geiringer in 1934 titled:
“Brahms: His Life and Work.” In 1997 Jan Swafford published the
biography: “Johannes Brahms.” In 1998 Styra Avins published “Johannes
Brahms: Life and Letters.”
(BLW, Geiringer, 1963 ed.)(AP, 5/7/97)(WSJ, 12/3/97,
p.A20)(WSJ, 5/4/98, p.A20)(HN, 5/7/99)
1840 May 7, Peter Ilyich
Tchaikovsky (d. Nov 6,1893) was born in Kamsko-Votinsk, the Ural region
of Russia (d.1893). His family moved to St. Petersburg in 1850 and
there he studied until he graduated from the school of Jurisprudence
where he entered the Ministry of Justice as a clerk, first-class in
1859. He didn't start to study music seriously until he was 21 under
Nicolai Zaremba, and enrolled into the St. Petersburg Conservatory when
it opened in 1862. His work included the 1812 Overture. In 1985 Roland
John Wiley wrote “Tchaikovsky’s Ballets.” [see Apr 25]
(LGC-HCS, p.354-355)(AP, 5/5/97)(WSJ, 11/18/97,
p.A20)(HN, 5/7/99)
1840 May 7, A tornado struck
Natchez, Miss., killing 317 people and causing over a million dollars
in damage.
(SFC, 5/7/09, p.D8)
1847 May 7, The American Medical
Association was founded in Philadelphia.
(AP, 5/7/97)(HN, 5/7/98)
1862 May 7, At the Battle of
Eltham's Landing in Virginia, Confederate troops struck Union troops in
the Shenandoah Valley.
(HN, 5/7/99)
1864 May 7, In Virginia the Battle
of Wilderness ended, with heavy losses to both sides. Union losses were
17,666; CSA-7,500. In 2002 the US federal government bought the
465-acre tract of the battle site and incorporated it into
Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania Military Park.
(HN, 5/7/98)(AARP, 7/05, p.12)
1866 May 7, German premier Otto
von Bismarck was seriously wounded in an assassination attempt.
(MC, 5/7/02)
1870 May 7, Marcus Loew, film
executive, was born. He consolidated studios to create MGM.
(HN, 5/7/02)
1873 May 7, US marines attacked
Panama.
(MC, 5/7/02)
1875 May 7, German SS Schiller
sank near Scilly Islands and 312 were killed.
(MC, 5/7/02)
1877 May 7, Indian chief Sitting
Bull entered Canada with a trail of Indians after the Battle of Little
Big Horn.
(HN, 5/7/99)
1884 May 7, Judah P. Benjamin
(72), confederate minister of War, died.
(MC, 5/7/02)
1888 May 7, Edouard Lalo's opera
"Le roi d'Ys," premiered in Paris.
(MC, 5/7/02)
1888 May 7, George Eastman
patented his Kodak box camera.
(MC, 5/7/02)
1892 May 7, Archibald MacLeish,
American poet and statesman, was born.
(HN, 5/7/02)
1892 May 7, Josip Broz [Tito],
leader of Yugoslavia (1943-80), was born.
(HN, 5/7/98)
1896 May 7, Dr. Henry Howard
Holmes (b.1860), serial killer, was hanged to death in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania. Born as Herman Webster Mudgett in Gilmantown, New
Hampshire, to a devout Methodist family, Holmes spent much of his
childhood torturing animals. He later graduated from the University of
Michigan with a medical degree. Holmes financed his education with a
series of insurance scams whereby he requested coverage for nonexistent
people and then presented corpses as the insured. In 1886, Holmes moved
to Chicago to work as a pharmacist. A few months later, he killed the
elderly owner of the store but told everyone that the man had left him
in charge. With a new series of cons, Holmes raised enough money to
build a giant, elaborate home across from the store. The home, which
Holmes called "The Castle," had secret passageways, fake walls, and
trapdoors. Young women in the area, along with tourists who had come to
see the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago, and had rented out rooms in
Holmes' castle, suddenly began disappearing. Medical schools purchased
many human skeletons from Dr. Holmes during this period but never asked
how he obtained the anatomy specimens. Holmes was finally caught after
attempting to use another corpse, his assistant Benjamin Pitezel, in an
insurance scam. He confessed, saying, "I was born with the devil in me.
I could not help the fact that I was a murderer, no more than a poet
can help the inspiration to sing." Reportedly, authorities discovered
the remains of over 200 victims on his property.
(www.thecrimeweb.com/hhholmes.htm)
1901 May 7, Gary Cooper, film
actor (High Noon, Friendly Persuasion), was born.
(HN, 5/7/02)
1909 May 7, Edwin Herbert Land,
inventor of the Polaroid Land Camera, was born.
(HN, 5/7/02)
1912 May 7, Columbia University
approved plans for awarding the Pulitzer Prize in several categories.
The award was established by Joseph Pulitzer.
(MC, 5/7/02)
1913 May 7, British House of
Commons rejected women's right to vote.
(MC, 5/7/02)
1914 May 7, Woodrow Wilson's
daughter Eleanor married in the White House.
(MC, 5/7/02)
1915 May 7, In the 2nd year of
WWI, the British Cunard ocean liner Lusitania, on a voyage from New
York to Liverpool, sank off the coast of Ireland in only 18-21 minutes
after being struck by a torpedo fired by the German U-boat U-20. Of
1,959 [1,978] passengers and crew, 1,195 died. Of the fatalities, 123
were Americans. Even though the Germans maintained the liner was
carrying arms purchased in America to Britain, the sinking of a
passenger ship aroused intense anger against the German policy of
unrestricted submarine warfare and hastened America's entrance into the
war. In 2002 Diana Preston authored “Lusitania: An Epic Tragedy” and
David Ramsay authored “Lusitania: Saga and Myth.”
(CFA, '96, p.46)(AP, 5/7/97)(HN, 5/7/98)(HNPD,
5/7/99)(HN, 5/7/99)(WSJ, 5/8/02, p.AD9)
1915 May 7, Alfred G. Vanderbilt,
US millionaire, died aboard Lusitania.
(MC, 5/7/02)
1915 May 7, Elbert Hubbard,
American platitudinist, author, educator, died.
(MC, 5/7/02)
1919 May 7, Eva (Evita) Peron,
first lady of Argentina, was born. She helped her husband, Juan,
achieve office.
(HN, 5/7/99)
1928 May 7, A Pulitzer prize was
awarded to Thornton Wilder for Bridge of San Luis Rey.
(MC, 5/7/02)
1929 May 7, Albert Anselmi, John
Scalise and Joseph "Top Toad" Giunta, US gangsters, were murdered by Al
Capone.
(MC, 5/7/02)
1931 May 7, Teresa Brewer
(d.2007), singer, was born in Toledo, Ohio. She had a big hit with
“Music, Music, Music” in 1950.
(SFC, 10/19/07, p.A11)
1931 May 7, Gene [Rodman] Wolfe,
US, sci-fi author (Soldier of Arete), was born.
(MC, 5/7/02)
1932 May 7, Jenny Joseph, English
poet and novelist (The Thinking Heart, The Inland Sea), was born.
(HN, 5/7/02)
1933 May 7, Johnny Unitas
(d.2002), the son of Lithuanian immigrants, was born in Pittsburgh, Pa.
He became a NFL Quarterback for the Baltimore Colts and San Diego
Chargers. He was voted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1979.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Unitas)
1934 May 7, A Pulitzer prize was
awarded to Sidney Kingsley (Men in White).
(MC, 5/7/02)
1934 May 7, World's largest pearl
(6.4 kg) was found at Palawan, Philippines.
(MC, 5/7/02)
1939 May 7, Germany and Italy
announced a military and political alliance known as the Rome-Berlin
Axis.
(AP, 5/7/97)
1940 May 7, British PM Neville
Chamberlain resigned and Winston Churchill became PM. Churchill formed
a new government and served as the Conservative head of a coalition
government with the opposition Labor Party.
(WSJ, 9/3/98, p.A6)(MC, 5/7/02)(PCh, 1992, p.864)
1941 May 7, Glenn Miller and His
Orchestra recorded "Chattanooga Choo Choo" for RCA Victor. It became
the first gold record in history.
(AP, 5/7/99)(SFC, 5/31/00, p.A23)
1941 May 7, British House of
Commons voted for Churchill (477-3).
(MC, 5/7/02)
1942 May 7, In the Battle of the
Coral Sea, Japanese and American navies attacked each other with
carrier planes. It was the first time in the history of naval warfare
where two enemy fleets fought without seeing each other. This battle
stopped Japanese expansion.
(HN, 5/7/99)(MC, 5/7/02)
1942 May 7, A Nazi decree ordered
all Jewish pregnant women of Kovno Ghetto executed.
(MC, 5/7/02)
1942 May 7, Felix Paul von
Weingartner, Austria conductor, composer, died.
(MC, 5/7/02)
1943 May 7, Peter Carey,
Australian writer (Illywhacker, Oscar and Lucinda), was born.
(HN, 5/7/02)
1943 May 7, The last major German
strongholds in North Africa, Tunis and Bizerte, fell to Allied forces.
(HN, 5/7/99)
1944 May 7, There was a German
assault on Tito's hideout in Drvar, Bosnia.
(MC, 5/7/02)
1945 May 7, A Pulitzer prize was
awarded to John Hersey (Bell for Adano).
(MC, 5/7/02)
1945 May 7, Germany signed an
unconditional surrender at Allied headquarters in Rheims, France, to
take effect the following day, ending the European conflict of World
War II. After five years, World War II in Europe ended when Colonel
General Alfred Jodl, the last chief of staff of the German Army, signed
the unconditional surrender at General Dwight D. Eisenhower's
headquarters at Rheims, France.
(AP, 5/7/97)(HN, 5/7/98)(HNPD, 5/8/99)
1945 May 7, SS opened fire on a
crowd in Amsterdam and killed 22.
(MC, 5/7/02)
1947 May 7, The opera "The Mother
of Us All," by Gertrude Stein and Virgil Thompson, premiered at the
Brander Matthews Theater of Columbia Univ. They wrote it as a
meditation on the life of Susan B. Anthony.
(WSJ, 8/6/98, p.A13)(WSJ, 2/5/04, p.A13)
1947 May 7, "Kraft Television
Theater" premiered on NBC.
(MC, 5/7/02)
1947 May 7, General MacArthur
approved the Japanese constitution.
(MC, 5/7/02)
1947 May 7, Nick DeJohn, former
capodecina in the Chicago Family, was strangled and his body stuffed
into the trunk of a car parked on a San Francisco street. DeJohn had
reportedly fled Chicago after murdering several other gang members and
was living in Santa Rosa, California, under an alias at the time of his
death.
(SFC, 2/8/06, p.B5)(http://tinyurl.com/8fjm7)
1951 May 7, A Pulitzer prize was
awarded to Conrad Richter (The Town).
(MC, 5/7/02)
1952 May 7, In Korea Communist
POW's at Koje-do rioted against their American captors.
(HN, 5/7/98)
1953 May 7, "Can Can" opened at
Shubert Theater in NYC for 892 performances.
(MC, 5/7/02)
1954 May 7, A San Francisco jury
decided that Harold Jackson and Joseph Lear should be executed for the
January kidnapping of Leonard Moskovitz. Their sentences were later
changed to life in prison and both men died in San Quentin.
(SFC, 5/7/04, p.F2)(SFC, 7/3/08, p.B5)
1954 May 7, US, Great Britain and
France rejected Russian membership in NATO.
(MC, 5/7/02)
1954 May 7, The Battle of Dien
Bien Phu in Vietnam ended after 55 days with Vietnamese insurgents
overrunning French forces and the US began to get involved. Vietnamese
insurgents expelled the French but the country was divided into a
communist north and a pro-US south. In the 8 years of the French
Indochina War some 52,000 French soldiers were killed. Vietnam was soon
partitioned between a regime in Hanoi led by Ho Chi Minh and an
anti-communist regime in Saigon under Ngo Dinh Diem. Howard Simpson
later wrote: "Dien Bien Phu: The Epic Battle America Forgot." In 2004
Martin Windrow authored “The Last Valley: Dien Bien Phu and the French
Defeat in Vietnam.”
(TL, 1988, p.114)(SFC, 12/27/96, p.A24)(SFC,
2/22/96, p.B3)(AP, 5/7/97)(SFC, 5/24/99, p.C4)(Econ, 11/27/04, p.86)
1958 May 7, Howard Johnson set an
aircraft altitude record in F-104.
(HN, 5/7/98)
1959 May 7, In San Francisco
Albert Kogler, a SF State college student, died 2½ hours
following a shark attack while swimming off Baker Beach.
(SSFC, 5/3/09, DB p.50)
1960 May 7, Leonid Brezhnev
replaced Marshal Kliment Voroshilov as president of the Presidium of
the Supreme Soviet.
(AP, 5/7/08)
1962 May 7, A Pulitzer prize was
awarded to Theodore H. White (Making of President).
(MC, 5/7/02)
1963 May 7, The United States
launched the Telstar II communications satellite. It made the first
public transatlantic broadcast.
(HNQ, 5/3/99)(AP, 5/7/00)
1970 May 7, Carlos Estrada
(b.1909), Uruguayan composer, died.
(www.answers.com/topic/carlos-estrada)
1972 May 7, Ralph Eugene Meatyard
(b.1925), photographer, died. His work included a series of photos
called The Family Album of Lucybelle Carter" based on the short story
"The Life You Save May Be Your Own" by Flannery O’Connor.
(SFC, 10/5/02,
p.D10)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Eugene_Meatyard)
1972 May 7, Justin
Ahomadegbe-Tometin (1917-2002) became president of Dahomey (later
Benin) as part of a system that rotated the office between three
leading political figures: Ahomadegbe, Hubert Maga, and Sourou-Migan
Apithy. He was overthrown on October 26.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justin_Ahomadegb%C3%A9)
1974 May 7, West German chancellor
W. Brandt (1913-1992) resigned. A bizarre spy scandal brought Brandt
down after 4 years in office.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willy_Brandt)(WSJ,
9/11/03, p.D10)
1975 May 7, The "Matt Helm" TV
series, featured Gene Evans (d.1998 at 75), premiered.
(SFC, 4/2/98, p.A23)(www.imdb.com/title/tt0073361/)
1975 May 7, President Ford
formally declared an end to the "Vietnam era."
(AP, 5/7/97)(HN, 5/7/98)
1975 May 7, The Viet Cong
celebrated the takeover of Ho Chi Minh City -- formerly Saigon.
(AP, 5/7/97)(HN, 5/7/98)
1977 May 7, Seattle Slew (d.2002)
won the Kentucky Derby, the first of his Triple Crown victories.
(AP, 5/7/04)
1979 May 7, An estimated 125,000
people rallied against nuclear power in Washington, DC.
(SFC, 5/7/04, p.F2)
1984 May 7, A $180 million
out-of-court settlement was announced in the Agent Orange class-action
suit brought by Vietnam veterans who charged they had suffered injury
from exposure to the defoliant. A consortium of Dow Chemical and other
manufacturers paid $184 million to veterans from the US, Canada,
Australia and New Zealand but not South Korea.
(AP, 5/7/97)(SFC, 11/16/99, p.A18)
1987 May 7, Democratic
presidential candidate Gary Hart, dogged by reports about his
relationship with Miami model Donna Rice, put his campaign on hold and
flew home to Denver to be with his family.
(AP, 5/7/97)
1988 May 7, Winning Colors won the
114th running of the Kentucky Derby, becoming the third filly to win
the event.
(AP, 5/7/98)
1989 May 7, Both sides claimed
victory in Panama's national elections, with the opposition also
charging a pattern of fraud. Panamanian voters rejected dictator Manuel
Noriega's bid for reelection.
(AP, 5/7/99)
1989 May 7, Guy Williams (b.1924),
actor (Zorro, Lost in Space), died in Argentina. He was born as Armando
Catalano in NYC.
(www.absoluteastronomy.com/g/guy_williams)
1990 May 7, The White House put
aside President Bush's pledge of no new taxes, saying talks to strike a
budget deal with Congress would have "no preconditions."
(AP, 5/7/00)
1991 May 7, Doctors said that
President Bush’s recent bout with an irregular heartbeat was caused by
a mildly overactive thyroid gland, a condition they said was easily
treatable.
(AP, 5/7/01)
1992 May 7, President Bush visited
riot-scarred Los Angeles.
(AP, 5/7/97)
1992 May 7, The space shuttle
Endeavour blasted off on its maiden voyage.
(AP, 5/7/97)
1992 May 7, A 203-year-old
proposed constitutional amendment barring the US Congress from giving
itself a midterm pay raise received enough votes for ratification as
Michigan became the 38th state to approve it.
(AP, 5/7/97)
1993 May 7, President Clinton
proposed dramatic changes in political campaign financing.
(AP, 5/7/98)
1993 May 7, In South Africa,
representatives of 23 political parties signed a declaration of intent
to hold multiracial elections within a year.
(AP, 5/7/98)
1994 May 7, Norway's most famous
painting, "The Scream," by Edvard Munch, was recovered almost three
months after it was stolen from an Oslo museum. Another version was
stolen in 2004.
(AP, 5/7/99)(WSJ, 8/24/04, p.A1)
1994 May 7, Go For Gin won the
120th Kentucky Derby.
(AP, 5/7/99)
1995 May 7, Jacques Chirac, the
conservative mayor of Paris, won France's presidency in his third
attempt, defeating Lionel Jospin in a runoff to end 14 years of
Socialist rule.
(AP, 5/7/00)
1995 May 7, Leaders of 54 nations
that fought on both sides in World War II signed olive leaves in London
in a ceremony of reconciliation.
(AP, 5/7/00)
1996 May 7, Tax Freedom Day, the
day on which the average American had earned enough to pay federal,
state and local taxes.
(WSJ, 5/8/96, p.A-12)
1996 May 7, The first
international war crimes proceeding since Nuremberg opened at The Hague
in the Netherlands, with a Serbian police officer, Dusan Tadic, facing
trial on murder-torture charges. Tadic was convicted of crimes against
humanity but acquitted of murder on May 7, 1997. In Jul, 1997 he was
sentenced to 20 years in prison.
(AP, 5/7/97)(SFC, 5/8/97, p.C2)(SFC, 7/15/97, p.A12)
1996 May 7, In San Diego, Ca.,
Alzheimer’s researcher, Tsunao Saitoh and his daughter, 13-year-old
Loullie, were shot and killed. In 1993 he identified a protein that is
deposited in plaques that form in the brains of Alzheimer's patients.
In 1995 he learned that the protein was controlled by chromosome 4 and
was searching for its exact location when he was killed.
(SFC, 5/25/96, p.A17)
1996 May 7, Guatemala’s leftist
guerrillas and the government signed a key accord in negotiations to
end 35 years of civil war. A Land Fund that would help poor peasant
farmers acquire arable land was agreed upon.
(SFC, 5/7/96, p.A-10)
1996 May 7, Indian supporters of
the Zapatista rebels occupied two radio stations in Chiapas, Mexico,
and demanded the release of Javier Elloriaga, a TV journalist who was
sentenced to 13 years in prison last week on charges of being a
Zapatista commander.
(SFC, 5/8/96, p.A-19)
1996 May 7, Peace talks for Sierra
Leone opened in the Ivory Coast to resolve a civil war that has killed
10,000 people since 1991.
(WSJ, 5/7/96, p.A-1)
1997 May 7, This date was
established as the cut off day for sales and exchanges in a planned US
capital gains tax cut.
(WSJ, 5/8/97, p.C1)
1997 May 7, The Army accused its
top enlisted man, Army Sgt. Maj. Gene McKinney, of sexual misconduct.
At his court-martial, McKinney was acquitted of sexual misconduct, but
found guilty of obstruction of justice.
(AP, 5/7/98)
1997 May 7, Chrysler Corp. and
United Auto Workers agreed to a new contract, ending a damaging 28-day
engine-plant strike.
(AP, 5/7/98)
1997 May 7, Brazil’s state mining
Companhia Vale do Rio Doce (CVRD), incorporated in 1942, was
privatized. In 2006 it acquired Inco, a Canadian nickel producer, and
became the world’s 2nd largest mining company.
(Econ, 4/14/07, SR p.9)(http://tinyurl.com/2ay9h5)
1997 May 7, Chadrel Rinpoche, a
senior Tibetan monk, was sentenced to 6 years in prison for plotting to
split China and leaking state secrets. He led the Beijing approved
search for the 11th reincarnation of the Panchen Lama and was suspected
to have leaked the information to the Dalai Lama.
(SFC, 5/8/97, p.C3)
1998 May 7, The $34.7 billion
merger of Daimler-Benz and Chrysler Corp. was confirmed in London. The
parent company of Mercedes-Benz agreed to buy Chrysler Corp. for more
than $37 billion.
(USAT, 5/7/98, p.1A)(AP, 5/7/99)
1998 May 7, In England Londoners
voted overwhelmingly to elect their own mayor for the first time in
history. Ken Livingston was elected in May 2000.
(AP, 5/7/03)(Econ, 6/5/04, p.53)
1998 May 7, In southern Italy
heavy rains sent a torrent of mud through Sarno and several other
towns. At least 55 people were reported dead. The death toll climbed to
116.
(USAT, 5/8/98, p.7A)(SFEC, 5/10/98, p.A22)
1998 cMay 7, In Pakistan Bishop
John Joseph (67), a Catholic human rights crusader, shot himself in the
head to protest the country’s blasphemy law. His death triggered a 2
day riot when police clashed with mourners who carried his body to the
Faisalabad cathedral for his funeral.
(SFC, 5/9/98, p.A10)
1999 May 7, A jury in Pontiac,
Mich., announced a $25 million verdict against the producers of the
Jenny Lind TV Show over the 1995 segment that led to the murder of
Scott Amedure by Jonathan Schmitz. Amedure, a gay man, was shot to
death after revealing a crush on Jonathan Schmitz, a fellow guest on
the talk show. However, the Michigan Court of Appeals later overturned
the award, and the Michigan Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal.
(SFC, 5/8/99, p.A1)(WSJ, 5/10/99, p.B8)(AP, 5/7/04)
1999 May 7, The Dow Jones closed
at a record 11,031.59.
(SFC, 5/8/99, p.D8)
1999 May 7, It was reported that
researchers at Merck had found a druglike chemical that mimics the
molecular effects of insulin.
(WSJ, 5/7/99, p.B1)
1999 May 7, NATO bombs hit a
residential area in Nis and at least 15 people were killed and 60
wounded. NATO bombs hit the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade and 3 people
were killed and [20] 21 injured. An outdated map was blamed for the
embassy bombing. The British Observer later reported that NATO bombed
the Embassy because it was being used to transmit Yugoslav military
communications. British, NATO and US officials denied the story. In
2000 the US CIA fired one officer and reprimanded 6 others for the
bombing. President Clinton called the attack a "tragic mistake."
(SFC, 5/8/99, p.A1,10)(SFC, 5/10/99, p.A1)(WSJ,
10/18/99, p.A1)(SFEC, 4/9/00, p.A1,15)(AP, 5/7/00)
1999 May 7, In Colombia ELN rebels
released 7 more hostages from the Apr 12 hijacking.
(SFC, 5/8/99, p.C14)
1999 May 7, In Guinea-Bissau
renegade troops forced the surrender of the 600-man presidential guard
and ousted Pres. Joao Bernardo Vieira, who sought refuge in the
Portuguese Embassy.
(SFC, 5/8/99, p.C14)
1999 May 7, A series of
earthquakes hit southern Iran and at least 26 people were killed in
Fars province.
(SFC, 5/8/99, p.C14)
1999 May 7, In Japan the
parliament passed the country's first freedom of information act.
Requests would not be honored for at least 2 years.
(SFC, 5/12/99, p.C2)
1999 May 7, A final peace accord
was to have been settled with Palestinians by this time as negotiated
by Yasser Arafat and Rabin in [Oct] 1995.
(SFC, 1/9/96, p.A10)
1999 May 7, In Romania the Pope
began a 3-day visit. This was his first visit to a country with an
Orthodox Christian majority. The Pope was greeted by Orthodox Patriarch
Teoctist (84).
(WSJ, 5/7/99, p.A1)(SFC, 5/8/99, p.A10)
2000 May 7, A second fire was set
to contain an earlier blaze that was begun to clear brush on the
Bandelier National Monument in New Mexico; the second fire blew out of
control, destroying more than 200 homes and damaging part of the Los
Alamos National Laboratory before it was controlled.
(AP, 5/7/01)
2000 May 7, Douglas Fairbanks Jr.,
film actor, died at age 90.
(SFC, 5/8/00, p.A5)
2000 May 7, In the Philippines 13
soldiers and 3 rebels were killed in a clash on Basilan Island.
(SFC, 5/8/00, p.A13)
2000 May 7, In Russia Pres. Putin
was inaugurated. He named Mikhail Kasyanof as the prime minister and
pledged to restore the country to world-power status.
(SFC, 5/8/00, p.A1)
2000 May 7, Pres. Kagami announced
that Rwanda was prepared to quickly implement a phased withdrawal from
Congo.
(SFC, 5/8/00, p.A12)
2000 May 7, In Spain Jose Luis
Lopez de La Calle, a columnist for El Mundo, was shot and killed in
Andoain. The ETA was blamed.
(SFC, 5/8/00, p.A13)
2000 May 7, In Thailand thousands
of protestors besieged the annual meeting of the Asian Development
Bank. The 13 nations agreed to rescue each other’s currencies to fend
off economic crises.
(SFC, 5/8/00, p.A14)
2000 May 7, In Zimbabwe squatter
leader Chenjerai Hunzvi urged people attending a ruling party rally in
Glen Norah to seek out British passport holders and force them out of
the country. Allan Dunn was murdered at his farm by squatters.
(SFC, 5/8/00, p.A13)(WSJ, 6/8/00, p.a24)
2001 May 7, California electricity
grid operators ordered statewide rolling power blackouts.
(AP, 5/7/02)
2001 May 7, In Alaska 4 Anchorage
school children were stabbed by Jason Pritchard (33). Pritchard was
shot with rubber bullets and taken into custody.
(WSJ, 5/8/01, p.A1)(SFC, 5/8/01, p.A2)
2001 May 7, "Great Train Robber"
Ronnie Biggs, who had eluded capture for decades following his prison
escape in 1965, returned to Britain, where he was arrested and jailed
to complete the 28 remaining years of his sentence.
(AP, 5/7/02)
2001 May 7, In Chechnya a 2-day
fight around Argun left at least 15 Russian soldiers dead.
(SFC, 5/9/01, p.C5)
2001 May 7, In Colombia leftist
FARC guerrillas used dynamite to free 61 prisoners in Caloto.
(SFC, 5/9/01, p.C5)
2001 May 7, A report by the Int’l.
Rescue Committee estimated the death toll in Congo’s 33-month war at 2
½ million people, mostly due to disease and malnutrition.
(SFC, 5/5/01, p.A1)(WSJ, 5/10/01, p.A1)
2001 May 7, It was reported that
Shaaban Abdel Rehim, an Egyptian singer, had a big hit with his song “I
Hate Israel.”
(SFC, 5/7/01, p.C1)
2001 May 7, Israeli tank fire
killed Iman Hijo, a Palestinian 4-month-old baby in Khan Yunis. A
Palestinian police officer in the West Bank was also killed.
(WSJ, 5/8/01, p.A1)(SFC, 5/8/01, p.C5)
2001 May 7, In Macedonia Prime
Minister Georgievski said parties agreed to form a coalition government
to include all main ethnic Albanian and Slav parties.
(WSJ, 5/8/01, p.A1)
2002 May 7, Pres. Bush met with PM
Ariel Sharon. They called for sweeping changes to Palestinian governing
institutions and a new Palestinian security service but they failed to
agree on many other issues.
(SFC, 5/8/02, p.A18)
2002 May 7, Lucas John Helder (21)
of Pine Island, Minn., was arrested following a car chase near
Lovelock, Nevada, and charged for the recent series of mailbox pipe
bombs. Helder said he was trying to make a "smiley face" pattern on the
map of his bombings. His series of rural mailbox bombings left six
people wounded in Illinois and Iowa. Helder has since been found
incompetent to stand trial.
(SFC, 5/8/02, p.A1)(SFC, 5/10/02, p.A3)(AP, 5/7/07)
2002 May 7, David Geffen (59),
co-founder of DreamWorks, donated $200 million to the school of
medicine at UCLA. This was the largest ever donation to a school of
medicine in the US
(SFC, 5/8/02, p.A12)
2002 May 7, It was reported that
strain of Gonorrhea resistant to antibiotics had reached the mainland
US after migrating from Hawaii and Asia.
(SFC, 5/7/02, p.A5)
2002 May 7, Triple Crown winner
"Seattle Slew" died at age 28, 25 years to the day after his victory in
the Kentucky Derby.
(AP, 5/7/03)
2002 May 7, A China Northern
Airlines with 112 people crashed off the northeast coast. Flight 6136
was an MD-82 enroute from Beijing to Dalian. Xinhua news later reported
that it was due to an act of sabotage by a passenger who lit a fire on
board.
(SFC, 5/8/02, p.A15)(Reuters, 12/7/02)
2002 May 7, An EgyptAir Boeing 737
with 62 people crashed in bad weather near Tunis. 14 people were killed.
(SFC, 5/8/02, p.A15)(AP, 5/7/03)
2002 May 7, In India a land mine
exploded under a police van in Jharkhand state and 15 officers were
killed. Rebels were enforcing a 3-day strike in the area to protest the
labeling of some 21 groups as terrorists.
(SFC, 5/8/02, p.A17)
2002 May 7, In Israel a Hamas
suicide bomber killed 15 people in a pool hall in Rishon Lezion. Hamas
claimed responsibility.
(SFC, 5/8/02, p.A1)(SFC, 7/24/02, p.A14)(AP, 5/7/03)
2003 May 7, President Bush ordered
U.S. sanctions against Iraq lifted, allowing U.S. humanitarian aid and
remittances to flow into Iraq.
(AP, 5/7/04)
2003 May 7, The White House
announced President Bush had chosen New Mexico oilman Colin R. McMillan
to be secretary of the Navy and Air Force Secretary James Roche to
replace the dismissed secretary of the Army, Thomas White. However,
McMillan died an apparent suicide the following July, while Roche's
nomination was held up in Congress.
(AP, 5/7/04)
2003 May 7, It was reported that
scientists had altered a common cold virus to destroy a common brain
tumor in mice.
(WSJ, 5/7/03, p.D7)
2003 May 7, In Afghanistan
Habibullah, a Muslim cleric close to U.S.-backed President Hamid
Karzai, was killed outside a mosque in the village of Kalacha.
(AP, 5/11/03)
2003 May 7, In Israel a Hamas
militant was killed when a bomb exploded in his West Bank apartment. In
northern Gaza a Hamas member was killed near a Jewish settlement. In
the southern Gaza Strip a Palestinian toddler was killed from Israeli
gunfire.
(SFC, 5/8/03, p.A17)
2003 May 7, In northeastern India
assailants killed 10 sleeping villagers and wounded six others in the
second attack blamed on separatist guerrillas in two days.
(AP, 5/8/03)
2004 May 7, Donald Rumsfeld, US
Defense Secretary, testified before Congress for 6 hours and apologized
for Iraqi prisoner abuse by US soldiers.
(SFC, 5/8/04, p.A1)
2004 May 7, Army Pvt. 1st Class
Lynndie England, shown in photographs smiling and pointing at naked
Iraqi prisoners, was charged by the military with assaulting the
detainees and conspiring to mistreat them, becoming the seventh soldier
charged in the scandal.
(AP, 5/7/05)
2004 May 7, In Bangladesh gunmen
opened fire at an opposition rally outside the capital, killing 4
people including a member of parliament. Ahsanullah Master, a senior
member of Bangladesh's main opposition Awami League, and a young man
were killed when a group of armed men opened fire on a rally being
addressed by the politician. On Apr 16, 2005, a court sentenced 22 to
death for the killings.
(AP, 5/7/04)(Reuters, 4/16/05)
2004 May 7, Chile legalized
divorce despite strong opposition from the Catholic Church.
(AP, 5/8/04)
2004 May 7, German authorities
arrested Sven Jaschen, an 18-year-old high school student, for creating
the "Sasser" network computer worm. Jaschan also confessed to
writing the Netsky virus and was suspected to be responsible for 70% of
the 2004 virus infections. In 2005 Jaschan was found guilty of computer
sabotage and illegally altering data. He was given a suspended sentence
of one year and nine months.
(AP, 5/8/04)(USAT, 5/11/04, p.4B)(SFC, 7/29/04,
p.C3)(AP, 7/8/05)
2004 May 7, In Iraq gunmen
ambushed a Polish TV crew south of Baghdad, killing a producer and a
correspondent who was Poland's best-known war reporter.
(AP, 5/7/04)
2004 May 7, Israeli troops raided
a West Bank village near the town of Tulkarem, surrounding a house and
killing two Palestinian militants.
(AP, 5/7/04)
2004 May 7, Israeli warplanes
struck suspected guerrilla positions in southern Lebanon after
artillery fire killed one Israeli soldier on the border.
(AP, 5/7/04)
2004 May 7, Nepal's prime minister
Surya Bahadur Thapa quit after weeks of protests demanding the return
of democracy in the Himalayan kingdom wracked by political instability
and a Maoist insurgency.
(AP, 5/7/04)
2004 May 7, In Karachi, Pakistan,
a bomb exploded at a Shiite Muslim mosque packed with worshippers,
killing 14 people and wounding more than 200 in a suspected suicide
attack.
(AP, 5/8/04)
2005 May 7, Giacomo, a 50-1 shot,
defied the odds and won the $2.4 million Kentucky Derby in a gigantic
upset, running down Afleet Alex in the final strides and generating a
huge payoff.
(AP, 5/8/05)
2005 May 7, Peter Rodino (95), the
House of Representatives Judiciary Committee chairman who directed the
impeachment investigation of President Richard Nixon, died in New
Jersey. Rodino represented a Newark, NJ, district from 1949-1989.
(AP, 5/8/05)(SSFC, 5/8/05, p.A2)
2005 May 7, MIT students held
their 1st convention for time travelers.
(Econ, 5/7/05, p.75)
2005 May 7, In Afghanistan a UN
worker from Myanmar was among three people killed in a suicide attack
at an Internet cafe in Kabul.
(AP, 5/8/05)
2005 May 7, In northeastern
Australia a commuter airplane carrying 15 people slammed into a
hillside and everyone on board was feared killed.
(AP, 5/7/05)
2005 May 7, Canadian Press
reported that Canada will send up to 150 military personnel to Sudan to
help the African Union and a UN mission keep the peace.
(CP, 5/7/05)
2005 May 7, China and Japan agreed
to try to improve strained ties and meet soon to discuss a disputed gas
field.
(Reuters, 5/7/05)
2005 May 7, After extensive use of
H2OIL fuel additives for over 15 years, China will begin manufacturing
F2-21 nanotechnology fuel additives. H2OIL's first overseas plant in
Tianjin opened under a joint venture agreement with PetroChina's Huafu
Oilfield Chemical Company. F2-21, developed by H2Oil president Richard
Hicks, is a mixture of water, shampoo and baby oil that forms
nano-sized globules which explode in an engine’s combustion chamber
helping the gas to burn more cleanly and completely.
(www.h2oil.com/press.shtml)(SFC, 3/23/06, p.C3)
2005 May 7, In central India about
200 Maoist rebels, some armed with AK-47 assault rifles, attacked a
mining unit of Hindalco Industries, India's largest aluminium and
copper producer, shutting down its operations.
(AP, 5/9/05)
2005 May 7, In Iraq US forces
began Operation Matador, aimed at clearing a region believed to be a
haven for foreign fighters slipping into Iraq from Syria.
(AP, 5/13/05)
2005 May 7, Two suicide car bombs
exploded in a central Baghdad square, killing 22 people, including two
American contract workers. 3 US Marines and one sailor were killed in a
bombing and firefight in Haditha.
(AP, 5/7/05)(SFC, 5/9/05, p.A1)
2005 May 7, In Iraq gunmen stopped
a minibus in which the 6 men were carrying the coffin of a relative to
a funeral service in the Shiite city of Najaf. The 6 men, 3 of them
brothers, were kidnapped and killed, and the attackers threw the coffin
into the nearby Euphrates River.
(AP, 5/10/05)
2005 May 7, In Riga, Latvia, Pres.
Bush said the Soviet domination of central and eastern Europe after
World War II will be remembered as "one of the greatest wrongs of
history" and acknowledged that the United States played a significant
role in the division of the continent.
(AP, 5/7/05)
2005 May 7, Gen. Michel Aoun, who
led a quixotic battle to oust Syria's army from Lebanon 16 years ago,
returned to Lebanon from a lengthy exile in France.
(AP, 5/7/05)
2005 May 7, In Myanmar 3
explosions rocked the capital, Yangon, killing at least 19 people and
wounding 162 others.
(AP, 5/8/05)(Reuters, 5/15/05)
2005 May 7, David Trimble, Nobel
Peace Prize laureate and one of the architects of Northern Ireland's
1998 peace accord, resigned as head of the Ulster Unionist Party after
losing his seat in this week's parliamentary elections.
(AP, 5/7/05)
2006 May 7, Vice President Dick
Cheney endorsed the NATO membership aspirations of Croatia, Albania and
Macedonia.
(AP, 5/7/06)
2006 May 7, Golden West Financial
Corp. of Oakland, Ca., agreed to sell itself to Wachovia Corp. for
$25.5 billion. Investors soon expressed skepticism calling the
transaction risky and too costly.
(AP, 5/8/06)(SFC, 5/8/06, p.A1)
2006 May 7, Taliban militia
fighters ambushed a police patrol in southern Afghanistan, sparking an
hour-long gunbattle that killed two policemen and one attacker.
(AP, 5/8/06)
2006 May 7, China's official Roman
Catholic church named a new bishop, reportedly with papal approval, as
Beijing rejected Vatican criticism of the unauthorized ordination of
two other bishops.
(AP, 5/7/06)
2006 May 7, Iran's hard-line
parliament threatened to pass legislation that would force the Tehran
government to withdraw from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
(AP, 5/7/07)
2006 May 7, In Iraq 3 car bombs
rocked northern Baghdad within a span of half an hour while another
struck Karbala, killing at least 17 and wounding 44. Elsewhere in Iraq,
the bound and bullet-ridden bodies of 8 men were found in eastern
Baghdad. Two other bodies with bullet wounds were found separately in
eastern Baghdad. An American soldier was killed and one wounded near
Tal Afar while US troops were helping Iraqi forces attack a building
where insurgents were firing at civilians and soldiers. A total of
about 30 Iraqis were killed in Baghdad and Karbala. Over the last 24
hours 51 bodies were found in Baghdad.
(AP, 5/7/06)(AP, 5/8/06)(SFC, 5/8/06, p.A3)
2006 May 7, Israeli police armed
with batons evicted dozens of Jewish squatters from a Palestinian home
in West Bank city of Hebron, in an important test for Israel's new
government and its plans to uproot tens of thousands of settlers.
(AP, 5/7/06)
2006 May 7, In Northern Ireland
Michael McIlveen (15), a Roman Catholic teenager, was hospitalized in
critical condition after being bludgeoning with baseball bats in the
overwhelmingly Protestant town of Ballymena. He died the next day.
Police interrogated 5 Protestant men on suspicion of the attack.
(AP, 5/8/06)
2006 May 7, In Pakistan an
11-year-old boy was strangled by relatives who killed him rather than
obey a tribal elders' order for them to marry one of their womenfolk to
the child.
(Reuters, 5/8/06)
2006 May 7, Officials said pirates
who hijacked a cargo ship off the coast of Somalia and killed one of
its crew members have released the vessel after holding it for a week.
(AP, 5/7/06)
2006 May 7, In Sri Lanka a senior
Japanese envoy began talks with government officials to try to save the
peace process. Tamil rebels said troops abducted 8 men in the island's
north.
(AP, 5/7/06)
2006 May 7, A fire broke out at a
club in the Thai resort town of Pattaya, killing at least seven people
and injuring at least 49.
(AP, 5/7/06)
2007 May 7, President Bush
welcomed Britain's Queen Elizabeth II to the White House. He brought
roars of laughter when he mistakenly started to say that the queen had
helped the US celebrate its bicentennial in "1776," then quickly
corrected himself to say "1976."
(AP, 5/7/08)
2007 May 7, In New Jersey 6
Islamic militants from Yugoslavia and the Middle East were arrested on
charges of plotting to attack the Fort Dix Army post and "kill as many
soldiers as possible." In Dec 2008 a federal jury found 5 of the men
guilty of plotting to kill US soldiers. 4 of the 5 men were also
convicted of weapons charges. All were acquitted of attempted murder
charges. In 2009 three brothers, Dritan (30), Shain (28) and Eljvir
Duka (25), were convicted of conspiracy and sentenced to life in
prison. Mohamad Schnewer was also sentenced to life in prison and
Serdar Tatar was sentenced to 33 years.
(AP, 5/8/07)(WSJ, 12/23/08, p.A3)(SFC, 4/29/09,
p.A4)(SFC, 4/30/09, p.A4)
2007 May 7, The DJIA rose 48.35 to
a record 13,312.97. Nasdaq fell 1.20 to 2,570.
(SFC, 5/8/07, p.C1)
2007 May 7, Scientists testing the
beds of streams around Portland, Oregon, found the residue of the
region's medicine cabinets and coffee shops. The list of compounds
includes many known by such names as Prozac, Tagamet, Benadryl,
Micatin, and caffeine.
(AP, 5/8/07)
2007 May 7, Alcoa, the world's
largest aluminum company, said it would make a hostile bid for Canada's
Alcan Inc., estimated at $27 billion, after talks between the rivals
failed to lead to a deal.
(AP, 5/7/07)
2007 May 7, In Afghanistan a
rocket slammed into a street outside an apartment building in Kabul,
killing one man and wounding five other people including a small boy.
(AP, 5/7/07)
2007 May 7, The African Union
announced it would send an extra 8,000 peacekeepers to Somalia but said
dialogue remained the only solution to the bloody conflict in that
country.
(AP, 5/7/07)
2007 May 7, Australian gangster
Carl Williams was sentenced to 35 years in jail for murdering three
underworld rivals in a gangland war which lasted almost 10 years and
killed 28 people.
(AP, 5/7/07)
2007 May 7, In Austria a
130-nation nuclear meeting stalled for its sixth straight day after
Iran refused to commit itself to a compromise meant to break a deadlock
caused by Tehran's opposition to language of the gathering's agenda.
(AP, 5/7/07)
2007 May 7, Former prime minister
Sheikh Hasina Wajed was greeted by tens of thousands of supporters as
she returned to Bangladesh after the military-backed government
abandoned plans to force her into exile.
(AP, 5/7/07)
2007 May 7, Stylist and fashion
guru Isabella Blow (b.1958)), a vibrant and often outrageous presence
on the British fashion scene, died of cancer.
(AP, 5/8/07)
2007 May 7, State media said
China's top family planning body has warned that the country could face
a "population rebound" because the newly rich are ignoring population
control laws and because of early marriages in rural areas. In
southwestern China a bus plunged off a highway, killing 17 people
including three children and injuring 24 others.
(AP, 5/7/07)
2007 May 7, Hong Kong newspapers
reported that an unidentified animal illness has spread in two southern
Chinese cities, infecting at least 1,300 pigs and killing more than
300. The diseased pigs began dying in Gaoyao and Yunfu in Guangdong
province following Chinese New Year celebrations in February. The
illness, which killed at least 300 pigs, was soon identified as a
strain of blue ear disease. Blue ear disease, also called porcine
reproductive and respiratory syndrome, was first identified in the
United States in 1987.
(AP, 5/8/07)(SFC, 5/8/07, p.A17)(AP, 5/10/07)
2007 May 7, Ecuador's foreign
minister said President Rafael Correa has decided not to renew a 1993
bilateral investment treaty with the United States, which expires this
week.
(AP, 5/7/07)
2007 May 7, More than 1,000
government delegates gathered in Bonn, Germany, to find ways to break
gridlock in international negotiations on widening action to slow
global warming. The UN urged far tougher action to fight climate change
at the 166-nation climate conference.
(Reuters, 5/7/07)
2007 May 7, Two suicide car
bombers attacked a market and a police checkpoint on the outskirts of
Ramadi, killing 13 people and dealing a blow to recent US success in
reclaiming the Sunni city from insurgents. A mortar attack also killed
five people and wounded two others in Baiyaa, a religiously mixed
neighborhood in western Baghdad. Four Iraqi troops were killed in
separate attacks in Baqouba. The bullet-riddled body of a policeman
bearing signs of torture also was found outside Kirkuk. At least 68
people were killed or found dead nationwide including the
bullet-riddled bodies of 30 men found in Baghdad.
(AP, 5/7/07)
2007 May 7, Israeli scientists
said they found King Herod’s tomb near Jerusalem.
(WSJ, 5/8/07, p.A1)
2007 May 7, The owner of the Macau
bank at the heart of a dispute over North Korea's nuclear disarmament
said he is challenging a US decision to shut it out of the global
banking system.
(AP, 5/7/07)
2007 May 7, In western Mexico 4
purported drug smugglers were killed in a shootout with soldiers in
Apatzingan, Michoacan state, the second deadly clash in a week between
traffickers and troops in the same remote, mountainous region.
(AP, 5/7/07)
2007 May 7, Nigeria's next
president Umaru Yar'Adua departed on a tour of seven African countries,
his first foreign trip since being elected in April. Oil major Chevron
said it had temporarily shut down its Ebite flow station in southern
Nigeria because of a community protest.
(AFP, 5/7/07)
2007 May 7, Pakistan's Supreme
Court suspended a judicial inquiry into misconduct charges against the
country's top judge that triggered weeks of nationwide protests.
(AFP, 5/7/07)
2007 May 7, Russia’s state
security service said fugitive Rustam Dzhumaliyev had evaded arrest and
become a minor celebrity by masquerading as a US citizen hitch-hiking
across the country for a record attempt.
(AP, 5/7/07)
2007 May 7, In South Africa Dina
Rodrigues was found guilty of murder for orchestrating the June 2005
killing of 6-month-old Jordan-Leigh Norton, her lover's baby daughter
from a previous marriage. This was South Africa's first known contract
killing of an infant.
(AP, 5/7/07)
2007 May 7, South Korea and the
European Union started free trade talks aimed at linking Asia's third
largest economy to the world's biggest trading bloc.
(AP, 5/7/07)
2007 May 7, Turkey's
Islamic-rooted government, whose presidential candidate dropped his bid
in the face of protests from pro-secular lawmakers, pushed for a
constitutional amendment that allows the president to be elected in a
popular vote rather than in a parliamentary poll.
(AP, 5/7/07)
2007 May 7, A large explosion in
Ukraine knocked out of service one of the main pipelines which carries
Siberian gas through Ukraine to Germany and other EU clients. Shifting
soil led to a break in the pipeline.
(AP, 5/7/07)(AP, 5/8/07)
2007 May 7, Venezuela said it will
not allow US agents to carry out counter-drug operations in the
country, accusing the US Drug Enforcement Administration of being a
"new cartel" that aids traffickers.
(AP, 5/7/07)
2008 May 7, Tennessee Gov. Phil
Bredesen said 2,011 state jobs will be eliminated to shore up the
state’s budget. Voluntary buyouts would begin in June.
(WSJ, 5/8/08, p.A2)
2008 May 7, Oil closed at a record
high with light, sweet crude settling at $123.53 per barrel on the New
York Mercantile Exchange.
(SFC, 5/8/08, p.C5)
2008 May 7, Clearwire and Sprint
Nextel announced they will combine their wireless broadband units to
create a $14.55 billion communications company to be called Clearwire.
(SFC, 5/8/08, p.C1)
2008 May 7, In eastern Afghanistan
3 people including a child were killed in blasts.
(AFP, 5/7/08)
2008 May 7, London's new mayor
Boris Johnson announced a ban on alcohol on the capital's transport
system, as part of a wider clampdown on crime and anti-social behavior.
(AP, 5/7/08)
2008 May 7, China’s state media
said the number of infections of hand, foot and mouth disease has grown
to more than 15,000 with 28 deaths.
(AP, 5/5/08)
2008 May 7, Colombia extradited
Carlos Mario Jimenez, one of the country's most feared paramilitary
warlords, to the US to face drug trafficking charges.
(AP, 5/7/08)
2008 May 7, Rosalina Rivera, the
sister of a Guatemalan congressman, was charged with running an illegal
adoption ring after police found nine children in her home. Rivera is
the sister of congressman Gudy Rivera, president of a congressional
committee on minors and family affairs.
(AP, 5/7/08)
2008 May 7, India successfully
test-fired a nuclear-capable missile that can hit targets from Beijing
to Baghdad.
(AP, 5/7/08)
2008 May 7, In Iraq 7 militants
were killed in clashes around Baghdad. 5 suspected al-Qaida members,
including a Moroccan national, were killed in an operation in Samarra.
4 Sunni insurgents were killed in the province of Salahuddin when they
attacked a checkpoint manned by Awakening Council fighters.
(AP, 5/8/08)
2008 May 7, In Ireland Finance
Minister Brian Cowen was elected new prime minister, and he pledged to
keep the country on its pro-European course through choppy economic
waters.
(AP, 5/8/08)
2008 May 7, Conservative leader
Silvio Berlusconi formed Italy's 62nd postwar government for his third
stint as premier.
(AP, 5/7/08)
2008 May 7, The leaders of Japan
and China agreed to resolve a territorial row and start regular summits
to ease decades of tension, pledging that Asia's two largest economies
would not see each other as a threat.
(AP, 5/7/08)
2008 May 7, It was reported that
Japan was experiencing a problem with a growing population of crows.
Over the last 2 years utilities in Tokyo had reported almost 1400 cases
of crows cutting fiber optic cables.
(SFC, 5/7/08, p.A10)
2008 May 7, In Lebanon Hezbollah
opposition supporters and government backers exchanged gunfire and
threw stones as a strike by the Shiite militant group paralyzed large
parts of Beirut. Labor unions had called for the strike after rejecting
a last-minute pay raise offer by the government.
(AP, 5/7/08)
2008 May 7, In Mexico a leftist
rebel group (EPR) linked to a series of oil pipeline blasts on rejected
an offer from Mexico's government to hold talks. The People's
Revolutionary Army dismissed a proposal by President Felipe Calderon
because it said the offer showed no willingness to solve crimes
allegedly committed by current and past administrations against its
members.
(AP, 5/7/08)
2008 May 7, The international
relief effort for hundreds of thousands of Myanmar cyclone victims
picked up speed as India dispatched two planeloads of aid and Myanmar
authorized the UN to send its own air shipment.
(AP, 5/7/08)
2008 May 7, Nigeria announced it
was suspending import duties and other taxes on rice while launching a
raft of other measures to head off a food crisis in Africa's most
populous nation.
(AP, 5/7/08)
2008 May 7, Dmitry Medvedev was
inaugurated as Russia's president, pledging to bolster the country's
economic development and civil rights, in what may signal a departure
from his predecessor's heavy-handed tactics.
(AP, 5/7/08)
2008 May 7, World Bank figures
indicated that donor countries and organizations had pledged some $4.8
billion to aid Sudan. Norway, the host of a donors’ conference, pledged
$500 million. The EU promised $435 million and Japan promised to double
its contribution to $200 million.
(WSJ, 5/8/08, p.A8)
2008 May 7, Zimbabwe, already
facing a presidential run-off, hit new electoral turmoil after the
ruling party and opposition filed legal challenges to half of the
parliamentary results from March's polls.
(AFP, 5/7/08)
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