Today in History - June 4
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1070 Jun 4,
Roquefort cheese was accidentally discovered in a cave near Roquefort,
France, when a shepherd found a lunch he had forgotten several days
before.
(HN, 6/4/01)
1133 Jun 4, In Rome Pope
Innocentius II crowned German King Lothair II as emperor at the Church
of the Lateran.
(MC, 6/4/02)(PCh, 1992, p.92)
1316 Jun 4, Louis X (26), King of
France (1314-16), died.
(MC, 6/4/02)
1391 Jun 4, A mob led by Ferrand
Martinez surrounded and set fire to the Jewish quarter of Seville,
Spain. The surviving Jews were sold into slavery.
(MC, 6/4/02)
1568 Jun 4, Lamoraal, Count
Egmont, prince of Gavere, was beheaded in Brussels for opposition to
the Spanish Inquisition. He became a heroic figure in Goethe's play and
Beethoven's musical setting.
(PCh, 1992, p.195)(MC, 6/5/02)
1608 Jun 4, Francesco Caracciolo
(44), Italian religious founder, saint, died.
(MC, 6/4/02)
1615 Jun 4, The fortress of Osaka,
Japan, fell to shogun Leyasu after a six month siege.
(HN, 6/4/98)
1647 Jun 4, In England
Parliamentary forces seized King Charles I as a hostage.
(AP, 6/4/97)(HN, 6/4/98)
1717 Jun 4, The Freemasons
established their Grand Lodge in London. They had begun in the 13th
century as a guild of masons, who worked in soft stone called freestone.
(HN, 6/4/98)(WSJ, 2/6/02, p.A16)
1738 Jun 4, George III was born
(d.1820). He was the King of Great Britain and Ireland from 1760-1820,
and the King of Hanover from 1815-1820. He was responsible for losing
the American colonies. He passed the Royal Marriages Act, which made it
unlawful for his children to marry without his consent.
(HFA, '96, p.32)(AHD, 1971, p.552) (WSJ, 5/23/96,
p.A-10)
1745 Jun 4, Frederick the Great of
Prussia defeated the Austrians & Saxons.
(MC, 6/4/02)
1756 Jun 4, Quakers left the
assembly of Pennsylvania.
(MC, 6/4/02)
1783 Jun 4, The Montgolfier
brothers launched their 1st hot-air balloon (unmanned) in a 10-minute
flight over Annonay, France.
(http://inventors.about.com/od/astartinventions/ss/airship_2.htm)
1784 Jun 4, Elizabeth Thible
became the first woman to fly aboard a Montgolfier hot-air balloon,
over Lyon, France.
(AP, 6/4/07)
1789 Jun 4, The US constitution,
enacted as sovereign law, went into effect.
(V.D.-H.K.p.300)(MC, 6/4/02)
1792 Jun 4, Captain George
Vancouver claimed Puget Sound for Britain.
(HN, 6/4/98)
1792 Jun 4, John Burgoyne,
soldier, playwright, died.
(MC, 6/4/02)
1794 Jun 4, Congress passed a
Neutrality Act that banned Americans from serving in armed forces of
foreign powers.
(MC, 6/4/02)
1794 Jun 4, British troops
captured Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
(HN, 6/4/98)
1794 Jun 4, Robespierre was
unanimously elected president of the Convention in the French
Revolution.
(MC, 6/4/02)
1798 Jun 4, Giovanni Jacopo
Casanova (b.1725), fabled Italian seducer, adventurer, spy, librarian,
died of prostate cancer in Dux, Bohemia. While at Dux he authored his
memoirs: “History of My Life.” The standard English edition runs over
3,600 pages. In 2008 Ian Kelly authored “Casanova: Actor, Lover,
Priest, Spy.”
(www.1911encyclopedia.org/Giovanni_Jacopo_Casanova_de_Seingalt)(WSJ,
10/24/08, p.W5)
1800 Jun 4, The White House was
completed and President & Mrs. John Adams moved in. [see Nov 1]
(MC, 6/4/02)
1805 Jun 4, The US signed a Treaty
of Peace and Amity at Tripoli. The US agreed to pay Tripoli $60,000 in
war reparations and was in turn absolved of tribute demands. The treaty
was ratified by the US on Apr 17, 1806.
(ON, 2/03,
p.4)(www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/diplomacy/barbary/bar1805t.htm)
1812 Jun 4, The Louisiana
Territory was renamed the Missouri Territory.
(AP, 6/4/97)
1826 Jun 4, Karl Maria FE von
Weber (39), German composer (Oberon), died.
(MC, 6/4/02)
1843 Jun 4, Charles C. Abbott,
American naturalist, was born. He wrote “Days Out of Doors.”
(HN, 6/4/00)
1850 Jun 4, A self deodorizing
fertilizer was patented in England.
(MC, 6/4/02)
1859 Jun 4, The French army under
Napoleon III took Magenta from the Austrian army after a bloody battle
in northern Italy.
(HN, 6/4/99)
1862 Jun 4, Confederates evacuated
Ft. Pillow, Tenn.
(MC, 6/4/02)
1864 Jun 4, With Gen. Sherman
again flanking them, Confederates under General Joseph Johnston
retreated to the mountains before Marietta, Georgia.
(HN, 6/4/98)
1867 Jun 4, Carl Gustaf
Mannerheim, president of Finland, was born.
(HN, 6/4/98)
1872 Jun 4, Harvey Flint (d.1882)
patented his Quaker Bitters, a general cure-all with 21.4% alcohol. He
had recently left a family furniture business in Providence, Rhode
Island, and began making Quaker Bitters under the name Flint & Co.
(SFC, 8/8/07,
p.G2)(www.bottlebooks.com/temperance/temperance.htm)
1878 Jun 4, The Ottoman Empire
turned over control of Cyprus to the British.
(AP, 6/4/08)
1889 Jun 4, Beno Gutenberg,
seismologist, was born.
(HN, 6/4/01)
1892 Jun 4, The Sierra Club was
incorporated in San Francisco.
(AP, 6/4/97)
1894 Jun 4, Blanch Knopf,
publishing CEO (Knopf), was born.
(MC, 6/4/02)
1895 Jun 4, Dino Conte Grandi,
Italy's delegate to League of Nations, was born.
(HN, 6/4/98)
1896 Jun 4, Henry Ford made a
successful pre-dawn test run of his horseless carriage, called a
quadricycle, through the streets of Detroit.
(AP, 6/4/97)
1904 Jun 4, Alvah Bessie,
screenwriter and novelist, was born.
(HN, 6/4/01)
1907 Jun 4, Automatic washer and
dryer was introduced.
(MC, 6/4/02)
1908 Jun 4, Rosalind Russell
(d.1976), actress (Mame, Take a Letter Darling), was born in Waterbury,
Connecticut.
(www.filmreference.com/Actors-and-Actresses-Ro-Sc/Russell-Rosalind.html)
1911 Jun 4, Gold was discovered in
Alaska's Indian Creek.
(HN, 6/4/98)
1912 Jun 4, Massachusetts passed
the 1st US minimum wage law.
(MC, 6/4/02)
1917 Jun 4, Charles Collingwood,
news commentator (CBS, Chronicles), was born in Mich.
(MC, 6/4/02)
1917 Jun 4, American men begin
registering for the draft. [see Jun 5]
(MC, 6/4/02)
1917 Jun 4, The Most Excellent
Order of the British Empire, a British order of chivalry, was
established by King George V. The Order included five classes in civil
and military divisions in decreasing order of seniority. These
included: Knight Grand Cross (GBE) or Dame Grand Cross (GBE), Knight
Commander (KBE) or Dame Commander (DBE), Commander (CBE), Officer
(OBE), and Member (MBE).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_the_British_Empire)
1918 Jun 4, French and American
troops halted Germany's offensive at Chateau-Thierry, France.
(HN, 6/4/98)
1919 Jun 4, The U.S. Senate passed
the Women's Suffrage bill.
(HN, 6/4/98)
1919 Jun 4, US marines invaded
Costa Rica.
(MC, 6/4/02)
1920 Jun 4, The Treaty of
Trianon, signed at Versailles, was forced upon Hungary by the
victorious Allies after WWII and resulted in Hungary giving up nearly
three-fourths of its territory to Romania, Czechoslovakia and the
Kingdom of Serbs, Croat and Slovenes. Hungary lost more than half its
population, including some 3 million Hungarians. Hungary ceded the
hills of Transylvania to Romania.
(HNQ, 7/5/98)(WSJ, 1/2/97,
p.1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Trianon)
1923 Jun 4, Filippo Smaldone,
Italian priest, died. He provided education and assistance for the
death and founded the Congregation of the Salesian Sisters of the
Sacred Heart. In 2006 Pope Benedict XVI named him a saint.
(SFC, 10/16/06, p.A2)
1928 Jun 4, Ruth Westheimer, sex
therapist (WYNY-FM), was born in Germany.
(MC, 6/4/02)
1929 Jun 4, George Eastman
demonstrated 1st Technicolor movie in Rochester, NY.
(MC, 6/4/02)
1936 Jun 4, Leon Blum became the
first socialist and the first Jew to serve as Prime Minister of France.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%A9on_Blum)
1937 Jun 4, Robert Fulghrum,
American author, was born. He wrote "All I Really need to Know I
learned in Kindergarten" and "It Was on Fire When I Lay Down on It."
(HN, 6/4/99)
1937 Jun 4, Freddy Fender, singer,
was born as Baldemar Huerta. His songs included: Wasted Days and
Wasted Nights and Before the Next Teardrop Falls.
(www.napster.com/view/artist/index.html?id=11508506)
1939 Jun 4, During what became
known as the "Voyage of the Damned," the SS St. Louis, carrying 907
Jewish refugees from Germany, was turned away from the Florida coast.
Also denied permission to dock in Canada and Cuba, the ship eventually
returned to Europe. The passengers were divided among England, France,
Belgium and Holland and a number of the refugees later died in Nazi
concentration camps. By 2003 efforts to track their fates identified
935 out of the 937 passengers. Some 260 ended in Nazi killing centers.
(AP, 6/4/99)(SFC, 10/4/99, p.D3)(SSFC, 12/7/03, Par
p.5)(Econ, 6/24/06, p.44)
1940 Jun 4, A synthetic rubber
tire was unveiled.
(MC, 6/4/02)
1940 Jun 4, The Allied military
evacuation of 300,000 troops from Dunkirk, France, ended.
(AP, 6/4/97)(HN, 6/4/98)
1940 Jun 4, German forces entered
Paris.
(MC, 6/4/02)
1941 Jun 4, Republic of Croatia
ordered all Jews to wear a star with the letter Z.
(MC, 6/4/02)
1941 Jun 4, Wilhelm II von
Hohenzollern, emperor (Germany, 1888-1918), died.
(MC, 6/4/02)
1942 Jun 4, The Battle of Midway
began. It was Japan’s first major defeat in World War II. Four Japanese
carriers were lost. The carrier USS Yorktown was hit by 3 Japanese
bombs and put on tow to Pearl Harbor. It was torpedoed three days later
and sank in waters 16,650 deep. The Yorktown was found in 1998 by a
team led by oceanographer Robert Ballard, who had also found the
Titanic and the Bismarck. The story of the Battle of Midway was told by
Walter Lord in "Incredible Victory." In 2005 Alvin Kernan authored “The
Unknown Battle of Midway.”
(AP, 6/4/97)(HN, 6/4/98)(SFC, 6/5/98, p.A3)(SFEC,
6/4/00, p.C1)(WSJ, 11/29/05, p.D8)
1943 Jun 4, Race riots took place
in LA.
(MC, 6/4/02)
1943 Jun 4, In Argentina, Gen
Rawson and Col. Juan Peron led the military coup that overthrew Ramon
S. Castillo.
(HN, 6/4/98)(MC, 6/4/02)
1944 Jun 4, The U-505 became the
first enemy submarine captured by the U.S. Navy under Admiral Dan
Gallery. The keel for the U-505 was laid on June 12, 1940. It launched
from Hamburg the following year. During its career, the U-505
gained the unwelcome but lucky distinction of being the most heavily
damaged U-boat to manage to return to port. Under the command of Harald
Lange, the boat was attacked by an American task group led by the USS
Guadalcanal. Crewmen from the destroyer escort USS Pillsbury managed to
capture the U-505 before the submariners could in scuttle her. This
represented the first time since 1815 that the US Navy captured an
enemy warship on the high seas (the capture remained a secret). After
the war, Navy plans to scuttle the U-boat in a gunnery exercise were
themselves scrapped when the president of Chicago’s Museum of Science
& Industry voiced interest and a plan to use the entire submarine
as part of an exhibit. The U-505 was dedicated as a permanent exhibit
and war memorial at the museum on September 25, 1954. In 2005 a $35
million project restored the ship and moved it to a specially
constructed underground hall.
(HN, 6/4/98)(HNQ, 3/29/01)(WSJ, 8/5/05, p.W2)
1944 Jun 4, The US Fifth Army
under Gen. Mark Clark, entered Rome, beginning the liberation of the
Italian capital during World War II.
(AP, 6/4/97)(Econ, 4/12/08, p.94)
1945 Jun 4, Anthony Braxton, jazz
composer and saxophonist, was born.
(HN, 6/4/01)
1945 Jun 4, US, Russia, England
& France agreed to split occupied Germany.
(MC, 6/4/02)
1946 Jun 4, Juan Peron was
installed as Argentina's president.
(HN, 6/4/98)
1946 Jun 4, A giant eruption
occurred on the surface of the sun and was photographed by the
coronograph of the High Altitude Observatory of the Univ. of Colorado.
(SCTS, p.84)
1947 Jun 4, The House of
Representatives overwhelmingly approved the Labor Management Relations
Act also known as the Taft-Hartley Act. It provided for an 80-day
injunction against strikes that endangered public health and safety.
Pres. [see Jun 20]
(WUD, 1994 p.1447)(AP, 6/4/97)(SFC, 11/27/99, p.C4)
1948 Jun 4, Hugh Kenner (d.2003 at
80) met for the 1st time with Ezra Pound in a Washington-area mental
facility. Pound became his mentor and directed him in a number of
literary efforts. In 1951 Kenner turned his thesis into the book: "The
Poetry of Ezra Pound." In 1971 Kenner authored "The Pound Era."
(SSFC, 11/30/03, p.A31)
1951 Jun 4, Serge Koussevitsky
(76), conductor, composer, died.
(MC, 6/4/02)
1952 Jun 4, Parker Stevenson,
actor (The Hardy Boys Mysteries, Baywatch, Melrose Place, Falcon
Crest), was born.
(MC, 6/4/02)
1953 Jun 4, An atomic bomb test
explosion took place at Yucca Flats, Nevada, equivalent to 50,000 tons
of TNT. This was double the 1945 blast over Hiroshima.
(SFC, 5/30/03, p.E7)
1953 Jun 4, North Koreans accepted
UN proposals in all major respects.
(HN, 6/4/98)
1954 Jun 4, French Premier Joseph
Laniel and Vietnamese Premier Buu Loc initialed treaties in Paris
according "complete independence" to Vietnam.
(AP, 6/4/97)
1958 Jun 4, French premier De
Gaulle arrived in Algiers.
(MC, 6/4/02)
1959 Jun 4, The Soviet Union’s
Bolshoi Ballet company arrived in San Francisco following performances
in New York and Los Angeles. They were scheduled for 4 performances at
the War Memorial House. In LA troupe members bought furs, rugs, china
and curtain rods.
(SSFC, 5/31/09, DB p.50)
1960 Jun 4, The Taiwan island of
Quemoy was hit by 500 artillery shells fired from the coast of
Communist China.
(HN, 6/4/98)
1961 Jun 4, A Soviet K-19 nuclear
submarine with 139 crew members experienced a nuclear accident. 22
later died from radiation poisoning. In 2001 the US film “K-19: The
Widowmaker” loosely depicted the accident.
(SFC, 4/20/01, p.A14)(WSJ, 4/3/02, p.A20)
1962 Jun 4, Lee Harvey Oswald
departed Rotterdam on SS Maasdam to US.
(MC, 6/4/02)
1962 Jun 4, William Beebe
(b.1877), US biologist, explorer, died. In 2004 Carol Grant Gould
authored “The Remarkable Life of William Beebe: Explorer and
Naturalist.”
(NH, 2/05,
p.54)(www.britannica.com/eb/article?tocId=9014090)
1967 Jun 4, American actor and
comedian Bill Cosby (b.1937) received an Emmy Award for his work in the
television series "I Spy." Cosby won three consecutive Emmy Awards for
Outstanding Lead Actor in the Drama Series in 1966, 1967 and 1968. In
the 19th Emmy Awards: Mission Impossible, Monkees, Don Knotts &
Lucy Ball were among the winners.
(HN, 6/4/00)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Spy)
1968 Jun 4, Robert Kennedy won the
California democratic Presidential Primary whose candidates included
Eugene McCarthy. Vice-Pres. Hubert Humphrey had declined to enter the
California primary. Kennedy was shot the next day in LA by Sirhan
Sirhan and died on June 6.
(SFEM, 11/17/96, p.26)
1968 Jun 4, Alexandre Kojeve
(b.1902), French-Russian philosopher, died in Brussels. He was
suspected of serving as a Soviet spy from 1938 to his death.
(WSJ, 10/11/01,
p.A20)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandre_Koj%C3%A8ve)
1969 Jun 4, Armando Socarras
Ramirez (22) sneaked into wheel pod of a jet parked in Havana &
survived a 9-hr flight to Spain despite thin oxygen levels at 29,000 ft.
(http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/168489/an/0/page/25)
1972 Jun 4, Black militant Angela
Davis was found not guilty of murder, kidnapping, and criminal
conspiracy.
(HN, 6/4/98)
1974 Jun 4, Ten Cent Beer Night
was an ill-fated promotion held by the American League's Cleveland
Indians during a game against the Texas Rangers at Cleveland Municipal
Stadium.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_Cent_Beer_Night)
1975 Jun 4, The oldest animal
fossils to date in the US were discovered in North Carolina.
(www.todayinsci.com/6/6_04.htm)
1979 Jun 4, Joe Clark of the
Progressive Conservatives became the 16th prime minister of Canada.
(AP, 6/4/07)
1979 Jun 4, In Ghana friends of
J.J. Rawlings (b.1947), led by Major Boakye Djan, overthrew the
military government of General Fred Akuffo in a bloody coup.
(SFC, 12/6/96, p.B1)
1979 Jun 4, South African Pres.
Vorster resigned due to scandal. Marais Viljoen became the last
non-executive State President of South Africa and served until
September 3, 1984.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marais_Viljoen)
1980 Jun 4, In northern California
the body of Anna Menjivas was discovered in Mt. Tamalpais State Park.
Her murder had not been connected with the "Trailside" slayings at the
time. Investigators later learned she was a long-time friend of David
Carpenter, who often let him drive her home from work. In 1988
Carpenter was convicted of 4 killings in Marin County.
(www.francesfarmersrevenge.com/stuff/serialkillers/carpenter.htm)(SFC,
2/24/10, p.A7)
1982 Jun 4, A 4-day storm began in
New England. It deluged Connecticut with 14 inches of rain, breaking 23
dams and destroying two. Damages were estimated at close to $276
million.
(SFC, 6/4/09, p.D10)
1982 Jun 4, Israel attacked
targets in south Lebanon one day after the attempted assassination of
the Israeli ambassador in London.
(www.adl.org/israel/advocacy/glossary/lebanon_war.asp)
1983 Jun 4, In Chino Hills, Ca.,
Douglas and Peggy Ryen and their 10-year old daughter, Jessica, were
killed in the master bedroom of their home. Christopher Hughes (11), a
neighbor, was also killed. Joshua Ryen (8) survived despite serious
wounds. Kevin Cooper, who escaped from Chino prison on June 2, was
arrested 47 days later and was convicted for the murders in 1985 and
faced execution. Cooper claimed he was innocent and called for DNA
testing of the evidence in 2000. In 2003 an execution date of Feb 10,
2004, was set for Cooper. Cooper won a last minute reprieve on Feb 9
pending a re-examination of the case. In 2005 a federal judge upheld
his death penalty.
(SFC, 12/18/03, p.A21)(SFC, 2/11/04,
p.A4)(www.savekevincooper.org/background.html)
1984 Jun 4, DNA was successfully
cloned from a quagga, an animal extinct since 1883.
(www.tecsoc.org/pubs/history/2003/jun4.htm)
1985 Jun 4, The Supreme Court
upheld a lower court ruling striking down an Alabama law providing for
a daily "moment of silence" in public schools.
(AP, 6/4/97)(http://tinyurl.com/2lqt4u)
1986 Jun 4, Jonathan Jay Pollard,
a former Navy intelligence analyst, pleaded guilty in Washington to
spying for Israel. He was later sentenced a life prison term.
(AP, 6/4/97)(WSJ, 1/28/98, p.A18)
1987 Jun 4, The US congressional
Iran-Contra committees voted to grant limited immunity to former
National Security Council aide Oliver L. North, following an appeal by
independent counsel Lawrence E. Walsh to reject immunity.
(AP, 6/4/97)
1988 Jun 4, US Secretary of State
George Shultz flew to Jordan, where he met with King Hussein.
Afterward, Shultz said the Jordanian monarch was reluctant to engage in
peace talks with Israel unless Israel agreed to give up land on the
West Bank.
(AP, 6/4/98)
1989 Jun 4, "Jerome Robbins's
Broadway" won best musical at the 43rd annual Tony Awards; "The Heidi
Chronicles" by Wendy Wasserstein won best play.
(AP, 6/4/99)
1989 Jun 4, In China hundreds of
people died as Chinese army troops stormed Beijing to crush the
pro-democracy movement. Hundreds of thousands of discontented Chinese
took to the streets of Beijing, demanding more reform, but the military
crushed the protests in the Tiananmen Square crackdown. Zhao Ziyang was
ousted. The West and Japan cut off aid. Bao Tong was the only Communist
Party official arrested in the Tiananmen Square uprising. He was
released with ill-health in 1996. Han Dongfang, leader of China’s first
independent trade union spent 22 months behind bars for his role in the
pro-democracy uprising. Ren Wanding was also again jailed for giving
speeches in the pro-democracy protests.
(WSJ 12/10/93)(SFC, 5/28/96, p.A6)(SFC, 6/4/96,
p.A11)(SFC, 6/10/96, C2)(AP, 6/4/97)
1989 Jun 4, Poland held Eastern
Europe's 1st somewhat free election in 40 years. The 2-part election
(June 4 and 19) resulted in a land-slide victory of the opposition
organized in the Citizens' Committee, which won all 161 seats available
to it in the Sejm, and 99 out of 100 seats in the senate.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solidarity_Citizens'_Committee)
1989 Jun 4, A gas explosion in the
Soviet Union engulfed two passing trains, killing 645.
(AP, 6/4/97)
1990 Jun 4, Janet Adkins (54) of
Portland, Ore., became the first person to use a suicide machine
developed by Dr. Kevorkian. This began a national debate over the right
to die.
(SFC, 4/14/99, p.A3)(www.lectlaw.com/files/cas20.htm)
1990 Jun 4, Soviet President
Mikhail Gorbachev closed out his US visit in northern California, where
he held a reunion with former President Reagan and met with South
Korean President Roh Tae-woo in San Francisco, and addressed students
at Stanford University in Palo Alto.
(AP, 6/4/00)
1991 Jun 4, President Bush tapped
former Democratic national chairman Robert S. Strauss to be the new US
ambassador to the Soviet Union.
(AP, 6/4/01)
1991 Jun 4, The government of
China announced the death of Jiang Qing (77), the widow of Mao
Tse-tung, saying she had committed suicide on May 14th.
(AP, 6/4/01)
1992 Jun 4, President Bush held a
news conference in which he said he understood Americans' fascination
with Ross Perot, but predicted that voters would eventually ask, "How
are you going to do it?"
(AP, 6/4/97)
1992 Jun 4, The U.S. Postal
Service announced the results of a nationwide vote on the Elvis Presley
stamp, saying more people preferred the "younger Elvis" design.
(AP, 6/4/97)
1993 Jun 4, Rejecting allegations
of "quota queen," Lani Guinier expressed regret President Clinton had
dropped her nomination to head the Justice Department's civil rights
division.
(AP, 6/4/98)
1993 Jun 4, The UN Security
Council agreed to send up to 10,000 more UN peacekeepers to six Bosnian
cities to protect Muslim havens.
(AP, 6/4/98)
1994 Jun 4, President Clinton and
British Prime Minister John Major paid tribute to the lost airmen of
World War II at the American Cemetery in Cambridge, England.
(AP, 6/4/99)
1994 Jun 4, Gregory Scarpa,
nicknamed The Grim Reaper, died in a Minnesota prison. He was a soldier
for the Colombo crime family and an informant for the FBI.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregory_Scarpa_Sr.)
1994 Jun 4, Toto Bissainthe (59),
Haitian poet and singer, died.
(www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/world/guidehaitid.shtml)
1995 Jun 4, At the Tony Awards,
“Sunset Boulevard” won best Broadway musical while “Love! Valour!
Compassion!” by Terrence McNally was chosen best play.
(AP, 6/4/00)
1995 Jun 4, Sophie Winter (34),
actress (She's a Good Fighter), died from a misdiagnosed extopic
pregnancy.
(http://tinyurl.com/83sc6)
1995 Jun 4, French General Bernard
Janvier, supreme UN military commander in the former Yugoslavia, met
with Bosnian Serb military commander, Ratko Mladic. He pleaded for the
release of UN captives and offered to halt future NATO air attacks.
Shortly after Yasushi Akashi publicly affirmed that the UN would abide
by peacekeeping principles - shorthand for no more air attacks.
(SFC, 6/7/96, p.A10)
1995 Jun 4, In Sri Lanka the
Tigers blew up a ship chartered by the Int’l. Committee of the Red
Cross.
(SFC, 7/24/96, p.A9)
1996 Jun 4, Russian President
Boris Yeltsin, campaigning for re-election, indulged in a bit of
onstage boogie at a pop concert for young voters.
(AP, 6/4/97)
1996 Jun 4, US and French
officials signed a secret agreement to share nuclear weapons
information and facilitate joint work between scientists.
(SFC, 6/15/96, p.A10)
1996 Jun 4, The Organization of
American States criticized the US over the extension of the economic
embargo against Cuba with 32 co-sponsors. The US was the sole dissenter.
(SFC, 6/6/96, C2)
1996 Jun 4, NATO foreign ministers
approved plans to shift focus toward intervention in small regional
conflicts and away from containing Russia, its primary focus for 47
years.
(WSJ, 6/4/96, p.A1)
1996 Jun 4, In Burundi three
Swiss Red Cross workers were ambushed and killed while delivering
supplies near the village of Mugina. The Tutsi-dominated Uprona Party
denied any role and said the killings were the work of gangs of the
Coalition for the Defense of Democracy, the main Hutu rebel group.
(SFC, 6/5/96, p.C16)(SFC, 6/6/96,
p.C3)
1996 Jun 4, The European Space
Agency Ariane 5 rocket was destroyed when it went off course during
take-off from Kourou, French Guiana. The $7 billion rocket had taken 10
years to develop and was to be capable of carrying 7.6 tons into orbit.
(SFC, 6/5/96, p.C16)
1996 Jun 4, A report on China
focused on tens of millions of people suffering from iodine deficiency.
The effects of the deficiency has led to stunted lives and intellects.
Where goiter and cretinism are not visibly apparent, chronic mental and
physical fatigue and some degree of mental impairment was widespread.
(SFC, 6/4/96, p.A13)
1996 Jun 4, In Nigeria Kudirat
Abiola, wife of imprisoned opposition leader Moshood Abiola, was shot
and killed by 6 gunmen near her home in Lagos.
(SFC, 6/5/96, p.C2)
1997 Jun 4, At the Oklahoma City
bombing trial, prosecutors urged the jury to sentence Timothy McVeigh
to death, calling relatives of victims to testify about agonizing
losses.
(AP, 6/4/98)
1997 Jun 4, In Lubbock, Texas,
Michael Rosales, a parole violator, beat and used kitchen tools to kill
Mary Felder (67) during a robbery at her apartment. Rosales (35) was
executed on April 16, 2009.
(SFC, 4/16/09,
p.A6)(www.oag.state.tx.us/oagnews/release.php?id=2917)
1997 Jun 4, The 53-nation
Organization of African Unity unanimously condemned the coup in Sierra
Leone. The 16-member Nigerian-led Economic Community of West African
states pledged not to tolerate military coups on the continent a day
after it approved the use of force to restore the government of Sierra
Leone.
(SFC, 6/5/97, p.C3)
1997 Jun 4, Brazil’s Senate
approved a constitutional revision to allow office-holders to run for
re-election. this will allow Pres. Cardoso to seek a 2nd term.
(WSJ, 6/5/97, p.A1)
1997 Jun 4, China signed a $660
million deal to develop an Iraqi oil field.
(WSJ, 6/5/97, p.A1)
1997 Jun 4, In France PM Lionel
Jospin appointed women to 6 of 16 ministerial positions.
(SFC, 6/5/97, p.C2)
1997 Jun 4, In Germany some
600,000 chemical union workers agreed to allow wage cuts by up to 10%
by financially strapped companies. Record unemployment stood at 11% and
the government asked unions for some flexibility.
(SFC, 6/6/97, p.E2)
1997 Jun 4, In Drammen, Norway, a
car bomb destroyed the headquarters of the Bandido motorcycle gang. One
passerby was killed and 4 people were injured.
(SDUT, 6/6/97, p.A26)
1998 Jun 4, In Denver a federal
judge sentenced Terry Nichols to life in prison without parole for
conspiring in 1995 to bomb the Alfred Murrah Federal Building in
Oklahoma City.
(SFC, 6/5/98, p.A1)(AP, 6/4/99)
1998 Jun 4, Americans aboard the
shuttle Discovery arrived at the Russian space station Mir to pick up
U.S. astronaut Andrew Thomas, who'd spent four months in orbit.
(AP, 6/4/99)
1998 Jun 4, It was reported that
Duke Univ. scientists reported that they were able to change
sickled blood cells into normal cells using genetic therapy.
(SFC, 6/5/98, p.A7)
1998 Jun 4, In Bluff, Utah, Robert
Mason (26), one of 3 suspects in the May 29 killing of a Cortez, Colo.,
police officer, was found dead with a gunshot wound to his head.
(SFC, 6/5/98, p.A3)
1998 Jun 4, A team of physicists
from Japan reported that they had established that the subnuclear
neutrino particles had mass.
(SFC, 6/5/98, p.A1)
1998 Jun 4, Shirley Polykoff, the
pioneering advertising woman who authored the “Does she... or doesn’t
she” for Clairol hair dyes in 1956, died at age 90. She wrote the 1975
book “Does She... or Doesn’t She? And How She Die It.”
(SFC, 6/9/98, p.A24)
1998 Jun 4, In Britain the House
of Commons decided to get rid of its collapsible top hats, a tradition
that dated from 19th century.
(SFC, 6/5/98, p.D4)
1998 Jun 4, In Indonesia creditor
banks unveiled a plan to restructure $80 billion of foreign debt owed
by banks and corporations.
(WSJ, 6/5/98, p.A1)
1998 Jun 4, Mexico, Saudi Arabia
and Venezuela agreed to cuts in oil production and exports for the 2nd
time this year in order to raise prices.
(WSJ, 6/5/98, p.A2)
1998 Jun 4, In Pristina, Serbia,
the Kosovo Albanians withdrew from negotiations with Serbia due to the
new Serbian offensive.
(SFC, 6/5/98, p.D2)
1998 Jun 4, In Taiwan it was
reported that an airborne virus had killed 26 children in the last 6
weeks. Another 132 were hospitalized and as many as 9,000 were
infected. Efforts to fight the disease were being centralized.
Enterovirus 71 soon claimed 7 more children.
(WSJ, 6/5/98, p.A1)(SFC, 6/19/98, p.B4)
1999 Jun 4, Using a provision of
the Constitution allowing him to bypass the Senate, Pres. Clinton
bypassed Congress with a "recess appointment" for James Hormel as
ambassador to Luxembourg, the first openly gay ambassador in US history.
(SFC, 6/5/99, p.A1)(AP, 6/4/00)
1999 Jun 4, A federal judge in
Portland ruled that AT&T must open its cable lines to competitors.
(SFC, 6/5/99, p.A1)
1999 Jun 4, Senators Diane
Feinstein of California and Harry Reid of Nevada announced the Lake
Tahoe Restoration Act. The bill would authorized $300 million over 10
years to restore clarity and health to Lake Tahoe.
(SFC, 6/5/99, p.A1)
1999 Jun 4, On the tenth
anniversary of China’s crackdown on the Tiananmen Square protests, tens
of thousands of people in Hong Kong held a candlelight vigil.
(AP, 6/4/00)
1999 Jun 4, The Deutsche Bank AG
$9.8 billion acquisition of Bankers Trust, an American Bank, was
finalized.
(Econ, 5/19/07, SR
p.10)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bankers_Trust)
1999 Jun 4, NATO commanders met
with Yugoslav army officers in Macedonia to arrange for the withdrawal
of some 40,000 Serbian troops from Kosovo.
(SFC, 6/5/99, p.A1)
1999 Jun 4, Pope John Paul II
traveled to Poland, the first stop on a 13-day visit to 20 cities. This
was his 8th visit to Poland.
(WSJ, 6/4/99, p.A1)
1999 Jun 4, In Colombia at least
2,000 people crossed the border into Venezuela to escape heavy fighting
in northern Santander province.
(SFC, 6/5/99, p.A12)
1999 Jun 4, In Turkey police
killed 2 members of a radical group believed to be planning a rocket
attack on the US Consulate in Istanbul.
(SFC, 6/5/99, p.A12)
2000 Jun 4, The play “Copenhagen”
by Michael Frayn won the best play Tony at the 54th annual Tony Awards
in Manhattan. The dance-play “Contact” won for best new musical. “Kiss
Me, Kate” won for best musical revival.
(SFC, 6/5/00, p.D1)(AP, 6/4/01)
2000 Jun 4, Pres. Clinton and
Pres. Putin agreed to each dispose 34 metric tons of weapons-grade
plutonium and to establish a military center in Moscow for US and
Russian officers to share early warning data on missile and space
launches. Clinton then answered questions from the public at the Ekho
Moskvy radio station.
(SFC, 6/5/00, p.A1,8)
2000 Jun 4, In NYC 150 people
posed face-down flat nude beneath the Williamsburg Bridge for a photo
shoot by Spencer Tunick.
(SFC, 6/5/00, p.A7)
2000 Jun 4, NASA directed the $670
million, 17-ton, crippled Compton Gamma Ray Observatory into a suicide
plunge into the Pacific Ocean in a controlled re-entry to avoid debris
over populated areas.
(SFC, 6/3/00,
p.A6)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compton_Gamma_Ray_Observatory)
2000 Jun 4, It was reported that
IBM planned to build the “Blue Gene” computer over the next five years
to model the way human proteins fold into shapes that give them unique
biological properties.
(SFEC, 6/4/00, p.A12)
2000 Jun 4, A 3-day meeting on
trade of the 34-nation OAS, Organization of American States, began in
Windsor, Canada. Police arrested 41 protesters.
(SFEC, 6/4/00, p.A20)(SFC, 6/5/00, p.A9)
2000 Jun 4, In Indonesia a 7.3
earthquake hit Sumatra and over 100 people were killed with relentless
aftershocks.
(SFC, 6/5/00, p.A8)(SFC, 6/6/00, p.A13)
2000 Jun 4, In West Papua
separatists made a declaration of independence from Indonesia. Thaha
Alhamid read the declaration before thousands gathered in Jayapura. 500
West Papuans had gathered for a “congress” that resulted in the
declaration.
(SFC, 6/5/00, p.A8)(SFC, 7/7/00, p.A12)
2000 Jun 4, In Pakistan a new
government tax caused protests and strikes. In Peshawar police broke up
a rally with tear gas and batons. Small traders refused to open their
shops and transport workers joined the strikes.
(SFEC, 6/11/00, p.T10)
2000 Jun 4, In the Solomon Islands
insurgents of the Malaita Eagle Force militia took Prime Minister
Bartholomew Ulufa’alua hostage in Honiara. The Malaita Force was
fighting the Isatabu force, which was trying to drive thousands of
migrants from Malaita off of Guadalcanal.
(SFC, 6/5/00, p.A9)
2001 Jun 4, Pres. Bush spoke in
the Florida Everglades and underlined his request for $58 million in
the 2002 budget for Everglades restoration.
(SFC, 6/5/01, p.A3)
2001 Jun 4, It was reported that
US Defense Sec. Donald Rumsfeld had virtually cut off all Pentagon
contacts with the Chinese armed forces in displeasure over the spy
plane incident. Rumsfeld announced that he had given limited permission
to resume military-to-military contacts with China due to the progress
in the resolution of the spy plane incident.
(SFC, 6/4/01, p.A10)(SFC, 6/5/01, p.A12)
2001 Jun 4, Nevada lawmakers
approved a bill to legalize Internet gambling and passed a medical
marijuana measure.
(WSJ, 6/5/01, p.A1)
2001 Jun 4, Hewlett-Packard agreed
to pay $400 million to Pitney Bowes to settle a 6-year-old patent
dispute over printer technology.
(SFC, 6/5/01, p.C1)
2001 Jun 4, In India government
troops battled Islamic rebels on 3 fronts and 23 people were killed. 4
civilians died when a grenade missed a paramilitary bunker and exploded
at a crowded bus station.
(SFC, 6/5/01, p.A14)
2001 Jun 4, As Israeli soldiers
and Palestinians exchanged fire in Rafah, Hamas said that it would join
the cease-fire.
(SFC, 6/5/01, p.A12)
2001 Jun 4, In Nepal King Dipendra
died 3 days after allegedly shooting the royal family and himself.
Prince Gyanendra was named king.
(SFC, 6/4/01, p.A8)(AP, 6/4/02)
2001 Jun 4, In Russia most of the
production of vodka stopped due to the lack of government stamps, which
were ordered to fight bootlegging and boost taxes.
(WSJ, 6/5/01, p.A1)
2001 Jun 4, In Sri Lanka
anti-terrorist commandos killed 14 Tamil Tiger rebels trying to
infiltrate the Ampara district.
(SFC, 6/5/01, p.A14)
2001 Jun 4, In Zimbabwe Chenjerai
Hunzvi (Hitler Hunzvi), a leader of the war veterans, died at age 51.
He had led the violent occupations of white-owned farms.
(SFC, 6/5/01, p.A14)
2002 Jun 4, Pres. Bush said the
CIA and FBI had failed to communicate adequately before the Sept. 11,
2001, terror attacks; Congress began extraordinary closed-door hearings
into intelligence lapses.
(AP, 6/4/03)
2002 Jun 4, Pres. Bush said that
he read the new EPA report on global warming, but still opposed the
Kyoto treaty.
(SFC, 6/5/02, p.A3)
2002 Jun 4, Members of Congress
initiated an investigation to probe the “evolution of the international
terrorist threat” back to 1986.
(SFC, 6/5/02, p.A1)
2002 Jun 4, A NYC crime sweep
arrested 17 alleged members of the Gambino family with charges that
included extortion.
(SFC, 6/5/02, p.A8)
2002 Jun 4, A panel of U.S. Roman
Catholic bishops called for a zero-tolerance policy against priests who
molest children in the future and a two-strikes-you're-out policy for
those guilty of past abuse.
(AP, 6/4/03)
2002 Jun 4, Japan ratified the
Kyoto Protocol, aimed at cutting emissions of heat-trapping gases and
urged the US and other countries to do so.
(AP, 6/4/03)(SFC, 6/5/02, p.A3)
2002 Jun 4, New Zealand's prime
minister apologized for mistakes her country made during its 48-year
rule over the tiny South Pacific island chain of Samoa.
(AP, 6/3/02)
2002 Jun 4, In Syria the Zayzoun
Dam (b.1996) near Idlib burst and at least 20 people were killed. A 24
square-mile area was flooded and 3 villages submerged.
(SFC, 6/7/02, p.A13)
2002 Jun 4, Turkish peacekeepers
arrived in Afghanistan.
(WSJ, 6/5/02, p.A1)
2003 Jun 4, Pres. Bush held
meetings with the Israeli and Palestinian prime ministers, hoping to
advance a Middle East peace plan after winning new support from top
Arab leaders.
(AP, 6/4/04)
2003 Jun 4, Martha Stewart stepped
down as head of her media empire, hours after she was charged with a
9-count federal indictment in a stock trading scandal. Stewart was
convicted in March, 2004, of lying about why she'd sold her shares of
ImClone Systems stock in 2001, just before the stock price plunged.
(SFC, 6/5/03, p.A1)(AP, 6/4/04)
2003 Jun 4, Palm Inc. said it
would buy rival Handspring in a stock deal valued at $195 mil.
(SFC, 6/5/03, p.B1)(WSJ, 6/5/03, p.B1)
2003 Jun 4, The Pews Ocean
Commission said US waters are so stressed by pollution and overfishing
that drastic federal intervention is required.
(SFC, 6/5/03, p.A8)(WSJ, 6/5/03, p.A1)
2003 Jun 4, Corey Marques Jasmin
(20), an airman at Travis Air Force Base, robbed an adult book store in
Fairfield, Ca. Hours later he killed two homeless women, Otilia
Carrington (48) and Ricksehlla Harrison (29). In 2008 a state appeals
court upheld his life sentence without parole.
(SFC, 9/27/08, p.B2)
2003 Jun 4, Delmar E. Brown (84),
renowned fly fisherman, died in Watsonville, Ca. He invented the Del
Brown Crab Fly and held a record-setting catch of a tarpon 15 times the
test of his line.
(SSFC, 6/8/03, p.A29)
2003 Jun 4, In Afghanistan 40
Taliban suspects were killed in one of the deadliest exchanges between
Taliban and government troops since the hardline religious regime was
overthrown in late 2001. 7 government soldiers also died in the nine
hours of fighting in three villages north of Spinboldak, near the
border with Pakistan.
(AP, 6/5/03)
2003 Jun 4, In Jordan Israeli
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon pledged to dismantle illegal settlements in
Palestinian areas, while the new Palestinian leader renounced all
terrorism against Israel. Both steps were sought by President Bush as
he brought the two sides together in a bid to advance Middle East peace.
(AP, 6/4/03)
2003 Jun 4, In Laos 2 European
journalists and an American were arrested on murder charges. Belgian
photojournalist Thierry Falise and French cameraman Vincent Reynaud
were arrested with an American of Hmong origin for allegedly helping
"bandits" kill a security official in the remote northeastern village
of Khai.
(AP, 6/11/03)
2003 Jun 4, In Nepal King
Gyanendra appointed a pro-monarchist Wednesday as Nepal's new PM. Surya
Bahadur Thapa replaces Lokendra Bahadur Chand, who resigned last week.
(AP, 6/4/03)
2003 Jun 4, A UN-backed war crimes
court indicted Liberian Pres. Charles Taylor, accusing him of "the
greatest responsibility" in the vicious 10-year civil war in
neighboring Sierra Leone.
(AP, 6/4/03)
2003 Jun 4, The Peruvian
government failed to meet wage demands by striking teachers, who vowed
to extend a 24-day walkout that triggered nationwide protests and
prompted President Alejandro Toledo to declare a state of emergency.
(AP, 6/5/03)
2003 Jun 4, The UN Security
Council agreed to end a ban on the export of so-called "blood diamonds"
from Sierra Leone because of government efforts to control the diamond
industry.
(AP, 6/4/03)
2003 Jun 4,Togo President Gen.
Gnassingbe Eyadema, was declared winner of questioned presidential
elections.
(AP, 6/4/03)
2003 Jun 4, In Vietnam Truong Van
Cam, reputed underworld boss, was found guilty of 7 crimes. 154 alleged
associates included high-ranking government officials. He was sentenced
to death the next day.
(SFC, 6/5/03, p.A3)
2004 Jun 4, Pres. Bush nominated
John Danforth, former Republican senator from Missouri, to be US
ambassador to the UN.
(SFC, 6/5/04, A3)
2004 Jun 4, Pope John Paul II met
with President Bush and reminded him of the Vatican's opposition to the
war in Iraq.
(AP, 6/4/04)
2004 Jun 4, In Granby, Colo.,
Marvin Heemeyer, a muffler shop owner, tore through town in a plated
bulldozer in anger over a zoning dispute, before shooting himself dead.
(SFC, 6/5/04, A3)
2004 Jun 4, In southern
Afghanistan U.S. troops and warplanes attacked Taliban rebels besieging
a remote checkpoint. Eight militants were killed.
(AP, 6/5/04)
2004 Jun 4, In Brazil President
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva designated four new national forests to
protect more than a million acres of rainforest.
(AP, 6/4/04)
2004 Jun 4, In Colombia Francisco
Galan, jailed leader of the ELN, was granted a 1-day parole to address
the Senate. He denounced the problem of landmines and called for an end
to the country’s violence.
(Econ, 6/12/04, p.36)
2004 Jun 4, In Hong Kong tens of
thousands of residents rallied on the 15th anniversary of the bloody
Tiananmen Square crackdown.
(AP, 6/5/04)
2004 Jun 4, American and Shiite
militia forces agreed to withdraw from the holy cities of Najaf and
Kufa and turn over security to Iraqi police. 5 Americans were killed
and 5 wounded in 3 clashes in Sadr City. US combat deaths reached 601.
(AP, 6/4/04)(SFC, 6/5/04, A1)
2004 Jun 4, The two Koreas agreed,
after an all-night negotiating session, to try to ease tensions by,
among other things, ending blaring propaganda efforts on their border.
(AP, 6/4/04)
2004 Jun 4, Nigerian troops killed
17 armed bandits in oil-rich Delta state, as military operations
intensified to disarm criminals engaged in oil theft and piracy in the
Niger delta.
(Reuters, 6/5/04)
2004 Jun 4, In central Russia a
bomb hidden behind a kiosk exploded in a crowded market in Samara. 10
people were killed and 37 wounding.
(AP, 6/5/04)
2004 Jun 4-6, The Shangri-La
Dialogue, a regional security conference, was held in Singapore. It was
organized by the London-based Int’l. Institute for Strategic Studies.
(Econ, 6/12/04, p.37)
2005 Jun 4, The White House
downplayed a Pentagon report detailing incidents in which U.S. guards
at Guantanamo Bay prison desecrated the Quran, saying in a statement,
"It is unfortunate that some have chosen to take out of context a few
isolated incidents by a few individuals."
(AP, 6/4/06)
2005 Jun 4, Defense Secretary
Donald H. Rumsfeld said China is not a threat to the US but is building
up its military without being threatened by any other country. The US
commerce secretary warned China of a potential political backlash in
Washington amid tensions over mounting Chinese trade surpluses, surging
textile exports and rampant product piracy.
(AP, 6/4/05)
2005 Jun 4, It was reported that
Larry Ellison, head of Oracle Corp., planned to create a database and
journal to track improvements in world health through a joint venture
with Harvard that would be accompanied by as much as $115 million. In
2006 Ellison decided against the donation due to the resignation of
Pres. Lawrence Summers.
(SFC, 6/4/05, p.C1)(SFC, 6/28/06, p.C1)
2005 Jun 4, In Afghanistan Haji
Sultan, division commander for the Taliban, was arrested with Mullah
Mohammad Rahim, another senior Taliban official, in the western Farah
province.
(AP, 6/5/05)
2005 Jun 4, Australian officials
said a senior Chinese diplomat has sought Australian government
protection for himself and his family, claiming he faces persecution if
he goes home. Analysts said Chen Yonglin's defection could muddy
Canberra's relations with Beijing.
(AP, 6/4/05)
2005 Jun 4, Thousands of
opposition protesters chanted "Freedom!" and carried pictures of
President Bush as they marched across Azerbaijan's capital, urging the
government of this U.S. ally to step down and allow free parliamentary
elections this year.
(AP, 6/4/05)
2005 Jun 4, Bangladesh police
arrested the 2nd wife of former president Hussain Mohammad Ershad
(1982-1990), after he accused her of stealing money and threatening his
life.
(AP, 6/4/05)
2005 Jun 4, In Canada Bernard
Landry resigned as leader of the Parti Quebecois.
(CP, 6/5/05)
2005 Jun 4, Masked Chechen
soldiers apparently avenging the killing of a woodcutter raided a tiny
village, beat and killed residents and set homes afire. The raid in
Borozdinovskaya pitted ethnic Chechens against ethnic Avars, marking
the first serious conflict between the two groups. Villagers, failing
to attract local authorities' attention to the abuses, abandoned their
houses June 16 and fled to nearby Kizlyar in Dagestan.
(AP, 6/26/05)
2005 Jun 4, It was reported that
the death rate on China’s roads, according to the WHO, was 680 per day
plus 45,000 injuries. American traffic deaths in contrast were at 115
per day.
(Econ, 6/4/05, p.25)
2005 Jun 4, Justine Henin-Hardenne
beat Mary Pierce 6-1, 6-1 to win the French Open women's singles title.
(AP, 6/4/06)
2005 Jun 4, In Haiti police killed
at least 4 people and burned 12 homes during raids against gang members
in a slum filled with supporters of ousted President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide.
(AP, 6/5/05)
2005 Jun 4, Iraqi police arrested
Mutlaq Mahmoud Mutlaq Abdullah, also known as Abu Raad, a key aide to
the leader of the Mosul branch of the al-Qaida in Iraq terrorist group.
A suicide car bomber blew himself up at an Iraqi police checkpoint on a
main road connecting northern Mosul with the nearby city of Tal Afar,
killing two officers and wounding four. Iraqi and US troops discovered
50 weapons and ammunition caches and a huge underground bunker west of
the capital fitted out with air conditioning, a kitchen and showers.
(AP, 6/5/05)
2005 Jun 4, In Northern Ireland
Terence Davison (49), a reputed IRA veteran, was arraigned for the Jan
30 killing of Robert McCartney.
(SSFC, 6/5/05, p.A3)
2005 Jun 4, In Laos after decades
on the run, 170 women, children and old men of the Hmong ethnic
minority, once part of a U.S.-backed secret army fighting communists,
emerged from their jungle hideouts to surrender to the government.
(AP, 6/4/05)
2005 Jun 4-2005 Jun 5, An
overnight border raid by al-Qaida-linked insurgents in Mgheiti, a
remote Mauritanian army post in the northern desert, sparked a
gunbattle that killed 15 Mauritanian troops and nine attackers.
Algeria's Salafist Group for Call and Combat claimed responsibility for
the attack.
(AP, 6/5/05)(AP, 8/3/05)
2005 Jun 4, Hundreds of activists
gathered in southern Nigeria to rally support for an opposition
conference, backed by the Nobel prize-winning author Wole Soyinka, to
end ethnic and political violence in Africa's most populous nation.
(AP, 6/4/05)
2005 Jun 4, In Pakistan Gul
Hassan, Islamic militant and member of the outlawed Lashkar-e-Jhangvi
group, was convicted and sentenced to death for planning two suicide
attacks that killed 45 minority Shiite Muslims on May 7 and May 31,
2004, at mosques in Karachi.
(AP, 6/4/05)
2006 Jun 4, The US military said
dozens of Guantanamo Bay detainees have abandoned a hunger strike,
lowering the number of inmates refusing food to 18.
(AP, 6/4/06)
2006 Jun 4, A suicide car bomb
exploded in Kandahar city near a convoy carrying the governor of
Afghanistan's Kandahar province, missing the apparent target but
killing 3 civilians and injuring a dozen. In Farah province 4 policemen
were killed. In Zabul province Afghan troops on a joint mission with
soldiers from the US-led coalition killed around five Taliban fighters
and arrested three more. In Helmand province troops with the US-led
coalition and Afghan army clashed with a group of rebel fighters, five
of whom were killed.
(AP, 6/4/06)(AFP, 6/5/06)
2006 Jun 4-2006 Jun 5, In
Afghanistan 17 suspected militants were killed in three operations. Two
coalition soldiers were wounded in one of those battles.
(AP, 6/7/06)
2006 Jun 4, The Czech republic
faced weeks of uncertainty or even fresh elections after a deadlock
between center-right and leftist parties in weekend general elections.
(AP, 6/4/06)
2006 Jun 4, In East Timor gangs
burned half a dozen buildings near the airport in Dili as residents
pleaded for a permanent police presence in their neighborhoods to stop
the violence.
(AP, 6/4/06)
2006 Jun 4, Nikos Palaiokostas
(46), one of the most wanted men in Greece, pulled off a daring jail
break, landing a helicopter in the Korydallos prison yard to pick up
his brother and another inmate before fleeing in a fog of smoke.
(AP, 6/5/06)
2006 Jun 4, In India 9 people died
in lightning strikes as the death toll from the early monsoon hit 118.
Some 25,000 people were displaced by flooding.
(AP, 6/4/06)
2006 Jun 4, Gunmen dragged
passengers off 2 minibuses northeast of Baghdad and killed 21 people,
including a dozen high school students. The attackers spared four Sunni
Arabs in one the worst sectarian atrocities in recent weeks. A
gunbattle broke out after Iraqi police surrounded a Sunni Arab mosque
in the southern city of Basra, leaving at least 9 people dead.(AP,
6/4/06)(WSJ, 6/5/06, p.A1)
2006 Jun 4, In Nigeria 8 foreign
oil workers, kidnapped on June 2, were released. Police declined to say
whether a ransom was paid and did not say who was responsible for the
hostage-taking.
(AP, 6/4/06)
2006 Jun 4, The Hamas-led
Palestinian government rejected a deadline to accept a proposal that
implicitly recognizes Israel, saying President Mahmoud Abbas' plan for
a referendum on the matter is illegal. Members of a new, unarmed
security force loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas deployed in
Jenin in a move that residents feared could provoke clashes with rival
factions.
(AP, 6/4/06)(Reuters, 6/4/06)
2006 Jun 4, Peruvians faced a
choice in runoff presidential elections between former president Alan
Garcia (57), and Ollanta Humala (43), a fiery political newcomer
pledging to punish a corrupt political establishment. Garcia beat
Humala, a nationalist backed by Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, to regain
control of the country 16 years after his first presidential term ended
in economic ruin and rebel violence. Garcia’s American Popular
Revolutionary Alliance (APRA) party held only 36 of 120 seats in
Congress.
(AP, 6/4/06)(AP, 6/5/06)(Econ, 6/10/06, p.36)
2006 Jun 4, US Secretary of
Defense Donald Rumsfeld arrived in Vietnam for a visit aimed at
boosting security ties with a former foe that now shares American
wariness about China's rising military might.
(AP, 6/4/06)
2007 Jun 4, President Bush left on
an eight-day European trip that included a Group of Eight (G8) summit
in Germany.
(AP, 6/4/08)
2007 Jun 4, Two US military judges
dismissed charges against a Guantanamo detainee accused of chauffeuring
Osama bin Laden and another who allegedly killed a US soldier in
Afghanistan. Salim Ahmed Hamdan of Yemen and Omar Khadr, a Canadian who
was 15 when he was arrested on an Afghan battlefield, were the only two
of the roughly 380 prisoners at Guantanamo charged with crimes under a
reconstituted military trial system.
(AP, 6/5/07)
2007 Jun 4, US Rep. William
Jefferson, a Democrat from Louisiana, was indicted for graft involving
Nigerian business schemes that netted him over $500,000 in bribes.
Jefferson has maintained his innocence.
(WSJ, 6/5/07, p.A1)(AP, 6/4/08)
2007 Jun 4, In California 9 Hmong
leaders, Gen. Vang Pao, a former Laotian military general, and Harrison
Jack, a former officer in the California National Guard, were arrested
during a sweep by more than 200 federal, state and local agents for
their alleged plot, hatched last winter, to overthrow the communist
government of Laos. They were charged with violating the US federal
Neutrality Act. In 2009 federal prosecutors in Sacramento, Ca.,
dismissed charges against Vang Pao.
(AP, 6/5/07)(SFC, 5/12/09, p.A5)(SFC, 9/19/09, p.A1)
2007 Jun 4, A small plane from
Milwaukee carrying a six-member organ transplant team and their cargo
of donor organs to Michigan crashed in Lake Michigan with no survivors.
(AP, 6/5/07)
2007 Jun 4, In Portage, Wisconsin,
Tammie Garlin was killed. Felicia Garlin (15) and Michaela Clerc (20)
had kicked her, then later that day carried her into the bathroom,
where Clerc dropped her head on the floor. A roving band of suspected
identity thieves buried her in the backyard and locked her bloody and
beaten 11-year-old son in an upstairs closet. Authorities reached the
house on June 14.
(AP, 6/21/07)
2007 Jun 4, Jim Clark (84),
sheriff and segregationist from Alabama, died. He turned back the 1965
civil rights march at the Edmund Pettus Bridge leaving 57 people
injured. National revulsion led to the Voting Rights Act later that
year.
(Econ, 6/16/07, p.99)
2007 Jun 4, US Sen. Craig Thompson
(74), 3-term Republican conservative from Wyoming, died of leukemia.
(SFC, 6/5/07, p.A5)
2007 Jun 4, US Defense Secretary
Robert Gates said Iranian weapons have begun flowing into Afghanistan,
but he and Afghan President Hamid Karzai agreed involvement by Tehran
cannot yet be proved. Six Taliban rebels were killed in a gunfight with
Afghan and NATO-led troops in the eastern province of Paktia. Afghan
forces sank a boat in the Helmand River carrying suspected Taliban
fighters fleeing an attack, and more than 20 drowned. In a separate
gunbattle and airstrikes killed an estimated two dozen militants.
Roadside bombs killed two Afghan soldiers and wounded five in southern
Afghanistan.
(AP, 6/4/07)(AFP, 6/4/07)(AP, 6/5/07)
2007 Jun 4, Scientists said a frog
with fluorescent purple markings and 12 kinds of dung beetles were
among two dozen new species discovered in the remote plateaus of
eastern Suriname.
(AP, 6/4/07)
2007 Jun 4, In Algeria Hassan
Hattab, fugitive founder of the extremist Salafist Group for Preaching
and Combat (GSPC), was sentenced in absentia to life in prison for
setting up an armed terrorist group by a court in Tizi-Ouzou.
(AFP, 6/6/07)
2007 Jun 4, Brazil’s President
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said that rich nations should pay poorer
countries to preserve their forests because the rich are responsible
for most of the world's greenhouse gas emissions. Police formally
accused a brother of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of influence
peddling after a nationwide crackdown on illegal gambling. About 600
Federal Police agents took part in the raids carrying 87 arrest
warrants and another 50 search and seizure warrants in six states as
part of Operation Razor, an investigation into fraudulent public works
(www.brazzilmag.com/content/view/8320/54/).
(AP, 6/4/07)(AP,
6/5/07)(www.brazzilmag.com/content/view/8320/54/)
2007 Jun 4, PM Tony Blair said the
British government is to boost funding to help train Muslim imams at
universities and to step up the promotion of moderate Islam.
(AP, 6/4/07)
2007 Jun 4, China promised to
better control emissions of greenhouse gases, unveiling a national
program to combat global warming, but rejected mandatory caps on
emissions as unfair to countries still trying to catch up with the
developed West. The government also said it will license no new
Internet cafes this year while regulators carry out an industry-wide
inspection, amid official concern that online material is harming young
people.
(AP, 6/4/07)
2007 Jun 4, Cambodian and foreign
judges began a weeklong meeting to confirm rules for the much-delayed
genocide trials of former Khmer Rouge leaders, blamed for the deaths of
1.7 million people.
(AP, 6/4/07)
2007 Jun 4, Rodrigo Granda, the
highest-ranking jailed member of Colombia's main guerrilla group, was
freed by the government as part of a wider prisoner release intended to
help secure the freedom of 60 hostages, including three Americans, held
by the guerrillas.
(AP, 6/4/07)
2007 Jun 4, In Germany hundreds of
protesters clashed with police ahead of this week's G8 meeting, as
anti-globalization activists challenged attempts by security officials
to keep them away from the summit town of Heiligendamm. Nearly 1000
officers and protesters were already injured in clashes.
(AP, 6/4/07)(WSJ, 6/4/07, p.A1)
2007 Jun 4, Emerging economic
powers India and Brazil pledged to increase bilateral trade four-fold
to 10 billion dollars in the next three years.
(AFP, 6/4/07)
2007 Jun 4, The NY Times said
US-led forces have control of fewer than one-third of Baghdad's
neighborhoods despite thousands of extra troops nearly four months into
a security crackdown. Insurgents posted a video claiming to have killed
the 3 US soldiers who went missing May 12. The body of Pfc. Joseph
Anzack Jr. was later recovered; a year later Spc. Alex Jimenez and Pvt.
Byron Fouty remained missing. Iraqi police said at least 6 people were
killed and 14 were wounded in 3 separate bombings in Baghdad. At least
16 other people were killed or found dead in attacks elsewhere,
including a pregnant woman who died in a mortar barrage targeting a US
base in Fallujah.
(AP, 6/4/07)(SFC, 6/5/07, p.A13)(AP, 6/4/08)
2007 Jun 4, Violence sparked by a
two-week old confrontation between the Lebanese army and al-Qaida
inspired militants spread to a second Palestinian refugee camp in the
southern part of the country, killing two soldiers.
(AP, 6/4/07)
2007 Jun 4, Experts warned at a
conference in Nepal's capital that Himalayan glaciers are retreating
fast and could disappear within the next 50 years.
(AFP, 6/4/07)
2007 Jun 4, Thousands of survivors
of Europe's worst massacre since World War II filed a lawsuit against
the UN and the Dutch government for their failure to protect civilians
in the Srebrenica safe haven when Bosnian Serb forces overran it in
1995 and slaughtered some 8,000 men.
(AP, 6/4/07)
2007 Jun 4, Charles Taylor
boycotted the start of his Liberia war-crimes trial at the Hague.
(WSJ, 6/5/07, p.A1)
2007 Jun 4, The Nigerian police
said military troops stormed a hideout in Ebonyi state and freed one of
two Chinese workers abducted by unknown gunmen on Mar 17.
(AFP, 6/4/07)
2007 Jun 4, Oman evacuated an
island as Cyclone Gonu drew near the Persian Gulf.
(WSJ, 6/5/07, p.A1)
2007 Jun 4, Pres. Musharraf signed
a decree giving a government regulating agency stronger powers over the
news media and the ability to rewrite regulations without recourse to
Parliament. Hundreds of demonstrators chanted slogans against President
Pervez Musharraf after the alleged blocking of three private television
news channels by the Pakistani authorities. Police arrested Attaur
Rehman and Faisal Bhatti in Kashmor, a town about 300 miles northeast
of Karachi, in association with the 2002 murder of Daniel Pearl. Police
later said the 2 men had been in custody since 2002.
(SFC, 6/7/07, p.A4)(AFP, 6/4/07)(AP, 6/5/07)(WSJ,
6/13/07, p.A1)
2007 Jun 4, Senegal defended the
low poll turnout used by critics to put a question mark on the
legitimacy of weekend legislative elections, saying the west African
nation had never had enthusiastic voters. A 17-party opposition
grouping had called for an unprecedented boycott of the ballot, which
looked set to be won by President Abdoulaye Wade's ruling party.
(AP, 6/4/07)
2007 Jun 4, In Somalia Ethiopian
troops fired at a would-be suicide bomber speeding toward their base,
blowing up the car and killing the bomber and a civilian standing
nearby.
(AP, 6/4/07)
2007 Jun 4, The Institute for
Democracy in South Africa (IDASA) said a study of mortality patterns in
South Africa, Malawi, Namibia, Zambia, Tanzania and Senegal indicated
Africa's HIV/AIDS crisis was reaching deep into elected governments.
(Reuters, 6/4/07)
2007 Jun 4, South African police
fired stun grenades and made a dozen arrests as they cracked down on
union hardliners who were preventing nurses from turning up for work at
a hospital in Durban.
(AP, 6/4/07)
2007 Jun 4, The TED organization
(Technology, Entertainment, Design) gathered in Tanzania for a 4 day
session to discuss ideas for helping the poor of Africa.
(Econ, 6/23/07, p.55)(www.ted.com/pages/view/id/49)
2007 Jun 4, Seven Turkish
paramilitary police were killed when Kurdish militants attacked their
headquarters in eastern Tunceli province.
(AP, 6/4/07)(Econ, 6/9/07, p.58)
2007 Jun 4, The UN warned in a
report that up to 12% of Arctic ice has turned to water in the past 30
years, an alarming fact that only accelerates global warming further.
(AP, 6/4/07)
2007 Jun 4, In Venezuela thousands
of university students, their hands painted white as a symbol of
nonviolence returned to the streets of Caracas, keeping up a week of
protests against President Hugo Chavez's decision to force a popular TV
station off the air.
(AP, 6/4/07)
2008 Jun 4, California’s Gov.
Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a statewide drought after two years of
below-average rainfall, low snowmelt runoff and a court-ordered
restriction on water transfers.
(AP, 6/5/08)
2008 Jun 4, In New York Thomas
Gioeli (Tommy Shots), said to be the acting boss of the Colombo
organized crime family, was arrested along with 8 other suspected
gangsters on federal charges of coast to coast Mafia crimes.
(SFC, 6/5/08, p.A3)
2008 Jun 4, Google said it had
signed a lease for 42 acres at Moffet Field, a former naval air station
near Mountain View, Ca. The deal called for an initial annual rent of
$3.7 million to the NASA Ames space agency.
(SFC, 6/5/08, p.C1)
2008 Jun 4, Ayman al-Zawahri,
Al-Qaida's No. 2 leader, called on Muslims to launch a holy war to
break Israel's economic blockade of the Gaza Strip, in an audio
recording posted on an Islamic militant Internet site.
(AP, 6/5/08)
2008 Jun 4, In Afghanistan 2
suicide bombs killed 2 people and wounded several others near the
Pakistan border.
(SFC, 6/5/08, p.A3)
2008 Jun 4, In Algeria 2
simultaneous bombs in Bordj El Kiffan, a suburb of Algiers, killed a
suicide bomber and injured six others. The blasts targeted a barracks
and a seaside café.
(AFP, 6/6/08)
2008 Jun 4, In Bangladesh more
than 1,700 people were detained in the past 24 hours. That takes the
number of detainees to more than 10,000 since May 30 in a drive to
improve law and order before national elections planned for late this
year.
(AP, 6/4/08)
2008 Jun 4, In Belgium riot police
armed with shields and batons charged hundreds of protesting fishermen
outside EU headquarters after a demonstration over high fuel prices
turned violent.
(AP, 6/4/08)
2008 Jun 4, In Bosnia genocide
charges were filed against Vaso Todorovic (40), a former Bosnian Serb
police officer. He was accused of taking part in the 1995 massacre of
more than 7,000 Muslims, Europe's worst slaughter since World War II.
(www.signonsandiego.com/news/world/20080604-0441-bosnia-warcrimes.html)
2008 Jun 4, British officials said
an outbreak of the H7 strain of bird flu at a farm in central England
is "highly pathogenic." All the chickens on the farm were slaughtered
following detection of the virus in Banbury, Oxfordshire.
(AFP, 6/4/08)
2008 Jun 4, Jonathan Routh (80),
English prankster and former star of Candid Camera, died. His books
included “The Good Loo Guide: Where to Go in London” (1965)
(Econ, 6/21/08,
p.105)(www.economicexpert.com/a/Jonathan:Routh.htm)
2008 Jun 4, In Canada angry
autoworkers blockaded the entrance to General Motors of Canada
headquarters in Oshawa, Ontario, one day after GM said it would shut
its Oshawa truck plant as well as 2 plants in the US and one in Mexico.
(Reuters, 6/4/08)
2008 Jun 4, Chinese police blocked
access to a school that collapsed in last month's massive earthquake, a
day after breaking up a protest by parents of students who died in the
disaster.
(AP, 6/4/08)
2008 Jun 4, In Haiti thousands of
protesters, bearing photographs of victims and with fists thrust in the
air, marched through Port-au-Prince to demand that officials crack down
on a kidnapping scourge. UN police said more than 157 people have been
kidnapped this year in Haiti, up 10 percent from last year.
(AP, 6/4/08)
2008 Jun 4, Indonesian police
launched a major crackdown on Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), a radical
Islamist group blamed for a weekend attack on a rally for religious
tolerance, arresting 59 including the outfit's firebrand leader.
(AP, 6/4/08)
2008 Jun 4, Iraq’s parliament
approved a bill to combat oil smuggling. To become a law, the measure
needs the signature of Iraq's three-member presidential council. A
suicide truck bomber struck near the Baghdad home of an Iraqi police
general, killing 16 people in the biggest such attack on the capital in
months. A 2nd car bomb killed 7 people, including 3 police commandos,
in the Jadriya neighborhood of Baghdad. Iraqi police said they
uncovered a large weapons cache near Samarra. The US military said it
detained nine suspects and destroyed two "terrorist safe houses" in
raids targeting al-Qaida in Iraq across central and northern parts of
the country. 3 US soldiers were shot dead in northern Tamim province.
(AP, 6/4/08)(AP, 6/5/08)(SFC, 6/5/08, p.A3)
2008 Jun 4, The Israeli army says
it has closed the Gaza fuel crossing after an errant rocket fired by
militants wounded a Palestinian worker at the terminal.
(AP, 6/4/08)
2008 Jun 4, A Mexican court
sentenced Mario Villanueva, a former Quintana Roo state governor
(1993-1996), to 36 years in prison for fomenting drug trafficking,
overturning an earlier ruling that had imposed six years on lesser
charges. A husband and wife, both state police officers, were shot dead
while leaving their home in Ciudad Juarez, the border city where drug
gangs have stepped up attacks against security forces.
(AP, 6/5/08)(AP, 6/4/08)
2008 Jun 4, The rival parties in
Northern Ireland's power-sharing administration announced a deal that
will permit both sides to elect a new leader and keep their unlikely
coalition running.
(AP, 6/4/08)
2008 Jun 4, Officials said
Pakistan’s PM Yousuf Raza Gilani has moved suspend peace negotiations
with tribal groups along the border with Afghanistan, until they agree
to new conditions including the cessation of all activities in
Afghanistan. In northwest Pakistan a bomb explosion ripped through a
video shop in a business center, killing 3 people and wounding 3.
(WSJ, 6/5/08, p.A8)(AP, 6/4/08)
2008 Jun 4, Scientists issued
warnings about the puffin’s future as the population of the
orange-beaked seabird off Scotland's east coast has dropped by nearly a
third in less than five years.
(AP, 6/5/08)
2008 Jun 4, In Sri Lanka a bomb
blast targeting a passenger train wounded 18 bystanders in Colombo in
the latest attack on civilians in the island nation. Tamil Tigers
reportedly killed 10 soldiers while security forces reportedly killed
35 rebels during the heavy clashes across the island's north. According
to the defense ministry, 4,068 Tamil Tigers and 335 government troops
have been killed since January.
(AP, 6/4/08)(AFP, 6/5/08)
2008 Jun 4-2008 Jun 5, In South
Sudan more than 20 people were killed, including soldiers and several
children, in Ugandan rebel attacks near the border with Congo. The
Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) guerrillas had targeted the villages of
Nabanga and Yamba.
(AFP, 6/7/08)
2008 Jun 4, Swiss pharmaceutical
Novartis announced it had bought Protez Pharmaceuticals for $100
million (64.8 million euros), thus acquiring the rights to a new
antibiotic.
(AP, 6/4/08)
2008 Jun 4, An undetermined amount
of fuel oil was released after the Greece-registered Syros slammed
against the Malta-registered Sea Bird near Montevideo, Uruguay.
(AP, 6/5/08)
2008 Jun 4, Zimbabwe police
detained opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai after his convoy was
stopped at a roadblock. The director of a national NGO association said
Zimbabwe has ordered aid groups Save the Children UK, CARE
International and ADRA to stop work in the country immediately due to
alleged political interference.
(AP, 6/4/08)(AFP, 6/4/08)(WSJ, 6/4/08, p.A1)
2009 Jun 4, Pres. Obama spoke in
Cairo and touched on many themes Muslims wanted to hear in the highly
anticipated speech broadcast live across much of the Middle East and
elsewhere across the Muslim world. Muslims praised Obama's address as a
positive shift in US attitude and tone. But hard-liners criticized it
as style over substance and said it lacked concrete proposals to turn
the words into action.
(AP, 6/4/09)
2009 Jun 4, Angelo Mozilo, the man
who rode the housing boom to build Countrywide Financial Corp. into a
California colossus of high-risk mortgage lending, was charged with
civil fraud and illegal insider trading by federal regulators who
accuse him of deceiving shareholders and profiting on confidential
information. The Securities and Exchange Commission also filed civil
fraud charges against two other former executives of Countrywide.
(AP, 6/5/09)
2009 Jun 4, South Carolina’s
Supreme Court ordered Gov. Mark Sanford to request $700 million in
federal stimulus money, which was aimed primarily at struggling schools.
(SFC, 6/5/09, p.A6)
2009 Jun 4, In Tennessee handguns
will soon be allowed in bars and restaurants under a new law passed by
state legislators who voted to override Democratic Gov. Phil Bredesen's
veto. The legislation takes effect July 14 and retains an existing ban
on consuming alcohol while carrying a handgun. Restaurant owners can
still opt to ban weapons from their establishments.
(AP, 6/5/09)
2009 Jun 4, In Afghanistan
insurgents killed three US soldiers in a bomb and small-arms attack on
their vehicle in Kapisa province, considered a stronghold of insurgents
loyal to Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. A man was killed in
Nangarhar by a bomb he was trying to plant inside a university faculty.
Police found the body of Yeiya Mulaye Azhar, a candidate in the
provincial elections in Wardak province. he had been kidnapped 11 days
earlier.
(AP, 6/4/09)(AP, 6/5/09)(SFC, 6/5/09, p.A2)
2009 Jun 4, Australia's Defense
Minister Joel Fitzgibbon (47) stepped down after a series of scandals,
in the first major embarrassment for PM Kevin Rudd. Fitzgibbon had been
under pressure since March when he admitted not declaring to
parliamentary authorities two trips to China paid for by wealthy
businesswoman Helen Liu.
(AP, 6/4/09)
2009 Jun 4, British naturalist Sir
David Attenborough won Spain's prestigious Prince of Asturias social
sciences prize for his "great contributions to the defense of life and
conservation of our planet."
(AP, 6/4/09)
2009 Jun 4, China aggressively
deterred dissent in Beijing on the 20th anniversary of the crackdown on
democracy activists in Tiananmen Square. But tens of thousands turned
out for a candlelight vigil in Hong Kong to mourn the many
demonstrators who were killed.
(AP, 6/4/09)
2009 Jun 4, Ethiopia charged 46
people, most of them ex-military, of plotting to assassinate government
officials. Ethiopia also said it has undertaken military reconnaissance
operations in Somalia, but is not planning to re-deploy.
(AFP, 6/4/09)
2009 Jun 4, About 375 million
voters across the 27-nation European Union began 4 days of voting, to
appoint candidates to 736 seats on the assembly in the second-largest
election in the world after India's. Voting began in Britain and the
Netherlands.
(AP, 6/4/09)
2009 Jun 4, In Germany the federal
and state governments approved an €18 billion plan to create more
university places, boost funding for research and cultivate a small
group of elite institutions.
(Econ, 6/27/09, p.57)
2009 Jun 4, Guatemala's anti-drug
prosecutor said that thousands of bullets and grenades that were part
of a Mexican drug cartel's weapons cache belong to the Guatemalan army.
In the April weapons seizure, police also found eight anti-personnel
mines, 11 M60 machine guns, bullet proof vests and two armored cars
that investigators say belong to the Zetas, a group of assassins for
Mexico's Gulf drug cartel.
(AP, 6/4/09)
2009 Jun 4, In northern Iraq an
American soldier was killed in a grenade attack in Tamim province.
Another American soldier was killed in a grenade attack north of
Baghdad.
(AP, 6/4/09)(AP, 6/5/09)
2009 Jun 4, Mexican police found
11 bodies, most with their hands and feet cut off, inside an abandoned
car in the border state of Sonora in violence attributed to drug
traffickers battling for control of the region.
(AP, 6/5/09)
2009 Jun 4, Nigerian President
Umaru Yar’Adua made a new offer of amnesty to militants in the oil-rich
Niger Delta, after earlier rejection by armed opponents.
(AFP, 6/4/09)
2009 Jun 4, Palestinian police
killed two Hamas militants after the men opened fire at security forces
who had surrounded their underground hideout in Qalqiliya. One officer
was also killed in the operation, part of an intensifying crackdown on
Islamic militants in this West Bank town.
(AP, 6/4/09)
2009 Jun 4, Sri Lanka's navy
seized a foreign-owned ship loaded with medical, food and other
supplies for war-hit civilians, saying the vessel had entered its
territorial waters illegally.
(AFP, 6/4/09)
2009 Jun 4, David Carradine (72),
star of TV series "Kung Fu" (1972-1975), was found dead in
Thailand. At first suicide was suspected but a forensics expert said
circumstances suggested that he may have died from autoerotic
asphyxiation. His career had roared back to life when he played the
assassin-turned-victim in Quentin Tarentino's "Kill Bill" (2003).
(AP, 6/4/09)(SFC, 6/6/09, p.E3)
2009 Jun 4, Venezuelan prosecutors
charged Guillermo Zuloaga (67), president of the anti-government
television station Globovision, with usury. This ended a
weeks-long investigation into his business activities that Zuloaga
called politically motivated.
(AP, 6/5/09)
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