Today in History - July 7
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1124 Jul 7, Tyre
[Tyrus] surrendered to the Crusaders.
(MC, 7/7/02)
1307 Jul 7, Edward I (b.1239),
King (Longshanks) of England (1272-1307), died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_I_of_England)
1456 Jul 7, Joan of Arc was
acquitted, even though she had already been burnt at the stake on May
30, 1431.
(MC, 7/7/02)
1550 Jul 7, Chocolate was
introduced (Europe).
(MC, 7/7/02)
1585 Jul 7, King Henri III &
Duke De Guise signed the Treaty of Nemours: French Huguenots lost all
freedoms.
(MC, 7/7/02)
1607 Jul 7, "God Save the King"
was 1st sung.
(MC, 7/7/02)
1690 Jul 7, Johann Tobias Krebs,
composer, was born.
(MC, 7/7/02)
1713 Jul 7, The 1st performance of
Georg F Handel's "To Deum" & "Jubilate."
(MC, 7/7/02)
1742 Jul 7, A Spanish force
invading Georgia ran headlong into the colony's British defenders. A
handful of British and Spanish colonial troops faced each other on a
Georgia coastal island and decided the fate of a colony.
(HN, 5/3/98)(HN, 7/7/99)
1753 Jul 7, English parliament
granted Jews English citizenship.
(MC, 7/7/02)
1754 Jul 7, King's College in New
York City opened. The school was renamed Columbia College 30 years
later.
(AP, 7/7/97)
1752 Jul 7, Joseph Marie Jacquard,
inventor of the first loom that could weave patterns, was born.
(HN, 7/7/98)
1777 Jul 7, American troops gave
up Fort Ticonderoga, on Lake Champlain, to the British.
(HN, 7/7/98)
1791 Jul 7, Benjamin Rush, Richard
Allen and Absalom Jones founded the Non-denominational African Church.
(HN, 7/7/98)
1795 Jul 7, Thomas Paine defended
the principal of universal suffrage at the Constitutional Convention in
Paris.
(HN, 7/7/98)
1797 Jul 7, The US House of
Representatives exercised its constitutional power of impeachment, and
voted to charge Senator William Blount of Tennessee with "a high
misdemeanor, entirely inconsistent with his public duty and trust as a
Senator." Blount had financial problems which led him to enter into a
conspiracy with British officers to enlist frontiersmen and Cherokee
Indians to assist the British in conquering parts of Spanish Florida
and Louisiana.
(MC, 7/7/02)
1798 Jul 7, Napoleon Bonaparte's
army began its march towards Cairo, Egypt, from Alexandria.
(HN, 7/7/98)
1801 Jul 7, A new constitution,
drafted by a committee appointed by Toussaint Louverture (L’Ouverture),
went into effect and declared the independence of Hispaniola. The
constitution made him governor general for life with near absolute
powers.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toussaint_L'Ouverture)(WSJ, 3/1/04, p.A16)
1802 Jul 7, The first comic book
was published in Hudson, NY. "The Wasp" was created by Robert Rusticoat.
(MC, 7/7/02)
1807 Jul 7, Napoleon I of France
and Czar Alexander I of Russia signed a treaty at Tilsit ending war
between their empires. It divided Europe among themselves and isolated
Britain.
(HN, 7/7/98)(AP, 7/7/07)
1814 Jul 7, Sir Walter Scott's
novel Waverly was published anonymously so as not to damage his
reputation as a poet.
(HN, 7/7/01)
1815 Jul 7, After defeating
Napoleon at Waterloo, the victorious Allies marched into Paris.
(HN, 7/7/98)
1846 Jul 7, U.S. annexation of
California was proclaimed at Monterey after Commodore Sloat reached
Monterey and claimed California for the US.
(HFA, '96, p.48)(AP, 7/7/97)
1860 Jul 7, Gustav Mahler,
conductor of the Vienna State Opera House, was born in Kalischat,
Bohemia, Austria.
(HN, 7/7/98)(MC, 7/7/02)
1863 Jul 7, Confederate General
Robert E. Lee, in Hagerstown, Maryland, reported his defeat at
Gettysburg to President Jefferson Davis.
(HN, 7/7/98)
1863 Jul 7, The 1st military draft
was called by the US. It allowed exemptions for $100.
(MC, 7/7/02)
1863 Jul 7, Orders barring Jews
from serving under US Grant were revoked.
(MC, 7/7/02)
1865 Jul 7, The trap doors of the
scaffold in the yard of Washington's Old Penitentiary were sprung, and
Mary Surratt, Lewis Paine, David Herold and George Atzerodt dropped to
their deaths. The four had been convicted of "treasonable conspiracy"
in the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, and had learned that
they were to be hanged only a day before their execution. Shortly after
1 p.m. the prisoners were led onto the scaffold and prepared for
execution. The props supporting the platform were knocked away at about
2 p.m. Assassin John Wilkes Booth had been killed on April 26, 12 days
after Lincoln's assassination. Other convicted conspirators--Edman
Spangler, Dr. Samuel Mudd, Samuel Arnold and Michael O'Laughlin--were
imprisoned.
(AP, 7/7/97)(HNPD, 7/7/98)
1875 Jul 7, Jesse James robbed a
train in Otterville, Missouri.
(MC, 7/7/02)
1879 Jul 7, George Caleb Bingham
(b.1811), artist and legislator, died in Kansas City, Mo. His paintings
included “The Jolly Flatboatmen,” which became a best-seller in 1846
after it was chosen by the American Art Union for its annual engraving.
(WSJ, 11/3/07,
p.W16)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Caleb_Bingham)
1884 Jul 7, Lion Feuchtwanger,
German philosopher, writer (Jud Suss), was born.
(MC, 7/7/02)
1887 Jul 7, Marc Chagall (d.1985),
French painter and designer, was born in Vitebsk, Belarus, Russia, as
Moishe Shagal. He left there in 1907 to attend art school in St.
Petersburg. He was sent to Paris by a benefactor and befriended Chaim
Soutine and Alexander Archipenko and stayed until 1914. "From late
cubism he adopted a manner of making forms and space interpenetrate."
His work included "Les Amoureux" (The Lovers - 1916), a portrait of
himself and his wife. In 1996 it sold for $4.2 mil. In 1997 Mikhail
Guerman published "Marc Chagall: The Land of My Heart - Russia."
(SFC,7/2/96,p.E3)(WSJ,10/8/96,p.A20)(SFEC,12/797,Par
p.6)(HN, 7/7/01)
1893 Jul 7, In Bardwell, Ky., C.J.
Miller, a black man accused of murdering two white girls, was
mutilated, torched and left hanging from a telegraph pole. Ida Wells
(1862-1931) was commissioned to investigate the story by the Chicago
Inter-Ocean newspaper and published her findings under the title
“History Is a Weapon.”
(WSJ, 3/8/08,
p.W8)(www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/wellslynchlaw.html)
1893 Jul 7, Guy de Maupassant
(42), writer, died.
(MC, 7/7/02)
1896 Jul 7, The Democratic
National Convention opened in Chicago. The National Democratic Party
formed to run a slate of candidates in 1896 because the Democratic
Party had been taken over by the free-silver faction, which called for
the free and unlimited coinage of silver at the 16 to 1 ratio. They
also condemned trusts, monopolies, high protective tariffs and the use
of injunctions against labor. The “sound money” or gold Democrats
withdrew from the party convention, organized the National Democratic
Party and nominated John M. Palmer of Illinois its presidential
candidate. The gold plank in the Republican Party caused a similar
split, with free-silver Republicans bolting the party and forming the
National Silver Republicans, who endorsed the Democratic Party
candidate for president, William Jennings Bryan. Republican William
McKinley won the presidential election.
(AP, 7/7/97)(HNQ, 8/23/99)
1898 Jul 7, The United States
annexed Hawaii.
(HFA, '96, p.34)(AP, 7/7/97)
1899 Jul 7, George Cukor (d.1983),
film director, was born in New York City.
(AP, 7/7/99)(MC, 7/7/02)
1905 Jul 7, The International
Workers of the World founded their labor organization in Chicago. The
IWW was formed by William Haywood of the Western Federation of Miners,
Daniel De Leon of the Socialist Labor Party and Eugene V. Debs of the
Socialist Party. Members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)
were also known as Wobblies. The Wobblies were formed partly in
response to the American Federation of Labor’s opposition to the
unionization of unskilled labor. As an organization that advocated
sabotage, they were suppressed and prosecuted by the federal government
from 1917-18 and were driven underground by the "Red Scare" that
started in the United States in 1919. Ideological disputes with the
newly formed U.S. Communist Party dissipated their remaining energies
so that they ceased to be a force of any significance past the
mid-1920s. In 1969 Melvyn Dublfsky authored its definitive history "We
Shall Overcome."
(HNQ, 10/16/00)(SSFC, 1/7/01, p.A24)(HN, 7/7/01)
1906 Jul 7, Leroy "Satchel" Page,
baseball pitcher for the Negro Leagues and the Major League, was born.
(HN, 7/7/98)
1907 Jul 7, Robert Heinlein
(d.1988), science-fiction author, was born in Butler, Miss. "Goodness
without wisdom always accomplishes evil."
(V.D.-H.K.p.383)(AP, 5/25/99)(AP, 7/7/07)
1908 Jul 7, Great White Fleet left
SF Bay.
(MC, 7/7/02)
1908 Jul 7, The Democratic
National Convention opened in Denver.
(AP, 7/7/08)
1911 Jul 7, Gian-Carlo Menotti,
composer (Amahl & Night Visitors), was born in Italy.
(MC, 7/7/02)
1913 Jul 7, British House of
Commons accepted Home-Rule Law.
(MC, 7/7/02)
1919 Jul 7, William Moses
Kunstler, defense attorney (Chicago 8), was born.
(MC, 7/7/02)
1919 Jul 7, The U.S. Army’s First
Transcontinental Motor Train left Washington, D.C., bound for San
Francisco. The 62-day journey crossed 3,250 miles. In 2002 Peter Davies
authored "American Road," an account of the trip.
(HN, 3/7/01)(WSJ, 7/19/02, p.W9)
1920 Jul 7, A device known as the
radio compass was used for the first time on a U.S. Navy airplane.
(MC, 7/7/02)
1922 Jul 7, Pierre Cardin, fashion
designer (Unisex), was born in Paris, France.
(AP, 7/7/02)(MC, 7/7/02)
1925 Jul 7, Afrikaans was
recognized as one of the official languages of South Africa, along with
English and Dutch.
(HN, 7/7/98)
1927 Jul 7, Doc Severinson,
[Carl], bandleader, trumpeter (Tonight), was born in Arlington, Or.
(MC, 7/7/02)
1927 Jul 7, Christopher Stone
became the first British ‘disc jockey’ when he played records for the
BBC.
(HN, 7/7/98)
1930 Jul 7, Construction began on
Boulder Dam on the Colorado River. It is now known as Hoover Dam.
(AP, 7/7/97)
1930 Jul 7, Arthur Conan Doyle
(b.1859), British novelist, died. His work included 4 Sherlock Holmes
mystery novels and 56 short stories about Holmes. Doyle was an eye
doctor. In 1999 Daniel Stashower published "Teller of Tales: The Life
of Arthur Conan Doyle." In 2007 Andrew Lycett authored “Conan Doyle:
The Man who Created Sherlock Holmes.”
(SFEC, 6/13/99, Par
p.12)(www.sherlockian.net/acd/)(ON, 3/06, p.12)(Econ, 10/6/07, p.98)
1937 Jul 7, A conflict between
troops of China and Japan came to be known as the Marco Polo Bridge
Incident. The incident occurred near the Marco Polo Bridge outside of
Beijing and eventually escalated into warfare between the two countries
and was the prelude to the Pacific side of World War II.
(HNQ, 9/22/99)
1940 Jul 7, Ringo Starr, drummer
for the Beatles, was born. He went on to a solo career and acting.
(HN, 7/7/99)
1941 Jul 7, Although a neutral
country, the United States sent troops to occupy Iceland to keep it out
of Germany's hands.
(WUD, 1944, p.1683)(HN, 7/7/98)
1941 Jul 7, Nazis executed 5,000
Jews in Kovno, Lithuania.
(MC, 7/7/02)
1943 Jul 7, Adolf Hitler made the
V-2 missile program a top priority in armament planning.
(HN, 7/7/98)
1943 Jul 7, In the 3rd day of
battle at Kursk the Germans occupied Dubrova. Erich Hartmann shot 7
Russian aircraft at Kursk.
(MC, 7/7/02)
1944 Jul 7, Bomber Command dropped
2,572 tons of bombs on Caen, France.
(MC, 7/7/02)
1944 Jul 7, There was a heavy
Japanese counter offensive on Saipan.
(MC, 7/7/02)
1945 Jul 7, Matti Salminen,
operatic basso (King Philip-Don Carlos), was born in Turku, Finland.
(MC, 7/7/02)
1946 Jul 7, William Durkin
(1916-2006) rescued Howard Hughes (1905-1976) from the fiery wreckage
of an XF-11 reconnaissance plane that Hughes was testing over Beverly
Hills.
(SFC, 5/1/06, p.B8)
1946 Jul 7, Italian-born Mother
Frances Xavier Cabrini was canonized as the first American saint. She
was the founder of the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart.
(AP, 7/7/97)(SFEC, 9/14/97, p.A18)
1947 Jul 7, A made-up photo in
Life magazine featured a biker in Hollister, Ca. In 1997 bikers
returned to Hollister for a 50-year anniversary and began an annual
tradition. [see Jul 4]
(SFC, 7/4/02, p.A18)
1948 Jul 7, Six female reservists
became the first women to be sworn into the regular U.S. Navy.
(AP, 7/7/98)
1949 Jul 7, The police drama
"Dragnet," starring Jack Webb and Barton Yarborough, premiered on NBC
radio. It became a TV series in 1951 and 1967.
(AP, 7/7/99)(MC, 7/7/02)
1950 Jul 7, South Africa’s
Population Registration Act commenced. It required that each inhabitant
of South Africa be classified and registered in accordance with their
racial characteristics as part of the system of apartheid. It was
repealed by section 1 of the Population Registration Act, Repeal Act No
114 of 1991.
(http://africanhistory.about.com/od/apartheidlaws/g/No30of50.htm)
1952 Jul 7, The American ocean
liner SS United States, known as "the Big U," crossed the Atlantic in
record 82:40, while on her maiden voyage.
(USAT, 1/20/04, p.14A)
1956 Jul 7, The Douglas Moore and
John Latouche opera "Ballad of Baby Doe," premiered.
(MC, 7/7/02)
1956 Jul 7, Seven Army trucks
loaded with dynamite exploded in middle of Cali, Columbia, killing
1,100-1,200. 2000 buildings were destroyed.
(MC, 7/7/02)
1954 Jul 7, Elvis Presley made his
radio debut as Memphis, Tennessee, station WHBQ played his first
recording for Sun Records, "That’s All Right (Mama)."
(AP, 7/7/00)
1958 Jul 7, President Dwight D.
Eisenhower signed the Alaska statehood bill. Alaska became the 49th
state in January 1959.
(AP, 7/7/07)
1961 Jul 7, James R. Hoffa was
elected president of Teamsters.
(MC, 7/7/02)
1962 Jul 7-1962 Jul 17, Operation
Sunbeam was a series of four nuclear tests conducted at the United
States of America's Nevada Test Site.
(www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Operation_Sunbeam)
1962 Jul 7, In Burma Sein Lwin
headed the army unit that shot dead Rangoon University students
protesting Ne Win's rule.
(AP, 4/10/04)
1966 Jul 7, The U.S. Marine Corps
launched Operation Hasting to drive the North Vietnamese Army back
across the Demilitarized Zone in Vietnam.
(HN, 7/7/98)
1967 Jul 7, Beatles' "All You Need
is Love" was released.
(MC, 7/7/02)
1967 Jul 7, Vivian Leigh (53),
actress (Scarlet-Gone with the Wind), died.
(MC, 7/7/02)
1969 Jul 7, The first U.S. troops
to withdraw from South Vietnam left Saigon.
(HN, 7/7/98)
1969 Jul 7, Canada's House of
Commons gave final approval to a measure making the French language
equal to English throughout the national government.
(AP, 7/7/97)
1969 Jul 7, Der Spiegel revealed
Munich's Bishop Defregger as a war criminal. Charges against Defregger
were dropped in 1970.
(http://tinyurl.com/5f8qts)www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,909636,00.html?iid=chix-sphere)
1972 Jul 7, Athenagoras (b.1886),
268th patriarch of Constantinople, died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patriarch_Athenagoras)
1976 Jul 7, The 1st female cadets
enrolled at the West Point Military Academy in NY. West Point Military
Academy admitted 119 women out of a class of 1367. Four years later 62
women graduated.
(www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=Article&id=5159)(SFEC,
2/16/97, p.A12)
1977 Jul 7, Sir Michael Tippett
(1905-1998), British composer, premiered his 4th opera "The Ice Break,"
which featured a race riot and a psychedelic sequence.
(www.michael-tippett.com/operaintroibreng.htm)
1978 Jul 7, China cut off all aid
to Albania after a dispute and left it completely isolated.
(WUD, 1994, p.1691)(CO, GAAE/Albania)
1978 Jul 7, The Solomon Islands
gained independence from Britain.
(SFC, 7/1/97,
p.A9)(www.worldstatesmen.org/Solomon_Islands.html)
1981 Jul 7, President Reagan
announced he was nominating Arizona Judge Sandra Day O'Connor to become
the first female justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.
(AP, 7/7/97)(HN, 7/7/98)
1981 Jul 7, The 1st solar-powered
aircraft, Solar Challenger, crossed the English Channel flying 163
miles from Paris to Canterbury. It was created by Dupont and Paul
MacCready.
(www.nasa.gov/centers/dryden/news/FactSheets/FS-054-DFRC.html)(Econ,
9/8/07, p.88)
1983 Jul 7, Samantha Smith (11) of
Manchester, Maine, left for a visit to the Soviet Union at the personal
invitation of Soviet leader Yuri V. Andropov.
(AP, 7/7/97)
1986 Jul 7, The US Supreme Court
struck down Gramm-Rudman deficit-reduction law.
(www.answers.com/topic/gramm-rudman-act)
1986 Jul 7, Jordan’s government
shut down all 25 offices of al-Fatah, the mainstream group in the
divided Palestine Liberation Organization.
(http://tinyurl.com/ycprwn)
1987 Jul 7, Lt. Col. Oliver North
began his long-awaited public testimony at the Iran-Contra hearing,
telling Congress that he had "never carried out a single act, not one,"
without authorization.
(AP, 7/7/97)
1988 Jul 7, Russia’s PHOBOS 1 Mars
Orbiter and lander was launched. Contact was lost on September 2, 1988.
(SFC, 11/19/96,
p.B1)(www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/mars/space_missions.html)
1988 Jul 7, The European
Parliament adopted a resolution condemning brutalities against
Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh.
(www.armeniaforeignministry.com/pr_04/040227sumgait.html)
1988 Jul 7, The candidate of
Mexico's ruling party, Carlos Salinas de Gortari, claimed a "national
victory" one day after presidential elections that opponents charged
were riddled by fraud.
(AP, 7/7/98)
1989 Jul 7, The US Labor Dept.
reported that unemployment rose 0.1% in June to 5.2%.
(AP, 7/7/99)
1990 Jul 7, President Bush
welcomed fellow leaders of the Group of Seven countries, who were
gathering in Houston for their 16th annual economic summit.
(AP, 7/7/00)
1990 Jul 7, Martina Navratilova
captured a record-breaking ninth women’s title at Wimbledon, outplaying
Zina Garrison, 6-4, 6-1.
(AP, 7/7/00)
1991 Jul 7, Responding to
President Bush’s call for stepped-up efforts on arms control talks,
Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev told the White House he was
sending Foreign Minister Alexander Bessmertnykh and other officials for
talks with Secretary of State James A. Baker the Third.
(AP, 7/6/01)
1991 Jul 7, Michael Stich defeated
Boris Becker, 6-4, 7-6, 6-4, to win the men’s singles title at
Wimbledon.
(AP, 7/7/01)
1992 Jul 7, Group of Seven leaders
meeting in Munich, Germany, condemned the carnage in former Yugoslavia
and warned Serb-led troops that U.N. military force would be used if
needed to keep relief operations going.
(AP, 7/7/97)
1993 Jul 7, The Group of Seven
nations, on the first day of their economic summit in Tokyo, unveiled a
long-sought agreement on world trade. Prior to the summit opening,
President Clinton delivered a speech at Waseda University.
(AP, 7/7/03)
1993 Jul 7, Mia Zapata (27), a
rising punk-rock star, was last seen alive in Seattle. In 2003 Jesus C.
Mezquia (b.1965), who lived in Seattle at the time of the rape and
murder, was arrested in Florida on DNA evidence. On March 25, 2004, a
jury convicted Florida fisherman Jesus Mezquia of her murder and he was
sentenced to 36 years in prison.
(SSFC, 1/12/03,
p.A6)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mia_Zapata#Death)
1994 Jul 7, President Clinton,
visiting Poland, assured the parliament that the U.S. would "not let
the Iron Curtain be replaced by a veil of indifference."
(AP, 7/7/99)
1994 Jul 7, Panama withdrew its
offer to the United States to accept thousands of Haitian refugees.
(AP, 7/7/99)
1995 Jul 7, The space shuttle
"Atlantis" landed at Cape Canaveral, Florida, bringing back American
astronaut Norman Thagard, who’d spent three and a-half months aboard
the Russian space station "Mir."
(AP, 7/7/00)
1995 Jul 7, UN military observers
in Bosnia appealed to the UN to "stop the carnage and damage in a UN
declared safe zone."
(SFC, 6/4/96, p.A12)
1996 Jul 7, Dutch tennis player
Richard Krajicek won the Wimbledon men's title, defeating American
MaliVai Washington 6-3, 6-4, 6-3.
(AP, 7/7/97)
1996 Jul 7, President Clinton
delivered more Whitewater trial testimony before video cameras, this
time testifying in the case of two Arkansas bankers accused of making
political contributions with bank funds; a jury later acquitted Herby
Branscum Jr., and Robert M. Hill of four counts and was deadlocked on
seven other counts. Whitewater prosecutor Kenneth Starr decided against
retrying the bankers
(AP, 7/7/97)
1996 Jul 7, The average cost of a
Big Mac in the US was $2.36. In Germany it was $3.22.
(SFC, 7/7/96, Par, p.17)
1996 Jul 7, In Ecuador lawyer
Abdala Bucaram, aka El Loco, was elected president with 54% of the
vote. He led the center-left Roldosista party.
(SFC, 7/8/96, p.A8)
1997 Jul 7, Montgomery Wards, the
nation’s largest privately owned retailer, filed for Chapter 11
bankruptcy protection.
(SFC, 7/8/97, p.A1)
1997 Jul 7, It was reported that
toxic waste was being used across the country in fertilizers with no
regulation. Substances being recycled in fertilizer included low level
radioactive waste from a uranium processing plant in Gore, Okla.;
lead-laced waste from a pulp mill in Camas, Wash.; and toxic byproducts
from steel-making in Moxee City, Wash.
(SFC, 7/7/97, p.A2)
1997 Jul 7, In California it was
reported that the state’s million plus cows were churning out $3
billion worth of milk and leaking harmful nitrates into the ground
water of the Central Valley. Years ago the Chino basin was forced to
write off vast quantities of tainted ground water due to dairies.
(SFC, 7/7/97, p.A8)
1997 Jul 7, Three days after
landing on Mars, the Pathfinder spacecraft yielded what scientists said
was unmistakable photographic evidence that colossal floods scoured the
Red Planet's now-barren landscape more than a billion years ago.
(AP, 7/7/98)
1997 Jul 7, In Chile the
government agreed to back the 670,000 acre nature preserve of Doug
Tompkins, founder of the Esprit clothing chain.
(SFC, 7/8/97, p.A7)
1997 Jul 7, Abdul Rashid Wani (30)
disappeared in Srinagar, Kashmir, while running an errand on the day of
his niece’s wedding.
(SSFC, 12/2/07, p.A17)
1997 Jul 7, In Kenya 9 people died
during protests for constitutional reform.
(SFC, 7/8/97, p.A8)(SFC, 7/12/97, p.A10)
1998 Jul 7, The American League
defeated the National League 13-8 in baseball's All-Star Game, played
in Denver.
(AP, 7/7/99)
1998 Jul 7, A jury in Santa
Monica, Calif., convicted Mikail Markhasev of murdering Ennis Cosby,
Bill Cosby's only son, during a roadside robbery.
(AP, 7/7/99)
1998 Jul 7, The American League
defeated the National League 13-8 in baseball's All-Star Game, played
in Denver.
(AP, 7/7/08)
1998 Jul 7, The US Court of
Appeals ruled that condemned prisoners have the option to choose death
by lethal injection or by gas in San Quentin’s death chamber. The gas
chamber was shut down in 1994.
(SFC, 7/8/98, p.A17)
1998 Jul 7, A jury in Santa
Monica, Calif., convicted Mikhail Markhasev of murdering Ennis Cosby,
Bill Cosby's only son, during a roadside robbery. Markhasev was
sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole.
(AP, 7/7/08)
1998 Jul 7, In Texas 2 Border
Patrol agents were killed in a gun battle with Ernest Moore who was
suspected of killing a woman and her daughter. Moore soon after died of
wounds at a hospital.
(SFC, 7/8/98, p.A2)
1998 Jul 7, In Angola 16 policemen
were killed in an ambush by Unita.
(WSJ, 7/7/98, p.A1)
1998 Jul 7, In Australia the
Senate passed a law that scaled back Aboriginal land rights under
threat by Prime Minister John Howard to dissolve both houses and call
for new elections.
(SFC, 7/8/98, p.A12)
1998 Jul 7, Britain sent more
troops to Northern Ireland to help quell the rioting.
(SFC, 7/8/98, p.A10)
1998 Jul 7, In Indonesia troops
battled protestors on Irian Jaya who demanded independence.
(WSJ, 7/8/98, p.A1)
1998 Jul 7, In Italy Silvio
Berlusconi, media tycoon and former prime minister, was sentenced to 2
years and 9 months in prison for bribing tax officials.
(WSJ, 7/8/98, p.A1)
1998 Jul 7, Mexican courts ordered
the attorney general’s office to rehire more than half the 826 agents
dismissed 6 months ago for failed drug tests and alleged corruption.
(SFC, 7/10/98, p.A16)
1998 Jul 7, In Nigeria opposition
leader Moshood Abiola (60) died of a heart attack while still in prison
and his death sparked rioting in Lagos that left at least 19 people
dead. Gen’l. Abubakar dissolved his cabinet, inherited from Abacha, but
left intact the Provisional Ruling Council. He called the death a
tragedy and appealed for calm.
(SFC, 7/8/98, p.A1)(SFC, 7/9/98, p.A1)(AP, 7/7/99)
1998 Jul 7, In Puerto Rico a
general 2 day strike was called against the sale of the phone company
and the San Juan Int’l. Airport was blocked for a short time.
(SFC, 7/8/98, p.A3)
1998 Jul 7, The UN voted to grant
the Palestinian delegation nearly the same rights as given to
independent states.
(SFC, 7/8/98, p.A10)
1999 Jul 7, In NYC "The Peony
Pavilion," a 22-hour Chinese opera, opened at the LaGuardia Theater.
(WSJ, 7/7/99, p.A20)
1999 Jul 7, President Clinton
became the first president since Franklin D. Roosevelt to visit an
Indian reservation as he toured the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in
South Dakota.
(AP, 7/7/00)
1999 Jul 7, In the first
class-action lawsuit by smokers to go to trial, a jury in Miami held
cigarette makers liable for making a defective product that causes
emphysema, lung cancer and other illnesses.
(SFC, 7/8/99, p.A1)(AP, 7/7/00)
1999 Jul 7, In Bahrain the top
dissident, Sheik Abdul-Ameer al-Jamri, was sentenced to 10 years in
prison and fined $15 million after he was convicted of spying and
inciting unrest. He was freed the next day with an amnesty.
(WSJ, 7/8/99, p.A1)(WSJ, 7/9/99, p.A1)
1999 Jul 7, Britain and Libya
announced a resumption of diplomatic relations.
(SFC, 7/8/99, p.A8)
1999 Jul 7, From China it was
reported that flooding on the Yangtze River since late June had killed
240 people and caused over $3 billion in damage.
(WSJ, 7/7/99, p.A1)
1999 Jul 7, In Iran the parliament
approved general outlines for new press restrictions.
(SFC, 7/8/99, p.A9)
1999 Jul 7, From Kazakstan it was
reported that a rocket carrying a telecom satellite blew up and that
launches at Baikonur would be suspended.
(WSJ, 7/7/99, p.A1)
1999 Jul 7, Pres. Ahmed Tejan
Kabbah of Sierra Leone signed a peace accord with rebel leader Foday
Sankoh in Togo. Sankoh was given the vice-presidency and the rebels
were promised 4 ministerial and 4 deputy ministerial posts.
(SFC, 7/8/99, p.A8)
2000 Jul 7, The 4th installment of
the "Harry Potter" series, "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire," by
J.K. Rowling went on sale.
(SFC, 7/8/00, p.A1)
2000 Jul 7, In Denver Episcopal
bishops approved an alliance with the nation’s largest Lutheran
denomination.
(SFC, 7/8/00, p.A3)
2000 Jul 7, President Clinton
postponed the first federal execution since 1963 so that death row
inmate Juan Raul Garza could ask for clemency under guidelines being
updated by the government. Garza was executed June 19, 2001.
(AP, 7/7/01)
2000 Jul 7, A$100 million US test
missile failed to hit a dummy warhead from another missile. It was the
2nd failure of 3 tests.
(SFC, 7/8/00, p.A1)
2000 Jul 7, In West Virginia 2
teenagers (17) in Grant Town confessed to killing Arthur Warren Jr.
(26), a gay man. They beat him to death and then drove over his body
several times to make it look like a hit-and-run.
(SFC, 7/8/00, p.A4)
2000 Jul 7, Stock car driver Kenny
Irwin was killed when his car slammed into a wall during practice at
New Hampshire International Speedway; he was 30.
(AP, 7/7/01)
2000 Jul 7, In Austria the
parliament approved a $415 million fund to compensate Nazi-era victims
of forced labor.
(SFC, 7/8/00, p.C14)
2000 Jul 7, Three days of
torrential rains over central China left at least 22 people dead in
Sichuan. Thousands of buildings, 17 bridges and 7 hydroelectric power
stations were damaged. In Guangxi Zhuang a bus fell into the Liujiang
River in Liuzhou and at least 65 people were killed.
(SFC, 7/8/00, p.D8)(SFC, 7/10/00, p.A9)
2000 Jul 7, German drug maker
Boehringer Ingelheim said it would donate nevirapine, a drug to help
prevent the transmission of AIDS from mothers to infants, to every
nation in the developing world that asks for it.
(SFC, 7/8/00, p.A1)
2000 Jul 7, In Fiji supporters of
George Speight seized up to 30 hostages at Korovou.
(SFC, 7/8/00, p.A11)
2000 Jul 7, In Nicaragua another
earthquake struck and at least 2 people were killed.
(SFC, 7/8/00, p.A12)
2000 Jul 7, Typhoon Kai Tak killed
at least 39 people in the Philippines and moved on to Japan.
(SFC, 7/8/00, p.A11)(WSJ, 7/10/00, p.A1)
2000 Jul 7, The World Bank
cancelled its Chinese resettlement project for Tibet. China then
withdrew its request for a $40 million loan and vowed to proceed with
its own development program.
(SFC, 7/8/00, p.A10)
2001 Jul 7, Bolivia’s Pres. Banzer
(75) was reported to be hospitalized in Washington DC with cancer in
his lung and liver.
(SFC, 7/7/01, p.B1)(SSFC, 7/8/01, p.A16)
2001 Jul 7, It was reported that
China had executed 1,781 people over the last 3 months.
(SFC, 7/7/01, p.A8)
2001 Jul 7, In Croatia PM Ivica
Racan announced that citizens indicted by the UN War Crimes tribunal
could be extradited to the Hague.
(SSFC, 7/8/01, p.A16)
2001 Jul 7, In Bradford, England,
80 police officers were injured in race riots that began after a rally
by the far-right National Front was banned. Asian and white youths ran
amok in the streets armed with firebombs and baseball bats.
(SSFC, 7/8/01, p.A16)(AP, 7/6/02)
2001 Jul 7, In Jamaica a police
crackdown began in Kingston following 2 months of fighting between
gangs that killed 37 people. The murder rate for the country had
reached 530 for the half year.
(SFC, 7/11/01, p.A8)
2001 Jul 7, In the Gaza Strip a
Palestinian boy was shot and killed and 2 others injured by Israeli
soldiers. Palestinian militants were said to have been shooting in the
Raffah refugee camp area.
(SSFC, 7/8/01, p.A13)
2001 Jul 7, In Puerto Rico
Parmenio Medina (62), a Colombian-born journalist, was gunned down in
his car. He ran a radio program called "La Patada," or "The Kick,"
which denounced fraud at a religious radio station. In 2007 a court
convicted Omar Chaves, a businessman, of ordering the murder of the
journalist. Chaves also got a 12-year prison sentence on a fraud count.
His partner, Father Minor de Jesus Calvo, was acquitted of the killing,
but was convicted of fraud and sentenced to 15 years in jail.
(AP, 12/19/07)
2002 Jul 7, Lleyton Hewitt crushed
David Nalbandian in straight sets, 6-1, 6-3, 6-2, in the Wimbledon
final to win his second Grand Slam title.
(AP, 7/7/03)
2002 Jul 7, Texas Gov. Rick Perry
saw by helicopter the devastation days of torrential rain had brought
to central and southern Texas.
(AP, 7/7/03)
2002 Jul 7, Afghanistan's vice
president, Abdul Qadir, was buried with full military honors one day
after being assassinated.
(AP, 7/7/07)
2002 Jul 7, Nearly two dozen
people were killed and thousands left homeless as torrential monsoon
rains lashed large parts of Asia over the weekend, worsening floods and
triggering fresh storms and landslides. Monsoon flooding killed at
least 11 in Bangladesh.
(Reuters, 7/7/02)(Reuters, 7/8/02)
2002 Jul 7, In southern China 13
people were killed when a wall being demolished at a vegetable market
crumbled after heavy rain, burying vendors and workers under a mound of
rubble.
(Reuters, 7/7/02)
2002 Jul 7, In Hong Kong tens of
thousands of civil servants staged a huge street protest against a
government plan to pass a law that would cut their pay by up to 4.42
percent.
(Reuters, 7/7/02)
2002 Jul 7, In Indonesia 53 people
burned alive or jumped to their deaths when fire ripped through a
crowded Palembang karaoke bar on Sumatra island but the final death
toll could be double that.
(AP, 7/8/02)(Reuters, 7/9/02)(WSJ, 7/9/02, p.A1)
2002 Jul 7, In Northern Ireland
Protestant hard-liners battled riot police after being barred from
parading through the main Catholic section of Portadown.
(AP, 7/7/02)
2002 Jul 7, The 14th Int'l. AIDS
Conference opened in Barcelona. Estimates said AIDS had claimed 20
million lives to date and threatened 40 million currently infected.
African cases were estimated at 28.5 million.
(SFC, 7/5/02, p.A1)(SSFC, 7/7/02, p.A6)
2002 Jul 7, In eastern Ukraine
rescue workers found the bodies of 35 miners killed in one of two fires
over the weekend in mines.
(AP, 7/7/02)(AP, 7/8/02)
2003 Jul 7, Hilary Lunke won the
U.S. Women's Open.
(AP, 7/7/04)
2003 Jul 7, Pres. Bush departed
for a 5-country African tour. In 2007 Ari Fleischer, former White House
press secretary, said he had lunch with Scooter Libby on this day and
was told by Libby that Ambassador Wilson had been sent to Africa by his
wife, Valerie Plame, who worked for the CIA. Wilson had criticized the
Bush administration the previous day for the way it used intelligence
to justify the war in Iraq.
(SFC, 7/7/03, p.A8)(SFC, 1/30/07, p.A3)
2003 Jul 7, A federal judge
approved a settlement fining WorldCom $750 million for its $11-billion
accounting scandal.
(AP, 7/7/04)
2003 Jul 7, A chunk of foam
insulation fired at shuttle wing parts blew open a gaping 16-inch hole,
yielding what one member of the Columbia investigation team said was
the "smoking gun" proving what brought down the spaceship on Feb 1.
(AP, 7/7/04)
2003 Jul 7, The CDC confirmed the
year's 1st case of West Nile Virus, which killed 284 in the US in 2002.
(SFC, 7/8/03, p.A6)
2003 Jul 7, NASA's 2nd Mars
Lander, named Opportunity, was launched.
(SFC, 7/8/03, p.A1)
2003 Jul 7, In Corsica explosions
rocked vacation homes owned by mainland French in new nationalist
violence a day after Corsicans rejected a plan designed to set up a
single executive body to run Corsican affairs.
(AP, 7/7/03)
2003 Jul 7, In Indonesia
gunbattles between soldiers and rebels in Aceh province left 18
insurgents dead, and the bodies of five civilians were discovered in
the region.
(AP, 7/8/03)
2003 Jul 7, In northwestern
Tanzania a bus rolled several times after one of its front tires burst,
killing at least 19 people and injuring 23 others.
(AP, 7/8/03)
2004 Jul 7, Former Enron chairman
Kenneth Lay was indicted on criminal charges related to the energy
company's collapse.
(AP, 7/7/05)
2004 Jul 7, Jeff Smith (65), a
white-bearded minister who became public television's popular "Frugal
Gourmet" (1983-1997) before a sex scandal ruined his career, died.
(AP, 7/9/04)
2004 Jul 7, The Iraqi government
issued a long-anticipated package of security laws to help crush
insurgents, including a provision allowing interim PM Iyad Allawi to
impose martial law. 4 Iraqi National Guard soldiers were killed and 20
injured from a gunbattle in central Baghdad.
(AP, 7/7/04)(SFC, 7/8/04, p.A15)
2004 Jul 7, In Russia the board of
Guta Bank approved its sale to the state-owned Vneshtorgbank. A day
earlier Guta had announced a suspension of payments.
(Econ, 7/10/04, p.66)
2004 Jul 7, In Sri Lanka a Tamil
Tiger suicide bomber detonated explosives at a police station, killing
herself and 4 officers.
(AP, 7/7/04)
2004 Jul 7, It was reported that
fighting between Arab and African tribes has killed at least 70 people
and displaced thousands more this week in the Darfur region of western
Sudan.
(Reuters, 7/7/04)
2005 Jul 7, Morgan Stanley
disclosed that Philip Purdell had been given an exit package worth an
estimated $113.7 million. 2 days earlier John Mack was signed on as CEO
on a contract worth as much as $25 million a year.
(SFC, 7/8/05, p.C1)
2005 Jul 7, Gustaf Sobin (69),
American-born writer and poet, died in France. His work included the
2000 novel “The Fly-Truffler.”
(SFC, 7/13/05, p.B7)
2005 Jul 7, A Human Rights Watch
report said numerous officials in Afghan President Hamid Karzai's
government are implicated in war crimes that took place at the start of
the country's bloody civil war in the early 1990s.
(AP, 7/7/05)
2005 Jul 7, In Pale,
Bosnia-Herzegovina, NATO troops arrested Aleksandar Karadzic, the son
of top Bosnian Serb war crimes fugitive Radovan Karadzic, who is wanted
for alleged genocide including the 1995 Srebrenica massacre.
(AFP, 7/7/05)
2005 Jul 7, Four blasts rocked the
London subway and tore open a packed double-decker bus during the
morning rush hour, sending bloodied victims fleeing. 56 were killed in
the subway blasts, including 13 on the bus, and London hospitals
reported more than 700 wounded. A group calling itself "The Secret
Organization of al-Qaida in Europe" posted a claim of responsibility,
saying they were in retaliation for Britain's involvement in Iraq and
Afghanistan. In 2007 British police arrested 3 suspects. [see ref URL
for CNN timeline on the bombing] In 2008 a jury failed to convict 3
Britons accused of helping the suicide bombers. In 2009 three men were
found not guilty of helping to plan the suicide bombings, although two
were convicted on lesser charges.
(AP, 7/7-8/05)(http://tinyurl.com/dxvlb)(AP,
7/11/05)(WSJ, 3/23/07, p.A1)(WSJ, 8/2/08, p.A6)
(AFP, 4/28/09)
2005 Jul 7, Al-Qaida in Iraq said
in a Web statement that it has killed Ihab al-Sherif, Egypt's top envoy
in Iraq, posting a video of the blindfolded diplomat identifying
himself.
(AP, 7/7/05)
2005 Jul 7, Egypt recalled its
staff to Cairo and said it will temporarily shut its diplomatic mission
in Iraq.
(AP, 7/7/05)
2005 Jul 7, Hurricane Dennis, a
Category 4 storm with 135-mph winds, left 10 people dead in Haiti
and some 100 missing.
(AP, 7/9/05)
2005 Jul 7, The 150-ton KMP Digul
sank off Papua province, Indonesia, while en route from the port town
of Merauke to Tanah Merah. As many as 200 were feared dead.
(AP, 7/9/05)(AP, 7/10/05)
2005 Jul 7, Iraq's president
called for national unity as mortar attacks killed 4 civilians in the
northern city of Mosul and police opened fire on demonstrators in
Saddam Hussein's hometown Tikrit, wounding 4.
(AP, 7/7/05)
2005 Jul 7, About 600 US Marines
and Iraqi soldiers launched Operation Scimitar near Fallujah, the
fourth counterinsurgency operation in less than a month.
(AP, 7/9/05)
2005 Jul 7, Ali Shakir, the head
of Iraq's karate union, was kidnapped south of Baghdad.
(AP, 7/9/05)
2005 Jul 7, Saddam Hussein's chief
lawyer quit the Iraqi dictator's Jordan-based legal team, saying some
of the team's American members were trying to control the defense and
tone down his criticism of the U.S. presence in Iraq.
(AP, 7/7/05)
2005 Jul 7, Luxembourg PM
Jean-Claude Juncker asked his citizens to pass a referendum in favor of
the EU Constitution.
(WSJ, 7/8/05, p.A5)
2005 Jul 7, In Pakistan 2 masked
gunmen opened fire on an intelligence officer in a remote northwestern
tribal region, killing him before fleeing.
(AP, 7/7/05)
2005 Jul 7, Romania's PM Calin
Popescu Tariceanu said his Cabinet would resign and early elections
would be called after a court blocked essential justice reforms
required by the EU.
(AP, 7/7/05)
2005 Jul 7, In Scotland world
leaders united in a show of solidarity to condemn the deadly bombings
in London as an attack on all nations and vowed to defeat the
terrorists responsible.
(AP, 7/7/05)
2006 Jul 7, The Arkansas state
board barred Dr. Randeep Mann from prescribing narcotics after
officials said 10 of his patients died from a lethal mix of drugs or an
overdose of prescription medicines.
(AP, 7/7/06)
2006 Jul 7, Louisiana joined 21
other states in banning Internet hunting, the practice of using a mouse
click to kill animals on a distant game farm.
(www.livescience.com/othernews/060707_internet_hunting.html)
2006 Jul 7, Oil hit a fresh record
high of $75.78 a barrel, boosted by strong demand in the US and global
tension ranging from Iran's nuclear work to North Korea's missile tests.
(Reuters, 7/7/06)
2006 Jul 7, Fighting in southern
Afghanistan killed a US-led coalition soldier and at least eight
suspected Taliban militants.
(AP, 7/8/06)
2006 Jul 7, Syd Barrett (60), a
founding member of the rock group Pink Floyd, died at his home in
Cambridge, England. The band’s first album was “The Piper at the Gates
of Dawn.”
(Reuters, 7/11/06)(SFC, 7/12/06, p.B7)(Econ,
7/22/06, p.83)
2006 Jul 7, In Canada 2 Mounties
were wounded near the Saskatchewan community of Spiritwood as they
investigated what appeared to be a family dispute. Constables Robin
Cameron (29) and Marc Bourdages (26) died from their wounds on July 15
and 16.
(AP, 7/17/06)
2006 Jul 7, In northern China a
fire ignited explosives at a home in Dongzhai, a village in the
coal-mining province of Shanxi, killing at least 47 people, many of
them neighbors who had rushed to the scene to battle the flames. A
seven-story apartment building collapsed in the major city of Zhengzhou
in central China, killing at least two people and burying an unknown
number of others.
(AP, 7/7/06)
2006 Jul 7, UN peacekeepers in
Haiti found the bodies of 16 people believed killed in a surge of gang
violence.
(AP, 7/8/06)
2006 Jul 7, Iraqi forces backed by
US aircraft battled militants in a Shiite stronghold of eastern
Baghdad, killing or wounding more than 30 fighters and capturing an
extremist leader who was the target of the raid. Residents claimed up
to 11 civilians died. A series of bombs and a mortar round targeting
the main Islamic weekly service struck four Sunni mosques in the
Baghdad area and a Shiite mosque in northern Iraq, killing 17 people
and wounding more than 50.
(AP, 7/7/06)(AP, 7/8/06)
2006 Jul 7, Israel launched an
airstrike in the northern Gaza Strip. Witnesses said three Palestinians
were killed. The Israeli military said the attack on the town of Beit
Lahiya targeted a group of militants. Palestinians said 32 people had
died in days of Gaza fighting.
(AP, 7/7/06)(WSJ, 7/8/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 7, Former Italian PM
Silvio Berlusconi was ordered to stand trial following an investigation
into the sale of television rights at Mediaset SpA.
(AP, 7/7/06)
2006 Jul 7, The first batch of
Japanese troops began pulling out of Iraq.
(AP, 7/7/06)
2006 Jul 7, North Korea announced
a scientific breakthrough. State-run media boasted that
researchers developed a new cosmetic agent to make skin supple.
(AP, 7/7/06)
2006 Jul 7, Pakistan's president
amended a controversial Islamic law so that women facing charges for
adultery and other minor crimes can be released on bail. The
much-awaited amendment by President Gen. Pervez Musharraf to the Hadood
Ordinance will initially affect 1,300 female prisoners.
(AP, 7/7/06)
2006 Jul 7, In the Philippines 6
fugitive military officers linked to a failed 2003 mutiny against
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo were arrested.
(AP, 7/7/06)
2006 Jul 7, Officials said Russian
authorities have dramatically curtailed the number of stations
broadcasting Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Voice of America news
programs, sending an unsettling signal about the state of press
freedoms in Russia.
(AP, 7/8/06)
2006 Jul 7, A Spanish judge
charged two former Guatemalan dictators with genocide and issued
international warrants for their arrest. National Court Judge Santiago
Pedraz issued warrants on charges of genocide, torture, terrorism and
illegal detention against Gen. Efrain Rios Montt, Gen. Oscar Humberto
Mejia Victores and six other men.
(AP, 7/7/06)
2006 Jul 7, Spain’s Agriculture
Ministry said it has recorded its first case of H5N1 bird flu. The
deadly strain was found in a water fowl in a marsh area outside the
northern city of Vitoria.
(AP, 7/7/06)
2006 Jul 7, The UN General
Assembly unanimously approved a series of reforms that were welcomed by
the US as a long overdue step toward greater efficiency and
accountability. A two-week UN conference reviewing efforts to fight the
illegal weapons trade ended in failure, with nations too divided on too
many contentious issues to agree on the best way to combat a scourge
that fuels conflict worldwide. Japan introduced a draft UN Security
Council resolution to sanction North Korea for test-launching a series
of missiles. The Council unanimously adopted a compromise resolution on
July 15.
(AP, 7/8/06)(AP, 7/7/07)
2007 Jul 7, The 24-hour Live Earth
music marathon reached the Western Hemisphere with rappers, rockers and
country stars taking the stage at Live Earth concerts to fight climate
change.
(SSFC, 7/8/07, p.A4)(AP, 7/7/08)
2007 Jul 7, A Big Mac in the US
cost an average $3.41. At current exchange rates the cheapest Big Mac
was in China at $1.45, and the most expensive in New Zealand at $5.89.
(Econ, 7/7/07, p.74)
2007 Jul 7, Wildfires in
California consumed 17,000 acres in Inyo National Forest and 7,500
acres in Los Padres National Forest. An 8,000-acre wildfire forced
hundreds of people in the town of Winnemucca to leave their homes, one
of more than a dozen blazes that charred a combined 55 square miles in
northern Nevada. In Utah a 160,000-acre wildfire forced evacuations at
Cove Fort and the Blundell Geothermal Power Plant. Wildfires also
burned in Colorado, Arizona, Oregon and Washington states.
(AP, 7/8/07)(SSFC, 7/8/07, p.A5)
2007 Jul 7, In Oregon Kent Couch
(47) in his lawn chair with some snacks and a parachute rose to the sky
under 105 large helium balloons. Nearly 9 hours later the gas station
owner came back to earth in a farmer's field near Union, 193 miles from
home. In September he had gotten off the ground for six hours.
(AP, 7/10/07)
2007 Jul 7, A global poll picked
the Great Wall of China, Rome's Colosseum, India's Taj Mahal, Peru’s
Macchu Picchu, Jordan’s Petra, Brazil's Statue of Christ Redeemer and
Mexico's Chichen Itza pyramid as the new seven wonders of the world.
The campaign to name the new wonders was launched in 1999 by the Swiss
adventurer Bernard Weber.
(AP, 7/8/07)
2007 Jul 7, Barton Shackelford,
former president of PG&E (1979-1985), died in Kentfield, Ca.
(SFC, 7/16/07, p.C6)
2007 Jul 7, In Kandahar province
Taliban fighters ambushed police traveling in between Ghorak and
Mawiwand, sparking a six-hour battle. About 20 Taliban fighters were
wounded in the engagement, and several police were missing. Taliban
fighters beheaded two civilians they accused of being spies for the
government or NATO. A roadside blast struck a NATO convoy in southern
Afghanistan and wounded four alliance soldiers.
(AP, 7/7/07)(AP, 7/9/07)
2007 Jul 7, A court in Algeria's
Kabylie region sentenced Said Sahnoun, a correspondent for newspapers
in sub-Saharan Africa, to 10 years in prison for spying for Israel.
(Reuters, 7/8/07)
2007 Jul 7, Algeria's state oil
and gas company and KBR Inc., a former Halliburton Co. subsidiary,
signed a $2.88 billion deal for a liquefied natural gas plant.
(AP, 7/7/07)
2007 Jul 7, Britain’s PM Gordon
Brown pledged 14 million pounds in extra aid for parts of northern
England hit by floods which killed at least four people.
(AFP, 7/7/07)
2007 Jul 7, Jack Odell (b.1920),
British creator of the Matchbox miniature toys (1953), died. The toys
were made by Lesney Products, founded by Leslie and Rodney Smith in
1947. The company went public in 1960 and bankrupt in 1982, when it was
sold to Hong Kong’s Universal International Ltd. In 1997 Mattel
acquired Matchbox.
(WSJ, 1/14/07, p.A4)
2007 Jul 7, German scientists said
a genetically engineered herpes virus, designed to kill cancer cells
but leave normal tissue unharmed, has shown early promise in clinical
tests.
(Reuters, 7/7/07)
2007 Jul 7, Authorities said
floods in eastern India have left nearly a million people stranded from
torrential monsoon rains.
(AFP, 7/7/07)
2007 Jul 7, In Iraq a bombing in
Armili, a farming town of 26,000, mostly Shiites from Iraq's ethnic
Turkoman minority, killed over 130 people. Another car bomb attack
against a military checkpoint in Baghdad killed at least 3 people and
wounded 10. British troops came under heavy attack by militants in
Basra, killing one soldier and wounding 3. An American soldier was
killed in combat in Salahuddin province.
(AFP, 7/7/07)(AP, 7/8/07)
2007 Jul 7, In Indian-controlled
Kashmir protesters clashed with police in Srinagar a day after a
teenager was killed when police fired on a crowd protesting alleged
human rights abuses.
(AP, 7/7/07)
2007 Jul 7, In Indonesia a
speeding bus carrying a group of junior high school students and their
teachers plunged into a 30-foot ravine on the main island of Java,
killing 14 people. Poisonous fumes from the Indonesia’s Salak volcano
killed six teenagers who were camping on the mountain.
(AP, 7/7/07)(AP, 7/8/07)
2007 Jul 7, Nepal's king
celebrated his 60th birthday with a lavish ceremony at his palace that
set off protests in the streets of Katmandu.
(AP, 7/7/07)
2007 Jul 7, President Pervez
Musharraf told Islamist militants barricaded in a mosque to surrender
or die, while concern grew for hundreds of women and children inside
the besieged compound in the Pakistani capital.
(Reuters, 7/7/07)
2007 Jul 7, Pope Benedict XVI
removed restrictions on celebrating the old form of the Latin Mass in a
concession to traditional Catholics, but he stressed that he was in no
way rolling back the reforms of the Second Vatican Council.
(AP, 7/7/07)
2007 Jul 7, Zimbabwe's government
announced a new law making it an offense to defy steep price cuts
ordered in an effort to control runaway inflation and a growing
economic crisis.
(AP, 7/7/07)
2008 Jul 7, Tropical storm Bertha
strengthened to become the first hurricane of the Atlantic season.
(AP, 7/7/08)
2008 Jul 7, Bruce Conner (b.1933),
SF-based artist, died. His collages and prints looked back to classics
of surrealism. His work was later said to look like a bridge between
the Beat generation and postmodernism.
(http://daily.greencine.com/archives/006353.html)(SFC, 7/8/08,
p.B5)(SFC, 5/4/09, p.E3)
2008 Jul 7, In Afghanistan a car
bomb detonated by a suicide bomber ripped through the front wall of the
Indian Embassy in central Kabul, killing 41 people in the deadliest
attack in the capital since the fall of the Taliban.
(AP, 7/7/08)(AP, 7/8/08)
2008 Jul 7, Austria’s ruling
coalition crumbled and new elections were expected as early as
September. The left-right alliance broke up after 18 months in office.
(WSJ, 7/8/08, p.A12)(Econ, 7/12/08, p.63)
2008 Jul 7, In central Bangladesh
2 passenger buses collided head-on, killing at least 20 people and
wounding dozens more.
(AP, 7/7/08)
2008 Jul 7, The Church of
England's ruling body voted its support for women to become bishops
without giving traditionalist supporters of male-only priesthood the
concessions they had sought.
(AP, 7/8/08)
2008 Jul 7, In China Diana O'Brien
(22), a Canadian model, was found murdered in her Shanghai apartment.
On Jul 11 police arrested Chen Jun (18), who confessed to killing the
woman during a robbery.
(AP, 7/11/08)
2008 Jul 7, In Colombia a
rose-laden US cargo plane headed for Miami crashed before dawn near
Bogota, killing a father and son in their home on the ground. It was
the second time in six weeks that a Boeing 747 flown by Ypsilanti,
Michigan-based Kalitta Air has crashed.
(AP, 7/8/08)
2008 Jul 7, In Congo (DRC)
unidentified gunmen ambushed a vehicle belonging to the World Wildlife
Fund in Virunga national Park, killing two people and wounding three
others.
(AP, 7/9/08)
2008 Jul 7, Police in East Timor's
capital fired tear gas to disperse students protesting a plan by
lawmakers to buy themselves new cars with state funds.
(AP, 7/7/08)
2008 Jul 7, In Egypt smugglers
killed a police officer during a shootout on the border with Israel.
(AP, 7/7/08)
2008 Jul 7, A court in Equatorial
Guinea convicted former British officer Simon Mann on of being the key
player in a failed 2004 coup plot in this Central African nation and
sentenced him to 34 years and four months in prison.
(AP, 7/7/08)
2008 Jul 7, European Union nations
gave their backing to a French-drafted pact calling for tightening
immigration and asylum rules across the 27-nation bloc.
(AP, 7/8/08)
2008 Jul 7, In Germany war crimes
suspect Callixte Mbarushimana, a former UN employee wanted for his
alleged role in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, was arrested in Frankfurt.
(AFP, 7/8/08)
2008 Jul 7, Germany’s Fresenius SE
said it has agreed to buy US generic drug maker APP Pharmaceuticals for
$3.7 billion in cash in a deal that will give the health care company
more opportunities in the North American market for drugs administered
intravenously.
(AP, 7/7/08)
2008 Jul 7, PM al-Maliki said Iraq
has proposed a short-term memorandum of understanding with the US
rather than trying to hammer through a formal agreement on the presence
of US forces. A roadside bomb near a dress shop in Baqouba killed a
woman and injured 14 others.
(AP, 7/7/08)
2008 Jul 7, Israeli troops in
jeeps swooped down on the West Bank town of Nablus, shutting down a
girls' school, a medical center and two other facilities of a
Hamas-affiliated charity. Palestinian militants fired a mortar shell at
a border crossing with the Gaza Strip. Israel's military said it had
begun digging up the bodies of Lebanese fighters after the government
struck a deal with Hezbollah guerrillas to swap five living prisoners
and dozens of bodies for two Israeli soldiers captured in 2006.
(AP, 7/7/08)
2008 Jul 7, In Italy transport
workers went on strike, forcing the cancellation of thousands of bus,
tram and subway lines and snarling traffic across the country.
(AP, 7/7/08)
2008 Jul 7, In Japan G8 leaders
raised the prospect of more sanctions against Zimbabwe unless quick
progress is made to end a political crisis after a violent election
that extended President Robert Mugabe's 28-year rule. The G8 met with
seven African leaders at its annual summit. African leaders urged the
Group of Eight nations to tackle spiking oil and food prices. Japan
included 5 “outreach” countries (Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South
Africa) for brief discussions with the G8.
(Reuters, 7/7/08)(AFP, 7/7/08)(Econ, 7/5/08, p.33)
2008 Jul 7, In Indian Kashmir
Ghulam Nabi Azad, the chief minister said he was stepping down
following protests over the government’s handling of the transfer of
government land to the Shiri Amarnath Shrine Board, a trust running the
revered Hindu shrine.
(WSJ, 7/8/08, p.A12)
2008 Jul 7, Mexican police found
six charred bodies on a Tijuana street following a bloody weekend that
left 14 people dead.
(AP, 7/7/08)
2008 Jul 7, In Pakistan a total of
seven small blasts left 43 people wounded in the commercial capital of
Karachi.
(AP, 7/8/08)
2008 Jul 7, Serbia's parliament
approved a new government that includes a pro-Western group and the
political party of the late strongman Slobodan Milosevic.
(AP, 7/8/08)
2008 Jul 7, The South African
Reserve Bank said 5 million coins featuring a smiling Nelson Mandela
will go into circulation on July 18, the former president's 90th
birthday.
(AP, 7/7/08)
2008 Jul 7, Sudan's parliament
approved a new electoral law, a crucial step towards scheduled national
elections and a democratic transition laid out in peace arrangements
after a 21-year civil war.
(AP, 7/7/08)
2008 Jul 7, A UNESCO official said
that an 11th century temple that sits on Cambodia's disputed border
zone with Thailand has been designated as a world heritage site.
Hindu-themed Preah Vihear reflects the beliefs of the kings who ruled
what was then the Angkorean empire.
(AP, 7/8/08)
2009 Jul 7, Google announced its
new operating system, Google Chrome OS, which would initially target
low cost netbooks.
(SFC, 7/9/09, p.C1)
2009 Jul 7, Ron Nicolino (b.1939),
artist and former resident of Point Richmond, Ca., died of cancer. He
had attempted to string a collection of bras across the Grand Canyon in
the mid-1990s, but was unable to get federal permission. Instead he and
Ellen Duffy concocted the creation of a bra ball. A dispute led each
one to create their own versions. Nicolino’s 1,600 pound “Big Giant Bra
Ball” was left with his mother in Washington state.
(SFC, 7/16/09, p.D7)
2009 Jul 7, In eastern Afghanistan
a hand grenade thrown at a police vehicle exploded in a crowd, killing
one civilian and wounding 28 others in Khost province. A British
soldier died in an explosion in Helmand province. He was the 7th
British soldier killed in Afghanistan in a week. Hundreds of insurgents
attacked police posts and a government building in eastern Nuristan
province. The attacks continued into the next day leaving 6 policemen
and 21 insurgents dead. (AP, 7/7/09)(AP, 7/8/09)
2009 Jul 7, British officials
unveiled a memorial of 52 steel pillars in a London park, one for each
victim of the July 7, 2005, attacks on the city's transit system.
(AP, 7/7/09)
2009 Jul 7, The Cameroonian
newspaper Le Jour said five Chinese workers were abducted off the
oil-rich Bakassi peninsula in Cameroon near the border with Nigeria.
(AFP, 7/8/09)
2009 Jul 7, Canadian officials
said they had identified yet another new flu virus, this one a mixture
of human and swine influenzas, in two farm workers in Western Canada.
(Reuters, 7/8/09)
2009 Jul 7, In China mobs of Han
Chinese wielding meat cleavers and clubs and groups of Muslim Uighur
men beat people in the streets of Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang
region. The government imposed a curfew as it tried to stem communal
violence. The official Xinhua News Agency said that 1,434 suspects had
been arrested, and that checkpoints had been set up to stop rioters
from escaping.
(AP, 7/7/09)
2009 Jul 7, In Egypt 22 people
were killed in two separate accidents on the notoriously dangerous road
between the capital Cairo and the southern city of Minya.
(AP, 7/7/09)
2009 Jul 7, Ethiopia's parliament
adopted a new anti-terrorism bill despite criticism by rights groups
that the legislation violates civil liberties.
(AFP, 7/7/09)
2009 Jul 7, In India at least 16
people were killed and 25 injured after a fire tore through a
firecracker factory in Madurai.
(SFC, 7/9/09, p.A2)
2009 Jul 7, In Italy Matteo
Salvini, a member of the often xenophobic, anti-immigrant Northern
League party, resigned his seat in the lower chamber of Parliament
after being filmed singing a racist chant about Naples and its
residents.
(AP, 7/8/09)
2009 Jul 7, In northern Mexico an
anti-crime activist and a neighbor were killed by gunmen believed
linked to a drug cartel. Anti-crime activists said the slaying of
Benjamin LeBaron, a US citizen, in Chihuahua state was the first time
one of their own had been killed for denouncing crime and called it a
chilling warning. Jose Rodolfo Escajeda, a lieutenant and one of the
main operators of the Juarez cartel, was later presumed responsible for
the killing of LeBaron and a neighbor near Nuevo Casas Grandes.
(AP, 7/8/09)(AP, 9/6/09)
2009 Jul 7, In Pakistan a US
missile strike pulverized a compound in a stronghold of Taliban warlord
Baitullah Mehsud, killing 16 foreign and local militants in South
Waziristan. Two paramilitary soldiers were killed and nine security
personnel wounded in three bomb attacks in North and South Waziristan.
The military said that four militants were killed, including a brother
of Ibn-e-Amin, one of the most-wanted Taliban commanders in the Swat
valley.
(AFP, 7/7/09)
2009 Jul 7, In the Philippines a
crude bomb hidden on a motorcycle exploded in a port city on southern
Jolo island where al-Qaida-linked militants are active, killing at
least two people and wounding 24.
(AP, 7/7/09)
2009 Jul 7, In Moscow President
Barack Obama asked the Russian people to "forge a lasting partnership"
with the US, but he acknowledged after talks with PM Vladimir Putin
that on divisive issues there won't be "a meeting of the minds anytime
soon.
(AP, 7/7/09)
2009 Jul 7, Spanish police
arrested Jorge Alberto Soza (72), an ex-Argentine police official
suspected of human rights abuses committed during the South American
country's dirty war. Soza was wanted in Argentina in connection with 18
cases of kidnapping and torture between 1975 and 1977 when he was an
assistant Federal Police commissioner and chief delegate in the
southern Argentine city of Neuquen.
(AP, 7/24/09)
2009 Jul 7, Pope Benedict XVI
called for a radical rethinking of global economy in “Caritas et
Verite” (Charity in Truth) his 3rd encyclical.
(SFC, 7/8/09, p.A2)
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