Today in History - July 8
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810 Jul 8, Pepin,
son of Charlemagne and King of Italy, died.
(MC, 7/8/02)
1099 Jul 8, In Jerusalem 15,000
starving Christian soldiers marched around barefoot while the Muslim
defenders mocked them from the battlements.
(HN, 5/23/99)
1497 Jul 8, Vasco da Gama,
Portuguese explorer, departed on a trip to India. He sailed from Lisbon
enroute to Calicut, India. His journey took him around South Africa and
opened the Far East to European trade and colonial expansion.
(V.D.-H.K.p.143)(WUD, 1994,
p.1672)(www.indhistory.com/vasco-da-gama.html)
1538 Jul 8, Diego de Almagro (63),
Spanish conquistador (Chile and Peru), died.
(MC, 7/8/02)
1545 Jul 8, Don Carlos, son of
Spanish king Philip II (protagonist in Schiller's drama; hero in
Verdi opera), was born.
(MC, 7/8/02)
1621 Jul 8, Jean La Fontaine, poet
and author of Fables, was born.
(HN, 7/8/98)
1686 Jul 8, The Austrians took
Budapest, Hungary, from the Turks and annexed the country.
(HN, 7/8/01)
1695 Jul 8, Christian Huygens
(66), Dutch inventor, astronomer, died. He generally wrote his name as
Christiaan Hugens, and it is also sometimes written as Huyghens. In his
book “Cosmotheros,” published in 1698, he speculated on life on other
planets.
(http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bl_huygens.htm)
1709 Jul 8, Peter the Great
defeated Charles XII at Poltava, in the Ukraine, effectively ending the
Swedish empire. [see June 28]
(HN, 7/8/98)
1730 Jul 8, A magnitude 8.7
earthquake in Valparasio, Chile, killed at least 3,000 people.
(AP, 2/27/10)
1740 Jul 8, Pierre Vigne (b.1670),
Frenchman, died. He founded the Congregation of Sisters of the Most
Holy Sacrament. In 2004 he was beatified by Pope John Paul VI.
(AP, 10/3/04)(www.catholic-forum.com)
1755 Jul 8, Britain broke off
diplomatic relations with France as their disputes in the New World
intensified.
(HN, 7/8/98)
1758 Jul 8, During the French and
Indian War a British attack on Fort Carillon at Ticonderoga, New York,
was foiled by the French. Some 3,500 Frenchmen defeated the British
army of 15,000, which lost 2,000 men.
(HN, 7/8/98)(AH, 10/02, p.27)
1776 Jul 8, Col. John Nixon gave
the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence to a crowd
gathered at Independence Square in Philadelphia. The reading was
announced by the "Liberty Bell." The bell had the inscription:
"proclaim liberty throughout all the land onto all the inhabitants
thereof."
(AP, 7/8/97)(SFEC, 8/16/98, p.T5)
1778 Jul 8, George Washington
headquartered his Continental Army at West Point.
(MC, 7/8/02)
1794 Jul 8, French troops captured
Brussels, Belgium.
(HN, 7/8/98)
1800 Jul 8, Dr. Benjamin
Waterhouse gave the 1st cowpox vaccination to his son to prevent
smallpox. [see May 14, 1796]
(MC, 7/8/02)
1802 Jul 8, Gen. Toussaint
L'Ouverture of Saint-Domingue (later Haiti) was sent to France in
chains.
(AP, 4/7/03)(ON, 2/10, p.9)
1803 Jul 8, Frederick Augustus
Hervey (b.1730), the 4th Earl of Bristol and Bishop of Derry, died. He
had toured Europe with his own cook and entourage and inspired a number
of hotels to take on the Bristol name.
(WSJ, 9/27/08,
p.A1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Hervey,_4th_Earl_of_Bristol)
1815 Jul 8, With Napoleon
defeated, Louis XVIII returned to Paris.
(HN, 7/8/98)
1822 Jul 8, Percy Bysshe Shelley
(b.1792), English poet, drowned while sailing in Italy at age 29.
(HN, 7/8/01)
1826 Jul 8, Luther Martin
(b.1748), Maryland lawyer and former delegate to the Constitutional
Convention, died in NYC. In 2008 Bill Kaufman authored “Forgotten
Founder, Drunken Prophet: The Life of Luther Martin.”
(WSJ, 9/20/08,
p.A21)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luther_Martin)
1835 Jul 8, The US Liberty Bell in
Philadelphia cracked while being tolled for Chief Justice John
Marshall. It was never rung again.
(HFA, ‘96, p.34)(HN, 7/6/98)(WSJ, 12/10/96, p.A20)
1838 Jul 8, Count Ferdinand von
Zeppelin (d.1917), German designer and manufacturer of airships, was
born.
(HN, 7/8/98)(WUD, 1994, p.1660)
1839 Jul 8, John D. Rockefeller
(d.1937), financier, philanthropist, founder of Standard Oil, was born
on a farm in Richford, New York. He moved into the refining end of the
oil business and gobbled up competitors. The 1890 Sherman Anti-Trust
Act forced the breakup of his Standard Oil Co. Ron Chernow later
published "Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller." His philanthropy
totaled over $500 million and included the founding of the Univ. of
Chicago and the Rockefeller Inst. For medical Research, later
Rockefeller Univ.
(HN, 7/8/98)(WSJ, 1/11/98, p.R18)(AP, 7/8/99)
1851 Jul 8, Sir Arthur John Evans,
English archaeologist who excavated Knossos, Crete, was born.
(MC, 7/8/02)
1853 Jul 8, An expedition led by
Commodore Matthew Perry arrived in Edo Bay, Uraga, Japan, on a mission
to seek diplomatic and trade relations with the Japanese. Perry sailed
his flagship USS Susquehanna into Edo Bay. He soon forced Japan to open
its ports with his big gunboats, the steam-powered “Black Ships.”
(AP, 7/8/97)(SFEC, 1/25/98, Z1 p.2)(ON, 11/04, p.9)
1859 Jul 8, With the signing of
the truce at Villafranca Austria ceded Lombardy to France. France also
received Nice and Savoy.
(HN, 7/8/99)
1862 Jul 8, Odore R. Timby
patented a revolving gun turret.
(MC, 7/8/02)
1863 Jul 8, Discouraged by the
surrender of Vicksburg, Mississippi, Confederates in Port Hudson,
Louisiana, surrendered to Union forces.
(HN, 7/8/98)
1864 Jul 8, Confederate General
Joseph E. Johnston retreated into Atlanta to prevent being flanked by
Union General William T. Sherman.
(HN, 7/8/98)
1865 Jul 8, C.E. Barnes of Lowell,
MA, patented the machine gun.
(MC, 7/8/02)
1869 Jul 8, William Vaughan Moody,
poet and playwright (The Great Divide), was born.
(HN, 7/8/01)
1876 Jul 8, White terrorists
attacked Black Republicans in Hamburg, SC, and killed 5.
(MC, 7/8/02)
1879 Jul 8, The first ship to use
electric lights departed from San Francisco, California.
(HN, 7/8/98)
1879 Jul 8, The steamship USS
Jeannette under Lt. George W. De Long departed San Francisco on an
expedition to reach the North Pole. [see June 12, 1881]
(ON, 2/05, p.1)
1881 Jul 8, Edward Berner of Two
Rivers, Wisconsin, created the Sundae.
(MC, 7/8/02)
1882 Jul 8, Percy Grainger,
composer, pianist, conductor (Hill Songs), was born in Melbourne.
(MC, 7/8/02)
1889 Jul 8, In Mississippi Jake
Kilrain (1859-1937) fought boxing champion John L. Sullivan in the last
world heavyweight championship prizefight decided with bare knuckles
under London Prize Ring rules in history. Sullivan defeated Kilrain in
a match that went to 75 rounds.
(AH, 2/06,
p.29)(http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Sullivan_-_Kilrain_Fight)
1889 Jul 8, Dow Jones & Co.
turned its “Customer’s Afternoon Letter” into a full-fledged newspaper
and co-founder Charles Bergstresser dubbed it the Wall Street Journal.
(AP, 7/8/97)(WSJ, 5/2/07, p.C1)
1889 Jun 8, Gerard Manley Hopkins
(54), poet, died.
(MC, 6/8/02)
1891 Jul 8, Warren G. Harding
married Florence K. DeWolfe in Marion, Ohio.
(AP, 7/8/97)
1896 Jun 8, William Jennings Bryan
propelled himself to presidential candidacy when he stood before the
Democratic Convention and made his famous “Cross of Gold” speech. The
paramount issue in the 1896 presidential election was one of
economics—the U.S. government promised to pay the holder of one dollar
bill one dollar in gold. Democrats, farmers and westerners demanded
that the government redeem paper money in silver as well, while
Republicans and easterners protested that this policy would destroy the
economy. It was on this dull, technical issue that 36-year-old William
Jennings Bryan, a former congressman from Nebraska, launched his
national political career. When he made his “Cross of Gold” speech, the
Democrats had no strong presidential candidate. His dramatic words—“You
shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns; you
shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold!”—electrified his
audience and resulted in his nomination for president in 1896. [see Jul
9]
(HNQ, 6/8/98)(MC, 7/8/02)
1898 Jul 8, Alec Waugh (d.1981),
novelist (Island in the Sun); brother of Evelyn, was born in London.
"If we knew where opinion ended and fact began, we should have
discovered, I suppose, the absolute."
(AP, 2/9/00)(MC, 7/8/02)
1898 Jul 8, US battle fleet under
Adm. Dewey occupied Isla Grande at Manila.
(MC, 7/8/02)
1905 Jul 8, The mutinous crew of
the battleship Potemkin surrendered to Rumanian authorities.
(HN, 7/8/98)
1906 Jul 8, Philip C. Johnson,
architect, was born.
(HN, 7/8/01)
1907 Jul 8, George W. Romney,
later governor of Michigan, was born into a Mormon family in Chihuahua,
Mexico. He later was a candidate for the Republican presidential
nomination until he admitted that he had been "brainwashed" by the
military on the Vietnam War.
(HN, 7/8/98)(SSFC, 2/25/07, p.A4)(SSFC, 2/25/07,
p.A4)
1907 Jul 8, Florenz Ziegfeld
staged his first "Follies" on the roof of the New York Theater in New
York City.
(AP, 7/8/97)
1908 Jul 8, Nelson Aldrich
Rockefeller, businessman and philanthropist, was born in Bar Harbor,
Maine. The liberal Republican served as governor of New York and then
as vice president of the United States under Pres. Gerald Ford
(1974-77).
(AP, 7/8/08)
1915 Jul 8, Charles Hard Townes,
physicist (developed lasers), was born in Greenville, SC.
(MC, 7/8/02)
1918 Jul 8, Ernest Hemingway
(1899-1961), Nobel Prize winning writer, was wounded in Italy while
working as an ambulance driver for the American Red Cross. He was later
awarded the Italian Silver Medal of Military Valor. Hemingway enlisted
in a Red Cross ambulance unit in 1917 during World War I. He was
commissioned a second lieutenant and served on the Italian front. After
WWI he reported from the battlefields of the Spanish Civil War for
American newspapers. His book "Farewell to Arms" was based on his
experiences in WWI.
(HNQ, 7/28/99)(HN, 7/8/01)
1919 Jul 8, President Wilson
received a tumultuous welcome in New York City after his return from
the Versailles Peace Conference in France.
(AP, 7/8/97)
1921 Jul 8, Great Britain and
Ireland agreed to end hostilities after centuries of strife. In
December British and Irish representatives signed a treaty in London
providing for creation of an Irish Free State a year later on the same
date. Southern Ireland was granted independence and 6 counties in
Northern Ireland remained part of the UK.
(SFC, 10/14/99, p.C5)(AP, 12/6/06)
1926 Jul 8, Elizabeth Kubler-Ross,
author, physician, educator, was born.
(MC, 7/8/02)
1932 Jul 8, The Dow Jones
Industrial Average closed at 41.22, with an intra-day low of 40.56, its
lowest point during the Great Depression.
(WSJ, 11/22/08,
p.B1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dow_Jones_Industrial_Average)
1939 Jul 8, Henry Havelock Ellis
(80), English sexologist (Man & Woman), died.
(MC, 7/8/02)
1941 Jul 8, Twenty B-17s flew in
their first mission with the Royal Air Force over Wilhelmshaven,
Germany.
(HN, 7/8/98)
1941 Jul 8, All Jews living in
Baltic States were obligated to wear Star of David.
(MC, 7/8/02)
1943 Jul 8, Faye Wattleton,
women's rights advocate, was born.
(HN, 7/8/98)
1943 Jul 8, American B-24 bombers
struck Japanese-held Wake Island for the first time. An obscure U.S.
Navy fighter did yeoman duty when times were toughest early in World
War II.
(HN, 7/8/98)
1943 Jul 8, US invasion fleet
passed Bizerta, Tunisia.
(MC, 7/8/02)
1943 Jul 8, The 4th day of battle
at Kursk: Gen Model used his last tank reserve.
(MC, 7/8/02)
1943 Jul 8, Jean "Max" Moulin (b.
Jun 20, 1899), French resistance fighter, was executed.
(www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/moulin_jean.shtml)
1944 Jul 8, Japanese kamikaze
attacked US lines at Saipan.
(MC, 7/8/02)
1946 Jul 8, Aleksander V.
Aleksandrov (63), Russian composer, conductor, died.
(MC, 7/8/02)
1947 Jul 8, The American League
defeated the National League, 2-1, in the All-Star game played at
Chicago's Wrigley Field.
(AP, 7/8/97)
1947 Jul 8, Demolition work began
in New York City to make way for the new permanent headquarters of the
United Nations.
(AP, 7/8/97)
1947 Jul 8, In New Mexico the
Roswell Daily Record reported the military’s capture of a flying
saucer. It became know as the Roswell Incident. Officials later called
the debris a "harmless, high-altitude weather balloon. In 1994 the Air
Force released a report saying the wreckage was part of a device used
to spy on the Soviets.
(SFC, 6/23/96, p.T4)(USAT, 6/28/96, p.7D)
1948 Jul 8, The 500th anniversary
of the Russian orthodox church was celebrated in Moscow.
(MC, 7/8/02)
1949 Jul 8, Vietta M. Bates became
the first enlisted woman sworn into the U.S. Army when legislation was
passed making the Women's Auxiliary Army Corps part of the regular Army.
(HN, 7/8/98)
1950 Jul 8, President Harry Truman
named US Gen. Douglas MacArthur as commander-in-chief of United Nations
forces assisting the South Koreans.
(WSJ, 6/24/96, C1)(AP, 7/8/97)(HN, 7/8/99)
1953 Jul 8, Anna Quindlen,
novelist, was born.
(HN, 7/8/01)
1954 Jul 8, The raft Lehi with 5
amateur sailors was towed out of SF Bay to attempt a 2,200 drifting
voyage to Hawaii. Mormon elder DeVere Baker (38) led the expedition.
The freighter Metapan rescued the crew on July 14.
(SFC, 7/9/04, p.F5)
1954 Jul 8, Carlos Castillo Armas
of Guatemala became president. He was assassinated in 1957.
(WUD, 1994, p.1685)
1957 Jul 8, Irish premier Eamon de
Valera arrested Sinn-Fein leaders.
(MC, 7/8/02)
1957 Jul 8, William Cadbury (89),
chocolate maker, died.
(MC, 7/8/02)
1958 Jul 8, President Eisenhower
began a visit to Canada, where he conferred with Prime Minister John
Diefenbaker and addressed the Canadian Parliament.
(AP, 7/8/08)
1960 Jul 8, The Soviet Union
charged Francis Gary Powers, whose U-2 spy plane was shot down over the
country, with espionage.
(HN, 7/8/98)
1963 Jul 8, Reports were made of
Charlie Finley's intention to move KC A's baseball team to Oakland.
(MC, 7/8/02)
1963 Jul 8, US banned all monetary
transactions with Cuba.
(MC, 7/8/02)
1966 Jul 8, A US airline strike
began and lasted until Aug 19th.
(MC, 7/8/02)
1968 Jul 8, Golda Meir resigned
from her post as secretary of the Labor Party.
(www.jafi.org.il/education/jafi75/timeline5i.html)
1972 Jul 8, The US signed an
agreement to sell grain to USSR for $750 million. Soviet grain buyers
over 6 weeks purchased the US grain. This was later called the "great
grain robbery" and the privately-held agribusiness giant Cargill played
a major role. The story of Cargill was told in the 1998 book "Cargill
Going Global" by Wayne Broehl Jr.
(http://tinyurl.com/5qvx8c)(PC, 1992, p.1040)
1974 Jul 8, Trudeau's Liberal
Party won Canadian parliamentary election.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_federal_election,_1974)
1975 Jul 8, President Ford
announced he would seek the Republican nomination for the presidency in
1976.
(AP, 7/8/97)
1975 Jul 8, An earthquake struck
Pagan (Bagan), Burma, and destroyed many monuments.
(Econ, 2/28/04,
p.42)(www.myanmars.net/travel/bagan.htm)
1975 Jul 8, Israeli premier
Yitzhak Rabin began a 4-day visit to West-Germany.
(http://tinyurl.com/4c5zyo)
1976 Jul 8, A volcano erupted on
Guadeloupe and frightened the capital, Basse-Terre. A phreatic eruption
of the Soufriere volcano cracked open the summit dome
(www.ipgp.jussieu.fr/~beaudu/soufriere/smithsonian76.html#sean_0109)
1982 Jul 8, In Dujail, Iraq, 17
Islamic militants, furious over the execution of a Shiite leader,
opened fire on a presidential convoy and killed several people, but
Saddam Hussein escaped. In retaliation 247,000 acres of orchards and
palm groves, the town's primary source of income, were destroyed in
retribution. 386 people were locked up until 1986. Some 900 people were
taken away and about 380 were killed.
(AP, 5/28/03)(SFC, 3/8/05, p.A10)
1986 Jul 8, Kurt Waldheim was
inaugurated as president of Austria despite controversy over his
alleged ties to Nazi war crimes. He was barred from entering the US due
to his services as an officer in a German army unit implicated in war
crimes in the Balkans. Waldheim served to 1992.
(SFC, 2/17/96, p.A14)(AP, 7/8/97)
1986 Jul 8, Admiral Hyman G.
Rickover (86), widely regarded as "father of the nuclear navy," died in
Arlington, Va.
(AP, 7/8/06)
1987 Jul 8, Lt. Col. Oliver North
became a daytime TV star as the Iran-Contra hearings were televised
throughout the US. Under questioning by committee counsel John Nields,
North said the issue of his security system was first broached
immediately after a threat by Abu Nidal.
(http://www.talkleft.com/new_archives/000742.html)
1987 Jul 8, Kitty Dukakis, wife of
Massachusetts governor and Democratic presidential candidate Michael S.
Dukakis, revealed she'd been addicted to amphetamines for 26 years but
had sought help and was drug-free. She later admitted to dependence on
alcohol, and entered a recovery program.
(AP, 7/8/97)
1987 Jul 8, Kiwanis Clubs voted to
admit women and ended its men-only tradition.
(www.tcfn.org/kiwanistci/about.html)
1988 Jul 8, Iran's parliamentary
speaker, Hashemi Rafsanjani, said his nation would not seek revenge
against the United States for shooting down an Iranian jetliner over
the Persian Gulf, killing 290 people.
(AP, 7/8/98)
1989 Jul 8, Carlos Saul Menem was
inaugurated as president of Argentina in the country's first transfer
of power from one democratically elected civilian leader to another in
six decades.
(AP, 7/8/99)
1990 Jul 8, Sweden’s Stefan Edberg
beat Boris Becker of West Germany to capture his second men’s tennis
championship at Wimbledon.
(AP, 7/8/00)
1990 Jul 8, West Germany won the
World Cup soccer championship by defeating Argentina, 1-to-0.
(AP, 7/8/00)
1991 Jul 8, Reversing earlier
denials, Iraq disclosed for the first time that it was carrying out a
nuclear weapons program, including the production of enriched uranium.
(AP, 7/8/01)
1992 Jul 8, Russian President
Boris Yeltsin met with Group of Seven leaders holding their economic
summit in Munich, Germany, where he offered a startling proposal to
swap factories, energy resources and other properties for Russian debt.
(AP, 7/8/97)
1993 Jul 8, A jury in Boise,
Idaho, acquitted white separatist Randy Weaver and a co-defendant of
slaying a federal marshal in a shootout at a remote mountain cabin.
(AP, 7/8/03)
1993 Jul 8, Leaders of the Group
of Seven, in the second day of their Tokyo summit, warned against the
dismembering of Bosnia, but backed away from a threat to use force.
(AP, 7/8/03)
1993 Jul 8, In Latvia Guntis
Ulmanis was sworn in as president.
(BN, 10/97, p.3)
1994 Jul 8, O.J. Simpson was
ordered to stand trial on charges of murdering his ex-wife, Nicole, and
her friend, Ronald Goldman.
(AP, 7/8/99)
1994 Jul 8, The space shuttle
"Columbia" blasted off on a two-week mission.
(AP, 7/8/99)
1994 Jul 8, Leaders of the Group
of Seven nations opened their 20th annual economic summit in Italy.
Silvio Berlusconi hosted the G-7 summit in Naples.
(SFC, 2/13/98, p.A12)(AP, 7/8/99)(Econ, 1/22/05,
p.46)
1994 Jul 8, Kim Il Sung ("Great
Leader"), North Korea's communist leader since 1948, died at age 82.
His son Kim Jong Il ("The Dear Leader") succeeded him.
(AP, 7/8/97)(WSJ, 6/26/97, p.A14)
1995 Jul 8, Steffi Graf won the
women’s singles title at Wimbledon, defeating Arantxa Sanchez Vicario.
(AP, 7/8/00)
1995 Jul 8, Chinese-American human
rights activist Harry Wu, detained on June 19, was arrested in China
and charged with obtaining state secrets. He was later convicted of
espionage and deported.
(AP, 7/8/00)
1995 Jul 8, A deadly heat wave
began in the midsection of the US. It claimed more than 800 lives, more
than half of them in Illinois.
(AP, 7/8/00)
1995 Jul 8, In Bosnia shelling
resumed and the Dutch abandoned 3 posts under direct fire. 30 Dutch
troops were taken by the Serbs to Bratunac.
(SFC, 6/4/96, p.A12)
1996 Jul 8, The Shuttle Columbia
landed after a record flight of 16 days, 21 hours, 48 minutes and 30
sec.
(SFC, 7/8/96, p.A2)
1996 Jul 8, Hurricane Bertha
slammed into the US Virgin Islands with torrential rains and winds that
gusted to 105 mph.
(WSJ, 7/9/96, p.A1)(AP, 7/8/97)
1996 Jul 8, A 1975 JetRanger Bell
Helicopter crashed in Salem, Ohio and killed all 5 people onboard.
(SFC, 7/9/96, p.A3)
1996 Jul 8, In Niger the military
ruler suspended the Independent National electoral commission after
early results showed him losing.
(WSJ, 7/9/96, p.A1)(WSJ, 1/2/98, p.8)
1996 Jul 8, In Northern Ireland
Michael McGoldrick Jr. (31), a taxi driver, was abducted and fatally
shot, two days after graduating from a Belfast university. He was the
first victim of the Loyalist Volunteer Force, an outlawed Protestant
gang that opposed Northern Ireland's peace process.
(AP, 4/5/06)
1997 Jul 8, The Senate
Governmental Affairs Committee opened politically charged hearings into
fund-raising abuses, with chairman Fred Thompson accusing China of
trying to influence the 1996 U.S. elections.
(AP, 7/8/98)
1997 Jul 8, The Mayo Clinic and
the government warned the diet-drug combination known as "fen-phen"
could cause serious heart and lung damage. The drugs were withdrawn in
September. In 2000 a federal judge approved a $3.75 billion national
settlement of health claims due to use of the drugs.
(AP, 7/8/98)(SFC, 8/29/00, p.A4)
1997 Jul 8, Michelle Moore-Bosko
(18) of Pittsburgh, who had recently moved to Norfolk, Va., and
secretly married her longtime boyfriend, William Bosko, was found raped
and killed. 4 sailors, who became known as the Norfolk Four, were later
convicted for her rape and murder. In 2009 Danial Williams (37), Derek
Tice (39) and Joseph Dick (33) were pardoned, culminating a four-year
campaign for clemency based on the sailors' claims that they were
coerced into falsely admitting their involvement, that the details they
provided were wrong and that there was no physical evidence linking
them to the crime. A fourth sailor, Eric Wilson (33), served more than
eight years in prison and has been released. A fifth man, Omar Ballard,
was also convicted in the crime, and was sentenced to 100 years in
prison, 59 of which were suspended. He is the only man whose DNA
matched that found at the scene. His confession stated that he
committed the crime by himself.
(SFC, 8/7/09,
p.A5)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Norfolk_Four)
1997 Jul 8, A US Army Black Hawk
helicopter crashed at Fort Bragg, NC, and killed 8 soldiers.
(SFC, 7/9/97, p.A3)
1997 Jul 8, NATO issued formal
membership invitations to Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary.
(SFC, 7/9/97, p.A1)(AP, 7/8/98)
1997 Jul 8, In Cambodia Interior
Minister Ho Sok was seized and executed by forces loyal to Hun Sen.
Some 30 soldiers loyal to Ranariddh were captured and tortured by
Regiment 911 at Kambol
(SFC, 7/9/97, p.A6)(SFC, 7/21/97, p.A8)
1997 Jul 8, In Dagestan a bomb
blew up on a bus carrying Russian border police and 9 officers were
killed. Sporadic violence continued along with kidnappings.
(SFC, 7/9/97, p.A8)
1997 Jul 8, In India a bomb
exploded on a passenger train in the Punjab at Bhatinda and killed 36
people and wounded 70.
(SFC, 7/9/97, p.A8)
1997 Jul 8, In Northern Ireland
masked members of the IRA boarded, cleared and set fire to a Dublin to
Belfast train.
(SFC, 7/9/97, p.A6)
1997 Jul 8, A report on
Transnistria, between Moldova and the Ukraine, described it as a haven
for arms smugglers, money launderers and outlaws on the lam.
(WSJ, 7/8/97, p.A1,8)
1998 Jul 8, Dow Corning agreed to
settle a suit with women claiming injury from silicone breast implants
for $3.2 billion. A federal bankruptcy judge tentatively approved a
settlement under which an estimated 170,000 women, who said silicone
breast implants had made them sick, would get $3.2 billion dollars from
Dow Corning Corp.
(SFC, 7/9/98, p.A1)(AP, 7/8/99)
1998 Jul 8, The US and European
countries demanded an immediate cease fire in Kosovo and called for a
crackdown on the flow of funds to ethnic Albanian rebels.
(SFC, 7/9/98, p.A10)
1998 Jul 8, In Afghanistan the
Taliban decreed that television was corrupting Afghan society and
issued an edict that banned televisions, videocassette recorders,
videos and satellite dishes.
(SFC, 7/9/98, p.A11)
1998 Jul 8, In Algeria Khalifi
Athmani (24), a leading member of the Armed Islamic Group (GIA), was
killed outside the capital. Athmani’s nom de guerre was Hossein Flicha
and he was believed to have led the Sep. ‘97 killings at Beni Messous.
(SFC, 7/10/98, p.A18)
1998 Jul 8, China announced that
it would broadcast its first live court trial on Jul 11.
(SFC, 7/9/98, p.A15)
1998 Jul 8, It was reported that
elephant poaching had increased in Kenya.
(SFC, 7/9/98, p.A11)
1998 Jul 8, Thailand was expected
to withdraw a plan to deport foreign workers and planned to announce
proposals to widen work opportunities for migrant workers from Burma,
Cambodia, Laos and Bangladesh.
(SFC, 7/9/98, p.A10)
1999 Jul 8, An Air Force cargo jet
took off from Seattle on a dangerous mission to Antarctica to drop
medicine for Dr. Jerri Nielsen, a physician at the Amundsen-Scott South
Pole Research Center who had discovered a lump in her breast. The
mission was successful; Nielsen was evacuated the following October.
(AP, 7/8/00)
1999 Jul 8, Astronaut Charles
"Pete" Conrad Junior, the third man to walk on the moon, died after a
motorcycle accident near Ojai, California; he was 69.
(SFC, 7/9/99, p.A1)(AP, 7/8/00)
1999 Jul 8, In Columbia heavy
fighting in Gutierrez between the government and FARC killed as many as
78 soldiers.
(SFC, 7/9/99, p.A14)(SFC, 7/10/99, p.A10)
1999 Jul 8, In Malaysia Prime
Minister Mahathir Mohamad unveiled phase one of Cyberjaya, a futuristic
high-tech city expected to cost some $5.3 billion.
(SFC, 7/9/99, p.D2)
1999 Jul 8, In southern Nigeria
activists claimed to have captured and shut down 61 oil wells operated
by Shell Co. Shell workers were also ejected from wells in the states
of Egbema East and Egbema West.
(SFC, 7/9/99, p.D5)
1999 Jul 8, It was reported that
Palestinian water shortages were due Israeli diversions of 80% of West
Bank aquifer water.
(SFC, 7/8/99, p.A10)
1999 Jul 8, In Yugoslavia some
4,000 protested against Pres. Milosevic in Prokupje.
(SFC, 7/9/99, p.A12)
2000 Jul 8, Venus Williams beat
Lindsay Davenport 6-3, 7-6 (3) for her first Grand Slam title, becoming
the first black women’s champion at Wimbledon since Althea Gibson in
1957-58.
(WSJ, 7/10/00, p.A1)(AP, 7/8/01)
2000 Jul 8, The Pentagon’s missile
defense project suffered its latest setback when a rocket that had
taken off from Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific failed to intercept a
target missile launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
(AP, 7/8/01)
2000 Jul 8, F.M. Esfandiary,
"chronic optimist," died at age 69. "There is no scarcity, there is
only the psychology of scarcity." His written works included "Days of
Sacrifice" and "Optimism One."
(SFC, 7/12/00, p.A17)
2000 Jul 8, In Germany over a
million people gathered in Berlin for the techno music Love Parade at
Tiergarten park.
(SFEC, 7/9/00, p.C11)
2000 Jul 8, In Iran a student
march to mark a bloody rally one year ago turned violent as police
charged thousands of students in Tehran.
(SFEC, 7/9/00, p.C11)
2000 Jul 8, In Japan a Typhoon
Kirogi hit the eastern coast and left 3 people dead.
(SFEC, 7/9/00, p.C11)
2000 Jul 8, A bomb exploded at the
Stewartstown Royal Ulster Constabulary station with no injuries. The
Orange Order announced plans to bring the country to a halt the next
day if they are not allowed to march down Garvaghy Road in Portadown.
(SFEC, 7/9/00, p.C12)
2000 Jul 8, In Russia Pres. Putin
made his first state of the nation address and called for increased
power to the central government to overcome a bleak diagnosis of the
country’s ills.
(SFEC, 7/9/00, p.C11)
2001 Jul 8, Venus Williams won her
second consecutive Wimbledon title by beating Belgian Justine Henin.
(AP, 7/8/02)
2001 Jul 8, In West Virginia Gov.
Bob Wise declared a state of emergency due to flooding in 8 counties.
(SFC, 7/9/01, p.A4)
2001 Jul 8, Cable operator Comcast
mounted a $41 billion hostile bid to merge with AT&T Broadband.
Although AT&T spurned that offer, the company's board ultimately
agreed to merge the cable unit with Comcast, subject to approval by
federal regulators.
(AP, 7/8/02)
2001 Jul 8, In Brazil some 100
inmates escaped through a tunnel from Latin America’s largest prison in
Sao Paulo. 35 were soon captured.
(WSJ, 7/10/01, p.A1)
2001 Jul 8, In England race
rioting continued in Bradford with injured police rising to a total of
120.
(SFC, 7/9/01, p.A8)
2001 Jul 8, In Northern Ireland
some 500 Orangemen marched at Drumcree and dispersed when confronted by
police at Portadown.
(SFC, 7/9/01, p.A8)
2001 Jul 8, Israeli agents in
Hebron abducted Ayoub Sharawi, a member of Hamas. In Gaza Palestinians
and Israelis exchanged gunfire in Rafah.
(SFC, 7/9/01, p.A8)
2001 Jul 8, Israeli wrecking crews
destroyed 14 Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem at the edge of the
Shuafat refugee camp.
(SFC, 7/10/01, p.A7)
2001 Jul 8, In the Philippines
police in General Santos City arrested Nadzmie Sabtulah, a high-ranking
member of the Abu Sayyaf Muslim extremists.
(SFC, 7/9/01, p.A8)
2002 Jul 8, WorldCom and its
former auditors clashed over responsibility for nearly 4 billion
dollars in accounting improprieties, as WorldCom's former CEO and
finance chief, Scott Sullivan, refused to testify to a House panel
investigating the debacle.
(AP, 7/8/03)
2002 Jul 8, African leaders
gathered in South Africa to form the new African Union and to bid
farewell to the Organization of African Unity, a much-criticized
regional body formed nearly four decades ago to usher the continent out
of colonialism.
(AP, 7/8/02)
2002 Jul 8, In China a gas
explosion at a coal mine killed 44 miners at the Dingsheng mine in
northeastern Heilongjiang province.
(Reuters, 7/9/02)(SFC, 7/9/02, p.A10)
2002 Jul 8, Ralph Nader attended a
dinner with Cuban leader Fidel Castro as the consumer advocate began a
three-day visit to the communist nation.
(AP, 7/8/02)
2002 Jul 8, Cuban poet and writer
Cintio Vitier was named winner of Mexico's Juan Rulfo Prize for
literature.
(AP, 7/8/02)
2002 Jul 8, In the Ivory Coast
local elections meant to close the door on years of turbulence ended
with complaints by angry crowds that they were not allowed to vote.
(AP, 7/8/02)
2002 Jul 8, Typhoon Chata'an
headed towards southern Japan after battering the Philippines, where
officials said it had killed 17 people -- including three South Korean
tourists who died when their boat capsized.
(Reuters, 7/8/02)
2002 Jul 8, In Nigeria unarmed
women, from the Arutan and Igborodo communities occupied a
Chevron-Texaco oil terminal, preventing 700 workers, including
Americans, Britons, and Canadians, from leaving. Their number soon
reached as many as 2,000.
(AP, 7/11/02)
2002 Jul 8, Peter Friedrich,
Switzerland's ambassador to Luxembourg, was arrested on suspicion of
money laundering.
(AP, 7/11/02)
2002 Jul 8, In southern Thailand a
bomb tore through a parked passenger railway coach injuring a policeman
and a security guard.
(Reuters, 7/8/02)
2002 Jul 8, In Turkey 3 ministers
resigned in a growing push for early elections.
(WSJ, 7/9/02, p.A1)
2003 Jul 8, Pres. Bush met with
Pres. Abdoulaye Wade in Senegal. Bush visited Senegal's notorious Goree
Island, for several centuries a processing station for African slaves
bound in chains for the Western Hemisphere.
(SFC, 7/7/03, p.A8)(AP, 7/8/03)
2003 Jul 8, In Meridian, Miss.,
Doug Williams (48), a white factory worker known as a racist who talked
about murdering others opened fire with a shotgun and a rifle at a
Lockheed Martin plant, killing four blacks and one white before
committing suicide.
(AP, 7/8/03)(SFC, 7/9/03, p.A6)
2003 Jul 8, Joanie Harper (39),
and her 3 children aged 2 months to 4 years, were shot and killed in
Bakersfield, Ca. Husband Vincent E. Brothers (41), a Bakersfield
teacher and administrator, was arrested and released, but remained a
prime suspect. In 2007 Brothers was convicted and a jury said he
deserved to die for the murders.
(SFC, 7/9/03, p.A13)(SFC, 7/11/03, p.A17)(SFC,
5/30/07, p.B4)
2003 Jul 8, Lewis Coser (89),
leftist sociologist, died. His books included "American Communist
Party: A Critical History (1919-1957)" (1958), and "Men of Ideas: A
Sociologist's View" (1966).
(SSFC, 7/13/03, p.A27)
2003 Jul 8, In Bangladesh a ferry,
with an estimated 750 passengers, sank at the confluence of the Padma,
Meghna and Dakatia rivers about 40 miles south of the capital, Dhaka.
Some 220 survivors were counted.
(AP, 7/9/03)
2003 Jul 8, In Burundi Hutu rebels
fought their way into part of the capital, trading gun, mortar and
grenade fire with the Tutsi-dominated army. Thousands fled their homes.
(AP, 7/8/03)
2003 Jul 8, Antonis Samarakis
(84), Greek writer and children's rights activist, died. His books
included the novel "Mistake" (1965).
(SFC, 8/11/03, p.A17)
2003 Jul 8, In Iraq Mizban Khadr
Hadi (No. 23), a high-ranking member of the Baath Party regional
command and Mahmud Diab al-Ahmed (No. 29), the former interior
minister, were taken into custody. The capture of Al-Ahmed was reported
in error. He surrendered Aug 8.
(AP, 7/9/03)(AP, 8/10/03)
2003 Jul 8, US military experts
arrived in Liberia to assess the need for help in the local civil war.
(AP, 7/8/03)
2003 Jul 8, Nigeria's main trade
unions accepted a government compromise on fuel prices and ended a
crippling eight-day strike.
(AP, 7/8/03)
2003 Jul 8, Palestinian PM Mahmoud
Abbas resigned from a top post in the Fatah movement.
(AP, 7/8/03)
2003 Jul 8, Ladan and Laleh Bijani
(29), Iranian twin sisters, joined at the head, died within 90 minutes
of each other as neurosurgeons in Singapore worked into a 3rd day to
separate them.
(AP, 7/7/03)(AP, 7/8/03)
2003 Jul 8, A Sudanese airliner
crashed minutes after its captain reported technical problems following
takeoff, killing 116 people. The only survivor was a 2-year-old boy.
(AP, 7/8/03)
2003 Jul 8, In Switzerland a
swerving car plowed through pedestrians on a downtown bridge in
Lausanne. Two people were killed, including a woman pushing her child
in a stroller.
(AP, 7/8/03)
2004 Jul 8, New Jersey became the
2nd state in the nation after New York to ban the use of handheld cell
phones while driving.
(USAT, 6/29)
2004 Jul 8, John Rigas (79),
founder of Adelphia Communications Corp. (1952), was convicted along
with his son Timothy of looting the cable company to line their own
pockets.
(SFC, 7/9/04, p.C1)(USAT, 7/9/04, p.1B)
2004 Jul 8, Kenneth Lay, former
CEO of Enron Corp., was charged in Houston, Texas, with 11 counts of
conspiracy and fraud.
(WSJ, 7/8/04, p.A1)(USAT, 7/9/04, p.1B)
2004 Jul 8, It was reported that a
strain of syphilis has proved resistant to azithromycin.
(WSJ, 7/8/04, p.A1)
2004 Jul 8, Iranian troops killed
two Turkish Kurdish rebels in clashes close to the Iraqi border, amid
reports of a major offensive by Tehran on Ankara's behalf.
(AP, 7/10/04)
2004 Jul 8, In Iraq insurgents hit
a military compound in Samarra with a car bomb and mortar fire. 5 US
soldiers were killed and 20 wounded.
(SFC, 7/9/04, p.A14)
2004 Jul 8, Israeli troops killed
7 Palestinians in northern Gaza.
(WSJ, 7/9/04, p.A1)
2004 Jul 8, A Swedish appeals
court threw out a life prison sentence for the convicted killer of
Foreign Minister Anna Lindh, ruling that Mijailo Mijailovic should
receive treatment for his "significant psychiatric problems."
(AP, 7/8/05)
2005 Jul 8, Australia granted
fugitive former Chinese diplomat Chen Yonglin a permanent visa allowing
him to stay in the country indefinitely.
(AFP, 7/8/05)
2005 Jul 8, In Austria an
89-nation UN conference approved broadening a treaty meant to keep
nuclear material from the hands of terrorists, opening the way for
states to ratify the agreement. The Convention of the Physical
Protection of Nuclear Material originally obligated the 112 countries
that have accepted it to protect nuclear material during international
transport. The amended version expands such protection to materials at
nuclear facilities, in domestic storage and during domestic transport
or use.
(AP, 7/8/05)
2005 Jul 8, Jorge Alberto Uribe,
Colombia's defense minister, resigned amid criticism over his handling
of the country's counterinsurgency war and his alleged relationship
with a jailed female drug trafficker.
(AP, 7/8/05)
2005 Jul 8, Police said that the
bombs used in London's terrorist attacks held less than 10 pounds of
explosives each.
(AP, 7/8/05)
2005 Jul 8, In China Exxon Mobil
Corp., Saudi Aramco and top Asian refiner Sinopec signed a $3.5 billion
deal to expand a refinery in south China, sealing what they called the
country's largest oil project.
(Reuters, 7/8/05)
2005 Jul 8, Hurricane Dennis
slammed Cuba, sweeping away coastal homes and sending waves crashing
over Havana's seawall. At least 10 people were killed.
(AP, 7/9/05)
2005 Jul 8, Shares of Gas de
France (GDF), a 20% stake in the state monopoly, began to trade
following the plans of PM Dominique de Villepin. The IPO was expected
to fetch up to $6 billion. A sale of shares in Electricite de France
was set for October.
(Econ, 7/25/05, p.56)y
2005 Jul 8, An Israeli security
guard shot dead a Palestinian teenager during a protest against
Israel's West Bank separation barrier.
(AP, 7/9/05)
2005 Jul 8, In Italy a judge
convicted and sentenced to life in prison three members of the Red
Brigades terrorist group for the 1999 killing of a government labor
adviser, court officials said. A fourth was convicted and sentenced to
nine years.
(AP, 7/8/05)
2005 Jul 8, In rural southeastern
Mexico a series of explosions at a natural gas pipeline killed two
people and set fire to houses, cars and cattle near Cunduacan.
(AP, 7/10/05)
2005 Jul 8, Gloria Macapagal
Arroyo's presidency was in tatters, her base of support eroding by the
hour, as former backers abandoned the Philippine leader and added to
calls for her resignation over an election scandal.
(AP, 7/8/05)
2005 Jul 8, In Scotland G8 world
leaders concluded an economic summit shaken by terrorism, offering an
"alternative to the hatred," a $50 billion aid package for Africa and
up to $3 billion in additional support for the Palestinians. They
pledged new joint efforts against terrorism in response to the deadly
London bombings the day before.
(AP, 7/8/05)
2005 Jul 8, John Garang, the rebel
leader in a two-decade civil war for southern autonomy, returned to
Sudan's capital for the first time in 22 years to take up his new
position as first vice president in the government he once fought.
(AP, 7/8/05)
2006 Jul 8, The US military
charged 4 more US soldiers with rape and murder and a fifth with
dereliction of duty in the alleged rape-slaying of a young Iraqi woman
and the March killings of her relatives in Mahmoudiya.
(AP, 7/9/07)
2006 Jul 8, New Jersey Gov. Jon S.
Corzine issued an executive order that ended a weeklong state
government shutdown, bringing slot machine bells noisily to life as
Atlantic City casinos reopened.
(AP, 7/8/06)
2006 Jul 8, Georgia police found
the decomposed body of Carlnell Walker (23), a Morehouse student from
Richmond, Ca., in the trunk of his car in Riverdale. On July 21, 2006,
3 men were arrested for his murder. In 2007 4 men were indicted for the
murder.
(SFC, 7/12/06, p.B1)(SFC, 7/22/06, p.A1)(SFC,
3/23/07, p.A2)
2006 Jul 8, Discovery astronauts
Piers Sellers and Michael Fossum went on a 7 1/2-hour spacewalk to test
a repair technique for space shuttles.
(AP, 7/8/07)
2006 Jul 8, June Allyson (b.1917),
chorus girl and film star, died in Ojai, Ca. her films included “The
Glenn Miller Story” (1953).
(SFC, 7/11/06, p.B5)
2006 Jul 8, The Guggenheim
Foundation announced it had commissioned American architect Frank Gehry
to build a new branch of the Guggenheim modern and contemporary art
museum in Abu Dhabi.
(AP, 7/8/06)
2006 Jul 8, Afghan and coalition
forces pounded a Taliban stronghold in southern Afghanistan, killing
five rebels and leaving an Afghan and three foreign soldiers wounded.
An explosion attributed to a land mine in western Afghanistan killed a
Peruvian solder and slightly wounded four Spanish troops.
(AFP, 7/8/06)(AP, 7/9/06)
2006 Jul 8, China launched a Web
site, www.linese.com, offering free Chinese lessons and materials to
promote the study and use of the language abroad.
(Reuters, 7/8/06)
2006 Jul 8, In central China a
landslide at a construction site buried migrant workers sleeping in a
tent, killing 11 of them.
(AP, 7/8/06)
2006 Jul 8, In Kinshasa, Congo,
gunmen killed Mwamba Bapuwa (64), an independent journalist, a day
after foreign donors called on the government to guarantee press
freedoms ahead of historic elections this month. Bapuwa had recently
criticized the government and survived a previous attack several months
ago.
(Reuters, 7/8/06)
2006 Jul 8, Jose Ramos-Horta,
Nobel peace laureate, was named East Timor's new prime minister.
(AP, 7/8/06)
2006 Jul 8, In Hungary several
thousand labor union members demonstrated in Budapest against a
government austerity package they say requires a disproportionate
sacrifice from workers.
(AFP, 7/8/06)
2006 Jul 8, In northern India 15
people were killed and eight injured when the bus they were traveling
in plunged into a gorge and fell into Bhagirathi river.
(AFP, 7/8/06)
2006 Jul 8, In Iraq 3 American
soldiers were killed in fighting in the western province of Anbar.
Gunmen in two cars stopped a vehicle in Baghdad's Dora neighborhood,
forced the two passengers to get out and killed them in front of
horrified bystanders. Gunmen killed three people working in an ice
cream shop in the mostly Shiite Baghdad neighborhood of Nahrawan.
Police also reported finding two bodies in separate locations in
eastern Baghdad. At least 17 others died in a wave of bombings and
mortar attacks against mostly Sunni mosques in the Baghdad area and
northern Iraq. Iraqi and US authorities released 368 prisoners as they
continue to whittle down the number of inmates.
(AP, 7/8/06)
2006 Jul 8, In Indian Kashmir a
politician and four civilians died and at least 45 others were injured
when suspected Islamic rebels hurled a grenade outside a Muslim shrine.
(AFP, 7/8/06)
2006 Jul 8, Leftist presidential
candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador urged his supporters to take to
the streets, claiming the governing party stole his victory in Mexico's
extremely narrow elections. Obrador called on a huge crowd of
supporters to keep peacefully protesting as he goes to court to
challenge what he called his fraudulent electoral defeat.
(AP, 7/8/06)(AP, 7/9/06)
2006 Jul 8, A Mexican federal
judge threw out genocide charges against former President Luis
Echeverria, ruling that a 30-year statute of limitations had run out.
(AP, 7/9/06)
2006 Jul 8, In western Mexico 4
children, who won an airplane ride for good grades at school, were
killed along with the pilot when the small aircraft crashed near Tepic.
(AP, 7/12/06)
2006 Jul 8, The Hamas-led
Palestinian government called for a cease-fire in its violent two-week
standoff with Israel but stopped short of offering to release an
Israeli soldier held by Hamas militants. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud
Olmert rejected the proposal by Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail
Haniyeh. Olmert will not agree to a truce until Hamas releases the
soldier. Israeli tanks and troops clashed with militants in eastern
Gaza.
(AP, 7/8/06)
2006 Jul 8, Poland's governing
party accepted the resignation of PM Marcinkiewicz and recommended
party chairman Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the president's twin brother, to
replace him. A group with roots in Poland's anti-communist Solidarity
trade union movement signed an unprecedented accord to join forces with
the country's two main post-communist parties.
(AP, 7/8/06)
2006 Jul 8, Saudi officials said 7
suspected terrorists had escaped from a prison in Riyadh a few days
earlier.
(AP, 7/8/06)
2006 Jul 8, The Islamic militiamen
controlling the Somali capital broke up a wedding celebration because a
band, the Mogadishu Stars, was playing and women and men were
socializing together. Band members were flogged with electric cables.
(AP, 7/8/06)(Econ, 7/15/06, p.47)
2006 Jul 8, Pope Benedict XVI
stressed family values during a visit to Spain, where church influence
has waned and the government has angered the Vatican with its liberal
take on issues including gay marriage.
(AP, 7/8/06)
2006 Jul 8, A Yemeni court
acquitted 19 alleged al-Qaida members of charges they plotted to blow
up a hotel frequented by Americans, citing a lack of evidence. The
state prosecutor appealed the collective acquittal, and the defendants
were returned to their cells at the intelligence services' jail where
they have been held for more than two years. 14 Yemenis and 5 Saudis
had been caught with guns and fake Iraqi passports.
(AP, 7/8/06)(WSJ, 8/14/06, p.A1)
2007 Jul 8, In Pennsylvania Gov.
Ed Rendell ordered a range of government services shutdown after last
minute negotiations failed to break a budget stalemate. The shutdown
took about 24,000 workers off the job. A budget deal was hammered out
the following night.
(AP, 7/9/07)(SFC, 7/9/07, p.A3)(AP, 7/8/08)
2007 Jul 8, SF Bay Area police and
FBI completed Operation Strikeout, a 3-day prostitution sweep that
netted over 140 pimps, prostitutes and their customers. This included
50 prostitutes and 7 alleged johns arrested in SF.
(SFC, 7/17/07, p.D3)
2007 Jul 8, Boeing unveiled its
first fully assembled 787 Dreamliner in Everett, Wash.
(SFC, 7/9/07, p.A4)
2007 Jul 8, In Oakland, Ca., Odell
Roberson Jr., a transient drug addict, was found shot and killed.
Police later determined that his killer used an AK-47 assault rifle
linked to Your Black Muslim Bakery. In 2009 an indictment accused Yusuf
Bey IV (23), the leader of the bakery, of murder for allegedly ordering
the killing.
(SFC, 10/15/07, p.A1)(SFC, 4/30/09, p.A1)
2007 Jul 8, Roger Federer won his
fifth straight Wimbledon tennis championship, beating Rafael Nadal 7-6
(7), 4-6, 7-6 (3), 2-6, 6-2.
(AP, 7/8/08)
2007 Jul 8, China’s state media
said nearly 2,000 officials in central China's Hunan province have been
caught breaking China's strict one-child policy. State media also said
floods and landslides triggered by heavy rains have killed at least 26
people and left 17 missing in southwest Sichuan province in the last
week.
(AP, 7/8/07)
2007 Jul 8, France’s President
Nicolas Sarkozy said he will not offer mass pardons to prisoners on
Bastille Day, keeping up his law-and-order reputation and breaking with
tradition.
(AP, 7/8/07)
2007 Jul 8, In India at least four
people drowned or were electrocuted over the weekend in the
northwestern desert state of Rajasthan, bringing India's overall
monsoon death toll to 177.
(AP, 7/9/07)
2007 Jul 8, Chandra Shekhar
(b.1927), former Indian prime minister (1990), died from a
blood-related illness. He served briefly during a period of political
turmoil.
(AFP, 7/8/07)
2007 Jul 8, Iran’s state TV said 4
fuel-smuggling trucks crashed into each other and caught fire in
southeastern Iran, killing 13 people.
(AP, 7/9/07)
2007 Jul 8, Abu Omar al-Baghdadi,
who leads the group Islamic State in Iraq, said in an audiotape that
his Sunni fighters have been preparing for four years to wage a battle
against Shiite-dominated Iran. He threatened to wage war against Iran
unless it stops supporting Shiites in Iraq within two months. A suicide
truck bomber killed 23 new Iraqi army recruits when he rammed into
their vehicle south of Baghdad. A flurry of bombings in Baghdad killed
26 people. American special operations forces in a raid captured 12
militants in Baghdad who had broken away from the Mahdi Army, and had
carried out attacks on US and Iraqi troops.
(AP, 7/8/07)(Reuters, 7/8/07)(AP, 7/10/07)
2007 Jul 8, The Israeli Cabinet
approved the release of 250 Palestinian prisoners, in the government's
latest gesture of support for moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud
Abbas in his struggle against the Hamas militant group.
(AP, 7/8/07)
2007 Jul 8, Valdis Zatlers, a
trauma surgeon with no prior political experience and widely publicized
tax problems, was sworn in as Latvia's third president since the Baltic
state gained independence in 1991.
(AP, 7/8/07)
2007 Jul 8, Libya invited
international tenders for exploration of its onshore and offshore gas
fields covering an area almost the size of Scotland.
(AP, 7/9/07)
2007 Jul 8, Two gunmen attacked a
German couple photographing wildlife in Namibia, killing Johannes
Fellinger (56), in front of his wife and taking her on a high-speed
chase.
(AP, 7/10/07)
2007 Jul 8, In southern Nigeria a
British toddler was released by gunmen and reunited with her parents,
who said she was fine but hungry and covered in mosquito bites.
(AP, 7/8/07)
2007 Jul 8, Pakistan's army tried
to blast through the wall of a besieged radical Islamic seminary to
help free hostages held by a cleric and his militant supporters,
leaving one commando dead.
(AP, 7/8/07)
2007 Jul 8, In the Philippines 2
small planes collided in the air and crashed in a rice field north of
Manila, killing two Indian citizens and a Filipino flight instructor.
(AP, 7/8/07)
2007 Jul 8, Russia’s top security
agency said it has declassified documents on millions of victims of
Soviet-era repression (1920-1950), allowing relatives to request
information about those who were executed or died of disease and
starvation in prison.
(AP, 7/8/07)
2007 Jul 8, Spain's largest
fighting bulls lived up to their fearsome reputation, goring two and
crushing at least seven people as thousands of daredevils sprinted down
narrow streets Sunday in Pamplona's annual running of the bulls.
(AP, 7/8/07)
2007 Jul 8, Zimbabwe’s official
media said police have arrested 16 more business leaders in a crackdown
on those suspected of violating the government's order to slash prices
by 50%.
(AP, 7/8/07)
2008 Jul 8, A report from a US
Senate Homeland Security investigations subcommittee said sellers of
medical supplies collected as much as $93 million in fraudulent
Medicare claims based on prescriptions from doctors who were actually
dead.
(SFC, 7/9/08, p.A6)
2008 Jul 8, Boeing announced a
deal with SkyHook Int’l., a private Canadian firm, to develop a heavy
lift rotorcraft capable of carrying 4o tons.
(Econ, 7/12/08, p.76)
2008 Jul 8, In California the
Butte Lightning Complex Fire destroyed 41 homes overnight in and around
Paradise. The next day 10,000 people were evacuated from the area.
(SFC, 7/10/08, p.A1)
2008 Jul 8, T. Boone Pickens,
energy baron, announced his “Pickens Plan” for installing wind turbines
in parts of four Texas Panhandle counties. The plans were scrapped in
2009 due to lack of transmission lines.
(AP, 7/7/09)
2008 Jul 8, John Templeton
(b.1912), legendary mutual fund manager, died in Nassau. His Templeton
Growth Fund in 1954 was among the first to invest in companies outside
the US. In 1972 he started the Templeton Prize, which made its first
award to Mother Teresa in 1973.
(WSJ, 7/9/08, p.C17)(Econ, 7/19/08, p.95)
2008 Jul 8, Abkhazia's leader
Sergei Bagapsh rejected a US proposal to deploy an international police
force there.
(AP, 7/8/08)
2008 Jul 8, In eastern Afghanistan
a roadside bomb blast killed one NATO soldier and wounded four others.
a provincial police chief said five insurgents and two policemen died
during a clash in central Ghazni province.
(AP, 7/8/08)
2008 Jul 8, Brazilian police
arrested a former Sao Paulo mayor and two prominent financiers in a
case that grew out of an influence-peddling scandal involving senior
government officials.
(AP, 7/9/08)
2008 Jul 8, A Chinese court jailed
Xiong Zhengliang, a former anti-graft prosecutor for life, for
torturing a suspect to death. His superior was sentenced to seven years
in prison for trying to cover up the case. Liang Jiping, a deputy
director of the county's electricity bureau, was detained in May 2007
on suspicion of taking bribes. Liang died on June 1, 2007, after being
held in custody for nearly five days and in three separate places.
(Reuters, 7/9/08)
2008 Jul 8, Chinese police killed
five Muslims who were planning a "holy war" in the latest alleged
terror threat ahead of the Beijing Olympics. The five were shot dead
when police raided their hide-out in Urumqi.
(AFP, 7/9/08)
2008 Jul 8, The United States and
the Czech Republic signed a treaty in Prague allowing Washington to
build part of a missile defense shield in the central European state
despite opposition from its former Cold War master Russia.
(Reuters, 7/8/08)
2008 Jul 8, Ecuador's government
seized 3 television stations and 195 businesses, owned by the Isaias
family, to collect debts stemming from the 1998 failure of Filanbanco,
owned by Roberto and William Isaias. The economy minister resigned just
hours before the takeover.
(AP, 7/9/08)(Econ, 7/12/08, p.48)
2008 Jul 8, The EU formally
invited Slovakia to join the euro zone on Jan. 1, 2009.
(AP, 7/8/08)
2008 Jul 8, Industrial
conglomerate Siemens AG said it will cut 16,750 jobs, or 4.2 percent of
its global work force, to streamline operations and slice nearly $2
billion in costs in the face of a slowing economy.
(AP, 7/8/08)
2008 Jul 8, A German cargo ship
held captive for 41 days off the coast of Somalia was released and all
aboard were safe and unharmed. A Somali official said the pirates
received a ransom of $750,000. The Lehmann Timber was one of two ships
hijacked on May 30 off the Horn of Africa.
(AP, 7/9/08)
2008 Jul 8, Tillman Thomas, former
political detainee, returned his party to power in Grenada after 13
years in opposition. The apparent win by the National Democratic
Congress was a stunning setback for PM Keith Mitchell's conservative
New National Party, which was seeking an unprecedented 4th consecutive
term in legislative elections.
(AP, 7/9/08)
2008 Jul 8, Indian PM Manmohan
Singh's communist allies withdrew their support for his four-year-old
coalition government to protest the government's plan to push forward
with a controversial nuclear deal with the United States. The
government had gained new support from the Samajwadi Party (SP) and
submitted a draft request to the IAEA for a required safeguards accord
on July 9.
(AP, 7/8/08)(Econ, 7/12/08, p.50)
2008 Jul 8, At Developing Eight
summit of Islamic nations, meeting in Kuala Lumpur, the leaders of
Indonesia and Malaysia called for boosting world food production and
finding a permanent solution to skyrocketing oil prices, saying the
twin problems have become "grave threats" to the world economy.
(AP, 7/8/08)
2008 Jul 8, Iraq's national
security adviser said his country will not accept any security deal
with the United States unless it contains specific dates for the
withdrawal of US-led forces.
(AP, 7/8/08)
2008 Jul 8, The Israeli military
said Gaza militants fired a mortar shell into Israel in another
violation of a shaky truce.
(AP, 7/8/08)
2008 Jul 8, In Japan G8 leaders
endorsed halving world emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050. The G8
also agreed to impose targeted sanctions against leading Zimbabwean
officials after a violent election last month that extended President
Robert Mugabe's 28-year rule.
(AP, 7/8/08)
2008 Jul 8, Amos Kimunya, Kenya’s
finance minister, was forced to resign following the sale of the Grand
Regency Hotel to Libyans, without taking bids and advertising the sale.
The hotel had been confiscated from Kamlesh Paul Pattni, a businessman
alleged to have paid hundreds of millions to individuals close to
former Pres. Daniel arap Moi, for the export of gold and diamonds that
did not exist.
(Econ, 7/12/08, p.60)
2008 Jul 8, The Mexican government
said UNESCO has added a Monarch butterfly reserve in southern Mexico to
its list of World Heritage sites.
(AP, 7/8/08)
2008 Jul 8, State-media said
Myanmar's military regime has approved visas for more than 1,500
international aid workers to help victims of Cyclone Nargis, with half
of them involved in relief operations in storm-hit regions.
(AP, 7/8/08)
2008 Jul 8, In northwest Pakistan
unknown assailants fired on a vehicle carrying tribal police forces,
killing four and wounding seven.
(AP, 7/808)
2008 Jul 8, In Russia’s Caucasus
region the Interior Ministry of Kabardino-Balkaria province said
unidentified gunmen had riddled the police car with bullets in the
village of Baksan. 3 police officers were killed.
(AP, 7/8/08)
2008 Jul 8, A human rights group
said domestic workers in Saudi Arabia often suffer abuse that in some
cases amounts to slavery, as well as sexual violence and lashings for
spurious allegations of theft or witchcraft.
(AP, 7/8/08)
2008 Jul 8, In Sudan about two
hundred gunmen on horseback and in SUVs ambushed peacekeepers from a
joint UN-African Union force in the Darfur region. Five Rwandan
soldiers and two police officers, one from Ghana and the other from
Uganda, were killed in fierce gunbattles that lasted more than two
hours.
(AP, 7/9/08)
2008 Jul 8, Sudan's army spokesman
claimed Ethiopian forces had attacked a police base 17 kilometers (11
miles) inside Sudanese territory, killing 19 people, including one
police officer. Ethiopia denied the accusations.
(AFP, 7/9/08)
2008 Jul 8, In eastern Turkey
Kurdish guerrillas kidnapped three German tourists on a climbing
expedition. The Germans were released on July 20.
(AP, 7/20/08)
2009 Jul 8, In SF Philip Day (63),
former head of SF City College, was charged with 8 felonies for using
public funds for political donations and other banned expenditures.
(SFC, 7/9/09, p.A1)
2009 Jul 8, In Chesnee, North
Carolina, Ricky Lee Blackwell shot a girl (8) twice in the driveway of
a home where he had taken her and his estranged wife to swim and play.
The girl's father was dating Blackwell's estranged wife. Blackwell shot
himself as police closed in. He was taken to a hospital but his
condition wasn't released.
(AP, 7/9/09)
2009 Jul 8, In Afghanistan a
roadside bomb attack killed two NATO soldiers.
(AP, 7/9/09)
2009 Jul 8, Australia said Chinese
authorities had detained Stern Hu, Rio Tinto Ltd's top iron ore
negotiator, as well as three other Rio employees on suspicion of
espionage and stealing state secrets, threatening to strain already
fraying ties.
(Reuters, 7/8/09)
2009 Jul 8, Australian residents
of rural Bundanoon, hoping to protect the earth and their wallets,
voted to ban the sale of bottled water, the first community in the
country, and possibly the world, to take such a drastic step in the
growing backlash against the industry.
(AP, 7/9/09)
2009 Jul 8, Azerbaijan police
arrested Adnan Hadzhizade, a video blogger and member of the "OL!"
opposition movement, and Emin Milli, a youth activist who also runs an
Internet TV program, after a fight in a Baku cafe with two unknown men.
Both were charged with hooliganism. A Baku court decision soon ordered
two months of pretrial detention for Milli and Hadzhizade, which
prompted criticism from international journalism advocates.
(AP, 7/14/09)
2009 Jul 8, The British government
set out plans to toughen regulation of its banking sector, including
greater oversight of bonuses paid to staff.
(AFP, 7/8/09)
2009 Jul 8, British scientists
claimed to have created human sperm from embryonic stem cells for the
first time. Several critics said the sperm cells were clearly abnormal.
The paper was retracted by the end of the month because two paragraphs
in its introduction had been plagiarized. Experts acknowledged that
concerns might be raised about the study's credibility.
(SFC, 7/9/09, p.A5)(AP, 7/31/09)
2009 Jul 8, In China hundreds of
helmeted troops in riot gear swarmed the central square of Urumqi,
capital of western Xinjiang, after ethnic riots left some 192 dead. The
city's Communist Party boss promised those behind the killings would be
executed. On July 11 China said 137 of the riot victims were Han while
46 were Uighurs and one was a Hui, another Muslim group. Uighurs on the
streets of Urumqi, and from exile activist groups disputed the new
figures.
(AP, 7/8/09)(AP, 7/11/09)(AP, 7/15/09)
2009 Jul 8, In France some 60
youths rioted outside Saint-Etienne after hearing that man had tried to
hang himself in jail. Mohamed Benmouna (21) died soon after at a
hospital.
(SFC, 7/9/09, p.A2)
2009 Jul 8, In Haiti Bill Clinton
said a lack of coordination among aid groups and Haitian leaders is
hurting efforts to ease poverty in the Caribbean nation, as he wrapped
up his first trip here as a special UN envoy.
(AP, 7/8/09)
2009 Jul 8, Indonesian President
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono won a second term. Exit polls gave him a
massive lead in only the second presidential vote since the fall of
Suharto. Yudhoyono won 61% of the vote. Jusuf Kalla, his former
vice-president, won 12%. Megawati Sukarnoputri won 27%.
(AP, 7/8/09)(Econ, 9/12/09, SR p.4)
2009 Jul 8, In Iraq car bombs in
two Shiite villages near Mosul killed 16 civilians and injured more
than two dozen.
(AP, 7/10/09)
2009 Jul 8, The Irish government
said Irish voters who rejected the EU's Lisbon Treaty last year will be
asked to vote again Oct. 2 on the long-delayed blueprint for reform.
(AP, 7/8/09)
2009 Jul 8, G8 Leaders met in
L'Aquila, Italy, for talks on threats to global security and stability
at a summit where climate change, a continuing global economic crisis,
nuclear proliferation and world hunger took top billing.
(AP, 7/8/09)
2009 Jul 8, Protesters in Indian
Kashmir set fire to a police van and stoned other security vehicles
after the body of a missing young man was recovered in the regional
capital Srinagar.
(AFP, 7/8/09)
2009 Jul 8, Malaysian education
officials announced that they will abandon the use of English to teach
math and science, bowing to protesters who demanded more use of the
national Malay language.
(SFC, 7/9/09, p.A2)
2009 Jul 8, In Mexico
investigators found a severed head and two arms inside a plastic bag in
the of Ario de Rosales, Michoacan state.
(AP, 7/9/09)
2009 Jul 8, Nigerian MEND
militants said they blew up two key oil pipelines as they stepped up
attacks in response to a government amnesty offer.
(AFP, 7/8/09)
2009 Jul 8, In Pakistan a US drone
fired 6 missiles and killed 10 suspected militants at a training camp
about 35 kilometers northeast of Wana. At least 35 suspected militants
were killed in a second US missile strike targeting insurgents in the
northwest tribal belt.
(AFP, 7/8/09)(SFC, 7/9/09, p.A4)
2009 Jul 8, Saudi officials said a
criminal court has convicted and sentenced an al-Qaida militant to
death and given more 330 others jail terms, fines and travel bans in
the country's first known terrorism trials for suspected members of the
terror network. The 330 are believed to be among the 991 suspected
militants that Interior Minister Prince Nayef has said had been charged
with participating in terrorist attacks over the past five years.
(AP, 7/8/09)
2009 Jul 8, Somali pirates seized
a Turkish ship with 23 crew and were being shadowed by a Turkish
warship in the Gulf of Aden. The pirates first surrounded the Horizon-1
in speed boats and then boarded the ship, which was carrying sulfate
from Saudi Arabia to Jordan.
(AP, 7/8/09)
2009 Jul 8, A senior UN official
said fighting between tribes in southern Sudan has increasingly
targeted women and children and likely killed more than 1,000 people
since January.
(AP, 7/8/09)
2009 Jul 8, Switzerland's
government said it would forbid the Swiss bank UBS AG from complying
with any court-ordered transfer of data on tens of thousands of
American clients to the US government, and would consider seizing
documents to prevent that.
(AP, 7/8/09)
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