Today in History - July 17
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180 Jul 17,
Christenen Cittinus Donatus Natzalus Secunda Speratus Vestia was
sentenced to death in Carthage.
(MC, 7/17/02)
924 Jul 17, Edward the Older,
English king (899-924) and son of Alfred the Great, died. He was
succeeded by his son Athelston.
(PC, 1992, p.75)
1212 Jul 17, Moslems were crushed
in the Spanish crusade.
(HN, 7/17/98)
1345 Jul 17, Jacob Van Artevelde,
[Manner Man], Flemish broker, was lynched.
(MC, 7/17/02)
1429 Jul 17, The dauphin, son of
Charles VI, was crowned as king of France.
(PCh, 1992, p.144)(MC, 7/17/02)
1453 Jul 17, France defeated
England at the 1st Battle at Castillon, France, ending the 100 Years'
War. [see Oct 19]
(HN, 7/17/98)
1585 Jul 17, English secret
service discovered Anthony Babington's murder plot against queen
Elizabeth I.
(MC, 7/17/02)
1603 Jul 17, Sir Walter Raleigh
(1552-1618) was arrested. He was prosecuted by Sir Edward Coke. James I
suspended his death sentence and had him incarcerated in the Tower of
London for 13 years during which time he wrote his "History of the
World."
(www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/TUDrayleigh.htm)(WSJ,
1/6/04, p.D10)
1674 Jul 17, Isaac Watts, English
minister and hymn writer, was born.
(HN, 7/17/01)
1717 Jul 17, Handel's "Water
Music" was played for George I on the occasion of a royal barge trip on
the Thames.
(LGC-HCS, p.40)(Internet)
1762 Jul 17, Peter III of Russia
was murdered and his wife, Catherine II, took the throne.
(HN, 7/17/98)
1763 Jul 17, John Jacob Astor,
American fur trader who died the richest man in the country, was born.
(HN, 7/17/98)
1774 Jul 17, Capt Cook arrived at
New Hebrides (Vanuatu).
(MC, 7/17/02)
1785 Jul 17, France limited the
importation of goods from Britain.
(HN, 7/17/98)
1790 Jul 17, Economist Adam Smith
(b.1723), Scottish moral philosopher and a pioneer of political
economy, died. In 2001 Emma Rothschild authored "Economic Sentiments:
Adam Smith, Condorcet, and the Enlightenment." In 2002 Peter J.
Dougherty authored "Who’s Afraid of Adam Smith."
(WSJ, 6/21/01, p.A16)(WSJ, 11/13/02,
p.D10)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Smith)
1791 Jul 17, National Guard troops
opened fire in Paris on a crowd of demonstrators calling for the
deposition of the king.
(HN, 7/17/99)
1799 Jul 17, Ottoman forces,
supported by the British, captured Aboukir, Egypt from the French.
(HN, 7/17/99)
1801 Jul 17, The U.S. fleet
arrived in Tripoli after Pasha Yusuf Karamanli declared war for being
refused tribute.
(HN, 7/17/99)
1821 Jul 17, Spain ceded Florida
to the United States.
(AP, 7/17/97)
1821 Jul 17, Andrew Jackson became
the governor of Florida.
(HN, 7/17/98)
1841 Jul 17, The British humor
magazine Punch was first published.
(AP, 7/17/97)
1845 Jul 17, Earl Grey (b.1764),
former British prime minister (1830-1834), died. A member of the Whig
Party, he backed significant reform of the British government and was
among the primary architects of the Reform Act of 1832. In addition to
his political achievements, Earl Grey famously gives his name to an
aromatic blend of tea.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Grey,_2nd_Earl_Grey)
1850 Jul 17, Statesman Daniel
Webster said: "I was born an American; I will live an American; I shall
die an American."
(HNQ, 2/15/02)
1861 Jul 17, At Manassas, VA, Gen
Beauregard requested reinforcements for his 22,000 men and Gen Johnston
was ordered to Manassas.
(MC, 7/17/02)
1862 Jul 17, US army was
authorized to accept blacks as laborers.
(MC, 7/17/02)
1862 Jul 17, James Glaisher (52),
British meteorologist, rose to some 22,000 over Wolverhampton with
balloonist Henry Tracy Coxwell in an attempt to set an altitude record.
They reached 24,000 feet in a 2nd attempt on Aug 18. On Sep 5 Glaisher
passed out as they reached 29,000 feet. At a record 7 miles Coxwell
managed to begin their descent.
(ON, 4/03, p.11)
1864 Jul 17, Confederate President
Jefferson Davis replaced General Joseph E. Johnston with General John
Bell Hood in hopes of defeating Union General William T. Sherman
outside Atlanta.
(HN, 7/17/98)
1877 Jul 17, Riots and violence
erupted in several major American cities stemming from strikes against
railroads in protest of wage cuts. Strikes started against the
Baltimore & Ohio, and quickly spread west, with riots erupting in
Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Chicago and St. Louis. Nine were killed when
Federal troops were sent into Martinsburg, West Virginia. On July 21,
26 were killed and the Union Depot and machine shops were burned down.
(HNQ, 12/11/98)
1888 Jul 17, S.Y. Agnon, Israeli
writer (The Day Before Yesterday), was born.
(HN, 7/17/01)
1889 Jul 17, Erle Stanley Gardner,
writer of detective stories and creator of Perry Mason, was born.
(HN, 7/17/98)
1894 Jul 17, Georges Lemaitre,
Belgian astronomer, was born.
(HN, 7/17/01)
1897 Jul 17, The Steamer Portland
arrived into Seattle from Alaska with 68 prospectors carrying more than
a ton of gold. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer announced that men with
gold from Alaska were landing. This unleashed the Klondike gold rush
and tens of thousands headed for the Yukon. The Klondike gold rush gave
America and Canada a psychological boost in getting the economy moving
again after the terrible depression that followed the 1893 crash.
(CFA, ‘96, p.88)(Hem., 7/95, p.79)(CFA, ‘96,
p.89)(WSJ, 5/1/97, p.A16)(WSJ, 7/17/97, p.A20)
1898 Jul 17, Bernice Abbott,
photographer, was born.
(HN, 7/17/01)
1898 Jul 17, U.S. troops under
General William R. Shafter took Santiago de Cuba during the
Spanish-American War.
(HN, 7/17/98)
1898 Jul 17, During the
Spanish-American War, Spain surrendered to the United States at
Santiago, Cuba.
(AP, 7/17/97)
1899 Jul 17, James Cagney
(d.1986), American actor famous for his role in "Yankee Doodle Dandy,"
was born.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Cagney)
1902 Jul 17, Christina E. Stead,
novelist and screenwriter who wrote "The Man Who Loved Women," was born.
(HN, 7/17/98)
1903 Jul 17, James Abbott McNeil
Whistler (b.1834), expatriate painter famous for painting his mother
(1872), died.
(www.artrenewal.org/asp/database/art.asp?aid=652)(ON, 4/03, p.9)
1905 Jul 17, Edgar Snow, American
author and journalist, was born in Kansas City, Missouri.
(www.umkc.edu)
1912 Jul 17, Art Linkletter, radio
and television personality, was born.
(HN, 7/17/98)
1917 Jul 17, The British royal
family adopted the Windsor name. King George V changed the family name
to the House of Windsor from the German-sounding House of Saxe-Coburg
& Gotha. [see Jun 17,19]
(AP, 7/17/97)(SFEC, 1/19/97, Par p.2)(DTnet, 6/19/97)
1918 Jul 17, Russian Tsar,
Nicholas II, was executed at Ekaterinburg by the Bolsheviks under
orders from Lenin. His wife, son, 4 daughters, and 4 servants were also
executed. The family mass grave was discovered by a former KGB agent in
1979 in the Urals and only 9 bodies were found. The bodies were dug up
in 1991. A 1997 documentary film by Victoria Lewis, "Mystery of the
Last Tsar," told the story. The Czar, his wife, three children and four
servants were executed by a 12-man firing squad in the Ipatiev House in
Yekaterinburg. A reburial of the family was scheduled in St. Petersburg
for Jul 17, 1998.
(SFC, 4/5/97, p.E3)(SFC, 2/28/98, p.A8)(SFC,
7/15/98, p.A9)(AP, 7/17/07)
1922 Jul 17, Donald Davie, English
poet and literary critic, was born.
(HN, 7/17/01)
1923 Jul 17, James Purdy, writer
(Cabot Wright Begins), was born.
(HN, 7/17/01)
1925 Jul 17, Laszlo Nagy,
Hungarian poet, was born.
(HN, 7/17/01)
1930 Jul 17, A natural gas
explosion in the Mitchell ravine tunnel of the Hetch Hetchy water
project in California killed 12 men. 35 other workers quit charging
that carelessness and lack of equipment was responsible for the tragedy.
(SFC, 7/15/05, p.F6)
1934 Jul 17, Donald Sutherland,
actor (M*A*S*H, Body Snatchers), was born in St John, NB.
(MC, 7/17/02)
1935 Jul 17, Diahann Carroll,
actress, was born in NYC, NY, as Carol Diann Johnson.
(http://www.africanpubs.com/Apps/bios/0144CarrollDiahann.asp?pic=none)
1935 Jul 17, Peter Schickele,
composer, creator of P.D.Q. Bach, was born.
(HN, 7/17/01)
1935 Jul 17, The entertainment
trade publication Variety ran its famous headline, "Sticks Nix Hick
Pix," which might be translated as "rural America dislikes rural-themed
movies."
(AP, 7/17/97)
1936 Jul 17, Gen. Francisco Franco
was flown from the Canary Islands, where he served as military
governor, to Spanish Morocco where he led a rebellion against the
elected Popular Front. This began the Spanish civil war. The first word
of the rebellion was reported by Lester Ziffren (1906-2007) of the
United Press. The rebel Nationalist movement under Francisco Franco
gained support from the fascist regimes in Italy and Germany in
opposition.
(SFC, 11/12/96, p.A12)(SFC, 7/13/01, WBb p.3)(WSJ,
11/24/07, p.A8)
1938 Jul 17, Pilot Douglas
Corrigan sought permission from the Civil Aviation Authority to fly
across the Atlantic from New York to Ireland, but he was turned down on
the grounds that his plane was in poor condition. Corrigan seemed to
accept the ruling, but when he took off from New York on this day,
saying he was headed for California, he banked sharply to the east and
headed out over the ocean. Twenty-eight hours and 13 minutes later,
Corrigan landed in Ireland, innocently explaining that his 180-degree
wrong turn must have been due to a faulty compass. No one believed
Corrigan's explanation, especially the aviation authorities in both
Ireland and America, who suspended the rebellious pilot's license and
ordered his aircraft dismantled. Upon his return to America,
"Wrong-Way" Corrigan was greeted as a hero. More than a million people
lined New York's Broadway for a ticker-tape parade honoring the man who
had flown in the face of authority.
(AP, 7/17/97)(HNPD, 7/178)
1939 Jul 17, Spencer Davis,
vocalist (Spencer Davis Group-Gimme Some Lovin), was born in Wales.
(MC, 7/17/02)
1941 Jul 17, The longest hitting
streak in baseball history ended when the Cleveland Indians pitchers
held New York Yankee Joe DiMaggio, the Yankee Clipper, hitless
for the first time in 57 games.
(HN, 7/17/98)(SFC, 3/9/99, p.A10)(CHA, 1/2001)
1941 Jul 17, Brigadier-General
Brehon Somervell gathered a small group of officer’s from the army’s
construction division and told them they were to build a single
headquarters to house the entire war department, then scattered over
sites, in Virginia.
(Econ, 6/30/07, p.93)
1941 Jul 17, Jelly Roll Morton
1944 Jul 17, An explosion at Port
Chicago, now the Concord Naval Weapons Station in Ca., killed 320
seamen when a pair of ammunition ships exploded. 10,000 tons of
ammunition exploded. 202 of the victims were black enlisted men. The
Navy court-martialed 50 black sailors for refusing to go back to work
after the catastrophe. They were released from prison in 1946 with
dishonorable discharges and reductions in rank. The story was later
described by Robert Allen in his 1989 "The Port Chicago Mutiny." In
1999 Pres. Clinton issued a pardon to Freddie Meeks, one of the last
living convicted African American sailors.
(SFEC, 3/2/97, z1 p.3)(SFC, 2/24/98, p.A15)(SFC,
12/24/99, p.A1)(SSFC, 2/6/05, Par p.6)
1944 Jul 17, Field Marshall Erwin
Rommel was wounded when an Allied fighter strafes his staff car in
France.
(HN, 7/17/98)
1945 Jul 17, President Truman,
Soviet leader Josef Stalin and British Prime Minister Winston S.
Churchill began meeting at Potsdam in the final Allied summit of World
War II.
(AP, 7/17/97)
1945 Jul 17-Aug 2, The
Potsdam Conference convened. It re-established the European borders
that were in effect as of Dec 31, 1937.
(WSJ, 5/5/95, p.A-12)(Voruta #27-28, Jul 1996, p.2)
1946 Jul 17, Chinese communists
opened a drive against the Nationalist army on the Yangtze River.
(HN, 7/17/98)
1946 Jul 17, Dragoljub "Draza"
Mihailovic (53), Yugoslav gen. (Nazi), was executed.
(MC, 7/17/02)
1948 Jul 17, Southern Democrats
opposed to the nomination of President Truman met in Birmingham, Ala.,
to endorse South Carolina Gov. Strom Thurmond.
(AP, 7/17/97)
1951 Jul 17, Lucie Arnaz (actress
and Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz' daughter), was born.
(MC, 7/17/02)
1954 Jul 17, The 1st major league
baseball game was played where a majority of a team was black (Dodgers).
(MC, 7/17/02)
1954 Jul 17, Gen. Joseph Swing,
appointed by Pres. Eisenhower to head the INS, began "Operation
Wetback." Because political resistance was lower in California and
Arizona, the roundup of aliens began there. Some 750 agents swept
northward through agricultural areas with a goal of 1,000 apprehensions
a day. By the end of July, over 50,000 aliens were caught in the two
states. Another 488,000, fearing arrest, had fled the country.
(CSM, 7/6/06)
1955 Jul 17, Walt Disney’s
Disneyland opened to the public in Anaheim, Calif.
(SSFC, 5/1/05, p.F3)(AP, 7/17/08)
1957 Jul 17, Lila Bliss found her
daughter, Juliette Hampton Morgan (b.1914), dead next to an empty
bottle of sleeping pills. In 1936 Juliette had signed a pledge with
other women in Montgomery, Alabama, to no longer remain silent in the
face of crime done in their name. In 2007 Mary Stanton authored
“Journey Toward Justice,” a biography of Juliette Hampton Morgan.
(WSJ, 2/17/07, p.P13)
1959 Jul 17, Dr. Leakey discovered
oldest human skull (600,000 years old) to date.
(MC, 7/17/02)
1959 Jul 17, Billie Holiday
(b.1915), jazz and blues singer, died in NYC at age 44. In 1956 William
Dufty (d.2002) authored the biography "Lady Sings the Blues." In 2000
Robert O’Meally authored "Lady Day: The Many Faces of Billie Holiday."
(SFEM, 10/1/00, p.4)(SFC, 7/5/02, p.A24)(SSFC,
7/12/09, p.42)
1959 Jul 17, Tibet abolished
serfdom.
(MC, 7/17/02)
1960 Jul 17, Francis Gary Powers
pleaded guilty to spying charges in a Moscow court after his U-2 spy
plane was shot down over the Soviet Union.
(HN, 7/17/98)
1961 Jul 17, Ty Cobb (74),
baseball great (Detroit Tigers), died of cancer.
(MC, 7/17/02)
1966 Jul 17, Ho Chi Minh ordered a
partial mobilization of North Vietnam to defend against American
airstrikes.
(HN, 7/17/98)
1967 Jul 17, Race riots took place
in Cairo, Illinois.
(MC, 7/17/02)
1967 Jul 17, John Coltrane
(b.1926), jazz composer-musician died in Huntington, N.Y. He gained
attention through recordings as part of Miles Davis’ quintet in the
50s. By 1960, following critical acclaim, Coltrane was leading his own
quartet that eventually dissolved in 1965. He worked with various
musicians for the next two years until succumbing to liver cancer in
1967. Coltrane’s style, developed over the years from influences
ranging from Miles Davis’ forms of modal improvisation to Eastern
musical theory, has influenced and been imitated by numerous jazz
musicians since. His album’s included "Kulu Se Mama" written by Juno
Lewis (d.2002). In 2002 Ashley Kahn authored "A Love Supreme: The Story
of John Coltrane’s Signature Album.” In 2007 Ben Ratliff authored
“Coltrane: The Story of Sound.”
(SFC, 4/23/02, p.A18)(SSFC, 12/8/02, p.M5)(AP,
7/17/07)(Econ, 11/10/07, p.104)
1968 Jul 17, Beatle's animated
film "Yellow Submarine" premiered in London. The US premiere was on
November 13.
(www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqUKJj0gGkM)(www.imdb.com/title/tt0063823/releaseinfo)
1968 Jul 17, The Arab Socialist
Baath Party staged a bloodless coup in Iraq and gained control as the
Revolution Command Council. Abdul Rahman Arif, brother of Abdul Salam
Arif (d.1966), was ousted in the Baathist coup and exiled to Istanbul.
Ahmed Hasan-al-Bakr became president of Iraq after the July 17 coup.
This became a national holiday until it was abolished in 2003. Saddam
Hussein soon became recognized as the strongman of the regime.
(NG, 5/88, p.653)(SFC, 9/24/02, p.A10)(AP,
7/13/03)(NW, 9/8/03, p.32)
1969 Jul 17, An FBI memo titled
"New Left and Extremist Movements" revealed Gov. Reagan’s plans for the
destruction of disruptive elements on California college campuses
through "psychological warfare" and other methods.
(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.F8)
1972 Jul 17, The first women since
the 1920s were officially hired as special FBI
agents.
(www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/dillinger/peopleevents/p_women.html)
1973 Jul 17, Zahir Shah
(1914-2007) was on vacation in Europe, when his government was
overthrown in a military coup headed by his relative Daoud Khan and
PDPA (Afghan Communist Party). Zahir Shah fled to Italy where he lived
until his return in 2002. Daoud Khan abolished the monarchy and
declared himself President of the Republic of Afghanistan.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)(SFC, 9/22/01,
p.A7)(AP, 7/23/07)
1974 Jul 17, Jay Hanna "Dizzy"
Dean (b.1910), pitcher (St Louis Cards), died in Nevada.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dizzy_Dean)
1975 Jul 17, An Apollo spaceship
docked with a Soyuz spacecraft in orbit in the first superpower linkup
of its kind.
(AP, 7/17/97)
1976 Jul 17, The XX1 Olympiad,
opened in Montreal. Closing ceremonies for the summer Olympics were
held August 1. 26 African nations boycotted the games after the IOC
failed to bann New Zealand after its rugby team toured South Africa.
Taiwan withdrew after it was denied the right to compete as the
Republic of China. In 1998 it was revealed that 143 members of
the East German team had taken performance-enhancing drugs.
(WSJ, 7/15/96, p.B1)(WSJ, 10/21/98, p.A1)(WSJ,
4/12/08, p.R2)
1979 Jul 17, Nicaraguan President
Anastasio Somoza Debayle resigned and fled to Miami in exile.
(AP, 7/17/97)(HNQ, 6/29/99)
1980 Jul 17, Ronald Reagan
formally accepted the Republican nomination for president.
(http://millercenter.virginia.edu/scripps/digitalarchive/speechDetail/32)
1980 Jul 17, In Bolivia a bloody
coup installed a reactionary (and cocaine-tainted) dictatorship led by
general Luis Garcia Meza. Former president (1956-1960) Hernan Siles
Zuazo (1914-1996), who had won the most votes in elections flew to
exile. He returned in 1982, when the military's experiment had ran its
course and the Bolivian economy was on the verge of collapse. He served
a 2nd term from 1982-1985.
(SFC, 8/8/96, p.A22)(http://tinyurl.com/3andtr)
1980 Jul 17, Zenko Suzuki
(1911-2004) was appointed prime minister of Japan. He resigned after 2
years.
(SFC, 7/21/04,
p.B7)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zenko_Suzuki)
1981 Jul 17, In Missouri 114
people were killed when a pair of walkways above the lobby of the
Kansas City Hyatt Regency Hotel collapsed during a tea dance.
(AP,
7/17/97)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyatt_Regency_walkway_collapse)
1986 Jul 17, White House chief of
staff Donald Regan drew criticism for suggesting in an interview that
American women would not be prepared to “give up all their jewelry” if
the U.S. were to impose economic sanctions against South Africa.
(AP, 7/17/06)
1987 Jul 17, 10 teen-agers were
killed when raging floodwaters from the Guadalupe River near Comfort,
Texas, swept away a church bus and van holding 43 people.
(AP, 7/17/97)
1988 Jul 17, Michael Dukakis
arrived in Atlanta to claim the Democratic nomination for president,
saying, "We're working hard to make sure we have a good convention, a
strong and united party."
(AP, 7/17/98)
1989 Jul 17, The controversial B-2
Stealth bomber underwent its first test flight at Edwards Air Force
Base in California, two days after a technical problem forced a
postponement.
(AP, 7/17/99)
1989 Jul 17, Isidore Feinstein
Stone (b.1907), author (I.F. Stone's Weekly), died in Boston. In 2006
Myra MacPherson authored “All Governments Lie,” a biography of Stone.
In 2009 D.D. Guttenplan authored “American Radical: The Life and Times
of I.F. Stone.”
(http://tinyurl.com/nm97z)(WSJ, 9/30/06, p.P8)(Econ,
5/16/09, p.90)
1990 Jul 17, The seven nations
negotiating German unification reached agreement in Paris on Poland’s
permanent border, clearing the way for the merger of East and West
Germany.
(AP, 7/17/00)
1991 Jul 17, The US Senate voted
53-to-45 to give itself a $23,200 pay raise while at the same time
banning outside speaking fees.
(AP, 7/17/01)
1991 Jul 17, Soviet President
Mikhail S. Gorbachev made a personal appeal for Western aid at the
conclusion of the Group of Seven economic summit in London.
(AP, 7/17/01)
1992 Jul 17, Donna Ferguson (18)
and Todd Rudiger (29) were murdered in Portland, Ore. In 1998 Sebastian
Shaw was indicted for the murders. He pleaded guilty in 2000 and was
sentenced to two life terms. Later, his DNA would be conclusive
evidence that he also killed one Jay Rickbeil in July 1991. He would
receive a third sentence of life in prison. Shaw, born in Vietnam in
1967 as Chau Quong, had been airlifted from the roof of the US Embassy
on the day Saigon fell.
(SFC, 5/25/06, p.B1)(http://tinyurl.com/h5n45)
1992 Jul 17, A historic accord for
deep cuts in tanks and other non-nuclear arms in Europe went into
effect, nearly two years after it was signed by NATO and the Warsaw
Pact.
(AP, 7/17/97)
1992 Jul 17, Slovakia's government
decreed its independence from Czechoslovakia. The independence did not
become official until January 1, 1993.
(www.slovakia.org/society-hungary2.htm)
1993 Jul 17, President Clinton,
with several Cabinet members in tow, traveled to Arnold, Mo., where he
heard the governors of eight flood-stricken states appeal for more
financial assistance; however, he held out little hope the government
could offer a total bailout.
(AP, 7/17/98)
1994 Jul 17, Fragments of comet
Shoemaker-Levy continued to smash into Jupiter, sending up towering
fireballs.
(AP, 7/17/99)
1994 Jul 17, Brazil defeated Italy
to win its fourth World Cup title.
(AP, 7/17/99)
1994 Jul 17, Hutus left Rwanda for
refugee camps in Zaire.
(SFC, 11/19/96, p.A16)
1995 Jul 17, Thirty-two people
were injured when a Boston Green Line trolley rammed another train
under Copley Square.
(AP, 7/17/00)
1996 Jul 17, Interior Sec. Bruce
Babbitt signed an agreement to put 58 sq. miles of land in Orange
county under a new Natural Community Conservation Planning program
designed to protect entire ecosystems.
(SFC, 7/18/96, p.A4)
1996 Jul 17, TWA flight 800
crashed off of Long Island, N.Y., shortly after leaving John F. Kennedy
International Airport and 230 people died. It was a 25-year-old
Paris-bound Boeing 747 whose previous flight had been from Greece.
Later reports of a missile attack were tracked to a Navy P-3 Orion
flying at 20,000 feet as opposed to the altitude of the Boeing at
13,600 feet. In 1997 the FBI issued a report that the disaster was
caused by an explosion in the central fuel tank and was not the result
of sabotage.
(WSJ, 7/18/96, p.A1)(SFC, 3/21/97, p.A7)(AP,
7/17/97)(SFC,11/19/97, p.A3)
1996 Jul 17, Scientists discovered
that the earth’s solid-iron core rotates 12 miles a year faster than
the liquid-iron outer core. The inner core grows about an inch in
radius every 50 years. A report was published in Nature.
(WSJ, 7/18/96, p.A1)(SFC, 7/18/96, p.A6)
1996 Jul 17, The Community of
Portuguese-Speaking countries was formed. It included Portugal, Brazil,
Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde and Sao Tome and
Principe. Leaders then held their first summit meeting.
(WSJ, 7/18/96, p.E6)
1997 Jul 17, President Clinton
nominated Army Gen. Henry Shelton to be the next chairman of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff.
(AP, 7/17/98)
1997 Jul 17, Woolworth Corp.
announced that it would close more than 400 of its five-and-dime retail
stores, ending 117 years in business.
(WSJ, 7/17/97, p.A1)(AP, 7/17/98)
1997 Jul 17, The Columbia space
shuttle and it crew of 7 returned after a 16-day mission. On the Mir
space station, the 3-man crew struggled to stabilize a free-spin after
a cable to a key computer system was mistakenly pulled.
(SFC, 7/18/97, p.A1,9)(AP, 7/17/98)
1997 Jul 17, Disney sub-contractor
H.H. Cutler announced that it would terminate its business in Haiti due
to slumping sales of children’s clothes. Some 2,300 jobs would be lost.
Int’l. activists had criticized the operations for wages as low as $.28
per hour. The unemployment rate was at 80%.
(SFC, 7/18/97, p.A12)
1997 Jul 17, Dr. Robert C. Weaver
(b.1907), the first African American to serve on a president’s cabinet,
died in NYC. He was the administrator of the federal Housing and Home
Finance Agency, the predecessor to HUD, under President John F.
Kennedy. He was named national chairman of the NAACP in 1960 and in
1962 he was awarded the NAACP Spingarn Medal. Weaver wrote more than
175 articles and four books on housing and urban issues. [see Jan
18,1966]
(http://search.eb.com/Blackhistory/article.do?nKeyValue=76375)
1997 Jul 17, In India K.R.
Narayannan, a member of the Dalits, was elected president by the
national and state legislatures. The Dalits, or "oppressed people,"
were according to Hinduism the lowest class of people, a fifth class
below the 4 main castes. He will replace Pres. Shanker Dayal Sharma
whose 5-year term expires Jul 25.
(SFC, 7/18/97, p.A10)
1997 Jul 17, In Peru thousands of
demonstrators protested against Pres. Fujimori chanting "Down with the
dictatorship." Three cabinet ministers had also resigned in the last 24
hours. Pres. Fujimori named 5 new ministers including 2 generals and
sparked concern that he was moving even closer to the armed forces.
(SFC, 7/18/97, p.A10)(SFC, 7/19/97, p.A11)
1997 Jul 17, In Russia Boris
Yeltsin signed decrees to cut the size of the armed forces by one-third
and installed plans to boost tax collection.
(WSJ, 7/17/97, p.A1)
1997 Jul 17, In the Ukraine the
parliament confirmed Valery Pustovoitenko as prime minister. He was an
ally of Pres. Kuchma and vowed to work with lawmakers.
(WSJ, 7/17/97, p.A1)
1998 Jul 17, Prosecutors in the
Monica Lewinsky case questioned President Clinton's Secret Service
protectors before a grand jury.
(AP, 7/17/99)
1998 Jul 17, The Clinton
administration sought approval to use funds for covert operations
against Iraqi Pres. Saddam Hussein.
(SFC, 7/18/98, p.A3)
1998 Jul 17, Scientists reported
in the journal Science that the syphilis genome, 1.1 million base pairs
of DNA, had been mapped.
(SFC, 7/17/98, p.A7)
1998 Jul 17, In Bangladesh a week
of flooding left 54 people dead.
(SFC, 7/18/98, p.A14)
1998 Jul 17, In Cambodia Khmer
Rouge guerrillas under Ta Mok attacked a convoy of election workers and
killed 2 people.
(SFEC, 7/19/98, p.A24)
1998 Jul 17, In Eritrea a
Ukrainian IL-78 transport plane crashed near Asmara and killed 9 people.
(SFC, 7/18/98, p.A14)
1998 Jul 17, In Rome UN delegates
from more than 100 countries overwhelmingly approved (120-7) a historic
treaty, the Statue of Rome, creating the world's first permanent war
crimes tribunal, with jurisdiction over individuals, ignoring strenuous
U.S. objections over certain provisions. It was to be located in the
Hague with 18 judges from 18 countries serving 9 year terms. It
still required ratification by 60 countries to become effective. The
vote passed 120 to 7 with 21 abstentions. The US, China, Iraq, Israel,
Libya, Qatar and Yemen voted against the International Criminal Court
Treaty (ICC). In 2002 the US moved to withdraw its signature.
(SFC, 7/18/98, p.A10)(WSJ, 7/20/98, p.A1)(WSJ,
5/6/02, p.A1,4)(Econ, 11/22/03, p.27)
1998 Jul 17, Rising seawater was
attacking the coastline of the Marshall islands.
(SFC, 7/18/98, p.A1)
1998 Jul 17, In Papua New Guinea a
23-foot tidal wave followed a 7.0 earthquake at the Solomon Islands and
killed at 2,500-3,000 people. The villages of Malol, Arop, Otto, Warupu
and Sissano were turned into barren strips of sand.
(SFC, 7/18/98, p.A10)(SFEC, 7/20/98, p.A1)(AP,
7/18/99)
1998 Jul 17, Nicholas II, Czar of
Russia, executed with his wife Alexandra, their five children and four
servants in 1918, was buried in St. Petersburg.
(SFC, 10/16/96, p.A10)(SFC, 2/28/98, p.A8)(AP,
7/17/99)
1998 Jul 17, A 6.2 earthquake in
Taiwan triggered falling rock that killed 4 people and injured 19.
(SFC, 7/18/98, p.A14)
1998 Jul 17, In Uganda Pres.
Museveni proposed a single continental army and government for Africa
with headquarters in Kampala.
(SFC, 7/18/98, p.A12)
1999 Jul 17, A search began for
the missing plane that was carrying John F. Kennedy Junior, his wife,
Carolyn, and her sister, Lauren Bessette, on a flight from New Jersey
to Massachusetts. The plane had crashed into the Atlantic Ocean near
Martha’s Vineyard the night before, killing all three aboard.
(AP, 7/17/00)
1999 Jul 17, In Colombia FARC and
government negotiators failed to agree on observers for peace talks and
the talks were put on hold.
(SFC, 7/19/99, p.A12)
1999 Jul 17, In Iran the Select
Council of Sit-In Students called off student protests and faxed a
communique to news organizations calling for meetings with government
leaders.
(SFEC, 7/18/99, p.A21)
1999 Jul 17, In Nigeria fighting
erupted when a Hausa woman was caught watching a Yoruba ritual. Over
the next days hundreds of Hausa tribes people fled Shagamu to escape
fighting with their Yoruba neighbors.
(SFC, 7/21/99, p.C2)
2000 Jul 17, In India an Alliance
Air Boeing 737 jet with 58 people caught fire and crashed into two
homes just before landing at Patna airport. 7 people survived and
another 4 were killed on the ground. A total of 56 people were killed
on board and on the ground.
(SFC, 7/17/00, p.A15)(SFC, 7/18/00, p.A12)(AP,
7/17/01)
2000 Jul 17, Nepal’s King Birendra
abolished debt-bondage slavery following efforts by Kevin Bales, an
American anti-slavery activist. Soon some 40,00 families in 5 districts
suddenly found themselves emancipated and evicted by slaveholders. They
moved into refugee camps and by 2007 a third still lived in the camps.
In 2007 Bales authored “Ending Slavery: How We Free Today’s Slaves.”
(SSFC, 9/30/07, p.M1)
2000 Jul 17, In Russia Boris
Berezovsky planned to resign his seat in the Duma and launch an
opposition movement against Pres. Putin.
(SFC, 7/18/00, p.A12)(WSJ, 7/18/00, p.A1)
2000 Jul 17, Bashar Assad, son of
Hafez Assad, began a seven-year term as Syria’s 16th head of state.
(AP, 7/17/01)
2001 Jul 17, John Ashcroft, US
Attorney Gen’l. reported that 184 FBI laptops and nearly 450 guns were
stolen or lost over the last decade.
(SFC, 7/18/01, p.A1)
2001 Jul 17, A USAF F-16 crashed
in northeast San Bernadino County, Ca. Maj. Aaron George, pilot, and
Judson Brohmer, photographer, were killed.
(SFC, 7/18/01, p.A5)
2001 Jul 17, Katharine Graham,
Pulitzer Prize winner and publisher of the Washington Post, died at age
84 in Boise, Idaho.
(SFC, 7/18/01, p.A6)
2001 Jul 17, In Argentina Pres. De
la Rua signed a plan to slash the deficit.
(SFC, 7/18/01, p.C4)
2001 Jul 17, In Guangxi, China,
the Lajiapo and Longshan mines flooded and 81 miners were killed.
Immediate news was covered up. In Aug 20 company employees and 70
suspected gang members were arrested for the coverup. 11 mine officials
and 4 county political leaders were arrested.
(SFC, 8/7/01, p.A7)(SFC, 8/15/01, p.A7)(SFC, 9/1/01,
p.A10)(SFC, 9/1/01, p.A10)
2001 Jul 17, An Israeli helicopter
fired missiles at a hut in Bethlehem and 4 Palestinians were killed. A
few hours later Palestinians fired a mortar shell into a Jewish
neighborhood of Jerusalem.
(SFC, 7/18/01, p.A12)
2001 Jul 17, In Montenegro Pres.
Kostunica appointed Dragisa Pesic as the new Prime Minister.
(SFC, 7/18/01, p.C4)
2001 Jul 17, In Moscow Russia and
China agreed to plan a $1.7 billion pipeline for oil from Siberia to
northeastern China.
(SFC, 7/18/01, p.C4)
2002 Jul 17, Sen. Charles Grassley
of Iowa reported that some 200 Army personnel had used government
charge cards to get cash to spend at strip clubs near military bases.
Soldiers ran up a $38,000 bill.
(WSJ, 7/18/02, p.A1)(SFC, 7/18/02, p.A6)
2002 Jul 17, The National Cancer
Institute published a report that linked estrogen used for hormone
replacement to ovarian cancer.
(SFC, 7/17/02, p.A1)
2002 Jul 17, In Britain, a one-day
strike by 750,000 municipal employees closed schools, libraries and
recreation centers in their first national walkout in more than two
decades.
(AP, 7/17/03)
2002 Jul 17, In Israel a double
suicide bombing in Tel Aviv killed two foreign workers and one Israeli.
Over 40 people were injured.
(WSJ, 7/18/02, p.A1)(SFC, 7/18/02, p.A1)(AP, 7/17/07)
2002 Jul 17, In Nigeria hundreds
of unarmed women of the Ijaw tribe seized control of at least 4 more
ChevronTexaco facilities in the Niger Delta.
(SFC, 7/18/02, p.A17)
2002 Jul 17, In Paraguay Pres.
Macchi announced the lifting of a state of emergency following 2 days
of protests over his economic policies.
(SFC, 7/18/02, p.A15)
2002 Jul 17, Spanish troops
reclaimed the island of Perejil off the coast of Morocco, a week after
it was occupied by Moroccan troops.
(WSJ, 7/18/02, p.A1)(SFC, 7/18/02, p.A17)
2002 Ju 17, Switzerland formally
requested membership to the United Nations.
(SFC, 7/18/02, p.A15)
2003 Jul 17, President Bush and
British Prime Minister Tony Blair forcefully defended their decision to
topple Saddam Hussein during a joint White House news conference. In a
speech to the U.S. Congress, Blair said even if they were proven wrong
about Iraq's weapons capabilities, "We will have destroyed a threat
that at its least is responsible for inhuman carnage and suffering."
(SFC, 7/18/03, p.A1)(AP, 7/17/04)
2003 Jul 17, Democrats Joe
Lieberman, Dick Gephardt and Dennis Kucinich apologized to the NAACP
for bypassing a presidential forum.
(AP, 7/17/04)
2003 Jul 17, The US combat death
toll in Iraq hit a milestone as the Pentagon acknowledged its
casualties from hostile fire reached 147, the same number of troops who
died at enemy hands in the first Gulf War. Gen. John Abizaid, head of
central command, said loyalists are fighting an increasingly organized
"guerrilla-type campaign."
(AP, 7/17/03)
2003 Jul 17, Afghan President
Hamid Karzai announced the creation of a 500-member grand council, or
loya jirga, to approve a new constitution for the country this year.
(AP, 7/17/03)
2003 Jul 17, The leaders of an
Australian Christian church voted to allow homosexuals to become
priests, drawing protest from within the congregation.
(AP, 7/17/03)
2003 Jul 17, In Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil, police killed 3 alleged gang members and pulled the
bullet-riddled bodies of 7 others from a sludge-filled river in 2
notorious shantytowns due to an escalating gang war over drug control
between The Red Command and Third Command.
(AP, 7/18/03)
2003 Jul 17, David Kelly (59), the
British Ministry of Defense adviser was reported missing. He was a
possible source for news that claimed the government had doctored
intelligence on Iraqi weapons to strengthen the case for war. His body
was found the next day. Weapons expert David Kelly apparently committed
suicide by slashing his left wrist.
(AP, 7/18/03)(AP, 7/19/03)
2003 Jul 17, Congo's main rebel
leaders were sworn as vice presidents in a new power-sharing
government, designed to end the country's nearly 5-year civil war. 4
vice presidents represented the ruling party, the opposition party and
2 rebel groups.
(AP, 7/17/03)(Econ, 8/9/03, p.39)
2003 Jul 17, A US company launched
Mexican sales of microchips that can be implanted under a person's skin
and used to confirm health history and identity.
(AP, 7/17/03)
2003 Jul 17, In Mexico a landslide
triggered by heavy rains in the southern state of Oaxaca swept away two
houses and killed nine people, including five children.
(AP, 7/18/03)
2003 Jul 17, Philippine president
Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said that police corruption likely led to the
escape from prison of three terror suspects, including a top bomb
expert, and threatened to shake up the police force.
(AP, 7/17/03)
2003 Jul 17, In Russia's Dagestan
region a shrapnel-filled bomb exploded near a police station, killing
at least four people and injuring 18 others.
(AP, 7/17/03)
2003 Jul 17, Walter Zapp (97),
inventor of the Minox mini camera featured in spy movies, died, in
northern Switzerland. Zapp was born in 1905 in Riga, Latvia.
(AP, 7/28/03)
2004 Jul 17, California Gov.
Arnold Schwarzenegger mockingly used the term "girlie men" during a
rally as he claimed Democrats were delaying the state budget by
catering to special interests.
(AP, 7/17/05)
2004 Jul 17, Office Depot and
Hewlett-Packard launched the country's first free, nationwide, in-store
electronics recycling program. The program ran to Sep 6.
(TechWeb, 7/19/04)
2004 Jul 17, Monsoon rains
submerged new areas of Bangladesh and India, killing at least 13
people, as the death toll from flooding in South Asia rose to more than
400.
(AP, 7/17/04)
2004 Jul 17, French Defence
Minister Michele Alliot-Marie proposed a defense partnership between 3
North African countries, Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia -- and four
southern European countries, France, Italy, Portugal and Spain,
preferably at defense minister level.
(AP, 7/18/04)
2004 Jul 17, An Ariane 5 rocket
took off from French Guyana carrying the heaviest commercial telecom
satellite ever.
(WSJ, 7/19/04, p.A1)
2004 Jul 17, In Germany thousands
of DaimlerChrysler workers walked off the job, extending protests
against threats to cut jobs if employees don't accept steps to cut
labor costs.
(AP, 7/17/04)
2004 Jul 17, A car bomb struck the
Iraqi justice minister's convoy as it passed through western Baghdad,
killing four of his bodyguards. The minister was unhurt in the blast. A
roadside bomb hit a U.S. convoy, killing one U.S. soldier.
(AP, 7/17/04)
2004 Jul 17, Japan’s NTT DoCoMo
launched a wallet phone aimed to combine cash and cell phones with a
small embedded chip that can store money and personal information.
(Reuters, 7/18/04)
2004 Jul 17, At least 15 people
were killed and many more injured when a crowded bus skidded off a road
and fell into a gorge in Kashmir.
(AP, 7/17/04)
2004 Jul 17, A court in Oman
convicted an American woman of murdering her husband and sentenced her
to death. Rebecca Thompson, along with her 14-year-old son, Derrick,
and two Omani men, were convicted for the Jan 1 killing of Mark
Thompson.
(AP, 7/17/04)
2004 Jul 17, A Palestinian
security panel under Yasser Arafat declared a state of emergency after
a spate of kidnappings.
(SFC, 7/17/04, p.A11)
2004 Jul 17, Palestinian PM Ahmed
Qureia submitted his resignation to Yasser Arafat, who rejected it the
next day.
(AP, 7/17/05)
2004 Jul 17, Sudanese rebels
walked out of peace talks, saying government representatives had
refused to meet their conditions for a new round of negotiations.
(AP, 7/17/04)
2005 Jul 17, Time magazine's
Matthew Cooper said a 2003 phone call with White House political
adviser Karl Rove was the first he heard about the wife of Bush
administration critic Joseph Wilson apparently working for the CIA.
(AP, 7/18/05)
2005 Jul 17, Whirlpool Corp.
offered to buy fellow appliance maker Maytag Corp. for $1.37 billion in
cash and stock, topping an earlier offer that Maytag had accepted from
an investment group.
(AP, 7/18/05)
2005 Jul 17, The North American
Solar Challenge, a race for solar powered cars, began in Austin, Texas.
It was set to end Jul 27 in Calgary, Canada.
(SFC, 7/22/05, p.A13)
2005 Jul 17, Meleia
Willis-Starbuck (19) was shot dead on College Ave. in Berkeley, Ca., by
Christopher Hollis (21), a close friend. In 2008 a jury convicted
Hollis of voluntary manslaughter.
(SFC, 7/18/05, p.A1)(SFC, 7/22/05, p.A1)(SFC,
4/30/08, p.B1)
2005 Jul 17, Geraldine Fitzgerald
(91), stage and screen actress, died in NYC. Her films included “Dark
Victory” (1939), “Ten North Frederick” (1958) and “Rachel Rachel”
(1968).
(SFC, 7/20/05, p.B7)
2005 Jul 17, The 168-page
Afghanistan Justice Project report was issued and covered human rights
abuses since the late 1970s. It holds several top officials and
candidates in national elections, scheduled for September, among those
responsible for mass arrests, tortures and executions.
(AP, 7/18/05)
2005 Jul 17, Tiger Woods closed
with a 2-under 70 to win the British Open for his tenth career major.
(AP, 7/17/06)
2005 Jul 17, Sir Edward Heath
(b.1916), PM of England (1970-1974), died. He led England into what is
now the EU but lost the Conservative Party leadership to Margaret
Thatcher.
(AP, 7/17/05)(SFC, 7/18/05, p.B6)(Econ, 7/23/05,
p.80)
2005 Jul 17, Egypt demanded that
institutions in Britain and Belgium return two pharaonic reliefs it
says were chipped off tombs and stolen 30 years ago, threatening to end
their archaeological work here if they refuse.
(AP, 7/17/05)
2005 Jul 17, In Iraq The Iraqi
Special Tribunal filed its first criminal case against Saddam Hussein
for a 1982 massacre of Shiites. Adel Karim, a deputy minister for
industrial development, said Iraq wants to launch a privatization
program that would end state monopolies over industry. Suicide strikes
killed 22 people in the Baghdad area.
(AP, 7/17/05)(AP, 7/17/06)
2005 Jul 17, In Paraguay some 360
villagers marched on Asuncion to lobby for the expropriation of 128,500
acres of land containing their town of Puerto Casado, owned by Rev. Sun
Myung Moon’s Unification Church. The South Korean based church had
purchased a 1.48 million-acre property in 2000.
(WSJ, 7/18/05, p.A10)
2005 Jul 17, Officials said heavy
rains and flash floods have killed 20 people in the past week and
inundated tens of thousands of homes in Romania. Death for the month
reached 26.
(AP, 7/17/05)
2005 Jul 17, Pilots at Asiana
Airlines, South Korea's No. 2 carrier, went on strike.
(AP, 7/20/05)
2005 Jul 17, In central Spain 11
firefighters trying to extinguish a forest fire sparked by a smoldering
barbeque were killed.
(AP, 7/17/05)
2005 Jul 17, The Sudanese council
of ministers held its last meeting in Khartoum ahead of the formation
of a power-sharing cabinet that will include southern former rebels.
(AP, 7/17/05)
2005 Jul 17, In Thailand an
emergency decree was signed into law that granted PM Shinawatra
sweeping powers to tap phones, directly command security forces and
order curfews. It also granted immunity to security forces in emergency
zones.
(Econ, 7/23/05, p.40)
2005 Jul 17, Yemeni President Ali
Abdullah Saleh, leader of this Arab nation for more than a
quarter-century, said he will not run in next year's elections, and he
urged political parties to nominate "young blood" to lead the country.
(AP, 7/17/05)
2006 Jul 17, US Attorney General
Alberto Gonzales said President George W. Bush blocked a Justice
Department probe into a secret program to tap international phone calls
and electronic communications of US citizens.
(AFP, 7/18/06)
2006 Jul 17, Louisiana Attorney
General Charles Foti alleged that a doctor and two nurses decided to
administer lethal doses of morphine and a sedative to at least four
trapped and desperately ill patients during Hurricane Katrina.
(AP, 7/18/06)
2006 Jul 17, Space shuttle
Discovery and its crew of 6 returned to Earth through thick clouds,
ending an impressive mission that put NASA's space program back on a
solid, safer course.
(AP, 7/17/06)
2006 Jul 17, Mickey Spillane
(b.1918), American mystery writer, died in South Carolina. His 13 Mike
Hammer novels began with “I, the Jury” (1946). A number of his books
were made into films including “The Girl Hunters” (1963) in which he
played the starring role.
(SFC, 7/18/06, p.B5)(Econ, 7/29/06, p.78)
2006 Jul 17, In southeastern
Afghanistan coalition forces killed four al-Qaida suspects and captured
three others. Separate attacks killed three Afghan soldiers and three
government employees in the south.
(AP, 7/17/06)
2006 Jul 17, In China tropical
storm Bilis left at least 612 people dead as it pounded the southeast
over the weekend, toppling houses and forcing the evacuation of a
prison and thousands of villages.
(AP, 7/18/06)(AP, 7/24/06)
2006 Jul 17, Congo officials said
Peter Karim, a warlord accused of kidnapping seven UN peacekeepers, has
agreed to disband his militia and become a colonel in Congo's army.
Gunmen opened fire on an election rally and killed several people in
Congo's volatile east, the latest outburst of violence as the nation
prepares for its first free legislative and presidential balloting in
46 years.
(AP, 7/17/06)(AP, 7/19/06)
2006 Jul 17, Europe’s Airbus,
reeling from a management shakeup that followed delays in its flagship
superjumbo jet program, unveiled a long-awaited revamp of its mid-sized
A350 at the Farnborough Air Show in England.
(AP, 7/17/06)(WSJ, 7/17/06, p.A3)
2006 Jul 17, In India some 500
suspected communist rebels attacked a government-run relief camp and
two police stations in eastern Chattisgarh state, killing at least 26
villagers. Four rebels also died.
(AP, 7/17/06)
2006 Jul 17, In Indonesia a
magnitude 7.7 earthquake sent a 6-foot-high tsunami crashing into
Pangandaran on Java island, killing at least 659 people with some 330
missing.
(AP, 7/19/06)(AP, 7/22/06)
2006 Jul 17, Iraq and the US
signed a commercial cooperation agreement. In Mahmoudiya dozens of
heavily armed attackers raided an open air market, killing at least 41
people and wounding about 90. Police said they found 12 bodies in
different parts Mahmoudiya, possible victims of reprisal
killings. A bomb killed two people and wounded nine in east
Baghdad. 3 American soldiers were killed in separate attacks, two in
the Baghdad area and one in Anbar province west of the capital.
(AP, 7/17/06)(AP, 7/18/06)
2006 Jul 17, Israeli warplanes
pummeled Lebanese infrastructure, killing at least 17 people. Hezbollah
patron Iran said a cease-fire and a prisoner swap were possible, and
the international community signaled willingness to send peacekeepers
to back a diplomatic solution. 3 rounds of rockets fired by Hezbollah
guerrillas struck Haifa, with one destroying a three-story building and
wounding three people. Hezbollah fired a total of 50 rockets in to
Israel. Total deaths in Lebanon reached 210 and 24 in Israel.
(AP, 7/17/06)(WSJ, 7/18/06, p.A1,7)
2006 Jul 17, Israel bombed the
Palestinian Foreign Ministry building in Gaza City, pushing ahead with
its 3-week offensive in Gaza.
(AP, 7/17/06)
2006 Jul 17, British PM Tony Blair
and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan called for the deployment of
international forces to stop Hezbollah from bombing Israel, a proposal
that Israel quickly rejected.
(AP, 7/17/06)
2006 Jul 17, One of two young twin
brothers who led a small band of ethnic rebels calling themselves
"God's Army" surrendered to Myanmar's military government. Johnny Htoo
(18) and 8 fellow members of the group surrendered with weapons in two
separate groups on July 17 and 19 at the coastal region military
command in southeastern Myanmar.
(AP, 7/25/06)
2006 Jul 17, Nigeria signed a deal
with the Clinton Foundation to make cheap AIDS drugs available to fight
the disease.
(AFP, 7/17/06)
2006 Jul 17, G8 leaders called on
North Korea to stop its missile tests and to abandon its nuclear
weapons program.
(AP, 7/17/06)
2006 Jul 17, The presidents of
Russia and Kazakhstan agreed at the G8 summit to create a joint venture
to process natural gas from Kazakhstan's Karachaganak gas field.
(AP, 7/17/06)
2006 Jul 17, In Moscow full
trading began in the shares of Rosneft Oil Co. The company raised $10.4
billion with shares at $7.55. The next day a London court dismissed a
blocking plea by Yukos and full trading began in London.
(Econ, 7/22/06, p.71)
2006 Jul 17, A Serbian court
issued an international arrest warrant for the widow of former
President Slobodan Milosevic, who now lives in Moscow.
(AP, 7/17/06)
2006 Jul 17, In western Venezuela
a fire broke out at the Amuay oil refinery. Officials said it was soon
extinguished without reported injuries or loss of deliveries.
(AP, 7/17/06)
2007 Jul 17, The US offered
additional food aid to Zimbabwe to ease its famine but criticized what
it said were reckless actions by Pres. Robert Mugabe to try to deal
with the problem.
(AP, 7/17/07)
2007 Jul 17, Jim Nicholson,
Secretary of the US Veteran’s Administration abruptly resigned in the
wake of charges of shoddy health care for veterans injured in the Iraq
war.
(AP, 7/17/08)
2007 Jul 17, The Dow Jones
industrial average crossed 14,000 for the first time before ending the
day at 13,918.22.
(AP, 7/17/08)
2007 Jul 17, The California State
Water Resources Control board passed a 70-year mercury cleanup plan for
the SF Bay.
(SFC, 7/19/07, p.B1)
2007 Jul 17, In Virginia Michael
Vick, quarterback of the Atlanta Falcons, was indicted by a federal
grand jury along with 3 others on charges related to competitive dog
fighting. In Dec. Vick was sentenced to 23 months in prison for his
role in a dogfighting conspiracy that involved gambling and killing pit
bulls.
(SFC, 7/19/07, p.A6)(AP, 12/10/07)
2007 Jul 17, Whole Foods launched
an internal investigation after it became public that CEO John Mackey
had for many years posted critical comments online against Wild Oats
prior to a planned acquisition of the firm this year.
(Econ, 7/21/07, p.62)
2007 Jul 17, In Sao Paulo, Brazil,
a TAM airlines Airbus-320 slammed into a gas station and a TAM building
and burst into flames after trying to land on a short, rain-slicked
runway at Congonhas airport. All 187 people aboard were killed along
with 12 on the ground.
(AP, 7/18/07)(AP, 7/17/08)
2007 Jul 17, Cambodia's government
issued a directive preventing Christians from promoting their religion
in public places, or using money or other means to persuade people to
convert.
(AP, 7/17/07)
2007 Jul 17, A foreman from a kiln
in north China where workers were beaten and forced to work 18-hour
days was sentenced to life in jail and another man was sentenced to
death for the beating death of a laborer. A total of 29 people were
convicted in seven different courts in Shanxi for their roles in the
slavery scandal.
(AP, 7/17/07)
2007 Jul 17, An international
think-tank said China's smog-choked cities and contaminated waterways
are leaving many people sick and unable to work, in turn fomenting
unrest and threatening the country's economic growth.
(AP, 7/17/07)
2007 Jul 17, It was reported that
the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization and WFP estimated that the
cereal deficit for East Timor this year and next will reach 86,364
tons. With commercial imports anticipated at 71,000 tons, the shortfall
needs to be filled through food assistance.
(AFP, 7/17/07)
2007 Jul 17, Lawmakers loyal to
anti-US cleric Muqtada al-Sadr said they are ending a nearly five-week
boycott of parliament sessions after officials accepted their demands
for rebuilding a Shiite shrine damaged by bombings. In eastern Baghdad
a suicide driver detonated his vehicle near an Iraqi army patrol in
Zayouna, a mostly Shiite area, killing 10 people including six
civilians. The bodies of two security guards were found in the western
Baghdad neighborhood of Mansour, two days after they were kidnapped
from the office of a cell phone company where they worked. 29 members
of a Shiite tribe were massacred overnight in Diyala province when
dozens of suspected Sunni gunmen raided their village near Muqdadiyah.
The dead included four women. 3 American soldiers were killed in
separate bombings in Baghdad.
(AP, 7/17/07)(AP, 7/18/07)
2007 Jul 17, In Lebanon militants
continued to resist the army's advance. Security officials said Army
troops are making "significant" gains in their long-running battle
against al-Qaida-inspired fighters barricaded inside a Palestinian
refugee camp in northern Lebanon. At least 60 militants and more than
20 civilians have been killed in fighting since May 20.
(AP, 7/17/07)
2007 Jul 17, Libya's foreign
minister said the death sentences for five Bulgarian nurses and a
Palestinian doctor accused of infecting hundreds of Libyan children
with HIV have been commuted to life in prison. The ruling came after
the families of the children each received $1 million and agreed to
drop their demand for the execution of the six.
(AP, 7/17/07)
2007 Jul 17, Najib Razak,
Malaysia’s deputy prime minister, said Malaysia is an Islamic state and
not a secular one, while carefully assuring members of minority faiths
that their rights will be protected. More than 60% of Malaysia's 27
million people are Muslim Malays and Islam is the official religion
under the country's constitution. But while the constitution defines
the ethnic majority Malays as Muslims it also guarantees freedom of
religion.
(AFP, 7/17/07)
2007 Jul 17, Anglo-Dutch oil giant
Shell said it has been unable to fight a major fire along a key oil
supply pipeline because of unrest in southern Nigeria's Ogoniland
region. The fire, raging for more than a month, has affected the
company's Trans-Niger pipeline that passes through six villages whose
residents are hostile to the company.
(AFP, 7/17/07)
2007 Jul 17, A suicide bomber
killed four Pakistanis, including three soldiers, in the North
Waziristan region on the Afghan border, hours after pro-Taliban
militants vowed to launch attacks on security forces. An apparent
suicide bomber in Islamabad killed 16 people and injured 44 at a rally
where the former chief justice was scheduled to speak.
(SFC, 7/18/07, p.A13)(AP, 7/19/07)
2007 Jul 17, Russia vowed a
"targeted and appropriate" response to Britain's expulsion of four
diplomats in a mounting confrontation over the probe into the radiation
poisoning death of a former KGB officer.
(AP, 7/17/07)
2007 Jul 17, Syria’s Pres. Bashar
Assad was sworn in for a 2nd, seven-year term in office.
(AP, 7/17/07)
2007 Jul 17, In southern Thailand
twin bomb attacks killed one policeman and wounded 18 other people, as
the junta formally extended a state of emergency in the region.
(AP, 7/17/07)
2007 Jul 17, In western Ukraine a
train carrying yellow phosphorus derailed, releasing a cloud of toxic
gas into the air over 14 villages. 20 people were hospitalized and
hundreds evacuated.
(AP, 7/17/07)
2008 Jul 17, Kay Ryan (b.1945) of
Fairfax, Ca., was named the 16th poet laureate of the US. She was
selected by James Billington, the Librarian of Congress.
(SFC, 7/18/08, p.A6)
2008 Jul 17, The US Treasury moved
to freeze assets of four Algerians it said were leaders of an al
Qaeda-affiliated group responsible for deadly bombings in Algeria last
month.
(Reuters, 7/17/08)
2008 Jul 17, The US government
lifted a salmonella warning on tomatoes, but still warned caution on
fresh jalapeno and serrano peppers.
(SFC, 7/18/08, p.A6)
2008 Jul 17, It was reported that
the US debt amounted to $455,000 per household.
(SFC, 7/17/08, p.A10)
2008 Jul 17, Andy Stern, head of
the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), led a global day of
action targeting KKR-owned sites in 25 countries, calling for an end to
favorable tax treatment of private equity.
(Econ, 8/2/08, p.70)
2008 Jul 17, California became the
first US state to approve green building standards.
(SFC, 7/18/08, p.A1)
2008 Jul 17, In western
Afghanistan US Special Forces and Afghan troops called in airstrikes
during a raid on a militant cell, killing 15 insurgents while freeing
15 hostages in Herat province. Taliban militants attacked a convoy
carrying supplies for NATO forces in Zabul. A following gunbattle
killed an Afghan security worker and wounded five.
(AP, 7/17/08)(AP, 7/18/08)
2008 Jul 17, Aafia Siddiqui, a
Pakistani woman once identified as a possible al-Qaida associate, was
arrested by Afghan police, who found recipes for explosives and
descriptions of New York landmarks in her handbag. [see Aug 5]
(SSFC, 8/24/08, p.A5)(AFP, 8/30/08)
2008 Jul 17, Algeria and Germany
wound up two days of talks in Algiers with a call for more economic
cooperation between the two countries.
(AP, 7/17/08)
2008 Jul 17, In Algeria a truck
and a bus collided on one of the main highways in the Relizane region
killing 7 people with 28 seriously injured.
(AFP, 7/17/08)
2008 Jul 17, Argentina's Senate
narrowly rejected a grain-export tax package, a government-backed
proposal that has led to nationwide farm strikes and regional food
shortages.
(AP, 7/17/08)
2008 Jul 17, In Sidney, Australia,
Pope Benedict XVI delivered a stinging attack on pop culture,
consumerism and "false idols" to 150,000 mainly teenaged Catholic
pilgrims gathered for World Youth Day.
(AFP, 7/17/08)
2008 Jul 17, Belgium's King Albert
II refused to accept the resignation of the prime minister and his
government, calling on key officials to redouble efforts to resolve an
longtime disagreement over more self-rule for the country's Dutch and
French speakers.
(AP, 7/18/08)
2008 Jul 17, A new company of
Chinese engineers deployed to Sudan's war-torn western region of
Darfur, boosting the number of UN-led peacekeeping troops to 8,000.
(AP, 7/17/08)
2008 Jul 17, Wikimania 2008 opened
in to Alexandria, Egypt, for a 3-day tradecraft meeting. The gathering
of online encyclopedia creators drew some 650 Wikipedians from 45
countries.
(WSJ, 8/8/08,
p.W1)(http://wikimania2008.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page)
2008 Jul 17, In Amman, Jordan, a
gunman shot and wounded six people near a Roman amphitheater. He shot
himself in the head as he was chased by police, and was in critical
condition. A police official identified the assailant as Thaer
al-Weheidi (19), a resident of Baqaa camp, the largest of 11
Palestinian refugee settlements in Jordan. Al-Weheidi died on July 22.
(AP, 7/17/08)(AP, 7/22/08)
2008 Jul 17, Kuwait's official
news agency says the tiny Gulf country has named an ambassador to Iraq
for the first time since the 1991 Gulf War.
(AP, 7/17/08)
2008 Jul 17, Macedonia's main
opposition party walked out of parliament after its deputy leader was
arrested and charged in a corruption probe.
(AP, 7/18/08)
2008 Jul 17, Six prominent members
of Colombia’s largest rebel group FARC met this day with Nicaraguan
President Daniel Ortega according to Nicaragua’s La Prensa newspaper.
The members of the guerrilla organization arrived in Nicaragua in a
Cessna airplane from Venezuela. Both Ortega and Venezuela denied the
newspaper report.
(http://colombiareports.com/2008/07/23/ortega-met-with-farc-delegation-says-la-prensa/)
2008 Jul 17, Nigerian villagers
blew up a key crude oil supply pipeline operated by Agip, the Nigerian
subsidiary of Italian group Eni, cutting production.
(AFP, 7/17/08)
2008 Jul 17, Violent protests
erupted at Pakistan's main stock market as growing economic and
political uncertainty pushed Pakistani shares to a new 18-month low.
(AP, 7/17/08)
2008 Jul 17, A survey team member
said a Russian government audit has revealed that up to 50,000 pieces
are missing from the country’s museums, everything from
Pre-Revolutionary medals and weapons to precious works of art.
(AP, 7/18/08)
2008 Jul 17, Sri Lankan air force
jets bombed a group of ethnic Tamil rebels. Troops attacked rebel
bunkers along the front lines in the Vavuniya area, killing 10 Tamil
Tiger fighters. Fighting in the area also killed four soldiers, while a
fifth soldier was missing in action. Fighting in Welioya killed nine
rebels and one soldier, while another rebel was killed in Jaffna.
(AP, 7/17/08)(AFP, 7/18/08)
2008 Jul 17, An official of the
Swiss bank UBS announced that it was halting its offshore banking
services for US citizens after it came under scathing criticism for
facilitating massive tax evasion.
(AFP, 7/18/08)
2008 Jul 17, An organization
claiming to represent groups involved in southern Thailand's Muslim
insurgency announced it will end all violence in the region as of July
14. Former army commander and Defense Minister Chetta Thanajaro said
the organization that made the announcement represented 11 different
underground groups operating in southern Thailand.
(AP, 7/17/08)
2008 Jul 17, Venezuela's ruling
party pledged to seek to reform the nation's constitution to let
President Hugo Chavez seek indefinite re-election.
(AP, 7/18/08)
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