Today in History - July 21
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365 Jul 21, An
earthquake, whose epicenter was in Crete, leveled the Egyptian Port of
Alexandria as well as the Roman outpost of Leptis Magna in Libya. Some
50,000 people died.
(www.earthscape.org/r2/jos/vol1-1june1997/pg55.html)(AM, Mar/Apr 97
p.18)
1160 Jul 21, Peterus Lombardus,
Italian theologian, bishop of Paris, died.
(MC, 7/21/02)
1403 Jul 21, Henry IV defeated the
Percys in the Battle of Shrewsbury in England. Henry IV fought down an
insurrection from Henry Percy, the Earl of Northumberland and Ralph
Neville, the Earl of Westmorland, the same men who had helped him
overthrow Richard II. Henry Percy (39), [Harry Hotspur] was killed in
the battle.
(WUD, 1994, p.1671)(MWH, 1994)(HN, 7/21/98)
1425 Jul 21, Manuel Palaeologus,
Byzantine Emperor (1391-1425), writer, died. He ended his days after
signing a humiliating peace with the Ottoman Turks.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manuel_II_Palaeologus)(Econ, 9/23/06,
p.59)
1515 Jul 21, St. Philippus Nerius,
[Philippo Neri], Italian merchant, priest, was born.
(MC, 7/21/02)
1542 Jul 21, Pope Paul III
launched the Inquisition against Protestants (Sanctum Officium).
Alleged heretics were tried and tortured in an effort to stem the
spread of the Reformation.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.16)(MC, 7/21/02)
1620 Jul 21, Jean Picard, French
astronomer, was born.
(MC, 7/21/02)
1664 Jul 21, Matthew Prior,
English poet, was born.
(MC, 7/21/02)
1667 Jul 21, The Peace of Breda
ended the Second Anglo-Dutch War and ceded Dutch New Amsterdam to the
English. The South American country of Surinam, formerly Dutch
Guiana, including the nutmeg island of Run was ceded by England
to the Dutch in exchange for New York in 1667 after the second
Anglo-Dutch War.
(WUD, 1994, p.961)(HN, 7/21/98)(HNQ, 8/21/98)(WSJ,
5/21/99, p.W7)
1669 Jul 21, John Locke's
Constitution of English colony Carolina was approved.
(MC, 7/21/02)
1676 Jul 21, Anthony Collins,
English philosopher (A discourse on free-thinking), was born.
(MC, 7/21/02)
1683 Jul 21, Lord William Russell,
English plotter against Charles II, was beheaded.
(MC, 7/21/02)
1711 Jul 21, Russia and Turkey
signed the Treaty of Pruth, ending the year-long Russo-Turkish War.
(HN, 7/21/98)
1718 Jul 21, The Turkish threat to
Europe was eliminated with the signing of the Treaty of Passarowitz
between Austria, Venice and the Ottoman Empire.
(HN, 7/21/98)
1730 Jul 21, States of Holland put
a death penalty on "sodomy."
(MC, 7/21/02)
1773 Jul 21, Pope Clement XIV
abolished the Jesuit order. He disbanded, defrocked, and stripped them
of their sustenance. They were ignored by other orders and denounced as
schemers and plotters. The Jesuits finally regained respectability in
1814after flourishing underground.
(HN, 7/21/98)(MC, 7/21/02)
1796 Jul 21, Robert Burns
(b.1759), Scottish poet and a lyricist (Auld Lang Syne), died. In 2009
Robert Crawford authored “The Bard: Robert Burns.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Burns)(SSFC,
1/25/09, Books p.3)
1798 Jul 21, Napoleon Bonaparte
defeated the Arab Mameluke warriors at the Battle of the Pyramids,
becoming the master of Egypt.
(HN, 7/21/98)
1804 Jul 21, Victor Schoelcher,
abolished French slavery, was born in Guadeloupe.
(MC, 7/21/02)
1816 Jul 21, Paul Julius Baron von
Reuter (d.1899), founder of the British news agency bearing his name,
was born in Hesse, Germany, as Israel Beer Josaphat.
(AP,
7/21/99)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Julius_Reuter)
1831 Jul 21, Belgium became
independent as Leopold I was proclaimed King of the Belgians.
(AP, 7/21/97)
1846 Jul 21, Mormons founded the
1st English settlement in the San Joaquin Valley of Calif.
(MC, 7/21/02)
1861 Jul 21, In the first major
battle of the Civil War, Confederate forces repelled an attempt by the
Union Army to turn their flank in Virginia. The battle became known by
the Confederates as Manassas, while the Union called it Bull Run. The
33rd Virginia Infantry held Henry House Hill at the first Battle of
Bull Run in Manassas, Virginia, resulting in a Confederate victory.
This was the spot from which Jackson took on the title of "Stonewall"
and his brigade the "Stonewall Brigade." Union forces had 3,000 men
killed, wounded, or missing in action while the Confederates suffered
2,000 casualties. Bernard Bee coined the nickname associated with
Confederate General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson. At the Battle of
First Manassas, it is General Bee who supposedly rallied his troops by
calling out, "Look! There is Jackson standing like a stone wall. Rally
to the Virginians!" Though there is some controversy about exactly what
was said, when Bee said it, and what exactly he meant by it, the words
helped create a legend. Bee couldn‘t explain further; he was mortally
wounded during the battle and died the next day. Brig. Gen. Irvin
McDowell was in command of the Union forces at the First Battle of Bull
Run (First Manassas).
(HT, 3/97, p.48)(AP, 7/21/97)(HN, 7/21/99)(HN,
1/18/00)(HNQ, 7/30/01)(MC, 7/21/02)
1865 Jul 21, Wild Bill Hickok
killed gunman Dave Tutt in Springfield, Illinois, in the first formal
quick-draw duel.
(HN, 7/21/98)
1866 Jul 21, A cholera-epidemic
killed hundreds in London.
(MC, 7/21/02)
1870 Jul 21, Josef Strauss (42),
Austrian composer (Dynamids), died.
(MC, 7/21/02)
1873 Jul 21, At Adair, Iowa, more
than seven years after the Liberty holdup, the James-Younger gang made
their first train robbery. See 1866 for the 1st US train robbery.
(OGA, 11/24/98)(HN, 7/18/00)
1877 Jul 21, In West Virginia 26
railroad strikers were killed and the Union Depot and machine shops
were burned down.
(HNQ, 12/11/98)
1877 Jul 21-27, The US army broke
a railroad strike.
(MC, 7/21/02)
1881 Jul 21, Frederick Dick,
physician, was born.
(HN, 7/21/02)
1896 Jul 21, Mary Church Terrell
founded the National Association of Colored Women in Washington, D.C.
(HN, 7/21/98)
1897 Jul 21, The Tate Gallery
opened in England.
(MC, 7/21/02)
1898 Jul 21, Spain ceded Guam to
US.
(OGA, 11/24/98)
1899 Jul 21, Poet Hart Crane was
born in Garrettsville, Ohio.
(AP, 7/21/99)
1899 Jul 21, Ernest Hemingway
(d.1961), American novelist and short-story writer, was born in Oak
Park, Ill. "Never confuse motion with action."
(AP, 7/21/97)(HN, 7/21/98)(AP, 11/21/98)
1903 Jul 21, Dr. Horatio Nelson
Jackson arrived in Cleveland with his mechanic Sewell Croker escorted
by a fleet of new Winton automobiles. They were enroute to NYC from San
Francisco in a $2,500 Winton touring car.
(ON, 9/04, p.10)
1904 Jul 21, After 13 years, the
4,607-mile Trans-Siberian railway was completed.
(MC, 7/21/02)
1911 Jul 21, Marshall McLuhan
(d.1980), English professor and communication theorist, author of "The
Medium is the Message," was born. He wrote the book:
"Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man."
(V.D.-H.K.p.357)(HN, 7/21/98)
1918 Jul 21, The residents and
coastguardsmen of Orleans, Massachusetts, were amazed to see the German
U-boat, U-156, firing at an American tug and four barges just off shore.
(HNQ, 2/1/02)
1919 Jul 21, A dirigible crashed
through a bank skylight killing 13 in Chicago.
(MC, 7/21/02)
1919 Jul 21, The British House of
Lords ratified the Versailles Treaty.
(HN, 7/21/98)
1919 Jul 21, Anthony Fokker
established an airplane factory at Hamburg and Amsterdam.
(MC, 7/21/02)
1920 Jul 21, Isaac Stern,
violinist, was born in Kreminiecz, Russia.
(HN, 7/21/98)
1921 Jul 21, Billy Taylor, jazz
pianist, was born.
(HN, 7/21/02)
1921 Jul 21, Gen. Billy Mitchell
flew off with a payload of makeshift aerial bombs and sank the former
German battle ship Ostfriesland off Hampton Roads, Virginia; the 1st
time a battleship was ever sunk by an airplane.
(MC, 7/21/02)
1922 Jul 21, Djemal Pasha,
dictator of Turkey, was murdered.
(MC, 7/21/02)
1924 Jul 21, Don Knotts (d.2006),
later film and TV star (The Andy Griffith Show, Matlock, Three’s
Company), was born in Morgantown, West Virginia.
(SSFC, 2/26/06, p.B7)
1925 Jul 21, The so-called "Monkey
Trial" ended in Dayton, Tenn., with John T. Scopes convicted of
violating state law for teaching Darwin's theory of evolution. Scopes
was found guilty and was fined $100. The conviction was later
overturned on a technicality.
(HN, 7/21/99)(AP, 7/21/08)
1926 Jul 21, Norman Jewison,
director (Moonstruck, ...and Justice For All), was born.
(MC, 7/21/02)
1928 Jul 21, Dame Ellen Terry
(b.1847), British actress, died in England. In 2009 Michael Holroyd
authored “A Strange Eventful History: The Dramatic Lives of Ellen
Terry, Henry Irving and Their Remarkable Families.” Her relationship
with actor Henry Irving (d.1905) lasted over 2 decades.
(Econ, 8/30/08, p.79)(WSJ, 3/6/09,
p.W6)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellen_Terry)
1930 Jul 21, President Herbert
Hoover signed an executive order establishing the Veterans
Administration.
(AP, 7/21/07)
1933 Jul 21, John Gardner
(d.1982), poet and novelist (Grendel, October Light), was born.
(HN, 7/21/02)
1933 Jul 21, The DJIA dropped 7.8%
(SFC,10/17/97, p.B2)
1933 Jul 21, Haifa Harbor in
Palestine opened.
(MC, 7/21/02)
1938 Jul 21, Les Aspin,
(Rep-D-Wisc, 1971-93), Minister of Defense (1993-94), was born.
(MC, 7/21/02)
1938 Jul 21, Janet Reno, US
attorney general (1993-2001), was born.
(MC, 7/21/02)
1938 Jul 21, Paul Hindemith &
Leonide Massines ballet premiered in London.
(MC, 7/21/02)
1938 Jul 21, Owen Wister (b.1860),
novelist, died at his summer home in Rhode Island. His 1902 novel
"The Virginian" inspired 5 films. He had earlier begun a novel set in
his native Philadelphia but stopped work on it when his wife died
during childbirth on Aug 24, 1913.
(HN, 7/14/01)(SFC, 1/9/02, p.D8)(AH, 10/02, p.20)
1939 Jul 21, Ambroise Vollard
(b.1866), French art patron, author and publisher, died in a car crash.
He wrote biographies on Cézanne, Degas, and Renoir.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambroise_Vollard)
1940 Jul 21, The new
USSR-organized parliaments of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania held
simultaneous sessions. They declared their countries to be soviet
socialist republics and applied for admission to the USSR.
(www.historycommission.ee/temp/conclusions_frame.htm)
1941 Jul 21, France accepted
Japan's demand for military control of Indochina.
(HN, 7/21/98)
1941 Jul 21, Himmler ordered the
building of the Majdanek concentration camp. The camp was built in
eastern Poland as a principal site to exterminate Jews. It contained 7
gas chambers.
(SFC, 3/5/98, p.A14)(MC, 7/21/02)
1941 Jul 21, 200 Jewish Torahs
were burned in Ukraine.
(MC, 7/21/02)
1943 Jul 21, Tess Gallagher,
American writer, was born.
(HN, 7/21/02)
1943 Jul 21, Edward Herrmann,
actor (Day of the Dolphin, Reds), was born in Wash., DC.
(MC, 7/21/02)
1944 Jul 21, Paul Wellstone,
(Sen-D-Minnesota), was born.
(MC, 7/21/02)
1944 Jul 21, The Democratic
National Convention in Chicago nominated Sen. Harry S. Truman to be
vice president. He replaced Henry Wallace. In Room 708 of the
Blackstone Hotel in Chicago Roosevelt told Truman at the convention
that he wanted him on the ticket
(WSJ, 8/26/96, p.A12)(AP, 7/20/97)(WSJ, 4/27/98,
p.A20)
1944 Jul 21, US Army and Marine
forces landed on Guam in the Marianas during WW II.
(AP, 7/21/97)(HN, 7/21/98)
1944 Jul 21, Von Kluge warned
Hitler of the impending collapse of front in Normandy.
(MC, 7/21/02)
1944 Jul 21, Henning von Tresckow,
Gen-Maj, "July 20th plotter", committed suicide.
(MC, 7/21/02)
1947 Jul 21, Cat Stevens, rock
vocalist (Peace Train, Father & Son), was born as Yusaf Islam.
(MC, 7/21/02)
1947 Jul 21, Life Magazine
featured the photo of a drunk on a motorcycle from the Jul 4 gathering
in Hollister, Ca. The photo was later revealed to have been set up for
effect.
(SFEC, 6/29/97, p.A12)
1948 Jul 21, Garry Trudeau,
political cartoonist (Doonesbury), was born.
(http://din-timelines.com/1948.q3_timeline.shtml)
1948 Jul 21, Arshile Gorky
(b.1904/5), artist, (born as Vostanig Adoian of Armenian parents in
Eastern Turkey) died of suicide. He came to the US in 1920 and assumed
a new name in admiration of Russian writer Maxim Gorky. His works
included "Gray Drawing for Pastoral" (1946). His last paintings were
described as "imaginary erotic cosmologies." In 1999 Matthew Spender
published the biography "From a High Place: A Life of Arshile Gorky."
(WSJ, 1/28/04,
p.D6)(www.legacy-project.org/artists/display.html?ID=5)
1949 Jul 21, The US Senate
ratified the North Atlantic Treaty (NATO) 82-13.
(EWH, 1968, p.1207)(AP, 7/21/97)
1951 Jul 21, Dalai Lama returned
to Tibet.
(MC, 7/21/02)
1952 Jul 21, Robin Williams,
American comedian and actor, was born in Chicago, Ill.
(HN, 7/21/98)
1954 Jul 21, France surrendered
North Vietnam to the Communists at Geneva. The French signed an
armistice, the Geneva Accords, with the Viet Minh that ended the war
but divided Vietnam into two countries. This led to almost a million
anti-Communists in the north to flee to the south.
(AP, 7/21/97)(HN, 7/21/98)(OGA, 11/24/98)(SFEC,
4/23/00, p.A19)
1955 Jul 21, During the Geneva
summit, President Eisenhower presented his "open skies" proposal under
which the United States and the Soviet Union would trade information on
each other's military facilities and allow aerial reconnaissance.
(AP, 7/21/07)
1955 Jul 21, First sub powered by
liquid metal cooled reactor launched - Seawolf.
(OGA, 11/24/98)
1959 Jul 21, The 1st atomic
powered merchant ship, NS Savannah, was christened at Camden, NJ. In
1995 it was docked as part of the Navy’s James River Reserve Fleet at
Fort Eustis, Va. Soviets launched the world’s 1st operational nuclear
surface ship in 1958.
(OGA, Internet, 11/24/98)(SFC, 3/12/05, p.B5)
1960 Jul 21, Francis Chichester
arrived in NY aboard Gypsy Moth II, setting a record of 40 days for a
solo Atlantic crossing.
(MC, 7/21/02)
1960 Jul 21, Sirimavo Bandaranaike
became the first woman prime minister of Ceylon. In Sri Lanka, an
island country in the Indian Ocean formerly known as Ceylon she served
as prime minister twice, 1960-65 and 1970-77. Under her leadership a
republican constitution was adopted in 1972 and the name of Ceylon
changed to Sri Lanka.
(HNQ, 5/23/98)(HN, 7/21/98)
1960 Jul 21, Germany passed the
Volkswagen law legislation privatizing Volkswagen. It capped a
shareholder's voting rights at 20%, regardless of the number of shares
held, and required a majority of 80% for "important decisions." It also
gave Lower Saxony, the state in which Volkswagen is based, a
controlling minority stake in the automaker. In 2007 the European Court
ruled that the VW law had to go.
(http://uk.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idUKL2232313720071023)(Econ,
6/14/08, p.82)
1961 Jul 21, Capt. Virgil "Gus"
Grissom became the second American to rocket into a suborbital pattern
around the Earth, flying on the Mercury 4 Liberty Bell 7. The Mercury
capsule sank in the Atlantic, 302 miles from Cape Canaveral and Grissom
was rescued by helicopter. The space capsule was recovered in 1999.
(AP, 7/21/97)(OGA, 11/24/98)(SFC, 4/17/99,
p.A6)(WSJ, 7/21/99, p.A1)
1962 Jul 21, 160 civil right
activists were jailed after demonstration in Albany, Ga.
(MC, 7/21/02)
1966 Jul 21, Gemini X returned to
Earth.
(OGA, 11/24/98)
1967 Jul 21, Basil Rathbone (75),
actor (Sherlock Holmes), died of heart attack.
(MC, 7/21/02)
1967 Jul 21, In South Africa ANC
president Albert Luthuli died after being hit by a train in what was
widely thought to have been an assassination operation. The
anti-apartheid icon received the 1960 Nobel prize for his role in the
struggle against whites-only rule.
(AP, 7/11/07)
1969 Jul 21, Apollo 11 astronauts
Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin blasted off from the moon aboard
the lunar module.
(AP, 7/21/99)
1969 Jul 21, Riots in York, Pa.,
left 2 people dead, Lillie Belle Allen (27) along with rookie officer
Henry Schaad (22). Schaad was mortally wounded 3 days before Allen was
killed. Over 60 people were arrested as one city block burned. In 2001
Arthur (47) and Robert Messersmith (52) were arrested for the slaying
of Allen. In 2001 Rick Lynn Knouse (48) and Gregory Henry Neff (53),
former members of the Girarders white street gang, were also charged in
the murders. In 2001 York Mayor Charles Robertson was arrested on
homicide charges for allegedly handing out ammunition to white gang
members and exhorting them to "Kill as many niggers as you can." In
2001 Thomas P. Smith was accused in the ambush shooting of Allen. In
2001 Stephen Freeland (49) and Leon Wright (53) were charged in the
murder of officer Schaad. Robertson was acquitted in 2002. Messersmith
and Neff were found guilty of 2nd degree murder. 6 white men were
sentenced up to 3 years in prison. Wright's brother Michael implicated
himself in 2003 and was charged for the murder of Schaad. In 2005 York
city officials announced a $2 million settlement with the children and
sisters of Lillie Belle Allen.
(SFC, 4/28/01, p.A5)(SFC, 5/10/01, p.A7)(SFC,
5/17/01, p.A2)(SFC, 5/22/01, p.A5)(YD, 5/24/01)(YD, 6/25/00)(SFC,
10/31/01, p.C2)(SSFC, 10/20/02, p.A7)(SFC, 11/14/02, p.A8)(BS, 6/26/03,
5A)(SFC, 12/7/05, p.A3)
1970 Jul 21, The Aswan Dam opened
in Egypt. Over the years the giant dam caused the disruption of the
Nile's flow and destroyed vital mineral deposits. Fishing industries
have been linked to the spread of disease. Formal opening ceremonies
were held Jan 15, 1971.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aswan_High_Dam)
1970 Jul 21, Libya ordered the
confiscation of all Jewish property.
(http://tinyurl.com/48p4fy)
1972 Jul 21, A total of 22
IRA-bombs exploded in Belfast killing 9 people including two soldiers.
130 civilians were injured in what came to be called Bloody Friday.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloody_Friday_(1972))
1973 Jul 21, "Bad, Bad Leroy
Brown" reached the top spot on the "Billboard" pop-singles chart,
becoming Jim Croce’s first big hit. He died in a plane crash on
September 20.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bad,_Bad_Leroy_Brown)
1973 Jul 21, Israeli intelligence
mistakenly assassinated Ahmed Bouchiki, a Moroccan living in
Lillehammer, Norway, as part of its retribution for the Sep 5, 1972,
terrorist attack in Munich. He was mistaken for Ali Hassan Salameh
(d.1979).
(WSJ, 12/21/05,
p.D10)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Bouchiki)
1973 Jul 21, The Russian Mars 4
Orbiter braking engine malfunctioned and it failed to go into orbit
around Mars.
(SFC, 11/19/96,
p.B1)(http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/masterCatalog.do?sc=1973-047A)
1976 Jul 21, "Legionnaire's
Disease" struck in Philadelphia, Pa. 29 people died from the disease.
The disease was first identified after an outbreak at the Bellevue
Stratford Hotel in Philadelphia. It was identified as Legionella
pneumophila and found to infest water systems in general and the hotel
ventilation system in this case.
(OGA, 11/24/98)(SFC, 4/13/96, p.A-17)
1978 Jul 21, In Bolivia Gen’l.
Juan Pereda Asbun overthrew Pres. Banzer in a coup.
(WUD, 1994, p.1691)
1980 Jul 21, Draft registration
began in the United States for 19- and 20-year-old men.
(AP, 7/21/97)
1982 Jul 21, Dave Garroway
(b.1913), former TV host of the "Today Show" (1952-1961, committed
suicide.
(SFC, 1/11/02, p.D19)(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Garroway)
1983 Jul 21, The coldest
temperature ever measured on Earth was -129 Fahrenheit (-89 Celsius) at
Vostok, Antarctica.
(AP, 7/23/03)
1984 Jul 21, In Jackson, Michigan,
a male die-cast operator (34) was pinned by a hydraulic Unimate robot.
He died after 5 days. This was the 1st documented case of a robot
killing a human in US.
(www.cdc.gov/niosh/FACE/In-house/full8420.html)
1986 Jul 21, Gary Lee Davis
(1944-1997) and his wife, Rebecca, abducted, raped and killed Virginia
May (32) in Byers, Colorado. After exhausting all appeals he was
executed by lethal injection on Oct 13, 1997. Rebecca was convicted of
murder and sentenced to life in prison.
(SFC, 10/13/97, p.A7)(SFC, 10/14/97, p.A3)
1987 Jul 21, Defying a threatened
veto by President Reagan, the Senate approved a trade bill containing a
provision requiring companies to give 60 days' notice to employees of
impending plant closings and large-scale layoffs. Reagan vetoed the
bill, but ended up allowing a separate plant-closing notice measure to
become law.
(AP, 7/21/97)
1988 Jul 21, Massachusetts Gov.
Michael Dukakis accepted the Democratic presidential nomination at the
party's convention in Atlanta, declaring, "this election isn't about
ideology; it's about competence."
(AP, 7/21/98)
1988 Jul 21, Canada’s
Multiculturalism Act of 1988 replaced a previous policy of assimilation
with one of acceptance of diversity.
(Econ, 11/18/06,
p.39)(www.pch.gc.ca/progs/multi/policy/act_e.cfm)
1989 Jul 21, The State Department
confirmed an ABC News report that Felix S. Bloch, a veteran U.S.
diplomat, was being investigated as a possible Soviet spy. Bloch was
never charged with espionage, but was fired from his job in 1990.
(AP, 7/21/99)
1990 Jul 21, A day after Supreme
Court Justice William J. Brennan announced his retirement, President
Bush convened a meeting with key administration officials to begin
finding a replacement.
(AP, 7/21/00)
1991 Jul 21, US Secretary of State
James A. Baker the Third met with Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak
Shamir, trying to persuade the Israelis to agree to the talks.
(AP, 7/21/01)
1991 Jul 21, Jordan became the
fourth Arab country to sign on to a US-backed Middle East peace
conference.
(AP, 7/21/01)
1992 Jul 21, Israeli Prime
Minister Yitzhak Rabin met in Cairo with Egyptian President Hosni
Mubarak, who said afterward that he'd accepted Rabin's invitation to
visit Israel.
(AP, 7/21/97)
1993 Jul 21, More rain set back
cleanup and recovery efforts in parts of the Midwest; Transportation
Secretary Federico Pena examined flood damage along the Mississippi in
Keokuk, Iowa.
(AP, 7/21/98)
1994 Jul 21, Hugh Scott (93)
former US Senate Republican leader died in Falls Church, Va.
(AP, 7/21/99)
1994 Jul 21, Britain's Labor Party
elected Tony Blair its new leader, succeeding the late John Smith.
(AP, 7/21/99)
1995 Jul 21, At a 16-nation
conference in London, the United States and NATO allies warned Bosnian
Serbs that further attacks on UN safe havens would draw a "substantial
and decisive response."
(AP, 7/21/00)
1995 Jul 21, Elleston Trevor,
British author, died.
(www.britannica.com/eb/article-9112339?tocId=9112339)
1995 Jul 21-1995 China conducted a
series of ballistic missile test firings 85 miles from Taiwan. The
missiles were all MTCR class four short range and two intermediate
range. All were modern, mobile, nuclear-capable. No country has ever
held this level of field tests for nuclear capable missiles before.
(www.fas.org/news/taiwan/1995/index.html)
1996 Jul 21, There was a review of
"Please Kill Me" by Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain, a historical
chronicle of the American punk-rock movement.
(SFC, 7/21/96, p.B7)
1996 Jul 21, At the Atlanta
Olympics, swimmer Tom Dolan gave the United States its first gold, in
the 400-meter individual medley. The men's 800-meter freestyle relay
team also won.
(AP, 7/21/97)
1996 Jul 21, Dozens of memorial
services were held across the country to remember the 230 people killed
in the crash of TWA Flight 800.
(AP, 7/21/97)
1996 Jul 21, It was reported that
as many as 6,000 immigrants were naturalized as US citizens every month
in SF.
(SFC, 7/21/96, p.B1)
1996 Jul 21, In Burundi Hutu
rebels killed 320 Tutsis, mostly women and children, at a refugee camp
45 miles north of the capital.
(WSJ, 7/22/96, p.A1)
1996 Jul 21, Danish cyclist Bjarne
Riis won the Tour de France. In 2007 he admitted to using performance
enhancing drugs to win the race.
(WSJ, 5/26/07,
p.A1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1996_Tour_de_France)
1996 Jul 21, Thirteen pounds of
explosives were hurled at the Hell’s Angel’s headquarters in
Copenhagen. Their compound consists of 5 buildings surrounded by a
10-foot fence.
(SFEC, 8/11/96, p.A13)
1997 Jul 21, The General
Convention of the Episcopal Church in Philadelphia voted to require all
Episcopal dioceses to ordain women.
(SFC, 7/22/97, p.A2)
1997 Jul 21, The U.S.S.
Constitution, aka Old Ironsides,, which defended the United States
during the War of 1812, set sail with 216 crew members under its own
power for first time in 116 years, leaving its temporary anchorage at
Marblehead, Mass., for a one-hour voyage marking its 200th anniversary.
The actual anniversary was the following October. It was built in 1797
and was never defeated in 42 battles.
(HT, 3/97, p.34)(SFC, 7/22/97, p.A1)(AP, 7/21/98)
1997 Jul 21, In Canada fishermen
released the Malaspina ferry, a blocked Alaska-bound ship at Prince
Rupert. They were protesting US fishing of sockeye salmon heading for
spawning in British Columbia.
(SFC, 7/22/97, p.A10)
1998 Jul 21, President Clinton
announced a crackdown on nursing homes that were lax about quality and
on states that do a poor job of regulating them.
(AP, 7/21/99)
1998 Jul 21, The Pentagon said it
found no evidence to support allegations in a CNN report that U.S.
troops had used nerve gas against American defectors in Laos.
(AP, 7/21/99)
1998 Jul 21, In NYC a 48-story
elevator scaffold collapsed at the construction site of the Conde Nast
building on West 43rd St. One woman (85) was killed.
(SFC, 7/22/98, p.A3)
1998 Jul 21, Astronaut Alan
Shepard, the first American in space, died in Monterey, Calif., at age
74.
(SFC, 7/23/98, p.A1)(AP, 7/21/99)
1998 Jul 21, Robert Young, actor,
died in Westlake Village, Calif. at age 91. He was best known for his
TV roles in "Father Knows Best" and "Marcus Welby, M.D."
(SFC, 7/23/98, p.C4)(AP, 7/21/99)
1998 Jul 21, Pakistan announced
austerity measures to cope with imposed sanctions.
(WSJ, 7/22/98, p.A1)
1998 Jul 21, Serbian forces forced
the Kosovo Liberation Army out of Orahovac. The rebels and some 15,000
refugees fled northeast to the city of Malisevo.
(SFC, 7/22/98, p.A10)
1998 Jul 21, Puerto Rico accepted
a sweetened GTE-led bid for the government owned phone system that
included concessions to appease workers.
(WSJ, 7/22/98, p.A1)
1999 Jul 21, Navy divers found the
bodies of John F. Kennedy Junior, his wife, Carolyn, and sister-in-law,
Lauren Bessette, in the wreckage of Kennedy’s plane in the Atlantic
Ocean off Martha’s Vineyard.
(AP, 7/21/00)
1999 Jul 21, It was reported that
the Lilly Endowment Inc. of Indianapolis presented a $50 million grant
to the SF based Hispanic Scholarship Fund.
(SFC, 7/21/99, p.A1)
1999 Jul 21, David Ogilvy (88),
British-born American advertising executive, died in Bonnes, France. In
2009 Kenneth Roman authored “the King of Madison Avenue: David Ogilvy
and the making of Modern Advertising.”
(AP, 7/21/00)(WSJ, 1/21/08, p.A15)
2000 Jul 21, Group of Eight
leaders met for an economic summit on the Japanese island of Okinawa,
where President Clinton also sought to soothe long-simmering tensions
over the huge American military presence.
(AP, 7/21/01)
2000 Jul 21, Special Counsel John
C. Danforth concluded "with 100 percent certainty" that the federal
government was innocent of wrongdoing in the siege that killed 80
members of the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas, in 1993.
(AP, 7/21/01)
2000 Jul 21, Norm Mineta, the 1st
Asian American to serve in a president’s cabinet, was sworn in as the
33rd US secretary of commerce.
(SFC, 7/22/00, p.A3)
2000 Jul 21, Researchers reported
that human general intelligence, as measured in IQ tests, came from
clearly defines regions in the frontal lobes.
(SFC, 7/21/00, p.B3)
2000 Jul 21, It was reported that
warming climate was causing Greenland to lose 11 cubic miles of ice a
year, or 12.5 trillion gallons, enough to raise sea level by .005
inches annually.
(SFC, 7/21/00, p.B3)
2000 Jul 21, It was reported that
physicists at the Fermi lab had observed evidence of the tau neutrino.
The Higgs boson still remained undetected.
(WSJ, 7/21/00, p.A1)(SFC, 7/21/00, p.B2)
2000 Jul 21, It was reported that
computers at Los Alamos simulated a nuclear blast in 3 dimensions for
the 1st time.
(WSJ, 7/21/00, p.A1)
2000 Jul 21, In Hawaii a tour
helicopter crashed and killed 7 people on Maui.
(SFC, 7/22/00, p.A6)
2000 Jul 21, Marc Reisner, author
of "Cadillac Desert," died in Marin, Ca., at age 51. His 1986 book was
an angry indictment of water depletion in the American West.
(SFC, 7/24/00, p.A21)
2000 Jul 21, In Chechnya 4 Russian
soldiers were killed when a land mine blew up their truck in the Shali
region.
(SFC, 7/22/00, p.C1)
2000 Jul 21, It was reported that
the drought in Kenya had caused water and electricity rationing in
Nairobi and an appeal to the UN for $88 million to feed 3.3 million
people. 13 million people in 6 countries around the Horn of Africa were
at risk of starvation.
(SFC, 7/21/00, p.B7)
2000 Jul 21, In Russia 19 airmen
were killed when a Mi-8 helicopter crashed north of St. Petersburg.
(SFC, 7/22/00, p.C1)
2001 Jul 21, In Genoa, Italy, site
of a Group of Eight meeting, a 2nd day of violent protests turned the
city into a war zone of rolling riots despite pleas for calm from
protest leaders and global summit leaders alike.
(SSFC, 7/22/01, p.A1)(AP, 7/21/02)
2001 Jul 21, Over 140 UN nations
agreed on a voluntary pact to stem small arms into conflict zones. It
required manufacturers to compile records of sales and to mark weapons
to enable their traces. The US managed to keep out some restrictions.
(SSFC, 7/22/01, p.A14)(WSJ, 7/23/01, p.A1)
2001 Jul 21, In Indonesia an
impeachment session of the People’s Consultative Assembly convened
early and voted that Pres. Wahid defend himself with an accountability
speech.
(SSFC, 7/22/01, p.A12)
2001 Jul 21, In Japan 10 people,
mostly children, were killed on a crowded pedestrian bridge as they
left a fireworks display in Akashi.
(SSFC, 7/22/01, p.A14)
2002 Jul 21, WorldCom filed for
Chapter 11 bankruptcy about a month after disclosing it had inflated
profits by nearly $4 billion through deceptive accounting. With $107
billion in assets, it was the largest US bankruptcy ever.
(SFC, 7/22/02, p.A1)(AP, 7/21/03)
2002 Jul 21, In south central
Oregon an 87,000 acre wildfire burned along a mile-long front.
(SFC, 7/22/02, p.A3)
2002 Jul 21, Ernie Els won the
British Open in the first sudden-death finish in the 142-year history
of the tournament.
(AP, 7/21/03)
2002 Jul 21, In Iraq executions of
15 political dissidents took place in the Abu Gharib prison, west of
Baghdad, and the bodies were buried at night in a mass grave at
al-Karkh cemetery in Baghdad. The Iraqi opposition group Center for
Human Rights reported this Sep 30.
(AP, 9/30/02)
2002 Jul 21, In Israel an
explosion under a moving passenger train near Tel Aviv moderately
injured one Israeli.
(AP, 7/21/02)
2002 Jul 21, In the Philippines 3
people drowned in floods and a landslide buried alive a family of three
as heavy rains pummeled the main island of Luzon, including Manila.
(Reuters, 7/21/02)
2002 Jul 21, In Russia fighting
started when a vendor at the Moscow Orion market opened fire at a group
of wholesale buyers who allegedly refused to pay him for his goods. The
armed vendor was from the Dagestan region in southern Russia, and the
buyers were from the former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan.
(AP, 7/22/02)
2002 Jul 21, A methane gas
explosion tore through a Ukrainian coal mine, killing at least six
miners and leaving more than 28 missing.
(AP, 7/21/02)
2003 Jul 21, President Bush said
he was working to persuade more nations to help in Iraq.
(AP, 7/21/04)
2003 Jul 21, Carlton Dotson Jr.,
the roommate of missing Baylor basketball player Patrick Dennehy, was
arrested and charged with Dennehy's murder. Dotson later pleaded guilty
and was sentenced to 35 years in prison.
(AP, 7/21/08)
2003 Jul 21, About 1,000 soldiers
of Afghanistan's new national army launched their first major
operation, sweeping for insurgents in the east of the country.
(AP, 7/24/03)
2003 Jul 21, In southwest Cameroon
water-logged hillsides gave way after a week of heavy rain, killing at
least 21 people.
(AP, 7/24/03)
2003 Jul 21, In southwest China a
magnitude-6.2 earthquake toppled thousands of mud-brick houses in a
mountainous area, killing at least 16 people and injuring more than 300
others.
(AP, 7/22/03)
2003 Jul 21, In Haiti a high
tension wire snapped and fell, electrocuting 15 people who were
gathered to watch the final match of a basketball game in Petit-Goave.
All 15 died.
(AP, 7/22/03)
2003 Jul 21, In Liberia mortar
shells hit the heavily fortified U.S. Embassy in the Monrovia, injuring
at least three people. Fighting in the Liberian capital of Monrovia
left over 600 dead.
(AP, 7/21/03)(AP, 7/22/03)
2003 Jul 21, In Peru 8 mountain
climbers were missing after an avalanche on Alpamayo mountain. Four
Germans, two Israelis, one Venezuelan and one Peruvian were believed to
have been buried,
(AP, 7/23/03)
2003 Jul 21, In Sao Tome military
coup leaders freed seven government ministers detained in last week's
bloodless rebellion and resumed talks with international mediators on
restoring civilian rule.
(AP, 7/21/03)
2003 Jul 21, Monsoon rains were
reported to have killed at least 579 people in South Asia. India
reported a total of 263 deaths, Bangladesh 169, Pakistan 78, and Nepal
69.
(AP, 7/21/03)
2003 Jul 21, The Saudi government
announced that police arrested 16 al-Qaida-linked terror suspects over
the last 4 days and used tractors to dig up an underground arsenal: 20
tons of bomb-making chemicals, detonators, rocket-propelled grenades
and rifles.
(AP, 7/22/03)
2004 Jul 21, Pres. Bush sketched
out a 2nd-term domestic agenda, telling campaign donors he would shift
focus to improving high school education and expanding access to health
care.
(AP, 7/21/05)
2004 Jul 21, Stephen Hawking
presented findings that contradicted his earlier work on black holes
and said black holes form an apparent horizon from which information
can eventually escape. This change lost him a 1977 bet with Dr.
Preskill of CalTech.
(Econ, 7/24/04, p.74)
2004 Jul 21, Richard Block (78),
co-founder of H&R Block (1955), died in Kansas City.
(SFC, 7/22/04, p.B8)
2004 Jul 21, Jerry Goldsmith (75),
Academy Award-winning composer, died. He created the memorable music
for scores of classic movies and television shows ranging from the
"Star Trek" and "Planet of the Apes" series to "The Man from
U.N.C.L.E." and "Dr. Kildare."
(AP, 7/22/04)
2004 Jul 21, In Afghanistan 10
militant fighters were killed and 5 wounded and captured when they
attacked a US-led force near Kandahar.
(SFC, 7/22/04, p.A3)
2004 Jul 21, Defence Secretary
Geoff Hoon announced Britain is to slash around 19,000 posts from its
armed forces over the next four years as part of an overhaul of
military priorities.
(AFP, 7/21/04)
2004 Jul 21, Insurgents in Iraq
said they have kidnapped 6 more foreign hostages, 3 Indians, 2 Kenyans
and an Egyptian. They threatened to behead one every 72 hours unless
their employer shuts down operations in Iraq.
(SFC, 7/22/04, p.A1)
2004 Jul 21, Fighting between US
troops and insurgents in Ramadi left 25 Iraqis dead and 17 wounded. A
decapitated corpse was found in Baiji.
(SFC, 7/23/04, p.A3)
2004 Jul 21, Rwanda officials said
500 judges were fired and 223 new ones appointed in a reform move to
improve the judiciary.
(SFC, 7/22/04, p.A3)
2004 Jul 21, South Korea pledged
to expand economic ties with North Korea while Japan said it would seek
normal relations with the communist state when a dispute over the
North's nuclear ambitions is resolved.
(AP, 7/21/04)
2005 Jul 21, The House voted to
extend the USA Patriot Act.
(AP, 7/21/06)
2005 Jul 21, A US appeals court
ordered the government to sell the Unabomber’s property and give the
proceeds to victims of his bombings.
(WSJ, 7/22/05, p.A1)
2005 Jul 21, Sealed court
documents were filed in which the U.S. Attorney's Office initiated
attempts to seize the home of U.S. Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham,
alleging that the California Republican's $3.5 million estate in Rancho
Santa Fe, a San Diego suburb, was purchased with bribe money. In 2006
prosecutors alleged that Brent Wilkes, a San Diego businessman, paid
Cunningham over $626,000 in bribes between 2000 and 2004 to win
government contracts for his companies.
(AP, 8/19/05)(SSFC, 5/14/06, p.A18)
2005 Jul 21, US and Canadian
authorities reported the shutdown of a newly completed 100-yard border
crossing tunnel outside Lynden, Wa., intended for smuggling marijuana.
(SFC, 7/22/05, p.A3)
2005 Jul 21, The US Centers for
Disease Control reported that the bodies of American children and
adults contained over 100 toxic substance including pyrethroids, a
pesticide ingredient, and phthalates, found in beauty products and soft
plastics.
(SFC, 7/22/05, p.A12)
2005 Jul 21, In Phoenix, Az., a
blistering heat wave was blamed for the deaths of 18 people. 14 were
thought to be homeless; 3 were elderly women.
(AP, 7/21/05)
2005 Jul 21, Airbus said it has
received an order for 20 of its twin-aisle A330 passenger jets from Air
China, in a deal worth about 3.2 billion euros ($3.9 billion) at list
prices.
(AP, 7/21/05)
2005 Jul 21, Long John Baldry
(64), British blues musician, died in Canada.
(WSJ, 7/25/05, p.A1)
2005 Jul 21, Suspected Taliban
rebels ambushed a car carrying a local administrator in southern
Afghanistan. Gul Mohammed, an acting deputy district chief, and his
unidentified driver were killed when militants opened fire on their car
in Helmand province.
(AP, 7/22/05)
2005 Jul 21, In Brazil an Indian
rights group warned that wildcat miners who have entered the Yanomami
Indians' Amazon reservation have brought guns and diseases that
threaten the stone-age tribe. An estimated 500 prospectors have invaded
the reservation, which is rich in gold, magnesium and niobium.
(AP, 7/21/05)
2005 Jul 21, Explosions struck 3
London Underground stations and a bus at midday in a chilling but less
deadly replay of the suicide bombings that killed 56 people two weeks
ago. One person was seriously wounded. In 2007 a British prosecutor
told a jury that 6 men plotted to kill London subway and bus passengers
with bombs made from hydrogen peroxide and flour on July 21, 2005, two
weeks after suicide bombers killed 52 commuters in the city. The
devices failed to explode. In 2007 a jury convicted Muktar Said Ibrahim
(29), Yassin Omar (26), Ramzi Mohammed (25), and Hussain Osman (28) for
conspiracy to murder. The jury failed to reach a verdict for Manfo
Kwaku Asiedu (34) and Adel Yahya (24). The 4 convicted men were
sentenced to life in prison. In 2007 Manfo Kwaku Asiedu, who was born
in Ghana, admitted a charge of conspiracy to cause explosions over the
failed bombings. Asiedu was supposed to be carrying a fifth bomb on the
day but ended up dumping the rucksack with his device in a park in
north London. Asiedu was sentenced to 33 years in prison. In 2008 Siraj
Ali (33), Muhedin Ali (29), Ismail Abdurahman (25), Wahbi Mohammed (25)
and Abdul Sherif (30), were convicted on 22 charges of failing to
disclose information about terrorism and assisting an offender. They
included the brothers of two of the July 21, 2005 bombers.
(AP, 7/21/05)(AP, 1/15/07)(AP, 7/11/07)(Reuters,
11/9/07)(AP, 11/20/07)(AFP, 2/4/08)
2005 Jul 21, China scrapped the
yuan's peg to the US dollar and tied it to a basket of currencies
revaluing the yuan by 2.1 percent and leaving the door open to further
rises.
(Reuters, 7/21/05)
2005 Jul 21, Germany's Pres. Horst
Koehler agreed to dissolve parliament and hold early elections Sept. 18
that could give the country its first woman chancellor.
(AP, 7/21/05)
2005 Jul 21, Hong Kong said it
would maintain its 21-year-old peg to the US dollar.
(Econ, 8/6/05, p.60)
2005 Jul 21, In Indonesia the
first suspect to face charges in the 2004 bombing of the Australian
Embassy was sentenced to 3 ½ years in prison for assisting the
attack's perpetrators, but was cleared of more serious charges.
(AP, 7/21/05)
2005 Jul 21, The chief of
Algeria's diplomatic mission, Ali Belaroussi, and fellow envoy Azzedine
Belkadi were seized at gunpoint from the upscale Mansour district of
western Baghdad. In an Internet statement 2 days later al-Qaida in Iraq
said it was responsible. Al-Qaida later announced it had killed the
diplomats.
(AP, 7/23/05)(AP, 7/21/06)
2005 Jul 21, In Indian Kashmir 2
bus passengers were killed and three were wounded when they were caught
in an exchange of fire between militants and soldiers.
(AP, 7/21/05)
2005 Jul 21, A Kurdish party
official said Kurdish leaders have presented a redrawn map with a
larger Kurdistan to the Iraqi National Assembly for consideration in
the new constitution.
(AP, 7/21/05)
2005 Jul 21, The aid agency Oxfam
said about 3.6 million people face starvation in Niger unless the
international community responds urgently to the food crisis there.
(AP, 7/21/05)
2005 Jul 21, A truck strike
paralyzed fuel deliveries across Puerto Rico.
(AP, 7/21/05)
2005 Jul 21, Russian and US
officials inaugurated a new U.S-financed command center aimed at
improving Russia's ability to prevent trafficking of nuclear materials.
(AP, 7/21/05)
2005 Jul 21, Russia reported its
1st case of bird flu in Siberia’s Novosibirsk region.
(WSJ, 7/22/05, p.A10)
2005 Jul 21, Sudanese security
officers roughed up members of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's
entourage; Rice demanded and got an apology.
(AP, 7/21/06)
2005 Jul 21, Turkish forces killed
5 Kurdish rebels, including a woman, in a gunbattle in the southeast.
(AP, 7/23/05)
2005 Jul 21, Venezuelan leaders
condemned a U.S. decision to transmit broadcasts to this South American
country to ensure its citizens receive "accurate news."
(AP, 7/21/05)
2005 Jul 21, In Yemen protesters
clashed with security forces for a 2nd day after the government reduced
subsidies on oil products. The violence in the capital and elsewhere
left four dead and seven injured. 2 days of rioting left 16 people dead.
(AP, 7/21/05)(SFC, 7/22/05, p.A14)
2006 Jul 21, In NYC residents of
Queens suffered through a 5th day of power blackouts. ConEdison said
power blackouts in Queens had affected some 25,000 customers.
(SFC, 7/22/06, p.A3)
2006 Jul 21, The California Dept.
of Education said an estimated 5% of high school seniors (40,173 of
436, 374) did not qualify for graduation because they failed exit exam.
(SFC, 7/22/06, p.B1)
2006 Jul 21, Mako (b.1933 as
Makoto Iwamatsu), Japanese-born film and TV actor, died at his home in
Ventura Ct., Ca. His films included “The Sand Pebbles” (1966). In 1965
he co-founded the East West Players, the 1st Asian-American theater
company.
(SFC, 7/24/06, p.B8)
2006 Jul 21, The Netherlands’
military chief said Dutch commandos had killed 18 enemy fighters who
set up positions in rugged hills overlooking a Dutch camp in southern
Afghanistan.
(AP, 7/21/06)
2006 Jul 21, In Cambodia Ta Mok
(80), known as "The Butcher" for his brutality as military chief of the
communist Khmer Rouge, died.
(AP, 7/21/06)(Econ, 8/5/06, p.77)
2006 Jul 21, India urged Pakistan
to hand over a top Kashmiri militant as a gesture of its determination
to fight terrorism.
(Reuters, 7/21/06)
2006 Jul 21, In Iraq US troops
raided a neighborhood northeast of Baghdad, killing 5 people, including
two women and a child, after gunmen fired from the rooftops of
buildings. Bombs killed two worshippers at mosques in Iraq during
prayers and the authorities extended a daytime curfew on Baghdad after
one of the bloodiest weeks this year.
(AP, 7/21/06)(Reuters, 7/21/06)
2006 Jul 21, Israel called up
reserve troops and warned civilians to flee Hezbollah-controlled
southern Lebanon, as it prepared for a likely ground invasion to set up
a deep buffer zone. Hezbollah guerrillas fired two volleys of rockets
at Haifa, wounding five people and damaging shops and office buildings.
At least 335 people have been killed in Lebanon in the Israeli
campaign. 34 Israelis also have been killed, including 19 soldiers.
(AP, 7/21/06)
2006 Jul 21, A Hamas activist and
three relatives were killed in an explosion at his home in Gaza City,
hospital officials said. Palestinians said the house was hit by an
Israeli tank shell.
(AP, 7/21/06)
2006 Jul 21, An Islamic militia
leader called for a holy war against Ethiopian troops protecting
Somalia's weak UN-backed government.
(AP, 7/21/06)
2006 Jul 21, In Oaxaca, Mexico,
protests initiated by striking teachers continued. Protest leaders said
their fight is not with the tourists but with Gov. Ulises Ruiz, whom
they accuse of rigging the state election in 2004 and using force to
repress dissent.
(AP, 7/21/06)
2006 Jul 21, It was reported that
Saudi Arabia has ordered 76 artillery howitzers from the French
armaments manufacturer Giat Industries as defense minister Crown Prince
Sultan bin Abdul Aziz completed a two-day visit.
(AFP, 7/21/06)
2006 Jul 21, The UN refugee agency
said international aid operations in refugee camps in the Zalinge area
of Sudan's Darfur region have been suspended after three water workers
were killed by a mob.
(Reuters, 7/21/06)
2006 Jul 21, Turkey killed 4
Kurdish rebels after a soldier died in an attack.
(WSJ, 7/22/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 21, Venezuela formally
entered Mercosur, increasing the South American trade bloc's economic
might and vowing to transform the policy organization into a force for
profound social change. Cuba’s Fidel Castro signed a modest trade at
the 2-day Mercosur meeting in Cordoba, Argentina.
(AP, 7/21/06)(Econ, 7/29/06, p.36)
2007 Jul 21, Doctors removed five
small growths from President Bush's colon after he temporarily
transferred the powers of his office to Vice President Dick Cheney
under the rarely invoked 25th Amendment.
(AP, 7/21/08)
2007 Jul 21, The protracted
suspense finally lifted for Harry Potter fans who flooded bookshops
worldwide to grab the series finale, "Harry Potter and the Deathly
Hallows," and find out whether author J.K. Rowling slays or spares the
boy wizard.
(AFP, 7/21/07)(AP, 7/21/08)
2007 Jul 21, A purported Taliban
spokesman said the militia killed two German hostages because Germany
didn't announce a troop withdrawal. The Afghan government, however,
said one of the Germans died of a heart attack and that the second was
still alive. Ruediger Diedrich, one of two Germans kidnapped in
southern Afghanistan on July 18, was found dead. Germany has 3,000
soldiers in NATO's International Security Assistance Force.
(AP, 7/21/07)(AP, 7/21/08)
2007 Jul 21, Security sources said
a week-long offensive by Algerian special forces in a mountainous area
east of Algiers has killed between eight and 11 Islamist militants.
(AFP, 7/21/07)
2007 Jul 21, Helicopters rescued
dozens of people following heavy rains and floods in England that also
forced more than 2,000 motorists, homeowners and train passengers to
spend the night in shelters.
(AP, 7/21/07)
2007 Jul 21, Jean Berchmans
Ndayshimiye, the military leader of Burundi's last rebel group (FNL),
escaped back to the bush, sparking fears of renewed civil conflict.
(AFP, 7/22/07)
2007 Jul 21, Developers of the
Burj Dubai, a 1,680-foot skyscraper still under construction in
oil-rich Dubai, claimed that it has become the world's tallest
building, surpassing Taiwan's Taipei 101 which has dominated the global
skyline at 1,667 feet since 2004.
(AP, 7/21/07)
2007 Jul 21, A bomb left on a
minibus also exploded shortly after noon in the predominantly Shiite
area of Baladiyat in eastern Baghdad, killing at least five Iraqis and
wounding 11. A mortar attack also struck the eastern outskirts of
Baghdad, killing two people and wounding four. A top aide to Iraq's
Shiite spiritual leader Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani was stabbed to death
in the city of Najaf. American and Iraqi forces continued operations to
clear Sunni extremists from Baqouba. Americans said earlier this week
that they have killed at least 67 al-Qaida operatives in Baqouba,
arrested 253, seized 63 weapons caches and have destroyed 151 roadside
bombs since last month. A roadside bomb killed a US soldier.
(AP, 7/21/07)(AP, 7/22/07)(AP, 7/23/07)
2007 Jul 21, Italian police
arrested three Moroccans, an imam and two of his aids, they accuse of
being part of a militant cell that allegedly used a mosque in a central
Italian city as a terror training camp.
(AP, 7/21/07)
2007 Jul 21, In southern Nigeria
armed men seized the son (30) of a local chief near Port Harcourt.
(AFP, 7/22/07)
2007 Jul 21, Attackers dressed in
dark clothes and wielding metal pipes raided a camp of environmental
protesters near Angarsk, Siberia, leaving one dead and several injured.
Over 20 demonstrators had been camped out by a reservoir, about 2,600
miles east of Moscow, to protest nuclear waste processing at the
state-owned Angarsk Electrolysis Chemical Plant.
(AP, 7/21/07)
2007 Jul 21, Jesus de Polanco
(77), chairman of Spain's main media group Prisa and one of the
country's richest men, died in Madrid.
(AFP, 7/21/07)
2007 Jul 21, Sudanese President
Omar al-Bashir, implicated by many in the international community in
Darfur's genocide, visited the troubled region for the first time in
the four-year conflict there.
(AP, 7/21/07)
2007 Jul 21, In northern Syria 2
buses collided head-on, killing 20 people and wounding 50.
(AP, 7/21/07)
2007 Jul 21, Former US president
Bill Clinton said his foundation had secured a deal for Zambia to
access cheap HIV/AIDS drugs.
(AFP, 7/22/07)
2007 Jul 21, Zimbabwe’s official
Herald newspaper said the government had revived the Zimbabwe State
Trading Corporation (ZSTC) to work alongside the state Zimbabwe
Development Corporation (ZDC) "as vehicles for acquiring companies that
it might want to take over for engaging in economic sabotage."
(AP, 7/21/07)
2008 Jul 21, The US FDA issued an
advisory for consumers to avoid eating uncooked jalapeno peppers after
it found a jalapeno grown in Mexico in a Texas border town warehouse
that tested positive with the same strain of salmonella that was
earlier associated with tomatoes.
(SFC, 7/22/08, p.A10)
2008 Jul 21, The war crimes trial
of Salim Hamdan, bin Laden’s driver, began at Guantanamo. The judge
barred evidence obtained in Afghanistan, citing coercive conditions.
(WSJ, 7/22/08, p.A1)
2008 Jul 21, Brocade
Communications said it will pay nearly $3 billion for Foundry Networks,
founded in 1996. Both Silicon Valley firms companies competed with
Cisco Systems.
(WSJ, 7/22/08, p.B8)
2008 Jul 21, A US B-52 bomber that
was due to fly in a Liberation Day parade in the US territory of Guam
crashed into the Pacific Ocean soon after take-off. All of the bomber's
six-man crew were killed.
(AFP, 7/21/08)(AP, 7/23/08)
2008 Jul 21, Sid Craig (b.1932),
co-founder of the Jenny Craig chain of diet centers (1983), died. Craig
founded Jenny Craig, named after his wife, in Australia and expanded to
the US in 1985. The company went public in 1992. In 2006 Nestle SA
bought the operation.
(WSJ, 7/26/08, p.A5)
2008 Jul 21, In Sidney Pope
Benedict XVI met privately with Australians who were sexually abused as
children by priests, ending a pilgrimage to the country with a gesture
of contrition and concern over a scandal that has rocked the Roman
Catholic church.
(AP, 7/21/08)
2008 Jul 21, Eric Dowling
(b.1915), former English POW, died. He was nicknamed "Digger" for
helping excavate tunnels used in the breakout from a World War II
German prison camp that became known as the "Great Escape." Dowling
played a key role in planning the march 24, 1944, escape by 76
prisoners from Stalag Luft III prison near Sagan in eastern Germany —
now Zagan, Poland.
(AP, 8/7/08)
2008 Jul 21, Talks between
Cambodia and Thailand to resolve a military stand-off on their joint
border ended without a solution.
(AFP, 7/21/08)
2008 Jul 21, In Chechnya the
bullet-riddled bodies of three officers, who had been guarding an
Interior Ministry trailer, were found on a collective farm. The
assailants made off with the officers' guns.
(AP, 7/21/08)
2008 Jul 21, China and Russia
signed an agreement that demarcated their 2,700 mile border ending a
long running border dispute.
(WSJ, 7/22/08, p.A1)
2008 Jul 21, In China 2 people
were killed in explosions aboard two public buses in Kunming city,
Yunnan province. On Dec 24 Li Yan reportedly confessed to his role in
the bombings as he lay on his death bed after trying to plant another
bomb. 20 miners escaped or were rescued from a flooded coal mine in
southern China but six have died and 30 remain trapped.
(AFP, 7/21/08)(AP, 7/22/08)(SFC, 12/29/08, p.A3)
2008 Jul 21, Egyptian police
arrested 39 members of the country's largest opposition group, the
banned Muslim Brotherhood during a raid on a camp north of Cairo. The
men, aged 18 to 35, said they were only on vacation. Egyptian
authorities shut down the Cairo office of an Iranian TV network, as the
two nations spar over "Assassination of a Pharaoh," a film that
justifies the killing of former Egyptian President Anwar Sadat by
Islamic militants.
(AP, 7/21/08)(AP, 7/24/08)
2008 Jul 21, President Nicolas
Sarkozy's risky bid to rewrite France's political rules with sweeping
constitutional changes worked, but just barely, with both houses of
parliament meeting in special session to pass the measures by a single
vote. The reform gives parliament greater power but also adds a new
privileges to France's already strong presidency, notably allowing the
chief of state to address together the two houses of congress. However,
it limits the president to two five-year terms.
(AP, 7/21/08)
2008 Jul 21, Rakhat Aliyev, the
ex-son-in-law of Kazakhstan Pres. Nazarbayev, accused the president of
diverting billions in state assets and other corruption.
(WSJ, 7/22/08, p.A1)
2008 Jul 21, An aid agency said
Kenyan armed forces are preventing aid workers from helping homeless,
hungry families caught between a brutal militia and an army crackdown.
(AP, 7/21/08)
2008 Jul 21, A UN-led report said
Myanmar needs at least $1 billion over the next three years to put the
survivors of Cyclone Nargis back on their feet, in the first
comprehensive assessment of damage caused by the disaster that killed
more than 84,000 people.
(AP, 7/21/08)
2008 Jul 21, Lawmakers in Nepal
voted in the Himalayan nation's first post-royal president, but their
rejection of a candidate backed by the Maoists was likely to lead to
more political deadlock. Ram Baran Yadav, who was supported by the
centrist Nepali Congress party, won 308 out of 590 votes cast in
Nepal's constitutional assembly.
(AFP, 7/21/08)
2008 Jul 21, A Pakistani court
barred the disgraced architect of Pakistan's atomic weapons program
from speaking about nuclear proliferation, less than three weeks after
he implicated the army in the sharing of nuclear technology with North
Korea. Intelligence officials in Quetta said at least 30 insurgents,
including three rebel commanders, had been killed. Suspected Islamic
militants shot dead a pro-government tribal chief and wounded three
other people in an attack on the outskirts of Khar near Pakistan's
border with Afghanistan.
(AP, 7/21/08)(AFP, 7/21/08)
2008 Jul 21, Pakistan’s Geo TV
broadcasted a recent interview with Mustafa Abu al-Yazeed, a senior
al-Qaida leader. He urged Pakistanis to help Afghans fight US-led
coalition forces and condemned President Pervez Musharraf for arresting
Arab and Afghan fighters and handing them over to Washington.
(AP, 7/22/08)
2008 Jul 21, Radovan Karadzic
(63), the wartime leader of Bosnian Serbs, was arrested in a Belgrade
suburb. A judge ordered his transfer to the UN war crimes tribunal in
The Hague.
(AP, 7/22/08)
2008 Jul 21, In Sri Lanka 44
rebels and two government soldiers were killed in fighting.
(AP, 7/22/08)
2008 Jul 21, The African Union
urged the UN Security Council to put on hold the International Criminal
Court's move to indict Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir over
war crimes in Darfur.
(Reuters, 7/21/08)
2008 Jul 21, Swiss pharmaceutical
giant Roche offered 43.7 billion dollars to acquire the remaining
shares in US subsidiary Genentech, the bio-tech pioneer underpinning
its dominance of the cancer treatment market.
(AP, 7/21/08)
2008 Jul 21, Vietnam raised its
fuel prices by 31%.
(WSJ, 7/22/08, p.A13)
2008 Jul 21, In Zimbabwe mediator
South African Pres. Thabo Mbeki oversaw a ceremony in Harare at which
Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai signed an
agreement for negotiations to bring the country out of political chaos
in their first meeting in a decade.
(AFP, 7/21/08)
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