Today in History - July 24
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1380 Jul 24,
Giovanni da Capistrano, Italian monk, was born. He liberated Belgrade
from the Turks and was later canonized a saint as San Juan de
Capistrano. His name was applied to the southern California mission,
best known for its annual convocation of swallows.
(MC, 7/24/02)
1505 Jul 24, On their way to
India, a group of Portuguese explorers sacked the city-state of Kilwa,
East Africa, and killed the king for failing to pay tribute.
(HN, 7/24/98)
1534 Jul 24, Jacques Cartier
landed in Canada and claimed it for France. Jacques Cartier while
probing for a northern route to Asia visited Labrador and said: "Fit
only for wild beasts... This must be the land God gave to Cain." [see
May 10]
(NG, V184, No. 4, 10/1993, p. 4)(MC, 7/24/02)
1554 Jul 24, Queen Mary of England
married Philip II, king of Spain and the Catholic son of Emp. Charles V.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.18)(ON, 5/00, p.5)(MC, 7/24/02)
1567 Jul 24, Mary, Queen of Scots,
was imprisoned and forced to abdicate her throne to her 1-year-old son
James VI.
(HN, 7/24/98)
1673 Jul 24, Edmund Halley entered
Queen's College, Oxford, as an undergraduate.
(MC, 7/24/02)
1683 Jul 24, The 1st settlers from
Germany to US left aboard the ship Concord.
(www.ulib.iupui.edu/kade/germantown.html)
1686 Jul 24, Benedetto Marcello,
composer, was born. [see Aug 1]
(MC, 7/24/02)
1701 Jul 24, Antoine de la Mothe
Cadillac established Fort Ponchartrain for France on the future site of
the city of Detroit, Michigan, in an attempt to halt the advance of the
English into the western Great Lakes region.
(HN, 7/24/98)
1704 Jul 24, Admiral George Rooke
took Gibraltar from the Spanish.
(HN, 7/24/98)
1739 Jul 24, Benedetto Marcello,
composer, died on 53rd birthday.
(MC, 7/24/02)
1749 Jul 24, Denis Diderot was
arrested in Paris during a government crackdown on writers and
publishers of subversive books. He was released Nov 3 to continued his
work on the Encyclopedie.
(ON, 4/05, p.8)
1758 Jul 24, George Washington was
admitted to Virginia House of Burgesses.
(MC, 7/24/02)
1759 Jul 24, Victor Emmanuel I,
King of Sardinia (1802-21), was born.
(MC, 7/24/02)
1763 Jul 24, Ottawa Chief Pontiac
led an uprising in the wild, distant lands that would one day become
Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
(HN, 7/24/98)
1766 Jul 24, At Fort Ontario,
Canada, Ottawa chief Pontiac and William Johnson signed a peace
agreement.
(HN, 7/24/98)
1779 Jul 24, The Siege of
Gibraltar by the Spanish and French was begun. British Gen. George
Eliott led the 5,000 man Gibraltar garrison. The siege was finally
lifted on Feb 7, 1783. In 1965 T.H. McGuffie authored "The Siege of
Gibraltar, 1779-1783).
(HN, 2/7/99)(ON, 7/01, p.8)
1783 Jul 24, Simon Bolivar
(1783-1830), was born in Caracas, Venezuela. He was a soldier and
statesmen who led armies of liberation throughout much of South
America, including Ecuador, Venezuela, Colombia, Panama, Peru and
Bolivia, which took its name from Bolivar. Bolivar, called "the
Liberator," was a leader in Venezuela for struggles of national
independence in South America. He formed a Gran Colombia that lasted 8
years but broke apart into Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador. Bolivar
died of tuberculosis.
(AHD, p.148)(SFC, 6/14/97, p.E3)(AP, 7/24/97)(HNQ,
3/30/00)
1783 Jul 24, Georgia became a
protectorate of tsarist Russia.
(MC, 7/24/02)
1786 Jul 24, Jean-Louis Nicollet,
French explorer, was born.
(HN, 7/24/02)
1791 Jul 24, Robespierre expelled
all Jacobins opposed to the principles of the French Revolution.
(HN, 7/24/98)
1793 Jul 24, France passed the 1st
copyright law.
(MC, 7/24/02)
1802 Jul 24, Alexandre Dumas
(d.1870), French novelist and dramatist who wrote "The Count of Monte
Cristo" and "The Three Musketeers," was born. Alexandre Dumas, pere,
French author of romantic plays and novels. He wrote "The Man in the
Iron Mask." He was the father of Alexandre Dumas fils (1824-1895),
French author of plays of social realism.
(HFA, '96, p.34)(AHD, 1971, p.403)(WUD, 1994,
p.441)(HN, 7/24/98)
1831 Jul 24, Maria Agata
Szymanowska (41), composer, died.
(MC, 7/24/02)
1847 Jul 24, Mormon leader Brigham
Young and his followers, the first members of Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter Day Saints (Mormons), arrived in the valley of the Great Salt
Lake in present-day Utah.
(AP, 7/24/97)(HN, 7/24/98)
1858 Jul 24, During the Illinois
senatorial campaign Republican candidate Abraham Lincoln challenged
Democrat Steven Douglas to a series of joint debates, which covered the
slavery controversy and its impact on the nation. The debates
illuminated the positions of Lincoln and Douglas on slavery, which
Lincoln regarded as "a moral, a social and a political wrong," while
Douglas evaded the moral issue. Even though Lincoln narrowly won the
popular vote, Douglas prevailed in the state legislature 54-41 and thus
the election. The debates propelled Lincoln to national prominence.
(HNPD, 9/4/99)(AP, 7/24/08)
1862 Jul 24, Union fleets
abandoned their attack on Vicksburg, Miss.
(ON, 10/02, p.12)
1862 Jul 24, Martin Van Buren
(79), the eighth president of the United States, died in Kinderhook,
N.Y.
(AP, 7/24/97)(HN, 7/24/98)
1863 Jul 24, Battle at Battle
Mountain, Virginia.
(MC, 7/24/02)
1864 Jul 24, In the Battle of
Winchester, VA, casualties numbered US1200 and CS600.
(MC, 7/24/02)
1866 Jul 24, Tennessee became the
first state to be readmitted to the Union after the Civil War.
(AP, 7/24/97)
1870 Jul 24, The 1st trans-US rail
service began.
(MC, 7/24/02)
1883 Jul 24, Matthew Webb
(b.1848), the 1st person to swim the English Channel (1875), drowned
while trying to swim across the Niagara River just below the falls.
(ON, 2/05, p.12)(www.telfordlife.com/Capt%20Webb.htm)
1895 Jul 24, Robert Graves, poet
and novelist (Goodbye to All That), was born.
(HN, 7/24/02)
1897 Jul 24, Amelia Earhart was
born in Kansas. She was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic
and disappeared in the South Pacific while trying to fly around the
world. Her sister Muriel (d.1998 at 98) wrote a biography of Amelia
titled: "Courage Is the Price."
(SFC, 3/6/98, p.E2)(HN,
7/24/02)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amelia_Earhart)
1897 Jul 24, African-American
soldiers of the 25th Infantry Bicycle Corps arrived in St. Louis,
Mo., after completing a 40-day bike ride from Missoula, Montana.
(HN, 7/24/99)
1900 Jul 24, Zelda Sayre, writer
(Save me the Waltz) was born.
(HN, 7/24/02)
1911 Jul 24, Hiram Bingham,
American explorer, was led by local guides to a Lost City of the Incas.
He explored several Inca ruins and the mountaintop citadel of Machu
Pichu. He was in search of the lost city of Vilcabamba, the Inca’s
legendary last refuge from the invading Spaniards. Bingham was an
archeologist from Yale and later served as a Connecticut governor and
US senator. In 1948 Bingham authored “Lost City of the Incas.”
(NG, Oct. 1988, p. 543)(SFC, 5/13/98,
p.C4)(www.tambotours.com/binghamtrek.html)(WSJ, 11/1/08, p.W18)
1915 Jul 24, Excursion ship
Eastland capsized in Lake Michigan and 852 die.
(MC, 7/24/02)
1916 Jul 24, John D. MacDonald,
author was born.
(HN, 7/24/02)
1919 Jul 24, A race riot in
Washington, DC, left 6 killed and 100 wounded.
(MC, 7/24/02)
1919 Jul 24, LaVerne Noyes
(b.1849), American inventor, died. His inventions included the
akromotor, a device that converted wind to electricity, and a
dictionary holder.
(http://eos.lib.uchicago.edu/e/spcl/excat/donors2.html#d)
1920 Jul 24, Bella Abzug, the
first Jewish woman elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, was
born.
(HN, 7/24/98)
1923 Jul 24, The Treaty of
Lausanne, which settled the boundaries of modern Greece and Turkey, was
concluded in Switzerland. It replaced the Treaty of Sevres and divided
the lands inhabited by the Kurds between Turkey, Iraq and Syria.
Article 39 allowed Turkish nationals to use any language they wished in
commerce, public and private meetings, and publications. The treaty
specifically protected the rights of the Armenian, Greek and Jewish
communities. The former provinces of Baghdad, Basra and Mosul were
lumped together to form Iraq. Both countries agreed to a massive
exchange of religious minorities. Christians were deported from Turkey
to Greece and Muslims from Greece to Turkey. In 2006 Bruce Clark
authored “Twice a Stranger: The Mass Expulsions that Forged Modern
Greece and Turkey.”
(WSJ, 3/20/97, p.A17)(AP, 7/24/97)(SSFC, 12/22/02,
p.A14)(Econ, 3/19/05, Survey p.9)(Econ, 10/14/06, p.50)(Econ, 12/9/06,
p.92)
1924 Jul 24, Palmer Cox (b.1840),
Canadian artist and writer, died. He wrote and illustrated children’s
stories about brownies, little elves from Scottish folklore. 2 dozen of
his stories were collected and published in 1887 as “The Brownies:
Their Book.” His characters inspired the name for a Kodak camera and
for young girl scouts.
(SFC, 10/19/05,
p.G2)(http://freemasonry.bcy.ca/biography/cox_p/cox_p.html)
1929 Jul 24, President Hoover
proclaimed the Kellogg-Briand Pact, which renounced war as an
instrument of foreign policy.
(AP, 7/24/97)
1935 Jul 24, Pat Oliphant,
political cartoonist, was born.
(MC, 7/24/02)
1935 Jul 24, Mel Ramos, pop
artist, was born in Sacramento, Ca.
(www.rogallery.com/ramos_mel/ramos_biography.htm)
1937 Jul 24, The state of Alabama
dropped charges against 4 black men accused of raping two white women
in the so-called Scottsboro case.
(AP,
7/24/97)(www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/FTrials/scottsboro/SB_chron.html)
1938 Jul 24, Instant coffee was
invented. Nestle came up with the first instant coffee after 8 years of
experiments.
(SFEC, 2/7/99, Z1 p.8)(MC, 7/24/02)
1941 Jul 24, The U.S. government
denounced Japanese actions in Indochina.
(HN, 7/24/98)
1941 Jul 24, Nazis massacred the
entire Jewish population of Grodz, Lithuania.
(MC, 7/24/02)
1942 Jul 24, The Soviet city of
Rostov was captured by German troops.
(HN, 7/24/98)
1943 Jul 24, The U.S. submarine
Tinosa fired 15 torpedoes at a lone Japanese merchant ship, but none
detonated.
(HN, 7/24/98)
1943 Jul 24-1943-Aug 2, The RAF
and American planes bombed Hamburg. Firestorms from the bombing left at
least 40,000 dead in the 1st 3 days. American B-17 Fortresses flew 252
daylight sorties in the two days following the first of 4 RAF night
raids. Sir Arthur Harris directed 4 major raids against Hamburg in the
space of ten nights, known as “Operation Gomorrah.”
(www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/2WWhamburg.htm)
1944 Jul 24, Soviet forces
liberated the Majdanek concentration camp.
(MC, 7/24/02)
1945 Jul 24, U.S. Navy bombers
sank the Japanese battleship-carrier Hyuga in shallow waters off Kure,
Japan.
(HN, 7/24/00)
1948 Jul 24, Henry A. Wallace
accepted the presidential nomination of the Progressive Party in
Philadelphia.
(AP, 7/24/08)
1950 Jul 24, The U.S. Fifth Air
Force relocated from Japan to Korea.
(HN, 7/24/98)
1950 Jul 24, Robert W. Lehnhoff,
[Executioner of Groningen], SS Führer, was executed.
(www.homestead.com/andakerkhoven/Story6.html)
1951 Jul 24, Dr. Albert C. Barnes,
eccentric collector of impressionist art, died in an automobile crash.
[see 1925 Barnes] His will specified that his art collection be kept
forever in Lower Merion Township, Pa. In 2004 a judge allowed trustees
to move the collection to Philadelphia.
(WSJ, 11/28/95, p.A-12)(SFC, 12/15/04,
p.E5)(www.barnesfoundation.org/h_bio.html)
1952 Jul 24, President Truman
announced a settlement in a 53-day steel strike.
(AP, 7/24/02)
1952 Jul 24, Pres. Truman commuted
Oscar Collazo’s death sentence to life imprisonment. On the same day he
signed an act enlarging the self-government of Puerto Rico. [See Nov 1,
1950]
(AP, 11/1/97)(HN, 11/1/98)(HNQ, 1/24/02)
1952 Jul 24, In Iraq-Jordan a
disgusted military overthrew the corrupt government of King Farouk.
(MC, 7/24/02)
1956 Jul 24, Dean Martin and Jerry
Lewis performed for the last time at the Copacabana Club in NYC after a
decade together as the country's most popular comedy team.
(SSFC, 10/23/05, Par p.5)
1956 Jul 24, Brendan Behan's
"Quare Fellow," premiered in London.
(MC, 7/24/02)
1958 Jul 24, Jack Kilby
(1923-2005) of Texas Instruments came up with the idea for creating the
1st integrated circuit on a piece of silicon. By September 12 he made a
working prototype.
(SFC, 10/11/00, p.A6)(SFC, 6/22/05, p.A5)(Econ,
7/25/05, p.75)
1959 Jul 24, During a visit to the
Soviet Union, VP Richard M. Nixon got into a "kitchen debate" with
Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev at a US exhibition. Nixon correctly
said that the $100-a-month mortgage for the model ranch house was well
within the reach of a typical American steelworker.
(AP, 7/24/97)(Econ, 5/26/07, p.33)
1961 Jul 24, Roger Maris hit 4
home runs in a doubleheader.
(MC, 7/24/02)
1961 Jul 24, A US commercial plane
was hijacked to Cuba and began a trend.
(MC, 7/24/02)
1964 Jul 24-27, A race riot took
place in Rochester, New York, and 4 people were killed.
(MC, 7/24/02)
1966 Jul 24, Oakland-born golfer
Tony Lema (32), while flying with his wife Betty to an exhibition match
in Chicago, Illinois, crashed on the seventh hole of a golf course in
Lansing, Illinois, after their chartered twin-engine Beechcraft Bonanza
ran out of fuel. All four people on board were killed.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Lema)
1967 Jul 24, Race riots took place
in Cambridge, Maryland.
(MC, 7/24/02)
1967 Jul 24, Race riots in Detroit
forced the postponement of a Tigers-Orioles baseball game. [see Jul
23-30]
(MC, 7/24/02)
1967 Jul 24, French President
Charles de Gaulle stirred controversy during a visit to Montreal,
Canada, when he declared, ''Vive le Quebec libre!'' (Long live free
Quebec!).
(AP, 7/24/07)
1969 Jul 24, The Apollo XI
astronauts, two of whom had been the first men to set foot on the moon,
splashed down safely in the Pacific.
(V.D.-H.K.p.182, 341)(AP, 7/24/97)
1969 Jul 24, Petroleos del Peru
(PETROPERU S.A.) was created (law No.17753) as a state-owned entity.
(http://tinyurl.com/554vke)
1970 Jul 24, Freddie Mac (Federal
Home Loan Mortgage Corp.), a stockholder-owned corporation, was
chartered by Congress to keep money flowing to mortgage lenders in
support of homeownership and rental housing. Preston Martin (1923-2007)
helped spearhead its creation. It was listed as a public company in
1989.
(WSJ, 6/2/07,
p.A5)(www.freddiemac.com/investors/faq.html)(Econ, 7/19/08, p.80)
1970 Jul 24, Robert B. Choate
(d.2009 at 84), an engineer turned consumer advocate, testified on
nutrition information for consumers at a Senate subcommittee hearing
and used data supplied by cereal manufacturers. He ranked 60 cereals,
including Sugar Smacks, Froot Loops, and Lucky charms, by their
nutritive value, showing that 40 products offered such poor nourishment
that they were essentially “empty calories.”
(SFC, 5/22/09, p.B6)(http://tinyurl.com/qy7rgb)
1970 Jul 24, In Laos Capt. Donald
Bloodworth and his pilot were lost on a night reconnaissance mission in
a F-4D fighter-bomber. Bloodworth’s remains were returned to the US in
1998.
(SFEC, 2/1/98, p.A14)
1971 Jul 24, The White House
Plumbers unit formed to stop the leaking (hence "plumbers") of
classified information to the news media during the Nixon
administration.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_House_Plumbers)
1971 Jul 24, The Berne Convention
for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works was promulgated in
Paris. It was first accepted in Berne in 1886 at the instigation of
Victor Hugo.
(www.ifla.org.sg/documents/infopol/copyright/ucc.txt)(PNI, 2/5/97, p.4)
1972 Jul 24, Bhutan’s King Jigme
Dorji Wangchuck died while on safari in Kenya. His son Jigme Druk
Gyalpo Jigme Singye Wangchuck (b.1955), the 4th of his dynasty, became
king.
(WSJ, 3/6/97, p.A1)(SFEC, 2/23/96, p.T5)(SSFC,
3/17/02, p.C10)
1973 Jul 24, Testifying before the
Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities (the Ervin
Committee), John Ehrlichman, aide to President Richard Nixon,
asserted that the burglary of anti-war activist Daniel Ellsberg's
psychiatrist's office was within the constitutional powers of the
president. The televised committee hearings exposed a wide range of
activities, including a secret White House program of harassment and
IRS audits of political enemies, burglaries, wiretaps, forging of State
Department documents, a secret fund to finance spying and sabotage of
Democratic Party primary campaigns and more that culminated in the
House vote for impeachment and the Nixon's resignation on August 9,
1974.
(HNQ,
10/9/98)(www.watergate.info/chronology/1973.shtml)
1974 Jul 24, The U.S. Supreme
Court unanimously ruled that President Nixon had to turn over
subpoenaed White House tape recordings to the Watergate special
prosecutor.
(AP, 7/24/97)(HN, 7/24/98)
1975 Jul 24, An "Apollo"
spacecraft splashed down in the Pacific, completing a mission which
included the first-ever docking with a "Soyuz" capsule from the Soviet
Union.
(AP, 7/24/00)
1978 Jul 24, The Beatles’ animated
film "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" premiered in the US.
(www.imdb.com/title/tt0078239/)
1978 Jul 24, Chile’s Air Force
Gen'l. Gustavo Leigh Guzman was demoted. He was the first junta member
to urge the restoration of civilian rule.
(SFC, 9/30/99,
p.A31)(www.chipsites.com/derechos/1978_eng.html)
1980 Jul 24, Peter Sellers
(b.1925), British actor, died in London of a heart attack. His films
included the Pink Panther series, “The Mouse that Roared” (1959) and
“Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb”
(1964).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Sellers)
1982 Jul 24, Anna Paquin, Oscar
winning actress (Piano), was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Paquin)
1983 Jul 24, In Sri Lanka
island-wide anti-Tamil riots broke out in retaliation for the deaths of
soldiers the day before and some 400 people died. This marked the
beginning of the civil war.
(SFC, 7/24/96, p.A9)(WSJ, 6/29/95, p.A-1)
1984 Jul 24, In American Fort,
Utah, Ron and Dan Lafferty stabbed to death their sister-in-law, Brenda
Lafferty, and her daughter Erica, aged 15 months. In 2003 Jon Krakauer
authored "Under the Banner of Heaven," an account of the murder and the
Mormon background of the Laffertys.
(WSJ, 7/11/03, p.W15)
1986 Jul 24, Jerry A. Whitworth
(47), retired US Navy warrant officer, was convicted in SF for his role
in a Soviet spy ring. The government called it the most damaging
espionage case since World War II. On August 28 Whitworth was given a
365-year sentence and ordered to pay $410,000.
(http://tinyurl.com/5r9fq8)(AP, 8/28/06)
1987 Jul 24, The re-flagged
Kuwaiti supertanker Bridgeton was damaged after hitting a mine in the
Persian Gulf.
(AP, 7/24/97)
1987 Jul 24,
Hulda Crooks, a 91-year-old mountaineer from California, became the
oldest woman to conquer Mount Fuji, Japan's highest peak.
(AP, 7/24/97)
1987 Jul 24, Tamil Tiger leader
Velupillai Prabhakaran arrived in India to sign a peace agreement with
the Sri Lankan government. Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi brokered
the agreement with Sri Lanka delivering autonomy to Tamil areas in
exchange for an end to the war. The peace agreement was signed by
Junius Richard Jayewardene, president of Sri Lanka.
(SFC, 7/24/96, p.A9)(SFE, 9/16/96, p.A9)(SFC,
11/2/96, p.A21)
1988 Jul 24, On the campaign
trail, Republican George Bush heard chants of "ERA," a reference to the
proposed Equal Rights Amendment, from members of a professional women's
group in Albuquerque, N.M. Democratic nominee Michael Dukakis was
heckled by anti-abortion protesters in St. Louis.
(AP, 7/24/98)
1989 Jul 24, President Bush said
he was "aggrieved" about allegations that veteran U.S. diplomat Felix
S. Bloch might have spied for the Soviet Union.
(AP, 7/24/99)
1989 Jul 24, Japan’s PM Sousuke
Uno (1922-1998) resigned in the wake of Japan's ruling party's defeat.
Uno resigned amid a scandal involving his geisha mistress. Criticism
focused on allegations that he treated her in a miserly fashion.
(http://openweb.tvnews.vanderbilt.edu/1989-7/1989-07-24-ABC-11.html)(SFC,
8/20/96, p.A18)
1990 Jul 24, Iraq, accusing Kuwait
of conspiring to harm its economy through oil overproduction, massed
tens of thousands of troops and hundreds of tanks along the
Iraqi-Kuwaiti border. US warships in Persian Gulf were placed on alert.
(AP, 7/24/00)
1991 Jul 24, Isaac Bashevis
Singer (87), Nobel Prize-winning author (1978), died in Miami. In 2006
Florence Noiville authored “Isaac B. Singer: A Life.”
(AP, 7/24/01)(SSFC, 10/8/06, p.G6)
1992 Jul 24, Members of POW-MIA
families disrupted a speech by President Bush, prompting Bush to snap,
"Would you please shut up and sit down?"
(AP, 7/24/97)
1992 Jul 24, In Bosnia Serb prison
guards at the former ceramics factory of Keraterm fired machine guns
through metal doors of "Room 3" where over 200 prisoners were trapped.
The carnage continued for hours. In 2001 Dusko Sikirica (camp
commander), Dragan Kolundzija and Damir Dosen were tried at the Hague
for their roles in the slaughter. Sikirica was sentenced to 15 years in
prison. Dosen and Kolundzija received 5 and 3 year sentences.
(SFC, 3/20/01, p.A11)(SFC, 11/14/01, p.A19)
1993 Jul 24, US House Ways and
Means Chairman Dan Rostenkowski denied allegations he'd received
embezzled funds, saying he had engaged in "no illegal or unethical
conduct."
(AP, 7/24/98)
1993 Jul 24, The Russian
government announced it would invalidate billions of pre-1993 rubles.
(AP, 7/24/98)
1994 Jul 24, Miguel Indurain won
his fourth consecutive Tour de France victory.
(AP, 7/24/99)
1994 Jul 24, S.F. Bailey walked
from the village of Mokwam in the Arfak Mountains of the Vogelkop
(Bird’s Head) Peninsula in Irian Jaya, Indonesia, to observe the
courtship performance of Bower bird number 4, Amblyornis inornatus.
(PacDisc. Spring/’96, p.41)
1994 Jul 24, Rwandan refugees
began trickling home after Zaire reopened the border between the two
countries; meanwhile, the first wave of a U.S. airlift arrived.
(AP, 7/24/99)
1995 Jul 24, A Palestinian suicide
bomber blew up a crowded commuter bus in Tel Aviv and killed six
Israelis and wounded 28. Hamas took responsibility.
(WSJ, 3/6/96, p. A-15)(G&M, 7/31/97, p.A8)(AP,
7/24/00)
1996 Jul 24, Two bombs blamed on
Tamil separatists ripped through a commuter train near Colombo, Sri
Lanka, killing 64 civilians and wounding more than 400.
(WSJ, 7/25/96, p.A1)(AP, 7/24/97)
1996 Jul 24, it was reported that
3 prisoners in Turkey have died during a hunger strike by 1,900 inmates
in 33 prisons. The protests were for government transfers of prisoners
to remote locations and cancellation of visiting rights for political
prisoners.
(WSJ, 7/25/96, p.A1)
1997 Jul 24, Pres. Clinton held a
White House symposium on global warming.
(WSJ, 7/25/97, p.A1)
1997 Jul 24, William J. Brennan
(91), retired Supreme Court Justice (1956-1990), died in Arlington, Va.
(AP,
7/24/98)(www.oyez.org/oyez/resource/legal_entity/90/)
1997 Jul 24, A Dallas jury awarded
$120 million in damages against the local Roman Catholic diocese that
ignored evidence that the priest, Rudolph Kos, sexually abused a number
of altar boys from 1977-1992. Kos was suspended in 1992. Kos pleaded
guilty to 3 sex abuse charges in 1998.
(SFC, 7/25/97, p.A1)(SFC, 3/25/98, p.A3)
1997 Jul 24, In Albania a 5-month
long curfew was lifted and Rexhep Mejdani, the secretary-general of the
Socialist Party and former physics professor, was elected President by
the Parliament. Since Jan. some 1,800 killings had occurred.
(SFC, 7/25/97, p.A11)
1997 Jul 24, From Algeria it was
reported that security forces killed Antar Zouabri (26), the chief of
the Armed Islamic Group.
(SFC, 7/25/97, p.A11)
1997 Jul 24, Britain proposed to
the Scots the power to legislate, tax and speak for themselves in the
European Union.
(SFC, 7/25/97, p.A10)
1998 Jul 24, A gunman burst past a
metal detector at the US Capital and killed 2 policemen, officers Jacob
Chestnut and John Gibson, and wounded a visitor. Russell Eugene Weston
Jr. (41) was captured after being shot.
(SFC, 7/25/98, p.A1)
1998 Jul 24, The motion picture
"Saving Private Ryan," starring Tom Hanks and directed by Steven
Spielberg, was released.
(AP, 7/24/08)
1998 Jul 24, A report on the West
Antarctic Ice Sheet in Science said that changes have been detected by
satellite that might indicate a future collapse.
(SFEC, 8/2/98, p.A4)
1998 Jul 24, Keizo Obuchi, Japan’s
foreign minister, won the ruling party nomination for prime minister.
(SFC, 7/24/98, p.A14)
1999 Jul 24, President Clinton
attacked the Republicans’ $792 billion tax-cut plan in fund-raising
speeches and his weekly radio address, saying it would "imperil the
future stability of the country." House Majority Leader Dick Armey
replied that the GOP plan would help fix an unfair tax system.
(AP, 7/24/00)
1999 Jul 24, In China the
government arrested some 1,200 government officials accused of
associating with the Falun Gong.
(SFC, 7/27/99, p.A8)
1999 Jul 24, Shoukry Ayyad,
Egyptian poetry critic, died at age 78. His 20 books on Arabic poetry,
language and theater included "The Hero in Literature and Fables,"
"Music of Poetry," and Language and Creativity."
(SFC, 7/27/99, p.A17)
1999 Jul 24, In Indonesia troops
killed as many as 41 people during a raid on a rebel base in Beutong
village in Aceh province. Separatist leader Teungku Bantaqiah was among
the dead. A Jakarta inquiry in Oct. found that troops killed 54
civilians, not rebels, in Aceh. 56 students and a teacher from an
Islamic boarding school in Beutong Ateuh village were executed. In 2000
24 soldiers and a civilian were convicted for the June murders.
(SFC, 7/27/99, p.A10)(WSJ, 11/1/99, p.A1)(SFC,
5/18/00, p.A14)
2000 Jul 24, President Clinton
continued to mediate the Camp David Mideast summit, meeting with
Israeli, Palestinian and US negotiators.
(AP, 7/24/01)
2000 Jul 24, Georgia’s Democratic
Governor Zell Miller was appointed to the late Republican Paul
Coverdell’s Senate seat. In 2003 Miler authored "A National Party No
More."
(AP, 7/24/01)(WSJ, 11/4/03, p.D8)
2000 Jul 24, In Minneapolis,
Minn., 80 people were arrested as demonstrators protested against a
meeting of the Int’l. Society for Animal Genetics.
(SFC, 7/25/00, p.A4)
2000 Jul 24, Myanmar university
students returned to classes nearly 3.5 years after the military shut
down schools due to antigovernment protests. Loyalty pledges to the
government were required and political activity was barred.
(WSJ, 7/25/00, p.A1)(SFC, 8/23/00, p.A12)
2000 Jul 24, Michael Stone, a
pro-British paramilitary member, was freed from prison as part of
Northern Ireland’s 1998 peace accord after serving eleven years of a
life sentence for murder.
(AP, 7/24/01)
2000 Jul 24, Philippine Pres.
Joseph Estrada arrived in SF for his 1st official visit to the US.
(SFC, 7/24/00, p.A1)
2000 Jul 24, A New Zealand soldier
was killed during a clash with opponents for independence, the 1st UN
peacekeeper killed in East Timor.
(SFC, 7/25/00, p.A14)
2001 Jul 24, Larry Silverstein
signed a $3.2 billion, 99-year lease for the NYC World Trade
Center (WTC).
(WSJ, 4/30/04, p.A11)
2001 Jul 24, A Chinese court
sentenced two US residents to 10 years in prison on charges of spying
for Taiwan. China released Gao Zhan and Qin Guangguang two days later.
(SFC, 7/25/01, p.A1)(AP, 7/24/02)
2001 Jul 24, In Indonesia Megawati
Sukarnoputri began her presidency while Wahid refused to leave the
presidential palace.
(WSJ, 7/25/01, p.A1)
2002 Jul 24, The US House voted
420-1 to oust Rep. James Traficant, an Ohio Democrat. On July 30
Traficant was sentenced to 8 years in prison for bribery and
racketeering.
(SFC, 7/25/02, p.A1)(SFC, 7/31/02, p.A4)(SFC,
9/2/09, p.A6)
2002 Jul 24, John Rigas (78), CEO
of Adelphia Comm. Corp., was arrested with his 2 sons on charges of
that they looted the company of more than $1 billion.
(SFC, 7/25/02, p.A1)
2002 Jul 24, The DJIA rose 488 to
8,191 and Nasdaq rose 61 to 1,290.
(SFC, 7/25/02, p.A1)
2002 Jul 24, In Pennsylvania 9
coal miners were trapped by a flood 240 feet underground. All 9 were
rescued Jul 27.
(WSJ, 7/26/02, p.A1)(SSFC, 7/28/02, p.A1)
2002 Jul 24, In Houston, Texas,
Clara Harris ran over her cheating husband with her Mercedes after
catching him with his mistress. Harris (45) was convicted of murder Feb
13, 2003.
(SFC, 2/15/03, p.A5)
2002 Jul 24, A truck bomb exploded
in San Juan de Rioseco, Colombia, and 2 police officers were killed.
(SFC, 7/25/02, p.A13)
2002 Jul 24, In Congo Hutu rebels
rejected a peace deal that would force them back to Rwanda.
(WSJ, 7/25/02, p.A1)
2002 Jul 24, The European Union
will give an extra $32 million to the U.N. Population Fund to help
replace the U.S. money being withheld because of concerns about
coercive abortions.
(AP, 7/24/02)
2002 Jul 24, Indonesian
prosecutors demanded that parliament speaker Akbar Tandjung be jailed
for four years over the alleged misuse of $4 million in a politically
sensitive graft scandal.
(Reuters, 7/24/02)
2002 Jul 24, In Russia PM Mikhail
Kasyanov ordered all businesses to adopt international accounting
standards by 2004.
(WSJ, 7/25/02, p.A9)
2002 Jul 24, In northern Uganda a
group of Lord's Resistance Army rebels entered Muchwini, 285 miles
north of Kampala, and killed at least 42 people.
(AP, 7/26/02)
2002 Jul 24, The UN voted 35-8 on
a plan to enforce a convention on torture that called for independent
visits to prisons. The US failed to block the vote.
(SFC, 7/25/02, p.A10)(WSJ, 7/25/02, p.A1)
2003 Jul 24, The House and Senate
intelligence committees issued their final report on the attacks of
Sept. 11, 2001, citing countless blunders, oversights and
miscalculations that prevented authorities from stopping the attackers.
(AP, 7/24/04)
2003 Jul 24, In northern Iraq 3 US
soldiers died in the 2nd fatal attack on troops from the 101st
Airborne Division since they tracked down and killed Saddam Hussein's
sons Uday and Qusai.
(Reuters, 7/24/03)
2003 Jul 24, Two hand grenades
exploded outside a UN police station in northern Kosovo, killing one
person and injuring four others.
(AP, 7/24/03)
2003 Jul 24, Colin McMillan, an
oilman awaiting confirmation as US Navy secretary, was found dead at
his 55,000-acre ranch in New Mexico. His death was ruled a suicide.
(SFC, 7/26/03, p.A3)
2003 Jul 24, Eleven aid workers
believed abducted by Rwandan and Burundian rebels in a restive eastern
province of war-ravaged Congo were killed.
(AP, 8/7/03)
2003 Jul 24, French lawmakers
overwhelmingly passed a pension reform bill despite weeks of protests
by people angry about having to work longer to get full retirement
benefits. PM Rafarrin managed to push through a pension reform against
union resistance with the support of CFDP, the French Defense and
Protection Company.
(AP, 7/24/03)(Econ, 4/8/06, p.49)
2003 Jul 24, The French Senate
passed a law banning the sale of cigarettes to minors under 16 and
raises the price per pack for the second time this year.
(AP, 7/24/03)
2003 Jul 24, In Guatemala
protesters demanding that former dictator Rios Montt be allowed to run
for president touched off a wave of violence that paralyzed the capital.
(AP, 7/25/03)
2003 Jul 24, In Monrovia, Liberia,
the bloodiest mortar attack in days killed at least 12 men, women and
children.
(AP, 7/25/03)
2004 Jul 24, President Bush said
in his weekly radio address that his administration was committed to
relying on the recommendations of the Sept. 11 commission in waging the
war on terrorism.
(AP, 7/24/05)
2004 Jul 24, Fred LaRue (75),
former Nixon administration official, died in Biloxi, Mississippi. He
served a prison term for Watergate.
(AP, 7/24/05)
2004 Jul 24, An online statement
by a group representing itself as al-Qaida's European branch threatened
to turn Australia into "pools of blood" if it doesn't withdraw its
troops from Iraq.
(AP, 7/25/04)
2004 Jul 24, A Tehran court
acquitted the sole defendant in the July 10, 2003, murder of an
Iranian-Canadian photojournalist. Mohammad Reza Aghdam Ahmadi had
pleaded innocent on July 17 and the trial was abruptly ended the next
day.
(AP, 7/25/04)
2004 Jul 24, Gunmen kidnapped the
head of an Iraqi government-owned construction company in Baghdad.
(AP, 7/24/04)
2004 Jul 24, The 16th edition of
Italy's Miss Cicciona contest (Italy's Miss Chubby) began in Forcoli,
central Italy.
(AP, 7/25/04)
2004 Jul 24, In India Coal and
Mines Minister Shibu Soren resigned after an arrest warrant was issued
against him on charges of inciting arson and violence during a rally in
1975.
(Reuters, 7/24/04)
2004 Jul 24, Militants torched a
Palestinian police station south of Gaza City.
(AP, 7/24/04)
2004 Jul 24, Sri Lanka's Tamil
Tiger rebels killed eight rivals in the worst outbreak of violence in
three months.
(AP, 7/25/04)
2004 Jul 24, It was reported that
rebels fighting an 18-year insurgency in northern Uganda have killed at
least 42 civilians in southern Sudan in the past week.
(AP, 7/24/04)
2005 Jul 24, Lance Armstrong
closed out his amazing career with a 7th consecutive Tour de France
victory.
(AP, 7/24/05)
2005 Jul 24, Four unions said they
would boycott the AFL-CIO convention in Chicago. The Service Employees
and Teamsters said they would quit the group.
(SFC, 7/25/05, p.A1)
2005 Jul 24, In southern
Afghanistan more than a dozen suspected militants attacked a US patrol,
and the resulting firefight left one American soldier dead and another
wounded. A roadside bomb exploded in eastern Afghanistan, striking a US
military convoy and wounding six American troops.
(AP, 7/24/05)(AP, 7/25/05)
2005 Jul 24, Sir Richard Doll
(92), the British scientist who first established a link between
smoking and lung cancer, died in Oxford, England.
(AP, 7/24/06)
2005 Jul 24, In Egypt an explosive
detonated as it was being carried by Sami Gamal Ahmad (33), to the
tourist area of Kerdassa, a bazaar of souvenir shops near the Pyramids
of Giza. Ahmad was severely injured.
(AP, 7/24/05)
2005 Jul 24, In Ethiopia 6
separate bombings hit across the country's ethnic Somali province. A
5-year-old girl was among those killed in the wave of violence, which
took place before a voter registration drive.
(AP, 7/27/05)
2005 Jul 24, A 7.2 earthquake hit
India's southern Andaman and Nicobar Islands and part of Indonesia. No
tsunami came, and no injuries or damage were reported.
(AP, 7/25/05)
2005 Jul 24, Indian troops in
Kashmir killed 3 innocent teenagers after troops mistook them for
militants. Demonstrations followed among angry Kashmiri Muslims in
Jammu and Kashmir, largely Hindu India's only Muslim-majority state.
(Reuters, 7/25/05)
2005 Jul 24, Iran's state-run
media reported that its hard-line judiciary had acknowledged widespread
human rights violations in prisons, including the use of torture.
(AP, 7/25/05)
2005 Jul 24, Iraqi police said a
suicide attacker slammed a truck loaded with explosives into sand
barriers outside a Baghdad police station, killing at least 39 people
and wounding 30. A US Marine was killed in combat operations near
Rutbah. 4 US troops were killed by an improvised explosive device (IED)
in Baghdad.
(AP, 7/24/05)(SFC, 7/25/05, p.A1)(WSJ, 7/27/05, p.A1)
2005 Jul 24, In Nepal police used
batons to break up a protest by supporters of the detained former prime
minister, leaving about 15 demonstrators and 10 police injured.
(AP, 7/24/05)
2005 Jul 24, In northern Nigeria a
long-haul passenger bus skidded off a bridge and tumbled into a river
after the driver fell asleep, and 56 people were killed.
(AP, 7/24/05)
2005 Jul 24, Palestinian militants
killed two Israeli motorists in the Gaza Strip. Israeli troops killed 2
of the gunmen. A suicide bomber was caught near an Israeli communal
farm with a belt packed with 11 pounds of explosives.
(AP, 7/24/05)(WSJ, 7/25/05, p.A1)
2005 Jul 24, Telesur, a new TV
station backed by Venezuela's government, began transmitting in various
countries across Latin America. The station, funded by Venezuela and
also backed by Argentina, Uruguay and Cuba, has drawn concern in the US
Congress, where House members last week approved a measure to transmit
radio and television broadcasts to Venezuela to ensure citizens receive
"accurate news."
(AP, 7/24/05)(Econ, 7/30/05, p.33)
2006 Jul 24, US Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice made a surprise visit to Lebanon to launch diplomatic
efforts aimed at ending 13 days of warfare.
(AP, 7/24/06)
2006 Jul 24, Amnesty Int’l. issued
a report saying security agents in Jordan were torturing terrorism
suspects on behalf of the US.
(WSJ, 7/24/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 24, The US FDA approved
Anthelios SX, a sunscreen that protects against a type of ultra-violet
radiation linked to skin cancer.
(SFC, 7/25/06, p.A4)
2006 Jul 24, Rescuers from the US
Coast Guard and Alaska Air National Guard saved 23 crew members from a
cargo ship taking on water south of the Aleutian Islands.
(AP, 7/24/07)
2006 Jul 24, Police officers in
Salt Lake City found the body of missing 5-year-old Destiny Norton in
the basement of a home in her neighborhood and arrested Craig R.
Gregerson (20) who lived there. Destiny disappeared from outside her
house on July 16.
(AP, 7/25/06)
2006 Jul 24, SF City Attorney
Dennis Herrera announced that his office had obtained a civil
injunction and $20,000 in penalties against Carlos Romero for his
graffiti. This marked the 1st time SF has filed a civil suit against a
graffiti tagger.
(SFC, 7/25/06, p.A4)
2006 Jul 24, HCA Inc., the largest
US for-profit hospital operator, has agreed to be purchased by a group
of investors for about $21.3 billion plus the assumption of $11.7
billion in debt. Shareholders of the Nashville-based company, which was
founded by the family of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, will
receive $51 in cash for each share of common stock.
(AP, 7/24/06)
2006 Jul 24, Power companies
worked to restore electricity to thousands of customers throughout
California as a scorching heat wave threatened to push the state into a
power emergency with the potential for more blackouts. Storm problems
cut power to areas of New York and Missouri.
(AP, 7/24/06)(WSJ, 7/25/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 24, It was reported that
Jeff Bezos (42), founder of Amazon.com, planned to develop a private
spaceport at his private ranch in West Texas. A draft environmental
review was filed with the FAA and a timetable set commercial flights to
begin in 2010.
(SFC, 7/24/06, p.A2)
2006 Jul 24, In southwestern
Afghanistan hundreds of Taliban fighters firing rocket-propelled
grenades attacked a district headquarters overnight in Farah, killing 3
police and wounding 7. Four suspected suicide attackers riding two
motorcycles died in a confrontation with Afghan police. In the west,
gunmen killed two Afghans working for international aid agency World
Vision who had been delivering medicine. Fighting in Kunar province
left a US soldier dead. 7 suspected Taliban were killed in Paktika
province.
(AP, 7/25/06)(WSJ, 7/25/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 24, In Belarus leftist
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez exchanged declarations of solidarity
with the authoritarian leader of isolated Belarus, who shares his
anti-US views. During the talks with Lukashenko, the two sides signed
seven agreements on military-technical cooperation, economic and other
ties as well as a declaration pledging a strategic partnership.
Bilateral trade was just under $16 million in 2005.
(AP, 7/24/06)
2006 Jul 24, In Colombia 13
doctors were abducted by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or
FARC. They were on a 10-day mission to remote communities and Indian
tribes in Putumayo province.
(AP, 7/25/06)
2006 Jul 24, A UNICEF report said
more than 600 children die every day in war-ravaged Congo and even more
are displaced, sexually abused or swept into the camps of combatant
groups.
(AP, 7/24/06)
2006 Jul 24, Costa Rica relaxed
visa requirements for visitors from 102 nations, in the Central
American country's most sweeping migration reform in decades.
(AP, 7/24/06)
2006 Jul 24, Hungary’s central
bank raised its core interest rate half a percentage point to 6.75% in
an aggressive move to stabilize its currency. This followed a quarter
point raise in June. Inflation stood at 2.8%.
(WSJ, 7/25/06, p.A8)(Econ, 8/5/06, p.64)
2006 Jul 24, A UN report on the
economic impact of HIV/AIDS in India estimated infections there,
currently over 5 million, could increase to 20-25 million by 2010.
(WSJ, 7/24/06, p.A6)
2006 Jul 24, Hezbollah's
representative in Iran struck a defiant tone, warning that his Islamic
militant group plans to widen its attacks on Israel until "no place" is
safe for Israelis.
(AP, 7/24/06)
2006 Jul 24, Iraqi PM Nuri
al-Maliki condemned Israel's bombing of Lebanon's civilian
infrastructure and vowed to push for a ceasefire during talks with his
British PM Tony Blair. Gunmen ambushed an Iraqi police unit in central
Baghdad, triggering a gunbattle in which six officers were killed and
30 were wounded. Mahmoud Ali Hussein al-Nida, the head of Saddam
Hussein's Baijat tribe, was killed when gunmen attacked a meeting in
the office of a prominent sheik in Tikrit. The gunmen also killed a
lawyer and wounded sheik Mizahim al-Mustafa. Two other civilians caught
in the crossfire also were killed.
(AFP, 7/24/06)(AFP, 7/25/06)(AP, 7/25/06)
2006 Jul 24, Israeli ground forces
pushed deeper into Lebanon in heavy fighting with Hezbollah guerrillas.
An Israeli Apache helicopter crashed near the Lebanese border while
attempting an emergency landing, and there were two casualties.
(AP, 7/24/06)
2006 Jul 24, Israeli artillery
shelled a town in the Gaza Strip used by Palestinian militants to fire
rockets, and hospital officials said three Palestinians were killed and
eight were wounded.
(AP, 7/24/06)
2006 Jul 24, Kosovo formally made
its pitch for independence in Vienna, Austria, face-to-face with Serbia
at their 1st top-level talks since NATO bombs drove Serb forces from
the province in 1999.
(AP, 7/24/06)
2006 Jul 24, Liberia began
training the first soldiers of a post-war army that officials hope will
grow into a small but effective force to take over peacekeeping from UN
troops.
(AP, 7/24/06)
2006 Jul 24, A Malaysian princess
was stabbed to death by her son as she tried to stop him from attacking
her husband (74). The son (21) later died of an apparent drug overdose.
Tengku Puteri Kamariah, whose brother is Sultan Ahmad Shah, ruler of
the eastern state of Pahang, died at her home in Pekan town, Pahang.
(AP, 7/25/06)
2006 Jul 24, Gunmen raided a
pharmaceutical laboratory in Mexico City, killing four guards and
stealing about a ton of ephedrine, a key ingredient in making
methamphetamine.
(AP, 7/24/06)
2006 Jul 24, In Sudan’s South
Darfur's vast Kalma camp, 17 women were raped by armed militiamen as
they went out to collect firewood.
(Reuters, 7/29/06)
2006 Jul 24, WTO members in Geneva
called a halt to more than five years of commerce liberalization talks
(the Doha talks) as differences over farm aid proved unbridgeable. The
25-nation EU criticized US intransigence over agricultural subsidies
for the breakdown, while the US blamed Brazil and India for being
inflexible on cutting barriers to industrial imports and the EU for
refusing to make deeper cuts in its farm import tariffs.
(AP, 7/24/06)
2007 Jul 24, President Bush,
speaking at Charleston Air Force Base in South Carolina, sought to
justify the Iraq war by citing intelligence reports he said showed a
link between al-Qaida's operation in Iraq and the terror group that
attacked the United States on Sept. 11.
(AP, 7/24/08)
2007 Jul 24, The US minimum wage
rose 70 cents to $5.85 an hour, the first increase in a decade.
(AP, 7/24/07)
2007 Jul 24, A grand jury in New
Orleans refused to indict Dr. Anna Pou, who was accused of murdering
four seriously ill hospital patients with drug injections during the
desperate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
(AP, 7/24/08)
2007 Jul 24, Prosecutor’s in
California’s Contra Costa County announced charges against 34 students
of graduates of Pleasant Hill community college for changes to
transcript grades in exchange for cash.
(SFC, 7/25/07, p.A1)
2007 Jul 24, Florida began
distributing playing cards to prison inmates with pictures and
information regarding unsolved murder and missing person cases.
(SFC, 7/25/07, p.A5)
2007 Jul 24, Westinghouse Electric
Co., majority-owned by Toshiba Corp., signed a multi-billion-dollar
contract to build 4 nuclear reactors in China.
(WSJ, 1/25/07, p.A10)
2007 Jul 24, Intel Corp. said it
has fabricated the first modulator made from silicon that can encode
data onto a beam of light at a rate of 40 billion bits per second
(gigabits). Such speeds represented a rate 40 times faster than most
corporate data networks.
(WSJ, 1/25/07, p.B4)
2007 Jul 24, Albert Ellis
(b.1913), influential founded of a school of psychotherapy, died in
NYC. In 1955 developed Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy, which
stressed self-control.
(WSJ, 1/25/07,
p.A1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Ellis)
2007 Jul 24, Jolee Mohr (36) died
in Chicago just weeks after beginning an experimental gene therapy
treatment from Targeted Genetics to ease the pain the rheumatoid
arthritis in her knee. Doctors later suspected an infection of
Histoplasma capsulatum.
(SSFC, 9/16/07, p.A21)(SFC, 9/18/07, p.A4)
2007 Jul 24, Bamir Topi (50), a
biologist, was sworn in as Albania's president, promising to help the
poor Balkan country to become a member of NATO and the European Union.
Topi was elected to a five-year term by parliament on July 20 after
some opposition lawmakers ended their coalition's boycott and supported
his appointment.
(AP, 7/25/07)(Econ, 8/18/07, p.43)
2007 Jul 24, Former Bangladesh PM
Sheikh Hasina was charged with extortion for allegedly demanding
hundreds of thousands of dollars from a company seeking to build a
power station.
(AP, 7/24/07)
2007 Jul 24, Five Bulgarian nurses
and a Palestinian doctor, sentenced to life in prison in Libya for
allegedly infecting children with HIV, came home to Bulgaria and were
greeted with tears and hugs, and a presidential pardon that allowed
them to walk free after 8 1/2 years behind bars. French President
Nicolas Sarkozy said Qatar mediated the release and hinted the Gulf
country may have had a broader role in resolving the crisis.
(AP, 7/24/07)
2007 Jul 24, Cameroon President
Paul Biya's governing party won a crushing victory in weekend polls as
the opposition cried foul, saying the west African nation had not
staged fair elections in years.
(AP, 7/24/07)
2007 Jul 24, In Canada a pipeline
in a Vancouver suburb was ruptured, sending a geyser of oil shooting 12
meters (40 feet) into the air, coating neighborhood streets and
spilling crude into an ocean inlet.
(Reuters, 7/24/07)
2007 Jul 24, Chinese officials
said the FBI and Chinese police have busted two software piracy gangs
and seized programs worth an estimated $500 million in a joint campaign
that began in 2005.
(AP, 7/24/07)
2007 Jul 24, Heavy rain and
extreme temperatures continued to batter Europe, with Britain caught in
its worst floods in living memory while the Balkans sizzled in
heatwaves that killed at least 35 people.
(AP, 7/24/07)
2007 Jul 24, The US and Iranian
ambassadors to Iraq also began talks in Baghdad in a bid to find ways
to use their influence to bring stability to Iraq. A suicide bomber
struck a busy commercial center in the Shiite city of Hillah, killing
at least 24 people and wounding dozens as the streets were packed with
shoppers and commuters.
(AP, 7/24/07)
2007 Jul 24, Nigerian President
Umaru Yar'Adua ordered the release of funds belonging to the government
of the economic capital Lagos seized three years ago by his
predecessor. Suspected ransom-seekers kidnapped the mother of the
speaker of the state house of assembly in neighboring Bayelsa state.
(AP, 7/24/07)(AP, 7/25/07)
2007 Jul 24, Abdullah Mehsud, a
former Guantanamo Bay inmate who led pro-Taliban militants in Pakistan
after his release, died when he blew himself up with a grenade to avoid
arrest. He was released in March 2004 and quickly took up arms again,
leading militants in South Waziristan. The beheaded bodies of two
soldiers abducted the previous night were found in the Bajur tribal
area.
(AP, 7/24/07)
2007 Jul 24, Mohammed Radad (20),
was shot by Fatah-allied gunmen, when students aligned with the rival
groups clashes on the campus of An Najah University in Nablus. Radad
died from his wounds on July 27.
(AP, 7/27/07)
2007 Jul 24, Human Rights Watch
said Rwandan police have killed at least 20 detainees in custody since
November.
(AFP, 7/24/07)
2007 Jul 24, Barcelona, Spain,
faced Day Two of a major power outage.
(AP, 7/24/07)
2008 Jul 24, The US confirmed that
it planned to shift 230 million dollars in aid to Pakistan from
counter-terrorism programs to upgrading the country's F-16 fighter jets.
(AFP, 7/24/08)
2008 Jul 24, New York Attorney
General Andrew Cuomo sued banking giant UBS for fraud, accusing the
company of marketing tens of billions of dollars of auction-rate
securities as safe even when they knew the investments were in trouble.
(AP, 7/25/08)
2008 Jul 24, The US CDC reported
that at least 1,013 people had died between 2005 and 2007 a street
version of the painkiller fentanyl. Many deaths were likely unreported.
(WSJ, 7/25/08, p.A12)
2008 Jul 24, NASA released
findings that indicate magnetic explosions about one-third of the way
to the moon cause the northern lights, or aurora borealis, to burst in
spectacular shapes and colors, and dance across the sky.
(AP, 7/24/08)
2008 Jul 24, Ford Motor Co. posted
the worst quarterly performance in its history, losing $8.67 billion in
the second quarter.
(AP, 7/24/08)
2008 Jul 24, It was reported that
the sabal palm, the Florida’s state tree, was under attack by a
microscopic killer and had scientists stumped.
(SFC, 7/24/08, p.A6)
2008 Jul 24, In southern
Afghanistan insurgents attacked an Afghan military convoy in Zabul
province and 35 militants were killed after the army called for
assistance from the US-led coalition. A British army dog handler was
fatally shot by insurgents.
(AP, 7/24/08)(AP, 7/25/08)
2008 Jul 24, Hundreds of Anglican
bishops from around the world were among 1,500 people who marched
through central London calling for urgent action to tackle global
poverty.
(AFP, 7/24/08)
2008 Jul 24, Max Mosley (68),
motor racing chief and son of Britain's 1930s Fascist leader Oswald
Mosley, won 60,000 pounds ($119,100) in damages at London's High Court
from the News of the World newspaper for breaching his privacy by
reporting details of a German-themed sex session with five prostitutes.
(Reuters, 7/26/08)
2008 Jul 24, Ten insurgents and
two Cameroonian soldiers were killed in a rebel attack in the oil-rich
Bakassi peninsula. The rebels, who call themselves the Niger Delta
Defense and Security Council, oppose Cameroon's ownership of the West
African peninsula, which is also claimed by Nigeria.
(AP, 7/25/08)
2008 Jul 24, In Ecuador a special
assembly approved a new 444-article draft constitution granting its
leftist president broad powers, including the ability to dissolve
Congress and set monetary policy, and freeing him to run for office
through 2017.
(AP, 7/25/08)(Econ, 8/2/08, p.40)
2008 Jul 24, French PM Francois
Fillon said a 15% cut in military manpower and base closings will save
billions of dollars. The military ranks will be cut by 54,000.
(SFC, 7/25/08, p.A12)
2008 Jul 24, French giant
automaker Renault said it will cut about 5,000 jobs in Europe among
measures to reduce costs by 10 percent as it prepares for a sharp and
possibly rocky downturn.
(AFP, 7/24/08)
2008 Jul 24, In Germany US
presidential candidate Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel
discussed the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as climate and
energy issues at Germany's chancellery. Obama stood before an enormous
crowd in Berlin and summoned Europeans and Americans to work together
to "defeat terror and dry up the well of extremism that supports it."
(AP, 7/24/08)
2008 Jul 24, In northern Baghdad
gunmen in a speeding car opened fire on two different awakening council
checkpoints in the Azamiyah neighborhood killing three of its guards
and leaving another wounded. A female suicide bomber blew herself up
near US-allied Sunni Arab fighters walking in a crowded area of
Baqouba, killing at least eight of the guards and wounding 24 other
people.
(AP, 7/24/08)
2008 Jul 24, Iraq was told it's
not welcome to the Beijing Olympics because of a political feud in
Baghdad that angered the games' guardians and exiled a country that
arrived to a roaring ovation at the opening ceremony four years ago.
(AP, 7/25/08)
2008 Jul 24, An Israeli official
said a key committee has approved construction of the first new Jewish
settlement in the West Bank in a decade. The news infuriated
Palestinians, who said the decision could cripple peace efforts.
(AP, 7/24/08)
2008 Jul 24, In Indian Kashmir a
suspected Islamic militant threw a hand grenade at a group of migrant
laborers, killing a woman and her four children in one of two attacks
that claimed a total of nine lives.
(AP, 7/24/08)
2008 Jul 24, Libya said it will
halt fuel supplies to key oil client Switzerland in the latest reprisal
for last week's brief detention in Geneva of a son of Libyan leader
Moamer Kadhafi.
(AFP, 7/24/08)
2008 Jul 24, In Mexico state
prison chief Salvador Barreno was shot and killed as he drove in Ciudad
Juarez, across from El Paso, Texas. His bodyguard was also killed. 3
other men died in a separate shooting minutes later.
(AP, 7/25/08)
2008 Jul 24, In Nigeria a petrol
tanker burst into flames main in the main city of Lagos, killing at
least 12 people and leaving several others with severe burns. 5 eastern
European oil workers were abducted from a Swedish boat in the Niger
delta. The 5 Russian oil workers were released on July 26.
(AFP, 7/24/08)(AP, 7/26/08)(AP, 7/28/08)
2008 Jul 24, In southern Norway a
group of men armed with bats and iron bars attacked a center for
political asylum-seekers, leaving more than 20 people injured.
(AP, 7/25/08)
2008 Jul 24, In the southern
Philippines a homemade bomb ripped through a commuter bus, wounding 27
people. In North Cotabato province communist rebels attacked a banana
farm associated with Dole Foods Co. and a land mine hit a security
vehicle rushing to intervene, killing one and wounding three others.
(AP, 7/24/08)
2008 Jul 24, In Singapore North
Korea's reclusive communist regime, long seen as a nuclear threat to
the region, signed a nonaggression pact with Southeast Asia, in a
largely symbolic move. The Treaty of Amity and Cooperation (TAC) with
the Association of the Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) came into force
in 1976, requires signatories to renounce the use or threat of force
and calls for the peaceful settlement of conflicts.
(AP, 7/24/08)
2008 Jul 24, In South Africa talks
began in earnest on resolving Zimbabwe's political crisis after
President Robert Mugabe gave his senior lieutenants the final go-ahead
to negotiate power-sharing with the opposition.
(AP, 7/24/08)
2008 Jul 24, Sri Lankan forces
battled rebel gunmen deep inside the nation's northern jungles, killing
25 guerrilla fighters and seizing new territory. Battles in other parts
of the war zone killed 13 rebels and three soldiers.
(AP, 7/24/08)(AP, 7/25/08)
2008 Jul 24, In Suriname a boy
(12) stabbed and killed a 9-year-old girl in front of her classmates
and teacher at a rural elementary school.
(AP, 7/25/08)
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