Today in History - July 29
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1030 Jul 29, King
Olaf the Second, the patron saint of Norway, was killed in the Battle
of Stiklestad. Olaf Haraldsson was born a pagan and lived as a warrior
for most of his years going on to become the patron saint of Norway.
The son of Harald I, Olaf's early career was spent outside Norway
fighting the Danes and English among others.
(HNQ, 11/30/00)(AP, 7/29/01)
1565 Jul 29, Mary Queen of Scots
married her cousin, Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.21)(MC, 7/29/02)
1579 Jul 29, Spain's King Philip
II arrested plotters Antonio Perez and Princess of Eboli.
(MC, 7/29/02)
1588 Jul 29, At midnight of July
28th the English set eight fireships (filled with pitch, gunpowder, and
tar) alight and sent them downwind among the closely-anchored Spanish
vessels. The English attacked the Spanish Armada in the Battle of
Gravelines, resulting in an English victory.
(ON, 3/02,
p.3)(http://wapedia.mobi/en/Spanish_Armada#1.1.)(AP, 7/29/08)
1602 Jul 29, The Duke of Biron was
executed in Paris for conspiring with Spain and Savoy against King
Henry IV of France.
(HN, 7/29/98)
1603 Jul 29, Bartholomew Gilbert
was killed in the colony of Virginia by Indians, during a search for
the missing Roanoke colonists.
(HN, 7/29/98)
1676 Jul 29, Nathaniel Bacon was
declared a rebel for assembling frontiersmen to protect settlers from
Indians. [see May 10, Sep 1]
(MC, 7/29/02)
1693 Jul 29, The Army of the Grand
Alliance was destroyed by the French at the Battle of Neerwinden in the
Netherlands.
(HN, 7/29/98)
1715 Jul 29, A hurricane sank 10
Spanish treasure galleons sank off Florida coast.
(MC, 7/29/02)
1794 Jul 29, Seventy of
Robespierre's followers were guillotined.
(MC, 7/29/02)
1805 Jul 29, Alexis de
Tocqueville, French historian who wrote "Democracy in America," was
born.
(HN, 7/29/98)
1830 Jul 29, Liberals led by the
Marquis of Lafayette seized Paris in opposition to the king's
restrictions on citizens' rights.
(HN, 7/29/98)
1833 Jul 29, William Wilberforce
(b.1759), English abolitionist, died. He was best known for his efforts
relating to the abolition of slavery in the British Empire. A
politician and philanthropist, Wilberforce was prominent from 1787 in
the struggle to abolish the slave trade and slavery itself in British
overseas possessions. He was an ardent and eloquent sponsor of
anti-slavery legislation in the House of Commons until his retirement
in 1825. Wilberforce University in Ohio, an African Methodist Episcopal
Church institution (f.1856), was named for William Wilberforce. In 2008
William Hague authored “William Wilberforce: The Life of the Great
Anti-Slave Trade Campaigner.”
(www.nndb.com/people/824/000049677/)(WSJ, 7/25/08,
p.A13)
1844 Jul 29, Franz Xaver Wolfgang
Mozart (53), composer, died.
(MC, 7/29/02)
1848 Jul 29, An Irish rebellion
against British rule was put down in a cabbage patch in Tipperary,
Ireland. Irish Nationalists under William Smith O'Brien were overcome
and arrested.
(HN, 7/29/98)(MC, 7/29/02)
1853 Jul 29, Pope Pius IX
established the archdiocese of San Francisco, Ca.
(SSFC, 7/27/03, p.A22)
1856 Jul 29, Robert Schumann (46),
German composer, died. He had starved himself to death in a madhouse.
The 1947 film "Song of Love" was based on the Robert and Clara Schuman.
In 2000 J.D. Landis authored "Longing" a novel based on the love affair
between Robert Schuman and Clara Wieck.
(BLW, 1963 ed. p.49)(WSJ, 9/22/00, p.W12)
1858 Jul 29, Japan signed a treaty
of commerce and friendship with the United States.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 215)(HN, 7/29/98)
1862 Jul 29, At Moore’s Mill in
Missouri, the Confederates were routed by Union guerrillas.
(HN, 7/29/98)
1862 Jul 29, Confederate spy Belle
Boyd (1844-1900) was arrested and confined at Old Capital Prison in
Washington, DC.
(AH, 6/03,
p.14)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belle_Boyd)
1864 Jul 29, During the Civil War,
Union forces tried to take Petersburg, Va., by exploding a mine under
Confederate defense lines. The attack failed. [see Jul 30]
(AP, 7/30/97)
1864 Jul 29, 3rd and last day of
battle at Deep Bottom Run, Virginia.
(MC, 7/29/02)
1864 Jul 29, Battle of Macon, GA
(Stoneman's Raid).
(MC, 7/29/02)
1866 Jul 29, Barbe-Nicole Clicquot
(b.1777), head of the Clicquot champagne business, died. She was
widowed at age 27 and transformed her husbands struggling business into
one of the great champagne houses of France. In 2008 Tilar J. Mazzeo
authored “The Widow Clicquot.”
(WSJ, 11/5/08,
p.A21)(http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbe-Nicole_Clicquot-Ponsardin)
1869 Jul 29, Booth Tarkington
(d.1946), US dramatist and novelist (17, Magnificent Ambersons), was
born. "Mystics always hope that science will some day overtake them."
(AP, 1/31/00)(MC, 7/29/02)
1871 Jul 29, [Gregory Efimovich]
Rasputin, mad Russian monk, seer, was born.
(MC, 7/29/02)
1875 Jul 29, Peasants in Bosnia
and Herzegovina in the Balkans rebelled against the Ottoman army.
(HN, 7/29/98)
1877 Jul 29, Charles William
Beebe, naturalist who explored the ocean depths in a bathysphere, was
born.
(HN, 7/29/98)
1878 Jul 29, Don Marquis (d.1937),
American dramatist, journalist, novelist and poet, was born. "The
trouble with the public is that there is too much of it."
(AP, 7/31/99)(HN, 7/29/01)
1883 Jul 29, Benito Mussolini,
dictator of Fascist Italy (1922-1943), was born.
(HN, 7/29/98)
1887 Jul 29, Sigmund Romberg,
composer, was born.
(HN, 7/29/01)
1890 Jul 29, Artist Vincent van
Gogh died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in Auvers-sur-Oise, France,
while painting "Wheatfield with Crows." He spent his last 70 days in
the care of Dr. Gachet and 78 paintings have been attributed to this
period. Earlier in the year he painted his "Garden at Auvers."
(WSJ, 2/8/96, p.A-12)(SFC, 5/26/96, Z1 p.2)(WSJ,
2/16/99, p.A20)(AP, 7/29/07)
1900 Jul 29, Owen Lattimore,
writer, was born.
(HN, 7/29/01)
1900 Jul 29, Italian King Humbert
I (b.1844) was assassinated by Gaetano Bresci, an Italian-born
anarchist who had resided in America before returning to Italy to
murder the king. The murder was believed to be due to the king’s
decision to fire cannon rounds into a crowd of starving peasants and
workers that had assembled asking the king for assistance; 100s were
killed; Bresci was arrested, found guilty, and sentenced to a life of
hard labor at Santo Stefano Prison on Ventotene Island. Humbert was
succeeded by his son, Victor Emmanuel III.
(AP, 7/29/00)(WSJ, 1/28/07,
p.P10)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umberto_I_of_Italy)
1905 Jul 29, US Secretary of War
William Howard Taft, under the approval of Pres. Theodore Roosevelt,
and PM of Japan Katsura Taro signed the Taft-Katsura Agreement, which
reinforced American and Japanese influence and spelled doom for Korean
sovereignty. Japan agreed not to interfere in the ongoing US rape of
the Philippines in return for the US agreement not to interfere with
Japan’s forthcoming rape of Korea.
(AH, 10/07,
p.56)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taft-Katsura_Agreement)
1905 Jul 29, Dag Hammerarskjold,
Nobel Peace Prize (1961) winning secretary-general of the United
Nations (1953-1961), was born in Sweden.
(HN, 7/29/98)
1905 Jul 29, Stanley Kunitz, poet,
was born.
(HN, 7/29/01)
1909 Jul 29, Chester Himes, author
(Cotton Comes to Harlem, If He Hollers, Let Him Go), was born.
(HN, 7/29/01)
1920 Jul 29, Mexican rebel Pancho
Villa surrendered.
(MC, 7/29/02)
1914 Jul 29, Transcontinental
telephone service began with the first phone conversation between New
York and San Francisco.
(AP, 7/29/97)
1915 Jul 29, U.S. Marines landed
at Port-au-Prince to protect American interests in Haiti.
(HN, 7/29/98)
1918 Jul 29, Edwin Greene
O'Connor, author (The Last Hurrah), was born.
(HN, 7/29/01)
1918 Jul 29, Mary Lee Settle,
novelist, was born.
(HN, 7/29/01)
1921 Jul 29, Adolf Hitler became
the president of the Nationalist Socialist German Workers' Party
(Nazis).
(HN, 7/29/98)
1923 Jul 29, Albert Einstein spoke
on pacifism in Berlin.
(MC, 7/29/02)
1925 Jul 29, Mikos Michael George
Theodorakis, composer (Raven), was born in Chios, Greece.
(MC, 7/29/02)
1927 Jul 29, Bellevue Hospital in
NY installed the 1st iron lung.
(MC, 7/29/02)
1930 Jul 29, Paul Taylor,
choreographer and dancer, was born.
(HN, 7/29/01)
1930 Jul 29, The US Coast Guard
towed the Canadian rum-runner Ray Roberts into SF with a cargo of 1,050
cases of whiskey.
(SFC, 7/29/05, p.F7)
1935 Jul 29, Peter Schreier, tenor
(Dresden State Opera 1961), was born in Meissen, Germany.
(MC, 7/29/02)
1936 Jul 29, RCA showed the 1st
real TV program (dancing, film on locomotives, Bonwit Teller fashion
show and monologue from Tobacco Road and comedy). [see Nov 6]
(MC, 7/29/02)
1937 Jul 29, Japanese troops
occupied Peking and Tientsin. [see Aug 8]
(MC, 7/29/02)
1941 Jul 29, David Warner, actor
(Star Trek VI, Time Bandits), was born in Manchester, NH.
(MC, 7/29/02)
1944 Jul 29, Allied air force
bombed Germany for 6 hours.
(MC, 7/29/02)
1945 Jul 29, After delivering
parts of the first atomic bomb to the island of Tinian, the U.S.S.
Indianapolis was hit and sunk by the I-58 Japanese submarine around
midnight. Some 879 survivors jumped into the sea and were adrift for 4
days. Nearly 600 died before help arrived. In 1958 Richard F. Newcomb
authored "Abandon Ship," the story of the Indianapolis and the
subsequent court-martial of Capt. Charles Butler McVey III. [see Jul
30] Charles B. McVay III was exonerated in 2001.
(HN, 7/29/98)(SFEC, 8/20/00, Par p.4)(SFC, 7/14/01,
p.A9)
1948 Jul 29, Britain's King George
VI opened the first Olympics since 1936 in London. Germany and Japan
were not invited and the Soviet Union chose not to attend. Alice
Coachman of the US was the first black woman to win a gold medal when
she triumphed in the high jump. Audrey "Mickey" Patterson-Tyler
(1927-1996) was the first black woman to win an Olympic medal. She won
a bronze medal in the 200-meter dash.
(TMC, 1994, p.1948)(WSJ, 6/7/96, p.A1)(SFEC,
8/25/96, p.B5)(AP, 7/29/97)(WSJ, 4/12/08, p.R2)
1949 Jul 29, Airlift in
West-Germany to West-Berlin ended. [see Sep 30]
(MC, 7/29/02)
1953 Jul 29, Ken Burns, epic
documentary maker (Civil War, Baseball), was born.
(MC, 7/29/02)
1956 Jul 29, Jacques Cousteau's
Calypso anchored in at a record 7,500 m under water.
(MC, 7/29/02)
1957 Jul 29, The International
Atomic Energy Agency was established.
(AP, 7/29/97)
1957 Jul 29, Jack Paar made his
debut as host of NBC's late-night TV show "Tonight" and stayed on till
1962.
(WSJ, 5/1/97, p.A16)(SFC, 5/7/97, p.E1)(AP, 7/29/97)
1958 Jul 29, President Eisenhower
signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act, which created NASA.
(AP, 7/29/97)
1965 Jul 29, Beatles movie "Help"
premiered and Queen Elizabeth attended.
(MC, 7/29/02)
1966 Jul 29, Bob Dylan was hurt in
motorcycle accident near Woodstock, NY.
(MC, 7/29/02)
1966 Jul 29, Edward Gordon Craig
(b.1872), the son of English actress Ellen Terry, died. He had authored
the controversial manifesto “On the Art of the Theater” (1911) and
envisioned that the future of theater lay in lights, sounds, shadows
and screens.
(Econ, 8/30/08,
p.80)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Gordon_Craig)
1967 Jul 29, Fire swept the USS
Forrestal in the Gulf of Tonkin, off the coast of Vietnam, killing 134
servicemen with $100 million in damage. One survivor was Navy Lt. Cmdr.
John McCain, who later became a US senator.
(AP, 7/29/07)
1968 Jul 29, Pope Paul VI issued
the encyclical Humanae Vitae, which reaffirmed the Church’s opposition
to abortion and to all contraception except the rhythm method.
(WUD, 1994, p.1687)(AP, 7/29/98)(SSFC, 7/8/01, p.A4)
1970 Jul 29, Six days of race
rioting began in Hartford, Ct.
(www.fsmitha.com/time1970.htm)
1970 Jul 29, John G.B. Barbirolli
(b.1899), English conductor, composer, died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Barbirolli)
1970 Jul 29, Jonel Perlea (69),
Romania-born composer, died in NY. In 1957 he became the principal
conductor of the Connecticut Symphony and continued there for ten years.
(http://soundfountain.org/rem/remperlea.html)
1973 Jul 29, A Greek plebiscite
was held by the ruling dictatorial regime under Georgios Papadopoulos
and resulted in the abolition of monarchy and the establishment of a
Republic.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_plebiscite,_1973)
1974 Jul 29, The Episcopal Church
ordained female priests in Philadelphia.
(www.episcopalchurch.org/41685_42321_ENG_HTM.htm)
1974 Jul 29, The House Judiciary
Committee approved Article 2 in the impeachment against Pres. Nixon.
(www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/impeachments/nixon.htm)
1974 Jul 29, Cass Elliot (b.1941),
singer (Mamas and Papas), was found dead in London from an apparent
heart attack.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cass_Elliot)
1975 Jul 29, President Ford became
the first U.S. president to visit the site of the Nazi concentration
camp Auschwitz in Poland as he paid tribute to the camp's victims.
(AP, 7/29/97)
1980 Jul 29, A state funeral was
held in Cairo, Egypt, for the deposed Shah of Iran, who had died two
days earlier at age 60.
(AP, 7/29/00)
1981 Jul 29, Robert Moses
(b.1888), "master builder" of mid-20th century New York City, Long
Island, and other suburbs, died. Moses shaped NYC from the 1930s to the
1960s using urban renewal projects to replace many lively neighborhoods
that became barren and dangerous housing projects. In 1974 Robert Caro
authored “The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York," a
biography of Robert Moses.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Moses)(Econ,
9/23/06, p.33)(Econ, 2/17/07, p.88)
1981 Jul 29, Britain's Prince
Charles married Lady Diana Spencer at St. Paul's Cathedral in London.
They were divorced in 1996.
(TMC, 1994, p.1981)(AP, 7/29/99)
1982 Jul 29, It was announced that
the painting "Gallery of the Louvre" by Samuel Morse (1791-1872) had
sold for $3,250,000.
(www.cedmagic.com/home/ced-digest/ced-digest-vol-07/ced-digest0730.html)
1983 Jul 29, David Niven (b.1910),
actor, died in Switzerland.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Niven)
1985 Jul 29, The space shuttle
Challenger began an eight-day mission that got off to a shaky start.
The spacecraft achieved a safe orbit even though one of its main
engines shut down prematurely after lift-off.
(AP, 7/29/05)
1986 Jul 29, A federal jury in New
York found that the National Football League had committed an antitrust
violation against the rival United States Football League. But in a
hollow victory for the USFL, the jury ordered the NFL to pay token
damages of only $3.
(AP, 7/29/06)
1987 Jul 29, Testifying for a
second day before the Iran-Contra congressional committees, Attorney
General Edwin Meese strongly defended his inquiry into the affair.
(AP, 7/29/97)
1988 Jul 29, FDIC bailed out 1st
Republic Bank, Dallas, with $4 billion.
(http://tinyurl.com/lubu9)
1988 Jul 29, NASA officials
delayed a critical test-firing of the space shuttle Discovery's main
engines another three days. The test on Aug. 10 was judged a success.
(AP, 7/29/98)
1989 Jul 29, Ji Yun Lee (20) died
in a fire at a church camp near East Stroudsburg, Pa. Her father Han
Tak Lee (54), a South Korean-born operator of a clothing store in NYC,
was arrested for arson. He was convicted of murder on Sep 17, 1990. In
2006 Lee’s attorneys appealed to the state Supreme Court citing new
advances in arson investigations.
(SSFC, 12/10/06, p.A39)
1989 Jul 29, Poland's newly
elected president, Wojciech Jaruzelski, resigned as Communist Party
general secretary and was succeeded by Mieczyslaw Rakowski (1927-2008).
Rakowski, a historian and journalist, remained chairman of the
communist Polish United Workers' Party until the party was dissolved at
its January 1990 congress during the country's bloodless transition to
democracy.
(AP, 7/29/99)(AP, 11/8/08)
1990 Jul 29, Bruno Kreisky,
Austria’s longest-serving chancellor and an architect of its policy of
neutrality, died at age 79.
(AP, 7/29/00)
1991 Jul 29, President Bush
arrived in Moscow for a superpower summit with Soviet President Mikhail
S. Gorbachev that included the signing of the Strategic Arms Reduction
Treaty.
(AP, 7/29/01)
1992 Jul 29, The
U.S. 400-meter freestyle relay team won the gold medal at the Barcelona
Summer Olympics.
(AP, 7/29/97)
1992 Jul 29, Former East German
leader Erich Honecker was arrested on his return to his homeland and
charged with manslaughter; he was later permitted to leave after he was
diagnosed with terminal cancer.
(AP, 7/29/97)
1992 Jul 29, Newsday published
reports of death camps for Muslims and Croats run by the Serbian Army
in northern Bosnia.
(SFC, 6/11/96, p.A14)
1993 Jul 29, The Israeli Supreme
Court acquitted retired Ohio autoworker John Demjanjuk of being Nazi
death camp guard "Ivan the Terrible," and threw out his death sentence.
Demjanjuk was set free.
(AP, 7/29/98)
1994 Jul 29, US Supreme Court
nominee Stephen G. Breyer won Senate approval.
(AP, 7/29/99)
1994 Jul 29, Abortion opponent
Paul Hill (40) shot and killed Dr. John Bayard Britton (69) and
Britton's bodyguard, James H. Barrett, outside the Ladies Center clinic
in Pensacola, Fla. Hill was later convicted and sentenced to death.
Hill was executed Sep 3, 2003.
(AP, 7/29/99)(SFC, 9/2/03, p.A7)
1994 Jul 29, Jesse Timmendequas, a
convicted child molester, raped and strangled 7-year-old Megan Kanka in
New Jersey. The case spawned the 1996 "Megan’s Law," the
requirement that communities be informed of paroled sex offenders
living in their midst. A jury ordered the death penalty for
Timmendequas in 1997. He remained on New Jersey's Death Row until
December 17, 2007, when the New Jersey Legislature abolished the
state's death penalty. Timmendequas' sentence was then commuted to life
in prison without parole.
(SFC, 6/21/97,
p.A2)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_Timmendequas)
1995 Jul 29, President Clinton and
Republicans marked the 30th anniversary of Medicare by accusing one
another of putting the program’s future at risk.
(AP, 7/29/00)
1996 Jul 29, At the Atlanta
Olympics, Carl Lewis won the gold medal in the long jump, becoming only
the fifth Olympian to win gold medals in four straight games. Michael
Johnson won the 400-meter dash, Allen Johnson the 110-meter hurdles.
(AP, 7/29/97)
1996 Jul 29, China held a nuclear
test explosion that it promised would be its last, just hours before
international negotiators in Geneva began discussing a global ban on
such testing. Beijing said it would seek some changes in the global
test-ban treaty currently being fashioned by negotiators.
(WSJ, 7/30/96, p.A1)(AP, 7/29/97)
1996 Jul 29, In Kashmir,
India, a grenade exploded in a Muslim shrine that killed 2 and
injured some 100 people.
(WSJ, 7/30/96, p.A1)
1997 Jul 29, Members of US
Congress from both parties embraced compromise legislation designed to
balance the budget while cutting taxes.
(AP, 7/29/98)
1997 Jul 29, Once a worldwide
symbol of industrial pollution, Minamata Bay, Japan, was declared free
of mercury 40 years after contaminated food fish were blamed for birth
defects and deaths.
(AP, 7/29/98)
1997 Jul 29, In Russia the deputy
head of a construction firm in Moscow and the head of a shipping firm
in St. Petersburg were killed as well as 2 aides in apparent contract
shootings.
(WSJ, 7/29/97, p.A12)
1997 Jul 29, In Ankara, Turkey,
some 15,000 people protested government plans to curb Muslim schools.
At least 13 protestors were injured and 3 officers were suspended by
Prime Minister Yilmaz.
(WSJ, 7/30/97, p.A1)
1998 Jul 29, Pres. Clinton reached
an agreement with Kenneth Starr to provide closed-circuit videotaped
testimony at the White House on Aug. 17 about whether he tried to cover
up a sexual relationship with Monica Lewinsky.
(SFC, 7/30/98, p.A1)(AP, 7/29/99)
1998 Jul 29, GM workers began
returning to their jobs after ratifying a strike settlement.
(SFC, 7/30/98, p.A3)
1998 Jul 29, The Powerball jackpot
of 20 East Coast states reached $292 million and the winning numbers
were 8-39-43-45-49. A group of 13 machinists from Ohio, who bought
their tickets in Indiana, elected to take a $161.5 million lump sum
payout.
(SFC, 7/30/98, p.A2)(SFC, 7/31/98, p.A3)
1998 Jul 29, The O.J. Simpson
6,200 sq. foot mansion at 360 N. Rockingham in LA was demolished. It
had sold to an investment banker for $4 million and a new home was
planned for the site.
(SFC, 7/30/98, p.A3)
1998 Jul 29, Jerome Robbins, a
master choreographer of modern ballet' and a major Broadway innovator,
died in Manhattan at age 79. In 2001 Greg Lowrance authored the
biography "Dance With Demons," and Christine Conrad authored a
pictorial biography "Jerome Robbins: That Broadway Man, That Ballet
Man."
(SFC, 7/30/98, p.A10)(AP, 7/29/99)(WSJ, 5/4/01,
p.W10)
1998 Jul 29, Brazil sold its
Telebras telephone system to int’l. bidders for $19 billion. The 12
subsidiaries were sold one by one while demonstrators protested saying
that Telebras was the property of the Brazilian people.
(SFC, 7/30/98, p.D2)
1998 Jul 29, A human rights
tribunal ruled that Canadian public servants in female-dominated job
categories deserved compensation for unequal pay. Payment was to be
retroactive to March, 1985, and would range from $10k to 20k.
(SFC, 7/30/98, p.A12)
1998 Jul 29, In Japan the lower
house of parliament approved Keizo Obuchi for prime minister. the upper
house endorsed opposition leader Naoto Kan. The lower house had the
power to overrule any upper house decision.
(SFC, 7/30/98, p.A12)
1998 Jul 29, In Kenya John Harun
Mwau, head of the anti-corruption authority, was suspended by Pres. Moi.
(SFC, 7/31/98, p.D2)
1998 Jul 29, In Sierra Leone a
report called "Sowing Terror" was published that documented the
violence of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council and the
Revolutionary United Front. The rebel campaign code-named "No Living
Thing" maimed civilians and sent them as messengers to the government
of Pres. Ahmad Kabbah. Rebel leader Foday Sankoh was turned over by
Nigeria to face charges in Sierra Leone.
(SFC, 7/30/98, p.A12,14)
1998 Jul 29, In Sudan a UNICEF
report said 130 people were dying every day in Ajiep out of a refugee
population of 70,000 from famine. A program to provide 15,000 tons of
food a month was planned. It would exceed the 1948 Berlin Airlift.
(SFC, 7/29/98, p.A10)(SFC, 7/30/98, p.A16)
1998 Jul 29-30, In Australia
giardia and cryptosporidium were found throughout the water supply of
Sydney. PM John Howard called the crises an international embarrassment.
(SFC, 8/1/98, p.A11)
1999 Jul 29, US warplanes struck
targets in northern and southern Iraq after anti-aircraft artillery
shot at them. Iraq reported 8 people killed.
(SFC, 7/30/99, p.D3)
1999 Jul 29, A federal judge
ordered Pres. Clinton to pay $90,000 to the lawyers of Paula Jones in
compensation for extra work due his false testimony.
(SFC, 7/30/99, p.A1)
1999 Jul 29, California Governor
Gray Davis abandoned the state’s effort to preserve Proposition 187, a
divisive voter-approved ban on schooling and other public benefits for
illegal immigrants.
(AP, 7/29/00)
1999 Jul 29, In the NYC area
federal and municipal authorities arrested 38 people in connection with
a gambling operation that brought in over $50 million a year from over
500 illegal gambling spots.
(SFC, 7/30/99, p.A9)
1999 Jul 29, The MGM Grand Detroit
Casino opened in downtown Detroit in a former IRS building. It was the
1st of 3 planned temporary casinos. It closed in 2007 just before the
opening of a new $800 million MGM Grand across the street.
(SFC, 7/30/99, p.D5)(WSJ, 9/26/07, p.B1)
1999 Jul 29, It was reported that
research led by Dr. Robert Weinberg of MIT had created a cancerous
human cell by genetic modification of a normal one.
(SFC, 7/29/99, p.C2)
1999 Jul 29, In Atlanta Mark O.
Barton (44) shot and killed 9 people in 2 day-trading offices in the
Buckhead district of Atlanta. He wounded another 13 before shooting
himself to death. Police also found the dead bodies of his wife Leigh
Ann Barton (27) and 2 children, Matthew (11) and Elizabeth Mychelle (7)
in suburban Stockbridge. Barton had been a suspect in the 1993 murders
of his first wife and mother-in-law.
(SFC, 7/30/99, p.A1)(AP, 7/29/00)
1999 Jul 29, Belgium announced
that it had quarantined 175 more farms and that it would destroy all
115,000 tons of dioxin suspect beef, pork and poultry. Testing for all
pork and poultry products for export was extended to Aug 31.
(SFC, 7/30/99, p.A13)
1999 Jul 29, In Serajevo a 2-day
conference by leaders of over 60 countries was to begin for a Balkan
Stability Pact nicknamed "Marshall II."
(SFC, 7/27/99, p.A8)
1999 July 29, In China authorities
issued an arrest warrant for Li Hongzhi, the founder of Falun Gong
living in NY.
(SFC, 7/30/99, p.A12)
1999 Jul 29, In South Africa some
300,000 workers staged a public sector strike and demanded a 10% pay
hike.
(SFC, 7/30/99, p.D3)
1999 Jul 29, In Sri Lanka a
suicide bomber killed Neelan Tiruchelvam, a leader of the Tamil
minority, in Colombo. Tiruchelvam had helped draft changes to the
constitution that would grant greater autonomy to Tamil dominated
areas. The bombing appeared to be the work of the Liberation Tigers of
Tamil Elam (LTTE).
(SFC, 7/30/99, p.D2)
2000 Jul 29, In China it was
reported that the Songhua River had completely dried up under the
drought that has ruined 35 million acres. 16.2 million Chinese were
left short of water.
(SFC, 7/29/00, p.D8)
2000 Jul 29, In Colombia rebels
attacked the town of Arboleda and claimed to have killed nearly 2 dozen
police officers. Troops and national police were flown to the site the
next day aboard US-supplied helicopters.
(SFC, 7/31/00, p.A12)
2000 Jul 29, Yasser Arafat set off
on a multi-country tour to drum up support for the Palestinians in the
Middle East peace process.
(AP, 7/29/01)
2000 Jul 29, In Spain a Socialist
politician was killed and Basque separatists were blamed.
(WSJ, 7/31/00, p.A1)
2001 Jul 29, In Ohio a tractor
engine exploded at a county fair and 4 people were killed in Medina.
(SFC, 7/30/01, p.A3)
2001 Jul 29, In France Lance
Armstrong won his 3rd straight Tour de France bicycle race. He became
the first American to win the Tour three times in a row.
(SFC, 7/30/01, p.A1)(AP, 7/29/02)
2001 Jul 29, In Japan the
governing Liberal Democratic Party of PM Koizumi won 64 of 121
contested seats in the 247-seat upper house.
(SFC, 7/30/01, p.A1)
2001 Jul 29, In Northern Ireland
Gavin Brett (18), a Protestant, was killed while standing with Catholic
friends in Belfast. The Red Hand Defenders took credit, their 2nd this
month.
(SFC, 7/31/01, p.A7)
2001 Jul 29, Edward Gierek, the
Polish communist ruler who pushed for reform during the 1970s but was
forced from power in 1980 over mounting debt and strikes, died at 88.
(AP, 7/29/02)
2001 Jul 29, In Puerto Rico the
residents of Vieques island voted on stopping the practice bombing by
the US military. Opponents of the navy bombing gathered 68% of the vote.
(SSFC, 7/29/01, p.A9)(SFC, 7/30/01, p.A3)
2002 Jul 29, The Capitol Limited
Amtrak train derailed outside Washington DC and over 100 people were
injured.
(SFC, 7/30/02, p.A4)(AP, 7/29/03)
2002 Jul 29, The DJIA rose 447
points to 8,711. It was the 3rd largest point gain in Dow history.
Nasdaq rose 73 to 1,335.
(SFC, 7/30/02, p.A1)
2002 Jul 29, On a mission to stamp
out Islamic militancy in Southeast Asia, U.S. Secretary of State Colin
Powell held talks with Thai leaders, who deny their country is facing a
Muslim insurgency.
(Reuters, 7/29/02)
2002 Jul 29, In Afghanistan, a man
identified by authorities as a would-be suicide bomber with more than a
half-ton of explosives in his car was stopped by a chance traffic
accident just 300 yards from the U.S. Embassy.
(AP, 7/29/03)
2002 Jul 29, In Canada at least 23
young Cubans from a group who traveled to see Pope John Paul II decided
not to return to the communist-ruled island.
(Reuters, 7/29/02)
2002 Jul 29, In Colombia a small
bomb exploded outside a hardware store in downtown Bogota, killing a
17-year-old girl and injuring 10 other people.
(AP, 7/29/02)
2002 Jul 29, Pope John Paul II
arrived in Guatemala. Thousands of young people packed into a soccer
stadium and spent the night waving candles and chanting "John Paul II,
Guatemala loves you.
(AP, 7/30/02)
2002 Jul 29, The United Nations
indefinitely suspended aid operations in Chechnya after the kidnapping
last week of a Russian aid worker in the breakaway republic.
(AP, 7/29/02)
2002 Jul 29, In Nigeria
presidential bodyguards opened fire on young men who were throwing
stones near the rear of Obasanjo's mile-long motorcade. Some people
were seen falling with multiple gunshot wounds, and at least six limp
bodies were seen being hauled away.
(AP, 7/29/02)
2002 Jul 29, Thousands of
Palestinians defied the Israeli army's around-the-clock curfew for the
second straight day, and took to the streets of Nablus as shops and
banks opened to accommodate them.
(AP, 7/29/02)
2002 Jul 29, Serbia's ruling
coalition moved to oust all 45 members of Yugoslav President Vojislav
Kostunica's party from parliament, the latest threat to Yugoslavia's
political stability.
(AP, 7/29/02)
2002 Jul 29, Sudanese
government-backed forces killed a foreign aid worker and abducted three
others in an oil-rich area of Sudan. A rebel leader said the government
killed some 1,000 civilians in a separate attack in the same region.
(AP, 7/30/02)
2003 Jul 29, Boston's Bill Mueller
became the first player in major league history to hit grand slams from
both sides of the plate in a game and connected for three homers in a
14-7 win at Texas.
(AP, 7/29/04)
2003 Jul 29, President Bush
refused to release a congressional report on possible links between
Saudi Arabian officials and the Sept. 11 hijackers, saying disclosure
"would help the enemy" by revealing intelligence sources and methods.
(AP, 7/29/04)
2003 Jul 29, American soldiers in
Tikrit overpowered and arrested a bodyguard who rarely left Saddam
Hussein's side.
(AP, 7/29/03)
2003 Jul 29, A heat wave and a
drought gauged a multibillion-dollar hole into Europe's economy,
crippling shipping, shriveling crops and driving up the cost of
electricity.
(AP, 7/29/03)
2003 Jul 29, Forest fires swept
through parts of the ritzy French Riviera for a second day, devastating
scenic woods and forcing thousands to be evacuated. At least four
people have been killed.
(AP, 7/29/03)
2003 Jul 29, In Ivory Coast
thousands of college students rioted in Abidjan, demanding compensation
for a lost school year canceled by Ivory Coast's civil war.
(AP, 7/29/03)
2003 Jul 29, In Liberia Pres.
Charles Taylor's forces launched what they called a major counterattack
on the key port of Buchanan, battling to take back Liberia's
second-largest city a day after it fell to insurgents.
(AP, 7/29/03)
2003 Jul 29, A land mine
explosion shattered a military convoy near the border with rebel
Chechnya, killing five Russian soldiers.
(AP, 7/30/03)
2003 Jul 29, Foday Sankoh (65), an
indicted Sierra Leone war criminal whose rebel forces were notorious
for hacking off the limbs, lips and ears of civilians, died in UN
custody at a Freetown hospital.
(AP, 7/30/03)
2004 Jul 29, John Kerry gave his
acceptance speech as the Democratic presidential nominee before 15,000
supporters in Boston’s FleetCenter: “I’m John Kerry, and I’m reporting
for duty.”
(SFC, 7/30/04, p.A1)
2004 Jul 29, Target Corp. of
Minneapolis announced it would sell Mervyn’s to Sun Capital Partners in
Boca Raton, Fla., for $1.65 billion.
(SSFC, 8/8/04, p.J1)
2004 Jul 29, Four Indonesian
security officers convicted over atrocities during East Timor's 1999
violence-marred independence vote were acquitted.
(AFP, 8/6/04)
2004 Jul 29, Iraqi Prime Minister
Ayad Allawi met with Secretary of State Colin Powell in Saudi Arabia
and urged Muslim nations to dispatch troops to Iraq to help defeat an
insurgency that he said threatens all Islamic countries.
(AP, 7/29/04)(WSJ, 7/30/04, p.A1)
2004 Jul 29, Israeli forces killed
2 top Palestinian militants in Gaza.
(WSJ, 7/30/04, p.A1)
2005 Jul 29, The US Senate
approved the nomination of Karen Hughes, a former political adviser to
President Bush, as the State Department's top public relations
official, and Rep. Christopher Cox to chair the Securities and Exchange
Commission.
(AP, 7/30/05)
2005 Jul 29, Senate Majority
Leader Bill Frist threw his support behind House-passed legislation to
expand federal financing for human embryonic stem cell research,
breaking with President Bush and religious conservatives.
(AP, 7/29/05)
2005 Jul 29, US Congress approved
a $286.4 billion transit bill following a 22-month delay.
(SFC, 7/30/05, p.A1)
2005 Jul 29, The U.S. Army said it
will pull out of 13 bases in southern Germany as part of its
repositioning of American forces around the world.
(AP, 7/29/05)
2005 Jul 29, The United Food and
Commercial Workers with 1.4 million members departed the AFC-CIO. It
planned to focus on recruiting new members along with the departing
Teamsters and Service Employees.
(SFC, 7/30/05, p.C2)
2005 Jul 29, Cabaret singer
Hildegarde (99), whose career spanned almost seven decades, died in New
York.
(AP, 7/29/06)
2005 Jul 29, Al McKibbon (86),
jazz bassist, died in LA. He brought a masterly fusion of jazz and
Latin music to the George Shearing quintet and other groups in the
1940s and '50s.
(AP, 8/6/05)
2005 Jul 29, Scientists reported
that a 10th planet, bigger than Pluto, is farthest-known object in the
solar system. It was currently 9 billion miles away from the sun, or
about three times Pluto's current distance from the Sun and orbited the
Sun once every 560 years. It was temporarily named 2003 UB313 (Xena).
The same scientists reported 2 more objects in the Kuiper Belt on Sep 8
and named the trio Xena, Santa and Easterbunny.
(AP, 7/30/05)(Econ, 8/6/05, p.64)(SFC, 9/9/05, p.A5)
2005 Jul 29, The UN Security
Council unanimously adopted a US-sponsored resolution expanding UN
sanctions against al-Qaida terrorists and Afghanistan's former Taliban
rulers to affiliates and splinter groups.
(AP, 7/29/06)
2005 Jul 29, The UN's cancer
research agency added hormone pills to the list of substances that can
cause cancer.
(AP, 7/29/05)
2005 Jul 29, Thousands of
Bangladeshi Islamic activists staged a noisy protest in the capital
Dhaka after US congressman Tom Tancredo suggested the US might consider
bombing holy sites, including Mecca. Colorado Republican Tom Tancredo
made the comment on July 14 in answer to a radio host's question about
a possible response to any hypothetical nuclear terrorist attack on the
US.
(Reuters, 7/29/05)
2005 Jul 29, London police raided
2 apartments in West London and arrested three people connected to the
failed July 21 transit bombings.
(AP, 7/29/05)
2005 Jul 29, The British army
began closing or demolishing military installations in the Irish
Republican Army's rural heartland in a rapid response to the IRA's
declaration to renounce violence and disarm.
(AP, 7/29/05)
2005 Jul 29, Xinhua News said
China plans to sign a deal next month to buy 50 Boeing 787 Dreamliner
jetliners in a deal worth $6 billion.
(AP, 7/29/05)
2005 Jul 29, The UN Security
Council voted unanimously to extend an arms embargo and other sanctions
against Congo for another year.
(AP, 7/29/05)
2005 Jul 29, The U.N. mission to
Haiti said it will receive 750 more peacekeeping troops to help control
the violence that threatens to undermine fall elections.
(AP, 7/29/05)
2005 Jul 29, In Honduras Timothy
Markey, a US Drug Enforcement Administration agent, was shot and killed
in an apparent robbery attempt at a Roman Catholic shrine outside
Tegucigalpa.
(AP, 7/30/05)
2005 Jul 29, In western India the
death toll from record monsoon rains approached 900.
(AFP, 7/29/05)
2005 Jul 29, Osman Hussain (27), a
Briton with Ethiopian citizenship, was arrested in Rome after
investigators traced his cell phone calls across Europe. He is accused
of trying to attack the Shepherd's Bush subway station in west London.
(AP, 7/30/05)
2005 Jul 29, A suicide attacker
detonated an explosives belt in a crowd of Iraqi army recruits in
Rabiya near the Syrian border, killing at least 52 and wounding 93.
After the blast, US and Iraqi troops opened fire believing they were
under attack. Some of the army recruits were killed by the gunfire.
(AP, 7/29/05)(SFC, 7/30/05, p.A3)(AP, 7/31/05)
2005 Jul 29, In Kashmir 15 people,
including six journalists, were wounded during a fierce gunbattle
between troops and Muslim rebels in Srinagar. Rebels killed 2 soldiers
in a grenade and gun attack on a police patrol.
(AP, 7/29/05)(AP, 7/30/05)
2005 Jul 29, The ASEAN summit
concluded in Vientiane, Laos. Australia agreed to sign a non-aggression
pact with the group in exchange for an invitation to another summit,
where ASEAN hopes to start work on an East Asian free-trade area.
(Econ, 7/30/05, p.39)
2005 Jul 29, Thousands of Rwandan
prisoners began streaming out of jail, following a government decision
to free 36,000 inmates, the majority of whom have confessed to taking
part in the country's 1994 genocide.
(AP, 7/29/05)
2005 Jul 29, Turkey signed an
accord extending its customs union with the EU to Cyprus and other new
EU members, a key step toward opening membership talks with the bloc.
(AP, 7/29/05)
2005 Jul 29, A plane with 440
Uzbek refugees left Kyrgyzstan for Romania.
(AP, 7/29/05)
2005 Jul 29, Uzbekistan notified
the State Department that US military aircraft and personnel must leave
Karshi-Khanabad air base, commonly referred to as K2, that has been an
important hub for American military operations in Afghanistan.
(AP, 7/30/05)
2006 Jul 29, US Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice flew back to the Middle East for diplomatic
discussions aimed at ending the violence there.
(AP, 7/29/06)
2006 Jul 29, Actor-director Mel
Gibson issued a lengthy statement apologizing for his drunken-driving
arrest and for what he called his "despicable" statements toward the
deputies who arrested him in Malibu, Calif.
(AP, 7/29/07)
2006 Jul 29, Nebraska
climatologist Mark Svoboda said more than 60% of the US has abnormally
dry or drought conditions, stretching from Georgia to Arizona and
across the north through the Dakotas, Minnesota, Montana and Wisconsin.
(AP, 7/29/06)
2006 Jul 29, In Brazil about
$200,000 was found in a house in Natal, about 1,400 miles northeast of
Sao Paulo. Police were convinced the money was part of the $70 million
stolen from the Central Bank in Fortaleza in Aug 2005. By this time
only $8 million was recovered.
(AP, 8/4/06)
2006 Jul 29, The Middle East
crisis dominated the first full day of PM Tony Blair's tour of
California, forcing his promotion of British business interests here to
take a back seat. Blair's former foreign secretary, Jack Straw,
condemned Israeli action against Lebanon as "disproportionate" in the
first such comment by a senior British government minister. PM Blair
said an international agreement, leading to a cease-fire in the
Israel-Hezbollah conflict, is possible sometime in the next few days.
(AFP, 7/30/06)(AP, 7/29/06)
2006 Jul 29, Daniel Lev (72), a
leading Indonesia scholar and longtime University of Washington
professor, died following a battle with lung cancer.
(AP, 8/2/06)
2006 Jul 29, US-led coalition
forces detained 4 suspected al-Qaida operatives in eastern Afghanistan.
In southern Afghanistan US-led coalition forces and Afghan police
killed 20 suspected Taliban who had attempted an ambush in Uruzgan
province. In Kandahar province 3 militants blew themselves up as they
laid an explosive on a road.
(AP, 7/29/06)(AP, 7/30/06)
2006 Jul 29, In Bangladesh more
than 20,000 activists marched in Dhaka, defying driving rains, in the
fifth day of protests to press for electoral reforms ahead of January
polls.
(AFP, 7/29/06)
2006 Jul 29, Workers at Wal-Mart
stores in China formed their 1st trade union.
(SFC, 7/31/06, p.A3)(Econ, 9/23/06, p.43)
2006 Jul 29, Iran state radio said
the government would reject a proposed UN resolution to suspend uranium
enrichment by Aug. 31 or face the threat of international sanctions.
State media also reported that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has
ordered government and cultural bodies to use modified Persian words to
replace foreign words that have crept into the language, such as
"pizzas" which will now be known as "elastic loaves."
(AP, 7/29/06)
2006 Jul 29, In Tehran the
presidents of Iran and Venezuela pledged to support one another in
disputes with Washington, with the Iranian calling Hugo Chavez "a
brother and trench mate."
(AP, 7/29/06)
2006 Jul 29, A car packed with
explosives blew up in a residential district of Kirkuk, killing four
people and injuring 13. A Sunni cleric from a tribe opposed to al-Qaida
in Iraq was killed while driving in Samarra. 4 unidentified bodies
riddled with bullets were found, two behind a school in western Baghdad
and two by the Tigris river. Gunmen fired on a taxi in Baghdad carrying
a father and son, killing the boy. The US command announced that it was
sending 3,700 troops to Baghdad to try to quell the sectarian violence
sweeping the capital, and a US official said more American soldiers
would follow as the military gears up to take the streets from gunmen.
The tours of 4,000 US soldiers in Iraq were extended for up to 4
months. 4 US Marines were killed in combat in Anbar province.
(AP, 7/29/06)(AP, 7/30/06)(SSFC, 7/30/06, p.A3)(SFC,
7/31/06, p.A3)
2006 Jul 29, Israel said it had
pulled forces out of Hezbollah's stronghold in south Lebanon after
completing its current operation there. Israeli planes targeted bridges
in southern and eastern Lebanon in new airstrikes, destroying one in a
resort area on the Syrian border. Israel rejected a request by the UN
for a three-day cease-fire in Lebanon to deliver humanitarian supplies
and allow civilians to leave the war zone.
(AP, 7/29/06)
2006 Jul 29, Israeli tanks pushed
back into the Gaza Strip before dawn, a day after ending a bloody,
3-day sweep that killed 30 Palestinians. Israeli troops killed 2
militants including Hani Awijan (29), a leader of the radical Islamic
Jihad’s militant wing in Nablus, in a West Bank raid.
(AP, 7/29/06)(AP, 7/30/06)
2006 Jul 29, A strike protesting
against a visit by India's president to Indian Kashmir shut much of the
region for a second day, while four soldiers were reportedly hurt in a
rebel attack.
(AFP, 7/29/06)
2006 Jul 29, Somalia's PM Mohammed
Ali Gedi accused Egypt, Libya and Iran of providing weapons for Islamic
militants who have seized control of much of this country's south.
(AP, 7/29/06)
2006 Jul 29, Sri Lanka's air force
bombed Tamil Tiger rebel positions for a fourth day, killing at least 8
rebels and wounding 14.
(AP, 7/29/06)
2006 Jul 29, Marathon talks to end
Ukraine's political paralysis broke off without an agreement between
President Viktor Yushchenko and the pro-Russian parliamentary majority
that has nominated his former Orange Revolution rival as prime minister.
(AP, 7/29/06)
2006 Jul 29, An oil spill occurred
in Russia’s western Bryansk region on the border with Ukraine and
Belarus. It affected a 4-square-mile area and contaminated water
sources. 2 days later Russia’s Natural Resources Ministry said
that the oil pipeline leak threatened environmental damage, but the
pipeline’s operator said the spill only affected a 4,000-square-foot
area and that the consequences had been dealt with over the weekend.
(AP, 7/31/06)
2007 Jul 29, Cal Ripken Jr. and
Tony Gwynn took their place in the Baseball Hall of Fame.
(AP, 7/29/08)
2007 Jul 29, Scientists said they
have identified two genes that may raise the risk of multiple
sclerosis, lending insight into the causes of the debilitating disease.
(Reuters, 7/29/07)(SFC, 7/30/07, p.A1)
2007 Jul 29, Some 12,000 of 17,000
registered runners completed the 30th annual SF marathon.
(SFC, 7/30/07, p.A1)
2007 Jul 29, Tom Snyder (71), TV
host, died in SF after a struggle with leukemia. His smoke-filled
interviews were a staple of late night television and an inspiration
for Dan Aykroyd on "Saturday Night Live." Snyder hosted The Tomorrow
Show from 1973-1982.
(AP, 7/30/07)(SFC, 7/31/07, p.E2)
2007 Jul 29, Britain’s PM Gordon
Brown traveled to the United States, saying he planned to use the
official visit to strengthen what Britain already considers its "most
important bilateral relationship."
(AP, 7/29/07)
2007 Jul 29, Dilip Ganguly
(b.1949), journalist, died in Calcutta. His 21-year career at The
Associated Press saw him report from Baghdad during the Gulf War, on
the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide and on stories across South Asia.
(AP, 7/29/07)
2007 Jul 29, Whang Joung-il (52),
a senior South Korean diplomat in Beijing, died hours after becoming
ill after eating a tuna sandwich. His death left the envoy's family and
his government asking China for an explanation.
(AP, 8/23/07)
2007 Jul 29, Alberto Contador of
Spain won the doping-scarred Tour de France.
(AP, 7/29/08)
2007 Jul 29, French actor Michel
Serrault died in Honfleur, France, at age 79.
(AP, 7/29/08)
2007 Jul 29, Iraqi authorities
announced a ban on vehicles and celebratory gunfire around Baghdad in
an effort to prevent a repeat of violence that killed dozens
celebrating Iraq's progress to the finals of Asia's top soccer
tournament. Iraq celebrated their underdog national soccer team as it
won the prestigious Asian Cup against Saudi Arabia. At least 5 people
were killed and nearly 30 wounded by gunfire after the game. Gunmen
opened fire on shoppers in a Shiite Turkomen village southwest of the
oil-rich city of Kirkuk, killing 7 people and wounding six. A bomb
struck a minibus in eastern Baghdad, killing one passenger and wounding
four others. A policeman was shot to death on his way to work southeast
of Baghdad. Bombings, shootings and mortar attacks striking other
targets killed at least 58 people nationwide.
(AP, 7/29/07)(AP, 7/30/07)
2007 Jul 29, In Japan exit polls
showed that PM Shinzo Abe's ruling party suffered humiliating losses in
parliamentary elections after a string of political scandals, but Abe
said he did not plan to resign. Official election results showed the
LDP and its junior coalition partner, the New Komeito, with a total of
103 seats, a 30-seat loss that left it far short of the 122 needed to
control the house. The main opposition Democratic Party grabbed 112
seats, up from 81. For the 1st time in its history the LDP was no
longer the biggest party in the upper house.
(AP, 7/29/07)(AP, 7/30/07)(Econ, 8/4/07, p.35)
2007 Jul 29, France's visiting
foreign minister succeeded in bringing together rival Lebanese factions
who have had no contact for months but said he had not reached a
breakthrough to ease the country's political crisis.
(AP, 7/29/07)
2007 Jul 29, In Pakistan some 70
pro-Taliban militants occupied the shrine of renowned Pashtun freedom
fighter Sahib Turangzai and its accompanying mosque in the town of
Lakarai in Mohmand tribal region.
(AP, 7/30/07)
2007 Jul 29, A 43-year-old Russian
cargo plane crashed minutes after taking off from a Moscow airport,
killing all seven crew on board.
(AP, 7/29/07)
2007 Jul 29, In Somalia gun
battles and grenade attacks killed two soldiers and two civilians in
Mogadishu, where the government is struggling to contain a violent
insurgency.
(AP, 7/29/07)
2008 Jul 29, Pres. Bush signed a
bill freezing the assets of political and military leaders in Myanmar
and banning the importation of rubies and jade from Myanmar to the US.
The legislation also gave incentives to Chevron to divest its natural
gas program there. The US Treasury announced financial sanctions on 10
companies suspected of being owned by Myanmar’s government.
(SFC, 7/30/08, p.A4)
2008 Jul 29, The US Senate’s
Foreign Relations Committee voted to triple America’s non-military
assistance to Pakistan to $1.5 billion a year.
(Econ, 8/9/08, p.39)
2008 Jul 29, Alaska Senator Ted
Stevens (84), the longest-serving Republican in the US Senate, was
indicted for making false statements concerning gifts he received from
an oil-services firm.
(AFP, 7/29/08)
2008 Jul 29, In Maryland police
raided the home of Berwyn Heights Mayor Cheye Calvo shooting to death
the couple's two dogs and seizing an unopened package containing 32
pounds of marijuana. The couple appeared to be innocent victims of a
scheme by two men to smuggle millions of dollars worth of marijuana by
having it delivered to about a half-dozen unsuspecting recipients.
(AP, 8/8/08)
2008 Jul 29, New York’s Gov. David
Paterson delivered a special address on the state’s deteriorating
fiscal condition. His new budget placed the state’s deficit at $6.4
billion.
(Econ, 8/2/08, p.36)
2008 Jul 29, The SF Board of
Directors voted 8-3 to ban the sale of tobacco products at most
pharmacies in the city.
(SFC, 7/30/08, p.B1)
2008 Jul 29, Department store
chain Mervyns LLC filed for bankruptcy protection, the latest in a
series of merchants stumbling in the harsh retail environment and
another blow to the nation’s struggling malls. In August Mervyn’s sued
its former private equity owners saying they stripped the department
store chain of its valuable real estate and then nearly doubled its
rent effectively pushing the California-based company into bankruptcy.
(www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25918757/)(WSJ, 9/4/08, p.B1)
2008 Jul 29, Starbucks said it
will close more than two-thirds of its 84 stores in Australia by the
end of the week under a cost-cutting plan that will put almost 700
people out of work.
(AP, 7/29/08)
2008 Jul 29, Luther Davis
(b.1916), Tony-winning playwright and screenwriter, died in the Bronx.
His plays included “Kismet” (1954). In 1978 he turned Kismet into a new
show titled “Timbuktu!”
(www.nytimes.com/2008/08/02/theater/02davis.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss)
2008 Jul 29, US Army scientist
Bruce E. Ivins died at Frederick Memorial Hospital in Maryland. Federal
prosecutors investigating the 2001 anthrax attacks were planning to
indict and seek the death penalty against Ivins in connection with
anthrax mailings that killed five people. Ivins, who was developing a
vaccine against the deadly toxin, committed suicide.
(AP, 8/1/08)
2008 Jul 29, In Afghanistan a
roadside blast that apparently targeted an Afghan senator mediating a
land dispute in eastern Paktia province killed 3 policemen and wounded
3 others. In Logar province militants attacked a police van, killing
two officers, then taking the vehicle. A British soldier was killed in
Helmand.
(AP, 7/30/08)
2008 Jul 29, The Bosnian war
crimes court convicted seven Bosnian Serbs of genocide in the 1995
massacre of Bosnian Muslims at Srebrenica and handed down prison
sentences ranging from 38 to 42 years. Four others were acquitted.
Milenko Trifunovic, Brano Dzinic and Aleksandar Radovanovic received
the 42-year sentences, while Milos Stupar, Slobodan Jakovljevic and
Branislav Medan each got 40 years and Petar Mitrovic received 38 years.
(AP, 7/29/08)
2008 Jul 29, In central Brazil the
torso of Cara Marie Burke, 17, from London, was found in a suitcase in
Goiania. She had been stabbed to death by Mohamed D'Ali Carvalho dos
Santos (20) over the weekend in his apartment. Santos was arrested on
July 31 and confessed. Reports said he was a cocaine user.
(AFP, 8/1/08)
2008 Jul 29, In Britain a Sikh
teenager won a High Court discrimination case against a school which
banned her from classes after she refused to remove a religious bangle.
(AFP, 7/29/08)
2008 Jul 29, Ecuador’s Foreign
Ministry said the US military must stop using its only outpost in South
America for anti-drug flights when Washington's 10-year lease on the
base in Ecuador expires in 2009.
(AP, 7/29/08)
2008 Jul 29, Hundreds of armed
former soldiers from Haiti's disbanded army stormed an old barracks and
civilian prison to demand the force be reinstated.
(AP, 7/29/08)
2008 Jul 29, India’s central
Reserve Bank raised its key lending rate an unexpected half per cent to
9%, a 7-year high.
(WSJ, 7/30/08, p.C2)
2008 Jul 29, Indian and Pakistani
soldiers traded fire across the heavily armed Kashmir frontier for more
than 12 hours overnight and into the day in what the Indian army called
the worst violation of a 2003 cease-fire agreement between the
nuclear-armed neighbors.
(AP, 7/29/08)
2008 Jul 29, US and Iraqi forces
launched a new operation aimed at clearing al-Qaida in Iraq from the
volatile Diyala province, considered the last major insurgent safe
haven near the capital.
(AP, 7/29/08)
2008 Jul 29, The International
Olympic Committee agreed to allow Iraq to participate in the Beijing
games, reversing itself after Baghdad pledged to ensure the
independence of its national Olympics.
(AP, 7/30/08)
2008 Jul 29, Israeli gunfire
killed a 10-year-old Palestinian boy during a confrontation between
troops and stone-throwers in a West Bank village.
(AP, 7/29/08)
2008 Jul 29, In Mexico a family of
six was found dead in their home in western Jalisco state, allegedly
targeted by kidnappers aided by corrupt cops. Four victims, including
two children, were shot in the head. A teenage boy's throat was
slashed. His mother was asphyxiated with a plastic bag.
(AP, 8/21/08)
2008 Jul 29, Pakistani Taliban
militants killed 3 soldiers, including an army captain, and kidnapped
30 security forces from a police station in the northwestern Swat
Valley.
(AFP, 7/29/08)(WSJ, 7/31/08, p.A12)
2008 Jul 29, A huge blast rocked a
training base run by the Islamic militant Hamas in southern Gaza,
injuring at least five members of the group.
(AP, 7/30/08)
2008 Jul 29, Russian news said 2
small, manned submarines reached the bottom of Lake Baikal, the world's
deepest freshwater lake. The "Mir-1" and "Mir-2" submersibles descended
1.05 miles (1,680 meters) to the bottom of the vast Siberian lake.
(AP, 7/29/08)
2008 Jul 29, A UN court trying the
masterminds of Rwanda's 1994 genocide said that its mandate had been
extended by a year until 2009.
(AP, 7/29/08)
2008 Jul 29, Talks in South Africa
on Zimbabwe's political crisis broke up with no power-sharing deal
between President Robert Mugabe and his bitter rival Morgan Tsvangirai
in sight.
(AFP, 7/29/08)
2008 Jul 29, In Sri Lanka 21 Tamil
Tigers and 4 soldiers were slain in clashes in the northern Wanni
region.
(AP, 7/30/08)
2008 Jul 29, Turkish warplanes
attacked Kurdish rebels in Iraq's north, killing a group of guerrillas
gathered at a mountain cave.
(AP, 7/29/08)
2008 Jul 29, WTO Director-General
announced on that the latest negotiations for a much-delayed trade
liberalization deal under the so-called Doha Round had broken down
after nine days due to unresolved differences. The deadlock centered on
a row between the US and India over special tariff measures to protect
poor farmers from surging imports or price falls.
(AFP, 7/30/08)
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