Today in History - July 31
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904 Jul 31, Arabs
captured Thessalonica of the Byzantine Empire.
(HN, 7/31/98)
1396 Jul 31, Philip the Good, Duke
of Burgundy, Brabant, Limburg, count, was born.
(MC, 7/31/02)
1498 Jul 31, During his third
voyage to the Western Hemisphere, Christopher Columbus arrived at an
island he named Trinidad because of its 3 hills.
(AP, 7/31/98)(http://www1.minn.net/~keithp/v3.htm)
1556 Jul 31, St. Ignatius of
Loyola (65), founder of the Society of Jesus, the Jesuit order of
Catholic priests and brothers, died in Rome.
(AP, 7/31/97)(MC, 7/31/02)
1629 Jul 31, Johann Jakob Lowe von
Eisenach, composer, was born.
(MC, 7/31/02)
1703 Jul 31, English novelist
Daniel Defoe was made to stand in the pillory as punishment for
offending the government and church with his satire "The Shortest Way
With Dissenters."
(HN, 7/31/01)
1760 Jul 31, Ferdinand, Duke of
Brunswick, foiled last French threat at Warburg and drove the French
army back to Rhine River.
(HN, 7/31/98)
1777 Jul 31, The Marquis de
Lafayette, a 19-year-old French nobleman, was made a major-general in
the American Continental Army.
(AP, 7/31/97)
1790 Jul 31, The U.S. Patent
Office granted its first patent to Samuel Hopkins of Vermont, developer
of a new method the manufacture of pot and pearl ash, potash. [see Apr
10]
(HN, 7/31/98)(HNQ, 8/6/99)
1792 Jul 31, The foundation-stone
was laid for the US Mint by David Rittenhouse, Esq. The property was
paid for and deeded to the United States of America for a consideration
of $4266.67 on July 18, 1792. The money for the Mint was the first
money appropriated by Congress for a building to be used for a public
purpose.
(www.coinfacts.com/mint_history/mint_history_1792/mint_history_1792.htm)
1803 Jul 31, John
Ericsson, inventor of the screw propeller, was born.
(HN, 7/31/98)
1811 Jul 31, Miguel Hidalgo y
Costilla, Mexican hero priest, was executed by Spanish.
(MC, 7/31/02)
1813 Jul 31, British invaded
Plattsburgh, NY.
(MC, 7/31/02)
1816 Jul 31, George Henry Thomas
(d.1870), Union general in the Civil War whose bravery at the battle of
Chickamauga earned him the nickname "the Rock of Chickamauga," was born.
(HN, 7/31/98)(MC, 7/31/02)
1830 Jul 31, Charles X of France
was forcibly ejected from the French throne. [see Jul 28]
(MC, 7/31/02)
1837 Jul 31, William Clarke
Quantrill (d.1865), Confederate guerrilla leader, was born at Canal
Dover, Ohio.
(www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/QQ/fqu3.html)
1849 Jul 31, Benjamin Chambers
patented a breech loading cannon.
(MC, 7/31/02)
1864 Jul 31, Ulysses S. Grant was
named General of Volunteers.
(MC, 7/31/02)
1864 Jul 31, Louis Hachette (64),
French publisher, died.
(MC, 7/31/02)
1867 Jul 31, S.S. Kresge, American
businessman who owned five-and-ten stores across the country, was born.
(HN, 7/31/98)
1875 Jul 31, Andrew Johnson, the
17th president of the United States, died in Carter Station, Tenn., at
age 66. He succeeded Abraham Lincoln and was the only president to face
impeachment proceedings.
(AP, 7/31/97)(HN, 7/31/98)
1876 Jul 31, US Coast Guard
officers' training school was established at New Bedford, MA.
(MC, 7/31/02)
1882 Jul 31, Belle and Sam Starr
were charged with Horse stealing in the Indian territory. Myra Maybelle
Shirley (Belle Starr) was neither a belle nor the star of any outlaw
band and still remains a legendary wild woman of the Old West.
(HN, 7/31/98)
1886 Jul 31, Franz Liszt,
composer, died in Bayreuth. His work included the symphonic poem "Les
Preludes" and the "Faust Symphony." Cosima-von-Bulow was a illegitimate
daughter of Liszt and married to Richard Wagner. A 3 volume biography
of Liszt (1977, 1983, 1996) was written by Alan Walker, Vol 3 was
titled: "Franz Liszt: The final Years." Deszno Legany of Hungary
earlier wrote: "Liszt and His country: 1874-1866."
(WSJ, 6/18/96, p.A14)
1891 Jul 31, Great Britain
declared territories in Southern Africa up to the Congo to be within
their sphere of influence.
(HN, 7/31/98)
1901 Jul 31, Jean Dubuffet, French
sculptor and painter, was born.
(HN, 7/31/01)
1904 Jul 31, The Trans-Siberian
railroad connecting the Ural mountains with Russia’s Pacific coast, was
completed. [see Jul 21]
(HN, 7/31/98)
1911 Jul 31, George Liberace,
violinist (Liberace Show), was born in Menasha, Wisc.
(MC, 7/31/02)
1912 Jul 31, Milton Friedman
(d.2006), Nobel Prize winning economist (1976), was born. He became the
premier spokesman for the monetarist school of economics. He argued
that changes in money supply precede changes in the overall economic
conditions. He argued that all social welfare programs should be
replaced with a negative income tax. He held that there was a natural
rate of unemployment that depended on the given economic structure.
(HN, 7/31/98)(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R20)
1913 Jul 31, Bulgaria signed an
armistice concluding the 2nd Balkan War. [see Aug 10]
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balkan_Wars)
1914 Jul 31, German Kaiser Wilhelm
II threatened war and ordered Russia to demobilize.
(MC, 7/31/02)
1917 Jul 31, The third Battle of
Ypres commenced as the British attacked the German lines.
(HN, 7/31/98)
1919 Jul 31, Curt Gowdy (d.2006),
later leading sports announcer, was born in Green River, Wyo.
(SFC, 2/21/06, p.B5)
1919 Jul 31, Primo Levi, Italian
writer and scientist (Survival in Auschwitz), was born.
(HN, 7/31/01)
1919 Jul 31, Germany's Weimar
Constitution was adopted by the republic's National Assembly. The
Weimar Republic became Germany’s 1st democratic government.
(AP, 7/31/97)(SFC, 8/3/99, p.A8)(SSFC, 8/1/04, p.D10)
1921 Jul 31, Whitney Young, Jr.,
civil rights leader and executive director of the National Urban
League, was born.
(HN, 7/31/98)
1922 Jul 31, Ralph Samuelson (18)
rode the world's 1st water skis in Minn.
(MC, 7/31/02)
1925 Jul 31, An Unemployment
Insurance Act was passed in England.
(MC, 7/31/02)
1928 Jul 31, Horace Silver, jazz
pianist, composer and bandleader, was born.
(HN, 7/31/01)
1932 Jul 31, The George Washington
quarter went into circulation as a 200 year commemorative of G.
Washington’s birth. It has been in use ever since.
(WSJ, 7/12/96, p.B5B)(MC, 7/31/02)
1932 Jul 31, Adolf Hitler's
Nationalist Socialist German Workers' Party (Nazis) doubled its
strength in legislative elections. Nazi Party won 37.3% of the vote.
(HN,
7/31/98)(www.germanculture.com.ua/july/july31.htm)
1937 Jul 31, The Russian Politburo
enabled Operative Order 00447. This led to the execution of some
193,000 people.
(MC, 7/31/02)
1940 Jul 31, Reich's Kommissar
Seyss-Inquart banned homosexuals.
(MC, 7/31/02)
1941 Jul 31, The U.S. Army
established the Military Police Corps.
(HN, 7/31/98)
1942 Jul 31, At midnight the
record studios fell silent in a struggle with James Caesar Petrillo,
head of the American Federation of Musicians. Petrillo insisted that
the record industry pay a ¼ to ¾ cent royalty to the
musicians union. Decca signed an agreement in Aug, 1943, and Columbia
and Victor surrendered Nov 11, 1944.
(WSJ, 7/31/02, p.D10)
1942 Jul 31, The German SS gassed
some 1,000 Jews in Minsk, Belorussia.
(MC, 7/31/02)
1944 Jul 31, A large number of
children were deported to Auschwitz from France by Alois Brunner,
deputy to Adolf Eichmann.
(SFC, 3/3/01, p.A10)
1944 Jul 31, Antoine de
Saint-Exupery (44), author of "The Little Prince," died in a plane
crash during reconnaissance off Marseilles. In 1949 Nelly de Vogue, his
longtime mistress, authored the 1st Exupery biography. In 2001 a memoir
by his widow, Consuelo de Saint-Exupery (d.1979) titled "The Tale of
the Rose: The Passion That Inspired the Little Prince," was published.
Saint-Exupery's plane was found in 2004.
(SFEC, 2/27/00, BR p.12)(SFEC, 5/28/00, p.A15)(SSFC,
8/5/01, DB p.63)(SFC, 4/8/04, p.A2)
1944 Jul 31, The Soviet army took
Kovno [Kaunas], the capital of Lithuania.
(HN, 7/31/98)
1945 Jul 31, Pierre Laval, premier
of the pro-Nazi Vichy government, surrendered to U.S. authorities in
Austria; he was turned over to France, which later tried and executed
him.
(AP, 7/31/05)
1947 Jul 31, The Jewish
underground Irgun Zvai Leumi said it hanged 2 British sergeants in
Palestine.
(G&M, 7/31/97, p.A20)
1948 Jul 31, "Brigadoon" closed at
Ziegfeld Theater in NYC after 581 performances.
(MC, 7/31/02)
1948 Jul 31, President Truman
helped dedicate New York International Airport (later John F. Kennedy
International Airport) at Idlewild Field.
(HFA, ‘96, p.34)(AP, 7/31/97)
1951 Jul 31, Evonne Goolagong,
Australian tennis player and first aborigine in an international sport,
was born.
(HN, 7/31/98)
1953 Jul 31, Sen. Robert A. Taft
of Ohio (63), known as "Mr. Republican," died in New York. His
successor was named by a Democratic governor.
(AP, 7/31/97)(WSJ, 5/25/01, p.A14)
1954 Jul 31, Italians Lino
Lacedelli and Achille Compagnoni first scaled Pakistan’s K-2, the
world's second-highest mountain.
(AP, 7/27/04)
1957 Jul 31, The Distant Early
Warning Line, a system of radar stations designed to detect Soviet
bombers approaching North America, went into operation.
(AP, 7/31/07)
1958 Jul 31, There was an
anti-Chinese uprising in Tibet.
(MC, 7/31/02)
1959 Jul 31, In Spain dissident
student members of the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV), inspired by
Marxist-Leninist teachings, founded ETA, which stands for Euskadi ta
Askatasuna, meaning Basque Fatherland and Liberty in the Basque
language. Its founders focused on Gen. Francisco Franco's suppression
of the Basque language and culture.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ETA)(AP,
7/30/09)(www.cfr.org/publication/9271/)
1960 Jul 31, Elijah Muhammad,
leader of Nation of Islam, called for a black state.
(MC, 7/31/02)
1961 Jul 31, Israel welcomed its
1,000,000th immigrant.
(MC, 7/31/02)
1964 Jul 31, The American space
probe Ranger 7 transmitted pictures of the moon's surface.
(AP, 7/31/97)
1965 Jul 31, J. K. Rawling,
British writer, was born in Yate, Gloucestershire. She became famous
for her Harry Potter fantasy series.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._K._Rowling)
1966 Jul 31, Alabamans burned
Beatle products due to John Lennon's remark that the Beatles are more
popular than Jesus.
(MC, 7/31/02)
1968 Jul 31, The Beatle's recorded
Hey Jude.
(http://oldies.about.com/od/thebeatlessongs/a/heyjude.htm)
1968 Jul 31, In Boston 4 men were
convicted for shooting Edward "Teddy" Deegan in a Chelsea, Mass., alley
in 1965. In 2007 a federal judge in Boston ordered the government to
pay a record nearly $102 million for the FBI's role in the wrongful
murder convictions of the 4 men. Two of the men convicted, Louis Greco
and Henry Tameleo, died behind bars. The others, Peter Limone (73) and
Joseph Salvati (74) spent three decades in prison.
(www.justicedenied.org/issue/issue_27/fbi%27s_legacy_of_shame.html)
1971 Jul 31, Apollo 15 astronauts
(Dave Scott) took a drive on the moon in their land rover.
(HN,
7/31/98)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_rover)
1972 Jul 31, Thomas F. Eagleton
was chosen by the Democratic Party convention and presidential
candidate George McGovern on July 31, 1972 as the Vice presidential
candidate. He withdrew from the 1972 Democratic Party ticket because of
publicity surrounding his hospitalization for psychiatric treatment.
The senator from Missouri was asked to withdraw by McGovern after
reporters discovered and published information about his three
hospitalizations for psychiatric disorders.
(AP, 7/31/97)(HNQ, 4/25/00)
1972 Jul 31, The British army
launched "Operation Motorman" to regain control of Catholic parts of
Belfast and Londonderry that had been closed off by IRA road barricades
since 1971. An IRA attack followed in Claudy, Northern Ireland,
and killed 9 people. In 2002 a court case was reopened following
allegations that Rev. Jim Chesney (d.1980), a deceased Roman Catholic
priest, had led the Claudy attack.
(AP, 10/1/02)(AP, 11/29/05)
1975 Jul 31, The Bangkok Agreement
was signed as an initiative of the Economic and Social Commission for
Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP). As Asia’s 1st preferential trade
agreement between developing countries it aimed at promoting
intra-regional trade through exchange of mutually agreed concessions by
member countries. Five countries, Republic of Korea, India, Bangladesh,
Sri Lanka and Lao People’s Democratic Republic, were the initial
signatories. China joined in April, 2000. Thailand and the Philippines
did not ratify the agreement due to their ASEAN commitments.
(www.unescap.org/tid/apta.asp)(www.siamindia.com/scripts/Bankong.aspx)
1976 Jul 31, "Sugar" Ray Charles
Leonard (b.1956), American boxer, won an Olympic gold medal in Montreal.
(http://dcboxing.blogspot.com/2008/03/1976-olympic-final-sugar-ray-leonard-vs.html)
1979 Jul 31, Cesar Chavez began a
12-day march from SF to Salinas to dramatize the 6-month strike of the
United Farm Workers.
(SFC, 7/30/04, p.F2)
1981 Jul 31, A seven-week-old
Major League Baseball strike ended.
(AP, 7/31/99)
1981 Jul 31, The leader of Panama,
General Omar Torrijos, died in a plane crash.
(SFC, 1/2/97, p.A20)(AP, 7/31/99)
1982 Jul 31, Jai Alai executive
John B. Callahan (45) was fatally shot in Miami by mob hit man John
Martorano. Callahan’s body was found Aug 2 in the trunk of his
Cadillac. In 2008 former FBI agent John Connolly was convicted of 2nd
degree murder for leaking information to mobsters that led to the
shooting death of Callahan. In Jan, 2009, Connolly was sentenced to 40
years in prison.
(SFC, 11/6/08,
p.A9)(http://mafiatoday.com/?p=442)(SFC, 1/16/09, p.A2)
1987 Jul 31, Iranian pilgrims and
riot police clashed in the Muslim holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia.
The Saudi government blamed Iranians for the resulting 402 deaths.
(AP, 7/31/97)(AP, 2/1/04)
1988 Jul 31, The last US Playboy
Club closed in Lansing, Mich.
(www.michiganhistorymagazine.com/date/july03/07_31_1988.html)
1988 Jul 31, In a televised
speech, Jordan's King Hussein called for an independent Palestinian
state in the Israeli-occupied territories as he told the Palestinians
to take affairs into their own hands.
(HN, 7/31/98)
1989 Jul 31, A pro-Iranian group
in Lebanon released a grisly videotape purportedly showing the body of
American hostage William R. Higgins dangling from a rope, a day after
his kidnappers threatened to kill him.
(AP, 7/31/99)
1990 Jul 31, Pitcher Nolan Ryan of
the Texas Rangers became the 20th major leaguer to win 300 games as he
led his team to victory over the Milwaukee Brewers 11-to-3.
(AP, 7/31/00)
1990 Jul 31, Shoal Creek, a
private club in Birmingham, Alabama, that drew criticism for being
all-white, announced it had accepted a black businessman as an honorary
member.
(AP, 7/31/00)
1990 Jul 31, The Assembly of
Bosnia-Herzegovina adopted constitutional amendments by which
Bosnia-Herzegovina was declared a democratic state of equal citizens of
the peoples of BH, Moslems, Serbs, Croats and others.
(www.balkan-archive.org.yu/politics/chronology/chron90.html)
1991 Jul 31, A volleyball court
was installed at People’s Park in Berkeley at a cost of over $1 million
due to the ensuing 12 days of rioting and arrests. The city established
a five year lease with the Univ. to manage the 2.3 acre park.
(SFC, 1/4/97, p.A17)(SFEC, 1/5/97, p.B3)
1991 Jul 31, President Bush and
Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev signed START I, the Strategic
Arms Reduction Treaty in Moscow. The agreement included the
deactivation and removal by May, 1995, of 150 Minuteman II missiles in
Missouri. The treaty was set to expire in Dec, 2009.
(AP, 7/31/01)(WSJ, 5/23/96, p.A-1)(WSJ, 12/1/07,
p.A8)(Econ, 3/14/09, p.64)
1991 Jul 31, The US Senate voted
to allow women to fly combat aircraft.
(http://library.osu.edu/sites/archives/glenn/collection/senate/speeches3.htm)
1991 Jul 31, Seven people were
killed when an Amtrak passenger train derailed near Camden, South
Carolina.
(AP, 7/31/01)
1991 Jul 31, Seven people were
killed when a bus carrying Girl Scouts crashed in Palm Springs,
California.
(AP, 7/31/01)
1992 Jul 31, Summer Sanders became
the first American athlete to win four medals at the Barcelona Olympics
as she won the gold in the women's 200-meter butterfly.
(AP, 7/31/97)
1992 Jul 31, The space shuttle
Atlantis blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on a problem-plagued
scientific mission.
(AP, 7/31/97)
1992 Jul 31, In Italy the scala
mobile wage index, which maintained a rigid link between Italian wages
and prices, was scrapped after a long struggle.
(www.eurofound.europa.eu/emire/ITALY/SLIDINGSCALEMECHANISM-IT.htm)(Econ,
6/13/09, SR p.9)
1993 Jul 31, The Missouri River
overflowed. It was just part of the massive flooding throughout the
Midwest.
(WSJ, 9/11/96, p.A20)
1993 Jul 31, A U.S.-brokered truce
halted Israel's weeklong military offensive in southern Lebanon, which
was launched in retaliation for guerrilla attacks that killed seven
Israeli troops.
(HN, 7/31/98)
1993 Jul 31, Belgium's King
Baudouin I died at age 62; he was succeeded by his brother, Prince
Albert.
(AP, 7/31/03)
1994 Jul 31, The U.N. Security
Council voted 12-0 with 2 abstentions to authorize member states to use
"all necessary means" to oust the military leadership in Haiti.
(AP, 7/31/99)(MC, 7/31/02)
1995 Jul 31, The Walt Disney
Company agreed to acquire Capital Cities-ABC Inc. in a $19 billion
deal. The deal included the ESPN sports cable network.
(AP, 7/31/97)(Econ, 9/18/04, p.70)
1996 Jul 31, After Pres. Clinton's
announcement that he would sign it, 98 Democrats joined the House's
Republican majority to pass a historic welfare overhaul bill. The White
House won agreement with key Republican lawmakers on a package of
anti-terrorism measures.
(AP, 7/31/06)
1996 Jul 31, Mahmoud Jumayal died
under interrogation by the Palestinian security forces. He was the 8th
in 2 years.
(SFC, 8/21/96, p.A8,10)
1996 Jul 31, In South Africa
rush-hour crowds panicked when guards used electric prods to drive off
fare-beaters. At least 15 died and 65 were injured in a stampede.
(WSJ, 8/1/96 p.A1)
1997 Jul 31, In New York City,
police seized five bombs believed bound for terrorist attacks on city
subways. 2 potential suicide bombers were shot and wounded in an
explosives laden Brooklyn apartment. Gazi Ibrahim Abu Mezer (23) and
Lafi Khalil (22) were recovering from wounds. In 1998 Khalil was
acquitted and Gazi Ibrahim Aby Mezer was convicted of plotting to bomb
a subway station.
(SFC, 8/1/97, p.A1)(SFC, 8/4/97, p.A3)(WSJ, 7/24/98,
p.A1)(HN, 7/31/98)
1997 Jul 31, Bao Dai (85), former
emperor of Annam [now Vietnam] and chief of state of French Indochina,
died in France.
(SFC, 8/2/97, p.A21)(MC, 7/31/02)
1997 Jul 31, Nigeria was named the
most corrupt country in the world by business people in a report
released by the German-based Transparency Int’l. Denmark was named the
least corrupt.
(SFC, 8/1/97, p.B3)
1998 Jul 31, President Clinton
said he would "completely and truthfully" answer prosecutors' questions
about Monica Lewinsky in testimony to be beamed by closed-circuit
television to a grand jury.
(AP, 7/31/99)
1998 Jul 31, IBM's Russian
subsidiary agreed to pay $8.5 million in federal fines for selling
powerful computers ultimately destined for a Russian nuclear weapons
laboratory.
(AP, 7/31/99)
1998 Jul 31, Bicycle production at
the Huffy plant in Celina, Ohio, ended 44 years of production and 650
workers lost their jobs.
(SFC, 8/6/93, p.A8)
1998 Jul 31, In Algeria 6
civilians were killed and 23 wounded in 2 overnight attacks. In Malakou
village in Tiaret province 4 villagers had their throats cut and in
Algiers a parcel bomb killed 2.
(SFC, 8/1/98, p.A11)
1998 Jul 31, The British
government banned the manufacture, sale and use of land mines by its
military.
(SFC, 8/1/98, p.A11)
1998 Jul 31, In China Chen Xitong,
former mayor of Beijing, was sentenced to 16 years in prison for graft.
The bribes were to be confiscated and handed over to the state treasury.
(SFC, 7/31/98, p.D2)
1998 Jul 31, The Canadian dollar
hit a historical low of 66.10 cents to $1US.
(SFC, 8/1/98, p.A10)
1998 Jul 31, In China it was
reported that floods on the Yangtze River had killed 1,261 people in
Hubei, Hunan and Jiangxi provinces.
(SFC, 7/31/98, p.D3)
1998 Jul 31, Talks between India
and Pakistan broke down following border fighting in Kashmir that
killed 50 people.
(SFC, 8/1/98, p.A10)
1998 Jul 31, In Italy over 10,000
members of the nation’s beach workers (bagnini) went on strike and
closed their umbrella stands.
(WSJ, 8/3/98, p.A1)
1998 Jul 31, In Japan Asa Takii,
the oldest person in the country and a survivor of the Hiroshima blast,
died at age 114.
(SFC, 8/1/98, p.A19)
1998 Jul 31, In Kosovo refugees
fled Serb attacks one day after Serbia declared that the military
offensive was over.
(SFC, 8/1/98, p.A10)
1998 Jul 31, In South Africa the
Truth and Reconciliation Commission closed down after 2 years of
hearings. A report was due in October.
(SFC, 8/1/98, p.A12)
1999 Jul 31, NASA controllers
planned to send the $63 million Lunar Prospector crashing into the
Mawson crater located in the Moon’s south pole. They hoped to churn up
some water vapor for possible detection. Evidence of the crash at 2:51
PDT was not detected.
(SFC, 6/3/99, p.A4)(SFEC, 8/1/99, p.A3)
1999 Jul 31, Chicago authorities
said as many as 46 more residents had died as a result of a relentless
heat wave that enveloped much of the nation and produced the hottest
July on record in New York City.
(AP, 7/31/00)
1999 Jul 31, In Cottrellville
Township, Mich., 10 people died from a skydiving plane crash shortly
after takeoff from Marine City Airport, 40 miles north of Detroit.
(SFEC, 8/1/99, p.A5)
1999 Jul 31, Chinese authorities
seized a Taiwanese freighter near the Taiwanese military post of Matsu
Island with accusations of smuggling.
(SFC, 8/2/99, p.A10)
1999 Jul 31, The Ukraine and the
US agreed to extend the nuclear weapon and ballistic missile
dismantling program for 6 years.
(SFEC, 8/1/99, p.A20)
2000 Jul 31, The Republican
national convention opened in Philadelphia, with George W. Bush’s name
put into nomination for president.
(SFEC, 7/30/00, p.A1)(AP, 7/31/01)
2000 Jul 31, William Maxwell
(b.1908) novelist and editor for the New Yorker, died in NYC. In 2008
the Library of America published a 2-volume edition of his fiction.
(WSJ, 9/5/08,
p.W6)(www.answers.com/topic/maxwell-william-keepers-jr)
2000 Jul 31, US and British
diplomats accused the Pres. Charles Taylor of Liberia and Pres. Blaise
Compaore of Burkina Faso of trading arms for diamonds and aiding the
rebels in Sierra Leone.
(SFC, 8/1/00, p.A8)
2000 Jul 31, A Beijing court
sentenced Cheng Kejie (66) to death for corruption. He was a former
deputy chairman of the national legislature and headed the southern
region of Guangxi from 1990-1998. Over the last week 48 people were
executed for drug trafficking. Kejie was executed in Sept.
(SFC, 8/1/00, p.A10)(SFC, 9/15/00, p.A14)
2000 Jul 31, In Israel Moshe
Katsav of the opposition Likud Party was elected president over Shimon
Peres. Prime Minister Barak survived an attempt to oust his government.
(SFC, 8/1/00, p.A1)
2000 Jul 31, North and South Korea
agreed to reopen border liaison offices and reconnect a railway linking
their capitals.
(AP, 7/31/01)
2000 Jul 31, In Mexico aides of
Vincente Fox announced plans to transform the police and judiciary and
to demilitarize the anti-narcotics programs.
(SFC, 8/1/00, p.A8)
2000 Jul 31, Yugoslavia announced
that it had arrested 4 Dutch men for plotting to kidnap or kill Pres.
Milosevic to win a $5 million US reward.
(WSJ, 8/1/00, p.A1)
2000 Jul 31, In Zimbabwe Vice
President Joseph Msika announced that 3,000 white-owned farms would be
resettled by landless black families.
(SFC, 8/2/00, p.A13)
2001 Jul 31, Pres. Bush issued
Executive Order 13221. It instructed government agencies that used
external standby power devices to purchase products that use no more
than one watt in their standby power consuming mode.
(www.ofee.gov/eo/eo.htm)
2001 Jul 31, The US House of
Representatives voted 265-102 to criminalize all human cloning.
(SFC, 8/1/01, p.A1)
2001 Jul 31, Poul Anderson,
science fiction writer, died at age 74.
(WSJ, 8/3/01, p.A1)
2001 Jul 31, In Colombia 4 rebels
and 2 soldiers were killed in fighting in southern and northwestern
areas.
(SFC, 8/1/01, p.A9)
2001 Jul 31, In Indonesia at least
62 people were killed when a mudslide buried the village of Sambulu. At
least 35 people were killed and some 200 missing.
(SFC, 8/1/01, p.A9)(AP, 7/31/02)
2001 Jul 31, In the West Bank
Israeli gunships killed 8 people in Nablus including 2 Hamas leaders,
Jamal Mansour and Jamal Salim, and 2 children.
(SFC, 8/1/01, p.A1)(SFC, 8/2/01, p.A7)
2001 Jul 31, Russian commandos
freed 25 [41] hostages held by 2 hijackers in Mineralniye Vody,
Chechnya.
(SFC, 8/1/01, p.A8)(WSJ, 8/1/01, p.A1)
2002 Jul 31, The US Senate
rejected a Medicare drug-benefit bill but passed a bill to speed
generic drugs to market.
(WSJ, 8/1/02, p.A1)
2002 Jul 31, US court papers
alleged that Russia's Alimzhan Tokhtakhounov (53) used his influence
with members of the Russian and French skating federations to fix the
outcome of the pairs and ice dancing competitions at the Salt Lake City
Winter Olympics last February. Tokhtakhounov was arrested in Italy.
Italy’s highest court denounced an extradition bid and freed
Tokhtakhounov.
(Reuters, 7/31/02)(SFC, 8/1/02,
p.A1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alimzhan_Tokhtakhounov)
2002 Jul 31, In Chicago a mob beat
Anthony Stuckey (49) and Jack Moore (62) to death after their van
veered into over a curb and injured 3 women on the South Side. One
woman later died from her injuries. On August 3, seven people were
charged with 1st degree murder. In 2003 Antonio Fort (16) was cleared
of 34 charges, including first-degree murder. Fort had been charged as
an adult.
(SFC, 8/1/02, p.A3)(SSFC, 8/4/02,
p.A13)(http://tinyurl.com/59zyfm)
2002 Jul 31, In Brunei U.S.
Secretary of State Colin Powell met his North Korean counterpart for an
informal chat, as easing inter-Korean tensions stole the spotlight at
an Asia-Pacific security forum.
(Reuters, 7/31/02)
2002 Jul 31, Southeast Asian
nations signed an anti-terror pact on with U.S. Secretary of State
Colin Powell ahead of his visit to Indonesia.
(AP, 8/1/02)
2002 Jul 31, In Israel a bomb
exploded in a crowded cafeteria at Hebrew University during lunchtime,
killing 9 people including 5 Americans and wounding more than 70. Hamas
claimed responsibility. The dead included a peace activist named Dafna,
who was a close friend of Israeli novelist Avraham Yehoshua. His novel
“A Woman in Israel,” translated to English in 2006, was dedicated to
Dafna.
(SFC, 8/2/02, p.A1)(AP, 7/31/03)(Econ, 8/5/06, p.73)
2002 Jul 31, An Israeli man, his
hands and feet bound, was found shot and killed in his factory office
near the West Bank town of Tulkarem.
(AP, 8/1/02)
2002 Jul 31, In Lebanon a
disgruntled Education Ministry employee opened fire at colleagues at a
ministry office in Beirut, killing eight people and wounding five
before he was apprehended by police.
(AP, 7/31/02)
2002 Jul 31, Thousands of illegal
immigrants headed for Malaysia's ports to meet a midnight deadline for
them to leave the country or risk a caning.
(Reuters, 7/31/02)
2002 Jul 31, Pope John Paul II
canonized Juan Diego, an Indian peasant to whom church tradition says
the Virgin Mary appeared 500 years ago, in a ceremony in Mexico that
drew more than 1 million believers into the streets.
(AP, 8/1/02)
2002 Jul 31, In Mexico 6 masked
gunmen kidnapped a federal congressman from a town in the Pacific coast
state of Guerrero.
(AP, 8/1/02)
2002 Jul 31, In eastern Niger
disgruntled soldiers began a mutiny in N'gourti to protest months of
unpaid salaries, seizing senior officials in the region and taking
control of a radio station.
(AP, 8/2/02)
2002 Jul 31, South Korean
lawmakers vetoed the country's first female prime minister, dealing a
blow to President Kim Dae-jung, who had nominated her to boost his
beleaguered government's image in an election year.
(Reuters, 7/31/02)
2002 Jul 31, Sudanese rebels
claimed that government troops using bombers and helicopter gunships
attacked areas of a town in Sudan's oil-producing Western Upper Nile
Province.
(AP, 7/31/02)
2002 Jul 31, Uruguay prepared to
keep banks closed for a second day in an attempt to stanch the flow of
capital in the midst of a growing financial crisis.
(AP, 7/31/02)
2002 Jul 31, In Ukraine a coal
mine blast killed 19 miners, 3,557 underground.
(SFC, 8/1/02, p.A14)
2003 Jul 31, Two of ousted Iraqi
leader Saddam Hussein's daughters and their nine children were granted
refuge in Jordan.
(AP, 7/31/04)
2003 Jul 31, The Israeli
parliament voted to block Palestinians who marry Israelis from becoming
Israeli citizens of residents. The legislation was enacted for one year.
(SFC, 8/1/03, p.A20)
2003 Jul 31, In Nepal monsoon
rains triggered landslides, killing at least 48 villagers over the last
2 days, burying houses and blocking a key highway.
(AP, 7/31/03)
2003 Jul 31, The Vatican launched
a global campaign against gay marriages, warning Catholic politicians
that support of same-sex unions was "gravely immoral" and urging
non-Catholics to join the offensive.
(SFC, 8/1/03, p.A1)(AP, 7/31/04)
2004 Jul 31, Virginia Grey (87),
American film actress, died in LA. She had appeared in over 100 films
and 40 TV shows.
(SFC, 8/7/04, p.B6)
2004 Jul 31, In southern
Afghanistan gunmen killed a local government leader and four of his
bodyguards in an ambush.
(AP, 7/31/04)
2004 Jul 31, Gunmen killed the
head of a state-run teacher's institute as he left a mosque after
prayers, an attack in apparent retribution for his refusal to stop
working for Iraqi authorities.
(AP, 7/31/04)
2004 Jul 31, A 10-day manhunt for
a murder suspect ended in a shootout near the Circus Maximus in central
Rome. Luciano Liboni had allegedly killed a policeman July 22.
(AP, 7/31/04)
2004 Jul 31, Laura Betti (70),
Italian film actress, died. Her debut was in Fellini’s “La Dolce Vita”
(1960).
(SFC, 8/3/04, p.B6)
2004 Jul 31, In Poland some
200,000 people gathered for the 10th annual weekend concert called
Woodstock in Kostrzyn.
(AP, 7/31/04)
2004 Jul 31, Flood-weakened
riverbanks in South Asia collapsed around villages, pushing the death
toll from this season's monsoons above 1,500 and stranding more than 30
million people.
(AP, 8/1/04)
2004 Jul 31, World Trade
negotiators in Geneva broke months of deadlock and put together a
framework for the rest of the Doha trade round.
(Econ, 8/7/04, p.59)
2004 Jul 31, The Vatican issued a
document denouncing feminism for trying to blur differences between men
and women and threatening the institution of families based on a mother
and a father.
(AP, 7/31/05)
2005 Jul 31, The US Dept. of
Justice released its 1st statistical report on rape behind bars. It
estimated 8,210 allegations of sexual violence in American jails in
2004.
(Econ, 8/6/05, p.25)
2005 Jul 31, The HMAS Brisbane, a
decommissioned U.S.-built Australian naval destroyer (1966-2001), was
scuttled with explosives off the coast of Queensland. The vessel sank
evenly to its resting point about 115 feet beneath the surface to
become an artificial reef and a major diving attraction.
(AP, 7/31/05)
2005 Jul 31, Police arrested seven
people during a raid on an apartment in southern England, bringing to
21 the number in custody in the relentless hunt for accomplices in the
failed July 21 transit bombings in London.
(AP, 7/31/06)
2005 Jul 31, Jeong Jang shot a
3-under 69 to win the Women's British Open by four strokes.
(AP, 7/31/06)
2005 Jul 31, Police in eastern
Germany found the remains of nine newborn babies buried in a garden and
arrested a woman (39) believed to be their mother.
(AP, 8/1/05)
2005 Jul 31, A Honduran official
said police had arrested Erlan Colindres, a 13-year-old gang member,
and Manuel Romero, his teenaged bodyguard, for the July 29 killing of
Timothy Markey, a US Drug Enforcement Administration agent, during an
apparent bungled robbery.
(AP, 7/31/05)
2005 Jul 31, In India authorities
warned residents to remain home after new heavy rains pounded Bombay
and the surrounding state, as the official death toll from last week's
record-breaking monsoon rains hit 910.
(AP, 7/31/05)
2005 Jul 31, Hasan Rowhani, Iran's
top nuclear negotiator, said his European counterparts have proposed a
guarantee that Iran will not be invaded if Tehran agrees to permanently
halt uranium enrichment.
(AP, 7/31/05)
2005 Jul 31, A car bomb exploded
south of Baghdad, killing five civilians and wounding 10, including two
policemen.
(AP, 7/31/05)
2005 Jul 31, In southern Mexico
former soldier Oscar Flores (35) killed his wife, infant nephew and a
police officer in a vicious rampage that left 10 people dead before
being wounded by police and killed by an angry crowd.
(AP, 8/1/05)
2005 Jul 31, Maoist rebels freed
seven government officials they had seized in eastern Nepal, and all
were safe and in good health.
(AP, 7/31/05)
2005 Jul 31, John Garang (60),
Sudan's vice president and former southern rebel leader, died when the
helicopter he was flying in crashed into a mountain in southern Sudan
in bad weather killing him and the other 13 people on board.
(AP, 8/1/05)
2006 Jul 31, In California PM
Blair and Gov. Schwarzenegger committed to a number of actions to fight
global warming including a look for market-based ways to stem emissions
of the gases believed to cause global warming.
(WSJ, 8/1/06, p.A8)
2006 Jul 31, In Los Angeles 2
women, Olga Rutterschmidt (73) and Helen Golay (75), were charged with
killing homeless men in hit-and-run car crashes in order to collect
over $2 million in life insurance. In 2008 both women were convicted of
murder and conspiracy. They were sentenced to spend the rest of their
lives in prison.
(SFC, 8/1/06, p.A3)(SFC, 4/18/08, p.B6)(SFC,
7/16/08, p.B5)
2006 Jul 31, SanDisk Corp. of
Milpitas, Ca., agreed to buy M-Systems Flash Disk Pioneers Ltd. of
Israel for $1.56 billion in stock.
(SFC, 8/1/06, p.D1)
2006 Jul 31, Scientists reported
the development of a vaccine to control obesity in rats. The vaccine
produced antibodies against ghrelin, a hormone that stimulates hunger
and fat storage.
(SFC, 8/1/06, p.A2)
2006 Jul 31, NATO took command of
southern Afghanistan from the United States, and the new commander of
the push to pacify the insurgency-wracked region vowed that he would
not fail millions of Afghans seeking peace and stability. A bomb
exploded outside a mosque in eastern Afghanistan during a memorial
service for a mujahedeen commander, killing at least eight people and
wounding 16.
(AP, 7/31/06)
2006 Jul 31, Australian PM John
Howard said he would seek a fifth straight term, ending his ambitious
deputy's leadership hopes and cementing his place as one of the world's
most successful conservative leaders.
(Reuters, 7/31/06)
2006 Jul 31, A lesbian couple lost
a legal battle to have their Canadian marriage legally recognized in
Britain.
(Reuters, 7/31/06)
2006 Jul 31, The Canadian Food
Inspection Agency said two separate anthrax outbreaks in the Canadian
Prairies have killed about 500 animals on an estimated 100 farms.
(Reuters, 7/31/06)
2006 Jul 31, In Colombia suspected
rebels ambushed an army patrol, exploded a car bomb in Bogota and
another bomb in the southwest, killing at least 18 people in a wave of
attacks a week before the presidential inauguration.
(AP, 7/31/06)
2006 Jul 31, Dozens of polling
stations reopened in Congo’s second-largest city, offering citizens
stymied by violence during their nation’s historic elections another
chance to vote.
(AP, 7/31/06)
2006 Jul 31, Cuban President Fidel
Castro temporarily ceded power to his brother, Raul, after
gastrointestinal surgery.
(AP, 7/31/07)
2006 Jul 31, France's agriculture
minister condemned the destruction of two fields of genetically
modified corn by activists in southwestern France.
(AP, 7/31/06)
2006 Jul 31, Akbar Mohammadi (34)
died in Tehran’s Evin Prison after a nine-day hunger strike to protest
a lack of medical care. Mohammadi had been arrested for taking part in
protests at Tehran University in July 1999, Iran's biggest
anti-government demonstrations since the 1979 Islamic revolution. The
EU later expressed grave concern regarding the harsh treatment of
dissidents, opposition leaders, student activists and all human rights
defenders in Iranian prisons.
(AP, 8/24/06)
2006 Jul 31, In Iraq gunmen
wearing military fatigues kidnapped 26 employees and customers from a
mobile phone store in the main shopping area of Baghdad. Sectarian
killings claimed 30 lives.
(AP, 8/1/06)(WSJ, 8/1/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 31, Israeli warplanes
carried out airstrikes in southern Lebanon, hours after agreeing to
temporarily halt raids while investigating a bombing that killed nearly
60 Lebanese civilians. Israel accidentally killed a Lebanese soldier
when it hit a car that it believed was carrying a senior Hezbollah
official.
(AP, 7/31/06)
2006 Jul 31, In Indian Kashmir
four rebels and a policeman were killed in three separate gunbattles in
southern Poonch and Pulwama districts.
(AP, 8/1/06)
2006 Jul 31, Every Kuwaiti citizen
will get a $694 gift from the government after parliament unanimously
backed the one-time payout. 2 million foreign workers, who make up the
rest of Kuwait's population of 3 million, do not get the payment.
(AP, 7/31/06)
2006 Jul 31, Malawi's top
prosecutor said theft and corruption charges against the former
president Bakili Muluzi have been dropped after Pres. Bingu wa
Mutharika suspended the chief investigator in the case.
(AP, 7/31/06)
2006 Jul 31, In Mexico supporters
of the country’s leftist presidential candidate paralyzed the Mexico
City’s financial district and said they won’t leave until the top
electoral court rules on their demands for a recount in the disputed
race.
(AP, 7/31/06)
2006 Jul 31, Mexican police found
the body of a woman on a dirt road in the border city of Ciudad Juarez.
Abigail Rodriguez (29), who apparently had been killed by a blow to the
head and thrown out of a moving car, was the 14th woman found dead in
Juarez so far this year.
(AP, 8/1/06)
2006 Jul 31, Peru’s President Alan
Garcia cut government salaries, including his own, three days after
announcing a long list of austerity measures in his inaugural address.
(AP, 7/31/06)
2006 Jul 31, Russian officials
said more than 220 pieces, including jewelry and enameled objects worth
about $5 million, stolen from the State Hermitage Museum in St.
Petersburg, were not insured. The theft was discovered after a routine
inventory check that began in October 2005 and was completed at the end
of July.
(AP, 8/1/06)(SFC, 8/1/06, p.A3)
2006 Jul 31, Serbia’s PM Vojislav
Kostunica said in published remarks that Serbia will reject
independence as a solution for Kosovo and continue to consider the
province part of its territory.
(AP, 7/31/06)
2006 Jul 31, In South Korea Jeong
Kyung-hak (48) was arrested on charges of being a spy for North Korea
and having illegally arrived on Jul 27 with forged Philippines identity
documents.
(AP, 8/21/06)
2006 Jul 31, In northeastern Sri
Lanka heavy fighting over control of a water supply killed 35 Tamil
rebels and seven soldiers. A rebel leader declared the island nation's
four-year-old cease-fire over.
(AP, 7/31/06)
2006 Jul 31, Turkey named Gen.
Yasar Buyukanit as the new military chief. He favored a tougher line
against Kurdish rebels and negotiations on joining the EU.
(AP, 7/31/06)
2006 Jul 31, The UN passed
Resolution 1696, which demanded that Iran suspend uranium enrichment by
the end of August.
(www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2006/sc8792.doc.htm)
2006 Jul 31, The UN scrapped a
meeting of nations that might contribute troops to help stabilize south
Lebanon, a decision that reflected the deep divisions among key nations
on how to end the three-week war between Israel and Hezbollah.
(AP, 7/31/06)
2006 Jul 31, Venezuelan President
Hugo Chavez praised Vietnam for its battle against "imperialism" and
pledged to help the communist country develop its nascent oil and gas
industry during a two-day state visit.
(AP, 8/1/06)
2006 Jul 31, Zimbabwe devalued its
currency by 60% and slashed loan rates 550 points to 300%. 3 zeroes
were off denominations amid 1200% inflation.
(WSJ, 8/1/06, p.A1)
2007 Jul 31, A US government
watchdog group called for the removal of GOP Sen. Ted Stevens from his
Senate committees, less than 24 hours after the FBI and IRS raided the
senator’s Alaska home in connection with a public corruption probe
centered in the state.
(www.cqpolitics.com/2007/07/ethics_flaps_could_stir_compet.html)
2007 Jul 31, The Government
Accountability Office, the investigative arm of the US Congress, issued
a report saying it could not account for 190,000 AK-47 rifles and
pistols given to Iraqi security forces in 2004 and 2005, or about half
the weapons earmarked for soldiers and police.
(Reuters, 8/6/07)
2007 Jul 31, The US Army censured
retired three-star Lt. Gen. Philip Kensinger for a "perfect storm of
mistakes, misjudgments and a failure of leadership" after the 2004
friendly-fire death in Afghanistan of Army Ranger Pat Tillman.
(AP, 7/31/08)
2007 Jul 31, In California Michael
Schneider (44), a Hillsborough real estate broker, pleaded no contest
in Santa Clara County to 173 felony counts related to bilking investors
out of more than $43 million. He faced as much as 169 years in prison.
(SFC, 8/2/07, p.B3)
2007 Jul 31, In northern
California the governing board of Oakland’s troubled Univ. Preparatory
Charter Academy closed the school leaving over 400 students in the
lurch.
(SFC, 8/1/07, p.A1)
2007 Jul 31, Johnson & Johnson
said it would reduce its global work force by up to 4 percent, or up to
4,820 jobs, to cut costs due to slumping sales of heart stents and its
No. 2 drug, plus looming patent expirations.
(AP, 7/31/07)
2007 Jul 31, Rupert Murdoch's News
Corp. was expected to reach a definitive agreement to buy Dow Jones
& Co. Inc., capping his three-month pursuit of the publisher of the
Wall Street Journal, as the Bancroft gave approval for Murdoch's
$60-per-share bid.
(Reuters, 7/31/07)
2007 Jul 31, A new study reported
that drinking wine or beer every day increases the risk of bowel
cancer. The British Daily Telegraph reported 35,000 people are
diagnosed each year with bowel cancer and that it kills 16,100 a
year.
(AP, 7/31/07)
2007 Jul 31, Norman Cohn (92),
English historian, died. He studied the links between apocalyptic
Medieval sects and 20th century totalitarianism and genocide. His 1957
book: "Pursuit of the Millennium: Revolutionary Millenarians and
Mystical Anarchists of the Middle Ages" drew parallels between
millenarian movements in the Middle Ages and the rise of 20th-century
totalitarianism.
(AP, 8/27/07)
2007 Jul 31, In central
Afghanistan police discovered the body of a second South Korean
hostage, and the Taliban threatened to kill more captives if their
demands were not met by a new deadline. A suicide car bomber blew
himself up near a convoy of US troops on the outskirts of Kabul,
leaving up to 7 civilians and three soldiers wounded.
(AP, 7/31/07)
2007 Jul 31, ASEAN Plus Three
foreign ministers gathered in Manila on the eve of high-level security
talks. ARF, which includes the United States, European Union, India,
Pakistan, North and South Korea and other countries, and will also hold
talks here on Aug 1-2.
(AP, 7/31/07)
2007 Jul 31, The British army
marked a milestone of peacemaking as it formally ended its 38-year
mission to bolster security in Northern Ireland.
(AP, 7/31/07)
2007 Jul 31, In Cambodia Kang Kek
Ieu (alias Duch), a former Khmer Rouge prison chief, was charged with
crimes against humanity and detained by Cambodia's UN-backed tribunal
in the first legal action taken by the court against regime leaders.
(AFP, 7/31/07)
2007 Jul 31, In Canada John
Felderhof, the lone remaining key figure in the multibillion-dollar
Bre-X gold fraud, was found not guilty. It took almost seven years to
reach the not guilty verdict in the trial of the only person to be
prosecuted in the massive Bre-X gold fraud, leading Canadians to ask
once again if the country isn't too soft on corporate crime.
(Reuters, 7/31/07)
2007 Jul 31, China’s state media
reported another 27 deaths from flooding and landslides in different
parts of the country.
(AP, 7/31/07)
2007 Jul 31, In Egypt US Sec. of
State Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates made a joint show of
diplomatic force during two days of meetings with Arab allies, part of
an 11th-hour effort to rally diplomatic and practical help for the
US-backed Shiite-led government in Baghdad. The tour opened talks on a
proposed US arms package for Arab states worth more than $20 billion.
US officials extended a 10-year pledge to continue $1.3 billion in
annual aid to Egypt’s military. Military aid to Israel was raised to $3
billion. Weapons sales to Saudi Arabia and 5 smaller monarchies was
said to be $20 billion. Total US military aid to the region over the
next decade amounted to $63 billion.
(AP, 7/31/07)(Econ, 8/4/07, p.39)
2007 Jul 31, An Indian anti-terror
court sentenced Bollywood film star Sanjay Dutt to six years in jail
for illegal weapons possession in connection with serial bombings in
Mumbai in 1993. Dutt was freed on bail after 22 days in jail.
(AP, 7/31/07)(Econ, 8/4/07, p.38)(AP, 8/23/07)
2007 Jul 31, In Iraq al-Maliki's
government faced a threat by the main Sunni bloc in parliament to
withdraw its Cabinet members if he doesn't meet a series of demands. At
least 11 people were killed or found dead nationwide, including three
Iraqi police in a drive-by shooting and one soldier in a roadside
bombing. A teacher also was shot to death while driving to work in a
mainly Sunni neighborhood in Baghdad. An explosively-formed penetrator,
or EFP, detonated near a US soldiers' patrol during combat operations,
killing 3 with 6 wounded. Another US soldier was killed by small arms
fire in a separate incident. Two US soldiers were killed in a mortar or
rocket attack.
(AP, 7/31/07)(AP, 8/1/07)(AP, 8/2/07)
2007 Jul 31, Pro-government and
independent candidates swept local elections in Jordan, including the
first-ever vote for city mayors. The Islamist main opposition group
withdrew from Jordan's first mayoral elections and accused the
government of fraud.
(AP, 7/31/07)(AP, 8/2/07)
2007 Jul 31, In Mexico the bodies
of Josue Hernandez (32) and Anibal Sanchez (30), both agents with
Mexico's Federal Agency of Investigation, were found in Guerrero state,
where they were gathering intelligence on drug traffickers. The agents
had taken part in a raid that discovered $205 million in cash in a
Mexico City mansion.
(AP, 8/2/07)
2007 Jul 31, In Mozambique 5
soldiers were killed when an army truck carrying munitions that were
about to be destroyed exploded near the country's main airport.
(AP, 7/31/07)
2007 Jul 31, In Nigeria Peter
Ogwuma, a staff (member) of Elf Petroleum, was abducted as he was about
to leave the church for home.
(AFP, 8/2/07)
2007 Jul 31, In northwestern
Pakistan government troops backed by helicopter gunships repelled an
attack on a military checkpoint near Miran Shah, killing 18 Islamic
militants. A local lawmaker said the 18 people killed were tribesmen
and not militants.
(AP, 7/31/07)(SFC, 8/1/07, p.A15)(AFP, 8/2/07)
2007 Jul 31, In northern Sri Lanka
hundreds of ethnic Sinhalese civilians fled three villages, claiming
the government had failed to protect them from attacks by Tamil Tiger
rebels.
(AP, 7/31/07)
2007 Jul 31, A senior Sudanese
official said floods and heavy rains have caused 23,000 mudbrick homes
to collapse and killed at least 62 people across Sudan this month. In
southern Darfur Mahria Arab tribesmen attacked Terjem Arabs killing
over 60 Terjem. Conflict between Arab tribes was on the increase and
included clashes between the Habanniya and Salamat tribes.
(AP, 7/31/07)(SFC, 9/3/07, p.A16)
2007 Jul 31, The UN Security
Council approved a 26,000 strong peacekeeping force for Darfur, to try
to end 4 years of fighting that has killed over 200,000.
(SFC, 8/1/07, p.A13)
2007 Jul 31, Zimbabwe's central
bank introduced yet another higher denomination banknote as it grappled
with runaway inflation which is rendering lower-value banknotes
useless. The new 200,000-Zimbabwe dollar bearer check is worth 800 US
dollars at the official rate and one US dollar at the parallel market
rate.
(AFP, 7/31/07)
2008 Jul 31, The US Congress
approved legislation that will allow the State Department to settle all
remaining lawsuits against Libya by US terrorism victims.
(AP, 7/31/08)
2008 Jul 31, California’s Gov.
Schwarzenegger ordered the layoffs of thousands of state workers along
with steep pay cuts for most other state employees to ease the state’s
budget gap of $17.2 billion.
(SFC, 8/1/08, p.A1)
2008 Jul 31, A US Virgin Islands
hospital fired four board members after a US government audit found
alleged financial mismanagement and the use of taxpayer money to fund
lucrative pay packages for top administrators.
(AP, 7/31/08)
2008 Jul 31, Exxon Mobil Corp.
reported second-quarter earnings of $11.68 billion, the biggest
quarterly profit ever by any US corporation, but the results were well
short of Wall Street expectations and its shares fell.
(AP, 7/31/08)
2008 Jul 31, Scientists reported
that Phoenix spacecraft robot has confirmed the presence of frozen
water lurking below the Martian permafrost.
(AP, 7/31/08)
2008 Jul 31, Ivan Miranda (14) was
killed in the SF Excelsior district in a gang motivated attack. Rony
Aguilera (17), an illegal immigrant from Honduras, was charged in the
sword attack. Aguilera had veen arrested in 2007 in an assault case,
but was not referred to federal authorities under a recently discarded
city sanctuary ordnance.
(SFC, 11/14/08, p.A1)
2008 Jul 31, In Wisconsin a gunman
opened fire on a group of young adults from Michigan killing 3, aged
17-19, along the Menominee riverbank in the town of Niagara. The next
day police arrested Scott J. Johnson (38). He had a raped a woman near
the same site the evening before the murders. In 2009 Johnson was
sentenced to life in prison without parole.
(AP, 8/2/08)(SFC, 5/22/09, p.A6)
2008 Jul 31, A small jet crashed
while preparing to land at Degner Regional Airport in Minnesota killing
8 people including several casino and construction executives.
(WSJ, 7/31/08, p.A2)
2008 Jul 31, Brazilian President
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva launched the Amazon Fund to provide grants to
projects intended to stop the Amazon rainforest from shrinking.
(Econ, 8/9/08, p.37)
2008 Jul 31, Haitian lawmakers
ratified Michele Pierre-Louis to be the country's prime minister,
ending more than three months of political bickering and deadlock in
Parliament.
(AP, 8/1/08)
2008 Jul 31, At least 36 Hindu
pilgrims from Nepal were killed when their bus plunged into a river in
the mountainous northern Indian state of Uttarakhand.
(AFP, 7/31/08)
2008 Jul 31, In Iraq a
suicide car bomber rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into the wall of
a police station near the northern city of Mosul, killing three
policemen and wounding four. A judge died of wounds suffered in an
attack the day before in Mosul. Insurgents clashed with US-allied Sunni
Arab fighters and killed one of them near the village of al-Waib, south
of Baqouba.
(AP, 7/31/08)
2008 Jul 31, A mortar shell hit a
house in the Swat valley where Pakistani security forces are battling
Islamic militants, killing a family of seven. Another 10 civilians died
in fighting in the region. Militants torched a nearby girls school.
(AP, 7/31/08)(SFC, 8/1/08, p.A10)
2008 Jul 31, Palestinian President
Mahmoud Abbas ordered the release of all Hamas activists detained in
recent days by his security forces.
(AP, 7/31/08)
2008 Jul 31, Russia’s Pres.
Medvedev said that he had signed an anticorruption plan and that he was
serious about clamping down on graft.
(WSJ, 7/31/08, p.A6)
2008 Jul 31, South Korea's
Constitutional Court overturned a ban on doctors telling parents the
gender of unborn babies, saying the country has grown out of a
preference for sons and that the restriction violates parents' right to
know.
(AP, 7/31/08)
2008 Jul 31, Sri Lanka’s army
troops crossed into Kilinochchi district, where the rebels' de facto
capital is located, in fighting for the first time in 11 years.
(AP, 8/2/08)
2008 Jul 31, Sudanese courts
sentenced another 22 alleged Darfur rebels to death over an
unprecedented attack on the capital last May in which more than 222
people were killed.
(AFP, 7/31/08)
2008 Jul 31, In Thailand the wife
of ousted PM Thaksin Shinawatra was found guilty of evading millions of
dollars in taxes and sentenced to three years in prison, dealing a
staggering blow to a man who was once one of the richest and most
powerful in Thailand.
(AP, 7/31/08)
2008 Jul 31, Turkey’s Deputy PM
Cemil Cicek signaled the government would not push for a fresh round of
legislation to lift the head scarf ban.
(AP, 7/31/08)
2008 Jul 31, Fourteen of the UN
security council's 15 members voted in favor of Resolution 1828 to
extends the mandate of the joint UN-African Union peacekeeping force in
Darfur (UNAMID) for one year from this day, when it had been set to
expire. The United States abstained in the vote because language added
to the resolution noting concern that any indictment of Beshir might
jeopardize the Darfur peace process.
(AFP, 8/1/08)
2008 Jul 31, Venezuela’s Pres.
Chavez said his government will nationalize Banco de Venezuela, the
local unit of the Spanish banking giant Banco Santander.
(WSJ, 7/31/08, p.A6)
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