Today in History - August 7
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317 Aug 7,
Flavius Julius Constantius II, Emperor Egypt, Byzantium, Rome (337-61),
was born.
(MC, 8/7/02)
626 Aug 7, Battle at
Constantinople: Slavs, Persians and Avars were defeated. Emp. Heraclius
repelled the attacks. The attacks began in 625.
(PCh, 1992, p.60)(MC, 8/7/02)
1106 Aug 7, Henry IV (54),
Holy Roman Emperor (1056/84-1105), died.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1485 Aug 7, Henry (VII) Tudor's
army landed in Milford Haven, South-Wales.
(ON, 12/06, p.1)
1573 Aug 7, Francis Drake’s fleet
returned to Plymouth.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1585 Aug 7, Tatar forces of Khan
Kutchum attacked a sleeping Cossack expedition under Yermak near the
mouth of the Vagay River in Siberia. The Cossacks were decimated and
Yermak drowned wearing a suit of armor given him by Tsar Ivan.
(ON, 2/04, p.5)
1620 Aug 7, Kepler's mother was
arrested for witchcraft.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1620 Aug 7, French king Louis XIII
beat his mother Marie de Medici at the Battle at Ponts-the-Ca, Poitou.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1731 Aug 7, William Cosby arrived
in New York to assume his post as Governor for the New York Province.
(www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/zenger/zengeraccount.html)
1742 Aug 7, Nathanael Greene,
American Revolutionary War General, was born.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1760 Aug 7, Ft. Loudon, Tennessee,
surrendered to Cherokee Indians.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1779 Aug 7, Carl Ritter, cofounder
of modern science of geography, was born in Quedlinberg, Prussia.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1782 Aug 7, General George
Washington created the Order of the Purple Heart, a decoration to
recognize merit in enlisted men and noncommissioned officers.
Washington authorized the award of the Purple Heart for soldiers
wounded in combat.
(AP, 8/7/97)(HN, 8/7/98)
1782 Aug 7, A statue of Peter the
Great was unveiled in St. Petersburg on the 100th anniversary of his
accession to the throne. It was made by French sculptor Etienne-Maurice
Falconet (1716-1791), who spent 12 years on the work. Empress Catherine
commissioned it in 1765.
(WSJ, 8/5/06, p.P12)
1783 Aug 7, John Heathcoat
(d.1861), English inventor of lace-making machinery (1809), was born.
In 1816 Luddites burned down his Nottingham factory.
(MC, 8/7/02)(Internet)
1789 Aug 7, The U.S. War
Department was established by Congress.
(AP, 8/7/97)
1794 Aug 7, George Washington
issued a proclamation telling a group of Western Pennsylvania farmers
to stop their Whiskey Rebellion. In the US in western Pennsylvania,
angry farmers protested a new federal tax on whiskey makers. The
protest flared into the open warfare known as the Whiskey Rebellion
between US marshals and whiskey farmers.
(http://www.ttb.gov/public_info/whisky_rebellion.shtml)(A&IP, ESM,
p.16)(HNQ, 10/14/99)
1802 Aug 7, Napoleon ordered the
re-instatement of slavery on St. Domingue (Haiti).
(MC, 8/7/02)
1814 Aug 7, Pope Pius VII
reinstated the Jesuits.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1818 Aug 7, Henri Charles Litolff,
French composer, pianist, was born.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1819 Aug 7, South American
liberator Simon Bolivar defeated Spanish forces under Gen. Jose
Barreiro in New Granada (Colombia) at the Battle of Boyaca. The
revolutionary army entered Bogota Aug 10.
(HNQ, 9/12/99)(ON, 3/05, p.2)
1820 Aug 7, The 1st potatoes were
planted in Hawaii.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1821 Aug 7, Caroline of Brunswick
(b.1768), wife of England’s King George IV, died. In 2006 Jane Robins
authored “The Trial of Queen Caroline: The Scandalous Affair that
Nearly Ended a Monarchy.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_IV_of_the_United_Kingdom)(Econ,
8/5/06, p.76)
1826 Aug 7, Marc Brunel hired his
son, Isambard, to replace William Armstrong as chief engineer for
building the tunnel under England’s Thames River.
(ON, 4/06,
p.8)(www.bris.ac.uk/is/services/specialcollections/brunelchronology.html)
1833 Aug 7, Powell Clayton, Brig.
General (Union volunteers), (Gov-R-Ark), was born in Pa.
(MC, 8/7/02)(Internet)
1836 Aug 7, Evander McIvor Law
(d.1920), Brig General (Confederate Army), was born in South Carolina.
(MC, 8/7/02)(Internet)
1864 Aug 7, Union troops captured
part of Confederate General Jubal Early's army at Moorefield, West
Virginia.
(HN, 8/7/98)
1876 Aug 7, Margaretha Zelle (aka
Mata Hari) was born in the Netherlands. Mata Hari, otherwise known as
Margaretha G. Macleod, passed secrets to the Germans in World War I.
(WSJ, 1/16/97, p.A16)(HN, 8/7/98)
1882 Aug 7, Hatfields of south
West Virginia and McCoys of eastern Kentucky re-engaged in a feud that
dated back to 1865. Some 100 were wounded or died. In 2007 medical
evidence indicated that many of the descendants of the McCoys suffered
from an inherited disease that leads to hair-trigger rage and violent
outbursts.
(www.tugvalleychamberofcommerce.com/tour.html)(SFC,
4/6/07, p.A16)
1888 Aug 7, Theophilus Van Kannel
of Philadelphia received a patent for the revolving door.
(HN, 8/7/00)
1893 Aug 7, Alfredo Catalani (39),
Italian composer, died.
(MC, 8/7/02)(Internet)
1896 Aug 7, Ernesto Lecuona,
composer (Malaguena), was born in Havana, Cuba.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1903 Aug 7, Louis Leakey,
anthropologist, archeologist and paleontologist, was born in Kenya. He
believed that Africa was the cradle of mankind.
(HN, 8/7/98)(Internet)
1904 Aug 7, Ralph Bunche (d.1971),
US diplomat and the first African-American Nobel Prize winner (1950),
was born. "There are no warlike peoples- just warlike leaders."
(HN, 8/7/98)(AP, 12/7/99)(MC, 8/7/02)
1906 Aug 7, In North Carolina, a
mob defies a court order and lynches three African Americans which
becomes known as "The Lyerly Murders."
(HN, 8/7/99)
1909 Aug 7, US issued the 1st
Lincoln penny. [see Aug 2]
(MC, 8/7/02)
1909 Aug 7, Alice Huyler Ramsey
(22) arrived in San Francisco on a ferry boat after driving a 1909
Maxwell Model DA across the country. She had left New York on June 9.
(SFC, 7/10/09, p.D3)
1912 Aug 7, The Progressive Party
(Bull Moose Party) nominated Theodore Roosevelt for president.
Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt had stormed the Republican convention
but failed to wrest the nomination from William Howard Taft. He then
founded his own, short-lived, Progressive Party. The party split
allowed Taft to win the election.
(WSJ, 6/5/96, p.A12)(AP, 8/7/97)(SFEC, 3/5/00, p.D8)
1915 Aug 7, In the assault up
Russell's Top at Gallipoli 232 Australians died.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1916 Aug 7, Persia formed an
alliance with Britain and Russia.
(HN, 8/7/98)
1922 Aug 7, The Irish Republican
Army cut the cable link between the United States and Europe at
Waterville landing station.
(HN, 8/7/98)
1926 Aug 7, Stan Freberg,
satirist, ad executive, cartoon voice (Bertie), was born in LA, Calif.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1926 Aug 7, The United States
declared non-intervention in the Spanish Civil War.
(HN, 8/7/98)
1927 Aug 7, Edwin Edwards,
governor of Louisiana, was born.
(HN, 8/7/98)
1927 Aug 7, US Major General
Leonard Wood (b.1860) died in Boston, Mass. His military service
included commands in Cuba (1900-1902) and the Philippines 1905 and
1921-1927. In 1910, he was named Chief of Staff of the Army, the
only medical officer to ever hold the position. In 2005 Jack McCallum
authored the biography “Leonard Wood.”
(www.wood.army.mil/MGLeonardwood.htm)
1927 Aug 7, The Peace Bridge
between the United States and Canada was dedicated during ceremonies
attended by the Prince of Wales, Canadian PM William Lyon Mackenzie
King and US Vice President Charles Dawes.
(AP, 8/7/07)
1927 Aug 7, Maia Wojciechowska
(d.2002) was born in Warsaw. She moved to the US in 1942 and became an
acclaimed author of children’s books. Her work included the memoir
"Till the Break of Day: Memories, 1939-1942."
(SFC, 7/1/02, p.B5)
1928 Aug 7, Amazing Randi (James
Randi), skeptic magician (Nova), was born in Toronto, Ontario.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1929 Aug 7, Ruth Carter-Stapleton,
Pres. Carter’s sister, evangelist, was born in Plains, Ga.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1930 Aug 7, In Marion, Indiana, a
mob broke into a jail and beat to death 2 young black men and hung them
from a tree in the courthouse square. Tommy Shipp and Abe Smith and a
3rd teenager had just been arrested for a botched robbery that left
Claude Deeter, a white man, dead. James Cameron (16) was saved from
hanging, even as a noose was on his neck. In 2006 Cynthia Carr authored
“Our Town: A Heartland Lynching, a Haunted Town and the Hidden History
of White America.”
(SSFC, 3/26/06, p.M3)
1930 Aug 7, James D. Phelan
(1897-1901), former 3-time mayor of SF, died. In 1914 he was elected
and served a single term in the US Senate. His unsuccessful 1920
reelection campaign used the slogan "Keep California White."
(SFC, 11/7/00, p.A15)(SFC, 8/5/05, p.F4)
1931 Aug 7, Leon Bismarck "Bix"
Beiderbecke (29), jazz cornetist (In Mist), died. In 1974 Richard M.
Sudhalter authored "Bix: Man and Legend."
(WSJ, 6/13/03, p.W12)(MC, 8/7/02)
1932 Aug 7, Abebe Bikila (d.1973),
barefoot runner from Ethiopia, winner of the 1960 Olympic marathon, was
born.
(HN, 8/7/98)(www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7ZLB1-Ofyw)
1934 Aug 7, The U.S. Court of
Appeals upheld a lower court ruling striking down the government's
attempt to ban the controversial James Joyce novel "Ulysses."
(AP, 8/7/97)
1935 Aug 7, In Danzig
(Gdansk) 60% of voters agreed to Nazism (NSDAP).
(MC, 8/7/02)
1936 Aug 7, The United States
declared non-intervention in the Spanish Civil War.
(HN, 8/7/00)
1938 Aug 7, Nazi's closed the
theology department of Innsbruck university.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1938 Aug 7, Konstantin S.
Stanislavsky (75), Russian director (S Method), died.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1940 Aug 7, Churchill recognized
the De Gaulle government in exile.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1941 Aug 7, In Romania 551 Jews
were shot in the Kishinev ghetto.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1942 Aug 7, Garrison Keillor,
American humorist and writer, was born.
(HN, 8/7/00)
1942 Aug 7, B.J. (Billy Joe)
Thomas, singer (Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head, Hooked on a
Feeling), was born.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1942 Aug 7, The U.S. 1st Marine
Division under General A. A. Vandegrift landed on the islands of
Guadalcanal and Tulagi in the Solomon islands. This was the first
American amphibious landing of the war and the start of the first major
allied offensive in the Pacific during World War II. The initial
landing party included Navajo Codetalkers. This was the 1st land
Japanese defeat of WWII; Japan was building an air base with designs on
isolating the Australian continent.
(AP, 8/7/97)(HN, 8/7/98)(WSJ, 10/12/99, p.A24)(MC,
8/7/02)
1942 Aug 7, The Nazi 36th Police
Battalion, made up of ethnic Estonians, massacred some 2,500 Jews at
Novogrudok, Belarus (according to the Simon Wiesenthal Foundation).
(SSFC, 2/15/04, p.A4)
1942 Aug 7, Transport 16 departed
with French Jews to Nazi-Germany.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1944 Aug 7, July 20th Plot trial
under Nazi judge Roland Freisler began in Berlin.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1944 Aug 7, German forces launched
a major counter attack against U.S. forces near Mortain, France.
(HN, 8/7/98)
1947 Aug 7, The balsa wood
raft Kon-Tiki, which had carried a six-man crew 4,300 miles across the
Pacific Ocean, crashed into a reef in a Polynesian archipelago. [see
Apr 28]
(AP, 8/7/97)
1953 Aug 7, Eastern Airlines
entered the jet age with the Electra prop-jet.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1956 Aug 7, British government
sent 3 aircraft carriers to Egypt.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1957 Aug 7, Oliver Hardy (65), the
heavier half of the Laurel and Hardy comedy team, died in North
Hollywood, Calif.
(AP, 8/7/07)
1959 Aug 7, The United States
launched Explorer 6, which sent back a picture of the Earth. The
satellite, popularly known as the "paddlewheel satellite," featured a
photocell scanner that transmitted a crude picture of the earth's
surface and cloud cover from a distance of 17,000 miles
(HFA, '96, p.36)(AP, 8/7/97)(MC, 8/7/02)
1960 Aug 7, Students staged
kneel-in demonstrations in Atlanta churches.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1960 Aug 7, Vaino Hannikainen
(60), Finnish composer, died.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1961 Aug 7, Soviet premier
Khrushchev predicted that the USSR economy would surpass that of the US.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1964 Aug 7, Congress passed the
Gulf of Tonkin resolution, giving President Johnson broad powers in
dealing with reported North Vietnamese attacks on U.S. forces. It
allowed the president to use unlimited military force to prevent
attacks on U.S. forces. U.S. Senators Wayne Morse of Oregon and Ernest
Gruening of Alaska share the distinction of casting the only votes
against the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. The resolution supported
President Lyndon Johnson's military actions against North Vietnam in
retaliation for its attack on a U.S. spy ship in the Tonkin Gulf. The
resolution passed in the House 414-0 and the Senate 88-2. The
resolution, which amounted to a declaration of war, was repealed by
Congress on January 13, 1971.
(AP, 8/7/97)(HNQ, 6/24/98)(HN, 8/7/98)
1964 Aug 7, Turkey began an air
attack on Greek-Cypriots.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1966 Aug 7, The United States lost
seven planes over North Vietnam, the most in the war up to this point.
(HN, 8/7/98)
1966 Aug 7, There was a race riot
in Lansing, Michigan.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1970 Aug 7, At a hearing for the
"Soledad Brothers," Jonathon P. Jackson (17), the younger brother of
George L. Jackson, attempted an armed rescue attempt at the Marin Civic
Center. A shootout in the parking lot followed and 4 people were killed
and 5 injured. Among the dead were Jackson, Judge Harold Haley, Black
Panther James McClain, and convict William A. Christmas. Angela Davis
was charged with murder, kidnapping and conspiracy, but was acquitted
in 1972 after spending a year in jail. An attempt by black militant
James David McClain to escape his trial in Marin County, California,
ended in a shootout with police that claimed the lives of McClain, two
of three cohorts, and Judge Harold J. Daley, one of several hostages.
(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W21)(SFC, 8/19/98, p.A18)(AP,
8/7/00)
1970 Aug 7, In Colombia Misael
Pastrana (1923-1997), a member of the Conservative Party, began serving
as the country’s 31st president. He was elected by a margin of 63,000
votes. Some who favored his opponent, Gen’l. Gustavo Rojas Pinilla,
formed the M-19 rebel group and waged war for almost 2 decades before
they disarmed in 1989.
(SFC, 8/23/97,
p.A20)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misael_Pastrana_Borrero)
1970 Aug 7, Israel, Jordan and
Egypt agreed to a ceasefire under the terms of the US proposed Roger
Plan. The Roger Plan was originally proposed in a December 9, 1969,
speech at an Adult Education conference. The plan was formally
announced on 19 June 1970.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_Attrition)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogers_Plan)
1973 Aug 7, A US plane
accidentally bombed a Cambodian village, killing 400 civilians.
(HN,
8/7/98)(www.massviolence.org/+-Cambodia-+?id_rubrique=6&artpage=11-18)
1973 Aug 7, Pat Halley
(1950-2007), a Detroit reporter for the Fifth Estate, tossed a pie in
the face of the teenage "Lord of the Universe" at a formal session of
Common Council in protest of the Guru's claim of divinity. A week later
Halley was savagely beaten and almost killed by two devotees of the
Guru Maharaj Ji (15). Halley was released from Detroit General Hospital
on Aug. 21 in good condition after undergoing surgery to repair a
caved-in portion of his skull.
(www.ex-premie.org/pages/fifthestate4.htm)(http://tinyurl.com/2w98lt)
1974 Aug 7, French stuntman
Philippe Petit walked a tightrope strung between the twin towers of New
York's World Trade Center. In 2002 Petit authored "To Reach the Clouds:
My High Wire Walk Between the Twin Towers." In 2003 Steven Galloway
authored "Ascension," a novel that featured a fictional Gypsy tightrope
walker named Ursari, who makes a final, fateful skywalk between the
Twin Towers of the World Trade Center on July 4, 1976. In 2008 James
Marsh produced his documentary film of the event: Man On Wire.”
(AP, 8/7/97)(SSFC, 9/8/02, p.M4)(SSFC, 10/11/03,
p.M3)(WSJ, 8/8/08, p.W1)
1975 Aug 7, In China a dam
collapse in Henan province killed tens of thousands of people. The
event was covered up for many years. A typhoon from the South China Sea
brought three successive days of enormous rain storms to the area of
southern Henan Province. Altogether 62 dams failed in one night,
including two major dams. As a result of this catastrophe 85,600 people
died according to the official government figures but others place the
toll at 230 thousand.
(WSJ, 8/29/07,
p.A12)(www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/3gorges.htm)
1976 Aug 7, Scientists in
Pasadena, Calif., announced that the Viking 1 spacecraft had found the
strongest indications to date of possible life on Mars.
(AP, 8/7/97)
1977 Aug 7, "Shenandoah" closed at
Alvin Theater in NYC after 1,050 performances.
(www.angelfire.com/stars/scottbakula/Theatrecredits.html)
1983 Aug 7, Some 675,000 employees
struck ATT Corp.
(http://openweb.tvnews.vanderbilt.edu/1983-8/1983-08-07-CBS-4.html)
1983 Aug 7, Cynthia Munoz (17) of
Campbell, Ca., was found raped and murdered with stab wounds. In 2007
prosecutors with DNA evidence charged Christopher Melvin Holland (52)
with the murder and sought his arrest. Holland was arrested in San
Jose, Ca., on Oct 18, 2007.
(http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=local&id=5710333)(SFC,
10/19/07, p.B5)
1985 Aug 7, Spc. Edward Pimental
(20), a US Army soldier, left a discotheque in the western German city
of Wiesbaden with a woman and was soon killed. Terrorists used
Pimental's ID card to enter the US Rhein-Main air base in Frankfurt.
The following day, explosives packed in a Volkswagen rocked the parking
lot behind the base headquarters. Two Americans were killed and 23
people were injured. In 1994 a Frankfurt court found Eva Haule guilty
of killing Pimental. In 1996 a judge said Birgit Hogefeld, who was also
convicted in the Pimental killing and the Rhein-Main bombing, had lured
Pimental out of the disco. In 2007 Haule (53) was released from jail
after serving 21 years of a life sentence.
(AP, 8/17/07)
1987 Aug 7, Lynne Cox became the
1st to swim from US to Russia across the Bering Strait.
(http://tinyurl.com/lal2h)
1987 Aug 7, The presidents of 5
Central American nations, meeting in Guatemala City, signed an 11-point
agreement designed to bring peace to their region.
(AP, 8/7/97)
1988 Aug 7, The Writers Guild of
America ended their 6 months strike.
(http://tinyurl.com/zlxht)
1988 Aug 7, Iranian Foreign
Minister Ali Akbar Velayati signaled his government's acceptance of
Iraq's modified peace proposal aimed at bringing about a cease-fire in
the Persian Gulf.
(AP, 8/7/98)
1989 Aug 7, A small plane carrying
Congressman Mickey Leland, D-Texas, and 15 others disappeared during a
flight in Ethiopia. The wreckage of the plane was found six days later;
there were no survivors.
(AP, 8/7/99)
1990 Aug 7, President Bush ordered
US troops and warplanes to Saudi Arabia to guard the oil-rich desert
kingdom against a possible invasion by Iraq. The US Persian Gulf War
began. Operation Desert Shield ended Feb 28, 1991. It cost $8.1 billion
and left 383 US casualties with 458 wounded.
(AP, 8/7/99)(WSJ, 9/22/99, p.A8)
1990 Aug 7, The UN imposed
sanctions on Iraq and devastated the economy.
(SFC, 9/4/96, p.A8)
1991 Aug 7, The five permanent
members of the UN Security Council agreed to authorize Iraq to sell as
much as $1.6 billion in oil over six months to pay for food,
humanitarian supplies and war reparations; however, Baghdad rejected
the resolution.
(AP, 8/7/01)
1992 Aug 7, Jennifer Capriati won
the gold medal in tennis at the Barcelona Olympics, beating Steffi Graf.
(AP, 8/7/02)
1992 Aug 7, The luxury liner Queen
Elizabeth 2 ran aground off Massachusetts.
(AP, 8/7/97)
1992 Aug 7, The 39-nation
Conference on Disarmament in Geneva produced the final draft of a
treaty to ban chemical weapons, ending 24 years of talks.
(AP, 8/7/97)
1993 Aug 7, The public got its
first glimpse inside Buckingham Palace as people were given the
opportunity to tour the London home of Queen Elizabeth II. Proceeds
from ticket sales were earmarked to help repair fire damage at Windsor
Castle.
(AP, 8/7/98)
1994 Aug 7, The 10th International
Conference on AIDS opened in Yokohama, Japan.
(AP, 8/7/99)
1995 Aug 7, Ten days before he was
to be put to death for the murder of a police officer, black activist
and radio reporter Mumia Abu-Jamal won a reprieve from the original
trial judge in Philadelphia. As of 2008, his legal appeals are still
unsettled and he is a prisoner at State Correctional Institution Greene
near Waynesburg, Pennsylvania.
(AP,
8/7/00)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mumia_Abu-Jamal)
1996 Aug 7, More than 6 million
American Online customers worldwide were left stranded when the system
crashed for almost 19 hours.
(AP, 8/7/97)
1996 Aug 7, There was a report
that cervical cancer in women was linked to the human papilloma virus
(HPV). There is an estimated 75 different strains of HPV and that 97%
of cervical cancers were due to the virus and commonly spread by sexual
intercourse.
(SFC, 8/7/96, p.A5)
1996 Aug 7, NASA researchers
formally presented their case for the existence of life long ago on
Mars. [see Aug 6]
(AP, 8/7/01)
1996 Aug 7, The presidents of
Serbia and Croatia agreed to establish diplomatic relations.
(SFC, 8/8/96, p.A11)
1996 Aug 7, In Honduras the
attorney general accused the army of spying on thousands of public
officials, judges, politicians and journalists.
(SFC, 8/8/96, p.C1)
1996 Aug 7, In Russia communist
leader Gennady Zyuganov was elected to lead a coalition of Communists
and nationalists under the banner of the Popular Patriotic Union.
(SFC, 8/8/96, p.A8)
1996 Aug 7, In Spain flash floods
at a Pyrenees mountain campsite killed at least 71 [86] people at a
campground.
(WSJ, 8/9/96, p.A1)(AP, 8/7/97)
1997 Aug 7, It was reported that
US retail space and semiconductor manufacturing capacity far exceeded
demand. A downturn in the economy was said to have already begun.
(WSJ, 8/7/97, p.A1)
1997 Aug 7, The space shuttle
Discovery was launched with a crew of six. A satellite was dropped off
to study the Earth’s ozone layer.
(SFC, 8/8/97, p.A3)
1997 Aug 7, A DC-8 cargo plane
crashed on take-off at Miami Int’l. Airport. Four people were killed on
the denim filled 29-year-old plane bound for the Dominican Republic.
(SFC, 8/8/97, p.A3)
1997 Aug 7, The US State Dept.
expressed concern over reports of Chinese nuclear-capable M-11
missiles sold to Pakistan.
(SFC, 8/8/97, p.E3)
1997 Aug 7, In Argentina Pres.
Eduardo Frei of Chile and Argentine Pres. Carlos Menem opened a $325
million pipeline for natural gas from Argentina to Santiago.
(SFC, 8/8/97, p.E3)
1997 Aug 7, From China it was
reported that Zhu Qihua planned to move the Big Green Mountain by
Lanzhou, a railroad hub, in order to clear the air of heavy smog.
(WSJ, 8/7/97, p.A1)
1997 Aug 7, In Mexico Jose
Paoletti Moreda and his son Renato were arrested on charges of leading
an operation that smuggled deaf people into the US and forced them to
work under virtual slavery conditions. Another couple was arrested with
ten deaf smuggled immigrants in Dallas on Aug 15.
(SFC, 8/8/97, p.A3)(SFC, 8/16/97, p.A2)
1997 Aug 7, In Romania Prime
Minister Victor Ciorbea announced the closure of 17 factories at the
urging of the IMF. 30,000 jobs would be lost and the following day
thousands protested the closing of the essentially bankrupt companies.
(SFC, 8/9/97, p.C1)
1997 Aug 7, A Russian capsule on a
fix-it mission docked gingerly with the crippled Mir space station,
bringing a new crew to salvage the orbiting outpost.
(AP, 8/7/98)
1997 Aug 7, In Switzerland the
measures to freeze the assets of deposed Zairean Pres. Mobuto Sese Seko
were declared legal.
(SFC, 8/8/97, p.E3)
1998 Aug 7, The Federal Aviation
Administration, in a follow-up to the probe of the 1996 explosion that
destroyed TWA Flight 800, ordered the inspection of Boeing 747 fuel
tanks.
(AP, 8/7/99)
1998 Aug 7, A fire in Tracy, Ca.,
burned some 2.5 million tires at Royster’s Tire Disposal. Some 6
million tires were expected to burn for weeks.
(SFC, 8/8/98, p.A21)(SFC, 8/10/98, p.A20)
1998 Aug 7, In Utah five young
girls (ages 2-6) died from heat exposure after they were trapped in the
trunk of a car in West Valley City.
(SFC, 8/8/98, p.A5)
1998 Aug 7, Steve Fossett departed
from western Argentina on his 4th attempt to circle the world in a
balloon.
(SFC, 8/12/98, p.A8)
1998 Aug 7, In China the death
toll from the summer floods passed 2,000 and the Jingjiang flood plain
was ordered evacuated.
(SFC, 8/8/98, p.A14)
1998 Aug 7, In Colombia Pres.
Andres Pastrana took office. Following his inauguration Pastrana
replaced the top leaders of the military.
(SFC, 8/5/98, p.A10)(WSJ, 8/10/98, p.A1)
1998 Aug 7, In Congo Pres. Kabila
left Kinshasa for Lubumbashi, his former rebel base, to meet with a
visiting South African delegation.
(SFC, 8/8/98, p.A13)
1998 Aug 7, Two powerful bombs
exploded at the US embassies in Nairobi, Kenya and Dar es Salaam,
Tanzania. At least 147 [244-247] people were killed and over 4,800 were
injured. 11 [12] of the dead were Americans. In Nairobi at least 53
buildings were damaged. The adjacent Ufundi Cooperative House was
demolished and the 22-story Cooperative Bank House had all its windows
shattered. Haroun Fazil of the Comoros Islands was later the 3rd
bombing suspect to be charged in the Kenya bombing. Ali Mohamed, a
former US Army sergeant, was involved in the US Embassy bombings. In
2000 he pleaded guilty for his role under the direction of Osama bin
Laden. In 2001 Mohamed Rashed Daoud Al-‘Owhali (24) of Saudi Arabia,
Khalfan Khamis Mohamed (27) of Tanzania, Wadi El-Hage (40) of Texas,
and Mohamed Sadeek Odeh (36) of Jordan were convicted on 302 counts. In
2007 Walid Muhammad bin Attash told a military tribunal at Guantanamo
that he was responsible for organizing the 2000 Cole attack in Yemen as
well as the 1998 bombings in Kenya and Tanzania.
(SFC, 8/8/98, p.A1)(SFEC, 8/9/98, p.A1)(WSJ,
9/18/98, p.A1)(AP, 8/7/99)(SFC, 10/21/00, p.A1)(SFC, 5/30/01,
p.A13)(SFC, 9/21/01, p.A1)(SFC, 3/20/07, p.A3)
1998 Aug 7, In Nairobi Catherine
Bwire (25) was one of 25 people blinded by the bombing. She was
pregnant and gave birth to a daughter on Oct 27.
(SFC, 11/25/98, p.A16)
1998 Aug 7, In Pakistan Sadik
Howaida (34), later named as Mohammed Saddiq Odeh, was detained at the
Karachi airport. He reportedly confessed to participating in the
bombing in Nairobi. He said that he and 2 coconspirators had left
Nairobi and planned to enter Afghanistan a few days before the bombing.
He acknowledged that the team was recruited and financed by Osama bin
Laden who was ensconced in a fortress-style hideout in Kandahar. Odeh
later refused to admit responsibility to American officials.
(SFEC, 8/16/98, p.A17)(SFC, 8/17/98, p.12,17)(SFC,
8/18/98, p.A6)
1998 Aug 7, In Peru Pres. Andres
Pastrana took office.
(SFC, 8/5/98, p.A10)
1998 cAug 7, Immediately after the
bombing of 2 US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, Sudanese authorities
arrested 2 men suspected of being involved in the plot. [see Aug 21]
(SFC, 7/30/99, p.A12)
1998 Aug 7, Vietnam devalued its
currency 7%.
(WSJ, 8/10/98, p.A10)
1999 Aug 7, President Clinton,
during a visit to his home state of Arkansas, promised to devote the
rest of his presidency to erasing poverty.
(AP, 8/7/00)
1999 Aug 7, The Southern Party
held its inaugural rally in Flat Rock, North Carolina, pledging to work
peacefully for a separate Southern nation.
(AP, 8/7/00)
1999 Aug 7, Wade Boggs became the
first player to homer for his three-thousandth hit.
(AP, 8/7/00)
1999 Aug 7, In China Song Yongyi,
a research librarian at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pa., was
imprisoned while collecting data on the Cultural Revolution. On Dec 12
he was charged with "the purchase and illegal provision of intelligence
to foreigners." Yongyi was released on Jan 28, 2000.
(SFC, 1/26/00, p.A8)(SFC, 1/29/00, p.A8)
1999 Aug 7, Pres. Isaias Afwerki
of Eritrea made an unconditional offer for cooperation with the OAU to
end its war with Ethiopia during a meeting with Algerian Pres.
Bouteflika, the OAU chairman.
(SFC, 8/9/99, p.A10)
1999 Aug 7, In Indonesia a tugboat
and oil tanker collided under thick haze and the tanker ignited killing
10 people.
(SFC, 8/10/99, p.A10)
1999 Aug 7, In Kosovo French
troops kept ethnic Albanians away from Serbs on the Ibar River bridge
at the Kosovska Mitrovica mining center. In Vrbas, Serbia, some 2,000
people rallied against Pres. Milosevic.
(SFEC, 8/8/99, p.A21)
1999 Aug 7, In Russia Islamic
fighters based in Chechnya seized at least 2 village in Dagestan.
Warlords Shamil Basayev and Wahabi commander Khattab were reported to
be involved. The Wahabi sect, a puritan branch of Sunni Islam, was
founded in the 18th century in Saudi Arabia.
(SFEC, 8/8/99, p.A20)
1999 Aug 7, In Finland the village
of Kutemajarvi planned a sex fair for people over age 45 to commemorate
the UN designation of 1999 as the Int'l. Year of Older Persons.
(SFC, 1/16/99, p.A12)
2000 Aug 7, Vice President and
Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore selected Connecticut Senator
Joseph Lieberman as his running mate; Lieberman was the first Jew on a
major party’s presidential ticket.
(SFC, 8/8/00, p.A1)(AP, 8/7/01)
2000 Aug 7, It was reported that
another 16 people were killed by rebels in northern Colombia and that
Occidental Petroleum had halted production at its 2nd largest field due
to rebel attacks. Rightist paramilitary killed 7 villagers in San Diego.
(WSJ, 8/7/00, p.A1)(SFC, 8/9/00, p.A14)
2000 Aug 7, Chechen rebels claimed
11 Russian soldiers in a military convoy were killed by a remote
controlled mine.
(SFC, 8/8/00, p.A12)
2000 Aug 7, In Malaysia Anwar
Ibrahim, former deputy prime minister, was convicted of sodomy and
sentenced to 9 years in prison. Sukma Dermawan, Ibrahim’s codefendant
and adopted brother, was also found guilty.
(SFC, 8/8/00, p.A11)
2000 Aug 7, In Spain a bomb
exploded in Bilbao and killed 3 suspected Basque separatists, who
appeared to be transporting explosives.
(SFC, 8/8/00, p.A12)
2000 Aug 7, Venezuela’s Pres. Hugo
Chavez arrived in Saudi Arabia to begin a tour of 10 oil-producing
nations that included Iraq.
(SFC, 8/8/00, p.A10)
2001 Aug 7, Three researchers told
a committee at the National Academy of Sciences they were unswayed by
arguments against human cloning and would soon try to clone human
beings.
(AP, 8/7/02)
2001 Aug 7, Larry Adler (87),
harmonica virtuoso, died in London.
(SFC, 8/11/01, p.A17)(AP, 8/7/02)
2001 Aug 7, In Cambodia the
Constitutional Council approved legislation to establish a special
court to try former Khmer Rouge leaders for crimes against humanity.
(SFC, 8/8/01, p.A9)
2001 Aug 7, In Colombia Pres.
Pastrana announced that he was suspending talks with the 5,000 ELN
rebels.
(SFC, 8/8/01, p.A8)
2001 Aug 7, Two Israelis were shot
dead on the West Bank. Israel gave its soldiers a freer hand to fire on
Palestinians.
(WSJ, 8/8/01, p.A1)
2001 Aug 7, In Macedonia police
conducted a predawn raid in Skopje and 5 members of the National
Liberation Army were killed.
(SFC, 8/8/01, p.A8)
2001 Aug 7, In Peru a gunfight
between police and leftist rebels in the province of Satipo left 12
rebels and 4 police officers dead.
(SFC, 8/10/01, p.A18)
2001 Aug 7, In the Philippines the
Islamic and National fronts signed a separate unity pact to bridge
their 23-year split. Muslim separatists agreed to a cease-fire with the
government. Only the Abu Sayyaf was left fighting the government.
(SFC, 8/8/01, p.A8)
2001 Aug 7, In Romania a gas
explosion in the Vulcan coal mine killed at least 14 miners.
(SFC, 8/8/01, p.A9)
2001 Aug 7, The Vatican denounced
what it called a "slanderous campaign" against the Roman Catholic
Church over the Holocaust-era pope, Pius XII.
(AP, 8/7/02)
2002 Aug 7, Destiny Wright
disappeared at a sleepover with other children in Philadelphia. Abdul
El-Shabazz (18) was arrested the next day and led police to her body.
(SFC, 8/10/02, p.A5)
2002 Aug 7, Former ImClone Systems
chief executive Samuel Waksal was indicted in New York on charges of
obstruction of justice and bank fraud in addition to previous
securities fraud and perjury charges. Waksal later pleaded guilty to
securities fraud and was sentenced to more than seven years in prison.
(AP, 8/7/03)
2002 Aug 7, Ford Motor Co. and
Canadian fuel cell developer Ballard Power Systems Inc. jointly
unveiled a hydrogen-fueled internal combustion engine-driven generator
they said could help pave the way toward the commercialization of fuel
cell technology.
(Reuters, 8/7/02)
2002 Aug 7, A U.S. Air Force cargo
plane crashed on a Puerto Rican mountaintop with at least 10 military
personnel on board, and all were feared dead.
(AP, 8/8/02)
2002 Aug 7, Treasury Secretary
Paul O'Neill urged Argentina to adopt a sound recovery strategy. As
O'Neill prepared to leave Argentina, more than 5,000 people rallied
near the president's downtown offices to protest his visit.
(AP, 8/7/02)
2002 Aug 7, In Afghanistan at
least 15 people were killed south of Kabul in a shootout between police
and recently escaped Pakistani members of al Qaeda.
(Reuters, 8/7/02)(SFC, 8/9/02, p.A14)
2002 Aug 7, The first British
Cabinet minister to visit this country in two decades met with Libyan
leader Moammar Gadhafi, saying Libya was making a serious attempt to
move away from its international pariah status.
(AP, 8/7/02)
2002 Aug 7, The IMF agreed to lend
Brazil $30 billion to stem a financial panic. This was its biggest loan
to date.
(SFC, 8/8/02, p.A10)
2002 Aug 7, In Colombia a
remote-controlled mortar attack killed 21 people during the
inauguration of Pres. Alvaro Uribe. 69 people were wounded.
(AP, 8/8/02)(SFC, 8/8/02,
p.A1)(www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=2519)
2002 Aug 7, About 30 Israeli tanks
firing heavy machineguns raided the northern Gaza Strip in a sweep for
militants and troops shot dead a Palestinian policeman.
(AP, 8/7/02)
2002 Aug 7, The Palestinian
Cabinet accepted Israel's proposal for a troop withdrawal from some
areas of the West Bank and Gaza Strip in exchange for Palestinian
security guarantees, even as Israeli troops hunting terror suspects
killed five Palestinians in three raids.
(AP, 8/7/02)
2002 Aug 7, In the Philippines
Marxist rebels vowed all-out resistance against the government's
renewed campaign to crush their revolt after President Gloria Macapagal
Arroyo ordered the deployment of troops in their strongholds.
(Reuters, 8/7/02)
2002 Aug 7, Saudi Arabia's Foreign
Minister Prince Saud said his country had made it clear to Washington,
publicly and privately, that the U.S. military will not be allowed to
use the kingdom's soil in any way for an attack on Iraq. Saud said the
longtime U.S. ally does not plan to expel American forces from an air
base used for flights to monitor Iraq.
(AP, 8/7/02)(AP, 8/8/02)
2002 Aug 7, In eastern Tajikistan
a dam holding water in a lake in the Pamir Mountains broke and flooded
a village and killing 20 people.
(AP, 8/7/02)
2003 Aug 7, Scientists reported a
new vaccine that was successful against the Ebola virus in monkeys.
(WSJ, 8/7/03, p.D6)
2003 Aug 7, In the August issue of
Foundations of Physics Letters, Peter Lynds of New Zealand claimed to
see time and motion in a new way. Lynds refutes an assumption dating
back 2,500 years, that time can be thought of in physical, definable
quantities. In essence, scientists have long assumed that motion can be
considered in frozen moments, or instants, even as time flows on.
"There isn't a precise instant underlying an object's motion," he said.
"And as its position is constantly changing over time -- and as such,
never determined -- it also doesn't have a determined position at any
time."
(AP, 8/7/03)
2003 Aug 7, In Afghanistan some 40
suspected Taliban fighters killed 6 Afghan soldiers and a driver for a
US aid organization.
(SFC, 8/8/03, p.A7)
2003 Aug 7, Bangladesh and Namibia
pledged more than 6,000 troops for a UN peace-keeping force to replace
multinational soldiers now deploying in war-torn Liberia.
(AP, 8/8/03)
2003 Aug 7, Chechen rebels using a
shoulder-fired missile shot down a Russian military helicopter in the
mountains, killing three of the crew.
(AP, 8/7/03)
2003 Aug 7, Gunmen ambushed a
Russian military convoy near the border with Chechnya, killing six
soldiers and wounding seven.
(AP, 8/8/03)
2003 Aug 7, Denmark's unemployment
rate rose in June to 6.2 percent, the highest level in almost five
years.
(AP, 8/7/03)
2003 Aug 7, An Indonesian court
sentenced Amrozi bin Nurhasyim to death in the 2002 Bali bombings that
killed 202 people.
(AP, 8/7/04)
2003 Aug 7, In Iraq a car bomb
shattered a street outside the walled Jordanian Embassy, killed 19
people — including two children.
(SFC, 8/9/03, p.A1)(AP, 8/7/08)
2003 Aug 7, In Liberia Charles
Taylor picked Vice Pres. Moses Blah (56) as his successor. West African
peacekeepers entered Liberia's rebel-besieged capital.
(AP, 8/7/04)
2003 Aug 7, An opposition party in
the Turks and Caicos, a British territory, won legislative elections
and will return to power after eight years out of office.
(AP, 8/8/03)
2004 Aug 7, Greg Maddux became the
22nd pitcher in major league history to reach 300 victories, leading
the Chicago Cubs to an 8-4 victory over San Francisco.
(AP, 8/7/05)
2004 Aug 7, AP reported that a
beheading was broadcast on 2 Arab TV stations. The video of the
beheading was fake and had been initially made and posted on the
Internet in May by 3 people from the SF Bay Area. Benjamin Vanderford
of SF said he made the video to show how easy it is to spread lies over
the Internet.
(SSFC, 8/8/04, p.A12)
2004 Aug 7, Paul N. Adair
(b.1915), Texas oil field firefighter, died. The 1968 film
“Hellfighter” with John Wayne was based on his life.
(SFC, 8/9/04, p.B6)(Econ, 8/14/04, p.78)
2004 Aug 7, Interim Iraqi Prime
Minister Ayad Allawi signed a long-awaited amnesty law that would
pardon Iraqis who have played minor roles in the country's
15-month-long insurgency. The Iraqi government closed the Iraqi offices
of the Arab television station Al-Jazeera for 30 days, accusing it of
inciting violence.
(AP, 8/7/04)
2004 Aug 7, Clashes between US-led
forces and fighters loyal to al-Sadr continued for a 3rd day in Najaf
and Sadr City. 23 civilians were killed and 121 wounded in the day’s
fighting.
(SSFC, 8/8/04, p.A1)
2004 Aug 7, A bomb exploded
outside a car dealership in Karachi, Pakistan, killing two people and
wounding three.
(AP, 8/7/04)
2004 Aug 7, Nahed Arreyes,
Palestinian justice minister, resigned to protest Yasser Arafat’s
refusal to share power.
(SSFC, 8/8/04, p.A18)
2004 Aug 7, The Romanian sitcom
"The Winding Road to Europe" featured villagers in the fictional La
Europa pub and swapping stories about how joining the EU will change
their lives. The European Union's Romania office has funded 12
15-minute episodes of "Winding Road" at $16,800 each, 4 of which had
already aired.
(AP, 8/7/04)
2004 Aug 7, The Edinburgh Festival
Fringe, a three-week cultural jamboree, began this weekend. This year's
event featured 1,700 shows, a big jump on last year's 1,541.
(AP, 8/7/04)
2004 Aug 7, Some 6,000 people
turned out for the start of a three-day gay and lesbian festival in
Singapore, where homosexual acts are still illegal. "Nation.04" -- a
festival of international DJs, podium dancers, pumping music and
muscular boys stripping off their tops on packed dance floors -- has
increased in size every year since it was launched four years ago.
(AP, 8/8/04)
2005 Aug 7, Peter Jennings (67),
Canadian-born ABC broadcaster, died of cancer. He had delivered the
news to Americans each night in five separate decades.
(AP, 8/8/05)
2005 Aug 7, A British
remote-controlled vehicle cut away undersea cables that snarled a
Russian mini-submarine in deep waters off the Kamchatka Peninsula
allowing it to surface. 7 people trapped for nearly 3 days on the
mini-sub were rescued.
(AP, 8/7/05)
2005 Aug 7, In southern China
rescuers attempted to reach 123 miners trapped in a flooded coal mine.
(AP, 8/7/05)(AP, 8/9/05)
2005 Aug 7, In India's northeast
Assam state suspected separatist rebels blew up a crucial oil pipeline
and nearby homes, shutting down operations.
(AP, 8/7/05)
2005 Aug 7, In central Iraq a
suicide bomber driving an empty fuel tanker detonated his vehicle near
a police station, killing at least two people. Three Iraqi soldiers and
two Oil Ministry employees were killed in two separate drive-by
shootings in Baghdad.
(AP, 8/7/05)
2005 Aug 7, Israeli Finance
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu resigned from his post to protest next
week's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and part of the West Bank.
(AP, 8/7/05)
2005 Aug 7-2005 Aug 8, In Nepal
communist insurgents overran about 200 troops 340 miles northwest of
Kathmandu and killed at least 40 soldiers in fierce clashes between the
military and Maoist rebels.
(AP, 8/9/05)(AP, 8/12/05)
2005 Aug 7, Envoys to North Korean
disarmament talks suspended their meetings for three weeks, deadlocked
over the North's insistence on retaining a peaceful nuclear program.
(AP, 8/7/05)
2005 Aug 7, Thousands of miners
stopped work for the first strike in South Africa's key gold sector
since 1987 after wage negotiations collapsed last week.
(AP, 8/7/05)
2005 Aug 7, Benon Sevan (67), the
former head of the scandal-tainted oil-for-food program, resigned from
the UN hours before he was expected to be accused of getting kickbacks
from the $67 billion operation.
(AP, 8/8/05)
2005 Aug 7, Voters across
Venezuela cast ballots to select thousands of local officials in
elections that could predict how well President Hugo Chavez's political
allies will fare in key congressional elections in December. Chavez
accused the US Drug Enforcement Agency of using its agents as spies and
said he was suspending cooperation with the DEA.
(AP, 8/7/05)(SFC, 8/8/05, p.A3)
2005 Aug 7, Zambia deported Haroon
Rashid Aswat (31), a Briton who has been questioned in connection with
the July 7 London transit bombings and is suspected of links to
al-Qaida.
(AP, 8/7/05)
2006 Aug 7, In Arizona 9 illegal
immigrants died when their SUV, crammed with up to 22 people, flipped
while trying to evade pursuit by the Border Patrol.
(WSJ, 8/8/06, p.A1)
2006 Aug 7, In the SF Bay Area
Santa Clara County sheriff’s deputies seized over 20,000 marijuana
plants on Mount Hamilton. Street value at maturity was estimated at $80
million.
(SFC, 8/9/06, p.B5)
2006 Aug 7, Sue Bierman (82),
former SF supervisor (1992-2000) died in a car crash in Cole Valley. A
park created in the wake of the demolition ramps leading to and away
from the Embarcadero Freeway (1959-1992) was soon renamed Sue Bierman
Park, after the former supervisor (d. 2006 at 82) who battled city
freeways.
(www.beyondchron.org/news/index.php?itemid=3563)(SSFC, 7/26/09, p.A16)
2006 Aug 7, Wal-Mart announced
chainwide pay caps and said they were intended to move people up the
company ladder.
(SFC, 8/15/06, p.D3)
2006 Aug 7, Utah doctors
successfully separated conjoined twins Kendra and Maliyah Herrin. The
4-year-old sisters had been born fused at the midsection with just one
kidney and one set of legs. Reconstruction surgery continued.
(AP, 8/8/06)
2006 Aug 7, A new finding implied
that the universe is about 15.8 billion years old and about 180 billion
light-years wide based on new evidence, which suggested that the Hubble
constant, a number that measures the expansion rate and age of the
universe, is actually 15% smaller than other studies have found.
(AP, 8/7/06)(http://tinyurl.com/jnc7x)
2006 Aug 7, Oil company BP
scrambled to assess pipeline corrosion in Alaska that will shut
shipments from the nation's biggest oil field, removing about 8% of
daily US crude production and driving oil and gasoline prices sharply
higher. BP said it would have to replace 16 miles of pipeline at the
Prudhoe Bay field.
(AP, 8/7/06)(AP, 8/7/07)
2006 Aug 7, John Weinberg (81),
former head of the Goldman Sachs investment firm, died. He and John
Whitehead led the firm from 1976-1985. Weinberg led it by himself until
1990.
(Econ, 8/19/06, p.73)
2006 Aug 7, Suspected Taliban
militants hanged a woman (70) and her son (30) from a tree in Helmand
province after accusing them of spying for the government.
(AP, 8/9/06)
2006 Aug 7, Robert McNaught of the
Siding Spring Observatory in Australia made the 1st sighting of a comet
that came to be called Comet McNaught.
(Econ, 1/20/07, p.89)
2006 Aug 7, Belgian officials said
thefts of drain covers in Charleroi have soared in recent days as
skyrocketing metal prices have made them lucrative.
(Reuters, 8/8/06)
2006 Aug 7, In Brazil suspected
PCC gang members in the pre-dawn hours attacked 78 symbols of
government and businesses across Sao Paulo state, many in the city
itself. Police killed two suspects after they allegedly opened fire on
a gas station, torched a bus and tried to flee in a car as officers
chased them. This marked the third time in four months that the gang
has unleashed its fury on the streets to oppose the prison transfer of
its leaders.
(AP, 8/8/06)
2006 Aug 7, China’s state media
said the death toll from Tropical Storm Prapiroon, named after the Thai
god of rain, rose to 80 with 9 more people missing.
(AFP, 8/6/06)(AP, 8/8/06)
2006 Aug 7, An explosion at a
Chinese perfume factory killed at least seven people and left three
hospitalized.
(AP, 8/7/06)
2006 Aug 7, Colombia’s President
Alvaro Uribe inaugurated an unprecedented second term, promising to
seek an elusive peace with leftist rebels while maintaining the
hardline security policies credited with a sharp drop in murder and
kidnappings.
(AP, 8/7/06)
2006 Aug 7, Gunmen in Haiti killed
Guido Vitiello (67), an Italian businessman, and kidnapped his wife,
Gigliola Martino (65), amid a spate of violence in the impoverished
Caribbean nation. Martino was released Aug 10.
(AP, 8/8/06)(AP, 8/11/06)
2006 Aug 7, Indonesia barred
Islamic militants from traveling to the Mideast to fight Israel after a
Jakarta group said more than 200 had already gone.
(WSJ, 8/8/06, p.A1)
2006 Aug 7, A suicide truck bomber
struck the provincial headquarters of an Iraqi police commando force
north of Baghdad, killing ten policemen. In Baquba six Iraqi soldiers
were killed and another 15 wounded when insurgents attacked their
checkpoint. In all insurgent and militia attacks left at least 30
Iraqis killed or found dead. Two Iraqi journalists were killed in
separate incidents in Baghdad. Mohammed Abbas Hamad (28), a journalist
for the Shiite-owned newspaper Al-Bayinnah Al-Jadida, was shot by
gunmen at he left his home. Police found the bullet-riddled body of
freelance journalist Ismail Amin Ali (30), about a half mile from where
he was abducted two weeks ago.
(AP, 8/7/06)(AFP, 8/7/06)(AP, 8/8/06)(WSJ, 8/8/06,
p.A1)
2006 Aug 7, The death toll in an
Israeli airstrike on a Shiite neighborhood in south Beirut reached 41.
Across the country 77 Lebanese were killed along with three Israeli
soldiers. The UN said an oil spill caused by Israeli raids on a
Lebanese power plant could rival the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster that
despoiled the Alaskan coast if not urgently addressed. the Jiyyeh
plant, which was bombed by Israel on July 14 and July 15 a few days
into its offensive against Hezbollah. 12,000 tons of leaking oil had
already polluted more than 140 kilometers (87 miles) of the Lebanese
coast and spread north into Syrian waters.
(AP, 8/8/06)(AP, 8/9/06)(AFP, 8/8/06)
2006 Aug 7, Morocco’s state news
agency reported that security services have arrested 44 suspected
terrorists and dismantled a network allegedly planning attacks.
(AP, 8/7/06)
2006 Aug 7, Dutch police arrested
a Rwandan immigrant, identified as Joseph M. (38), and charged him with
war crimes and torture for his alleged role in the 1994 genocide that
tore apart his home country.
(AP, 8/10/06)
2006 Aug 7, A pro-North Korean
newspaper in Japan said floods last month in North Korea killed at
least 549 people and left 295 others still missing.
(AP, 8/7/06)
2006 Aug 7, In northwestern
Pakistan a discarded ordnance shell exploded in a tribal village,
killing three young brothers who were playing with the explosive. A
relief official said flooding and heavy rains in northwestern Pakistan
in recent days have left 144 people dead and 97 others injured.
(AP, 8/7/06)(AP, 8/8/06)
2006 Aug 7, In Sri Lanka 17
civilians working for a French aid agency were found slain execution
style in Muttur after fierce battles between rebels and the government
over water supplies. All but one were Tamils.
(AP, 8/7/06)(AP, 8/29/06)
2006 Aug 7, The only rebel leader
to have signed onto a peace deal for Darfur was sworn in as a senior
aide to the Sudanese president as international aid groups said the
fighting in the war-torn region has intensified.
(AP, 8/7/06)
2006 Aug 7, Venezuelan authorities
captured Elias Verde, the alleged head of an international drug
trafficking group that was involved in a major cocaine smuggling
operation earlier this year in France.
(AP, 8/8/06)
2007 Aug 7, In SF Barry Bonds his
record breaking 756th homerun. He had just tied Hank Aaron’s record on
August 4. The Giants lost to the Washington Nationals 8-6. The ball was
later auctioned to fashion designer Marc Ecko for a record $752,467,
which included a 20% buyer’s premium.
(AP, 8/8/07)(SSFC, 9/16/07, p.B1)(SFC, 9/18/07, p.A1)
2007 Aug 7, A US jury convicted
Gregory Reyes (44), the former chief executive of Brocade
Communications Systems Inc., on all counts in the government's first
criminal trial of options backdating.
(Reuters, 8/8/07)
2007 Aug 7, The US FDA approved a
new drug to help patients with AIDS. Pfizer’s Selzentry is the first
anti-AIDS drug that blocks the CCR5 receptor, often used by the HIV
virus to enter white blood cells.
(SFC, 8/7/07, p.A4)
2007 Aug 7, Scientists reported
that a widespread die-off of frogs, toads and salamanders is primarily
due to the chytrid fungus, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis. Global
climate change was believed to encourage the spread of the fungus.
(SFC, 8/7/07, p.A4)
2007 Aug 7, A group of 75 Taliban
militants tried to overrun a US-led coalition base in southern
Afghanistan, a rare frontal attack that left more than 20 militants
dead. Taliban militants clashed with police in the same district where
23 South Koreans were abducted by Afghan insurgents. Four militants
were killed and six wounded.
(AP, 8/7/07)(AP, 8/8/07)
2007 Aug 7, Venezuelan President
Hugo Chavez said Venezuela would invest in a regasification plant for
liquid natural gas for Argentina, which is weathering an energy crisis.
Chavez was in Argentina as part of a regional tour.
(AP, 8/8/07)
2007 Aug 7, Administers in Vienna
said that the mid-Pacific nation of Palau has ratified the
Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, bringing to 139 the number of
countries that have fully endorsed the pact. The treaty, which bans all
nuclear explosions, will not enter into force until it has been
ratified by 44 states listed in an annex that participated in a 1996
disarmament conference and have nuclear power or research reactors.
Only 34 of the 44 countries have both signed and ratified the pact. The
holdouts are China, Colombia, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran, Israel,
Pakistan, North Korea and the United States.
(AP, 8/7/07)
2007 Aug 7, The toll from severe
floods across South Asia soared to nearly 1,900 and although water
levels in the region's swollen rivers started to recede, millions of
people in Bangladesh, India and Nepal still faced hunger. About 40% of
Bangladesh was under water.
(AFP, 8/7/07)(Econ, 8/11/07, p.34)
2007 Aug 7, Britain called for the
Bush administration to release five British residents held at
Guantanamo Bay, a policy reversal that suggests new PM Gordon Brown is
pursuing a tougher line with the US than his predecessor.
(AP, 8/7/07)
2007 Aug 7, Britain’s Environment
Secretary Hilary Benn said tests had confirmed a second foot-and-mouth
outbreak in southern England as he awaited an initial report into
biosecurity at a vaccine laboratory suspected of being at the center of
the cases.
(AP, 8/7/07)
2007 Aug 7, Britain's GW
Pharmaceuticals Plc said that Health Canada had approved its
cannabis-based medicine Sativex for treatment of cancer patients.
(AP, 8/7/07)
2007 Aug 7,
Juan Carlos Ramirez Abadia (44), an alleged Colombian drug kingpin
wanted by the United States, was arrested in a luxury condominium on
the outskirts of Sao Paulo, Brazil. He had extensive plastic surgery
but was identified by Brazilian and American anti-drug agents using
advanced voice recognition technology.
(AP, 8/7/07)(AP, 8/10/07)
2007 Aug 7, China Daily reported
that foreign exchange and public security authorities had closed down
the operations of an illegal bank based in Shenzhen, across the border
from Hong Kong. It did business in every province of the country and in
the year and half to May had done some $544 million in unspecified
transactions.
(www.chinaknowledge.com/news/news-detail.aspx?ID=9654)
2007 Aug 7, State media said
Chinese city traffic police have an average life expectancy of just 43
years because of the dire working conditions and pollution.
(AP, 8/7/07)
2007 Aug 7, Mobs torched
government buildings and foreign aid offices, as street violence
triggered by the appointment of East Timor's new PM spread to Baucau,
the 2nd-largest city. The former ruling Fretilin party won 21 seats in
the 65-member Parliament, well short of a majority, but insisted it had
the right to form the next government. Gusmao's party won 18, but
formed a coalition that now comprises 37 seats.
(AP, 8/7/07)
2007 Aug 7, A European diplomat
said that Russian officials told the Iranians about two weeks ago that
Russian fuel roads to the Bushehr reactor would be held back as long as
unresolved questions about Tehran's past nuclear activities remained.
(AP, 8/7/07)
2007 Aug 7, Georgia accused Russia
of "undisguised aggression," saying two Russian fighter jets intruded
on its airspace and fired a missile that landed near a house. Russia
denied the allegation.
(AP, 8/7/07)
2007 Aug 7, Indian communist
parties, which shore up the government, rejected a landmark nuclear
pact between New Delhi and Washington saying it compromised India's
sovereignty and imposed US influence. In northeastern Assam state,
gunmen killed 4 traders in the village of Harinagar after they refused
to pay about $1,200 each. Police blamed the militant group Dima Halam
Daogah, which demands an autonomous state for people of the Dimasa
tribe.
(AP, 8/7/07)(AP, 8/9/07)
2007 Aug 7, Kurdish guerrillas
killed a Turkish lieutenant in the southeast, as the Iraqi prime
minister arrived for a visit. Turkey and Iraq agreed to try to root out
a Kurdish rebel group from northern Iraq, but Iraq's prime minister
said his parliament would have the final say on efforts to halt the
guerrillas' cross-border attacks into Turkey. Iraq's semi-autonomous
Kurdish government approved a regional oil law, paving the way for
foreign investment in their northern oil and gas fields even as similar
US-backed legislation for the entire country remained stalled. Two US
Marines died west of Baghdad, one in fighting and the other in a
non-combat incident that was under investigation.
(AP, 8/7/07)(AP, 8/9/07)
2007 Aug 7, Israeli police, using
sledgehammers, chain saws and power clippers, stormed a building in the
biblical city of Hebron and dragged out hundreds of Jewish settlers who
had holed up there illegally.
(AP, 8/7/07)
2007 Aug 7, Ahmed Benchemsi, the
publisher of two Moroccan weeklies charged with showing disrespect to
the monarchy, defended himself, reserving the right to criticize his
country's political system. A day earlier magistrates in Casablanca
charged Benchemsi, the publisher of the Nishan and TelQuel weeklies,
and ordered him to stand trial.
(AFP, 8/7/07)
2007 Aug 7, ECOWAS said the last
refugees from Liberia and Sierra Leone in Nigeria have been allowed to
settle and they will have access to work, education and health on the
same terms as Nigerians, West African regional bloc.
(AP, 8/8/07)
2007 Aug 7, In Nigeria 6 Russian
hostages, kidnapped on June 3, were freed in the oil producing Niger
Delta after two months in captivity. Rusal, the world's largest
aluminium producer, acquired 77 percent of the Nigerian company Alscon
in February.
(AFP, 8/7/07)
2007 Aug 7, In Pakistan government
forces attacked two militant bases with helicopter gunships and
artillery in some of the army's toughest action in the lawless Afghan
border region since militant attacks began surging last month.
Low-level al-Qaida members, including Arabs and Chechens, were among 12
militant fighters killed. 2 gunmen on a motorcycle opened fire on
paramilitary forces in a town in North West Frontier Province, killing
one.
(AP, 8/7/07)(AP, 8/8/07)
2007 Aug 7, A large explosion in
northern Gaza killed an 8-year-old boy and his 6-year-old sister and
injured five other children. Witnesses said a group of children
stumbled upon a homemade rocket or a mortar shell and began playing
with it. The device exploded, injuring all seven children, two of whom
died later of their wounds.
(AP, 8/7/07)
2007 Aug 7, Darfur rebel
commanders shot down a government MiG 29 plane they say was bombing
civilian villages in their areas in Sudan's Darfur region.
(Reuters, 8/8/07)
2007 Aug 7, A judge in Trinidad
ordered three men extradited to the US to face charges in an alleged
plot to attack New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, and a
confidential US document said they planned to seek help from Iran.
(AP, 8/7/07)
2008 Aug 7, A US federal judge
ruled that American Indian plaintiffs were entitled to $455 million, a
fraction of the $47 billion they sought in a year trial for alleged
losses on royalties overseen by the Interior Department since 1887.
(SFC, 8/8/08, p.A6)
2008 Aug 7, A federal judge
ordered Detroit’s Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick to jail for violating the
terms of his bond in his perjury case, a decision the judge said he
would have made for any "John Six-Pack" defendant before him.
(AP, 8/7/08)
2008 Aug 7, In Arizona an SUV
packed with suspected illegal immigrants flipped over southeast of
Phoenix killing at least 9 people. There were 19 people in the vehicle.
(SFC, 8/8/08, p.A4)
2008 Aug 7, In northern California
the Muir Heritage Land Trust said it will pay $1.8 million for 423
acres in Franklin Canyon, ending a long-standing land fight.
(SFC, 8/8/08, p.B1)
2008 Aug 7, Afghan and coalition
forces killed at least four militants in Nahr Surkh district of Helmand
province. In central Afghanistan US-led coalition forces
"inadvertently" killed four women and a child during a clash that
killed several militants.
(AP, 8/8/08)
2008 Aug 7, In Algeria 18 people
were reported dead from a crash between a van and a bus near the city
of Mascara, and 25 were reported injured. Three men who were in
critical condition subsequently died.
(AFP, 8/8/08)
2008 Aug 7, It was reported that
two subsidiaries of government-owned Dubai World have acquired a 20%
stake in Canada’s circus operator Cirque du Soleil. In May the circus
had agreed to perform on Palm Jumeirah, a man-made island, for 15 years
starting in 2011.
(SFC, 8/7/08, p.C2)
2008 Aug 7, It was reported that
the Dubai-based Al Yousuf Group has invested $10 million in Zap, a
Santa Rosa, Ca., firm that makes electric cars.
(SFC, 8/7/08, p.C1)
2008 Aug 7, In Thailand first lady
Laura Bush, meeting with refugees who fled a brutal campaign by
Myanmar's military junta, urged China and other countries to join the
US in imposing sanctions against the country.
(AP, 8/7/08)
2008 Aug 7, The US Olympic team
chose Lopez Lomong, one of the "Lost Boys" of Sudan, to carry the flag
at the Olympic opening ceremony, throwing the spotlight on China's
much-criticized policy on Darfur.
(AFP, 8/7/08)
2008 Aug 7, A new US Embassy
report released by the Japanese Foreign Ministry said the USS Houston
submarine was already leaking during nine earlier port calls in Japan
and the amount of radiation leaked was larger than initially reported.
It "has been steadily leaking a small amount" of radiation from June
2006 to July 2008 when it entered a drydock in Hawaii.
(AP, 8/7/08)
2008 Aug 7, Critics of China's
human rights record made sure they were not forgotten, a day before the
grand opening of the Beijing Olympics, with protest actions the world
over and in China itself. Thousands of Tibetan exiles demonstrated in
Nepal and India.
(AFP, 8/7/08)(AP, 8/7/08)
2008 Aug 7, Heavy shelling
overnight in the Georgian breakaway province of South Ossetia wounded
at least 21 people. Cyber attacks from Russia began to target Georgian
government Web sites. An organization known as the Russian Business
Network was the leading suspect in the attacks. Georgia’s Pres.
Saakashvili ordered the shelling of Tskhinvali, the capital of South
Ossetia.
(AP, 8/7/08)(WSJ, 8/12/08, p.A9)(Econ, 8/30/08, p.49)
2008 Aug 7, Sheik Salah al-Obeidi
said Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr will call on his fighters to
maintain a cease-fire against American troops but may lift the order if
a planned Iraq-US security agreement lacks a timetable for the
withdrawal of American forces. A roadside bomb killed eight Bedouins,
including three women and two children, on a remote desert highway west
of Nasiriyah frequently used by US and Iraqi troops. Gunmen killed a
senior member of the Sunni Iraqi Islamic Party, Mahmoud Younis Fathi,
and a colleague as they were driving to work in the northern city of
Mosul. Elsewhere in Mosul, three Iraqi policemen were killed when a
booby-trapped wooden cart exploded after they arrived to collect a body
that had been left on the street beside it.
(AP, 8/7/08)
2008 Aug 7, Japan accepted over
200 Indonesian nurses into the country, an unprecedented move as Tokyo
struggles to quell a labor shortage triggered by sinking fertility
rates.
(AP, 8/7/08)
2008 Aug 7, Maldives President
Maumoon Abdul Gayoom signed and adopted a new constitution that allows
multiparty elections and other democratic reforms after decades of
authoritarian rule.
(AP, 8/7/08)
2008 Aug 7, Pakistan's ruling
coalition announced plans to seek the impeachment of Pres. Pervez
Musharraf, alleging the US-backed former general had "eroded the trust
of the nation" during his eight years in power. Musharraf cancelled his
trip to the Olympics in Beijing.
(AP, 8/7/08)(SFC, 8/8/08, p.A2)
2008 Aug 7, A device exploded on a
beach in Sochi, a Black Sea Russian resort that will host the 2014
Winter Olympics, killing two people and wounding three.
(AP, 8/7/08)
2008 Aug 7, In Sri Lanka army
troops attacked and captured a rebel bunker in Welioya, where separate
clashes killed 15 rebels and four soldiers. In nearby Vavuniya
district, fighting killed two rebels and wounded two soldiers.
(AP, 8/8/08)
2008 Aug 7, In Turkey a series of
explosions at a municipal government building in Istanbul slightly
injured three people. Shells from a mortar-like mechanism were fired
from a cemetery near a municipal government building.
(AP, 8/7/08)
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