Today in History - August 12
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3CE Aug 12,
Venus-Jupiter were in conjunction: alleged "Star of Bethlehem." [see
Feb 17, May 8, Jun 17, 2CE]
(MC, 8/12/02)
875 Aug 12, Louis II (~50), king
of Italy, emperor of France, died.
(MC, 8/12/02)
1093 Aug 12, In England the
foundation stone for Durham Cathedral was laid down. The main chapel
was completed in 1175. It served as the seat of the Bishop and the
church of the Benedictine monastery of Durham.
(SSFC, 12/14/08,
p.E4)(www.sacred-destinations.com/england/durham-cathedral.htm)
1099 Aug 12, At the Battle of
Ascalon 1,000 Crusaders, led by Godfrey of Bouillon, routed an Egyptian
relief column heading for Jerusalem. The Norman Godfrey, elected King
of Jerusalem, had assumed the title Defender of the Holy Sepulcher.
Disease starvation by this time reduced the Crusaders to 60,000, down
from an ititial 300,000, and most of the survivors left for home.
(HN, 8/12/99)(PC, 1992, p.88)
1332 Aug 12, Battle of Dupplin
Moor; Scottish dynastic battle.
(SC, 8/12/02)
1484 Aug 12, Pope Sixtus IV died.
His rule was marked by nepotism and he was involved in a conspiracy to
overthrow the Medici in Florence.
(PTA, 1980, p.420)
1508 Aug 12, Ponce de Leon arrived
and conquered the island of Boriquen (Puerto Rico). Spain had appointed
him to colonize Puerto Rico. He explored Puerto Rico and Spanish ships
under his command began to capture Bahamanian Tainos to work as slaves
on Hispaniola. His settlement at Caparra, 2 miles south of San Juan
Bay, was plagued by Taino Indians and cannibalistic Carib Indians.
(NH, 10/96, p.23)(SC,
8/12/02)(http://welcome.topuertorico.org/glossary/index.shtml#936)
1553 Aug 12, Pope Julius III
ordered the confiscation and burning of the Talmud.
(SC, 8/12/02)
1612 Aug 12, Giovanni Gabrieli
(60), Italian composer (Madrigals), died.
(MC, 8/12/02)
1644 Aug 12, Heinrich Ignaz Franz
von Biber, composer, was born.
(MC, 8/12/02)
1644 Aug 12, Georg Christoph
Leuttner, composer, was born.
(MC, 8/12/02)
1658 Aug 12, The 1st US police
corps formed in New Amsterdam.
(MC, 8/12/02)
1676 Aug 12, Indian chief King
Philip, also known as Metacom, was killed by a Pocasset Indian
named Alderman in the swamps of Rhode Island. This ended the King
Philip’s War. Benjamin Church, a Plymouth volunteer, ordered that
Philip be beheaded and quartered. [see Aug 28]
(AH, 6/02, p.50)
1687 Aug 12, At the Battle of
Mohacs, Hungary, Charles of Lorraine defeated the Turks.
(HN, 8/12/98)
1753 Aug 12, Thomas Bewick
(d.1828), artist (British Birds, Aesop's Fables) was born in England.
(http://www.nndb.com/people/067/000094782/)
1762 Aug 12, George IV, King of
England (1820-1830), was born. He was named Prince Regent in 1810 when
his father was declared insane.
(HN, 8/12/98)(WSJ, 4/5/02, p.W12)
1762 Aug 12, The British captured
Cuba from Spain after a two month siege.
(HN, 8/12/98)
1774 Aug 12, Robert Southey,
English poet laureate (1813-1843) and biographer of Nelson, was born.
(HN, 8/12/98)(SC, 8/12/02)
1781 Aug 12, Robert Mills,
architect and engineer, was born. His designs include the Washington
Monument, the National Portrait Gallery and the U.S. Treasury Building.
(HN, 8/12/00)
1811 Aug 12, John FE Acton (77),
cruel premier of Naples, died.
(MC, 8/12/02)
1812 Aug 12, British commander the
Duke of Wellington occupied Madrid, Spain, forcing out Joseph Bonaparte.
(HN, 8/12/98)
1820 Aug 12, Oliver Mowat, a
founder of the Canadian Confederation, was born.
(SC, 8/12/02)
1827 Aug 12, William Blake
(b.1757), English visionary engraver and poet, died. In 2001 G.E.
Bentley Jr. authored "The Stranger From Paradise: A Biography of
William Blake."
(SSFC, 5/27/01, DB p.73)(MC, 8/12/02)
1833 Aug 12, Chicago incorporated
as a village of about 350.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago)
1848 Aug 12, George Stephenson,
locomotive engineer, died.
(MC, 8/12/02)
1851 Aug 12, Isaac Singer was
granted a patent on his sewing machine.
(AP, 8/12/97)
1856 Aug 12, Anthony Fass patented
an accordion.
(MC, 8/12/02)
1859 Aug 12, Katherine Lee Bates
(d.1929), educator, author and composer of "America the Beautiful," was
born.
(WUD, 1994 p.126)(HN, 8/12/01)
1861 Aug 12, Texas rebels were
attacked by Apaches.
(MC, 8/12/02)
1862 Aug 12, Gen John Hunt Morgan
and his raiders capture Gallatin, TX.
(SC, 8/12/02)
1863 Aug 12, 1st cargo of lumber
left Burrard Inlet in the Vancouver, BC area.
(SC, 8/12/02)
1864 Aug 12, After a week of heavy
raiding, the Confederate cruiser Tallahassee claimed six Union ships
captured.
(HN, 8/12/98)
1866 Aug 12, Jacinto Benavente y
Martinez, Spanish dramatist (Nobel 1922), was born.
(SC, 8/12/02)
1867 Aug 12, Edith Hamilton, US
writer (Mythology), was born.
(SC, 8/12/02)
1867 Aug 12, US House member
Thaddeus Stevens (1792-1868) led the Radical Republicans in a move to
impeach President Andrew Johnson. The move was sparked when Johnson
defied Congress by suspending Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton.
(AP, 8/12/97)(AH, 2/06, p.12)
1875 Aug 12, Ettore Panizza,
composer, was born.
(MC, 8/12/02)
1876 Aug 12, Mary Roberts
Rinehart, mystery writer (Miss Pinkerton), was born.
(SC, 8/12/02)
1879 Aug 12, The 1st National
Archery Association tournament was held in Chicago.
(SC, 8/12/02)
1881 Aug 12, Cecil B. DeMille
(d.1959), pioneering motion picture director, was born in Mass. Before
becoming a household name in the early days of movie-making, he
attended the New York Academy of Dramatic Arts and in 1900 began
working on plays with his older brother William. The director, producer
and screenwriter was most famous for his movie "The Ten Commandments."
(HNPD, 8/12/98)(HN, 8/12/98)(SC, 8/12/02)
1884 Aug 12, Frank Swinnerton,
novelist (Summer Storm, Sanctuary), was born in England.
(SC, 8/12/02)
1887 Aug 12, Erwin Schrodinger,
physicist, was born in Austria.
(SC, 8/12/02)
1888 Aug 12, Bertha, wife of
inventor Karl Benz, made the 1st motor tour.
(SC, 8/12/02)
1889 Aug 12, Zerna Sharp, creator
of the "Dick and Jane" reading books, was born.
(HN, 8/12/00)
1890 Aug 12, Al Goodman Nikopol,
orchestra leader (NBC Comedy Hour), was born in Russia.
(SC, 8/12/02)
1893 Aug 12, Howard Smith, actor
(Harvey Griffin-Hazel), was born in Attleboro, Mass.
(SC, 8/12/02)
1898 Aug 12, Hawaii was formally
annexed to the United States.
(AP, 8/12/97)
1898 Aug 12, The peace protocol
ending the Spanish-American War was signed after three months and 22
days of hostilities. 460 US soldiers died in battle. The US paid Spain
$20 million to vacate Cuba, Guam, Puerto Rico and the Philippines. Over
the next 3 years US casualties in the Philippines war totaled over
4,000. [see Dec 10]
(AP, 8/12/97)(WSJ, 2/23/98, p.A20)(HN,
8/12/00)(SSFC, 3/30/03, p.D1)(WSJ, 7/2/03, p.B1)
1900 Aug 12, Wilhelm Steinitz,
Chess champion (1866-1894), died in Prague.
(SC, 8/12/02)
1904 Aug 12, Aleksei N. Romanov,
son of tsar Nicolas II, was born.
(MC, 8/12/02)
1908 Aug 12, Henry Ford's first
Model T rolled off the assembly line.
(HN, 8/12/98)
1911 Aug 12, Cantinflas (d.1993),
comedian and film star, was born in Mexico City as Mario Moreno.
(HFA, '96, p.36)(HN, 8/12/98)(MC, 8/12/02)
1912 Aug 12, Jane Wyatt, actress
(Father Knows Best, Star Trek), was born in Campgaw, NJ.
(SC, 8/12/02)
1913 Aug 12, Kurt Kaszner, actor
(Cmdr Fitzhugh-Land of the Giants), was born in Vienna, Austria.
(SC, 8/12/02)
1914 Aug 12, Great Britain
declared war on Austria-Hungary.
(MC, 8/12/02)
1915 Aug 12, The autobiographical
novel "Of Human Bondage," by William Somerset Maugham, was first
published.
(AP, 8/12/97)(SSFC, 1/4/04, p.M2)
1919 Aug 12, Peter Ambrose Cyprian
Luke, playwright, was born.
(MC, 8/12/02)
1919 Aug 12, Michael Kidd [Milton
Greenwald], choreographer (7 Brides for 7 Bros), was born.
(SC, 8/12/02)
1921 Aug 12, Marjorie Reynolds,
actress (Peggy-Life of Riley), was born in Buhl, Idaho.
(SC, 8/12/02)
1922 Aug 12, The home of Frederick
Douglass in Washington, D.C. was dedicated as a memorial.
(HN, 8/12/98)
1923 Aug 12, Enrico Tiraboschi
became the 1st to swim English Channel westward.
(SC, 8/12/02)
1925 Aug 12, Norris McWhirter,
author (Guinness Book of World Records), was born.
(SC, 8/12/02)
1925 Aug 12, Ross McWhirter,
author (Guinness Book of World Records), was born.
(SC, 8/12/02)
1925 Aug 12, KMA-AM in Shenandoah,
IA, began radio transmissions.
(SC, 8/12/02)
1926 Aug 12, John Derek, actor,
director (10, Annapolis Story), was born in LA, Calif.
(SC, 8/12/02)
1927 Aug 12, Ralph Waite, actor
(John-Waltons, Roots), was born in White Plains, NY.
(SC, 8/12/02)
1928 Aug 12, The 9th Olympic Games
closed in Amsterdam. During the games several women collapsed at the
end of the 800-meter run. This led to a 32-year ban on women running in
Olympic races over 200 meters.
(SC, 8/12/02)(SSFC, 4/13/03, p.F1)
1928 Aug 12, Leos Janacek
(b.1854), Czech composer, conductor (Sly Little Fox), died. His work
included "The Diary of One Who Vanished" based on 22 poems by Josef
Kalda of a young farm boy seduced by a Gypsy girl.
(WSJ, 1/3/96, p.A-7)(WSJ, 6/12/01, p.A20)(MC,
8/12/02)
1929 Aug 12, Buck Owens, country
singer (Hee Haw), was born in Sherman, Texas.
(SC, 8/12/02)
1932 Aug 12, Porter Wagoner,
country singer, discovered Dolly Parton (Y'All Come), was born.
(SC, 8/12/02)
1932 Aug 12, The DJIA dropped 8.4%
(SFC,10/17/97, p.B2)
1934 Aug 12, Augustus E. Thomas
(b.1857), American Playwright, died. He is often called the first
playwright to deal in thoroughly American themes.
(www.imdb.com/name/nm0858501/)
1936 Aug 12, Hans Haacke, artist
(Right to Life, Dripper Boxes), was born in Cologne, Germany.
(SC, 8/12/02)
1936 Aug 12, John Poindexter, US
Chief of Staff, was born.
(SC, 8/12/02)
1936 Aug 12, 120° F (49°
C), Seymour, Texas (state record).
(SC, 8/12/02)
1936 Aug 12, Diver Marjorie
Gestring became the youngest Olympic gold medalist (13y 268d).
(SC, 8/12/02)
1939 Aug 12, George Hamilton,
actor (Love at 1st Bite, Where the Boys Are), was born in Memphis, Ten.
(SC, 8/12/02)
1940 Aug 12, Luftwaffe bombed
British radar stations and lost 31 aircraft.
(MC, 8/12/02)
1941 Aug 12, Deborah Walley,
actress (Mothers-in-Law), was born in Bridgeport, Ct.
(SC, 8/12/02)
1941 Aug 12, Jennifer Warren,
actress (Slap Shot, Fatal Beauty, Mutant), was born in NYC.
(SC, 8/12/02)
1941 Aug 12, French Marshal Henri
Philippe Petain announced full French collaboration with Nazi Germany.
(HN, 8/12/98)
1942 Aug 12, British premier
Churchill arrived in Moscow to meet Stalin.
(MC, 8/12/02)
1944 Aug 12, Churchill and Tito
met in Naples.
(MC, 8/12/02)
1944 Aug 12, Joseph P. Kennedy
Jr., eldest son of Joseph and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, was killed with
his co-pilot when their explosives-laden Navy plane blew up over
England during World War II.
(AP, 8/12/97)
1949 Aug 12, Mark Knopfler,
guitar, vocals (Dire Straits-Sultans of Swing), was born.
(SC, 8/12/02)
1949 Aug 12, Four Geneva
Conventions were signed on this date. Signatories agreed that occupiers
would not settle occupied territory with their own people. Protection
of civilian life and property was added to the 4th Geneva Conventions.
The Convention for the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War
began on April 21. Two additional protocols were signed in 1977.
(SFC, 8/11/00, p.A15)(Econ, 8/27/05,
p.39)(www.spj.org/gc-texts.asp)
1951 Aug 12, Charles E. Brady Jr.,
USN Commander, astronaut, was born in, Pinehurst, NC.
(SC, 8/12/02)
1952 Aug 12, In the USSR 13 former
members of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee (JAC) were executed
following mock trials.
(WSJ, 1/19/08,
p.W8)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_Anti-Fascist_Committee)
1953 Aug 12, Ann Davidson, the 1st
woman to sail solo across Atlantic, arrived Miami.
(SC, 8/12/02)
1953 Aug 12, The Soviet Union
conducted a secret test of its first hydrogen bomb.
(AP, 8/12/97)
1954 Aug 12, Sam J. Jones, actor
(Chris-Code Red, The Highway Man), was born in Chicago, Ill.
(SC, 8/12/02)
1954 Aug 12, Pat Metheny, jazz
guitarist (As Wichita Falls), was born.
(SC, 8/12/02)
1955 Aug 12, Pres Eisenhower
raised the minimum wage from $0.75 to $1 an hour.
(SC, 8/12/02)
1955 Aug 12, Thomas Mann (80),
German writer (Dr. Faustus, Nobel 1929), died. Two biographies of Mann
were published in 1995: Thomas Mann: A Biography by Ronald Hayman and
Thomas Mann: A Life by Donald Prater.
(V.D.-H.K.p.367-368)(WSJ, 12/26/95, p. A-5)(MC,
8/12/02)
1959 Aug 12, The 1st ship firing
of a Polaris missile was from Observation Island.
(SC, 8/12/02)
1960 Aug 12, Morty Black, heavy
metal rocker (TNT-7 Seas), was born.
(SC, 8/12/02)
1960 Aug 12, USAF Major Robert M
White takes X-15 to 41,600 m.
(SC, 8/12/02)
1960 Aug 12, The first balloon
satellite, the Echo 1, was launched by the US from Cape Canaveral, Fla.
It bounced phone calls from JPL in California to the Bell Labs in New
Jersey.
(AP, 8/12/97)(SFC, 4/9/02, p.A18)
1961 Aug 12, Pete De Freitas,
rocker (Echo and the Bunnymen-Heaven Up Here), was born.
(SC, 8/12/02)
1961 Aug 12, Roy Hay, guitarist
(Culture Club-Do You Really Want to Hurt Me), was born.
(SC, 8/12/02)
1961 Aug 12, East German troops
began stringing barbed wire around East Berlin. In 2004 William F.
Buckley authored "The Fall of the Berlin Wall." [see Aug 15]
(WSJ, 3/18/04, p.D10)
1962 Aug 12, A day after launching
Andrian Nikolayev into orbit, the Soviet Union launched Vostok 4 with
cosmonaut Pavel Popovich; both men landed safely on Aug 15.
(AP, 8/12/02)
1964 Aug 12, Charles Ogle, land
investor, vanished after flying out of Oakland, Ca., en route to Reno,
Nevada.
(SFC, 9/10/07, p.A1)
1964 Aug 12, There was a race riot
in Elizabeth, NJ.
(SC, 8/12/02)
1964 Aug 12, Ian L. Fleming (56),
British spy, journalist, writer (James Bond), died. He had recently
sold a 51% share of the copyright of his books to Sir Jock Campbell,
who chaired the Booker Brothers. In 2000 Fleming’s heirs bought back
the copyright to the books.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Fleming)(Econ,
5/31/08, p.90)
1965 Aug 12, There was a race riot
in West Side of Chicago.
(SC, 8/12/02)
1969 Aug 12, American
installations at Quan-Loi, Vietnam, came under Viet Cong attack.
(HN, 8/12/98)
1969 Aug 12, In Northern Ireland
the Apprentice Boys, a Protestant fraternal group, led a parade that
ignited rioting in the Bogside section of Londonderry, that led to the
bloody period known as The Troubles. Loyalists attacks on Catholic
areas set off rioting in Belfast. Eight people died and British troops
were sent in. The Provisional Irish Republican Army began a 25-year
sniping and bombing campaign.
(SFC, 8/10/96, p.A8)(SFEC, 12/22/96, Z1
p.7)(http://tinyurl.com/ddovv8)
1970 Aug 12, Curt Flood lost his
$41 million antitrust suit against baseball. On June 18, 1972, the US
Supreme Court upheld the lower court's rulings on Flood's case.
Baseball continued to be exempt from antitrust laws and its reserve
clause was upheld.
(www.scripophily.net/cuflasmi19.html)
1971 Aug 12, Syrian Pres Assad
dropped diplomatic relations with Jordan.
(www.answers.com/topic/1971)
1972 Aug 12, "Oh! Calcutta!"
closed at Belasco Theater in NYC.
(http://www.blogwaybaby.com/2005/01/bring-back-oh-calcutta.html)
1972 Aug 12, As the last U.S.
ground troops left Vietnam, B-52's made their largest strike of the
war. [see Aug 11]
(HN, 8/12/98)(AP, 8/12/01)
1976 Aug 12, Syrian backed
Christian militias completed their siege of the Tell al-Za'tar
Palestinian camp in Lebanon leaving some 2000 people killed.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tel_al-Zaatar_massacre)
1977 Aug 12, NASA launched the
High Energy Astronomy Observatory 1 into Earth orbit. It continued
operating until January 9, 1979.
(http://heasarc.nasa.gov/docs/heao1/heao1.html)
1977 Aug 12, The space shuttle
Enterprise passed its first solo flight test by taking off atop a
Boeing 747, separating and then touching down in California's Mojave
Desert.
(AP, 8/12/97)
1978 Aug 12, China and Japan
normalized relations. Japan signed a Peace and Friendship Treaty with
China in Beijing.
(www.taiwandocuments.org/beijing.htm)(Econ, 8/23/03,
p.34)
1978 Aug 12, Pope Paul VI, who had
died six days earlier at age 80, was buried in St. Peter's Basilica.
(AP, 8/12/97)
1981 Aug 12, President Reagan,
citing alleged Libyan involvement in terrorism, ordered U.S. jets to
attack targets in Libya.
(AP, 12/19/03)
1981 Aug 12, IBM introduced the
IBM 5150, better known as the PC, along with PC-DOS version 1.0. The
beige box with 16 kilobytes of memory was priced at $1,565.
(http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa033099.htm)(Econ, 7/29/06,
p.57)
1982 Aug 12, The US stock market
bottomed and rose 35% by the end of the year. Theorist Robert S.
Prechter predicted that the market would take off from its 800 levels.
(SFEC, 8/16/98,
p.B1)(www.wealtheffect.com/stocks/b8j.asp)
1982 Aug 12, Henry Fonda (77),
film star (On Golden Pond), died from heart disease. Fonda was married
5 times and his wives included actress Margaret Sullavan (1931-1933),
Frances Brokaw (1936-1950), Susan Blanchard (1950-1956), Afdera
Franchetti (1957-1961) and Shirlee Adams (1965-1982).
(TMC, 1994, p.1982)(SC, 8/12/02)(SSFC, 7/3/05, Par
p.2)
1982 Aug 12, Israel staged heavy
bombardment of Beirut. The UN Security council expressed its most
serious concern about continued military activities in Lebanon,
particularly in and around Beirut.
(www.pierretristam.com/Bobst/Archives/CN072106.htm)(http://tinyurl.com/3ddtqm)
1983 Aug 12, General Manuel A.
Noriega (b.1938) assumed command of Panama’s National Guard.
(www.cidh.oas.org/countryrep/Panama89eng/intro.htm)
1984 Aug 12, In San Francisco a
driver on an apparent suicide mission smashed head-on into a packed
cable car climbing the Hyde Street hill. The driver, an Iranian alien,
was killed and at least 23 people were injured.
(SSFC, 8/2/09, DB p.42)
1985 Aug 12, The world's worst
single-aircraft disaster occurred as a crippled Japan Air Lines Boeing
747 on a domestic flight crashed into Mount Otsuka, 70 miles northwest
of Tokyo, killing 520 of 524 people onboard. A flawed splice made by
Boeing 7 years earlier was the probable cause. In 2006 Japan opened a
museum to remember the crash. Boeing and JAL paid undisclosed
settlements to each victim’s family.
(AP, 8/12/97)(WSJ, 7/27/06, p.A1)
1987 Aug 12, President
Reagan addressed the nation on the Iran-Contra affair, saying his
former national security adviser, John Poindexter, was wrong not to
have told him about the diversion of Iran arms-sale money.
(AP, 8/12/97)
1988 Aug 12, The controversial
movie "The Last Temptation of Christ," directed by Martin Scorsese,
opened in nine cities despite objections by some Christians who felt
the film was sacrilegious.
(AP, 8/12/98)
1988 Aug 12, Richard Thornburgh
became US Attorney General.
(www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1988/88aug.htm)
1988 Aug 12, Sein Lwin resigned
from the presidency of Burma. He was succeeded by a civilian, Maung
Maung, who in turn was ousted by the military after just a month in
office.
(AP, 4/10/04)
1988 Aug 12, Michel Basquiat
(b.1960), NY artist of Haitian descent, died of a drug overdose at age
27. His work included "Academic Study of Male Figure" (1983) and "Boy
and Dog in a Johhnypump." In 1996 Julian Schnabel made a film
documentary titled "Basquiat." In 1998 Phoebe Hoban published
"Basquiat: A Quick Killing in Art."
(SFC, 8/17/96, p.E1)(SFC, 8/16/96, p.D3)(SFEC,
7/26/98, BR p.4)
1989 Aug 12, The Pentagon said it
was stepping up efforts to find missing Texas Rep. Mickey Leland and 15
companions in Ethiopia. The wreckage of the group's airplane, with no
survivors, was found the next day.
(AP, 8/12/99)
1990 Aug 12, Air Force Staff
Sergeant John Campisi of West Covina, California, died after being hit
by a military truck in Saudi Arabia, becoming the first US casualty of
the Persian Gulf crisis.
(AP, 8/12/00)
1990 Aug 12, Iraqi President
Saddam Hussein sought to tie any withdrawal of his troops from Kuwait
to an Israeli withdrawal from the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.
(AP, 8/12/00)
1991 Aug 12, The National Baseball
Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, began hosting a two-day reunion
of former Negro League players.
(AP, 8/12/01)
1991 Aug 12, A letter from
Lebanese kidnappers was made public; it offered to trade the release of
Western hostages for the freedom of "all detainees" worldwide.
(AP, 8/12/01)
1992 Aug 12, The North American
Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was announced in Washington, D.C. after 14
months of negotiations between the United States, Mexico and Canada. It
created the world's wealthiest trading bloc. [see Jan 1, 1994]
(AP, 8/12/97)(HN, 8/12/02)
1992 Aug 12, Avant-garde composer
John Cage died in New York at age 79.
(WSJ, 5/8/96, p.A-12)(AP, 8/12/97)
1993 Aug 12, President Clinton
signed a relief package for the flooded Midwest. Clinton also lifted a
ban on rehiring air traffic controllers fired for going on strike in
1981.
(AP, 8/12/98)
1993 Aug 12, Pope John Paul II
began his third U.S. visit in Denver.
(AP, 8/12/98)
1993 Aug 12, The launch of space
shuttle Discovery was scrubbed at the last second.
(AP, 8/12/98)
1994 Aug 12, Woodstock '94 opened
in Saugerties, N.Y.
(AP, 8/12/97)
1994 Aug 12, In baseball's eighth
work stoppage since 1972, players went on strike rather than allowing
team owners to limit their salaries.
(AP, 8/12/99)
1994 Aug 12, Supreme Court Justice
Stephen G. Breyer, already sworn in during a private ceremony, took a
public oath at the White House.
(AP, 8/12/99)
1995 Aug 12, In a methodical,
daylong procession, Republican presidential candidates courted Ross
Perot’s followers at a United We Stand America conference in Dallas.
(AP, 8/12/00)
1996 Aug 12, The Republican Party
opened its 36th national convention in San Diego by celebrating Bob
Dole as a tested, trustworthy leader who would lower taxes and bring
compassionate conservatism to the White House.
(AP, 8/12/97)
1996 Aug 12, "Inequality by
Design," due out in one month, was reviewed. It was produced as a
counter to the arguments of "The Bell Curve" and holds that social
policies, not IQ, are the main reasons for inequality.
(SFC, 8/12/96, p.A2)
1996 Aug 12, Stephen Kuttner
(1907-1996), Prof. of medieval church law, died. His life study
involved tracing the evolution of law from Roman to modern times.
(SFC, 8/15/96, p.C4)
1996 Aug 12, In Argentina economy
minister Roque Fernandez announced a new round of austerity measures
that included higher fuel prices and tax boosts on everything. Cash
will be raised by selling commercial airports, military installations,
nuclear power plants and cracking down on tax-evasion.
(WSJ, 8/13/96, p.A7)
1996 Aug 12, On the shores of
Australia’s Cocos and North Keeling Islands thousands of thongs
(flip-flops) have been washing up on the shore as discards from
Indonesia.
(WSJ, 8/12/96, p.B1)
1996 Aug 12, Iran and Turkey
agreed to connect their power networks.
(WSJ, 8/13/96, p.A7)
1996 Aug 12, In Somalia it was
reported that 2 Ethiopian businessmen were killed in retaliation for an
incursion by Ethiopia’s army.
(WSJ, 8/12/96, p.A1)
1996 Aug 12, In Rwanda the
Tutsi-led parliament passed a law allowing for trials of some 80,000
people on charges of genocide in the deaths of 500,000 people in 1994.
(WSJ, 8/12/96, p.A1)
1997 Aug 12, Steel workers in West
Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania ended a 10-month strike at
Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Corp. with a new contract. It was the longest
strike by a major steel company.
(SFC, 8/13/97, p.A3)(AP, 8/12/98)
1997 Aug 12, Two New York City
police officers were placed in desk jobs as authorities investigated
the charges of Abner Louima, a Haitian immigrant who accused police of
sodomizing him after his arrest in a nightclub fight. Louima's
subsequent civil suit against the city resulted in a settlement of
$8.75 million on July 30, 2001, the largest police brutality settlement
in NYC history. After legal fees, Louima collected approximately $5.8
million.
(AP,
8/12/98)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abner_Louima)
1997 Aug 12, A hamburger recall
issued to cover some 1.2 million pounds. The Hudson Foods Inc., of
Rogers, Ark., issued the recall due to E. coli poisonings in Colorado.
[see 8/21]
(SFC, 8/22/97, p.A3)
1997 Aug 12, In Arizona a flash
flood from a storm 15 miles away killed ten hikers in the Lower
Antelope Canyon near Lake Powell. The group leader of the Trek-America
outfit, that catered mostly to Europeans, was the only survivor.
(SFC, 8/14/97, p.A3)(SFC, 8/15/97, p.A2)(AP, 8/12/98)
1997 Aug 12, It was reported that
the World Bank joined the IMF in withholding credit from Kenya due to
government corruption.
(SFC, 8/12/97, p.A1)
1997 Aug 12, It was reported that
Laos was promoting the development of the $1.44 billion Nam Theun Two
Dam. It would alter 2 major tributaries of the Mekong River and flood
an area the size of Singapore. The World Bank contributed $130 million
to the project, which was expected to begin generating power in 2009.
Environmentalists feared severe impact to the Nakai Plateau and some
120,000 people downstream as one river dries up and another swells.
(WSJ, 8/12/97, p.A1)(SFC, 12/17/07, p.A15)
1997 Aug 12, From Lithuania it was
reported that the country has become a favorite transit point for
smugglers. Cigarettes, alcohol, home appliances, oil, amber, gas, cars
and illegal narcotics were crossing the borders.
(SFC, 8/12/97, p.A10)
1998 Aug 12, A Lockheed Martin
Titan 4A rocket exploded after takeoff at Cape Canaveral. The $300
million rocket carried a spy satellite for the Air Force valued
at $800 to $1 billion. The explosion was blamed on a momentary loss of
power.
(SFC, 8/13/98, p.A2)(SFC, 9/3/98, p.A3)
1998 Aug 12, In Bangladesh over
100 fisherman in trawlers and boats capsized in the Bay of Bengal
during a storm and were feared dead.
(SFEC, 8/16/98, p.A12)
1998 Aug 12, The flooding in
China, the worst in 4 decades, was estimated to surpass $24 billion in
costs.
(SFC, 8/13/98, p.C5)
1998 Aug 12, Vincente Fox,
governor of Guanajuato, Mexico, announced plans, during a speech in
Oakland, to run for president in the year 2000 and to have every one of
his state’s 4,500 communities provided with potable water, sewers,
electricity, telephones and health services within a half hour for
everyone.
(SFC, 8/14/98, p.A10)
1998 Aug 12, In Pakistan Benazir
Bhutto was indicted on charges of illegally awarding a contract to a
Dubai-based company for the import of gold and silver during her rule.
(SFC, 8/13/98, p.C5)
1998 Aug 12, Rwanda protested a
Congo crackdown on ethnic Tutsis and charged that Kabila was arming
Rwandan Hutus to put down a Tutsi-led revolt along the border. The
revolt in Congo was believed to be masterminded by Rwandan Major Gen’l.
Paul Kagame.
(WSJ, 8/13/98, p.A1)(WSJ, 8/17/98, p.A10)
1998 Aug 12, Representatives of
Swiss banks and holocaust survivors agreed to a settlement of $1.25
billion in reparations for victims of the Nazi regime.
(SFC, 8/13/98, p.A1)(AP, 8/12/99)
1998 Aug 12, In the Ukraine Prime
Minister Valery Pustovitenko called 1,500 executives to a civil defense
base to solve the question of their debts. A previous summons had net
70 million, but was not sufficient to cover the $3.5 billion budget
deficit.
(SFC, 8/14/98, p.A10)
1999 Aug 12, Los Angeles County
prosecutors charged white supremacist Buford O. Furrow (b.1961) with
murder and five counts of attempted murder, all filed as hate crimes,
in the August 10 wounding of five people at a Jewish community center
and the shooting death of a Filipino-American mail carrier. Federal
prosecutors already had charged Furrow in the postman’s slaying. In
2001 Furrow pleaded guilty to all of the counts against him. In
exchange for pleading guilty, Furrow avoided a possible death sentence,
but was instead sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of
parole. Furrow expressed no regrets for any of his crimes.
(AP,
8/12/00)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buford_O._Furrow,_Jr.)
1999 Aug 12, In Porterville, Ca.,
a man shot and killed his wife and 3 daughters (2,7,11). An explosion
resulted after the shooting when fire spread and ignited flammable
liquid.
(SFC, 8/14/99, p.C14)
1999 Aug 12, The invention of a
new rechargeable battery with a 50% longer life span was announced by
researchers in Israel.
(WSJ, 8/13/99, p.A1)
1999 Aug 12, In Belgium a
McDonald's Restaurant was destroyed by fire. The Animal Liberation
Front was suspected.
(WSJ, 8/13/99, p.B8)
1999 Aug 12, Ethiopia claimed to
have almost eliminated 3 rebel groups based in Somalia which it said
were supported by Eritrea. Most of the 1,103 killed or captured rebels
were of the Oromo Liberation Front.
(SFC, 8/13/99, p.D2)
1999 Aug 12, In Indonesia violence
in Maluku province left 14 people dead and raised the death toll since
Aug 8 to 53.
(SFC, 8/13/99, p.D2)
1999 Aug 12, In Japan lawmakers
gave police the power to use wiretaps against crime suspects.
(SFC, 8/13/99, p.D3)
1999 Aug 12, In Kazakstan Pres.
Nazarbayev ordered the investigation of MiG sales to North Korea. South
Korea charged that 30 MiG-21 jets were sold this year.
(WSJ, 8/13/99, p.A1)
1999 Aug 12, In the Philippines a
big explosion killed at least 7 people in Manila and damaged the
headquarters of the National Bureau of Investigation. Police later
blamed the explosion on dynamite that had been seized as evidence.
(WSJ, 8/13/99, p.A1)(SFC, 8/14/99, p.12)(WSJ,
8/23/99, p.A1)
1999 Aug 12, Pres. Milosevic
reshuffled his cabinet, sacked 7 ministers and named 12 new ones. His
Socialist Party dominated the 27-member cabinet.
(WSJ, 8/13/99, p.A9)
1999 Aug 12, In Venezuela the
Constitutional Assembly assumed sweeping powers and declared a state of
emergency for the courts.
(SFC, 8/13/99, p.D3)
2000 Aug 12, Evander Holyfield won
a 12-round unanimous decision over John Ruiz in Las Vegas for the
vacant WBA heavyweight title.
(AP, 8/12/01)
2000 Aug 12, Loretta Young, film
actress, died at age 87. She made nearly 100 movies in over 70 years.
She had a daughter, Judy Lewis, by Clark Gable in 1935. Her memoir "The
Things I Had to Learn" was published in 1961. In 2000 Joan Wester
Anderson authored "Forever Young."
(SFEC, 8/13/00, p.B10)(SFC, 11/18/00, p.B7)
2000 Aug 12, British and US
bombers struck southern Iraq for a 2nd day and Iraqi military reported
3 people injured.
(SFC, 8/14/00, p.A12)
2000 Aug 12, In Congo a
Russian-made Antonov crashed on approach to Tshikapa and 27 people were
killed.
(WSJ, 8/14/00, p.A1)
2000 Aug 12, A Russian nuclear
submarine, the Kursk, became trapped on the floor of the Barents Sea
during naval exercises. 118 sailors were trapped in the Oscar-II class
submarine that was thought to have suffered a torpedo-room explosion.
On August 21 Norwegian divers confirmed that all the sailors had died.
The Kursk was raised in 2001.
(SFC, 8/14/00, p.A13)(SFC, 8/15/00, p.A1)(WSJ,
8/15/00, p.A1)(WSJ, 8/16/00, p.A1)(SFC, 8/21/00, p.A1)(WSJ, 10/9/01,
p.A1)
2001 Aug 12, In Algeria assailants
attacked a convoy of farmers and slashed the throats of 17 people in
Oule-d-Bouaza.
(SFC, 8/15/01, p.A7)
2001 Aug 12, In Iran flash floods
followed heavy rains and at least 181 people were killed. Kalaleh in
Golestan province was the hardest hit.
(SFC, 8/13/01, p.A12)(WSJ, 8/14/01, p.A1)
2001 Aug 12, In Israel Palestinian
suicide bomber Muhammad Nasser (28) blew himself up at the Wall Street
Café in Kiryat Motzkin near Haifa. 21 other people were injured.
In Hebron a Palestinian girl died in a clash with Israeli troops.
(SFC, 8/13/01, p.A1)(WSJ, 8/13/01, p.A1)(AP, 8/12/02)
2001 Aug 12, Macedonia's interior
minister Ljube Boskovski watched from a distance as police under his
control rampaged through Ljuboten, killing seven ethnic Albanian men
and torching and blowing up houses. In 2007 defendants Boskovski and a
top police official faced a possible punishment of life imprisonment.
The policemen who allegedly carried out the killings were not on trial.
(AP, 4/16/07)
2002 Aug 12, The INS reported that
a child-smuggling ring, in operation since 1994, had been broken up.
Children from Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras were smuggled to the
US to be united with parents residing illegally.
(SFC, 8/13/02, p.A1)
2002 Aug 12, US Catholic bishops
and rabbis issued a statement that declared that the Biblical covenant
between Jews and God is valid, and therefore Jews do not need to be
saved through faith in Jesus.
(SFC, 8/13/02, p.A5)
2002 Aug 12 It was reported that a
2-mile thick cloud of pollution covered South Asia and that it was
suspected for causing drought, flooding and the premature deaths of a
half-million people in India each year.
(SFC, 8/12/02, p.A7)
2002 Aug 12, In Chile hundreds of
thousands of Santiago residents had to walk to work as a strike took
virtually all the buses off the streets in this capital city of 5.5
million people.
(AP, 8/12/02)
2002 Aug 12, In Colombia Pres.
Alvaro Uribe, declared a limited state of emergency to fight what the
government described as a "regime of terror" following an upsurge of
violence that has left 100 people dead since he took office.
(AP, 8/12/02)
2002 Aug 12, In northeastern Iran
torrential rains began and at least 35 people were drowned in flash
floods that washed away roads and swamped farm land.
(AP, 8/13/02)
2002 Aug 12, Iraq's information
minister, Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf told the Arabic satellite television
station Al-Jazeera that there was no need for U.N. weapons inspectors
to return to Baghdad and branded as a "lie" allegations that Saddam
Hussein still had weapons of mass destruction.
(AP, 8/12/03)
2002 Aug 12, In Japan protesters
ripped up and threw away documents printed with new ID numbers. A new
database that stores personal data, names, addresses, dates of birth,
gender and the new ID numbers, for each of Japan's 126 million
citizens, was implemented days earlier.
(AP, 8/12/02)
2002 Aug 12, Palestinian factions
met to create a "national unity leadership" to include all major
groups, including militant ones such as Hamas. They endorsed a
continuation of their uprising and rejected language to end attacks on
civilians inside Israel.
(AP, 8/12/02)
2002 Aug 12, In Peru Pres.
Alejandro Toledo defended his wife, Eliane Karp, in a nationally
televised address, trying to head off a political storm sparked by the
revelation that Peru's first lady earns $10,000 a month as a banking
consultant.
(AP, 8/13/02)
2003 Aug 12, The FBI arrested
Hemant Lakhani, an Indian-born British arms dealer, in a sting
operation in New Jersey and foiled a contrived plot aimed at smuggling
a shoulder-fired missile for some $80,000 to US-based terrorists. It
involved cooperation between the intelligence services of the US and
Russia.
(AP, 8/13/03)(WSJ, 8/13/03, p.A1)(SFC, 8/14/03, p.A3)
2003 Aug 12, John Poindexter
submitted a 5-page letter of resignation from his position as director
of DARPA, the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
(SFC, 8/13/03, p.A5)
2003 Aug 12, Some 8,000 US doctors
called for a government-financed national health insurance as a
single-payer system similar to an expanded version of Medicare.
(SFC, 8/13/03, p.A3)
2003 Aug 12, An Internet worm
targeting Microsoft Corp Windows users was spreading rapidly around the
world, triggering computer crashes and slowing Web connections. Dubbed
Blaster but also known as LoveSan or MSBlaster, carried a message for
the Microsoft chairman: "Billy Gates why do you make this possible?
Stop making money and fix your software!!"
(AP, 8/12/03)
2003 Aug 12, A balsa-mylar model
airplane set a long distance flight record of 1,888.3 miles as it
landed in Ireland from Newfoundland.
(WSJ, 8/13/03, p.A1)
2003 Aug 12, At least 20
combatants died in a gunbattle between suspected Taliban fighters and
Afghan government soldiers.
(AP, 8/13/03)
2003 Aug 12, Legislators in
Argentina's lower house voted to throw out amnesty laws that
effectively ended trials over abuses during the country's military
dictatorship.
(AP, 8/13/03)
2003 Aug 12, El Salvador sent 360
peacekeepers to Iraq.
(AP, 8/13/03)
2003 Aug 12, Two teenage
Palestinian suicide bombings less than an hour apart killed at least 2
Israelis at a shopping plaza in Israel and a bus stop in the West Bank.
(AP, 8/12/03)
2003 Aug 12, Liberia's leading
rebel movement agreed to lift its siege of the capital and vital port
within two days, allowing food to flow to hundreds of thousands of
hungry people.
(AP, 8/12/04)
2003 Aug 12, The Serbian
government said it wants to retake control of Kosovo but pledged to
give it "substantial autonomy." Serbia claimed UN officials have failed
to establish democracy there.
(AP, 8/13/03)
2004 Aug 12, New Jersey Gov. James
E. McGreevey, a one-time rising Democratic star and twice-married
father, announced his resignation with the startling disclosure that he
is gay and had an extramarital affair with a man who threatened to
undermine his "ability to govern."
(AP, 8/13/04)
2004 Aug 12, California’s supreme
court struck down San Francisco’s attempt to legalize same-sex
marriages, saying Mayor Newsome had illegally defied state law.
(SFC, 8/13/04, p.A1)
2004 Aug 12, Terrance Kelly (18),
a De La Salle High School football star, was shot and killed in
Richmond, Ca., 2 days before flying to the Univ. of Oregon on a
football scholarship. Police arrested Larry Pratcher (18) Aug 14 on
suspicion of murder and searched for other suspects. Larry was released
on Aug 18 after his younger brother turned himself in. On Aug 19 Darren
Pratcher (15) was charged with murder. On Oct 11, 2006, Darren Pratcher
was convicted of murder. In 2007 Pratcher was sentenced 50 years to
life in prison.
(SFC, 8/14/04, p.A1)(SFC, 8/20/04, p.B5)(SFC,
10/12/06, p.B1)(SFC, 1/20/07, p.B2)
2004 Aug 12, Dust storms on I-10
in Arizona caused vehicle pile-ups that left 4 dead.
(WSJ, 8/13/04, p.A1)
2004 Aug 12, It was reported that
a huge ant colony measuring 100 kilometers (62 miles) across had been
found under the southern Australian city of Melbourne. The ants were a
mutant variety of Argentine ants.
(AP, 8/12/04)
2004 Aug 12, Laboratory monkeys
that started out as careless procrastinators became super-efficient
workers after injections into their brains that suppressed a gene
linked to their ability to anticipate a reward.
(LAT, 8/12/04)
2004 Aug 12, Greece’s $930
million, 3km Rion-Antirion bridge across the western end of the Gulf of
Corinth was set to open.
(Econ, 7/31/04, p.55)
2004 Aug 12, In Najaf thousands of
U.S. and Iraqi soldiers launched a major assault on militiamen loyal to
a radical Shiite cleric al-Sadr. Fighting in Kut left 72 dead.
(AP, 8/12/04)(WSJ, 8/13/04, p.A1)
2004 Aug 12, The Iraqi soccer team
defeated Portugal in a preliminary match outside Athens.
(SFC, 8/13/04, p.A1)
2004 Aug 12, The U.N. Security
Council unanimously approved a resolution extending the U.N. mission in
Iraq for a year.
(AP, 8/12/04)
2004 Aug 12, Japan’s Mitsubishi
Tokyo Financial Group (MTFG) announced that it had beaten the Sumitomo
Mitsui Financial Group for the acquisition of UFJ. [see Aug 30]
(Econ, 8/14/04, p.66)
2004 Aug 12, A Nepali court
sentenced notorious criminal Charles Sobhraj, also known as the
"Serpent" and the "Bikini Killer", to life imprisonment in connection
with the killing of an American backpacker in 1975.
(AP, 8/12/04)
2004 Aug 12, In northeastern
Nigeria flash floods have submerged houses and farms, drowning at least
23 people as they slept and forcing more than 1,000 to flee their
villages.
(AP, 8/12/04)
2004 Aug 12, Pakistan authorities
said they had arrested five more suspected members of Osama bin Laden's
al-Qaida network in the past 48 hours.
(AP, 8/12/04)
2004 Aug 12, In Peru a
double-decker tourist bus missed a bridge and plunged into a dry
riverbed along a highway, killing at least six people and injuring 37.
(AP, 8/12/04)
2004 Aug 12, Lee Hsien Loong, the
son of Singapore's founding father (Lee Kuan Yew), took over as prime
minister of the city-state. Lee Kuan Yew continued service as cabinet
mentor.
(AP, 7/17/04)(WSJ, 7/19/04, p.A1)(Econ, 7/24/04,
p.39)(Econ, 4/22/06, p.42)
2004 Aug 12, South Korea’s central
bank cut interest rates from 3.75% to 3.5%.
(Econ, 8/21/04, p.60)
2005 Aug 12, The US Agriculture
Dept. said it expected corn yields to be lower this year in 29 of 33
corn-producing states due to drought in the Midwest. This year’s
drought was more localized and farmers in Iowa, Minnesota and Missouri
had a good year.
(SFC, 8/15/05, p.A2)
2005 Aug 12, Patrick Sheehan filed
for divorce in Solano County, Ca., as his wife, Cindy Sheehan (48),
entered her 2nd week camping outside Pres. Bush’s retreat in Crawford,
Texas. Their son Casey (24) was killed in Iraq in 2004.
(SFC, 8/16/05, p.A3)
2005 Aug 12, It was reported that
Dr. Jan T. Vilcek donated an estimated $125 million to the NYU School
of Medicine through a percentage of future royalties from sales of
Remicade, which treats symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis and Crohn’s
disease.
(WSJ, 8/12/05, p.W1)
2005 Aug 12, Oil for September
delivery closed at a record $66.86 per barrel.
(SFC, 8/13/05, p.A1)
2005 Aug 12, Residents of Wright,
Wyoming, had just 5 minutes warning before a tornado tore into a mobile
home park, killing two people and destroying dozens of homes.
(AP, 8/13/05)
2005 Aug 12, An Atlas V rocket at
Cape Canaveral, Fla., lifted the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on a 72
million-mile mission to study Mars.
(SFC, 8/13/05, p.A4)
2005 Aug 12, In Afghanistan
suspected Taliban guerrillas ambushed a vehicle carrying police in
southern Zabul province's Arghandab district, sparking a gunbattle that
killed 3 militants.
(AP, 8/12/05)
2005 Aug 12, Police detained four
men in connection with one of the world's biggest heists and recovered
more than $2 million of the $70 million stolen from Brazil's Central
Bank. The recovered cash was found hidden in 3 pickup trucks that were
on a vehicle transporter truck located several hundred miles from the
Central Bank vault in Fortaleza. In 2008 police arrested Jossivam Alves
dos Santos, the suspected leader of the gang which carried out the
heist. Less than $10 million of the money has been recovered.
(AP, 8/13/05)(AP, 2/27/08)
2005 Aug 12, In Brazil Celio
Marcelo da Silva (32), a prison escapee believed to have masterminded
last year's abduction of the mother of a Brazilian soccer star, was
arrested. In 2003 da Silva tunneled his way out of a Sao Paulo prison
where he was serving a 38-year sentence for murder and robbery.
(AP, 8/13/05)
2005 Aug 12, At least 70,000
travelers were left stranded as British Airways canceled all flights to
and from Heathrow Airport after catering staff, baggage handlers and
other ground crew walked off the job in wildcat strikes at the height
of the summer tourism season.
(AP, 8/12/05)
2005 Aug 12, Liu Jinbao, a former
president of state-owned Bank of China's Hong Kong branch fired in May,
2003, received a suspended death sentence for embezzlement in an
apparent effort by Beijing to help restore faith in its scandal-plagued
banks as they prepare to sell shares abroad. Mr. Liu was convicted of
embezzling $1.8 million with others plus and additional amount for
himself.
(AP, 8/12/05)(WSJ, 8/15/05, p.A11)
2005 Aug 12, A small boat
overloaded with 113 illegal immigrants capsized and sank in rough
waters off Colombia's Pacific coast. An Ecuadoran fishing boat found 9
survivors 2 days later. In Nov. Ecuadoran police arrested a married
couple for being part of a gang of 11 human traffickers who charged as
much as $12,000 per person for passage to the US.
(AP, 8/18/05)(AP, 11/15/05)
2005 Aug 12, Leaders of Georgia
and Ukraine called for an alliance that would champion democracy in the
former Soviet lands.
(AP, 8/12/05)
2005 Aug 12, A German court
convicted Holger Pfahls, former deputy defense minister, of accepting
illegal payments and evading taxes while serving in the government of
former Chancellor Helmut Kohl.
(AP, 8/12/05)
2005 Aug 12, Victims of India's
1984 anti-Sikh riots rejected apologies from Premier Manmohan Singh and
vowed to intensify demands for the prosecution of politicians blamed
for the massacre that claimed 4,000 lives.
(AP, 8/12/05)
2005 Aug 12, Suspected Islamic
militants raided a remote mountain village in India's Jammu-Kashmir
state and attacked 2 Hindu families as they dined together, killing 5
people.
(AP, 8/13/05)
2005 Aug 12, In Iraq Sunni Arab
leaders rejected calls for a Shiite federal region to be enshrined in
the constitution.
(AP, 8/12/05)
2005 Aug 12, In Iraq a US soldier
was found dead of a gunshot wound.
(AP, 8/14/05)
2005 Aug 12, Smoke from forest
fires in Indonesia spread to more cities in Malaysia, as millions
prayed in mosques and temples for rain to wash away the hazardous haze.
(AP, 8/12/05)
2005 Aug 12, Lebanon freed the
radical Muslim cleric Omar Bakri, hours after Britain declared he would
not be allowed to return to its shores.
(AP, 8/12/05)
2005 Aug 12, A Mexican judge
issued an arrest warrant for Gen. Francisco Quiros, accused of ordering
the disappearance of leftist folk singer Rosendo Radilla on Aug 25,
1974. Quiros was already in prison serving a drug sentence.
(AP, 8/12/05)
2005 Aug 12, New regulations in
Tijuana, Mexico, called for the city to issue electronic cards to
replace pink, pocket-size health history books given to Tijuana's 4,700
registered prostitutes. The new standards were modeled after those in
the Mexican cities of Monterrey and Acapulco.
(AP, 9/16/05)
2005 Aug 12, Peter Hommerson, a
fugitive charged with killing a wealthy Illinois couple on Jan 23,
1996, was captured at a Mexican resort after tourists recognized him
from a crime watch television program.
(AP, 8/12/05)
2005 Aug 12, The Nepali army said
faulty Indian assault rifles were partly responsible for its heavy
death toll in a gun battle with Maoist rebels as troops hunted for 75
soldiers still missing after the fighting.
(AP, 8/12/05)
2005 Aug 12, In Sri Lanka foreign
minister Lakshman Kadirgamar (73), an ethnic Tamil, was shot in the
head and heart after finishing a swim at his home. Tamil Tiger rebels
denied involvement.
(AP, 8/13/05)
2005 Aug 12, Suriname's Pres.
Ronald Venetiaan (69) was inaugurated to a second term, calling for
national unity following elections that weakened his government's hold
on Parliament and swelled the ranks of a party led by a former dictator.
(AP, 8/12/05)
2005 Aug 12, Turkish PM Recep
Tayyip Erdogan pledged to give more rights to the Kurdish minority in a
speech in Diyarbakir.
(Econ, 8/20/05, p.40)(http://tinyurl.com/cmzxz)
2005 Aug 12, Venezuela’s Vice
President Jose Vicente Rangel said American citizens could be denied
visas to visit Venezuela in response to a US decision to revoke the
visas of three Venezuelan military officers.
(AP, 8/12/05)
2006 Aug 12, Thousands of people
gathered across from the White House, even though President Bush was
out of town, to condemn US and Israeli policies in the Middle East. In
SF thousands of protesters decried US Mideast policy and Israel’s
military actions in Lebanon and Palestine. A smaller group demonstrated
on behalf of Israel.
(SSFC, 8/13/06, p.B1)(AP, 8/12/07)
2006 Aug 12, Afghanistan's Health
Ministry said the worsening security situation contributed to a
fourfold rise in polio cases this year, almost entirely in the
insurgency-wracked south. A highway police commander was killed by a
blast on his way to work in eastern Lagman province.
(AP, 8/12/06)
2006 Aug 12, Rashid Rauf and Tayib
Rauf (22), brothers arrested in Pakistan and England, emerged as key
figures in the suspected plot to destroy US-bound aircraft during
flight. Prominent Muslims in Britain accused the government of
encouraging extremism through its foreign policy. In 2007 a court in
Rawalpindi ordered the release of Rashid Rauf, a British Muslim of
Pakistani origin, after the prosecution withdrew the case against him.
(AP, 8/12/06)(WSJ, 8/12/06, p.A1)(AP, 11/16/07)
2006 Aug 12, President Joseph
Kabila's share of the vote in Congo's historic elections rose above 50%
as 1 million more votes were counted and certified.
(AP, 8/13/06)
2006 Aug 12, The government said
PM Nouri al-Maliki had banned the Kurdistan Workers Party, a rebel
group fighting for autonomy in southeastern Turkey, from operating in
Baghdad. Two people were killed in the southern city of Basra when a
bomb exploded at a shop selling CDs featuring sermons and interviews of
radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Police found a dozen bodies
trapped in a grate in the Tigris River, and a roadside bomb killed two
US soldiers on a foot patrol south of Baghdad as nearly 50 violent
deaths were reported across Iraq.
(AP, 8/12/06)(AP, 8/13/06)
2006 Aug 12, Oil smuggling in Iraq
was said to be worth $4 billion a year.
(Econ, 8/12/06, p.40)
2006 Aug 12, Israel staged
wide-ranging airstrikes and sent commandos into the Hezbollah heartland
as the UN raced to begin enforcing its new cease-fire blueprint and
stop the heavy fighting still raging in southern Lebanon. Hezbollah
leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah said the militant organization would
abide by the UN cease-fire resolution but would keep fighting as long
as Israeli troops remained in southern Lebanon. Israel lost 24
soldiers, including five on a helicopter shot out of the air by
guerrillas.
(AP, 8/12/06)(AP, 8/13/06)
2006 Aug 12, In Indian Kashmir 7
people, including two civilians mistaken by the army for Islamic
guerrillas, died as a strike paralyzed life in the region's main city.
(AFP, 8/12/06)
2006 Aug 12, In northern Italy the
stabbed body of Hina Saleem (21) was found in the garden of the family
home at Sarezzo. She was killed by her father because she refused to
conform to an Islamic lifestyle. News reports said the family had been
insisting on an arranged marriage with a cousin in Pakistan. The father
and three other men, including her uncle, were charged with
premeditated murder and hiding the body.
(AP, 9/7/06)(http://tinyurl.com/rfr4z)
2006 Aug 12, A passenger bus
skidded off a highway in central Mexico and rolled down a 320-foot
slope, killing 13 people and injuring a dozen others.
(AP, 8/12/06)
2006 Aug 12, Nigeria pulled
thousands of troops out of the Bakassi peninsula ahead of an August 12
UN deadline for a complete withdrawal, but many residents said they
would resist a handover to Cameroon.
(AP, 8/13/06)
2006 Aug 12, In Northern Ireland
about 15,000 Protestants paraded through Londonderry, predominantly
Roman Catholic city, following a night of Catholic rioting.
(AP, 8/12/06)
2006 Aug 12, Hundreds of
paratroopers joined the struggle to control scores of forest fires in
northwestern Spain. A total of 24 people have been arrested since Aug.
1 on suspicion of deliberately starting many of the fires.
(AP, 8/13/06)
2006 Aug 12, Sri Lankan rebels
attacked a key naval base as they mounted a fierce push to retake a
northeastern peninsula considered the traditional home of the country's
ethnic Tamils. Sri Lankan war planes bombed Tiger rebel positions as
the fiercest fighting since a 2002 ceasefire left at least 127 people
dead. A Sri Lanka government spokesman said the Tamil Tiger rebels
offered to renew peace talks. Weeks of intense fighting brought Sri
Lanka close to resuming its civil war. Ketheesh Loganathan, a Tamil
senior peace official, was assassinated. He was deputy chief of the
secretariat which coordinated the government's side of a
Norway-brokered peace process.
(AP, 8/12/06)(AFP, 8/12/06)(AP, 8/13/06)
2006 Aug 12, The Ugandan army
killed Raska Lukwiya, the third in command of the rebel Lord's
Resistance Army and war crimes fugitive, which could affect the stalled
south Sudan-mediated peace talks.
(AFP, 8/13/06)
2006 Aug 12, The UN Security
Council adopted a resolution seeking a "full cessation" of violence
between Israel and Hezbollah, offering the region its best chance yet
for peace after a month of fighting that has killed more than 800
people and inflamed Mideast tensions.
(AP, 8/12/06)
2007 Aug 12, Tiger Woods captured
the PGA Championship to win at least one major for the third straight
season and run his career total to 13.
(AP, 8/12/08)
2007 Aug 12, Tommy Thompson,
former governor of Wisconsin, said he was dropping out of the
Republican presidential campaign following his 6th place finish in
Iowa’s straw poll.
(SFC, 8/13/07, p.A2)
2007 Aug 12, Ronald Bracewell
(86), retired Stanford professor, died. He co-wrote the first text on
radio astronomy and helped develop magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
technology. The Australian-born engineer also led the 1961 construction
of the 32-dish radio telescope at Stanford and authored a book on 350
species of trees on the Stanford campus.
(SFC, 8/16/07, p.B11)
2007 Aug 12, A Canadian woman (35)
gave birth to rare identical quadruplets. Karen Jepp of Calgary,
Alberta, delivered Autumn, Brooke, Calissa and Dahlia by Caesarian
section at Benefis Healthcare in Great Falls, Montana.
(AP, 8/16/07)
2007 Aug 12, In southwest Missouri
a gunman opened fire at the First Congregational Church killing three
people and wounded five. The local Micronesian congregation rented the
church for its services and the gunman, also Micronesian, deliberately
targeted elders of the congregation. Suspect Eiken Elam Saimon was
charged with murder. On March 20, 2009, Saimon (54) pleaded guilty to 3
counts of murder.
(AP, 8/13/07)(AP, 8/12/08)(SFC, 3/21/09, p.A4)
2007 Aug 12, Merv Griffin (82),
television talk show host and entrepreneur, died. He created the TV
game show “Jeopardy” in 1964 and sold the rights for the show to
Coca-Cola for $250 million in 1986.
(AP, 8/13/07)(SFC, 8/13/07, p.A1)
2007 Aug 12, Afghanistan and
Pakistan pledged to eliminate terrorist sanctuaries in their respective
tribal regions and fight the opium trade financing Islamic militants.
Pakistan’s President Gen. Pervez Musharraf told more than 600 Afghan
and Pakistani tribal leaders that the two countries have been mired in
the rise of militancy, extremism and radicalism while the rest of the
world races forward with economic development. He spoke at the closing
session of a four-day US-backed cross-border jirga, or tribal council,
aimed at finding ways to stem Afghanistan's rising bloodshed. In
southern Afghanistan police and army soldiers battled militants in
Kandahar province's Shohrawak district. The joint Afghan forces
thwarted a planned militant ambush at the district chief's compound,
and the ensuing clash left nine militants dead. During a cleanup
operation after the battle, a roadside bomb hit a police vehicle in the
same district, killing five officers and wounding two others.
(AFP, 8/12/07)(AP, 8/12/07)(AP, 8/13/07)
2007 Aug 12, In England Gerry
Tobin was shot in the back of the head as he rode home from an annual
biker event, the Bulldog Bash, in Warwickshire. Police later arrested 3
men in connection with the shooting death of the Canadian Hells Angel
biker on the M40 motorway.
(Reuters, 8/22/07)
2007 Aug 12, In Mansoura, Egypt,
Mohamed Mamdouh Abdel-Aziz (12) died days after he was arrested and
allegedly tortured by police after he was detained on suspicion of
having stolen four packs of tea.
(http://tinyurl.com/2mo43a)
2007 Aug 12, A Hong Kong-based
human rights group said a chemical plant leaked arsenic into a river in
southern China that supplies water to at least 20,000 people. High
levels of arsenic and other chemicals already have killed at least
10,000 fish in the Chongan, a 43-mile river in Guizhou province.
(AP, 8/13/07)
2007 Aug 12, In India suspected
rebels killed four Hindi-speaking migrant workers before dawn and 3
more bodies were found from an earlier killing in the
insurgency-wracked northeast, bringing the death toll from a week of
violence to 30.
(AP, 8/12/07)
2007 Aug 12, In Indonesia nearly
90,000 followers of Hizbut Tahrir, a hard-line Sunni organization with
an estimated million members, packed a stadium in Jakarta, calling for
the creation of an Islamic state.
(AP, 8/12/07)
2007 Aug 12, A woman (29) in Bali
died from infection with the H5N1 strain of bird flu.
(www.news-medical.net/?id=28736)
2007 Aug 12, Up to five militants
were killed and 13 others detained during a raid on Baghdad's Shiite
slum of Sadr City. The US military claimed those they rounded up in
that raid were linked to Tehran’s elite Quds Force.
(AP, 8/13/07)
2007 Aug 12, In southern Nigeria a
foreigner taken hostage amid increased lawlessness died of an illness
while being taken to a hospital.
(AP, 8/12/07)
2007 Aug 12, A video was posted on
Russian ultranationalist sites of the Internet showing the brutal
execution of two men from Central Asia and the Caucasus. The man who
posted the video turned himself on Aug 14 in Maikop, capital of the
southern Russian republic of Adygei.
(AP, 8/15/07)
2007 Aug 12, In Somalia 2 suspects
were arrested in the deaths of two prominent Somali journalists who
were killed within hours of each other.
(AP, 8/12/07)
2007 Aug 12, In Sri Lanka
suspected Tamil Tiger rebels set off a powerful land mine against a
military patrol in the Jaffna peninsula, killing a soldier and wounding
at least 16 others. Another civilian was killed and four others were
injured when the LTTE fired mortars at a northeastern village in Weli
Oya.
(AP, 8/12/07)
2007 Aug 12, In southeast Turkey
12 were injured, three of them seriously, when Kurdish guerrillas
detonated a roadside bomb.
(AP, 8/12/07)
2007 Aug 12, In north-eastern
Zimbabwe at least 9 people were killed and around 50 injured when a bus
collided with a car.
(AFP, 8/13/07)
2008 Aug 12, Two-thirds of US
corporations paid no federal income taxes between 1998 and 2005,
according to a new report by the Government Accountability Office.
(AP, 8/12/08)
2008 Aug 12, The US Navy agreed to
restrict loud sonar blasts from anti-submarine vessels in large areas
of the world’s oceans to protect whales and other vulnerable creatures.
(SFC, 8/13/08, p.B4)
2008 Aug 12, In California state
and federal officials celebrated the official transfer of 3,300 acres
from the US Army to the Fort Ord Reuse Authority, which will oversee
the redevelopment of the 28,000-acre base on Monterey Bay.
(SFC, 8/13/08, p.A1)
2008 Aug 12, Chicago’s archdiocese
agreed to pay over $12.6 million to settle suits by 16 people who
accused priests of sex abuse. This brought the total thus far $65
million for some 250 claims over the last 30 years.
(WSJ, 8/13/08, p.A1)
2008 Aug 12, It was reported that
Akron inventor Charlie Grispin, chief technical officer of PolyFlow
Corp., had developed a new process to recycle plastic and that a
demonstration plant in Akron showed how the process broke all manner of
plastics into their base chemicals.
(http://tinyurl.com/6xfw5s)(www.polyflowcorp.com/)
2008 Aug 12, Michael Baxandall
(74), Wales-born renowned UC Berkeley art historian, died. His books
included “Painting and Experience in Fifteenth Century Italy” (1972).
(SFC, 9/11/08,
p.B5)(www.longitudebooks.com/find/p/13716/mcms.html)
2008 Aug 12, Donald Erb (b.1927),
avant garde composer, died in Ohio. His work included “Reconnaissance,”
one of the first chamber works for live synthesizer and acoustic
instruments. It premiered in 1967 with synthesizer pioneer Robert
Moog on the synthesizer.
(SFC, 8/19/08, p.B5)
2008 Aug 12, Dorothy Wiltse
Collins (b.1923), star pitcher in women’s professional baseball in the
1940s, died in Fort Wayne, Indiana from a stroke. Pitching for six
seasons in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, created
in 1943 to provide home front entertainment while many major leaguers
were off to war, Collins dazzled opposing batters. The All-American
league went out of business after the 1954 season.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dottie_Wiltse_Collins)
2008 Aug 12, Tesco, the biggest
British retailer, announced plans to open wholesale grocery stores in
India that will supply goods to hypermarkets owned by Indian
conglomerate Tata Group.
(AFP, 8/12/08)
2008 Aug 12, Cambodia's genocide
tribunal formally indicted Kaing Guek Eav (aka Duch), a former prison
chief of the country's notorious Khmer Rouge, paving the way for a
historic trial.
(AP, 8/12/08)
2008 Aug 12, Knife-wielding
assailants attacked a road checkpoint in China's troubled far west,
killing three guards and raising the death toll to 31 from a surge in
violence coinciding with the Beijing Olympics. A bus accident in
western China killed 24 students and parents.
(AP, 8/12/08)(WSJ, 8/13/08, p.A1)
2008 Aug 12, In the Dominican
Republic former Pan American Games wrestling medalist Wilson Santiago
Rojas (31) was shot to death when he tried to prevent his cousin from
being robbed inside a Santo Domingo electronics store.
(AP, 8/14/08)
2008 Aug 12, Security forces in
Gambia arrested Rear Adm. Bubo Na Tchuto, the suspected leader of an
alleged plot to topple the government in nearby Guinea-Bissau.
(AP, 8/12/08)
2008 Aug 12, Georgia's Pres.
Mikhail Saakashvili said his government will declare that its breakaway
regions are occupied territories and will designate Russian
peacekeepers as occupying forces. Russia ordered a halt to military
action in Georgia, after five days of air and land attacks sent
Georgia's army into headlong retreat and left towns and military bases
destroyed. More than 2,000 people were reported killed. A Dutch
television journalist was killed overnight when Russian warplanes
bombed the central Georgian city of Gori. Russia later counted 133
civilian deaths in South Ossetia. Rights activists later said fewer
than 100 civilians were killed in South Ossetia.
(AP, 8/12/08)(Econ, 8/23/08, p.43)(WSJ, 9/12/08,
p.A1)
2008 Aug 12, Indian security
forces shot dead 15 Muslim demonstrators in Kashmir amid a wave of
anger against New Delhi's control over the disputed region.
(AP, 8/12/08)(Econ, 8/23/08, p.33)
2008 Aug 12, A male suicide
bomber, dressed as a woman, struck an Iraqi army convoy carrying senior
officials in Baqouba, killing at least two people. US soldiers over the
last 24 hours captured nine suspected militants linked to what the
military called an Iranian-backed group known as the Hezbollah Brigades
in northern Baghdad.
(AP, 8/12/08)(SFC, 8/13/08, p.A6)
2008 Aug 12, The Lebanese
parliament overwhelmingly approved the country's national unity Cabinet
after a five-day debate on a controversial policy that upholds
Hezbollah's right to keep its weapons.
(AP, 8/12/08)
2008 Aug 12, Nigerian militants
claimed they had destroyed a pipeline supplying gas to a key oil
refinery in southern Rivers state.
(AFP, 8/12/08)
2008 Aug 12, A roadside bomb
destroyed an air force truck on a bridge in Pakistan's volatile
northwest and killed up to 14 people. The Taliban claimed
responsibility for the attack, calling it "an open war" and retaliation
for recent military operations in the region. A suspected American
missile strike targeting an alleged militant gathering point killed at
least nine people, including foreigners near Angore Adda in the South
Waziristan. Two intelligence officials said between 22 and 25 people
died, including Arabs, Turkmen and Pakistani militants.
(AP, 8/12/08)(AP, 8/13/08)(SFC, 8/14/08, p.A2)
2008 Aug 12, Muslim guerrillas
began withdrawing from several occupied southern Philippine villages
following fierce fighting with government troops that has displaced
nearly 160,000 civilians during harvest time.
(AP, 8/12/08)
2008 Aug 12, Somali pirates
hijacked the Thor Star, a Thai cargo ship with 28 crew members onboard.
(AP, 8/15/08)
2008 Aug 12, South Korea announced
sweeping pardons for some of the country’s most powerful businessmen,
including Lee Myung-bak, the head of leading carmaker Hyundai Motor,
saying they were needed to help revive a troubled economy. 341,863
others were also pardoned as South Korea celebrated liberation from
Japanese colonialism.
(Econ, 8/16/08,
p.46)(http://articles.latimes.com/2008/08/12/business/fi-skpardons12)
2008 Aug 12, Spanish officials
said local police acting on a tip-off from US authorities have seized
1.4 tons of cocaine and arrested eight South American suspects, 6 from
Colombia and 2 from Venezuela.
(AP, 8/12/08)
2008 Aug 12, Sudan's army began a
massive operation to wipe out rebel bases in Darfur's far north. The
army attacked with more than 200 vehicles in Wadi Atron, near the
Sudanese-Libyan border and took control of areas which had for years
been under the control of rebels who want more autonomy for the region.
North Darfur is part of Sudan's oil Block 12A operated by a consortium
led by the Saudi Arabian company al-Qahtani. Chinese companies dominate
Sudan's budding oil sector which produces more than 500,000 barrels per
day of crude.
(Reuters, 8/13/08)
2008 Aug 12, Venezuela raised the
regulated prices of foods ranging from bread to beef by up to 50
percent and removed price controls from other goods in a bid to ease
sporadic shortages in supermarkets.
(AP, 8/12/08)
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