Today in History - August 13
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662 Aug 13,
Maximus Confessor (b.c580), Greek theologian, died.
(MC, 8/13/02)
1415 Aug 13, King Henry V of
England took his army across the English Channel and laid siege on the
French port of Harfleur.
(ON, 6/08, p.9)
1422 Aug 13, William Caxton
(d.1491), 1st English printer, was born.
(http://en.thinkexist.com/birthday/August_13/)(WSJ,
5/12/05, p.D8)
1521 Aug 13, Spanish conqueror
Hernando Cortez conquered the Mexican city of Tenochtitlan (Mexico
City) after an 85-day battle. Cuauhtemoc fought against Cortes in
Tlatelolco when Moctezuma surrendered. Cortez had an Indian mistress
named La Malinche.
(NG, 6/1988, p.763)(AP, 8/13/97)(TL-MB, p.12)(WSJ,
8/13/97, p.A12)(WSJ, 4/24/98, p.A15)
1608 Aug 13, John Smith's story of
Jamestown's 1st days was submitted for publication.
(MC, 8/13/02)
1624 Aug 13, French King Louis
XIII named Cardinal Richelieu his first minister.
(HN 8/13/97)
1630 Aug 13, Emperor Frederick II
of Bohemia fired Albrecht von Wallenmanders, his best military
commander.
(HN, 8/13/98)
1642 Aug 13, Christian Huygens
discovered the Martian south polar cap.
(MC, 8/13/02)
1651 Aug 13, Litchfield,
Connecticut, was founded.
(MC, 8/13/02)
1655 Aug 13, Johann Christoph
Denner, inventor of the clarinet, was born.
(HN, 8/13/00)
1680 Aug 13, War started when the
Spanish were expelled from Santa Fe, New Mexico, by Indians under Chief
Pope.
(HN, 8/13/98)
1704 Aug 13, The Battle of
Blenheim, Germany, was fought during the War of the Spanish Succession,
resulting in a victory for English and Austrian forces. The Duke of
Marlborough and Prince Eugene of Austria defeated the French Army at
the Battle of Blenheim. In 1705 Joseph Addison wrote the poem "The
Campaign" for the Duke of Marlborough to commemorate the military
victory over France and Spain at the Battle of Blenheim: "Do you not
think an angel rides in the whirlwind and directs this storm."
(AP, 8/13/97)(HN, 8/13/98)(SSFC, 1/21/01, p.A6)
1732 Aug 13, Voltaire's "Zaire,"
premiered in Paris.
(MC, 8/13/02)
1787 Aug 13, The Ottoman Empire
declared war on Russia.
(HN, 8/13/98)
1792 Aug 13, Revolutionaries
imprisoned the French royal family, including King Louis XVI and Marie
Antoinette. [see Aug 10]
(MC, 8/13/02)
1802 Aug 13, Nikolaus Lenau,
German poet (Faust, Die Albigenser), was born in Hungary.
(MC, 8/13/02)
1814 Aug 13, Treaty of
London-Netherland was signed to stop the transport of slaves. By
agreement Britain paid the Dutch £6 million in compensation for
the Cape of Good Hope. [see May 30]
(EWH, 4th ed, p.884)(MC, 8/13/02)
1818 Aug 13, Suffragist Lucy
Stone, women's rights activist, founder of Woman's Journal, was born in
West Brookfield, Mass.
(HN 8/13/97)(HN, 8/13/98)
1820 Aug 13, George Grove,
biblical scholar, musicographer (Grove's Dictionary), was born in
London, England.
(MC, 8/13/02)
1826 Aug 13, Major Gordon Laing,
Scottish explorer, became the 1st European to enter Timbuktu (Mali),
where some 12,000 people lived. Laing was killed by a Tuareg nomad
spear on Sep 26 as he headed for Morocco. In 2005 Frank T. Kryza
authored “The Race for Timbuktu: In Search of Africa’s City of Gold.”
(SSFC, 4/11/04, p.D6)(SSFC, 1/1/06, p.M2)(Econ,
1/7/06, p.75)(ON, 11/06, p.6)
1833 Aug 13, The Bank of the US
under Nicholas Biddle began to contract its loans.
(Panic, p.4)
1840 Aug 13, Giovanni Verga,
Italian writer (Eros), was born.
(MC, 8/13/02)
1846 Aug 13, The American flag was
raised for the first time in Los Angeles.
(HN 8/13/97)
1849 Aug 13, Hungary’s Gen. Gorgey
surrendered to the Russian forces. Russia gave Hungary back to Austria.
(PC, 1992 ed,
p.448)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lajos_Kossuth)
1851 Aug 13, John Lincoln Clem
(d.1937), drummer (last survivor of Union Volunteers), was born.
(MC, 8/13/02)
1860 Aug 13, Annie Oakley
(d.1926), sharp-shooter and entertainer, was born in Darke County,
Ohio, as Phoebe Anne Oakley Mozee (Mosey). She became a markswoman and
toured with the Buffalo Bill Wild West Show.
(WUD, 1994, p.992)(SFEC, 8/3/97, Z1 p.2)(HN, 8/14/98)
1862 Aug 13, Confederate General
Nathan Bedford Forrest defeated a Union army under Thomas Crittenden at
Murfreesboro, Tennessee. [see Jul 13]
(HN, 8/13/98)
1864 Aug 13, Battle of Deep
Bottom, Va., (Strawberry Plains) and Fussell's Mill, Va.
(MC, 8/13/02)
1865 Aug 13, Ignaz Semmelweis
(47), Hungarian gynecologist, died. [see Jul 1, 1818]
(MC, 8/13/02)
1868 Aug 13, A magnitude 9.0 quake
in Arica, Peru (later Chile), generated catastrophic tsunamis; more
than 25,000 people were killed in South America.
(AP, 2/27/10)
1876 Aug 13, Reciprocity Treaty
between US and Hawaii was ratified.
(MC, 8/13/02)
1876 Aug 13, Richard Wagner's
monumental epic, "Ring of the Nibelung" premiered with 4 operas on 4
consecutive nights) at the Festspielhaus in Bayreuth, Bavaria, Germany.
(Hem., 1/96, p.69)(MC, 8/13/02)
1878 Aug 13, Leonid Vladimirovich
Nikolayev, composer, was born.
(MC, 8/13/02)
1879 Aug 13, John N. Ireland,
English composer, pianist (Mai-Dun), was born.
(MC, 8/13/02)
1881 Aug 13, The first
African-American nursing school opened at Spelman College in Atlanta,
Georgia.
(HN, 8/13/98)
1882 Aug 13, William Jevons
(b.1835), English economist, drowned while bathing near Hastings. His
book “The Theory of Political Economy” (1871) declared that value
depends entirely upon utility.
(Econ, 7/26/08,
p.84)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Stanley_Jevons)
1888 Aug 13, John Logie Baird,
inventor (father of TV), was born in Scotland.
(MC, 8/13/02)
1889 Aug 13, The first
coin-operated telephone was patented by William Gray of Hartford, Conn.
A foreman had refused to let Gray call his sick wife from the company
phone.
(SFEC, 10/22/00, Z1 p.2)(AP, 8/13/08)
1892 Aug 13, The first issue of
the "Afro American" newspaper was published in Baltimore, Maryland.
(HN, 8/13/98)
1898 Aug 13, Manila, the capital
of the Philippines, fell to the U.S. Army under Adm. George Dewey. It
was later reported that Dewey had agreed to sacrifice the lives of
American soldiers in order to give Spanish officers, who had retained
dead soldiers on payroll, a chance to report heavy fatalities back to
Spain.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Manila_(1898))(SSFC, 6/29/08,
DB p.58)
1899 Aug 13, Alfred Hitchcock
(d.1980), movie director, was born in London. "A woman, I always say,
should be like a good suspense movie: The more left to the imagination,
the more excitement there is. This should be her aim -- to create
suspense, to let a man discover things about her without her having to
tell him."
(AP, 8/13/97)(HN, 8/13/98)(AP, 8/13/99)
1902 Aug 13, Felix Wankel,
inventory of the rotary engine which bears his name, was born in
Germany.
(HN, 8/13/00)(MC, 8/13/02)
1906 Aug 13, At Fort Brown, Texas,
some 10-20 armed men engaged an all-Black Army unit in a shooting
rampage that left one townsperson dead and a police officer wounded. A
1910 inquiry placed guilt on the soldiers and Pres. Roosevelt ordered
all 167 discharged without honor. In 1970 John Weaver (d.2002) authored
"The Brownsville Raid," an account of the incident that led the Army to
exonerate all 167 men.
(SFC, 12/7/02, p.A25)
1907 Aug 13, Alfred Alwin Felix
Krupp, arms manufacturer, was born in Essen, Germany.
(MC, 8/13/02)
1907 Aug 13, The 1st taxicab began
operating in NYC. [see May 31]
(MC, 8/13/02)
1910 Aug 13, Florence Nightingale
(90), British nurse famous for her care of British soldiers during the
Crimean War, died. In 2004 Gillian Gill authored “Nightingales: The
Extraordinary Upbringing and Curious Life of Miss Florence
Nightingale.” In 2008 Mark Bostridge authored Florence Nightingale: The
Making of an Icon.”
(HN, 8/13/98)(SSFC, 9/5/04, p.M3)(AP, 8/13/07)(WSJ,
10/21/08, p.A17)
1912 Aug 13, Ben Hogan, American
golfer (US Open 1950, 51, 53), was born in Dublin, Tx.
(HN, 8/13/00)(MC, 8/13/02)
1912 Aug 13, Jan Peeters, Dutch
water colors painter, monumental artist, was born.
(MC, 8/13/02)
1912 Aug 13, Jules E.F. Massenet
(70), French opera composer (Werther, Manon), died.
(MC, 8/13/02)
1913 Aug 13, Makarios III,
[Michail Moeskos], archbishop, president Cyprus, was born.
(MC, 8/13/02)
1914 Aug 13, Carl Wickman began
Greyhound, the 1st US bus line, in Minnesota.
(MC, 8/13/02)
1916 Aug 13, Daniel Schorr, radio
and television correspondent, was born.
(HN, 8/13/00)
1919 Aug 13, Rex Humbard,
televangelist, was born.
(MC, 8/13/02)
1920 Aug 13, George Shearing,
blind pianist, composer (Lullaby of Byrdland), was born in
London.
(MC, 8/13/02)
1923 Aug 13, US Steel Corp.
initiated an 8-hour work day.
(MC, 8/13/02)
1923 Aug 13, The Turkish National
Congress selected Mustafa Kemal Pasha (Ataturk) as president.
(MC, 8/13/02)
1926 Aug 13, Fidel Castro,
revolutionary leader, president, was born in Biran, Cuba.
(USAT, 8/29/97, p.8A)(HN, 8/13/98)(WSJ, 8/5/06, p.A9)
1928 Aug 13, Fernand de La
Tombelle (b.1854), French composer, died.
(MC, 8/13/02)
1930 Aug 13, Captain Frank M.
Hawks, superintendent of the Aviation Division of Texaco, flew a
red-and-white Travel Air monoplane from Los Angeles to New York in 12
hours, 25 minutes and 3 seconds. According to Hawks' own widely
publicized account, the Travel Air performed flawlessly, with an
average airspeed of 215 mph. Hawks made three 15-minute refueling stops
during the 2,510-mile journey. He battled a rainstorm, crosswinds,
hunger and a thick haze that made "the ground barely visible at 8,000
feet," but reached New York City in time for dinner.
(HNPD, 8/20/99)
1932 Aug 13, Adolf Hitler refused
President Hindenburg’s offer to serve as Franz Von Papen's vice
chancellor saying he was prepared to hold out "for all or nothing."
(AP, 8/13/97)(HN, 8/13/98)
1934 Aug 13, The satirical comic
strip "Li'l Abner," created by Al Capp, made its debut.
(HN 8/13/97)
1934 Aug 13, United Aircraft was
removed from the DJIA. National Distillers and Chemical Corp. was added.
(WSJ, 5/28/96, p. R-45)(WSJ, 4/8/04, p.C4)
1937 Aug 13, Japanese attacked
Shanghai.
(MC, 8/13/02)
1939 Aug 13, Saul Steinberg,
American artist (The Art of Living, New Yorker Magazine), was born in
Romania.
(MC, 8/13/02)
1940 Aug 13, Der Adler Tag (Eagle
Day) was the name given to the day the German Luftwaffe launched an
all-out offensive against the Royal Air Force and the British aircraft
industry in southern England. With this action, Adolf Hitler hoped to
knock out any aerial resistance to his planned invasion of the British
Isles. RAF fighter pilots successfully held off the numerically
superior Luftwaffe, in spite of the loss of 415 pilots out of a force
of 1,500.
(HNPD, 8/13/98)
1941 Aug 13, Red army evacuated
Smolensk.
(MC, 8/13/02)
1942 Aug 13, Walt Disney's
animated feature "Bambi" premiered at Radio City Music Hall in New
York.
(AP, 8/13/99)
1943 Aug 13, Harold E. Stearns
(b.1891), American journalist, died. His books included “Liberalism in
America” (1919). He also edited the influential “Civilization in the
United States An Inquiry by Thirty Americans” (1922), the book that
inspired many dissatisfied young Americans to go abroad.
(www.bookrags.com/biography/harold-edmund-stearns-dlb/)(WSJ, 1/4/08,
p.W5)
1944 Aug 13, In NYC Lucien Carr
stabbed to death David Kammerer following sexual advances by Kammerer,
who had been Carr's Boy Scout Scoutmaster during his youth. Carr turned
himself in and was later sentenced to 20 years, but served only 2 years
in prison at Elmira Correctional Facility in upstate, NY. Lucien Carr
later introduced Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac and William
Burroughs to each other.
(www.rooknet.com/beatpage/info/info_carr.html)
1945 Aug 13, 35 Jews sacrificed
their lives to blow up a Nazi rubber plant in Silesia.
(MC, 8/13/02)
1946 Aug 13, Britain transferred
illegal immigrants bound for Palestine to Cyprus.
(MC, 8/13/02)
1946 Aug 13, H.G. Wells (b.1866),
sci-fi author (Time Machine), died in London.
(AP, 8/13/00)
1948 Aug 13, During the Berlin
Airlift, the weather over Berlin became so stormy that American planes
had their most difficult day landing supplies. They deemed it ‘Black
Friday.’
(HN, 8/13/98)
1953 Aug 13, 4-5 million French
went on strike against economizations.
(MC, 8/13/02)
1960 Aug 13, The first two-way
telephone conversation by satellite took place with the help of Echo 1,
a balloon satellite.
(HN 8/13/97)
1960 Aug 13, Central African
Republic became independence from France and David Dacko was named 1st
president.
(PC, 1992, p.973)(EWH, 1st ed., p.1173)(MC, 8/13/02)
1960 Aug 13, The Soviet Union
withdrew advisors, aid and other support from China.
(SFC, 10/1/99, p.A14)(MC, 8/13/02)
1961 Aug 13, Berlin was divided as
East Germany sealed off the border between the city's eastern and
western sectors in order to halt the flight of refugees. Two days
later, work began on the Berlin Wall.
(HN 8/13/97)
1963 Aug 13, A 17 year-old
Buddhist monk burned himself to death in Saigon, South Vietnam.
(HN, 8/13/98)
1965 Aug 13, In SF the Jefferson
Airplane made its first public performance opening at the new Matrix
club on Fillmore. The band held an ownership interest in the club.
(SFEC, 5/23/99, Z1 p.4)(SFC, 11/17/08, p.E4)
1967 Aug 13, The movie "Bonnie and
Clyde," starring Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway, had its US premiere.
(AP, 8/13/07)
1968 Aug 13, In Greece there was
an assassination attempt against Col. George Papadopoulos (1919-1999),
the right-wing military leader, organized by Alexandros Panagoulis
(1939-1976), Greek politician and poet.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandros_Panagoulis)
1973 Aug 13, Pres. Nixon
instituted general wage and price controls. Phase IV controls went into
effect for the general economy and lasted until Economic Stabilization
Program (ESP) expired on April 30, 1974.
(WSJ, 11/4/96,
p.C1)(www.archives.gov/research/guide-fed-records/groups/432.html)
1978 Aug 13, In a Palestinian area
of Beirut, Lebanon, a bomb killed 100 people.
(WUD, 1994, p.1691)
1979 Aug 13-1979 Aug 14, A force 9
gale off the southwest coast of Ireland left 15 yachtsmen of the 28th
Fastnet Race dead.
(Econ, 12/20/08,
p.98)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1979_Fastnet_race)
1981 Aug 13, In a ceremony at his
California ranch, President Reagan signed a historic package of tax and
budget reductions, also known as the Kemp-Roth tax cuts.
Abstinence-only sex education programs were introduced under Pres.
Reagan. Sponsors Rep. Jack Kemp and Sen. William Roth, had hoped for
more significant tax cuts, but settled on this bill after a great
debate in Congress. The Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (OBRA) of
1981 included a rider known as the Adolescent Family Life Act (AFLA),
sponsored by Republican Senators Orrin Hatch (Utah) and Jeremiah Denton
(Alabama). AFLA set aside a small but significant amount of federal
money to be used for the promotion of abstinence, as well as religious
instruction in sexual matters within the public schools.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_Recovery_Tax_Act_of_1981)(AP,
8/13/01)
1987 Aug 13, A rented Piper
Cherokee airplane flew close to President Reagan's helicopter in
restricted airspace over Southern California; the pilot and passenger
of the plane were arrested.
(HN 8/13/97)
1987 Aug 13, On the fifth
anniversary of a bull market, the Dow Jones industrial average closed
at 2,691.49 after briefly surpassing 2,700.
(HN 8/13/97)
1988 Aug 13, Vice President George
Bush contemplated a list of potential running mates as Republicans
gathered in New Orleans for their party's national convention.
(HN 8/13/98)
1989 Aug 13, The space shuttle
Columbia returned from a secret military mission.
(AP, 8/13/99)
1989 Aug 13, In Australia 2
hot-air balloons crashed at Alice Springs. 13 people were killed.
(www.guinnessworldrecords.com/content_pages/record.asp?recordid=52449)
1989 Aug 13, Searchers in Ethiopia
found the wreckage of a plane which had disappeared almost a week
earlier while carrying Texas Congressman Mickey Leland and 15 other
people on a humanitarian mission. There were no survivors.
(AP, 8/13/97)(HN 8/13/97)(HN,
8/13/98)
1990 Aug 13, President Bush
ordered Defense Secretary Dick Cheney to the Persian Gulf for the
second time since Iraq invaded Kuwait. American combat troops in Saudi
Arabia, meanwhile, were told to prepare for a long stay.
(AP, 8/13/00)
1991 Aug 13, VP Dan Quayle made a
speech attacking lawyers.
(http://openweb.tvnews.vanderbilt.edu/1991-8/1991-08-13-CBS-4.html)
1991 Aug 13, Clark Clifford
resigned as chairman of First American Bankshares Incorporated, a bank
holding company the government said had been illegally acquired by the
Bank of Credit and Commerce International. Clifford and law partner
Robert Altman were indicted in 1992 on charges of lying to regulators
and receiving bribes from BCCI; Altman was acquitted at trial, and
remaining charges against both men were dropped.
(AP, 8/13/01)
1991 Aug 13, Jack Ryan (b.1926),
designer and inventor (Barbie Doll, Hot Wheels), died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Ryan_(designer))
1992 Aug 13, "Real Inspector
Hound" opened at Criterion in NYC for 61 performances.
(www.ibdb.com/production.asp?ID=4691)
1992 Aug 13, President Bush
announced that Secretary of State James A. Baker III was leaving his
diplomatic post to be White House chief of staff in a shake-up designed
to energize Bush's re-election campaign.
(HN 8/13/97)
1992 Aug 13, Comedian, actor and
director Woody Allen began legal action against actress Mia Farrow to
win custody of their three children. A judge later ruled against Allen.
(AP, 8/13/02)
1993 Aug 13, Negotiators for the
US, Canada and Mexico announced they had resolved side issues
concerning the proposed North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
(AP, 8/12/98)
1993 Aug 13, US Court of Appeals
ruled that congress must save all e-mails.
(www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3691/is_199401/ai_n8732518)
1994 Aug 13, In his weekly radio
address, President Clinton put Congress on notice that he wouldn't give
up an assault weapons ban as the price to revive a crime bill stalled
on Capitol Hill.
(AP, 8/13/99)
1994 Aug 13, NATO
Secretary-General Manfred Woerner died at age 59.
(AP, 8/13/99)
1995 Aug 13, Baseball Hall of
Famer Mickey Mantle died at a Dallas hospital of rapidly spreading
liver cancer at the age of 63.
(HN, 8/13/98)
1995 Aug 13, Hans-Christian Ostro,
a 27-year-old Norwegian who had come to India to study dance was found
dead in the Pahalgam district with his severed head balanced between
his thighs, close to the sight of a previous kidnapping by Kashmir
guerillas.
(SFC, 5/27/96, p.A6)
1996 Aug 13, At their convention
in San Diego, Republicans delivered a blistering critique of President
Clinton's record, portraying the Democratic incumbent as an
unprincipled liberal conning voters with election-year conservatism.
(HN 8/13/97)
1996 Aug 13, Mary Higgins Clark,
suspense writer, signed a 3-book contract with Simon & Schuster for
$3 mil per book.
(SFC, 8/13/96, p.B2)
1996 Aug 13, Microsoft released
Internet Explorer 3.0.
(http://docs.yahoo.com/docs/pr/release33.html)
1996 Aug 13, In Belgium Marc
Dutroux, on parole following rape charges, was arrested for kidnapping
and the murder of 2 girls. In 2004 he was convicted of kidnapping and
murder. His wife and 2 accomplices were also convicted.
(AP, 6/17/04)
1996 Aug 13, In Burundi the last 2
commercial flights left the country as the outside world tightened
sanctions to punish the new military regime.
(SFC, 8/14/96, p.A10)
1996 Aug 13, In South Africa
Nadthmie Edries, leader of a group called People Against Gangsterism,
was charged with sedition in connection with the vigilante slaying of a
drug-gang leader.
(SFC, 8/15/96, p.C1)
1996 Aug 13, In Spain at Perpignan
a gang of masked men stole $800,000 in Spanish pesetas from the cargo
hold of an Air France plane.
(SFC, 8/15/96, p.A1)
1997 Aug 13, U.S. envoy Dennis
Ross wrapped up a four-day mission to the Middle East, during which
he'd persuaded the Palestinians to resume security cooperation with
Israel.
(HN 8/13/98)
1997 Aug 13, In Detroit, Mich.,
Yolanda Bellamy was slain with 2 young sons, a niece and a nephew. A
suspect was later arrested and jumped from a 5th floor police station
window. He was critically injured.
(SFC, 8/15/97, p.A3)
1997 Aug 13, A NYC police officer
of the 70th precinct in Flatbush was arrested for sexually assaulting a
Haitian immigrant who was arrested in a nightclub fight. Officer Justin
Volpe sodomized Abner Louima with a toilet plunger and then forced the
handle into Louima’s mouth. Volpe’s partner, Thomas Bruder, was ordered
off active duty and Mayor Giuliani ordered a shakeup and investigation.
Officer Charles Schwartz was later arrested for his participation. Two
more officers, Thomas Wiese and Thomas Bruder, were later arrested for
beating Louima after his arrest. In 1998 federal civil rights
charges were filed against the involved officers. Officer Volpe was
jailed in 1999 after he pleaded guilty that he had sodomized Abner
Louima. In 1999 Officer Schwarz was found guilty of
holding Louima down. Officers Bruder, Wiese and Bellomo were acquitted.
In 2000 officers Bruder, Schwartz and Wiese were convicted of covering
up the assault on Louima. Schwartz was sentenced to 15 years and 8
months in prison and ordered to pay $277,495 in restitution. Bruder and
Wiese were sentenced to 5 years each. In 2002 a federal appeals court
overturned the convictions against Schwarz, Wiese and Bruder.
(SFC, 8/14/97, p.A5)(SFC, 8/15/97, p.A4)(SFC,
8/16/97, p.A5)(SFC, 8/19/97, p.A3)(SFC, 2/27/98, p.A6)(SFC, 5/26/99,
p.A1)(SFC, 6/9/99, p.A3)(SFC, 3/7/00, p.A3)(SFC, 6/28/00, p.A3)(SFC,
3/1/02, p.A3)
1997 Aug 13, In India the Supreme
Court ordered the government to come up with legislation to protect
women from sexual harassment in the workplace.
(SFC, 8/14/97, p.C3)
1997 Aug 13, In Tehran, Iran, Ali
Reza Khoshruy Kuran Kordiyeh ("the vampire") was flogged and hung for
the rape, murder and burning of 9 women in a crime spree that began in
March.
(SFC, 8/14/97, p.C3)
1997 Aug 13, From Panama it was
reported that Pres. Balladares has given journalist Gustavo Gorriti
until the end of the month to leave Panama. Mr. Gorriti had published
investigative articles detailing the financial dealings of the
president’s election campaign, his allies and gentlemen of questionable
character.
(WSJ, 8/13/97, p.A1)
1997 Aug 13, In Russia the book
"Boris Yeltsin: From Dawn to Sunset" by former bodyguard Alexander
Korzhakov went on sale.
(SFC, 8/13/97, p.A12)
1997 Aug 13, From Russia it was
reported that a helicopter accidentally had dropped a 2.3 ton lead box
containing strontium 90 into 66 feet of water off Sakhalin Island.
(WSJ, 8/13/97, p.A1)
1998 Aug 13, President Clinton led
the nation in mourning 12 Americans killed in a pair of U.S. embassy
bombings in Africa. Standing before black hearses carrying 10 of the
bodies, the president pledged to seek justice "for these evil acts."
(AP, 8/13/99)
1998 Aug 13, Oakland, Ca.,
declared a medical marijuana club a city agency.
(SFC, 8/14/98, p.A1)
1998 Aug 13, US border agents
found 7 people dead in the Anza-Borrego Desert. They were believed to
be illegal immigrants abandoned by their smuggler.
(SFC, 8/14/98, p.A3)
1998 Aug 13, Julien Green (97),
the first American to be elected to the Academie Francaise, died in
Paris. The Catholic and homosexual writer produced 18 novels that
included "Moira" and "Each in his Darkness." He also published 14
volumes of journals and 5 volumes of memoirs.
(SFC, 8/18/98, p.A18)
1998 Aug 13, In Bangladesh more
rain left 11 more people dead and the death toll grew to 326.
(SFC, 8/14/98, p.D3)
1998 Aug 13, In Congo rebels
seized a hydroelectric dam and cut off power to Kinshasa. Kabila fired
his army chief in response.
(WSJ, 8/14/98, p.A1)
1998 Aug 13, In Berlin, Germany, a
monument to the Berlin Wall and the 255 people who died crossing it was
dedicated at the corner of Ackerstrasse and Bernauer Strasse.
(WSJ, 9/10/98, p.A20)
1998 Aug 13, The president of
South Korea ordered an amnesty for 7,007 prisoners to mark the Aug. 15
50th anniversary of the Republic.
(WSJ, 8/14/98, p.A1)
1998 Aug 13, Puerto Rico approved
a Dec. 13 referendum for statehood.
(SFC, 8/14/98, p.A3)
1998 Aug 13, George Soros, in a
letter to the Financial Times, called for the government of Russia to
devalue its currency by 15-25%. The government insisted that it would
not devalue and the ruble continued to drop.
(SFC, 8/14/98, p.A10)
1998 Aug 13, Three Russian
cosmonauts lifted off for the second-to-last Mir mission.
(SFC, 8/14/98, p.D3)
1998 Aug 13, In Kosovo, Serbia,
Ibrahim Rugova formed a delegation to begin talks with Pres. Milosevic.
(SFC, 8/15/98, p.A16)
1999 Aug 13, Tennis player Steffi
Graf retired from the sport she had dominated for two decades.
(AP, 8/13/00)
1999 Aug 13, In Argentina protests
and riots raged out of control in Neuquen province where unemployment
was 40%. Skirmishes were also reported from Tucuman, Cordoba,
Corrientes, and Tierra del Fuego.
(SFC, 8/14/99, p.C1)
1999 Aug 13, In Bogota, Colombia,
motorcycle gunmen shot to death humorist and radio co-host, Jaime
Garzon (39), in a killing that authorities later blamed on the leader
of the country’s right-wing paramilitary.
(SFC, 8/14/99, p.A11)(AP, 8/13/00)
1999 Aug 13, Iran agreed under
pressure to join Turkey for simultaneous military operations against
the PKK.
(SFC, 8/14/99, p.A10)
1999 Aug 13, In Liberia 7 abducted
aid workers were freed and some 90 other UN and foreign workers fled
into Guinea to avoid fighting.
(SFC, 8/14/99, p.C1)
1999 Aug 13, Izvestia confirmed
that 4 Russian helicopters were destroyed in Dagestan and that an SU-24
fighter plane was damaged.
(SFC, 8/14/99, p.A10)
1999 Aug 13, In Turkey the
parliament made constitutional changes to overhaul the economy and
bring in foreign investment.
(WSJ, 8/16/99, p.A10)
1999 Aug 13, In Uganda troops were
sent across the northeast to quell ethnic unrest following 155 killings
in the past month. A clan of ethnic Karamajongs was attacked 2 weeks
earlier by rival Karamajongs and Turkanans from northern Kenya and at
least 140 people were killed.
(SFC, 8/14/99, p.C1)
2000 Aug 13, On the eve of the
Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles, 3500 protesters
demonstrated against police brutality and in support of Mumia
Abu-Jamal, on death row for killing a Philadelphia police officer.
(AP, 8/13/01)
2000 Aug 13, It was reported that
physicist Humphrey Maris of Brown Univ. had reported findings in June
to the Quantum Fluids and Solids Conference that challenged the
indivisibility of electrons.
(SFEC, 8/13/00, p.A1)
2000 Aug 13, In Kashmir 16 people
were killed and dozens injured in explosions and gun battles across the
province. 2 land mines killed 6 soldiers and 10 rebels died in battles
with government troops.
(SFC, 8/14/00, p.A13)(SFC, 8/15/00, p.A14)
2000 Aug 13, Over 2,000 Somali
leaders gathered in Djibouti to form a central government with a new
225-member parliament.
(SFC, 8/14/00, p.A1)
2000 Aug 13, Pres. Chavez of
Venezuela held talks in Libya with Moammar Khadafy and proceeded to
Nigeria to meet Pres. Obasanjo.
(SFC, 8/14/00, p.A14)
2001 Aug 13, It was reported that
the US state-prison population had declined in 2000 for the 1st time
since 1972.
(WSJ, 8/13/01, p.A1)
2001 Aug 13, Elizabeth Cavanna
Harrison (aka Betsy Allen or Elizabeth Headley), American romance
writer, died in France at age 92. Her over 80 romances included "Going
on Sixteen" (1945), and "Spice Island Mystery" 1970.
(SFC, 8/14/01, p.A18)
2001 Aug 13, In southeast Chechnya
rebels seized the village of Benoi-Yurt. Pro-Moscow administrators were
reported killed.
(SFC, 8/14/01, p.A7)
2001 Aug 13, Japanese PM Junichiro
Koizumi tried to ease the anger of Asian neighbors by visiting a
controversial war shrine two days before the actual anniversary of
Japan's World War II surrender.
(SFC, 8/14/01, p.A1)(AP, 8/13/02)
2001 Aug 13, In Macedonia a peace
deal was signed by rival leaders of the 2 main ethnic groups and paved
the way for NATO troops to arrive and disarm ethnic Albanian rebels.
Representatives of the EU, USA and NATO helped Macedonian politicians
produce a plan for peace at Lake Ohrid called the Ohrid agreement.
(http://tinyurl.com/y8j2yh)(AP, 8/13/02)(Econ,
10/21/06, p.62)
2002 Aug 13, President Bush hosted
a half-day economic forum at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, where he
assured Americans that his administration had a steady hand on the
economy.
(AP, 8/13/03)
2002 Aug 13, American Airlines
said it would eliminate 7,000 and cut flights.
(AP, 8/13/03)
2002 Aug 13, Angola reported the
capture of Augustin Bizimungu, a key figure in the 1994 Rwandan
genocide.
(SFC, 8/14/02, p.A13)
2002 Aug 13, Deaths from flooding
in Bangladesh (157), India (265) and Nepal (422) and reached at least
874.
(SFC, 8/13/02, p.A15)
2002 Aug 13, In Chechnya
explosions rocked a bus in Grozny and Shali, killing at least five
people and wounding several others.
(AP, 8/13/02)
2002 Aug 13, Vltava River
floodwaters poured into a historic part of Prague, despite the frantic
efforts of rescue workers to save the ancient Czech capital from rising
river levels, which have forced tens of thousands to flee.
(Reuters, 8/13/02)(AP, 8/13/02)
2002 Aug 13, In India separatist
guerrillas ambushed a truck in Meghalaya state and killed at least 15
people.
(SFC, 8/13/02, p.A13)
2002 Aug 13, In Nigeria the lower
house called for the resignation of Pres. Obasanjo.
(WSJ, 8/14/02, p.A10)
2002 Aug 13, Turkmenistan's Pres.
Saparmurat Niyazov issued a decree that extends adolescence until age
25 and postpones old age until 85. His edict divides life into 12-year
cycles. Childhood lasts until age 12. Next comes adolescence which will
now last to age 25. Turkmen aged between 25 and 37 are considered
youthful, while those aged between 27 and 49 years are mature. The next
12-year cycles are divided into periods labeled as prophetic,
inspirational and wise.
(AP, 8/13/02)
2003 Aug 13, Arnold
Schwarzenegger, candidate for governor of California, named Warren
Buffet as his economic adviser. 135 candidates were certified.
(WSJ, 8/14/03, p.A1)
2003 Aug 13, Florida's legislature
approved a bill that capped most medical malpractice damage awards at
$500,000.
(WSJ, 8/14/03, p.A1)
2003 Aug 13, In southern
Afghanistan a bomb ripped through a bus in Lashkargah, killing 15
people, including six children. Officials blamed al-Qaida and remnants
of the Taliban militia for the bombing, the deadliest in nearly a year.
Heavy fighting erupted between government soldiers and Taliban
remnants. 43 deaths were reported in the fighting.
(AP, 8/13/03)(AP, 8/14/03)
2003 Aug 13, Ontario health
officials reported that a family doctor had become the 44th person to
die from SARS in Toronto.
(AP, 8/14/03)
2003 Aug 13, Chinese researchers
reported that they had created hybrid embryos of human and rabbit DNA
as a source for stem cells.
(SFC, 8/14/03, p.A3)
2003 Aug 13, Iraq began pumping
crude oil from its northern oil fields for the first time since the
start of the war.
(AP, 8/13/04)
2003 Aug 13, In Iraq British
Private Jason Smith (32) died of heat stroke as the local temperature
passed the limits of available thermometers. An inquest in 2007 ruled
that troops were not adequately advised on how to cope with high
temperatures. In 2009 the British Ministry of Defense upheld an earlier
judgment that the had breached Smith’s right to life.
(Econ, 5/23/09,
p.58)(www.operations.mod.uk/telic/smith.htm)
2003 Aug 13, Libya agreed to set
up a $2.7 billion fund for families of 270 people killed in the 1988
Pan Am bombing.
(AP, 8/13/04)
2003 Aug 13, Scientists are
blaming global warming for falling fish harvests in Africa's Lake
Tanganyika, threatening the diets of several poor nations.
(AP, 8/13/03)
2004 Aug 13, Hurricane Charley
roared across Cuba, ripping apart roofs, downing power lines and
yanking up huge palm trees on its way to Florida. Charley hit Florida
with winds at 145mph. It flattened oceanfront homes, killed 23 people
and left thousands more homeless.
(AP, 8/13/04)(AP, 8/14/04)(AP, 8/14/04)(AP,
8/16/04)(WSJ, 8/20/04, p.A1)
2004 Aug 13, Julia Child (91), the
grande dame of US television cooking shows and books, died in Santa
Barbara, Ca. During WWII she spent 3 years working for the Office of
Strategic Services (OSS). In 2006 Her memoir “My Life in France,”
co-written with Alex Prud’homme, was published. In 1997 Noel Riley
Fitch authored “”Appetite for Life: The Biography of Julia Child.”
(Reuters, 8/13/04)(Econ, 8/28/04, p.78)(SSFC,
4/2/06, p.M1)(WSJ, 8/19/08, p.D7)
2004 Aug 13, Australia's
parliament approved a free trade pact with the United States.
(AP, 8/13/04)
2004 Aug 13, The FNL, a Burundian
Hutu rebel faction, raided Gatumba camp, a UN refugee camp in western
Burundi, shooting and hacking to death 160 people. The camp sheltered
Congolese ethnic Tutsi refugees, known as the Banyamulenge.
(AP, 8/14/04)(Econ, 8/21/04, p.37)(Econ, 9/11/04,
p.44)
2004 Aug 13, In Colombia 3
outlawed paramilitary factions agreed to disarm immediately.
(AP, 8/13/04)
2004 Aug 13, Typhoon Rananim
weakened to a tropical storm. The death toll from Rananim rose to 115,
after it slammed into the China's southeastern coast.
(AP, 8/13/04)
2004 Aug 13, The Olympics opened
In Athens. A sea of athletes under 202 flags parted to let a Greek
windsurfing champion jog across the stadium and climb to the Olympic
cauldron, which dipped on its slender 102-foot arm to receive the spark
from his torch. Women’s wrestling debuted as an Olympic sport.
(AP, 8/14/04)(NG, 8/04, Geographica)
2004 Aug 13, In Calcutta a man
convicted of raping and killing a schoolgirl was executed, becoming the
first person hanged for their crimes in India in nearly a decade.
Apartment guard Dhananjoy Chatterjee (42) was executed for the 1990
rape and murder of a teenage schoolgirl.
(AP, 8/14/04)
2004 Aug 13, Iraqi officials and
aides to a radical Shiite cleric negotiated to end fighting that has
raged in the holy city of Najaf for 9 days, after American forces
suspended an offensive against Muqtada al-Sadr's militia.
(AP, 8/13/04)
2004 Aug 13, An Islamic Web site
posted still pictures that purportedly show Iraqi militants beheading
an Egyptian man they claim was spying for the U.S. military.
(AP, 8/13/04)
2004 Aug 13, Lebanon criticized
French efforts to ban the militant group Hezbollah's television
station, saying the channel may be anti-Israeli but it is not
anti-Semitic.
(AP, 8/14/04)
2004 Aug 13, In the Maldives 3,000
people gathered outside the police headquarters Friday demanding the
release of prisoners. The government arrested 185 people, including a
former minister and a one-time attorney general.
(AP, 8/15/04)
2004 Aug 13, A Palestinian gunman
killed an Israeli security guard near a Jewish West Bank settlement
before being slain himself.
(AP, 8/13/04)
2004 Aug 13, A southern
Philippines court sentenced 17 members of the al-Qaida-linked Abu
Sayyaf militant group to death for kidnapping nurses from a hospital
there three years ago.
(AP, 8/13/04)
2004 Aug 13, The first elements of
a 300-strong African Union protection force left Kigali, Rwanda, for
Sudan's troubled region of Darfur, Sudan.
(AP, 8/14/04)
2005 Aug 13, The Pentagon said for
the second time since the Iraq war began, it was replacing body armor
for US troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, citing a need for better
protection.
(AP, 8/13/06)
2005 Aug 13, Khosraw Basheri (23)
claimed a historic title of Mr. Afghanistan in the country’s first-ever
national competition to select a top bodybuilder.
(AP, 8/14/05)
2005 Aug 13, US Marines and Afghan
troops launched an offensive to take a remote mountain valley from
insurgents tied to the deadliest blow on American forces since the
Taliban regime was ousted nearly four years ago.
(AP, 8/14/05)
2005 Aug 13, James Petersen (51),
a Univ. of Vermont anthropology professor on a research trip to Brazil,
was killed while he was being robbed in Iranduba near the Amazon River.
Three suspects were taken into custody.
(AP, 8/14/05)
2005 Aug 13, Britain's tax-funded
National Health Service is unsustainable and should be scrapped, the
country's most senior doctor said, but the country's largest health
union warned that any change to the NHS' founding principles would lead
to a "public outcry".
(AP, 8/13/05)
2005 Aug 13, A chunk of ice bigger
than the area of Manhattan broke from the Ayles Ice Shelf at Ellesmere
Island in Canada's far north. Scientists later said that it could wreak
havoc if it starts to float westward toward oil-drilling regions and
shipping lanes in 2007.
(AP, 12/29/06)
2005 Aug 13, It was reported that
Delhi’s water board (DJB) planned a $246 million water project with
$140 million financed by the World Bank. As in many Indian cities 16
million people in Delhi suffered chronic water shortages.
(Econ, 8/13/05, p.53)
2005 Aug 13, The death toll in
India from water-borne diseases following floods in Bombay and
surrounding areas two weeks ago rose to at least 125.
(AP, 8/13/05)
2005 Aug 13, In Indian Kashmir 9
people died in fresh fighting. Troops intensified search operations
ahead of India's Aug 15 Independence Day, which separatists observe as
a "black day".
(AFP, 8/14/05)
2005 Aug 13, In Iran at least 17
people were reported killed over the last 3 weeks and many more wounded
during anti-government protests in the western province of Kurdistan.
(AP, 8/13/05)(SSFC, 8/14/05, p.A15)
2005 Aug 13, In Iraq 3 soldiers
were killed and one other wounded in a roadside bombing near Tuz
Khormato, 95 miles north of Baghdad. Another soldier was killed at
another roadside bombing.
(AP, 8/14/05)
2005 Aug 13, An Italian newspaper
reported that more than 100 Italian troops whose tours in southern Iraq
have ended are not being replaced, apparently marking the beginning of
the country's withdrawal from Iraq ahead of schedule.
(AP, 8/14/05)
2005 Aug 13, A small plane
carrying tourists crashed in southern Italy, killing at least two
people.
(AP, 8/14/05)
2005 Aug 13, For the first time in
a decade, the founders and top political leaders of Hamas gathered on
the same stage, vowing to go on fighting Israel and claiming victory
for its impending withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 8/13/05)
2005 Aug 13, David Lange (b.1942),
former New Zealand prime minister (1984-1989), died in Auckland. He was
the architect of new Zealand’s anti-nuclear policy.
(WSJ, 8/15/05, p.A1)(http://tinyurl.com/bsgp2)
2005 Aug 13, Fernando Olivera,
Peru's new foreign minister, said he was resigning his post, just two
days after the uproar from his appointment sparked a major shake-up of
President Alejandro Toledo's Cabinet.
(AP, 8/14/05)
2005 Aug 13, Fires at a rate of
400 per day began breaking out in Portugal.
(Econ, 8/27/05, p.42)
2005 Aug 13, Rival militias in
arid southwestern Somalia battled for control over a village with
pastures and wells. Twelve combatants died, and hundreds of residents
fled.
(AP, 8/13/05)
2005 Aug 13, Sri Lanka declared a
state of emergency and deployed troops to search for suspects Saturday
after the assassination of the foreign minister.
(AP, 8/13/05)
2006 Aug 13, In Michigan City,
Indiana, fire swept through a two-story house, killing at least six
people. An unknown number of others were missing. It was not clear
whether they had left the scene or were still inside the home.
(AP, 8/13/06)
2006 Aug 13, In Afghanistan at
least 5 Afghan troops and 25 militants were killed.
(WSJ, 8/14/06, p.A1)
2006 Aug 13, The 16th
International AIDS conference opened in Toronto with some 24,000 people
in attendance.
(SSFC, 8/13/06, p.A15)(Econ, 8/19/06, p.65)
2006 Aug 13, The death toll from
Typhoon Saomai, the strongest storm to hit China in 50 years, rose to
114 as more evacuees died when buildings used as shelters collapsed.
China’s state media reported About 17 million people in southwest China
don't have access to clean drinking water due to sustained drought.
(AP, 8/13/06)(Reuters, 8/13/06)
2006 Aug 13, On his 80th birthday,
Fidel Castro cautioned Cubans that he faced a long recovery from
surgery and advised them to prepare for "adverse news," but he urged
them to stay optimistic.
(AP, 8/13/06)
2006 Aug 13, Iraq's health
minister, who is aligned to a powerful Shiite militia, claimed that US
forces arrested seven of his personal guards in a surprise pre-dawn
raid on his office. 4 vehicle bombs killed 63 Iraqis and wounded 140 in
a predominantly Shiite neighborhood of Baghdad.
(AP, 8/13/06)(AP, 8/14/06)(SFC, 8/16/06, p.A6)
2006 Aug 13, After a stormy
debate, Israel's Cabinet approved a Mideast cease-fire, agreeing to
silence the army's guns on Aug 14 at 8AM. The Israeli military embarked
on a last-minute push to devastate Hezbollah guerrillas, rocketing
south Beirut with at least 20 missiles. Israeli warplanes fired
missiles into gasoline stations in the southern port city of Tyre,
killing at least 12 people in those and other attacks. Hezbollah fired
more than 150 rockets at northern Israel, killing an Israeli man. Two
Israeli air raids on a village in Lebanon's eastern Bekaa Valley killed
at least seven people and wounded nearly two dozen.
(AP, 8/13/06)
2006 Aug 13, In Mexico a recount
confirmed Calderon as the next president. Lopez Obrador vowed to mount
new legal challenges.
(WSJ, 8/14/06, p.A1)
2006 Aug 13, Sri Lankan troops and
Tamil Tiger rebels fought ground battles and artillery duels as the
weekend death toll rose to 186. The rebels denied they were ready to
talk peace. At least 15 people died in fighting around the St. Philip
Neri Church in Allaiiddy, a predominantly Tamil village located on an
island just west of the Jaffna Peninsula. The island, like the
peninsula, is held by the government.
(AFP, 8/13/06)(AP, 8/14/06)
2006 Aug 13, In Turkey the PKK
killed 2 policemen in a bomb attack near Tunceli.
(Econ, 9/2/06, p.48)
2006 Aug 13, In Venezuela prison
officials discovered that Carlos Ortega, an anti-Chavez union leader,
had slipped out of the Ramo Verde prison west of Caracas, where he was
serving a 16-year sentence for civil rebellion. Three convicted
military officers also escaped.
(AP, 8/14/06)
2007 Aug 13, Karl Rove, the White
House deputy chief of staff, announced his retirement effective at the
end of the month.
(WSJ, 8/14/07, p.A1)
2007 Aug 13, Brooke Astor
(b.1902), philanthropist, died at her Holy Hill estate in NY.
(SFC, 8/13/07, p.B5)(Econ, 8/25/07, p.79)
2007 Aug 13, Phil Rizzuto (89),
Hall of Fame Yankees shortstop and broadcaster died in West Orange, N.J.
(AP, 8/13/08)
2007 Aug 13, In Afghanistan 2
women among the 23 South Koreans kidnapped by the Taliban in mid-July
were freed on a rural roadside and then driven to a US base. A German
held hostage said in a telephone conversation orchestrated by his
captors that he was in ill health and the Taliban had threatened him
with death. In southern Afghanistan 6 civilians were killed when a
rocket-propelled grenade blew up their vehicle when Taliban militia
attacked a military convoy. A separate clash between troops and
insurgents in Ghazni province, further north, left four Taliban dead.
(AP, 8/13/07)(AP, 8/14/07)
2007 Aug 13, According to new data
China's inflation rate accelerated to the highest monthly rate in a
decade, driven by a 15.4% surge in food prices over the year-earlier
period. Officials said China is still freeing people, including
children, forced to work as slaves in illegal brick factories, two
months after the scandal involving the brick yards was exposed. A
bridge under construction in the central Hunan city of Fenghuang
collapsed as workers removed scaffolding from its facade, killing 64
people.
(AP, 8/13/07)(AP, 8/14/07)(AP, 8/13/08)
2007 Aug 13, A boat carrying
illegal immigrants capsized off France's Indian Ocean island of
Mayotte, killing at least 17 people, eight of them children. The boat
carrying 38 people was en route from the Comoros Islands about 125
miles to the northwest when it overturned while trying to evade the
French coast guard.
(AP, 8/14/07)
2007 Aug 13, US troops in Iraq
launched a major assault against Al-Qaeda-linked militants and alleged
Iranian-aided extremist groups as a Sunni leader accused Iran of
plotting genocide against his people. The US military also said it had
arrested a top "financier" of Iraqi extremist groups believed to be
supported by Tehran’s Quds Force in a Baghdad raid. 3 US soldiers were
killed in an explosion near their vehicle in northwestern Ninevah
province. Another died of wounds sustained during combat operations in
western Baghdad.
(AFP, 8/13/07)(AP, 8/14/07)
2007 Aug 13, In Malaysia 20 people
died after an express bus overturned on the main highway, tearing off
the vehicle's roof and flinging seats into the air in what officials
said was the country's worst traffic disaster. The toll rose to 22
after 2 injured people died later.
(AP, 8/13/07)(AP, 8/20/07)
2007 Aug 13, Armed pirates
attacked a Malaysian barge in the Malacca Strait and kidnapped 2
Indonesian crew, in the first high sea abduction in the busy waterway
in more than 2 years.
(AP, 8/14/07)
2007 Aug 13, AkzoNobel, a Dutch
chemicals group under Hans Wijers, made a cash offer for the British
firm ICI (Imperial Chemical Industries) under John McAdam for $16
billion. The deal turned Akzo into the world’s biggest maker of paints.
(Econ, 10/04/08,
p.72)(www.ici.com/main/cms/cmRender.asp?i=2162)
2007 Aug 13, A monsoon storm
unleashed landslides and collapsed houses in a village in Pakistan's
mountainous northwest, killing 22 people.
(AP, 8/13/07)
2007 Aug 13, Hamas militiamen beat
protesters with clubs and rifle butts to try to stop a demonstration by
political opponents in the Gaza Strip, but hundreds chanting "We want
freedom" defied the ban.
(AP, 8/13/07)
2007 Aug 13, Poland's fractious
governing coalition came to an end when the country's president
dismissed four Cabinet ministers from two junior partners, clearing the
way for an early election expected this fall.
(AP, 8/13/07)
2007 Aug 13, A bomb explosion
threw the Neva Express train, which was en route from Moscow to St.
Petersburg, off the tracks and injuring 60 people. Suspicion fell on
representatives of extremist nationalist organizations.
(AP, 8/14/07)(AP, 8/15/07)
2007 Aug 13, In South Korea a
family of five fell to their deaths from a Ferris wheel after two cars
collided at an amusement park in the southern city of Busan.
(AP, 8/13/07)
2007 Aug 13, In central Vietnam
the death toll from a tropical storm that caused widespread flooding
hit 70 after five more bodies were recovered, while six people were
still missing and feared dead.
(AP, 8/13/07)
2008 Aug 13, In California prison
receiver Clark Kelso asked a federal judge to seize $8 billion from the
state’s treasury over the next 5 years to build 7 medical facilities
for inmates throughout the state.
(SFC, 8/14/08, p.A1)
2008 Aug 13, In Little Rock, Ark.,
Timothy Dale Johnson (50), described as a loner, drove more than 30
miles to Arkansas' Democratic Party headquarters and fatally shot its
chairman, Bill Gwatney, hours after losing his job. Johnson was later
shot dead by officers.
(AP, 8/14/08)
2008 Aug 13, Michael Phelps swam
into history as the winningest Olympic athlete ever with his 10th and
11th career gold medals, and 5 world records in 5 events at the Beijing
Games.
(AP, 8/13/08)
2008 Aug 13, It was reported that
at least 150 fuel tanks, managed by the US Federal Emergency management
Agency (FEMA), needed inspection for leaks. It was estimated that some
500,000 fuel storage tanks, both private and publicly owned, were
leaking.
(SFC, 8/13/08, p.A4)
2008 Aug 13, Jack Weil (107),
patriarch of western clothing, died. He created the western style shirt
which sold after 1946 through his Denver-based company Rockmount Ranch
Wear.
(Econ, 8/30/08, p.82)
2008 Aug 13, It was reported that
the red lionfish, a tropical native of the Indian and Pacific oceans,
was rapidly multiplying in the Caribbean. The maroon-striped marauder
with venomous spikes was swallowing native species, stinging divers and
generally wreaking havoc on the ecologically delicate region.
(SFC, 8/14/08,
p.A6)(www.sanluisobispo.com/health/story/438289.html)
2008 Aug 13, In Afghanistan
militants brandishing assault rifles ambushed a US relief
organization's vehicle, killing three aid workers and their Afghan
driver and leaving their white SUV riddled with hundreds of bullets.
The three women killed in Logar province worked for the New York-based
International Rescue Committee (IRC). In southern Afghanistan militants
began launching attacks on a coalition patrol. Over 3 dozen militants
were killed in the fighting.
(AP, 8/13/08)(SFC, 8/16/08, p.A6)
2008 Aug 13, Argentine senators
approved a bill declaring obesity and other eating disorders diseases
covered by the nation's public and private health care programs.
(AP, 8/13/08)
2008 Aug 13, Bolivia and Libya
agreed to establish diplomatic relations and join efforts to develop
the nations' energy resources.
(AP, 8/13/08)
2008 Aug 13, Scientists from
Britain’s University of Reading unveiled Gordon, a neuron-powered
machine, whose grey matter was stitched together from cultured rat
neurons.
(AFP, 8/13/08)
2008 Aug 13, A Chinese team beat
the United States and clinched China's first women's team Olympic gold
in gymnastics, amid allegations that at least one member, He Kexin, of
the Chinese team was under age.
(AP, 8/14/08)
2008 Aug 13, Henri Cartan
(b.1904), French mathematician, died in Paris. In 1956 he and Samuel
Eilenberg wrote a fundamental textbook on homological algebra.
(SFC, 8/25/08, p.B3)
2008 Aug 13, Russian tanks rolled
into the crossroads city of Gori then thrust deep into Georgian
territory, violating the truce designed to end the six-day war. Georgia
said that 175 Georgians had died in five days of air and ground attacks
that left homes in smoldering ruins. EU foreign ministers agreed in
principle to send monitors to supervise a French-brokered ceasefire
between Russia and Georgia in the breakaway Georgian region of South
Ossetia. Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said Russia will spend at least
$400 million in 2008 on restoring South Ossetia's battered capital
Tskhinvali.
(AP, 8/13/08)(Reuters, 8/13/08)
2008 Aug 13, The Indian army said
that it was investigating UN allegations its troops had engaged in
sexual abuse while on peacekeeping duties in the Democratic Republic of
Congo. A five-story building in a crowded residential neighborhood of
Mumbai, India's main financial city, collapsed after monsoon rains,
killing at least 20 people.
(AP, 8/13/08)
2008 Aug 13, In northwest Iran
three Kurdish separatists and one Iranian soldier were killed in a
shootout.
(AP, 8/14/08)
2008 Aug 13, A suicide truck
bomber targeted the mayor of a town near the oil-rich city of Kirkuk,
while another car bomb struck civilians elsewhere in northern Iraq. A
bomb in a parked car struck a local market in the Qayara area south of
the northern city of Mosul, killing at least two people and wounding
five.
(AP, 8/13/08)
2008 Aug 13, Riots erupted across
Indian-controlled Kashmir as Muslims mourned 15 people killed in a day
of bloody violence, as the protests spread to other parts of India.
Indian police say they have issued orders to shoot protesters defying a
curfew in the town of Kishtwar in Indian-controlled Kashmir.
(AP, 8/13/08)
2008 Aug 13, In northern Lebanese
city a bomb ripped through a bus during morning rush hour in Tripoli,
killing 18 soldiers and civilians, raising fears that an
al-Qaida-inspired militant group is stepping up revenge attacks against
the military.
(AP, 8/13/08)
2008 Aug 13, In Mexico a spokesman
for the Attorney General's Office said 6 federal agents have been
arrested on suspicion of passing information to a group of powerful
drug lords.
(AP, 8/14/08)
2008 Aug 13, Nigerian officials
said flocks of quelea birds have invaded farmlands in northern Borno
state, destroying crops that were due for harvest in two months' time.
(AFP, 8/13/08)
2008 Aug 13, In Lahore, Pakistan,
a bomber struck outside a mosque just before midnight as Pakistanis
poured into the streets to celebrate the nation's 61st anniversary of
its independence from Britain. 8 people were killed and 18 wounded.
(AP, 8/14/08)
2008 Aug 13, South African
President Thabo Mbeki left Zimbabwe after failing to secure a
power-sharing deal between its main rivals during marathon talks,
adding to doubts over chances of an agreement.
(Reuters, 8/13/08)
2008 Aug 13, In Sri Lanka a wave
of battles across the front lines in the 25-year-old civil war killed
14 ethnic Tamil rebels and two government soldiers.
(AP, 8/14/08)
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