Today in History - August 14
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554 Aug 14,
Ravenna became the seat of the Byzantine military governor in Italy.
(MC, 8/14/02)
1167 Aug 14, Raynald van Dassel,
archbishop of Cologne, died.
(MC, 8/14/02)
1248 Aug 14, Construction of
Cologne Cathedral began. [see May 15]
(MC, 8/14/02)
1281 Aug 14, During the second
Mongol attempt to conquer Japan, Kublai Khan's invading fleet
disappeared in typhoon off of Japan. A Mongol army of 45,000 from Korea
had joined an armada with 120,000 men from southern China landing at
Hakozaki Bay. The typhoon destroyed their fleet leaving them to death
or slavery.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 214)(EWH, 4th ed., p.369)(MC,
8/14/02)
1385 Aug 14, Jogaila and his
brothers signed a treaty with Poland at Krievos Castle. Here he agreed
to convert to Christianity and to seek the conversion of all of
Lithuania and that then Lithuania and Poland would unite. The treaty
also included an agreement to free all captive Catholics and to help
Poland regain all the land it had lost to the German Knights. Vytautas
urged Jogaila to go to Poland and leave Lithuania to be ruled by
himself.
(H of L, 1931, p.48)(Ist. L.H., 1948, p. 68)
1385 Aug 14, Portuguese forces
defeated Castilians at Aljubarrota and gained independence. Nuno
Alvares Pereira helped secure Portugal's independence from the Spanish
kingdom of Castile. After leaving the military, Pereira entered
religious life as a Carmelite and changed his name to Nuno de Santa
Maria. He dedicated himself to the poor, never taking the privileges
that would have been afforded to him as a former commander. In 2009 the
Vatican declared him a saint.
(PCh, 1992, p.136)(HN, 8/15/98)(AP, 4/26/09)
1457 Aug 14, Gutenberg's financier
Johann Fust and calligrapher Peter Schoffer published the 2nd printed
book. This is the oldest known exactly dated printed book.
(HN, 8/14/00)(MC, 8/14/02)
1498 Aug 14, Columbus landed at
the mouth of the Orinoco River in Venezuela.
(MC, 8/14/02)
1552 Aug 14, Fra Paolo Sarpi,
[Paulus Venetus], expert, philosopher, was born in Venice.
(MC, 8/14/02)
1559 Aug 14, Spanish explorer de
Luna entered Pensacola Bay, Florida.
(HN, 8/14/98)
1587 Aug 14, Gugliemo Gonzaga
(b.1538), Italian composer, died.
(MC, 8/14/02)
1607 Aug 14, The Popham expedition
reached the Sagadahoc River in the northeastern North America (Maine),
and settled there.
(HN, 8/14/98)
1652 Aug 14, Abraham Elsevier
(60), Dutch book publisher, publisher, died.
(MC, 8/14/02)
1727 Aug 14, William Croft
(b.1678), English composer, died.
(MC, 8/14/02)
1756 Aug 14, French commander
Louis Montcalm took Fort Oswego, New England, from the British.
(HN, 8/14/98)
1765 Aug 14, Massachusetts
colonists challenged British rule by an Elm (Liberty Tree).
(MC, 8/14/02)
1777 Aug 14, Hans Christian
Oersted, Danish scientist, was born. He discovered electromagnetism.
(HN, 8/14/00)
1778 Aug 14, Augustus Montague
Toplady (b.1740), English Calvinist hymn writer (Rock of Ages), died.
His best prose work is the "Historic Proof of the Doctrinal Calvinism
of the Church of England" (London, 1774).
(MC, 8/14/02)(Wikipedia)
1784 Aug 14, The 1st Russian
settlement in Alaska was established on Kodiak Island. Grigori
Shelekhov, a Russian fur trader, founded Three Saints Bay.
(MC, 8/14/02)
1793 Aug 14, Republican troops in
France laid siege to the city of Lyons.
(HN, 8/14/98)
1810 Aug 14, Samuel Sebastian
Wesley (d.1876), English composer, was born in London.
(MC, 8/14/02)
1811 Aug 14, Paraguay declared
independence from Spain.
(PC, 1992, p.373)
1813 Aug 14, British warship
Pelican attacked and captured US war brigantine Argus.
(MC, 8/14/02)
1814 Aug 14, British marines
landed near the mouth of the Patuxent River in Maryland and began
marching overland to attack Washington, DC.
(ON, 6/08, p.1)
1816 Aug 14, Great Britain annexed
Tristan da Cunha.
(MC, 8/14/02)
1820 Aug 14, The 1st US eye
hospital, the NY Eye Infirmary, opened in NYC.
(MC, 8/14/02)
1836 Aug 14, Walter Besant
(d.1901), English writer, philanthropist (Rebel Queen), was born.
(MC, 8/14/02)
1840 Aug 14, Baron Richard
Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing, psychiatrist, was born.
(MC, 8/14/02)
1842 Aug 14, Seminole War ended
and the Indians were moved from Florida to Oklahoma.
(MC, 8/14/02)
1846 Aug 14, Henry David Thoreau
was jailed for tax resistance.
(MC, 8/14/02)
1848 Aug 14, The Oregon Territory
was established.
(AP, 8/14/97)
1851 Aug 14, Doc Holliday was born
in Griffin, GA.
(MesWP)
1861 Aug 14, Martial Law was
declared at St. Louis, MI.
(MC, 8/14/02)
1863 Aug 14, Ernest L. Thayer,
author of the poem "Casey at the Bat," was born.
(HN, 8/14/98)
1864 Aug 14-16, Confederate
General Joe Wheeler besieged Dalton, Georgia.
(MC, 8/14/02)
1864 Aug 14, A Federal assault
continued for a 2nd day of battle at Deep Bottom Run, Virginia.
(MC, 8/14/02)
1867 Aug 14, John Galsworthy
(d.1933), English novelist and dramatist (Forsyth Saga, Nobel 1932),
was born in England. He was reported to have thrown a brick through a
glass window in order to be arrested so that he could have time to
write. His play "Justice" was the result of this experience.
(WUD, 1994, p.581)(SFC, 12/5/98, p.E4)(MC, 8/14/02)
1870 Aug 14, David [James] Glasgow
Farragut (b.1801), US admiral, died.
(MC, 8/14/02)
1880 Aug 14, Construction of
Cologne Cathedral, begun in 1248, was completed 633 years after it was
begun.
(MC, 8/14/02)
1889 Aug 14, David S. Terry,
former Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court (1857-1859), was
shot by a bodyguard of Stephen Field, an associate justice of the US
Supreme Court, after Terry slapped Field in the face at a railroad
restaurant in Lathrop, Ca.
(SFC, 9/7/09,
p.C6)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_S._Terry)
1900 Aug 14, International forces,
i.e. European allies, including 2,000 U.S. Marines entered Beijing to
put down the Boxer Rebellion, which was aimed at purging China of
foreigners and foreign influence.
(HN, 8/14/98)(AP, 8/14/01)(MC, 8/14/02)
1903 Aug 14, John Ringling North,
circus director (Ringling Bros), was born in Baraboo, Wisc.
(MC, 8/14/02)
1904 Aug 14, The cattle-herding
Hereros, a tribe of Southwest Africa (later Namibia), became the first
genocide victims of the 20th century. Kaiser Wilhelm II had sent
General Lothar von Trotha to put down a Herero uprising along with the
groups of rebellious Khoikhoi. Trotha drove the Hereros into the desert
and then issued a formal "extermination order" (Schrecklichkeit)
authorizing the slaughter of all who refused to surrender. Out of some
80,000 Hereros, 60,000 died in the desert. Of the 15,000 who
surrendered, half of those died in prison camps. Some 9,000 escaped to
neighboring countries. In 2004 a senior German government official
apologized for the genocide during a ceremony in Namibia marking the
100th anniversary of the uprising. In 2005 a German minister
acknowledged violence by German colonial powers and admitted that
following uprisings, the surviving Herero, Nama and Damara were
interned in camps and put to forced labor of such brutality that many
did not survive.
(www.umich.edu/news/MT/NewsE/10_05/steinmetz.html)(HNPD, 4/14/99)(AP,
8/14/04)(SSFC, 6/25/06, p.E5)
1907 Aug 14, "Ha-Tikva" was
adopted as official Zionist hymn.
(MC, 8/14/02)
1908 Aug 14, A race war broke out
in Springfield, Illinois. Angry over reports that a black man had
sexually assaulted a white woman, a white mob wanted to take a recently
arrested suspect from the city jail and kill him. Most blacks had fled
the city, but as the mob swept through the area, they captured and
lynched a black barber, Scott Burton, who had stayed behind to protect
his home. Rioting continued the next day leaving a total of two blacks
and 5 whites dead and hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of
property destroyed. Some 4,000 state militiamen were required to quell
the riot, which helped inspire the creation of the NAACP the following
year.
(www.lib.niu.edu/1996/iht329622.html)(AP,
8/14/08)(WSJ, 1/20/08, p.A12)
1912 Aug 14, The JUSTIN, carrying
a US battalion of 354 men and its equipment, arrived at Corinto,
Nicaragua, and anchored near the Annapolis. US forces remained until
1925.
(http://www.scuttlebuttsmallchow.com/usmcnic3.html)
1915 Aug 14, British transport
Royal Edward was sunk a by German U boat and some 1000 people were
killed.
(MC, 8/14/02)
1917 Aug 14, The Chinese
Parliament declared war on the Central Powers, Germany and Austria,
during World War I. Some 100,000 Chinese laborers ended up serving near
the front lines in Flanders as the “Chinese Labor Corps,” which endured
military discipline under British officers. Hundreds died in the
influenza that swept post-war Europe and the last were shipped home in
1920.
(AP, 8/14/97)(Econ, 4/24/10, p.41)
1920 Aug 14, Nehemiah Persoff,
actor (Al Capone, Yentl), was born in Jerusalem, Palestine.
(MC, 8/14/02)
1924 Aug 14, Georges Pretre,
conductor (NY Met), was born in Waziers, France.
(MC, 8/14/02)
1925 Aug 14, Russell Baker, author
and columnist for The New York Times, was born.
(HN, 8/14/98)
1925 Aug 14, The Mount Rushmore
monument was 1st proposed.
(MC, 8/14/02)
1928 Aug 14, Lina Wertmuller,
[Arcanguela von Elgg], actress (7 Beauties), was born in Rome.
(MC, 8/14/02)
1928 Aug 14, The play "Front Page"
by Ben Hecht (1894-1964) and Charles MacArthur (1895-1956) premiered in
NYC.
(http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1541419)
1932 Aug 14, Philips made its 1
millionth radio.
(MC, 8/14/02)
1932 Aug 14, Rin Tin Tin, US
Hollywood dog, died.
(MC, 8/14/02)
1935 Aug 14, The Social Security
Act became law as President Franklin Roosevelt signed the Social
Security Bill, providing assistance to the poor and needy. It created
an old-age and unemployment insurance, and supplemented mothers’
pensions with Aid to Dependent Children.
(AP, 8/14/97)(www.ssa.gov/history/1930.html)
1936 Aug 14, Rainey Bethea was
hanged in the last US public execution.
(MC, 8/14/02)
1937 Aug 14, China declared war on
Japan.
(MC, 8/14/02)
1938 Aug 14, Niara Shudarkasa,
educator and first woman president of Lincoln University, was born.
(HN, 8/14/98)
1941 Aug 14, The Atlantic Charter
was created in 1941. It was a joint declaration of peace aims and a
statement of principles by US Pres. Roosevelt and British Prime
Minister Churchill that renounced aggression.
(HFA, '96, p.36)(WUD, 1944, p.1683)(AP, 8/14/97)
1941 Aug 14, Josef Jakobs, German
spy, was executed in Tower of London.
(MC, 8/14/02)
1942 Aug 14, Dwight D. Eisenhower
was named the Anglo-American commander for Operation Torch, the
invasion of North Africa.
(HN, 8/14/98)
1944 Aug 14, The US federal
government allowed the manufacture of certain domestic appliances, such
as electric ranges and vacuum cleaners, to resume on a limited basis.
(AP, 8/14/04)
1944 Aug 14, In Seattle, Wa., a
riot took place at Fort Lawton, following a scuffle between an
Italian prisoner and a black soldier. POW Guglielmo Olivotto was found
hanged the next day. In an ensuing trial 28 men were convicted. In 2005
Jack Hamann and his wife Leslie authored “On American Soil,“ which
covered the riot and the subsequent events. The convictions of the
soldiers were overturned based largely on shortcomings in the
prosecution described in the book.
(SFC, 7/28/08,
p.A4)(www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=7378)
1945 Aug 14, Steve Martin,
American comedian, actor and screenwriter, was born.
(HN, 8/14/98)
1945 Aug 14, Alfred Eisenstaedt
shot a picture of a sailor kissing a nurse in Times Square. In 2007
Houston Police Department forensic artist Lois Gibson completed a
detailed investigation and concluded that Glenn McDuffie (80) is the
man in the image, which was published on the cover of Life Magazine on
Aug 27.
(AP, 8/4/07)
1945 Aug 14, President Truman
announced that Japan had surrendered unconditionally, ending World War
II. Shaken by the atomic destruction wreaked on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
and faced with the daunting prospect of Allied invasion, the Japanese
Emperor Hirohito met with his ministers on the morning of August 14 and
announced, "We cannot continue the war any longer." Japan accepted the
Allies "Potsdam Declaration," a cease-fire. In 1999 Prof. John W. Dower
published "Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II." Dower
earlier published "War Without Mercy," a study of the war in the
Pacific.
(WSJ, 8/14/95, p. A-11)(AP, 8/14/97)(HN,
8/14/98)(WSJ, 3/31/99, p.A20)(AP, 8/14/08)
1945 Aug 14, Japanese occupation
of Hong Kong ended.
(SFEC, 6/22/97, p.A14)
1947 Aug 14, Daniele Steel, author
(Remembrance, Zoya, Star, Daddy), was born in NYC.
(MC, 8/14/02)
1947 Aug 14, Britain
partitioned the subcontinent and Pakistan was founded as an independent
country. The Muslim areas in the east and west became independent
Pakistan with Mohammed Ali Jinnah as president.
(WSJ, 1/9/95, A-8)(TMC, 1994, p.1947)(WSJ, 12/21/95,
p.A-12)(WSJ, 5/16/96, p.A-10)(SFC, 7/1/97, p.A9)(SFEC, 8/3/97, p.A15)
1948 Aug 14, The summer Olympic
games in London ended.
(AP, 8/14/08)
1950 Aug 14, Gary Larson,
cartoonist (Far Side), was born in Tacoma, Washington.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Larson)
1950 Aug 14, Indonesia’s
legislature adopted a provisional constitution that called for a
parliamentary democracy with government to be responsible to a
unicameral House of Representatives elected directly by the people.
Sukarno became president under the new system.
(www.country-data.com/cgi-bin/query/r-6198.html)
1951 Aug 14, Newspaper publisher
William Randolph Hearst (b,1863) died in Beverly Hills, Calif. In 2000
David Nasaw authored "The Chief: The Life of William Randolph Hearst."
W.A. Swanberg was the author of the biography "Citizen Hearst." In 2002
Louis Pizzitola authored "Hearst Over Hollywood: Power, Passion and
Propaganda in the Movies." In 2009 Kenneth Wyle authored “The Uncrowned
King: The Sensational Rise of William Randolph Hearst.”
(SFEC, 8/11/96, p.A19)(AP, 8/14/98)(SFC, 8/7/99,
p.A9)(WSJ, 6/16/00, p.W8)(SFEC, 7/2/00, BR p.1)(SFC, 3/27/02,
p.D5)(SSFC, 1/11/09, Books p.1)
1952 Aug 14, Alfred Sauvy
(1898-1990), a French economist, first used the term “Third World,” in
an article published in the French magazine L'Observateur. He used it
to describe the importance of underdeveloped countries. He was
paraphrasing a remark by Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyes, a delegate to the
Estates General in 1789, who said the third estate is everything, has
nothing but wants to be something.
(Econ, 1/30/10,
p.18)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Sauvy)(Econ, 6/12/10, p.65)
1956 Aug 14, Bertold Brecht
(b.1898), German dramatist (Mother Courage), died. His first play was
"Baal." He also wrote "The Resistable Rise of Arturo Ui," a satire on
Hitler’s rise to power. In 1959 Prof. Martin Esslin (d.2002 at 83)
authored "Brecht: A Choice of Evils."
(WSJ, 10/3/96, p.A12)(SFEC, 8/10/97, DB p.15)(SFC,
2/28/02, p.A20)(MC, 8/14/02)
1956 Aug 14, Freiherr Constantine
von Neurath, German foreign minister under Hitler (1932-38), died.
(MC, 8/14/02)
1958 Aug 14, Gladys Love Smith
Presley (48), Elvis Presley's mother, died in Memphis, Tenn.
(AP, 8/14/08)
1958 Aug 14, KLM
Superconstellation crashed west of Ireland, killing 99.
(MC, 8/14/02)
1958 Aug 14, Frederic
Joliot-Curie, French nuclear physicist (Nobel 1936), died.
(MC, 8/14/02)
1959 Aug 14, Magic (Earvin Jr.)
Johnson; basketball player (LA Lakers NBA MVP [1987, 89, 90]; Olympic
Dream Team [1992]), was born.
(MC, 8/14/02)
1962 Aug 14, Robbers held up a
U.S. mail truck in Plymouth, Mass., making off with more than $1.5
million.
(AP, 8/14/97)
1962 Aug 14, French and Italian
workers broke through at the Mount Blanc Vehicular Tunnel. [see Jul 14]
(MC, 8/14/02)
1965 Aug 14, The Beatles taped an
appearance for the Ed Sullivan Show.
(MC, 8/14/02)
1965 Aug 14, Sonny and Cher's "I
Got You Babe" hit #1.
(MC, 8/14/02)
1965 Aug 14, The first major
engagement between the regular armed forces of India and Pakistan took
place. The next day, Indian forces scored a major victory after a
prolonged artillery barrage and captured three important mountain
positions in the northern sector. Later in the month, the Pakistanis
counterattacked, moving concentrations near Tithwal, Uri, and Punch.
Their move, in turn, provoked a powerful Indian thrust into Azad
Kashmir. Other Indian forces captured a number of strategic mountain
positions and eventually took the key Haji Pir Pass, eight kilometers
inside Pakistani territory.
(Encyclopaedia.com,
2002)(http://ph.infoplease.com/ce6/history/A0858805.html)
1969 Aug 14, British troops
arrived in Northern Ireland to intervene in sectarian violence between
Protestants and Roman Catholics. The outlawed Irish Republican Army
came into Northern Ireland to protect and encourage Catholics and the
Provisional IRA soon began terrorist actions against the British troops
and Protestant civilians. This culminated in an attack on the Bogside
which started on August 12 and ended Aug 14. Some 500 houses were
burned to the ground, 1,500 people forced from their homes, and 9
people murdered.
(SFC, 6/18/96, p.A8)(AP, 8/14/97)(HNQ, 8/17/99)
1969 Aug 14, Leonard Sidney Woolf
(b.1880), English publisher, writer, died. He was the husband of writer
and critic Virginia Woolf (1882-1941). His books included “The Village
in the Jungle,” a novel based on his time in Sri Lanka (1904-1911). In
2006 Victoria Glendinning authored “Leonard Woolf: A Biography.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_Woolf)(Econ,
9/16/06, p.93)
1970 Aug 14, City University of NY
inaugurated open admissions.
(www.kipnotes.com/Colleges.htm)
1971 Aug 14, Georg von Opel
(b.1912), German auto manufacturer, died.
(www.thepeerage.com/p15853.htm)
1973 Aug 14, The U.S. "secret"
bombing of Cambodia came to a halt, marking the official end to 12
years of American combat in Indochina.
(AP, 8/14/97)(HN, 8/14/98)
1974 Aug 14, The 93rd Congress
authorized US citizens to own gold. The Gold ownership ban from 1933
was rescinded by Public Law 93-373.
(www.simpleliberty.org/aamht/1900-present.htm)
1974 Aug 14, The Turkish army
mounted a second full-scale offensive in Cyprus, despite the fact that
talks were still being held in Geneva and just as agreement was about
to be reached. 37% of the area of Cyprus came under Turkish military
occupation.
(www.cyprus-conflict.net/Greek%20v%20Turk%20narr%20-%201974.htm)
1974 Aug 14, Greek Cypriots began
a 2-day massacre that killed 83 Turkish Cypriot men in Taskent.
(www.cyprus-conflict.net/www.cyprus-conflict.net/birgin%20-%2074%20narratives.html)
1976 Aug 14, Some 10,000 Northern
Ireland women demonstrated for peace in Belfast.
(http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/othelem/chron/ch76.htm)
1980 Aug 14, President Carter and
Vice President Walter Mondale were nominated for a second term at the
Democratic national convention in New York.
(AP, 8/14/00)
1980 Aug 14, Some 17,000 Polish
workers, led by Lech Walesa, began a 17-day strike at the Lenin
Shipyards in Gdansk. This resulted in the creation of the Solidarity
labor movement.
(TMC, 1994, p.1980)(WSJ, 6/11/96, p.A12)(AP, 8/14/00)
1981 Aug 14, Pope John Paul II
left a Rome hospital, three months after being wounded in an attempt on
his life.
(AP, 8/14/01)
1981 Aug 14, Karl Bohm (b.1894),
Austrian conductor and early Nazi sympathizer, died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_B%C3%B6hm)
1984 Aug 14, IBM released PC DOS
version 3.0.
(www.islandnet.com/~kpolsson/today/814.htm)
1986 Aug 14, Pakistani opposition
leader Benazir Bhutto was arrested.
(http://tinyurl.com/yynudk)
1987 Aug 14, The government
reported that America's merchandise trade deficit had soared to $15.7
billion in June 1987.
(AP, 8/14/97)
1988 Aug 14, Pres. Reagan arrived
in New Orleans on the eve of the Republican national convention that
would nominate VP George Bush, to be its choice to succeed him.
(AP, 8/14/98)
1988 Aug 14, Enzo Ferrari
(b.1898), Italian sportscar manufacturer (Ferrari), died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enzo_Ferrari)
1989 Aug 14, South African
President P.W. Botha announced his resignation after losing a bitter
power struggle within his National Party.
(AP, 8/14/99)
1990 Aug 14, Interrupting his
vacation in Kennebunkport, Maine, President Bush returned to
Washington, where he told reporters he saw no hope for a diplomatic
solution to the Persian Gulf crisis, at least until economic sanctions
forced Iraq to withdraw from Kuwait.
(AP, 8/14/00)
1990 Aug 14, Denver voted for a 1%
sales tax to pay for a baseball franchise.
(http://colorado.rockies.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/col/history/timeline2.jsp)
1991 Aug 14, President Bush
expressed "100 percent" support for United Nations efforts to mediate a
settlement to the Middle East hostage crisis.
(AP, 8/14/01)
1991 Aug 14, Freed American
hostage Edward Tracy returned to the United States, arriving in Boston,
where he was reunited with his sister, Maria Lambert.
(AP, 8/14/01)
1992 Aug 14, The White House
announced that the Pentagon would begin emergency airlifts of food to
Somalia to alleviate mass deaths by starvation.
(AP, 8/14/97)
1992 Aug 14, Federal Judge John J.
Sirica, who had presided over the Watergate trials of the 1970s, died
in Washington, D.C., at age 88.
(AP, 8/14/97)
1993 Aug 14, A jury in New York
acquitted Washington lawyer Robert Altman of fraud charges for dealings
linked to the Bank of Credit and Commerce International.
(AP, 8/14/98)
1993 Aug 14, Pope John Paul II
denounced abortion and euthanasia as well as sexual abuse by American
priests in a speech at McNichols Sports Arena in Denver.
(AP, 8/14/98)
1994 Aug 14, Rain turned the final
full day of Woodstock '94 in Saugerties, N.Y., into a mudbath.
(AP, 8/14/04)
1994 Aug 14, Space telescope
Hubble photographed Uranus with rings.
(www.solarviews.com/eng/uranus.htm)
1994 Aug 14, Eight children who
were left alone died in an early morning house fire in Carbondale, Ill.
(AP, 8/14/99)
1994 Aug 14, Ilich Ramirez
Sanchez, the terrorist known as "Carlos the Jackal," was captured in
Khartoum, Sudan. He was jailed in France the next day.
(SFC,12/17/97, p.A18)(AP, 8/15/97)
1995 Aug 14, Shannon Faulkner
officially became the first female cadet in the history of The Citadel,
South Carolina's state military college. She quit the school less than
a week later, citing the stress of her court fight, and her isolation
among the male cadets.
(AP, 8/14/97)
1996 Aug 14, The Republican
National Convention in San Diego nominated Bob Dole for president and
Jack Kemp for vice president in an evening that featured a
talk-show-style testimonial by Elizabeth Dole, who strolled the
convention floor with a wireless microphone.
(AP, 8/14/97)
1996 Aug 14, Sergiu Celibidache
(84), Romanian conductor (would not use recording studio), died in
France.
(www.bach-cantatas.com/Bio/Celibidache-Sergiu.htm)
1996 Aug 14, In Cyprus another man
was killed in demonstrations when Turkish troops opened fire on Greek
Cypriot demonstrators.
(SFC, 8/15/96, p.C2)
1996 Aug 14, In India police
arrested a kitchen worker in a food-poisoning incident that traced to
poisonous seeds.
(WSJ, 8/15/96, p.A1)
1996 Aug 14, An impasse on the
nuclear test ban treaty was reached when India refused to sign on the
basis that there was no commitment by the 5 acknowledged nuclear powers
to a timetable for disarmament.
(SFC, 8/15/96, p.C2)
1996 Aug 14, Iraq and Turkey
signed an agreement to improve political and economic ties.
(SFC, 8/15/96, p.C3)
1996 Aug 14, In Mongolia officials
sealed off parts of Ulan Bator to halt an outbreak of cholera.
(WSJ, 8/15/96, p.A1)
1996 Aug 14, In Peru, 35 people
were electrocuted when a stray rocket during a fireworks show knocked
down a high-tension line.
(AP, 8/14/97)
1996 Aug 14, In Russian Yeltsin
gave security chief Lebed the authority to control and coordinate the
operations of the army, Interior Ministry, Federal Security Service and
other agencies in Chechnya.
(SFC, 8/15/96, p.C2)
1997 Aug 14, An unrepentant
Timothy McVeigh was formally sentenced to death for the Oklahoma City
bombing.
(AP, 8/14/98)
1997 Aug 14, In Argentina public
sector and opposition unions called for a 24-hour strike to protest the
nation’s 16.1% unemployment rate and proposed labor reforms.
(SFC, 8/15/97, p.A15)
1997 Aug 14, From Canada it was
reported that Ontario planned to close down 7 of 19 nuclear power
plants for repairs. Inadequate maintenance practices and management
problems were charged in an internal document and, Allan Kupcis, the
CEO had resigned.
(SFC, 8/14/97, p.C3)
1997 Aug 14, Congo announced
a $2.5 billion project to build roads and that it would seek EU
financing.
(WSJ, 8/14/97, p.A1)
1997 Aug 14, In Kenya 6 officers
and 7 civilians were killed in Mombasa when assailants burned down a
police station.
(SFC, 8/15/97, p.A17)
1997 Aug 14, Russian cosmonauts
Vasily Tsibliyev and Alexander Lazutkin made it safely home to Earth
after a luckless six-month mission aboard the Mir space station.
(AP, 8/14/98)
1997 Aug 14, In Turkey the
parliament approved an amnesty program for some 89 journalists
imprisoned for their news coverage. Pres. Demirel signed the measure.
(SFC, 8/15/97, p.A15)
1997 Aug 14, In Yemen ten Italian
tourists were reported kidnapped in 2 separate incidents.
(SFC, 8/15/97, p.A17)
1998 Aug 14, A federal appeals
court in Richmond, Va., ruled that the Food and Drug Administration had
no authority to regulate tobacco, striking down FDA rules making it
harder for minors to buy cigarettes; the Clinton administration said it
would appeal. In 2000 the US Supreme Court ruled that the government
lacked the authority to regulate tobacco as an addictive drug.
(AP, 8/14/99)
1998 Aug 14, It was reported that
the average compensation for the 100 top Prudential Insurance
executives doubled from 1994 to 1997 to about $820,000.
(WSJ, 8/14/98, p.A1)
1998 Aug 14, In China flooding in
Daqing broke a levee protecting the nation’s largest oil field. 155 0f
20,000 wells were closed as 200,000 people fought the flood.
(SFC, 8/15/98, p.A10)
1998 Aug 14, In Colombia
government soldiers were attacked by some 600 guerrillas near Riosucio
in Choco state. The fighting continued for 2 days and 60 soldiers and
guerrillas were killed.
(SFC, 8/17/98, p.A9)
1998 Aug 14, In Congo Bizima
Karaha, a minister who had defected to the rebels, said that the port
of Matadi was captured. A rebel army was marching toward Kinshasa from
the western coastline.
(SFC, 8/15/98, p.A10)
1998 Aug 14, Indonesia and the UN
signed an agreement to allow human rights observers access to East
Timor.
(SFC, 8/15/98, p.A16)
1998 cAug 14, In Israel the
government approved a plan to erect barriers between Israel and the
West Bank to help prevent car thefts which totaled 46,000 last year.
(SFC, 8/19/98, p.A13)
1998 cAug 14, Israel’s main waste
dump exploded. It was reported that industrial pollution plagued the
country.
(SFC, 8/19/98, p.A12)
1998 Aug 14, Russia announced that
it would proceed with plans to regulate wolves with a planned poisoning
of 15,000.
(SFC, 8/15/98, p.A16)
1998 Aug 14, In Kosovo, Serbia,
Adem Demaci agreed to take the leadership of the political wing of the
KLA.
(SFC, 8/15/98, p.A16)
1999 Aug 14, Gov. George
Bush, Republican presidential candidate, won the Iowa Straw Poll with
Steve Forbes 2nd and Elizabeth Dole 3rd.
(SFEC, 8/15/99, p.A1)(AP, 8/14/00)
1999 Aug 14, Lane Kirkland, former
16-year AFL-CIO president (1979-1995), died at age 77
(SFEC, 8/15/99, p.D8)(AP, 8/14/00)
1999 Aug 14, Pee Wee Reese,
Baseball Hall of Fame shortstop for the Dodgers, died at age 81 in
Kentucky.
(WSJ, 8/16/99, p.A1)(AP, 8/14/00)
1999 Aug 14, In Canada hunters
found the body of an ancient hunter preserved in a glacier in the
Tatshenshini-Alsek Provincial Wilderness, 1000 miles north of Vancouver.
(SFC, 8/25/99, p.A1,9)
1999 Aug 14, Separatist rebels in
India killed at least 7 people in Kashmir and Assam attacks on Pakistan
Independence Day.
(WSJ, 8/16/99, p.A1)
1999 Aug 14, In Northern Ireland
violence broke out in Londonderry and Belfast before and during the
Apprentice Boys of Derry march.
(SFEC, 8/15/99, p.A21)
1999 Aug 14, Russia bombed
guerrilla bases in Dagestan and Chechnya as 4 Russian soldiers were
killed and 13 wounded.
(SFEC, 8/15/99, p.A24)(WSJ, 8/16/99, p.A1)
1999 Aug 14, In Serbia Tomislav
Nikolic, the new vice premier, was quoted in Der Spiegel saying that
Milosevic should resign because he capitulated in Kosovo. Separately
Zoran Zivkovic said demonstrations on Aug 19 in Belgrade would give the
Milosevic regime 10-20 days to resign.
(SFEC, 8/15/99, p.A26)
2000 Aug 14, The Democratic
convention opened in Los Angeles at Staples Auditorium. Demonstrators
fought with police following a concert by the band Rage Against the
Machine. The concert followed a "March of Corporate Shame" through
downtown LA. President Clinton offered a triumphant review of his years
in office, and exhorted delegates to propel Al Gore on the road to
succeed him.
(SFC, 8/15/00, p.A5)(AP, 8/14/01)
2000 cAug 14, In India a train
bombing in Uttar Pradesh killed 7 people and injured dozens. Pakistani
agent were blamed.
(WSJ, 8/15/00, p.A1)
2000 Aug 14, NATO peacekeepers
shut down the Serb-run Trepca smelter at Zvecan, Kosovo, due to
environmental pollution.
(SFC, 8/15/00, p.A12)
2000 Aug 14, In Kyrgyzstan a 4-day
clash between Islamic militants and government troops left as many as
95 people dead. The militants were said to belong to the Islamic
Movement of Uzbekistan, which was trying to carve out an independent
state.
(SFC, 8/15/00, p.A14)
2000 Aug 14, The Russian Orthodox
Church announced the canonization of Nicholas II and his immediate
family, executed in 1918.
(SFC, 8/15/00, p.A12)
2001 Aug 14, US warplanes attacked
an Iraqi air defense system modernized with fiber optics by Chinese
technicians.
(WSJ, 8/15/01, p.A1)
2001 Aug 14, Helios, a
remote-controlled, solar powered NASA plane, reached a record 96,500
feet.
(WSJ, 8/15/01, p.A1)
2001 Aug 14, Some 18,000
firefighters in 8 US Western states battle 315,000 burning acres.
(SFC, 8/15/01, p.A1)
2001 Aug 14, Jeffrey K. Skilling
stepped down as CEO of Enron Corp. after 6 months in the top job.
(SFC, 2/7/02, p.A8)
2001 Aug 14, In Houston 3 people
died from heroin overdoses and joined 15 others who died over the
weekend.
(SFC, 8/15/01, p.A4)
2001 Aug 14, Twenty people
detained in riots at the Group of Eight summit in Italy the previous
month were ordered released by a Genoa court. They included 15
Austrians, three Americans, a Slovak and a Swede.
(AP, 8/14/02)
2001 Aug 14, In India it was
reported that 15 wild elephants had died in Nameri National Park in
Assam state from an unknown disease.
(SFC, 8/15/01, p.A7)
2001 Aug 14, Israeli tanks rolled
into Palestinian-controlled Jenin. Bulldozers destroyed a Palestinian
police station and Israeli forces took back with them some 70
Palestinians, who had been jailed in Jenin for collaboration with
Israel. In Nablus Shadi Affori (19), a Fatah member, was killed in an
explosion at his home.
(SFC, 8/14/01, p.A1)(SFC, 8/15/01, p.A6)
2001 Aug 14, In Macedonia Albanian
guerrillas agreed to disarm under NATO supervision and the government
agreed to extend amnesty for the fighters.
(SFC, 8/15/01, p.A6)
2001 Aug 14, In Northern Ireland
the IRA withdrew a plan to dispose of its weapons.
(SFC, 8/15/01, p.A1)
2001 Aug 14, In Peru Pres. Toledo
dismissed military commanders and put in his own men.
(WSJ, 8/15/01, p.A1)
2002 Aug 14, Aircraft from the
U.S.-British coalition patrolling southern Iraq bombed two Iraqi air
defense sites.
(AP, 8/15/02)
2002 Aug 14, Texas Gov. Rick Perry
denied a reprieve for Javier Suarez Medina and authorities in
Huntsville gave Suarez a lethal injection as he sang the hymn "Amazing
Grace."
(AP, 8/15/02)
2002 Aug 14, Larry Rivers (78),
pop artist pioneer, died in Southampton, N.Y.
(AP, 8/14/03)
2002 Aug 14, Terry Jupp (46) died
during weapons tests on a remote island used as a military facility off
England's eastern coast. Investigations later established that part of
his team's work involved attempts to construct bombs from widely
available ingredients including hydrogen peroxide. Similar bombs were
later used in the 2005 suicide attacks on London mass transit, which
killed 52 commuters.
(AP, 8/3/10)
2002 Aug 14, In southwest China a
massive wall of mud and rock unleashed by heavy rains slammed into
villages, burying 67 people in the second deadly landslide to strike
the area this week.
(Reuters, 8/16/02)
2002 Aug 14, Republic of Congo
President Denis Sassou-Nguesso promised to fight corruption as he was
sworn after winning this central African nation's first elections since
back-to-back civil wars.
(AP, 8/14/02)
2002 Aug 14, An Indonesian court
sentenced a former East Timor governor to three years in jail over
violence linked to the territory's 1999 independence vote.
(Reuters, 8/14/02)
2002 Aug 14, Israel's military
intelligence chief told parliament that Palestinian leader Yasser
Arafat has amassed a personal fortune of about $1.3 billion.
(AP, 8/14/02)
2002 Aug 14, Mexican President
Vicente Fox angrily canceled a scheduled meeting with President Bush
hours after Texas executed a Mexican national for killing a Dallas
police officer despite pleas from the Mexican leadership. Javier Suarez
Medina, a Mexican national, was never told he could contact the Mexican
consulate for help after his 1988 arrest, a violation of the 1963
Vienna Convention of Consular Relations.
(AP, 8/14/03)(AP, 8/15/02)
2002 Aug 14, Black militants armed
with clubs and stones began evicting a white farmer from his land in
northeastern Zimbabwe, the first seizure since a government eviction
order expired last week.
(Reuters, 8/14/02)
2003 Aug 14, A massive power
blackout hit 8 northeastern US states and southern Canada. It shut down
10 major airports and 9 nuclear power stations. The problem began in
the FirstEnergy plant near Cleveland at 2pm. Cleveland lost power at
4:09pm.
(AP, 8/15/03)(SFC, 8/15/03, p.A1)(SFC, 8/16/03,
p.A1)(WSJ, 8/18/03, p.A6)
2003 Aug 14, Roy Moore, Alabama's
chief justice, said that he would refuse to move a Ten Commandments
monument from the state judicial building in Montgomery.
(SFC, 8/15/03, p.A4)
2003 Aug 14, Dozens of American
troops landed at Liberia's main airport, increasing the U.S. presence
to boost West African peacekeepers, as rebels began withdrawing from
Monrovia. A "quick reaction" force of 150 combat troops were sent to
back up Nigerian peacekeepers.
(AP, 8/14/03)
2003 Aug 14, The French health
ministry estimated that about 3,000 people had died in France of
heat-related causes since abnormally high temperatures swept across the
country about two weeks ago.
(AP, 8/14/03)
2003 Aug 14, In northeast India
suspected separatist rebels blew up a bus on the main highway, killing
six passengers.
(AP, 8/14/03)
2003 Aug 14, Israeli troops killed
Mohammed Sidr, a top Islamic Jihad commander, in a gun battle at his
hideout in Hebron.
(AP, 8/14/03)(WSJ, 8/15/03, p.A6)
2003 Aug 14, A Greek oil tanker
that ran aground Jul 27 off the port city of Karachi broke apart, but
officials said the worst was over and rich fishing grounds nearby were
not threatened. The ship carried 378,000 to 450,000 gallons. It leaked
an estimated 12,000 metric tons.
(AP, 8/14/03)(SFC, 8/15/03, p.A3)
2003 Aug 14, The UN Security
Council approved a resolution welcoming the Iraqi Governing Council and
created a mission to oversee UN efforts to help rebuild the country and
establish a democratic government.
(AP, 8/14/03)
2003 Aug 14, Rebels lifted their
siege of Liberia's capital.
(AP, 8/14/04)
2003 Aug 14, The 16-member Pacific
Islands Forum (Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, the Cook Islands, the
Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New
Guinea, the Marshall Islands, Samoa, the Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu
and Vanuatu) planned to create a region-wide aviation market aimed at
encouraging tourism.
(AP, 8/14/03)
2004 Aug 14, William D. Ford (77),
15-term congressman died in Ypsilanti Township, Michigan.
(AP, 8/14/05)
2004 Aug 14, In western
Afghanistan rival militias clashed, reportedly killing 21 people. Eight
militiamen, including two commanders, were killed when fighting erupted
between two rival warlords over control of a western district.
(AP, 8/14/04)
2004 Aug 14, Africa’s worst desert
locust plague in 15 years continued across Chad.
(SFC, 8/14/04, p.C8)
2004 Aug 14, In El Salvador a bus
careened off a mountain highway and toppled into a ravine in eastern El
Salvador, killing 34 people and injuring 24 others.
(AP, 8/14/04)
2004 Aug 14, A visibly weak Pope
John Paul II joined thousands of other ailing pilgrims at a cliffside
shrine in Lourdes, France, telling them he shares in their physical
suffering and assuring them the burden is part of God's "wondrous plan."
(AP, 8/14/05)
2004 Aug 14, Truce talks between
Shiite militants and Iraqi officials broke down, raising the prospect
of a return to the fierce fighting between militiamen and U.S-Iraqi
forces.
(AP, 8/14/04)
2004 Aug 14, U.S. warplanes bombed
the Sunni city of Samarrah. Iraqi hospital officials said several
people died, while the U.S. military said 50 militants were killed.
(AP, 8/14/04)
2004 Aug 14, More than 100
unemployed university graduates stormed a Palestinian Authority
building in a Gaza Strip refugee camp, calling on the Palestinian
leadership to provide them with jobs.
(AP, 8/15/04)
2004 Aug 14, Czeslaw Milosz (93),
Polish poet and Nobel laureate (1980), died in Krakow. He was known for
his intellectual and emotional works about some of the worst cruelties
of the 20th century. Milosz was born on June 30, 1911, in Szetejnie,
now Lithuania, and studied law at the University in Vilnius. There, he
published his first book of poems, "Three Winters," in 1936. In 2006
Cynthia L. Haven edited the book “Czeslaw Milosz: Conversations.”
(AP, 8/14/04)(Econ, 8/21/04, p.72)(SSFC, 9/24/06,
p.M5)
2004 Aug 14, In central Russia a
crowded minibus crashed into a car on a highway linking the Volga River
cities of Ulyanovsk and Kazan, touching off a fire and killing all 15
people.
(AP, 8/14/04)
2005 Aug 14, Cristeta Comerford
was named the new White House chef, the first woman to hold the post.
(AP, 8/14/06)
2005 Aug 14, It was reported that
the Detroit area had more than 12,000 abandoned homes, a byproduct of
decades of layoffs at the city's auto plants and white flight to the
suburbs.
(AFP, 8/14/05)
2005 Aug 14, Fighting across
southern Afghanistan left 28 suspected Taliban rebels dead. In Zabul
province Afghan forces attacked a group of suspected militants, killing
16 of them and arresting one. In neighboring Uruzgan province's
Dehrawud district, a gunbattle between Afghan soldiers and insurgents
left five militants dead.
(AP, 8/15/05)
2005 Aug 14, Algerian President
Abdelaziz Bouteflika unveiled a draft charter for peace and national
reconciliation that will be put to a referendum on September 29.
(AFP, 8/14/05)
2005 Aug 14, A land mine exploded
in Chechnya when Russia troops came to the aid of a local official
whose home was under attack by rebels, killing a senior Russian
military officer and four other soldiers.
(AP, 8/14/05)
2005 Aug 14, A Cypriot airliner,
Helios Air 737, crashed into a hill north of Athens, killing all 121
people on board. An inquiry in 2006 ruled pilots erred in setting
pressurization controls.
(AP, 8/14/05)(WSJ, 10/11/06, p.A1)
2005 Aug 14, Egypt’s Interior
Ministry announced that it had identified those responsible for the
July 23 terrorist attack at Sharm el-Sheik.
(SFC, 8/15/05, p.A3)
2005 Aug 14, In Iraq a US soldier
on a patrol was killed and 3 others wounded in a blast east of Rutbah,
250 miles west of Baghdad. 30 bodies were found in a grave south of
Baghdad that was 10-14 days old. One insurgent was killed in the raid
that led to the grave and 13 others were detained.
(AP, 8/14/05)
2005 Aug 14, Israel sealed the
Gaza Strip to Israeli civilians, signaling the start of the historic
withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 8/14/06)
2005 Aug 14, A legal source said
Jordan will charge London-based radical Muslim cleric Abu Qatada (44)
with plotting to stage terrorist attacks when he is extradited from
Britain.
(AFP, 8/14/05)
2005 Aug 14, Kurmanbek Bakiyev,
Kyrgyzstan’s new president, pledged in his inaugural speech that the
former Soviet Central Asian nation, which hosts both US and Russian
military bases, will pursue an independent foreign policy under his
leadership.
(AP, 8/14/05)
2005 Aug 14, Pakistani President
Pervez Musharraf urged the country to reject conservative religious
forces saying they were a hurdle to progress and wanted to push the
country into backwardness.
(AP, 8/14/05)
2005 Aug 14, Security forces
arrested 12 minority Tamils before dawn in connection with the
assassination of Sri Lanka's foreign minister, and a Tamil lawmaker
said only a peace deal could stop such killings in a country many fear
is sliding back to war.
(AP, 8/14/05)
2006 Aug 14, The US State
Department began issuing smart chip-embedded passports to Americans as
planned, despite ongoing privacy concerns and legal disputes involving
companies bidding on the project. New ones issued under this program
will cost $97, which includes a $12 security surcharge added last year.
(AP, 8/14/06)
2006 Aug 15, NYC’s Mayor Bloomberg
said he is putting $125 million of his own money into a new worldwide
anti-smoking campaign.
(SFC, 8/16/06, p.A2)
2006 Aug 14, In the largest
electronics-related recall involving the Consumer Products Safety
Commission, Dell Inc. agreed to replace 4.1 million notebook computer
batteries made by Sony Corp. because they can burst into flames.
(AP, 8/15/06)
2006 Aug 14, PepsiCo Inc.
announced that CFO Indra Nooyi will replace Steven Reinemundi as CEO,
making her the No. 2 female CEO in the Fortune 500 behind Patricia
Woertz of Archer Daniels Midland. ADM was ranked 56th in the Fortune
500 and PepsiCo was 61st.
(SFC, 8/15/06, p.D5)
2006 Aug 14, Bruno Kirby (57), a
veteran character actor known for playing the best friend in two of
Billy Crystal's biggest comedies, "When Harry Met Sally" and "City
Slickers," died in LA.
(AP, 8/16/06)
2006 Aug 14, In southern
Afghanistan clashes between police and militants killed 11 suspected
Taliban and six policemen. 4 NATO troops were wounded in one of two
bombings in Kabul.
(AP, 8/14/06)
2006 Aug 14, Australian PM John
Howard ditched plans for a tough new immigration law, conceding he did
not have sufficient support in parliament.
(AFP, 8/14/06)
2006 Aug 14, In Brazil Guilherme
Portanova (30), a kidnapped television reporter, was freed after Globo
met the gang's demand to broadcast a video calling for improvements in
Brazil's troubled prison system. In Rio de Janeiro Andres Costa Ramos
Bordalo was stabbed to death by an assailant who stole his knapsack on
Copacabana beach. Police stepped up patrols but at least 22 tourists
were robbed during the week.
(AP, 8/14/06)(AP, 8/19/06)
2006 Aug 14, The British
government downgraded its terror threat level from critical to severe,
saying intelligence suggested an attack was no longer imminent.
(AP, 8/14/06)
2006 Aug 14, In Chile a tough
nationwide anti-smoking law that took effect.
(AP, 8/14/06)
2006 Aug 14, In China the death
toll from Typhoon Saomai rose to 255 after scores more bodies were
pulled from the sea.
(AP, 8/14/06)
2006 Aug 14, Cuban state
television aired the first video of Fidel Castro since he stepped down
as president to recover from surgery, showing the bedridden Cuban
leader talking with his brother Raul as well as Venezuelan President
Hugo Chavez.
(AP, 8/14/07)
2006 Aug 14, In southern Ethiopia
torrential rains spilled a river from its banks. At least 900 people
died as continuing rains submerged five villages, knocked down grain
silos and swept away cattle. Tens of thousands were marooned by the
waters.
(AFP, 8/15/06)(Reuters, 8/17/06)
2006 Aug 14, At least 10 people
were killed in shootings and bombings across Iraq, including three
blacksmiths shot by gunmen in the northern city of Mosul.
(AP, 8/14/06)
2006 Aug 14, Israeli soldiers
killed six Hezbollah fighters in three skirmishes in Lebanon after the
UN-imposed cease-fire took effect. The clashes came as Lebanese
civilians defied an Israeli travel ban and streamed back to their homes
in war-ravaged areas. Lebanese, Israeli and UN officers met on the
border to discuss the withdrawal of Israeli forces from southern
Lebanon and the deployment of the Lebanese army in the region. Lebanon
said nearly 791 people were killed since the fighting began. Israel
said 116 soldiers and 39 civilians were killed in fighting or from
Hezbollah rockets in the 34-day war.
(AP, 8/14/06)
2006 Aug 14, A Japanese tanker
spilled about 1.4 million gallons of crude oil in the eastern Indian
Ocean following a collision with a cargo ship. The spill, which would
be about 4,500 tons, may be the largest ever involving a Japanese
tanker. The tanker was carrying about 77.6 million gallons, or 250,000
tons, of crude. It had left port in Oman bound for Japan.
(AP, 8/15/06)
2006 Aug 14, Malaysia said it
would issue a "big fat no" to any nation or group that asked it to
dismantle a system of positive discrimination for its majority ethnic
Malays as part of trade talks.
(AFP, 8/14/06)
2006 Aug 14, US authorities
arrested Tijuana drug lord Francisco Javier Arellano Felix (38) aboard
a boat off Mexico's Pacific coast. Mexican analysts doubted the
significance of Arellano Felix's arrest as the gang has effectively
lost much of its influence over the years. In 2007 Felix pleaded guilty
to federal crimes that carried a mandatory life sentence. He agreed to
forfeit $50 million and the yacht on which he was captured.
(AP, 8/17/06)(SFC, 9/18/07, p.A3)
2006 Aug 14, Nigeria formally
handed sovereignty over the potentially oil-rich Bakassi peninsula to
Cameroon after withdrawing its 3,000 troops in compliance with a
UN-brokered deadline. This ended a 13-year feud between Abuja and
Yaounde. Nigeria will maintain administrative control of southern
Bakassi for the next two years, after which the area will be in a state
of flux for another five years before it will be finally handed over to
Cameroon.
(AP, 8/13/06)(AFP, 8/14/06)
2006 Aug 14, In Nigeria Ayo
Daramola, a member of the country's ruling party and a potential
candidate in Ekiti state, was found stabbed to death in his home, the
third killing of a potential gubernatorial candidate in recent weeks.
Armed men kidnapped four more foreign oil workers in the southern oil
city of Port Harcourt, but released 3 Filipinos abducted more than 10
days ago.
(AFP, 8/14/06)(AP, 8/15/06)
2006 Aug 14, In Gaza American
reporter Steve Centanni (60) and New Zealand cameraman Olaf Wiig (36)
were seized by masked gunmen near the headquarters of the Palestinian
security services. An Israeli airstrike destroyed a house in the Gaza
Strip, injuring at least eight people. The military said an Islamic
Jihad command center was targeted but Palestinians said the building
was empty.
(AP, 8/14/06)(AP, 8/15/06)
2006 Aug 14, Fighting in Sri
Lanka's north and east, and a bombing in the capital, left at least 50
people dead, including 43 schoolgirls killed in what the Tamil Tigers
charged was a government air raid on a children's home in rebel
territory. Hours later in Colombo, an auto rickshaw packed with
explosives blew up as a car carrying Pakistan's high commissioner,
Basir Ali Mohmand, passed along a crowded road. At least seven people
were killed, including four army commandos guarding the envoy.
(AP, 8/14/06)
2007 Aug 14, Teacher-astronaut
Barbara Morgan transformed the space shuttle Endeavour and space
station into a classroom for her first educational session from orbit,
fulfilling the legacy of Christa McAuliffe, who died in the 1986
Challenger disaster.
(AP, 8/14/08)
2007 Aug 14, In New Jersey the
Newark Community Foundation, launched last month, said it will help pay
for Community Eye, a surveillance system tailored towards gun crime.
(Econ, 8/18/07, p.27)
2007 Aug 14, Toy-making giant
Mattel Inc. issued recalls for some 18 million Chinese-made toys that
contained magnets which children could swallow. Mattel also recalled
436,000 toy cars daubed with lead-based paint.
(AP, 8/14/07)(Econ, 8/18/07, p.58)
2007 Aug 14, It was reported that
Pulickel Ajayan and colleagues at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute had
developed a flexible battery using carbon nanotubes and cellulose.
(www.usatoday.com/tech/science/2007-08-14-2925644111_x.htm)
2007 Aug 14, Phil Rizzuto (89),
the Hall of Fame shortstop during the Yankees' dynasty years and
beloved by a generation of fans for exclaiming "Holy cow!" as a
broadcaster, died.
(AP, 8/14/07)
2007 Aug 14, A NATO soldier was
killed when a joint ISAF-NATO patrol was ambushed by Taliban insurgents
in eastern Paktia province.
(AP, 8/14/07)
2007 Aug 14, A new study said
nearly every Australian city will have to find new water supplies over
the next decade as climate change and population growth stretch the
nation's already limited water resources.
(AP, 8/14/07)
2007 Aug 14, In Brazil police
arrested Oscar Maroni Jr., for racketeering and trafficking in women.
Maroni, known as the Larry Flynt of Brazil, was also under pressure to
stop construction of his 11-story Oscar’s Hotel at the edge of the
Congonhas Airport in Sao Paulo, which was cited for impacting air
safety.
(WSJ, 9/5/07, p.A1)
2007 Aug 14, Four suicide truck
bombers struck nearly simultaneously in Qahataniya killing at least 400
victims. The victims were members of a small Kurdish sect, the Yazidis,
who have been the target of Muslim extremists who consider them
infidels. The US military blamed al-Qaida. A suicide truck bomber
struck the Thiraa Dijla bridge in Taji, sending cars plunging into the
river and killing at least 10 people in the 2nd attack on the span in 3
months. Local officials said four civilians, including a 3-year-old
girl, were killed and five wounded during a raid by joint US-Iraqi
forces in Sadr City. The US military said 4 gunmen were killed and 8
detained after a fierce gunfight, but it had no reports of civilian
deaths. Extremists abducted five officials from an Oil Ministry
compound in the capital in a raid using gunmen dressed as security
officers. Nine US soldiers were reported killed, including five in a
helicopter crash.
(AP, 8/14/07)(AP, 8/15/07)(AP, 8/16/07)
2007 Aug 14, Benjamin Netanyahu
won elections as leader of Israel's hardline Likud Party. Israeli
troops and aircraft attacked Islamic militants in the southern Gaza
Strip. Four fighters and two civilians died in the clashes and 26
people were wounded. Separately, two security officers for Gaza's Hamas
rulers were reported killed in fierce fighting with the powerful
Palestinian Doghmush clan.
(AP, 8/14/07)(AP, 8/15/07)
2007 Aug 14, Gunmen in southern
Nigeria abducted the mother of a state lawmaker, the latest in a spate
of kidnappings targeting the children and elderly parents of local
politicians.
(AP, 8/14/07)
2007 Aug 14, North Korean
officials said that 200 people were dead or missing across the country
due to floods caused by days of heavy rains. On Aug 17 an international
aid group said over 300 were dead or missing from the floods. The toll
was later raised to 600.
(AP, 8/14/07)(AP, 8/17/07)(AP, 8/25/07)
2007 Aug 14, Tikhon Khrennikov
(94), Stalin’s music master, died. His 1939 opera “Into the Storm,”
based on a novel by Nikolai Virta, was the first in which Lenin
appeared as a character on the stage.
(Econ, 9/1/07, p.77)
2007 Aug 14, In Somalia a local
human rights group said fighting in Mogadishu has killed 31 civilians
and wounded 60 in the past 24 hours.
(AP, 8/14/07)
2007 Aug 14, A Taiwanese court
acquitted opposition presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou of corruption
charges, giving a big boost to the campaign of a politician who backs
better relations with rival China.
(AP, 8/14/07)
2007 Aug 14, A Thailand judge
issued arrest warrants for ousted PM Thaksin Shinawatra and his wife
for failing to appear at their trial on corruption-related charges.
(AP, 8/14/07)
2007 Aug 14, Turkish Foreign
Minister Abdullah Gul, a former Islamist, filed his candidacy for
president, risking a fresh government showdown with army-backed
secularist forces.
(AP, 8/14/07)
2008 Aug 14, The US and Poland
struck a deal to install a missile defense facility in the ex-communist
state.
(AP, 8/15/08)
2008 Aug 14, In the Virgin Islands
2 former government officials faced prison after being found guilty of
running a million-dollar bribery and kickback scheme. Dean Plaskett,
former commissioner of the islands' planning and natural resources
department, was sentenced to nine years in prison. Marc Biggs, former
commissioner of the property and procurement office, will serve seven
years.
(AP, 8/15/08)
2008 Aug 14, The US Mint planned
to issue the Jackson dollar coin, the 7th of its presidential dollar
series.
(www.wsmv.com/money/17190311/detail.html?rss=nash&psp=news#-)
2008 Aug 14, American Airlines,
British Airways and Iberia of Spain said they had signed an agreement
to cooperate over flights between North America and Europe to help them
overcome soaring fuel costs.
(AP, 8/14/08)
2008 Aug 14, Scientists reported
that the number of oxygen-starved "dead zones" in coastal waters around
the world has roughly doubled every decade since the 1960s, killing
fish, crabs and massive amounts of marine life at the base of the food
chain.
(SFC, 8/15/08, p.A1)
2008 Aug 14, Afghan police pulled
back from posts in the Nad Ali district of Helmand province after two
weeks of clashes with militants. The Taliban claimed to have taken over
that district. An explosion targeting a foot patrol in southern
Afghanistan killed 3 members of the US-led coalition. Afghan and
foreign troops clashed with insurgents in the Shwak district of eastern
Paktika province.
(AP, 8/15/08)(SFC, 8/15/08, p.A11)(AP, 8/17/08)
2008 Aug 14, A colonel in the
Algerian army and another soldier were killed in a bomb attack in the
Jijel region.
(AFP, 8/16/08)
2008 Aug 14, Australian police
arrested a Catholic priest (65) and charged him with 30 counts of
sexual assault related to abuse allegations dating back three decades.
(AP, 8/14/08)
2008 Aug 14, Chile’s central bank
said it is boosting its lending rate to 7.75%, warning that additional
adjustments will likely be necessary to ensure inflation meets its 3
percent target in the next two years. Annual inflation reached 9.5% in
July, Chile's highest rate since 1994.
(AP, 8/15/08)
2008 Aug 14, A bomb exploded
during a crowded street fair in northwestern Colombia, killing seven
people and wounding 17.
(AP, 8/15/08)
2008 Aug 14, Georgian and Russian
troops faced off at a checkpoint outside the key city of Gori, calling
an already shaky cease-fire into question. An American official said
Russia appears to be sabotaging airfields and other military
infrastructure as its forces pull back. The Russian General
Prosecutor's office said it has formally opened a genocide probe into
Georgian treatment of South Ossetians. For its part, Georgia this week
filed a suit against Russia in the International Court of Justice,
alleging murder, rape and mass expulsions in both
provinces.
(AP, 8/14/08)
2008 Aug 14, India’s cabinet
approved a 21% average wage increase for federal-government employees
to be backdated to January 2006. In southern India at least nine
schoolchildren and two adults were killed after a speeding school bus
plunged into a river outside Mangalore.
(WSJ, 8/14/08, p.A8)(AP, 8/15/08)
2008 Aug 14, In Iraq 2 roadside
bombs went off in separate Baghdad locations, killing one policeman and
wounding 17 people, including 14 Shiite pilgrims headed on foot to the
holy city of Karbala for a major religious festival. Gunmen shot dead
an off-duty policeman and army soldier in separate incidents in the
northern city of Mosul. A female suicide bomber blew herself up in
Iskandariyah. The US military said 18 people were killed in the attack,
but Iraqi police in the area gave a higher death toll of 26. An
American Marine was killed during a small-arms fire attack west of
Baghdad.
(AP, 8/14/08)(AP, 8/15/08)
2008 Aug 14, A senior US military
intelligence officer said Iraqi Shiite assassination teams are being
trained in at least four locations in Iran by Tehran's elite Quds force
and Lebanese Hezbollah and are planning to return to Iraq in the next
few months to kill specific Iraqi officials as well as US and Iraqi
troops.
(AP, 8/15/08)
2008 Aug 14, Thousands of Muslims
poured into the streets of Kashmir, demanding independence from India
hours after archival Pakistan called on the United Nations to stop what
it characterized as gross human rights violations in the divided
Himalayan region. Police shot dead another protester, bringing the
death toll from days of rioting to 22 as security was boosted on the
eve of India's Independence Day celebrations.
(AP, 8/14/08)(AFP, 8/14/08)
2008 Aug 14, Libya and the United
States settled all outstanding lawsuits by American victims of
terrorism, clearing the way for the full restoration of diplomatic
relations.
(AP, 8/14/08)
2008 Aug 14, Military leaders in
Mauritania named former EU ambassador Moulaye Ould Mohamed Laghdaf as
prime minister.
(WSJ, 8/15/08, p.A8)
2008 Aug 14, Nigeria relinquished
control of the oil-rich Bakassi peninsula to Cameroon despite fears the
handover will provoke attacks from local armed groups who oppose it.
(Reuters, 8/14/08)
2008 Aug 14, Pakistan's PM Yousuf
Raza Gilani said in an Independence Day speech that the country must
defeat extremism to survive. Officials said some 135,000 residents have
fled a Pakistani tribal area bordering Afghanistan to escape clashes
between troops and Taliban militants that have left scores dead.
(AP, 8/14/08)(AFP, 8/14/08)
2008 Aug 14, In Sri Lanka
government jets hit a series of Tamil Tiger targets in the Mullaittivu
region in support of troops fighting on the ground. Fighting between
the two sides killed 27 rebels and two government soldiers.
(AP, 8/14/08)(AP, 8/15/08)
2008 Aug 14, Syria agreed to a
longtime Lebanese demand to negotiate the demarcation of their border a
day after the countries said they would establish full diplomatic
relations for the first time.
(AP, 8/14/08)
2008 Aug 14, Taiwan's former
president Chen Shui-bian's admitted that he broke the law by not
truthfully declaring campaign donations he received, and said that his
wife sent an unspecified amount of money abroad.
(AP, 8/14/08)
2009 Aug 14, Real estate lender
Colonial BancGroup Inc. was shut down by federal officials in the
biggest US bank failure this year. The FDIC, which was appointed
receiver of the Montgomery, Ala.-based Colonial and its about $25
billion in assets, said the failed bank's 346 branches in Alabama,
Florida, Georgia, Nevada and Texas will reopen at the normal times
starting on Aug 15 as offices of Winston-Salem, N.C.-based BB&T.
Regulators also closed four other banks: Community Bank of Arizona,
based in Phoenix; Union Bank, based in Gilbert, Ariz.; Community Bank
of Nevada, based in Las Vegas; and Dwelling House Savings and Loan
Association, located in Pittsburgh. The closures boosted to 77 the
number of federally insured banks that have failed in 2009.
(AP, 8/15/09)
2009 Aug 14, Lynette “Squeaky”
Fromme (60), the Charles Manson follower convicted of trying to
assassinate President Gerald Ford in 1975, was released from a Texas
prison hospital after more than three decades behind bars.
(AP, 8/14/09)
2009 Aug 14, It was reported that
in North Carolina nine women, who lived at the edges of the poor
community in Rocky Mount, have disappeared since 2005. Six bodies have
been found along rural roads just a few miles outside town, most so
decomposed that investigators could not tell how they died. At least
one of the women was strangled. All the deaths have been classified as
homicides. Three women were still missing.
(AP, 8/14/09)
2009 Aug 14, In California the
Lockheed fire in Santa Cruz County, which began on Aug 12, covered over
5,00 acres and was only 15% contained. 9 big wildfires across the state
covered over 100,000 acres.
(SFC, 8/15/09, p.A8)
2009 Aug 14, Hillary Clinton ended
her whirlwind seven-nation African trip at Cape Verde, with a tough
love message that Africans must tackle their own problems.
(AFP, 8/14/09)
2009 Aug 14, An Australian judge
ruled that Christian Rossiter (49), a quadriplegic man who says he
cannot "undertake any basic human functions," has the right to direct a
nursing home to stop feeding him and allow him to die.
(AP, 8/14/09)(SFC, 8/15/09, p.A2)
2009 Aug 14, In Dagestan gunmen
killed 2 traffic police officers in Makhachkala. 3 suspected militants
were killed in a separate episode.
(SFC, 8/15/09, p.A3)
2009 Aug 14, In Germany shares in
Volkswagen, Europe's biggest carmaker, plunged after it approved a
takeover of luxury auto manufacturer Porsche to create a sector giant.
(AFP, 8/14/09)
2009 Aug 14, In Honduras 2 dozen
supporters of ousted Pres. Zelaya were charged with sedition in an
intensifying crackdown on protests against the coup-installed
government.
(AP, 8/15/09)
2009 Aug 14, In Iraq journalists
took to the streets in Baghdad to protest what they say is political
pressure to silence the media. The rally came as journalist Ahmed
Abdul-Hussein was threatened with a lawsuit over editorials related to
the July 28 Baghdad bank robbery that left eight security guards dead.
(AP, 8/14/09)
2009 Aug 14, In Libya a delegation
of US senators led by John McCain met with Libya's leader to discuss
the possible delivery of non-lethal defense equipment.
(AP, 8/15/09)
2009 Aug 14, In northern Mexico a
fight among prisoners killed 19 inmates and left more than 20 injured
at the prison in the city of Gomez Palacio, Durango state. The battle
apparently involved inmates jailed on drug or organized crime charges.
Assailants in pickup trucks opened fire on Monclova police chief Juan
Carlos Pacheco as he headed home. Pacheco was not hurt but three of the
police officers guarding him died. Federal police announced the capture
of Hector Oyarzabal, an alleged La Familia leader, who was described as
director of the gang's drug operations in several towns of the state of
Mexico, which surrounds most of Mexico City. In Ciudad Juarez two women
and a man were found shot to death in their car.
(AP, 8/15/09)
2009 Aug 14, Nigeria’s banking
chief said the government will inject US$2.55 billion into five
troubled banks, in Africa's first major bank rescue program since the
global credit crunch began. Central Bank Chief Sanusi Lamido Sanusi
also announced the sacking of the heads of five major banks for piling
up debts worth billions of dollars and poor management. The heads of
Afribank plc, Intercontinental Bank plc, Union Bank plc, Oceanic Bank
plc and Finbank plc were removed by Sanusi. The Nigerian anti-graft
agency soon froze the accounts of the sacked directors for running the
institutions into insolvency.
(AP, 8/14/09)(AFP, 8/22/09)
2009 Aug 14, In Nigeria the number
of polio cases caused by the vaccine was reported to have doubled so
far this year with 124 children paralyzed, compared to 62 in 2008, out
of about 42 million children vaccinated. For every case of paralysis,
hundreds of other children don't develop symptoms, but pass on the
disease.
(AP, 8/14/09)
2009 Aug 14, Pakistan lifted a ban
on political activities in its tribal regions, granting the areas close
to Afghan border parliamentary representation for the first time in the
hopes it would reduce the grip of the Taliban there. 3 bomb explosions
killed a man and wounded 18 other people in Baluchistan, an
impoverished but oil-rich province where Baluch nationalist groups have
been fighting for more autonomy for decades.
(AP, 8/14/09)
2009 Aug 14, In the southern Gaza
town of Rafah on the Egyptian border fighting broke out when Hamas
security men surrounded a mosque where about 100 members of Jund Ansar
Allah, or the Soldiers of the Companions of God, were holed up.
Abdel-Latif Moussa, the leader of the group, defied Gaza's Hamas rulers
by declaring in a prayer sermon that the territory was an Islamic
emirate. 11 homemade rockets were launched from Gaza into Egypt. Only
five of the rockets detonated, injuring a young girl.
(AP, 8/15/09)
2009 Aug 14, A Swiss court backed
the government's plan to give aid agencies 7 million Swiss francs ($6
million) seized from bank accounts linked to Haiti's former dictator
Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier. The Duvalier family, which wants to
reclaim the money, can now appeal the case to Switzerland's highest
court. The accounts have been blocked since 2002.
(AP, 8/14/09)
2009 Aug 14, Taiwan's president
said floods and mudslides unleashed by Typhoon Morakot last weekend
have killed about 500 people on the island, as he called on rescue
crews to step up their efforts. Ma said the death toll includes 120
confirmed deaths, and about 380 people believed to be buried in the
debris of a landslide in Shiao Lin, the hardest-hit village. Taiwan
asked major world donors for heavy equipment to alleviate damages from
Typhoon Morakot. Aid offers were initially refused on Aug 11. On Aug 23
the death toll from Typhoon Morakot was raised to at least 650.
(AP, 8/14/09)(Reuters, 8/15/09)(AP, 8/23/09)
2009 Aug 14, A Taiwanese telephone
company said Seabed movements believed caused by Typhoon Morakat
damaged seven undersea cables linking Asian nations, disrupting
Internet and telephone services.
(AP, 8/14/09)
2009 Aug 14, In Venezuela
lawmakers loyal to President Hugo Chavez gave final approval on to
legislation that has raised fears among government opponents of
impending socialist indoctrination in schools. The National Assembly
also approved a law that paves the way for the government to take over
private buildings and land in urban areas.
(AP, 8/14/09)
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