Today in History - August 16
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1290 Aug 16,
Charles of Valois married Margaret of Anjou.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1397 Aug 16, Albrecht II von
Habsburg, king of Bohemia, Hungary and Germany, was born.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1419 Aug 16, Wenceslas (b.1361),
son of Charles IV and King of Germany, died. He served as King
Wenceslas IV of Bohemia (1363) and King of the Romans (1378-1400).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wenceslaus%2C_Holy_Roman_Emperor)
1419 Aug 16, Sigismund, Holy Roman
Emperor, became king of Bohemia following the death of Wenceslaus IV,
but was ejected by the Hussites due to the execution of Jan Huss.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigismund%2C_Holy_Roman_Emperor)
1498 Aug 16, Christopher Columbus
reached the island of Margarita (Venezuela).
(http://www1.minn.net/~keithp/v3.htm)
1513 Aug 16, Henry VIII of England
and Emperor Maximilian defeated the French at Guinegatte, France, in
the Battle of the Spurs.
(HN, 8/16/98)
1645 Aug 16, Jean de la Bruyere,
French writer and moralist famous for his work "Characters of
Theophratus," was born.
(HN, 8/16/98)
1678 Aug 16, Andrew Marvell
(b.1621), English poet (Definition of Love), died.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1691 Aug 16, Yorktown, Va., was
founded.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1745 Aug 16, Skirmish at Laggan:
Glengarry beat the Royal Scots.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1777 Aug 16, American forces won
the Revolutionary War Battle of Bennington, Vt.
(AP, 8/16/97)
1777 Aug 16, France declared a
state of bankruptcy.
(HN, 8/16/98)
1799 Aug 16, Vincenzo Manfredini
(b.1737), Italian composer, died.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1780 Aug 16, American troops under
Gen. Horatio Gates were badly defeated by the British at the Battle of
Camden, South Carolina.
(HFA, '96, p.36)(HN, 8/16/98)(ON, 12/01, p.9)
1812 Aug 16, American General
William Hull surrendered Detroit without resistance to a smaller
British and Indian forces under General Isaac Brock.
(AP, 8/16/97)(HN, 8/16/98)
1819 Aug 16, English police
charged unemployed demonstrators at St. Peter's Field in the Manchester
Massacre. 11 people were killed in the Peterloo massacre. The press
responded with a volley of attacks that included “The Political House
that Jack Built” by William Hone and illustrator George Cruikshank.
(www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1819peterloo.html)(Econ, 12/23/06, p.104)
1829 Aug 16, The original Siamese
twins, Chang and Eng Bunker, arrived in Boston aboard the ship Sachem
to be exhibited to the Western world.
(AP, 8/16/97)
1846 Aug 16, Gioacchino Rossini
married Olympe Pelissier in Paris and stopped composing operas.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1854 Aug 16, Duncan Phyfe (86),
NYC furniture maker, died.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1858 Aug 16, A telegraphed message
from Britain’s Queen Victoria to President Buchanan was transmitted
over the recently laid trans-Atlantic cable. The cable linked Ireland
and Canada and failed after a few weeks.
(AP,
8/16/97)(www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/cable/peopleevents/e_inquiry.html)
1861 Aug 16, President Lincoln
prohibited the states of the Union from trading with the seceding
states of the Confederacy.
(AP, 8/16/97)
1861 Aug 16, Union and Confederate
forces clashed near Fredericktown and Kirkville, Missouri.
(HN, 8/16/98)
1862 Aug 16, Amos Alonzo Stagg,
football pioneer, inventor of the tackling dummy, was born in West
Orange, New Jersey.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1863 Aug 16, Chickamauga campaign
took place in GA. Union General William S. Rosecrans moved his army
south from Tullahoma, Tennessee to attack Confederate forces in
Chattanooga.
(HN, 8/16/99)(MC, 8/16/02)
1864 Aug 16, Battle of Front
Royal, VA. (Guard Hill).
(MC, 8/16/02)
1868 Aug 16, Bernard McFadden,
publisher responsible for the magazine True Story, was born.
(HN, 8/16/98)
1868 Aug 16, Charles Sanford
Skilton (d.1941), composer, was born.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1875 Aug 16, Charles Grandison
Finney (b.1792), American revivalist preacher, died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Grandison_Finney)
1876 Aug 16, Opera "Siegfried"
premiered at Bayreuth. [See Aug 13]
(MC, 8/16/02)
1884 Aug 16, Hugo Gernsback
(d.1967), sci-fi writer, publisher (1960 Hugo), was born in Luxembourg.
(www.nndb.com/people/381/000045246/)
1894 Aug 16, George Meany, the
first president of the AFL-CIO, was born in New York City.
(AP, 8/16/97)
1894 Aug 16, Indian chiefs from
the Sioux & Onondaga tribes met to urge their people to renounce
Christianity and return to their old Indian faith.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1896 Aug, 16, A white man from
California named George Carmack, a fellow not employed at anything in
particular, was hiking around northwest Canada’s Yukon River area with
his two Indian brothers-in-law "Skookum Jim" Mason and "Tagish
Charley." The three found gold on Rabbit Creek, a stream that feeds the
Yukon River near Dawson, Alaska.
(CFA, '96, p.88)(HN,
8/19/01)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klondike_Gold_Rush)
1897 Aug 16, Robert Ringling,
circus master, was born.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1898 Aug 16, Edwin Prescott
patented a roller coaster.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1904 Aug 16, NYC began building
the Grand Central Station.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1906 Aug 16, An magnitude 8.6
earthquake in Valparaiso, Chile, left an estimated 20,000 people dead.
(SFEC, 6/13/99, Z1 p.5)(AP, 6/22/02)
1913 Aug 16, Menachem Begin,
Israeli statesman (1977-83) and Nobel Peace Prize (1978) recipient, was
born.
(HN, 8/16/98)(MC, 8/16/02)
1914 Aug 16, Liege, Belgium, fell
to the German army.
(HN, 8/16/98)
1914 Aug 16, Zapata and Pancho
Villa over ran Mexico.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1915 Aug 16, A hurricane hit
Galveston, Texas. It caused 12 deaths and an estimated $5-8 million in
property damage in the city.
(http://www.gthcenter.org/exhibits/storms/1915/)
1918 Aug 16, US troops overthrew
Archangel (Russia).
(MC, 8/16/02)
1920 Aug 16, Charles Bukowski,
poet and novelist, was born.
(HN, 8/16/00)
1924 Aug 16, Conference about
German recovery payments opened in London.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1929 Aug 16, Bill Evans, jazz
pianist, was born. [see Aug 28]
(HN, 8/16/00)
1930 Aug 16, Ted Hughes, English
poet laureate, was born.
(HN, 8/16/00)
1934 Aug 16, US ended its
occupation of Haiti (begun in 1915).
(MC, 8/16/02)
1934 Aug 16, US explorer William
Beebe descended 3,028' (923 m) in Bathysphere.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1936 Aug 16, The 11th Olympic
games closed in Berlin.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1936 Aug 16, Spanish poet Garcia
Lorca was arrested in Granada. He disappeared shortly thereafter. The
1997 film "The Disappearance of Garcia Lorca" was an attempt to depict
the circumstances of his disappearance. Lorca was the author of "Gypsy
Ballads," "Blood Wedding" and "The Poet." Spanish poet Fredico Garcia
Lorca was shot by Franco's troops after being forced to dig his own
grave.
(LVRJ, 11/1/97, p.12B)(HN, 8/19/98)(MT, Spg. ‘99,
p.2)
1940 Aug 16, Bruce Beresford,
Australian film director, was born. His films include "Breaker Morant"
and "Driving Miss Daisy."
(HN, 8/16/00)
1940 Aug 16, 45 German aircrafts
were shot down over England.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1942 Aug 16, The US Navy L-8
patrol blimp crash-landed at 419 Bellevue St., Daly City, Ca., after
drifting in from the ocean. The ship’s crew, Lt. Ernest Dewitt Cody
(27) and Ensign Charles E. Adams (38), were missing and no trace of
them was ever found.
(GDCH, 1986, p.17)(Ind, 5/3/03, p.5A)
1943 Aug 16, Bulgarian czar Boris
III visited Adolf Hitler.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1944 Aug 16, Chartres, France, was
freed.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1945 Aug 16, Suzanne Farrel,
ballerina, was born.
(HN, 8/16/00)
1945 Aug 16, Lieutenant General
Jonathan Wainwright, who was taken prisoner by the Japanese on
Corregidor on May 6, 1942, was released from a POW camp in Manchuria by
U.S. troops.
(HN, 8/16/98)
1945 Aug 16, Takijiro Ohnishi,
leader of Japanese kamikaze pilots, died.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1945 Aug 16, The communist
dominated Polish government signed a treaty with the USSR to formally
cede eastern territories, including Galicia.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_areas_annexed_by_the_Soviet_Union)(Econ,
7/7/07, p.51)
1946 Aug 16, A riot in Calcutta
left some 3-4,000 Moslems and Hindus dead.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1948 Aug 16, Famed home-run
slugger George Herman "Babe" Ruth died at age 53 in New York City. He
is credited with turning baseball from a game of speed and skill to one
of power. During a flamboyant major league career that began as a
pitcher with the Boston Red Sox in 1914 and ended with his retirement
from the Boston Braves in 1935, the Babe hit an astonishing total of
714 homers, a feat that was not surpassed until Henry Aaron of the
Atlanta Braves broke Ruth’s record in 1974. The fans loved the
warm-hearted Babe Ruth, who had a reputation as a hard drinker,
carouser and womanizer. In 1931, at the height of his career with the
Yankees, Ruth earned $80,000, which made him the highest-paid
ballplayer in history. At a special "Babe Ruth Day" just two months
before his death, the cancer-stricken Babe donned his uniform for the
last time and appeared before a cheering crowd at Yankee Stadium. In
2006 Leigh Montville authored “The Big Bam,” a biography of Babe Ruth.
(SFC, 10/15/96, p.A19)(AP, 8/16/97)(HNPD,
8/16/98)(WSJ, 5/9/06, p.D6)
1948 Aug 16, Harry Dexter White,
former assistant US Treasury Secretary, died of a heart attack.
White had helped write the UN Charter. A few days earlier he had
testified before the House-Un-American Activities Committee and denied
leaking secrets to Soviet intelligence. Later evidence confirmed that
he had worked for Soviet intelligence. In 2004 R. Bruce Craig authored
"Treasonable Doubt," a study of White.
(WSJ, 4/16/04, p.W8)
1949 Aug 16, Margaret Mitchell
(48), US writer (Gone With the Wind), died.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1953 Aug 16, Shah Pahlavi of
Persia and princess Soraya fled to Baghdad and then Rome.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1954 Aug 16, Sports Illustrated
was first published by Time Inc.
(AP, 8/16/97)
1955 Aug 16, Fiat Motors ordered
the 1st private atomic reactor.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1956 Aug 16, Adlai E. Stevenson
was nominated for president at the Democratic National Convention in
Chicago. John F. Kennedy made his convention debut at the Democratic
convention in Chicago. Tennessee Senator Estes Kefauver withdrew his
name from the balloting and asked his 200 delegates to support Adlai E.
Stevenson for the presidential nomination. Stevenson won the nomination
on the first ballot with 905 votes to New York Governor Averell
Harriman's 200 votes. Kefauver then went on to narrowly defeat Senator
John F. Kennedy for the party's vice-presidential nomination.
(WSJ, 8/26/96, p.A12)(HNQ, 8/10/99)(AP, 8/16/97)
1956 Aug 16, Bela Lugosi (b.1882),
actor (Dracula), died of heart attack in Hollywood. He was born in
Hungary as Bela Blasko.
(Internet)
1958 Aug 16, Madonna [Ciccone],
entertainer and singer whose biggest record was "Like a Virgin," was
born.
(HN, 8/16/98)
1959 Aug 16, William F. Halsey
(Bull Halsey), US vice-admiral (WW II Pacific), died.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1960 Aug 16, Timothy Hutton
(actor: Taps, Made in Heaven, Ordinary People, The Dark Half, The
Temp, Q&A), was born.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1960 Aug 16, American test pilot
Joe Kittinger’s history-making parachute jump was from an altitude of
102,800 feet, or 19.3 miles. In a gondola lifted by a 360-foot helium
balloon, Kittinger reached the highest altitude ever reached by man in
nonpowered flight. His free fall lasted four minutes and 36 seconds and
he became the first man to exceed the speed of sound without an
aircraft or space vehicle. In 1984 Kittinger became the first to fly
across the Atlantic Ocean in a helium balloon alone.
(HNQ, 5/21/99)(WSJ, 2/27/06, p.A1)
1960 Aug 16, Britain granted
independence to the crown colony of Cyprus. Archbishop Makarios became
the 1st post independence president and chose Spyros Kyprianou (28) as
foreign minister.
(AP, 8/16/97)(SFC, 3/13/02, p.A26)
1961 Aug 16, Martin Luther King
protested for black voting rights in Miami.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1961 Aug 16, Some 250,000 West
Berliners demonstrated against East Berlin.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1962 Aug 16, The Beatles dropped
Pete Best as their drummer. They took on Ringo Starr on Aug 17. Best
later authored the autobiography "Beatle! The Pete Best Story."
(SFC, 7/5/02, p.G5)(MC, 8/16/02)
1965 Aug 16, The Watts riots ended
in south-central LA after six days with the help of 20,000 National
Guardsmen; the riots left 34 dead, 857 injured, over 2,200 arrested,
and property valued at $200 million destroyed. The riots started when
police on August 11th brutally beat a black motorist suspected of
drunken driving in Watts area of LA.
(HN, 8/16/00)(MC, 8/16/02)
1969 Aug 16, Canned Heat performed
"Let's Work Together" live Woodstock.
(www.chromeoxide.com/canned.htm)
1970 Aug 16, Benny Bufano
(b.1898), California-based Italian-American sculptor, died. He was
known for his late-career bullet-shaped public sculptures.
(SFC, 12/8/00,
p.C1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benny_Bufano)
1972 Aug 16, The Moroccan Air
Force attempted to shoot down a Boeing 727 carrying King Hassan II. The
attempt failed and the coup leaders were arrested. Gen. Mohammad Oufkir
was shot to death for the attack. In 2000 a letter was produced that
implicated Abderrahmane Youssoufi, the prime minister, in conspiracy
with Oufkir.
(SFC, 7/24/99, p.A9)(SFC, 12/15/00,
p.D2)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hassan_II_of_Morocco)
1974 Aug 16, The Ramones 1st
performed at the CBGB in NYC. Dee Dee Ramone (d.2002) had formed the
Ramones punk rock band in the Forest Hills neighborhood of Queens along
with Jeffrey Hyman, John Cummings (aka Johnny Ramone, d.2004) and Tom
Erdelyi.
(SFC, 6/8/02, p.D4)(Econ, 9/25/04, p.100)
1977 Aug 16, Elvis Presley
(b.1935), The "King" of rock-n-roll, died in the upstairs bedroom suite
at Graceland Mansion in Memphis, Tenn. of a drug overdose at 42. Elvis
died of heart failure after years of substance abuse. In 1994 Peter
Guralnick published "Last Train to Memphis," the first of a 2-part
biography on Elvis. In 1998 Guralnick published "Careless Love." More
than 150 books were in print on Elvis in 1997. In 1998 Ernest Jorgensen
published "Elvis Presley: A Life in Music. The Complete Recording
sessions."
(SFEC, 2/9/97, Par p.7)(SFEC, 8/3/97, DB p.33)(AP,
8/16/97)(SFEC, 8/16/98, p.D7)(WSJ, 1/7/98, p.W1)
1978 Aug 16, James Earl Ray,
convicted assassin of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., told a Capitol Hill
hearing he did not commit the crime, saying he'd been set up by a
mysterious man called "Raoul."
(AP, 8/16/03)
1978 Aug 16, Antonio Guzman
assumed office as president of the Dominican Rep. Mindful of the fate
of Juan Bosch sixteen years before, Guzman determined to move slowly in
the area of social and economic reforms and to deal as directly as
possible with the threat of political pressure from the armed forces.
(http://tinyurl.com/39ht3e)
1978 Aug 16, The World Bank under
Robert McNamara issued its first World Development Report (WDR). the
68-page document provided a comprehensive assessment of global
development issues.
(Econ, 1/24/09, p.65)(http://tinyurl.com/d3xzs6)
1984 Aug 16, A federal jury in Los
Angeles acquitted auto maker John Z. DeLorean of trafficking in cocaine
due to entrapment.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_De_Lorean)
1986 Aug 16, Flozelle Woodmore
(18), shot and killed her abusive boyfriend, Clifton Morrow, with a
.357 magnum in the presence of their 2-year-old son in Los Angeles. In
2007 Gov. Schwarzenegger, said he no longer oppose her parole.
(SFC, 8/3/07, p.B12)(http://tinyurl.com/2mvdzg)
1987 Aug 16, Thousands of people
worldwide began a two-day celebration of the "harmonic convergence,"
which heralded what believers called the start of a new, purer age of
humankind. Nearly 5,000 people gathered at Mount Shasta, Ca., for the
Harmonic Convergence aimed at bringing about world peace.
(AP, 8/16/97)(SSFC, 10/12/02, p.C5)
1987 Aug 16, 156 people were
killed when Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashed while trying to take
off from a Detroit airport; the sole survivor was 4-year-old Cecelia
Cichan. The plane hit a freeway overpass following takeoff.
(AP, 8/16/97)(SFC, 11/13/01, p.A12)
1987 Aug 16, Iraqi warplanes
bombarded the northern Kurdish village of Balisan, dropping bombs that
spread a smoke smelling "like rotten apples.” Helicopters then came and
bombed the mountains to prevent the villagers from taking refuge
anywhere.
(AP, 8/23/06)
1988 Aug 16, VP George Bush tapped
Indiana Sen. Dan Quayle to be his running mate.
(AP, 8/16/98)
1989 Aug 16, A rare "prime time"
lunar eclipse occurred over most of the United States, although clouds
spoiled the view for many.
(AP, 8/16/99)
1990 Aug 16, President Bush met
with Jordan’s King Hussein in Kennebunkport, Maine, where he urged the
monarch to close Iraq’s access to the sea through the port of Aqaba.
(AP, 8/16/00)
1990 Aug 16, In Iraq, President
Saddam Hussein issued a statement in which he repeatedly called Bush a
"liar" and said the outbreak of war could result in "thousands of
Americans wrapped in sad coffins."
(AP, 8/16/00)
1991 Aug 16, Pope John Paul the
Second began the first-ever papal visit to Hungary.
(AP, 8/16/01)
1991 Aug 16, In Moscow, Alexander
Yakovlev, a top adviser to Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev,
resigned from the Communist Party, warning that hard-liners were
plotting "a party and state coup."
(AP, 8/16/01)
1992 Aug 16, On the eve of the
Republican National Convention in Houston, President Bush and party
officials heatedly denied a report in The New York Times that a
confrontation with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was motivated by
political concerns.
(AP, 8/16/97)
1993 Aug 16, President Clinton
opened his campaign for health care reform with a speech to the
nation's governors in Tulsa, Okla.
(AP, 8/16/98)
1993 Aug 16, New York police
rescued business executive Harvey Weinstein from a covered 14-foot-deep
pit, where he'd been held for ransom for nearly two weeks.
(AP, 8/16/98)
1993 Aug 16, Actor Stewart Granger
(80) died in Santa Monica, Calif.
(AP, 8/16/98)
1994 Aug 16, President Clinton and
other top Democrats were scouring the House of Representatives for
converts in hopes of reviving a stalled anti-crime bill.
(AP, 8/16/99)
1994 Aug 16, In Sri Lanka the
People’s Alliance government came to power and promised to end the
civil war.
(SFC, 7/24/96, p.A9)
1995 Aug 16, The US government
more than doubled its estimate of rapes or attempted rapes in the US
each year, to 310,000, a finding praised by leaders of women’s groups.
(AP, 8/16/00)
1995 Aug 16, Rebel soldiers in Sao
Tome overthrew Pres. Miguel Trovoada. This is a two-island nation off
the west coast of Africa.
(WSJ, 8/16/95, p. A-1)
1996 Aug 16, A jubilant Bob Dole
set out from the Republican convention, promoting his tax-cut plan as a
boon to working families.
(AP, 8/16/97)
1996 Aug 16, The brokerage firm
E*Trade Group went public and saw its shares rise 7.1% on its first day
of trading.
(WSJ, 11/13/07, p.A21)
1996 Aug 16, In Brookfield, Ill.,
a 3-year-old boy fell 15-feet into a concrete area of a zoo’s gorilla
exhibit and was rescued by Binti-jua, a 7-year-old gorilla with her own
2-year-old on her back.
(SFC, 8/17/96, p.A3)(MC, 8/16/02)
1996 Aug 16, Eric Nesbitt (21), an
airman at Langley AFB, was shot and killed after he was abducted and
forced to withdraw money from an ATM machine by Daryl R. Atkins and
another man. Atkins scored 59 on an IQ test in 1998, below the Virginia
cut-off of 70 for retardation. In 2002 the US Supreme Court ruled that
it was unconstitutional to execute the mentally retarded. In 2004
Atkins scored 74 and faced another trial. In 2005 a jury found Atkins
to be mentally competent.
(SSFC, 2/6/05, p.A9)(SFC, 8/6/05,
p.A4)(www.vuac.org/capital/row.html)
1996 Aug 16, Dominican Rep. Pres.
Balaguer left office. Leonel Antonio Fernández Reyna (b. 1953),
a 42-year-old lawyer who grew up in New York City, was the 100th
president of the Dominican Republic. He replaced Joaquín Amparo
Balaguer Ricardo (1906-2002), President of the Dominican Republic from
1960 to 1962, from 1966 to 1978, and again from 1986-1996.
(SFC, 11/25/96,
p.A9)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joaquin_Balaguer)
1996 Aug 16, In Mexico Attorney
General Antonio Lozano fired 734 members of the judicial police in an
attempt to reform the drug-fighting force.
(SFC, 8/17/96, p.A14)
1997 Aug 16, Thousands of Elvis
Presley fans thronged Graceland on the 20th anniversary of his death.
(AP, 8/16/98)
1997 Aug 16, It was reported that
the US led the world in arms sales last year with 35.5% of all orders.
Britain ranked 2nd with 15.1% and Russia 3rd with 14.5%.
(SFC, 8/16/97, p.A10)
1997 Aug 16, In Mexico Alejandro
Ortiz Martinez, brother of the finance minister Guillermo Ortiz, was
shot and killed by three gunmen in Mexico City.
(SFEC, 8/17/97, p.A21)
1997 Aug 16, Nusrat Fateh Ali
Khan, the most popular singer in Pakistan, died in a London hospital.
He was considered one of the world’s greatest singers of Sufi
devotional music in a style called qawwali, where long performances
built up emotion and complexity to the backdrop of stringed instruments
and the harmonium.
(SFEC, 8/17/97, p.D8)
1997 Aug 16, Scientists reported
that an underground seismic event occurred in Russia. Inquiries were
being made about nuclear testing. Russian scientists claimed a
magnitude-2 earthquake near the Novaya Zemlya test range triggered the
event.
(SFC, 8/29/97, p.A18)(WSJ, 9/3/97, p.A1)
1997 Aug 16, Two cosmonauts just
returned from Mir (Vasily Tsibliyev and Alexander Lazutkin) rejected
criticism that they were to blame for troubles aboard the aging,
problem-plagued space station.
(AP, 8/16/98)
1998 Aug 16, A day before
President Clinton was to face a criminal grand jury about his
relationship with Monica Lewinsky, his lawyer said, "The truth is the
truth, and that's how the president will testify."
(AP, 8/16/99)
1998 Aug 16, An int’l. crew broke
the 1995 Steve Fossett record for sailing across the Pacific Ocean. The
Explorer twin-hulled catamaran set sail from Yokohama on Aug 2 and
arrived in SF after 14 days, 17 hours and 22 minutes.
(SFC, 8/17/98, p.A5)
1998 Aug 16, Steve Fossett ran
into heavy storms and plunged with his balloon into the Coral Sea, 500
miles from Queensland, Australia.
(SFC, 8/17/98, p.A1)
1998 Aug 16, It was reported that
about 80% of breeding-age swordfish had been eliminated by overfishing.
(SFEC, 8/16/98, p.T9)
1998 Aug 16, Congo Pres. Kabila
flew to Angola to meet with Pres. dos Santos and request direct support
against rebels. Air cargo support was being provided as well as several
thousand Congolese exiles known as the Katangese Gendarmes.
(SFC, 8/17/98, p.A10)
1998 Aug 16, Protestants and
Catholics in Northern Ireland united in uncomprehending grief over the
car bomb slaughter of 29 people in Omagh a day earlier.
(AP, 8/16/03)
1999 Aug 16, The TV quiz show "Who
Wants to Be a Millionaire" began a limited two-week run on ABC.
Imported from London, the show was hosted by Meredith Vieira and it was
still on the air in 2008.
(AP,
8/16/00)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who_Wants_To_Be_A_Millionaire%3F)
1999 Aug 16, Republican Lamar
Alexander folded his presidential campaign.
(AP, 8/16/00)
1999 Aug 16, Four months after two
gunmen sent them fleeing in horror, students reclaimed Columbine High
School in Colorado for the start of the school year.
(AP, 8/16/00)
1999 Aug 16, In Lebanon Abu
Hassan, a Hezbollah commander, was killed by a roadside bomb in Sidon.
Guerrillas blamed the attack on Israel.
(SFC, 8/17/99, p.A8)
1999 Aug 16, In Russia Vladimir
Putin was confirmed as prime minister, the fifth since early 1998.
(SFC, 8/17/99, p.A8)(AP, 8/16/00)
1999 Aug 16, In Kosovo 2 Serbs
were killed in a mortar attack from an ethnic Albanian village.
(WSJ, 8/18/99, p.A1)
1999 Aug 16, In South Africa
thousands of state workers stayed home from work and some 10,000 Telkom
and post office workers demonstrated in Pretoria and other cities.
(SFC, 8/17/99, p.A10)
2000 Aug 16, Delegates to the
Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles formally nominated Al
Gore for president.
(AP, 8/16/01)
2000 Aug 16, Senator John McCain
(Republican, Arizona) was diagnosed with a second bout of melanoma. The
cancer was later surgically removed, with no sign that it had spread.
(AP, 8/16/01)
2000 Aug 16, Montana Gov. Marc
Racicot declared the whole state a disaster area due to the raging
fires.
(SFC, 8/17/00, p.A3)
2000 Aug 16, In Afghanistan the
Taliban shut down 25 bakeries run by widows saying that Islam forbids
women to work.
(SFC, 8/17/00, p.A16)
2000 Aug 16, In Brazil armed
hijacked an airliner and forced it to land in southern Parana state.
They escaped with an estimated $3.3 million in stolen money.
(SFC, 8/17/00, p.A15)
2000 Aug 16, In Chechnya 2
civilians were killed when rebels blew up a police car in Grozny.
(SFC, 8/18/00, p.D6)
2000 Aug 16, Hipolito Mejia (59)
assumed the presidency of the Dominican Republic succeeding Leonel
Fernandez. He proceeded to use foreign borrowing to finance public
spending.
(SFC, 8/17/00, p.A16)(Econ, 12/13/03, p.35)
2000 Aug 16, It was reported that
Libya had paid millions to free 9 Westerners held hostage by Muslim
rebels in the Philippines.
(SFC, 8/16/00, p.A17)
2000 Aug 16, In Uganda at least 18
people died after a fire ignited while they scooped oil from an
overturned tanker.
(SFC, 8/17/00, p.A16)
2001 Aug 16, Zacarias Moussaoui
(33), a French citizen of Moroccan descent, was arrested in Eagan,
Minnesota, on immigration charges. He was taking lessons on flying
Boeing jets with no interest in taking off or landing. He was later
suspected as a 5th member of one of the Sep 11 WTC attack teams. In Nov
the FBI reported that Moussaoui wanted to learn how to take off and
land but not to fly. Mueller also said Ramzi Omar of Yemen, aka Ramsi
Binalshibh, may have been the 20th hijacker. The local FBI contacted
the CIA for action on Moussaoui when FBI managers failed to take
action. Agent Coleen Rowley later charged that senior officials fumbled
an opportunity to possibly prevent the Sep 11 terrorist attacks.
(SFC, 11/8/01, p.A7)(SFC, 11/15/01, p.A12)(WSJ,
2/4/02, p.A1)(WSJ, 5/24/02, p.A1)(SFC, 5/25/02, p.A1)(SFC, 6/6/02,
p.A14)
2001 Aug 16, Wild fires in the 10
Western US states covered over 50,000 acres, half in Oregon. 20,000
fighters fought 42 major blazes.
(SFC, 8/17/01, p.A8)
2001 Aug 16, Paul Burrell,
trusted butler of Princess Diana for many years, was charged with the
theft of hundreds of royal family items, a charge he denied. He was
tried for theft in 2002 but the trial collapsed after evidence was
given that Queen Elizabeth II had spoken with him regarding the
disputed events. In 2003 he released his book, “A Royal Duty,” which
talks about his time as butler to Diana.
(AP,
8/16/02)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Burrell)
2001 Aug 16, In Colombia Pres.
Pastrana signed legislation giving the military broad new powers to
wage war with less scrutiny from human rights monitors. Gunmen in Santo
Tomas killed 12 people for being members in the ELN.
(SFC, 8/17/01, p.A12)(SSFC, 8/19/01, p.A16)
2001 Aug 16, In Indonesia Pres.
Sukarnoputri, in her 1st state of the nation speech, apologized for
atrocities in rebellious provinces, urged the military to reform itself
and ruled out independence for Aceh and Irian Jaya.
(SFC, 8/17/01, p.A12)
2001 Aug 16, A Jamaica government
commission recommended that marijuana, aka ganja, be legalized for
personal use by adults.
(SFC, 8/18/01, p.E1)
2001 Aug 16, In Nepal the
government outlawed discrimination against members of the lowest caste,
the Dalits, who would be free to enter any temple or religious
structure.
(SFC, 8/17/01, p.A12)
2001 Aug 16, Col. Vidoje
Blagojevic, former commander of Bratunac, pleaded innocent at the Hague
war crimes tribunal for 1995 war crimes in Srebrenica. On January 17,
2005, Col. Vidoje Blagojevic became the second indictee to be convicted
on Srebrenica Genocide charges and other human rights violations. He
was sentenced to 18 years in prison. On May 9, 2007, the Appeals
Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former
Yugoslavia ruled that Col Blagojevic had not been complicit in the
genocide at Srebrenica because he had not known his troops intended to
commit it. Blagojevic’s sentence was reduced to 15 years.
(SFC, 8/17/01,
p.A14)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Srebrenica_massacre)
2002 Aug 16, Major League Baseball
players set a strike deadline of Aug. 30. The two sides finally reached
an agreement with just six hours to spare.
(AP, 8/16/03)
2002 Aug 16, Jeff Corey (88),
blacklisted actor, died in Santa Monica. Corey developed a post
blacklist career teaching and then appeared in over 70 films or TV
shows.
(SFC, 8/22/02, p.A19)
2002 Aug 16, Stephen P. Yokich
(66), former United Auto Workers president died in Detroit.
(SFC, 8/19/02, p.B6)(AP, 8/16/03)
2002 Aug 16, In Algeria Islamic
insurgents reportedly killed 26 people, including women and children,
in a rural western hamlet.
(AP, 8/16/02)
2002 Aug 16, In Soham,
Cambridgeshire, England, police arrested two people on suspicion of
murdering a pair of 10-year-old girls, Holly Wells (b. 10-4-1991) and
Jessica Chapman (b. 9-1-1991), who vanished from a rural village on
August 4th. On December 17, 2003 Ian Huntley (28), a caretaker at the
local secondary school, was convicted by two eleven-to-one majority
jury verdicts, and on that day began serving two concurrent life
sentences. On September 29, 2005, the High Court announced that Huntley
must remain in prison until he has served at least 40 years, a minimum
term which will not allow him to be released until at least 2042, by
which time he will be 68 years old. His girlfriend Maxine Carr (25), a
classroom assistant, was charged with attempting to pervert the course
of justice. She was given three-and-a-half years for conspiring to
pervert the course of justice but cleared of two counts of assisting an
offender. She was freed and electronically tagged within 30 days,
because she had already spent 16 months in jail.
(AP,
8/17/02)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soham_murders)
2002 Aug 16, In Germany
authorities evacuated thousands of people near Dresden's historic
center as floodwaters in the Elbe River rose to a record high and
spilled into a square close to some of the city's cultural landmarks.
(AP, 8/16/02)
2002 Aug 16, Sabri al-Banna, aka
Abu Nidal (65), Palestinian guerrilla commander and head of the
Fatah-Revolutionary Council, died from gunshot wounds in his Baghdad
home. Iraqi officials said he killed himself.
(Reuters, 8/19/02)(WSJ, 8/20/02, p.A18)(AP, 8/21/02)
2002 Aug 16, In central Nigeria
gunmen killed Ahmad Ahman Pategi, Kwara state chairman of the Peoples
Democratic Party and a senior official of President Olusegun Obasanjo's
ruling party, along with his police bodyguard.
(AP, 8/17/02)
2002 Aug 16, Russia and Iraqi
officials planned to sign a 5-year $40 billion economic cooperation
agreement.
(SFC, 8/17/02, p.A1)
2002 Aug 16, Pope John Paul II
returned to Poland for a 3-day visit.
(SFC, 8/17/02, p.A10)
2002 Aug 16, President Hugo Chavez
railed against a Supreme Court decision to absolve four military
officers accused of leading an April coup but urged Venezuelans to
accept it.
(AP, 8/16/02)
2002 Aug 16, The Zambian
government has rejected donations of genetically modified corn from the
United States, even though a massive food shortage threatens nearly 2.3
million of its people with starvation.
(AP, 8/17/02)
2002 Aug 16, The Zimbabwean
government appeared to be cracking down on white farmers who defied
orders to leave their land, charging seven in court and detaining at
least 27 others across the country.
(AP, 8/16/02)
2003 Aug 16, The Midwest and
Northeast were almost fully recovered from the worst power outage in
U.S. history.
(AP, 8/16/04)
2003 Aug 16, Bill Janklow (64), US
Congressional Representative and former South Dakota governor, ran a
stop sign and killed motorcyclist Randolph E. Scott (55) near
Flandreau, SD. On Aug 29 Janklow was charged with manslaughter. Janklow
was found guilty of felony manslaughter on Dec 8 and announced his
resignation effective Jan 20. Janklow was sentenced to serve 100 days
in a county jail.
(SFC, 8/30/03, p.A3)(SFC, 12/9/03, p.A5)(SFC,
1/23/04, p.A3)
2003 Aug 16, Haroldo de Campos
(73), Brazilian poet, died in Sao Paulo. He was the best know of the
Brazilian Concrete poets.
(SFC, 8/26/03, p.A19)
2003 Aug 16, In Nigeria's southern
oil port city of Warri, authorities imposed a nighttime curfew
following gunbattles between rival tribal militias that have killed at
least 20 people.
(AP, 8/16/03)
2003 Aug 16, In southern Pakistan
unidentified gunmen shot to death Ibn-e-Hasan (45), a Shiite Muslim
doctor, sparking rowdy protests by hundreds of youths.
(AP, 8/16/03)
2003 Aug 16, In north central
Uganda rebels from the shadowy Lord's Resistance Army slashed up to 15
people to death with machetes during an attack on the village of Bata.
They also made off with 40 children. All the people killed were
formerly abductees who had been rescued. The army said the next day it
had killed 20 rebel fighters and rescued 127 abducted children.
(AP, 8/17/03)
2003 Aug 16, Former Ugandan
dictator Idi Amin, blamed for the murder of tens of thousands of his
people in the 1970s, died in a Saudi hospital where he had been
critically ill for weeks. In 2006 the film “The Last King of Scotland,”
was adopted from a novel by Giles Foden that focused on Idi Amin. The
film, directed by Kevin McDonald, featured Forest Whitaker as
Amin.
(AP,
8/16/03)(www.moreorless.au.com/killers/amin.html)(WSJ, 9/29/06, p.W1)
2003 Aug 16, It was reported that
African swine fever (ASF) had killed half of the pigs in Uganda this
year.
(SFC, 8/16/03, p.A24)
2004 Aug 16, Pres. Bush announced
plans to pull 70-100 thousand US troops from Europe and Asia and
redeploy them to meet the demands of the global war on terrorism.
(AP, 8/16/04)
2004 Aug 16, Colorado certified a
ballot question that would make it the 1st state to award electoral
votes by popular-vote percentages, not as winner take all.
(WSJ, 8/17/04, p.A1)
2004 Aug 16, The FDA approved the
1st surgical device to clear clots from the brains of stroke victims.
(WSJ, 8/17/04, p.A1)
2004 Aug 16, The children’s TV
show “Lazytown” made its US premier. Magnus Scheving spent over a
decade building the brand in Iceland before moving overseas.
(Econ, 3/31/07,
p.76)(www.tv.com/lazytown/show/29257/episode_listings.html)
2004 Aug 16, General Motors said
it will start making Cadillacs in China this year, joining a race by
foreign luxury car brands to sell to the country's newly rich elite.
(AP, 8/16/04)
2004 Aug 16, Costco began piloting
the sale of discounted coffins.
(Econ, 8/21/04, p.50)
2004 Aug 16, Kamala Markandaya
(79), Indian novelist, died. Her books focused on rural life,
interracial relationships and conflicting Eastern and Western values.
(SFC, 12/28/04, p.D12)
2004 Aug 16, In China villagers in
an eastern province dug with farm tools to search for 24 people missing
in massive landslides unleashed by Typhoon Rananim.
(AP, 8/16/04)
2004 Aug 16, In Nigeria an oil
tanker truck went out of control and plowed into a bustling Nigerian
market in Kano, killing 17.
(AP, 8/16/04)
2004 Aug 16, In Russia the Novy
Ochevidets (New Eyewitness) magazine was introduced in Moscow. It
resembled the New Yorker.
(SFC, 8/21/04, p.A9)
2004 Aug 16, Election officials in
Venezuela announced that voters had overwhelmingly chosen to keep
President Hugo Chavez in office.
(AP, 8/16/05)
2005 Aug 16, Pres. Bush selected
Donald Winter of Northrup Grumman to be Navy secretary and Michael
Wynne, Pentagon aide, as Air Force head.
(WSJ, 8/17/05, p.A1)
2005 Aug 16, The Bush
administration reduced the estimated value of recreation in national
forests from $111 billion to $11 billion. Environmentalists warned the
new Forest Service assessment could be used to justify increased
logging.
(SFC, 8/17/05, p.A4)
2005 Aug 16, Nebraska Gov. Dave
Heineman secured a deal for his state to export $17 million in
agricultural goods to communist Cuba. The first US shipment of great
northern beans to the island since Fidel Castro came to power in 1959.
(AP, 8/16/05)
2005 Aug 16, Several new computer
worms hit systems running MS Windows 2000. On Aug 25 authorities in
Morocco arrested Farid Essebar (18) for writing the Zotob worm. Atilla
Ekici (21) was arrested in Turkey for paying Essebar to write the worm.
In 2006 Morocco sentenced Farid Essebar (19) to 2 years in prison and
Achraf Bahlouo (21) to one year for their role in unleashing the Zotob
worm. Ekici’s trial continued in Turkey.
(SFC, 8/27/05, p.A2)(WSJ, 9/14/06, p.B3)(WSJ,
11/21/06, p.A1)
2005 Aug 16, J.P. Morgan Chase
agreed to pay $350 million to settle claims over the role it played in
the fraud that led to the collapse of Enron in 2001.
(SFC, 8/17/05, p.C3)
2005 Aug 16, Francy Boland (75),
jazz pianist, died in Geneva, Sw.
(SFC, 8/17/05, p.B7)
2005 Aug 16, Vassar Clements (77),
fiddle virtuoso, died in Nashville, Ten. He recorded on more than 2,000
albums in various styles from bluegrass to classical.
(SFC, 8/17/05, p.B7)
2005 Aug 16, Two helicopters
carrying NATO-led forces to prepare for next month's elections crashed
in the desert in western Afghanistan, killing at least 17 Spanish
troops.
(AP, 8/16/05)
2005 Aug 16, It was reported that
scientists in Australia's tropical north are collecting blood from
crocodiles in the hope of developing a powerful antimicrobial drugs for
humans, after tests showed that the reptile's immune system kills HIV.
(Reuters, 8/16/05)
2005 Aug 16, In Britain an
official investigation contradicted the police account of the July 21
killing of Jean Charles de Menezes, an electrician from Brazil.
(SFC, 8/17/05, p.A12)
2005 Aug 16, Bulgaria's Parliament
overwhelmingly approved historian Sergei Stanishev (39), the leader of
the Socialist Party, as the country's new prime minister bringing to
power his socialist-liberal coalition government.
(AP, 8/16/05)
2005 Aug 16, A university
professor in Shanghai said is he is offering China's first class on
homosexuality and gay culture and that several hundred students have
applied for the 100 openings.
(AP, 8/17/05)
2005 Aug 16, In Taize, France,
Brother Roger, the 90-year-old founder of an ecumenical religious
community dedicated to peace and reconciliation, was knifed to death by
an apparently deranged Romanian woman at an evening prayer service
attended by 2,500 people. Brother Roger founded the Taize religious
community in 1940 emphasizing the need for all Christians to come
together in peace, love and reconciliation.
(AP, 8/17/05)(WSJ, 8/18/05, p.A1)
2005 Aug 16, A top Indian official
said Indian and Chinese oil firms will sign agreements aimed at bidding
jointly for foreign oil and gas projects and reducing cut-throat
competition.
(AP, 8/16/05)
2005 Aug 16, Iraqi leaders, a day
after failing to meet their deadline, expressed confidence they would
overcome differences over key issues like the role of Islam and the
power of regional governments and finish the new constitution by next
week.
(AP, 8/16/05)
2005 Aug 16, Israeli security
forces clashed with hundreds of opponents of Israel's withdrawal from
the Gaza Strip, arresting dozens of people in the roughest
confrontation between troops and settlers since the start of the
operation.
(AP, 8/16/05)
2005 Aug 16, A 7.2 earthquake
shook northeastern Japan, triggering landslides, sending a shower of
ceiling debris into a crowded indoor swimming pool and shaking
skyscrapers as far away as Tokyo. At least 59 people were reportedly
injured.
(AP, 8/16/05)(WSJ, 8/17/05, p.A1)
2005 Aug 16, North Korean
officials visited South Korea's parliament for the first time in a
symbolic gesture of reconciliation with their democratic rivals.
(AP, 8/17/05)
2005 Aug 16, Peru’s President
Alejandro Toledo swore in a new Cabinet with Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, the
former finance minister, as prime minister and cabinet chief.
(AP, 8/16/05)(WSJ, 8/17/05, p.A9)
2005 Aug 16, Russia's Supreme
Court overturned a lower court decision banning the National Bolshevik
Party, handing a rare victory to the radical youth organization known
for flamboyant acts of political protest.
(AP, 8/16/05)
2005 Aug 16, Russia said an
outbreak of bird flu in Chelyabinsk was dangerous to humans, as teams
of sanitary workers destroyed birds in Siberia in an attempt to prevent
the westward spread of the deadly virus.
(AP, 8/16/05)
2005 Aug 16, A chartered jet
filled with tourists returning home from Panama to the French Caribbean
island of Martinique crashed in western Venezuela, killing all 160
people on board. The pilot had been attempting an emergency landing
after both engines failed.
(AP, 8/16/05)(WSJ, 8/17/05, p.A1)
2006 Aug 16, New York City
officials released new tapes of hundreds of heart-wrenching phone calls
from the World Trade Center on 9-11, along with other emergency
transcripts.
(AP, 8/16/07)
2006 Aug 16, Google launched a
free wireless network for its hometown of Mountainview, Ca.
(SFC, 8/16/06, p.C1)
2006 Aug 16, John Mark Karr (41),
a former American school teacher, was arrested in Thailand for the
December, 1996, murder JonBenet Ramsey in Boulder, Colo. He said he
tried to kidnap JonBenet for a $118,000 ransom but that his plan went
awry and he strangled her. Karr's confession that he had killed
JonBenet was later discredited.
(AP, 8/17/07)
2006 Aug 16, Over 80 immigrant
workers in New Orleans filed suit against Decatur Hotels LLC saying
they were being exploited. The workers from Peru, Bolivia and the
Dominican Rep. had not been reimbursed for travel and were not getting
the promised work hours.
(SFC, 8/17/06, p.A16)
2006 Aug 16, In southeastern
Afghanistan US and Afghan forces raided compounds suspected of being
al-Qaida sanctuaries, seizing weapons and explosives and arresting 8
people. US-led forces killed eight suspected militants after coming
under attack in Kunar province. A US soldier was killed when his
vehicle struck a Soviet-era mine in Paktika province. Western officials
said opium cultivation in Afghanistan has hit record levels, up by more
than 40% from 2005, despite hundreds of millions in counternarcotics
money.
(AP, 8/16/06)(AP, 8/17/06)
2006 Aug 16, Alfredo Stroessner
(93), anti-communist dictator of Paraguay (1954-1989), died in exile in
Brazil. He used the right-wing Colorado Party to rule with a blend of
force, guile and patronage for 35 years before his ouster in 1989.
During his rule membership in the Colorado Party was compulsory for all
teachers, doctors, engineers, officers or those who hoped for
government service. Party dues was docked from salaries.
(AP, 8/16/06)(Econ, 8/26/06, p.71)
2006 Aug 16, Colombian police
arrested 14 top paramilitary leaders for violating the terms of a peace
accord that has led to the demobilization of 30,000 right-wing
fighters. Anti-narcotics police said they chemically fumigated the
Sierra Macarena national park last week, clearing its entire 11,370
acres of coca. The spraying destroyed coca capable of producing 17.5
tons of high-grade cocaine and was likely a major blow to the
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.
(AP, 8/16/06)(AP, 8/17/06)(Econ, 8/26/06, p.28)
2006 Aug 16, In northeast India a
grenade exploded in a Hindu temple, killing at least four people and
leaving 40 others injured, mainly in a stampede that followed the blast.
(AP, 8/17/06)
2006 Aug 16, Bombings in Baghdad,
killed 21 people and wounded 59. One American soldier was also killed
as he was distributing candy to the children. British troops drove off
gunmen who attacked the Basra governor's office, apparently to avenge a
tribal leader killed the day before. In Mosul armed clashes between
police and assailants in three predominantly Sunni Arab neighborhoods
killed least five gunmen with six arrested. A roadside bomb exploded
near an Iraqi army patrol north of Hillah, killing three soldiers and
wounding four. In Karbala 10 militia fighters were killed and 281
arrested. A US soldier died of wounds suffered in Anbar province.
(AP, 8/16/06)(SFC, 8/17/06, p.A14)(AP, 8/17/06)
2006 Aug 16, In Kashmir 5 Islamic
rebels were shot dead by Indian troops after they sneaked across the de
facto border from the Pakistani zone. The army suffered one casualty.
(AP, 8/16/06)
2006 Aug 16, Top foreign diplomats
planned the dispatch of a 15,000-strong international force to enforce
a cease-fire in southern Lebanon, but the government was divided over
whether Hezbollah should lay down its arms or even withdraw them from
the border with Israel.
(AP, 8/16/06)
2006 Aug 16, Palestinian gunmen
from the rival Hamas and Fatah militias clashed in southern Gaza,
killing a 14-year old boy in the crossfire and injuring four others.
(AP, 8/17/06)
2006 Aug 16, A Russian patrol boat
opened fire on a Japanese vessel in disputed waters, killing a
fisherman and prompting a strong protest from Tokyo. Moscow urged
Japanese boats to stay out of its waters. 3 fishermen were detained.
(AP, 8/16/06)(AP, 8/17/06)
2006 Aug 16, In Mogadishu,
Somalia, Islamic leaders gave seven men 40 lashes each for using or
selling marijuana, meting out the punishment in public in a dramatic
example of the region's new fundamentalist rule.
(AP, 8/16/06)
2006 Aug 16, The presidents of
South Africa, Mozambique and Zimbabwe gathered for the official opening
the new Giriyondo border post linking South Africa and Mozambique. This
was another step in the creation of the 14,000 square mile Greater
Limpopo Transfrontier Park, which would span the 3 countries.
(SFC, 8/17/06, p.A2)
2006 Aug 16, A South Korean aid
group claimed that massive floods in North Korea last month left about
54,700 people dead or missing and some 2.5 million homeless.
(AP, 8/16/06)
2006 Aug 16, Sri Lankan war planes
bombed Tamil Tiger positions as troops hunted rebel infiltrators in
northern Jaffna peninsula after resisting a guerrilla advance.
(AFP, 8/16/06)
2007 Aug 16, The US offered Israel
an unprecedented $30 billion military aid package.
(AP, 8/16/07)
2007 Aug 16, Jose Padilla, a US
citizen held for 3 1/2 years as an enemy combatant, was convicted of
helping Islamic extremists and plotting overseas attacks. Padilla, once
accused of plotting with al-Qaida to detonate a radioactive "dirty
bomb," was later sentenced to 17 years and four months in prison on the
unrelated terror support charges.
(AP, 8/17/08)
2007 Aug 16, US authorities
indicted Igor Klopow (24), a Russian national, for his role in an ID
theft gang that targeted wealthy individuals. Klopow was lured to the
US and arrested under the Brooklyn Bridge.
(WSJ, 8/17/07, p.B2)
2007 Aug 16, A new Jefferson one
dollar coin went into circulation nationwide. It followed the
Washington coin, which was introduced in February, and the John Adams
coin, introduced in May. The coin honoring James Madison was scheduled
to go into circulation in November.
(AP, 8/15/07)
2007 Aug 16, US officials said
C&D Distributors in Lexington, South Carolina, collected about
$20.5 million over six years from the Pentagon for fraudulent shipping
costs, including $998,798 for sending two 19-cent washers to a Texas
base. The firm was run by sisters Charlene Corley and Darlene Wooten
(d.2006). The owners had exploited a flaw in an automated Defense
Department purchasing system: bills for shipping to combat areas or US
bases that were labeled “priority” were usually paid automatically.
(www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601070&sid=ardg6DwCCMFI&refer=home)(Reuters,
8/16/07)(Econ, 8/25/07, p.31)
2007 Aug 16, Kathleen Culhane
(40), former private investigator in California, was sentenced
to 5 years in state prison for forging documents to save the
lives of Death Row inmates.
(SFC, 8/16/07, p.B5)
2007 Aug 16, CARE spokeswoman
Alina Labrada said the donation of wheat and other crops does not help
in regions where people consistently go hungry because local farming
has been weakened by international competition. The Atlanta-based group
turned down $46 million worth of US food aid, arguing that the way the
American government distributes its help hurts poor farmers.
(AP, 8/16/07)
2007 Aug 16, In Utah the search
for six miners missing deep underground was abruptly halted after a
second cave-in killed three rescue workers and injured at least six
others who were trying to tunnel through rubble to reach them. The
search for six trapped miners at the Crandall Canyon Mine was later
abandoned.
(AP, 8/17/07)(AP, 8/16/08)
2007 Aug 16, Australia’s PM John
Howard said he would lift a ban on selling uranium to India, subject to
strict conditions.
(Econ, 8/25/07, p.40)
2007 Aug 16, It was reported that
a highly infectious swine virus, blue pork disease, had spread to 25 of
China’s 33 provinces, prompting pork shortages and an 85% increase in
pork prices over the last year.
(SFC, 8/16/07, p.A15)
2007 Aug 16, In Greece a huge
forest fire burned two dozen homes, animals and cars in the northern
outskirts of Athens before firefighters extinguished most of it.
(AP, 8/17/07)
2007 Aug 16, A conservation group
said mercury used by gold miners has seeped into rivers and streams and
sickened scores of Indian villagers in rural Guyana.
(AP, 8/16/07)
2007 Aug 16, The Iraqi prime
minister and president announced a new alliance of moderate Shiites and
Kurds in a push to save the crumbing government, saying a key Sunni
bloc refused to join but the door remained open to them. In Baghdad, a
car bomb struck a parking garage in a central commercial district
during the morning rush hour, killing at least nine people and wounding
17. US troops clashed with suspected Sunni insurgents holed up in a
mosque north of Baghdad and launched an air-to-ground Hellfire missile
into the structure. One American soldier was killed in the fighting.
(AP, 8/16/07)(AP, 8/17/07)
2007 Aug 16, Japan sizzled through
its hottest day on record as a heat wave claimed at least nine lives
and threatened power supplies strained by a recent earthquake. The
mercury hit 105.6 degrees in the western city of Tajimi in the
afternoon, breaking a previous national record of 105.4 degrees set in
1933.
(AP, 8/16/07)
2007 Aug 16, Uganda announced
plans to send 250 extra soldiers to a peacekeeping mission in
Mogadishu, but Somalia's government warned they were not enough and
urged other African nations to commit troops.
(Reuters, 8/16/07)
2007 Aug 16, Opponents of
President Hugo Chavez vowed to block his plans to radically overhaul
the constitution, warning the changes would give him unlimited power
and cripple democracy in Venezuela.
(AP, 8/16/07)
2007 Aug 16, The 14-member
Southern African Development Community (SADC) met in Lusaka, Zambia for
its 27th summit. The 2-day summit provided scant hope for the people of
Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe rejected the need for political reform at the summit
of regional leaders that is meant to find ways to ease the country's
political and economic crisis.
(AP, 8/16/07)(Econ, 8/25/07,
p.43)(www.dfa.gov.za/docs/2007/sadc0820.htm)
2008 Aug 16, Afghan and foreign
troops clashed with militants in a mountainous area of Zabul province,
killing 7 militants. In Kandahar province a roadside blast killed 10
police officers on patrol. In eastern Paktika province police clashed
with militants in the Shwak district, killing 4 insurgents. In Helmand
province British troops accidentally killed 4 civilians during an
operation against Taliban insurgents.
(AP, 8/17/08)(WSJ, 8/18/08, p.A9)(Reuters, 8/18/08)
2008 Aug 16, Jailed Belarusian
opposition leader Alexander Kozulin, considered in the West to be the
ex-Soviet state's most prominent political prisoner, was released.
Kozulin was one of two opposition candidates to run against Lukashenko
in a 2006 election and was jailed for 5 1/2 years for helping stage
mass protests against the official result declaring the president the
winner by a landslide.
(Reuters, 8/16/08)
2008 Aug 16, Dorival Caymmi
(b.1914), Brazilian composer, died. He had composed over 100 songs and
catapulted to fame when Carmen Miranda performed one of his songs in
1938.
(AP, 8/17/08)
2008 Aug 16, A monthlong standoff
between Thailand and Cambodia appeared to be ending as both sides
pulled back their troops from disputed territory around a temple near
their shared border.
(AP, 8/16/08)
2008 Aug 16, Carol Huynh, whose
parents fled communist Vietnam in the 1970s, won Canada's first gold of
the Olympics in the women's 48 kg freestyle wrestling. Usain Bolt of
Jamaica was crowned the world's fastest man when he raced to victory in
the Olympic men's 100 meters final in a world record time of 9.69 sec.
(AP, 8/16/08)(AFP, 8/16/08)
2008 Aug 16, Authorities in the
Central African Republic gave the green light for a leading rebel group
headed by a former defense minister to form a political party. Both the
rebel group and the new NAP party are headed by former defense minister
Jean-Jacques Demafouth, currently in exile in France.
(AFP, 8/16/08)
2008 Aug 16, Dominican Republic
President Leonel Fernandez promised to boost agricultural production
and warned of dire economic times as he was sworn in for a third term.
(AP, 8/16/08)
2008 Aug 16, Tropical Storm Fay
lashed Haiti and the Dominican Republic with torrential rains and
floods that killed at least 18 people including at least 14 people in
Haiti, feared to have died aboard a bus that tried to cross a flooded
river.
(AP, 8/17/08)(AP, 8/18/08)
2008 Aug 16, In India police
arrested the alleged leader of the July Ahmadabad bombings. Mufti Abu
Bashir was arrested in the northern Indian city of Lucknow.
(AP, 8/16/08)
2008 Aug 16, Tens of thousands of
Muslims marched in India's portion of Kashmir in honor of a prominent
separatist leader killed in a recent wave of violence that has rocked
the volatile Himalayan region.
(AP, 8/16/08)
2008 Aug 16, On Indonesia's
Sumatra island at least nine people have died and dozens were injured
when a slow-moving passenger train hit a parked freight locomotive.
(AP, 8/16/08)
2008 Aug 16, Russian forces pulled
back from the center of a town not far from Georgia's capital after
Russia's president signed a cease-fire deal. Russia’s Foreign Minister
Sergey Lavrov later suggested there would be no immediate broader
withdrawal. Georgia's Foreign Ministry said Saturday that
Russian-backed separatists from the province of Abkhazia had taken over
13 villages in Georgia and a power plant. Russian troops blew up a key
railroad bridge linking the Caucasus to the Black Sea coast.
(AP, 8/16/08)(SSFC, 8/17/08, p.A4)
2008 Aug 16, In Iraq a car bomb
exploded as Shiite pilgrims were boarding minibuses in Baghdad, killing
at least 3 people, in a third straight day of attacks on travelers
heading to a religious ceremony in Karbala. Iraqi police and hospital
employees said six people were killed and 11 injured. The US military
put the toll at three dead and eight injured.
(AP, 8/16/08)
2008 Aug 16, In Mexico gunmen
killed 13 people at a family party in the border state of Chihuahua.
(AP, 8/17/08)
2008 Aug 16, A man used Semtex in
a rocket-propelled grenade attack against Northern Ireland police
officers, the first attack using the deadly explosive since
paramilitary groups agreed to hand in their weapons.
(AP, 8/19/08)
2008 Aug 16, A top ruling party
official gave Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf a two-day deadline
to quit or face impeachment proceedings.
(AP, 8/16/08)
2008 Aug 16, In Rwanda Jozefina
Zaninka (75), a woman who lost nearly all her family in the 1994
genocide, was murdered, in the latest of several killings of survivors
of the slaughter. Some 167 survivors of the genocide have been murdered
between 1995 and mid-May 2008.
(AP, 8/18/08)
2008 Aug 16, In South Africa a
regional summit of southern African leaders opened with Zimbabwe's
crisis high on the agenda, and with the country's main political rivals
in attendance.
(AP, 8/16/08)
2008 Aug 16, In Sri Lanka a series
of raging battles across the northern war zone killed 27 Tamil Tiger
fighters and seven government troops. Soldiers took control of a rebel
training base in Andankulam in the Welioya region after Tamil Tiger
fighters fled the area.
(AP, 8/17/08)
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