Today in History - August 17
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682 Aug 17, Leo
II, later St. Leo, began his reign as Catholic Pope.
(SC, 8/17/02)
1498 Aug 17, French King Louis XII
made Cesare Borgia (1475-1507) the Duke of Valentinois. Borgia resigned
his position as cardinal, which had been bestowed on him at age 18 by
his father, Pope Alexander VI.
(Econ, 8/16/08,
p.16)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cesare_Borgia)
1590 Aug 17, John White, the
leader of 117 colonists sent in 1587 to Roanoke Island (North Carolina)
to establish a colony, returned from a trip to England to find the
settlement deserted. No trace of the settlers was ever found.
(HN, 8/18/02)
1601 Aug 17, Pierre de Fermat
(d.1665), French mathematician, was born. [There is some dispute as to
his exact birthdate.]
(WSJ, 11/25/96, p.A16)(SFEC,12/797, BR p.5)(SC,
8/17/02)
1743 Aug 17, By the Treaty of Abo,
Sweden ceded southeast Finland to Russia, ending Sweden's failed war
with Russia.
(HN, 8/17/98)
1786 Aug 17, Davy Crockett,
American frontiersman and politician who died in the defense of the
Alamo, was born.
(HN, 8/17/98)
1787 Aug 17, Jews were granted
permission in Budapest, Hungary, to pray in groups.
(SC, 8/17/02)
1807 Aug 17, Robert Fulton’s
"North River Steam Boat" (popularly, if erroneously, known to this day
as the Clermont) began heading up New York’s Hudson River on its
successful round-trip to Albany. It was 125 feet (142-feet) long and 20
feet wide with side paddle wheels and a sheet iron boiler. He averaged
5 mph for the 300-mile round trip.
(SFC, 6/20/98, p.F4)(WSJ, 9/21/01, p.A22)(AP,
8/17/07)
1812 Aug 17, Napoleon Bonaparte's
army defeated the Russians at the Battle of Smolensk during the Russian
retreat to Moscow.
(HN, 8/17/98)
1833 Aug 17, The first steam ship
to cross the Atlantic entirely on its own power, the Canadian ship
Royal William, began her journey from Nova Scotia to The Isle of Wight.
(HN, 8/17/98)
1840 Aug 17, Wilfrid Scawen,
writer (Irish Land League), was born in Blunt, England.
(SC, 8/17/02)
1844 cAug 17, Menelik II, King of
Ethiopia (1896-1913), was born.
(SC, 8/17/02)
1846 Aug 17, US took Los Angeles.
[see Aug 13]
(SC, 8/17/02)
1850 Aug 17, Jose Francisco de San
Martin (b.1778), Argentine-born South American revolutionary hero, died
in France. In 2009 John Lynch authored “San Martin: Argentine Soldier,
American Hero.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_de_San_Mart%C3%ADn)(Econ,
4/25/09, p.87)
1858 Aug 17, The 1st bank in
Hawaii opened.
(SC, 8/17/02)
1859 Aug 17, Harry Colcord crossed
over the Niagara Falls while strapped to the back of French tightrope
walker Blondin.
(www.simpenguin.com/genealogy/blondin/charlesblondinbio.html)
1863 Aug 17, Federal batteries and
ships bombarded South Carolina’s Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor
during the Civil War, but the Confederates managed to hold on despite
several days of pounding.
(HN, 8/17/98)(AP, 8/17/08)
1869 Aug 17, Oxford beat Harvard
on the Thames River in the 1st international boat race.
(SC, 8/17/02)
1870 Aug 17, Frederick Russell,
developer of the 1st successful typhoid fever vaccine, was born.
(SC, 8/17/02)
1870 Aug 17, The 1st ascent of Mt.
Rainier in Washington state.
(SC, 8/17/02)
1870 Aug 17, Esther Morris was
named a justice of the peace in South Pass City, the first woman to
hold public office in the US.
(SFC, 8/18/98, p.A8)(SC, 8/17/02)
1876 Aug 17, Eric Drummond, 1st
Sec.-General of League of Nations (1919-33), was born.
(SC, 8/17/02)
1876 Aug 17, The opera
"Gotterdammerung" was produced at Bayreuth. [see Aug 13]
(SC, 8/17/02)
1877 Aug 17, Asaph Hall discovered
the Mars moon Phobos. Hall of the US Naval Observatory discovered the
moons around Mars and named them Deimos (anxiety) and Phobos (fear),
Homer’s names for the attendant’s of the god of war.
(SFC, 11/29/96, p.A16)(SFEC, 4/30/00, Z1 p.6)(SC,
8/17/02)
1877 Sep 17, Henry Fox Talbot,
English inventor of photography, died. In 1980 Gail Buckland authored
"Fox Talbot and the Invention of Photography."
(ON, 4/00, p.11)
1882 Aug 17, Samuel Goldwyn,
American movie mogul who helped start MGM (Metro Goldwyn Mayer), was
born as Schmuel Gelbfisz in Warsaw, Poland.
(HN, 8/17/00)
1887 Aug 17, Marcus Garvy
(d.1940), Black Nationalist and Jamaican leader who promoted the
departure of African-Americans back Africa, was born. He was active in
the US from 1916-1925 and advocated racial separation and emigration of
American Negroes to Africa. He was deported in 1925. He was the founder
of the Universal Negro Improvement Association. He also founded the
Black Star Line, a steamship company owned and operated by blacks to
link black communities around the world.
(AHD, p.544)(Civilization, July-Aug, 1995, p.
36)(WSJ, 2/7/96, p.A-12)(HN, 8/17/98)
1888 Aug 17, Monty Wooley, actor
(Pied Piper, Man Who Came to Dinner), was born in NYC.
(SC, 8/17/02)
1890 Aug 17, Harry Hopkins,
organized the Works Projects Administration (WPA) under President
Roosevelt, was born.
(HN, 8/17/98)
1892 Aug 17, Mae West (d.1980),
American actress in burlesque, vaudeville, Broadway, and movies, was
born in Brooklyn. "Marriage is a great institution, but I’m not ready
for an institution, yet."
(HN, 8/17/98)(AP, 8/31/00)(SC, 8/17/02)
1900 Aug 17, Quincy Howe,
newscaster (CBS Weekend News), was born in Boston, Mass.
(SC, 8/17/02)
1901 Aug 17, Henri Tomasi,
composer (Don Juan de Manara), was born in Marseilles, France.
(SC, 8/17/02)
1905 Aug 17, John Hay Whitney,
publisher (NY Herald Tribune 1961-67), was born.
(SC, 8/17/02)
1908 Aug 17, The San Francisco
Bank of Italy opened new HQ at Clay and Montgomery.
(SC, 8/17/02)
1914 Aug 17, Franklin D. Roosevelt
Jr., son of FDR, (Rep-D-NY, 1949-55), was born.
(SC, 8/17/02)
1915 Aug 17, Leo Frank, a Jewish
factory manager, was lynched by a mob of anti-Semites in Cob County,
Georgia. He had been convicted in the killing of Mary Phagan, a
13-year-old girl who worked at his pencil factory. The governor
believed him innocent and commuted his death sentence in June. The
state of Georgia pardoned Frank in 1986. In 2000 Stephen Goldfarb
posted the names of some 2 dozen men believed to have participated in
the murder.
(WSJ, 6/9/00, p.A1)(AP, 8/17/02)(AP, 3/11/06)
1918 Aug 17, Mort Marshall, actor
(Cully-Dumplings), was born in NYC.
(SC, 8/17/02)
1920 Aug 17, Georgia Gibbs, singer
(Ballin the Jack, Kiss of Fire), was born in Worcester, Mass.
(SC, 8/17/02)
1920 Aug 17, Ray Chapman died
after he was hit in the head by Yanks' pitcher Carl Mays.
(SC, 8/17/02)
1921 Aug 17, Maureen O'Hara,
actress (Miracle on 34th St), was born in Dublin, Ireland.
(SC, 8/17/02)
1922 Aug 17, Ralph Roberts, actor
(Tradition, Gone are the Days), was born in NC.
(SC, 8/17/02)
1923 Aug 17, Larry Rivers
(d.2002), painter and sculptor, was born in Bronx, NY, as Yitzroch
Grossberg.
(HN, 8/17/00)(SC, 8/12/02)(NW, 8/26/02, p.9)
1927 Aug 17, Robert Moore, actor
(Marshall-Diana), was born in Detroit, Mich.
(SC, 8/17/02)
1929 Aug 17, Francis Gary Powers,
US spy (USSR captured him in 1959 U-2 incident), was born.
(SC, 8/17/02)
1929 Aug 17, James Horace
Alderman, convicted of murdering 2 Coast Guardsmen and a Secret Service
agent in 1927, was hanged at 5:00 a.m. at Coast Guard Base 6 in Fort
Lauderdale, Florida. It was reported in the media that Alderman's neck
was broken and he died a painless death. In fact, Alderman kicked and
strangled for a full twelve minutes before being pronounced dead by a
local doctor. He was the only person ever executed on Coast Guard
property.
(www.jacksjoint.com/hanging.htm)
1932 Aug 17, Chet Allen, actor
(Jerry-Bonino, Slats-Troubleshooter), was born in Chickasha, Okla.
(SC, 8/17/02)
1932 Aug 17, John (Red) Kerr,
basketball coach, was born.
(HN, 8/17/00)
1932 Aug 17, V.S, Naipaul
(b.1932), English novelist (Middle Passage), was born in Chaguana,
Trinidad. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2001.
(SFC, 10/12/01, p.C1)(SC, 8/17/02)
1939 Aug 17, Luther Allison,
guitarist (Bad News is Coming), was born in Arkansas.
(SC, 8/17/02)
1939 Aug 17, The film "Wizard of
Oz" opened at Loew's Capitol Theater in NYC.
(SC, 8/17/02)
1940 Aug 17, President Roosevelt
and Canadian Prime Minister William Mackenzie King met in Ogdensburg,
N.Y., where they agreed to set up a joint defense commission.
(AP, 8/17/97)
1940 Aug 17, Wendell Willkie, a
former Democrat, delivered his formal acceptance speech as the
Republican nominee for president from his home in Elwood, Indiana.
(WSJ, 7/22/96, p.A12)(SFEC, 7/30/00,
p.C17)(http://tinyurl.com/e3xrw)
1942 Aug 17, U.S. Eighth Air Force
bombers attacked Rouen, France.
(AP, 8/17/02)
1942 Aug 17, Marine Raiders
attacked Makin Island (Kiribati) in the Gilbert Islands from two
submarines. [see Aug 18]
(HN, 8/17/98)
1943 Aug 17, Robert DeNiro,
American actor, was born. He won Oscars for his roles in "The Godfather
Part II" and "Raging Bull."
(HN, 8/17/00)
1943 Aug 17, The Allied conquest
of Sicily was completed as U.S. and British forces entered Messina.
(AP, 8/17/97)(HN, 8/17/98)
1944 Aug 17, The mayor of Paris,
Pierre Charles Tattinger, met with the German commander Dietrich von
Choltitz to protest the explosives being deployed throughout the city.
Adolf Hitler had decreed that Paris should be left a smoking ruin, but
Dietrich von Choltitz thought better of his Fuhrer's order.
(HN, 8/17/98)
1944 Aug 17, Japanese and Swiss
officials agreed to divert 40% of millions of dollars, paid by the US
and Britain for the care of prisoners of war held by the Japanese, to
pay off Japan’s debts to Swiss businesses. The other 60% was for the
free disposal by the Japanese government.
(SFC, 12/1/97, p.A10)
1945 Aug 17, Indonesian
nationalists declared independence from the Netherlands. Upon hearing
confirmation that Japan has surrendered, Sukarno proclaims Indonesia’s
indepen¬dence. Sukarno helped lead Indonesia to independence from
the Dutch. President Sukarno, an ardent nationalist, became president
at the time of Indonesian independence and helped the Communists become
the leading party in the country. The Dutch resisted and 4 years of
fighting followed.
(SFC, 10/12/96, p.A13)(SFC, 6/22/96, p.A12)(SFEC,
4/27/97, p.T7)(HNQ, 5/21/98)(AP, 8/17/99)(SFC, 9/8/99, p.A17)(HN,
8/17/00)
1948 Aug 17, Former State
Department official Alger Hiss faced his chief accuser, Whittaker
Chambers, during a closed-door meeting in New York of the House
Un-American Activities Committee, and repeated his denial that he'd
ever been a Communist agent.
(AP, 8/17/08)
1951 Aug 17, Hurricane winds drove
6 ships ashore at Kingston, Jamaica.
(SC, 8/17/02)
1952 Aug 17, Kathryn C. Thornton,
PhD, astronaut, was born in Montgomery, Alabama.
(SC, 8/17/02)
1953 Aug 17, Kevin Rowlands,
rocker (Dexy's Midnight Runners-Come on Eileen), was born.
(SC, 8/17/02)
1955 Aug 17, Hurricane Diane
followed hurricane Connie and flooded the Connecticut River killing 190
and doing $1.8 billion in damage.
(SC, 8/17/02)
1958 Aug 17, Belinda Carlisle,
(GoGos lead singer, Heaven on Earth), was born in Hollywood.
(SC, 8/17/02)
1958 Aug 17, World's 1st Moon
probe, US's Thor-Able, exploded at T +77 sec.
(SC, 8/17/02)
1959 Aug 17, A 7.1 quake struck at
Yellowstone National Park.
(SC, 8/17/02)
1960 Aug 17, Sean Penn, actor
(Fast Times at Ridgemont High), was born.
(SC, 8/17/02)
1960 Aug 17, American Francis Gary
Powers pleaded guilty at his Moscow trial for spying over the Soviet
Union in a U-2 plane.
(HN, 8/17/98)
1960 Aug 17, Gabon became
independence from France. Leon M'Ba, head of the Gabon Democratic
Block, became the 1st president.
(PC, 1992, p.973)(WSJ, 1/24/97, p.A14)(EWH, 1st ed.,
p.1173)
1961 Aug 17, The Kennedy
administration established the Alliance for Progress.
(SC, 8/17/02)
1962 Aug 17, Beatles replaced Pete
Best with Ringo Starr.
(SC, 8/17/02)
1962 Aug 17, East German border
guards shot and mortally wounded Peter Fechter (18), who had attempted
to cross over the Berlin Wall into the western sector.
(AP, 8/17/97)
1965 Aug 17, Glen Goldsmith,
rocker (What You See is What You Get), was born.
(SC, 8/17/02)
1966 Aug 17, Pioneer 7 launched
into solar orbit.
(SC, 8/17/02)
1969 Aug 17, Donald E. Wahlberg
Jr., rocker (New Kids-Hangin' Tough), was born in Boston.
(www.donniewahlberg.com/bio.htm)
1969 Aug 17, Hurricane Camille hit
the Gulf Coast at Pass Christian, Miss., leaving 256 people killed in
Louisiana and Mississippi. Damage was later estimated at $3.8 billion.
(AP, 8/17/97)(SFEC, 6/6/99, p.A17)(AP, 8/30/05)
1969 Aug 17, Mies van der Rohe
(b.1886), German-born American architect, died. He founded the Int’l.
Style and designed early steel-framed and glass-jacketed buildings. He
coined the phrase: "Less is more."
(SFC, 1/17/98,
p.C5)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_Mies_van_der_Rohe)
1970 Aug 17, Venera 7 was launched
by USSR for a soft landing on Venus.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venera_7)
1971 Aug 17, Horace McMahon
(b.1906), film, theater and TV actor, died.
(www.imdb.com/name/nm0573024/bio)
1972 Aug 17, The International
Tribunal in The Hague pronounced that the Icelanders did not have
sovereignty over the areas between 12 and 50 miles. The Icelandic
government protested and decided to take no notice of this decree.
(www.nat.is/travelguideeng/50_miles_limit_and_the_cod_war_1.htm)
1973 Aug 17, Conrad Aiken
(b.1889), American Pulitzer winning poet and novelist, died.
(www.kirjasto.sci.fi/caiken.htm)
1975 Aug 17, Sig Arno (b.1895),
German film actor (My Friend Irma), died in Hamburg, Germany.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sig_Arno)
1976 Aug 17, William Redfield
(b.1927), film and TV actor, died.
(www.imdb.com/name/nm0714835/)
1978 Aug 17, The helium-filled
balloon, Double Eagle II, crossed the Atlantic in 6 days. The first
successful trans-Atlantic balloon flight ended as Americans Maxie
Anderson, Ben Abruzzo and Larry Newman landed outside Paris.
(AP, 8/17/97)(HN, 8/17/98)
1978 Aug 17, Afghanistan announced
that defense minister Gen. Abdul Qadir, one of the Apr 27 coup leaders,
has been arrested after the discovery of an alleged plot to overthrow
the government. Qadir also belonged to the Parcham faction.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1978_in_Afghanistan)
1979 Aug 17, Vivian Vance
(b.1909), TV and theater actress, died. She played Ethel Mertz in the
“I Love Lucy” show.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vivian_Vance)
1980 Aug 17, Lindy Chamberlain
claimed that her baby, Azaria, was dragged away from a family campsite
on Fraser Island, Australia, by a dingo. The body was never found and
Chamberlain was convicted of murder. She was released after 4 years and
the Meryl Streep film "A Cry in the Dark" was based on her story.
(SFC, 4/10/98, p.A14)(AFP, 10/6/04)
1980 Aug 17, The Viking 1 Mars
Orbiter was powered down after over 1400 orbits.
(http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/viking.html)
1981 Aug 17, In Florida James
Dvorak was found bludgeoned to death at Indian Harbor Beach in what was
described as a robbery gone wrong. In 1981 William Dillon was convicted
and sentenced to prison. In 2008 Dillon (49) faced a retrial after DNA
evidence called into question his conviction.
(SFC, 11/19/08,
p.A4)(http://axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_28824.shtml)
1982 Aug 17, A jury in South Bend,
Ind., acquitted self-avowed racist Joseph Paul Franklin, for the 1980
attempted assassination of Vernon Jordan Jr, National Urban League
president.
(http://tinyurl.com/2nzrco)
1982 Aug 17, Barney Phillips (68),
American actor (Dragnet, Felony Squad), died.
(www.imdb.com/name/nm0680237/)
1982 Aug 17, Ruth First, an exiled
anti-apartheid activist, was killed in Mozambique from a letter bomb
sent by agents of the Nationalist South African government. In
1997 her daughter, Gillian Slovo, published "Every Secret Thing: My
Family, My Country."
(SFEC, 5/11/97, BR p.5)(SSFC, 2/10/02,
p.M6)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth_First)
1983 Aug 17, Ira Gershwin
(b.1896), lyricist, died in Beverly Hills, Ca. Later a room at the
Library of Congress’ Jefferson Building was dedicated to him and his
brother George.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ira_Gershwin)(SFC,
12/4/96, p.E3)(SFC, 4/14/98, p.E5)
1985 Aug 17, More than 1,400
meatpackers walked off the job at the Geo. A. Hormel and Co.'s main
plant in Austin, Minn., in a bitter strike that lasted just over a year.
(AP, 8/17/05)
1985 Aug 17, Rajiv Gandhi
announced Punjab state elections in India.
(http://tinyurl.com/yru62e)
1986 Aug 17, A bronze pig statue
was unveiled at Seattle's Pike Place Market.
(SC, 8/17/02)
1987 Aug 17, The DJIA closed above
2,700 for 1st time (2,700.57).
(www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/business/longterm/blackm/fund.htm)
1987 Aug 17, Rudolf Hess, the last
member of Adolf Hitler's inner circle, died at a Berlin hospital near
Spandau Prison at age 93, having apparently committed suicide by
strangling himself with an electrical cord. His family claims that he
was murdered [see May 10, 1941].
(AP, 8/17/97)(SFEC, 8/17/97, p.A4)
1988 Aug 17, Vice President George
Bush was nominated for president at the Republican National Convention
in New Orleans.
(AP, 8/17/98)
1988 Aug 17, The US FDA approved
Minoxidil as a hair loss treatment.
(http://openweb.tvnews.vanderbilt.edu/1988-8/1988-08-17-ABC-10.html)
1988 Aug 17, Franklin D. Roosevelt
Jr. (Rep-D-NY, 1949-55), died on his 74th birthday in Poughkeepsie, NY.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_Delano_Roosevelt,_Jr.)
1988 Aug 17, Pakistani President
Mohammad Zia ul-Haq (63) and US Ambassador Arnold Raphel were killed in
a mysterious plane crash. Zia, president from 1977-1988, was
responsible for the 1977 overthrow and 1979 death of Premier Bhutto.
Zia did much to turn Pakistan towards Islamic fundamentalism. Bhutto’s
daughter, Benazir Bhutto, became prime minister in November.
(WSJ, 12/14/95, p.A-1)(AP, 8/17/98)(Econ, 6/14/08,
p.103)
1989 Aug 17, The Commerce
Department reported the U.S. trade deficit had shrunk to $8.7 billion
in June.
(AP, 8/17/99)
1990 Aug 17, The film "The
Exorcist 3" premiered.
(www.imdb.com/title/tt0099528/)
1990 Aug 17, The Commerce
Department reported the US trade deficit shrank to $8.17 billion
in June.
(AP, 8/17/00)
1990 Aug, 17, Phyllis Polaner,
former aide to his ex-wife Robin Givens, sued Mike Tyson (b.1966) for
sexual harassment. A New York City civil jury found Tyson committed
battery but that his behavior was "not outrageous."
(www.canoe.ca/BoxingTysonHolyfield/tyson_chronology.html)(http://tinyurl.com/hfqx9)
1990 Aug 17, Pearl Bailey
(b.1918), Broadway actress, singer, died in Philadelphia from a heart
attack at age 72.
(www.blackpressusa.com/history/Archive.asp?week=33)
1991 Aug 17, Iraq said it would
"play host" to all foreign citizens in the country who were from
"aggressive nations," and place them in military and civilian targets
until the threat of war was over.
(AP, 8/17/01)
1992 Aug 17, Actor-director Woody
Allen admitted being romantically involved with Soon-Yi Previn, the
adopted daughter of Allen's longtime companion, actress Mia Farrow.
(AP, 8/17/97)
1992 Aug 17, President Bush
arrived in Houston for the opening of the Republican National
Convention, which featured an address by former President Reagan.
(AP, 8/17/97)
1993 Aug 17, A prosecutor in Wayne
County, Mich., charged Dr. Jack Kevorkian under Michigan's ban on
assisted suicide for aiding in the death of Thomas Hyde, who suffered
from Lou Gehrig's disease. A jury later acquitted Kevorkian. Kevorkian
provided patients means and assistance in dying and Michigan’s
legislature moved to outlaw his work.
(TMC, 1994, p.1993)(AP, 8/17/98)
1994 Aug 17, Deputy Treasury
Secretary Roger Altman resigned under pressure, the latest Clinton
administration official felled by the Whitewater controversy.
(AP, 8/17/99)
1995 Aug 17, James B. McDougal,
McDougal’s ex-wife, Susan H. McDougal, and Arkansas Governor Jim Guy
Tucker were indicted by the Whitewater grand jury. James McDougal was
convicted on 18 of 19 counts of fraud and conspiracy; Tucker was found
guilty on one count of fraud and one count of conspiracy; Susan
McDougal was convicted on four fraud-related charges. James B.
McDougal’s sentencing was delayed when the court suggested he testify
against the Clintons. He died of a heart attack in federal prison in
Fort Worth, Texas, on March 8, 1998. Susan H. McDougal was sentenced to
two years in prison, probation, community service and $305,000 in fines
and restitution. She received a full Presidential pardon from outgoing
President Bill Clinton in the final hours of his presidency on January
20, 2001. Jim Guy Tucker was convicted of three counts of felony; due
to his poor health, he was sentenced to four years probation and 18
months of house detention and $325,000 in fines and restitution.
(AP,
8/17/01)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_McDougal)
1996 Aug 17, The Reform Party in
Valley Forge, Pa., announced Ross Perot had won its nomination to be
its first-ever presidential candidate.
(SFC, 8/18/96, p.A10)(AP, 8/17/97)
1996 Aug 17, An Air Force C-130
cargo plane carrying gear for President Clinton crashed and exploded
shortly after takeoff from Jackson Hole Airport in Wyoming; eight crew
members and a Secret Service employee were killed.
(SFC, 8/19/96, p.A1)(AP, 8/17/97)
1996 Aug 17, In Algeria more than
100 militants shot, stabbed and hacked to death some 63 people when
they attacked 2 busses after setting a fake barricade. The government
denied the report.
(SFC, 8/20/96, p.A9)
1996 Aug 17, In Brussels, Belgium,
police led by Marc Dutroux unearthed the remains of two 8-year-old
girls kidnapped in June of 1995.
(SFC, 8/19/96, p.A8)(SFC, 4/24/98, p.A14)
1996 Aug 17, The first French
woman in space, Claudie Andre-Deshays, took off from the Baikonur
cosmodrome in Kazakhstan in a Soyuz-U rocket.
(SFC, 8/18/96, p.A2)
1996 Aug 17, It was reported that
900 million South African bees died this year. The Cape bees were
introduced in the north and threw off the breeding patterns of the
native bees. They were unable to endure the harsher climate and died.
Fruit farmers and native plants were put into severe jeopardy.
(SFC, 8/17/96, p.A4)
1996 Aug 17, It was reported that
tens of thousands of dead rats were caught in fisherman’s nets in
India’s northeast Assam state. It was speculated that a rare poisonous
bamboo flower was the cause.
(SFC, 8/17/96, p.A4)
1996 Aug 17, In Mexico federal
prosecutor, Jesus Romero Magana (48), was killed. He was the first
prosecutor to interrogate the gunman who killed Luis Colosio, the pres.
candidate in 1994.
(SFC, 8/19/96, p.A9)(WSJ, 8/20/96, p.A1)(SFC,
9/16/96, p.A9)
1997 Aug 17, President Clinton
urged both sides in the United Parcel Service strike to "redouble their
efforts" to reach a deal, but hours later, negotiators recessed their
intensive talks.
(AP, 8/17/98)
1998 Aug 17, Pres. Clinton
testified via video via closed-circuit TV from the White House before a
grand jury concerning his relations with Monica Lewinsky. He then
delivered a TV address in which he denied previously committing
perjury, admitted his relationship with Lewinsky was "wrong," and
criticized Kenneth Starr's investigation. "I did have a relationship
with Miss Lewinsky that was not appropriate... It was wrong."
(WSJ, 8/17/98, p.A1)(SFC, 8/18/98, p.A1)(AP, 8/17/99)
1998 Aug 17, The Federal Reserve
Board approved the megamerger of NationsBank and BankAmerica.
(AP, 8/17/99)
1998 Aug 17, In China flooding of
the Nen River at Daqing closed 1,391 wells and halted production at
another 280. Daqing has 25,000 wells that produced 17.9 billion gallons
of oil last year.
(SFC, 8/18/98, p.A7)
1998 Aug 17, India outlawed the
use of quinacrine to sterilize women due to its suspected effects as a
carcinogen.
(WSJ, 8/18/98, p.A1)
1998 Aug 17, The foreign debt of
Nicaragua was reported to be $6 billion.
(SFC, 8/17/98, p.A8)
1998 Aug 17, NATO forces began a
5-day exercise in Albania as a threat to Serbia.
(WSJ, 8/18/98, p.A1)
1998 Aug 17, It was reported that
spy satellites had detected a secret underground complex in North Korea
that was suspected of being involved in a nuclear weapons program.
(SFC, 8/17/98, p.A8)
1998 Aug 17, Russia devalued its
ruble and allowed the ruble's value to drop by up to 34 percent. It
also imposed delays in the repayment of billions of dollars in debt.
The government defaulted on $40 million in debt and provoked a stampede
of capital from emerging markets.
(SFC, 8/18/98, p.A6)(WSJ, 8/18/98, p.A1)(AP,
8/17/99)(WSJ, 10/4/00, p.A10)
1999 Aug 17, In Bosnia the Office
of the High Representative, an int'l. agency for carrying out aspects
of the Dayton peace agreement, reported that as much as a billion
dollars disappeared from public funds from int'l. aid projects. Losses
were triggered when USAID called in loans from the Bosnia and
Herzegovina Bank that could not be covered.
(SFC, 8/17/99, p.A1)(SFC, 8/18/99, p.A12)
1999 Aug 17, In Colombia suspected
rightist gunmen shot and killed at least 13 villagers in Zambrano
including a girl age 13.
(SFC, 8/18/99, p.C2)
1999 Aug 17, In Iraq US and
British warplanes bombed missile sites in the north and south and Iraqi
military reported 19 people killed and 11 injured. 12 people were
killed in Jesan by the bombing, 3 brothers, their wives, 4 children and
another couple.
(SFC, 8/18/99, p.C2)(SFC, 8/19/99, p.A10)
1999 Aug 17, In southern Lebanon
Hezbollah guerrillas killed 2 Israeli soldiers and wounded 4 others in
a revenge clash that left 1 guerrilla dead.
(SFC, 8/18/99, p.A12)
1999 Aug 17, In Peru officials
reported that Carlos Audel Nunez, a Shining Path rebel leader aka
"Comrade Manuel," was killed along with his wife in a clash with
military forces.
(SFC, 8/18/99, p.C2)
1999 Aug 17, Pakistan said 6
soldiers and 2 civilians were killed in shelling by India.
(WSJ, 8/18/99, p.A1)
1999 Aug 17, In Russia Yevgeny
Primakov agreed to lead the Fatherland-All Russia Movement.
(SFC, 8/18/99, p.A10)
1999 Aug 17, Russia allowed the
ruble to drop in value by up to 34 percent.
(AP, 8/17/00)
1999 Aug 17, Rwanda and Uganda
agreed to an immediate truce to 4 days of fighting in Kisangani, Congo.
(SFC, 8/18/99, p.A12)
1999 Aug 17, A 7.4 earthquake hit
western Turkey with many killed and thousands injured. Over 17,000 were
later reported killed. The quake was centered under the Sea of Armara
on the North Anatolian fault. It was later reported to have pushed
Turkey 4 feet closer to Europe.
(SFC, 8/17/99, p.A1)(SFC, 8/18/99, p.A1,13)(WSJ,
8/18/99, p.A1)(SFC, 8/20/99, p.A1)(SFEC, 8/29/99, p.A17)(AP, 8/17/03)
2000 Aug 17, Al Gore accepted the
Democratic nomination for president, pledging a "better, fairer, more
prosperous America" at the party's convention in Los Angeles. Shortly
before Gore spoke, his running mate, Joseph Lieberman, was nominated by
acclamation.
(SFC, 8/18/00, p.A1)(AP, 8/17/05)
2000 Aug 17, Word leaked out that
Independent Counsel Robert Ray was assembling a new grand jury to
investigate President Clinton's conduct in the Monica Lewinsky scandal.
Democrats charged Republicans were behind the release of information,
but a federal judge said he was inadvertently responsible for the
disclosure.
(AP, 8/17/05)
2000 Aug 17, It was reported that
researchers had cloned pigs for the 1st time.
(WSJ, 8/17/00, p.A1)
2000 Aug 17, It was reported that
a soybean aphid from China threatened the $13.5 billion US soybean
market.
(WSJ, 8/17/00, p.A2)
2000 Aug 17, In Afghanistan the
Taliban reversed its decision against women working in bakeries.
(SFC, 8/18/00, p.D6)
2000 Aug 17, A bomb, planted by
the Revolutionary Armed Forces Colombia, exploded in the village of
Carmen de Bolivar and 2 children were killed.
(SFC, 8/19/00, p.A10)
2000 Aug 17, India opened its
first fashion show in Mumbai, Lakme India Fashion Week.
(http://lifestyle.indianetzone.com/fashion/1/lakme_india_fashion_week_(lifw).htm)
2000 Aug 17, In Latvia a bomb
exploded in Riga and 21 people were injured.
(SFC, 8/18/00, p.D6)
2001 Aug 17, US CIA Director
George Tenet briefed Pres. Bush in Texas on day-to-day threats facing
the US.
(SSFC, 3/5/06, p.A18)
2001 Aug 17, Balloonist Steve
Fossett was forced down by bad weather in Brazil after traveling 12,695
miles.
(SFC, 8/18/01, p.A8)
2001 Aug 17, Henrietta Milstein,
founder of the Burlington Coat Factory chain stores, died at age 72.
(WSJ, 8/20/01, p.B8)
2001 Aug 17, It was reported that
some 11,000 Afghanistan refugees had returned home from Pakistan.
(SFC, 8/18/01, p.E1)
2001 cAug 17, The Brazilian
Congress approved a legal civil code that made women equal to men.
(SSFC, 8/19/01, p.A10)
2001 Aug 17, Britain revealed
plans for overhauling Northern Ireland’s police department. Both
Catholic and Protestant groups opposed the changes.
(SFC, 8/18/01, p.A10)
2001 Aug 17, It was reported that
police and private security forces in Honduras had killed at least 66
children this year.
(SFC, 8/17/01, p.A14)
2001 Aug 17, In Macedonia NATO’s
1st advance troops of Operation Essential Harvest arrived in Skopje.
(SFC, 8/18/01, p.A10)
2001 Aug 17, In South Korea Bang
Sang-hoon, president and publisher of Chosun Ilbo, was arrested with 2
other prominent newspaper owners on charges of tax evasion and
embezzlement. Pres. Dae-jun was accused of using tax investigation to
stifle his critics.
(SFC, 8/23/01, p.A13)
2002 Aug 17, The new $ 1 billion
Navy destroyer McCampbell, completed in July at the Bath Iron Works in
Maine, was commissioned in SF.
(SSFC, 8/18/02, p.A2)
2002 Aug 17, In China 3 days of
floods and landslides caused by mountain torrents swept through
southeastern Zhejiang province, killing at least 21 people.
(Reuters, 8/17/02)
2002 Aug 17, In Indonesia a
home-made bomb wounded 13 people, including two children, as they
gathered to mark Independence Day in Aceh province.
(Reuters, 8/17/02)
2002 Aug 17, In Mexico 8 men and a
woman were lined up against a wall and gunned down with assault rifles
and pistols at a ranch in the western state of Michoacan in what
reports said may have been a drug-related massacre.
(AP, 8/18/02)
2002 Aug 17, In Krakow, Poland,
tens of thousands of adoring Poles gave the ailing Pope John Paul II a
joyous welcome home as began his 9th papal visit to his native country.
(AP, 8/17/03)
2002 Aug 17, Russia troops battled
with Chechen rebels who attacked a number of villages in southern
Chechnya in fighting that has left nine soldiers and five civilians
dead.
(AP, 8/17/02)
2003 Aug 17, US Federal
investigators joined industry teams in the search for clues into what
triggered the country's worst power blackout in the Midwest and
Northeast as the Bush administration promised to get answers and
address whatever problem was found.
(AP, 8/17/04)
2003 Aug 17, In southeastern
Afghanistan insurgents attacked a police headquarters sparking a battle
that killed at least 15 fighters and seven Afghan police.
(AP, 8/17/03)
2003 Aug 17, Iceland launched its
first whale hunt in more than a decade in the name of scientific
research. The US, Britain and several other governments opposed to
whaling labeled the hunt unnecessary.
(AP, 8/18/03)
2003 cAug 17, Iranians in Semirom
clashed with police over consolidation of the central city with
less-affluent Shahreza. 8 people were left dead.
(WSJ, 8/18/03, p.A1)
2003 Aug 17, Saboteurs blew a hole
in a giant Baghdad water main, forcing engineers to cut off water to
the capital. Two ferocious blazes raged out of control along the
pipeline that exports Iraq's oil to the north.
(AP, 8/17/03)
2003 Aug 17, Mazen Dana (43), a
Palestinian cameraman for Reuters, was shot dead by US troops in Iraq
while he filmed outside Abu Ghraib prison in western Baghdad. Soldiers
mistook his camera for a rocket-propelled grenade launcher. The
official judgment of the US Military, given five weeks later, was that
The Rules of Engagement required no warning and the tank crew were
justified in shooting Mazen Dana, seeing his TV camera as a
rocket-propelled grenade launcher, or RPG. No disciplinary action was
taken against any US serviceman. Mazen was the 18th foreign journalist
to be killed in Iraq since the occupation by the U.S. Military on March
20, 2003 and the second Reuters cameraman to be killed.
(Reuters,
8/18/03)(www.truthout.org/docs_2005/030605A.shtml)(http://tinyurl.com/lxu5b)
2003 Aug 17, Indonesian
investigators reported the arrest of 9 people in the Aug. 5 attack on
the Marriott Hotel in Jakarta that killed 12 people and wounded nearly
150.
(AP, 8/17/03)
2003 Aug 17, Nepal’s government
forces detained and then shot dead 21 suspected Maoists in the village
of Doramba. In 2005 the major responsible was cashiered and sentenced
to 2 years in prison.
(Econ, 4/16/05,
p.23)(http://hrw.org/reports/2005/nepal0205/2.htm)
2004 Aug 17, Britain brought
terrorism charges against 8 al Qaeda suspects tied to recent alerts
about US financial sites. They were charged with conspiring to commit
murder and use radioactive materials, toxic gases, chemicals or
explosives to cause "fear or injury."
(WSJ, 8/18/04, p.A1)(AP, 8/17/05)
2004 Aug 17, Georgian President
Mikhail Saakashvili appealed to world leaders to convene an
international conference on the conflict in breakaway South Ossetia,
where daily exchanges of gunfire threaten to spark a war. The province
operated as a conduit for smuggling between Georgia and Russia.
(AP, 8/17/04)(Econ, 8/21/04, p.40)
2004 Aug 17, In Haiti a jury
acquitted Louis-Jodel Chamblain, the leader of a paramilitary group
blamed for killing some 3,000 people, after a 14-hour murder trial.
(AP, 8/17/04)
2004 Aug 17, A US research
institute said India is projected to outpace China and become the
world's most populous country by 2050, growing by 50 percent in the
next 46 years to reach more than 1.6 billion people.
(AP, 8/17/04)
2004 Aug 17, At the Athens games,
Romania won its second straight Olympic gold medal in women's
gymnastics; the United States took silver while Russia won the bronze.
(AP, 8/17/05)
2004 Aug 17, Iran said it would
destroy Israel's Dimona nuclear reactor if the Jewish state were to
attack Iran's nuclear facilities.
(AP, 8/17/04)
2004 Aug 17, Israeli Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon approved the construction of 1,000 more homes in
Jewish settlements in the West Bank.
(AP, 8/17/04)
2004 Aug 17, Israeli soldiers shot
and killed a 9-year-old Palestinian boy in Nablus as he sat on the
front steps of his home eating a sandwich.
(AP, 8/17/04)
2005 Aug 17, Hundreds of anti-war
vigils were held nationwide, part of an effort spurred by Cindy
Sheehan's protest near President Bush's Texas ranch in memory of her
son Casey, who was killed in Iraq.
(AP, 8/17/06)
2005 Aug 17, Researchers from
Greenpeace Int’l reported that toxic waste from electronic devices
discarded in the US and dismantled in China and India was posing a
sever problem around Guiyu, China, and New Delhi, India.
(SFC, 8/17/05, p.C3)
2005 Aug 17, John Bahcall (70),
astrophysicist and force behind the Hubble telescope, died.
(WSJ, 8/22/05, p.A1)
2005 Aug 17, Australian scientists
said that cyclone Ingrid, which lashed northeastern Australia in March,
inflicted damage on 10 per cent of the Great Barrier Reef.
(AP, 8/17/05)
2005 Aug 17, Nearly 500 homemade
bombs planted by suspected Islamic militants exploded nearly
simultaneously across Bangladesh, killing 2 people, including a young
boy, and wounding at least 73. The attacks were later attributed to
Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen (JMB). 7 leaders of JMB were later arrested and 6
were to be hanged in 2007. In 2008 a court in northwestern Bangladesh
sentenced seven Islamic militants to life in prison after finding them
guilty of carrying the bombings.
(AP, 8/17/05)(Econ, 8/27/05, p.35)(Econ, 2/10/07,
p.40)(AP, 1/31/08)
2005 Aug 17, China announced a
broad crackdown on all media harmful to young people.
(Econ, 8/20/05, p.33)
2005 Aug 17, India’s Andhra
Pradesh state banned a violent Maoist rebel group, two days after
rebels killed 10 people, including a lawmaker and bureaucrat.
(AP, 8/17/05)
2005 Aug 17, In Iraq 3 car bombs
exploded near a bus station and hospital in Baghdad, killing at least
43 people and wounding 89 in the deadliest attacks in the capital in
weeks. A series of insurgent attacks also killed 11 Iraqis, including
six soldiers assigned to protect oil pipelines in northern Iraq.
(AFP, 8/17/05)
2005 Aug 17, Israeli troops
entered Gaza's largest synagogue to remove hundreds of worshippers, who
had formed long lines and swayed in prayer. A right-wing West Bank
settler opposed to Israel's pullout from the Gaza Strip set herself on
fire in southern Israel, suffering life-threatening burns on 70% of her
body.
(AP, 8/17/05)
2005 Aug 17, Libya called on the
Bulgarian government to negotiate a payment to win amnesty for five
Bulgarian medics and a Palestinian sentenced to death for allegedly
infecting 400 children with the AIDS virus.
(AP, 8/18/05)
2005 Aug 17, Norwegian officials
said 3 unarmed Polish researchers stranded on a remote Arctic island
were rescued by helicopter as polar bears were closing in on them. The
escape took place on an island in Norway's Svalbard archipelago, about
650 miles from the North Pole.
(AP, 8/17/05)
2005 Aug 17, In Paraguay US
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld met with President Nicanor Duarte
Frutos and was meeting with Minister of Defense Roberto Gonzalez
Segovia, in part, to gauge their views on the escalating involvement of
Cuban President Fidel Castro and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
(AP, 8/17/05)
2005 Aug 17, Top Republic of Congo
officials were acquitted of genocide and war crimes charges stemming
from the disappearance of 350 refugees who had returned home during a
cease-fire in the country's civil war.
(AP, 8/17/05)
2005 Aug 17, Officials said Russia
is investigating bird deaths in a region west of the Ural mountains in
what could become the 1st case of the deadly bird flu virus spreading
to Europe.
(AP, 8/17/05)
2006 Aug 17, President Bush signed
new rules to prod companies into shoring up their pension plans.
(AP, 8/17/07)
2006 Aug 17, A federal judge in
Detroit ruled that President Bush's warrantless surveillance program
violated the rights to free speech and privacy, as well as the
separation of powers enshrined in the Constitution. The administration
said it would appeal.
(AP, 8/18/07)
2006 Aug 17, Several large
California auto insurers said they will set premiums based on driving
records rather than ZIP codes and reduce rates for most motorists.
(SFC, 8/18/06, p.A1)
2006 Aug 17, In New Orleans Merck
& Co. lost a second federal trial over its withdrawn painkiller
Vioxx and must pay $51 million to a retired FBI agent who had a heart
attack after taking the drug for more than two years.
(AP, 8/17/06)
2006 Aug 17, Scientists believe
they have found a key gene that helped the human brain evolve from our
chimp-like ancestors. In just a few million years, one area of the
human genome seems to have evolved about 70 times faster than the rest
of our genetic code. It appears to have a role in a rapid tripling of
the size of the brain's crucial cerebral cortex, according to an
article published in the journal Nature.
(AP, 8/17/06)
2006 Aug 17, In the Arctic ice Lt.
Jessica Hill (31) and Boatswain's Mate Steven Duque (22), divers on the
US Coast Guard cutter Healy, died during a practice dive.
(AP, 9/24/06)
2006 Aug 17, In eastern
Afghanistan a bomb mistakenly dropped by a US-led coalition aircraft
killed 10 Afghan police officers in Paktika province. 16 more people,
including a US soldier, died in violence across the country.
(AP, 8/17/06)(WSJ, 8/18/06, p.A1)
2006 Aug 17, An overnight volcanic
eruption in Ecuador's Andes mountains killed at least one person and
left more than 60 others missing. It was the first fatality reported
from a Tungurahua eruption since the volcano rumbled back to life in
1999 after staying dormant for eight decades.
(AP, 8/17/06)
2006 Aug 17, Dominican Republic
President Leonel Fernandez named four generals and a former law partner
to the Cabinet, a day after his party took control of the Caribbean
country's Congress for the first time.
(AP, 8/18/06)
2006 Aug 17, President Jacques
Chirac announced that France will immediately double to 400 troops its
contingent in the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon.
(AP, 8/17/06)
2006 Aug 17, In Indonesia an
Islamic militant convicted in the 2002 Bali bombings was released from
prison and 11 others jailed for minor roles had their sentences reduced
to mark independence day.
(AP, 8/17/06)
2006 Aug 17, In Indonesia a woman
died of bird flu in a village where authorities were investigating a
possible cluster of human cases of the H5N1 virus.
(AP, 8/20/06)
2006 Aug 17, In central Baghdad 2
car bombs killed 13 people and injured 55, hours after another bomb
killed 8 laborers. One US soldier killed when a roadside bomb exploded
near a foot patrol south of Baghdad. A gallon of gasoline on the black
market in Baghdad sold for about $4.92, although the official price was
64 cents a gallon. Iraq said it had doubled the money allocated for
importing oil products in August and September to tackle the country's
worst fuel shortage since Saddam Hussein's 2003 ouster.
(AP, 8/17/06)(SFC, 8/18/06, p.A7)
2006 Aug 17, Jordanian envoy Ahmed
al-Lozi has presented his credentials to the Iraqi government, becoming
the first fully accredited Arab ambassador in the country since the
fall of Saddam Hussein.
(AP, 8/18/06)
2006 Aug 17, Lebanese troops,
tanks and armored vehicles deployed south of the Litani River, a key
provision of the UN cease-fire plan that ended fighting between Israel
and Hezbollah. The deployment marks a first step toward extending
government control in a region Lebanese troops have largely avoided for
four decades. A Middle East Airlines passenger jet flew into Beirut
airport from Jordan as officials partially lifted a 36-day Israeli air
blockade.
(AP, 8/17/06)
2006 Aug 17, An outbreak of strain
of bluetongue, a disease transmitted to sheep by insects but which is
not contagious nor known to affect humans, was detected in the southern
Netherlands. Belgium and Germany soon reported cases.
(AFP, 8/28/06)
2006 Aug 17, Sri Lankan troops
beat back a fresh attempt by Tamil Tigers to overrun the main defenses
of the northern peninsula of Jaffna and killed at least 98 guerrillas.
At least six soldiers were killed and 60 wounded in the intense battle.
(AFP, 8/17/06)
2007 Aug 17, The US Federal
Reserve cut the primary discount rate, a dramatic move aimed at easing
worries about tightening credit and calming global financial markets.
(AP, 8/17/07)
2007 Aug 17, New Mexico’s Gov.
Bill Richardson ordered the state Health Department to resume planning
of a medical marijuana program despite the agency's worries about
possible federal prosecution.
(AP, 8/18/07)
2007 Aug 17, In southern
Afghanistan a suicide bomber killed a district chief and 3 of his
children. 5 civilians were killed in fighting between NATO soldiers and
Taliban in the east. Insurgents holed up in buildings and trenches
attacked Afghan police and coalition forces near Fire Base Robinson.
Nearly a dozen suspected militants were killed in the ensuing battle.
(AP, 8/17/07)(AP, 8/18/07)
2007 Aug 17, Bill Deedes (b.1913),
British journalist and politician, died in Kent, England. He is the
only person in Britain to have been both a member of the British
cabinet and the editor of a major daily newspaper.
(Econ, 8/25/07,
p.14)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Deedes)
2007 Aug 17, The Criminal
Intelligence Service Canada annual report estimated that there are 950
organized crime groups operating in the country.
(Reuters, 8/17/07)
2007 Aug 17, Hurricane Dean tore
through the eastern Caribbean islands of St. Lucia and Martinique,
ripping roofs from buildings, downing trees and knocking out power. 100
mph winds ruined the entire banana harvest on St. Lucia and Martinique
and battered the banana industry in Dominica.
(AP, 8/17/07)(AP, 8/18/07)
2007 Aug 17, In eastern China a
dike on the Wen river in Shandong province broke, sending water gushing
into 2 mines run by the Huayuan Mining Co. in the city of Xintai. 181
miners were killed. In 2008 two managers were sentenced to 7 years in
prison for their roles in the accident.
(Econ, 8/25/07, p.58)(AP, 4/17/08)(AP, 8/17/08)
2007 Aug 17, Borse Dubai made a
$3.95 billion takeover bid for OMX AB, challenging US-based Nasdaq
Stock Market Inc. for ownership of the Stockholm-based Nordic stock
exchange operator.
(AP, 8/17/07)
2007 Aug 17, PM Nouri al-Maliki
told Sunni tribal chieftains in Tikrit that all Iraqis must join to
crush al-Qaida in Iraq and extremist Shiite militias "to save our
coming generations." The Ansar al-Sunna group posted a video showing
the execution of Alaa Abboud Fartous Diab, a Defense Ministry official
accused of working with US forces.
(AP, 8/17/07)(AP, 8/18/07)
2007 Aug 17, Nigerian authorities
imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew in Port Harcourt after security forces
and gang members clashed in battles that left dozens dead.
(AP, 8/17/07)
2007 Aug 17, In Peru six strong
aftershocks struck as the death toll from the Aug 15 8.0
earthquake passed 500.
(AP, 8/17/07)
2007 Aug 17, Romania and the US
started military training exercises to test installations that will
become the first US facilities in the former Soviet bloc, a plan
opposed by Russia.
(Reuters, 8/30/07)
2007 Aug 17, Russia’s President
Vladimir Putin said that he had ordered the military to resume regular
long-range flights of strategic bombers.
(AP, 8/17/07)
2007 Aug 17, The six members of
the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) held their first joint
maneuvers on Russian land in a demonstration of their growing military
ties and a shared desire to counter US global clout. The presidents of
Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan
attended the unprecedented joint military exercises in Chelyabinsk near
the Kazakh border.
(AFP, 8/17/07)
2007 Aug 17, Serbia said it was
time to return its security forces to Kosovo, a move that could derail
last-ditch talks on the fate of the Albanian-majority territory before
they begin.
(Reuters, 8/17/07)
2007 Aug 17, Saudi King Abdullah
ordered two aid packages worth 20 million dollars each be dispatched to
Sudan and Mauritania to help the impoverished African countries hit by
severe floods.
(AFP, 8/17/07)
2007 Aug 17, In the first trial of
a minister from South Africa’s white racist government, former law and
order Minister Adriaan Vlok and his police chief Johannes Van der Merwe
were both sentenced to 10 years. However, they will not have to spend
any time in prison if they commit no crimes for five years. Three other
former top security officials were given five-year suspended sentences
for their role in the 1989 plot to assassinate Frank Chikane.
(AP, 8/17/07)
2007 Aug 17, The UN announced that
the Netherlands has agreed to host the tribunal that will prosecute
suspects in the assassination of former Lebanese PM Rafik Hariri.
(AP, 8/17/07)
2007 Aug 17, Zambian President
Levy Mwanawasa officially launched a peacekeeping brigade as part of a
planned SADC standby force to be deployed on peace missions and to
tackle disarmament and humanitarian crises on the continent.
(Reuters,
8/17/07)(www.dfa.gov.za/docs/2007/sadc0820.htm)
2008 Aug 17, In San Mateo, Ca.,
the final race was held at Bay Meadows after nearly 74 years of horse
racing.
(SFC, 8/18/08, p.B1)
2008 Aug 17, Dave Freeman (47),
co-author of "100 Things to Do Before You Die" (1999), a travel guide
and ode to odd adventures that inspired readers and imitators, died
after hitting his head in a fall at his home in Venice, Ca.
(AP, 8/26/08)
2008 Aug 17, In Afghanistan 32
Taliban fighters died during a four-hour battle in Zabul province. 9
private security guards also died in the attack on a NATO convoy. About
7,000 police launched a massive security operation in Kabul as the
country prepared to celebrate independence day.
(AP, 8/17/08)
2008 Aug 17, In eastern Algeria
rebels linked to al Qaeda had killed eight policemen, three soldiers
and a civilian in successive ambushes. 4 Islamist militants were killed
in the attack.
(AFP, 8/19/08)
2008 Aug 17, Two small planes
collided in midair and crashed near Coventry in central England,
killing five people.
(AP, 8/17/08)
2008 Aug 17, In Beijing Michael
Phelps won his 8th gold medal as team mate Jason Lezak brought it home
for a world record in the 400-meter medley relay.
(AP, 8/17/08)
2008 Aug 17, In Iraq Farooq
al-Obeidi, deputy head of a group of US-allied Sunni fighters, was
killed by a suicide bomber, dressed in a woman’s robe, along with at
least 9 other people in the Azamiyah neighborhood of northern Baghdad.
(SFC, 8/18/08, p.A6)(AP, 8/18/08)
2008 Aug 17, Israel's Cabinet
approved the release of some 200 Palestinian prisoners as a goodwill
gesture to the government of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
(AP, 8/17/08)
2008 Aug 17, In the southern
Philippines Muslim guerrillas killed four soldiers and four militiamen
in an ambush of a military convoy.
(AP, 8/17/08)
2008 Aug 17, The Kremlin promised
to start withdrawing combat troops from Georgia on August 18, as
Western pressure mounted on Russia to quit the ex-Soviet republic.
(AFP, 8/17/08)
2008 Aug 17, Southern African
countries launched a regional trade zone at a Johannesburg summit that
aims to eliminate import tariffs, with plans for a common currency by
2018. Eleven of the 14 countries that are part of the Southern African
Development Community (SADC) will participate in the free trade area,
including Zimbabwe. Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Malawi
planned to join at a later date due to weak economies.
(AFP, 8/17/08)
2008 Aug 17, A Sudanese court
sentenced to death a top Darfur rebel and seven others, bringing to 38
the number condemned to hang over an unprecedented attack on Khartoum
that killed more than 222 people.
(AP, 8/17/08)
2009 Aug 17, Albert Gonzalez (28)
of Miami, a former informant for the US Secret Service who helped the
agency hunt hackers, was indicted in New Jersey and charged with
conspiring with two other unnamed suspects to steal the private
information. He allegedly stole information from 130 million credit and
debit card accounts in what federal prosecutors called the largest case
of identity theft yet. He was already in jail awaiting trial in a
hacking case. On Aug 28 Gonzalez agreed to plead guilty and serve up to
25 years in federal prison.
(AP, 8/18/09)(SFC, 8/29/09, p.A4)
2009 Aug 17, In Afghanistan former
Uzbek militia chief General Abdul Rashid Dostum threw his support
behind President Hamid Karzai one day after returning from exile in
Turkey. Four minor candidates announced they were withdrawing and
throwing their support behind Karzai. A roadside bomb in southern
Afghanistan killed a US service member, while an American civilian
working for the military died after insurgents attacked a patrol in the
east.
(AP, 8/17/09)
2009 Aug 17, The Central African
Republic’s Communications Minister Cyriaque Gonda said on state radio
that the government has set a three-year timetable to disarm,
demobilize and reintegrate former rebels.
(AFP, 8/17/09)
2009 Aug 17, Czech media reported
that two Russians have been ordered out of Prague, including a deputy
military attache. Prague has previously complained about an increase in
Russian spying that it linked to the US plans. Russia responded by
ordering two Czech diplomats out of Russia.
(Reuters, 8/18/09)
2009 Aug 17, In Ingushetia a
suicide bomber attacked a police station in Nazran city in Russia's
North Caucasus with an explosives-laden truck, killing at least 21
people and wounding more than 100 others. 9 officers were still missing.
(AP, 8/17/09)(AP, 8/18/09)
2009 Aug 17, The new head of
Iran's judiciary suggested that he would prosecute security agents
accused of torture in the postelection crackdown, a nod from the
country's conservative leadership to widespread anger to reports that
jailed protesters were abused.
(AP, 8/17/09)
2009 Aug 17, Human Rights Watch
said Iraqi militiamen are torturing and killing gay men with impunity
in a systematic campaign that has spread from Baghdad to several other
cities.
(AP, 8/17/09)
2009 Aug 17, Israeli soldiers
mistakenly shot and wounded an Egyptian policeman near Eilat along the
border between the two countries.
(AP, 8/17/09)
2009 Aug 17, In Mexico at least 8
people were killed early in the day when gunmen opened fire in a bar in
drug-plagued Ciudad Juarez on the Texas border. Gunmen killed a father
and his 4-year-old son and wounded the mother as the family drove on a
highway near Ciudad Juarez. 2 girls, ages 12 and 14, died after being
struck by lightning on a soccer field during a religious service in the
city of Tuxtla Gutierrez in Chiapas state. In Monterrey four gunmen
died in a shootout with soldiers and three other suspects were
detained. Three soldiers suffered light injuries in the clash.
(AP,
8/17/09)(www.wtop.com/?nid=105&sid=1646540)(AP, 8/18/09)
2009 Aug 17, North Korea said it
would restart tours to a scenic mountain resort and allow reunions for
families separated since the Korean War, a surprise move that could
help ease months of tensions with South Korea over Pyongyang's missile
and nuclear tests.
(AP, 8/17/09)
2009 Aug 17, In northwest Pakistan
a bomb blast claimed by Taliban militants killed seven people including
children, as 31 insurgents were reported dead in a fresh wave of
unrest. Overnight in Swat's main town Mingora, a suicide bomber blew
himself up, wounding four soldiers as they tried to arrest him.
Security forces captured Maulvi Umar, the Pakistani Taliban's top
spokesman, and he acknowledged the death of the group's leader in a
recent US missile strike.
(AFP, 8/17/09)(AP, 8/18/09)
2009 Aug 17, Russian media
reported that the Arctic Sea has been found near Cape Verde and that
the ship's 15-man Russian crew has been taken aboard a Russian naval
vessel.
(AP, 8/17/09)
2009 Aug 17, In Russia powerful
explosion took place during repair work at the Sayano-Shushinskaya
hydroelectric plant in southern Siberia. The death toll soon reached 69
with 6 still missing and feared dead after an engine room was suddenly
flooded. The accident produced an oil spill and the slick that floated
down the Yenisei River.
(AP, 8/17/09)(AP, 8/18/09)(AP, 8/21/09)(AP, 8/23/09)
2009 Aug 17, It was reported that
200,000 Russian military officers faced early retirement, as the
government conducts a sweeping reform that will eliminate the jobs of
six out of every 10 members of its top-heavy officer corps.
(AP, 8/17/09)
2009 Aug 17, In Somalia gunmen
stormed a UN aid compound in Wajid overnight, sparking a gunbattle that
killed three of the attackers and wounded one. Hundreds of
pro-government militiamen rolled into Bula Hawa town near the Kenyan
border after al-Shabab fighters abandoned it.
(AP, 8/17/09)
2009 Aug 17, In Sweden the
Aftonbladet tabloid published an incendiary article claiming that
Israeli soldiers had harvested the organs of some Palestinians whom
they had shot. Israel quickly denounced the article, while Sweden
defended its freedom of expression.
(Econ, 8/29/09, p.44)
2009 Aug 17, In Thailand thousands
of supporters of deposed PM Thaksin Shinawatra rallied in central
Bangkok and then marched to the royal palace, seeking a pardon for the
fugitive leader.
(AP, 8/17/09)
2009 Aug 17, Former Zambian
President Frederick Chiluba (1991-2001) was cleared of corruption
charges following a six-year trial after a magistrate ruled that
$500,000 of allegedly embezzled funds could not be traced to government
money.
(AP, 8/17/09)(Econ, 8/22/09, p.43)(Econ, 11/21/09,
p.51)
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