Today in History - August 18
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410 Aug 18, King
Alaric I's Visigoths occupied and plundered Rome. [see Aug 24]
(PC, 1992, p.50)
472 Aug 18, Flavius Ricimer,
general of the Western Roman Empire, kingmaker, was born.
(MC, 8/18/02)
1227 Aug 18, Genghis Khan
(Chinggis), Mongol conqueror, died in his sleep at his camp, during his
siege of Ningxia, the capital of the rebellious Chinese kingdom of Xi
Xia. Subotai was one of Genghis Khan's ablest lieutenants, and went on
to distinguish himself after the khan's death. In Khan's lifetime he
and his warriors had conquered the majority of the civilized world,
ruling an empire that stretched from Poland down to Iran in the west,
and from Russia's Arctic shores down to Vietnam in the east.
Russian archaeologist Peter Kozloff uncovered the tomb of Genghis Khan
in the Gobi Desert in 1927. In 2006 Zhu Yaoting, a Beijing academic,
authored a biography of Genghis Khan.
(AP, 8/18/97)(HN, 10/29/98)(Econ, 12/23/06, p.61)
1503 Aug 18, Pope Alexander VI
(1492-1503), born in Spain as Rodrigo di Borgia (1431), died. He
had recently authorized the building of a prison in the cellars of
Castel Sant’Angelo in Rome.
(PTA,
p.424)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Alexander_VI)(SSFC, 7/22/07,
p.G2)
1564 Aug 18, Spanish king Philip
II joined the Council of Trent.
(MC, 8/18/02)
1587 Aug 18, In the Roanoke Island
colony, Ellinor and Ananias Dare became parents of a baby girl whom
they name Virginia Dare, the first English child born on what is now
Roanoke Island, N.C., then considered Walter Raleigh’s second
settlement in Roanoke, Virginia. Virginia Dare, born to the daughter of
John White, became the first child of English parents to be born on
American soil. However, the colony she was born into ended up
mysteriously disappearing.
(HN, 8/18/98)(PC, 1992, p.203)(AP, 8/18/07)
1588 Aug 18, A storm struck the
remaining 60 ships of the Spanish Armada under the Duke of Medina
Sidonia after which only 11 were left. Many of the ships went to
Ireland where most of the Spaniards were killed by the English.
(ON, 3/02, p.6)
1674 Aug 18, Jean Racine's
"Iphigenie," premiered in Versailles.
(MC, 8/18/02)
1698 Aug 18, After invading
Denmark and capturing Sweden, Charles XII of Sweden forced Frederick IV
of Denmark to sign the Peace of Travendal.
(HN, 8/18/98)
1735 Aug 18, The Evening Post
began publishing in Boston, Mass.
(MC, 8/18/02)
1750 Aug 18, Antonio Salieri
(d.1825), Italian composer (Tatare), was born.
(WSJ, 1/14/04, p.D10)(MC, 8/18/02)
1759 Aug 18, The French fleet was
destroyed by the British under "Old Dreadnought" Boscawen at the battle
of Lagos Bay.
(HN, 8/18/98)
1769 Aug 18, Gunpowder in Brescia,
Italy, church exploded and some 3,000 were killed.
(MC, 8/18/02)
1774 Aug 18, Meriwether Lewis,
American explorer, was born in Charlottesville, VA. He led the Corps of
Discovery with William Clark.
(HN, 8/18/00)(MC, 8/18/02)
1782 Aug 18, Poet and artist
William Blake married Catherine Sophia Boucher.
(HN, 8/18/00)
1792 Aug 18, Lord John Russel,
Prime Minister of England from 1846 to 1852 and 1865 to 1866, was born.
(HN, 8/18/98)
1807 Aug 18, Charles Francis Adams
(d.1886), U.S. diplomat and public official whose father was John
Quincy Adams, was born.
(AHD, 1971, p.14)(HN, 8/18/98)
1807 Aug 18, Robert Stevenson
(1772-1850) began work on the 117-foot Bell Rock lighthouse at the
mouth of Scotland’s Firth of Forth based on a proposal he submitted in
1800. The lighthouse began operating on Feb 1, 1811.
(ON, 5/06, p.6)
1812 Aug 18, Returning from a
cruise into Canadian waters Captain Isaac Hull's USS Constitution of
the fledgling U.S. Navy encountered British Captain Richard Dacre's HMS
Guerriere about 750 miles out of Boston. After a frenzied 55-minute
battle that left 101 dead, Guerriere rolled helplessly in the water,
smashed beyond salvage. Dacre struck his colors and surrendered to
Hull's boarding party. In contrast, Constitution suffered little damage
and only 14 casualties. The fight's outcome shocked the British
Admiralty while it heartened America through the dark days of the War
of 1812. [see Aug 19]
(HNPD, 8/18/98)
1817 Aug 18, Gloucester, Mass.,
newspapers told of a wild sea serpent seen offshore.
(MC, 8/18/02)
1834 Aug 18, Mt. Vesuvius erupted.
(MC, 8/18/02)
1835 Aug 18, The last Potawatomi
Indians left Chicago.
(MC, 8/18/02)
1838 Aug 18, Six US Navy ships
departed Hampton Roads, Va., led by Lt. Charles Wilkes on a 3-year
mission called the US South Seas Exploring Expedition, the "U.S. Ex.
Ex." The mission proved Antarctica to be a continent. Wilkes was tried
in a military court for abuses of power, but was generally acquitted.
In 2003 Nathaniel Philbrick authored "Sea of Glory," an account of the
expedition.
(Econ, 11/8/03, p.80)(WSJ, 11/12/03,
p.D12)(www.sil.si.edu/DigitalCollections/usexex/)
1846 Aug 18, U.S. forces led by
Gen. Stephen W. Kearney captured Santa Fe, N.M.
(AP, 8/18/97)
1849 Aug 18, Benjamin Louis Paul
Godard, composer, was born in Paris.
(MC, 8/18/02)
1850 Aug 18, Honore de Balzac
(b.1799), French novelist, died at age 51.
(WUD, 1994, p.115)(MC, 8/18/02)
1856 Aug 18, In SF thousands of
armed men paraded through the streets and then formally dissolved the
second Committee of Vigilance. They had run SF for nearly 4 months much
to the distress of Mayor James Van Ness and militia officer William T.
Sherman.
(SFC, 8/18/06, p.B1)
1862 Aug 18, Confederate General
J.E.B. Stuart’s headquarters was raided by Union troops of the 5th New
York and 1st Michigan cavalries.
(HN, 8/18/98)
1862 Aug 18, A Sioux Uprising
began uprising in Minnesota. It resulted in more than 800 white
settlers dead and 38 Sioux Indians condemned and hanged. The Minnesota
Uprising began when four young Sioux murdered five white settlers at
Acton. The Santee Sioux, who lived on a long, narrow reservation on the
south side of the Minnesota River, were reacting to broken government
promises and corrupt Indian agents. a military court sentenced 303
Sioux to die, but President Abraham Lincoln reduced the list. The 38
hangings took place on December 26, 1862, in Mankato, Minn.
(MC, 8/18/02)(HNQ, 1/4/00)
1864 Aug 18, Union General William
T. Sherman sent General Judson Kilpatrick to raid Confederate lines of
communication outside Atlanta. The raid was unsuccessful. Union General
William Sherman considered Judson Kilpatrick, his cavalry chief, 'a
hell of a damn fool.'
(HN, 8/18/98)
1864 Aug 18, Day 1 of 3 day
Petersburg Campaign-Battle of Weldon Railroad, Va.
(MC, 8/18/02)
1870 Aug 18, Prussian forces
defeated the French at the Battle of Gravelotte during the
Franco-Prussian War. French Commander Bazaine's efforts to break his
soldiers through the German lines were bloodily defeated at
Mars-la-Tour and Gravelotte. The Prussians advanced on Chalons.
(HN,
8/18/98)(www.marxists.org/history/france/paris-commune/timeline.htm)
1873 Aug 18, Leo Slezak, Austria
tenor, actor (Othello), was born.
(MC, 8/18/02)
1873 Aug 18, Otto Harbach,
songwriter (Smoke Gets in Your Eyes), was born in, SLC, Utah.
(MC, 8/18/02)
1894 Aug 18, US Congress
established the Bureau of Immigration.
(AP, 8/18/97)
1896 Aug 18, Adolph Ochs (39)
took over the New York Times. He served as publisher until 1935.
(HN, 8/18/00)(SFC, 4/6/01, p.D3)
1896 Aug 18, The northern
California Mount Tamalpais and Muir Woods railroad was completed. It
was 8 ½ miles long. The Mount Tamalpais Scenic Railroad
attracted visitors to what later became known as Stinson Beach. The
railway continued operating to 1930.
(SFC, 8/17/96, p.A17)(SFC, 11/27/07, p.A13)(SFC,
2/24/09, p.B1)
1904 Aug 18, [Francis] Max Factor
(d.1996), cosmetics manufacturer (Max Factor), was born. His father,
Max Factor (d.1938), was born in Lodz, Russia, in 1877 and came to the
US with his family in 1902.
(MC, 8/18/02)(Internet)
1908 Aug 18, Edgar Faure (d.1988),
thriller writer, PM of France (1952, 52-56), was born.
(MC, 8/18/02)
1914 Aug 18, President Wilson
issued his Proclamation of Neutrality, aimed at keeping the United
States out of World War I.
(AP, 8/18/97)
1914 Aug 18, Germany declared war
on Russia.
(HN, 8/18/00)
1918 Aug 18, Elsa Morante, Italian
writer and author of "History: A Novel," was born.
(HN, 8/18/00)
1919 Aug 18, Anti-Cigarette League
of America formed in Chicago, Illinois.
(MC, 8/18/02)
1920 Aug
18, Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify the 19th Amendment to the
Constitution, which guaranteed the right of all American women to vote.
This completed the three-quarters necessary to put the amendment into
effect. Aaron Sargent, who wrote the 19th amendment, also built
Grandmere's Inn in Nevada City. Carrie Chapman Catt, founder of the
League of Women Voters, played a crucial role in its passage. She also
held some very racist views: she called the ballots of proletarian
voters "undesirable" and referred to Indians as "savages." [see Aug 26,
1920]
(SFC, 4/14/96, T-3)(SFC, 6/9/96, p.B-11)(AP,
8/18/97)(HN, 8/18/01)
1922 Aug 18, Shelly Winters,
actress who won an Academy Award for The Diary of Anne Frank, was born.
(HN, 8/18/98)
1923 Aug 18, Jimmy Witherspoon,
blues singer, was born.
(HN, 8/18/00)
1927 Aug 18, Rosalynn Smith
Carter, 1st lady (1977-1981), was born in Plains, Georgia.
(MC, 8/18/02)
1929 Aug 18, The first
cross-country women's air derby began. Louise McPhetride Thaden won
first prize in the heavier-plane division, while Phoebe Fairgrave Omlie
finished first in the lighter-plane category.
(HN, 8/18/98)
1930 Aug 18, Eastern Airlines
began passenger service.
(MC, 8/18/02)
1932 Aug 18, Luc Montagnier,
virologist, was born. He discovered the human immunodeficiency virus
(HIV).
(HN, 8/18/00)
1932 Aug 18, Auguste Piccard and
Max Cosijns reached 16,201m in a balloon.
(MC, 8/18/02)
1933 Aug 18, Roman Polanski,
Polish film director best known for Rosemary's Baby and Chinatown, was
born.
(HN, 8/18/98)
1934 Aug 18, Vincent Bugliosi,
attorney, author (Helter-Skelter), was born in Hibbing, Minn.
(MC, 8/18/02)
1936 Aug 18, Federico Garcia Lorca
was shot and killed by a Francoist squad on the outskirts of Grenada
and buried in an unmarked grave along with 3 other prisoners. His
dramatic works included "Blood Wedding," "Yerma," Dona Rosita the
Spinster," and "The House of Bernarda Alba." In 1998 the biography
"Lorca: A Dream of Life" by Leslie Stainton was published in London.
(MT, Spg. ‘99, p.3)
1937 Aug 18, Robert Redford, actor
(Sting, Candidate, Natural, Great Gatsby), was born in Calif.
(MC, 8/18/02)
1938 Aug 18, President Roosevelt
and Canadian PM William Lyon Mackenzie King dedicated the Thousand
Islands Bridge connecting the United States and Canada.
(AP, 8/18/07)
1940 Aug 18, Walter Chrysler
(b.1875), the founder of Chrysler Corporation, died. He was a
locomotive mechanic who founded Chrysler in 1924 with money and
experience gained as general manager of Buick and executive VP of GM.
He oversaw the purchase of Dodge Brothers, which was much bigger than
Chrysler at the time. In 2000 Vincent Curcio authored "Chrysler: The
Life and Times of an Automotive Genius."
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)(HNQ, 8/21/99)(WSJ,
8/10/00, p.A16)
1940 Aug 18, 71 German aircraft
were shot down above England.
(MC, 8/18/02)
1941 Aug 18, The concentration
camp at Amersfoort, Netherlands, opened.
(MC, 8/18/02)
1942 Aug 18, Carlson's Raiders
landed on Makin (Kiribati) in the Gilbert islands and killed 350
Japanese. [see Aug 17]
(MC, 8/18/02)
1942 Aug 18, Japan sent a crack
army to Guadalcanal to repulse the U.S. Marines fighting there.
(HN, 8/18/98)
1943 Aug 18, The Royal Air Force
Bomber Command completed the first major strike against the German
missile development facility at Peenemunde.
(HN, 8/18/98)
1943 Aug 18, Final convoy of Jews
from Salonika, Greece, arrived at Auschwitz.
(MC, 8/18/02)
1943 Aug 18, The Heinkel-111 of
Otto Skorzeny, Waffen SS commander, was shot down at Sardinia.
(MC, 8/18/02)
1943 Aug 18, Hans Jeschonnek,
German air force general, chief-staff, committed suicide.
(MC, 8/18/02)
1945 Aug 18, Subhas Chandra Bose
(b.1897), a leader of the Indian Independence Movement, died about this
time. He attempted to drive the British out of India by force.
(Econ, 5/23/09,
p.92)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subhas_Chandra_Bose)
1947 Aug 18, The Hewlett-Packard
Company was incorporated and reported revenues of $1.5 million. The 111
employees recorded sales of $679,000. In 2007 Michael S. Malone
authored “Bill & Dave: How Hewlett and Packard Built the World’s
Greatest Company.”
(SFC, 3/3/99, p.A11)(SFC, 1/13/01, p.A15)(SSFC,
4/22/07, p.M3)
1947 Aug 18, Naval torpedo and
mine factory exploded at Cadiz, Spain, killing 300.
(MC, 8/18/02)
1951 Aug 18, The 1st
transcontinental wireless phone call was made from SF to NYC by Mark
Sullivan, president of PT&T, and H.T. Killingworth of AT&T.
(SFC, 8/17/01, p.WB6)
1954 Aug 18, Assistant Secretary
of Labor James E. Wilkins became the first black to attend a meeting of
a president's Cabinet as he sat in for Labor Secretary James P.
Mitchell.
(AP, 8/18/97)
1956 Aug 18, Elvis Presley's
"Hound Dog" and "Don't Be Cruel" reached #1.
(MC, 8/18/02)
1958 Aug 18, The 1st US edition of
the novel "Lolita" by Vladimir Nabokov was published by Putnam. The 1st
French edition was in 1955.
(WSJ, 3/20/97,
p.A14)(www.loa.org/volume.jsp?RequestID=9§ion=notes)
1958 Aug 18, An American TV game
show scandal investigation started.
(MC, 8/18/02)
1958 Aug 18, Fidel Castro made a
speech on Cuban pirate radio Rebelde.
(MC, 8/18/02)
1959 Aug 18, A magnitude 7.3 quake
near Hebgen Lake, Montana, just west of Yellowstone National Park
triggered a landslide that killed 28 people.
(http://earthquake.usgs.gov/regional/states/events/1959_08_18.php)
1960 Aug 18, Enovid 10, the 1st
commercial oral contraceptive, debuted in Skokie, Ill.
(MC, 8/18/02)
1960 Aug 18, Beatles gave their
1st public performance at Kaiser Keller in Hamburg.
(MC, 8/18/02)
1961 Aug 18, Learned Hand
(b.1872), Chief judge of US court of Appeals, died. Stanford Prof.
Gerald Gunther (d.2002) later authored the biography "Learned Hand, the
Man and the Judge."
(AP, 12/13/97)(SFC, 8/2/02, p.A27)(MC, 8/18/02)
1962 Aug 18, Peter, Paul and Mary
released their 1st hit "If I Had a Hammer."
(MC, 8/18/02)
1962 Aug 18, Pres. J.F. Kennedy
led the official groundbreaking ceremonies for the San Luis Joint-Use
Complex, Ca. In 1961 the state and feds had agreed to the project which
required the B.F. Sisk San Luis Dam for storage of flows pumped from
the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The Sisk Dam was named after
Congressman B.F. Sisk of Fresno.
(CDWR, brochure)
1962 Aug 18, In Iran brothers,
Ahmad and Mahmoud Khayami founded "Iran National" to manufacture cars.
After the 1979 Islamic Revolution it became known as Iran Khodro. Their
later Paykan design was based on the 1967 Hillman Hunter, which was
originally designed and manufactured by the British Rootes Group.
Mahmoud Khayami is also known for starting the Kourosh Department
Stores: the first large retail chain stores of Iran, not unlike their
American counterparts Sears and Kmart.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahmoud_Khayami)
1963 Aug 18, James Meredith became
the first black to graduate from the University of Mississippi.
(AP, 8/18/97)(HN, 8/18/98)
1964 Aug 18, South Africa was
banned from Olympic Games because of apartheid policies.
(MC, 8/18/02)
1965 Aug 18, Operation Starlite
marked the beginning of major U.S. ground combat operations in Vietnam.
(HN, 8/18/98)
1966 Aug 18, Australians bloodily
repulsed a Viet Cong attack at Long Tan, South Vietnam.
(HN, 8/18/98)
1969 Aug 18, Two concert goers
died at the Woodstock Music and Art Fair in Bethel, New York, one from
an overdose of heroin, the other from a burst appendix. The Woodstock
Music and Art Fair ended in Sullivan County, NY, with a mid-morning set
performed by Jimi Hendrix.
(HN, 8/18/99)(AP, 8/18/07)
1971 Aug 18, Joel David Kaplan
(44), a NY businessman and Carlos Antonio Contreras Castro, a
Venezuelan counterfeiter, escaped by helicopter from Mexico’s Santa
Maria Acatitla Federal Prison. Vasilios Basil Choulos (d.2003), SF
lawyer, plotted out the helicopter jailbreak. Kaplan was allegedly
framed and serving 28 years for murder in the Mexican prison. The
successful break led to the 1973 book "Ten-Second Jailbreak" and the
1975 film "Breakout."
(SFC, 1/21/02,
p.A21)(www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,909935,00.html)
1973 Aug 18, Gene Krupa
(1909-1973), drummer, played for the final time with Benny Goodman
Quartet.
(www.drummerman.net/)
1976 Aug 18, Two U.S. Army
officers were killed in Korea's demilitarized zone as a group of North
Korean soldiers wielding axes and metal pikes attacked U.S. and South
Korean soldiers. Major Arthur G. Bonifas was attacked and beaten to
death by North Korean soldiers as he attempted to cut down a poplar
tree in the DMZ.
(SFEC, 6/25/00, p.T8)(AP, 8/18/02)
1977 Aug 18, In South Africa Steve
Biko and Peter Jones were picked up by police at Grahamstown. They were
arrested at a police roadblock under the Terrorism Act No 83 of 1967.
Biko suffered a major head injury while in police custody, was chained
to a window grille for a day and died on Sep 12.
(WSJ, 2/6/97,
p.A9)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Biko)
1979 Aug 18, In Los Angeles singer
Nick Lowe married singer Carlene Carter, the stepdaughter of Johnny
Cash.
(http://tinyurl.com/2s4gxj)
1979 Aug 18, Iran Ayatollah
Khomeini sent the army to attack and occupy Paveh, Sanandaj and Saghez.
Having defeated the Kurds in the cities, he appointed Khalkhali, as
head of security for Kurdistan, who proceeded with a series of summary
trials and executions.
(www.sarbazan.com/Massacre.asp)
1979 Aug 18, USSR performed a
nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh, Semipalitinsk, USSR.
(www.iss.niiit.ru/ksenia/catal_nt/3_8.htm)
1981 Aug 18, Anita Loos (b.1888),
American writer, died. Her novels included “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes”
(1925). It was made into eponymous films in 1928 and 1953. Loos started
writing scenarios for D. W. Griffith while in her teens, and eventually
worked on over sixty films.
(WSJ, 6/24/06,
p.P13)(http://imdb.com/name/nm0002616/)
1982 Aug 18, For the first time,
volume on the New York Stock exchange topped the $100 million level as
132.69 million shares were traded.
(AP, 8/18/02)
1983 Aug 18, Hurricane Alicia
slammed into the Texas coast, leaving 21 dead and causing more than $1
billion damage.
(AP, 8/18/08)
1983 Aug 18, Samantha Druce earned
a place in the Guinness Book of Records as the youngest person to swim
the English Channel. She completed the crossing in 15 hours 26 minutes
at the age of 12 years 118 days.
(http://tinyurl.com/6kgow4)
1984 Aug 18, A Triangle Oil Corp.
above-ground storage tank at Jacksonville, Fla., spilled 2.5 million
gallons of oil and burned after lightning sparked a fire.
(www.jacksonvillefiremuseum.com/history_1951.html)(http://tinyurl.com/2pwmtm)
1987 Aug 18, American journalist
Charles Glass escaped his kidnappers in Beirut after 62 days in
captivity. Glass had been abducted June 17 with two Lebanese, who were
released after a week.
(AP, 8/18/97)
1988 Aug 18, Indiana Sen. Dan
Quayle was nominated to be George Bush's running mate during the
Republican convention in New Orleans; meanwhile, questions were being
raised about Quayle's service in the Indiana National Guard during the
Vietnam War.
(AP, 8/18/98)
1988 Aug 18, Frederick Ashton
(b.1904), Ecuador-born dancer and choreographer, died in England.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Ashton)
1988 Aug 18, Hamas published a
manifesto calling for a holy war to create an Islamic state from the
Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, including Israel. It challenged
the PLO's claim as the sole representative of the Palestinian people.
The Hamas charter declared that all Palestine is Islamic trust land,
can never be surrendered to non-Muslims and is an integral part
of Muslim world.
(SFC, 3/23/04,
p.A11)(www.mideastweb.org/hamashistory.htm)
1989 Aug 18, The US Labor
Department reported that the Consumer Price Index rose only 0.2% in
July 1989, easing fears of a recession.
(AP, 8/18/99)
1989 Aug 18, In Colombia, leading
presidential hopeful Luis Carlos Galan was assassinated outside Bogota;
the Medellin drug cartel was strongly suspected. On May 12, 2005,
Alberto Santofimio Botero, former justice minister, was arrested in
connection with the assassination. In 2008 a court overturned the
conviction of Alberto Santofimio for lack of evidence.
(AP, 8/18/99)(AP, 12/22/05)(AP, 10/22/08)
1990 Aug 18, A US frigate fired
warning shots across the bow of an Iraqi oil tanker in the Gulf of
Oman, apparently the first shots fired by the US in the Persian Gulf
crisis.
(AP, 8/18/00)
1991 Aug 18, Soviet hard-liners
(State Emergency Committee), led in part by PM Valentin Pavlov,
launched a coup aimed at toppling President Mikhail S. Gorbachev, who
was vacationing in the Crimea. They were unhappy with the drift toward
the collapse of the USSR. Gorbachev and members of his family remained
effectively imprisoned until the coup collapsed three days later.
(AP, 8/18/97)(HN, 8/18/98)(AP, 4/1/03)
1992 Aug 18, Basketball star Larry
Bird announced his retirement after 13 years with the Boston Celtics.
(AP, 8/18/97)
1992 Aug 18, On the second night
of the Republican National Convention in Houston, U.S. Sen. Phil Gramm,
R-Texas, delivered the keynote address, denouncing Bill Clinton's
economic program as "worse than sleaze."
(AP, 8/18/97)
1992 Aug 18, John Sturges (82),
director (Gunfight at OK Corral), died of emphysema.
(www.imdb.com/name/nm0836328/)
1993 Aug 18, A judge in Sarasota,
Fla., ruled that Kimberly Mays, the 14-year-old girl switched at birth
with another baby, need never see her biological parents again, in
accordance with her stated wishes. However, she later moved in with
Ernest and Regina Twigg.
(AP, 8/18/98)
1994 Aug 18, Florida Gov. Lawton
Chiles declared an immigration emergency and demanded federal help to
cope with the largest surge of Cuban refugees since the 1980 Mariel
boat-lift.
(AP, 8/18/99)
1994 Aug 18, Gottlob Frick
(b.1906), German operatic basso, died.
(www.iclassics.com/artistBio?contentId=304)
1995 Aug 18, Shannon Faulkner,
who’d won a two-and-a-half-year legal battle to become the first female
cadet at The Citadel, quit the South Carolina military college after
less than a week, most of it spent in the infirmary. After her
departure, the male cadets openly celebrated on the campus. By May
2005, The Citadel's Corps of Cadets included 118 female cadets, 6% of
the total student population.
(AP,
8/18/00)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shannon_Faulkner)
1995 Aug 18, Premier John Swan of
Bermuda promised to resign after voters rejected a vote for
independence from Britain with 76% voice.
(WSJ, 8/18/95, p.A-1)
1996 Aug 18, "Dinosaurs of the
Flaming Cliffs" by Michael Novacek was reviewed. It told of the
author’s work as a fossil hunter in the Mongolian valley of Ukhaa
Tolgod.
(SFEC, 8/18/96, BR p.5)
1996 Aug 18, "Where Wizards stay
Up Late, The Origins of the Internet" by Katie Hafner and Matthew Lyon
was reviewed.
(SFEC, 8/18/96, BR p.3)
1996 Aug 18, The film "The
Spitfire Grill" with Ellen Burstyn was the most popular movie at the
Sundance Film Festival. It was produced by a religious group, Gregory
Productions, owned by the Mississippi-based Sacred Heart League.
(SFEC, 8/18/96, PM p. 2)
1996 Aug 18, On the eve of his
50th birthday, President Clinton was guest of honor at a trio of events
in New York that combined celebrating with fund-raising. Ross Perot,
the presidential nominee of the Reform Party, launched his campaign
with a speech in which he criticized the Republican and Democratic
parties as captives of special interests.
(AP, 8/18/97)
1996 Aug 18, In Pakistan 18 people
were killed when 7 masked gunmen opened fire on a group of Shiite
worshipers in central Punjab province. 100 were injured. The militant
Sunni group Sipah-e-Sahaba, or Guardians of the Friends of the prophet
were blamed.
(SFC, 8/19/96, p.A9)
1996 Aug 18, In South Korea police
cut off food and medicine to students and raided the offices of the
largest student organization.
(WSJ, 8/19/96, p.A1)
1997 Aug 18, The Lutheran Church
approved a Formula of Agreement document that called for closer
cooperation with the Presbyterian Church (USA), the United Church of
Christ and the Reformed Church in America. A separate document called
the Concordat of Agreement for closer ties with the Episcopal Church
was 6 votes short of a required majority.
(SFC, 8/19/97, p.A3)
1997 Aug 18, UPS management agreed
to a tentative contract with the striking Teamsters Union to end a
15-day-old strike. New full-time jobs and pay raises were part of
the settlement.
(SFC, 8/19/97, p.A1)(AP, 8/18/98)
1997 Aug 18, In Virginia the VMI
class of 2001 included 30 women among the 460 freshman students. Beth
Ann Hogan became the first coed in the Virginia Military Institute's
158-year history.
(SFC, 8/18/97, p.A3)(AP, 8/18/98)
1997 Aug 18, Burnum Burnum (b.1936
as Henry James Penrith), Australian Aboriginal activist, died at age
61. He had been a member of the "stolen generation," Aborigine children
taken from their families into government welfare.
(SFC, 8/19/97, p.A20)
1997 Aug 18, Militiamen under the
South Lebanon Army, a key ally of Israel, shelled the port city of
Sidon and killed at least 6 people while injuring over 3 dozen. In
apparent retaliation northern Israel was hit by dozens of Katyusha
rockets fired from Lebanon.
(SFC, 8/19/97, p.A8)
1997 Aug 18, In Taiwan typhoon
Winnie swept over the island and left 24 people dead.
(SFC, 8/19/97, p.A9)
1997 Aug 18, In Tajikistan
government forces killed 50 mutinous troops in a battle over a bridge
on the Vakhsh River.
(SFC, 8/19/97, p.A9)
1998 Aug 18, A day after his grand
jury testimony, President Clinton left Washington on a vacation with
his family. Meanwhile, some lawmakers called for Clinton to resign in
the wake of his admissions concerning Monica Lewinsky while a
spokeswoman for Hillary Rodham Clinton said the first lady "believes in
this marriage."
(AP, 8/18/99)
1998 Aug 18, In China the Songhua
River rose to 397 1/2 feet and threatened the provincial capital of
Harbin.
(SFC, 8/19/98, p.C16)
1998 Aug 18, In India a flash
flood swept up some 100 Hindu pilgrims in Uttar Pradesh. 182 people
were feared dead.
(SFC, 8/19/98, p.C16)
1998 Aug 18, In Kenya FBI agents,
acting on a tip from Mohammed Saddiq Odeh, raided The Hilltop Hotel in
Nairobi and confiscated 175 pounds of TNT. The room was reported to
have been occupied by 2 Palestinians, a Saudi and an Egyptian from Aug
3 to Aug 7.
(SFC, 8/19/98, p.A1)
1998 Aug 18, In Mexico police
nabbed Daniel Arizmendi (39) and 9 others. Arizmendi was the leader of
a kidnapping gang that sent the ears of victims to their families to
pressure for ransom.
(SFC, 8/19/98, p.A12)
1998 Aug 18, In Northern Ireland a
splinter group claimed responsibility for the bombing in Omagh. The
group offered apologies for the dead and declared an immediate
cease-fire.
(SFC, 8/19/98, p.A12)
1998 Aug 18, In Paraguay newly
elected Pres. Grau freed Linio Oviedo, the leader of a 1996 coup
attempt, and within days faced a move by Congress for impeachment.
(WSJ, 8/21/98, p.A1)
1999 Aug 18, Ramos Horta of
Indonesia, 1996 Nobel Prize winner, warned the government that computer
hackers would wreak electronic mayhem on the country if voting in the
East Timor referendum is hampered.
(SFC, 8/19/99, p.D10)
1999 Aug 18, Russian forces lost 8
soldiers in Dagestan as they tried to storm Tando village.
(SFC, 8/19/99, p.D10)
1999 Aug 18, In Singapore S.R.
Nathan was declared president without elections.
(WSJ, 8/20/99, p.A1)
1999 Aug 18, In Turkey the Tupras
oil refinery near Ismit burned out of control as the death toll passed
4,000 from the 7.4 earthquake centered on Izmit. A day after a deadly
earthquake struck western Turkey, survivors denounced the rescue effort
as sluggish and disorganized. The death toll eventually topped 17,000.
(SFC, 8/19/99, p.A1,15)(AP, 8/18/00)
1999 Aug 18, In Uzbekistan 6
members of a banned opposition group, Erk (Freedom), were convicted for
involvement in several bombings and sentenced to 8-15 years in prison.
(SFC, 8/19/99, p.D10)
2000 Aug 18, Fresh from the
Democratic National Convention, Al Gore and Joseph Lieberman shoved off
from the banks of the Mississippi on a riverboat cruise to stir
excitement for their freshly launched White House campaign.
(AP, 8/18/05)
2000 Aug 18, In Chechnya rebels
killed 8 Russian soldiers in several attacks on checkpoints and
roadblocks.
(SFC, 8/19/00, p.A10)
2000 Aug 18, Alberto Orlandez
Gamboa, a Colombian drug cartel leader known as "The Snail," was
extradited to the US to stand trial for drug trafficking and money
laundering.
(SFC, 8/19/00, p.A10)
2000 Aug 18, In Indonesia the
700-member People’s Consultative Assembly passed a decree that allowed
the security forces to keep 38 seats in the legislature until 2009 and
banned retroactive prosecution of human rights cases.
(SFC, 8/19/00, p.A8)
2000 Aug 18, In Japan the Mount
Oyama volcano erupted for a 5th time on the island of Miyake. The
eruptions began July 9 after 17 years of dormancy.
(SFC, 8/19/00, p.A9)
2000 Aug 18, In Mexico at least 4
people were killed when violence broke out during the inauguration of
Mayor Jesus Tolentino in Chimalhuacan, a suburb of Mexico City and part
of the area known as the misery belt.
(SFC, 8/19/00, p.A9)
2000 Aug 18, In the Philippines 3
Malaysians were released by Abu Sayyaf rebels.
(WSJ, 8/21/00, p.A12)
2000 Aug 18, Government forces
seized 5 tons of cocaine as part of the "Orinoco 2000" probe financed
by the US DEA. Another 5 tons was discovered at the Doble Uno ranch
just days later. The cocaine was suspected to have been dropped from
Colombia.
(SFC, 8/21/00, p.A10)(SFC, 8/26/00, p.A10)
2001 Aug 18, It was reported that
a month-long drought ravaged Central America. Honduras lost 80% of its
basic grains, El Salvador lost 80% of grains in its eastern provinces,
Nicaragua lost 50% and Guatemala lost 80% of its beans in the eastern
provinces. Hundreds of thousands of peasants were affected.
(SFC, 8/18/01, p.A1)
2001 Aug 18, In Luanda, Angola,
some 10,000 people marched in a government-organized protest against
the Aug 11 train ambush.
(SSFC, 8/19/01, p.A16)
2001 Aug 18, In the Philippines a
pre-dawn fire swept through the Manor Hotel in Quezon City and 75
people, trapped behind security bars, were killed
(SFC, 8/18/01, p.A10)(AP, 8/18/02)
2001 Aug 18, In Spain a Basque
rebel car bomb exploded outside 2 resort hotels in Salou.
(WSJ, 8/20/01, p.A1)
2002 Aug 18, Rich Beem beat Tiger
Woods to capture the PGA Championship.
(AP, 8/18/03)
2002 Aug 18, US federal agents
said they had seized over 2,300 unregistered missiles at a
counter-terrorism school, High Energy Access Tools (HEAT), in Roswell,
New Mexico, that was training students from Arab countries and arrested
its Canadian leader.
(Reuters, 8/18/02)(WSJ, 8/19/02, p.A1)
2002 Aug 18, In Britain detectives
announced that two bodies found in a nature reserve almost certainly
belong to a pair of missing 10-year-olds. Holly Wells and Jessica
Chapman had been missing since August 4.
(AP,
8/19/02)(www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/predators/ian_huntley/index.html)
2002 Aug 18, Turpal-Ali Atgeriyev
(b.1969), a former Chechen rebel commander and top official in the
region's rebel government, died of complications from leukemia while
serving a 15-year prison term for terrorism in Yekaterinburg.
(AP, 8/22/02)
2002 Aug 18, Israel agreed to a
partial withdrawal from Palestinian territory in exchange for reduced
tensions in the areas.
(SFC, 8/19/02, p.A1)
2002 Aug 18, In a tearful,
farewell Mass in his beloved Krakow, Pope John Paul II told more than 2
million Poles that he would like to return one day — but that "this is
entirely in God's hands."
(AP, 8/18/03)
2002 Aug 18, In central Russia a
bus drove into a ditch in the republic of Chuvashia and overturned,
killing 22 people and injuring 38.
(AP, 8/18/02)
2003 Aug 18, Suspected Taliban
insurgents killed at least nine policemen in an ambush in Logar
province's Kharwar village, about 55 miles south of Kabul.
(AP, 8/19/03)
2003 Aug 18, A 24-year-old woman
from China tipped over 303,621 dominos, breaking a long-standing record
for the world's longest solo domino topple.
(AP, 8/18/03)
2003 Aug 18, In Shanxi province,
China, there was a gas explosion in a coal mine where 27 miners were
working. At least 25 were killed.
(AP, 8/20/03)
2003 Aug 18, Lucien Abenhaim, a
senior French health official resigned after the health minister
admitted that up to 5,000 people, many of them elderly and alone, might
have died in the recent heat wave.
(AP, 8/19/03)
2003 Aug 18, All of Georgia was
without power for the entire day, and officials in the impoverished
former Soviet republic were struggling to determine the cause of the
blackout.
(AP, 8/19/03)
2003 Aug 18, Israel delayed plans
to hand over Jericho and Qalqiliya, two West Bank towns to Palestinian
control.
(AP, 8/19/03)
2003 Aug 18, In Accra, Ghana,
Liberia's government and rebels signed a peace accord to end 14 years
of vicious war with plans for elections in 2 years.
(AP, 8/19/03)
2003 Aug 18, A six-month ordeal
for 14 European tourists kidnapped by Islamic extremists while on
desert safaris in Algeria has ended with their release to officials in
neighboring Mali.
(AP, 8/19/03)
2003 Aug 18, In Venezuela 9
workers died as 8 tried to rescue a comrade who was felled by toxic
industrial gases at an animal feed plant outside Caracas.
(WSJ, 8/19/03, p.A1)
2004 Aug 18, Google said it now
expects its stock to trade between $85 and $95 per share, down from its
old forecast of between $108 and $135. It also said the total number of
shares to be sold will be cut to 19.6 million, down from 25.7 million.
(AP, 8/18/04)
2004 Aug 18, In California federal
agents raided a farm in lake County where Charles Lepp grew over 32,000
marijuana plants. He said he had informed local authorities that his
land would be used to enable patients who didn’t own land to grow
marijuana for medical purposes. In 2009 Lepp (56) was sentenced to 10
years in prison under federal law that required a 10-year term for
growing at least 1,000 marijuana plants.
(http://fugitive.com/archives/6212)(SFC, 5/19/09,
p.B4)
2004 Aug 18, Two campers were
found slain at Fish Head Beach in Sonoma Ct., Ca. Lindsay Cutshall (23)
of Fresno, Ohio, and Jason Allen (26) of Holland, Mich., were found
with gunshots to the head. They had planned a wedding next month.
(SFC, 8/21/04,
p.A1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jenner,_California_Double-Murder_of_2004)
2004 Aug 18, Elmer Bernstein (82),
film composer, died in Ojai, Ca. His work included over 200 film and TV
scores. He received an Academy Award in 1967 for his score in
“Thoroughly Modern Millie.”
(SFC, 8/20/04, p.B6)
2004 Aug 18, Hiram L. Fong (97),
Hawaii's first U.S. senator, died.
(AP, 8/18/05)
2004 Aug 18, Afghan President
Hamid Karzai's 17 rivals in the presidential race threatened to boycott
landmark October 9 elections unless he stepped down before the vote.
(AP, 8/18/04)
2004 Aug 18, In El Salvador rival
inmates fought each other with knives and sticks at a San Salvador
prison, leaving at least 31 people dead and two dozen injured.
(AP, 8/18/04)
2004 Aug 18, In South Ossetia 3
Georgian peacekeepers were killed in overnight shooting.
(AP, 8/18/04)
2004 Aug 18, In Athens Paul Hamm
won the men's gymnastics all-around Olympic gold medal by the closest
margin ever in the event; controversy followed after it was discovered
a scoring error might have cost Yang Tae-young of South Korea the title.
(AP, 8/18/05)
2004 Aug 18, Indian shares slid as
oil prices surged to a new high of $47 a barrel, threatening domestic
demand and growth in Asia's fourth-largest economy.
(AP, 8/18/04)
2004 Aug 18, Iraq's new air force
took to the skies for the 1st time since the 2003 US invasion. The
limited operations were intended to protect infrastructure facilities
and borders.
(AP, 8/21/04)
2004 Aug 18, In Iraq a rocket
slammed into a busy market in the northern city of Mosul, killing at
least five civilians. U.S. forces clashed with insurgents southeast of
Baghdad in fighting that left up to five civilians dead.
(AP, 8/18/04)
2004 Aug 18, Communist rebels
isolated Nepal's capital from the rest of the country, stopping all
road traffic near Katmandu by threatening to attack vehicles. The
campaign, announced last week, was aimed at pressuring the government
to free jailed guerrillas.
(AP, 8/18/04)
2004 Aug 18, Five Palestinians
were killed in a blast outside the house of a well-known Hamas militant
in Gaza City.
(AP, 8/17/04)
2004 Aug 18, In Venezuela
opposition leaders charged that as many as 500 of 8,900 polling
stations used voting machines that were programmed with an artificial
cap to limit the number of votes cast in favor of recalling Pres.
Chavez. In 2003 the Chavez regime has purchased 28% of Bizta Software,
owned and operated by 2 Venezuelans, who also supplied the election
machinery (Smartmatic Corp). Bizta bought back the shares after the
story broke and after the 2 companies received a significant part of
the $91 million referendum contract.
(WSJ, 8/19/04, p.A11,12)
2005 Aug 18, It was reported that
US Defense Dept. data-mining operation, Able Danger, had identified
Mohamed Atta and 3 other Sep 11 hijackers by name in mid-2000.
(SFC, 8/17/05, p.A5)
2005 Aug 18, Cindy Sheehan, who'd
started an anti-war demonstration near President Bush's Texas ranch
nearly two weeks earlier, left the camp after learning her mother had
suffered a stroke, but told supporters the protest would go on.
(AP, 8/18/06)
2005 Aug 18, In Kansas BTK killer
Dennis Rader (60) was sentenced to 10 consecutive life terms after a
hearing where family members spoke of their grief and loss from his
1974-1991 murder spree.
(AP, 8/19/05)(WSJ, 8/19/05, p.A1)
2005 Aug 18, Ohio Gov. Bob Taft
pleaded no contest to charges that he broke state ethics law by failing
to report golf outings and other gifts. A judge found him guilty and
fined him $4,000.
(AP, 8/18/05)
2005 Aug 18, It was reported that
an anthrax outbreak had killed hundreds of cattle in parts of the Great
Plains, forcing quarantines and devastating Dakota ranchers who worry
how they will recover financially. Two ranches in Texas were
quarantined last month after anthrax was found in cattle, horses and
deer.
(AP, 8/18/05)
2005 Aug 18, In Afghanistan a US
Marine and an Afghan soldier were killed during battles with militants
in eastern Kunar province ahead of next month's landmark elections. 2
American soldiers were killed in the south.
(AP, 8/19/05)
2005 Aug 18, British bank Royal
Bank of Scotland (RBoS) announced that it would lead a consortium to
buy a 10-percent stake in Bank of China for 3.1 billion dollars (2.5
billion euros).
(AP, 8/18/05)
2005 Aug 18, Andronico Luksic
(78), Chilean billionaire, died. His holding included beach resorts in
Croatia, where his father was born.
(SFC, 8/30/05, p.B4)
2005 Aug 18, China and Russia
began unprecedented joint military exercises involving air, sea and
land forces, as commanders from both nations insisted the war games
weren't meant to intimidate other countries.
(AP, 8/18/05)
2005 Aug 18, In rural Colombia
gunmen dragged a Catholic priest out of a classroom and shot him to
death, bringing to 3 the number of clergy killed there this week.
(AP, 8/19/05)
2005 Aug 18, Ecuador’s president
said protests have completely halted national oil production despite
imposition of emergency rule in 2 Amazon provinces.
(WSJ, 8/19/05, p.A1)
2005 Aug 18, Egyptian police
detained Hassan el-Arishi, a suspected mastermind behind the July 23
deadly attacks in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik.
(AP, 8/19/05)
2005 Aug 18, Pope Benedict XVI
began his first foreign trip as pontiff, leaving Rome to take part in
the Roman Catholic Church's World Youth Day in Cologne, Germany.
(AP, 8/18/05)
2005 Aug 18, In India the death
toll in an encephalitis outbreak in Uttar Pradesh rose to 90 with more
deaths being reported due to the water-born disease.
(AP, 8/18/05)
2005 Aug 18, In Iraq 4 American
soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb in Samarra, 60 miles north of
Baghdad. Jasim Waheeb, an investigative judge from Baghdad, was shot to
death with his.
(AP, 8/18/05)(SFC, 8/19/05, p.A3)
2005 Aug 18, Israeli forces
stormed the synagogue Neve Dekalim to remove about 1,500 protesters
inside. This was the main synagogue of the Gaza Strip Jewish settlement
and one of the last bastions of resistance to the Gaza pullout.
(AP, 8/18/05)
2005 Aug 18, The three IRA-linked
fugitives who fled convictions in Colombia surrendered to Irish police
after eight months on the run.
(AP, 8/18/05)
2005 Aug 18, In Nicaragua Miskito
Indian leaders asked government and human rights investigators to probe
allegations that at least 150 of their people were killed under the
Sandinistas during the 1980s.
(AP, 8/18/05)
2005 Aug 18, Nigerian media quoted
Pres. Obasanjo as saying police violations "ranged from extra-judicial
killings to torture and unlawful detention." He singled out an incident
in June in which policemen in the capital, Abuja, allegedly killed six
people returning from a night outing after branding them armed robbers.
Six policemen were charged in the killings. Among those accused is
Danjuma Ibrahim, the second-ranking policeman in the city.
(AP, 8/23/05)
2005 Aug 18, In Pakistan a
homemade bomb exploded near a polling station as clashes between
supporters of rival candidates in Pakistani municipal elections left 7
dead and 82 injured.
(AP, 8/19/05)
2005 Aug 18, In Peru US Defense
Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, seeking to promote stability in Latin
America, met with Pres. Alejandro Toledo.
(AP, 8/18/05)
2005 Aug 18, Saleh Mohammed
al-Aoofi, Al-Qaida's leader in Saudi Arabia, was killed along with 5
others during clashes with police in the western city of Medina. Majed
Hamed Abdullah al-Haasiri (29), who was No. 14 on a list of 36 most
wanted terrorists sought for connection to terror attacks in the
kingdom dating back to 2003, was killed in a shootout with police in
Riyadh.
(AP, 8/18/05)(AP, 8/27/05)
2005 Aug 18, Western Sahara
guerrillas released their last Moroccan prisoners, 404 soldiers held
for up to 20 years from a long-ended war over the barren but
phosphate-rich region.
(AP, 8/18/05)
2005 Aug 18, A pride of lions
attacked a Japanese woman (50) visiting the Lion and Cheetah Park at
Norton, a Zimbabwe wildlife park. She died the next day.
(AP, 8/21/05)
2006 Aug 18, President George W.
Bush criticized a federal court ruling the day before that his
warrantless wiretapping program was unconstitutional, declaring that
opponents "do not understand the nature of the world in which we live."
(AP, 8/18/07)
2006 Aug 18, The US FDA approved a
mix of bacteria-killing viruses for spraying on cold cuts, hot dogs and
sausages to combat deadly microbes.
(SFC, 8/19/06, p.A4)
2006 Aug 18, Raymond Payne, a
former HSBC Bank USA vice president, pleaded guilty in Manhattan
federal court to a conspiracy charge over his role in a $30 million
telemarketing fraud targeting low-income people with poor credit
histories. Prosecutors said First Choice, run by Canadian co-defendants
Stephen Clark and Leslie Pinsky, extracted $30 million from people, and
transferred the money to the HSBC account. In 2007 Clark was sentenced
just over 11 years in prison.
(Reuters, 8/18/06)(Reuters, 6/15/07)
2006 Aug 18, In western Missouri
bone fragments from at least two people were found on a three-acre
wooded property northeast of Drexel. Michael Lee Shaver Jr. (33) was
arrested the next day and charged with murder for a killing in 2001.
Shaver claimed that he had killed, dismembered and burned 7 men in his
home following drug transactions.
(AP, 8/20/06)(SFC, 8/21/06, p.A3)
2006 Aug 18, In Bristow, Oklahoma,
Donald Thompson (59), a former judge convicted of exposing himself
while presiding over jury trials, was sentenced to four years in prison
and ordered to pay a fine of $40,000.
(SFC, 8/19/06, p.A2)
2006 Aug 18, The Washington Post
reported that sprinter Marion Jones had tested positive for the
endurance drug EPO at the US Track and Field Championships on June 23.
A 2nd test came back negative and cleared the allegations. On October
5, 2007, Jones pleaded guilty to using steroids before the Sydney 2000
Summer Olympics and acknowledged that she had, in fact, lied when she
previously denied steroid use. Her sanction required disqualification
of all her competitive results obtained after September 1, 2000, and
forfeiture of all medals, results, points and prizes. On January
11, 2008, Jones was sentenced to 6 months in jail. She began her
sentence on March 7, 2008 and was released on September 5, 2008.
(SFC, 8/19/06, p.A1)(SFC, 9/7/06,
p.A1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marion_Jones)
2006 Aug 18, Ford Motor Co.
announced sharp cuts in its North American production that would force
it to partially shut down plants in the US and Canada in the fourth
quarter.
(AP, 8/18/06)
2006 Aug 18, Boeing took steps
toward shutting down production of its C-17 military cargo plane.
Production would continue until mid-2009 for the $200 million planes.
(WSJ, 8/19/06, p.A8)
2006 Aug 18, Afghanistan Education
Minister Mohammed Hanif Atmar said attacks have closed more than 208
schools, including 144 burned down, in the past year as militants
changed tactics to hit soft targets. At least 41 teachers and students
have been killed over the past 12 months in a wave of attacks on the
country's schools.
(Reuters, 8/18/06)
2006 Aug 18, Anglo-Australian
resources giant BHP Billiton closed its operations at the world's
biggest copper mine in Chile and ended negotiations with striking
workers. The strike began on August 7 at the Escondida Mine, majority
owned by BHP. The Chilean government has signaled it was ready to
intervene.
(AP, 8/18/06)
2006 Aug 18, The Financial Times
reported that Britain has agreed to a multi-billion-dollar defense deal
to supply 72 Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft to Saudi Arabia.
(AP, 8/18/06)
2006 Aug 18, In Canada the 16th
International AIDS Conference ended in a firestorm with vitriol hurled
at G8 countries and South Africa over lapses in the battle against the
disease that has claimed 25 million lives.
(Reuters, 8/18/06)
2006 Aug 18, Chile's Supreme Court
voted to strip Gen. Augusto Pinochet of immunity from prosecution,
allowing him to be tried on corruption charges for his once-secret
multimillion dollar overseas bank accounts.
(AP, 8/18/06)
2006 Aug 18, China’s central bank
announced its 2nd interest rate hike in 4 months to choke off excess
investment. The benchmark lending rate rose .27% to 6.12% effective Aug
19.
(WSJ, 8/19/06, p.A4)
2006 Aug 18, The death toll from
Typhoon Saomai, the strongest storm to hit China in more than five
decades, jumped to 436 after more than 100 new deaths were confirmed in
the country's east.
(AP, 8/18/06)
2006 Aug 18, In southwest Ethiopia
search and rescue teams kept up frantic efforts to save thousands
marooned by fatal flash floods, where relief workers reported
near-total devastation. Some 73,000 people had been affected by raging
waters from unusually heavy seasonal rains.
(AFP, 8/18/06)
2006 Aug 18, In Greece a
700-year-old icon, said to have the power to work miracles, was
discovered stolen from the cliff-side Elona Monastery. In September
police arrested a Romanian national in Crete and recovered the Madonna
and Child icon.
(SSFC, 10/8/06, p.A26)(http://tinyurl.com/grxc8)
2006 Aug 18, The United Liberation
Front of Asom announced that it would stop attacking the forces of the
Indian government, which announced a unilateral cease-fire Aug. 13. It
was the first truce announced by the rebel group since its formation in
1979.
(AP, 8/19/06)
2006 Aug 18, In Iraq 7 pilgrims
heading to a major Shiite religious gathering were shot dead in a Sunni
neighborhood.
(AP, 8/19/06)
2006 Aug 18, Steorn, an Irish
company, said it has developed technology that it claims produces free
energy. The company said its discovery is based on the interaction of
magnetic fields and allows the production of clean, free and constant
energy.
(AFP, 8/18/06)
2006 Aug 18, Israeli soldiers
killed 3 Palestinian gunmen and wounded 2 others in confrontations in
Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
(WSJ, 8/19/06, p.A1)
2006 Aug 18, At least 10 people
died and as many as 40 were feared missing when a small boat packed
with illegal immigrants sank off Sicily, prompting Italy to call for
greater cooperation to fight human trafficking.
(Reuters, 8/19/06)
2006 Aug 18, The Lebanese army
reached the country's southern border with Israel for the first time in
decades, sending a lone jeep on patrol through Kfar Kila, a battered
stronghold of support for Hezbollah militants. At least 845 Lebanese
were killed in the 34-day war: 743 civilians, 34 soldiers and 68
Hezbollah. Israel says it killed about 530 guerrillas. On the Israeli
side, 157 were killed, 118 soldiers and 39 civilians, many from the
3,970 Hezbollah rockets. The Lebanese government estimated
infrastructure damages at $2.5 billion. The Lebanese death toll was
later raised to 1200 and economic costs put to some $12 billion.
(AP, 8/18/06)(SFC, 8/19/06, p.C1)(Econ, 11/11/06,
p.51)
2006 Aug 18, In Lesotho a
14-nation southern Africa summit closed with a pledge to speed up
regional economical integration, even as leaders expressed concern
about crisis-plagued member-state Zimbabwe.
(AFP, 8/18/06)
2006 Aug 18, Nigeria’s military
launched a crackdown on suspected militants in the oil-rich south as
militants released another foreign hostage taken in a spate of
kidnappings.
(AP, 8/18/06)
2006 Aug 18, Greenpeace warned a
sunken Philippine oil tanker was a pollution timebomb as oil from its
punctured tanks destroyed coral reefs and washed up blackened fish on
pristine beaches. Oil trapped in the tanks of the Solar I, which went
down last week with 500,000 gallons of industrial oil on board, could
pour out at any time. To date some 50,000 gallons had leaked into the
sea close to the central island of Guimaras.
(AP, 8/18/06)
2006 Aug 18, The UN said more than
41,000 people on Sri Lanka’s Jaffna peninsula, about 10 percent of its
population, were believed to have fled their homes and warned that
supplies in the area had reached "alarmingly low levels".
(AFP, 8/19/06)
2006 Aug 18, A bus carrying
Iranian tourists crashed into a truck in eastern Turkey, killing 18 and
injuring 29.
(AP, 8/18/06)
2007 Aug 18, A seven-alarm fire
ripped through the former Deutsche Bank next to ground zero in Lower
Manhattan, killing two firefighters who were responding to the blaze.
(AP, 8/19/07)(Econ, 9/8/07, p.34)
2007 Aug 18, Michael K. Deaver
(69), adviser to President Reagan, died in Bethesda, Md.
(AP, 8/18/08)
2007 Aug 18, Hurricane Dean
barreled across the eastern Caribbean and took aim at Hispaniola,
Jamaica and Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, with forecasters saying it
could turn into a monster Category 5 storm within 72 hours. Dean
claimed at least six lives as it began sweeping past the Dominican
Republic and Haiti.
(AP, 8/18/07)
2007 Aug 18, In southern
Afghanistan a suicide car bomber detonated near a convoy of private
security forces, killing four Afghan guards and 11 civilians, including
3 women and 2 children. Armed assailants abducted a German woman from a
restaurant in Kabul.
(AP, 8/18/07)
2007 Aug 18, It was reported that
Albanian migrants sent home almost $1 billion a year to support jobless
family members and to build homes. New business was said to be
discouraged by blackmail and intimidation from existing firms with
licenses going to political cronies in the face of a corrupt judiciary.
(Econ, 8/18/07, p.46)
2007 Aug 18, In Britain a man died
and six other people were missing after a fire gutted a hotel in the
popular seaside resort of Newquay.
(AP, 8/18/07)
2007 Aug 18, Chile’s national
poverty line was reported to be $90 per month. The richest tenth of the
population garnered 38.6% of the national income.
(Econ, 8/18/07, p.23)
2007 Aug 18, It was reported that
China faced a major shortage of skilled talent including doctors with
only 4,000 general practitioners. Lawyers numbered about 122,000. An
average of 2,200 new pilots per year will be needed to keep up with the
growth in air travel. Accountants, technicians and good managers were
also reported to be in short supply.
(Econ, 8/18/07, p.59)
2007 Aug 18, UNESCO said a joint
mission of several UN agencies is conducting an emergency investigation
into the shooting of endangered mountain gorillas in a Democratic
Republic of Congo national park. In the last two months, seven of the
primates have been killed in separate incidents in the Virunga park.
(AP, 8/19/07)
2007 Aug 18, Two men hijacked a
Turkish passenger plane from Cyprus bound for Istanbul, holding several
people hostage for more than four hours before surrendering.
(AP, 8/18/07)
2007 Aug 18, Ethiopia freed 32
opposition members who had been detained for post-election violence in
2005.
(AP, 8/18/07)
2007 Aug 18, In Germany 2 Africans
were attacked by right-wing extremists in Mainz, the same night as a
brutal mob assault on eight Indians in the country's former communist
east.
(AFP, 8/25/07)
2007 Aug 18, About 16 mortar
shells rained on houses in the Sharqiya residential area in Khalis, a
Shiite enclave north of Baghdad, killing at least 7 people. Overnight a
series of bombs struck commercial areas in Kirkuk, killing at least
four people and wounding 38.
(AP, 8/18/07)
2007 Aug 18, Kazakhs headed to the
polls in parliamentary elections seen as a key test of authoritarian
Pres. Nursultan Nazarbayev's pledge to boost democracy in this oil-rich
nation. Nur Otan, the party of President Nursultan Nazarbayev, won all
98 available seats in the lower parliament. The tally was quickly
condemned by the opposition.
(AFP, 8/18/07)(AP, 8/19/07)(Econ, 8/25/07, p.42)
2007 Aug 18, In northern Lebanon
gunbattles with Islamic extremists in a Palestinian refugee camp left
one soldier dead. Another died of wounds the next day.
(AP, 8/19/07)
2007 Aug 18, In Peru President
Alan Garcia called for the orderly distribution of emergency supplies
as desperate victims of a magnitude-8 earthquake on the southern coast
looted markets and blocked arriving aid trucks. The death toll climbed
to 540.
(AP, 8/18/07)(AP, 8/20/07)
2007 Aug 18, In the Philippines 16
troops and dozens of Muslim extremists were killed in clashes between
government forces and Al-Qaeda-linked rebels on the southern island of
Basilan.
(AP, 8/18/07)
2007 Aug 18, Rival clan militias
fought over scarce pasture land and wells in central Somalia, leaving
18 people dead and 15 wounded.
(AP, 8/18/07)
2007 Aug 18, A powerful typhoon
slammed into Taiwan, killing at least one person, forcing thousands to
evacuate and disrupting power supplies across the already-saturated
landscape.
(AP, 8/18/07)
2008 Aug 18, US and Liberian
officials said US Peace Corps volunteers will return to Liberia for the
first time since civil war broke out in this West African nation nearly
two decades ago.
(AP, 8/18/08)
2008 Aug 18, California’s supreme
court barred doctors from denying medical care to gays and lesbians
based on religious beliefs.
(WSJ, 8/19/08, p.A1)
2008 Aug 18, In eastern
Afghanistan a suicide car bomb blew up outside Camp Salerno, a US
military base in Khost, killing 12 civilian laborers, as the country
marked Independence Day. A mine blew up a police vehicle in the
province of Nangarhar and killed two policemen. About 100 insurgents
ambushed a group of French paratroopers, killing 10 soldiers in an area
outside the capital known as a militant stronghold. An Afghan official
said insurgents kidnapped four of the soldiers and later killed them.
13 militants were reported killed.
(AFP, 8/18/08)(AP, 8/19/08)(Econ, 8/34/08, p.34)
2008 Aug 18, Argentina announced
its first nationwide gay-rights measure: granting same-sex couples the
right to claim their deceased partners' pensions.
(AP, 8/19/08)
2008 Aug 18, In southeastern
Bangladesh chunks of earth loosened by heavy rains buried several
hillside thatched huts, killing five people and injuring seven.
(AP, 8/18/08)
2008 Aug 18, In Britain Philip
Thompson (27), a pedophile who acted as a "librarian" for a global
Internet child abuse ring, was jailed after one of the biggest
undercover police investigations into online abuse.
(Reuters, 8/18/08)
2008 Aug 18, State media reported
that Chinese authorities have not approved any of the 77 applications
they received from people who wanted to hold protests during the
Beijing Olympics.
(AP, 8/18/08)
2008 Aug 18, In northeast China a
gas explosion tore through a coal mine, leaving 24 workers trapped.
(AP, 8/18/08)
2008 Aug 18, Equatorial Guinea's
exiled opposition leader Severo Moto was released from a Spanish jail
four months after he was detained for allegedly trying to send weapons
to the oil-rich African nation.
(AFP, 8/18/08)
2008 Aug 18, In southern Iraq
masked gunmen ambushed a bus carrying electoral officials south of
Basra, killing two and seriously wounding a third. A suicide bombing
killed 7 policemen in Ramadi.
(AP, 8/18/08)(WSJ, 8/19/08, p.A1)
2008 Aug 18, Tens of thousands of
Muslims waving green and black protest flags gathered in Indian
Kashmir's main city for a march to UN offices demanding freedom from
India and intervention by the world body.
(AP, 8/18/08)
2008 Aug 18, The river Kosi, a
tributary to the Ganges, burst an embankment on the Nepali side of the
border with India and flowed into a channel it had abandoned a century
earlier. Water flooded into Bihar state and displaced over 3 million
people.
(Econ, 9/6/08, p.51)
2008 Aug 18, Mexican soldiers
rescued 25 Central Americans kidnapped in the Gulf coast state of
Veracruz. One man was arrested in the raid in Tierra Blanca.
(AP, 8/19/08)
2008 Aug 18, Mexico’s Cemex SAB
rejected Venezuela’s $500 bid for the companies assets in Venezuela. At
midnight oil workers and Venezuelan soldiers occupied Cemex facilities
around the country.
(WSJ, 8/19/08, p.A10)
2008 Aug 18, The leader of Nepal's
Maoists, Prachanda, was sworn in as prime minister, finalizing his
transformation from warlord to the country's most powerful politician.
(AFP, 8/18/08)
2008 Aug 18, Niger's Tuareg rebel
leader Aghaly ag Alambo said his fighters would lay down their guns
and, together with neighboring Mali's Tuareg rebellion, submit to
mediation by Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
(AP, 8/19/08)
2008 Aug 18, Pakistani President
Pervez Musharraf announced that he will resign, just days ahead of
impeachment in parliament over attempts by the US-backed leader to
impose authoritarian rule on his turbulent nation.
(AP, 8/18/08)
2008 Aug 18, Peru's government
declared a state of emergency in remote jungle regions where Indian
groups are blocking highways and oil and gas installations to protest a
law that makes it easier to sell their lands.
(AP, 8/19/08)
2008 Aug 18, In the southern
Philippines separatists of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF)
attacked several towns and villages on Mindanao and killed 38 people.
(SFC, 8/19/08, p.A9)(AP, 8/20/08)
2008 Aug 18, Heads of state and
other dignitaries from African countries and Turkey started an economic
cooperation summit in Istanbul.
(AP, 8/18/08)
2008 Aug 18, Russia said its
military began to withdraw from the conflict zone in Georgia, but left
unclear exactly where troops and tanks will operate under the
cease-fire that ended days of fighting in the former Soviet republic.
(AP, 8/18/08)
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