Today in History - August 19
Return to home
1263 Aug 19, King
James I of Aragon censored Hebrew writing.
(MC, 8/19/02)
1399 Aug 19, King Richard II of
England surrendered to his cousin Henry Bolingbroke (Henry IV). Henry
of Lancaster returned to England to claim his inherited lands. He
marched with an army into Briston and captured Richard II and claimed
the throne. [see Sep 29]
(MC, 8/19/02)(PC, 1992, p.138)
1493 Aug 19, Maximilian succeeded
his father Frederick III as Holy Roman Emperor. Frederick III of
Innsbruck (77), German Emperor (1440-1493), died.
(HN, 8/19/98)(MC, 8/19/02)
1524 Aug 19, Emperor Charles V's
troops besieged Marseille.
(MC, 8/19/02)
1561 Aug 19, Mary Queen of Scots
arrived in Leith, Scotland, to assume the throne after spending 13
years in France.
(MC, 8/19/02)
1580 Aug 19, Andrea Palladio
(b.1508), Renaissance architect, writer (Il Redentore, Venice), died.
He designed the Teatro Olimpico in Vincenza just before his death. It
was completed by Vincenzo Scamozzi. Palladio authored "The Four Books
on Architecture." In 2002 Witold Rybczynski authored "The Perfect
House," on the villas of Palladio.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrea_Palladio)(WSJ,
12/10/98, p.A20)(WSJ, 11/8/02, p.W12)
1587 Aug 19, Sigismund III was
chosen to be the king of Poland.
(HN, 8/19/98)
1596 Aug 19, Elisabeth Stuart,
English daughter of James I, was born.
(MC, 8/19/02)
1689 Aug 19, Samuel Richardson
(d.1761), English novelist (Pamela, Clarissa), was born in Derbyshire.
(MC, 8/19/02)
1692 Aug 19, Five women were
hanged in Salem, Massachusetts after being convicted of the crime of
witchcraft. Fourteen more people were executed that year and 150 others
are imprisoned.
(HN, 8/19/00)
1743 Aug 19, Marie Jeanne Becu
Comtesse du Barry (d.1793), last mistress of Louis XV, was born.
(MC, 8/19/02)
1753 Aug 19, [Johann] Balthasar
Neumann (66), German architect, died.
(MC, 8/19/02)
1772 Aug 19, Gustavus III of
Sweden eliminated the rule of parties and establishes an absolute
monarchy. It had been subordinate to parliament since 1720.
(HN, 8/19/98)(MC, 8/19/02)
1779 Aug 19, Americans under Major
Henry Lee took the British garrison at Paulus Hook, New Jersey.
(HN, 8/19/98)
1807 Aug 19, Robert Fulton's North
River Steamboat arrived in Albany, two days after leaving New York.
(AP, 8/19/07)
1812 Aug 19, The USS Constitution
-- also known as Old Ironsides -- got its name when it defeated the
British warship Guerriere off Nova Scotia in a slugfest of broadsides,
when cannonballs were said to have bounced off her sides. The USS
Constitution won more than 30 battles against the Barbary pirates off
Africa’s coast in the War of 1812.
(SFEC, 7/13/97, Par p.14)(AP, 8/19/97)
1821 Aug 19, There was a failed
liberal coup against French King Louis XVIII.
(MC, 8/19/02)
1822 Aug 19, Melchor Lopez Jimenez
(62), composer, died.
(MC, 8/19/02)
1839 Aug 19, At a meeting of the
French Academy of Sciences in Paris a new photographic process was
unveiled by Louis-Jacques-Mande Daguerre. He "was able to capture
images directly onto small, silvered plates; and in England where
William Henry Fox invented what he called "photogenic drawing." This
process produced a negative image on paper from which positive images
could be made... but it took more than an hour to take a picture and
the fuzzy prints were difficult to see. The daguerreotype enabled the
photographer to create a highly detailed image. The process consisted
of polishing a copper plate, using iodine to sensitize it, and
developing it over mercury after exposing it to light in a camera.
Daguerreotypes became so popular in the United States that New York
City boasted more than 70 daguerreotype studios by 1850.
(Smith., 5/95, p.72)(HNQ, 10/28/98)
1848 Aug 19, The New York Herald
reported the discovery of gold in California.
(AP, 8/19/97)
1856 Aug 19, Gail Borden
(1801-1874) received a patent for condensed milk and opened a small
factory for its production in Walcottville, Conn. At this time milk in
NYC sold for 6-7 cents a quart.
(ON, 5/04, p.5)(AP, 8/19/06)
1864 Aug 19, The 2nd day of battle
at Globe Tavern, Virginia.
(MC, 8/19/02)
1870 Aug 19, Bernard Baruch, U.S.
representative to the U.N. Atomic Energy Commission, was born.
"Let us not deceive ourselves: we must elect world peace or world
destruction."
(HN, 8/19/98)(MC, 8/19/02)
1871 Aug 19, Orville Wright
(d.1948), aviation pioneer, was born in Dayton, Oh. His birthday is
celebrated as National Aviation Day.
(HN, 8/19/00)(WUD, 1994, p.1647)(MC, 8/19/02)
1872 Aug 19, Eugene-Prosper
Prevost (63), composer, died.
(MC, 8/19/02)
1876 Aug 19, George Smith
(b.1840), British Assyriologist, died of dysentery in Syria. He was on
his way home from a 3rd trip to Mesopotamia. Smith had completed the
translation of the complete Epic of Gilgamesh in 1874.
(ON, 11/07,
p.6)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Smith_(assyriologist))
1881 Aug 19, Georges Enescu,
composer (Romanian Dances), was born in Romania.
(MC, 8/19/02)
1883 Aug 19, Gabrielle "Coco"
Chanel (d.1971), French fashion designer, was born: "My friends, there
are no friends."
(HN, 8/19/00)(AP, 7/26/99)
1902 Aug 19, Ogden Nash (d.1971),
American author and humorist, was born in Rye, NY. Vanity, vanity, all
is vanity/ That's any fun at all for humanity. "Winter comes but once a
year, And when it comes it brings the doctor good cheer."
(WUD, 1994 p.951)(AP, 10/24/97)(AP, 12/21/98)(HN,
8/19/00)(MC, 8/19/02)
1903 Aug 19, James Gould Cozzens
(d.1978), US novelist, was born in Chicago. His novels included
"Farewell to Cuba" and "Guard of Honor" for which he won a 1949
Pulitzer.
(MC, 8/19/02)(Internet)
1905 Aug 19, Fitzhugh Lee, US
pilot, vice-admiral (WW II, Navy Cross), was born.
(MC, 8/19/02)
1905 Aug 19, Roald Amundsen and
his crew of 6 aboard Gjøe, a converted herring boat, made
contact with the US Coast Guard cutter Bear, which confirmed their
crossing the Northwest Passage following a 26-month journey. Amundsen
continued by dogsled to the Yukon while his crew completed their
journey at Point Bonita, California, just outside the Golden
Gate.
(SFC, 4/17/00, p.D8)(WSJ, 4/18/00, p.A16)(Ind,
4/27/02, 5A)
1906 Aug 19, Philo T. Farnsworth
(d.1971), inventor (electronic TV), was born in Beaver County, Utah.
(http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blfarnsworth.htm)
1909 Aug 19, The Indianapolis
Motor Speedway opened with a 2.5 mile race track. It was founded in
1906 and the 1st 500 race was held in 1911.
(MC, 8/19/02)(Internet)
1912 Aug 19, Percy Aldridge
Grainger's "Shepherd's Key," premiered.
(MC, 8/19/02)
1914 Aug 19, Elmer Rice' "On
Trial," premiered in NYC.
(MC, 8/19/02)
1914 Aug 19, The British
Expeditionary Force (BEF) landed in France.
(HN, 8/19/98)
1915 Aug 19, Ring Lardner Jr.,
author and screenwriter (A Star Is Born), was born in Chicago.
(MC, 8/19/02)
1918 Aug 19, "Yip! Yip! Yaphank,"
a musical revue by Irving Berlin featuring Army recruits from Camp
Upton in Yaphank, N.Y., opened on Broadway.
(AP, 8/19/08)
1919 Aug 19, Malcolm Forbes
(d.1990), publisher of Forbes magazine, was born in Brooklyn, NY. "I
don't waste too much time philosophizing about wealth, I just recommend
it to everyone."
(HN, 8/19/98)(Internet)
1919 Aug 19, Afghanistan declared
independence from UK.
(MC, 8/19/02)
1921 Aug 19, Gene Roddenberry,
television writer and producer, best known for the series "Star Trek,"
was born in El Paso, Texas.
(HN, 8/19/98)(MC, 8/19/02)
1923 Aug 19, Vilfredo Federico
Damaso Pareto (b.1848), French-Italian sociologist, economist and
philosopher, died. In 1906 he made the famous observation that 20% of
the population owned 80% of the property in Italy. This was later
generalized by Joseph M. Juran and others into the so-called Pareto
principle (also termed the 80-20 rule) and generalized further to the
concept of a Pareto distribution.
(WSJ, 3/8/08,
p.A7)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vilfredo_Pareto)
1929 Aug 19, The comedy program
"Amos 'n' Andy," starring Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll, made its
network radio debut on NBC.
(AP, 8/19/97)
1929 Aug 19, Sergei P. Diaghilev
(b.1872), Russian dance master and leader of the Ballet Russes, died in
Italy.
(www.imdb.com/name/nm1959850/bio)(SFC, 7/15/97,
p.A18)
1934 Aug 19, A plebiscite in
Germany approved the vesting of sole executive power in Adolf Hitler as
Fuhrer. 38 million Germans voted to make Adolf Hitler the official
successor to President von Hindenburg.
(AP, 8/19/97)(HN, 8/19/00)
1936 Aug 19, A trial against Ljev
Kamenev and Grigori Zinoviev, for alleged "Trotskyism," opened in
Moscow.
(MC, 8/19/02)
1937 Aug 19, Hugo Black
(1886-1971), US Senator from Alabama, was sworn in as associate US
Supreme Court Justice.
(AP,
10/21/97)(www.oyez.org/oyez/resource/legal_entity/76/)
1942 Aug 19, 19 US Marines died
during a commando raid on Makin atoll in the Gilbert Islands. The raid
was 2,000 miles behind enemy lines and 9 Marines were left behind. The
1943 movie, "Gung Ho," was based on the raid and starred Randolph
Scott as Lt. Col. Evans Carlson, leader of the raid. In 2001 the bodies
of 13 Marines, who died on Makin, were reburied at Arlington National
Cemetery.
(SFC, 12/26/00, p.A1)(SFC, 8/18/01, p.A3)
1942 Aug 19, About 5,000 Canadian
and 2,000 British soldiers launched a disastrous raid against the
Germans at Dieppe, France. Over 3,600 men perished in this
battle. The information gathered from this landing was considered
valuable for planning the successful Allied landings in Northern
Africa, Sicily, and Normandy, France. Brit. Col. Pat Porteous
(d.2000) received a Victoria Cross for his valor in the attack which
was aimed at gaining experience for the later D-Day invasion.
(AP, 8/19/97)(HN, 8/19/98)(SFC, 10/16/00, p.A22)(MC,
8/19/02)
1942 Aug 19, Gen. Paulus ordered
the German 6th Army to conquer Stalingrad.
(MC, 8/19/02)
1943 Aug 19, Belgian church
excommunicated Nazi Leon Degrelle.
(MC, 8/19/02)
1944 Aug 19, In an effort to
prevent a communist uprising in Paris, Charles DeGaulle began attacking
German forces all around the city.
(HN, 8/19/98)
1944 Aug 19, The last Japanese
troops were driven out of India.
(MC, 8/19/02)
1944 Aug 19, US 90th and Polish
1st Division occupied Chambois, Normandy.
(MC, 8/19/02)
1946 Aug 19, Bill Clinton, US
President from 1992-2000, was born as William J. Blythe III in Hope,
Arkansas. He was the son of Virginia Cassidy Blythe and William
Jefferson Blythe II. Clinton’s father was killed in a traffic accident
prior to his birth. His mother married Roger Clinton when Bill was 4
years old.
(SFC, 7/14/96, Par p.23)(SFEC, 3/9/96, Z1 p.5)(WUD,
1994 p.1698)(HNQ, 1/1/02)
1947 Aug 19, J. Arens and D. van
Dorpen synthesized vitamin A.
(MC, 8/19/02)
1948 Aug 19, Tipper Gore, wife of
vice president Al Gore (1993-01), was born.
(MC, 8/19/02)
1950 Aug 19, Edith Sampson became
the first African-American representative to the United Nations.
(HN, 8/19/98)
1953 Aug 19, Gen'l. Zahedi ousted
PM Mossadegh and became the Premier of Iran in a bloody coup that left
300 dead. Britain and the US CIA under Allen Dulles planned a secret
mission to overthrow the government. PM Mossadeq had sought to
nationalize the Anglo-Persian Oil Co. The US government made a formal
apology for the coup in 2000. A 1954 CIA description of the coup was
made public in 2000. In 1979 Kermit Roosevelt (d.2000) published
“Countercoup: The Struggle for the Control of Iran,” an account of his
role in the coup.
(SFC, 11/20/53, p.A1)(SFC, 11/15/99, p.E6)(SFC,
5/29/97, p.A4)(WSJ, 3/20/00, p.A1)(SFEC, 4/16/00, p.A18)(SFEC, 6/11/00,
p.D6)(WSJ, 4/2/07, p.A6)
1954 Aug 19, Ralph J. Bunche was
named undersecretary of UN.
(MC, 8/19/02)
1955 Aug 19, US raised the import
duty on bicycles 50%.
(MC, 8/19/02)
1955 Aug 19, Severe flooding in
the Northeast caused by the remnants of Hurricane Diane claimed some
200 lives.
(AP, 8/19/97)
1957 Aug 19, The first balloon
flight to exceed 100,000 feet took off from Crosby, Minnesota. US Major
David Simons reached 30,933 m. in a balloon.
(HN, 8/19/00)(MC, 8/19/02)
1959 Aug 19, Jacob Epstein (78),
US-English sculptor, painter, died.
(MC, 8/19/02)
1960 Aug 19, A tribunal in Moscow
convicted American U2 pilot Francis Gary Powers of espionage. About 18
months later, the Soviets agreed to release him in exchange for
Rudolph Abel, a Soviet spy convicted 5 years earlier. The CIA and the
Senate cleared Powers of any personal blame for the incident.
(AP, 8/19/97)(MC, 8/19/02)
1960 Aug 19, Korabl-Sputnik-2
(Spaceship Satellite-2), also known as Sputnik 5, was launched. On
board were the dogs Belka ( Squirrel) and Strelka (Little Arrow). Also
on board were 40 mice, 2 rats and a variety of plants. After a day in
orbit, the spacecraft's retrorocket was fired and the landing capsule
and the dogs were safely recovered. They were the first living animals
to survive orbital flight.
(www.spacetoday.org/Astronauts/Animals/Dogs.html)
1963 Aug 19, NAACP Youth Council
began sit-ins at lunch counters in Oklahoma City.
(MC, 8/19/02)
1964 Aug 19, The Beatles performed
a concert at the Cow Palace in Daly City, Ca. They returned there for
another concert in 1965.
(www.rarebeatles.com/photopg7/sf81964.htm)
1965 Aug 19, U.S. forces destroyed
a Viet Cong stronghold near Van Tuong, in South Vietnam.
(HN, 8/19/98)
1965 Aug 19, The Auschwitz trials
ended with only 6 life sentences.
(MC, 8/19/02)
1966 Aug 19, An earthquake struck
Varko, Turkey, and some 2,400 were killed.
(MC, 8/19/02)
1967 Aug 19, Beatles' "All You
Need is Love," single went #1.
(MC, 8/19/02)
1968 Aug 19, George Gamow
(b.1904), physicist and writer, died. He popularized the idea of The
Big Bang.
(V.D.-H.K.p.335)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Gamow)
1969 Aug 19, Miles Davis and
associates began a 3-day session recording the album "Bitches Brew"
with Tony Williams on drums at Columbia's 30th Street Studio. Other
players included Joe Zawinul, Wayne Shorter, Airto Moreira, Herbie
Hancock, Bennie Maupin, John McLaughlin, Billy Cobham, Chick Corea and
Lenny White. The album was released in the spring of 1970 and became a
commercial success.
(SFEC, 7/27/97, DB
p.40)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitches_Brew)
1973 Aug 19, In Santa Cruz, Ca.,
Herbert Mullin (b.1947) was declared guilty of first-degree murder in
the cases of Jim Gianera and Kathy Francis, because they were
premeditated, while for the other eight murders he was found guilty of
second-degree murder because they were more impulsive. His story was
alter told by Donald T. Lunde and Jefferson Morgan in “The Die Song: A
Journey in the Mind of a Mass Murderer.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Mullin)
1974 Aug 19, US Ambassador Rodger
P. Davies was fatally wounded by a bullet that penetrated the American
embassy in Nicosia, Cyprus, during a protest by Greek Cypriots.
(AP, 8/19/04)
1976 Aug 19, President Ford
narrowly won the Republican presidential nomination over Ronald Reagan
at the party's convention in Kansas City. The convention was called to
order by Mary Louis Smith, chair of the Republican National Committee
and the first woman to organize and call to order the convention of a
major US political party. In 2005 Craig Shirley authored “Reagan’s
Revolution: The Untold Story of the Campaign That Started It all.”
(AP, 8/19/97)(SFEC, 8/24/97, p.D8)(WSJ, 2/2/05,
p.D10)
1977 Aug 19, Comedian Groucho Marx
died in Los Angeles at age 86. In 1996 Steven Stolier authored "Raised
Eyebrows." In 2000 Stefan Kanfer authored "Groucho: The Life and Times
of Julius Henry Marx." Simon Louvish authored "Monkey Business: The
Lives and Legends of the Marx Brothers."
(SFC, 6/5/97, p.A26)(AP, 8/19/97)(WSJ, 5/12/00,
p.W8)(SFEC, 6/25/00, Par p.16)
1979 Aug 19, In Cambodia a Phnom
Penh court tried, convicted and sentenced Pol Pot and his deputy, Leng
Sary, to death in absentia for genocide during the Khmer Rouge regime.
A "Hate Day" was created to recall Khmer Rouge crimes. Denise Affonco’s
testimony during the trial was later published as “To the End of Hell:
One Woman’s Struggle to Survive Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge.”
(SFC, 9/15/96, p.A16)(WSJ, 7/19/00,
p.A14)(http://tinyurl.com/2onrxp)(Econ, 12/15/07, p.93)
1980 Aug 19, Willy Russell's
"Educating Rita," premiered in London.
(www.thisistheatre.com/shows/piccadilly105.html)
1980 Aug 19, 301 people aboard a
Saudi Arabian L-1011 died as the jetliner made a fiery emergency
landing at the Riyadh airport.
(AP, 8/19/99)
1980 Aug 19, Otto Frank (b.1889),
the father of Anne Frank, died in Switzerland.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_Frank)
1981 Aug 19, Two U.S. Navy F-14
jet fighters shot down a pair of Soviet-built Libyan SU-22s in a
dogfight over the Gulf of Sidra.
(AP, 8/19/06)
1982 Aug 19, Soviet cosmonaut
Svetlana Savitskaya became the second woman to be launched into space.
(AP, 8/19/07)
1986 Aug 19, A car bomb killed 20
in Tehran, Iran.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Car_bomb)
1987 Aug 19, A third convoy of
U.S. warships and reflagged Kuwaiti tankers slipped into the Persian
Gulf before dawn and headed up the waterway behind a screen of
mine-seeking helicopters.
(AP, 8/19/97)
1988 Aug 19, During a news
conference in his hometown of Huntington, Ind., Republican
vice-presidential nominee Dan Quayle defended his service in the
National Guard during the Vietnam War.
(AP, 8/19/98)
1989 Aug 19, Roderick "Cooley"
Shannon (18) was beaten and shot to death at Leland and Rutland
streets. Officers Earl Sanders and Napoleon Hendrix determined that
J.J. Tennison and Anton Goff did the killing and withheld evidence in
the case. Lovinsky Ricard later confessed to the murder, but refused to
testify. Goff and Tennison were convicted in Oct, 1990. In 2003 a
federal judge threw out the conviction and Scheduled Goff and Tennison
for release. In 2004 Tennison sued SF, Earl Sanders and others for 13
years of wrongful imprisonment. In 2009 SF officials tentatively agreed
to pay $4.6 million to Tennison and $2.9 million to Goff.
(SSFC, 3/16/03, p.A13)(SSFC, 4/6/03, p.A1)(SFC,
8/27/03, p.A1)(SFC, 8/30/03, p.A1)(SFC, 7/28/09, p.C2)
1989 Aug 19, Mark MacPhail, an off
duty police officer was killed in Savannah, Georgia. Troy Davis was
convicted and sentenced to death in 1991 for killing MacPhail. In 2008
his execution was reprieved for a 3rd time after 7 of 9 witnesses had
recanted their testimony.
(SFC, 10/25/08,
p.A3)(www.fop9.net/markmacphail/)(Econ, 11/29/08, p.35)
1989 Aug 19, The "Pan-European
Picnic" helped precipitate the fall nearly three months later of the
Berlin Wall. Members of Hungary's budding opposition organized a picnic
at the border with Austria to press for greater political freedom and
promote friendship with their Western neighbors. Some 600 East Germans
got word of the event and turned up among the estimated 10,000
participants. They took advantage of the excursion to escape to Austria.
(AP, 8/19/09)
1989 Aug 19, Polish President
Wojciech Jaruzelski formally nominated Tadeusz Mazowiecki to become
Poland's first non-Communist prime minister in four decades.
(AP, 8/19/99)
1990 Aug 19, Iraqi President
Saddam Hussein offered to free all foreigners detained in Iraq and
Kuwait provided the United States promise to withdraw its forces from
Saudi Arabia and guarantee that an international economic embargo would
be lifted.
(AP, 8/19/00)
1991 Aug 19, Yankel Rosenbaum
(29), an Australian Hasidic scholar, was killed in rioting that erupted
in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn following the traffic death of
a black child. Earlier in the day Gavin Cato (7) had been hit and
killed by a car in a Rabbi’s motorcade. On Oct 29, 1992, a New York
City jury acquitted 17-year-old Lemrick Nelson of Rosenbaum’s murder.
In February 1997, a jury convicted Nelson and Charles Price of
violating Rosenbaum's civil rights. In 1998 Lemrick Nelson Jr. was
sentenced to 19 and 1/2 years in prison. In 1998 the city settled a
suit for $1.35 million brought by Jews who accused City Hall of
insufficient protection during the riots. In 2002 Lemrick Nelson and
Charles Price had their verdicts thrown out and a new trial scheduled.
In 2005 NYC agreed to pay $1.25 million to settle a suit brought by the
Rosenbaum family.
(SFC, 4/1/98, p.A2)(SFC, 4/3/98, p.A2)(SFC, 1/8/02,
p.A3)(SSFC, 6/19/05, p.A3)
1991 Aug 19, A putsch began in
Moscow. Soviet hard-liners, Janajev and the KGB, removed Soviet
President Mikhail S. Gorbachev from power. In defiance Russian
federation Pres. Boris N. Yeltsin called for a general strike. The coup
collapsed two days later.
(DrEE, 1/4/97, p.4)(AP, 8/19/04)
1992 Aug 19, The third night of
the Republican National Convention in Houston, billed as "family values
night," featured first lady Barbara Bush and Marilyn Quayle, wife of
Vice President Quayle, as speakers.
(AP, 8/19/97)
1993 Aug 19, Mattel and Fisher
Price toys announced a merger.
(http://tinyurl.com/bxdjz)
1993 Aug 19, Dr. George Tiller was
shot and wounded outside an abortion clinic in Wichita, Kan., by
Rachelle Shannon. Shannon was later sentenced to eleven years in prison
and also ordered to serve 20 additional years for arson and acid
attacks at abortion clinics in Oregon, California and Nevada.
(AP, 8/19/93)
1994 Aug 19, President Clinton
abruptly halted the nation's three-decade open-door policy for Cuban
refugees.
(AP, 8/19/99)
1994 Aug 19, Linus Pauling
(b.1901), 2-time Nobel Prize winner, died. In 1954 he won the NP for
chemistry and in 1962 the NP for Peace.
(http://nobelprize.org/peace/laureates/1962/pauling-bio.html)
1995 Aug 19, Three top US
diplomats heading to peace talks in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, were
killed when their armored vehicle plunged off a muddy road and
exploded.
(AP, 8/19/00)
1996 Aug 19, Ralph Nader accepted
the presidential nomination of the Green Party in Los Angeles,
denouncing tax breaks for corporations and calling for a "political
alternative" to the two mainstream parties.
(AP, 8/19/97)
1996 Aug 19, A judge sentenced
former Arkansas Gov. Jim Guy Tucker to four years' probation for his
Whitewater crimes.
(AP, 8/19/97)
1996 Aug 19, In Canberra,
Australia, protestors stormed the parliament in opposition to changes
in labor laws and proposed budget cuts to reduce the nation’s debt.
(SFC, 8/20/96, p.A10)
1996 Aug 19, In Haiti about 20
former soldiers attacked the Port-au-Prince police headquarters. One
person, a shoeshine man, was killed and several injured.
(SFC, 8/20/96, p.A10)
1996 Aug 19, Jordan’s King Hussein
said 2 days of rioting over higher bread prices was quelled.
(WSJ, 8/19/96, p.A1)
1996 Aug 19, A Russian Ilyushin-76
carrying rescue flares and car wheels destined for Libya crashed at
Belgrade’s airport and killed all 12 aboard.
(SFC, 8/20/96, p.A10)
1997 Aug 19, Missouri and Oklahoma
withdrew inmates from a private Texas prison after the release of a
video tape that showed guards using dogs and stun guns on prisoners
made to crawl during a drug raid.
(WSJ, 8/20/97, p.A1)
1997 Aug 19, A New Hampshire man,
Carl Drega (67) of Colebrook, killed 2 state troopers, a local judge
and a newspaper editor in Colebrook. The shooting spree ended with his
death near the Canadian border in Vermont. The issue was believed to be
a grudge over a tax case.
(WSJ, 8/20/97, p.A1)(SFC,11/3/97, p.A3)(AP, 8/19/98)
1997 Aug 19, In Cambodia 35,000
people fled across the border to Thailand to escape fighting between
forces loyal to Prince Ranariddh and troops of coup leader Hun Sen.
(WSJ, 8/20/97, p.A1)
1997 Aug 19, In Honduras lawmakers
voted to name Archbishop Oscar Andres Rodriguez to oversee the creation
of a new civilian police force.
(SFC, 8/21/97, p.A13)
1997 Aug 19, In Kenya some 300
kiosks were burned in Malindi.
(SFC, 8/21/97, p.A12)
1997 Aug 19, In North Korea
groundbreaking ceremonies were held for 2 nuclear power plants to be
built by a US led Int’l. consortium.
(WSJ, 8/20/97, p.A1)
1997 Aug 19, In Sri Lanka
government jets hit rebel positions and some 20,000 government troops
met guerrillas en route to Puliyankulam where 7 soldiers and more than
50 rebels were reported killed.
(SFC, 8/20/97, p.A9)
1998 Aug 19, President Clinton
spent a quiet 52nd birthday with his family on Martha's Vineyard as
controversy continued to swirl over his admissions to a grand jury
concerning his relationship with Monica Lewinsky.
(AP, 8/19/99)
1998 Aug 19, American interests
were threatened by the Int’l. Islamic Front for Jihad Against Jews and
Crusaders in a statement sent to Cairo, Egypt. The threat was
accompanied by others from the Islamic Army for the Liberation of Holy
Shrines, which claimed responsibility for the embassy bombings in
Africa.
(SFC, 8/20/98, p.A1)
1998 Aug 19, In Cleveland 49
prison guards, police officers and sheriff’s deputies pleaded guilty to
conspiracy charges related to cocaine distribution from an FBI sting
operation from Oct 1996 to Jan 1998.
(SFC, 8/20/98, p.A3)
1998 Aug 19, In Afghanistan Mullah
Mohamed Omar, supreme Taliban ruler, said that: "Even if all the
countries of the world unite, we would defend Osama with our blood."
(WSJ, 8/21/98, p.A4)
1998 Aug 19, In Burma [Myanmar]
Aung San Suu Kyi was in her 8th day of a roadside protest in her 4th
attempt to travel to Bassein.
(SFC, 8/20/98, p.A16)
1998 Aug 19, In Chile the senate
approved a bill to abolish the national holiday marking the 1973 coup
against Pres. Allende. A Unity day was proclaimed instead to begin in
1999.
(SFC, 8/20/98, p.A16)
1998 Aug 19, In Colombia the
Congress named Carlos Ossa to the post of comptroller general. he had
reported links to Pastor Perafan, a convicted drug trafficker, and was
opposed by Pres. Pastrana.
(SFC, 8/21/98, p.D2)
1998 Aug 19, The Irish government
announced plans to sharply tighten its anti-terrorist laws.
(SFC, 8/20/98, p.A14)
1998 Aug 19, In Italy the
Assicurazioni Generali insurance company announced that it will pay
$100 million to Holocaust survivors and the heirs of victims for life
insurance and annuity policies that it refused to honor after WW II.
(SFC, 8/20/98, p.A7)
1998 Aug 19, In Jordan the cabinet
resigned over polluted drinking water in Amman and King Hussein
appointed Fayez Tarawneh to form a new administration. Hussein was at
the Mayo Clinic in Rochester for lymphatic cancer.
(SFC, 8/20/98, p.A16)
1998 Aug 19, In Scotland Campbell
Aird was to be fitted with a new bionic arm developed by the
Prosthetics Research and Development Team at Princess Margaret Rose
Orthopedic Hospital. It was to have the first fully powered electrical
shoulder.
(SFC, 8/20/98, p.A17)
1998 Aug 19, In Lucerne,
Switzerland, the new Kultur and Kongresszentrum designed by Jean Nouvel
will open.
(SFC, 7/21/96, p.T5)
1999 Aug 19, Confronting questions
about possible past drug use, Republican presidential candidate George
W. Bush told reporters he had not used illegal drugs in 25 years, and
added that if voters insisted on knowing more—quote—"they can go find
somebody else to vote for."
(AP, 8/19/00)
1999 Aug 19, The Evangelical
Lutheran Church, 5.2 million members, agreed to establish formal ties
with the Episcopal Church, 2.4 million members.
(SFC, 8/20/99, p.a3)
1999 Aug 19, In Indonesia the
government launched an inquiry over $80 million in government funds
funneled by Bank Bali directors to PT Era Giat Prima, a finance and
debt-collection company controlled by a senior official of the Golkar
Party.
(SFC, 8/20/99, p.D3)
1999 Aug 19, Japan and Russia
agreed to establish a military hotline.
(SFC, 8/20/99, p.A19)
1999 Aug 19, Russian troops failed
to take the village of Tando in Dagestan and lost another 18 soldiers
and 3 helicopters.
(SFC, 8/20/99, p.A18)
1999 Aug 19, In Belgrade, Serbia,
some 50-150 thousand people demonstrated against Pres. Slobodan
Milosevic.
(SFC, 8/20/99, p.A1)
1999 Aug 19, In Venezuela the
Constitutional Assembly declared a judicial emergency and gave itself
new powers to overhaul the court system.
(SFC, 8/20/99, p.D3)
2000 Aug 19, Pres. Clinton signed
the Global Aids and Tuberculosis Relief Act of 2000. It included a
trust fund to care for African AIDS patients. AIDS was killing 6,000
people a day and had orphaned 15% of the children in the worst affected
cities.
(SFC, 8/19/00, p.A5)(SFEC, 8/20/00, p.A7)
2000 Aug 19, In New Mexico a gas
pipeline explosion near Carlsbad killed 10 people camping on the banks
of the Pecos River. An 11th victim died 2 days later. Investigators
found corrosion in the blown pipe wall. Amanda Smith (25), the 12th
victim, died in Sept.
(SFC, 8/21/00, p.A3)(SFC, 8/22/00, p.A4)(SFC,
9/6/00, p.A7)
2000 Aug 19, It was reported that
9 people had died in Ethiopia’s Afar region after the Awash River burst
its banks and inundated the Danakil Lowlands. 30,000 people were left
homeless.
(SFC, 8/19/00, p.B12)
2000 Aug 19, In Monrovia, Liberia,
four journalists for British TV were charged with espionage while
filming for a 3-part documentary about Liberia, Mauritania, Mali and
Angola. They were freed Aug 25.
(SFC, 8/21/00, p.A10)(SFC, 8/26/00, p.A9)
2000 Aug 19, Norwegian divers with
video equipment went down to the sunken Russian submarine Kursk in a
final attempt to find survivors trapped for a week, even though Russian
officials said all 118 seamen aboard were probably dead.
(AP, 8/19/05)
2000 Aug 19, Hugo Chavez took the
oath of office as president of Venezuela after a landslide re-election.
(AP, 8/19/01)
2001 Aug 19, Davis Toms won the
PGA Championship with a 1-under-par 69.
(AP, 8/19/02)
2001 Aug 19, Soul singer Betty
Everett died in Beloit, Wis., at age 61.
(AP, 8/19/02)
2001 Aug 19, Donald Woods (67),
former South Africa Daily Dispatch editor and apartheid opponent, died
in Sutton, England.
(SFC, 8/20/01, p.A15)
2001 Aug 19, In Colombia thousands
of soldiers pursued FARC rebels near San Jose del Guaviare. 20
guerrillas were reported killed including Urias Cuellar, a high-ranking
commander.
(SFC, 8/20/01, p.A9)
2001 Aug 19, In the West Bank
Israeli troops killed Mohammed Abu Arrar (14) at Rafah and Muin Abu
Lawi (38) near Nablus. Samir Abu Zaid and his 2 sons were killed when
their house was shelled in Rafah. Palestinians blamed Israeli missiles,
while the Israelis blamed Palestinian mortar rounds. Israel later said
Zaid and his children were killed by a bomb he was making.
(SFC, 8/20/01, p.A8)(WSJ, 8/21/01, p.A1)
2001 Aug 19, In Macedonia
government shelled the rebel-held village of Neprusteno for 4 hours.
(SFC, 8/21/01, p.A6)
2001 Aug 19, In Ukraine a methane
and coal dust explosion killed 55 miners at the Zasiadko mine in the
Donetsk region.
(SFC, 8/20/01, p.A9)(AP, 8/19/02)
2002 Aug 19, In San Jose, Ca., an
8-alarm fire consumed about 25% of the new $500 million Santana Row
shopping and residential complex along S. Winchester Blvd.
(SFC, 8/20/02, p.A1)
2002 Aug 19, In Colombia rebels
kidnapped over 2 dozen tourists inside Ensenada Utria national park.
The ELN was blamed.
(SFC, 8/22/02, p.A10)
2002 Aug 19, Japan has launched a
diplomatic offensive to foil South Korea's attempt to rename the ocean
separating the Asian neighbors from "Sea of Japan" to the "East Sea",
saying the weight of history is on the Japanese side.
(Reuters, 8/19/02)
2002 Aug 19, An Islamic high court
in northern Nigeria rejected an appeal by Amina Lawal, a single mother
sentenced to be stoned to death for having sex out of wedlock.
(AP, 8/19/02)(WSJ, 8/20/02, p.A1)
2002 Aug 19, An ailing and aging
John Paul II bid a tearful farewell to his homeland as he concluded a
four-day visit to the Krakow region of Poland.
(AP, 8/19/03)
2002 Aug 19, A Russian Mi-26
military helicopter loaded with troops crashed in Chechnya. 127 were
killed and 32 injured when the troop transport fell into a minefield in
what Russian media called the nation's biggest military helicopter
crash and the biggest single-day casualty count in the Chechen war.
Chechen rebels claimed to have shot the helicopter down.
(AP, 8/20/02)(WSJ, 8/23/02, p.A1)(AP, 8/21/03)(AP,
8/19/07)
2002 Aug 19, Eduardo Chillida
(78), Basque sculptor, died. He created monumental works and promoted
peace in the Basque region. His work included "The Comb of the Winds,"
an iron tangle in San Sebastian.
(SFC, 8/21/02, p.A19)
2002 Aug 19, Swedish financier Jan
Stenbeck (59), who developed an extensive network of media and
telecommunications companies, died in Paris.
(AP, 8/20/02)
2003 Aug 19, An Ohio auto-parts
worker shot a woman to death and wounded 2 other employees in Andover.
(WSJ, 8/20/03, p.A1)
2003 Aug 19, Afghanistan
celebrated its Independence Day. An explosion ripped through the home
of the brother of President Hamid Karzai.
(AP, 8/19/03)
2003 Aug 19, In northeastern
Brazil federal police and government inspectors freed about 800 slave
workers from two farms in Bahia state. Another 200 were freed a week
later. The Brazilian government estimated that some 25,000 people work
in slavery conditions in Brazil, most of them in remote Amazon areas.
(AP, 8/30/03)
2003 Aug 19, Royal Bank of Canada
said it would get $195 million plus interest from Enron Corp. and
others in a settlement agreement related to the sale of 11.5 million
common shares of EOG Resources.
(AP, 8/19/03)
2003 Aug 19, Fighting persisted in
Chechnya, with six Russian servicemen killed and 11 others wounded.
(AP, 8/20/03)
2003 Aug 19, It was reported that
France had provided Alstom SA a $3.9 billion lifeline to save it from
bankruptcy. The bailout was made against EU rules.
(WSJ, 8/19/03, p.A1)
2003 Aug 19, Carlos Roberto Reina
(77), a former political prisoner who rose to Honduras' presidency
(1993), died at his home in Tegucigalpa. After his presidential term,
he was a judge of the Interamerican Court of Human Rights and an
ambassador to France.
(AP, 8/20/03)
2003 Aug 29, A new Iraq Trade Bank
was established to provide letters of credit for big shipments to Iraq.
(WSJ, 10/28/03, p.A4)
2003 Aug 19, In Baghdad a car bomb
exploded in front of the hotel housing the UN headquarters, collapsing
the front of the building. UN Special Representative Sergio Vieira de
Mello (55) of Brazil and 22 other people were killed. UNICEF said that
its program co-coordinator for Iraq, Canadian Christopher
Klein-Beekman, was among the dead. In 2008 Samantha Power authored
“Chasing the Flame: Sergio Vieira de Mello and the Fight to Save the
World.”
(SFC, 8/20/03, p.A12)(AP, 8/21/03)(SSFC, 2/10/08,
p.M1)
2003 Aug 19, Taha Yassin Ramadan,
a former Iraqi vice president known as "Saddam's knuckles" for his
ruthlessness and No. 20 on the US list of most-wanted Iraqis, was
turned over to US forces in Mosul. Ramadan was tried and convicted in
November 2006 of murder, forced deportation and torture, and sentenced
to life in prison. The court agreed to turn it to a death sentence in
March 2007. Ramadan was hanged before dawn on Tuesday, March 20, 2007,
for his role in the killing of 148 Shia Iraqis in Dujail.
(AP, 8/19/03)(SFC, 8/20/03,
p.A13)(www.iraqupdates.com/p_articles.php/article/15720)
2003 Aug 19, A Hamas bus bombing
in Jerusalem killed 22 people, including as many as six children.
(AP, 8/20/03)(AP, 8/19/04)
2003 Aug 19, It was reported that
women in Kenya had begun rebelling against a traditional "cleansing"
ritual whereby new widows were required to sleep with a designated
"cleanser" in order to be inherited by male relatives and freed of
haunting spirits.
(SFC, 8/19/03, p.A10)
2003 Aug 19, Morocco sentenced
four men to death and 83 others to prison in a trial centered on deadly
terror attacks that raised fears Islamic extremism is spreading.
(AP, 8/19/03)
2003 Aug 19, South African police
and the FBI arrested Craig Michael Pritchert, 41, and Nova Ester
Guthrie, 28, in Capetown. The couple are suspected of armed robberies
in Arizona, Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, Texas, and Oregon between
1993 and 1996.
(AP, 8/21/03)
2004 Aug 19, Democratic
presidential nominee John Kerry fought back against campaign
allegations that he had exaggerated his combat record in Vietnam,
accusing President Bush of using a Republican front group "to do his
dirty work."
(AP, 8/19/05)
2004 Aug 19, Carly Patterson won
gymnastics' premier event at the Olympics in Athens, becoming the first
U.S. woman to win the all-around title since Mary Lou Retton in 1984.
(AP, 8/19/05)
2004 Aug 19, Google, the Internet
search engine, began trading shares at $85 per share. 14.1 million
shares were recently sold in a Dutch Auction at $85 per share. Google
shares closed up 18% at $100.33.
(SFC, 8/19/04, p.A1)(SFC, 8/20/04, p.A1)
2004 Aug 19, Amelie Delegrange
(22), from Hanvoile, north of Paris, was battered to death in the
southwest London neighborhood of Twickenham Green after a night out in
a wine bar. In 2006 Levi Bellfield, former nightclub bouncer, faced
trial for her murder and the February, 2003, murder of student Marsha
McDonnell (19). Bellfield was convicted on February 25, 2008 of the two
murders. The following day, he was sentenced to life imprisonment with
a recommendation that he should never be released.
(AFP,
6/9/06)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levi_Bellfield)
2004 Aug 19, In Hungary the
Socialist Party effectively ousted Prime Minister Peter Medgyessy from
office and said it would nominate his replacement next week.
(AP, 8/19/04)
2004 Aug 19, In Iraq PM Allawi
gave what he said was a final warning to cleric Muqtada al-Sadr to
disarm and the leave the holy shrine in Najaf.
(SFC, 8/20/04, p.A1)
2004 Aug 19, It was reported that
the Darfur refugee count in western Sudan had reached 11.2 million.
(WSJ, 8/19/04, p.A1)
2005 Aug 19, A Texas jury awarded
Carol Ernst, widow of Robert Ernst, $253 million charging Merck Corp.
liable for the heart-related death of Robert Ernst. $229 million was in
punitive damages. Texas caps on punitive damages reduced that figure to
about $26 million; Merck planned to appeal.
(WSJ, 8/22/05, p.A1)(AP, 8/19/06)
2005 Aug 19, Morgan Stanley said
it will start trading Russian stocks, bonds and currency instruments as
early as next month as top investment banks flock to the country to
profit from its soaring markets.
(AP, 8/19/05)
2005 Aug 19, In California Skylar
James Deleon (26), a former child actor, was charged with luring John
Jarvi to Mexico in December of 2003, slitting his throat and leaving
the body by the side of a road. Deleon was already facing trial for
hijacking a yacht and throwing the owners overboard in Nov 2004.
(Reuters, 8/20/05)
2005 Aug 19, Some 4,430 mechanics
at Northwest Airlines, based in Eagan, Minnesota, went on strike at
midnight as a 30-day cooling off period expired. The airline called for
$176 million in concessions including 2,000 job cuts.
(SFC, 8/20/05, p.A4)(SFC, 8/26/05, p.C3)
2005 Aug 19, An Alabama gas
station owner was run over and killed when he tried to stop a driver
from leaving without paying a $52 gas bill.
(SFC, 8/22/05, p.A3)
2005 Aug 19, Dennis Lynds (81),
mystery writer, died in Santa Barbara, Ca. His Dan Fortune private eye
series, written under the pseudonym Michael Collins, included some 20
books.
(SFC, 8/26/05, p.B7)
2005 Aug 19, In Algeria Islamic
militants killed six hikers in the forests of Ravin Bleu in the Batna
region, 530 kilometers east of Algiers.
(AP, 8/21/05)
2005 Aug 19, Antonio Palocci,
Brazil’s finance minister, was accused of taking monthly payments from
a rubbish collection firm when he was mayor of Riberao Preta in Sao
Paulo state. The news caused speculators to dump Brazilian bonds,
shares and the real.
(Econ, 8/27/05, p.33)
2005 Aug 19, Indian troops opened
fire on Bangladeshi workers and soldiers to stop them building a river
embankment close to the border. Bangladeshi troops fired back.
(AP, 8/21/05)
2005 Aug 19, In western Bangladesh
2 suspected Maoist rebels were killed while a bomb they were making
exploded.
(AP, 8/20/05)
2005 Aug 19, Mo Mowlam (55),
British politician, died after hitting her head in a fall in
Canterbury, England. Her no-nonsense negotiating as Northern Ireland
secretary helped forge the province's landmark peace accord.
(AP, 8/19/05)(AP, 8/19/06)
2005 Aug 19, Pierre Nkurunziza
(40), a former Hutu rebel leader, was chosen by lawmakers as Burundi's
president, culminating an internationally mediated effort that hopes to
bring peace to a central African nation wrecked by a dozen years of
ethnic war.
(AP, 8/20/05)
2005 Aug 19, Eleven Colombian
soldiers were ordered arrested in the killing of an Indian tribal
leader who was dragged from his home and later found shot to death.
(AP, 8/20/05)
2005 Aug 19, The Danish
pump-making company Grundfos said that two of its employees accepted
bribes from Iraqi officials under the United Nations' tainted
oil-for-food program.
(AP, 8/20/05)
2005 Aug 19, Ecuador’s defense
minister quit.
(WSJ, 8/22/05, p.A1)
2005 Aug 19, In Germany Mounir El
Motassadeq (31), a Moroccan man accused of helping the Sept. 11
hijackers was convicted, of membership in a terrorist organization but
was acquitted of direct involvement in the attacks on the US. He was
sentenced to 7 years in prison.
(Reuters, 8/19/05)
2005 Aug 19, Pope Benedict XVI
warned of rising anti-Semitism and hostility to foreigners, winning a
standing ovation from members of Germany's oldest Jewish community
during a visit to a rebuilt synagogue that had been destroyed by the
Nazis.
(AP, 8/19/05)
2005 Aug 19, India’s Wadia group,
an industrial conglomerate best known for its textile brand Bombay
Dyeing, said it will launch a low-cost airline in October and is in
talks with Airbus and Boeing Co. to buy 50 new jets over the next five
to seven years.
(AP, 8/19/05)
2005 Aug 19, In Iraq gunmen in
Mosul abducted and publicly executed 3 Sunni Arab activists working to
encourage voter participation.
(SFC, 8/20/05, p.A7)
2005 Aug 19, Attackers fired at
least three rockets from Jordan, with one narrowly missing a US Navy
ship docked at Aqaba and killing a Jordanian soldier. It was the most
serious militant attack on the Navy since the USS Cole was bombed in
2000.
(AP, 8/19/05)
2005 Aug 19, A Kurdish rebel group
fighting for autonomy in Turkey's southeast announced a one-month
cease-fire and said it planned to pursue indirect negotiations with the
government.
(AP, 8/20/05)
2006 Aug 19, In California
explorers from the Cave Research Foundation discovered a large cave in
Sequoia National Park, which they named Ursa Minor.
(SSFC, 9/24/06, p.A1)
2006 Aug 19, Afghan police backed
by NATO aircraft and artillery killed 71 suspected Taliban militant in
fierce clashes that also left five Afghan forces dead in southern
Kandahar province. 3 US soldiers were killed and 3 others wounded
during a clash against Taliban militants in eastern Kunar province. In
southern Uruzgan province, an American and an Afghan soldier were
killed and 3 other Americans wounded in a four-hour clash with more
than 100 insurgents. The latest violence came as the country celebrated
the 87th anniversary of its independence from Britain.
(AP, 8/19/06)(AP, 8/20/06)
2006 Aug 19, Roger Deakin
(b.1943), English writer and film-maker, died. His last book “Wildwood:
A Journey Through Trees,” was published posthumously in 2007.
(Econ, 7/28/07,
p.85)(http://books.guardian.co.uk/obituaries/story/0,,1860073,00.html)
2006 Aug 19, In East Timor
rampaging youths set houses on fire in Dili, a reminder that stability
has not yet returned to Asia's newest nation following months of
violence.
(CP, 8/19/06)
2006 Aug 19, In Germany a
21-year-old Lebanese was arrested in a police swoop on the railway
station in Kiel as he tried to flee the city, where he was a student.
He was one of two men suspected of planting bombs on German trains in a
failed terrorist attack in July.
(AP, 8/20/06)
2006 Aug 19, At least 13 people
were killed around Iraq, including four Iraqi soldiers in a roadside
bomb explosion in Diwaniyah. An American soldier was killed in combat
in Anbar province.
(AP, 8/19/06)(AP, 8/20/06)
2006 Aug 19, Israeli commandos
raided a Hezbollah stronghold deep inside Lebanon, sparking a fierce
clash with militants that left one Israeli soldier dead. Lebanon called
the raid a "flagrant violation" of the UN-brokered cease-fire, while
Israel said it was aimed at disrupting arms smuggling from Iran and
Syria. A Lebanese civilian was killed when unexploded Israeli munitions
from the offensive detonated in the village of Ras al-Ein, outside Tyre.
(AP, 8/19/06)
2006 Aug 19, Israeli soldiers in
Ramallah arrested Nasser Shaer, the Palestinian deputy prime minister.
He was the highest-ranking Hamas official rounded up in a
seven-week-old crackdown against the ruling party.
(AP, 8/19/06)
2006 Aug 19, Ten bodies were found
and about 20 other people were believed missing after a 2nd boat in 2
days carrying would-be immigrants sank off the Italian island of
Lampedusa. Some 70 survivors were plucked from the water after the boat
sank, several of whom said there had been 120 people on the boat.
(AP, 8/20/06)
2006 Aug 19, In Ivory Coast waste,
which contained hydrogen sulphide, was unloaded from a
Panamanian-registered ship, the Probo Koala, at Abidjan port and then
dumped in at least eight open air sites, including the city's main
rubbish dump. By mid-September 6 people had died and 16,000 had sought
treatment. Dutch-based Trafigura Beheer BV, one of the world's leading
commodities traders, said it had chartered the ship and said the
material was a "mixture of gasoline, water and caustic washings"
following the unloading of a cargo of gasoline in Nigeria.
(Reuters, 9/7/06)(Econ, 9/16/06, p.58)
2006 Aug 19, French soldiers
landed in Lebanon, the first reinforcements for an expanded UN
peacekeeping force tasked with keeping the truce in the
Israel-Hezbollah conflict. About 50 French troops, military engineers,
were to prepare for the arrival of 200 more soldiers expected next week.
(AP, 8/19/06)
2006 Aug 19, Ten bodies were found
and about 20 other people were believed missing after a 2nd boat in 2
days carrying would-be immigrants sank off the Italian island of
Lampedusa. Some 70 survivors were plucked from the water after the boat
sank, several of whom said there had been 120 people on the boat.
(AP, 8/20/06)
2006 Aug 19, Mexican prosecutors
announced that they have charged two policemen with protecting the
Arellano Felix drug trafficking gang. Mexican police said they had
broken up a vote-buying scheme in Chiapas on the eve of state elections.
(AP, 8/20/06)
2006 Aug 19, Demonstrations
erupted in Kathmandu, Nepal, after the government hiked fuel prices by
as much as 25% in a bid to save state-owned Nepal Oil Corp (NOC) from
bankruptcy.
(AFP, 8/19/06)
2006 Aug 19, In Nigeria government
troops arrested about 100 people in a search for militants suspected of
taking oil industry workers hostage in the petroleum-rich south.
(AP, 8/20/06)
2006 Aug 19, Russia handed over
the body of a Japanese fisherman killed by a Russian patrol boat that
opened fire in disputed waters, sparking a diplomatic feud.
(AP, 8/19/06)
2006 Aug 19, In Sudan 2 African
Union peacekeepers from Rwanda were killed and 3 were wounded when
their convoy was ambushed in the Darfur region.
(AP, 8/19/06)
2006 Aug 19, The Turkish Foreign
Ministry said that it had forced two Syria-bound Iranian planes to land
and be searched for rockets and other military equipment, one on Jul 27
and the other on Aug 8, during the conflict between Israel and
Hezbollah.
(AP, 8/19/06)
2006 Aug 19, A suspected Kurdish
rebel attack caused an explosion and huge fire on a natural gas
pipeline in eastern Turkey.
(AP, 8/19/06)
2007 Aug 19, US Customs seized a
submarine-like vessel filled with hundreds of millions of dollars worth
of cocaine off the Guatemalan coast.
(AP, 8/23/07)
2007 Aug 19, Elvira Arellano (32),
an illegal immigrant who took refuge in a Chicago church for a year to
avoid being separated from her American-born son, was deported from the
US to Mexico, where she vowed to continue her campaign to change US
immigration laws.
(AP, 8/21/07)(AP, 8/19/08)
2007 Aug 19, The US space shuttle
Endeavour departed hastily from the International Space Station, ending
a construction mission a day early in order to land before Hurricane
Dean threatens its Houston control center.
(AP, 8/19/07)
2007 Aug 19, Fierce storms from
the upper Mississippi to Texas since last week left 22 people dead. Six
people died in floodwaters across Oklahoma after heavy rains from the
remains of Tropical Storm Erin drenched the state. As much as 9 inches
of rain fell across a wide swath of Oklahoma, leaving roadways under 5
feet of water. 8 people were reported dead in Texas and 6 dead in
Minnesota.
(Reuters, 8/20/07)(SFC, 8/21/07, p.A6)(AP, 8/22/07)
2007 Aug 19, In southern
Afghanistan, dozens of Taliban insurgents attacked an Afghan army
compound, and the ensuing gunbattle left 10 suspected militants dead
and 4 others wounded. A Canadian soldier was killed when his vehicle
struck a roadside bomb near Kandahar.
(AP, 8/19/07)(AP, 8/20/07)
2007 Aug 19, Simultaneous grenade
attacks were launched on the homes of five Burundian politicians who
recently criticized the president, injuring three but failing to harm
the targets.
(AFP, 8/19/07)
2007 Aug 19, In China at least 36
people were killed as Typhoon Sepat hit the mainland after more 1.3
million people were evacuated as a precaution. In eastern China At
least 14 people died and 59 were injured when a container spilled
molten aluminum with a temperature of 1,650 degrees Fahrenheit at a
factory.
(AP, 8/19/07)(AP, 8/20/07)(AP, 8/22/07)
2007 Aug 19, In east Baghdad a
mortar barrage slammed into a mainly Shiite neighborhood, killing 12
including women and children and wounding 31. French foreign minister
Bernard Kouchner arrived in Baghdad on a groundbreaking visit after
years of icy relations with the US over Iraq. In central Baghdad gunmen
driving several cars waylaid a minibus headed for Sadr City, the
capital's Shiite enclave, and abducted 15 passengers, A top US general
said American forces are tracking about 50 members of an elite Iranian
force who have crossed the border into southern Iraq to train Shiite
militia fighters.
(AP, 8/19/07)
2007 Aug 19, Israel said it would
expel refugees from Sudan's war torn Darfur region, touching off hot
debate over whether the Jewish state, founded after the Nazi genocide,
has a duty to take in people fleeing persecution.
(AP, 8/19/07)
2007 Aug 19, Israel opened a
crossing with the Gaza Strip to let in fuel shipments, but tens of
thousands of homes remained without electricity because fuel for a
major Gaza power company hadn't arrived. The EU cut off vital funding
to a Gaza power plant, forcing it to shut down the last of its
generators and darken tens of thousands of Palestinian homes.
Palestinian Information Minister Riad Maliki said the EU ceased payment
"because Hamas took over the electric company and started collecting
the revenues and taking them to its pocket."
(AP, 8/19/07)(AP, 8/20/07)
2007 Aug 19, The Israeli
government and Holocaust survivors struck a deal on a special allowance
for Israelis who lived through the Nazi genocide. It guaranteed
Israelis who survived the Nazi ghettos and concentration camps a
monthly stipend of $284.
(AP, 8/19/07)
2007 Aug 19, Jamaicans headed
inland and tourists fled the country as Hurricane Dean headed for a
direct hit on the island. Dean hit Jamaica as a Category 4 storm.
(AP, 8/19/07)(WSJ, 8/20/07, p.A1)
2007 Aug 19, President Maumoon
Abdul Gayoom won an overwhelming victory in a referendum on the
Maldives' future form of government, a poll seen as an informal vote of
confidence in his three-decade rule of the tiny Indian Ocean nation.
(AP, 8/19/07)
2007 Aug 19, Pakistan army
helicopter gunships killed at least 15 al-Qaeda militants, mostly
Uzbeks, in a pre-dawn raid near the Afghan border. Intelligence
officials in Mir Ali said two women and two children also died in the
strike.
(Reuters, 8/19/07)
2007 Aug 19, In Sudan armed
raiders killed a policeman and wounded four others in an attack on a
refugee camp in Darfur.
(Reuters, 8/20/07)
2007 Aug 19, A new constitution
for Thailand, that is to usher in December general elections and end
military rule, was approved by millions of voters in the country’s
first ever nationwide referendum. This was the 18th constitution since
the end of absolute monarchy in 1932.
(AP, 8/19/07)(Econ, 8/25/07, p.38)
2008 Aug 19, A US federal grand
jury handed down a new indictment against Puerto Rico Gov. Anibal
Acevedo Vila, charging him with four counts of wire fraud and one count
of conspiracy to commit money laundering in connection with alleged
campaign finance violations.
(AP, 8/19/08)
2008 Aug 19, US scientists said
they have devised a way to grow large quantities of blood in the
laboratory using human embryonic stem cells.
(SFC, 8/20/08, p.A7)
2008 Aug 19, LeRoi Moore (46),
versatile saxophonist, died of complications from injuries he suffered
in an all-terrain vehicle accident. His signature staccato fused jazz
and funk overtones onto the eclectic sound of the Dave Matthews Band.
(AP, 8/20/08)
2008 Aug 19, In Afghanistan a team
of suicide bombers tried unsuccessfully to storm a US base near the
Afghanistan-Pakistan border. NATO said 3 suicide bombers detonated
their vests and 3 more were shot dead and that 7 attackers in total
were killed.
(AP, 8/19/08)
2008 Aug 19, A suicide car bomb
attack east of Algiers killed 43 people and wounded 45. The attack
targeted a paramilitary gendarmerie training school at Issers. Most of
the dead were young men aged between 18 and 20.
(Reuters, 8/19/08)
2008 Aug 19, Aabid Khan (23), a
Briton who recruited Islamist extremists online to stage holy war
worldwide, including Britain's youngest terrorism convict, was jailed
for 12 years. Sultan Muhammad (23), one of his accomplices, received a
10-year term.
(Reuters, 8/19/08)
2008 Aug 19, In Bolivia leaders in
5 opposition controlled states proclaimed a general strike. They sought
greater autonomy and a larger share of royalties from local oil and gas.
(SFC, 8/20/08, p.A14)
2008 Aug 19, Iraqi troops raided
local government offices in the volatile Diyala province, arresting two
people, including a university president. They then advanced to the
provincial governor's office where exchanged fire with the government
forces, prompting a gunfight that killed the governor's secretary,
Abbas al-Tamimi, and injured four guards. Iraqi troops detained the son
of a prominent Sunni leader during a raid in Baghdad.
(AP, 8/19/08)(AP, 8/20/08)
2008 Aug 19, The Dutch Navy and a
squad of US Coast Guard raiders seized 4.6 tons (4,200 kilograms) of
cocaine from a Panamanian-flagged freighter that had set sail from
Venezuela. The freighter was boarded on Aug 17 and it took 36 hours of
searching to find the drugs.
(AP, 8/23/08)
2008 Aug 19, The 39th annual
Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) opened in Niue. Members at the 2-day forum
agreed to threaten Fiji with suspension unless elections are held as
scheduled by March 2009.
(Econ, 8/23/08,
p.34)(www.forumsec.org/event.cfm?cmd=list&sd=200808)
2008 Aug 19, Pakistan's ruling
coalition met to discuss a replacement for President Pervez Musharraf.
A suicide bomber killed 23 people at a hospital in a northwestern town
in the first attack since Musharraf stepped down. 5 soldiers and 13
Taliban militants died in clashes in a tribal area bordering
Afghanistan.
(AFP, 8/19/08)
2008 Aug 19, A Palestinian rocket
attack on southern Israel violated a truce and led Israel to close its
cargo crossings with the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 8/20/08)
2008 Aug 19, Russian soldiers took
20 Georgian troops prisoner at a key port in western Georgia and
commandeered American Humvees awaiting shipment back to the United
States after taking part in earlier US-Georgian military exercises.
Georgia and Russia exchanged prisoners captured during their brief war.
(AP, 8/19/08)
2008 Aug 19, Armed pirates seized
the MT Bunga Melati Dua, a Malaysian palm oil tanker with 39 crew, off
the coast of Somalia, the fourth hijacking in a month.
(AP, 8/20/08)
2008 Aug 19, Turkey's President
Abdullah Gul urged Sudanese leader Omar al-Bashir, during talks at a
summit of African leaders, to act responsibly and to end the suffering
in the devastated Darfur region. A suicide bombing wounded 13 policemen
outside the southern city of Mersin.
(AP, 8/19/08)(AP, 8/20/08)
2008 Aug 19, Vietnamese
authorities freed British glam rocker Paul Gadd, aka Gary Glitter,
after nearly three years in prison on child molestation charges, then
moved immediately to deport him.
(AP, 8/19/08)(Econ, 8/36/08, p.36)
2008 Aug 19, Zambia's President
Levy Mwanawasa (b.1948) died in France. He had been hospitalized at a
French military hospital since suffering a stroke in June.
(AP, 8/19/08)(SFC, 8/20/08, p.B4)
Go to http://www.timelinesdb.com
Go to August 20