Today in History - August 20
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573 Aug 20,
Gregory of Tours was selected as the bishop of Tours.
(MC, 8/20/02)
917 Aug 20, A Byzantine
counter-offensive was routed by Syeon at Anchialus, Bulgaria.
(HN, 8/20/98)
1153 Aug 20, Bernard de Clairvaux,
French saint, died.
(MC, 8/20/02)
1191 Aug 20, Crusader King Richard
I (1157-1199), Coeur de Lion (the "Lionheart"), executed some
2,700-3,000 Muslim prisoners in Acre (Akko).
(MC, 8/20/02)
1494 Aug 20, Columbus returned to
Hispaniola. He had confirmed that Jamaica was an island and failed to
find a mainland.
(http://www1.minn.net/~keithp/v2.htm)
1534 Aug 20, Turkish admiral
Chaireddin (Khair ad-Din) "Barbarossa" occupied Tunis.
(MC, 8/20/02)(PC, 1992, p.178)
1619 Aug 20, The 1st African
slaves arrived to North America aboard a Dutch privateer. It docked in
Jamestown, Virginia, with twenty human captives among its cargo.
(SFC, 12/18/96, p.A25)(HN, 8/20/98)(PC, 1992, p.224)
1625 Aug 20, Thomas Corneille,
French playwright, was born.
(MC, 8/20/02)
1667 Aug 20, John Milton published
Paradise Lost, an epic poem about the fall of Adam and Eve.
(HN, 8/20/98)
1672 Aug 20, Jan de Witt, Dutch
politician and mathematician, was assassinated by a carefully organized
lynch "mob" after visiting his brother Cornelis de Witt in prison. He
was killed by a shot in the neck; his naked body was hanged and
mutilated and the heart was carved out to be exhibited.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johan_de_Witt)
1745 Aug 20, Bonnie Prince Charlie
reached Blair Castle, Scotland.
(MC, 8/20/02)
1778 Aug 20, Bernardo O'Higgins
was born in Chile. He later won independence for Chile.
(MC, 8/20/02)
1781 Aug 20, George Washington
began to move his troops south to fight Cornwallis.
(MC, 8/20/02)
1785 Aug 20, Oliver Hazard Perry,
US Naval hero ("We have met the enemy"), was born in Rhode Island.
(MC, 8/20/02)
1794 Aug 20, American General "Mad
Anthony" Wayne defeated the Ohio Indians at the Battle of Fallen
Timbers in the Northwest territory, ending Indian resistance in the
area.
(HN, 8/20/98)
1795 Aug 20, Joseph Haydn returned
to Vienna from England.
(MC, 8/20/02)
1804 Aug 20, Charles Floyd died,
the only fatality of the Lewis & Clark Expedition. In 1901 a
memorial was erected at his gravesite in Sioux City, Iowa.
(MC, 8/20/02)(Internet)
1833 Aug 20, Benjamin Harrison,
the 23rd president of the United States (1889-1893) and grandson of
President William Henry Harrison, was born in North Bend, Ohio.
(HN 8/20/97)(AP, 8/20/99)(MC, 8/20/02)
1847 Aug 20, General Winfield
Scott won the battle of Churubusco on his drive to Mexico City. The
Mexican War gave future civil war generals their first taste of combat.
(HN, 8/20/98)
1852 Aug 20, The steamer
"Atlantic" collided on Lake Erie with the fishing boat Ogdensburg, and
sank. An estimated 150-250 people were drowned.
(MC, 8/20/02)(Internet)
1864 Aug 20, The 8th and last day
of battle at Deep Bottom Run, Va., left about 3900 casualties.
(MC, 8/20/02)
1865 Aug 20, Pres. Johnson
proclaimed an end to the "insurrection" in Texas.
(MC, 8/20/02)
1866 Aug 20, President Andrew
Johnson formally declared the Civil War over, even though the fighting
had stopped months earlier.
(AP, 8/20/97)
1881 Aug 20, Nikolay Yakovlevich
Myaskovsky, composer, was born in Poland of Russian military parentage.
(MC, 8/20/02)(Internet)
1886 Aug 20, Paul Tillich,
German-US theologian and philosopher who wrote "Systematic Theology,"
was born.
(HN, 8/20/98)(MC, 8/20/02)
1890 Aug 20, H.P. Lovecraft
(d.1937), author of horror tales, was born in Providence, RI.
(HN, 8/20/98)(SSFC, 2/27/05, p.B1)
1893 Aug 20, Shechita (ritual
slaughtering) was prohibited in Switzerland.
(MC, 8/20/02)
1895 Aug 20, Start of Sherlock
Holmes "Adventure of Norwood Builder."
(MC, 8/20/02)
1896 Aug 20, Dial telephone was
patented.
(MC, 8/20/02)
1901 Aug 20, Fawcett committee
visited Mafeking concentration camp in Cape Colony.
(MC, 8/20/02)
1904 Aug 20, Dublin’s Abbey
Theatre was founded, an outgrowth of the Irish Literary Theatre founded
in 1899 by William Butler Yeats and Lady Gregory.
(HN, 8/20/00)
1905 Aug 20, Jack Teagarden, jazz
trombonist, was born.
(HN, 8/20/00)
1908 Aug 20, The American Great
White Fleet arrived in Sydney, Australia, to a warm welcome.
(HN, 8/20/98)
1910 Aug 20, Eero Saarinen
(d.1961), Finnish-US architect (IBM Building, MIT Chapel), was born in
Rantasalmi, Finland.
(MC, 8/20/02)
1910 Aug 20, The 1st shot fired
from an airplane was during a test flight over Brooklyn's Sheepshead
Bay.
(WSJ, 5/20/03, p.D5)
1910 Aug 20-21, The Great Idaho
Fire killed 86 people and destroyed some 3 million acres of timber in
Idaho and Montana.
(http://www.idahoforests.org/fires.htm)
1912 Aug 20, The US Plant
Quarantine Act went into effect.
(MC, 8/20/02)
1912 Aug 20, William Booth,
English minister, founder (Salvation Army), died.
(MC, 8/20/02)
1913 Aug 20, 700 feet above Buc,
France, parachutist Adolphe Pegoud becomes the first person to jump
from an airplane and land safely.
(HN, 8/20/00)(MC, 8/20/02)
1914 Aug 20, Battle at Morhange:
German troops chased French, killing 1000s.
(MC, 8/20/02)
1914 Aug 20, German forces
occupied Brussels, Belgium, during World War I.
(AP, 8/20/07)
1914 Aug 20, Russia won an early
victory over Germany at Gumbinnen.
(HN, 8/20/98)
1914 Aug 20-24, Battle of
Boundaries: Lorraine, Ardennen, Sambre & Meuse, Mons.
(MC, 8/20/02)
1915 Aug 20, Paul Ehrlich (61),
German genealogist (Chemotherapy, Nobel 1908), died.
(MC, 8/20/02)
1918 Aug 20, Britain opened its
offensive on the Western front during World War I.
(AP, 8/20/97)
1920 Aug 20, Pioneering American
radio station 8MK in Detroit (later WWJ) began daily broadcasting.
(AP, 8/20/97)
1920 Aug 20, A preliminary meeting
was held in Akron, Ohio, to form the American Pro Football League.
(MC, 8/20/02)
1921 Aug 20, Jacqueline Susann,
author (Valley of the Dolls), was born in Phila., Pa.
(MC, 8/20/02)
1926 Aug 20, There was an uprising
against Reza Shah Pahlavi in Persia.
(MC, 8/20/02)
1931 Aug 20, Donald King, American
promoter of boxing, was born.
(MC, 8/20/02)
1934 Aug 20, Gangster Al Capone
and 42 other prisoners traveled in steel barred railroad coaches to
Alcatraz after being transferred the federal penitentiary in Atlanta,
Ga.
(SSFC, 8/9/09, DB p.46)
1939 Aug 20, Russian offensive
under Gen. Zhukov against Jap invasion in Mongolia.
(MC, 8/20/02)
1939 Aug 20, Soviet and German
trade agreements were signed.
(DrEE, 10/26/96, p.4)
1940 Aug 20, Radar was used for
the first time, by the British during the Battle of Britain.
(HN, 8/20/00)
1940 Aug 20, British Prime
Minister Winston Churchill paid tribute to the Royal Air Force, saying,
"Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so
few."
(AP, 8/20/97)
1940 Aug 20, Ramon Mercador
(Mercader) del Rio, a Spanish Communist, posed as a Canadian
businessman (aka Frank Jackson) and fatally wounded Leon Trotsky with
an alpine ax to the back of the head in Mexico City. Trotsky died the
next day.
(WSJ, 3/29/96, p.A-14)(TMC, 1994, p.1940)(SFC,
7/19/96, p.B1)(HN, 8/20/01)
1941 Aug 20, Slobodan Milosevic,
premier of Serbia, was born.
(MC, 8/20/02)
1941 Aug 20, Police raided the
11th district of Paris and took over 4,000 Jewish males.
(MC, 8/20/02)
1941 Aug 20, Adolf Hitler
authorized the development of the V-2 missile.
(HN, 8/20/98)
1942 Aug 20, Isaac Hayes, composer
(Shaft), was born in Covington, TN.
(MC, 8/20/02)
1942 Aug 20, Plutonium was first
weighed. Glenn T. Seaborg was a co-discoverer of Plutonium.
(HFA, ‘96, p.36)(SFC, 8/26/97, p.A17)
1944 Aug 20, Rajiv Gandhi, Prime
Minster of India (1984-89), was born.
(HN, 8/20/98)(MC, 8/20/02)
1944 Aug 20, "Anna Lucasta,"
opened on Broadway.
(MC, 8/20/02)
1944 Aug 20, United States and
British forces closed the pincers on the German 7th Army in the
Falaise-Argentan pocket in France.
(HN, 8/20/98)(MC, 8/20/02)
1944 Aug 20, The US liberty ship
SS Richard Montgomery was wrecked off the Nore in the Thames Estuary,
with some 1500 tons of explosives. As of 2008 it continued to be a
hazard to the area.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Richard_Montgomery)
1944 Aug 20, Gen. de Gaulle
returned to France.
(MC, 8/20/02)
1946 Aug 20, Connie Chung (Yu-Hwa)
journalist: CBS Evening News, was born in Washington, DC.
(Internet)
1948 Aug 20, Robert Plant
(Honeydrippers: Rockin' at Midnight; Led Zeppelin: Stairway to Heaven,
etc.), was born.
(MC, 8/20/02)
1948 Aug 20, The United States
ordered the expulsion of the Soviet Consul General in New York, Jacob
Lomakin, accusing him of attempting to return two consular employees to
the Soviet Union against their will.
(AP, 8/20/08)
1950 Aug 20, South Korean police
and soldiers killed 210 people on the southern island of Cheju.
(SFC, 4/21/00, p.A19)
1952 Aug 20, Russia's Stalin met
China's Chou Enlai.
(MC, 8/20/02)
1953 Aug 20, The Soviet Union
publicly acknowledged it had tested a hydrogen bomb.
(AP, 8/20/97)
1955 Aug 20, Hundreds of people
were killed in anti-French rioting in Morocco and Algeria.
(AP, 8/20/97)
1956 Aug 20, The Republican
Convention opened at the Cow Palace in Daly City, Ca.
(SFEC, 5/16/99, Z1 p.4)
1956 Aug 20, The US state
department reaffirmed its ban on travel to China.
(EWH, 1968, p.1280)
1960 Aug 20, Senegal broke from
Mali federation and declared independence.
(MC, 8/20/02)
1961 Aug 20, East Germany began
erecting a 5' high wall along the border with the west to replace the
barbed wire put up Aug 13.
(MC, 8/20/02)
1964 Aug 20, President Johnson
signed the Economic Opportunity Act, a nearly $1 billion anti-poverty
measure.
(AP, 8/20/07)
1966 Aug 20, The Beatles were
pelted with rotten fruit during a Memphis concert.
(MC, 8/20/02)
1968 Aug 20, Some 650,000 Soviet
Union and other Warsaw Pact troops began invading Czechoslovakia to
crush the "Prague Spring" liberalization drive of Alexander Dubcek's
regime.
(AP, 8/20/97)(SFC, 8/25/04, p.B7)
1969 Aug 20, Arlo Guthrie released
"Alice's Restaurant."
(www.imdb.com/title/tt0064002/)
1969 Aug 20, In San Francisco
Perry Butler and his wife Katharine opened Perry’s, a well-lit New York
style saloon, on Union Street. In 2009 they celebrated 40 years in
business.
(SFC, 8/17/99, p.A13)(SSFC, 8/8/04, p.F1)(SFC,
8/20/09, p.E1)
1971 Aug 20, FBI began a covert
investigation of CBS journalist Daniel Schorr.
(www.theatlantic.com/politics/polibig/wisepres.htm)
1971 Aug 20, The Cambodian
military launched a series of operations against the Khmer Rouge.
(HN, 8/20/98)
1971 Aug 20-1971 Aug 21, In
Vietnam heavy rains flooded the Red River delta and some 100,000 people
were killed.
(www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0001440.html)
1974 Aug 20, Pres. Gerald Ford
selected Nelson Rockefeller as VP.
(http://archive.rockefeller.edu/collections/family/nar/narvp.php)
1975 Aug 20, Viking 1, the first
of 2 unmanned Viking landers, was launched from Cape Canaveral,
Florida, on a mission to Mars. It reached Mars in the summer of 1976.
(SFEC, 9/28/97, p.A14)
1977 Aug 20, The song "Best of My
Love", by the Emotions, topped the US pop charts.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Best_of_My_Love_(The_Emotions_song))
1977 Aug 20, The United States
launched Voyager 2, an unmanned spacecraft carrying a 12-inch copper
phonograph record containing greetings in dozens of languages, samples
of music and sounds of nature.
(V.D.-H.K.p.388)(MofE, 1978, p.41)(AP, 8/20/97)
1978 Aug 20, In London gunmen
opened fire on an Israeli El Al Airline bus. 2 people died and 9 were
injured.
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/20/newsid_2546000/2546593.stm)
1979 Aug 20, Bob Dylan proclaimed
his new born-again Christianity with his album "Slow Train Coming." The
album won a Grammy award.
(SFEC, 9/28/97,
p.A3)(www.bobdylan.com/albums/slowtrain.html)
1979 Aug 20, Diana Nyad succeeded
in her 3rd attempt to swim from the Bahamas to Florida.
(AP,
8/20/99)(http://andrejkoymasky.com/liv/fam/bion1/nyad1.html)
1980 Aug 20, Reinhold Messner of
Italy became the 1st to solo ascent Mt. Everest.
(www.britannica.com/ebc/article-9052253)
1980 Aug 20, UN Security Council
condemned (14-0, US abstains) Israeli declaration that all of Jerusalem
is it's capital.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Security_Council_Resolution_478)
1981 Aug 20, In Northern Ireland
Pat McGeown (1956-1996) lapsed into a coma during the Maze Prison
hunger strike. About 25 men went on strike and a 10th died when
McGeown’s family agreed to medical intervention. This was the
background for the 1996 film “Some Mother’s Son.”
(http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/events/hstrike/chronology.htm)(SFC, 10/5/96,
p.A21)
1982 Aug 20, In Washington, DC,
Mexican Secretary of Finance, Jesus Silva Herzog, declared that “Mexico
did not have means to pay its due foreign debt and thus his Country was
assuming a moratorium.” US Fed Chairman Paul Volcker immediately
established a severe control upon money flow and practically the
immobilization of domestic or external credits. The crisis lasted 1,717
days. Volcker lent money to Mexico and arranged a moratorium on
repayment of bank loans.
(http://tinyurl.com/37xdmy)(WSJ, 8/30/07, p.A3)
1986 Aug 20, Postal employee
Patrick Henry Sherrill (44) went on a deadly rampage at a post office
in Edmond, Okla., shooting 14 fellow workers to death before killing
himself. This incident is credited with inspiring the American phrase
"going postal".
(WSJ, 8/7/97, p.A12)(AP,
8/20/06)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Sherrill)
1987 Aug 20, A federal appeals
court in Washington, D.C., rejected Lt. Col. Oliver North's argument
that the independent counsel investigating the Iran-Contra affair was
operating under an invalid Justice Department regulation.
(HN 8/20/97)
1988 Aug 20, Eight British
soldiers were killed by an Irish Republican Army land mine that
destroyed a military bus near Omagh, County Tyrone, in Northern
Ireland.
(HN 8/20/98)
1988 Aug 20, A cease fire between
Iran and Iraq took effect after 8 years of war.
(www.un.org/Depts/dpko/dpko/co_mission/uniimogbackgr.html)
1989 Aug 20, Entertainment
executive Jose Menendez and his wife, Kitty, were murdered in their
Beverly Hills, Calif., mansion. Eric and Lyle Menendez stood accused of
murdering their parents. In their first trial the jury deadlocked, but
in 1996 they were convicted of first-degree murder. They based their
defense on a history of parental abuse.
(SFC, 4/18/96, p.a-15)(WSJ, 3/21/96, p.A-1)
1989 Aug 20, British
conservationist George Adamson, 83, was shot and killed by bandits in
Kenya.
(AP, 8/20/99)
1989 Aug 20, Fifty-one people died
when a pleasure boat sank in the Thames River in London.
(AP, 8/20/99)
1990 Aug 20, George Steinbrenner
stepped down as NY Yankee owner.
(http://tinyurl.com/bjbgt)
1990 Aug 20, For the first time
since Iraq began detaining foreigners, President Bush publicly referred
to the detainees as hostages, and demanded their release. Iraq moved
Western hostages to military installations (human shields).
(AP, 8/20/00)
1990 Aug 20, Three former
Northwest Airlines pilots were convicted in Minneapolis of flying while
intoxicated.
(AP, 8/20/00)
1991 Aug 20, More than 100,000
people rallied outside the Russian Parliament building as protests
against the Soviet coup increased. President Bush said he would never
deal with the coup leaders.
(AP, 8/20/01)
1992 Aug 20, In the early hours of
Aug. 20, the Republican National Convention in Houston renominated
President Bush and Vice President Quayle. On the evening of the 20th,
Bush delivered a hard-hitting speech in which he attacked the Democrats
and promised to seek across-the-board tax cuts if re-elected.
(HN 8/20/97)
1993 Aug 20, Conjoined twins
Angela and Amy Lakeberg were separated at The Children's Hospital of
Philadelphia in an operation that scarified Amy, since the sisters
shared a common heart and liver tissue. Angela died in June 1994.
(HN 8/20/98)
1994 Aug 20, President Clinton
slapped new sanctions on Cuba that included prohibiting payments by
Cuban-Americans to their relatives in Cuba.
(AP, 8/21/04)
1994 Aug 20, Benjamin Chavis
Junior was fired as head of the NAACP after a turbulent 16-month
tenure.
(AP, 8/20/99)
1994 Aug 20, Buenos Aires
Archbishop Quarracino called for a zone of exclusion for all
homosexuals in Argentina.
(http://tinyurl.com/b87et)
1995 Aug 20, The remnants of an
American peace delegation headed home from Bosnia-Herzegovina with the
bodies of three diplomats killed in an accident.
(AP, 8/20/00)
1995 Aug 20, The Algerian
government planned presidential elections for Nov. 16, but Muslim
militants vowed to derail the plans. Some 40,000 people have been
killed since the government cancelled elections in 1992.
(WSJ, 8/21/95, p.A-1)
1995 Aug 20, In Firozabad, India,
a speeding passenger train crashed into a train that had stalled after
hitting a cow and some 358 people were killed.
(SFC, 6/4/98, p.A15)(SFC, 8/3/99, p.A8)(AP, 8/20/00)
1995 Aug 20, Liberian warlords
agreed to end hostilities in six-year old civil war, which had killed
150,000 people.
(WSJ, 8/21/95, p.A-1)
1995 Aug 20, A plebiscite declared
the independence of Seborga (in Northern Italy) by a vote of 304 to 4.
Giorgio Carbone was elected as Georgio I, Prince-for-Life.
(SFEC, 3/30/97, p.T6)
1996 Aug 20, Pres. Clinton signed
the federal minimum wage bill for an increase of .90 cents per hour in
two steps to $5.15 per hour over 13 months. It was the first
minimum-wage increase in five years. The bill included a $5,000 tax
credit for the cost of adopting a child. He also signed a new
retirement savings program for small-business workers.
(WSJ, 8/21/96, p.A1)(SFC, 8/21/96, p.A3)(AP, 8/20/97)
1996 Aug 20, Susan McDougal was
sentenced in Little Rock, Ark., to two years in prison in a Whitewater
fraud case. She served three months of that sentence, but also 18
months for contempt for refusing to answer questions about President
Clinton.
(AP, 8/20/06)
1996 Aug 20, In Germany officials
arrested 2 businessmen suspected of smuggling computer technology to
Libya that could be used to make lethal nerve gas.
(WSJ, 8/20/96, p.A1)
1996 Aug 20, In Burundi Pierre
Buyoya sacked his army chief, Jean Bikomagu, who was implicated in the
1993 assassination of the first Hutu president Melchior Ndadaye. He
also fired 2 more powerful military officers.
(WSJ, 8/21/96, p.A1)(SFC, 8/21/96, p.A9)(SFC,
8/22/96, p.E5)
1996 Aug 20, In Haiti two
conservative politicians were killed in drive-by shootings.
(SFC, 8/21/96, p.A9)
1997 Aug 20, United Parcel Service
drivers put away picket signs, put on brown shirts and shorts, and
called on customers again as the delivery giant began to sluggishly
recover from its costly strike.
(AP, 8/20/07)
1997 Aug 20, NATO troops in Bosnia
seized truckloads of weapons from police stations in Banja Luka. They
moved to force out officers loyal to Karadzic.
(WSJ, 8/21/97, p.A1)
1997 Aug 20, Israeli jets struck
deep in Lebanon and bombed a guerrilla base and a power plant supplying
electricity to Sidon.
(WSJ, 8/21/97, p.A1)
1997 Aug 20, In Jamaica prison
guards walked off their jobs after a commissioner suggested that guards
and prisoners use condoms to prevent AIDS. Anti-gay violence broke out
and within a week 16 inmates were killed and 20 injured at Kingston’s
Gen’l. Penitentiary and St. Catherine District Prison.
(SFC, 8/26/97, p.A4)
1997 Aug 20, In Kenya police
arrested 2 KANU politicians for instigating violence along the coastal
region. Karisa Maitha and Omar Masumbuko lent credence that KANU
officials were attempting to divert attention from the reformist
movement.
(SFC, 8/21/97, p.A12)
1997 Aug 20, Palestinian Pres.
Arafat met with Islamic militant groups including Hamas and called for
Palestinian unity against Israeli demands.
(WSJ, 8/21/97, p.A1)
1998 Aug 20, The German
heavy-metal band Rammstein was reported to be making a hit in the US
with their "Sehnsucht" (yearning) album.
(WSJ, 8/21/98, p.B1)
1998 Aug 20, Monica Lewinsky went
before a grand jury for a second round of explicit testimony about her
White House trysts with President Clinton.
(AP, 8/20/99)
1998 Aug 20, Pres. Clinton ordered
cruise missile attacks on Sudan and Afghanistan13 days after the deadly
embassy bombings in East Africa. About 50 missiles were fired at the
camp of Osama Bin Laden and some 25 missiles against a suspected
chemical plant in Khartoum. The plant in Sudan was suspected of
producing the chemical EMPTA, one of the ingredients in VX nerve gas,
but also an ingredient in fungicides and anti-microbial agents.
(WSJ, 8/21/98, p.A1)(SFC, 8/27/98, p.A10)(AP,
8/20/99)
1998 Aug 20, It was reported that
a $1 million reward was given by the Justice Dept. to David Kaczynski
for providing information that led to the arrest of his brother
Theodore, the Unabomber.
(WSJ, 8/21/98, p.A1)
1998 Aug 20, In Southampton, N.Y.,
townspeople met to express their concerns over the construction of a
110,000 square foot home by Ira Rennert, a businessman who bought
troubled companies and leveraged them for the next purchase. The spread
was to be the largest home in America.
(SFEC, 8/23/98, p.A7)
1998 Aug 20, It was reported that
new CMOS light sensors were giving competition to CCDs (charge-coupled
devices) as the eye of digital cameras.
(WSJ, 8/21/98, p.B1)
1998 The Univ. of Calif. at
Berkeley tied with the Univ. of Virginia as the best public university
in the country according to a US News & World Report.
(SFC, 8/21/98, p.A24)
1998 Aug 20, In Canada the Supreme
Court ruled that Quebec can’t secede unilaterally, but that if the
province votes for secession, it must negotiate with the rest of
Canada.
(WSJ, 8/21/98, p.A12)
1998 Aug 20, In India 30,000
people were evacuated from 2 river valleys in Uttar Pradesh as
landslides continued and the number of dead increased to about 300.
(WSJ, 8/21/98, p.A1)
1998 Aug 20, In Hebron, Israel,
settler Rabbi Shlomo Raanan (63) was killed by a suspected Palestinian
assailant.
(SFC, 8/24/98, p.A10)
1998 Aug 20, In Sudan the US
missile attack destroyed the Sugar Sweet and Candy factory of Mustafa
S. Ismaeil and killed a guard there. The owner planned to sue the US
for damages.
(SFC, 8/24/98, p.A8)
1998 Aug 20, In Venezuela the
market plunged 9.5% on fears that the Bolivar would be devalued.
(WSJ, 8/21/98, p.C12)
1999 Aug 20, In a highly unusual
move, the CIA pulled the security clearances for former Director John
Deutch for keeping secret files on an unsecured home computer.
(AP, 8/20/00)
1999 Aug 20, The Peregrine falcon
was removed from the list of endangered species.
(SFC, 8/20/99, p.A2)
1999 Aug 20, Three Japanese banks
announced a broad alliance plan that would create the world’s largest
banking group with assets of well over one trillion dollars.
(AP, 8/20/00)
1999 Aug 20, In Manila,
Philippines, some 150,000 people protested economic changes in the
constitution proposed by Pres. Estrada.
(SFC, 8/21/99, p.A11)
1999 Aug 20, In Russia Sergei
Stepashin planned to speak as the leader of a new coalition to
succeed Pres. Yeltsin that was to include Viktor Chernomyrdin and
Sergei Kiriyenko, all former prime ministers. Stepashin announced the
next day that the coalition failed and that he would run for a seat in
Parliament.
(SFC, 8/21/99, p.A10)(SFEC, 8/22/99, p.A18)
1999 Aug 20, In Serbia leaders of
the Alliance for Change announced that they would give Pres. Milosevic
one month to resign and vowed to shut down the country with
demonstrations if he does not.
(SFC, 8/21/99, p.A1)
1999 Aug 20, It was reported that
tens thousands of refugees from Sierra Leone had fled to northern
Liberia and that many were robbed and killed by retreating rebels.
(SFC, 8/20/99, p.D3)
1999 Aug 20, It was reported that
government controlled banks forced Daewoo Group, South Korea’s 2nd
largest conglomerate (chaebol), to sell all but 6 auto-related units
among its 25 affiliates. Kim Woo Choong, the man who built the group
into a global powerhouse, fled South Korea as the conglomerate
collapsed. He returned in 2005 and was arrested. In May 2006 he was
sentenced to 10 years in jail after being found guilty of charges
including embezzlement and accounting fraud. 21 trillion won ($22bn) of
his fortune was seized and he was fined an additional 10m won. On
December 30, 2007, he was granted amnesty by Pres. Roh Moo-hyun.
(SFC, 8/20/99, p.D4)(WSJ, 6/14/05,
p.A11)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Woo-jung)
1999 Aug 20, In Turkey
officials reported that over 10,000 bodies had been recovered from the
quake and the injured list had risen to 34,000. Prime Minister Ecevit
ordered that the dead be buried as soon as found.
(SFC, 8/21/99, p.A1)
2000 Aug 20, Tiger Woods won the
PGA Championship in a playoff over Bob May, becoming the first player
since Ben Hogan in 1953 to win three majors in one year. Woods, winner
of four of the last five majors, won his first in a playoff. He became
the first player to repeat as PGA champion since Denny Shute in 1937.
Woods, with an 18-under 270, holds the scoring record in relation to
par in every major championship.
(AP, 8/20/01)
2000 Aug 20, Verizon
Communications and unions representing 50,000 workers reached a
tentative agreement on a new three-year-contract as a two-week strike
neared an end.
(AP, 8/20/05)
2000 Aug 20, In Kenya 16 people
were killed after 9 runaway train cars carrying liquefied gas derailed
and exploded at the Athi River station. 9 of 37 injured died soon after.
(SFC, 8/21/00, p.A10)(SFC, 8/22/00, p.A12)
2000 Aug 20, Norwegian divers
examined the Russian submarine Kursk as the British LR5 mini-submarine
prepared for a rescue attempt. 118 Russian sailors were believed dead.
In 2001 it was reported that the Kursk carried nuclear weapons when it
sank, but Russia denied this. The ship was raised Oct 8, 2001. The
severed bow was left for later recovery.
(SFEC, 8/20/00, p.A1)(WSJ, 4/5/01, p.A1)(WSJ,
4/6/01, p.A1)(SFC, 10/8/01, p.B2)
2000 Aug 20, In Spain a bomb
killed 2 Spanish Civil Guard officers in Sallent de Gallego. The ETA
was blamed.
(SFC, 8/21/00, p.A8)
2000 Aug 20, At the Vatican some 2
million young people closed the 6-day World Youth festival dubbed the
Catholic Woodstock.
(SFC, 8/21/00, p.A9)
2001 Aug 20, The US consumer group
Public Citizen petitioned the government to give warning brochures to
users of statins for reducing cholesterol due to some associated deaths
from muscle cell destruction, arhabdomyolysis.
(SFC, 8/21/01, p.A5)
2001 Aug 20, Four oil companies
(Chevron, Shell, Texaco and Unocal) agreed to clean up MTBE
contamination in California caused by leaking storage tanks. 4 others
(ARCO, Exxon, Mobil and Tosco) declined to settle the suit.
(SFC, 8/21/01, p.A3)
2001 Aug 20, Near Sacramento, Ca.,
Nikolay Soltys (27), a Ukrainian immigrant, stabbed to death his
pregnant wife and 4 other relatives including 2 young cousins. He fled
the area with his 3-year-old son. The body of Sergey Soltys (3) was
found the next day in a blood-soaked carton in Placer County. Soltys
was caught in his mother’s backyard near Sacramento Aug 30. Soltys
committed suicide Feb 13, 2002.
(SFC, 8/21/01, p.A1)(SFC, 8/22/01, p.A1)(SFC,
8/31/01, p.A1)(SFC, 2/14/02, p.A17)
2001 Aug 20, Actress Kim Stanley
(76) died in Santa Fe, N.M.
(AP, 8/20/02)
2001 Aug 20, Fred Hoyle (86),
astro-physicist, died in Bournemouth, England. He was a proponent of
the cosmological theory (1948) which holds that the universe has no
beginning and has always existed in a steady state. He coined the term
"Big Bang" but never accepted that theory for the origin of the
universe His science fiction books included "The Black Cloud" (1957)
and "Ossian’s Ride" (1958).
(SFC, 8/23/01, p.C2)(SSFC, 8/26/01, p.C4)(AP,
8/20/02)
2001 Aug 20, In China Wu Liangjie,
an arrested Falun Gong member, died after falling from the window of a
police office in Baicheng, Jilin province.
(SFC, 9/1/01, p.A10)
2001 Aug 20, In Congo Pres. Kabila
met with his main rival leaders for the 1st time to establish a
transitional government and end 3 years of war.
(SFC, 8/21/01, p.A7)
2001 Aug 20, European monitors in
Hebron (TIPH) announced they would no longer patrol the city’s Jewish
enclave due to attacks by settlers.
(SFC, 8/21/01, p.A7)
2001 Aug 20, It was reported that
Vojvodina, a northern province of Serbia, was actively seeking
autonomy. The area is home to 2 million people representing 20 ethnic
groups.
(SFC, 8/20/01, p.A8)
2002 Aug 20, In Bangladesh the
swollen Jamuna River broke through its mud embankments, flooding a
dozen villages and cutting off thousands of residents.
(AP, 8/20/02)
2002 Aug 20, In Germany 5 members
of the Iraqi Opposition of Germany took over the Iraqi embassy. German
police commandos freed two senior diplomats from armed men who had
stormed the Iraqi embassy, bringing a bloodless end to a five-hour
hostage drama by a previously unknown group opposed to Saddam Hussein.
(SFC, 8/20/02, p.A7)(AP, 8/20/03)
2002 Aug 20, Indian troops killed
14 Muslim rebels trying to sneak into Kashmir from Pakistan.
(WSJ, 8/21/02, p.A1)
2002 Aug 20, Indonesian police
have arrested Ramli, a former soldier, and accused him of masterminding
a series of deadly bombings in the capital over the past few years.
(Reuters, 8/21/02)
2002 Aug 20, An Israeli soldier
was killed by a Hamas sniper. Hamas vowed to undermine the new security
agreement.
(WSJ, 8/21/02, p.A1)
2002 Aug 20, Choking smoke from
forest fires shrouded Indonesia's side of Borneo island, grounding
planes and pushing air quality way above hazardous levels in parts of
the vast region.
(Reuters, 8/20/02)
2002 Aug 20, In Nepal army
soldiers reportedly killed at least 30 Maoist rebels at a remote
training camp.
(SFC, 8/22/02, p.A10)
2002 Aug 20, Palestinian police
were back on the streets of Bethlehem after Israeli forces left the
town as part of a trial that could lead to further Israeli withdrawals
in the West Bank.
(AP, 8/20/02)
2002 Aug 20, In Russia an
explosion tore through a residential building in Moscow, blowing open a
50-foot-wide section and collapsing five stories of apartments. At
least 7 people were killed, and as many as 5 others were feared trapped
in the rubble. A natural gas leak was suspected.
(AP, 8/21/02)
2002 Aug 20, The Swiss government
returned to Peru about $77.5 million linked to former Peruvian spy
chief Vladimiro Montesinos, saying the money came from corrupt arms
deals. The money includes assets of Gen. Nicolas de Bari Hermoza Rios,
Peru's former armed forces chief, who also faces corruption charges.
$33 million linked to Montesinos remained blocked in Swiss banks.
(AP, 8/21/02)
2003 Aug 20, The US won the
women's overall team gold medal at the World Gymnastics Championships
in Anaheim, Calif.; Romania took the silver medal and Australia, the
bronze.
(AP, 8/21/04)
2003 Aug 20, In Australia Pauline
Hanson, the right-wing firebrand known for her anti-immigration
rhetoric, was sentenced to three years in jail for fraudulently setting
up her One Nation political party and illegally using electoral funds.
(AP, 8/20/03)
2003 Aug 20, In Chechnya fighting
left 8 Russian soldiers and 12 rebels dead.
(SFC, 8/22/03, p.A9)
2003 Aug 20, In the Dominican
Republic police clashed with rioters who were protesting rising prices
and electrical blackouts, leaving one man dead and a dozen arrested.
(AP, 8/21/03)
2003 Aug 20, The G-20 (G20) was
formed with Brazil as one of its leading member nations. The group
emerged at the 5th Ministerial WTO conference, held in Cancun, Mexico
from 10 September to 14 September 2003. The other members are
Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, China, Cuba, Egypt, the Philippines,
Guatemala, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Paraguay, South
Africa, Thailand, Tanzania, Uruguay, Venezuela and Zimbabwe.
(AP,
9/10/06)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G20_developing_nations)
2003 Aug 20, Authorities in the
Russian Far East lost contact with a helicopter carrying a regional
governor and 16 other people over the volcanoes of the Kamchatka
peninsula.
(AP, 8/20/03)
2003 Aug 20, Opposition leaders
turned in 2.7 million signatures to demand a referendum on ending Hugo
Chavez's tumultuous four-year presidency in Venezuela.
(AP, 8/20/03)
2004 Aug 20, Democrats labored to
deflect attacks on John Kerry's war record with fresh television ads
touting his fitness for national command.
(AP, 8/20/05)
2004 Aug 20, A bioethicist charged
in The Lancet medical journal charged that doctors working for the U.S.
military in Iraq collaborated with interrogators in the abuse of
detainees at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison, profoundly breaching medical
ethics and human rights.
(AP, 8/21/04)
2004 Aug 20, In Brazil 4 homeless
men were bludgeoned to death and six were in critical condition
following early morning attacks by unknown assailants in downtown
streets of Sao Paulo.
(AP, 8/20/04)
2004 Aug 20, China said it would
offer 10-year residency permits to “high-level” foreigners, who bring
in important investments or business skills.
(WSJ, 8/23/04, p.A1)
2004 Aug 20, In Athens, Michael
Phelps matched Mark Spitz's record of four individual gold medals in
the Olympic pool with a stirring comeback in the 100-meter butterfly,
then removed himself from further competition.
(AP, 8/20/05)
2004 Aug 20, Tropical storm Megi
swept out to sea beyond northern Japan, leaving behind an arc of
destruction that killed 13 people.
(AP, 8/21/04)
2004 Aug 20, Thailand’s PM Thaksin
said he would overturn the country’s current ban on commercial
production and trade in genetically modified food (GMOs).
(WSJ, 10/29/04, p.A13)
2005 Aug 20, Northwest Airlines
mechanics went on strike rather than accept pay cuts and layoffs;
Northwest hired replacement workers.
(AP, 8/20/06)
2005 Aug 20, With a deafening
boom, the ashes of gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson were blown into
the sky above Woody Creek, Colo.
(AP, 8/20/06)
2005 Aug 20, Thomas Herrion
(b.1981), San Francisco offensive lineman, collapsed in the locker room
and died in Denver, shortly after the 49ers played the Denver Broncos
in a preseason game. Herrion's was the NFL's first football-related
death since Vikings tackle Korey Stringer died of heatstroke in 2001.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Herrion)(AP,
8/20/06)
2005 Aug 20, In southern
Afghanistan at least 20 people were killed and 28 others injured when
two buses collided on a highway.
(AFP, 8/20/05)
2005 Aug 20, Bangladesh was hit by
a nationwide strike called by the opposition to protest at a wave of
bombings earlier in the week linked to an Islamic extremist group.
(AFP, 8/20/05)
2005 Aug 20, Bangladeshi and
Indian border guards negotiated a ceasefire, halting a gunbattle that
flared over disputed construction work along the frontier.
(Reuters, 8/20/05)
2005 Aug 20, Protesters demanding
the closure of an eastern China battery factory they say is spewing
lead into the environment clashed with police, and dozens of people
were injured.
(AP, 8/21/05)
2005 Aug 20, In Colombia a leftist
rebel group acknowledged that its fighters killed two Catholic priests
earlier this week, but said the killing was a mistake and promised to
punish those responsible.
(AP, 8/21/05)
2005 Aug 20, Cuba and Panama
restored diplomatic ties, one year after they were broken off in a
dispute sparked by the decision by Panama's previous president to
pardon four Cuban exiles accused of trying to assassinate Cuban
President Fidel Castro.
(AP, 8/20/05)
2005 Aug 20, In Cuba the Latin
American School of Medical Science, created as a regional initiative in
1998 after two hurricanes devastated Caribbean and Central American
nations, graduated its first class of 1,500 students.
(AP, 8/21/05)(Econ, 1/27/07, p.35)
2005 Aug 20, A bomb detonated by
remote control killed at least three police officers in the troubled
southern Russian region of Dagestan and wounded several more.
(AP, 8/20/05)
2005 Aug 20, Hundreds of German
far right extremists marched through Berlin and gathered for a rally in
former Nazi hotbed Nuremberg after a meeting to honor Adolf Hitler's
deputy Rudolf Hess was banned.
(Reuters, 8/20/05)
2005 Aug 20, In Haiti
black-uniformed riot police ordered all participants to lie down and
allowed hooded attackers to hack to death as many as 20 people during a
soccer tournament in the slum of Martissant.
(Econ, 9/3/05, p.36)
2005 Aug 20, Indian troops shot
dead a Hindu fighting for the biggest Islamic separatist rebel group in
Indian Kashmir.
(AFP, 8/20/05)
2005 Aug 20, In Iraq a US soldier
was killed by a roadside bomb in Baghdad.
(AP, 8/20/05)
2005 Aug 20, General Mathias Doue,
former head of the Ivory Coast armed forces, said that the departure of
Pres. Laurent Gbagbo is the condition for a return to peace.
(Econ, 8/27/05, p.40)
2005 Aug 20, Libya will free 131
political prisoners, including members of the Muslim Brotherhood, said
Saif al-Islam, son of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, who heads a
foundation dedicated to improving the country's image.
(AP, 8/21/05)
2005 Aug 20, Palestinian leader
Mahmoud Abbas signed a decree appropriating Jewish settlement land and
scheduled elections for Jan 25. In a challenge to Abbas, dozens of
masked Hamas gunmen took over Gaza City's central square and announced
they would not stop attacks on Israel, despite Israel's ongoing
withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 8/20/05)(SSFC, 8/21/05, p.A13)
2005 Aug 20, Interfax reported
that health officials in the western Siberian region of Omsk may have
found the virus on a farm with up to 142,000 birds. Outbreaks were
already confirmed in 40 Russian villages across western Siberia, while
78 other small settlements had suspected cases.
(Reuters, 8/20/05)
2005 Aug 20, The 184-pound
"Unspunnenstein," named after the site of Switzerland's most revered
stone-throwing contest, was stolen from a hotel in the central Swiss
city of Interlaken where it was on display before the competition
scheduled for Sept. 3-4.
(AP, 8/20/05)
2005 Aug 20, Paul Wolfowitz on his
first visit to India as World Bank president said the World Bank would
lend up to $3 billion a year over the next three years to India for
various development programs. The Bank lent $2.9 billion to India in
the financial year to June 2005, more than double $1.4 billion lent the
year before, making Asia's third-largest economy the multilateral
lending institution's largest borrower.
(AP, 8/20/05)
2006 Aug 20, Robert K. Hoffman
(59), one of the 3 founders of the National Lampoon magazine, died in
Dallas, Texas. Hoffman, Henry Beard and Doug Kenney sold their
interests in 1975.
(AP, 8/23/06)
2006 Aug 20, Joe Rosenthal (94),
former Associated Press photographer, who had taken the iconic Iwo Jima
flag-raising picture (2/23/1945) during World War II, died in Novato,
Calif.
(AP, 8/20/07)
2006 Aug 20, In Afghanistan
militants ambushed a police patrol in western Farah province, sparking
a gunbattle that left one officer and 2 attackers dead. In Helmand
province a clash with insurgents left one British soldier dead and
three others wounded. A NATO airstrike killed nine militants including
a local insurgent leader in Helmand province. A roadside bomb killed
three Afghan policemen traveling on the main highway linking Murja and
Lashkar Gah districts. Two roadside bombs targeting border police in
southeastern Khost province killed two officers and wounded five
others. Tens of thousands of health workers fanned out across
Afghanistan in a polio vaccination campaign to immunize more than 7
million children under age 5.
(AP, 8/20/06)(AP, 8/21/06)(AP, 8/22/06)
2006 Aug 20, President Joseph
Kabila failed to win an outright majority in Congo's first elections in
more than four decades. Kabila won 45% of the 16.9 million votes cast
in the July 30 ballot; Bemba had 20%. Former rebel leader Jean-Pierre
Bemba will face Kabila in a second round of voting. Security-forces
loyal to Kabila and Bemba fought gunbattles that killed at least two
people.
(AP, 8/21/06)
2006 Aug 20, Arab League foreign
ministers convened in Egypt for an emergency meeting to discuss how to
fund reconstruction in war-ravaged Lebanon and defuse Mideast tensions
amid rising discord between moderate Arabs and Syria, a main backer of
Hezbollah.
(AP, 8/20/06)
2006 Aug 20, In northern France a
fire broke out in a run-down apartment building that mainly housed
immigrants, killing five people and injuring 10.
(AP, 8/20/06)
2006 Aug 20, In India a Canadian
was arrested with illegal drugs worth five million dollars in New Delhi
in what was billed as a major effort to stop narcotics being shipped to
the West. About 100 kilograms (220 pounds) of ephedrine, hashish and
other illegal drugs were seized overnight from Girdish Singh Toor while
he was leading a convoy of vehicles.
(AFP, 8/20/06)
2006 Aug 20, Snipers firing from
rooftops and a cemetery killed 20 people and wounded dozens in a series
of attacks on a Shiite religious procession that drew hundreds of
thousands of pilgrims to Baghdad. The "terrorist assaults" took place
when the pilgrims were walking through Sunni areas on their way to the
shrine of Imam Moussa Kadhim. 2 US Marines and a sailor were killed in
the western province of Anbar.
(AP, 8/20/06)(AP, 8/21/06)(Reuters, 8/21/06)
2006 Aug 20, Israeli troops
detained Mahmoud al-Ramahi, secretary-general of the Hamas parliament,
pushing forward with a crackdown on the Islamic militant group.
(AP, 8/20/06)
2006 Aug 20, Lebanese PM Fuad
Saniora called the Israeli bombing campaign "a crime against humanity,"
and Lebanon's defense minister warned any group that breaks the Middle
East cease-fire will be dealt with harshly.
(AP, 8/20/06)
2006 Aug 20, Nepal’s government
withdrew hikes in gasoline, diesel and cooking fuel prices after
thousands of protesters clashed with police, blocked traffic and
vandalized government vehicles.
(AP, 8/20/06)
2006 Aug 20, In New Zealand
Tuheitia Paki (51), eldest son of the late Queen Te Arikinui Dame Te
Atairangikaahu, wore his mother's feather cloak as he was named the new
Maori king in the village of Ngaruawahia.
(AP, 8/20/06)
2006 Aug 20, At least 11 people
were killed when militants engaged Nigerian troops in a fierce gun
battle in the restive Niger Delta. Local press reports said 12 people,
10 militants, a Shell worker and a soldier, were killed during the
shootout.
(AFP, 8/22/06)
2007 Aug 20, The lawyer for
Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick said Vick will plead guilty to
federal dogfighting conspiracy charges. Vick could spend the next few
American football seasons behind bars.
(AFP, 8/20/07)(WSJ, 8/21/07, p.A1)
2007 Aug 20, In Minnesota divers
discovered the body of Gregory Jolstad, a 45-year-old construction
worker who was part of the crew resurfacing the Interstate 35W bridge
when it fell Aug. 1 during the evening rush hour. The discovery brought
the official death toll to 13. Gov. Tim Pawlenty said the emergency
response costs alone would be more than $8 million.
(AP, 8/21/07)
2007 Aug 20, The Nasdaq Stock
Market, facing a challenge to its bid for a Nordic exchange, abandoned
hopes to acquire the London Stock Exchange and said it will offload its
31% stake in the exchange.
(AP, 8/20/07)(SFC, 8/21/07, p.C3)
2007 Aug 20, Leona Helmsley (87),
the NYC hotelier who went to prison as a tax cheat and was reviled as
the "queen of mean," died at her home in Greenwich, Conn.
(AP, 8/20/07)(Econ, 8/25/07, p.79)
2007 Aug 20, In Kabul 4 suspected
kidnappers were captured as Afghan police freed Christina Meier, a
German aid worker who had been snatched from a restaurant while she ate
with her husband.
(AP, 8/20/07)
2007 Aug 20, Britain eased
restrictions on the movement of cattle and sheep to following the
outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in southern England.
(AP, 8/20/07)
2007 Aug 20, In Canada Mexican
President Felipe Calderon, Canadian PM Stephen Harper and President
Bush worked to craft a plan to secure their borders in the event of a
terrorist strike or other emergency without creating traffic tie-ups
that slowed commerce at crossings after the Sept. 11 attacks.
Protesters and riot police clashed outside the posh Canadian resort
where the leaders were meeting.
(AP, 8/20/07)(Reuters, 8/21/07)
2007 Aug 20, In China Jia Youling,
chief veterinary officer, said that the Porcine Reproductive and
Respiratory Syndrome (PRRS), aka as blue-ear pig disease, head been
brought under control. He said 257,000 pigs in 26 provinces had been
infected. 68,000 had died from the disease and 175,000 were destroyed.
(Econ, 8/25/07, p.41)
2007 Aug 20, South African
President Thabo Mbeki arrived in Kinshasa for a working visit aimed at
boosting relations with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
(AFP, 8/20/07)
2007 Aug 20, In Egypt 4 terror
suspects were convicted by a security court and sentenced to life in
prison for their involvement in 3 attacks that killed two French
tourists and an American in April, 2005. Five other suspects, including
two women, received jail sentences that ranged from one to 10 years in
prison.
(AP, 8/21/07)
2007 Aug 20, Iraq's embattled PM
Nouri al-Maliki came to Syria on his first visit here as prime minister
amid efforts to garner neighbors' support for curbing violence at home.
Syria said Iraq should set a timetable for the withdrawal of foreign
troops. A roadside bomb killed Mohammed Ali al-Hassani (52), the
governor of the predominantly Shiite Muthanna province, along with his
driver and guard. Two bombings struck the Shiite district of Sadr City
and a busy market district elsewhere in Baghdad, killing at least 7
people and wounding more than 20. Thousands rallied against the US in
Sadr City, waving Iraqi flags and shouting "No, no to America."
(AP, 8/20/07)
2007 Aug 20, In Okinawa, Japan,
passengers used emergency slides to evacuate a China Airlines Boeing
737-800 just minutes before the plane burst into a fireball on the
tarmac. All 165 people aboard escaped unhurt, including the pilot, who
jumped from the cockpit at the last second.
(AP, 8/20/07)(AP, 8/20/08)
2007 Aug 20, A report showed tiny
fish farms have helped 1,200 poor families hit by AIDS in Malawi to
raise their incomes and improve their diets in a scheme being expanded
to other African nations.
(AP, 8/20/07)
2007 Aug 20, Tens of thousands of
tourists fled the beaches of the Mayan Riviera as Hurricane Dean roared
toward Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula.
(AP, 8/20/08)
2007 Aug 20, A crowded bus veered
off a mountainous road in western Nepal, killing at least 19 people.
(AP, 8/20/07)
2007 Aug 20, In northwestern
Pakistan a suicide bomber detonated his explosive-laden car at a
roadside security post, killing at least three troops and wounding at
least eight others. A passenger bus plunged off a mountain road into a
river bank in northern Pakistan, killing 25 people and injuring eight.
(AP, 8/20/07)
2007 Aug 20, In Turkey Foreign
Minister Abdullah Gul won most votes in the first round of a
presidential election, but did not secure the two-thirds majority
needed in parliament for an outright win.
(Reuters, 8/20/07)
2007 Aug 20, The UN Security
Council authorized an African Union force in chaotic Somalia for
another six months and asked the secretary-general to develop plans for
a possible UN troop replacement.
(Reuters, 8/20/07)
2008 Aug 20, Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice and her Polish counterpart signed a deal to build a US
missile defense base in Poland, an agreement that prompted an
infuriated Russia to warn of a possible attack against the former
Soviet satellite. The deal included an American Patriot anti-aircraft
and anti-missile battery in Poland.
(AP, 8/20/08)(Econ, 8/23/08, p.44)
2008 Aug 20, In Alabama five men
were found killed, execution style in Shelby County. The killings were
soon identified as a retaliation hit over drug money with ties to
Mexico's notorious Gulf Cartel.
(AP, 4/19/09)
2008 Aug 20, Stephanie Tubbs Jones
(b.1949), Ohio’s first black congresswoman, died in Cleveland following
a brain hemorrhage. She was first elected in 1998.
(SFC, 8/21/08, p.A3)
2008 Aug 20, Gene Upshaw (b.1945),
former NFL Hall of Famer and union leader, died near lake Tahoe.
(SFC, 8/22/08, p.A1)
2008 Aug 20, In eastern
Afghanistan the US-led coalition killed more than 30 insurgents in a
battle whose fighters were said to be responsible for an attack that
killed 10 French troops earlier this week. 3 Polish soldiers were
killed when a roadside bomb exploded in the central province of Ghazni.
3 Canadian soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb in southern
Afghanistan.
(AP, 8/21/08)(Reuters, 8/21/08)
2008 Aug 20, In eastern Algeria 2
car bomb attacks killed at least 11 people in Bouira with at least 31
people wounded. This followed a suicide bomber who killed 43 people a
day earlier.
(AFP, 8/20/08)
2008 Aug 20, Bangladesh
prosecutors formally lodged new charges against ex-premier Sheikh
Hasina Wajed over her alleged role in a 130-million-dollar defense deal
with Russia.
(AP, 8/20/08)
2008 Aug 20, In Beijing Rohullah
Nikpai of Afghanistan won a bronze medal in taekwondo. This was
Afghanistan’s first Olympic medal ever.
(http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/summer08/news/story?id=3544339)
2008 Aug 20, Hua Guofeng (b.1921),
who succeeded Mao Zedong as chairman of China's ruling Communist Party
and briefly ruled the country (1976), died in Beijing.
(AP, 8/20/08)
2008 Aug 20, The Red Cross revised
its emergency appeal for Ethiopia to five million euros (7.9 million
dollars) as the situation in the drought-hit south of the country got
worse.
(AFP, 8/20/08)
2008 Aug 20, International and
domestic flights were disrupted across India as thousands of airport
employees went on strike to protest plans to privatize airports.
(AP, 8/20/08)
2008 Aug 20, Nigerian President
Umaru Musa Yar'Adua named new military chiefs dropping nearly all
appointees he inherited from his predecessor. MEND, the most prominent
armed group in Nigeria's volatile oil-rich Niger Delta, accused the
military of carrying out extra-judicial executions of 22 captured
insurgents in the region. The insurgents had been captured the previous
day.
(AFP, 8/21/08)(AFP, 8/20/08)
2008 Aug 20, Pakistan’s security
officials said missiles fired from Afghanistan hit a militant hideout
in Pakistan's tribal belt, killing at least eight people including some
foreign extremists.
(AFP, 8/20/08)
2008 Aug 20, Panama’s President
Martin Torrijos signed an executive order creating a new intelligence
agency and a border police force to combat growing drug crimes. This
prompted concerns of a return to its militarized past.
(AP, 8/21/08)
2008 Aug 20, Abdurahman
Macapaar (aka Commander Bravo) of the Moro Islamic Liberation
Front (MILF), the Muslim rebel commander behind deadly raids in the
southern Philippines, declared an "all-out war" against the government,
saying his fighters were willing to die in battle.
(AFP, 8/20/08)
2008 Aug 20, Five people were
killed as Typhoon Nuri slammed into the northern Philippines,
triggering heavy rain and warnings of possible storm surges.
(AFP, 8/20/08)
2008 Aug 20, A top Russian general
said 64 of the country's soldiers were killed and 323 wounded in this
month's fighting with Georgia. Russia informed Norway that it plans to
suspend all military ties with NATO, a day after the military alliance
urged Moscow to withdraw its forces from Georgia. Georgia later
reported that 170 of its soldiers were killed in the war.
(AP, 8/20/08)(AP, 8/21/08)(SSFC, 8/24/08, p.A10)
2008 Aug 20, Serbian publisher
BeoBook said it has withdrawn a controversial book by American writer
Sherry Jones because of protests from the local Islamic community. The
book "Jewel of Medina" is about Aisha, one of the Prophet Muhammad's
wives.
(AP, 8/20/08)
2008 Aug 20, A Spanair MD-82 bound
for the Canary Islands caught fire while trying to make an emergency
landing just after departing from Madrid airport leaving 153 people
dead. This was the nation's worst air disaster in nearly 25 years. The
toll rose to 154 on Aug 23.
(AP, 8/20/08)(AP, 8/21/08)(Reuters, 8/23/08)
2008 Aug 20, Swedish wireless
equipment maker LM Ericsson AB and Swiss chip-maker STMicroelectronics
NV unveiled plans to create a 50-50 joint venture that will make a key
component known as chipsets for mobile phones.
(AP, 8/20/08)
2008 Aug 20, In Turkey Sudan's
indicted president denied that his regime is orchestrating genocide in
the troubled western region of Darfur, and offered hope for an end to
the violence and the dawn of reconciliation by promising free and fair
elections next year.
(AP, 8/20/08)
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