Today in History - August 23
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406 Aug 23, At
the Battle at Florence the Roman army under Stilicho beat the
Barbarians under Radagaisus.
(PC, 1992, p.50)
1244 Aug 23, Khwarezmian Turks
expelled the crusaders under Frederick II from Jerusalem. Jerusalem’s
citadel, the Tower of David, surrendered. The Turks ruthlessly
decimated the population, leaving only 2,000 people, Christians and
Muslims, still living in the city. This attack triggered the Europeans
to respond with the Seventh Crusade.
(HN,
8/23/98)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khwarezmian_Empire)
1305 Aug 23, Scottish patriot
William Wallace was hanged, drawn, beheaded, and quartered in London.
(HN, 8/23/98)
1514 Aug 23, Selim I (the Grim),
Ottoman Sultan, routed a Persian army in the Battle of Chaldiran.
(TL-MB, p.10)(PCh, 1992, p.168)
1541 Aug 23, Jacques Cartier
landed near Quebec on his third voyage to North America.
(HN, 8/23/98)
1553 Aug 23, John Dudley, the Duke
of Northumberland, English Lord Admiral, premier (1551-53), was
beheaded on Tower Hill in front of 10,000 onlookers.
(ON, 5/00, p.5)(Internet)
1593 Aug 23, Fulvio Testi, Italian
poet (Pianto d'Italia), was born.
(MC, 8/23/02)
1617 Aug 23, The 1st one-way
streets opened in London.
(MC, 8/23/02)
1711 Aug 23, A British attempt to
invade Canada by sea failed.
(HN, 8/23/98)
1754 Aug 23, Louis XVI (d.1793),
King of France (1774-1793), was born at Versailles. During the
French Revolution he met his fate at the guillotine. He was the
grandson of Louis XV and married Marie Antoinette.
(AP, 8/23/97)(HN, 8/23/98)
1755 Aug 23, Jean Baptiste
Lislet-Geoffroy, French geographer, was born.
(HN, 8/23/98)
1775 Aug 23, Britain's King George
III refused the American colonies' offer of peace and proclaimed the
American colonies in a state of "open and avowed rebellion."
(HN, 8/23/98)(AP, 8/23/07)
1784 Aug 23, Eastern Tennessee
settlers declared their area an independent state and named it
Franklin; a year later the Continental Congress rejected it.
(MC, 8/23/02)
1813 Aug 23, At the Battle of
Grossbeeren Prussians under Von Bulow repulsed the French.
(MC, 8/23/02)
1813 Aug 23, Alexander Wilson
(b.1766), Scottish-born poet and naturalist, died in Philadelphia. He
had completed 7 volumes of “American Ornithology” and was working on a
8th volume when he died.
(AH, 10/04,
p.23)(www.dep.state.pa.us/dep/PA_Env-Her/alexandar_wilson.htm)
1819 Aug 23, Oliver Hazard Perry,
naval hero, died on his 34th birthday.
(MC, 8/23/02)
1821 Aug 23, After 11 years of
war, Spain granted Mexican independence as a constitutional monarchy.
Spanish Viceroy Juan de O'Donoju signed the Treaty of Cordoba, which
approved a plan to make Mexico an independent constitutional monarchy.
(HN, 8/23/00)(MC, 8/23/02)
1833 Aug 23, The British
Parliament ordered the abolition of slavery in its colonies by Aug 1,
1834. This would free some 700,000 slaves, including those in the West
Indies. The Imperial Emancipation Act also allowed blacks to enjoy
greater equality under the law in Canada as opposed to the US.
(V.D.-H.K.p.276)(MT, 3/96, p.14)(PC, 1992,
p.412)(AH, 10/02, p.54)
1838 Aug 23, One of the first
colleges for women, Mount Holyoke Female Seminary in South Hadley,
Mass., graduated its first students.
(AP, 8/23/97)
1839 Aug 23, British captured Hong
Kong from China.
(MC, 8/23/02)
1850 Aug 23, The 1st national
women's rights convention convened in Worcester, Mass.
(MC, 8/23/02)
1858 Aug 23, "Ten Nights in a
Bar-room," a play about the tragic consequences of consuming alcohol,
opened in New York.
(AP, 8/23/08)
1863 Aug 23, Union batteries
ceased their first bombardment of Fort Sumter, leaving it a mass of
rubble but still unconquered by the Northern besiegers.
(HN, 8/23/00)
1864 Aug 23, Union troops and
fleet occupied Fort Morgan, Alabama.
(MC, 8/23/02)
1866 Aug 23, Treaty of Prague
ended the Austro-Prussian war.
(MC, 8/23/02)
1868 Aug 23, Edgar Lee Masters
(d.1950), poet, novelist, was born in Garnett, Kansas.
(http://www.nybooks.com/articles/3088)
1872 Aug 23, The 1st Japanese
commercial ship visited SF carrying tea.
(MC, 8/23/02)
1879 Aug 23, Governor-general
Charles Gordon of Sudan returned to Cairo.
(MC, 8/23/02)
1883 Aug 23, Jonathan Wainwright,
U.S. general who fought against the Japanese on Corregidor in the
Philippines and was forced to surrender, was born.
(HN, 8/23/98)
1889 Aug 23, The 1st ship-to-shore
wireless message was received in US in SF.
(MC, 8/23/02)
1899 Aug 23, Albert Claude
(d.1983), biologist, was born in Belgium. He never graduated from high
school and won the 1974 Nobel for his work on the sub-structure of the
cell.
(www.belgium.be)
1900 Aug 23, Booker T. Washington
formed the National Negro Business League in Boston, Massachusetts.
(HN, 8/23/98)
1902 Aug 23, Fanny Farmer, among
the first to emphasize the relationship of diet to health, opened her
School of Cookery in Boston.
(HN, 8/23/00)
1902 Aug 23, Gold was discovered
in Goldfield, Nv., near Tonopah. By 1907 Goldfield grew to 20,000
residents.
(SFC, 8/31/02, p.A2)
1903 Aug 23, William Primrose,
violist (Method for Violin & Viola), was born in Glasgow, Scotland.
(MC, 8/23/02)
1912 Aug 23, Gene Kelly, dancer
and actor who starred in "An American in Paris" and "Singing in the
Rain," was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, as Eugene Curan. Kelly
debuted on Broadway in 1938 musical "Pal Joey" and in the film "For Me
and My Gal" four years later
(HN, 8/23/98)(MC, 8/23/02)
1914 Aug 23, Gen. von Hausen
executed 612 inhabitants of Dinant, Belgium. Felix Fivet (3 weeks old),
Belgian baby, was among those executed by German troops.
(MC, 8/23/02)
1914 Aug 23, The Emperor of Japan
sided with the Allies and declared war on Germany in World War I.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 215)(AP, 8/23/97)(HN, 8/23/98)
1915 Aug 23, Czar Nicolaas II took
control of the Russian Army.
(MC, 8/23/02)
1920 Aug 23, M.R. Rinehart and A.
Hopwood's "Bat," premiered in NYC.
(MC, 8/23/02)
1921 Aug 23, In the great battle
of Sakarya, which continued without interruption from the 23rd of
August to the 13th of September, Turkey defeated the Greek Army.
(www.allaboutturkey.com/ata_life.htm)
1923 Aug 23, Richard Adler,
composer, songwriter (Damn Yankees, Pajama Game), was born.
(MC, 8/23/02)
1923 Aug 23, Wolfgang Sawallisch,
conductor (Vienna Symph 1960-70), was born in Munich, Germany.
(MC, 8/23/02)
1926 Aug 23, The death of silent
film actor Rudolph Valentino caused a worldwide frenzy among his fans.
Valentino, who appeared in only 14 major films during his brief
seven-year movie career, was idolized by countless women as the "Great
Lover" of the 1920s. Born in 1895 in Castellaneta, Italy, Rodolfo di
Valentina D’Antonguolla came to America in 1913 and worked as a
gardener, dishwasher and vaudeville dancer until he moved to Hollywood
and obtained his first important film role in 1921. In films like
1921’s The Sheik, Valentino mesmerized female fans with his sex appeal
and exotic good looks. In New York for the 1926 premiere of Son of the
Sheik, the 31-year-old Valentino became ill on August 15 and died of
peritonitis on August 23. Valentino’s death caused worldwide hysteria,
with several women reportedly committing suicide and riots breaking out
in New York as thousands of fans tried to view the body. In 2003 Emily
Leider authored "Dark Lover: The Life and Death of Rudolph Valentino."
(AP, 8/23/97)(HN, 8/23/98)(HNPD, 8/29/98)(SFC,
6/16/03, p.D1)
1927 Aug 23, Italian-born
anarchist immigrants Nicola Sacco (right) and Bartolomeo Vanzetti,
convicted of murder in 1921, were executed in Boston in spite of
worldwide protests. On April 15, 1920, a paymaster and his guard at a
shoe factory in Braintree, Massachusetts, were killed in a robbery. In
the national climate of suspicion of anarchists, communists and
foreigners in general, Sacco and Vanzetti, two admitted radicals, were
arrested for the crime and convicted on flimsy circumstantial evidence
in a trial presided over by the openly prejudiced Judge Webster Thayer.
For six years, the two gained support as they attempted to obtain a new
trial, but their request was denied even after a convicted killer
confessed to the 1920 murders. In April 1927, Judge Thayer sentenced
Sacco and Vanzetti to die in the electric chair. In 1977 Sacco and
Vanzetti were vindicated when Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis
established a memorial in the victims’ honor. In 2007 Bruce Watson
authored “Sacco & Vanzetti.”
(TMC, 1994, p.1927)(AP, 8/23/97)(HNPD, 8/23/98)(HN,
8/23/98)(WSJ, 8/18/07, p.P8)
1931 Aug 23, Hamilton O. Smith,
molecular biologist, was born in NYC. He is credited with helping ‘open
the door’ on genetic engineering.
(HN, 8/23/00)(
http://www.genomenewsnetwork.org/timeline/1970_Smith.shtml)
1934 Aug 23, Sonny (Christian)
Jurgensen, professional football player and sports announcer, was born
in North Carolina.
(HN, 8/23/00)
1935 Aug 23, The US Banking Act of
1935 revised the operation of the Federal Reserve System.
(SSFC, 1/18/09, p.D6)
1937 Aug 23, Albert Charles Paul
Marie Roussel (68), French composer, died.
(MC, 8/23/02)
1939 Aug 23, Zane Grey (b.1872),
American novelist, died. He best known for his popular adventure novels
and stories that presented an idealized image of the rugged Old West.
He authored over 90 books, some published posthumously and/or based on
serials originally published in magazines. Grey was one of the first
millionaire authors.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zane_Grey)
1939 Aug 23, Sidney Coe Howard
(b.1891), US playwright and short story writer, died. He adapted “Gone
With the Wind” into the 1939 film. "Half of knowing what you want is
knowing what you have to give up to get it."
(SFEC, 2/6/00, Z1 p.2)(SFC, 1/27/05, p.E1)
1939 Aug 23, German Foreign
Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop and Soviet Commissar for Foreign
Affairs Vyacheslav M. Molotov signed a Treaty of Non-Aggression, the
Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact freeing Hitler to invade Poland and Stalin to
invade Finland. Secret protocols, made public years later, were added
that assigned Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Bessarabia to be within the
Soviet sphere of influence. Poland was partitioned along the rivers
Narev, Vistula and San. Germany retained Lithuania enlarged by the
inclusion of Vilnius. Just days after the signing, Germany invaded
Poland, and by the end of September, both powers had claimed sections
of Poland.
(WP, 6/29/96, p.A16)(AP, 8/23/97) (HNPD,
8/22/98)(HN, 8/23/98)
1940 Aug 23, German Luftwaffe
began night bombing on London.
(MC, 8/23/02)
1942 Aug 23, Patricia McBride,
ballerina (NYC Ballet Co), was born in Teaneck, NJ.
(MC, 8/23/02)
1942 Aug 23, The 1st US flights
landed on Guadalcanal.
(MC, 8/23/02)
1942 Aug 23, German forces began
an assault on the major Soviet industrial city of Stalingrad. From Aug.
to Feb. 1943, The Battle of Stalingrad, 600 miles southeast of Moscow,
was fought and ended with the encirclement and destruction of the
German 6th Army Group. Stalingrad has since been renamed to Volgograd.
In 1998 Antony Beevor published "Stalingrad: The Fateful Siege." The
German in charge was Gen’l. Friedrich Paulus. 600 Luftwaffe bombers
killed some 40,000 people in the first week of fighting.
(WSJ, 2/21/96, p.A-15)(WSJ, 7/8/98, p.A13)(HN,
8/23/98)(MC, 8/23/02)
1944 Aug 23, Allied troops
captured Marseilles, France.
(MC, 8/23/02)
1944 Aug 23, General George
Leclerc's troops advanced towards Paris.
(MC, 8/23/02)
1944 Aug 23, A US B-24 crashed
into a school in Freckelton, England, and 76 were killed.
(MC, 8/23/02)
1944 Aug 23, German SS engineers
began placing explosive charges around the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Adolf
Hitler had decreed that Paris should be left a smoking ruin, but
Dietrich von Choltitz thought better of his Fuehrer’s order.
(HN, 8/23/98)
1944 Aug 23, Romanian PM Ion
Antonescu was dismissed by King Michael, paving the way for Romania to
abandon the Axis in favor of the Allies. King Michael organized a coup
against the pro-Nazi dictator, Marshal Ion Antonescu, but was
double-crossed by Joseph Stalin and betrayed by the Allies who ceded
the country to the Russians at the Yalta summit in 1945.
(SFC, 6/27/97, p.A16)(AP, 8/23/97)
1947 Aug 23, An audience at the
Hollywood Bowl heard President Truman's daughter, Margaret, give her
first public concert as a singer.
(AP, 8/23/97)
1948 Aug 23, Count Bernadotte
asked for aid for fugitives to Palestine. [see Sep 17]
(MC, 8/23/02)
1948 Aug 23, The World Council of
Churches (WCC) was formed in Amsterdam to help reconcile differences
among Christians. Headquarters were later established in Geneva.
(Econ, 2/23/08,
p.79)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Council_of_Churches)
1950 Aug 23, Up to 77,000 members
of the U.S. Army Organized Reserve Corps were called involuntarily to
active duty to fight the Korean War.
(HN, 8/23/98)
1952 Aug 23, Arab League security
pact went into effect.
(MC, 8/23/02)
1954 Aug 23, The small community
of Charleston, Arkansas, became the first in the South to end
segregation in its schools. This was in response to the May 17 US
Supreme Court ruling on Brown vs. Board of Education.
(Econ, 9/22/07,
p.44)(http://ideas.aetn.org/productions/virtualtours/lrcentral/10)
1956 Aug 23, US Navy pilot Lt.
James B. Deane Jr. was shot out of the sky on a nighttime spy flight
off the coast of China. The Martin P4M-1Q Mercator in which Deane and
15 other men were flying was shot down over the East China Sea. China
later acknowledged that its jet fighters attacked the Mercator as it
scooped up electronic intelligence on military radars and other
sensitive Chinese systems. The remains of four crew members were
recovered, two by the crew of a U.S. search vessel and two by China,
which returned the bodies through British authorities in Shanghai. The
other 12 were never found.
(AP, 5/6/06)
1958 Aug 23, China resumed fire on
Quemoi and Matsu.
(MC, 8/23/02)
1960 Aug 23, World's largest frog
(3.3 kg) was caught in Equatorial Guinea.
(MC, 8/23/02)
1960 Aug 23, Broadway librettist
Oscar Hammerstein II (65) died in Doylestown, Pa.
(AP, 8/23/08)
1961 Aug 23, East Germany imposed
new curbs on travel between West and East Berlin.
(MC, 8/23/02)
1963 Aug 23, Beatles released "She
Loves You" in UK.
(MC, 8/23/02)
1971 Aug 23, Shamu the Whale, the
1st of a number of Shamus, died at Sea World in San Diego, Ca., after 6
years in captivity.
(www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=8934865)
1971 Aug 23, South Korea's
Silmido Unit, organized in 1968 to kill North Korea's Kim Il Sung,
rebelled and murdered 18 of its 24 trainers. A film titled "Silmido"
was released Dec 24, 2003.
(AP, 12/25/03)
1972 Aug 23, The Republican
National Convention, meeting in Miami Beach, Fla., nominated Vice
President Spiro T. Agnew for a second term.
(AP, 8/23/97)
1973 Aug 23, The Intelsat 4 F-7
communications satellite was launched at Cape Canaveral.
(www.astronautix.com/craft/intlsat4.htm)
1973 Aug 23, Gen'l. Augusto
Pinochet was named commander-in-chief of the Chilean army by Pres.
Salvadore Allende.
(SFC, 3/25/99, p.A3)
1973 Aug 23, A bank
robbery-turned-hostage standoff began in Stockholm, Sweden; by the time
the crisis ended, the four hostages had come to empathize with their
captors, an occurrence that came to be known as "Stockholm Syndrome."
(AP, 8/23/07)
1975 Aug 23, In Greece Col.
Papadopoulos (d.1999 at 80) was sentenced to death for insurrection and
high treason. He had refused to testify: "let history judge my action."
The sentence was later commuted to life in prison.
(SFC, 6/28/99,
p.A19)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Papadopoulos)
1975 Aug 23, In Laos Communists
took over the administration of Vientiane city.
(http://countrystudies.us/laos/39.htm)
1977 Aug 23, The Gossamer Condor 2
flew the first figure-of-eight, a distance of 2,172 meters winning the
first Kremer prize at Minter Field in Shafter, California. It was built
by Dr Paul B. MacCready and piloted by amateur cyclist and hang-glider
pilot Bryan Allen.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gossamer_Condor)
1977 Aug 23, Marxist philosopher
Rudolf Bahro was imprisoned in German DR.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_Bahro)
1979 Aug 23, Iranian troops
entered Iraqi Kurdish territory.
(www.jamestown.org/terrorism/news/article.php?articleid=2373658&printthis=1)
1979 Aug 23, Soviet dancer
Alexander Godunov defected while the Bolshoi Ballet was on tour in New
York.
(AP, 8/23/99)
1982 Aug 23, Lebanon's parliament
elected Christian militia leader Bashir Gemayel president. His
inauguration was scheduled for 23 September. Gemayel was assassinated
some three weeks later.
(AP, 8/23/97)(http://tinyurl.com/2nba4o)
1986 Aug 23, Gennadiy Zakharov, a
Soviet physicist employed at the UN Secretariat, was arrested as he
handed classified documents to a US defense contractor.
(www.dss.mil/training/espionage/1986-87.htm)
1987 Aug 23, Seven Democratic
presidential hopefuls traded gentle barbs at a debate in Des Moines,
Iowa, with Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis repeatedly called upon
to defend his claims of economic revival in his state.
(AP, 8/23/97)
1987 Aug 23, Two teenagers in
Alexander, Arkansas, Kevin Ives and Don Henry were run over by a train.
Fahmy Malak, the medical examiner of Gov. Clinton, ruled the Aug 23
deaths of the teenagers as accidental. Malak was investigated and
cleared of improprieties. Later investigations indicated that they were
murdered prior to being run over.
(WSJ, 4/15/97, p.A18)(WSJ, 4/18/96, p.A-18)
1988 Aug 23, Some striking workers
in Poland ended a walkout that had begun a week earlier, but 125 miners
barricaded themselves in an underground shaft, vowing to stay until
they'd won their demands.
(AP, 8/23/98)
1989 Aug 23, In a case that
inflamed racial tensions in New York City, Yusuf Hawkins, a black
teen-ager, was shot dead after he and his friends were confronted by
white youths in a Brooklyn neighborhood.
(AP, 8/23/99)
1989 Aug 23, Approximately two
million people joined their hands to form an over 600 km (373 mi) long
human chain across the three Baltic states: Estonia, Latvia, and
Lithuania. This original demonstration was organized to draw the
world's attention to the common historical fate which these three
countries suffered. It marked the 50th anniversary of August 23, 1939,
when the Soviet Union and Germany in the secret protocol of the
Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact divided spheres of interest in Eastern Europe,
which led to the occupation of these three states.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baltic_Way)
1990 Aug 23, David Rose (b.1910),
composer (Holiday for Strings, Stripper), died.
(www.classicthemes.com/majorComposers.html)
1990 Aug 23, Armenia declared
independence.
(www.armeniapedia.org/index.php?title=Soviet_Armenian_History)
1990 Aug 23, East and West Germany
announced that they would unite Oct 3.
(www.mofa.go.jp/policy/other/bluebook/1990/1990-2-1.htm)
1990 Aug 23, Iraqi state
television showed President Saddam Hussein meeting with a group of
about 20 Western detainees, telling the group—whom he described as
"guests"—that they were being held "to prevent the scourge of war."
(AP, 8/23/00)
1991 Aug 23, In the wake of a
failed coup by hard-liners in the Soviet Union, President Mikhail S.
Gorbachev and Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin acted to strip the
Communist Party of its power and take control of the army and the KGB.
(AP, 8/23/01)
1992 Aug 23, James A. Baker III
bowed out as secretary of state after three-and-a-half years to become
White House chief of staff.
(AP, 8/23/97)
1992 Aug 23, Hurricane Andrew
slammed into the Bahamas with 120 mph winds.
(AP, 8/23/97)
1993 Aug 23, Former Detroit police
officers Larry Nevers and Walter Budzyn were convicted of second-degree
murder in the fatal beating of black motorist Malice Green. Both
convictions were later overturned. On retrial, Budzyn was convicted of
involuntary manslaughter and sentenced to time served; Nevers was
convicted of involuntary manslaughter in April 2000, but had that
conviction reversed by an appeals court in March 2003.
(AP, 8/23/03)
1993 Aug 23, Los Angeles police
confirmed that pop star Michael Jackson was the subject of a criminal
investigation. Prosecutors began investigating Michael Jackson after a
13-year-old boy said Jackson had sex with him. An out of court
settlement was reached for $15-20 mil. The boys father later filed suit
against Jackson for violating a promise not to discuss the settlement.
(AP, 8/23/98)(SFC, 6/12/96, p.E3)
1994 Aug 23, Republican senators
threatened to thwart a $30 billion anti-crime bill unless Democrats
accepted changes in the House-passed measure; President Clinton
appealed for bipartisan cooperation.
(AP, 8/23/99)
1995 Aug 23, During a memorial
service at Fort Myer, Virginia, President Clinton eulogized three US
diplomats killed in a road accident near Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina,
and vowed to carry on the struggle for peace in the Balkans.
(AP, 8/23/00)
1995 Aug 23, Alfred Eisenstaedt
(96), "Life" magazine photographer, died on Martha’s Vineyard. His
picture of a sailor kissing a nurse in Times Square became one of the
best-known images of America's joy at the end of World War Two.
(AP,
8/23/00)(www.cnn.com/EVENTS/year_in_review/passages/)
1996 Aug 23, President Clinton
imposed limits on peddling cigarettes to children as he unveiled Food
and Drug Administration regulations declaring nicotine an addictive
drug. The same day, a jury in Indianapolis found cigarette companies
were not responsible for the lung cancer death of a 52-year-old lawyer
who began smoking at age 5.
(AP, 8/23/97)
1996 ~Aug 23, The Nation of Islam
applied to the US Treasury Dept. for permission to accept a $1 bil
donation from Col. Moammar Gadhafi that was promised to Rev. Louis
Farrakhan in Jan. to help America’s black people.
(WSJ, 8/26/96, p.A1)
1996 Aug 23, It was reported that
British Petroleum signed a 3-year agreement with the defense ministry
of Columbia for $60 mil. for a battalion of soldiers to protect
expansion and construction of new drilling sites.
(SFC, 8/23/96, p.A20)
1997 Aug 23, In his weekly radio
address, President Clinton said he would ask Congress to renew his
authority for speedy negotiation of trade agreements, saying the "fast
track" approach would make U.S. companies more competitive
worldwide.
(AP, 8/23/98)
1997 Aug 23, In Iran Pres. Khatami
appointed the first woman vice-president and ended an 18-year ban on
commercial flights to Saudi Arabia.
(WSJ, 8/25/97, p.A1)
1998 Aug 23, Retailers began
marketing computers with the new 450 MHz Intel Pentium II.
(SFC, 8/25/98, p.D3)
1998 Aug 23, In Congo rebels
appeared to have seized Kisangani while government soldiers recaptured
Kitona, a military base near the coast. Troops from Zimbabwe fought
rebels advancing on Kinshasa. The capture of Kisangani effectively
splitting Congo and cut off commerce with government-held territory and
Kinshasa, the capital 900 miles downriver.
(SFC, 8/24/98, p.A8)(WSJ, 8/24/98, p.A1)(AP, 8/18/03)
1998 Aug 23, In North Korea heavy
flooding was reported with five times the annual rainfall. The rice
crop was expected to decrease by 60%.
(SFC, 8/24/98, p.A10)
1998 Aug 23, Pres. Yeltsin
dismissed the Russian government. He fired Prime Minister Kiriyenko and
replaced him with Viktor Chernomyrdin the Soviet-style leader he'd
fired five months earlier. The move was said to have been orchestrated
by Boris Berezovsky, a wealthy financier.
(SFC, 8/24/98, p.A1)(SFC, 8/28/98, p.A12)(AP,
8/23/99)
1999 Aug 23, The Dow Jones
industrial average soared 199.15 to a new record of 11,209.84.
(AP, 8/23/00)
1999 Aug 23, US and British
warplanes killed 2 people in northern Iraq after being fired upon by an
Iraqi military radar station. The Pentagon later claimed that the 2
civilians were killed by Iraq's own anti-aircraft artillery.
(SFC, 8/24/99, p.A11)(SFC, 8/25/99, p.A16)
1999 Aug 23, It was reported that
the US was training a 950-man Colombian army counter narcotics
battalion to regain control of guerrilla controlled territory.
(SFC, 8/23/99, p.A10)
1999 Aug 23, In Bolivia fires were
reported to have destroyed 350,000 acres of farmland, at least 500
homes and much of the town of Ascencion de Guarayos. Thousands of
residents were left homeless.
(SFC, 8/24/99, p.A11)
1999 Aug 23, In Jordan the
National Popular Campaign for Ending So-Called Honor Crimes began
efforts to get rights for women and harsher laws against men who kill
female relatives for family honor.
(SFC, 8/24/99, p.A12)
1999 Aug 23, Fifty years after the
German government moved to the capital of Bonn, Berlin reclaimed its
role as a center of power in Germany with the arrival of Chancellor
Gerhard Schroeder.
(AP, 8/23/00)
1999 Aug 23, Militants from
Tajikistan crossed into Kyrgyzstan taking hostages and claiming control
of several villages. Some 1,000 religious fighters took a swath of land
and 13 hostages that included a Kyrgyz general and 4 Japanese
geologists.
(SFC, 8/24/99, p.A11)(SFC, 10/21/99, p.AA5)
2000 Aug 23, The Clinton
administration released guidelines for federally funded scientists to
conduct research on human embryonic stem cells.
(SFC, 8/23/00, p.A1)
2000 Aug 23, Pres. Clinton ordered
millions in relief funds for electricity users in southern California
and an investigation into the state’s power market.
(SFC, 8/24/00, p.A1)
2000 Aug 23, The final winner of
the "Survivor" TV contest set on Pulau Tiga island was broadcast to as
many as 40-50 million viewers. Richard Hatch (39), a corporate trainer
from Newport, R.I., won the $1 million grand prize. In 2006 Hatch was
convicted on three counts related to tax evasion and was sentenced to
51 months in federal prison plus three years of supervised probation.
(SFC, 8/23/00, p.A1)(SFC, 8/24/00,
p.A1)(http://tinyurl.com/4sna5j)
2000 Aug 23, Negotiators for
Verizon and more than 35,000 telephone workers reached tentative
agreement on a new contract, ending an 18-day strike.
(AP, 8/23/01)
2000 Aug 23, Boeing made the first
successful launch of its Delta III rocket.
(SFC, 8/24/00, p.A3)
2000 Aug 23, In Bahrain a Gulf Air
Airbus A320 crashed on approach to Manama and all 143 people aboard
were killed including 36 children.
(SFC, 8/24/00, p.A1)
2000 Aug 23, A boat from Indonesia
capsized in the Strait of Malucca and Malaysian authorities rescued 7
of 100 passengers.
(SFC, 8/26/00, p.A9)
2000 Aug 23, In Russia Pres. Putin
took responsibility for the Kursk nuclear submarine disaster.
(SFC, 8/24/00, p.A12)
2000 Aug 23, In Sudan a boat
capsized on the Blue Nile near Sinja and 35 people, mostly
schoolchildren, died.
(SFC, 8/25/00, p.D8)
2001 Aug 23, Modesto Democratic
Rep. Gary Condit acknowledged on a TV interview with Connie Chung that
he had made mistakes but that he had nothing to do with the
disappearance of Chandra Levy.
(SFC, 8/24/01, p.A1)
2001 Aug 23, Brian Regan (38),
retired US Air Force master sergeant and cryptanalyst, was arrested by
the FBI at Dulles Int’l. Airport on charges of spying. In 2002 Regan
was accused of trying to spy for Iraq, Libya and China. On February 20,
2003, Regan was found guilty of three charges of attempted espionage.
Regan was found guilty of two counts of attempted espionage related to
attempts to sell information to Iraq and China, and one count of
gathering national defense information. He was acquitted of attempting
to provide US secrets to Libya. On March 20, 2003, Regan was sentenced
to life in prison without parole.
(http://cicentre.com/Documents/DOC_Regan_1.htm)(SFC,
8/29/01, p.A6)(WSJ, 2/15/02, p.A1)
2001 Aug 23, Thierry Devaux (41),
a French stuntman, got snagged on the Statue of Liberty arm while
trying to land there using a motor-driven parachute. He was rescued and
arrested.
(SFC, 8/24/01, p.A3)(AP, 8/23/02)
2001 Aug 23, Peter Maas, novelist
and non-fiction writer, died at age 72. His work included "The Valachi
Papers" (1969), "Serpico," "The King of Gypsies," and "Underboss: Sammy
the Bull Gravano’s Story of Life in the Mafia."
(SFC, 8/24/01, p.D7)
2001 Aug 23, Frank Emilio Flynn,
blind pianist and Latin jazz pioneer, died at age 80 in Havana.
(SFC, 8/30/01, p.C2)
2001 Aug 23, In Brazil Francisco
de Assis Santana (56), a Xukuru Indian leader aka Chico Quele, was
killed in an ambush near Pe de Serra in Penambuco state.
(SFC, 8/25/01, p.A9)
2001 Aug 23, The Chinese
government reported that some 600,000 people have been infected with
AIDS with nearly as many from selling their blood as from sexual
contact.
(SFC, 8/24/01, p.A1)(WSJ, 8/24/01, p.A1)
2001 Aug 23, In Colombia a
suspected ELN car bomb killed a woman and wounded over 20 people in
Marinilla. Separately 15-20 suspected ELN members were killed when
explosives in their truck went off in Santander state.
(SFC, 8/24/01, p.D2)
2001 Aug 23, Israeli forces raided
Palestinian neighborhoods in Hebron following the shooting of 2 young
Jewish brothers. One Palestinian was reported killed and a dozen
wounded. In Gaza Israeli forces killed Mahmoud Zourab (11), a
Palestinian boy throwing stones.
(SFC, 8/24/01, p.A16)
2001 Aug 23, Japanese Novelist Ryu
Murakami was featured in the WSJ and quoted to say: "Who cares about
fitting into the system? Think for yourself."
(WSJ, 8/23/01, p.A1)
2001 Aug 23, NATO soldiers
streamed into Macedonia as part of a mission to help end 6 months of
ethnic hostilities by collecting and destroying rebel weapons.
(AP, 8/23/02)
2001 Aug 23, The Norwegian
government established the Abel Prize in mathematics in honor of the
Niels Henrik Abel (1802-1829).
(Internet)
2002 Aug 23, U.S. warplanes bombed
an air defense site in northern Iraq after being targeted by an Iraqi
missile guidance radar system.
(AP, 8/23/02)
2002 Aug 23, The United States
imposed symbolic sanctions on a North Korean company and the North
Korean government for exporting medium or long-range missile components.
(Reuters, 8/23/02)
2002 Aug 23, New York publicist
Lizzie Grubman pleaded guilty in a hit-and-run crash that injured 16
people outside a Hamptons nightclub. Grubman ended up serving 37 days
of a 60-day sentence at the Suffolk County, N.Y., Jail, with time off
for good behavior.
(AP, 8/23/03)
2002 Aug 23, Canada confirmed
prairie farmers' worst fears in a report that slashed crop production
forecasts after one of worst growing seasons since the dust bowl of the
1930s.
(Reuters, 8/23/02)
2002 Aug 23, In southern Colombia
a bus veered off a mountain road in Papagayo after one of its tires
burst, plunging 1,000 feet and killing at least 12 people.
(AP, 8/24/02)
2002 Aug 23, An anti-graft court
in the Philippines froze the assets of former president Joseph Estrada
in connection with charges that he illegally amassed over four billion
pesos ($76.48 million) during his 31-month rule.
(Reuters, 8/26/02)
2002 Aug 23, Pres. Shevardnadze
accused Russia of bombing inside Georgia's border. One person was
reported killed.
(SFC, 8/24/02, p.A7)
2002 Aug 23, North Korean leader
Kim Jong Il capped his second visit to Russia in a year with a long
meeting with President Vladimir Putin and a taste of the consumer
delights that are in short supply in his country. Putin pressed North
Korea on Friday to forge a new Asia-Europe freight route by extending
Russia's trans-Siberian railway across the Korean peninsula to bypass
China.
(AP, 8/23/02)(Reuters, 8/23/02)
2002 Aug 23, Pakistan accused
India of launching a heavy ground an air attack on northern Kashmir.
(SFC, 8/24/02, p.A8)
2002 Aug 23, Russian troops
battled rebels for the fourth straight day outside a Chechen village,
while eight soldiers were killed in the last 24 hours.
(AP, 8/23/02)
2002 Aug 23, In Venezuela subway
and bus workers in Caracas unexpectedly walked off the job, forcing
more than a million people to find other ways to work.
(AP, 8/23/02)
2002 Aug 23, In Yugoslavia
thousands of ethnic Albanians gathered in Pristina to protest the
recent arrests of rebel leaders who fought during Kosovo's 1998-1999
war.
(AP, 8/23/02)
2003 Aug 23, Former priest John
Geoghan (67), a convicted child molester, died after being attacked by
Joseph L. Druce (37), a fellow inmate, at the Souza-Baranowski state
prison in Shirley, Mass. Druce was convicted of murder in 2006.
(SSFC, 8/24/03, p.A1)(SFC, 1/26/06, p.A3)
2003 Aug 23, Taliban fighters
ambushed a truck full of government soldiers in the southern province
of Zabul. Gov. Hafizullah Khan said five soldiers and three Taliban
were killed.
(AP, 8/24/03)
2003 Aug 23, In Iraq a guerrilla
attack killed 3 British soldiers and seriously wounded one in the
southern port city of Basra.
(AP, 8/23/03)(SSFC, 8/24/03, p.A6)
2003 Aug 23, Michael Kijana
Wamalwa (58), Kenya's 8th Vice President, died of an undisclosed
illness after several months of treatment in a hospital near London.
(AP, 8/23/03)
2003 Aug 23, Emergency officials
discovered the wreckage of a helicopter that crashed Aug 20 in the
Russian Far East. All 20 people aboard were killed. Among the dead were
Igor Farkhutdinov, governor of the oil-rich Sakhalin region, and top
regional officials and business leaders.
(AP, 8/23/03)
2004 Aug 23, President Bush
criticized a commercial that had accused Democrat John Kerry of
inflating his own Vietnam War record, more than a week after the ad
stopped running, and said broadcast attacks by outside groups had no
place in the race for the White House.
(AP, 8/23/05)
2004 Aug 23, New US rules on
overtime pay went into effect. Under the new FairPay rules, workers
earning less than $23,660 per year, or $455 per week, were guaranteed
overtime protection.
(SFC, 8/24/04,
p.C1)(www.dol.gov/esa/WHD/regs/compliance/fairpay/)
2004 Aug 23, Researchers presented
results on genetically engineered mice capable of running farther and
longer than those bred naturally.
(SFC, 8/24/04, p.A2)
2004 Aug 23, Afghan Pres. Hamid
Karzai arrived in Pakistan for talks with his Pres. Pervez Musharraf on
eradicating Al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters from their common border.
(AP, 8/23/04)
2004 Aug 23, Antigua and Barbuda's
prime minister and American officials signed an agreement extending the
lease of the U.S. Air Force base in the Caribbean country until 2008.
(AP, 8/23/04)
2004 Aug 23, Electricity went out
across Bahrain, snarling rush hour traffic and leaving residents
without air conditioning as temperatures climbed toward 130 Fahrenheit.
(AP, 8/23/04)
2004 Aug 23, It was reported that
China recorded its 1st ever agricultural trade deficit, $3.73 billion,
for the 1st half of this year.
(WSJ, 8/23/04, p.A1)
2004 Aug 23, Azarias Ruberwa,
prominent Tutsi and one of Congo’s 4 vice-presidents, announced that he
and his party (RCD-Goma) were walking out of the transitional
government.
(Econ, 8/28/04, p.40)
2004 Aug 23, Israel announced
plans for more than 500 new housing units in the West Bank, following
an apparent US policy shift on Jewish settlements that has infuriated
the Palestinians.
(AP, 8/23/04)
2004 Aug 23, In Athens, Jeremy
Wariner became the sixth consecutive American to win the Olympic title
in the 400 meters, leading a US sweep of the medals. The US softball
team won its third straight gold medal with a 5-1 victory over
Australia.
(AP, 8/23/05)
2005 Aug 23, President Bush said
he understood the anguish of war protester Cindy Sheehan, but said
fulfilling demands like hers for withdrawal from Iraq would weaken the
US.
(AP, 8/23/06)
2005 Aug 23, The Bush
administration announced new rules for the corporate Average Fuel
Economy (CAFE) standards, first created in the 1970s.
(SFC, 8/24/05, p.A1)
2005 Aug 23, NYC said it will
install 1,000 surveillance cameras and 3,000 motion sensors in its
subways and rail stations in a new deal with Lockheed Martin.
(SFC, 8/24/05, p.A3)
2005 Aug 23, Brock Peters
(b.1927), who gave a heartbreaking performance as the black man falsely
accused of rape in "To Kill a Mockingbird," died. He began his
Hollywood career in the landmark productions of "Carmen Jones" and
"Porgy and Bess."
(AP, 8/24/05)
2005 Aug 23, In Arizona 2
employees were gunned down outside a Wal-Mart store in Glendale, a
Phoenix suburb. In 2009 Ed Liu, the accused gunman, was committed to a
mental hospital instead of a trial on murder charges. Liu was
accused of shooting Patrick Graham (35) and Anthony Spangler (18) as
they collected shopping carts.
(http://tinyurl.com/boc95v)(SSFC, 2/22/09, p.A8)
2005 Aug 23, In Richmond, Ca.,
Glenn Wilson (17) shot and killed Terence Lionel Martin, a maintenance
worker for the West Contra Costa School District, after Martin tried to
break up a fight between Wilson and his pregnant girlfriend. In 2007
Wilson was convicted of 2nd degree murder and faced up to 40 years in
prison.
(SFC, 12/6/07,
p.B3)(http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4176/is_/ai_n15813134)
2005 Aug 23, In Aruba a court
ruled that lesbian couple has the right to register their marriage
rejecting a government appeal in a case that has exposed a cultural
rift between Holland and its former colony.
(AP, 8/23/05)
2005 Aug 23, Australians who take
drugs into Asia are stupid and should not expect to be bailed out by
the Australian government, PM John Howard said after another two
Australians were detained in Indonesia over drugs.
(Reuters, 8/23/05)
2005 Aug 23, Australia’s
government and moderate Muslim leaders pledged to join forces in the
fight against terrorism and blend Australian values with Islamic
teachings at mosques and schools.
(AP, 8/23/05)
2005 Aug 23, A British woman who
can only move her head, eyes and mouth sailed across the English
Channel and into the record books on board a modified boat she
controlled by sucking or blowing into straws.
(AFP, 8/23/05)
2005 Aug 23, China submitted
legislation to cut income taxes on its poorest workers.
(WSJ, 8/24/05, p.A9)
2005 Aug 23, Egypt's President
Hosni Mubarak vowed to work towards a long-envisaged free trade
agreement with the US as he called for stronger economic ties with
Washington.
(AFP, 8/23/05)
2005 Aug 23, A week of heavy
flooding in Western and Central Europe left at least 26 people dead.
(WSJ, 8/24/05, p.A1)
2005 Aug 23, India’s Lok Sabha
approved legislation which seeks to guarantee 100 days of employment a
year to every rural household across the country.
(AP, 8/23/05)
2005 Aug 23, In India an apartment
building collapse in downtown Bombay, killed 11 people, injured 17 and
left more than a dozen trapped under the rubble.
(AP, 8/23/05)
2005 Aug 23, Iraq's al-Qaida wing
claimed responsibility for the Aug 19 rocket attack that barely missed
U.S. warships docked in the Jordanian port of Aqaba.
(AP, 8/23/05)
2005 Aug 23, A US soldier, an
American contractor and five Iraqis were killed when a suicide bomber
detonated an explosive device in a city north of Baghdad.
(AP, 8/23/05)
2005 Aug 23, Israeli soldiers
cleared 2 militant strongholds without major violence, completing the
country's historic evacuation of 25 settlements in the Gaza Strip and
West Bank.
(AP, 8/23/05)
2005 Aug 23, Japanese electronics
giants Sony and Toshiba said they would go ahead with incompatible
formats for next-generation DVDs after talks to reach a common standard
failed.
(AP, 8/23/05)
2005 Aug 23, Stores across Japan
started taking orders for the Roborior, a watermelon-sized eyeball on
wheels that glows purple, blue and orange. Roborior can function as a
virtual guard dog that can sense break-ins using infrared sensors,
notify homeowners by calling their cellular phones, and send the
owner's cell phone videos from its digital camera.
(AP, 8/23/05)
2005 Aug 23, Officials said
Nepal's main political parties will hold talks with Maoists on forming
a broad front against King Gyanendra provided the rebels keep to their
promise to stop killing civilians.
(AP, 8/23/05)
2005 Aug 23, TANS Peru Flight 204,
a Boeing 737-200 with 100 people on board, split in two after an
emergency landing during a fierce storm, killing at least 41 people.
The pilot tried to land in a marsh to soften the impact but the landing
split the aircraft in two. The plane was enroute from Lima to Pucallpa
and landed 20 miles from Pucallpa.
(AP, 8/24/05)
2005 Aug 23, UN officials called
on African ministers meeting in Mozambique to declare TB and emergency
in the area.
(WSJ, 8/24/05, p.A1)
2006 Aug 23, In Alaska Republican
Gov. Frank Murkowski finished last in a 3-day primary election. Sarah
Palin, a former Wasilla mayor, won with over 50% of the vote.
(SFC, 8/24/06, p.A3)
2006 Aug 23, Annie Donnelly (38)
of Long Island, NY, pleaded guilty to stealing $2.3 million (1.2
million pounds) from her employers. She spent the money on lottery
tickets, buying as much as $6,000 worth of tickets a day in a bid to
hit the jackpot.
(Reuters, 8/24/06)
2006 Aug 23, The Citadel released
the results of a survey in which almost 20% of female cadets reported
being sexually assaulted since enrolling at the South Carolina military
college.
(AP, 8/23/07)
2006 Aug 23, In Washington state
Gov. Gregoire declared a state of emergency due to a group of
southeastern wildfires that had covered 70 square miles near Dayton.
(SFC, 8/25/06, p.A3)
2006 Aug 23, Maynard Ferguson
(78), Canadian-born jazz trumpeter, died in Ventura, Ca.
(SFC, 8/25/06, p.B11)
2006 Aug 23, The Afghan and
Pakistani armies agreed to conduct coordinated and simultaneous patrols
with the US alongside their volatile border. The accord was reached
during the 17th meeting of Tripartite Commission. In southern
Afghanistan 18 Taliban rebels and an Afghan soldier were killed in a
clash that erupted after the militants attacked an army post in Zabul
province.
(AP, 8/23/06)(AFP, 8/23/06)
2006 Aug 23, Argentina announced
an ambitious plan to expand its nuclear program to meet rising energy
demands, including extending the life of existing plants and possibly
resuming uranium mining.
(AP, 8/23/06)
2006 Aug 23, Vytautas Pociunas, a
top Lithuanian spy posted to Belarus, was found dead in Brest. Some
linked his death to feuds within the Lithuanian security service (VSD)
over freight contracts. A parliamentary committee called for Arvydas
Pocius, the VSD chief, to go.
(Econ, 12/23/06,
p.74)(www.data.minsk.by/belarusnews/092006/25.html)
2006 Aug 23, The Canadian Food
Inspection Agency confirmed that a mature beef cow in the Prairie
province Alberta tested positive for mad cow case. It was the 8th case
since 2003.
(Reuters, 8/23/06)
2006 Aug 23, In western India 17
people were killed when a truck overturned and fell into a deep ditch.
Victims were sitting on top of sacks of salt that the truck was
transporting when it overturned into a ditch flooded from recent
monsoon rains.
(AP, 8/23/06)
2006 Aug 23, Iran urged Europe to
pay attention to what it called "positive" signals in its
counterproposal to a nuclear incentives package aimed at persuading
Tehran to roll back its nuclear program. Russia and China backed Iran's
call for negotiations to end the standoff.
(AP, 8/23/06)
2006 Aug 23, A roadside bomb
exploded in Baghdad and narrowly missed the interior minister's convoy,
killing two civilians and wounding several traffic policemen. A suicide
bomber blew himself up outside a police headquarters in Mosul, killing
at least one person. An Iraqi army officer, 1st Lt. Hassanein Saadi
al-Zerjawi (29) was gunned down in a drive-by shooting in Amarah. A
roadside bomb missed a US military convoy in Fallujah, 40 miles west of
Baghdad, killing two pedestrians and injuring 12. One US soldier was
killed during a raid to capture "foreign terrorists." Two militants
also were killed.
(AP, 8/23/06)(AP, 8/24/06)
2006 Aug 23, In Indian-controlled
Kashmir a crowded bus swerved off a steep mountain road and plunged
into a gorge, killing at least 16 people and injuring 35 others.
(AP, 8/23/06)
2006 Aug 23, A leader of Kurdish
rebels battling Turkey's government said in a rare interview that his
guerrillas will not give in to US pressure to disarm without a
"political project" that fulfills their calls for autonomy. PKK party
officials met with a group of journalists in the rugged, isolated
Qandil Mountain in Iraq's northeast corner where the group is based.
(AP, 8/24/06)
2006 Aug 23, In southern Lebanon 3
Lebanese soldiers were killed while they dismantled an unexploded
missile. An Israeli soldier was killed and three others wounded in
southern Lebanon when their tank drove over a land mine.
(AP, 8/23/06)
2006 Aug 23, Assailants threw
grenades at the offices of a newspaper in the resort city of Cancun in
the latest in a series of attacks on news outlets across Mexico.
(AP, 8/24/06)
2006 Aug 23, In Oslo Villa Grande,
a sprawling mansion used by Norwegian Nazi collaborator Vidkun Quisling
during World War II, opened as a center to oppose the intolerance,
hatred and treachery he represented.
(AP, 8/23/06)
2006 Aug 23, A previously unknown
Palestinian group released the first video of two kidnapped Fox News
journalists and demanded that Muslim prisoners in US jails be released
within 72 hours in exchange for the men. Correspondent Steve Centanni
and cameraman Olaf Wiig were later freed.
(AP, 8/23/06)(AP, 8/23/07)
2006 Aug 23, Russia’s Gazprom
threatened to cut off gas exports to Bosnia on Oct 1 if strides toward
repaying $104.8 million in debts, incurred during wars that ended in
1995, were not met.
(WSJ, 8/24/06, p.A6)
2006 Aug 23, Somalia’s seaport in
Mogadishu reopened for the first time in 11 years, the latest sign that
the city's Islamic fundamentalist rulers are trying to restore
confidence after more than a decade of anarchy.
(AP, 8/23/06)
2006 Aug 23, Sudan's ruling party
rejected a proposed Security Council resolution to transfer
peacekeeping duties in conflict-wracked Darfur to a UN force, saying it
would violate national sovereignty.
(AP, 8/24/06)
2006 Aug 23, Syria opposed
deployment of an international force along its border to prevent arms
shipments to Hezbollah, and Israel called the situation in Lebanon
"explosive." In southern Lebanon 3 Lebanese soldiers were killed while
they dismantled an unexploded missile. An Israeli soldier was killed
and three others wounded in southern Lebanon when their tank drove over
a land mine.
(AP, 8/23/06)(AP, 8/24/06)
2006 Aug 23, Taiwan's cabinet
decided to increase military spending by nearly 30% next year as
President Chen Shui-bian warned of rival China's continuing hostility
towards the island.
(AP, 8/23/06)
2007 Aug 23, Ohio’s Gov. Ted
Strickland said more than 1,000 people were flooded out of their homes
after heavy rain that swamped communities across the Midwest sent
Ohio's rivers spilling over their banks.
(AP, 8/23/07)
2007 Aug 23, University of
Minnesota astronomers announced that they have stumbled upon a
tremendous hole in the universe. The cosmic blank spot has no stray
stars, no galaxies, no sucking black holes, not even mysterious dark
matter. The 1 billion light years across of nothing represented an
expanse of nearly 6 billion trillion miles of emptiness.
(AP, 8/24/07)
2007 Aug 23, In southern
Afghanistan a bomb dropped by a US fighter jet was believed to have
killed 3 British soldiers in Helmand province. Two other soldiers were
injured.
(AP, 8/24/07)
2007 Aug 23, Bangladesh's
army-backed interim government briefly relaxed a curfew, allowing
residents of the capital the chance to stock up on essentials and those
stranded at airports and elsewhere to return home.
(AP, 8/23/07)
2007 Aug 23, In Ponte Nova,
Brazil, at least 25 prisoners died after inmates broke out of a
cellblock and set a fire in an apparent attempt to settle scores with a
rival gang.
(AP, 8/23/07)
2007 Aug 23, The Montreal World
Film Festival, which endured a near-death experience two years ago when
key government subsidies were suspended, kicked off its 31st edition
with a new lease on life.
(AP, 8/24/07)
2007 Aug 23, The government of
Chad said it will adhere to a program designed to put pressure on
countries to be open about revenues from exports of oil, natural gas
and minerals.
(AP, 8/23/07)
2007 Aug 23, The Bank of China
revealed that it held a $9.6 billion exposure to securities backed by
American subprime mortgages.
(Econ, 9/1/07, p.67)
2007 Aug 23, More than 800
Colombian refugees crossed over the border to Ecuador from the
violence-ravaged department of Narino. The UN estimated that about 3
million Colombians have been driven from their homes by violence
without leaving the country, making it the largest internal refugee
population in the world after Sudan.
(AP, 8/25/07)
2007 Aug 23, A shootout in
Chechnya's capital left two policemen and a rebel dead. A group of
about 30 camouflage-clad gunmen set on fire the houses of two police
officers and the local administration building in the Chechen village
of Yandi.
(AP, 8/24/07)
2007 Aug 23, In Dagestan, Russia,
gunmen ambushed security forces, killing three people and wounding 17.
(AP, 8/24/07)
2007 Aug 23, Hundreds of rampaging
youths torched dozens of houses and clashed across East Timor, leaving
at least two people dead, in violence sparked by the appointment of
independence hero Xanana Gusmao as prime minister.
(AP, 8/23/07)
2007 Aug 23, The EU relaxed a ban
on exports of British livestock, meat and dairy products that was
imposed after an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in southeastern
England earlier this month.
(AP, 8/23/07)
2007 Aug 23, State-run TV reported
that Iran has developed a new 2,000-pound "smart" bomb, the latest in a
recent series of announcements heralding new weapons systems.
(AP, 8/23/07)
2007 Aug 23, Suspected al-Qaida
fighters attacked the Sunni Ibrahim al-Yahya village east of Baqouba
and killed a leader who had led the community in an uprising against
the terrorist organization. A nearby Shiite village came under attack,
again by suspected al-Qaida fighters, and a total of 17 people,
including seven women, were killed. 7 people were kidnapped. Two of the
abducted men were later found shot in the head on a road leading out of
town. The rest of the captives were women, and their fate was unknown.
10 attackers were killed as villagers fought back. A police vehicle
rushing to the attack scene crashed and 2 policemen were killed. 60
suspected al-Qaida in Iraq fighters hit national police facilities in a
coordinated attack in Samarra, sparking two hours of fighting that saw
three people killed and more than a dozen insurgents captured.
(AP, 8/23/07)(Reuters, 8/23/07)(AP, 8/24/07)
2007 Aug 23, A cluster bomb left
over from last year's Hezbollah-Israel war exploded in southern
Lebanon, killing a Lebanese mine-clearing expert and wounding three
others who were trying to dismantle it.
(AP, 8/23/07)
2007 Aug 23, The remnants of
Hurricane Dean dumped heavy rain across central Mexico, drenching
mudslide-prone mountains as it pushed its way inland after slamming
into the nation's Gulf Coast as a Category 2 storm. Thousands of Mayan
Indians lost homes as Hurricane Dean blew through the Yucatan
peninsula, but their real wealth was the trees, now scattered and
broken in the storm's wake. Village after village is carpeted with
fallen mangoes, oranges, guanabanas and mameys that will never be
harvested. Across Mexico at least 10 people died from the storm.
(AP, 8/23/07)(WSJ, 8/24/07, p.A1)
2007 Aug 23, In Myanmar defiant
pro-democracy activists took to the streets for the third time this
week, forming a human chain to try to prevent officers from dragging
them into waiting trucks and buses.
(AP, 8/23/07)
2007 Aug 23, In Pakistan a Supreme
Court ruling said former PM Nawaz Sharif, a key rival to President Gen.
Pervez Musharraf, can return to Pakistan from exile.
(AP, 8/23/07)
2007 Aug 23, A Russian scientist
said that fresh test results back his country's legal bid to take
control of the Arctic. Russian geologists have previously estimated the
Arctic seabed has at least 9 to 10 billion tons of fuel equivalent,
about the same as Russia's total oil reserves.
(AP, 8/23/07)
2007 Aug 23, Rwanda's exiled
opposition groups dismissed as insulting the appointment of General
Kerenzi Karake, a Rwandan general, as deputy chief of a planned peace
force for Sudan's war-torn Darfur region.
(AFP, 8/23/07)
2007 Aug 23, Sudan summoned the
envoy of the European Commission and the Canadian charge d'affaires and
informed them they were considered persona non grata because they
interfered in Sudanese affairs. The UN chief called on the Sudanese
military to remove troops remaining in southern Sudan, expressing
disappointment that a July 9 deadline was not met as called for in a
2005 peace deal.
(AFP, 8/24/07)(AP, 8/24/07)
2008 Aug 23, Democrats coalesced
around Barack Obama's selection of Delaware Senator Joe Biden (b.1942)
as his running mate while Republicans quickly seized on the Delaware
senator's past criticism of the presidential candidate's inexperience.
(AP, 8/23/08)
2008 Aug 23, In Utah a small plane
crashed and burned shortly after takeoff from Canyonlands Field
airport. All 10 aboard, including 9 employees of a Cedar City
dermatology company, who traveled to remote areas to provide medical
treatments.
(SSFC, 8/24/08, p.A2)
2008 Aug 23, Dr. Thomas Weller
(b.1915) co-winner of the 1954 Nobel Prize in Medicine, died in
Massachusetts. He shared the Nobel Prize with 2 co-workers for their
discovery of the ability of poliomyelitis viruses to grow in cultures
of various types of tissue.
(http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1954/)(LSA,
Spring, 2009, p.56)
2008 Aug 23, Azizabad villagers
threw stones at Afghan soldiers who tried to give them food and
clothes. The soldiers fired into the crowd and wounded eight people,
including one child critically wounded. This was the village in Herat
province where the day before a US-Afghan operation took place leaving
many civilians dead.
(AP, 8/23/08)
2008 Aug 23, Public health
officials in Canada said they have linked a deadly bacterial outbreak
to recalled meat products from Maple Leaf Foods. At least 12 people
died out of 26 confirmed cases of food poisoning.
(AP, 8/24/08)(Reuters, 8/25/08)
2008 Aug 23, In Beijing Angel
Matos, a Cuban taekwondo athlete, and his coach Leudis Gonzalez were
banned for life after Matos kicked the referee in the face following
his bronze-medal match disqualification.
(AP, 8/23/08)
2008 Aug 23, The US military
released Ahmed Nouri Raziak (38), a cameraman for Associated Press
Television News, without charges after detaining him for nearly three
months. Gunmen in Basra killed Haider al-Saymari (38), a Shiite cleric
and outspoken critic of sectarian militias, in an ambush on a car that
also carried his wife, mother and sister, who were not harmed.
(AP, 8/23/08)(AP, 8/24/08)
2008 Aug 23, In Italy a gang of
men badly beat a Dutch couple and raped the woman while they camped in
an isolated field outside Rome during a cycling tour of Europe. The
attackers also stole some US$2,200. Two Romanian men were soon arrested.
(AP, 8/23/08)(Reuters, 8/25/08)
2008 Aug 23, Environmental experts
said Nigeria and South Africa are the main emitters of greenhouse gases
in Africa, accounting for almost 90 percent of the emissions in the
continent.
(AFP, 8/23/08)
2008 Aug 23, Pakistani troops
pounded Islamic militants in the volatile northwest, killing 37 in
retaliation for suicide attacks that have put pressure on the new
government to counter a growing extremist threat. 2 soldiers were
killed. A civilian and her four children were killed when security
forces fired a mortar that accidentally hit a home in Khar, near the
Afghan border. A car packed with explosives rammed into a police
station in Swat, a former tourist destination, killing six officers and
injuring several others. A roadside bomb in the nearby village of Bari
Kot killed one civilian and injured four.
(AP, 8/23/08)
2008 Aug 23, Two boats carrying
dozens of international activists sailed into the Gaza Strip in
defiance of an Israeli blockade, receiving a jubilant welcome from
thousands of Palestinians. Israel said it would permit the boats to
dock in Gaza after determining the activists did not pose a security
threat. The group delivered a symbolic shipment of hearing aids and
balloons.
(AP, 8/23/08)
2008 Aug 23, The Philippine
government said at least 48 soldiers and civilians and scores of Muslim
rebels have been killed in the southern Philippines in a week of
fighting triggered by the collapse of a peace deal. Muslim rebels urged
the Philippine government to halt a military offensive they say
threatens a years-long peace process and escalates violence in the
archipelago's troubled south.
(Reuters, 8/23/08)(AP, 8/23/08)
2008 Aug 23, A top Russian general
said his country's forces will keep patrolling the key Georgian Black
Sea port of Poti even though it lies outside the areas where Russia
claims it has the right to station soldiers in Georgia.
(AP, 8/23/08)
2008 Aug 23, Pirates fired on a
Japanese-operated cargo ship off Somalia and attempted to board the
vessel but failed to seize it.
(AP, 8/23/08)
2008 Aug 23, Two Western reporters
were kidnapped near Mogadishu. The next day the National Union of
Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) named them as Amanda Lindhout, a Canadian
reporter based in Baghdad but freelancing for French television and
Canada's Global National News, and Nigel Brennan, a freelance
Australian photojournalist.
(Reuters, 8/24/08)
2008 Aug 23, Sri Lanka staged
local elections under tight security as troops pushed deeper into Tamil
Tiger territory, closing in on the rebel capital in the war-ravaged
north. The defense ministry said a total of 28 rebels and two soldiers
were killed in clashes over the last 24 hours across the island's north.
(AFP, 8/23/08)
2008 Aug 23, The Tibetan spiritual
leader, the Dalai Lama, left Paris on a flight bound for New Delhi
after concluding a 12-day visit that fuelled tensions between Paris and
Beijing.
(AP, 8/23/08)
2008 Aug 23, A Tunisian court
convicted 13 Islamic militants on charges linked to plots to carry out
attacks in the north African country. 6 more were convicted on Aug 26
for establishing a military camp in Tunisia's northeastern Kef region
designed to train fighters to be sent to Iraq.
(AP, 8/28/08)
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