Today in History - August 27
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1521 Aug 27,
Josquin Des Prez, composer, died.
(MC, 8/27/02)
1522 Aug 27, Giovanni A. Amadei
(75), Amadeo, Italian sculptor, architect, died.
(MC, 8/27/02)
1569 Aug 27, Pope Pius named
Cosimo I de' Medici, grand duke of Toscane.
(MC, 8/27/01)
1576 Aug 27, The Venetian painter
Titian (Tiziano Vecelli), born about 1488, died of the plague. His
handling of color and mastery of new oil techniques made him one of the
greatest painters of the Renaissance.
(Reuters,
8/28/01)(www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/tita/hd_tita.htm)
1610 Aug 27, Polish King Wladyslaw
was crowned king of Russia.
(MC, 8/27/01)
1626 Aug 27, The Danes were
crushed by the Catholic League in Germany, marking the end of Danish
intervention in European wars.
(HN, 8/27/98)
1635 Aug 27, Lope Felix de Vega
(72), playwright, poet (Angelica, Arcadia), died.
(MC, 8/27/02)
1665 Aug 27, "Ye Bare & Ye
Cubb," the 1st play performed in N. America, was performed at Acomac,
Va.
(MC, 8/27/01)
1770 Aug 27, The German
philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831) was born in
Stuttgart. He wrote "The Science of Logic." Hegel greatly influenced
Karl Marx. His method was to metaphysicize everything, that is, to
discern in concrete reality the working of some Idea or Universal Mind.
Hegel proposed that all change, all progress, is brought about by the
conflict of vast forces. A world-historical figure or nation or event
lays down a challenge. This thesis, as he called it, is opposed by an
antithesis. The conflict between them is resolved, inevitably, by a
synthesis of the two forces on a higher plane of being.
(V.D.-H.K.p.258)(AP, 8/27/97)(HN, 8/27/98)
1776 Aug 27, The Americans were
defeated by the British at the Battle of Long Island, New York.
(HN, 8/27/98)
1783 Aug 27, 1st hydrogen balloon
flight (unmanned); reached 900 m altitude.
(MC, 8/27/01)
1788 Aug 27, Jacques Neeker was
named French minister of Finance.
(MC, 8/27/01)
1789 Aug 27, French National
Assembly issued "Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen."
(MC, 8/27/01)
1793 Aug 27, Maximilien
Robespierre was elected to the Committee of Public Safety in Paris,
France.
(HN, 8/27/98)
1813 Aug
26-1813 Aug 27, The Battle of Dresden was Napoleon’s last major victory
against the allied forces of Austria, Russia and Prussia.
(www.napoleonguide.com/battle_dresden.htm)
1816 Aug 27, Admiral Sir Edward
Pellew, a noble from Devon, England, bombed Algiers, a refuge for
Barbary pirates. He flew the green, white and black flag of St. Petroc.
In 1836 the battle was pictured in a painting by George Chambers,
Senior. Pellew was subsequently named Lord Exmouth.
(http://tinyurl.com/gjooc)(Econ, 9/30/06, p.66)
1825 Aug 27, William Moorcroft,
East India Co. head of 5,000 acre horse farm at Pusa, India, died near
Balkh, Afghanistan, while returning to India following his trip to
Bukhara, Uzbekistan, to trade for horses. In 1985 Garry Alder authored
"Beyond Bukhara: The Life of William Moorcroft, Asian Explorer and
Veterinary Surgeon."
(ON, 1/02, p.6)
1832 Aug 27, Black Hawk, leader of
Sauk-Indians, gave himself up.
(MC, 8/27/01)
1858 Aug 27, The 2nd of 7 of the
Lincoln-Douglas debates in the 1858 Illinois senatorial race of took
place in Freeport, Ill. Stephen Douglas formulated what became known as
the Freeport Doctrine, which stated that the people of a territory
could, by lawful means, exclude slavery prior to the formulation of a
state constitution. Douglas first pronounced it in response to a
question posed by Lincoln as to how Douglas could reconcile the
doctrine of "popular sovereignty" with the Dred Scott decision.
(HNQ, 6/4/99)(ON, 4/08, p.2)
1859 Aug 27, The first commercial
oil well was set up. Colonel Edwin L. Drake drilled the first
successful oil well in the United States near Titusville, Penn.
(HFA, '96, p.36)(AP, 8/27/97)
1861 Aug 27, Union troops made an
amphibious landing at Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.
(HN, 8/27/98)
1861 Aug 27, At the Battle of Cape
Hatteras, SC, Union troops took Fort Clark.
(MC, 8/27/01)
1862 Aug 27, As the Second Battle
of Bull Run raged, Confederate soldiers attacked Loudoun County,
Virginia.
(HN, 8/27/98)
1869 Aug 27, Karl Haushofer,
soldier, geographer, was born.
(MC, 8/27/02)
1871 Aug 27, Theodore Dreiser
(d.1945), American novelist (Sister Carrie, American Tragedy), was
born. "Our civilization is still in a middle stage, no longer wholly
guided by instinct, not yet wholly guided by reason."
(AP, 1/4/00)(HN, 8/27/00)
1874 Aug 27, Karl Bosch, German
chemist (BASF, Nobel 1931), was born.
(MC, 8/27/02)
1877 Aug 27, Charles Stewart
Rolls, British auto manufacturer (Rolls-Royce Ltd), was born.
(MC, 8/27/02)
1881 Aug 27, New York state’s Pure
Food Law went into effect to prevent "the adulteration of food or
drugs."
(HN, 8/27/00)
1881 Aug 27, A hurricane hit
Florida and the Carolinas; about 700 died.
(MC, 8/27/01)
1882 Aug 17, Samuel Goldwyn,
American movie mogul who helped start MGM (Metro Goldwyn Mayer), was
born as Schmuel Gelbfisz in Warsaw, Poland.
(HN, 8/17/00)
1883 Aug 27, The island volcano
Krakatoa erupted; the resulting tidal waves in Indonesia's Sunda Strait
claimed some 36,417 lives in Java and Sumatra. In 2003 Simon Winchester
authored Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: Aug 27, 1883." [see Aug
26]
(AP, 8/27/97)(SSFC, 4/6/03, p.M2)
1886 Aug 27, Eric Coates, viola
player, composer, was born in Hucknall, Nottinghamshire, England.
(MC, 8/27/02)
1890 Aug 27, Man Ray (d.1976) was
born as Emmanuel Radinski in Philadelphia, Pa. A painter and
photographer, he and Marcel Duchamp founded the Dadaism movement.
(Reuters, 8/28/01)
1892 Aug 27, Fire seriously
damaged New York City's original Metropolitan Opera House, located at
Broadway and 39th Street.
(AP, 8/27/97)
1894 Aug 27, The US Congress
passed the Wilson-Gorman Tariff Act, providing for a graduated income
tax that was down by the Supreme Court May 20, 1895. Pres. Grover
Cleveland enacted the tax to cope with the deficit.
(AP, 8/27/99)(WSJ, 9/25/02, p.D8)
1899 Aug 27, C.S. Forester (Cecil
Scott Forester), novelist, was born in England. He authored the
"Horatio Hornblower" series.
(HN, 8/27/00)(MC, 8/27/02)
1901 Aug 27, In Havana, Cuba, U.S.
Army physician James Carroll allowed an infected mosquito to feed on
him in an attempt to isolate the means of transmission of yellow fever.
Days later, Carroll developed a severe case of yellow fever, helping
his colleague, Army Walter Reed, prove that mosquitoes can transmit the
sometimes deadly disease.
(MC, 8/27/02)(ON, 10/01, p.8)
1908 Aug 27, Lyndon B. Johnson,
the 36th president of the United States (1963-1969), was born near
Stonewall, Texas.
(AP, 8/27/97)(HN, 8/27/98)
1910 Aug 26-27, Agnes Gonxhe
Bojaxhiu (d.1997), later known as Mother Teresa and care-taker of the
poor in Calcutta, was born to an ethnic Albanian family in Skopje,
Macedonia. She later founded the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta
and was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize for her work.
(SFC, 8/28/96, p.A10)(SFC, 8/26/97, p.C3)(AP,
9/12/03)
1910 Aug 27, Thomas Edison
demonstrated the first "talking" pictures using a phonograph in his New
Jersey laboratory.
(HN, 8/27/01)
1912 Aug 27, Edgar Rice
Burroughs’s "Tarzan of the Apes" first appeared in a magazine.
Burroughs (d.1950 at 74) wrote "Tarzan of the Apes" for The All-Story
Magazine and received $700.
(SDUT, 6/6/97, p.E2)(SFEC, 5/9/99, Par p.8)(HN,
8/27/00)
1914 Aug 27, 2nd day of battle at
Tannenberg: Germany bombed Usdau.
(MC, 8/27/01)
1915 Aug 27, Walter W. Heller,
economist (Old Myths & New Realities), was born.
(MC, 8/27/02)
1916 Aug 27, Italy declared war on
Germany.
(HN, 8/27/98)
1921 Aug 27, J.E. Clair of Acme
Packing Co. of Green Bay was granted an NFL franchise.
(MC, 8/27/02)
1928 Aug 27, Fifteen nations
signed the Kellogg-Briand Peace Pact, also known as the Pact of Paris,
outlawing war and calling for the settlement of disputes through
arbitration. Forty-seven other countries eventually sign the
pact. The pact was developed by French foreign minister Aristide
Briand and U.S. Secretary of State Frank Kellogg. The document did not
stipulate any sanctions and allowed for so many exceptions—including
wars of ‘self-defense‘ and obligations under the League Covenant and
Monroe Doctrine—that the pact was quite ineffective.
(AP, 8/27/97)(HN, 8/27/98)(HNQ, 10/20/00)
1928 Aug 27, 16 people died in
NYC’s 2nd worst subway accident.
(MC, 8/27/01)
1929 Aug 27, Ira Levin, author
(Rosemary Baby, Boys From Brazil, This Perfect Day), was born in NYC.
(MC, 8/27/02)
1932 Aug 27, Antonia Fraser,
biographer (Mary Queen of Scots), was born.
(MC, 8/27/02)
1932 Aug 27-28, In England 200,000
textile workers went on strike.
(MC, 8/27/01)
1934 Aug 27, Arlen, Ira Gershwin
& Harburg musical premiered in NYC.
(MC, 8/27/02)
1937 Aug 27, Andrew Mellon
(b.1855), equity-fund capitalist and former US Treasury Secretary
(1921-1932), died. In 2006 David Canadine authored the biography
“Mellon.”
(www.ustreas.gov/education/history/secretaries/awmellon.shtml)(WSJ,
10/6/06, p.W4)
1938 Aug 27, George Eyston set an
automobile land-speed record.
(MC, 8/27/02)
1939 Aug 27, Nazi Germany demanded
Danzig and Polish corridor.
(MC, 8/27/01)
1939 Aug 27, The world's first
jet-propelled plane, the Heinkel He-178, made its first flight at
Marienehe, north Germany. Hans von Ohain’s aircraft became the first
jet-powered airplane to fly. It remained airborne for 7 minutes. Erich
Warsitz made the 1st jet-propelled flight.
(SFC, 8/10/96, p.A20)(Reuters, 8/28/01)(MC, 8/27/01)
1941 Aug 27, The Shah of Iran
abdicated the throne to his son Reza Pahlavi. Britain forced Reza Shah
to abdicate and installed his son Mohammed.
(www.indiana.edu/~league/1941.htm)(WSJ, 4/2/07, p.A6)
1941 Aug 27, The Prime Minister of
Japan, Fumimaro Konoye, issued an invitation for a meeting with
President Roosevelt.
(HN, 8/27/98)
1942 Aug 27, Cuba declared war on
Germany, Japan and Italy.
(MC, 8/27/01)
1944 Aug 27, 200 Halifax bombers
attack oil-installations in Hamburg.
(MC, 8/27/01)
1945 Aug 27, B-29 Superfortress
bombers began to drop supplies into Allied prisoner of war camps in
China.
(HN, 8/27/98)
1945 Aug 27, Life Magazine’s issue
for VJ-Day featured a photo that Life photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt
made on May 8, VE-Day when he got signalman Jim Reynolds to pose for a
kiss with a nurse on Times Square. That the photo was posed was denied
by Life and Reynold’s role was not verified. Edith Shain in a letter
claimed to be the nurse with documented letters from Eisenstaedt. In
2007 Houston Police Department forensic artist Lois Gibson completed a
detailed investigation and concluded that Glenn McDuffie (80) is the
man in Alfred Eisenstaedt's Aug. 14, 1945 image of a sailor kissing a
nurse in Times Square.
(WSJ, 8/14/96, p.A14)(WSJ, 8/20/96, p.A11)(AP,
8/4/07)
1945 Aug 27, American troops began
landing in Japan following the surrender of the Japanese government in
World War II.
(AP, 8/27/97)
1948 Aug 27, Former US Chief
Justice Charles Evans (86) Hughes died in Osterville, Mass.
(AP, 8/27/08)
1950 Aug 27, Charles Fleischer,
comedian (Roger Rabbit), was born in Wash, DC.
(www.hollywood.com/celebs/fulldetail/id/188514)
1952 Aug 27, Paul Reubens (Pee-wee
Herman), actor (Pee-wee's Big Adventure), was born in Peekskill, NY.
(MC, 8/27/02)
1955 Aug 27, The "Guinness Book of
World Records" was 1st published. It posted sales of 80 million in 1997.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R34)(WSJ, 7/30/99, p.B1)(MC,
8/27/01)
1958 Aug 27, The Arkansas
Legislature voted 94-1 to pass a law allowing Gov. Orval E. Faubus to
close public schools in the face of forced integration. Ray S. Smith
(1924-2007) was the only dissenting legislator.
(SFC, 11/13/07, p.D9)
1958 Aug 27, USSR launched Sputnik
3 with 2 dogs aboard.
(MC, 8/27/01)
1961 Aug 27, Francis the Talking
Mule was the mystery guest on "What's My Line."
(MC, 8/27/01)
1962 Aug 27, The United States
launched the Mariner 2 space probe with an Atlas D booster. On December
14, 1962, Mariner 2 passed within just over 20,000 miles of Venus,
reporting an 800F surface temperature, high surface pressures, a
predominantly carbon dioxide atmosphere, continuous cloud cover, and no
detectable magnetic field.
(AP, 8/27/97)(SFEM, 8/22/99,
p.9)(http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/tmp/1962-041A.html)
1963 Aug 27, Cambodia severed ties
with South Vietnam.
(HN, 8/27/98)
1963 Aug 27, William Edward
Burghardt Du Bois (b.1868), sociologist, influential leader of black
Americans, founder of the National Negro Committee which eventually
became the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People,
died in Accra, Ghana at the age of 95. He coined the phrase "double
consciousness" to describe the black survival skill of moving between
the black and white American culture.
(WUD, 1994, p.439)(SFEC, 3/22/98, BR p.5)(HNPD,
2/23/99)(HNQ, 5/11/99)
1964 Aug 27, Gracie Allen,
comedian (Burns & Allen), died at 62.
(MC, 8/27/01)
1965 Aug 27, Bob Dylan was booed
off stage in NY's Forest Hills.
(MC, 8/27/01)
1965 Aug 27-1965 Sep 13, Hurricane
Betsy killed 75 in Louisiana & Florida. Betsy left New Orleans
under 7 feet of water.
(www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/Storm_pages/betsy1965/)(WSJ,
8/31/05, p.B1)
1965 Aug 27, Le Corbusier
(b.1887), Swiss-French architect and writer, died. He was born as
Charles Edouard Jeanneret-Gris in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland. His
book included books include “Vers une architecture” (Towards a New
Architecture) (1923), “The City of Tomorrow” (1925), and “When the
Cathedrals Were White” (1937).
(www.kirjasto.sci.fi/lecorbu.htm)
1966 Aug 27, There was a race riot
in Waukegan, Illinois.
(MC, 8/27/02)
1966 Aug 27, Sir Francis
Chichester began 1st solo ocean voyage around the world.
(MC, 8/27/02)
1967 Aug 27, Brian Epstein,
manager of the Beatles, was found dead in his London flat from an
overdose of sleeping pills.
(AP, 8/27/97)
1971 Aug 27, Bennett Cerf
(b.1898), publisher and co-founder of Random House, died. Cerf began
appearing weekly on What's My Line? in 1951 and continued until the
show's CBS network end in 1967.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bennett_Cerf)
1971 Aug 27, Margaret Bourke-White
(b.1904), US photographer, died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Bourke-White)
1972 Aug 27, The USS Newport News
CA-148 and three other ships (USS Rowan DD-782, USS Providence
CLG-6, and USS Robison DDG-12) carried out a night time raid
against heavily defended targets at the mouth of Haiphong Harbor.
(www.tranhungdaotrip.com/CONGALionsDen.html)
1975 Aug 27, Haile Selassie, the
last emperor of Ethiopia’s 3,000-year-old monarchy, died in Addis Ababa
at age 83 almost a year after he was overthrown in a military coup. It
was later discovered that the Derg, the ruling military committee, had
voted to murder the imprisoned emperor. Selassie was born of royal
blood and originally named Ras Tafari, and is regarded as the savior by
a religious sect originating in Jamaica whose members are called
Rastafarians. Crowned emperor in 1930 under the title Haile Selassie I
(meaning "Power of the Trinity"), he was by tradition a descendant of
King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. He reigned as emperor of Ethiopia
until 1974. Ryszard Kapuscinski later authored "The Emperor," a
biography of Selassie.
(AP, 8/27/00)(HNQ, 2/4/00)(WSJ, 4/18/01,
p.A20)(Econ, 9/29/07, p.49)
1976 Aug 27, Transsexual Renee
Richards was barred from competing in US Tennis Open in Forest
Hills, NY.
(www.nytimes.com/packages/html/sports/year_in_sports/08.27.html)
1977 Aug 27, "Chicago" closed at
46th St Theater in NYC after 947 performances.
(www.curtainup.com/chicago.html)
1979 Aug 27, British war hero Lord
Louis Mountbatten was killed off the coast of Ireland in his 29-foot
sail boat in Sligo, Ireland; the Irish Republican Army claimed
responsibility. Also killed were his 14-year-old grandson Nicholas,
83-year-old Lady Brabourne, and 15-year-old John Maxwell. Thomas
McMahon (31) was the bombmaker and was jailed at Dublin’s Mountjoy
prison. He was released in 1998 as part of the Northern Ireland peace
agreement.
(AP, 8/27/97)(SFC, 8/8/98, p.A13)(HN, 8/27/98)
1979 Aug 27, In Sanandaj, Iran, 11
Kurdish prisoners were executed by a firing squad following a 30 minute
trial under Shiite cleric Sadegh Khalkhali. Jahangir Razmi, a
photographer for Iran’s independent Ettela’at newspaper, captured the
execution on film. Within hours an anonymous photo of the execution ran
across 6 columns of the paper. On Sep 8 the newspaper was seized by the
Foundation for the Disinherited, a state-owned holding company. On
April 14, 1980, the photo won a Pulitzer Prize. In 2006 Razmi made
public 27 images from the execution that he had kept hidden.
(WSJ, 12/2/06, p.A1)
1979 Aug 27, In Northern Ireland
18 British militia died in ambush and bomb attack at Warrenpoint, South
Down.
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/27/newsid_3891000/3891055.stm)
1980 Aug 27, In South Korea Chun
Doo-hwan (b.1931) had the military junta name him president, replacing
Choi.
(AP, 10/24/07)(www.dpg.devry.edu/~akim/sck/kp2.html)
1981 Aug 27, Rene Soto clubbed to
death Anselmo Covarrubias in LA County. Maria Suarez (21), a battered
"sex slave" to Covarrubias and witness to the murder, was convicted of
first-degree murder and sent to prison. In 2002 Gov. Davis rejected a
recommended parole for Suarez. In 2003 Gov. Davis issued a parole.
Suarez was released in 2004.
(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.A20)(SFC, 6/22/02, p.A1)(SSFC,
4/6/03, p.A12)(SFC, 5/26/04, p.A1)
1981 Aug 27, Divers recovered the
Banco di Roma safe from the Andrea Doria.
(www.pcgscurrency.com/AndreaDoria.html)
1984 Aug 27, President Reagan
announced the Teacher in Space project.
(www.challenger.org/teachers/history/index.cfm)
1985 Aug 27, Dr. Fisher was a
mission specialist on STS 51-I which launched from Kennedy Space
Center, Florida.
(www.astronautix.com/astros/fislliam.htm)
1985 Aug 27, In Nigeria Gen’l.
Ibrahim Babangida began his rule. He gave up power in 1993.
(www.nigeriabusinessinfo.com/nigeria-elections2003/babangida-regime.htm)
1987 Aug 27, A Soviet Foreign
Ministry official said his country was studying a proposal by West
German Chancellor Helmut Kohl to dismantle his country's 72 aging
Pershing 1A missiles if the superpowers destroyed all their
intermediate-range weapons.
(AP, 8/27/97)
1988 Aug 27, Tens of thousands of
civil rights marchers gathered in Washington, D.C., on the eve of the
25th anniversary of Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech.
(AP, 8/27/98)
1989 Aug 27, Some 100 marched
through Bensonhurst, NYC, protesting racial killings.
(www.city-journal.org/article01.php?aid=1615)
1989 Aug 27, The first U.S.
commercial satellite rocket was launched from Cape Canaveral, Fla., a
Delta booster carrying a British communications satellite.
(AP, 8/27/99)
1989 Aug 27, Chuck Berry performed
his tune Johnny B. Goode for NASA staff in celebration of Voyager II's
encounter with the planet Neptune.
(HN, 8/27/98)
1990 Aug 27, Fifty-two Americans
reached freedom in Turkey after they were allowed to leave Iraq; three
young men originally in the group, however, were detained by the
Iraqis. In Washington, the State Department ordered the expulsion of 36
Iraqi diplomats.
(AP, 8/27/00)
1990 Aug 27, Texan blues guitarist
Stevie Ray Vaughan (35) was killed in a helicopter crash after
performing at a concert in Wisconsin.
(Reuters, 8/28/01)
1991 Aug 27, The first flight of
the YF23 V-22 Osprey tiltrotor took place.
(NPub, 2002, p.25)
1991 Aug 27, Moldova (Moldavia)
declared independence from USSR.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moldova)
1992 Aug 27, President Bush
ordered federal troops to Florida for emergency relief in the wake of
Hurricane Andrew.
(AP, 8/27/97)
1992 Aug 27, The US and its allies
began air patrols following the imposition of a no-fly zone over
southern Iraq to stop air attacks on Shiite Muslim rebels.
(SFC, 9/4/96, p.A8)
1993 Aug 27, The U.N. Security
Council suspended 2 1/2-month-old economic sanctions against Haiti to
spur the country's return to democracy. They were reimposed the
following October.
(AP, 8/27/98)
1993 Aug 27, Gen’l. Ibrahim
Babangida ended his rule over Nigeria.
(www.nigeriabusinessinfo.com/nigeria-elections2003/babangida-regime.htm)
1994 Aug 27, The US State
Department said the US and Cuba had agreed to resume talks on Cuban
migration, with the hope of stemming the flow of refugees headed toward
Florida.
(AP, 8/27/99)
1995 Aug 27, American and Chinese
officials agreed to begin planning a fall summit between President
Clinton and Chinese President Jiang Zemin.
(AP, 8/27/00)
1995 Aug 27, A wildfire in the
Hamptons, the largest in 50 years, ended after 4 days. A 16-alarm at
the St. George Hotel complex began in Brooklyn.
(www.emergency.com/hampton.htm)(www.fdnewyork.com/stgeorge.asp)
1996 Aug 27, First lady Hillary
Rodham Clinton addressed the Democratic convention in Chicago,
forcefully making her husband's case for re-election while rebutting
her Republican critics.
(AP, 8/27/97)
1996 Aug 27, California Gov. Pete
Wilson signed an executive order aimed at halting state benefits to
illegal immigrants.
(AP, 8/27/97)
1996 Aug 27, In Indianapolis 4
police officers engaged in a fight outside the city’s Circle Center
mall. They were off duty and had just consumed a large amount of beer
in the city’s luxury suite at a ball game. They were later tried for
battery, disorderly conduct and public intoxication but the 1997 trial
ended in a hung jury.
(SFEC,10/26/97, p.A7)
1996 Aug 27, WorldCom announced
the acquisition of MFS Communications in a $12.4 billion deal. WorldCom
was formerly LDDS Communications and had gone public this month.
(WSJ, 1/2/97, p.R2)(WSJ, 5/1/02, p.A8)
1996 Aug 27, Actor Greg Morris
("Mission: Impossible") was found dead at his Las Vegas home; he was
61.
(AP, 8/27/97)
1996 Aug 27, Alexander Lanusse,
military president of Argentina (1971-73), died.
(MC, 8/27/02)
1996 Aug 27, In Bosnia the
municipal elections scheduled for Sep 14 were cancelled by the American
diplomat Robert Frowick due to widespread abuse of rules and
regulations.
(SFC, 8/28/96, p.A8)
1996 Aug 27, The last Rwandan
refugee camp in Burundi closed.
(SFC, 8/28/96, p.A10)
1996 Aug 27, In India plans were
made to amend the 1948 electricity laws to allow private companies to
enter the transmission sector and help shoulder the investment needed
to satisfy demand.
(WSJ, 8/27/96, p.A10)
1996 Aug 27, Seven Iraqis freed
their 184 captives aboard a Sudanese airliner at the London airport and
asked for political asylum.
(SFC, 8/28/96, p.A8)
1996 Aug 27, Israeli police tore
down a youth center in Jerusalem’s Old City saying that it was
illegally built with money from Arafat’s Palestinian Authority.
(SFC, 8/28/96, p.A8)
1996 Aug 27, In Norway the 29
stave churches (1100-1400AD) left were under government protection and
threatened by arsonists of a Satanic movement.
(WSJ, 8/27/96, p.A12)
1996 Aug 27, Russian and Chechen
military commanders signed the Khasavyurt Accords, an agreement for
military disengagement.
(SFC, 8/28/96, p.A8)(USAT, 9/2/04, p.13A)
1996 Aug 27, South Korea was
reported to be the world’s 11th largest economy and America’s 5th
largest trading partner.
(WSJ, 8/27/96, p.A1)
1996 Aug 27, The 450,000 strong
army of Turkey was the largest in NATO and the only one that was
exclusively Muslim.
(WSJ, 8/27/96, p.A10)
1997 Aug 27, Former Agriculture
Secretary Mike Espy was charged with seeking and accepting more than
$35,000 dollars in trips, sports tickets and favors from companies that
did business with his agency. A jury found Espy innocent in 1998 of
taking illegal gifts, but eight others pleaded guilty or were convicted
of various charges; President Clinton later issued seven pardons and a
commutation.
(AP, 8/27/02)
1997 Aug 27, There was a report on
the US nuclear arsenal broken down to the number of nuclear weapons in
each state. New Mexico was 1st with 2,850, Georgia 2nd with 2,000, and
Washington State 3rd with 1,600. The total stockpile was totaled at
12,500 warheads, of which 8,750 were described as "operational."
(SFC, 8/26/97, p.A6)
1997 Aug 27, A secret CIA report
acknowledged that the CIA knew of human rights abuses by the Honduran
military in the 1980s. It was declassified in 1998.
(SFC, 10/24/98, p.A3)
1997 Aug 27, It was announced that
the diet drugs, Redux and Pondimin, caused brain damage in animals at
doses similar to those taken by humans.
(WSJ, 8/27/97, p.A1)
1997 Aug 27, Brandon Tartikoff
(48), TV exec (NBC), died in Los Angeles.
(www.imdb.com/name/nm0850748/)
1997 Aug 27, From India it was
reported that at least 945 people had died since June due to torrential
monsoon rains.
(SFC, 8/26/97, p.C3)
1997 Aug 27, It was reported that
a 3-part expose in the Israeli Maariv newspaper alleged that gameshow
host Dudu Topaz was involved in rigging the winners in the Mar 30 show
"First in Comedy."
(SFC, 8/26/97, p.E7)(WSJ, 8/28/97, p.A1)
1997 Aug 27 Israel lifted a
month-long blockade of Bethlehem imposed after a suicide bombing July
30 that killed 16 people.
(WSJ, 8/28/97, p.A1)(AP, 8/27/98)
1997 Aug 27, It was announced that
South Korea had a $22 billion trade deficit in 1996 and that the
purchase of foreign goods was being actively discouraged.
(SFC, 8/26/97, p.C3)
1997 Aug 27, The annual Burning
Man Festival began near Gerlach, Nevada, on a private ranch on the
Hualapai Playa, a prehistoric lakebed. Some 20,000 people came to the
instantly created "Black Rock City" for the torching of the 50-foot
effigy.
(SFEC, 8/24/97, p.A3)(SFC, 8/30/97, p.A1, 15)
1998 Aug 27, Two suspects in the
August 7 bombing of the US Embassy in Kenya were sent to the United
States to face charges. Mohamed Rashed Daoud al-'Owhali and Mohammed
Saddiq Odeh were convicted in 2001 of conspiring to carry out the
bombing; both were sentenced to life in prison.
(AP, 8/27/08)
1998 Aug 27, The DJIA fell 350
points and markets around the world fell in response to the problems in
Russia.
(SFC, 8/28/98, p.A1)
1998 Aug 27, Hurricane Bonnie was
downgraded to a tropical storm as its winds dropped to 65 mph.
(WSJ, 8/28/98, p.A1)
1998 Aug 27, In Congo Unita forces
from Angola joined the rebels, while forces from Namibia fought for
Kabila’s regime.
(WSJ, 8/28/98, p.A1)
1998 Aug 27, Re: Cyprus. Russia
planned to deliver the S-300 anti-aircraft missile system to the Greek
Cypriot government for about $200 million. Pres. Glafcos Clerides said
the missiles would be deployed in Nov. if Turkey did not accept a
proposal for demilitarization.
(SFC, 4/29/98, p.A11)(SFC, 8/28/98, p.D4)
1998 Aug 27, In Israel a bus
bombing in Tel Aviv injured 21 people. A small bomb in a trash can
exploded in Tel Aviv and injured one person.
(WSJ, 8/28/98, p.A1)(SFC, 8/28/98, p.D3)
1998 Aug 27, In Pakistan Prime
Minister Nawaz Sharif announced the coming end of secular law and a new
rule of Islamic law based on the Koran.
(WSJ, 8/31/98, p.A18)
1998 Aug 27, In Kosovo a Serb
shell was said to have killed 11 of 14 members of the Asllani family
fleeing the village of Grape outside of Pristina.
(WSJ, 8/28/98, p.A1)(SFC, 8/28/98, p.D4)
1998 Aug 27, In Russia major banks
announced plans to merge and the government announced that it would
nationalize SBS-Agro, the 3rd largest bank in the country.
(SFC, 8/28/98, p.A12)
1999 Aug 27, The US Federal
Communications Commission announced new government wiretapping rules
intended to help law enforcement authorities keep pace with advances in
phone technology. A federal appeals court later threw out some of the
new rules, citing privacy concerns.
(AP, 8/27/00)
1999 Aug 27, In Norway the Supreme
Court declared that it was legal to use discriminatory statements in
real estate listings.
(SFC, 8/28/99, p.A14)
1999 Aug 27, The Russian Mir space
station was closed down as the last crew undocked.
(SFC, 8/28/99, p.A10)
1999 Aug 27, In Russia
investigators suspected that at least 12 current or former Russian
officials had diverted $15 billion in IMF funds through 2 NY banks. It
was reported that an estimated $10 billion left the country illegally
each year.
(USAT, 8/27/99, p.1A)(SFC, 8/28/99, p.A10)
1999 Aug 27, In East Timor some
800 militiamen attacked the village of Mimo and 3 people were killed.
(SFC, 8/28/99, p.A10)
1999 Aug 27, In Venezuela members
of Congress clashed with police as they attempted to defy a government
ban on conducting a legislative session.
(SFC, 8/28/99, p.A1)
2000 Aug 27, Pres. Clinton visited
the village of Ushafa in Nigeria and urged Nigerians to confront the
"tyranny" of AIDS.
(SFC, 8/28/00, p.A1)
2000 Aug 27, In Colombia gunmen
killed at least 17 people in 2 massacres at Cienaga and Buenaventura.
(SFC, 8/28/00, p.A12)
2000 Aug 27, In Costa Rica 10
people were killed when a small plane crashed into a volcano.
(SFC, 8/28/00, p.A12)
2000 Aug 27, In Iran fighting
between students and hard-liners in Khorramabad left a police officer
dead.
(SFC, 8/30/00, p.B10)
2000 Aug 27, In Lebanon elections
were held for 63 seats of the 128-member parliament for Mount Lebanon
and North Lebanon.
(SFC, 8/28/00, p.A11)
2000 Aug 27, Kidnappers in the
southern Philippines released 6 foreign hostages for a reported $5
million in ransom. The 5 were part of a group of 21 kidnapped on Apr 23.
(SFC, 8/28/00, p.A11)
2000 Aug 27, In Moscow the
Ostankino television tower caught on fire and burned for close to 26
hours. 2 people were found dead in an elevator that fell some 1000 feet
during the fire. A 3rd body was later found in the elevator shaft.
(SFC, 8/28/00, p.A12)(SFC, 8/29/00, p.A7)(WSJ,
8/30/00, p.A1)
2000 Aug 27, In Russia a ferry
collided with a barge at the Votkinsky reservoir and 6 people were
killed with 16 injured.
(SFC, 8/28/00, p.A12)
2001 Aug 27, The Bush
administration confirmed that Sec. of State Colin Powell would not
attend the UN conference on racism in Durban, South Africa.
(SFC, 8/28/01, p.A6)
2001 Aug 27, An unmanned US
reconnaissance aircraft, Predator, was reported shot down over southern
Iraq near Basra. In northern Iraq US planes attacked a missile and Iraq
claimed 1 civilian was killed.
(SFC, 8/28/01, p.A7)(WSJ, 8/28/01, p.A1)
2001 Aug 27, Intel unveiled a
2-GHz Pentium 4 chip.
(SFC, 8/27/01, p.D1)
2001 Aug 27, Michael Dertouzos,
MIT computer scientist, died at age 64. His books included ""The
Unfinished Revolution: Human Centered Computers and What They Can Do
For Us." He also helped drive the creation of the WWW Consortium to
ensure uniformity on the Web.
(SFC, 8/31/01, p.A24)
2001 Aug 27, Australia denied
access to the Tampa, a Norwegian cargo ship carrying some 433 refugees,
mostly from Afghanistan, who had been rescued from a sinking Indonesian
ferry.
(SFC, 8/29/01, p.A8)(Econ, 5/7/05, Survey p.13)
2001 Aug 27, In Belarus a
videotape was released that showed 2 men saying they were members of
the Belarus KGB and had shot to death 2 Lukashenko opponents in Sep.,
1999.
(SFC, 8/28/01, p.A6)
2001 Aug 27, Israeli helicopters
fired missiles into the offices of Mustafa Zibri, chief of the Popular
Front for the Liberation of Palestine, in El Bireh. Zibri was killed
and thousands of Palestinians began protests.
(SFC, 8/28/01, p.A1)
2001 Aug 27, In Indonesia PM
Megawati reached an agreement with the IMF to restart a $5 billion loan
that was halted last Dec.
(WSJ, 8/28/01, p.A1)
2001 Aug 27, In Macedonia NATO
troops began collecting rebel weapons and one British soldier was
killed when a suspected block of concrete was thrown at his vehicle by
Macedonian youths.
(SFC, 8/28/01, p.A6)(WSJ, 8/28/01, p.A1)
2001 Aug 27, Peru's Congress voted
to lift the constitutional immunity of former President Alberto
Fujimori, so that prosecutors could charge him with crimes against
humanity.
(AP, 8/27/02)
2001 Aug 27, It was reported that
AIDS victims in Thailand were packing stadiums to receive V-1
Immunitor, a locally produced drug advertised as a clinically tested
oral AIDS vaccine. Salang Bunnag sponsored the giveaway directed at
Thailand’s 755,000 AIDS patients.
(SFC, 8/27/01, p.A1)
2002 Aug 27, Pres. Bush met with
Prince Bandar bin Sultan of Saudi Arabia, who said war with Iraq was
not acceptable and that Saudi Arabia would not cooperate. Bush told the
Saudi diplomat he had not yet decided whether to attack Iraq.
(SFC, 8/28/02, p.A1)(AP, 8/27/03)
2002 Aug 27, Stanley R. Greenberg
(74), writer, died. His work included over 40 plays for stage, film and
TV including the screenplay for the 1973 film "Soylent Green."
(SFC, 8/28/02, p.A19)(MoTV, 1977, p.667)
2002 Aug 27, In northern Colombia
government forces clashed with rebels, killing eight guerrillas. The
eight were among 14 people killed in scattered fighting across the
insurgency-plagued nation.
(AP, 8/27/02)
2002 Aug 27, A Tokyo court
acknowledged for the first time Japan's use of biological weapons
before and during World War II, but rejected demands for compensation
by 180 Chinese who claimed they were victims of the germ warfare
program.
(AP, 8/27/03)
2002 Aug 27, In Macedonia 2
policemen were killed ahead of Sep 15 elections.
(WSJ, 8/27/02, p.A1)
2002 Aug 27, Two Russian border
guards were arrested and confessed to killing eight of their comrades
in Ingushetia to avenge hazing. President Vladimir Putin called for
better discipline and combat-readiness amid a string of deadly
incidents.
(AP, 8/28/02)
2002 Aug 27, In South Africa
delegates to the World Summit on Sustainable Development called for
increased global efforts to bring new agricultural technologies to poor
farmers to help feed the developing world.
(AP, 8/27/02)
2002 Aug 27, In Sudan more members
of the opposition Popular National Congress, including two former
government ministers, were arrested on suspicion of creating
"instability."
(AP, 8/28/02)
2003 Aug 27, The Bush
administration relaxed clean air rules to allow industrial plants to
make upgrades without installing pollution controls.
(SFC, 8/28/03, p.A1)
2003 Aug 27, A moving crew rolled
a massive Ten Commandments monument out of the rotunda of the Alabama
Judicial Building to comply with a federal court order as protesters
knelt, prayed and chanted, "Put it back!"
(AP, 8/27/04)
2003 Aug 27, Oklahoma charged
Bernie Ebbers (62), ex-CEO of WorldCom, and 6 other former executives
with 15 felony violations of state's securities laws. The charges
against Ebbers were dropped when the Federal government filed on
March 2, 2004 security fraud and conspiracy charges. Ebbers was found
guilty of all charges on March 15, 2005. He was sentenced to 25 years
in a federal prison in Louisiana, the toughest sentence yet among other
recent corporate accounting scandals.
(SFC, 8/28/03,
p.B1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Ebbers#Criminal_charges)
2003 Aug 27, In Chicago Salvador
Tapia (36) shot and killed 6 people inside Windy City Core Supply Inc.
autoparts warehouse. He opened fire on police and was killed. Tapia had
been fired from the auto parts warehouse six months earlier.
(AP, 8/28/04)
2003 Aug 27, American and Afghan
forces killed about a dozen insurgents and recaptured a mountain pass
in southeastern Afghanistan.
(AP, 8/27/03)
2003 Aug 27, Chancellor Gerhard
Schroeder said that Germany was committed to deploying troops to
northern Afghanistan to support reconstruction efforts.
(AP, 8/28/03)
2003 Aug 27, In Nasik, India,
thousands of Hindu pilgrims jostling to reach a river for a religious
festival toppled a bamboo fence, sparking a stampede that killed at
least 39 people, mostly women. At least 125 people were injured.
(AP, 8/27/03)
2003 Aug 27, In Iraq 2 more US
soldiers were killed in combat, and the international relief agency
Oxfam said it pulled its foreign staff out of Iraq because of the
increasing danger.
(AP, 8/27/03)
2003 Aug 27, Nepal's rebels
announced that they were ending a seven-month cease-fire and
withdrawing from peace talks with the government aimed at closing seven
years of insurgency.
(AP, 8/27/03)
2003 Aug 27, The US and North
Korea held direct talks for the first time in months, meeting for a
half-hour on the sidelines of a six-nation summit in Beijing designed
to resolve the standoff over Pyongyang's nuclear program.
(AP, 8/27/03)
2003 Aug 27, Senegal announced its
5th government in three years under President Abdoulaye Wade, in a
Cabinet overhaul that followed criticism of Wade's administration and
its handling of recent flooding.
(AP, 8/27/03)
2003 Aug 27, Serbia declared
Kosovo part of its territory.
(WSJ, 8/28/03, p.A1)
2003 Aug 27, Mars came within
34,646,437 miles of Earth, its closest in the past 60 millennia.
(SFC, 8/27/03, p.A1)
2004 Aug 27, President Bush signed
executive orders designed to strengthen the CIA director's power over
the nation's intelligence agencies and create a national
counterterrorism center.
(AP, 8/27/05)
2004 Aug 27, Thousands of cyclists
snarled traffic in NYC and police said they arrested more than 250
people and confiscated their bicycles in the first significant protest
against President Bush before the Republican convention.
(Reuters, 8/28/04)
2004 Aug 27, A fire at a
University of Mississippi fraternity house killed 3 students.
(AP, 8/27/05)
2004 Aug 27, It was reported that
SABMiller was investing $82.2 million to build a brewery in Dongguan,
Guangdong province, China.
(WSJ, 8/27/04, p.A10)
2004 Aug 27, In eastern Colombia
rebels killed a mayor and a former town council member after abducting
them at a roadblock.
(AP, 8/28/04)
2004 Aug 27, Liu Xiang (b.1983),
Chinese hurdler, set a record and won Olympic gold in Athens in the 110
meter hurdles with a time of 12.91 seconds equaling the 1993 time of
Colin Jackson.
(www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2004-08/28/content_369582.htm)
2004 Aug 27, A group of Eritreans
expelled from Libya hijacked a plane which was flying them home and
forced it to land in Khartoum where they surrendered.
(AFP, 8/27/04)
2004 Aug 27, Al-Sadr's followers
handed over the keys to the Imam Ali Shrine to religious
authorities loyal to Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. Militants, who had
been holed up in the site, left it after Iraq's top Shiite cleric
brokered a peace deal to end three weeks of fighting. Iraqi police
discovered about 10 bodies in a maverick religious court run by rebel
Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's followers.
(AP, 8/27/04)
2004 Aug 27, In Iraq saboteurs hit
a pipeline that runs within the West Qurna oilfields, 90 miles north of
the southern city of Basra.
(AP, 8/28/04)
2004 Aug 27, Pakistan's National
Assembly elected former finance minister Shaukat Aziz prime minister,
after he was hand-picked for the post by military leader Pres. Pervez
Musharraf.
(Reuters, 8/27/04)
2004 Aug 27, Riot police used
water cannons to disperse protesters demanding that the Philippines
lift its ban on allowing its citizens to go to war-ravaged Iraq for
jobs.
(AP, 8/27/04)
2004 Aug 27, Officials said one of
two Russian airliners that crashed nearly simultaneously was brought
down by a terrorist act, after finding traces of explosives in the
plane's wreckage. An Islamic militant group claimed responsibility for
the attack in a Web statement. Chechen women Amanta Nagayeva (30) and
S. Dzhebirkhanova (27) had purchased their tickets at the last minute.
(AP, 8/27/04)(SFC, 8/31/04, p.A8)
2004 Aug 27, A Zimbabwean court
found Briton Simon Mann guilty of attempting to illegally buy arms for
an alleged coup plot in oil-rich Equatorial Guinea but absolved 66
other suspected mercenaries.
(AP, 8/27/04)
2005 Aug 27, President Bush asked
Americans in his weekly radio address to be patient with the US
military mission in Iraq as thousands of pro-Bush and anti-war
demonstrators competed for attention in his tiny hometown of Crawford,
Texas.
(AP, 8/27/06)
2005 Aug 27, US Federal Reserve
Chairman Alan Greenspan said US home prices could fall as the housing
surge "inevitably" slows. He cast doubt on central banks' ability to
sway such asset values.
(Reuters, 8/28/05)
2005 Jun 27, Bunnatine Greenhouse,
a senior contracting official for the US Army Corps of Engineers,
testified to a Democratic Party public committee, alleging specific
instances of waste, fraud, and other abuses and irregularities by
Halliburton with regard to its operations in Iraq since the Iraq War.
In August she was demoted in what her lawyer called an "obvious
reprisal" for her revelations about the Halliburton contracts.
(SFC, 8/29/05,
p.A3)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bunny_Greenhouse)
2005 Aug 27, John Dobson,
Connecticut-based telescope inventor, celebrated his 90th birthday in
SF at the Randall Museum.
(SFC, 8/26/05, p.B1)
2005 Aug 27, Coastal residents
jammed freeways and gas stations as they rushed to get out of the way
of Hurricane Katrina, which was headed toward New Orleans.
(AP, 8/27/06)
2005 Aug 27, Sunni negotiator
Fakhri al-Qaisi said that the Sunnis have submitted counter-proposals
on the constitution to the parliament speaker and will meet later with
the U.S. ambassador.
(AP, 8/27/05)
2005 Aug 27, The US military has
released nearly 1,000 prisoners from Abu Ghraib prison after Iraqi
authorities requested that they be set free.
(AP, 8/27/05)
2005 Aug 27, Kyodo News said
Kenichi Shinoda, an ex-gang boss in Nagoya and formerly the
Yamaguchi-gumi's number-two, became the sixth head of the 90-year-old
yakuza gang in a ceremony in the western port city of Kobe. Japan's
biggest underworld syndicate, the Yamaguchi-gumi, formally appointed
its new don, marking the first change of power for the dreaded group in
16 years.
(AP, 8/27/05)
2005 Aug 27, A drive-by shooting
in Kosovo killed two Serbs and wounded two more. Serbia's PM Vojislav
Kostunica blamed the shooting on ethnic Albanians.
(AP, 8/29/05)
2005 Aug 27, North Korea demanded
the US rescind its recent appointment of a special envoy on human
rights in the communist country, warning the position could hurt
international efforts to end the North's nuclear weapons program.
Washington announced last week that Jay Lefkowitz, a former adviser to
President Bush, will be in charge of promoting efforts to "improve the
human rights of the long-suffering North Korean people."
(AP, 8/27/05)
2005 Aug 27, Stanislaw Dziwisz
(66), Pope John Paul II's longtime aide, was installed as archbishop of
Krakow.
(AP, 8/27/05)
2005 Aug 27, UN member states
agreed to let about 30 nations take the lead in trying to resolve major
differences over an action plan world leaders can adopt at next month's
summit.
(AP, 8/27/05)
2006 Aug 27, Heart-pounding spy
thriller "24" finally broke through at the Emmy Awards, winning the
prize as best drama series in its fifth try, while new workplace satire
"The Office" was crowned best comedy.
(Reuters, 8/28/06)
2006 Aug 27, In Kentucky a Comair
commuter jet carrying 50 people, crashed in a field and caught fire
shortly after taking off in light rain. The co-pilot was the sole
survivor. The taxi route for commercial jets using Blue Grass Airport's
main runway was altered a week before Comair Flight 5191 took the wrong
runway and crashed.
(AP, 8/27/06)(AP, 8/28/07)
2006 Aug 27, Ernesto became the
first hurricane of the Atlantic season with winds of 75 mph, and
forecasters said it would strengthen as it headed toward the Gulf of
Mexico.
(AP, 8/27/06)
2006 Aug 27, In Afghanistan
insurgent attacks in Helmand province killed a British soldier, while
10 suspected Taliban militants died when police repelled an attack on a
government compound in the same province. Insurgent attacks left seven
wounded in Kandahar province.
(AP, 8/27/06)(AP, 8/28/06)
2006 Aug 27, In Brazil archbishop
Luciano Mendes de Almeida (75), an avid human rights defender, died.
(AP, 8/27/06)
2006 Aug 27, Britain’s National
Patient Safety Agency reported that 2,159 patients died between April
2005 and March 2006 as a result of "patient safety incidents" in the
National Health Service (NHS).
(AP, 8/27/06)
2006 Aug 27, State media quoted
officials saying that one-third of China's vast landmass is suffering
from acid rain caused by its rapid industrial growth, while local
leaders are failing to enforce environmental standards for fear of
hurting business.
(AP, 8/27/06)
2006 Aug 27, In western India a
water tank collapsed during a Bharatpur town fair, killing 45 people
who had climbed on top of it to watch a wrestling match.
(AP, 8/27/06)
2006 Aug 27, Iran test fired a new
submarine-to-surface missile during war games in the Persian Gulf. A
brief video clip showed the long-range missile, called Thaqeb, or
Saturn, exiting the water and hitting a target on the water's surface
within less than a mile.
(AP, 8/27/06)
2006 Aug 27, In Baghdad 2
explosions killed at least 12 people and wounded dozens. Gunmen in 3
cars opened fire at the outdoor market of Khalis, a mostly Shiite town.
12 people were killed and 25 others were wounded. 7 US soldiers were
killed in and around Baghdad, 6 by roadside bombs and one by gunfire.
Bombings and shootings killed at least 73 people across the country. A
US service member died in fighting in Anbar province west of Baghdad.
(AP, 8/27/06)(AP, 8/28/06)(SFC, 8/28/06, p.A3)(AP,
8/29/06)
2006 Aug 27, Israeli aircraft
fired two missiles at an armored car belonging to the Reuters news
agency, wounding five people, including two cameramen. Two Hamas
militants were killed in separate airstrikes.
(AP, 8/27/06)
2006 Aug 27, Jordan's parliament
endorsed the country's first anti-terrorism law despite objections by
some lawmakers that the bill curtails freedoms.
(AP, 8/27/06)
2006 Aug 27, Mauritania police
said the bodies of 15 people found washed ashore on the beaches of
Nouakchatt, Mauritania's capital, are believed to be those of African
migrants who were trying to reach Spain's Canary Islands by boat.
Spain's Interior Ministry said more than 18,300 people have reached the
Canary Islands so far this year, the highest total ever.
(AP, 8/27/06)
2006 Aug 27, Mexican electoral
officials said Juan Sabines, a leftist candidate, won the governor's
race in Mexico's volatile southernmost state of Chiapas, edging out
Jose Antonio Aguilar, backed by President Vicente Fox's party by about
6,300 votes.
(AP, 8/27/06)
2006 Aug 27, Hundreds of rioters
angered by the killing of a rebel Baluch tribal leader rampaged through
Quetta in southwestern Pakistan, burning shops, banks and police
vehicles. Police arrested 450 rioters who rampaged overnight.
(AP, 8/27/06)
2006 Aug 27, Militants freed Steve
Centanni and cameraman Olaf Wiig, two Fox News journalists in the Gaza
Strip, ending a nearly two week hostage drama.
(AP, 8/27/06)
2006 Aug 27, In Russia a man
doused himself with flammable liquids and set himself on fire on Red
Square before dozens of shocked tourists.
(AP, 8/28/06)
2006 Aug 27, In Turkey a bomb on a
minibus injured 21 people including 10 British tourists. The explosion
was in the popular Mediterranean resort town of Marmaris. 2 other bomb
blasts hit at the same time in garbage cans on the main boulevard.
(www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14546503/)
2007 Aug 27, Officials announced
that US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales had resigned, ending a months
long standoff with critics who questioned his honesty and competence at
the helm of the Justice Department. Pres. Bush accepted his resignation
Aug 24. Solicitor General Paul Clement will be acting attorney general
until a replacement is found.
(AP, 8/27/07)
2007 Aug 27, Sen. Larry Craig,
R-Idaho, said in a statement he was not involved in any inappropriate
conduct when he was arrested at the Minneapolis airport and should have
not pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct. The Capitol Hill newspaper
Roll Call reported that Craig was arrested June 11 by a plainclothes
officer investigating complaints of lewd conduct in an airport restroom.
(AP, 8/27/08)
2007 Aug 27, Atlanta Falcons
quarterback Michael Vick apologized for "using bad judgment and making
bad decisions" and vowed to redeem himself after pleading guilty in
Richmond, Va., to a federal dogfighting charge.
(AP, 8/27/08)
2007 Aug 27, Police arrested Paul
Devoe III (43) in Shirley, NY, following 5 recent murders in Texas and
one in Pennsylvania. On December 19, 2007, the Texas Travis County
District Attorney announced his office's intention to pursue the death
penalty.
(SFC, 8/28/07,
p.A6)(www.nytimes.com/2007/08/28/us/28texas.html)
2007 Aug 27, The US-led coalition
in Afghanistan accused Taliban militants of falsely reporting civilian
casualties to discredit Afghan and international forces. Afghan and
US-led coalition troops killed up to 21 suspected Taliban militants in
3 separate clashes in southern Afghanistan. A roadside blast killed 4
Afghan soldiers in the east. 3 American and 2 Afghan soldiers were
killed in a Taliban ambush in the Ghazi Abad district of eastern Kunar
province. A NATO trooper died in a nearby area.
(AP, 8/27/07)(Reuters, 8/27/07)(AP, 8/28/07)(AFP,
8/28/07)
2007 Aug 27, In Colombia the
Bogota stock exchange launched the sale of up to 20% of state-owned
Ecopetrol’s shares.
(Econ, 9/1/07, p.31)
2007 Aug 27, Ethiopia ordered six
Norwegian diplomats to leave the country by Sept. 15, expressing
"dissatisfaction" with Norway's conduct in the Horn of Africa region.
(AP, 8/27/07)
2007 Aug 27, Pres. Sarkozy called
for a clear timetable for the withdrawal of foreign troops from Iraq as
he outlined an assertive role for France in other world hotspots.
Sarkozy urged EU nations to accept a greater share of defense spending
to cope with escalating global threats.
(AFP, 8/27/07)(Reuters, 8/27/07)
2007 Aug 27, The French government
said a tax official cheated the government out of 600,000 euros
($820,000) by creating a phantom identity as a university professor and
claiming a salary for some 15 years.
(Reuters, 8/28/07)
2007 Aug 27, In Greece the worst
wildfires in living memory have killed 63 people and tore through town
and forest alike. In the last 24 hours, 89 new fires broke out. Arson
is often suspected, mostly to clear land for development.
(AP, 8/27/07)
2007 Aug 27, A sniper killed a
Shiite pilgrim on a Baghdad bridge while another was killed and six
injured in other attacks as tens of thousands of faithful made their
way to the southern city of Karbala for a major religious
commemoration. At least five people were killed in Karbala as scuffles
broke out between police and pilgrims. North of Baghdad hundreds of US
and Iraqi forces backed by helicopters and jet fighters killed 33 Sunni
insurgents who were holding back the water supply to the Shiite town of
Khalis. In Fallujah a mosque suicide bombing left 11 dead and 10 people
were wounded in an attack that targeted an anti-al-Qaida Sunni sheik
who had just returned from Syria.
(AP, 8/27/07)(AP, 8/28/07)(AP, 8/29/07)
2007 Aug 27, Israel’s Haaretz
newspaper reported that security officials fear Hamas' exiled
leadership in Syria is working to renew suicide attacks against Israel
in an effort to derail peace efforts by Israel and Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas. Israeli intelligence assessed that Islamic
Hamas militants have smuggled 40 tons of weapons into the Gaza Strip
since the group wrested control of the territory in June.
(AP, 8/27/07)
2007 Aug 27, Morocco's former
interior minister, Driss Basri (69), died in a Paris hospital, to be
mourned in some circles as a loyal servant of the crown and condemned
by others as a ruthless axeman.
(AFP, 8/27/07)
2007 Aug 27, About 50
pro-democracy activists were arrested outside Yangon, as the Myanmar
junta clamped down on dissent following a series of protests last week
against a sharp hike in fuel prices.
(AFP, 8/27/07)
2007 Aug 27, An official said the
Dutch government will spend $38 million over the next four years to
prevent both the growth of Islamic fundamentalism and right-wing
nationalism.
(AP, 8/27/07)
2007 Aug 27, Gunmen in southern
Nigeria set free Peter Agwuna, a Nigerian supervisor for the Elf oil
group, who was seized in Port Harcourt about a month ago.
(AFP, 8/28/07)
2007 Aug 27, Pakistan's PM Aziz
called for reconciliation between the country's main political parties
as President Gen. Pervez Musharraf prepares to seek re-election. But he
said the government had no plans to allow two banned opposition leaders
to become premiers again. In northwest Pakistan militants and soldiers
exchanged fire, killing one militant and injuring three civilians and a
soldier in North Waziristan.
(AP, 8/28/07)(AP, 8/27/07)
2007 Aug 27, Panama’s cabinet
resigned after a tainted medicine scandal and the government’s failure
to implement construction safety standards.
(WSJ, 8/28/07, p.A1)
2007 Aug 27, Russia announced the
arrest of 10 people in the killing of journalist and Kremlin critic
Anna Politkovskaya. Russia's top prosecutor said a Chechen crime boss,
Russian police and security officers were involved in the death of the
journalist Anna Politkovskaya. But he suggested that someone outside
Russia masterminded the killing of the frequent Kremlin critic.
(AP, 8/27/07)(AP, 8/27/08)
2007 Aug 27, In South Africa
Hewlett-Packard became the first multinational to be exempted from
selling 30 percent of its business in South Africa to black investors.
Under an agreement reached with the government, the company will
instead invest millions of dollars in a new business institute to
provide training for 1,800 students over the next six years.
(AFP, 8/27/07)
2007 Aug 27, A Sudanese criminal
court dismissed the case against nine people on trial in connection
with the beheading of Mohammed Taha, a prominent journalist, and
brought formal charges against 10 other defendants. CARE’s country
director Paul Barker said the Sudanese government's Humanitarian Aid
Commission had given him 72 hours to leave the country without giving
reasons for the decision.
(AP, 8/27/07)(Reuters, 8/27/07)
2007 Aug 27, Taiwan's leading
computer vendor Acer Inc moved to substantially boost its market share
by acquiring US rival Gateway amid a major consolidation among the
world's top computer companies. Acer said it would pay $710 million for
Gateway.
(AP, 8/27/07)(Econ, 9/1/07, p.60)
2007 Aug 27, The UN opened in
Vienna its latest round of talks on global warming.
(WSJ, 8/27/07, p.A1)
2007 Aug 27, Opera Romana
Pellegrinaggi, a Vatican-backed charter airline service, made its
inaugural flight, aiming to carry pilgrims to such Catholic shrines as
Lourdes, Fatima, Santiago de Compostela and the Holy Land.
(AP, 8/27/07)
2008 Aug 27, In Colorado Democrats
officially made Barack Obama their presidential nominee and Sen. Joe
Biden, D-Del., their vice presidential nominee, following speeches by
former Pres. Bill Clinton and Sen John Kerry, the Democrat’s 2004
presidential candidate. Obama made a surprise late visit to the
convention, following Biden’s acceptance speech, to praise his wife,
his former rival, and former President Bill Clinton for going to bat
for him.
(AP, 8/28/08)
2008 Aug 27, In Honolulu Marcus
Eriksen and fellow eco-mariner Joel Paschal celebrated the end of their
2,600-mile voyage on what they call the JUNK raft. They had spent three
months crossing the Pacific on a raft made of plastic bottles to raise
awareness of ocean debris. Research suggested that every square
kilometer of the ocean has an average of 13,000 pieces of plastic
floating in it. The floating portion was thought to make up only 15% of
marine litter.
(AP, 8/28/08)(Econ, 2/28/09, SR p.9)
2008 Aug 27, US scientists said
they have transformed ordinary pancreas cells in living mice into a
rarer type of cell that churns out insulin opening possibilities for
future treatment of disease.
(WSJ, 8/28/08, p.D3)
2008 Aug 27, In Afghanistan a
German soldier was killed and another three injured in a roadside bomb
attack in Kunduz province. Germany counted some 3,300 soldiers as part
of the international force in Afghanistan. US-led coalition troops
clashed and called in airstrikes against militants in Kunduz province,
killing more than a dozen insurgents. In southern Afghanistan a
roadside bomb killed a US coalition soldier on a patrol. In the Nad Ali
area of Helmand province, a fight between police and militants killed
14 insurgents. More than a dozen militants were killed after they
attacked a coalition base in Shaheed Hasas district of the southern
Uruzgan province. Two Afghan guards also died during the attack. About
a dozen militants were killed during a raid by coalition troops in
eastern Paktika province.
(AP, 8/27/08)(AP, 8/28/08)(AP, 8/30/08)
2008 Aug 27, The first outbreak of
violence in China's western region of Xinjiang since a pair of
high-profile attacks during the Olympics left 2 Chinese policemen dead
and 7 more wounded. In north China 9 miners in Hebei province became
trapped underground after the illegal mine they worked in collapsed.
Police were only informed 2 days later. All 9 were feared dead.
(AP, 8/28/08)(AFP, 8/29/08)
2008 Aug 27, China and Iraq signed
a $3 billion deal revising a prewar agreement for China's biggest oil
company to help develop the Ahdab oil field. On Sep 2 Iraq’s Cabinet
approved the deal with China National Petroleum Corp.
(AP, 8/28/08)(AP, 9/2/08)
2008 Aug 27, The Group of Seven
(G7) industrialized democracies condemned Russia for its actions in
Georgia, underlining the country's growing estrangement from the West.
(AP, 8/28/08)
2008 Aug 27, A US military ship
docked at the southern Georgian port of Batumi. Meanwhile, Russia's
missile cruiser, the Aurora, and two missile boats, anchored at the
port of Sukhumi, the capital of Abkhazia. The moves by both sides
underscored an escalating standoff between Moscow and the West over
this small Caucasus nation devastated by war with Russia.
(AP, 8/27/08)
2008 Aug 27, Indian police were
ordered to shoot on sight to end Hindu-Christian clashes. Parts of
eastern Orissa state have been rocked by Hindu-Christian clashes since
Aug 23, when a hardline Hindu holy leader and four other people were
shot dead by unknown assailants.
(AFP, 8/27/08)
2008 Aug 27, American forces
arrested Ali al-Lami, a top Iraqi Shiite government official, as he
stepped off a plane at Baghdad's airport. The US said the man arrested
was a leader of Iranian-backed militias and was behind a bombing that
killed 10 people on June 24, including four Americans. An American
soldier died of wounds suffered in a roadside bombing a day earlier in
northeast Baghdad.
(AP, 8/27/08)(AP, 8/28/08)
2008 Aug 27, In
Indian-administered Kashmir police traded fire with militants allegedly
holding 8 people hostage, including 6 children, in a building in Jammu.
3 soldiers and 3 civilians died in the violence. The militants had
illegally crossed into Indian Kashmir from Pakistan a day earlier.
(AP, 8/27/08)(AP, 8/28/08)
2008 Aug 27, Abie Nathan (81), the
peace activist who made a dramatic solo flight to Egypt in a rattletrap
single-engine plane (1966) and later founded the groundbreaking "Voice
of Peace" radio station, died in Tel Aviv.
(AP, 8/28/08)
2008 Aug 27, The UN Security
Council voted unanimously to keep a peacekeeping force in Lebanon for
another year, calling for stepped-up efforts to achieve a permanent
cease-fire and long-term resolution of the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war.
(AP, 8/27/08)
2008 Aug 27, In Mexico a
38-year-old man from Oregon was arrested in San Jose del Cabo following
a fight at an apartment complex. He died in jail hours later. On Aug 31
six Mexican officers placed under house arrest on suspicion of
homicide.
(AP, 9/2/08)
2008 Aug 27, In Pakistan security
forces clashed with militants across the wild tribal belt, trading fire
with insurgents in a health center and repelling a major assault on an
outpost in a region known as an al-Qaida safe haven. Officials claimed
as many as 49 insurgents died as the fighting spread to South
Waziristan.
(AP, 8/27/08)(SFC, 8/28/08, p.A5)
2008 Aug 27, In Spain tens of
thousands of people from around the world hurled tons of ripe tomatoes
at each other in the annual food fight in the eastern Spanish town of
Bunol.
(AP, 8/27/08)
2008 Aug 27, Two hijackers, who
commandeered a jetliner from Sudan's Darfur region and diverted it to a
remote desert airstrip in southern Libya, surrendered after a 22-hour
standoff.
(AP, 8/27/08)
2008 Aug 27, Thailand issued
arrest warrants for protest leaders besieging the main government
complex, as authorities scrambled to find a peaceful end to the
administration's most serious challenge yet.
(AP, 8/27/08)
2008 Aug 27, Zimbabwe's opposition
said it will not join any new government with President Robert Mugabe
until power-sharing talks are concluded, after the 84-year-old declared
he would name his own cabinet.
(AFP, 8/27/08)
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