Today in History - August 29

Return to home


70        Aug 29, The Temple of Jerusalem burned after a nine-month Roman siege. The Second Temple of Jerusalem was destroyed by Rome’s 10th Legion and the Jews there were exiled. In the Jewish War the Israelites tried unsuccessfully to revolt against Roman rule. The destruction buried the shops that lined the main street. Archeologists in 1996 found numerous artifacts that included bronze coins called prutot. Carpenters from Israel’s Antiquities Authority used manuscripts of the Roman master builder Vitruvius to reconstruct contraptions used in the construction of the temple. In 2007 Martin Goodman authored “Rome and Jerusalem: The Clash of Ancient Civilizations.”
    (SFC, 5/23/95, p.A-10)(SFC, 8/28/96, p.A10)(WSJ, 6/22/98, p.A20)(HN, 8/29/98)(SFEC, 3/28/99, p.T11)(Econ, 1/20/07, p.90)

284        Aug 29, Gen Gaius Aurelius V Diocletianus Jovius (3) became emperor of Rome. Reign of Diocletian (Era of Martyrs), began.
    (MC, 8/29/01)

886        Aug 29,  Basilius I, the Macedonian, Byzantine emperor (867-886), died.
    (MC, 8/29/01)

1178        Aug 29, Anti-Pope Callistus III gave pope title to Alexander III.
    (MC, 8/29/01)

1387        Aug 29,  Henry V, king of England (1413-22) / France (1416-19), was born. [see Aug 9]
    (MC, 8/29/01)

1484        Aug 29, Cardinal Cibo was crowned as Pope Innocent VIII.
    (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08562a.htm)

1526        Aug 29, Ottoman Suleiman the Magnificent crushed a Hungarian army under Lewis II at the Battle of Mohacs.
    (HN, 8/29/98)

1533        Aug 29, Francisco Pizarro captured Cuzco and completed his conquest of Peru. He ordered the imprisonment and murder of Atahualpa, the last ruler of the Inca Empire. Atahualpa was executed by orders of Francisco Pizarro, although the chief had already paid his ransom. Ruminahui (Rumanahui), a general of Atahualpa, led 15,000 soldiers into the mountains north of Quito, after Pizarro killed the Inca emperor Atahualpa. His forces carried an estimated 70,000 man-loads of gold.
    (TL-MB, 1988, p.14)(AP, 8/29/97) (SFEC, 7/5/98, p.A10)(SFEC, 8/9/98, p.A15)(HN, 8/29/98)

1561        Aug 29, Bartholomeus Pitiscus, German mathematician (Trigonometry), was born.
    (MC, 8/29/01)   

1632        Aug 29, English philosopher John Locke was born in Somerset, England. The philosopher of liberalism influenced the American founding fathers and was famous for his treatise "An Essay Concerning Human Understanding." It was he who stated that the child is born with a tabula rasa, a blank state. On it, he said, experience wrote words, and thus knowledge and understanding came about, through the interplay of the senses and all that they perceived. "New opinions are always suspected, and usually opposed, without any other reason but because they are not already common."
    (V.D.-H.K.p.64,219)(AP, 8/4/97)(AP, 8/29/97)(HN, 8/29/98)

1640        Aug 29, English King Charles I signed a peace treaty with Scotland.
    (MC, 8/29/01)

1655        Aug 29, Swedish king Karel X Gustaaf occupied Warsaw.
    (MC, 8/29/01)

1661        Aug 29, Louis Couperin (b.1626), French composer, died.
    (Internet)

1664        Aug 29, Adriaen Pieck/Gerrit de Ferry patented a wooden firespout in Amsterdam.
    (MC, 8/29/01)

1708        Aug 29, French Canadian and Indian forces attacked the village of Haverhill, Mass., killing 16 settlers.
    (AP, 8/29/08)

1742        Aug 29, Edmond Hoyle (1672-1769) published his "Short Treatise" on the card game whist.
    (MC, 8/29/01)

1758        Aug 29, New Jersey Legislature formed the 1st Indian reservation.
    (MC, 8/29/01)

1769        Aug 29,  Edmond Hoyle (b.1672), English games expert, died.
    (MC, 8/29/01)

1776        Aug 29, General George Washington retreated during the night from Long Island to New York City.
    (HN, 8/29/98)
1776        Aug 29, Americans withdrew from Manhattan to Westchester.
    (MC, 8/29/01)

1780        Aug 29, Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (d.1867), French painter, was born. His work included the "Portrait of Monsieur de Norvins" and "Valpincon Bather."
    (WUD, 1994, p.731)(WSJ, 7/1/96, p.A11)(MC, 8/29/01)

1786        Aug 29, Shay’s Rebellion began in Springfield, Mass. Daniel Shay led a rebellion in Massachusetts to protest the seizure of property for the non-payment of debt. Shay was a Revolutionary War veteran who led a short-lived insurrection in western Massachusetts to protest a tax increase that had to be paid in cash, a hardship for veteran farmers who relied on barter and didn‘t own enough land to vote. The taxes were to pay off the debts from the Revolutionary War, and those who couldn‘t pay were evicted or sent to prison..  [see Jan 25, 1787]
    (HNQ, 7/6/00)(www.shaysnet.com/dshays.html)

1792        Aug 29, The English warship Royal George capsized in Spithead and 900 people were killed.
    (MC, 8/29/01)

1793        Aug 29, Slavery was abolished in the French colony of Santo Domingo (Haiti).
    (HN, 8/29/98)(MC, 8/29/01)

1799            Aug 29, Pope Pius VI (b.1717) died in Valence, France.
    (www.newadvent.org/cathen/12131a.htm)

1809        Aug 29, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., poet, essayist and father of Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., was born.
    (HN, 8/29/98)

1810        Aug 29, Juan Bautista Alberdi (d,1884), Argentine politician, writer, was born.
    (www.taringa.net/posts/21963/Juan-B.-Alberdi---El-Gran-Pensador.html)

1831        Aug 29, Michael Faraday, British physicist, demonstrated the 1st electric transformer. Faraday had discovered that a changing magnetic field produces an electric current in a wire, a phenomenon known as electromagnetic induction.
    (www.acmi.net.au/AIC/FARADAY_BIO.html)(WSJ, 9/17/01, p.R6)

1842        Aug 29, Britain & China signed the Treaty of Nanking and ended the Opium war. The Treaty of Nanking opened the port of Shanghai to foreigners. The 1997 Chinese film "The Opium War" was directed by Xie Jin. It was about the events leading up to the Treaty of Nanking. The treaty of Nanking ceded Hong Kong Island to Britain in perpetuity.
    (AMNHDT, 5/98)(SFC, 5/20/98, p.E3)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Nanjing)

1854        Aug 29,  Daniel Halladay patented a self-governing windmill.
    (MC, 8/29/01)

1862        Aug 29, Confederate spy Belle Boyd was released from Old Capital Prison in Washington, DC.
    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belle_Boyd)
1862        Aug 29, The US Bureau of Engraving & Printing began operation.
    (MC, 8/29/01)
1862        Aug 29, Union General John Pope’s army was defeated by a smaller Confederate force at the Second Battle of Bull Run.
    (HN, 8/29/98)
1862        Aug 29, P.M.B. Maurice Maeterlinck, Belgium, poet (Blue Bird, Nobel 1911), was born.
    (MC, 8/29/01)

1876        Aug 29, Charles F. Kettering, inventor (automobile self-starter), was born in Ohio.
    (MC, 8/29/01)

1877        Aug 29, Brigham Young (76), the second president of the Mormon Church, died in Salt Lake City, Utah.
    (AP, 8/29/97)

1882        Aug 29, Australia defeated England in cricket for the first time. The following day a obituary appeared in the Sporting Times addressed to the British team.
    (HN, 8/29/98)

1883        Aug 29, Seismic sea waves, created by Krakatoa eruption, created a rise in the English Channel 32 hrs after explosion.
    (MC, 8/29/01)

1885        Aug 29, Gottlieb Daimler received a German patent for a motorcycle.
    (MC, 8/29/01)

1893        Aug 29, The “clasp locker,” a clumsy slide fastener and forerunner to the zipper was first patented by Whitcomb L. Judson. He demonstrated it at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. He invented an improved C-Curity fastener in 1902.
    (Wired, Dec., ‘95, p.138)(SFEC, 6/6/99, Z1 p.10)(ON, 7/04, p.3)

1896        Aug 29, The Chinese-American dish chop suey was invented in New York City by the chef to visiting Chinese Ambassador Li Hung-chang.
    (AP, 8/29/97)

1898        Aug 29, Preston Sturges (Edmund P Biden), American screenwriter, film director and playwright, was born.
    (HN, 8/29/00)

1904        Aug 29,  Werner Forssman, German urologist, was born. He was the first to catheterize his own heart and won a Nobel prize in 1956.
    (MC, 8/29/01)

1909        Aug 29, World’s 1st air race was held in Rheims France. American Glenn Curtiss won.
    (MC, 8/29/01)

1914        Aug 29, 4th day of Tannenberg: Russian Narev-army panics, Gen Martos caught.
    (MC, 8/29/01)

1915        Aug 29, Ingrid Bergman (d.1982), Oscar winning actress famous for her role in "Casablanca" and "Anastasia," was born in Stockholm, Sweden. "Happiness is good health and a bad memory."
    (HN, 8/29/98)(AP, 7/21/97)

1916        Aug 29, Congress created the US Naval reserve.
    (MC, 8/29/01)
1916        Aug 29, Gen Von Hindenburg became German Chief of Staff.
    (MC, 8/29/01)
1916        Aug 29, Transport ship Hsin-Yu & cruiser Hai-Yung collided and 1000 people were killed.
    (MC, 8/29/01)

1920        Aug 29, Charlie "Bird" Parker, self-taught jazz saxophonist, pioneer of the new "cool" movement, was born.
    (HN, 8/29/98)

1923        Aug 29,  Richard Attenborough, actor, director (Gandhi, Young Winston), was born in England.
    (MC, 8/29/01)

1924        Aug 29, Dinah Washington (d.1963), singer, was born as Ruth Jones in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. She was known in the 50s as "Queen of the Harlem Blues."
    (HN, 8/29/00)(SSFC, 8/22/04, p.M1)

1927        Aug 29, Marion Williams, gospel singer, was born.
    (HN, 8/29/00)

1928        Aug 29, Thomas Stewart, baritone (La Roche Capriccio), was born in San Saba, Texas.
    (MC, 8/29/01)

1929        Aug 29, John Jacob Raskob (1879-1950), former General Motors executive, announced the construction of the world’s tallest building, the Empire State Building.
    (ON, 12/08, p.10)
1929        Aug 29, The Graf Zeppelin returned to Lakehurst, New Jersey, after 21 days 4 hours, a new world record.
    (Hem., 2/96, p.43)(MC, 8/29/01)(ON, 1/03, p.10)

1936        Aug 29, John McCain, later Arizona Senator and 2008 US presidential candidate, was born at the Coco Solo Naval Air Station in the Panama Canal Zone.
    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McCain)

1938        Aug 29,  Elliott Gould (Goldstein) actor, was born. His films included Bob & Carol, Ted & Alice, M*A*S*H, The Long Good-Bye, The Night They Raided Minskys.
    (MC, 8/29/01)

1939        Aug 29,  William Friedkin, director (Exorcist, Cruising, French Connection), was born in Chicago.
    (MC, 8/29/01)
1939        Aug 29, Chaim Weizmann informed England that Palestine Jews would fight in WW II.
    (MC, 8/29/01)

1941        Aug 29,  Robin Leach, host for Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, was born.
    (MC, 8/29/01)
1941        Aug 29,  Henri Louis (40), French officer, resistance fighter, was executed.
    (MC, 8/29/01)
1941        Aug 29, The German Einsatzkommando in Russia killed 1,469 Jewish children.
    (MC, 8/29/01)

1942        Aug 29, The American Red Cross announced that Japan had refused to allow safe conduct for the passage of ships with supplies for American prisoners of war.
    (HN, 8/29/98)

1943        Aug 29, Responding to a clampdown by Nazi occupiers, Denmark managed to scuttle most of its naval ships.
    (AP, 8/29/97)

1944        Aug 29, 15,000 American troops marched down the Champs Elysees in Paris as the French capital continued to celebrate its liberation from the Nazis.
    (AP, 8/29/97)

1945        Aug 29, Gen MacArthur was named the Supreme Commander of Allied Powers in Japan.
    (MC, 8/29/01)
1945        Aug 29, U.S. airborne troops landed in transport planes at Atsugi airfield, southwest of Tokyo, beginning the occupation of Japan.
    (HN, 8/29/98)
1945        Aug 29, British liberated Hong Kong from Japan.
    (MC, 8/29/01)

1946        Aug 29,  J.E. Feenstra, Nazi military police commandant, was executed.
    (MC, 8/29/01)

1949            Aug 29, The USSR successfully detonated its first atomic bomb at Semipalatinsk in Kazakhstan. It was a copy of the Fat Man bomb and had a yield of 21 kilotons.
    (www.atomicarchive.com/Timeline/Time1940.shtml)

1952        Aug 29, In the largest bombing raid of the Korean War, 1,403 planes of the Far East Air Force bombed Pyongyang, North Korea.
    (HN, 8/29/98)

1954        Aug 29, The SF International Airport’s (SFO) Terminal 2 opened with a ceremony led by Mayor Robinson. Mills Field became SF Airport.
    (SFEC, 5/16/99, Z1 p.4)(SSFC, 8/22/04, p.F8)

1956        Aug 29, French government sent troops to Cyprus near Suez crisis.
    (MC, 8/29/01)

1957        Aug 29, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1957. South Carolina Sen. Strom Thurmond (then a Democrat) ended a filibuster against a civil rights bill after talking for 24 hours and 18 minutes. Arnold Aronson (d.1998 at 86) help to lobby for the bill.
    (AP, 8/29/97)(SFC, 2/20/98, p.A23)(SSFC, 12/17/00, Par p.15)

1958        Aug 29, Michael Jackson (d.2009), pop singer, entertainer, was born in Gary, Ind., the 7th of nine children.
    (SFC, 6/14/05, p.D6)(SFC, 6/26/09, p.A1)
1958        Aug 29, Air Force Academy opened in Colorado Springs, Colo.
    (MC, 8/29/01)

1962        Aug 29, Rebecca DeMornay, actress: Risky Business, The Three Musketeers, Guilty as Sin, Backdraft, was born.
    (MC, 8/29/01)
1962        Aug 29, A US U-2 flight saw SAM launch pads in Cuba.
    (MC, 8/29/01)

1964        Aug 29, "Funny Thing Happened" closes at Alvin Theater NYC after 965 performances.
    (MC, 8/29/01)
1964        Aug 29, Walt Disney’s "Mary Poppins" released.
    (MC, 8/29/01)

1965        Aug 29, Gemini 5, carrying astronauts Gordon Cooper and Charles ("Pete") Conrad, splashed down in the Atlantic after eight days in space.
    (AP, 8/29/97)

1966        Aug 29, The Beatles concluded their fourth American tour with their last public concert, at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.
    (AP, 8/29/97)

1967        Aug 29, Charles Darrow (b.1889), self-claimed inventor of Monopoly, died.
    (www.todayinsci.com/8/8_29.htm)

1968        Aug 29, Maine Sen. Edmund Muskie was chosen to be the Democratic nominee for vice president at the party's convention in Chicago.
    (AP, 8/29/08)
1968        cAug 29, Senator Abraham Ribicoff strongly criticized Chicago’s Mayor Daly for his strong-arm tactics in controlling protestors at the Democratic National Convention.
    (SFC, 2/23/98, p.A5)

1970        Aug 29, Ruben Salazar (42), a Latino journalist for KMEX, was killed by a tear gas canister fired by a sheriff’s deputy following an anti-war demonstration in East Los Angeles. In 2008 a US postage stamp was issued in his honor.
    (SFC, 4/21/08, p.A1)

1971        Aug 29, Nathan Leopold (b.1904), US kidnapper and murderer of Bobby Franks (1924), died in Puerto Rico.
    (www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/criminal-minds.html?c=y&page=5)
1971        Aug 29, In SF 2 men burst into the Ingleside Police Station and fired through a hole in a bullet-proof glass window killing Sgt. John Young (45). A civilian clerk was wounded. Black Panthers were suspected. 3 men were charged in 1975 but charges were dismissed in 1976. In 2005 a SF judge jailed 4 men for contempt after refusing to answer questions from a grand jury. In 2007 police charged 9 former members of the Black Liberation Army with waging a campaign of “chaos and terror” that left at least 3 officers dead from 1968-1973. 8 of the men were charged with murder in the Ingleside slaying. On June 29, 2009, Herman Bell pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter, as he continued to serve a life sentence in New York for the murder of 2 police officers. On July 6 Anthony Bottom pleaded no contest to conspiracy to commit voluntary manslaughter. Bottom was already serving a sentence in NY for the murder of a 2 NYC police officers in May 1971. Prosecutors dismissed charges against 4 other men. This left just Francisco Torres to stand trial for Young’s murder.
    (SFC, 9/1/05, p.B1)(SFC, 10/8/05, p.B2)(SFC, 1/26/07, p.A1)(SFC, 6/30/09, p.B1)(SFC, 7/7/09, p.C1)

1972        Aug 29,  Rene Leibowitz (b.1913), Warsaw-born French conductor and composer, died in Paris.
    (http://wapedia.mobi/en/Ren%C3%A9_Leibowitz)

1973        Aug 29, Judge John Sirica ordered President Nixon to turn over secret Watergate tapes. Nixon refused and appealed the order.
    (www.britishcouncil.org/learnenglish-central-history-nixon.htm)
1973        Aug 29,  Michael Dunn (b.1934), American dwarf actor, died in London.
    (www.imdb.com/name/nm0242692/)

1974        Aug 29, Moses Malone became the first basketball player to go straight from high school to the pros when he joined the Utah Stars.
    (SFC, 7/7/96, Z1 p.5)

1975        Aug 29, Star in Cygnus went nova becoming 4th brightest in sky.
    (www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/N/Nova_Cygni_1975.html)
1975        Aug 29,  Eamon de Valera (92), Irish president (1937-59), died near Dublin. De Valera was born in NYC (1882) and emigrated to Ireland as a child and joined the Easter Rebellion of 1916 against British rule. He was saved from execution because of his American citizenship, and was released under a general amnesty in 1917.
    (AP, 8/29/97)(ON, 9/04, p.7)
1975        Aug 29, In Peru Gen. Francisco Belaunde (b.1921) began serving as president. He continued to July 28, 1980.
    (WSJ, 12/27/96, p.A7)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francisco_Morales_Berm%C3%BAdez)

1981        Aug 29, Lowell Thomas (89), broadcaster and world traveler died in Pawling, N.Y.
    (AP, 8/29/97)

1982        Aug 29, Ingrid Bergman (b.1915), Swedish film star, died in England. In 1997 Donald Spoto wrote a biography of Ingrid Bergman: "Notorious, The Life of Ingrid Bergman." Bergman’s own autobiography was titled "My Story."
    (SFEC, 7/20/97, BR p.6)(SFC, 5/31/00, p.A22)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingrid_Bergman)

1983        Aug 29, William Goyen (b.1915), Texas-born novelist and playwright, died in Los Angeles. His 1st novel was “House of Breath” (1950).
    (www.tsha.utexas.edu)(www.inthe80s.com/deaths/died1983.shtml)

1985        Aug 29, In Missouri the St. Louis Union Station, purchased by a New York financier, reopened as a Grand Hyatt hotel. The massive, Romanesque-style building, designed by architect Theodore Link in 1894, was once the largest and busiest railroad terminal in the world. In 1976, the Saint Louis Union Station was designated a National Historic Landmark.
    (SFC, 10/12/97, p.T5)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Louis_Union_Station)

1987        Aug 29, Academy Award-winning actor Lee Marvin died in Tucson, Ariz., at age 63.
    (AP, 8/29/97)

1988        Aug 29, On the presidential campaign trail, Democrat Michael Dukakis sought to counter Republican George Bush's salvos against the Massachusetts prison furlough program, while Bush continued to charge that Dukakis was soft on defense.
    (AP, 8/29/98)
1988        Aug 29, In NYC the Macy’s Tap-o-Mania set a Guinness record.
    (www.amug.org/~jpaul/aug29.html)(http://tinyurl.com/jk8dp)

1989        Aug 29, Seven bombs believed set off by drug traffickers exploded in Medellin and Bogota, Colombia.
    (AP, 8/29/99)

1990        Aug 29, A defiant Iraqi President Saddam Hussein declared in a television interview that America could not defeat Iraq, saying, "I do not beg before anyone."
    (AP, 8/29/00)

1991        Aug 29, In a stunning blow to the Soviet Communist Party, the Supreme Soviet legislature voted to suspend the activities of the organization and freeze its bank accounts because of the party's role in the failed coup.
    (AP, 8/29/01)
1991        Aug 29,  Libero Grassi, Italian underwear manufacturer, anti mafia, was gunned down in Palermo.
    (www.bestofsicily.com/mag/art105.htm)

1992        Aug 29, About 13,000 people staged an anti-extremist rally in Rostock, Germany, even as right-wingers continued attacks on immigrants.
    (AP, 8/29/97)(HN, 8/29/98)
1992        Aug 29, The U.N. Security Council agreed to send 3,000 more relief troops to Somalia to guard food shipments.
    (AP, 8/29/97)
1992        Aug 29,  Mary Norton (88), children’s book author (Borrowers), died in England.
    (www.sfsite.com/09b/bor41.htm)

1993        Aug 29, Negotiations continued between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization, with Israel reported on the verge of recognizing the PLO.
    (AP, 8/29/98)

1994        Aug 29, At the end of a weekend referendum, Bosnian Serbs overwhelmingly rejected what was billed as a last-chance peace plan.
    (AP, 8/29/99)

1995        Aug 29, At the O.J. Simpson murder trial in Los Angeles, without the jury present, tape recordings of police detective Mark Fuhrman were played in which Fuhrman could be heard spouting racial invectives.
    (AP, 8/29/00)
1995        Aug 29, In Tbilisi, Georgia, the motorcade of Eduard Shevardnadze was attacked as he left for the ceremonial signing of the new constitution.
    (SFC, 2/10/98, p.A12)

1996        Aug 29, In a rousing climax to the Democratic convention in Chicago, President Clinton appealed for a second term, declaring, "Hope is back in America." The convention also nominated Al Gore for a second term as vice president. Earlier in the day, President Clinton's chief political strategist, Dick Morris, resigned amid a scandal over his relationship with a prostitute.
    (AP, 8/29/97)
1996        Aug 29, Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader chose Winona LaDuke as his running mate.
    (SFC, 8/30/96, p.A3)
1996        Aug 29-1996 Aug 30, In SF, Ca., dancers from the North Beach Lusty Lady Club voted on union representation with the Service Employees International Union, Local 790. The vote passed 57 to 15. The contract was ratified Apr 10, 1997.
    (SFC, 8/14/96, p.A15)(SFC, 8/31/96, p.A17)(SFC, 4/11/97, p.A19)
1996        Aug 29, Researchers reported that gene therapy was used to halt the growth of some cancer tumors. The therapy centered on the p53 gene, which regulates the speed of cell division.
    (SFC, 8/29/96, p.A1,15)
1996        Aug 29, Japanese authorities arrested Dr. Takeshi Abe, a hemophilia expert, who headed a government panel on AIDS in the 1980s when some 1,800 hemophiliacs were infected with AIDS after using blood-clotting agents contaminated with the AIDS virus. He had failed to recommend a heat treatment for the products more than 2 years after such treatment was approved in the US.
    (SFC, 8/30/96, p.A18)
1996        Aug 29, Yasser Arafat called for a 4-hour general strike in Palestine in opposition to Israeli political actions.
    (SFC, 8/29/96, p.A1)
1996        Aug 29, A Russian Tupelov 154 plane with 141 passengers crashed on a desolate arctic island 6 miles from Spitsbergen where they were returning to jobs in a Russian-run coal mine.
    (SFC, 8/30/96, p.A14)

1997        Aug 29, In NYC some 7,000 protestors marched across the Brooklyn Bridge to protest police brutality and the assault on Abner Louima.
    (SFC, 8/30/97, p.A3)
1997        Aug 29, In Algeria some 300 villagers of Rais were slain  by hooded men armed with axes in an Algerian farm village in the worst carnage since an Islamic insurgency began. In addition 20 young women were abducted.
    (SFC, 8/30/97, p.A10)(AP, 8/29/98)
1997        Aug 29, In Britain the government formally invited Sinn Fein, the political wing of the IRA, to peace talks next month in Northern Ireland.
    (SFC, 8/30/97, p.A1)
1997        Aug 29, In Japan the Supreme Court upheld the government’s right to control the nation’s textbooks but not to tamper with the truth. Japan's Supreme Court ruled that the country's Education Ministry broke the law by removing mention of a Japanese World War II atrocity from historian Saburo Ienaga's high school textbook. Novelist Ryotaro Shiba was quoted: "A country whose textbooks lie... will inevitably collapse."
    (SFC, 8/30/97, p.A12)(AP, 8/29/98)
1997        Aug 29, In Kenya thousands fled from the Indian Ocean coast in fear of ethnic violence and attacks from government security forces.
    (SFC, 8/30/97, p.A12)

1998        Aug 29, Northwest Airlines pilots went on strike after their union rejected a last-minute company offer.
    (AP, 8/29/99)
1998         Aug 29, In England new type of mosquito was reported to be breeding in the underground Tube with a taste for the rats and mice that lived there.
    (SFC, 8/28/98, p.A5)
1998        Aug 29, In Quito, Ecuador, a Cuban plane with 90 people onboard crashed. 80 people were killed including 5 children playing on the ground. At least 8 people survived the crash of the Russian-made Tupelov-154.
    (SFEC, 8/28/98, p.A15)(SFC, 8/31/98, p.A10)(AP, 8/29/08)
1998        Aug 29, In Indonesia riots quelled after thousands of fishermen burned at least 10 trawlers in Cilacap. They complained of exploitation by ethnic Chinese where they were paid about 18 cents per day. There were riots all week across the country due to economic turmoil.
    (SFEC, 8/28/98, p.A21)

1999        Aug 29, Hurricane "Dennis" wallowed along the coast toward the Carolinas, prompting evacuation orders for the fragile Outer Banks barrier islands.
    (AP, 8/29/00)
1999        Aug 29, In Burundi Hutu militiamen attacked 2 neighborhoods outside Bujumbura and killed at least 26 civilians.
    (SFC, 8/30/99, p.A14)
1999        Aug 29, In Macedonia a NATO soldier from Norway was arrested for a car crash that killed a Macedonian official, his wife and daughter.
    (WSJ, 8/31/99, p.A1)
1999        Aug 29, In South Africa a heavy storm in Cape Town left 4 people dead and some 5,000 homeless.
    (SFC, 8/30/99, p.A14)

2000        Aug 29, President Clinton ended a four-day trip to Africa with a brief visit to Cairo, where he sought the help of President Hosni Mubarak on the Middle East peace process, i.e. a deal between Israel and the Palestinians.
    (SFC, 8/30/00, p.A12)(AP, 8/29/01)
2000        Aug 29, Montana Gov. Marc Racicot asked Pres. Clinton to declare the state a federal disaster area due to the wildfires.
    (SFC, 8/30/00, p.A3)
2000        Aug 29, Pope John Paul II laid down moral guidelines for medical research in the 21st century, endorsing organ donation and adult stem cell study, but condemning human cloning and embryo experiments.
    (AP, 8/29/01)
2000        Aug 29, In Belgium the government announced a package of tax reductions worth $2.9 billion.
    (SFC, 9/1/00, p.D2)
2000        Aug 29, A videotape by Pres. Clinton sought to calm fears over a $1.3 billion aid package expected to escalate the guerrilla war in Colombia. Pres. Clinton was scheduled to arrive the next day. Plan Colombia was America’s 3rd largest military aid package after Israel and Egypt.
    (SFC, 8/30/00, p.A14)(SSFC, 11/11/07, p.M5)
2000        Aug 29, In France Interior Minister Jean-Pierre Chevenement resigned over a proposed peace plan for Corsica. The plan offered limited rights to pass laws beginning in 2004 for the 250,000 inhabitants.
    (SFC, 8/30/00, p.A12)
2000        Aug 29, In Libya 6 former hostages held captive in the Philippines arrived to thank Moammar Khadafy for his role in securing their release.
    (SFC, 8/30/00, p.A12)
2000        Aug 29, In Spain Manuel Indiano (29), a councilman in Zumarraga, was shot and killed outside his candy store. The ETA was blamed.
    (SFC, 8/30/00, p.B10)

2001        Aug 29, George Rivas, the ringleader of the biggest prison breakout in Texas history, was sentenced to death for killing an Irving, Tx., policeman, Aubrey Hawkins, while on the run.
    (AP, 8/29/02)
2001        Aug 29, In Algiers a bomb exploded in the Casbah and 34 people were injured.
    (SFC, 8/30/01, p.A12)
2001        Aug 29, Australian commandos seized the Norway cargo ship carrying 438 rescued refugees after the captain defied orders not to enter Australian waters.
    (SFC, 8/30/01, p.A12)(AP, 9/1/01)
2001        Aug 29, In Colombia Yolanda Paternina (50), a government prosecutor, was shot and killed while returning home in Sincelejo. She had been investigating a January paramilitary massacre and 2 of her colleagues were missing since June.
    (SSFC, 9/2/01, p.A20)
2001        Aug 29, Japan launched a domestically developed rocket with hopes of developing its commercial satellite industry.
    (WSJ, 8/30/01, p.A1)
2001        Aug 29, Four Palestinians and 1 Israeli were killed in ongoing violence.
    (SFC, 8/30/01, p.A8)
2001        Aug 29, In Spain a Binter Mediterraneo CN-235 airplane crash-landed near Malaga’s airport and at least 3 of 47 people aboard were killed.
    (WSJ, 8/30/01, p.A1)
2001        Aug 29, In Sudan the UN reported that 3,480 child soldiers had been sent back to their southern homes following 6 months of retraining. 4,000 more children were expected to transition out of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army over the next 18 months.
    (SFC, 8/30/01, p.A12)

2002        Aug 29, The federal government approved a plan to store Colorado River water under the Mohave Desert and tap it for use by Southern California during times of drought.
    (SFC, 8/30/02, p.A10)
2002        Aug 29, A judge in Norwalk, Conn., sentenced Michael Skakel, a Kennedy cousin, to 20 years to life in prison for the 1975 murder with a golf club of Connecticut neighbor Martha Moxley.
    (WSJ, 8/30/02, p.A1)(AP, 8/29/03)
2002        Aug 29, Assailants entered a home in Artemisa, a village in western Cuba and killed five people, including four members of a family, apparently by cutting their throats.
    (AP, 8/31/02)
2002        Aug 29, Indian soldiers killed 5 guerrillas after they crossed into the India-controlled portion of Kashmir.
    (SFC, 8/30/02, p.A19)
2002        Aug 29, Israeli tank shells slammed into a Bedouin encampment in Gaza, killing four members of a Palestinian family and wounding four others.
    (AP, 8/29/02)
2002        Aug 29, Hezbollah guerrillas shelled Israeli positions in a disputed border area, wounding 3 soldiers and drawing fire from Israeli warplanes and artillery.
    (AP, 8/29/02)
2002        Aug 29, In western Macedonia police killed two ethnic Albanians after gunmen abducted at least five people from a bus, as tension soared. The 5 abducted people were released after 2 days.
    (AP, 8/30/02)(AP, 8/31/02)
2002        Aug 29, In Russia a small plane disappeared in the Far East region of Khabarovsk. The plane crashed into a cliff and 16 people were killed.
    (AP, 8/29/02)(AP, 9/2/02)
2002        Aug 29, Kerim Sadok Chatty, 29, of Tunisian origin was arrested with a gun in his carry-on luggage at a Swedish airport as he headed to an Islamic conference in Birmingham, England. He had flunked out of a flight school in South Carolina in 1996. Chatty was charged with attempted hijacking on Sep 2.
    (AP, 9/1/02)(SFC, 9/3/02, p.A6)
2002        Aug 29, A joint force of Thai police and soldiers killed six armed drug traffickers and seized a million methamphetamine pills after ambushing a drug convoy near the Golden Triangle.
    (Reuters, 8/29/02)
2002        Aug 29, The World Summit on Sustainable Development focused on ways business and governments could work together to spread prosperity in the developing world while protecting the environment.
    (AP, 8/29/02)
2002        Aug 29, Uzbek Pres. Karimov urged democratic changes.
    (SFC, 8/30/02, p.A18)
2002        Aug 29, In Venezuela thousands of opponents of President Hugo Chavez took to the streets in Maracay to protest tax increases they say will further impoverish Venezuelans in this recession-ridden country.
    (AP, 8/29/02)
2002        Aug 29, In Zimbabwe a bomb attack gutted the office of a radio station critical of President Robert Mugabe's government, and authorities raided a human rights group and a camp for displaced farm workers run by a private charity.
    (AP, 8/29/02)

2003        Aug 29, Rep. Bill Janklow, R-S.D., was charged with felony manslaughter in a car accident that claimed the life of motorcyclist Randolph E. Scott. Janklow was later convicted and served 100 days in jail.
    (AP, 8/29/04)
2003         Aug 29, Jeffrey Lee Parson (18), suspected of writing a variant of the "Blaster," a virus-like computer worm, was arrested in his hometown, the Minneapolis suburb of Hopkins. He was charged with one count of intentionally causing or attempting to cause damage to a computer and faced a maximum of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted. Parson pleaded guilty in August 2004 and was subsequently sentenced on January 28, 2005 to 18 months in prison followed by a three-year supervised release program, and was required to do 225 hours of community service. He was ordered to pay restitution of $497,546.55 to Microsoft Corporation and $1,056 to specific individuals to have their computer hard drives cleaned.
    (SFC, 8/29/03, p.A1)(SFC, 8/30/03, p.A2)(www.rbs2.com/parson2.html)
2003        Aug 29, Six nations trying to defuse a standoff over North Korea's nuclear program ended their talks in Beijing with an agreement to keep talking.
    (AP, 8/29/04)
2003        Aug 29, France raised the death toll from the August heat wave to as many as 11,435.
    (SFC, 8/30/03, p.A7)
2003        Aug 29, The board of Air France approved a deal to combine with Dutch KLM under a holding company to form the world's #3 airline.
    (WSJ, 1/2/04, p.R12)
2003        Aug 29, In Haiti's west-coast city of St. Marc torrential rains burst river banks, left at least 24 people dead and destroyed dozens of flimsy riverside shacks.
    (AP, 9/2/03)(AP, 9/11/03)
2003        Aug 29, In Najaf, Iraq, a massive car bomb exploded at the Imam Ali mosque during prayers, killing Mohammed Bakir al-Hakim, one of Iraq's most important Shiite clerics, and at least 85 other people. Two Iraqis and two Saudis were caught soon after. Attackers fired rocket-propelled grenades at two U.S. convoys in separate ambushes, killing one American soldier and wounding six.
    (SFC, 9/1/03, p.A1)(AP, 8/29/08)
2003        Aug 29, A Jewish settler was killed and his pregnant wife wounded in a Palestinian shooting attack. In Jenin Palestinian gunmen fired on Israeli soldiers manning a lookout in a four-story office building. The violence came just hours after an Israeli helicopter in southern Gaza fired missiles to kill a Hamas fugitive as he drove a donkey cart.
    (AP, 8/29/03)
2003        Aug 29, Excel Motors, a fledgling Jamaican automaker, exported the Caribbean island's first locally manufactured car to the Bahamas. The two-door Island Cruiser, one of 22 built this year at the company's plant in western Jamaica, sold for $11,500.
    (AP, 8/30/03)
2003        Aug 29, In central Mexico a truck carrying sulfuric acid collided head-on with a sport-utility vehicle on a mountain road, killing five people and forcing dozens of people to hospitals after they inhaled the fumes.
    (AP, 8/30/03)
2003        Aug 29, In Nigeria crude oil spilling from a ruptured Shell Oil pipeline burst into flames near a southeastern village, scorching yam fields and spreading thick, black smoke for miles. More than one-tenth of Nigeria's exports are stolen daily by criminal rings who siphon the fuel from pipelines using everything from buckets to sophisticated pumps.
    (AP, 9/2/03)

2004        Aug 29, Tens of thousands of demonstrators took to the fortified streets of Manhattan to protest President Bush's foreign and domestic policies as Republican delegates gathered to nominate the president for a second term. Organizers estimated up to 400,000 participants.
    (AP, 8/29/04)(SFC, 8/30/04, p.A1)
2004        Aug 29, Tropical storm Gaston hit South Carolina.
    (SFC, 8/30/04, p.A3)
2004        Aug 29, In Afghanistan an explosion tore through the office of DynCorp., an American defense contractor, in the heart of Kabul, killing 12 people, including 3 Americans.
    (AP, 8/29/04)(SFC, 8/31/04, p.A8)(WSJ, 8/31/04, p.A1)(WSJ, 8/31/04, p.A1)
2004        Aug 29, In Brazil an overcrowded balcony collapsed inside a popular Sao Paulo nightclub that featured male strippers, killing six people and injuring at least 117.
    (AP, 8/29/04)
2004        Aug 29, Chechens voted for a replacement for their assassinated president. One man was killed when he attempted to blow up a polling station. Alu Alkhanov, the Russian government's candidate in Chechnya, received nearly 74 percent of the vote.
    (AP, 8/29/04)(AP, 8/30/04)
2004        Aug 29, Muslim leaders in France condemned the kidnapping of two French journalists in Iraq and said the government should not capitulate to militant demands to revoke a law that bans the wearing of Islamic head scarves in schools.
    (AP, 8/29/04)
2004        Aug 29, Closing ceremonies were held in Athens, Greece, for the 28th Olympiad. During one of the final events, lead marathon runner Vanderlie Lima of Brazil was pushed into the crowd by an intruder, but managed to finish 3rd behind Stefano Baldini of Italy.
    (SFC, 8/30/04, p.D1)
2004        Aug 29, Saboteurs blew up a pipeline in southern Iraq in the latest attack. Al-Sadr called on his followers to lay down arms and get involved in politics.
    (AP, 8/29/04)(WSJ, 8/31/04, p.A1)
2004        Aug 29, Israeli troops killed an armed Palestinian man as he tried to sneak into southern Israel.
    (AP, 8/29/04)
2004        Aug 29, In Sidon, Lebanon, fighting in a Palestinian camp left 3 dead.
    (WSJ, 8/30/04, p.A1)
2004        Aug 29, Mexico City's leftist Mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador led more than 150,000 demonstrators in a march to protest efforts to impeach him.
    (AP, 8/30/04)
2004        Aug 29, A rocket attack and a remote control bomb killed 2 Pakistani paramilitary soldiers in the western tribal regions where troops are hunting al Qaeda-linked militants.
    (AP, 8/29/04)
2004        Aug 29, Nikolai Getman (b.1917), Russian artist and gulag survivor (1946-1953), died in Orel, Russia.
    (WSJ, 9/22/04, p.D12)(http://jamestown.org/press_details.php?press_id=11)
2004        Aug 29, The UN Security Council set this date for Sudan to stop the killing in Darfur, allow help to reach the region and disarm the militias terrorizing the region.
    (Econ, 8/28/04, p.39)

2005        Aug 29, In NYC 8 former executives of the KPMG accounting firm were indicted for fraud. KPMG admitted setting up fraudulent tax shelters and agreed to pay $456 million in penalties.
    (SFC, 8/30/05, p.C3)
2005        Aug 29, A Connecticut man known on the Internet as "illwill" pleaded guilty in Manhattan federal court to charges relating to the theft of the source code to Microsoft Corp.'s Windows operating software, considered among the company's crown jewels. William Genovese, Jr. (28) admitted selling the source code for Windows 2000 and Windows NT 4.0. On January 27, 2006, he was sentenced to 2 years in jail.
    (AP, 8/29/05)(www.usdoj.gov/criminal/cybercrime/genovesePlea.htm)
2005        Aug 29, Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast near Buras, La., as a Category 3 storm. Katrina ripped two holes in the curved roof of the Louisiana Superdome, letting in rain as thousands of storm refugees huddled inside. In Mississippi many of the 13 floating casinos in Biloxi and Gulfport smashed historic homes and buildings. The Grand Casino Biloxi destroyed the historic Hotel Tivoli. Storm surges and winds from Katrina unleashed at least 40 oil spills and some 193,000 barrels of oil and other petrochemicals were driven across fragile marshy ecosystems southeast of New Orleans. The death toll from Katrina eventually reached at least 1,600. An estimated 300 Louisiana residents died out of state; some 230 people perished in Mississippi. Property damage estimates were in the hundreds of billions of dollars.
    (SFC, 9/6/05, p.A1)(WSJ, 9/23/05, p.A1)(WSJ, 3/21/06, p.A1)(AP, 8/29/06)(Econ, 9/6/08, p.36)
2005        Aug 29, An oil rig tore free of its moorings as Hurricane Katrina lashed the Alabama coast, before surging downriver and smashing into a suspension bridge. 92% of crude and 83% of natural gas production were shut down, as Gulf of Mexico rigs were evacuated.
    (AFP, 8/30/05)
2005        Aug 29-2005 Sep 5, The annual Burning Man Festival in Nevada planned to introduce BORG2, an event within the main event concentrating on art projects.
    (SSFC, 1/2/05, p.A20)
2005        Aug 29, Jude Wanniski (b.1936), economist and journalist, died. He coined the term supply-side economics in 1975 to describe the theory that cutting personal income tax rates would lead to increased investment and create economic growth. In 1978 he authored “The Way the World Works.”
    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jude_Wanniski)(WSJ, 9/1/05, p.A1)
2005        Aug 29, Ontario became the 1st province in Canada to ban the pit bull dog. The pit bull was already banned in several cities across Canada. In the US it was already banned in Denver, Miami and Cincinnati.
    (SFC, 8/30/05, p.A2)
2005        Aug 29, Egypt's intelligence chief met Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas to shore up the strained cease-fire with Israel and discuss freedom of movement across Gaza's borders.
    (AP, 8/29/05)
2005        Aug 29, In France firefighters said 7 people, including 4 children, died in an apartment fire in Paris.
    (AP, 8/30/05)
2005        Aug 29, Thousands of Sunni demonstrators rallied in Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit to denounce Iraq's new constitution a day after negotiators finished the new charter without the endorsement of Sunni Arabs.
    (AP, 8/29/05)
2005        Aug 29, In northern Iraq a US Army helicopter made a forced landing under hostile fire, and one soldier was killed and another injured.
    (AP, 8/29/05)
2005        Aug 29, In Sri Lanka attackers on a bicycle hurled grenades at a Tamil-language newspaper office in the capital of Colombo, killing a security guard.
    (AP, 8/29/05)
2005        Aug 29, A Swedish nuclear power plant shut down one of its three reactors because of an abnormal accumulation of jellyfish in the cooling system.
    (AP, 8/29/05)
2005        Aug 29, The Rev. Jesse Jackson met with President Hugo Chavez in hopes of reducing tensions between the US and Venezuela after religious broadcaster Pat Robertson called for the assassination of Chavez.
    (AP, 8/30/05)

2006        Aug 29, President George Bush visited New Orleans one year after Hurricane Katrina devastated the region to offer comfort and hope to residents.
    (AP, 8/29/07)
2006        Aug 29, A US probe determined that Kenneth Tomlinson, chairman of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, misused government funds on several occasions, overbilling for his time and funneling unauthorized contracts to a friend.
    (AP, 8/29/06)(WSJ, 8/30/06, p.A1)
2006        Aug 29, Omeed Aziz Popal (29), a native of Afghanistan, killed one pedestrian in Hayward, Ca., and injured another 16 at 11 locations in SF in a driving rampage. SF police finally rammed him down at California and Spruce streets. In 2008 a SF judge ruled that Popal was legally insane.
    (SFC, 8/30/06, p.A1)(SFC, 8/1/08, p.B1)
2006        Aug 29, Warren Steed Jeffs (50), a fugitive polygamist, was arrested in Nevada. He was on the FBI’s 10 most-wanted list for sex crimes in Utah and Arizona. Jeffs ruled the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS) since his father died in 2002. The sect had broken from the Mormon Church over a century ago.
    (SFC, 8/30/06, p.A11)(Econ, 9/9/06, p.34)
2006        Aug 29, Tropical Storm Ernesto's leading edge drenched Miami and the rest of southern Florida.
    (AP, 8/29/07)
2006        Aug 29, A suicide car bomber struck a NATO-Afghan military convoy, killing two civilians and wounding one in the violence-wracked south. A remote-controlled bomb killed two police officers on patrol.
    (AP, 8/29/06)
2006        Aug 29, About 50 former militants surrendered and handed over their weapons in a ceremony led by Chechnya's powerful prime minister, who said rebel numbers are dwindling in the war-ravaged region.
    (AP, 8/29/06)
2006        Aug 29, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad challenged the authority of the UN Security Council as Iran faces a deadline to halt its uranium enrichment and he called for a televised debate with President Bush on world issues.
    (AP, 8/29/06)
2006        Aug 29, The bodies of 13 people, believed to have been aged between 25 and 35, were found dumped behind a Shiite mosque in the Turath neighborhood in western Baghdad. All were handcuffed, showed signs of torture and had been shot in the head. 11 of the bullet-riddled corpses were found near a school in the Shiite dominated Maalif neighborhood in southern Baghdad. A pipeline carrying oil byproducts exploded near Diwaniyah, killing at least 36 people with 45 injured.
    (AP, 8/29/06)(AP, 8/30/06)
2006        Aug 29, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, Mexico's leftist presidential candidate, rejected a court decision upholding his rival's slim lead in the disputed July 2 race and called on his supporters not to recognize a government led by Felipe Calderon.
    (AP, 8/29/06)
2006        Aug 29, In Quetta, Pakistan, gunfire and rioting broke out for a fourth straight day after the funeral service for a prominent tribal chief killed by Pakistani government forces. One policeman was killed and dozens of shops destroyed. Three factory workers were killed in a restaurant bombing in the Baluchistan town of Hub.
    (AP, 8/29/06)
2006        Aug 29, An extremist Kurdish militant group warned that "the fear of death will reign everywhere in Turkey" and it urged tourists to avoid travel to the country.
    (AP, 8/30/06)
2006        Aug 29, A cease-fire between Uganda's government and the LRA, a shadowy rebel movement that has terrorized this east African nation for nearly two decades, went into effect.
    (AP, 8/29/06)

2007        Aug 29, Fellow Republicans called on Idaho Sen. Larry Craig to resign and party leaders pushed him from senior committee posts as fallout continued over his arrest at a Minneapolis airport restroom and guilty plea to disorderly conduct.
    (AP, 8/29/08)
2007        Aug 29, US service officials said the Army will examine as many as 18,000 contracts awarded over the past four years to support US forces in Iraq to determine how many are tainted by waste, fraud and abuse.
    (AP, 8/29/07)
2007        Aug 29, The US Air Force accidentally flew a nuclear-armed B-52 bomber from North Dakota to Louisiana. On October 19 the Air Force said 70 service members would be punished for widespread disregard of rules.
    (SFC, 10/20/07, p.A4)
2007        Aug 29, New research said arsenic in drinking water is a global threat to health, affecting more than 70 countries and 137 million people. The country worst affected is Bangladesh, where hundreds of thousands of people are likely to die from cancers of the lung, bladder and skin caused by arsenic.
    (AP, 8/30/07)
2007        Aug 29, A new report said CEOs of American companies made an average of $10.8 million last year, more than 364 times the average pay of American workers. The 14th annual study was a joint report from the Institute for Policy Studies and United for a Fair Economy.
    (SFC, 8/30/07, p.C3)
2007        Aug 29, Alfred Peet (b.1920), Dutch-born specialty coffee pioneer, died in Oregon. His first shop opened in Berkeley, Ca., in 1966. He sold the business in 1979, but stayed on as a coffee buyer until 1984, when Baldwin and Reynolds, co-owners of Starbucks, along with other investors bought 4 Bay Area locations of Peet’s. They later sold the chain to Howard Shultz, who entered a no-compete agreement with Peet’s in the Bay Area. Peet’s became a public company in 2001.
    (SFC, 9/1/07, p.C1)
2007        Aug 29,  Richard Jewell, the former security guard who was wrongly linked to the 1996 Olympic bombing, was found dead in his west Georgia home; he was 44.
    (AP, 8/29/08)
2007        Aug 29, Taliban militants released 12 of 19 South Korean captives they promised to free under a deal struck with the South Korean government to resolve a nearly six-week hostage crisis. A suicide bomber blew himself up in a crowded bazaar in eastern Afghanistan, killing four civilians and two Afghan soldiers. A Canadian soldier, based in the Afghan capital Kabul, died of a gunshot wound after he was found injured in his room.
    (AFP, 8/29/07)(Reuters, 8/29/07)(AP, 8/29/08)
2007        Aug 29, Britain unveiled a statue of Nelson Mandela outside the houses of Parliament, honoring the South African anti-apartheid campaigner as one of the great leaders of his era.
    (AP, 8/29/07)
2007        Aug 29, China began selling $79 billion in bonds to finance a state agency that will invest the country's foreign currency reserves.
    (AP, 8/29/07)
2007        Aug 29, It was reported that more than 100 people have died in a remote part of Congo, including all those who attended the funerals of two village chiefs, in what health officials fear is an outbreak of hemorrhagic fever.
    (AP, 8/29/07)
2007        Aug 29, Pierre Messmer (b.1916), a member of the French Resistance who was the country's prime minister from 1972 to 1974, died.
    (AP, 8/29/07)
2007        Aug 29, Hong Kong police arrested two men accused of trying to smuggle more than 7,000 live pet turtles to mainland China.
    (AP, 8/31/07)
2007        Aug 29, In India the world-famous Taj Mahal was closed to tourists after officials in the city of Agra imposed a curfew following rioting that left one person dead and 50 hurt. Rioters fought pitched battles with police, pelting them with stones, glass bottles and setting vehicles alight, after a speeding truck crushed four Muslims to death. Officials in the eastern state of Orissa said at least 105 people have died of cholera and some 6,000 people are suffering from diseases caused by drinking dirty water.
    (AFP, 8/29/07)
2007        Aug 29, A group of eight Iranians, including two diplomats, were released by US forces after being detained a day earlier because unauthorized weapons were found in their cars. An aide said Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has ordered a six-month suspension of activities by his Mahdi Army militia in order to reorganize the force. Marines from the 5th Regimental Combat Team killed 12 suspected al-Qaida in Iraq fighters and destroyed two vehicles in fighting near the Anbar city of Fallujah. 4 al-Qaida fighters and two Sunni tribesmen opposed to the terror movement were killed in gunfights in Haqlaniyah. 2 US service members, a Marine and an Army soldier, were killed in fighting in Anbar province. An American soldier died from wounds suffered the day before in fighting near the northern city of Kirkuk. A US soldier was killed in a roadside bomb attack during combat operations in Iraq's eastern Diyala province.
    (AP, 8/29/07)(AP, 8/30/07)(AP, 8/31/07)
2007        Aug 29, The three cousins, 10-year-old Mahmoud Ghazal, 10-year-old Sara Ghazal and 12-year-old Yehiya Ghazal, were killed when Israeli troops combating Palestinian rocket squads spotted figures moving near rocket launchers in northern Gaza and ordered a strike.
    (AP, 9/1/07)
2007        Aug 29, The 11-day Venice Film Festival opened for its 75th anniversary edition.
    (SFC, 8/30/07, p.E5)
2007        Aug 29, Lithuania's top politicians attended an official ceremony in Vilnius to unveil probably the first monument in the world honoring basketball, which is said to be the second religion of this Baltic country.
    (http://tinyurl.com/2omkbv)
2007        Aug 29, In Myanmar pro-government gangs on trucks staked out key streets in Yangon as the country's military rulers sought to crush a rare wave of dissent by pro-democracy activists protesting fuel price increases.
    (AP, 8/29/07)
2007        Aug 29, A senior official said Pakistan’s President Gen. Pervez Musharraf and former rival Benazir Bhutto have reached an agreement regarding Musharraf's military role, a key step toward a power-sharing deal.
    (AP, 8/29/07)
2007        Aug 29, JEM and Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) attacked an army base in the Kordofan region next to Darfur, which they said was the logistical and supply centre for ongoing attacks in South Darfur. The rebels said 15 soldiers were killed. The government later reported that 41 people were killed in the Kordofan region. Officials said floods across Sudan have killed 101 people, spread disease and destroyed livelihoods by wiping out agricultural crops.
    (Reuters, 8/29/07)(Reuters, 8/30/07)(Reuters, 9/1/07)
2007        Aug 29, Thousands of hardline supporters of Robert Mugabe marched through Harare, denouncing the Zimbabwe president's Western critics and endorsing his controversial program of farm seizures. Zimbabwe's state media called on the government to sever ties with Australia, accusing PM John Howard's government of seeking to topple Pres. Mugabe.
    (AP, 8/29/07)

2008        Aug 29, John McCain, on his 72nd birthday, tapped little-known Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (44) to be his vice presidential running mate.
    (AP, 8/29/08)(SFC, 8/30/08, p.A1)
2008        Aug 29, US banking regulators shut down Integrity Bancshares Inc. of Alpharetta, Ga., and sold all deposits to Regions Financial Corp. of Birmingham, Ala. This marked the 10th US bank to fail this year.
    (WSJ, 8/30/08, p.B3)
2008        Aug 29, In SF the 4-day Slow Food Nation opened at the Civic Center Plaza and continued at Fort Mason, where tickets to the Taste Pavilion sold for $65. The Slow Food movement had begun in Italy in 1986.
    (SSFC, 8/31/08, p.A1)(Econ, 9/13/08, p.38)
2008        Aug 29, In Oklahoma a train slammed into a propane tanker truck triggering an explosion that killed 2 people.
    (WSJ, 8/30/08, p.A1)
2008        Aug 29, Tropical Storm Gustav drenched Jamaica, killing at least 4 people, and rolled over the Cayman Islands with fierce winds that tore down trees and power lines, setting off alarm from Cuba to New Orleans, and at gas pumps across the US.
    (AP, 8/29/08)(AP, 8/30/08)(SFC, 8/30/08, p.A3)
2008        Aug 29, A Georgian Foreign Ministry official says Georgia is to recall all diplomatic staff from its embassy in Moscow because of the Russian military presence in Georgia.
    (AP, 8/29/08)
2008        Aug 29, Chinese police investigating a spate of attacks this month in western Xinjiang province shot dead six suspects and arrested three others near Kashgar.
    (AP, 8/30/08)
2008        Aug 29, French neurosurgeons said they had successfully treated brain tumors through ultra-keyhole surgery, using a tiny fiber-optic laser to destroy cancerous cells.
    (AFP, 8/29/08)
2008        Aug 29, In India Tata Motors suspended work on its new plant in Mumbai, West Bengal, due to ongoing demonstrations in support of local farmers who say they were forced off their land to make way for the plant.
    (WSJ, 8/30/08, p.A5)
2008        Aug 29, A gunmen killed a member of a local US-allied Sunni group and his family in the village of Withah, Diyala province. His father, mother and an infant were also killed in the attack, which was in coordination with an assault on a nearby Iraqi army checkpoint that wounded one Iraqi soldier.
    (AP, 8/30/08)
2008        Aug 29, Central Japan was hit by heavy rains and flooding forcing the evacuation of over a million people.
    (WSJ, 8/30/08, p.A1)
2008        Aug 29, Fighter jets bombed Taliban hide-outs in Pakistan's Swat Valley while troops pushed into militant territory on the ground, killing at least 40 insurgents in a 24-hour siege.
    (AP, 8/30/08)
2008        Aug 29, The San Juan Star, Puerto Rico's Pulitzer Prize-winning English-language newspaper, closed. The owner blamed the union for not agreeing to benefit cuts and layoffs to offset declining revenue.
    (AP, 8/29/08)
2008        Aug 29, Pirates, believed to be Somali, hijacked the Malaysian MT Bunga Melati 5 tanker and its 41 crew members off Yemen's coast in the Gulf of Aden. It was the second tanker owned by MISC Berhard to be hijacked in the gulf in the last 10 days.
    (AP, 8/30/08)
2008        Aug 29, In Sri Lanka  renewed fighting in the embattled north killed 18 rebels and 5 soldiers.
    (AP, 8/30/08)
2008        Aug 29, In Zimbabwe power-sharing talks over a unity government resumed as Mugabe's government made good on a promise to allow aid agencies to resume operations. Mugabe announced cash awards for Zimbabwe’s Olympic winners. He called Kirsty Coventry, who won three silvers and a gold at the Beijing games, Zimbabwe's "golden girl" and gave her $100,000.
    (AP, 8/29/08)(AP, 8/30/08)

Go to http://www.timelinesdb.com
Go to August 30