Today in History - August 31
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12BCE Aug 31,
Caligula (Gaius Caesar), 3rd Roman emperor (37-41 AD), born.
(YN, 8/31/99)
161CE Aug 31, Lucius Aelius
Aurelius Commodus, emperor of Rome (180-92), was born.
(WUD, 1994 p.297)(MC, 8/31/01)
1057 Aug 31, Leofric, count of
Mercia and husband of Lady Godiva, died. His wife, the Countess Godgifu
(Godiva), had founded a Benedictine priory on a hill overlooking the
River Sowe, and the town of Coventry grew up around it. The priory
probably ran a market that would have formed the nucleus of the growing
town. Such a market would bring fees and taxes to the priory and the
Earl while flooding the district with goods and money. Godiva may well
have ruled the settlement between Leofric’s death and her own in 1066.
(HNC, 12/2/00)(MC, 8/31/01)
1158 Aug 31, Sancho III, King of
Castilia, died.
(MC, 8/31/01)
1218 Aug 31, Al-Malik ab-Adil,
Saphadin, Saif al-Din, brother of Saladin, died.
(MC, 8/31/01)
1303 Aug 31, The War of Vespers in
Sicily ended with an agreement between Charles of Valois, who invaded
the country, and Frederick, the ruler of Sicily.
(HN, 8/31/98)
1385 Aug 31, English King Richard
the Second invaded Scotland with a force estimated at 80-thousand men.
(MC, 8/31/01)
1422 Aug 31, Henry V, King of
England (1413-22) and France (1416-19), died.
(MC, 8/31/01)
1512 Aug 31, Giuliano de Medici
became the new governor of Florence.
(ON, 11/04, p.3)
1521 Aug 31, Spanish conqueror
Cortez (1485-1547), having captured the city of Tenochtitlan, Mexico,
set it on fire. Nearly 100,000 people died in the siege and some
100,000 more died afterwards of smallpox. In 2008 Buddy levy authored
“Conquistador: Hernan Cortes, King Montezuma, and the Last Stand of the
Aztecs.”
(HN, 8/31/98)(WSJ, 7/10/08, p.A13)
1535 Aug 31, Pope Paul II deposed
& excommunicated King Henry VIII.
(YN, 8/31/99)
1667 Aug 31, Johann Rist,
composer, died at 60.
(MC, 8/31/01)
1741 Aug 31, Johann Paul Aegidius
Martini, composer, was born.
(MC, 8/31/01)
1751 Aug 31, English troops under
sir Robert Clive occupied Arcot, India.
(MC, 8/31/01)
1756 Aug 31, The British at Fort
William Henry, New England, surrendered to Louis Montcalm of France.
(HN, 8/31/98)
1778 Aug 31, British killed 17
Stockbridge Indians in Bronx during Revolution.
(MC, 8/31/01)
1795 Aug 31, Franxois-Andre
Danican Philidor, composer, died at 68.
(MC, 8/31/01)
1802 Aug 31, Captain Meriwether
Lewis left Pittsburgh to meet up with Captain William Clark and begin
their trek to the Pacific Ocean.
(HN, 8/31/98)
1811 Aug 31, Théophile
Gautier, French poet, novelist and author of “Art for Art's Sake,” was
born.
(HN, 8/31/98)
1822 Aug 31, Fitz John Porter
(d.1901), Major General (Union volunteers), was born.
(MC, 8/31/01)
1829 Aug 31, Gioacchino Rossini's
final opera "William Tell" was produced in Paris.
(MC, 8/31/01)
1832 Aug 31, Jean Nicolas Auguste
Kreutzer, composer, died at 53.
(MC, 8/31/01)
1834 Aug 31, Amilcare Ponchielli,
composer (La Gioconda), was born in Paderno, Italy.
(MC, 8/31/01)
1835 Aug 31, Angry mob in
Charleston, South Carolina, seized U-S mail containing abolitionist
literature and burned it in public.
(MC, 8/31/01)
1842 Aug 31, US Naval Observatory
was authorized by an act of Congress.
(MC, 8/31/01)
1842 Aug 31, Micah Rugg patented a
nuts & bolts machine.
(MC, 8/31/01)
1864 Aug 31, At the Democratic
convention in Chicago, General George B. McClellan was nominated for
president. [see Aug 28]
(HN, 8/31/98)
1864 Aug 31, Atlanta
Campaign-Battle of Jonesboro Georgia, 1900 casualties.
(MC, 8/31/01)
1865 Aug 31, The US Federal
government estimated the American Civil War had cost about
eight-billion dollars. Human costs have been estimated at more than
one-million killed or wounded.
(MC, 8/31/01)
1867 Aug 31, [Pierre-]Charles
Baudelaire (46), French poet (Journaux Intimes), died.
(MC, 8/31/01)
1870 Aug 31, Maria Montessori
(d.1952), educator and physician, was born in Chiaravalle, Italy. She
opened her 1st Montessori school in San Lorenzo, Italy in 1907.
(HN,
8/31/00)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Montessori)
1880 Aug 31, Queen Wilhelmina of
Netherlands (d. Nov 28, 1962 at 82) was born. She reigned from
1890-1947.
(DTnet, 11/28/97)(YN, 8/31/99)
1881 Aug 31, The first U.S. tennis
championships (for men) were played, in Newport, R.I.
(AP, 8/31/06)
1885 Aug 31, Duboise Heyward,
novelist, poet and dramatist best know for “Porgy” which was the basis
for the opera “Porgy and Bess,” was born.
(HN, 8/31/98)
1886 Aug 31, An earthquake rocked
Charleston, S.C., killing 60 people, according to the US Geological
Survey.
(AP, 8/31/07)
1887 Aug 31, Inventor Thomas A.
Edison received a patent for his Kinetoscope," a device which produced
moving pictures. [see Apr 14, 1894]
(AP, 8/31/97)
1888 Aug 31, Mary Ann Nicholls, a
42-year-old prostitute, was found murdered in London's East End. She is
generally regarded as the first of at least five murder victims of
"Jack the Ripper." [see Aug 6]
(AP, 8/31/99)(YN, 8/31/99)
1889 Aug 31, Start of Sherlock
Holmes adventure "Cardboard Box."
(MC, 8/31/01)
1897 Aug 31, Thomas Edison
patented his movie camera (Kinetograph).
(MC, 8/31/01)
1897 Aug 31, General Kitchener
occupied Berber, North of Khartoum.
(MC, 8/31/01)
1899 Aug 31, Paul E. Garber, US
founder and 1st curator of National Air & Space Museum, was born.
(MC, 8/31/01)
1899 Aug 31, Lynn Riggs, writer,
was born. Her book “Green Grow the Lilacs” was adapted by Rodgers and
Hammerstein to become “Oklahoma.”
(HN, 8/31/00)
1900 Aug 31, British troops
overran Johannesburg.
(MC, 8/31/01)
1902 Aug 31, Mathilde Wesendonk
(73), German author and poetess, died.
(MC, 8/31/01)
1903 Aug 31, Arthur Godfrey, radio
and television personality, was born.
(HN, 8/31/98)
1903 Aug 31, Bernard Lovell, radio
astronomer, founded Jodrell Bank, was born in England.
(MC, 8/31/01)
1905 Aug 31, Sanford Meisner,
influential acting teacher, was born.
(HN, 8/31/00)
1907 Aug 31, William Shawn,
longtime editor of The New Yorker, was born.
(HN, 8/31/00)
1907 Aug 31, England, Russia and
France formed their Triple Entente.
(MC, 8/31/01)
1908 Aug 31, William Saroyan
(d.1981), American writer, was born outside Fresno, Ca., to Armenian
parents. “He was a prolific and bombastic writer who never threw
anything away.” He was a native of Fresno, Ca. and his unpublished
materials, held by the Saroyan Foundation, were turned over to Stanford
Univ. in 1996. His work included “The Human Comedy.”
(HFA, ‘96, p.36)(SFC, 5/23/96, p.A1)(WUD, 1994,
p.1269)(HN, 8/31/00)(SSFC, 11/10/02, p.M1)
1909 Aug 31, The A.J. Reach Co.
patented the cork-centered baseball.
(MC, 8/31/01)
1911 Aug 31, Anthony Fokker's
demonstrated the aircraft "Snip."
(MC, 8/31/01)
1912 Aug 31, Ramon Vinay, operatic
tenor and baritone, was born.
(MC, 8/31/01)
1914 Aug 31, Germany defeated
Russia at the battle at Tannenberg. Some 30,000 Russians died.
(MC, 8/31/01)
1916 Aug 31, Daniel Schorr,
broadcast journalist (CBS), was born in NYC.
(www.nndb.com)
1918 Aug 31, Alan Jay Lerner,
playwright and lyricist, was born. His work included “Brigadoon” and
“Camelot.”
(HN, 8/31/00)
1919 Aug 31, John Reed formed the
Communist Labor Party in Chicago, with the motto, "Workers of the world
unite!"
(HN, 8/31/98)(YN, 8/31/99)(MC, 8/31/01)
1919 Aug 31, The Ukrainian
(Petlyura) Army recaptured Kiev. Petlyura's Ukrainian Army killed 35
members of a Jewish defense group.
(MC, 8/31/01)
1923 Aug 31, Mussolini's troops
occupied Korfu.
(MC, 8/31/01)
1928 Aug 31, James Coburn
(d.2002), actor (Our Man Flint, Magnificent Seven), was born in Laurel,
Nebraska.
(YN, 8/31/99)(SFC, 11/19/02, p.A2)
1928 Aug 31, Brecht and Kurt
Weill’s “The Threepenny Opera” opened in Berlin.
(HN, 8/31/00)(MC, 8/31/01)
1935 Aug 31, Eldridge Cleaver,
political activist and author of “Soul on Fire,” was born.
(HN, 8/31/98)
1935 Aug 31, President Roosevelt
signed an act prohibiting the export of U.S. arms to belligerents.
(AP, 8/31/97)
1936 Aug 31, Marva Collins,
innovative educator who started Chicago's one-room school, Westside
Preparatory, was born.
(HN, 8/31/98)
1939 Aug 31, Japanese invasion
army was driven out of Mongolia.
(MC, 8/31/01)
1939 Aug 31, There was a staged
"Polish" assault on radio station in Gleiwitz by Nazis dressed as Poles
to "provoke" war, an excuse for Germany to invade Poland the next day
to start World War II.
(MC, 8/31/01)
1940 Aug 31, US National Guard
assembled.
(MC, 8/31/01)
1940 Aug 31, Jack Thompson of
Australia, actor (Breaker Morant), was born.
(YN, 8/31/99)
1940 Aug 31, Joseph Avenol stepped
down as Secretary-General of the League of Nations.
(HN, 8/31/98)
1940 Aug 31, 56 U-boats were sunk
this month (268,000 ton).
(MC, 8/31/01)
1940 Aug 31, Fighter Command lost
39 and the Luftwaffe lost 41 airplanes.
(MC, 8/31/01)
1941 Aug 31, The radio program
"The Great Gildersleeve," a spin-off of Fibber McGee & Molly, made
its debut on NBC.
(AP, 8/31/97)(MC, 8/31/01)
1942 Aug 31, The British army
under General Bernard Law Montgomery defeated Field Marshal Erwin
Rommel's Afrika Korps in the Battle of Alam Halfa in Egypt.
(HN, 8/31/98)
1944 Aug 31, A US B-24-J bomber
crashed into Maoer Mountain in China after having completed its bombing
mission over the port of Takao in Taiwan. All 10 men onboard were
killed. The wreckage was not discovered until Oct, 1996.
(SFC, 1/17/97, p.A13)
1944 Aug 31, The British Eighth
Army penetrated the German Gothic Line in Italy.
(HN, 8/31/98)
1944 Aug 31, The French
provisional government moved from Algiers to Paris.
(MC, 8/31/01)
1945 Aug 31, Van Morrison, singer
(Here Comes the Night), was born in Belfast, Ireland.
(YN, 8/31/99)
1945 Aug 31, Itzhak Perlman,
violinist, was born.
(HN, 8/31/00)
1949 Aug 31, Richard Gere, actor
(Breathless, Cotton Club), was born in Phila., Pa.
(YN, 8/31/99)
1949 Aug 31, Six of the 16
surviving Union veterans of the Civil War attended the last-ever
encampment of the Grand Army of the Republic, held in Indianapolis,
Indiana.
(HN, 8/31/98)
1950 Aug 31, Three North Korean
divisions opened an assault on UN lines on the Naktong River in a push
to take Pusan.
(SSFC, 11/7/04, Par p.4)
1951 Aug 31, The former enemies of
the world war reconvened in San Francisco to finalize negotiations on
the peace treaty to formally end WW II. Japan agreed to pay the Int’l.
Red Cross about $15 per POW while the allies agreed not to bring
charges against it.
(Park, Spring/95, p.2)(SFEC, 12/1/96, p.C4)
1951 Aug 31, The 1st Marine
Division began its attack on Bloody Ridge in Korea. The four-day battle
resulted in 2,700 Marine casualties.
(HN, 8/31/98)
1951 Aug 31, The 1st 33 1/3 (LP)
album was introduced in Dusseldorf.
(MC, 8/31/01)
1954 Aug 31, Hurricane Carol hit
the northeastern United States, resulting in nearly 70 deaths and
millions of dollars in damage.
(AP, 8/31/97)
1955 Aug 31, 1st sun-powered
automobile demonstrated, Chicago, Ill.
(YN, 8/31/99)
1957 Aug 31, The Federation of
Malaya (Malaysia) gained independence from Britain (National Day).
Malaysia established itself as a constitutional monarchy. Article 11 in
the constitution gave every person “the right to profess and practice
his religion.” Pro-bumiputra (sons of the soil) discrimination was laid
down in the constitution to ease Malays’ fears of being marginalized by
Chinese and Indian migrants. A 1988 amendment denied the regular courts
all jurisdiction over matters dealt with by the Muslim sharia courts.
(YN, 8/31/99)(SFC, 11/22/01, p.A29)(AP,
8/31/07)(Econ, 9/1/07, p.11)
1958 Aug 31, Edwin Moses, track
star, was born. Olympic Gold Medallist [1976, 1984] & Hall of
Famer: 400-meter hurdles: the first athlete to use 13 strides between
hurdles; 1983 winner of Sullivan Award: the U.S. outstanding amateur
athlete.
(MC, 8/31/01)
1959 Aug 31, Australia defeated
the US for tennis' Davis Cup.
(YN, 8/31/99)
1961 Aug 31, A concrete wall
replaced the barbed wire fence that separated East and West Germany, it
would be called the Berlin wall.
(HN, 8/31/98)
1962 Aug 31, The Caribbean nation
of Trinidad and Tobago became independent within the British
Commonwealth. Eric Williams, a Marxist historian, led the country to
independence.
(SFC, 7/1/97, p.A9)(AP, 8/31/97)(Econ, 8/26/06, p.29)
1963 Aug 31, George F. Braque
(81), cubist painter, died in Paris.
(MC, 8/31/01)
1965 Aug 31, The Beatles returned
to the Cow Palace in Daly City, Ca., for another concert.
(www.geocities.com/bratbear_51/cowpalacebeatles.html)
1965 Aug 31, The US House of Reps
joined Senate to establish Dept of Housing & Urban Develop.
(MC, 8/31/01)
1966 Aug 31, In China a response
to Mao’s call for a Cultural Revolution led to a massacre in Hongsheng,
one of 13 communes in Beijing’s Daxing district, that left 110 people
dead. The official death toll for all 13 communes was put at 324. Over
2 weeks some 2,000 Beijing residents were killed.
(Econ, 5/20/06, p.43)
1967 Aug 31, Ilya G. Ehrenburg
(76), Russian poet and propagandist ("Russians, get your
German!"), died.
(MC, 8/31/01)
1968 Aug 31, In northeast Iran
some 7-12 thousand people died in the 7.8 Dasht-e Bayaz earthquake,
which also destroyed 60,000 buildings.
(WUD, 1994,
p.1687)(www.bssaonline.org/cgi/content/abstract/59/5/1751)
1969 Aug 31, Andrew Phillip
Cunanan, serial killer, was born. His victims included fashion designer
Gianni Versache.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Cunanan)
1969 Aug 31, Boxer Rocky Marciano
died in a light airplane crash in Iowa, the day before his 46th
birthday.
(AP, 8/31/97)
1971 Aug 31, John Lennon left UK
for NYC, never to return.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Lennon)
1972 Aug 31, At the Munich Summer
Olympics American swimmer Mark Spitz won his fourth and fifth gold
medals, in the 100-meter butterfly and 800-meter freestyle relay.
(AP, 8/31/02)
1972 Aug 31, Olga Korbut (b.1955)
of Belarus, USSR, won Olympic gold medal in floor exercises and the
balance beam.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olga_Korbut)(AP,
8/31/02)
1973 Aug 31, John Ford (b.1894),
US film director, died. He directed some 140 films including “Mary of
Scotland” (1936) and “Stagecoach” (1939).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Ford)
1976 Aug 31, George Harrison
(1943-2001) was found guilty of plagiarizing "My Sweet Lord."
(www.imdb.com/name/nm0365600/bio)(http://nfo.net/calendar/aug31.htm)
1977 Aug 31, Ian Smith, espousing
racial segregation, won the Rhodesian general election with 80% of
overwhelmingly white electorate's vote.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhodesia_general_election%2C_1977)
1978 Aug 31, Emily and William
Harris, founding members of the SLA, pleaded guilty to 4 charges
related to the 1974 kidnapping of Patty Hearst. On Oct 4 they were
sentenced to prison terms.
(SFC, 10/3/03,
p.E3)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symbionese_Liberation_Army)
1978 Aug 31, Imam Mousa
Sadr, the spiritual leader of Lebanon's Shiite Muslim community,
disappeared along with 2 companions during a visit to Libya. In 2008 a
Lebanese prosecutor charged Moammar Khadafy and 6 other Libyan
officials in the disappearance.
(AP,
9/3/03)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musa_al-Sadr)(SFC, 8/28/08, p.A7)
1979 Aug 31, Sally Rand (b.1904),
exotic dancer and actress, died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sally_Rand)
1980 Aug 31, Poland's Solidarity
labor movement was born with an agreement signed in Gdansk that ended a
17-day strike. The Communist government signed an agreement with the
Strike Coordination Committee in Gdansk, Poland, to allow legal
organization, but not actual free trade unions.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inter-Enterprise_Strike_Committee)(AP,
8/31/97)
1981 Aug 31, Joseph H. Hirschhorn
(b.1899), Latvia-born US art collector and founder the Hirschhorn
Museum in Washington, DC, died at 82.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_H._Hirshhorn)(http://tinyurl.com/34mcwt)
1984 Aug 31, San Francisco police
raided Lord Jim’s bar at 1500 Broadway and arrested the owner. Patrons
and employees were detained for up to 90 minutes as police checked for
warrants. Attorney William Barfield, one of those detained, later filed
5 of six damage claims totaling 375,000 against the city.
(SSFC, 9/20/09, DB p.50)
1985 Aug 31, Richard Ramirez,
later convicted of California's "Night Stalker" killings, was captured
by residents of an East Los Angeles neighborhood.
(AP, 8/31/97)
1986 Aug 31, Aeromexico flight 498
with 64 passengers collided with a light plane as it approached Los
Angeles and crashed to the ground where an additional 15 people were
killed. The National Transportation Safety Board blamed flaws in the
overloaded traffic control system. 82 people were killed when an
Aeromexico jetliner and a small private plane collided over Cerritos,
Calif.
(SFC, 8/31/96, p.A20)(AP, 8/31/97)
1986 Aug 31, The Soviet passenger
ship Admiral Nakhimov collided with a merchant vessel in the Black Sea,
causing both vessels to sink; up to 448 people reportedly died.
(AP, 8/31/97)
1986 Aug 31, Henry Moore (b.1898),
English sculptor and cartoonist, died. In 1998 John Hedgecoe published
"A Monumental Vision: The Sculpture of Henry Moore."
(SFEC, 7/19/98, BR
p.9)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Moore)
1987 Aug 31, The US Justice
Department challenged the constitutionality of the 1978 Ethics in
Government Act, which provided for the appointment of independent
counsels. The Supreme Court upheld the law.
(AP, 8/31/97)
1988 Aug 31, Arbitrator George
Nicolau ruled sports owners conspired against free agents.
(www.baseballlibrary.com/baseballlibrary/chronology/1988AUGUST.stm)
1988 Aug 31, Fourteen people were
killed when a Delta Boeing 727 crashed during takeoff from Dallas-Fort
Worth Airport.
(AP, 8/31/98)
1988 Aug 31, A 5-day power
blackout of downtown Seattle began.
(YN, 8/31/99)
1988 Aug 31, In South Africa the
Khotso House was bombed. Police chief Johan van der Merwe was
instructed to blow up the Johannesburg headquarters of the South
African Council of Churches, called Khotso House, for harboring
anti-apartheid groups. The bombing injured 21 people. He said in 1996
that the instructions came from Law and Order Minister Adriaan Vlok,
who told him that the order came directly from Pres. P.W. Botha. In
1997 a document submitted by Vlok said the order to destroy the
headquarters came from Pres. Botha. Col. Eugene de Kock testified in
1998 that he was called in by a police general to blowup Khotso House.
Vlok testified in 1998 that Botha dictated the bombing. Vlok and van
der Merwe were given amnesty in 1999.
(SFC, 11/23/96, p.A9)(SFC, 6/21/97, p.A10)(SFC,
6/4/98, p.A12)(SFC, 7/22/98, p.A11)(SFC, 8/6/99, p.A14)
1989 Aug 31, Arbitrator Thomas
Roberts ordered Major League sports owners to pay $105 million for
collusion against free agents after the 1985 baseball season.
(www.baseballlibrary.com/baseballlibrary/chronology/1989AUGUST.stm)
1989 Aug 31, Britain's Princess
Anne and husband Mark Phillips announced they were separating.
(AP, 8/31/99)
1990 Aug 31, East & West
Germany signed a treaty to join legal & political systems.
(http://tinyurl.com/omusa)
1990 Aug 31, UN Secretary-General
Javier Perez de Cuellar met twice with Iraqi Foreign Minister Tariq
Aziz in Amman, Jordan, trying to negotiate a solution to the Persian
Gulf crisis.
(AP, 8/31/00)
1991 Aug 31, Uzbekistan and
Kirghizia declared their independence, raising to 10 the number of
republics seeking to secede from the Soviet Union.
(AP, 8/31/01)
1992 Aug 31, White separatist
Randy Weaver surrendered to authorities in Naples, Idaho, ending an
11-day siege by federal agents that claimed the lives of Weaver's wife,
son and a deputy U.S. marshal. [see Aug 21]
(AP, 8/31/97)
1993 Aug 31, Mideast peace talks
resumed in Washington amid hopes that a historic agreement to establish
Palestinian autonomous areas would be concluded within days.
(AP, 8/31/98)
1993 Aug 31, Hurricane Emily hit
North Carolina's Outer Banks, killing three people.
(AP, 8/31/98)
1993 Aug 31, Russia withdrew its
last soldier from Lithuania, the first Baltic nation to eject all
former Soviet troops.
(AP, 8/31/98)
1993 Aug 31, Venezuela’s Congress
officially removed President Andres Perez (b.1922) from office. Perez
had served 2 terms as presidents (1974-1979, 1989-1993). He was
impeached following a scandal on the alleged mishandling of US$17
million from the presidents' special secret fund, used to help Violeta
Chamorro's government in Nicaragua.
(www.expat-today.com/venezuela/expat1.htm)(http://tinyurl.com/orkso)
1994 Aug 31, In the London Intel
Speed Chess Grand Prix a Pentium computer beat world chess champ Gari
Kasparov.
(www.correspondencechess.com/campbell/apctcol/c9411.htm)
1994 Aug 31, The Irish Republican
Army (IRA) announces a "complete cessation of military operations,"
opening the way to a political settlement in Ireland for the first time
in a quarter of a century.
(SFC, 6/18/96, p.A8)(AP, 8/31/99)(HN, 8/31/99)
1994 Aug 31, Russia officially
ended its military presence in the former East Germany and the Baltics
after a half-century.
(AP, 8/31/99)
1995 Aug 31, At the O.J. Simpson
trial in Los Angeles, Judge Lance Ito ruled the defense could play only
two examples of police detective Mark Fuhrman’s racist comments from
taped conversations with a screenwriter.
(AP, 8/31/00)
1995 Aug 31, NATO planes and UN
artillery blasted Serb targets in Bosnia for a 2nd day in response to
the market attack in Serajevo.
(SFC,10/16/97, p.A12)
1996 Aug 31, Three adults and 4
children drowned at John D. Long Lake in Union, South Carolina when
their car rolled into the lake by accident. They had gone to see a
monument to the sons of Susan Smith, who drowned her 2 sons on Oct 25,
1994 when she let her car roll into the lake.
(SFC, 9/2/96, p.D5)(AP, 8/31/97)
1996 Aug 31, New York City police
found the body of 4-year-old Nadine Lockwood in her family's apartment;
she'd been starved to death. The girl's mother, Carla Lockwood, was
later sentenced to serve at least 15 years in prison. Nadine's father,
Leroy Dickerson, was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.
(AP, 8/31/06)
1996 Aug 31, In Austria the
country’s first gay wedding took place in the Evangelical Church in
Vienna’s Simmering district.
(SFC, 9/1/96, p.A4)
1996 Aug 31, In Colombia the armed
forces went on alert after a series of rebel attacks on government
targets that killed about 100 people. The attacks were in response to a
US government backed campaign to eradicate coca plots. A rebel column
overran an army base in Las Delicias and killed 27 soldiers.
(SFC, 9/1/96, p.A15)(SFC, 3/6/98, p.A12)
1996 Aug 31, Over the past week
torrential rains threatened Sudan and Egypt with floods. More than a
million Pakistanis were displaced by fierce floods. The central Punjab
Province had 4.5 million acres of crops swamped.
(SFC, 8/31/96, p.A4)
1996 Aug 31, Rival Kurdish forces
under leaders Jalal Talabani of the Patriotic Union and Massoud Barzani
of the Kurdish Democratic Party clashed. Barzani’s forces participated
with Sadam Hussein’s troops in taking Irbil, a Talabani stronghold.
Talabani’s forces were reportedly assisted by Iran.
(SFC, 9/1/96, p.A8)
1996 Aug 31, More than 100 members
of the Iraqi National Congress in Irbil were captured by Iraqi secret
police and apparently executed. The Congress was set up by the US in
1992 as an alternative to Saddam Hussein. Thousands of opposition
members made it to Turkey and were flown to Guam by the US and promised
asylum in the US.
(SFEC, 9/8/96, p.A13)(SFC, 10/12/97, Z1 p.5)
1996 Aug 31, Ljuba Welitsch (83),
Bulgaria-born opera singer, died.
(www.ucis.pitt.edu/opera/OFB/stars/wel01.htm)
1997 Aug 31, In Phoenix, Az.,
bounty hunters in search of a bail jumper killed a couple that
apparently knew nothing about the sought bail jumper. Chris Foote (23)
and Spring Wright (20) were killed by 5 bounty hunters. Matthew
Brackney (20), his father David Brackney (45) and Michael Martin
Sanders (40) were in custody and 2 others were sought by authorities.
Arizona laws allow bounty hunters to break down doors and use guns to
bring bail jumpers back to jail without a court order, warrant or
license. There were an estimated 2,000 bounty hunters nationwide. Brian
Jay Robbins and Ronald Eugene Timms were arrested on Sep 3. On October
30, 1998 Michael Martin Sanders was judged guilty of murder, and nine
other felonies including burglary, aggravated assault and unlawful
imprisonment. Co-defendant Ronald Timms pleaded guilty to second-degree
murder and testified against Sanders, saying the men planned to break
into Foote's home because they mistakenly believed there would be a
large amount of drugs and cash there. The rest were charged with second
degree murder and various counts of felonious assault.
(SFC, 9/3/97, p.A3)(SFC, 9/4/97,
p.A3)(http://tinyurl.com/lp6bs)
1997 Aug 31, Prince Charles
brought Princess Diana home for the last time, escorting the body of
his former wife to a Britain that was shocked, grief-stricken and
angered by her death in a Paris traffic accident. Princess Diana (36)
and Egyptian billionaire Dodi al-Fayed (42) were killed along with the
car’s driver in a car crash in Paris while trying to evade paparazzi
photographers. A bodyguard was severely injured but expected to
survive. It was later learned that the driver had 3 times the legal
alcohol limit and was driving at about 110 mph.
(SFEC, 8/31/97, p.A1)(SFC, 9/1/97, p.A1)(SFC,
9/2/97, p.A1)(AP, 8/31/98)
1997 Aug 31, In Peru 2 small
planes collided at the Nazca archeological site and 12 people were
killed.
(SFC, 9/1/97, p.A14)
1997 Aug 31, Vitaly Schmidt (47),
Russian oil tycoon, died in Moscow. Much of his fortune came from a
group of small offshore energy companies he oversaw on behalf of
himself and a few fellow executives of OAO Lukoil.
(WSJ, 12/6/06, p.A1)
1998 Aug 31, President Clinton
left for a summit in Russia, which was in a state of political chaos
over lawmakers' rejection of Boris Yeltsin's candidate for prime
minister, Viktor Chernomyrdin.
(AP, 8/31/03)
1998 Aug 31, The DJIA fell 512
points, 6.37%, while the NASDAQ fell a record 140 points to 1499 amid
news of political chaos in Russia and North Korea's apparent firing of
a missile over part of Japan.
(WSJ, 9/2/98, p.A1)(AP, 8/31/99)
1998 Aug 31, In Gaithersburg, Md.,
boxer Mike Tyson assaulted 2 motorists following a minor chain-reaction
collision. In 1999 he was convicted of assault and sentenced to one
year in jail.
(SFC, 2/6/99, p.A1)
1998 Aug 31, An explosion in
Algiers killed at least 17 people.
(SFC, 9/1/98, p.A9)
1998 Aug 31, In Angola the ruling
party expelled Unita deputies from parliament.
(WSJ, 9/2/98, p.A1)
1998 Aug 31, Congo’s Kabila
declared victory over the Tutsi-led rebels near Kinshasa and in the
southwest.
(WSJ, 9/2/98, p.A1)
1998 Aug 31, In Latvia the Skrunda
radar base, the last Russian military outpost in the Baltic states, was
closed.
(SFC, 9/1/98, p.A9)
1998 Aug 31, North Korea fired a
ballistic missile into the Sea of Japan. They later claimed that it was
a rocket to launch a satellite. The US later agreed that it was a
failed satellite launch.
(SFC, 8/31/98, p.A1)(SFC, 9/5/98, p.A11)(WSJ,
9/15/98, p.A1)
1998 Aug 31, In Spain Jose Antonio
Ardanza, 14-year president of the Basque country, dissolved the
regional parliament and set elections for Oct 25. He urged ETA
extremists to lay down their arms.
(SFC, 9/1/98, p.A9)
1999 Aug 31, Detroit’s teachers
went on strike, wiping out the first day of class for 172-thousand
students in one of the largest teachers’ strikes in years. The walkout
lasted nine days.
(AP, 8/31/00)
1999 Aug 31, In NYC 5 police shot
twelve times and killed Gideon Busch (31), a Jewish man and former
medical student, who refused to drop a hammer he’d used to threaten
neighborhood children. The officers were brought up on charges and, on
November 17, 2003, a federal jury cleared the officers of civil
wrongdoing in the fatal shooting.
(SFC, 9/1/99, p.A3)(http://tinyurl.com/qcxba)
1999 Aug 31, In Argentina the
online-auction site DeRemate was launched. In 2002 daily visits
averaged 160,000 as Internet users climbed to 2.7 million.
(WSJ, 9/4/02, p.B5A)
1999 Aug 31, In Argentina 72
people were killed, including 5 on the ground, when a Lapa Airlines
Boeing 737 crashed after takeoff from Jorge Newberry airport in Buenos
Aires. There were 26 survivors.
(SFC, 9/1/99, p.A12)(WSJ, 9/1/99, p.A1)(SFC, 9/2/99,
p.A14)(WSJ, 9/3/99, p.A1)(AP, 8/31/00)
1999 Aug 31, In Colombia rebels
seized a hydroelectric plant near Buenaventura and held 100 employees
on the 1st day of a nationwide strike. 1.5 million workers protested
government austerity moves.
(WSJ, 9/1/99, p.A1)
1999 Aug 31, Congolese rebels
signed a cease-fire in Zambia.
(SFC, 9/1/99, p.A16)
1999 Aug 31, In Russia a bomb
exploded in a video game parlor in the Manezh shopping mall near the
Kremlin and at least 30 people were injured. A leaflet was left by the
Union of Revolutionary Writers that said in part: "Consumer, we do not
like your way of life…"
(SFC, 9/1/99, p.A16)(SFC, 9/2/99, p.A18)
1999 Aug 31, In Somalia clan
gunmen killed 14 people and wounded 20 in a bus attack outside
Mogadishu.
(SFC, 9/1/99, p.A16)
1999 Aug 31, In Turkey a 5.2
aftershock earthquake hit Izmit and killed one man and injured 166.
(SFC, 9/1/99, p.A12)
2000 Aug 31, President Clinton
vetoed a bill that would have gradually repealed inheritance taxes,
saying it would have benefited the wealthiest Americans while
threatening the nation's financial well-being.
(AP, 8/31/01)
2000 Aug 31, It was reported that
computer scientists had created a robot to design and build other
robots almost entirely without human help.
(SFC, 8/31/00, p.A1)
2000 Aug 31, It was reported that
malaria researchers had identified the mechanism by which the parasite
feeds on blood cells.
(WSJ, 8/31/00, p.A1)
2000 Aug 31, A meeting of South
American presidents opened in Brasilia. They expressed concern over the
civil war in Colombia and planned to discuss the creation of a South
American trade block.
(SFC, 9/1/00, p.A16)
2000 Aug 31, In France the
government announced a package of tax reductions worth $16.5 billion
over 3 years.
(SFC, 9/1/00, p.D2)
2000 Aug 31, In Indonesia Suharto
claimed illness and failed to show up for the 1st day of his corruption
trial.
(SFC, 9/1/00, p.A18)
2000 Aug 31, In Mexico retired
Gen. Francisco Hermosillo and Brig. Gen. Mario Arturo Acosta Chaparro
were arrested for collaborating with the Juarez drug cartel.
(SFC, 9/2/00, p.A14)
2000 Aug 31, In Ukraine Pres.
Kuchma declared 4 villages near Mykolaiv an ecological disaster zone
due to illnesses of some 400 residents since July 4. Chemical poisoning
from Soviet-era rocket fuel leaks was blamed.
(SFC, 9/1/00, p.D5)
2001 Aug 31, Little League star
Danny Almonte's perfect game and his Bronx, N.Y., team's third-place
World Series finish were ruled invalid after officials in the Dominican
Republic, where Danny was born, determined he was 14 years old, not 12.
(AP, 8/31/02)
2001 Aug 31, It was reported that
scientists at Lucent Tech. achieved superconductivity with carbon-60
(buckyballs) at minus 249 degrees by combining the carbon molecules
with compounds of chloroform and bromoform.
(SFC, 8/31/01, p.B3)
2001 Aug 31, In Montana a
helicopter assigned to the 25,500-acre Fridley fire crashed and 3
crewmen were killed.
(SFC, 9/1/01, p.D1)
2001 Aug 31, In Saudi Arabia
Prince Turki al-Faisal resigned as head of the General Intelligence
Directorate and Prince Nawwaf took over.
(WSJ, 10/22/01, p.A18)
2001 Aug 31, Brazil withdrew its
threat to make a generic version of the Nelfinavir AIDS drug after
Roche Pharmaceuticals agreed to produce the drug locally and cut the
price by 40% next year.
(SFC, 9/1/01, p.A7)
2001 Aug 31, Israeli troops
battled Palestinian gunmen and 19 Palestinians were wounded.
(SFC, 9/1/01, p.A6)
2001 Aug 31, Ministers of New
Zealand and Nauru announced that they would take the Afghanistan asylum
seekers stranded in Australian waters.
(SFC, 9/1/01, p.A6)
2001 Aug 31, In Thailand officials
reported that AIDS accounted for 16% of all deaths in 1998.
(SFC, 9/1/01, p.A10)
2001 Aug 31, The UN World
Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and
Related Intolerance began in Durban, South Africa. Yasser Arafat
accused Israel of "racist practices" against the Palestinian people.
(SFC, 9/1/01, p.A1)(AP, 8/31/02)
2002 Aug 31, The Los Angeles
Sparks beat the New York Liberty 69-66 to defend their WNBA
championship.
(AP, 8/31/03)
2002 Aug 31, The Burning Man was
put to flames at Black Rock, Nev. Some 29,000 people attended the
event, which featured a 78-foot Temple of Joy, created by David Best,
that was burned down Sep 1.
(SFC, 8/31/02, p.A3)(SFC, 9/2/02, p.A1)
2002 Aug 31, Lionel Hampton (94),
American jazz icon, died in New York City. He pioneered and popularized
the vibraphone as a jazz instrument in a musical career that spanned
six decades beginning in the 1920s.
(AP, 8/31/03)
2002 Aug 31, George Porter (81),
who shared the 1967 Nobel Prize for chemistry for his work on
light-driven chemical reactions, died in London. He had built a device
to study gaseous free radicals and combustion. Among the practical
results of his research was the development of ways to stop dyes from
fading.
(AP, 9/3/02)
2002 Aug 31, Sheldon H. Harris,
historian, died. His work included the 1994 book: "Factories of Death:
Japanese Biological Warfare, 1932-1945, and the American Cover-Up."
(SFC, 9/9/02, p.A22)
2002 Aug 31, In Indonesia
unidentified gunmen shot dead three people, including two Americans,
and wounded up to 14 others in an attack on a vehicle convoy near a
giant gold mine in Papua province. Killed in the 30-minute assault were
Rick Spier, 44, of Littleton, Colo., Ted Burgon, 71, of Sunriver, Ore.,
and an Indonesian teacher. Indonesian soldiers were later implicated in
the attack. In 2006 Antonius Wamang (31), a separatist rebel, was
sentenced to life in prison and his accomplices up to seven years.
(Reuters, 8/31/02)(SSFC, 10/27/02, p.A20)(AP,
11/7/06)
2002 Aug 31, At least 13 people
died and scores more were rescued when an Indonesian ferry carrying
more than 100 passengers caught fire and exploded after leaving Baubau
in southern Sulawesi province.
(Reuters, 8/31/02)
2002 Aug 31, Israeli soldiers
arrested Hasan Yousef, the Islamic militant group Hamas' top political
leader, in the West Bank town of Ramallah. An Israeli helicopter fired
three missiles at a Palestinian car, killing three men inside and two
children standing nearby.
(AP, 8/30/02)
2002 Aug 31, Five Kurdish migrants
were found dead in the back of a cargo truck after they apparently
suffocated during a harrowing ferry crossing from Greece to Italy.
(AP, 8/31/02)
2002 Aug 31, Kuwait will buy 16
attack helicopters from Boeing in a deal worth $886 million. Defense
Minister Sheik Jaber Mubarak Al Hamad and U.S. Ambassador Richard Jones
signed the deal.
(AP, 8/31/02)
2002 Aug 31, Malaysia said it has
agreed to temporarily halt deportation of Filipino workers and their
families amid public outrage over reports of their mistreatment.
(Reuters, 8/31/02)
2002 Aug 31, It was reported that
Mexican police had arrested Juan Heriberto Carrillo Olivas, a Mexican
citizen, headed a gang in El Paso, Texas, that used a fleet of
tractor-trailers to transport cocaine to other U.S. cities.
(AP, 8/31/02)
2002 Aug 31, The justice minister
of the Netherlands Antilles said Colombian assassins are behind a
series of execution-style slayings in Curacao, which has seen drug
seizures soar in recent years. There have been 28 killings since the
beginning of the year.
(AP, 8/31/02)
2002 Aug 31, A Palestinian gunman
opened fire in a Jewish settlement in the West Bank, seriously wounding
two people before being shot dead.
(AP, 8/31/02)
2002 Aug 31, A Russian helicopter
was downed by a missile in Chechnya, killing two.
(AP, 8/31/02)
2002 Aug 31, In South Africa some
10,000 people marched from a township of tin shacks and open sewers to
the glittering venue of a U.N. development summit to protest that world
leaders are not doing enough to fight poverty.
(AP, 8/31/02)
2003 Aug 31, In Gerlach, Nevada,
the "Temple of Honor" by David Best went up in flames. Some 30,500
people attended the weeklong "Burning Man" event.
(SFC, 9/1/03, p.A1)
2003 Aug 31, The burned body of
Katie Sepich (22) was found at an old dump in Las Cruces, NM. She had
been raped and strangled earlier that same day. In 2006 DNA evidence
identified Gabriel Adrian Avila, already in prison for burglary and
assault, as her killer.
(SFC, 2/28/07, p.B5)(http://tinyurl.com/yvb63k)
2003 Aug 31, In Afghanistan 2 US
soldiers were killed in Paktika province.
(SFC, 9/1/03, p.A3)x
2003 Aug 31, It was reported that
Congo tribal fighters killed at least 200 people over the last month
and abducted scores more during a series of attacks that destroyed,
Fataki, a northeast town once controlled by a rival tribe.
(AP, 8/31/03)
2003 Aug 31, Vowing revenge and
beating their chests, more than 300,000 Shiites marched behind the
rose-strewn coffin of a beloved cleric, Ayatollah Mohammad Baqir
al-Hakim, who had been assassinated in a car bombing in Najaf, Iraq.
(AP, 8/31/04)
2003 Aug 31, Libyan leader Moammar
Gadhafi said a second agreement over compensation has been reached
between his country and the families of 170 victims of a French
airliner that exploded in 1989.
(AP, 9/1/03)
2003 Aug 31, At least 675,000
people in Malawi urgently need food aid despite the country's good
harvest, the UN World Food Program reported.
(AP, 8/31/03)
2003 Aug 31, In Taiwan a fire
engulfed an apartment building on the outskirts of Taipei before dawn,
killing at least 13 people and injuring dozens.
(AP, 8/31/03)
2004 Aug 31, Arnold Schwarzenegger
and Laura Bush spoke on the 2nd night of the Republican Convention in
NYC as police arrested nearly 1,000 demonstrators.
(AP, 8/31/04)
2004 Aug 31, A report was filed
with the SEC that said Conrad Black and associates systematically
looted Hollinger Int’l. of more than $400 million from 1997-2003. In
2007 Black (62) was convicted in Illinois U.S. District Court. He was
sentenced to serve 78 months in federal prison, pay Hollinger $6.1
million and a fine of $125,000. Black was guilty of diverting funds for
personal benefit from money due Hollinger International when the
company sold certain publishing assets and he obstructed justice by
taking possession of documents to which he was not entitled. Black's
three co-defendants, former Hollinger International vice presidents
John Boultbee (64) of Vancouver and Peter Y. Atkinson (60) of Toronto
and attorney Mark Kipnis (59) of Chicago were all found guilty of three
counts of mail fraud.
(SFC, 9/1/04, p.C3)(WSJ, 9/1/04,
p.A1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conrad_Black)
2004 Aug 31, Apple introduced its
3rd generation iMac with the computer built into the monitor.
(SFC, 9/1/04, p.C1)
2004 Aug 31, US astronomers
reported finding 2 planets orbiting distant stars. One was near 55
Cancri, 41 light-years away; the other was near Gliese 436, 33
light-years away.
(SFC, 9/1/04, p.A1)
2004 Aug 31, Tropical Storm Gaston
flooded Richmond and other parts of central Virginia with a foot or
more of rain. Five people were killed.
(AP, 8/31/04)(WSJ, 9/1/04, p.A1)
2004 Aug 31, In southern Guatemala
landless farm workers resisted police attempts to remove them from a
farm they had occupied and at least four police officers and three
farmers died in the battle.
(AP, 8/31/04)
2004 Aug 31, A video purporting to
show the methodical, grisly killings of 12 Nepalese construction
workers kidnapped in Iraq was posted on a Web site linked to a militant
group operating in Iraq.
(AP, 8/31/04)
2004 Aug 31, In northern Iraq
Ibrahim Ismael, head of Kirkuk’s education department, was killed in a
drive-by shooting as he drove to work.
(AP, 8/31/04)
2004 Aug 31, In Beersheba, Israel,
Palestinian suicide bombers exploded two buses almost simultaneously,
killing at least 16 people and wounding more than 80.
(AP, 8/31/04)(AP, 9/1/04)
2004 Aug 31, In Mexico suspects
beat to death Francisco Arratia Saldierna (55), a newspaper columnist
and dumped his body outside the offices of the Red Cross in the border
city of Matamoros.
(AP, 8/31/04)
2004 Aug 31, A woman strapped with
explosives blew herself up outside a busy Moscow subway station,
killing at least 10 people.
(AP, 8/31/05)
2004 Aug 31, The Sudanese
government said rebels in Darfur had kidnapped 22 health workers in the
strife-torn region, following the abduction of eight Sudanese nationals
working for international aid groups.
(AFP, 8/31/04)
2004 Aug 31, An official said
Turkish troops had killed 11 Kurdish rebels in southeastern Turkey
during the past three days.
(AP, 8/31/04)
2004 Aug 31, The WTO ruled that
the Byrd amendment of 2000 is a violation of its trade rules. The
amendment authorized that money collected from anti-dumping tariffs be
disbursed to US companies hit by unfairly, low-priced imports.
(WSJ, 9/1/04, p.A3)
2005 Aug 31, The Bush
administration said it will release oil from federal petroleum reserves
to help refiners affected by Hurricane Katrina. New Orleans Mayor Ray
Nagin said there was a significant number of dead bodies in the water''
following Hurricane Katrina; Nagin ordered virtually the entire police
force to abandon search-and-rescue efforts and instead stop thieves who
were becoming increasingly hostile. President Bush pledged to do all in
our power'' to save lives and provide sustenance but cautioned that
recovery of the Gulf Coast would take years.
(AP, 8/31/05)(AP, 8/31/06)
2005 Aug 31, At least 25,000 of
Hurricane Katrina's refugees, a majority of them at the New Orleans
Superdome, began traveling in a bus convoy to Houston and will be
sheltered at the 40-year-old Astrodome, which hasn't been used for
professional sporting events in years. New Orleans Mayor Nagin called
for a total evacuation. He said hundreds were dead and ordered police
to stop looters.
(AP, 8/31/05)(SFC, 9/1/05, p.A1)
2005 Aug 31, Theodore Sarbin
(b.1911), noted UC Berkeley psychology professor, died. In 1990 he
co-wrote the report “Gays in Uniform: The Pentagon’s Secret Reports,”
which prompted Pres. Clinton’s policy of “don’t ask, don’t tell.”
(SFC, 9/3/05, p.B4)
2005 Aug 31, Militants kidnapped
David Addison, a British engineer, and his interpreter after an attack
in western Afghanistan that left at least three policemen dead.
Addison’s body was found Sep 3.
(AP, 9/1/05)(Reuters, 9/3/05)
2005 Aug 31, Joseph Rotblat
(b.1909), Polish-born British physicist and Nobel Peace Prize winner
(1995), died in London. In 1957 he helped found the Pugwash Conference
on science and world affairs.
(SFC, 9/2/05, p.B5)
2005 Aug 31, The Chinese
government signed an agreement with the UN human rights agency to
collaborate on reforming China's legal system in preparation for
adopting a key UN treaty on civil and political rights.
(AP, 8/31/05)
2005 Aug 31, A government
newspaper reported that China is suspending production at 7,000 coal
mines, nearly one-third of the nationwide total, in a safety crackdown
on the accident-plagued industry.
(AP, 8/31/05)
2005 Aug 31, Indonesia's President
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said the government needs to cut fuel
subsidies, in effect raising gasoline prices for the public, to lift
the nation's beleaguered currency and stave off an economic crisis.
(AP, 8/31/05)
2005 Aug 31, Indonesia released
hundreds of Acehnese rebel prisoners, honoring a major concession in a
recent peace deal and triggering tearful reunions as the former inmates
returned to their tsunami-devastated homeland.
(AP, 8/31/05)
2005 Aug 31, In Iraq panic
engulfed thousands of Shiites marching across a bridge in a religious
procession after rumors spread that a suicide bomber was about to
attack, triggering a stampede that killed over 960 people. Hundreds of
thousands of Shiites had been marching across the bridge, which links
Baghdad's Shiite Kazimiyah district with heavily Sunni Azamiyah. They
were heading for the tomb of Imam Mousa al-Kadhim (d.799), an 8th
century Shiite saint, about a mile from the span.
(AP,
9/1/05)(http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4203784.stm)
2005 Aug 31, In Iraq a US soldier
was shot to death in Iskandariya.
(SFC, 9/3/05, p.A3)
2005 Aug 31, In the Ivory Coast a
UN peacekeeper was killed in a knife attack in a northern rebel
stronghold of the war-divided country.
(AP, 8/31/05)
2005 Aug 31, A new report said
police last January in Papua New Guinea had collared a teen suspected
of picking the pocket of a soldier and dispensed their own justice. The
officers beat him, slammed his head into a truck and burned him.
(AP, 9/1/05)
2005 Aug 31, In the Philippines a
congressional committee voted to quash all impeachment complaints
against President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo with the opposition
boycotting.
(AP, 8/31/05)
2005 Aug 31, In Russia Mikhail
Khodorkovsky, the billionaire oil tycoon who was sentenced to nine
years' imprisonment in a politically charged trial this year, said he
will run for a seat in the national parliament.
(AP, 8/31/05)
2005 Aug 31, Some 200 Somalis and
Ethiopians left Somalia's semiautonomous Puntland region in two boats.
Smugglers making the illegal crossing from Somalia to Yemen forced
passengers into the Red Sea at gunpoint 10 miles from the Yemeni
coastline, leaving at least 57 dead and about 100 missing.
(AP, 9/5/05)
2005 Aug 31, A South African
inventor unveiled a new anti-rape female condom that hooks onto an
attacker's penis and aims to cut one of the highest rates of sexual
assault in the world.
(Reuters, 8/31/05)
2005 Aug 31, Conservationists in
South Africa unveiled a $30 million plan to save the great apes of
Africa, which are under threat of extinction from man and disease. The
plan designated 12 sites in five countries for emergency programs:
Cameroon, Gabon, Congo, Central African Republic, and Equatorial Guinea.
(AP, 8/31/05)
2005 Aug 31, In Spain tens of
thousands of people armed with 100 tons of plum tomatoes took part in
the "Tomatina," joyously splattering each other in the town of Bunol.
(AP, 8/31/05)
2005 Aug 31, Orhan Pamuk, a
Turkish novelist, was charged with insulting his country's national
character and could face prison. In February Pamuk was quoted as saying
in an interview with a Swiss newspaper magazine: "Thirty-thousand Kurds
and one million Armenians were killed in these lands and nobody but me
dares to talk about it."
(AP, 8/31/05)
2005 Aug 31, Zimbabwe state
television said the country has paid back 120 million dollars of its
300-million-dollar (245-million-euro) debt to the International
Monetary Fund (IMF), which had threatened to expel Harare for arrears.
(AFP, 8/31/05)
2006 Aug 31, President George
Bush, speaking in Salt Lake City, predicted victory in the war on
terror, likening the struggle against Islamic fundamentalism with the
fight against Nazis and communists.
(AP, 8/31/07)
2006 Aug 31, The United States
carried out a subcritical nuclear experiment successfully at an
underground test site in Nevada, the 2nd this year and the 23rd such
test since 1997.
(http://iraqwar.mirror-world.ru/article/100778)
2006 Aug 31, In California Tony J.
Daniloo (32) of Turlock was indicted on 122 charges of fraud and money
laundering for allegedly embezzling $7 million from homeowners in the
East Bay and the Central Valley.
(SFC, 9/1/06, p.B12)
2006 Aug 31, NASA awarded a
multibillion contract to Lockheed Martin Corp. to send astronauts to
the moon and maybe on to Mars. The projected Orion crew exploration
vehicle program will cost an estimated $7.5 billion through 2019.
(SFC, 9/1/06, p.A7)
2006 Aug 31, In southern Montana a
wildfire burned 20 houses and 15 other buildings as it spread over some
156,000 acres.
(SFC, 9/1/06, p.A3)
2006 Aug 31, In New York 2 state
troopers were shot while staking out the property of a former
girlfriend of escaped convict Ralph Phillips. Trooper Joseph Longobardo
(32) died from his wounds on Sep 3. Phillips, a 44-year-old career
thief who has spent 20 of the past 23 years in state prison,
surrendered Sep 8 without firing a shot.
(SSFC, 9/3/06, p.A3)(AP, 9/9/06)
2006 Aug 31, J.S. Holliday
(b.1924), California historian, died. His book included “The World
Rushed In” (1981), a history of the California gold rush.
(SFC, 9/2/06, p.B1)
2006 Aug 31, In Afghanistan
Taliban militants attacked Naw Zad in Helmand province, sparking
intense fighting with government troops that left two insurgents dead.
In Zabul province a suicide attacker plowed his explosives-filled car
into a police convoy traveling on the main road, wounding three
officers. A Dutch F-16 fighter jet crashed in the Ghazni province in
central Afghanistan, killing the pilot.
(AP, 8/31/06)
2006 Aug 31, In Argentina tens of
thousands gathered in the central square of Buenos Aires for one of the
biggest anti-crime rallies ever seen there. It was organized by Juan
Carlos Blumberg, a businessman and leader of the law-and-order movement.
(Econ, 9/9/06, p.39)
2006 Aug 31, A minister said
Bangladesh has bowed to demands from protestors and cancelled a 734
million pound (1.4-billion dollar) plan by British firm Asia Energy to
build an open-pit coal mine.
(AFP, 8/31/06)
2006 Aug 31, Heng Pov, former
Phnom Penh police chief, was arrested at a hotel in Singapore when a
clerk brought food for him. A Cambodian court warrant had been recently
issued against him accusing him of involvement in a number of crimes
such as the killing of Phnom Penh judge Sok Sethamony, assassination
attempts on general Sao Sokha and judge Uk Savuth, as well as a number
of other criminal cases. Pov claimed that he was being framed for
refusing orders to kill Hok Lundy, the internal security chief.
(http://tinyurl.com/gtumm)(Econ, 9/9/06, p.46)
2006 Aug 31, A Chinese court
sentenced Ching Cheong, a Hong Kong reporter, to five years in prison
on spying charges in a case that prompted outcries by press freedom
groups. In Hunan Province a mine gas explosion killed at least nine
people.
(AP, 8/31/06)(Reuters, 9/3/06)
2006 Aug 31, Sen. Barack Obama,
D-Ill., visited a sprawling tent camp in eastern Ethiopia for people
displaced by devastating floods earlier this month, saying the US
military will continue to help the region.
(AP, 8/31/06)
2006 Aug 31, Sexus Politicus, by
co-authors Christophe Dubois and Christophe Deloire, was published in
France. It revealed decades of philandering, adultery and seduction at
the heart of the French state, with politicians of all colors
apparently sharing the same passion for extra-marital sex.
(AP, 8/31/06)
2006 Aug 31, Guyana’s elections
commission said President Bharrat Jagdeo won re-election and his ruling
People's Progressive Party increased its majority in Guyana's
parliament. The PPP received 183,887 votes, or about 55%, and increased
its seats in parliament by two to 36.
(AP, 9/1/06)
2006 Aug 31, In eastern India at
least 30 people drowned when a crowded boat capsized in the
rain-swollen Ganges River in the state of Bihar.
(AP, 8/31/06)
2006 Aug 31, Indian officials said
more than 11,000 Tamil refugees have fled to India since January to
escape renewed fighting between the Sri Lankan army and separatist
rebels and more are likely to come.
(AFP, 8/31/06)
2006 Aug 31, Iran defied a UN
deadline to stop enriching uranium.
(AP, 8/31/07)
2006 Aug 31, PM Nouri al-Maliki
said Iraqi security forces will take over Dhi Qar province in
September, and will take over the control of more provinces during the
rest of the year. A suicide car bomb targeting a line of cars waiting
at a Baghdad gas station killed two people and wounded 13. A barrage of
coordinated attacks across eastern Baghdad neighborhoods killed at
least 64 people and wounded 286 within half an hour. The dead included
at least 13 women and a dozen children. A total of 85 people were
killed across the country.
(AP, 8/31/06)(AP, 9/1/06)(SFC, 9/1/06, p.A3)
2006 Aug 31, The Israeli army said
that it has transferred control over a portion of the Israel-Lebanon
border to Lebanese and international troops for the first time in two
decades.
(AP, 8/31/06)
2006 Aug 31, Israeli soldiers
searching for tunnels and explosives withdrew from the outskirts of
Gaza City, ending a five-day operation that Palestinians said left 20
people dead and heavily damaged houses, streets and farmlands.
Palestinian militants fired five homemade rockets into Israel, defying
the calls by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to halt the attacks.
(AP, 8/31/06)
2006 Aug 31, Kenya stepped up
criticism of US Senator Barack Obama, accusing him of insulting the
Kenyan people and trivializing their achievements during a visit to his
father's homeland. Obama had rebuked Kibaki's government for failing to
address corruption and said Kenya's democratic progress "is in
jeopardy... being threatened by corruption."
(AP, 9/1/06)
2006 Aug 31, Hurricane John
pummeled Mexico's resort-studded Pacific Coast with wind and rain.
(AP, 8/31/06)
2006 Aug 31, The UN Security
Council passed a resolution that would give the United Nations
authority over peacekeepers in Darfur as soon as Sudan's government
gives its consent, which it has so far refused to do.
(AP, 8/31/06)
2006 Aug 31, An internal
investigation concluded that a UN official steered millions of dollars
in contracts to a company owned by the government of his native India
in exchange for favors that included low-rent apartments.
(AP, 9/1/06)
2006 Aug 31, In southern Thailand
nearly two dozen bombs exploded almost simultaneously inside commercial
banks, killing two people in a region bloodied by a Muslim insurgency.
(AP, 8/31/06)
2007 Aug 31, President Bush met
privately at the Pentagon with the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who conveyed
their concern about a growing strain on troops and their families from
long and repeated combat tours in Iraq. Bush also announced a set of
modest proposals to deal with an alarming rise in mortgage defaults.
(AP, 8/31/08)
2007 Aug 31, Mike Nifong,
the disgraced former district attorney of Durham County, N.C., was
sentenced to a day in jail after being held in criminal contempt of
court for lying to a judge when pursuing rape charges against three
falsely accused Duke University lacrosse players.
(AP, 8/31/08)
2007 Aug 31, A federal appeals
court allowed the US Navy to resume underwater sonar blasts in
anti-submarine warfare tests off of Southern California, saying
military needs come before whales. A federal judge ruled that giant
pumps in northern California supplying water to southern California
were killing smelt and would have to be shut down for much of the year.
(SFC, 9/1/07, p.B3)(Econ, 9/8/07, p.36)
2007 Aug 31, In Iowa Polk County
Judge Robert Hanson cleared the way gay marriage when he ruled that a
state law allowing marriage only between a man and woman violated the
constitutional rights of due process and equal protection. County
attorney John Sarcone said the county would appeal to the state Supreme
Court, and he immediately sought a stay that would prevent gay couples
from seeking a marriage license until the appeal is resolved.
(AP, 8/31/07)
2007 Aug 31, The 34th annual
Telluride Film Festival opened in Colorado.
(SFC, 9/3/07, p.E1)
2007 Aug 31, The World Trade
Organization opened a formal investigation into allegations by the US
and Mexico that China is providing illegal subsidies for a range of
industries.
(AP, 8/31/07)
2007 Aug 31, In eastern
Afghanistan a barrage of rockets missed a US-led coalition base but hit
houses in the nearby village of Babul, killing 10 civilians and
wounding seven. Outside the gates of the Kabul airport, a suicide car
bomber targeting a patrol of German soldiers killed two Afghan soldiers
and wounded 10 others. A senior Afghan official close to the
negotiations alleged the South Koreans paid a ransom for their released
hostages. In southern Helmand province, a combined police and US-led
coalition patrol came under attack with mortar, rocket-propelled
grenade and small-arms fire. In the fight that ensued, "almost two
dozen" insurgents were killed. More than 20 insurgents were killed and
11 others were detained, while officers also discovered a bomb-making
factory in the remote Pitigal Valley border region. Afghan police
attacked a group of Taliban who were planning to strike security forces
in the central Afghan province of Ghazni, killing 18 and arresting six
others.
(AP, 8/31/07)(AP, 9/1/07)
2007 Aug 31, Australia and India
agreed to study the possibility of a free trade agreement. Trade
Minister Warren Truss said it was a natural result of New Delhi's
rising economic power.
(AP, 8/31/07)
2007 Aug 31, In Vienna, Austria,
negotiators from 158 countries reached basic agreement, at a UN
conference on climate, on rough targets aimed at getting some of the
world's biggest polluters to reduce emissions of the greenhouse gases
blamed for global warming.
(AP, 8/31/07)(WSJ, 9/1/07, p.A1)
2007 Aug 31, China officially put
in place systems to recall unsafe food and toys, one of its strongest
steps yet to deal with recurring quality problems. At least 12 miners
were missing after an explosion in central China. Authorities continued
their efforts to reach 181 workers trapped in flooded coal shafts for
two weeks.
(AP, 8/31/07)
2007 Aug 31, Colombia's Alvaro
Uribe and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez agreed to allow a
representative of Colombia's largest guerrilla group to travel to
Caracas for talks aimed at freeing dozens of rebel-held hostages,
including three U.S. defense contractors.
(AP, 8/31/07)
2007 Aug 31, In Finland
representatives of feuding Sunni and Shiite groups in Iraq began a
2-day meeting at a seminar behind closed doors to discuss ways of
ending the bloodshed.
(AP, 8/31/07)
2007 Aug 31, Officials in Greece
said all major blazes were under control, and firefighters were working
to extinguish smaller fires in the southern part of the country. The
fires cost the country at least $1.6 billion and left 67 people dead.
The government provided 13,000 euros to those suffering losses.
(AP, 8/31/07)(AP, 9/8/07)(Econ, 9/1/07, p.47)
2007 Aug 31, As of today at least
3,737 members of the US military have died since the beginning of the
Iraq war in March 2003. The figure includes seven military civilians.
At least 3,061 died as a result of hostile action. Iraqi health
officials said up to 10 people have died from cholera in northern Iraq.
(AP, 9/1/07)(SFC, 9/1/07, p.A6)
2007 Aug 31, Israeli divers found
the bodies of two sailors missing in the Mediterranean Sea, 12 hours
after their cargo ship sank in a collision with a passenger liner.
(AP, 8/31/07)
2007 Aug 31, Leading Japanese
mobile phone carrier NTT DoCoMo Inc. said it will tie up with broadband
provider ACCA Networks to introduce ultra-fast mobile WiMAX technology.
(AFP, 8/31/07)
2007 Aug 31, Lebanese army
helicopters stepped up raids on al-Qaida-inspired Islamic militants
barricaded in a Palestinian refugee camp in the country's north after
five soldiers were killed over the last 2 days.
(AP, 8/31/07)
2007 Aug 31, In southern Nepal
tainted liquor killed at least 15 people and sickened several others on
the outskirts of Janakpur over the last 2 days.
(AP, 9/1/07)
2007 Aug 31, In Gaza a protest of
Hamas rule by Fatah supporters turned violent when Hamas men began
forcefully dispersing the crowd, firing in the air and beating
demonstrators and reporters. Five people were wounded in the clashes,
including two French journalists.
(AP, 8/31/07)
2007 Aug 31, A car bomb exploded
near a police vehicle in Russia's troubled North Caucasus region,
killing four police officers in Nazran, Ingushetia.
(AP, 8/31/07)
2007 Aug 31, Russian Foreign
Minister Sergei Lavrov said Russia will accept a partition of
Serbia's Kosovo province if that is the solution agreed by Belgrade and
Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority. Both Serbia and the Kosovo Albanians
have said they oppose partition but they have shown no sign of reaching
agreement on the central issue of independence for Kosovo.
(Reuters, 8/31/07)
2007 Aug 31, In northwest Sri
Lanka government forces and Tamil Tiger rebels traded artillery fire,
with each side claiming heavy casualties against the other as well as
among civilians.
(AP, 9/1/07)
2007 Aug 31, The Thai government
said it has lifted a four-month ban on YouTube after the popular
video-sharing Web site's operator agreed not to allow videos that
violate the country's laws or are deemed offensive to Thai people. 3
people including a state railway worker were shot dead in separate
attacks in the restive Muslim-majority south.
(AP, 8/31/07)
2007 Aug 31, Turkey's PM Erdogan
laid out a policy vision for the next five years that focuses on
pursuing EU membership and defending the state's secular and democratic
principles.
(AP, 8/31/07)
2007 Aug 31, State media said
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe has banned all pay rises without
authorization and given himself extra powers in a new bid to curb the
world's highest inflation rate.
(AP, 8/31/07)
2008 Aug 31, John McCain, GOP
presidential nominee, directed party officials to drastically scale
back plans for their convention, set to begin Sep 1 in St. Paul, Minn.,
and refocus efforts on helping potential victims of Hurricane Gustav.
(SFC, 9/1/08, p.A1)
2008 Aug 31, Estimates from
distributor Warner Brothers said "The Dark Knight" had become the
second movie in Hollywood history to top $500 million at the domestic
box office, raising its total to $502.4 million. "Titanic," the biggest
modern blockbuster, remained No. 1 on the domestic charts with $600.8
million.
(AP, 9/1/08)
2008 Aug 31, SF closed vehicle
traffic to 4.5 miles of its waterfront streets for the city’s first
Sunday Streets day encouraging thousands to come out for the 9 a.m. to
1 p.m. event.
(SFC, 9/1/08, p.A1)
2008 Aug 31, Cubans returned from
shelters to find flooded homes and washed-out roads, but no deaths were
reported after a monstrous Hurricane Gustav roared across the island
and into the oil-rich Gulf of Mexico.
(AP, 8/31/08)
2008 Aug 31, Allianz, a
Germany-based insurer, sold Dresdner, a German bank, to Commerzbank for
$14.2 billion.
(Econ, 9/6/08, p.88)
2008 Aug 31, Mexico’s President
Felipe Calderon promised to adopt several proposals from civic groups
who led more than 100,000 Mexicans in marches against daily kidnappings
and killings.
(AP, 9/1/08)
2008 Aug 31, Pakistan said it will
suspend its military operations against insurgents in a tribal region
along the Afghan border in honor of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Pakistani Taliban said they will continue attacks during Ramadan. A
missile fired from an unmanned aircraft hit a house in the North
Waziristan tribal area, killing six people including a woman and a
young girl.
(AP, 8/31/08)(Reuters, 8/31/08)(AFP, 8/31/08)
2008 Aug 31, Palestinian President
Mahmoud Abbas rejected Israel's idea of an interim peace agreement at a
summit, insisting on an all-or-nothing approach that virtually ruled
out an accord by a January target date.
(AP, 8/31/08)
2008 Aug 31, Paraguay’s Pres.
Fernando Lugo said Paraguay will reverse its historic support for
Taiwan (since 1957) at the upcoming UN General Assembly, and also is
reconsidering its relations with communist regimes. In return for
Paraguay's 51 years of support, Taiwan has sent millions of dollars to
the impoverished country for low-income housing, agricultural
development and scholarships.
(AP, 9/1/08)
2008 Aug 31, President Dmitry
Medvedev says Russia will follow the recognition of Georgia's breakaway
provinces with agreements on economic and military aid.
(AP, 8/31/08)
2008 Aug 31, Police arrested
Magomed Yevloyev, the owner of the Ingushetiya.ru web site, taking him
off a plane that had just landed in Ingushetia province. Police whisked
Yevloyev away in a car and later dumped him on the road with a gunshot
wound in the head. Yevloyev died in a hospital shortly afterward.
(AP, 8/31/08)
2008 Aug 31, In South Africa
strong winds fanned runaway fires across the country killing at least
16 people, including two children.
(AFP, 9/1/08)
2008 Aug 31, Sri Lanka’s defense
ministry said troops killed 12 rebels in the north, while three
soldiers also died in combat.
(AP, 8/31/08)
2008 Aug 31, Thailand's Parliament
convened an emergency session at the request of the country's prime
minister, who acknowledged that his administration cannot control
spiraling anti-government protests.
(AP, 8/31/08)
2008 Aug 31, Venezuela rejected US
requests to resume cooperation in the war on drugs, saying it has made
progress despite an alleged fourfold-gain in the amount of Colombian
cocaine now passing through its territory.
(AP, 8/31/08)
2008 Aug 31, Zimbabwe's rival
parties returned home from talks in South Africa with no sign of a
power-sharing deal to resolve the country's bitter political crisis.
(AFP, 8/31/08)
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