Today in History - December 4
Return to home
771 Dec 4, With
the death of his brother Carloman, Charlemagne became sole ruler of the
Frankish Empire.
(HN, 12/4/98)
1110 Dec 4, Syria harbor city of
Saida (Sidon) surrendered to the Crusaders.
(MC, 12/4/01)
1197 Dec 4, Crusaders wounded
Rabbi Elezar ben Judah.
(MC, 12/4/01)
1371 Dec 4, Reinald III (38),
("The Fat,") duke of Gelre (1343-61), died.
(MC, 12/4/01)
1514 Dec 4, Richard Hunne, English
"heretic", allegedly committed suicide.
(MC, 12/4/01)
1534 Dec 4, Turkish sultan
Suleiman occupied Baghdad.
(MC, 12/4/01)
1584 Dec 4, John Cotton,
English-born Puritan clergyman who wrote “The Way of the Church of
Christ in New England,” was born.
(HN, 12/4/98)
1619 Dec 4, A group of settlers
from Bristol, England, arrived at Berkeley Hundred in present-day
Charles City County, Va., where they held a service thanking God for
their safe arrival. Some suggest this was the true first Thanksgiving
in America, ahead of the Pilgrims' arrival in Massachusetts.
(AP, 12/4/08)
1642 Dec 4, Cardinal Armand-Jean
Duplessis Richelieu (57), French statesman and bishop of Luzon, died.
"If you give me six lines written by the most honest man, I will find
something in them to hang him." "He did too much harm to be praised,
and too much good to be damned."
(MC, 12/4/01)(WSJ, 9/24/02, p.D8)(Econ, 1/24/04,
p.75)
1665 Dec 4, Jean Racine's
"Alexandre le Grand," premiered in Paris.
(MC, 12/4/01)
1679 Dec 4, Thomas Hobbes
(b.1588), English philosopher and author of Leviathan, died. "The
reputation of power IS power." Hobbes sought to separate politics from
religion.
(WSJ, 7/30/03, p.A12)(WSJ, 9/15/07,
p.W10)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Hobbes)
1688 Dec 4, General strategist
John Churchill (later Duke of Marlborough) joined with William III.
(MC, 12/4/01)
1674 Dec 4, Father Marquette built
the 1st dwelling at what is now Chicago.
(MC, 12/4/01)
1732 Dec 4, John Gay (47), English
poet (Beggar's Opera), died.
(MC, 12/4/01)
1745 Dec 4, Bonnie Prince Charles
reached Derby.
(MC, 12/4/01)
1783 Dec 4, Gen. George
Washington said farewell to his officers at Fraunces Tavern in NYC. In
2003 Stanley Weintraub authored "General Washington's Christmas
Farewell."
(AP, 12/4/97)(SFEC, 6/21/98, p.T4)(WSJ, 12/10/03,
p.D8)
1791 Dec 4, Britain's Observer,
oldest Sunday newspaper in world, was 1st published.
(MC, 12/4/01)
1795 Dec 4, Thomas Carlyle
(d.1881), English (Scot) essayist, critic and historian, friend of
Ralph Waldo Emerson, was born. His work included “The French
Revolution” and “Sartor Resartus.” “A man doesn’t know what he knows,
until he knows what he doesn’t know.” "No great man lives in vain. The
history of the world is but the biography of great men."
(V.D.-H.K.p.400)(SFEC, 6/28/98, Z1 p.8)(AP,
7/2/98)(HN, 12/4/00)
1798 Dec 4, Luigi Galvani (61),
Italian anatomist and physicist, died.
(MC, 12/4/01)
1812 Dec 4, Peter Gaillard of
Lancaster, Pa., patented a horse-drawn mower.
(MC, 12/4/01)
1816 Dec 4, James Monroe of
Virginia was elected the fifth president of the United States. He
defeated Federalist Rufus King.
(AP, 12/4/97)(MC, 12/4/01)
1822 Dec 4, Frances Crabbe,
English feminist and founder of the Anti-Vivisection Society, was born.
(MC, 12/4/01)
1829 Dec 4, British colonial
rulers abolished "suttee" (Sati) in India. This was the practice of a
widow burning herself to death on her husband's funeral pyre.
(http://chnm.gmu.edu/wwh/p/103.html)(Reuters,
9/21/06)
1833 Dec 4, American Anti-Slavery
Society was formed by Arthur Tappan in Phila.
(MC, 12/4/01)
1835 Dec 4, Samuel Butler
(d.1902), English writer and painter, was born. His work included
“Erewhon” and “The Way of All Flesh.” “There are two great rules of
life, the one general and the other particular. The first is that
everyone can, in the end, get what he wants if he only tries. This is
the general rule. The particular rule is that every individual is more
or less an exception to the general rule.” “A hen is only an egg’s way
of making another egg.” “Life is one long process of getting tired.”
(AP, 4/25/97)(SFEC, 3/1/98, Z1 p.8)(AP, 4/22/98)(HN,
12/4/00)
1839 Dec 4, The Whig Party opened
a national convention in Harrisburg, Pa., where delegates nominated
William Henry Harrison for president. Soon after the Whigs constructed
a 10-foot ball of twine, wood and tin, covered with Whig slogans, and
rolled it from Cleveland to Columbus, Ohio, and across the country.
This led to the expression "Keep the ball rolling."
(AP, 12/4/99)(SSFC, 1/11/04, p.D6)
1843 Dec 4, Manila paper (made
from sails, canvas & rope) was patented in Mass.
(MC, 12/4/01)
1843 Dec 4, Robert Schumann's "Das
Paradied und die Peri," premiered in Leipzig.
(MC, 12/4/01)
1844 Dec 4, James K. Polk was
elected 11th president of US. His wife, Sarah, recognized that James
was insufficiently impressive to draw attention on appearance and
therefore began the tradition of having “Hail to the Chief” played when
he made a public showing.
(HFA, ‘96, p.46)(SFC, 7/14/96, Z 1 p.2)(MC,
12/4/01)
1861 Dec 4, Lillian Russell,
singer and actress, was born Helen Louise Leonard in Clinton, Iowa. She
performed in burlesque and light opera, debuting in Gilbert and
Sullivan's HMS Pinafore in 1879. Russell was praised for her voluptuous
beauty and was frequently photographed. Women everywhere tried to
emulate her plump physique by buying potions and corsets to accentuate
their curves. Although Russell was the ideal beauty of her time, her
186-pound figure--which she kept by eating without restraint--would be
quite a departure from today's standard of beauty. Russell later wrote
a newspaper column on health, beauty and love, and she died in 1922.
(HNPD, 12/3/98)
1861 Dec 4, The Federal Senate,
voting 36 to 0, expelled Senator John C. Breckenridge of Kentucky
because he joined the Confederate Army.
(HN, 12/4/98)
1861 Dec 4, Queen Victoria of
Britain forbade the export of gunpowder, firearms and all materials for
their production.
(HN, 12/4/98)
1862 Dec 4, Winchester, Va., fell
into Union hands, resulting in the capture of 145 Southern soldiers.
(HN, 12/4/98)
1863 Dec 4, Seven solid days of
bombardment ended at Charleston, S.C. The Union fired some 1,307 rounds.
(HN, 12/4/99)
1864 Dec 4, Battle of
Waynesborough (Brier Creek) Ga.
(MC, 12/4/01)
1864 Dec 4, Romanian Jews were
forbidden to practice law.
(MC, 12/4/01)
1865 Dec 4, Edith Cavell, English
nurse who tended to friend and foe alike during World War I, was born.
(HN, 12/4/98)
1866 Dec 4, Wassily Kandinsky
(d.1944), Russian artist, was born. He is credited with the invention
of abstract art.
(WUD, 1994, p.778)(WSJ, 8/13/99, p.W10)(HN, 12/4/00)
1867 Dec 4, The Order of Patrons
of Husbandry, more commonly known as the National Grange, was founded
by Oliver Kelley, a traveling clerk with the U.S. Department of
Agriculture. The original purpose of the Grange was to provide
enrichment opportunities for isolated farm families, but its purpose
quickly became economic and political. Farmers, particularly in the
Midwest and South, were frequently victimized by railroad monopolies
that charged exorbitant rates and storage fees. By 1872, 14 states had
Grange chapters and membership had risen to about 800,000. Grangers
took the lead in organizing farmers' cooperatives to successfully
distribute their own produce and in just a few years, Grangers had won
enough political support to influence national legislation regulating
railroads. The Grange was succeeded by the Farmers' Alliances and in
1891, farmers and labor organizers formed the influential People's
Party, or the Populist Party.
(HFA, ‘96, p.44)(WUD, 1994, p.615)(HNPD, 12/4/98)
1872 Dec 4, The U.S. brigantine
Marie Celeste was found adrift and deserted with its cargo intact, in
the Atlantic Ocean between the Azores and Portugal.
(HN, 12/4/00)
1875 Rainer Maria Rilke (d.1926),
German-Austrian poet, was born. He was born in Prague to
German-speaking parents. His works include New Poems (1907), his
autobiographical novel: “The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge,” and
his masterpieces the “Duino Elegies” and “The Sonnets to Orpheus.” His
mistress was Lou Andreas-Salome, a novelist, essayist and clinical
psychologist. Ralph Freedman wrote a biography of Rilke titled Life of
a Poet: Rainer Maria Rilke in 1996. His complete works were published
in 1966 and an annotated edition in 1996. In 1997 his early work was
published: “Diaries of a Young Poet,” translated by Edward Snow and
Michael Winkler. On the new year day: “And now let us believe in a long
year that is given to us, new, untouched, full of things that have
never been, full of work that has never been done, full of tasks,
claims, and demands; and let us see that we learn to take it without
letting fall too much of what it has to bestow upon those who demand of
it necessary, serious and great things.”
(WSJ, 3/19/96, p.A-12)(WSJ, 12/15/97, p.A20)(AP,
1/1/98)
1875 Dec 4, William Marcy Tweed
(d.1878), the "Boss" of New York City's Tammany Hall political
organization, escaped from jail and fled the country. He went to Cuba
and then Spain were he was identified from cartoons by Thomas Nast and
returned to prison.
(AP, 12/4/97)(Arch, 7/02, p.24)
1892 Dec 4, Francisco Franco (y
Bahamonde), Spanish general and dictator (1936-75), was born. He came
to power as a result of the Spanish Civil War.
(HN, 12/4/00)(MC, 12/4/01)
1900 Dec 4, The French National
Assembly, successor to the States-General, rejected Nationalist General
Mercier’s proposal to plan an invasion of England.
(HN, 12/4/98)
1903 Dec 4, Alfred Leslie Rowse
(d. 10/3/97), Shakespeare scholar and authority on Tudor England, was
born in St. Austell, England. He authored 90 volumes of history, poetry
and biography. His best seller was “A Cornish Childhood.” He asserted
that the “Dark Lady” in Shakespeare’s sonnets was the Italian poet
Emilis Bassano Lanier.
(SFEC, 10/5/97, p.D10)(MC, 12/4/01)
1911 Dec 4, The US Supreme Court
in Grigbsy v. Russell established the policy owner’s right to transfer
an insurance policy.
(Econ, 6/13/09, p.78)(http://tinyurl.com/nj4pe5)
1914 Dec 4, The first Seaplane
Unit formed by the German Navy officially came into existence and began
operations from Zeebrugge, Belgium.
(HN, 12/4/98)
1915 Dec 4, Ku Klux Klan received
a charter from Fulton County, Ga.
(MC, 12/4/01)
1918 Dec 4, President Wilson set
sail for France to attend the Versailles Peace Conference. He was the
1st chief executive to travel outside US while in office.
(AP, 12/4/97)
1918 Dec 4, France cancelled trade
treaties in order to compete in postwar economic battle.
(HN, 12/4/98)
1922 Dec 4, Gerard Philipe, actor
(Caligula, Le Diable au Corps), was born in Cannes, France.
(MC, 12/4/01)
1923 Dec 4, Cecil B. DeMille's 1st
version of "Ten Commandments" premiered.
(MC, 12/4/01)
1924 Dec 4, Frank Press,
geophysicist, was born.
(HN, 12/4/00)
1927 Dec 4, Duke Ellington opened
at the Cotton Club in Harlem.
(MC, 12/4/01)
1930 Dec 4, Vatican approved the
rhythm method for birth control.
(MC, 12/4/01)
1931 Dec 4, "Frankenstein" opened
at Mayfair.
(MC, 12/4/01)
1933 Dec 4, Jack Kirkland's
"Tobacco Road," premiered in NYC.
(MC, 12/4/01)
1935 Dec 4, 1,200 at St Joseph's
College, Philadelphia, enrolled in an anticommunism class.
(MC, 12/4/01)
1941 Dec 4, The Chicago Tribune
and the Washington Herald published FDR's top secret plan to invade
Europe in 1943.
(SFC, 12/29/99, p.E1)
1941 Dec 4, In Yreka, Ca., the new
state of Jefferson elected John C. Childs (71) as its 1st governor.
(AH, 2/05, p.22)
1941 Dec 4, Nazi ordinances placed
the Jews of Poland outside protection of courts.
(MC, 12/4/01)
1941 Dec 4, Operation Taifun
(Typhoon), which was launched by the German armies on October 2, 1941
as a prelude to taking Moscow, was halted because of freezing
temperatures and lack of serviceable aircraft. Temperatures near Moscow
fell to 40 degrees below zero the breech-blocks of German rifles froze
solid. The engines of their vehicles would not start. The Soviets began
a counter-attack with 17 armies and their T-34 tanks that included 25
Siberian divisions and the Nazis were forced to retreat in panic.
(SFC,10/29/97, p.A23)(HN, 12/4/98)
1942 Dec 4, President Roosevelt
ordered the dismantling of the Works Progress Administration, which had
been created to provide jobs during the Depression.
(AP, 12/4/97)
1942 Dec 4, U.S. bombers struck
the Italian mainland and Naples for the first time in World War II.
(AP, 12/4/97)(HN, 12/4/98)
1945 Dec 4, The Senate approved
U.S. participation in the United Nations.
(AP, 12/4/97)
1947 Dec 4, Tennessee William's
play “A Streetcar Named Desire” premiered on Broadway starring Marlon
Brando and Jessica Tandy. [see Dec 3]
(HN, 12/4/00)
1948 Dec 4, SS Kiangya hit a mine
in Whangpoo River, China. It sank and 2,750 were killed. [see Dec 3]
(MC, 12/4/01)
1950 Dec 4, University of
Tennessee defied court rulings by rejecting five Negro applicants.
(HN, 12/4/98)
1951 Dec 4, Copland-Robbins' "Pied
Piper," premiered in NYC.
(MC, 12/4/01)
1951 Dec 4, Superheated gases
rolled down Mount Catarman (Philippines), killing 500.
(MC, 12/4/01)
1952 Dec 4, The Grumman XS2F-1
made its first flight.
(HN, 12/4/98)
1952 Dec 4, Killer fogs began in
London, England. "Smog" became a word.
(MC, 12/4/01)
1959 Dec 4, Peking pardoned Pu Yi,
ex-emperor of China and of the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo.
Aisingyoro Henry Puyi, the last emperor, Xuantong, was declared
rehabilitated and released as “citizen” Puyi. He settled down as a
gardener and wrote the book “From Emperor to Citizen.”
(SFC, 6/11/97, p.C16)(HN, 12/4/98)
1960 Dec 4, The USSR vetoed
Mauritania's application for UN membership.
(EWH, 4th ed., p.1233)
1965 Dec 4, The United States
launched Gemini 7 with Air Force Lt. Col. Frank Borman and Navy Comdr.
James A. Lovell aboard.
(AP, 12/4/97)
1967 Dec 4, Bert Lahr (72),
[Irving Lahrheim], US comic (Wizard of Oz), died.
(MC, 12/4/01)
1968 Dec 4, The US stock market
began a 18 month decline of 44%.
(www.stockmarketcycles.com/sign_of_the_bear.htm)
1969 Dec 4, In Chicago police
stormed an apartment on the West Side and killed 2 Black Panthers, Fred
Hampton and Mark Clark. Panther defense minister Bobby Rush had left
the site just hours earlier.
(SFC, 12/15/99, p.AA4)
1972 Dec 4, Kenneth Parnell
(1931-2008), convicted sex offender, kidnapped Steven Stayner (7) in
Merced, Ca. Parnell had already served 3 years for molesting an
8-year-old boy in Bakersfield in 1952. Stayner (14) escaped in 1980
along with Timmy White (5) of Ukiah, Parnell was again sent to prison
and was paroled in 1985. In 2004 Parnell returned to prison after
trying to procure an African American boy.
(SFC, 1/23/08,
p.B5)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Parnell)
1974 Dec 4, Pioneer II made its
closest approach to Jupiter.
(www.astronautix.com/project/pioneer.htm)
1975 Dec 4, Ramos Horta helped
form an independent East Timor government but was forced to flee 3 days
before Indonesia invaded.
(SFEC, 6/27/99, p.A22)
1975 Dec 4, Hannah Arendt
(b.1906), German-born American historian and philosopher, died. Her
books included "The Origins of Totalitarianism." In 2001 Lotte Kohler
edited "Within Four Walls: The Correspondence Between Hannah Arendt and
Heinrich Blucher 1936-1938."
(WSJ, 8/31/99, p.A22)(SSFC, 4/15/01, BR
p.8)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannah_Arendt)
1976 Dec 4, Benjamin Britten
(b.1913), English composer, died.
(WSJ, 7/26/99, p.A21)
1977 Dec 4, Neil Simon's "Chapter
Two," premiered in NYC.
(http://web.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap8/simon.html)(http://tinyurl.com/yvtv65)
1977 Dec 4, Jean-Bedel Bokassa
(1921-1996), ruler of the Central African Empire, crowned himself
emperor in a ceremony duplicating the coronation of Napoleon. It was
believed to have cost more than $100 ($25) million. Bokassa was deposed
in 1979.
(AP, 12/4/97)(WSJ, 1/11/99,
p.R4)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-B%C3%A9del_Bokassa)
1978 Dec 4, San Francisco got its
first female mayor. The Board of Supervisors voted 6-2 for Dianne
Feinstein to replace the assassinated George Moscone. The Board voted
unanimously to rename Yerba Buena Convention Center after Moscone and
to name a new gay community center after Harvey Milk.
(AP, 12/4/98)(SFC, 12/5/03, p.E10)
1979 Dec 4, The Jeremiah O’Brien
Liberty ship was guided into dry dock at the Bethlehem Yard in SF for a
$1 million project to memorialize it as one of the last WW II Liberty
Ships. The project was led by Rear Admiral Thomas J. Patterson
(1924-2008).
(SFC, 12/3/04, p.F8)(SSFC, 10/5/08, p.B7)
1979 Dec 4, In Saudi Arabia
security forces overran the Grand Mosque in Mecca, which had been
seized on Nov 16. One of two African-American converts, who had
participated in the take-over of the mosque, was killed. The other was
later released and returned to the US. In 2007 Yaroslav Trofinov
authored “The Siege of Mecca.”
(WSJ, 9/18/07, p.A8)
1980 Dec 4, In El Salvador the
bodies of four American nuns slain two days earlier were unearthed.
Colonel Edgardo Casanova was the military commander of the area at the
time. Five national guardsmen were later convicted of murder and
sentenced in May 1984 to 30 years in prison. In 1998 the guardsmen
admitted that they were acting on orders from above. In 1993 a UN Truth
Commission report concluded that Colonel Carlos Eugenio Vides Casanova,
director of the National Guard and brother of Edgardo, and Gen’l. Jose
Guillermo Garcia, the minister of defense, had organized an official
cover-up. Both men were granted residence in the US. 3 of the 5
convicted guardsmen were released in 1998 due to prison overcrowding.
In 1999 families of the victims filed suit against Casanova and Garcia
who were living in Florida. In 2000 a federal jury cleared the 2
retired generals. In 2002 a Florida jury found Casanova and Garcia
responsible for torture and ordered payment of $54.6 million to 3
victims living in Florida.
(AP, 12/4/97)(SFC, 4/3/98, p.B2)(SFC, 4/23/98,
p.A16)(SFC, 6/25/98, p.A10) (SFC, 7/23/98, p.C2)(SFC, 5/13/99,
p.C3)(SFC, 11/3/00, p.A3)(SFC, 7/24/02, p.A12)
1981 Dec 4, "Falcon Crest"
premiered on CBS-TV and ran to 1990.
(www.imdb.com/title/tt0081858/)
1981 Dec 4, President Reagan
broadened the power of the CIA by allowing spying in the U.S. This was
Executive Order on Intelligence No 12333.
(HN, 12/4/98)(www.fas.org/irp/offdocs/eo12333.htm)
1982 Dec 4, Guatemalan Pres. Rios
Montt met with US Pres. Ronald Reagan in Honduras. Reagan dismissed
reports of human rights abuses in the region and lifted an arms embargo
to resume sales to military rulers.
(SSFC, 2/14/04,
p.M3)(www.consortiumnews.com/2007/012907.html)
1982 Dec 4, A new version of
China’s constitution dropped the worker’s right to strike.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_of_the_People's_Republic_of_China)
1983 Dec 4, US jet fighters struck
Syrian anti-aircraft positions in Lebanon in retaliation for
Syrian-backed attacks on the US peacekeeping force. The Syrian anti-air
defense shut down two American airplanes and a pilot was captured. The
positions of the Marines at the Beirut International Airport were
bombarded. Eight Marines were killed.
(http://tinyurl.com/35ek6z)(SFC, 4/27/05, p.A8)
1984 Dec 4, A five-day hijack
drama began as four armed men seized a Kuwaiti airliner en route to
Pakistan and forced it to land in Tehran, where the hijackers killed
American passenger Charles Hegna.
(AP, 12/4/04)
1985 Dec 4, Robert McFarland
resigned as US National Security Advisor. Admiral John Poindexter was
named to succeed.
(HN, 12/4/98)
1985 Dec 4, In SF, Ca., Barbara
Martz (28) was raped and stabbed to death when she walked in on a
robbery at her Potrero Hill home. In 2007 DNA evidence linked John
Davis, already in prison at Pelican Bay, to her murder. On Aug 27 Davis
was convicted of murder. On Dec 17 he sentenced to life in prison
without parole.
(SFC, 8/16/07, p.B3)(SFC, 8/28/07, p.B1)(SFC,
12/18/07, p.B3)
1986 Dec 4, Neil Simon's "Broadway
Bound" premiered in NYC.
(www.ibdb.com/production.asp?ID=4434)
1986 Dec 4, Both houses of US
Congress moved to establish special committees to conduct their own
investigations of the Iran-Contra affair.
(AP, 12/4/06)
1987 Dec 4, Cuban inmates at a
federal prison in Atlanta freed their 89 hostages, peacefully ending an
11-day uprising. The agreement provided for a nationwide moratorium on
deportations of Mariel detainees.
(AP, 12/4/97)
1988 Dec 4, The government of
Argentina announced that hundreds of heavily armed soldiers had ended a
four-day military revolt.
(AP, 12/4/98)
1988 Dec 4, In Venezuela, former
President Carlos Andres Perez was declared the winner of the country's
presidential election.
(AP, 12/4/98)
1989 Dec 4, President Bush briefed
NATO leaders in Brussels, Belgium, on the just-concluded Malta summit
with Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev.
(AP, 12/4/99)
1990 Dec 4, President Bush, on a
five-nation South American tour, said in Uruguay he was not convinced
that “sanctions alone” would bring Iraqi President Saddam Hussein “to
his senses” about invading Kuwait.
(AP, 12/4/00)
1990 Dec 4, Due to Persian Gulf
crisis gas prices hit $1.60 per gallon in NYC.
(http://tinyurl.com/s8h6r)
1990 Dec 4, Eric Larrabee (68),
magazine editor, author, arts administrator, teacher and champion of
the arts, died at his home in Manhattan. His books included “Commander
in Chief: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, His Lieutenants, and Their War”
(1987).
(WSJ, 1/12/08, p.W9)(http://tinyurl.com/2j2tkr)
1990 Dec 4, Iraq promised to
release 3300 Soviet citizens it was holding.
(AP, 12/4/00)
1991 Dec 4, The Judds’ final
concert took place in Nashville.
(www.wynonna.com/?em653=22855_0__0_~0_-1_3_2006_0_0&content=judds)
1991 Dec 4, Charles Keating,
Arizona land developer and chairman of Lincoln Savings and Loan
Association, was convicted on 17 counts of securities fraud in state
court. Keating was one of the most controversial figures in the savings
and loan scandals of the late 1980s. Keating's sales personnel
persuaded depositors to put their money into high-risk junk bonds.
(SFC, 6/22/96, p.A3)(MC, 12/4/01)
1991 Dec 4, Patricia Bowman
testified at William Kennedy Smith's trial in West Palm Beach, Fla.,
that Smith had raped her the previous Easter weekend.
(AP, 12/4/01)
1991 Dec 4, Pan American World
Airways ceased operations. However, a new, smaller version of Pan Am
was later formed.
(AP, 12/4/01)
1991 Dec 4, Associated Press
correspondent Terry Anderson, the longest held of Western hostages in
Lebanon, was released after nearly seven years in captivity. The last
American hostages in Lebanon were released.
(TMC, 1994, p.1991)(SFC, 9/26/96, p.A3)(AP,
12/4/97)(HN, 12/4/01)
1992 Dec 4, President Bush ordered
American troops to lead a mercy mission to Somalia, threatening
military action against warlords and gangs who were blocking food for
starving millions.
(AP, 12/4/97)
1993 Dec 4,
Astronauts aboard space shuttle Endeavour captured the near-sighted
Hubble Space Telescope for repairs.
(AP, 12/4/98)
1993 Dec 4, Authorities found the
body of 12-year-old kidnap victim Polly Klaas in a wooded area of
Cloverdale, Calif.
(AP, 12/4/04)
1993 Dec 4, Frank Zappa (52), rock
musician and composer, died in Los Angeles. In 2004 Barry Miles
authored “Frank Zappa: A Biography.”
(AP, 12/4/98)(SFC, 12/25/04, p.E2)
1994 Dec 4, Bosnian Serbs released
53 of some 400 U.N. peacekeepers held as insurance against further NATO
airstrikes.
(AP, 12/4/99)
1995 Dec 4, In a near-freezing
drizzle, the first NATO troops landed in the Balkans to begin setting
up a peace mission that brought American soldiers into the middle of
the Bosnian conflict.
(AP, 12/4/00)
1996 Dec 4, Judge Kevin Chang put
a stay on the order that Hawaii allow gay marriages pending a ruling by
the state Supreme Court.
(SFC, 12/5/96, p.A3)
1996 Dec 4, The Mars Pathfinder
[delayed from Dec 2] was launched from Cape Canaveral on a 310
million-mile odyssey to explore the planet's surface. It had a
remote-controlled 22-pound, 6-wheel, roving vehicle to sample Martian
soil and rock and send data back beginning on Jul 4, 1997.
(SFC, 8/8/96,p.A6)(SFC, 11/5/96, p.A4)(SFC, 12/4/96,
p.A4)(AP, 12/4/97)
1996 Dec 4, In South Africa a new
constitution was given final approval. It would go into full effect in
1999.
(SFC, 12/5/96, p.C2)
1996 Dec 4, In Tajikistan
government troops repulsed an attack by Islamic rebels. Pres. Emomali
Rakhmonov was to meet with the Muslim opposition. Russia had 25,000
troops guarding the 900-mile border with Afghanistan where the rebels
had bases.
(SFC, 12/5/96, p.C5)
1996 Dec 4, In Zaire government
troops went on a rampage of looting and raping in Kisangani. Rebels
announced the capture of Kindu 250 miles south of Kisangani.
(SFC, 12/5/96, p.C5)
1997 Dec 4, The National
Basketball Association suspended All-Star Latrell Sprewell of the
Golden State Warriors for one year for choking and threatening to kill
his coach, P.J. Carlesimo, three days earlier. An arbitrator later
reduced the suspension and reinstated Sprewell to the Warriors, which
had terminated his contract.
(AP, 12/4/98)
1997 Dec 4, In Santa Claus, Ga.,
Jerry Scott Heidler (20) was arrested for the murder of a couple and
their two children and the kidnapping of three foster children.
(SFC,12/5/97, p.A3)
1997 Dec 4, In Canada postal
workers ended their strike under threat of heavy fines with a 5.15%
wage increase over 3 years.
(SFC,12/5/97, p.B5)
1997 Dec 4, The EU banned tobacco
advertising and gave cigarette makers until 2006 to end sponsorship of
major sports and cultural events. Governments get 3 years to enact the
ban beginning Oct 1988 on all advertising except at stores that sell
cigarettes.
(SFC,12/5/97, p.B2)
1997 Dec 4, From France it was
reported that Paul Cezanne graces the new 100 franc bill. He replaced
Eugene Delacroix, who was on the old bill with his painting depicting
the French Revolution and its topless symbol Marianne.
(SFC, 12/4/97, p.C5)
1997 Dec 4, In Indonesia some
2,000 Dole farmworkers on Mindanao went on strike protesting low wages.
(SFC, 2/16/98, p.A10)
1997 Dec 4, In Liberia Samuel
Dokie, an opposition politician, was found slain in Bong County with
his wife and bodyguard. He had been reported missing after being
arrested by security men in Pres. Taylor’s stronghold of Gbarnga.
(SFC,12/5/97, p.B5)
1997 Dec 4, UNESCO designated
additional places as World Heritage sites at a conference in Naples.
Prior to the addition there were 506 sites designated over the last 25
years.
(SFC,12/5/97, p.B7)
1998 Dec 4, It was reported that
an informant known as CS-1 confessed that he participated in a bin
Laden-inspired plot to attack American military facilities around the
world.
(SFC, 12/4/98, p.A16)
1998 Dec 4, The first PC for the
car, made by Clarion Co., went on sale for $1,299. It use a Microsoft
operating system and responded to voice commands to change radio
stations and CDs, check e-mail, and use global positioning.
(SFC, 12/5/98, p.D1)
1998 Dec 4, The shuttle Endeavour
was launched with a crew of 6 from Cape Canaveral. It contained the 2nd
component of the new int’l. space station.
(SFC, 12/4/98, p.A2)
1998 Dec 4, The London Guardian
was cited in a report that 3 high security officials in Libya, were
convicted and sentenced to prison for dereliction of duty. Abdullah
Senussi, Musa Koussa and Mohammed al-Misrati were thought to be the
superiors of the men wanted for the 1988Lockerbie Pan Am bombing.
(SFC, 12/4/98, p.A16)
1998 Dec 4, Britain and France
signed an agreement for greater cooperation in crises management and
military operations. At the Anglo-French summit in St Malo, the leaders
of the UK and France decided on the need for a "capacity for autonomous
action, backed up by credible military forces." This led to the
establishment of the European Security and Defense Policy (ESDP).
(www.heritage.org/Research/Europe/bg2053.cfm)(SFC,
12/5/98, p.A10)
1998 Dec 4, In Cambodia the last
Khmer Rouge fighting force surrendered, but 3 leaders refused to give
up.
(WSJ, 12/7/98, p.A1)
1998 Dec 4, In China Lin Hai (30),
a software entrepreneur, was arrested for inciting subversion by
providing 30,000 Chinese e-mail addresses to “hostile foreign
organizations.
(SFC, 12/5/98, p.A10)
1998 Dec 4, From Egypt it was
reported that a new 3rd party, named “Wasat” or middle party, was
emerging. It was an alternative to the fundamentalist Islamic regime
and the secular state.
(SFC, 12/5/98, p.A10)
1998 Dec 4, Honduras declared a
national alert because of epidemics. 20,000 people were reported to
have cholera and 31,000 suffered from malaria. Diarrhea was affecting
some 208,000.
(SFC, 12/5/98, p.A10)
1999 Dec 4, NASA scientists
continued to wait in vain for a signal from the Mars Polar Lander,
raising questions about the whereabouts of NASA’s $165 million probe.
It’s believed the spacecraft was destroyed after it plunged toward the
Red Planet.
(AP, 12/4/00)
1999 Dec 4, In New Mexico 13
people were killed when a van carrying 17 crashed into a
tractor-trailer on an icy stretch of I-40 35 miles east of Albuquerque.
The victims were undocumented workers from Mexico.
(SFEC, 12/5/99, p.A12)(WSJ, 12/6/99, p.A1)
1999 Dec 4, In Utah 8 teenagers
taking part in a wilderness program for troubled youths beat one
counselor and tied another to a tree and fled into the desert. They
were all rounded up within days and 7 of 8 accepted plea bargains.
(SFC, 12/16/99, p.A14)
1999 Dec 4, Rose Bird (b.1936),
25th Chief Justice of the California’s highest court, died of cancer.
She had taught criminal and consumer law at Stanford Law School
(1972-1974). In 1977 she was appointed as chief justice by Governor
Edmund G. Brown, Jr. She left office in January 1987. As Chief Justice
she was chair of the Judicial Council of California, the constitutional
body responsible for improving state court administration.
(SFEC, 12/5/99,
p.A1)(www.law.stanford.edu/library/wlhbp/articles/RoseBird120699.htm)
1999 Dec 4, In Austria 5 people
died and 25 injured when a barrier gave way in a stampede at
snow-boarding event in Bergisel Stadium in Innsbruck.
(SFEC, 12/5/99, p.A26)
1999 Dec 4, In Belgium Prince
Philippe married Mathilde d'Udekem.
(SFEC, 12/5/99, p.A2)
1999 Dec 4, In Chechnya Russian
troops pillaged the Alkhan-Yurt village 10 miles southwest of Grozny
and killed 17 civilians.
(SFC, 12/23/99, p.A14)
1999 Dec 4, In Indonesia soldiers
shot and wounded at least 12 protestors in Aceh province on the 23rd
anniversary of an independence movement. In Irian Jaya province an
estimated 20,000 people protested for independence in Nabire, 400 miles
west of the capital Jayapura.
(SFEC, 12/5/99, p.A26)
2000 Dec 4, Pres. Clinton set
aside 84 million underwater acres along the northwestern stretch of the
Hawaiian Islands as a nature reservation.
(SFC, 12/5/00, p.A3)
2000 Dec 4, In Florida Judge Sauls
denied Al Gore’s request for a recount. The US Supreme Court set aside
the decision by the Florida Supreme Court to extend the vote counting
deadline and sent the case back to the Florida court. A Florida state
judge refused to overturn George W. Bush's certified victory in Florida.
(SFC, 12/5/00, p.A1)(AP, 12/4/01)
2000 Dec 4, PepsiCo agreed to pay
$13.4 billion to acquire Quaker Oats.
(AP, 12/4/01)
2000 Dec 4, Scientists reported
that the Novartis leukemia drug STI-571 brought cancer into remission
in most patients in clinical trials.
(SFC, 12/5/00, p.A13)
2000 Dec 4, Scientists found a
deep-sea garden of hot springs and towering spires that they called the
“Lost City” over 3,200 feet deep in the Atlantic Ocean.
(SFC, 12/16/00, p.A2)
2000 Dec 4, In southern Congo over
10,000 refugees were driven into northern Zambia due to renewed
fighting over the last 12 days.
(SFC, 12/5/00, p.A16)
2000 Dec 4, It was reported that a
mutated oral polio vaccine infected at least 3 people in the Dominican
Republic and Haiti. That standard vaccine appeared to work against the
mutated strain.
(SFC, 12/4/00, p.E2)
2000 Dec 4, European Union farm
ministers approved a six-month ban on animal products in fodder, part
of an extraordinary plan to stem growing panic over mad cow disease.
(AP, 12/4/01)
2000 Dec 4, In India the military
was attacked twice by suspected Islamic guerrillas and at least 5
people were killed. In Kashmir a bus carrying police officers fell into
a gorge at Baithi Chashma in the Donda district and at least 27
officers were killed.
(SFC, 12/5/00, p.A15)
2000 Dec 4, Israeli soldiers
wounded 25 people in the West Bank village of Husan.
(SFC, 12/5/00, p.A14)
2000 Dec 4, In the Ivory Coast
protestors clashed with riot police in Abidjan. The city was paralyzed
and least 2 people were killed.
(SFC, 12/5/00, p.A15)
2000 Dec 4, Pakistan said it won’t
insist to being party to Indian peace talks with Kashmiri separatists
but that it must be a party to the final settlement.
(WSJ, 12/5/00, p.A1)
2000 Dec 4, The Turkey stock
market fell 8% and marked a 2-week drop of 40% as interest rates soared
to 1,200%. Officials began talks with the IMF for a $5 billion loan.
(SFC, 12/5/00, p.A15)
2001 Dec 4, Pres. Bush announced
the seizure of assets and records of the Holy Land foundation for
Relief and Development based in Richardson, Texas, due to suspected
ties with Hamas.
(SFC, 12/5/01, p.A16)
2001 Dec 4, The Bush
administration ordered tons of PCBs removed from the upper Hudson
River. Dredging was expected to cost GE $500 million.
(SFC, 12/5/01, p.A6)
2001 Dec 4, The US Postal Service
reported a $1.7 billion loss for fiscal 2001.
(WSJ, 12/5/01, p.A1)
2001 Dec 4, The Olympic flame
began a 46-state, two-month journey from Atlanta, host city of the 1996
Summer Games, to the opening ceremony of the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter
Games.
(AP, 12/4/02)
2001 Dec 4, A. Alfred Taubman of
Sotheby’s auction house was convicted of conspiracy with his
counterpart at Christie’s in a scheme that netted them some $400
million over the years.
(SFC, 12/30/01, p.D8)
2001 Dec 4, The “Goner” computer
worm was reported spreading worldwide disguised as a screen saver.
(SFC, 12/5/01, p.B1)
2001 Dec 4, Edwin Huffine, US
forensic scientist, launched a new DNA ID software program developed
with a team of Bosnian experts at the Sarajevo-based Int’l. Commission
for Missing Persons (ICMP). The program used kinship analysis.
(SFC, 12/4/01, p.A3)
2001 Dec 4, In Afghanistan US
bombing continued at Kandahar and Tora Bora. Baglan and Balkh were
noted as a pockets of resistance with up to 3,500 Taliban militiamen.
An interim government was scheduled to take power Dec 22.
(SFC, 12/5/01, p.A14)
2001 Dec 4, Israeli troops moved
into Palestinian-controlled territory in Ramallah and Nablus and closed
off 7 West Bank cities. Israeli warplanes and helicopters bombed at
least 8 targets in 5 cities and towns including a police building near
Arafat’s headquarters. A police officer and a 15-year-old boy were
killed.
(SFC, 12/4/01, p.A12)(SFC, 12/5/01, p.A1,16)
2001 Dec 4, In South Africa Marike
de Klerk (64), former wife of former Pres. F.W. de Klerk, was found
stabbed and strangled in her luxury apartment near Cape Town. Police
arrested Luyanda Mboniswa (21), a security guard, on Dec 5. The guard
confessed Dec 7. In 2003 DNA evidence linked him to the murder.
(SFC, 12/6/01, p.A6)(SFC, 12/7/01, p.A6)(SFC,
12/8/01, p.A7)(AP, 4/8/03)
2001 Dec 4, In Sri Lanka the death
toll reached 45, since Oct 21, as elections began for a new 225-seat
Parliament. Poll violence killed 10 and an army blockade kept some
130,000 minority Tamils from casting ballots. The opposition United
National Party won.
(SFC, 12/5/01, p.A7)(WSJ, 12/6/01, p.A1)(SFC,
12/8/01, p.A6)
2001 Dec 4, The Zimbabwe high
court reversed a previous decision and ruled that seizures of
white-owned farms are legal. Pres. Mugabe had expanded the court and
replaced many of the justices.
(WSJ, 12/5/01, p.A1)
2002 Dec 3, The US Supreme Court
justices heard arguments on whether federal laws intended to combat
organized crime and corruption could be used against anti-abortion
demonstrators. In Feb, 2003, the court ruled that such laws were
improperly used to punish abortion opponents.
(AP, 12/4/03)
2002 Dec 4, A US federal board
rejected a 1.8 billion loan guarantee for United Airlines.
(SFC, 12/5/02, p.A1)(WSJ, 12/5/02, p.A1)
2002 Dec 4, The governor of
Mississippi signed legislation capping punitive damage awards at $20
million.
(WSJ, 12/5/02, p.A1)
2002 Dec 4, John Weaver,
historian, died in Las Vegas. His books included "Los Angeles: The
Enormous Village" (1980).
(SFC, 12/7/02, p.A25)
2002 Dec 4, Jesus Antonio
Nunez, mayor of the western Colombian town of Ambalema, was
assassinated, apparently after going to a meeting with the country's
main rebel group. He was the 13th mayor killed this year.
(AP, 12/5/02)
2002 Dec 4, Security forces fired
on student protesters in the East Timorese capital, killing two people
and prompting angry mobs to loot shops and set fire to several
buildings, including the prime minister's house.
(AP, 12/4/02)
2002 Dec 4, Iraqi forces shot at
allied aircraft patrolling the no-fly zone and U.S. planes retaliated
by bombing part of the country's air defense system.
(AP, 12/4/02)
2002 Dec 4, Israeli soldiers
killed two suspected Islamic militants in a gun battle in a West Bank
village, and Israeli helicopters fired missiles on a Palestinian
government complex in the Gaza Strip, killing a security guard and
injuring five people.
(AP, 12/4/02)
2002 Dec 4, Kurdish militiamen of
the PUK battled Islamic militants (Ansar al-Islam) believed to be
linked to al-Qaida in northern Iraq, and as many as 30 militiamen were
killed or wounded.
(AP, 12/4/02)(SFC, 12/6/02, p.A18)
2002 Dec 4, Separatists in
Indonesia's Aceh province commemorated the 26th anniversary of their
fight with at least one military flag-raising ceremony and vows to keep
fighting Jakarta's rule.
(AP, 12/4/02)
2002 Dec 4, Thailand released
thousands of prisoners, including many jailed for minor narcotics
offences, to mark the 75th birthday of King Bhumibol Adulyadej, the
world's longest reigning monarch.
(Reuters, 12/4/02)
2003 Dec 4, Pres. Bush lifted
tariffs on imported steel and averted a trade war with Europe.
(SFC, 12/5/03, p.A20)
2003 Dec 4, It was reported that
some 29 million Americans selected "none" for their religious
affiliation in recent polls.
(SFC, 12/4/03, p.A1)
2003 Dec 4, Barry Bonds, SF
homerun star, told a grand jury that he used a clear substance and a
cream supplied by BALCO, but that he never thought they were steroids.
The SF Chronicle obtained a transcript of his testimony in 2004.
(SFC, 12/3/04, p.A1)
2003 Dec 4, Toy seller FAO
Schwartz filed for bankruptcy.
(SFC, 12/5/03, p.B2)
2003 Dec 4, It was reported that
scientists saw 2003 set to become the 3rd hottest year since modern
temperature records began. The warmest since 1880 was 1998 followed by
2002.
(WSJ, 12/4/03, p.A10)
2003 Dec 4, Federal prosecutor
Jonathan Luna was attacked after leaving his office in Baltimore around
midnight. His body was found 6 hours later, stabbed 36 times apparently
in a furious fight for his life before drowning in a Pennsylvania
creek. Luna was involved in the prosecution of rapper Deon Lionel Smith
(32) and Walter Oriley Poindexter.
(AP, 12/5/03)(SFC, 12/5/03, p.A6)
2003 Dec 4, In eastern Kosovo Sgt.
Daryl Brooks (43), a US peacekeeper, was found dead with a gunshot
wound in a concrete bunker inside the U.S. military base Camp Monteith.
(AP, 12/6/03)
2003 Dec 4, The Australian
government said it will join a U.S. program to build a missile defense
system, calling the threat of ballistic missiles too grave to ignore.
(AP, 12/4/03)
2003 Dec 4, Congo health officials
were investigating the poison deaths of 64 people, allegedly from a
potion used to ward off evil spirits. A Roman Catholic priest, who
allegedly administered the drink, fled the village of Bosobe early last
week after people started falling ill.
(AP, 12/5/03)
2003 Dec 4, In India election
results showed the ruling Hindu nationalist party wrested control from
the opposition in three of four state legislatures.
(AP, 12/4/03)
2003 Dec 4, In Kisumu, Kenya,
Tommy Thompson, US Sec. of Health and Human Services, dedicated a new
$6.4 million field laboratory to be operated by the CDC. It was the
largest of its kind in Africa. The local TB and malaria rates were
among the highest in the world.
(SFC, 12/5/03, p.A5)
2003 Dec 4, South Korea's
parliament, for the first time in 49 years, overrode a presidential
veto to clear the way for an independent investigation into corruption
allegations against three former aides of President Roh Moo-hyun.
(AP, 12/4/03)
2003 Dec 4, El Salvador's
government ignores and sometimes contributes to widespread labor
abuses, Human Rights watch said in a new report.
(AP, 12/4/03)
2003 Dec 4, Palestinians opened
formal talks in Egypt aimed at forging a cease-fire they hope will
induce Israel to halt its attacks on militants and lead to renewed
peace negotiations.
(AP, 12/4/03)(WSJ, 12/5/03, p.A1)
2003 Dec 4, Interpol put ousted
Liberian leader Charles Taylor on its most-wanted list, issuing a "red
notice" calling for his arrest on war crimes charges in Sierra Leone's
civil war.
(AP, 12/4/03)
2004 Dec 4, President Bush
received the president of Pakistan, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, in the Oval
Office; afterward, Bush pronounced himself "very pleased" with
Pakistan's efforts to flush out terrorists.
(AP, 12/04/05)
2004 Dec 4, The euro closed at a
record $1.3460. Over the next few years “it seems an excellent bet that
there will be a large drop in the dollar.”
(SFC, 12/7/04, p.D3)(Econ, 12/4/04, p.71)
2004 Dec 4, Miss Peru, Maria Julia
Mantilla Garcia, an aspiring high school teacher, was crowned Miss
World 2004 In Southern China.
(AP, 12/4/04)
2004 Dec 4, Colombian drug kingpin
Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela was flown to the US, becoming the most
powerful Colombian trafficker ever extradited to face US justice.
(AP, 12/4/04)
2004 Dec 4, Suicide attackers
carried out a string of car bombings against Iraqi policemen in Baghdad
and Kurdish militiamen in the north, killing 14 people and wounding at
least 59.
(AP, 12/4/04)
2004 Dec 4, Two US soldiers were
killed and four wounded when their patrol came under attack in the
northwestern city of Mosul.
(AP, 12/4/04)
2004 Dec 4, Russia said India
should become a veto-wielding permanent member of the UN Security
Council if the top decision-making body is enlarged to reflect
post-Cold War realities.
(Reuters, 12/4/04)
2004 Dec 4, Zimbabwe's ruling
party elected longtime cabinet minister Joyce Mujuru as the country's
first woman vice-president at the end of a party congress, putting her
on course to succeed Mugabe when he eventually retires in 2008.
(AFP, 12/4/04)
2005 Dec 4, Members of the former
Sept. 11 commission said the US was at great risk for more terrorist
attacks because Congress and the White House had failed to enact
several strong security measures.
(AP, 12/4/06)
2005 Dec 4, In Washington, D.C.
Robert Redford, Tina Turner, Tony Bennett, Julie Harris and ballerina
Suzanne Farrell headlined the annual Kennedy Center Honors.
(AP, 12/4/06)
2005 Dec 4, Film producer Gregg
Hoffman (42), who developed an eight-minute film into the horror hit
"Saw" and its gory successor "Saw II," died unexpectedly after
complaining of pain.
(AP, 12/06/05)
2005 Dec 4, In Afghanistan a
suicide bomber detonated explosives on a street in the southern city of
Kandahar, killing himself and a civilian and wounding two passers-by.
(AP, 12/04/05)
2005 Dec 4, Chinese Premier Wen
Jiabao arrived in France for a four-day visit. The Chinese government
and the European aircraft manufacturing consortium Airbus signed a
cooperation agreement at a public ceremony in Toulouse that may pave
the way for the opening of an aircraft assembly plant in China.
(AFP, 12/04/05)
2005 Dec 4, Croatia won its first
Davis Cup title.
(AP, 12/4/06)
2005 Dec 4, Tens of thousands of
protesters marched through the streets of Hong Kong to pressure the
government to speed up political reforms that would allow voters to
pick the territory's leader and entire legislature.
(AP, 12/04/05)
2005 Dec 4, Unidentified gunmen
killed a parliamentary candidate and an Iraqi police commander in
separate attacks while a bomb that detonated as a police patrol passed
through central Baghdad killed three civilians.
(AP, 12/04/05)
2005 Dec 4, Israeli aircraft fired
missiles at an abandoned building and a rocket launching ground in the
northern Gaza Strip in the first aerial attack on Gaza in more than a
month.
(AP, 12/04/05)
2005 Dec 4, Oil-rich Kazakhstan
voted in a presidential election widely expected to give Nursultan
Nazarbayev another seven-year term.
(AP, 12/04/05)
2005 Dec 4, In Mali at a weekend
Franco-African summit President Jacques Chirac called upon the US to
remove the subsidies to their cotton producers. Chirac also urged rich
countries to double development aid, as African leaders warned tackling
poverty was crucial to stem a growing tide of illegal immigration.
(AP, 12/05/05)
2005 Dec 4, In Russia, the
snow-covered roof of an indoor swimming pool collapsed onto parents and
children in Chusovoi, a Ural Mountains town, killing 14 people,
including 10 children.
(AP, 12/05/05)
2005 Dec 4, In Sri Lanka a land
mine killed 6 Sri Lankan soldiers with 3 wounded in a northern area
that is home to most of the country's Tamil minority. A government
soldier near the northern city of Jaffna. The military blamed the Tamil
Tiger rebels for attacks.
(AP, 12/04/05)(AP, 12/05/05)
2005 Dec 4, Syrian security forces
clashed with militants planning to launch terror attacks in the
northern city of Aleppo. Five people were wounded, including two
militants.
(AP, 12/04/05)
2005 Dec 4, Thailand's King
Bhumibol Adulyadej publicly rebuked PM Thaksin for pursuing lawsuits
against media outlets that oppose his policies.
(www.bangkokpost.net/breaking_news/breakingnews.php?id=69917)
2006 Dec 4, The White House,
unable to win Senate confirmation, said UN Ambassador John Bolton will
step down when his temporary appointment expires within weeks.
(AP, 12/4/06)
2006 Dec 4, Abdul Aziz al-Hakim
(55), leader of Iraq's largest political party, the Supreme Council for
the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), spoke with Pres. Bush for more
than an hour at the White House. He became leader of the SCIRI when his
brother and party founder Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim was killed
in a bombing in August 2003. Al-Hakim had ties to Iran and the
officially disbanded Badr militia.
(AP, 12/4/06)
2006 Dec 4, Truck driver Tyrone
Williams was convicted in Houston of the deaths of 19 illegal
immigrants crammed into a sweltering tractor-trailer in May 2003.
(AP, 12/4/07)
2006 Dec 4, In Jena, La., six
black students (the Jena Six) beat a white schoolmate in an altercation
that stemmed from the hanging of nooses in August in a tree on school
grounds under which white students regularly gathered. The black
teenagers were initially charged with attempted murder, but later
dropped to aggravated second-degree battery in 4 cases. In September,
2007, charges against Mychal Bell were moved to juvenile court
following huge civil rights protests. It was later reported that 7
black students were involved in the Dec 4 beating. On Dec 3, 2007, Bell
pleaded guilty to a juvenile charge of 2nd degree battery in return for
an 18-month sentence. On June 26, 2009, 5 members of the Jena 6 pleaded
no contests to misdemeanor simple battery with no jail time.
(SFC, 9/21/07, p.A3)(SFC, 9/28/07, p.A3)(Econ,
9/29/07, p.33)(SFC, 12/4/07, p.A3)(SFC, 6/27/09, p.A5)
2006 Dec 4, Bank of New York Co.
agreed to take over Mellon Financial Corp. in a $16.5 billion all-stock
deal that will create the world's largest securities servicing company
and one of the biggest asset managers.
(AP, 12/4/06)
2006 Dec 4, Chipmaker LSI Logic
Corp. and Agere Systems reached a $4 billion stock swap deal. LSI
closed down 14% to $9.12 per share. LSI CEO Abhi Talwalkar offered the
equivalent of $22.81 per share for Agere.
(SFC, 12/5/06, p.C1)
2006 Dec 4, Station Casinos of Las
Vegas said it received a $4.7 billion buyout offer from its founding
family and affiliate of Colony Capital LLC, a private equity firm.
(SFC, 12/5/06, p.C3)
2006 Dec 4, Shares of Pfizer Inc.
fell 15.6% in opening trade, wiping out nearly $30 billion of market
value, after the world's biggest drugmaker scrapped development of its
most important experimental medicine. Pfizer halted work on
torcetrapib, which was designed to raise levels of "good" HDL
cholesterol, because of increased deaths and heart problems among
patients given the product in a late-stage trial.
(Reuters, 12/4/06)
2006 Dec 4, An E. coli outbreak
that sickened at least 58 people, two of them seriously, was linked by
health investigators to three Taco Bell restaurants in New Jersey. The
outbreak, initially believed to stem from green onions, was later
believed to have come from lettuce.
(AP, 12/4/06)(SFC, 12/14/06, p.A6)
2006 Dec 4, NASA announced plans
to begin building a permanent base on the moon by 2024, with the first
teams landing in 2020.
(SFC, 12/5/06, p.A2)
2006 Dec 4, In Afghanistan 2
journalists, whose identities and media organization were not
identified, reportedly went missing in Kandahar province.
(AP, 12/5/06)
2006 Dec 4, Insurance Australia
Group (IAG) announced it will buy British motor insurer Equity
Insurance Group for 570 million pounds.
(AFP, 12/4/06)
2006 Dec 4, Tomma Abts (38) became
the first female painter in the 22-year history of Britain's $ 49,000
Turner Prize to win the controversial modern art award.
(AFP, 12/4/06)(SFC, 12/5/06, p.F8)
2006 Dec 4, PM Tony Blair has
announced plans for Britain to retain its nuclear deterrent but
promised to cut the number of nuclear warheads by 20%. Blair also
launched plans for a new multibillion-dollar submarine-based nuclear
missile defense system, warning lawmakers the future may hold perilous
threats from rogue regimes and state-sponsored terrorists.
(AP, 12/4/06)
2006 Dec 4, China’s state media
said Ying Fuming, a manager at the Fanchang Grease Factory in Taizhou
in east China, has been arrested for using grease from swill, sewage,
pesticides and recycled industrial oil to make lard for human
consumption. 6 children died of possible food poisoning at a boarding
school at the school in Nanyao, a village in northern Shanxi province.
(AP, 12/4/06)(AP, 12/6/06)
2006 Dec 4, Egypt’s Interior
Ministry said police had arrested an American, 11 Europeans and several
others from Arab countries for allegedly plotting terrorist attacks in
Middle Eastern countries including Iraq.
(AP, 12/4/06)
2006 Dec 4, The Estlink cable
connected power grids of the Baltic States with Finland. The cost of
Estlink, which measures 100 kilometers (60 miles), was around 110
million euros (132 million dollars). It was built by Swiss-Swedish
group ABB.
(AP, 12/4/06)
2006 Dec 4, In Fiji soldiers moved
against at least two police compounds, seizing weapons in the apparent
first step toward taking over the South Pacific island nation.
(AP, 12/4/06)
2006 Dec 4, In Haiti as many as 30
inmates escaped through a small hole in a prison wall in the latest of
several breakouts from the overcrowded National Penitentiary.
(AP, 12/6/06)
2006 Dec 4, Police in eastern
India were alerted that a container, packed with radioactive material,
had been stolen from a fortified research facility, prompting a major
hunt and fears of contamination. It carried uranium and radiation and
could have an adverse effect in an area of 1.5 kilometers (0.93 mile).
(AFP, 12/23/06)
2006 Dec 4, Drive-by shootings and
a suicide car bomber killed at least seven Iraqis and wounded five.
American forces killed two militants and destroyed a vehicle packed
with explosives. A US helicopter went down in Lake Qadisiyah west of
the Iraqi capital, killing one Marine and leaving three missing in
Anbar province. An insurgent attack on an American military patrol in
Baghdad killed Pfc. Ross McGinnis and wounded five. Another US
serviceman died in southern Iraq in an accident involving his vehicle.
In 2008 Pres. Bush awarded the Medal of Honor to McGinnis, who had
placed his body between a grenade and 4 comrades.
(AP, 12/4/06)(AP, 12/5/06)(WSJ, 6/3/08,
p.A4)(www.iraqwarheroes.org/mcginnisra.htm)
2006 Dec 4, The Israeli army
killed a Palestinian and arrested 17 militants in raids across the West
Bank, despite a decision by the military to scale back such operations
in order to bolster a shaky truce with the Palestinians in the Gaza
Strip.
(AP, 12/5/06)
2006 Dec 4, Against a backdrop of
protests, the defense minister gave citations to Dutch troops who
served in the UN peacekeeping force that failed to prevent the
slaughter of Muslims in the Srebrenica enclave during the Bosnian war.
(AP, 12/4/06)
2006 Dec 4, In Pakistan at least
eight people were killed in torrential rains and flooding, which
blocked roads and caused widespread disruption in several cities.
(AFP, 12/4/06)
2006 Dec 4, In Peru a bus speeding
through the fog on a twisting mountain road in the Andes fell 1,320
feet into a ravine, killing 45 people.
(AP, 12/5/06)
2006 Dec 4, Marine Lance Cpl.
Daniel Smith was convicted in the Philippines of raping a Filipino
woman and sentenced to 40 years in prison.
(AP, 12/4/07)
2006 Dec 4, Rescuers in the
Philippines all but gave up hope of finding survivors in
mudslide-swamped villages on the slopes of the Mayon volcano, five days
after Typhoon Durian killed an estimated 1,000 people.
(AP, 12/4/06)
2006 Dec 4, Russia's atomic energy
agency declined to comment on Japanese news reports that North Korea
had offered Russia exclusive rights to its natural uranium deposits in
exchange for support at six-way talks on Pyongyang's nuclear weapons.
(AP, 12/4/06)
2006 Dec 4, Russia gave a frosty
welcome to a team of British counter-terror officers probing the
poisoning of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko, and laid down
some strict ground rules for their work in Moscow.
(AFP, 12/5/06)
2006 Dec 4, In Sudan militias
entered El Fasher, the main town in the Darfur region and started
looting the market. Militias there fought members of a former rebel
group in clashes which the rebels said left up to seven people dead.
(AP, 12/4/06)(Reuters, 12/4/06)
2006 Dec 4, Turkish security
forces clashed with an angry crowd trying to lynch a man accused of
raping several girls and killing two of them in southeastern Turkey.
One person was killed in the violence, and at least 22 were injured.
(AP, 12/4/06)
2007 Dec 4, Defending his
credibility, President George W. Bush said Iran was dangerous and
needed to be squeezed by international pressure despite a blockbuster
intelligence finding that Tehran had halted its nuclear weapons program
four years earlier. The intelligence report on Iran figured in a
Democratic debate on National Public Radio as rivals assailed
front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton for voting in favor of a Senate
resolution designating Iran's Revolutionary Guard a terrorist
organization.
(AP, 12/4/08)
2007 Dec 4, The governors of
Washington and Oregon declared states of emergency after a severe storm
smacked the region with hurricane-force winds and several inches of
rain. At least four people were killed by the storm.
(AP, 12/4/07)
2007 Dec 4, Pimp C (33), born as
Chad Butler, was found dead in an upscale hotel in Los Angeles. He had
spun searing tales of Texas street life into a key role in the rise of
Southern hip-hop.
(AP, 12/5/07)
2007 Dec 4, In Kabul US Defense
Secretary Robert Gates said he was pushing the world's countries for
more commitment to Afghanistan's fight against growing extremist
violence. A suicide car bomber targeted a NATO convoy in Kabul,
wounding 22 civilians passing nearby. An explosion struck a patrol of
NATO-led troops, leaving one soldier dead and two others wounded.
(AP, 12/4/07)(AP, 12/5/07)
2007 Dec 4, Sen. Renan Calheiros,
president of Brazil's Senate, resigned while fighting allegations of
corruption. Calheiros, a key ally of President Luis Inacio Lula da
Silva, retained his position as a senator. A legislative commission
voted 17-3 last week to recommend his expulsion after finding evidence
that he used third parties to illegally acquire two radio stations and
a newspaper.
(AP, 12/4/07)(Econ, 12/8/07, p.43)
2007 Dec 4, New census data said
one in five people in Canada last year was born in another country, the
highest proportion since the 1930s. The Bank of Canada cut its key
overnight interest rate by one-quarter point to 4.25 percent, saying it
expects US subprime mortgage woes and financial market fallout to last
longer than anticipated.
(Reuters, 12/4/07)
2007 Dec 4, The Chadian army
fought heavy battles against rebel forces in the east of the country
near the border with Sudan's troubled Darfur region.
(AFP, 12/4/07)
2007 Dec 4, France and Algeria
agreed to cooperate on civilian nuclear technologies. French oil group
Total said it had signed a deal to invest about 1.5 billion dollars in
a new 3.0-billion-dollar (2.0 billion euros) petrochemical plant in
Algeria.
(AFP, 12/4/07)(AP, 12/4/07)
2007 Dec 4, Greece and Turkey
agreed to joint military measures aimed at easing tensions and
improving ties.
(WSJ, 12/5/07, p.A1)
2007 Dec 4, Police in northern
India broke up a major tiger poaching ring, arresting an alleged
kingpin and 15 others.
(AP, 12/6/07)
2007 Dec 4, Iran's foreign
minister welcomed the US decision to "correct" its claim that Tehran
has an active nuclear weapons program, while Israel's defense minister
said Israeli intelligence believes Iran is still trying to develop an
atomic weapon.
(AP, 12/4/07)
2007 Dec 4, In Iran Makwan
Moloudzadeh, a man convicted of raping three boys when he was 13 years
old, was hanged despite a chief justice's order that the case be
reviewed.
(AP, 12/7/07)
2007 Dec 4, In Iraq Sunni Arab
lawmakers ended a yearlong boycott of politics in Kirkuk, after the
Kurdish majority agreed to allot one-third of government jobs to Arabs
and appoint an Arab as deputy governor. A suicide bomber blew himself
up near a police station in Jalula, northeast of Baghdad, killing at
least eight people and wounding 30. Kidnappers of five Britons, seized
on May 29, demanded that Britain pull all its forces from Iraq,
according to a new video broadcast made on Nov 18. The US military said
40 senior al Qaeda in Iraq members were either captured or killed in
November, including a senior adviser to the Sunni Islamist group's
leader. Three US soldiers were killed in a "complex attack" involving a
roadside bomb and small arms fire north of Baghdad.
(AP, 12/4/07)(AP, 12/5/07)
2007 Dec 4, Israel said it is
seeking bids to build more than 300 new homes in a disputed east
Jerusalem neighborhood, drawing Palestinian condemnations that the move
is undermining the newly revived peace talks.
(AP, 12/4/07)
2007 Dec 4, In Italy Vincenzo
Santapaola, a suspected Mafia boss, and scores of alleged mobsters were
arrested during raids in Catania, Sicily. Police also seized weapons
and drugs, and found a book that listed extortion fees and salaries of
the people working for the family.
(AP, 12/4/07)
2007 Dec 4, In Mexico gunmen shot
and killed a deputy police chief inside his house in the border city of
Tecate.
(AP, 12/4/07)
2007 Dec 4, State media said
Myanmar's military junta has completed the release of 8,585 prisoners,
but it was unclear if any of those released were among those detained
during the crackdown.
(AP, 12/4/07)
2007 Dec 4, In southern Nigeria
pirates attacked a vessel operated by oil major ExxonMobil in the Niger
Delta, killing a crew member and injuring another.
(AP, 12/4/07)
2007 Dec 4, Former PM Nawaz Sharif
said that Pakistan's major opposition parties will demand the end of
emergency rule and the release of former Supreme Court judges as a
condition for their participation in parliamentary elections.
(AP, 12/4/07)
2007 Dec 4, Tens of thousands of
mineworkers downed tools in South Africa in a one-day strike over
safety standards, accusing their bosses of putting lives at risk for
the sake of profits.
(AFP, 12/4/07)
2007 Dec 4, UN human rights
experts said Sudanese forces and allied militia have killed several
hundred civilians in ground attacks and aerial bombardments on villages
in Darfur in the past six months.
(Reuters, 12/4/07)
2007 Dec 4, In southern Thailand a
bomb killed six people and injured 20 in one of the deadliest attacks
in recent months.
(AP, 12/4/07)
2007 Dec 4, American officials
confirmed that Vietnam is holding four US citizens, hours after gaining
their first consular access to two of the detainees, both
Vietnamese-born pro-democracy activists.
(AFP, 12/4/07)
2008 Dec 4, AT&T Inc. joined
the recession's parade of layoffs by announcing plans to cut 12,000
jobs, about 4 percent of its work force.
(AP, 12/4/08)
2008 Dec 4, In Afghanistan 2
Danish soldiers serving with NATO's force were killed in southern
Helmand province. The governor of Afghanistan's key southern Kandahar
province said he was sacked by the central government and complained
that powerful people in his region had been sabotaging his work. US-led
troops killed four militants in Helmand province, after the insurgents
fired on a joint US-Afghan patrol.
(AFP, 12/4/08)(AP, 12/4/08)(AP, 12/5/08)
2008 Dec 4, In Afghanistan eight
prisoners were killed at Kabul's Pol-i-charki Prison, during a clash
between guards and prisoners.
(AP, 12/6/08)
2008 Dec 4, The Bank of England
cut its base interest rate from 3% to 2%, a rate last seen in 1951.
(Econ, 12/6/08, p.74)
2008 Dec 4, In Burundi a summit
was held in Bujumbura stating the position of the Great Lakes region on
the implementation of the peace agreements signed at the Dar es Salaam
summit of 2006 in Tanzania.
(http://allafrica.com/stories/200812040216.html)
2008 Dec 4, Canada’s PM Stephen
Harper won a rare suspension of Parliament, managing to avoid being
ousted by opposition parties angry over the minority Conservative
government's economic plans and an attempt to cut off party financing.
(Reuters, 12/4/08)
2008 Dec 4, In eastern China
a fire at the dormitory of a seafood company killed 11 workers and
injured 10 others.
(AP, 12/4/08)
2008 Dec 4, The Danish navy
intercepted and sunk a suspected pirate vessel drifting off Somalia. 7
men were handed over to authorities in Yemen but were not immediately
suspected of any crime.
(AP, 12/5/08)
2008 Dec 4, Europe's top human
rights court ruled that storing DNA from people with no criminal record
is in breach of their rights, a landmark decision that could force
Britain to destroy the samples of nearly 1 million people on its
database.
(AP, 12/4/08)
2008 Dec 4, In France armed
robbers, some disguised as women, snatched euro85 million ($108
million) worth of diamond rings, necklaces and luxury watches from a
Harry Winston boutique on a posh Paris avenue in one of the largest
jewel heists in history. In June, 2009, French police arrested 25
suspects in connection with the robbery and recovered some of the
jewelry.
(AP, 12/5/08)(SFC, 6/23/09, p.A2)
2008 Dec 4, The Luxembourg-based
European Court of First Instance said EU governments "violated the
rights of defense" of the People's Mujahedeen Organization of Iran
(PMOI), and that the EU nations have not provided sufficient proof to
blacklist the group.
(AP, 12/4/08)
2008 Dec 4, Iraq's presidential
council approved a security pact that sets out a three-year timeframe
for US troops to leave, the final step for the agreement to replace a
UN mandate that expires Dec. 31. Two suicide bombers in
explosives-laden trucks took aim at police stations in the former Sunni
insurgent stronghold of Fallujah, killing at least 15 people and
wounding more than 100. A suicide car bomber killed two US soldiers and
wounded nine Iraqi civilians near a checkpoint in the northern city of
Mosul. A bomb in Baquba killed 3 people.
(AP, 12/4/08)(SFC, 12/5/08, p.A23)
2008 Dec 4, Rioting by Jewish
settlers spread in the West Bank after Israeli soldiers forcibly
removed about 250 extremists from a disputed house in the center of
Hebron. Banks in the Gaza Strip shut down to count their dwindling
cash. Israel lifted a four-week-old ban on international journalists
entering the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 12/4/08)
2008 Dec 4, Pirates attacked an
oil-services vessel before dawn off the coast of Nigeria and kidnapped
two foreign workers.
(AP, 12/4/08)
2008 Dec 4, Drug agents in Peru
seized 3 tons of cocaine mixed into a shipment of guano bound for
Spain. Four Peruvians and a Colombian were arrested.
(AP, 12/15/08)
2008 Dec 4, In Somalia 20 men and
women graduated from medical school in Mogadishu, something that nobody
in Somalia has done in nearly two decades.
(AP, 12/4/08)
2008 Dec 4, Sweden’s central bank
cuts its benchmark interest rate from 3.75% to 2% saying monetary
policy was less effective than usual.
(Econ, 12/6/08, p.92)
2008 Dec 4, Zimbabwe declared a
national emergency over a cholera epidemic and the collapse of its
health care system, as the government sought more international help to
pay for food and drugs to combat the crisis.
(AP, 12/4/08)
Go to http://www.timelinesdb.com
Go to December 5