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an August 07: 2002 Before the opening of trading Cross Country Inc. (CCRN) reports June quarter revenue of $156 million, just below the $157 million Street consensus, but a 31% increase over the prior year's period. Net income was $0.24 per share, in line with estimates, but a penny lower than the year ago quarter. For the full year 2002, the company said it is maintaining its previous prediction of revenue between $625 and $650 million and earnings per share in the range of $1.02 to $1.06. Then, on the NASDAQ, CCRN stock drops from its previous close of $26.19 to an intraday low of $13.06 and closes at $14.34. It had started trading at $18.75 on 25 October 2001 and reached a high of $39.16 on 10 June 2002. Cross Country is the largest provider of healthcare staffing services in the US and also provides complementary services, including staffing of clinical trials, search and recruitment, consulting and education and training.. [9~month price chart >] 2000 US Vice President Al Gore, Democratic presidential candidate, selects Connecticut Senator Joseph Lieberman as the Vice-Presidential candidate. Lieberman is the first Jew on a major US party's presidential ticket. 1999 The second Russo-Chechen war begins ^top^ It starts with an preemptive invasion of the Botlikh region of Dagestan by militants from Chechnya. An estimated 1000 - 1200 fighters seize several villages and small towns on the Chechen-Dagestani border [http://www.cdi.org/issues/Europe/aug.html] 1998 Microsoft invests $150 million in Apple ^top^ Microsoft agrees to invest $150 million in the struggling Apple Computer Company and agrees to adapt its Office software applications to run on the Macintosh during the next five years. Apple's once-impressive market share had plummeted to 3.8% by this point. However, with the introduction of the iMac in the summer of 1998, it began creeping back up, reaching 5% by December 1998. |
1996 America Online experiences a massive blackout that shut down
the system for 19 hours, denying service to the company's 6.2 million
subscribers. AOL said it will offer subscribers a small credit to make
up for the inconvenience. 1996 NASA researchers formally presented their case for the existence of life long ago on Mars. 1994 X Conferencia Internacional en Yokohama (Japón) sobre el SIDA, que afecta ya a 17 millones de personas en todo el mundo. 1992 El Gobierno y la guerrilla de Mozambique firman en Roma el compromiso de paz, después de dos años de negociaciones. 1992 La Conferencia de Desarme, compuesta por 39 naciones, concluye tras 24 años de discusión la versión definitiva de un Tratado de Prohibición de Armamentos Químicos. 1992 Apple Computer's lawsuit against Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard is severely undermined as a federal judge dismisses the most important aspects of the case. Apple had sued the companies for violating copyrights protecting Apple's point-and-click, icon-driven interface. 1991 The five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council agree to authorize Iraq to sell as much as $1.6 billion in oil over six months to pay for food, humanitarian supplies and war reparations; however, Baghdad would reject the resolution. 1990 Turquía cierra el oleoducto que transportaba petróleo iraquí al Mediterráneo, tras la invasión de Kuwait por Irak. 1990 Desert Shield begin US deploys troops to Saudi Arabia 1990 Saudi Arabia allows US troops on their soil to stop an Iraqi invasion 1989 Los cinco presidentes centroamericanos, reunidos en Honduras, llegan a un acuerdo para desmovilizar a la "contra" antes de que se celebren elecciones en Nicaragua. 1988 US Writers Guild ends its 6-month strike 1987 Five Central American presidents sign peace accord in Guatemala Los países del Grupo Contadora, que buscaban la pacificación en Centroamérica, logran que Nicaragua firme los acuerdos de Esquipulas, por el cual Daniel Ortega acepta entrar en conversaciones con la contra. 1987 Lynne Cox swims 4.3 km from US to USSR in 39ø F (4ºC) Bering Sea 1986 Daniel Buettner, Bret Anderson, Martin Engel and Anne Knabe begin cycling journey of 24'568 km from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, to Argentina 1983 Some 675'000 employees strike AT&T 1976 Scientists in Pasadena, Calif., announced that the Viking 1 spacecraft had found the strongest indications to date of possible life on Mars. 1974 Philippe Petit walks tightrope strung between the twin towers of the World Trade Center. This causes a massive traffic jam on the streets, 410 m below. 1970 first computer chess tournament |
1966 Race riot in Lansing Michigan
1960 Ivory Coast (Côte d'Ivoire) gains independence from France 1960 The Catholic Church voices concern in pastoral letter over treatment of church by Communists of Cuba. |
1951 Un cohete "Viking", construido sobre el modelo de una V-2 alemana, alcanza 20'000 metros de altitud. 1949 The Vatican announces that bones believed to be the apostle Peter's have been found. 1947 Balsa raft Kon Tiki crashes into a Polynesian archipelago reef, ending its 101-day journey from Peru with a six-man crew led by Thor Heyerdahl.
1944 El tribunal popular de Berlín condena a muerte a ocho militares inculpados en el atentado contra Hitler del 20 de julio anterior, entre los que figuraban cuatro generales. Al día siguiente son ejecutados. |
1942 US Marines land on Guadalcanal
^top^ The US 1st Marine Division under General A. A. Vandegrift begins Operation Watchtower, the first US offensive of the war, by landing on Guadalcanal and Tulagi, two of the Solomon Islands, east of New Guinea. On 06 July 1942, the Japanese landed on the 6500-sq-km island, and began constructing an airfield there, intended to isolate the Australian continent. During Operation Watchtower, American troops landed on five islands within the Solomon chain. Although the invasion came as a complete surprise to the Japanese (bad weather had grounded their scouting aircraft), the landings on Florida, Tulagi, Gavutu, and Tananbogo met much initial opposition from the Japanese defenders. But the US troops who landed on Guadalcanal met little resistance at least at first. More than 11'000 Marines had landed, and 24 hours had passed, before the Japanese manning the garrison there knew of the attack. The US forces quickly took their main objective, the airfield, and the outnumbered Japanese troops retreated, but not for long. . The US failed to achieve naval superiority at sea and the Japanese brought in reinforcements. Fierce hand-to-hand jungle fighting ensued. "I have never heard or read of this kind of fighting," wrote one American major general on the scene. "These people refuse to surrender." The Americans were at a particular disadvantage, being assaulted from both the sea and air. But the US Navy was able to reinforce its troops to a greater extent, and by February 1943, the Japanese had retreated on secret orders of their emperor (so secret, the US forces did not even know it had taken place until they began happening upon abandoned positions, empty boats, and discarded supplies). In total, the Japanese had lost more than 25'000 men, compared with a loss of 1600 by the US. Each side lost 24 warships. The first Medal of Honor given to a Marine was awarded to Sgt. John Basilone for his fighting during Operation Watchtower. According to the recommendation for his medal, he "contributed materially to the defeat and virtually the annihilation of a Japanese regiment." In the first major Allied offensive against Japan, the US 1st Marine Division storms ashore onto Guadalcanal, a strategic island located northeast of Australia. Catching the island's 2'000 Japanese defenders by surprise, the Americans seized the airfield and by dusk on 08 August had more than 10'000 soldiers ashore. However, the Allies failed to achieve naval superiority at sea, and thousands of Japanese troops re-infiltrated the island while Japanese warships delayed US reinforcements. The bloody Battle of Guadalcanal stretched on for six months. The Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor in December 1941 heralded the beginning of a massive Japanese offensive that extended across much of the Pacific. Japanese successes in the Pacific rivaled those won by Germany in Europe, and by August 1942 Japan controlled an empire that stretched from Burma in the west to the Gilbert Islands in the east, and from the Aleutian Islands of Alaska in the north to the Solomon Islands in the south. The Allies were by no means defeated, however, and the US Navy had struck a devastating blow against the Japanese fleet in the Battle of Midway in June 1942. As US-led Allied forces prepared for a great counter-offensive, Japanese military command aimed to isolate Australia, which was the main staging area for Allied operations in the Pacific. On 06 July 1942, Japanese troops landed on Guadalcanal, a 5300-square-kilometer island in the Solomon Islands, and began building an airfield there. From Guadalcanal, Japanese bombers could strike at New Caledonia and the New Hebrides east of Australia, and the communication and supply lines between the United States and Australia might be cut. To protect the Allied supply line, US forces invade Guadalcanal on 07 August 1942. The airfield is captured and renamed Henderson Field, and US forces fight to secure a defensive perimeter around the airfield. In the early morning of 09 August, a Japanese naval task force sunk four heavy US cruisers around Guadalcanal, and the landing fleet was forced to retreat, leaving the 1st Marine Division to fend for itself on the island. Meanwhile, Japan reinforced its defenders on Guadalcanal. The Marines dug a seven- by four-mile defensive perimeter around Henderson Field, and on 20 August the first Japanese counterattack was beaten back at the Ilu River. By then, US planes had begun landing at Henderson Field, bringing reinforcements and supplies. In September, Japanese troops again besieged the American perimeter and Japanese warships and aircraft bombarded the airfield, but the Marines held on to their beachhead. Near the end of September, the 1st Marine Division was reinforced, but Japanese forces on the island swelled even faster through the use of speedboat landing crafts that evaded Allied naval defenses at night. In October and early November, the outnumbered US forces on Guadalcanal repulsed repeat suicide attacks by Japanese troops. Meanwhile, Allied and Japanese fleets clashed in several inconclusive encounters around the southern Solomons. Finally, in mid November, the Allies scored a decisive naval victory when the fleet under US Admiral William Halsey defeated a Japanese force attempting to land fresh troops on Guadalcanal. Another attempt by Japan to land troops on November 30 likewise ended in failure, and after that date Japan attempted no further landings on Guadalcanal. On 09 December, the hard-fighting 1st Marine Division was relieved by the US Army's 25th Infantry Division. With Allied naval and air superiority achieved, it was now the turn of the Japanese troops to desperately hang on to their positions on Guadalcanal. By January, the Allied garrison numbered more than 40'000 soldiers against 22'000 Japanese. More US troops and supplies continued to arrive every day, and the Japanese positions were rapidly overwhelmed. In late January 1943, Japanese command ordered an evacuation of the island and by the end of the first week of February it was completed. On 09 February, US command declared Guadalcanal secure. The Battle of Guadalcanal was the first major Japanese land defeat in World War II and cost the Allies 1600 dead, 4250 wounded, and many others incapacitated by malaria and other diseases. Japanese losses were more than 24'000, with many perishing from disease or starvation. The retaking of Guadalcanal by the Allies ended the Japanese drive south around Australia and helped secure the Allied supply line. From thereon, the Japanese fought defensively in the Pacific with worsening prospects. |
1940 Largest amount paid for a stamp ($45'000 for 1-cent 1856
British Guiana) 1937 El Gobierno republicano español decide permitir el culto católico, suspendido desde los primeros días de la guerra civil española. 1936 The United States declares non-intervention in the Spanish Civil War. 1934 US Court of Appeals upholds lower court ruling striking down government's attempt to confiscate or ban James Joyce's novel Ulysses. 1928 The US Treasury announces paper money, one third smaller than previously, in denominations ranging from one to ten thousand dollars, and including a new two-dollar note. A year later the department put out a version yet smaller by 25%, bearing the set of portraits and emblems current until the year 2000 modification. 1927 The last Dodge Convertible Cabriolet, a sporty car, is made. It was produced for only four months. 1923 Stalin asume el mando supremo de los ejércitos soviéticos. 1923 Manuel Teixeira Gomes es elegido presidente de la República de Portugal. 1922 The Irish Republican Army cuts the cable link between the United States and Europe at Waterville landing station. 1919 Se aprueba en el Congreso español el dictamen referente al ingreso de España en la Sociedad de Naciones. 1916 Persia forms an alliance with Britain and Russia. 1914 El Estado de Montenegro declara la guerra a Austria. Su ejército no pasa de 30'000 hombres.
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1888
Theophilus Van Kannel of Philadelphia receives a patent for the
revolving door. 1864 Union troops capture part of Confederate General Jubal Early"s army at Moorefield, West Virginia. 1863 Siege of Fort Wagner, Charleston Harbor, South Carolina continues 1820 first potatoes planted in Hawaii 1819 Battle of Boyac; Bolívar defeats Spanish in Colombia Tiene lugar la Batalla de Boyacá, en la que las tropas de Bolívar, que luchaban por la liberación de Nueva Granada, derrotan al ejército realista de Barreiro. 1815 Napoleón Bonaparte, derrotado por los aliados, embarca rumbo al destierro en la isla de Santa Elena. 1794 The Whiskey Rebellion ^top^ On 16 July of 1794 the Whiskey Rebellion started as about 500 armed men.irate farmers in the Monoghaela Valley of Pennsylvania had risen up against the federal tax on liquor and stills. The farmers would take revenge burning the home of the regional tax inspector and "tarring and feathering revenue officers." [picture >] President George Washington issues a congressionally authorized proclamation ordering the rebels to return home and calling for militia from four neighbouring states. After fruitless negotiations, Washington would ordered 12'900 soldiers to put down the Whiskey Rebellion, but opposition melted away and no battle ensued. Troops occupied the region and some of the rebels were tried, but the two convicted of treason were later pardoned by the president. |
1587 William Allen, 65, is created cardinal. He had left England when Protestant Elizabeth came to power, urged Catholics to rebel against the queen, founded the college of Douay to train English priests and oversaw the Douay Bible English translation. DOUAY BIBLE ONLINE: http://www.cybercomm.net/~dcon/drbible.html http://www.scriptours.com/bible/ http://www.cyberbuzz.gatech.edu/catholic/scriptures/douay.htm Search or Download (Douay and MANY other versions and languages) 1560 Ratification of the Scots Confession by the Scottish Parliament marked the triumph of the Reformation in Scotland, under the leadership of John Knox. (In 1647, the Scots Confession was superseded by the Westminster Confession.) 1498 Columbus arrives in Caribbean. 1409 The Council of Pisa closes. Convened to end the Great Schism (1378-1417) caused by two rival popes, the Council in fact elected a third pope, Alexander V (afterwards regarded as an antipope). 1316 John XXII is elected pope. Residing at Avignon, he condemned William of Occam and Emperor Louis of Bavaria. 0768 Stephen (III) IV, 48, begins his reign as Pope, after several antipopes. He formed a close relationship with Pépin le Bref, the Frankish king, who awarded him the first of the papal estates. |
2002 Fourteen persons by terrorist mortar shells and hand grenades in Bogotá, near Plaza de Bolívar, Casa de Nariño, and Alcaldía Mayor (more than 20 are injured) , just before, at 16:00 Alvaro Uribe Vélez [at right in photo >], elected in a landslide on 26 May 2002 for a term ending on 07 August 2006, is sworn in as president of Colombia, succeeding discredited Andrés Pastrana Arango. Also sworn in: Francisco Santos, 38, as Vice-President [at left in photo >], y los nuevos ministros: Fernando Londoño H, Interior y Justicia Carolina Barco, Relaciones Exteriores Martha Lucía Ramírez, Defensa Roberto Junguito, Hacienda Jorge Humberto Botero, Comercio Juan Luis Londoño, Trabajo y Salud Cecilia María Vélez, Educación Carlos Gustavo Cano, Agricultura Luis Ernesto Mejía, Minas y Energía Santiago Montenegro, Jefe de Planeación Nacional María Consuelo Araújo, Cultura Cecilia Rodríguez, Medio Ambiente Martha Pinto de De Hart, Comunicaciones Andrés Uriel Gallego, Transportes. 2002 All 10 aboard US Air Force Special Operations C-130 cargo-and-passenger plane which crashes late in the day near Caguas, Puerto Rico, on a training mission out of Roosevelt Roads naval station in Puerto Rico. 2002 Hussan Ahmed Nimr, 27, shot in the heart by an Israeli sharpshooter near his home in Khan Yunis, Gaza Strip, in the afternoon. He was a senior Hamas activist. 2002 Ziad Daales, and three other Fatah Tanzim militiamen, shot by attacking Israeli troops, in Tul Karm, West Bank town, early in the morning. Daales was a regional commander of the groups's Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade. He had been wanted by Israel for alleged involvement in the execution-style killing of two Israeli restaurant owners, Etgar Zeitouni and Motti Dayan, in Tul Karm in January 2001. The Shin Bet also claims that Daales was involved in a shooting attack in Hadera in January 2002 in which six Israelis were killed, and in dozens of other shooting attacks on Israeli troops and enclave settlers in and near Tul Karm. 2002 Three Afghan soldiers, one civilian, and 11 of the attackers, armed with AK-47 semiautomatic rifles, of 20 soldiers and 20 policemen at an Afghan government base in the Bagram-i District 10 km south of the center of Kabul. The fight goes on from 07:00 to 10:00. One attacker and four soldiers are wounded. 2001 Wael Ghanem, Palestinian traitor, shot in ambush as he was driving towards the Jewish West Bank enclave Tzofin, by Palestinian attackers hiding behind a greenhouse along the side of the road. He was a Palestinian collaborator who left the West Bank and moved to Israel proper in 1992, receiving Israeli citizenship. 2001 Commander Teli and 4 other ethnic Albanian rebels, by Macedonian police raiding their weapons cache in the Skopje suburb of Cair. |
1998 Over
220 persons in the terrorist bombings of the US embassies in
Kenya and Tanzania. ^top^
including 12 US citizens working at the Nairobi embassy: Julian Bartley, 55; Jay Bartley, 20; Jesse Aliganga, 21; Molly Huckaby Hardy, 51; Kenneth Ray Hobson II, 27; Arlene Kirk, 50, Mary Louise Martin, 45; Sherry Lynn Olds, 40; Jean Rose Dalizu, 60; Prabhi Guptara Kavaler, 46; Ann Michelle O'Connor, 36; Uttamlal "Tom" Shah, 38. 30 foreign service nationals and 2 contractors at the Nairobi embassy: Chrispin W. Bonyo — Lawrence A. Gitau — Hindu O. Idi — Tony Irungu — Geoffrey Kalio — G. Joel Kamau — Lucy N. Karigi — Francis M. Kibe — Joe Kiongo — Dominic Kithuva — Peter K. Macharia — Francis W. Maina — Cecelia Mamboleo — Lydia M. Mayaka — Francis Mbugua Ndungu — Kimeu N. Nganga — Francis Mbogo Njunge — Vincent Nyoike — Francis Olewe Ochilo — Maurice Okach — Edwin A.O. Omori — Lucy G. Onono — Evans K. Onsongo (Dept. of Agriculture) — Eric Onyango — Sellah Caroline Opati — Rachel M. Pussy (USIS) — Farhat M. Sheikh — Phaedra Vrontamitis — Adams T. Wamai (Dept. of Commerce) — Frederick M. Yafes — Contractors Moses Namayi (Dept. of Commerce) and Josiah Odero Owuor (Centers for Disease Control) 2 foreign service nationals, 6 contractors, and one more, at the Dar-es-Salaam embassy: Yusuf Shamte Ndange Saidi Rogath — and Contractors: Abdalla Mohamed — Abbas William Mwila — Bakari Nyumhu — Mtendeje Rajabu — Mohamed Mahundi Ramadani — Doto Lukua Ramadhani and one more man (a Muslim) Jamal Hirsch US EMBASSY IN NAIROBI, KENYA At approximately 10:30 local time, terrorists driving in a truck detonate a large bomb in the rear parking area, near the ramp to the basement garage, of the US Embassy in Nairobi. A total of 213 people are killed, of whom 44 were American Embassy employees (12 Americans and 32 Foreign Service National employees). Ten Americans and eleven FSNs are seriously injured. An estimated 200 Kenyan civilians are killed and 4000 are injured by the blast in the vicinity of the embassy. Damage to the embassy is massive, especially internally. Although there is little structural damage to the five story reinforced concrete building, the explosion reduced much of the interior to rubble destroying windows, window frames, internal office partitions and other fixtures on the rear side of the building. The secondary fragmentation from flying glass, internal concrete block walls, furniture, and fixtures causes most of the embassy casualties. The majority of the Kenyan casualties result from the collapse of the adjacent Ufundi Building, flying glass from the nearby Co-op Bank Building and other buildings located within a two to three block radius. Other casualties are pedestrians or motorists in the crowded streets next to the embassy. The local-hire contract guards at the rear of the Embassy saw the truck pull into the uncontrolled exit lane of the rear parking lot just as they closed the fence gate and the drop bar after a mail van had exited the embassy's garage. (The drop bar paralleled a series of steel bollards which encircled the embassy outside the steel grill fence that surrounds the chancery.) The truck proceeded to the embassy's rear access control area but was blocked by an automobile coming out of the Co-op Bank's underground garage. The blocking auto was forced to back up allowing the truck to come up to the embassy drop bar. When one of the two terrorist occupants of the truck demanded that the guards open the gates, they refused. One of the terrorists then began shooting at the chancery and the other tossed a flash grenade at one of the guards. The guards, who were unarmed, ran for cover and tried to raise the Marine Security Guard at the command post (Post #1) on a hand held radio and by a phone in the nearby guard booth. They were unsuccessful; the embassy's single radio frequency was occupied with other traffic; the telephone was busy. In the several seconds time lapse between the gunshots/grenade explosion and the detonation of the truck bomb, many embassy employees went to the windows to observe what was happening. Those who did were either killed or seriously injured. |
DETAILS ON THE US NATIONALS KILLED Consul General Julian Bartley Sr. had three decades of government service in several countries and was working toward an ambassadorship. Bartley's son, Jay (Julian Jr.), hoped to follow in his father's footsteps. The university student had taken a summer job at the embassy. Jesse Aliganga, Marine Sgt., had just signed a 30-month extension of his three-year service to become an embassy guard. Molly Huckaby Hardy worked in the administrative office. The Kenyan job was to be her last overseas assignment. She was to go home the next month. Kenneth Hobson II, Army Sgt., had volunteered for embassy duty. He left a widow, Debbie, and a daughter, Meghan, 2. Arlene Kirk worked in the military assistance office. She had just returned to work after a six-week US vacation with her family and was thinking of moving back to the US after spending half her life working in Africa. A fiscal officer for the Air Force, Kirk and her husband, Robert, served together in the Peace Corps in South Africa in 1970. Louise Martin, of the Centers for Disease Control, was an epidemiologist from Atlanta. She was in Nairobi testing new drugs to fight malaria. She leaves behind her workmate husband, Douglas Klaucke, also of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Air Force Senior Master Sgt. Sherry Lynn Olds joined the Air Force out of high school, following in the footsteps of her father, Delbert, who is a retired civil servant. Sgt. Olds had returned to Nairobi in June after spending two months in the United States taking courses to qualify for a promotion to become a chief master sergeant. Jean Dalizu was a liaison officer at the Nairobi embassy. She would be buried in Kenya, her adopted homeland where she married. Prabhi Kavaler, born in India, worked in the General Services Office Michelle O'Connor worked in the General Services. She'll be buried in Polo, Illinois, where her husband, Jim, and their three daughters will settle. Uttamlal "Tom" Shah worked in the Political section. He was planning to attend his 20th high school reunion that fall in Cincinnati, Ohio. ONE OF THE NAIROBI TERRRORRISTS WOULD BE CAUGHT, TRIED, AND CONVICTED. On 12 June 2001, Mohamed Rashed Daoud Al-'Owhali, 24, who had confessed to his role in the attack on the embassy at Nairobi, would be sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole, as, during 5 days, the jury could not reach unanimous agreement on the death penalty requested by the prosecution. Al-'Owhali's life was spared one day after Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh became the first person executed by the federal government since 1963. Under a 1996 US federal law, prosecutors can seek the death penalty in terrorist murder cases. McVeigh was the first person executed by the federal government since 1963. The last person sentenced to death in US District Court in Manhattan was Gerhard A. Puff, a bank robber executed in 1954 for killing an FBI agent. One year earlier, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed for nuclear espionage. US EMBASSY IN DAR ES SALAAM, TANZANIA. In the morning a truck loaded with explosives drives up Laibon Road to one of the two vehicular gates of the US Embassy in Dar Es Salaam. Apparently unable to penetrate the perimeter because it was blocked by an embassy water tanker, the suicide bomber detonates his charge at 10:39 at a distance of about 10 meters from the outer wall of the chancery. The bomb attack kills twelve persons. Another 85 are injured. No Americans are among the fatalities, but many are injured, two of them seriously. The chancery suffers major structural damage and is rendered unusable, but does not collapse. No one inside the chancery is killed, in part due to the strength of the structure and in part to simple luck. A number of third-country diplomatic facilities and residences in the immediate vicinity are severely damaged, and several US Embassy residences are destroyed, as are dozens of vehicles. The US Ambassador's residence, one kilometer distant and vacant at the time, suffers roof damage and collapsed ceilings. At the time of the attack, two contract local guards were on duty inside a perimeter guard booth, while two others were in the pedestrian entrance screening area behind the booth and another was in the open area behind the water truck. All five were killed in the blast. The force of the blast propelled the filled water tanker over three stories into the air. It came to rest against the chancery building, having absorbed some of the shock wave that otherwise would have hit the chancery with even greater force. The driver of the water tanker and his assistant are killed. Terrorism Research Center report (January 1999) |
Osama bin Laden's involvement. At 10:30 a.m. local time, a massive truck bomb explodes outside the US embassy in Nairobi, Kenya. Minutes later, another truck bomb detonated outside the US embassy in Dar es Salaam, the capital of neighboring Tanzania. The dual terrorist attacks killed 224 people, including 12 Americans, and wounded more than 4,500. The United States accused Saudi exile Osama bin Laden, a proponent of international terrorism against America, of masterminding the bombings. On August 20, President Bill Clinton ordered cruise missiles launched against bin Laden's terrorist training camps in Afghanistan and against a pharmaceutical plant in Sudan, where bin Laden allegedly made or distributed chemical weapons. Osama bin Laden was born in 1955 into one of Saudi Arabia's wealthiest and most prominent families. His father, an immigrant from South Yemen, had built a construction company into a multibillion-dollar company. When his father died in 1968, bin Laden inherited an estimated $100 million but for the next decade drifted without focus. In 1979, however, everything changed when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. Like tens of thousands of other Arabs, bin Laden volunteered to aid Afghanistan in repulsing the godless communist invaders of the Muslim country. For the first few years of the Afghan War, he traveled around Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf raising money for the anti-Soviet Afghan fighters. In 1982, he traveled to the front lines of the war for the first time, where he donated construction equipment for the war effort. Later, he personally fought in a handful of skirmishes and battles. However, his primary role in the anti-Soviet jihad was as financier. During the war, bin Laden made contact with a number of Islamic militants, many of whom who were as anti-Western as they were anti-Soviet. In 1989, the Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan, and bin Laden returned to Saudi Arabia. He grew increasingly critical of the ruling Saudi family, especially after hundreds of thousands of US troops were welcomed onto Saudi soil during the Persian Gulf War. Although his passport was taken away, he managed to escape Saudi Arabia in 1991 and settled in the Sudan. From there, he spoke out against the Saudi government and the continuing US military presence in Saudi Arabia, which he likened to the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. After the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center in New York, the United States began to suspect that bin Laden was involved in international terrorism against the United States. The military organization he built during the Afghan War al-Qaeda, or "the base" was still in existence, and US intelligence believed he was transforming it into an anti-US terrorist network. In 1995, bin Laden called for guerrilla attacks against US forces in Saudi Arabia, and three months later a terrorist attack against a US military installation killed five Americans. In June 1996, a truck bomb killed 19 US servicemen in Saudi Arabia. Whether or not bin Laden was involved in planning these attacks has not been established, but under US and Saudi pressure he was expelled from the Sudan in 1996. With 200 of his followers, he returned to Afghanistan, which was then falling under the control of the Taliban, a faction of extreme Islamic fundamentalists. Soon after his arrival, bin Laden issued a fatwah, or religious decree, calling for war on Americans in the Persian Gulf and the overthrow of the Saudi government. In February 1998, he issued another fatwah stating that Muslims should kill Americans, including civilians, anywhere in the world. On 07 August 1998 the eighth anniversary of the deployment of US troops to Saudi Arabia two US embassies in East Africa are bombed almost simultaneously. The attack at the Nairobi embassy, which was located in a busy downtown area, caused the greater devastation and loss of life. There, a truck loaded with one ton of TNT forced its way to the back entrance of the embassy and was detonated, shattering the embassy, demolishing the nearby Ufundi Coop House, and gutting the 17-story Cooperative Bank. By the time rescue operations came to an end, 213 people were dead, including 12 from the US. Thousands of people were wounded, and hundreds were maimed or blinded. The attack against the US embassy in Dar es Saalam killed 11 and injured 85. By 1997, US intelligence officers knew that bin Laden operatives were active in East Africa but were unable to break up the terrorist cell before the embassies were attacked. They had even heard of a possible plot to bomb the US embassy in Nairobi but failed to recommend an increase in security before the attack. Meanwhile, Prudence Bushnell, the US ambassador to Kenya, independently asked the State Department to move the Nairobi embassy because of its exposed location, but the request was not granted. Revelations of these pre-bombing security issues provoked much controversy and concern about the United States' vulnerability abroad. Within days of the 07 August bombings, two bin Laden associates would be arrested and charged with the attacks. However, with bin Laden and other key suspects still at large, President Clinton ordered a retaliatory military strike on 20 August. In Afghanistan, some 70 US cruise missiles hit three alleged bin Laden training camps. An estimated 24 people were killed, but bin Laden was not present. Thirteen cruise missiles hit a pharmaceutical plant in the Sudan, and the night watchman was killed. The United States later backed away from its contention that the pharmaceutical plant was making or distributing chemical weapons for al-Qaeda. In November 1998, the United States indicted bin Laden and 21 others, charging them with bombing the two US embassies and conspiring to commit other acts of terrorism against Americans abroad. To date, nine of the al-Qaeda members named in the indictments have been captured: Six are in the United States, and three are in Britain fighting extradition to the United States. In February 2001, four of the suspects went on trial in New York on 302 criminal counts stemming from the embassy attacks. On 29 May all four were convicted on all counts. Saudi citizen Mohamed Rashed Daoud al-'Owhali and Tanzanian Khalfan Khamis Mohamed admitted to directly taking part in the terrorist attacks but claimed they did not knowingly engage in a conspiracy against the United States. They were both sentenced to life in prison without parole. Lebanese-born US citizen Wadih El-Hage and Jordanian Mohammed Saddiq Odeh admitted ties to bin Laden but denied involvement in any terrorist acts. They face a maximum sentence of life in prison. Since June 1999, Osama bin Laden, the chief suspect in the case, has been on the FBI's "Ten Most Wanted Fugitives" list, with a $5 million award offered for information leading to his arrest. He is believed to be in Afghanistan. This is the eighth year anniversary of United Nations sanctions against Iraq and the ordering of US troops into the Gulf region (operation Desert Shield). Iraq informed the US Security Council that it was not going to tolerate the continuation of the sanctions beyond the eighth year anniversary. FOLLOW-UP 2000 Ali Mohamed, Egyptian-born US citizen who served in the US Army, pleaded guilty in New York to helping plan the US Embassy bombings. Updated: Thu, Oct 18, 2001, 12:59 PM EDT Four Osama bin Laden disciples convicted in the 1998 bombings of two US embassies in Africa were sentenced to life without parole, on Thursday 18 October 2001 in a city still reeling from the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks. Khalfan Khamis Mohamed, 28, was the first to be sentenced at the federal courthouse in lower Manhattan under heightened security. He and Mohamed Rashed Al-'Owhali, 24, were sentenced for direct involvement in the bombings. Mohamed Sadeek Odeh, 36, of Jordan, and Wadih El-Hage, 41, were convicted of conspiracy and had been eligible for lesser sentences; El-Hage, a former personal secretary to bin Laden, was the lone US citizen convicted in the attacks. Judge Leonard B. Sand ordered each of the men to pay $33 million in restitution: $7 million to the victims' families, and $26 million to the US government. At a pre-sentencing hearing on Wednesday, Sand said the defendants were indigent. But he also suggested that frozen assets might be used for victims, thanks to recent attempts by the Bush administration to choke off the funding of al-Qaida and other terror groups. The near-simultaneous 07 August 1998, bombings of the embassies in Kenya and Tanzania killed 231 people, including 12 Americans. They were quickly blamed on bin Laden, who was indicted in the case, and his al-Qaida terrorist organization. El-Hage, described by prosecutors as leading a double life where he raised both seven children and money for bin Laden's network, condemned the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the embassy bombings in a 30-minute address to the judge. "The killing of innocent people is radical, extreme and cannot be tolerated by any religion, principles or values," said El-Hage, a Lebanese-born naturalized American. He repeatedly asserted his innocence, claiming he was a law-abiding American and a devout Muslim opposed to violence. Odeh was described by defense lawyer Ed Wilford as "a soldier in the military wing of al-Qaida." He said the attack, in Odeh's view, was an attack against the US for its support of Israel. Odeh criticized the Clinton administration on Thursday 18 October 2001 for its bombing of Afghanistan after the embassy attacks "I can only say to Allah we belong, and to him we'll return," he said. "God help me in my calamity, and replace it with goodness." Mohamed, convicted of helping build the bomb that struck the embassy in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, declined to address the court. He and Al-'Owhali had faced a possible death penalty in the case, but the jury could not agree on that sentence. Through his attorney, Mohamed said he "wishes to express gratitude to a jury that spared his life." "The jury has found you guilty of crimes that mandate a life sentence, and I will of course impose a life sentence," the judge told him. Al-'Owhali, who rode the bomb vehicle up to the embassy in Nairobi, Kenya, and tossed stun grenades at guards before fleeing, also declined to address the court. The four defendants' six-month trial attracted little interest before the 11 September terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, which killed more than 5'000 people. Security was tightened Thursday around the courthouse just blocks from the trade center rubble. The courthouse is surrounded by steel barricades to prevent possible attacks. The sentencing came after an appeal for life sentences by the spouses of two people killed in the embassy bombings. "Let them die conscious of the fact that their souls will be condemned forever," said Howard Kavaler, whose wife died in the attack on the Kenyan embassy. Susan Hirsch, whose husband was killed in the bombing of the Tanzanian embassy, said the defendants were giving the world a distorted view of the Islamic religion. Her husband, Jamal, was Muslim. |
1996 At least 86 by a flash flood at a Pyrenees mountain campsite
in Spain. 1992 Francisco Fernández Ordóñez, político español. 1989 US Congressman Mickey Leland, D-TX, and 15 others in a small plane which crashes in Ethiopia. The wreckage would be found only six days later. 1985 Gábor Szego, mathematician 1980 Más de un centenar de víctimas por el huracán "Allen" a su paso por el Caribe. 1974 Rosario Castellanos, escritora mexicana. 1973 Four hundred civilians, as a US plane accidentally bombs a Cambodian village. 1970 Presiding judge and 3 others, in courthouse shootout in San Rafael, Calif (Police charge Angela Davis provided weapons) 1957 Oliver Hardy, 65, comedian of Laurel and Hardy. 1956 Cerca de mil personas cuando siete camiones del ejército colombiano cargados de municiones y combustible estallan en el centro de la ciudad de Cali. 1941, 551 Jews, shot in Kishnev ghetto in Romania
1918 Jaime Vera, médico y político socialista español. 1911 Elizabeth (Chase) Akers Allen, author. ELIZABETH ALLEN ONLINE: Forest Buds, From the Woods of Maine 1906 Three blacks victims of "The Lyerly Murders.". lynched by a a mob which defies a court order in North Carolina. 1899 Alexander Balmain Bruce, author. BRUCE ONLINE: The Training of the Twelve 1899 Jacob Henricus (or Hendrikus) Maris, Dutch painter specialized in Landscapes, born on 25 August 1837. MORE ON MARIS AT ART 4 AUGUST LINKS The Tow Path View of Amsterdam View of Old Delft Harbor of Amsterdam Dutch Town on the Edge of the Sea Harbor Town Close of Day The Bridge 1882 Dozens of Hatfields and McCoys as Hatfields of south WV and McCoys of east Ky feud, 100 wounded or die. 1877 Aleksander Kotsis, Polish artist born on 03 May 1836. 1862 William Turner (of Oxford), British artist born on 12 December 1789. 1815 Johannes Jacobus Linthorst, Dutch artist born in 1750, give or take 5 years. 1759 Jan Josef Horemans Sr. Le Brun, Flemish artist born on 16 November 1682. Garden with Figures on a Terrace 1691 Cornelis Mehus, Flemish artist born in 1630. 0117 Marcus Trajan, 65, Roman emperor from A.D. 98-117. His attitude toward Christianity gradually changed from toleration to persecution. It was during Trajan's rule that Apostolic Father Ignatius of Antioch was martyred. |
Births which occurred on
an August 07: 1963 Patrick Bouvier Kennedy, second son of president John F. Kennedy, 46, and Jacqueline (Bouvier) Kennedy, 34, first child to be born to a president in office, since Cleveland. Born premature, he died 39 hours after birth.
1927 Edwin W Edwards (Gov-La) 1917 Pedro de Lorenzo, escritor y periodista español. 1916 Richard Hofstadter, physicist who won the Nobel prize in 1961 for his studies of neutrons and protons. 1904 Ralph Bunche, US diplomat, a key member of the United Nations for more than two decades, and winner (first African-American) of the 1950 Nobel Prize for Peace for his successful negotiation of an Arab-Israeli truce in Palestine the previous year. He died on 09 December 1971. 1903 Louis Leakey, anthropologist, archeologist and paleontologist, believed Africa was the cradle of mankind. (1964 Richard Hooper Medal) 1890 Einar Jolin, Swedish artist who died in 1976. 1886 Wilhem Gimmi, Swiss artist who died in 1960. 1886 Louis Hazeltine inventor (neutrodyne circuit, making radio possible) 1881 Alexander Flemming, Scottish bacteriologist who discovered penicillin in 1928.
1870:: 19 kittens born to Tarawood Antigone (4 stillborn) 1868 Bortkiewicz, mathematician. 1867 Emil Hansen Nolde, German Expressionist painter, watercolorist, and printmaker known for his violent religious works and his foreboding landscapes. He died on 15 April 1956 MORE ON NOLDE AT ART 4 AUGUST LINKS Tänzerinnen Branch of Orchids Fischdampfer (1910) Frauenkopf a different Frauenkopf Zwei Teufel Ältere Herren Sibirische Gutsherren E.N. (Selbstporträt) Kniendes Mädchen Klatsch Lichter Kopf Familie Der Graf Eva Dampfer Diskussion Autumn Sea VII — Candle Dancers — Child and Large Bird — Crucifixion — Dance Around the Golden Calf — Excited People — Legend: Saint Mary of Egypt - Death in the Desert — Mask Still Life III — Wildly Dancing Children — Women and a Pierrot Diskussion Christ Amaryllis Madonna Sultry Evening 1863 Alfred Sutro, author. SUTRO ONLINE: (English translation): The Life of the Bee 1862 Henri Eugène Augustin Le Sidaner, French painter who died in 1939. MORE ON LE SIDANER AT ART 4 AUGUST LINKS The Bridge Table in the Garden Sunday 1855 Stanley Weyman, WEYMAN ONLINE: From the Memoirs of a Minister of France, A Gentleman of France: Being the Memoirs of Gaston de Bonne, Sieur de Marsac, The House of the Wolf: A Romance, Under the Red Robe 1844 Hugo Wilhelm Kaufmann, German artist who died on 30 December 1915. 1843 Charles Warren Stoddard, STODDARD ONLINE: In the Footprints of the Padres 1829 Robert Barnwell Roosevelt, ROBERT ROOSEVELT ONLINE: Five Acres Too Much 1795 Joseph Rodman Drake, DRAKE ONLINE: The American Flag and: The Culprit Fay, and Other Poems 1789 The US War Department is created by Congress. 1779 Carl Ritter cofounder of modern science of geography. 1763 Johann-Jakob Biedermann, (perhaps Hungarian) artist who died on 10 April 1830. 1742 Nathanael Greene, Revolutionary war hero, in Rhode Island. Appointed to the rank of major general in 1776, Greene is best known for his astuteness as commander in chief of the southern army, a position he assumed in 1778. 1598 Georg Stiernhielm "father of Swedish poetry" (Hercules) He died in 1672 STIERNHIELM ONLINE: Hercules (1658) Hercules (page images to download) Gambla Swea- och Götha-Måles Fatebur (1643) (page images to download) [nothing to do with gambling] 1533 Alonso de Ercilla, soldado y poeta español. 0317 Constantius II Roman emperor (337-61) |