Wednesday, August 4
2004-08-04 08:12
Highlights in history on this date:
1578 - Portugal's King Sebastian is killed when his forces, on a crusade to Morocco, are overwhelmed by a larger Moroccan army.
1539 - Ghent rebels fight against Mary of Hungary, Regent of the Netherlands.
1621 - French Royalist Army begins Siege of Montauban against Huguenot rebels.
1892 - Andrew and Abby Borden are axed to death in their home in Fall River, Massachusetts. Lizzie Borden, Andrew's daughter from a previous marriage, is accused of the killings and acquitted.
1914 - Germany invades Belgium, opening World War 1 fighting
Britain declares war on Germany
United States declares its neutrality.
1916 - Denmark sells Danish Virgin Islands to United States for $25m.
1922 - Fighting breaks out between fascists and socialists in Italian cities.
1944 - Nazi police capture 14-year-old Anne Frank and seven other Jews in hiding places in Amsterdam during World War 2.
1950 - Moscow negotiates a trade and barter agreement with Iran, two days after large quantities of American machinery financed by loans arrive to start improvement projects meant to alleviate unemployment in Iran.
1958 - The Greek Cypriots Eoka Underground declare a military truce in Cyprus with Turkish Cypriots and British security forces. They vow to continue fighting if provoked.
1964 - The bodies of missing US civil rights workers Michael H Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James E Chaney are found buried in an earthen dam in Mississippi.
1968 - Israeli planes carry out a heavy raid on Arab guerrilla bases 16km inside Jordan, where 23 civilians and 5 soldiers are killed.
1971 - US Apollo 15 spacecraft heads back to Earth after a six-day mission exploring Moon.
1977 - US President Jimmy Carter signs a measure establishing the Department of Energy.
1982 - Three days after the UN Security Council demanded a cease-fire in the Lebanon war, Israeli tanks roll across the "green line" into west Beirut in an attempt to drive out the Palestine Liberation Organization. Seventy people are killed.
1986 - Britain's Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher reluctantly offers to impose limited sanctions against South Africa.
1990 - Twelve nations of European Community ban oil imports, embargo arms and suspend most trade with Iraq after invasion of Kuwait.
1993 - Japan's Cabinet resigns, ending 38 years of rule by the Liberal Democratic Party.
1994 - Yugoslavia withdraws support for Bosnia's Serbs, sealing the 483km border between Yugoslavia and Serb-held Bosnia and backing out of a war it bankrolled for more than two years at the expense of its own economy.
1995 - Croatia launches a massive attack on breakaway Serbs, bombarding rebel towns and shelling UN peacekeepers.
1997 - Six people are shot dead in restaurant in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, apparently part of a drug war.
1998 - Taliban forces take the town of Saripul in Afghanistan, paving the way for an attack on opposition stronghold Mazar-e-Sharif.
1999 - Letters given to US President Bill Clinton by Russian President Boris Yeltsin are made public, including one written by Jacqueline Kennedy days after her husband, President John F Kennedy's assassination, asking Soviet leaders to maintain peaceful US relations.
2000 - Queen Mother Elizabeth celebrates her 100th birthday as thousands line the roads of London to cheer her. Her popularity stems in part from her activities during World War 2, travelling with her husband, King George VI, and visiting and sympathising with their subjects.
2002 - In an electoral tie, Bolivia's Congress select Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada, a wealthy mining magnate and former president, as the country's next president.
2003 - The first 200 members of a West African peacekeeping force arrive in Liberia's in an effort to stop more than two months of fighting between government forces and rebels, and allow food and medicine to enter Monrovia.
Today's Birthdays:
Percy Bysshe Shelley, English poet (1792-1822)
Hans Christian Andersen, Danish fairy-tale writer (1805--1875)
Britain's Queen Mother Elizabeth (1900-2002)
Louis Armstrong, US jazz musician (1901-1971)
Raoul Wallenberg, Swedish diplomat (1912-1947)
Rene Goscinny, French author of Asterix (1926-1977)
Assia Djebar, Algerian author (1936--)
Billy Bob Thornton, U.S actor (1955--).
Thought For Today:
Every man is dangerous who only cares for one thing - GK Chesterton, English poet-essayist (1874-1936).
- SAPA