Unix Timestamp: 966470400
Thursday, August 17. 2000, 12:00:00 AM UTC

Iran announces it has launched a satellite launch-capable Safir rocket. //www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSHAF75296620080817 (Reuters) //news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/7566804.stm (BBC News)

Michael Phelps surpasses Mark Spitz in Gold Medals won at a single Olympics, winning eight.

The Afghan National Army kills 28 Taliban insurgents as the militants attempt an ambush of a convoy in Zabul province. //www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSISL33004220080817 (Reuters)

American swimmer Michael Phelps wins gold as the butterfly leg of the winning Men's 4 x 100 metre medley relay team. With the relay victory, Phelps earns his eighth gold medal (5 individual, 3 relay), setting a record for most golds at an Olympic games, beating Mark Spitz's previous record of 7 set in 1972. //www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087sid=aZkqk09.Al4Arefer=home (Bloomberg)

Russia, China and four Central Asian members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation conduct war games in the southern Ural Mountains area of Russia with Vladimir Putin, the President of Russia, proposing that they be held regularly. //www.hindu.com/2007/08/18/stories/2007081856391400.htm (The Hindu)

Vladimir Putin issues a statement revealing that Russia is to resume the flight exercises of its strategic bombers in remote areas. The flights were suspended in 1991 after the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

Vladimir Putin announces that Russia will resume patrols over the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans by its nuclear-capable Tu-160 and Tu-95 bombers after a 15-year hiatus. //www.nytimes.com/2007/08/18/world/europe/17cnd-russia.html?hp (NYT)

Thai police claim that John Mark Karr has confessed to the murder of JonBenét Ramsey. Karr tells reporters after the press conference that he was with the child when she died but didn't mean to kill her. //www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/08/16/national/main1901342.shtml (CBS)

Saboteurs cause a series of explosions that damaged oil and water pipelines in Iraq. //news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3158605.stm//www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNewsstoryID=3290208

A Palestinian cameraman working for Reuters, Mazen Dana, is shot dead by a Coalition tank crew in Iraq while trying to film around Abu Ghraib prison, after a mortar attack on the prison. The tank crew mistook the camera for a grenade launcher. //news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=435156

1999 İzmit earthquake: A 7.6-magnitude earthquake strikes İzmit and levels much of northwestern Turkey, killing more than 17,000 and injuring 44,000. This is the first of a long series of unrelated but frequent earthquakes throughout the world during the years 1999 and 2000.

For the first time, the public is allowed inside Buckingham Palace.

The 1992 Republican National Convention convenes in Houston.

Strathfield Massacre: In Sydney, Australia, taxi driver Wade Frankum shoots 7 people and injures 6 others before turning the gun on himself.

Pakistani PresidentMuhammad Zia-ul-Haq and the U.S. ambassador to Pakistan, Arnold Raphel, are killed in a plane crash near Bhawalpur.

ABC News' chief Middle East correspondent Charles Glass escapes his Hezbollah kidnappers in Beirut, Lebanon, after 62 days in captivity.

Rudolf Hess is found dead in his cell in Spandau Prison. Hess, 93, is believed to have committed suicide by hanging himself with an electrical flex. He was the last remaining prisoner at the complex, which is soon demolished.

Order of the Garter is opened to women.

Peru recognizes the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR).

The first compact discs (CDs) are released to the public in Germany.

In Australia, baby Azaria Chamberlain disappears from a csite at Ayers Rock (Uluru), reportedly taken by a dingo.

Double Eagle II becomes the first balloon to successfully cross the Atlantic Ocean, flying from Presque Isle, Maine, to Miserey, France.

The Soviet icebreaker "Arktika" became the first surface ship to reach the North Pole.

Venera program: "Venera 7" is launched. It later becomes the first spacecraft to successfully transmit data from the surface of another planet.

August 18 ndash The U.S. sinks 418 containers of nerve gas into the Gulf Stream near the Bahamas.

Category 5 Hurricane Camille, the most powerful tropical cyclonic system at landfall in history, hits the Mississippi coast, killing 248 people and causing US$1.5 billion in damage (1969 dollars).

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Republic begin negotiations in Kuwait to end the war in Yemen.

Margaret Harshaw, Metropolitan Opera soprano, sings the role of Turandot in Puccini's opera "Turandot" at the New York World's Fair.

East German border guards kill 18-year-old Peter Fechter, as he attempts to cross the Berlin Wall into West Berlin.

Vladimir Nabokov's controversial novel "Lolita" is published in the United States.

Chinese Civil War: The Second Taiwan Strait crisis begins with the People's Liberation Army's bombardment of Quemoy.

President of the United StatesDwight D. Eisenhower signs the Federal Aviation Act, transferring all authority over aviation in the USA to the newly created Federal Aviation Agency (FAA, later renamed Federal Aviation Administration).

Brojen Das from East Pakistan swims across the English Channel in a competition, as the first Bangali as well as the first Asian to ever do it. He is first among 39 competitors.

The first Thor-Able rocket is launched, carrying Pioneer 0, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Launch Complex 17. The launch fails due to a first stage malfunction.

West Germany bans the Communist Party of Germany.

The first planning session of Narcotics Anonymous is held in Southern California (see October 5).

Korean War: Hill 303 massacre.

WWII: The US 7th Army under General George S. Patton meets the British 8th Army under Field Marshal Bernard L. Montgomery in Messina, Sicily, completing the Allied conquest of Sicily.

WWII: First raid by heavy bombers of U.S. Eighth Air Force against occupied France.

One of English literature's important meetings takes place when Wilfred Owen introduces himself to Siegfried Sassoon at the Craiglockhart War Hospital in Edinburgh.

Jewish American Leo Frank is lynched for the alleged murder of a 13-year-old girl in Atlanta, Georgia.

September 2 ndash World War I: The Battle of Tannenberg begins between German and Russian forces.

Russo-Japanese War: A Japanese infantry charge fails to take Port Arthur.

A hurricane makes landfall in North Carolina's Outer Banks, completely destroying the town of Diamond City.

Bridget Driscoll is run over by a Benz car in the grounds of The Crystal Palace, London, the world's first motoring fatality.

American Civil War: In Charleston, South Carolina, Union batteries and ships bombard Confederate-held Fort Sumter (the bombardment does not end until Thursday, December 31).

Dakota War of 1862 begins in Minnesota as Lakota Sioux attack white settlements along the Minnesota River. They are overwhelmed by the U.S. Army six weeks later.

Yucatán officially unites with Mexico.

HMS "Beagle" with Charles Darwin leaves South America, headed back to England.

China ceases production of iron shuriken.

September ndash Belvedere College, Dublin, is founded by the order of the Jesuit Society of Ireland.

The "Clermont", Robert Fulton's first American steamboat, leaves New York City for Albany, New York on the Hudson River, inaugurating the first commercial steamboat service in the world.

Pope Benedict XIV succeeds Pope Clement XII as the 247th pope.

Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, and Sir Walter Raleigh set sail on an expedition to the Azores.

The Roman Church is overthrown and Protestantism is established as the national religion in Scotland.

Battle of Sford Courtenay in England: Prayer Book Rebellion quashed.

The Battle of the Echinades, between a Byzantine fleet and the fleet of Carlo I Tocco.

The first band of Gypsies visits Paris, according to an account of the citizen of Paris.

Lincoln College, a constituent college of the University of Oxford, is founded.

Minrekyansa becomes King of Ava ("ancient Burma").

The Celebration of "Sant Jordi" (Saint George) begins in Catalonia (he will later become its patron saint).

The Conflict of Druimnacour occurs in Sutherland, Scotland.

Bremen is expelled from the Hanseatic League.

The first witch hunts begin, in Switzerland.

Gabriel V is elected Patriarch of the Coptic Church for the second time.

Diogo de Silves, Portuguese navigator, discovers seven islands of the Azoresarchipelago.

Bhaktapur Royal Palace in Nepal is built by King Yaksa Malla.

CelestineOrder established in France.

The House of Balsic's rule of Montenegro comes to an end.

Dalmatia: Aliota Capenna, lord of Lesina (nowadays Hvar), offers his realm to the Republic of Venice (also said to have occurred in 1409 and 1421).

Battle of Verneuil: An English force under John, Duke of Bedford defeats a larger French army under the Duke of Alençon, John Stewart, and Earl Archibald of Douglas. Alençon is captured and Douglas killed.

The Battle of Mons-en-Pévèle is fought to a draw between the French army and the Flemish militias.

The peace treaty signed between the khanates of the Mongol Empire. The end of the civil war of the Mongols.

Ala-ud-din Khilji, Sultan of Delhi, conquers Gujarat.

James II of AragonreconquersVillena, Spain.

Holland and Zeeland are occupied by John II, Duke of Brabant and Guy of Dierre. John II, Count of Hainaut recovers the counties.

Pope Leo II succeeds Pope Agatho as the 80th pope.

The venerable Bede goes to Jarrow.