Unix Timestamp: 1060646400
Tuesday, August 12. 2003, 12:00:00 AM UTC

About 700 people missing in southern Taiwan after Typhoon Morakot are located alive. //news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8196543.stm (BBC) //www.rte.ie/news/2009/0812/asia.html (RTÉ)

Denmark sends a scientific team to the Arctic to try to establish that the Lomonosov Ridge is an extension of Greenland so it can claim sovereignty over oil reserves. //www.onelocalnews.com/newhopecourier/stories/index.php?action=fullnewsid=145617 (AP via New Hope Courier

The Russian submarine ''Kursk'' sinks in the Barents Sea, resulting in the deaths of all 118 men on board.

Russian submarine "Kursk" sinks in the Barents Sea. All 118 men aboard die.

Canada, Mexico, and the United States announce that a deal has been reached on the North American Free Trade Agreement the deal will be formally signed on December 17, 1992.

Japan Airlines Flight 123 crashes in Japan, killing 520 people (the worst single-aircraft disaster in history).

Mexico announces it is unable to pay its large foreign debt, triggering a debt crisis that quickly spread throughout Latin America.

The NASASpace Shuttle, named "Enterprise", makes its first test free-flight from the back of a Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA).

The Big Ear, a radio telescope operated by Ohio State University as part of the SETI project, receives a radio signal from deep space the event is named the WOW! signal for a notation made by a volunteer on the project.

Herbert Kappler escapes from the Caelian Hill military hospital in Rome.

The last U.S. ground troops are withdrawn from Vietnam.

Violence erupts after the Apprentice Boys of Derry march in Derry, Northern Ireland, resulting in a three-day communal riot known as the Battle of the Bogside.

An earthquake in Varto town, Turkey, kills 2,394 and injures 10,000.

In the People's Republic of China, Mao Zedong begins the Cultural Revolution to purge and reorganize China's Communist Party.

Syrian and Israeli troops clash over Lake Kinneret (also known as the Sea of Galilee) for 3 hours.

It is announced that the "New York Herald Tribune" will not resume publication.

Massacre of Braybrook Street: Harry Roberts, John Duddy and Jack Witney shoot dead 3 plainclothes policemen in London they are later sentenced to life imprisonment.

A magnitude 7.2 earthquake totally devastates most of the Ionian Sea islands in Greece's worst natural disaster in centuries.

"The Catcher in the Rye" is first published by J.D. Salinger.

Korean War: Bloody Gulch massacre.

In his encyclical "Humani Generis", Pope Pius XII declares evolution to be a serious hypothesis that did not contradict essential Catholic teachings.

The Salvatore Giuliano Gang explodes mines under a police barracks outside Palermo, Sicily.

A military coup in Syria ousts the president.

The Fourth Geneva Convention is agreed to.

Operation Pluto: The world's first undersea oil pipeline is laid between England and France.

The Allies capture Florence, Italy.

Winston Churchill makes his first public speech warning of the dangers of German rearmament.ref name=CBH

Turkish troops move into Persia to fight Kurdish insurgents.

The Panama Canal is inaugurated with the passage of the steamship USS "Ancon".

Mexican Revolution: Venustiano Carranza's troops under general Alvaro Obregon enter Mexico City.

Edward Elgar's "Sospiri", a moving adagio for strings and harp, is first performed in London.

Battle of Haelen: Belgian troops repulse the Germans.

Sultan Abd Al-Hafid of Morocco abdicates.

Leopold II of Belgium opens the Antwerpen-Centraal railway station

Spanish-American War: Hostilities end between American and Spanish forces in Cuba.

The last quagga dies at the Artis Magistra zoo in Amsterdam.

A peace treaty is signed between Imperial Russia and the Khanate of Khiva, making the khanate a Russian protectorate.

New Zealand acquires self-government.

U.S. troops of General Winfield Scott begin to advance along the aqueduct around Chalco and Xochimilco lakes in Mexico

The city of Chicago is established at the estuary of the Chicago River by 350 settlers.

Mrs. Helen Dance, wife of the captain of the ship "Sulphur", cuts down a tree to mark the day of the founding of the town of Perth, Western Australia.

St David's College (now the University of Wales, Leter) is founded by Thomas Burgess, Bishop of St David's.

In England, the last hanging under the Black Act is carried out, of William Potter for cutting down an orchard (although the judge petitioned for reprieve).

Peninsular War: The combined English and Portuguese army under the command of Wellington enters Madrid following the Battle of Salamanca.

The volcanoMount Papandayan in West Java erupts and partially collapses, the debris avalanche killing several thousands.

Battle of Kunersdorf: Frederick the Great is rebuffed in bloody assaults on the combined Austro–Russian army of Pyotr Saltykov and Ernst von Laudon. This is one of Frederick's greatest defeats.

Death of Innocent XI (Benedetto Odescalchi 1611–1689), Pope since 1676. A man of integrity who has been described as the greatest Pope of the 17th century, he played a major part in founding both the League of Augsburg, against Louis XIV and the Holy League, against the Ottoman Empire.

Battle of Mohács (1687): imperial army under Charles V, Duke of Lorraine defeats the Ottoman Turks and enables Austria to conquer most of Ottoman-occupied Hungary.

September ndash The Venetian navy raids the Dalmatian coast and attacks Turkish strongholds in Greece. On 28 September, the Parthenon in Athens is badly damaged when Venetian mortar fire explodes a Turkish powder magazine housed in the building.

September ndash Halley's comet makes an appearance, and is observed by Edmond Halley himself.

Vesuvius begins a period of volcanic activity lasting for 10 days.

The Ahom King Gadadhar Singha or Gadapani, who took the Tai name Supaatphaa, ascends the throne.

King Philip (Metacomet), the chief of the Wanoags that had waged war throughout southern New England in a war that bore his name, is killed by an Indian named Alderman, a soldier led by Captain Benjamin Church.

Mehmed IV (1648–1687) succeeds Ibrahim I (1640–1648) as Ottoman Emperor.

The city of Oslo in Norway is destroyed by fire for the fourteenth time King Christian IV of Denmark–Norway decrees its rebuilding on a new site where it will be renamed Christiania.

The Palace of Versailles is first built by Louis XIII, as a hunting lodge.

Early October ndash Action of October 1624: A Tuscan/Papal/Neapolitangalley fleet defeats the Algerians near Sardinia.

Henry Briggs publishes "Arithmetica Logarithmica".

The French Parliament passes a decree forbidding criticism of Aristotle on pain of death.//www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/158787/Rene-Descartes/43352/Residence-in-the-Netherlands Rene Descartes, Encyclopædia Britannica. 2009. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 11 Oct. 2009.

Mail service begins in Denmark.

The Latymer School and Latymer Upper School in London are founded by the bequest of Edward Latymer.

Queen Nzinga of Ndongo and Matamba starts to rule.

Frans Hals produces the painting now known as the "Laughing Cavalier".

The Virginia Land Company's charter is revoked and Virginia becomes a crown colony.

Jakob Bartsch records the constellation Camelopardalis around the North Star.

The University of Saint Francis Xavier is founded in Bolivia.

Cardinal Richelieu is appointed by Louis XIII of France to be his first minister.

The Netherlands establishes a trading colony at Tainan on Taiwan.

The city of Dunfermline is destroyed by fire, but The Abbey, The Palace, the The Abbot House and many other buildings survive.

Martin Luther's German translation of the Bible is publicly burned by order of the Pope.

The Japanese Shogun expels the Spanish from the land and severs trade with the Philippines.

The Spanish fleet sails past the Firth of Forth, and the English cease their pursuit. Much of the Spanish fleet is destroyed as it sails around Scotland and Ireland.

Battle of Renty: French forces led by Francis, Duke of Guise turn back an invasion of Picardy by Charles V.

English captain John Lok voyages to Guinea.ref name=tts

Saadi conquer the Kingdom of Fez.

Mikael Agricola becomes the bishop of Turku.

Battle of Otranto - Ottoman troops behead 800 Christians for refusing to convert to Islam.

Cherbourg, the last English territory in Normandy, surrenders to the French.

King Henry V of England begins using English in correspondence (back to England from France whilst on caign), marking the beginning of this king's continuous usage of English in prose, and the beginning of the restoration of English as an official language for the first time since the Norman Conquest, some 350 years earlier.

Battle of the Vorskla River: MongolGolden Horde forces led by Khan Temur Qutlugh and emir Edigu annihilate a crusading army led by former Golden Horde Khan Tokhtamysh and Grand Duke Vytautas of Lithuania.

September ndash John of Gaunt summons religious reformer John Wyclif to appear before the Royal Council.

With the help of the Genoese, Byzantine co-emperor Andronicus IV Palaeologus invades Constantinople and dethrones his father, John V Palaeologus, as co-emperor. John V Palaeologus is taken prisoner.

The Treaty of Nöteborg between Sweden and the Novgorod Republic (Russia) is signed, regulating the border for the first time.

Kublai Khan orders the burning of sacred Taoist texts, resulting in the reduction in number of volumes of the "Daozang" (Taoist Canon) from 4,565 to 1,120.

The Mon kingdom of Haripunchai falls as its capital Lhun (in present-day Thailand) is captured by King Mengrai's Lannathai kingdom.

Battle of Kōan (Hakata Bay): The second Mongolinvasion of Japan is foiled, as a large typhoon ndash famously called a "kamikaze", or divine wind ndash destroys much of the combined Chinese and Korean fleet and forces, numbering over 140,000 men and 4,000 ships.

Reading Abbey is founded in England.

The Concordat of Worms condemns Pierre Abélard's writings on the Holy Trinity. Later in the year, Canon Fulbert (not to be confused with Fulbert of Chartres), uncle of Heloise, has Abélard castrated.

Completion of the third and largest church at Cluny Abbey.

A large rebellion takes place in Cordoba against the ruling Almoravids.Gilbert Meynier (2010) "L'Algérie cœur du Maghreb classique. De l'ouverture islamo-arabe au repli (658-1518)". Paris: La Découverte pp.87.

The Praemonstratensian Order (Norbertines) was formed when a group of canons made solemn vows at Prémontré on Christmas Day.

Battle of Didgori: King David the Builder of Georgia, with 55,600 troops, defeats the 300,000-strong Muslim coalition troops at Didgori, in eastern Georgia.

Supposed founding of the Priory of Sion

The Crusaders defeat the Fatimids at the Battle of Ascalon.