Unix Timestamp: 1219449600
Saturday, August 23. 2008, 12:00:00 AM UTC

More than 1200 Ford workers in Victoria, Australia are stood down due to an industrial dispute over unpaid entitlements owed to workers in a Ford supplier. //www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22295138-2,00.html (AAP via News Limited)

Vendors selling puffer fish meat as salmon has led to 15 deaths and 115 people being sickened in Thailand over the past three years. //www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/08/23/asia/AS-GEN-Thailand-Puffer-Fish-Deaths.php (AP via IHT)

Austrian kidnap victim Natascha Kusch, 18, is found alive and well after being held captive for eight years in the garage of a house near Vienna. //news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/5282994.stm (BBC)

Israel\\'s unilateral disengagement from 25 Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip and West Bank ends.

Natural disaster: Wildfires sweep into the southern suburbs of Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada, destroying more than 200 homes. One-third of the city's population, or 30,000 people, have been evacuated.//globeandmail.ca/servlet/story/RTGAM.20030823.wfire0823_3/BNStory/Front/

Power outage happens all of Southern Finland for 30 to 60 minutes, because one underground line in Central Helsinki short circuits. The lack of electricity begins at 20:20 and causes radio broadcasts, public lights, elevators, trains, trams and metro traffic to stop. Also people have to be evacuated in Linnanmäki amusement park.//www.helsinginsanomat.fi/tuoreet/artikkeli/1061299237915//www.mtv3.fi/uutiset/kotimaa/arkisto.shtml?2003 August 182357

John Anthony Kaiser a Roman Catholic priest was murdered in Morendat, Kenya.

Iraqi expatriates seeking refuge hijack a Sudanese airliner en route from Khartoum to Amman.

Bill Clinton signs welfare reform into law.

Chun Doo-hwan is sentenced to death, after being found guilty of mutiny and treason.

Osama bin Laden writes The Declaration of Jihad on the Americans Occupying the Country of the Two Sacred Places, a call for the removal of American military forces from Saudi Arabia.

The Russian army leaves Estonia.

The Provisional Irish Republican Army announces a complete cessation of military operations.

Eugene Bullard is posthumously commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the United States Air Force, 33 years after his death, and 77 years to the day after his rejection for U.S. military service in 1917.

Hurricane Andrew attains Category 5 status on the Saffir–Simpson Hurricane Scale, and at 2100 UTC hits Eleuthera and the Bahama Banks.

The Super Nintendo Entertainment System (or Super Nintendo) is released in the United States.

Northern Ireland writer Brian Keenan is released from Lebanon after being held hostage for nearly 5 years.

Armenia declares its independence from the Soviet Union.

East Germany and West Germany announce they will unite on October 3.//www.historyorb.com/date/1990/august/23

Record-setting baseball player Pete Rose agrees to a lifetime ban from the sport following allegations of illegal gambling, thereby preventing his induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Yusef Hawkins is shot in the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn, New York, sparking racial tensions between African Americans and Italian Americans.

Indonesia's first privately owned television station, Rajawali Citra Televisi Indonesia, (RCTI) begins broadcasting.

Colombia's cocaine traffickers declare total and absolute war against the government and begin a series of bombings and arson attacks.

"Voyager 2" makes its closest approach to Neptune.

The Norrmalmstorg robbery occurs, famous for the origin of the term Stockholm syndrome.

John Lennon secretly marries Cynthia Powell.

Darlington Raceway is the site of the inaugural Southern 500, the first 500-mile NASCAR race.

The comic strip "Beetle Bailey" is created by Mort Walker.

The game show "Truth or Consequences" debuts on television.

Legendary singer-actor Paul Robeson, whose passport had recently been revoked because of his alleged Communist affiliations, meets with U.S. officials in an effort to get it reinstated. He is unsuccessful, and it is not reinstated until 1958.

A coal mine collapse in New Cumnock, Scotland, kills 13 miners 116 are rescued.

The World Council of Churches is established.

The Prime Minister of Greece, Dimitrios Maximos, resigns.

WWII: Ion Antonescu, prime minister of Romania, is arrested and a new government established. Romania exits the war against Soviet Union, joining the Allies.

The Battle of Kursk ends with a serious strategic defeat for the German forces.

Prince George, Duke of Kent, brother to King George VI and King Edward VIII, dies in a flying accident over Morven in Scotland at the age of 39.

WWII: Japanese marines land at Milne Bay.

WWII: German troops reach the suburbs of Stalingrad.

Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact signed between Germany and the Soviet Union, a neutrality treaty that also agreed to division of spheres of influence (Finland, Estonia, Latvia, eastern Poland and Bessarabia (today Moldova), north-east province of Romania to the Soviet Union Lithuania and western Poland to Germany).

Hitler, hosting a dinner on board the ocean liner "Patria" in Kiel Bay, tells the Regent of Hungary, Admiral Horthy, that action against Czechoslovakia is imminent and that he who wants to sit at the table must at least help in the kitchen, a reference to Horthy's designs on Carpathian Ruthenia.

nd August 24 ndash The 1929 Hebron massacre, in which 65–68 Jews are killed by Palestinians and the remaining Jews are forced to leave Hebron.

Sacco and Vanzetti are executed.

The sudden death of popular Hollywood actor and sex symbol Rudolph Valentino at the age of only 31 years old causes mass grief and hysteria around the world.

Japan declares war on Germany.

The statue of "The Little Mermaid" is unveiled in Copenhagen.

Unable to control a rebellion Cuban President Tomás Estrada Palma requests United States intervention. The subsequent provisional occupation administration lasts until 1909.

Sino–French War: Battle of Fuzhou: French Admiral Amédée Courbet's Far East Squadron virtually destroys China's Fujian Fleet.

September ndash The Great Tea Race of 1866 ends in London, narrowly won by the clipper ship "Taeping".

The Treaty of Prague ends the Austro-Prussian War.

The first true International Meteorological Organization is established in Brussels, Belgium.

British forces seize Hong Kong as a base, as it prepares to wage war against Qing China. The ensuing 3-year conflict becomes known as the First Opium War.

An earthquake near the site of the ancient Greek city of Helike results in 65 deaths.

Battle of Großbeeren: Napoleon is defeated by Prussia and Sweden.

The following universal conscription decree is enacted in France: The young men shall go to battle and the married men shall forge arms. The women shall make tents and clothes and shall serve in the hospitals children shall tear rags into lint. The old men will be guided to the public places of the cities to kindle the courage of the young warriors and to preach the unity of the Republic and the hatred of kings.

American Revolution: Refusing to even look at the Olive Branch Petition, King George issues a Proclamation of Rebellion against the American colonies.

A small earthquake hits Spalding, Lincolnshire, England.

Meidingu Pamheiba is crowned King of Manipur.

Mustafa II of the Ottoman (Turkish) Empire dethroned (Edirne event)

ColonelGeorge Monck forms "Monck's Regiment of Foot", forerunner of the Coldstream Guards.

George Villiers, the first Duke of Buckingham, is assassinated by John Felton.

The University of Groningen is established in the Netherlands.

Christian II of Denmark is deposed as king of Sweden and Gustav Vasa is elected regent.

Battle of Chaldiran: Selim I crushes the Persian army of Shah Ismail I.

The Augustiner brewery in Munich is established.

Battle of Cassel: French troops stop an uprising of Flemish farmers.

Odoacer, age 43, is proclaimed "rex Italiae" (king of Italy) by his troops. He leads his Ostrogoth army into the Po Valley and advances to Ravenna while plundering the countryside.

The Vandals led by Godigisel are intercepted and defeated by the Franks under Marcomir. Godigisel is killed in battle and succeeded by his son Gunderic.

Radagaisus is executed, 12,000 barbarians are incorporated into the Roman army or sold as slaves.

Autumn ndash The remaining Roman legions in Britain decided to mutiny. The usurper Marcus is proclaimed emperor.