Unix Timestamp: 1123718400
Thursday, August 11. 2005, 12:00:00 AM UTC

Rescue operations continue in southern China and Taiwan in the aftermath of Typhoon Morakot. //www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article6790982.ece ("The Times") //www.etaiwannews.com/etn/news_content.php?id=1027888lang=eng_news ("Taiwan News")

An air strike by the United States kills 25 Taliban militants and 8 civilians in Orūzgān Province in southern Afghanistan. //www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24162276-12335,00.html ("The Australian")

Taliban fighters force Pakistani troops to retreat from an outpost near the border with Afghanistan. //www.nytimes.com/2008/08/11/world/asia/11pstan.html ("The New York Times")

An explosion in Pasuruan in the East Java province of Indonesia causes three deaths and another three injuries. //www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22231180-2,00.html (AFP viaNews Limited)

The ICM awards Grigori Perelman the Fields Medal for proving the Poincare conjecture, one of 7 Millennium Prize Problems Perelman refuses the medal.

A resolution to end the 2006 Lebanon War is unanimously accepted by the United Nations Security Council.

Pulkovo Airlines Flight 612 crashes near the Russian border in Ukraine, killing 171 people, including 45 children.

Jemaah Islamiah leader Riduan Isamuddin, better known as Hambali, is arrested in Bangkok, Thailand.

African church leader, Archbishop Bernard Malango, states that the leaders of 600,000 Anglicans in Malawi, Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe informed him they would could cut ties with the United States organization unless the appointment of an openly gay bishop is overturned. The Anglican Church in Kenya also demanded a reversal. //edition.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/africa/08/11/anglicans.bishop.reut///www.crosswalk.com/news/weblogs/mohler/?adate=8/11/2003#1214074//www.eastandard.net/headlines/news11082003006.htm

NATO takes over command of the peacekeeping force in Afghanistan, marking its first major operation outside Europe in its 54-year-history.

The British rock band Oasis plays the biggest free-standing concert in UK history at Knebworth, Hertfordshire.

The Russell Hill subway accident results in 3 deaths and 30 injuries in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

United States President Ronald Reagan, during a voice check for a radio broadcast remarks, My fellow Americans, I'm pleased to tell you today that I've signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes.

Surinam recognizes the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR).

The former Mauritanian province of Tiris al-Gharbiyya in Western Sahara is annexed by Morocco.

President Richard Nixon announces that the United States will no longer convert dollars to gold at a fixed value, effectively ending the Bretton Woods system. He also imposes a 90-day freeze on wages, prices and rents.

Vietnam War: Australia and New Zealand decide to withdraw their troops from Vietnam.

The number of British troops in Northern Ireland is raised to 12,500.

Three thousand people from Belfast and Derry flee to the Republic of Ireland because of the violence.

Construction begins on the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans.

Syria severs diplomatic relations with Jordan because of border clashes.

British troops are stationed on the Ireland border to stop arms smuggling.

British troops are engaged in a firefight with the IRA in Derry, Northern Ireland.

Bahrain declares independence as the State of Bahrain (Kingdom of Bahrain as of February 2002).

The last steam passenger train service runs in Britain. A selection of British Railways steam locomotives make the 120-mile journey from Liverpool to Carlisle and return to Liverpool ndash the journey is known as the Fifteen Guinea Special).

The Beatles hold a press conference in Chicago, during which John Lennon apologizes for his more popular than Jesus remark, saying, I didn't mean it as a lousy anti-religious thing.

The Watts Riots begin in Los Angeles, California.

Chad becomes independent from France.

The Jordanian army forces King Talal to resign due to mental illness he is succeeded by his son Hussein of Jordan.

René Pleven becomes Prime Minister of France.

WWII: The Allies reply to the Japanese surrender offer by saying that Emperor Hirohito will be subject to the authority of the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces.

25 ndash Soviet troops complete occupation of Sakhalin.

Bolshevik Russia recognizes independent Latvia.

Battle of Waterberg: Lothar von Trotha defeats the Herero in German South-West Africa and drives them into the Omaheke desert, start of the Herero and Namaqua Genocide.

Asaph Hall discovers Deimos, the outer moon of Mars.

Battle of Oteiza (Third Carlist War): Two months after Government forces were repulsed from Carlist-held Estella, in Navarre, Republican General Domingo Moriones made a fresh diversionary attack a few miles to the southeast at Oteiza. In heavy fighting Moriones secured a costly tactical victory over Carlist General Torcuato Mendíri, but the war continued another 18 months before Estella finally fell.

Cambodia becomes a protectorate of France.

First ascent of the Eiger.

Wednesday) Frederick Douglass spoke in front of the Anti-Slavery Covention in Nantucket, Massachusetts.

August 12 ndash Ursuline Convent Riots: A convent of Ursuline nuns is burned near Boston.

William Corder is hanged at Bury St. Edmunds, England, for the murder of Maria Marten at the Red Barn a year ago.

Captain Francis Light, known as the founder of Penang, lands in Penang and renames it "Prince of Wales Island" in honour of the heir to the British throne.

Battle of Seneffe: The French army under Louis II de Bourbon, Prince de Condé defeats the Dutch-Spanish-Austrian army under William III of Orange.

English navigator Martin Frobisher, on his search for the Northwest Passage, enters the bay now named after him.

Pope Alexander VI succeeds Pope Innocent VIII as the 214th pope, after the 1492 papal conclave, the first held in the Sistine Chapel.

October ndash English army besieges Boulogne-sur-Mer.

In Sweden, Regent Kettil Karlsson Vasa dies and is succeeded by Jöns Bengtsson Oxenstierna.

While conducting a siege against the Song Dynasty city known as Fishing Town in the province of Chongqing, China, the Mongol Khagan, Mongke Khan, dies in the nearby hills. Persian, Chinese, and Mongol records have different accounts of how he died, including succumbing to an arrow wound received by a Chinese archer in the siege, dysentery, and even a cholera epidemic. His death sparks a succession crisis in the Mongol Empire, while his brothers Ariq Böke and Kublai soon convene their own kuriltai to elect themselves as the next Khan of Khans, opening the path to a four–year-long civil war from 1260 to 1264. In the end, Ariq Böke surrenders to Kublai.

Lannathai, a kingdom in the north of Thailand, is founded by King Mengrai.

The Goryeo kingdom in Korea surrenders to invading Mongol forces.

The Japanese Shōka era ends, and the Shōgen era begins.

While engaged in a war with the Mongols, the Song Chinese official Li Zengbo writes in his "Kozhai Zagao, Xugaohou" that the city of Qingzhou is manufacturing one to two thousand strong iron-casedgunpowder bomb shells a month, dispatching to Xiangyang and Yingzhou about ten to twenty thousand such bombs at a time.

The Chinese era "Kaiqing" begins and ends in the Northern Song Dynasty of China.

A powerful earthquake is recorded in Britain.

The Umayyad Mosque is built over the Basilica of Saint John the Baptist in Damascus.

Winfrid (later Saint Boniface), a Wessex-born monk, sets out on a missionary expedition to the Frisians.

Nechtan mac Der-Ilei, King of the Picts invites the Northumbrianclergy to establish Christianity amongst the Picts.

Saint Winnin, an Irish monk, lands at the mouth of the River Garnock, where he establishes a community or cell of monks, termed cella or Kil in Gaelic.

Germanus is translated from the bishopric of Cyzicus to the Patriarch of Constantinople.

Corn rises to a terrible famine price and before the end of the siege of Ravenna the inhabitants feed on the hides of animals, many of them perish of hunger.

Euphemius becomes patriarch of Constantinople.

Battle of Adda: Theodoric and his ally Alaric II defeat the forces of Odoacer on the Adda River, near Milan.

Theodoric and his Ostrogoths lay siege to Ravenna. The cities, Cesena and Rimini, remain their allegiance to Odoacer.

Empress Feng of the Chinese Northern Wei Dynasty dies. She is buried with magnificent honors, in the Wenming Tomb.

Claudius Silvanus, accused of treason, proclaims himself Roman Emperor. After 28 days, Ursicinus arrives from Rome and has Silvanus murdered.