Unix Timestamp: 1722729600
Sunday, August 4. 2024, 12:00:00 AM UTC

North Korean leader Kim Jong-ilpardons two American journalists, who had been arrested and imprisoned for illegal entry earlier in the year, after former U.S. President Bill Clinton meets with Kim in North Korea.

Former United States President Bill Clinton arrives in Pyongyang, North Korea, and secures the freedom of two detained American journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee. //news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8182716.stm (BBC) //english.yonhapnews.co.kr/national/2009/08/04/49/0301000000AEN20090804007300315F.HTML (Yonhap) //www.kcna.co.jp/item/2009/200908/news04/20090804-06ee.html (KCNA) //english.aljazeera.net/news/asia-pacific/2009/08/20098421911294599.html (Al Jazeera) //www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article6738245.ece ("The Times") //news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/8184583.stm (BBC)

A police post near Kashgar in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China is attacked, leaving 16 officers dead and 16 others injured. //news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7540138.stm (BBC News)

Two members of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, which had threatened to attack the Beijing Olympics, kill 16 and injure another 16 officers at a police station in Kashgar, Xinjiang, China.

The Phoenix spacecraft launches toward the Martian north pole.

Viktor Yanukovych became Prime minister of Ukraine.

The clergy and lay people of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America, by a comfortable margin, vote in favor of the appointment of an openly gay bishop. The vote is thought likely to get confirmation from the bishops' collegium, which however is delayed due to last minute independent allegations of misconduct and intense conservative opposition. //news.google.com/news?q=Gene-Robinson+num=20hl=ensafe=offsa=Gscoring=d//news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3120171.stm

The American punk rock band The Ramones play their last show.

The Australian census is conducted.

NASA announces that the Allan Hills 84001 meteorite, thought to originate from Mars, may contain evidence of primitive life-forms.

The 1996 Summer Olympics conclude.

Croatian forces launch Operation Storm against Serbian forces in Krajina, with the cooperation of the ARBiH, and force them to withdraw to central Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The Cruise Liner MTS Oceanos sinks off the coast of South Africa and all 571 passengers on board are safely evacuated.

The African republic Upper Volta changes its name to Burkina Faso.

Thomas Sankara becomes President of Upper Volta.

The United Nations Security Council votes to censure Israel because its troops are still in Lebanon.

Opening game of the "American Football Bundesliga" played between Frankfurter Löwen and Düsseldorf Panther, first-ever league game of American football in Germany.ref name=Turn //books.google.com.au/books?id=Q__8CmcZBZMCpg=PA224lpg=PA224dq=Frankfurter+L%C3%B6wen+American+footballsource=blots=7rL1LJ4igssig=lIzYV5fdtiVJ2ojH0MboAADDt28hl=enei=iZktTZqQPIHEvQOWyemOCQsa=Xoi=book_resultct=resultresnum=8ved=0CEUQ6AEwBw#v=onepageqf=false Google book review: Turnen and sport: transatlantic transfers author: Annette R. Hofmann, accessed: 12 January 2010

U.S. President Jimmy Carter signs legislation creating the United States Department of Energy.

A bomb explodes in an Italicus Express train between Italy and West Germany, killing 12 and wounding 48. Italian neo-fascist terrorists take responsibility.

Vietnam War: At the apartment of French intermediary Jean Sainteny in Paris, U.S. representative Henry Kissinger and North Vietnamese representative Xuan Thuy begin secret peace negotiations. They eventually fail since both sides cannot agree to any terms.

United States The Roseburg Oregon Blast kills 14 and causes $12 million worth of damage.

Martial law is declared in Laos.

Explorer program: The United States launches Explorer 6 from the Atlantic Missile Range in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

Juan Manuel Fangio, driving for Maserati, wins the Formula OneGerman Grand Prix, clinching (with 4 wins that season) his record 5th world drivers chionship, including his 4th consecutive chionship (also a record) these 2 records endure for nearly half a century.

The 1946 Dominican Republic earthquake (magnitude 8.0) hits the northern Dominican Republic, killing 100, and leaving 20,000 homeless.

The Holocaust: A tip from a Dutch informer leads the Gestapo to a sealed-off area in an Amsterdam warehouse, where they find Jewish diarist Anne Frank and her family.

WWII: Over 500 Japanese prisoners-of-war attempt a mass breakout from the Cowra POW C.

The Holocaust: Polish insurgents liberate a German labor c in Warsaw, freeing 348 Jewish prisoners.

Women's Air Force Service Pilots (WASP) formed consolidating the WAFS and WFTD.

WWII: John F. Kennedy and crew are found by Solomon Islanders coastwatchers Biuku Gasa and Eroni Kumana with their dugout canoe.

WWII: The "USS Intrepid (CV-11)" is launched.

Gen. John J. Pershing, in a nationwide radio broadcast, urges all-out aid to Britain in order to defend the Americas, while Charles Lindbergh speaks to an isolationist rally at Soldier Field in Chicago.

Neville Chamberlain dismisses Parliament until October 3.

Lord Runciman arrives in Prague to act as Neville Chamberlain's special envoy in the continuing Sudetenland disturbances.

Romanian army occupies Budapest.

In Germany, the Weimar Constitution is proclaimed to be in effect. (ratified)

The German minelayer \\'\\'Königin Luise\\'\\' lays a minefield about off the Thames Estuary (Lowestoft). She is intercepted and sunk by the British light-cruiser HMS "Amphion".

Montenegro declares war on Austria-Hungary.

German troops invade neutral Belgium at 8:02 am (local time). Britain declares war on Germany for this violation of Belgian neutrality. This move effectively means a declaration of war by the whole British Commonwealth and Empire against Germany. The United States declares neutrality.

German zeppelins drop bombs on Liège, killing 9 civilians.

In China, the province of Chungking declares independence Chinese Republican forces crush the rebellion in a couple of weeks.

United States occupation of Nicaragua: U.S. Marines land from the USS "Annapolis" in Nicaragua to support the conservative government at its request.

Pope Pius X succeeds Pope Leo XIII as the 257th pope.

Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon (later Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother) born in London (died 2002)

The father and stepmother of Lizzie Borden are found murdered in their Fall River, Massachusetts home.

American Indian Wars: While protecting a railroad survey party in Montana, the Seventh Cavalry, under Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer, clashes for the first time with the Sioux, near the Tongue River (only 1 man on each side is killed).

The Armed Occupation Act is signed, providing for the armed occupation and settlement of the unsettled part of the Peninsula of East Florida.

The Treaty of Sistova is signed, ending the Ottoman-Habsburg wars.

A newly passed U.S. tariff act creates the system of cutters for revenue enforcement (later named the United States Revenue Cutter Service), the forerunner of the Coast Guard.

In France, members of the Constituent Assembly take an oath to end feudalism and abandon their privileges.

English and Dutch forces under SirGeorge Rooke capture Gibraltar from Spain.

The Great Peace of Montreal is signed, ending 100 years of war between the Iroquois Confederacy and New France and its Huron and Algonquian allies. Formerly allied with the English, the treaty assured the Iroquois would be neutral if France and England were to ever resume hostilities.

Lord Forbes relieves Forthill and besieges Galway.

Thirty Years\\' War: With the help of Danish and Swedish reinforcements, Stralsund is able to resist Wallenstein's siege until the landing of a Danish army, led by Christian IV of Denmark, forces Wallenstein to raise the siege and move his army to confront the new threat.

Battle of Al Kasr al Kebir: The Moors defeat the Portuguese. King Sebastian I of Portugal is defeated and killed in North Africa, leaving his elderly uncle, Cardinal Henry, as his heir. This initiates a succession crisis in Portugal.

Voyage of João Fernandes Lavrador and Pedro Barcelos to Greenland during which they discover the land which they name Labrador.

12 ndash Columbus explores the Gulf of Paria.

Hussite Wars ndash Battle of Tachov: The Hussites decisively beat the crusader armies, ending the Fourth Anti-Hussite Crusade.

September ndash A contract is set up between Richard le Scrope, 1st Baron Scrope of Bolton and the mason Johan Lewyn for the construction of Bolton Castle.

Gian Galeazzo Visconti succeeds his father, Galeazzo II Visconti, as ruler of Milan.

The Isle of Man comes under Scottish rule.

Mongol armies, led by Nogai Khan, raid Thrace.

In the first major battle in 5 years since the Song DynastyChinese pushed the forces of Kublai Khan back across the Yangzi River after Mongke Khan's failed invasion in 1259, Kublai Khan engages the Chinese in Sichuan province. Kublai gains a preliminary victory and war booty of 146 captured Song Dynasty naval ships.

The brewing of Budweiser Budvarbeer begins in Bohemia (now part of the Czech Republic) Budweiser Budvar has been produced continuously there to this day.

Reconquista: King Alfonso X of Castile captures the city of Alicante, Spain from the Moors.

The "Book of Aneirin", a Welshmanuscript of poetry, is penned.

Correspondence from Pope Clement IV contains the first known mention of the ring of the Fisherman, an item of papal regalia then used to seal personal correspondence from the pope and later for papal bulls.

The Battle of Evesham of the Second Barons\' War is fought in Worcestershire, with the army of Edward defeating the forces of rebellious barons led by Simon de Montfort and killing de Montfort and many of his allies. This is sometimes considered the death of chivalry in England.

First Listing of the New Testament (Bible) by St Athanasius of Alexandria.

The first Korean envoy arrives in Japan, emissary of the government of Kudara.

Winter ndash Valentinian I mobilises a massive army for his caign against the Alamanni and the Franks. He summons the Italian and Illyrian legions for a spring offensive.

Gratian receives the title of "Augustus" under his father, Valentinian I.

Later Roman EmperorDomitian marries Domitia Longina.

Titus destroys the JewishTemple in Jerusalem. Roman troops are stationed in Jerusalem and abolish the Jewish high priesthood and Sanhedrin. This becomes known as the Fall of Jerusalem, a conclusive event in the First Jewish-Roman War (the Jewish Revolt), which began in 66 AD. Following this event, the Jewish religious leadership moves from Jerusalem to Jamnia (present day Yavne), and this date is mourned annually as the Jewish fast of Tisha B'Av.

Expedition by the Roman Septimius Flaccus to southern Egypt. He probably reaches Sudan.

Vespasian disbanded four Rhine legions (I "Germanica", IIII "Macedonica", XV "Primigenia" and XVI "Gallica"), disgraced for having surrendered or lost their eagles during the revolt of Julius Civilis.

Vespasian disbanded four Rhine legions (I \\\'\\\'Germanica\\\'\\\', IIII \\'\\'Macedonica\\'\\', XV \'\'Primigenia\'\' and XVI ''Gallica''), disgraced for having surrendered or lost their eagles during the revolt of Julius Civilis.

Romans make a punitive expedition against the Garamantes – they are forced to have an official relationship with the Roman Empire.

Neapolis (present day Nablus) is founded in Iudaea Province.

India sees the end of the Hellenisticdynasties.

AugustndashSeptember ndash Titus assaults the Temple Mount and detroys Herod's Palace in the Upper City of Jerusalem. Jewish resistance ends on September 26.

Naval clashes on the Rhine during the Batavian Revo crew of a captured Roman flagship is imprisoned at Augusta Treverorum (modern Trier).

Roman legions V \\\'\\\'Alaudae\\\'\\\' and XV \\'\\'Primigenia\\'\\' are destroyed by the Batavi. Later, Quintus Petillius Cerialis puts down the Batavian rebellion of Gaius Julius Civilis.

Ze-Hakèlé (Zoscales in Greek) becomes king of Aksum.

Roman legions V "Alaudae" and XV "Primigenia" are destroyed by the Batavi. Later, Quintus Petillius Cerialis puts down the Batavian rebellion of Gaius Julius Civilis.

Members of The Oneida Community, a now non-existent religious group formed in the Nineteenth Century, believed this was the year Jesus Christ returned.

Avignon becomes the seat of a bishopric.

Annexation of the island of Samothrace by the Empire under Vespasian.