Unix Timestamp: 997401600
Friday, August 10. 2001, 12:00:00 AM UTC

The World Health Organization declares the H1N1 influenza pandemic over, saying worldwide flu activity has returned to typical seasonal patterns.

The World Health Organization announces that the H1N1 flu pandemic which killed 18,000 people worldwide is over. //www.cbc.ca/world/story/2010/08/10/who-h1n1-swine-flu-pandemic.html (CBC) //www.who.int/mediacentre/news/statements/2010/h1n1_vpc_20100810/en/index.html (WHO)

The head of Hyundai Asan, embarks on a mission to North Korea to attempt to secure the release of a company worker. //news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8193460.stm (BBC)

Ecuador’s Health Minister Caroline Chang says South America’s twelve nations have pledged to respect regional vaccine price ceilings to prevent businesses from exploiting fear of the A/H1N1 flu pandemic. //en.mercopress.com/2009/08/10/south-america-agrees-on-price-ceilings-for-the-ah1n1-vaccine (MercoPress)

A propane facility explodes in Toronto overnight and causes a large-scale evacuation, resulting in 2 deaths.

Massive explosions at a propane facility just before 4 a.m. erupt in the Toronto, Canada community of Downsview, resulting in the evacuation of thousands of people. The explosions also caused the closure of Highway 401, Canada's busiest highway, through that area of Toronto. At least 18 people are reported injured, one missing, and one firefighter has died in connection with the incident. //www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080810.wexplosions0810/BNStory/National/?page=rssid=RTGAM.20080810.wexplosions0810 (CP via "The Globe and Mail")

Pakistan's intelligence service claims that its cooperation with British intelligence helped to uncover the plot. CNN reports that sources have informed it that it was recent arrests in Pakistan that convinced Britain to act quickly. //www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/SP229366.htm (Reuters) //edition.cnn.com/2006/US/08/10/us.security/index.html (CNN)

A 6.4 Richter scaleearthquake occurs near the Greek Ionian island of Lefkada 24 are injured.

The highest temperature ever recorded in the UK – 38.5 °C (101.3 °F) at Brogdale near Faversham in Kent //www.metoffice.com/climate/uk/2003/. It is the first time the UK has recorded a temperature over 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

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

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir John Stevens gives British police in London shoot-on-sight orders to deal with possible suicide bombers as expectations rise of an Al-Qaeda attack on the British capital. //www.itv.com/news/1193545.html

The highest temperature ever recorded in the UK: 38.5 °C (101.3 °F) at Brogdale near Faversham in Kent.//www.metoffice.com/climate/uk/2003/ Met Office: 2003 Monthly weather summary!

Jemaah Islamiah leader Riduan Isamuddin, is arrested in Bangkok, Thailand.

Liberian President and convicted war criminal Charles Taylor, who is to step down tomorrow, has appealed to rebels to submit to the democratic process'. He also accuses the United States of funding the rebels who have besieged the capital, Monrovia, for a week. //www.rte.ie/news/2003/0810/liberia.html

A widespread power outage affects the northeastern United States and South-Central Canada.

A heat wave in Paris causes temperatures up to 44 °C (112 °F).

While retired South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu and his successor, Archbishop Njongonkulu Winston Ndungane, fail to see what all the fuss is over the ordination of a gay bishop, other African Anglicans suggest that their churches may sever relations with the American dioceses that supported the election of a gay priest as bishop if what they called the path of deviation is not changed. //www.itv.com/news/2012709.html//www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0810gay-episcopal10.html

The UK government bans the Ulster Defence Association, a loyalistparamilitary organisation that had been legal for 20 years.

Hurricane Allen (category 3) pounds southeastern Texas.

Michael Jackson releases his breakthrough album "Off the Wall". It sells 7 million copies in the United States alone, making it a 7x platinum album.

David Berkowitz is captured in Yonkers, New York, after over a year of murders in New York City as the Son Of Sam.

A brilliant, daytime meteor skips off the Earth's atmosphere due to an Apollo asteroid streaking over the western US into Canada.//www.astrosociety.org/pubs/mercury/9806/impact.html Observation of Meteoroid Impacts by Space-Based Sensors astrosociety.org, 1998, 'Apollo asteroid about ten meters in diameter'

The Manson Family kills Leno and Rosemary LaBianca, wealthy Los Angeles businesspeople.

Belgian mercenary Jean Schramme's troops take the Congolese border town of Bukavu.

Marvel Comics publishes Amazing Fantasy#15, which features the first published appearance of the superhero character of Spider-Man, created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko.

Britain applies for membership in the European Economic Community.

August 23 ndash The Herrenchiemsee Convent prepares the draft for the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany.

WWII: Japan offers to surrender to the Allies, provided this does not prejudice the sovereignty of the Emperor.

WWII: British armed merchant cruiser is torpedoed off Malin Head, Ireland, by German submarine "U-56".

Ewald von Kleist-Schmenzin arrives in London looking for British support for an anti-Nazi "putsch", using the looming crisis over the Sudetenland as a pretext. His private mission is dismissed by Neville Chamberlain as unimportant (Chamberlain refers to von Kleist as a Jacobite), but he finds a sympathetic if powerless audience in Winston Churchill.

The Thousand Islands Bridge, connecting the United States with Canada, is dedicated by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Colonel General Ludwig Beck, convinced that Hitler's decision to attack Czechoslovakia will lead to a general European war, resigns his position as Chief of the Army General Staff in protest.

At a secret summit with his leading generals, Hitler attacks General Beck's arguments against "Fall Grün", winning the majority of his senior officers over to his point of view.

The Mount Rushmore Park is rededicated. President Calvin Coolidge promises national funding for the proposed carving of the Presidential figures.

Ottoman Sultan Mehmed VI's representatives sign the Treaty of Sèvres.

Russian Revolution: The British commander in Archangel is told to help the White Russians.

A general strike begins in Spain it is smashed after 3 days with 70 left dead, hundreds of wounded and 2,000 arrests.

Macedonia is divided after the Second Balkan War, according to the Treaty of Bucharest.

Paris Metro train fire takes place.

Marshall Major Taylor wins the world 1-mile professional cycling chionship in Montreal, securing his place as the first African American world chion in any sport.

At the ViennaHofburg, the grand opening ceremony is held for the Imperial Natural History Museum (), begun in 1871 from August 13 to the end of December, the museum counts 175,000 visitors.

A severe earthquake, magnitude 5.5, (intensity VII) occurs off the northeast Atlantic coast. The area affected extends from central Virginia to southern Maine, and west as far as Cleveland.

A hurricane destroys Last Island, Louisiana, leaving 400 dead. The whole island is broken up into several smaller islands by the storm.

The Mines Act 1842 becomes law, prohibiting underground work for all women and boys under 10 years old in England.

Fortsas hoax: A number of book collectors gather in Binche, Belgium, to attend a non-existent book auction of the late Count of Fortsas.

First ascent of Finsteraarhorn, the highest summit of the Bernese Alps.

The first Cowes Regatta is held on the Isle of Wight in the UK.

Missouri is admitted as the 24th U.S. state ("see" History of Missouri).

Severe earthquakes strike the Azores and the village of São Miguel sinks.

Ecuador declares independence from Spain.

Battle of Almonacid de Toledo: A poorly led Spanish army is defeated by King Joseph Bonaparte's French army.

Troops under Carl von Döbeln defeat a Russian attack in Kauhajoki.

French Revolution ndash Feast of Unity: Crowds in Paris burn monarchist emblems.

September ndash George Macartney, 1st Earl Macartney sails from Portsmouth to China.

French Revolution: The Tuileries Palace is stormed, and Louis XVI of France is arrested and taken into custody.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, in Vienna, completes his final symphony, now called the Symphony No. 41 in C Major, and nicknamed (after his death) "The Jupiter."

Ferdinand VI of Spain dies and is succeeded by his half–brother Charles III. Charles resigns the thrones of Naples and Sicily to his third son, Ferdinand IV.

Battle of Colachel: The Raja of Travancore defeats a Dutch East India Company naval expedition.

The Treaties of Nijmegen end the Franco-Dutch War.

King Charles II of England places the foundation stone of the Royal Greenwich Observatory in London construction begins.

Charles I of England flees London for the north.

October ndash Irish Rebellion of 1641: The Gaelic Irish in Ulster revolt against Scottish settlers.

The Swedish 64 gun sailing ship "Vasa" sinks on her maiden voyage in the Stockholm harbor.

The Treaty of Angoulême ends the civil war in France.

Battle of St. Quentin: French forces under Marshal Anne de Montmorency are decisively defeated by the Spanish and English under Duke Emanuel Philibert of Savoy. Montmorency himself is captured, but Philip II refuses to press his advantage, and withdraws to the Netherlands.

War of the League of Cambrai: English naval victory at the Battle of Saint-Mathieu over the French-Breton fleet. Both navies use ships firing cannon through ports, and each loses its principal ship — "Regent" and "Marie-la-Cordelière" — through a large explosion aboard the latter.

Summer ndash War of the League of Cambrai: Ferdinand II of Aragon sends Don Fadrique de Toledo to complete the Spanish conquest of Iberian Navarre.

Diogo Dias discovers an island which he names St Lawrence (after the saint's day on which it was first sighted), later to be known as Madagascar

August 11 ndash Battle of Dupplin Moor: The Balliol rebels and the English defeat the loyalists of David II in Scotland.

The Great Famine of 1315-1317 is at its peak.

Second Battle of Athenry ends with over 5,000 dead, and Norman rule retained in Ireland.

Au peninsula in Switzerland is first mentioned as Owe belonging to the commandry of the Knights Hospitaller in Bubikon.

The Pound sterling experiences the greatest year of inflation in its history, at 100.04 percent, losing over half its value.//www.measuringworth.com/inflation/ Measuring worth.com

Battle of Nakło: The Poles, led by Bolesław III Wrymouth, defeat the Pomeranians.

Eadwig becomes King of England.

Battle of Lechfeld: Otto I the Great defeats the Magyars, halting their westward expansion and ending the threat to Germany.

A figure known to Mayanist scholars as Casper begins a 52-year reign in Palenque.