Friday, August 4, 2000

The situation is still very critical because we have all of these thousands of homeless, and with more rains on the way they can't go home. Liara Nogueira, a spokeswoman for the governor of Brazil's Alagoas state, on five days of storms and mudslides that have killed 56 people and driven nearly 145,000 from their homes.

• Britain's Queen Mother Elizabeth celebrates her 100th birthday.
• The World Freefall Convention opens in Quincy, Illinois; thousands of skydivers are expected to attend and pepper the sky with their brightly-colored parachutes.
• The Edinburgh Military Tattoo, a show of military color for 22 evenings at Edinburgh Castle, begins in Scotland.

• On Saturday, August 5, the National Association of Police Organizations holds its seventh annual Top Cops Awards ceremony in Washington.
• On Sunday, August 6, it is the 55th anniversary of the dropping of an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan.
• On Monday, August 7, a chocolate festival opens in New Brunswick, Canada, featuring chocolate-eating contests and a "choctail hour."
• On Tuesday, August 8, Byran Uyesugi, convicted of killing seven Xerox co-workers in Honolulu in November 1999, is expected to be sentenced.
• On Wednesday, August 9, U.S. President Clinton is expected to meet with Croatian President Stipe Mesic and Prime Minister Ivica Racan.

• In 1704, during the War of the Spanish Succession, a joint Anglo-Dutch force attacked and captured the Spanish city of Gibraltar.
• In 1914, Germany invaded Belgium and when London's ultimatum to Berlin to withdraw expired at midnight, Britain declared war on Germany. The United States declared neutrality.
• In 1944, after two years hiding in an Amsterdam back room, Anne Frank, her sister, her parents and four other Jews were discovered by Nazi police. The diary she kept was found after the war, published in over 30 languages and turned into a play and film.
• In 1972, Arthur Bremer was jailed for 63 years for shooting George Wallace, governor of Alabama.
• In 1981, a U.S. court ordered striking air traffic controllers back to work and fined their union $2.4 million a day for the duration of the strike.
• In 1983, Bettino Craxi was sworn in as Italy's first Socialist prime minister.
• In 1992, millions of blacks ended a two-day general strike against white rule in South Africa, during which over 30 people died.
• In 1997, North Korea handed over the remains of four U.S. soldiers killed during the 1950-1953 Korean War.