September 4th Major News Events

4 Sept, 1957 National Guard Little Rock

1957 : The National Guard on the order of Governor Orval Faubus is used to prevent nine African American students from entering Central High School in Little Rock. The action was taken in violation of a federal order to integrate the school.

Full Size Original Here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:AR_Little_Rock_Nine.jpg

4 Sept, 1957 Change to Law Between Consenting Adults

1957 : A report sponsored by the British government has suggested homosexual behavior between consenting adults (over the age of 21) should no longer be a criminal offence, currently homosexual offences can incur anything from a £5 fine to life imprisonment.

4 Sept, 1959 Labor Reform Act

September 4th, 1959 : The Labor Reform Act was passed by Congress. The legislation moved to reign in the power of the nation's Largest and most powerful unions.

4 Sept, 1964 Queen Opens Forth Road Bridge

1964 : The Queen has opened the Forth Road Suspension Bridge which spans the Firth of Forth river, connecting Edinburgh to Fife, currently the fourth longest in the world . Tolls for the new bridge will be 2s 6d, the cost of the full project is thought to be £19.5 million. Over the years the tolls increased to 80p or 16s 0d but in February 2008 tolls were abolished and the bridge is now toll free.

Full Size Original Here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:ForthRoadBridgeFromNorth_TakenByEuchiasmus.JPG

4 Sept, 1968 UK Dutch Elm Disease

September 4th, 1968 : The increase in Dutch Elm Disease in England is continuing and so far no way has been found to protect the trees, the cause has been traced to the bark beetle spreading the disease. Many tens of thousands of trees have been destroyed and the disease is now becoming widespread in parts of the United States including throughout New England.

Full Size Original Here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:DED_control_notice.jpg

4 Sept, 1972 Germany Mark Spitz

1972 : U.S. swimmer Mark Spitz wins a record seventh gold medal at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich. Events he won Gold Medals for: 100-meter butterfly, 200-meter butterfly, 100-meter freestyle, 200-meter freestyle, Member of the 400-meter medley relay team, Member of the 800-meter medley relay team, and Member of the 400-meter freestyle relay team.

4 Sept, 1978 India Longer Monsoon Season

September 4th, 1978 : The monsoon season in northern India has continued longer than normal and is causing devastating flooding in northern India with some areas of West Bengal now 18 feet under water. The flooding has now made over two million homeless with hopes that the monsoon season will soon before even more are affected.

4 Sept, 1983 The Americas Cup

1983 : Dennis Connor and his yacht Liberty have been chosen to defend the Americas cup by the New York Yacht club after defeating Courageous in a two race run off. They will defend the Americas cup starting on September 13th for the best of 7 races against Britain's Victory or Australia's Australia II who are currently tied at 1 race each.

Full Size Original Here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:America%27s_Cup.jpg

4 Sept, 1991 U.S.A. Africanized Bees

September 4th, 1991 : Many fear that the invasion of Africanized Bees that become aggressive when nests are threatened and have caused a number of children deaths in Mexico are moving into the United States in increasing numbers, currently swarms that have appeared in Texas have quickly been destroyed but as they appear in ever increasing numbers they expect the Bees to have colonized many parts of the southern states within two years.

Full Size Original Here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Africanized_Bee.gif

4 Sept, 1997 Last Ford Thunderbird

1997 : The last of the original Ford Thunderbird's rolls off the assembly line.

Full Size Original Here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:%2756_Ford_Thunderbird_(Rigaud).JPG

4 Sept, 1997 Israel Suicide Bomb Attacks

September 4th, 1997 : Suicide Bombers detonate their nail bombs in a packed pedestrian area of Jerusalem killing eight people and injuring 150 more. The militant Palestinian group Hamas has claimed responsibility the bombings.

4 Sept, 1999 East Timor Referendum

1999 : The voters of East Timor have vote overwhelmingly in a referendum to end their links with Indonesia and become an Independent Nation. They achieved their independence on May 20, 2002.

4 Sept, 2000 UN World Poverty Report

September 4th, 2000 : UN Development Programme agency has released it's latest report that shows the gap between the richest and poorest countries in the world is increasing and there were estimated to be 1.2 billion people in absolute poverty (people living on less than $1.00 per day) in 1998. UN Development Programme agency has said that debt relief to the worlds poorest countries is essential to help those countries improve the lives of their people (many of the poorest nations in the world are paying more back to Western aid institutions than they are spending on health and education).

4 Sept, 2001 Shark Attack in North Carolina

2001 : A shark attack on a couple swimming off the coast of North Carolina kills the man and severely injures the woman, this is the 4th fatality from shark attacks in the US this year after over 40 attacks by sharks in US coastal waters, in what many are dubbing the "Summer of the Shark."

Full Size Original Here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Fish_images

4 Sept, 2002 First American Idol

September 4th, 2002 : Kelly Clarkson a former Texas waitress wins the first series of American Idol after 15.5 m votes were cast by telephone by American Idol viewers. American Idol has been the summer's new program success with audiences in excess of 15 million.

4 Sept, 2005 Evacuees Being Flown Out of New Orleans

2005 : On the sixth day after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans the Superdome complex is now being evacuated via 40 aircraft and the city is back under control with most area's now secure and looters kept off the streets. Huge area's of the city are still under water and figures are just being released that more than one million people are said to have been displaced from their homes in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama dur to the hurricane. The final death toll from the disaster may take some time until house-to-house searches are completed, but early estimates place the number between 1,500 and 2,000.

4 Sept, 2007 London Underground Strike

September 4th, 2007 : Maintenance Workers members of The RMT union begin a 72 hour strike on London Underground bringing the following lines to a halt Bakerloo, Central, Victoria, Circle, District, East London, Hammersmith & City, Metropolitan and Waterloo & City.

4 Sept, 2008 Ethiopia Axum Obelisk

2008 : The Axum obelisk, one of Ethiopia’s national treasures, was unveiled after its reassembly on this day. The monument, which is over 1,700 years old, was looted by Italy during their occupation of the country in the 1930s. After much negotiation, Italy returned the pieces of the obelisk in 2005 and it was reassembled in time for the country’s last millennium celebration.

4 Sept, 2009 Sierra Leone Illegal Health Clinics

September 4th, 2009 : The government of Sierra Leone announces it will shut down around fifty illegal health clinics in the country. The clinics were usually staffed with people who had little to no training and did not treat peoples’ illnesses properly resulting in some deaths.

4 Sept, 2011 Typhoon Talas Hits Japan

2011 : At least 37 people were killed as Typhoon Talas hit the Western coast of Japan. At least another fifty people were reported missing and many buildings were damaged. Almost 460,000 people were told to evacuate before the typhoon hit.

4 Sept, 2011 United States Texas Wildfires

September 4th, 2011 : Wildfires across Central Texas now cover over 14,000 acres with the number of homes increasing including a number of homes destroyed by the wildfires. Nearly 5,000 people have now been evacuated from their homes near the U.S. city of Austin, Texas.

4 Sept, 2011 Bus Crash Kills 15 People

2011 : At least fifteen people were killed and eight others went missing when a bus crashed into a river in the Uttarakhand state in India.

4 Sept, 2012 Vegetarian McDonald's Will Open in India

September 4th, 2012 : McDonald's has stated that it will open its first vegetarian only restaurant in Amritsar in Northern India. The fast food chain known for its burgers anticipates it will open the restaurant in the middle of 2013 and will build a second vegetarian only location soon after the first has opened.

4 Sept, 2013 Much of Venezuela Loses Power

2013 : Nearly seventy percent of the country of Venezuela lost power. The power outage caused disruptions to transportation and business in the country. President Nicolas Maduro blamed opposition for the outage stating that the opposition was sabotaging the country.