01|In Moscow, Russian President Boris Yeltsin, aged 66, announces that he will not run for re-election when his second term of office ends in 2000. Under the new constitution, adopted in 1993, the president is limited to two terms.|
01|Arkady Gukasian is elected president of the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan. He rejects the latest international peace plan which attempts to reconcile the Azerbaijan government in Baku with the mainly Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh. Since 1994, there has been a cease-fire between the two sides.|
01|George Foulkes, the United Kingdom international development minister, arrives in Montserrat with a promise of a new start in rebuilding the island, which has been devastated by volcanic eruptions. Foulkes visits a shelter where some of the island's 2,000 homeless people live and reiterates the UK's commitment to helping rebuild the country's safe zone, which now occupies a third of Montserrat's 102 square kilometres.|
02|Russian space officials formally blame Commander Vasily Tsibliyev and Flight Engineer Alexander Lazutkin for the collision which damaged the 'Mir' space station on June 25. Both astronauts returned to Earth from the space station on August 14.|
02|A leading Belgian criminal investigator resigns after a parliamentary inquiry criticises his role in a failed search for missing children last year. Christian de Vroom, the head of Belgium's Judicial Police, is the first official to resign after the authorities lost valuable time in apprehending Marc Dutroux, who is accused of abusing and murdering several children.|
03|Comoran government troops invade the island of Anjouan, which declared its independence from the Comoros Islands on August 3. President Mohamed Taki sends in about 300 soldiers to re-establish his authority. Since 1975, when three of the four main islands declared independence from France, opposition leaders have wanted a return to French rule, arguing that the country's political instability has brought poverty to its 676,000 inhabitants.|
03|The Soros Foundation, a network of organizations which aims to promote an 'open society', announces that it is withdrawing from Belarus because of harassment of its employees. In March 1997, its local executive, Peter Byrne, was barred by the Belarus government from entering the country. The Foundation is accused of helping the opposition, which is critical of President Alexander Lukashenko's authoritarian style of rule.|
04|A triple suicide bombing in the crowded Ben-Yehuda pedestrian precinct of Jerusalem, Israel, kills seven people and injures more than 190 others. Responsibility for the attack is claimed by Hamas, the militant Islamic fundamentalist movement.|
04|Hans Eysenck, the psychologist, dies aged 81. Born in Berlin, he left Germany after the Nazis came to power, and became director of the Psychological Department at the Maudsley Hospital in London in 1946, where he pioneered clinical psychology in the UK. His many popular psychology books include 'Race, Intelligence and Education' (1971) and 'Mindwatching: Why We Behave the Way We Do' (1981).|
04|An Australian scientist claims that a quarter of the sea ice around Antarctica has disappeared during this century. Bill de la Mare of the Australian Antarctic Division in Hobart, Tasmania, says his findings, published in 'Nature' magazine, show that the most dramatic shrinkage was from the late 1950's to the early 1980's. About 5.65 million square kilometres of ice cover has melted, mainly because of global warming.|
05|Mother Teresa, known as the 'saint of the gutters', dies in Calcutta, India, at the age of 87. Born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu in Skopje, Macedonia, she took the name Teresa from France's Saint Therese of Lisieux when she became a Roman Catholic nun. In 1950, Mother Teresa set up a religious order, called the Missionaries of Charity, to care for the poor in Calcutta. In 1979, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her work.|
05|Sir Georg Solti, the conductor, dies aged 84. Born in Hungary, he worked in Germany after World War II, moving to London in 1961 as Music Director at the Covent Garden Opera (now the Royal Opera). In 1971, he was made a knight. During the 1970's, Solti was chief conductor of several of the world's best orchestras. He was particularly praised for his recordings of music by Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss.|
05|Athens, capital of Greece, is named as the venue for the 2004 Olympic Games. In a secret ballot held in Lausanne, Switzerland, the International Olympic Committee gives Athens 66 votes and Rome 41.|
06|Diana, Princess of Wales, is buried at Althorp Park, Northamptonshire, England, after a memorial service in Westminster Abbey, London. Huge crowds line the route of the funeral procession to the abbey as Diana's coffin is followed by her sons, Prince William and Prince Harry, her former husband Prince Charles, her brother Earl Spencer, the Duke of Edinburgh, and 500 representatives of charities of which she was a patron. At the funeral service, which is watched by a worldwide television audience estimated at more than a billion, Earl Spencer reads the funeral address and pop singer Elton John sings 'Candle in the Wind, 1997'. During the funeral ceremonies, there are many spontaneous expressions of grief around the world. In the United Kingdom, most sports venues, businesses, and shops are closed.|
07|An Australian wins a Grand Slam tennis title for the first time in 10 years. At Flushing Meadow, New York, Australia's Pat Rafter beats the United Kingdom's Greg Rusedski to win the men's United States Open tennis championship. The score is 6-3, 6-2, 4-6, 7-5.|
07|Thousands of mourners visit St Thomas's church in Calcutta, India, to see Mother Teresa's embalmed body. At the same time, the Vatican receives numerous requests from both lay and clerical members to declare her a saint as soon as possible. Mother Teresa died on September 5.|
07|The Zairian dictator Mobutu Sese Seko dies at the age of 66 while in exile in Morocco, four months after being deposed. After coming to power in a coup in 1965, Mobutu ruled Zaire for 32 years, amassing a personal fortune which is estimated to be large enough to pay off the country's national debt.|
08|Hundreds of Haitians drown as an overloaded ferry boat sinks near the country's west coast. The 'Fierte Gonavienne' is crossing from Montrouis on the mainland to the island of La Gonave, when it capsizes. In the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, a United Nations official says that the death toll could be as high as 500.|
08|The prime minister of Japan, Ryutaro Hashimoto, is unanimously reelected as leader of the country's ruling Liberal Democratic Party. He has been successful in improving relations between Japan and Russia, North Korea, and China.|
09|In Belfast, Northern Ireland, Sinn Fein signs a commitment to non-violence as part of the peace process. The party formally subscribes to the six principles, formulated by the chair of the multi-party talks, the former United States senator George Mitchell. These pledge a total disarmament of all paramilitary organizations. The Irish Republican Army, of which Sinn Fein is the political wing, began a cease-fire on July 20.|
09|The Chinese Communist Party expels the former Beijing party secretary and hands him over to prosecutors investigating the country's biggest corruption scandal. Chen Xitong, aged 67, resigned from his post as mayor in 1995, after Beijing's vice mayor, Wang Baosen, committed suicide. Party officials believe both men embezzled huge sums of public money.|
09|Israeli archaeologists claim to have found the Roman prison where Saint Paul was held for two years. A Latin inscription in the Mediterranean port of Caesarea is new evidence that the ruins of the headquarters of Roman government have survived. According to the 'Acts of the Apostles', Paul was imprisoned here at a date estimated by historians to be about AD60.|
10|Anwar Ibrahim, Malaysia's deputy prime minister, announces public spending cuts, especially the cancellation of several very large projects. These include the building of a new capital city, called Putrajaya, outside the present capital, Kuala Lumpur, the Bakun Dam in Sarawak, and the Linear City project to construct the world's longest building. The cuts are due to serious problems affecting Malaysia's economy.|
10|Archives documenting the death of Russia's last czar are put on display in Moscow, the country's capital, which is celebrating the 850th anniversary of its founding. The exhibition includes rare photographs of Czar Nicholas II and his family, as well as telegrams sent by the Bolsheviks recording their execution in 1918, following the Russian Revolution of 1917.|
11|In a referendum on the devolution of political power, the people of Scotland vote in favour of a separate Scottish Parliament with tax-varying powers. In answer to two questions on the ballot paper, 74.3 per cent voted for a parliament and 63.5 per cent for it to have tax-varying powers. This means that Scotland will have an assembly for the first time since the Act of Union of 1707. The turnout for the vote is about 60 per cent of the population.|
11|Cuba announces the arrest of a former Salvadoran soldier who has confessed to planting four bombs in the capital, Havana, on September 4. A statement issued by the ministry of the interior says that Raul Ernesto Cruz Leon entered Cuba as a tourist on August 29. Describing him as a 'mercenary agent recruited abroad', it claims that the motive for the bombings, which killed an Italian businessman, was financial.|
12|China's President Jiang Zemin, leader of the world's largest Communist Party, sanctions the sale of 10,000 state-owned firms in widespread reforms announced at the start of the party's 15th Congress. The main theme of the meeting, which represents 58 million party members, is the shift away from state ownership of economic resources to a system of private ownership similar to capitalism.|
12|South African President Nelson Mandela unveils a statue of Steve Biko in East London, a city on the east coast of the country. Biko, a Black Consciousness leader and anti-apartheid campaigner, was killed in police custody in Pretoria 20 years ago. He is described by Mandela as 'one of the greatest sons of our nation'.|
13|Elton John's pop song 'Candle in the Wind, 1997' is an instant hit in the United Kingdom. John sang it as a tribute to Diana, Princess of Wales, at her funeral on September 6. Copies of the song are sold out in shops all over the country within hours of becoming available. An estimated 250,000 compact discs and audio cassettes are sold and a further 1.25 million copies will be on sale next week. The sales are expected to raise at least 10 million pounds sterling for the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund.|
13|Two circus-trained performers create a new world record by crossing the River Thames in London on a high wire. Starting from opposite ends of the 2.5-centimetre-thick, 305-metre-long wire, Jade Kindar-Martin, aged 24, and Didier Pasquette, aged 29, meet in the middle, 45 metres above the ground. Then Kindar-Martin climbs over Pasquette and both men complete the crossing. They have been practising the walk for nearly three months.|
14|Israel announces the partial lifting of its economic blockade of the Palestinian territories in return for counter-terrorist measures to be taken by Yasir Arafat, the Palestinian leader. The easing of restrictions comes three days after the visit to the area of United States secretary of state, Madeleine Albright, who urged Arafat to take tougher action against Hamas, the militant Islamic movement.|
14|Survival International, a group campaigning on behalf of indigenous peoples, claims that conservation groups are now as big a threat to local tribes as large corporations. Naming projects in countries including the Philippines, Cameroon, and Surinam the group criticises conservationists for setting up 'eco-tourism' projects and nature parks, which destroy the traditional way of life of indigenous peoples. The World Wide Fund for Nature rejects the criticisms.|
15|At the Emmy awards, held in Pasadena, California, U.S.A., to celebrate the best television programmes, several celebrities attack press intrusion into their private lives. Following the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, there has been widespread revulsion at the activities of 'paparazzi', freelance photographers who sell intimate or candid pictures of celebrities to the popular newspapers. It has been claimed that when the Princess's car crashed on August 31 it was travelling at a dangerously high speed while being pursued by photographers.|
15|The former pop singer Dana is the first candidate to stand for the Irish presidency, following the end of Mary Robinson's seven-year term. Dana, now Rosemary Scallon, is 44 years old. She won the Eurovision Song Contest with 'All Kinds of Everything' in 1970. Although Dana fails to get a political party to back her candidacy, she is nominated by several county councils. The other candidates for the presidency will be announced on September 17.|
16|Pakistan's former prime minister Benazir Bhutto rejects government charges that she and her family were involved in corruption. The statement follows action by Saifur Rehman, Pakistan's chief investigator of corruption, to freeze Bhutto family accounts held in Swiss banks. It is alleged that Bhutto stole millions of pounds sterling during her 1993-1996 government. However, she says, 'We have not got our assets through illegal means.'|
17|Around 100 countries meeting in Oslo, Norway, endorse a proposed treaty which bans anti-personnel landmines. The U.S.A. rejects the deal, claiming that exceptions must be made to protect U.S. soldiers in Korea. China, Russia, India, and Pakistan have also not signed. However, the treaty is a major symbolic step in the attempt to clear the world of landmines.|
17|An information technologist from Hampshire, England, discovers the largest Mersenne prime number. The number, discovered by 38-year-old Gordon Spence, is divisible only by itself and by one. The number is so large that if it was written out it would stretch for 2.25 kilometres and take 224 hours to read out. However, it can be written in the notation devised in the 1600's by French monk Marin Mersenne as two multiplied by an exponent, minus one. In this case, the exponent is 2,976,221. This means that two is multiplied by itself 2,976,221 times and then one is subtracted from the total. Spence is one of 2,000 volunteers using a computer program written by George Woltman to check Mersenne primes, only 36 of which are known to exist.|
17|The political parties in Ireland announce their candidates for the presidency. They are all women. Fianna Fail nominates Mary McAleese; Fine Gael nominates Mary Banotti; and the Labour Party, Democratic Left, and Greens back Adi Roche. Rosemary Scallon (Dana) announced her candidacy on September 15.|
18|Ten people are killed in a bomb attack in Cairo, Egypt. Nine of the victims are German tourists who were in a bus outside the Egyptian Museum. They are attacked by a group thought to be militant Islamic fundamentalists, who aim to frighten tourists away from Egypt, thus cutting revenue to the Government. The attack is a severe blow to the Government's claim that it has brought the Islamic insurrection, which began in 1992 and has cost more than 1,200 lives, under control.|
18|A painting of Myra Hindley by Marcus Harvey is attacked and damaged at a contemporary art exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts in London, England. The portrait of Hindley, who murdered several children in the 1960's, is based on a famous photograph and was made by taking a cast of a child's handprint and using it to create the image. Protesters claim that the painting is offensive to the families of Hindley's victims because it glamorises her. The exhibition, called 'Sensation', features work by young British artists, including Damien Hirst, Jake and Dinos Chapman, Chris Ofili, and Sarah Lucas, from the collection of Charles Saatchi.|
19|Seven people are killed and about 150 more injured in one of the United Kingdom's worst train crashes. The accident happens at 1.15pm when a passenger train and a freight train collide near Southall station in West London. John Prescott, the deputy prime minister, promises a full public enquiry into the causes of the crash.|
19|Malaysia declares a state of emergency in Sarawak, on the island of Borneo, as smog pollution from forest fires reaches dangerous levels. Schools, businesses, government offices, and airports are shut. The pollution is caused by thousands of fires which have been lit in Indonesia to clear the forests, but are now burning out of control.|
20|Henri Paul, who was killed with Diana, Princess of Wales, and Dodi Al Fayed, when the car he was driving crashed in Paris on August 31, is buried in Brittany, France. Paul's burial was delayed for autopsy reports, which found that he had more than the legal limit of alcohol in his blood at the time of the crash.|
20|The first opinion poll in the Irish Republic's presidential campaign gives Adi Roche a small lead. She is backed by 38 per cent of those surveyed for the 'Irish Sunday Independent' newspaper. Roche, a charity worker and anti-nuclear campaigner, is backed by the Labour Party, Democratic Left, and Greens.|
21|The Solidarity movement wins the Polish general elections. Solidarity Electoral Action, an alliance of anti-communist parties led by the Solidarity trade union, wins 252 parliamentary seats and its coalition partner, the Freedom Union, wins 68 seats. The governing Democratic Left Alliance and its coalition partners, the Peasants' Party, wins 222 seats in total.|
21|A rally of more than 500,000 people in the Philippines capital of Manila protests against a constitutional amendment that would allow President Fidel Ramos and other government ministers a second term in office. Ramos was elected in May 1992 and his current term ends in June 1998. He says he will not stand for the presidency.|
22|Malaysia's Kuching airport is closed due to smog from forest fires in Indonesia. Seven other airports in Borneo have also been closed and schools in Sarawak are shut. Air pollution from the fires reaches high levels all over Southeast Asia, including Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, and Singapore.|
22|A Japanese cabinet minister resigns after protests that he has a criminal record. Koko Sato, Director General of the Management and Co-ordination Agency, stands down after 12 days in the job because of widespread public opposition. Even members of his own Liberal Party dropped their support. Sato was convicted in 1982 for his part in a 1970's bribery scandal.|
23|Representatives of the Ulster Unionist Party and the nationalist Sinn Fein party meet face to face for the first time during the start of the Northern Ireland peace process. The meeting, lasting 90 minutes, takes place at Stormont Castle in Belfast. Further meetings are planned for next week.|
23|A court in Saudi Arabia sentences one of two British nurses charged with murder to eight years in jail and 500 lashes. Lucille McLauchlan, age 31, is found guilty of being an accessory to the murder of a 55-year-old Australian colleague, Yvonne Gilford, who was killed at the King Fahd medical complex in Dhahran on December 11, 1996. The verdict against McLauchlan's co-defendant, Deborah Parry, age 38, has not yet been announced. Both nurses have lived under the threat of public execution since they were charged with the murder.|
24|The Islamic Salvation Army, military wing of Algeria's largest Islamic fundamentalist party, the Islamic Salvation Front, calls a cease-fire (to take effect on October 1) two days after the worst atrocity of the five-year civil war. On September 22, at least 200 people were killed and more than 30 others wounded at Bentalha in the Bakali suburbs, south of the capital Algiers. The massacre is widely blamed on the more extremist Armed Islamic Group.|
24|Two Australian government ministers resign after allegations that one misused his travel expenses and the other covered up for him. The prime minister, John Howard, tells parliament that an inquiry has been launched into fraud allegations against the transport minister, John Sharp, and the administrative services minister, David Jull. Four government ministers have now resigned over corruption charges.|
25|A British Royal Air Force fighter pilot breaks the land speed record. Squadron leader Andy Green drove a Thrust SSC car at 1,142.63 kilometres per hour during a run in the Black Rock Desert, Nevada, U.S.A. This is more than 128 kilometres per hour faster than the 1983 record set by his team leader Richard Noble.|
25|The United Kingdom blocks two arms contracts with Indonesia. In the first test of Foreign Secretary Robin Cook's ethical export policy, licences for the export of armoured personnel carriers and sniper rifles have been refused by the government. It believes the arms would be used for internal repression, including policing occupied East Timor. Last year, the UK sold arms worth about 438 million pounds sterling to Indonesia.|
26|An Indonesian aeroplane crashes on the island of Sumatra, killing all 234 passengers and crew. The Airbus A300 B-4, owned by Garuda - the Indonesian state airline - crashes into a jungle-covered ravine four minutes before it is due to land at Polonia airport in Medan, northern Sumatra. The government is investigating whether the crash was caused by the thick smog which has hung over Southeast Asia after weeks of uncontrolled forest fires in Indonesia.|
26|Ten people die and art treasures are destroyed when two earthquakes hit central Italy. The epicentre of both tremors is in the Apennine hills, near the border between the regions of Umbria and the Marches. The first measures 5.5 on the Richter scale, the second 5.9. The main damaged art treasures are frescoes by Cimabue and Giotto in the basilica of Saint Francis in Assisi.|
27|Pop singer Bob Dylan plays at a concert attended by Pope John Paul II in Bologna, Italy. An audience of about 200,000 watches 56-year-old Dylan perform songs, including 'Knockin' on Heaven's Door', before meeting the Pope. In his address to the crowd, the Pope quotes the lyrics of another Dylan song, 'Blowin' in the Wind'. The concert is the highlight of a week-long religious congress.|
27|Two cargo ships collide in the Straits of Malacca, between Malaysia and Indonesia. The Indian-registered 'Vikraman' is hit by a supertanker and breaks in two. Twenty-nine crewmen are missing. The cause of the collision is unclear, but a spokesman for the Malaysian Maritime Rescue and Co-ordination Centre blames the thick smog which has hung over Southeast Asia after weeks of uncontrolled forest fires in Indonesia.|
28|After leading Europe to victory over the Americans in the Ryder Cup golf tournament at Valderrama in Spain, golfer Seve Ballesteros announces his resignation from the team's captaincy. He says he wants to concentrate on his game and play in the 1999 tournament. The final score is 14.5 to 13.5.|
29|Emma Bonino, the European Commissioner for Humanitarian Affairs, is among 20 Westerners arrested by the Taliban fundamentalist Muslim militia in Afghanistan. Bonino is head of a European Union delegation which is visiting an EU-funded women's hospital in the capital Kabul. The arrests happen when members of the delegation photograph the patients. Taliban policy forbids men to take photographs of women to whom they are not related. After three hours in a police station, all 20 are released.|
29|Heavy rainfall and a change in wind direction in Malaysia help to disperse some of the smog pollution that has covered much of Southeast Asia since forest fires in Indonesia burned out of control. The state of emergency in Sarawak, declared on September 19, has been lifted. But the smog haze is not expected to clear completely until the monsoon arrives in November.|
29|Roy Lichtenstein, one of the pioneers of pop art, dies aged 73. Born in New York, Lichtenstein was the son of a prosperous estate agent. He became interested in art at high school and, after serving in World War II, painted scenes from 'westerns' in modern art styles. At the age of 38, he began making his large cartoon-style paintings, many of which, such as 'Whaam!' (1963), became icons of the 1960's pop art movement.|
30|On the anniversary of the introduction of the 1940 anti-Jewish laws, the Roman Catholic church in France apologies for its support of Marshall Petain's nazi-backed Vichy regime during World War II. Olivier de Berranger, bishop of Saint-Denis, makes the statement during a ceremony at the Drancy transit camp, from which thousands of Jews were deported to concentration camps. He says the church repents its failure to denounce the Vichy government's anti-Jewish laws in 1940. About 75,000 Jews were deported from France to nazi death camps during World War II.|
30|The United Kingdom government announces that it will relinquish the power to intern suspected terrorists without trial in Northern Ireland. Speaking at the Labour Party annual conference in Brighton, England, Mo Mowlam, the Northern Ireland minister, says that when the Emergency Powers Act is presented for approval to parliament in summer 1998, it will no longer include the power to intern suspects without trial. The emergency anti-terrorist legislation is renewed annually.|
