NationMaster - Encyclopedia: October 2007

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Encyclopedia > October 2007

October 2007 is the tenth month of that year. It began on a Monday and 31 days later, ended on a Wednesday. For other uses, see October (disambiguation). ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... For other uses, see Wednesday (disambiguation). ...

International holidays

October 2 - Gandhi Jayanti (India)
October 3 - Last 3rd of Ramadan which includes Laylat al-Qadr (Islamic)
October 3 - end of Sukkot, sunset (Judaism)
October 5 - Proclamation of Republic (Portugal)
October 8 - Thanksgiving (Canada)
October 8 - Health and Sports Day (Japan)
October 8 - Columbus Day (United States)
October 16 - World Food Day
October 13 - Eid ul-Fitr (Islam)
October 21 - Apple Day

October 24 - United Nations Day
October 25 - Thanksgiving Day (Grenada; commemorates Invasion of Grenada, 1983)
October 31 - Halloween
Independence Day
- October 1 - (Nigeria and Cyprus)
- October 4 - (Lesotho)
- October 8 - (Croatia)
- October 24 - (Zambia)
- October 27 - (Azerbaijan, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, Turkmenistan, Czech Republic, and Slovakia)

is the 275th day of the year (276th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Gandhi, taken in 1931. ... is the 276th day of the year (277th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... This article is about religious observances during the month of Ramadan. ... Laylat al-Qadr (Arabic: Ù„ÛŒÙ„Ø© Ø§Ù„Ù‚Ø¯Ø±) (also known as Shab-e-Qadr), literally the Night of Decree or Night of Measures, is the anniversary of two [] very important dates in Islam that occurred in the month of Ramadan. ... Islam (Arabic: ; ( â–¶ (helpÂ· info)), the submission to God) is a monotheistic faith, one of the Abrahamic religions and the worlds second-largest religion. ... is the 276th day of the year (277th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Sukkot (Hebrew: ; booths. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... For other uses, see 5th October (Serbia). ... Republic Day is the name of a public holiday in several countries to commemorate the day when they first became republics. ... is the 281st day of the year (282nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... For other uses, see Thanksgiving (disambiguation). ... is the 281st day of the year (282nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Health and Sports Day (ä½“è‚²ã®æ—¥, taiiku-no-hi, also trans: Health-Sports Day, Sports Day) is a national holiday in Japan held annually on the second Monday in October. ... is the 281st day of the year (282nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Columbus Day is a holiday celebrating the anniversary of Christopher Columbuss arrival in the Americas, which happened on the October 12, 1492 in the Julian calendar, or October 21, 1492 in the modern Gregorian calendar. ... is the 289th day of the year (290th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Please wikify (format) this article or section as suggested in the Guide to layout and the Manual of Style. ... is the 286th day of the year (287th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Eid ul-Fitr or Id-Ul-Fitr (Arabic: Ø¹ÙŠØ¯ Ø§Ù„ÙØ·Ø± â€˜Äªdu l-Fiá¹r), often abbreviated to Eid, is a Muslim holiday that marks the end of Ramadan, the holy month of fasting. ... For people named Islam, see Islam (name). ... is the 294th day of the year (295th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Apple Day is an annual celebration, held on every day of the year, of apples and orchards. ... is the 297th day of the year (298th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... United Nations Day is celebrated internationally on 24 October for the purpose of informing the people of the world as to the aims, goals, and achievements of the UN. It commemorates the coming into being of the United Nations Organization on that day in 1945 when the UN Charter was... is the 298th day of the year (299th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Combatants United States Antigua and Barbuda Barbados Dominica Jamaica Saint Lucia Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Grenada Cuba Commanders Ronald Reagan Joseph Metcalf H. Norman Schwarzkopf Hudson Austin Pedro Tortolo Strength 7,300 Grenada: 1,500 regulars Cuba: about 722 (mostly military engineers)[1] Casualties 19 killed; 116 wounded[2... is the 304th day of the year (305th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... This article is about the holiday. ... For other uses, see Independence Day (disambiguation). ... is the 274th day of the year (275th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 277th day of the year (278th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 281st day of the year (282nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 297th day of the year (298th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 300th day of the year (301st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Motto Pax et justitia (Latin: Peace and justice) Anthem St Vincent Land So Beautiful Capital (and largest city) Kingstown Official languages English Government Parliamentary democracy Commonwealth Realm - Monarch Queen Elizabeth II - Governor-General Sir Frederick Ballantyne - Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves Independence From the United Kingdom - Date 27 October 1979 Area...

Portal:Current events

October 1, 2007 (Monday)

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Pope Benedict XVI replaced Archbishop Piero Marini, the longtime director of office of papal liturgies, with Father Guido Marini of the Genoa archdiocese. (Novus Motus Liturgicus)
President of Russia Vladimir Putin announces he will run on centrist list in the parliamentary elections in December and that he does not exclude the option of becoming Prime Minister of Russia after the election. (Bloomberg)
Ukrainian parliamentary election, 2007: With 70 percent counted, Timoshenko's bloc and Yushchenko's Our Ukraine party had 48 percent of the vote. Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych's party and his Communist and Socialist allies had 36.8 percent. (Bloomberg)
At least 15 people are killed and 19 others injured in a suspected suicide bomb blast in Bannu in Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province. (BBC)

October 2, 2007 (Tuesday)

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2007 Summer Special Olympics opens in Shanghai, China. (Wall Street Journal)
Citigroup buys out minority shareholders of Japanese brokerage Nikko Cordial for $4.6 billion. (Reuters via CNBC)
Five workers are trapped underground in an Xcel Energy hydroelectric plant near Georgetown, Colorado, United States due to a chemical fire. They are later found dead. (Reuters) (Fox News)
At least 27 people are killed when a bus catches fire in Chongqing, southwest China. (News Limited)
Pakistan:
- The Pakistani cabinet announces plans to drop all corruption charges against former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.^{[citation needed]}
- The President of Pakistan Pervez Musharraf appoints General Ashfaq Kiyani to succeed him as the head of the Pakistan Army after Saturday's election. (Washington Post)
Israel confirms it conducted an airstrike on Syria on September 6. (Ynet)
War in Iraq: The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Gordon Brown makes his first visit to Iraq, where he announces the withdrawal of 1,000 troops. (BBC) (AP via Topix)
War in Afghanistan: A suicide bomber blows himself up near a bus carrying policemen killing at least 11 in Kabul. (BBC)
The President of South Korea Roh Moo-hyun walks across the Korean Demilitarized Zone in travelling to Pyongyang for talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il. (BBC) (CNN)
2007 Burmese anti-government protests:
- United Nations special envoy Ibrahim Gambari meets with Burmese General Than Shwe to tell him to stop the killing of dissidents. (The Guardian)
- Gambari later meets with democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi with growing fear about the wellbeing of approximately 1000 dissidents held in a warehouse in the Government Technical Institute in Rangoon. (AFP, Reuters via The Melbourne Age)

October 3, 2007 (Wednesday)

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More than 3,000 gold miners are trapped underground in the Elandskraal mine at Elandsrand, northwest of Johannesburg, South Africa, owned by Harmony Gold Mining. (BBC)
The United States and Russia sign a pact to use Russian technology on NASA missions to hunt for water on the moon and Mars. (Reuters)
United States President George W. Bush vetoes an expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program. (AP via Google News)
Edward Pietrzyk, the Polish ambassador to Iraq, is hurt and his bodyguard is killed by a bomb attack in Baghdad. (Bloomberg)
Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto says that the corruption charges against her have not been dropped, and that Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmad's announcement is part of a disinformation campaign. (CNN) (NYT)
Lal Masjid mosque opens to the public three months after being seized by the Pakistani army.^{[citation needed]}
2007 Burmese anti-government protests:
- The State Peace and Development Council releases 80 Buddhist monks and 149 Buddhist nuns. (Reuters via News Limited)
- United Nations envoy Ibrahim Gambari leaves the country, while arrests and intimidation of demonstrators continue. (NYT) (Guardian) (BBC)
2007 Pacific typhoon season: Vietnam evacuates 400,000 people from the provinces of Nghe An and Ha Tinh ahead of Severe Tropical Storm Lekima (Hanna). Two people die and hundreds of houses collapse when the storm strikes.(AP), (AP via CNN)
North Korea:
- The President of South Korea Roh Moo-hyun and the leader of North Korea Kim Jong-Il commence talks in Pyongyang. (Reuters)
- Kim Jong-Il proposes to extend the talks by one day, but Roh Moo-hyun declines. (CNN)
- At the six-party talks in Beijing, North Korea agrees to fully shut down its nuclear program by the end of the year. (NYT)

October 4, 2007 (Thursday)

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United States Republican Party Senator Pete Domenici of New Mexico announces that he will retire at the end of his current term due to a degenerative brain disease. (AP via Google News)
The Prime Minister of Canada Stephen Harper chooses Mark Carney to succeed David Dodge as governor of the Bank of Canada. (Bloomberg)
The recording industry wins a key victory with a court in the U.S. state of Minnesota finding that a woman was liable for damages of $220,000 for sharing copyrighted music online through Kazaa. (USA Today)
Family members of deceased de facto president of Chile Augusto Pinochet are arrested in Santiago on charges of embezzlement. (BBC)
Republican Party Senator Larry Craig from Idaho vows to serve out his term in the United States Senate despite losing a court bid to rescind a guilty plea for an indecent act in a Minneapolis Airport men's room. (AP via the Guardian)
India asks neighboring Myanmar to free Aung San Suu Kyi. (Times of India)
Bangladesh Supreme Court denies bail to former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia in a corruption and extortion case against her.^{[citation needed]}
An Africa One Antonov An-26 cargo plane crashes into a residential area in Kinshasa, DR Congo. (Sky News)
North Korea and South Korea agree to seek talks with the People's Republic of China and the United States to reach a permanent peace agreement to formally end the Korean War. (Reuters)
Malcolm Turnbull, the Australian Federal Environment Minister, approves the Gunns Tamar Valley Pulp Mill but with an extensive list of conditions. (News Limited)
A rescue operation begins for 3,200 gold miners trapped in Elandsrand, South Africa. All of the miners are eventually rescued leading to wild celebrations. (AFP via News Limited) (SABC News) (Reuters via ABC News Australia)
A court case to challenge the overthrow of Laisenia Qarase's government of Fiji opens in Suva. (Radio New Zealand)
Russia celebrates the fiftieth anniversary of the launch of Sputnik 1, which marked the start of the Space Race. (BBC)

October 5, 2007 (Friday)

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Two bomb blasts in Kidapawan City, on Mindanao in the Philippines, the explosion killed a child and injured 36 people. (Radio Australia)
Topps Meat Company announces that it is going out of business as a result of recalling 21.7 million pounds of beef in the United States linked to 30 cases of E. coli-related illness. (Reuters)
Canada stops the sale of Novartis anti-inflammatory drug Prexige and cancels its authorisation due to the risk of liver-related effects such as hepatitis. (Reuters via Wall Street Journal)
2007 Burmese anti-government protests:
- Burmese security forces claim that they are looking for four of the monks that led the protests. (AP via CNN)
- United Nations envoy Ibrahim Gambari briefs the Security Council on the situation in an open session. (CNN)
War in Iraq: United States forces kill at least 25 members of a Shiite militia in a firefight. (AP via Topix)
Marion Jones admits using banned substances during her athletic career and risks being stripped of her five Olympic medals. (AFP via ABC News Online)
Saudi Arabia announces that it will overhaul its judicial system including the creation of a supreme court, an appeals court and new general courts to replace the Supreme Judicial Council. (BBC)
Elections for a Nepalese Constituent Assembly are delayed as the Seven Party Alliance of ruling parties and the former Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) rebels fail to break a deadlock over the republic issue and the voting system to be used. (BBC)
SELENE, Japan's lunar probe, successfully achieves an orbit around the moon. (AP via NYT)

October 6, 2007 (Saturday)

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A collision between a train and a bus kills at least 28 people and injures over 70 in Cuba's eastern Granma province. (CNN via AP)
The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Gordon Brown rules out calling an early election. (AP via CNN)
Danish police arrest more than 400 people in protests in Copenhagen over the closure of the Ungdomshuset youth centre earlier in the year. (BBC)
2007 Pacific typhoon season:
- Typhoon Krosa hits Taiwan, killing at least four people and injuring 40 more. (BBC) (Bangkok Post)
- Typhoon Krosa later heads for the People's Republic of China, where 730,000 people are evacuated from Zhejiang and Fujian provinces. (VOA)
War in Afghanistan: A suicide bomb attack on a United States convoy in Kabul kills a U.S. soldier and five civilians. (Reuters) (BBC)
Pervez Musharraf wins the Pakistani Presidential Election in unofficial results. The announcement of the official result will be withheld until a Supreme Court verdict is made on the legality of his candidacy. (BBC)
Adventurer Jason Lewis of Expedition 360 completes the first human-powered circumnavigation of the globe. (BBC)
Quentin L. Cook is called as an apostle of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the 177th Semi-Annual General Conference. (Deseret News)
Christopher John Worden, a Royal Canadian Mounted Police constable from Hay River, Northwest Territories, is shot and killed by an unknown assailant. (CBC News)(CTV News)

October 7, 2007 (Sunday)

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War in Afghanistan: Sixteen militants fighting under wanted Uzbek warlord Tahir Yuldash are killed in eastern Afghanistan. (AP via Google)Dale Wilson 19 killed in his northeast home on greeby street in the oxford circle he was stabbed in the chest,back,and arm he died at albert enstine medical center shortly before 1:00
The United Auto Workers sets a Wednesday deadline to reach a new four-year contract with Chrysler. (NYT)
A sheriff's deputy shoots dead six young people in Crandon, Wisconsin, United States. It was initially believed that he was killed by a police sniper after a manhunt, but is now believed to have committed suicide by multiple gunshots. (Reuters)
Costa Ricans approve CAFTA in a referendum with 52% of the votes. (AP via Google News)
Pro-Taliban militants capture 28 Pakistan soldiers in the North Waziristan tribal region.^{[citation needed]}
2007 Pacific typhoon season:
- Typhoon Krosa moves towards China's southern Zhejiang and northern Fujian provinces. (AP via CNN)
- The death toll from Severe Tropical Storm Lekima (Hanna) rises to 55. (AP via CNN)
A Syrian military plane crashes near Damascus, killing all three on board. (AP via Google News)
Record-setting temperatures cause the 2007 Chicago Marathon to shut down after only three and a half hours and after the race has a men's open division photo finish, a death, and sprint finishes in the women's open and men's wheelchair divisions. (Chicago Tribune)
Vandals punch a 10-cm (4") tear in the Claude Monet painting Le Pont d'Argenteuil at the Orsay Museum during Paris's annual Nuit Blanche all-night cultural festival. (AP via Yahoo! News
Randy Orton is awarded the vacant WWE championship which he loses in 10 minutes to Triple H, who defeats Umaga in the second title defense of the night, but loses in the 3rd to Randy Orton in a last man standing match.
U.S. college football: On the heels of last week's historic AP Poll shakeup, another one of comparable size occurs, in which four Top Ten teams and eleven ranked teams overall move down the list or off the poll entirely. LSU receives first place from all 65 sports critics, the first time that has occurred for any team since December 2006. #2 California earns its highest rank since 1951, #4 Boston College earns its highest showing since 1984, and #5 South Florida continues its ascent after first moving into the AP Poll three weeks ago. (AP via Yahoo! Sports)

October 8, 2007 (Monday)

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U.S. athlete Marion Jones returns the five medals she won at the Sydney Olympics and accepts a two-year ban from the sport after admitting to her use of a prohibited substance. (Sydney Morning Herald)
Australia suffers its first combat casualty in Afghanistan following the explosion of a bomb in the southern province of Orūzgān. (Canadian Press)
Washington plane crash
- Air crews conduct search and rescue missions for an airplane carrying 8-10 passengers that is believed to have crashed in a mountainous area of the U.S. state of Washington 45 miles west of Yakima. (Reuters)
- The wreckage of a small plane carrying nine skydivers and the pilot is found in Washington with no sign of survivors. (AP via Google)
The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Gordon Brown announces that Britain will cut its troop commitment in Iraq by half to 2,500 troops. (AFP via ABC News Australia)
H D Kumaraswamy resigns as Chief Minister of the Indian state of Karnataka. Governor Rameshwar Thakur is likely to recommend presidential rule till further elections.^{[citation needed]}
Mario R. Capecchi, Oliver Smithies, and Sir Martin J. Evans are announced as winners of the 2007 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their discoveries of the principles for introducing specific gene modifications by the use of embryonic stem cells in mice. (Nobelprize.org)
Pakistan:
- A helicopter escorting the helicopter of President Pervez Musharraf crashes in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, killing four security officials and injuring his spokesman.^{[citation needed]}
- Forty five Pakistani soldiers and 130 pro-Taliban militants have died in two days of fierce fighting in North Waziristan, the Pakistani army says. (Aljazeera)
2007 Burmese anti-government protests: Burma's junta announces that Buddhist monasteries have accepted US$8000 as well as food and medicine from its soldiers to signify the armed forces have not left the faith. (AFP via Melbourne Herald-Sun)

October 9, 2007 (Tuesday)

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The British Government drops plans to ban the mixing of sperm and eggs from different species. (The Guardian)
Christian Von Wernich, a Roman Catholic priest and former police chaplain is sentenced to a life sentence for his role in torture, kidnapping and murder during Argentina's dirty war. (Reuters via News Limited)
The United States Supreme Court dismisses the case of the German citizen Khalid El-Masri who accuses the CIA of abducting him to a secret prison in Afghanistan where he claims he was tortured. The US government had argued that a public trial would reveal state secrets. (Deutsche Welle)(LA Times)
Pakistan - Battle of Mir Ali:
- 20 people are injured in Peshawar, Pakistan, when a bomb rips through a music shop.^{[citation needed]}
- At least sixty people are killed as Pakistani aircraft bomb a bazaar in Epi village in North Waziristan. (CNN)
War in Iraq:
- Employees of Australian-owned security firm Unity Resources Group open fire on a car in Baghdad killing two Iraqi women.(CNN)
- Twin blasts in the town of Baiji kill at least eight people and injures dozens more. (BBC)
Japan extends sanctions against North Korea, citing a lack of progress in a dispute about the abduction of Japanese nationals. (BBC)
The President of France Nicolas Sarkozy travels to Moscow to meet with the President of Russia Vladimir Putin to discuss a broad range of policies including Kosovo, Chechnya, and Iran. (AFP via Google)
Albert Fert and Peter Grünberg are announced as winners of the 2007 Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery of giant magnetoresistance. (Nobelprize.org) (USA Today)
The general election in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador gives the Conservative government of Premier Danny Williams an enlarged majority at the expense of the Liberals. (CBC)

October 10, 2007 (Wednesday)

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Polish police evict about 65 rebellious ex-nuns who had illegally occupied a convent in Kazimierz Dolny, Poland, for more than two years in defiance of a Vatican order. (AP)
The general election in the Canadian province of Ontario gives the Liberal government of Premier Dalton McGuinty an enlarged majority. (Bloomberg)
Tibetan exiles storm the embassy of the People's Republic of China in New Delhi to protest the lack of religious freedom in China. (AP via CNN)
Taliban frees one German and four Afghan hostages kidnapped in mid-July.^{[citation needed]}
The United States