Dead at 27
Morrison dies in Paris aged 27. He is found in a bathtub at his apartment at 17 Rue Beautraillis by his girlfriend, Pamela Courson. A doctor’s report states the cause of death is heart failure aggravated by heavy drinking.
Father murdered
When Combs is only three years old his father, Melvin, is fatally gunned down after a failed drug deal due to being mistaken as a police informant. He is killed in his car in Central Park by a former friend and associate. Melvin Combs is a known friend to convicted New York drug dealer Frank Lucas.
They say you can’t miss something you never had, but that’s only a little ways right. There’s definitely been times as I’ve gotten older that I’ve missed my father – – his presence – – not being here.
Indonesia outbreak
Seven people are reported with Zika virus in Indonesia. A subsequent study indicates that 9/71 (13%) human volunteers in Lombok, Indonesia, have a neutralizing antibody to the virus. Symptoms include fever, anorexia, diarrhea, constipation, abdominal pain, and dizziness.
Dead at 36
Lynott dies from heart failure and pneumonia after an 11-day fight for his life.
Yap outbreak
An outbreak of illness characterized by rash, arthralgia, and conjunctivitis is reported on Yap Island in the Federated States of Micronesia. Serum samples from patients in the acute phase of illness contained RNA of Zika virus. This is the first time Zika has spread outside its usual geographic range. Symptoms noticed are: rash, conjunctivitis, and arthralgia (joint pain).
Cyclone Nagaris: 53,000 missing, 84,000 dead
‘Cyclone Nargis’ crosses the south of Myanmar and ravages the Ayeyarwady Delta region. Official figures estimate 84,500 fatalities and 53,800 missing people. The Burmese government, fearing the political ramifications of a high death toll, stops tallying lost lives after a point, leaving hundreds of thousands unaccounted for.
Released
U.S. forces release Al-Baghdadi from Camp Bucca, the biggest U.S. detention camp in Iraq. Kenneth King, commander at the time:
We spent how many missions and how many soldiers were put at risk when we caught this guy and we just released him.
Al-Baghdadi is not viewed as a threat upon release:
He said, ‘I’ll see you guys in New York,’ like, ‘This is no big thing, I’ll see you on the block’
Hijacks Fox 40 Facebook, Twitter accounts
According to the FBI, after he leaves the company Keys retains the passwords to Fox40’s social media accounts, and prevents access to them by the company. He sends messages from the accounts to the public. He also deletes thousands followers from the company’s account.
Gives Tribune credentials to Anonymous
Keys identifies himself on an Internet chat forum as a former Tribune Company employee and provides members of Anonymous with a login and password to the Tribune Company server. He encourages the Anonymous members to disrupt several Tribune companies and urged that the Los Angeles Times should be “demolished.” Keys:
Go f-ck some shit up.
Hackers uses the credentials provided by Keys to log in to the Tribune Company server and make changes to the web version of a Los Angeles Times news feature, changing a headline to read: “Pressure builds in House to elect CHIPPY 1337.”
Hacker: [T]hat was such a buzz having my edit on the LA Times
Keys: Nice
Keys also changes the access credentials of FOX40 employees, interfering with their ability to access company servers, and obtained email addresses for FOX40 viewers, to whom he sends disparaging emails about the company. According the the company Keys’ actions caused the mobile version of the Times to be offline for a day, and resulted in thousands of dollars in costs for the Tribune Company in responding to the breach of its systems by shutting backdoor access credentials and assessing the full extent of the damage.
Sends ‘Cancerman’ emails
Keys sends a series of emails to his colleagues at Fox 40, under aliases related to the TV show, The X Files. The “Cancerman emails” outline various grievances the writer has with the company’s ethics, including claims that the station dropped a news story because the subject threatened to pull its advertisements, and that the station invaded viewers’ privacy through a contest email promotion. Keys then sends emails to the contest email list about KTXL Fox 40’s perceived misconduct. Fox40, already on edge from the threats, spends hours fielding emails from upset viewers. Later Keys admits to sending the emails saying:
The emails was, was to be antagonistic, you know…It was more or less hooliganism.
Forced to watch snuff videos
Human Rights Watch says ISIS forced 153 boys as young as 14 in Kobani to watch videos of beheadings and crucifixions while listening to religious lectures, and flogged them with cables for not paying attention. Former prisoner:
Those who didn’t conform to the program were beaten. They beat us with a green hose or a thick cable with wire running through it. They also beat the soles of our feet.
Asked to leave northern town
Six of Syria’s main rebel factions ask ISIS to withdraw from the town of Azaz, near the Turkish border, which it captured several days earlier from Free Syrian Army rebels. The statement asks “our brothers in ISIL to withdraw their troops and vehicles to their main headquarters immediately” and implement an “immediate ceasefire” in the area. Signed by the Ahrar al-Sham, Liwa al-Tawhid and Jaysh al-Islam factions, and the smaller Suqur al-Sham, Furqan Brigades and Liwa al-Haq groups, it comes hours after the group clashes with the mainstream Northern Front Alliance and sends fighters towards a border post. ISIS and the Northern Front are asked to…
…resort immediately to the Islamic court, which will remain in session in Aleppo for 48 hours
Captures town from rival opposition
ISIS fighters seize the northern town of Azaz near the Turkish border from Free Syrian Army forces, causing confusion among the ranks of the opposition. FSA spokesman Loay al-Mikdad says the group took the town from Assad regime forces in self-defence and questions why ISIS are storming an area that is already ‘liberated’:
They said they came to defend the Syrian people. Now they have turned their guns away from fighting the regime to fighting the Syrian people.
French Polynesia outbreak
The Zika virus races through the many islands of French Polynesia, including Tahiti and Bora Bora. In early 2014, it moves to the Cook Islands, just to the west, and New Caledonia, close to Australia. It also leapt to Easter Island, home of the giant stone heads, officially arrival in the Western Hemisphere.
Ousted from Aleppo, Idlib
Rival opposition factions strike back at ISIS after its moves to seize territory they have claimed from regime forces in Aleppo and Idlib provinces. Raqqa-based Sham News Network media activist Abu Bakr:
The rebels have achieved tremendous progress against ISIS in all the points of conflict, liberating more than 80% of the Idlib countryside and 65% of Aleppo and its countryside
Mohammad Hassano, an activist in the town of Azaz:
People just couldn’t take it anymore, after all the kidnapping and arrests and attacks against the [Free Syrian Army]. People were very angry at them, but there was hesitation in fighting them because of the priority of fighting the regime.
Ousted from Raqaa
Mainstream rebel groups force ISIS out of Anbar provincial capital Raqaa, freeing at least 50 hostages that include journalists and aid workers taken captive by the group. ISIS remains in control of the Anbar cities of Ramadi and Falluja – where it is surrounded by the Iraqi military – but the fall of Raqaa means it has lost much of the territory in Turkish border areas that it has held for six months after seizing it from the other rebel groups. Many ISIS members are now said to be defecting to join Syrian Al Qaeda arm the Al-Nusra Front or more mainstream rebel groups including the remnants of the Free Syrian Army.
Withdraws from Aleppo
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reports that ISIS’s headquarters in Aleppo have been overtaken by rival opposition:
Fighters from several Islamist rebel brigades took control of the children’s hospital in the Qadi Askar district, which is the headquarters of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in the city.
The extremist group has effectively abandoned the area:
ISIL withdrew from the Inzarat area after clashes with fighters from rebel… brigades, and the post office building was taken over by Islamist rebel fighters … There are hardly any ISIL members left in the city of Aleppo.
Expelled from Deir Ezzor
Rival opposition groups including the Al Qaeda-affiliated Al-Nusra Front expel ISIS from the province of Deir Ezzor. The oil-producing province is also a key conduit for weapons across the Iraqi border. The Al-Nusra Front, which has largely stayed out of conflicts with ISIS, joined about 10 other militant groups to expel the extremist faction.
Critical condition after crash
Morgan and Jeffrey Millea are airlifted to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick and is in critical condition following a 5-car pile-up. Their chauffeured limousine bus was struck from behind by a Walmart truck. New Jersey State police say they believe the Walmart truck driver was dozing and failed to see traffic slowing in front of him before it was too late – rear-ending the Mercedes limo-bus and prompting a chain-reaction crash with a second tractor-trailer, an SUV and two cars. The limo rotated clockwise and flipped over. Police say:
Driver failed to observe slow-moving traffic ahead. He observed at the last minute – just prior to impact – the limo bus carrying Morgan and his party.
McNair, one of Morgan’s writers, dies in the crash. Two other comedians traveling in the bus, Harris Stanton and Ardie Fuqua, were also injured. Morgan’s driver, Tyrone Gale says:
I climbed around and heard Tracy screaming for help. I climbed up on the body of the limo bus…but I couldn’t reach them.
Takes four strategic towns
ISIS takes four strategic towns located along a highway from Syria to Baghdad and could help the militants gain control of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad. Iraqi forces withdrew from Haditha, about 270 kilometers (about 168 miles) northwest of Baghdad, during the overnight hours. Sunni tribes considered friendly to the Iraqi army took over security for the town, but officials believe it will fall to ISIS. Iraq’s military spokesman, Maj. Gen. Qassim Atta, told reporters there was a “strategic withdrawal” in some areas but did not detail the specific locations.