| December 1, 2008 | - A statistician in California said that humans would soon reach their maximum running speed. “Men are still on the upward trend,” said Mark Denny of Stanford University, but “they are getting near that plateau.” Horses and dogs are already running as fast as they can.
| Source:
Mercury News
|
| October 2, 2008 | - The U.S. Senate and House of Representatives passed the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008. The legislation, which originated as a three-page proposal by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and grew to 451 pages after House and Senate negotiations, established the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) to grant the Secretary of the Treasury up to $700 billion to buy troubled assets owned by financial institutions, to allow the Treasury to limit executive compensation and “golden parachutes” at those institutions, and to establish an oversight board to monitor the Treasury. The act also provides wooden arrow manufacturers an exemption from excise tax. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rushed the legislation to President George W. Bush, who signed it and promised that the United States would maintain “a leading role in the global economy.” “If I were dictator,” said Senator John McCain, who voted for the act, “which I always aspire to be, I would write it a little bit differently.” McCain also suggested the act be vetoed because it included so much pork. “No matter what the stakes are,” he said, “you've got to stop this.”
| Source 1:
New York Times
Source 2:
ABC News
Source 3:
New York Times
Source 4:
Think Progress
Source 5:
Think Progress
|
| August 27, 2008 | - A pregnant woman sued Jacksonville
Jaguars receiver Dennis Northcutt, claiming he arranged for his cousin to beat her up in an attempt to harm her unborn child.
| Source:
Sports Illustrated
|
| August 25, 2008 | - The Beijing
Olympics ended.
| Source:
Reuters
|
| August 13, 2008 | - Michael Phelps, the American swimmer who won eight gold medals in Beijing, revealed that he consumes more than 12,000 calories a day by eating three egg sandwiches with fried onions, a five-egg omelet, a bowl of grits, three slices of French toast, three chocolate-chip pancakes, two ham-and-cheese sandwiches, two pounds of pasta, and an entire pizza.
| Source:
New York Post
|
| August 12, 2008 | - The musical designer for the Beijing
Olympics admitted that Lin Miaoke, the nine-year-old Chinese schoolgirl who, suspended on wires, performed “Hymn to the Motherland” at the games' opening ceremony, lip-synched the song after Chinese officials decided that the actual singer, seven-year-old Yang Peiyi, was too ugly and buck-toothed to perform before billions.
| Source:
Telegraph
|
| August 11, 2008 | - The Olympics began in Beijing, heralded on television by fake, computer-generated fireworks.
| Source:
All Headline News
|
| July 25, 2008 | -
Iraq was banned from competing in the Olympics.
| Source:
ABC
|
| June 2, 2008 | - Structures built for the 2004 Athens
Olympics were falling into ruin.
| Source:
Telegraph
|
| May 22, 2008 | - Charles Booth, the man who invented the starting block, died at 104.
| Source:
The Daily Telegraph
|
| May 4, 2008 | - A filly named Eight Belles, Hillary Clinton's pick, came in second in the Kentucky Derby, while victory went to the agile colt Big Brown; after losing, Eight Belles broke both front ankles and was promptly euthanized.
| Source 1:
The Independent
Source 2:
ABC
|
| May 3, 2008 | - An Italian police officer shot herself in the head outside a stadium during a second-division soccer match.
| Source:
Sports Illustrated
|
| May 3, 2008 | - An eight-year-old boy in Arizona died after a goal post fell on him during a soccer game.
| Source:
Fox News
|
| February 1, 2008 | - The New York Giants beat the New England Patriots to win Superbowl XLII, while the NFL refused to allow churches to show the game on big-screen televisions.
| Source 1:
Eli, monster defense power Giants to shocking Super Bowl victory
Source 2:
NFL Pulls Plug On Big-Screen Church Parties For Super Bowl
|
| January 21, 2008 | - Omar Osama bin Laden, son of Osama bin Laden, announced that he is organizing a multi-month horse race across North Africa to promote peace.
| Source:
CNN
|
| October 13, 2007 | - Guru Sri Chinmoy, author of 1,500 books and organizer of the Self-Transcendence 3,100, the world’s longest footrace, died of a heart attack.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| August 30, 2007 | - Another elementary school—this one in Colorado Springs, Colorado—banned tag.
| Source:
My Way News
|
| August 20, 2007 | - Hank Aaron's home run record was broken.
| Source:
New Yorker
|
| August 16, 2007 | - David Beckham scored on a free kick during his first game for the LA Galaxy.
| Source:
AP via Breitbart
|
| July 26, 2007 | - A men-versus-machine
poker match showed humans to be the superior bluffers.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| July 23, 2007 | - Two Wisconsinites who had locked a seven-year-old boy in his room while they watched a Green Bay Packers game were each sentenced to several months in jail. The couple claimed to have left the boy peanut butter and jelly, bread, and a bucket for a toilet. “What do you do?” the defense attorney asked the judge. “Maybe this coming football season,” he continued, “lock them in a room with a bucket and make them watch Bears games.”
| Source:
AP via Yahoo! News
|
| May 28, 2007 | -
Duke University lost the the men's NCAA lacrosse championship.
| Source:
AP via local6.com
|
| May 8, 2007 | - Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani was spotted wearing a World Series ring that may have been an illegal gift from the Yankees.
| Source:
Village Voice
|
| May 8, 2007 | - The Milwaukee Brewers were giving away two free tickets to any fan who had his prostate examined.
| Source:
MLB.com
|
| May 2, 2007 | -
Congressman John Shimkus (R., Ill.) said that pulling out of Iraq would be like the Cardinals leaving the field in the 15th inning to let the Cubs win.
| Source:
Chicago Tribune
|
| April 30, 2007 | -
Hunters in Russia killed a rare wild Amur leopard; six remain at large.
| Source:
Daily Times
|
| April 12, 2007 | - The interior minister of Macedonia was driving a BMW that may have been stolen from English soccer star David Beckham.
| Source:
BBC
|
| April 10, 2007 | - Radio personality Don Imus lost his job after he called players on the Rutgers
women's basketball team “nappy-headed hos.”
| Source:
CNN
|
| March 23, 2007 | - Jamaican police continued to search for the murderer of Bob Woolmer, the coach of Pakistan's cricket team, who, hours after Pakistan lost to Ireland in the cricket World Cup, was strangled in his room at the Pegasus Hotel in Kingston.
| Source:
BBC
|
| February 15, 2007 | - Former NBA all-star Tim Hardaway told a radio program, “I hate gay people.”
| Source:
CBS4
|
| February 6, 2007 | - A “fascist climate” settled over parts of Italy as soccer fans were banned from local stadiums.
| Source:
BBC News
|
| January 29, 2007 | - An Argentine
soccer fan who asked for a tattoo of his team's logo received instead a tattoo of a large penis.
| Source:
TheDenverChannel.com
|
| January 29, 2007 | - A ring-neck duck named Perky, who was found alive in a hunter's refrigerator two days after being shot, died, then came back to life in Tallahassee.
| Source:
BBC
|
| January 26, 2007 | - At the Gulf Cup tournament in Abu Dhabi, Iraqis painted their faces and cheered their national soccer team. “By God, football unites us,” said one woman in the crowd. “I wish we could be like that back home.” The team failed to make the final round.
| Source:
Reuters via The Australian
|
| January 23, 2007 | - President George W. Bush gave the State of the Union address, in which he discussed plans to balance the budget, double the size of the Border Patrol, reduce gasoline consumption in the United States by 20 percent, and institute a tax deduction to help American workers afford private health insurance. He announced that he was sending more than 20,000 additional soldiers to Iraq, asked Congress to authorize an increase of 92,000 active soldiers over the next five years, and proposed forming a “Civilian Reserve Corps.” He complimented several guests on their heroic kindness, courage, and self-sacrifice, including NBA star Dikembe Mutombo and Julie Aigner-Clark, the founder of an independent video-production business now owned by the Walt Disney Company. The state of the union, Bush said, is strong.
| Source:
NYT
|
| January 16, 2007 | - Women in Canada were joining professional pillow-fighting leagues.
| Source:
Reuters
|
| January 15, 2007 | - An Illinois man rode a stationary bike for 85 hours, setting a new world record.
| Source:
AP via ESPN.com
|
| January 13, 2007 | - Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney attended a gun show. “As a boy, I worked on a ranch in Idaho and shot
rabbits with a single shot .22 rifle,” Romney said. “After a while my cousin said, 'You're not very good at that. Try using this semiautomatic.'”
| Source:
NewsMax
|
| January 12, 2007 | -
David Beckham signed with the Los Angeles Galaxy.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| January 9, 2007 | - Cal Ripken Jr. and Tony Gwynn were elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame; Mark McGwire and Jim Rice were not.
| Source:
Boston Herald
|
| January 7, 2007 | - Shooting threatened to replace golf as U.K. executives' social networking sport of choice.
| Source:
The Times
|
| January 1, 2007 | - It was reported that an 80-year-old great-grandmother in Kentucky had killed her first deer on a hunt in November. “Ka-powie!” said the woman. “Don't stop doing things 'til you're in the grave!”
| Source:
AP via Yahoo! News
|
| December 16, 2006 | - The NBA decided to replace its new microfiber composite basketball with the previous leather version after players complained about the new ball's grip and the way it hurt their skin. Ralph Nader, calling himself “an advocate for all workers, no matter their salary,” wrote a letter in support of the old ball.
| Source 1:
Breitbart
Source 2:
LA Times
|
| December 6, 2006 | - The invention of rap was traced back to Muhammad Ali.
| Source:
ESPN
|
| November 29, 2006 | - Hunters in Michigan, North Dakota, shot a female deer with a “well-developed rack” of antlers.
| Source:
Yahoo News
|
| November 19, 2006 | - Football coach Bo Schembechler died and Ohio State beat Michigan 42-39.
| Source 1:
ESPN
Source 2:
The New York Times
|
| November 16, 2006 | - In response to widespread public criticism, Rupert Murdoch announced that he would not publish If I Did It, a book by O. J. Simpson in which the former football star describes how he carried out the 1994 killings of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman.
| Source 1:
The New York Times
Source 2:
Times Online
|
| November 8, 2006 | - In Iraq the parliament extended the nationwide state of emergency by 30 days, and eight soccer players and fans were killed by mortar rounds. “We are the Shiite nation,” yelled a man from his hospital bed.
| Source:
MSNBC
|
| November 8, 2006 | - The principal of a high school in North Carolina apologized after an excerpt of a speech by Joseph Goebbels was played over the PA system during a soccer game.
| Source:
CNN
|
| October 28, 2006 | -
Hunters in west Texas were stalking feral pigs.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| October 28, 2006 | - Former heavyweight champion Trevor Berbick, the last man to defeat Muhammad Ali, died of a “massive chop wound” in Norwich, Jamaica.
| Source:
Observer
|
| October 18, 2006 | -
Domestic security officials notified seven football stadiums of a discredited threat of radiological bomb attacks out of an “abundance of caution.”
| Source:
New York Times
|
| October 18, 2006 | - A Massachusetts
elementary school
banned
tag.
| Source:
CBS News
|
| October 16, 2006 | -
White House press secretary Tony Snow compared the President to “one of those guys at the gym who plays about 40 chessboards at once.”
| Source:
New York Times
|
| October 16, 2006 | -
Dubai's ruling family was sued for enslaving children as camel jockeys. A family representative argued that the suit was spurious, since Dubai has replaced child camel-jockeys with robots.
| Source:
BBC
|
| October 2, 2006 | - A contender for the world chess championship refused to play in a finals match after being accused of taking a suspicious number of bathroom breaks.
| Source:
Moscow Times
|
| September 27, 2006 | - The Saints beat the Falcons in the opening night game at the Superdome in New Orleans. The win, said a fan, was “a victory against Hurricane Katrina.”
| Source:
Voice of America
|
| September 26, 2006 | - Homeless soccer players converged in Cape Town for their World Cup.
| Source:
BBC News
|
| August 28, 2006 | - In Russia a participant in a sex-doll
river-rafting
race was disqualified for sexually abusing his rafting apparatus. “I think,” said the man's friend, “it was an expression of his great desire to win.”
| Source:
MOSNEWS.COM
|
| August 21, 2006 | - Flight attendants on Sichuan Airlines will now be required to learn kung fu.
| Source:
China Daily
|
| August 21, 2006 | - Young people were loitering in the nude in parking lots in Brattleboro, Vermont.
| Source:
Boston.com
|
| August 4, 2006 | - A 14-foot blue marlin stabbed angler Ian Card in the chest during a fishing rodeo off Bermuda.
| Source:
Daily Mail
|
| August 2, 2006 | -
Basketball player Yao Ming announced he would no longer eat shark fin
soup because “endangered species are our friends.”
| Source:
NY Times
|
| August 2, 2006 | - Bungs, drugs, and wholesale cheating were declared to be the norm in all major sports.
| Source:
Observer UK
|
| August 1, 2006 | - An epidemic of bird flu among geese in northern China was driving up the price of badminton shuttlecocks.
| Source:
CNN
|
| July 30, 2006 | - The coach of the Iraqi national soccer team resigned and fled to Kurdistan.
| Source:
ABC (Australia)
|
| July 29, 2006 | -
Senators Hillary Clinton and John McCain held a vodka-drinking
contest.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| July 13, 2006 | - A girls' softball coach at Beaver Falls High School in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, was in trouble for having sex with a 17-year-old softball player.
| Source:
Beaver County Times & Allegheny Times
|
| July 9, 2006 | -
Italy won the World Cup after France's Zinedine Zidane was ejected from the game for head-butting Marco Materazzi.
| Source:
Associated Press
|
| June 29, 2006 | - It was revealed that a Minnesota Timberwolves basketball player crashed his SUV into a parked car because he was drunk and masturbating to porn.
| Source:
wcco.com
|
| June 28, 2006 | -
English
soccer fans, said German breweries, were endangering the German
beer supply.
| Source:
Mirror.co.uk
|
| June 27, 2006 | - Bruno the bear was shot and killed by German authorities, ending his seven-week rampage through Germany and Austria; Bruno, officially tagged Rampant Brown Bear JJ 1, had killed sheep and rabbits, stolen honey, eluded Finnish bear trackers and elkhounds, and squashed a guinea pig. “Sexual frustration,” said a German official, “may be a reason for the random killings.”
| Source:
Times Online (U.K)
|
| June 15, 2006 | - At the World Cup in Germany over 400 people were arrested for violence and drunkenness related to the Germany-Poland soccer match (which Germany won 1-0).
| Source:
BBC News
|
| June 14, 2006 | - In Thailand a man killed two soccer fans because he was annoyed by their cheering.
| Source:
USA Today
|
| June 11, 2006 | - New computer viruses were exploiting World Cup fever.
| Source:
The Business Online
|
| June 4, 2006 | -
British
scientists claimed that men drink heavily at sporting events in order to compensate for their masculine shortcomings.
| Source:
Economic & Social Research Council
|
| June 2, 2006 | -
Palestinian militants conducted a raid in Israel and abducted an Israeli soldier, whom they carried to Gaza via a secret tunnel. Israel retaliated by bombing Gaza's main power plant, two bridges, the offices of Palestine's prime minister and interior minister, and a soccer field, and by arresting as many as 64 Palestinian officials. Palestinian militants demanded that Israel release all Palestinian prisoners who are women or under the age of 18. A number of Israeli and Palestinian officials speculated that Israel's actions were intended to weaken or topple Palestine's Hamas government.
| Source:
VOA News
|
| June 2, 2006 | -
British police were patrolling seaports and airports in order to prevent football hooligans from attending the World Cup in Berlin.
| Source:
This is London
|
| May 30, 2006 | - An Ohio man was awarded a patent for a cordless jump rope.
| Source:
local6.com
|
| May 27, 2006 | - In Iraq over 66 people were killed in attacks, including two CBS News employees when their convoy was struck by a car bomb; a CBS correspondent was seriously injured in the same attack. In Baghdad two tennis players and their coach were killed for wearing shorts, and a Marine helicopter was shot down over the Anbar province.
| Source 1:
ABC News
Source 2:
AP via Forbes.com
Source 3:
ABC News
|
| May 26, 2006 | -
Pat Robertson claimed to have leg-pressed 2,000 pounds.
| Source:
AP via Yahoo! News
|
| May 18, 2006 | - In Baghdad, 19 people were killed in attacks, including four U.S. soldiers, and a tae kwon do team was kidnapped.
| Source:
BBC News
|
| May 17, 2006 | - In Alaska an elephant named Maggie was refusing to use her $100,000
treadmill.
| Source:
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
|
| May 8, 2006 | - The head of the Iranian Physical Education Organization banned effeminate-looking athletes.
| Source:
Breitbart.com
|
| April 13, 2006 | -
Tiger Woods apologized for calling himself a spaz.
| Source:
Reuters via Yahoo! News
|
| April 12, 2006 | - Vice President Dick Cheney, who will receive a $1.9 million refund on his 2005 taxes, was booed at a Washington Nationals baseball game, where he threw out the first pitch. “I have never, ever,” said one fan, “heard anyone get booed like that man.”
| Source 1:
The Washington Times
Source 2:
The Mercury News
|
| April 5, 2006 | - In North Carolina, Duke University cancelled its lacrosse season after an African-American stripper was allegedly gang-raped by white lacrosse-team members. Soon after the allegations emerged, Duke lacrosse player Ryan McFadyen sent an email to fellow team members inviting them to another party featuring strippers. "i plan on killing the bitches as soon as the walk in," he wrote, "and proceding to cut their skin off while cumming in my duke issue spandex."
| Source:
The Smoking Gun
|
| March 22, 2006 | -
St. Louis talk show host Dave Lenihan, discussing Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as a potential NFL commissioner, said: "She loves football. She's African-American, which would kind of be a big coon." He repeated: "A big coon." Lenihan apologized, said that he meant to say "coup," and was fired.
| Source:
FOX News
|
| March 19, 2006 | - It was revealed that in 2004 a U.S. Special Operations unit imprisoned Iraqis in Hussein-era torture chambers, then used them as targets in paintball games. "The reality is," said a Pentagon official, "there were no rules there." Posters around the detention area read NO BLOOD, NO FOUL.
| Source:
The New York Times
|
| March 16, 2006 | - In the Netherlands organizers were planning to encourage tolerance by holding a soccer game matching homosexuals against Muslims. Gay Muslims, said organizers, will be able to choose which team they will join.
| Source:
Seattle PI
|
| March 2, 2006 | -
Global warming forced the organizers of Alaska's Iditarod dogsled
race to move the race 30 miles north.
| Source:
Reuters
|
| February 5, 2006 | - Before the Super Bowl, Detroit presented Steelers running back Jerome "The Bus" Bettis with a key to the city; he is the first person to receive the key since it was given to Saddam Hussein.
| Source:
JournalNow.com
|
| February 3, 2006 | - In Detroit the Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Seattle Seahawks in the Super Bowl. The Department of Homeland Security monitored the event using holograms.
| Source:
CNET News.com
|
| February 2, 2006 | - Representative John Boehner (R., Ohio), who belongs to a male-only golf club, whose political-action committee took money from Jack Abramoff but did not return it after Abramoff was indicted, and who in 1995 handed out checks from tobacco-company lobbyists on the House floor, was elected via instant runoff voting to replace Tom DeLay as House Majority Leader. The Republican Party, said Boehner, "must act swiftly to restore the trust between Congress and the American people." Boehner also said that he had "a very open relationship with lobbyists in town." "We are," said Representative Michael Oxley (R., Ohio), "somewhat tilting at windmills."
| Source 1:
The New York Times
Source 2:
Bloomberg.com
Source 3:
The Nation via Yahoo! News
Source 4:
Sign On San Diego
|
| January 26, 2006 | - Authorities in Mexico City arrested a woman named Juana Barraza, a 48-year-old former wrestler who is thought to be the serial killer known as Mataviejitas, or "the Killer of Little Old Ladies," and who may be responsible for strangling up to 30 of them.
| Source:
BBC News
|
| December 23, 2005 | - A senior member of the International Olympic Committee revealed that London probably only won the right to host the Olympics in 2012 because of a voting error.
| Source:
BBC News
|
| December 11, 2005 | - It was announced that the Dutch
sparrow that was shot and killed after it knocked down 23,000 dominoes will be preserved and displayed at Rotterdam's Natural History museum, perched atop a box of dominoes.
| Source:
BBC News
|
| December 10, 2005 | -
Pakistan extended its ban on kites due to the deadliness of kiteflying; in February, 19 people died and over 200 were injured during a kite festival.
| Source:
The New York Times
|
| November 22, 2005 | -
Chris Whitley, Pat Morita, and George Best died.
| Source 1:
Rolling Stone
Source 2:
The Star
Source 3:
Herald Sun
|
| November 15, 2005 | - At a convention center in Leeuwarden, Netherlands, a sparrow flew in through an open window and knocked over 23,000 dominoes. The sparrow cowered in a corner until it was shot and killed.
| Source:
USA Today
|
| October 28, 2005 | - Women's basketball star Sheryl Swoopes came out as a lesbian.
| Source:
New York Blade
|
| October 25, 2005 | - In Maryland the first kill of bear season was credited to Sierra Stiles, an eight-year-old girl, who shot a 211-pound bear twice in the chest with a .243-caliber rifle. “They won't eat now,” Sierra said of bears. “They won't eat a thing.”
| Source:
The Washington Post
|
| October 20, 2005 | - An Oklahoma man, sentenced to 30 years in prison for his role in an armed robbery, asked for three more years of prison time to match Larry Bird's jersey number, 33.
| Source:
MSNBC
|
| October 2, 2005 | - A suicide bomber in Oklahoma blew himself up at a Sooners game.
| Source:
ESPN.com
|
| September 26, 2005 | -
Greece won the Eurobasket.
| Source:
FIBA.com
|
| September 3, 2005 | - The situation in New Orleans quickly worsened, but little help appeared. Shelters set up at the Superdome and at the New Orleans Convention Center became squalid, hot, and dangerous.
| Source:
LA Times
|
| August 29, 2005 | - The world bog snorkeling championship was held in Wales.
| Source:
BBC News
|
| August 26, 2005 | -
Hurricane Katrina killed 11 people in Florida, and more than a million homes and businesses lost power. Katrina then crossed over the Gulf of Mexico and went ashore east of New Orleans, becoming a Category 5 storm along the way. "PERSONS . . . PETS . . . AND LIVESTOCK EXPOSED TO THE WINDS," said the National Weather Service, "WILL FACE CERTAIN DEATH IF STRUCK . . . WATER SHORTAGES WILL MAKE HUMAN SUFFERING INCREDIBLE BY MODERN STANDARDS." The hurricane eventually weakened to a tropical storm; winds tore off parts of the roof of the Superdome, where thousands of poor people sought shelter, and at least 55 people were killed in Mississippi.
| Source 1:
AP
Source 2:
The Roanoke Times
|
| August 16, 2005 | - In Germany a man drowned while trying to get his fishing pole back from a fish; a police spokeswoman described the fish as "ordinary."
| Source:
Reuters
|
| August 16, 2005 | - Sioux Falls, South Dakota, banned cage fighting without a permit.
| Source:
Minnesota Public Radio
|
| August 15, 2005 | - Mice were being taught to surf in Australia.
| Source:
Local6.com
|
| July 28, 2005 | -
President Bush's
favorite dirty joke was reported to be: “The only time I ever hit two good balls is when I step on a rake.”
| Source:
The Fix
|
| July 22, 2005 | - A bipolar Indiana woman beat her two young sons to death with a dumbbell so that the boys could go to heaven.
| Source:
MSNBC
|
| July 13, 2005 | - The NHL and Player's Association came to an agreement and announced that hockey could start up again.
| Source:
CBC
|
| July 6, 2005 | - At a funeral in Pennsylvania a corpse was given a pack of cigarettes, a beer, and a remote control and allowed to watch football.
| Source:
Post-Gazette
|
| July 2, 2005 | - The state of Georgia
legalized fishing with only your hands.
| Source:
The Telegraph
|
| June 30, 2005 | - The owner of the New England Patriots football team took off his 14-karat-gold Super Bowl ring to show it to Vladimir Putin; Putin put the ring in his pocket and kept it.
| Source:
The Miami Herald
|
| June 28, 2005 | - A Zamboni driver in Morristown,
|
