| February 16, 2013 | -
Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez admitted to using steroids.
| Source:
San Francisco Examiner
|
| February 14, 2013 | - Swimmer Michael Phelps apologized to the Chinese for taking bong hits at a frat party. “The past few days have been tough for me,” Phelps said in a video provided to Asian news sources by automaker Mazda, which sponsors him. “But I have received support and encouragement online from so many Chinese friends.”
| Source:
New York Times
|
| March 19, 2009 | - Actress Natasha Richardson, 45, died from a head injury sustained while learning to ski.
| Source:
Entertainment Tonight
|
| March 16, 2009 | - A dozen gunmen in Pakistan attacked the visiting Sri Lankan cricket team, killing eight people and injuring six players, and led some to question whether Pakistan should remain a co-host of the 2011 Cricket World Cup.
| Source:
Time
|
| February 27, 2009 | - Many Americans were impressed by the supple firmness of Michelle Obama's upper arms. “This woman is redecorating the White House, trying to raise two children, and backseat-driving the nation,” said a 25-year-old woman who watched the first lady on television, then went to an Adidas store in New York City and bought two five-pound dumbbells. “She seems to have time to keep her arms toned, so why can't I?”
| Source:
CNN
|
| February 2, 2009 | - Just after the Arizona Cardinals scored their last touchdown of Superbowl XLIII (which they lost to the Pittsburgh Steelers), a cable channel in Tuscon, Arizona, interrupted the broadcast with pornography. “I just figured it was another commercial until I looked up,” said one viewer. “Then he did his little dance with everything hanging out.”
| Source:
BBC
|
| 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, New Jersey, was charged with drunk Zamboni driving.
| Source:
ABC News
|
| June 22, 2005 | - The president and CEO of Formula One racing, discussing racer Danica Patrick, said that “women should be dressed in white like all the other domestic appliances.”
| Source:
ESPN
|
| June 16, 2005 | - And four cheerleaders in Texas were in trouble for smearing human feces on a pizza in an attempt to frame a rival cheerleading squad.
| Source:
WOAI.com
|
| June 8, 2005 | - Officials in Dortmund, Germany, were preparing to host a game of the upcoming World Cup by setting up "sex garages" for assignations with prostitutes.
| Source:
Reuters
|
| May 29, 2005 | - A jet-skiing man was decapitated off Long Island when he ran through a boat's anchor line.
| Source:
Daily News
|
| May 29, 2005 | - In New Jersey, State Assemblyman Craig Stanley was fighting to rename the Devils hockey team. “The merchandise, the paraphernalia,” he said, “is based on the actual demonic devil.”
| Source:
AP
|
| May 27, 2005 | - In the West Bank, Israeli soldiers broke into the home of a Palestinian family so that they could watch a soccer game.
| Source:
Reuters
|
| May 26, 2005 | - Three hundred thousand residents of Beijing have been moved out of their homes to make room for the 2008 Olympics; some of those who protested the evictions have been jailed.
| Source:
Times Online
|
| May 11, 2005 | -
Zapatista spokesman Subcomandante Marcos challenged Italy's Inter Milan soccer team to a match against a team of Zapatista soldiers.
| Source:
BBC News
|
| April 29, 2005 | - The Army was planning to change its rules to exempt good athletes from active duty so they can serve in professional sports leagues.
| Source:
Record Online
|
| April 24, 2005 | - The Yankees sucked.
| Source:
Delaware Online
|
| April 10, 2005 | - Scottish soccer fans booed during a moment of silence to honor the pope.
| Source:
AP
|
| March 16, 2005 | - The Department of Homeland Security was preparing for: the detonation of a ten-kiloton nuclear device; a biological attack with aerosolized anthrax; an outbreak of pneumonic plague; a flu pandemic starting in south China; the spraying of a chemical blister agent over a football stadium; an attack on an oil refinery; the explosion of a tank of chlorine; a 7.2-magnitude earthquake; a major hurricane in a metropolitan area; three Cesium-137 dirty bombs going off in three different cities, each contaminating thirty-six city blocks; the detonation of improvised bombs in sports stadiums and emergency rooms; liquid anthrax in ground beef; a foot-and-mouth disease outbreak; and a cyber attack on the nation's financial infrastructure.
| Source:
The New York Times
|
| March 12, 2005 | - A woman's head was found in a bowling bag in New Jersey.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| March 11, 2005 | -
Gary Kasparov decided to retire.
| Source:
BBC News
|
| March 9, 2005 | - Humans could still beat robots at arm wrestling.
| Source:
Scientific American
|
| March 6, 2005 | - Darryl Strawberry said that baseball players who use steroids lack discipline.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| March 2, 2005 | - A toddler in Deer Park, Texas, drowned in a dirty swimming pool.
| Source:
Click2Houston
|
| March 2, 2005 | - A toddler in Nebraska strangled himself with an automatic car window as his mother's boyfriend played soccer nearby.
| Source:
The Omaha Channel
|
| March 2, 2005 | -
Jack Nicklaus's
toddler grandson drowned in a hot tub.
| Source:
SFGate
|
| December 26, 2004 | -
Reggie White died.
| Source:
New York Timesimes
|
| December 23, 2004 | -
Strike Holdings, which manages several bowling alleys in the United States, decided to return the investments it received from the Palestinian Authority.
| Source:
The Guardian
|
| December 3, 2004 | - In testimony before a federal grand jury that was leaked to the press, several professional baseball players confessed to using performance-enhancing steroids. Barry Bonds, who has hit more home runs in a season than any other player, told the court that his steroid use was accidental; he believed he was rubbing flaxseed oil and arthritis ointment on his aching muscles.
| Source:
San Francisco Chronicle
|
| November 10, 2004 | - Former high-school football star Demarco McCullum, Texas
prisoner #999180, became the 21st prisoner executed in that state this year.
| Source 1:
The Advocate
Source 2:
CNN
|
| November 10, 2004 | -
NASCAR officials decided that race cars can be emblazoned with liquor ads.
| Source:
AP
|
| October 28, 2004 | - The Boston Red Sox won the World Series.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| October 22, 2004 | - Boston police killed a woman with a non-lethal pepper spray projectile after the Red Sox defeated the New York Yankees to win the American League Championship Series.
| Source:
Associated Press
|
| August 24, 2004 | - Scientists created genetically engineered mice that can run farther and longer than normal mice.
| Source:
Associated Press
|
| August 21, 2004 | - A 105-pound woman in Kennebunk, Maine, ate 38 lobsters (9.76 pounds of meat) in 12 minutes and won the World Lobster Eating Contest.
| Source:
Associated Press
|
| August 14, 2004 | - A flaming rabbit burned down a British cricket club.
| Source:
Reuters
|
| July 14, 2004 | - Mike Ditka, the former coach of the Chicago Bears football team, said that he might make a run for the Senate, and
| Source:
Reuters
|
| July 4, 2004 | - A 132-pound Japanese man ate 53 hot dogs and buns in 12 minutes. "I think he has proven, once again, that he is one of the finest athletes of any sport in the world," concluded a spokesman.
| Source:
WNBC.com
|
| June 14, 2004 | -
George Herbert Walker Bush
jumped out of an airplane.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| April 12, 2004 | - President Bush went fishing.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| April 10, 2004 | - The head of Russia's Federal Security Service, formerly known as the KGB, was named head of the Russian Volleyball Association.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| March 25, 2004 | -
India defeated Pakistan in a cricket tournament.
| Source:
Reuters
|
| February 27, 2004 | - Fans of the Chicago Cubs baseball team blew up the ball they blamed for the Cubs' humiliating failure to win the National League Championship last year.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| February 2, 2004 | - A pierced breast popped out of Janet Jackson's outfit during the Super Bowl halftime show.
| Source:
MSNBC
|
| January 8, 2004 | -
German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder was chased from a building in Leipzig by a mob of student demonstrators chanting "First education, then games!"
| Source:
BBC
|
| January 5, 2004 | - At least eleven people were killed and 68 were wounded when a bomb blew up at a basketball game in the Philippines.
| Source:
The Australian
|
| December 9, 2003 | - Vice President Dick Cheney reportedly killed more than 70 farm-raised ringneck pheasants during a "canned hunt" in which 500 of the birds were released for the pleasure of Cheney and nine companions; the men were credited with 417 pheasants and an undisclosed number of ducks.
| Source:
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
|
| November 12, 2003 | - The American-appointed mayor of Sadr City, a suburb of Baghdad, was killed after he drove into a forbidden area and got into a "wrestling match" with an American soldier, whose gun went off.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| November 7, 2003 | - A racing
camel
sold for $286,000 in Oman.
| Source:
Agence France-Presse
|
| October 11, 2003 | -
Rush Limbaugh, who was forced to resign from ESPN after he made unkind comments about a black football player, admitted to being a drug
addict.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| October 9, 2003 | -
Physicists were arguing over whether the universe is shaped like a soccer ball.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| September 13, 2003 | - Two hundred chickens were beaten to death with a golf club near Brisbane, Australia.
| Source:
Courier-Mail
|
| August 30, 2003 | - A women's soccer team in Germany agreed to wear jerseys advertising a brothel.
| Source:
Reuters
|
| August 5, 2003 | -
Mike Tyson declared bankruptcy.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| August 1, 2003 | - The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) quickly scuttled an idea to create a futures-trading market for terrorist attacks, after the plan was revealed by opponents in Congress. DARPA head John M. Poindexter announced his resignation, telling a friend that he planned to spend more time sailing.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| July 7, 2003 | -
Fishermen in Italy were using live kittens to catch giant sheat fish in the Po River.
| Source:
Independent
|
| June 30, 2003 | -
President Bush was nursing a torn calf muscle, a running injury that was exacerbated by his initial decision to run through the pain; his 6:45 mile slowed to about 9 minutes but is now back down to 8:45.
The president was hoping to get back to a 7-minute mile as soon as possible.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| May 14, 2002 | -
Jennifer Portnick, a 240-pound aerobics instructor, reached a settlement with Jazzercize Inc. after she brought a complaint against the company under San Francisco's “fat and short” law for rejecting her because of her size. Jazzercize will no longer require its instructors to maintain a “fit appearance.”
| |
| April 2, 2002 | -
President Bush continued to find time to go running every day.
| |
| January 29, 2002 | -
Mike Tyson, the convicted rapist, took a bite out of Lennox Lewis's leg after the two boxers got into a fight at a news conference to promote their upcoming fight in Las Vegas; Tyson had previously threatened to eat Lewis's children.
| |
| January 15, 2002 | -
President Bush fell off his couch and smashed his face; he claimed to have fainted while watching football and eating a pretzel.
| |
| December 4, 2001 | - Two baseball fans were fighting in court over the custody of Barry Bonds's 73rd homerun ball.
| |
| November 13, 2001 | - Trevor Harvey, the president of Mad Dads, an anti-violence group, was arrested in Sarasota, Florida, for punching a referee during his son's football game.
| |
| October 16, 2001 | - Crowds of fishermen in Germany were trying to catch a giant catfish that ate a pet dachshund in a lake near Moenchengladbach.
| |
| September 25, 2001 | - Paleontologists in Pakistan discovered a missing link between the ancient hoofed ancestors of whales and their descendants, who fancied fish, learned to swim, and eventually just stayed in the water.
| |
| September 11, 2001 | - Major-league baseball and the National Football League cancelled their games.
| |
| August 28, 2001 | - A North Carolina state representative apologized after forwarding fellow legislators an email message that declared: “Two things made this country great: White men and Christianity.” President Bush was inducted into the Little League Hall of Excellence.
| |
| August 28, 2001 | - A Canadian man, one year into a ten-year sailing expedition, was forced to cut short his trip after being attacked by pirates with a bread knife.
| |
| July 10, 2001 | -
President George W. Bush, who turned 55 this week, played golf for the first time since he was inaugurated.
| |
| July 3, 2001 | - A large hippopotamus killed a security guard on a golf course in Johannesburg, South Africa.
| |
| July 3, 2001 | -
Californian matadors were fighting bulls, gently, with velcro-tipped banderillas.
| |
| May 15, 2001 | - Environmentalists and fishermen asked the Food and Drug Administration to impose a moratorium on genetically modified fish.
| |
| May 1, 2001 | - A live-in caretaker in Everett, Washington, was charged with murder for paying her 13-year-old daughter and four other teenagers to kill her client's son, 64, with baseball bats; her 11- and 7-year-old children helped her clean up the house afterwards; the 89-year-old client, a mute Alzheimer's patient, was neglected and survived by eating newspapers.
| |
| April 24, 2001 | - Some experts were worried about tourists who pay to swim with sharks, which are lured by fish heads and such; others welcomed the chance to study
natural selection at work.
| |
| March 13, 2001 | - A seventeen-year-old boy beat his father to death with a baseball bat because he didn't want to turn off two radios and a television that he was listening to simultaneously; the boy told police that he then went bowling, tried to slash his wrists, and deliberately crashed his dead father's Jeep in a second attempt to end it all.
| |
| March 6, 2001 | - The school superintendent of Mobile, Alabama, proposed doing away with all extracurricular activities, including football, after the state imposed mandatory budget cuts. All Alabama was aghast.
| |
| February 13, 2001 | - Spanish bullrings, which traditionally have defrayed costs by selling the meat from bulls killed in bullfights, were going broke after the practice was banned due to mad-cow concerns.
| |
| January 2, 2001 | -
George W. Bush went fishing.
| |
| January 2, 2001 | -
Fishermen in the Galápagos Islands were resisting new fishing limits, arguing for a strict policy of natural selection in Ecuador's conservation policies.
| |
| November 21, 2000 | - Maine's wild Atlantic salmon was placed on the endangered species list, to the dismay of Maine's Atlantic salmon fishermen.
| |
| November 21, 2000 | - An Air Force F-16 fighter plane collided with a little Cessna airplane in Florida; part of the Cessna landed on a golf course.
| |
| October 24, 2000 | - The town of Jarrell, Texas, hosted a “Running of the Bulls, Texas Style” in imitation of the annual event held in Pamplona, Spain; Hereford, Watusi, and Brahman bulls reluctantly shambled after uncomfortably sober cowboys in a large set of portable pens.
| |
| October 17, 2000 | - There were growing suspicions that professional baseball players were using anabolic steroids.
| |
| October 3, 2000 | - A Greek ferryboat crew was arrested and charged with manslaughter after the boat hit a marked and illuminated reef off Paros and sank, killing at least 90; the crew had put the boat on autopilot so they could watch a soccer match.
| |
| September 19, 2000 | -
Bird watchers discovered that CBS Sports was routinely dubbing bird calls into its golf broadcasts; CBS has put a stop to the practice.
| |
| September 12, 2000 | - Baroness Margaret Thatcher accused British Prime Minister Tony Blair of trying to “abolish Britain.” Venus Williams won the U.S. Open tennis championship.
| |
| August 29, 2000 | - A crowd of 4,500 spontaneously stood up, held hands, and recited the Lord's Prayer before a high school
football game in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, an action that was repeated at football games across the South.
| |
| August 15, 2000 | - University of Kansas researchers found that sports fans are less likely to become depressed than people who have no interest in sports.
| |
| July 25, 2000 | -
Afghan authorities arrested and shaved the heads of a group of visiting Pakistani boys for wearing shorts during a soccer game.
| |
| February 0, 2000 | - Mine That Bird won the Kentucky Derby despite 50-1 odds.
| Source:
New York Times
|
