Chronology Of News Events In 2007
JANUARY
Jan. 2
Seven New Orleans police officers surrender to face murder or attempted murder charges related to shootings on a bridge after Hurricane Katrina.
Oprah Winfrey opens a school for disadvantaged girls in South Africa.
Jan. 3
Crude oil prices open the new year at $58.32 a barrel.
Jan. 4
Nancy Pelosi is elected first female speaker of the House as Democrats take control of Congress.
Jan. 9
U.S. forces stage airstrikes against suspected al-Qaida fighters in Somalia in the first offensive there since 18 American soldiers were killed in 1993.
Tony Gwynn and Cal Ripken Jr. are elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, but Mark McGwire falls far short.
Jan. 10
President Bush says he takes responsibility for any mistakes in Iraq and announces an increase in U.S. troops there to quell violence.
Jan. 12
Two kidnapped boys, Ben Ownby and Shawn Hornbeck, are found alive in the same suburban St. Louis apartment four days after Ben vanished and 4@1/2 years after Shawn disappeared.
Jan. 18
Actor Isaiah Washington apologizes for using a gay slur against a ``Grey's Anatomy'' castmate on the set and at the Golden Globes ceremony.
Jan. 19
Former Republican Rep. Bob Ney is sentenced to 2@1/2 years in prison in a lobbying scandal.
Jan. 20
Twenty-five U.S. troops are killed in Iraq, including 12 in a helicopter crash in Baghdad and five in a sophisticated sneak attack in Karbala.
Jan. 23
In his State of the Union address, President Bush implores Congress to give his unpopular plan to send more U.S. troops to Iraq ``a chance to work.''
Jan. 25
Ford Motor Co. says it lost $12.7 billion in 2006, the worst loss in the company's 103-year history.
Jan. 29
Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro is euthanized because of medical complications eight months after his gruesome breakdown at the Preakness.
FEBRUARY
Feb. 2
A panel of international scientists says global warming is ``very likely'' man-made.
Feb. 4
The Indianapolis Colts win the Super Bowl, beating the Chicago Bears 29-17.
Feb. 5
NASA astronaut Lisa Nowak is arrested and accused of trying to kidnap a rival for the affections of a space shuttle pilot.
Feb. 8
Tabloid bombshell Anna Nicole Smith dies in Florida at age 39 of an accidental drug overdose.
Feb. 11
The Dixie Chicks win five Grammys in a defiant comeback after being shunned over their anti-Bush comments about the Iraq war.
Feb. 12
A teenage gunman shoots nine people, killing five, at a mall in Salt Lake City before he is shot and killed by police.
Feb. 14
ConAgra recalls all Peter Pan and Great Value peanut butter made at a Georgia plant because of a salmonella outbreak.
Feb. 16
Britney Spears shaves her head and gets a new tattoo, then enters rehab.
Feb. 22
Britain's Ministry of Defense says Prince Harry will be deployed to Iraq but later reverses the decision because of insurgent threats.
Feb. 24
The Virginia General Assembly passes a resolution expressing ``profound regret'' for the state's role in slavery.
Feb. 25
``The Departed'' wins best picture at the Academy Awards and Martin Scorsese wins best director on his sixth nomination.
Feb. 26
The ``forever'' stamp good for mailing a letter no matter how much postal rates rise is recommended.
Feb. 27
A suicide bomber strikes Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan within earshot of Vice President Dick Cheney, who was rushed to a bomb shelter.
Dow Jones industrial average drops 546 points, the worst drop since the 2001 terrorist attacks.
MARCH
March 1
A tornado blows down walls at Enterprise High School in Alabama, killing eight teenagers as the students huddled in the hallway.
The Army general in charge of Walter Reed Army Medical Center is relieved of command after disclosures about dilapidated buildings and inadequate treatment of wounded soldiers.
March 6
Vice president's former chief of staff, Scooter Libby, is convicted of lying and obstructing the CIA leak investigation.
A State Department report says the ongoing genocide in Sudan's Darfur region was the world's worst human rights abuse last year.
March 8
``American Idol'' viewers pick Sanjaya Malakar as the 12th finalist and he improbably survives five more weeks before being voted off.
March 13
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales admits mistakes were made in how the Justice Department handled the dismissal of eight federal prosecutors but says he won't resign.
March 14
The Pentagon releases the transcript of a military hearing in which Khalid Sheikh Mohammed says he ``was responsible for the 9/11 operation from A to Z.''
President Bush says he's not happy the Justice Department made mistakes in explaining its actions to Congress, but he says the prosecutors' firings were appropriate.
March 15
Angelina Jolie adopts a 3-year-old boy from an orphanage in Vietnam; Pax Thien is her fourth child with Brad Pitt.
March 18
Dog and cat foods sold under multiple brand names are recalled because of pet illnesses and deaths; inspectors later say an ingredient from China was tainted with melamine.
March 22
John and Elizabeth Edwards say her cancer has returned in an incurable form, but he plans to continue his presidential campaign.
March 23
Iran seizes 15 British sailors and marines in the disputed Shatt Al-Arab waterway between Iran and Iraq.
March 28
Iranian state TV shows video of the seized sailors and marines, and the lone female captive is shown in a white tunic and a black head scarf saying the British boats had ``trespassed.''
APRIL
April 2
Florida wins its second consecutive college basketball championship, beating Ohio State 84-75.
April 4
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad gleefully announces the release of 15 captive British sailors and marines, who leave Tehran the next day.
Radio host Don Imus makes offensive remarks about the Rutgers University women's basketball team, apologizing two days later. CBS Radio fires him, but he is hired elsewhere by the end of the year.
April 6
A panel of international scientists says millions of poor people will suffer from hunger, thirst, floods and disease unless drastic action is taken against global warming.
April 11
North Carolina's top prosecutor drops sexual assault charges against three Duke University lacrosse players and says the athletes were innocent victims of a ``tragic rush to accuse.''
``Slaughterhouse-Five'' author Kurt Vonnegut dies.
April 12
A suicide bomber breaches security in Iraq's parliament and blows himself up amid lawmakers having lunch in the dining hall; a Sunni parliament member is killed.
New Jersey Gov. Jon S. Corzine breaks his leg and several ribs in a highway crash.
April 16
A suicidal student kills 32 people on the Virginia Tech campus in the deadliest shooting rampage in U.S. history.
April 18
The Supreme Court rules 5-4 that a ban on a specific abortion method is constitutional.
Four bombings penetrate the security net around Baghdad, including one attack at a Shiite market that kills more than 120 people.
April 23
Boris Yeltsin, the first freely elected Russian president, dies.
April 26
Congress narrowly approves legislation that contains a 12-month timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from Iraq, which Bush later vetoes.
April 27
The government says economic growth slowed to a near crawl of 1.3 percent in the first quarter, the worst performance in four years.
MAY
May 3
Mercury Seven astronaut Wally Schirra dies.
May 4
Tornado destroys most of Greensburg, Kan., killing 11 people.
``Spider-Man 3'' snares audiences with a record $59.8 million on its first day.
May 5
Street Sense roars from next-to-last in a 20-horse field to win the Kentucky Derby.
May 6
Conservative Nicolas Sarkozy wins the French presidency with a mandate to make economic reforms.
May 8
Six foreign-born men are charged in what authorities say was a plot to attack the Fort Dix Army base in New Jersey.
May 11
As graduation ceremonies begin, Virginia Tech remembers victims of April shooting massacre.
May 12
A U.S. patrol is attacked south of Baghdad, and five Americans and an Iraqi interpreter are killed; two soldiers are still missing.
May 14
DaimlerChrysler says it is selling almost all of Chrysler to private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management for $7.4 billion, backing out of a troubled 1998 takeover.
May 15
The Rev. Jerry Falwell, who built the religious right into a political force, dies.
May 21
Israel launches new airstrikes against Palestinian rocket squads in the Gaza Strip, killing five militants. An Israeli woman is killed by a rocket fired from Gaza.
May 23
Teenager Jordin Sparks wins ``American Idol.''
May 25
A man infected with drug-resistant tuberculosis is quarantined after he returns from his European wedding and honeymoon.
May 29
Health officials say passengers on the same flights as Andrew Speaker should be tested for tuberculosis, though their risk of infection is low.
May 30
A Saudi held at the Guantanamo Bay prison since 2002 is found dead of an apparent suicide.
JUNE
June 1
The FDA warns that toothpaste made in China may contain a poisonous chemical used in antifreeze.
June 3
After attending the MTV Movie Awards, Paris Hilton reports to jail to serve 23 days for a probation violation. She's released three days later for an unspecified medical condition.
June 4
Rep. William Jefferson of Louisiana is charged in a bribery scheme.
June 5
Scooter Libby is sentenced to 2@1/2 years for lying and obstructing the CIA leak investigation, but President Bush later commutes the prison sentence.
June 6
Powerful Cyclone Gonu strikes Oman with 100 mph winds, causing at least 49 deaths.
Bob Barker films his last episode of ``The Price Is Right'' and retires.
June 8
Crying out for her mother, Paris Hilton is ordered back to jail to serve out her sentence.
June 9
Rags to Riches becomes the first filly to win the Belmont Stakes since 1905.
June 10
``The Sopranos'' final episode cuts to black, leaving viewers to eternally debate whether Tony Soprano survived.
June 14
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas declares an emergency after the Hamas militant group effectively took control of the Gaza Strip.
A reputed Klansman is convicted of kidnapping two black teenagers who were deliberately drowned in Mississippi in 1964.
San Antonio Spurs win fourth NBA title in nine years.
June 16
Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong is disbarred over the Duke lacrosse case.
Sunita Williams ends the longest single spaceflight by any woman, 195 days.
June 18
Warehouse fire kills nine firefighters in Charleston, S.C.
June 25
A judge rules in favor of a dry cleaner sued by a dissatisfied customer who demanded $54 million for his missing pants.
June 27
Gordon Brown succeeds Tony Blair as British prime minister.
June 28
The American bald eagle is removed from the endangered species list.
June 29
First iPhones are sold.
June 30
Two men crash an explosive-laden Jeep at Glasgow Airport, two days after two cars rigged as bombs were found in London.