Portal:Current events/2004 September 20
September 20, 2004 (Monday)
- 2004 Atlantic hurricane season: Massive flooding in Haiti resulting from this weekend's passage of Hurricane Jeanne over the island of Hispaniola leaves large areas submerged and at least 556 people dead, with that number expected to increase. (Reuters) (BBC)
- Conflict in Iraq: Tawhid and Jihad, a militant group led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, beheads American hostage Eugene Armstrong. The group threatens to behead two additional hostages, American Jack Hensley and Briton Kenneth Bigley, within 24 hours unless the United States meets its demands. (Reuters) Archived 2005-04-08 at the Wayback Machine
- United States presidential campaign:
- The political campaigns of Republican incumbent George W. Bush and Democratic challenger John Kerry agree to a tentative schedule of three televised debates, the first of which will take place on September 30 in Florida. (Washington Post)
- CBS News announces that it now doubts the authenticity of the "Killian memos", after defending their authenticity for more than a week in the face of widespread expert opinion to the contrary. The network acknowledges that it was a mistake to use the memos as part of the supporting evidence in a 60 Minutes story by Dan Rather alleging deficiencies in U.S. President George W. Bush's Vietnam-era service in the Texas Air National Guard. (USA Today)
- Indonesian presidential election: Early returns in today's election favor former general Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono over incumbent President Megawati Sukarnoputri 61 to 39 percent. (KPU)