2000 – In Russia the FSB arrested a US businessman for suspected espionage after he allegedly bought information on defense technology from Russian scientists. Edmond Pope was later identified as a retired navy captain working for Pennsylvania State Univ. in applied research. The key witness against Pope recanted his testimony in Nov.
2000 – The government of Iran announces that it has seized a tanker which was smuggling Iraqi oil through Iranian territorial waters. A spokesman forthe United States Department of State welcomes the action.
2001 – The United States and China intensified negotiations for the release of an American spy plane’s crew; President Bush, in a conciliatory gesture, expressed regret over the plane’s Apr 1 in-flight collision with a Chinese fighter that triggered the tense standoff.
2002 – US mediator Anthony Zinni met with Yasser Arafat in Ramallah as Israeli forces continued their offensive. At least 35 Palestinians were killed on the bloodiest day of fighting since the beginning of Israel’s week-old military offensive.
2003 – In the 18th day of Operation Iraqi Freedom US 3rd Infantry troops entered Baghdad for the first time. Coalition troops took several objectives surrounding the capital in the north and northwest. US warplanes hit Iraqi positions near the commercial center of Mosul. Up to 3,000 Iraqi fighters were killed as American armored vehicles moved into Baghdad.
2003 – Ali Hassan al-Majid (king of spades), Saddam Hussein’s 1st cousin and dubbed “Chemical Ali” by opponents for ordering a 1988 poison gas attack that killed thousands of Kurds, was killed by an airstrike on his house in Basra.
2004 – Paul Bremer, the top U.S. administrator in Iraq, declared a radical Shiite cleric an “outlaw” after his supporters rioted in Baghdad and four other cities in fighting that killed at least 52 Iraqis, eight U.S. troops and a Salvadoran soldier. A warrant was issued for al-Sadr related to the murder of a rival Shiite leader in 2003.
2009 – North Korea launches its controversial Kwangmyŏngsŏng-2 rocket. The satellite passed over mainland Japan, which prompted an immediate reaction from the United Nations Security Council, as well as participating states of Six-party talks.
2010 – A series of coordinated bombings at the U.S. consulate in Peshawar and at a ruling party rally in the Pakistani North-West Frontier Province kills fifty people and injures one hundred.
2010 – The United States Supreme Court declines to take up a case by residents of Bikini Atoll and Enewetak in the Marshall Islands, who are seeking compensation for U.S. nuclear tests conducted on the islands.
2014 – Amidst violence, voters in Afghanistan elect a new President in what is the country’s first democratic transfer of power.
https://thisdayinusmilhist.wordpress.com/2014/04/05/april-5/
