August 27, 2003
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See also August 26, 2003 - August 2003 - August 28, 2003
- Astronomy: Mars passes Earth at a distance of under 55.76 million kilometers, the closest it has been in approximately 60,000 years [1] [2]
- Private Jessica Lynch, whose rescue from an Iraqi hospital has been surrounded by controversy, is honourably discharged from the United States Army National Guard.
- Occupation of Iraq: According to a USA Today/CNN/Gallup poll, nearly two-thirds (63%) of Americans polled say the war in Iraq was worth fighting. [3]
- Israeli-Palestinian conflict: Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat calls on militant groups to reinstate a ceasefire they formally ended last week after a Hamas leader was killed by Israeli gunships. [4]
- Separation of church and state: The controversial Ten Commandments monument in Alabama's Supreme Court building is removed from public view, following a court order stating that the monument's location in the court building breaches the separation of church and state. The monument, nicknamed Roy's Holy Rock, was installed two years ago by the conservative Christian Chief Justice Roy Moore. [5] [6] Only one in five (20%) Americans approve of the federal court order under which workers removed the Ten Commandments monument from the rotunda of Alabama's state judicial building Wednesday, according to a new poll. [7]
- Crime: Seven people, including the gunman, are killed in a shooting in Chicago as a worker opens fire on his colleagues at a car parts store. The police shoot the gunman dead. [8]
- Crime: A painting by Leonardo da Vinci, the Madonna with the Yarnwinder is stolen from Drumlanrig Castle in Scotland, the home of the Duke of Buccleuch.
- Crime: A body of a woman is found in a shallow grave on a beach near Dundalk in the Republic of Ireland. It is suspected to be the body of Jean McConville, a young Belfast woman and mother of ten children kidnapped and murdered by the Provisional IRA in the mid 1970s. The IRA had suggested two years ago that McConville was buried in the vicinity. Previous attempts to find her remains had failed. [9]
- Crime: Two bombs explode at the Emeryville, California corporate offices of Chiron (corporation); electronic mail sent to reporters from Revolutionary Cells claims responsibility.
