Remembering WWI, earthquake in China, and closing ceremony of the 2014 Commonwealth Games | August 4
The day in photos around the world.
- A shaft of sunlight falls on the names of the missing at the Menin Gate Memorial on the centenary of the Great War on August 4, 2014 in Ypres, Belgium. Today marks the 100th anniversary of Great Britain declaring war on Germany. In 1914 British Prime Minister Herbert Asquith announced at 11 pm that Britain was to enter the war after Germany had violated Belgium neutrality. The First World War or the Great War lasted until 11 November 1918 and is recognized as one of the deadliest historical conflicts with millions of causalities. A series of events commemorating the 100th anniversary are taking place throughout the day. (Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)
- Some 600 balloons emblazoned with a poppy and the name of a fallen soldier flutter in the sky during the “Short Step” ceremony, to mark the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of World War One (WW1), in Folkestone, southern England August 4, 2014. (Dylan Martinez/Reuters)
- Britain’s Prince Harry speaks with cadets during a “Step Short” ceremony to mark the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of World War One (WW1), in Folkestone, in southern England August 4, 2014. (Luke MacGregor/Reuters)
- Veterans attend a ceremony at the Cointe Inter-allied Memorial, commemorating the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of World War I (WWI) in Liege August 4, 2014. (Francois Lenoir/Reuters)
- Atheletes of Men’s Finn class compete during the first day of Aquece Rio, the International Sailing Regatta 2014, as the first test event for the Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games inside the Guanabara bay in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on August 3, 2014. (Yasu Yoshi Chiba/AFP/Getty Images)
- A helicopter dumps its load of water on the wildfire front just outside the evacuated village of Gammelby near Sala, central Sweden August 4, 2014. The fire, covering thousands of hectares, is in its fifth day and firefighters believe it will burn for weeks or even months. It is classified as the worst forest fire in Sweden’s modern history. (Fredrik Sanberg/TT News Agency/Reuters)
- A tank drives through a water obstacle on the course of the Tank Biathlon world championship in Alabino outside Moscow August 4, 2014. The tank competition, where teams compete in tests of driving and shooting, will for the first time bring together crews from 12 countries: Angola, Armenia, Belarus, Venezuela, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, China, Kuwait, Mongolia, Russia and Serbia, local media reported. (Maxim Shemetov/Reuters)
- An Israeli soldier rides an armored personnel carrier (APC) towards a staging area near the border with the Gaza Strip August 4, 2014. Palestinians accused Israel of breaking its own ceasefire on Monday by launching a bomb attack on a refugee camp in Gaza City that killed an eight-year-old girl and wounded 29 other people. An Israeli military spokeswoman said she was checking the report. (Baz Ratner/Reuters)
- Palestinian women gather near the rubble of a building after what police said was an Israeli air strike at Shati (Beach) refugee camp in Gaza City August 4, 2014. A seven-hour truce under which Israel would unilaterally hold fire in most of the Gaza Strip went into force on Monday and Palestinians immediately accused Israel of breaking the ceasefire by bombing a house in Gaza City. Gaza officials say 1,796 Palestinians, most of them civilians, have been killed and more than a quarter of the impoverished enclave’s 1.8 million residents displaced. As many as 3,000 Palestinian homes have been destroyed or damaged. Israel has lost 64 soldiers in combat and three civilians to Palestinian cross-border shelling that has emptied many of its southern villages. (Finbarr O’Reilly/Reuters)
- A Bahraini women wearing a headband reading “Freedom” poses for a picture during a protest against Israel’s ongoing military offensive in the Gaza Strip, on August 4, 2014 in the village Diraz, west of the capital Manama. Images of the bloodshed in Gaza, which has claimed more than 1,800 Palestinian lives and 67 in Israel, have sent tensions soaring across the region, earning the Jewish state strong criticism for the soaring numbers of civilian casualties. (Mohammed Al-Shaik/AFP/Getty Images)
- Ultra-Orthodox Jewish boys climb down a wall near the scene of a suspected attack in Jerusalem August 4, 2014. A Palestinian killed an Israeli and overturned a bus with a construction vehicle on Monday and a gunman wounded a soldier in attacks in Jerusalem that appeared to be a backlash against Israel’s Gaza war. There were no passengers on the bus, in an ultra-Orthodox Jewish neighborhood of the city. Surveillance video broadcast on Israeli television showed the yellow excavator’s mechanical arm tearing into the side of the bus as it lay on the sidewalk. (Ammar Awad/Reuters)
- A man holds a picture as he stands among debris of collapsed buildings after an earthquake hit Longtoushan township of Ludian county, Yunnan province August 4, 2014. A magnitude 6.3 earthquake struck southwestern China on Sunday, killing at least 398 people in a remote area of Yunnan province, and causing thousands of buildings, including a school, to collapse. (Wong Campion/Reuters)
- Pieces of wood and debris believed by the Busan Coast Guard to be from a cargo ship which sank in the sea off Busan a year ago, cover Haeundae Beach after Typhoon Nakri battered Busan August 4, 2014. (Jo Jung-ho/Yonhap/Reuters)
- A Chelsea Pensioner, British war veterans from the Chelsea Royal Hospital, shares a joke with a companion as they walk amongst World War 1 era cars in central London on August 4, 2014 as part of a Great War Centenary Parade: a procession of more than 40 Edwardian cars to commemorate Britain’s entry into World War 1. Britain ran a series of events as part of the commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of World War I, a small Balkans conflict that went global with the German invasion of neutral Belgium in August 1914 which Britain entered on August 4, 2014. (Carl Court/AFP/Getty Images)
- Members of Glasgow’s emergency services take part in the closing ceremony of the 2014 Commonwealth Games at Hampden Park in Glasgow, Scotland, on August 3, 2014. (Andy Buchanan/AFP/Getty Images)
- Members of the Great War Society living history group dressed as 4th Battalion the Middlesex Regiment stand under a shower of a million poppy flowers representing the dead during a World War One centenary ceremony at the Tank Museum, Bovington on August 4, 2014 in England. Monday August 4, 2014 marks the 100th anniversary of Great Britain’s declaration of war on Germany. In 1914 British Prime Minister Herbert Asquith announced at 11 pm that Britain was to enter the war after Germany had violated Belgium neutrality. The First World War or the Great War lasted until 11 November 1918 and is recognized as one of the deadliest historical conflicts with millions of causalities. A series of events commemorating the 100th anniversary are taking place throughout the day. (Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images)
- Indonesian fishermen and his family sail for the Petik Laut ceremony in specially decorated boats on August 4, 2014 in Pasuruan, Java, Indonesia. Indonesian Muslims working as fishermen have a tradition called Petik Laut, a ceremony in which they make offerings to Gods of the sea and give thanks for a plentiful harvest as part of Eid celebrations. They decorated the boat, make offerings, and sail to the sea follow the Petik Laut ceremony. (Robertus Pudyanto/Getty Images)