Today in History January 4

Today in History - January 4

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838 Jan 4, Babak, Persian social and religious reformer, was martyred.

(MC, 1/4/02)

871 Jan 4, Ethelred of Wessex was defeated by Danish forces at Reading.

(PCh, 1992, p.72)

1493 Jan 4, Columbus departed La Navidad, Hispaniola, and sailed eastward along the coast. He left behind 38 men, all of whom were later killed in disputes with the local Indians.

(ON, 8/09, p.2)

1493 Jan 4, Ivan III, Grand Duke of Moscow, announced the 1st war with Lithuania. In fact the war had begun in 1487.

(LHC, 1/4/03)

1581 Jan 4, James Ussher (d.1656), Irish prelate and scholar, Archbishop of Armagh, was born. According to Ussher and Dr. John Lightfoot of Cambridge, the world was created on Oct 23, 4004BC, a Sunday, at 9 a.m.

(WUD, 1994, p.1574)(NG, Nov. 1985, edit. p.559)(HN, 10/23/98)(MC, 1/4/02)

1642 Jan 4, King Charles I attacked the English parliament with 400 soldiers.

(MC, 1/4/02)

1643 Jan 4, Sir Isaac Newton, scientist, was born. He developed the laws of gravity and planetary relations. [See Dec 25, 1642]

(HN, 1/4/01)

1710 Jan 4, Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (d.1736), Italian composer (Il Prigioniero Superbo), was born.

(MC, 1/4/02)(SFC, 6/24/02, p.B6)

1754 Jan 4, Columbia University was founded as Kings College in NYC. [see July 7]

(MC, 1/4/02)

1757 Jan 4, Robert Francois Damiens made an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate King Louis XV of France.

(HN, 1/4/01)

1785 Jan 4, Jacob Ludwig Carl Grimm, German philosopher who wrote Grimm’s Fairy Tales, was born.

(HN, 1/4/99)(MC, 1/4/02)

1786 Jan 4, Mozes Mendelssohn (56), Jewish-German philosopher (Haksalah), died.

(MC, 1/4/02)

1790 Jan 4, President Washington delivered the 1st "State of the Union" address.

(MC, 1/4/02)

1809 Jan 4, Louis Braille (d.1852), inventor of a universal reading system for the blind, was born in Coupvray, France.

(AP, 1/4/98)(HN, 1/4/99)

1813 Jan 4, Isaac Pitman, inventor (stenographic shorthand), was born in Britain.

(MC, 1/4/02)

1821 Jan 4, Elizabeth Ann Seton, the first native-born American saint, died in Emmitsburg, Md.

(AP, 1/4/98)

1838 Jan 4, Charles Sherwood Stratton (d.1883), later known as the dwarf Tom Thumb, was born in Bridgeport, Conn. In 1842, P.T. Barnum discovered Charles, who measured 25 inches and weighed 15 pounds, only six pounds more than his birth weight.

(www.barnum-museum.org)

1843 Jan 4, Gaetano Donizetti's opera "Don Pasquale," premiered in Paris.

(MC, 1/4/02)

1862 Jan 4, In the Romney Campaign Stonewall Jackson occupied Bath.

(MC, 1/4/02)

1863 Jan 4, General Halleck, by direction of President Lincoln, ordered U.S. Grant to revoke his infamous General Order No. 11 that expelled Jews from his operational area.

(HN, 1/4/99)

1863 Jan 4, Roller skates with 4 wheels were patented by James Plimpton of NY.

(MC, 1/4/02)

1865 Jan 4, The New York Stock Exchange opened its first permanent headquarters at 10-12 Broad Street near Wall Street in NYC. The Corinthian-style structure would serve the Exchange until 1903 when more spacious quarters opened at 18 Broad Street.

(http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/jan04.html)

1874 Jan 4, Josef Suk, Czech violinist and composer (Asrael), was born.

(MC, 1/4/02)

1877 Jan 4, Cornelius Vanderbilt (b.1794), US financier, railroad and shipping magnate, robber baron, died. His estate at $105 million was worth more than all the money in the US Treasury. His value in 2007 dollars would be $143 billion. In 2007 Edward J. Renehan Jr. authored “Commodore: The Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt.”

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornelius_Vanderbilt)(SFC, 5/30/98, p.E4)(WSJ, 12/19/07, p.D9)

1881 Jan 4, The "Academic Festival Overture" by Johannes Brahms premiered in Breslau.

(MC, 1/4/02)

1885 Jan 4, Dr. William W. Grant of Davenport, Iowa, performed what is believed to have been the first appendectomy; the patient was 22-year-old Mary Gartside.

(AP, 1/4/00)

1890 Jan 4, Alfred G. Jodl, German Wehrmacht general and chief of staff, was born.

(MC, 1/4/02)

1893 Jan 4, US president Cleveland granted amnesty to Mormon polygamists.

(MC, 1/4/02)

1896 Jan 4, Utah was admitted to the Union as the 45th state.

(AP, 1/4/98)

1902 Jan 4, The French offered to sell their Nicaraguan Canal rights to the U.S.

(HN, 1/4/99)

1903 Jan 4, Topsy the elephant was poisoned electrocuted in Luna Park, Coney Island, NYC. The 10-foot elephant had killed 3 keepers over the last 2 years. Edison used the opportunity to demonstrate the lethal potential of alternating current, promoted by rival George Westinghouse.

(Econ, 7/26/03, p.33)(Internet)

1904 Jan 4, The US Supreme Court, in Gonzalez v. Williams, ruled that Puerto Ricans were not aliens and could enter the US freely; however, the court stopped short of declaring them US citizens.

(AP, 1/4/08)

1907 Jan 4, George Bernard Shaw's "Don Juan in Hell" scene from "Man and Superman" premiered in London.

(MC, 1/4/02)

1908 Jan 4, Angela Maria "Geli" Raubal, Austrian nude model, Hitler's cousin and lover, was born.

(MC, 1/4/02)

1908 Jan 4, Antony Winkler Prins (70), writer (Grolier Encyclopedia), died.

(MC, 1/4/02)

1910 Jan 4, Leon Walrus (b.1834), French economist, died. In 1874 he wrote and published the first edition of his magnum opus, the “Elements of Pure Economics.”

(http://cepa.newschool.edu/het/profiles/walras.htm)(http://tinyurl.com/pdw34)

1914 Jan 4, Jane Wyman, U.S. film actress who was the first wife of President Ronald Reagan, was born.

(HN, 1/4/99)

1920 Jan 4, William Egan Colby, CIA director under Nixon, was born.

(MC, 1/4/02)

1920 Jan 4, The Negro National League, the first black baseball league, was organized by Rube Foster.

(HN, 1/4/99)

1921 Jan 4, Congress overrode President Wilson’s veto, reactivating the War Finance Corps to aid struggling farmers.

(HN, 1/4/99)

1923 Jan 4, The Paris Conference on war reparations hit a deadlock as the French insisted on the hard line and the British insisted on Reconstruction.

(HN, 1/4/99)

1934 Jan 4, President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked Congress for $10.5 billion to fund recovery programs over the next 18 months.

(SSFC, 1/18/09, p.D6)

1935 Jan 4, President Franklin D. Roosevelt claimed in his State of the Union message that the federal government would provide jobs for 3.5 million Americans on welfare.

(HN, 1/4/99)

1935 Jan 4, Ft. Jefferson National Monument was established in Florida.

(MC, 1/4/02)

1936 Jan 4, Billboard magazine published its first music hit parade.

(HN, 1/4/99)

1937 Jan 4, Grace Bumbry, soprano (Venus, in "Tannhauser"), was born in St. Louis.

(MC, 1/4/02)

1939 Jan 4, Hermann Goering appointed Reinhard Heydrich as head of Jewish Emigration.

(MC, 1/4/02)

1941 Jan 4, On the Greek-Albanian front, the Greeks launched an attack towards Valona from Berat to Klisura against the Italians.

(HN, 1/4/00)

1942 Jan 4, Japanese forces began the evacuation of Guadalcanal

(HN, 1/4/00)

1944 Jan 4, The British Fifth Army attacked Monte Cassino, Italy.

(HN, 1/4/99)

1944 Jan 4, Soviet troops crossed the former Polish border.

(HN, 1/4/99)

1945 Jan 4, The last German offensive in Bastogne, Belgium, failed.

(HN, 1/4/99)

1947 Jan 4, J. Danforth Quayle (Sen-R-Ind, 44th VP 1989-93) was born. [see Feb 4]

(MC, 1/4/02)

1948 Jan 4, Britain granted independence to Burma (later renamed to Myanmar). Aung San had arranged for national independence on this day but was assassinated before the event by political rivals.

(SFEC, 1/19/97, Par p.4)(AP, 1/4/98)

1951 Jan 4, During the Korean conflict, North Korean and Communist Chinese forces captured the city of Seoul. UN forces abandoned Seoul, Korea, to the Communists.

(AP, 1/4/98)(HN, 1/4/99)

1952 Jan 4, The French Army in Indochina launched Operation Nenuphar in hopes of ejecting a Viet Minh division from the Ba Tai forest.

(HN, 1/4/00)

1954 Jan 4, Elvis Presley recorded a 10 minute demo in Nashville.

(MC, 1/4/02)

1960 Jan 4, Albert Camus (1913-1960), French writer, died in an automobile accident at age 46. He won the Nobel Prize in literature in 1957. His work included the play “Caligula” and a collection of journalistic pieces for the clandestine newspaper Combat (1944-1947). In 1997 Oliver Todd wrote the biography “Albert Camus.” In 1979 Herbert Lottman also wrote a biography: “Albert Camus.” In 2006 his WW II pieces, edited by Jacqueline Levi-Valensi, were published as ”Camus at Combat.”

(SFC, 12/25/96, p.A22)(WSJ, 12/12/97, p.A16)(AP, 1/4/98)(WSJ, 2/11/06, p.P10)

1961 Jan 4, The Danish barbers' assistants strike ended after 33 yrs. It was the longest strike on record.

(MC, 1/4/02)

1962 Jan 4, The 1st automated (unmanned) subway train ran in NYC.

(MC, 1/4/02)

1965 Jan 4, President Johnson outlined the goals of his "Great Society" in his State of the Union address. The “Great Society” was to be achieved through a vast program that included an attack on diseases, a doubling of the war on poverty, greater enforcement of Civil Rights Law, immigration law reform and greater support of education.

(AP, 1/4/98)(HNQ, 9/11/99)

1965 Jan 4, T.S. Eliot, English poet, died in London at age 76. In 1995 Anthony Julius published “T.S. Eliot, Anti-Semitism and Literary Form.” Julius was the lawyer who won a divorce settlement of $23 million for Princess Diana in 1996. “Little Gidding” is an Eliot work.

(SFC, 7/17/96, p.E6)(NH, 8/96, p.57)(AP, 1/4/98)

1969 Jan 4, Spain returned the Ifni province to Morocco.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ifni)

1974 Jan 4, President Nixon refused to hand over tape recordings and documents subpoenaed by the Senate Watergate Committee.

(AP, 1/4/98)

1975 Jan 4, Pres. Ford’s signed Executive Order No. 11828 on CIA Activities within the US. He directed the Commission, chaired by VP Nelson A. Rockefeller, to determine whether or not any domestic CIA activities exceeded the Agency's statutory authority and to make appropriate recommendations.

(www.archives.gov/federal-register/executive-orders/1975.html)(http://tinyurl.com/5ukhxo)

1976 Jan 4, "Candide" closed at Broadway Theater in NYC after 740 performances.

(www.sondheim.org/php/news.php?id=1675)

1978 Jan 4, Said Hammami, the PLO representative in London, was assassinated. It was initially believed to be the work of Abu Nidal but was later reported to have been organized by Yasser Arafat.

(WSJ, 1/10/02, p.A12)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_attacks_attributed_to_Abu_Nidal)

1978 Jan 4, Chile’s Gen. Pinochet held a National Consultation, "in defense of the dignity of Chile," which took place one week after it was first announced, on December 27.

(www.chipsites.com/derechos/1978_eng.html)

1979 Jan 4, Ohio officials approved an out-of-court settlement awarding $675,000 to the victims and families in the 1970 shootings at Kent State University, in which four students were killed and nine wounded by National Guard troops.

(HN, 1/4/99)(http://members.aol.com/nrbooks/chronol.htm)

1979 Jan 4, Charles Mingus (56), the most accomplished bassist in jazz history, died of Lou Gehrig’s disease. In 1999 the film "Charles Mingus: Triumph of the Underdog" was written and directed by Don McGlynn. In 2000 Gene Santoro authored “Myself when I Am Real: the Life and Music of Charles Mingus.”

(WSJ, 4/18/97, p.A16)(SFC, 4/27/98, p.E3)(SFC, 5/21/99, p.C3)(SFEC, 8/20/00, BR p.9)(WSJ, 8/22/00, p.A24)(MC, 1/4/02)

1986 Jan 4, Christopher Isherwood, British born author, died of prostate cancer in Santa Monica, Ca. He was best know for his 1935 semi-autobiographical "The Berlin Stories," which was the basis for the 1966 musical Cabaret and made into a 1972 film. His life-partner was painter Don Bachardy. His "Diaries: Volume II, 1939-1960" were published in 1997. In 2005 Peter Parker authored “Isherwood: A Life Revealed.”

(www.booksfactory.com/writers/isherwood.htm)(SFC, 1/16/97, p.E3)(SFC, 5/11/99, p.B6)

1987 Jan 4, An Amtrak train bound from Washington to Boston collided with Conrail engines approaching from a side track in Chase, Md., and 16 people were killed.

(AP, 1/4/98)

1988 Jan 4, Drinking water began to dry up in Pittsburgh suburbs because of a massive diesel oil spill two days earlier that fouled the Monongahela and Ohio rivers.

(AP, 1/4/98)

1989 Jan 4, US Navy F-14s shot down 2 Libyan jet fighters over Mediterranean.

(www.history.navy.mil/wars/foabroad.htm)

1990 Jan 4, Charles Stuart, who had claimed a gunman had killed his pregnant wife and wounded him, leaped to his death from a Boston Harbor bridge after he became a suspect.

(AP, 1/4/00)

1990 Jan 4, Deposed Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega was arraigned in federal district court in Miami on drug-trafficking charges.

(AP, 1/4/00)

1990 Jan 4, In Sindh Province, Pakistan, an overcrowded 16-car passenger train collided with standing freight train and more than 210 people were killed.

(SFC, 6/4/98, p.A15)(AP, 2/18/04)

1991 Jan 4, With a week and a-half left before a U-N deadline for Iraq to withdraw from Kuwait, Iraq agreed to hold its first high-level talks with the United States since the start of the Persian Gulf crisis.

(AP, 1/4/01)

1992 Jan 4, President Bush, visiting Singapore as part of a Pacific trade tour, announced plans to shift to Singapore the Navy logistics command that was being evicted from the Philippines.

(AP, 1/4/02)

1993 Jan 4, President-elect Clinton spoke by telephone with Russian President Boris Yeltsin about the newly signed START II treaty; Clinton pledged to do all he could to get early ratification.

(AP, 1/4/98)

1993 Jan 4, Junk bond king Michael Milken was released from jail after 22 months.

(www.nybooks.com/articles/article-preview?article_id=2223)

1994 Jan 4, Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen announced a plan to drive most gun dealers out of business by proposing sharp increases in the licensing fee and stricter controls on people who buy and sell weapons.

(AP, 1/4/04)

1995 Jan 4, The 104th Congress convened, the first entirely under Republican control since the Eisenhower era; Newt Gingrich was elected speaker of the House.

(SFC, 11/7/98, p.A4)(AP, 1/4/00)

1995 Jan 4, Eduardo Mata (52), Mexican conductor, died in air crash.

(www.imdb.com/name/nm0557996/)

1996 Jan 4, Bowing to pressure from NATO and the United States, Bosnian Serbs freed 16 civilians who had entered Serb-held territory after NATO forces had declared roads in Bosnia open to all.

(AP, 1/4/01)

1996 Jan 4, The Boeing Sikorsky Comanche helicopter was unveiled.

(NPub, 2002, p.26)

1996 Jan 4, Ramon Vinay (83), operatic tenor, baritone, died.

(www.grandi-tenori.com/tenors/vinay.php)

1997 Jan 4, President Clinton, in his weekly radio address, took credit for policies reducing teen-age pregnancy and said he would work for even greater reductions over the next four years.

(AP, 1/4/98)

1997 Jan 4, Harry Helmsley (87), self-made billionaire and husband to Leona, died in Scottsdale, Ariz. His vast real estate holdings included the Empire State Building. His entire $1.7 billion estate was left to his wife except for $25k left to a longtime secretary.

(SFC,1/6/97, p.A17)(WSJ, 1/3/97, p.A1)(SFC, 1/10/97, p.A3)(AP, 1/4/98)

1997 Jan 4, In Argentina thieves tunneled into a Buenos Aires bank and robbed as much as $25 million.

(SFC, 1/16/97, p.A12)

1997 Jan 4, In Brazil some 54 people were killed during 4 days of torrential rain in the southeastern state of Minas Gerais.

(SFEC, 1/5/97, p.A13)

1997 Jan 4, Czech President Vaclav Havel married his girlfriend Dagmar Veskrnova, less than a year after the death of his first wife Olga Havlova.

(SFEC, 7/6/97, p.B4)

1997 Jan 4, In New Zealand during the week Cyclone Fergus, the worst to hit in 8 years, produced heavy rains and wind damage along the northern coast.

(SFC, 1/4/97, p.A19)

1998 Jan 4, The History of the Future Museum, a part of the Star Trek: The Experience, a $70 million attraction, was scheduled to open at the Las Vegas Hilton.

(SFEC,12/28/97, Par p.18)

1998 Jan 4, Actress Mae Questel (89), who had supplied the voices of cartoon characters Betty Boop and Olive Oyl, died in New York.

(AP, 1/4/08)

1998 Jan 4, In Canada Nirmal Singh Gill (65) was found beaten and bleeding in the parking lot of a Sikh temple in Surrey near Vancouver. He soon died. 5 young men linked to a white supremacist group, White Power, were later jailed on charges of murder.

(SFC, 4/23/98, p.A16)

1998 Jan 4, In Israel David Levy, the foreign minister, resigned. He denounced Netanyahu’s government for abandoning the peace process and not addressing problems with the poor and unemployed.

(SFC, 1/5/98, p.A1)

1999 Jan 4, The US stance towards Cuba was reported to be easing following the completed report by the Council on Foreign Relations. It was proposed to restore mail service, increase flights, permit food sales to non-government entities, and allow more Americans to send money.

(SFC, 1/5/99, p.A1)(WSJ, 1/5/99, p.A1)

1999 Jan 4, The US mint began distributing a new series of commemorative state quarters. The first one from Delaware marked the 1776 ride of Caesar Rodney from Dover to Philadelphia to vote for the Declaration of Independence. Rep. Michael Castle of Delaware dreamed up the program in 1996.

(SFC, 1/5/99, p.A2)(WSJ, 12/29/03, p.A4)

1999 Jan 4, Former professional wrestler Jesse Ventura was sworn in as Minnesota's 37th governor.

(AP, 1/4/00)

1999 Jan 4, Elizabeth Dole quit as the head of the American Red Cross and it was speculated that she might run as the Republican candidate for president.

(SFC, 1/5/99, p.A2)

1999 Jan 4, In Nevada a sniper hit at least 4 vehicles on I-80 between Reno and the California border. Police arrested Christopher Lee Merritt (20) of Mankato, Minn., who hoped to rob the drivers after they crashed. Merritt pleaded guilty in 1999.

(SFC, 1/5/99, p.A3)(SFC, 1/6/99, p.A2)(SFC, 11/6/99, p.A6)

1999 Jan 4, The euro, the new money of 11 European nations, got off to a strong start on its first trading day, rising against the dollar on world currency markets and closed in New York at $1.181. A founding principal of the euro area held that national central banks be independent of their governments.

(SFC, 1/5/99, p.C2)(AP, 1/4/00)(HN, 1/4/01)(Econ, 2/25/06, p.77)

1999 Jan 4, In Angola UNITA rebels denied shooting down 2 UN planes and claimed that there were no survivors.

(WSJ, 1/5/99, p.A1)

1999 Jan 4, A footbridge in Chongqing, China, collapsed and killed 40 people. A week later another bridge in Fujian province collapsed and killed 7. Bridge officials were arrested on suspicion of graft or using shoddy materials. A Party official in Chongqing was later convicted of taking bribes and sentenced to death.

(SFC, 3/2/99, p.D1)(WSJ, 4/5/99, p.A1)

1999 Jan 4, Chevron received word of an attack on its Searrex oil rig. Soldiers dispatched to the rig allegedly fired on Opia village from a helicopter and 2 villagers were killed. 2 more villagers were killed a short time later at Ikenyan. A day later Chevron was invoiced $109.25 for the services of the soldiers.

(SFC, 8/4/05, p.A4)

1999 Jan 4, In Sha Jamal, Pakistan, in the eastern Punjab gunmen on motorcycle opened fire on Shiite Muslim worshipers and killed 16 people and wounded at least 25.

(SFC, 1/4/99, p.A22)(SFC, 1/5/99, p.A8)

1999 Jan 4, In Sierra Leone Nigerian troops repelled a rebel attack on Freetown's airport. Gambia and Mali agreed to send troops to join the Nigerian forces.

(WSJ, 1/5/99, p.A1)

2000 Jan 4, Former presidential rival Elizabeth Dole endorsed fellow Republican George W. Bush.

(AP, 1/4/01)

2000 Jan 4, In China the State Development Planning Commission announced that private enterprise should be put on "equal footing with state-owned enterprises."

(SFC, 1/5/00, p.A6)

2000 Jan 4, In Colombia Red Cross work shut down after peasant refugees took 40 hostages in Bogota and demanded homes.

(WSJ, 1/5/00, p.A1)

2000 Jan 4, In Indonesia at least 17 people were killed when troops opened fire on Christian and Muslim mobs on Seram Island in Maluku province. Thousands of people fled violence and poured into Ternate, the capital of North Maluku. Refugees claimed that hundreds of people died in fighting over 2 days.

(SFC, 1/5/00, p.A6)(SFC, 1/7/00, p.D3)

2000 Jan 4, Israel and Palestine agreed on an Israeli troop pullback and the transfer of an additional 5% of West Bank land.

(SFC, 1/5/00, p.A6)(AP, 1/4/01)

2000 Jan 4, In Srinagar, Kashmir, 13 people and a horse were blown up in an explosion set by insurgents in a vegetable market used by Indian troops.

(SFC, 1/22/00, p.A10)

2000 Jan 4, In Namibia gunmen attacked a family of French tourists, killed 3 children and wounded the parents. Unita rebels were blamed.

(WSJ, 1/5/00, p.A1)

2000 Jan 4, In Norway 2 passenger trains collided 110 miles north of Oslo. At least 20 people were believed to have died.

(WSJ, 1/5/00, p.A1)(SFC, 1/6/00, p.A10)

2000 Jan 4, In Colombo, Sri Lanka, a suicide bomber set off explosives strapped to her body and killed herself and 19 [12] others near the prime minister's office. A Tamil politician was shot dead by motorcycle assassin nearby.

(SFC, 1/5/00, p.A8)(WSJ, 1/6/00, p.A1)

2001 Jan 4, It was announced that George, the politics and lifestyle magazine founded by the late John F. Kennedy Jr., would fold.

(AP, 1/4/02)

2001 Jan 4, California state regulators approved raising electricity rates by an average 10% as state utilities stood near bankruptcy.

(SFC, 1/5/01, p.A1)

2001 Jan 4, Orchestra leader Les Brown, known for his “Band of Renown,” died at age 88.

(AP, 1/4/02)

2001 cJan 4, In Colombia a right-wing death squad killed 11 people in a northeast town.

(WSJ, 1/05/01, p.A1)

2001 Jan 4, India test flew its 1st locally developed jet fighter.

(WSJ, 1/05/01, p.A1)

2001 Jan 4, In Indonesia rival villages clashed on Lombok and 9 people were killed. 7 others were killed in fighting between rival villages in North Sulawesi.

(SFC, 1/5/01, p.D2)(WSJ, 1/05/01, p.A1)

2001 Jan 4, It was reported that Russia had moved nuclear warheads into storage areas at its Kaliningrad naval base over the past year. Russia called the charges a dangerous joke.

(SFC, 1/4/01, p.A8)(SFC, 1/5/01, p.A20)

2001 Jan 4, In Sri Lanka the defense ministry announced that the civil war left 3,753 people dead in 2000, including 87 civilians.

(SFC, 1/5/01, p.D2)

2002 Jan 4, The US Postal Service announced an increase in 1st class stamps to 37 cents from 34 to take place June 30.

(SFC, 1/5/02, p.A3)

2002 Jan 4, A WSJ editorial by former US Army officer Ralph Peters blamed Saudi Arabia as the source of fundamentalist terrorism. “We must be prepared to seize the Saudi oil fields and administer them for the greater good.”

(WSJ, 1/4/02, p.A12)

2002 Jan 4, Florida coach Steve Spurrier resigned to pursue an NFL job, two days after leading the Gators to victory over Maryland in the Orange Bowl.

(AP, 1/4/07)

2002 Jan 4, The WSJ quoted Ali K. Shukri, retired Jordanian general: a strike on Iraq “is not a question of whether it’s going to happen, but when—and it is coming.” Action in the spring was suggested.

(WSJ, 1/4/02, p.A6)

2002 Jan 4, George and Marisol Gari, members of the Wasp network Cuban spy ring, were sentenced in Florida to 7 and 3.5 years.

(SFC, 1/5/02, p.A6)

2002 Jan 4, US Army Special Forces Sgt. Ross Chapman (31) was killed by enemy fire near Khost, Afghanistan. He became the 1st US soldier to die there by enemy fire.

(SFC, 1/5/02, p.A1)

2002 Jan 4, Antonio Todde, an Italian shepherd listed by Guinness as the world’s oldest man, died just shy of his 113th birthday. “Just love your brother and drink a good glass of red wine every day.”

(SFC, 1/5/02, p.A22)

2002 Jan 4, In Argentina Pres. Duhalde acknowledged that the nation will devalue the peso.

(SFC, 1/5/02, p.A6)

2002 Jan 4, In England a twin-engine Bombardier Challenger plane crashed at Birmingham International Airport. Pilots Thomas Boydston (51) Robert Norton (58) and Timothy Vandevort (41) were killed along with John Shumejda (56) the president and chief executive of agricultural giant AGCO, and Ed Swingle (60), the company's senior VP for sales and marketing. A 2004 report said that the crash was caused by the crew's failure to de-ice the wings before takeoff.

(AP, 8/19/04)

2002 Jan 4, India reported the death of 15 soldiers and a number of civilians near Amritsar due to the mishandling of an ammunition filled truck.

(SSFC, 1/13/02, p.A18)

2002 Jan 4, Pakistan continued to round up alleged militants. Some 200 were said to have been arrested in the last 10 days. Key leaders of Lashkar-e-Tayyaba and Jaish-e-Mohammed were among the detained. Pakistan also handed over senior al Qaeda trainer al-Shaykh al-Libi to the US military.

(SFC, 1/5/02, p.A3,15)

2002 Jan 4, Dolly the 1996 Scotland-born cloned sheep, was reported to be suffering from arthritis, a sign of premature aging.

(SFEC, 2/23/96, p.C1)(SFC, 1/5/02, p.A2)

2002 Jan 4, Russia announced that it would reduce its military by over 15%.

(SFC, 1/5/02, p.A6)

2002 Jan 4, South Asian leaders began a 2-day meeting in Nepal.

(SFC, 1/4/02, p.A3)

2002 Jan 4, It was reported that $54 million in short term food aid was needed to ward off widespread starvation in Zimbabwe. The AIDS epidemic, called “Nkondombera” (a Shona word for “no condom”) was claiming over 2,000 people per week. Inflation was running at over 100% per month. Unemployment was estimated at 50%.

(SFC, 1/5/02, p.A5)

2003 Jan 4, Pres. Bush said he will ask Congress to boost federal education aid for poor children by $1 billion. As Bush put the finishing touches on an economic growth package costing $674 billion over 10 years, Democrats who wanted his job, pledged to scuttle what they characterized as a plan that would help the wealthy without reviving the economy.

(AP, 1/4/03)(AP, 1/4/04)

2003 Jan 4, Clonaid, the company that claims to have produced the first human clone, said a second child was born to a Dutch lesbian Jan 3.

(AP, 1/5/03)(SSFC, 1/5/03, p.A22)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clonaid)

2003 Jan 4, Conrad L. Hall (76), Oscar-winning cinematographer, died in Santa Monica, Calif.

(AP, 1/4/04)

2003 Jan 4, In Algeria Islamic militants (GSPC) ambushed a military convoy in the northeast village of Theniet el-Abed. 43 soldiers were killed and 19 wounded.

(AP, 1/5/03)

2003 Jan 4, In southern Iran a bus carrying university students overturned on a rain-slick road, killing 15 people and injuring 18 others.

(AP, 1/5/03)

2003 Jan 4, Ivory Coast's main rebel movement agreed to respect an oft-violated cease-fire and to resume peace talks with the government later this month in Paris.

(AP, 1/4/03)

2003 Jan 4, A boat from Somalia to Yemen developed engine trouble and capsized and at least 80 people were feared dead.

(AP, 1/16/03)

2004 Jan 4, Louisiana State University won college football's Sugar Bowl, defeating Oklahoma 21-14.

(AP, 1/4/05)

2004 Jan 4, In Iowa, seven of the nine Democratic presidential hopefuls participated in a feisty, first debate of the election year.

(AP, 1/4/05)

2004 Jan 4, Michael Straight (87), former US State Dept employee (1938) and later editor of the new Republic, died. In 1983 he authored "After Long Silence." He had passed reports to the Russians in 1938.

(Econ, 1/17/04, p.76)

2004 Jan 4, John Toland (91), historian, died in Danbury, Conn. His books included "The Rising Sun" (1971), an account of Japan from 1936-1945, and "Adolph Hitler: The Definitive Biography" (1976).

(SFC, 1/6/04, p.A19)y

2004 Jan 4, Rival Afghan factions agreed to a new national constitution. 502 delegates accepted a system with a strong president and a weaker parliament.

(AP, 1/4/04)(SFC, 1/5/04, p.A1)

2004 Jan 4, In Denmark residents who openly bought and sold hashish at a famous hippie enclave in Copenhagen abruptly demolished their booths, trying to head off a Danish government crackdown on illegal drug sales.

(AP, 1/4/04)

2004 Jan 4, The former Soviet republic of Georgia voted for a successor to President Eduard Shevardnadze. Mikhail Saakashvili, Georgia's young firebrand opposition leader, declared himself the victor in presidential elections with some 85% of the vote.

(AP, 1/5/04)(SFC, 1/5/04, p.A3)

2004 Jan 4, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon issued an order to dismantle two West Bank settlement outposts.

(AP, 1/4/04)

2004 Jan 4, In the southern Philippines a bomb exploded at a packed basketball game, killing 11 people and wounding at least 68 including Parang Mayor Vivencio Bataga, who was the likely target of the attack.

(AP, 1/4/04)(SFC, 1/5/04, p.A3)

2004 Jan 4, South Korean prosecutors, investigating corruption in the bidding on government contracts by an affiliate of IBM Corp., indicted 48 government and company officials.

(AP, 1/4/04)

2004 Jan 4, In southern Thailand assailants set fire to 18 schools and stormed a military armory, killing four soldiers in nearly simultaneous raids.

(AP, 1/4/04)

2005 Jan 4, The 109th US Congress convened and took up tsunami aid. The Republican edge was 55 to 45.

(WSJ, 1/5/05, p.A1)

2005 Jan 4, In the Orange Bowl #1 Southern California overwhelmed #2 Oklahoma 55-19.

(AP, 1/4/06)

2005 Jan 4, Wade Boggs was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility, and Ryne Sandberg made it with just six votes to spare on his third try.

(AP, 1/4/06)

2005 Jan 4, Kelbessa Negewo (54), an Ethiopian immigrant suspected of torturing and murdering more than a dozen political opponents of the Ethiopian government in the 1970s, was arrested at his home near Atlanta. Negewo has lived in the US since fleeing Ethiopia in 1987.

(Reuters, 1/4/05)

2005 Jan 4, Robert Heilbroner (b.1919), author of the 1953 economics classic “Worldly Philosophers,” died.

(WSJ, 1/11/05, p.A1)

2005 Jan 4, Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque said the island nation was renewing contacts with France, Britain, Germany, Italy, Austria, Greece, Portugal and Sweden after an EU panel recommended that member states stop inviting dissidents to their National Day celebrations at their embassies in Havana.

(AP, 1/4/05)

2005 Jan 4, Diplomats said the U.N. atomic watchdog agency has found evidence of secret nuclear experiments in Egypt that could be used in weapons programs.

(AP, 1/4/05)

2005 Jan 4, Doctors at Haiti's largest public hospital extended a weeklong strike to protest overdue paychecks.

(AP, 1/4/05)

2005 Jan 4, Insurgents assassinated the highest-ranking Iraqi official in eight months, gunning down the governor of Baghdad province and six of his bodyguards. A suicide truck bomber killed 10 people at an Interior Ministry commando headquarters. 5 US soldiers were killed in assaults elsewhere.

(AP, 1/4/05)(WSJ, 1/5/05, p.A1)

2005 Jan 4, Two Israeli tank shells slammed into a field in response to Palestinian mortar fire, killing seven Palestinians youths working in a strawberry field.

(AP, 1/4/05)(SFC, 1/4/05, p.A3)

2005 Jan 4, In Peru the leader of an armed nationalist group that seized a remote police station, took 10 officers hostage and allegedly killed four others was detained while most of his 125 followers were rounded up.

(AP, 1/4/05)

2005 Jan 4, Polish PM Marek Belka arrived in Tripoli for a two-day visit that will include talks on cooperation in the oil sector and a meeting with Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi.

(AFP, 1/5/05)

2005 Jan 4, Portugal’s national meteorology office said many regions, including the southernmost province of Algarve, the country's main tourism center, are facing their worst drought in over a decade.

(AP, 1/5/05)

2005 Jan 4, Venezuela's left-leaning government promised to grant poor farmers at least 100,000 plots of land carved from either state property or large private holdings, a step toward implementing a controversial agrarian reform law.

(AP, 1/4/05)

2006 Jan 4, The US Supreme Court allowed federal prosecutors to take custody of “enemy combatant” Jose Padilla so he could face criminal charges.

(SFC, 1/5/06, p.A5)

2006 Jan 4, A US federal appeals court in Atlanta reinstated a $54.6 million verdict against two retired Salvadoran generals, Carlos Eugenio Vides Casanova (67), and Jose Guillermo Garcia (72), accused of torture during the civil war (1980-1992) in their home country.

(AP, 1/8/06)

2006 Jan 4, The Univ. of Texas Longhorns scored a 41-38 win over Southern California in the Rose Bowl. Official tickets sold for $175 and resellers on the internet hawked them for as much as $3000.

(AP, 1/5/06)(Econ, 1/7/06, p.58)

2006 Jan 4, In a triple-overtime game that began Jan. 3 and finished after midnight, No. 3 Penn State beat No. 22 Florida State 26-23 in the Orange Bowl.

(AP, 1/4/07)

2006 Jan 4, Scientists said protected ocean areas are needed to save deep-sea fish which have been driven to near extinction by commercial fishing.

(Reuters, 1/4/06)

2006 Jan 4, Chad's President Idriss Deby urged the UN to take control of Sudan's volatile Darfur region because he said Khartoum was using the conflict there to destabilize neighboring states.

(Reuters, 1/4/06)

2006 Jan 4, In China’s central province of Hunan a mismanaged silt clean-up project allowed the industrial chemical cadmium, which can cause neurological disorders and cancer, to flood out of a smelting works and into the Xiangjiang River.

(AFP, 1/8/06)

2006 Jan 4, Two Egyptian guards were shot dead at the border with Gaza after armed Palestinians made a hole in the border wall. Palestinian militants angry at the jailing of their leader stole two bulldozers and smashed through the border wall between Gaza and Egypt.

(AP, 1/4/06)

2006 Jan 4, French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said France will create a special police force to ensure security for railway passengers after a band of marauding youths robbed and sexually assaulted train travelers Jan 1 in southeast France.

(AP, 1/4/06)

2006 Jan 4, In Indonesia landslides triggered by heavy rains swept down on a village on Java island, burying homes beneath tons of mud and leaving dozens of people missing and feared dead. The number of dead or missing from days of wet weather rose to over 200.

(AP, 1/5/06)

2006 Jan 4, An Iraqi Interior Ministry official said more than 7,000 Iraqis, most of them civilians, were killed in violence in 2005, the first year that Iraqi officials have kept such records.

(AP, 1/4/06)

2006 Jan 4, In Iraq a suicide bomber killed 32 mourners and wounded dozens at a funeral for the nephew of a Shiite politician, one of several attacks across the country that killed a total of 53 people.

(AP, 1/4/06)

2006 Jan 4, Israel’s PM Ariel Sharon was rushed to an operating room to staunch a brain hemorrhage; his official powers were transferred to his deputy, Ehud Olmert.

(WSJ, 1/5/06, p.A1)(AP, 1/4/07)

2006 Jan 4, The world’s largest bank, the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ (MUFG), opened for business with $1.6 trillion in assets.

(Econ, 1/7/06, p.64)

2006 Jan 4, The Russian and Ukrainian natural gas companies agreed on a plan to resume gas shipments to Ukraine that allowed both sides to claim victory after a commercial and political dispute that had raised fears of gas shortages in Europe.

(AP, 1/4/06)

2006 Jan 4, In Tanzania rocks and boulders tumbled down Mount Kilimanjaro and crashed into tents where tourists were sleeping, killing 3 American climbers and seriously injuring 2.

(AP, 1/5/06)

2006 Jan 4, Sheik Maktoum bin Rashid Al Maktoum (62), the emir of Dubai and prominent owner and breeder of thoroughbred horses, died during a visit to Australia.

(AP, 1/4/06)

2006 Jan 4, Intel asked the Vietnamese government for a license to build a chip plant worth 605 million dollars in southern Ho Chi Minh City. Regulators approved the plans in February.

(AFP, 1/5/06)(WSJ, 2/24/06, p.A6)

2007 Jan 4, The 110th Congress convened with Democrats in control of both the House and Senate for the first time in a dozen years. "Today we make history. Today we change the direction of our country," exulted Rep. Nancy Pelosi, poised to become the first woman speaker in history. The House of Representatives, after installing its new Democratic leadership, voted to ban lawmakers from flying on corporate jets and accepting gifts and meals from lobbyists. Keith Ellison of Minnesota's 5th District became the first Muslim member of Congress.

(AP, 1/4/07)(AP, 1/4/08)

2007 Jan 4, The US Federal Trade Commission fined the marketers of four weight loss pills $25 million for making false advertising claims ranging from rapid weight loss to reducing the risk of cancer.

(AP, 1/4/07)

2007 Jan 4, Harriet Miers resigned as White House counsel.

(AP, 1/4/08)

2007 Jan 4, Vincent Sardi Jr. (91), owner of Sardi's restaurant, the legendary Broadway watering hole, died in Berlin, Vt.

(AP, 1/4/08)

2007 Jan 4, NATO and Afghan forces fought a three-hour ground battle with suspected Taliban militants in southern Afghan mountains, killing 15 of them. 3 suspected Taliban died when a land mine they were planting on a highway in Grieshk district exploded prematurely.

(AP, 1/5/07)

2007 Jan 4, US officials said Colombia has extradited to the US a police officer and a former policeman charged with helping smuggle more than 2 tons of cocaine into the US on cargo flights in 2005 and 2006.

(AP, 1/4/07)

2007 Jan 4, Pieces of a spent Russian rocket reentered the atmosphere over Colorado and Wyoming, showering parts of the western United States with space debris.

(Reuters, 1/5/07)

2007 Jan 4, John W. Simpson (1914-2007), former president of Westinghouse (1969-1977), died. He had worked with Adm. Rickover to create a nuclear US Navy.

(WSJ, 1/20/07, p.A5)

2007 Jan 4, Victor Ramirez (27), a day laborer from El Salvador, was gunned down by 2 black teenagers in Richmond, Ca. Ramirez was taken off life support after 2 weeks and died Jan 19.

(SFC, 1/30/07, p.A1)

2007 Jan 4, Overshadowed by an Israeli raid into the Palestinian territories, a summit between Israel and Egypt achieved little in reviving the long-stalled Mideast peace process, highlighting instead the disagreements between Israel and its Arab neighbors.

(AP, 1/5/07)

2007 Jan 4, Two car bombs exploded near a fuel station, killing 13 people and wounding 25 amid a relative downturn in violence in Baghdad during an Islamic holiday that ended this week.

(AP, 1/4/07)

2007 Jan 4, Israeli troops and Palestinian gunmen exchanged heavy fire in downtown Ramallah after undercover Israeli forces tried to arrest fugitives in the city's vegetable market. Four Palestinians were killed and 20 wounded. Pres. Abbas demanded $5 million in compensation for the damage to shops and cars in Ramallah. Fatah Col. Mohammed Ghayeb and six of his bodyguards were killed in factional fighting in the Gaza Strip.

(AP, 1/4/07)(AP, 1/5/07)

2007 Jan 4, Musir Salem Jawher (28) from Bahrain won the 30th International Tiberias Marathon, around the Sea of Galilee. The Kenyan runner (Leonard Mucheru), adopted by Bahrain 4 years earlier, faced anger from Bahrain for running in an Israeli marathon.

(WSJ, 4/16/07, p.A1)(www.tiberias-marathon.co.il/en/)

2007 Jan 4, Kenya said it has closed its border with Somalia in an apparent effort to keep Islamic militants and refugees from entering the country.

(AP, 1/4/07)

2007 Jan 4, Jorge Bajos Valverde, a Mexican state legislator, was gunned down in the center of Acapulco on his way to an interview at a radio and TV station.

(AP, 1/5/07)

2007 Jan 4, Nigeria’s President Olusegun Obasanjo said Nigeria has repaid 1.4 billion dollars (1.12 billion euros) to the so-called London Club of private creditors and that the rest of the debt will be cleared by March. At least 3 people were killed in violent clashes between farmers and nomads in the northwestern state of Zamfara. A 4th died in hospital the next day.

(AFP, 1/4/07)(AFP, 1/6/07)

2007 Jan 4, Authorities lifted a ban on kite-flying in Pakistan’s Punjab province after the sport was forbidden last year following a series of deaths caused by glass-coated or metal reinforced kite strings. The ban was lifted ahead of Basant, Feb 25, an annual festival that heralds spring.

(AP, 1/4/07)

2007 Jan 4, Polish newspapers reported that Stanislaw Wielgus (67), who is poised to be sworn in as archbishop of Warsaw, was a "secret and conscious" collaborator with Poland's hated communist-era security forces from 1973-1978.

(AFP, 1/4/07)

2007 Jan 4, A Somali government spokesman said government troops, backed by Ethiopian soldiers, were fighting about 600 Islamic militiamen in the south.

(AP, 1/4/07)

2007 Jan 4, Marais Viljoen (91), former president of South Africa (1979-1984), died. The post of president in the then apartheid state was largely ceremonial during his term.

(AP, 1/5/07)

2007 Jan 4, Police in the Basque region said they had found a bomb in northern Spain, five days after a Madrid car bombing, blamed on the separatist group ETA, killed 2 people.

(AP, 1/4/07)(AP, 1/6/07)

2007 Jan 4, Sudan described the alleged sexual abuse of children by UN peacekeepers in south Sudan as "outrageous" and said it would launch its own investigation into the affair.

(AP, 1/4/07)

2007 Jan 4, In Uzbekistan Elena Urlayeva, a prominent human rights advocate, was attacked and beaten by a group of women she said were sent by police. Urlayeva has accused the tightly controlled ex-Soviet state of abuse and torture.

(AP, 1/5/07)

2008 Jan 4, The US Labor Department said hiring practically stalled in December, driving the nation's unemployment rate up to a two-year high of 5 percent and fanning fears of a recession. The DJIA fell 256.54 to 12800.18.

(AP, 1/4/08)(WSJ, 1/5/08, p.A1)

2008 Jan 4, Flights were grounded and trucks overturned in Northern California as wind gusted to 80 mph during the second wave of the arctic storm that has sent trees crashing onto houses, cars and roads. Hundreds of thousands of customers lost power from central California into Oregon and Washington. An estimated 1.9-2.1 million PG&E customers lost power.

(AP, 1/5/08)(SFC, 1/8/08, p.A1)

2008 Jan 4, In Texas Jana Shearer (21), the girlfriend of Christopher Lee McCuin (25), was taken by McCuin from her home and killed. McCuin was arrested Jan 5 after police found that he had cooked parts of her body and may have tried to eat them. On Dec 7 McCuin was found dead in his jail cell.

(AP, 1/7/08)(AP, 12/8/08)

2008 Jan 4, In Oakland, Ca., Jessica Birden (19) died from wounds suffered on Jan 1, when she was found unconscious on a trail in the King Estates Recreation Area in the Oakland Hills. On Jan 8 Kenneth Jovan Washington, a man suspected in her assault and that of others in the Bay Area, was charged with her murder and another attack on Dec 24.

(SFC, 1/8/08, p.B3)(SFC, 1/9/08, p.B3)

2008 Jan 4, Mort Garson (b.1983), Canadian-born composer and arranger, died in SF. He co-wrote the 1963 hit “Our Day Will Come,” performed by Ruby and the Romantics. He also fused the Moog synthesizer with orchestral music and composed music that was used by CBS-TV in 1969 in film footage of NASA spaceflights as Neil Armstrong stepped on the moon.

(SFC, 1/16/08, p.B9)

2008 Jan 4, In Afghanistan’s Uruzgan province a clash between NATO troops and Taliban insurgents near Tirin Kot, the provincial capital, left two civilians dead and five others wounded.

(AP, 1/7/08)

2008 Jan 4, Young men stormed the streets of Guinea, hurling rocks and setting tires ablaze as labor unions called for a strike, threatening to throw the African nation into gridlock.

(AP, 1/5/08)

2008 Jan 4, P. Chidambaram, India’s finance minister, urged state-run banks to reduce lending rates by half a percentage point to spur consumption and investment as signs emerge of a slowdown in consumer spending. Police arrested 14 men for allegedly harassing two women outside a five-star hotel in Mumbai during New Year's celebrations, a case that drew widespread criticism after police initially refused to pursue it.

(AP, 1/4/08)(AFP, 1/5/08)

2008 Jan 4, Israeli troops on a night mission in the Gaza Strip killed two Hamas gunmen in the early hours as Israel responded to Palestinian rocket fire with strikes against militants that left 11 dead in 24 hours.

(AP, 1/4/08)

2008 Jan 4, Kenya's opposition called for a new presidential election to settle a dispute that has sparked deadly riots from the capital to the coast, but a government spokesman said a new vote could come on only on orders from the highest court. The World Food Program warned that 100,000 people faced starvation in western Kenya.

(AP, 1/4/08)(SFC, 1/5/08, p.A3)

2008 Jan 4, Kosovo's legislators were sworn in at the first session of a new parliament that is widely expected to declare independence from Serbia early this year.

(AP, 1/4/08)

2008 Jan 4, A Moroccan court sentenced 51 Islamists of the Ansar El Mahdi group to between two and 25 years in jail for plotting to overthrow the government here and install an Islamist regime.

(AFP, 1/4/08)

2008 Jan 4, Myanmar's Independence Day was marked by opposition calls for the freeing of democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners as the military rulers urged national discipline.

(AP, 1/4/08)

2008 Jan 4, Russian rescuers saved 11 people stranded for nearly three months in a remote area of the Pacific coast after a fishing trip went wrong. Their two boats were damaged in a storm on October 10 during a fishing expedition off the Kamchatka Peninsula.

(Reuters, 1/4/08)

2008 Jan 4, The annual 5,760 Dakar Rally was canceled on the eve of the race across the Sahara Desert because of terror threats and the recent Christmas Eve killings of a French family in Mauritania blamed on al-Qaida-linked militants. The race, organized by the France-based Amaury Sport Organization (ASO), had been due to start in Lisbon, Portugal, and finish in Dakar, Senegal, on Jan. 20.

(AP, 1/4/08)(WSJ, 1/5/08, p.A1)

2008 Jan 4, Fresh fighting erupted between southern Sudanese forces and Khartoum-backed Arab tribesmen near key oil areas of the country, former southern rebels said, further denting hopes of an end to north-south hostilities.

(AP, 1/4/08)

2008 Jan 4, Taiwan's ties with its ally Malawi were shaky after the African country snubbed the island's top diplomat in an aborted visit to the African nation aimed at persuading it to resist diplomatic wooing by China.

(AP, 1/4/08)

2008 Jan 4, A private plane carrying 14 people, including 8 Italians, crashed into the sea after taking off from Venezuela's Los Roques islands.

(AP, 1/5/08)(AP, 1/7/08)

2008 Jan 4, The Zambian government awarded a 1.2 billion dollar crude oil deal to a Kuwait firm to supply over 1.4 million tons of oil to the southern African nation.

(AP, 1/5/08)

2008 Jan 4, Zimbabwe’s state-owned The Herald daily reported that a diarrhea outbreak has hit Harare following weeks of uncollected garbage, sewer blockages and erratic water supplies.

(AFP, 1/4/08)

2009 Jan 4, Pres. Obama signed a law expanding SCHIP, a health scheme covering children in poor families.

(Econ, 2/7/09, p.26)

2009 Jan 4, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, Obama's choice for commerce secretary, withdrew under pressure of a federal investigation into how his political donors landed a lucrative transportation contract.

(AP, 1/5/09)(SFC, 1/5/09, p.A5)

2009 Jan 4, In Louisiana 8 people were killed when a PHI Inc. helicopter, bound for offshore oil fields, crashed about 100 miles southwest of New Orleans.

(SFC, 1/5/09, p.A3)

2009 Jan 4, In Syracuse, NY, Shawn Rhines (15) killed public works department employee Casimir Snyder (47). Police later said Ja-Le Johnson and Rhines would often hang out in an attic across the street and shoot target practice with rifles from a window. Police recovered two rifles from the attic. Rhines confessed and faced 10 years to life in prison.

(SFC, 4/17/09, p.A6)

2009 Jan 4-2009 Jan 5, In Afghanistan 12 insurgents and 11 civilians were killed in fighting in central Uruzgan province.

(AP, 1/7/09)

2009 Jan 4, British PM Gordon Brown pledged to create 100,000 jobs through a public works program and said he would press banks to resume normal lending as Britain faces its sharpest economic downturn in decades.

(AP, 1/4/09)

2009 Jan 4, A northern Guatemala mudslide left at least 37 people dead. At least 50 people were still missing in Aquil Grande.

(AP, 1/5/09)(AP, 1/6/09)(AP, 1/7/09)

2009 Jan 4, In eastern Indonesia a series of powerful earthquakes toppled or badly damaged more than 100 buildings and left one person dead and dozens injured.

(AP, 1/4/09)(AP, 1/5/09)

2009 Jan 4, In Iraq a female suicide bomber blew herself up among a crowd of pilgrims worshipping at a revered Shiite shrine in northern Baghdad, killing at least 38 people and wounding about 72.

(AP, 1/4/09)

2009 Jan 4, Israeli ground troops and tanks cut swaths through the Gaza Strip, cutting the coastal territory into two and surrounding its biggest city as the new phase of a devastating offensive against Hamas militants gained momentum. Gaza officials said at least 31 civilians were killed in the onslaught. Israel reported one soldier was killed by mortar fire. The new deaths brought the death toll in the Gaza Strip to more than 500 since Dec 27. At least 45 missiles fell on southern Israel, wounding five people.

(AP, 1/4/09)(AP, 1/5/09)

2009 Jan 4, In a densely forested region of Indian Kashmir a gun battle between government forces and suspected Islamic insurgents raged for a fourth day leaving at least seven combatants killed.

(AP, 1/4/09)

2009 Jan 4, In eastern Nepal dozens of people were missing after an overcrowded boat carrying mostly women and children capsized in the Saptakosi river. More than 50 people were believed on board the boat and only 14 were rescued.

(AP, 1/4/09)(SFC, 1/5/09, p.A12)

2009 Jan 4, Gunmen hijacked a vessel and 9 crewmen belonging to French oil services group Bourbon off Nigeria's Niger Delta as it traveled toward a Royal Dutch Shell offshore oilfield. The 9 crewmen: five Nigerians, two Ghanaians, one Cameroonian and one Indonesian aboard. were released on Dec 7.

(Reuters, 1/4/09)(AP, 1/6/09)(AP, 1/7/09)

2009 Jan 4, In northwest Pakistan a suicide bomber attacked police as they rushed to treat civilians injured by an earlier explosion, killing seven people and wounding at least 25 others. During a raid elsewhere in northwest Pakistan, the army discovered a van packed with 880 pounds (400 kilograms) of explosives. Six suspected militants were arrested in the raid on a house in the Khyber tribal region.

(AP, 1/4/09)

2009 Jan 4, Russia's military leaders approved a plan by the navy to station warships permanently in friendly ports across the globe.

(AP, 1/4/09)

2009 Jan 4, Russia asked the EU to provide monitoring of Ukraine's gas transit system and charged Ukraine was stealing gas bound for Europe, as Kiev leveled its own charges. Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller said that the state-controlled company wanted $450 per 1,000 cubic meters, up from its last offer of $418. The reductions in gas supplies spread to the Czech Republic and Turkey.

(AP, 1/4/09)(Reuters, 1/4/09)

2009 Jan 4, A French warship foiled attempts by Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden to seize two cargo vessels and intercepted 19 people.

(AFP, 1/5/09)

2009 Jan 4, Sri Lanka’s rebel-affiliated TamilNet Web site reported that the insurgents stalled a military advance on the road to Mullaittivu, killing 53 soldiers and wounding 80 others.

(AP, 1/5/09)

2009 Jan 4, Jimmy Mohlala, a South African official who blew the whistle on alleged corruption in the building of a stadium for the 2010 World Cup, was shot dead by unknown gunmen. The 46,000-capacity Mbombela stadium, scheduled for completion this year, is one of 10 venues for the 2010 World Cup.

(AFP, 1/6/09)

2009 Jan 4-2009 Jan 5, In South Africa a lethal storm on the eastern coast killed 18 people over the weekend, including four family members struck dead by lightning.

(AFP, 1/6/09)

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