Today in History - January 6

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Traditional day of the Epiphany, the day that the three kings, Melchior, Gaspar and Balthazar brought to Jesus gifts of Gold, Incense and Myrhh.
 (Cafe Clovis, SF, 1/4/98)

01CE               Jan 6, Traditional day of the Epiphany, the day that the three kings, Melchior, Gaspar and Balthazar brought to Jesus gifts of Gold, Incense and Myrrh.

            (Cafe Clovis, SF, 1/4/98)

 

1066                Jan 6, (Harald) Harold Godwinson, Earl of Wessex, was crowned King of England.

            (TLC, BTCW, 6/25/95)(HN, 1/6/99)

 

1215                Jan 6, King John met with disgruntled barons of northern England who demanded that taxes be lowered.

            (ON, 7/04, p.1)

 

1367                Jan 6, Richard II, son of Edward the Black Prince, was born in Bordeaux. He served as king of England from 1377-1399.

            (HN, 1/6/99)(MC, 1/6/02)

 

1412                Jan 6, According to tradition, French heroine Joan of Arc was born Jeanette d'Arc in the French village of Domrémy. When she was 12 years old, she began hearing what she believed were voices of saints, sending her messages from God. When she was 17, the voices told her to leave her village and save Orléans. Joan convinced the dauphin that she could lead French troops in resistance against their English invaders, and she was given a force of several hundred men to command, whom she led to victory at Orléans in 1429. Wearing her white enameled armor suit, she continued to fight against the English. Joan was captured by Burgundians and then burned at the stake by the English on May 30, 1431, for the offenses of witchcraft, heresy and wearing male clothing. The Roman Catholic Church recognized Joan of Arc as a saint in 1920.

            (CFA, '96,Vol 179,  p.38)(AP, 1/6/98)(HNPD, 1/6/99)

 

1493                Jan 6, Columbus encountered the Pinta along the north coast of Hispaniola.

            (ON, 8/09, p.2)

 

1497                Jan 6, Jews were expelled from Graz, Syria. [see Mar 12, 1496]

            (MC, 1/6/02)

 

1537                Jan 6, Alessandro de' Medici (b.1510), Italian monarch of Florence, was assassinated by his cousin Lorenzino (1514-1548). This event was commemorated in the bust Brutus by Michelangelo. Cosimo I (18) came to power following the murder of Alessandro.

            (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alessandro_de%27_Medici,_Duke_of_Florence)(AM, 7/05, p.36)

 

1540                Jan 6, England's King Henry VIII married his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves. The marriage lasted about six months.

            (HN, 1/6/99)(AP, 1/6/98)

 

1558                Jan 6, The French seized the British held port of Calais.

            (HN, 1/6/99)

 

1579                Jan 6, The Union of Atrecht (French: Arras) was an accord signed in Atrecht (Arras), under which the southern states of the Spanish Netherlands, today in Wallonia and the Nord-Pas-de-Calais (and Picardy) regions in France, expressed their loyalty to the Spanish king Philip II and recognized the landlord, Don Juan de Austria. It is to be distinguished from the Union of Utrecht, signed later in the same month. The Peace of Arras ensured that the southern provinces of The Netherlands were reconciled to Philip II. It joined the Low Country Walloons (Catholics) with those of Hainaut and Artois.

            (http://en.allexperts.com/e/u/un/union_of_atrecht.htm)(PCh, 1992, p.200)

 

1617                Jan 6, Pocahontas, American Indian princess, attended a court masque with King James I and Queen Anne.

            (ON, 2/07, p.9)

 

1639                Jan 6, Virginia became the 1st colony to order surplus crops (tobacco) destroyed.

            (MC, 1/6/02)

 

1663                Jan 6, There was a great earthquake in New England.

            (MC, 1/6/02)

 

1681                Jan 6, 1st recorded boxing match was between the Duke of Albemarle's butler and his butcher.

            (MC, 1/6/02)

 

1695                Jan 6, Giuseppe Sammartini, composer, was born.

            (MC, 1/6/02)

 

1759                Jan 6, George Washington and Martha Dandridge Custis were married. George had 28 slaves and Martha had 109.

            (AP, 1/6/98)(SFEC, 5/2/99, Z1 p.8)

 

1785                Jan 6, Haym Salomon (44) died in Philadelphia. He helped finance the US revolution.

            (MC, 1/6/02)

 

1790                Jan 6, Johann Trier (73), composer, died.

            (MC, 1/6/02)

 

1811                Jan 6, Charles Sumner (d.1874), leading anti-slavery senator and author, was born in Boston. He was active in the movement to outlaw war, opposed the Mexican War and was a founder in 1848 of the Free-Soil party. A senator from Massachusetts, Sumner was an ardent abolitionist and helped organize the Republican party. In c1867 Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner popularized the name Alaska for the territory that had been known as Russian America in a famous Senate speech supporting the treaty to purchase Russian America: "There is the National flag. He must be cold, indeed, who can look upon its folds rippling in the breeze without pride of country. If in a foreign land, the flag is companionship, and country itself, with all its endearments."

            (HNQ, 9/28/98)(AP, 6/14/97)(HNQ, 11/17/98)

 

1822                Jan 6, Heinrich Schliemann, German polyglot and archeologist (discovered Troy), was born.

            (MC, 1/6/02)

 

1832                Jan 6, Gustave Dore, illustrator (Inferno, Ancient Mariner), was born in Strasbourg, France.

            (MC, 1/6/02)

 

1838                Jan 6, Max Bruch, composer Scottish Fantasy), was born in Cologne, Germany.

            (MC, 1/6/02)

1838                Jan 6, Samuel Morse (1791-1872) first publicly demonstrated his telegraph, in Morristown, N.J. In 2003 David Paul Nickles authored "Under the Wire," a history of the telegraph and its impact on the world.

            (AP, 1/6/98)(WSJ, 1/7/04, p.D10)

 

1850                Jan 6, Franz Xaver Scharwenka, German pianist and composer (Mataswintha), was born.

            (MC, 1/6/02)

 

1851                Jan 6, Leon Foucault (d.1868), French scientist, watched a pendulum swing and shift its plane of motion. This he realized was due to the rotation of the Earth. In 2003 Amir D. Aczel authored "Pendulum: Leon Foucault and the Triumph of Science."

            (WSJ, 8/28/03, p.D18)

 

1852                Jan 6, Louis Braille (43) died of tuberculosis in France. He had been blinded by an accident during childhood and spent years developing a system to read by touch. In 1997 Russell Freedman wrote "Out of Darkness: The Story of Louis Braille."

            (SFEC, 7/6/97, BR p.10)(ON, 10/04, p.9)( http://www.brailler.com/braillehx.htm)

 

1857                Jan 6, Patent for reducing zinc ore was granted to Samuel Wetherill in Penn.

            (MC, 1/6/02)

 

1861                Jan 6, Florida troops seized the Federal arsenal at Apalachicola.

            (MC, 1/6/02)

1861                Jan 6, Governor of Maryland sent a message to the people of Maryland, strongly opposing Maryland’s secession from the Union.

            (HN, 1/6/99)

1861                Jan 6, NYC mayor proposed that NY become a free city to continue trading with the North & South.

            (MC, 1/6/02)

 

1872                Jan 6, Alexander N. Scriabin, composer (Prometheus), was born in Moscow.

            (MC, 1/6/02)

 

1878                Jan 6, Carl Sandburg, U.S. journalist, poet and biographer who won a Pulitzer Prize in history for his biography of Abraham Lincoln, was born. "There are people who want to be everywhere at once, and they get nowhere."

            (HN, 1/6/99)(AP, 7/13/99)

 

1880                Jan 6, Tom Mix, silent screen cowboy actor (Dick Turpin), was born in Mix Run, Pa.

            (MC, 1/6/02)

 

1882                Jan 6, Sam Rayburn, U.S. congressman from Texas who became the Speaker of the House of Representatives (1940-46, 1949-53), was born.

            (HN, 1/6/99)

 

1884                Jan 6, Gregor Mendel (b.1822), Austrian botanist and Augustine monk, died at age 61. He is considered to be the father of genetics.

            (NH, 6/01, p.30)(MC, 1/6/02)

 

1893                Jan 6, Vincas Mykolaitis-Putinas (d.1967), writer and poet, was born in Lithuania.

            (LHC, 1/6/03)

1893                Jan 6, Great Northern Railway connected Seattle with east coast.

            (MC, 1/6/02)

 

1903                Jan 6, George Pardee (1857-1941), former mayor of Oakland (1893-1895), was inaugurated as governor of California. Pardee served a single term to 1907.

            (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Governors_of_California)(SFC, 1/8/09, p.B1)

1903                Jan 6, Maurice Abravanel, conductor and composer, was born in Saloniki, Greece.

            (MC, 1/6/02)

 

1904                Jan 6, A Japanese railway in Korea refused to transport Russian troops.

            (HN, 1/6/99)

 

1907                Jan 6, Maria Montessori (1870-1952), Italian physician, educationist, opened her 1st school, Children’s House (Casa dei Bambini), in San Lorenzo, Italy.

            (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Montessori)(SFC, 1/6/07, p.B1)

 

1910                Jan 6, Wright Morris  (d.1998 at 88), author, was born in Central City, Nebraska. He wrote 33 books over his career.

            (SFC, 5/1/98, p.D7)

1910                Jan 6, Union leaders asked President Taft to investigate U.S. Steel practices.

            (HN, 1/6/99)

 

1912                Jan 6, New Mexico became the 47th state of the US.

            (HFA, '96, p.22)(AP, 1/6/98)

 

1914                Jan 6, Stock brokerage firm of Merrill Lynch was founded.

            (MC, 1/6/02)

 

1917                Jan 6, Hendrik P.G. Quack (82), lawyer and economist (Bank of Netherlands), died.

            (MC, 1/6/02)

 

1918                Jan 6, Germany acknowledged Finland’s independence.

            (HN, 1/6/99)

1918                Jan 6, George Cantor (b.1845), Russian-born German mathematician, died. He is best known as the creator of modern set theory and work with mathematical infinities.

            (http://encyclopedia.laborlawtalk.com/Georg_Cantor)

 

1919                Jan 6, The 26th president of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt, died in Oyster Bay, N.Y., at age 60. "Put out the light" were his last words. In 1920 his autobiography was published by Scribner. In 1997 H.W. Brands published the biography: "T.R.: The Last Romantic." Around 1954 Carleton Putnam (d.1998), dropped his position as chairman of Delta Airlines and wrote the biography: "Theodore Roosevelt", that covered the first 28 years of Roosevelt’s life. Theodore Roosevelt coined the term "Good to the last drop," used by Maxwell House Coffee. The original Maxwell House hotel was in Nashville, Tenn. In 1980 Edmund Morris authored the Pulitzer Prize winning Vol 1: "The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt." In 1997 "T.R. The Last Romantic" by H.W. Brands was published. In 2001 Edmund Morris authored Vol 2: "Theodore Rex." In 2004 the Library of America published “Theodore Roosevelt: Letters and Speeches; The rough Riders, an Autobiography.”

            (WSJ, 12/18/97, p.A20)(AP, 1/6/98)(SFC, 3/17/98, p.A20)(SFC, 6/27/98, p.E4)(WSJ, 9/27/99, p.A32)(ON, 12/99, p.12)(WSJ, 11/20/01, p.A16)(SFC, 10/21/04, p.E1)

 

1920                Jan 6, Sun Myung Moon, evangelist (Unification Church-Moonies), was born.

            (MC, 1/6/02)

 

1921                Jan 6, The U.S. Navy ordered the sale of 125 flying boats to encourage commercial aviation.

            (HN, 1/6/99)

 

1931                Jan 6, Edgar Laurence Doctorow (E.L. Doctorow), novelist (World's Fair, Ragtime), was born in NYC.

            (www.albany.edu/writers-inst/doctorow.html)

 

1936                Jan 6, The US Supreme Court ruled that the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933 is unconstitutional.

            (SSFC, 1/18/09, p.D6)(http://public.getlegal.com/daily/history/01-06-2009)

 

1937                Jan 6, The U.S. banned the shipment of arms to war-torn Spain.

            (HN, 1/6/99)

 

1938                Jan 6, A bronze memorial statue of Henry Hudson was erected in Bronx.

            (MC, 1/6/02)

 

1939                Jan 6, Alfred Lion recorded his first Blue Note session with boogie-woogie and blues pianists Albert Ammons and Meade Lux Lewis. He had just founded the jazz label in New York. He was later joined by his Berlin friend and photographer Francis Wolff.

            (WSJ, 10/3/97, p.A8)(WSJ, 1/15/98, p.W10)

 

1941                Jan 6, President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked Congress to support the lend-lease plan to help supply the Allies. In an address to Congress President Franklin Roosevelt expressed the general world aims of the United States as these "Four Freedoms": of speech and expression; of worship; from want; and from fear. Oscar Cox had helped draft the Lend-Lease Act.

            (HN, 1/6/99)(HNQ, 3/2/00)(WSJ, 2/18/05, p.W6)

 

1942                Jan 6, The Pan American Airways "Pacific Clipper" arrived in New York under Captain Robert Ford. He flew west from New Zealand to avoid Japanese attacks and became the first commercial plane to make a round-the-world trip.

            (AP, 1/6/98)(SFEM, 2/13/00, p.41)

 

1944                Jan 6, Ida M. Tarbell (b.1857), teacher, author and muckraking journalist, died in Connecticut. She is best-known for her 1904 book “The History of the Standard Oil Company.”

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

 

1945                Jan 6, Pepe Le Pew, the cartoon skunk created by Chuck Jones and voiced by Mel Blanc, debuted in Odor-Able Kitty.

            (AH, 2/05, p.16)(http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0037956/)

1945                Jan 6, George Herbert Walker Bush married Barbara Pierce in Rye, N.Y.

            (AP, 1/6/98)

1945                Jan 6, Boeing B-29’s in the Pacific struck new blows on Tokyo and Nanking.

            (HN, 1/6/99)

 

1946                Jan 6, Ho Chi Minh won North Vietnamese elections.

            (HN, 1/6/99)

 

1949                Jan 6, Victor Fleming (b.1889), Hollywood film director, died. He won his only Oscar for directing 60% of “gone with the Wind” (1939). In 2008 Michael Sragow authored “Victor Fleming: An American Movie Master.”

            (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Fleming)(WSJ, 12/11/08, p.A17)

 

1950                Jan 6, Britain recognized the Communist government of China.

            (AP, 1/6/00)

1950                Jan 6, Isaiah Bowman (b.1878), Canadian-born geographer, died in Baltimore, Md. He  served as the director of the American Geographical Society 1916-1935 and then became president of John Hopkins Univ.

            (www.bookrags.com/biography-isaiah-bowman/index.html)

 

1957                Jan 6, Elvis Presley made another appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show.

            (MC, 1/6/02)

 

1958                Jan 6, Moscow announced a reduction in its armed forces by 300,000.

            (HN, 1/6/99)

 

1963                Jan 6, "Oliver!" opened at Imperial Theater NYC for 774 performances.

            (MC, 1/6/02)

1963                Jan 6, Mutual of Omaha's "Wild Kingdom" with Marlin Perkins began on NBC.

            (AP, 1/6/03)(MC, 1/6/02)

 

1967                Jan 6, Some 16,000 US and 14,000 South Vietnamese troops started their biggest attack on the Iron Triangle, northwest of Saigon. They launched Operation Deckhouse V, an offensive in the Mekong River delta.

            (AP, 1/6/98) (HN, 1/6/99)

 

1968                Jan 6, Dr. Norman E. Shumway of Stanford performed the 1st US adult heart transplant. Mike Kasperak (54) lived for 2 weeks before he died of massive bleeding from other organs.

            (www.britannica.com/eb/article-9067567)(SFC, 2/11/06, p.B5)

 

1971                Jan 6, The 1964 Gulf of Tonkin resolution, which amounted to a declaration of war against Vietnam, was repealed by Congress. US Senators Wayne Morse of Oregon and Ernest Gruening of Alaska share the distinction of casting the only votes against the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution on August 7, 1964. The resolution supported President Lyndon Johnson's military actions against North Vietnam in retaliation for its attack on a US spy ship in the Tonkin Gulf. The resolution passed in the House 414-0 and the Senate 88-2.

            (www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1888.html)

 

1973                Jan 6, “You’re So Vain” by  Carly Simon peaked in the top 10 singles.

            (http://goodyoldies.com/billboard/1973.htm)

 

1974                Jan 6, David Alfaro Siqueiros (b.1896), Mexican artist (muralist), died. His work included the 1933 mural "Ejercicio Plastico" (Plastic Exercise), completed in Argentina at the home of newspaper magnate Natalio Botana (d.1941). In 1994 the 650-square-foot work fell into a legal limbo.

            (SFC, 2/13/99, p.A24)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Alfaro_Siqueiros)

 

1975                Jan 6, The NBC TV game show “Wheel of Fortune”, created by Merv Griffin (1925-2007), premiered.

            (WSJ, 8/15/07, p.D12)(www.imdb.com/title/tt0072584/)

 

1976                Jan 6, Ted Turner purchased the Atlanta Braves for reported $12 million.

            (www.referenceforbusiness.com/biography/S-Z/Turner-Ted-1938.html)

 

1977                Jan 6, William Gropper (b.1897), painter and political cartoonist, died. He worked for the radical publications "The Masses" and "Art Front."

            (SFC, 2/5/97, p.E1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Gropper)

 

1978                Jan 6, John D. MacArthur (b.1897), US insurance billionaire and philanthropist, died.

            (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_D._MacArthur)

1978                Jan 6, The Wild-2 comet was discovered by Swiss astronomer Paul Wild.

            (SFC, 2/6/99, p.A8)(www.solarviews.com/eng/cometwild2.htm)

 

1980                Jan 6, Indira Gandhi's Congress Party won elections in India.

            (http://tinyurl.com/3bgwny)

 

1982                Jan 6, Truck driver William G. Bonin was convicted in Los Angeles of being the "freeway killer" who had murdered 14 young men and boys.

            (AP, 1/6/02)

 

1984                Jan 6, Texaco offered $125 per share for Getty oil stock superseding the Pennzoil offer of $112.50 per share. It became the biggest merger on record.

            (SFC, 1/8/95, p.7)

 

1985                Jan 6, Dan White (1946-1985), former SF supervisor and the killer in 1978 of SF Mayor Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk, was released from prison in Los Angeles.

            (SSFC, 1/3/10, DB p.46)

1985                Jan 6, Robert Welch, co-founder of the anti-Communist John Birch Society (1958), died. Welch was the editor and publisher of the monthly magazine American Opinion and the weekly "The Review of the News."

            (SFC, 8/5/96, p.A5)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_W._Welch_Jr.)

 

1986                Jan 6, In Johannesburg, South Africa, Impala Platinum fired 20,000 black mine workers.

            (http://tinyurl.com/lnq3m)

 

1987                Jan 6, The US Senate voted 88-4 to establish an 11-member panel to hold public hearings on the Iran-Contra affair.

            (AP, 1/6/07)

1987                Jan 6, Astronomers reported sighting a new galaxy 12 billion light years away.

            (HN, 1/6/99)

 

1988                Jan 6, Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze was quoted by the Afghan news agency as saying the Kremlin wanted to pull an estimated 115,000 soldiers from Afghanistan in the coming year.

            (AP, 1/6/98)

 

1989                Jan 6, The United States presented photographic evidence to the U.N. Security Council to justify its shoot down of two Libyan jet fighters as self-defense, evidence the Libyan ambassador said was faked.

            (AP, 1/6/99)

 

1990                Jan 6, Defense Secretary Dick Cheney told CNN the U.S. invasion of Panama should not be viewed as a new "Bush doctrine" inclined toward military intervention in countries where democratic elections had been subverted.

            (AP, 1/6/00)

 

1991                Jan 6, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, in a television address, told his country to prepare for a long war against what he called "tyranny represented by the United States."

            (AP, 1/6/01)

1991                Jan 6, Federal regulators seized banks owned by Bank of New England Corporation in Massachusetts, Connecticut and Maine.

            (AP, 1/6/01)

 

1992                Jan 6, The United States joined the U.N. Security Council in condemning Israel's planned deportation of 12 Palestinians.

            (AP, 1/6/02)

1992                Jan 6, The US Food and Drug Administration called on surgeons to stop using silicone gel breast implants because of safety questions, but stopped short of an outright ban.

            (AP, 1/6/02)

1992                Jan 6, After two weeks of fighting, ousted Georgian President Zviad Gamsakhurdia fled the capital, Tbilisi.

            (AP, 1/6/02)

 

1993                Jan 6, Authorities rescued Jennifer Stolpa and infant son after her husband found help after an eight-day ordeal in the snow-covered Nevada desert.

            (AP, 1/6/98)

1993                Jan 6, Jazz trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie died in Englewood, N.J., at age 75. In 1999 Alyn Shipton published "Groovin' High: The Life of Dizzy Gillespie."

            (SFEC, 7/27/97, DB p.34)(AP, 1/6/98)(SFEC, 8/29/99, BR p.4)

1993                Jan 6, Ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev died of AIDS in Paris at age 54. In 1961 his defection from the Soviet Union made headline news. In 2007 Julie Kavanagh authored “Nureyev: The Life.”

            (AP, 1/6/98)(WSJ, 10/1/98, p.A20)(SSFC, 10/14/07, p.M3)

 

1994                Jan 6, Figure skater Nancy Kerrigan was clubbed on the right leg by an assailant at Cobo Arena in Detroit. Four men, including Jeff Gillooly, the ex-husband of Kerrigan's rival, Tonya Harding, were later sentenced to prison. Harding, who denied advance knowledge, received probation after pleading guilty to conspiracy to hinder prosecution.

            (AP, 1/6/99)

1994                Jan 6, Virginia Kelley Clinton (70), mother of Pres Clinton, died in Hot Springs, Ark.

            (AP, 1/6/99)(MC, 1/6/02)

 

1995                Jan 6, Haitians housed at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba were sent home by the U.S. military against the refugees' will and over protests of refugee advocates.

            (AP, 1/6/00)

1995                Jan 6, Ramzi Ahmed Yousef and Abdul Hakim Murad were arrested in Manila, Philippines, when explosives that they were mixing blew up and alerted the police. In their apartment were found bomb-making manuals and timers and evidence that they intended to blow up US jetliners. They were found guilty by a jury in New York on 9/5/96.

            (SFC, 9/6/96, p.C5)

 

1996                Jan 6, President Clinton, bowing to months of Republican demands, offered a seven-year balanced-budget plan using Congressional Budget Office figures.

            (AP, 1/6/01)

1996                Jan 6, Republican candidates kicked off the 1996 presidential campaign year by shadowboxing with absent front-runner Bob Dole at a televised debate in Columbia, South Carolina.

            (AP, 1/6/01)

1996                Jan 6, In Iraq Saddam Hussein decreed economic austerity measures to cope with soaring inflation and widespread shortages caused by UN sanctions.

            (SFC, 9/4/96, p.A8)

1996                Jan 6, In Gaza Yehiyeh Ayyash, a Hamas bomb-maker known as "the engineer" was assassinated by an explosives-rigged cellular phone. The operation was attributed to Israel.

            (SFC, 4/2/98, p.A12)(SFC, 3/23/04, p.A11)

 

1997                Jan 6, House Speaker Newt Gingrich met behind closed doors with Republican lawmakers, answering questions about admitted ethics violations and appealing for support in the upcoming speaker's election.

            (AP, 1/6/98)

1997                Jan 6, The Sun erupted with a "coronal mass ejection." The blast reached Earth on Jan 10, and may have played a role in the Jan 11 failure of the $200 million Telstar 401 communications satellite.

            (SFC, 1/23/97, p.A5)

1997                Jan 6, In Pakistan rulers established a security council to give the army an official role in running the country.

            (SFC, 1/7/97, p.A9)

1997                Jan 6, In Guatemala three officers, accused of ordering the 1990 assassination of sociologist Myrna Mack, sought amnesty under terms of the new treaty.

            (SFC, 1/7/97, p.A10)

1997                Jan 6, In Serbia on the Orthodox Christmas Eve the Yugoslav army announced that it would not interfere in the daily protests against Pres. Milosevic.

            (SFC, 1/7/97, p.A9)

1997                Jan 6, In Zaire at least 100 lawmakers quit Pres. Seko’s parliamentary alliance to join a new nationalist group. Their goal appeared to be to topple Prime Minister Kengo wa Dondo.

            (SFC, 1/7/97, p.A9)

1997                Jan 6, It was reported that Vietnam’s national Post and Telecommunications "108" information service responded to citizens questions. Operators handled about 250 calls per day and the service costs about 2.7 US cents.

            (WSJ, 1/6/97, p.B1)

 

1998                Jan 6, In a bid to expand health insurance, President Clinton unveiled a proposal to offer Medicare coverage to hundreds of thousands of uninsured Americans between the ages of 55 to 64.

            (AP, 1/6/99)

1998                Jan 6, A NASA Lunar Prospector, the 3rd robot mission of the Discovery Program, first scheduled for Jan 5, was launched.

            (SFEC, 1/4/98, p.A14)(SFC, 1/7/98, p.A3)

1998                Jan 6, In Bangladesh it was reported that frigid weather killed at least 165 people over the last 2 weeks.

            (SFC, 1/6/98, p.A10)

1998                Jan 6, In Guatemala Danita Gonzalez Plank de Orellana (32) of Philadelphia was kidnapped with her 6-month old daughter near Quezaltenango. the baby was soon found in a cardboard box. The mother’s body was found 8 days later. Police alleged that a gang under Rigoberto Antonio Morales (23) was responsible. Morales was recaptured 4 days after escaping from prison in June.

            (SFEC, 6/21/98, p.A13)

1998                Jan 6, In South Korea thousands went to their banks to sell and donate gold in a nationwide campaign to raise dollars.

            (SFC, 1/7/98, p.A8)

 

1999                Jan 6, The NBA players agreed to a new contract and a shortened season was scheduled to begin in Feb. Club owners won a salary cap.

            (SFC, 1/7/99, p.A1)(WSJ, 1/7/98, p.A1)

1999                Jan 6, The 106th Congress convened with Dennis Hastert as the new House speaker.

            (AP, 1/6/00)

1999                Jan 6, The federal government predicted a $76 billion surplus for 1999.

            (SFC, 1/7/99, p.A3)

1999                Jan 6, It was reported that UN Sec. Gen'l. Kofi Annan had evidence that UN arms inspectors helped collect intelligence used in American efforts to undermine the Iraqi regime. Kofi Annan, the chief UN arms inspector and State Dept. officials all denied the spying allegations. An electronic eavesdropping system was put into place in March by a US spy with the UN inspection team.

            (SFC, 1/6/99, p.A6)(SFC, 1/7/99, p.A8)(WSJ, 1/7/99, p.A1)(SFC, 1/8/99, p.A1)

1999                Jan 6, The Dow Jones closed at a record 9,544.97.

            (SFC, 1/7/99, p.B1)

1999                Jan 6, Buckingham Palace announced that Prince Edward, youngest son of Queen Elizabeth II, would marry his longtime friend, public relations executive Sophie Rhys-Jones, later in the year.

            (AP, 1/6/00)

1999                Jan 6, Congo rebel leader Ernest Wamba dia Wamba said his forces killed about 400 Burundi Hutu rebels fighting with the Congolese government troops and promised to investigate the alleged New Year murder of 500 civilians.

            (SFC, 1/7/99, p.A10)

1999                Jan 6, The Dominican Republic considered sending soldiers into parts of Santo Domingo where fighting between police and drug gangs had left 48 people dead since late Dec.

            (WSJ, 1/7/99, p.A1)

1999                Jan 6, In Israel former military chief of staff Amnon Lipkin-Shahak announced his candidacy for prime minister. Separately a man with a toy gun was killed by soldiers.

            (SFC, 1/7/99, p.A10)(WSJ, 1/7/99, p.A1)

1999                Jan 6, In Kosovo Nebojsa Denic, a Serbian security guard, was killed by ethnic Albanian rebels during an attack on a power plant outside of Pristina.

            (SFC, 1/8/99, p.A16)

1999                Jan 6, In Mexico police chief Alejandro Gertz fired 6 of his top 8 subordinates for failing to reduce crime and corruption.

            (SFC, 1/7/99, p.A10)

1999                Jan 6, In Sierra Leone rebels shot their way into Freetown and captured the presidential state house.

            (SFC, 1/7/99, p.A8)

1999                Jan 6, In Turkey the Justice Ministry said authorities will no longer be allowed to force women and girls to undergo virginity tests.

            (SFC, 1/7/99, p.A10)

 

2000                Jan 6, Republican presidential candidates debated in Durham, New Hampshire, with such issues as taxes and gays in the military dominating the discussion.

            (AP, 1/6/01)

2000                Jan 6, The US Army replaced the Young & Rubicam ad agency after a 1999 recruit shortfall of 6,290. Rubicam held the contract for 12 years and crafted the slogan: "Be all that you can be."

            (WSJ, 1/7/00, p.A1)

2000                Jan 6, Florida lawmakers passed a bill to give death row inmates the option of lethal injection rather than the electric chair.

            (SFC, 1/7/00, p.A2)

2000                Jan 6, In Miami hundreds of Cuban Americans protested the INS decision to return Elian Gonzalez to his father in Cuba. At least 135 people were arrested.

            (SFC, 1/7/00, p.A3)(AP, 1/6/01)

2000                Jan 6, Two Austrian banks, Bank Austria and Creditanstalt, agreed to a $40 million settlement with an estimated 1,000 Holocaust victims or their heirs for having confiscated their assets.

            (SFC, 1/7/00, p.D2)

2000                Jan 6, Buckingham Palace announced that Prince Edward, the youngest son of Queen Elizabeth the Second, would marry his longtime girlfriend, public relations executive Sophie Rhys-Jones, later in the year.

            (AP, 1/6/01)

2000                Jan 6, In China the state-controlled Catholic Church ordained 5 new bishops while the Pope elevated 12 prelates in St. Peter's Basilica.

            (SFC, 1/7/00, p.A14)

2000                Jan 6, In Ecuador police broke up a march in Quito where people demanded the ouster of Pres. Mahuad following a state of emergency and currency plunge.

            (WSJ, 1/7/00, p.A1)

 

2001                Jan 6, With the vanquished Vice President Al Gore presiding, Congress formally certified George W. Bush the winner of the achingly close and bitterly contested 2000 presidential election.

            (AP, 1/6/02)

2001                Jan 6, The Episcopal Church and Evangelical Lutheran Church of America inaugurated an alliance to share clergy, churches and missionary work. Their combined membership numbered 7.7 million.

            (SSFC, 1/7/01, p.A2)

2001                Jan 6, A Nato meeting was scheduled in Italy on the use of ammunition with depleted uranium following the deaths from cancer of 6 Italian soldiers following duty in the Balkans. 5 Balkan veterans from Belgium along with peacekeepers from Spain, Portugal and the Czech Republic had died of cancer.

            (WSJ, 1/04/01, p.A1)(SFC, 1/6/01, p.A7)

2001                Jan 6, The number of national ministries and agencies was cut from 22 to 12 in an effort to expand efficiency and shift power from bureaucracies to politicians.

            (SSFC, 1/7/01, p.D3)

2001                Jan 6, In Somalia Rahanwein Resistance Army gunmen attacked government forces escorting officials and at least 9 people were killed near Teiglow village.

            (SSFC, 1/7/01, p.D2)

2001                Jan 6, In South Africa it was reported that cholera had recently sickened some 13,000 people in KwaZulu-Natal and had killed at least 53.

            (SFC, 1/6/01, p.D8)

2001                Jan 6, Thailand government elections pitted PM Chuan Leekpai’s Democratic Party against the Thais Love Thais (Thai Rak Thai) party of Thaksin Shinawatra (51). Elections for 500 seats in the lower parliament were scheduled with new laws to reduce vote-buying. Shinawatra, Thailand’s richest man, won with 248 seats and divested his assets to relatives.

            (SFC, 1/6/01, p.A8)(SSFC, 1/7/01, p.D1)(WSJ, 2/2/01, p.A1)(Econ, 2/5/05, p.11,24)

 

2002                Jan 6, US envoy Zinni wound up his 2nd mission to the Middle East with little progress on peace talks.

            (WSJ, 1/7/02, p.A10)

2002                Jan 6, Christa Worthington (46), fashion writer, was found dead at her home in Truro on Cape Cod, Mass. Her 2-year-old daughter was next to her, covered in blood but unharmed. In 2005 DNA evidence identified Christopher Mccowen, a local trash collector, as the murderer. In 2006 Mccowen was convicted and sentenced to life without parole.

            (SFC, 4/16/05, p.A5)(SFC, 11/17/06, p.A4)

2002                Jan 6, Anti-Taliban troops in Afghanistan planned to starve out 7 al Qaeda members holed up in a Kandahar hospital.

            (SFC, 1/7/02, p.A8)

2002                Jan 6, Argentina devalued its currency 29% with an official exchange rate of 1.4 pesos to the dollar and promised to ease limits on cash withdrawals. This ended a decade-long policy pegging the currency one-to-one with the U.S. dollar. In the year that followed, the peso lost 70 percent of its value against the dollar.

            (SFC, 1/7/02, p.A3)(WSJ, 1/7/02, p.A3)(AP, 1/6/03)

2002                Jan 6, It was reported that Costa Rica required medical professionals to serve a year treating disadvantaged communities. Mandatory community service programs were in place for high school students.

            (SSFC, 1/6/02, p.A3)

2002                Jan 6, Construction began to expand Camp X-Ray at the US Guantanamo base in Cuba to house detainees from Afghanistan. The 1st prisoners arrived Jan 11. As the number of prisoners rose Camp Delta was added.

            (WSJ, 1/26/05, p.A10)

2002                Jan 6, It was reported that Egypt required female graduates of secondary schools, exempt from the military draft, to spend 6 months in a service program.

            (SSFC, 1/6/02, p.A3)

2002                Jan 6, India shot down an unmanned Pakistani spy plane. Pres. Vajpayee met with PM Tony Blair in New Delhi.

            (SFC, 1/7/02, p.A3)

2002                Jan 6, Italy’s Premier Berlusconi named himself interim foreign minister.

            (SFC, 1/7/02, p.A5)

2002                Jan 6, It was reported that Malaysia authorities had arrested 13 suspected members of extremist groups since Dec 9 with possible links to the Sep 11 attacks.

            (SSFC, 1/6/02, p.A8)

2002                Jan 6, It was reported that Mexico had a national service program that required participation by all university graduates and that medical students were required to work in disadvantaged communities for one year before being licensed.

            (SSFC, 1/6/02, p.A3)

2002                Jan 6, It was reported that Nigeria had a National Youth Service Corps that required participation by all university graduates under age 30.

            (SSFC, 1/6/02, p.A3)

 

2003                Jan 6, US Surgeon General Dr. Richard Carmona called obesity the fastest growing cause of illness and death in the US.

            (SFC, 1/7/03, p.A1)

2003                Jan 6, U.S. warplanes bombed two Iraqi anti-aircraft radars that threatened pilots patrolling the southern no-fly zone.

            (AP, 1/7/03)

2003                Jan 6, Thousands of Marines, sailors and soldiers headed for the Persian Gulf region, shipping out from California, Georgia and Maryland as the buildup for a possible war with Iraq accelerated sharply.

            (AP, 1/6/04)

2003                Jan 6, California Gov. Davis promised to create 500,000 new jobs over the next 4 years.

            (AP, 1/7/03)

2003                Jan 6, The WSJ reported that Int'l. Steel offered about $1 billion to buy most of the assets of Bethlehem Steel, creating the largest US steel company.

            (WSJ, 1/2/04, p.R8)

2003                Jan 6, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein accused U.N. inspectors of engaging in "intelligence work" instead of searching for suspected nuclear, chemical and biological weapons in his country.

            (AP, 1/6/04)

2003                Jan 6, Rebels in western Ivory Coast attacked French troops and French officials said 30 rebels were killed and nine soldiers wounded.

            (AP, 1/6/03)

2003                Jan 6, In Kenya 12 people were killed when members of the outlawed Mungiki sect attacked minibus operators over control of bus stops in Nakuru, 84 miles northwest of Nairobi. 38 people were soon arrested.

            (AP, 1/7/03)

2003                Jan 6, In Mexico a bus with failing brakes swerved off a mountain highway and into a deep ravine in Zacatecas state, killing 18 people and injuring 23.

            (AP, 1/7/03)

 

2004                Jan 6, A design consisting of two reflecting pools and a paved stone field was chosen for the World Trade Center memorial in New York.

            (AP, 1/6/05)

2004                Jan 6, The Ohio Lottery awarded $162 million to Rebecca Jemison (34). Elicia Battle (40), who initially claimed to have lost the Dec 30 winning ticket, recanted on Jan 8.

            (SFC, 1/9/04, p.A2)

2004                Jan 6, In Afghanistan a time bomb in an apple cart blast killed at least 17 people, including 8 children, in the southern city of Kandahar. 12 civilians were executed in Helmand Province.

            (SFC, 1/7/04, p.A10)(SFC, 1/9/04, p.A12)(AP, 1/6/05)

2004                Jan 6, China began a mass eradication of some 10,000 civet cats to stem a suspected link to SARS.

            (SFC, 1/7/04, p.A14)

2004                Jan 6, PM Pierre Charles (49) of Dominica, who slashed public spending in a bid to help his island's economy and was a critic of U.S. policy in the Caribbean, died of an apparent heart attack.

            (AP, 1/7/04)

2004                Jan 6, India and Pakistan agreed on talks to formally tackle all issues including Kashmir.

            (WSJ, 1/7/04, p.A1)

2004                Jan 6, Egypt and Iran agreed to restore diplomatic ties sundered in 1979.

            (WSJ, 1/7/04, p.A1)

2004                Jan 6, Iraqi police opened fire on hundreds of stone-throwing former Iraqi soldiers demanding monthly stipends promised by the U.S.-led coalition, and reporters saw at least four protesters shot in the southern town of Basra.

            (AP, 1/6/04)

2004                Jan 6, In Liberia the LURD and MODEL rebel groups demanded the resignation of Gyude Bryant, interim government head.

            (Econ, 1/31/04, p.48)

2004                Jan 6, North Korea offered to refrain from producing nuclear weapons in order to rekindle talks over its arms programs.

            (SFC, 1/6/04, p.A3)

2004                Jan 6, President Bashar Assad began the first-ever visit to Turkey by a Syrian head of state, hoping to further improve ties forge a joint position on growing Kurdish autonomy.

            (AP, 1/6/04)(WSJ, 1/7/04, p.A1)

2004                Jan 6, The Sudanese government and southern rebels agreed on how to share the country's wealth, including oil revenues, solving a key issue and taking a major step toward ending their 20-year conflict.

            (AP, 1/6/04)

2004                Jan 6, Mijailo Mijailovic confessed to the fatal stabbing of Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh in September 2003.

            (AP, 1/6/05)

 

2005                Jan 6, The US Congress certified President Bush's re-election.

            (AP, 1/6/06)

2005                Jan 6, US Attorney General-nominee Alberto Gonzales, under scorching criticism at his confirmation hearing, condemned torture as an interrogation tactic and promised to prosecute abusers of terror suspects.

            (AP, 1/6/06)

2005                Jan 6, Andrea Yates' murder conviction for drowning her children in the bathtub on June 20, 2001, was overturned by a Texas appeals court. On July 26, 2006, after three days of deliberations, Yates was found not guilty by reason of insanity, as defined by the state of Texas.

            (AP, 1/6/06)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrea_Yates)

2005                Jan 6, Edgar Ray Killen (b.1925) was arrested in Philadelphia, Miss., as a suspect in the 1964 abduction and killing of 3 voter-registration volunteers. He was found guilty on June 21, 2005, the 41st anniversary of the murders, along with Cecil Price (deputy sheriff of Neshoba at the time), of three counts of manslaughter and gathering the group of men who hunted down and killed two Jewish New Yorkers: Andrew Goodman (20) and Michael Schwerner (24), and one black Mississippian,  James Chaney (21).

            (SFC, 1/7/05, p.A1)(www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/06/21/mississippi.killings/)

2005                Jan 6, The Chicago-based Pritzker family settled a family suit giving both Matthew (22) and Liesel Pritzker (20) control of $450 million. The family fortune was estimated at over $15 bil.

            (WSJ, 1/7/05, p.B1)

2005                Jan 6, In South Carolina a freight train carrying chlorine gas struck a parked train, killing eight people and injuring more than 240 others, nearly all of them sickened by a toxic cloud that at nightfall persisted over the small textile town of Graniteville.

            (AP, 1/7/05)

2005                Jan 6, In Bangladesh a fire at the Sun Knit garment factory in Siddhirganj killed 22 people. Most of the exits were found locked.

            (SFC, 1/8/05, p.A3)

2005                Jan 6, A baby boy delivered in Beijing became China's 1.3 billionth citizen.

            (AP, 1/6/05)

2005                Jan 6, Chinese authorities bulldozed Silk Alley, a 20-year-old landmark in Beijing. Traders felt the motive was to eliminate competition for a new indoor complex soon to open next to the alley, to be named Xiushui, which was the name of the old market.

            (Econ, 1/15/05, p.39)

2005                Jan 6, A tsunami aid conference convened in Jakarta, Indonesia, and the UN asserted control over the massive relief campaign.

            (WSJ, 1/7/05, p.A1)

2005                Jan 6, In Iraq 7 US soldiers were killed in Baghdad when their Bradley hit a car buried bomb. 2 Marines were killed in western Iraq.

            (WSJ, 1/7/05, p.A1)

2005                Jan 6, President Vicente Fox announced that all Mexican children with cancer will receive free treatment as long as they need it.

            (AP, 1/6/05)

2005                Jan 6, In Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, 10 alleged gang members were convicted in the killings of 12 women, some of the hundreds who have been found slain there in recent years. The Los Toltecas members were arrested in 1999, after the reputed leader of their group, Jesus Manuel Guardado, alias "El Tolteca," was identified by a 14-year-old girl as the man who sexually assaulted and tried to kill her.

            (AP, 1/7/05)

2005                Jan 6, In South Africa former Pres. Nelson Mandela announced that his son, Makgatho Mandela, had died of illness related to AIDS.

            (SFC, 1/7/05, p.A10)

 

2006                Jan 6, Al-Qaida's No. 2 official, Ayman al-Zawahri, said in a videotape that a recent US decision to withdraw some troops from Iraq represented "the victory of Islam."

            (AP, 1/6/07)

2006                Jan 6, The 115-year-old Pilgrim Baptist Church of Chicago was destroyed by fire.

            (AP, 1/6/07)

2006                Jan 6, In Florida Martin Lee Anderson (14) died a day after he was brutally beaten at a juvenile detention boot camp. Videotape showed that he was punched and kicked. A 2nd autopsy on Mar 13 indicated that Anderson did not die of natural causes. An earlier autopsy said his death was due to a sickle cell trait. In May 2007 the Florida state legislature agreed to pay Anderson’s family $5 million to settle civil claims. On Oct 12, 2007, an all-white jury acquitted 8 former boot camp workers of manslaughter.

            (AP, 2/17/06)(SFC, 3/15/06, p.A4)(SFC, 10/13/07, p.A4)

2006                Jan 6, Lou Rawls (72), singer, died in Los Angeles. He started as a church choir boy and went on to sell more than 40 million albums. He won three Grammy Awards in a career that spanned nearly five decades and a range of genres. His 1st solo release was the 1962 jazz album “Stormy Monday” recorded with the Les McCann Trio.

            (AP, 1/6/06)(SFC, 1/6/06, p.B5)

2006                Jan 6, Hugh Thompson Jr., a former Army helicopter pilot honored for rescuing Vietnamese civilians during the My Lai massacre, died in Alexandria, La., at age 62.

            (AP, 1/6/07)

2006                Jan 6, Bulgarian officials said Gazprom was pushing it to switch to a system in which it pays transit fees and charges Sofia market prices. Bulgaria rejected the offer and said its current is good to 2010.

            (WSJ, 1/9/06, p.A11)

2006                Jan 6, In China a farmer angry over a court ruling set off a bomb in a courthouse in Gansu province, killing himself and four other people. Qian Wenzhao (62) was angry over a ruling in a property dispute involving the house of his late son and daughter-in-law.

            (AP, 1/7/06)

2006                Jan 6, A study published in Britain's leading medical journal said war-ravaged Congo is suffering the world's deadliest humanitarian crisis, with 38,000 people dying each month mostly from easily treatable diseases.

            (AP, 1/6/06)

2006                Jan 6, An Indian Supreme Court panel accused France of violating an international treaty on hazardous waste movement by sending an asbestos-laden warship to be scrapped in an Indian shipyard.

            (AP, 1/6/06)

2006                Jan 6, A suicide car bomber struck a police patrol in Baghdad, killing one officer.

            (AP, 1/6/06)

2006                Jan 6, Israel’s PM Ariel Sharon had emergency brain surgery for five hours after doctors detected further bleeding and increasing pressure.

            (AP, 1/6/06)

2006                Jan 6, The Kazakhstan Parliament voted to ditch the Central Asian state's old national anthem in favor of "My Kazakhstan," a song written in 1956 and adapted by Pres. Nazarbayev.

            (AP, 1/6/06)

2006                Jan 6, Liberia's President-elect Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf agreed to pay out benefits and pensions to widows of soldiers killed in a civil war after they blocked roads in the capital Monrovia in protest.

            (Reuters, 1/6/06)

2006                Jan 6, Comandante Ramona (47), a leader of Mexico's Zapatista rebel movement and an advocate for women's rights, died after a decade-long struggle with a kidney disease.

            (AP, 1/6/06)

2006                Jan 6, Morocco's King Mohammed, under pressure from human rights groups to apologize for more than four decades of past repression by the state, offered his sympathy for the victims.

            (Reuters, 1/6/06)

2006                Jan 6, Nigeria’s government anti-AIDS agency said it will double the number of centers where AIDS patients can get free drugs in the next three months as part of a major drive to widen access to treatment.

            (Reuters, 1/6/06)

2006                Jan 6, Stalinist North Korea demanded billions of dollars in compensation for alleged atrocities against its prisoners of war and spies formerly held in South Korea. The demand sparked outrage among politicians in Seoul.

            (AFP, 1/8/06)

2006                Jan 6, Venezuela said it will expand a program to provide discounted home heating oil to low-income Americans, bringing savings to some Indian tribes in Maine.

            (AP, 1/6/06)

2006                Jan 6, Vietnam said it was prepared to join some UN peacekeeping operations for the first time in a move seen as a major shift in its attitude towards the world body.

            (AP, 1/6/06)

2006                Jan 6, In Yemen 5 Italian hostages were freed in good health after six days in captivity when their kidnappers surrendered to government troops.

            (AP, 1/6/06)

 

2007                Jan 6, New Orleans considered a curfew as 8 slayings took place in the 1st week of the new year.

            (SSFC, 1/7/07, p.A10)

2007                Jan 6, In Colorado a huge snow slide knocked two cars off the road in a high pass and buried them.

            (AP, 1/7/07)

2007                Jan 6, The body of Calvin Jenks (24), a Tennessee state trooper, was found beside his patrol car near the intersection of state highways 14 and 54. He was shot during a traffic stop. The next day police arrested two people they believed were responsible for the killing.

            (AP, 1/7/07)

2007                Jan 6, In Knoxville, Tenn., Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom were last seen as they left a friend’s apartment. Newsom’s shot and burned body was found the next day along some railroad tracks. Christian’s body was discovered 2 days later in a trash can at a house rented by one of the suspects. Both had been sexually assaulted. 4 black suspects and an accessory faced murder trials.

            (SFC, 5/19/07, p.A4)

2007                Jan 6, The body of Cha Vang (30), a Hmong man, was found hidden under a log in a Wisconsin wild life refuge. Vang had been shot and stabbed 5 times. On Nov 28 James Nichols (29) was sentenced to 69 years in prison for Vang’s murder.

            (SFC, 11/29/07, p.A3)

2007                Jan 6, Pete Kleinow, film effects artist and guitarist for the Flying Burrito Brothers, died in Petaluma, Ca.

            (SFC, 1/16/07, p.B5)

2007                Jan 6, In southern Afghanistan a roadside bomb struck a NATO vehicle, wounding one soldier.

            (AP, 1/6/07)

2007                Jan 6, In Bangladesh at least 41 people were burned to death after fire engulfed a bus packed with migrant workers.

            (AFP, 1/6/07)

2007                Jan 6, Belarus stepped up its dispute with Russia over energy sales by announcing Saturday it has started a customs case against Transneft, Russia's pipeline operator.

            (AP, 1/6/07)

2007                Jan 6, In southeastern Brazil officials said mudslides and flash floods triggered by torrential downpours killed at least 31 people and drove thousands from their homes during the past five days.

            (AP, 1/6/07)

2007                Jan 6, David Whelan (60) and his son Andrew (35) trawled through a farmer's field near Harrogate, in northern England, when their metal detector squealed. The pair discovered a Viking trove of coins and jewelry was buried more than 1,000 years ago, a collection of items from Ireland, France, Russia and Scandinavia that testified to the raiders' international reach.

            (AP, 7/1907)

2007                Jan 6, China unveiled its Jian-10 multi-role indigenous fighter jet, marking a "historic leap forward" and narrowing a technological gap with major military powers.

            (AP, 1/6/07)

2007                Jan 6, Cardinal Frederic Etsou-Nzabi-Bamungwabi (b.1930), Congo's top Roman Catholic prelate, died in a Belgian hospital. He had warned of what he called international meddling in the country's recent landmark elections.

            (AP, 1/7/07)

2007                Jan 6, Cindy Sheehan, American "peace mom," called for the closure of the US military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. She and other activists arrived to draw attention to the nearly 400 terror suspects held at the remote site.

            (AP, 1/7/07)

2007                Jan 6, Riots erupted overnight in a maximum-security prison in western El Salvador, leaving 21 inmates dead.

            (AP, 1/7/07)

2007                Jan 6, Hong Kong reported that a wild bird found a few days earlier had tested positive for the H5N1 strain of bird flu.

            (WSJ, 1/8/07, p.A5)

2007                Jan 6, In northeast India suspected separatist rebels fatally shot 13 sleeping migrant workers before dawn, adding to a string of attacks over two days that killed a total of 48 people and wounded at least 19.

            (AP, 1/6/07)

2007                Jan 6, The Iraqi army reported killing 30 militants in a Sunni insurgent stronghold in the center of Baghdad. In Baghdad two car bombs killed four civilians. Across the country at least 8 more people were reported killed or found dead as a result of sectarian violence. 27 bodies were discovered in a heavily Sunni district just north of the Green Zone. Most of the victims showed signs of torture. A US soldier died after coming under fire in Baghdad.

            (AP, 1/6/07)(AP, 1/7/07)

2007                Jan 6, Mexican federal and state police manned checkpoints within Tijuana’s city limits as local police suspended their patrols because soldiers sent to crack down on drug gangs and corruption seized most of their guns on suspicion they aided traffickers.

            (AP, 1/6/07)

2007                Jan 6, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas declared Hamas' paramilitary militia in the Gaza Strip illegal, raising the stakes in his standoff with the Islamic movement.

            (AP, 1/6/07)

2007                Jan 6, Philippine troops killed six members of the al-Qaida-linked Abu Sayyaf group, including one wanted by the US for involvement in the kidnapping of Americans.

            (AP, 1/6/07)

2007                Jan 6, Seven people were killed in shootings across Puerto Rico, prompting the US territory's police chief to plead for tougher gun laws.

            (AP, 1/7/07)

2007                Jan 6, Somalia's interim government indefinitely postponed plans to forcibly disarm Mogadishu as hundreds of people burned tires, looted vehicles and said they wouldn't give up their guns. Two people were reported killed and at 17 people wounded.

            (AP, 1/6/07)

2007                Jan 6, In Meetiyagoda, Sri Lanka, an explosion inside a passenger bus killed 15 people. Officials blamed the Tamil Tiger rebels, but the group denied any involvement.

            (AP, 1/6/07)

 

2008                Jan 6, In southeastern Utah a chartered bus ran off a wet road and rolled 41 feet down an embankment, killing eight passengers who were returning home from a ski trip. About 20 others were injured.

            (AP, 1/7/08)

2008                Jan 6, Adam Gadahn, Al-Qaida's American spokesman, urged fighters to meet President Bush with bombs when he visits the Middle East, according to a new video posted on the Internet. Gadahn, also known as Azzam al-Amriki, was charged with treason in the US in 2006 and has been wanted since 2004 by the FBI, which is offering a $1 million reward for information leading to his arrest or conviction.

            (AP, 1/7/08)

2008                Jan 6, Martha Arguello (b.1917), the cartoonist known as Marty Links, died in San Rafael, Ca. She was the creator of the Bobby Sox and Emmy Lou cartoon strips, which ran in the SF Chronicle for over 35 years.

            (SFC, 1/9/08, p.B9)

2008                Jan 6, In Afghanistan 3 Taliban militants were killed in a battle between police and NATO troops in the Zhari district of Kandahar.

            (AP, 1/7/08)

2008                Jan 6, In Kinshasa a peace summit aimed at ending fighting in Congo's blood-steeped eastern provinces of North and South Kivu opened without the presence of President Joseph Kabila and rebel leader General Laurent Nkunda.

            (Reuters, 1/6/08)

2008                Jan 6, In Georgia several thousand people rallied in Tbilisi, claiming early election results that indicated Mikhail Saakashvili would narrowly win a second presidential term were fraudulent.

            (AP, 1/6/08)

2008                Jan 6, Dr. Pramod Karan Sethi (80), inventor of a low-cost prosthetic foot that has helped millions of people in developing and war-torn countries, died in Jaipur, India. The surgeon developed the Jaipur Foot in 1968 with India's rural poor in mind.

            (AP, 1/8/08)

2008                Jan 6, Five Iranian Revolutionary Guard boats harassed and provoked three US Navy ships in the Strait of Hormuz, a major oil shipping route off the Iranian coast. The US Navy Times newspaper later reported that a threatening radio message at the end of a video showing Iranian patrol boats swarming near US warships in the Persian Gulf may have come from a prankster rather than from the Iranian vessels.

            (AP, 1/7/08)(AP, 1/14/08)

2008                Jan 6, Two Iraqi soldiers threw themselves on a suicide bomber who slipped into a crowd celebrating Iraq's Army Day, but the attacker detonated an explosives vest, killing both soldiers and nine other people. A series of attacks across Baghdad that left as many as 16 people dead. Near Muqdadiyah a joint Iraqi-US patrol discovered five severed heads. Near the city of Khalis in Diyala province suspected al-Qaida in Iraq fighters attacked the house of a local sheik and kidnapped him and 13 members of his family.

            (AP, 1/6/08)

2008                Jan 6, North Korea stepped up anti-US propaganda with a six-nation nuclear disarmament process bogged down and Pyongyang and Washington in dispute over the delay.

            (AP, 1/6/08)

2008                Jan 6, In northwest Pakistan suspected Islamic militants in 2 attacks fatally shot 8 tribal leaders involved in efforts to broker a cease-fire between security forces and insurgents.

            (AP, 1/7/08)(SFC, 1/8/08, p.A14)

2008                Jan 6, The head of Gaza's energy authority said Palestinians in Gaza will be forced to live without electricity eight hours a day, beginning today, because Israel has sharply reduced fuel supplies to the territory's only electric plant.

            (AP, 1/6/08)

2008                Jan 6, In northern Sri Lanka heavy fighting raged where Tiger rebels said they lost a key leader, as Norwegian-led monitors began pulling out before the formal end of a tattered truce.

            (AP, 1/6/08)

2008                Jan 6, In Zurich Sonntag newspaper reported that Credit Suisse faces a fresh assets write-off of 2.5 billion Swiss francs (1.5 billion euros, $2.3 billion) from the US sub-prime crisis.

            (AP, 1/6/08)

2008                Jan 6, Zimbabwe state media reported that the government has awarded an immediate 600% pay rise to striking magistrates and prosecutors in a bid to end a 3-month work stoppage.

            (AP, 1/6/08)

 

2009                Jan 6, Pres. Bush designated parts of 3 Pacific island chains as national monuments to protect them from oil and gas extraction and commercial fishing. The areas totaled some 195,274 square miles and included the Mariana Trench as well as waters and coral surrounding 3 islands in the Northern Mariana Islands, Rose Atoll in American Samoa and 7 islands along the equator in the central Pacific Ocean.

            (SFC, 1/6/09, p.A4)

2009                Jan 6, Roland Burris of Illinois, President-elect Barack Obama's appointed successor, was turned away when he appeared at the US Capitol to take his in the convening of the 111th Congress.

            (AP, 1/6/09)

2009                Jan 6, North Dakota Gov. John Hoeven reported a budget surplus and plans to grow reserves to between $800 million and $1.2 billion.

            (Econ, 1/31/09, p.43)(http://governor.nd.gov/media/speeches/090106.html)

2009                Jan 6, Hal Ellis (b.1931), co-founder of the Grubb & Ellis real estate company (1958), died at his home in Oakland, Ca.

            (SFC, 1/8/09, p.C1)

2009                Jan 6, In southern Afghanistan a NATO serviceman was killed in a hostile incident. In eastern Afghanistan US-led coalition forces killed 32 armed insurgents during a clash in Laghman province. The troops also destroyed two caches of weapons and roadside bomb-making materials that were too unstable to move to another location. Residents reported that some civilians died when buildings collapsed as the cache was destroyed. In western Farah province, Afghan army and coalition troops killed six militants in raid on a compound.

            (AP, 1/6/09)(AP, 1/7/09)

2009                Jan 6, In Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina Wajed was sworn in for her second spell as prime minister, restoring democracy to the impoverished country after almost two years of rule by an army-backed regime.

            (AFP, 1/6/09)

2009                Jan 6, Bahrain’s credit outlook was downgraded by Moody’s Investors Service amid tumbling crude prices and the global financial crises.

            (WSJ, 1/7/09, p.A7)

2009                Jan 6, Ethiopia's parliament adopted a controversial bill imposing heavy restrictions on foreign-funded humanitarian groups operating in the war- and famine-ravaged country. Under the new law, any group that draws more than 10 percent of its funding from abroad will be classified as foreign, and thus banned from working on issues related to ethnicity, gender, children's rights and conflict resolution.

            (AP, 1/6/09)(AFP, 1/9/09)

2009                Jan 6, A natural gas crisis loomed over Europe, as a contract dispute between Russia and Ukraine shut off Russian gas supplies to six countries and reduced gas deliveries to several others. Bulgaria, Greece, Macedonia, Romania, Croatia and Turkey all reported a halt in gas shipments.

            (AP, 1/6/09)

2009                Jan 6, Signs mounted that the conflict in Gaza is starting to spill over into violence in Europe's towns and cities, with assaults against Jews and arson attacks on Jewish congregations in France, Sweden and Britain.

            (AP, 1/6/09)

2009                Jan 6, A cease-fire initiative to halt the increasingly bloody Israeli offensive in Hamas-ruled Gaza won support from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called on rival sides to follow up on the proposal. A Hamas rocket hit Gedera, 20 miles from Tel Aviv, the farthest one has reached to date.

            (AP, 1/6/09)(AP, 1/7/09)(Econ, 1/10/09, p.24)

2009                Jan 6, In Mexico masked gunmen opened fire and tossed a grenade at a television station in Monterrey as it aired its nightly newscast, leaving behind a message warning the station about its coverage of drug gangs. Gunmen in Tijuana opened fire from several cars, killing a 22-year-old standing with his family outside his house. Two bodies were found wrapped in blankets and dumped on the street near a cemetery.

            (AP, 1/7/09)

2009                Jan 6, In southern Nigeria armed men robbed an offshore oil platform operated by a subsidiary of US oil giant ExxonMobile although the attack did not disrupt oil production.

            (AFP, 1/7/09)

2009                Jan 6, In Papua New Guinea Police a woman was tied to a wooden pole, surrounded by rubber tires and set on fire. Rumors said she was suspected of spreading witchcraft through the South Pacific island nation.

            (AP, 1/9/09)

2009                Jan 6, In Senegal 9 men, including a prominent activist, were convicted of homosexual acts and sentenced to eight years in prison. Senegal, a primarily Muslim nation in West Africa, is one of 38 countries on the continent that criminalize homosexual acts.

            (AP, 1/8/09)

2009                Jan 6, In Somalia 3 masked gunmen fatally shot a Somali aid worker. The UN envoy to Somalia said the UN should create a Baghdad-style Green Zone in the African country so he can base all his aid workers there. Aid workers Keiko Akahane (32), a Japanese doctor, and Dutchman nurse Willem Sools (27), were released after being held by Somali gunmen for 108 days.

            (AP, 1/6/09)(AP, 1/10/09)

2009                Jan 6, South Korea said it will invest 50 trillion won ($38.1 billion) over the next four years on environmental projects in a "Green New Deal" to spur slumping economic growth and create nearly a million jobs. Opposition lawmakers ended their violent, 12-day siege of the parliament after successfully delaying a key vote on a US free trade deal and other legislation.

            (AP, 1/6/09)

2009                Jan 6, Sri Lankan forces overran the Tamil Tigers' northernmost defense line and took full control of Muhamalai, forcing the rebels to fall back about 600 yards to another defense line. Armed men attacked a private Sri Lankan television station, tossing hand grenades, shooting out TV screens and starting a fire that caused heavy damage. Reporters Without Borders said the attack follows accusations by state media that the Maharaja Organization's television and radio stations were not "patriotic" enough in their coverage of the government's recent victories.

            (AP, 1/6/09)

2009                Jan 6, Turkey held a shipment bound for Venezuela from Iran saying it contains equipment that can make explosives.

            (WSJ, 1/7/09, p.A1)

2009                Jan 6, The WHO said at least 1,732 people have died in Zimbabwe's cholera epidemic and the number of cases diagnosed has risen to 34,306.

            (AP, 1/6/09)

2009                Jan 6, Venezuela ordered Israel's ambassador expelled from the country in protest over the Israeli military offensive in the Gaza Strip.

            (AP, 1/6/09)

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