Return to home
532
Jan 13-532 Jan 14, The 2nd Hagia Sophia
cathedral burned down in Constantinople during the Nika uprising, which
failed leaving some 30-40,000 people dead. Justinian and his wife
Theodora had attended festivities at the Hippodrome, a stadium for
athletic competition. Team support escalated from insults to mob riots
and in the end Constantinople lay in ruins. Justinian proceeded to
rebuild the city with extensive commissions for religious art and
architecture, including the new Hagia Sophia.
(ATC,
p.33)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hagia_Sophia)
1099 Jan 13, Crusaders set fire to
Mara, Syria.
(MC, 1/13/02)
1397 Jan 13, John of Gaunt married
Katherine Rouet.
(HN, 1/13/99)
1628 Jan 13, Charles Perrault,
lawyer, writer (Mother Goose), was born in France.
(MC, 1/13/02)
1691 Jan 13, George Fox (66),
founder of Quakers, died.
(MC, 1/13/02)
1733 Jan 13, James Oglethorpe and
130 English colonists arrived at Charleston, SC.
(MC, 1/13/02)
1794 Jan 13, President Washington
approved a measure adding two stars and two stripes to the American
flag, following the admission of Vermont and Kentucky to the union. The
number of stripes was later reduced to the original 13.
(AP, 1/13/01)
1808 Jan 13, Salmon P. Chase, US
Treasury secretary during the American Civil War and 6th Chief Justice
of the Supreme Court, was born. His picture was later put on the
$10,000 bill.
(HN, 1/13/99)
1813 Jan 24, Theodore Sedgwick
(b.1746), former Massachusetts Senator (1796-1799), died. In 2007 John
Sedgwick authored “In My Blood: Six Generations of Madness and Desire
in an American Family.”
(http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=S000222)
1830 Jan 13, There was a great
fire in New Orleans. It was thought to be set by rebel slaves.
(MC, 1/13/02)
1832 Jan 13, Horatio Alger, Jr.,
the author of more than 100 inspirational books for young people from
the Civil War to the turn of the 20th century, was born the son of a
Unitarian minister. Rejected by the Union Army because of asthma,
Horatio Alger was a poet, teacher and newspaper correspondent before he
eventually followed in his father's footsteps and became a minister on
Cape Cod. Alger is best-known, however, for his books with
rags-to-riches themes. In Alger's world, everyone, no matter how poor
or powerless, could succeed through hard work, honesty and high moral
values. His "pluck and luck" books of hope in the face of adversity
were always bestsellers and almost every home, school and church owned
a large collection. More than 250 million copies of his books have been
sold worldwide. His books include "Ragged Dick" and "Tattered Tom."
(HNPD, 1/13/99)
1842 Jan 13, In the 1st
British-Afghan War British troops retreating from Kabul were ambushed
and nearly all slaughtered at the Khyber Pass, even though the Afghans
had promised them safe passage during their withdrawal from the Afghan
capital. Dr. William Brydon, badly wounded, reached Jalalabad as the
only survivor of a 16,000 person retreat from Kabul.
(SSFC, 10/28/01, p.C8)(MC, 1/13/02)
1846 Jan 13, President James Polk
dispatched General Zachary Taylor and 4,000 troops to the Texas Border
as war with Mexico loomed. At the outset of the Mexican-American War,
the Mexican army numbered 32,000 and the American army consisted of
7,200 men. The American army had, since 1815, only fought against a few
Indian tribes. Forty-two percent of the army was made up of recent
German or Irish immigrants. In the course of the war, the total U.S.
force employed reached 104,000. In 2008 Martin Dugard authored “The
Training Ground: Grant, Lee, Sherman, and Davis in the Mexican War,
1846-1848.”
(HN, 1/13/99)(HNQ, 2/28/99)(WSJ, 5/16/08, p.W8)
1854 Jan 13, Anthony Foss patented
an accordion. [see 1850, 1852]
(MC, 1/13/02)
1862 Jan 13, President Lincoln
named Edwin M. Stanton Secretary of War.
(HN, 1/13/99)
1863 Jan 13, Thomas Crapper
pioneered a one-piece pedestal flushing toilet.
(MC, 1/13/02)
1864 Jan 13, Wilhelm K.W. Wien,
German physicist (Nobel 1911), was born.
(MC, 1/13/02)
1864 Jan 13, Composer Stephen
Foster (37), composer and American song writer, died in a New York City
hospital. Ken Emerson later authored his biography.
(HFA, '96, p.22)(AHD, p. 519)(AP, 1/13/98)(SFC,
4/23/01, p.E4)
1865 Jan 13-14, Union fleet bombed
Fort Fisher, NC.
(AH, 2/05, p.16)
1873 Jan 13, William Pitt Kellogg
(1830-1918), American politician and carpetbagger, began serving as the
governor of Louisiana and continued to 1877. He was the state's
last Republican governor until the inauguration of David C. Treen in
1980.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_P._Kellogg)
1874 Jan 13, Battle between
jobless and police in NYC left 100s injured.
(MC, 1/13/02)
1883 Jan 13, Fire in circus
Ferroni in Berditschoft, Poland, killed 430.
(MC, 1/13/02)
1893 Jan 13, Britain's Independent
Labor Party, a precursor to the current Labor Party, had its 1st
meeting.
(AP, 1/13/00)
1895 Jan 13, J.R. Seeley (b.1834),
English essayist and historian, died. His essay Ecce Homo, published
anonymously in 1866, and afterwards acknowledged by him, was widely
read, and prompted many replies, being deemed an attack on Christianity.
(WSJ, 12/8/08,
p.A17)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Robert_Seeley)
1898 Jan 13, Emile Zola's famous
defense of Captain Alfred Dreyfus, “J'accuse," was published in Paris.
The open letter to French President Felix Faure accused the French
judiciary of giving into pressure from the military to perpetuate a
cover-up in the Dreyfus treason case.
(AP, 1/13/98)(MC, 1/13/02)
1900 Jan 13, To combat Czech
nationalism, Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria-Hungary decreed that
German would be the language of the imperial army.
(HN, 1/13/99)
1906 Jan 13, The Golden Gate Hotel
opened on Fremont Street in Las Vegas, Nev..
(SSFC, 11/13/05, p.F4)
1910 Jan 13, Andrew Jackson Davis
(b.1826), American clairvoyant, died. While in a mesmeric (hypnotic)
trance, could allegedly communicate with the spirit world and
accurately diagnose medical disorders. In 1850, in his book the “Great
Harmonia,” Davis talks about how man evolved from animals and that
evolution also took place in plants and animals up to man.
(www.andrewjacksondavis.com/)
1912 Jan 13, A temp. of 40F
(-40C), Oakland, Maryland, set a state record.
(MC, 1/13/02)
1915 Jan 13, An earthquake in
Avezzano, Italy, killed 29,800.
(MC, 1/13/02)
1919 Jan 13, Jackie Robinson,
baseball star, was born. He broke the apartheid ban in 1947.
(SFEC, 10/4/98, p.B14)
1919 Jan 13, Robert Stack, actor
best know for his role as Elliot Ness in the TV series "The
Untouchables," was born.
(HN, 1/13/99)
1919 Jan 13, California voted to
ratify the Prohibition amendment.
(HN, 1/13/99)
1920 Jan 13, A NY Times editorial
excoriated Dr. Robert H. Goddard, and reported that rockets can never
fly. In 1969 the NY Times belatedly apologized.
(WSJ, 8/7/03, p.A1)
1923 Jan 13, Hitler denounced the
Weimar republic as 5,000 storm troopers demonstrated in Germany.
(HN, 1/13/99)
1927 Jan 13, A woman took a seat
on the NY Stock Exchange breaking the all-male tradition.
(HN, 1/13/99)
1929 Jan 13, Frontiersman Wyatt
Earp died in LA, Ca., after an illustrious life in the West. Cowboy
stars William S. Hart and Tom Mix served as pallbearers. Born in
Illinois in 1848, he served as a lawman in Wichita and Dodge City,
Kansas, as well as Tombstone, Arizona Territory, where Wyatt and his
brothers Morgan and Virgil were notorious for violent clashes with
outlaws. Western historians have disagreed about the particulars of
Wyatt Earp's life, but he is said to have been a freighter-teamster,
railroad construction worker, policeman, prisoner, saloon keeper and
horse farmer, and he was involved in several gunfights--for reasons
that may or may not have been related to law enforcement. When Morgan
was killed, Wyatt avenged his death by killing Frank Stilwell, an
outlaw he had previously arrested. Wyatt Berry Stapp Earp died and was
buried in Colma, Ca. In 2003 Lee A. Silva authored Wyatt Earp, A
Biography of the Legend, Volume 1, the Cowtown Years.”
(HNPD, 1/12/99)(SFEC, 3/14/99, Z1 p.10)(MesWP)(CHA,
1/2001)(AH, 6/03, p.60)
1931 Jan 13, The Bridge connecting
New York and New Jersey was named the George Washington Memorial
Bridge.
(HN, 1/13/99)
1934 Jan 13, Rip Taylor, comedian
(Gong Show, $1.98 Beauty Show), was born.
(MC, 1/13/02)
1937 Jan 13, The United States
barred Americans from serving in the Spanish War.
(HN, 1/13/99)
1939 Jan 13, Jacob Ruppert, CEO of
the NY Yankees (1915-39), died.
(MC, 1/13/02)
1941 Jan 13, James Joyce,
Irish-born novelist, died in Zurich, Switzerland. In 1983 Richard
Ellmann authored the 900-page "James Joyce" biography. In 1999 Edna
O'Brien authored the pocket bio "James Joyce."
(AP, 1/13/98)(SFC, 12/9/99, p.B1)
1943 Jan 13, General Leclerc's
Free French forces merged with the British under Montgomery in Libya.
(HN, 1/13/99)
1944 Jan 13, Three Reich plane
plants were wrecked; 64 U.S. aircraft were lost in an air attack in
Germany.
(HN, 1/13/99)
1945 Jan 13, The Red Army opened
an offensive in South Poland, crashing 25 miles through the German
lines.
(HN, 1/13/99)
1947 Jan 13, British troops
replaced striking truck drivers.
(HN, 1/13/99)
1948 Jan 13, T Bone Burnett,
rocker, was born.
(MC, 1/13/02)
1952 Jan 13, Cornelius Bumpus,
keyboardist (Doobie Bros-Minute by Minute), was born.
(MC, 1/13/02)
1955 Jan 13, Chase National and
the Bank of Manhattan agreed to merge resulting in the second largest
U.S. bank.
(HN, 1/13/99)
1956 Jan 13, Lebanon and Syria
signed a defense pact providing for joint retaliation against Israel if
either was attacked.
(EWH, 1968, p.1241)
1956 Jan 13, Lyonel Feininger
(b.1871), American-German painter, died. His work included the woodcut
"Kreuzende Segelschiffe" (1919) and the pen and ink wash "Three Ghosts"
(1953). A catalog of his prints was made by Leona Prasse (1897-1984),
late curator of prints at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Feininger
published comics for the Chicago Tribune from 1906-1907.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyonel_Feininger)(HT,
5/97, p.60)(WSJ, 1/10/07, p.D10)
1957 Jan 13, The Wham-O Company
produced the 1st Frisbee. It was initially called the Pluto Platter.
(SFC, 7/1/02, p.B5)(MC, 1/13/02)
1958 Jan 13, 9,000 scientists of
43 nations petitioned the UN for a nuclear test ban.
(MC, 1/13/02)
1962 Jan 13, Ernie Kovacs
(b.1919), comedian and TV star, died at age 42 in a car crash in west
Los Angeles. ''Nothing in moderation'' was his credo and appeared on
his epitaph.
(AP,
1/13/98)(www.nytimes.com/1990/05/13/books/nothing-in-moderation.html?scp=4)
1963 Jan 13, Togo’s first
president, Sylvanus Olympio, was killed by a military junta led by
Gngassigbe Eyadema (29). Eyadama suspended the constitution and
instituted direct military rule. Nicholas Grunitzky succeeded Olympio.
Gnassingbe went on to become the country's military dictator, ruling
for nearly four decades during which time he celebrated the day of
Olympio's assassination as a national holiday.
(SFC, 6/25/98, p.A12)(EWH, 1st ed., p.1172)(AP,
3/3/10)
1965 Jan 13, Two U.S. planes were
shot down in Laos while on a combat mission.
(HN, 1/13/99)
1966 Jan 13, Robert C. Weaver
became the first black Cabinet member as he was appointed Secretary of
Housing and Urban Development by President Johnson.
(AP, 1/13/98)
1967 Jan 13, In Togo Lt. Col.
Etienne Eyadama (29) led an army coup and overthrew Pres. Grunitzky.
Eyadama suspended the constitution and instituted direct military rule.
(EWH, 1st ed., p.1172)
1968 Jan 13, Hester &
Appolinar's musical "Your Own Thing," premiered in NYC.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Your_Own_Thing)
1968 Jan 13, The U.S. reported
shifting most air targets from North Vietnam to Laos.
(HN, 1/13/99)
1973 Jan 13, In Bernardsville,
N.J., Rabbit Wells (21) was shot a killed by a local patrolman. In 1998
William Loizeaux authored "The Shooting of Rabbit Wells: An American
Tragedy."
(www.amazon.com/Shooting-Rabbit-Wells-American-Tragedy/dp/1559703806)(SFEC,
2/8/98, BR p.5)
1976 Jan 13, Sarah Caldwell became
the first woman to conduct at New York's Metropolitan Opera House as
she led a performance of “La Traviata.”
(AP, 1/13/02)
1976 Jan 13, Argentina ousted a
British envoy in dispute over Falkland Islands War.
(HN, 1/13/99)
1978 Jan 13, Former Vice President
Hubert H. Humphrey died in Waverly, Minn., at age 66.
(AP, 1/13/98)
1980 Jan 13, The United States
offered Pakistan a two-year aid plan to counter the Soviet threat in
Afghanistan.
(HN, 1/13/99)
1982 Jan 13, An Air Florida 737
crashed into the capital's 14th Street Bridge after takeoff and fell
into the Potomac River, killing 78 people.
(AP, 1/13/98)
1985 Jan 13, A train plunged into
a ravine in eastern Ethiopia and killed at least 392 people.
(http://tinyurl.com/yznz8w)
1986 Jan 13, In Guatemala just
before turning over power to Pres. Cerezo, Gen. Humberto Mejia Victores
issued a blanket self-amnesty for acts committed during the 3-year rule
of the military government.
(SFC, 7/5/96,
p.A13)(www.cidh.org/annualrep/85.86eng/chap4.a.htm)
1987 Jan 13, West German police
arrested Mohammed Ali Hamadi at the Frankfurt airport, when customs
officials discovered liquid explosives in his luggage. The Lebanese man
was convicted and served a life sentence in Germany for the 1985
hijacking of a TWA jetliner and killing of a U.S. Navy diver. Although
convicted and sentenced to life, Hamadi was paroled by Germany in
December 2005.
(AP, 12/20/05)(AP, 1/13/07)
1988 Jan 13, The US Supreme Court
ruled 5-3 that public school officials had broad powers to censor
school newspapers, school plays and other "school-sponsored expressive
activities."
(AP, 1/13/98)
1989 Jan 13, New York City subway
gunman Bernhard H. Goetz was sentenced to one year in prison for
possessing an unlicensed gun that he used to shoot four youths he said
were about to rob him. (He was freed the following September.)
(AP, 1/13/99)
1989 Jan 13, There was a sit-in at
SF General Hosp. by ACT-UP to call attention to the difficulty of
obtaining foscarnet, a drug to stabilize CMV retinitis, a common AIDS
illness that could lead to blindness.
(SFC, 3/22/97, p.A13)
1990 Jan 13, L. Douglas Wilder of
Virginia, the nation's first elected black governor, took the oath of
office in Richmond.
(AP, 1/13/00)
1991 Jan 13, UN Secretary-General
Javier Perez de Cuellar met with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in a
bid to avoid war in the Persian Gulf.
(AP, 1/13/01)
1991 Jan 13, Soviet troops
besieged the Vilnius TV tower and crushed a woman under a tank, but
failed to quash the drive for independence. The assault claimed 14
lives. The Soviets occupied strong points in Vilnius, Lithuania, in an
attempt to stop the independence movement.
(Wired, Dec., '95, p.94)(DrEE, 9/28/96, p.1)(AP,
1/13/01)(LHC, 1/12/03)
1991 Jan 13, Forty-two people were
killed in a brawl and stampede during a soccer match in Johannesburg,
South Africa.
(AP, 1/13/01)
1992 Jan 13, US serial killer
Jeffrey Dahmer pleaded guilty but insane in fifteen of the seventeen
murders he confessed to committing.
(MC, 1/13/02)
1992 Jan 13, Israeli, Palestinian
and Jordanian negotiators began talks in Washington on Palestinian
autonomy.
(AP, 1/13/98)
1992 Jan 13, Japan apologized for
forcing tens of thousands of Korean women to serve as sex slaves for
Japanese soldiers during World War II.
(AP, 1/13/98)
1993 Nov 13, President Clinton
used his weekly radio address to make yet another pitch for the North
American Free Trade Agreement, then flew to Memphis, Tenn., where he
delivered an anti-crime speech to black ministers at the Temple Church
of God in Christ.
(AP, 11/13/98)
1993 Jan 13, American and allied
warplanes raided southern Iraq.
(AP, 1/13/98)
1993 Jan 13, The space shuttle
Endeavor blasted off from Cape Canaveral.
(AP, 1/13/98)
1993 Jan 13, Marine Pvt. 1st Class
Domingo Arroyo became the first U.S. serviceman to be killed in Somalia.
(AP, 1/13/98)
1993 Jan 13, Former East German
leader Erich Honecker was freed from prison and allowed to leave for
Chile.
(AP, 1/13/00)
1994 Jan 13, President Clinton
held talks in Moscow with Russian President Boris Yeltsin.
(AP, 1/13/99)
1994 Jan 13, In Los Angeles, the
judge in the Erik Menendez murder case declared a mistrial after jurors
could not reach a verdict.
(AP, 1/13/04)
1994 Jan 13, Authorities in
Portland, Ore., arrested Shawn Eckardt, a bodyguard for figure skater
Tonya Harding, and Derrick Smith in connection with the attack on Nancy
Kerrigan.
(AP, 1/13/99)
1995 Jan 13, The Johnson Grove
Baptist Church in Bells, Tenn., burned down as did the Macedonia
Baptist Church in Denmark, Tenn. Arson was suspected and investigations
by the FBI and ATF were later begun.
(SFC, 6/11/96, p.A16)
1995 Jan 13, Italy named Treasury
Minister Lamberto Dini its prime minister. He pledged to resign after
approval of a deficit cutting budget.
(AP, 1/13/00)(WSJ, 10/27/95, p.A-1)
1995 Jan 13, Authorities in the
Philippines said they had unearthed a conspiracy by militant Muslims to
assassinate Pope John Paul II during his visit.
(AP, 1/13/00)
1996 Jan 13, President Clinton
paid a front-line visit to American forces in Bosnia, praising the
troops as “warriors for peace.”
(AP, 1/13/01)
1996 Jan 13, Nine Republican
presidential hopefuls debated in Des Moines, Iowa, where front-runner
Bob Dole and flat-tax champion Steve Forbes found themselves facing
repeated, bristling criticism.
(AP, 1/13/01)
1997 Jan 13, Supreme Court
justices aggressively questioned both sides in a battle over whether a
sexual-harassment lawsuit should be allowed to proceed against
President Clinton while he was in office. The following May, the
justices ruled unanimously that it could.
(AP, 1/13/98)
1997 Jan 13, Seven black soldiers
received the Medal of Honor for World War II valor; the lone survivor,
former Lt. Vernon Baker, received his medal from President Clinton at
the White House.
(AP, 1/13/98)
1998 Jan 13, The National Football
League completed a blockbuster $9.2 billion deal with the Walt Disney
Co., which got to keep "Monday Night Football" for ABC and won the
entire Sunday night cable package for ESPN.
(AP, 1/13/99)
1998 Jan 13, Linda Tripp, a
Pentagon aide, met with Monica Lewinsky while wearing a secret
listening device, and recorded a conversation concerning Lewinsky’s
1995 alleged affair with Pres. Clinton. It was later reported that she
had visited the White House over 3 dozen times after leaving her job
there to work at the Pentagon in 1996. Tripp came forward with
allegations that Lewinsky was planning to commit perjury in the Jones
vs. Clinton case.
(SFC, 1/22/98, p.A3)(SFC, 2/3/98, p.A2)(SFC,
9/12/98, p.A12)
1998 Jan 13, Three robbers stole
$1.17 million at the NYC World Trade Center from guards delivering
money to a currency exchange center. They returned to their Brooklyn
neighborhood where neighbors reported them and 2/3 were arrested. The
robbers were dubbed the blundering bandits after authorities said they
removed their masks while under video surveillance; three suspects were
arrested.
(SFC, 1/14/98, p.A3)(SFC, 1/16/98, p.A3)(AP, 1/13/99)
1998 Jan 13, In SF four to five
men robbed a jewelry salesman in Chinatown near 3 plainclothes police
officers for some $2 million in jewels and escaped.
(SFC, 1/14/98, p.A16)
1998 Jan 13, It was reported that
scientists at Geron Corp. demonstrated a method to reproduce human
cells without signs of aging. the process incorporated the use of the
telomerase protein.
(SFC, 1/14/98, p.A1)
1998 Jan 13, It was reported that
bycatch (unintended catch that is discarded) from overfishing depletes
the world’s oceans of 20 million tons a year, or roughly one of every
four pounds caught. This wasted bycatch is equivalent to about 10
pounds of food for every person on Earth.
(SFC, 1/13/98, p.A6)
1998 Jan 13, An Afghan
Russian-made cargo plane crashed in southwestern Pakistan with as many
as 90 Taliban militia and all were killed.
(SFC, 1/14/98, p.C2)
1998 Jan 13, In Australia a
federal court upheld the armed forces’ right to expel HIV-positive
soldiers.
(SFC, 1/14/98, p.C3)
1998 Jan 13, Iraq blocked a UN
weapons inspection tem led by an American.
(SFC, 2/24/98, p.A9)
1998 Jan 13, In Israel the Cabinet
adopted a 12-page list of conditions for the Palestinians to meet
before the transfer of any more West Bank land.
(SFC, 1/14/98, p.C2)
1998 Jan 13, From Rwanda The
government reported that 9 Roman Catholic nuns were killed last week by
Hutu rebels near the Congo border.
(WSJ, 1/13/98, p.A1)
1999 Jan 13, 60 Minutes II
premiered on TV.
(WSJ, 1/18/99, p.A16)
1999 Jan 13, Michael Jordan
announced his retirement from basketball and the Chicago Bulls.
(SFC, 1/13/99, p.A1)(AP, 1/13/00)
1999 Jan 13, President Clinton's
legal team dispatched a formal trial brief to the Senate, arguing that
neither "fact or law" warranted his removal from office; House
officials sent the Senate all public evidence in the case.
(AP, 1/13/00)
1999 Jan 13, Lawyers filed suit
against major garment retailers for inhumane working conditions for
thousands of Asian women on Saipan, a US commonwealth island.
(SFC, 1/14/99, p.A1)
1999 Jan 13, The expedition to
reach the South Pole by Jon Muir, Peter Hillary and Eric Phillips,
called in outside support for food.
(SFC, 1/14/99, p.C2)
1999 Jan 13, An explosion on
Smackover, Ark., killed 3 men working on a naphtha tank valve.
(SFC, 1/14/99, p.A3)
1999 Jan 13, A KC-135 refueling
tanker crashed while landing near Geilenkirchen, Germany, and 4 US
airmen were killed. They were attached to an Air national Guard unit
based in Spokane.
(WSJ, 1/14/99, p.A1)
1999 Jan 13, Brazil was forced to
allow its currency to slide and global markets fell in response.
Gustavo Franco, head of the central bank, quit and was replaced by
Francisco Lopes ('Chico'). Lopes announced a new trading range for the
real between 1.2 and 1.32 to the dollar.
(SFC, 1/14/99, p.A10)(WSJ, 1/14/99, p.A1)
1999 Jan 13, Dozens of illegal
refugees on Crete went on a hunger strike to support their demand for
political asylum. A boat that was to take them to Italy ran aground in
a storm Nov 27. The refugees were Kurds, Indians and Sudanese.
(SFC, 1/14/99, p.A6)
1999 Jan 13, In Kosovo rebels
freed 8 Yugoslav soldiers after getting private incentives from int'l.
officials.
(SFC, 1/14/99, p.A11)
1999 Jan 13-14, In Moscow
agreements were signed with Iraq to reinforce air defenses and upgrade
squadrons of MiG fighters. The $160 million deal had been reportedly
approved by Prime Minister Primakov on Dec 7.
(SFC, 2/15/99, p.A10)
1999 Jan 13-25, Marvin Kalb
covered this period of the Monicagate story in his 2001 book: “One
Scandalous Story: Clinton, Lewinsky, and 13 Days That Tarnished
American Journalism.”
(WSJ, 10/22/01, p.A17)
2000 Jan 13, Bill Gates stepped
down as CEO of Microsoft and handed the leadership over to Steve
Ballmer.
(SFC, 1/14/00, p.A1)(AP, 1/13/01)
2000 Jan 13, In Algeria the
deadline for the surrender of Islamic militants expired.
(SFC, 1/14/00, p.A14)
2000 Jan 13, In Brazil Mexican
singer Gloria Trevi was arrested with her manager Sergio Andrade and
Maria Raquenal Portillo on Mexican charges of corrupting Karina Yapor
(17). Trevi became pregnant in May and rape was suspected. Brasilia
federal police chief Paulo Magalhaes was removed from his post in
October.
(SFC, 1/15/00, p.A10)(SFC, 10/18/01, p.C2)
2000 Jan 13, In France a 50 member
surgical team performed the world's first double-hand and forearm
transplant at Edouard-Herriot Hospital in a 17-hour operation led by
Dr. Jean-Michel Dubernard.
(SFC, 1/15/00, p.A3)
2000 Jan 13, Serbian authorities
charged 144 jailed ethnic Albanians with terrorism in Kosovo during
1999.
(SFC, 1/14/00, p.D2)
2000 Jan 13, In Vitina, Kosovo,
Merita Shabiu, an 11-year-old Albanian girl, was raped and murdered. On
Jan 16 American soldier, Staff Sgt. Frank J. Ronghi (35), was charged
for the rape and murder. Ronghi later confessed and was sentenced to
life in prison.
(SFC, 1/17/00, p.A10)(WSJ, 1/17/00, p.A1)(SFC,
1/24/00, p.A9)(SFC, 8/2/00, p.A14)
2000 Jan 13, A Swiss Shorts
300-360 airplane carrying Libyan oil workers to a refinery at Marsa
el-Brega crashed off the Libya coast and at least 15 of 41 people were
killed.
(SFC, 1/14/00, p.D2)(WSJ, 1/14/00, p.A1)
2001 Jan 13, In Utah a small plane
crashed into the Great Salt Lake and all 9 people aboard were killed.
(SFC, 1/16/01, p.A2)
2001 Jan 13, In El Salvador a 7.6
earthquake hit near San Salvador. Some 1200 people were not accounted
for in the buried Las Colinas neighborhood. The “slab earthquake”
originated 24-36 miles below the surface. The earthquake death toll
later climbed to over 840. Damages were estimated at $1 billion.
(SSFC, 1/14/01, p.A1)(SSFC, 1/21/01, p.D1)(AP,
1/13/06)
2001 Jan 13, The Palestinian
Authority executed the 1st 2 Palestinians ever convicted of
collaborating with Israel.
(SSFC, 1/14/01, p.D1)
2002 Jan 13, The off-Broadway
musical "The Fantasticks" was performed for the last time, ending a run
of nearly 42 years and 17,162 shows.
(AP, 1/13/03)
2002 Jan 13, Pres. Bush lost
consciousness briefly after he choked on a cookie while watching a
football game on TV.
(SFC, 1/14/02, p.A1)
2002 Jan 13, Treasury Secretary
Paul O'Neill and Commerce Secretary Don Evans said on talk shows they
had never considered intervening in Enron's spiral toward bankruptcy,
nor informed President Bush of requests for help from the fallen energy
giant.
(AP, 1/13/03)
2002 Jan 13, Christian Michael
Longo (27), wanted on charges of killing his wife and three children in
2001 and dumping their bodies into coastal waters off Oregon, was
arrested in Mexico. Longo had fled the US and impersonated journalist
Michael Finkel while abroad. Finkel was fired by the NY Times Magazine
in February for creating a composite character in a story on child
slavery in West Africa. In 2005 Finkel authored “True Story: Murder,
Memoir, Mea Culpa.”
(SFC, 1/15/02, p.A1)(AP, 1/13/03)(SSFC, 6/5/05, p.B2)
2002 Jan 13, Ted Demme, film and
TV director, died at age 38 while playing in a celebrity basketball
game in Santa Monica.
(SFC, 1/15/02, p.A17)
2002 Jan 13, In India armed
militants in Tripura state killed 16 and wounded 10 in the Singicherra
area. The outlawed National Liberation Front of Tripura targeted
Bengali immigrants.
(SFC, 1/14/02, p.A6)
2002 Jan 13, Muslim scholars
concluded a 6-day conference in Mecca and issued a definition of
terrorism as: “all acts of aggression committed by individuals, groups
or states against human beings, including attacks on their religion,
life, intellect or property.
(WSJ, 1/14/02, p.A12)
2003 Jan 13, Connecticut Sen.
Joseph Lieberman jumped into the 2004 race for president.
(AP, 1/13/04)
2003 Jan 13, The owners of FAO
Schwarz filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
(AP, 1/13/04)
2003 Jan 13, Rock musician Pete
Townshend was arrested in London on suspicion of possessing indecent
images of children. Townshend acknowledged using an Internet Web site
advertising child pornography, but said he was not a pedophile and was
only doing research for an autobiography dealing with his own suspected
childhood sexual abuse; he was eventually cleared of possessing
pornographic images of children.
(AP, 1/13/08)
2003 Jan 13, US warplanes struck
an anti-ship missile launcher in southern Iraq. US planes also dropped
leaflets over An Najaf, about 85 miles southeast of Baghdad. It was the
14th drop in 3 months.
(AP, 1/13/03)
2003 Jan 13, It was reported that
Iraq has experienced a dramatic increase in child cancers in recent
years. Blame was cast on the US use of depleted uranium during the 1991
Gulf War.
(SFC, 1/13/03, p.A1)
2003 Jan 13, Dutch Foreign
Minister Jaap de Hoop Scheffer took over as head of the 55-nation
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe for 2003. He said
the Vienna-based OSCE would sharpen its efforts to improve border
security and police cooperation and cut off the flow of cash to
terrorist groups.
(AP, 1/13/03)
2003 Jan 13, UN inspectors took
their hunt for banned arms to science and technology colleges in
Baghdad, and the top nuclear inspector said his teams' mission would
take several more months.
(AP, 1/13/03)
2003 Jan 13, An Indonesia court
sentenced Ang Kiem Soei, a Dutch citizen of Chinese descent, to death
for operating what police say was one of the biggest ecstasy factories
in Southeast Asia.
(AP, 1/13/03)
2003 Jan 13, Two Palestinians
threw grenades at an Israeli bus in the Gaza Strip and were shot dead
by Israeli troops, and an Islamic Jihad activist was killed in an
explosion in the West Bank.
(AP, 1/14/03)
2003 Jan 13, Protesters waved
Puerto Rican flags and shouted "Navy get out!" as fighter jets dropped
inert bombs over Vieques in what the Navy says will be its last round
of training on the island.
(AP, 1/14/03)
2003 Jan 13, Togo's Pres.
Gnassingbe Eyadema, celebrated 36 years in power Monday with a military
parade, a display derided by opposition groups as "a sheer waste of
time."
(AP, 1/13/03)
2004 Jan 13, The US Supreme Court
endorsed the use of police road blocks as an investigational tool for
finding witnesses to recent crimes.
(SFC, 1/14/04, p.A3)
2004 Jan 13, A Human Rights Watch
report said more than $4 billion in oil revenue disappeared from
Angolan state coffers between 1997 and 2002, even as the country was
struggling to recover from 27 years of civil war.
(AP, 1/13/04)
2004 Jan 13, In Maryland a fiery
explosion killed five on the northbound lanes of Interstate 95. A
tanker carrying flammable material plunged off an overpass on
Interstate 895, landing in the northbound lane of I-95.
(AP, 1/14/04)
2004 Jan 13, Canada's PM Paul
Martin met U.S. President George W. Bush officially for the 1st time.
Bush announced that Canada will be allowed into a second round of
bidding for contracts to rebuild Iraq.
(AP, 1/13/04)
2004 Jan 13, The European
Commission proposed an initiative aimed at creating a single market for
services within the European Union (EU), similar to the single market
for goods act of 1986. It came to be known as Bolkestein
Directive after the Dutch Commissioner Frits Bolkestein (b.1933), who
launched it. Trade unions opposed it. On 16 February 2006, the European
Parliament in plenary session in Strasbourg voted in favor of a
compromise proposal that went a long way towards meeting the trade
union demands.
(www.etuc.org/a/499)
2004 Jan 13, A US soldier at Abu
Ghraib prison reported US abuses of Iraqi prisoners. Criminal charges
were lodged against 6 soldiers on Mar 20. In 2005 Spc. Charles Graner
was convicted on 5 counts of assault and sentenced to 10 years in a
military stockade. Graner said he had operated under orders from
superior officers.
(SFC, 5/6/04, p.A17)(AP, 1/13/05)(SSFC, 1/16/05,
p.A1)
2004 Jan 13, Hostile fire brought
down a U.S. Army Apache attack helicopter in Iraq, but the two crew
members escaped injury.
(AP, 1/13/05)
2004 Jan 13, In Mexico the
34-nation Summit of the Americas ended. The United States reached out
to its neighbors on free trade and battling corruption, smoothing tense
relations with Latin American leaders.
(AP, 1/13/04)(SFC, 1/14/04, p.A1)
2004 Jan 13, In northern England
Dr. Harold Shipman was found hanged in his Wakefield prison cell one
day before his 58th birthday. He was convicted in 2000 of killing 15
patients and later was found to have murdered at least 200 more, mostly
by lethal injection. He always maintained his innocence.
(AP, 1/13/04)
2004 Jan 13, A Dutch high school
student walked into his school's crowded cafeteria and shot Hans van
Wieren (49), an economics teacher, point-blank in the head, fatally
wounding him.
(AP, 1/13/04)
2004 Jan 13, A senior Swaziland
aide said King Mswati III has ordered nine palaces built within
existing royal compounds to house seven of his 10 wives and two future
brides. Some $15 million of his impoverished kingdom's national budget
would be used on the project.
(AP, 1/13/04)
2004 Jan 13, Thai and Malaysian
military forces began joint land and air patrols along their jungle
border for the first time since the 1970s.
(AP, 1/14/04)
2004 Jan 13, In Tashkent,
Uzbekistan, a domestic airliner crashed on approach to the airport. All
37 people, including the top U.N. official for Uzbekistan, were killed.
(AP, 1/13/04)
2005 Jan 13, US baseball owners
and players agreed to a more stringent drug policy. It would suspend
first-time offenders for 10 days and randomly tested players year-round.
(SFC, 1/13/05, p.A1)(AP, 1/13/06)
2005 Jan 13, The FBI said it may
have to scrap a costly computer system overhaul.
(WSJ, 1/14/05, p.A1)
2005 Jan 13, The European-built
space probe Huygens entered the atmosphere of Saturn's largest moon,
Titan.
(Reuters, 1/14/05)
2005 Jan 13, A Black Hawk
helicopter crashed during a counternarcotics mission in the jungles of
southwest Colombia, killing all 20 soldiers aboard.
(AP, 1/13/05)
2005 Jan 13, Sir Mark Thatcher
pleaded guilty to unwittingly helping to finance a foiled coup plot in
oil-rich Equatorial Guinea, accepting a $506,000 fine and suspended
jail sentence.
(AP, 1/13/05)
2005 Jan 13, In Iran a
malfunctioning heater in an Iranian school ignited a barrel of
kerosene, touching off a blaze that killing 13 children.
(AP, 1/13/05)
2005 Jan 13, In Iraq gunmen opened
fire on a minibus picking up a Turkish businessman from the Bakhan
Hotel in central Baghdad, killing six Iraqis and kidnapping the Turk,
who reportedly ran a construction company that worked with U.S.-led
occupation authorities.
(AP, 1/13/05)
2005 Jan 13, In Iraq's western
Anbar province 2 U.S. Marines were killed in action, and a soldier died
near the restive northern city of Mosul. Gunmen killed three officials
of a leading Kurdish political party in an ambush in the volatile
northern city of Mosul.
(AP, 1/14/05)
2005 Jan 13, In Iraq 28 prisoners
held by Iraqi authorities for common crimes escaped as they were being
transported by bus from the Abu Ghraib prison to another facility. 10
were quickly recaptured.
(AP, 1/14/05)
2005 Jan 13, Israel's foreign
minister said the planned sale of advanced Russian missiles to Syria
will disrupt regional stability and Moscow should call off the deal.
(AP, 1/13/05)
2005 Jan 13, Nepal's PM Sher
Bahadur Deuba said he would call elections and intensify a crackdown
against Maoist rebels after they turned down his offer of peace talks.
(AP, 1/13/05)
2005 Jan 13, Palestinian militants
killed six Israeli workers at a Gaza crossing. 3 Palestinian attackers
were also killed.
(AP, 1/14/05)(SFC, 1/14/05, p.A3)
2005 Jan 13, In Poland an
anti-terrorism law that allows authorities to shoot down hijacked
planes as a last resort took effect, part of efforts to protect the
country from attacks similar to those of Sept. 11.
(AP, 1/13/05)
2005 Jan 13, A Russian passenger
plane with 10 people on board went missing on a flight over Siberia.
(AP, 1/13/05)
2005 Jan 13, Saudi judicial
officials said a religious court has sentenced 15 Saudis, including a
woman, to as many as 250 lashes each and up to six months in prison for
participating in a protest against the monarchy.
(AP, 1/14/05)
2005 Jan 13, In Spain an explosion
killed seven workers at a warehouse in the northern city of Burgos. A
gas leak was suspected.
(AP, 1/13/05)
2006 Jan 13, President Bush met
with Germany's new chancellor, Angela Merkel, at the White House.
German's security services faced the prospect of a parliamentary
inquiry, triggered by reports that German agents in Baghdad had helped
the United States pinpoint bombing targets on April 7, 2003. Foreign
Minister Walter Steinmeier confirmed that Germany had 2 agents in
Baghdad, who helped American with coordinates for non-targets.
(Reuters, 1/13/06)(WSJ, 1/13/06, p.A1)(Econ,
1/21/06, p.49)(AP, 1/13/07)
2006 Jan 13, US attorneys general
in 12 states said that the Bush administration's plan to ease rules on
reporting legal toxin releases would compromise the public's right to
know about possible health risks in their neighborhoods.
(AP, 1/13/06)
2006 Jan 13, NBC's Nashville
affiliate closed "The Book of Daniel" after the show, whose main
character is a pill-popping Episcopal priest with a gay son and a
pot-dealing daughter, drew thousands of complaints.
(AP, 1/13/06)
2006 Jan 13, North Dakota State
University's North Central Research Center, Basin Electric Power
Cooperative and other partners described plans for a station in Minot
to refuel hydrogen-powered vehicles using wind power.
(AP, 1/13/06)
2006 Jan 13, The population of New
Orleans was estimated at 40% of its original 460,000.
(WSJ, 1/13/06, p.A1)
2006 Jan 13, Eldon Dedini,
cartoonist, died in Carmel, California. His ribald drawings appeared in
the New Yorker and Playboy magazines.
(SFC, 1/19/06, p.B7)
2006 Jan 13, In the Bahamas the
Compleat Angler Hotel on North Bimini Island was destroyed by fire. The
hotel's owner Julian Brown helped the guests escape before disappearing
in the flames to fight the fire. The hotel claimed to be a one-time
writing headquarters for Ernest Hemingway and advertised room No. 1 as
the place where Hemingway worked on "To Have and Have Not."
(AP, 1/13/06)
2006 Jan 13, Bolivia's
president-elect ended an around-the-world tour with a promise to
respect foreign investments and vowed not to nationalize the Bolivian
operations of Brazil's state oil company Petrobras SA.
(AP, 1/13/06)
2006 Jan 13, A battle for
livestock between Ethiopian and Kenyan nomads left 38 people dead in
drought-stricken northern Kenya, in the remote village of
Lokamarinyang, along the Kenya-Ethiopia border. The fighting killed 30
of the Dongiro raiders and eight Kenyans, all of them women and
children. A drought that has impoverished some 11.5 million people in
the area, most of them nomads, has exacerbated tensions between the
tribes.
(AP, 1/19/06)
2006 Jan 13, Maimuma Taal-Ndure,
Gambia’s director of aviation, was arraigned on charges of economic
crime, mostly related to the improvement of Banjul Airport. Taal-Ndure
had resisted efforts transfer aviation agency funds to another
government agency. Her case was dismissed following a trial that
stretched over 18 months.
(WSJ, 12/24/07, p.A8)
2006 Jan 13, Iran threatened to
block inspections of its nuclear sites if confronted by the UN Security
Council over its atomic activities. The hard-line president reaffirmed
his country's intention to produce nuclear energy.
(AP, 1/13/06)
2006 Jan 13, A US Army
reconnaissance helicopter was shot down by insurgents in the northern
city of Mosul, killing its two pilots.
(AP, 1/13/06)(SFC, 1/14/06, p.A6)
2006 Jan 13, In Lithuania Mykolas
Burokevicius (78), former Communist Party leader, was freed from
Lukiskes Prison after serving 12 years for murder and other crimes.
(AP, 1/13/06)
2006 Jan 13, Raul Anguiano
(b.1915), Mexican painter, sculptor and muralist, died in Mexico City.
(SFC, 1/17/06, p.B5)
2006 Jan 13, Mongolia’s Parliament
voted to dissolve the government of PM Tsakhilganiin Elbegdorj.
(AP, 1/14/06)
2006 Jan 13, A Hong Kong newspaper
reported that North Korea's secretive leader Kim Jong Il is on a
two-day visit to the southern Chinese province of Guangdong.
(AP, 1/13/06)
2006 Jan 13, A local lawmaker said
a US airstrike on a Pakistani village near the border with Afghanistan
killed at least 17 people, including women and children. The American
military said it had no reports of an attack. The provincial government
said at least four foreign terrorists died in the purported US
airstrike aimed at al-Qaida's No. 2 leader in Damadola. The strike
destroyed three houses and killed 18 people. The US missile strike in
Pakistan killed a relative of al-Qaida's No. 2 leader Ayman al-Zawahri
and a terror suspect.
(AP, 1/17/06)(AP, 1/13/07)
2006 Jan 13, A Philippine judge
issued arrest warrants for four US Marines charged with rape, putting
pressure on the United States to hand them over to Philippine
authorities.
(AP, 1/13/06)
2006 Jan 13, In southern Russia a
bus transporting workers after their shift at a local factory collided
with a train, killing at least 21 people and severely injuring five.
(AP, 1/13/06)
2006 Jan 13, South Korea agreed to
resume imports of some American beef, banned two years ago over fears
of mad cow disease. The US government pressed South Korea to accept all
US beef imports.
(AFP, 1/13/06)
2006 Jan 13, Sudan rejected a
suggestion by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan that the United States
and Europe help set up a possible mobile force in Darfur to supplement
African troops now on the ground.
(AP, 1/13/06)
2006 Jan 13, Ukrainian President
Viktor Yushchenko said that his country should produce its own nuclear
fuel for power plants.
(AP, 1/13/06)
2006 Jan 13, Venezuela’s President
Hugo Chavez on blasted an attempt by the US to block Spain from selling
Venezuela 12 military planes with American parts.
(AP, 1/13/06)
2007 Jan 13, The North Carolina
state attorney general's office agreed to take over the sexual assault
case against three Duke University lacrosse players at the request of
embattled Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong. All three
players were later exonerated.
(AP, 1/13/08)
2007 Jan 13, In SF the Muni Metro
T-Third line began operations.
(SFC, 1/13/07, p.B1)
2007 Jan 13, It was reported that
Kink, a Web-based pornography distributor, had purchased the 1912 old
armory building on Mission St. in San Francisco for $14.5 million.
(SFC, 1/13/07, p.B1)
2007 Jan 13, In Huntington, W.Va,
9 people were killed in an apartment building fire.
(AP, 1/13/08)
2007 Jan 13, In McDowell County,
W.Va., 2 miners were killed when a roof collapsed inside the Brooks Run
Mining Company's Cucumber coal mine.
(AP, 1/13/08)
2007 Jan 13, It was reported that
the Asian vulture had declined by up to 99% in the last decade due to
poisoning from diclofenac, an anti-inflammatory drug for cattle. In
2006 India, Pakistan and Nepal banned the making and importing of the
drug.
(Econ, 1/13/07, p.39)
2007 Jan 13, In Afghanistan
British marines, supported by Dutch and British attack helicopters,
staged a pre-dawn attack on a mud-brick compound atop a barren hill
where insurgents were thought hiding, setting off a battle that killed
16 suspected militants and one marine in Helmand province. US warplanes
dropped 500-pound bombs.
(AP, 1/14/07)
2007 Jan 13, ASEAN leaders meeting
in the Philippines signed an agreement to regulate migrant workers.
(Econ, 1/20/07, p.54)
2007 Jan 13, It was reported that
thousands of birds had dropped dead over the past 3 weeks in Western
Australia.
(SFC, 1/13/07, p.B8)
2007 Jan 13, Bangladeshi police
and soldiers arrested more than 2,500 people overnight and raided the
homes of several political leaders after a new caretaker government was
sworn in to quell unrest ahead of elections.
(AP, 1/13/07)
2007 Jan 13, A Bolivian air force
plane crashed in a southern state, killing all eight people on board.
(AP, 1/14/07)
2007 Jan 13, In Canada
groundbreaking took place in Calgary on the 58-story Encana tower, The
Bow. In Dec 2008 construction was halted due to falling oil prices.
(Econ, 1/17/09,
p.40)(http://highriseconstruction.wordpress.com/2008/07/)
2007 Jan 13, China said Wang
You-theng, founder of the Rebar Asia Pacific Group, left China for the
US. You-theng had vanished earlier this month amid accusations he stole
millions of dollars from his Taiwan company.
(Reuters, 1/19/07)
2007 Jan 13, Pranab Mukherjee,
India’s foreign minister, visited Islamabad to discuss Sir Creek and
other disputes. 2 days later Indian and Pakistani surveyors began
mapping the creek in preparation for settling their maritime border
there.
(Econ, 1/20/07, p.52)
2007 Jan 13, In Iraq at least 11
people were killed or found dead, including a Sunni cleric who was shot
to death near his home in Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad and five
who were slain in separate attacks in northern Iraq.
(AP, 1/13/07)
2007 Jan 13, An Italian military
tribunal gave life sentences in absentia to 10 German former SS men for
massacring about 800 Italian villagers in 1944. They had laid waste to
the villages of Marzabotto, Grizzana and Vado di Monzuno near Bologna,
as the Germans retreated before Allied troops.
(Reuters, 1/14/07)
2007 Jan 13, It was reported that
swarms of locusts had descended on the Mexican state of Yucatan and
threatened over 12,000 acres of vegetation.
(SFC, 1/13/07, p.B8)
2007 Jan 13, Suspected avian
influenza was recorded in northern Nigeria's Sokoto State, a day after
the disease reportedly infected 5,000 birds in nearby Kastina state.
(AP, 1/14/07)
2007 Jan 13, Somali lawmakers
authorized the government to declare martial law as the country's
internationally recognized leaders struggled to assert their authority
after battling an Islamic movement that had controlled much of southern
Somalia.
(AP, 1/13/07)
2007 Jan 13, In southern Thailand
a Buddhist man and his wife were working at a rubber plantation in Yala
province when a group attacked them, shooting the man three times in
the chest before beheading him and killing his wife. Another Buddhist
was killed in a drive-by shooting in a separate attack in Yala. The
Islamic insurgency, that flared in January 2004, has killed more than
1,900 people.
(AP, 1/14/07)
2008 Jan 13, The NY Times reported
that at least 121 Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans have committed a
killing or been charged in one in the US after returning from combat.
(AP, 1/13/08)
2008 Jan 13, Ken Kelley (58),
former editor of the Ann Arbor Argus and the SF-based SunDance
magazine, died in Pleasanton, Ca.
(http://hotweir.blogspot.com/2008/01/goodbye-to-my-friend-ken-kelley.html)(SFC,
4/22/08, p.B3)(http://bentley.umich.edu/exhibits/sinclair/)
2008 Jan 13, In Abu Dhabi, UAR,
President Bush said that Iran is threatening the security of the world,
and that the United States and Arab allies must join together to
confront the danger "before it's too late."
(AP, 1/13/08)
2008 Jan 13, William Wood, US
ambassador to Afghanistan, flew to Musa Qala, previously held by the
Taliban in the heart of the world's largest poppy-growing region, and
told with Mullah Abdul Salaam, the ex-militant commander now in charge
there, that Afghans must stop "producing poison." In southern
Afghanistan Taliban militants killed eight officers in an attack on a
police checkpoint in Kandahar province. A suicide bomber killed another
policeman and wounded eight other people when he blew himself up in a
housing compound in the town of Lashkar Gah in neighboring Helmand
province.
(AP, 1/13/08)(AP, 1/14/08)
2008 Jan 13, Two young adventurers
completed a 62-day paddle of more than 2,000 miles to become the first
people to travel from Australia to New Zealand by kayak.
(AP, 1/13/08)
2008 Jan 13, In Chile Patricia
Troncoso (39), an imprisoned Indian-rights activist who has been on a
hunger strike for 93 days, was sent to a hospital because of her
deteriorating condition. Troncoso, imprisoned in 2002, is serving a
10-year sentence for participating in a group that set a fire on a farm
claimed by Mapuche Indian activists who say the property belonged to
their ancestors.
(AP, 1/13/08)
2008 Jan 13, China took aim at
price manipulators and hoarders of goods, as Beijing ramped up its
campaign to rein in inflation which is running at its highest level in
more than a decade. The government said it has closed more than 11,000
small coal mines as part of a two-year-old safety crackdown aimed at
stemming the industry's high death toll.
(Reuters, 1/13/08)(AP, 1/13/08)
2008 Jan 13, Delegation chief
Kambasu Ngeze said at a Congolese peace conference that renegade
general Laurent Nkunda's Kivu movement vowed to continue its armed
struggle "with neither remorse nor regret."
(AP, 1/13/08)
2008 Jan 13, French President
Nicolas Sarkozy confirmed plans to sign a nuclear cooperation agreement
with the United Arab Emirates amid reports French firms could construct
up to two nuclear reactors there.
(AP, 1/13/08)
2008 Jan 13, In Georgia tens of
thousands of opposition supporters rallied in Tbilisi to protest what
they denounced as massive vote fraud that helped US-allied Mikhail
Saakashvili win a second presidential term.
(AP, 1/13/08)
2008 Jan 13, Indian PM Manmohan
Singh arrived in Beijing for a three-day visit aimed at boosting
sometimes strained relations between the two Asian giants.
(AP, 1/13/08)
2008 Jan 13, In Iraq several
Shiite and Sunni political factions united to pressure Kurds over
control of oil and the future of Kirkuk, which the Kurds wished to
annex.
(SFC, 1/14/08, p.A19)
2008 Jan 13, Irish PM Bertie Ahern
arrived in Cape Town as part of a five-day visit to South Africa and
Tanzania.
(AP, 1/13/08)
2008 Jan 13, King Abdullah II of
Jordan arrived on a three-day official visit to Morocco. Talks between
King Abdullah II and Morocco's King Mohammed VI focused on revitalizing
trade between Amman and Rabat.
(AFP, 1/13/08)
2008 Jan 13, A UN humanitarian
agency said floods in Mozambique have killed about 50 people and
displaced tens of thousands.
(AP, 1/13/08)
2008 Jan 13, In Sri Lanka Japan's
peace envoy opened talks, hinting international donors may hold back
much-needed foreign aid if the island's decades-long ethnic conflict
escalates. Government soldiers crossed the front lines, destroying
three bunkers and killing six rebels. Troops killed a 7th insurgent
when he went to inspect the front lines north of rebel-held territory.
(AP, 1/13/08)(AP, 1/15/08)
2008 Jan 13, In Thailand six
suspected militants escaped in a jailbreak.
(AP, 1/15/08)
2009 Jan 13, President George W.
Bush declared his administration had achieved "a good, solid" record
and gave thanks to both his closest aides and Americans across the
country.
(AP, 1/13/09)
2009 Jan 13, The Pentagon said
that 61 former detainees from its military prison camp at Guantanamo
Bay, Cuba, appear to have returned to terrorism since their release
from custody.
(Reuters, 1/14/09)
2009 Jan 13, The city of Los
Angeles, plagued by 23,000 violent gang crimes since 2004, including
784 murders and 12,000 felony assaults, announced that it had won its
first civil judgment, for $5 million, against a criminal gang that had
dominated the heroin trade downtown for decades.
(CSM, 1/15/09)(http://tinyurl.com/85n3cl)
2009 Jan 13, Citigroup announced
that it will spin off its SmithBarney retail brokerage into a joint
venture with Morgan Stanley. Plans were also afoot for Citigroup to
shrink by a third.
(WSJ, 1/14/09, p.A1)
2009 Jan 13, Patrick McGoohan
(b.1928), Emmy winning TV and film actor, died. He created and starred
in the cult classic TV show “The Prisoner” (1967). The British show
premiered in the US in 1968.
(SFC, 1/15/09, p.A2)
2009 Jan 13, Nancy Bird-Walton
(93), Australian aviation pioneer, died from natural causes. She was
the first woman in Australia to operate a commercial aircraft. Sir
Charles Kingsford-Smith, the first man to fly across the mid-Pacific,
taught Watson how to fly in 1933, when she was just 17 years old. Two
years later, she obtained a commercial pilot's license and began taking
paying passengers for joyrides around the country.
(AP, 1/13/09)
2009 Jan 13, In Austria Umar
Israilov (27), a Chechen refugee, was shot dead on a Vienna street.
Officials said they had no proof the killing was political, but human
rights activists said his death was linked to his opposition to
Chechnya's pro-Moscow president. On Jan 28 Austrian authorities
arrested seven suspects, all Chechens, in the killing. On February 19
Polish police arrested Turpal Ali J. (31), a man suspected of killing
Israilov. In 2010 Austrian investigators concluded that Chechnya Pres.
Ramzan Kadyrov ordered the kidnapping of one of his critics and former
bodyguards and that Israilov was shot to death when the abduction went
awry.
(AP, 1/28/09)(AP, 2/22/09)(AP, 4/27/10)
2009 Jan 13, China's government
reported that exports fell at their fastest rate in a decade as the
country's trade slump worsened again in December, a decline that's led
to masses of layoffs and growing fears of social unrest.
(AP, 1/13/09)
2009 Jan 13, Ethiopia handed over
security duties in neighboring Somalia to a joint force of Somali
government security forces and Islamic militiamen, a shift some fear
will leave a power vacuum in the lawless African nation.
(AP, 1/13/09)
2009 Jan 13, Iran’s judiciary
announced that 2 men were stoned to death last month for adultery.
(WSJ, 1/14/09, p.A1)
2009 Jan 13, Israeli ground troops
closed in on downtown Gaza City, battling Palestinian militants in the
streets of a densely populated neighborhood, destroying dozens of homes
and sending terrified residents running for cover as gunfire and
explosions echoed in the distance. Some 15 rockets and mortar shells
were fired toward Israel, causing no injuries. Egyptian mediators
pushed the militant Palestinian Hamas group to accept a truce proposal
for the embattled Gaza Strip in talks. The UN secretary-general headed
to the region to join the multitrack diplomatic efforts for a
cease-fire in Israel’s 18-day offensive, in which more than 900
Palestinians have been killed, half of them civilians.
(AP, 1/13/09)
2009 Jan 13, In Latvia a protest
against economic reforms that drew thousands in Riga turned violent as
small pockets of rioters clashed with police and attacked government
buildings.
(AP, 1/13/09)
2009 Jan 13, Pirates attacked a
Norwegian cable ship off the coast of Nigeria but failed to seize the
boat despite gunfire, leaving the crew of 52 unhurt.
(AFP, 1/13/09)
2009 Jan 13, Russia and Ukraine
hotly blamed each other as Russia restarted natural gas supplies but
little or no gas flowed toward Europe. EU officials watched in dismay
and criticized both nations for their intransigence.
(AP, 1/13/09)
2009 Jan 13, A Russian warship
helped foil an attack on a Dutch container ship by suspected Somali
pirates in the dangerous Gulf of Aden.
(AP, 1/14/09)
2009 Jan 13, Sudanese army planes
bombed near Muhajiriya in south Darfur, targeting rebels who had
rejected a 2006 peace agreement and the unconditional ceasefire
declared by Bashir last year.
(AP, 1/14/09)
2009 Jan 13, Swedish truck maker
AB Volvo said it will lay off more than 1,600 employees in Sweden as it
slows production amid falling demand for trucks.
(AP, 1/13/09)
2009 Jan 13, The WHO said
Zimbabwe's cholera epidemic has killed more than 2,000 people and
almost 40,000 have contracted the normally preventable disease in
Africa's worst outbreak in nearly a decade.
(Reuters, 1/13/09)