Today in History - January 19
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570 Jan 19,
Mohammed (d.632), "The Prophet", founder of Islam and speaker in the
“Koran,” was born into the Quraysh tribe in Makkah. He was orphaned at
an early age and found work in a trade caravan. He married a wealthy
widow and this gave him the freedom to visit Mount Hira each year to
think. His birthday is observed on the 12th day of Rabi ul'Awwal, the
3rd month of the lunar calendar, in a festival known as Mawlid-al-Nabi.
The Koran was probably not fixed for the 1st two centuries after the
emergence of Islam.
(ATC, p.59)(SFC, 7/6/98, p.A14)(WSJ, 11/15/01,
p.A16)(Econ, 4/28/07, p.97)
973 Jan 19, Benedict VI was
consecrated as Catholic Pope. He succeeded John XIII.
(PTA, 1980, p.236)
1523 Jan 19, In Switzerland,
Ulrich Zwingli published his 67 Articles, the first manifesto of the
Zurich Reformation which attacked the authority of the Pope.
(HN, 1/19/99)
1547 Jan 19, Henry Howard (29),
earl of Surrey, army commander, poet, was beheaded.
(MC, 1/19/02)
1576 Jan 19, Hans Sachs (81),
cobbler, poet, composer, inspiration for Wagner's "Die
Meistersinger", died.
(MC, 1/19/02)
1729 Jan 19, William Congreve
(58), English dramatist (Love for Love), died.
(MC, 1/19/02)
1736 Jan 19, James Watt, Scottish
inventor of the steam engine who gave his name to a unit of power, was
born. [see 1705]
(AP, 1/19/98)(HN, 1/19/99)
1746 Jan 19, Bonnie Prince
Charlie's troops occupied Stirling.
(MC, 1/19/02)
1749 Jan 19, Isaiah Thomas, US
printer, editor, publisher, historian, was born.
(MC, 1/19/02)
1783 Jan 19, William Pitt became
the youngest Prime Minister of England at age 24.
(HN, 1/19/99)
1793 Jan 19, French King Louis XVI
was sentenced to death. [see Jan 21]
(MC, 1/19/02)
1807 Jan 19, Robert E. Lee, the
commander-in-chief of the Civil War Confederate Armies, was born
in Stratford, Va.
(AP, 1/19/98)(HN, 1/19/99)
1809 Jan 19, Edgar Allan Poe
(d.1949), American writer, was born in Boston. His father, David Poe,
was an Irish-American actor and abandoned his family shortly after
Edgar’s birth. His mother, Elizabeth Arnold Hopkins, died in 1811 and
he grew up with a foster family. Poe studied briefly at the University
of Virginia, but then he quarreled with his foster father and went to
Boston in 1827, where he published his first volume of poetry
anonymously. In the early 1840s Poe became known for his lyrical,
brooding poems and detective stories, such as "The Gold Bug" and
"Murders at the Rue Morgue." In fact, he is recognized as the father of
the modern detective story. Poe was unafraid to criticize literary
practices of the time, stressing the importance of artistic value more
than moral value. After battles with alcoholism and his wife Virginia's
illness and death, Poe became depressed but continued to write. He
became engaged again in 1849 but soon died at the age of 40. His best
known stories include: "Fall of the House of Usher " and "The Tell-Tale
Heart." His most famous poems are "The Raven" and Annabel Lee."
(CFA, '96,Vol 179, p.38)(SFEC, 1/12/97,
p.T5) (AP, 1/19/98)(HNPD, 1/19/99)
1825 Jan 19, Ezra Daggett and
nephew Thomas Kensett received a patent from Pres. Monroe for food
storage in tin cans. [see 1810]
(www.foodreference.com/html/html/january19.html)
1829 Jan 19, Johann von Goethe's
"Faust, Part 1," premiered.
(MC, 1/19/02)
1833 Jan 19, Louis J. Ferdinand
Herold (41), French composer (Zampa), died.
(MC, 1/19/02)
1839 Jan 19, Paul Cézanne
(d.1906), French painter, was born in Aix-en-Provence in southern
France. He was considered a founding figure in 20th century art. He
departed from the Impressionists in his desire to render perspective
through color. His work had a profound influence on the Cubists. A
catalogue of his work was made by John Rewald (1912-1994) and published
posthumously as: "The Paintings of Paul Cézanne: A catalogue
Raisonne." His work includes: "The Feast" (late 60s), "Portrait of
Achille Emperaire" (1869-70), "Self-Portrait" (c1875), "Rocks at
L’Estaque" (1879-82), "Flowerpots" (c1885), "Chestnut Trees at Jas de
Bouffan" (1885-86), "The Kitchen Table" (1888-90), "Madame
Cézanne in a Yellow Chair" (1893-95), "The Lac d’Annecy" (1896),
"Pyramid of Skulls" (1898-1900), "Garden at Le Lauves" (c1906), "Large
Bathers" (1906), "Mont Ste.-Victoire Seen from Les Lauves." He is best
remembered for his works Card Players and L'Oeuvre.
(SFC, 5/30/96, p.E1)(WSJ, 2/10/96, p.A16)(DPCP
1984)(HN, 1/19/99)
1847 Jan 19, New Mexico Governor
Charles Bent was slain by Pueblo Indians in Taos.
(HN, 1/19/99)
1853 Jan 19, Giuseppi Verdi's
opera "Il Trovatore" premiered in Rome.
(AP, 1/19/98)
1853 Jan 19, Napoleon III married
Eugenie de Montijo.
(MC, 1/19/02)
1861 Jan 19, Georgia became the
5th state to secede from the Union.
(AP, 1/19/98)(HN, 1/19/99)
1884 Jan 19, Jules Massenet's
opera "Manon," premiered in Paris.
(MC, 1/19/02)
1902 Jan 19, The magazine "L'Auto"
announced the new Tour de France.
(HN, 1/19/99)
1903 Jan 19, Guglielmo Marconi
broadcast the first transatlantic radio message from his station
(Marconi Beach) on Cape Cod. It was beamed to King Edward of England
from President Theodore Roosevelt. [see 1901]
(Hem, Dec. 94, p.44)
1903 Jan 19, The new bicycle race,
"Tour de France," began with 60 cyclists competing in a 2,500
kilometer, 19-day race.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R34)(MC, 1/19/02)
1904 Jan 19, James Winston Watts,
surgical developer (Frontal Lobotomy), was born.
(MC, 1/19/02)
1904 Jan 19, A team of oil
drillers led by George Reynolds and funded by English millionaire
William Knox D’Arcy, struck oil at Chiah Surkh, Persia, but by March
the volume dwindled to an unprofitable trickle.
(ON, 8/08, p.2)
1914 Jan 19, Lester Flatt, country
musician (Flatt & Scruggs), was born.
(MC, 1/19/02)
1915 Jan 19, The neon tube sign
was patented by George Claude.
(MC, 1/19/02)
1915 Jan 19, The first German air
raids on Britain inflicted minor casualties. A Zeppelin attack over
Great Britain killed 4 people.
(HN, 1/19/99)(MC, 1/19/02)
1917 Jan 19, John Raitt, Bonnie
Raitt's father, singer, actor (Pajama Game, Carousel), was born.
(MC, 1/19/02)
1917 Jan 19, Silvertown Essex's
ammunition factory exploded and 300 died.
(MC, 1/19/02)
1917 Jan 19, The Zimmermann Note,
a coded message sent to Germany’s minister in Mexico by German Foreign
secretary Arthur Zimmermann, proposed an alliance between Germany and
Mexico in the event war broke out between the U.S. and Germany.
Intercepted by British naval intelligence, the note proposed, among
other things, "We shall give generous financial support, and it is
understood that Mexico is to reconquer the lost territory in New
Mexico, Texas, and Arizona." The message was forwarded by the British
to the U.S. State Department, which subsequently released it to the
press on March 1.
(HNQ, 7/15/98)
1919 Jan 19, John H. Johnson
(d.2005), editor and publisher of Ebony and Jet magazines, was born
Arkansas.
(HN, 1/19/99)(SFC, 8/8/05, p.B4)
1920 Jan 19, US Senate voted
against membership in the League of Nations.
(MC, 1/19/02)
1923 Jan 19, The French announced
the invention of a new gun with a range of 56 miles.
(HN, 1/19/99)
1927 Jan 19, British government
decided to send troops to China.
(MC, 1/19/02)
1929 Jan 19, Acadia National Park,
Maine, was established.
(MC, 1/19/02)
1930 Feb 19, John Frankenheimer
(d.2002), Hollywood film director, was born in NYC.
(SSFC, 7/7/02, p.A23)
1931 Jan 19, The Wickersham
Committee issued a report asking for revisions in the dry law, but no
repeal.
(HN, 1/19/99)
1935 Jan 19, The first pair of
Jockey briefs showed up in a Marshall Field’s window in Chicago.
(SSFC, 11/29/09, p.N6)
1937 Jan 19, Millionaire Howard
Hughes set a transcontinental air record by flying his monoplane from
Los Angeles to Newark, N.J., in seven hours, 28 minutes and 25 seconds.
(AP, 1/19/06)
1937 Jan 19, In the Soviet Union,
the People's Commissars Council was formed under Molotov.
(HN, 1/19/99)
1938 Jan 19, GM began mass
production of diesel engines.
(MC, 1/19/02)
1939 Jan 19, Ernest Hausen of
Wisconsin set a chicken-plucking record of 4.4 sec.
(MC, 1/19/02)
1942 Jan 19, Japanese forces
invaded Burma. [see Jan 16]
(MC, 1/19/02)
1943 Jan 19, Janice Joplin
(d.1970), rock singer, was born.
(estate)
1944 Jan 19, Richard [Erskine
Frere] Leakey, anthropologist, was born in Nairobi, Kenya.
(MC, 1/19/02)
1944 Jan 19, The federal
government relinquished control of the nation's railroads after
settling a wage dispute.
(AP, 1/19/98)
1945 Jan 19, The Red Army captured
Lodz, Krakow, and Tarnow.
(HN, 1/19/99)
1946 Jan 19, Dolly Rebecca Parton,
country singer (Dolly, 9 to 5), was born in Sevierville, Ten.
(MC, 1/19/02)
1946 Jan 19, The first complaint
heard by the United Nations Security Council was made by Iran and
directed against the Soviet Union. Iran alleged Soviet interference in
its internal affairs and the refusal to remove Soviet troops from
Iranian territory. The very first session of the UN had begun just days
earlier, on January 10, 1946, in London. The issue was resolved
without UN intervention.
(HNQ, 6/2/00)
1947 Jan 19, The French opened a
drive on Hue, Indochina (Vietnam).
(HN, 1/19/99)
1949 Jan 19, The Chiang Government
moved the capital of China to Canton.
(HN, 1/19/99)
1950 Jan 19, Communist Chinese
leader Mao recognized the Republic of Vietnam.
(HN, 1/19/99)
1951 Jan 19, In South Korea
American pilots summarized their air strikes at Sansong as “excellent
results.” An investigative commission later found that the attack,
which killed at least 51 villagers and no enemy troops, was
indiscriminate and unjustified.
(SSFC, 8/3/08, p.A16)(AP, 8/3/08)
1955 Jan 19, Sir Simon Rattle,
orchestra conductor (Berlin Philharmonic), was born in England.
(MC, 1/19/02)
1955 Jan 19, A presidential news
conference was filmed for television for the first time, with
permission from President Eisenhower.
(AP, 1/19/98)
1955 Jan 19, "Scrabble" debuted in
the board game market.
(MC, 1/19/02)
1957 Jan 19, Pat Boone sang at
President Eisenhower's inaugural ball.
(MC, 1/19/02)
1960 Jan 19, The US-Japan Treaty
of Mutual Cooperation and Security formalized a US-Japanese alliance.
(www.mofa.go.jp/region/n-america/us/q&a/ref/1.html)(Econ, 1/16/10,
p.43)
1961 Jan 19, The 1st episode for
"Dick Van Dyke Show" was filmed.
(MC, 1/19/02)
1966 Jan 19, Neil Simon's,
Coleman's & Fields' musical "Sweet Charity," premiered.
(MC, 1/19/02)
1966 Jan 19, Indira Gandhi,
Nehru’s daughter, was elected the 3rd prime minister of India.
(SFEC, 8/3/97, p.A15)(AP, 1/19/98)(MC, 1/19/02)
1968 Jan 19, Cambodia charged that
the United States and South Vietnam had crossed the border and killed
three Cambodians.
(HN, 1/19/99)
1971 Jan 19, The revival of "No,
No Nanette," first produced on March 11, 1925, opened at 46th St
Theater NYC and continued for 861 performances.
(www.broadwayworld.com/bwidb/sections/productions/index.php?var=6282)
1970 Jan 19, President Nixon
nominated G. Harrold Carswell to the Supreme Court, but the nomination
was later defeated because of controversy over Carswell's past racial
views.
(AP, 1/19/98)
1975 Jan 19, Thomas Hart Benton
(b.1889), US artist, died in Kansas City, Missouri. In 2009 Henry Adams
authored “Tom and Jack: The Intertwined Lives of Thomas Hart Benton and
Jackson Pollock.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Hart_Benton_(painter))(Econ,
12/12/09, p.94)
1976 Jan 19, In the Iowa caucus
Jimmy Carter won with 28% of the vote. The rest went to Birch Bayh
(13%), Fred R. Harris (10%), Morris Udall (6%) and “Uncommitted” (37%).
(http://correntewire.com/post_iowa_perspective)
1977 Jan 19, In one of his last
acts of office, President Ford pardoned Iva Toguri D'Aquino, a
Japanese-American who had been suspected of being wartime radio
propagandist "Tokyo Rose" [see Sep 25, 1948].
(AP, 1/19/00)(AH, 10/02, p.28)
1979 Jan 19, Former Attorney
General John N. Mitchell was released on parole after serving 19 months
at a federal prison in Alabama.
(AP, 1/19/98)
1980 Jan 19, William O. Douglas
(b.1898), member US Supreme court (1939-75), died. In 2003 Bruce Allen
Murphy authored ""Wild Bill: The legend and Life of William O. Douglas."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_O._Douglas)(SSFC, 3/16/03, p.M6)
1980 Jan 19, Richard Franko
Goldman (b.1910), American composer, died. He was the son of band
leader Edwin Franko Goldman.
(www.lib.umd.edu/PAL/SCPA/ABA/Goldman/Goldman.html)
1981 Jan 19, The United States and
Iran signed an agreement paving the way for the release of 52 Americans
held hostage for more than 14 months. Iran signed after accepting a US
offer for the return of $7.9 billion in frozen assets.
(AP,
1/19/98)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran-United_States_Claims_Tribunal)
1982 Jan 19, Thomas Kean (b.1935)
began serving as the 48th governor of New Jersey. In 2002 President
George W. Bush appointed him as Chairman of the National Commission on
Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, widely known as the 9/11
Commission, which was responsible for investigating the causes of the
September 11, 2001 attacks and providing recommendations to prevent
future terrorist attacks.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Kean)
1983 Jan 19, The New Catholic code
expanded women's rights in the Church.
(HN, 1/19/99)
1984 Jan 19, In SF seven Municipal
Railway workers were arrested by police who saw them skimming money
from locked fare boxes at the Kirkland yard near Fisherman’s Wharf.
Estimates of losses for the year ran from $500,000 to $2 million.
(SSFC, 1/18/09, DB p.50)
1985 Jan 19, "Born In The USA,"
released by Bruce Springsteen in 1984, peaked at #9.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Born_in_the_U.S.A.)
1988 Jan 19, State Farm Insurance
Co. in California announced that it will pay $1.3 million to settle a
sex discrimination lawsuit brought by three former employees.
(AP, 1/19/98)
1989 Jan 19, Pres Reagan pardoned
George Steinbrenner for illegal funds for Nixon.
(www.reference.com/browse/wiki/George_Steinbrenner)
1989 Jan 19, The US Senate Foreign
Relations Committee voted unanimously to recommend that the full Senate
approve the nomination of James A. Baker to be secretary of state.
(AP, 1/19/99)
1989 Jan 19, Israel’s Minister of
Defense Rabin proposed that Palestinians end the intifadah in exchange
for an opportunity to elect local leaders who would negotiate with the
Israeli government.
(www.country-data.com/cgi-bin/query/r-6685.html)
1990 Jan 19, Arthur J. Goldberg,
former Supreme Court justice, labor secretary and U.S. ambassador to
the United Nations, was found dead in his Washington apartment at age
81.
(AP, 1/19/00)
1990 Jan 19, Elias Zayek, leader
of the Christian Phalange party of Lebanon was shot and killed in
Byblos. Samir Geagea, leader of the of the Lebanese Forces militia, was
later accused and convicted (5/20/96) of the murder.
(SFC, 5/21/96, p.A-11)
1990 Jan 19, Bhagwan Shree
Rajneesh (b.1931), Indian guru (Osho), died in Pune, India. From 1981
to 1985 he resided in the US. His followers were involved in a
bio-terrorist attack in Oregon in 1984.
(SFC, 12/13/02, p.K6)(SFC, 6/15/05,
p.A1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rajneesh)
1991 Jan 19, During the Gulf War,
Israel’s anti-missile force was boosted by additional Patriot missile
batteries and US crews. A second Iraqi missile attack caused 29
injuries in Tel Aviv. Allied forces began bombarding Iraq’s elite
Republican Guard.
(AP, 1/19/01)
1991 Jan 19-23, Czechoslovakian
soldiers in Northern Saudi Arabia detected sarin, a lethal chemical
agent. This was about the same time that Desert Storm air attacks
occurred on Muhammadiyat, west of Baghdad, that blew up an estimated
2.9 metric tons of sarin.
(SFC, 8/7/96, p.A4)
1992 Jan 19, "City of Angels"
closed at Virginia Theater in NYC after 878 performances.
(www.theatredb.com/QShow.php?sid=s0351)
1992 Jan 19, Arkansas Governor
Bill Clinton drew fire from fellow Democratic presidential candidates
during a debate in Manchester, N.H.
(AP, 1/19/02)
1992 Jan 19, German government and
Jewish officials dedicated a Holocaust memorial at the villa where the
notorious Wannsee Conference had taken place.
(AP, 1/19/02)
1993 Jan 19, US Attorney
General-designate Zoe Baird apologized to the Senate Judiciary
Committee for hiring illegal aliens as domestic help.
(AP, 1/19/98)
1993 Jan 19, The first American
combat troops flew home from their humanitarian mission in Somalia.
(AP, 1/19/98)
1993 Jan 19, IBM announced a $4.97
billion loss for 1992, which was at that time the largest single-year
corporate loss in United States history.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibm)
1993 Jan 19, Israel recognized the
PLO as no longer criminal.
(www.jafi.org.il/education/jafi75/timeline8d.html)
1994 Jan 19, President Clinton
visited quake-stricken Los Angeles, where he pledged fast and
aggressive federal help.
(AP, 1/19/99)
1994 Jan 19, Figure skater Tonya
Harding's ex-husband, Jeff Gillooly, surrendered to authorities in
Portland, Ore., after being charged with conspiring to attack skater
Nancy Kerrigan.
(AP, 1/19/99)
1995 Jan 19, Russian troops
regained control of the presidential palace in Grozny, the capital of
the breakaway republic of Chechnya.
(AP, 1/19/00)
1996 Jan 19, The Bosnian peace
agreement suffered its first setback as a planned nationwide prisoner
release fell far short of its goal.
(AP, 1/19/01)
1996 Jan 19, A ferry sank in a
storm off Sumatra, Indonesia, killing about 340 people.
(AP, 2/3/06)
1997 Jan 19, "The English Patient"
won best picture and "Evita" won in the category of best movie musical
or comedy at the Golden Globes.
(AP, 1/19/98)
1997 Jan 19, A consortium led by
Motorola (Iridium) planned to launch a rocket with the first 3
satellites for a global mobile-telephone network based on 66
satellites. It had already been twice delayed.
(WSJ, 1/13/97, p.B6)
1997 Jan 19, Balloonist Steve
Foster ended his attempt to circle the globe and landed in India as he
ran out of gas in his Solo Spirit balloon. He had covered 9,000 miles
and floated for 6 days, 2 hours and 54 minutes.
(SFC, 1/20/97, p.A12)
1997 Jan 19, James Dickey (84),
poet and novelist, died. In 1998 his son published "Summer of
Deliverance," an account of his relations with his father.
(WSJ, 8/19/98, p.A16)(MC, 1/19/02)
1997 Jan 19, In Albania, riot
police beat demonstrators demanding restitution for money lost in
pyramid schemes.
(AP, 1/19/98)
1997 Jan 19, In Algeria a car bomb
killed 21 and wounded dozens in Algiers just hours after attackers
massacred 36 villagers south of the capital.
(SFC, 1/20/97, p.A12)
1997 Jan 19, In Austria Chancellor
Franz Vranitzky announced his resignation after 10 years in office.
(SFC, 1/20/97, p.A13)
1997 Jan 19, In Bulgaria Pres.
Peter Stoyanov was sworn into office and he immediately called for new
parliamentary elections.
(SFC, 1/20/97, p.A13)
1997 Jan 19, Yasser Arafat
returned to Hebron for the first time in more than 30 years, joining
60,000 Palestinians in celebrating the handover of the last West Bank
city in Israeli control.
(AP, 1/19/98)
1998 Jan 19, This was the Martin
Luther King Jr. federal holiday. During a ceremony in Atlanta
commemorating the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, Vice President Gore
announced that the Clinton administration would propose increasing
spending on civil rights by $86 million.
(AP, 1/19/98)(AP, 1/19/99)
1998 Jan 19, The US and China
signed an accord designed to avoid naval and air conflicts at sea.
(SFC, 1/19/98, p.B2)
1998 Jan 19, The FDA decided that
is has the authority to regulate human cloning, and that it would be a
violation of federal law to try the procedure without its approval.
(SFC, 1/20/98, p.A3)
1998 Jan 19, Carl Perkins,
rockabilly king, died at age 65 in Jackson, Tenn. He wrote and recorded
the hit "Blue Suede Shoes" in 1955 and it hit the top of the
charts in 1956. He also wrote "Daddy Sang Bass" recorded by Johnny Cash.
(SFC, 1/20/98, p.A1,8)(AP, 1/19/99)
1998 Jan 19, European
diplomats arrived in Algeria to discuss was to end the violence after
another 16 people were killed in an eastern province.
(SFC, 1/20/98, p.D2)(WSJ, 1/20/98, p.A1)
1998 Jan 19, In Northern Ireland
Jim Guiney (38), a Protestant shopkeeper, was shot and killed in his
Belfast carpet store. Later a 52-year-old Catholic taxi driver was shot
and killed in Belfast in apparent retaliation for Guiney.
(SFC, 1/20/98, p.D1)
1998 Jan 19, Peru and Ecuador
signed an accord pledging to settle their longtime 49-mile border
conflict by May.
(WSJ, 1/20/98, p.A1)
1998 Jan 19, In Rwanda Hutu rebels
killed 35 brewery workers and wounded 25 near Gisenyi.
(WSJ, 1/20/98, p.A1)
1998 Jan 19, In Harare, Zimbabwe,
people rioted over soaring food prices. The price of corn meal, the
staple food, rose 21%, the 3rd increase in 4 months.
(SFC, 1/20/98, p.D2)
1999 Jan 19, Pres. Clinton gave
his State of the Union address and proposed a number of new policies
that included infusions of cash to bolster Social Security and
Medicare. He also said that the Justice Dept. will sue cigarette makers
for smoking-related health care costs and wanted to tie federal
education funds to improvements in local schools. Hours earlier, at the
president's impeachment trial in the Senate, White House Counsel
Charles Ruff opened the defense with ringing statements of Clinton's
innocence.
(SFC, 1/20/99, p.A1)(WSJ, 1/20/99, p.A1)(SFC,
1/21/99, p.A1)(AP, 1/19/00)
1999 Jan 19, In Brazil the Senate
voted to double the tax on all financial transactions. The measure,
expected to yield $9.6 billion a year, then went to the Chamber of
Deputies.
(SFC, 1/20/99, p.A8)
1999 Jan 19, In Burundi rebels
based in Tanzania killed 59 civilians in Makamba. In Muresi Hill 76
civilians were killed.
(SFC, 1/29/99, p.E9)
1999 Jan 19, In Colombia rebels
suspended peace talks and accused the government of backing recent
massacres by right-wing death squads.
(SFC, 1/20/99, p.A10)
1999 Jan 19, In France 8 men were
sentenced to prison for providing arms and logistics to the banned
Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) in Algeria.
(SFC, 1/20/99, p.A10)
1999 Jan 19, Indian and Pakistani
troops clashed in Kashmir and 4 Pakistani soldiers were killed.
(WSJ, 1/20/99, p.A1)
1999 Jan 19, In Jordan King
Hussein returned home following cancer treatment at the Mayo Clinic.
(SFC, 1/20/99, p.A10)
1999 Jan 19, From Kenya it was
reported that Pres. Daniel arap Moi ordered the prohibition of new
political parties.
(SFC, 1/19/99, p.A6)
1999 Jan 19, In Romania ten
thousand coal miners clashed with police on the 15th day of a strike to
protest low wages and possible layoffs.
(USAT, 1/20/99, p.8A)(SFC, 1/20/99, p.A10)
1999 Jan 19, In Serbia Gen'l.
Wesley Clark and Gen'l. Klaus Naumann met with Pres. Milosevic and
threatened him with NATO airstrikes due to the massacre of ethnic
Albanians in Kosovo.
(SFEC, 4/18/99, p.A3)
1999 Jan 19, From the Ukraine it
was reported that the number of HIV cases had risen to between 38,000
and 110,000. In 1994 44 people tested positive.
(SFC, 1/19/99, p.A6)
2000 Jan 19, Michael Skakel, a
nephew of Robert F. Kennedy, was charged with bludgeoning to death
15-year-old Martha Moxley in Greenwich, Connecticut, in 1975, when he
was also 15. Skakel was later convicted, and in 2005 was appealing.
(AP, 1/19/01)
2000 Jan 19, Transmeta Corp.
leaders unveiled a pair of new microprocessors named Crusoe designed
for hand-held Internet-access devices.
(SFC, 1/20/00, p.B2)
2000 Jan 19, Scientists noted a
"giant horseshoe pattern" of warm air over the western Pacific Ocean
called the "Pacific Decadal Oscillation." It was expected to effect
weather for the next 20 years.
(SFC, 1/20/00, p.A1)
2000 Jan 19, In New Jersey 3
students were killed in a fire at a dormitory at Seton Hall Univ. 62
students were injured. In 2006 two former roommates pleaded guilty to
arson admitting that a prank had got out of hand.
(SFC, 1/20/00, p.A3)(SFC, 11/16/06, p.A15)
2000 Jan 19, Dr. G. Ledyard
Stebbins Jr. (b.1906), considered to be the founder of evolutionary
botany, died in Davis, Ca. His books included “Variation and Evolution
in Plants” (1950), “Flowering Plants: Evolution Above the Species
Level” (1974), and “Chromosomal Evolution in Higher Plants” (1971). In
2007 his autobiography was published under the title “The Ladyslipper
and I, Autobiography of G. Ledyard Stebbins.”
(Fremontia, Fall, 2008,
p.24)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G._Ledyard_Stebbins)
2000 Jan 19, Bettino Craxi (65),
former 2-term Italian premier, died in Tunisia. He had fled Italy in
1994 to escape a corruption jail sentence.
(WSJ, 1/20/00, p.A1)(Econ, 1/9/10, p.53)
2000 Jan 19, Actress Hedy Lamarr
died in Orlando, Fla., at age 86. Her career began with the 1933
Czechoslovakian film "Ecstasy."
(SFC, 1/20/00, p.A10,E1)
2000 Jan 19, In Austria the
union-backed Social Democrats and the pro-business Austrian People's
Party formed a coalition (the Reds and Blacks) to keep the right-wing
Freedom Party of Joerg Haider out of the government.
(SFC, 1/21/00, p.D2)
2001 Jan 19, Pres. Clinton
admitted that he misled prosecutors about his relationship with Monica
Lewinsky and struck a deal with independent counsel Robert Ray to
accept a 5-year suspension of his Arkansas law license and pay a
$25,000 fine.
(SFC, 1/20/01, p.A1)(AP, 1/19/02)
2001 Jan 19, Pres. Clinton lifted
economic sanctions against Yugoslavia.
(SFC, 1/20/01, p.A11)
2001 Jan 19, The US and Israel
signed an agreement to phase out economic aid by 2008. half the aid
would be replaced by military aid. Separately $80 million was pledged
to a UN relief agency for Palestinian refugees.
(SFC, 1/20/01, p.A11)
2001 Jan 19, Former NFL player Rae
Carruth was acquitted of first-degree murder but convicted of
conspiracy and two other charges in the fatal shooting of his pregnant
girlfriend. Carruth was later sentenced to a minimum of 18 years, 11
months in prison and a maximum of 24 years, four months.
(AP, 1/19/02)
2001 Jan 19, In Afghanistan UN
sanctions began following a 30-day deadline for the handover of Osama
bin Laden. The sanctions coincided with the worst drought in 30 years.
(SFC, 1/20/01, p.A13)
2001 Jan 19, In Algeria gunmen
killed 11 family members in Medea.
(SSFC, 1/21/01, p.D4)
2001 Jan 19, The Belgian
government agreed to decriminalize the use of marijuana.
(SFC, 1/20/01, p.A11)
2001 Jan 19, In Congo fighting
between Hema and Lendu tribes people left about 118 Hema dead along
with 159 Lendu.
(SFC, 1/29/01, p.A12,14)
2001 Jan 19, Off Ecuador’s
Galapagos Islands, the tanker Jessica, aground on San Cristobal island,
cracked its cargo hold and began leaking fuel. Some 150,000 gallons of
diesel and bunker fuel were released. It was later learned that the oil
caused the deaths of thousands of marine iguanas.
(SFC, 1/22/01, p.A10)(SFC, 6/6/02, p.A2)
2001 Jan 19, Thousands of people
fled the Ivory Coast for Burkino Faso to escape attacks on foreigners.
As many as 10,000 were arriving each week and others were fleeing to
Mali, Ghana and Niger.
(SFC, 1/20/01, p.A14)
2001 Jan 19, In Liberia Pres.
Charles Taylor said that he has ended support of the RUF in Sierra
Leone and would submit to int’l. scrutiny of his finances.
(SFC, 1/20/01, p.A14)
2001 Jan 19, In Mexico Joaquin
Guzman Loera, aka "El Chapo," escaped from the maximum-security prison
in Jalisco state. Leonardo Beltran, the prison director, and 30
officers were detained for possible involvement in the cocaine
trafficker’s escape. 78 people were later implicated.
(SSFC, 1/21/01, p.D4)(SFC, 2/21/01, p.A11)
2001 Jan 19, In Nigeria Bariya
Magazu (19) was flogged 100 times for having premarital sex under
Islamic law (sharia).
(SFC, 1/23/01, p.A11)
2002 Jan 19, It was reported that
China had imposed new Internet controls and required service providers
to screen all e-mail messages for political content.
(SFC, 1/19/02, p.A4)
2002 Jan 19, Israel troops set off
a powerful explosion that gutted the official Palestinian broadcasting
building in Ramallah, dealing another retaliatory blow to Yasser Arafat
and the Palestinian Authority.
(SFC, 1/19/02, p.A1)(AP, 1/19/03)
2002 Jan 19, Mexican federal
officials froze the bank accounts 9 current and former executive of
Petroleos Mexicano in a $120 million corruption scheme tied to the PRI.
(SFC, 1/22/02, p.A8)
2002 Jan 19, Spain arrested 2
suspected members of al Qaeda.
(SSFC, 1/20/02, p.A4)
2003 Jan 19, In the 60th Golden
Globes "The Hours" won as best drama and "Chicago" won as best musical
or comedy. Jack Nicholson won for his role in "About Schmidt" and
Nicole Kidman won for her role in The Hours. Martin Scorsese won as
best director for "Gangs of New York."
(SFC, 1/20/03, p.A2)
2003 Jan 19, The Oakland Raiders
won the AFC title game, beating the Tennessee Titans 41-24. The Tampa
Bay Buccaneers took the NFC Championship game, defeating the
Philadelphia Eagles 27-10.
(AP, 1/19/04)
2003 Jan 19, Colombian AUC gunmen
kidnapped three Americans (Robert Y. Pelton, Mark Wedeven and Megan A.
Smaker) just north of the Colombian border in Panama. The writer and 2
hikers were released Jan 23.
(AP, 1/22/03)(SFC, 1/24/03, p.A14)
2003 Jan 19, Hans Blix and
Mohamed El Baradei, the chief UN arms inspectors, sat down for urgent
talks with Iraqi officials.
(AP, 1/19/03)
2003 Jan 19, In Cuba more than 97
percent of voters showed overwhelming support for the nation's
socialist system by electing 609 candidates who ran uncontested for
parliament.
(AP, 1/20/03)
2003 Jan 19, Francoise Giroud
(86), France's 1st minister of women's affairs died. She co-founded one
of France's top news magazines and became a powerful force in French
post-war journalism at a time when few women were in the business. She
published an autobiography in 1997.
(AP, 1/19/03)(SFC, 1/21/03, p.A18)
2003 Jan 19, In western Mozambique
it was reported that 9 people had died of hunger in a village and some
175,000 people in the area are at risk of starvation.
(AP, 1/19/03)
2003 Jan 19, Sierra Leone declared
ex-junta leader Johnny Paul Koroma a wanted man linking him to an
alleged plot to destabilize the country.
(AP, 1/19/03)
2003 Jan 19, Syria and Iran
support Turkey's proposal for a regional summit to seek a peaceful way
out of the Iraq standoff. Turkey has offered to hold the summit where
Egypt, Iran, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Syria would discuss the standoff
over Iraq.
(AP, 1/19/03)
2004 Jan 19, In the Iowa caucus
John Kerry led the Democrats with 38%, John Edwards was 2nd with 32%,
Howard Dean was 3rd with 18% and Dick Gephardt 4th with 11%. Entrance
polls showed that economic issues held top priority.
(SFC, 1/20/04, p.A1)(WSJ, 1/21/04, p.A1)
2004 Jan 19, Connecticut Gov.
Rowland said he's looking forward to a legislative investigation on
charges that he accepted free gifts and work on a vacation cottage.
(USAT, 1/20/04, p.12A)(Econ, 1/17/04, p.25)
2004 Jan 19, In Algeria an
explosion at a liquefied natural gas (LNG) complex in the port city of
Skikda killed 23 and left 74 people injured.
(AP, 1/20/04)(WSJ, 5/14/04, p.A1)
2004 Jan 19, The freighter MS
Rocknes capsized in a narrow inlet between the island of Bjoroey and
Norway's western coast, less than 200 yards from land after it put out
a distress call. The 30 crew members included 24 Filipinos, three
Dutch, two Norwegians and one German. 12 crew members were rescued. The
death toll was put at 18.
(AP, 1/20/04)(WSJ, 1/21/04, p.A1)
2004 Jan 19, Tens of thousands of
Shiite Muslims marched peacefully in Baghdad to demand an elected
government.
(AP, 1/19/04)
2005 Jan 19, Previewing his second
inauguration, President Bush pledged to seek unity in a nation divided
by political differences, saying, "I am eager and ready for the work
ahead."
(AP, 1/19/06)
2005 Jan 19, Condoleezza Rice won
strong but not unanimous endorsement as secretary of state from a
Senate panel.
(AP, 1/19/06)
2005 Jan 19, It was reported that
the FBI had shelved its surveillance technology, once know as Carnivore
and later renamed DCS-1000, and switched to unspecified commercial
software to eavesdrop on computer traffic.
(SFC, 1/19/05, p.A3)
2005 Jan 19, Norma McCorvey, the
“Roe” of Roe vs. Wade, asked the Supreme Court to overturn the abortion
ruling. Lower courts already blocked her twice.
(WSJ, 1/20/05, p.A1)
2005 Jan 19, The US Bureau of
Labor Statistics reported that the consumer price index rose 3.3% in
2004, the largest gain since 2000.
(WSJ, 1/20/05, p.A2)
2005 Jan 19, The American Cancer
Society reported that cancer had passed heart disease as the top killer
of Americans age 85 and younger.
(AP, 1/19/06)
2005 Jan 19, Donald Beardslee (61)
became the 11th prisoner to be executed in California since the death
penalty was reinstated in 1997.
(AP, 12/13/05)
2005 Jan 19, Walter Wriston (85),
longtime head of Citicorp and an advisor to Pres. Reagan, died in NY.
(WSJ, 1/21/05, p.A1)(Econ, 1/29/05, p.83)
2005 Jan 19, Brazil raised its
reference lending rate for a 5th consecutive month by a half point to
18.25% in an effort to curb inflation.
(WSJ, 1/20/05, p.A12)
2005 Jan 19, PM Tony Blair said
the military would not tolerate any abuse of Iraqi prisoners as new
graphic photos depicting alleged mistreatment of detainees blared
across the front pages of British newspapers.
(AP, 1/19/05)
2005 Jan 19, In Canada 2 houses in
Vancouver, BC, were completely destroyed and at least three people were
missing after a mudslide caused by heavy rains swept down a hillside.
(CP, 1/19/05)
2005 Jan 19, The Chinese
government ordered a halt to construction at 30 big construction
projects, including two at the massive Three Gorges Dam, due to alleged
violations of environmental protection regulations and other concerns.
(AP, 1/19/05)
2005 Jan 19, Strikes over job cuts
and pay disrupted French rail service and hospitals.
(AP, 1/19/05)
2005 Jan 19, The US State
Department issued a warning asking Americans to defer travel to Guyana
because of flooding that has killed at least two people there over the
past week.
(AP, 1/19/05)
2005 Jan 19, Indonesia's Health
Ministry raised the country's death toll from the Dec. 26 tsunami to
166,320, pushing the total number of people killed in the disaster
around the region above 225,000.
(Reuters, 1/19/05)(SFC, 1/20/05, p.A4)
2005 Jan 19, A wave of car
bombings shook the Iraqi capital, killing 26 people. Other attacks were
reported north and south of the capital. The al-Qaida in Iraq terror
group claimed that it carried out a truck bombing at the Australian
Embassy in Baghdad that killed two people. A militant group posted a
video on the Web showing gunmen killing execution-style two Iraqis said
to have set up an Internet system in northern Iraq. American soldiers
on patrol in Mosul killed three insurgents who fired on them from a
car. A British security worker and an Iraqi colleague were killed in an
ambush near the Beiji power station complex. Joao Jose Vasconcellos
(50), a Brazilian engineer, was kidnapped in Baghdad. His remains were
returned to Brazil in 2007.
(AP, 1/19/05)(SFC, 1/20/05, p.A10)(AP, 1/20/05)(AP,
6/14/07)
2005 Jan 19, In Nigeria a fuel
tanker crashed into two buses and burst into flames on a road in Lagos,
killing at least 30 people.
(AP, 1/20/05)
2005 Jan 19, The Polish government
signed a deal with US defense contractor Lockheed Martin Corp. paving
the way for the transfer of technology and investment to a Polish
weapons producer.
(AP, 1/19/05)
2005 Jan 19, Russia’s finance
minister, Alexei Kudrin, said the government plans to compensate
pensioners for lost benefits using windfall from oil receipts.
(WSJ, 1/20/05, p.A12)
2006 Jan 19, The Bush
administration issued a 42-page Justice Dept. white paper to support
the president’s domestic spying program. Vice President Cheney defended
the administration's domestic surveillance program, calling it an
essential tool in monitoring al-Qaida and other terrorist organizations.
(SFC, 1/20/06, p.A10)(AP, 1/19/07)
2006 Jan 19-2015 Jul, NASA
launched its New Horizons spacecraft on a mission to Pluto following a
2-day delay. Scientists won't be able to receive data on Pluto until at
least July 2015, the earliest date the mission is expected to arrive.
(SFC, 1/20/06, p.A5)
2006 Jan 19, Global News Blog, a
weblog of Global Geopolitics Net, began breaking news and analysis on
global security and intelligence issues. The site is sponsored by the
Eurasia Research Center. Alan Fogelquist, the site editor, is a
historian and geopolitical analyst.
(http://globalnewsblog.com/blog/?m=200601)
2006 Jan 19, In West Virginia 19
miners escaped after a conveyor belt caught fire inside Aracoma Coal's
Alma No. 1 mine. The bodies of 2 others, who failed to escape, were
recovered Jan 21 and Gov. Joe Manchin said he planned to introduce
legislation dealing with rapid responses in emergencies. In September 2
miners with safety responsibilities at the mine committed suicide.
(AP, 1/22/06)(WSJ, 9/27/06, p.A1)
2006 Jan 19, Wilson Pickett
(b.1941), soul music pioneer, died in Reston, Va. His hits included
“Mustang Sally” (1966) and “In the Midnight Hour” (1965).
(SFC, 1/20/06, p.A1)
2006 Jan 19, Al-Jazeera broadcast
portions of an audiotape purportedly from Osama bin Laden, saying
al-Qaida is making preparations for attacks in the United States but
offering a possible truce to rebuild Iraq and Afghanistan.
(AP, 1/19/06)
2006 Jan 19, Dragan Vasiljkovic, a
Serbian-Australian man accused of ordering the torture of Croats during
the bloody breakup of the former Yugoslavia, was arrested in Sydney.
Authorities said Vasiljkovic trained and commanded a unit of the
Croatian Serb special forces known as the "Kninjas." At the time, the
rebels were engaged in a major campaign of ethnic cleansing, forcing
tens of thousands of local Croats to flee their homes.
(Reuters, 1/20/06)
2006 Jan 19, In Bolivia a flatbed
truck drove off the side of the mountainous road near Tarija, killing
at least 38 people.
(AP, 1/20/06)
2006 Jan 19, Pres. Chirac said
France would be ready to use nuclear weapons against any state that
carried out a terrorist attack against it, reaffirming the need for its
nuclear deterrent.
(AP, 1/19/06)
2006 Jan 19, In Germany
environmentalists positioned a 55-foot dead whale in front of the
Japanese Embassy in Berlin to protest against Japanese whale-hunting.
(AP, 1/19/06)
2006 Jan 19, President Omar Bongo
(69) of Gabon, was sworn in for another 7-year term. Bongo has been
president since Dec. 2, 1967, taking over upon the death of Leon M'Ba,
the country's only other head of state since independence from France
in 1960. Gabon produces about 290,000 barrels of oil a day and boasts
sub-Saharan Africa's third largest reserves, around 2.5 billion
barrels. Half the country still lives below the poverty line.
(AP, 1/19/06)
2006 Jan 19, In northeastern
Hungary a Slovak military plane crashed as it ferried troops back from
Kosovo, killing at least 42 people. Only one person survived the crash
of the AN-24 aircraft.
(AP, 1/20/06)
2006 Jan 19, India said that it
had agreed to pay the Czech Republic 20 million dollars to resolve a
trade dispute dating back to the Cold War. The move was announced at
the end of a three-day visit by Czech President Jiri Paroubek.
(AFP, 1/19/06)
2006 Jan 19, In India Jet Airways
confirmed that it has agreed to buy Sahara Airlines for $500 million in
cash. In 2005 Jet overtook the government owned Indian Airlines as
India’s largest domestic carrier.
(Econ, 1/21/06, p.60)
2006 Jan 19, Iranian President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad began a visit to Syria to consolidate an old
alliance made increasingly crucial as both countries face mounting US
pressure and the threat of international sanctions.
(AP, 1/19/06)
2006 Jan 19, In Iraq 2
near-simultaneous bombings targeted a crowded downtown Baghdad coffee
shop and nearby restaurant, killing at least 23 people and wounding 26.
(AP, 1/19/06)
2006 Jan 19, Italy’s defense
minister said Italy will withdraw all its troops from Iraq by the end
of this year, in the first official timetable for Rome to end its
mission.
(AP, 1/19/06)
2006 Jan 19, Violent street
protests erupted in Ivory Coast for a fourth day as hundreds of
government supporters ignored the president's call to stay home, angry
about a deadly firefight involving UN peacekeepers.
(AP, 1/19/06)
2006 Jan 19, Nepal's royalist
government detained nearly 80 activists and cut off mobile phone
services to foil organizers of an anti-government rally.
(AP, 1/19/06)
2006 Jan 19, Nigerian kidnappers
said their US hostage was gravely ill and threatened to kill three
other foreign oil workers held captive if he died.
(AP, 1/20/06)
2006 Jan 19, Pakistani security
officials said Midhat Mursi al-Sayid Umar, an al-Qaida explosives and
chemical weapons expert and a relative of the terror network's No. 2
leader, were among four top operatives believed killed in a US missile
strike last week, as authorities arrested five more militant suspects.
(AP, 1/19/06)
2006 Jan 19, A Palestinian suicide
bomber blew himself up at a Tel Aviv fast-food stand, killing himself
and wounding 15 people.
(AP, 1/19/06)
2006 Jan 19, A Philippine
congressional committee approved a resolution calling on the government
to abrogate an accord allowing large-scale American military exercises
in the country after US officials refused to hand over four US Marines
accused of rape.
(AP, 1/19/06)
2006 Jan 19, Another seven people
died overnight in Moscow and concerns over energy supplies in Russia
and Europe grew as record bone-chilling cold forced cutbacks.
(AFP, 1/19/06)
2006 Jan 19, Suspected Tamil Tiger
rebels exploded anti-personnel mines twice in eastern Sri Lanka,
killing four people and injuring 25 others.
(AP, 1/19/06)
2006 Jan 19, A Swedish man who
confessed to killing two women and drinking their blood was charged
with double murder. The 29-year-old man was arrested in October on
suspicion of stabbing the women to death in two separate attacks.
(AP, 1/19/06)
2006 Jan 19, Syria asserted that
Iran had a right to atomic technology and said Western objections to
Tehran's nuclear ambitions were not persuasive.
(AP, 1/19/06)
2006 Jan 19, Taiwan's president
appointed Su Tseng-chang, a popular politician and former party chief,
as the island's next premier in a move aimed at regaining support for
the ruling party ahead of the 2008 presidential election.
(AP, 1/19/06)
2006 Jan 19, Venezuelan officials
said that they have approved a new anti-drug agreement with the US,
months after suspended cooperation amid allegations of US spying.
(AP, 1/19/06)
2007 Jan 19, US deputy ambassador
Mark Wallace charged that the UNDP operated "in blatant violation of UN
rules" for years in North Korea. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
responded quickly to the accusations, calling on all UN funds and
programs to conduct an urgent outside investigation into their
operations.
(AP, 1/20/07)
2007 Jan 19, Former Ohio Rep. Bob
Ney was sentenced to 2½ years in federal prison for
trading political favors for gifts and campaign donations from lobbyist
Jack Abramoff.
(AP, 1/19/07)
2007 Jan 19, North Carolina’s Gov.
Mike Easley said Google will invest up to $600 million to build a data
center in his state.
(SFC, 1/20/07, p.C1)
2007 Jan 19, CNL Hotel &
Resorts agreed to sell a collection of 8 resorts, including the
Claremont Resort & Spa in Berkeley, Ca., to Morgan Stanley Real
Estate for $6.6 billion.
(SFC, 1/23/07, p.D4)
2007 Jan 19, The so-called "Storm
Worm" swept into US email systems, cutting a wider swath of American
email systems than within Europe.
(http://news.yahoo.com/s/zd/199062)
2007 Jan 19, Denny Doherty (66),
one-quarter of the 1960s folk-rock group the Mamas and the Papas, died
at his home in Ontario, Canada. The group was known for their soaring
harmony on hits like "California Dreamin’" (1966) and "Monday, Monday."
(AP, 1/19/07)
2007 Jan 19, Belgian lawyers
confirmed that a group of Belgian newspapers had asked Yahoo! Inc. to
remove links to their archived stories from its Web search service,
claiming they infringe copyright laws.
(AP, 1/19/07)
2007 Jan 19, British foreign
secretary Margaret Beckett admitted that her government was aware of a
secret CIA prison network before Pres. Bush acknowledged its existence
in September.
(AP, 1/20/07)
2007 Jan 19, Europeans labored to
restore services across the continent after hurricane-force winds
toppled trees, brought down power lines and damaged buildings, killing
at least 47 people and disrupting travel for tens of thousands.
(AP, 1/19/07)(SFC, 1/20/07, p.A3)
2007 Jan 19, An Egyptian woman
died from bird flu after six days in hospital.
(Reuters, 1/19/07)
2007 Jan 19, The EU said it has
donated an additional 3.95 million euros ($5 million) to support the
implementation of the Nigeria-Cameroon boundary demarcation project.
(AP, 1/20/07)
2007 Jan 19, In Guinea 2 people
were killed when police and troops opened fire on thousands of
demonstrators, raising the death toll to five since a general strike
was launched in the west African nation this month.
(AFP, 1/19/07)
2007 Jan 19, Iraqi and US forces
arrested one of Muqtada al-Sadr's top aides in Baghdad as pressure
increased on the radical Shiite cleric's militia ahead of a planned
security crackdown in the capital. Al-Sadr said in an interview with an
Italian newspaper that the crackdown had already begun and that 400 of
his men had been arrested. A US Marine died from wounds due to enemy
action in the Sunni insurgent stronghold of Anbar province. Another was
killed by a roadside bomb while conducting combat operations in Ninevah
province.
(AP, 1/19/07)(AP, 1/20/07)
2007 Jan 19, Israel said it had
paid $100 million in frozen tax funds to the Palestinians and rescinded
a contentious decision for a new West Bank settlement, strengthening
the hand of moderate President Mahmoud Abbas ahead of crucial weekend
talks in Damascus with his Hamas rivals.
(AP, 1/19/07)
2007 Jan 19, Jordan's King
Abdullah II told an Israeli newspaper that his country wants its own
nuclear program for peaceful purposes.
(AP, 1/19/07)
2007 Jan 19, Mexico extradited
four major drug traffickers to the US, including Osiel Cardenas, head
of the so-called Gulf Cartel. President Felipe Calderon announced that
7,600 soldiers have massed in the Pacific coast state of Guerrero to go
after drug gangs that have committed beheadings and other violence in
the resort city of Acapulco in recent months.
(AP, 1/19/07)(AP, 1/20/07)(Econ, 1/27/07, p.p33)
2007 Jan 19, Five Moroccans sent
home from the Guantanamo US military camp in 2004 were acquitted of
terrorism charges leveled at them on their return.
(Reuters, 1/19/07)
2007 Jan 19, Mozambique officials
said 4 people have died, hundreds of homes destroyed and more than
6,000 affected by torrential rains over the last two days.
(AP, 1/19/07)
2007 Jan 19, North Korea said it
reached an agreement with the US during talks this week on its nuclear
program, and the top US nuclear envoy expressed optimism that progress
could be made when wider arms negotiations reconvene.
(AP, 1/19/07)
2007 Jan 19, Pakistan's president
discussed the "deteriorating situation" in the Middle East with his
Iranian counterpart ahead of his tour of the region.
(AP, 1/20/07)
2007 Jan 19, A Polish court
convicted two doctors and two ambulance workers of participating in a
scheme in which 14 patients were allowed to die, or in some cases
killed with muscle relaxants, in return for kickbacks from funeral
homes. All received prison sentences, ranging from five years to life.
(AP, 1/19/07)
2007 Jan 19, Rwanda's government
said it has approved plans to scrap the death penalty, in a step which
could remove a major obstacle to the transfer back home of defendants
facing trial over the 1994 genocide.
(AFP, 1/19/07)
2007 Jan 19, The African Union
agreed to deploy a long-discussed peacekeeping force in Somalia.
(AP, 1/20/07)
2007 Jan 19, Sri Lankan troops
captured the main rebel bastion in the island's east. After weeks of
fighting, at least 45 security forces and 331 Tiger rebels were killed
in the battle for Vakarai.
(AP, 1/19/07)
2007 Jan 19, Hrant Dink (53), a
Turkish citizen of Armenian descent, was shot to death at the entrance
to his newspaper's offices. The journalist had faced constant threats
and legal proceedings as one of the most prominent voices of Turkey's
shrinking Armenian community.
(AP, 1/19/07)
2008 Jan 19, In Nevada Hillary
Clinton defeated rival Barack Obama 51-45% in a tight Democratic
contest. Her delegate count increased to 236 followed by Obama with 136
and 50 for Sen. John Edwards. Mitt Romney, former Massachusetts
governor, cruised to victory in the little-contested GOP Nevada
caucuses.
(AP, 1/20/08)(SSFC, 1/20/08, p.A1)
2008 Jan 19, In South Carolina
John McCain (33%) bested Mike Huckabee (30%), a former Arkansas
governor, in a GOP fight that focused on the economy.
(AP, 1/20/08)(SSFC, 1/20/08, p.A6)
2008 Jan 19, In southern
California a Hummer, suspected of carrying drugs and heading to Mexico,
cut through a campground and hit and killed Luis Aguilar (32), a US
Border Patrol, as he threw a spike strip in front of the vehicle.
(SFC, 1/21/08, p.A3)
2008 Jan 19, Suzanne Pleshette
(b.1937), film and TV star, died in Los Angeles. The husky-voiced star
was best known for her role as Bob Newhart's sardonic wife on
television's long-running "The Bob Newhart Show." Her work included
roles in such films as Hitchcock's "The Birds" and in Broadway plays
including "The Miracle Worker."
(AP, 1/20/08)
2008 Jan 19, James Levoy Sorenson
(b.1921), medical device inventor and Utah real estate investor, died.
He amassed over 40 medical patents and introduced the disposable paper
surgical mask.
(WSJ, 1/26/08, p.A8)
2008 Jan 19, John Stewart (68),
singer and songwriter, died in San Diego. He wrote the Monkees' hit
"Daydream Believer" and became a well-known figure in the 1960s folk
music revival as a member of The Kingston Trio.
(AP, 1/20/08)
2008 Jan 19, In southern
Afghanistan a roadside bomb, probably intended for Afghan or NATO
forces, killed five civilians in a taxi in the Panjwayi district of
Kandahar province. Militants attacked a convoy of trucks carrying
gravel to a NATO base in Helmand, killing four drivers and two security
guards.
(AP, 1/20/08)(AP, 1/21/08)
2008 Jan 19, In Algeria an armed
Islamist was killed in a clash with anti-terrorist security forces at
Tebessa, near the Tunisian border while a fourth man died at Jijel,
also in the east. His weapon was seized.
(AFP, 1/21/08)
2008 Jan 19, Andy Palacio (47),
Belize musician, died in Belize City. His 2007 album “Watina” was
acclaimed as one of the best world music releases of the year.
(SFC, 1/22/08, p.B5)
2008 Jan 19, Activists said
actress Mia Farrow has arrived in Cambodia and plans to defy a ban on
holding a ceremony at a former Khmer Rouge prison, as part of her
campaign on Darfur.
(AFP, 1/19/08)
2008 Jan 19, Egyptian police shot
dead a man from Ivory Coast and detained two other African migrants who
were trying to cross illegally into Israel.
(AP, 1/19/08)
2008 Jan 19, Ethiopia’s justice
minister Dimegn Wube said half of Ethiopian women are victims of
domestic violence.
(AFP, 1/19/08)
2008 Jan 19, In India laboratory
workers analyzed new samples from dead chickens amid fears that India's
worst-ever bird flu outbreak may have spread in eastern India as locals
resisted a massive cull.
(AFP, 1/19/08)
2008 Jan 19, Hundreds of thousands
of Shiites beat their heads and chests and whipped themselves with
chains across much of Iraq to honor the martyrdom of one of their most
revered saints. Two bombs hidden under trash struck an Ashoura
procession in the city of Kirkuk, killing at least two. A rocket attack
also struck a busy market in the northern city of Tal Afar, killing at
least 7 people and wounding 17. Three suicide bombers targeted a police
station in Ramadi, the capital of Anbar and a former Sunni insurgent
stronghold. Guards killed one attacker, but two others detonated their
explosives at the entrance, killing at least five officers. A US Marine
was killed during fighting in Anbar. A roadside bomb killed another
soldier in the rural al-Qaida in Iraq stronghold of Arab Jabour. The
soldier who died was the gunner who sits atop the MRAP vehicle. The
V-shaped hull of the huge Mine-Resistant, Ambush-Protected (MRAP) truck
is designed to deflect blasts from roadside bombs. Three crew members
tucked inside the cabin were wounded.
(AP, 1/19/08)(AP, 1/20/08)(AP, 1/21/08)(AP, 1/22/08)
2008 Jan 19, Israeli air strikes
killed two Hamas militants in Gaza, a day after Israel sealed the
territory and bombed an empty Hamas government ministry in an
intensifying campaign to halt rocket fire on Israeli border towns.
(AP, 1/19/08)
2008 Jan 19, In Kenya 5 people
died in ethnic clashes when three ethnic groups, Kalenjin, Kisii and
Kikuyu, fought each other with bows and arrows and machetes in villages
around the Catholic Kipkelion Monastery in the Rift Valley.
(AP, 1/20/08)
2008 Jan 19, In Lebanon Sheik
Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah's reclusive leader, claimed the militant
group had the remains of Israeli soldiers killed in Lebanon during the
2006 war, saying the dead were left behind "in our villages and fields."
(AP, 1/19/08)
2008 Jan 19, In Spain civil guard
police found explosives and other equipment during raids on five
addresses in Barcelona and arrested 12 Pakistanis and two Indians after
receiving information from its own and other European intelligence
agencies.
(Reuters, 1/19/08)
2008 Jan 19, In northern Sri Lanka
23 rebels, 17 in one battle alone, and one soldier were killed in
clashes. In northeastern Welioya village fighting killed six rebels and
left a soldier missing.
(AP, 1/20/08)
2008 Jan 19, Turkmenistan Pres.
Gurbanguli Berdymukhamedov reversed his predecessor's 2001 ban on
operas and circuses, saying that with increasing development in the
Central Asian nation, it deserved to have such artistic performances.
(AP, 1/20/08)
2008 Jan 19, The bodies of nearly
50 Africans trying to immigrate washed up on Yemen's shores after their
boat capsized in the treacherous waters of the Gulf of Aden.
(AP, 1/19/08)
2008 Jan 19, Nationwide power
outages shut down basic services across Zambia and Zimbabwe as anger
mounted in South Africa over power cuts that have wreaked havoc in the
continent's economic hub.
(AP, 1/20/08)
2009 Jan 19, President George W.
Bush In his final acts of clemency granted early prison releases to
Jose Alonso Compean and Ignacio Ramos, two former Texas-based US Border
Patrol agents whose convictions for shooting a Mexican drug dealer in
2005 fueled the national debate over illegal immigration.
(AP, 1/20/09)(SFC, 1/20/09, p.A3)
2009 Jan 19, Afghan President
Hamid Karzai's office said that Russia is ready to cooperate on defense
matters with Afghanistan. The announcement coincided with an
increasingly public tussle between Afghan and Western officials.
(AP, 1/19/09)
2009 Jan 19, The Arab League’s 22
leaders met in Kuwait City for a 2-day session on infrastructure
projects and ways to deal with the global financial crises.
(SFC, 1/19/09, p.D1)
2009 Jan 19, Britain announced a
second rescue plan for the country's ailing banks, hoping to thaw
frozen lending by offering to insure banks against large-scale losses
on bad assets they already hold.
(AP, 1/19/09)
2009 Jan 19, CAR President
Francois Bozize reappointed Faustin-Archange Touadera as prime minister
of Central African Republic, just a day after the president dissolved
the government.
(AP, 1/19/09)
2009 Jan 19, Chile's former top
air force commander was arrested on charges of taking graft in the 1994
sale of 25 Belgian military planes to the government. Air Force Gen.
Ramon Vega and three other retired officers were charged with tax
evasion, misappropriation of public funds and improper negotiation.
(AP, 1/20/09)
2009 Jan 19, China warned of a
rising bird flu risk after a second person died of the virus in less
than a month, and said it could be especially dangerous as the nation
headed into the Lunar New Year holiday.
(AP, 1/19/09)
2009 Jan 19, China’s state media
reported that nearly 1,000 people have been caught cheating on China's
notoriously competitive civil service entrance exams, some with
high-tech listening devices in their ears.
(AP, 1/18/09)
2009 Jan 19, El Salvador's chief
leftist party lost its stronghold in the capital but was winning the
most seats in the Legislative Assembly.
(AP, 1/20/09)
2009 Jan 19, Some 25 people, most
of them Haitians, were aboard an overloaded boat that was illegally
traveling the 100-mile (160-kilometer) passage from the Dutch territory
of St. Maarten to the British Virgin Islands. They were apparently
island-hopping in hopes of eventually reaching US shores when the boat
hit a reef, pitching passengers into the ocean. 13 migrants were
rescued by a passing fishing boat. In September 4 men, two Sri Lankans
and two residents of St. Kitts, were convicted and sentenced to prison
terms ranging up to 2 1/2 years for organizing the doomed sea voyage
from St. Maarten.
(AP, 1/21/09)(AP, 9/22/09)
2009 Jan 19, Iran's state news
agency reported that two internationally renowned Iranian AIDS
physicians were among four men sentenced to prison over the weekend for
allegedly participating in a US-backed plot to overthrow Iran's Islamic
regime. Arash and Kamyar Alaei have been held in prison since June 2008.
(AP, 1/19/09)
2009 Jan 19, Patrick Rocca (42),
Irish property tycoon, was found dead of apparent suicide at his home
near Dublin.
(WSJ, 1/21/09, p.A13)
2009 Jan 19, Israeli officials
said they hope to pull all its troops out of the Gaza Strip by the time
Barack Obama is inaugurated as president of the United States on Jan
20. This was the last full day of fighting as Hamas fired 19 rockets
into Israel. About 1,300 Palestinians and 13 Israelis died in the
offensive, which started Dec. 27.
(AP, 1/19/09)(Econ, 1/24/09, p.53)(AP, 2/11/09)
2009 Jan 19, The International
Court of Justice at The Hague ruled that the United States defied its
order when authorities in Texas on Aug 5, 2008, executed a Mexican
convicted of rape and murder.
(AP, 1/19/09)
2009 Jan 19, Militant attacks
killed a Pakistani soldier near the crucial supply route to US and NATO
forces in Afghanistan. Suspected Taliban militants bombed five schools
in a nearby valley in their growing campaign against girls' education.
(AP, 1/19/09)
2009 Jan 19, Russia released a
text by President Dmitry Medvedev ordering the government to introduce
economic sanctions against countries supplying weapons to Georgia.
(AP, 1/19/09)
2009 Jan 19, Russia and Ukraine
signed a deal that restores natural gas shipments to Ukraine and paves
the way for an end to the nearly two-week cutoff of most Russian gas to
a freezing Europe.
(AP, 1/19/09)
2009 Jan 19, In Russia Stanislav
Markelov (34), a human-rights lawyer who unsuccessfully fought the
early release of a Russian colonel convicted of murdering a Chechen
woman, was shot dead on a Moscow street along with reporter Anastasia
Baburova (b.1983). Markelov had told reporters he was considering file
an international court appeal against the early release of Col. Yuri
Budanov, who was convicted in 2003 and sentenced to 10 years, including
time served, for strangling 18-year-old Heda Kungayeva in 2000. He
admitted to killing her, saying he believed she was a Chechen insurgent
sniper. Budanov was freed last week with more than a year left on his
murder sentence. On Nov 4 Nikita Tikhonov and a female comrade were
detained for the murder and Tikhonov confessed to the crime.
(AP, 1/19/09)(Econ, 2/7/09, p.79)(AP, 11/6/09)(Econ,
11/14/09, p.63)
2009 Jan 19, Rwanda said it was
restoring relations with Germany after a diplomatic spat between the
two countries over Berlin's arrest of a top Rwandan official for
complicity in the 1994 genocide. A Rwandan court passed a life sentence
on Agnes Ntamabyariro, a former justice minister accused of ordering
the killing of Jean Baptiste Habyarimana, a Tutsi official who opposed
Rwanda's 1994 genocide.
(AP, 1/19/09)(AFP, 1/20/09)
2009 Jan 19, The Saudi king said
his country will donate $1 billion to help rebuild the Gaza Strip after
the devastating Israeli offensive and told Israel that an Arab
initiative offering peace will not remain on the table forever. The
Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency cut its benchmark lending rate a half
point to 2%, and its deposit rate by three-quarters point to .75%.
(AP, 1/19/09)(WSJ, 1/20/09, p.A11)
2009 Jan 19, An Atheist Bus
Campaign's message, translated into Catalan, began appearing on two
routes in Barcelona, with plans to extend the campaign to the rest of
the country. A campaign with the concise message "There's probably no
God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life," took to the road in
Britain this month. In Italy buses with the slogan "The bad news is
that God does not exist. The good news is that we do not need him" will
begin traversing the northern Italian city of Genoa on February 4.
(AFP, 1/24/09)
2009 Jan 19, In Russia a girl
disappeared after leaving her home in St. Petersburg for school. Vity
prosecutor's spokesman later Sergei Kapitonov she was killed that
night, and that body parts believed to be hers were found in plastic
bags scattered around the city. Yuri Mozhnov (19), a florist, and Maxim
Golovatskikh (19), a street-market butcher, were arrested on Jan 31 on
suspicion of killing her and eating parts of her body.
(AP, 2/4/09)
2009 Jan 19, In Thailand Harry
Nicolaides (41), an Australian writer, was sentenced to three years in
prison for insulting Thailand's royal family in his novel, a rare
conviction of a foreigner amid a crackdown on people and Web sites
deemed critical of the monarchy. Bangkok's Criminal Court sentenced
Nicolaides to six years behind bars but reduced the term because he had
entered a guilty plea. His 2005 book “Verisimilitude” had sold 7
copies. Nicolaides returned home on Feb 21, after he was granted a
royal pardon.
(AP, 1/19/09)(SFC, 1/20/09, p.A3)(AP, 2/21/09)
2009 Jan 19, In Turkey Abdulkarim
Kirca committed suicide. He was found shot in the head in his apartment
in Ankara, following allegations in the Turkish press that he had been
involved in extra-judicial killings of Kurds.
(Econ, 1/31/09,
p.58)(www.journalistinturkey.com/date/2009/01/)
2009 Jan 19, The United Arab
Emirates central bank cut its benchmark lending rate a half point to 1%,
(WSJ, 1/20/09, p.A11)
2009 Jan 19, In Zimbabwe Southern
African mediators tried to forge a compromise between Zimbabwe
President Robert Mugabe and his rival Morgan Tsvangirai, in a
last-ditch effort to save a power-sharing deal. The power-sharing talks
ended without a deal and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai said no
progress was made on what he called the "darkest day of our lives."
(AFP, 1/19/09)(Reuters, 1/20/09)
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