Today in History - January 20
Return to home
St. Sebastian's day.
(Hem., 3/97, p.74)
820 Jan 20, Abu
Abdallah Mibn Idris al-Sjafi'i, Islamic author of Book of Mother, died.
(MC, 1/20/02)
1265 Jan 20, The 1st English
Parliament was called into session by Earl of Leicester.
(MC, 1/20/02)
1327 Jan 20, Edward II of England
was deposed by his eldest son, Edward III. [see Jan 7]
(HN, 1/20/99)
1586 Jan 20, Johann Hermann
Schein, German composer (Fontana d'Israel), was born.
(MC, 1/20/02)
1612 Jan 20, Rudolf II von
Habsburg (59), emperor of Germany (1576-1612), died in Prague and
Matthias became Holy Roman Emperor. In 1912 an enigmatic manuscript,
once owned by Rudolf II, was acquired by Wilfrid Voynich and came to be
known as the Voynich manuscript. In 2006 Peter Marshall authored “The
Magic Circle of Rudolf II.”
(WSJ, 1/8/99,
p.C13)(www.historylearningsite.co)(Econ, 1/10/04, p.71)(WSJ, 9/9/06,
p.P9)
1616 Jan 20, The French explorer
Samuel de Champlain arrived to winter in a Huron Indian village after
being wounded in a battle with Iroquois in New France.
(HN, 1/20/99)
1675 Jan 20, Christian Huygens,
Dutch scientist, transformed a theoretical insight on springs into a
practical mechanism with the 1st sketch of a watch balance regulated by
a coiled spring.
(www.princeton.edu/~mike/articles/huygens/timelong/timelong.html)(Econ,
2/4/06, p.73)
1732 Jan 20, Richard Henry Lee,
American Revolutionary patriot and signer of the Declaration of
Independence, was born.
(HN, 1/20/99)
1760 Jan 20, Charles III, King of
Spain, was born.
(HN, 1/20/99)
1783 Jan 20, The fighting of the
Revolutionary War ended. Britain signed a peace agreement with France
and Spain, who allied against it in the American War of Independence.
(HFA, '96, p.22)(HN, 1/20/99)
1788 Jan 20, The pioneer African
Baptist church was organized in Savannah, Ga.
(MC, 1/20/02)
1801 Jan 20, US Secretary of State
John Marshall was nominated by President Adams to be chief justice. He
was sworn in on Feb. 4, 1801. Marshall effectively created the legal
framework within which free markets in goods and services could
establish themselves.
(WSJ, 3/10/99, p.A22)(AP, 1/20/08)y
1807 Jan 20, Napoleon convened the
great Sanhedrin in Paris.
(MC, 1/20/02)
1809 Jan 20, The 1st US geology
book was published by William Maclure.
(MC, 1/20/02)
1820 Jan 20, Anne Clough, promoter
of higher education, was born.
(HN, 1/20/99)
1820 Jan 20-1820 Jan 29, As George
IV was about to become King of England, his wife Caroline (the German
princess of Brunswick) returned to claim her rights. She had been
living on the continent and was rumored to have had as lovers such men
as: the politician George Canning, the admiral Sir Sydney Smith, the
painter Sir Thomas Lawrence. The House of Lords introduced a Bill of
Pains and Penalties, which sought to strip Caroline of her title of
Queen on the grounds of her scandalous conduct. George had previously
married Maria Anne Fitzherbert in secret. A trial ensued, but witnesses
refused to speak against the queen and the bill had to be amended.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caroline_of_Brunswick)(WSJ, 5/23/96,
p.A-10)(WSJ, 3/26/99, p.W10)
1831 Jan 20, Protocols were signed
in London that recognized Belgium as an independent nation. Belgium
became a nation and combined French and Flemish-speaking lands. The
Rothschild banking empire financed the founding of Belgium.
(SFC, 7/12/96, p.A11)(SSFC, 2/24/02,
p.C5)(http://tinyurl.com/3335jt)
1839 Jan 20, Chile defeated a
confederation of Peru and Bolivia in the Battle of Yungay.
(AP, 1/20/98)
1841 Jan 20, The island of Hong
Kong was ceded to Great Britain from China as part of the concessions
from the Opium War. It became a capitalist bastion as opposed to the
rest of China. The British won the first Opium War and forced China to
open markets to foreign trade. Britain soon established a formal police
force commanded mostly by British officers. Hong Kong returned to
Chinese control in July 1997.
(WSJ, 10/26/95, p.A-1)(SFEC, 11/10/96, Par
p.14)(SFC, 3/11/97, p.A12)(SFC, 7/1/97, p.A8)(AP, 1/20/98)(HN,
1/20/99)(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R49)(WSJ, 2/2/04, p.A12)
1859 Jan 20, The Federal War began
in Venezuela. Ezequiel Zamora (1817-1860) led the Federalist Army until
his assassination on Jan 10, 1860.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_War)
1875 Jan 20, Jean Francois Millet
(b.1814), French painter, died.
(www.artrenewal.org/asp/database/art.asp?aid=745)
1887 Jan 20, The U.S. Senate
approved an agreement to lease Pearl Harbor in Hawaii as a naval base.
[see Nov 29]
(AP, 1/20/98)
1891 Jan 20, Mischa Elman, US
violinist, was born in Talnoye, Ukraine.
(MC, 1/20/02)
1891 Jan 20, King David Kalakaua,
sovereign of the Hawaiian Islands, died at the SF Palace Hotel.
(SFEC, 11/17/96, p.C1)(SFC, 5/29/98, p.C18)
1893 Jan 20, Bessy Colman, first
African American aviator, was born.
(HN, 1/20/99)
1896 Jan 20, George Burns
(d.3/9/96), vaudeville comedian and actor, was born Nathan Birnbaum in
New York City. He hosted radio and television show with his wife Gracie
Allen before going into movies like The Sunshine Boys. "By the time
you're 80 years old, you've learned everything. You only have to
remember it."
(WSJ, 3/11/96, p. A1)(AP, 1/20/98)(HN, 1/20/99)
1899 Jan 20, Alexander Tcherepnin,
composer, was born.
(MC, 1/20/02)
1899 Jan 20, President William
McKinley appointed a Philippine Commission led by Jacob G. Schurman,
president of Cornell University, to study the situation in the island
and to submit a report to serve as a basis for setting up a civil
government. The commission issued findings in June suggesting the
ultimate independence for the islands but, for an indefinite period
continued U.S. rule.
(HNQ, 1/3/00)
1910 Jan 20, Joy Adamson, British
author and naturalist, was born. He lived in Kenya and wrote "Born
Free."
(HN, 1/20/99)
1913 Jan 20, Karl Wittgenstein
(b.1847), Viennese industrialist and father of philosopher Ludwig
Wittgenstein (1889-1951), died of throat cancer. In 2009 Alexander
Waugh authored “The House of Wittgenstein: A Family at War.”
(WSJ, 2/28/09,
p.W10)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Wittgenstein)
1920 Jan 20, Movie director
Federico Fellini was born in Rimini, Italy.
(AP, 1/20/00)
1928 Jan 20, Martin Landau, actor
(Mission Impossible, Tucker, Space 1999), was born in Brooklyn, NY.
(MC, 1/20/02)
1930 Jan 20, Dr. Edwin 'Buzz'
Aldrin, second man to walk on the moon, was born.
(HN, 1/20/99)
1930 Jan 20, Charles Lindbergh
arrived in New York, setting a cross country flying record of 14.75
hours. [see Apr 20]
(HN, 1/20/99)
1935 Jan 20, Belgium arrested some
Nazi agitators who were urging for a return to the Reich.
(HN, 1/20/99)
1936 Jan 20, Britain's King George
V, served from 1910-1936, died at age 70; he was succeeded by Edward
VIII. He is remembered for saying: “Any man who is not a socialist
before he is 30 has no heart, and any man who is a socialist after he
is 30 has no head.”
(AP, 1/20/98)(MC, 1/20/02)(WSJ, 7/16/02, p.D6)
1937 Jan 20, President Franklin
Roosevelt was inaugurated for a 2nd term. He became the first chief
executive to be inaugurated on Jan. 20 instead of March 4.
(AP, 1/20/08)(SSFC, 1/18/09, p.D6)
1939 Jan 20, Hitler proclaimed to
German parliament his intention to exterminate all European Jews.
(MC, 1/20/02)
1941 Jan 20, US Pres. Franklin D.
Roosevelt was inaugurated for his 3rd term. It was the first time any
US president had been elected for more than two terms.
(WUD, 1944, p.1683)
1941 Jan 20, Hitler met with
Mussolini and offered aid in Albania and Greece.
(HN, 1/20/99)
1942 Jan 20, Top Nazis met at
Grossen-Wannsee, outside Berlin, and there formulated the infamous
"Final Solution" to the Jewish question. Chaired by SS General Reinhard
Heydrich, the one-day conference was designed to address the Nazi
efforts at removing the Jews. The 15 top-ranking men of the German
Reich agreed upon a blueprint for the extermination of Europe’s Jews.
Their "final solution" called for exterminating Europe's Jews. Until
this time, the plan had been to deport all Jews to the island of
Madagascar off Africa, but by 1942 this plan was rejected in favor of
transporting Jews to the east where the able-bodied would become slave
laborers for the Reich. SS chief Heinrich Himmler would be in charge.
Those unfit to work would be, the conference minutes noted,
"appropriately dealt with." This phrase was left unexplained, but there
was no doubt of its sinister meaning. After approving genocide as Nazi
policy, the conference attendees adjourned for lunch. The minutes were
taken by Adolf Eichmann. In 2004 Christopher R. Browning authored "The
Origins of the Final Solution."
(AP, 1/20/98)(WSJ, 4/28/97, p.A17)(HNPD,
1/20/99)(MC, 1/20/02)(WSJ, 3/23/04, p.D8)
1942 Jan 20, Japanese invaded
Burma.
(MC, 1/20/02)
1942 Jan 20, There was a Japanese
air raid on Rabaul, New Britain.
(MC, 1/20/02)
1943 Jan 20, Giacomo Benvenuti
(57), composer, died.
(MC, 1/20/02)
1944 Jan 20, Allied forces began
unsuccessful operations to cross the Rapido River and seize Cassino.
(HN, 1/20/99)
1944 Jan 20, RAF dropped 2300
1-ton bombs on Berlin.
(MC, 1/20/02)
1945 Jan 20, Franklin D. Roosevelt
was inaugurated for his fourth term.
(HN, 1/20/99)
1945 Jan 20, The Allies signed a
truce with the Hungarians.
(HN, 1/20/99)
1946 Jan 20, France's Charles
DeGaulle handed in his resignation.
(HN, 1/20/99)
1947 Jan 20, Josh Gibson (35),
Negro League slugger, died of a brain tumor.
(MC, 1/20/02)
1949 Jan 20, Ivana Trump, former
wife of Donald Trump, was born.
(MC, 1/20/02)
1949 Jan 20, Pres. Truman was
inaugurated for his 2nd term. He presented a 4-point plan for American
foreign policy. Point 4 called for “a bold new program” of assistance
to economically underdeveloped areas. In his inaugural address, Truman
branded communism a "false philosophy" as he outlined his program for
U.S. world leadership.
(EWH, 1968, p.1207)(AP, 1/20/99)
1951 Jan 20, American bombing and
strafing killed about 300 Korean refugees at Youngchoon. Korean
witnesses later said 300 people were trapped and suffocated in
Gokgyegul. On May 20, 2008, a South Korean Truth and Reconciliation
Commission identified 3 US attacks of indiscriminant use of napalm that
killed at least 228 civilians. The 1st at Wolmi on Sep 10, 1950, a 2nd
at Sansong on Jan 19, 1951 and a 3rd at Tanyang on Jan 20, 1951, where
at least 167 villagers were killed.
(SFC, 12/29/99, p.A13)(SFC, 1/13/01,
p.A12)(http://tinyurl.com/5crkh9)(SSFC, 8/3/08, p.A16)
1952 Jan 20, British troops
occupied Ismalia, Egypt. [see Nov 18, 1951]
(HN, 1/20/99)
1953 Jan 20, In the US Dwight D.
Eisenhower was inaugurated as president. He succeeded Harry S. Truman.
TV coverage sent the event to 21 million sets.
(WUD, 1994, p.1685)(SFC, 1/17/03, p.E8)
1954 Jan 20, "The Caine Mutiny
Court-Martial," a play by Herman Wouk based on part of his 1951 novel
"The Caine Mutiny," opened on Broadway.
(AP, 1/20/04)
1954 Jan 20, Over 22,000
anti-Communist prisoners were turned over to the UN forces in Korea.
(HN, 1/20/99)
1954 Jan 20, The CIA built a
tunnel from west Berlin to East Berlin to tap Soviet and East German
communications.
(SFC, 9/17/97, p.A3)
1955 Jan 20, Joe Doherty, IRA
activist (jailed in US), was born in Ireland.
(MC, 1/20/02)
1956 Jan 20, Buddy Holly recorded
"Blue Days Black Night" in Nashville.
(MC, 1/20/02)
1957 Jan 20, President Eisenhower
and Vice President Nixon were sworn in for their second terms of office
in a private Sunday ceremony. A public ceremony was held the next day.
(AP, 1/20/07)
1961 Jan 20, Francis Poulenc's
"Gloria," premiered in Boston.
(MC, 1/20/02)
1961 Jan 20, Pres. Kennedy made
his inaugural address from the steps of the US Capital. In 2004
Thurston Clarke authored “Ask Not: The Inauguration of John F. Kennedy
and the Speech That Changed America.” In 2005 Richard J. Tofel authored
“Sounding the Trumpet: The Making of John F. Kennedy’s Inaugural
Address.”
(SSFC, 10/24/04, p.M2)(WSJ, 8/24/05, p.D10)
1961 Jan 20, Poet Robert Frost
recited his poem "The Gift Outright" at the inauguration of U.S.
President John F. Kennedy. Frost, born in San Francisco on March 26,
1874, was the first poet to participate in a presidential inauguration.
Awarded the Pulitzer Prize four times, most of Frost's work drew on
themes from rural New England life. He died on January 29, 1963.
Although 86-year-old Robert Frost had composed a new poem, titled
“Dedication,” for the inauguration of President John F. Kennedy, he was
unable to recite it at the ceremony because he could not read his own
typewritten manuscript. A dim typewriter ribbon conspired with Frost‘s
failing eyesight and bright glare on a sunny day with snow cover,
making it impossible for the poet to read the poem written especially
for the occasion. Instead Frost recited from memory his famous poem
“The Gift Outright.”
(HNQ, 9/12/98)(HNQ, 1/21/00)
1965 Jan 20, Byrds recorded "Mr.
Tambourine Man."
(MC, 1/20/02)
1965 Jan 20, Generalissimo
Francisco Franco met with Jewish representatives to discuss
legitimizing Jewish communities in Spain.
(MC, 1/20/02)
1967 Jan 20, Clark Kerr, president
of the UC system, was fired by Gov. Reagan and the UC Regents for being
too soft on student protesters at Berkeley. In 2003 Kerr authored vol.
2 of his memoir: "The Gold and the Blue: A Personal Memoir of the Univ.
of California.
(SSFC, 2/17/02, p.M6)(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.F6)
1969 Jan 20, Richard Nixon in his
first inaugural address proclaimed that Americans "cannot learn from
one another until we stop shouting at one another." He also said: “the
greatest honor history can bestow is the title of peacemaker. This
honor now beckons America.”
(HNQ, 6/30/98)(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.F6)
1970 Jan 20, William T. Cahill
(1912-1996), began serving as the governor of New Jersey and continued
to 1974.
(SFC, 7/3/96,
p.C4)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_T._Cahill)
1974 Jan 20, Howard C. Ulrich was
appointed by Gov. Ronald Reagan to serve as the chief of Caltrans and
served from this day to Aug 8, 1975.
(SFEC, 1/31/99, p.A14)
1977 Jan 20, President Jimmy
Carter was sworn in and then surprised everyone as he walked from the
U.S. Capitol to the White House.
(HN, 1/20/99)
1978 Jan 20, Columbia Pictures
paid $9.5 million for movie rights to "Annie."
(www.coolquiz.com/trivia/history/index.asp?hdate=01.20)
1980 Jan 20, President Jimmy
Carter announced the US boycott of Olympics in Moscow.
(www.kipnotes.com/James%20E.%20Carter.htm)
1981 Jan 20, Ronald Reagan was
sworn in as president of the US. He inherited 10% inflation and 20%
interest rates.
(AP, 1/20/98)(WSJ, 8/15/96, p.A12)
1981 Jan 20, Iran released 52
Americans held hostage for 444 days, minutes after the presidency had
passed from Jimmy Carter to Ronald Reagan.
(AP, 1/20/98)
1984 Jan 20, Johnny Weissmuller
(79), Romania-born US swimmer (Olympics-5 gold-1924, 28), movie actor
(Tarzan), died in Acapulco, Mexico. In 2002 his son (1940-2006)
published “Tarzan, My Father.”
(www.britannica.com/eb/article-9076468)(SFC,
7/31/06, p.B4)
1985 Jan 20, The SF 49ers defeated
the Miami Dolphins 38-16 in the Super Bowl played at Stanford Stadium.
This capped the winningest season in national Football League history,
with 18 wins and only one loss.
(www.superbowl.com/history/recaps/game/sbxix)(SSFC,
1/17/10, DB p.42)
1985 Jan 20, President Reagan and
VP Bush were sworn in for 2nd terms of office in a brief White House
ceremony. It being a Sunday, the public swearing-in was held the
following day.
(AP, 1/20/05)
1986 Jan 20, The United States
observed the first federal holiday in honor of slain civil rights
leader Martin Luther King Jr.
(AP, 1/20/98)
1986 Jan 20, Britain and France
announced plans to build the Channel Tunnel.
(AP, 1/20/98)
1987 Jan 20, Anglican Church envoy
Terry Waite disappeared in Beirut, Lebanon, while attempting to
negotiate the release of Western hostages. He was freed in November
1991.
(AP, 1/20/98)
1988 Jan 20, An Arizona House
committee opened hearings on the possible impeachment of Gov. Evan
Mecham.
(AP, 1/20/98)
1988 Jan 20, Philippe de
Rothschild (b.1902), Bordeaux Vineyard manager, died in Paris.
(www.reference.com/browse/wiki/Philippe_de_Rothschild)
1989 Jan 20, George Bush was sworn
in as the 41st president of the United States; Dan Quayle was sworn in
as vice president. Reagan became the 1st pres elected in a "0" year,
since 1840, to leave office alive.
(AP, 1/20/99)
1990 Jan 20, The space shuttle
Columbia returned from an 11-day mission.
(AP, 1/20/00)
1990 Jan 20, Actress Barbara
Stanwyck died in Santa Monica, Calif., at age 82.
(AP, 1/20/00)
1990 Jan 20, The Soviets attacked
Baku, leaving dozens dead and wounded. Gen’l. Lebed led Russian forces
in Baku to crush the nationalist Azeri Popular Front. 62 civilians were
killed and more than 200 wounded when the Soviet army stormed into the
city of Baku to end what Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev called
fratricidal killing between Muslim Azerbaijanis and Christian Armenians.
(WSJ, 12/18/96, p.A21)(CO, Grolier’s Amer. Acad.
Enc./ Azerbaijan)(WSJ, 8/7/96, p.A15)(AP, 1/20/00)
1991 Jan 20, During the Gulf War,
Iraqi missiles were shot down by US Patriot rockets as they approached
Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. Iraqi television showed interviews with seven
downed allied pilots, three of them Americans.
(AP, 1/20/01)
1991 Jan 20, In Latvia, “black
beret” commandos of the Soviet Interior Ministry attacked the
republic’s Interior Ministry headquarters, killing five people.
Communist leader Alfred Rubiks supported a Soviet crackdown against a
move by his countrymen for independence.
(SFC,11/6/97, p.C3)(AP, 1/20/01)
1992 Jan 20, A French Airbus A-320
crashed near Strasbourg, killing 87 people.
(AP, 1/20/98)
1992 Jan 20, A German court
convicted two former East German border guards of the last killing at
the Berlin Wall.
(AP, 1/20/02)
1993 Jan 20, Bill Clinton
was sworn in as the 42nd president of the United States; Al Gore was
sworn in as vice president. The Senate confirmed Lloyd Bentsen as
treasury secretary, Les Aspin as defense secretary and Warren
Christopher as secretary of state. That night, Clinton picked up a
saxophone and jammed at five of the 12 inaugural balls he and his wife,
Hillary, attended. Christopher served for 4 years and in 1998 published
"In the Stream of History: Shaping Foreign Policy for a new Era," a
compilation of 41 of his major speeches.
(SFC, 11/8/96, p.C6)(SFEC, 11/17/96, Par p.2)(AP,
1/20/98)(SFEC, 7/12/98, BR p.3)
1993 Jan 20, Audrey Hepburn,
actress died in Switzerland at age 63. The 8th biography of her life
was written by Barry Paris in 1996.
(SFC, 11/8/96, p.C6) (AP, 1/20/98)
1994 Jan 20, Robert B. Fiske Jr.
was appointed by Attorney General Janet Reno as the special Whitewater
prosecutor to investigate President and Mrs. Clinton's Arkansas land
deals.
(SFEC, 11/15/98, p.A3) (AP, 1/20/99)
1994 Jan 20, Shannon Faulkner
became the first woman to attend classes at The Citadel in South
Carolina. She joined the cadet corps in August 1995, under court order,
but soon dropped out, citing isolation and stress.
(AP, 1/20/99)
1995 Jan 20, The U.S. State
Department announced a partial lifting of economic sanctions against
North Korea.
(AP, 1/20/00)
1995 Jan 20, The Mt. Zion AME
Church in Williamsburg Co., S.C.., burned down. Arson was suspected and
investigations by the FBI and ATF were later begun.
(SFC, 6/11/96, p.A16)
1995 Jan 20, The Japanese
government, criticized for being slow to respond to Kobe's devastating
earthquake, admitted its initial reaction might have been "confused."
(AP, 1/20/00)
1996 Jan 20, The space shuttle
“Endeavour” landed after a nine-day mission that included snaring a
Japanese satellite.
(AP, 1/20/01)
1996 Jan 20, US Ambassador Swanee
Hunt gave the Austrian government a list of sites where weapons were
stockpiled by the US in the 1950s as a precaution against a Soviet
takeover.
(FB, 9/12/96, p.A9)
1996 Jan 20, Yasser Arafat was
elected president in the first Palestinian elections. Hundreds of
thousands of Palestinians turned out to vote in the festive first
election, solidly endorsing Arafat and his peace policies.
(WSJ, 12/27/95, p. A-1)(SFC, 2/8/99, p.A6)(AP,
1/20/01)
1997 Jan 20, President Clinton and
Vice President Gore were sworn in for second terms of office. In his
inaugural address, Clinton called for an end to "the politics of petty
bickering and extreme partisanship." Poet Miller Williams delivered the
inaugural poem.
(WSJ, 1/22/97, p.A12)(AP, 1/20/98)
1997 Jan 20, Edith Haisman (100),
the oldest survivor of Titanic, died.
(www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/biography/357/)
1997 Jan 20, In Scotland an
1800-year-old sculpture of a lioness devouring a man was found in the
mud of the Almond River near Edinburgh.
(SFC, 1/22/97, p.A9)
1998 Jan 20, The Idaho Coeur
d’Alene Indian tribe planned to begin a national online lottery called
US Lottery. US residents will be restricted by their local state laws.
(SFC, 1/16/98, p.A1)
1998 Jan 20, In Texas jury
selection in the multi-million-dollar lawsuit trial of Oprah Winfrey
began. She was being sued by Texas cattlemen for remarks on her Apr 16,
1996 show about mad cow disease. The case was initially a test of the
state’s 1995 "veggie libel" law that protected perishable food products
from false and defamatory statements, but was ruled to proceed as a
common-law business defamation case. Winfrey won the case on Feb 26.
(SFC, 1/21/98,
p.A3)(www.cnn.com/US/9802/26/oprah.verdict/)
1998 Jan 20, In Algeria the
European envoys concluded their mission as 3 people were killed by a
bomb in Ben Aknoun District, another 3 by a bomb in the village of
Ziralda. 2 people died from a bomb thrown into a cafe in Boussaken.
King Fahd of Saudi Arabia offered his nation’s assistance to end the
bloodshed.
(SFC, 1/21/98, p.A8)
1998 Jan 20, The 1st criminal suit
was filed against Chile’s Gen’l. Pinochet for human rights violations.
(SFC, 12/11/06, p.A4)
1998 Jan 20, In the Congo Joseph
Olengankoy, opposition leader, was arrested in Kinshasa. He had refused
to meet with Pres. Kabila to discuss his criticism.
(SFC, 1/21/98, p.C12)
1998 Jan 20, In the Czech Republic
Pres. Vaclav Havel won re-election by a slim margin in a 2nd round vote
of parliament.
(SFC, 1/21/98, p.C12)
1998 Jan 20, In Indonesia Pres.
Suharto (76) announced plans for another 5-year term. He hinted that
his vice-pres. would be Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie (61).
(SFC, 1/21/98, p.C12)
1998 Jan 20, In Zimbabwe army
troops were ordered into Harare to quell 2 days of unrest.
(SFC, 1/21/98, p.C12)
1999 Jan 20, For a second day,
President Clinton's legal team argued its case before the Senate,
saying that House-passed articles of impeachment were "flawed and
unfair."
(AP, 1/20/00)
1999 Jan 20, The Clinton
administration pledged $6.6 billion over 5 years for a national missile
defense system.
(SFC, 1/21/99, p.A3)
1999 Jan 20, The Malcolm X postage
stamp, the 22nd in the Black heritage series, went on sale.
(SFC, 1/21/99, p.A3)
1999 Jan 20, In China Lin Hai, a
software entrepreneur, was sentenced to 2 years in jail for giving
e-mail addresses to dissidents abroad.
(SFC, 1/21/99, p.A12)
1999 Jan 20, In Indonesia rioting
extended for a 3rd day on Ambon Island where at least 22 people were
killed.
(SFC, 1/21/99, p.A14)
1999 Jan 20, NATO moved forces
within striking distance of Yugoslavia and warned Belgrade to stop its
repression in Kosovo.
(WSJ, 1/21/99, p.A15)
1999 Jan 20, The UN announced that
it would release over $81 million to Iraq to buy electricity generating
equipment. This included $6.5 million for oil industry spare parts.
(SFC, 1/21/99, p.A14)
2000 Jan 20, The Clinton
administration issued visas to the grandmothers of Elian Gonzalez,
enabling them to visit the United States to make their case for the
six-year-old’s return to Cuba.
(AP, 1/20/01)
2000 Jan 20, Census 2000
officially got under way as Census Bureau Director Kenneth Prewitt
knocked on the door of a small wood-frame house in Unalakleet, Alaska,
to begin the nationwide head count.
(SFC, 1/21/00, p.A1)(AP, 1/20/01)
2000 Jan 20, Madeleine Albright
told visiting Indonesian Foreign Minister, Alwi Shihab, that the US
would increase aid from $75 million to $125 million.
(SFC, 1/21/00, p.D3)
2000 Jan 20, Jesse Helms addressed
the UN Security Council and argued that the US Congress has the right
to dictate conditions for payment of American debt to the organization.
(SFC, 1/21/00, p.A1)
2000 Jan 20, It was reported that
the number of Internet users in China had more than doubled over the
last 6 months from 4 to 8.9 million, most of them young single men.
(SFC, 1/20/00, p.C16)
2000 Jan 20, In Germany Wolfgang
Huellen (49), a finance official of the Christian Democratic Party,
committed suicide in Berlin over fear of an audit of the party's
finances.
(SFC, 1/21/00, p.A12)
2000 Jan 20, Greece and Turkey
signed a series of accords to regulate commerce, provide for
cooperation in fighting organized crime, preventing illegal
immigration, promoting tourism and protecting the Aegean Sea
environment.
(SFC, 1/21/00, p.D2)
2000 Jan 20, In Israel the
attorney general called for a criminal investigation into possible tax
evasion by Pres. Ezer Weizman. Weizman was reported to have accepted
$453,465 from Edouard Saroussi, a French executive, from 1988 to 1993.
(SFC, 1/21/00, p.A12)
2000 Jan 20, Poland expelled 9
Russian diplomats under allegations of spying.
(WSJ, 1/21/00, p.A1)
2000 Jan 20, In Turkey authorities
unearthed 3 bodies from a coal shed in Ankara a day after 10 bodies
were found strangled and left in a coal bin of an Istanbul house.
Hezbollah militants were blamed.
(SFC, 1/21/00, p.D3)
2001 Jan 20, Michelle Kwan won her
fourth straight U.S. Figure Skating Championship title while Timothy
Goebel won his first men's title.
(AP, 1/20/02)
2001 Jan 20, Pres. Clinton in his
final hours issued 36 commutations and 140 pardons that included Susan
McDougal, Patricia Hearst, Henry Cisneros, John Deutch and Roger
Clinton. It was later revealed that Hugh Rodham, the brother of Hillary
Rodham Clinton, received $400,000 to help 2 felons win clemency.
(SSFC, 1/21/01, p.A1)(SFC, 2/23/01, p.A1)
2001 Jan 20, George Bush, the 1st
president with an MBA, was inaugurated as the nation’s 43rd president
in Washington DC. The “compassionate conservative” vowed to lead
“through civility, courage, compassion and character.”
(SFC, 1/20/01, p.A1)(SSFC, 1/21/01, p.A1)
2001 Jan 20, Pres. Bush suspended
all late-term executive orders issued by Pres. Clinton.
(SSFC, 1/21/01, p.A5)
2001 Jan 20, Some 25,000
protesters gathered in Washington DC for the inauguration of Pres. Bush
along with some 7,000 police.
(SSFC, 1/21/01, p.A4)
2001 Jan 20, In Bangladesh a bomb
exploded at a leftist political rally in Dhaka and at least 6 people
were killed.
(SSFC, 1/21/01, p.D4)
2001 Jan 20, In Indonesia
mudslides in North Sulawesi province killed at least 33 people.
(SFC, 1/23/01, p.C14)
2001 Jan 20, In Iraq the
government said US and British warplanes killed 6 citizens in air
attacks over southern Al-Muthana province.
(SSFC, 1/21/01, p.D4)
2001 Jan 20, In Israel Prime
Minister Barak agreed to a Palestinian proposal for a fresh round of
peace negotiations in Taba, Egypt.
(SSFC, 1/21/01, p.D3)
2001 Jan 20, In the West Bank
Israeli soldiers captured Mona Najar (25), suspected in the Jan 18
luring and murder of Ophir Rakhum.
(SSFC, 1/21/01, p.3)
2001 Jan 20, In the Philippines
Pres. Estrada stepped down as tens of thousands, united by cell phone
messages, marched on his residence. Vice President Gloria Macapagal
Arroyo (53), daughter of former pres. Diosdado Macapagal, took over
power.
(SFC, 1/20/01, p.A1,12)(AP, 1/20/02)
2002 Jan 20, In the 59th annual
Golden Globes Ron Howard’s "A Beautiful Mind" was named best drama and
its star, Russell Crowe, the top dramatic actor; Sissy Spacek was named
best dramatic actress for "In the Bedroom" while Baz Luhrmann’s “Moulin
Rouge” won 3 awards including best musical or comedy.
(SFC, 1/21/02, p.D1)(AP, 1/20/03)
2002 Jan 20, Carrie Hamilton,
actress and daughter of Carol Burnett, died of cancer at age 38.
(SFC, 1/21/02, p.B5)
2002 Jan 20, John Jackson,
Virginia bluesman, died at age 77.
(SFC, 1/22/02, p.A20)
2002 Jan 20, A US CH-53E Super
Stallion helicopter crashed in Afghanistan after take off from Bagram
air base. Marines Dwight Morgan and Walter Cohee III were killed.
(AP, 1/20/03)(SSFC, 1/20/02, p.A14)(SFC, 1/21/02,
p.A1)
2002 Jan 20, In Colombia rebel and
government negotiators agreed to a timetable for cease-fire talks.
(SFC, 1/21/02, p.A11)
2002 Jan 20, Thousands of
Congolese left Rwanda to return to Goma after receiving scant help.
(SFC, 1/21/02, p.A3)
2002 Jan 20, Israeli forces took
control of Tulkarem in the West Bank and soldiers arrested dozens of
suspected militants.
(SFC, 1/21/02, p.A7)
2003 Jan 20, Secretary of State
Colin Powell, faced with stiff resistance and calls to go slow, bluntly
told the U.N. Security Council that the United Nations "must not
shrink" from its responsibility to disarm Saddam Hussein's Iraq.
(AP, 1/20/04)
2003 Jan 20, Energizer agreed to
buy the Shick-Wilkinson Sword razor business for $930 million from
Pfizer as it aimed to expand beyond batteries.
(WSJ, 1/2/04, p.R8)
2003 Jan 20, Al Hirschfield
(b.1903), caricaturist of Hollywood stars, died in NYC at age 99.
(SFC, 1/21/03, p.A2)(Econ, 7/16/05, p.82)
2003 Jan 20, Pollster Burns W.
"Bud" Roper died in Cape Cod, Mass., at age 77.
(AP, 1/20/04)
2003 Jan 20, In Canada 7 members
of a ski party were killed in an avalanche near Durrand Glacier outside
of Banff National Park.
(WSJ, 1/22/03, p.A1)
2003 Jan 20, In northeast China a
gas explosion tore through a coal mine, killing 16 workers at a
facility in the same city where another blast killed scores of miners
last year.
(AP, 1/21/03)
2003 Jan 20, In northern Colombia
FARC rebels ambushed a pickup truck carrying policemen, killing 6
officers and their civilian driver in a hail of gunfire and grenades.
(AP, 1/20/03)
2003 Jan 20-27, In Honduras a
drastic drop in oxygen in rivers and ponds may have killed 5.5 million
fish near the El Cahon hydroelectric plant.
(AP, 2/8/03)
2003 Jan 20, The chief UN arms
inspectors and Iraqi officials agreed on practical steps to greater
Iraqi cooperation in the UN disarmament program, including Baghdad's
encouragement of weapons scientists to submit to private UN interviews.
(AP, 1/20/03)
2003 Jan 20, The UN human rights
watchdog elected a Libyan diplomat as its president for this year,
despite concern from the United States about the country's poor record
on civil liberties and its alleged role in sponsoring terrorism.
(AP, 1/20/03)
2003 Jan 20, An Organization of
American States report accused Nicaragua of negligence for authorizing
a deal that allowed 3,000 Kalashnikov rifles meant for Panama to go to
a Colombian paramilitary militia.
(AP, 1/21/03)
2003 Jan 20, The leaders of Russia
and Belarus reaffirmed their commitment to closer integration under a
union treaty that has developed slowly since it was created nearly
seven years ago.
(AP, 1/20/03)
2003 Jan 20, Milan Milutinovic,
Serbia's former president, surrendered to the Yugoslav war crimes
tribunal to face charges that he was complicit in a crackdown on ethnic
Albanians.
(AP, 1/20/03)
2003 Jan 20, A powerful earthquake
hit the Solomon Islands, causing residents to flee homes and buildings.
(AP, 1/20/03)
2003 Jan 20, In South Africa an
execution-style attack at a Cape Town house used as a gay massage
parlor killed eight men and badly wounded two.
(AP, 1/20/03)
2004 Jan 20, President Bush gave
his 3rd State of the Union address hailing progress fighting terrorism,
recharging the economy and helping Americans afford health care. He
embraced the conservative move to ban same-sex marriages and called for
making his tax cuts permanent.
(AP, 1/21/04)(SFC, 1/21/04, p.A1)(WSJ, 1/21/04, p.A1)
2004 Jan 20, Democrat Dick
Gephardt abandoned his second bid for the presidency.
(AP, 1/20/04)
2004 Jan 20, Martha Stewart's
stock-trading trial formally began in New York. In 2005 Stewart was
serving a five-month prison sentence for lying about a stock sale.
(AP, 1/20/05)
2004 Jan 20, Salvation Army
officials announced a $1.5 billion donation by the late Joan Kroc
(d.2003), heiress to the McDonald's fortune, for 25-30 community
centers.
(SFC, 1/21/04, p.A16)(WSJ, 1/20/04, p.A1)
2004 Jan 20, The Internet virus
called the "Bagle" or "Beagle" worm was reported to be arriving on
computers in an e-mail with the subject "hi" and the word "test" in the
message body.
(SFC, 1/21/04, p.B2)
2004 Jan 20, French transport
workers went on a 1-day train strike.
(AP, 1/21/04)
2004 Jan 20, In Indonesia blasts
rocked a chemical plant in Gresik, sparking a series of fires at the
complex that killed two people and injured nearly 70 others.
(AP, 1/20/04)
2004 Jan 20, In Iran Hard-line
authorities said they were reinstating 200 candidates barred from
running in next month's legislative elections and will reconsider the
cases of thousands more after fierce opposition from reformists who
threatened to boycott the vote.
(AP, 1/20/04)
2004 Jan 20, Israeli warplanes
struck Hezbollah guerrilla bases in southern Lebanon after a soldier
was killed there a day earlier.
(AP, 1/20/04)(WSJ, 1/21/04, p.A1)
2004 Jan 20, Amnesty Int'l.
released a report at the World Social Forum in Bombay, India, that
charged North Korea with public executions of people stealing food.
(SFC, 1/21/04, p.A12)
2004 Jan 20, Asha Keita-Conneh,
the wife of the leader of Liberia's most powerful rebel movement
announced she was taking charge, backed by dozens of guerrilla
commanders in ousting a husband whose ambitions she said were
endangering the nation's hard-won peace.
(AP, 1/20/04)
2004 Jan 20, In Mexico gunmen
ambushed and shot to death two federal agents and an army captain as
they drove along a Mexico City expressway.
(AP, 1/21/04)
2005 Jan 20, The inauguration
ceremony for Pres. Bush was held in Washington DC. Chief Justice
William H. Rehnquist, ill with thyroid cancer, delivered the oath of
office. Anti-Bush demonstrators jeered the president's motorcade during
the inaugural parade. The event was expected to cost $40 million the
administration asked DC to use 11.9 million of its federal homeland
security funds to help pay costs. Pres. Bush pledged to spread
democracy and support democratic movements worldwide. Thousands of
people in dozens of cities across the US walked out of work and school,
held mock coronations, intoned the names of the Iraq war dead and held
candlelight vigils to show their disapproval of President Bush.
(SFC, 1/20/05, p.A12)(AP, 1/21/05)(SFC, 1/21/05,
p.A1)(AP, 1/20/06)
2005 Jan 20, It was reported that
the global car industry had an annual excess capacity of some 24
million vehicles.
(WSJ, 1/20/05, p.A1)
2005 Jan 20, Delta Airlines
reported a record $5.2 billion loss for 2004.
(SFC, 1/21/05, p.C1)
2005 Jan 20, Alzheimer’s
scientists said they had reversed brain-cell damage in mice by clearing
plaque with antibodies.
(WSJ, 1/21/05, p.A1)
2005 Jan 20, Brazil’s central bank
said Brazil posted a current-account surplus of $11.7 billion for 2004,
its 2nd straight annual surplus.
(WSJ, 1/21/05, p.A7)
2005 Jan 20, Chile, the world's
biggest copper producer, and India, the world's biggest grains
producer, agreed to launch talks to reduce import tariffs on some goods
to boost bilateral trade.
(AP, 1/20/05)
2005 Jan 20, Estonia's Jewish
community broke ground on a new synagogue to replace the house of
worship destroyed by bombing in World War II.
(AP, 1/20/05)
2005 Jan 20, North of Baghdad 3
Iraqi army soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb in the city of
Samarra. US troops launched Mosul raids. 5 suspected insurgents were
killed.
(AP, 1/20/05)(WSJ, 1/21/05, p.A1)
2005 Jan 20, Israeli officials
accepted a Palestinian plan to deploy hundreds of police officers along
the Gaza-Israel frontier Jan 21, in the first act of security
cooperation with Israel under Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.
(AP, 1/20/05)
2005 Jan 20, In Mexico 6 prison
workers were shot to death and left outside their lockup in Matamoros,
following a federal crackdown against drug gangs at lockups across the
nation.
(AP, 1/20/05)
2005 Jan 20, It was reported that
a Zimbabwe government crackdown on dissent is deepening a climate of
fear ahead of parliamentary elections due in March. President Robert
Mugabe appointed a new electoral commission to run parliamentary polls
due in March under a law which the opposition says does not guarantee a
free and fair vote.
(AP, 1/20/05)(Reuters, 1/20/05)
2006 Jan 20, The US Treasury
Department issued a license allowing the Cubans to participate in the
16-team World Baseball Classic.
(AP, 1/20/06)
2006 Jan 20, A federal judge
ordered Los Angeles to pay $1.1 million in legal costs to the family of
slain rapper Notorious B.I.G. as sanctions for intentionally
withholding evidence during the family's civil lawsuit trial.
(AP, 1/21/06)
2006 Jan 20, Michael Fortier, the
government's star witness in the Oklahoma City bombing trials, was
released from federal prison after serving more than 10 years for
failing to warn authorities about the plot.
(AP, 1/20/07)
2006 Jan 20, FirstEnergy agreed to
a record $28 million fine as workers at its Ohio Davis-Besse nuclear
power station were accused of providing false statements on cleaning
and inspections at the reactor vessel head.
(WSJ, 1/21/06, p.A6)
2006 Jan 20, Greenpeace said that
its two vessels shadowing the Japanese whaling fleet in the icy
Southern Ocean were ending their protests because their fuel and food
were running short.
(Reuters, 1/20/06)
2006 Jan 20, In Chile former
dictator Augusto Pinochet was stripped of immunity from prosecution on
charges involving 59 cases of torture and kidnapping at a secret
detention center where hundreds of dissidents were held.
(AP, 1/20/06)
2006 Jan 20, In Ethiopia at least
two people were killed and 36 injured, three seriously, after commotion
erupted in Addis Ababa on the final day of celebrations marking the
2-day Orthodox Epiphany, or Timkat.
(AP, 1/20/06)
2006 Jan 20, German factory
workers at Swedish home-appliances maker AB Electrolux launched a
strike, demanding a better severance package when the plant shuts down
late next year.
(AP, 1/20/06)
2006 Jan 20, In Haiti a judge
dropped charges against Rev. Gerard Jean-Juste (59), a supporter of
ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, in the death of a journalist,
but indicted him on two lesser counts.
(AP, 1/20/06)
2006 Jan 20, In India a bomb
exploded at the entrance of a state-owned petroleum Refinery in the
northeastern state of Assam, leaving 10 people injured.
(AFP, 1/20/06)
2006 Jan 20, Indonesian security
forces opened fire on a group of protesters outside a central Papua
police station, killing one person and injuring two.
(AP, 1/24/06)
2006 Jan 20, Iran’s Central Bank
Governor said Iran moving its foreign currency reserves out of European
banks as a pre-emptive measure against any possible UN sanctions over
its nuclear program.
(AP, 1/20/06)
2006 Jan 20, Iraq’s election
commission said an alliance of Shiite religious parties won the most
seats in Iraq's new parliament but not enough to rule without coalition
partners.
(AP, 1/20/06)
2006 Jan 20, A top Sunni
politician appealed for the release of American journalist Jill Carroll
and urged US and Iraqi forces to stop arresting Iraqi women as a
deadline set by the reporter's kidnappers was set to lapse.
(AP, 1/20/06)
2006 Jan 20, Japan halted imports
of US beef just a month after lifting a ban, following the discovery of
spinal material in a shipment that should have been removed due to the
risk of mad cow disease.
(AP, 1/20/06)
2006 Jan 20, A crowded bus veered
off a steep mountain road in Indian-controlled Kashmir, killing at
least 53 people.
(AP, 1/20/06)
2006 Jan 20, Kuwait’s PM Sheik
Sabah Al Ahmed Al Sabah agreed to take charge of Kuwait due to the poor
health of the new emir. The move was perceived as a first step toward
his eventually taking over the top office.
(AP, 1/20/06)
2006 Jan 20, In west Nepal
suspected communist rebels attacked a security checkpoint, killing at
least four policemen and injuring four others.
(AP, 1/20/06)
2006 Jan 20, In Papua New Guinea a
landslide sent mud and boulders smashing through a remote village,
killing at least eight people and leaving five more missing and feared
dead.
(AP, 1/23/06)
2006 Jan 20, The head of Russia's
atomic energy agency said that Iran is ready for detailed discussions
on the proposal to conduct Iran's uranium enrichment in Russia.
(AP, 1/20/06)
2006 Jan 20, Russia's coldest
winter in a generation killed 7 more people overnight lifting the
reported death toll to 123 putting huge pressure on the Soviet-era
heating and power network.
(Reuters, 1/20/06)
2006 Jan 20, Taiwan allowed
students and tour groups to fly direct to China for the first time in
the third annual installment of symbolic Chinese New Year flights aimed
at warming tense relations with the mainland.
(AP, 1/20/06)
2006 Jan 20, Mehmet Ali Agca, the
man who shot Pope John Paul II in 1981, returned to prison, after an
appeals court ruled that he should serve more time for the killing of a
Turkish journalist and other crimes.
(AP, 1/20/06)
2007 Jan 20, Democratic Sen.
Hillary Rodham Clinton embarked on a widely anticipated campaign for
the White House. The former first lady, intent on becoming the first
female president, said on her Web site: "I'm in and I'm in to win."
(AP, 1/20/07)
2007 Jan 20, Kansas Sen. Sam
Brownback began a long-shot bid for the Republican presidential
nomination. He withdrew in October.
(AP, 1/20/08)
2007 Jan 20, George Smathers
(b.1913), former 3-term US Senator from Florida, died. He helped pass
bills to create Medicare, the Small Business Administration and
Everglades National Park. He also pushed for federal holidays to be
moved to Mondays and ardently supported the war in Vietnam.
(SSFC, 1/21/07, p.A15)
2007 Jan 20, Richard Vollenweider
(1922-2007), Swiss scientist, died. He developed methods for
quantifying the eutrophication of freshwater. His methods were used to
save Lake Erie and helped form the basis of the 1972 Great Lakes Water
Quality Act.
(http://tinyurl.com/ygrc3p)(WSJ, 2/3/07, p.A8)
2007 Jan 20, The Taliban's
governing body said it has decided to open schools in the areas
controlled by the militants in Afghanistan.
(AP, 1/21/07)
2007 Jan 20, Anselmo Oliveira
Magalhaes (32), a man accused of helping steal more than $70 million in
cash from a branch of Brazil's central bank in 2005, was found dead
with a broken neck and his hands and feet tied inside a 75-foot well at
a ranch in Santa Izabel. The bodies of two other men were found in the
well, but it wasn't immediately clear whether they had any connection
to the bank heist.
(AP, 1/22/07)
2007 Jan 20, The London Times said
police had tracked down the man, who was introduced to former Russian
spy Alexander Litvinenko and his associates as "Vladislav", using
details that the ex-agent recounted on his deathbed.
(AP, 1/20/07)
2007 Jan 20, The UN’s food agency
said some 800,000 Burundians face a serious food crisis after
devastating floods ravaged several regions of the tiny central African
nation.
(AP, 1/20/07)
2007 Jan 20, Czech PM Mirek
Topolanek said the US wants to build a radar base in the Czech Republic
as part of its global missile defense system. Poland was also mentioned
as a potential site. Russia in response warned of an arms race.
(AP, 1/20/07)(WSJ, 1/22/07, p.A1)
2007 Jan 20, Elite Iraqi police
forces dropped off by US helicopters staged a raid against an
al-Qaida-linked Sunni militant group, killing 15 insurgents and
capturing five others. At least 25 American service members were killed
in military operations in the deadliest day for US forces in two years,
including 13 who died in a helicopter crash and five slain in an attack
by militia fighters in Karbala. An American general later said Iranian
forces helped plan the Karbala raid in which gunmen posed as an
American security team and launched an attack that killed five US
soldiers. Laith al-Khazali, a key member of a group called Asaib Ahl
al-Haq (League of the Righteous), and his brother Qais, were later
accused of organizing the Karbala raid. Laith al-Khazali was released
in June, 2009, as part of national reconciliation efforts by the Iraqi
government. 4 US soldiers and a Marine were killed during combat in
Anbar province. In 2009 Shiite militant Laith al-Khazali, accused of
being involved in the killings at Karbala, was released as part of "the
wider Iraqi government reconciliation process of reaching out to groups
that are willing to set aside violence in favor of taking part in the
political process." In January, 2010, Qais al-Khazali was released by
the Iraqi government.
(AP, 1/20/07)(AP, 1/21/07)(WSJ, 1/22/07, p.A1)(AP,
7/2/07)(AP, 6/9/09)(SFC, 8/4/09, p.A2)(SFC, 1/6/10, p.A3)
2007 Jan 20, In Nairobi, Kenya,
more than 80,000 people from around the globe descended on the massive
Kibera shanty-town, home for at least 700,000 of Kenya's poorest, to
kick-off the seventh annual World Social Forum.
(AP, 1/20/07)
2007 Jan 20, The Russian
population was reported to be shrinking by some 750,000 people per
year. New rules put severe restrictions on foreign workers in retail
operations. Russia planned to make available 6 million work permits for
migrants from poor ex-Soviet republics.
(Econ, 1/20/07, p.61)
2007 Jan 20, Konstantin Borovko
(25), a Russian television journalist, was beaten to death in
Vladivostok. Colleagues said they did not think the killing was related
to his work.
(AP, 1/22/07)
2007 Jan 20, The last major
warlord in Somalia surrendered his weapons and 200 militiamen to the
army, while an Islamic leader claimed responsibility for a string of
guerrilla attacks and promised there would be more until the government
agreed to talks. An Ethiopian military convoy was ambushed in a new
round of deadly violence in the Somali capital Mogadishu, hours after
the African Union agreed to send peacekeepers to the war-torn country.
Kenya handed over 34 Islamic militiamen to Somalia's transitional
government. A Somali government spokesman said that some of them may be
senior leaders of the country's Islamic movement.
(AP, 1/20/07)(AFP, 1/20/07)(AP, 1/21/07)
2007 Jan 20, Istanbul police
arrested Ogun Samast, a teenage boy (16-17), for the fatal shooting of
Hrant Dink, an ethnic Armenian journalist. Samast confessed to the
murder.
(AP, 1/21/07)
2008 Jan 20, The Nature
Conservancy said the Hewlett and Packard families had donated the
28,359-acre San Felipe Ranch, southeast of San Jose, as a conservation
easement to protect the property from development.
(SFC, 1/21/08, p.A6)
2008 Jan 20, In southern
California The two small Cessnas crashed near the small Corona
Municipal Airport, killing five and raining debris and bodies down on
car dealership parking lots.
(AP, 1/21/08)
2008 Jan 20, Brianna Denison (19)
last was seen at the edge of the University of Nevada, Reno. Her body
was found Feb 15, 8 miles away near a business park and an autopsy
confirmed that she died of strangulation. DNA evidence linked her
kidnapping to two other attacks on women near the university late last
year.
(AP, 2/17/08)
2008 Jan 20, In southern
Afghanistan an explosion struck a NATO patrol vehicle outside a former
Taliban town, killing one British soldier and wounding five others.
(AP, 1/21/08)
2008 Jan 20, In Algeria 2 armed
suspects died in the Eddough mountains, near the eastern city of
Annaba, after they failed to follow orders to surrender.
(AFP, 1/21/08)
2008 Jan 20, Britain's PM Gordon
Brown arrived in India hailing relations between the two countries as a
"partnership of equals" as he looked to further boost links.
(AP, 1/20/08)
2008 Jan 20, The final 210 members
of the first battalion of Burundian soldiers to be deployed in Somalia
as part of an African Union peace-keeping force left Bujumbura for
Mogadishu. Burundi is expected to deploy a total of 1,700 soldiers in
Somalia, alongside around 1,600 troops from Uganda who have been in the
capital Mogadishu since March.
(AFP, 1/20/08)
2008 Jan 20, In Cambodia American
actress Mia Farrow was forced to cancel a ceremony in Phnom Penh
highlighting human rights abuses in Sudan after authorities barred her
access to the city's genocide museum.
(AFP, 1/20/08)
2008 Jan 20, Some 8.4 million
Cubans ratified a slate of parliamentary candidates that included the
ailing Fidel Castro (81).
(SFC, 1/21/08, p.A3)
2008 Jan 20, In western India a
bus carrying Hindus on a religious pilgrimage skidded off a hill and
plunged into a gorge, killing at least 38 people and injuring 40 others.
(AP, 1/21/08)
2008 Jan 20, Iran’s official
Islamic Republic News Agency reported that a fourth Russian shipment of
nuclear fuel had arrived, destined for a power plant being constructed
in the southern port of Bushehr.
(AP, 1/20/08)
2008 Jan 20, In western Iraq a
suicide bombing killed six people near Fallujah. The attacker (18) was
a relative carrying a box of candy at a gathering of tribal members to
celebrate the recent release of a relative, Hadi Hussein, who had been
released after more than a week in US custody. Hussein and five other
people were killed in the blast.
(AP, 1/20/08)(AP, 1/21/08)
2008 Jan 20, In Kenya renewed
ethnic fighting broke out in a Nairobi slum following the deaths of
more than 20 people in demonstrations against the disputed re-election
of President Mwai Kibaki. Several people were beaten and hacked to
death with machetes.
(AP, 1/20/08)(AP, 1/21/08)
2008 Jan 20, Joshua Milton Blahyi
(37), one of Liberia's most notorious rebel commanders, known as Gen.
Butt Naked for charging into battle wearing only boots, spoke of his
role under Charles Taylor in the civil war. He returned last week to
confess his role in terrorizing the nation, saying he is responsible
for 20,000 deaths.
(AP, 1/21/08)
2008 Jan 20, In Myanmar a bus
plunged over the side of a road and flipped over, killing 27 passengers
and injuring 10 others.
(AP, 1/21/08)
2008 Jan 20, Pakistan villagers
said army helicopter gunships launched strikes in an area regarded as a
stronghold of a Taliban commander linked with the assassination of
opposition leader Benazir Bhutto.
(AP, 1/20/08)
2008 Jan 20, Gaza's power plant
shut down late in the day after an Israeli border closure blocked the
entry of fuel that powers it. This plunged Gaza City into darkness, and
gas stations and many bakeries stopped operating. Health officials
warned that hospital generators were running out of fuel. 5 rockets
were fired into Israel, down from 53 in the two previous days.
(AP, 1/20/08)(AP, 1/21/08)
2008 Jan 20, Serbia held
presidential elections. A pro-Western and a nationalist candidate faced
off in a closely contested race. The electoral commission, giving
preliminary results after counting 30% of ballots, said that so far
Radical Party leader Tomislav Nikolic had 38% support, while incumbent
Boris Tadic% had 35 percent. Both Tadic and Nikolic reject independence
for Kosovo, but Nikolic, unlike the current president, has promised
tough measures against countries that recognize Kosovo's statehood.
(AP, 1/20/08)
2008 Jan 20, In Sri Lanka troops
overran at least six rebel bunkers in Adampan village, killing two
female fighters. Simultaneous clashes took place in the villages of
Periyathampanai and Madu and, killing a total of 4 rebels. Soldiers
killed an area rebel leader on the Jaffna peninsula. Soldiers on the
northern Jaffna peninsula fired on the Tiger boats as they sailed near
the shore.
(AP, 1/20/08)
2009 Jan 20, In Washington DC some
2 million people packed the National Mall to celebrate the inauguration
of Barack Obama as America's 44th and first black president. “The
Question we ask today is not whether government is too big or too
small, but whether it works.” Obama's new administration ordered all
federal agencies and departments to stop any pending regulations until
they can be reviewed by incoming staff, halting last-minute Bush orders.
(AP, 1/20/09)(Reuters, 1/20/09)(SFC, 1/21/09, p.A8)
2009 Jan 20, The head of US
Central Command said the US has struck deals with Russia and
neighboring countries allowing it to transport supplies to American
troops in Afghanistan through their territory. US officials have said
that one likely route is overland from Russia through Kazakhstan and on
through Uzbekistan using trucks and trains. Another possible route is
via Azerbaijan across the Caspian Sea to the Kazakh port of Aktau and
then through Uzbekistan.
(AP, 1/20/09)
2009 Jan 20, State Attorney
General Jerry Brown said California will get $54 million as its share
of a national settlement with drug maker Eli Lilly & Co. for
marketing the antipsychotic drug Zyprexa for unapproved uses. Lilly
agreed to pay $1.415 billion to US state and the federal government,
the largest recovery in a health care fraud case in US history.
(SFC, 1/21/09, p.A21)
2009 Jan 20, In SF Edgar Diaz
(23), a member of the Down Below Gang, was sentenced to 40 years in
federal prison after admitting that he took part in 3 murders: Beverly
Robinson in April 2004, and Kenya Taylor and Antoine Morgan in June
2004.
(SFC, 1/21/09, p.B2)
2009 Jan 20, Chrysler and Italy’s
Fiat confirmed they had reached an agreement on an alliance that would
give Fiat a 35% stake in Chrysler, but only if Chrysler gets $3 billion
more in financial help from Washington.
(WSJ, 1/21/09, p.B1)
2009 Jan 20, US software
protection firm F-Secure said a computer worm known as "Conficker" or
"Downadup" had infected more than nine million computers and was
spreading at a rate of one million machines daily.
(AFP, 1/21/09)
2009 Jan 20, In Afghanistan the
coalition said a nighttime raid had killed 19 militants, including
Mullah Patang, a locally feared leader, during an operation in the
Tagab Valley, in Kapisa province just 30 miles (50 kilometers) north of
Kabul. The Afghan news agency Pajhwok quoted villagers saying 25
civilians had been killed. On Jan 27 US commanders traveled to the
village and distributed $40,000 to relatives of 15 people killed in the
US raid. The Americans also apologized for any civilians killed in the
operation.
(AP, 1/21/09)(AP, 1/28/09)
2009 Jan 20, In Belgium the
“Entropa” art installation at the EU headquarters, by Czech artist
David Cerny, covered up the part that showed Bulgaria as a squat toilet
after protests from the aggrieved nation.
(AP, 1/20/09)
2009 Jan 20, The Bank of Canada
cut its key interest rate by a half-point to a fresh 50-year low of 1
percent, as expected, and predicted a period of falling prices this
year as an economic recession takes hold.
(AP, 1/20/09)
2009 Jan 20, The Central African
Republic's main opposition grouping said it refused to join PM
Faustin-Archange Touadera's government because he failed to play by
allegedly established rules.
(AFP, 1/20/09)
2009 Jan 20, In Chechnya Hundreds
of people rallied in Grozny to protest the slaying of Stanislav
Markelov (34), a lawyer who opposed the early release of a Russian army
officer convicted of strangling an 18-year-old Chechen woman.
(AP, 1/20/09)
2009 Jan 20, In central China a
16-year-old boy infected with the H5N1 bird flu virus died, the
country's third fatality from the disease this month.
(AP, 1/20/09)
2009 Jan 20, Hundreds of Rwandan
troops rolled into the Democratic Republic of Congo to join Congolese
forces hunting Rwandan rebels operating there since 1994.
(AFP, 1/20/09)
2009 Jan 20, In Iraq the spokesman
of PM al-Maliki said Iraq is willing to have the US withdraw all its
troops and assume security for the country before the end of 2011, the
departure date agreed to by former Pres. George W. Bush. In Baghdad 2
bombings left 5 people dead.
(AP, 1/21/09)(SFC, 1/21/09, p.A22)
2009 Jan 20, In Japan Toyota
tapped Akio Toyoda, grandson of the automaker's founder, as president,
paying homage to its roots at a time when the company faces its first
operating loss in 70 years.
(AP, 1/20/09)
2009 Jan 20, In Kuwait the deeply
divided Arab League failed to come up with a plan to reconstruct the
devastated Gaza Strip and could not agree on whether to back Egyptian
peace efforts to end the crisis.
(AP, 1/20/09)
2009 Jan 20, Mexican prosecutors
said three heads were found in an ice box south of Ciudad Juarez, which
lies across from El Paso, Texas. The heads belonged to three
unidentified men and were found in a rural town about 50 kilometers (30
miles) from Ciudad Juarez. A headless body was discovered in a canal a
few miles (kilometers) away. Mexican federal police said they have
found 3 suspected drug tunnels under construction in Nogales near the
Arizona border.
(AP, 1/20/09)
2009 Jan 20, Pakistani police said
suspected Taliban militants killed six alleged US spies in a lawless
region of northwest Pakistan where American missile attacks have
reportedly killed several al-Qaida leaders in recent months. A bomb
wounded five police officers in Peshawar, the capital of North West
Frontier Province. An industry official said bus drivers in northwest
Pakistan have begun removing audio and video equipment from their
vehicles after Taliban militants threatened suicide attacks against
those who played music or movies for their passengers.
(AP, 1/20/09)(AP, 1/21/09)
2009 Jan 20, In Gaza UN chief Ban
Ki-moon voiced sorrow and frustration over the suffering of civilians
during Israel’s 3-week war on Hamas rulers. Ismail Radwan, a Hamas
legislator, celebrated the blood battles as proof of Hamas strength and
defiance.
(SFC, 1/21/09, p.A21)
2009 Jan 20, Russian gas reached
Europe via Ukraine for the first time in two weeks after Moscow and
Kiev ended a contract row that cut supplies to about 20 European
countries.
(Reuters, 1/20/09)
2009 Jan 20, Saudi Arabia’s prince
Alwaleed bin Talal said his conglomerate Kingdom Holding Co. lost about
$7.9 billion in 2008.
(WSJ, 1/21/09, p.A11)
2009 Jan 20, Abdullahi Yusuf (75),
Somalia's former president and an ex-warlord who was forced from
government, arrived in Yemen in a private jet from his impoverished
homeland, seeking political asylum. Islamic insurgents and Somali
forces clashed in Mogadishu, killing at least 14 people in the latest
sign the Islamists are making inroads into the few areas the UN-backed
government still controls.
(AP, 1/21/09)(AP, 1/21/09)
2009 Jan 20, South Korean police
commandos stormed a vacant office building occupied by displaced
tenants in central Seoul, sparking a clash and a blaze that killed six
people and injured 23.
(AP, 1/20/09)
2009 Jan 20, In Spain 6 people of
Pakistani origin were arrested on suspicion of "fraud" in Barcelona.
They were suspected of financing terrorist activities by carrying out
thefts and sending money raised from criminal activities to Pakistan.
(AFP, 1/20/09)
2009 Jan 20, Venezuelan President
Hugo Chavez challenged President Barack Obama to remake US policy
toward Latin America, but said he isn't holding out much hope for major
changes. Police used tear gas, plastic bullets and a water cannon to
break up a protest by university students against Chavez's attempt to
eliminate term limits.
(AP, 1/20/09)
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