Today in History - January 21
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1189 Jan 21,
Philip Augustus, Henry II of England and Frederick Barbarossa assembled
the troops for the Third Crusade.
(V.D.-H.K.p.109)(HN, 1/21/99)
1268 Jan 21, Pope Clement IV gave
permission to Poland’s King Premislus II to take over Lithuania and
establish Catholicism.
(LHC, 1/18/03)
1337 Jan 21, Charles V, the Wise,
king of France (1364-80), was born.
(MC, 1/21/02)
1407 Jan 21, Duke Vytautas led
Polish and German forces for a 2nd time against the Duchy of Moscow.
(LHC, 1/18/03)
1629 Jan 21, Abbas I (b.1571),
Shah of Persia (1588-1629), died.
(http://4dw.net/royalark/Persia/safawi3.htm)
1648 Jan 21, In Maryland, the
first woman lawyer in the colonies, Margaret Brent, was denied a vote
in the Maryland Assembly. [see Jun 24, 1647]
(HN, 1/21/99)
1664 Jan 21, Count Miklos of
Zrinyi set out to battle the Turkish invasion army.
(MC, 1/21/02)
1737 Jan 21, Ethan Allen, American
Revolutionary commander of the "Green Mountain Boys" who captured Fort
Ticonderoga in 1775, was born.
(HN, 1/21/99)
1743 Jan 21, John Fitch, inventor
(had a working steamboat years before Fulton), was born.
(MC, 1/21/02)
1785 Jan 21, Chippewa, Delaware,
Ottawa and Wyandot Indians signed a treaty of Fort McIntosh, ceding
present-day Ohio to the United States.
(HN, 1/21/99)
1790 Jan 21, Joseph Guillotine
proposed a new, more humane method of execution: a machine designed to
cut off the condemned person's head as painlessly as possible.
(HN, 1/21/99)
1793 Jan 21, Louis XVI (38), last
of the French Bourbon dynasty, was executed on the guillotine. The vote
in the National Convention for execution for treason won by a margin of
one vote. The Great Terror followed his execution.
(WUD, 1994, p.1677)(V.D.-H.K.p.231)(NH, 6/97,
p.23)(AP, 1/21/98)
1815 Jan 21, Horace Wells
(d.1845), dentist, was born. He pioneered the use of medical anesthesia
and was the 1st to use nitrous oxide as a pain killer.
(Dr, 7/17/01, p.2)(MC, 1/21/02)
1821 Jan 21, John Breckinridge
(d.1875), 14th U.S. Vice President, was born. He served under James
Buchanan (1857-1861). Breckenridge was a Confederate General in the
Civil War. [His ?brother-in-law was Lloyd Tevis, founder of Wells Fargo]
(WUD, 1994, p.183)(HN, 1/21/99)
1824 Jan 21, Thomas "Stonewall"
Jackson, Confederate General, was born.
(HN, 1/21/99)
1846 Jan 21, 1st edition of
Charles Dickens' "Daily News."
(MC, 1/21/02)
1855 Jan 21, John M. Browning, US
weapons manufacturer, was born.
(MC, 1/21/02)
1858 Jan 21, Felix Marma Zuloaga
became president of Mexico upon the ouster of Ignacio Comonfort.
(AP, 1/21/08)
1861 Jan 21, U.S. Senator
Jefferson Davis of Mississippi and four (five) other Southern senators
made emotional farewell speeches. Just weeks after his home state of
Mississippi seceded from the Union, Davis prepared to leave Washington,
D.C., and the country he had served as a soldier, cabinet member and
member of Congress. One more time, Davis enumerated the reasons why the
South felt secession was its only recourse: "...when you deny to us the
right to withdraw from a Government which...threatens to be destructive
to our rights, we but tread in the path of our fathers when we proclaim
our independence...." Davis then apologized to any senators he may have
offended, and finished his address by saying, "...it only remains for
me to bid you a final adieu."
(AP, 1/21/01)(HNPD, 1/21/99)
1880 Jan 21, 1st US sewage
disposal system, separate from storm drains, was established in Memphis.
(MC, 1/21/02)
1892 Jan 21, Samuel Marsden
Brookes, English-born artist, died in SF. He emigrated to the US in
1833, settled in Chicago and moved to SF in 1862. He was a founder of
the SF Art Association and the Bohemian Club.
(SFCM, 10/28/01, p.20)
1903 Jan 21, International Theater
(Majestic, Park) opened at 5 Columbus Circle in NYC.
(MC, 1/21/02)
1903 Jan 21, Harry Houdini escaped
from police station Halvemaansteeg in Amsterdam.
(MC, 1/21/02)
1905 Jan 21, Christian Dior,
fashion designer (long-skirted look), was born in Normandy, France.
(MC, 1/21/02)
1908 Jan 21, New York City's Board
of Aldermen passed the Sullivan Ordinance that effectively prohibited
women from smoking in public. Two weeks later the measure was vetoed by
Mayor George B. McClellan Jr.
(AP, 1/21/08)(http://tinyurl.com/2zvwkc)
1909 Jan 21-22, An earthquake in
Morocco's northern region, near Tetouan, killed up to 100.
(AP, 2/25/04)
1910 Jan 21, Angel Island opened
as an immigration processing and detention center and became known as
the Ellis Island of the West. It processed some 1 million people until
1940. 50,000 Chinese entered the US through Angel Island. It closed
after a fire in 1940.
(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W37)(SFEC, 2/6/00, Rp.10)(SFC,
1/21/10, p.A12)
1910 Jan 21, A British-Russian
military intervention took place in Persia.
(MC, 1/21/02)
1910 Jan 21, Japan rejected the
American proposal to neutralize ownership of the Manchurian Railway.
(HN, 1/21/99)
1913 Jan 21, Aristide Briand
formed a French government.
(MC, 1/21/02)
1915 Jan 21, The first Kiwanis
Club was formally founded, in Detroit, Mich. Allen Browne in Dec, 1914,
had proposed a fraternal club for business and professional men.
Kiwanis was established as an organization devoted to the principle of
service and to the advancement of individual, community, and national
welfare, and to the strengthening of international goodwill.
(AP, 1/21/98)(www.tcfn.org/kiwanistci/about.html)
1917 Nov 21, German ace Rudolf von
Eschwege was killed over Macedonia when he attacked a booby-trapped
observation balloon packed with explosives.
(HN, 11/21/99)
1919 Jan 21, The German Krupp
plant began producing guns under the U.S. armistice terms.
(HN, 1/21/99)
1921 Jan 21, Barney Clark, the 1st
person to receive a permanent artificial heart, was born.
(MC, 1/21/02)
1921 Jan 21, J.D. Rockefeller
pledged $1 million for the relief of Europe's destitute.
(HN, 1/21/99)
1924 Jan 21, Benny Hill (d.1992),
British comedian who hosted his own comedy show, was born in
Southampton, England. [Some sources give 1925 as the birth year]
(HN, 1/21/99)(www.nndb.com/people/883/000031790/)
1924 Jan 21, Russian revolutionary
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin died at age 53 and a major struggle for power in
the Soviet Union began. A triumvirate led by Joseph Stalin succeeded
Lenin. By 1928, Stalin had assumed absolute power, ruling as an often
brutal dictator until his death in 1953 of a brain hemorrhage. In 1998
Vladimir Brovkin published “Russia After Lenin.” After the death of
Lenin, Bukharin became a full member of the Politburo and opposed the
policy of initiating rapid industrialization and collectivization in
agriculture-a position shared by Stalin at the time. In 2000 Robert
Service authored “Lenin.”
(TMC, 1994, p.1924)(AP, 1/21/98)(WSJ, 8/3/98,
p.A12)(HNQ, 8/31/99)
1930 Jan 21, Valentin Ignatyevich
Filatyev, Russian cosmonaut, was born.
(MC, 1/21/02)
1930 Jan 21, An international arms
meeting opened in London. The London Naval Conference, hosted by
Britain, sought to establish naval disarmament and review the
Washington Treaty of 1922, which limited tonnage of new battleships.
After three months of meetings, representatives from Britain, the
United States and Japan signed a treaty limiting battleship tonnage
based on ratios between the nations. Italy and France declined to sign.
A second naval conference in December 1935 did little to promote
further disarmament and, by the beginning of World War II, Germany,
Japan and the United States had all begun building battleships well
over the limit of 35,000 tons stipulated by the original Washington
Treaty. [see Apr 22]
(HN, 1/21/99)(HNQ, 1/1/01)
1933 Jan 21, Itzhak Fuks, Israeli
El Al captain, was born. He was captain of the Jumbo Jet that crashed
in Amsterdam on Oct 4, 1992.
(MC, 1/21/02)
1933 Jan 21, The League of Nations
rejected Japanese terms for settlement with China.
(HN, 1/21/99)
1939 Jan 21, Wolfman Jack, DJ
(Midnight Special), was born in Brooklyn, NY as Bob Smith.
(MC, 1/21/02)
1939 Jan 21, Picasso painted two
pictures, both titled “Reclining Woman with Book.” In one Marie-Theresa
Walter is pictured in a smooth S-curve, in the other Dora Maar (born as
Theodora Markovitch d.1997 at 89) is broken into jagged forms. Maar was
a painter and photographer and struggled to develop her own ambitions,
but failed and spent much of her life as a recluse.
(WSJ, 4/26/96, p.A-13)(SFC, 7/26/97, p.A24)
1940 Jan 21, Jack Nicklaus, golfer
(Player of Yr 1967,72,73,75,76), was born in Columbus, Ohio.
(MC, 1/21/02)
1941 Jan 21, Placido Domingo,
opera tenor (Pinkerton-Mme Butterfly), was born in Madrid, Spain.
(MC, 1/21/02)
1941 Jan 21, Richie Havens, folk
singer (Here Comes the Sun), was born in Brooklyn.
(MC, 1/21/02)
1941 Jan 21, Edwin Starr, US
singer (War), was born as Charles Hatcher.
(MC, 1/21/02)
1941 Jan 21, The United States
lifted the ban on arms to the Soviet Union.
(HN, 1/21/99)
1941 Jan 21, Australia &
Britain attacked Tobruk, Libya.
(MC, 1/21/02)
1941 Jan 21, British communist
newspaper "Daily Worker" was banned.
(MC, 1/21/02)
1942 Jan 21, Count Basie and His
Orchestra recorded "One O'Clock Jump" in New York City for Okeh
Records.
(AP, 1/21/98)
1942 Jan 21, A Bronx magistrate
ruled all pinball machines illegal.
(MC, 1/21/02)
1942 Jan 21, In North Africa,
German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel launched a drive to push the British
eastward.
(HN, 1/21/99)
1943 Jan 21, A Nazi daylight air
raid killed 34 in a London school.
(HN, 1/21/99)
1944 Jan 21, Some 649 British
bombers attacked Magdeburg.
(MC, 1/21/02)
1944 Jan 21, Some 447 German
bombers attacked London.
(MC, 1/21/02)
1945 Jan 21, Andrew Stein, pres of
NYC council (D), was born.
(MC, 1/21/02)
1950 Jan 21, Former State
Department official Alger Hiss, accused of being part of a Communist
spy ring, was found guilty in New York of lying to a grand jury. Hiss,
who always maintained his innocence, was sentenced to five years in
prison; he served less than four.
(AP, 1/21/00)
1950 Jan 21, George Orwell (46),
author, died in London of tuberculosis. His books included Down and Out
in Paris and London" (1933) and "1984." William Abrahams (d.1998),
editor and novelist, co-authored the 2-volume biography of Orwell:
"Life, Death and Art in the Second World War," and "Journey to the
Frontier" with Peter Stansky. In 2000 Jeffrey Meyers authored the
biography "Orwell: Wintry Conscience of a Generation." Orwell married
Sonia Brownell (1918-1980) on his deathbed. In 2003 Hilary Spurling
authored "The Gril from the Fiction Department," a biography of Sonia
Orwell. In 2003 D.J. Taylor authored "Orwell : The Life."
(AP, 1/21/98)(SFC, 6/5/98, p.D7)(SFC, 6/25/98,
p.B12)(SFEC, 10/1/00, BR p.5)(WSJ, 5/16/03, p.W10)(SSFC, 9/28/03, p.M2)
1951 Jan 21, Communist troops
forced the UN army out of Inchon, Korea after a 12-hour attack.
(HN, 1/21/99)
1954 Jan 21, The first atomic
submarine, the USS Nautilus, was launched at Groton, Conn. However, the
Nautilus did not make its first nuclear-powered run until nearly a year
later.
(AP, 1/21/08)
1958 Jan 21, Charles Starkweather,
19, killed the mother, stepfather and half-sister of his 14-year-old
girlfriend, Caril Ann Fugate, at her family's home in Lincoln, Neb.
Starkweather, who had also killed a gas station attendant the previous
November, and Fugate went on a road trip which resulted in seven more
slayings. Starkweather was executed in 1959; Fugate, who maintained she
had been Starkweather's hostage, was convicted of murder and sentenced
to life; she was paroled in 1976. His slaying spree inspired the 1973
film “Badlands” starring Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek.
(SFEM, 2/8/98, p.8)(AP, 1/21/08)
1958 Jan 21, James Grover Tarver
(b.1885), Texas-born giant, died in Arkansas. He had grown to be 8 feet
4 inches tall and traveled with the Ringling Bros. and other circuses.
In 1917 he played the giant in the film “Jack and the Beanstalk.”
(SFC, 3/5/08,
p.G5)(www.forensicgenealogy.info/contest_80_results.html)
1958 Jan 21, The Soviet Union
called for a ban on nuclear arms in Baghdad Pact countries.
(HN, 1/21/99)
1959 Jan 21, Cecil Blount de Mille
(Cecil B. DeMille), one of Hollywood’s most successful filmmakers, died
at age 77. He was also one of the toughest. He once said to his staff,
"You are here to please me. Nothing else on earth matters." He produced
the "The 10 Commandments." In 2004 Robert S. Birchard authored “Cecil
B. DeMille’s Hollywood.”
(HNPD, 8/12/98)(HNQ, 10/27/98)(MC, 1/21/02)(WSJ,
7/14/04, p.D14)
1962 Jan 21, Snow fell in the SF
Bay Area and accumulated to about 3 inches in Daly City.
(SFEM, 12/22/96, p.20)(GDCH, 1986, p.14)
1964 Jan 21, Carl T. Rowan was
named the director of the United States Information Agency (USIA).
(HN, 1/21/99)
1968 Jan 21, In Vietnam the 77-day
Siege of Khe Sanh began as North Vietnamese units surrounded U.S.
Marines based on the hilltop headquarters. It was the longest and
bloodiest battle of the Vietnam War. The Battle began at 0530 hours
when North Vietnamese Army forces hammered the Marine-occupied Khe Sanh
Combat Base with rocket, mortar, artillery, small arms, and automatic
weapons fire. Hundreds of 82-mm mortar rounds and 122-mm rockets
slammed into the combat base. Virtually all of the base's ammunition
stock and a substantial portion of the fuel supplies were destroyed.
(HN, 1/21/99)(WSJ, 5/2/02,
p.D7)(www.vietnam-war.info/battles/siege_of_khe_sanh.php)
1968 Jan 21, An American B-52
bomber carrying four hydrogen bombs crashed at North Star Bay,
Greenland, killing one crew member and scattering radioactive material.
Reports began to surface later and in 1995 the Danish government paid a
$15.5 million settlement to some 1,700 exposed workers.
(www.ens-newswire.com/ens/aug2004/2004-08-09-02.asp)(AP, 1/21/08)
1968 Jan 21, A group of 31 North
Korean commandos trudged undetected for about 40 miles from the border
to the presidential Blue House of South Korean President Park Chung-hee
in downtown Seoul. South Korean security forces repelled the assault.
28 North Koreans and 34 South Koreans were killed.
(SFC, 9/19/96, p.A8)(AP, 12/25/03)
1968 Jan 21, In Vietnam the Battle
of Khe Sahn began as North Vietnamese forces attacked a US Marine base;
the Americans were able to hold their position until the siege was
lifted 2 1/2 months later. It was the longest and bloodiest battle of
the Vietnam War. The Battle began at 0530 hours when North Vietnamese
Army forces hammered the Marine-occupied Khe Sanh Combat Base with
rocket, mortar, artillery, small arms, and automatic weapons fire.
Hundreds of 82-mm mortar rounds and 122-mm rockets slammed into the
combat base. Virtually all of the base's ammunition stock and a
substantial portion of the fuel supplies were destroyed.
(WSJ, 5/2/02, p.D7)(AP,
1/21/08)(www.vietnam-war.info/battles/siege_of_khe_sanh.php)
1970 Jan 21, Timothy Leary
(1920-1996) was sentenced to 10 years in prison for possession of two
roaches of marijuana in 1968.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_Leary)
1970 Jan 21, The Boeing 747-100
made its 1st commercial transatlantic flight from NY to London. The
plane was 231 feet long with a wing span of 195 feet. It could seat 400
people in a cabin 182 feet long.
(WSJ, 7/19/96,
p.B5)(www.boeing.com/commercial/747family/pf/pf_milestones.html)
1974 Jan 21, The U.S. Supreme
Court decided that pregnant teachers could no longer be forced to take
long leaves of absence.
(HN, 1/21/99)
1976 Jan 21, Leonid Brezhnev and
Henry Kissinger met to discuss Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT).
(HN, 1/21/99)
1976 Jan 21, The supersonic
Concorde jet was put into service by Britain and France.
(AP, 1/21/98)
1977 Jan 21, President Carter
urged 65 degrees as the maximum heat in homes to ease the energy
crisis.
(HN, 1/21/99)
1977 Jan 21, President Carter
pardoned almost all Vietnam War draft evaders as long as they had not
been involved in violent acts.
(AP, 1/21/98)(HNQ, 11/13/99)
1978 Jan 21, The Bee Gees'
"Saturday Night Fever" album, released in November, 1977, went #1 for
24 weeks following the release of the Saturday Night Fever film in Dec
1977.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number-one_albums_of_1978_(U.S.))
1979 Jan 21, The Pittsburgh
Steelers became the first team to win three Super Bowls as they
defeated the Dallas Cowboys 35-31 in Super Bowl 13.
(AP, 1/22/04)
1979 Jan 21, Neptune became the
outermost planet as Pluto moved closer due to their highly elliptical
orbits.
(www.videocosmos.com/calendar-january2131.shtm)
1980 Jan 21, In the Iowa
Republican caucus George H. W. Bush beat Ronald Reagan 32% to 30%.
Reagan went onto win the nomination and the presidency.
(http://correntewire.com/post_iowa_perspective)
1980 Jan 21, Gold peaked in NY at
$875 a troy ounce. By mid-March gold prices fell to below $500 per
ounce.
(SFC, 3/18/05,
p.F2)(www.321gold.com/editorials/wong/wong010104.html)
1982 Jan 21, Convict-turned-author
Jack Henry Abbott was found guilty in New York City of first-degree
manslaughter in the stabbing death of waiter Richard Adan in 1981.
Abbott was later sentenced to 15 years to life in prison; he committed
suicide in 2002.
(AP, 1/21/07)
1985 Jan 21, 19F (-28C) was
recorded at Caesar's Head, South Carolina, a state record. 34F (-37C)
was recorded at Mt. Mitchell, North Carolina, a state record.
(http://tinyurl.com/yaleou)
1985 Jan 21, James Beard (b.1903),
US culinary expert, author (Delights & Prejudices), died.
(http://members.localnet.com/~jgeorge/jbeard.htm)(SFC, 5/4/05, p.E1)
1987 Jan 21, In South Africa a
paramilitary force killed 13 civilians in their sleep in the KwaMakutha
Zulu township (KwaZulu-Natal black homeland). In 1996 former defense
minister Magnus Malan and 20 others were charged with authorizing the
killing. The first six defendants of the Inkatha Freedom party were
acquitted by Judge Jan Hugo. Former intelligence officer Johan Opperman
admitted to planning the attack.
(SFC,7/18/96, p.E3)(SFC,10/11/96,
p.A16)(WSJ,10/11/96, p.A1)(SFC,10/12/96, p.A10)
1988 Jan 21, Retin-A got a boost
when a study published in the Journal of the American Medical
Association said the anti-acne drug could also reduce wrinkles caused
by exposure to the sun.
(AP, 1/21/98)
1989 Jan 21, Former Ku Klux Klan
leader David Duke led a field of seven candidates in an open primary to
advance to a runoff election for a Louisiana state House seat.
(AP, 1/1/99)
1990 Jan 21, Azerbaijan Pres.
Aliyev made his first public appearance since his 1987 resignation from
the Soviet Politburo. He broke the information blackout and urged
int’l. condemnation of the Soviet attack. Mutinous military cadets
fired on troops patrolling the capital during a crackdown on a
nationalist uprising.
(WSJ, 12/18/96, p.A21)(AP, 1/21/00)
1991 Jan 21, During the Gulf War,
Iraq announced it had scattered prisoners of war at targeted areas;
President Bush denounced Iraq’s treatment of POW’s, and said Iraqi
President Saddam Hussein would be held responsible. CBS News
correspondent Bob Simon, CBS News London bureau chief Peter Bluff, a
cameraman and soundman were captured by Iraqi forces; they were
released almost six weeks later.
(AP, 1/21/01)
1999 Jan 21, Charles Brown
(b.1922), African-American rhythm and blues pioneer, died. In 1947 his
song “Merry Christmas Baby” became a perennial hit.
(SFC, 2/21/08,
p.E8)(http://elvispelvis.com/charlesbrown.htm)
1992 Jan 21, The Supreme Court
agreed to review a Pennsylvania law imposing waiting periods and other
restrictions on abortions. The court later upheld most of the
restrictions while reaffirming women's constitutional right to abortion.
(AP, 1/21/02)
1992 Jan 21, William T "Champion
Jack" Dupree (81), US boxer, pianist, died in Germany.
(www.john-meekings.co.uk/wtdupree.html)
1993 Jan 21, Congressman Mike Espy
of Mississippi was confirmed as Secretary of the Department of
Agriculture.
(HN, 1/21/99)
1993 Jan 21, Two U.S. warplanes
bombed a defense site in northern Iraq after radar was turned on them.
Iraq denied provoking the attack.
(AP, 1/21/98)
1994 Jan 21, A jury in Manassas,
Va., acquitted Lorena Bobbitt by reason of temporary insanity of
maliciously wounding her husband John, whom she'd accused of sexually
assaulting her.
(AP, 1/1/99)
1994 Jan 21, Dow Jones passed 3900
to a record 3,914.20.
(http://tinyurl.com/cphe5)
1994 Jan 21, In Argentina a fire
near Puerto Madryn killed 25 fire cadets.
(http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/tt/75ea/)
1994 Jan 21, Basil Assad (b.1961),
the son of Syria’s Pres. Hafez Assad, was killed in a car accident.
(SFEC, 6/11/00,
p.A12)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basil_al-Assad)
1995 Jan 21, President Clinton,
addressing the Democratic National Committee, implored members to "bear
down and go forward" despite results of the 1994 elections.
(AP, 1/21/00)
1996 Jan 21, At the 53rd annual
Golden Globes, “Sense and Sensibility” won best dramatic picture;
“Babe” won best comedy; best dramatic acting awards went to Nicolas
Cage for “Leaving Las Vegas” and Sharon Stone for “Casino,” while
awards for acting in a comedy or musical went to Nicole Kidman for “To
Die For” and John Travolta for “Get Shorty.”
(AP, 1/21/01)
1996 Jan 21, Jonathon Larson
(d.1/25/96), composer of Rent, began complaining of chest pains.
Doctors at the emergency room of Cabrini Hosp. said he probably had
food poisoning and pumped his stomach before sending him home. An X-ray
was taken but it was read by a doctor of osteopathic medicine.
(SFC, 6/8/96, p.E4)
1997 Jan 21, Speaker Newt Gingrich
was reprimanded and fined as the House voted for first time in history
to discipline its leader for ethical misconduct.
(AP, 1/21/01)
1997 Jan 21, The Democratic
National Committee announced it would no longer accept money from
people or companies with foreign ties and would limit contributions
from labor unions and wealthy benefactors.
(AP, 1/21/98)
1997 Jan 21, Irwin Levine (58),
composer (Tie a Yellow Ribbon), died in New Jersey.
(http://tinyurl.com/afxk9)
1997 Jan 21, Colonel Tom Parker
(87), manager for Elvis Presley, died.
(MC, 1/21/02)
1997 Jan 21, In Algeria two car
bombs in the capital killed as a many as 18 people.
(SFC, 1/22/97, p.A8)
1997 Jan 21, In Chechnya elections
for president were planned and Aslan Maskhadov and Shamil Basayev led
the 16 candidates. Ichkeria was name given to free Chechnya by the
Muslim separatists.
(SFC, 1/22/97, p.A9)
1997 Jan 21, In China 2
earthquakes struck within a minute in Xinjiang province and killed at
least 12 people.
(WSJ, 1/22/97, p.A1)
1997 Jan 21, In Egypt the al-Ahram
newspaper reported that a 30-member family of beggars was arrested.
They had managed to save $294,000 from illegal begging on the streets
of Suez.
(SFC, 1/22/97, p.C1)
1997 Jan 21, In South Korea the
president agreed to allow the full parliament to consider a revise a
new labor law. Arrest warrants against union officials were suspended.
(WSJ, 1/22/97, p.A1)
1998 Jan 21, Pres. Clinton angrily
denied charges that he had a sexual affair with Monica Lewinsky (24), a
White House aide in 1995, and that he encouraged Lewinsky to lie under
oath about their involvement.
(SFC, 1/22/98, p.A1)(AP, 1/1/99)
1998 Jan 21, The FBI arrested
dozens of prison guards and police officers in the Cleveland area
following a 2-year sting operation on cocaine trafficking.
(SFC, 1/22/98, p.A7)
1998 Jan 21, Jack Lord, TV star of
"Hawaii Five-O" fame, died in Honolulu at age 77. In 2006 it was
revealed that he left behind $40 million to a dozen local charities.
(AP, 1/1/99)(SSFC, 2/26/06, Par p.2)
1998 Jan 21, In Bosnia Western
mediators unveiled a common currency and ordered that it be accepted by
the Muslims, Serbs and Croats.
(SFC, 1/22/98, p.B2)
1988 Jan 21, In Burundi Hutu
rebels killed 45 people in 2 attacks, and 20 rebels died in a
subsequent battle with the army.
(WSJ, 1/22/98, p.A1)
1998 Jan 21, Pope John Paul II
arrived in Cuba for a 4-day historic visit.
(SFC, 1/8/98, p.B2)(AP, 1/1/99)
1999 Jan 21, Former Sen. Dale
Bumpers, an Arkansas Democrat, told the Senate impeachment trial of
Bill Clinton the president was guilty of a "terrible moral lapse" but
not of conduct warranting or even permitting his removal from office.
(AP, 1/21/00)
1999 Jan 21, In Arkansas twisters
led to 4 deaths and over a dozen injuries across the state.
(SFC, 1/22/99, p.A3)
1999 Jan 21, In Texas LaTausha
Curry (25) was abducted while trying to make a call at a pay phone.
Derrick Lamone Johnson later confessed that he and an accomplice had
raped and murdered her. In 2009 Johnson (25) was executed.
(SFC, 5/1/09,
p.A8)(www.cca.courts.state.tx.us/opinions/73765.htm)
1999 Jan 21, Charles Brown
(b.1922), African-American rhythm and blues pioneer, died. In 1947 his
song “Merry Christmas Baby” became a perennial hit.
(SFC, 2/21/08,
p.E8)(http://elvispelvis.com/charlesbrown.htm)
1999 Jan 21, The UN voted to
maintain at least a token presence in Angola.
(SFC, 1/22/99, p.A12)
1999 Jan 21, In Telagakodok,
Indonesia, at least 40 Christian villagers were killed by a mob of
Muslims.
(SFC, 1/26/99, p.A14)
1999 Jan 21, In Mexico Raul
Salinas de Gortari, brother of a former Mexican president, was
convicted and sentenced to 50 years for the 1994 assassination of Jose
Francisco Ruiz Massieu.
(SFC, 1/22/99, p.A10)(AP, 1/21/00)
1999 Jan 21, In Romania striking
miners stormed through police lines, killed one officer and took 50
captive. The interior minister was fired.
(WSJ, 1/22/99, p.A1)
1999 Jan 21, In Russia Grigory
Pasko (37), in jail for 14 months, was put on trial for selling
classified information. He had reported on the disposal of radioactive
waste in the Sea of Japan.
(SFC, 1/22/99, p.A12)
1999 Jan 21, In Sierra Leone the
rebels were killing and mutilating civilians as they fell back before
Nigerian led troops.
(WSJ, 1/22/99, p.A1)
1999 Jan 21, Yugoslav Pres.
Milosevic postponed the expulsion of US envoy William Walker.
(SFC, 1/22/99, p.A10)
2000 Jan 21, The grandmothers of
Elian Gonzalez traveled to the United States to plead for the boy’s
return to Cuba.
(AP, 1/21/01)
2000 Jan 21, The US NASDAQ market
rose to a record 4,235.4.
(SFC, 1/22/00, p.E1)
2000 Jan 21, Negotiators in Geneva
agreed to new guidelines governing children in combat after the US
dropped its opposition to establishing 18 as the minimum age for
sending soldiers into combat.
(SFC, 1/22/00, p.A10)
2000 Jan 21, In Algeria nearly 60
soldiers and Islamic insurgents were killed near Relizane. Security
forces killed 12 insurgents in Sid Ali Bounab.
(SFC, 1/24/00, p.A7)
2000 Jan 21, In Austria the 2-day
old ruling coalition collapsed.
(SFC, 1/22/00, p.A11)
2000 Jan 21, In China it was
reported that some 700 investigators had gathered over the last 2
months in Xiamen, formerly called Amoy, to investigate corruption and
the smuggling of some $9.5 billion worth of goods.
(SFC, 1/21/00, p.A12)
2000 Jan 21, In Ecuador the
military demanded the resignation of Pres. Jamil Mahuad and declared
itself in charge through a 3-man junta that included Gen. Carlos
Mendoza, indigenous leader Antonio Vargas and former Supreme Court
Chief Carlos Solorzano.
(SFC, 1/22/00, p.A1)
2000 Jan 21, In Japan 6 people
that included the daughter (16) of Shoko Asahara broke into the Aum
cult's Asashimura facility and kidnapped the 7-year-old son of Asahara.
Two of the kidnappers were arrested over the next 2 days. The boy was
found Jan 23 in the resort town of Hakone.
(SFEC, 1/23/00, p.A22)(SFC, 1/24/00, p.A7)
2000 Jan 21, In Madrid, Spain,
Basque separatists ended a 19-month lull in their guerrilla war with a
remote bomb that killed Lt. Col. Pedro Antonio Blanco Garcia (48).
(SFC, 1/22/00, p.A10)
2001 Jan 21, The Roman epic
“Gladiator” claimed best dramatic movie and the 1970's rock-and-roll
story “Almost Famous” won best comedy at the Golden Globes Awards.
(AP, 1/21/02)
2001 Jan 21, Pope John Paul II
elevated archbishops of New York and Washington and 35 other church
leaders to the College of Cardinals.
(AP, 1/21/02)
2001 Jan 21, Byron De La Beckwith
(80), a white supremacist convicted three decades after the fact for
assassinating civil rights leader Medgar Evers, died in Jackson, Miss.
(AP, 1/21/02)
2001 Jan 21, In Chechnya rebels
fought street battles in Gudermes following weekend raids that left 6
Russian soldiers dead.
(WSJ, 1/22/01, p.A1)
2001 Jan 21, Syria approved
private banking and ended artificial exchange rates.
(WSJ, 1/22/01, p.A1)
2001 Jan 21, In Ukraine 9 miners
died and 15 were injured in a gas explosion in the Donetsk coal region.
(WSJ, 1/22/01, p.A1)
2002 Jan 21, Sec. of State Colin
Powell said the US would contribute $297 million for Afghan
reconstruction over the coming year during a conference on Afghan
reconstruction in Tokyo. Int’l. donors pledged over $4.5 billion over 5
years.
(SFC, 1/21/02, p.A1)(SFC, 1/22/02, p.A12)
2002 Jan 21, K-Mart, the 3rd
largest US discount retailer, filed for bankruptcy protection. Kmart
was operating 2,114 stores with 250,000 employees.
(SFC, 1/22/02, p.A1)(Ind, 2/2/02, 5A)
2002 Jan 21, Peggy Lee (b.1920),
jazz and blues singer, died at age 81 in Bel Air, Calif.
(SFC, 1/23/02, p.A2)(AP, 1/21/03)
2002 Jan 21, In Goma, Congo, a gas
station exploded after some spilled gas was ignited by lava. Dozens of
people looting gasoline were killed.
(SFC, 1/22/02, p.A6)
2002 Jan 21, In Alexandria, Egypt,
a small group of leading rabbis, Muslim clerics and bishops signed the
Alexandria Doctrine, which condemned violence and insisted that holy
places be kept open.
(http://tinyurl.com/2pey69)(Econ, 11/3/07, SR p.13)
2002 Jan 21, Haiti’s prime
minister quit amid political and economic woes.
(WSJ, 1/22/02, p.A1)
2002 Jan 21, Israeli forces
invaded Nablus, killed Palestinians and arrested 9 suspected militants.
PM Sharon decided to reopen the Temple Mount to non-Muslims. The Waqf
clerical trust imposed a ban on non-Muslims in Sep, 2000.
(SFC, 1/22/02, p.A7)
2002 Jan 21, In Kashmir 21 people
died in violence.
(WSJ, 1/22/02, p.A1)
2002 Jan 21, In Russia the media
minister took TV6 off the air after journalists there failed to cut
ties with owner Boris Berezovsky. Russian troops rounded up dozens in
Dagestan following an earlier bomb attack that killed 7 soldiers.
(SFC, 1/22/02, p.A8)
2003 Jan 21, The US Census Bureau
reported that Hispanics had passed Blacks as the biggest US minority
group.
(WSJ, 1/22/03, p.A1)
2003 Jan 21, Thousands of British
firefighters walked off the job for the third time in less than three
months after failing to resolve a wage dispute with the government.
(AP, 1/21/03)
2003 Jan 21, Colombian rebels in
Arauca state kidnapped an American photographer and a British reporter,
the first time foreign journalists were abducted in Colombia's
four-decade-long civil war. Scott Dalton and Ruth Morris were freed Feb
1.
(AP, 2/1/03)(AP, 1/21/04)
2003 Jan 21, Congo's health
minister reported that a flu epidemic had killed more than 2,000 people
in a far northern province.
(AP, 1/21/03)
2003 Jan 21, Israel razed 62 shops
and market stalls in a Palestinian village Tuesday as troops clashed
with protesters.
(AP, 1/21/03)
2003 Jan 21, In Kuwait American
contract worker Michael Rene Pouliat (46) was killed by gunman in an
ambush near Camp Doha. Another worker was wounded. Saudi border guards
arrested a Kuwaiti suspect the next day.
(SFC, 1/23/03, p.A11)
2003 Jan 21, Mexico appealed to
the World Court to stop the execution of 51 of its citizens in the
United States.
(AP, 1/21/03)
2003 Jan 21, A 7.6-7.8 earthquake
ripped through western and central Mexico, killing at least 29 people
and leaving 10,000 homeless.
(SFC, 1/23/03, p.A1)(AP, 1/21/04)
2003 Jan 21, NATO blocked a US
request to begin preparations for a military backup in the event of war
with Iraq.
(WSJ, 1/23/03, p.A1)
2003 Jan 21, In Uzbekistan a
series of stories posted on the Internet in early Jan before access was
cut off have alleged high-level corruption and the president's imminent
resignation, stirring rare public debate.
(AP, 1/21/03)
2004 Jan 21, President Bush
visited community colleges in Ohio and Arizona, where he highlighted
the economy and several new job-training initiatives he'd proposed a
day earlier in his State of the Union speech.
(AP, 1/21/05)
2004 Jan 21, Ohio lawmakers gave
final approval to a measure banning gay marriage and prohibiting state
employees from getting benefits for domestic partners. Gov. Bob Taft
said he would sign it pending a legal review.
(SFC, 1/22/04, p.A1)
2004 Jan 21, The recording
industry sued 532 computer users it said were illegally distributing
songs over the Internet.
(AP, 1/21/05)
2004 Jan 21, Hong Kong officials
reported that Avian influenza was detected near 2 chicken farms. 5
people in Vietnam had already died from the recent outbreak.
(SFC, 1/22/04, p.A3)
2004 Jan 21, Ecumenical Patriarch
Bartholomew arrived in Cuba to consecrate St. Nicholas Cathedral
on Jan. 25, said Metropolitan Athenagoras of Panama and Central
America. There were 1,200 practicing Orthodox Christians in Cuba.
(AP, 1/15/04)
2004 Jan 21, The 6-day World
Social Forum ended in Bombay, India, as thousands marching against the
Iraq war. Some 80,000 people from a hundred countries participated in
the forum.
(SFC, 1/22/04, p.A3)
2004 Jan 21, Most of Iran's
ministers and vice presidents submitted resignations to protest the
barring of thousands of would-be candidates from upcoming elections.
The Guardian Council had just reinstated 200 of the disqualified
candidates and said it would reconsider the rest.
(AP, 1/22/04)
2004 Jan 21, In central Iraq a
barrage of mortar fire struck a US military encampment, killing 2
American soldiers and critically wounding a third. In separate
incidents, gunmen ambushed a vehicle carrying Iraqi women who worked in
the laundry at a US military base, killing 4 of them,
(AP, 1/22/04)
2004 Jan 21, Israeli forces
demolished houses in Gaza's Rafah refugee camp for the second straight
day in an anti-militant clampdown that has left 400 people homeless. A
Palestinian woman was killed.
(AP, 1/21/04)(WSJ, 1/22/04, p.A1)
2005 Jan 21, The US Bureau of Land
Management (BLM) posted a decision to open thousands of acres on
Alaska’s North Slope for exploratory oil drilling.
(SFC, 1/22/05, p.A5)
2005 Jan 21, Michael Powell, US
chief of the FCC, said he will step down in 2 months.
(SFC, 1/22/05, p.A1)
2005 Jan 21, The body of Megan
Leann Holden (19) was found near Stanton, Texas. Her abduction from a
Wal-Mart parking lot 2 days earlier was captured on surveillance
videotape. Johnny Lee Williams (24), the suspect in her murder, was
arrested at an Arizona hospital after he shot during a robbery attempt.
(SFC, 1/22/05, p.A3)
2005 Jan 21, In Belize a 2-day
strike ended to protest a lawmakers vote to approve tax hikes opposed
by a majority of the country's 250,000 people. Some 500 protesters
clashed with police in front of Belize's House of Representatives.
(AP, 1/22/05)
2005 Jan 21, Bulgarian President
Georgy Parvanov told parliament that he would like to see Bulgaria's
450-strong troop contingent out of Iraq before the end of the year.
(AFP, 1/21/05)
2005 Jan 21, A German policeman
was stabbed in the neck with a pair of scissors and another taken
hostage when a man they were trying to arrest turned violent.
(AP, 1/21/05)
2005 Jan 21, A car bomb exploded
outside a Shiite mosque in Baghdad where worshippers were celebrating a
major Muslim holiday, killing at least 14 people and wounding 40. A
suicide bomber left 7 people dead at a Shiite wedding party near
Youssufiya.
(AP, 1/21/05)(SFC, 1/22/05, p.A10)
2005 Jan 21, Hundreds of armed
Palestinian police deployed across the northern Gaza Strip on Friday to
prevent rocket fire on Israeli communities.
(AP, 1/21/05)
2006 Jan 21, In Colorado a
military jury convicted Chief Warrant Officer Lewis Welshofer Jr., an
Army interrogator, of negligent homicide. During an interrogation on
Nov 26, 2003, he put a sleeping bag over the head of Iraqi Maj. Gen.
Abed Hamed Mowhoush and sat on his chest as the man suffocated.
(AP, 1/22/06)(SSFC, 1/22/06, p.D4)
2006 Jan 21, In Las Vegas Manny
Pacquiao avenged his defeat 10 months ago and handed Erik Morales the
worst beating of his career before finally stopping him in the 10th
round of their 130-pound showdown.
(AP, 1/22/06)
2006 Jan 21, In Las Vegas Jennifer
Berry, a 22-year-old ballerina from Oklahoma, was crowned Miss America.
The pageant went without coverage from a major television network for
the first time since 1954, but aired on Country Music Television.
(AP, 1/22/06)
2006 Jan 21, Rescuers in West
Virginia found the bodies of two miners who'd disappeared after a
conveyor belt caught fire deep inside a coal mine.
(AP, 1/21/07)
2006 Jan 21, Ashok Malhotra (43)
was shot dead at 2380 Aberdeen Way in Richmond, Ca. 2 suspects, Ishtiaq
Hussain (38) and Jose Antonio Barajas (22) were arrested Jan 24
following a chase at the Canadian border, where Hussain was shot.
(SFC, 1/25/06, p.B4)
2006 Jan 21, Afghanistan formally
approved a five-year development plan, the Afghanistan Compact, to be
presented to its international supporters at a key conference in London
at the end of this month.
(AP, 1/21/06)
2006 Jan 21, In Afghanistan a
local police chief was killed in a suspected Taliban ambush in Ghazni
province.
(AP, 1/22/06)
2006 Jan 21, In Bangladesh at
least 15 people were injured as police and opposition supporters fought
street battles in Dhaka ahead of a nationwide strike called by
opposition parties. The Awami League and its 13 left-leaning allies
called for a Sunday strike to press for removal of the chief election
commissioner and two newly appointed commissioners.
(AP, 1/21/06)
2006 Jan 21, A lost whale that
strayed up the Thames in central London was gently lifted onto a barge
as crowds lined the river banks to watch a unique rescue operation.
Wally, a young bottle-nosed whale, died while being returned to the sea.
(AFP, 1/22/06)
2006 Jan 21, In Colombia a video,
released by Colombian guerrillas, showed 12 kidnapped lawmakers
pleading with their government to work with Venezuela's leftist
President Hugo Chavez to help obtain their release.
(AP, 1/21/06)
2006 Jan 21, Guyana's government
deployed soldiers to protect flood control gates and reservoirs after
saboteurs set fire to drainage systems in coastal areas threatened by
recent flooding. Since December, flooding has covered thousands of
acres in waist-deep water and displaced more than 5,000 people.
(AP, 1/21/06)
2006 Jan 21, In Iraq Sunni Arab
politicians called for a government of national unity and signaled they
will use their increased numbers in parliament to curb the power of
rival Shiites, who have claimed the biggest number of seats in the new
legislature.
(AP, 1/21/06)
2006 Jan 21, A spate of bombings
and shootings across Iraq killed at least eight Iraqis. Britain
announced the death of a British security worker in a roadside blast.
(AP, 1/21/06)
2006 Jan 21, Ilan Halimi (23), a
mobile phone salesman in northeast Paris, was kidnapped. Ransom demands
soon followed. He was found 3 weeks later naked, handcuffed and covered
with burn marks near railroad tracks in the Essonne region south of
Paris. He died en route to a hospital. On Feb 20 a judge placed six men
and a woman under investigation for the alleged plot to kidnap and kill
on religious, racial or ethnic motives.
(AP, 2/20/06)
2006 Jan 21, Kosovo President
Ibrahim Rugova (61), the ethnic Albanian leader and embodiment of the
province's decades-long struggle for independence from Serbia, died of
lung cancer.
(AP, 1/21/06)(Econ, 1/28/06, p.84)
2006 Jan 21, The families of 426
HIV-infected Libyan children asked for $12 million in compensation for
each child as part of efforts to resolve the case of five Bulgarian
nurses and a Palestinian doctor charged with intentionally infecting
the children.
(AP, 1/22/06)
2006 Jan 21, In Nepal police fired
tear gas to disperse activists protesting the Nepalese king's seizure
of absolute power last year. At least 300 people were arrested and 50
were injured.
(AP, 1/21/06)
2006 Jan 21, In southern Nepal
Maoist rebels and government forces clashed in Phapar Badi village,
killing 14 militants and six security forces.
(AP, 1/22/06)
2006 Jan 21, In Nigeria, a police
spokesman said 14 suspects have been arrested following clashes in
Lagos earlier this week in which three people were killed.
(AP, 1/21/06)
2006 Jan 21, A helicopter used by
the Red Cross for earthquake relief operations in Pakistan went missing
with seven crew members on board. The wreckage of the copter and the
bodies of the seven people on board were found in June 2006.
(AP, 1/21/07)
2006 Jan 21, Palestinian security
forces cast ballots for parliamentary candidates in the official start
of this week's Palestinian elections.
(AP, 1/21/06)
2006 Jan 21, US Navy vessels sent
warning shots and captured the crew of a suspected pirate ship in the
Indian Ocean off Somalia's coast. The US Navy boarded the pirate ship
and detained 26 men for questioning. Sailors aboard the dhow told Navy
investigators that pirates hijacked the vessel six days ago near
Mogadishu and thereafter used it to stage pirate attacks on merchant
ships.
(AP, 1/23/06)
2006 Jan 21, African nations were
split over Sudan's bid to head the African Union, a move which could
scuttle peace talks in the country's Darfur region and damage Africa's
efforts to improve its image abroad.
(AP, 1/21/06)
2007 Jan 21, New Mexico’s Gov.
Bill Richardson entered the race for the Democratic presidential
nomination.
(SFC, 1/22/07, p.A3)
2007 Jan 21, Lovie Smith became
the first black head coach to make it to the Super Bowl when his
Chicago Bears won the NFC championship, beating the New Orleans Saints
39-14; Tony Dungy became the second when his Indianapolis Colts took
the AFC title over the New England Patriots, 38-34.
(AP, 1/21/08)
2007 Jan 21, More than a foot of
snow fell on parts of northern Arizona, while children as far south as
Tucson got a rare chance to play in the snow.
(AP, 1/22/07)
2007 Jan 21, Zdzislaw Rurarz, a
former Polish ambassador to Japan, died of cancer in Virginia. He
humiliated Poland's communist regime by defecting to the US in 1981 to
protest its imposition of martial law.
(AP, 1/28/07)
2007 Jan 21, Louis Malcolm Boyd
(b.1927), aka L.M. Boyd, master gatherer of random facts, died at his
home in Seattle, Wa. He began his column in 1963 at the Seattle
Post-Intelligencer using the pen name Mike Mailway. In SF the column
was titled Grab Bag.
(SSFC, 1/28/07, p.B3)
2007 Jan 21, Oil leaked from the
Napoli, stricken freighter beached on the England’s southwest coast,
Two containers of hazardous chemicals fell into the sea as salvage
crews struggled to operate.
(AFP, 1/21/07)
2007 Jan 21, Canada announced it
will spend $25 million to protect, the Great Bear Rainforest, a
16-million-acre preserve that stretches 250 miles along British
Columbia's rugged Pacific coastline, one of the largest intact
temperate rainforests left in the world.
(AP, 1/22/07)
2007 Jan 21, German Chancellor
Angela Merkel met with Pres. Vladimir Putin in the Black Sea resort of
Sochi for talks set to focus on securing guarantees for energy supplies
to the EU. Putin promised to smooth energy flow to Europe.
(AP, 1/21/07)(WSJ, 1/22/07, p.A1)
2007 Jan 21, Embattled Guinean
President Lansana Conte called on his country's armed forces to stand
united in the face of a crippling general strike that has claimed 10
lives as pressure mounted for him to resign. The African Union called
on Pres. Conte to pursue talks with trade union leaders to ease a
12-day-old strike.
(AFP, 1/21/07)
2007 Jan 21, In India at least one
person was killed and eight wounded in two separate explosions in the
insurgency-hit northeastern state of Assam.
(AFP, 1/21/07)
2007 Jan 21, A major 6.5-magnitude
undersea earthquake has rocked Indonesia's northern Sulawesi province.
The earthquake left four people dead and four injured.
(AFP, 1/21/07)(AP, 1/22/07)
2007 Jan 21, Radical Shiite cleric
Muqtada al-Sadr's bloc announced it is lifting its political boycott,
some seven weeks after it began to protest the Iraqi prime minister's
summit with President Bush. A bomb struck a small bus in Baghdad as it
headed to a predominantly Shiite area, killing six passengers and
wounding 10. Two US Marines were killed in separate attacks in the
Anbar province. Another US soldier was killed in fighting south of
Baghdad.
(AP, 1/21/07)(AP, 1/22/07)(AP, 1/23/07)
2007 Jan 21, Islamic Jihad
militants launched homemade rockets into Israel from the Gaza Strip in
retaliation for Israel's continuing military operations against their
group in the West Bank.
(AP, 1/21/07)
2007 Jan 21, Russian border police
seized a Japanese fishing boat and its six crew members in disputed
waters between the two countries, prompting the Japanese government to
protest. The No. 38 Zuisho Maru was captured off Kunashiri Island, one
of four disputed islands in a group the Japanese call the Northern
Territories and the Russians call the Kurils.
(AP, 1/22/07)
2007 Jan 21, Serbs voted in
parliamentary elections that could determine whether the troubled
Balkan nation will continue with pro-Western reform or return to its
nationalist past.
(AP, 1/21/07)
2007 Jan 21, Sheik Sharif Sheik
Ahmed, a top leader of Somalia's ousted Islamic movement seen by the US
as a potential key to preventing a widespread insurgency, surrendered
to authorities and went under police protection in Nairobi.
(AP, 1/22/07)
2007 Jan 21, In Sri Lanka's
northern waters Tiger rebels rammed an explosives-laden boat against a
private merchant vessel operated by foreign crew, sparking a land, sea
and air battle.
(AFP, 1/21/07)
2007 Jan 21, Darfur rebels accused
the Sudanese government of bombing its areas for two days, killing at
least 17 civilians, in an attempt to delay a conference of rebel
leaders.
(AP, 1/21/07)
2007 Jan 21, Venezuelan President
Hugo Chavez told US officials to "Go to hell, gringos!" and called
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice "missy" on his weekly radio and TV
show, lashing out at Washington for what he called unacceptable
meddling in his country's affairs.
(AP, 1/21/08)
2008 Jan 21, Stocks fell sharply
worldwide following declines on Wall Street last week amid investor
pessimism over the US government's stimulus plan to prevent a recession.
(AP, 1/21/08)
2008 Jan 21, Marie Smith (89), a
resident of southeastern Alaska, died. She was the last speaker of her
native Eyak language.
(Econ, 2/9/08, p.92)
2008 Jan 21, Afghan President
Hamid Karzai told the parliament on its opening day that around 300,000
children cannot attend school because of violence in the southern
provinces.
(AP, 1/21/08)
2008 Jan 21, In northeastern
Australia surging floodwaters forced scores of people to evacuate their
homes. Farmers described the heavy rains as a mixed blessing after
years of drought.
(AP, 1/21/08)
2008 Jan 21, Police in ex-Soviet
Belarus dispersed a protest by about 2,000 entrepreneurs denouncing
President Alexander Lukashenko's decree that places restrictions on
hiring staff. Businessmen said the new regulations deny them the right
to hire workers outside their immediate families or obliges them to
re-register and be subject to higher taxes.
(AP, 1/21/08)
2008 Jan 21, Brazil’s Petrobras
announced the discovery of a huge natural gas reserve off the coast of
Rio de Janeiro.
(WSJ, 1/23/08, p.A10)
2008 Jan 21, Shares in China's
banks fell sharply after news reports said its No. 2 lender, Bank of
China, might write down holdings of US mortgage securities and two
others increased reserves for possible losses. State media said a gas
explosion in an illegal mine in northern China has killed at least 20
people.
(AP, 1/21/08)
2008 Jan 21, Officials said Congo
government negotiators and rebel groups reached a deal to end fighting
in the vast country's restive east, where some 800,000 people had to
flee their homes over the last year.
(AP, 1/21/08)
2008 Jan 21, Iran's supreme leader
reversed a decision by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and ordered him to
implement a law supplying natural gas to remote villages amid rising
dissatisfaction with the president's performance. Local media have
reported 64 cold-related deaths this winter and say gas cuts are to
blame.
(AP, 1/21/08)
2008 Jan 21, In Iraq a suicide
bomber apparently targeting a senior security official blew himself up
inside a funeral tent, killing 18 people in Hajaj. US troops killed two
al-Qaida-linked militants and detained 18 during raids in central and
northern Iraq. A parked car bomb exploded as an Iraqi army patrol
passed by south of Mosul, killing two civilians.
(AP, 1/21/08)(AP, 1/22/08)
2008 Jan 21, Israel launched an
advanced spy satellite that will be able to track events in Iran, the
country it considers its top foe, even at night and in cloudy weather.
India successfully launched the Israeli spy satellite into orbit.
(AP, 1/21/08)(AFP, 1/21/08)
2008 Jan 21, In Italy a key ally
of Premier Romano Prodi pulled his party from the Cabinet amid a
corruption scandal, sending the center-left governing coalition
scrambling to keep the administration from falling.
(AP, 1/21/08)
2008 Jan 21, Latvia's Foreign
Ministry declared a Russian diplomat persona non grata, citing a report
that he was a threat to national security. On Jan 25 Russia said it
will expel a Latvian diplomat in apparent retaliation. Some 400,000
non-citizens lived in Latvia. Ethnic Russians accounted for a third of
the country's population of 2.3 million.
(AP, 1/25/08)
2008 Jan 21, Mexico's army
captured Alfredo Beltran Leyva, a top lieutenant of the Sinaloa cartel.
He allegedly commanded squads of hit men and organized drug shipments
north.
(AP, 1/21/08)
2008 Jan 21, In southern Nigeria a
major oil pipeline belonging to Italian oil company Agip caught fire
and a tanker truck exploded in separate incidents.
(AFP, 1/21/08)
2008 Jan 21, President Pervez
Musharraf in Brussels pledged to hold free elections as he began a
European trip aimed at bolstering outside support, but urged the West
not to hold Pakistan to unrealistic rights standards.
(Reuters, 1/21/08)
2008 Jan 21, Paraguay's ruling
party nominated Education Minister Blanca Ovelar as its presidential
candidate, a first for the South American nation, but her candidacy of
still faces a court challenge.
(AP, 1/21/08)
2008 Jan 21, In Saudi Arabia the
daily Al-Watan, which is deemed close to the Saudi government, reported
that the Interior Ministry issued a circular to hotels asking them to
accept lone women, as long as their information is sent to a local
police station.
(AP, 1/21/08)
2008 Jan 21, In Sri Lanka
government soldiers attacked Tamil Tiger rebel bunkers across the front
lines in the embattled north, triggering a battle that killed 15
guerrillas and two soldiers.
(AP, 1/21/08)
2008 Jan 21, Sudan confirmed that
it has appointed Musa Hilal, the suspected head of a Sudanese militia
accused of murder, rape and other atrocities in Darfur, to a senior
government post. President Omar al-Bashir dismissed allegations against
the man as untrue.
(AP, 1/21/08)
2009 Jan 21, President Barack
Obama's first public act in office was to institute new limits on
lobbyists in his White House and to freeze the salaries of high-paid
aides, in a nod to the country's economic turmoil. A judge quickly
granted President Barack Obama's request to suspend the war crimes
trial at Guantanamo of a young Canadian in what may be the beginning of
the end for the Bush administration's system of trying alleged
terrorists. Obama took the oath of office again with Chief Justice John
Roberts to correct the previous day’s initial flub in wording.
(AP, 1/21/09)
2009 Jan 21, Rev. John Skehan
(81), one of two Florida priests accused of embezzling hundreds of
thousands of dollars from their church, pleaded guilty as jury
selection was set to begin in the case. Prosecutors said he and Rev.
Francis Guinan plucked cash from the offering plate and spent it on
upscale homes, gambling trips to Las Vegas with a mistress, even a
$275,000 rare coin collection. On March 24 Skehan was sentenced to 14
months in prison. On March 25 Guinan was sentenced to 4 years in prison.
(AP, 1/21/09)(SFC, 1/22/09, p.A3)(SFC, 3/25/09,
p.A7)(SFC, 3/26/09, p.A6)
2009 Jan 21, Arizona’s Republican
Sec of State, Janice Brewer (b.1944), became governor after Democrat
Janet Napolitano vacated her office to become Pres. Obama’s Sec. of
Homeland Security.
(Econ, 11/7/09,
p.33)(www.azgovernor.gov/About_Gov.asp)
2009 Jan 21, Haydar Al-Shukri, the
director of the Arkansas Earthquake Center at the University of
Arkansas at Little Rock, said a previously unknown fault, could trigger
a magnitude 7 earthquake with an epicenter near a major natural gas
pipeline.
(AP, 1/22/09)
2009 Jan 21, In Missouri a father
was arrested in Daviess County after two sealed coolers with the
remains of two infants were found. a third child is believed to have
died in Oklahoma. A surviving child, a 3-year-old boy, was in state
custody. The man was suspected of fathering four children with his
teenage daughter and faced charges of killing at least one after human
remains were discovered at their rural home.
(AP, 1/24/09)
2009 Jan 21, In Portland, Oregon,
officials said they would begin a criminal investigation into newly
elected Mayor Sam Adams (45), who admitted shortly after taking office
on January 1 that he had lied during his campaign about a sexual
relationship with a much younger gay man.
(WSJ, 1/24/09, p.A4)
2009 Jan 21, In Blacksburg,
Virginia, Haiyang Zhu (25), a Chinese doctoral student at Virginia
Tech, decapitated Xin Yang, a new Chinese graduate student.
(SFC, 1/23/09, p.A4)
2009 Jan 21, Charles Schneer
(b.1920), Hollywood film producer, died in Florida. His 25 films
included “It Came From Beneath the Sea” (1955) and “Hellcats of the
Navy” (1957).
(SFC, 1/27/09, p.B4)
2009 Jan 21, In Afghanistan a
suicide bomber attacked a wedding party in the northern province of
Baghlan, wounding five children and a district police chief. A suicide
car bomber detonated his explosives near an Afghan army convoy in
western Afghanistan, killing two troops.
(AP, 1/21/09)
2009 Jan 21, Scientists reported
that the entire Antarctic continent has been gradually warming since at
least 1957.
(SFC, 1/22/09, p.A10)
2009 Jan 21, Brazil’s central bank
cut its benchmark overnight rate, the Selic rate, to 12.75%, the
highest rate in the America’s, even considering its nearly 7% inflation.
(WSJ, 1/22/09, p.A8)
2009 Jan 21, Official data showed
Britain's economy is weakening fast, with more figures due this week
expected to confirm the country has sunk into recession for the first
time since 1991.
(AP, 1/21/09)
2009 Jan 21, Germany banned the
production, sale or possession of a synthetic marijuana-like drug known
as "Spice," effective as of Jan 22, becoming the 4th nation to ban the
substance, marketed as an herbal room-freshener, after Austria, the
Netherlands and Switzerland.
(AP, 1/21/09)
2009 Jan 21, In northeastern India
an Assam Rifles paramilitary soldier shot and killed six of his
colleagues, then fled their military camp in a remote and dangerous
outpost.
(AP, 1/22/09)
2009 Jan 21, In Iraq a top Sunni
politician escaped assassination in a Baghdad car bombing that killed
at least 2 other people. Samira Ahmed Jassim (nickname Umm
al-Mumineen), a woman suspected of recruiting more than 80 female
suicide bombers, was arrested, dealing a major blow to one of the most
effective forms of attacks in Iraq.
(WSJ, 1/22/09, p.A1)(AP, 2/3/09)
2009 Jan 21, The last Israeli
troops left the Gaza Strip before dawn, as Israel dispatched its
foreign minister to Europe in a bid to rally international support to
end arms smuggling into the Hamas-ruled territory. The Palestinian
Center for Human Rights released a final tally, saying 1,284 Gazans
were killed and 4,336 wounded, the vast majority civilians. Israel's
military said it will investigate charges that its forces used
phosphorous shells in a way that burned civilians during the fighting
in Gaza. Hamas officials conceded that they are executing Palestinians
suspected of collaborating with Israel during the 3-week invasion.
Fatah officials said at least 19 of its members have been executed and
more brutally tortured. On Sep 9, 2009, the Israeli rights group
B'Tselem published figures it said were compiled in months of research,
including visits to families of victims. It said 1,387 Gazans were
killed, including 773 civilians (including 252 children younger than
16) and 330 combatants. 13 Israelis also died, including 4 civilians.
(AP, 1/21/09)(SFC, 1/22/09, p.A3)(AP, 9/9/09)
2009 Jan 21, Kosovo armed forces
took over security duties, less than a year after the territory
declared independence and in the face of strong protests from Serbia.
(AP, 1/21/09)
2009 Jan 21, Indonesia’s Health
Ministry said 2 people have died of bird flu, apparently after contact
with sick chickens, raising the country's death toll to 115.
(AP, 1/21/09)
2009 Jan 21, In Nigeria the
best-known militant group in the Niger Delta said one of its allies
carried out an attack on a tanker in southern Nigeria in which one
Romanian crewman was taken hostage. He was soon released. The MT
Meredith, loaded with 4,000 tons of diesel, was attacked by gunmen in
speedboats and sustained "massive damage" during the attack.
(AFP, 1/21/09)(AFP, 1/22/09)
2009 Jan 21, North Korea and Iran,
two nations with nuclear aspirations the US wants to thwart, both
signaled that they were open to new initiatives from President Barack
Obama that could defuse tensions.
(AP, 1/21/09)
2009 Jan 21, In Pakistan a Saudi
called Zabi ul Taifi was among seven Al-Qaida suspects caught when
government forces mounted a raid near the northwestern city of Peshawar.
(AP, 1/22/09)
2009 Jan 21, Portugal became the
3rd euro zone country this month, after Spain and Greece, to have its
credit rating cut by Standard & Poor’s.
(WSJ, 1/22/09, p.A9)
2009 Jan 21, Russia's military
said that an old Soviet-built nuclear-powered satellite has spewed
fragments in orbit, but insisted they do not threaten the international
space station or people on Earth.
(AP, 1/21/09)
2009 Jan 21, Sri Lanka's military
declared a "safety zone" to enable some 250,000 trapped civilians to
cross into government-controlled territory from the diminishing area
held by Tamil Tiger rebels in the war-torn north.
(AP, 1/21/09)
2009 Jan 21, Three relatives of
Taiwan's former president Chen Shui-bian pleaded guilty to charges of
money laundering, as part of a massive corruption case in which the
ex-leader has been implicated.
(AFP, 1/21/09)
2009 Jan 21, Zimbabwe activists
launched a hunger strike to demand faster political change and urge
African leaders to isolate the country's president, Robert Mugabe, who
is accused of overseeing its political and economic collapse.
(AP, 1/21/09)
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