Today in History - January 24
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41CE Jan 24,
Shortly after declaring himself a god, Gaius Caligula Germanicus,
emperor from 37-41, was assassinated by two Praetorian tribunes.
(HN, 1/24/99)(MC, 1/24/02)
76CE Jan 24, Publius A. Hadrianus,
14th Roman Emperor (117-138), was born.
(www.roman-emperors.org/hadrian.htm)
1458 Jan 24, Matthias Corvinus
(1440-1490), the son of John Hunyadi, was elected king of Hungary.
Under his rule Hungary was the most important state in central
Europe. For his fighting force he ordered every 20 houses to provide
one horse soldier. “Husz” is 20 in Hungarian and so the light
cavalryman became know as a Hussar. His illuminated breviary is held by
the Vatican library.
(WUD, 1994, p.1672)(Sky, 9/97, p.26)(HN, 1/24/99)
1568 Jan 24, In Netherlands Duke
of Alba declared (future King) William of Orange an outlaw.
(MC, 1/24/02)
1639 Jan 24, (Gregorian Calendar)
The Fundamental Orders, the first constitution in the New World, was
adopted in Connecticut [see Jan 14].
(HN, 1/24/99)(www.constitution.org/bcp/fo_1639.htm)
1656 Jan 24, Jacob Lumbrozo, 1st
Jewish doctor in US, arrived in Maryland.
(MC, 1/24/02)
1679 Jan 24, King Charles II
disbanded the English parliament.
(MC, 1/24/02)
1712 Jan 24, Frederick II
(d.1786), Frederick the Great, the Hohenzollern King of Prussia
(1740-1786), was born. He was noted for his social reforms and leading
Prussia in military victories.
(WUD, 1994, p.565)(HN, 1/24/99)(WSJ, 4/27/00,
p.A24)(MC, 1/24/02)
1722 Jan 24, Czar Peter the Great
capped his reforms in Russia with the "Table of Rank" which decreed a
commoner could climb on merit to the highest positions.
(HN, 1/24/99)
1732 Jan 24, Pierre Caron de
Beaumarchais (d.1799), French dramatist, was born. He was best
remembered for his plays "Barber of Civil" and "Marriage of Figaro." He
was a conduit for French gold and arms to American Revolution,
persecuted by mob during French Rev. "It is not necessary to understand
things in order to argue about them."
(AP,
12/21/99)(www.theatrehistory.com/french/beaumarchais001.html)
1734 Jan 24, In Cracow the 2nd
last king of Lithuania and Poland, August III, was crowned.
(LHC, 1/24/03)
1742 Jan 24, Charles VII was
crowned Holy Roman Emperor during the War of the Austrian Succession.
(AP, 1/24/07)
1746 Jan 24, Gustav III, king
during Swedish Enlightenment (1771-92), was born.
(MC, 1/24/02)
1800 Jan 24, Edwin Chadwick,
British social reformer, was born.
(MC, 1/24/02)
1813 Jan 24, Theodore Sedgwick
(b.1746), arch-Federalist and former Massachusetts Senator (1796-1799),
died. In 2007 John Sedgwick authored “In My Blood: Six Generations of
Madness and Desire in an American Family.”
(http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=S000222)(WSJ,
1/6/07, p.P13)
1839 Jan 24, Charles Darwin was
elected member of Royal Society.
(MC, 1/24/02)
1847 Jan 24, 1,500 New Mexican
Indians and Mexicans were defeated by US Col. Price.
(MC, 1/24/02)
1848 Jan 24, Gold was discovered
by carpenter James Wilson Marshall at his partner Johann August
Sutter's sawmill on the South Fork of the American River, near Coloma,
California. John [James Wilson] Marshall, while inspecting the
construction of a mill on the American River, being built for Capt.
John Sutter, spotted a gold nugget. Marshall, Sutter and their workers
tried to keep the discovery quiet but gold-seekers quickly began
pouring into California, raising the state's non-Indian population to
about 20,000 in 1848, 100,000 in 1849 and twice that amount by 1852.
(HFA,'96,p.22)(SFC, 5/19/96,City Guide, p.16)(SFEC,
11/3/96, DB p.71)(SFC, 1/25/97, p.A17)(SFEC, 7/6/97, p.T3)(SFEC,
1/4/98, Z1p.4)(HN, 1/24/99)(HNPD, 1/24/99)
1862 Jan 24, Edith Wharton
(d.1937), U.S. novelist was born. Her novels included Age of
Innocence,” House of Mirth,” “Summer,” and “Ethan Frome.” She also
wrote books on home design. “There are two ways of spreading light: to
be the candle, or the mirror that reflects it.” “The essence of taste
is suitability. Divest the word of its prim and priggish implications,
and see how it expresses the mysterious demand of the eye and mind for
symmetry, harmony and order. ”Eleanor Dwight wrote her 1994 biography:
“An Extraordinary Life.”
(AP, 8/17/97)(WSJ, 12/9/97, p.A20)(AP, 1/11/98)(HN,
1/24/99)
1865 Jan 24, A Confederate fleet
attempted to raid City Point, Va. Most of the fleet ran aground. Two
ironclads make a desperate attempt to push through to the supply
center. One gunboat was sunk and the other mysteriously turns around.
(www.qmfound.com/citypt.htm)
1876 Jan 24, Bat Masterson had a
legendary gunfight in Sweetwater, Texas. A cavalry soldier named King
and a woman named Mollie Brennan were killed, Masterson was seriously
wounded in the hip in a saloon.
(MesWP)(AH, 2/06, p.14)
1888 Jan 24, Ernst Heinrich
Heinkel, German inventor (1st rocket-powered aircraft), was born.
(MC, 1/24/02)
1888 Jan 24, Henry King, US
director (Jesse James, 12 O'Clock High), was born.
(MC, 1/24/02)
1891 Jan 24, Max Ernst,
German-French surrealist painter, sculptor, was born. [see Apr 2]
(MC, 1/24/02)
1895 Jan 24, Hawaii’s Queen
Lili’uokalani formally abdicated her throne and swore allegiance to the
Republic of Hawaii.
(AH, 2/05, p.16)
1899 Jan 24, The rubber heel was
patented by Humphrey O'Sullivan.
(MC, 1/24/02)
1903 Jan 24, U.S. Secretary of
State John Hay and British Ambassador Herbert created a joint
commission to establish the Alaskan border.
(HN, 1/24/99)
1905 Jan 24, In Vilnius a mass
worker strike began and lasted to Jan 29.
(LHC, 1/24/03)
1908 Jan 24, This is considered
the starting date of the Boy Scouts movement in England. Lt. General
Robert S.S. Baden-Powell, had achieved fame as a hero in the Boer War
and applied his methods of training British soldiers in South Africa in
woodcraft and survival methods to young English boys in the early
1900s. The Boy Scouts of America was incorporated in 1910 and united
with two previously existing organizations, the Sons of Daniel Boone,
founded by Daniel Beard in 1905 and Ideals of the Woodcraft Indians,
founded by Ernest Seton in 1902.
(AP, 1/24/08)(HNQ, 11/12/01)
1910 Jan 24, Louis Paulhan, French
aviator, made an aerial display at the Tanforan Race Track in San
Bruno, Ca., before a crowd of 75,000. He flew his biplane 1,300 (700)
feet high at 70 mph. Earlier he took William Randolph Hearst for a ride.
(SFEC, 12/26/99, p.W4)(Ind, 8/17/02, 5A)(SSFC,
1/24/10, DB p.42)
1911 Jan 24, U.S. Cavalry was sent
to preserve the neutrality of the Rio Grande during the Mexican Civil
War.
(HN, 1/24/99)
1913 Jan 24, Mark Goodson, TV
game-show producer (Goodson-Toddman), was born.
(MC, 1/24/02)
1915 Jan 24, The German cruiser
Blücher was sunk by a British squadron in the Battle of Dogger
Bank.
(HN, 1/24/99)
1917 Jan 24, Ernest Borgnine,
actor (Ice Station Zebra, McHale, Marty), was born in Hamden, Ct.
(Internet)
1918 Jan 24, Oral Roberts,
Televangelist, founder Oral Roberts University, was born.
(MC, 1/24/02)
1919 Jan 24, In Russia Grand
Prince Pavel Alexandrovich, a son of Czar Alexander II, and grand
princes Nikolai Mikhailovich, Georgy Mikhailovitch and Dmitry
Konstantinovich, nephews of the czar, were executed at the Peter and
Paul Fortress in St. Petersburg. They were posthumously rehabilitated
in 1999 by the Russian office of the prosecutor general.
(SFC, 6/10/99, p.C3)
1920 Jan 24, Amedeo Modigliani
(b.1884), Italian sculptor, painter, died in Paris. His mistress Jeanne
Hebuterne, pregnant with his child, committed suicide 2 days later
rather than live without him. In 2006 Jeffrey Meyers authored
“Modigliani: A Life.”
(www.guggenheimcollection.org/site/artist_bio_110.html)(WSJ, 3/21/06,
p.D8)
1922 Jan 24, Christian K. Nelson
of Onawa, Iowa, patented the Eskimo Pie.
(AP, 1/24/98)
1924 Jan 24, The Russian city of
St. Petersburg was renamed Leningrad in honor of the late revolutionary
leader. It has since been re-named St. Petersburg. [see Jan 26]
(AP, 1/24/99)
1927 Jan 24, British expeditionary
force of 12,000 was sent to China to protect concessions at Shanghai.
(HN, 1/24/99)
1929 Jan 24, Dr. Ray Lyman Wilbur,
president of Stanford Univ. (1916-1941), accepted the position of Sec.
of the Interior under Pres. Hoover. Wilbur took a leave of absence to
serve.
(SFC, 1/23/04, p.E3)
1931 Jan 24, The League of Nations
rebuked Poland for the mistreatment of a German minority in Upper
Silesia.
(HN, 1/24/99)
1935 Jan 24, The 1st canned beer,
"Krueger Cream Ale," was sold by Krueger Brewing Co. of Richmond, Va.
(www.bcca.com/bccacan1.html)
1939 Jan 24, Some 28-30,000 were
killed by magnitude 8.3 earthquake in Chillan, Chile.
(MC, 1/24/02)(AP, 6/22/02)
1941 Jan 24, Neil Diamond, singer,
actor (Jazz Singer), was born in Brooklyn, NY.
(MC, 1/24/02)
1942 Jan 24, A special court of
inquiry into America's lack of preparedness for the Japanese attack on
Pearl Harbor placed much of the blame on Rear Adm. Husband E. Kimmel
and Lt. Gen. Walter C. Short, the Navy and Army commanders.
(AP, 1/24/00)
1943 Jan 24, President Roosevelt
and British Prime Minister Churchill concluded a wartime conference in
Casablanca, Morocco.
(AP, 1/24/98)
1943 Jan 24, Hitler ordered Nazi
troops at Stalingrad to fight to death.
(MC, 1/24/02)
1945 Jan 24, A German attempt to
relieve the besieged city of Budapest was finally halted by the Soviets.
(HN, 1/24/99)
1946 Jan 24, The UN established
the International Atomic Energy Commission.
(HN, 1/24/99)
1948 Jan 24, Elliott Abrams, asst.
secretary of state, supplied arms to the Contras, was born.
(MC, 1/24/02)
1949 Jan 24, John Belushi,
comedian, actor (SNL, Blues Brothers), was born in Chicago, Ill.
(MC, 1/24/02)
1950 Jan 24, Jackie Robinson
signed highest contract ($35,000) in Dodger history.
(www.baseballlibrary.com/baseballlibrary/ballplayers/R/Robinson_Jackie.stm)
1951 Jan 24, Indian leader Nehru
assailed the U.S. and demanded the UN to name Peking as an aggressor in
Korea.
(HN, 1/24/99)
1953 Jan 24, [Karl R] Gerd von
Rundstedt (77), gen-field marshal (Normandy), died.
(MC, 1/24/02)
1958 Jan 24, After warming to
100,000,000 degrees, 2 light atoms were bashed together to create a
heavier atom, resulting in the 1st man-made nuclear fusion.
(MC, 1/24/02)
1961 Jan 24, A B-52 carrying two
nuclear bombs near Goldsboro, North Carolina encountered a violent
gust. The giant plane rolled completely over, came upright, and
continued rolling inverted a second time before whipping into a vicious
flat spin and breaking up.
(www.willthomasonline.net/willthomasonline/Broken_Arrows.html)
1965 Jan 24, Winston Churchill,
former prime minister (1940-45, 51-55), died from a cerebral thrombosis
in London at age 90. "I am always ready to learn, but I do not always
like to be taught." Lord Moran (Sir Charles Wilson), his personal
physician, later authored “Churchill At War: 1940-1945.”
(AP, 1/24/98)(AP, 1/17/00)(HN, 1/24/01)(WSJ,
12/14/02, p.W10)
1968 Jan 24, Mary Lou Retton,
gymnast (Oly-gold/2 silver/2 bronze-84), was born in Fairmont, WV.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Lou_Retton)
1968 Jan 24, An Israeli submarine,
the Dakar, a British-made submarine with a 69-man crew, was lost in the
Mediterranean Sea while enroute from England to Israel. The sunken ship
was found May 28, 1999, between Crete and Cyprus.
(SFC, 5/31/99,
p.A8)(www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Lobby/9650/dakar.html)
1971 Jan 24, Pvt. Rogelio Roxas
(d.1993), a former Filipino soldier, allegedly discovered the war
treasure of Japanese Gen’l. Tomoyuki Yamashita in caves near Baguio
City. Roxas was arrested on May 18, 1971, and jailed for 5 years. The
gold bullion was reportedly taken away by Pres. Marcos.
(SFC, 10/12/97, p.A18)(SSFC, 3/4/01,
p.A28)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogelio_Roxas)
1972 Jan 24, Maine Sen. Edmund
Muskie (1914-1996) won the Iowa caucus but later lost the Democratic
nomination to George McGovern.
(http://correntewire.com/post_iowa_perspective)
1972 Jan 24, The US Supreme Court
struck down laws that denied welfare benefits to people who had resided
in a state for less than a year.
(AP, 1/24/98)
1975 Jan 24, In New York City, the
FALN, a militant group seeking independence for Puerto Rico, sets off a
bomb in Fraunces Tavern. Four people were killed and 53 injured.
(NYT, 2/7/75, p.1)
1978 Jan 24, Cosmos 954, a
4-month-old nuclear-powered Soviet satellite plunged through Earth's
atmosphere and disintegrated, scattering radioactive debris over parts
of northern Canada.
(SSFC, 3/18/01, p.A1)(AP, 1/24/08)
1980 Jan 24, In an action
obviously designed as another in a series of very strong reactions to
the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, US officials announce that America
is ready to sell military equipment (excluding weapons) to communist
China. The surprise statement was part of the US effort to build a
closer relationship with the People's Republic of China for use as
leverage against possible Soviet aggression.
(http://tinyurl.com/8sx9u)
1982 Jan 24, A draft of Air Force
history reported that the U.S. secretly sprayed herbicides on Laos
during the Vietnam War.
(HN, 1/24/99)
1983 Jan 24, George Cukor
(b.1899), film director, died. His films included My Fair Lady, A Star
is Born, Born Yesterday, Love Among the Ruins and The Philadelphia
Story.
(AP,
7/7/99)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Cukor)
1984 Jan 24, Apple Computer Inc
unveiled its Macintosh personal computer. It included sound-sampling
technology that could play recorded sounds. The CPU had a speed of 8
MHz and 128k of RAM. It sold for $2,495.
(WSJ,11/14/94, p.R26)(WSJ, 3/4/97, p.B1)(SFC,
1/24/04, p.A12)
1985 Jan 24, The space shuttle
Discovery was launched from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on the first secret,
all-military shuttle mission.
(AP, 1/24/05)
1986 Jan 24, The Voyager 2 space
probe swept past Uranus, coming within 50,679 miles of the seventh
planet of the solar system. Uranus has puzzled scientists ever since
the probe Voyager 2 did the flyby and found that its magnetic field
appeared to break the planetary rulebook. In 2004 scientists noted that
Neptune and Uranus have an interior structure that is different from
those of Jupiter and Saturn.
(AP, 1/24/98)(AP, 3/12/04)
1986 Jan 24, LaFayette Ronald
Hubbard (b.1911), science fiction author and founder of Scientology,
died. L. Ron Hubbard’s book “Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental
Health” (1950) laid the foundation for Scientology. By 2007 the Los
Angeles based church claimed 10 million members around the world.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L._Ron_Hubbard)(Wired,
Dec. '95, p.177)(SFC, 2/12/01, p.A13)
1987 Jan 24, Gunmen in Lebanon
kidnapped educators Alann Steen, Jesse Turner, Robert Polhill and
Mitheleshwar Singh. All were later released.
(AP, 1/24/98)
1987 Jan 24, About 20,000 civil
rights demonstrators marched through predominantly white Forsyth
County, Ga., a week after a smaller march was disrupted by Ku Klux Klan
members and supporters.
(AP, 1/24/98)
1988 Jan 24, The government of
Haiti declared Leslie Manigat winner of that country's presidential
election. However, Manigat was overthrown by Haiti's military leader,
Lt. Gen. Henri Hamphy, the following June.
(AP, 1/24/98)
1989 Jan 24, Physicians 1st
reported a case of AIDS transmitted by heterosexual oral sex.
(www.aegis.com/news/Lt/1989/LT890104.html)
1989 Jan 24, Confessed serial
killer Theodore Bundy (42) was put to death in Florida's electric chair
for the 1978 kidnap-murder of 12-year-old Kimberly Leach.
(AP, 1/24/99)
1990 Jan 24, The House voted
390-25 to override President Bush's veto of legislation protecting
Chinese students from deportation. Bush prevailed in a Senate vote the
next day.
(AP, 1/24/00)
1991 Jan 24, A brief skirmish
occurred high above the Persian Gulf as a Saudi warplane shot down two
Iraqi jets.
(AP, 1/24/01)
1992 Jan 24, The state of Arkansas
executed convicted cop-killer Rickey Ray Rector after Gov. Bill Clinton
refused to intervene.
(AP, 1/24/02)
1992 Jan 24, A judge in El
Salvador sentenced an army colonel and a lieutenant to 30 years in
prison for their part in the 1989 massacre of six Jesuit priests, their
housekeeper and her daughter.
(AP, 1/24/02)
1993 Jan 24, Thurgood Marshall
(1908-1993) died in Bethesda, Md., at age 84. He served on the US
Supreme from 1967-1991. As a civil rights lawyer in the 1950s he had
maintained a confidential relationship with the FBI. In 1997 Mark V.
Tushnet published the book: “Making constitutional Law: Thurgood
Marshall and the Supreme Court.”
(HFA, '96, p.32)(SFC, 12/3/96, p.A3)(WSJ, 7/24/97,
p.A16) (AP, 1/24/98)
1994 Jan 24, President Clinton
promoted William J. Perry, the Pentagon's second in command, to the
post of defense secretary.
(AP, 1/24/99)
1994 Jan 24, The Supreme Court
ruled unanimously that protesters who block access to abortion clinics
or in other ways conspire to stop women from having abortions may be
sued under federal anti-racketeering statutes.
(AP, 1/24/99)
1995 Jan 24, President Clinton
appealed for common ground as he delivered his second State of the
Union address, this time before a Republican-led Congress.
(AP, 1/24/00)
1995 Jan 24, The prosecution gave
its opening statement at the O.J. Simpson murder trial.
(AP, 1/24/00)
1996 Jan 24, The FDA approved a
fat substitute to be marketed by Proctor and Gamble under the name
Olestra. It is know to cause abdominal cramps but not to a medically
significant degree.
(WSJ, 1/25/96, A-1)(AP, 1/24/01)
1996 Jan 24, Specialist Michael
New was discharged from the US Army after a court-martial jury
convicted him for refusing to wear a UN beret for a peacekeeping
mission in the former Yugoslavia.
(AP, 1/24/01)
1996 Jan 24, Jonathon Larson
(d.1/25/96), composer of Rent, was taken to St. Vincent’s hospital
emergency room in NYC and discharged with a diagnosis of a probable
virus.
(SFC, 6/8/96, p.E4)
1997 Jan 24, The White House
released guest lists showing that in the year and a-half before his
re-election, President Clinton invited more than 400 of his party's top
financial supporters to coffee klatches for informal policy chats.
(AP, 1/24/98)
1997 Jan 24, Publix Super Markets,
accused of relegating women to dead-end, low-paying jobs, agreed to pay
$81.5 million to settle a class-action lawsuit.
(AP, 1/24/98)
1997 Jan 24, In Zagreb, Croatia,
Radio 101 was awarded a broadcast license after a long battle with the
nationalist government.
(SFC, 1/25/97, p.C1)
1997 Jan 24, In Madagascar a
cyclone struck and that some 200 were killed. It was later reported
that 520,000 people were affected.
(WSJ, 1/27/97, p.A1)(SFC, 2/8/97, p.A11)
1997 Jan 24, The Red Cross issued
an appeal for aid to North Korea where it was reported that tens of
thousands of people were on starvation rations after 2 years of heavy
rains.
(SFC, 1/25/97, p.C1)
1997 Jan 24, A Zairean
counteroffensive was supported by some 300 foreign mercenaries. About
400,000 Hutu refugees were trapped near regions of fighting and UN
officials raised pleas for a truce to allow the refugees to move.
(SFC, 1/25/97, p.A8)
1998 Jan 24, President Clinton, in
his weekly radio address, unveiled a proposal to root out Medicare
fraud.
(AP, 1/24/99)
1998 Jan 24, Walter D. Edmonds,
writer, died at age 94. His work included historic novels such as
“Drums Along the Mohawk” in 1936.
(SFC, 1/29/98, p.B2)
1998 Jan 24, Pope John Paul II,
delivering blunt political messages during his visit to Cuba, called
for the release of "prisoners of conscience" and respect for freedom of
expression, initiative and association.
(AP, 1/24/99)
1998 Jan 24, In Mexico former
Gen’l. Jorge Maldonado Vega was arrested for allegedly trying to
arrange a pact between two of the largest drug cartels. Captain
Rigoberto Silva Ortega was also charged.
(SFC, 1/26/98, p.B12)
1998 Jan 24, From Turkey it was
reported that an estimated 50,000 illegal immigrants move from Turkey
to Greece each year across a sparsely populated 80 mile border.
(SFC, 1/24/98, p.A8)
1999 Jan 24, In the 56th Golden
Globe Awards "Saving Private Ryan" was named best dramatic film of
1998, Spielberg won for directing it. "Shakespeare in Love" was named
best musical or comedy.
(SFC, 1/25/99, p.E1)
1999 Jan 24, House prosecutors
interviewed Monica Lewinsky, a move that triggered fresh partisan
convulsions in President Clinton's impeachment trial.
(AP, 1/24/00)
1999 Jan 24, US jets attacked 2
Iraqi surface-to-air missile batteries after encountering radar
detection in the northern no-fly zone.
(SFC, 1/25/99, p.A6)
1999 Jan 24, The executive board
of the IOC moved to expel 6 members for unethical behavior in response
to allegations of payoffs by host cities in their successful bids for
the 2000 Summer Games in Sydney and 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake
City. The board recommended drastic changes for the host cities ar
chosen for the Olympic Games.
(SFC, 1/25/99, p.A1)(AP, 1/24/00)
1999 Jan 24, In India police
arrested 47 members of a Hindu militant group in Orissa state for the
burning of Graham Staines and his 2 sons.
(SFC, 1/25/99, p.A7)
2000 Jan 24, In the Iowa Caucuses
Vice Pres. Al Gore won over Bill Bradley 63 to 35%; Texas Gov. George
W. Bush won over Steve Forbes 41 to 30%.
(SFC, 1/25/00, p.A1)
2000 Jan 24, The US Supreme Court
upheld a Missouri law that limited contributions to candidates for
statewide office.
(SFC, 1/25/00, p.A1)
2000 Jan 24, Stanislav Lunev, a
former Soviet spy, testified at a congressional hearing that Soviet
operatives had placed weapons and communications caches in California
and other states during and after the Cold War to destabilize the US in
the event of war.
(SFC, 1/25/00, p.A4)
2000 Jan 24, Pres. Kabila met with
other African presidents at the UN to end the Congo civil war. Kabila
demanded that the UN deploy a peace-keeping force to monitor the truce.
(SFC, 1/25/00, p.A10)
2000 Jan 24, In Croatia 42% of
voters chose Stipe Mesic for president and 28% chose Drazen Budisa. A
runoff was set for Feb 7.
(SFC, 1/25/00, p.A11)
2000 Jan 24, In Sudan Pres. Omar
el-Bashir reappointed an entirely new government. He fired 10
ministers, disbanded 2 ministries and appointed 25 new state governors.
(SFC, 1/25/00, p.A12)
2000 Jan 24, In Thailand security
forces stormed a hospital and ended a 22-hour standoff with Burmese
guerrillas. 10 rebels of the "God's Army" were reported killed. The
hostage-takers were executed after surrendering to security forces.
(SFC, 1/25/00, p.A10)(SFC, 1/27/00, p.A12)
2000 Jan 24, In Uganda members of
the Karamojong tribe attacked and killed 14-100 herders from Kenya's
Pokot tribe in the northern Moriat Hills.
(SFC, 1/28/00, p.A15)
2001 Jan 24, In California the
state received bids for long-term electricity contracts in an auction
to help ease the energy crises.
(SFC, 1/25/01, p.A1)
2001 Jan 24, The last two of seven
escaped convicts from Texas were captured in Colorado after 42 days on
the run; four others were captured earlier, and one committed suicide.
(AP, 1/24/02)
2001 Jan 24, Lucent Technologies
said it would eliminate up to 16,000 jobs.
(AP, 1/24/02)
2001 Jan 24, In Chechnya 14
Russian soldiers were killed.
(WSJ, 1/25/01, p.A1)
2001 Jan 24, The Chinese lunar
calendar marked this as the new year, 4699, Year of the Snake. It is
celebrated in Vietnam as Tet and in Korea as Solnol.
(SSFC, 1/28/01, p.CN3)(SSFC, 2/4/01, p.B1)
2002 Jan 24, A House committee
opened hearings into the collapse of energy giant Enron Corp. Officials
of Enron's accounting firm, Arthur Andersen, claimed fired auditor
David Duncan was solely responsible for the massive destruction of
Enron documents; Duncan refused to answer questions, invoking the Fifth
Amendment.
(AP, 1/24/03)
2002 Jan 24, The US imposed
sanctions on 3 Chinese entities accused of giving chemical and
biological arms technology to Iran.
(WSJ, 1/25/02, p.A1)
2002 Jan 24, John Walker Lindh,
the so-called "American Taliban," made his first court appearance in
suburban Washington D.C.
(AP, 1/24/03)
2002 Jan 24, In Juneau, Alaska,
Joseph Frederick (18) displayed a banner reading “Bong Hits 4 Jesus” as
the Olympic torch passed by. The head teacher at his high school
suspended him and Frederick sued in return. The case moved up to the US
Supreme Court. In 2007 the US Supreme Court ruled 5-3 that schools may
punish youths for statements that might promote drug use.
(Econ, 3/24/07, p.35)(SFC, 6/26/07, p.A8)
2002 Jan 24, The Florida state
pension fund reported a $325 million loss from the demise of Enron. The
Univ. of California reported a $145 million loss.
(SFC, 1/25/02, p.A24)
2002 Jan 24, In Missouri a mobile
home fire killed 7 people.
(SFC, 1/25/02, p.A3)
2002 Jan 24, Argentina approved a
law allowing the Central Bank to print nearly $13 billion in new
money to help pay salaries and bills as citizens protested over their
frozen accounts.
(SFC, 1/25/02, p.A15)
2002 Jan 24, In Australia some 200
mainly Afghan asylum seekers continued their hunger strike for a 10th
day in Woomera. Some had sewn their lips together. Australia resumed
processing asylum applications following a mass suicide attempt.
(SFC, 1/25/02, p.A15)(WSJ, 1/25/02, p.A1)
2002 Jan 24, India tested an
intermediate-range Agni-II missile over the Bay of Bengal.
(SFC, 1/25/02, p.A15)
2002 Jan 24, Israeli troops killed
a Palestinian intelligence officer and 2 others died in what looked
like a failed suicide mission.
(WSJ, 1/25/02, p.A1)
2002 Jan 24, In Beirut, Lebanon, a
car bomb killed Elie Hobeika and three others. Hobeika, a former
Christian militia chieftain, led a 1982 massacre of Palestinian
refugees in the Sabra and Chatilla camps. He had recently agreed to
testify against Israeli PM Ariel Sharon in connection with the
massacre. Lebanese for a Free and Independent Lebanon claimed
responsibility for the car bomb.
(SFC, 1/25/02, p.A10)
2002 Jan 24, In Pakistan Pres.
Musharraf announced legislative elections for October.
(SFC, 1/25/02, p.A14)
2003 Jan 24, The US Department of
Homeland Security under Tom Ridge became the government's 15th Cabinet
department.
(AP, 1/24/03)
2003 Jan 24, The Bush
administration's smallpox vaccine program was launched in Connecticut
with 4 doctors getting shots.
(SFC, 1/25/03, p.A4)(WSJ, 1/27/03, p.A1)
2003 Jan 24, American warplanes
bombed an Iraqi air defense site, the 12th strike in the southern
flight interdiction zone this month.
(AP, 1/24/03)
2003 Jan 24, The IMF approved a
$6.78 billion land package to Argentina.
(SFC, 1/25/03, p.A5)
2003 Jan 24, Czech lawmakers
failed for a 2nd time to pick a successor to pres. Havel.
(WSJ, 1/27/03, p.A1)
2003 Jan 24, In Prague, former
Communist Interior Minister Jaromir Obzina (73) died of cancer. In 2001
Obzina was charged with abuse of power for his role in an operation
aimed to crush political dissent between 1978 and 1984. The "Asanace"
(Sanitation) program focused on some 50 dissidents, signatories of the
Charter 77 human rights manifesto, resorting to threats and harsh
interrogations to intimidate them and force them to leave the country.
(AP, 1/29/03)
2003 Jan 24, In Haiti thousands of
business leaders, taxi drivers and doctors held a general strike,
clamoring for a better life in the poor nation.
(AP, 1/24/03)
2003 Jan 24, Israeli soldiers
killed at least 12 Palestinians as helicopter gunships hit Gaza City
with 11 missiles.
(SFC, 1/25/03, p.A5)(SSFC, 1/26/03, p.A16)
2003 Jan 24, Giovanni Agnelli
(81), the patriarch of the Fiat auto company, died in Turin after a
months-long illness.
(AP, 1/24/03)
2003 Jan 24, Ivory Coast
negotiators, trying to end a four-month-old civil war, reached a draft
peace settlement.
(AP, 1/24/03)
2003 Jan 24, A plane carrying
members of Kenya's new government crashed, killing one minister, two
pilots and injuring at least three other members of the government.
(AP, 1/24/03)
2003 Jan 24, In Spain police
arrested 16 suspected al-Qaida terrorists.
(AP, 1/24/03)
2004 Jan 24, Howard Dean sharply
questioned John Kerry's judgment on Iraq as Democratic presidential
rivals raced through a final weekend of campaigning before the New
Hampshire primary.
(AP, 1/24/05)
2004 Jan 24, NASA's Opportunity
rover landed on Mars, arriving at the Red Planet exactly three weeks
after its identical twin's landing.
(AP, 1/24/05)
2004 Jan 24, A car bomb exploded
in Khaldiya, a town west of Baghdad, killing three American soldiers
and injuring six soldiers and several Iraqi civilians. A series of
bombings killed 5 U.S. soldiers in the Sunni Triangle.
(AP, 1/25/04)(WSJ, 2/13/04, p.A1)
2004 Jan 24, Israeli officials
said they would release over 400 Arab prisoners in a swap with
Lebanon's Hezbollah guerrilla group.
(SSFC, 1/25/04, p.A3)
2004 Jan 24, Israeli troops shot
to death two Palestinian militants who entered an unauthorized military
zone near a security barrier separating Gaza from Israel.
(AP, 1/24/04)
2004 Jan 24, Qatar signed a $2.5
billion deal with Bechtel to begin construction of a new airport near
Doha.
(SFC, 1/27/04, p.B1)
2004 Jan 24, Some 2,000 opponents
of the World Economic Forum marched in Davos, Switz., to protest the
meeting, which they say is elitist and does nothing for ordinary people.
(AP, 1/24/04)
2004 Jan 24, In Bangkok, Thailand,
a world record for a mass jump was set by 672 skydivers from 42
countries who leaped from six aircraft.
(AP, 1/25/04)
2005 Jan 24, Jeffrey Royer, former
FBI agent, and Anthony Elgindy, Internet penny stock advisor, were
convicted for mining government computers for confidential information
to manipulate stocks.
(SFC, 1/25/05,
p.E3)(http://asensioexposed.com/elgindytrial.htm)
2005 Jan 24, China's vice
president expressed a strong desire to increase economic and diplomatic
cooperation with Mexico while meeting with Mexican lawmakers.
(AP, 1/24/05)
2005 Jan 24, China and India
opened a first round of "strategic dialogue", as their regional and
international influence surges despite a nagging border dispute.
(AFP, 1/24/05)
2005 Jan 24, In India P. Ravindra,
former state minister and TDP leader, was gunned down outside the party
office in Anantpur town. Mobs torched nearly 100 state-run buses and
hurled stones at government buildings in Andhra Pradesh after an
opposition politician was shot dead.
(AP, 1/24/05)
2005 Jan 24, A suicide driver
detonated a car bomb outside the prime minister's party headquarters,
injuring at least 10 people in a blast claimed by the al-Qaida
affiliate in Iraq.
(AP, 1/24/05)
2005 Jan 24, Authorities in Iraq
said Sami Mohammed Ali Said al-Jaaf, an al-Qaida lieutenant in custody,
had confessed to masterminding most of the car bombings in Baghdad.
(AP, 1/24/06)
2005 Jan 24, Militant groups have
agreed to suspend attacks as they near a formal truce deal with
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and await Israel's response.
(AP, 1/24/05)
2005 Jan 24, In Thailand a tourist
boat returning from Pa Ngan island capsized and at least 7 people were
dead. Another 20 were missing.
(WSJ, 1/25/05, p.A1)
2005 Jan 24, Ukraine President
Viktor Yushchenko, visiting Moscow on a trip to mend relations after a
bitter election campaign, appointed top ally Yulia Tymoshenko as prime
minister.
(AP, 1/24/05)
2005 Jan 24, The United Nations
broke with years of protocol and commemorated the 60-year anniversary
of the liberation of the Nazi death camps, directly linking its own
founding with the end of the Holocaust in some of the strongest
language ever.
(AP, 1/24/06)
2006 Jan 24, US Supreme Court
nominee Samuel Alito won a 10-8 party-line approval from the Senate
Judiciary Committee.
(AP, 1/24/07)
2006 Jan 24, A US coalition of
electric utilities kicked off a national campaign to push auto makers
to make plug-in hybrids. UC Prof. Andrew Frank began configuring
electric motors with rechargeable batteries and small gasoline engines
in the 1990s.
(WSJ, 1/25/06, p.A4)
2006 Jan 24, Disney announced that
it had agreed to acquire Pixar Animation Studios in a stock deal valued
at $7.4 billion.
(http://tinyurl.com/af74n)
2006 Jan 24, FedEx Corp. said it
would take over local distribution from its Chinese joint-venture
partner DTW Group in a $400 million buyout.
(WSJ, 1/25/06, p.A2)
2006 Jan 24, Fayard Nicholas
(b.1914), the elder half of the Nicholas Brothers tap dancing duo, died
in Los Angeles. The story of the dancing brothers was chronicled in the
2000 book “Brotherhood in Rhythm” by Constance Valis Hill.
(SSFC, 1/29/06,
p.B7)(news.independent.co.uk/people/obituaries/article341244.ece)
2006 Jan 24, Character actor Chris
Penn, younger brother of Oscar-winner Sean Penn, was found dead at an
apartment near the Pacific Ocean in the Los Angeles suburb of Santa
Monica.
(AP, 1/25/06)
2006 Jan 24, Officials said 4
people were killed in Carlsbad, Ca., when a twin-engine plane from
Idaho skidded off an airport runway and burst into flames.
(AP, 1/24/06)
2006 Jan 24, At least 10 men in
Mexican military-style uniforms crossed the Rio Grande into the United
States on a marijuana-smuggling foray, leading to an armed
confrontation with Texas law officers near Neely's Crossing, Texas. The
three sport utility vehicles made a quick U-turn and headed south
toward the border, a few miles away.
(AP, 9/6/09)
2006 Jan 24, Vienna's subway
tracks cracked, German authorities shut a key canal to ships after it
iced up, and a zoo moved its penguins indoors as a deadly deep freeze
tightened its arctic grip on much of Europe.
(AP, 1/24/06)
2006 Jan 24, In Brazil rebellious
inmates ended a one-day prison uprising in the remote jungle state of
Rondonia that left four dead.
(AP, 1/24/06)
2006 Jan 24, The British
government unveiled a plan to put one million of the 2.7 million people
on incapacity benefits back to work within the next decade, saving huge
sums of taxpayers' money.
(AFP, 1/24/06)
2006 Jan 24, China shut down Bing
Dian, a newspaper supplement known for its in-depth reporting on
sensitive issues, the latest measure by the communist government to
tighten control over the media.
(AP, 1/25/06)(Econ, 2/4/06, p.39)
2006 Jan 24, Fidel Castro accused
the US of seeking to rupture the minimum remaining diplomatic ties with
his country, addressing tens of thousands of Cubans before starting a
march outside the American mission in Havana.
(AP, 1/24/06)
2006 Jan 24, Shafik Handal (75),
leader of the Salvadoran left, died of a heart attack in San Salvador.
The ex-guerrilla commander had fought US-backed troops during the
country's 12-year civil war.
(AP, 1/24/06)
2006 Jan 24, Georgia’s energy
minister said Iran has expressed a readiness to export natural gas to
Georgia to make up for a sharp drop in Russian deliveries.
(AP, 1/24/06)
2006 Jan 24, In Germany automaker
DaimlerChrysler AG said that it would cut administrative staff by 20
percent worldwide over three years, dropping 6,000 jobs in order to
save some $1.2 billion a year and make the company leaner and more
profitable.
(AP, 1/24/06)
2006 Jan 24, India's central bank
raised short-term borrowing rate a quarter percent point to 5.5
percent, citing fears of inflation amid strong economic growth.
(AP, 1/24/06)
2006 Jan 24, In Iran 2 bombs
exploded in a bank and outside a government building in Ahvaz, a
southwestern city with a history of violence involving members of
Iran's Arab minority. 6 people were killed and 46 others wounded. A Web
site claiming to represent Arab secessionists in the Ahvaz region said
they carried out the attack. On June 8 a court found 9 defendants to be
enemies of God, and sentenced them to death. 15 other defendants
received sentences ranging from seven to 30 years in prison. In July
Iran's Supreme Court confirmed death sentences for five Iranian Arab
separatists convicted for the bombings.
(AP, 1/24/06)(AP, 6/28/06)(AP, 7/30/06)
2006 Jan 24, In northern Iraq
gunmen wearing Iraqi army uniforms kidnapped two German engineers. Both
were later released. British troops detained several police officers
among more than a dozen people linked to a series of killings, bombings
and kidnappings in the southern city of Basra. US Marines and Iraqi
soldiers killed 7 insurgents in Ramadi. Mahmoud Zaal (30), a cameraman
for the Baghdad TV network, was mistaken for a combatant and killed by
Marine fire.
(AP, 1/24/06)(SFC, 1/26/06, p.A10)
2006 Jan 24, Biotechnology company
Amgen Inc. said it will build a manufacturing plant in Ireland to
supply its growing European customer base.
(AP, 1/24/06)
2006 Jan 24, Japan launched the
leading rocket in its space program for the first time in nearly a
year, putting into orbit one of the world's largest land observation
satellites to monitor natural disasters.
(AP, 1/24/06)
2006 Jan 24, Kuwait’s Parliament
voted unanimously to oust the ailing emir, ending a nine-day leadership
crisis by temporarily handing power to the Cabinet headed by PM Sheik
Sabah Al Ahmed Al Sabah.
(AP, 1/24/06)
2006 Jan 24, A Mexican government
commission said it will distribute at least 70,000 maps showing
highways, rescue beacons and water tanks in the Arizona desert to curb
the death toll among illegal border crossers.
(AP, 1/24/06)
2006 Jan 24, In Mongolia some
1,000 protesters gathered in Ulan Bator, calling for the resignation of
the president and an end to corruption.
(AP, 1/24/06)
2006 Jan 24, In Kathmandu, Nepal,
police fired tear gas and beat pro-democracy activists with batons,
hours after authorities lifted a ban on demonstrations. Communist
rebels fighting to topple Nepal's monarchy staged a major assault on
Nepalgunj, a western border town, that left at least eight people dead,
but security forces repulsed the insurgents.
(AP, 1/24/06)(AP, 1/25/06)
2006 Jan 24, In Port Harcourt,
Nigeria, an armed gang dressed in police uniform attacked the offices
of Agip oil company, a unit of Italy's ENI, and at least 9 people were
killed.
(AP, 1/24/06)
2006 Jan 24, Palestinian gunmen in
Nablus linked to the ruling Fatah movement killed Abu Ahmed Hassouna
(44), one of their party leaders, increasing tensions on the eve of
parliamentary balloting.
(AP, 1/24/06)
2006 Jan 24, A government
spokesman said Sudan has withdrawn from the competition to lead the
African Union amid criticism of its human rights record. Diplomats said
the presidency would go to the Republic of Congo.
(AP, 1/24/06)
2006 Jan 24, In Venezuela
activists gathering for the six-day World Social Forum in Caracas. 2
other gatherings were set in Mali and Pakistan. The World Social Forum
was first held in Brazil in 2001 and coincides each year with the
market-friendly World Economic Forum of political and business leaders
in Davos, Switzerland.
(AP, 1/24/06)(SFC, 1/24/06, p.A2)
2007 Jan 24, The
Democratic-controlled Senate Foreign Relations Committee dismissed
President Bush's plans for a troop buildup in Iraq as "not in the
national interest" of the United States.
(AP, 1/24/08)
2007 Jan 24, Ecuador's first
female defense minister died in a collision of two helicopters that
also killed her daughter and five members of the military.
(AP, 1/25/07)
2007 Jan 24, Egyptian security
forces arrested seven members of the banned Muslim Brotherhood north of
Cairo in a widening crackdown on the country's largest opposition
movement.
(AP, 1/24/07)
2007 Jan 24, Jean-Francois Deniau
(b.1928), a former French government minister, diplomat, sailor and
novelist, died. His novel "Un Hero Tres Discret" (A Very Discreet Hero)
told of an ordinary man who reinvented himself as a hero of the World
War II Resistance. The book was adapted into a movie by director
Jacques Audiard and given the English-language title "A Self Made Hero."
(AP, 1/24/07)
2007 Jan 24, In Haiti UN troops
traded gunfire with armed gangs after seizing an abandoned primary
school that had been used to stage attacks on the peacekeepers.
Witnesses said one person died and five were injured.
(AP, 1/25/07)
2007 Jan 24, India and Russia
agreed two arms deals meant to bring bilateral military ties into a new
era, a day before Russian President Vladimir Putin's arrival for a
two-day summit.
(AP, 1/24/07)
2007 Jan 24, In India some 18,000
rickshaw operators went on strike in Kolkata to protest a ban on
rickshaws by the Communist government of West Bengal.
(Econ, 2/3/07, p.43)
2007 Jan 24, Iraqi and US troops
clashed with gunmen in a Sunni insurgent stronghold north of the
heavily fortified Green Zone. As many as 30 militants were killed and
27 captured.
(AP, 1/24/07)
2007 Jan 24, Israeli President
Moshe Katsav, facing charges of rape and abuse of power, asked
parliament to temporarily remove him from office in an effort to blunt
growing calls for his resignation. Israeli troops shot dead a
Palestinian and arrested two others, as the men tried to sneak into
Israel from the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 1/24/07)
2007 Jan 24, A study released
about the trade in Malaysia found that catches of some grouper species
and the endangered Napoleon wrasse fell by as much as 99% between 1995
to 2003, a period coinciding with soaring economic growth in countries
where the exotic fish are a delicacy.
(AP, 1/24/07)
2007 Jan 24, In southern Mexico a
bus plunged into a ravine in remote mountains, killing at least 29
people.
(AP, 1/25/07)
2007 Jan 24, Nicaraguan lawmakers
approved a bill backed by President Daniel Ortega to create "people's
councils" that some fear will resemble the defense committees that
operated under the Sandinista government of the 1980s.
(AP, 1/24/07)
2007 Jan 24, In Somalia gunmen
launched several mortars at Mogadishu International Airport, killing at
least two people and wounding several others.
(AP, 1/24/07)
2007 Jan 24, A hijacker seized a
Sudanese passenger plane carrying 103 people and forced the pilot to
fly to the Chadian capital, N'Djamena, where he surrendered. The gunman
wanted the plane to be flown to Britain but when told there was
insufficient fuel agreed to go to the capital of neighbouring Chad. He
said he wanted to draw attention to the Darfur conflict.
(AP, 1/24/07)
2007 Jan 24, Some 2,400 registered
participants gathered at Davos, Switzerland, for the 4-day World
Economic Forum, whose theme this year was: "The Shifting Power
Equation."
(AP, 1/24/07)
2008 Jan 24, US Democratic and
Republican congressional leaders reached a tentative deal on tax
rebates of $300 to $1,200 per household and business tax cuts to jolt
the slumping economy.
(AP, 1/24/08)
2008 Jan 24, Colorado’s House of
Representatives voted 62-1 to censure Rep. Douglas Bruce, who kicked a
newspaper reported taking his picture and refused to apologize.
(SFC, 1/25/08, p.A4)
2008 Jan 24, Dennis Kucinich
(b.1946), US Congressmen for Ohio, announced that he is dropping his
long-shot bid for president.
(WSJ, 1/25/08, p.A1)
2008 Jan 24, Sergei Tretyakov
(51), a former Russian spy who had never spoken out about his spying
before this week, granted his first news media interviews to publicize
the book: "Comrade J.: The Untold Secrets of Russia's Master Spy in
America after the End of the Cold War," by former Washington Post
journalist Pete Earley, which was published on this day. Tretyakov said
his agents helped the Russian government steal nearly $500 million from
the UN's oil-for-food program in Iraq before the fall of Saddam Hussein
in 2003.
(AP, 1/26/08)
2008 Jan 24, Doctors said they
have developed a technique that could free many patients from having to
take anti-rejection drugs for the rest of their lives. The treatment
involved weakening the patient's immune system, then giving the
recipient bone marrow from the person who donated the organ.
(AP, 1/24/08)
2008 Jan 24, Researchers at the J.
Craig Venter Institute of Rockville, Md., reported that they have built
from scratch a synthetic chromosome containing all the genetic material
needed to produce the bacterium Mycoplasma genitalium, the tiniest
bacteria ever found.
(SFC, 1/25/08, p.A1)(Econ, 1/26/08, p.76)
2008 Jan 24, In central
Afghanistan 9 Afghan policemen were killed during an anti-Taliban
operation by US-led coalition troops in Ghazni. Afghan police said the
police appeared to have been killed by the US airstrikes, which also
destroyed several houses.
(AP, 1/24/08)
2008 Jan 24, Doctors said an
Australian girl spontaneously switched blood groups and adopted her
donor's immune system following a liver transplant in the first known
case of its type. Demi-Lee Brennan was aged nine and seriously ill with
liver failure when she received the transplant. Nine months later it
was discovered that she had changed blood types and her immune system
had switched over to that of the donor after stem cells from the new
liver migrated to her bone marrow. She was now a healthy 15-year-old.
(AFP, 1/24/08)
2008 Jan 24, In Brazil government
officials held a top-level emergency meeting to deal with the problem
of Amazon deforestation. Satellite images showed that as much as 2,700
square miles of land was cleared during the last five months of 2007.
All logging was banned in 36 municipalities and fines stiffened for
illegal cutting.
(AP, 1/24/08)(SFC, 3/22/08, p.A3)
2008 Jan 24, In Britain almost two
dozen Romanians were arrested after police swooped on a child slave
gang.
(Reuters, 1/24/08)
2008 Jan 24, In China protesters
staged a rare public demonstration in Beijing over what they said were
illegal property seizures and compensation packages that fell far short
of that needed to buy new homes. Authorities said sulfuric acid had
leaked into the water supply from a chemical factory in central China,
poisoning at least 26 villagers.
(AP, 1/24/08)
2008 Jan 24, French bank Societe
Generale announced a $3 billion write-down on its exposure to mortgage
related investments. Societe Generale also said it has uncovered a
$7.14 billion fraud, one of history's biggest, by futures trader Jerome
Kerviel (31). His scheme of fictitious transactions was discovered as
stock markets began to stumble in recent days.
(Econ, 1/26/08, p.73)(AP, 1/24/08)
2008 Jan 24, A German court
convicted Redouane El Habhab (38), a German of Moroccan heritage, of
helping al-Qaida in Iraq and sentenced him to nearly six years in
prison.
(AP, 1/25/08)
2008 Jan 24, Iran received a sixth
shipment of nuclear fuel from Russia, destined for a power plant being
constructed in the southern port of Bushehr.
(AP, 1/24/08)
2008 Jan 24, A suicide bomber
killed Brig. Gen. Salah Mohammed al-Jubouri, the director of police for
Ninevah province, and two other officers after they toured the site of
the wreckage of a blast a day earlier that devastated a predominantly
Sunni neighborhood in the northern city of Mosul. A roadside bomb also
struck a police patrol in central Baghdad, killing two officers and
injuring two, along with 3 civilians. In Karbala a roadside bomb
targeted a senior aide of Iraq's Shiite spiritual leader Grand
Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. The aide, Abdul-Mahdi al-Karbalai, escaped
with a wound to the arm, but two of his bodyguards were killed and two
were wounded.
(AP, 1/24/08)(AP, 1/25/08)
2008 Jan 24, A top Israeli defense
official said that Israel wants to relinquish all responsibility for
the Gaza Strip, including the supply of electricity and water, now that
the territory's southern border with Egypt has been opened.
(AP, 1/24/08)
2008 Jan 24, In Italy Premier
Romano Prodi resigned after the Senate voted 161-156 to sink his
20-month-old center-left coalition in a fiery session in which one
senator was spat on, fainted and was carried out on a stretcher.
(AP, 1/25/08)
2008 Jan 24, Japan's national
police, facing allegations that officers regularly squeeze confessions
from suspects with abuse, issued guidelines for the first time setting
limits on how far they can go in questioning sessions.
(AP, 1/24/08)
2008 Jan 24, In Kenya Pres. Kibaki
and Opposition leader Odinga talked for the first time since the
election, but the president angered the opposition by insisting after
the hour-long meeting, mediated by former UN Secretary-General Kofi
Annan, that his position as head of state was not negotiable.
(AP, 1/25/08)
2008 Jan 24, Pakistani troops
backed by tanks and gunships cleared militant hideouts near the Afghan
border in a major offensive that left ten soldiers and 40 rebels dead.
(AP, 1/24/08)
2008 Jan 24, Two Palestinians
infiltrated a religious seminary and attacked students in a West Bank
settlement before being shot dead. Palestinian gunmen killed an Israeli
police officer near Jerusalem.
(AP, 1/24/08)
2008 Jan 24, Russian election
officials said Mikhail Kasyanov, the only liberal Kremlin critic in the
presidential race, stands to be kept off the ballot because tens of
thousands of signatures on his nominating petitions were forgeries. In
Moscow Semyon Mogilevich, a businessman wanted by Interpol, was
arrested on tax evasion charges.
(AP, 1/24/08)(Econ, 3/15/08, p.73)
2008 Jan 24, In Sri Lanka 16
victims of what appeared to have been execution-style killings were
found by villagers in a district 206 km (130 miles) north of the
capital Colombo.
(AFP, 1/25/08)
2008 Jan 24, In Davos,
Switzerland, fears of world recession briefly took a back seat at the
World Economic Forum, where leaders from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq
focused on how to establish security in their volatile regions. Afghan
Pres. Karzai stressed how extremists used economic exploitation to
recruit bombers.
(AP, 1/24/08)(AFP, 1/24/08)
2008 Jan 24, In Switzerland the
country's supreme court said prosecutors acted within the law when they
froze funds belonging to the Russian central bank at the behest of a
Swiss firm. The funds were frozen over a legal dispute with
Geneva-based trading firm Noga dating back to the end of the Soviet era.
(AP, 1/24/08)
2008 Jan 24, Taiwan's Premier
Chang Chun-hsiung and his cabinet resigned en masse, less than two
weeks after the governing Democratic Progressive Party's crushing
defeat in parliamentary elections.
(AP, 1/24/08)
2008 Jan 24, In southern Thailand
Muslim militants fatally shot a Buddhist teacher as he pulled out of
his driveway to head to work.
(AP, 1/24/08)
2008 Jan 24, Turkey's
Islamist-rooted ruling AK Party and a key opposition party agreed to
cooperate to lift a ban on the wearing of the Islamic headscarf in
universities, a move sure to anger the secular elite.
(AP, 1/24/08)
2008 Jan 24, Zimbabwean police
arrested Nicholas van Hoogstraten (63), a British businessman, after
finding a large quantity of foreign currency and alleged pornographic
material in his possession. In 2002 the multi-millionaire was convicted
of the manslaughter of an associate and was sentenced to ten years
imprisonment but the conviction was quashed the following year and he
was freed. On Jan 29 a Zimbabwe court ordered his release.
(AFP, 1/26/08)(AFP, 1/29/08)
2009 Jan 24, President Barack
Obama took to the airwaves to promote his economic aid plan in
what's-it-mean-to-me terms: thousands of better schools, lower
electricity bills, health coverage for millions who lose insurance.
(AP, 1/24/09)
2009 Jan 24, In Las Vegas Miss
Indiana Katie Stam was crowned Miss America 2009 by Miss America 2008
Kirsten Haglund.
(AP, 1/25/09)
2009 Jan 24, In Kansas two people
were killed and seven wounded in a shooting on the ninth day of the
wake at a house in Wichita.
(AP, 1/25/09)
2009 Jan 24, In eastern
Afghanistan US-led coalition forces killed 15 militants in an overnight
operation in Laghman province. Local legislators put the number of dead
at more than 20 and said they included women and children.
(AP, 1/24/09)
2009 Jan 24, Bahamas Sen. Pleasant
Bridgewater, accused of trying to extort money from actor John Travolta
after his son's death, resigned and vowed to prove her innocence.
(AP, 1/24/09)
2009 Jan 24, Mariana Bridi (20),
Brazilian model, died from complications related to a generalized
infection caused by the bacteria Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The bacteria
is known to be resistant to multiple kinds of antibiotics. The
infection reduced the flow of oxygen to her limbs, causing her feet to
be amputated last week and her hands this week.
(AP, 1/24/09)
2009 Jan 24, China announced the
death of a 31-year-old woman from bird flu, its fourth human victim
this year, sparking fears of an outbreak during the country's main
festive season.
(AFP, 1/24/09)
2009 Jan 24, In El Salvador final
results showed that the former leftist rebels won more seats than any
other party in legislative elections but fell short of a majority.
(AP, 1/24/09)
2009 Jan 24, In India a right-wing
Hindu nationalist group, outraged by what they viewed as "obscene"
behavior, stormed a fashionable bar in the southern city of Mangalore
and the assaulted female patrons. The Sri Ram Sena (Lord Ram's Army)
claimed responsibility for the attack.
(AFP, 1/31/09)
2009 Jan 24, In Iraq a suicide car
bomber struck a police patrol in the former insurgent stronghold of
Karmah west of Baghdad, killing four people, including a senior
officer, and wounding six others. Gunmen opened fire on a checkpoint
south of the capital manned by government-backed Sunni fighters who
have joined forces with the Americans against al-Qaida in Iraq. Two of
the so-called Sons of Iraq were killed in the attack in Jurf al-Sakr
and two others were wounded. North of Baghdad a man and a woman were
killed and a child was wounded during a US-Iraqi military operation in
Hawija.
(AP, 1/24/09)
2009 Jan 24, In Italy some 600
migrants and refugees broke out of an overcrowded immigration facility
on the Sicilian island of Lampedusa to protest their treatment. The
migrants returned to the facility after several hours.
(AP, 1/24/09)
2009 Jan 24, Pakistan urged
President Barack Obama to halt US missile strikes on al-Qaida
strongholds near the Afghan border, saying that civilians were killed
the previous day in the first attacks since Obama's inauguration.
(AP, 1/24/09)
2009 Jan 24, In Singapore a couple
treated open air diners to a 15-minute naked parade, triggering both
embarrassment and applause for a scene almost unheard of in the
conservative city-state. The couple, a Caucasian man and an ethnic
Chinese woman in their 20s, were arrested and released on bail.
(Reuters, 1/28/09)
2009 Jan 24, In Somalia 17 people
were killed in Mogadishu by a suicide car bomb targeting African Union
peacekeepers. The dead included a police officer, who tried to stop the
suicide bomber’s car. A gunfight between peacekeepers and insurgents
followed left 5 more dead.
(AFP, 1/24/09)(AFP, 1/26/09)
2009 Jan 24, In South Korea Kang
Ho-sun (38) was arrested at his workplace in Ansan, a city about 20
miles (30 kilometers) south of Seoul, in connection with the killing of
a student who disappeared last month. Her body was found in a nearby
town the next day. Kang later confessed to kidnapping and killing the
student and then admitted to slaying six other women between December
2006 and December 2008.
(AP, 1/30/09)
2009 Jan 24, A storm killed 11
people in Spain, including four children who were killed when a sports
center collapsed near Barcelona, and four in France as high winds swept
across Spain and southern France.
(AP, 1/24/09)(AP, 1/25/09)
2009 Jan 24, Sudanese government
planes bombed a key town in south Darfur, a week after it was seized by
Darfuri JEM rebels. The next day peacekeepers said the bomb attack
killed and wounded civilians.
(Reuters, 1/24/09)(Reuters, 1/25/09)
2009 Jan 24, Pope Benedict
rehabilitated four traditionalist bishops who lead the far-right
Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX), which has about 600,000 members and
rejects modernizations of Roman Catholic worship and doctrine. One of
the four, British-born Richard Williamson, has made statements denying
the full extent of the Nazi Holocaust of European Jews, as accepted by
mainstream historians.
(Reuters, 1/26/09)
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