Today in History - January 31
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1141 Jan 31, Pope
Innocent II authorized Bishop Henry of Moravia to preach Catholicism in
Prussia.
(LHC, 1/31/03)
1560 Jan 31, Spanish king Philip
II married Elisabeth de Valois.
(MC, 1/31/02)
1573 Jan 31, Giulio Cesare
Monteverdi, composer, was born.
(MC, 1/31/02)
1606 Jan 31, Guy Fawkes
(35), convicted for his part in the "Gunpowder Plot" against the
English Parliament and King James I, was hanged, drawn and quartered.
(AP, 1/31/98)(HN, 1/31/99)
1620 Jan 31, Virginia
colony leaders wrote to the Virginia Company in England, asking for
more orphaned apprentices for employment.
(HN, 1/31/99)
1675 Jan 31, Cornelia Dina
Olfaarts was found not guilty of witchcraft.
(MC, 1/31/02)
1679 Jan 31, Jean-Baptiste Lully's
opera "Bellerophon" premiered in Paris.
(MC, 1/31/02)
1696 Jan 31, An uprising of
undertakers took place after funeral reforms in Amsterdam.
(MC, 1/31/02)
1734 Jan 31, Julien-Amable
Mathieu, composer, was born.
(MC, 1/31/02)
1734 Jan 31, Robert Morris,
Declaration of Independence signer, was born.
(HN, 1/31/99)
1759 Jan 31, Francois Devienne,
composer, was born.
(MC, 1/31/02)
1788 Jan 31, Charles Edward
Stuart (67), The Young Pretender, died.
(HN, 1/31/99)(MC, 1/31/02)
1797 Jan 31, Franz
Schubert, Austrian composer, was born in Lichtenthal, Austria. His
works included the C Major Symphony and The Unfinished Symphony.
(SFEC, 1/5/97, p.B11)(AP, 1/31/98)(HN,
1/31/99)(MC, 1/31/02)
1804 Jan 31, British vice-admiral
William Bligh (of HMS Bounty infamy) fleet reached Curacao (Antilles).
(MC, 1/31/02)
1828 Jan 31, Alexandros Ypsilanti
(35), Greek resistance fighter, died.
(MC, 1/31/02)
1835 Jan 31, Richard Lawrence
misfired at President Andrew Jackson (aka 'Old Hickory') at the White
House. Lawrence fired 2 pistols at Pres. Andrew Jackson during funeral
services for Rep. Warren Davis. Jackson wasn’t hit and Lawrence, who
thought he was the king of England and that Jackson owed him money, was
found to be insane.
(SFC, 7/25/98, p.A6)(HN, 1/31/99)(SFC, 2/5/00, p.B3)
1851 Jan 31, Gail Borden announced
the invention of evaporated milk.
(MC, 1/31/02)
1863 Jan 31, The 1st South
Carolina Volunteers, later called the 33rd U.S. Colored Troops was
officially recognized. Components of the regiment had been in training
since early 1962.
(Smith., 4/95, p.14)(MC, 1/31/02)
1865 Jan 31, The House of
Representatives approved a constitutional amendment (121-24) abolishing
slavery. It would become the 13th amendment to the US Constitution. It
was ratified on December 6.
(www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/13thamendment.html)(WSJ, 7/16/01,
p.A10)
1865 Jan 31, Gen. Robert E.
Lee was named general-in-chief of the Confederate armies.
(AP, 1/31/98)
1868 Jan 31, Theodore William
Richards (d.1928), chemist (atomic weights, Nobel-1914), was born.
(WUD, 1994 p.1231)(MC, 1/31/02)
1872 Jan 31, Zane Grey, American
West novelist (Riders of the Purple Sage), was born.
(MC, 1/31/02)
1874 Jan 31, Jesse James gang
robbed a train at Gads Hill, Missouri.
(MC, 1/31/02)
1882 Jan 31, Anna Pavlova,
ballerina, choreographer, was born in St. Petersburg, Russia.
(MC, 1/31/02)
1891 Jan 31, Jean-Louis-Ernest
Meissonier (b.1815), French academic painter, died. His painting
“Friedland, 1807,” begun in 1863, was completed in 1875.
(www.newadvent.org/cathen/10149a.htm)
1895 Jan 31, Jose Marti and others
left NYC for invasion of Spanish Cuba.
(MC, 1/31/02)
1900 Jan 31, Scottish peer Sir
John Sholto Douglas (56), 8th Marquis of Queensberry, died. He
supervised the formulation by John Graham chambers of the rules of
boxing, which became known as the Queensberry Rules. In 1895 Irish
writer Oscar Wilde had unsuccessfully sued the Marquis for libel
following allegations of a homosexual relationship with Queensberry’s
son Lord Alfred Douglas, allegations which ultimately led to Wilde’s
imprisonment in Reading Gaol, England.
(HC, 2003, p.64)
1901 Jan 31, Chekhov's "Three
Sisters" opened at Moscow Art Theater.
(MC, 1/31/02)
1902 Jan 31, In the US it was tax
freedom day, the day by which citizens met their financial obligations
to the government. By 1999 it had shifted to May 10.
(SFEC, 4/18/99, BR p.7)
1902 Jan 31, A French soccer team
played in England for the first time: Paris lost, 4-0, to Marlow FC.
(HC, 2003, p.64)
1905 Jan 31, John O'Hara, novelist
(Appointment at Samarra), was born in Pottsville, Penn.
(SSFC, 8/31/03, p.M2)
1911 Jan 31, The German
Reichstag exempted royal families from tax obligations.
(HN, 1/31/99)
1915 Jan 31, Thomas Merton
(d.1968), French Trappist monk, poet, essayist , was born. “A happiness
that is sought for ourselves alone can never be found; for a happiness
that is diminished by being shared is not big enough to make us happy.”
(AP, 4/17/01)(MC, 1/31/02)
1915 Jan 31, Germans used
poison gas for the 1st time on the Russians at Bolimov.
(HN, 1/31/99)(MC, 1/31/02)
1915 Jan 31, German U-boats
sank two British steamers in the English Channel.
(HN, 1/31/99)
1916 Jan 31, President
Woodrow Wilson refused the compromise on Lusitania reparations.
(HN, 1/31/99)
1917 Jan 31, Germany
resumed unlimited sub warfare, saying that all neutral ships that are
in the war zone would be attacked.
(AP, 1/31/98)(HN, 1/31/99)
1919 Jan 31, Jackie
Robinson, first black major league baseball player, was born.
(HN, 1/31/99)
1921 Jan 31, Carol Channing,
actress (Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Hello Dolly), was born.
(MC, 1/31/02)
1921 Jan 31, Mario Lanza (d.1959),
actor, singer (Great Caruso, Toast of New Orleans), was born in
Philadelphia.
(MC, 1/31/02)
1923 Jan 31, Norman Mailer
(d.2007), NYC mayoral candidate, novelist (Naked and the Dead), was
born in NJ. In 1999 Mary V. Dearborn published "Norman Mailer: A
Biography."
(SFEC, 12/26/99, BR p.7)(SSFC, 11/11/07, p.A7)
1925 Jan 31, Benjamin
Hooks, civil rights leader, was born.
(HN, 1/31/99)
1926 Jan 31, Jean Simmons, actress
(Thorn Birds, Guys and Dolls), was born in London, England.
(MC, 1/31/02)
1926 Jan 31, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU)
was established by Wahab Chasbullah with support from Hasyim Asy'ari,
the most respected Muslim scholar in East Java. By 2010 NU was one of
the largest independent Islamic organizations in the world.
(Econ, 1/9/10,
p.85)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulema)
1928 Jan 31, Scotch tape was 1st
marketed by 3-M Company.
(MC, 1/31/02)
1929 Jan 31, Leon Trotsky was
expelled from Russia to Turkey.
(WSJ, 2/29/96, p. A-14)(MC, 1/31/02)
1931 Jan 31, Leonarde Keeler
(1904-1949) was awarded a patent for his Keeler Polygraph, a device for
lie detection. In 2007 Ken Alder authored “The Lie Detectors: The
History of an American Obsession.”
(WSJ, 3/24/07,
p.P13)(www.kenalder.com/liedetectors/index.htm)
1934 Jan 31, President Roosevelt
devalued the dollar in relation to gold. He raised the price of gold to
$35. The United States Gold Reserve Act required that all gold and gold
certificates held by the Federal Reserve be surrendered and vested in
the sole title of the United States Department of the Treasury.
(AP, 1/31/00)(WSJ, 11/9/00,
p.A24)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_Reserve_Act)
1934 Jan 31, President Roosevelt
signed the Farm Mortgage Refinancing Act.
(SSFC, 1/18/09, p.D6)
1935 Jan 31, The San Francisco
emergency relief committed said there are 80,491 people on relief.
20,000 were employed, 10,000 were on direct relief and 550 were
unemployable.
(SSFC, 1/31/10, DB p.42)
1935 Jan 31, The Soviet
premier told Japan to get out of Manchuria.
(HN, 1/31/99)
1938 Jan 31, James G. Watt, US
Secretary of Interior (1981-83), was born in Colorado.
(MC, 1/31/02)
1943 Jan 31, Chile broke contact
with Germany and Japan.
(MC, 1/31/02)
1943 Jan 31, The Battle of
Stalingrad ended as small groups of German soldiers of the Sixth Army
under Gen Friedrich von Paulus surrendered to the victorious Red Army
forces.
(HN, 1/31/99)(MC, 1/31/02)
1944 Jan 31, Operation Overlord
(D-Day) was postponed until June.
(MC, 1/31/02)
1944 Jan 31, During World
War II, U.S. forces under Vice Adm. Spruance began invading Kwajalein
Atoll and other parts of the Japanese-held Marshall Islands.
(AP, 1/31/98)(HN, 1/31/99)
1944 Jan 31, U-592 sank off
Ireland.
(MC, 1/31/02)
1945 Jan 31, Private Eddie
Slovik (25) became the only U.S. soldier since the Civil War to be
executed for desertion, as he was shot by an American firing squad near
the village of Ste-Marie aux Mines, France.
(AP, 1/31/04)
1949 Jan 31, The first TV
daytime soap opera, "These Are My Children," was broadcast from the NBC
station in Chicago.
(AP, 1/31/98)
1950 Jan 31, President
Truman announced that he had ordered full-speed development of the
hydrogen bomb.
(TMC, 1994, p.1950)(AP, 1/31/98)
1950 Jan 31, Paris
protested the Soviet recognition of Ho Chi Minh's Democratic Republic
of Vietnam.
(HN, 1/31/99)
1953 Jan 31-1953 Feb 1, A powerful
storm breached sea dikes in the south of the Netherlands, killing more
than 1,800 people and cementing a deep resolve among the Dutch that
their ancient enemy, water, would never kill again. 307 people died in
eastern England.
(SSFC, 3/25/01,
p.C3)(www.metoffice.com/education/secondary/students/flood.html)
1954 Jan 31, Edwin H. Armstrong
(d.1890), US radio inventor of frequency modulation (FM), committed
suicide.
(www.britannica.com)(SSFC, 10/24/04, Par p.5)
1955 Jan 31, A document thus dated
stated that Yuri Rastvorov, a Soviet defector, told Eisenhower
administration officials in a private Jan 28 meeting that US and other
UN POWs were held in Siberia during the 1950-1953 Korean War.
(SFEC, 5/5/96, World p.1)
1955 Jan 31, RCA chairman David
Sarnoff announced the Mark I music synthesizer. Harry Olson and
Belar, both working for RCA, invented the Electronic Music Synthesizer
(aka the Olson-Belar Sound Synthesizer). This synth used sawtooth waves
that were filtered for other types of timbres. (It is rumored to have
been built for the artificial creation of human speech) This synth
became the RCA Electronic Music Synthesizer Mark I.
(www.davidsarnoff.org/04142005.htm)(www.synthmuseum.com/rca/)
1956 Jan 31, British author A.A.
Milne (74), creator of "Winnie-the-Pooh," died. He left the rights to
the honey-loving bear to five beneficiaries that included the Garrick
Club, Westminster School, The Royal Literary Fund, his own family and
illustrator E.H. Shepard.
(SFEC, 8/16/98, p.A20)(AP, 1/31/06)
1958 Jan 31, Explorer 1,
the first successful US satellite, was launched by a Jupiter-C rocket
and the United States entered the Space Age. It discovered the "Van
Allen radiation belts" around Earth named after James Van Allen. Radio
signals from the transmitter aboard the 30.8 pound satellite were
picked up in California within a few minutes after the launch. Two
months earlier, the first attempt to launch a satellite had failed.
(SFEC, 9/28/97, p.A14)(AP, 1/31/98)(SFC,
8/10/06, p.B7)
1961 Jan 31, Chimpanzee Ham landed
safely and became the 1st primate in space after a 16 minute flight
aboard a Mercury-Redstone 2 rocket.
(AH, 2/06, p.14)
1962 Jan 31, At the Eighth Meeting
of Consultation of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the OAS, held in
Punta del Este, Uruguay, ministers suspended Cuba’s membership.
(www.cidh.oas.org/countryrep/Cuba79eng/intro.htm)(Econ, 4/11/09, p.34)
1964 Jan 31, A US report, "Smoking
& Health," connected smoking to lung cancer.
(MC, 1/31/02)
1966 Jan 31, U.S. planes
resumed bombing of North Vietnam after a 37-day pause.
(HN, 1/31/99)
1966 Jan 31, The Soviets launched
Luna 9, the first spacecraft to land softly on the moon.
(HC, 2003, p.64)
1968 Jan 31, In Vietnam, the Tet
Offensive continued as Viet Cong and North Vietnamese soldiers attacked
strategic and civilian locations throughout South Vietnam. The Viet
Cong, under General Vo Nguyen Giap (b.1911), seized part of the US
embassy in Saigon for 6 hours. They attacked more than 100 cities in
South Vietnam with many US casualties. Although the Communists were
beaten back, the offensive was seen as a major setback for the US and
its allies. During the Tet Offensive, the Communist troops who took
control of the ancient capital of Hue killed an estimated 6,000
civilians before they again lost control of the city.
(www.vwam.com/vets/tet/tet.html)(SFC, 2/3/00,
p.A25)(AP, 1/30/08)
1971 Jan 31, Astronauts
Alan B. Shepard Jr., Edgar D. Mitchell and Stuart A. Roosa blasted off
aboard Apollo 14 on a mission to the moon.
(AP, 1/31/98)
1972 Jan 31, Howard Barlow
(b.1892), American radio pioneer and CBS music director (1927-1943),
died. In 1943 He moved to NBC to become conductor of the long-running
Voice of Firestone.
(www.barlowgenealogy.com/FairfieldFamilies/HDB-obit.html)
1974 Jan 31, Samuel Goldwyn
(b.1879), Polish-born US film magnate (MGM), died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Goldwyn)
1974 Jan 31, Gold hit a record
high of $195.5 an ounce.
(www.finfacts.ie/Private/curency/goldmarketprice.htm)
1975 Jan 31, The 1974 song "Mandy"
by Barry Manilow (b.1943 as Barry Alan Pincus) went gold.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandy_%28song%29)(www.barrynet.com/bn22sngl.html)
1976 Jan 31, Ernesto
Miranda, famous from the Supreme Court ruling on "Miranda Rights," was
stabbed to death in Arizona.
(HN, 1/31/99)
1980 Jan 31, In Guatemala the
Spanish Embassy was attacked and 37 people were killed. The dead
included the father of Rigoberta Menchu, who later filed charges in
Spain against Rios Montt, 5 Guatemalan generals and 2 civilians for war
crimes. Peasant, labor and student activists had taken over the Spanish
Embassy in Guatemala City to protest the rule of Pres. Lucas Garcia
(1925-2006).
(AP,
5/29/06)(www.onwar.com/aced/nation/sat/spain/fguatemala1980.htm)
1981 Jan 31, Lech Walesa
announced an accord in Poland, giving labor Saturdays off.
(HN, 1/31/99)
1987 Jan 31, Discount airline
pioneer People Express flew its last flights before merging into
Continental Airlines.
(AP, 1/31/00)
1988 Jan 31, The Washington
Redskins beat the Denver Broncos, 42-10, to win Super Bowl XXII at Jack
Murphy Stadium in San Diego.
(AP, 1/31/98)
1988 Jan 31, Robert Mishell, UC
Berkeley immunologist, and his wife were bludgeoned at their home by
Enrique Zambrano, a waterfront commissioner, who had built them a deck
3 years earlier. Zambrano was arrested after Luis Reyna, a UC
administrative assistant, informed police that Zambrano had confessed
the crime to him. Zambrano was released on bail and hours later Reyna
vanished. Reyna’s headless body was found a week later in the Lafayette
hills. Zambrano, arrested in 1989 in Palm Springs, was later convicted
and sentenced to death.
(SFC, 4/5/08, p.B3)
1989 Jan 31, Jury selection
began in the trial of former National Security Council aide Oliver
North, charged in connection with the Iran-Contra affair. He was later
convicted on three counts, but those convictions were set aside, and
the case was not retried.
(AP, 1/31/99)
1989 Jan 31, Jack Douglas
(b.1908), humorist and comedy writer, died. His several books included
“My Brother Was an Only Child” (1960), “Never Trust a Naked Bus Driver”
(1960), and “Rubber Duck” (1979).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Douglas_%28writer%29)
1990 Jan 31, McDonald's
Corp. opened its first fast-food restaurant in Moscow.
(AP, 1/31/98)
1991 Jan 31, During the Gulf War,
Army Specialist Melissa Rathbun-Nealy and Army Specialist David Lockett
were captured by Iraqi forces near the Kuwaiti-Saudi border; both were
eventually released. Allied forces claimed victory against Iraqi
attackers at Khafji, Saudi Arabia.
(AP, 1/31/01)
1992 Jan 31, Leaders of the U.N.
Security Council's member states held an unprecedented summit, after
which they issued a declaration on collective security, arms control
and nuclear non-proliferation.
(AP, 1/31/02)
1993 Jan 31, The Dallas
Cowboys defeated the Buffalo Bills 52-17 in Super Bowl XXVII, played at
the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif.
(AP, 1/31/98)
1993 Jan 31, A gamma ray
burst that exceeded the NASA's detector capability for measurement took
place on the same day as the football Super Bowl.
(SFC, 1/28/97, p.E1)(NH, 6/97, p.79)
1994 Jan 31, Barcelona opera
theater "Gran Teatro del Liceo" burned down.
(http://www.wyastone.co.uk/nrl/pvoce/7869c.html)
1994 Jan 31, In Somalia, a
convoy of U.S. soldiers opened fire on hundreds of Somali civilians
outside a food distribution center, killing at least eight.
(AP, 1/31/99)
1994 Jan 31, Sinn Fein
president Gerry Adams arrived in New York after being granted a 48-hour
visa so that he could take part in a conference on Northern Ireland.
(AP, 1/31/99)
1995 Jan 31, President Clinton
scrapped a $40 billion rescue plan for Mexico, announcing instead that
he would act unilaterally to provide Mexico with $20 billion from a
fund normally used to defend the U.S. dollar.
(AP, 1/31/00)
1995 Jan 31, The Mt. Calvary
Baptist Church in Hardeman Co., Tenn., burned down. Arson was suspected
and investigations by the FBI and ATF were later begun.
(SFC, 6/11/96, p.A16)
1995 Jan 31, George Abbott
(b.1887), legendary Broadway producer-director, died in Miami Beach,
Florida, at age 107.
(AP, 1/31/00)
1996 Jan 31, The last Cubans held
in refugee camps at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base boarded a plane for
Florida.
(AP, 1/31/01)
1996 Jan 31, Japanese astronomer,
Hyakutake, first sighted the comet that now bears his name. It came to
within ten-million miles of the Earth on its closest approach on Mar
26. Later analysis showed that the comet contained about 50 million
tons of frozen ethane or about 1% of its total mass.
(Nat. Hist., 4/96, p.62)(SFC, 5/31/96, A4)
1996 Jan. 31, In Sri Lanka an
explosive-packed truck crashed into the Central Bank in Colombo and
killed at least 55 and injured at least 1400 people. The Tamil Tigers
rebel group were blamed. They had been fighting for independence for 12
years. A Tiger suicide bomber blew up the Central Bank and killed
almost 100 people. The bombing killed 88 and injured 1,400. After 73
people were killed in the Central Bank bombing the US declared the
Tamil Tigers a terrorist organization.
(WSJ, 2/1/96, p.A-1) (SFC, 7/24/96,
p.A9)(SFC,10/15/97, p.C4)(SFC, 3/11/00, p.A10)
1997 Jan 31, Three days of
deliberations in the O.J. Simpson civil trial in Santa Monica, Calif.,
were scrapped after the only black woman on the panel was replaced
because of misconduct. The jury started over.
(AP, 1/31/98)
1997 Jan 31, A US federal
judge sentenced cocaine lord Juan Garcia Abrega to serve 11 life terms
and to pay fines totaling more than $128 million. The penalties also
allowed the US government to seize $350 million in Abrega's assets.
(SFC, 2/1/97, p.A3)
1997 Jan 31, In Liberia
this was the deadline for some 14,000 rebels to hand in their weapons.
(SFC, 1/30/97, p.A9)
1997 Jan 31, In Madagascar
a constitutional court said that Didier Ratsiraka edged out Albert Zafy
in last year's elections.
(SFC, 2/1/97, p.C1)
1997 Jan 31, In Vietnam a
Communist Party member and three associates were sentenced to death
after being convicted of bribery, embezzlement and gambling. They were
responsible for losses of $27 million at the state-run Tamexco
import-export company.
(SFC, 2/1/97, p.A13)
1998 Jan 31, The space
shuttle Endeavour returned from Mir with its crew of 7. Astronaut David
Wolf returned to Earth after four months on the Russian space station
Mir.
(SFEC, 2/1/98, p.A2)(AP, 1/31/99)
1998 Jan 31, In Japan the
XVIII Winter Olympic Games opened in Nagano.
(SFC, 2/4/98, p.C3)
1998 Jan 31, In Mexico,
three Indian villagers were found hanged in the Chiapas town of
Ocosingo. Also Antonio Gomez Flores, an Ocosingo peasant leader, died
when a truck smashed into his car as he left the funeral of Rubicel
Ruiz Gamboa.
(SFEC, 2/1/98, p.A22)
1999 Jan 31, In Florida the Denver
Broncos, led by quarterback John Elway, beat the Atlanta Falcons 34-19
in Super Bowl XXXIII. There were 127.5 million viewers for Fox
Broadcasting.
(WSJ, 2/2/99, p.B7)
1999 Jan 31, Scientists from the
University of Alabama at Birmingham reported that the AIDS virus
originated from a subspecies of chimpanzee in western Africa and that
it jumped to humans in the last 50 years.
(SFC, 2/1/99, p.A1)(AP, 1/31/00)
1999 Jan 31, Kofi Annan called on
large corporations to enact and uphold standards of conduct for
themselves and sub-contractors for investments and operations in poor
countries.
(SFC, 2/1/99, p.A6)
1999 Jan 31, From Azerbaijan it
was reported that Vafa Gulkuzade, chief foreign affairs advisor, had
asserted that the country needed a military protector. He said Turkish
or American military bases would be welcomed.
(SFEC, 1/31/99, p.A20)
1999 Jan 31, Marshall Islands
foreign minister, Phillip Muller, said his government would seek a rent
increase from the US for the use of the Kwajalein Atoll.
(SFC, 3/8/99, p.A16)
1999 Jan 31, In Sierra Leone
rebels freed 11 Indian nationals abducted a week ago. The government
said that as many as 3,000-5000 people died during the fighting in
Freetown. The number of dead was raised to 6,350.
(WSJ, 2/1/99, p.A1)(SFC, 2/12/99, p.A8)(SFC,
3/26/99, p.A14)
2000 Jan 31, Atlanta Braves
pitcher John Rocker was suspended by baseball commissioner Bud Selig
for disparaging foreigners, homosexuals and minorities in a Sports
Illustrated interview.
(AP, 1/31/01)
2000 Jan 31, Pro Bowl linebacker
Ray Lewis was charged with murder in the deaths of two people outside
an Atlanta nightclub hours after the Super Bowl. Lewis ended his trial
early by pleading guilty to obstruction of justice; two co-defendants
were acquitted at trial.
(AP, 1/31/01)
2000 Jan 31, The US persuaded
Puerto Rico to continue use of the Navy firing range off Vieques Island
with dummy bombs in exchange for $40 million. A vote by islanders to
approve live ammunition would bring Puerto Rico an additional $50
million. A no vote would require clean up and a halt to training by May
1, 2003.
(SFC, 2/1/00, p.A3)
2000 Jan 31, It was reported that
nitrogen-based fertilizers were likely suspects in the rapid decline of
the spotted frog in the Pacific Northwest.
(SFC, 1/31/00, p.A6)
2000 Jan 31, Alaska Airlines
Flight 261, an MD-83 jet with 88 people bound for Seattle from Puerto
Vallarta, Mexico, crashed about 2.7 miles north of Anacapa Island, Ca.
There were no survivors. A stop had been scheduled in SF.
(SFC, 2/1/00,
p.A1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska_Airlines_Flight_261)
2000 Jan 31, The European Union
warned Austria that its 14 members would diplomatically isolate Austria
if the Freedom Party of Joerg Haider entered into a coalition
government.
(SFC, 2/1/00, p.A10)
2000 Jan 31, In Indonesia a
government commission issued a report that accused the military and
militia surrogates of mass killing, torture, deportation and rape in
East Timor.
(SFC, 2/1/00, p.A10)
2000 Jan 31, In southern Lebanon a
Hezbollah rocket attack killed 3 Israeli soldiers.
(SFC, 2/3/00, p.A13)
2001 Jan 31, The US Federal
Reserve cut interest rates .5% to 5.5%.
(SFC, 2/1/01, p.A1)
2001 Jan 31, The state of Georgia
hoisted its new flag above its statehouse, one featuring a smaller
Confederate battle emblem.
(AP, 1/31/02)
2001 Jan 31, Gordon Dickson,
Science-fiction author of over 80 books, died at age 77 in Richfield,
Minn. His “Lost Dorsai” series spanned from 1400-2400AD.
(SFC, 2/3/01, p.A16)
2001 Jan 31, Michel Navratil, one
of the last known survivors of the sinking of the Titanic, died in
Montpellier, France, at age 92.
(AP, 1/31/02)
2001 Jan 31, Germany announced
plans to destroy 400,000 cattle due to the mad cow crises.
(SFC, 2/2/01, p.D4)
2001 Jan 31, In India the death
count from the Jan 26 earthquake reached 12,000 and an additional
13,000 were believed still buried.
(SFC, 2/1/01, p.A9)
2001 Jan 31, In the Netherlands a
Scottish court sentenced Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi, a Libyan
intelligence officer, to life in a Scottish prison for the 1998 bombing
of Pan Am Flight 103. A second Libyan was acquitted.
(SFC, 1/31/01, p.A11)(SFC, 2/1/01, p.A1)(WSJ,
2/1/01, p.A1)(AP, 12/19/03)
2002 Jan 31, The Bush
administration handed abortion opponents a symbolic victory,
classifying a developing fetus as an "unborn child" as a way of
extending prenatal care to low-income pregnant women under the State
Children's Health Insurance Program.
(SFC, 2/1/02, p.A1)(AP, 1/31/03)
2002 Jan 31, Defense Secretary
Donald Rumsfeld said in a speech that the United States had to prepare
for potential surprise attacks "vastly more deadly" than the Sept. 11
terrorist hijackings.
(AP, 1/31/03)
2002 Jan 31, Some 3,000
participants met at the 31st World Economic Forum in NYC at the
Waldorf-Astoria with scattered demonstrations outside.
(SFC, 1/31/02, p.A3)(SFC, 2/1/02, p.A10)
2002 Jan 31, Kentucky, cited by
the NCAA for more than three dozen recruiting violations, was placed on
three years' probation.
(AP, 1/31/03)
2002 Jan 31, The central US was
hit by a winter storm that left at least 15 dead.
(WSJ, 2/1/02, p.A1)
2002 Jan 31, It was reported that
the US and Kazakstan planned a joint venture to use a former Soviet
nuclear weapons plant to process uranium for power plants and absorb
atomic workers.
(WSJ, 1/31/02, p.A1)
2002 Jan 31, US troops began a
6-month exercise for Filipino soldiers on Zamboanga, who were hunting
Abu Sayyaf extremists.
(SFC, 2/1/02, p.A24)
2002 Jan 31, In Afghanistan
warlord Saifullah defeated troops under Padsha Khan Zadran in Gardez
and some 50 people were killed.
(SFC, 2/1/02, p.A24)
2002 Jan 31, Ecuador designated a
557 sq-km (215 sq-mi) area in the Amazon rainforest the Cofan
Ecological Reserve. Field Museum scientists from Chicago assisted Cofan
Indians and Ecuadoran scientists by cataloging the species in the area
and declaring it to be the most biologically diverse mountain range in
the world.
(EB, 2002, p.11)
2002 Jan 31, An interview was
published in which Israeli PM Ariel Sharon said that he regrets that
Israel failed to take the opportunity to kill Palestinian leader Yasir
Arafat in Lebanon 20 years ago.
(EB, 2002, p.11)
2002 Jan 31, Crossair, a regional
carrier and successor airline to the bankrupt Swissair, announced plans
that will make it Europe's 4th largest international airline, under the
new name Swiss.
(EB, 2002, p.11)(Econ, 2/14/04, p.10)
2002 Jan 31, Zimbabwe enacted a
new media law that required local media people to be licensed and
restricted foreign reporters from working freely.
(SFC, 2/1/02, p.A15)
2003 Jan 31, President Bush and
British PM Tony Blair met at the White House; Bush said he would
welcome a second UN resolution on Iraq but only if it led to the prompt
disarming of Saddam Hussein. Pushing for a new resolution, Blair called
confronting Iraq "a test of the international community." In 2006
British author Phillippe Sands said in a new edition of his 2005
”Lawless World” that Pres. Bush commented during the 2003 meeting with
Blair that the US intended to go to war even if inspectors failed to
find evidence of a banned weapons program.
(AP, 1/31/04)(AP, 2/3/06)
2003 Jan 31, A federal jury in SF
found Ed Rosenthal (58), a marijuana advocate, guilty of felony
conspiracy and cultivation charges. Judge Charles Breyer did not allow
testimony citing 1996 California state voter approval of medical
marijuana. On Feb 4 jurors claimed they were duped and called for a new
trial.
(SFC, 2/1/03, p.A1)(SFC, 2/5/03, p.A1)
2003 Jan 31, In Afghanistan, a
bomb destroyed the Rambasi Bridge near Kandahar, and killed at least 15
people traveling by bus. Police blamed Taliban and al-Qaida fugitives.
(AP, 1/31/03)(SFC, 1/31/03, p.A11)
2003 Jan 31, In Australia a
commuter train derailed south of Sydney and 9 people were killed.
(AP, 1/31/03)
2003 Jan 31, Top UN arms
inspectors said they would not agree to new talks in Baghdad unless
Iraq demonstrated more cooperation and met unspecified conditions.
(AP, 1/31/03)
2003 Jan 31, Israeli undercover
troops killed a fugitive Islamic militant and a Palestinian night
watchman in a two-hour gun battle at a Jenin firehouse.
(AP, 1/31/03)(SFC, 2/1/03, p.A11)
2003 Jan 31, In Mexico City tens
of thousands of farmers clogged main streets, demanding greater
protection against U.S. imports and seeking more government aid.
(AP, 1/31/03)
2003 Jan 31, A Russian cargo plane
crashed while landing in fog near an airport on East Timor's north
coast, killing all six people aboard.
(AP, 1/31/03)
2004 Jan 31, The Mars rover
Opportunity rolled off its landing pad onto the surface of Mars.
(SSFC, 2/1/04, p.A1)
2004 Jan 31, In Deh Rawood,
Afghanistan, a remote-controlled bomb, thought to have been planted by
Taliban or al-Qaida fighters, exploded as a southern Afghan mayor and
his family drove by, killing him and seven relatives.
(AP, 2/1/04)
2004 Jan 31, British Airways and
Air France announced the cancellation of seven flights to and from the
United States because of security concerns.
(AP, 1/31/04)
2004 Jan 31, China’s oil-refining
boss signed a deal to buy crude oil from Gabon. Pres. Hu Jintao visited
Gabon the next day.
(Econ, 2/7/04, p.45)
2004 Jan 31, Pres. Oscar Berger
said Guatemala will distribute 970 tons of food to some 77,000 people
in a bid to alleviate hunger in poverty-stricken towns.
(AP, 1/31/04)
2004 Jan 31, In Iraq a car bomb
targeting a police station in Mosul killed nine people and injured 45
others, while three American soldiers died when a roadside bomb ripped
through their convoy near the oil-rich city of Kirkuk.
(AP, 1/31/04)
2004 Jan 31, In southern Scotland
a fire broke out at nursing home, killing 10 residents and injuring six
others.
(AP, 1/31/04)
2005 Jan 31, US energy officials
said Enron Corp. made over $1.6 billion during the energy crises in 11
Western states from Jan 16, 1997 to June 25, 2003.
(SFC, 2/1/05, p.E1)
2005 Jan 31, The US government
released a list of 17 new carcinogens that included X-rays, some
viruses and chemicals used in frying and grilling meat.
(SFC, 2/1/05, p.A1)
2005 Jan 31, Marsh & McClennan
Cos. reached an $850 million settlement of civil fraud charges with NY
state’s attorney Eliot Spitzer and the state insurance department.
(WSJ, 1/31/05, p.C1)
2005 Jan 31, The Bond Market
Association (BMA) began displaying prices of municipal bond trades
within 15 minutes of completion. Real time for virtually all corporate
bond prices was expected by Feb 7.
(Econ, 2/5/05, p.70)
2005 Jan 31, Jury selection began
in Santa Maria, Calif., for Michael Jackson's child molestation trial.
Jackson was later acquitted.
(AP, 1/31/06)
2005 Jan 31, SBC Communications
Inc. announced it was acquiring AT&T Corp. for $16 billion.
(AP, 1/31/06)
2005 Jan 31, In Brazil leftist
activists opposed to the spread of American influence ended the fifth
World Social Forum with a protest against unfettered capitalism and the
war in Iraq.
(AP, 1/31/05)
2005 Jan 31, EU foreign ministers
agreed to restore normal diplomatic relations with the Cuban government
while pledging to increase contacts with critics of Pres. Fidel Castro.
(AP, 1/31/05)
2005 Jan 31, in Egypt Ayman
al-Nur, the head of an opposition party, denounced his arrest on
forgery charges, telling a court it was a strike against political
reform, while human rights groups said the moves against him could be a
message to other opposition groups.
(AP, 2/1/05)
2005 Jan 31, France Telecom,
Europe's second-largest telecommunications operator, announced plans to
cut 8,000 jobs in 2005, mostly in France.
(AP, 1/31/05)
2005 Jan 31, Kamal Nath, India’s
Commerce and Industry Minister, said the Indian parliament will shortly
ratify new legislation protecting drug patents, paving the way for the
country to become a major pharmaceutical research centre.
(AP, 1/31/05)
2005 Jan 31, A UN official said
nearly 800,000 people will need food aid in Indonesia's Aceh province
in the aftermath of the devastating Dec. 26 tsunami as the country's
death toll from the disaster jumped by 5,000 for the 2nd day in a row.
The overall death toll stood between 156,000 and 178,000 across 11
nations, with an estimated 26,500 to 142,000 missing, most of whom are
presumed dead.
(AP, 1/31/05)
2005 Jan 31, Prime Minister Ayad
Allawi, Iraq's interim leader, called on his countrymen to set aside
their differences, while local precincts finished a first-phase count
of millions of ballots from the weekend election.
(AP, 1/31/05)
2005 Jan 31, US guards in southern
Iraq opened fire on prisoners during a riot at the detention facility
for security detainees at Umm Qasr, killing 4 of them. 6 other
prisoners were injured.
(AP, 1/31/05)
2005 Jan 31, Jewish settlers and
their supporters protested outside parliament for a 2nd day against
Israel's planned withdrawal from Palestinian territories. Palestinian
officials said a 10-year-old Palestinian girl was shot and killed by
Israeli tank fire at a UN school in the Rafah refugee camp.
(AP, 1/31/05)
2005 Jan 31, Kuwaiti police
stormed several suspected terror hideouts, arresting a reputed terror
leader and sparking a gunbattle that killed five people, including four
of his followers.
(AP, 1/31/05)
2005 Jan 31, In Nigeria African
leaders pledged to send more peacekeeping troops to conflict zones,
especially the western Sudan region of Darfur, and to boost their role
in world affairs.
(AP, 2/1/05)
2005 Jan 31, A UN-appointed
commission accused the Sudanese government of gross, systematic human
rights violations in Darfur, but stopped short of labeling the violence
in the region as genocide.
(AP, 1/31/05)
2006 Jan 31, Pres. Bush in his
State of the Union address appeared to tone down his criticism of North
Korea and concerns over the growing competitiveness of China and India.
Bush had harsh words for Iran and the militant Palestinian group Hamas
and raised concerns over Indonesia. He also defended the legality of
his wiretaps program and called for the US to quit its addiction to oil.
(AP, 2/1/06)(SFC, 2/1/06, p.A1)(WSJ, 2/1/06, p.A1)
2006 Jan 31, The US Senate
confirmed Samuel Alito as the 110th Supreme Court justice. The 58-42
vote tilted the court rightward.
(WSJ, 2/1/06, p.A1)
2006 Jan 31, Alan Greenspan (79)
served the last day of his 18-year tenure as chairman of the US Federal
Reserve. At Greenspan's final meeting, the central bank voted to boost
its target for the federal funds rate to 4.5 percent. It was the 14th
quarter-point move in a credit-tightening campaign that began 19 months
ago. The US Senate approved Ben Bernanke (52), Princeton Univ. prof. of
economics, as chairman of the Federal Reserve.
(SFC, 1/31/06, p.E1)(Econ, 9/3/05, p.63)(AP, 1/31/07)
2006 Jan 31, In Arkansas Tom
Coughlin (57), a former Wal-Mart Stores Inc. vice chairman who was a
protege of founder Sam Walton, pleaded guilty to fraud and tax charges,
admitting that he stole money, gift cards and merchandise from the
world's largest retailer.
(AP, 1/31/06)
2006 Jan 31, In El Cerrito, Ca.,
Edward Wycoff (37) stabbed and bludgeoned to death his sister Julie
Wycoff Rogers (47) and her husband Paul Rogers (48) at their home 1467
Rifle Range Road. He had hoped to adopt his niece and nephew after the
killings. In 2009 Wycoff was convicted of murder with special
circumstances and was sentenced by a jury to die by lethal injection.
(SFC, 2/1/06, p.B3)(SFC, 10/28/09, p.D2)(SFC,
11/6/09, p.C2)
2006 Jan 31, In Texas opening
arguments began in the Enron trial against former Chairman Kenneth Lay
and former Pres. Jeffrey Skilling.
(WSJ, 1/31/06, p.C1)
2006 Jan 30, Coretta Scott King
(78), the widow of Martin Luther King Jr, died of respiratory failure
at a clinic in Mexico. She had turned a life shattered by her husband's
assassination into one devoted to enshrining his legacy of human rights
and equality.
(AP, 1/31/06)(SFC, 2/1/06, p.A1)
2006 Jan 31, Moira Shearer,
ballerina and film star (Red Shoes), died in England.
(WSJ, 2/2/06, p.A1)
2006 Jan 31, Envoys from nearly 70
nations and international bodies vowed to maintain their financial
support for Afghanistan, which is still plagued by violence and poverty
more than four years after the fall of the Taliban.
(AP, 1/31/06)
2006 Jan 31, Dr. Christian
Schwarz-Schilling (b.1930), former German cabinet minister, was
appointed as the EU's High Representative in Bosnia, succeeding Lord
Ashdown.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Schwarz-Schilling)(Econ,
6/30/07, p.60)
2006 Jan 31, British lawmakers
watered down a bill banning religious hate speech, then narrowly voted
it into law.
(AP, 1/31/06)
2006 Jan 31, Chile received two US
F-16 warplanes out of 10 it had ordered as part of a major military
upgrade that has worried some of its South American neighbors.
(AP, 1/31/06)
2006 Jan 31, In Colombia thousands
of right-wing paramilitary fighters accused of drug trafficking by the
US turned over more than 1,000 weapons in one of the largest
disarmament ceremonies to date.
(AP, 1/31/06)
2006 Jan 31, In Egypt 14 tourists
from Hong Kong were killed and 30 wounded when their bus spun off the
road along the Red Sea coast in one of the deadliest crashes involving
foreign nationals in recent years.
(AP, 1/31/06)
2006 Jan 31, An international
human rights group said thousands of school and college students have
been detained over the past three months in continued unrest in
Ethiopia.
(AP, 1/31/06)
2006 Jan 31, French PM Dominique
de Villepin made a televised address urging French and other European
chief executives to be better organized to resist attacks by foreign
companies. The statement was made in response to the takeover of
Arcelor by Mittal Steel.
(Econ, 2/4/06, p.56)
2006 Jan 31, An official said
India's air force was ready to handle civilian air traffic control as
protesting airport workers threatened to strike after the government
opened bids to privatize the two biggest airports.
(AP, 1/31/06)
2006 Jan 31, India and Pakistan
signed an agreement to restart a second cross-border train service next
month, the latest step in peace talks between the nuclear-armed rivals.
(AP, 1/31/06)
2006 Jan 31, Iran struck back at
the Big Five's decision to refer the country's nuclear file to the
Security Council, saying the move has no legal justification and would
be the end of diplomacy.
(AP, 1/31/06)
2006 Jan 31, A British soldier was
killed in a roadside bombing, the second member of the country's armed
forces to die in Iraq in as many days and the 100th fatality since the
conflict began nearly three years ago.
(AP, 1/31/06)
2006 Jan 31, In Iraq the bodies of
11 men were found in western Baghdad. Some had been shot repeatedly and
bore marks of torture. Gunmen killed 2 members of the Dawra district
council. Gunmen killed Malik Razoki Abd, a district council member in
western Baghdad.
(SFC, 2/1/06, p.A8)
2006 Jan 31, Israeli troops killed
two Islamic Jihad militants, including Nidal Abu Saada, the group's top
leader in the West Bank, during a shootout that erupted during an
arrest raid.
(AP, 1/31/06)
2006 Jan 31, Japan said it will
begin withdrawing its troops from Iraq in March and complete the
pullout by May, ending its largest military mission since the end of
World War II.
(AP, 1/31/06)
2006 Jan 31, Myanmar's military
government adjourned a constitution-drafting convention after almost
two months of deliberations, delegates said, amid growing frustration
with the slow pace of democratic reforms. Karen insurgents, marking
nearly six decades of fighting, said there was little chance Myanmar's
military rulers would come to the negotiating table and end their
bloody campaign against the ethnic minorities.
(AP, 1/31/06)
2006 Jan 31, NATO ended its
earthquake relief operation in Pakistan, the first big disaster mission
involving ground troops outside an alliance country.
(AP, 1/31/06)
2006 Jan 31, North Korea renewed
its commitment to stalled nuclear disarmament talks, while at the same
time vowing to strengthen its stockpile of atomic weapons to counter
what it called extreme US hostility.
(AP, 1/31/06)
2006 Jan 31, In the Economist
Intelligence Unit's biannual survey Oslo was reported to have overtaken
Tokyo as the world's most expensive city. Tokyo had held the top spot
for 14 years. Of 17 US cities featured in the survey, the most
expensive were New York (27th), Chicago and Los Angeles (tied for
35th), and San Francisco (40th).
(AP, 2/1/06)
2006 Jan 31, The Philippine health
department warned that an AIDS crisis threatens the country as the
number of people who are HIV carriers has doubled in just over three
years.
(AP, 1/31/06)
2006 Jan 31, Philippines troops
killed at least 18 communist rebels in their bloodiest clash in months.
The clash happened outside Santa Ignacia town in Tarlac province, about
80 miles north of Manila.
(AP, 1/31/06)
2006 Jan 31, George Koval (1913),
American-born Soviet spy, died in Moscow. In 1932 his family moved from
Iowa to Birobidzhan, a Siberian city that Stalin promoted as a secular
Jewish homeland. From 1940 to 1948 Koval, groomed as a Russian spy, was
able to infiltrate the Manhattan Project. He fled the US after the war.
In 2007 Pres. Putin posthumously awarded him Russia’s highest award.
(SFC, 11/12/07, p.A12)
2006 Jan 31, Saudi Arabia and
Jordan pressed the Islamic militant group Hamas to moderate its stand
on Israel and to entice the defeated Fatah party into a deal to share
power.
(AP, 1/31/06)
2006 Jan 31, UN Secretary-General
Kofi Annan offered a grim assessment of Kosovo's progress toward
stability, saying in a report that the region had fallen behind in
efforts to create a multiethnic and democratic society.
(AP, 1/31/06)
2007 Jan 31, President Bush,
visiting Wall Street, delivered his "State of the Economy" speech in
which he took aim at lavish salaries and bonuses for corporate
executives.
(AP, 1/31/08)
2007 Jan 31, Delaware Sen. Joe
Biden formally launched his bid for the Democratic presidential
nomination.
(AP, 1/31/08)
2007 Jan 31, The New York Stock
Exchange announced a cooperative agreement with the Tokyo Stock
Exchange.
(AP, 2/1/07)
2007 Jan 31, The Ziff Davis Games
Group handed out the 4th annual 1Up Awards for computer games.
Nintendo’s “Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess” won the top prize as
selected by 13 million Ziff Davis users.
(SFC, 2/2/07, p.C3)
2007 Jan 31, A special committee,
invited by IMF managing director Rodrigo de Rato, proposed new ways for
the IMF to fund itself. A loan to Turkey at this time accounted for
two-thirds of the IMF’s outstanding credit.
(Econ, 2/3/07, p.75)
2007 Jan 31, Molly Ivins (b.1944),
political columnist for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, died of breast
cancer.
(SFC, 2/1/07, p.B7)
2006 Jan 31, Jennifer Merritt (31)
was shot in the arm and head while riding a bicycle in the San
Francisco Ingleside Heights neighborhood. She died from her wounds on
Feb 11. Police had no explanation.
(SFC, 2/12/07, p.E6)
2007 Jan 31, The Afghan Parliament
voted for an amnesty for leaders accused of war crimes during a
quarter-century of fighting, arguing that it would help heal deep
divisions.
(AP, 2/1/07)
2007 Jan 31, A senior AU official
said 3 battalions of peacekeepers from Uganda and Nigeria are ready to
be deployed in Somalia and will be airlifted in as soon as possible.
(AP, 1/31/07)
2007 Jan 31, The caretaker
government of Bangladesh approved a deal with an Indian company to
build a 240MW power station.
(Econ, 2/10/07, p.39)
2007 Jan 31, British
counterterrorism police arrested nine men in an alleged kidnapping
plot. The plan reportedly involved torturing and beheading a British
Muslim soldier and broadcasting the killing on the Internet.
(AP, 1/31/07)
2007 Jan 31, Canada's former
Secretary of State for the Asia Pacific region David Kilgour and human
rights lawyer David Matas released a report saying China's military is
harvesting organs from prison inmates, mostly Falungong practitioners,
for large scale transplants including for foreign recipients.
(AFP, 1/31/07)
2007 Jan 31, Chinese President Hu
Jintao arrived in Cameroon to begin his second African tour to boost
ties with a continent that has many of the oil and commodity reserves
the Asian giant needs for its ballooning economy.
(Reuters, 1/31/07)
2007 Feb 1, Zhengzhou city
authorities put Gao Yaojie under house arrest to stop her from
traveling to Washington to be honored by a charity backed by Sen.
Hillary Clinton. The retired Chinese doctor helped expose blood-buying
schemes that infected thousands with HIV.
(AP, 2/4/07)
2007 Jan 31, In Congo at least 37
people were killed in clashes between security forces and opposition
supporters protesting against the results of governorship polls in
western Bas-Congo province.
(Reuters, 2/1/07)
2007 Jan 31, Tata Steel said its
$11.3 billion offer to acquire European steel maker Corus (formerly
British Steel) is strategic to its global ambitions, even as the
winning bid raised concerns that the deal's high cost could undermine
the combined company's financial health.
(AP, 1/31/07)(SSFC, 2/11/07, p.C3)
2007 Jan 31, Unidentified gunmen
opened fire on a car carrying the chief Muslim leader in Ingushetia,
seriously wounding the mufti and his son.
(AP, 1/31/07)
2007 Jan 31, A series of car bombs
struck mostly Shiite areas in Baghdad, killing eight people, while a
mortar attack on a Sunni neighborhood killed four in more retaliatory
sectarian violence. The bodies of three Sunni professors and a student
also turned up in the morgue, three days after they were abducted by
gunmen from a law school in a predominantly Shiite area in northern
Baghdad. A suicide bomber driving an oil truck blew himself up after he
was stopped at a checkpoint near an Iraqi army headquarters north of
Baghdad, wounding 9 soldiers. A parked car bomb also struck a police
patrol in the northern city of Mosul killing one policeman and wounding
two others. In the cities of Fallujah and Ramadi at least eight bodies
were found with their hands and legs bound and showing signs of torture.
(AP, 1/31/07)
2007 Jan 31, In Mexico City some
75,000 unionists, farmers and leftists marched to protest price
increases in basic foodstuffs like tortillas, a direct challenge to the
new president's market-oriented economic policies blamed by some for
widening the gulf between rich and poor.
(AP, 2/1/07)
2007 Jan 31, In Mexico a lesbian
couple registered what officials called Mexico's first gay civil union
in the northern city of Saltillo.
(AP, 1/31/07)
2007 Jan 31, A human rights group
said its study of one of Nigeria's oil-producing states found that
officials squandered or stole public money, some hospitals required
patients to bring their own beds, and schools were running out of chalk.
(AP, 1/31/07)
2007 Jan 31, In a northwestern
Pakistan a mortar round struck a home in Hangu, killing two men and
wounding another amid sectarian tensions.
(AP, 1/31/07)
2007 Jan 31, Two Spanish men, both
charged with providing explosives for Islamist train bombings in Madrid
in 2004, were given jail sentences in a separate trial for selling
explosives in 2001. The court in Asturias said it jailed former miner
Jose Emilio Suarez-Trashorras and his brother-in-law, Antonio Toro, for
10 and 11-1/2 years respectively on charges of drugs and explosives
trafficking.
(Reuters, 1/31/07)
2007 Jan 31, In eastern Sri Lanka
suspected separatist Tamil rebels detonated a roadside bomb, killing
six policemen and one civilian.
(AP, 1/31/07)
2007 Jan 31, A Congress wholly
loyal to President Hugo Chavez met at a downtown plaza to give the
Venezuelan leader authority to enact sweeping measures by presidential
decree.
(AP, 1/31/07)
2007 Jan 31, Officials said
Vietnam's ruling Communist Party and the military will relinquish
control of dozens of companies, ranging from hotels to telecoms, as
part of an ongoing government overhaul. An oil spill from an
unidentified source hit Vietnam's central coast, blackening popular
resort beaches as thousands of local people help with the cleanup.
(AP, 1/31/07)(AP, 2/1/07)
2007 Jan 31, Zimbabwe's central
bank chief Gideon Gono unveiled a battery of belt-tightening measures
which include slashing the money supply and state spending to put the
brakes on four-digit inflation. The Zimbabwe dollar traded at 250
against the greenback on the official market while fetching up to 4,200
on the black market.
(AFP, 1/31/07)
2008 Jan 31, The US Navy test
fired an incredibly powerful new big gun designed to replace
conventional weaponry aboard ships. Navy officials called it the
"world's most powerful electromagnetic railgun."
(www.livescience.com/technology/080201-electromagnetic-record.html)
2008 Jan 31, US Army Maj. John
Cockerham and his wife pleaded guilty to bribery, conspiracy and money
laundering committed while he was a contracting officer in Kuwait
(2004-2006, during which time he made over $9 million. Maj. James Momon
Jr., his successor, later pleaded guilty to pocketing over $1 million.
Cockerham and his wife were initially indicted on Aug 22, 2007.
(SSFC, 10/26/08, Par
p.6)(www.usdoj.gov/atr/cases/f225400/225441.htm)
2008 Jan 31, Human Rights Watch
charged that Europe and the US increasingly tolerate autocrats posing
as democrats out of pure self-interest, in countries such as Pakistan,
Kenya, Nigeria and Russia, as human right abuses go on.
(AFP, 1/31/08)
2008 Jan 31, The Sewerage Agency
of Southern Marin, Ca., let nearly 3 million gallons of treated and raw
sewage spill into the SF Bay. A week later it was reported that a spill
on Jan 25 had released 2.5 million gallons. Over the next 2 weeks at
least 65 birds were found dead on the shores of Richardson Bay Audubon
Center.
(SFC, 2/6/08, p.B7)(SFC, 2/9/08, p.B1)
2008 Jan 31, Dorothy Dixon (29), 6
months pregnant, was found dead at a home in Alton, Ill. Housemates had
used her for target practice with BBs, burned her with a glue gun and
doused her with scalding liquid that peeled away her skin.
Investigators put much of the blame on Michelle Riley (35), who they
said befriended Dixon but pocketed monthly Social Security checks she
got because of her developmental delays. In 2009 Riley pleaded guilty
to the torture and killing of Dixon.
(AP, 3/22/08)(SFC, 10/27/09, p.A4)
2008 Jan 31, The Mideast and India
suffered a 2nd day of telecom woes after two undersea Internet cables
in the Mediterranean sustained damage.
(WSJ, 2/1/08, p.A1)
2008 Jan 31, In southern
Afghanistan a suicide bomber blew himself up inside a mosque, killing
Helmand province's deputy governor and five other people. A car bomb
exploded next to an Afghan army bus in Kabul, wounding four civilians
and a solider.
(AP, 1/31/08)
2008 Jan 31, In China a top
agriculture official warned that snow battering central China has dealt
an "extremely serious" blow to winter crops, raising the likelihood
that future shortages would exaggerate already surging food prices.
China said it had stopped production and exports from a company whose
insecticide-tainted frozen dumplings sickened 10 people in Japan. Tens
of thousands of Chinese massed impatiently near a railway station in
Guangzhou, desperate to get on trains home for a major holiday after
days of delay caused by snow.
(AP, 1/31/08)(Reuters, 1/31/08)
2008 Jan 31, The EU ordered Italy
to clean up Naples within a month, or face legal action.
(AP, 1/31/08)
2008 Jan 31, It was reported that
the EU is suing Malta for permitting residents to hunt 2 species of
birds in the spring. The Maltese government said it qualifies for an
exemption under EU rules.
(WSJ, 2/1/08, p.A6)
2008 Jan 31, India's Tata
Chemicals, part of tea-to-steel conglomerate Tata Group, announced it
was buying US-based soda-ash producer General Chemical Industrial
Products for over one billion dollars.
(AP, 1/31/08)
2008 Jan 31, In Iraq militants
fired 20 rockets at Britain’s airport base in Basra. British gunners
responded with artillery fire and 10 Iraqi civilians were killed or
wounded. A bomb-rigged car blew up in Baghdad killing at least 5 people
in a Shiite enclave. 2 US soldiers were killed, one by a roadside bomb
in Baghdad and another by a rocket or mortar attack on a convoy support
center south of the capital.
(AP, 2/1/08)(SFC, 2/1/08, p.A13)
2008 Jan 31, In Kenya an
opposition lawmaker was gunned down by a police officer in the second
fatal shooting of an opposition legislator this week. National police
chief Hussein Ali said the police officer, who has been arrested, shot
David Too in a dispute over the officer's girlfriend. The opposition
said it was an assassination plot. Kenyan police killed four people as
mobs set scores of houses and businesses ablaze in a western Kenyan
town. In Kisumu police fired tear gas and then live rounds at scores of
protesters trying to block the main road. Kofi Annan suspended crisis
talks aimed at ending Kenya's political crisis after the lawmaker was
shot dead, triggering further clashes. In Ethiopia UN Secretary General
Ban Ki-moon met with Pres. Kibaki at the African Union summit and
warned that the violence in Kenya could spiral out of control unless
quick action was taken.
(AP, 1/31/08)(AFP, 1/31/08)(AP, 2/1/08)
2008 Jan 31, In Mexico tens of
thousands of demonstrators marched through downtown Mexico City to
protest recent trade openings that removed the last tariff protections
for ancestral Mexican crops like corn and beans.
(AP, 1/31/08)
2008 Jan 31, Thousands of
Pakistani lawyers burned effigies of President Pervez Musharraf during
nationwide protests to press for the release of the country's deposed
chief justice. Two Pakistani soldiers were killed and two others
wounded when a bomb exploded near their convoy in Wana in South
Waziristan.
(AFP, 1/31/08)(AP, 2/1/08)
2008 Jan 31, In the southern
Philippines Abu Sayyaf commander Wahab Upao, a Muslim militant who
allegedly gunned down a Roman Catholic priest in a raid on a school,
was killed in a clash with troops pursuing an Indonesian terror suspect.
(AP, 1/31/08)
2008 Jan 31, Romania’s
Constitutional Court struck down the 1999 law that opened Romania's
secret police archives. It effectively forced the Council for the Study
of the Securitate Archives to shut down, and makes its previous
decisions null.
(AP, 2/1/08)
2008 Jan 31, In South Korea a
court ruled against Samsung and its chairman Lee Kun-hee in the
nation’s biggest civil lawsuit. It ordered them to pay $2.7 billion to
the creditors of Samsung Motors.
(Econ, 2/9/08, p.71)
2008 Jan 31, In northern Sri Lanka
a bomb being transported by a suicide bomber on a bicycle exploded
prematurely, killing 4 people and injuring 13. Separate clashes across
the north killed 15 Tamil rebels. Japan cautioned it will review its
aid policy unless the violence subsided.
(AP, 1/31/08)(AFP, 1/31/08)(AP, 2/1/08)
2008 Jan 31, In Turkey an
explosion ripped through an unlicensed fireworks factory in an
industrial section of Istanbul, killing 20 people and injuring 117.
(AP, 1/31/08)
2008 Jan 31, An official at the UN
labor agency said more than 5 million people will lose their jobs this
year as the world economy slows.
(AP, 1/31/08)
2009 Jan 31, President Barack
Obama promised to lower mortgage costs, offer job-creating loans for
small businesses, get credit flowing and rein in free-spending
executives as he readies a new road map for spending billions from the
second installment of the financial rescue plan.
(AP, 1/31/09)
2009 Jan 31, In Maryland Goucher
College President Sanford Ungar told faculty and students in an e-mail
that Professor Leopold Munyakazi (59) was removed from teaching after
officials learned he had been indicted in 2006 on genocide charges in
Rwanda.
(AP, 2/3/09)
2009 Jan 31, John Lipsky, deputy
head of the IMF, announced that the fund would double its lending
capacity to $500 billion. Montek Singh Ahluwalia, India’s chief
economic planner, deemed the proposal too modest and suggested that
member triple their quotas.
(Econ, 2/7/09, p.67)
2009 Jan 31, Afghanistan's
interior minister announced a US-backed plan to create militias and
give them guns to fight the Taliban. It drew criticism from local
authorities in areas where the first units are being rolled out. An
Afghan tribal leader from southeastern Paktika province was fatally
shot by a NATO patrol after the vehicle he was in failed to stop in
response to signals from soldiers. A second Afghan was wounded. A
Canadian soldier was killed when his armored vehicle hit an explosive
device on a road west of Kandahar.
(AP, 2/1/09)(Reuters, 1/31/09)(AP, 2/4/09)
2009 Jan 31, On the streets of
Birmingham, the queen's English is now the queens English. This week
the city council made it official. England's second-largest city
decided to drop apostrophes from all its street signs, saying they're
confusing and old-fashioned.
(AP, 1/31/09)
2009 Jan 31, Chinese Premier Wen
Jiabao arrived in London in the latest leg of a European tour aimed at
tackling the global financial and economic crisis and improving
relations between the trading partners.
(Reuters, 1/31/09)
2009 Jan 31, In southern China
revelers celebrating a birthday set off fireworks just before midnight
inside a bar, triggering a blaze that killed 15 people and injured 22.
(AP, 2/1/09)
2009 Jan 31, Security sources said
Egypt has begun installing cameras and motion sensors along its border
with the Gaza Strip to try to combat smuggling to the Hamas-run
territory.
(Reuters, 1/31/09)
2009 Jan 31, Porsche's new museum
in Stuttgart, a sprawling monument to 60 years of German engineering,
opened to the public.
(AP, 1/30/09)
2009 Jan 31, Roxana Saberi (31),
Iranian-American journalist, was detained in Tehran. In April she was
charged with espionage, two days after her parents visited their
daughter in prison. The government had revoked her press credentials in
2006. On April 13, 2009, she was tried and soon sentenced to 8 years in
jail for spying. Her lawyer appealed.
(www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=101315579)(AP,
4/8/09)(AP, 4/18/09)
2009 Jan 31, Iraq's
provincial elections wrapped up without any reports of serious
violence. The polls decided who sits on the councils that run 14 of
Iraq’s 18 provinces. The turnout was 51% of the 7.5 million eligible
voters. US soldiers killed two Iraqi policemen after coming under fire
during an operation against al-Qaida in northern Iraq. An American
soldier died of a noncombat-related injury in the northern city of
Kirkuk.
(AP, 1/31/09)(AP, 2/1/09)(Econ, 1/24/09, p.54)(Econ,
2/7/09, p.40)
2009 Jan 31, In Kenya an
overturned gasoline tanker exploded as hundreds of people tried to
scoop up free fuel. Some 120 people were killed and 200 injured in the
inferno. Several witnesses said some police were charging 1,000 Kenya
shillings ($13) for 60 liters of fuel, an amount that usually costs
about $65, which enraged the crowd.
(AP, 2/1/09)(AP, 2/2/09)(AP, 2/3/09)
2009 Jan 31, In Pakistan two
motorcyclists lobbed a hand grenade at a police patrol in Baluchistan's
Khuzdar district, but hit bystanders instead, killing one person and
wounding 5 others.
(AP, 2/1/09)
2009 Jan 31, Palestinian militants
fired a rocket from Gaza that exploded close to the southern Israeli
town of Ashkelon without causing any damages or injuries.
(AP, 1/31/09)
2009 Jan 31, Thousands of
protesters rallied across Russia to criticize the government's economic
course and its response to the global financial crisis. In Moscow
minutes after protesters unfurled anti-Kremlin banners and chanted
"Down with KGB power" and "Russia without Putin," a dozen young men
jumped out of cars and started to beat them with fists and metal rods.
Police ignored the attacks by alleged members of "Young Russia," a
pro-Kremlin youth group.
(AP, 1/31/09)(AP, 2/13/09)
2009 Jan 31, In Somalia moderate
Islamist leader Sheikh Sharif Sheik Ahmed was sworn in. The next day in
a published interview he called for a united front against violent
extremists and signaled his intent to try to bring together the
country's feuding Islamic factions.
(AP, 2/1/09)
2009 Jan 31, Sudan’s state media
reported that a US aid group has been thrown out of the Darfur region
after officials found thousands of Arabic-language bibles stacked in
its office. The Texas-based Thirst No More website described its work
in Darfur as focused on repairing and drilling water wells and makes no
mention of evangelism or other faith-based work.
(Reuters, 1/31/09)
2009 Jan 31, In Geneva,
Switzerland, riot police fired tear gas after some 1000 demonstrators
began throwing bottles protesting against the annual World Economic
Forum meeting at Davos.
(AP, 1/31/09)
2009 Jan 31, In Thailand some
30,000 supporters of ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra gathered in
Bangkok, promising to fight on indefinitely unless the new Thai
government leaves office within 15 days. In northeastern Thailand a
grenade blast killed eight people and wounded 27 others during an
outdoor celebration next to a Buddhist temple.
(AFP, 1/31/09)(AP, 2/1/09)
2009 Jan 31, The Vatican announced
that the Pope has tapped the Rev. Gerhard Maria Wagner (54) to be
auxiliary bishop in Linz, the capital of Upper Austria province. Wagner
caused a stir in 2005 when he was quoted as saying that he was
convinced that the death and destruction of Hurricane Katrina earlier
that year was "divine retribution" for tolerance of homosexuals and
laid-back sexual attitudes in New Orleans.
(AP, 2/1/09)
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