Today in History - February 3
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1014 Feb 3, Sweyn
Forkbeard (b.960), Danish-born Viking king of England (1013-14), died.
(www.nndb.com/people/718/000093439/)
1160 Feb 3, Emperor Frederick
Barbarossa hurtled prisoners, including children, at the Italian city
of Crema, forcing its surrender.
(HN, 2/3/99)
1238 Feb 3, The Mongols took over
Vladimir, Russia.
(HN, 2/3/99)
1261 Feb 3, Samogitian fighters
defeated the Livonian Knights of the Cross at Lielvarde.
(LHC, 2/3/03)
1317 Feb 3, Pope John XXII, under
guidance from Gnesen Archbishop Borislav, offered Catholicism to
Lithuania.
(LHC, 2/3/03)
1368 Feb 3, Charles VI, King of
France (1380-1422), was born.
(MC, 2/3/02)
1377 Feb 3, There was a mass
execution of population of Cesena, Italy.
(MC, 2/3/02)
1451 Feb 3, Murad II, Ottoman
sultan (1421-51), died of apoplexy. Mehmet II (19) became Sultan of the
Ottoman Empire. He ruled until 1481.
(ON, 10/00, p.10)(Ot, 1993, p.7)(MC, 2/3/02)
1468 Feb 3, Johannes Gutenberg
(Johannes Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg b.c1400), German inventor
of movable type, died.
(SFC, 2/15/97, p.D1)(WSJ, 9/14/00, p.A24)
1488 Feb 3, Bartolomeu Dias,
Portuguese explorer, sighted the coast of Africa sailing north and made
landing at Mossel Bay (South Africa) and realized that they had rounded
the continent. He saw the southern tip on his return journey in May and
named it Cabo Tormentoso (Cape of Storms). He continued north to the
Great Fish River near present day Port Elizabeth, and then returned
home in December. King Jaoa changed the cape’s name to Cape of Good
Hope to encourage future explorers.
(V.D.-H.K.p.173)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bartolomeu_Dias)(ON,
11/07, p.2)
1547 Feb 3, Russian czar Ivan IV
(17) married Anastasia Romanova.
(MC, 2/3/02)
1576 Feb 3, Henry of Navarre
(future Henry IV) escaped from Paris.
(MC, 2/3/02)
1690 Feb 3, The first paper money
in America was issued by the colony of Massachusetts. The currency was
used to pay soldiers fighting a war against Quebec.
(SFC, 4/30/97, p.B3)(AP, 2/3/97)
1740 Feb 3, Charles de Bourbon,
King of Naples, invited the Jews to return to Sicily.
(MC, 2/3/02)
1783 Feb 3, Spain recognized
United States' independence.
(AP, 2/3/97)(HN, 2/3/99)
1809 Feb 3, Felix Mendelssohn
(d.1847), German composer and pianist, was born. His work included:
"Overture to a Midsummer Night's Dream".
(HN, 2/3/01)(WUD, 1994 p.895)
1809 Feb 3, US Congress passed an
act establishing the Illinois Territory.
(AP, 2/3/97)
1811 Feb 3, Horace Greeley,
abolitionist newspaper editor, was born in Amherst, New Hampshire. He
popularized the phrase "Go west, young man." Greeley, who began his
journalism career at The New Yorker, founded The New York Tribune in
1841 with support from powerful political friends. Under Greeley's
direction, The Tribune took a strong stand against slavery, the South
and slave owners in the years leading up to the Civil War. The Tribune
and Greeley also crusaded against liquor, gambling, prostitution and
capital punishment. One of the founders of the Republican Party,
Greeley was also an eccentric who dabbled in many of the fads of his
day. The phrase was spoken to Josiah Grinell, who went west to Iowa,
became a Congregational minister and founded Grinell College from which
Robert Noyce, developer of the microchip and founder of Intel,
graduated.
(HNPD, 2/3/99)(WSJ, 10/26/00, p.W12)
1815 Feb 3, World's 1st commercial
cheese factory was established, in Switzerland.
(MC, 2/3/02)
1821 Feb 3, Elizabeth Blackwell
(d.1910), first woman to get an MD from a U.S. medical school, was born
in Bristol, England.
(HN, 2/3/99)(ON, 4/03, p.3)
1830 Feb 3, Robert Cecil, Marquess
of Salisbury (C), British PM (1885-1902), was born.
(MC, 2/3/02)
1863 Feb 3, Samuel Clemens became
Mark Twain for 1st time. In Nevada the Territorial Enterprise in
Comstock printed some humorous letters from a reader named "Josh." The
editor hired the man, who was Samuel Clemens, for $25 a week. Clemens
accepted and changed his pen name to Mark Twain. Sam had dropped the
penname "Josh" and first signed himself "Mark Twain" in a letter
written on January 31, 1863. The Territorial Enterprise published the
letter in its Tuesday, February 3, 1863 issue
(http://www.twainquotes.com/18630203t.html).
(SFEC, 3/8/98, BR p.6)
1865 Feb 3, The Hampton Roads
Conference was attended by President Abraham Lincoln and the Vice
President of the Confederacy, Alexander H. Stephens, in an attempt to
end the American Civil War. The four-hour meeting aboard the
Union steamboat River Queen anchored in Hampton Roads in Virginia, also
included Lincoln’s Secretary of State, William H. Seward,
Confederate Assistant Secretary of War John Campbell and Senator R.M.T.
Hunter. Lincoln‘s peace offer required rebel states to return to the
Union, accept the freedom of their slaves and to disband their army.
Even though military defeat was imminent, the Confederate
representatives did not have the authority to accept any peace offer
without a guarantee of independence for the Confederacy, therefore, no
agreement was reached.
(HFA, ‘96, p.22)(AP, 2/3/97)(HNQ, 2/5/00)
1870 Feb 3, 15th Amendment on
Black suffrage was passed. [see Mar 30]
(MC, 2/3/02)
1874 Feb 3, Gertrude Stein
(d.1946), poet and novelist, was born. Her older brother, Michael,
managed the family business, which included San Francisco’s Market
Street railway line. Her parents were Daniel and Milly. Her
relationship with her brother, Leo (1872-1947), abruptly ended in 1914.
Her work included "Three Lives," "G.M.P." and "Tender Buttons."
The 40-year relationship between Gertrude and Leo is told by Brenda
Wineapple in "Sister Brother, Gertrude and Leo Stein." "Everybody gets
so much information all day long that they lose their common sense."
"It is awfully important to know what is and what is not your business."
(SFEC, 8/11/96, DB, p.10)(AP, 12/27/97)(AP,
9/3/98)(HN, 2/3/99)
1887 Feb 3, US Congress created
the Electoral Count Act to avoid disputed natl. elections.
(MC, 2/3/02)
1894 Feb 3, Norman Rockwell,
artist and illustrator, was born. He painted scenes of small-town
America. Most of his work appeared in The Saturday Evening Post.
(HN, 2/3/99)
1898 Feb 3, Alvar Aalto (d.1979),
Finnish architect, was born.
(HN, 2/3/01)
1903 Feb 3, Edward F. Adams,
editorial writer for the SF Chronicle, founded the SF Commonwealth Club.
(SFC, 2/1/03, p.E4)
1904 Feb 3, Colombian troops
clashed with U.S. Marines in Panama.
(HN, 2/3/99)
1907 Feb 3, James A. Michener
(d.1997), American novelist, was born. His work included "Tales of the
South Pacific." "Character consists of what you do on the third and
fourth tries."
(AP, 2/4/97)(HN, 2/3/01)
1908 Feb 3, The US Supreme Court,
in Loewe v. Lawlor, ruled the United Hatters Union had violated the
Sherman Antitrust Act by organizing a nationwide boycott of Danbury
Hatters of Connecticut.
(AP, 2/3/08)
1909 Feb 3, Simone Weil (d.1943),
French philosopher, member of the French resistance in WWII, was born.
"All sins are attempts to fill voids." "Man alone can enslave man."
(HN, 2/3/01)(AP, 12/10/97)(AP, 8/23/98)
1912 Feb 3, New U.S. football
rules were set: the field was shortened to 100 yds.; touchdown became
six points instead of five; four downs were allowed instead of three;
and the kickoff was moved from midfield to the 40 yd. line.
(HN, 2/3/99)
1913 Feb 3, The 16th Amendment to
the Constitution, providing for a federal income tax, was ratified. The
new income tax laws included an exemption on life insurance to help
widows and orphans. The 1st $3,000 was exempted. The top rate on
incomes over $500,000 was 6%.
(AP, 2/3/00)(SSFC, 7/28/02, p.A3)(WSJ, 6/4/03, p.B1)
1916 Feb 3, Canada's original
parliament buildings, in Ottawa, burned down.
(AP, 2/3/97)
1917 Feb 3, The United States
broke off diplomatic relations with Germany, which had announced a
policy of unrestricted submarine warfare. A German submarine sank the
U.S. liner Housatonic off coast of Sicily.
(AP, 2/3/97)(HN, 2/3/99)
1918 Feb 3, Joey Bishop,
[Gottlieb], talk show host (Joey Bishop Show), was born in the Bronx.
(MC, 2/3/02)
1918 Feb 3, The $4.25 million,
12,000 foot Twin Peaks tunnel for the SF Muni Railway opened with Mayor
James Rolph at the helm of the first streetcar to go through to West
Portal. Access to the west of the mountain spawned the 1st residential
parks including West Portal Park, St. Francis Wood, Balboa Terrace, and
Forest Hill.
(SFEC, 4/25/99, Z1 p.4)(SFCM, 3/3/02, p.40)(SFC,
2/4/09, p.B7)
1919 Feb 3, Eamon de Valera, Sinn
Fein leader, and 2 other men escaped from England’s Lincoln Jail and
made their way home to Ireland.
(ON, 9/04, p.7)
1919 Feb 3, League of Nations held
its 1st meeting in Paris.
(MC, 2/3/02)
1920 Feb 3, The Allies demanded
that 890 German military leaders stand trial for war crimes.
(HN, 2/3/99)
1924 Feb 3, The 28th president of
the United States, Woodrow Wilson, died in Washington at age 68. The
Woodrow Wilson Foundation in 1958 asked Prof. Arthur Link (1920-1998)
of Northwestern Univ. to oversee the publication of Wilson’s papers.
Link spent 35 years on the project and completed his 69th and final
volume in 1983. Link also produced a 5-volume biography on Wilson.
(AP, 2/3/97)(SFEC, 3/29/98, p.E7)
1930 Feb 3, The chief justice of
the United States, William Howard Taft, resigned for health reasons. He
died just over a month later.
(AP, 2/3/97)
1940 Feb 3, Fran Tarkenton, NFL
quarterback, was born.
(Internet)
1941 Feb 3, The US Supreme Court
upheld the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, ruling that Congress can
fix minimum wages and maximum hours for US workers.
(AH, 2/06, p.14)
1943 Feb 3, The US transport ship
"Dorchester," which was carrying troops to Greenland, sank after being
hit by a torpedo. Four Army chaplains (Rev. Lt. George L. Fox, a
Methodist minister; Rabbi Lt. Alexander D. Goode; Father Lt. John P.
Washington, a Roman Catholic priest; and Rev. Lt. Clark V. Poling, a
Protestant minister from the Dutch Reformed Church) gave their life
jackets to four other men, and went down with the ship.
(AP, 2/3/03)(www.fourchaplains.org/story.html)
1943 Feb 3, Finland began talks
with the Soviet Union.
(HN, 2/3/99)
1944 Feb 3, The United States
shelled the Japanese homeland for the first time at Kurile Islands.
(HN, 2/3/99)
1945 Feb 3, The Allies dropped
3,000 tons of bombs on Berlin. Robert Rosenthal (1917-2007) led 1,000
B-17s in the raid on Berlin. Rosenthal later served as an assistant to
the US prosecutor at the Nuremberg trials.
(HN, 2/3/99)(SFC, 4/30/07, p.B8)
1945 Feb 3, The month-long Battle
of Manila began.
(HN, 2/3/99)
1947 Feb 3, Percival Prattis
became the 1st black reporter in Congressional press gallery.
(MC, 2/3/02)
1950 Feb 3, Morgan Fairchild,
[Patsy McClenny], actress (Falcon Crest), born in Dallas, Tx.
(en.wikipedia org/wiki/Morgan_Fairchild))
1950 Feb 3, The song "Rag Mop" by
The Ames Brothers hit #1.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1950_in_music)
1951 Feb 3, "Victor Borge Show,"
debuted on NBC TV.
(MC, 2/3/02)
1953 Feb 3, J. Fred Muggs, a
chimp, became a regular on NBC's Today Show.
(MC, 2/3/02)
1954 Feb 3, Millions greeted Queen
Elizabeth in Sydney on her first royal trip to Australia.
(HN, 2/3/99)
1956 Feb 3, Autherine Lucy
(b.1929) arrived at the Tuscaloosa branch of the Univ. of Alabama and
became the first black person to enroll there. She had been accepted in
1952 and then was denied because of her race.
(http://www.answers.com/topic/autherine-lucy-foster)
1959 Feb 3, A plane crash
near Clear Lake, Iowa, claimed the lives of rock- and-roll stars Buddy
Holly (22), Ritchie Valens (17) and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson
(28). They had just finished performing at the Surf Ballroom in Clear
Lake. Buddy Holley and the Crickets had 2 hit songs "Oh Boy" and "Maybe
Baby," Valens had the 2-sided hit "Donna" and "La Bamba," Richardson
was popular for his song "Chantilly Lace."
(AP, 2/3/97)(WSJ, 2/25/99, p.A16)(MC, 2/3/02)
1959 Feb 3, An American Airlines
Lockheed Electra crashed into New York's East River while approaching
LaGuardia Airport, killing 65 of the 73 people on board.
(AP, 2/3/08)
1959 Feb 3, Vincent Astor
(b.1891), businessman and philanthropist, died. He left almost his
entire fortune to his wife, Brooke Astor (b.1902 as Roberta Brooke
Russell). In 2007 Frances Kiernan authored “The Last Mrs. Astor: A New
York Story.”
(WSJ, 5/18/07,
p.W10)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincent_Astor)
1960 Feb 3, Candlestick Park, the
new home of the SF Giants baseball team, was officially turned over to
the team.
(SFEC,12/797, Z1 p.4)(SSFC, 1/31/10, p.42)
1962 Feb 3, President John F.
Kennedy banned all trade with Cuba except for food & drugs.
(HN, 2/3/99)
1964 Feb 3, "Meet the Beatles"
album went Gold.
(MC, 2/3/02)
1966 Feb 3, The Soviet probe Luna
9 became the first manmade object to make a soft landing on the moon.
(AP, 2/3/08)
1967 Feb 3, Ronald Ryan (b.1925)
was the last person executed in Australia.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Ryan)
1971 Feb 3, OPEC decided to set
oil prices without consulting buyers.
(HN, 2/3/99)
1973 Feb 3, "No, No Nanette"
closed at 46th St. Theater in NYC after 861 performances.
(www.ibdb.com/production.asp?ID=3580)
1976 Feb 3, In Nigeria Gen.
Murtala Ramat Muhammed (1938-1976) proclaimed Abuja as the new federal
capital. It was founded to replace Lagos and became the official
capital in 1991.
(SFC, 11/23/06,
p.A28)(www.datelineafrica.org/stories/200802130370.html)
1978 Feb 3, Egyptian President
Anwar al-Sadat arrived in Washington DC to discuss the Middle East
peace process with US President Jimmy Carter.
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/3/newsid_2525000/2525341.stm)
1983 Feb 3, Cardinal Antonio
Samore (b.1905), Vatican representative and archivist, died. In 1978 he
mediated the Beagle conflict, a border dispute between Argentina and
Chile.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonio_Samor%C3%A9)
1984 Feb 3, The Environmental
Protection Agency ordered a ban on the pesticide EDB for grain
products.
(HN, 2/3/99)
1985 Feb 3, Frank Friedman
Oppenheimer (b.1912), American physicist, died. He had worked on the
Manhattan Project, was a target of McCarthyism, and was later the
founder of the Exploratorium in San Francisco (1969). He was the
younger brother of Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer, the first director of Los
Alamos National Laboratory.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Oppenheimer)
1987 Feb 3, The San Diego Yacht
Club celebrated the victory of skipper Dennis Conner and the Stars and
Stripes over Australia to sweep the America's Cup series.
(AP, 2/3/97)
1988 Feb 3, The U.S. House of
Representatives handed President Reagan a major defeat, rejecting his
request for at least $36.25 million in aid to the Nicaraguan Contras.
(AP, 2/3/97)
1988 Feb 3, The U.S. Senate voted
unanimously to confirm Anthony M. Kennedy to the U.S. Supreme Court.
(AP, 2/3/97)
1988 Feb 3, Robert Duncan,
American poet, died. He and his partner Jess Collins (d.2004) along
with Harry Jacobus founded the King Ubu Gallery in SF in 1953.
(SFC, 1/7/04,
p.A19)(www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/a_f/duncan/life.htm)
1989 Feb 3, John Cassavetes
(b.1929), Greek-American actor and film director, died. His films
included "Gloria" (1980), "Love Streams" (1984) and "A Woman Under the
Influence." An unproduced script was later made into the 1997 film
"She’s So Lovely," by his son. In 2006 Marshall Fine authored
“Accidental Genius,” a biography of Cassavetes.
(WSJ, 8/29/97,
p.A9)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Cassavetes)(WSJ, 3/3/06, p.W6)
1989 Feb 3, Gen’l. Andres
Rodriguez (d.1997 at 73) staged a coup to oust Gen’l. Alfredo
Stroessner. Stroessner, president of Paraguay for more than three
decades, was overthrown in the military coup. Some 300 people were
killed.
(SFC, 4/22/97, p.A3)(AP, 2/3/99)(SFC, 8/17/06, p.A10)
1990 Feb 3, The parliament of
Bulgaria elected economist Andrei Lukanov to replace a hard-line
Communist as premier. Lukanov became the prime minister after rising to
the number 2 spot of the Communist hierarchy under Zhivkov. He oversaw
the party’s formal break with Stalinism and victory in the first free
elections.
(SFC, 10/5/96, p.A10)(AP, 2/3/00)
1991 Feb 3, US military officials
confirmed that seven of eleven Marines who were killed in combat on
January 30th died from "friendly fire."
(AP, 2/3/01)
1991 Feb 3, The rate for a
first-class postage stamp rose to 29 cents.
(AP, 2/3/01)
1991 Feb 3, Nancy Kulp (b.1921),
actress (Jane Hathaway-Beverly Hillbillies), died.
(http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0474685/)
1992 Feb 3, President George H.W.
Bush got into a testy exchange with Democratic governors over his
economic-revival plan.
(AP, 2/3/02)
1992 Feb 3, Japanese Prime
Minister Kiichi Miyazawa sparked controversy by saying American workers
were losing the drive "to live by the sweat of their brow."
(AP, 2/3/02)
1993 Feb 3, Marge Schott was
suspended as Cincinnati Reds owner for one year for repeatedly using
racial and ethnic slurs. The suspension was lifted after eight months.
(AP, 2/3/97)
1993 Feb 3, In Los Angeles, the
federal trial began for four police officers charged with civil rights
violations in the videotaped beating of Rodney King.
(AP, 2/3/97)
1994 Feb 3, President Clinton
lifted the 19-year-old U.S. trade embargo against Vietnam.
(SFC, 12/26/98, p.A9)(AP, 2/3/99)
1994 Feb 3, The US Senate
confirmed William Perry to be defense secretary.
(AP, 2/3/99)
1994 Feb 3, Nation of Islam leader
Louis Farrakhan dismissed his aide, Khalid Abdul Muhammad, for making
anti-Semitic remarks.
(AP, 2/3/99)
1994 Feb 3, The space shuttle
Discovery lifted off, carrying Sergei Krikalev, the first Russian
cosmonaut to fly aboard a U.S. spacecraft.
(AP, 2/3/99)
1995 Feb 3, The space shuttle
Discovery blasted off with a woman, Air Force Lt. Col. Eileen Collins,
in the pilot's seat for the first time in NASA history.
(AP, 2/3/00)
1995 Feb 3, At the O.J. Simpson
trial in Los Angeles, prosecution witness Denise Brown wept on the
stand as she described the humiliation and abuse of her sister, Nicole
Brown Simpson, at the hands of the former football star.
(AP, 2/3/00)
1995 Feb 3, IBM in fashion shed
its dress code in favor of casual wear.
(SFEC, 8/29/99, p.C1)
1996 Feb 3, Sergeant First Class
Donald A. Dugan, 38, became the first US soldier killed while on duty
in Bosnia when a piece of ammunition exploded in his hands.
(AP, 2/3/01)
1996 Feb 3, Actress Audrey Meadows
died in Los Angeles at the age of 71.
(AP, 2/3/01)
1996 Feb 3, A 7.0 earthquake hit
Lijiang region of Yunnan province in China. Some 231 people were killed
and 14,000 injured.
(WSJ, 2/5/96, p.A-1)(NH, 4/97, p.44)
1997 Feb 3, The Army announced
that a retired female sergeant major had accused Sgt. Maj. Gene
McKinney of sexual assault and harassment. McKinney, who was accused of
sexual misconduct by six women, faced court-martial, but was acquitted
of 18 charges of pressuring enlisted women for sex. He received a
reprimand and reduction in rank.
(AP, 2/3/02)
1997 Feb 3, The US stock market
initiated new "circuit breakers." The first stop would kick in after a
350-point drop in the DJ industrial average.
(WSJ, 2/3/97, p.A12)
1997 Feb 3, In Bulgaria prime
minister designate Nikolai Dobrev was selected by the ruling Socialists
to lead a new government. Thousands hit the streets with students and
transport workers in protest.
(SFC, 2/4/97, p.A9)
1997 Feb 3, In the Philippines
Roman Catholic Bishop Benjamin de Jesus was shot to death in the city
of Cotaboto on Jolo Island.
(SFC, 2/4/97, p.A9)
1997 Feb 3, In Serbia Belgrade
police beat up protestors and representatives of Kosovo’s Albanian
majority said 5 people were killed in a police sweep.
(SFC, 2/4/97, p.A8)
1998 Feb 3, A new 32-cent postage
stamp in honor of John Muir was to be issued at the Martinez, Ca. post
office.
(SFC, 1/8/98, p.A19)
1998 Feb 3, In California heavy
rains continued to thrash the state and rivers in Northern California
spilled over their banks.
(SFC, 2/4/98, p.A1)
1998 Feb 3, Mary Kay LeTourneau,
36, former Washington state teacher, violated probation with the 14
year-old father of her baby.
(http://tinyurl.com/7smjq)
1998 Feb 3, In Savannah, Tenn., a
helicopter used to install power lines struck a worker on a utility
pole and crashed. Three people were killed and 2 injured.
(SFC, 2/4/98, p.A3)
1998 Feb 3, In Texas Karla Faye
Tucker (38) was executed by lethal injection with sodium thiopental for
the 1983 pickax slaying of 2 people during a break-in in 1983. She was
the first woman executed in the United States since 1984.
(SFC, 2/4/98, p.A1)(WSJ, 1/4/98, p.R4)(AP, 2/3/99)
1998 Feb 3, Heavy storms hit the
Southeast and Western US and 4 tornadoes hit the Miami area.
(WSJ, 2/4/98, p.A1)
1998 Feb 3, Armenia Pres. Levon
Ter-Petrosyan (52) resigned after 7 years of leadership. His support
for a compromise settlement over the Nagorno-Karabakh caused backers to
defect to the opposition.
(SFC, 2/4/98, p.C2)
1998 Feb 3, A US surveillance
aircraft cut a ski cable in Italy and caused the death of 20 skiers in
a gondola cable car running from Cavalese to the Alpe Cermis. The EA-6B
aircraft was normally used for patrols over Bosnia and was only
slightly damaged. Lt. Col. Steven Watters was later relieved of command
for telling crew members of a related squadron to destroy evidence in
the investigation. The pilot did not have Italian military maps that
identified the ski lift. Four crewmen were later charged by the Marine
Corps with negligent homicide, involuntary manslaughter and dereliction
of duty. The pilot and navigator faced trial for manslaughter. Pilot
Richard J. Ashby was acquitted of all charges in 1999. Navigator Joseph
Schweitzer was acquitted of manslaughter and negligent homicide
charges. Schweitzer later pleaded guilty to obstruction and conspiracy
charges for destroying a videotape made during the flight. The tape
indicated that the plane had been flying upside down. Schweitzer was
sentenced to dismissal from the Marine Corps. Capt. Ashby (32) was
found guilty of obstruction of justice and conspiracy in May, 1999 and
was sentenced to 6 months in prison and dismissed from the Marine
Corps. Families of the victims settled for $2 million apiece in 2000.
(SFC, 2/4/98, p.A7)(SFC, 2/11/98, p.A11)(SFC,
2/19/98, p.B10)(SFC, 3/27/98, p.A14)(SFC, 7/11/98, p.A2)(SFC, 3/5/99,
p.A1)(WSJ, 3/16/99, p.A1)(WSJ, 3/30/99, p.A1)(SFC, 4/3/99, p.A3)(SFC,
5/1/99, p.A4)(SFC, 5/8/99, p.A4)(SFC, 5/11/99, p.A4)(SFC, 4/26/00, p.A4)
1998 Feb 3, In Japan a 3-rocket
attack on Tokyo’s Narita Airport did no damage but slightly injured a
cargo handler. Three rockets were involved. Later the leftist
Revolutionary Workers Association claimed responsibility
(SFC, 2/4/98, p.C3)(SFC, 2/7/98, p.11)
1999 Feb 3, Pres. Clinton signed
an executive order to establish a council of scientists and bureaucrats
to combat zebra mussels, leafy spurge, long-horned beetles and other
invasive pests.
(SFC, 2/4/99, p.A6)
1999 Feb 3, The Clinton
administration told Congress a NATO-led peacekeeping force could be
needed in Kosovo for three to five years and might include up to 4,000
American troops.
(AP, 2/3/00)
1999 Feb 3, In Switzerland 60 of
the 105 members of the IOC met to formulate an assault on performance
enhancing drugs.
(WSJ, 2/4/99, p.A1)
1999 Feb 3, In Guinea-Bissau Pres.
Joao Bernardo Vieira agreed to a cease fire with rebel leader Ansumane
Mane.
(SFC, 2/4/99, p.A12)
1999 Feb 3, In Indonesia police
fired on a crowd listening to separatist speeches in Aceh and 2 people
were killed. The death toll from Christian-Muslim clashes on Ambon was
raised to 94.
(WSJ, 2/4/99, p.A1)
1999 Feb 3, In Kosovo members of
the KLA demanded that peace talks include a guaranteed vote for
independence.
(SFC, 2/4/99, p.A10)
1999 Feb 3, Moscow reported that
its year 2000 problems will cost $3 billion to repair.
(WSJ, 2/4/99, p.A1)
1999 Feb 3, A boatload of refugees
from Sierra Leone sank near Guinea and 50 people were killed.
(WSJ, 2/4/99, p.A1)
1999 Feb 3, In Zimbabwe officials
said that 70,000 people will die of AIDS this year. 1.6 million of the
nation's 12 million people were infected.
(WSJ, 2/4/99, p.A1)
2000 Feb 3, The Senate voted
89-to-four to confirm Alan Greenspan for a fourth term as chairman of
the Federal Reserve.
(AP, 2/3/01)
2000 Feb 3, The flight data
recorder from Alaska Airlines Flight 261 was recovered from the Pacific
Ocean off California.
(AP, 2/3/01)
2000 Feb 3, The US Navy in the
Straits of Hormuz took control of a Russian tanker, Volgoneft-147, on
suspicion that is was smuggling oil from Iraq in violation of US
sanctions. Tests showed the oil came from Iraq and it was forced to
discharge the oil in Oman.
(SFC, 2/4/00, p.D6)(WSJ, 2/8/00, p.A1)
2000 Feb 3, The US Supreme Court
granted a stay of execution for Robert Lee Traver Jr., who was to be
electrocuted in Alabama.
(SFC, 2/5/00, p.A2)
2000 Feb 3, The Ford Motor Co.
said it would provide new PCs and a printer with Internet access to its
300,000 employees at $5 per month over 3 years.
(SFC, 2/5/00, p.A1)
2000 Feb 3, Richard Kleindienst,
who had served as US attorney general during the Nixon administration
and resigned during the Watergate scandal, died in Prescott, Arizona,
at age 76.
(SFC, 2/4/00, p.D9)(AP, 2/3/01)
2000 Feb 3, Vodafone AirTouch PLC
of Britain took over Mannesmann AG of Germany for a record $170 billion
in stock.
(SFC, 2/4/00, p.A1)
2000 Feb 3, In Austria Pres.
Thomas Klestil swore in members of the Freedom Party after Joerg Haider
signed a declaration accepting Austria's responsibility for Nazi crimes
during WW II.
(SFC, 2/4/00, p.A1)
2000 Feb 3, The British government
announced that it would resume control over Northern Ireland within
days if the IRA did not take steps to disarm.
(SFC, 2/4/00, p.A10)
2000 Feb 3, In Chechnya the
Russian military traded Radio Liberty journalist Andrei Babitsky to
Chechen rebels in exchange for 3 Russian soldiers.
(SFC, 2/5/00, p.A12)
2000 Feb 3, In Kosovo violence
broke out in Mitrovica with 2 grenade attacks that left 20 people
wounded and shootings that left 3 ethnic Albanians dead. The number of
deaths were later increased to 7.
(SFC, 2/4/00, p.D5)(SFEC, 2/6/00, p.A26)
2001 Feb 3, The 8-member XFL
football league, created by WWF guru Vince McMahon, made its debut on
NBC. The Las Vegas Outlaws beat the New York-New Jersey Hitmen 19-0 in
Las Vegas, and the Orlando Rage beat the Chicago Enforcers 33-29 in
Florida. The XFL folded after just one season.
(SSFC, 2/4/01, p.A1)(AP, 2/3/02)
2001 Feb 3, Terry McAuliffe was
elected chairman of the Democratic National Committee.
(AP, 2/3/02)
2001 Feb 3, Benjamin Varner, a
freshman at Gallaudet Univ. in Washington DC, was found dead with his
throat slashed and face mutilated. Police later arrested Joseph Mesa
Jr. (20), a freshman student from Guam, for the murder of Varner and
Eric Plunkett in Sep, 2000. [see Sep 28, 2000]
(SSFC, 2/4/01, p.A10)(SFC, 2/6/01, p.A6)(SFC,
2/14/01, p.A7)
2001 Feb 3, Mexico followed Canada
and the US in a ban on beef from Brazil due to fears of mad cow
disease.
(WSJ, 2/5/01, p.A17)
2002 Feb 3, In Superbowl XXXVI the
New England Patriots beat the St. Louis Rams 20-17 with a 48-yard field
goal by Adam Vinatieri as time expired. Patriot quarterback Tom Brady
(24) was named MVP.
(SFC, 2/4/02, p.C1)
2002 Feb 3, Former Enron chairman
Kenneth Lay backed out of testifying before Congress about the collapse
of the energy giant.
(AP, 2/3/03)
2002 Feb 3, Argentina unveiled a
plan to rescue the economy that included a partial easement of the
banking freeze and a free-floating peso.
(SFC, 2/4/02, p.A4)
2002 Feb 3, In Cambodia’s 1st
local elections Hun Sen’s Cambodian People’s Party won control of up to
1600 of the 1,621 local councils. A US monitoring group said the polls
were competently run but neither free nor fair.
(SFC, 2/5/02, p.A7)
2002 Feb 3, In Cuba Fidel Castro
met with Pres. Fox of Mexico.
(SFC, 2/4/02, p.A4)
2002 Feb 3, In Israel the Cabinet
backed PM Sharon for initiating talks with Palestinian officials.
(SFC, 2/4/02, p.A4)
2002 Feb 3, In Costa Rica
presidential elections Abel Pacheco, of the ruling Social Christian
Unity Party, won 38.5% of the vote and Rolando Araya, National
Liberation Party, won 30.9%. A runoff was scheduled for Apr 7.
(SFC, 2/5/02, p.A7)
2002 Feb 3, A 6.0-6.2 earthquake
hit Turkey and as least 45 people were killed. The epicenter was about
135 miles southwest of Ankara.
(SFC, 2/4/02, p.A3)(WSJ, 2/4/02, p.A1)
2003 Feb 3, Pres. Bush set forth a
$2.2 trillion budget and acknowledged that it would contribute to years
of deficits.
(SFC, 2/4/03, p.A1)
2003 Feb 3, It was reported that
the US and Britain had mapped out a strategy to limit arms inspections
in Iraq to no more than 6 more weeks.
(SFC, 2/3/03, p.A1)
2003 Feb 3, Phil Spector (62),
rock-n-roll producer, was arrested in LA for murder after Lana Clarkson
(40) was found dead in his mansion. In 2007 his murder case ended in a
mistrial with a 10-2 deadlock.
(SFC, 2/4/03, p.A1)(SFC, 9/27/07, p.A2)
2003 Feb 3, New Jersey doctors
joined the protest against high malpractice insurance premiums.
(WSJ, 2/4/03, p.A1)
2003 Feb 3, A new British report
said Iraqi security agents have bugged every room and telephone of the
UN weapons inspectors based in Baghdad and have hidden documents in
Iraqi hospitals, mosques and homes.
(AP, 2/4/03)
2003 Feb 3, In England Margaret
Muller, an American artist, was stabbed to death as she ran in London’s
Victoria Park. In 2009 The Metropolitan Police said that a 36-year-old
man had been arrested on suspicion of the murder and was in custody
north of London.
(AP, 2/4/09)
2003 Feb 3, Germany began its
first working day as president of the UN Security Council.
(AP, 2/4/03)
2003 Feb 3, Israeli tank fire
killed two Palestinian farmers in the Gaza Strip on Monday, and
soldiers arrested a leader of Yasser Arafat's Fatah group on the West
Bank.
(AP, 2/3/03)
2003 Feb 3, The Peace Corps
resumed work in Peru, nearly three decades after a leftist military
government ended the American volunteer program there.
(AP, 2/3/03)
2003 Feb 3, Venezuela's workers
returned to work in all sectors but the vital oil industry after
abandoning a two-month-long general strike that failed to oust
President Hugo Chavez.
(AP, 2/3/04)
2004 Feb 3, Kerry won five states
(Arizona, Delaware, Missouri, New Mexico, N. Dakota) and the lion's
share of the delegates, taking command of the race. Of the 269
delegates up for grabs, Kerry won 144, Edwards 66, Clark 50, Dean seven
and Al Sharpton two. Clark squeaked a win in Oklahoma and Edwards
won his home state, S. Carolina.
(AP, 2/4/04)(USAT, 2/4/04, p.1A)
2004 Feb 3, US Senate Majority
Leader Bill Frist said that a white powder, found in his office in the
Dirksen Senate Office Building, tested positive for ricin, forcing
closure of Senate office buildings and close scrutiny of congressional
mail.
(AP, 2/3/04)
2004 Feb 3, Gov. Rod Blagojevich
signed legislation creating a $500 million tax on Illinois hospitals,
which expected increased federal funding under the plan.
(USAT, 2/4/04, p.9A)
2004 Feb 3, The Ohio Legislature
approved a ban on same-sex marriage and barred benefits to both
homosexual and heterosexual domestic partners. Gov. Taft planned to
sign the bill.
(SFC, 2/4/04, p.A6)
2004 Feb 3, Oregon voters rejected
$800 million in tax increases setting up a new round of cuts in
services.
(WSJ, 2/4/04, p.A1)
2004 Feb 3, The US government
revoked Guyana's Home Affairs Minister Ronald Gajraj's travel visa. He
has been accused of organizing a hit squad blamed in the deaths of more
than 40 suspected criminals last year.
(AP, 2/5/04)(Econ, 5/22/04, p.34)
2004 Feb 3, In southern Russia a
car bomb exploded at the central market in Vladikavkaz, near the
war-ravaged Chechen Republic.
(AP, 2/3/04)
2004 Feb 3, Singapore Airlines
began 18½ hour non-stop flights to Los Angeles.
(USAT, 2/5/04, p.1B)
2005 Feb 3, Alberto Gonzales won
US Senate confirmation as attorney general.
(AP, 2/3/06)
2005 Feb 3, According to audio
transcripts and documents unveiled by a public utility north of
Seattle, fallen energy giant Enron Corp. was running scams to drive up
the cost of power years before the 2000-01 West Coast energy crisis.
(AP, 2/3/05)
2005 Feb 3, Boeing Co. said it has
a preliminary agreement with Libya's Buraq Air to buy as many as six
airplanes in a deal that could be worth nearly $370 million.
(AP, 2/3/05)
2005 Feb 3, Ernst Mayr (b.1904),
German born evolutionary biologist, died in Bedford, Mass. The central
focus of his work was “geographic speciation.” His books included
“Systematics and the Origen of the Species” (1942).
(SFC, 2/4/05, p.B7)(Econ, 2/12/05, p.85)
2005 Feb 3, An Afghan passenger
jet carrying 104 people disappeared from radar screens during a
snowstorm near the mountain-ringed capital. NATO helicopters found the
wreckage of 2 days later. There were no survivors.
(AP, 2/4/05)(AP, 2/5/05)
2005 Feb 3, Bolivia’s Pres. Carlos
Mesa shuffled his cabinet in the wake of street protests calling for
regional autonomy and objecting to a planned increase in the price of
fuel oil.
(AP, 2/3/05)
2005 Feb 3, The US embassy in
Phnom Penh condemned the Cambodian parliament's vote to strip
opposition leader Sam Rainsy and two of his deputies of immunity.
(AP, 2/3/05)
2005 Feb 3, Chechnya's
Russian-backed government dismissed a rebel February cease-fire
declaration, saying it was a publicity stunt that could not be trusted.
(AP, 2/3/05)(WSJ, 2/3/05, p.A1)
2005 Feb 3, PM Zurab Zhvania, who
helped lead Georgia's revolution that toppled the corruption-tainted
regime of Eduard Shevardnadze, died in a friend's apartment from what
officials claimed was an accidental gas leak from a heater.
(AP, 2/3/05)
2005 Feb 3, In central India at
least 25 people were killed when a passenger train collided with a
tractor pulling a trailer full of people.
(AP, 2/3/05)
2005 Feb 3, Iran and Syria
rejected President Bush's charges that they sponsored terrorism. An
Iranian official called the claims groundless. The Syrian information
minister said the democracy America seeks for the Middle East could not
come through force.
(AP, 2/3/05)
2005 Feb 3, Insurgents struck back
with a vengeance following a post-election lull, waylaying a minibus
carrying new Iraqi army recruits, firing on Iraqis heading for work at
a U.S. base and gunning down an Iraqi soldier in the capital. At least
18 people, including 2 Marines, died in insurgent-related incidents.
(AP, 2/3/05)
2005 Feb 3, Israeli Cabinet
ministers approved the release of 900 Palestinian prisoners and a
military pullout from the West Bank town of Jericho within days.
(AP, 2/3/05)
2005 Feb 3, Hamas leader Khaled
Mashaal said that fugitives in his Palestinian group would not sign
pledges to halt attacks because that would negate the legitimacy of
their right to fight the Israeli occupation.
(AP, 2/3/05)
2005 Feb 3, The Kremlin said
President Vladimir Putin has signed a resolution that would have
Russian troops join a proposed U.N. peacekeeping operation in Sudan.
(AP, 2/3/05)
2005 Feb 3, In Sudan the pilot of
a cargo plane that was losing altitude steered away from a built-up
area and crashed in open space outside Khartoum, killing 7 crew members.
(AP, 2/3/05)
2005 Feb 3, An interim UN report
zeroed in on the chief of the oil-for-food program, Benon Sevan, saying
Saddam Hussein's regime awarded oil allocations in his name to a
trading company between 1998 and 2001.
(AP, 2/4/05)
2006 Feb 3, Responding to
Venezuela's expulsion of a US naval officer from Caracas, the State
Department declared a senior Venezuelan diplomat persona non grata and
gave her 72 hours to leave the United States.
(AP, 2/3/06)
2006 Feb 3, PG&E agreed to pay
$295 million to settle lawsuits over drinking wells contaminated with
the toxic chemical chromium.
(SFC, 2/4/06, p.A1)
2006 Feb 3, Merck & Co.
received approval from the US FDA to begin marketing RotaTeq, a vaccine
for rotavirus, an intestinal virus that annually kills nearly half a
million children around the world.
(WSJ, 2/4/06, p.A2)
2006 Feb 3, A Kama Sutra worm was
set to activate. It was designed to corrupt unprotected documents using
the most common file types, including ".doc," ".pdf," and ".zip."
(AP, 2/2/06)
2006 Feb 3, In Alabama 5 small
Baptist churches were found burned to the ground in Bibb County. 4 of
the churches had white congregations, one was black. On Dec 20 three
former college students, aged 19-20, pleaded guilty to burning 9
churches over 2 nights. In 2007 Benjamin N. Moseley and Matthew L.
Cloyd were sentenced to 8 years in prison. Russell L. DeBusk Jr., who
only took part in the 1st burnings, was sentenced to 7 years [see Feb
7].
(SFC, 2/4/06, p.A3)(SFC, 12/21/06, p.A3)(SFC,
4/10/07, p.A5)
2006 Feb 3, Al Lewis (95), TV
sitcom actor, died. He played officer Schnauzer in “Car 54, Where Are
Your?” (1961-1963) and the patriarch in “The Munsters” (1964-1966).
(SSFC, 2/5/06, p.A2)
2006 Feb 3, In southern
Afghanistan fierce fighting involving US warplanes and Afghan troops
left at least 16 Taliban rebels and three police dead.
(AP, 2/3/06)
2006 Feb 3, In Bangladesh nearly
1,150 people were arrested in Dhaka, a day before opposition supporters
were due to converge on the city in a campaign to oust the government.
(AFP, 2/4/06)
2006 Feb 3, British author
Phillippe Sands said in a new edition of his 2005 ”Lawless World” that
Pres. Bush commented in a White House meeting with Tony Blair on Jan.
31, 2003, that the US intended to go to war even if inspectors failed
to find evidence of a banned weapons program. Sands cited a memo of the
meeting as saying Bush also told Blair that military intervention was
scheduled for March 2003 even without UN backing.
(AP, 2/3/06)
2006 Feb 3, Some 200,000 Cubans
crowded Revolution Plaza for a ceremony granting Hugo Chavez UNESCO's
2005 Jose Marti International Prize. President Castro himself handed
over the framed certificate to Venezuela’s Pres. Chavez. UNESCO
introduced the Marti prize in 1994 to recognize an individual or
institution contributing to the unity and integration of countries of
Latin America and the Caribbean.
(AP, 2/3/06)
2006 Feb 3, An Egyptian passenger
ferry carrying 1,408 people, mostly Egyptian workers returning from
Saudi Arabia, sank in the Red Sea overnight. The 35-year-old ship,
"Al-Salam Boccaccio 98," went down 40 miles off the Egyptian port of
Hurghada between midnight and 2 a.m. Rescue boats picked up at least
362 survivors from the ferry that caught fire and sank in the Red Sea,
apparently so fast there was no time for a distress signal. But more
than 1,000 missing passengers and crew were feared drowned. The report
into the sinking found the ship was overloaded and using forged
documents to hide a shortage of safety equipment. In 2008 an Egyptian
court acquitted in absentia Mamdouh Ismail, the owner of the ferry and
his son, of negligence and corruption. Ismail, is a member of
parliament's upper house, and his son Amr was a top executive in the
ferry company. In 2009 Mamdouh Ismail was convicted of involuntary
manslaughter and negligence and sentenced to seven years in prison.
(AP, 2/3/06)(AP, 2/4/06)(AP, 4/19/06)(AP,
7/27/08)(AP, 3/11/09)
2006 Feb 3, BNP Paribas, France’s
2nd largest bank by assets, declared that it was buying a 48% stake in
Banca Nazionale del Lavoro (BNL), Italy’s 6th largest bank, and that it
would bid for the rest.
(Econ, 2/11/06, p.70)
2006 Feb 3, Indian health
officials reported that over 5,600 new cases of chikungunya, a
crippling and incurable mosquito-born disease, had infected people on
the island of Reunion.
(www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L04459988.htm)
2006 Feb 3, Iran warned it no
longer would consider a Kremlin proposal to move its uranium enrichment
program to Russia if it is referred to the UN Security Council for
allegedly violating a nuclear arms control treaty.
(AP, 2/3/06)
2006 Feb 3, The bullet-riddled
bodies of 14 Sunni Arab men purportedly seized by Shiite-led forces
last week were found in Baghdad. The next day a prominent Sunni
politician accused the government of pushing Iraq toward "civil war."
Iraqi police rounded up nearly 60 people in Baghdad and Basra in a
security crackdown.
(AP, 2/4/06)(SFC, 2/4/06, p.A7)
2006 Feb 3, A study by the Israeli
Research Institute for Economic and Social Affairs determined that more
than $14 billion has been spent on West Bank settlements since
capturing the territory in 1967.
(AP, 2/3/06)
2006 Feb 3, Japan’s parliament
enacted a law awarding compensation to former leprosy sufferers who
were forced into isolated leper colonies in Taiwan and Korea by Japan's
imperial government decades ago.
(AP, 2/3/06)
2006 Feb 3, Hezbollah guerrillas
attacked an Israeli military position in a disputed part of the south
Lebanon border, provoking a swift Israeli airstrike on suspected
Hezbollah sites.
(AP, 2/3/06)
2006 Feb 3, Malaysia's national
carmaker Proton renewed its alliance with Japan's Mitsubishi Motors
Corp. with a technical pact that involves jointly developing new
vehicles.
(AP, 2/3/06)
2006 Feb 3, The Muslim world
erupted in anger after cartoons they found offensive were re-published
in Europe. Streets in Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Malaysia,
Palestine, Pakistan and Turkey filled with demonstrators calling for
boycotts of European goods and burning the flag of Denmark, where the
cartoons first appeared.
(SFC, 2/4/06, p.A1)
2006 Feb 3, A pro-government
candidate in Nepal's municipal election died after being shot by
communist rebels, the 2nd person to be assassinated ahead of next
week's polls.
(AP, 2/4/06)
2006 Feb 3, Foreign Minister Ben
Bot said Netherlands will send 1,200 additional troops to Afghanistan,
the day after parliament gave the green light to the deployment.
(AP, 2/3/06)
2006 Feb 3, North and South Korea
agreed to hold military talks on the level of generals for the first
time in nearly two years and the South said they would focus on
preventing naval clashes.
(AP, 2/3/06)
2006 Feb 3, In Russia Stanislav
Dmitriyevsky, the head of the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society in
Nizhny Novgorod, was convicted of inciting ethnic hatred, a verdict he
condemned as part of a state assault on non-governmental organizations.
Dmitriyevsky had campaigned against rights abuses in Chechnya.
(AP, 2/3/06)
2006 Feb 3, Mas Selamat Kastari,
Singapore's most-wanted man, believed to have planned bomb and
plane-crash attacks on the island's airport, was deported to Singapore
following his arrest in Indonesia under the Internal Security Act (ISA).
(Reuters, 2/6/06)
2006 Feb 3, The $10 million
Turkish film "Valley of the Wolves Iraq" opened in Turkey. It fed off
the increasingly negative feelings many Turks harbored toward
Americans. In the most expensive Turkish movie ever made, American
soldiers in Iraq crash a wedding and pump a little boy full of lead in
front of his mother.
(AP, 2/2/06)
2006 Feb 3, Some 55,000 Darfuris
fled Janjaweed attacks in Mershing, Sudan. Panic-stricken refugees
stampeded, trampling to death about 13 infants. Another 220 children
disappeared during the flight.
(Econ, 2/11/06, p.46)(http://tinyurl.com/s4pj4)
2006 Feb 3, The UN Security
Council authorized planning for the expected UN takeover of
peacekeeping operations in Sudan's conflict-wracked Darfur region.
(AP, 2/3/06)
2006 Feb 3, Jamal al-Badawi, a man
considered a mastermind of the USS Cole bombing that killed 17 sailors
in a Yemeni port in 2000, was among 23 people who escaped from a Yemen
prison. At least 13 of the 23 escapees were convicted al-Qaida
fighters, who escaped via a 140-yard-long tunnel dug by the prisoners
and co-conspirators outside.
(AP, 2/5/06)
2007 Feb 3, President Bush
designated four central Florida counties disaster areas in the wake of
tornadoes that ripped through the region, leaving 21 dead.
(AP, 2/3/08)
2007 Feb 3, Britain scrambled to
contain its first outbreak of the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of bird
flu in domestic poultry after the virus was found at a farm run by
Europe's biggest turkey producer. Some 2,500 turkeys had died since Feb
1 at the Bernard Matthews farm near Lowestoft in eastern England. Over
160,000 were culled over the next few days.
(AP, 2/3/07)(Econ, 2/10/07, p.59)
2007 Feb 3, In Chile a fire swept
through a small hotel in Punta Arenas, killing 10 foreign tourists,
including two children, as they slept in their rooms. A large gas
explosion rocked a historic area in the port city of Valparaiso,
killing at least one person, injuring 11 more and causing extensive
damage over three city blocks.
(AP, 2/3/07)
2007 Feb 3, In southern China a
tour bus traveling in the wrong lane on a highway plowed into an
oncoming bus in Hechi, killing 13 passengers and injuring 75.
(AP, 2/4/07)
2007 Feb 3, Police said they found
$19 million in cash under the floorboards of a house in Cali. The loot
likely belonged to Juan Carlos Ramirez Abadia, among a dozen alleged
top drug kingpins whom US authorities targeted for arrest using a $5
million reward for information. In the northeast an explosion
tore through a makeshift coal mine, killing 32 miners.
(AP, 2/4/07)
2007 Feb 3, In Congo officials
said clashes last week between security forces and demonstrators
claiming electoral fraud left 97 people dead in several southwestern
towns.
(AP, 2/2/07)(AP, 2/4/07)
2007 Feb 3, In India at least 19
laborers were crushed to death when a wall they were building collapsed
near Mumbai.
(AFP, 2/3/07)
2007 Feb 3, Indonesia’s
Environment Minister Rachmat Witoelar said Indonesia will pursue its
plans to develop nuclear power as part of efforts to find alternative
energy sources to address its growing needs. Officials said flooding
has killed at least 44 people and left more than 340,000 others
homeless in Jakarta, as neck-high waters submerged large sections of
the city.
(AP, 2/3/07)(AP, 2/6/07)
2007 Feb 3, Iraq's top Shiite
cleric called for Muslim unity and an end to sectarian conflict, his
first public statement in months on the worsening security crisis. A
suicide truck bomber struck a market in a predominantly Shiite area of
Baghdad, killing 137 people among the crowd buying food for evening
meals, the most devastating strike in the capital in more than two
months. A series of car bombs struck the oil-rich northern city of
Kirkuk in a 2-hour span, killing at least 2 people and wounding 30. 5
US soldiers died, 4 in fighting and one of an apparent heart attack.
(AP, 2/3/07)(AP, 2/4/07)
2007 Feb 3, Maize reportedly
occupied 90% of the cultivated land in Malawi.
(Econ, 2/3/07, p.80)
2007 Feb 3, In Mexico thousands of
protesters marched in Oaxaca to demand the resignation of the state
governor. A man's chopped up body was discovered in Acapulco dumped in
plastic garbage bags.
(AP, 2/3/07)(Reuters, 2/5/07)
2007 Feb 3, The Mahadhesi ethnic
community in southeastern Nepal demanded that the region be turned into
an autonomous state to end two weeks of unrest that has claimed at
least 13 lives.
(AFP, 2/3/07)(Econ, 1/27/07, p.43)
2007 Feb 3, Fatah and Hamas
clashed at Cabinet ministries, universities and security headquarters
in defiance of a truce that was to have calmed the seething Gaza Strip.
(AP, 2/3/07)
2007 Feb 3, In northwest Pakistan
a suspected Islamic militant rammed his explosive-laden car into a
Pakistan army convoy near Tank, killing two soldiers and wounding six
others.
(AP, 2/3/07)
2007 Feb 3, The interior ministry
spokesman said Saudi police have arrested 10 people who are accused of
collecting donations and recruiting on behalf of militant groups.
(AP, 2/3/07)
2007 Feb 3, Tens of thousands of
people marched in Madrid to reject any negotiations with the Basque
separatist group ETA, whose car bombing in the capital a month ago
shattered a nascent peace process.
(AP, 2/4/07)
2007 Feb 3, In northern Vietnam 5
miners were killed when a large rock fell on them as they worked to
extract zinc ore.
(AP, 2/4/07)
2007 Feb 3, Chinese President Hu
Jintao brought his eight-nation African tour to Zambia, a copper-rich
country where China's growing clout has prompted charges of
exploitation and emerged as a volatile political issue.
(AP, 2/3/07)
2008 Feb 3, The New York Giants
won the Super Bowl XLII over for the favored New England Patriots 17-14.
(AP, 2/4/08)
2008 Feb 3, Jorge Liderman (50), a
composer and professor at UC Berkeley, was struck and killed by a BART
train at the El Cerrito station in a suspected suicide.
(SFC, 2/4/08, p.B1)
2008 Feb 3, Australian PM Kevin
Rudd announced a summit of 1,000 ordinary citizens to address long-term
challenges facing the nation, saying the best ideas could influence
government policy. He also scolded the country's opposition for
haggling over the exact content of a planned apology to Australia's
Aborigines, saying its meaning will be quite clear.
(AP, 2/3/08)
2008 Feb 3, Chadian forces backed
by tanks and helicopter gunships struggled to repel a rebel assault on
the capital, and insurgents claimed to have trapped the president in
his palace. Chadian rebels, reportedly backed by Sudanese military
aircraft, launched an attack on the eastern town of Adre, which borders
on Sudan's Darfur region.
(AP, 2/3/08)(AFP, 2/3/08)
2008 Feb 3, In southern China
railway service inched back to normal, a day after one person died in a
stampede by frustrated train passengers who were stranded for days
because of snow ahead of an important holiday.
(AP, 2/3/08)
2008 Feb 3, Egyptian troops closed
the last breach in Egypt's border with the Gaza Strip, ending 11 days
of free movement for Palestinian residents of the blockaded territory.
(AP, 2/3/08)
2008 Feb 3, In southwest Germany
an apartment building fire killed at least nine people, five of them
children, and left 20 people hospitalized in Ludwigshafen.
(AP, 2/4/08)
2008 Feb 3, In western India a
four-story building collapsed in Ahmadabad, killing eight people and
injuring another 12 after a warning to evacuate days before went
unheeded.
(AP, 2/3/08)
2008 Feb 3, Iraq's presidency
council issued a controversial law that allows lower-ranking former
Baath party members to reclaim government jobs, the final step for the
first US-backed benchmark approved by parliament. A senior Interior
Ministry official and his bodyguard were wounded and his driver was
killed by a bomb planted on his car. A mortar round slammed into a
street in a northeastern section of the capital, killing an Iraqi
soldier on foot patrol. An Iraqi policeman was killed in a drive-by
shooting near Kut.
(AP, 2/3/08)
2008 Feb 3, Israeli forces opened
fire across the Lebanese border, killing one person and wounding
another. The Israeli military said it was responding to fire apparently
from drug smugglers on the Lebanese side.
(AP, 2/4/08)
2008 Feb 3, In Italy Ernesto Illy
(82), the longtime head of Italian coffee giant illycaffe SpA, died. A
chemist and son of Francesco Illy, who founded the company in 1933,
Ernesto traveled the world in search of the best blend of beans.
(AP, 2/6/08)
2008 Feb 3, Police said Japanese
investigators found insecticide on the outside of six bags of
Chinese-made dumplings in Japan after separate dumplings made by the
same company sickened 10 people there.
(AP, 2/3/08)
2008 Feb 3, The leader of Kenya's
opposition called for the African Union to send peacekeepers to help
stem violence sparked by the country's disputed presidential election.
(AP, 2/3/08)
2008 Feb 3, In Nigeria fighters
from the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND)
attacked a military houseboat stationed at the Shell Petroleum Tora
manifold in Bayelsa state of Nigeria. The attack killed three soldiers.
(AFP, 2/5/08)
2008 Feb 3, Two strong earthquake
shook the African Great Lakes region, killing at least 37 people in
Rwanda and six in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
(AFP, 2/3/08)(AFP, 2/4/08)
2008 Feb 3, Serbs voted in a
knife-edge presidential election that could decide whether their
country turns its back on the West in response to the imminent loss of
the breakaway province of Kosovo. Boris Tadic took 50.5% of votes cast
to beat nationalist Tomislav Nikolic by about 100,000 votes.
(AP, 2/3/08)(Reuters, 2/4/08)
2008 Feb 3, In Somalia a roadside
bomb killed eight civilians and wounded nine others when it exploded
near a minibus full of passengers in war-ravaged Mogadishu.
(AP, 2/3/08)
2008 Feb 3, In Sri Lanka a female
suicide bomber attacked the main railway station in the capital of
Colombo, killing at least 15 people and wounding 93 others. The dead
included 7 students and their baseball coach killed on the eve of
Freedom Day.
(AP, 2/3/08)(AFP, 2/5/08)(Econ, 2/9/08, p.66)
2008 Feb 3, Thailand's new PM
Sundaravej said he will also become the defense minister in a
soon-to-be unveiled Cabinet to deter the military from staging a coup
against his government.
(AP, 2/3/08)
2009 Feb 3, Michigan Gov. Jennifer
Granholm announced a new $54 million movie production facility to be
built at a former GM facility in Pontiac. The state offered $15 million
in film related tax credits and as much as $101 million in state
credits over 12 years.
(WSJ, 2/3/09, p.B2)
2009 Feb 3, Sayed Ansari,
spokesman for the Afghan National Directorate of Security, said the
service has broken up a cell of suicide bombers allegedly responsible
for six attacks in Kabul that killed 20 civilians. He also said those
arrested had links to a Pakistani-based jihadist group, Harakat
ul-Mujahedeen, and Sirajjudin Haqqani, an eastern Afghan insurgent
leader.
(AP, 2/3/09)
2009 Feb 3, In Australia PM Kevin
Rudd announced a $27 billion stimulus package. Australia’s Parliament
passed the bill on Feb 13.
(www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sz_2IM3K80)
2009 Feb 3, In Brazil hundreds of
riot police occupied one of Sao Paulo's biggest slums following a night
of clashes in which three police officers were shot. Residents said the
clashes were a response to the police killing of a man on Feb 1 in
Paraisopolis.
(AP, 2/3/09)
2009 Feb 3, In Brazil Ocelio Alves
de Carvalho was killed on the Kulina Indian reservation. An Indian who
witnessed the killing, and tried to stop it, arrived at the police
station to report the alleged murder the next day. The witness said
body parts were roasted and eaten.
(AP, 2/10/09)
2009 Feb 3, The Bank of England
said high-street banks had borrowed 185 billion pounds since April to
help to free up the home-lending market.
(AFP, 2/3/09)
2009 Feb 3, In Colombia leftist
rebels freed their fifth hostage in three days. Ex-governor Alan Jara
(51), held for 7½ years, said that President Alvaro Uribe and
the guerrillas are equally to blame for the country's still-festering
conflict.
(AP, 2/4/09)
2009 Feb 3, In Greece a suspected
left-wing terror group attacked a police station in Athens, shooting at
the building and throwing a hand grenade.
(AP, 2/3/09)
2009 Feb 3, Indonesia’s central
bank cut its key interest rate a half point to 8.25%.
(WSJ, 2/4/09, p.A10)
2009 Feb 3, Eluana Englaro (37), a
woman at the center of Italy's right-to-die debate, was transferred to
a hospital where she is to be allowed to die after 17 years in a
vegetative state.
(AP, 2/3/09)
2009 Feb 3, A medium-range rocket
from Gaza landed in the Israeli city of Ashkelon. Hamas said it is
ready to commit to a yearlong cease-fire with Israel in exchange for a
full opening of Gaza's border crossings, ahead of a new round of talks
with Egyptian mediators in Cairo.
(AP, 2/3/09)
2009 Feb 3, Kyrgyzstan said it
would end the US lease of an air base that supports military operations
in Afghanistan. Kyrgyzstan President Kurmanbek Bakiyev announced his
intention to shut the base, at least for the moment, after Russia
agreed to provide Kyrgyzstan with $2 billion in loans plus another $150
million in financial aid. The lease deal obliges Kyrgyzstan to give the
US 180 days notice to clear the base.
(AP, 2/4/09)
2009 Feb 3, In Mexico the bodies
of retired Mexican General Mauro Enrique Tello and two other men were
found in a sport utility vehicle abandoned on a highway outside of
Cancun. All had been shot many times. Octavio Almanza, the suspected
head of the Zetas in Cancun, was later arrested on suspicion of
masterminding Tello's killing.
(AP, 2/3/09)(SSFC, 2/8/09, p.A4)(AP, 2/11/09)
2009 Feb 3, Islamist militants
blew up a bridge in northwestern Pakistan, cutting a major supply line
for Western troops in Afghanistan in the latest in a series of attacks
on the Khyber Pass by insurgents seeking to hamper the US-led mission
against the Taliban.
(AP, 2/3/09)
2009 Feb 3, Hamas policemen broke
into an aid warehouse in Gaza City and confiscated 3,500 blankets and
more than 4,000 food parcels meant for 500 families after UN officials
refused to voluntarily hand it over to the Hamas-run Ministry of Social
Affairs. Ahmad Kurd, the Hamas Minister of Social Affairs countered
that the U.N. had been handing out relief to groups tied to Hamas'
opponents.
(AP, 2/4/09)
2009 Feb 3, A Russian military
Mi-24 helicopter gunship crashed about 700 kilometers (450 miles)
southeast of Moscow, killing all three people aboard.
(AP, 2/3/09)
2009 Feb 3, The Kremlin said
Russia and Belarus will create a new military system to monitor and
defend their air space.
(WSJ, 2/4/09, p.A10)
2009 Feb 3, The hardline Somali
Islamist group Shebab called on its fighters to intensify their holy
war against African Union (AU) peacekeepers.
(AP, 2/3/09)
2009 Feb 3, Spanish police
arrested 13 people on suspicion of links to organized crime and
terrorism groups.
(AP, 2/3/09)
2009 Feb 3, In Sri Lanka patients
who could walk fled one of last functioning hospitals in the northern
war zone after it was hit by artillery shells, while the Red Cross
negotiated for the evacuation of those severely wounded. The military
said it captured the Tamil Tigers' seventh and final airstrip,
effectively grounding their tiny air force.
(AP, 2/3/09)
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