Today in History - February 4
Return to home
211
Feb 4, Lucius Septimius Severus (64), emperor of
Rome (193-211), died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Septimius_Severus)
786 Feb 4, Harun al-Rashid
succeeded his older brother the Abbasid Caliph al-Hadi as Caliph of
Baghdad.
(HN, 2/4/99)
1194 Feb 4, Richard I, King of
England, was freed from captivity in Austria with the payment of
Leopold VI's ransom of 100,000
(HN, 2/4/99)(ON, 8/07, p.9)
1505 Feb 4, Joan of Valois (40),
Queen of France, saint, died.
(MC, 2/4/02)
1508 Feb 4, Proclamation of Trent.
[need more data]
(HN, 2/4/99)
1515 Feb 4, Michael Radvila the
Black was born in Nesvizh. He later became palatine of Vilnius,
chancellor of Lithuania, and supporter of Reformation.
(LHC, 2/4/03)
1600 Feb 4, Tycho Brahe and
Johannes Kepler met for 1st time near Prague.
(MC, 2/4/02)
1617 Feb 4, Louis Elsevier (~76),
Dutch publisher, died.
(MC, 2/4/02)
1699 Feb 4, Czar Peter the Great
executed 350 rebellious Streltsi in Moscow.
(MC, 2/4/02)
1710 Feb 4, August II with the
support of the Russian army was recognized by the parliament in Warsaw
as King of Lithuania and Poland.
(LHC, 2/4/03)
1747 Feb 4, Tadeusz Kosciusko,
patriot, American Revolution hero (built West Point), was born in
Poland. [see 1746]
(MC, 2/4/02)
1783 Feb 4, Britain declared a
formal cessation of hostilities with its former colonies, the United
States of America.
(AP, 2/4/97)
1787 Feb 4, Shay’s Rebellion, an
uprising of debt-ridden Massachusetts farmers, failed.
(HN, 2/4/99)
1789 Feb 4, Electors
unanimously chose George Washington to be the first president of
the United States and John Adams as vice-president. The results of the
balloting were not counted in the US Senate until two months later.
Washington accepted office at the Federal Building of New York. His
first cabinet included Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton as first
secretary of the Treasury, Henry Knox, and Edmund Randolph.
(A & IP, ESM, p.10)(WSJ, 3/12/97, p.A18)(AP,
2/4/07)
1794 Feb 4, France’s First
Republic (Convention) voted for the abolition of slavery in all French
colonies. The abolition decree stated that "the Convention declares the
slavery of the Blacks abolished in all the colonies; consequently, all
men, irrespective of color, living in the colonies are French citizens
and will enjoy all the rights provided by the Constitution." Slavery
was restored by the Consulate in 1802, and was definitively abolished
in 1848 by the Second Republic, on Victor Schoelcher’s initiative.
(www.ambafrance-uk.org/Slavery-Slavery-was-abolished-in.html)
1794 Feb 4, Slaves in Haiti won
emancipation.
(AP, 4/7/03)(WSJ, 3/1/04, p.A16)
1797 Feb 4, Earthquake in Quito,
Ecuador, some killed 40,000 people. Riobamba was destroyed.
(www.newadvent.org/cathen/13061c.htm)(http://tinyurl.com/btbdc)
1801 Feb 4, John Marshall was
sworn in as chief justice of the United States.
(AP, 2/4/97)
1802 Feb 4, Mark Hopkins, US
educator, philosopher (Williams College), was born.
(MC, 2/4/02)
1809 Feb 4, Louis Braille was
born. He was blinded at age four as the result of an accident in his
father's shop. Nevertheless, he became an accomplished organist and
cellist and won a scholarship in 1819 to attend the National Institute
for Blind Youth in Paris. At age 15, Louis witnessed a demonstration
there by Charles Barbier, a soldier who had invented "night writing," a
system of letters embossed on cardboard for silent communication along
trenches. While Barbier's system was too complex to be practical,
Braille simplified and adapted it to a six-dot code representing
letters that enabled people with impaired vision to not only read but
also write for themselves. In 1827, the first Braille book was
published, but Braille himself died of tuberculosis at age 43--before
his system gained widespread acceptance.
(HNPD, 2/4/99)
1822 Feb 4, Free American Blacks
settled Liberia, West Africa. The first group of colonists landed in
Liberia and founded Monrovia, the colony's capital city, named in honor
of President James Monroe.
(HNPD, 7/26/98)(MC, 2/4/02)
1824 Feb 4, J.W. Goodrich
introduced rubber galoshes to public.
(MC, 2/4/02)
1846 Feb 4,
In Brigham Young, Joseph Smith’s successor, led the Mormons
overland from Nauvoo, Ill., to the Great Salt Lake Valley. Mormon
pioneer Sam Brannon gathered some 250 Mormons aboard the ship,
Brooklyn, and sailed from New York to San Francisco. [see 1847]
(SFC, 4/9/96, A-7) (SFEC, 7/21/96, DB p.29)
1861 Feb 4, Delegates from six
southern states met in Montgomery, Ala., to form the Confederate States
of America. They included Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia,
Louisiana and Texas. They elected Jefferson Davis as president of
Confederacy.
(AP, 2/4/97)(ON, 11/00, p.1)
1861 Feb 4, Winfield Scott, US
general-in-chief, decided to relieve Lt. Col. Robert E. Lee as
commander of federal forces in Texas and bring him to Washington DC
where Lee could take command of forces guarding DC.
(ON, 12/05, p.11)
1861 Feb 4, The Apache Wars began.
(HFA, '96, p.22)
1865 Feb 4, Robert E. Lee was
named commander-in-chief of Confederate Army.
(MC, 2/4/02)
1866 Feb 4, Mary Baker Eddy
"cured" her injuries by opening a bible.
(MC, 2/4/02)
1875 Feb 4, Ludwig Prandtl,
physicist (father of aerodynamics), was born in Germany.
(MC, 2/4/02)
1881 Feb 4, Fernand Leger
(d.1955), French painter, was born.
(HN, 2/4/01)
1881 Feb 4, Kliment J. Woroshilov,
marshal, president USSR (1953-60), was born.
(MC, 2/4/02)
1889 Feb 4, Harry Longabaugh was
released from Sundance Prison in Wyoming, thereby acquiring the famous
nickname, “the Sundance Kid.”
(HN, 2/4/99)
1889 Feb 4, The Panama Canal
project under Ferdinand de Lesseps (d.1894) went bankrupt. Over 5,000
French people died working on the project. In all over 25,000 people
died during 8 years of work, mostly from malaria and yellow fever.
(Econ, 2/24/07,
p.97)(www.archives.gov/research/guide-fed-records/groups/185.html)
1894 Feb 4, Antoine J "Adolphe"
Sax (b.1814), Belgium-born instrument maker (saxophone), died in Paris.
In 2005 Michael Segell authored ”The Devil’s Horn: The Story of the
Saxophone, From Noisy Novelty to King of Cool.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolphe_Sax)(SSFC,
10/16/05, p.M3)
1895 Feb 4, The 1st rolling lift
bridge opened in Chicago.
(MC, 2/4/02)
1899 Feb 4, After an exchange of
gunfire, fighting broke out between American troops and Filipinos near
Manila, sparking the Philippine-American War (also referred to as the
Philippine Insurrection of 1899). American soldiers patrolling in Santa
Mesa opened fire on Filipino soldiers near a bridge over the San Juan
River.
(SFEC, 1/31/99, Z1p.1)(HN, 2/4/00)
1900 Feb 4, Jacques Prevert,
French poet, screenwriter, was born. His work included “The Visitors of
the Evening” and “The Children of Paradise.”
(HN, 2/4/01)
1902 Feb 4, Charles Lindbergh
(d.1974), the first man to fly solo across the Atlantic (1927), was
born in Detroit and grew up in Minnesota.
(HN,
2/4/99)(www.charleslindbergh.com/history/index.asp)
1904 Feb 4, MacKinlay Kantor,
novelist (Andersonville), was born in Webster City, Iowa.
(MC, 2/4/02)
1904 Feb 4, Russia offered Korea
to Japan and defended its right to occupy Manchuria.
(HN, 2/4/99)
1906 Feb 4, Clyde Tombaugh,
astronomer who discovered Pluto, was born.
(HN, 2/4/01)
1906 Feb 4, Dietrich Bonhoeffer
(d.1945), German Protestant theologian, was born. “If you board the
wrong train, it is no use running along the corridor in the other
direction.”
(AP, 8/27/00)(HN, 2/4/01)
1906 Feb 4, The New York Police
Department began finger print identification.
(HN, 2/4/99)
1909 Feb 4, California law
segregated Japanese and Caucasian schoolchildren.
(HN, 2/4/01)
1912 Feb 4, Erich Leinsdorf,
available conductor & banana eater, was born in Vienna, Austria.
(MC, 2/4/02)
1913 Feb 4, Rosa Lee Parks, civil
rights activist, was born. Her refusal to give up her seat on a
segregated bus in Alabama started the Civil Rights Movement.
(HN, 2/4/99)
1915 Feb 4, Germans decreed
British waters part of war zone; all ships were to be sunk without
warning.
(HN, 2/4/99)
1919 Feb 4, City of Bremen's
Soviet Republic was overthrown.
(MC, 2/4/02)
1920 Feb 4, The 1st flight from
London to South Africa took off and lasted 1 month.
(MC, 2/4/02)
1921 Feb 4, Betty Friedan, writer,
feminist, was born. She founded the National Organization of Women in
1966.
(HN, 2/4/01)
1923 Feb 4, French troops took
Offenburg, Appenweier and Buhl in the Ruhr as a part of the agreement
ending World War I.
(HN, 2/4/99)
1924 Feb 4, The 1st Winter Olympic
games closed at Chamonix, France.
(MC, 2/4/02)
1925 Feb 4, Russell Hoban, artist
and writer, was born. His work included “Bedtime for Frances” and “The
Mouse and His Child.”
(HN, 2/4/01)
1931 Feb 4, Isabel Peron, [Maria
Martinez], dancer, president of Argentina, was born.
(MC, 2/4/02)
1932 Feb 4, Robert Coover,
novelist & short story writer, was born.
(HN, 2/4/01)
1932 Feb 4, New York Gov. Franklin
D. Roosevelt opened the Winter Olympic Games at Lake Placid, N.Y.
(AP, 2/4/97)(HN, 2/4/99)
1933 Feb 4, German Pres. Von
Hindenburg limited freedom of the press.
(MC, 2/4/02)
1935 Feb 4, Martti Talvela,
operatic basso, was born in Hiitola, Karelia, Finland.
(MC, 2/4/02)
1936 Feb 4, 1st radioactive
substance, radium E, was produced synthetically.
(MC, 2/4/02)
1938 Feb 4, The Thornton Wilder
play "Our Town" opened on Broadway. [see Jan 22]
(AP, 2/4/97)
1938 Feb 4, Hitler seized control
of German army and put Nazis in key posts.
(MC, 2/4/02)
1941 Feb 4, The United Service
Organization (USO) was chartered, in order to provide recreation for
on-leave members of the US armed forces and their families.
(http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/feb04.html)
1944 Feb 4, Jean Anouilh's
"Antigone," premiered in Paris.
(MC, 2/4/02)
1944 Feb 4, The Japanese attacked
the Indian Seventh Army in Burma.
(HN, 2/4/99)
1945 Feb 4-12, The Big Three,
President Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and
Soviet leader Josef Stalin began a wartime conference at Yalta, in the
southern Ukraine.
(AP, 2/4/97)(WUD, 1994, p.1653)(HN, 2/4/99)
1946 Feb 4, Garson Kanin's "Born
Yesterday," premiered in NYC.
(MC, 2/4/02)
1946 Feb 4, The first Mormons left
Nauvoo, Ill., and crossed the Mississippi River heading toward Utah.
(AH, 2/06, p.14)
1947 Feb 4, Dan Quayle was born in
Indianapolis. He later became vice-president under George H.W.
Bush (1988-1992).
(DFP, 7/28/96, p.J5)(HN, 2/4/01)
1948 Feb 4, Colonial rule ended
and the island nation of Ceylon -- now Sri Lanka -- became an
independent dominion within the British Commonwealth.
(SFE, 9/16/96, p.A9) (SFC, 6/20/96, p.A8)(AP, 2/4/97)
1962 Feb 4, Russian newspaper
Izvestia reported baseball is an old Russian game.
(MC, 2/4/02)
1966 Feb 4, Senate Foreign
Relations Committee began televised hearings on the Vietnam War.
(HN, 2/4/99)
1966 Feb 4, Gilbert H. Grosvenor
(90), president National Geographic Society, died.
(MC, 2/4/02)
1969 Feb 4, John Madden (b.1934)
was named head coach of NFL's Oakland Raiders.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Madden_(American_football))
1969 Feb 4, Al-Fatah-leader Yasser
Arafat officially took over as chairman of PLO.
(SFC, 11/11/04, p.A18)
1971 Feb 4, Rolls-Royce collapsed
due to rising development costs on the RB.211, the sole powerplant
selected for the Lockheed TriStar. The Conservative nationalized the
company to save it from collapse.
(http://widebodyaircraft.nl/chro1971.htm)(Econ,
1/10/09, p.11)
1974 Feb 4, Newspaper heiress
Patricia Hearst (19) was kidnapped in Berkeley, Calif., by the
Symbionese Liberation Army. Her boyfriend Steven Weed was beaten. Patty
Hearst ran away to join an underground revolutionary group, the
Symbionese Liberation Front.
(TMC, 1994, p.1974)(SFC, 2/8/97, p.A7)(AP,
2/4/97)(AP, 2/4/97)(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W22)
1974 Feb 4, Mao Tse-tung
proclaimed a new "cultural revolution" in China.
(HN, 2/4/99)
1976 Feb 4, A 7.5-7.9 earthquake
hit Guatemala and Honduras. Some 23,000 Guatemalans, mostly Mayan
Indians, were killed. It destroyed 58,000 houses in the capital and 300
villages.
(NG, 6/1988, p.785,797)(SFEM, 6/13/99, p.8)(AP,
2/4/01)(AP, 6/22/02)
1977 Feb 4, In Illinois 11 people
were killed when two cars of a Chicago Transit Authority train fell off
elevated tracks after a collision with another train.
(AP, 2/4/02)
1979 Feb 4, In San Mateo, Ca., a
robbery at the Pay Less Super Drug Store at 666 Concar Drive left 3
young employees dead. Michael Olson (23), Billy Baumgarnter (17) and
Tracy Anderson (16) were all shot in the back of the head. An estimated
$20,000 was stolen. By 2007 the case was still open with no arrests.
(SFC, 10/23/07, p.A12)(SSFC, 6/8/08, p.B2)
1979 Feb 4, In Peru police stormed
the union held Cromotex factory in Lima. Union leader Nestor Cerpa was
jailed for a year.
(SFC, 12/25/96, p.A10)
1980 Feb 4, Abolhassan Bani-Sadr
was installed as president of Iran by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
(AP, 2/4/00)
1980 Feb 4, Syria withdrew its
peacekeeping force in Beirut.
(HN, 2/4/99)
1982 Feb 4, Musical "Pump Boys
& Dinettes," premiered in NYC for 573 performances.
(www.ibdb.com/production.asp?ID=4161)
1982 Feb 4, President Reagan
announced a plan to eliminate all medium-range nuclear missiles in
Europe.
(AP, 2/4/02)
1983 Feb 4, Singer-musician Karen
Carpenter (32) died in Downey, Ca.
(AP, 2/4/08)
1986 Feb 4, The U.S. Post Office
issued a commemorative stamp featuring Sojourner Truth.
(HN, 2/4/99)
1987 Feb 4, Congress overrode Pres
Reagan's veto of Clean Water Act. Changes in the 1972 Act phased out
the construction grants program, replacing it with the State Water
Pollution Control Revolving Fund, more commonly known as the Clean
Water State Revolving Fund.
(www.epa.gov/r5water/cwa.htm)(www.agiweb.org/legis105/cwupdate.html)
1987 Feb 4, Pianist Liberace (67)
died of AIDS at his home in Palm Springs, Calif.
(AP, 2/4/97)
1988 Feb 4, Senate Republican
Leader Bob Dole twice confronted Vice President George Bush on the
floor of the Senate, accusing his GOP presidential rival of condoning a
campaign attack that amounted to "groveling in the mud."
(AP, 2/4/97)
1989 Feb 4, Soviet Foreign
Minister Eduard Shevardnadze wrapped up four days of high-level talks
in China, the first visit by a Soviet foreign minister in three
decades.
(AP, 2/4/99)
1990 Feb 4, Nine people were
killed as guerrillas attacked a bus carrying Israeli tourists near
Cairo, Egypt.
(AP, 2/4/00)
1990 Feb 4, Cheering protesters
thronged Moscow streets to demand that the Communists surrender their
stranglehold on power.
(AP, 2/4/00)
1991 Feb 4, President Bush sent
Congress a $1.45 trillion budget for fiscal 1992 containing a deficit
of $280.9 billion.
(AP, 2/4/01)
1991 Feb 4, Iranian President
Hashemi Rafsanjani offered to hold talks with Iraq and the United
States in an attempt to mediate an end to the Gulf War.
(AP, 2/4/01)
1991 Feb 4, In Cumuto, Trinidad,
Indravani Pamela Ramjattan (28), a victim of repeated beatings, was
again beaten unconscious by her husband, Alexander Jordan (47). A week
later she got 2 men, one of them her lover, to murder Jordan. Ramjattan
was convicted of murder in a 1995 trial and sentenced to death.
(SFC, 1/29/99, p.A14)
1992 Feb 4, President George H.W.
Bush defended his economic recovery plan before a National Grocers
Association meeting in Orlando, Fla. During his visit, Bush appeared
intrigued by an electronic checkout machine, leaving reporters
wondering if he'd ever seen such a device before.
(AP, 2/4/02)
1992 Feb 4, In Caracas, Venezuela,
there was a coup attempt but Lt. Col. Chavez failed to capture the
presidential Palace and was forced to surrender. He served 2 years in
prison.
(WSJ, 6/12/03, p.A10)
1993 Feb 4, A jury in Atlanta
found General Motors negligent in the fuel-tank design of a pickup
truck and awarded $105.2 million to the parents of a teen-ager killed
in a fiery 1989 crash. The negligence verdict was later overturned, and
the parents of Shannon Moseley reached an out-of-court settlement with
GM.
(AP, 2/4/03)
1994 Feb 4, The Federal Reserve
increased interest rates for the first time in five years in a surprise
announcement that triggered a huge sell-off on Wall Street; the Fed
said the move was designed to head off any recurrence of high
inflation. Alan Greenspan later admitted that the Fed acted to "prick
the bubble in the equity markets."
(AP, 2/4/99)(WSJ, 3/2/00, p.B20)
1994 Feb 4, In Khartoum, Sudan,
five armed men attacked the mosque of Ansar al-Sunna during Friday
prayers, killing 19 and injuring 26 of the worshippers.
(www.africa.upenn.edu/Newsletters/SNV_2.html)
1995 Feb 4, A standoff between the
United States and China escalated into a trade war, with each country
ordering stiff tariffs against the other.
(AP, 2/4/00)
1995 Feb 4, Patricia Highsmith
(b.1921), American born novelist, died in Switzerland. Her first novel,
“Strangers on a Train” (1950) was made into a 1951 film by Alfred
Hitchcock. In 2009 Joan Schenkar authored “The Talented Miss Highsmith:
The Secret Life and Serious Art of Patricia Highsmith.”
(SSFC, 12/13/09,
p.E3)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patricia_Highsmith)
1996 Feb 4, Pres. Clinton and
Monica had their 6th sexual encounter at the White House.
(SFC, 9/12/98, p.A13)
1996 Feb 4, Secretary of State
Warren Christopher concluded a three-nation visit to the Balkans as he
met in Belgrade with Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic.
(AP, 2/4/01)
1996 Feb 4, Twenty-four people
were killed when a Colombian cargo plane in Paraguay caught fire
shortly after takeoff and crashed into a suburban neighborhood.
(AP, 2/4/01)
1997 Feb 4, Pres. Clinton in his
State of the Union speech that education was his No. 1 priority for his
2nd term.
(SFC, 2/5/97, p.A1) (AP, 2/4/97)
1997 Feb 4, A civil jury in Santa
Monica, Calif., found O.J. Simpson liable for the deaths of his
ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman, awarding
$8.5 million in compensatory damages to Goldman's parents. Six days
later, the jury added $25 million in punitive damages to go to Nicole
Brown Simpson's estate and Goldman's father.
(SFC, 2/5/97, p.A1)(AP, 2/4/97)
1997 Feb 4, It was reported that
$68 million in gold bars, looted by the Nazis from European central
banks and stored in the vaults of the Federal Reserve Bank in New York
and the Bank of England, would be frozen. Switzerland, Sweden and other
nations turned them over to the allies after WW II. The disbursement of
the gold was to be administered by the Tripartite Commission but claims
have been made that part of the gold came from private citizens who
died in the Holocaust.
(SFC, 2/4/97, p.A12)
1997 Feb 4, Investment bank Morgan
Stanley and Dean Witter announced a plan to merge for a combined
capitalization of over $20 billion. Phillip J. Purcell, chairman and
CEO of Dean Witter, became chairman and CEO of the new company. In 2005
Purcell, faced with employee defections, announced his retirement.
(WSJ, 2/5/97, p.A1)
1997 Feb 4, In Australia the
parliament voted to begin the process of becoming a republic. A
constitutional convention was planned for the fall and delegates would
decide on how to put the issue to the electorate.
(WSJ, 2/5/97, p.A1)
1997 Feb 4, In Bulgaria the
ex-Communists backed down and agreed to new elections in April.
(WSJ, 2/5/97, p.A1)
1997 Feb 4, From China it was
reported that the government was cracking down on the arts while
attempting to promote Pres. Jiang Zemin’s “spiritual civilization.”
Writer Mo Yan, author of “Ample Breasts, Fat Buttocks” was singled out
for criticism.
(SFC, 2/4/97, p.A10)
1997 Feb 4, In Columbia the U’wa
tribe blocked Occidental Petroleum from developing an oil field on
their land worth billions.
(SFC, 2/5/97, p.A9)
1997 Feb 4, In northeastern Iran 2
earthquakes with aftershocks killed at least 72 people. Some 43
villages were damaged. Another quake followed the next day.
(SFC, 2/5/97, p.A9)(SFC, 2/6/97, p.A1)
1997 Feb 4, Two Israeli
helicopters collided at the Shaar Yeshuv kibbutz and 73 soldiers were
killed.
(WSJ, 2/5/97, p.A1)(AP, 2/4/97)
1997 Feb 4, In Pakistan the Muslim
League won elections with 140 of 217 parliament seats. Nawaz Sharif was
re-elected as prime minister.
(SFC, 2/5/97, p.A9)(WSJ, 9/5/07, p.A4)
1997 Feb 4, In Rwanda gunmen
killed 2 human-rights monitors 180 miles southeast of Kigali. Five UN
employees were killed.
(WSJ, 2/5/97, p.A1)(SFC, 2/5/97, p.A9)
1997 Feb 4, In Serbia Milosevic
said that he would recognized the opposition victories in 14 towns.
(WSJ, 2/5/97, p.A1)
1998 Feb 4, Congress voted to name
Washington National Airport after Ronald Reagan, just in time for his
87th birthday on Feb 6.
(SFC, 2/5/98, p.A3)
1998 Feb 4, It was reported that
Berkshire Hathaway, the investment vehicle of Warren Buffet, had
accumulated 129.7 million ounces of sliver, some 20% of the world’s
supply, valued at $858.6 million.
(WSJ, 2/4/98, p.A1)
1998 Feb 4, Alfred Mann (72), the
originator of 7 medical device and electronics companies, announced
$100 million donations to both the Univ. of Southern Cal. and the Univ.
of Cal. at Los Angeles to set up biomedical research institutes.
(SFC, 2/5/98, p.A3)
1998 Feb 4, In Afghanistan a 5.9
earthquake hit the province of Takhar in the northeast at the junction
of the Hindu Kush and Pamir mountain ranges where hills collapsed into
each other making a huge crater. The number dead was later reported to
be 2,300 with 8,000 left homeless.
(SFC, 2/7/98, p.A10)(SFC, 6/1/98, p.A1)(AP,
2/4/99)(SFC, 3/27/02, p.A14)
1998 Feb 4, In Morocco King Hassan
II appointed Abderrahmane El Toussoufi, opposition leader of the
Socialist Union of People’s Forces, as prime minister.
(SFC, 2/5/98, p.A13)
1998 Feb 4, A North Korean
diplomat with a UN agency in Rome defected to South Korea. He
reported that North Korea executed its agricultural chief in 1997 and
dozens of Communist youth league members in a purge by Kim Jong Il.
(WSJ, 2/19/98, p.A1)
1998 Feb 4, In Rwanda Hutu rebels
slaughtered 33 people in the Ruhemgeri region.
(SFC, 2/9/98, p.A12)
1999 Feb 4, Senators at President
Clinton's impeachment trial voted to permit the showing of portions of
Monica Lewinsky's videotaped deposition.
(AP, 2/4/00)
1999 Feb 4, In NYC plainclothes
police officers fired 41 shots at Amadou Daillo (22), a Bronx street
peddler and immigrant from Guinea, who was unarmed in front of his
Bronx home. Police were searching for a rapist and Daillo was killed
with 19 gunshot wounds. Officers Kenneth Boss, Sean Carroll, Edward
McMellon and Richard Murphy were later indicted for 2nd degree murder.
(SFC, 2/5/99, p.A3)(SFC, 2/6/99, p.A3)(SFC, 3/26/99,
p.A3)
1999 Feb 4, The 693-foot cargo
ship New Carissa ran aground in Coos Bay and began leaking oil.
(SFC, 2/10/99, p.A3)
1999 Feb 4, In China dissidents
set up 5 new branches of the banned China Democratic opposition
political party.
(SFC, 2/5/99, p.A13)
1999 Feb 4, Gravely ill with
lymphatic cancer, Jordan's King Hussein left the Mayo Clinic in
Rochester, Minn., and was flown home.
(AP, 2/4/00)
1999 Feb 4, The Mexican government
revealed a new high-tech strategy against drug trafficking.
(SFC, 2/5/99, p.A12)
1999 Feb 4, Pres. Estrada signed a
document as “Jose Velarde” to withdraw $10 million from an undeclared
account. In 2000 Clarissa Ocampo, vice president of Equitable Bank,
testified to the false papers before an impeachment court.
(SFC, 12/23/00, p.A12)
1999 Feb 4, In the Philippines Leo
Echegaray, a house painter convicted of raping his 10-year
stepdaughter, was executed by lethal injection. It was the first
execution there in 23 years.
(SFC, 2/5/99, p.A15)
1999 Feb 4, Russian astronauts on
Mir attempted to deploy a fan-like mirror made of plastic and coated
with aluminum for an 18 hour test. The test failed and another attempt
was planned. They failed again and abandoned the test.
(SFEC, 1/31/99, p.A23)(SFC, 2/5/99, p.A7)(WSJ,
2/8/99, p.A1)
1999 Feb 4, From South Africa it
was reported that a $650 flame-thrower, invented by Charl Flourie, was
available for installation on cars to protect against carjackers.
(SFC, 2/4/99, p.A11)
2000 Feb 4, Lynette Cole, Miss
Tennessee, won the Miss USA pageant.
(SFEC, 2/6/00, p.A4)
2000 Feb 4, Delta Air Lines said
it would provide new PCs and Internet access to its 72,000 employees at
$12 per month over 3 years.
(SFC, 2/5/00, p.A1)
2000 Feb 4, Former House Speaker
Carl Albert died in McAlester, Oklahoma, at age 91.
(AP, 2/4/01)
2000 Feb 4, Singer Doris
Kenner-Jackson of the Shirelles died in Goldsboro, North Carolina, at
age 58.
(AP, 2/4/01)
2000 Feb 4, In Austria the new
governing coalition took power and triggered diplomatic sanctions and
protests. President Thomas Klestil swore in a coalition government that
included Joerg Haider’s far-right Freedom Party, a development which
triggered European Union sanctions.
(SFC, 2/5/00, p.A10)(AP, 2/4/01)
2000 Feb 4, Russians forces began
bombing Katyr Yurt after Chechen rebels arrived from Grozny. The
bombing lasted for 2 days, well after the rebels fled, and at least 170
civilians were killed. Later reports said 343 refugees were killed.
(SFC, 2/15/00, p.A13)(WSJ, 3/6/00, p.A1)
2000 Feb 4, In southern Lebanon
Israeli forces attacked targets for the 7th straight day. A guerrilla
commander and 7 civilians were killed.
(SFC, 2/5/00, p.A11)
2000 Feb 4, In Russia former Prime
Minister Yevgeny Primakov dropped out of the presidential race.
(SFC, 2/5/00, p.A10)
2001 Feb 4, In the NHL All-Star
game, the North America team beat the World squad 14-to-12. In the Pro
Bowl, the AFC defeated the NFC, 38-to-17.
(AP, 2/4/02)
2001 Feb 4, Phillips Petroleum and
Tosco boards approved a Phillips acquisition valued at $7 billion.
(SFC, 2/5/01, p.A1)
2001 Feb 4, In France Iannis
Xenakis, composer and mathematician, died at age 78. He is credited
with having invented “stochastic music” based on mathematical
probability systems. His work included the percussion ensemble piece:
“The Pleiades.”
(SFC, 2/5/01, p.A21)
2001 Feb 4, In Russia Dr. Kenneth
Gluck, a member of Doctors Without Borders, turned up in good health
after being kidnapped in Chechnya 27 days earlier.
(SFC, 2/5/01, p.A9)
2001 Feb 4, In Spain a crowd of
10-40 thousand marched in Barcelona to protest a tough new against
illegal immigrants.
(SFC, 2/5/01, p.A8)
2002 Feb 4, Pres. Bush released
his $2.13 trillion budget plan for the coming federal year. It included
a 12% increase in military spending and cuts in highway and job
training.
(SSFC, 2/3/02, p.A1)(SFC, 2/5/02, p.A1)
2002 Feb 4, The World Economic
Forum concluded five days of meetings in New York.
(AP, 2/4/03)
2002 Feb 4, Former Enron chairman
and chief executive Kenneth Lay resigned from the board, cutting his
last tie to the company beyond stock ownership.
(AP, 2/4/03)
2002 Feb 4, A New Jersey teenager
(16) began a 2-day shooting spree on the outskirts of Philadelphia that
left 6 people dead. He was arrested Feb 22.
(SSFC, 2/24/02, p.A1)
2002 Feb 4, The CIA believed that
it killed a top al Qaeda official with a Hellfire missile, Predator
aerial drone, near Zawar Kili, Afghanistan. 7 al Qaeda members were
killed. At least some of those killed were innocent villagers. At
Zhawara 3 local villagers were killed while looking for scrap metal.
(WSJ, 2/7/02, p.A1)(SFC, 2/8/02, p.A18)(SFC,
2/11/02, p.A10)(SFC, 2/12/02, p.A16)(SSFC, 2/17/02, p.A18)(SSFC,
7/21/02, p.A14)
2002 Feb 4, In Afghanistan
northern militia factions agreed to withdraw from Mazar-e-Sharif and
create a new joint security force.
(SFC, 2/5/02, p.A8)
2002 Feb 4, In Havana, Cuba, Pres.
Fox of Mexico met with 7 prominent dissidents.
(SFC, 2/5/02, p.A7)
2002 Feb 4, An 8-year corruption
investigation of Elf Aquitaine, a French oil firm privatized in 1994,
ended with 40 people implicated.
(SFC, 2/5/02, p.A6)
2002 Feb 4, Israeli PM Peres said
Iran had put elite forces into Lebanon and had supplied Hezbollah with
10,000 rockets with ranges of 13-44 miles.
(SFC, 2/5/02, p.A10)
2002 Feb 4, In the Gaza Strip 5
Palestinians were killed when their car exploded. Israeli military said
the men were carrying an explosive device that went off early. 5
Palestinians died in a Gaza helicopter attack.
(SFC, 2/5/02, p.A5)(WSJ, 2/5/02, p.A1)
2003 Feb 4, Pres. Bush visited the
Johnson Space Center in Houston, where he led a tribute to the lost
crew of the shuttle Columbia and rededicated the nation to space travel.
(AP, 2/4/04)
2003 Feb 4, Jerome Hines (81),
opera singer died in New York.
(AP, 2/4/04)
2003 Feb 4, Beauty pageant
organizers stripped Miss Brazil of her title after they discovered she
was married. Joseane Oliveira (21) was replaced by first runner-up
Taiza Thomsen (21).
(AP, 2/5/03)
2003 Feb 4, A rare television
interview with Saddam Hussein aired in which the Iraqi leader charged
that US claims of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons in his
country were a pretext to seize Iraq's oil fields.
(AP, 2/4/04)
2003 Feb 4, In central Pakistan
fireworks being loaded into shipping containers caught fire, setting
off a series of powerful explosions that killed at least 17 people,
including two children, and injured dozens.
(AP, 2/4/03)
2003 Feb 4, The United Nations
indicted 32 people, including 15 Indonesian soldiers, on allegations
they tortured and killed East Timorese during the country's bloody
split from Indonesia in 1999.
(AP, 2/4/03)
2003 Feb 4, Venezuela's government
suggested a referendum on his rule later this year as a way out of the
country's political crisis.
(AP, 2/4/03)
2003 Feb 4, Yugoslavia's
parliament transformed the federation into a loose union between
Montenegro and Serbia and retired the name "Yugoslavia."
(WSJ, 2/5/03, p.A1)
2004 Feb 4, The US Senate, rattled
by a ricin attack, began returning to regular business with no
illnesses reported.
(AP, 2/4/05)
2004 Feb 4, John Ashcroft joined
security chiefs from 32 nations at a Bali anti-terrorism conference.
(WSJ, 2/4/04, p.A1)
2004 Feb 4, A Massachusetts
advisory opinion of the state Supreme Court said gay couples had the
right to marry.
(WSJ, 2/5/04, p.A4)
2004 Feb 4, Hilda Hilst (73), who
provoked Brazilian readers with fiction and poetry depicting insanity,
the supernatural and erotica, died.
(AP, 2/4/04)
2004 Feb 4, In Sierra Leone Pres.
Ahmed Tejah Kabbah and international sponsors declared a successful end
to disarmament, closing a final chapter in an 11-year war that was one
of the modern world's most vicious.
(AP, 2/4/04)
2005 Feb 4, Kevin Shelley resigned
as California’s secretary of state amidst allegations of questionable
fund raising and misuse of federal voting funds.
(SFC, 2/4/05, p.A1)
2005 Feb 4, John and Linda Dollar,
a Florida couple accused of torturing and starving five adopted
children, were captured in southeastern Utah.
(AP, 2/5/05)
2005 Feb 4, Boeing said Ethiopian
Airlines plans to acquire up to 10 of Boeing Co.'s new 787s at an
overall cost of about $1.3 billion.
(AP, 2/4/05)
2005 Feb 4, It was reported that
California’s mysterious explosion of autism cases increased by 13% in
2004. State services for autism had increased from some 5,000 in 1993
to 26,000 in 2004. The US federal Dept. of Education reported that
autism in schoolchildren increased 1,700% nationally from 1992 to 2002.
(SFC, 2/4/05, p.A1)
2005 Feb 4, Ossie Davis (87), an
actor distinguished for roles dealing with racial injustice on stage,
screen and in real life, was found dead in his hotel room in Miami. He
was best known as the husband and partner of actress Ruby Dee.
(AP, 2/4/05)
2005 Feb 4, Brazil’s annual
pre-Lenten Carnival got under way. It's long been an open secret that
Rio's annual samba parade is largely funded by the kingpins of an
illegal numbers game known here as the "jogo do bicho," Portuguese for
animal game.
(AP, 2/5/05)
2005 Feb 4, Guatemala's highest
court said it cannot try soldiers charged with participating in a
wartime massacre of more than 300 civilians until a separate court
determines if the country's postwar reconciliation law bars such
prosecution.
(AP, 2/4/05)
2005 Feb 4, Diplomats said Iran
has agreed to give the UN nuclear watchdog agency a fresh look at a
military complex linked by the US to possible atomic arms research.
(AP, 2/4/05)
2005 Feb 4, Gunmen seized Giuliana
Sgrena, an Italian journalist in central Baghdad, in a hail of gunfire
after she had been interviewing people who fled the US assault last
year on the Sunni insurgent stronghold of Fallujah. Sgrena was freed a
month later; however, an Italian agent who'd secured her release was
killed by U.S. gunfire at a checkpoint.
(AP, 2/4/05)(AP, 2/4/06)
2005 Feb 4, Japan confirmed its
1st human death from mad-cow disease. It was suspected that the man
died as a result of beef he consumed in England around 1989.
(WSJ, 2/7/05, p.A16)
2005 Feb 4, In Nepal dozens of
paramilitary police raided an underground political meeting and rounded
up a group of party officials, days after the king seized power and
banned public gatherings.
(AP, 2/4/05)
2005 Feb 4, The Nigerian army
quelled a demonstration at one of Nigeria's main oil export terminals,
while activists accused the soldiers of killing four protesters.
(AP, 2/4/05)
2005 Feb 4, Russia lashed out at
Britain after an independent TV channel there aired an interview with
Chechen rebel warlord Shamil Basayev, saying the broadcast amounted to
terrorist propaganda and calling for an investigation.
(AP, 2/4/05)
2005 Feb 4, A Swiss-based group
said Arab tribes in northern Sudan have freed 880 slaves during the
past two weeks and allowed them to returned to southern Sudan.
(AP, 2/4/05)
2005 Feb 4, The Ukraine Parliament
unanimously approved fiery opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko as PM,
along with her government's new program to raise living standards,
tackle corruption and set Ukraine on a westward course.
(AP, 2/4/05)
2005 Feb 4, A Ukraine intelligence
official said secret indictments and arrests have taken place against
at least 6 arms dealers accused of selling nuclear capable missiles to
China and Iran.
(SFC, 2/4/05, p.A5)
2005 Feb 4, The UN vowed to
discipline two officials implicated in a report that detailed conflicts
of interest and flawed management in the U.N. oil-for-food program.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan will discipline Benon Sevan and another UN
official, Joseph Stephanides, who may have "tainted" bidding for an
oil-for-food contract,
(AP, 2/4/05)
2006 Feb 4, In Arkansas Jacob D.
Robida (18) shot himself after he killed a Gassville police officer and
a woman in his car. Robida died the next day. 2 days earlier Robida had
used a hatchet and a gun to attack 3 patrons at a gay bar in Mass.
(AP, 2/3/06)(AP, 2/5/06)(SFC, 2/8/06, p.A3)
2006 Feb 4, In Southern California
nearly 2,000 inmates rioted at the Castaic North County Correctional
Facility, throwing mattresses and banging heads against bunk beds, in
an uproar that officials said stemmed from racial tensions. One inmate
was killed.
(AP, 2/5/06)
2006 Feb 4, Betty Friedan (85),
feminist crusader and author of “The Feminine Mystique” (1963), died at
her home in Washington. In 1966 she co-founded the National
organization for Women (NOW).
(SSFC, 2/5/06, p.A6)(Econ, 2/11/06, p.82)
2006 Feb 4, About 250 Afghan
forces fought more than 200 rebels in the area's fiercest fighting in
months. At least 19 people were killed in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
(AP, 2/4/06)
2006 Feb 4, In Afghanistan a land
mine ripped through a police vehicle, killing six officers and wounding
four in Kandahar.
(AP, 2/5/06)
2006 Feb 4, In Sao Paulo, Brazil,
thousands of fans surged through security barriers at an autograph
session for a wildly popular Mexican band, leaving three people crushed
to death and 38 injured.
(AP, 2/5/06)
2006 Feb 4, Dumarsais Simeus (65),
a presidential candidate whose name was dropped from the ballot despite
two Haitian Supreme Court rulings, said the interim president, the
prime minister and the electoral council should be jailed.
(AP, 2/4/06)
2006 Feb 4, Indian airport workers
called off a four-day anti-privatization strike that had created chaos
at the nation's airports after the government promised them job
security.
(AP, 2/4/06)
2006 Feb 4, The ISNA news agency
reported that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has ordered the
cancellation of economic contracts with countries where the media have
carried cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.
(AFP, 2/4/06)
2006 Feb 4, The UN nuclear
watchdog reported Iran to the UN Security Council in a resolution
expressing concern that Tehran's nuclear program may not be
"exclusively for peaceful purposes." Iran retaliated immediately,
saying it would resume uranium enrichment at its main plant instead of
in Russia.
(AP, 2/4/06)
2006 Feb 4, A three-day energy
meeting in Mexico City wrapped up after moving to a Mexican-owned
hotel. It was the first private-sector oil summit between Cuba and the
US. The meeting between Cuban officials and US energy executives was
moved to another hotel after the Hotel Maria Isabel Sheraton asked the
Cubans to leave. On Feb 6 Mexico launched an investigation into whether
the US government pressured the American-owned hotel into expelling
Cuban guests.
(AP, 2/6/06)
2006 Feb 4, A Palestinian man
stabbed five people on a minibus in central Israel, killing one woman
before passengers subdued him.
(AP, 2/5/06)
2006 Feb 4, Jihad Momani, a
Jordanian tabloid editor, was arrested after his newspaper published
controversial cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed, while an
investigation was launched into a second weekly newspaper that also
printed the cartoons. Momani, editor-in-chief of the weekly gossip
newspaper Shihane, was fired from his job the previous day.
(AFP, 2/4/06)
2006 Feb 4, In the Philippines
thousands of people lined up outside a stadium near Manila to watch a
TV game show surged toward the gates in the mistaken belief they were
open, and at least 88 people were trampled to death. Over 300 people
were injured.
(AFP, 2/4/06)
2006 Feb 4, Rage against
caricatures of Islam's revered prophet poured out across the Muslim
world. Aggrieved believers in Syria called for executions, stormed,
European buildings and torched the Danish and Norwegian embassies in
Damascus. In Gaza Palestinians marched through the streets, storming
European buildings and burning German and Danish flags.
(AP, 2/4/06)(AP, 2/4/07)
2006 Feb 4, Tens of thousands of
people filled a plaza near the Thai parliament, chanting slogans
demanding that PM Thaksin Shinawatra step down amid allegations of
official corruption. Thaksin said he would step down if the king asked.
(AP, 2/4/06)
2007 Feb 4, Peyton Manning added
the missing ingredient to his Hall of Fame credentials by leading the
Indianapolis Colts to a 29-17 victory over the Chicago Bears in Super
Bowl XLI.
(Reuters, 2/5/07)
2007 Feb 4, Barbara McNair, black
singer and actress, died in Los Angeles. Her films included “Change of
Habit” (1969). She hosted the TV Barbara McNair Show from 1969-1972.
(SFC, 2/5/07, p.B5)
2007 Feb 4, Gen. Dan McNeill, the
highest-ranking US general to lead troops in Afghanistan, took command
of 35,500 strong NATO-led force, putting an American face on the
international mission after nine months of British command under Gen.
David Richards. A NATO airstrike killed a senior Taliban leader riding
in a car near Musa Qala.
(AP, 2/4/07)
2007 Feb 4, Bangladeshi security
forces used emergency powers to detain 13 senior politicians and former
government ministers. Some 3 million Muslim devotees raised their hands
in prayer for global peace, putting aside their country's sometimes
violent struggle with political corruption and Islamic extremists, at
one of the world's largest religious gatherings. The annual World
Congregation of Muslims, or "Bishwa Ijtema," has been held each year
since 1966 on the banks of the River Turag in Tongi, just north of the
capital, Dhaka.
(AP, 2/4/07)
2007 Feb 4, In eastern China a
fire swept through a two-story building of shops and apartments,
killing at least 17 people in Zhejiang province's Taizhou city.
(AP, 2/4/07)
2007 Feb 4, Armed kidnappers
seized an American missionary as he left his church near Haiti's
capital and have demanded a ransom for his release.
(AP, 2/5/07)
2007 Feb 4, In Iraq at least 103
people were killed or found dead, mostly in Baghdad. A roadside bomb
struck a police patrol in a predominantly Sunni area in Baghdad,
killing 4 policemen and wounding 3. The US command said it has ordered
changes in helicopter flight operations. 4 had been shot down in the
last 2 weeks. Gunmen wearing Iraqi army uniforms seized Jalal Sharafi,
the second secretary at the Iranian Embassy, as he drove through
central Baghdad. Iran said it held the United States responsible for
the diplomat's "safety and life."
(AP, 2/4/07)(SFC, 2/5/07, p.A8)(AP, 2/6/07)
2007 Feb 4, In Kenya a top Kenyan
AIDS researcher was killed and an American woman traveling with him was
shot in the face.
(SSFC, 2/11/07, p.G2)
2007 Feb 4, In Nigeria officials
said 9 Chinese oil workers, abducted last month by militants in an
armed attack in the southern delta, were released.
(Reuters, 2/4/07)
2007 Feb 4, In eastern Pakistan a
passenger train crushed to death a group of six young boys as they
played on a railway track.
(AP, 2/4/07)
2007 Feb 4, Hamas gunmen attacked
bases of Fatah-allied troops with mortars and rocket-propelled
grenades, part of a four-day campaign by the Islamic militants to
weaken the security forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
(AP, 2/4/07)
2007 Feb 4, In Nepal police opened
fire on protesters in two towns, killing at least three people and
wounding several more.
(AP, 2/4/07)
2007 Feb 4, A Philippine marine
general and 19 others were released from a Muslim rebel camp where they
were held for two days by guerrillas demanding more benefits under a
1996 peace accord.
(AP, 2/4/07)
2007 Feb 4, A Saudi newspaper
reported that a Saudi Arabian judge sentenced 20 foreigners to receive
lashes and spend several months in prison after convicting them of
attending a party where alcohol was served and men and women danced.
(AP, 2/4/07)
2007 Feb 4, In Turkmenistan an
eight-story building collapsed in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir
killing 5 people. A 15-year-old boy was rescued 36 hours later.
(AP, 2/6/07)
2007 Feb 4, In Zambia China’s
President Hu Jintao pledged $800 million in investments, debt
write-offs and a "showcase" free trade zone as he ended a tour there.
Beijing's economic juggernaut has sparked tensions in Zambia.
(AFP, 2/4/07)
2008 Feb 4, President Bush
unveiled a $3.1 trillion budget that supports sizable increases in
military spending to fight the war on terrorism and protects his
signature tax cuts. Bush says the plan will keep the US economy growing
and protect the US militarily.
(AP, 2/4/08)
2008 Feb 4, In Utah Thomas S.
Monson (80) was introduced as the 16th president of The Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints. He had become known for his folksy
storytelling as he ascended through church ranks.
(AP, 2/4/08)
2008 Feb 4, Platinum soared above
$1,800 an ounce for the first time as investors bet that a power
shortage in South Africa will tighten global supply for the metal used
in jewelry and automobiles.
(AP, 2/4/08)
2008 Feb 4, Intel said it has
built a new chip with a record 2 billion transistors. Its new quad-core
Itanium processor will operate at frequencies up to 2 gigahertz.
(SFC, 2/5/08, p.C2)
2008 Feb 4, Afghan and foreign
troops conducted two raids on the homes of suspected Taliban militants,
leaving 10 people dead, including women and children. A separate clash
in southern Uruzgan province left nine suspected militants dead.
(AP, 2/4/08)
2008 Feb 4, The chief Aruban
prosecutor said a hidden-camera interview with a Dutch student saying
missing teenager Natalee Holloway was dead and that he had a friend
dump her body at sea is admissible in court. The tape, which was first
broadcast the previous evening on Dutch television, appeared to spur
the investigation.
(AP, 2/5/08)
2008 Feb 4, In Chad government
forces and rebels clashed for a third day in the capital of N'Djamena
with gunfire and shelling heard throughout the city.
(AP, 2/4/08)
2008 Feb 4, In Chile Gen. Gonzalo
Santelices, head of the Santiago army garrison, resigned amid
accusations that he was involved in a case dating back to the nation's
military dictatorship. Santelices had acknowledged that as a young
lieutenant in October, 1973, he followed orders and transferred 14
prisoners from a jail in northern Chile to a desert area where they
were executed by firing squad.
(AP, 2/4/08)
2008 Feb 4, Hundreds of thousands
of Colombians wearing white T-shirts marched in their homeland and
abroad to demand that FARC, the country's largest rebel group, stop
kidnapping people and release those it holds.
(AP, 2/4/08)
2008 Feb 4, Tata Guines (b.1930),
Cuban conga drummer, died. His six decade career helped popularize
Afro-Cuban rhythms worldwide.
(AP, 2/5/08)
2008 Feb 4, Dominican merchants
closed a popular border market that caters to Haitians, punishing their
impoverished neighbor for banning Dominican poultry and egg imports
following an outbreak of avian flu.
(AP, 2/4/08)
2008 Feb 4, EU nations gave
preliminary approval to plans to send a 1,800-strong policing and
administration mission to Kosovo to replace the current UN mission.
(AP, 2/5/08)
2008 Feb 4, Egyptian forces and
Palestinian gunmen exchanged fire at the Gaza-Egypt border, killing one
person and wounding 59 others a day after Cairo closed the breached
frontier with the Hamas-run enclave.
(Reuters, 2/4/08)
2008 Feb 4, The UN Security
Council sent a "firm and unwavering demand" that Eritrea immediately
lift fuel restrictions hampering the efforts of peacekeepers monitoring
a tense buffer zone between Ethiopia and Eritrea.
(AP, 2/4/08)
2008 Feb 4, India and Pakistan
signed an agreement to exchange security information, opening up a new
channel of communication between the two nuclear-armed rivals.
(AFP, 2/4/08)
2008 Feb 4, Iran said it launched
a research rocket and unveiled its first major space center, which will
be used to launch research satellites.
(AP, 2/4/08)
2008 Feb 4, At least 3 Iraqis were
killed and one child was injured after American soldiers stormed a tiny
one-room house in the village of Adwar, 10 miles south of Tikrit, and
opened fire. Iraqi police, relatives and neighbors said a couple and
their son (19) were shot to death in their beds. Iraqi police said two
young girls were wounded and one died the next day at a hospital.
(AP, 2/5/08)
2008 Feb 4, In Israel a suicide
bomber blew himself up in Dimona, the southern town that houses
Israel's secretive nuclear reactor. An Israeli woman (73) was killed
and 7 other people wounded. Police killed a 2nd attacker before he had
a chance to detonate his explosives belt. An Israeli response killed 9
armed Hamas men.
(AP, 2/4/08)(Econ, 2/9/08, p.54)
2008 Feb 4, Kenya said violence
over disputed elections had eased enough to lift a monthlong ban on
live television broadcasts. The fighting has killed over 1,000 people
and made 300,000 homeless since the Dec. 27 presidential election.
Violence continued as former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan said the
government and governing party have rejected his choice to lead
mediation efforts. At least 7 people were killed overnight in battles
between Kisii and Kalenjin communities 155 miles west of the capital.
(AP, 2/4/08)
2008 Feb 4, In Pakistan a suicide
bomber on a motorbike rammed into a minibus carrying security
personnel, detonating a blast that killed at least six people and
wounded more than 30 in the latest attack in the Pakistani garrison
city of Rawalpindi.
(AP, 2/4/08)
2008 Feb 4, In the Philippines at
least 7 civilians, including four children, were killed during a
military operation against al-Qaida-linked militants on southern Jolo
island.
(AP, 2/5/08)
2008 Feb 4, In Serbia Boris Tadic
celebrated his re-election as president by pledging to stay on a
pro-Western course despite nationalist anger over a looming declaration
of independence by Kosovo province.
(AP, 2/4/08)
2008 Feb 4, In northeastern Sri
Lanka a roadside bomb attack blamed on Tamil Tiger rebels tore through
a civilian bus. 14 people were killed and 15 injured in the Freedom day
attack. According to the defense ministry, the rebels have lost at
least 913 fighters since the beginning of the year, compared with just
37 government soldiers killed.
(AP, 2/4/08)(AFP, 2/5/08)
2008 Feb 4, In southern Thailand a
bomb exploded outside an Islamic boarding school, killing one person
and wounding 12. A separate bombing wounded six people, in the latest
violence attributed to an Islamic separatist rebellion that has entered
its fifth year.
(AP, 2/4/08)
2008 Feb 4, Turkey’s warplanes
bombed some 70 Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq.
(AP, 2/4/08)
2008 Feb 4, Ugandan rebels from
the Lord's Resistance Army killed 136 people and looted property during
an attack in and around Kajo-Keji in southern Sudan. In March officials
said Sudanese renegades frustrated with not being absorbed into the
military -- and not Ugandan rebels initially suspected -- were behind
the attacks in south Sudan.
(AFP, 2/8/08)(AFP, 3/15/08)
2008 Feb 4, Secretary-General Ban
Ki-moon said the UN has transferred $161 million from the defunct
oil-for-food program to a development program for Iraq.
(AP, 2/4/08)
2009 Feb 4, President Barack Obama
imposed $500,000 caps on senior executive pay for the most distressed
financial institutions receiving federal bailout money, saying
Americans are upset with "executives being rewarded for failure."
(AP, 2/4/09)
2009 Feb 4, Arkansas Gov. Mike
Beebe signed into law new animal-cruelty restrictions that make
aggravated cruelty to cats, dogs and horses a felony on the first
offense. According to the US Humane Society Arkansas became the 46th
state to make cruelty to animals a felony.
(AP, 2/5/09)
2009 Feb 4, A document was
released that listed thousands of people identified as customers and
victims of Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme.
(WSJ, 2/6/09, p.A1)
2009 Feb 4, Dr. Randeep Mann
allegedly bombed the car of Dr. Trent Pierce, the chairman of the
Tennessee state medical board, in revenge for punishment after 10 of
Mann’s patients fatally overdosed on drugs he had prescribed. Pierce
lost an eye and was severely burned.
(http://a11news.com/1760/dr-randeep-mann-is-car-bomb-suspect/)(SFC,
1/7/10, p.A4)
2009 Feb 4, In Afghanistan a
roadside bomb killed six bodyguards working for a controversial Afghan
district governor in southern Helmand province.
(AP, 2/5/09)
2009 Feb 4, In northeastern
Australia rain-battered residents were on alert for snakes in their
bathrooms and crocodiles in the road following repeated storms that
have sent local wildlife in search of dry land or a safe haven.
(AP, 2/4/09)
2009 Feb 4, Brazilian police
killed at least 10 suspects, including two teenage boys, during
operations against drug traffickers in Rio de Janeiro.
(AP, 2/4/09)
2009 Feb 4, The British military
said an army officer has been arrested in Afghanistan on suspicion of
leaking official secrets. Britain’s Sun newspaper said Lt. Col. Owen
McNally had leaked figures about civilian deaths in coalition
operations to a worker from a human rights group.
(AP, 2/4/09)
2009 Feb 4, French-US telecom
equipment group Alcatel-Lucent said its net loss widened 48.5 percent
to 5.215 billion euros (6.5 billion dollars) in 2008, blaming asset
write-downs in a crumbling world economy.
(AFP, 2/4/09)
2009 Feb 4, French group Areva
signed a draft accord for the sale of two to six nuclear reactors to
India, a huge new market now open with the end of a nuclear trade
embargo on New Delhi.
(AFP, 2/4/09)
2009 Feb 4, In Germany countries
leading the drive to resolve concerns about Iran's nuclear program
welcomed the new US administration's readiness to engage with Tehran.
Foreign Ministry officials from Germany and the five permanent members
of the UN Security Council: Britain, China, France, Russia and the US,
met in Wiesbaden.
(AP, 2/4/09)
2009 Feb 4, A Greek police officer
(38) shot and seriously wounded a Greek private security guard (31)
outside the US Embassy in central Athens.
(AP, 2/4/09)
2009 Feb 4, An Iraqi lawmaker said
the prime minister's coalition will talk to other parties about sharing
power in mostly southern areas after initial projections showed the
Shiite leader's allies were the big winners in last weekend's
provincial elections. Early results showed the that PM al-Maliki’s
allies, the Coalition of the State of Law, finished first in 10 of the
14 provinces.
(AP, 2/4/09)
2009 Feb 4, Kazakhstan allowed its
currency to devalue 25% in an effort to protect its foreign exchange
and gold reserves amidst falling oil prices.
(WSJ, 2/5/09, p.A6)
2009 Feb 4, In Pakistan assailants
overnight torched 10 returning trucks stranded by the bombing of a key
bridge on the main supply route for US forces in Afghanistan.
(AP, 2/4/09)
2009 Feb 4, Poland’s defense
minister stated plans to end military missions in Lebanon, the Golan
Heights and Chad in an effort to cut spending due to the global
economic crisis.
(AP, 2/4/09)
2009 Feb 4, In Puerto Rico Sara
Kuszak (35) made a desperate call for help from the trunk of her
kidnapper's car, about an hour before she was found dead with her
throat slashed. Eliezer Marquez Navedo (36) confessed to kidnapping the
pregnant tourist as she was jogging and killing her. The FBI used a
signal from the victim's cell phone to help locate the suspect. Navedo
was later convicted of kidnapping, rape and murder and sentenced to 105
years in prison.
(AP, 2/5/09)(AP, 6/2/09)
2009 Feb 4, Romania’s central bank
cut interest rates by a quarter point to 10%, still the highest in the
EU.
(WSJ, 2/5/09, p.A8)
2009 Feb 4, Russia sought to
bolster its security alliance with six other ex-Soviet nations
(Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan)
by forming a joint rapid reaction force in a continuing effort to curb
US influence in energy-rich Central Asia.
(AP, 2/4/09)
2009 Feb 4, In Somalia gunmen
killed Said Tahlil Ahmed, the director of the country’s largest media
company, HornAfrik, at a market in Mogadishu. Three Somali Canadians
had established HornAfrik in 1999.
(AP, 2/4/09)
2009 Feb 4, South Korea
implemented its Capital Markets Consolidation Plan (CMCA).
(www.iii.co.uk/news/?type=afxnews&articleid=7150292&action=article)
2009 Feb 4, Sri Lanka's president
said that the Tamil Tiger rebels are on the verge of defeat, but dozens
of civilians were reported killed as fierce fighting continued in
Asia's longest-running civil war. The last hospital in Sri Lanka's
shrinking war zone was evacuated as Red Cross staff and wounded
civilians fled attacks that apparently included cluster munitions. At
least 52 civilians were killed by shelling in the war zone.
(AFP, 2/4/09)(AP, 2/4/09)(WSJ, 2/5/09, p.A1)
2009 Feb 4, The Vatican demanded
that Bishop Richard Williamson recant his positions on the Holocaust
before being admitted as a bishop into the Roman Catholic Church.
(WSJ, 2/5/09, p.A8)
Go to http://www.timelinesdb.com
Go to February 5