Today in History - February 8
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412 Feb 8, St.
Proclus, Patriarch of Constantinople, was born. [see 411]
(HN, 2/8/98)
421 Feb 8, Flavius Constantine
became emperor Constantine III of Roman Empire West.
(MC, 2/8/02)
1400 Feb 8, The Knights of the
Cross with the assistance of Vytautas and the hercog of Lotaringia
defeated Samogitia for the 1st time.
(LHC, 2/8/03)
1577 Feb 8, Robert Burton
(d.1640), writer, Anglican clergyman (Anatomy of Melancholy), was born.
"A mere madness, to live like a wretch and die rich."
(AP, 8/19/98)(MC, 2/8/02)
1586 Feb 8, Jacob Praetorius,
composer, was born.
(MC, 2/8/02)
1587 Feb 8, Mary Stuart, Queen of
Scots (1560-67), was beheaded at age 44 in Fotheringhay Castle for her
alleged part in the conspiracy to usurp Elizabeth I. In 2004 Jane Dunn
authored "Elizabeth and Mary: Cousins, Rivals, Queens." In 2006 studies
identified an oil painting of Mary as the only one made of Mary as
queen.
(HN, 2/8/99)(PCh, 1992, p.203)(USAT, 2/5/04,
p.5D)(SFC, 8/18/06, p.E2)
1600 Feb 8, Vatican sentenced
scholar Giordano Bruno to death.
(MC, 2/8/02)
1601 Feb 8, The armies of Earl
Robert Devereux of Essex drew into London.
(MC, 2/8/02)
1612 Feb 8, Samuel Butler
(d.1680), England, poet, satirist (Hudibras) was baptized.
(MC, 2/8/02)
1622 Feb 8, King James I disbanded
the English parliament.
(MC, 2/8/02)
1672 Feb 8, Isaac Newton read his
1st optics paper before Royal Society in London.
(MC, 2/8/02)
1690 Feb 8, Some 200 French and
Indian troops burned Schenectady, NY, and massacred about 60 people to
avenge Iraquois raids on Canada.
(AH, 2/05, p.17)
1691 Feb 8, Carlo di Girolamo
Rainaldi (79), Italian architect, composer, died.
(MC, 2/8/02)
1693 Feb 8, A charter was granted
for the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Va.
(AP, 2/8/99)
1709 Feb 8, Giuseppi Torelli (50),
Italian composer, died.
(MC, 2/8/02)
1712 Feb 8, L. Joseph de Montcalm
de Saint-Veran, French general in America, was born. [see Feb 29]
(MC, 2/8/02)
1725 Feb 8, Peter I (52) "the
Great" Romanov, czar of Russia (1682-1725), died. [see Jan 28]
(MC, 2/8/02)
1740 Feb 8, Clement XII (87),
[Lorenzo Corsini], blind Pope (1730-40), died.
(MC, 2/8/02)
1741 Feb 8, Andre-Ernest-Modeste
Gretry, composer, was born.
(MC, 2/8/02)
1749 Feb 8, Jan van Huysum (66),
Dutch still life painter, died.
(MC, 2/8/02)
1776 Feb 8, Johann Wolfgang von
Goethe's "Stella" premiered in Hamburg.
(MC, 2/8/02)
1789 Feb 8, Ludwig Wilhelm Maurer,
composer, was born.
(MC, 2/8/02)
1802 Feb 8, Simon Willard patented
a banjo clock.
(MC, 2/8/02)
1807 Feb 8, At Eylau, Poland,
Napoleon’s Marshal Pierre Agureau attacked Russian forces in a heavy
snowstorm. Like Napoleon, to whom he is most often compared, Alexsandr
Suvorov believed that opportunities in battle are created by fortune
but exploited by intelligence, experience and an intuitive eye. To him,
mastery of the art and science of war was not, therefore, purely
instinctive. Napoleon’s forces ran low on supplies at Eylau and ate
their horses.
(HN, 2/7/97)(WSJ, 9/21/05, p.A8)
1817 Feb 8, Richard Stoddert Ewell
(d.1872(), Lt Gen (Confederate Army), was born.
(MC, 2/8/02)
1819 Feb 8, John Ruskin (d.1900),
writer, critic, artist, Gothic Revivalist (Pre-Raphaelite), was born.
His work included "Modern Painter" and "The Stones of Venice."
(WSJ, 3/6/00, p.A28)(MC, 2/8/02)
1820 Feb 8, General William T.
Sherman (d.1891), Union general in America's Civil War, was born. His
famous "March to the Sea" changed the face of modern warfare.
(HN, 2/8/99)(AP, 4/7/99)(MC, 2/8/02)
1828 Feb 8, French author Jules
Verne (d.1905) was born. He is considered the father of science
fiction. Many of his 19th-century works forecast amazing scientific
feats--feats that were actually carried out in the 20th century--with
uncanny accuracy. Verne's 1865 book From the Earth to the Moon told the
story of a space ship that is launched from Florida to the moon and
that returns to Earth by landing in the ocean. Something of a scientist
and traveler himself, Verne's 1870 work about a submarine, "Twenty
Thousand Leagues Under the Sea," and "Around the World in Eighty Days"
also foretold technological advances that seemed fantastic at the time.
(HNPD, 2/8/99)
1834 Feb 8, Dmitri Ivanovich
Mendeleyev (d.1907), Russian chemist, was born. He formulated the
periodic table of elements.
(V.D.-H.K.p.324)(HN, 2/8/01)
1837 Feb 8, The Senate selected
Richard Mentor Johnson as the vice president of the United States.
Johnson was nominated for vice president on the Democratic ticket with
Martin Van Buren in 1836. When Johnson failed to receive a majority of
the popular vote, the election was thrown into the Senate for the first
and only time. Johnson won the election in the Senate by a vote of 33
to 16.
(AP, 2/8/99)(HNQ, 3/8/99)
1851 Feb 8, Kate (Katherine
O'Flaherty ) Chopin (d.1904), American novelist, short story writer,
was born. Her work included "The Awakening." She wrote tales of love
and passion that presented women testing the boundaries of social
convention. "There are some people who leave impressions not so lasting
as the imprint of an oar upon the water."
(AP, 3/11/99)(SFEC, 11/14/99, BR p.5)(HN, 2/8/01)
1861 Feb 8, Delegates from seceded
states adopted a provisional Confederate Constitution in Montgomery,
Ala.
(HN, 2/7/97)(MC, 2/8/02)
1862 Feb 8, Union troops under
Gen. Ambrose Burnside defeated a Confederate defense force at the
Battle of Roanoke Island, N.C.
(HN, 2/8/99)
1865 Feb 8, Confederate raider
William Quantrill and men attacked a group of Federal wagons at New
Market, Kentucky.
(HN, 2/8/00)
1865 Feb 8, Martin Robinson Delany
became the 1st black major in US army.
(MC, 2/8/02)
1871 Feb 8, Elections were held in
France, unknown to most of the nation's population.
(www.marxists.org/history/france/paris-commune/timeline.htm)
1878 Feb 8, Martin Buber,
German-Israeli philosopher, theologist (Ich und Du), was born.
(MC, 2/8/02)
1883 Feb 8, Louis Waterman began
experiments to invent fountain pen.
(MC, 2/8/02)
1887 Feb 8, US Senator Henry
Dawes sponsored the Dawes Severalty Act that authorized the survey of
Indian territories in the West, in order that the commonly held tribal
lands might be broken up into property allotments of 40 to 160 acres.
The Dawes Act gave citizenship to Indians living apart from their
tribe. Section Six stated that upon completion of a Land Patent
process, the allotment holder will become a United States citizen and
"be entitled to all the rights, privileges, and immunities of such
citizens." Native Americans in general did not become citizens until
the Snyder Act of 1924.
(NG, 5/95, p.91)(HN, 2/7/97)(AP, 6/2/97)
1887 Feb 8, The Allotment Act
(Dawes Act) tried to break up tribal land ownership and awarded
individual allotments. Trust accounts were established for both Indian
tribes and individual American Indians. The lands were then held in
trust, managed by the government and leased out to gas, oil and timber
companies. The status of the accounts brought to question in 1996 when
the Bureau of Indian Affairs could not account for about 15% of an
estimated $450 million held for some 300,000 Indians. In 1999 a federal
judge cited Sec. Bruce Babbitt and Robert Rubin in contempt for
official deceit in accounting for the trusts that involved some 500,000
Indians.
(SFC, 6/11/96, p.A12)(SFC, 2/23/99, p.A1)(WSJ,
5/3/99, p.A24)
1887 Feb 8, Luke Short, owner of
the classy Fort Worth White Elephant saloon, engaged in a gunfight with
Longhair Jim Courtright, gunfighter extraordinaire. Short won.
(HT, 4/97, p.51)
1887 Feb 8, Aurora Ski Club of Red
Wing, Minn., became the 1st US ski club.
(MC, 2/8/02)
1892 Feb 8, Fritz Todt, German
Reichs minister (Organization Todt) succeeded by Albert Speer, was born.
(MC, 2/8/02)
1894 Feb 8, The US Enforcement Act
was repealed making it easier to disenfranchise blacks.
(MC, 2/8/02)
1895 Feb 8, Tchaikovsky's "Swan
Lake," premiered in Petersburg.
(MC, 2/8/02)
1896 Feb 8, Georges Feydeau's "Le
Dindon," premiered in Paris.
(MC, 2/8/02)
1898 Feb 8, John Ames Sherman
patented the 1st envelope folding & gumming machine in Mass.
(MC, 2/8/02)
1900 Feb 8, British General Buller
was beaten at Ladysmith, South Africa as the British fled over the
Tugela River.
(HN, 2/8/99)
1904 Feb 8, The Russo-Japanese War
began. In a surprise attack at Port Arthur, Korea, the Japanese
disabled seven Russian warships. During the war, Russia suffered a
series of stunning defeats to Japan; the fighting ended with an
agreement mediated by President Theodore Roosevelt, who went on to win
the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts.
(HN, 2/7/97)(AP, 2/8/04)
1905 Feb 8, A cyclone hit Tahiti
and adjacent islands killing some 10,000 people.
(MC, 2/8/02)
1906 Feb 8, Chester F. Carlson,
physicist, was born. He invented xerography, the electrostatic dry-copy
process.
(HN, 2/8/01)
1906 Feb 8, Henry Roth, writer,
was born. His work included "Call it Sleep."
(HN, 2/8/01)
1907 Feb 8, Revolution broke out
in Argentina.
(HN, 2/7/97)
1910 Feb
8, The Boy Scouts of America was incorporated in Washington, D.C. by
William D. Boyce, a wealthy Chicago publisher who learned of the
"scouts" on a trip to England the previous year.
(NPR, 7/26/95)(HN, 2/8/98)(AP, 2/8/99)
1911 Feb 8, Elizabeth Bishop,
poet, was born.
(HN, 2/8/01)
1911 Feb 8, Victor Herbert's opera
"Natoma," premiered in NYC.
(MC, 2/8/02)
1911 Feb 8, US helped overthrow
President Miguel Devila of Honduras.
(MC, 2/8/02)
1915 Feb 8, D.W. Griffith's silent
movie epic about the Civil War, "The Birth of a Nation," premiered at
Clune's Auditorium in Los Angeles.
(AP, 2/8/99)
1916 Feb 8, Demonstrators
protested against food shortages in Berlin.
(HN, 2/7/97)
1918 Feb
8, The World War I first edition of The Stars and Stripes, the weekly
newspaper of the American Expeditionary Forces, was published in Paris,
France. It was produced weekly by an all-military staff to serve the
doughboys under General of the Armies John J. "Black Jack" Pershing.
Some of its staff went on to journalistic fame, including Pvt. Harold
Ross, who later became the founder and editor of The New Yorker
magazine, and sports writer Lt. Grantland Rice. The first paper called
The Stars and Stripes was a product of the Civil War, put out by four
Union soldiers in 1861. Using the facilities of a captured newspaper
plant in Bloomfield, Missouri, they ran off a one-page paper that made
just one appearance.
(http://ww2.pstripes.osd.mil/aboutnew.html)
1920 Feb 8, Swiss men voted
against women's suffrage.
(MC, 2/8/02)
1921 Feb 8, Pjotr A. Kropotkin
(78), Russian anarchist and son of Prince Alexei Petrovich Kropotkin,
died. Books by Peter Kropotkin included “Mutual Aid: A Factor of
Evolution” (1902)
(www.en.wikipedia.org)
1922 Feb 8, President Harding had
a radio installed in the White House.
(AP, 2/8/99)
1923 Feb 8, German NSDAP (Nazi
Party) Volkischer Beobachter newspaper became a daily.
(MC, 2/8/02)
1924 Feb 8, The gas chamber was
used for the first time to execute a murderer. Major D.A. Turner of the
US Medical Corps used hydrocyanic gas on an alleged Chinese Tong member
named Gee Jon at the Nevada State Prison in Carson City, Nev.
(HN, 2/8/98)(SFC, 6/27/98, p.E4)(AP, 2/8/99)
1925 Feb 8, Jack Lemmon, actor
(Days of Wine & Roses, Missing), was born in Boston, Mass.
(MC, 2/8/02)
1925 Feb 8, Kaufman's &
Berlin's "Cocoanuts," premiered in NYC.
(MC, 2/8/02)
1925 Feb 8, Marcus Garvey entered
federal prison in Atlanta.
(MC, 2/8/02)
1926 Feb 8, Neal Cassaday, writer,
counterculture proponent, was born.
(HN, 2/8/01)
1926 Feb 8, Sean O'Casey's "Plough
& Stars" opened at Abbey Theater Dublin.
(MC, 2/8/02)
1926 Feb 8, German Reichstag
decided to apply for League of Nations membership.
(MC, 2/8/02)
1927 Feb 8, Stanley Baker, actor
(Concrete Jungle, Zorro, Zulu), was born in Ferndale, Wales.
(MC, 2/8/02)
1928 Feb 8, 1st transatlantic TV
image was received at Hartsdale, NY.
(MC, 2/8/02)
1928 Feb 8, Scottish inventor J.
Blaird demonstrated color TV.
(MC, 2/8/02)
1931 Feb 8, James Dean, stage and
film actor who personified "cool" for young people in the 1950s, was
born in Marion, In. His films were Rebel Without a Cause, East of Eden
and Giant.
(HN, 2/8/99)(MC, 2/8/02)
1932 Feb 8, Vincent "Mad Dog"
Coll, mobster, was killed by Dutch Schultz gang.
(MC, 2/8/02)
1933 Feb 8, Elly Ameling, soprano
(Ilya-Idomeneo), was born in Rotterdam, Holland.
(MC, 2/8/02)
1933 Feb 8, The 1st flight of
all-metal Boeing 247.
(MC, 2/8/02)
1935 Feb 8, Max Liebermann
(b.1847), German impressionist painter, graphic artist, died in Berlin.
He was associated with several artists’ organizations including the
Berlin Secession.
(www.xs4all.nl/~androom/index.htm?biography/p011740.htm)
1936 Feb 8, Pandit Jawaharlal
Nehru followed Gandhi as chairman of India Congress Party.
(MC, 2/8/02)
1940 Feb 8, Ted Koppel, American
television journalist, was born in Lancashire, England, as Edward James
Koppel. His family came to the United States in 1953, and he was
naturalized as a US citizen in 1963.
(http://www.biography.com/articles/Ted-Koppel-9368366)
1941 Feb 8, Japanese armored
barges crossed the Strait of Johore to attack Singapore.
(MC, 2/8/02)
1942 Feb 8, Terry Melcher, Rip
Chords, Doris Day's son, was born.
(MC, 2/8/02)
1942 Feb 8, Congress advised FDR
that Americans of Japanese descent should be locked up en masse so they
wouldn't oppose the US war effort.
(MC, 2/8/02)
1942 Feb 8, The Japanese landed on
Singapore. By 1941, Gen. Yamashita was the commanding general of
Japan’s Twenty-Fifth Army. His plans for taking Singapore were already
underway.
(HN, 2/7/97)
1943 Feb 8, British General
Wingate led a guerrilla force of "Chindits" behind the Japanese lines
in Burma. Detachment 101’s support of Maj. Gen. Orde Wingate’s Chindits
and Maj. Gen. Frank Merrill’s Marauders was crucial to the Allied
success in Burma and to the eventual victory in Southeast Asia.
(HN, 2/8/98)(www.chindits.info/)
1943 Feb 8, Red Army recaptured
Kursk.
(MC, 2/8/02)
1945 Feb 8, Allied air attack on
Goch, Kleef, Kalkar, Reichswald.
(MC, 2/8/02)
1946 Feb 8, Premier Salazar of
Portugal forbade opposition parties.
(MC, 2/8/02)
1949 Feb 8, In Hungary Cardinal
Mindszenty was sentenced to life imprisonment for high treason.
(TOH, 1982, p.1949)(EWH, 1968, p.1188)
1952 Feb 8, Elizabeth was formally
proclaimed Queen of England following the Feb 6 death of her father,
King George VI. Elizabeth was crowned Jun 2, 1953.
(HN, 2/8/98)(WSJ, 2/13/02, p.A21)
1953 Feb 8, Mary Steenburgen,
actress (Parenthood, Time After Time), was born in Newport, Ark.
(MC, 2/8/02)
1954 Feb 8, Caryl Whittier
Chessman (34), on death row at San Quentin for kidnapping and attempted
rape, had his 1st book accepted for publication: "Cell 2455, Death
Row." He was executed May 2, 1960.
(SFC, 2/6/04, p.E12)
1955 Feb 8, John Grisham, writer
(Client, Firm, Pelican Brief), was born.
(MC, 2/8/02)
1955 Feb 8, Malenkov resigned as
USSR premier. Bulganin replaced him.
(MC, 2/8/02)
1956 Feb 8, U.S. banned the
launching of weather balloons because of Soviet complaints.
(HN, 2/7/97)
1959 Feb 8, William J. "Wild Bill"
Donovan (76), Office Strategic Services, died.
(MC, 2/8/02)
1960 Feb 8, Congress opened
hearings into payola.
(MC, 2/8/02)
1962 Feb 8, The U.S. Defense
Department reported the creation of the Military Assistance Command in
South Vietnam.
(HN, 2/7/97)
1963 Feb 8, In Iraq the Baath
Party first took power. Right-wing Baathists succeeded in mounting a
coup and executed PM Gen. Abdel Karim Qassim. Abdul Salam Arif came to
power. This was followed by a massacre of thousands of peasants,
communists and trade unionists. The Arab Baath Socialist Party pulled
off the coup and ruled Iraq for 9 months.
(HNQ, 6/20/99)(SFC, 8/6/99, p.D4)(AP, 5/26/03)(AP,
7/13/03)(NW, 9/8/03, p.32)
1964 Feb 8, Peter Shaffer's "Royal
Hunt of the Sun," premiered in London.
(MC, 2/8/02)
1965 Feb 8, Pres. Lyndon B.
Johnson called for the development and protection of a balanced system
of trails to help protect and enhance the quality of the outdoor
experience.
(PCTA, 4/08)
1965 Feb 8, Eastern DC-7B crashed
into the Atlantic off Jones Beach, NJ, and 84 people were killed.
(MC, 2/8/02)
1965 Feb 8, South Vietnamese
bombed the North Vietnamese communications center at Vinh Linh.
(HN, 2/7/97)
1968 Feb 8, George Wallace, the
pro-segregation governor of Alabama, entered the US presidential race.
Wallace ran as a third-party candidate. He was mainly popular in the
deep south, but he was able to attract 14% of the popular vote in the
November election.
(HN, 2/7/97)(www.answers.com/topic/george-wallace)
1968 Feb 8, Robert F. Kennedy said
that the US cannot win the Vietnam War.
(HN, 2/8/98)
1968 Feb 8, At South Carolina
State 3 black students were killed in a confrontation with highway
patrolmen in Orangeburg, during a civil rights protest against a
whites-only bowling alley. Nearly 50 were injured in the Orangeburg
Massacre during confrontations with the National Guard. In 2001 Gov.
Jim Hodges voiced his regret over the massacre. In 1970 Jack Nelson
(1929-2009), LA Times reporter, authored “The Orangeburg Massacre.”
(SFEC, 2/22/98, BR p.8)(AP, 2/8/99)(SFC, 2/9/01,
p.A3)(SFC, 10/22/09, p.D6)
1968 Feb 8, In South Carolina Lee
Roy Martin, called the editor of a local newspaper, and told him where
to find the bodies of two women he'd dumped in the woods. He threatened
to kill even more women until he was "shot down like the dog I am."
Clues in the area led to Martin's arrest. Martin, dubbed the “Gaffney
Strangler,” was convicted of four murders and sentenced to four life
terms. In 1972, he was stabbed to death in his cell.
(AP, 7/4/09)
1969 Feb 8, The last edition of
Saturday Evening Post was published. It had begun publishing in 1869.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Saturday_Evening_Post)
1969 Feb 8, A meteor shower hit
Mexico creating a luminance in the night sky as bright as day. A
meteorite weighing over 1 ton fell in Chihuahua, Mexico.
(http://wapi.isu.edu/geo_pgt/Mod05_Meteorites_Ast/mod5.htm)(TMP,
KCTS-Video, 1987)
1971 Feb 8, Nasdaq, a unit of the
National Association of Securities Dealers, went live under the
leadership of Gordon Macklin (1928-2007).
(WSJ, 2/3/07, p.A8)
1971 Feb 8, South Vietnamese
ground forces, backed by American air power, began Operation Lam Son
719, a 17,000 man incursion into Laos that ended three weeks later in a
disaster.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Lam_Son_719)
1973 Feb 8, Pres. Nixon appointed
Daniel Patrick Moynihan (1927-2003) ambassador to India.
(SFC, 11/7/98,
p.A2)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Ambassador_to_India)
1973 Feb 8, Senate leaders named
seven members of a select committee to investigate the Watergate
scandal, including the chairman, Sam J. Ervin Jr., D-N.C.
(AP, 2/8/99)
1973 Feb 8, Max Yasgur (53), owner
Woodstock festival farmland, died of a heart attack. In 1969 his dairy
farm was the site of the Woodstock Music and Arts Festival. He had
offered his land for the festival over the objection of local officials.
(http://www.deadoraliveinfo.com/dead.nsf/ynames-nf/Yasgur+Max)
1974 Feb 8, The three-man crew of
"Skylab" space station returned to Earth after spending 84 days in
space.
(AP, 2/8/99)
1974 Feb 8, Fritz Zwicky (b.1898),
Swiss-US astronomer, died. In 1934 he and Walter Baade coined the term
"supernova" and hypothesized that they were the transition of normal
stars into neutron stars, as well as the origin of cosmic rays.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fritz_Zwicky)
1975 Feb 8, 1800 Unification
church couples were wed in Korea.
(www.signaturebooks.com/excerpts/unification.htm)
1975 Feb 8, Martyn Green (b.1899),
English actor (Gilbert & Sullivan, Mikado), died.
(http://math.boisestate.edu/GaS/whowaswho/G/GreenMartyn.htm)
1978 Feb 8, The deliberations of
the Senate were broadcast on radio for the first time as members opened
debate on the Panama Canal treaties.
(AP, 2/8/99)
1978 Feb 8, The BBC TV show Grange
Hill, a children’s drama created by Phil Redmond, made its debut.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grange_Hill)
1979 Feb 8, In the Republic of the
Congo Denis Sassou Nguesso (b.1943), a member of the Mbochi minority,
began 13 years of rule as a Marxist dictator.
(WSJ, 12/31/98,
p.A10)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denis_Sassou-Nguesso)
1980 Feb 8, President Jimmy Carter
unveiled a plan to re-introduce draft registration.
(AP, 2/8/00)
1981 Feb 8, Scott Hamilton won the
US male Figure Skating championship.
(http://espn.go.com/abcsports/wwos/highlights/skating.html)
1982 Feb 8, John Hay Whitney
(b.1904), US ambassador and newspaper magnate, died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hay_Whitney)
1983 Feb 8, Baseball ordered
Mickey Mantle (1931-1995) to sever ties with Claridge Casino.
(www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/February_8)
1983 Feb 8, Champion thoroughbred
Shergar was kidnapped in Ireland and never found. Lloyds of London paid
$10.6 million insurance.
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/9/newsid_2538000/2538595.stm)
1984 Feb 8, Winter Olympics opened
in Sarajevo.
(HN, 2/7/97)
1986 Feb 8, Brian Boitano won the
US male Figure Skating championship.
(http://tinyurl.com/nuoe4)
1988 Feb 8, Jimmy Lee Dill fatally
shot and killed Leon Shaw in Birmingham, Alabama, and robbed him of
cocaine and about $200. Dill (49) was executed in 2009.
(SFC, 4/17/09,
p.A6)(www.wsfa.com/Global/story.asp?S=10197524&nav=0rde)
1989 Feb 8, Jockey Chris Antley
(1966-2000) began a record of 64 consecutive winning days.
(www.standardbredcanada.ca/news/iss0506/sears0512.html)
1989 Feb 8, In the Azores 144
people were killed when an American-chartered Boeing 707 filled with
Italian tourists slammed into fog-covered Santa Maria mountain.
(AP, 2/8/99)
1990 Feb 8, CBS television
temporarily suspended Andy Rooney for his anti-gay and anti-black
remarks in a gay magazine interview.
(HN, 2/8/99)
1991 Feb 8, Defense Secretary Dick
Cheney and Joint Chiefs Chairman Colin L. Powell met with American
pilots in Saudi Arabia. Powell drew cheers as he described how allied
troops would deal with the Iraqi force in Kuwait: "We’ll cut it off and
kill it."
(AP, 2/8/01)
1991 Feb 8, In Ohio Kenneth Biros
(33) raped and killed Tami Engstrom (22) after offering her a ride home
from a bar in Trumbull county. He then scattered her body parts in Ohio
and Pennsylvania. Biros was executed in 2009.
(www.forgottenoh.com/Counties/Trumbull/biroshouse.html)
(SFC, 12/9/09, p.A10)
1992 Feb 8, The 16th Olympic
Winter Games opened in Albertville, France.
(AP, 2/8/02)
1993 Feb 8, General Motors sued
NBC, alleging that the "Dateline NBC" program had rigged two car-truck
crashes to show that 1973-1987 GM pickups were prone to fires in side
impact crashes. NBC settled the lawsuit the following day.
(AP, 2/8/03)
1994 Feb 8, President Clinton's
health-care proposal suffered a blow as the Congressional Budget Office
released an analysis saying that the plan would not shrink federal
deficits, but instead drive them higher.
(AP, 2/8/99)
1995 Feb 8, US Surgeon General
nominee Henry Foster said in an ABC interview he'd performed 39
abortions, more than three times as many as previously stated.
(AP, 2/8/00)
1995 Feb 8, The U.N. Security
Council approved sending 7,000 peacekeepers to Angola to cement an
accord ending 19 years of civil war.
(AP, 2/8/00)
1995 Feb 8, A 6.4 earthquake at
Trujillo, Colombia, killed over 46 people.
(http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/eqlists/sig_1995.html)
1996 Feb 8, NFL and Cleveland
allowed Art Modell to move his NFL franchise to Baltimore but he had to
leave the Browns' name behind.
(MC, 2/8/02)
1996 Feb 8, In a ceremony at the
Library of Congress, President Clinton signed legislation revamping the
telecommunications industry, saying it would "bring the future to our
doorstep."
(AP, 2/8/01)
1996 Feb 8, Rivers overflowed in
northern Oregon in the worst flooding in 30 years.
(WSJ, 2/9/96, p.A1)
1996 Feb 8, John Peter Barlow,
Internet activist, issued the “Declaration of the Independence of
Cyberspace” from Davos, Switzerland.
(Econ, 12/8/07,
p.14)(http://homes.eff.org/~barlow/Declaration-Final.html)
1997 Feb 8, President Clinton
announced in his weekly radio address that he was releasing the first
of a $200 million program of grants to provide schools with computers
and Internet training.
(AP, 2/8/02)
1997 Feb 8, In Serbia it was
reported that a new book by former journalist Slavoljub Djukic: "He,
She and Us," was flying off the shelves. The book is about Slobodan
Milosevic and his wife Mirjana Markovic.
(SFC, 2/8/97)
1998 Feb 8, Olga Danilova of
Russia won the first gold medal of the Nagano Winter Games in
15-kilometer classical cross-country skiing.
(AP, 2/8/99)
1998 Feb 8, In Afghanistan new
tremors killed up to 250 more people as relief workers struggled to
reach the disaster scene.
(SFC, 2/9/98, p.B2)
1998 Feb 8, Greek Cypriots voted
in elections with neither main candidate receiving a necessary
majority. Pres. Glafcos Cleridas (78) will face former foreign minister
George Lacovou on Feb 15.
(SFC, 2/9/98, p.A12)
1998 Feb 8, In Iceland Halldor
Laxness, novelist and Nobel Prize winner, died at age 95. His books
included "Independent People," "the Great Weaver of Cashmere," "Salka
Valka," "The Atom Station," and "Paradise Reclaimed."
(SFC, 2/11/98, p.A24)
1998 Feb 8, In Sierra Leone a jet
belonging to West African peacekeepers fired on a tank with a mounted
anti-aircraft gun in Freetown and killed 6 people. Nigerian led
peacekeepers were moving toward Freetown in an effort to drive the
military junta from power.
(SFC, 2/9/98, p.A12)
1999 Feb 8, The Senate heard
closing arguments at President Clinton's impeachment trial, with House
prosecutors challenging senators to "cleanse the office" and the
president's attorney dismissing the case as one of partisan retribution.
(AP, 2/8/00)
1999 Feb 8, American Airlines
cancelled 400 flights as pilots called in sick. There was pilot concern
over pay rates and new pilots coming from the recently merged Reno Air.
In April a federal judge fined the pilots' union $46 million.
(SFC, 2/9/99, p.A3)(SFC, 4/16/99, p.A3)
1999 Feb 8, Nevada lawmakers voted
to oppose federal plans for a nuclear storage dump northwest of Las
Vegas.
(SFC, 2/9/99, p.A3)
1999 Feb 8, Iris Murdoch (b.1919),
Dublin-born novelist, died. Her husband, John Bayley, published "Iris:
A Memoir of Iris Murdoch" in 1998. It was published in the US as "Elegy
for Iris."
(SFC, 2/9/99,
p.A20)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iris_Murdoch)
1999 Feb 8, A French helicopter
crashed in Antarctica and 3 people were killed.
(SFC, 2/9/99, p.A7)
1999 Feb 8, Jordan's King Hussein
was laid to rest during a five-hour funeral in Amman attended by
dignitaries from all over the world, including President Clinton and
former presidents Bush, Carter and Ford.
(AP, 2/8/00)
1999 Feb 8, In Sudan an
independent scientist hired by the owner of the pharmaceutical plant
bombed by the US in August found no traces of chemical weapons.
(SFC, 2/9/99, p.A8)
2000 Feb 8, George W. Bush won the
Delaware Republican primary with 51% of the vote.
(SFC, 2/9/00, p.A3)
2000 Feb 8, Net hackers shut down
at least 4 popular Web sites including Amazon.com, eBay, CNN.com and
buy.com with "denial of service attacks."
(SFC, 2/9/00, p.A1)(AP, 2/8/01)
2000 Feb 8, In Zion, Ill., 2 small
planes collided and 3 people were killed including Bob Collins, a
popular Chicago radio host for WGN-AM. One of the planes crashed into
the roof of the Midwestern Regional Medical Center.
(SFC, 2/9/00, p.A3)
2000 Feb 8, In Chechnya rebels
attacked 2 Russian military trains and set off a large battle.
(WSJ, 2/11/00, p.A1)
2000 Feb 8, At Stansted, England,
4 men escaped from the Afghan hijacked airline as negotiations
continued.
(SFC, 2/9/00, p.A10)
2000 Feb 8, In Lebanon Hezbollah
guerrillas killed another Israeli soldier and Israeli warplanes
retaliated with attacks on Tyre and Iqlim al-Tuffah.
(SFC, 2/9/00, p.A10)
2000 Feb 8, In Sri Lanka bombs
exploded in 2 buses around Colombo and 2 people were killed and 31
injured.
(SFC, 2/9/00, p.C3)
2000 Feb 8, In Sudan a government
plane bombed the rebel town of Kaouda in the Nuba Mountains and 13
students under age 14 were reported killed.
(SFC, 2/9/00, p.C3)
2001 Feb 8, President Bush sent
his proposed $1.6 trillion, 10-year tax cut plan to Congress.
(SFC, 2/9/01, p.A1)(AP, 2/8/02)
2001 Feb 8, A House committee
opened hearings into former President Clinton's last-minute pardon of
fugitive financier Marc Rich, with former prosecutors complaining that
they hadn't been consulted before the pardon was granted.
(AP, 2/8/02)
2001 Feb 8, The new Disney theme
park "Disney’s California Adventure" opened in Anaheim.
(WSJ, 1/22/01, p.B1)(SFC, 2/8/01, p.A1)
2001 Feb 8, In China the cabinet
approved a 700-mile rail line to link Lhasa, Tibet, and Qinghai
province.
(WSJ, 2/9/01, p.A1)
2001 Feb 8, In Colombia Pres.
Pastrana met with FARC leader Manuel Marulanda at Los Pozos.
(SFC, 2/9/01, p.A16)
2001 Feb 8, In Germany
ex-Chancellor Kohl agreed to pay a fine to close a slush fund
investigation.
(WSJ, 2/9/01, p.A1)
2001 Feb 8, In Israel 2 blasts
from an explosives rigged car injured one woman in Jerusalem. Ehud
Barak announced that he would take over Labor Party negotiations to
join the Sharon government.
(SFC, 2/9/01, p.A16)
2001 Feb 8, In Russia the lower
house voted to reduce advertising interruptions for TV movies.
(SSFC, 2/11/01, p.C1)
2002 Feb 8, Pres. Bush opened the
19th Winter Olympic Games as part of a 3-hour ceremony at Rice-Eccles
Stadium at the Univ. of Utah campus, which included an emotional
tribute to America's heroes, from the pioneers of the West to past
Olympic champions to the thousands who perished on Sept. 11, 2001.
(SFC, 2/9/02, p.A1)(AP, 2/8/03)
2002 Feb 8, In Texas a $60 million
casino run by the Tigua Indians was shut down following lobbying
efforts by religious activist Ralph Reed and Washington lobbyists Jack
Abramoff and Michael Scanlon. Abramoff and Scanlon then persuaded the
tribe to pay $4.2 million to lobby Congress to reopen it. Senate
hearings on the process opened in 2004.
(SSFC, 9/26/04, p.A10)
2002 Feb 8, A bankruptcy judge
rejected a reorganization plan proposed by Pacific Gas and Electric.
(SFC, 2/9/02, p.A1)
2002 Feb 8, William T. Dillard
(b.1914), founder of Dillard’s department store chain, died in Little
Rock, Ark.
(SFC, 2/11/02, p.B5)(AP, 2/8/03)
2002 Feb 8, Marine Sgt. Todd
Sommer (23) died in his home in San Diego. His death was at first ruled
a heart attack but later tests found high arsenic levels in his liver.
In 2005 his wife, Cynthia Sommers, was charged with 1st degree murder.
In 2007 his wife, Cynthia Sommer (33) was convicted of murdering him
with arsenic so she could cash in on his $250,000 life insurance
policy, some of which she used to have her breasts enlarged.
(SFC, 12/16/05, p.A2)(AP, 1/30/07)
2002 Feb 8, In Afghanistan Mullah
Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil, Taliban foreign minister, surrendered in
Kandahar and was turned over to US military.
(SFC, 2/9/02, p.A14)
2002 Feb 8, Interim Afghan leader
Hamid Karzai met with Pakistan Pres. Musharraf in Islamabad and they
agreed to bury past misunderstandings.
(SFC, 2/9/02, p.A14)
2002 Feb 8, In Israel at least 2
Palestinians were killed when a bomb exploded prematurely. In Jerusalem
an Israeli woman was stabbed to death while strolling in the Peace
Forest. Police caught 4 Palestinians and one died following his arrest.
(SFC, 2/9/02, p.A7)
2003 Feb 8, In a jab at major US
allies, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld told a security conference
in Munich that countries such as France and Germany that favored giving
Iraq another chance to disarm were undermining what slim chance existed
to avoid war.
(AP, 2/8/08)
2003 Feb 8, The US Navy conducted
its last scheduled round of weapons tests on Vieques Island, Puerto
Rico.
(SFC, 2/10/03, p.A9)
2003 Feb 8, In Australia 750 nude
women formed a heart around the words 'No War' near the town of Byron
Bay to protest possible war with Iraq.
(AP, 2/8/03)
2003 Feb 8, Augusto Monterosso
(81), Honduras-born Guatemalan writer, died in Mexico City. His work
included "Perpetual Movement" (1972); "The Letter E: Fragments of a
Diary" (1987); and "The Magic Word" (1983).
(SFC, 2/10/03, p.B5)
2003 Feb 8, The chief UN arms
inspectors arrived in Baghdad for a new round of crucial talks with
Iraqi officials.
(AP, 2/8/04)
2003 Feb 8, In Iraq gunmen posing
as defectors from an Islamic extremist group killed Gen. Shawkat
Haji Mushir, a political leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and
two other Kurdish officials.
(AP, 2/9/03)
2003 Feb 8, Philippine troops
killed at least eight Abu Sayyaf rebels during a clash with the
guerrillas in the southern town of Patikul.
(AP, 2/9/03)
2003 Feb 8, Nearly 2 million
Muslims converged on Mecca for the annual pilgrimage. Some of the
faithful offered prayers to avert a U.S.-led war on Iraq.
(AP, 2/8/03)
2003 Feb 8, Tens of thousands of
Venezuelans marched in support of 9,000 oil workers fired for leading a
two-month strike against President Hugo Chavez that battered the
economy of this oil-dependent nation.
(AP, 2/8/03)
2004 Feb 8, At the Grammy Awards,
rap funksters OutKast won album of the year for "Speakerboxxx-The Love
Below" and Beyonce took home a record-tying five trophies.
(AP, 2/8/05)
2004 Feb 8, President Bush denied
marching America into war under false pretenses and said in an
interview on NBC's "Meet the Press" the U.S.-led invasion was necessary
because Saddam Hussein could have developed a nuclear weapon.
(AP, 2/8/05)
2004 Feb 8, John Kerry won the
Maine caucuses.
(SFC, 2/9/04, p.A1)
2004 Feb 8, In northeastern
Afghanistan 4 days of fighting between rival warlords over control of
the drug trade left 7 dead and 8 wounded.
(SFC, 2/9/04, p.A3)
2004 Feb 8, In Brazil 49 inmates
slipped through a bathroom wall of a Rio de Janeiro jail cell in an
escape caught on a surveillance camera. Authorities suspended six
prison guards.
(AP, 2/9/04)
2004 Feb 8, US Defense Secretary
Donald H. Rumsfeld visited Croatia and thanked Pres. Stipe Mesic for
Croatia's small military police contingent (50) in Iraq.
(AP, 2/8/04)
2004 Feb 8, Socialist voters
across Greece cast symbolic ballots to hand the party's leadership to
Foreign Minister George Papandreou.
(AP, 2/8/04)
2004 Feb 8, In Suwayrah, Iraq, a
bomb inside a police station exploded soon after the morning roll call,
killing 3 police officer and injuring 11 others.
(AP, 2/8/04)
2004 Feb 8, A UN team met with
Iraqi leaders to discuss the feasibility of early legislative
elections, and its leader pledged to do "everything possible" to help
the country regain its sovereignty.
(AP, 2/8/04)
2004 Feb 8, In New Zealand some
3,400-gallons of fuel spilled in a fjord listed as a World Heritage
site. Officials the next day said the spill in Milford Sound fjord was
"eco-terrorism and economic sabotage" against the country's lucrative
tourism industry.
(AP, 2/8/04)
2004 Feb 8, Swiss voters approved
a measure to put into effect some of Europe's harshest laws on violent
criminals and pedophiles.
(SFC, 2/9/04, p.A3)
2005 Feb 8, An earlier-than-usual
Mardi Gras festival opened in New Orleans with sparse crowds.
(AP, 2/8/06)
2005 Feb 8, It was reported that a
1991 memo from Merck showed that senior executives were concerned that
the vaccines of an expanded immunization program contained an elevated
dose of mercury by as much as 87 times the maximum guidelines for daily
consumption of mercury from fish. Thimersol, an anti-bacterial compound
in the vaccine, was nearly 50% ethyl mercury, a neurotoxin. The vaccine
program was later tied to elevated cases of autism.
(SFC, 2/8/05, p.A5)
2005 Feb 8, Ian Wilmut, the
scientist who created Dolly the sheep, the world's first cloned mammal,
was given a license to clone human embryos for medical research.
Therapeutic cloning research has been legal in Great Britain since 2001.
(AP, 2/8/05)
2005 Feb 8, George Herman (85),
longtime CBS newsman, died in Washington.
(AP, 2/8/06)
2005 Feb 8, Keith Knudsen (56),
Doobie Brothers drummer who was part of the band during a string of
hits that included "Taking it to the Streets" and "Black Water," died
of pneumonia.
(AP, 2/9/05)
2005 Feb 8, Jimmy Smith (b.1928),
reigning “Emperor of the Hammond Organ,” died in Scottsdale, Az. Smith
established the Hammond B-3 organ as a legitimate jazz instrument.
(SFC, 2/10/04, p.B7)
2005 Feb 8, In northwest Colombia
Marxist rebels killed at least 17 soldiers during clashes, the
military's heaviest battle toll in two years. At least 11 guerrillas
also died in the fighting.
(AP, 2/9/05)(Econ, 2/26/05, p.36)
2005 Feb 8, UNICEF said that it
was providing urgently needed aid for 50,000 people caught up in an
upsurge in fighting in Congo.
(AP, 2/8/05)
2005 Feb 8, Danes voted in
parliamentary elections dominated by competing strategies for
strengthening the country's cradle-to-grave welfare state and
tightening immigration. Danes re-elected center-right PM Rasmussen for
a 2nd term.
(AP, 2/8/05)(WSJ, 2/9/05, p.A1)
2005 Feb 8, In Sharm El-Sheik,
Egypt, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian leader
Mahmoud Abbas declared that their people would stop all military and
violent attacks against each other, pledging to get peace talks back on
track. The Palestinian militant group Hamas said it would not be bound
by the cease-fire declarations.
(AP, 2/8/05)
2005 Feb 8, Cairo’s 2-week book
fair ended. During the two-week fair, police confiscated leftist books
and arrested three people protesting any renewal of Hosni Mubarak's
presidency.
(AP, 2/9/05)
2005 Feb 8, Herve Gaymard,
France's finance minister, announced new measures designed to boost
confidence, stimulate growth and tackle the "scandalously high" 9.9%
jobless rate.
(AP, 2/8/05)
2005 Feb 8, A suicide bomber blew
himself up in a crowd of Iraqis outside an army recruitment center,
killing 21 other people and injuring 27 more.
(AP, 2/8/05)
2005 Feb 8, A Web posting in the
name of a militant group in Iraq claimed to have executed Italian
female journalist Giuliana Sgrena.
(AP, 2/8/05)
2005 Feb 8, In Kuwait Amer Khlaif
al-Enezi, the alleged ringleader of a terror group accused of plotting
to attack Americans and Kuwaiti security forces, died of heart failure
while in prison.
(AP, 2/9/05)
2005 Feb 8, Officials said Italian
real estate services company Norman 95 has won a 300-million-euro
(384-million-dollar) contract to develop a luxury holiday resort on the
Libyan coast.
(AFP, 2/8/05)
2005 Feb 8, A confrontation
between rival gangs in an overcrowded Peruvian prison left five inmates
dead and at least 18 others wounded.
(AP, 2/8/05)
2005 Feb 8, In Lome, Togo, a
strike called by opposition parties shut down the capital’s main market
and other businesses.
(AP, 2/8/05)
2006 Feb 8, President Bush
condemned deadly rioting sparked by cartoons of the prophet Muhammad as
he urged foreign leaders to halt the spreading violence.
(AP, 2/8/07)
2006 Feb 8, In the 48th annual
Grammy Awards U2 captured five Grammy awards for their album "How to
Dismantle An Atomic Bomb," including album of the year.
(SFC, 2/9/06, p.A2)(AP, 2/8/07)
2006 Feb 8, The NY Times reported
that Representative Heather Wilson of New Mexico, who chairs the House
Subcommittee on Technical and Tactical Intelligence, said in an
interview that she had "serious concerns" about the Bush
administration's domestic spying program.
(AFP, 2/8/06)
2006 Feb 8, Steve Fossett (61)
soared out over the Atlantic from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on a quest to
break the 25,000-mile record for the world's longest aircraft flight.
The 80-hour voyage would break the airplane distance record of 24,987
miles set in 1986 by the lightweight Voyager aircraft piloted by Dick
Rutan and Jeana Yeager, as well as the balloon record of 25,361 miles
set by the Breitling Orbiter 3 in 1999.
(AP, 2/9/06)
2006 Feb 8, Afghanistan lauded a
decision by the United States, Russia and Germany to cancel its debts
to the three countries, totaling more than $10 billion.
(AP, 2/8/06)
2006 Feb 8, In Afghan police shot
four protesters to death to stop hundreds from marching on a southern
US military base, as Islamic organizations called for an end to deadly
rioting across the Muslim world over drawings of the Prophet Muhammad.
(AP, 2/8/06)
2006 Feb 8, Australia and New
Zealand vowed to work to build a single economic market on the back of
strengthening trade ties, but stopped short of endorsing a single
currency.
(AP, 2/8/06)
2006 Feb 8, China's Ministry of
Health announced one more human case of bird flu, bringing the number
of the country's confirmed cases in humans to eleven.
(AP, 2/8/06)
2006 Feb 8, A deputy minister
said Ecuador is not likely to extend a deal that allows the
United States to use an anti-narcotics air base on its territory due to
a surge in sentiment against the American military presence.
(AP, 2/8/06)
2006 Feb 8, Egypt's antiquities
chief announced that American archaeologists from the Univ. of Memphis
have uncovered an 18th Dynasty tomb in Egypt's Valley of the Kings, the
first uncovered there since King Tutankhamen’s in 1922. The 18th
Dynasty ruled from around 1560 B.C. to 1085 B.C.
(AP, 2/9/06)
2006 Feb 8, A dispute over the
fate of an ancient Muslim cemetery in Jerusalem threatened to ignite
tensions as workers removed skeletons from the site despite Muslim
pleas for the work to end. Israeli developers and archaeologists were
removing the tombs to make room for the Los Angeles-based Simon
Wiesenthal Center to build a multi-million-dollar Museum of Tolerance,
dedicated in part to promoting understanding among different religions.
(AP, 2/8/06)
2006 Feb 8, The Italian Senate
approved a bill that would dramatically increase the number of women
elected to parliament in a country with one of the lowest number of
female lawmakers in Europe.
(AP, 2/9/06)
2006 Feb 8, Japan and North Korea
ended five days of high-level talks aimed at establishing diplomatic
relations without any agreements, citing major differences on the
North's abduction of Japanese nationals and its nuclear program.
(AP, 2/8/06)
2006 Feb 8, Kenya’s government and
the UN said Kenya needs $221.5 million in aid to help feed 3.5
million people threatened by starvation due to drought and avoid a
"massive humanitarian catastrophe."
(AP, 2/8/06)
2006 Feb 8, In Libya the leaders
of Sudan and Chad signed a peace agreement to end increasing tension
over Sudan's Darfur region, pledging to normalize diplomatic relations
and deny refuge to each other's rebel groups. A communique issued by
Sudan, Chad and Libya, as well as Burkino Faso, Congo and the Central
African Republic, whose leaders attended the talks, said a committee of
African countries overseen by Libya would monitor the implementation of
the deal.
(AP, 2/9/06)
2006 Feb 8, A rebel attack and an
army shooting of protesters marred Nepal's first elections in seven
years, as few voters turned out at schools, shrines and temples for
municipal balloting seen as a referendum on the king. At least six
people were killed.
(AP, 2/8/06)
2006 Feb 8, The World Organization
for Animal Health said the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus has been detected
on a large commercial chicken farm in Nigeria, the first reported
outbreak in Africa. Researchers later reported that 3 different strains
of bird flu had entered Nigeria and most closely resembled those
identified in Egypt, Mongolia and Russia.
(AP, 2/8/06)(SFC, 7/6/06, p.A6)
2006 Feb 8, Hundreds of
Palestinians attacked an international observer mission in Hebron,
throwing stones and smashing windows as dozens of foreigners were
trapped inside.
(AP, 2/8/06)
2006 Feb 8, Khaled Batch, a leader
of the militant Islamic Jihad group, said the group rejects the idea of
a long-term truce with Israel and will not join a Hamas-led government.
Islamic Jihad, which is believed to be funded, in part, by Iran,
boycotted last month's Palestinian parliament election.
(AP, 2/8/06)
2006 Feb 8, In Thailand
skydivers from 31 countries set a new world record of 400 people
holding hands in a midair free-fall formation.
(AP, 2/8/06)
2007 Feb 8, A federal judge in
Fargo, N.D., sentenced Alfonso Rodriguez Jr. to death for the slaying
of college student Dru Sjodin.
(AP, 2/8/08)
2007 Feb 8, The Museum for African
Art unveiled plans for a new home in Manhattan, becoming the first
major addition to New York's Museum Mile in 50 years.
(Reuters, 2/8/07)
2007 Feb 8, Anna Nicole Smith
(b.1967), former Playboy centerfold (Miss May 1992) and wife of former
oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall II (1905-1995), died in Florida.
Authorities later said Smith died of an accidental drug overdose of
nine prescription medications, but an extensive six-week investigation
found no signs of foul play.
(AP, 2/8/07)(SFC, 2/9/07, p.A1)(AP, 3/26/07)
2007 Feb 8, Joe Edwards (85),
comics artist, died at his home in NY. He worked on the 1942 debut
issue of Archie comics and later created the character Li'l Jinx.
(AP, 2/14/07)
2007 Feb 8, Benin, Nigeria, and
Togo formed a new regional body aimed at fast-tracking the integration
of their economies. The body, known as the Co-Prosperity Alliance Zone
(COPAZ), was formally inaugurated following a mini-summit of Nigeria’s
President Olusegun Obasanjo, Benin’s President Boni Yayi and Togo’s
President Faure Gnassingbe.
(AFP, 2/8/07)
2007 Feb 8, In Cape Verde 3
Italian women, aged 17-33, were brutally attacked while vacationing,
dragged into the woods, pelted with stones and left for dead at the
bottom of a hole. One woman survived. 3 local men were arrested.
(AP, 2/10/07)
2007 Feb 8, State media said
officials in eastern China plan to name and shame rich families who
ignore the country's strict one-child policy and simply pay the fine
for having a second or third baby. China executed Ismail Semed, an
ethnic Muslim and member of the Uighur minority group in Xinjiang, for
alleged separatist activities. Human rights groups condemned because
they said the prosecution's case against him lacked evidence and his
confession may have been coerced.
(AP, 2/8/07)(AP, 2/9/07)
2007 Feb 8, Cuba deported reputed
drug kingpin Luis Hernando Gomez Bustamante to Colombia, which plans to
extradite him to the United States to face trafficking and money
laundering charges.
(AP, 2/9/07)
2007 Feb 8, In France teachers,
tax collectors, railway workers and other public servants went on
strike to protest job losses and demand higher pay.
(AP, 2/8/07)
2007 Feb 8, India’s air force
chief S.P. Tyagi told reporters at the Bangalore air show that the
government expects to sign a contract to buy 40 Russian Sukhoi-30
aircraft by the end of the fiscal year March 31.
(AFP, 2/8/07)
2007 Feb 8, An object fell from
the sky and killed 3 nomads in northern India’s Rajasthan state. The
impact left a crater and the object was believed to have been a meteor.
(SFC, 2/17/07, p.B6)
2007 Feb 8, In Indonesia fresh
rains triggered more flooding, compounding the misery for hundreds of
thousands forced from their homes. Irwandi Yusuf, a former rebel
leader, was inaugurated as governor of Aceh province, cementing a peace
deal to end 29 years of fighting that killed more than 15,000 people.
(AP, 2/8/07)
2007 Feb 8, Iraqi forces detained
a senior Health Ministry official accused of corruption and helping to
funnel millions of dollars to Shiite militiamen blamed for much of the
recent sectarian violence in the capital. A parked car bomb exploded at
a meat market in the predominantly Shiite town of Aziziyah killing 20
people and wounding 45. Car bombs struck Shiite targets in Baghdad and
south of the capital. Gunmen burst into two houses belonging to Sunni
Muslims northeast of Baghdad and killed at least 10 males after pushing
the women and children aside. In northern Iraq a late night US
airstrike hit a Kurdish position in Mosul, killing at least eight
Kurdish troops and wounding six. The US military said it was looking
into the report. A separate US airstrike killed eight suspected
terrorists and destroyed a building south of Baghdad. A US airstrike
killed 13 insurgents in a volatile area west of Baghdad. Local
officials said 45 civilians, including women and children, died in the
attack.
(AP, 2/8/07)(AP, 2/9/07)
2007 Feb 8, China’s President Hu
Jintao arrived in Mozambique on the penultimate stop in his 8-nation
African tour.
(AFP, 2/8/07)
2007 Feb 8, Nepal's government
decided to replace the image of embattled King Gyanendra with an image
of Everest, the world's highest mountain, on 10 rupee (13 cent) bills.
(AFP, 2/9/07)
2007 Feb 8, North Korea agreed in
principle to take initial steps toward dismantling its nuclear programs
at the start of international talks seeking the first concrete progress
on disarming Pyongyang.
(AP, 2/8/07)
2007 Feb 8, Welding equipment
touched off an explosion at a West Bank gas station, killing at least
eight people and wounded 17.
(AP, 2/9/07)
2007 Feb 8, A Fatah official in
Saudi Arabia said that rival Palestinian factions had reached an
agreement on how to divide up Cabinet posts in a power-sharing
government.
(AP, 2/8/07)
2007 Feb 8, South Africa, burdened
with one of the world's major HIV/AIDS epidemics, unveiled plans for
its biggest AIDS vaccine trial.
(Reuters, 2/8/07)
2007 Feb 8, President Chen
Shui-bian said the name 'Taiwan' would soon replace 'China' on the
island's stamps, a move likely to anger Beijing.
(AP, 2/8/07)
2007 Feb 8, President Hugo
Chavez's government moved to nationalize Venezuela's largest private
electric company, signing an agreement to buy a controlling stake in
Electricidad de Caracas from its US-based owner, AES Corp.
(AP, 2/8/07)
2008 Feb 8, Pres. Bush reached his
lowest approval rating in an Associated Press-Ipsos poll as only 30%
said they like the job he is doing, including an all-time low in his
support by Republicans. Congress' approval fell to just 22%, equaling
its poorest grade in the survey.
(AP, 2/8/08)
2008 Feb 8, It was reported that
Exxon Mobil Corp. has obtained a court order freezing over $12 billion
in bank accounts and assets in Europe, the Caribbean and New York
belonging to Venezuela’s state oil company in a dispute over
compensation for expropriated assets.
(WSJ, 2/8/08, p.A3)
2008 Feb 8, The Nebraska Supreme
Court ruled 6-1 that the electric chair is cruel and unusual
punishment. The state planned to seek a new method of execution.
(SFC, 2/9/08, p.A2)
2008 Feb 8, In Louisiana Latina
Williams (23) shot and killed 2 fellow students, Karsheika Graves (21)
and Taneshia Butler (26), at Louisiana Technical College.
(SFC, 2/9/08, p.A4)
2008 Feb 8, The Nebraska Supreme
Court declared the electric chair unconstitutional.
(Econ, 2/16/08, p.39)
2008 Feb 8, A suicide car bomber
blew himself up near a convoy of Afghan troops, killing one soldier and
a child who was nearby. Another four soldiers and a child were also
wounded in the attack in central Ghazni province.
(AP, 2/8/08)
2008 Feb 8, Australia's widely
criticized "Pacific Solution" policy of holding asylum seekers on
remote islands ended when the last detainees flew out of Nauru to live
in Australia.
(AFP, 2/8/08)
2008 Feb 8, In western Austria a
fire engulfed a home for the elderly, killing at least 11 people.
(AP, 2/9/08)
2008 Feb 8, Canada said it planned
to keep its 2,500-strong military mission in Afghanistan until some
time in 2011, two years longer than initially scheduled.
(AP, 2/8/08)
2008 Feb 8, The UN said it is
being forced to prepare an imminent pullout from Eritrea and plans to
relocate all its peacekeeping troops there across the border in
Ethiopia.
(AP, 2/9/08)
2008 Feb 8, Former UN chief Kofi
Annan, who is mediating talks between Kenya's political rivals, said
they were close to a deal aimed at ending weeks of postelection
bloodshed but no power-sharing agreement had been reached yet.
(AP, 2/8/08)
2008 Feb 8, France’s President
Nicolas Sarkozy pledged to send thousands of extra police and more than
$700 million in aid to neglected, heavily immigrant neighborhoods that
exploded in riots in 2005 and 2006.
(AP, 2/8/08)
2008 Feb 8, In the
Indian-controlled part of Kashmir avalanches killed at least eight
people and forced hundreds more to leave their snowbound villages.
(AP, 2/8/08)
2008 Feb 8, Iraqi President Jalal
Talabani welcomed an expected Russian decision to write off 91 percent
of Iraq's estimated $13 billion debt, calling it a "historic turning
point" in relations between the two countries. 5 American soldiers were
killed in two roadside bombings, 4 in Baghdad and one in Tamim province.
(AP, 2/8/08)(AP, 2/9/08)
2008 Feb 8, In New Zealand a
knife-wielding woman (33), originally from Somalia, tried to hijack a
regional domestic flight, stabbing both pilots and threatening to blow
up the twin-propeller plane before she was subdued.
(AP, 2/8/08)
2008 Feb 8, A presidential
statement said Nigeria has approved a new policy requiring gas
producers to direct a part of their output to the domestic market,
rather than exporting it.
(AP, 2/8/08)
2008 Feb 8, Scotland Yard released
a report saying that Pakistan's opposition leader Benazir Bhutto died
as a result of a suicide bomb blast, not a gunshot. The findings
supported the Pakistani government's version of the events.
(AP, 2/8/08)
2008 Feb 8, Palestinian militants
launched nearly 20 rockets at Israel hours after Israel began cutting
electricity to the Gaza Strip in an attempt to halt the barrages.
(AP, 2/8/08)
2008 Feb 8, In Rwanda members of
the Chamber of Deputies (Lower House) of Parliament voted in favor of a
controversial new law aimed at stopping "genocide ideology," a term for
the outlook that perpetrators of genocide foster to fan divisive hate
campaigns between different groups of Rwandans. Parliament adopted the
law in June.
(www.loc.gov/lawweb/servlet/lloc_news?disp1_375_Rwanda)(http://tinyurl.com/dnxogn)
2008 Feb 8, In Sri Lanka
gunbattles along the front lines in the northern districts of Jaffna,
Mannar and Vavuniya killed 41 Tamil Tiger rebels and three soldiers.
(AP, 2/9/08)
2008 Feb 8, The Sudanese military
said it bombed 3 towns in West Darfur while striking at rebel forces.
Rebels said Sudanese government aircraft, army and militia attacked
towns in West Darfur state, causing heavy civilian casualties. A rebel
chief said Sudanese troops backed by Janjaweed militia left at least
150 dead and wounded in the assault. A Sudanese employee of the
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) was killed in Darfur.
On March 20 the UN accused the Sudanese army of looting towns and
raping girls and women during the attacks on Sirba, Sileia and Abu
Suruj. The attacks killed at least 115 people and caused some 30,000 to
flee their homes.
(AP, 2/8/08)(AFP, 2/8/08)(AFP, 2/12/08)(SFC,
3/21/08, p.A11)
2008 Feb 8, Officials said that
the WTO has ruled against the EU's import tariffs for bananas, possibly
opening the door to millions of dollars in US commercial sanctions.
(AP, 2/8/08)
2009 Feb 8, Coldplay’s “Viva la
Vida” won the Grammy for song of the year. Robert Plant and Alison
Krauss' unorthodox partnership yielded rich rewards on Grammy night, as
the pair nabbed five awards for their haunting "Raising Sand,"
including record and album of the year honors.
(WSJ, 2/9/09, p.A1)(AP, 2/9/09)
2009 Feb 8, In Illinois a broken
holding tank at a Caterpillar plant near Joliet spilled some 65,000
gallons of oil sludge and contaminated a 30-mile section of the Des
Plaines River.
(SFC, 2/9/09, p.A6)
2009 Feb 8, A single-engine plane
carrying six US citizens crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off the north
coast of Puerto Rico.
(AP, 2/9/09)
2009 Feb 8, In Afghanistan two
American soldiers died when a roadside bomb they were trying to defuse
exploded. An Afghan interpreter and a policeman also died in the blast.
a roadside bomb ripped through a police vehicle in Khogyani district,
near the border with Pakistan, killing two police and wounding three
civilians. A suicide bomber attacked a group of Afghan soldiers in
southwestern Nimroz province, killing one soldier and two civilians.
(AP, 2/8/09)(AP, 2/9/09)
2009 Feb 8, In Australia searing
temperatures and wind blasts created a firestorm that swept across a
swath of the country's Victoria state, where at least 750 homes were
destroyed and a death toll of at least 108. The town of Marysville and
several hamlets in the Kinglake district, both about 50 miles (100
kilometers) north of Melbourne, were utterly devastated.
(AFP, 2/8/09)
2009 Feb 8, In eastern Bangladesh
a ferry boat sank after colliding with a larger ferry on the Titas
River, killing 10 women and children.
(AP, 2/8/09)
2009 Feb 8, In London the film
"Slumdog Millionaire", the rags-to-riches tale of a Mumbai tea boy who
wins big, swept the board at the British Academy Film Awards (BAFTAs)
with seven prizes including best film.
(AP, 2/8/09)
2009 Feb 8, China’s government
said that there was no end in sight for its worst drought in five
decades. Some 4.4 million people lacked adequate drinking water in the
north as winter wheat withered.
(SFC, 2/9/09, p.A2)
2009 Feb 8, Sigurdur Helgason
(b.1921), former Icelandic airline CEO (1974-1984), died on the
Caribbean private island of Mustique. He pioneered cheap flights that
carried legions of backpackers between Europe and the United States in
the 1960s and '70s.
(AP, 2/21/09)
2009 Feb 8, In Iraq Spc. James M.
Dorsey (23) of Beardstown, Ill., was found unresponsive by fellow
troops in Baghdad and attempts to resuscitate him were unsuccessful.
(AP, 2/12/09)
2009 Feb 8, Kuwait's Central Bank
governor unveiled a $5.15 billion economic stimulus package aimed at
helping struggling investment companies and offering bank loan
guarantees.
(AP, 2/8/09)
2009 Feb 8, Pakistani Taliban
militants released a graphic video showing the beheading of a Polish
engineer whom they said was killed because Islamabad refused to free
detained insurgents. Piotr Stanczak had been seized in the volatile
northwest on September 28.
(AFP, 2/8/09)
2009 Feb 8, Two rockets fired by
Palestinian militants struck southern Israel, violating an informal
truce even as Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers appeared to hurry closer
to a long-term cease-fire deal two days before Israeli elections.
(AP, 2/8/09)
2009 Feb 8, In Somalia at least
three civilians were killed when insurgents attacked African Union
forces and government troops in the strife-torn capital Mogadishu.
(AFP, 2/8/09)
2009 Feb 8, In Sri Lanka an
official said more than 15,000 civilians have fled the northern war
zone over the last three days, as government forces appeared poised to
crush the separatist Tamil Tigers.
(AP, 2/8/09)
2009 Feb 8, Voters in Switzerland
approved an expanded labor deal with the European Union that allows
Romanians and Bulgarians to work in the Alpine republic.
(AP, 2/8/09)
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