Today in History - February 12
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1111 Feb 12,
Henry V of Germany presented himself to Pope Paschal II for coronation
along with treaty terms that commanded the clergy to restore fiefs of
the crown to Henry. The pope refused to crown and Henry left Rome
taking the pope with him. When Paschal was unable to get help, he
confirmed Henry’s right of investiture and crowned him.
(PCh, 1992, p.91)
1242 Feb 12, Henry VII, Roman
Catholic German king (1220-35), committed suicide.
(MC, 2/12/02)
1294 Feb 12, Kublai Khan, the
conqueror of Asia, died at the age of 80.
(HN, 2/12/99)
1486 Feb 12, In Toledo, Spain,
some 750 lapsed Christians were paraded through the streets of Toledo
from the Church of San Pedro Martir to the cathedral in order to be
reconciled to the Christian faith. In the Auto Da Fe at Toledo the Jews
were forced to recant, fined 1/5 of their property and permanently
forbidden to wear decent clothes or hold office.
(SSFC, 11/13/05,
p.M3)(www.jewishhistory.org.il/1480.htm)
1502 Feb 12, Isabella issued a
royal order giving all remaining Moors in the realms of Castile the
choice between baptism and expulsion.
(www.cyberistan.org/islamic/beyond1492.html)
1502 Feb 12, Vasco da Gama,
Portuguese explorer, departed on a second trip to India with 20
well-armed ships.
(www.indhistory.com/vasco-da-gama.html)
1541 Feb 12, Santiago, Chile, was
founded by Spanish conquistador Pedro de Valdivia, a lieutenant of
Pizarro. When the Spaniards arrived in Chile, 11 languages were in
widespread use: Quechua, Aymara, Rapanui, Chango, Kunza, Diaguita,
Mapudungun, Chono, Kawesqar, Yagan and Selk’nam. By 2007 only the 1st 3
remained. The last ethnic Selk’nam died in the 1970s.
(PCh, 1992,
p.182)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedro_de_Valdivia)(SSFC, 8/12/07,
p.A18)
1554 Feb 12, Lady Jane Grey (17),
who had claimed the throne of England for nine days, the Queen of
England for thirteen days, was beheaded on Tower Hill along with her
husband, Guildford Dudley, after being condemned for high treason.
(HN, 2/12/99)(AP, 2/12/08)
1588 Feb 12, John Winthrop,
English attorney, puritan, 1st gov of Massachusetts Bay Colony, was
born.
(HN, 1/12/99)(MC, 2/12/02)
1663 Feb 12, Cotton Mather
(d.1728), American clergyman and witchcraft specialist, was born.
(WUD, 1994, p.884)(MC, 2/12/02)
1665 Feb 12, Rudolph J.
Camerarius, German botanist, physician (sexuality plant), was born.
(MC, 2/12/02)
1683 Feb 12, A Christian Army, led
by Charles, the Duke of Lorraine and King John Sobieski of Poland,
routed a huge Ottoman army surrounding Vienna.
(HN, 2/12/99)
1709 Feb 12, Alexander Selkirk,
the Scottish seaman whose adventures inspired the creation of Daniel
Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, was taken off Juan Fernandez Island after more
than four years of living there alone.
(HN, 2/12/99)
1733 Feb 12, English colonists led
by James Oglethorpe founded Savannah, Ga. Gen. James Edward Oglethorpe
sailed up the Savannah River with 144 English men, women and children
and in the name of King George II chartered the Georgia Crown Colony.
He created the town of Savannah, to establish an ideal colony where
silk and wine would be produced, based on a grid of streets around six
large squares.
(SFC, 6/25/95, p.T-7)(SFEC,11/30/97, p.T4)(AP,
2/12/98)
1763 Feb 12, Pierre de Mariveaux
(b.1688), French novelist and playwright, died.
(SFC, 5/30/09,
p.E2)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_de_Marivaux)
1768 Feb 12, Francis II, the Last
Holy Roman Emperor (1792-1806), was born.
(HN, 2/12/98)(MC, 2/12/02)
1775 Feb 12, Louisa Adams, wife of
John Quincy Adams was born.
(HN, 2/12/98)
1791 Feb 12, Peter Cooper,
industrialist, philanthropist (Cooper Union), was born.
(MC, 2/12/02)
1793 Feb 12, The US federal
government passed its first fugitive slave law. This gave slave holders
the right to reclaim their human property in free states.
(HN, 2/12/97)(WSJ, 1/30/03, p.D8)
1797 Feb 12, Haydn’s song "Gott
erhalte Franz den Kaiser," (popularized years later as "Deutschland
Uber Alles," by Nazis), premiered in Vienna.
(MC, 2/12/02)
1809 Feb 12, Charles Robert Darwin
(d.1874) was born. He proposed that evolution was the principle that
underlay the development of all species and that man, an animal, had
evolved from nonhuman ancestors. Shortly after his graduation from
Cambridge, Darwin sailed as a naturalist with the surveying ship HMS
Beagle. All life, he said, is a struggle for existence and some species
are better able to adapt to the environment and survive to pass along
their characteristics. During the five-year voyage, Darwin's
observations of wildlife led to the writing of his 1859 book "The
Origin of the Species," in which he proposed the theory of natural
selection. Besides the “Origin of the Species,” he wrote three books on
geology and devoted 8 years to his monograph on barnacles. His last
book was “The Formation of Vegetable Mould Through the Action of
Worms.” In 1871 Darwin wrote "Descent of Man," which demonstrated that
man and ape could have had a common ancestor. Darwin's theories were
highly controversial and unsettling to those who believed in
creationism. Many Victorians condemned Darwin as blasphemous, but many
important scientists of the day agreed with his theories. “How can
anyone not see that all observation must be for or against some view if
it is to be of any service.”
(V.D.-H.K.p.281)(PacDis., Spg. 96, p.52)(NH, 2/97,
p.69)(NH, 5/97, p.11)(HNPD, 2/13/99)
1809 Feb 12, Abraham Lincoln, 16th
president of the US, was born in Hardin County (present-day Larue
County), Kentucky. Lincoln was president of the United States during
one of the most turbulent times in American history. Although roundly
criticized during his own time, he is recognized as one of history's
greatest figures who preserved the Union during the Civil War and
proved that democracy could be a lasting form of government. Lincoln
entered national politics as a Whig congressman from Illinois, but he
lost his seat after one term due to his unpopular position on the
Mexican War and the extension of slavery into the territories. The 1858
Lincoln-Douglas debates for the Senate gave him a national reputation.
In 1860, Lincoln became the first president elected from the new
Republican Party. Abraham Lincoln was fatally shot by John Wilkes Booth
at Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C., on April 14, 1865. In 1996 a new
biography of Abraham Lincoln by David Donald was published.
(HN, 2/12/98)(AP, 2/12/98)(AHD, 1971, p.759)(WSJ,
2/10/95, p.A-8) (SFC, 9/1/96, Par. p.12)(HNPD, 2/12/99)
1817 Feb 12, Argentina’s Jose de
San Martin, having led a revolutionary army over the Andes into Chile,
helped defeat the Spanish forces at Chacabuco. The royalists lost 500
men in the battle and another 600 were taken prisoner.
(www.gdws.co.uk/chacabuco.htm)(Econ, 4/25/09,
p.87)(ON, 10/09, p.10)
1817 Feb 12, Under the leadership
of Bernardo O‘Higgins, Chile gained its independence from Spain, when a
combined Argentine and Chilean army defeated the Spaniards. O‘Higgins
went on to become head of state on February 17, supported by the army
but not favored by the oligarchy because he sought abolition of their
privileges. Once the threat from Spain was eliminated from the region,
opposition to O‘Higgins mounted. General unrest and a poor harvest
combined to force O‘Higgins to abdicate his position in 1823. The
official proclamation was made on Feb 12, 1818.
(HNQ, 9/1/99)(AP, 2/12/07)
1818 Feb 12, Chile officially
proclaimed its independence, more than seven years after initially
renouncing Spanish rule [see Feb 12, 1817].
(AP, 2/12/07)
1821 Feb 12, The Mercantile
Library of City of NY opened.
(MC, 2/12/02)
1825 Feb 12, Creek Indian treaty
signed. Tribal chiefs agreed to turn over all their land in Georgia to
the government and migrate west by Sept 1, 1826.
(MC, 2/12/02)
1828 Feb 12, George Meredith,
English poet and novelist, was born.
(HN, 2/12/01)
1836 Feb 12, Mexican General Santa
Anna crossed the Rio Grande en route to the Alamo.
(HN, 2/12/99)
1839 Feb 12, Aroostook War took
place over a boundary dispute between Maine and New Brunswick. [see
1838]
(MC, 2/12/02)
1850 Feb 12, Washington's original
Farewell Address manuscript sold for $2,300.
(MC, 2/12/02)
1857 Feb 12, Eugene Atget, French
photographer, was born. He took over 10,000 photographs documenting
Paris.
(HN, 2/12/01)
1861 Feb 12, State troops seized
US munitions in Napoleon, Ak.
(MC, 2/12/02)
1870 Feb 12, Women in the Utah
Territory gained the right to vote. However, that right was taken away
in 1887.
(AP, 2/12/07)
1870 Feb 12, An official
proclamation set April 15 as last day of grace for US silver coins to
circulate in Canada.
(MC, 2/12/02)
1871 Feb 12, In France the new
National Assembly opened at Bordeaux. Two-thirds of members were
conservatives and wished the war to end.
(www.marxists.org/history/france/paris-commune/timeline.htm)
1873 Feb 12, The US Congress
abolished bimetallism and authorized $1 & $3 gold coins.
(MC, 2/12/02)
1873 Feb 12, The 1st Spanish
Republic was proclaimed. King Amadeo I abdicated following a 2-year
reign. Emilio Cistelar y Ripolo (40) became prime minister, but
the Carlist civil war continued.
(PCh, 1992, p.527)
1874 Feb 12, Auguste Perret,
French architect, was born. He pioneered in designs of reinforced
concrete buildings.
(HN, 2/12/01)
1874 Feb 12, King David Kalakaua
of Sandwich Islands (Hawaii), became the 1st king to visit US. King
Lunalilo had died without an heir and the legislature elected lawyer
David Kalakaua as king.
(MC, 2/12/02)(ON, 11/02, p.5)
1876 Feb 12, Al Spalding opened a
sporting good shop.
(MC, 2/12/02)
1877 Feb 12, The 1st news dispatch
by telephone was made between Boston and Salem, Mass.
(MC, 2/12/02)
1877 Feb 12, US railroad builders
struck against a wage reduction.
(MC, 2/12/02)
1879 Feb 12, 1st artificial ice
rink in North America was at Madison Square Garden, NYC. [see May 31]
(MC, 2/12/02)
1880 Feb 12, John L. Lewis,
American labor leader, was born.
(HN, 2/12/01)
1892 Feb 12, Illinois made
President Lincoln's birthday a state holiday. Other states followed
suit over the years.
(AP, 3/9/05)
1893 Feb 12, Omar Bradley, U.S.
army general, was born. He led the largest concentration of ground
troops in Europe during World War II.
(HN, 2/12/99)
1898 Feb 12, [Le]Roy Harris,
composer (When Johnny Comes Marching Home), was born in Oklahoma.
(MC, 2/12/02)
1907 Feb 12, Bodies continued to
wash ashore from the steamer Larchmont, which had collided the previous
with a schooner off New England's Block Island. The vessel's
quartermaster, James E. Staples, claimed a loss of 332.
(AP, 2/12/98)
1908 Feb 12, The first
round-the-world automobile race began in New York City. It ended in
Paris the following July with the drivers of the American car, a Thomas
Speedway Flyer, was declared the winner over teams from Germany and
Italy. The Flyer was made by the E.R. Thomas Motor Co. of Buffalo, NY,
was initially driven by Montague Roberts and George Schuster. Roberts
dropped out in Wyoming. Schuster took over as captain and chief driver
from San Francisco, which was reached on March 24.
(AP, 2/12/08)(ON, 4/08, p.8,9)
1909 Feb 12, The National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was founded
by 60 people gathered in NYC to discuss recent race riots and how to
fight discrimination. They were initially known as the National Negro
committee and signed a proclamation known as “The Call.” It was based
on the Niagara movement of 1905. Mary White Ovington (1865-1951) was
one of the founders.
(SFC, 5/12/96, p.A-6)(SFEC,12/797, BR p.6)(AP,
2/12/98)(SFC, 2/12/09, p.A1)
1912 Feb 12, China became a
republic following the overthrow of the Manchu dynasty. Pu Yi (reign
name Hsuan T'ung), the last Ch'ing (Manchu) emperor of China,
abdicated. This marked the end of the Qing Dynasty. China adopted the
Gregorian calendar.
(HN, 2/12/01)(AP, 2/12/06)
1913 Feb 12, A New York commission
reported that there was widespread violation of child labor laws.
(HN, 2/12/97)
1915 Feb 12, Andrew J. Goodpaster,
US general, supreme commander (NATO-Europe), was born.
(MC, 2/12/02)
1915 Feb 12, Lorne Greene, actor
(Bonanza, Battlestar Galactica), was born in Ottawa, Canada.
(MC, 2/12/02)
1915 Feb 12, The cornerstone for
the Lincoln Memorial was laid in Washington, D.C., a year to the day
after groundbreaking.
(AP, 2/12/08)
1918 Feb 12, Dominic DiMaggio,
baseball outfielder (Boston Red Sox), was born.
(MC, 2/12/02)
1920 Feb 12, The last German
forces withdrew from Klaipeda as French and English naval forces
arrived.
(LHC, 2/12/03)
1921 Feb 12, Winston Churchill of
London was appointed colonial secretary.
(HN, 2/12/97)
1921 Feb 12, In Delhi, India, the
Duke of Connaught laid the foundation stone of the Parliament building,
designed by Herbert Baker.
(www.indfy.com/places-to-see-in-delhi/central-delhi/parliament-house.html)
1921 Feb 12, Soviet troops invaded
neighboring Georgia.
(MC, 2/12/02)
1924 Feb 12, George Gershwin’s
groundbreaking symphonic jazz composition “Rhapsody in Blue” premiered
at Carnegie Hall with Gershwin himself playing the piano with Paul
Whiteman’s orchestra.
(AP, 2/12/98)(HN, 2/12/01)(MC, 2/12/02)
1929 Feb 12, Charles Lindbergh
announced his engagement to Anne Morrow. The Guggenheims helped
aviators like Lindbergh, Curtiss, and the Wright Brothers. Morrow was
the daughter of Dwight Morrow, US ambassador to Mexico. She later
authored a number of books that included "Gift From the Sea."
(HN, 2/12/97)(WSJ, 11/29/99, p.A26)
1931 Feb 12, Japan’s first
television broadcast was a baseball game.
(HN, 2/12/97)
1935 Feb 12, The 785-foot USS
Macon, the last US Navy dirigible (ZRS-5), crashed on its 55th flight
off the coast of California, killing two people. After takeoff from
Point Sur, California, a gust of wind tore off the ship's upper fin,
deflating its gas cells and causing the ship to fall into the sea. Two
of Macon 's 83 crewmen died in the accident. The U.S. Navy lost the
airships Shenandoah in 1925 and Akron in 1933. Some considered airships
too dangerous for the program to continue at that point, and work on
them in the United States halted temporarily.
(HNQ, 2/7/99)(SFC, 9/27/06, p.B1)
1938 Feb 12, German troops entered
Austria.
(MC, 2/12/02)
1938 Feb 12, Japan refused to
reveal naval data requested by the U.S. and Britain.
(HN, 2/12/97)
1940 Feb 12, The radio play "The
Adventures of Superman" debuted on the Mutual network with Bud Collyer
as the Man of Steel.
(AP, 2/12/98)
1940 Feb 12, The USSR signed a
trade treaty with Germany to aid against the British blockade.
(HN, 2/12/97)
1941 Feb 12, Boxers Pat Carroll
and Sammy Secreet were unable to continue a slugfest and the referee
declared a double KO. The result was soon changed to "No contest."
(http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1129&dat=19420130&id=zNkOAAAAIBAJ&sjid=CGoDAAAAIBAJ&pg=2831,1371963)
1942 Feb 12, Painter Grant Wood
(b.1892), creator of "American Gothic" (1930), died in Iowa City, Iowa,
a day before his 51st birthday.
(AP, 2/12/02)
1942 Feb 12, 3 German battle
cruisers escaped via Channel to Brest, N. Germany.
(MC, 2/12/02)
1944 Feb 12, Wendell Wilkie
entered the American presidential race against Franklin D. Roosevelt.
(HN, 2/12/99)
1947 Feb 12, A daytime fireball
& meteorite fell and was seen in eastern Siberia.
(MC, 2/12/02)
1947 Feb 12, A record 100.5-kg
sailfish was caught by C.W. Stewart off the Galapagos Islands.
(MC, 2/12/02)
1948 Feb 12, 1st Lt. Nancy
Leftenant became the 1st black in the army nursing corps.
(MC, 2/12/02)
1949 Feb 12, "Annie Get Your Gun"
closed at the Imperial Theater in NYC after 1147 performances.
(MC, 2/12/02)
1949 Feb 12, Moslem Brotherhood
chief Hassan el Banna was shot to death in Cairo.
(HN, 2/12/97)
1950 Feb 12, Albert Einstein
warned against the hydrogen bomb on US national TV.
(http://www.wsws.org/articles/2002/sep2002/eins-s03.shtml)
1951 Feb 12, In Iran Shah Pahlavi
married Princess Soraya Esfandiari Bakhtiari (d.2001 at 69). They
divorced in 1958. In 1991 Soraya authored her autobiography “Le Palais
des Solitudes” (The Palace of Solitudes).
(SFC, 10/26/01, p.D7)
1953 Feb 12, An explosion at the
Hercules Powder Co. near Pinole, Ca., killed 12 employees.
(SFC, 11/21/03, p.E4)
1953 Feb 12, The Soviets broke off
diplomatic relations with Israel after the bombing of Soviet legation.
(HN, 2/12/97)
1955 Feb 12, The McGuire Sisters'
"Sincerely" single went to #1 for 10 weeks.
(MC, 2/12/02)
1955 Feb 12, President Eisenhower
sent 1st US "advisors" to South Vietnam to aid the government under Ngo
Dinh Diem.
(SFEC, 4/23/00, p.A19)(MC, 2/12/02)
1957 Feb 12, Researchers announced
the development of Borazan, a substance harder than diamonds.
(MC, 2/12/02)
1960 Feb 12, Bobby Clark (71),
vaudevillian (World's funniest circus clown), died.
(MC, 2/12/02)
1962 Feb 12, Pres. Kennedy
commuted the death sentence of Jimmie Henderson, a Navy seaman, to
confinement for life.
(AP, 7/29/08)
1962 Feb 12, A bus boycott started
in Macon, Georgia.
(MC, 2/12/02)
1963 Feb 12, Argentina asked for
the extradition of ex-president Peron.
(MC, 2/12/02)
1964 Feb 12, The Beatles played 2
shows at Carnegie Hall.
(SFC, 3/6/04, p.D17)
1966 Feb 12, The South Vietnamese
won two big battles in the Mekong Delta.
(HN, 2/12/97)
1968 Feb 12, "Soul on Ice" by
Eldridge Cleaver (full name: Leroy Eldridge Cleaver), a militant
activist and Black Panther, was first published. Cleaver spent much of
his early life in and out of prison on charges ranging from drug
possession to assault. It was in prison that he began the essays that
would become Soul on Ice. Shortly after being paroled in 1966, Eldridge
Cleaver met Huey Newton and Bobby Seale, the founders of the Black
Panther party. Cleaver quickly became the party’s minister of
information. Faced with further prison time after a shootout with
police in April 1968, Cleaver jumped bail and fled the country, first
to Cuba, then to Algeria. He returned voluntarily in 1975 having broken
with the Panthers and disillusioned with communism. His change in
thinking is reflected in his 1978 book Soul on Fire. He died on May 1,
1998, in Pomona, California.
(AP, 2/12/98)(HNQ, 2/2/01)
1970 Feb 12, Dean Arthur
Schwartzmiller (28) was convicted in Juneau, Alaska, of 2 charges of
lewd conduct after being accused of molesting 2 boys. Over the next 35
years he was arrested in 6 more states on molestation charges. In 2005
police in San Jose found notebooks at his home that documented over
36,000 sex acts with young boys. In 2006 a jury in Santa Clara, Ca.,
convicted Schwartzmiller (64) of molesting 2 San Jose boys. In 2007 he
was sentenced to 152 years to life in prison.
(SFC, 6/17/05, p.A1)(SFC, 9/19/06, p.A1)(SFC,
1/30/07, p.A1)
1971 Feb 12, James Cash Penney
(b.1875), US founder of the J.C. Penney stores, died in NYC. His first
store, a branch of the Colorado based Golden Rule stores (1902), was in
Kemmerer, Wyoming.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_C._Penney)
1972 Feb 12, Senator Kennedy
advocated amnesty for Vietnam draft resisters.
(HN, 2/12/97)
1973 Feb 12, Operation Homecoming
began as the first release of American prisoners of war from the
Vietnam conflict took place.
(AP,
2/12/08)(www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/vietnam/index-1969.html)
1974 Feb 12, Symbionese Liberation
Army asked the Hearst family for $230 million in food for the poor.
(HN, 2/12/97)
1974 Feb 12, The Russian Mars 5
Orbiter entered orbit around Mars and relayed imaging data for the Mars
6 & 7 missions.
(SFC, 11/19/96, p.B1)
1976 Feb 12, Sal Mineo (b.1939),
American film and theater actor, was stabbed to death in Los Angeles
while coming home from a play rehearsal.
(SFEC, 3/16/97, Z1
p.4)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sal_Mineo)
1979 Feb 12, Jean Renoir (b.1894),
French actor and director (Rules of the Game), died in Beverly Hills,
Ca. His body was returned to France.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Renoir)
1983 Feb 12, composer-pianist
Eubie Blake, who wrote such songs as "I'm Just Wild About Harry" and
"Memories of You," died in New York City, five days after turning 100.
(AP, 2/11/03)
1987 Feb 12, White youths in
Queens County, NYC, connected to the Howard Beach racial attacks of
December, 1986, were indicted on charges ranging from second-degree
murder to inciting to riot and criminal facilitation.
(www.queenstribune.com/anniversary2003/1987.htm)
1987 Feb 12, In Alabama surviving
relatives of a black man murdered by KKK members were awarded $7
million in damages.
(http://tinyurl.com/g86jq)
1987 Feb 12, A Court in Texas
upheld an $8.5 billion fine imposed on Texaco for the illegal takeover
of Getty Oil.
(HN, 2/12/98)
1987 Feb 12, Friends of the poet
Boris Pasternak and of Russian culture agreed that the 1958 resolution
expelling Pasternak from the Writers' Union had to be rescinded. People
met and voted in the same ornate conference room where, thirty years
earlier, the great poet had been cast out of the union.
(www.thenation.com/archive/search.mhtml)
1988 Feb 12, Alexander M. Haig
dropped out of the race for the Republican presidential nomination.
(AP, 2/12/98)
1988 Feb 12, The Pentagon charged
that two Soviet Navy vessels deliberately bumped two U.S. warships in
the Black Sea as the American vessels sailed through waters claimed by
the Soviet Union.
(AP, 2/12/98)
1989 Feb 12, The special
prosecutor in the Iran-Contra case and the Justice Department reached
an agreement on protecting classified materials aimed at allowing the
trial of Oliver North to proceed.
(AP, 2/12/99)
1989 Feb 12, In Belfast Pat
Finucane, a lawyer active in the defense of IRA suspects, was shot and
killed by a lone gunman as he sat down to dinner with his family at
home. The Ulster Defense Association claimed responsibility but nobody
was ever charged. In 1999 a report asserted that the British army was
linked to the slaying. A suspect (48) was arrested in 1999. In 2003 a
London police report said the British Army and police were involved in
the murder. In 2004 Ken Barrett (41), former Protestant paramilitary
and police informer in Northern Ireland, was sentenced to 22 years in
prison for the murder of Finucane.
(SFC, 2/12/99, p.A3)(SFC, 6/24/99, p.A12)(AP,
4/17/03)(AP, 9/16/04)
1989 Feb 12, In Pakistan 5 Moslem
rioters were killed in Islamabad protesting the "Satanic Verses" novel.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Satanic_Verses_(novel))
1990 Feb 12, President Bush
rejected Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev's new initiative for
troop reductions in Europe, but predicted a "major success" on arms
control at the superpower summit in June.
(AP, 2/12/00)
1990 Feb 12, Robert Ouko (b.1931),
Kenya’s foreign minister and member of the Luo tribe, was murdered
during his investigation of corruption charges against the government.
(Econ, 2/9/08,
p.51)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Ouko)
1991 Feb 12, Iraqi President
Saddam Hussein met with Soviet envoy Yevgeny Primakov, who brought with
him a message from President Mikhail S. Gorbachev.
(AP, 2/12/01)
1991 Feb 12, In China, two
longtime democracy activists (Wang Juntao and Chen Ziming) were
sentenced to 13 years in prison. Both were later freed.
(AP, 2/12/01)
1991 Feb 12, Former New York City
Mayor Robert Wagner died at age 80.
(AP, 2/12/01)
1992 Feb 12, President Bush
formally announced his bid for re-election.
(AP, 2/12/02)
1992 Feb 12, Democratic
presidential candidate Bill Clinton released a letter he'd written as a
student in 1969 in which he said he had decided to give up a draft
deferment in order to “maintain my political viability.”
(AP, 2/12/02)
1993 Feb 12, In a crime that
shocked Britons, two 10-year-old boys, Jon Venables and Robert
Thompson, lured 2-year-old James Bulger from his mother at a shopping
mall in Liverpool, England, then beat him to death and left his
battered body on a railway track. The 2 boys were later sentenced to
serve 8 years in prison. The sentence was later increased to 10 years
and then 15 years. After 8 years in a reformatory, Thompson and
Venables were released in 2001, after a parole board found they no
longer posed a danger to the public.
(SFC, 4/18/96, p.a-12)(SFC, 12/17/99, p.D5)(SFC,
6/23/01, p.A8)(AP, 2/12/03)
1994 Feb 12, President Clinton
signed an $8.6 billion relief package for victims of the Jan 17
Northridge earthquake in Southern California.
(AP, 2/12/99)
1994 Feb 12, The XVII Winter
Olympic Games opened in Lillehammer, Norway. The official song was
"Fire in Your Heart."
(SFEC, 10/5/97, p.A17)(WSJ, 3/12/98, p.A16)(AP,
2/12/99)
1995 Feb 12, Jurors in the O.J.
Simpson murder trial toured the scene where Nicole Brown Simpson and
Ronald Goldman had been slain, then visited the estate of the former
football star.
(AP, 2/12/00)
1996 Feb 12, Bob Dole eked out a
victory in Iowa’s Republican presidential caucuses, while Pat Buchanan
came in a surprisingly strong second.
(AP, 2/12/01)
1997 Feb 12, The Clinton
administration gave permission to 10 U.S. news organizations to open
bureaus in Cuba.
(AP, 2/12/98)
1997 Feb 12, In Maine Philip
Berrigan was arrested at an anti-nuclear protest. He was one of 6
activists later convicted for vandalizing a Navy guided missile
destroyer at the Bath Iron Works.
(SFC,10/28/97, p.A10)
1997 Feb 12, The Discovery space
shuttle lifted off and work was planned on the Hubble Space Telescope.
(SFC, 2/17/97, p.A2)
1997 Feb 12, Hwang Jang Yop, a
Central Committee member of North Korea and the highest-ranking
official to flee, defected to South Korea. He sought asylum at the
South Korean embassy in Beijing, China.
(SFEC, 2/16/97, p.A19) (AP, 2/12/98)
1998 Feb 12, US federal district
judge T. Hogan struck down Pres. Clinton's new Line-Item Veto Act as
unconstitutional.
(SFC, 2/13/98, p.A3)(AP, 2/12/03)
1998 Feb 12, NASA planned a rocket
launch from Tortuguero base in Puerto Rico. 10 more rockets were
planned for launch over the next 30 days.
(SFC, 2/2/98, p.A3)
1998 Feb 12, At Nagano, Norwegian
Bjorn Daehlie became the first man to win six Winter Olympic gold
medals, as he placed first in the 10-kilometer classical cross-country
race.
(AP, 2/12/99)
1998 Feb 12, An appeals panel
reinstated Canadian snowboarder Ross Rebagliati's gold medal, a day
after he was stripped of the honor for testing positive for marijuana.
(AP, 2/12/99)
1998 Feb 12, The Cuban government
announced that over 200 inmates held on political and other charges
would be released.
(SFC, 2/13/98, p.D2)
1998 Feb 12, In Indonesia Pres.
Suharto ordered the military to move against anti-government activists.
The previous day police detained some 140 protestors in Jakarta.
(SFC, 2/13/98, p.D2)
1998 Feb 12, In Italy over 250
cars crashed on the foggy highway A-13 between Padua and Bologna. Four
people were killed and dozens were injured.
(SFC, 2/13/98, p.D2)
1998 Feb 12, In Sierra Leone the
Nigerian led intervention force captured the country’s State House in
Freetown.
(SFC, 2/13/98, p.D5)
1998 Feb 12, In Sudan Lt. Gen’l.
Al-Zubeir Mohammad Saleh, the country’s first vice-president, was
killed along with 7 others in a plane crash in the southern Sudan.
Rebels of the SPLA claimed to have shot the plane down.
(SFC, 2/13/98, p.D5)
1999 Feb 12, Pres. Clinton was
acquitted by the Senate 55-45 on a perjury charge and 50-50 on an
obstruction of justice charge. He once again apologized for burdening
the nation with his conduct. Clinton told Americans he was "profoundly
sorry" for what he had said and done in the Monica Lewinsky affair that
triggered the impeachment drama.
(SFC, 2/13/99, p.A1)(AP, 2/12/00)
1999 Feb 12, Eric Stein (41) was
arrested for bilking some 1,800 investors out of $34 million. He had
operated the Sterling Group, a Las Vegas firm that used TV commercials
to sell products directly to viewers. The operations were essentially a
Ponzi scheme.
(WSJ, 8/9/04, p.R1)
1999 Feb 12, Swarms of anxious
travelers were left stranded when American Airlines again scrubbed more
than 1,000 flights after its pilots defied a court order and continued
their mass sickout.
(AP, 2/12/00)
1999 Feb 12, A 5.5 earthquake hit
Afghanistan and at least 60 people were killed.
(WSJ, 2/16/99, p.A1)
1999 Feb 12, In Finland the
parliament voted 171 to 4 to reduce the president's influence on
foreign affairs and government formation.
(SFC, 2/13/99, p.A5)
1999 Feb 12, In India Pres. K.R.
Narayanan dismissed the state government of Bihar due to the recent
killings.
(SFC, 2/13/99, p.A5)
1999 Feb 12, In Hebron, Yasser
Arafat again proposed that a confederation be made between Jordan and a
future Palestinian state.
(SFC, 2/13/99, p.A3)
2000 Feb 12, Michelle Kwan won her
third straight US Figure Skating Championships crown, while Michael
Weiss successfully defended the men’s title.
(AP, 2/12/01)
2000 Feb 12, Hall-of-Fame football
coach Tom Landry, who led the Dallas Cowboys to five Super Bowls, died
in Irving, Texas, at age 75.
(AP, 2/12/01)
2000 Feb 12, Charles Schulz
(b.1922), creator of the Peanuts cartoon, died in Santa Rosa,
California, at age 77. His final cartoon was scheduled to run in the
Feb 13 Sunday newspapers. In 2007 David Michaelis authored “Schulz and
Peanuts: A Biography.”
(SFEC, 2/13/00, p.A1)(AP, 2/12/01)(WSJ, 10/12/07,
p.W5)
2000 Feb 12, In Zimbabwe voting
began on a new constitution with provisions for expropriating the land
of white farmers without compensation. A new party, the Movement for
Democratic Change, opposed the new constitution and Pres. Mugabe as
inflation in the country soared to over 60%. Voters spread word of
their opposition using Econet Wireless messaging and rejected the
proposal.
(SFC, 2/12/00, p.C1)(SFC, 2/16/00, p.A11)(WSJ,
4/24/00, p.A24)
2001 Feb 12, A federal appeals
court upheld a decision against Napster and ruled that the online music
service violated copyright laws.
(SFC, 2/13/01, p.A1)(AP, 2/12/02)
2001 Feb 12, A computer virus
pretending to be a digital photo of tennis star Anna Kournikova
overwhelmed e-mail servers in Europe and North America.
(AP, 2/12/02)
2001 Feb 12, Scientists published
their first examinations of nearly all the human genetic code.
(AP, 2/12/02)
2001 Feb 12, The $224 million
NEAR-Shoemaker probe was scheduled to end its mission with a landing on
the Eros asteroid. The probe completed a 5 year voyage with a
successful landing and continued sending signals.
(SFC, 1/9/01, p.A4)(SFC, 2/13/01, p.A1)
2001 Feb 12, Israeli soldiers shot
and killed 2 Palestinians in the West Bank and dozens of Palestinians
were wounded in a gun battle in the Gaza Strip.
(SFC, 2/13/01, p.A10)
2001 Feb 12, It was reported that
Thailand’s bad loans mounted to 20 billion and accounted for 20% of all
bank lending. Thai Petrochemical Industries (TPI) was the largest
debtor and owed banks over $3.5 billion.
(WSJ, 2/12/01, p.A1)
2001 Feb 12, Ukraine’s Pres.
Kuchma and Pres. Putin met at the Yuzmash rocket plant and agreed to
reconnect their countries’ electricity grids and made 14 other
agreements securing Russian orders from Ukrainian factories.
(SFC, 2/13/01, p.A10)
2002 Feb 12, "The Lord of the
Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" received 13 Academy Award
nominations; tied for second with eight nods were "A Beautiful Mind"
and "Moulin Rouge."
(AP, 2/11/03)
2002 Feb 12, Sec. of State Colin
Powell said the Bush administration was considering a variety of
options to topple Iraq’s Saddam Hussein.
(SFC, 2/12/02, p.A17)
2002 Feb 12, John Hamilton, US
ambassador to Peru, said the US would triple anti-drug funding to over
$150 million.
(SFC, 2/13/02, p.A16)
2002 Feb 12, Kenneth Lay, former
Enron CEO, pleaded the 5th amendment before a Senate panel
investigation of the Enron demise. Lay expressed "profound sadness"
about the collapse of the energy giant, but refused to testify at a
Senate hearing.
(SFC, 2/12/02, p.A1)(AP, 2/11/03)
2002 Feb 12, The International
Skating Union announced it would conduct an "internal assessment" of
the Olympic judging that gave the Russians the pairs figure skating
gold medal over the Canadians.
(AP, 2/11/03)
2002 Feb 12, It was reported that
AP estimated 600 civilians killed in the Afghan campaign.
(WSJ, 2/12/02, p.A1)
2002 Feb 12, In NYC Ronald
Popadich of New Jersey struck 19 pedestrians at 6 spots along Seventh
Ave. near Madison Square Garden and one died 2 days later. He struck 7
more people Feb 13. He shot his girlfriend, Lisa Gotkin Feb 10, and a
cab driver on Feb 13.
(SFC, 2/16/02, p.A8)
2002 Feb 12-13, The Chinese lunar
calendar marked this as the new year, 4700, the Year of the Horse.
(SFC, 2/12/02, p.A14)
2002 Feb 12, In Indonesia
Christian and Muslim factions from Maluku agreed to end their 3-year
war, ban militias and establish a joint security patrol.
(SFC, 2/13/02, p.A16)
2002 Feb 12, An Iran Air Tours
Tupelov Tu-154 crashed into the Sefid Kouh mountains near Khorramabad
killing all 119 on board.
(SFC, 2/13/02, p.A12)(AP, 2/11/03)
2002 Feb 12, In Pakistan police
arrested Ahmed Saeed Sheikh, the prime suspect in the kidnapping of WSJ
reported Daniel Pearl. Pakistan charged 3 men in connection with the
kidnapping. They and a fourth man were later convicted of Pearl's
murder.
(SFC, 2/13/02, p.A18)(AP, 2/11/03)
2002 Feb 12, In Venezuela Pres.
Chavez said the currency would go on float.
(WSJ, 2/13/02, p.A1)
2002 Feb 12, Former Yugoslav
president Slobodan Milosevic went on trial in The Hague, accused of war
crimes.
(AP, 2/11/03)
2003 Feb 12, Kemmons Wilson (90),
founder of the Holiday Inn chain, died in Memphis, Tenn.
(WSJ, 2/13/03, p.A1)
2003 Feb 12, In Bolivia angry
civilians joined striking police officers in a protest that degenerated
into riots, leaving at least 17 people dead and Bolivian government
buildings in flames.
(AP, 2/13/03)(SFC, 2/12/03, p.A9)
2003 Feb 12, In Sao Paulo, Brazil,
Bishop Paulo Pereira (38) of the Vetero Catholic Church, in the
low-income district of Guainazes, was gunned down inside his church's
headquarters. Elsewhere in San Paulo 3 gunmen killed Wallace Ornelas
Passos, a 17-year-old student with a police record for theft and other
criminal activities.
(AP, 2/13/03)
2003 Feb 12, A bloody prison riot
near Guatemala City left at least 6 inmates dead, and a man convicted
in the high-profile murder case of Roman Catholic Bishop Juan Gerardi
was among the dead.
(AP, 2/13/03)
2003 Feb 12, The Republic of Congo
reported that an Ebola outbreak was suspected in the recent deaths of
48 people.
(SFC, 2/13/03, p.A7)
2003 Feb 12, India conducted its
fourth missile test of 2003, firing a supersonic cruise missile capable
of hitting major cities in Pakistan.
(AP, 2/12/04)
2003 Feb 12, The UN nuclear agency
declared North Korea in violation of international treaties, sending
the dispute to the Security Council.
(AP, 2/12/04)
2004 Feb 12, Four men were charged
in a 42-count indictment alleging they'd run a steroid-distribution
ring that provided performance-enhancing drugs to dozens of athletes in
the NFL, the major leagues and track and field.
(AP, 2/12/05)
2004 Feb 12, Some 90 gay and
lesbian couples wed in San Francisco. Over the next few days some 2,000
took their vows.
(SFC, 2/13/04, p.A1)(WSJ, 2/17/04, p.A1)
2004 Feb 12, Mattel released news
that Barbie would have a new boyfriend named Blaine, an Australian
boogie boarder. Barbie’s new “Cali Girl” lined was set to debut in the
summer.
(ST, 7/29/04, p.C8)
2004 Feb 12, A union representing
almost 50,000 university teachers in Britain voted to strike over pay.
(AP, 2/12/04)
2004 Feb 12, Wang Huaizhong (57),
a former Chinese provincial vice governor, was executed in Shandong
province for taking more than $600,000 in bribes.
(AP, 2/12/04)
2004 Feb 12, In Congo a Kenyan
army officer, investigating reports of fighting between the rival Hema
and Lendu tribal militias, was shot to death when his U.N. military
convoy came under fire in Ituri province.
(AP, 2/14/04)
2004 Feb 12, Malaysia's land
minister was arrested and charged for his involvement a deal to sell
millions of dollars worth of shares his government agency owned in the
second high-profile anti-corruption case this week amid a government
crackdown.
(AP, 2/12/04)
2005 Feb 12, Christo and
Jeanne-Claude opened their NYC Central Park Gates project. The $20
million,16-day exhibit featured 7,532 fabric draped steel gates
spanning 23 miles.
(SSFC, 2/13/05, p.A1)
2005 Feb 12, Howard Dean (b.1948),
former Vermont governor and presidential candidate, was elected
chairman of the Democratic Party.
(SSFC, 2/13/05, p.A3)
2005 Feb 12, In northern Brazil
Dorothy Stang (73), an American nun, was shot to death. She had spent
decades fighting efforts by loggers and large landowners to expropriate
lands and clear large areas of the Amazon rainforest. In 2006 Amair
Feijoli da Cunha (38) pleaded guilty and said he offered money to two
gunmen to shoot nun, at the behest of ranchers Vitalmiro Moura and
Regivaldo Galvao. In 2008 A jury voted 5-2 to acquit Vitalmiro Moura,
one of two ranchers who allegedly ordered the killing Stang. The
acquittal was overturned on a technicality in April, 2009. Moura was
again jailed in 2010.
(AP, 2/12/05)(WSJ, 2/14/05, p.A1)(AP, 4/27/06)(AP,
5/6/08)(AP, 2/6/10)
2005 Feb 12, In Iraq a car bomb
exploded in front of a hospital in a mostly Shiite town south of
Baghdad, killing 17 people and wounding 21 others. A prominent Iraqi
judge was assassinated by two gunmen on a motorcycle in the southern
port city of Basra. In Mosul the bodies of 6 Iraqi and 6 Kurdish guards
were dumped. US troops in Mosul killed 9 insurgents.
(AP, 2/12/05)(SSFC, 2/13/05, p.A12)
2005 Feb 12, Philippine couples
started gathering along a Manila bayside boulevard for a
pre-Valentine's Day kissing festival. Organizers hoped a million
couples will lock lips nationwide.
(AP, 2/12/05)
2005 Feb 12, Tens of thousands of
Russians protested across the country against a law replacing medical
and transportation benefits for pensioners with cash payments, with
many calling for the ouster of Vladimir Putin's government.
(AP, 2/12/05)
2005 Feb 12, Saudi newspapers said
dozens of losing candidates in Saudi Arabia's first regular election
will contest results from the opening round of municipal balloting,
arguing that conservative religious candidates won unfairly by claiming
support from clerics.
(AP, 2/12/05)
2005 Feb 12, Syrian authorities
released 55 members of the banned Muslim Brotherhood who had spent up
to 20 years in jail.
(AP, 2/12/05)
2005 Feb 12, In Togo thousands of
demonstrators clashed with riot police in the capital for a 2nd day,
protesting against the recent army-appointed president. 3 people were
reportedly killed and dozens wounded when police fired at demonstrators.
(AP, 2/12/05)
2006 Feb 12, A major storm slammed
the mid-Atlantic and Northeast states with nearly 2 feet of windblown
snow, nearing record levels as it blacked out thousands of customers
and shut down air travel from Washington to Boston. A record 26.9
inches of snow fell in New York's Central Park.
(AP, 2/12/06)(AP, 2/12/07)
2006 Feb 12, In Kansas, Toby Young
(48), a married mother and dog trainer, helped John Manard (27), a man
convicted of felony murder, escape from a Lansing Correctional
Facility. They were caught Feb 24 in Tennessee. Young was sentenced to
27 months in prison. Manard was given an additional 10 years to his
life sentence.
(SFC, 2/17/06, p.A2)(WSJ, 2/9/08, p.A1)
2006 Feb 12, In Algiers Defense
Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld met with senior government leaders on what
Pentagon officials said they believe to be the first visit to Algeria
by a US defense secretary.
(AP, 2/12/06)
2006 Feb 12, Bangladesh's main
opposition party the Awami League ended its 13-month boycott of
parliament and tabled proposals to reform the country's election system.
(AFP, 2/12/06)
2006 Feb 12, Jan Egeland, UN
Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, said the
international community must provide $680 million in aid for Congo this
year to stop a humanitarian disaster that kills as many people as the
2004 Asian tsunami every six months.
(Reuters, 2/12/06)
2006 Feb 12, Greek archaeologists
said they had discovered the largest underground tomb in Greek
antiquity in the ancient northern city of Pella, birthplace of
Alexander the Great.
(AP, 2/12/06)
2006 Feb 12, Iran reaffirmed its
commitment to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, a day after its
hard-line president implied Tehran was considering withdrawing from the
pact after being reported to the UN Security Council.
(AP, 2/12/06)
2006 Feb 12, Shiite lawmakers
chose incumbent Ibrahim al-Jaafari to be Iraq's new prime minister,
taking a key step in forming a government nearly two months after
national elections.
(AP, 2/12/06)
2006 Feb 12, Video images of
British soldiers allegedly beating Iraqi youths with batons and fists
aired throughout the Middle East and Britain, outraging locals and
prompting British Prime Minister Tony Blair to vow a full investigation.
(AP, 2/12/06)
2006 Feb 12, Bomb blasts and
shootings killed at least three people in Baghdad and north of the
Iraqi capital, including an Education Ministry official and an elderly
woman. At least 22 people were wounded.
(AP, 2/12/06)
2006 Feb 12, Injured figure skater
Michelle Kwan withdrew from the Turin Olympics (she was replaced on the
US team by Emily Hughes). Snowboarding superstar Shaun White, known as
"The Flying Tomato," beat American teammate Danny Kass to win the
Olympic gold medal.
(AP, 2/12/07)
2006 Feb 12, Myanmar's leader
Senior General Than Shwe lashed out at the US and the EU over their
sanctions against his regime, amid rising global pressure for it to
reform.
(AP, 2/12/06)
2006 Feb 12, In South Africa
British PM Tony Blair, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva
and 5 other leaders pledged to push for a new global trade deal that
will help poor countries. The 2-day summit in Hammanskraal was the 7th
meeting of center-left leaders since the Progressive Governance Network
was created in 1999 by Blair and former US president Bill Clinton. Also
attending were South Africa President Thabo Mbeki, South Korean PM Lee
Hae-Chan, Ethiopian PM Meles Zenawi, Swedish PM Goeran Persson and New
Zealand PM Helen Clark.
(AFP, 2/12/06)
2007 Feb 12, In Washington DC
Lithuania’s Pres. Valdas Adamkus met with Pres. Bush ahead of an
address at the National Press Club. He was accompanied by a Lithuanian
business delegation seeking US trade opportunities and potential
investors.
(http://eupolitics.einnews.com/news/valdas-adamkus)
2007 Feb 12, In SF John Konstin,
owner of John’s Grill on Ellis St., reported the weekend theft of his
Maltese Falcon, a copy of the statuette used in the 1941 eponymous film.
(SFC, 2/13/07, p.A1)
2007 Jun 12, In California the
Berkeley City Council passed a new Public Commons Initiative to deal
with myriad issues facing those living on the streets.
(SFC, 6/14/07, p.B1)
2007 Feb 12, In upstate New York
intense lake-effect snow squalls that buried communities along eastern
Lake Ontario for nine straight days started up again. Unofficially, the
squalls have dumped 12 feet, 2 inches of snow at Redfield.
(AP, 2/12/07)
2007 Feb 12, In Philadelphia,
Penn., 3 men were shot to death in a marketing company conference room
and another was critically injured by a gunman who killed himself as
police closed in. The gunman had put a gig sum in a failed venture.
(AP, 2/13/07)(WSJ, 2/14/07, p.A1)
2007 Feb 12, In Salt Lake City,
Utah, Sulejmen Talovic (18) opened fire on shoppers, killing five and
wounding four others before police fatally shot him at the Trolley
Square shopping mall. Talovic was armed with several rounds of
ammunition and carried two guns. Ken Hammond, an off-duty officer,
cornered Talovic and prevented further loss of life.
(AP, 2/13/07)(SFC, 2/14/07, p.A6)
2007 Feb 12, Peter Ellenshaw (93),
special effects artist for Walt Disney, died. He made it possible for
Mary Poppins to fly and for 50 chimney sweeps to dance on London
rooftops.
(WSJ, 2/17/07, p.A4)
2007 Feb 12, Helmand Governor
Asadullah Wafa said at least 700 Taliban fighters have crossed from
Pakistan into Afghanistan to reinforce guerrillas attacking the key
Kajaki dam, a major source of electricity and irrigation. Several
Taliban fighters were killed in an attack targeting a senior guerrilla
leader. NATO and Afghan forces killed 22 Taliban fighters in separate
clashes over the last 3 days in the Kajaki district of Helmand province.
(Reuters, 2/12/07)(AP, 2/13/07)
2007 Feb 12, China's General
Administration of Customs said surging trade surplus jumped 67% in
January from the same month last year to $15.88 billion.
(AP, 2/12/07)
2007 Feb 12, EU foreign ministers
approved plans for implementing UN sanctions against Iran, a move that
is meant to punish Tehran over its refusal to halt uranium enrichment.
(AP, 2/12/07)
2007 Feb 12, In Guatemala
Rigoberta Menchu, Nobel Peace Prize winner, announced the formation of
an Indian-led political movement whose primary aim is to back her
probable bid for the presidency this fall.
(AP, 2/13/07)
2007 Feb 12, An Iraqi court raised
the sentence against Saddam Hussein's vice president to death by
hanging for the killings of Shiites in the town of Dujail. Thunderous
explosions and dense black smoke swirled through central Baghdad when 3
car bombs tore through a crowded marketplace, setting off secondary
blasts and killing 81 people with 172 wounded.
(AP, 2/12/07)(AP, 2/13/07)
2007 Feb 12, Police conducted
raids across northern Italy, breaking up a leftist militant group that
was allegedly planning kidnappings or kneecappings of victims to
finance its plots. The group traced back to the Red Brigades. Police
said they arrested 15 suspects accused of belonging to the
Politico-military Communist Party (PCPM) in Milan, Turin, Padua and
other northern Italian cities. Police in 7 locations across Italy
arrested 17 men, including four alleged arms traffickers: Massimo
Bettinotti (39), Gianluca Squarzolo (39), Ermete Moretti (55), and
Serafino Rossi (64). A 5th member, Vittorio Dordi, was believed to be
in Congo, apparently involved in the diamond trade. The luggage of
Squarzolo had yielded the original clue to the arms deal. They were
involved in a $64 million deal negotiated with Libyan officials for
some 500,000 Chinese-made assault rifles. Iraqi and Italian partners
had haggled over shipping more than 100,000 Russian-made automatic
weapons into Iraq.
(AP, 2/12/07)(Econ, 2/17/07, p.54)(AP, 8/13/07)(WSJ,
12/13/07, p.A18)(AP, 4/12/08)
2007 Feb 12, A Japanese whaling
ship issued a distress signal from Antarctic waters, after it collided
with a protest boat trying to save whales from slaughter.
(AP, 2/12/07)
2007 Feb 12, Mozambique officials
said soldiers and relief workers using helicopters and canoes have
evacuated some 60,000 people from the flooded Zambezi River Valley in
central Mozambique, where more than 100,000 others are at risk.
(AP, 2/12/07)
2007 Feb 12, A report issued by a
human rights group accused Myanmar's military of killing, raping and
torturing ethnic Karen women as part of its battle against the minority
group over the past 25 years.
(AP, 2/12/07)
2007 Feb 12, Portugal's prime
minister said he will enact more liberal abortion laws in the
conservative Roman Catholic country even though his proposal to relax
restrictions failed to win complete endorsement in a referendum.
(AP, 2/12/07)
2007 Feb 12, In Qatar Russia’s
Putin and Qatari Emir Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani announced they
would explore the creation of a natural gas cartel to represent the
interests of producer countries. Qatar sits atop the world's single
largest gas field.
(AP, 2/12/07)
2007 Feb 12, Russian military
prosecutors pledged to investigate allegations that young conscripts
were forced into prostitution by fellow soldiers, the latest claim of
rampant abuse in the nation's armed forces.
(AP, 2/12/07)
2007 Feb 12, In Somalia a mortar
slammed into a home in Mogadishu, killing a father and his 6-year-old
son as they slept and wounding four people.
(AP, 2/12/07)
2007 Feb 12, A vessel smuggling
120 people across the Gulf of Aden from Somalia to Yemen capsized as it
approached the coast. At least 30 Somali and Ethiopian migrants trying
to reach the Arabian peninsula drowned.
(AP, 2/13/07)
2007 Feb 12, South Africa said it
will build a second nuclear power plant generating more than 1,000
megawatts of electricity.
(AFP, 2/12/07)
2007 Feb 12, Sri Lanka's navy said
it destroyed a boat of the separatist Tamil Tiger movement and killed
at least eight rebels off the country's east coast.
(AP, 2/12/07)
2007 Feb 12, Ma Ying-jeou,
chairman of Taiwan’s main opposition party (KMT), was indicted for
embezzlement. He then defiantly announced he was running for president.
(AFP, 2/13/07)(Econ, 2/17/07, p.44)
2007 Feb 12, Thailand, which has
upset big drug companies by issuing patent-overriding licenses for
generic versions of heart and HIV/AIDS pills, said it would issue more
unless the firms cut prices.
(AP, 2/12/07)
2007 Feb 12, A state official said
Turkmenistan planned to open its first public Internet cafes, signaling
at least some liberalization under Interim President Gurbanguli
Berdymukhamedov, the presumed winner of its presidential election.
(AP, 2/12/07)
2007 Feb 12, Ugandan army raids in
the northeast allegedly killed up to 66 children who were shot or
crushed by armored vehicles and stampeding animals. Save the Children
later called for an independent, international investigation into the
reports.
(AP, 3/30/07)
2007 Feb 12, Venezuela signed a
preliminary agreement to purchase Verizon Communications Inc.'s stake
in the country's largest telecommunications company, the latest move by
President Hugo Chavez toward nationalizing strategic sectors of the
economy.
(AP, 2/12/07)
2007 Feb 12, Zimbabwe's central
statistics office reported that the inflation rate, already the highest
in the world, had soared again by more than 300 points to 1,593% in
January.
(AP, 2/12/07)
2008 Feb 12, US Treasury Sec.
Henry Paulson and 6 major lenders announced a new initiative to help
seriously delinquent homeowners stave off foreclosure.
(SFC, 2/13/08, p.C1)
2008 Feb 12, Barack Obama won 75%
of the vote in Washington DC, nearly two-thirds in Virginia and
approximately 60% in Maryland. McCain's victory in Virginia was a
relatively close one, the result of an outpouring of religious
conservatives who backed Mike Huckabee.
(AP, 2/13/08)
2008 Feb 12, A US federal appeals
court has overturned a statute outlawing sex toy sales in Texas, one of
the last states, all in the South, to retain such a ban.
(AP, 2/13/08)
2008 Feb 12, The Writers Guild of
America voted to end their 3-month strike.
(SFC, 2/13/08, p.A4)
2008 Feb 12, US filmmaker Steven
Spielberg abandoned his role in the Beijing Olympics and a host of
prominent figures accused China of not doing enough to press its ally
Sudan to end devastating violence in Darfur.
(AFP, 2/13/08)
2008 Feb 12, Speedo introduced its
new LZR Racer swimsuit. By June 38 of 42 world swimming records were
broken by swimmers wearing the suit.
(Econ, 6/14/08, p.100)(http://tinyurl.com/44xc9v)
2008 Feb 12, General Motors Corp.
reported a $38.7 billion loss for 2007, the largest annual loss ever
for an automotive company, and said it is making a new round of buyout
offers to US hourly workers in hopes of replacing some of them with
lower-paid help.
(AP, 2/12/08)
2008 Feb 12, US astronauts
attached Europe’s $2 billion space lab to the int’l. space station.
(SFC, 2/12/08, p.A8)
2008 Feb 12, In Manhattan
psychologist Kathryn Faughey (56) died in her Upper East Side office
after being stabbed 15 times with a cleaver and knife. Psychiatrist
Kent Shinbach was also slashed in the attack. The assailant escaped.
David Tarloff (39) was arrested on Feb 16. He blamed Faughey for having
institutionalized him 17 years earlier.
(SFC, 2/14/08, p.A3)(SSFC, 2/17/08, p.A2)
2008 Feb 12, In Afghanistan’s
Khost province a roadside bomb killed 4 Afghan guards working for the
US military.
(AP, 2/13/08)
2008 Feb 12, England's
commissioner for children and a civil liberties group joined in on a
campaign to ban high-frequency devices intended to drive misbehaving
children away from shops and other areas.
(AP, 2/12/08)
2008 Feb 12, Badri
Patarkatsishvili (52), a Georgian tycoon, was found dead in his mansion
near London. Police said they were treating the death as suspicious. He
had claimed he was the target of assassination plot after helping lead
anti-government protests in his homeland. He had built his fortune in
Russia, where he became Berezovsky's business partner. However, the two
men claimed in British court documents that the Russian government
forced them to sell their stakes in oil company Sibneft, Russian
Aluminum and television channel ORT for a fraction of their value.
Interim tests indicated that Patarkatsishvili died of natural causes.
(AP, 2/13/08)(AP, 2/14/08)
2008 Feb 12, In Canada at least 22
people, including a minor, have been charged in what police said was
one of Central Canada's biggest investigations of Internet child
pornography.
(AP, 2/13/08)
2008 Feb 12, China and Russia
challenged the United States at a disarmament debate by formally
presenting a plan to ban weapons in space, a proposal that Washington
has called a diplomatic ploy by the two nations to gain a military
advantage.
(AP, 2/12/08)
2008 Feb 12, In southwestern China
a bus veered off a highway and plunged down a 160-foot cliff into a
river, killing at least 21 people.
(AP, 2/12/08)
2008 Feb 12, Danish police said
they have arrested three people suspected of plotting to kill one of
the 12 cartoonists behind the Prophet Muhammad drawings that sparked a
deadly uproar in the Muslim world two years ago.
(AP, 2/12/08)
2008 Feb 12, East Timor declared a
state of emergency. Australian troops and a warship arrived to boost
security after rebel attacks on the country's two top leaders left the
president in "extremely serious" condition with gunshot wounds.
(AP, 2/12/08)
2008 Feb 12, European Union
antitrust regulators raided Intel Corp. and computer resellers
searching for evidence that they may have broken cartel or monopoly
rules.
(AP, 2/12/08)
2008 Feb 12, The EU resumed
deployment of a much-awaited peacekeeping force for two countries
neighboring Sudan's troubled Darfur region.
(AP, 2/12/08)
2008 Feb 12, President Nicolas
Sarkozy said France is ready to transfer technology to Brazil so that
an attack submarine, helicopters and the Rafale fighter plane can be
built there.
(AP, 2/12/08)
2008 Feb 12, Hisham Michwit Hamdan
(27), an Iraqi journalist who disappeared after leaving his offices two
days ago to buy some supplies, was found shot to death in central
Baghdad. A police officer was killed and two others wounded when gunmen
in a speeding car attacked their patrol just south of Basra. Gunmen
opened fire on a school bus in Diyala province, killing two girls and a
boy and wounding the driver and two other pupils. The attack happened
as the bus traveled between the predominantly Sunni town of Kanaan and
the mainly Shiite town of Balad Ruz. Iraqi police and forensics
officials said a mass grave with 13 decomposed bodies was uncovered in
an orchard near Muqdadiyah.
(AP, 2/12/08)
2008 Feb 12, Israel said it plans
to build 1,000 homes in East Jerusalem, angering Palestinians who said
the move undermines efforts for a peace deal.
(WSJ, 2/13/08, p.A1)
2008 Feb 12, A boat was wrecked
off southern Morocco leaving 24 African migrants missing, but 11 others
were rescued.
(AFP, 2/13/08)
2008 Feb 12, In Myanmar supporters
of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi protested to demand democracy in
Myanmar, days after the military regime said it would hold elections in
2010 under a new constitution likely to entrench the junta's powerful
position.
(AP, 2/12/08)
2008 Feb 12, In Pakistan new army
chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani ordered the withdrawal of military
officers from the government’s civil departments.
(SFC, 2/13/08, p.A4)
2008 Feb 12, The Philippine
government called for calm amid growing street protests calling for
President Gloria Arroyo to resign over a corruption scandal which has
implicated her husband and a close aide.
(AP, 2/12/08)
2008 Feb 12, Russia agreed to
eliminate a murky middleman company from its gas trade with Ukraine in
exchange for 50% share of Ukraine’s domestic gas market.
(WSJ, 2/13/08, p.A5)
2008 Feb 12, In northern Somalia
gunmen kidnapped a German aid worker after exchanging fire with his
bodyguards. The next day Somaliland forces freed him from gunmen.
(AP, 2/12/08)(AP, 2/13/08)
2008 Feb 12, South Africa’s
security minister announced that the government is dissolving an elite
graft-busting unit set up by prosecutors, in the latest twist in a
struggle between South Africa's crime-fighting agencies.
(AP, 2/12/08)
2008 Feb 12, South Korea held its
first-ever trial by jury as part of reform measures aimed at increasing
confidence in the judicial system. A nine-member jury in Daegu heard
the case of a man (27) accused of assaulting a woman (70) while trying
to burglarize her house. By South Korean law, the findings of jury are
nonbinding, with the final verdict still resting in the hands of a
judge, as in the past. Juries will be used at the request of defendants
in some criminal cases.
(AP, 2/12/08)
2008 Feb 12, Tiger rebels shelled
a key base in northern Sri Lanka, killing six soldiers and wounding 10,
as the defense ministry said the rebels sustained heavy losses in new
fighting.
(AP, 2/12/08)
2008 Feb 12, In Syria Imad
Mughniyeh (45), the suspected mastermind of dramatic attacks on the US
Embassy and US Marine barracks that killed hundreds of Americans in
Lebanon in the 1980s, died in a car bombing. Hezbollah and its Iranian
backers blamed Israel for the killing. Israel denied involvement and
said it was looking into the death.
(AP, 2/13/08)
2008 Feb 12, Venezuela's state
petroleum company PDVSA said it suspended oil supplies to ExxonMobil in
retaliation for the US energy giant's effort to freeze billions of
dollars in global PDVSA assets.
(AP, 2/12/08)
2009 Feb 12, The first of four new
pennies chronicling Abraham Lincoln's rise from a small Kentucky cabin
went into circulation to honor the 16th president's 200th birthday.
(AP, 2/13/09)
2009 Feb 12, A commuter plane,
Continental Connection Flight 3407 from Newark, N.J., coming in for a
landing nose-dived into a house in suburban Buffalo, sparking a fiery
explosion that killed all 49 people aboard and a person in the home. It
was the nation's first fatal crash of a commercial airliner in 2 1/2
years. Historian Alison Des Forges (66), prominent human rights
advocate who documented genocide in Rwanda, was among the victims of
the crash.
(AP, 2/13/09)(AP, 2/13/09)
2009 Feb 12, In New York Aasiya
Hassan (37) was found beheaded at the Bridges TV offices. Muzzammil
Hassan, founder and CEO of Buffalo, NY-based Bridges TV, was charged
after reporting the death of his wife. He had launched Bridges in 2004
with a mission to show Muslims in a more positive light.
(Reuters, 2/16/09)
2009 Feb 12, Ed Grothus (b.1923),
owner of the Black Hole “nuclear waste” junk store in Los Alamos, NM,
died. The former Manhattan Project machinist began collecting rejected
equipment from the weapons lab at Los Alamos in 1969 and in 1972
established his Omega Peace Institute at a former Lutheran church,
which later became his First Church of High Technology.
(SFC, 3/14/09, p.A10)
2009 Feb 12, In southern
Afghanistan a gunfight between Australian forces and Taliban fighters
killed at least 3 children who were caught in the crossfire in Uruzgan
province.
(AP, 2/13/09)
2009 Feb 12, In eastern Algeria 2
bombs exploded hours after President Abdelaziz Bouteflika announced he
will run for a new term, killing at least seven people.
(AFP, 2/13/09)
2009 Feb 12, Canada said its
federal police will no longer use stun guns against suspects merely
resisting arrest or refusing to cooperate because the guns can cause
death. At least 20 Canadians have died after being zapped by stun guns.
(SFC, 2/13/09, p.A4)
2009 Feb 12, In Canada Timothy
Scott (22), a US Marine wanted for abandoning his unit, shot himself to
death outside his mother’s home in Nova Scotia after police tried to
talk him out of firing a gun. Scott had already served 2 terms in Iraq.
(SSFC, 2/15/09, p.A6)
2009 Feb 12, Chile’s central bank
slashed its key interest rate 2.5% to 4.75%.
(WSJ, 2/13/09, p.A8)(Econ, 2/21/09, p.40)
2009 Feb 12, China's President Hu
Jintao arrived in Mali at the start of a four-country African tour
which Beijing insists is about strengthening cooperation and not solely
for economic gain.
(AP, 2/12/09)
2009 Feb 12, The Aluminum
Corporation of China (Chinalco) announced that it would invest $19.5
billion in Anglo-Australian miner Rio Tinto. In June it was reported
that Chinalco would not complete the deal.
(Econ, 2/14/09, p.73)(AFP, 6/4/09)
2009 Feb 12, Local officials
confirmed that swaths of western China that have large Tibetan
populations have been declared off limits to foreign visitors, ahead of
the politically sensitive 50th anniversary of a failed Tibetan uprising.
(AP, 2/12/09)
2009 Feb 12, An Egyptian security
official said police have arrested 40 suspected smugglers and seized
goods in a new crackdown on smuggling into the Hamas-run Gaza Strip in
a crackdown that started last weekend.
(AP, 2/12/09)
2009 Feb 12, Researchers in
Germany, on the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth, said they
have completed the first draft of the Neanderthal genome, 3 billion
genetic building blocks that will shed new light on the ancient hominid
as well as the origins of humans, its closest relation. Lead scientist
Svante Paabo established in 1997 that Neanderthals were cousins rather
than ancestors of modern humans.
(AP, 2/12/09)(Econ, 2/21/09, p.80)
2009 Feb 12, Domenica Niehoff
(63), Germany's best-known former prostitute, died. She was a familiar
figure on TV talk shows in the 1970s and '80s and was instantly
recognizable for her 48-inch bust and notoriously revealing outfits.
(AP, 2/13/09)
2009 Feb 12, Hong Kong's High
Court quashed the conviction of Australian Kevin Egan, one of the
city's most high-profile lawyers, who had been jailed for leaking the
identity of a protected witness to a journalist.
(AFP, 2/12/09)
2009 Feb 12, In India Chief
Justice A.P. Shah said the High Court in New Delhi is so behind in its
work that it could take 466 years to clear the backlog.
(SFC, 2/13/09, p.A4)
2009 Feb 12, In Indonesia at least
42 people were injured and hundreds of homes and buildings damaged when
a major earthquake struck off Sulawesi island near the Philippines.
(AP, 2/12/09)
2009 Feb 12, In Iraq a bomb attack
targeting Shiite pilgrims in Karbala killed 8 people and injured 52
others.
(AP, 2/12/09)(SFC, 2/13/09, p.A4)
2009 Feb 12, Mexican federal
police arrested 10 alleged members of a hit squad working for the
Beltran Leyva drug cartel, who had come to Mexico City to start a turf
war with a rival cartel.
(WSJ, 2/13/09, p.A10)
2009 Feb 12, Pakistan’s government
said for the first time that last November's attack on Mumbai was
launched and partly planned from Pakistan, and it was holding in
custody a ringleader and five other suspects.
(Reuters, 2/12/09)
2009 Feb 12, Hamas deputy leader
Moussa Abu Marzouk told Egypt's official MENA news agency that the
Islamic militant group has agreed to an 18-month truce with Israel.
(AP, 2/13/09)
2009 Feb 12, Off Somalia an
American helicopter from the USS Vella Gulf fired warning shots at
gunmen in two skiffs that had opened fire and tried to board the
Indian-flagged vessel Premdivya. US forces searched the skiff and found
weapons including rocket-propelled grenades, then took nine suspected
pirates aboard the American ship. A Russian nuclear-powered heavy
missile cruiser, Peter The Great, detained 10 Somali pirates closing in
on an Iranian-flagged fishing trawler. The men, were caught with
rifles, grenade-launchers, illegal narcotics and a large sum of money.
(AP, 2/13/09)
2009 Feb 12, In Russia's restive
southern republic of Ingushetia insurgents and police clashed, leaving
four officers and three attackers dead.
(AP, 2/13/09)
2009 Feb 12, Sri Lanka's army
disbanded the mostly ineffective "safe zone" it had established in the
war-wracked north and set up a new refuge for the tens of thousands of
civilians still trapped. A Sri Lankan (26) set himself on fire outside
the UN complex in Geneva in apparent protest against the military
campaign. A five-page letter found near his body identified the man as
a Tamil who had been living in Britain.
(AP, 2/12/09)(AP, 2/14/09)
2009 Feb 12, In Venezuela tens of
thousands clad in red flooded the streets of Caracas, saying a
referendum that would end term limits is the only way President Hugo
Chavez can complete what he calls a socialist revolution.
(AP, 2/12/09)
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