Today in History - February 13
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167 Feb 13,
Polycarp, a disciple of St. John and bishop of Smyrna, was martyred on
the west coast of Asia Minor.
(HN, 2/13/99)
1237 Feb 13, Jordanus of Saxon,
2nd father-general of Dominicans, drowned.
(MC, 2/13/02)
1332 Feb 13, Andronicus II
Palaeologus, Byzantine emperor (1282-1328), monk, died.
(MC, 2/13/02)
1349 Feb 13, Jews were expelled
from Burgsdorf, Switzerland.
(MC, 2/13/02)
1416 Feb 13, A Lithuanian and
Polish delegation read their grievances against the Teutonic Knights at
the Church Council at Constance.
(LHC, 2/13/03)
1480 Feb 13, Hieronymus Alexander,
[Gir¢lamo Aleandro], Italian diplomat, cardinal, was born.
(MC, 2/13/02)
1542 Feb 13, Catherine Howard
(b.c1520), the fifth wife of England's King Henry VIII, was executed
for adultery.
(WUD, 1994, p.689)(AP, 2/13/98)
1545 Feb 13, William of Nassau
became prince of Orange.
(MC, 2/13/02)
1566 Feb 13, St. Augustine,
Florida, was established. [see Sep 8, 1565]
(MC, 2/13/02)
1599 Feb 13, Alexander VII, Roman
Catholic Pope, was born.
(HN, 2/13/98)
1601 Feb 13, John Lancaster led
the 1st East India Company voyage from London.
(MC, 2/13/02)
1633 Feb 13, Italian astronomer
Galileo Galilei arrived in Rome for trial before the Inquisition.
(AP, 2/13/98)
1635 Feb 13, The oldest public
school in the United States, the Boston Public Latin School, was
founded.
(AP, 2/13/98)
1682 Feb 13, Giovanni Piazzetta,
painter, was born.
(HN, 2/13/98)
1689 Feb 13, British Parliament
adopted the Bill of Rights.
(HN, 2/13/98)
1692 Feb 13, In the Glen Coe
highlands of Scotland, thirty-eight members of the MacDonald clan, the
smallest of the Clan Donald sects, were murdered by soldiers of the
neighboring Campbell clan for not pledging allegiance to William of
Orange. Ironically the pledge had been made but not communicated to the
clans. The event is remembered as the Massacre of Glencoe.
(HN, 2/13/99)(HNQ, 8/18/01)
1693 Feb 13, The College of
William and Mary opened in Virginia.
(MC, 2/13/02)
1741 Feb 13, Andrew Bradford of
Pennsylvania published the first American magazine. Titled “The
American Magazine, or A Monthly View of the Political State of the
British Colonies.” Bradford introduced his American Magazine just days
before Benjamin Franklin founded his periodical called General Magazine
in Philadelphia. Bradford’s survived 3 months while Franklin’s survived
for 6 months.
(HFA, '96, p.24)(HNQ, 9/3/98)(AP, 2/13/01)
1754 Feb 2, Charles Maurice de
Tallyrand-Perigord (d.1838), minister of foreign affairs for Napoleon
I, was born. He represented France brilliantly at the Congress of
Vienna.
(WUD, 1994, p.1450)(HN, 2/2/99)
1757 Feb 13, John C. Hespe, Dutch
journalist, politician, was born.
(MC, 2/13/02)
1766 Feb 13, Thomas Robert Malthus
(d.1834), English economist, population expert (Law of Malthus), was
born.
(V.D.-H.K.p.253)(Internet)
1777 Feb 13, The Marquis de Sade
was arrested without charge and imprisoned in Vincennes fortress.
(MC, 2/13/02)
1778 Feb 13, Fernando Sor,
composer, was born.
(MC, 2/13/02)
1795 Feb 13, The University of
North Carolina became the first U.S. state university to admit students
with the arrival of Hinton James, who was the only student on campus
for two weeks.
(AP, 2/13/04)
1816 Feb 13-14, Teatro San Carlo
in Naples was destroyed by fire.
(MC, 2/13/02)
1826 Feb 13, The American
Temperance Society formed in Boston.
(MC, 2/13/02)
1831 Feb 13, John Aaron Rawlins
(d.1969), Bvt. Major General (Union Army), was born.
(MC, 2/13/02)
1833 Feb 13, William Whedbee
Kirkland (d.1915), Brig Gen (Confederate Army), was born.
(MC, 2/13/02)
1837 Feb 13, There was a riot in
NY over the high price of flour.
(MC, 2/13/02)
1849 Feb 13, Lord Randolph
Churchill, was born. He was an English politician, Winston Churchill's
father and member of Parliament.
(HN, 2/13/99)
1861 Feb 13, Abraham Lincoln was
declared president.
(MC, 2/13/02)
1862 Feb 13, Four-day Battle of
Fort Donelson, Tenn., began. General Grant said, "What determined my
attack on Donelson was as much the knowledge I had gained of its
commanders in Mexico as anything else."
(HN, 2/13/98)
1864 Feb 13, Miridian Campaign
fighting at Chunky Creek and Wyatt, Mississippi.
(MC, 2/13/02)
1865 Feb 13, The Confederacy
approved the recruitment of slaves as soldiers, as long as the approval
of their owners was gained.
(HN, 2/13/98)
1866 Feb 13, Jesse James took part
in his 1st bank holdup. At least a dozen former Southern guerrilla
soldiers, including Frank James and Cole Younger, held up the Clay
County Savings Association in Liberty, Missouri, of $15,000. Jesse
James was recovering from wounds suffered as a Confederate guerrilla
and probably wasn’t able to help brother Frank and Cole, but the
Liberty bank job is considered the James-Younger Gang’s first robbery.
Another outlaw legend, Charles “Black Bart” Boles baffled Wells Fargo
detectives during an eight year stint of 27 stagecoach robberies.
(HN, 2/13/98)(HN, 7/18/00)(MC, 2/13/02)
1867 Feb 13, Johann Strauss' "Blue
Danube" waltz premiered in Vienna.
(MC, 2/13/02)
1870 Feb 13, Leopold Godowsky,
virtuoso pianist, composer, was born in Lithuania.
(MC, 2/13/02)
1873 Feb 13, Feodor Chaliapin,
opera singer, was born.
(HN, 2/13/01)
1883 Feb 13, Richard Wagner
(b.1813)), revolutionary German composer (Die Walkure), died in Venice.
Composer Leon Stein (d.2002 at 92) later authored "The Racial Thinking
of Richard Wagner." In 2007 Jonathan Carr authored “The Wagner Clan,”
The Saga of Germany's Most Illustrious and Infamous Family.
(WSJ, 2/4/99,
p.A20)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Wagner)(Econ, 9/8/07, p.85)
1885 Feb 13, Elizabeth Virginia
"Bess" Truman, 1st lady (1945-52), was born.
(MC, 2/13/02)
1886 Feb 13, Painter Thomas Eakins
resigned from the Philadelphia Academy of Art over controversial use of
male nudes in a coed art class.
(MC, 2/13/02)
1887 Feb 13, Alvin York, famed US
soldier with 25 kills in WW I, was born.
(MC, 2/13/02)
1888 Feb 13, Georgios Papandreou,
Greek prefect of Lesbos, minister, premier, was born.
(MC, 2/13/02)
1891 Feb 13, David Dixon Porter
(77), US rear admiral (Union), died.
(MC, 2/13/02)
1892 Feb 13, Grant Wood, painter
(American Gothic), was born. Wood studied at the University of Iowa,
taught there and made Iowa the focus of his paintings. His is
considered one of America's first 'regionalist' painters. His most
famous work 'American Gothic', often spoofed, is a painting of the
puritanical farmer and his wife or daughter.
(HN, 2/13/01)(MC, 2/13/02)
1894 Feb 13, In Brazil peace talks
between Pres. Peixoto and navy rebels broke down completely when
Admiral Saldanha da Gama led a landing party that stormed a republican
fort at Nictheroy on the Guanabara Bay opposite from Rio de Janeiro.
The rebels were driven back.
(ON, 12/06, p.12)
1895 Feb 13, A moving picture
projector was patented.
(MC, 2/13/02)
1902 Feb 13, Georges Simenon,
novelist, was born in Belgium.
(HN, 2/13/01)(MC, 2/13/02)
1907 Feb 13, English suffragettes
stormed the British Parliament and 60 women were arrested.
(MC, 2/13/02)
1910 Feb 13, William B. Shockley,
physicist, co-inventor of the transistor, was born. He won the Nobel
Prize in 1956.
(HN, 2/13/01)(MC, 2/13/02)
1912 Feb 13, The Chinese imperial
government acknowledged the new republic.
(HN, 2/13/98)
1913 Feb 13, Joaquin Miller
(b.1837), known as the "poet of the Sierras," died in Oakland, Ca.
Miller had sponsored California’s 1st Arbor Day. His work included
"Utopia" (1880). Miller was born as Cincinnatus Hiner Miller near
Liberty, Indiana. His secret "California Diary" was unearthed 25 years
after his death. In 1919 Oakland purchased his property and in 1928
turned it into a park combined with adjacent undeveloped tracts.
(SFEM, 4/2/00, p.48)(SSFC, 1/14/07, p.B3)
1914 Feb 13, The American Society
of Composers, Authors and Publishers, known as ASCAP, was founded in
New York City.
(HN, 2/13/98)(AP, 2/13/98)
1916 Feb 13, Vilhelm Hammershoi
(b.1864), Danish painter, died. He is most celebrated for his
interiors, many of which he painted at his residence in Copenhagen.
(Econ, 7/5/08, p.94)
1919 Feb 13, Tennessee Ernie Ford,
country and gospel singer, was born.
(HN, 2/13/01)
1920 Feb 13, Eileen Farrell, opera
soprano (Interrupted Melody), was born in Willimantic, Conn.
(MC, 2/13/02)
1920 Feb 13, The League of Nations
recognized the perpetual neutrality of Switzerland.
(AP, 2/13/98)
1920 Feb 13-14, Andrew Foster
formed the 1st black baseball league, the Negro National League, at a
meeting at the Colored YMCA, Kansas City, Mo.
(AH, 2/05, p.17)
1923 Feb 13, Charles "Chuck"
Yeager, American test pilot, was born. He was the first man to break
the sound barrier on October 14, 1947.
(HN, 2/13/99)
1924 Feb 13, King Tut's tomb was
opened. Teams from the Univ. of Chicago’s Oriental Inst. had begun
studying the monuments of Thebes. Howard Carter discovered the tomb of
Tutankhamen Jan 3.
(NG, May 1985, p.598)(SFC, 8/5/96, p.A10)(MC,
2/13/02)
1925 Feb 13, US Congress made a
Supreme Court appeal more difficult.
(MC, 2/13/02)
1933 Feb 13, Kim Novak, actress,
was born.
(HN, 2/13/01)
1934 Feb 13, George Segal, actor,
banjo player (Carbon Copy, Fun with Dick and Jane), was born.
(MC, 2/13/02)
1935 Feb 13, A jury in Flemington,
N.J., found Bruno Richard Hauptmann guilty of first-degree murder
in the kidnap-death of the infant son of Charles and Anne Lindbergh.
Hauptmann was later executed.
(AP, 2/13/98)
1935 Feb 13, 1st US surgical
operation for relief of angina pectoris took place in Cleveland.
(MC, 2/13/02)
1936 Feb 13, The first US Social
Security checks were put in the mail. The Social Security
Administration had started assigning numbers this year.
(www.ssa.gov/history/1930.html)(SFC, 5/6/08, p.D1)
1938 Feb 13, Oliver Reed, actor
(Big Sleep), was born in London, England.
(MC, 2/13/02)
1942 Feb 13, Hitler's invasion of
England was cancelled.
(MC, 2/13/02)
1943 Feb 13, The Marine Corps
began allowing women to enlist as reserves.
(www.mcleague.com/mdp/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=63)
1943 Feb 13, There was a German
assault on Sidi Bou Zid, Tunisia, as Gen. Eisenhower visited the front.
(MC, 2/13/02)
1944 Feb 13, A Lithuanian Home
Army was formed under P. Plechavicius. It was disbanded May 15-21.
(LHC, 2/13/03)
1945 Feb 13, Allied planes began
bombing the German city of Dresden. British bombers in Operation
Thunderclap firebombed the city of Dresden, Germany, and 135,000 people
were killed. The Royal Air Force Bomber Command attacked the city of
Dresden at night with raids by 873 heavy bombers. 796 Lancaster heavy
bombers were led by 9 target marking Mosquito light bombers. A look at
aerial maps of the city before and after the terror attacks clearly
shows the large white oil tanks owned by British-controlled Shell Oil.
These tanks remained entirely untouched by the bombardment. In 2003
Frederick Taylor authored “Dresden: Tuesday, February 13, 1945.”
(http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/61/001.html)(WSJ, 10/22/96,
p.A20)(SFC, 1/6/97, p.A10)(SFEC, 7/27/97, p.T6)(SFEC, 1/30/00, p.T13)
1945 Feb 13, During World War II
the Soviets captured Budapest, Hungary, from the Germans ending a
50-day siege.
(HN, 2/13/98)(AP, 2/13/98)
1946 Feb 13, Rainer Werner
Fassbinder, German director, actor, was born.
(MC, 2/13/02)
1949 Feb 13, A mob burned a radio
station in Ecuador after the broadcast of H.G. Wells’ "War of the
Worlds."
(HN, 2/13/98)
1950 Feb 13, Albania recognized Ho
Chi Minh’s Vietnamese government, becoming the sixth Eastern bloc
country to do so.
(HN, 2/13/98)
1951 Feb 13, Mark William
Schumacher was born at 3:14 a.m. in Detroit, Mi. He later moved to San
Francisco where he drove a cab and hung out at the Café Babar
where he became renowned for his bad puns. He moved his punning to
Boston after selling 4 refinished old chairs to Carol Rooney for $200.
He reserved the right to buy the chairs back at a later time and did so.
(Alg, 11/8/98)
1951 Feb 13, At the Battle of
Chipyong-ni, in Korea, U.N. troops contained the Chinese forces'
offensive in a two-day battle.
(HN, 2/13/99)
1952 Feb 13, Alfred Einstein (71),
German-US musicologist, died.
(MC, 2/13/02)
1953 Feb 13, Pope Pius XII asked
the U.S. to grant clemency to convicted spies Ethel and Julius
Rosenberg.
(HN, 2/13/98)
1955 Feb 13, Israel acquired 4 of
7 Dead Sea scrolls. Israel already had 3 scrolls, acquired in 1947. The
4 scrolls were purchased from a Christian clergyman, a Syrian Orthodox
archbishop. The price, according to the New York Times, was an
estimated $300,000.
(NYT, 2/14/55, p.21)
1958 Feb 13, Georges Rouault (86),
French painter (Christ aux outrages), died.
(MC, 2/13/02)
1960 Feb 13, France exploded its
first atomic bomb, in the Sahara Desert.
(AP, 2/13/08)
1968 Feb 13, The US sent 10,500
more combat troops to Vietnam.
(HN, 2/13/98)
1969 Feb 13, In North Carolina the
Afro-American Society students of Duke Univ. led a black student
takeover of the Allen Building to spark University action on the
concerns of Black students. The takeover brought attention to issues
such as establishment of an Afro-American studies program, a black
cultural center, and increasing the number of black faculty and
students.
(http://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/rbmscl/uabsa/inv/)
1970 Feb 13, GM was reportedly
redesigning automobiles to run on unleaded fuel.
(HN, 2/13/98)
1972 Feb 13, "1776" closed at 46th
Street Theater in NYC after 1,217 performances. A film version was
released in November.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1776_(musical))
1972 Feb 13, Enemy attacks, in
Vietnam, declined for the third day as the U.S. continued its intensive
bombing strategy.
(HN, 2/13/98)
1973 Feb 13, Musical "El Grande de
Coca-Cola," premiered in NYC. The off-Broadway show closed April 13,
1975
(www.broadwayworld.com/bwidb/productions/El_Grande_de_Coca-Cola_8236/)
1974 Feb 13, Alexander
Solzhenitsyn was exiled from the USSR. He wrote his novel “First
Circle” based on experiences in a Moscow prison camp, where he met Lev
Kopelev (d.1997 at 85), a dissident author and Communist
idealist. The character Rubin in “First Circle” is based on
Kopelev.
(TMC, 1994, p.1974)(SFC, 6/21/97, p.A18)(MC, 2/13/02)
1976 Feb 13, Lily Pons (b.1898),
French, US soprano, opera diva (Met Opera), died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lily_Pons)
1976 Feb 13, In Nigeria Gen'l.
Muhammad in the ruling junta was killed in a coup attempt and his
deputy, Gen'l. Olusegun Obasanjo, was named president.
(SFC, 2/22/99, p.A10)(SFC, 3/2/99,
p.A8)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olusegun_Obasanjo)
1980 Feb 13, The opening
ceremonies were held in Lake Placid, NY, for the 13th Winter Olympics.
(AP, 2/13/98)
1980 Feb 13, David Janssen,
television and film actor, died in Malibu, California, from a heart
attack. He was born as David Harold Meyer on March 27, 1931 in Naponee,
Nebraska. He is best known for his starring role as Dr. Richard Kimble
in the hit television series “The Fugitive” (1963–1967).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Janssen)
1982 Feb 13, In Guatemala 73 men
and women from Rio Negro were ordered by the local military commander
to report to Xococ, a village upstream from the reservoir zone which
had a history of land conflicts and hostility with Rio Negro. Only one
woman out of the 73 villagers returned to Rio Negro, the rest were
raped, tortured and then murdered by Xococ's Civil Defense Patrol, or
PAC, one of the notorious paramilitary units used by the state as death
squads. The Guatemalan army invaded Santa Maria Tzeja and massacred 13
people. Villagers fled their homes following the massacre. In 2004
Beatriz Manz authored "Paradise in Ashes: A Guatemalan Journey of
courage, Terror and Hope."
(http://tinyurl.com/34hubh)(SSFC, 2/14/04,
p.M3)(www.rightsaction.org/articles/1095a.htm)
1984 Feb 13, Konstantin Chernenko
was chosen to be general secretary of the Soviet Communist Party's
Central Committee, succeeding the late Yuri Andropov.
(HN, 2/13/98)(AP, 2/13/98)
1985 Feb 13, Polish police
arrested 7 Solidarity leaders.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Solidarity)
1988 Feb 13, The 15th winter
Olympics opened in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
(AP, 2/13/98)
1988 Feb 13, President Reagan and
Mexican President Miguel de la Madrid met in the Mexican resort of
Mazatlan.
(AP, 2/13/98)
1989 Feb 13, The judge in the
Iran-Contra trial of Oliver North sent the jury home amid a continuing
disagreement between the prosecution and defense over protecting
classified materials.
(AP, 2/13/99)
1990 Feb 13, At a conference in
Ottawa, the United States and its European allies forged agreement with
the Soviet Union and East Germany on a two-stage formula to reunite
Germany.
(AP, 2/13/00)
1991 Feb 13, Arno Breker (90),
German sculptor (Third Reich), died in Dusseldorf.
(www.meaus.com/arno-breker-biography.htm)
1991 Feb 13, Some 334 Iraqi
civilians were killed when a pair of laser-guided US bombs destroyed an
underground facility in Baghdad identified by US officials as a
military installation, but which Iraqi officials said was a bomb
shelter.
(AP, 2/13/01)
1992 Feb 13, Donna Weinbrecht of
the United States won the gold medal in women's freestyle skiing moguls
at the Olympic games in Albertville, France.
(AP, 2/13/02)
1993 Feb 13, The government of
Bosnia-Herzegovina began blocking the distribution of food in the
capital of Sarajevo to protest ineffective international attempts to
stop the war.
(AP, 2/13/98)
1994 Feb 13, At the Winter Olympic
Games in Lillehammer, Norway, American Tommy Moe won the men's
downhill, defeating local hero Kjetil Andre Aamodt by 0.004 seconds.
(AP, 2/13/99)
1995 Feb 13, House Speaker Newt
Gingrich ruled out running for the 1996 Republican presidential
nomination.
(AP, 2/13/00)
1995 Feb 13, The Hague War Crimes
Tribunal indicted 21 Serbs for atrocities against Croats and Muslims
interned in a Bosnian prison camp. Zeljko Meakic, Bosnian Serb police
officer, was charged with commanding the Serb Omarska camp in northwest
Bosnia. Dusan Tadic, Bosnian Serb cafe owner, was charged for visiting
Serb-run camps to beat and kill non-Serb inmates.
(WSJ, 6/11/96, p.A14)(SFC, 11/30/96, p.A15)(AP,
2/13/00)
1996 Feb 13, The rock musical
"Rent," by Jonathan Larson, opened off-Broadway and won a Pulitzer
prize two months later.
(WSJ, 5/23/96, p.A-1,7)(AP, Internet, 2/13/98)
1996 Feb 13, In the continuing
drama of man versus machine, world chess champion Garry Kasparov asked
for a draw in his third game against the IBM supercomputer named “Deep
Blue,” leaving the six-game match in Philadelphia tied at one and
a-half games each.
(AP, 2/13/01)
1996 Feb 13, Martin Balsam
(b.1914), actor, died in Italy. His many films included “A Thousand
Clowns” (1965).
(www.nndb.com/people/111/000063919/)
1997 Feb 13, Discovery's
astronauts hauled the Hubble Space Telescope aboard the shuttle for a
one billion mile tune up to allow it to peer even deeper into the far
reaches of the universe.
(AP, 2/13/98)
1997 Feb 13, On Wall Street, the
Dow Jones industrial average broke through the 7,000 barrier for the
first time, ending the day at 7,022.44.
(AP, 2/13/98)
1998 Feb 13, Dr. David Satcher was
sworn in as US surgeon general during an Oval Office ceremony.
(AP, 2/13/08)
1998 Feb 13, The United Auto
Workers reached a tentative contract agreement with Caterpillar Inc.;
union members rejected the agreement, which was revised and later
ratified, ending a bitter dispute that lasted more than six years.
(AP, 2/13/99)
1998 Feb 13, The Dow Jones rose to
another record high of 8,370.1.
(SFC, 2/14/98, p.D1)
1998 Feb 13, In Indonesia rioting
and looting spread to at least 8 towns.
(SFC, 2/14/98, p.A8)
1998 Feb 13, In Sierra Leone
Freetown fell to Nigerian led forces. Two helicopter gunships with some
50 senior members of the military junta were captured near Monrovia.
(SFC, 2/14/98, p.A8)
1999 Feb 13, Pres. Clinton
announced that he would send some 4,000 troops to Kosovo as part of a
NATO peacekeeping force if warring Serbs and ethnic Albanians reached a
political settlement.
(SFEC, 2/14/99, p.A1)(AP, 2/13/00)
1999 Feb 13, A federal judge held
American Airlines' pilots' union and two top board members in contempt
and promised sizable fines against them, saying the union did not do
enough to encourage pilots to return to work after a court order. A
federal judge fined the American Airlines pilot's union at least $10
million for ignoring his back-to-work order.
(AP, 2/13/00)(SFEC, 2/14/99, p.A2)
1999 Feb 13, In Afghanistan the
Taliban leadership replaced bin Laden's bodyguards with members of
their intelligence service and Foreign Ministry.
(SFC, 3/4/99, p.A12)
2000 Feb 13, Tiger Woods saw his
streak of six consecutive victories come to an end as he fell short to
Phil Mickelson in the Buick Invitational.
(AP, 2/13/01)
2000 Feb 13, Charles Schulz’s
final “Peanuts” strip ran in Sunday newspapers, the day after the
cartoonist died in his sleep at his California home at age 77. In 2007
David Michaelis authored “Schulz and Peanuts: A Biography.”
(AP, 2/13/01)(Econ, 11/3/07, p.100)
2000 Feb 13, In Kandahar,
Afghanistan, a 10-year-old boy executed a man convicted of murdering
his father. A man convicted of highway robbery was also ordered to have
his right hand and left foot amputated according to Islamic law.
(SFC, 2/14/00, p.A12)
2000 Feb 13, In Indonesia Pres.
Wahid met with security minister Gen. Wiranto and agreed to a legal
investigation over Wiranto's role in East Timor bloodshed. Wahid then
changed his mind and decided to suspend Wiranto.
(SFC, 2/14/00, p.A12)
2000 Feb 13, In Iraq top UN
official Hans von Sponeck quit in protest that sanctions were
undermining humanitarian efforts.
(SFC, 2/17/00, p.D16)
2000 Feb 13, In Kosovo snipers
wounded 2 French peacekeepers who responded by later killing an ethnic
Albanian and wounding at least 4 others. Serbs had earlier thrown a
grenade into a crowd of ethnic Albanians in Mitrovica.
(SFC, 2/14/00, p.A12)
2000 Feb 13, In Russia Vladimir
Putin signed a decree to re-establish the "special departments" (FSB)
to seek out political disloyalty in the military.
(SFC, 2/17/00, p.D3)
2000 Feb 13, In Yugoslavia the
cyanide spill from Romania reached the Danube and weakened to non
lethal levels. Life in the Tisa (Tisza) River in Hungary and Serbia was
devastated and Serbia threatened to demand compensation at an int'l.
court.
(SFC, 2/14/00, p.A16)
2001 Feb 13, Ivan Lendl was
elected to the tennis Hall of Fame along with Mervyn Rose, an
Australian star from the 1950's.
(AP, 2/13/02)
2001 Feb 13, Pres. Bush nominated
Gov. Paul Cellucci as ambassador to Canada and cleared the way for Jane
Swift to become 1st female governor of Massachusetts.
(SFC, 2/14/01, p.A7)
2001 Feb 13, US Treasury Sec. Paul
O’Neill urged Congress to accelerate plans for an across-the-board tax
cut and a doubling of the child credit.
(SFC, 2/14/01, p.A3)
2001 Feb 13, In Hawaii 2 Army
Blackhawk helicopters crashed and 6 soldiers were killed.
(SFC, 2/14/01, p.A6)
2001 Feb 13, About this time
Canadian police arrested at least 2 people in the Toronto area in a
scheme to distribute $25 billion in counterfeit US bearer bonds.
(WSJ, 1/2/02, p.R12)
2001 Feb 13, In El Salvador a 6.6
earthquake killed at least 127 people. It was centered between San
Vicente and San Salvador. The death toll soon rose to 402 with 2432
injured. It struck one month to the day after another quake killed more
than 800 people.
(SFC, 2/14/01, p.A1)(SFC, 2/15/01, p.A12)(AP,
2/13/02)
2001 Feb 13, Israeli gunships
killed Massoud Ayyad (57), a Palestinian security official, with
anti-tank missiles fired at his car in Gaza.
(SFC, 2/14/01, p.A14)
2001 Feb 13, Yulia Tymoshenko,
Ukraine’s former Deputy Prime Minister and a principal opponent to
Pres. Kuchma, was arrested on charges dating back to 1996 when she was
head of United Energy Systems. Ms. Tymoshenko made her fortune in murky
gas trades between Russia and the Ukraine in the early 1990s.
(SFC, 2/14/01, p.A14)(Econ, 10/6/07, p.59)
2002 Feb 13, Pres. Bush welcomed
Pres. Musharraf to the White House. Musharraf sought a revival of arms
deals and relaxed tariffs on textiles. The Bush administration agreed
to $142 million in trade benefits.
(SFC, 2/14/02, p.A10)(SFC, 2/15/02, p.A14)
2002 Feb 13, The US House of Reps.
voted 240-189 to ban unlimited “soft money” donations to national
parties as part of the Shays-Meehan campaign finance bill. Individual
contributions were raised from 1k to 2k.
(SFC, 2/14/02, p.A1)(WSJ, 2/15/02, p.A1)
2002 Feb 13, John Walker Lindh
pleaded innocent in federal court in Alexandria, Va., to conspiring to
kill Americans and supporting the Taliban and terrorist organizations.
(AP, 2/13/03)
2002 Feb 13, Britain's Queen
Elizabeth II made former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani an
honorary knight.
(AP, 2/13/03)
2002 Feb 13, In a startling
development at the Salt Lake City winter games, the head of the French
Olympic team said the French figure skating judge had been pressured to
"act in a certain way" before she voted to give the gold medal to the
Russians in pairs.
(AP, 2/13/03)
2002 Feb 13, Waylon Jennings
(b.1937), country singer, died in Chandler, Arizona at age 64. His
5-decade career included 60 albums.
(SFC, 2/14/02, p.A2)
2002 Feb 13, Argentina adopted a
20% tax on energy exports.
(WSJ, 2/14/02, p.A14)
2002 Feb 13, Israeli troops seized
3 Palestinian towns and a refugee camp in Gaza Strip from where rockets
and mortars were fired and at least 5 people were killed. 3 Palestinian
police officers were killed in Deir al-Balah where 3 police posts were
destroyed.
(SFC, 2/13/02, p.A9)(WSJ, 2/14/02, p.A15)
2002 Feb 13, The Scottish
Parliament outlawed fox hunting with dogs.
(SFC, 2/14/02, p.A8)
2002 Feb 13, In Pakistan Ahmed
Omar Saeed Sheikh (28), Islamic militant, said he believed WSJ reporter
Daniel Pearl was dead. Sheikh said Pearl was shot and killed during a
failed escape attempt on Jan 31.
(SFC, 2/14/02, p.A8)(SFC, 2/15/02, p.A20)
2002 Feb 13, In Venezuela the
bolivar fell nearly 19% with the abandonment of exchange controls by
Pres. Chavez, who also announced a 7% cut in government spending to
help close a projected $8 billion deficit.
(SFC, 2/14/02, p.B6)
2002 Feb 13, In Yemen Sameer
Mohammed Ahmed al-Hada (25), an al Qaeda fugitive, died as troops
closed in and a hand grenade exploded in his hand. Family members were
also linked to al-Qaeda.
(WSJ, 2/14/02, p.A1)(SFC, 2/15/02, p.A18)
2002 Feb 13, Morgan Tsvangirai,
Zimbabwe opposition leader, was implicated in a plot to overthrow Pres.
Mugabe in film footage made by a consulting firm with ties to Mugabe.
Tsvangirai said the tape was contrived.
(SFC, 2/14/02, p.A9)(WSJ, 2/14/02, p.A1)
2003 Feb 13, American Special
Forces were reported to be in various parts of Iraq for what seemed to
be the initial phases of a ground war.
(SFC, 2/13/03, p.A14)
2003 Feb 13, Clara Harris, who'd
run down her cheating husband with her Mercedes after catching him with
his mistress, was convicted by a Houston jury of murder despite her
claim that she'd hit him accidentally while in a heartsick daze. She
was later sentenced to 20 years in prison.
(AP, 2/13/04)
2003 Feb 13, Smith & Wesson
unveiled a new Model 500, .50 caliber Magnum revolver.
(SFC, 2/14/03, p.A2)
2003 Feb 13, An investigative
panel found that superheated air almost certainly seeped through a
breach in space shuttle Columbia's left wing and possibly its wheel
compartment during the craft's fiery descent, resulting in the deaths
of all seven astronauts.
(AP, 2/13/04)
2003 Feb 13, Prof. Walt W. Rostow
(b.1916), adviser to the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, died in
Austin, Texas. His over 30 books included "Theorists of Economic Growth
from David Hume to the Present, with a Perspective on the Next Century"
(1990), and "The Stages of Economic Growth" (3rd ed. 1990). His memoir
“Concept and Controversy” (2003) was published posthumously. In 2008
David Milne authored “America’s Rasputin: Walt Rostow and the Vietnam
War.”
(SFC, 2/15/03, p.A24)(WSJ, 3/6/08, p.D7)
2003 Feb 13, In southern Colombia
a U.S. government plane carrying 5 people crashed short of an airport
in rebel territory, and those on board may have been spirited away by
leftist rebels. 2 days later an American and a Colombian were executed
at close range.
(AP, 2/13/03)(AP, 2/15/03)
2004 Feb 13, President Bush,
trying to calm a political storm, ordered the release of his
Vietnam-era military records to counter Democrats' suggestions that
he'd shirked his duty in the Texas Air National Guard.
(AP, 2/13/05)
2004 Feb 13, The FCC began writing
rules to enable users to access the Internet through electric power
lines.
(SFC, 2/13/04, p.B1)
2004 Feb 13, San Francisco issued
665 same-sex marriage licenses as hundreds more gay couples rushed to
tie the knot before the opportunity slipped away.
(AP, 2/13/04)
2004 Feb 13, In Qatar Zelimkhan
Yandarbiyev (51), Chechnya's exiled former president, was assassinated
when a bomb blew apart his car as he left a mosque with his teenage son
(13). He was wanted by Russia for terrorism and ties to al-Qaida.
(AP, 2/13/04)
2004 Feb 13, Greek and Turkish
Cypriot leaders agreed to resume full negotiations next week to end the
30-year division of Cyprus before it joins the European Union on May 1.
(AP, 2/13/04)
2004 Feb 13, In Jamaica hundreds
of people rioted in Kingston, attacking a police station and setting
cars ablaze after a policeman allegedly shot and wounded a high-school
student.
(AP, 2/13/04)
2004 Feb 13, A Cambodian-flagged
vessel that sank near the entrance of the Bosporus. A snowstorm
sweeping out of the Balkans disrupted travel across Turkey and Greece,
forcing rescuers to call off the search for the 20 crew members of the
cargo ship.
(AP, 2/13/04)
2004 Feb 13, It was reported that
police in Mauritania had arrested of five suspected members of
Afghanistan's Taliban movement.
(AP, 2/13/04)
2005 Feb 13, Ray Charles' final
album, "Genius Loves Company," won a leading eight Grammy awards,
including album of the year, record of the year for "Here We Go Again"
with Norah Jones, and pop vocal album.
(AP, 2/14/05)
2005 Feb 13, The AFC won the Pro
Bowl, defeating the NFC 38-27.
(AP, 2/13/06)
2005 Feb 13, Iran rejected a
European demand to stop building a heavy water nuclear reactor in
return for a light-water reactor.
(AP, 2/13/05)
2005 Feb 13, Results from Iraq's
elections were released and showed that majority Shiite Muslims won 48%
of the votes, giving the long-oppressed group significant power but not
enough to form a government on its own.
(AP, 2/13/05)(SFC, 2/15/05, p.A1)
2005 Feb 13, Insurgents attacked a
US convoy and a government building near the northern Iraqi city of
Mosul, leaving at least four people dead. Two Iraqi National Guard
troops were also killed while trying to defuse a roadside bomb. Gunmen
ambushed a car carrying an Iraqi general in a Shiite neighborhood of
Baghdad, killing him and two companions.
(AP, 2/13/05)
2005 Feb 13, Israel's Cabinet
approved a list of names of 500 Palestinian prisoners to be released in
coming days, and several hundred Palestinian workers returned to jobs
in Israel in line with agreements reached at a Mideast summit last week.
(AP, 2/13/05)
2005 Feb 13, In Indian Kashmir at
least 35 people were wounded when suspected separatist guerrillas threw
a grenade on a crowded road.
(AP, 2/13/05)
2005 Feb 13, Pakistani officials
said severe flooding and avalanches have killed around 350 people after
a week of torrential rain and heavy snow, while 2,000 others were
missing and tens of thousands left homeless.
(AP, 2/13/05)
2005 Feb 13, Firefighters shot
jets of water on the 32-story Windsor building, one of Madrid’s tallest
office buildings, for a 2nd day, fighting to control a fiery orange
blaze that began the night before and threatened to collapse the
32-story skyscraper.
(AP, 2/13/05)
2005 Feb 13, Floods and landslides
in Colombia and Venezuela over the past few days cut a trail of
destruction through small Andean towns and killed at least 64 people.
(AP, 2/13/05)(WSJ, 2/14/05, p.A1)
2006 Feb 13, US government
investigators told the Senate that FEMA has let nearly 11,000 unused
manufactured homes deteriorate on old runways and open fields in
Arkansas, and spent $416,000 per person to house a few hundred
Hurricane Katrina evacuees for a short time in Alabama last fall.
Auditors reported that millions of dollars in disaster aid had been
squandered, paying for such items as a $450 tattoo and $375-a-day
beachfront condos.
(USAT, 2/14/06)(AP, 2/13/07)
2006 Feb 13, Joey Cheek (26),
American speedskater, won a gold medal in the 500-meter sprint in
Turin, Italy, and announced that he would donate his $25,000 award from
the US Olympic Committee Olympic Aid, founded by Olav Koss in 1994 and
direct it to a refugee program in Chad. Hannah Teter won gold and
Gretchen Bleiler won silver in the halfpipe. Tatiana Totmianina and
Maxim Marinin won the gold medal in pairs figure skating, extending
Russia's four-decade dominance of the event.
(SFC, 2/14/06, p.A1)(AP, 2/13/07)
2006 Feb 13, A bomb hit a US
military vehicle in central Afghanistan, killing four American troops.
(AP, 2/13/06)
2006 Feb 13, President Evo Morales
appealed to the Bush administration to extradite a former President
Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada, who fled to the US amid an uprising that
left about 60 people dead after a military crackdown on demonstrators.
(AP, 2/13/06)
2006 Feb 13, Brazil’s President
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva created two new national parks in the Amazon
rain forest and expanded another to protect an environmentally
sensitive region where the government plans a major highway project.
(AP, 2/14/06)
2006 Feb 13, British Foreign
Secretary Jack Straw and his Moroccan counterpart, Mohamed Benaissa,
agreed to boost economic ties between the two countries and hold an
annual business forum to this end.
(AFP, 2/13/06)
2006 Feb 13, Testimony presented
in an annual UN human rights report said Colombian security forces had
killed civilians and covered it up by dressing the bodies as Marxist
guerrillas.
(Reuters, 2/13/06)
2006 Feb 13, The UN launched a
$680 million aid plan for the Democratic Republic of Congo, complaining
the world remained ignorant of what it called the worst humanitarian
crisis since World War Two.
(Reuters, 2/13/06)
2006 Feb 13, DP World, a ports
operator owned by the government of Dubai (UAR), paid $6.8 billion to
acquire P&O, a British firm which runs a global network of maritime
terminals including 6 American ports.
(Econ, 2/25/06, p.33)
2006 Feb 13, Ilan Halimi (23), a
young Jewish man, was killed in a Paris suburb after being kidnapped on
Jan 21 and tortured for 24 days. The trial of a self-proclaimed "gang
of barbarians" accused of killing him went on trial in 2009. Among the
27 defendants was the girl who is alleged to have been used as bait to
capture Halimi and young men accused of taking part in the abduction
and guarding the captive. Youssouf Fofana, the leader of the
"barbarians," fled to the Ivory Coast but was extradited to France on
March 4, 2006. On July 10, 2009, a Paris court convicted Fofana (28)
for the kidnapping, torture and murder Halimi and sentenced him to life
in prison, a verdict that drew a thumbs-up sign from Fofana. 24 others,
including eight women, also were found guilty in the kidnapping,
torture and murder of Ilan Halimi.
(AP, 4/29/09)(AP, 7/11/09)
2006 Feb 13, In Germany some
22,000 public workers in 8 of 16 federal states stopped work to protest
an expanded workweek with no increase in pay.
(WSJ, 2/13/06, p.A7)
2006 Feb 13, In Haiti election
results showed the former president Preval slipping further below the
50 percent needed to avoid a runoff.
(AP, 2/13/06)
2006 Feb 13, In Indonesia 2
Australians were sentenced to life in prison for trying to smuggle
heroin from the Indonesian resort island of Bali to their homeland.
(AP, 2/13/06)
2006 Feb 13, Diplomats said Iran
has started small-scale enrichment of uranium, a process that can
produce fuel for nuclear reactors or bombs. Talks with Moscow on moving
Iranian enrichment to Russia as a way ensuring Iran has no direct
control were put on indefinite hold.
(AP, 2/13/06)
2006 Feb 13, In Baghdad a suicide
bomber detonated an explosive belt in a line of Iraqis waiting to
receive government payments, killing 8 people and wounding about 30,
including children. 11 other people were killed in attacks elsewhere in
the country, including five members of a Shiite religious party and
four policemen, among them a colonel.
(AP, 2/13/06)
2006 Feb 13, In Monterrey, Mexico,
2 police chiefs, Hector Ayala and Javier Garcia, were shot and killed
within hours of each other in a violence-plagued region near the US
where drug smugglers have been battling for control of key routes
across the border.
(AP, 2/14/06)
2006 Feb 13, In Nepal a
controversial anti-corruption body set up by Nepal's King Gyanendra was
dissolved, paving the way for the release of jailed ousted PM Sher
Bahadur Deuba.
(AFP, 2/13/06)
2006 Feb 13, A transit strike in
Managua, Nicaragua, entered a 2nd week, as workers demanded that the
government subsidize their fuel and gas prices.
(SFC, 2/14/06, p.A5)
2006 Feb 13, In northwestern
Pakistan police fired tear gas and wielded batons to stop about 7,000
students protesting cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad from marching on
the governor's residence.
(AP, 2/13/06)
2006 Feb 13, In Lahore gunmen on a
motorcycle killed Ahmad Javed Khawaja (72), a Pakistani doctor who
spent six months in jail on suspicions of harboring al-Qaida suspects
and possessing illegal weapons.
(AP, 2/13/06)
2006 Feb 13, The outgoing
Palestinian parliament passed legislation giving Palestinian leader
Mahmoud Abbas the power to appoint a court that could veto legislation
passed by the new Hamas-led parliament to be sworn in this week.
(AP, 2/13/06)
2006 Feb 13, In North Ossetia 6
women whose relatives were victims of the 2004 Beslan school hostage
seizure were on hunger strike for a fifth day, protesting what they say
are efforts by authorities to prematurely end the trial of the only
alleged remaining attacker.
(AP, 2/13/06)
2006 Feb 13, In Spain survivors
and relatives of people killed in terrorist attacks worldwide gathered
to share stories of their common tragedy, discuss ways to fight the
scourge and hear what governments plan to do to make their citizens
safer.
(AP, 2/13/06)
2006 Feb 13, In Turkey a bomb
exploded at an Istanbul supermarket during the afternoon rush, injuring
15 people. A Kurdish news agency reported that a Kurdish militant group
claimed responsibility for the attack.
(AP, 2/13/06)
2007 Feb 13, With Democrats in
control, House members debated Iraq in an emotional and historic
faceoff over a war that Speaker Nancy Pelosi condemned as a commitment
with "no end in sight."
(AP, 2/13/08)
2007 Feb 13, US Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice said the US plans to cancel $391 million in
outstanding debt owed by Liberia, and she urged others to help the
struggling West African nation.
(AP, 2/13/07)
2007 Feb 13, The US Commerce
Department reported that the gap between what America sells abroad and
what it imports rose to a record $763.6 billion last year, a 6.5%
increase from the previous record of $716.7 billion set in 2005.
(AP, 2/13/07)
2007 Feb 13, Brent Wilkes, a
former CIA official, was indicted on corruption charges related to
ex-Congressman Randy Cunningham and defense contractors.
(SFC, 2/14/07, p.A3)
2007 Feb 13, David Passaro, a
former CIA contract employee, was sentenced to 8 ½ years in
prison for beating Afghan detainee Abdul Wali in July, 2003. Wali died
48 hours after interrogation.
(SFC, 2/14/07, p.A3)
2007 Feb 13, Mitt Romney, former
one-term Republican governor of Massachusetts, officially entered the
2008 presidential race. In what amounted to a made-for-TV coming-out
tour, Romney announced his candidacy in Michigan, the place of his
birth. His father George Romney, a Michigan governor in the 1960s and
an AMC chief executive, made a short-lived attempt at the presidency
four decades ago.
(AP, 2/13/07)
2007 Feb 13, A powerful storm and
likely a tornado hit the New Orleans area killing an elderly woman,
injuring at least 15 other people.
(AP, 2/13/07)
2007 Feb 13, In Richmond, Ca., Luz
Maria Aguilar-Bucio (32), mother of 3, was killed with her fetus at
home by shots from a high-powered assault rifle. In December Robert
Valentino Hernandez III (19) and Robert Joe Leyva (22) were charged
with her murder.
(SFC, 12/19/07, p.B3)
2007 Feb 13, Charles Norwood
(b.1941), tobacco-chewing conservative Georgia congressman, died of
cancer and lung disease.
(SFC, 2/14/07, p.B9)
2007 Feb 13, In Algeria 7 bombs
went off almost simultaneously, killing six people east of the capital
Algiers in an elaborate assault by suspected Islamist rebels. The
Salafist group Call and Command claimed responsibility under its new
name: al Qaeda in Islamic North Africa.
(Reuters, 2/13/07)(SFC, 2/14/07, p.A3)
2007 Feb 13, A Belgian court ruled
that Google may not reproduce extracts from a variety of Belgian
newspapers, imperiling one of the web search leader's most popular
services if other courts follow suit.
(Reuters, 2/13/07)
2007 Feb 13, In Belgium a
government-backed report blamed Belgian authorities and the ruling
elite for collaborating with the Nazi persecution of Jews during World
War II.
(AP, 2/13/07)
2007 Feb 13, In Brazil 2 students,
who endured more than 60 hours without food and water, were rescued
after being robbed and thrown into an abandoned well. Police entered a
Rio slum and clashed with drug gangs in shootouts that killed six
people, including at least four suspected gang members.
(AP, 2/14/07)
2007 Feb 13, In Canada D-Wave
Systems, based in Burnaby near Vancouver, announced the existence of
the world’s first practical quantum computer.
(Econ, 2/17/07, p.81)
2007 Feb 13, Police and troops in
Bangui, CAR, used live ammunition to disperse residents angered at the
killing of two of their number by officers of the anti-banditry squad.
(AP, 2/14/07)
2007 Feb 13, Gan Yisheng, a senior
party discipline and oversight official, said nearly 100,000 members of
China's ruling Communist Party were punished last year for corruption,
and that eradicating graft in the near future remains a huge challenge.
A Chinese business executive was sentenced to death for swindling $385
million from investors in a bogus ant-breeding scheme. Wang Zhendong,
chairman of Yingkou Donghua Trading Group Co., had promised returns of
up to 60% for buying kits of ants and breeding equipment.
(AFP, 2/13/07)(AP, 2/15/07)
2007 Feb 13, In south-east Congo a
freight train derailed and at least 20 people were killed.
(AFP, 2/14/07)
2007 Feb 13, Ecuador's Congress
approved holding a referendum on whether to create an assembly to
rewrite the constitution, bowing to demands by the new leftist
president who is seeking to weaken traditional political parties.
(AP, 2/13/07)
2007 Feb 13, In Ethiopia federal
police said weekend clashes between Garbo and Borena nomads in the
southeastern Oromia region with least 16 people killed. The clashes
erupted after cattle were stolen from a rival group, sparking fresh
revenge attacks.
(AFP, 2/13/07)
2007 Feb 13, In Guinea citizens
were banned from leaving their homes as a strict curfew took effect in
this West African country after the president instituted martial law
following days of deadly protests.
(AP, 2/13/07)
2007 Feb 13, India's central bank
tightened monetary policy for a second time in two weeks to fight
accelerating inflation, hiking the amount of cash commercial banks must
keep on deposit. Inflation at 6.73% hit a 2-year high, despite 5
interest rate hikes in the past year. Italian PM Romano Prodi led a
jumbo-sized trade delegation to India and called for closer ties for
companies from his country with Indian industry in farming and
manufacturing.
(AP, 2/13/07)(AFP, 2/13/07)(WSJ, 2/17/07, p.B1)
2007 Feb 13, A suicide truck
bomber blew himself up near a college and a ration office in a mainly
Shiite area of the capital, killing at least 15 people with 27 wounded.
Police discovered a booby-trapped ambulance about 500 yards away, but
the explosives were defused. Hours later, a parked car bomb exploded
near a bakery in another predominantly Shiite area in southeastern
Baghdad, killing four people and wounding four. Iraq said it will close
its borders with Syria and Iran for 72 hours as part of the drive to
secure and pacify Baghdad.
(AP, 2/13/07)
2007 Feb 13, Officials in the
Ivory Coast said that Trafigura, a Dutch-based oil trading company,
agreed to pay $197 million to secure the release of three executives
from an Ivory Coast prison and settle claims that it dumped toxic waste
that killed at least 10 people in the West African nation.
(AP, 2/14/07)
2007 Feb 13, Japan opened an
international whaling conference by blasting a boycott by dozens of
anti-whaling nations, saying their absence would block much-needed
reforms of the commission that sets regulations.
(AP, 2/13/07)
2007 Feb 13, Jordan's King
Abdullah II and Russian President Vladimir Putin called for a stronger
international push for lasting Mideast peace and urged for a diplomatic
solution to Iran's nuclear standoff.
(AP, 2/13/07)
2007 Feb 13, In Lebanon bombs
packed with metal pellets tore through two commuter buses in a mainly
Christian area, a day before the second anniversary of former Prime
Minister Rafik Hariri's assassination. At least 3 people were killed
and 20 wounded in the coordinated attack.
(AP, 2/13/07)
2007 Feb 13, In Nigeria gunmen
released 24 Filipino sailors taken hostage in the lawless southern
oil-producing region.
(AP, 2/13/07)
2007 Feb 13, North Korea agreed to
shut down its main nuclear reactor and eventually dismantle its atomic
weapons program in exchange for millions of dollars in aid. The
agreement reached in Beijing said North Korea would close its nuclear
plants within 60 days in return for aid and other inducements. North
Korean state media said the pact required only a temporary suspension
of the country's nuclear facilities.
(AP, 2/13/07)(Econ, 2/17/07, p.28)
2007 Feb 13, Pakistan's ruling
party introduced a bill to outlaw forced marriages, including under an
ancient tribal custom in which women are married off in order to settle
feuds.
(AP, 2/13/07)
2007 Jun 13, Fierce battles over
key security positions spread to central Gaza, with Hamas fighters
wresting control of the coastal strip's main north-south road, and
putting themselves in position to cut off reinforcements to beleaguered
Fatah forces. At least 20 Palestinians died across Gaza.
(AP, 6/13/07)(SFC, 6/14/07, p.A3)
2007 Feb 13, In Geneva the US
clashed with China and Russia during a disarmament debate over how to
prevent an arms race in outer space, and Washington criticized Beijing
for its recent test of an anti-satellite missile. Russia and China, in
turn, condemned the "one state" that refuses to consider a treaty
banning space weapons, a reference to the US.
(AP, 2/13/07)
2007 Feb 13, Military officials
said clashes between the Yemeni army and followers of a Shiite rebel
leader have killed 16 troops and 69 guerrillas during the past three
days.
(AP, 2/13/07)
2008 Feb 13, President Bush signed
legislation to rush rebates ranging from $300 to $1,200 to millions of
people, the centerpiece of government efforts to brace the wobbly
economy. First, though, you must file your 2007 tax return.
(AP, 2/14/08)
2008 Feb 13, A prosecutor in
Buffalo, NY, announced that a woman, who spent 13 years in prison after
being convicted of strangling her 13-year-old daughter, was exonerated
by forensic evidence showing she died of a cocaine overdose. Lynn DeJac
(44) insisted that a former boyfriend was responsible.
(AP, 2/13/08)
2008 Feb 13, NY Gov. Eliot Spitzer
hired a prostitute in Washington, DC, and paid her $4,300. News of this
broke on March 10, when he apologized to his family and the public.
(WSJ, 3/11/08, p.A1)
2008 Feb 13, In Afghanistan an
Italian soldier was killed in an ambush while he was distributing food
and clothes to civilians. A roadside bomb struck Afghan security forces
killing 3 people and wounding four in the Musa Qala district. In
western Afghanistan Taliban militants freed the last six hostages from
a group of 21 men abducted Feb 10, while they hunted for rare birds in
Farah province. US-led coalition swoops on Taliban leaders in Uruzgan
and Zabul provinces left several insurgents dead. 2 civilians
transporting construction materials were blown up by a rebel bomb.
(AP, 2/13/08)(AFP, 2/14/08)
2008 Feb 13, Australians watched a
live broadcast of their government apologizing for policies that
degraded its indigenous people. PM Rudd said Australians had reached a
time in their history when they must face up to their past to be able
to cope with the future. Aborigines numbered about 450,000 in
Australia's population of 21 million.
(AP, 2/13/08)
2008 Feb 13, The WTO condemned
China for the first time for taxing imports of auto parts at the same
rate as foreign-made finished cars.
(SFC, 2/14/08, p.C3)
2008 Feb 13, In Colombia a
delegation of visiting US union leaders expressed alarm at what its
members called a steady erosion of labor rights in the world's
deadliest country for organized labor.
(AP, 2/14/08)
2008 Feb 13, The EU's top justice
official called for a massive shake-up of the bloc's border security,
recommending that all visitors be screened and fingerprinted and a
satellite surveillance system be set up to keep illegal migrants out.
(AP, 2/13/08)
2008 Feb 13, In Greece thousands
of demonstrators marched through Athens and Thessaloniki to protest
government social security reforms as a Greek general strike shut down
schools, hospitals and all public services.
(AP, 2/13/08)
2008 Feb 13, Iraq's parliament
passed three key pieces of legislation that set a date for provincial
elections, allot $48 billion for 2008 spending, and provide limited
amnesty to detainees in Iraqi custody. Following the session the
parliament began a five-week holiday.
(AP, 2/13/08)
2008 Feb 13, In Italy police
raided sites in Calabria and issued arrest warrants for 57 people,
including politicians, bankers and businessmen, in the latest mafia
sweep targeting drug trafficking and extortion rackets.
(AP, 2/13/08)
2008 Feb 13, Kenya's rival parties
sequestered themselves at a luxury lodge in a game park as they
attempted to hammer out a peace deal to end weeks of bloodshed.
(AP, 2/13/08)
2008 Feb 13, Malaysia’s government
dissolved Parliament, opening the way for elections.
(WSJ, 2/14/08, p.A1)
2008 Feb 13, In Nepal a shortage
of fuel prompted by strikes and protests in the south forced the
shutdown of much of the capital's public transportation system.
(AP, 2/13/08)
2008 Feb 13, In Nigeria at least
seven people were killed and several more were trapped when a
four-storey building collapsed in Lagos.
(AFP, 2/14/08)
2008 Feb 13, In Pakistan a
roadside bomb exploded as a crowd was leaving a political rally in the
Swat Valley, killing one man and wounding a candidate for next week's
elections.
(AP, 2/13/08)
2008 Feb 13, Vuk Obradovic (61), a
former Yugoslav army general who was one of the opposition leaders who
toppled strongman Slobodan Milosevic, died.
(AP, 2/13/08)
2008 Feb 13, Zimbabwean opposition
leader Morgan Tsvangirai urged South African President Thabo Mbeki to
show some "courage" and pressure Robert Mugabe ahead of next month's
elections. Former finance minister Simba Makoni pledged to heal the
wounds of Zimbabwe as he unveiled his manifesto for next month's
election battle against veteran President Robert Mugabe.
(AFP, 2/13/08)
2009 Feb 13, US Congress approved
a $787 billion stimulus package. The House vote was 246-183, with all
Republicans opposed to the package. The Senate approved the measure
60-38 with three GOP moderates providing crucial support. It contained
provisions recognizing and compensating some 18,000 Filipino veterans
who fought under the American flag when the Philippines was still an
American colony.
(AP, 2/14/09)(AFP, 2/16/09)
2009 Feb 13, The Lynchburg,
Va.-based Peanut Corp. of America, at the heart of a national
salmonella outbreak, filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in US Bankruptcy
Court.
(AP, 2/14/09)
2009 Feb 13, US envoy Richard
Holbrooke held key talks in Afghanistan aimed at stepping up the fight
against a Taliban-led insurgency that the top US intelligence chief
warned was escalating.
(AP, 2/13/09)
2009 Feb 13, Australian
authorities charged a man with lighting one of the wildfires that
killed at least 189 people, and whisked him into protective custody to
guard him from public fury. Brendan Sokaluk (39), faced two charges
related to one of the February 7 fires that killed 11 people in
Victoria's Gippsland region, east of Melbourne.
(AP, 2/13/09)(AP, 2/16/09)
2009 Feb 13, Lloyds Banking Group
(LBG), already 43% owned by the British government announced a
£10billion loss at HBOS, which it had taken over last September.
(Econ, 2/21/09, p.56)
2009 Feb 13, State media reported
that China plans to create a blacklist of journalists who break its
reporting rules, adding to an array of controls used to restrict its
domestic media.
(AP, 2/13/09)
2009 Feb 13, The World Bank said
it will provide a $710 million loan to China to help rebuild areas hit
by last year's devastating Sichuan earthquake.
(AP, 2/13/09)
2009 Feb 13, A Congolese military
spokesman said more than 40 members of a Hutu militia suspected of
atrocities during Rwanda's 1994 genocide were killed in an overnight
air raid.
(AP, 2/13/09)
2009 Feb 13, In Germany Ahmad
Obeidi (24), and Afghan immigrant, was convicted of murdering his
16-year-old sister in a so-called "honor killing."
(AP, 2/13/09)
2009 Feb 13, In eastern India at
least 15 people were killed and more than 160 injured when a train
derailed in Orissa state near Jajpur.
(AP, 2/14/09)
2009 Feb 13, In Iraq a female
suicide bomber attacked a tent filled with women and children resting
from a pilgrimage to Karbala, killing 40 people and injuring 60 others.
It was the deadliest attack in Iraq this year and the third straight
day of bombings against Shiite pilgrims.
(AP, 2/13/09)
2009 Feb 13, In Mexico
photographer Jean Paul Ibarra (33) and reporter Yenny Marchan were on
their way to the morgue in the southern city of Iguala when gunmen on
another motorcycle came alongside and opened fire. Marchan received two
bullet wounds but survived; Ibarra was killed.
(AP, 2/17/09)
2009 Feb 13, Myanmar's military
government extended the house arrest of the deputy leader of Aung San
Suu Kyi's pro-democracy party for one year, despite recent calls from
the United Nations for the release of political prisoners.
(AP, 2/13/09)
2009 Feb 13, Oil giant Royal Dutch
Shell said it has declared force majeure on shipments from its main
Nigerian terminal because of increased attacks by insurgents on key
facilities. Force Majeure (French for "superior force") is a common
clause in contracts which essentially frees both parties from liability
or obligation when an extraordinary event or circumstance beyond the
control of the parties.
(AP,
2/13/09)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_majeure)
2009 Feb 13, Two rockets fired by
Gaza militants hit near a communal farm and the town of Sderot. An
Israeli airstrike on Gaza killed one man and critically wounded
another. The men were riding a motorcycle near the town of Khan Younis
when they were hit by fire from an Israeli drone.
(AP, 2/13/09)
2009 Feb 13, In the southern
Philippines 9 gunmen snatched a Sri Lankan peace activist from his
home, the latest in a wave of kidnappings blamed on al-Qaida-linked
militants.
(AP, 2/13/09)
2009 Feb 13, In Sri Lanka the top
health official said artillery shelling and gunbattles between
government forces and Tamil Tiger rebels were killing about 40
civilians every day and wounding more than 100 others inside Sri
Lanka's war zone.
(AP, 2/13/09)
2009 Feb 13, Turks and Caicos
Islands jet-setting PM Michael Misick said he will step down as leader
the at the end of March, citing a lack of support for his
scandal-plagued government. Premier Misick reportedly paid himself more
than Britain’s Gordon Brown for running the territory of 36,000 people.
(AP, 2/14/09)(Econ, 2/21/09, p.42)
2009 Feb 13, In Zimbabwe Roy
Bennett, a white farmer turned politician with Tsvangirai's Movement
for Democratic Change (MDC), was arrested by state agents just as the
new cabinet was preparing to take office. Tsvangirai had named Bennett
to become the deputy minister of agriculture in the new coalition
cabinet.
(AFP, 2/13/09)
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