Today in History - February 14
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Valentine's Day probably has its origins in the Roman
feast of Lupercalia, which was held on February 15. One of the
traditions
associated with this feast was young men drawing the names of young
women
whom they would court during the following year--a custom that may have
grown into the giving of valentine's cards. Another legend associated
with
Valentine's Day was the martyrdom of the Christian priest St. Valentine
on February 14. The Roman emperor believed that men would remain
soldiers
longer if they were not married, but Valentine earned the wrath of the
emperor by secretly marrying young couples. The first American
publisher
of valentines was printer and artist Esther Howland, who sold elaborate
handmade cards for as much as $35 at the end of the 19th century.
Complex
and beautiful machine-made cards brought the custom of valentine
exchanging
within the reach of many Americans.
(HNPD, 2/14/99)
270 cFeb 14, The
early Christian martyr, St. Valentine, was beheaded by Emperor Claudius
II, who executed another St. Valentine around the same time. The
Catholic Bishop Valentine was clubbed, stoned and beheaded by Emperor
Claudius II for refusing to acknowledge the monarch’s outlawing of
marriage. The Catholics then made Valentine a symbol to oppose the
Roman mid-February custom in honor of the God Lupercus, where Roman
teenage girls’ names were put in a box and selected by young Roman men
for "sex toy" use until the next lottery. The two Valentines merged
into a single legendary patron of young lovers. St. Valentine’s Day
evolved from Lupercalia, a Roman festival of fertility.
(SFEM, 2/9/97, p.11)(SFC, 2/14/97, p.A26)(SFC,
2/4/04, p.D7)
869 Feb 14, Cyrillus, Greek
apostle of Slavs, died.
(MC, 2/14/02)
1009 Feb 14, Lithuania was 1st
mentioned in relation to an announcement of the death of St. Bruno.
[see Mar 9]
(LHC, 2/14/03)
1014 Feb 14, Pope Benedict VIII
crowned Henry II, German King (1002), as Roman German emperor
(1014-1024).
(HN, 5/6/98)(MC, 5/6/02)(MC, 2/14/02)
1076 Feb 14, Pope Gregory VII
excommunicated Henry IV.
(MC, 2/14/02)
1130 Feb 14, Jewish Cardinal
Pietro Pierleone was elected as anti-pope Anacletus II.
(MC, 2/14/02)
1349 Feb 14, 2,000 Jews were
burned at the stake in Strasbourg, Germany.
(HN, 2/14/98)
1400 Feb 14, Richard II (33),
deposed king of England (1377-99), was murdered in Pontefract Castle in
Yorkshire.
(HN, 2/14/99)(MC, 2/14/02)
1405 Feb 14, Timur, aka Tamerlane
(b.1336), crippled Mongol monarch, died in Kazakhstan. In 2004 Justin
Marozzi authored “Tamerlane: Sword of Islam, Conqueror of the World.”
(V.D.-H.K.p.172)(http://au.encarta.msn.com)(Econ,
8/28/04, p.76)
1408 Feb 14, Vytautas gave
self-rule status to Kaunas, which was 1st mentioned in the summer of
1361.
(LHC, 2/14/03)
1483 Feb 14, Zahir al-Din Mohammed
Babur Shah, prince, founder Mughal dynasty in India (1526-30), was born.
(MC, 2/14/02)
1489 Feb 14, Henry VII and Holy
Roman Emperor Maximilian I ally to assist the Bretons in the Treaty of
Dordrecht.
(http://tudors.crispen.org/chronology/index.html)
1540 Feb 14, Emperor Charles V
entered Ghent without resistance and executed the rebels. He brutally
beat down an uprising against taxes for an expansionist war. Nine
leaders were beheaded and another hanged. City burgers were forced to
walk the streets barefoot with rope hanging round their necks. The
"Gentse Feesten" annual festival re-enacts this event every mid-July.
(SFEC, 11/21/99, p.T10)(MC, 2/14/02)
1549 Feb 14, Maximilian II,
brother of the Emperor Charles V, was recognized as the future king of
Bohemia.
(HN, 2/14/99)
1556 Feb 14, Archbishop Thomas
Cranmer was declared a heretic.
(MC, 2/14/02)
1571 Feb 14, Benvenuto Cellini
(b.1500), Italian goldsmith and sculptor, writer (Perseus), died. His
1545 autobiography greatly influenced the Renaissance.
(HN, 11/1/00)(WSJ, 2/14/00,
p.A20)(www.boglewood.com/cornaro/xcellini.html)
1572 Feb 14, Hans Christoph
Haiden, composer, was born.
(MC, 2/14/02)
1602 Feb 14, Pier Francesco
Cavalli, Italian opera composer, was born.
(MC, 2/14/02)
1610 Feb 14, Polish king Sigismund
III forced Dimitri #2 and the Romanov family to sign covenant against
Czar Vasili Shuishki (sequel to story of "Boris Godunov").
(MC, 2/14/02)
1645 Feb 14, Robert Ingle,
commissioned by the English Parliament and captain of the tobacco ship
Reformation, sailed to St. Mary’s (Maryland) and seized a Dutch trading
ship. This marked the beginning of what came to known as “The
Plundering Time.”
(Arch, 1/05, p.48)
1670 Feb 14, Roman Catholic
emperor Leopold I chased the Jews out of Vienna.
(MC, 2/14/02)
1689 Feb 14, English parliament
placed Mary Stuart and Prince William III on the throne.
(MC, 2/14/02)
1711 Feb 14, Handel's opera
Rinaldo premiered. He composed his opera "Rinaldo," with the Italian
librettist Giacomo Rossi. It was his 1st opera for London.
(LGC-HCS, p.41)(WSJ, 11/13/00, p.A32)(MC, 2/14/02)
1760 Feb 14, Richard Allen
(d.1831), 1st black ordained by a Methodist-Episcopal church, was born
in Philadelphia.
(HN, 2/14/98)
1778 Feb 14, The American ship
Ranger carried the recently adopted Star and Stripes to a foreign port
for the first time as it arrived in France.
(AP, 2/14/98)
1779 Feb 14, American Loyalists
were defeated by Patriots at Kettle Creek, Ga.
(HN, 2/14/98)
1779 Feb 14, Captain James Cook
(b.1728), English explorer, was killed on the Big Island in Hawaii. In
2002 Tony Horwitz authored "Blue Latitudes," and Vanessa Collingridge
authored "Captain Cook: A Legacy Under Fire."
(WSJ, 10/2/02,
p.D12)(www.royal-navy.mod.uk/static/pages/3521.html)
1780 Feb 14, William Blackstone
(56), English lawyer, died.
(MC, 2/14/02)
1794 Feb 14, 1st US textile
machinery patent was granted, to James Davenport in Phila.
(MC, 2/14/02)
1797 Feb 14, The Spanish fleet was
destroyed by the British under Admiral Jervis (with Nelson in support)
at the battle of Cape St. Vincent, off Portugal.
(HN, 2/14/99)
1803 Feb 14, An apple parer was
patented by Moses Coats in Downington, Penn.
(MC, 2/14/02)
1817 Feb 14, Frederick Douglass
(d.1895), "The Great Emancipator," was born in Maryland as Frederick
Augustus Washington Bailey. He was the son of a slave and a white
father who bought his own freedom and published “The Narrative Life of
Frederick Douglass” (1845) a memoir of his life as a slave. "The life
of the nation is secure only while the nation is honest, truthful, and
virtuous."
(AHD, 1971, p.394)(HN, 2/14/99)(AP, 2/20/99)(ON,
12/09, p.12)
1819 Feb 14, Christopher Latham
Sholes, inventor of the first practical typewriter, was born.
(HN, 2/14/01)
1824 Feb 14, Winfield Scott
Hancock (d.1886), Major General (Union volunteers), was born.
(MC, 2/14/02)
1845 Feb 14, Quinton Hogg, English
philanthropist, was born. [see Feb 16]
(HN, 2/14/01)
1847 Feb 14, Anna Howard Shaw,
U.S. suffragette, was born.
(HN, 2/14/98)
1848 Feb 14, James Polk became the
first U.S. President to be photographed in office by Matthew Brady.
(HN, 2/14/98)
1856 Feb 14, Frank Harris,
journalist, writer (My Life & Loves), was born in England.
(MC, 2/14/02)
1859 Feb 14, George Washington
Gale Ferris, inventor of the Ferris Wheel, was born.
(HN, 2/14/98)
1859 Feb 14, Oregon was admitted
to the Union as the 33rd state.
(HN, 2/14/98)(AP, 2/14/98)
1862 Feb 14, Galena, the 1st US
iron-clad warship for service at sea, was launched in Conn.
(MC, 2/14/02)
1867 Feb 14, Hartford Steam Boiler
Inspection & Insurance Co. issued its 1st policy.
(MC, 2/14/02)
1870 Feb 14, Esther Morris became
the world’s first female justice of the peace.
(HN, 2/14/98)
1876 Feb 14, Rival inventors
Elisha Gray and Alexander Graham Bell both applied for patents for the
telephone.
(HN, 2/14/98)
1881 Feb 14, Otto Selz, German
psychologist, was born.
(MC, 2/14/02)
1882 Feb 14, George Jean Nathan
(d.1958), US editor, author, critic (Smart Set, American Mercury), was
born: "Love demands infinitely less than friendship."
(AP, 4/30/99)(MC, 2/14/02)
1886 Feb 14, California orange
growers ship their first trainload of fruit from Los Angeles.
(HCB, 2003, p.92)
1891 Feb 14, William Tecumseh
Sherman (b.1820), Union Civil War general, died. His famous "March to
the Sea" changed the face of modern warfare. "Vox populi, vox humbug."
(The voice of the people is the voice of humbug).
(HN, 2/8/99)(AP, 4/7/99)(MC, 2/14/02)
1894 Feb 14, Jack Benny (d.1974),
comedian, radio and television performer... and violinist, was born as
Benjamin Kubelsky in Waukegan, Ill: "Age is strictly a case of mind
over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter."
(HN, 2/14/01)(AP, 2/14/08)
1894 Feb 14, Mary Lucinda Cardwell
Dawson, was born. She founded the National Negro Opera Company (NNOC)
and was appointed to President John F. Kennedy's National Committee on
Music.
(HN, 2/14/99)
1895 Feb 14, Nigel Bruce, actor
(Dr Watson in Sherlock Holmes movies), was born in Baja, Mexico.
(MC, 2/14/02)
1895 Feb 14, Oscar Wilde's final
play, "The Importance of Being Earnest," opened at the St. James'
Theatre in London.
(AP, 2/14/98)
1896 Feb 14, Theodor Herzl
published "Der Judenstaat," in which he called for a Jewish homeland in
Palestine.
(SFC, 4/30/02, p.A8)(MC, 2/14/02)
1898 Feb 14, Fritz Zwicky, Swiss
astronomer (super nova), was born.
(MC, 2/14/02)
1899 Feb 14, Congress approved,
and President McKinley signed, legislation authorizing states to use
voting machines for federal elections.
(AP, 2/14/99)
1900 Feb 14, General Roberts
invaded South Africa’s Orange Free State with 20,000 British troops.
(HN, 2/14/98)
1903 Feb 14, US Congress created
the Department of Commerce and Labor to help stabilize the economy. It
was divided into separate departments of Commerce and Labor in 1913.
(HN, 2/14/98)(AP, 2/14/05)
1904 Feb 14, The "Missouri Kid"
was captured in Kansas.
(HN, 2/14/98)
1908 Feb 14, Russia and Britain
threatened action in Macedonia if peace was not reached soon.
(HN, 2/14/98)
1912 Feb 14, Arizona became the
48th state of the Union.
(HN, 2/14/98)(AP, 2/14/98)
1912 Feb 14, The 1st US submarines
with diesel engines were commissioned at Groton, Ct.
(MC, 2/14/02)
1913 Feb 14, Jimmy Hoffa (d.1975),
Teamsters leader who disappeared, was born.
(MC, 2/14/02)
1913 Feb 14, Mel Allen,
sportscaster (voice of NY Yankees), was born in Birmingham, Alabama.
(MC, 2/14/02)
1915 Feb 14, The Kaiser invited
the U.S. Ambassador Gerard to Berlin in order to confer on the war.
(HN, 2/14/98)
1918 Feb 14, Sigmund Romberg's
musical "Sinbad," premiered in NYC.
(MC, 2/14/02)
1918 Feb 14, Warsaw demonstrators
protested the transfer of Polish territory to the Ukraine.
(HN, 2/14/98)
1919 Feb 14, The United Parcel
Service was incorporated in Oakland, CA.
(HN, 2/14/98)
1920 Feb 14, The League of Women
Voters was founded in Chicago; its first president was Maude Wood Park.
(HFA, '96, p.22)(AP, 2/14/98)
1921 Feb 14, The Literary Review
faced obscenity charges in NY for publishing "Ulysses" by James Joyce.
(MC, 2/14/02)
1924 Feb 14, Patricia Edwina
Victoria Mountbatten, the 2nd Countess Mountbatten of Burma, was born
in London.
(www.thepeerage.com/p10115.htm)
1924 Feb 14, Thomas J. Watson,
general manager of Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (CTR),
renamed the firm International Business Machines (IBM).
(http://tinyurl.com/b62t8)(HN, 2/14/98)
1929 Feb 14, In Chicago the "St.
Valentine's Day Massacre" took place in a garage of the Moran gang as
seven rivals of Al Capone's gang were gunned down.
(AP, 2/14/98)
1930 Feb 14, “The Maltese Falcon,"
by SF based writer Dashiell Hammett (1894-1961), was published.
(SFC, 6/7/04, p.C1)
1931 Feb 14, Vic Morrow, actor
(Combat, Roots, Twilight Zone the Movie), was born in Bronx, NY.
(MC, 2/14/02)
1936 Feb 14, Fanne Foxe,
[Annabella Battistella], (Wilbur Mills companion during Congressman’s
drunken romp in the fountain), was born in Argentina.
(MC, 2/14/02)
1937 Feb 14, Austrian leader
Schuschnigg threatened to restore the Hapsburg monarchy.
(HN, 2/14/98)
1939 Feb 14, The Reich launched
the battleship Bismarck.
(HN, 2/14/98)
1940 Feb 14, Britain announced
that all merchant ships would be armed.
(HN, 2/14/98)
1941 Feb 14, "Reflections in a
Golden Eye" by Carson McCullers was first published.
(AP, 2/14/01)
1941 Feb 14, German Afrika Korps
landed in Tripoli, Libya.
(MC, 2/14/02)
1942 Feb 14, The Japanese attacked
Sumatra. Aidan MacCarthy’s RAF unit flew to Palembang, in eastern
Sumatra, where 30 Royal Australian Air Force Lockheed A-28 Hudson
bombers were waiting. The elation was short-lived as Japanese soldiers
were parachuting into the jungle that surrounded the airfield.
(HN, 2/14/98)
1943 Feb 14, A German offensive
was made through the de Faid pass in Tunisia.
(MC, 2/14/02)
1943 Feb 14, Soviets recaptured
Rostov.
(MC, 2/14/02)
1943 Feb 14, David Hilbert
(b.1862), German mathematician, died. He is considered the father of
modern mathematics.
(Econ, 4/2/05,
p.73)(www.student.cs.uwaterloo.ca/~cs462/Hall/hilbert.html)
1944 Feb 14, Carl Bernstein,
Washington Post investigative reporter (Watergate), was born.
(MC, 2/14/02)
1944 Feb 14, An anti-Japanese
revolt took place on Java.
(MC, 2/14/02)
1945 Feb 14, Gregory Hines, actor,
dancer (White Nights, Taps), was born in NYC.
(MC, 2/14/02)
1945 Feb 14, Saudi King Abd
al-Aziz and Franklin D. Roosevelt met on a ship in the Suez Canal and
reached an understanding whereby the US would protect the Saudi royal
family in return for preferred access to Saudi oil. William Eddy, US
minister to Saudi Arabia, arranged the meeting.
(WSJ, 10/4/01, p.A1)(Econ, 11/8/08,
p.102)(http://tinyurl.com/5a3c49)
1945 Feb 14, 521 American heavy
bombers flew daylight raids over Dresden, Germany following the British
assault. The firestorm killed an estimated 135,000 people. At least
35,000 died and some people place the toll closer to 70,000. The novel
"Slaughterhouse Five" by Kurt Vonnegut was set in Dresden during the
firebombing where he was being held as a prisoner of war. US B-17
bombers dropped 771 more tons on Dresden while P-51 Mustang fighters
strafed roads packed with soldiers and civilians fleeing the burning
city. In 2006 Marshall De Bruhl authored “Firestorm: Allied Airpower
and the Destruction of Dresden.”
(WSJ, 10/22/96, p.A20)(SFC, 1/6/97, p.A10)(SFEC,
7/27/97, p.T6)(HN, 2/13/99)(SFEC, 1/30/00, p.T13)(SSFC, 12/17/06, p.M3)
1945 Feb 14, The siege of Budapest
ended as the Soviets took the city. Only 785 German and Hungarian
soldiers managed to escape.
(HN, 2/14/99)
1945 Feb 14, Peru, Paraguay, Chile
and Ecuador joined the United Nations.
(AP, 2/14/98)
1947 Feb 14, Donna Halper,
Boston-based historian, author, educator and radio consultant, was
born. Since 1984, Halper has been the advocate for an adult with
autism. She continues to do presentations on such topics as media
history, women’s history, and popular culture at museums, schools, and
historical societies.
(www.donnahalper.com/dlh.htm)
1948 Feb 14, Winthrop Rockefeller
(1912-1973), later governor of Arkansas (1967-1971), married Barbara
Sears (1916-2008), the Pennsylvania-born daughter of Lithuanian
immigrants. They had one child, Winthrop Paul Rockefeller, but the
marriage dissolved in a high-profile divorce in 1954. Barbara Bobo
Rockefeller, born as Jievute Paulekiute in Noblestown, Pa., was
featured as Miss Lithuania at the 1933 Chicago World's Fair. She later
was known as Eva Paul.
(www.thetimes.co.za/PrintEdition/Insight/Article.aspx?id=772208)
1949 Feb 14, The United States
charged the USSR with interning up to 14 million in labor camps.
(HN, 2/14/98)
1949 Feb 14, 1st session of
Knesset (Jerusalem Israel).
(MC, 2/14/02)
1954 Feb 14, Sen. John Kennedy
appeared on "Meet the Press."
(MC, 2/14/02)
1955 Feb 14, A Jewish couple lost
their fight to adopt Catholic twins as the U.S. Supreme Court refused
to rule on state law.
(HN, 2/14/98)
1956 Feb 14, The B.F. Huntley
furniture plant in Winston-Salem, NC, was destroyed by fire. The
factory was rebuilt and the Huntley name continued until it was sold to
Thomasville Furniture Industries in 1961.
(SFC, 7/9/08, p.G5)
1956 Feb 14-25, Khrushchev
denounced Stalin at the 20th Communist Party Congress at Moscow. [see
Feb 23, 25]
(WUD, 1994, p.1685)(TOH, 1982, p.1956)(EWH, 1968,
p.1198)
1957 Feb 14, The Georgia Senate
approved Sen Leon Butts' bill barring blacks from playing baseball with
whites.
(HN, 2/14/98)(MC, 2/14/02)
1957 Feb 14, The “Southern
Leadership Conference” was formed in New Orleans, Louisiana. Officers
were elected which included: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as President,
Dr. Ralph David Abernathy as Financial Secretary-Treasurer, Rev. C. K.
Steele of Tallahassee, Florida as Vice President, Rev. T. J. Jemison of
Baton Rouge, Louisiana as Secretary, and Attorney I. M. Augustine of
New Orleans, Louisiana as General Counsel. In August the name was
changed to "Southern Christian Leadership Conference" at its first
convention in Montgomery, Alabama.
(http://sclcnational.org/net/content/item.aspx?s=25461.0.12.2607)
1958 Feb 14, The Arab Federation
of Iraq and Jordan formed under Iraq’s Faisal II. King Hussein forged a
federation with Iraq, which was led by his cousin, Faisal II. The
federation failed when Faisal was killed during a revolution in Iraq.
(HNQ, 8/20/00)(MC, 2/14/02)
1959 Feb 14, A $3.6 million heroin
seizure was made in NYC.
(MC, 2/14/02)
1962 Feb 14, First lady Jacqueline
Kennedy conducted a televised tour of the White House.
(AP, 2/14/98)
1965 Feb 14, Malcolm X’s home was
firebombed. No injuries were reported.
(HN, 2/14/98)
1967 Feb 14, Ramparts Magazine
published an ad in the NY Times and Washington Post saying: “In its
March issue, Ramparts magazine will document how the CIA has
infiltrated and subverted the world of American student leaders over
the past fifteen years.”
(WSJ, 1/23/08,
p.D8)(www.nytimes.com/books/first/m/mackenzie-secrets.html)
1969 Feb 14, The new red, plastic
Olivetti typewriter, designed by Ettore Sottsass (1917-2007, was
released.
(SFC, 1/3/08, p.B5)
1971 Feb 14, Moscow publicized a
new five-year plan geared to expanding consumer production.
(HN, 2/14/98)
1972 Feb 14, The musical "Grease"
opened at the Eden Theatre off Broadway. The show turned out to be a
surprise hit and soon moved to the Broadhurst Theatre and then to the
Royale where it remained until April 13, 1980. The show had a record
run until it was taken over by A Chorus Line.
(http://musicalheaven.com/g/grease.shtml)
1973 Feb 14, The US and Hanoi set
up a group to channel reconstruction aid directly to Hanoi. In 1972 the
US had begun to "de-Americanize" the Vietnam war. It was a policy of
gradual withdrawal.
(HN, 2/14/98)
1972 Feb 14 Bill Torrey (38), an
executive vice president with the Oakland Seals, was named the 1st
General Manager of the Islanders, a Long Island hockey team.
(http://tinyurl.com/4hfu8o)
1975 Feb 14, Julian S. Huxley
(b.1887), English biologist, died. He served as the first
Director-General of UNESCO (1946-1948).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Huxley)
1975 Feb 14, Pelham Graham (PG)
Wodehouse (b.1881), English, US writer (Piccadilly Jim), died at age
93. 58 Penguin editions of his books were done by artist Jos Armitage
(d.1998 at 84), who also contributed to "Punch." In 2004 Robert McCrum
authored “Wodehouse.”
(SFC, 2/7/98, p.21)(SFC, 11/19/04, p.W16)
1978 Feb 14, G. W. Boone and M.J.
Cochran of Texas Instruments received a patent for their Variable
Function Programmed Calculator.
(www.patents4technologies.com/Historical.htm)
1979 Feb 14, Adolph Dubs, the U.S.
ambassador to Afghanistan, was kidnapped in Kabul by Muslim extremists
and killed in a shootout between his abductors and police.
(SFC, 9/28/96, p.A8)(AP,
2/14/98)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolph_Dubs)
1979 Feb 14, Armed guerrillas
attacked the U.S. embassy in Tehran.
(HN, 2/14/98)
1980 Feb 14, The Solar Max
satellite was launched by NASA to monitor the sun and its flares at an
orbit of some 400 miles above Earth.
(NOHY, 3/90, p.126)(SFEC, 9/28/97, p.A14)
1980 Feb 14, Victor Gruen
(b.1903), Austrian-born Jewish architect, died in Vienna. He was later
considered the father of the modern shopping mall. In 2003 Jeffrey
Hardwick authored "Mall Maker: Victor Gruen, Architect of an American
Dream." His 1956 mall in Edina, Minn., the 1st enclosed mall, was
designed as a center of community.
(WSJ, 12/24/03,
p.D7)(www.nndb.com/people/878/000118524/)
1984 Feb 14, 6-year-old Stormie
Jones became the world's first heart-liver transplant recipient at
Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh. She lived until November 1990.
(AP, 2/14/04)
1984 Feb 14, Jayne Torvill and
Christopher Dean of Britain won the gold medal in ice dancing at the
Sarajevo Olympics.
(AP, 2/14/04)
1984 Feb 14, In South Africa under
Apartheid rule the Black community at Mogopa was displaced in a "force
removal" action. Some 300 homes and a cluster of community buildings
were bulldozed over.
(WSJ, 3/10/00, p.A1)
1985 Feb 14, Cable News Network
reporter Jeremy Levin, who was being held hostage by extremists in
Lebanon, was freed.
(AP, 2/14/98)
1985 Feb 14, Hanoi troops
surrounded the main Khmer Rouge base at Phnom Malai.
(HN, 2/14/98)
1987 Feb 14, Dmitry Borisovich
Kabalevsky (b.1904), Russian composer, died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dmitri_Borisovich_Kabalevsky)
1988 Feb 14, Hours after learning
that his sister had died of leukemia, American David Jansen lost his
bid for a gold medal at the Winter Olympics in Calgary, Canada, when he
fell during the 500-meter speed-skating event.
(AP, 2/14/98)
1988 Feb 14, Broadway composer
Frederick Loewe, who wrote the scores for "My Fair Lady" and "Camelot,"
died in Palm Springs, Calif., at age 86.
(AP, 2/14/98)
1988 Feb 14, Alfredo Stroessner
was re-elected president of Paraguay.
(www.mongabay.com/reference/country_studies/paraguay/GOVERNMENT.html)
1989 Feb 14, Union Carbide agreed
to pay $470 million to the government of India in a court-ordered
settlement of the 1984 Bhopal gas leak disaster.
(AP, 2/14/99)
1989 Feb 14, Iran's Ayatollah
Khomeini called on Muslims to kill Salman Rushdie, author of "The
Satanic Verses," a novel condemned as blasphemous. Several translators
of the book were later killed or wounded.
(TMC, 1994, p.1989)(SFEC, 8/31/97, p.A2)(AP, 2/14/99)
1990 Feb 14, Space probe Voyager 1
took photographs of entire solar system.
(www.nmm.ac.uk/server/show/conMediaFile.4331)
1990 Feb 14, Ninety-four people
were killed when an Indian Airlines passenger jet crashed while landing
at a southern Indian airport.
(AP, 2/14/00)
1991 Feb 14, Two San Francisco men
became the first couple to register as "domestic partners" under a new
city ordinance.
(AP, 2/14/01)
1991 Feb 14, Iraq charged the
bombing of an underground facility the day before, which killed
hundreds of civilians, was a deliberate attack on an air raid shelter,
a charge denied by the US.
(AP, 2/14/01)
1991 Feb 14, The Iraqi weapons
depot at Ukhaydir was bombed. Iraqi authorities revealed to US
authorities in 1996 that the site stored hundreds of rockets filled
with mustard gas and nerve gas.
(SFC, 7/30/97, p.A3)
1992 Feb 14, American speed skater
Bonnie Blair won her second gold medal of the Albertville Olympics, in
the 1,000 meters event.
(AP, 2/14/02)
1992 Feb 14, The former Soviet
republics of Ukraine, Moldova and Azerbaijan rejected a proposal for a
unified army, sharply rebuffing Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin.
(AP, 2/14/02)
1993 Feb 14, The body of James
Bulger, a 2-year-old boy who had been lured away from his mother in a
Liverpool, England, shopping mall two days earlier, was found along a
stretch of railroad track. Two boys (10), Robert Thompson and Jon
Venables, were later convicted of murdering James; they spent eight
years in detention before being paroled.
(AP, 2/14/03)
1994 Feb 14, President Clinton
used his first annual economic report to proclaim his policies had put
the country on track for rising prosperity for years to come.
(AP, 2/14/99)
1994 Feb 14, At the Winter
Olympics in Norway, speedskater Dan Jansen slipped and fell during the
500 meters race.
(AP, 2/14/99)
1994 Feb 14, Andrei Tsjikatilo,
[Rostov Ripper], Russian mass murderer, was executed.
(http://andrei-chikatilo.iqnaut.net/)
1995 Feb 14, The best-seller
"Rules: Time-Tested Secrets for Making Your Marriage Work" by Ellen
Fein and Sherrie Schneider was first released. The dating strategy
expanded to "Rules III" in 2001 despite divorce plans by Ellen Fein.
(WSJ, 3/23/00, p.B1)
1995 Feb 14, The House passed the
centerpiece of the Republican anti-crime package, voting to create
block grants for local governments while eliminating President
Clinton's program to hire more police. The president later vetoed a
spending authorization bill containing this provision.
(AP, 2/14/00)
1995 Feb 14, A federal judge
rejected the Justice Department's proposed antitrust settlement with
Microsoft Corporation; U.S. District Judge Stanley Sporkin was later
overruled by an appeals court.
(AP, 2/14/00)
1995 Feb 14, Nigel Finch, British
filmmaker, died. he had just finished shooting his film "Stonewall."
The film was completed by Christine Vachon.
(SFEC, 7/21/96, DB p.32)
1995 Feb 14, Michael Vincent Gazzo
(b.1923), US actor, playwright (Godfather 2), died.
(www.imdb.com/name/nm0311155/)
1996 Feb 14, Texas Senator Phil
Gramm bowed out of the race for the Republican presidential nomination
following his poor showings in the Louisiana and Iowa caucuses.
(AP, 2/14/01)
1996 Feb 14, In Michigan the
newspapers unions in Detroit offered to return to work (on strike since
July 1995). The newspapers accepted the offer 5 days later but vowed to
retain some 1200 replacement workers. A 1997 ruling ordered as many as
1,100 former strikers reinstated.
(SFC, 6/21/97, p.A4)
1996 Feb 14, Eva Hart (90),
Titanic survivor, died.
(www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/biography/441/)
1996 Feb 14, In China a failed
Loral Intelsat satellite launch caused a rocket to hit a village near
the Xichang Space Center in southwest Sichuan province and killed six
people. US intelligence estimated the death toll at 200. The rocket was
a new-generation Long March 3B. The satellite was intended for TV shows
in Latin America for Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.
(WSJ, 2/16/96, p.A-1)(WSJ, 3/4/96, p. A-6)(SFC,
6/15/98, p.A5)
1996 Feb 14, In Sri Lanka a Tiger
arms ship was sunk of the northeastern coast.
(SFC, 7/24/96, p.A9)
1997 Feb 14, American Airlines and
its pilots union continued contract talks as the clock ticked down to a
midnight strike deadline. The pilots did strike, but President Clinton
immediately intervened, ordering a 60-day "cooling off" period.
(AP, 2/14/98)
1997 Feb 14, In Burma some 3,000
Karen refugees have fled into Thailand to escape fighting. The Karen
National Union has been fighting for autonomy since 1948. Thailand said
16,000 Karens were crossing over its border.
(SFC, 2/15/97, p.A10)(WSJ, 2/14/97, p.A1)
1997 Feb 14, In Cambodia Khmer
Rouge guerrillas killed all but three government officials sent to make
peace.
(SFC, 4/12/97, p.A12)
1997 Jan 14, In China the China
Agribusiness Development Trust and Investment Corp. (CADTIC), set up in
1988 to channel domestic and foreign funds into the agricultural
sector, was closed with reports of being involved in smuggling, tax
evasion and ruinous real estate speculation.
(SFC, 2/17/97, p.B3)
1997 Feb 14, In Egypt Muslim
militants slew 9 Copts.
(SFC, 3/31/97, p.A9)
1998 Feb 14, The rock musical
"Hedwig and the Angry Inch" opened off Broadway at the Jane Street
Theater. It was written by John Cameron Mitchell.
(SFC, 11/20/02, p.D1)
1998 Feb 14, Authorities
officially declared Eric Rudolph a suspect in the bombing of a
Birmingham, Ala., abortion clinic and offered a $100,000 reward.
(AP, 2/14/03)
1998 Feb 14, Hansel Mieth,
photojournalist, died in Santa Rosa at age 88. She and her husband Otto
Hagel began taking photographs in the farmlands and labor camps of
California in the 1930s.
(SFC, 2/17/98, p.B8)
1998 Feb 14, In India the Tamil
Nadu election campaign ended with bombings and riots in Coimbatore.
Some 13 bombs in 11 places took 46 lives.
(SFC, 2/16/98,
p.A11)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1998_Coimbatore_bombings)
1998 Feb 14, Russia's Ilya Kulik
won the men's figure skating gold medal at the Nagano Olympics.
(AP, 2/14/99)
1998 Feb 14, In Britain Lord
Granville of Eye, the oldest member of the British Parliament, died at
age 102. He fought in WW I at Gallipoli and entered Parliament in 1929.
(SFC, 2/18/98, p.A18)
1998 Feb 14, In Cameroon a train
hauling oil tanker cars derailed and collided with an oncoming train
outside Yaounde. It exploded and killed up to 100 people.
(SFEC, 2/15/98, p.A24)
1999 Feb 14, Pres. Clinton,
accompanied by his wife, Hillary, traveled to Merida, Mexico, for
talks with Pres. Ernesto Zedillo to encourage the struggle against
narcotics and government corruption, and to grow markets for U.S.
products.
(SFC, 2/15/99, p.A8)(AP, 2/14/00)
1999 Feb 14, John D. Ehrlichman,
President Nixon's domestic affairs adviser imprisoned for his role in
the Watergate cover-up that ultimately led to Nixon's resignation, died
in Atlanta at age 73. He wrote at least 4 novels and the memoir
"Witness to Power: The Nixon Years."
(SFC, 2/15/99, p.A18)(AP, 2/14/00)
1999 Feb 14, In Argentina a
blackout began in south and central Buenos Aires. At the height of the
outage some 500,000 people were without power.
(SFC, 2/23/99, p.A9)
1999 Feb 14, Eritrea shot down an
Mi-24 Ethiopian helicopter gunship at Bure and the crew was killed.
Eritrea said that 16 civilians had been killed by Ethiopian aircraft
since Feb 6.
(SFC, 2/15/99, p.A9)
1999 Feb 14, In Hungary the death
toll from the Feb 10 snow storm reached 19 and army helicopters were
used to drop food snow-bound villages.
(SFC, 2/15/99, p.A10)
1999 Feb 14, In Indonesia Megawati
Sukarnoputri officially introduced the PDI Struggle Party for her
presidential bid in the Jun 7 elections. On Haruku and Saparua Islands
in Maluku province at least 20 people were killed in rioting as troops
dispersed gangs of Muslims and Christians.
(SFC, 2/15/99, p.A10)(WSJ, 2/16/99, p.A1)
1999 Feb 14, Iraq said that air
attacks had killed 5 people and wounded 22 and threatened Kuwait and
Saudi Arabia with missile attacks for permitting US warplanes to fly
from their countries.
(SFC, 2/15/99, p.C2)
1999 Feb 14, In Israel some
250,000 ultra-Orthodox Jews gathered to protest the supreme court's
supposed anti-religious judicial "tyranny." Some 50,000 gathered for a
counter rally.
(SFC, 2/15/99, p.A9)
1999 Feb 14, In Kosovo a bomb
explosion in Urosevac wounded at least 9 people. Serbian police rounded
up about 40 independence activist Albanians.
(SFC, 2/15/99, p.A8)
1999 Feb 14, In Rambouillet,
France, Madeline Albright brought together the Serb and Albanian sides
in the Kosovo peace talks and the talks were extended one week. The
plan for a 3-year interim settlement included a NATO force of some
25,000 troops, who would collect the weapons of the Albanian rebels. In
the plan the KLA was given 120 days to surrender its arms.
(SFC, 2/15/99, p.A8)(WSJ, 6/16/99, p.A20)
1999 Feb 14, In Uganda 2 bombs
exploded in Kampala bars and 5 people were killed and 35 injured.
(WSJ, 2/16/99, p.A1)
2000 Feb 14, The Near Earth
Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) spacecraft began its orbit around the
asteroid Eros.
(SFC, 2/14/00, p.A10)
2000 Feb 14, In Colorado 2 teens,
Nicholas Kunselman (15) and Stephanie Hart (16), from Columbine High
School were shot and killed in a sandwich shop near the school, which
was still reeling from the April 1999 massacre.
(SFC, 2/15/00, p.A3)(AP, 2/14/01)
2000 In Georgia 3 tornadoes struck
the southwest part of the state and 22 people were killed.
(SFC, 2/15/00, p.A1)(AP, 2/14/01)
2000 Feb 14, In Afghanistan 73
passengers from the hijacked jet returned home, while 74 remained in
Britain seeking asylum. The passengers reported that 9 men had taken
over their flight and appeared to be relatives of many passengers.
(SFC, 2/15/00, p.A12)(WSJ, 2/16/00, p.A1)
2000 Feb 14, In Chechnya Russian
commanders ordered Grozny sealed and its population evacuated in order
to clear bombs and booby-traps. Oleg Blotsky, a Russian journalist,
made a video tape of dead Chechens at Roshni-Chu and Urus-Martan. The
video was given to N24, a German TV station, and broadcast on Feb 25.
(SF, 2/15/00, p.A12)(SFC, 2/26/00, p.A10)
2000 Feb 14, The EU lifted a ban
on flights to Yugoslavia but tightened travel restrictions on officials
close to the Milosevic regime.
(WSJ, 2/15/00, p.A1)
2000 Feb 14, In Russia 7 mountain
climbers, including 3 Britons, were reported killed in an avalanche in
the Caucasus Elbrus Range near the Georgia border.
(SFC, 2/17/00, p.D3)
2000 Feb 14, In Turkey 8 people
were killed in 2 clashes between Hezbollah and police.
(SFC, 2/15/00, p.A16)
2001 Feb 14, The Kansas Board of
Education approved new science standards restoring evolution to the
state's curriculum.
(AP, 2/14/02)
2001 Feb 14, In Afghanistan the
Taliban confirmed that opposition troops had captured Bamiyan.
(SFC, 2/15/01, p.A16)
2001 Feb 14, Khalil Abu Olbeh
(35), a Palestinian bus driver, drove his bus into a group of Israelis
in Tel Aviv and killed 8 people. The dead included 3 male and 4 female
soldiers and 1 civilian woman. Olbeh, was later sentenced to eight life
terms.
(SFC, 2/14/01, p.A14)(SFC, 2/15/01, p.A12)(AP,
2/14/02)
2001 Feb 14, In Chechnya rebels
opened fire on Russian positions and 12 Russian soldiers were killed.
(SFC, 2/15/01, p.A16)
2002 Feb 14, Pres. Bush proposed
an environmental plan that would encourage businesses to cut pollution
and develop more energy-efficient technology.
(SFC, 2/15/02, p.A5)
2002 Feb 14, The US House voted to
ban unregulated contributions to national political parties.
(AP, 2/14/03)
2002 Feb 14, Sharon Watkins, Enron
Vice President, testified that Jeffrey Skilling was behind the
accounting that led to the company’s bankruptcy and that CEO Kenneth
Lay was probably duped by his executives and was unaware of the depth
of Enron’s problems. Watkins told a House subcommittee it was common
knowledge at the company that partnerships were used improperly to hide
debt and inflate profits.
(SFC, 2/15/02, p.A1)(AP, 2/14/03)
2002 Feb 14, The 168th annual
meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
opened in Boston with a bleak assessment of planet health and a call
for conservation of resources.
(SFC, 2/15/02, p.A3)
2002 Feb 14, It was reported that
scientists at NIH had developed the 1st vaccine effective against staph
bacteria.
(SFC, 2/14/02, p.A4)
2002 Feb 14, Jayson Williams (34),
former NBA star and NBC Sports commentator, accidentally shot and
killed Costas Christofi (55), a limousine driver. Williams turned
himself in Feb 25. In 2003 Williams paid the Christofi family more than
$2 million to settle a wrongful death lawsuit. On Jan 11, 2010,
Williams pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and was expected serve at
least 18 months in prison for accidentally killing Christofi in his
bedroom.
(SFC, 2/26/02, p.A3)(AP, 1/11/10)
2002 Feb 14, J. Desmond Clark, UC
Berkeley professor emeritus of anthropology, died in Oakland at age 85.
His work included over 18 books including "the Pre-history of Africa"
(1970).
(SFC, 2/16/02, p.A25)
2002 Feb 14, In Bahrain Sheikh
Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa declared himself king and approved plans for a
constitutional monarchy. Parliamentary elections were scheduled for
October and municipal elections in May. Women were to be allowed to
vote and stand as candidates for the 1st time. Foreigners would be
allowed to vote under certain conditions.
(SFC, 2/15/02, p.A10)(WSJ, 2/15/02, p.A14)
2002 Feb 14, In China 41
foreigners were arrested and later expelled following pro Falun Gong
demonstrations on Tiananmen Square.
(SFC, 2/16/02, p.A14)
2002 Feb 14, In Kabul,
Afghanistan, Abdul Rahman, the Air Transportation Minister, was
reported killed by a mob of Muslim pilgrims at Kabul Airport seeking
transport to Mecca. Hamid Karzai later said senior officials were
responsible and blamed the killing on a personal vendetta. Gen. Tawhidi
and Gen. Beg were among the accused. Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah
later said the attack was not premeditated.
(SFC, 2/15/02, p.A20)(SFC, 2/16/02, p.A3)(SFC,
2/21/02, p.A16)
2002 Feb 14, In the Netherlands
Slobodan Milosevic spoke on his own behalf on the 3rd day of his trial.
He denied all blame for a decade of carnage in the Balkans and
displayed pictures of victims of NATO air raids. Milosevic justified
his actions as a "struggle against terrorism" and said he was a victim
of twisted facts and "terrible fabrication."
(SFC, 2/15/02, p.A8)(AP, 2/14/03)
2002 Feb 14, In the Netherlands
the Int’l. Court of Justice cited diplomatic immunity and ruled that
Belgium cannot try former and current world leaders. Belgium adopted a
law in 1993 that empowered judges to hear war crimes and genocide cases
regardless of where the alleged crimes occurred or who committed them.
(SFC, 2/15/02, p.A8)
2002 Feb 14, Militant Palestinians
attacked an Israeli tank in the Gaza Strip and 3 soldiers were killed.
(SFC, 2/15/02, p.A10)
2002 Feb 14, Palestinian Abu
Zubaydah (30) was identified as the new chief of operations for al
Qaeda and was believed to be organizing al Qaeda remnants for new
attacks against the US.
(SFC, 2/14/02, p.A10)
2003 Feb 14, Dolly (b.1996), the
world's 1st clone sheep and mother of 6 lambs, was put to sleep by
veterinarians in Scotland after they failed to cure her of a severe
lung infection.
(AP, 2/15/03)(SFC, 2/15/03, p.A2)
2003 Feb 14, In Brazil police
found the bullet-riddled bodies of six men in the back seat and trunk
of a car parked near a Rio de Janeiro slum.
(AP, 2/14/03)
2003 Feb 14, In Colombia a massive
explosion rocked the southern city of Neiva as police searched a house
for explosives. 15 people died and about 30 were wounded.
(AP, 2/14/03)
2003 Feb 14, Saddam Hussein banned
all weapons of mass destruction from Iraq, meeting a long time UN
demand.
(AP, 2/14/03)
2003 Feb 14, Major powers rebuffed
the United States in the U.N. Security Council and insisted on more
time for weapons inspections in Iraq. Earlier, chief U.N. weapons
inspector Hans Blix told the Council his teams had not found any
weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
(SFC, 2/15/03, p.A1)(AP, 2/14/04)
2003 Feb 14, President Kim
Dae-jung said South Korea's government helped arrange a $200 million
payment to North Korea before a summit in 2000.
(AP, 2/14/03)
2003 Feb 14, Popocatepetl volcano
southeast of Mexico City erupted but caused no significant damage.
(AP, 2/14/03)
2003 Feb 14, Russian lawmakers
were expected to pass bills paving the way for the break-up of its
electricity monopoly, the Unified Energy System (RAO).
(WSJ, 2/13/03, p.A10)
2003 Feb 14, A Thai court ruled to
extradite Florida millionaire James Vincent Sullivan (61), wanted in
the US for the 1987 murder of his socialite wife. He was accused of
paying another man $25,000 to kill Lita McClinton Sullivan to avoid
losing property in a divorce. In 2006 he was convicted of murder and
sentenced to life in prison.
(AP, 2/15/03)(AP, 3/14/06)
2003 Feb 14, Trinidad and Tobago
legislators elected Maxwell Richards, a former university dean who
claims he is "not in anyone's back pocket" to be the new president.
(AP, 2/14/03)
2003 Feb 14, In Zimbabwe 2
Valentine's Day peace parades by women clutching roses and singing
hymns were broken up by baton-wielding police who arrested at least 88
people as well as eight journalists.
(AP, 2/14/03)
2004 Feb 14, It was reported that
the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation had donated $82.9 million to the
Areas Global TB Vaccine Foundation for the development of a
tuberculosis vaccine.
(SFC, 2/13/04, p.A3)
2004 Feb 14, China executed Yang
Xinhua (38), a man convicted of murdering 67 people, in what media said
might be the country's longest killing spree in modern history. Yang
was convicted of 67 killings and 23 rapes in Henan and three other
provinces. His crime spree began in 2001 following release from a labor
camp and ended with his capture in November.
(AP, 2/14/04)
2004 Feb 14, In France thousands
of people marched to protest a law banning the Islamic coverings and
other religious apparel in public schools.
(AP, 2/14/04)
2004 Feb 14, In Iraq guerrillas
launched a bold daylight assault on an Iraqi police station and
security compound west of Baghdad, freeing prisoners and sparking a
gunbattle that killed 23 people and wounded 33.
(SSFC, 2/15/04, p.A1)(AP, 2/14/05)
2004 Feb 14, In Moscow, Russia, an
indoor water park roof collapsed, killing 28 people and injuring more
than 100.
(AP, 2/15/04)(AP, 2/14/05)
2004 Feb 14, In northern Pakistan
two strong earthquakes triggered landslides and toppled walls that
killed at least 24 people and injured about 30 others.
(AP, 2/15/04)(AP, 2/16/04)
2004 Feb 14, In Uganda a tanker
truck carrying diesel fuel collided with a packed minibus and burst
into flames, killing at least 32 people.
(AP, 2/15/04)
2005 Feb 14, President Bush said
he would nominate Lester M. Crawford as head of the Food and Drug
Administration. Crawford had been acting commissioner for nearly a year.
(AP, 2/14/06)
2005 Feb 14, President Bush asked
Congress for an estimated $82 billion in additional funds to cover the
costs of continuing military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
(WSJ, 2/15/05, p.A1)
2005 Feb 14, Verizon
Communications decided to buy MCI Inc. in a $6.75 billion deal. The
offer was increased in May to $26 per share, or $8.44 billion.
(WSJ, 2/15/05, p.C1)(WSJ, 5/3/05, p.A1)
2005 Feb 14, Newfoundland Premier
Danny Williams and Canada’s PM Paul Martin presided over the signing of
a multibillion-dollar deal that sets out new revenue-sharing rules for
the province's offshore energy industry.
(AP, 2/14/05)
2005 Feb 14, A gas explosion in
China's northeast Sunjiawan mine killed 214 people in the deadliest
mining disaster reported since communist rule began in 1949.
(AP, 2/15/05)(AP, 2/14/06)
2005 Feb 14, The UN atomic
monitoring agency said Egypt's nuclear experiments were small, basic
and do not appear part of an attempt to make weapons, praising Cairo's
cooperation with an investigation of the country's now mothballed
clandestine activities.
(AP, 2/14/05)
2005 Feb 14, In Iran a mosque fire
killed 59 people and injured another 350. it was blamed on a kerosene
heater that was placed too close to a thick curtain that separated male
and female worshippers.
(AP, 2/15/05)
2005 Feb 14, A roadside bomb
killed three Iraqi National Guard troops. Insurgents blew up an oil
pipeline near Kirkuk and killed two senior police officers in Baghdad.
(AP, 2/14/05)
2005 Feb 14, In western Japan a
man carrying a knife burst into a public elementary school and stabbed
at least 3 adults. Kyodo News reported that one of the victims died.
(AP, 2/14/05)
2005 Feb 14, In Beirut, Lebanon,
Rafik Hariri (60) was killed in a massive bomb explosion that tore
through his motorcade. The billionaire helped rebuild his country after
decades of war but resigned as PM last fall after a sharp dispute with
Syria. 22 other people were killed and 100 wounded in a blast that
devastated the front of the famous St. George Hotel. An Islamist group
calling itself the Victory and Jihad Organization in the Levant claimed
responsibility.
(AP, 2/14/05)(WSJ, 2/15/05, p.A3)(Econ, 10/29/05,
p.45)
2005 Feb 14, Brazil and Venezuela
signed 25 accords dealing with energy and economic cooperation,
including the joint development of the Mariscal Sucre offshore natural
gas project.
(WSJ, 2/15/05, p.A16)
2005 Feb 14, Three bombs jolted
Manila and two other Philippine cities, killing at least 12 people and
wounding more than 100 others. The Muslim extremist group Abu Sayyaf
claimed responsibility for the blasts.
(AP, 2/14/05)(Econ, 2/19/05, p.41)
2005 Feb 14, Togo police in riot
gear faced off with crowds who blocked roads and intimidated residents
during a general strike to protest the army's installation of Faure
Gnassingbe to succeed his late father as president.
(AP, 2/14/05)
2006 Feb 14, The Bush
administration announced it will step up enforcement of US trade laws
governing China, following a top-to-bottom review of America's trading
relationship with the Asian giant.
(AP, 2/14/06)
2006 Feb 14, The NY Times reported
that the US and Israel are considering a campaign to starve the
Palestinian Authority of cash so Palestinians would grow disillusioned
with their incoming militant Hamas rulers and return ousted Fatah
moderates to power.
(AP, 2/14/06)
2006 Feb 14, In Texas lawyer Harry
Whittington, who was accidentally injured 3 days earlier by birdshot
fired by VP Cheney, suffered a minor heart attack.
(SFC, 2/15/06, p.A1)
2006 Feb 14, Pharmaceutical maker
AstraZeneca PLC said that it has decided to withdraw its controversial
anticoagulant Exanta from the market and terminate its development
because of links to liver injury.
(AP, 2/14/06)
2006 Feb 14, Sanyo and Nokia
announced they will set up a joint venture to make advanced cell
phones, underlining the ambitions of the Japanese and Finnish
manufacturers to grow globally in the competitive mobile market.
(AP, 2/14/06)
2006 Feb 14, The UNHCR said the
floods last week left more than 50,000 Sahrawi refugees homeless,
destroying up to half of the mud-brick houses in their camps of Awserd,
Smara and Laayoune in the Tindouf region of western Algeria. Tents,
blankets and other emergency aid were being rushed to the camps in the
Algerian Sahara hit by rare torrential rains.
(AP, 2/15/06)
2006 Feb 14, Two Australians were
sentenced to death by firing squad for leading a drug smuggling ring on
Indonesia's resort island of Bali, verdicts that could strain ties
between the countries. Andrew Chan (22) and Myuran Sukumaran (24) had
masterminded the trafficking of 18 pounds of heroin to their homeland.
(AP, 2/14/06)
2006 Feb 14, In Porto Alegre,
Brazil, leaders and envoys from across Christianity opened their most
ambitious gathering in nearly a decade with a host of troubles on their
agenda, from the faith's many internal rifts to easing discord with
Islam, even as it deepens over cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad.
(AP, 2/14/06)
2006 Feb 14, Britain's lower house
of Parliament voted to ban smoking in all public places in England,
including pubs, both public and private.
(AP, 2/14/06)
2006 Feb 14, In southern China
toxic wastewater was flushed untreated into a river, prompting the
government to cut water supplies to 28,000 people in Guanyin for at
least four days. A power plant on the upper reaches of the Yuexi River
in Sichuan province was to blame for the pollution.
(AP, 2/20/06)
2006 Feb 14, The Egyptian
parliament approved the two-year postponement of municipal polls
despite objections from opposition Islamists and the US. President
Hosni Mubarak issued a decree last week calling for the delay of the
elections which was passed by parliament's upper chamber on Feb 12 and
approved this day in two readings by the lower chamber.
(AFP, 2/15/06)
2006 Feb 14, The UN said 13
Eritreans employed by the UN peacekeeping mission in Eritrea have been
detained by local authorities and another 30 are in hiding for fear of
being arrested.
(AP, 2/14/06)
2006 Feb 14, Iran said it had
resumed uranium enrichment; Russia and France immediately called on
Iran to halt its work.
(AP, 2/14/07)
2006 Feb 14, Gunmen attacked a
group of Iraqi Shiites working on a farm north of Baghdad, killing 11
and wounding two. A roadside bomb killed a US Marine in western Baghdad
in one of two attacks that also wounded six coalition military
personnel.
(AP, 2/14/06)
2006 Feb 14, An Israeli court
sentenced the eldest son of ailing PM Ariel Sharon to 9 months in jail
after he pleaded guilty to illegally raising funds for one of his
father's political campaigns.
(AP, 2/14/06)
2006 Feb 14, At Turin, American
Ted Ligety won Olympic gold in men's combined skiing, while Bode Miller
was disqualified for straddling a gate.
(AP, 2/14/07)
2006 Feb 14, The UN asked Lebanon
to explain reports of arms shipments crossing the Syrian border
destined for the Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah.
(AP, 2/14/06)
2006 Feb 14, In Nuevo Laredo,
Mexico, armed men forced their way into a hospital and killed a
teenager under treatment for an earlier attempt on his life.
(SFC, 2/18/06, p.A10)
2006 Feb 14, Bilal Lamrani (21), a
Dutch Muslim, was sentenced to three years in prison for plotting
murder and attempting to recruit prison inmates to carry out terrorist
attacks.
(AP, 2/14/06)
2006 Feb 14, In Pakistan thousands
of protesters rampaged through Islamabad and Lahore, storming into a
diplomatic district and torching Western businesses and a provincial
assembly in Pakistan's worst violence against the Prophet Muhammad
drawings. At least two people were killed and 11 injured.
(AP, 2/14/06)
2006 Feb 14, A senior Russian
official said Russia will not pay more to base its Black Sea Fleet in a
Ukrainian port, rebuffing Ukrainian demands and setting the stage for
the latest dispute between the ex-Soviet neighbors.
(AP, 2/14/06)
2006 Feb 14, Darfur rebels said
they had shot down a government helicopter and captured the only
surviving crew member, named as Captain Muawiya Zubeir.
(AP, 2/14/06)
2006 Feb 14, Zimbabwe police
arrested at least 60 women who took part in a march with a Valentine's
Day theme calling for love and harmony and protesting food shortages
and alleged human rights violations.
(CP, 2/14/06)
2007 Feb 14, Challenged on the
accuracy of US intelligence, President Bush told a news conference
there was no doubt the Iranian government was providing armor-piercing
weapons to kill American soldiers in Iraq, and he said he would fight
any attempt by the Democratic-controlled Congress to cut off money for
the war.
(AP, 2/14/08)
2007 Feb 14, Former New York City
Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, acclaimed for his leadership after the
September 11 attacks, confirmed he is running for US president in 2008,
eliminating any lingering doubt about his candidacy.
(Reuters, 2/15/07)
2007 Feb 14, The Milton Friedman
Foundation said each high school dropout costs Texas $3,168 a year in
lost revenue, plus Medicaid and prison expenses.
(WSJ, 2/15/07, p.A1)
2007 Feb 14, Sleet stung the faces
of pedestrians in New York and snow and ice coated windshields and
streets as a Valentine's Day blizzard roared out of the Midwest and
shut down parts of the Northeast.
(AP, 2/14/07)
2007 Feb 14, ConAgra recalled all
Peter Pan and Great Value peanut butter made at a Georgia plant because
of a salmonella outbreak.
(AP, 2/14/08)
2007 Feb 14, German-US auto giant
DaimlerChrysler said it planned to axe 13,000 jobs at its loss-making
Chrysler subsidiary as part of a broad restructuring plan aimed at
returning the US unit to profitability by 2009. The bulk of the job
losses will affect union workers, with 9,000 hourly jobs eliminated in
the United States and 2,000 in Canada.
(AP, 2/14/07)
2007 Feb 14, NATO officials said
warplanes struck a Taliban compound in southern Afghanistan with
"precision munitions," killing an area commander and about 10 of his
men. Villagers said the raid in the southern province of Helmand also
killed civilians. NATO said Taliban fighters used children as human
shields to flee heavy fighting this week during an operation by foreign
and Afghan forces to clear rebels from around a key hydro-electric dam.
In eastern Afghanistan US-led troops killed a suspected militant and
detained 6 others, including one with alleged links to fugitive Taliban
leader Mullah Omar.
(AFP, 2/14/07)(Reuters, 2/14/07)(AP, 2/16/07)
2007 Feb 14, Brazil’s President
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Bolivian President Evo Morales reached a
deal late on how much Brazil will pay for Bolivian natural gas,
apparently resolving an issue that has deeply divided the neighboring
nations for a year.
(AP, 2/14/07)
2007 Feb 14, In Brazil violence
cast a shadow over Rio's famed Carnival when gunmen killed Guaracy Paes
Falcao (42), a leader of one of the premiere samba band groups. Falcao
was with an unidentified woman who was also shot dead.
(AP, 2/14/07)
2007 Feb 14, In Ethiopia US former
president Jimmy Carter announced distribution of thousands of
insecticide-treated mosquito nets, in a drive that could save up to
100,000 lives annually.
(AFP, 2/14/07)
2007 Feb 14, The European
Parliament approved a controversial report accusing Britain, Germany,
Italy and other European nations of turning a blind eye to CIA flights
transporting terrorism suspects to secret prisons in an apparent breach
of EU human rights standards.
(AP, 2/14/07)
2007 Feb 14, Deutsche Boerse,
operator of the Frankfurt stock exchange, said it has agreed to buy
five percent of the Mumbai stock exchange for 42.7 million dollars
(32.8 million euros).
(AFP, 2/14/07)
2007 Feb 14, A car loaded with
explosives blew up near a bus carrying members of Iran's elite
Revolutionary Guards in southeastern Iran, killing 11 of them and
wounding 31. An al-Qaida-linked Sunni militant group reportedly claimed
responsibility. Within a week Nasrollah Shanbe Zehi was convicted and
executed for the bombing.
(AP, 2/14/07)(SFC, 2/20/07, p.A3)
2007 Feb 14, The Iraqi government
formally launched a long-awaited security crackdown in Baghdad. A
parked car bomb struck a predominantly Shiite district elsewhere in
central Baghdad, killing four civilians and wounding 10. In Mosul a
suicide car bomber targeted an Iraqi army patrol, killing one soldier
and four civilians and wounding 20 other people.
(AP, 2/14/07)
2007 Feb 14, Mexican immigration
agents allegedly locked 10 Guatemalan and two Salvadoran migrants in a
trailer after they refused to pay a bribe against of $110 each. In late
2008 the country's National Human Rights Commission called for a
government investigation.
(AP, 12/31/08)
2007 Feb 14, Serbia's parliament
overwhelmingly rejected a UN plan that would give virtual independence
to the breakaway province of Kosovo.
(AP, 2/14/07)
2007 Feb 14, In Dar es Salaam,
Tanzania, a conference of Anglican leaders opened as the 77
million-member church struggled with a potentially disastrous fight
over the Bible and sexuality.
(AP, 2/14/07)
2007 Feb 14, Gurbanguli
Berdymukhamedov, Turkmenistan's new president, took office a few
minutes after the head of the central elections commission announced he
had won Sunday's election with nearly 90 percent of the vote. He
pledged to follow the ways of longtime autocrat Saparmurat Niyazov, but
also promised changes in a country ruled for decades in an
all-encompassing cult of personality. He also promised "development of
private ownership and entrepreneurship," educational reforms, and more
doctors and hospitals.
(AP, 2/14/07)
2007 Feb 14, UNICEF issued report
on child well-being. Of 21 OECD countries the US and Britain ranked at
the bottom.
(www.tsunamigeneration.org/media/media_38299.html)(Econ, 2/17/07, p.57)
2008 Feb 14, The US Mint
officially issued the Monroe dollar coin, the 5th of its presidential
dollar series.
(WSJ, 12/27/07, p.D6)
2008 Feb 14, New Mexico announced
that Hillary Clinton won the Feb 5 Democratic caucus giving her 14
delegates to 12 for Obama.
(SFC, 2/15/08, p.A3)
2008 Feb 14, In DeKalb, Illinois,
former student Steven Kazmierczak (27) killed six people at Northern
Illinois University before committing suicide. 15 people were wounded.
(AP, 2/15/08)
2008 Feb 14, Boeing and India's
Tata Industries announced an agreement to set up a joint venture
company to handle an initial 500 million dollars of defense-related
aerospace component work in India.
(AFP, 2/14/08)
2008 Feb 14, Angola extradited
Henry Okah, the alleged leader of Movement for the Emancipation of the
Niger Delta (MEND), to Nigeria.
(AP, 2/15/08)
2008 Feb 14, Brazil flew 50,000
doses of yellow fever vaccine to Paraguay following an outbreak there,
the first in 34 years.
(SFC, 2/15/08, p.A4)
2008 Feb 14, In London the price
of platinum soared past 2,000 dollars an ounce to a record as power
shortages affected mining production in South Africa, the biggest
supplier of the white precious metal.
(AP, 2/14/08)
2008 Feb 14, Chad's Pres. Idriss
Deby declared a state of emergency and signed a decree increasing
government powers for 15 days.
(SFC, 2/15/08, p.A12)
2008 Feb 14, The European
Commission gave the green light for a 170 million euro ($248 million)
grant to build a gas-fired power plant in Lithuania by an agency run by
the
European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
(Reuters, 2/14/08)
2008 Feb 14, An Iraqi police
officer in Salahuddin province said that a house in Zab belonging to a
Sunni Arab and tribal leader was bombarded in a US air strike, and that
six family members died. A US military account said troops returned
fire from insurgents, killing two and then called in air support, which
killed another four militants.
(AP, 2/15/08)(SFC, 2/16/08, p.A6)
2008 Feb 14, A UN spokesman said
political rivals trying to lead Kenya out of weeks of violence signed
an agreement, but no details were released and the talks were to
continue next week.
(AP, 2/14/08)
2008 Feb 14, Serbia's government
proclaimed that any unilateral act by Kosovo's ethnic Albanian
leadership to declare independence would be invalid and illegal.
(AP, 2/14/08)
2008 Feb 14, The chief of
Hezbollah vowed to retaliate against Israeli targets anywhere in the
world after accusing the Jewish state of killing the militant Imad
Mughniyeh in Syria.
(AP, 2/14/08)
2008 Feb 14, A leading human
rights group appealed to Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah to stop the
execution of a woman accused of witchcraft and performing supernatural
acts.
(AP, 2/14/08)
2008 Feb 14, In Switzerland UBS AG
posted a 4th-quarter net loss of $11.28 billion, and a loss for the
entire year, besieged by investments in US subprime mortgages. Chairman
Marcel Ospel announced his resignation on Feb 27.
(AP, 2/14/08)(Econ, 4/5/08, p.72)
2008 Feb 14, In Thailand General
Secretary Mahn Sha (64), leader of the Karen National Union (KNU), was
shot and killed at his home in Mae Sot by three men who arrived in a
pickup truck. The KNU is one of the biggest ethnic groups fighting
Myanmar's military government. Initial investigations showed that the
assailants were also Karen.
(AP, 2/14/08)
2008 Feb 14, Zimbabwe's inflation
rate, already the highest in the world, soared to a new high of
66,212.3%.
(AFP, 2/14/08)
2009 Feb 14, In Alabama suspicious
fires destroyed 2 churches and damaged a third near the Georgia border.
(SFC, 2/18/09, p.A6)
2009 Feb 14, In Canandaigua, New
York, Kimberly and Christopher Glatz were killed at their home. Mary
Silliman (23) was slain along with Randall Norman (41) a motorist who
intervened when he saw her being roughed up in the parking lot in a
pre-dawn attack outside Lakeside Memorial Hospital in Brockport. In
August Frank Garcia, a nursing supervisor, was convicted of the Glatz
killings and faced another trial for the Brockport killings. On Sep 1
Garcia was sentenced to life in prison.
(SFC, 8/14/09, p.A5)(http://tinyurl.com/myhxsv)(SFC,
9/2/09, p.A8)
2009 Feb 14, Louie Bellson
(b.1924), big band and jazz drummer, died. The master musician
performed with such greats as Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Benny
Goodman and his late wife, Pearl Bailey.
(AP, 2/17/09)
2009 Feb 14, US envoy Richard
Holbrooke met Afghan President Hamid Karzai as part of Washington's
push to step up efforts against extremism. The Afghan leader admitted
to tensions with its US ally. Marine Sgt. Daniel Hansen was killed
while supporting combat operations in Farah province.
(AP, 2/14/09)(SFC, 2/19/09, p.B4)
2009 Feb 14, Sir Bernard Ashley
(82), British businessman, died. He teamed up with his wife to build
the Laura Ashley (d.1985) fashion and home furnishing brand into a
global business.
(AP, 2/17/09)
2009 Feb 14, Over 6,000 people
have fled the Ndele region of the Central African Republic for a
Chadian border village after violence erupted between two ethnic
groups, the Runga and the Gulus.
(AFP, 2/14/09)
2009 Feb 14, China's Pres. Hu
Jintao toured the site of a new, Chinese-financed national theater in
Senegal, a day after signing a bilateral agreement promising the West
African nation over $90 million in gifts and loans.
(AP, 2/14/09)
2009 Feb 14, Egyptian Foreign
Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit held talks with Sudanese President Omar
al-Beshir amid reports that the International Criminal Court has
decided to issue a warrant for his arrest..
(AFP, 2/14/09)
2009 Feb 14, In Rome G-7 finance
ministers strongly rejected protectionism, pledging to work together to
support growth and employment and to strengthen the banking system so
the world can overcome its worst financial crisis in 50 years.
(AP, 2/14/09)
2009 Feb 14, In Iraq a roadside
bomb killed two civilians and wounded four others, including a soldier,
when it exploded near an Iraqi army patrol in western Mosul.
(AP, 2/14/09)
2009 Feb 14, Irish authorities
learned about an oil spill through surveillance carried out by the
European Maritime Safety Agency in Lisbon, Portugal. Irish military
aircraft flew over the area and saw the Russian aircraft carrier
Admiral Kuznetsov, a Russian oil tanker, and a Russian oceangoing tug
near the slick. this was the biggest oil spill in the waters around
Ireland in the last ten years.
(AP, 2/17/09)
2009 Feb 14, Mexico City set a new
record as nearly 40,000 people locked lips in the city center for the
world's largest group kiss. Gunmen killed a state police officer
Carlos Reyes and 10 members of his family, including five children in
the town of Monte Largo, Tabasco state. The shooting also killed a
street vendor in front of the house of the officer. In Jalisco state
gunmen burst into a restaurant, killing seven people and wounding five,
including 3 children.
(AP, 2/14/09)(AP, 2/15/09)(AP, 2/17/09)
2009 Feb 14, In northwestern
Pakistan a suspected US missile strike by a drone aircraft flattened a
militant hide-out, killing 27 local and foreign insurgents. Two
officials said dozens of followers of Pakistan's top Taliban leader,
Baitullah Mehsud, were staying in the housing compound when it was hit.
(AP, 2/14/09)
2009 Feb 14, Saudi King Abdullah
(86), in an apparent bid to reform the religious establishment,
dismissed the head of the feared religious police and a hard-line
cleric who issued an edict last year saying it was permissible to kill
owners of satellite TV stations that show "immoral" content. King
Abdullah also appointed Noura al Fayez as deputy minister of women’s
education, the 1st female to hold a ministerial post.
(AP, 2/14/09)(SSFC, 2/15/09, p.A6)(Econ, 2/21/09,
p.48)
2009 Feb 14, In Somalia
legislators approved a former leader's son as the country’s new prime
minister. Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke faced the task of uniting a
fractious government besieged by Islamic insurgents that control most
of the country.
(AP, 2/14/09)
2009 Feb 14, In Sri Lanka a
suspected Tamil Tiger rebel hurled a hand grenade at a bus full of
war-displaced refugees, killing a woman and wounding 13 others.
(AP, 2/14/09)
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