Today in History - January 13
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532 Jan 13-532
Jan 14, The 2nd Hagia Sophia cathedral burned down in Constantinople
during the Nika uprising, which failed leaving some 30-40,000 people
dead. Justinian and his wife Theodora had attended festivities at
the Hippodrome, a stadium for athletic competition. Team support
escalated from insults to mob riots and in the end Constantinople
lay in ruins. Justinian proceeded to rebuild the city with extensive
commissions for religious art and architecture, including the new
Hagia Sophia.
(ATC,
p.33)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hagia_Sophia)
1099 Jan 13, Crusaders set fire
to Mara, Syria.
(MC, 1/13/02)
1397 Jan 13, John of Gaunt
married Katherine Rouet.
(HN, 1/13/99)
1628 Jan 13, Charles Perrault,
lawyer, writer (Mother Goose), was born in France.
(MC, 1/13/02)
1691 Jan 13, George Fox (66),
founder of Quakers, died.
(MC, 1/13/02)
1733 Jan 13, James Oglethorpe
and 130 English colonists arrived at Charleston, SC.
(MC, 1/13/02)
1794 Jan 13, President
Washington approved a measure adding two stars and two stripes to
the American flag, following the admission of Vermont and Kentucky
to the union. The number of stripes was later reduced to the
original 13.
(AP, 1/13/01)
1808 Jan 13, Salmon P. Chase,
US Treasury secretary during the American Civil War and 6th Chief
Justice of the Supreme Court, was born. His picture was later put on
the $10,000 bill.
(HN, 1/13/99)
1813 Jan 24, Theodore Sedgwick
(b.1746), former Massachusetts Senator (1796-1799), died. In 2007
John Sedgwick authored “In My Blood: Six Generations of Madness and
Desire in an American Family.”
(http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=S000222)
1830 Jan 13, There was a great
fire in New Orleans. It was thought to be set by rebel slaves.
(MC, 1/13/02)
1832 Jan 13, Horatio Alger,
Jr., the author of more than 100 inspirational books for young
people from the Civil War to the turn of the 20th century, was born
the son of a Unitarian minister. Rejected by the Union Army because
of asthma, Horatio Alger was a poet, teacher and newspaper
correspondent before he eventually followed in his father's
footsteps and became a minister on Cape Cod. Alger is best-known,
however, for his books with rags-to-riches themes. In Alger's world,
everyone, no matter how poor or powerless, could succeed through
hard work, honesty and high moral values. His "pluck and luck" books
of hope in the face of adversity were always bestsellers and almost
every home, school and church owned a large collection. More than
250 million copies of his books have been sold worldwide. His books
include "Ragged Dick" and "Tattered Tom."
(HNPD, 1/13/99)
1842 Jan 13, In the 1st
British-Afghan War British troops retreating from Kabul were
ambushed and nearly all slaughtered at the Khyber Pass, even though
the Afghans had promised them safe passage during their withdrawal
from the Afghan capital. Dr. William Brydon, badly wounded, reached
Jalalabad as the only survivor of a 16,000 person retreat from
Kabul.
(SSFC, 10/28/01, p.C8)(MC, 1/13/02)
1846 Jan 13, President James
Polk dispatched General Zachary Taylor and 4,000 troops to the Texas
Border as war with Mexico loomed. At the outset of the
Mexican-American War, the Mexican army numbered 32,000 and the
American army consisted of 7,200 men. The American army had, since
1815, only fought against a few Indian tribes. Forty-two percent of
the army was made up of recent German or Irish immigrants. In the
course of the war, the total U.S. force employed reached 104,000. In
2008 Martin Dugard authored “The Training Ground: Grant, Lee,
Sherman, and Davis in the Mexican War, 1846-1848.”
(HN, 1/13/99)(HNQ, 2/28/99)(WSJ, 5/16/08, p.W8)
1854 Jan 13, Anthony Foss
patented an accordion. [see 1850, 1852]
(MC, 1/13/02)
1862 Jan 13, President Lincoln
named Edwin M. Stanton Secretary of War.
(HN, 1/13/99)
1863 Jan 13, Thomas Crapper
pioneered a one-piece pedestal flushing toilet.
(MC, 1/13/02)
1864 Jan 13, Wilhelm K.W. Wien,
German physicist (Nobel 1911), was born.
(MC, 1/13/02)
1864 Jan 13, Composer Stephen
Foster (37), composer and American song writer, died in a New York
City hospital. Ken Emerson later authored his biography.
(HFA, '96, p.22)(AHD, p. 519)(AP, 1/13/98)(SFC,
4/23/01, p.E4)
1865 Jan 13-14, Union fleet
bombed Fort Fisher, NC.
(AH, 2/05, p.16)
1873 Jan 13, William Pitt
Kellogg (1830-1918), American politician and carpetbagger, began
serving as the governor of Louisiana and continued to 1877. He
was the state's last Republican governor until the inauguration of
David C. Treen in 1980.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_P._Kellogg)
1874 Jan 13, Battle between
jobless and police in NYC left 100s injured.
(MC, 1/13/02)
1883 Jan 13, Fire in circus
Ferroni in Berditschoft, Poland, killed 430.
(MC, 1/13/02)
1893 Jan 13, Britain's
Independent Labor Party, a precursor to the current Labor Party, had
its 1st meeting.
(AP, 1/13/00)
1895 Jan 13, J.R. Seeley
(b.1834), English essayist and historian, died. His essay Ecce Homo,
published anonymously in 1866, and afterwards acknowledged by him,
was widely read, and prompted many replies, being deemed an attack
on Christianity.
(WSJ, 12/8/08,
p.A17)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Robert_Seeley)
1898 Jan 13, Emile Zola's
famous defense of Captain Alfred Dreyfus, “J'accuse," was published
in Paris. The open letter to French President Felix Faure accused
the French judiciary of giving into pressure from the military to
perpetuate a cover-up in the Dreyfus treason case.
(AP, 1/13/98)(MC, 1/13/02)
1900 Jan 13, To combat Czech
nationalism, Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria-Hungary decreed that
German would be the language of the imperial army.
(HN, 1/13/99)
1906 Jan 13, The Golden Gate
Hotel opened on Fremont Street in Las Vegas, Nev..
(SSFC, 11/13/05, p.F4)
1910 Jan 13, Andrew Jackson
Davis (b.1826), American clairvoyant, died. While in a mesmeric
(hypnotic) trance, could allegedly communicate with the spirit world
and accurately diagnose medical disorders. In 1850, in his book the
“Great Harmonia,” Davis talks about how man evolved from animals and
that evolution also took place in plants and animals up to man.
(www.andrewjacksondavis.com/)
1912 Jan 13, A temp. of 40F
(-40C), Oakland, Maryland, set a state record.
(MC, 1/13/02)
1915 Jan 13, An earthquake in
Avezzano, Italy, killed 29,800.
(MC, 1/13/02)
1919 Jan 13, Jackie Robinson,
baseball star, was born. He broke the apartheid ban in 1947.
(SFEC, 10/4/98, p.B14)
1919 Jan 13, Robert Stack,
actor best know for his role as Elliot Ness in the TV series "The
Untouchables," was born.
(HN, 1/13/99)
1919 Jan 13, California voted
to ratify the Prohibition amendment.
(HN, 1/13/99)
1920 Jan 13, A NY Times
editorial excoriated Dr. Robert H. Goddard, and reported that
rockets can never fly. In 1969 the NY Times belatedly apologized.
(WSJ, 8/7/03, p.A1)
1923 Jan 13, Hitler denounced
the Weimar republic as 5,000 storm troopers demonstrated in Germany.
(HN, 1/13/99)
1927 Jan 13, A woman took a
seat on the NY Stock Exchange breaking the all-male tradition.
(HN, 1/13/99)
1929 Jan 13, Frontiersman Wyatt
Earp died in LA, Ca., after an illustrious life in the West. Cowboy
stars William S. Hart and Tom Mix served as pallbearers. Born in
Illinois in 1848, he served as a lawman in Wichita and Dodge City,
Kansas, as well as Tombstone, Arizona Territory, where Wyatt and his
brothers Morgan and Virgil were notorious for violent clashes with
outlaws. Western historians have disagreed about the particulars of
Wyatt Earp's life, but he is said to have been a freighter-teamster,
railroad construction worker, policeman, prisoner, saloon keeper and
horse farmer, and he was involved in several gunfights--for reasons
that may or may not have been related to law enforcement. When
Morgan was killed, Wyatt avenged his death by killing Frank
Stilwell, an outlaw he had previously arrested. Wyatt Berry Stapp
Earp died and was buried in Colma, Ca. In 2003 Lee A. Silva authored
Wyatt Earp, A Biography of the Legend, Volume 1, the Cowtown Years.”
(HNPD, 1/12/99)(SFEC, 3/14/99, Z1
p.10)(MesWP)(CHA, 1/2001)(AH, 6/03, p.60)
1931 Jan 13, The Bridge
connecting New York and New Jersey was named the George Washington
Memorial Bridge.
(HN, 1/13/99)
1934 Jan 13, Rip Taylor,
comedian (Gong Show, $1.98 Beauty Show), was born.
(MC, 1/13/02)
1937 Jan 13, The United States
barred Americans from serving in the Spanish War.
(HN, 1/13/99)
1939 Jan 13, Jacob Ruppert, CEO
of the NY Yankees (1915-39), died.
(MC, 1/13/02)
1941 Jan 13, James Joyce,
Irish-born novelist, died in Zurich, Switzerland. In 1983 Richard
Ellmann authored the 900-page "James Joyce" biography. In 1999 Edna
O'Brien authored the pocket bio "James Joyce."
(AP, 1/13/98)(SFC, 12/9/99, p.B1)
1943 Jan 13, General Leclerc's
Free French forces merged with the British under Montgomery in
Libya.
(HN, 1/13/99)
1943 Jan 13, The Canadian
corvette Ville de Quebec rammed the German U-224 submarine, which
sank in the Mediterranean Sea with 57 of its crew. German Lt. Wolf
Danckworth was the only survivor. Years later Danckworth established
contact with Canadian sailor Frank Arsenault, who was on the Ville
de Quebec when it rammed the sub, and the two became good friends.
(SFC, 12/25/10, p.C1)
1944 Jan 13, Three Reich plane
plants were wrecked; 64 U.S. aircraft were lost in an air attack in
Germany.
(HN, 1/13/99)
1945 Jan 13, The Red Army
opened an offensive in South Poland, crashing 25 miles through the
German lines.
(HN, 1/13/99)
1947 Jan 13, British troops
replaced striking truck drivers.
(HN, 1/13/99)
1948 Jan 13, T Bone Burnett,
rocker, was born.
(MC, 1/13/02)
1952 Jan 13, Cornelius Bumpus,
keyboardist (Doobie Bros-Minute by Minute), was born.
(MC, 1/13/02)
1955 Jan 13, Chase National and
the Bank of Manhattan agreed to merge resulting in the second
largest U.S. bank.
(HN, 1/13/99)
1956 Jan 13, Lebanon and Syria
signed a defense pact providing for joint retaliation against Israel
if either was attacked.
(EWH, 1968, p.1241)
1956 Jan 13, Lyonel Feininger
(b.1871), American-German painter, died. His work included the
woodcut "Kreuzende Segelschiffe" (1919) and the pen and ink wash
"Three Ghosts" (1953). A catalog of his prints was made by Leona
Prasse (1897-1984), late curator of prints at the Cleveland Museum
of Art. Feininger published comics for the Chicago Tribune from
1906-1907.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyonel_Feininger)(HT, 5/97, p.60)(WSJ,
1/10/07, p.D10)
1957 Jan 13, The Wham-O Company
produced the 1st Frisbee. It was initially called the Pluto Platter.
(SFC, 7/1/02, p.B5)(MC, 1/13/02)
1958 Jan 13, 9,000 scientists
of 43 nations petitioned the UN for a nuclear test ban.
(MC, 1/13/02)
1962 Jan 13, Ernie Kovacs
(b.1919), comedian and TV star, died at age 42 in a car crash in
west Los Angeles. ''Nothing in moderation'' was his credo and
appeared on his epitaph.
(AP,
1/13/98)(www.nytimes.com/1990/05/13/books/nothing-in-moderation.html?scp=4)
1963 Jan 13, Togo’s first
president, Sylvanus Olympio, was killed by a military junta led by
Gngassigbe Eyadema (29). Eyadama suspended the constitution and
instituted direct military rule. Nicholas Grunitzky succeeded
Olympio. Gnassingbe went on to become the country's military
dictator, ruling for nearly four decades during which time he
celebrated the day of Olympio's assassination as a national holiday.
(SFC, 6/25/98, p.A12)(EWH, 1st ed., p.1172)(AP,
3/3/10)
1965 Jan 13, Two U.S. planes
were shot down in Laos while on a combat mission.
(HN, 1/13/99)
1966 Jan 13, Robert C. Weaver
became the first black Cabinet member as he was appointed Secretary
of Housing and Urban Development by President Johnson.
(AP, 1/13/98)
1967 Jan 13, In Togo Lt. Col.
Etienne Eyadama (29) led an army coup and overthrew Pres. Grunitzky.
Eyadama suspended the constitution and instituted direct military
rule.
(EWH, 1st ed., p.1172)
1968 Jan 13, Hester &
Appolinar's musical "Your Own Thing," premiered in NYC.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Your_Own_Thing)
1968 Jan 13, The U.S. reported
shifting most air targets from North Vietnam to Laos.
(HN, 1/13/99)
1973 Jan 13, In Bernardsville,
N.J., Rabbit Wells (21) was shot a killed by a local patrolman. In
1998 William Loizeaux authored "The Shooting of Rabbit Wells: An
American Tragedy."
(www.amazon.com/Shooting-Rabbit-Wells-American-Tragedy/dp/1559703806)(SFEC,
2/8/98, BR p.5)
1976 Jan 13, Sarah Caldwell
became the first woman to conduct at New York's Metropolitan Opera
House as she led a performance of “La Traviata.”
(AP, 1/13/02)
1976 Jan 13, Argentina ousted a
British envoy in dispute over Falkland Islands War.
(HN, 1/13/99)
1978 Jan 13, Former Vice
President Hubert H. Humphrey died in Waverly, Minn., at age 66.
(AP, 1/13/98)
1980 Jan 13, The United States
offered Pakistan a two-year aid plan to counter the Soviet threat in
Afghanistan.
(HN, 1/13/99)
1982 Jan 13, An Air Florida 737
crashed into the capital's 14th Street Bridge after takeoff and fell
into the Potomac River, killing 78 people.
(AP, 1/13/98)
1985 Jan 13, A train plunged
into a ravine in eastern Ethiopia and killed at least 392 people.
(http://tinyurl.com/yznz8w)
1986 Jan 13, In Guatemala just
before turning over power to Pres. Cerezo, Gen. Humberto Mejia
Victores issued a blanket self-amnesty for acts committed during the
3-year rule of the military government.
(SFC, 7/5/96,
p.A13)(www.cidh.org/annualrep/85.86eng/chap4.a.htm)
1987 Jan 13, West German police
arrested Mohammed Ali Hamadi at the Frankfurt airport, when customs
officials discovered liquid explosives in his luggage. The Lebanese
man was convicted and served a life sentence in Germany for the 1985
hijacking of a TWA jetliner and killing of a U.S. Navy diver.
Although convicted and sentenced to life, Hamadi was paroled by
Germany in December 2005.
(AP, 12/20/05)(AP, 1/13/07)
1988 Jan 13, The US Supreme
Court ruled 5-3 that public school officials had broad powers to
censor school newspapers, school plays and other "school-sponsored
expressive activities."
(AP, 1/13/98)
1989 Jan 13, New York City
subway gunman Bernhard H. Goetz was sentenced to one year in prison
for possessing an unlicensed gun that he used to shoot four youths
he said were about to rob him. (He was freed the following
September.)
(AP, 1/13/99)
1989 Jan 13, There was a sit-in
at SF General Hosp. by ACT-UP to call attention to the difficulty of
obtaining foscarnet, a drug to stabilize CMV retinitis, a common
AIDS illness that could lead to blindness.
(SFC, 3/22/97, p.A13)
1990 Jan 13, L. Douglas Wilder
of Virginia, the nation's first elected black governor, took the
oath of office in Richmond.
(AP, 1/13/00)
1991 Jan 13, UN
Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar met with Iraqi President
Saddam Hussein in a bid to avoid war in the Persian Gulf.
(AP, 1/13/01)
1991 Jan 13, Soviet troops
besieged the Vilnius TV tower and crushed a woman under a tank, but
failed to quash the drive for independence. The assault claimed 14
lives. The Soviets occupied strong points in Vilnius, Lithuania, in
an attempt to stop the independence movement.
(Wired, Dec., '95, p.94)(DrEE, 9/28/96, p.1)(AP,
1/13/01)(LHC, 1/12/03)
1991 Jan 13, Forty-two people
were killed in a brawl and stampede during a soccer match in
Johannesburg, South Africa.
(AP, 1/13/01)
1992 Jan 13, US serial killer
Jeffrey Dahmer in a pretrial hearing pleaded guilty but insane in
fifteen of the seventeen murders he confessed to committing.
(www.courttv.com/trials/taped/dahmer.html)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1992)
1992 Jan 13, Edwin W. Edwards
began his 4th term as governor of Louisiana and continued to Jan 8,
1996.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwin_Edwards)
1992 Jan 13, Israeli,
Palestinian and Jordanian negotiators began talks in Washington on
Palestinian autonomy.
(AP, 1/13/98)
1992 Jan 13, Japan apologized
for forcing tens of thousands of Korean women to serve as sex slaves
for Japanese soldiers during World War II.
(AP, 1/13/98)
1993 Nov 13, President Clinton
used his weekly radio address to make yet another pitch for the
North American Free Trade Agreement, then flew to Memphis, Tenn.,
where he delivered an anti-crime speech to black ministers at the
Temple Church of God in Christ.
(AP, 11/13/98)
1993 Jan 13, American and
allied warplanes raided southern Iraq.
(AP, 1/13/98)
1993 Jan 13, The space shuttle
Endeavor blasted off from Cape Canaveral.
(AP, 1/13/98)
1993 Jan 13, Marine Pvt. 1st
Class Domingo Arroyo became the first U.S. serviceman to be killed
in Somalia.
(AP, 1/13/98)
1993 Jan 13, Former East German
leader Erich Honecker was freed from prison and allowed to leave for
Chile.
(AP, 1/13/00)
1994 Jan 13, President Clinton
held talks in Moscow with Russian President Boris Yeltsin.
(AP, 1/13/99)
1994 Jan 13, In Los Angeles,
the judge in the Erik Menendez murder case declared a mistrial after
jurors could not reach a verdict.
(AP, 1/13/04)
1994 Jan 13, Authorities in
Portland, Ore., arrested Shawn Eckardt, a bodyguard for figure
skater Tonya Harding, and Derrick Smith in connection with the
attack on Nancy Kerrigan.
(AP, 1/13/99)
1995 Jan 13, The Johnson Grove
Baptist Church in Bells, Tenn., burned down as did the Macedonia
Baptist Church in Denmark, Tenn. Arson was suspected and
investigations by the FBI and ATF were later begun.
(SFC, 6/11/96, p.A16)
1995 Jan 13, Italy named
Treasury Minister Lamberto Dini its prime minister. He pledged to
resign after approval of a deficit cutting budget.
(AP, 1/13/00)(WSJ, 10/27/95, p.A-1)
1995 Jan 13, Authorities in the
Philippines said they had unearthed a conspiracy by militant Muslims
to assassinate Pope John Paul II during his visit.
(AP, 1/13/00)
1996 Jan 13, President Clinton
paid a front-line visit to American forces in Bosnia, praising the
troops as “warriors for peace.”
(AP, 1/13/01)
1996 Jan 13, Nine Republican
presidential hopefuls debated in Des Moines, Iowa, where
front-runner Bob Dole and flat-tax champion Steve Forbes found
themselves facing repeated, bristling criticism.
(AP, 1/13/01)
1997 Jan 13, Supreme Court
justices aggressively questioned both sides in a battle over whether
a sexual-harassment lawsuit should be allowed to proceed against
President Clinton while he was in office. The following May, the
justices ruled unanimously that it could.
(AP, 1/13/98)
1997 Jan 13, Seven black
soldiers received the Medal of Honor for World War II valor; the
lone survivor, former Lt. Vernon Baker, received his medal from
President Clinton at the White House.
(AP, 1/13/98)
1998 Jan 13, The National
Football League completed a blockbuster $9.2 billion deal with the
Walt Disney Co., which got to keep "Monday Night Football" for ABC
and won the entire Sunday night cable package for ESPN.
(AP, 1/13/99)
1998 Jan 13, Linda Tripp, a
Pentagon aide, met with Monica Lewinsky while wearing a secret
listening device, and recorded a conversation concerning Lewinsky’s
1995 alleged affair with Pres. Clinton. It was later reported that
she had visited the White House over 3 dozen times after leaving her
job there to work at the Pentagon in 1996. Tripp came forward with
allegations that Lewinsky was planning to commit perjury in the
Jones vs. Clinton case.
(SFC, 1/22/98, p.A3)(SFC, 2/3/98, p.A2)(SFC,
9/12/98, p.A12)
1998 Jan 13, Three robbers
stole $1.17 million at the NYC World Trade Center from guards
delivering money to a currency exchange center. They returned to
their Brooklyn neighborhood where neighbors reported them and 2/3
were arrested. The robbers were dubbed the blundering bandits after
authorities said they removed their masks while under video
surveillance; three suspects were arrested.
(SFC, 1/14/98, p.A3)(SFC, 1/16/98, p.A3)(AP,
1/13/99)
1998 Jan 13, In SF four to five
men robbed a jewelry salesman in Chinatown near 3 plainclothes
police officers for some $2 million in jewels and escaped.
(SFC, 1/14/98, p.A16)
1998 Jan 13, It was reported
that scientists at Geron Corp. demonstrated a method to reproduce
human cells without signs of aging. the process incorporated the use
of the telomerase protein.
(SFC, 1/14/98, p.A1)
1998 Jan 13, It was reported
that bycatch (unintended catch that is discarded) from overfishing
depletes the world’s oceans of 20 million tons a year, or roughly
one of every four pounds caught. This wasted bycatch is equivalent
to about 10 pounds of food for every person on Earth.
(SFC, 1/13/98, p.A6)
1998 Jan 13, An Afghan
Russian-made cargo plane crashed in southwestern Pakistan with as
many as 90 Taliban militia and all were killed.
(SFC, 1/14/98, p.C2)
1998 Jan 13, In Australia a
federal court upheld the armed forces’ right to expel HIV-positive
soldiers.
(SFC, 1/14/98, p.C3)
1998 Jan 13, Iraq blocked a UN
weapons inspection tem led by an American.
(SFC, 2/24/98, p.A9)
1998 Jan 13, In Israel the
Cabinet adopted a 12-page list of conditions for the Palestinians to
meet before the transfer of any more West Bank land.
(SFC, 1/14/98, p.C2)
1998 Jan 13, From Rwanda The
government reported that 9 Roman Catholic nuns were killed last week
by Hutu rebels near the Congo border.
(WSJ, 1/13/98, p.A1)
1999 Jan 13, 60 Minutes II
premiered on TV.
(WSJ, 1/18/99, p.A16)
1999 Jan 13, Michael Jordan
announced his retirement from basketball and the Chicago Bulls.
(SFC, 1/13/99, p.A1)(AP, 1/13/00)
1999 Jan 13, President
Clinton's legal team dispatched a formal trial brief to the Senate,
arguing that neither "fact or law" warranted his removal from
office; House officials sent the Senate all public evidence in the
case.
(AP, 1/13/00)
1999 Jan 13, Lawyers filed suit
against major garment retailers for inhumane working conditions for
thousands of Asian women on Saipan, a US commonwealth island.
(SFC, 1/14/99, p.A1)
1999 Jan 13, The expedition to
reach the South Pole by Jon Muir, Peter Hillary and Eric Phillips,
called in outside support for food.
(SFC, 1/14/99, p.C2)
1999 Jan 13, An explosion on
Smackover, Ark., killed 3 men working on a naphtha tank valve.
(SFC, 1/14/99, p.A3)
1999 Jan 13, A KC-135 refueling
tanker crashed while landing near Geilenkirchen, Germany, and 4 US
airmen were killed. They were attached to an Air national Guard unit
based in Spokane.
(WSJ, 1/14/99, p.A1)
1999 Jan 13, Brazil was forced
to allow its currency to slide and global markets fell in response.
Gustavo Franco, head of the central bank, quit and was replaced by
Francisco Lopes ('Chico'). Lopes announced a new trading range for
the real between 1.2 and 1.32 to the dollar.
(SFC, 1/14/99, p.A10)(WSJ, 1/14/99, p.A1)
1999 Jan 13, Dozens of illegal
refugees on Crete went on a hunger strike to support their demand
for political asylum. A boat that was to take them to Italy ran
aground in a storm Nov 27. The refugees were Kurds, Indians and
Sudanese.
(SFC, 1/14/99, p.A6)
1999 Jan 13, In Kosovo rebels
freed 8 Yugoslav soldiers after getting private incentives from
int'l. officials.
(SFC, 1/14/99, p.A11)
1999 Jan 13-14, In Moscow
agreements were signed with Iraq to reinforce air defenses and
upgrade squadrons of MiG fighters. The $160 million deal had been
reportedly approved by Prime Minister Primakov on Dec 7.
(SFC, 2/15/99, p.A10)
1999 Jan 13-25, Marvin Kalb
covered this period of the Monicagate story in his 2001 book: “One
Scandalous Story: Clinton, Lewinsky, and 13 Days That Tarnished
American Journalism.”
(WSJ, 10/22/01, p.A17)
2000 Jan 13, Bill Gates stepped
down as CEO of Microsoft and handed the leadership over to Steve
Ballmer.
(SFC, 1/14/00, p.A1)(AP, 1/13/01)
2000 Jan 13, In Algeria the
deadline for the surrender of Islamic militants expired.
(SFC, 1/14/00, p.A14)
2000 Jan 13, In Brazil Mexican
singer Gloria Trevi was arrested with her manager Sergio Andrade and
Maria Raquenal Portillo on Mexican charges of corrupting Karina
Yapor (17). Trevi became pregnant in May and rape was suspected.
Brasilia federal police chief Paulo Magalhaes was removed from his
post in October.
(SFC, 1/15/00, p.A10)(SFC, 10/18/01, p.C2)
2000 Jan 13, In France a 50
member surgical team performed the world's first double-hand and
forearm transplant at Edouard-Herriot Hospital in a 17-hour
operation led by Dr. Jean-Michel Dubernard.
(SFC, 1/15/00, p.A3)
2000 Jan 13, Serbian
authorities charged 144 jailed ethnic Albanians with terrorism in
Kosovo during 1999.
(SFC, 1/14/00, p.D2)
2000 Jan 13, In Vitina, Kosovo,
Merita Shabiu, an 11-year-old Albanian girl, was raped and murdered.
On Jan 16 American soldier, Staff Sgt. Frank J. Ronghi (35), was
charged for the rape and murder. Ronghi later confessed and was
sentenced to life in prison.
(SFC, 1/17/00, p.A10)(WSJ, 1/17/00, p.A1)(SFC,
1/24/00, p.A9)(SFC, 8/2/00, p.A14)
2000 Jan 13, A Swiss Shorts
300-360 airplane carrying Libyan oil workers to a refinery at Marsa
el-Brega crashed off the Libya coast and at least 15 of 41 people
were killed.
(SFC, 1/14/00, p.D2)(WSJ, 1/14/00, p.A1)
2001 Jan 13, In Utah a small
plane crashed into the Great Salt Lake and all 9 people aboard were
killed.
(SFC, 1/16/01, p.A2)
2001 Jan 13, In El Salvador a
7.6 earthquake hit near San Salvador. Some 1200 people were not
accounted for in the buried Las Colinas neighborhood. The “slab
earthquake” originated 24-36 miles below the surface. The earthquake
death toll later climbed to over 840. Damages were estimated at $1
billion.
(SSFC, 1/14/01, p.A1)(SSFC, 1/21/01, p.D1)(AP,
1/13/06)
2001 Jan 13, The Palestinian
Authority executed the 1st 2 Palestinians ever convicted of
collaborating with Israel.
(SSFC, 1/14/01, p.D1)
2002 Jan 13, The off-Broadway
musical "The Fantasticks" was performed for the last time, ending a
run of nearly 42 years and 17,162 shows.
(AP, 1/13/03)
2002 Jan 13, Pres. Bush lost
consciousness briefly after he choked on a cookie while watching a
football game on TV.
(SFC, 1/14/02, p.A1)
2002 Jan 13, Treasury Secretary
Paul O'Neill and Commerce Secretary Don Evans said on talk shows
they had never considered intervening in Enron's spiral toward
bankruptcy, nor informed President Bush of requests for help from
the fallen energy giant.
(AP, 1/13/03)
2002 Jan 13, Christian Michael
Longo (27), wanted on charges of killing his wife and three children
in 2001 and dumping their bodies into coastal waters off Oregon, was
arrested in Mexico. Longo had fled the US and impersonated
journalist Michael Finkel while abroad. Finkel was fired by the NY
Times Magazine in February for creating a composite character in a
story on child slavery in West Africa. In 2005 Finkel authored “True
Story: Murder, Memoir, Mea Culpa.”
(SFC, 1/15/02, p.A1)(AP, 1/13/03)(SSFC, 6/5/05,
p.B2)
2002 Jan 13, Ted Demme, film
and TV director, died at age 38 while playing in a celebrity
basketball game in Santa Monica.
(SFC, 1/15/02, p.A17)
2002 Jan 13, In India armed
militants in Tripura state killed 16 and wounded 10 in the
Singicherra area. The outlawed National Liberation Front of Tripura
targeted Bengali immigrants.
(SFC, 1/14/02, p.A6)
2002 Jan 13, Muslim scholars
concluded a 6-day conference in Mecca and issued a definition of
terrorism as: “all acts of aggression committed by individuals,
groups or states against human beings, including attacks on their
religion, life, intellect or property.
(WSJ, 1/14/02, p.A12)
2003 Jan 13, Connecticut Sen.
Joseph Lieberman jumped into the 2004 race for president.
(AP, 1/13/04)
2003 Jan 13, The owners of FAO
Schwarz filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
(AP, 1/13/04)
2003 Jan 13, Rock musician Pete
Townshend was arrested in London on suspicion of possessing indecent
images of children. Townshend acknowledged using an Internet Web
site advertising child pornography, but said he was not a pedophile
and was only doing research for an autobiography dealing with his
own suspected childhood sexual abuse; he was eventually cleared of
possessing pornographic images of children.
(AP, 1/13/08)
2003 Jan 13, US warplanes
struck an anti-ship missile launcher in southern Iraq. US planes
also dropped leaflets over An Najaf, about 85 miles southeast of
Baghdad. It was the 14th drop in 3 months.
(AP, 1/13/03)
2003 Jan 13, It was reported
that Iraq has experienced a dramatic increase in child cancers in
recent years. Blame was cast on the US use of depleted uranium
during the 1991 Gulf War.
(SFC, 1/13/03, p.A1)
2003 Jan 13, Dutch Foreign
Minister Jaap de Hoop Scheffer took over as head of the 55-nation
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe for 2003. He
said the Vienna-based OSCE would sharpen its efforts to improve
border security and police cooperation and cut off the flow of cash
to terrorist groups.
(AP, 1/13/03)
2003 Jan 13, UN inspectors took
their hunt for banned arms to science and technology colleges in
Baghdad, and the top nuclear inspector said his teams' mission would
take several more months.
(AP, 1/13/03)
2003 Jan 13, An Indonesia court
sentenced Ang Kiem Soei, a Dutch citizen of Chinese descent, to
death for operating what police say was one of the biggest ecstasy
factories in Southeast Asia.
(AP, 1/13/03)
2003 Jan 13, Two Palestinians
threw grenades at an Israeli bus in the Gaza Strip and were shot
dead by Israeli troops, and an Islamic Jihad activist was killed in
an explosion in the West Bank.
(AP, 1/14/03)
2003 Jan 13, Protesters waved
Puerto Rican flags and shouted "Navy get out!" as fighter jets
dropped inert bombs over Vieques in what the Navy says will be its
last round of training on the island.
(AP, 1/14/03)
2003 Jan 13, Togo's Pres.
Gnassingbe Eyadema, celebrated 36 years in power Monday with a
military parade, a display derided by opposition groups as "a sheer
waste of time."
(AP, 1/13/03)
2004 Jan 13, The US Supreme
Court endorsed the use of police road blocks as an investigational
tool for finding witnesses to recent crimes.
(SFC, 1/14/04, p.A3)
2004 Jan 13, A Human Rights
Watch report said more than $4 billion in oil revenue disappeared
from Angolan state coffers between 1997 and 2002, even as the
country was struggling to recover from 27 years of civil war.
(AP, 1/13/04)
2004 Jan 13, In Maryland a
fiery explosion killed five on the northbound lanes of Interstate
95. A tanker carrying flammable material plunged off an overpass on
Interstate 895, landing in the northbound lane of I-95.
(AP, 1/14/04)
2004 Jan 13, Canada's PM Paul
Martin met U.S. President George W. Bush officially for the 1st
time. Bush announced that Canada will be allowed into a second round
of bidding for contracts to rebuild Iraq.
(AP, 1/13/04)
2004 Jan 13, The European
Commission proposed an initiative aimed at creating a single market
for services within the European Union (EU), similar to the single
market for goods act of 1986. It came to be known as
Bolkestein Directive after the Dutch Commissioner Frits Bolkestein
(b.1933), who launched it. Trade unions opposed it. On 16 February
2006, the European Parliament in plenary session in Strasbourg voted
in favor of a compromise proposal that went a long way towards
meeting the trade union demands.
(www.etuc.org/a/499)
2004 Jan 13, Joe Darby, a US
soldier at Abu Ghraib prison, reported US abuses of Iraqi prisoners.
Criminal charges were lodged against 6 soldiers on Mar 20. In 2005
Spc. Charles Graner was convicted on 5 counts of assault and
sentenced to 10 years in a military stockade. Graner said he had
operated under orders from superior officers.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Darby)(SFC,
5/6/04, p.A17)(AP, 1/13/05)(SSFC, 1/16/05, p.A1)
2004 Jan 13, Hostile fire
brought down a U.S. Army Apache attack helicopter in Iraq, but the
two crew members escaped injury.
(AP, 1/13/05)
2004 Jan 13, In Mexico the
34-nation Summit of the Americas ended. The United States reached
out to its neighbors on free trade and battling corruption,
smoothing tense relations with Latin American leaders.
(AP, 1/13/04)(SFC, 1/14/04, p.A1)
2004 Jan 13, In northern
England Dr. Harold Shipman was found hanged in his Wakefield prison
cell one day before his 58th birthday. He was convicted in 2000 of
killing 15 patients and later was found to have murdered at least
200 more, mostly by lethal injection. He always maintained his
innocence.
(AP, 1/13/04)
2004 Jan 13, A Dutch high
school student walked into his school's crowded cafeteria and shot
Hans van Wieren (49), an economics teacher, point-blank in the head,
fatally wounding him.
(AP, 1/13/04)
2004 Jan 13, A senior Swaziland
aide said King Mswati III has ordered nine palaces built within
existing royal compounds to house seven of his 10 wives and two
future brides. Some $15 million of his impoverished kingdom's
national budget would be used on the project.
(AP, 1/13/04)
2004 Jan 13, Thai and Malaysian
military forces began joint land and air patrols along their jungle
border for the first time since the 1970s.
(AP, 1/14/04)
2004 Jan 13, In Tashkent,
Uzbekistan, a domestic airliner crashed on approach to the airport.
All 37 people, including the top U.N. official for Uzbekistan, were
killed.
(AP, 1/13/04)
2005 Jan 13, US baseball owners
and players agreed to a more stringent drug policy. It would suspend
first-time offenders for 10 days and randomly tested players
year-round.
(SFC, 1/13/05, p.A1)(AP, 1/13/06)
2005 Jan 13, The FBI said it
may have to scrap a costly computer system overhaul.
(WSJ, 1/14/05, p.A1)
2005 Jan 13, The European-built
space probe Huygens entered the atmosphere of Saturn's largest moon,
Titan.
(Reuters, 1/14/05)
2005 Jan 13, A Black Hawk
helicopter crashed during a counternarcotics mission in the jungles
of southwest Colombia, killing all 20 soldiers aboard.
(AP, 1/13/05)
2005 Jan 13, Sir Mark Thatcher
pleaded guilty to unwittingly helping to finance a foiled coup plot
in oil-rich Equatorial Guinea, accepting a $506,000 fine and
suspended jail sentence.
(AP, 1/13/05)
2005 Jan 13, In Iran a
malfunctioning heater in an Iranian school ignited a barrel of
kerosene, touching off a blaze that killing 13 children.
(AP, 1/13/05)
2005 Jan 13, In Iraq gunmen
opened fire on a minibus picking up a Turkish businessman from the
Bakhan Hotel in central Baghdad, killing six Iraqis and kidnapping
the Turk, who reportedly ran a construction company that worked with
U.S.-led occupation authorities.
(AP, 1/13/05)
2005 Jan 13, In Iraq's western
Anbar province 2 U.S. Marines were killed in action, and a soldier
died near the restive northern city of Mosul. Gunmen killed three
officials of a leading Kurdish political party in an ambush in the
volatile northern city of Mosul.
(AP, 1/14/05)
2005 Jan 13, In Iraq 28
prisoners held by Iraqi authorities for common crimes escaped as
they were being transported by bus from the Abu Ghraib prison to
another facility. 10 were quickly recaptured.
(AP, 1/14/05)
2005 Jan 13, Israel's foreign
minister said the planned sale of advanced Russian missiles to Syria
will disrupt regional stability and Moscow should call off the deal.
(AP, 1/13/05)
2005 Jan 13, Nepal's PM Sher
Bahadur Deuba said he would call elections and intensify a crackdown
against Maoist rebels after they turned down his offer of peace
talks.
(AP, 1/13/05)
2005 Jan 13, Palestinian
militants killed six Israeli workers at a Gaza crossing. 3
Palestinian attackers were also killed.
(AP, 1/14/05)(SFC, 1/14/05, p.A3)
2005 Jan 13, In Poland an
anti-terrorism law that allows authorities to shoot down hijacked
planes as a last resort took effect, part of efforts to protect the
country from attacks similar to those of Sept. 11.
(AP, 1/13/05)
2005 Jan 13, A Russian
passenger plane with 10 people on board went missing on a flight
over Siberia.
(AP, 1/13/05)
2005 Jan 13, Saudi judicial
officials said a religious court has sentenced 15 Saudis, including
a woman, to as many as 250 lashes each and up to six months in
prison for participating in a protest against the monarchy.
(AP, 1/14/05)
2005 Jan 13, In Spain an
explosion killed seven workers at a warehouse in the northern city
of Burgos. A gas leak was suspected.
(AP, 1/13/05)
2006 Jan 13, President Bush met
with Germany's new chancellor, Angela Merkel, at the White House.
German's security services faced the prospect of a parliamentary
inquiry, triggered by reports that German agents in Baghdad had
helped the United States pinpoint bombing targets on April 7, 2003.
Foreign Minister Walter Steinmeier confirmed that Germany had 2
agents in Baghdad, who helped American with coordinates for
non-targets.
(Reuters, 1/13/06)(WSJ, 1/13/06, p.A1)(Econ,
1/21/06, p.49)(AP, 1/13/07)
2006 Jan 13, US attorneys
general in 12 states said that the Bush administration's plan to
ease rules on reporting legal toxin releases would compromise the
public's right to know about possible health risks in their
neighborhoods.
(AP, 1/13/06)
2006 Jan 13, NBC's Nashville
affiliate closed "The Book of Daniel" after the show, whose main
character is a pill-popping Episcopal priest with a gay son and a
pot-dealing daughter, drew thousands of complaints.
(AP, 1/13/06)
2006 Jan 13, North Dakota State
University's North Central Research Center, Basin Electric Power
Cooperative and other partners described plans for a station in
Minot to refuel hydrogen-powered vehicles using wind power.
(AP, 1/13/06)
2006 Jan 13, The population of
New Orleans was estimated at 40% of its original 460,000.
(WSJ, 1/13/06, p.A1)
2006 Jan 13, Eldon Dedini,
cartoonist, died in Carmel, California. His ribald drawings appeared
in the New Yorker and Playboy magazines.
(SFC, 1/19/06, p.B7)
2006 Jan 13, In the Bahamas the
Compleat Angler Hotel on North Bimini Island was destroyed by fire.
The hotel's owner Julian Brown helped the guests escape before
disappearing in the flames to fight the fire. The hotel claimed to
be a one-time writing headquarters for Ernest Hemingway and
advertised room No. 1 as the place where Hemingway worked on "To
Have and Have Not."
(AP, 1/13/06)
2006 Jan 13, Bolivia's
president-elect ended an around-the-world tour with a promise to
respect foreign investments and vowed not to nationalize the
Bolivian operations of Brazil's state oil company Petrobras SA.
(AP, 1/13/06)
2006 Jan 13, A battle for
livestock between Ethiopian and Kenyan nomads left 38 people dead in
drought-stricken northern Kenya, in the remote village of
Lokamarinyang, along the Kenya-Ethiopia border. The fighting killed
30 of the Dongiro raiders and eight Kenyans, all of them women and
children. A drought that has impoverished some 11.5 million people
in the area, most of them nomads, has exacerbated tensions between
the tribes.
(AP, 1/19/06)
2006 Jan 13, Maimuma
Taal-Ndure, Gambia’s director of aviation, was arraigned on charges
of economic crime, mostly related to the improvement of Banjul
Airport. Taal-Ndure had resisted efforts transfer aviation agency
funds to another government agency. Her case was dismissed following
a trial that stretched over 18 months.
(WSJ, 12/24/07, p.A8)
2006 Jan 13, Iran threatened to
block inspections of its nuclear sites if confronted by the UN
Security Council over its atomic activities. The hard-line president
reaffirmed his country's intention to produce nuclear energy.
(AP, 1/13/06)
2006 Jan 13, A US Army
reconnaissance helicopter was shot down by insurgents in the
northern city of Mosul, killing its two pilots.
(AP, 1/13/06)(SFC, 1/14/06, p.A6)
2006 Jan 13, In Lithuania
Mykolas Burokevicius (78), former Communist Party leader, was freed
from Lukiskes Prison after serving 12 years for murder and other
crimes.
(AP, 1/13/06)
2006 Jan 13, Raul Anguiano
(b.1915), Mexican painter, sculptor and muralist, died in Mexico
City.
(SFC, 1/17/06, p.B5)
2006 Jan 13, Mongolia’s
Parliament voted to dissolve the government of PM Tsakhilganiin
Elbegdorj.
(AP, 1/14/06)
2006 Jan 13, A Hong Kong
newspaper reported that North Korea's secretive leader Kim Jong Il
is on a two-day visit to the southern Chinese province of Guangdong.
(AP, 1/13/06)
2006 Jan 13, A local lawmaker
said a US airstrike on a Pakistani village near the border with
Afghanistan killed at least 17 people, including women and children.
The American military said it had no reports of an attack. The
provincial government said at least four foreign terrorists died in
the purported US airstrike aimed at al-Qaida's No. 2 leader in
Damadola. The strike destroyed three houses and killed 18 people.
The US missile strike in Pakistan killed a relative of al-Qaida's
No. 2 leader Ayman al-Zawahri and a terror suspect.
(AP, 1/17/06)(AP, 1/13/07)
2006 Jan 13, A Philippine judge
issued arrest warrants for four US Marines charged with rape,
putting pressure on the United States to hand them over to
Philippine authorities.
(AP, 1/13/06)
2006 Jan 13, In southern Russia
a bus transporting workers after their shift at a local factory
collided with a train, killing at least 21 people and severely
injuring five.
(AP, 1/13/06)
2006 Jan 13, South Korea agreed
to resume imports of some American beef, banned two years ago over
fears of mad cow disease. The US government pressed South Korea to
accept all US beef imports.
(AFP, 1/13/06)
2006 Jan 13, Sudan rejected a
suggestion by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan that the United States
and Europe help set up a possible mobile force in Darfur to
supplement African troops now on the ground.
(AP, 1/13/06)
2006 Jan 13, Ukrainian
President Viktor Yushchenko said that his country should produce its
own nuclear fuel for power plants.
(AP, 1/13/06)
2006 Jan 13, Venezuela’s
President Hugo Chavez on blasted an attempt by the US to block Spain
from selling Venezuela 12 military planes with American parts.
(AP, 1/13/06)
2007 Jan 13, The North Carolina
state attorney general's office agreed to take over the sexual
assault case against three Duke University lacrosse players at the
request of embattled Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong.
All three players were later exonerated.
(AP, 1/13/08)
2007 Jan 13, In SF the Muni
Metro T-Third line began operations.
(SFC, 1/13/07, p.B1)
2007 Jan 13, It was reported
that Kink, a Web-based pornography distributor, had purchased the
1912 old armory building on Mission St. in San Francisco for $14.5
million.
(SFC, 1/13/07, p.B1)
2007 Jan 13, In Huntington,
W.Va, 9 people were killed in an apartment building fire.
(AP, 1/13/08)
2007 Jan 13, In McDowell
County, W.Va., 2 miners were killed when a roof collapsed inside the
Brooks Run Mining Company's Cucumber coal mine.
(AP, 1/13/08)
2007 Jan 13, It was reported
that the Asian vulture had declined by up to 99% in the last decade
due to poisoning from diclofenac, an anti-inflammatory drug for
cattle. In 2006 India, Pakistan and Nepal banned the making and
importing of the drug.
(Econ, 1/13/07, p.39)
2007 Jan 13, In Afghanistan
British marines, supported by Dutch and British attack helicopters,
staged a pre-dawn attack on a mud-brick compound atop a barren hill
where insurgents were thought hiding, setting off a battle that
killed 16 suspected militants and one marine in Helmand province. US
warplanes dropped 500-pound bombs.
(AP, 1/14/07)
2007 Jan 13, ASEAN leaders
meeting in the Philippines signed an agreement to regulate migrant
workers.
(Econ, 1/20/07, p.54)
2007 Jan 13, It was reported
that thousands of birds had dropped dead over the past 3 weeks in
Western Australia.
(SFC, 1/13/07, p.B8)
2007 Jan 13, Bangladeshi police
and soldiers arrested more than 2,500 people overnight and raided
the homes of several political leaders after a new caretaker
government was sworn in to quell unrest ahead of elections.
(AP, 1/13/07)
2007 Jan 13, A Bolivian air
force plane crashed in a southern state, killing all eight people on
board.
(AP, 1/14/07)
2007 Jan 13, In Canada
groundbreaking took place in Calgary on the 58-story Encana tower,
The Bow. In Dec 2008 construction was halted due to falling oil
prices.
(Econ, 1/17/09,
p.40)(http://highriseconstruction.wordpress.com/2008/07/)
2007 Jan 13, China said Wang
You-theng, founder of the Rebar Asia Pacific Group, left China for
the US. You-theng had vanished earlier this month amid accusations
he stole millions of dollars from his Taiwan company.
(Reuters, 1/19/07)
2007 Jan 13, Pranab Mukherjee,
India’s foreign minister, visited Islamabad to discuss Sir Creek and
other disputes. 2 days later Indian and Pakistani surveyors began
mapping the creek in preparation for settling their maritime border
there.
(Econ, 1/20/07, p.52)
2007 Jan 13, In Iraq at least
11 people were killed or found dead, including a Sunni cleric who
was shot to death near his home in Samarra, 60 miles north of
Baghdad and five who were slain in separate attacks in northern
Iraq.
(AP, 1/13/07)
2007 Jan 13, An Italian
military tribunal gave life sentences in absentia to 10 German
former SS men for massacring about 800 Italian villagers in 1944.
They had laid waste to the villages of Marzabotto, Grizzana and Vado
di Monzuno near Bologna, as the Germans retreated before Allied
troops.
(Reuters, 1/14/07)
2007 Jan 13, It was reported
that swarms of locusts had descended on the Mexican state of Yucatan
and threatened over 12,000 acres of vegetation.
(SFC, 1/13/07, p.B8)
2007 Jan 13, Suspected avian
influenza was recorded in northern Nigeria's Sokoto State, a day
after the disease reportedly infected 5,000 birds in nearby Kastina
state.
(AP, 1/14/07)
2007 Jan 13, Somali lawmakers
authorized the government to declare martial law as the country's
internationally recognized leaders struggled to assert their
authority after battling an Islamic movement that had controlled
much of southern Somalia.
(AP, 1/13/07)
2007 Jan 13, In southern
Thailand a Buddhist man and his wife were working at a rubber
plantation in Yala province when a group attacked them, shooting the
man three times in the chest before beheading him and killing his
wife. Another Buddhist was killed in a drive-by shooting in a
separate attack in Yala. The Islamic insurgency, that flared in
January 2004, has killed more than 1,900 people.
(AP, 1/14/07)
2008 Jan 13, The NY Times
reported that at least 121 Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans have
committed a killing or been charged in one in the US after returning
from combat.
(AP, 1/13/08)
2008 Jan 13, Ken Kelley (58),
former editor of the Ann Arbor Argus and the SF-based SunDance
magazine, died in Pleasanton, Ca.
(http://hotweir.blogspot.com/2008/01/goodbye-to-my-friend-ken-kelley.html)(SFC,
4/22/08, p.B3)(http://bentley.umich.edu/exhibits/sinclair/)
2008 Jan 13, In Abu Dhabi, UAR,
President Bush said that Iran is threatening the security of the
world, and that the United States and Arab allies must join together
to confront the danger "before it's too late."
(AP, 1/13/08)
2008 Jan 13, William Wood, US
ambassador to Afghanistan, flew to Musa Qala, previously held by the
Taliban in the heart of the world's largest poppy-growing region,
and told with Mullah Abdul Salaam, the ex-militant commander now in
charge there, that Afghans must stop "producing poison." In southern
Afghanistan Taliban militants killed eight officers in an attack on
a police checkpoint in Kandahar province. A suicide bomber killed
another policeman and wounded eight other people when he blew
himself up in a housing compound in the town of Lashkar Gah in
neighboring Helmand province.
(AP, 1/13/08)(AP, 1/14/08)
2008 Jan 13, Two young
adventurers completed a 62-day paddle of more than 2,000 miles to
become the first people to travel from Australia to New Zealand by
kayak.
(AP, 1/13/08)
2008 Jan 13, In Chile Patricia
Troncoso (39), an imprisoned Indian-rights activist who has been on
a hunger strike for 93 days, was sent to a hospital because of her
deteriorating condition. Troncoso, imprisoned in 2002, is serving a
10-year sentence for participating in a group that set a fire on a
farm claimed by Mapuche Indian activists who say the property
belonged to their ancestors.
(AP, 1/13/08)
2008 Jan 13, China took aim at
price manipulators and hoarders of goods, as Beijing ramped up its
campaign to rein in inflation which is running at its highest level
in more than a decade. The government said it has closed more than
11,000 small coal mines as part of a two-year-old safety crackdown
aimed at stemming the industry's high death toll.
(Reuters, 1/13/08)(AP, 1/13/08)
2008 Jan 13, Delegation chief
Kambasu Ngeze said at a Congolese peace conference that renegade
general Laurent Nkunda's Kivu movement vowed to continue its armed
struggle "with neither remorse nor regret."
(AP, 1/13/08)
2008 Jan 13, French President
Nicolas Sarkozy confirmed plans to sign a nuclear cooperation
agreement with the United Arab Emirates amid reports French firms
could construct up to two nuclear reactors there.
(AP, 1/13/08)
2008 Jan 13, In Georgia tens of
thousands of opposition supporters rallied in Tbilisi to protest
what they denounced as massive vote fraud that helped US-allied
Mikhail Saakashvili win a second presidential term.
(AP, 1/13/08)
2008 Jan 13, Indian PM Manmohan
Singh arrived in Beijing for a three-day visit aimed at boosting
sometimes strained relations between the two Asian giants.
(AP, 1/13/08)
2008 Jan 13, In Iraq several
Shiite and Sunni political factions united to pressure Kurds over
control of oil and the future of Kirkuk, which the Kurds wished to
annex.
(SFC, 1/14/08, p.A19)
2008 Jan 13, Irish PM Bertie
Ahern arrived in Cape Town as part of a five-day visit to South
Africa and Tanzania.
(AP, 1/13/08)
2008 Jan 13, King Abdullah II
of Jordan arrived on a three-day official visit to Morocco. Talks
between King Abdullah II and Morocco's King Mohammed VI focused on
revitalizing trade between Amman and Rabat.
(AFP, 1/13/08)
2008 Jan 13, A UN humanitarian
agency said floods in Mozambique have killed about 50 people and
displaced tens of thousands.
(AP, 1/13/08)
2008 Jan 13, In Sri Lanka
Japan's peace envoy opened talks, hinting international donors may
hold back much-needed foreign aid if the island's decades-long
ethnic conflict escalates. Government soldiers crossed the front
lines, destroying three bunkers and killing six rebels. Troops
killed a 7th insurgent when he went to inspect the front lines north
of rebel-held territory.
(AP, 1/13/08)(AP, 1/15/08)
2008 Jan 13, In Thailand six
suspected militants escaped in a jailbreak.
(AP, 1/15/08)
2009 Jan 13, President George
W. Bush declared his administration had achieved "a good, solid"
record and gave thanks to both his closest aides and Americans
across the country.
(AP, 1/13/09)
2009 Jan 13, The Pentagon said
that 61 former detainees from its military prison camp at Guantanamo
Bay, Cuba, appear to have returned to terrorism since their release
from custody.
(Reuters, 1/14/09)
2009 Jan 13, The city of Los
Angeles, plagued by 23,000 violent gang crimes since 2004, including
784 murders and 12,000 felony assaults, announced that it had won
its first civil judgment, for $5 million, against a criminal gang
that had dominated the heroin trade downtown for decades.
(CSM, 1/15/09)(http://tinyurl.com/85n3cl)
2009 Jan 13, Citigroup
announced that it will spin off its SmithBarney retail brokerage
into a joint venture with Morgan Stanley. Plans were also afoot for
Citigroup to shrink by a third.
(WSJ, 1/14/09, p.A1)
2009 Jan 13, Patrick McGoohan
(b.1928), Emmy winning TV and film actor, died. He created and
starred in the cult classic TV show “The Prisoner” (1967). The
British show premiered in the US in 1968.
(SFC, 1/15/09, p.A2)
2009 Jan 13, Nancy Bird-Walton
(93), Australian aviation pioneer, died from natural causes. She was
the first woman in Australia to operate a commercial aircraft. Sir
Charles Kingsford-Smith, the first man to fly across the
mid-Pacific, taught Watson how to fly in 1933, when she was just 17
years old. Two years later, she obtained a commercial pilot's
license and began taking paying passengers for joyrides around the
country.
(AP, 1/13/09)
2009 Jan 13, In Austria Umar
Israilov (27), a Chechen refugee, was shot dead on a Vienna street.
Officials said they had no proof the killing was political, but
human rights activists said his death was linked to his opposition
to Chechnya's pro-Moscow president. On Jan 28 Austrian authorities
arrested seven suspects, all Chechens, in the killing. On February
19 Polish police arrested Turpal Ali J. (31), a man suspected of
killing Israilov. In 2010 Austrian investigators concluded that
Chechnya Pres. Ramzan Kadyrov ordered the kidnapping of one of his
critics and former bodyguards and that Israilov was shot to death
when the abduction went awry. In 2011 an Austrian prosecutor
sought life sentences for three Russian men on charges they carried
out the murder of the Israilov.
(AP, 1/28/09)(AP, 2/22/09)(AP, 4/27/10)(AP,
6/1/11)
2009 Jan 13, China's government
reported that exports fell at their fastest rate in a decade as the
country's trade slump worsened again in December, a decline that's
led to masses of layoffs and growing fears of social unrest.
(AP, 1/13/09)
2009 Jan 13, Ethiopia handed
over security duties in neighboring Somalia to a joint force of
Somali government security forces and Islamic militiamen, a shift
some fear will leave a power vacuum in the lawless African nation.
(AP, 1/13/09)
2009 Jan 13, Iran’s judiciary
announced that 2 men were stoned to death last month for adultery.
(WSJ, 1/14/09, p.A1)
2009 Jan 13, Israeli ground
troops closed in on downtown Gaza City, battling Palestinian
militants in the streets of a densely populated neighborhood,
destroying dozens of homes and sending terrified residents running
for cover as gunfire and explosions echoed in the distance. Some 15
rockets and mortar shells were fired toward Israel, causing no
injuries. Egyptian mediators pushed the militant Palestinian Hamas
group to accept a truce proposal for the embattled Gaza Strip in
talks. The UN secretary-general headed to the region to join the
multitrack diplomatic efforts for a cease-fire in Israel’s 18-day
offensive, in which more than 900 Palestinians have been killed,
half of them civilians.
(AP, 1/13/09)
2009 Jan 13, In Latvia a
protest against economic reforms that drew thousands in Riga turned
violent as small pockets of rioters clashed with police and attacked
government buildings.
(AP, 1/13/09)
2009 Jan 13, Pirates attacked a
Norwegian cable ship off the coast of Nigeria but failed to seize
the boat despite gunfire, leaving the crew of 52 unhurt.
(AFP, 1/13/09)
2009 Jan 13, Russia and Ukraine
hotly blamed each other as Russia restarted natural gas supplies but
little or no gas flowed toward Europe. EU officials watched in
dismay and criticized both nations for their intransigence.
(AP, 1/13/09)
2009 Jan 13, A Russian warship
helped foil an attack on a Dutch container ship by suspected Somali
pirates in the dangerous Gulf of Aden.
(AP, 1/14/09)
2009 Jan 13, Sudanese army
planes bombed near Muhajiriya in south Darfur, targeting rebels who
had rejected a 2006 peace agreement and the unconditional ceasefire
declared by Bashir last year.
(AP, 1/14/09)
2009 Jan 13, Swedish truck
maker AB Volvo said it will lay off more than 1,600 employees in
Sweden as it slows production amid falling demand for trucks.
(AP, 1/13/09)
2009 Jan 13, The WHO said
Zimbabwe's cholera epidemic has killed more than 2,000 people and
almost 40,000 have contracted the normally preventable disease in
Africa's worst outbreak in nearly a decade.
(Reuters, 1/13/09)
2010 Jan 13, US hearings began
by the 10-member Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission to investigate
at least 22 potential causes of the financial crisis.
(Econ, 1/9/10,
p.33)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_Crisis_Inquiry_Commission)
2010 Jan 13, Wall Street
executives said they underestimated the severity of the 2008
financial crisis and apologized for risky behavior and poor
decisions. They also defended their bonus and compensation practices
to a skeptical commission investigating what caused the collapse.
(AP, 1/13/10)
2010 Jan 13, In the SF Bay Area
aspiring bass player Dewey Tucker (24) of Vallejo, Ca., was shot a
killed on I-80 near Crockett. A year later 4 suspected gang members
from Santa Rosa were arrested for his murder. They included Raul
Vega (19), the suspected shooter, Christopher Mancinas (29), Hector
Barragan (28) and Javier Lopez (20).
(SFC, 1/13/11, p.C3)
2010 Jan 13, Prosecutors in New
York City said that, after a series of hung juries, they would not
seek a 5th retrial against John “Junior” Gotti on charges that he
ordered several murders.
(SSFC, 1/17/10, p.A14)
2010 Jan 13, In Florida a 3-day
state-coordinated hunt began to track down invasive pythons. It was
feared that the African rock python would begin breeding with the
Burmese python, which has already gained a foothold in the
Everglades, and produce a new “super snake.”
(SFC, 1/15/10, p.A8)
2010 Jan 13, In Seattle,
Washington Tohru Shigemura (71), a Japanese psychiatrist traveling
the world as a big game hunter, was charged in connection with
smuggling black bear gall bladders. He had pretended to be a US
citizen to buy guns, which he used to kill 6 black bears in and
around the Quinault Indian Reservation.
(SFC, 1/14/10, p.A4)
2010 Jan 13, R&B singer
Teddy Pendergrass (b.1950) died of colon cancer. He was one of the
most electric and successful figures in music until a 1982 car crash
left him in a wheelchair.
(AP, 1/14/10)
2010 Jan 13, Edgar Vos (78),
"the emperor of Dutch fashion," died of a heart attack while on
vacation in Florida. Vos built a chain of 15 stores across the
Netherlands, where he sold designer clothes cut to bring out the
best from all figures and tailored to most budgets.
(AP, 1/14/10)
2010 Jan 13, In Afghanistan 2
US soldiers, a French trooper and 5 Afghans were killed in bomb
blasts. The United Nations reported that 2,412 Afghan civilians
killed in 2009, the highest toll since the US-led invasion in late
2001. Four would-be suicide bombers were killed in a premature
explosion near the city of Kandahar.
(AFP, 1/13/10)(AP, 1/14/10)
2010 Jan 13, The head of
Algeria's national oil corporation Sonatrach was suspended from his
job and ordered to appear before investigators probing corruption.
Mohamed Meziane was replaced in his job by vice-president Abdelhafid
Feghouli.
(AFP, 1/15/10)
2010 Jan 13, Heavy snow hit
central London as a fresh whiteout covered much of the country,
forcing airports to close as businesses counted the cost of the
worst winter in decades.
(AFP, 1/13/10)
2010 Jan 13, Britain’s
Huddersfield University launched an investigation after its students
allegedly started an Internet craze for a Hitler drinking game. The
original page on the social networking site had nearly 12,000
members but has now been shut down, although another similar page
has since been set up.
(AFP, 1/13/10)
2010 Jan 13, Major Inuit
organizations said Canada's Inuit people have filed a lawsuit
against the European Union in a bid to overturn an EU ban on imports
of seal products. The EU ban was imposed in July after decades of
protests from animal activists, who said the annual seal hunt was
cruel and inhumane. The ban will go into effect in time for the 2010
hunting season.
(Reuters, 1/13/10)
2010 Jan 13, Amnesty Int’l.
said the Czech Republic is defying a European court by continuing to
place thousands of healthy Gypsy children in schools for the
mentally disabled.
(SFC, 1/14/10, p.A2)
2010 Jan 13, Ethiopia’s biggest
hydroelectric dam was opened by PM Meles Zenawi and Italian Foreign
Minister Franco Frattini. The Gilegel Gibe II dam was financed by
Italy.
(AFP, 1/14/10)
2010 Jan 13, In France a
Chinese student (26) stabbed to death a 49-year-old secretary and
wounded three teachers in an attack at a university in the southern
town of Perpignan.
(AFP, 1/13/10)
2010 Jan 13, In Indonesia
hundreds people pelted each other with stones outside parliament as
lawmakers grilled Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati over a
controversial bank bailout. Some 400 anti-graft protesters from
rival groups set upon each other in the latest sign of mounting
anger over pervasive corruption.
(AFP, 1/13/10)
2010 Jan 13, Iraqi police
arrested Khalid al-Khonfisi, a man wanted for his alleged
involvement with al-Qaida in Iraq. He was captured in a police raid
of his hideout near Jurf al-Sakhar, about 43 miles south of Baghdad.
A water truck loaded with explosives was detonated in a suicide
attack in Saqlawiya, Anbar province, killing 7 people.
(AP, 1/14/10)(SFC, 1/14/10, p.A2)
2010 Jan 13, Japanese
prosecutors raided the fund-raising office of ruling party kingpin
Ichiro Ozawa over a widening money scandal, dealing a fresh blow to
the troubled government.
(AP, 1/13/10)
2010 Jan 13, In Lebanon a bomb
apparently meant for a Hezbollah figure went off in the village of
Kfar Fila, a southern stronghold of the militant group, wounding his
daughter and two other students waiting for their school bus.
(AP, 1/13/10)
2010 Jan 13, In Mexico hundreds
of troops in combat gear fanned out in Ciudad Juarez, where 2,650
people died in narco violence last. Public Security Minister Genaro
Garcia Luna said 2,000 federal police reinforcements would arrive
over the next few days.
(Reuters, 1/14/10)
2010 Jan 13, A Nigerian high
court ruled that Vice President Goodluck Jonathan can take executive
powers in the absence of ailing President Umaru Yar'Adua, in
hospital in Saudi Arabia since November.
(AP, 1/13/10)
2010 Jan 13, North Korea said
it will begin to allow in more American tourists after years of
heavy restrictions on visits to the isolate country. North Korea's
military warned that it would retaliate against South Korea if Seoul
doesn't stop activists from launching propaganda leaflets across
their divided border.
(AP, 1/13/10)
2010 Jan 13, In eastern
Pakistan a passenger train hit a school bus at an ungated railroad
crossing in amid dense fog, killing at least 8 children and the bus
driver.
(AP, 1/13/10)
2010 Jan 13, In Somalia 7
children were among ten people killed in shelling by Somali
government forces in Mogadishu as troops backed by African Union
peacekeepers fired mortars into districts held by Islamist
insurgents.
(AFP, 1/13/10)
2010 Jan 13, Sudanese forces
clashed with rebels in a key area of the troubled western region of
Darfur.
(AFP, 1/13/10)
2010 Jan 13, Venezuela’s
President Hugo Chavez indefinitely suspended rolling blackouts in
Caracas, just a day after they began, and sacked his electricity
minister saying he was responsible for mistakes in the way the
rationing plan was applied.
(AP, 1/14/10)
2010 Jan 13, Zimbabwe civil
servants, who earn only 150 US dollars a month, rejected the
government's "paltry" offer to raise salaries by a maximum of 14%.
(AP, 1/13/10)
2010 Jan 13, A Zimbabwe state
daily reported that the nation’s power utility has been ordered to
stop electricity exports to Namibia until it can meet its own
country's needs.
(AFP, 1/13/10)
2011 Jan 13, The US Treasury
said it is launching a pilot program to deliver income tax refunds
on debit cards for low- and moderate-income people who do not have
traditional bank accounts.
(Reuters, 1/13/11)
2011 Jan 13, Marc Knapp (35) of
Simi Valley, Ca., accused of trying to export military equipment to
Iran, pleaded guilty in federal court in Delaware to two felony
counts involving violations of the International Emergency Economic
Powers Act and the Arms Export Control Act. Sentencing was set for
May 23.
(AP, 1/13/11)
2011 Jan 13, Gov. Pat Quinn
signed legislation that temporarily raises Illinois income taxes by
two-thirds, risking a political backlash against Democrats but
gaining money to help drag state government out of the deepest
budget hole in its history.
(AP, 1/13/11)
2011 Jan 13, Edwin Edwards,
former 4-term governor of Louisiana, was released from federal
prison after serving over 8 years for fraud.
(SFC, 1/14/11, p.A6)
2011 Jan 13, In eastern
Afghanistan a bomb in a marketplace killed a child outside a music
cassette shop in Jalalabad. The Afghan fuel ministry said that Iran
currently was allowing 1,000 tons of fuel to enter Afghanistan at
three border crossings each day, compared with 3,000 to 4,000 tons
daily before the trucks were blocked.
(AP, 1/13/11)
2011 Jan 13, In Algeria Mohsen
Bouterfif doused himself in gasoline and set himself on fire after a
meeting with the mayor of the small city of Boukhadra who was unable
to provide him a job and a house. Bouterfif died on of his burns on
Jan 15.
(Reuters, 1/16/11)
2011 Jan 13, Thieves in
Argentina stole $68,000 and 17,000 euros in cash that President
Cristina Fernandez was to use on a trip to the Middle East.
(AP, 1/14/11)
2011 Jan 13, Australia's
3rd-largest city Brisbane resembled a "war zone" with whole suburbs
under water and infrastructure smashed as the worst flood in decades
hit 30,000 properties. The Brisbane River peaked at 4.5 meters. The
flooding in Queensland left 28 people dead.
(AP, 1/13/11)(SFC, 1/17/11, p.A2)(Econ, 1/15/11,
p.45)
2011 Jan 13, Canada’s
BlackBerry maker Research In Motion said it has given India the
means to access its Messenger service and reiterated that no changes
could be made to allow monitoring of secure corporate emails.
(Reuters, 1/13/11)
2011 Jan 13, Dominican Republic
authorities resumed mass deportations of Haitian migrants after a
brief lull, and government officers began demanding passports at bus
stations as the country deals with a cholera scare.
(AP, 1/13/11)
2011 Jan 13, France's
parliament gave final approval to a law forcing large companies to
reserve at least 40 percent of their boardroom positions for women
within six years.
(Econ, 7/23/11, p.11)(http://tinyurl.com/447vuoy)
2011 Jan 13, In Germany a
tanker loaded with sulfuric acid capsized on the Rhine river near
St. Goarshausen and two crew members were missing. There were no
indications that the load was leaking.
(AP, 1/13/11)
2011 Jan 13, Guyana recognized
Palestinian statehood, joining a string of other South American
nations in a push for Palestinians and Israelis to negotiate a peace
deal.
(AP, 1/13/11)
2011 Jan 13, In India Tata
Coffee Ltd, part of the Tata group conglomerate, and Starbucks said
they have signed a pact to source coffee in India and explore
opening local retail stores.
(Reuters, 1/13/11)
2011 Jan 13, Iran's proposal
for a tour of its nuclear sites floundered after China effectively
rejected the invite and Russia cautioned such a trip could never
replace UN inspections or talks between Tehran and world powers.
(Reuters, 1/13/11)
2011 Jan 13, Iran’s state
broadcaster website reported that Iran has hanged five men convicted
of drug trafficking, taking to 33 the number of executions in 2011.
(AFP, 1/13/11)
2011 Jan 13, In Iraq NP Joe
Biden emphasized to Iraqi leaders that the US wants nothing more
than for Iraq to be a free and democratic country in a daylong visit
that officials said would focus on the departure of American troops
from the country. Three bombings near mosques in central and
northern Baghdad killed two people. Gunmen also killed a jewelry
shop owner.
(AP, 1/13/11)(AFP, 1/13/11)
2011 Jan 13, In Italy a court
ruling partially stripped PM Silvio Berlusconi of political
immunity.
(AFP, 1/14/11)
2011 Jan 13, Italy's Mount Etna
has come back to life with a brief eruption that sent lava down its
slopes and a cloud of ash into the sky, forcing the overnight
closure of a nearby airport. Its last major eruption was in 1992.
(AP, 1/13/11)
2011 Jan 13, In Ivory Coast
mobs and security forces allied to leader Laurent Gbagbo attacked at
least six UN vehicles, setting some ablaze and injuring two people
in the latest round of violence.
(AP, 1/13/11)
2011 Jan 13, The collapse of
Lebanon's government plunged the country into deep political
uncertainty after a year of relative stability, as the president
began the process of putting a new administration together.
(AP, 1/13/11)
2011 Jan 13, In Mexico 12
suspected drug cartel gunmen and two Mexican soldiers were killed in
a shootout that lasted almost six hours in the Veracruz state
capital of Xalapa.
(AP, 1/14/11)
2011 Jan 13, Nicaragua
suspended three federal judges and put them under investigation for
ordering the release of 10 alleged drug traffickers.
(AP, 1/13/11)
2011 Jan 13, In northwest
Pakistan suspected militants targeted a police vehicle and a
security checkpoint with bombs, killing four officers and wounding
nine others.
(AP, 1/13/11)
2011 Jan 13, A Palestinian
minister said Gaza's Hamas rulers will ensure a truce on rocket fire
against Israel is protected, a day after militant factions agreed to
a period of calm.
(AFP, 1/13/11)
2011 Jan 13, Scotland's First
Minister Alex Salmond announced that online retailer Amazon is to
create 950 full-time jobs at two Scottish locations.
(AP, 1/13/11)
2011 Jan 13, A Somaliland judge
sentenced a German man to four years in jail for making pornographic
films and pictures in Somalia. Gunter Pischof Albert (72) was
ordered jailed and fined him $10,000. A woman (23) was also
sentenced to one year in jail and fined $880.
(AP, 1/13/11)
2011 Jan 13, In South Korea
prize-winning director Park Chan-wook's said his latest film, "Night
Fishing," was filmed using 10 Apple iPhone 4s, three of which he
himself controlled.
(Reuters, 1/13/11)
2011 Jan 13, South Sudan's
independence vote cleared two major hurdles after former president
Jimmy Carter gave the poll his endorsement and organizers said high
turnout meant the result would be binding. Former US president Jimmy
Carter said that Khartoum wants all of Sudan's $39-billion debt
forgiven, saying he had erred in earlier saying it was ready to
assume the south's share.
(Reuters, 1/13/11)(AFP, 1/13/11)
2011 Jan 13, In Sudan 3
Bulgarians flying aircraft for the World Food Program were kidnapped
in the western Darfur region.
(AP, 1/13/11)
2011 Jan 13, In Tunisia rioters
hurled stones at trams and government buildings in Tunis in defiance
of increasingly tough government attempts to quash more than three
weeks of rioting by youths angry about joblessness.
(AP, 1/13/11)
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