Today in History - February 11

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660BC        Mythical date of the ascension of Japan's first emperor, Jimmu Tenno.
    (HN, 2/11/97)(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 214)

641        Feb 11, Heraclius (~65), emperor of Byzantium (610-641), died.
    (MC, 2/11/02)

731        Feb 11, Gregory II, Greek-Syrian Pope, died.
    (MC, 2/11/02)

867        Feb 11, Theodora, the Saint, beauty queen, Byzantine Empress, died.
    (MC, 2/11/02)

1380        Feb 11, Gianfrancesco Poggio Bracciolini, Italian humanist, was born.
    (MC, 2/11/02)

1465        Feb 11, Elizabeth of York, consort of King Henry VII, was born in London.
    (MC, 2/11/02)

1503        Feb 11, Elizabeth of York, Consort of King Henry VII, died on 38th birthday.
    (MC, 2/11/02)

1531        Feb 11, Henry VIII was recognized as the supreme head of the Church of England.
    (HN, 2/11/97)

1535        Feb 11, Gregory XIV, Roman Catholic Pope was born.
    (HN, 2/11/97)

1573        Feb 11, Sir Francis Drake 1st saw the Pacific Ocean from Panama.
    (MC, 2/11/02)

1650        Feb 11, Rene Descartes (b.1596), French mathematician and philosopher: "I think therefore I am", died in Stockholm. In 1666 his bones were exhumed for transfer to France. In 2008 Russell Shorto authored “Descartes’ Bones: A Skeletal History of the conflict Between Faith and Reason.”
    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ren%C3%A9_Descartes)(SFC, 11/5/08, p.E3)

1657        Feb 11, Bernard Fontenelle, French scientist, writer (Plurality of Worlds), was born.
    (MC, 2/11/02)

1685        Feb 11, David Teniers III (46), Flemish painter, died.
    (MC, 2/11/02)

1752        Feb 11, Pennsylvania Hospital, the 1st hospital in the US, opened.
    (MC, 2/11/02)

1764        Feb 11, Marie-Joseph de Chenier, French poet (Cajus Graechus), was born.
    (MC, 2/11/02)

1766        Feb 11, The Stamp Act was declared unconstitutional in Virginia.
    (MC, 2/11/02)

1768        Feb 11, A Samuel Adams letter, opposing Townshend Act taxes, was circulated among the American colonies.
    (MC, 2/11/02)

1790        Feb 11, The first petition to Congress for emancipation of the slaves was made by the Society of Friends.
    (HNQ, 1/11/99)

1794        Feb 11, A session of US Senate was 1st opened to the public.
    (MC, 2/11/02)

1800        Feb 11, William Henry Fox Talbot (d.1877), British inventor and pioneer in instantaneous photography, was born.
    (AHD, 1971, p. 1312)(V.D.-H.K.p.273)(HN, 2/11/01)

1805        Feb 11, At Fort Mandan ND Sacajawea (16), the Shoshoni guide for Lewis & Clark, gave birth to a son, with Meriwether Lewis serving as midwife. Sacagawea, the young Native American girl who aided the Lewis and Clark Expedition, was of the Lemhi Shoshones, who made their home in what is now southeastern Idaho and southwestern Montana. About 1800 Sacagawea was captured by a Hidatsa raiding party at the Three Forks of the Missouri River.  Sometime in 1804, she and another woman were purchased by French-Canadian fur trapper Toussaint Charbonneau, who lived among the Hidatsa and Mandan Indians, to be his wives.
    (HN, 2/11/99)(HNQ, 12/1/99)(AH, 2/05, p.17)

1806        Feb 11, Vicente Martin y Soler (51), composer, died.
    (MC, 2/11/02)

1808        Feb 11, Anthracite coal was 1st burned as fuel, experimentally, in Wilkes-Barre, Pa.
    (MC, 2/11/02)

1809        Feb 11, Robert Fulton patented the steamboat.
    (HN, 2/11/97)

1811        Feb 11, Pres. Madison prohibited trade with Britain for 3rd time in 4 years.
    (MC, 2/11/02)

1812        Feb 11, Alexander Hamilton Stephens (d.1883), Vice Pres (Confederacy), was born near Crawfordville, Georgia. Stephens, who served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1843 to 1859, was a delegate at the Montgomery meeting that formed a new union of the seceded states. He was elected vice president to Jefferson Davis on February 9, 1861. Stephens was later elected governor of Georgia in 1882 but died after serving just a few months.
    (HNQ, 5/24/98)(MC, 2/11/02)
1812        Feb 11, Massachusetts Gov. Elbridge Gerry signed a re-districting law  that favored his party -- giving rise to the term "gerrymandering."
    (AP, 2/11/97)

1815        Feb 11, News of the Treaty of Ghent, ending the War of 1812, finally reached the United States.
    (HN, 2/11/99)

1818        Feb 11, In Louisiana sugar plantation owner Levi Foster sold to his in-laws the slaves named Kit (28) for $975 and Alick (9) for $400. In 2000 Gwendolyn Midlo Hall and LSU Press published a CD-ROM database on Louisiana slave transactions: “Databases for the Study of Afro-Louisiana History and Genealogy, 1699-1860: Computerized Information from Original Manuscript Sources.”
    (SFEC, 7/30/00, p.)(www.afrigeneas.com)

1821        Feb 11, Auguste Edouard Mariette, French Egyptologist, (dug out Sphinx 12/16/42), was born.
    (MC, 2/11/02)

1826        Feb 11, London University was founded.
    (MC, 2/11/02)

1833        Feb 11, Melville Weston Fuller, 8th U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice was born.
    (HN, 2/11/97)

1840        Feb 11, Gaetano Donizetti's Opera "La Fille du Regiment," premiered in Paris.
    (MC, 2/11/02)

1843        Feb 11, Giuseppe Verdi's Opera "I Lombardi," premiered in Milan.
    (MC, 2/11/02)

1847        Feb 11, American inventor Thomas Alva Edison was born in Milan, Ohio. He was the inventor of the first electric light bulb and pioneer of the motion picture industry. He also Invented at least 1,300 other items.
    (HN, 2/11/97)(AP, 2/11/97)

1852        Feb 11, The 1st British public female toilet opened at Bedford Street in London.
    (MC, 2/11/02)

1854        Feb 11, Major streets were lit by coal gas for 1st time.
    (MC, 2/11/02)
1854        Feb 11, Commodore Matthew Perry pulled into Edo Bay, Japan, 12 months early with 9 warships to begin talks for a treaty.
    (ON, 11/04, p.12)

1855        Feb 11, Josephine Marshall Jewell Dodge, American educator, pioneer in the concept of day nurseries for children, was born.
    (HN, 2/11/01)

1858        Feb 11, Bernadette Soubirous (14), a French miller’s daughter, claimed for the first time to have seen a vision of the Virgin Mary near Lourdes.
    (AP, 2/11/97)(HN, 1/11/02)

1861        Feb 11, President-elect Lincoln departed Springfield, Ill., for Washington.
    (AP, 2/11/97)
1861        Feb 11, The US House unanimously passed a resolution guaranteeing noninterference with slavery in any state.
    (MC, 2/11/02)

1867        Feb 11, August W. Messer, German philosopher, educator, psychologist, was born.
    (MC, 2/11/02)

1868        Feb 11, Jean Bernard Leon Foucault (b.1819), French physicist, died. He discovered the 1st physical proof of Earth's rotation (1851) and invented the gyroscope.
    (WUD, 1994 p.560)(MC, 2/11/02)(WSJ, 8/28/03, p.D18)

1879        Feb 11, Honore Daumier (b.1808), French caricaturist, painter, died.
    (WUD, 1994 p.369)(MC, 2/11/02)

1887        Feb 11, Ernst "Putzi" Hanfstangl, German politician and confidante of Hitler, NSDAP & American school chum of Roosevelt ), was born.
    (MC, 2/11/02)

1895        Feb 11, Georgetown became part of Wash, DC.
    (MC, 2/11/02)

1896        Feb 11, Oscar Wilde's "Salome," premiered in Paris.
    (MC, 2/11/02)

1898        Feb 11, Leo Szilard, physicist, instrumental in the Manhattan Project, was born.
    (HN, 2/11/01)

1902        Feb 11, Police beat up universal suffrage demonstrators in Brussels.
    (MC, 2/11/02)

1903        Feb 11, Anton Bruckner's 9th Symphony premiered in Vienna.
    (MC, 2/11/02)
1903        Feb 11, Congress passed the Expedition Act, giving antitrust cases priority in the courts.
    (HN, 2/11/97)

1904        Feb 11, President Theodore Roosevelt proclaimed strict neutrality for the U.S. in the Russo-Japanese War.
    (HN, 2/11/97)

1907        Feb 11, William J. Levitt, U.S. businessman and community builder, was born. He led the postwar housing revolutions with his Levittowns.
    (HN, 2/11/99)
1907        Feb 11, The passenger ship Larchmont was steaming through a winter storm in heavy seas, 4 miles southwest of Watch Hill, Rhode Island when she was rammed by the coal carrying schooner Harry P. Knowles, which had drifted off course in the blizzard. The Larchmont sank in 10 minutes and only 19 men including the captain, George McVey survived the ordeal.
    (http://rhodeisland-philatelic.com/rhodeisland/postcard120.htm)

1908        Feb 11, Phillipe Dunne, screenwriter and director, was born. His films included “How Green Was My Valley.”
    (HN, 2/11/01)

1910        Feb 11, Theodore Roosevelt Jr. and Eleanor Alexander announced their wedding date--June 20, 1910. President Theodore Roosevelt signed a bill creating Mesa Verde National Park.
    (HN, 2/11/97)

1912        Feb 11, Rudolf Firkusny, pianist (Julliard), was born in Napajedla, Czechoslovakia.
    (MC, 2/11/02)
1912        Feb 11, Roy Fuller, poet and novelist, was born.
    (HN, 2/11/01)

1916        Feb 11, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra presented its 1st concert.
    (MC, 2/11/02)
1916        Feb 11, Emma Goldman was arrested for lecturing on birth control.
    (MC, 2/11/02)

1917        Feb 11, Sidney Sheldon, novelist was born.
    (HN, 2/11/97)

1919            Feb 11, Eva Gabor (d.1995), actress, was born in Budapest, Hungary.
    (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001247/)

1920        Feb 11, Farouk I, last King of Egypt (1936-52), was born in Cairo.
    (MC, 2/11/02)

1922        Feb 11, "April Showers" by Al Jolson hit #1.
    (MC, 2/11/02)
1922        Feb 11, US "intervention army" left Honduras.
    (MC, 2/11/02)

1925        Feb 11, Virginia E. Johnson, doctor, sexologist (Masters & Johnson), was born.
    (MC, 2/11/02)

1926        Feb 11, Paul Bocuse, French chef (Legion of Honor), was born.
    (MC, 2/11/02)
1926        Feb 11, The Mexican government nationalized all church property. Plutarco Elias Calles, founder of the modern Mexican political system, tried to suppress the Church. This fomented the Cristiada, 3 years of rebellion and outright war.
    (WSJ, 8/13/97, p.A12)(HN, 2/11/97)

1929        Feb 11, The Lateran Treaty was signed, with Italy recognizing the independence and sovereignty of Vatican City. The Italian government paid the Vatican $91.7 million for the papal lands it seized in 1870.
    (SFEM, 1/19/96, p.10)(HFA, '96, p.22)(AP, 2/11/97)

1931        Feb 11, Charles Algernon Parsons (76), British inventor (steam turbine), died.
    (MC, 2/11/02)

1933        Feb 11, Pres. Hoover declared Death Valley a national monument.
    (SFEC, 1/3/99, p.T5)

1934        Feb 11, Mary Quant, fashion designer (Chelsea Look, Mod Look), was born in Kent, England.
    (MC, 2/11/02)

1936        Feb 11, Burt Reynolds, actor (Evening Shade, Strip Tease, Cannonball Run), was born in Michigan.
    (MC, 2/11/02)
1936        Feb 11, Pumping began for the creation of Treasure Island in SF Bay.
    (MC, 2/11/02)
1936        Feb 11, The Reich arrested 150 Catholic youth leaders in Berlin. When the war was over many of the leaders of the Reich were put on trial for the atrocities that had been committed.
    (HN, 2/11/97)

1937        Feb 11, In Flint, Mich., a sit-down strike against General Motors ended after 44 days, with the company agreeing to recognize the United Automobile Workers Union. The UAW was victorious in a strike against GM. GM recognized the union and agreed to a contract.
    (WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)(AP, 2/11/97)

1938        Feb 11, The 4th Lithuanian parliament accepted Lithuania’s 3rd Constitution, which was proclaimed May 12, 1938. The Constitution reduced the powers of the Seimas. It could only consider the draft laws and give recommendations to the president.
    (DrEE, 10/5/96, p.5)(LHC, 2/11/03)

1939        Feb 11, The Negrin government returned to Madrid, Spain.
    (HN, 2/11/97)
1939        Feb 11, Franz Schmidt (64), Austrian composer, died.
    (MC, 2/11/02)

1941        Feb 11, Lt-Gen Erwin Rommel arrived in Tripoli.
    (MC, 2/11/02)

1942        Feb 11, "Archie" comic book debuted.
    (MC, 2/11/02)
1942        Feb 11, The German battleships Gneisenau, Scharnhorst and Prinz Eugen began their famed channel dash from the French port of Brest. Their journey took them through the English Channel on their way back to Germany.
    (HN, 2/11/99)

1943        Feb 11, General Eisenhower was selected to command the allied armies in Europe.
    (MC, 2/11/02)
1943        Feb 11, Transport # 47 departed with French Jews to Nazi Germany.
    (MC, 2/11/02)

1944        Feb 11, U-424 sank off Ireland.
    (MC, 2/11/02)

1945        Feb 11, President Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Josef Stalin signed the Yalta Agreement during World War II and adjourned.
    (HN, 2/11/97)(AP, 2/11/97)
1945        Feb 11, The 1st gas turbine propeller-driven airplane was flight tested, at Downey, Ca.
    (MC, 2/11/02)

1948        Feb 11, Sergei Eisenstein (b.1898 in Latvia), Russian film director, died. He pioneered the dialectic montage where 2 films shots were arranged to clash in order to produce an emotional or intellectual response in the viewer. In 1999 Ronald Bergan published the biography: "Sergei Eisenstein: A Life In Conflict."
    (SFEC, 5/2/99, BR p.1,10)(MC, 2/11/02)

1951        Feb 11, Kwame Nkrumah won the 1st parliamentary election on Gold coast (Ghana).
    (MC, 2/11/02)
1951        Feb 11, U.N. forces pushed north across the 38th parallel once again. Forty-five years after shipping out to fight in Korea, Col. Harry Summers, Jr., got new insight into what the war had been all about.
    (HN, 2/11/97)

1953        Feb 11, Walt Disney’s “Peter Pan” premiered. [See Feb 5]
    (HN, 2/11/97)
1953        Feb 11, President Eisenhower refused a clemency appeal for Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.
    (MC, 2/11/02)

1954        Feb 11, A 75,000-watt light bulb was lit at the Rockefeller Center in New York, to commemorate the 75th anniversary of Edison’s first light bulb.
    (HN, 2/11/97)

1955        Feb 11, Nationalist Chinese completed the evacuation of the Tachen Islands.
    (HN, 2/11/97)

1959        Feb 11, Iran turned down Soviet aid in favor of a U.S. proposal for aid.
    (HN, 2/11/97)

1960        Feb 11, Jack Paar walked off his TV show.
    (MC, 2/11/02)

1963        Feb 11, A CIA Domestic Operations Division was created.
    (MC, 2/11/02)
1963        Feb 11, Sylvia Plath (30), American writer, committed suicide by gas in London after Ted Hughes left her for another woman. Her autobiographical novel “The Bell Jar” was published this year. She had been married to English poet Ted Hughes (d.1998), who in 1998 published a 198 page book of verse “Birthday Letters” based on their relationship. The woman for whom Hughes left Plath committed suicide 5 years later. Plath’s 1981 "Collected Poems" won a Pulitzer Prize. The Plath book of poems "Ariel" was published after her death. In 2000 her uncensored diaries: "The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath," were edited by Karen V. Kukil.
    (SFC, 1/19/98, p.A10)(SFEC, 2/1/98, p.C5)(SFEC, 3/26/00, p.A25)(SFEC, 11/12/00, BR p.1)

1964        Feb 11, Sarah Palin, later governor of Alaska, was born in Sandpoint, Idaho. After 3 months her family moved to Alaska. In 2008 Sen. John McCain named her as his vice-presidential running mate.
    (SFC, 8/30/08, p.A6)
1964        Feb 11, The Beatles 1st live appearance in US was in the Washington,  DC Coliseum. It was filmed by CBS.
    (SFC, 3/6/04, p.D17)
1964        Feb 11, Cambodian Prince Sihanouk blamed the U.S. for a South Vietnamese air raid on a village in his country.
    (HN, 2/11/97)

1965        Feb 11, Pres. Lyndon Johnson ordered air strikes against targets in North Vietnam, in retaliation for guerrilla attacks on the American military in South Vietnam. The American "Rolling Thunder" bombing campaign intensified. In 2006 Rick Newman and Don Shepperd authored “Bury Us Upside Down: The Misty Pilots and the Secret Battle for the Ho Chi Minh Trail,” an account of the pilots who flew low scouting for targets that threatened US bombers.
    (HN, 2/11/02)(WSJ, 3/2/06, p.D8)

1966        Feb 11, Vice President Hubert Humphrey began a tour of Vietnam.
    (HN, 2/11/97)

1969        Feb 11, A Lockheed SP2E Neptune crashed in the Santa Ana Mountains of Orange County, Ca., while on night training. 7 seamen were killed.
    (SFC, 5/7/08, p.B8)(http://home.att.net/~jbaugher/thirdseries15.html)

1970        Feb 11, Japan launched its first satellite, Ohsumi-1. That launch made Japan the fourth nation with a space rocket powerful enough to launch satellites to Earth orbit, after the USSR, the US and France.
    (www.spacetoday.org/Japan/Japan/History.html)

1971        Feb 11, Pres. Nixon issued Executive Order 11582 dealing with holidays given to federal employees.
    (SFC, 2/21/05, p.A7)
1971        Feb 11, John Connally (1917-1993) replaced David Kennedy as Treasury Secretary under Richard Nixon. He instituted a 10% surcharge on imports and repudiated fixed exchange rates.
    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_B._Connally)
1971        Feb 11, In SF Officer Charles Lagasa was killed in an accidental helicopter crash at Lake Merced.
    (SFC, 1/27/07, p.A8)
1971        Feb 11, Whitney Young Jr. (b.1921), National Urban League director, drowned in Nigeria.
    (www.answers.com/topic/whitney-moore-jr-young)

1972        Feb 11, McGraw-Hill Publishing Co. and Life magazine canceled plans to publish what turned out to be a fake autobiography of reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes.
    (AP, 2/11/97)

1974        Feb 11, Communist-led rebels showered artillery fire into a crowded area of Phnom Penh, killing 139 and injuring 46 others. As the war in Vietnam wound down with the signing of the 1973 Paris Peace Accords, the war in neighboring Cambodia was going from bad to worse.
    (HN, 2/11/97)

1975        Feb 11, Margaret Thatcher was elected leader of the Tory Party, the first woman to lead the British Conservative Party. in England. She later became Prime Minister and held office from 1979-1990. Her second volume of memoirs is titled The Path to Power, (Harper-Collins, 1995) and documents her rise to power.
    (WSJ, 7/6/95, p. A-7)(HN, 2/11/99)

1976        Feb 11, Lee J. Cobb (b.1911), actor (12 Angry Men, On the Waterfront), died.
    (www.imdb.com/name/nm0002011/)

1977        Feb 11, A 20.2-kg lobster was caught off Nova Scotia. This was the heaviest known crustacean to date.
    (www.canadiangold.ns.ca/funfacts.asp)

1979        Feb 11, In NYC "They're Playing Our Song" opened at the Imperial Theater and played for 1082 performances.
    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/They're_Playing_Our_Song)
1979        Feb 11, Followers of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini seized power in Iran, nine days after the religious leader returned to his home country following 15 years of exile. Premier Bakhtiar resigned.
    (AP, 2/11/97)

1984        Feb 11, Mohammad Maqbool Bhat, founder of the pro-independence Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), was hanged in New Delhi's Tihar jail for the murder of a policeman. Ravindra Mhatre, India's deputy high commissioner in Britain, had been murdered in Birmingham, England. A group calling itself the Kashmir Liberation Army claimed responsibility and demanded a ransom of 1 million pounds ($1.84 million) and the release of political prisoners in India. The Indian government hanged Maqbool Bhat, a leading Kashmiri dissident it had been holding in jail. In 2004 Mohammed Aslam (49) was charged with the kidnap, false imprisonment and murder of  Mhatre.
    (AP, 11/4/04)(AFP, 2/11/07)

1985        Feb 11, Jordan’s King Hussein and PLO leader Arafat signed an accord.
    (http://tinyurl.com/yy39mx)

1986        Feb 11, Activist Anatoly Scharansky was released by USSR, and left the country after nine years of captivity as part of an East-West prisoner exchange.
    (AP, 2/11/04)   
1986        Feb 11, Frank Patrick Herbert (b.1920), sci-fi author (Dune, 1965), died of cancer in Wisconsin.
    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Herbert)

1987        Feb 11, Peggy Hettrick (37) in Fort Collins, Colorado, was murdered. Timothy Masters (15) was convicted and sentenced to life in 1999 for the crime. He served nine and a half years of a life sentence for the murder until DNA evidence from the body in 2008 was found to match the victim's ex-boyfriend and not the Masters.
    (Reuters, 1/22/08)

1988        Feb 11, President Reagan's onetime political director, Lyn Nofziger, was convicted of illegally lobbying top White House aides. However, the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals later overturned Nofziger's conviction, and the Supreme Court refused to reinstate it.
    (AP, 2/11/97)
1988        Feb 11, Iran launched a campaign to retake the Fao Peninsula from Iraq with US planning assistance. Chemical weapons were used in the attack.
    (SSFC, 8/18/02, p.A12)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Faw_Peninsula)

1989        Feb 11, Reverend Barbara C. Harris became the first woman consecrated as a bishop in the Episcopal Church, in a ceremony held in Boston.
    (AP, 2/11/99)

1990        Feb 11, In a stunning upset, heavyweight champion Mike Tyson was knocked out in the 10th round of his fight with Buster Douglas in Tokyo.
    (AP, 2/11/00)
1990        Feb 11, Nelson Mandela was released from a South African prison after being detained for 27 years as a political prisoner fighting against Apartheid.
    (AP, 2/11/97)(HN, 2/11/99)

1991        Feb 11, President Bush met with Defense Secretary Dick Cheney and Joint Chiefs Chairman Colin L. Powell, who had just returned from the Gulf region. Afterward, Bush said he would hold off on a ground war against Iraq for the time being, saying allied air strikes had been “very, very effective.”
    (AP, 2/11/01)
1991        Feb 11, The parliament of Iceland confirmed that the recognition of Lithuania from 1922 was fully valid and that diplomatic relations would be established as soon as possible. Lithuania received de jure recognition from Iceland.
    (DrEE, 1/4/97, p.4)(LHC, 2/11/03)
1991        Feb 11, Oscar Nitzchke (90), German architect, died in Paris. His buildings included the UN headquarters in New York, the Los Angeles Opera House.
    (http://tinyurl.com/7kx39)

1992        Feb 11, US Secretary of State James A. Baker III, on a tour of six former Soviet republics, visited Armenia, where he heard an appeal from the republic's president for U.S. help in resolving a bloody feud with neighboring Azerbaijan.
    (AP, 2/11/02)

1993        Feb 11, President Clinton announced his choice of Miami prosecutor Janet Reno to be the nation's first female attorney general, after two earlier candidates stumbled because they'd hired illegal aliens.
    (AP, 2/11/97)
1993        Feb 11, In Afghanistan some 800 Hazzara civilians were massacred in the Afshar district of West Kabul.
    (Econ, 2/17/07, p.45)(http://tinyurl.com/34h7bu)

1994        Feb 11, President Clinton and Japanese Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa, meeting at the White House, failed to resolve key differences on trade.
    (AP, 2/11/99)
 1994        Feb 11, A judge in Fort Worth, Texas, ordered Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison acquitted of ethics charges after prosecutors refused to present their case.
    (AP, 2/11/04)
1994        Feb 11, The space shuttle "Discovery" returned from an eight-day mission.
    (AP, 2/11/99)
1994        Feb 11, Actor William Conrad died in Los Angeles at age 73.
    (AP, 2/11/99)

1995        Feb 11, President Clinton, in his weekly radio address, threatened to veto any attempt by Republicans to scrap plans to put 100,000 additional police officers on the streets.
    (AP, 2/11/00)
1995        Feb 11, The space shuttle Discovery landed at Cape Canaveral, Fla., ending a historic rendezvous mission with Russia's Mir space station.
    (AP, 2/11/00)

1996        Feb 11, A day after losing to an IBM computer dubbed “Deep Blue,” world chess champion Garry Kasparov rebounded to defeat the machine and even their six-game series in Philadelphia at one victory apiece.
    (AP, 2/11/01)
1996        Feb 11, Tamil politicians in Sri Lanka charged that government troops killed 24 civilians in the eastern district of Trincomalee.
    (WSJ, 2/12/96, p.A-13)

1997        Feb 11, In a display of bipartisan unity, President Clinton and congressional leaders agreed to focus the new Congress on balancing the budget and other issues ranging from cutting taxes to solving the capital city's myriad problems.
    (AP, 2/11/97)
1997        Feb 11, Space shuttle Discovery was launched on a mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope.
    (AP, 2/11/97)
1997        Feb 11, Bosnian Croats evicted 26 Muslim families from the Croat half of the city of Mostar.
    (WSJ, 2/12/97, p.A1)

1998        Feb 11, Attorney General Janet Reno asked for an independent prosecutor to investigate whether Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt had misled Congress in connection with an Indian casino controversy; The counsel, Carol Elder Bruce, found no wrongdoing on Babbitt's part.
    (AP, 2/11/03)
1998        Feb 11, KVBC-FM (Las Vegas) offered Monica Lewinsky $5M for an interview.
    (MC, 2/11/02)
1998        Feb 11, Skier Jonny Moseley won the first U.S. gold medal at Nagano, in men's moguls freestyle; Picabo Street won the women's super-G. Canadian snowboarder Ross Rebagliati was stripped of his gold medal after testing positive for marijuana. His medal was later reinstated.
    (AP, 2/11/99)
1998        Feb 11, Ben Cohen, co-founder of Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream, was named as director of the Greenpeace environmental group. Greenpeace had an annual worldwide income of about $160 mil.
    (SFEC, 2/15/98, p.A7)
1998        Feb 11, In Montenegro former Pres. Momir Bulatovic was indicted with 3 senior aides for activity against the state during the January riots.
    (SFC, 2/13/98, p.D5)
1998        Feb 11, Russia’s Pres. Yeltsin completed a 3 day visit to Italy and scored $5 billion in trade and investment contracts.
    (SFC, 2/12/98, p.A14)

1999        Feb 11, US jets struck 7 Iraqi air defense sites.
    (SFC, 2/12/99, p.A14)
1999        Feb 11, A federal jury in New York found several gun makers responsible in three area shootings for letting guns fall into the hands of criminals; other manufacturers were cleared. Several gun manufacturers were found negligent for marketing and distribution practices but awarded limited damages. The plaintiffs suffered a setback in 2001 when the New York Court of Appeals invalidated such claims.
    (SFC, 2/12/99, p.A3)(AP, 2/11/04)
1999        Feb 11, On the Oregon coast the New Carissa cargo ship was set on fire with explosives to burn off some 400,000 gallons of fuel oil to prevent its spillage.
    (SFC, 2/12/99, p.A5)
1999        Feb 11, Jaki Byard (76), jazz pianist, saxophonist and teacher, was shot dead in his home in Queens.
    (SFC, 2/16/99, p.A18)
1999        Feb 11, In Bangladesh opposition parties called general strikes and 5 people were killed.
    (SFEC, 3/7/99, p.T14)
1999        Feb 11, In India a private army of upper-caste landlords shot and killed 12 low-caste villagers in Bihar.
    (SFC, 2/12/99, p.A18)
1999        Feb 11, In Iran Pres. Khatami marked the 20th anniversary of the revolution that toppled the shah and called for reduction of tensions with the outside world.
    (SFC, 2/12/99, p.A17)
1999        Feb 11, In Italy angry female lawmakers wore jeans to protest an appeals court ruling that said rape is impossible if the victim is wearing jeans.
    (SFC, 2/12/99, p.A1)
1999        Feb 11, In Paraguay the Congress voted to begin impeachment proceedings against Pres. Raul Cubas for freeing Lino Oviedo.
    (SFC, 2/12/99, p.A18)

2000        Feb 11, In Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura cut his ties to the Reform Party. In Nashville the national chairman, Jack Gargan, was ousted by forces loyal to Ross Perot and Pat Buchanan.
    (SFC, 2/12/00, p.A3)(SFEC, 2/13/00, p.A3)   
2000        Feb 11, The space shuttle Endeavour lifted into orbit with a crew of six under commander Kevin Kregel and a mission to map the Earth.
    (SFC, 2/12/00, p.A4)(AP, 2/11/01)
2000        Feb 11, An early morning bomb exploded in NYC on the corner of Wall and Water streets in front of an office building owned by Barclay's Bank. One person was slightly injured.
    (SFC, 2/12/00, p.A2)
2000        Feb 11, Britain suspended the 10-week old power-sharing government of Northern Ireland. An independent panel reported progress on the question of disarmament by the IRA.
    (SFC, 2/12/00, p.A1)(AP, 2/11/01)
2000        Feb 11, In France Roger Vadim, film director, died at age 72. His 5 wives included Brigitte Bardot, Annette Stroyberg, Catherine Deneuve, Jane Fonda, Catherine Schneider and Marie-Christine Barrault.
    (SFC, 2/12/00, p.A21)(AP, 2/11/01)
2000        Feb 11, In Lebanon Hezbollah launched another rocket attack that killed an Israeli soldier. Israel responded with warplanes and attacks in southern Lebanon and the eastern Bekaa Valley to which Hezbollah responded with fresh hits. Israel cancelled an urgent -US-led meeting called to diffuse the widening war.
    (SFC, 2/12/00, p.A11)
2000        Feb 11, In South Africa it was reported that at least 19 people had died and 12 were feared drowned after torrential rains hit the northern province of Mpumalanga.
    (SFC, 2/12/00, p.A9)

2001        Feb 11, The East NBA All-Stars defeated the West squad, 111-to-110.
    (AP, 2/11/02)
2001        Feb 11, Ann Bancroft and Liv Arnesen became the 1st women to cross the Antarctic land mass on skis.
    (SFC, 2/13/01, p.D3)
2001        Feb 11, Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh was demolished to clear the way for new separate baseball and football stadiums nearby.
    (AP, 2/11/02)
2001        Feb 11, It was reported that scientists had found the human genome to consist of 30,000 genes and that only some 300 were unique to humans as when compared to mice.
    (SSFC, 2/11/01, p.A1)
2001        Feb 11, Two space commanders opened the door to Destiny, the American-made science laboratory attached the day before to the international space station.
    (AP, 2/11/02)
2001        Feb 11, Gao Zhan, a US-based scholar, was detained at Beijing airport by Chinese authorities. She was formally charged as a spy on April 3. [see Mar 27]
    (WSJ, 3/28/01, p.A1)(SFC, 4/4/01, p.D14)
2001        Feb 11, In Colombia 9 young hikers, 6 men and 3 women, were found killed execution style in southwest Purace National Park. FARC later admitted to killing the 8 hikers.
    (SFC, 2/15/01, p.A12)(WSJ, 3/19/01, p.A1)
2001        Feb 11, In Croatia some 100,000 protested the investigation of former general Mirko Norac for war crimes in 1991.
    (SFC, 2/12/01, p.B2)
2001        Feb 11, In El Salvador armed men attacked a bus carrying a local soccer team near Zacatecoluca. The coach was killed and 3 others injured.
    (SFC, 2/13/01, p.D3)
2001        Feb 11, In Thailand troops fought a gun battle with some 200 Burmese soldiers who crossed the border chasing Shan rebels.
    (SFC, 2/12/01, p.B2)
2001        Feb 11, In Ukraine some 5-10 thousand protesters called for the resignation of Pres. Kuchma. Kuchma fired 2 top security officials amid the growing scandal of a journalist killed while investigating graft.
    (SFC, 2/12/01, p.B1)(WSJ, 2/12/01, p.A1)

2002        Feb 11, Americans Ross Powers, Danny Kass and J.J. Thomas took gold, silver and bronze in the men's halfpipe at the Salt Lake City Olympics. Gold medals for the Olympics free-style skating event went to Russians Anton Sikharulidze and Elena Berezhnaya. French judge Marie-Reine Le Gougne later admitted to being pressured to support the Russian team. On Feb 15 Olympic officials awarded a 2nd gold medal to Canadians David Pelletier and Jamie Sale for their performance.
    (SFC, 2/16/02, p.A1)(AP, 2/11/03)
2002        Feb 11, The FBI issued a warning for a possible terrorist assault and identified Fawaz Yahya al-Rabeei, a Yemeni national, as a possible attacker.
    (SFC, 2/12/02, p.A1)
2002        Feb 11, SF sued PG&E for a $5 billion refund to ratepayers.
    (SFC, 2/12/02, p.B1)
2002        Feb 11, In Afghanistan opium vendors shut down in Kandahar under US military orders.
    (SFC, 2/12/02, p.A14)
2002        Feb 11, The Argentine peso was put to float for the 1st time in a decade and dropped about 5% to 2.1 pesos to the dollar.
    (SFC, 2/12/02, p.A10)
2002        Feb 11, In Colombia suspected FARC rebels sent 2 bombs into a southern army garrison and killed 10 sleeping soldiers.
    (SFC, 2/12/02, p.A10)
2002        Feb 11, In Indonesia warring Christians and Muslims from Maluku province began 2 days of peace talks.
    (SFC, 2/12/02, p.A10)
2002        Feb 11, Israel bombed the Palestinian security headquarters in the Gaza Strip for a 2nd day in response to the use of a Kassam-2 rocket by Hamas.
    (SFC, 2/12/02, p.A8)(AP, 2/11/03)
2002        Feb 11, In Jordan Raed Hijazi (33) was convicted and sentenced to be hung for plotting to blow up tourist sites during millennium celebrations. [see Dec 2000]
    (SFC, 2/12/02, p.A12)

2003        Feb 11, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said that Pres. Bush's tax cut would increase the federal budget deficits and voiced opposition.
    (SFC, 2/12/03, p.A1)
2003        Feb 11, Addressing a historic rift within NATO, Secretary of State Colin Powell told a congressional hearing the future of the military alliance was at risk if it failed to confront the crisis with Iraq.
    (AP, 2/11/04)
2003        Feb 11, The purported voice of Osama bin Laden, broadcast over the Al Jazeera network, told his followers to help Saddam Hussein fight Americans.
    (AP, 2/12/03)
2003        Feb 11, A group of around 50 Western anti-war activists received visas to enter Iraq where they plan to form "human shields." Iraq said it would allow U-2 surveillance flights.
    (Reuters, 2/11/03)(SFC, 2/11/03, p.A10)
2003        Feb 11, Afghan officials said 17 civilians were killed in American-led bombing over the last 2 days.
    (SFC, 2/12/03, p.A8)
2003        Feb 11, From China it was reported that an unidentified illness, 1st noted in Nov., has killed at least five people in Guangdong province, left hundreds hospitalized and sent health officials scrambling to find its source.
    (AP, 2/11/03)
2003        Feb 11, In China Ma Sanli (b.1914), a master performer of the traditional Chinese art of crosstalk, a rhythmic, often humorous mix of dialogue and storytelling, died.
    (AP, 2/11/03)
2003        Feb 11, The private plane carrying Colombian Minister of Social Welfare, Juan Luis Londono, was found crashed in the mountains north of the town of Cajamarca, 85 miles west of Bogota. It had disappeared 5 days earlier.
    (AP, 2/11/03)
2003        Feb 11, Israeli troops killed an armed Palestinian in the Gaza Strip, and Israel imposed a blanket closure on the Palestinian areas during the Muslim Hajj because of warnings of possible attacks. Israeli soldiers killed an 8-year-old boy in the West Bank and an Israeli was killed by a Palestinian gunman in Bethlehem.
    (AP, 2/11/03)(SFC, 2/12/03, p.A13)
2003        Feb 11, In Paraguay Pres. Luis Gonzalez Macchi survived an impeachment trial as the Senate failed to muster enough votes to strip him from power over corruption charges.
    (AP, 2/12/03)
2003        Feb 11, In Mina, Saudi Arabia, 14 Muslim pilgrims were trampled to death when some worshippers tripped amid a jostling crowd during the devil-stoning ritual of the annual Hajj pilgrimage.
    (AP, 2/11/03)(SFC, 2/12/03, p.A9)

2004        Feb 11, Wesley Clark dropped out of the race for the White House.
    (AP, 2/11/05)
2004        Feb 11, It was reported that Mattel planned to introduce a line of toys capable of receiving digital signals from a new Batman TV cartoon show scheduled for the Fall.
    (WSJ, 2/11/04, p.A1)
2004        Feb 11, Cable TV giant Comcast Corp. launched a hostile bid to buy The Walt Disney Co. for more than $54 billion. Comcast later dropped its bid.
    (WSJ, 2/12/04, p.A1)(AP, 2/11/05)
2004        Feb 11, In eastern Afghanistan a suicide attacker fatally shot a senior intelligence official in Khost, then blew himself up as guards tried to arrest him.
    (AP, 2/11/04)(WSJ, 2/12/04, p.A1)
2004        Feb 11, In Bolivia 2 inmates were voluntarily nailed to crosses by their fellow prisoners as part of a protest for better conditions and shorter sentences that was broadcast on TV.
    (AP, 2/11/04)
2004        Feb 11, A gas explosion in a coal mine in southern China killed 24 miners.
    (AP, 2/11/04)
2004        Feb 11, Jozef Lenart (80), a former Czechoslovak prime minister cleared of treason charges for his alleged role in the 1968 Soviet-led invasion that crushed the country's democratic movement, died. He served as prime minister of Czechoslovakia from 1963-1968 and headed the Slovak Communist Party until 1988. A Slovak national he acquired Czech citizenship after Czechoslovakia split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia in 1993.
    (AP, 2/12/04)
2004        Feb 11, In Haiti pro-Aristide supporters killed up to 50 residents of St. Marc.
    (Econ, 5/14/05, p.42)(www.haitipolicy.org/content/2969.htm)
2004        Feb 11, In Iraq a suicide attacker blew up a car packed with explosives in a crowd of hundreds of Iraqis waiting outside a Baghdad army recruiting center, killing 47 people in the second bombing in two days.
    (AP, 2/11/05)
2004        Feb 11, Israeli troops rode tanks into the Gaza Strip searching for Islamic militants firing rockets at nearby Jewish settlements, and the ensuing battle left at least 15 Palestinians dead and more than 50 wounded.
    (AP, 2/11/04)(SFC, 2/12/04, p.A8)
2004        Feb 11, The bodies of 2 Americans, Francisco A. Antonielli (33) and James F. Bowtte (43), were discovered in a parking garage at the airport in Tijuana, Mexico, the apparent victims of a drug-related gunbattle.
    (AP, 2/11/04)
2004        Feb 11, Philippine troops rescued Alastair Joseph Onglingswan (35), a kidnapped American businessman, who was chained by his neck and feet for 22 days by a lone abductor.
    (AP, 2/11/04)
2004        Feb 11, In Puerto Rico 4 people were killed in separate shootings over the last 24 hours, pushing the number of deaths past the 100 mark for this year. There were 780 killings in 2003, compared with 781 in 2002. Police say most of the violence on the island of 4 million people is drug-related.
    (AP, 2/11/04)
2004        Feb 11, South Korean scientists reported that they had cloned human embryonic tissue cells.
    (SFC, 2/12/04, p.A1)
2004        Feb 11, Sri Lanka's president fired 39 ministers and deputy ministers from the caretaker government headed by her rival.
    (AP, 2/11/04)
2004        Feb 11, Sudan government-backed militias reportedly attacked five villages in southern Darfur region, killing between 68 and 80 civilians. "Amnesty International continued to receive details of horrifying attacks against civilians in villages by government warplanes, soldiers and government-aligned militia."
    (AP, 2/18/04)

2005        Feb 11, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld made an unannounced visit to Iraq, where he observed Iraqi security forces and declared "there's no question progress has been made" in preparing the nation for building a new government.
    (AP, 2/11/06)
2005        Feb 11, The US State Department said Libyan diplomats can travel freely in the US.
    (AP, 2/11/05)
2005        Feb 11, Health officials in NYC issued a nationwide alert over a new AIDS HIV strain that is immune to just about all antiretroviral drugs.
    (SFC, 2/12/05, p.A1)
2005        Feb 11, CNN chief news executive Eason Jordan quit amid a furor over remarks he'd made about journalists being targeted by the U.S. military in Iraq.
    (AP, 2/11/06)
2005        Feb 11, Samuel W. Alderson (90), inventor of crash test dummies, died in Marina Del Rey, Calif.
    (AP, 2/11/06)
2005        Feb 11, In Afghanistan US troops killed two unarmed men after they entered an exclusion zone around near Shindand Air Base in Herat province. An investigation followed.
    (AP, 2/19/05)
2005        Feb 11, A political consulting firm posted the names of 19 agents and informants of Hungary's communist secret police on a Web site, and it threatened to list more.
    (AP, 2/11/05)
2005        Feb 11, A car bomb exploded outside a Shiite mosque northeast of Baghdad, killing at least 12 people and injuring dozens. Masked men sprayed gunfire into a crowd at a bakery in a mostly Shiite neighborhood in the capital, killing 11 people. A US Marine and an Army soldier were killed in separate traffic accidents.
    (AP, 2/11/05)(AP, 2/12/05)
2005        Feb 11, Kashmir police said 10 people died, including a pro-India party worker slain by Muslim rebels, a day ahead of the next round of violence-hit municipal polls.
    (AP, 2/11/05)
2005        Feb 11, North Korea demanded bilateral talks with the US to defuse the tension created by its announcement that it is a nuclear power. The White House said it was not interested in one-on-one talks.
    (AP, 2/11/05)
2005        Feb 11, A day after firing his top security commanders, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas headed to the Gaza Strip to demand that militant leaders stop attacking Israelis, a strong sign of his determination to enforce a fragile truce with Israel.
    (AP, 2/11/05)
2005        Feb 11, In South Africa Thabo Mbeki gave his state of the nation speech. He called for faster economic growth and a quicker transfer of wealth from white to black pockets.
    (Econ, 2/19/05, p.45)(www.info.gov.za/speeches/son/)
2005        Feb 11, Venezuela's vice president said US objections will not prevent Venezuela from going ahead with its plans to purchase 100,000 Kalashnikov assault rifles and dozens of Mi35 helicopters from Russia.
    (AP, 2/11/05)(Econ, 2/26/05, p.35)
2005        Feb 11, Zimbabwe announced that 1.5 million people needed food aid immediately.
    (SFC, 2/12/05, p.A3)

2006        Feb 11, Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot Harry Whittington (78), a hunting companion, during a weekend quail hunting trip at the 50,000-acre Armstrong ranch in Texas. Whittington, peppered with bird shot, was in stable condition.
    (AP, 2/13/06)   
2006        Feb 11, Dubai Ports World, a state-owned business in the United Arab Emirates, won approval from a secretive US panel for a $6.8 billion deal to take over operations at six American ports.
    (AP, 2/11/07)
2006        Feb 11, Adventurer Steve Fossett completed the longest nonstop flight in aviation history, flying 26,389 miles in about 76 hours, but he had to land early in southern England because of mechanical problems.
    (AP, 2/11/06)
2006        Feb 11, It was reported that the town of Hull was one of many in central Iowa whose groundwater has been contaminated by farm chemicals. It pinned hopes for its future water supply on the new Lewis and Clark Rural Water System, due to open in 2018. The system planned to pump Missouri River water across South Dakota, Minnesota and Iowa.
    (Econ, 2/11/06, p.33)
2006        Feb 11, Peter Benchley (65), "Jaws" author, died in Princeton, N.J.
    (AP, 2/11/07)
2006        Feb 11, The presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan failed to reach agreement after two days of talks on how to end the bloody conflict over the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh.
    (AP, 2/11/06)
2006        Feb 11, Nova Scotia's Conservative party chose Cape Bretoner Rodney MacDonald, a professional fiddler and former gym teacher, as their leader and the province's new premier following a dramatic convention in Halifax.
    (CP, 2/11/06)
2006        Feb 11, Denmark said it has temporarily withdrawn its ambassadors from Syria, Iran and Indonesia because their safety was at risk in the wake of a Danish newspaper's publication of drawings of the Prophet Muhammad.
    (AP, 2/11/06)
2006        Feb 11, An Egyptian diplomat abducted at gunpoint in the Gaza Strip was released.
    (AP, 2/11/06)
2006        Feb 11, In Indian Kashmir 8 people, including three security personnel, were killed in separate overnight clashes and rebel attacks. An Islamic separatist women's group, known for its fierce opposition to Western-style romance, vowed to prevent couples celebrating Valentine's Day.
    (AFP, 2/11/06)
2006        Feb 11, Iran's president rejected US and European pressure to freeze the country's nuclear program and hinted that Iran may withdraw from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
    (AP, 2/11/06)
2006        Feb 11, An Iraqi army spokesman was assassinated in Basra.
    (AP, 2/11/06)
2006        Feb 11, Italy dissolved its parliament and scheduled elections for early April, opening a campaign that pits Premier Silvio Berlusconi against a strong center-left opponent.
    (AP, 2/11/06)
2006        Feb 11, American Chad Hedrick won the 5,000 meters in speedskating at the Olympics in Turin, Italy.
    (AP, 2/11/07)
2006        Feb 11, Altynbek Sarsenbayev (43), a Kazakh former minister and leading member of the political opposition, was abducted in Almaty. He was found shot dead 2 days later along with his bodyguard and driver later near Almaty. Sarsenbaev held a senior position in Alban, a subdivision of the Elder Horde, one of Kazakhstan’s 3 great traditional tribal groupings. Relatives and supporters of Sarsenbayev accused authorities of covering up for those behind the high-profile killing as 10 defendants faced trial on June 15.
    (AP, 2/13/06)(Econ, 2/18/06, p.44)(AP, 6/14/06)
2006        Feb 11, In Pakistan tribal insurgents killed three soldiers and injured 10 others in two attacks on paramilitary forces in southwestern Baluchistan province.
    (AP, 2/11/06)
2006        Feb 11, Suspected US military fire struck the tent of a nomad family on the Pakistan side of the rugged border with Afghanistan, killing two women and injuring at least four children.
    (AP, 2/13/06)
2006        Feb 11, In Moscow G-8 finance ministers called for stepped up efforts to ensure a stable worldwide energy supply.
    (SSFC, 2/12/06, p.A23)
2006        Feb 11, In Sri Lanka a suspected separatist rebel boat carrying explosives blew up, apparently killing at least four men on board.
    (AP, 2/12/06)
2006        Feb 11, In southern Sudan a military transport plane blew a tire while landing at Aweil, swerved off the runway and exploded, killing all 20 people on board.
    (AP, 2/12/06)
2006        Feb 11, Thailand's PM Shinawatra, facing growing calls for his resignation, agreed to hold a national referendum on amending the country's constitution.
    (AP, 2/11/06)
2006        Feb 11-2006 Feb 15, The Pacific archipelago of Tokelau, population ~1,500, voted in a referendum (349-232) to remain as a territory of New Zealand rather than becoming a self-governing state in free association with New Zealand.
    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokelau_self-determination_referendum,_2006)
2006        Feb 11, In Tunis US Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and leaders of Tunisia pledged to build closer military ties to help combat Islamic extremism.
    (AP, 2/11/06)
2006        Feb 11, It was reported that drought in northern Vietnam threatened 740,000 acres of rice as the level of the Red River continued to fall to its lowest level in over 100 years.
    (SFC, 6/4/04, A1)

2007        Feb 11, The Dixie Chicks won five Grammys in a defiant comeback after being shunned over their anti-President Bush comments about the Iraq war.
    (AP, 2/11/08)
2007        Feb 11, Harvard Univ. appointed Drew Gilpin Faust as its 28th and first female president.
    (SFC, 2/12/07, p.A5)
2007        Feb 11, Intel introduced a new super-processor at the opening of an int’l conference of chip scientists. The processor would be able to perform over 1 trillion mathematical calculations per second (teraflop), but commercial use would not be available for 5 years.
    (SFC, 2/12/07, p.A9)
2007        Feb 11, Scientists reported in the journal Nature that they had successfully prevented cleft palates in embryonic mice using a technique called chemical genetics.
    (SFC, 2/12/07, p.A3)
2007        Feb 11, Helmand’s provincial governor said an estimated 700 foreign fighters are operating in a southern Afghan province where Taliban fighters overran a town earlier this month. Asserting a right to self-defense the commander of US forces in the region said American forces in eastern Afghanistan have launched artillery rounds into Pakistan to strike Taliban fighters who attack remote US outposts. A US service member died of a gunshot wound in northern Afghanistan.
    (AP, 2/11/07)
2007        Feb 11, Muhammad Yunus, Bangladesh's "banker to the poor" and Nobel Peace Prize winner, formally announced his willingness to form a new political party to take part in forthcoming elections. In May Yunus reversed his decision to enter politics.
    (AFP, 2/11/07)(Econ, 5/12/07, p.46)
2007        Feb 11, In Egypt Osama Hassan Mustafa Nasr, known as Abu Omar, was released. The Egyptian Muslim preacher had been allegedly kidnapped by CIA agents off the streets of Milan, Italy, on Feb 17, 2003, and taken to Egypt. It was reported that since the end of December seven women have been stabbed by a dark-skinned man in his 20s in Cairo’s Maadi suburb, whose richer areas are home to numerous embassies and many foreigners.
    (AP, 2/12/07)(AFP, 2/12/07)
2007        Feb 11, In France socialist presidential candidate Segolene Royal unveiled a long-awaited platform that promised to boost the minimum wage and pension payments.
    (AP, 2/11/07)
2007        Feb 11, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, marking the 28th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution, vowed his country would not give up uranium enrichment.
    (AP, 2/11/08)
2007        Feb 11, A suicide truck bomber slammed into a crowd of police lining up for duty near Tikrit, collapsing the station and killing at least 30 people and wounding 50. 21 of the 30 killed were policemen. Minutes later, a roadside bomb struck a car on a highway on the western outskirts of Tikrit killing two civilians and wounding two others. A suicide bomber blew himself up next to a police patrol in the religiously mixed neighborhood of Ilam in southwestern Baghdad, killing one policeman. A parked car bomb exploded near an intersection, killing two people and wounding three in Mansour. A US soldier was killed after coming under small-arms fire northeast of Baghdad. A senior US intelligence officer said high-tech roadside bombs, that have proved particularly deadly to American soldiers, are manufactured in Iran and delivered to Iraq on orders from the "highest levels" of the Iranian government. Another US soldier was killed in fighting in Anbar province.
    (AP, 2/11/07)(AP, 2/13/07)
2007        Feb 11, Israel successfully conducted its first nighttime test of the Arrow anti-missile system after sundown.
    (AP, 2/11/07)
2007        Feb 11, Indian Kashmir was hit by clashes between police and protesters as separatists held a general strike marking the anniversary of the execution of a prominent rebel.
    (AP, 2/11/07)
2007        Feb 11, In Kosovo 2 protesters injured the previous day in violent clashes with police died of their wounds.
    (AP, 2/11/07)
2007        Feb 11, Portugal held a national referendum on whether to discard its strict abortion law, a battle that pits the Socialist government against conservative parties and the Catholic Church. Almost 60% of voters approved the referendum allowing women to opt for abortions up to the 10th week of pregnancy, however the turnout was only 44%.
    (AP, 2/11/07)(AP, 2/12/07)
2007        Feb 11, President Vladimir Putin, making the first visit by a Russian leader to Saudi Arabia, met King Abdullah and other senior officials for talks that touched on regional tensions including Iraq and the Palestinian territories.
    (AP, 2/11/07)
2007        Feb 11, A Syrian court sentenced Mohammed Haydar Zammar, a man believed to have known the Sept. 11 hijackers, to 12 years in prison for membership in the banned Muslim Brotherhood organization.
    (AP, 2/11/07)
2007        Feb 11, Voters cast ballots as Turkmenistan, ruled for more than two decades by an eccentric autocrat, held its first presidential election with more than one candidate, but still only one party.
    (AP, 2/11/07)
2007        Feb 11, In Venezuela officials said President Hugo Chavez's government has drafted a decree allowing officials to take control of food distribution chains, including supermarkets and storage depots, if services are interrupted.
    (AP, 2/11/07)

2008        Feb 11, A US defense official, an ex-Boeing engineer and two others were charged in 2 separate spy cases with spying for China involving sensitive military and aerospace secrets, including on the space shuttle.
    (AFP, 2/11/08)(SFC, 2/12/08, p.A3)
2008        Feb 11, William Lerach (61), a former partner at a well-known New York law firm, was sentenced to two years in federal prison for his role in a lucrative kickback scheme involving class-action lawsuits against some of the nation's biggest corporations. Authorities said Lerach's former firm, now known as Milberg Weiss, made an estimated $250 million over two decades by filing legal actions on behalf of professional plaintiffs who received kickbacks.
    (AP, 2/11/08)
2008        Feb 11, It was reported that Patricia Cornwell (51), crime novelist, was donating $1 million to NYC’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice to help start a Crime Scene Academy.
    (WSJ, 2/11/08, p.B7)
2008        Feb 11, It was reported that Ronald Fearing, Berkeley professor in electrical engineering, has invented a tape-like substance based on the physics used by geckos to scoot upside-down across ceilings.
    (SFC, 2/11/08, p.C1)
2008        Feb 11, Dow Jones added Chevron and Bank of America to its DJIA index in place of Altria Group and Honeywell Int’l.
    (SFC, 2/12/08, p.C1)
2008        Feb 11, Rep. Tom Lantos (80) of California, the only Holocaust survivor to serve in Congress, died.
    (AP, 2/11/08)
2008        Feb 11, Frank Piasecki (b.1919), helicopter pioneer and test pilot, died. In 1940 he co-founded P-V Engineering Forum (1940) with Howard Venzie. In 1960 Piasecki Helicopter Corp. merged with Boeing Airplane Co.
    (WSJ, 2/16/08, p.A6)
2008        Feb 11, President Evo Morales declared a US Embassy security officer to be an "undesirable person" after reports that the officer asked an American scholar and 30 Peace Corps volunteers to pass along information about Cubans and Venezuelans working in Bolivia.
    (AP, 2/11/08)
2008        Feb 11, In London the price of platinum struck an historic high nearing $1,900 on supply disruptions caused by power shortages in South Africa, the white metal's biggest producer.
    (AP, 2/11/08)
2008        Feb 11, Chad's PM Nouradin Koumakoye demanded that the international community remove refugees who have fled to Chad from Sudan's Darfur region.
    (AP, 2/11/08)
2008        Feb 11, A Cairo appeals court acquitted Howayda Taha, an Al-Jazeera journalist sentenced to six months over a film that highlighted torture in Egyptian police stations, but it still upheld a fine against her.
    (AFP, 2/11/08)
2008        Feb 11, Rebel soldiers shot and critically wounded East Timor's Pres. Jose Ramos-Horta, and opened fire on PM Xanana Gusmao, in a failed coup attempt in the recently independent nation. Rebel leader Alfredo Reinado and one of his men were killed in the attack on the home of Ramos-Horta, while one of the president's guards also died.
    (AP, 2/11/08)
2008        Feb 11, Twin car bombs struck near the compound of Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, one of Iraq's most powerful Shiite politicians, killing at least six civilians and wounding 20.
    (AP, 2/11/08)
2008        Feb 11, In Japan US Staff Sergeant Tyrone Luther Hadnott was arrested after a 14-year-old girl said he raped her in his car. Hadnott was released Feb 29 after the girl withdrew her criminal complaint against him. He still faced a US military investigation. On May 16 Hadnott (38) was found guilty of abusive sexual conduct and sentenced to four years in prison.
    (AFP, 2/12/08)(AP, 3/1/08)(AP, 5/16/08)
2008        Feb 11, Gunmen killed a Nigerian naval officer and forced several others to dive for their lives into the water in oil-rich southern Rivers State.
    (AFP, 2/11/08)
2008        Feb 11, Pakistani security forces critically wounded Mansoor Dadullah, a top figure in the Taliban militia, among six militants captured after a firefight near the border. Nisar Ali Khan, an independent candidate running in next week's parliamentary elections, was killed along with seven supporters in a suicide attack in North Waziristan. Pakistani lawyers began a nationwide boycott of the courts to pressure the president to reinstate senior judges he sacked under a state of emergency more than three months ago. Pakistani envoy, Tariq Azizuddin, was heading to the Afghan capital Kabul with his driver when they disappeared in the lawless Khyber tribal district. Azizuddin was released on May 17. 2 technicians from the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission were abducted by masked men in the country's northwest.
    (AP, 2/11/08)(AFP, 2/12/08)(AP, 5/17/08)
2008        Feb 11, Spanish police arrested at least 13 members of the outlawed Basque separatist party Batasuna in a crackdown on groups linked to the armed organization ETA before next month's elections.
    (AP, 2/11/08)
2008        Feb 11, Uruguay President Tabare Vazquez ousted his ministers of defense, foreign affairs and industry, saying he was seeking a better team for his final two years in office.
    (AP, 2/12/08)

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