Today in History - January 1
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For Asia History: https://www.asiaobserver.org/category/news/on-this-day-in-asian-history
45BC Jan 1, The Julian calendar took effect. The year -45 has been called the "year of confusion," because in that year Julius Caesar inserted 90 days to bring the months of the Roman calendar back to their traditional place with respect to the seasons. This was Caesar's first step in replacing a calendar that had gone badly awry.
(http://astro.nmsu.edu/~lhuber/leaphist.html)
404 Jan 1, The last known gladiatorial contest was held in Rome.
(http://writersalmanac.org/episodes/20170101/)
1431 Jan 1, Rodrigo Borgia Lanzol (d.1503), member of the Borgia family, was born in Xativa, Spain. His mother was the sister of Pope Calixtus III. He was elected Pope Alexander VI in 1492 and amassed a fortune by pocketing church funds. His reign helped inspire the Protestant reformation. He fathered numerous children including Lucrezia Borgia. Machiavelli based "The Prince" on him.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R8)(PTA, 1980, 424)
1449 Jan 1, Lorenzo de Medici (d.1492), later know as Lorenzo the Magnificent, was born in Florence.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorenzo_de%27_Medici)
1502 Jan 1, Guanabara Bay was first encountered by Europeans when one of the Portuguese explorers Gaspar de Lemos and Goncalo Coelho arrived on its shores. Guanabara Bay is an oceanic bay located in southeastern Brazil in the state of Rio de Janeiro. On its western shore lies the city of Rio de Janeiro, and on its eastern shore the cities of Niteroi and Sao Goncalo.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guanabara_Bay)
1515 Jan 1, King Louis XII (b.1462) of France, died. He was succeeded by Francis I (1494-1547).
(Econ, 12/12/09, p.93)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_I_of_France)
1586 Jan 1, Francis Drake, who left England on a new voyage to America last September, made a surprise attack on the heavily fortified city of Santo Domingo in Hispaniola, forcing the governor to pay a large ransom.
(HN, 1/1/99)
1631 Jan 1, Thomas Hobson (b.~1544), English carrier, died. He had discovered that his fastest horses were the most popular, and thus overworked. So as not to exhaust them, he established a strict rotation system, allowing customers to rent only the next horse in line. This singular choice became known as Hobson's choice.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Hobson)
1651 Jan 1, Charles II (20), Charles Stuart, was crowned king of Scotland at Scone.
(PC, 1992, p.243)(ON, 8/12, p.1)
1698 Jan 1, The Abenaki Indians and the Massachusetts colonists signed a treaty ending the conflict in New England.
(HN, 1/1/99)
1700 Jan 1, Russia replaced the Byzantine with the Julian calendar, which remained in effect until the adoption of the Gregorian calendar in 1918.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etos_Kosmou)
1710 Jan 1, Cölln, a town on the Spree River, united with neighboring Berlin under the latter name.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_Palace,_Berlin)
1735 Jan 1, Paul Revere (d.1818), U.S. patriot who rode through the streets of Boston during the American Revolution, warning of the British landings, was born to Apollos Rivoire and Deborah Hitchbourne, one of 13 children.
(HN, 1/1/99)(HNQ, 6/27/02)
1752 Jan 1, Betsy Ross (d.1836), flag maker who contributed to the design of the American flag, was born in Philadelphia as Elizabeth Griscom.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betsy_Ross)
1764 Jan 1, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (8) played for the Royal Family at Versailles, France.
(http://musicandhistory.com/music-and-history-by-the-year/23-1764.html)
1766 Jan 1, James Francis Edward Stuart (b.1688), son of James III, died. The English prince was known as the Old Pretender.
(HN, 1/1/99)(WUD, 1994 ed., p.1410)
1785 Jan 1, The Daily Universal Register (Times of London) published its 1st issue. It became The Times on Jan 1, 1788.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Times)
1788 Jan 1, London’s Daily Universal Register began publishing as The Times.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Times)
1797 Jan 1, Albany became the capital of New York state, replacing New York City.
(AP, 1/1/98)
1801 Jan 1, Giuseppi Piazzi (d.1826), Italian astronomer, discovered an asteroid orbiting between Mars and Jupiter. He believed it to be a planet and named it Ceres, after the Roman goddess of the harvest. Ceres was later measured to be about 974km in diameter, roughly the length of Great Britain and 1% the mass of Earth’s moon.
(NH, 7/02, p.36)(Econ., 2/28/15, p.70)
1804 Jan 1, Jean-Jacques Dessalines proclaimed the Republic of Haiti and declared independence from France. Documentation of his speech was then lost and only re-discovered in 2010 by a Canadian graduate student searching in the British National Archives.
(WSJ, 3/1/04, p.A16)(SFCM, 5/30/04, p.19)(SFC, 4/2/10, p.A2)
1808 Jan 1, A US law banning the import of slaves came into effect, but was widely ignored.
(HN, 1/1/99)(AP, 1/1/08)
1818 Jan 1, An official reopening of the White House took place after being repaired from burning by British during War of 1812.
(SFEC, 7/4/99, Par p.5)(http://tinyurl.com/7uewdhv)
1818 Jan 1, The novel "Frankenstein" by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1797-1851) was published anonymously. It was an attack on industrialization. The work stemmed from a contest in 1816 at Byron’s Villa Diodati in Geneva, between Byron, Shelley and Mary to produce a ghost story. In 1998 Joan Kane Nichols published "Mary Shelley: Frankenstein’s Creator." In 2006 Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler authored “The Monsters: Mary Shelley and the Curse of Frankenstein." In 2007 Susan Tyler Hitchcock authored “Frankenstein: A Cultural History."
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R14)(SSFC, 5/21/06, p.M6)(WSJ, 10/30/07, p.D6)(ON, 11/07, p.8)
1824 Jan 1, The Camp Street Theatre opened as the first English-language playhouse in New Orleans.
(HN, 1/1/99)
1825 Jan 1, Dewitt Clinton (1769-1828) began serving his 2nd term as governor of New York and continued to 1828.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeWitt_Clinton)
1831 Jan 1, William Lloyd Garrison (1805-1879), 24-year-old reformer of Massachusetts, began publishing his newspaper The Liberator, dedicated to the abolition of slavery. Garrison's stridency and uncompromising position on both the institution of slavery and slave owners offended many in the North and South, but he vowed to continue the fight until slavery was abolished. In the first issue of his newspaper, he wrote, "I am aware that many object to the severity of my language; but is there not cause for severity? I will be as harsh as truth, and as uncompromising as justice. On this subject I do not wish to think, or speak, or write, with moderation. No! No!" Garrison once burned a copy of the U.S. Constitution, condemning it as "a covenant with death and an agreement with hell" because it did not forbid slavery. The Liberator ceased publication in 1865 after the 13th Amendment was passed, outlawing slavery. [see 1830]
(HNPD, 12/31/98)
1862 Jan 1, The US federal government Tax Act of July 14, 1862, took effect as of January 1, 1862.
(AP, 8/5/97)(http://tinyurl.com/brzpcg3)
1863 Jan, 1, All slaves held in rebellion territory in USA were made free by Abraham Lincoln's Sep 22, 1862, Emancipation Proclamation.
(HFA, ‘96, p.22)(V.D.-H.K.p.275)(AP, 1/1/98)(HN, 1/1/99)
1863 Jan 1, Confederate General Braxton Bragg and Union General William Rosecrans readjusted their troops as the Battle of Murfreesboro continued.
(HN, 1/1/99)
1863 Jan 1, The clipper ship Noonday hit an uncharted rock off the coast of San Francisco and sank in 240 feet of water. All hands were rescued and the rock was named Noonday.
(SFC, 9/17/14, p.A10)
1864 Jan 1, Alfred Stieglitz (d.1946), American photographer, was born in New Jersey.
(www.fact-index.com)
1871 Jan 1, The US Signal Office began publishing weather maps as the War Department Maps.
(www.lib.noaa.gov/collections/imgdocmaps/daily_weather_maps.html)
1871 Jan 1, Sir Henry Durand (b.1812), British lord of the frontier between India and Afghanistan, died after an elephant he was riding reared and brained him on a stone archway in Tonk (later Tank, Pakistan).
(Econ, 1/2/10, p.18)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Marion_Durand)
1874 Jan 1, New York City annexed the Bronx.
(MC, 1/1/02)
1879 Jan 1, E.M. [Edward Morgan] Forster (d.1970), English novelist famous for "A Passage to India" and "A Room With a View," was born in London. His novels exemplified his ideas about the conflict between the imaginative and the earthy component of the human soul and character.
(V.D.-H.K.p.366)(HN, 1/1/99)
1879 Jan 1, William Fox, US film pioneer (Nickelodeon), was born.
(MC, 1/1/02)
1880 Jan 1, The building of the Panama Canal was symbolically begun under the direction of French diplomat Ferdinand de Lesseps. Actual construction began a year later. In 2007 Matthew Parker authored “Panama Fever: The Battle to Build the Canal."
(http://www.ared.com/history.htm)(Econ, 2/24/07, p.96)
1891 Jan 1, An office was opened on Ellis Island, New York, to cope with the vast flood of immigrants coming into the United States.
(HN, 1/1/99)
1892 Jan 1, The US Immigration Service, after two years of construction, opened Ellis Island in New York Harbor, a new facility for "processing" immigrants. Annie Moore (15) of County Cork, Ireland, was the 1st person processed. The new facility replaced Castle Garden, which was closed because of massive overcrowding and corruption. The money changing concession was later granted to American Express to end the cheating of immigrants. Formerly used as a munitions dump and landfill, Ellis Island was designed, its architects claimed, to handle more than 8,000 newcomers a day. Orderly lines funneled bewildered immigrants past doctors and officials who examined them for signs of disease. The physically and mentally ill were refused admittance, forcing thousands of families to make the difficult decision to return home with a relative refused entry or push on without them. A final brusque interview by an immigration official determined whether the newcomers had already been promised jobs. About 80% of those who entered Ellis Island received landing cards permitting them to board ferries for NYC. In the 1890s, 75% of all immigrants entered the US through Ellis Island. It was closed in 1954.
(AP, 1/1/98)(HNPD, 1/1/99)(AP, 1/1/98)(SFC, 3/21/98, p.E3)(HNPD, 9/18/98)(SFEC, 6/20/99, p.T10)
1894 Jan 1, In San Francisco Gelett Burgess, an instructor of topographical drawing at UC Berkeley, reportedly took part in the toppling of one of one of three water fountains that had been donated to the city in 1883 by pro-temperance advocate Henry Cogswell. Burgess soon lost his job at Berkeley as a result of his involvement in the attack.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gelett_Burgess)
1895 Jan 1, J. Edgar Hoover, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), was born.
(HN, 1/1/99)
1897 Jan 1, Brooklyn merged with NY to form the present NYC. [see Jan 1, 1898]
(MC, 1/1/02)
1898 Jan 1, The consolidation of Greater New York City occurred with the "merger" of Brooklyn and Manhattan. Before the merger Brooklyn had absorbed Williamsburg, Bushwick, Flatbush, Flatlands, and New Lots among other towns. The merger created a city of 3.4 million people. Manhattan, the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island were consolidated into New York City.
(WSJ, 12/31/97, p.A10)(AP, 1/1/99)
1900 Jan 1, A New York editorialist wrote that the 20th century began in the United States with "a sense of euphoria and self-satisfaction, a sure feeling that America is the envy of the world."
(Hem, Dec. 94, p.70)
1900 Jan 1, The Royal Niger Company sold all its possessions and concessions in Africa to the British government for £865,000, considered to be a very low price.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_William_Koko_Mingi_VIII_of_Nembe)
1900 Jan 1, Xavier Cugat (d.1990), bandleader (married Abbe Lane, Charo), was born in Barcelona, Spain.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xavier_Cugat)
1901 Jan 1, The 1st official annual Mummers parade was held in Philadelphia.
(SFC, 12/31/00, p.A10)
1901 Jan 1, The Commonwealth of Australia became official as established in the July 9, 1900, Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act. 6 colonies became an independent federation with Edmund Barton as the 1st prime minister. Although independent it still recognized Britain’s royalty as Australia’s head of state. The governor-general, a representative of the queen nominated by the prime minister, was appointed by the British monarch.
(AP, 1/1/98)(SFC, 2/3/98, p.A7)(SFC, 12/31/00, p.A18)
1907 Jan 1, Pres. Theodore Roosevelt shook a record 8,513 hands in 1 day.
(MC, 1/1/02)
1907 Jan 1, The Pure Food and Drug Act became law in the United States
(HN, 1/1/99)
1908 Jan 1, The 1st time-ball signifying new year was dropped at Times Square, NYC.
(MC, 1/1/02)
1909 Jan 1, Barry Goldwater (d.1998), Republican senator for Arizona and presidential contender, was born in Phoenix, son of Baron and Josephine Goldwater. His grandfather was an immigrant Polish peddler and founder of the Goldwater department store chain.
(SFC, 5/30/98, p.A3)(MC, 1/1/02)
1912 Jan 1, A groundbreaking celebration took place for the largest structure of the Panama Pacific Fair, the Machinery building at PPIE grounds at Harbor View (future Marina District).
(SFC, 1/2, 1912)
1912 Jan 1, A Massachusetts law reducing the work-week from fifty-six to fifty-four hours for women and children, went into effect. Workers struck spontaneously on Jan 12 when the mill owners reduced wages to coincide with the reduced work-week.
(www.fortunecity.com/tinpan/parton/2/johngold.html)
1912 Jan 1, The Republic of China was formed with Sun Yat-Sen as president. Nationalist Party co-founder Song Jiaren began designing the institutions of the new democracy.
(Econ, 12/22/12, p.68)
1912 Jan 1, Kim Philby was born in India. He became a ringleader of a group of upper crust Englishmen who entered public service or, in many cases, the British Secret Service, then spied for the Soviets. Philby got away and spent his last years in Moscow.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Philby)
1914 Jan 1, A Pacific coast storm swept away the entire Ocean Beach of San Francisco from the Cliff House to the life saving station.
(SSFC, 12/29/13, DB p.42)
1915 Jan 1, German submarine U-24 sank the British battleship Formidable in the English Channel whilst on patrol and exercise with the 5th Battle Squadron. She sank rapidly with the loss of 547 crew. The 5BS had been steaming slowly (10knots), not zigzagging and were without destroyer escort. Admiral in charge Lewis Bayly was dismissed from his position over the loss.
(www.worldwar1.co.uk/sunk15.htm)
1918 Jan 1, Canada’s Unionist government began to enforce the Military Service Act.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conscription_Crisis_of_1917)
1918 Jan 1, The first gasoline pipeline began operation with 40 miles of three inch pipe from Salt Creek to Casper, Wyoming.
(HN, 1/1/01)
1919 Jan 1, J.D. Salinger, American novelist, was born in NYC. In 1951 Jerome David Salinger published "The Catcher in the Rye," which became a bible for American teenagers.
(SFC, 1/29/10, p.A1)
1923 Jan 1, The Angelus Temple, a spiritual palace in the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, was dedicated by Canadian-born evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson (1890-1944), organizer of the Int’l. Church of the Foursquare Gospel.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aimee_Semple_McPherson)(WSJ, 6/2/07, p.P9)
1923 Jan 1, Sadi Lecointe set a new aviation speed record flying an average of 208 mph at Istres.
(HN, 1/1/99)
1923 Jan 1, John Daly (b.1841), for whom Daly City is named, died and was buried at Woodlawn Cemetery in Colma. He was from Boston and had arrived in the Bay Area alone at age 13 via the Isthmus of Panama, where his mother died of yellow fever.
(CHA, 1/2001)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Donald_Daly)
1934 Jan 1, Alcatraz officially became a federal prison. The first prisoners arrived in August. [see Aug 11, 1934]
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcatraz_Island)
1934 Jan 1, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the US bank guarantor, became effective.
(MC, 1/1/02)
1935 Jan 1, Eastern Airlines hired Eddie Rickenbacker as GM.
(MC, 1/1/02)
1937 Jan 1, At a party at the Hormel Mansion in Minnesota, a guest won $100 for naming a new canned meat-Spam. SPAM was originally called Hormel Spiced Ham in 1936 without much success.
(HN, 1/1/00)(http://tinyurl.com/3soounh)
1942 Jan 1, Atlantic Charter members, including the US, Britain, the USSR and 23 other countries all lined up against the Axis, issued a Joint Declaration stressing their solidarity in the defense against Hitlerism.
(Econ, 1/29/11, p.84)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_Charter)
1945 Jan 1, France was admitted to the United Nations.
(AP, 1/1/98)
1945 Jan 1, On Operation Bodenplatte, German planes attacked American forward air bases in Europe. This was the last major offensive of the Luftwaffe.
(HN, 1/1/99)
1946 Jan 1, In Japan Emperor Hirohito rejected the notion that the emperor is a living god and the notion that the Japanese are superior to other races and destined to govern the world.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.36)(MC, 1/1/02)
1947 Jan 1, Canada’s Citizenship Act of this year became effective. It said that citizens living outside Canada on their 24th birthday would automatically lose their citizenship unless they filled out a form saying they wished to keep it. The law was amended in 1977 and raised the age factor to 28.
(Econ, 2/3/07, p.39)(www.theshipslist.com/Forms/citizenship.htm)
1949 Jan 1, The UN brokered a cease-fire in Kashmir. It granted Kashmir the right to vote on whether to remain in India or to join Pakistan. No vote took place.
(SSFC, 12/30/01, p.A22)(SFC, 6/8/02, p.A20)
1951 Jan 1, A British radio soap opera called “The Archers" began airing following pilot shows in 1950. The show was about a British farming community and was still popular as it continued in 2011.
(SFC, 1/5/11, p.E2)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Archers)
1953 Jan 1, Country singer Hank Williams Sr. (29) died of a drug and alcohol overdose while enroute to a concert date in Canton, Ohio. In 1998 Mercury Records released "The Complete Hank Williams," with 225 recordings.
(AP, 1/1/98)(WSJ, 10/30/98, p.W9A)
1956 Jan 1, Sudan became independent from Britain. Northern Muslim parties took over rule. Southerners demanded autonomy and civil war began. Sudan seceded from Egypt. This separated the Nubian communities split between the two countries.
(WSJ, 8/25/98, p.A14)(SFC, 11/17/00, p.A20)(WSJ, 10/22/03, p.A4)(Econ, 5/15/04, p.21)(Econ, 9/17/16, p.47)
1957 Jan 1, The state of Saarland, established in 1920 in accordance with the Treaty of Versailles, joined the Federal Republic of West Germany. The Nazis had called the area "Westmark." After World War II the Saarland had come under French administration.
(Econ, 8/29/09, p.45)(http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Saarland)
1958 Jan 1, Treaties establishing the European Economic Community went into effect.
(AP, 1/1/98)
1958 Jan 1, Dr. Douglas Kelley (45), psychiatrist, committed suicide using potassium cyanide. He was one of the psychiatrist used by the US Army to interview Nazi war criminals at Nuremberg and authored the book “22 Cells in Nuremberg."
(SSFC, 2/6/05, p.A17)
1958 Jan 1, Photographer Edward Weston (b.1886) died. A 1973 biography was titled "Edward Weston: Fifty Years." In 1998 his model Charis Wilson published "Through Another Lens: My Years with Edward Weston."
(SFEM, 6/30/96, p.23)(SFC, 5/18/98, p.D1)(SFC, 9/2/06, p.E3)
1959 Jan 1, Fidel Castro proclaimed the triumph of his revolution from the balcony of Santiago's city hall. Castro led Cuban revolutionaries to victory over Fulgencio Batista, who fled to the Dominican Republic. American mafia scrambled to secure their cash and close casinos ahead of crowds that took to the streets and trashed their businesses. In 2008 T.J. English Morrow authored “Havana Nocturne: How the Mob Owned Cuba …and Then Lost It to the Revolution."
(AP, 1/1/98)(SFC, 1/28/00, p.A14)(WSJ, 8/5/06, p.A9)(AP, 3/26/12)
1960 Jan 1, French Cameroun gained independence.
(PC, 1992, p.973)(EWH, 1st ed., p.1173)
1963 Jan 1, In Arizona Betty Smithey (20) murdered Sandy Gerberick, a 15-month-old girl she had been babysitting. Smithey was convicted and sentenced to prison for life without the possibility of parole. In 2012 she was granted parole by the Arizona Board of Executive Clemency.
(abcNews, 8/14/12)
1964 Jan 1, Fatah, the Palestinian guerrilla group founded by Yasser Arafat, made its 1st armed attack against Israel. The annual celebration of this day came to be known as Fatah Day.
(SFC, 1/2/01, p.A8)
1966 Jan 1, Simon & Garfunkel's "Sounds of Silence" reached #1.
(MC, 1/1/02)
1966 Jan 1, A 12 day transit worker strike shut down NYC subway and buses. The strike became a major rallying point behind the Taylor Law, which severely curtailed the ability of public employees in the state to strike and took effect on Sep 1, 1967.
(SSFC, 10/20/13, p.E2)
1966 Jan 1, By law all US cigarette packs began carrying the warning: "Caution! Cigarette smoking may be hazardous to your health."
(www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/1992/8/1992_8_72.shtml)
1966 Jan 1, The 173rd Airborne Brigade became the first American unit in the Mekong Delta of South Vietnam.
(AH, 2/06, p.14)
1967 Jan 1, Pope Paul VI announced his Apostolic Constitution (Indulgentiarum Doctrina). He also established this day as World Peace Day.
(http://tinyurl.com/ah8ck9)(SFC, 1/2/99, p.C12)
1968 Jan 1-1968 Dec 31, The year was marked by protest marches. In 1998 Tariq Ali and Susan Watkins published: "1968: Marching in the Streets." In 2004 Mark Kurlansky authored "1968: The Year That Rocked the World."
(SFC, 5/22/98, p.C12)(SSFC, 1/25/04, p.M1)
1969 Jan 1, President Nixon nominated Henry Cabot Lodge, former American ambassador to South Vietnam, as negotiator at the Paris Peace Talks.
(www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/vietnam/index-1969.html)
1970 Jan 1, Jimi Hendrix and his Band of Gypsies, Billy Cox and Buddy Miles, performed 4 shows on New Years Eve and Day at the Fillmore East in NYC. The recording "Band of Gypsies" was released in April. In 1999 a 2-disk CD, "Live at the Fillmore East" was released.
(WSJ, 4/16/99, p.W13C)
1970 Jan 1, Pres. Nixon signed the National Environmental Policy Act into law.
(WSJ, 2/25/97, p.A22)
1970 Jan 1, The Family Law Act took effect in California. It included no-fault divorce.
(SFC, 7/20/07, p.B12)(www.jstor.org/pss/351519)
1970 Jan 1, In SF Officer Eric Zelms was fatally shot when 2 burglars surprised him and gained control of his gun. The burglars were later convicted of murder and sentenced 8 to 10 years.
(SFC, 1/27/07, p.A8)
1971 Jan 1, The United States began a second decade of involvement in Vietnam.
(HN, 1/1/99)
1971 Jan 1, The US government ban on TV Cigarette ads went into effect.
(SFEC, 9/15/96, DB p.55)(AP, 4/1/98)
1972 Jan 1, "Promises Promises" closed at Shubert Theater NYC after 1281 performances.
(www.ibdb.com/production.asp?ID=3438)
1972 Jan 1, Maurice Chevalier (b.1888), French actor, singer and dancer, died in Paris. He sang “Thank Heaven for Little Girls" in the 1958 film “Gigi."
(SSFC, 8/8/04, Par p.2)(www.jimpoz.com)
1972 Jan 1, Kurt Waldheim (1918-2007) of Austria began serving as the UN Secretary-General. He continued until Jan 1, 1982.
(SFC, 12/14/96, p.A1)
1973 Jan 1, The European Economic Community (EEC), the forerunner to the EU, admitted Britain, Ireland and Denmark even though they made chocolate containing a small percentage of vegetable fat. Members as required handed away control of trade-deal negotiation.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_European_Union)(WSJ, 12/4/97, p.A22)(Econ, 7/16/16, p.47)
1974 Jan 1, The US government Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program, established by Congress in 1972, began providing new benefits for the aged, blind and disabled.
(SFEC, 1/5/97, Z1 p.5)(www.ssa.gov/OP_Home/cfr20/416/416-0110.htm)
1974 Jan 1 In Britain a 3-day work week went into effect following a power shortage caused by striking miners. 885,000 people registered as unemployed.
(Econ, 4/3/10, p.59)(http://tinyurl.com/y76xjwe)(Econ., 5/2/20, p.12)
1974 Jan 1, Nawab Akbar Shahbaz Khan Bugti (1927-2006), governor of Balochistan, Pakistan, resigned shortly after Bhutto launched an army operation in Balochistan. The army had deployed 100,000 men in Baluchistan and with the help of the Iranian air force killed large numbers of Baluchis.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nawab_Akbar_Bugti)
1975 Jan 1, The Watergate verdict was guilty when a jury convicted Richard Nixon's three top advisers on all counts in the Watergate coverup: former attorney general John Mitchell and White House aides Bob Haldeman and John Ehrlichman. "Watergate" became shorthand for the burglary of Democratic Party offices in Washington's Watergate office complex. The burglars were caught and found to have White House connections. Robert Mardian (1923-2006), attorney for the Committee to Re-elect the President (CREEP), was also convicted, but an appeals court in October, 1996, reversed his conviction.
(SFC, 7/21/06, p.B9)
1975 Jan 1, The Federal Hourly Minimum Wage rose to $2.10 an hour.
(www.dol.gov/esa/minwage/coverage.htm)
1975 Jan 1, On New Year's Day Communist troops launched an offensive which, in 117 days of the hardest fighting of the war, collapsed the Khmer Republic.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Cambodia)
1976 Jan 1, NBC replaced the peacock logo.
(www.classicthemes.com/50sTVThemes/themePages/nbcLivingColor.html)
1976 Jan 1, In California the Moscone Act, which relaxed marijuana laws, went into effect.
(www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/hemp/moscone/summary.htm)
1978 Jan 1, The US Federal Minimum Wage, set at $2.65 an hour in November 1977, became effective.
(http://bartlett.house.gov/Issues/Issue/?IssueID=2063)
1978 Jan 1, US copyright law of 2007 held that the rights to songs written before this date expire 75 years after they were published. US songs written after 1978 would hold their copyright for 50 years after the death of the songwriter.
(WSJ, 10/30/97, p.B1,11)(www.pdinfo.com/copyrt.htm)
1978 Jan 1, An Air India jet exploded in midair and killed 213 people near Bombay.
(WUD, 1994, p.1691)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_India_Flight_855)
1979 Jan 1, China and the United States held celebrations in Beijing and Washington to mark the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries. Deng Xiaoping arranged to visit the US. China standardized the spelling of people and place names using the Pinyin system. Peking thus became Beijing.
(SFC, 2/20/96, p.A4)(AP, 1/1/98)(SFC, 2/05/04, p.E8)
1979 Jan 1, UN Secretary General Kurt Waldheim signed a proclamation declaring 1979 as the International Year of the Child.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Year_of_the_Child)
1981 Jan 1, Children born from this day on were considered to be part of "Generation Y," as opposed to "Generation X," born between 1966 and 1979, which followed the baby boomers.
(WSJ, 4/16/98, p.A1)(Econ, 6/1/13, p.58)
1981 Jan 1, Roger Smith (b.1925) took office as chairman and CEO of GM.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)(http://tinyurl.com/2pvqps)
1981 Jan 1, Greece joined the European Union. It joined the Eurozone on Jan 1, 2001, allowing it to be among the first group of countries that issued euro banknotes on Jan 1, 2002.
(http://ec.europa.eu/economy_finance/euro/countries/greece_en.htm)
1982 Jan 1, Cecil Williams (b.1929), the pastor of San Francisco’s Glide Memorial Church, married Janice Mirikitani (b.1941). Both had children from previous marriages.
(SSFC, 12/6/09, p.A9)
1983 Jan 1, Pope John Paul II declared this year to be an extraordinary Holy Year to mark the 1,950th anniversary of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ in year 33.
(SFC, 12/24/99, p.A15)
1983 Jan 1, TCP/IP became the standard for Internet protocol.
(SFC, 8/30/99, p.C10)
1984 Jan 1, The break-up of AT&T took place as the telecommunications giant was divested of its 22 Bell System companies under terms of an antitrust agreement. 8 new companies were formed including US West.
(AP, 1/1/98)(SFEC, 8/16/98, p.A7)(www.corp.att.com/history/history4.html)
1985 Jan 1, The 1st US mandatory seat belt law went into effect in NY.
(www.nysgtsc.state.ny.us/seat-ndx.htm)
1985 Jan 1, In Florida the body of Tonya McKinley (23) was found in Pensacola. She had been strangled and sexually assaulted. In 2020 police arrested Daniel Wells (57) after using family tree DNA evidence.
(SFC, 3/20/20, p.A4)
1985 Jan 1, Mustafa Maarouf Saad (d.2002), Lebanese militia leader, lost his sight in a car explosion in front of his house in Sidon. His daughter (13) was killed and his wife lost one eye.
(SFC, 8/3/02, p.A18)
1986 Jan 1, Libyan leader Moammar Khadafy threatened to retaliate if attacked as the United States built its strength in the Mediterranean .
(HN, 1/1/99)
1987 Jan 1, Nicaragua’s Sandinista Constitution was promulgated. It provided the final step in the institutionalization of the Sandinista regime and the framework under which the Chamorro government would take office.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_of_Nicaragua)
1988 Jan 1, President Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev exchanged optimistic New Year's greetings, expressing mutual hope they would reach an arms control treaty on strategic weapons within six months.
(AP, 1/1/98)
1989 Jan 1, British PM Margaret Thatcher distanced herself from US vows to punish whoever bombed Pam Am Flight 103, saying in a TV interview that revenge "can affect innocent people."
(AP, 1/1/99)
1990 Jan 1, David Dinkins was sworn in as New York City's first black mayor.
(AP, 1/1/98)
1991 Jan 1, President Bush called top advisers to the White House for a fresh assessment of the Persian Gulf crisis.
(AP, 1/1/01)
1992 Jan 1, President Bush became the first American leader to address the Australian Parliament, telling lawmakers the United States would continue to subsidize its agricultural exports, despite protests by Australia's farmers.
(AP, 1/1/02)
1992 Jan 1, Altaf Hussain (b.1953), leader of Pakistan’s MQM party, fled to Saudi Arabia and after a month to London. PM Nawaz Sharif soon deployed the army to Karachi for a massive anti-MQM operation and the city descended into an undeclared civil war.
(WSJ, 12/5/07, p.A22)(www.elections.com.pk/candidatedetails.php?id=6881)
1992 Jan 1, Boutros Boutros-Ghali succeeded Javier Perez de Cuellar as secretary-general of the United Nations.
(AP, 1/1/02)
1993 Jan 1, President Bush continued to tour Somalia, greeting hundreds of cheering youngsters and foreign relief workers at an orphanage in Baidoa.
(AP, 1/1/98)
1993 Jan 1, Czechoslovakia peacefully split into two new countries, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The Slovak people never voted on the 1993 split with the Czechs. When the country split, all citizens were deemed to be either Czech or Slovak, based on their parentage. The vast majority of the Romany living in the Czech Republic are of Slovak descent, and they had to apply for Czech citizenship. Vladimir Meciar (b.1942) became the premier of Slovakia and Vaclav Klaus the premier of the Czech Rep.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladim%C3%ADr_Me%C4%8Diar)(AP, 9/21/02)(WSJ, 4/26/96, p.A-1)(SFC, 5/13/96, p.A-8)(AP, 1/1/98)
1994 Jan 1, The North American Free Trade Agreement went into effect. Under the system a complaint is referred to a panel of experts who debate it and render a decision. The losing nation must then change its practices or offer compensation to the injured nations. Members who refuse to comply can be subjected to trade retaliation, such as tariffs to their exports. It was run out of Geneva by Renato "Rocky" Ruggiero. GATT gave poorer countries 10 years to strengthen their drug-patent laws and a similar period for the US to lift its textile quotas. The World Trade Organization (WTO), founded as the successor to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), a relatively weak regulator of int’l. trade, was a product of the Uruguay Round of negotiations (1986-1994). In 2000 John R. MacArthur authored "The Selling of "Free Trade:" NAFTA, Washington, and the Subversion of American Democracy." In 2004 David Bacon authored "The Children NAFTA: Labor Wars on the US/Mexico Border.
(SFC, 10/17/96, A9)(WSJ, 12/3/96, p.A1)(WSJ, 12/13/96, p.A1)(AP, 1/1/98) (SFC, 11/24/99, p.A1)(SFEC, 7/2/00, BR p.3)(SSFC, 4/4/04, p.M2)
1994 Jan 1, The California tax on gasoline was raised to 18 cents per gallon.
(www.ncseonline.org/NLE/CRSreports/Transportation/trans-24.cfm)
1994 Jan 1, Actor Cesar Romero died in Santa Monica, Calif., at age 86.
(AP, 1/1/99)
1994 Jan 1, In Mexico some 2,000 Zapatista guerrillas under the leadership of Subcommander Marcos rose up against the government in the state of Chiapas. The Zapatista National Liberation Army launched a rebellion to press for better living conditions for Indian peasants in Chiapas.
(SFC, 7/2/96, p.A8)(SFC,12/18/97, p.C2)(AP, 1/1/99)
1994 Jan 1, Botswana, Germany, Italy, Honduras, and Indonesia joined the Security Council.
(SFC, 1/1/97, p.C1)
1995 Jan 1, Gary Larson's "Far Side" cartoon panel ended a 14-year run.
(SSFC, 11/16/03, BR p.17)
1995 Jan 1, Eugene Wigner (92), physicist (Nobel prize for physics-1963), died.
(http://nobelprize.org/physics/laureates/1963/wigner-bio.html)
1995 Jan 1, Austria, Finland and Sweden joined the European Union. Sweden held their elections to the parliament later that year on 17 September. Austria held its elections on 13 October, 1996 and Finland on 20 October, 1996.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_European_Union)(Econ, 5/1/04, p.26)
1995 Jan 1, In Bosnia a four month truce between the Bosnian Serbs and the Bosnian government was brokered by former Pres. Jimmy Carter.
(WSJ, 6/11/96, p.A14)(SFC,10/16/97, p.A12)
1995 Jan 1, Fernando Henrique Cardoso took office as Brazil's 37th president. He pushed up interest rates to 25% and stabilized the economy.
(WSJ, 12/15/95, p.A-13)(AP, 1/1/00)
1995 Jan 1, Fred West hanged himself in his London prison while awaiting trial in the murders of a dozen girls and women. The victims included his wife's 16-year-old daughter and 8-year-old stepdaughter and several young runaways.
(AP, 1/13/04)
1995 Jan 1, Chile, Egypt, Guinea-Bissau, Poland and South Korea joined the non-permanent sector of the Security Council.
(SFC, 1/1/97, p.C1)
1995 Jan 1, The Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe (CSCE), formed in 1973, was renamed the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).
(http://tinyurl.com/4wq42s)
1995 Jan 1, Teburoro Tito, the incoming president of Kiribati, moved the International Date Line a thousand miles east around Kiribati to allow all of its 33 atolls to be line the same time zone. Thus the atoll of Kirimati never experienced Dec 31, 1994.
(SSFC, 12/17/06, p.G5)
1996 Jan 1, In the US it became illegal to manufacture or import freon, a refrigerant for car air-conditioners, due to its effect on the ozone.
(SFC, 8/13/96, p.A2)
1996 Jan 1, Bayer Corp. added Betty Rubble to its mix of Flintstone vitamins.
(http://tv.groups.yahoo.com/group/tvbarn/message/127)
1996 Jan 1, Retired US Admiral Arleigh Burke, remembered for his World War II heroics, died at Bethesda Naval Hospital at age 94.
(AP, 1/1/01)
1996 Jan 1, Arthur Rudolph (89), German-US rocket Engineer, died. His final years were marked by his forced return to his native Germany from the US because of his earlier involvement with the slave labor that powered the Third Reich's V1 & V2 rocket programs.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Rudolph)
1996 Jan 1, Some 100,000 Bangladeshi women rallied to protest Islamic clerics’ attacks on female education and employment.
(AP, 1/1/01)
1996 Jan 1, A 7.0 earthquake struck offshore near the Indonesian Island of Sulawesi. Seismologist in Japan and Hong Kong measured it at 7.7. A tidal wave killed eight after the quake.
(WSJ, 1/2/96, p. A-1)(WSJ, 1/3/96, p.A-1)
1996 Jan 1, Two buses collided in northern Mexico, killing 25 people.
(AP, 1/1/01)
1997 Jan 1, The new members of the UN security council, Japan, Kenya, Sweden, Costa Rica and Portugal, took their seats.
(SFC, 1/1/97, p.C1)
1997 Jan 1, Kofi Annan assumed the title of United Nations secretary-general.
(AP, 1/1/98)
1997 Jan 1, As of this date the US withdrew completely from the UN Industrial Development Organization.
(SFC, 2/17/97, p.A14)
1997 Jan 1, The line-item veto became officially available to Pres. Clinton.
(SFC, 1/2/97, p.A20)
1997 Jan 1, Townes Van Zandt (1944-1997) Texas songwriter, died. His work included the 1983 song "Pancho and Lefty," sung by Merle Haggard and Willie Nelson.
(SFC, 1/3/97, p.A26)(SFC, 1/4/97, p.E1)(WSJ, 6/25/03, p.D8)
1997 Jan 1, In San Francisco Gar Trupelli and his wife Lara reopened the Beach Chalet as the Beach Chalet Brewery and Restaurant.
(SSFC, 4/2/17, p.A2)
1997 Jan 1, The EU introduced the Pan-European Cumulation System (PECS) to turn a latticework of bilateral trade rules into a single multilateral umbrella. It extended the system to include Turkey in 1999.
(Econ, 8/5/06, p.68)(www.foreigntrade.gov.tr/ab/ingilizce/panavrup.htm)
1997 Jan 1, An off-duty Israeli soldier, Noam Friedman, with a history of mental problems opened fire on a crowded vegetable market in Hebron, wounding 5 [7] people and touching off a stone-throwing demonstration by angry Palestinians.
(SFC, 1/1/97, p.A1)(AP, 1/1/98)
1997 Jan 1, In Mexico long-distance telephone competition began and ended a 49-year monopoly.
(SFC, 1/1/97, p.B3)
1998 Jan 1, The 109th Rose Bowl Parade in Pasadena was held and Univ. of Michigan beat Washington State 21-16, Florida State downed Ohio State 31-14 in the Sugar Bowl.
(SFC, 1/2/98, p.A1,22)(AP, 1/1/08)
1998 Jan 1, A new anti-smoking law went into effect in California, prohibiting people from lighting up in bars.
(AP, 1/1/99)
1998 Jan 1, Some 1-2 thousand Hutu rebels attacked a military base and near the main airport and 150 civilians, 30 rebels and 2 soldiers were reported killed. Later reports said as many as 300 were killed and that the army had sealed up the area.
(WSJ, 1/2/98, p.A1)(SFC, 1/2/98, p.A14)(SFC, 1/3/98, p.A8)
1998 Jan 1, In Brazil the new law making all Brazilian adults potential organ donors went into effect. New traffic laws also went into effect. It was reported that 50,000 people die annually from car accidents because drivers routinely ignore traffic laws.
(SFC, 1/7/98, p.A8)(SFEC, 2/1/98, p.T12)
1998 Jan 1, In Chechnya the president asked Shamil Basayev to form a government.
(WSJ, 1/2/98, p.A1)
1998 Jan 1, In Italy navy patrols intercepted a 2nd ship with 386 refugees, mostly Kurds,
(WSJ, 1/2/98, p.A1)
1998 Jan 1, Mongolia switched from a 46 hour to 40 hour work week.
(MC, 1/1/02)
1998 Jan 1, In Russia the government knocked 3 zeroes off the national currency. The old ruble notes will be exchangeable until 2002.
(SFC, 1/2/98, p.A15)
1999 Jan 1, Doris Haddock (d.2010), began walking from California more than 3,200 (5,150 km) miles across the United States. Fourteen months later, she (88) arrived in Washington DC to draw attention to the need for campaign finance reform.
(AP, 8/3/19)
1999 Jan 1, The Maastricht Treaty specified that a monetary union will be established by this date, and laid down several criteria that EU nations must fulfill in order to join. Some of the criteria included: maximum budget deficits of 3% of GDP, a cap on government debt of 60% of GDP. The European economic and monetary union (EMU) was scheduled to start with a new "Euro" currency. Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain made the transition. Public use was set for Jan 1, 2002. [see Jan 4]
(WSJ, 9/25/95, p.A-12)(WSJ, 12/5/95, p.A-14)(SFC, 11/16/96, p.A1)(SFC, 1/1/99, p.A8)
1999 Jan 1, When the euro was launched the US dollar-euro ($:€) exchange rate stood at $1.16:€1.
(www.econ.nyu.edu/user/frydmanr/Dollar_Euro_Exchange_Rate.pdf)
1999 Jan 1, In Canada an avalanche, possibly triggered ceremonial gunfire, hit the Inuit village of Kangiqsualujjuaq, Quebec, and 9 people were killed.
(SFC, 1/2/99, p.C12)(SFEC, 1/3/99, p.A17)
1999 Jan 1, Congo rebels massacred at least 500 civilians over the last 3 days. Six Red Cross workers were among the dead.
(WSJ, 1/6/98, p.A1)(WSJ, 1/11/98, p.A1)
1999 Jan 1, President Fidel Castro, marking 40 years as Cuba's leader, portrayed his socialist nation as a defender of humanity against rapacious capitalism.
(AP, 1/1/00)
1999 Jan 1, Weimar, Germany, began one year’s title as the European Union’s "city of culture."
(SFEC, 7/27/97, p.T1)
1999 Jan 1, In Mongolia new legislation liberated the news media.
(SFC, 1/2/99, p.C12)
1999 Jan 1, The UN designated Int'l. Year of Older Persons began.
(SFC, 1/16/99, p.A12)
2000 Jan 1, The Jewish calendar year was 5760 and the new year scheduled for Sep 30. The Hindu year was 1921. The Chinese year was 4697 with the new year on Feb 5. The Muslim lunar year was 1420 with the new year on Apr 6.
(SFC, 1/1/2000, p.A18)
2000 Jan 1, The arrival of 2000 saw no terrorist attacks, Y2K meltdowns or mass suicides among doomsday cults, but instead saw seven continents stepping joyously and peacefully into the New Year.
(AP, 1/1/01)
2000 Jan 1, Wisconsin beat Stanford, 17-to-9, to become the first Big Ten team to win consecutive Rose Bowls.
(SFEC, 1/2/00, p.A1)(AP, 1/1/01)
2000 Jan 1, Some 254 hours of Nixon White House tapes were to be made available for public duplication and sale under a 1996 agreement. Another 2,338 hours, mostly unrelated to Watergate, were to be released over the next few years.
(SFEC, 8/8/99, p.A3)
2000 Jan 1, In California the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act became law. It validated all transactions formed, transmitted and recorded electronically, with certain exemptions.
(SFEC, 1/2/00, p.B1)
2000 Jan 1, The $1.25 billion ($400 million) Millennium Dome at Greenwich, designed by Lord Richard Rogers, was built to inaugurate the millennium and provide an exhibition space for one year. The monograph "Richard Rogers; Complete Works, Volume One" was published in late 1999. The cable-stayed dome was suspended from 12 projecting masts. It failed expectations, but was reincarnated in 2007 as The O2, an all-purpose entertainment center.
(SFC, 2/1/99, p.A6,8)(SFEM, 1/2/00, p.12)(Econ, 6/23/07, p.64)
2000 Jan 1, In England the Cezanne painting "Auvers-Sur-Oise," valued at $4.8 million, was stolen from the Ashmoleum Museum in Oxford.
(SFEC, 1/2/00, p.A2)
2000 Jan 1, In southwestern France Robert Lund reported that his wife, Evelyn (52), was missing from their home. He told investigators he believed she had an accident after drinking heavily and setting off to visit friends. Her body was found inside her car in Lake Bancalie in 2002. Lund was sentenced to 12 years in jail in 2007 for the involuntary homicide of his wife. Lund insisted he was innocent as his third trial in the case opened in 2011. On Dec 16, 2011, Lund was sentenced to 12 years in prison.
(AP, 12/12/11)(AFP, 12/16/11)
2000 Jan 1, On his first full day as acting president, Vladimir Putin assured Russians there would be no "vacuum of power" after Boris Yeltsin’s surprise resignation.
(AP, 1/1/01)
2001 Jan 1, No. 4 Washington beat No. 14 Purdue 34-to-24 in the Rose Bowl.
(AP, 1/1/02)
2001 Jan 1, It was announced that Tyson Foods Inc. would buy beef and pork giant IBP Inc. in a deal valued at $3.2 billion in cash and stock. Tyson later tried to back out, but IBP sued, and a judge ordered Tyson to complete the deal.
(AP, 1/1/02)
2001 Jan 1, Ray Walston (b.1914), film and TV actor (My Favorite Martian) died in Beverly Hills, Calif., at age 86.
(AP, 1/1/02)(NW, 12/31/01, p.106)
2001 Jan 1, In Canada new cigarette warning labels became effective. 16 rotating labels included such warnings as "Cigarettes cause mouth disease" with a photograph of blackened, bleeding gums.
(SFC, 1/3/01, p.A9)
2001 Jan 1, In Canada a new federal gun control measure went into effect. It called for the licensing and registration of all shotguns and hunting rifles.
(SFC, 1/5/01, p.A16)
2001 Jan 1, In Israel a car bomb wounded at least 40 people in Netanya and gunfire killed 4 Palestinians in the West Bank.
(SFC, 1/2/01, p.A1)
2001 Jan 1, In the Netherlands a fire in a Volendam café killed at least 8 people and injured some 200.
(SFC, 1/1/00, p.A12)(SFC, 1/2/01, p.A10)
2001 Jan 1, In Mexico rebels soon called for the closure all 7 military bases near rebel strongholds.
(SFC, 1/2/01, p.A9)
2001 Jan 1, Taiwan allowed Chinese merchants and tourists to sail to Kinmen Island, a move to decriminalize reality and a possible preparation for wider links.
(SFC, 12/28/00, p.C2)(SFC, 1/2/01, p.A9)
2001 Jan 1, A shipwreck off Turkey killed at least 6 people. The Georgian-flagged Pati cargo ship carried illegal immigrants and dozens were missing.
(SFC, 1/2/01, p.A10)
2002 Jan 1, No. 2 Oregon defeated No. 3 Colorado 38-16 in the Fiesta Bowl.
(AP, 1/1/03)
2002 Jan 1, Michael Bloomberg succeeded Rudolph Giuliani as New York City's mayor. Bloomberg began to aggressively pursue a controversial "stop and frisk" police strategy when he took over as mayor. In 2019 he reversed his support for the policy.
(AP, 1/1/03)(SFC, 11/18/19, p.A6)
2002 Jan 1, Pres. Bush announced that envoy Gen. Anthony Zinni would return to the Middle East to push for steps to renew peace talks.
(SFC, 1/2/02, p.A9)
2002 Jan 1, Eduardo Duhalde, a Peronist and former vice-president, was chosen as Argentina’s new president, the 5th in less than 2 weeks.
(SFC, 1/2/02, p.A1)
2002 Jan 1, Egyptian state television launched a new program directed at Israelis. It was planned to extend the 30 min show to 2 hours.
(SFC, 1/2/02, p.A9)
2002 Jan 1, In Europe 50 billion new euro coins and 14 billion new euro notes began circulating in 12 participating countries in the most ambitious currency changeover in history: Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Luxembourg, Spain, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands and Portugal.
(SFC, 1/2/02, p.A8)(AP, 1/1/03)
2002 Jan 1, Pakistan ordered the country’s military intelligence agency to cut off backing for Islamic militant groups fighting in Kashmir.
(SFC, 1/2/02, p.A3)
2003 Jan 1, Oklahoma romped past Washington State 34-14 in the Rose Bowl; Georgia defeated Florida State 26-13 in the Sugar Bowl; Notre Dame saw its sixth straight bowl loss, losing to North Carolina State 28-6 in the Gator Bowl.
(AP, 1/1/04)
2003 Jan 1, More than two dozen surgeons stopped working in West Virginia to protest the high cost of malpractice insurance.
(AP, 1/1/04)
2003 Jan 1, U.S. and British warplanes attacked an Iraqi mobile radar system after it entered the southern no-fly zone.
(AP, 1/1/03)
2003 Jan 1, Joe Foss (87), former South Dakota Gov. and World War II hero who also served as president of the National Rifle Association and commissioner of the American Football League, died at an Arizona hospital.
(AP, 1/1/04)
2003 Jan 1, In Bosnia the EU hoisted its dark blue banner to officially mark the transfer of peacekeeping duties from the United Nations, while NATO-led troops handed over control of Sarajevo's airport to Bosnian authorities.
(AP, 1/1/03)
2003 Jan 1, Brazil's first elected leftist president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, took office. Gilberto Gill (60), musician, became minister of culture.
(SFC, 1/2/03, p.A3)(AP, 1/1/04)
2003 Jan 1, In Canada a new gun law came into effect that required the registration of all rifles and shotguns.
(AP, 1/2/03)
2003 Jan 1, In Gaza 3 Palestinian boys were shot and killed by soldiers after scaling a fence around Jewish settlements. Thousands of Palestinians marched in the West Bank and Gaza Strip to mark the 38th anniversary of the founding of Arafat's Fatah movement.
(AP, 1/2/03)(SFC, 1/2/03, p.A5)
2003 Jan 1, Dumitru Tinu (62), a leading Romanian journalist who covered the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia and steered his newspaper along independent lines after communism ended, died in a car accident.
(AP, 1/1/03)
2004 Jan 1, The University of Southern California defeated the University of Michigan, 28-14, in the Rose Bowl.
(AP, 1/1/05)
2004 Jan 1, The 1st US anti-spam law, the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003, went into effect. It made it illegal for advertisers to falsify their identity and required an effective way for recipients to get themselves removed from advertiser lists.
(SFC, 1/2/04, p.B1)
2004 Jan 1, A California ban on the gasoline additive MTBE went into effect. Ethanol became the new additive of choice, even though it could increase air pollution.
(AP, 12/31/04)
2004 Jan 1, Houston's $324 million, 7.5 mile, light rail system made its inaugural trips.
(AP, 1/2/04)(WSJ, 1/22/04, p.A1)
2004 Jan 1, The US Navy seized a 4th drug-smuggling vessel in the Persian Gulf with about 2,800 pounds of hashish. Street value was estimated at $11 million.
(AP, 1/2/04)
2004 Jan 1, Afghanistan's constitutional convention came off the rails, as panicked officials adjourned the gathering in the face of a boycott by opponents of President Hamid Karzai. Tajik and Uzbek delegates mounted a boycott demanding that minority rights be guarded.
(AP, 1/1/04)(WSJ, 1/2/04, p.A1)
2004 Jan 1, Brazil began fingerprinting and photographing American visitors in retaliation to similar new US procedures.
(WSJ, 12/31/03, p.A1)
2004 Jan 1, China began running the world's 1st commercially operated maglev train in Shanghai. The German-built system spanned 18 miles.
(SFC, 1/10/04, p.E4)
2004 Jan 1, In Colombia Luis Eduardo Garzon took the helm as the first leftist mayor of Bogota.
(AP, 1/2/04)
2004 Jan 1, Jiri Loewy (73), a Czech journalist who campaigned against communism from exile, died in Germany.
(AP, 1/3/04)
2004 Jan 1, President Jean-Bertrand Aristide pledged to improve life for his impoverished nation as police blocked thousands of anti-government demonstrators during celebrations marking Haiti's 200th anniversary of independence from France. More than 15,000 Aristide supporters rallied outside the National Palace as more than 5,000 government opponents massed in the capital's streets and faced off with police and government partisans.
(AP, 1/1/04)(AP, 1/2/04)
2004 Jan 1, Pres. Thabo Mbeki of South Africa joined Pres. Aristide for Haiti’s independence celebrations.
(WPR, 3/04, p.29)
2004 Jan 1, Iranian officials welcomed America's temporary lifting of sanctions against the Persian state following the country's earthquake, and the foreign minister said the embargo should end permanently.
(AP, 1/1/04)
2004 Jan 1, Pakistan's Pervez Musharraf won a vote of confidence that supporters hailed as the final step on the general's journey from dictator to democrat. Opponents derided the proceedings, which will keep the Pakistani leader in power as president until 2007.
(AP, 1/1/04)
2004 Jan 1, A Pakistani airline flew from Lahore to New Delhi and back, re-establishing a commercial link that was cut by a war scare in 2002.
(WSJ, 1/2/04, p.A1)
2004 Jan 1, North Korea confirmed that it would allow a U.S. delegation to visit its main nuclear complex next week, the first such inspection since the isolated communist country expelled UN monitors more than a year ago.
(AP, 1/2/04)
2004 Jan 1, In South Africa a minibus full of British and Canadian tourists headed to a scenic mountain area crashed, killing eight Britons and the pedestrian.
(AP, 1/1/04)
2004 Jan 1, In Taiwan tens of thousands of protesters marched peacefully to push for full democracy in this former British colony.
(AP, 1/1/04)
2005 Jan 1, Europe’s 7,000 listed companies adopted int’l. financial reporting standards (IFRS), replacing the mishmash of 25 local accounting regimes with one set of rules. Over 90 countries began switching to a new int’l. accounting standards.
(WSJ, 12/9/04, p.C1)(Econ, 6/18/05, p.73)
2005 Jan 1, A new California law took effect giving gay couples who register as domestic partners nearly the same responsibilities and benefits as married spouses.
(AP, 1/1/05)
2005 Jan 1, Shirley Chisholm (80), advocate for minority rights, died. She became the first black woman elected to Congress and later the first black person to seek a major party's nomination for the US presidency.
(AP, 1/3/05)
2005 Jan 1, Robert Matsui (63), 13-term California Democratic congressman, died. On April 13 US Representatives voted to name the federal courthouse in Sacramento in his honor.
(SFC, 1/3/05, p.A1)(SFC, 4/14/05, p.B3)
2005 Jan 1, Australia’s free trade agreement with the US became effective.
(Econ, 5/7/05, Survey p.10)
2005 Jan 1, The British Freedom of Information Act of 2000 went into effect. It gave a general right of access to all types of recorded information held by public authorities and places obligations on public authorities to disclose information, subject to a range of exemptions.
(Econ, 12/23/06, p.84)(www.bl.uk/about/policies/freedom.html)
2005 Jan 1, The 1974 Multi-Fiber Arrangement (MFA), which had restricted Chinese textile exports, ended. This forced Cambodia to face fierce competition from rival exporters. This led to the loss of some 30,000 jobs in Mauritius.
(www.ers.usda.gov/AmberWaves/February06/Features/feature2.htm)(Econ, 2/19/05, p.42)(Econ, 10/18/08, p.58)
2005 Jan 1, A deal to eliminate import tariffs between Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda came into force, marking the first major step toward integrating the East African nations into a single economic and investment block.
(AP, 1/1/05)
2005 Jan 1, Indonesia was forecast for 4.8% annual GDP growth with a population at 227.1 million and GDP per head at $1,230.
(Econ, 1/8/05, p.91)
2005 Jan 1, In Indonesia desperate, homeless villagers on the tsunami-ravaged island of Sumatra mobbed American helicopters carrying aid as the U.S. military launched its largest operation in the region since the Vietnam War.
(AP, 1/1/06)
2005 Jan 1, Al-Qaida's arm in Iraq released a video showing its militants lining up five captured Iraqi security officers and executing them in the street.
(AP, 1/1/05)
2005 Jan 1, Ireland's 2nd city of Cork became the European capital of culture for 2005, offering up a program of theatre, music, art, literature as well as sporting and other events.
(AFP, 1/1/05)
2005 Jan 1, Jamaica's embattled police commissioner Francis Forbes resigned following record number of homicides in 2004. The island nation of 2.6 million people, reported a record 1,145 homicides for 2004, compared with 975 the year before.
(AP, 1/2/05)
2005 Jan 1, Japan pledged up to $500 million in grant aid for tsunami disaster relief.
(AP, 1/1/05)
2005 Jan 1, Japan’s currency opened at 102.41 yen to the dollar. Rising oil prices pushed it down in April to 108.91 to the dollar.
(WSJ, 4/7/05, p.C16)
2005 Jan 1, In Norway a new law went into effect to allow foreign hunters to hunt seals. The legislation raised the seal kill quota to 2,000.
(SFC, 11/27/04, p.A10)
2005 Jan 1, In southern Peru Antauro Humala, retired army major, led a nationalist group that seized a police station ambushed a police vehicle responding to the scene, killing four officers and two reservists. Antauro Humala was later sentenced to 25 years in prison. In 2011 his sentence was reduced to 19 years. Antauro’s brother, Ollanta, was elected president in 2006.
(AP, 1/2/05)(Econ, 1/8/05, p.38)(AP, 9/7/11)
2005 Jan 1, Romania enacted a law forbidding int’l. adoptions except to biological grandparents in an effort to help it win EU membership.
(WSJ, 1/3/05, p.A1)
2005 Jan 1, In Saudi Arabia 2 men, a Pakistani and an Iraqi, were beheaded for smuggling in drugs.
(AP, 1/1/05)
2005 Jan 1, A new Swiss law took effect that legalized the production of absinthe.
(SFC, 11/4/04, p.A2)
2005 Jan 1, Taiwan was forecast for 4.8% annual GDP growth with a population at 22.9 million and GDP per head at $14,560.
(Econ, 1/8/05, p.92)
2005 Jan 1, Taiwan’s Statement of Financial Standards No. 35 took effect.
(WSJ, 4/6/05, p.C18)
2005 Jan 1, The New (yeni) Turkish Lira (YTL), will begin circulating, wiping out six zeroes from the current money. The old lira will keep circulating until Dec 31.
(AP, 9/23/04)(Econ, 8/28/04, p.67)(SSFC, 12/5/04, p.F2)
2005 Jan 1, Uganda President Yoweri Museveni said the army will resume all-out war on rebels in northern Uganda, charging that the insurgents rejected a cease-fire deal that had been expected to open the way for political talks on ending the 18-year civil war.
(AP, 1/1/05)
2006 Jan 1, President Bush strongly defended his domestic spying program, calling it legal as well as vital to thwarting terrorist attacks.
(AP, 1/1/07)
2006 Dec 31, The US Medicare prescription drug plan went into effect.
(AP, 1/1/07)
2006 Dec 31, American teenager Farris Hassan, who'd traveled alone to Iraq to experience the lives of its people, returned home to Florida after three weeks in the Middle East.
(AP, 1/1/07)
2006 Jan 1, The California Energy Commission introduced mandatory standby requirement for various electronic devices.
(Econ, 3/11/06, Survey p.34)
2006 Jan 1, A family of 4 was found murdered in Richmond, Va. [see Jan 7]
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_Richmond_spree_murders)(SSFC, 1/8/06, p.A3)
2006 Jan 1, Raging bushfires have destroyed at least 10 homes and threatened scores more in southeast Australia as a scorching heat wave hit Sydney with its hottest New Year's Day on record.
(AFP, 1/1/06)
2006 Jan 1, Ketamine, an anesthetic and niche club drug, was labeled a Class C drug in the United Kingdom. It was developed by Parke-Davis in 1962 as part of an effort to find a safer anesthetic alternative to phencyclidine (PCP), which was likely to cause hallucinations, neurotoxicity and seizures. By the end of 2011 its usage had doubled.
(Econ, 11/19/11, p.59)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ketamine)
2006 Jan 1, The Royal Mail's 350-year-long monopoly of the letter-delivery business in Britain ended, as new rules kicked in to allow rival operators to win a slice of the market.
(AP, 6/29/07)
2006 Jan 1, Toronto wrapped up 2005 with 78 homicides, 52 of them gun-related.
(CP, 1/2/06)
2006 Jan 1, The Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) failed to start due to legal and regulatory reforms. Juan Carlos Paiz of the Guatemalan Union of Nontraditional Products blamed the US in large part for the delay, saying Washington was requiring too much of its poorer partners. The 6 participating nations included, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala and Nicaragua,
(AP, 1/1/06)
2006 Jan 1, In China a new policy took effect that allowed listed companies to grant stock options to senior executives and certain employees as incentives.
(WSJ, 1/6/06, p.A8)
2005 Jan 1, Denmark’s PM Anders Fogh Rasmussen, in response to cartoons published by Jyllands-Posten depicting the prophet Muhammad, condemned in his new year’s speech any attempt to demonize groups of people on the basis of religion or ethnic background.
(Econ, 1/7/06, p.44)
2006 Jan 1, East African leaders said that millions of people in the region faced hunger because poor rains had affected vital crops and pasture. Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and Tanzania faced acute food shortages.
(AP, 1/1/06)
2006 Jan 1, In Haiti 2 kidnapped American journalists, who said their captors threatened to kill them, were freed after friends and family assembled a ransom for their release.
(AP, 1/1/06)
2006 Jan 1, Officials said a cold snap sweeping northern India has killed another five homeless people, taking the toll to 101 since the start of December.
(AFP, 1/1/06)
2006 Jan 1, An Islamic militant group kidnapped nine Iranian soldiers near that country's border with Pakistan. On Jan 4 Al-Arabiya said the group threatened to kill them unless the Tehran government released 16 members from prison.
(AP, 1/4/06)
2006 Jan 1, Insurgents exploded 13 car bombs across Iraq, including eight in Baghdad within a three-hour span, but the New Year's Day onslaught killed no one and injured only 20 people.
(AP, 1/1/06)
2006 Jan 1, Subcomandante Marcos (b.1957), identified by the Mexican government as Rafael Guillen, began a tour of 31 Mexican states under the name “Delegate Zero." The leader of Mexico's Zapatista rebels, wearing a ski mask to protect his identity, railed against the government and free trade to kick off a six-month tour of Mexico aimed at reshaping the nation's politics.
(WSJ, 1/5/06, p.A12)(AP, 1/2/06)
2006 Jan 1, Norway passed legislation requiring every publicly traded company in Norway to have 40% women on its board by Jan 1 2008.
(www.nytimes.com/2006/01/12/international/europe/12oslo.html)
2006 Jan 1, A coalition of thousands of Islamic schools vowed to resist a Pakistani government plan to deport their foreign students, calling the proposal immoral.
(AP, 1/1/06)
2006 Jan 1, Palestinian security forces stormed a building where an Italian hostage was being held, freeing the man after a shootout with his kidnappers.
(AP, 1/1/06)
2006 Jan 1, Russia took over the annual presidency of the G8 club of industrialized democracies for the first time from Britain on New Year's Day.
(AP, 1/1/06)
2006 Jan 1, Russia's natural gas monopoly halted sales to Ukraine in a price dispute and began reducing pressure in transmission lines that also carry substantial supplies to western Europe. Supplies of natural gas to Poland have been hit by cuts imposed by Russia on the amount of gas entering the pipeline system in neighbouring Ukraine.
(Reuters, 1/1/06)(AFP, 1/1/06)
2006 Jan 1, Spanish smokers faced a wrenching change New Year's Day as a nationwide ban on tobacco in the workplace came into force in a country known for its smoky bars.
(AP, 1/1/06)
2006 Jan 1, In Venezuela 32 privately operated oil fields returned to state control. A 2001 hydrocarbons law had required oil production to be carried out by companies majority-owned by the government.
(WSJ, 1/3/06, p.A14)
2006 Jan 1, In northern Yemen tribesmen kidnapped five Italians, a day after the government negotiated the release of five Germans held hostage. Tribesmen soon freed three Italian women, who were among a group of five Italian tourists, and pressed for the release of kinsmen held by the authorities.
(Reuters, 1/1/06)
2007 Jan 1, The 9th-ranked Boise State Broncos completed a perfect season with a 43-42 overtime victory over No. 7 Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl. Southern California beat Michigan 32-18 in the Rose Bowl.
(AP, 1/1/07)
2007 Jan 1, In SF the minimum wage rose 3.6% to $9.14 per hour following a mandatory 2003 requirement for annual cost of living adjustments. SF police reported a decline in homicides to 85 in 2006, down from 96 in 2005.
(SFC, 1/2/07, p.E1)
2007 Jan 1, In Washington DC a smoking ban passed in 2005 was extended to bars and nightclubs. The ban for smoking in restaurants and offices had taken effect in April 2006.
(SFC, 1/2/07, p.A3)
2007 Jan 1, In Denver, Colorado, Broncos football player Darrent Williams was killed in a drive-by shooting in the early morning and two people with him were injured. On October 8, 2008, Willie D. Clark (25) was indicted for the murder.
(Reuters, 1/1/07)(AP, 10/9/08)
2007 Jan 1, Tillie Olsen (94), writer and SF labor activist, died. In 1961 she won the O. Henry Award for best short story for her "Tell me Riddle." In 2008 Ann Hershey (1938-2018) completed her documentary "Tillie Olsen: A Heart in Action."
(SFC, 1/10/08, p.E1)(SSFC, 4/15/18, p.C10)
2007 Jan 1, Grand Ole Opry star Del Reeves died at age 74.
(AP, 1/1/08)
2007 Jan 1, The government of President Evo Morales approved a decree requiring US citizens to obtain visas to enter Bolivia. Morales said the decree was "a matter of reciprocity." The US government requires Bolivians to obtain visas to enter the United States.
(AP, 1/1/07)
2007 Jan 1, In Brazil Sergio Cabral took office as governor of the state of Rio de Janeiro. The state’s economy was valued at around $130 billion, about the same as that of Venezuela.
(Econ, 1/20/07, p.50)
2007 Jan 1, Bulgaria and Romania joined the EU. Some 30,000 Israelis gained EU citizenship due to their dual registration in Romania.
(WSJ, 10/4/07, p.A11)(AP, 1/1/07)
2007 Jan 1, China’s government began requiring all companies listed on the Shenzhen and Shanghai stock markets to prepare their accounts according to Int’l. Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). The initial decision had been made in Nov 2005. New rules came into effect that allowed foreign reporters to go more or less where they pleased.
(Econ, 1/13/07, p.13, 63)(Econ, 1/20/07, p.18)
2007 Jan 1, Li Zhaoxing, China's foreign minister, signed a string of accords in Benin as part of a whistle-stop tour of seven African nations as Beijing bolsters economic ties on the continent. From Benin Li flew to Equatorial Guinea ahead of visits in the coming days to Guinea-Bissau, Chad, the Central African Republic, Eritrea and Botswana.
(AFP, 1/2/07)
2007 Jan 1, In Germany a government plan to encourage working couples to have children went into effect with benefits worth up to 25,200 euros (17,000 pounds).
(AP, 1/2/07)
2007 Jan 1, Hong Kong became a mostly smoke-free city as a ban on smoking in many public places went into effect.
(SFC, 1/1/07, p.A3)
2007 Jan 1, Flight KI-574, an Indonesian passenger plane carrying 102 people, disappeared in stormy weather off Sulawesi island. Rescue teams were sent to search in the area where the Boeing 737-400 sent out a distress signal. In 2008 investigators said the pilots had accidentally disconnecting the plane's autopilot. A speed boat capsized in poor weather off the coast of Borneo island, killing 15 people.
(AP, 1/1/07)(AP, 1/2/07)(AFP, 3/25/08)
2007 Jan 1, Iraqi authorities reported that 16,273 Iraqis, including 14,298 civilians, 1,348 police and 627 soldiers died violent deaths in 2006. Iraqi police reported finding the 40 handcuffed, blindfolded and bullet-riddled bodies in Baghdad. The US military killed six Iraqis during a raid on the offices of a prominent Sunni political figure, where American forces believed al-Qaida fighters had taken refuge. A US soldier was killed by a roadside bomb southwest of Baghdad. The blast wounded three others, including an interpreter, as they talked with local residents about sectarian violence.
(AP, 1/2/07)
2007 Jan 1, A photographer for the French news agency Agence France Presse was kidnapped in Gaza City just before sundown.
(AP, 1/1/07)
2007 Jan 1, Somali government troops backed by Ethiopian tanks and fighter jets captured the last major stronghold of a militant Islamic movement, while hundreds of Islamic fighters, many of them Arabs and South Asians, fled the town. PM Ali Mohamed Gedi set a 3-day deadline for gun collection.
(AP, 1/1/07)(SFC, 1/3/07, p.A3)
2007 Jan 1, South Korean diplomat Ban Ki-moon became the UN’s eighth secretary-general.
(AP, 1/1/07)
2007 Jan 1, Slovenia adopted the euro, becoming the 13th EU nation to use the single European currency. The transition to the euro included a 14-day period for dual use of the euro and Slovene tolar.
(WSJ, 12/30/06, p.A4)(AP, 1/1/07)
2008 Jan 1, The US and Guatemala formally ratified the Hague Abduction Convention.
(SFC, 5/15/12, p.A2)
2008 Jan 1, This marked the start of the International Year of the Potato as declared by the UN. The potato stood s the world’s 4th biggest food crop, after maize, wheat and rice.
(Econ, 3/1/08, p.18, 92)(SSFC, 10/5/08, p.A15)
2008 Jan 1, In Arizona new laws targeting employers who hire illegal immigrants took effect, with experts predicting the move may cost the state's economy billions of dollars in lost income and taxes.
(AP, 1/1/08)
2008 Jan 1, In California a batch of new state laws took effect including a 50-cent raise in the minimum wage to $8 per hour. AB1298 too effect. It expanded the state’s data-breach notification law to include unencrypted medical histories.
(SFC, 1/2/08, p.A1)(SFC, 1/4/08, p.C1)
2008 Jan 1, The Michigan Wolverines upset No. 9 Florida 41-35 in the Capital One Bowl to win their first bowl game since 2003. This one was special. Michigan's senior class won its first bowl game in four tries and Lloyd Carr ended his coaching career on a high note.
(AP, 1/1/08)
2008 Jan 1, In New Hampshire Dozens of gay and lesbian couples entered into civil unions in the early moments of New Year's Day as a new state law legalized the partnerships.
(AP, 1/1/08)
2008 Jan 1, By state law strip clubs in Texas began imposing a $5 surcharge, dubbed the “pole tax," providing the state with an estimated $40 million in annual revenue. Most of the proceeds were to go to programs supporting victims of sexual assault.
(Econ, 1/5/08, p.28)
2008 Jan 1, Across Afghanistan roadside bombs and military operations killed 19 people, including 14 Taliban fighters.
(AP, 1/1/08)(AP, 1/2/08)
2008 Jan 1, Bhutan election officials announced that the Himalayan nation will begin its transformation from an absolute monarchy to a democracy with several leaders fresh out of college at the helm. The size of the country's population is unknown. Estimates put it between 700,000 and 2.2 million.
(AP, 1/2/08)
2008 Jan 1, In Rio Piracicaba, Brazil, a jail fire killed eight inmates who could not be rescued because the guard had left with the keys.
(AP, 1/2/08)
2008 Jan 1, Britain defied a Russian order to close the regional offices of its cultural arm from New Year's day, but there was no evidence of Russian attempts to forcibly close British Council centers.
(Reuters, 1/1/08)
2008 Jan 1, China’s new Labor Contract Law (LCL) went into effect. The legislation aimed at strengthening the contractual rights of workers.
(Econ, 6/5/10, p.48)(www.pacificbridge.com/publication.asp?id=110)
2008 Jan 1, EU newcomers Cyprus and Malta adopted the euro, bringing to fifteen the number of countries using the currency with increasing clout over the slumping US dollar.
(AP, 1/1/08)
2008 Jan 1, Vandals torched 372 cars as France celebrated the New Year, down on the figure last year after a night the police described as "relatively calm."
(AP, 1/1/08)(Reuters, 1/1/08)
2008 Jan 1, Smokers took to lighting up on the sidewalks as a ban took effect across France , Germany and Lithuania, the latest European countries to say "no smoking." Across France smokers took advantage of a one-day grace period and savored their last cigarettes over morning coffee in cafes as a ban against lighting up in bars and restaurants took effect.
(AP, 1/1/08)(AFP, 1/1/08)
2008 Jan 1, In Ghana 2 US Navy sailors, Patrick Mack (22) of Warren, Mich., and Lonnie Davis Jr. (35) of Riverdale, Ga., were found dead in a hotel room in Accra. They were stationed aboard the USS Fort McHenry, which is on a 7-month voyage in the Gulf of Guinea.
(AP, 1/1/08)(AP, 1/3/08)
2008 Jan 1, In northern India 2 assailants with guns and grenades ambushed a police recruitment center in an attack that killed seven police officers and a civilian in Rampur, Uttar Pradesh state. In Bihar state suspected Maoist rebels shot dead four soldiers.
(AP, 1/1/08)
2008 Jan 1, Iraq began curbing its food ration system. By June it planned to end the program altogether for many of the country’s citizens. A suicide attacker detonated an explosives-rigged vest at a Shiite funeral in Baghdad, killing 36 people gathered to mourn the death of an Iraqi army officer killed in a car bombing. In Jalula the bodies of a Sunni policeman and four of his relatives were found hours after gunman abducted them from their home. Also in Diyala province, a Shiite man and his 16-year-old son where killed in a drive-by shooting as they stood outside their home.
(AP, 1/1/08)(AP, 1/2/08)(WSJ, 2/26/08, p.A5)
2008 Jan 1, In Kenya a mob torched a church sheltering hundreds of people fleeing election violence. Up to 50 ethnic Kikuyus were killed in the fire in the Assemblies of God Church in the Rift Valley city of Eldoret. The death toll from ethnic riots triggered by President Mwai Kibaki's disputed re-election soared to nearly 200.
(AP, 1/1/08)(Reuters, 1/1/08)(AP, 1/2/08)
2008 Jan 1, Libya took over the rotating presidency of the UN Security Council in a major step back to global respectability after decades as a pariah of the West.
(AP, 1/1/08)
2008 Jan 1, In Mexico import tariffs on maize, beans, sugar and milk were eliminated.
(Econ, 1/26/08, p.38)
2008 Jan 1, In Mongolia a government official said at least 11 people died and another 21 were hospitalized for drinking tainted vodka during New Year's Eve celebrations in Ulan Bator.
(AP, 1/1/08)
2008 Jan 1, In Nigeria armed men killed 13 people over New Year in Port Harcourt when they attacked two police stations and a hotel. The Niger Delta Vigilante Movement, led by Ateke Tom, claimed responsibility.
(AFP, 1/2/08)(SFC, 1/2/08, p.A3)
2008 Jan 1, Pakistan's election commission said that unrest following the killing of Benazir Bhutto would almost certainly force the postponement of Jan. 8 elections, despite opposition threats of street protests if the poll is delayed. Militants abducted four Pakistani paramilitary soldiers in a tribal area. Pakistani troops killed 25 militants close to the Afghan border in fighting following the abduction of four soldiers.
(AP, 1/1/08)(AFP, 1/1/07)(AP, 1/2/08)
2008 Jan 1, Gaza's ruling Hamas militant group launched a new crackdown on the rival Fatah movement, arresting dozens of activists and barring public gatherings after Fatah anniversary celebrations sparked deadly violence. Fighting stretched into a second day, leaving a total of eight dead and 60 wounded.
(AP, 1/1/08)
2008 Jan 1, Slovenia became the first of 12 newcomers to take over the rotating presidency of the EU Union, a big psychological boost to a nation that gained independence from the ruins of the former Yugoslavia 16 years ago.
(AP, 1/1/08)
2008 Jan 1, In Sri Lanka a gunman assassinated an opposition lawmaker and one other person at a New Year religious service near Colombo, and the lawmaker's party held the government responsible for his slaying.
(AP, 1/1/08)
2008 Jan 1, In Sudan an American diplomat and his driver were shot to death in Khartoum. John Granville (33), an official for the US Agency for International Development, was being driven home at about 4 a.m. when another vehicle cut off his car and opened fire before fleeing the scene. A group calling itself Ansar al-Tawhid later claimed responsibility for the murder. On Feb 9 Sudanese security forces arrested two suspects in the murder. On Sep 20 five Sudanese Islamists admitted in filmed statements their role in murdering Granville and his driver. They were formally charged on Feb 5, 2009. On June 24 four Islamists were sentenced to death. A 5th man was sentenced to 2 years in prison for providing a weapon.
(AP, 1/1/08)(AP, 1/2/08)(AFP, 1/5/08)(AP, 2/10/08)(AP, 9/21/08)(AP, 2/5/09)(AFP, 6/24/09)
2008 Jan 1, In Uzbekistan as of this day execution by firing squad will no longer be legal, and the maximum sentence will be life or long-term imprisonment. The reforms have been incorporated into new criminal code and were sanctioned by a presidential decree signed by Islam Karimov.
(http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40819)
2008 Jan 1, Venezuela launched a new currency with the new year, lopping off three zeros from denominations in a bid to simplify finances and boost confidence in a money that has been losing value due to high inflation.
(AP, 1/1/08)
2009 Jan 1, In the SF Bay Area a BART police officer shot Oscar Grant (22) on the platform of the Fruitvale BART Station in the early morning in the midst of a brawl between 2 young rival groups. Grant died later that morning at Highland Hospital. Witnesses said Grant was lying face down with his hands behind him when he was shot in the back by Officer Johannes Mehserle (27). On Dec 6 an attorney for the family filed a $25 million claim against BART. On Jan 13 Mehserle was arrested in Nevada and charged with homicide.
(SFC, 1/2/09, p.A1)(SSFC, 1/4/09, p.B1)(SFC, 1/7/09, p.A6)(SFC, 1/14/09, p.A1)
2009 Jan 1, Bank of America purchased Merrill Lynch to save it from bankruptcy. It was later revealed that the company had awarded $3.6 billion in bonuses to over 39,000 employees just before the acquisition by BofA. The bonuses included $121 million to four top executives.
(WSJ, 2/12/09, p.C3)(WSJ, 2/12/09, p.C3)
2009 Jan 1, Claiborne Pell (b.1918), former US Senator from Rhode Island (1660-1997), died. He was the chief sponsor of the 1965 law establishing the national Endowment for the Arts and the national Endowment for the Humanities. He also sponsored legislation creating the Basic Educational Opportunities Grants (1972), which provided direct aid to college students. The awards were renamed the Pell Grants in 1980.
(SFC, 1/2/09, p.B6)
2009 Jan 1, A suicide car bomb exploded near an Afghan and NATO military convoy in the western province of Herat and killed an Afghan policeman. 2 UN staff of the World Food Program and 4 others were kidnapped in Nimroz province by alleged Taliban militants. The 2 UN workers were freed on Jan 27.
(AP, 1/1/09)(AFP, 1/28/09)
2009 Jan 1, The IMF announced plans to lend Belarus $2.5 billion to help the country cope with the global economic crises.
(WSJ, 1/2/09), p.A5)
2009 Jan 1, The Czech Republic took over the six-month rotating presidency from EU heavyweight France. It will face the daunting task of implementing a $258 billion European economic stimulus package approved by EU leaders under the French presidency.
(AP, 12/31/08)
2009 Jan 1, In Germany thieves over the last 24 hours stole an estimated $250,000 in art work from the Fasanengalerie, a private art gallery in western Berlin.
(SFC, 1/3/09, p.A3)
2009 Jan 1, In India 3 bombs exploded in the restive northeast, killing at least five people and wounding 50, about an hour before the nation's top security official arrived in the area.
(AP, 1/1/09)
2009 Jan 1, The United States handed over control of the Green Zone and Saddam Hussein's presidential palace to Iraqi authorities in a ceremonial move described by the country's prime minister as a restoration of Iraq's sovereignty. British forces handed over control of Basra airport, its main military base in southern Iraq, to Iraqi officials in accordance with an agreement signed with Baghdad this week. A roadside bomb killed two Iraqi soldiers in the town of Jalula, 80 miles northeast of Baghdad. In Mosul a parked truck bomb killed three police officers trying to search it and wounded a bystander. In Kirkuk Iraqi and US troops killed three suspected al-Qaida gunmen during a raid. American soldiers shot and wounded a woman after she failed to heed warnings to stop near a Baghdad checkpoint recently targeted by suicide and car bombs.
(AP, 1/1/09)(AFP, 1/1/09)(AP, 1/3/09)
2009 Jan 1, Israel assassinated Nizar Rayan (52), a Hamas strongman, in its first assault on the top leadership of Gaza's rulers, escalating a crushing aerial offensive even as it declared it was ready to launch a ground invasion. The aerial strike also killed 12 other people including two of Rayan's four wives and four of his 12 children. Officials said more than 400 Gazans have been killed and some 1,700 have been wounded. The UN said the death toll included more than 60 civilians, 34 of them children. Three Israeli civilians and one soldier have also died in rocket attacks from Gaza.
(AP, 1/1/09)
2009 Jan 1, Vilnius, Lithuania, a city of about 550,000 people, opened the year sharing the EU Capital of Culture title with Austria’s Linz.
(SSFC, 7/22/07, p.G6)(www.culturelive.lt/en/european_capitals_of_culture)
2009 Jan 1, Mexican federal police captured two alleged hit men after the suspects threw a hand grenade at police and soldiers who cornered them at a house. Eight officers were wounded in the confrontation. In the western town of La Huerta, a shootout between rival families at a New Year's party left four dead, and a clash between soldiers and alleged drug traffickers in Chihuahua state reportedly killed three smugglers.
(AP, 1/2/09)
2009 Jan 1, In northwest Pakistan a suspected US missile strike by a drone aircraft destroyed a vehicle, killing at least three foreign militants. The US drone killed 2 Al-Qaida leaders from Kenya, Usama al-Kini and Sheikh Ahmed Salim Swedan. Pakistani authorities arrested Ustad Mohammed Yasir, a former Taliban spokesman, during a raid on his relatives' house in Peshawar near the Afghan border. Yasir had been previously arrested by Pakistan in 2005 and sent to Afghanistan where he was released in 2007 in exchange for a kidnapped Italian journalist.
(AP, 1/1/09)(AP, 1/3/09)(WSJ, 1/10/09, p.A6)
2009 Jan 1, Russia’s Pres. Medvedev signed a bell ending jury trials in cases involving treason, terror, armed revolt and sabotage. Instead, defendants will have to face three judges.
(WSJ, 1/2/09, p.A1)
2009 Jan 1, Russia cut off the gas to Ukraine after a contract dispute but increased supplies to other European states to try to reassure customers worried about possible disruption.
(Reuters, 1/1/09)
2009 Jan 1, Slovakia became the 16th European Union member state to adopt the euro. This day also marks 10 years since the euro was introduced.
(AP, 1/1/09)
2009 Jan 1, Somali pirates seized the Blue Star, an Egyptian cargo ship, and its 28 crewmembers. A Malaysian military helicopter saved an Indian tanker from being hijacked in the new year's first attacks by pirates in the dangerous Gulf of Aden. A crew of the French warship "PM L'Her" dispatch boat intercepted two speedboats carrying 8 Somali pirates as they were preparing to board a Panamanian cargo ship. The Blue Star and its crew of 28 were freed on March 5 after a ransom was dropped from a plane.
(AP, 1/1/09)(AP, 1/2/09)(AP, 3/5/09)
2009 Jan 1, Helen Suzman (91), South African anti-apartheid activist, died. She won international acclaim as one of the few white lawmakers to fight against the injustices of racist rule. Suzman, who was twice nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, fought a long and lonely battle in the South African parliament against government repression of the country's black majority and the imprisonment of Nelson Mandela.
(AP, 1/1/09)(Econ, 1/10/09, p.77)
2009 Jan 1, Sri Lanka said its forces have captured a key crossroads from Tamil Tiger rebels in the north and that it will seize the guerrillas' de facto capital within two days. The fighting killed 50 rebels and four soldiers. A roadside bomb blast blamed on the rebels killed two policemen on a foot patrol in the eastern region.
(AP, 1/1/09)
2010 Jan 1, About 15 New Hampshire gay couples braved the cold to exchange vows outside the Statehouse in Concord, as the state joined Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts and Vermont in allowing gay marriage.
(SFC, 1/1/10, p.A5)
2010 Jan 1, In the Rose Bowl at Pasadena Terrelle Pryor passed for a career-high 266 yards and two touchdowns, rushed for 72 more and threw a 17-yard scoring pass to DeVier Posey with 7:02 to play, leading the No. 8 Buckeyes to a 26-17 victory over No. 7 Oregon.
(AP, 1/2/10)
2010 Jan 1, Damon Martin (35) of Detroit was shot and killed in Hampton, Ga. Rap music producer Demetrius Lee Stewart (28), aka Shawnty Redd, was arrested for the murder.
(SSFC, 1/3/10, p.A11)(www.rashaentertainment.com/blog/?p=5350)
2010 Jan 1, In Florida a small group of young immigrants began a 1,500 march to Washington, DC, to urge Pres. Obama to issue a temporary reprieve from deportation for millions of young immigrants.
(SFC, 1/1/15, p.A11)
2010 Jan 1, In Afghanistan 5 civilians were killed when their vehicle hit a bomb on a main road in Bala Murghab district in the northern province of Badghis. At least 4 security guards for a road construction crew were killed when their vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb in the northern part of Khost province.
(AP, 1/1/10)
2010 Jan 1, It was reported that Australian researchers have cracked the genetic origin of the deadly cancer that is threatening to wipe out Tasmanian devils, raising hopes that the animal's future is safe.
(AFP, 1/1/10)
2010 Jan 1, In southwestern Bangladesh a speeding bus lost control and hit a tree before crashing into a canal, killing 18 people and injuring dozens.
(AP, 1/1/10)
2010 Jan 1, In Brazil a rain-loosened slab of hillside collapsed on 3 houses and an upscale lodge after New Year celebrations at a resort on the island of Ilha Grande near Rio de Janeiro, killing at least 26 people. On the mainland, a torrent of reddish mud cascaded into the Carioca slum in the nearby coastal city of Angra dos Reis, killing at least 18 people and reducing rickety shacks to rubble. 10 people died in Sao Paulo state. 3 people died in Minas Gerais as heavy rains triggered flooding and landslides. Nearly 80 other mudslides have been reported throughout the region in recent days. Together with flooding, they have killed at least 76 people.
(AP, 1/1/10)(AP, 1/2/10)(Reuters, 1/3/10)
2010 Jan 1, In Britain the VAT returned to 17.5% after 13 months in which it was reduced to 15% to help combat the economic downturn.
(Econ, 1/2/10, p.41)
2010 Jan 1, Chad's President Idriss Deby Itno called on rebel forces in the troubled central African nation to lay down their weapons, saying constant conflict was hindering development.
(AFP, 1/1/10)
2010 Jan 1, Chinese state media said authorities have shut down a dairy in Shanghai and arrested three of its executives after tests found some of its milk products were tainted with the same industrial chemical at the center of a milk safety scandal more than a year ago.
(AP, 1/1/10)
2010 Jan 1, A free-trade agreement between China and the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asia Nations (ASEAN) came into effect. The 6 richest members scrapped tariffs on 90% of goods. The 4 poorest (Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar) will not need to cut tariffs to the same level until 2015.
(SSFC, 1/3/10, p.A4)(Econ, 1/9/10, p.44)
2010 Jan 1, In Colombia a New year’s Eve dessert, distributed to the homeless in Bogota’s El Calvario neighborhood, contained ground glass and poison that caused one death and sickened 44 others. Air and ground assaults on two rebel camps killed 18 insurgents and captured 13, 112 miles south of Bogota. An attack by guerrillas a few hours earlier killed a soldier and a teenage girl at a boardinghouse 164 miles southwest of Bogota.
(AP, 1/1/10)
2010 Jan 1, A Congolese army officer said the Democratic Republic of Congo forces are to mount a new offensive against Rwandan Hutu rebels in the east of the country with the backing of UN troops.
(AP, 1/1/10)
2010 Jan 1, In the Czech Rep. liberalized drug laws went into effect. Those caught with small amounts of drugs intended for personal use faced only a fine.
(Econ, 8/28/10, p.44)
2010 Jan 1, In Denmark Muhudiin Mohamed Geele (29), a Somali man armed with an axe and suspected of links with al Qaeda, broke into the home of Kurt Westergaard (74), a Danish cartoonist, whose drawings of the Prophet Mohammad caused global Muslim outrage. The attacker, who was shot and wounded by police, was charged the next day with two counts of attempted murder. On Feb 3, 2011, Geele was convicted of terrorism. The next day he was sentenced to 9 years in prison to be followed by permanent expulsion.
(Reuters, 1/2/10)(AP, 2/3/11)(Reuters, 2/4/11)
2010 Jan 1, In Dubai a British woman (23) told police she had been raped the previous evening by a waiter at a 5-star hotel. Police arrested her after she revealed during questioning that she had drunk alcohol and had sex with her fiance, with whom she was on holiday.
(Econ, 1/16/10, p.48)
2010 Jan 1, In Germany a technical problem left card holders unable to use cash machines. It was caused by microchips in about a quarter of all cards in circulation being unable to cope with the changeover to 2010. On Jan 8 retailers announced that the problem was mostly corrected.
(AFP, 1/8/10)
2010 Jan 1, Thousands of Hong Kong residents marched to the Chinese government's liaison office demanding that Beijing grant full democracy to the semiautonomous financial hub.
(AP, 1/1/10)
2010 Jan 1, In Iran a shootout with drug smugglers in an eastern desert region left 11 policemen dead.
(AP, 1/3/10)
2010 Jan 1, In Iraq a US soldier died of injuries unrelated to combat.
(AP, 1/2/10)
2010 Jan 1, In Ireland a new law against blasphemy went into effect. It was already a criminal offense under the country’s 1937 constitution, but the language was too murky to make prosecutions feasible.
(SFC, 1/4/10, p.A2)
2010 Jan 1, In Japan a robber bored a hole through the wall of jewelry shop and walked off with about 200 luxury watches worth 300 million yen ($3.2 million) in Tokyo's upscale Ginza district. On Jan 7-8 three men and 3 women were arrested in Hong Kong in connection with the jewelry heist. Police suspect many of the watches were mailed from Japan to Hong Kong, with some then sent to mainland China.
(AP, 1/2/10)(AP, 1/9/10)
2010 Jan 1, Malaysia’s Islamic morality police arrested 52 unmarried couples for sexual misconduct following raids in hotel rooms on New Year’s Day. The detained couples were expected to be charged with khalwat (close proximity), and faced a maximum penalty of 2 years in prison and a fine.
(SFC, 1/5/10, p.A4)
2010 Jan 1, In Mexico gunmen killed Jesus Escalante, the chief police investigator in the northern state of Sinaloa, hours after he started investigating the kidnapping of Jose Luis Romero (40), a local radio journalist. Mexico opened the New Year with 69 murders in one day, including 26 in the border city of Ciudad Juarez. Mexico’s drug related killings for 2009 totaled over 6,500.
(AP, 1/2/10)(SFC, 1/12/10, p.A2)
2010 Jan 1, North Korea called for an end of hostile relations with the United States in a New Year's message and said it was committed to making the Korean peninsula nuclear-free through negotiations.
(AP, 1/1/10)
2010 Jan 1, In northwest Pakistan a suicide bomber set off an explosives-laden vehicle on a field during a volleyball tournament in Lakki Marwat city, killing 101 people and wounding more than 70. A suspected US missile struck a car carrying alleged militants in North Waziristan tribal region, killing 3 men. Karachi, the country's largest city, came to a virtual standstill after religious and political leaders called for a general strike to protest a Dec 28 bombing that killed 44 people and subsequent riots. A roadside bomb exploded near a car in the Bajur tribal region, killing an anti-Taliban tribal elder and five of his family members. A local Taliban commander and his four companions were killed in an exchange of fire with troops in Kolachi village, 25 km (16 miles) west of the northwestern town of Dera Ismail Khan.
(AP, 1/1/10)(AP, 1/2/10)(AFP, 1/3/10)
2010 Jan 1, In Peru a riot by about 500 inmates erupted New Year’s Eve at a northern prison and left two inmates dead. 6 guards were held hostage until negotiations got the prisoners to end their protest.
(AP, 1/1/10)
2010 Jan 1, The Russian government set a minimum price for vodka that more than doubles the cost of the cheapest vodka on the market in an effort to fight rampant alcoholism.
(AP, 1/1/10)
2010 Jan 1, Somali pirates hijacked a British-flagged cargo ship, the Asian Glory, with 25 crew including eight Bulgarians, 620 miles (1,000 km) east of Somalia. It was transporting cars from Singapore to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia. The Singaporean-flagged Pramoni, a chemical tanker with a crew of 24, was seized by pirates in the heavily defended Gulf of Aden. The ship was carrying fertilizer from the US to India. The Pramoni was released on Feb 26 after a ransom was delivered by parachute.
(AFP, 1/2/10)(AP, 1/2/10)(AP, 2/26/10)
2010 Jan 1, Spain took over the presidency of the EU, with PM Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero promising to work to end the continent's economic crisis.
(AP, 1/1/10)
2010 Jan 1, Ugandan troops killed Bok Abudema, a leader of the Lord's Resistance Army, effectively the number two of the brutal militia, in the Central African Republic.
(AFP, 1/2/10)
2011 Jan 1, The Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) launched on cable TV.
(SSFC, 12/26/10, Par p.4)
2011 Jan 1, A new policy in US Medicare became effective and began covering doctor costs for patient end-of-life counseling.
(SSFC, 12/26/10, p.A10)
2011 Jan 1, Rick Snyder, a former president of Gateway Computers, began his first term as governor of Michigan. The Republican faced a state deficit of up to $1.8 billion.
(Econ, 1/29/11, p.28)
2011 Jan 1, Republican Susana Martinez (51) was inaugurated as the first female governor of New Mexico.
(SSFC, 1/2/11, p.A10)
2011 Jan 1, Democrat Andrew Cuomo (53) was inaugurated the 56th governor of New York.
(SSFC, 1/2/11, p.A10)
2011 Jan 1, In Arkansas some 3,000 red-winged blackbirds died and fell from the sky over a 1-mile area of Beebe. The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission said that it began receiving reports about the dead birds about 11:30 p.m. the previous night.
(AP, 1/2/11)(AP, 1/2/11)(SFC, 1/4/11, p.A5)
2011 Jan 1, In Ohio sheriff’s deputy Suzanne Hopper (40) was shot dead as she tried to photograph a footprint at a trailer park in Enon. Michael Ferryman (57), the suspected shooter, died in a gunbattle with police.
(SSFC, 1/2/11, p.A10)(SFC, 1/3/11, p.A4)
2011 Jan 1, Queensland Treasurer Andrew Fraser told reporters in the flooded city of Bundaberg that the flood disaster was of biblical proportions. Days of driving rain last week swamped northeastern Australia, with around 200,000 people affected by floodwaters in an area larger than France and Germany combined.
(AP, 1/1/10)
2011 Jan 1, Brazil's first female president, Dilma Rousseff, took control of Latin America's biggest economy from outgoing popular leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in a triumphant handover ceremony. Rousseff called for an overhaul of the tax code in her inaugural speech before Congress.
(AFP, 1/1/10)(Reuters, 1/1/10)
2011 Jan 1, In CongoDRC at least 67 women were raped in South and North Kivu provinces, including a teen-ager and two pregnant women. On Jan 21 Congo arrested Lt. Colonel Kibibi Mutwara, a senior army commander accused of ordering the rapes in Fizi. The arrest followed the detention of 10 other soldiers earlier in the week. On July 22, 2011, a UN report said investigators found at least 47 women were subjected to rape and other sexual assaults from Dec. 31, 2010, to Jan. 1, 2011 in an isolated and mountainous area of North Kivu province.
(Reuters, 1/25/11)(AP, 7/22/11)
2011 Jan 1, In England rioting inmates caused heavy damage to Ford open prison, smashing windows and setting fires that engulfed buildings and spewed clouds of black smoke.
(AP, 1/1/10)
2011 Jan 1, In Egypt a powerful bomb, possibly from a suicide attacker, exploded in front of a Coptic Christian church in Alexandria as a crowd of worshippers emerged from a New Years Mass, killing at least 21 people and wounding nearly 80. The Gaza-based Army of Islam was later said to be behind the planning and execution of the attack. The attack sparked three days of Christian rioting in Cairo and several other cities.
(AP, 1/1/10)(Reuters, 1/4/11)(AP, 1/23/11)
2011 Jan 1, Estonia became the first former Soviet republic to join the euro, Europe’s common currency.
(SFC, 1/1/11, p.A2)
2011 Jan 1, The new European External Action Service (EEAS) came into being.
(Econ, 2/5/11, p.64)
2011 Jan 1, In Hungary a new media law went into effect the same day Hungary took over the rotating EU presidency from Belgium. The law greatly expanded the state's power to monitor and penalize private news outlets, including on the Internet. Publications deemed to be unbalanced or offensive in their coverage could face large fines.
(AP, 1/7/11)
2011 Jan 1, In India separatist leader Arabinda Rajkhowa (54) was released on bail, and said he was committed to peace talks with the Indian government to end his group's 30-year insurgency in the northeastern state of Assam.
(AP, 1/1/10)
2011 Jan 1, Iran’s Pres. Ahmadinejad fired 14 advisers as part of an ongoing shake-up of his administration. 4 kidnappers were put to death in Zahedan prison in the volatile border province of Sistan-Baluchestan. 8 convicted drug smugglers were also executed this week.
(AP, 1/2/11)(Reuters, 1/1/11)
2011 Jan 1, Italy, one of the top users of plastic shopping bags in Europe, began banning them. Retailers warned of chaos as many stores braced for the switch.
(Reuters, 12/29/10)
2011 Jan 1, Japan said it has logged 1.19 million deaths in 2010, the biggest number since 1947 when the health ministry's annual records began. As a result the population contracted by 123,000 people, which was the most ever and the fourth consecutive year of decline.
(AP, 1/1/10)
2011 Jan 1, Japanese whalers shot water cannons at anti-whaling activists, hours after the activists tracked down the hunting fleet in the remote and icy seas off Antarctica.
(AP, 1/1/10)
2011 Jan 1, Pakistan’s Pres. Zardari signed the 19th amendment to the constitution giving judges a freer hand in making judicial appointments.
(Econ, 2/12/11, p.47)(http://tinyurl.com/6zl4d9t)
2011 Jan 1, In Pakistan suspected US drone aircraft strikes killed 15 Muslim militants in North Waziristan, suggesting there will no letup this year in a campaign Washington says is hurting al Qaeda-linked groups.
(Reuters, 1/1/10)
2010 Jan 1, Jawaher Abu Rahma (36), a Palestinian woman, died one day after allegedly inhaling massive amounts of tear gas fired by the Israeli military at a West Bank demonstration. On Jan 20 Israel's military said Rahma was the victim of a medical error and was not killed by tear gas.
(AFP, 1/3/11)(AP, 1/20/11)
2011 Jan 1, In Puerto Rico Justino Sanchez Diaz (48) attacked his family with gasoline and a blowtorch. 2 of his victims soon died from their wounds and Diaz was charged with murder. The mother of Diaz and Jesus Sanchez 4th died of their injuries on Jan 4. On Jan 6 Kate Donahue (25) of Seattle, who was engaged to Sanchez, died of her injuries. On Jan 29 Nereida Vazquez, who had been in an induced coma for weeks, died of a lung infection brought on by her injuries. In September Diaz was convicted of killing 6 people and was sentenced to 198 years in prison.
(AP, 1/3/11)(AP, 1/5/11)(AP, 1/29/11)(AP, 9/8/11)(AP, 9/26/11)
2011 Jan 1, A Russian passenger jet carrying 124 people caught fire as it taxied down a snowy runway and then exploded at a Siberian airport, killing three people and injuring 43, including six who were badly burned.
(AP, 1/1/10)
2011 Jan 1, Somali pirates hijacked the MV Blida, a Greek-operated, Algerian-flagged bulk carrier. The crew included 17 Algerians, six Ukrainians including the captain, two Filipinos, an Indonesian and a Jordanian. On Oct 12 Algeria announced that pirates have released 2 of the ship’s 27 crewmen on humanitarian grounds. The MV Blida was released on Nov 3 after a bag full of money was parachuted down to the pirates from a plane.
(Econ, 2/5/11, p.69)(AFP, 10/12/11)(AP, 11/3/11)(AFP, 11/20/11)
2011 Jan 1, In South Africa 10 people were killed in a stampede during the early hours of New Year's Day at a tavern in the Ipelegeng township in the largely rural North West province.
(AP, 12/31/10)
2011 Jan 1, In South Korea one of five wild ducks found dead this week was confirmed to have been infected with a lethal strain of the bird flu virus, its first outbreak in over two years.
(AFP, 1/1/10)
2011 Jan 1, In southern Thailand 2 bomb disposal policemen were killed and 9 other people wounded in a blast after warnings of New Year violence in the restive region.
(AFP, 1/1/10)
2011 Jan 1, Yemen's parliament agreed in principle to make constitutional amendments that could see President Ali Abdullah Saleh rule for life, and will hold a formal vote on the matter later this year.
(AFP, 1/1/10)
2012 Jan 1, The minimum wage in San Francisco rose 32 cents to $10.24 an hour.
(SSFC, 1/1/12, p.A1)
2012 Jan 1, In southern California an apparent murder-suicide left 4 people dead, 3 men and a woman, in Coronado. Two of the dead were F/A-18 pilots training at the US Marine Corps Air Station Miramar. Navy pilot Robert Reeves (25) shot David Reis (25), Reis’ sister Karen Reis and Matthew Saturley (31) before shooting himself. Reeves was later reported to have had a .16 blood alcohol content.
(SFC, 1/2/12, p.A4)(Reuters, 1/2/12)
2012 Jan 1, Mount Rainier National Park ranger Margaret Anderson (34) was fatally shot following a routine traffic stop, and authorities closed the 368-square-mile (953-square-km) park in Washington state as they searched for the gunman. On Jan 2 a plane searching for Benjamin Colton Barnes (24), an armed Iraq War veteran, discovered his body lying partially submerged in an icy, snowy mountain creek with snow banks standing several feet high.
(AP, 1/1/12)(AP, 1/2/12)
2012 Jan 1, As of today the EU began billing all the world’s airlines for the carbon emissions into and out of the EU.
(Econ, 1/7/12, p.58)
2012 Jan 1, Afghan Pres. Karzai along with US embassy officials met a delegation from Hezb-i-Islami, Afghanistan's second largest militant group led by former Afghan prime minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.
(AFP, 1/3/12)
2012 Jan 1, An Arab League advisory body called for the immediate withdrawal of the bloc's observers from Syria saying their presence was having no impact on the government's deadly crackdown on protests. YouTube videos circulating on the Internet showed protesters across Syria welcoming 2012 in with fireworks and holding up signs pledging "Freedom for Life" and denouncing President Bashar al-Assad as the enemy.
(AFP, 1/1/12)
2012 Jan 1, In Argentina Rio Negro Gov. Carlos Soria (62), the ruling party governor of the country’s prime oil-producing province, died following gunshots to the head. His wife, Susana Freidos, was being questioned by police to determine whether the shots were fired by accident or intentionally.
(AP, 1/1/12)
2012 Jan 1, Riot police in Bahrain fired tear gas, rubber bullets and stun grenades as they clashed with hundreds of opposition supporters, some hurling Molotov cocktails, following the politically charged funeral of a 15-year-old boy. Bahrain's new police chief announced that the kingdom would hire an additional 500 police officers "from all sections of Bahrain society."
(AP, 1/1/12)
2012 Jan 1, A British man (40) is suspected of shooting dead three female members of his own family before turning the gun on himself in Horden, County Durham, on a New Year's Day rampage.
(AFP, 1/2/12)
2012 Jan 1, In Britain a woman's body was found in a forest at Anmer at the vast rural estate in Norfolk where Queen Elizabeth II and her family celebrated New Year's. Forensic tests later identified the decomposed body as that of Latvian Alisa Dmitrijeva (17), who was reported missing from her home in eastern England in August.
(AP, 1/3/12)(AP, 1/8/12)
2012 Jan 1, Colombian police in Chaco state killed crime boss Juan de Dios Usaga. Police have said Usaga led a major crime ring involved in drug trafficking and was once a right-wing paramilitary fighter. Pamphlets soon appeared calling on the region's residents to protest the killing of Usaga.
(AP, 1/5/12)
2012 Jan 1, In CongoDRC 8 people died and 44 were wounded when a hand grenade exploded during an attempted jail break at the main prison in Bukavu, Sud-Kivu province. At least 18 people were killed in the town of Luyuyu in an attack by Rwandan Hutu rebels.
(AFP, 1/2/12)(AFP, 1/4/12)
2012 Jan 1, In Cuba Rene Cobas, a common criminal not jailed for political reasons, died of an apparent heart attack in the Boniato prison near Santiago. He had launched a hunger strike because he was not part of a large prison amnesty.
(AP, 1/2/12)
2012 Jan 1, In central Germany a Syrian man was been fatally shot by two people who fired at him as his car stopped at a traffic light in Sarstedt town.
(AP, 1/2/12)
2012 Jan 1, Iran’s nuclear agency said its scientists have tested the first nuclear fuel rod produced from uranium ore deposits inside the country.
(AFP, 1/1/12)
2012 Jan 1, In Kenya at least eight people drowned after a boat capsized in rough seas off the Kenyan tourist island of Lamu. More than 20 of the over 80 passengers on board were unaccounted for.
(AFP, 1/2/12)
2012 Jan 1, Kiro Gligorov (94), the first democratically elected president of Macedonia, died. He shepherded his nation through a bloodless secession from the former Yugoslavia and narrowly survived an assassination attempt.
(AP, 1/2/12)
2012 Jan 1, In Malaysia 17 people were arrested after police broke up a student gathering for greater academic freedom, in what the opposition and activists said was a campaign to stifle dissent.
(AFP, 1/1/12)
2012 Jan 1, In Myanmar gas prices unexpectedly rose more than 30 percent for the new year and sparked fears of other goods costing more as well.
(AP, 1/1/12)
2012 Jan 1, Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation and largest oil producer, announced immediate ends to subsidies on petrol, a policy that had held pump prices at 65 naira per liter ($0.40, 0.30 euros).
(AFP, 1/2/12)
2012 Jan 1, Omani newspaper Azzaman said it would appeal in the high court the five-month jail sentences handed to two of its staff for insulting the justice minister.
(AFP, 1/1/12)
2012 Jan 1, Pakistan and India exchanged lists of their nuclear sites under an accord which prohibits both sides from attacking these locations.
(AFP, 1/1/12)
2012 Jan 1, In Pakistan 3 soldiers were killed in a bomb attack in Baluchistan province. An anti-Taliban fighter was killed in a bomb attack in the Bajaur tribal district.
(AFP, 1/1/12)
2012 Jan 1, In Pakistan three Iranian border guards crossed the frontier in southwestern Baluchistan province and allegedly shot at a car, killing a Pakistani national. The border guards were arrested by Pakistan paramilitary Frontier Corps.
(AFP, 1/3/12)
2012 Jan 1, In Trans-Dniester an 18-year-old was killed by a Russian peacekeeper, after he reportedly ignored an order to stop his car at a checkpoint. The death led to protests against Moscow's role in the region's 1,500-member international peacekeeping force, which includes about 500 Russian troops.
(AP, 1/5/12)
2012 Jan 1, Pope Benedict XVI named convert Rev. Jeffrey Neil Steenson, a married priest and former sportswriter, to head the first organizational structure for US converts to Roman Catholicism wanting to retain some of their Anglican heritage.
(AP, 1/1/12)
2012 Jan 1, In Yemen tens of thousands marched in the streets of the capital Sanaa, chanting that Saleh "must stand before a judge." Another big crowd of marchers echoed the chant in Taiz.
(AP, 1/1/12)
2013 Jan 1, The House of Representatives easily approved emergency bipartisan legislation. It hiked rates on income above $400,000 for individuals and $450,000 for households, while exemptions and deductions the wealthiest Americans use to reduce their tax bill face new limits. It also set up another “fiscal cliff" confrontation in a matter of weeks.
(AP, 1/1/13)(Econ, 2/9/13, p.30)
2013 Jan 1, California began its cap-and-trade scheme for emitters of greenhouse gases. In 2006 former Gov. Schwarzenegger signed AB32, which called for a cut in greenhouse-gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020.
(Econ, 3/16/13, p.29)
2013 Jan 1, Ten states kicked off the new year with a minimum wage rise of between 10 and 35 cents. The rises went into effect in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Missouri, Montana, Ohio, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington.
(Reuters, 1/1/13)
2013 Jan 1, Gay marriage became legal in Maryland, the first state south of the Mason-Dixon Line on New Year's Day.
(AP, 1/1/13)
2013 Jan 1, Michael Cronan (b.1951), graphic designer, died in Berkeley, Ca. He was best know for christening TiVo, the digital TV recorder, and Kindle, Amazon’s portable reading device.
(SSFC, 1/6/13, p.C3)
2013 Jan 1, Patti Page (85), a top singer of the 1950s, died in Encinitas, Ca. Her hits included “Tennessee Waltz" (1950) and “How Much Is That Doggie in the Window." She also co-starred with Burt Lancaster in “Elmer Gantry."
(SFC, 1/3/13, p.D2)
2013 Jan 1, In Algeria seven insurgents were killed and arms, ammunition and medicine recovered in Boulzazene in the Boumerdes region. The operation killed Izza Rezki, the finance chief for Abdelmalek Droukdel, the head of al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb.
(AP, 1/2/13)(AP, 1/5/13)
2013 Jan 1, In China the Southern Weekly of Guangdong province was forced to add a provided commentary glorifying the Chinese Communist Party with its annual new year editorial, which was intended to call for proper implementation of the country's constitution. The new year editorial with the title Dream of China, Dream of Constitutionalism, calling for the cementing of rights into a constitution, was replaced with praise of the Chinese Communist Party.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Southern_Weekly_incident)(Econ, 1/16/16, p.26)
2013 Jan 1, Tallinn, Estonia, launched free public transport for all of its citizens.
(AP, 4/4/13)
2013 Jan 1, An Ethiopian court found 10 men guilty of plotting terror attacks with Islamist extremist rebels from neighboring Somalia.
(AP, 1/1/13)
2013 Jan 1, French Interior Minister Manuel Valls said young revelers set afire 1,193 vehicles, lamenting that this has become a way to mark the arrival of the New Year. His announcement was the first time in three years that such figures have been released.
(AP, 1/1/13)
2013 Jan 1, In Hong Kong thousands of demonstrators in rival marches crowded the main shopping district to praise or condemn chief executive Leung Chun-ying. Critics accused him of misleading the public on a controversial real estate deal and of being a puppet installed by Beijing.
(SFC, 1/2/13, p.A3)
2013 Jan 1, Ivory Coast at least 64 people, mostly children and teenagers, were killed early today in a stampede following a New Year's fireworks display in Abidjan. Survivors blamedmakeshift barricades.
(AP, 1/1/13)(AP, 1/2/13)(AP, 1/4/13)
2013 Jan 1, Myanmar rang in 2013 with its first public New Year's Eve countdown and a grand fireworks display, a celebration unprecedented in the former military-ruled country.
(AP, 12/31/12)
2013 Jan 1, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called for an end to confrontation between the two Koreas, technically still at war in the absence of a peace treaty to end their 1950-53 conflict, in a surprise New Year speech broadcast on state media.
(AP, 1/1/13)
2013 Jan 1, Gunmen in northwest Pakistan killed five female teachers and two aid workers in an ambush on a van carrying workers home from their jobs at a community center in Swabi, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
(AP, 1/1/13)
2013 Jan 1, Clashes began in the northern West Bank after Israeli forces dressed as merchants arrested one man. Regular forces then entered the town of Tamoun, and men began hurling rocks at them to prevent other arrests. At least 10 Palestinians were wounded.
(AP, 1/1/13)
2013 Jan 1, In the Philippines a “sin tax" on alcohol and tobacco came into effect. It had survived a 2012 Senate vote by a margin of one.
(Econ, 4/6/13, p.86)
2013 Jan 1, Rwanda took a prestigious seat on the UN Security Council. Human Rights Watch has been calling on the Security Council for months to sanction the Rwandan officials the rights group believes is helping M23 rebels in eastern Congo.
(AP, 1/8/13)
2013 Jan 1, In South Africa three people died and 4,000 were displaced when fires swept through shacks in poor settlements in the Cape Town area on New Year's Day.
(AP, 1/1/13)
2013 Jan 1, Syrian warplanes took part in bombing Daraya, a few miles (kms) from the strategic military air base of Mazzeh, a western neighborhood of Damascus.
(AP, 1/1/13)
2014 Jan 1, In northern California Rev. Eric Freed was found dead at the St. Bernard Church rectory in Eureka. Surveillance video captured images of suspect Gary Lee Bullock (44) and he was arrested the next day.
(SFC, 1/2/14, p.A8)(SFC, 1/9/14, p.D5)
2014 Jan 1, In San Francisco an arson attack destroyed the main entrance of the Chinese Consulate. On Jan 3 Yan Feng (39), who lives south of the city, surrendered to police after confessing to the attack.
(SSFC, 1/5/14, p.A5)(AFP, 1/6/14)
2014 Jan 1, In Colorado the nation’s first recreational pot industry opened as business owners threw open their doors for shoppers at 8 am.
(SFC, 1/2/14, p.A7)
2014 Jan 1, In New York city Bill de Blasio (b.1961) began serving as mayor. 63,000 homeless people lived in shelters as de Blasio office.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_de_Blasio)(Econ, 3/25/17, p.25)
2014 Jan 1, In Central African Republic clashes between Muslims and Christians in Bangui killed three as angry residents threw grenades and torched homes.
(Reuters, 1/1/14)
2014 Jan 1, China began requiring the disclosure of offshore holdings.
(Econ, 1/25/14, p.35)
2014 Jan 1, Cuba enacted a law banning the resale of clothes imported from abroad.
(Econ, 1/11/14, p.30)
2014 Jan 1, In Prague Jamel al-Jamal (56), the Palestinian ambassador to the Czech Republic, died in a blast that occurred when he opened an old safe that had been left untouched for more than 20 years.
(AP, 1/1/14)
2014 Jan 1, Guinness World Records said Dubai shattered the world record for the largest ever pyrotechnic display on New Year's Eve with a show involving more than half a million fireworks.
(AFP, 1/1/14)
2014 Jan 1, Egypt’s Ministry of Antiquities said 96 artifacts, mostly small figurines and beads, have disappeared from the Aswan Museum's storehouse. Authorities said evidence pointed to an insider theft.
(AP, 1/1/14)
2014 Jan 1, In Egypt 2 people were killed in violent clashes that erupted late today between pro-Islamist protesters and police in Alexandria.
(Reuters, 1/1/14)
2014 Jan 1, The European Commission said Romanians and Bulgarians now have the right to work in any of the European Union's 28 countries but "no major increase" in emigration is expected.
(AFP, 1/1/14)
2014 Jan 1, Greece assumed the presidency of the EU, starting 2014 with a promise by the government to pull the country out of a six-year recession, keep a balanced budget, and effectively end a financial crisis that rattled the euro.
(AP, 1/1/14)
2014 Jan 1, In Hong Kong thousands marched to demand a greater say in choosing their future leaders, expressing fears China will limit long-awaited political reforms, but turnout fell short of expectations.
(AFP, 1/1/14)
2014 Jan 1, In Iraq militants freed more than 100 prisoners, clashed with security forces and burned police stations in Fallujah and Ramadi. In Mosul a car bomb exploded near an army checkpoint, killing a civilian and four soldiers, including three officers.
(AFP, 1/1/14)
2014 Jan 1, Jordan took over the UN Security Council presidency, the first day of its two-year stint on a 15-nation body struggling to cope with conflicts in Syria, South Sudan.
(Reuters, 1/1/14)
2014 Jan 1, Latvia celebrated the new year as the 18th member of the eurozone, which for all its dents and bruises still represents stability and security to the Baltic country's leaders.
(AP, 1/1/14)
2014 Jan 1, Lebanon’s defense minister said Lebanese troops have arrested Saudi citizen Majid al-Majid, the "emir" of the Abdullah Azzam Brigades, an al-Qaeda-linked group that claimed a double suicide bombing at the Iranian embassy in Beirut in November. DNA testing confirmed the identity of al-Majid.
(AFP, 1/1/14)(AP, 1/3/14)
2014 Jan 1, In Mexico Yeudi Estrada (28), a US citizen and martial arts instructor in Quintana Roo, was found dead on arrival at police headquarters in the resort of Playa del Carmen after his arrest. A finding revealed that he died of asphyxia by strangulation. Six Mexican police officers were arrested Jan 3 on suspicion of killing Estrada.
(Reuters, 1/4/14)
2014 Jan 1, In Pakistan a suicide bomber killed two Shia pilgrims on their way home from Iran.
(CSM, 1/9/14)
2014 Jan 1, In South Korea a man, calling for the president’s resignation, died after setting himself on fire.
(Econ, 1/25/14, p.32)
2014 Jan 1, South Sudanese President Salva Kiir declared a state of emergency in Unity and Jonglei states. Negotiators from the two warring sides arrived in Ethiopia for peace talks.
(Reuters, 1/1/14)(AP, 1/1/14)
2014 Jan 1, In Somalia two car bombs exploded outside the Jazira Hotel in Mogadishu that often is used by foreigners and government officials. A third car bomb exploded as it was searched by security forces. At least 11 people were killed. Al-Shebab rebels claimed responsibility.
(AP, 1/1/14)(Reuters, 1/1/14)(AFP, 1/2/14)
2014 Jan 1, South African police found Patrick Karegeya, Rwanda's former spy chief, dead, possibly strangled, in Johannesburg's plush Michelangelo Towers hotel. Rwanda opposition leaders immediately accused President Paul Kagame of ordering his assassination. Karegeya had died a day earlier. The Kigali government swiftly denied any involvement and said the former intelligence chief was himself to blame.
(AP, 1/2/14)(AP, 1/17/19)
2014 Jan 1, Syrian warplanes bombed a barren range of Lebanese hills used by Syrian rebels and refugees to cross between the two countries, wounding at least 10 Syrians who were rushed to hospital in a nearby Lebanese town.
(AP, 1/1/14)
2014 Jan 1, The Syrian Electronic Army, an amorphous hacker collective that supports Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, claimed credit for hacking into the social media accounts of Internet calling service Skype.
(Reuters, 1/1/14)
2014 Jan 1, An NGO said more than 73,000 people were killed in Syria in 2013.
(AFP, 1/1/14)
2014 Jan 1, In Ukraine about 15,000 people marched through the streets of Kiev to mark the 105th birthday of Stepan Bandera (d.1959), glorified by some as a leader of Ukraine's liberation movement and dismissed by others as a Nazi collaborator.
(AP, 1/1/14)
2014 Jan 1, The UN said that violence claimed the lives of 7,818 civilians in Iraq in 2013, the highest annual death toll in years.
(AP, 1/1/14)
2015 Jan 1, Donna Douglass (b.1932), TV actress, died in Baton Rouge, La. She played Elly May Clampett in the “The Beverly Hillbillies" sitcom which aired from 1962-1971.
(SFC, 1/3/15, p.A6)
2015 Jan 1, Mario Cuomo (b.1932), former three-term governor of New York state (1983-1994), died of heart failure at home in Manhattan.
(SFC, 1/2/15, p.A5)(Econ, 1/10/15, p.86)
2015 Jan 1, In West Virginia Eric Campbell (21) and Edward Campbell (54) of Texas were arrested following a shooting that left two officers wounded. The bodies of Jerome Faulkner (63) and his wife Dora (62) of North Carolina, killed earlier in the day, were found in the bed of a pickup truck driven by Edward Campbell.
(SFC, 1/3/15, p.A4)
2015 Jan 1, In the Bahamas a new 7.5 percent tax value-added went into effect only for businesses whose profits exceed $100,000 a year.
(AP, 1/3/15)
2015 Jan 1, Fritz-Joly Joachin (19) was arrested while trying to cross from Bulgaria to Turkey. He was later associated with the Kouachi brothers who killed 12 people in Paris on Jan 7. On Jan 29 he was extradited to France.
(SFC, 1/30/15, p.A2)
2015 Jan 1, In Burundi a group of unidentified rebels crossed into the country overnight from DRCongo's eastern Kivu region.
(AFP, 1/4/15)
2015 Jan 1, The Dominican Rep. said it will not recognize a same-sex marriage performed for the first time there two days earlier.
(SFC, 1/2/15, p.A2)
2015 Jan 1, Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi addressed Muslim clerics in a televised speech at an Al-Azhar conference center in Cairo and called on them to promote a reading of Islamic text in an enlightened manner and to reconsider concepts that have been made sacred over hundreds of years.
(SFC, 1/9/15, p.A3)(Reuters, 5/31/15)
2015 Jan 1, Defense lawyers said Egypt's highest court has ordered a retrial of three jailed journalists working for Al Jazeera television, citing procedural flaws in last year's trial.
(Reuters, 1/1/15)
2015 Jan 1, France's Interior Ministry said 940 cars were set alight by revelers ringing in the New Year, 12 percent fewer than the 1,067 set aflame last year.
(AP, 1/1/15)
2015 Jan 1, A Gambia military source said four officers suspected of participating in a failed military coup against strongman President Yahya Jammeh have taken refuge in Guinea-Bissau. Dozens of military personnel and civilians were arrested and a large cache of weapons and explosives were found after the alleged coup attempt.
(AFP, 1/1/15)
2015 Jan 1, Heavy seas stopped divers reaching the possible wreck of an AirAsia Indonesia jet off Borneo. Nine bodies have so far been recovered from the Airbus A320-200, which crashed Dec 28 en route to Singapore.
(Reuters, 1/1/15)
2015 Jan 1, India scrapped its 65-year-old Planning Commission and replacing it today with new National Institution for Transforming India (NITI), which PM Narendra Modi said would do more to involve the regions.
(AP, 1/1/15)
2015 Jan 1, In Iran 2 people were killed in what is being labeled a terrorist attack in the southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchistan.
(AP, 1/2/15)
2015 Jan 1, In southern Iraq gunmen killed 3 Sunni clerics near the mostly Shiite city of Basra. A roadside bomb exploded in central Baghdad, killing 4 civilians and wounding 12.
(AP, 1/2/15)
2015 Jan 1, Iraqi government figures showed violence in the country killed more than 15,000 civilians and security personnel in 2014.
(AFP, 1/1/15)
2015 Jan 1, Former Lebanese PM Omar Karami (b.1934) died after suffering from an undisclosed illness. Karami served two terms, 1990-1992 and 2004-2005.
(AP, 1/1/15)
2015 Jan 1, Lithuania welcomed a New Year and a new currency, becoming the 19th member and last Baltic nation to adopt the euro in a bid to boost stability despite fears of inflation and eurozone debt woes.
(AFP, 1/1/15)(http://tinyurl.com/obb2hfm)(Econ, 12/6/14, p.85)
2015 Jan 1, In Nigeria a suicide bomber blew himself up at the gates of a church in the northeastern city of Gombe during a New Year service, wounding eight people.
(Reuters, 1/1/15)
2015 Jan 1, A Pakistani fishing boat laden with explosives bound for India blew up, killing all four people on board, after the Indian coast guard tried to stop and search it.
(Reuters, 1/2/15)
2015 Jan 1, In the Philippines a huge blaze, believed to have been ignited by firecrackers, razed nearly a thousand shanties and killed 3 people in a creekside slum in Manila. At least 17 fires across the country were linked to raucous New Year's celebrations leaving a total of 7 people dead.
(AP, 1/1/15)(SSFC, 1/4/15, p.A4)
2015 Jan 1, In Poland a so-called "oncology package" was introduced requiring family doctors to diagnose and fast-track cancer patients. Doctors said this will leave less time and attention for all other patients, threatening their health. Hundreds of doctors refused to sign the new plan and kept their surgeries closed.
(AP, 1/5/15)
2015 Jan 1, Saudi security forces arrested Montadhar Ali Saleh Alsbaitiin, a man believed to belong to a Shi'ite Muslim group blamed for instigating protests and unrest in the country's Eastern Province.
(Reuters, 1/2/15)
2015 Jan 1, South Korea-based Samsung Electronics said it will release smart televisions equipped with its new platform built around the Tizen operating system this year, as it seeks to lower its reliance on Google.
(AFP, 1/1/15)
2015 Jan 1, Sri Lanka said flash floods and mudslides have killed at least 39 people and more than 1 million have had to flee their homes in the past two weeks.
(Reuters, 1/1/15)
2015 Jan 1, Swedish police hunted for at least one suspect following what is believed to be the third arson attack on a mosque in a week.
(AFP, 1/1/15)
2015 Jan 1, The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group, recorded 76,021 deaths for 2014.
(AFP, 1/1/15)
2015 Jan 1, In Tanzania six lions were killed overnight by angry Maasai herders following an attack on livestock.
(AFP, 1/1/15)
2015 Jan 1, In Turkey a man carrying an automatic weapon was detained near the historic Dolmabahce Palace in Istanbul after he threw a grenade at police. The Turkish far-left group DHKP-C soon claimed responsibility for the grenade attack.
(Reuters, 1/2/15)
2015 Jan 1, Ukrainian separatists carried out sporadic attacks on government forces as the New Year began, wounding three soldiers. Rebel mortar fire reportedly killed one civilian. Alexander Bednov, head of a battalion called "Batman," was killed when separatist security forces tried to arrest him in the Luhansk region.
(Reuters, 1/1/15)(AP, 1/4/15)
2015 Jan 1, In Yemen 49 people were killed when a suicide bomber targeted a religious celebration by Huthi supporters in the mainly Sunni city of Ibb.
(AFP, 1/4/15)(AFP, 1/7/15)
2016 Jan 1, Former Arkansas Gov. Dale Bumpers (b.1925) died at his home in Little Rock. He served four terms in the US Senate following his term as governor.
(SSFC, 1/3/16, p.A15)
2016 Jan 1, Hawaii became the first US state to raise the legal age for smoking to 21.
(SFC, 1/1/16, p.A8)
2016 Jan 1, In Afghanistan a suicide attack at a French restaurant in Kabul killed 2 people wounded at least five.
(Reuters, 1/1/16)(AP, 1/1/16)
2016 Jan 1, In Burundi at least one person was killed and a dozen injured in a series of grenade attacks in Bujumbura.
(AFP, 1/1/16)
2016 Jan 1, In El Salvador at least 29 people were slain on the first day of the year. Local news media estimated the number of killings in 2015 at well above 6,000.
(AP, 1/2/16)
2016 Jan 1, In Estonia a law allowing gay partnerships took effect, but same-sex couples are being advised to hold off on getting hitched until a series of legal issues have been worked out.
(AP, 1/1/16)
2016 Jan 1, In the EU new rules known as Solvency 2 came into effect. They required European insurers to follow uniform rules on cpital designed to make the firms more robust and allow others to assess their strength more easily.
(Econ, 1/2/16, p.56)
2016 Jan 1, In Hong Kong more than 1,500 people protested on New Year's day calling for the city's leader to resign and airing grievances over issues from expensive construction projects to internet freedoms. Protester’s focused on the 40-km structure linking Hong Kong with Macau and the mainland city of Zhuhai.
(AFP, 1/1/16)(Econ, 2/13/16, p.37)
2016 Jan 1, Iceland's Pres. Olafur Ragnar Grimsson (72) announced he was stepping down after 20 years in the job, paving the way for a presidential election in June.
(AP, 1/1/16)
2016 Jan 1, In India more than a million private cars were banned from New Delhi's roads, as authorities began testing drastic new measures to cut smog in the world's most polluted capital. For the next 15 days private cars will only be allowed on the city's roads every other day to try to reduce pollutant levels.
(AFP, 1/1/16)
2016 Jan 1, In Iraq Islamic State militants launched suicide attacks in the western city of Ramadi days after troops drove them out of the city center.
(AP, 1/2/16)
2016 Jan 1, In Israel an unidentified gunman killed two people and wounded at least three others on a bustling thoroughfare in central Tel Aviv before fleeing. Media showed images of an abandoned ammunition clip that appeared to have come from a Spectre M4 machine-gun - a weapon rarely seen in Israel and the Palestinian territories.
(Reuters, 1/1/16)
2016 Jan 1, The Netherlands took over the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union.
(Econ, 1/9/16, p.10)
2016 Jan 1, Nigeria unveiled a nine-meter tall statue of Jesus Christ carved from white marble in the village of Abajah, thought to be the biggest of its kind in Africa. It was commissioned by Obinna Onuoha, a local businessman who hired a Chinese company to carve it and placed it in the grounds of a 2000-capacity church that he built in 2012.
(AFP, 1/2/16)
2016 Jan 1, Saudi Arabia executed 47 criminals including prominent Shiite Muslim cleric Nimr al-Nimr (56) and dozens of al Qaeda members, signaling it would not tolerate attacks, whether by Sunni jihadists or minority Shi'ites, and stirring sectarian anger across the region. Al-Nimr was a charismatic religious leader who delivered fiery speeches demanding more rights for his minority in the Sunni-ruled kingdom.
(Reuters, 1/2/16)(AFP, 1/2/16)(Econ, 3/19/16, p.53)
2016 Jan 1, In Saudi Arabia the price of petrol rose by 50%.
(Econ, 1/9/16, p.17)
2016 Jan 1, Turkish media reported that 2 police officers, a soldier and 12 Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) fighters were killed in the southeast in the last 48 hours in operations to push back the militant group.
(Reuters, 1/1/16)
2016 Jan 1, Ukraine's free-trade deal with the EU came into effect, coinciding with the start of Moscow's food embargo against Kiev that will force the impoverished former Soviet republic to revisit its economic model.
(AFP, 1/1/16)
2016 Jan 1, In Yemen 6 people were killed in a firefight between Yemeni pro-government forces and Al-Qaeda suspects who were travelling in a weapons-laden vehicle toward Aden. A senior al-Qaida leader and 3 people traveling in his convoy were killed near a security checkpoint in southern Abyan province.
(AFP, 1/1/16)(AP, 1/1/16)
2017 Jan 1, In California new laws went into effect that included an increase in the minimum wage from $10 and hour to $10.50 an hour for businesses with 26 or more employees.
(SSFC, 1/1/17, p.A10)
2017 Jan 1, In Illinois a new law took effect that mandated an hour of training for stylists, barbers, cosmetologists, hair braiders and nail technicians for abuse training as part of their licensing process.
(SFC, 1/2/17, p.A4)
2017 Jan 1, In NYC three new subway stations opened to the public on the Second Avenue line.
(SFC, 1/2/17, p.A4)
2017 Jan 1, In Texas an accidental pesticide poisoning left four children dead. Phosphine gas was likely released when a father used a garden hose to wash away a pesticide under a mobile home.
(SFC, 1/4/17, p.A6)
2017 Jan 1, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation brought into force a policy on research that it supports calling for the research, when published, to be freely available to all. On March 23 the foundation announced that it will pay the cost of putting such research in one particular repository of freely available papers.
(Econ, 3/25/17, p.69)
2017 Jan 1, In Bahrain a prison break led to the death of a police officer and the escape of ten inmates convicted on terrorism charges, setting off a manhunt across the tiny island nation.
(AP, 1/1/17)(Econ, 1/21/17, p.40)
2017 Jan 1, In Brazil a rebellion began late today at the Anisio Jobim prison complex in Manaus. By the next day 57 people were killed in the riot sparked by a war between rival drug gangs. Many of those slain were beheaded or dismembered. An estimated 225 inmates escaped and only 48 were recaptured. Officials later said members of the FDN, Familia do Norte (Family of the North), organized the massacre seeking to wipe out the Sao Paulo-based rival Comando da Capital (PCC).
(Reuters, 1/2/17)(AP, 1/3/17)(AP, 2/22/17)(Econ, 1/7/17, p.26)
2017 Jan 1, British economist Anthony Atkinson (b.1944)) died. His 40 books included: “Inequality: What Can Be Done" (2015).
(Econ, 1/7/17, p.57)
2017 Jan 1, In Burundi a gunman killed Emmanuel Niyonkuru (54), the country’s environment and water minister early today, the first senior government figure to be murdered in nearly two years of political violence.
(Reuters, 1/1/17)
2017 Jan 1, In China new regulations went into effect regarding the country’s salt industry, easing a monopoly that has existed in some form for more than 2,000 years.
(AP, 1/3/17)
2017 Jan 1, In northern China heavy smog caused hundreds of flights to be canceled and highways to shut, disrupting the first day of the New Year holiday.
(Reuters, 1/1/17)
2017 Jan 1, China’s state news agency Xinhua reported that a court in the eastern province of Anhui has handed out sentences of up to 20 years in jail for 67 people involved in a mafia-style gang that engaged in gambling, extortion and violence.
(Reuters, 1/1/17)
2017 Jan 1, In Congo DRC rival groups agreed a deal for hauling the country out of a perilous political crisis. Under a landmark accord, the country's contested president, Joseph Kabila, who under the constitution should have left office on December 20, will stay in power until elections are held at the end of 2017. During this period a so-called National Transition Council will be set up, headed by opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi, and a prime minister will be named from opposition ranks.
(AFP, 1/1/17)
2017 Jan 1, Denmark police arrested Chung Yoo-ra (20), an equestrian competitor and the daughter of Choi Soon-sil, a central figure in a South Korean influence-peddling scandal that led to President Park Geun-hye's impeachment. She will face extradition proceedings following her arrest on an Interpol request from Seoul.
(Reuters, 1/2/17)
2017 Jan 1, Gambian security agents closed three private radio stations near the capital, Banjul, amid an escalating political crisis triggered by President Yahya Jammeh's refusal to accept his election defeat.
(Reuters, 1/2/17)
2017 Jan 1, In Hong Kong nearly 5,000 people marched in a New Year's Day protest against an attempt by the semi-autonomous Chinese city's government to disqualify four pro-democracy lawmakers.
(AP, 1/1/17)
2017 Jan 1, In Indonesia a massive fire erupted in a boat carrying hundreds of local tourists to an island north of Jakarta, leaving at least 23 dead and 17 injured. Another 17 people were missing and 194 were rescued following the blaze on the Zahro Express.
(AFP, 1/1/17)
2017 Jan 1, A top commander said Iraqi forces have retaken more than 60 percent of eastern Mosul from the Islamic State group since the battle for the city began in mid-October.
(AFP, 1/1/17)
2017 Jan 1, The Israeli government ruled that it would not release to their families the bodies of Hamas militants killed during attacks on Israelis but would instead bury them.
(AFP, 1/1/17)
2017 Jan 1, In Italy a bomb squad officer in Florence lost an eye and had to have a hand amputated after a suspicious package he was examining exploded before dawn.
(AP, 1/1/17)
2017 Jan 1, Malta took up the rotating presidency of the EU Council of Ministers.
(Econ, 1/14/17, p.49)
2017 Jan 1, Hundreds of irate Mexicans marched in Mexico City to protest a steep rise in gasoline prices. The protests erupted into looting in several parts of the country.
(AFP, 1/2/17)(SFC, 1/5/17, p.A2)
2017 Jan 1, In Mexico at least five people were killed over the New year’s weekend in Acapulco including three men found decapitated.
(SFC, 1/3/17, p.A2)
2017 Jan 1, In Morocco more than 1,000 migrants tried to jump a high double fence between Morocco and the Spanish enclave of Ceuta in a violent assault that saw one officer lose an eye. Two managed to get through, but were badly injured.
(AFP, 1/1/17)
2017 Jan 1, In Poland new legislation went into effect that removed previous requirements for private landowners who want to cut down trees to apply for permission, pay compensation and plant new trees. The legislation reportedly led to a massacre of trees across the country.
(SSFC, 4/16/17, p.C14)
2017 Jan 1, In Slovakia train and railway station patrols set up by a far-right parliamentary party became illegal as of today. The People's Party Our Slovakia had launched the unarmed patrols in April following a violent incident on a passenger train, claiming the state was unable to keep people safe.
(AP, 1/1/17)
2017 Jan 1, South Korea's impeached Pres. Park Geun-hye broke a month-long silence over her alleged role in a corruption scandal, publicly denying charges of wrongdoing and saying that the accusations against her were "fabrication and falsehood."
(Reuters, 1/1/17)
2017 Jan 1, Syrian government warplanes resumed their bombardment of the rebel-held Wadi Barada valley northwest of Damascus after nearly 24 hours with no air raids. A monitoring group and rebels said Russian- and Turkish-backed ceasefire largely held in other areas on its third day.
(Reuters, 1/1/17)
2017 Jan 1, In northwestern Syria an air raid late today struck several cars killing at least eight people, including al-Qaida-linked fighters and a senior commander with a Chinese Islamic militant faction. The dead included a senior al-Qaida commander known as Khattab al-Qahtani, who was from the Gulf region and fought for the group in Afghanistan. Abu Omar al-Turkistani, a top commander with the Turkistan Islamic Party, and a Syrian al-Qaida commander known as Abu Muatasem al-Deiri, were also killed.
(AP, 1/2/17)
2017 Jan 1, In Turkey 39 people were killed and dozens wounded when a gunman stormed the popular Reina nightclub in Istanbul and sprayed bullets at revelers celebrating the New Year. The gunman was later identified as an Uzbek jihadist with the IS code name of Ebu Muhammed Horasani. In 2020 Albulkadir Masharipov of Uzbekistan was sentenced to life in prison.
(AFP, 1/1/17)(AFP, 1/8/17)(SFC, 9/8/20, p.A2)
2017 Jan 1, In Yemen an air strike hit a house in Marib, killing five members of the same family. Four civilians, including three children, were killed in rebel bombing that targeted residential areas in the southwestern city of Taez.
(AFP, 1/2/17)
2018 Jan 1, US President Donald Trump lashed out at Pakistan in his first tweet of 2018, threatening to cut off aid over what he said were its "lies and deceit" in offering "safe haven to terrorists."
(AP, 1/1/18)0
2018 Jan 1, Some 300 prominent women announced an initiative called “Time's Up" in an effort to fight sexual harassment.
(SFC, 1/2/18, p.A7)
2018 Jan 1, In Afghanistan a district police chief was killed in a Taliban ambush as he rushed to a checkpoint that was under attack in western Farah province. Airstrikes in the northern Jawzjan province killed at least 26 Islamic State fighters. In Nangarhar province, at least one civilian was killed and 14 others were wounded during a battle between Afghan security forces and Islamic State fighters.
(AP, 1/2/18)
2018 Jan 1, British police said four young men were stabbed to death in unrelated incidents in London on New Year's Eve, while a fifth is in a critical condition in hospital.
(AFP, 1/1/18)
2018 Jan 1, Bulgaria, the European Union's poorest country, assumed the six-month, rotating presidency of the bloc for the first time since it joined the EU in 2007.
(Reuters, 1/2/18)
2018 Jan 1, In China seven people were killed when a minibus fell into the sea in Qidong a city north of Shanghai.
(AP, 1/1/18)
2018 Jan 1, French power grid company Enedis said winter storm Carmen has cut power to about 65,000 households in western France and is moving south.
(Reuters, 1/1/18)
2018 Jan 1, German police said that a man (35) died after igniting fireworks, and a 19-year-old suffered fatal head injuries after he set off a homemade device in the Brandenburg region outside Berlin. Police in Cologne said there were seven cases of sexual harassment, while Berlin police reported 13.
(AP, 1/1/18)
2018 Jan 1, In Hong Kong thousands marched through the streets on New Year's Day to warn China not to meddle further in the city's affairs and undermine its autonomy.
(AP, 1/1/18)
2018 Jan 1, In Iceland a new law took effect requiring all companies to prove that their wage practices don't discriminate against women, in what is thought to be a global first in the effort to reduce gender pay gaps.
(AP, 1/4/18)
2018 Jan 1, In India celebrations by Dalits in Pune, 150 km (95 miles) from Mumbai, of the 200th anniversary of a battle they won, fighting alongside British colonial forces, against an upper caste ruler, were marred by clashes with right-wing Hindu groups. The clashes resulted in the death of one man (28).
(Reuters, 1/2/18)
2018 Jan 1, In India Rona Wilson and a group of activists were arrested after intercommunal violence broke out at the Bhima-Koregaon war memorial. In 2021 it was reported that key 'evidence' against the group of activists, accused of trying to overthrow the Indian government, was planted on a laptop before it was seized by police.
(The Telegraph, 2/10/21)
2018 Jan 1, In Indonesia a speedboat carrying 51 people capsized off of Borneo island, killing at least eight in North Kalimantan province. Rescuers found 42 survivors and searched for one man still missing.
(AP, 1/1/18)(AP, 1/2/18)
2018 Jan 1, Iran's state TV said nationwide protests saw their most violent night as "armed protesters" tried to overrun military bases and police stations before security forces repelled them, bringing the death toll in the unrest to at least 12. Fresh protests broke out as night fell in Tehran. Nine Iranians were killed in Isfahan province during anti-government protests this evening as security forces struggled to contain the boldest challenge to the clerical leadership since unrest in 2009. A gunman reportedly killed one policeman and wounded three other officers during a protest gathering in Najafabad.
(AP, 1/1/18)(AFP, 1/1/18)(Reuters, 1/2/18)(AP, 1/2/18)
2018 Jan 1, It was reported that in Iraq some 133 mass graves, left behind by defeated extremists, contained an estimated 11,000 to 13,000 graves.
(SFC, 1/1/18, p.A3)
2018 Jan 1, In Lithuania a new liquor law increased the legal drinking age from 18 to 20, banned alcohol advertising, and drastically curtailed opening hours for liquor stores.
(AP, 1/29/18)
2018 Jan 1, In Malaysia an unidentified driver died from injuries inflicted by a faulty Takata air bag inflator, raising the worldwide death toll to 22.
(AP, 1/30/18)
2018 Jan 1, Qatar's two state-owned firms, Qatargas and RasGas, running the country's natural gas business, announced a merger to form a new Qatargas in a move aimed at cutting costs and creating a global energy giant.
(AFP, 1/3/18)
2018 Jan 1, In South Africa two climbers were killed while scaling Cape Town's Table Mountain, with hundreds of tourists stranded on the summit for hours during the rescue effort. A female Japanese climber injured in the fall was rescued. Authorities in Hong Kong later said one climber who died was from the southern Chinese city.
(AFP, 1/2/18)(AP, 1/3/18)
2018 Jan 1, Syria's President Bashar Assad reshuffled his government replacing the ministers of defense, information and industry.
(AP, 1/1/18)
2018 Jan 1, In Ukraine Iryna Nozdrovska's body was found in a river. Media reports said the 38-year-old lawyer had been stabbed repeatedly. On Jan. 8 a suspect was reported arrested in the case.
(AP, 1/8/18)
2018 Jan 1, At the Vatican Francis reminded some 40,000 people who gathered in St. Peter's Square that he had chosen the plight of migrants and refugees as the theme for the Roman Catholic Church's World Day of Peace, which is celebrated every Jan. 1.
(AP, 1/1/18)
2018 Jan 1, In Yemen Saudi-led coalition strikes killed at least 23 people in the port city of Hodeida.
(SFC, 1/2/18, p.A2)
2019 Jan 1, US authorities fired tear gas into Mexico during the first hours of the new year to repel about 150 migrants who tried to breach the border fence in Tijuana.
(AP, 1/1/19)
2019 Jan 1, An American air strike in Yemen killed Jamal al-Badawi, an al-Qaida operative accused of involvement in the 2000 attack on the US Navy ship Cole.
(SFC, 1/7/19, p.A2)
2019 Jan 1, The US and Israel officially quit UNESCO, the UN's educational, scientific and cultural agency at the stroke of midnight, the culmination of a process triggered more than a year ago amid concerns that the organization fosters anti-Israel bias. Since 2011 the US has accrued $600 million in unpaid dues, which was one of the reasons for Pres. Donald Trump's decision to withdraw. Israel owed an estimated $10 million.
(AP, 1/1/19)
2019 Jan 1, NASA rang in the New Year with a historic flyby of the farthest, and quite possibly the oldest, cosmic body ever explored by humankind -- a tiny, distant world called Ultima Thule -- in the hopes of learning more about how planets took shape.
(AFP, 1/1/19)
2019 Jan 1, Washington state joined a handful of other states banning those under 21 from buying assault rifles.
(SFC, 1/2/19, p.A4)
2019 Jan 1, Pegi Young (b.1952), the ex-wife of Neil Young and co-founder of the Bridge School (1986), died in California after a year long battle with cancer.
(SFC, 1/5/19, p.E1)
2019 Jan 1, Two Austrian women became the first same-sex couple to officially tie the knot in the predominantly Catholic country, following years of legal challenges from gay rights groups.
(AP, 1/1/19)
2019 Jan 1, Former Brazilian army captain Jair Bolsonaro took office as president promising to overhaul many aspects of life in Latin America's largest nation.
(AP, 1/1/19)
2019 Jan 1, In Burkina Faso local villagers of the Mossi ethnic group attacked a nearby camp of herders from the nomadic Fulani group. Seven Fulani herders were lynched and their homes were burned down. Yirgou residents killed 39 people in Fulani herding communities across the region in retaliation for attacks a day earlier.
(AFP, 1/2/19)(Reuters, 1/4/19)
2019 Jan 1, Democratic Republic of Congo's government cut internet connections and SMS services across the country for a second straight day as the country nervously awaited results from the weekend's chaotic presidential election.
(Reuters, 1/1/19)
2019 Jan 1, France ditched a system whereby residents file income tax returns based on the previous year's earnings, replacing it with a system where the state deducts the taxes directly from people's salaries or pensions each month.
(AFP, 1/1/19)
2019 Jan 1, In Hong Kong thousands of demonstrators marched to demand full democracy, fundamental rights, and even independence from China in the face of what many see as a marked clampdown by the Communist Party on local freedoms.
(Reuters, 1/1/19)
2019 Jan 1, In Japan a minivan slammed into pedestrians early today on a street where people had gathered for New Year's festivities in downtown Tokyo. A ninth person was injured after the suspect got out of the car and punched him. Kazuhiro Kusakabe (21) was arrested.
(AP, 1/1/19)
2019 Jan 1, In western Germany a man (50) ploughed his car into a crowd of people in early today, injuring at least four in Bottrop and Essen before being arrested by police on suspicion of attempted homicide. This appeared to have been an intentional attack against foreigners.
(AP, 1/1/19)
2019 Jan 1, In southern India millions of women stood should to shoulder along highways in Kerala state creating a human wall 300 miles long standing fast against sexism and oppression.
(SFC, 1/3/19, p.A4)
2019 Jan 1, Israel's center-left opposition dramatically split ahead of an April 9 election, with leader Avi Gabbay announcing he would no longer partner with veteran politician Tzipi Livni as she sat stone-faced next to him. The announcement meant the end of their Zionist Union alliance, which secured the second most seats in the last general election in 2015, but has since tumbled far in opinion polls.
(AFP, 1/1/19)
2019 Jan 1, In Malawi Yasin Phiri, an albino, was killed in front of his young son. Local media said the man's arms were hacked off, his teeth pulled and his private parts removed, prompting calls by local and international civil society groups for government action. On March 1 Malawi said it will offer cash rewards of up $7,000 for information about abductions and killing of people with albinism as anger over government inaction grew ahead of national elections.
(Reuters, 3/1/19)
2019 Jan 1, In Mali armed men reportedly attacked a central village, killing 37 civilians, in what appeared to be ethnic violence. Those killed were from the Fulani ethnic group and included the village chief.
(AP, 1/1/19)
2019 Jan 1, Myanmar police clashed with insurgents in the troubled western state of Rakhine. One policeman was critically injured when border guard police were attacked by about 30 men carrying "small and heavy arms" near Saytaung, a village in the Buthidaung area.
(Reuters, 1/2/19)
2019 Jan 1, In Pakistan four Taliban militants stormed a security forces facility in the southwestern town of Loralai, triggering a battle that left four security forces and the attackers dead.
(AP, 1/1/19)
2019 Jan 1, Romania took over the EU's rotating presidency at a tumultuous time for the bloc and just days after European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker voiced doubts about the country's ability to do the job.
(AFP, 1/1/19)
2019 Jan 1, Somalia's government ordered the UN top envoy to the troubled country to leave, accusing him of "deliberately interfering with the country's sovereignty." Nicholas Haysom had raised concerns at the action of Somalia's UN-backed security services in recent violence that left several people dead.
(AFP, 1/2/19)
2019 Jan 1, Taiwanese immigration authorities found 24 Vietnamese and are searched for 124 others who left their tour groups after arriving in December on tourist visas.
(AP, 1/2/19)
2019 Jan 1, Thailand police said Sucheep Sornsung (41) shot and killed six family members, including his two young children, before killing himself after a New Year's party in southern Chumphon province.
(Reuters, 1/1/19)
2019 Jan 1, In Turkmenistan a law took effect forbidding the sale of alcoholic drinks including beer on trains, airplanes and ferries and at sports facilities. It also banned the sale of alcohol on holidays when workers get the day off. The law called for alcohol sales to be banned on Saturdays and Sundays beginning in 2021, except at bars and restaurants.
(AP, 1/1/19)
2019 Jan 1, Pope Francis ushered in the New Year with an ode to motherhood, reminding the faithful that a mother's example and embrace is the best antidote to today's disjointed world of solitude and misery.
(AP, 1/1/19)
2020 Jan 1, New US federal rules came into effect requiring most types of newly sold light bulbs to emit at least 45 lumens of light for each watt of electricity they burn.
(SFC, 1/1/20, p.C2)
2020 Jan 1, New or higher registration fees went into effect for electric vehicle owners in at least eight US states. For the first time, a majority of US states will impose special fees on gas-free cars, SUVs and trucks.
(AP, 12/29/19)
2020 Jan 1, California's landmark gig-work law, AB5, took effect amid a swirl of controversy and escalating challenges.
(SFC, 1/1/20, p.A1)
2020 Jan 1, In California a new law took effect requiring new homes to have rooftop solar panels, better insulation and air filtration systems.
(SFC, 12/26/19, p.A1)
2020 Jan 1, In southern California the 131st Rose Parade in Pasadena drew hundreds of thousands of spectators on New Year's Day.
(AP, 1/1/20)
2020 Jan 1, Nick Gordon (30), the man found liable in the 2015 death of ex-partner Bobbi Kristina Brown (22), died in Florida of a suspected overdose.
(http://tinyurl.com/ttfdlob)(SFC, 1/2/20, p.A4)
2020 Jan 1, In Illinois the sale of marijuana for recreational purposes became legal to the delight of pot fans. Illinois already allowed medical marijuana, but it is now the 11th state to allow its use and sale for recreational purposes.
(AP, 1/1/20)
2020 Jan 1, In Montana two snowmobilers were killed in an avalanche in the Dinah Lake area.
(SFC, 1/3/20, p.A5)
2020 Jan 1, More than 92,000 Jewish people congregated at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey to celebrate the reading of the entire Talmud in an event called Siyum HaShas, drawing a significant security presence after recent anti-Semitic attacks in the area.
(AP, 1/1/20)
2020 Jan 1, Drug makers including Bristol-Myers Squibb Co, Gilead Sciences Inc, and Biogen Inc hiked US list prices on more than 50 drugs, bringing total New Year's Day drug price increases to more than 250.
(Reuters, 1/1/20)
2020 Jan 1, Australia deployed military ships and aircraft to help communities ravaged by apocalyptic wildfires that have left at least 17 people dead nationwide and sent thousands of residents and holidaymakers fleeing to the shoreline.
(AP, 1/1/20)
2020 Jan 1, Egyptian police raided the parents' home of journalist Mohamed el-Garhy, known for his critical views of the government, and arrested his brother.
(AP, 1/2/20)
2020 Jan 1, In western Germany a fire at the Krefeld zoo in the first minutes of 2020 killed more than 30 animals, including apes, monkeys, bats and birds. Police said the fire may have been caused by sky lanterns launched to celebrate the new year.
(AP, 1/1/20)
2020 Jan 1, Hong Kong began 2020 with a familiar sight: Tear gas, fires, vandalism and roadblocks in busy downtown areas as protesters vowed to maintain their fight for more democracy and less Chinese control. Police detained about 400 people on charges including illegal assembly and possession of offensive weapons after the huge rally.
(Bloomberg, 1/1/20)(The Guardian, 1/2/20)
2020 Jan 1, In Indonesia at least nine people were killed as monsoon rains and rising rivers submerged at least 90 neighborhoods in Jakarta. The city has been rapidly sinking due to uncontrolled extraction of groundwater.
(SFC, 1/2/20, p.A2)
2020 Jan 1, Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei strongly condemned deadly US strikes on Iraq and warned his country was ready to confront threats after US President Donald Trump issued one against the Islamic republic.
(AFP, 1/1/20)
2020 Jan 1, In Iraq US troops fired tear gas and rubber bullets at protesters who descended on the US Embassy in Baghdad for a second time. Pro-Iran demonstrators left the besieged US embassy in Baghdad after the Hashed al-Shaabi paramilitary force ordered them to withdraw a day after their dramatic incursion.
(The Week, 1/1/20)(AFP, 1/1/20)
2020 Jan 1, Kim Jong Un declared he was no longer bound by his pledge to halt major missile tests and would soon debut a “new strategic weapon," adding to President Donald Trump’s foreign policy concerns in a politically charged election year.
(Bloomberg, 1/1/20)
2020 Jan 1, Tens of thousands of Palestinians took to the streets in Gaza to mark the 55th anniversary of President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah movement.
(AP, 1/1/20)
2020 Jan 1, Syrian government forces shelled a rebel-held village in the country's northwest, hitting a school and killing at least six people in Idlib province. A car bombing in the town of Suluk, controlled by Turkey-backed opposition fighters, killed three people.
(AP, 1/1/20)
2020 Jan 1, United Nations shipping agency the International Maritime Organization (IMO) banned ships from using fuels with a sulphur content above 0.5%, compared with 3.5% previously, in the biggest shake up for the oil and shipping industries in decades.
(Reuters, 1/22/20)
2020 Jan 1, Yemeni rebels released six Saudi prisoners, a rebel official said, after the kingdom two months ago released over 100 rebels, known as Houthis.
(AP, 1/1/20)
2021 Jan 1, The US Senate voted 81-13 to override President Trump's veto of the $741 billion defense authorization bill. This was Congress' first veto override of Trump's presidency.
(The Week, 1/2/21)
2021 Jan 1, The United States effectively banned anonymous shell companies from operating in the country with the passing of a new anti-corruption law described by campaigners as “historic." The new legislation was included in the annual National Defense Authorization Act.
(The Independent, 1/1/21)
2021 Jan 1, US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi unveiled a package of ethics and legislative reforms for the new Congress set to convene on Jan. 3, including barring former lawmakers convicted of federal crimes from the House floor.
(Reuters, 1/1/21)
2021 Jan 1, A federal appeals court cleared the way for the only woman on federal death row to be executed before President-elect Joe Biden takes office. A three-judge panel concluded that a lower court judge erred when he vacated Lisa Montgomery's execution date in an order last week. Her legal team said it would ask for the full appeals court to review the case and said Montgomery should not be executed on Jan. 12.
(AP, 1/2/21)
2021 Jan 1, The US Coast Guard suspended its search for a boat with about 20 people on board that was three days overdue to arrive in Florida after leaving the Bahamas earlier this week.
(AP, 1/1/21)
2021 Jan 1, In central California seven children and two adult drivers were killed in head-on collision in Fresno County.
(AP, 1/2/21)
2021 Jan 1, California to date had 2,297,064 cases of coronavirus and 25,987 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 264,986 cases and 2,587 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 20,037,736 with the death toll at 346,687.
(sfist.com, 1/1/21)
2021 Jan 1, In Maine Glenn Adams (780), a reporter who chronicled state government, politics and breaking news for The Associated Press for over three decades, died of complications after heart surgery at Maine Medical Center.
(AP, 1/2/21)
2021 Jan 1, In Texas Drill Sgt. Jessica Mitchell (30) was found around 2 a.m. with multiple gunshots to the driver's side door and window of her car along Interstate 10 in San Antonio. Mitchell had been shot several times and was taken to a nearby hospital, but died later from her injuries.
(CBS News, 1/5/21)
2021 Jan 1, Australia changed a lyric in its national anthem from “we are young and free" to “we are one and free" to recognize Indigenous populations that have lived on the continent for more than 60,000 years.
(NY Times, 1/1/21)
2021 Jan 1, The Bosnian military set up tents for hundreds of migrants who have been stuck in a burned-out refugee camp that has no facilities to fend off freezing winter weather.
(AP, 1/1/21)
2021 Jan 1, Bosnian police said 8 young men and women have died in a cottage in the southwest, apparently from carbon monoxide poisoning during a New Year's Eve celebration.
(AP, 1/1/21)
2021 Jan 1, Britain became the latest country to abolish the so-called "tampon tax," eliminating sales taxes on women's sanitary products.
(AP, 1/1/21)
2021 Jan 1, London Mayor Sadiq Khan said the British government has decided to close all primary schools in London for the next two weeks to counter the rapid spread of a more infectious variant of the COVID-19 virus.
(Reuters, 1/1/21)
2021 Jan 1, Chad locked down its capital N'djamena for the first time since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic and has declared a dusk to dawn curfew due to a rise in infections.
(Reuters, 1/1/21)
2021 Jan 1, In Egypt a roadside bomb went off in the northern Sinai Peninsula, killing two members of the country's security forces and wounding five.
(AP, 1/2/21)
2021 Jan 1, French officials said ravers at an underground, curfew-busting New Year’s Eve party that drew at least 2,500 people in Lieuron, Brittany, attacked the police sent to shut them down, torching one of their vehicles and injuring officers with volleys of bottles and stones.
(AP, 1/1/21)
2021 Jan 1, Experts at India's drugs regulator recommended for emergency use two coronavirus vaccines, one developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University and the other backed by a state-run institute.
(AP, 1/2/21)
2021 Jan 1, Iranian Ayatollah Mohammad Taqi Mesbah Yazdi (85), a prominent hard-liner and supporter of the country's ex-president, died in Tehran.
(AP, 1/1/21)
2021 Jan 1, Iraqi explosives experts worked to defuse a large mine discovered on an oil tanker in the Persian Gulf and evacuate its crew. A limpet mine was found a day earlier on the MT Pola, a Liberian-flagged tanker in the waters off the Iraqi port of Basra.
(AP, 1/1/21)
2021 Jan 1, Ireland said it had under-reported coronavirus cases in recent days by thousands more than previously known as its system came under strain, suggesting the EU's fastest growing outbreak is worsening even more rapidly than figures showed.
(Reuters, 1/1/21)
2021 Jan 1, Israel forces tried to stop Palestinians building a house in a village in southern Hebron and seized an electricity generator belonging to Abu Aram (24). Aram was shot in the neck and was left quadriplegic.
(AP, 1/2/21)
2021 Jan 1, In Lebanon celebratory gunfire to ring in the New Year killed a Syrian woman living as a refugee in eastern Lebanon and struck an airplane parked at Beirut's airport in two separate incidents.
(AP, 1/1/21)
2021 Jan 1, In Mexico a female doctor (32) was hospitalized in Nuevo Leone after she experienced seizures, difficulty breathing and a skin rash upon receiving the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine.
(Reuters, 1/2/21)
2021 Jan 1, Farmers digging in a citrus grove near Mexico’s Gulf coast found a striking, six-foot-tall statue of a female figure who may represent an elite woman rather than a goddess. The National Institute of Anthropology and History later said the carved statue, found in a region known as the Huasteca, may date to around 1450 to 1521.
(AP, 1/8/21)
2021 Jan 1, Portuguese singer Carlos do Carmo (81) died. He was one of the country's most beloved artists, known as the "Sinatra" of the soulful, melancholic fado music.
(Reuters, 1/1/21)
2021 Jan 1, The Thai capital of Bangkok said it will close all schools for two weeks after the New Year holiday as it tightens measures to control a new wave of the coronavirus pandemic.
(Reuters, 1/1/21)
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For Asia History: https://www.asiaobserver.org/category/news/on-this-day-in-asian-history
45BC Jan 1, The Julian calendar took effect. The year -45 has been called the "year of confusion," because in that year Julius Caesar inserted 90 days to bring the months of the Roman calendar back to their traditional place with respect to the seasons. This was Caesar's first step in replacing a calendar that had gone badly awry.
(http://astro.nmsu.edu/~lhuber/leaphist.html)
404 Jan 1, The last known gladiatorial contest was held in Rome.
(http://writersalmanac.org/episodes/20170101/)
1431 Jan 1, Rodrigo Borgia Lanzol (d.1503), member of the Borgia family, was born in Xativa, Spain. His mother was the sister of Pope Calixtus III. He was elected Pope Alexander VI in 1492 and amassed a fortune by pocketing church funds. His reign helped inspire the Protestant reformation. He fathered numerous children including Lucrezia Borgia. Machiavelli based "The Prince" on him.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R8)(PTA, 1980, 424)
1449 Jan 1, Lorenzo de Medici (d.1492), later know as Lorenzo the Magnificent, was born in Florence.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorenzo_de%27_Medici)
1502 Jan 1, Guanabara Bay was first encountered by Europeans when one of the Portuguese explorers Gaspar de Lemos and Goncalo Coelho arrived on its shores. Guanabara Bay is an oceanic bay located in southeastern Brazil in the state of Rio de Janeiro. On its western shore lies the city of Rio de Janeiro, and on its eastern shore the cities of Niteroi and Sao Goncalo.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guanabara_Bay)
1515 Jan 1, King Louis XII (b.1462) of France, died. He was succeeded by Francis I (1494-1547).
(Econ, 12/12/09, p.93)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_I_of_France)
1586 Jan 1, Francis Drake, who left England on a new voyage to America last September, made a surprise attack on the heavily fortified city of Santo Domingo in Hispaniola, forcing the governor to pay a large ransom.
(HN, 1/1/99)
1631 Jan 1, Thomas Hobson (b.~1544), English carrier, died. He had discovered that his fastest horses were the most popular, and thus overworked. So as not to exhaust them, he established a strict rotation system, allowing customers to rent only the next horse in line. This singular choice became known as Hobson's choice.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Hobson)
1651 Jan 1, Charles II (20), Charles Stuart, was crowned king of Scotland at Scone.
(PC, 1992, p.243)(ON, 8/12, p.1)
1698 Jan 1, The Abenaki Indians and the Massachusetts colonists signed a treaty ending the conflict in New England.
(HN, 1/1/99)
1700 Jan 1, Russia replaced the Byzantine with the Julian calendar, which remained in effect until the adoption of the Gregorian calendar in 1918.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etos_Kosmou)
1710 Jan 1, Cölln, a town on the Spree River, united with neighboring Berlin under the latter name.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_Palace,_Berlin)
1735 Jan 1, Paul Revere (d.1818), U.S. patriot who rode through the streets of Boston during the American Revolution, warning of the British landings, was born to Apollos Rivoire and Deborah Hitchbourne, one of 13 children.
(HN, 1/1/99)(HNQ, 6/27/02)
1752 Jan 1, Betsy Ross (d.1836), flag maker who contributed to the design of the American flag, was born in Philadelphia as Elizabeth Griscom.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betsy_Ross)
1764 Jan 1, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (8) played for the Royal Family at Versailles, France.
(http://musicandhistory.com/music-and-history-by-the-year/23-1764.html)
1766 Jan 1, James Francis Edward Stuart (b.1688), son of James III, died. The English prince was known as the Old Pretender.
(HN, 1/1/99)(WUD, 1994 ed., p.1410)
1785 Jan 1, The Daily Universal Register (Times of London) published its 1st issue. It became The Times on Jan 1, 1788.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Times)
1788 Jan 1, London’s Daily Universal Register began publishing as The Times.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Times)
1797 Jan 1, Albany became the capital of New York state, replacing New York City.
(AP, 1/1/98)
1801 Jan 1, Giuseppi Piazzi (d.1826), Italian astronomer, discovered an asteroid orbiting between Mars and Jupiter. He believed it to be a planet and named it Ceres, after the Roman goddess of the harvest. Ceres was later measured to be about 974km in diameter, roughly the length of Great Britain and 1% the mass of Earth’s moon.
(NH, 7/02, p.36)(Econ., 2/28/15, p.70)
1804 Jan 1, Jean-Jacques Dessalines proclaimed the Republic of Haiti and declared independence from France. Documentation of his speech was then lost and only re-discovered in 2010 by a Canadian graduate student searching in the British National Archives.
(WSJ, 3/1/04, p.A16)(SFCM, 5/30/04, p.19)(SFC, 4/2/10, p.A2)
1808 Jan 1, A US law banning the import of slaves came into effect, but was widely ignored.
(HN, 1/1/99)(AP, 1/1/08)
1818 Jan 1, An official reopening of the White House took place after being repaired from burning by British during War of 1812.
(SFEC, 7/4/99, Par p.5)(http://tinyurl.com/7uewdhv)
1818 Jan 1, The novel "Frankenstein" by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1797-1851) was published anonymously. It was an attack on industrialization. The work stemmed from a contest in 1816 at Byron’s Villa Diodati in Geneva, between Byron, Shelley and Mary to produce a ghost story. In 1998 Joan Kane Nichols published "Mary Shelley: Frankenstein’s Creator." In 2006 Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler authored “The Monsters: Mary Shelley and the Curse of Frankenstein." In 2007 Susan Tyler Hitchcock authored “Frankenstein: A Cultural History."
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R14)(SSFC, 5/21/06, p.M6)(WSJ, 10/30/07, p.D6)(ON, 11/07, p.8)
1824 Jan 1, The Camp Street Theatre opened as the first English-language playhouse in New Orleans.
(HN, 1/1/99)
1825 Jan 1, Dewitt Clinton (1769-1828) began serving his 2nd term as governor of New York and continued to 1828.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeWitt_Clinton)
1831 Jan 1, William Lloyd Garrison (1805-1879), 24-year-old reformer of Massachusetts, began publishing his newspaper The Liberator, dedicated to the abolition of slavery. Garrison's stridency and uncompromising position on both the institution of slavery and slave owners offended many in the North and South, but he vowed to continue the fight until slavery was abolished. In the first issue of his newspaper, he wrote, "I am aware that many object to the severity of my language; but is there not cause for severity? I will be as harsh as truth, and as uncompromising as justice. On this subject I do not wish to think, or speak, or write, with moderation. No! No!" Garrison once burned a copy of the U.S. Constitution, condemning it as "a covenant with death and an agreement with hell" because it did not forbid slavery. The Liberator ceased publication in 1865 after the 13th Amendment was passed, outlawing slavery. [see 1830]
(HNPD, 12/31/98)
1862 Jan 1, The US federal government Tax Act of July 14, 1862, took effect as of January 1, 1862.
(AP, 8/5/97)(http://tinyurl.com/brzpcg3)
1863 Jan, 1, All slaves held in rebellion territory in USA were made free by Abraham Lincoln's Sep 22, 1862, Emancipation Proclamation.
(HFA, ‘96, p.22)(V.D.-H.K.p.275)(AP, 1/1/98)(HN, 1/1/99)
1863 Jan 1, Confederate General Braxton Bragg and Union General William Rosecrans readjusted their troops as the Battle of Murfreesboro continued.
(HN, 1/1/99)
1863 Jan 1, The clipper ship Noonday hit an uncharted rock off the coast of San Francisco and sank in 240 feet of water. All hands were rescued and the rock was named Noonday.
(SFC, 9/17/14, p.A10)
1864 Jan 1, Alfred Stieglitz (d.1946), American photographer, was born in New Jersey.
(www.fact-index.com)
1871 Jan 1, The US Signal Office began publishing weather maps as the War Department Maps.
(www.lib.noaa.gov/collections/imgdocmaps/daily_weather_maps.html)
1871 Jan 1, Sir Henry Durand (b.1812), British lord of the frontier between India and Afghanistan, died after an elephant he was riding reared and brained him on a stone archway in Tonk (later Tank, Pakistan).
(Econ, 1/2/10, p.18)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Marion_Durand)
1874 Jan 1, New York City annexed the Bronx.
(MC, 1/1/02)
1879 Jan 1, E.M. [Edward Morgan] Forster (d.1970), English novelist famous for "A Passage to India" and "A Room With a View," was born in London. His novels exemplified his ideas about the conflict between the imaginative and the earthy component of the human soul and character.
(V.D.-H.K.p.366)(HN, 1/1/99)
1879 Jan 1, William Fox, US film pioneer (Nickelodeon), was born.
(MC, 1/1/02)
1880 Jan 1, The building of the Panama Canal was symbolically begun under the direction of French diplomat Ferdinand de Lesseps. Actual construction began a year later. In 2007 Matthew Parker authored “Panama Fever: The Battle to Build the Canal."
(http://www.ared.com/history.htm)(Econ, 2/24/07, p.96)
1891 Jan 1, An office was opened on Ellis Island, New York, to cope with the vast flood of immigrants coming into the United States.
(HN, 1/1/99)
1892 Jan 1, The US Immigration Service, after two years of construction, opened Ellis Island in New York Harbor, a new facility for "processing" immigrants. Annie Moore (15) of County Cork, Ireland, was the 1st person processed. The new facility replaced Castle Garden, which was closed because of massive overcrowding and corruption. The money changing concession was later granted to American Express to end the cheating of immigrants. Formerly used as a munitions dump and landfill, Ellis Island was designed, its architects claimed, to handle more than 8,000 newcomers a day. Orderly lines funneled bewildered immigrants past doctors and officials who examined them for signs of disease. The physically and mentally ill were refused admittance, forcing thousands of families to make the difficult decision to return home with a relative refused entry or push on without them. A final brusque interview by an immigration official determined whether the newcomers had already been promised jobs. About 80% of those who entered Ellis Island received landing cards permitting them to board ferries for NYC. In the 1890s, 75% of all immigrants entered the US through Ellis Island. It was closed in 1954.
(AP, 1/1/98)(HNPD, 1/1/99)(AP, 1/1/98)(SFC, 3/21/98, p.E3)(HNPD, 9/18/98)(SFEC, 6/20/99, p.T10)
1894 Jan 1, In San Francisco Gelett Burgess, an instructor of topographical drawing at UC Berkeley, reportedly took part in the toppling of one of one of three water fountains that had been donated to the city in 1883 by pro-temperance advocate Henry Cogswell. Burgess soon lost his job at Berkeley as a result of his involvement in the attack.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gelett_Burgess)
1895 Jan 1, J. Edgar Hoover, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), was born.
(HN, 1/1/99)
1897 Jan 1, Brooklyn merged with NY to form the present NYC. [see Jan 1, 1898]
(MC, 1/1/02)
1898 Jan 1, The consolidation of Greater New York City occurred with the "merger" of Brooklyn and Manhattan. Before the merger Brooklyn had absorbed Williamsburg, Bushwick, Flatbush, Flatlands, and New Lots among other towns. The merger created a city of 3.4 million people. Manhattan, the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island were consolidated into New York City.
(WSJ, 12/31/97, p.A10)(AP, 1/1/99)
1900 Jan 1, A New York editorialist wrote that the 20th century began in the United States with "a sense of euphoria and self-satisfaction, a sure feeling that America is the envy of the world."
(Hem, Dec. 94, p.70)
1900 Jan 1, The Royal Niger Company sold all its possessions and concessions in Africa to the British government for £865,000, considered to be a very low price.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_William_Koko_Mingi_VIII_of_Nembe)
1900 Jan 1, Xavier Cugat (d.1990), bandleader (married Abbe Lane, Charo), was born in Barcelona, Spain.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xavier_Cugat)
1901 Jan 1, The 1st official annual Mummers parade was held in Philadelphia.
(SFC, 12/31/00, p.A10)
1901 Jan 1, The Commonwealth of Australia became official as established in the July 9, 1900, Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act. 6 colonies became an independent federation with Edmund Barton as the 1st prime minister. Although independent it still recognized Britain’s royalty as Australia’s head of state. The governor-general, a representative of the queen nominated by the prime minister, was appointed by the British monarch.
(AP, 1/1/98)(SFC, 2/3/98, p.A7)(SFC, 12/31/00, p.A18)
1907 Jan 1, Pres. Theodore Roosevelt shook a record 8,513 hands in 1 day.
(MC, 1/1/02)
1907 Jan 1, The Pure Food and Drug Act became law in the United States
(HN, 1/1/99)
1908 Jan 1, The 1st time-ball signifying new year was dropped at Times Square, NYC.
(MC, 1/1/02)
1909 Jan 1, Barry Goldwater (d.1998), Republican senator for Arizona and presidential contender, was born in Phoenix, son of Baron and Josephine Goldwater. His grandfather was an immigrant Polish peddler and founder of the Goldwater department store chain.
(SFC, 5/30/98, p.A3)(MC, 1/1/02)
1912 Jan 1, A groundbreaking celebration took place for the largest structure of the Panama Pacific Fair, the Machinery building at PPIE grounds at Harbor View (future Marina District).
(SFC, 1/2, 1912)
1912 Jan 1, A Massachusetts law reducing the work-week from fifty-six to fifty-four hours for women and children, went into effect. Workers struck spontaneously on Jan 12 when the mill owners reduced wages to coincide with the reduced work-week.
(www.fortunecity.com/tinpan/parton/2/johngold.html)
1912 Jan 1, The Republic of China was formed with Sun Yat-Sen as president. Nationalist Party co-founder Song Jiaren began designing the institutions of the new democracy.
(Econ, 12/22/12, p.68)
1912 Jan 1, Kim Philby was born in India. He became a ringleader of a group of upper crust Englishmen who entered public service or, in many cases, the British Secret Service, then spied for the Soviets. Philby got away and spent his last years in Moscow.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Philby)
1914 Jan 1, A Pacific coast storm swept away the entire Ocean Beach of San Francisco from the Cliff House to the life saving station.
(SSFC, 12/29/13, DB p.42)
1915 Jan 1, German submarine U-24 sank the British battleship Formidable in the English Channel whilst on patrol and exercise with the 5th Battle Squadron. She sank rapidly with the loss of 547 crew. The 5BS had been steaming slowly (10knots), not zigzagging and were without destroyer escort. Admiral in charge Lewis Bayly was dismissed from his position over the loss.
(www.worldwar1.co.uk/sunk15.htm)
1918 Jan 1, Canada’s Unionist government began to enforce the Military Service Act.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conscription_Crisis_of_1917)
1918 Jan 1, The first gasoline pipeline began operation with 40 miles of three inch pipe from Salt Creek to Casper, Wyoming.
(HN, 1/1/01)
1919 Jan 1, J.D. Salinger, American novelist, was born in NYC. In 1951 Jerome David Salinger published "The Catcher in the Rye," which became a bible for American teenagers.
(SFC, 1/29/10, p.A1)
1923 Jan 1, The Angelus Temple, a spiritual palace in the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, was dedicated by Canadian-born evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson (1890-1944), organizer of the Int’l. Church of the Foursquare Gospel.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aimee_Semple_McPherson)(WSJ, 6/2/07, p.P9)
1923 Jan 1, Sadi Lecointe set a new aviation speed record flying an average of 208 mph at Istres.
(HN, 1/1/99)
1923 Jan 1, John Daly (b.1841), for whom Daly City is named, died and was buried at Woodlawn Cemetery in Colma. He was from Boston and had arrived in the Bay Area alone at age 13 via the Isthmus of Panama, where his mother died of yellow fever.
(CHA, 1/2001)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Donald_Daly)
1934 Jan 1, Alcatraz officially became a federal prison. The first prisoners arrived in August. [see Aug 11, 1934]
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcatraz_Island)
1934 Jan 1, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the US bank guarantor, became effective.
(MC, 1/1/02)
1935 Jan 1, Eastern Airlines hired Eddie Rickenbacker as GM.
(MC, 1/1/02)
1937 Jan 1, At a party at the Hormel Mansion in Minnesota, a guest won $100 for naming a new canned meat-Spam. SPAM was originally called Hormel Spiced Ham in 1936 without much success.
(HN, 1/1/00)(http://tinyurl.com/3soounh)
1942 Jan 1, Atlantic Charter members, including the US, Britain, the USSR and 23 other countries all lined up against the Axis, issued a Joint Declaration stressing their solidarity in the defense against Hitlerism.
(Econ, 1/29/11, p.84)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_Charter)
1945 Jan 1, France was admitted to the United Nations.
(AP, 1/1/98)
1945 Jan 1, On Operation Bodenplatte, German planes attacked American forward air bases in Europe. This was the last major offensive of the Luftwaffe.
(HN, 1/1/99)
1946 Jan 1, In Japan Emperor Hirohito rejected the notion that the emperor is a living god and the notion that the Japanese are superior to other races and destined to govern the world.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.36)(MC, 1/1/02)
1947 Jan 1, Canada’s Citizenship Act of this year became effective. It said that citizens living outside Canada on their 24th birthday would automatically lose their citizenship unless they filled out a form saying they wished to keep it. The law was amended in 1977 and raised the age factor to 28.
(Econ, 2/3/07, p.39)(www.theshipslist.com/Forms/citizenship.htm)
1949 Jan 1, The UN brokered a cease-fire in Kashmir. It granted Kashmir the right to vote on whether to remain in India or to join Pakistan. No vote took place.
(SSFC, 12/30/01, p.A22)(SFC, 6/8/02, p.A20)
1951 Jan 1, A British radio soap opera called “The Archers" began airing following pilot shows in 1950. The show was about a British farming community and was still popular as it continued in 2011.
(SFC, 1/5/11, p.E2)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Archers)
1953 Jan 1, Country singer Hank Williams Sr. (29) died of a drug and alcohol overdose while enroute to a concert date in Canton, Ohio. In 1998 Mercury Records released "The Complete Hank Williams," with 225 recordings.
(AP, 1/1/98)(WSJ, 10/30/98, p.W9A)
1956 Jan 1, Sudan became independent from Britain. Northern Muslim parties took over rule. Southerners demanded autonomy and civil war began. Sudan seceded from Egypt. This separated the Nubian communities split between the two countries.
(WSJ, 8/25/98, p.A14)(SFC, 11/17/00, p.A20)(WSJ, 10/22/03, p.A4)(Econ, 5/15/04, p.21)(Econ, 9/17/16, p.47)
1957 Jan 1, The state of Saarland, established in 1920 in accordance with the Treaty of Versailles, joined the Federal Republic of West Germany. The Nazis had called the area "Westmark." After World War II the Saarland had come under French administration.
(Econ, 8/29/09, p.45)(http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Saarland)
1958 Jan 1, Treaties establishing the European Economic Community went into effect.
(AP, 1/1/98)
1958 Jan 1, Dr. Douglas Kelley (45), psychiatrist, committed suicide using potassium cyanide. He was one of the psychiatrist used by the US Army to interview Nazi war criminals at Nuremberg and authored the book “22 Cells in Nuremberg."
(SSFC, 2/6/05, p.A17)
1958 Jan 1, Photographer Edward Weston (b.1886) died. A 1973 biography was titled "Edward Weston: Fifty Years." In 1998 his model Charis Wilson published "Through Another Lens: My Years with Edward Weston."
(SFEM, 6/30/96, p.23)(SFC, 5/18/98, p.D1)(SFC, 9/2/06, p.E3)
1959 Jan 1, Fidel Castro proclaimed the triumph of his revolution from the balcony of Santiago's city hall. Castro led Cuban revolutionaries to victory over Fulgencio Batista, who fled to the Dominican Republic. American mafia scrambled to secure their cash and close casinos ahead of crowds that took to the streets and trashed their businesses. In 2008 T.J. English Morrow authored “Havana Nocturne: How the Mob Owned Cuba …and Then Lost It to the Revolution."
(AP, 1/1/98)(SFC, 1/28/00, p.A14)(WSJ, 8/5/06, p.A9)(AP, 3/26/12)
1960 Jan 1, French Cameroun gained independence.
(PC, 1992, p.973)(EWH, 1st ed., p.1173)
1963 Jan 1, In Arizona Betty Smithey (20) murdered Sandy Gerberick, a 15-month-old girl she had been babysitting. Smithey was convicted and sentenced to prison for life without the possibility of parole. In 2012 she was granted parole by the Arizona Board of Executive Clemency.
(abcNews, 8/14/12)
1964 Jan 1, Fatah, the Palestinian guerrilla group founded by Yasser Arafat, made its 1st armed attack against Israel. The annual celebration of this day came to be known as Fatah Day.
(SFC, 1/2/01, p.A8)
1966 Jan 1, Simon & Garfunkel's "Sounds of Silence" reached #1.
(MC, 1/1/02)
1966 Jan 1, A 12 day transit worker strike shut down NYC subway and buses. The strike became a major rallying point behind the Taylor Law, which severely curtailed the ability of public employees in the state to strike and took effect on Sep 1, 1967.
(SSFC, 10/20/13, p.E2)
1966 Jan 1, By law all US cigarette packs began carrying the warning: "Caution! Cigarette smoking may be hazardous to your health."
(www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/1992/8/1992_8_72.shtml)
1966 Jan 1, The 173rd Airborne Brigade became the first American unit in the Mekong Delta of South Vietnam.
(AH, 2/06, p.14)
1967 Jan 1, Pope Paul VI announced his Apostolic Constitution (Indulgentiarum Doctrina). He also established this day as World Peace Day.
(http://tinyurl.com/ah8ck9)(SFC, 1/2/99, p.C12)
1968 Jan 1-1968 Dec 31, The year was marked by protest marches. In 1998 Tariq Ali and Susan Watkins published: "1968: Marching in the Streets." In 2004 Mark Kurlansky authored "1968: The Year That Rocked the World."
(SFC, 5/22/98, p.C12)(SSFC, 1/25/04, p.M1)
1969 Jan 1, President Nixon nominated Henry Cabot Lodge, former American ambassador to South Vietnam, as negotiator at the Paris Peace Talks.
(www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/vietnam/index-1969.html)
1970 Jan 1, Jimi Hendrix and his Band of Gypsies, Billy Cox and Buddy Miles, performed 4 shows on New Years Eve and Day at the Fillmore East in NYC. The recording "Band of Gypsies" was released in April. In 1999 a 2-disk CD, "Live at the Fillmore East" was released.
(WSJ, 4/16/99, p.W13C)
1970 Jan 1, Pres. Nixon signed the National Environmental Policy Act into law.
(WSJ, 2/25/97, p.A22)
1970 Jan 1, The Family Law Act took effect in California. It included no-fault divorce.
(SFC, 7/20/07, p.B12)(www.jstor.org/pss/351519)
1970 Jan 1, In SF Officer Eric Zelms was fatally shot when 2 burglars surprised him and gained control of his gun. The burglars were later convicted of murder and sentenced 8 to 10 years.
(SFC, 1/27/07, p.A8)
1971 Jan 1, The United States began a second decade of involvement in Vietnam.
(HN, 1/1/99)
1971 Jan 1, The US government ban on TV Cigarette ads went into effect.
(SFEC, 9/15/96, DB p.55)(AP, 4/1/98)
1972 Jan 1, "Promises Promises" closed at Shubert Theater NYC after 1281 performances.
(www.ibdb.com/production.asp?ID=3438)
1972 Jan 1, Maurice Chevalier (b.1888), French actor, singer and dancer, died in Paris. He sang “Thank Heaven for Little Girls" in the 1958 film “Gigi."
(SSFC, 8/8/04, Par p.2)(www.jimpoz.com)
1972 Jan 1, Kurt Waldheim (1918-2007) of Austria began serving as the UN Secretary-General. He continued until Jan 1, 1982.
(SFC, 12/14/96, p.A1)
1973 Jan 1, The European Economic Community (EEC), the forerunner to the EU, admitted Britain, Ireland and Denmark even though they made chocolate containing a small percentage of vegetable fat. Members as required handed away control of trade-deal negotiation.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_European_Union)(WSJ, 12/4/97, p.A22)(Econ, 7/16/16, p.47)
1974 Jan 1, The US government Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program, established by Congress in 1972, began providing new benefits for the aged, blind and disabled.
(SFEC, 1/5/97, Z1 p.5)(www.ssa.gov/OP_Home/cfr20/416/416-0110.htm)
1974 Jan 1 In Britain a 3-day work week went into effect following a power shortage caused by striking miners. 885,000 people registered as unemployed.
(Econ, 4/3/10, p.59)(http://tinyurl.com/y76xjwe)(Econ., 5/2/20, p.12)
1974 Jan 1, Nawab Akbar Shahbaz Khan Bugti (1927-2006), governor of Balochistan, Pakistan, resigned shortly after Bhutto launched an army operation in Balochistan. The army had deployed 100,000 men in Baluchistan and with the help of the Iranian air force killed large numbers of Baluchis.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nawab_Akbar_Bugti)
1975 Jan 1, The Watergate verdict was guilty when a jury convicted Richard Nixon's three top advisers on all counts in the Watergate coverup: former attorney general John Mitchell and White House aides Bob Haldeman and John Ehrlichman. "Watergate" became shorthand for the burglary of Democratic Party offices in Washington's Watergate office complex. The burglars were caught and found to have White House connections. Robert Mardian (1923-2006), attorney for the Committee to Re-elect the President (CREEP), was also convicted, but an appeals court in October, 1996, reversed his conviction.
(SFC, 7/21/06, p.B9)
1975 Jan 1, The Federal Hourly Minimum Wage rose to $2.10 an hour.
(www.dol.gov/esa/minwage/coverage.htm)
1975 Jan 1, On New Year's Day Communist troops launched an offensive which, in 117 days of the hardest fighting of the war, collapsed the Khmer Republic.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Cambodia)
1976 Jan 1, NBC replaced the peacock logo.
(www.classicthemes.com/50sTVThemes/themePages/nbcLivingColor.html)
1976 Jan 1, In California the Moscone Act, which relaxed marijuana laws, went into effect.
(www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/hemp/moscone/summary.htm)
1978 Jan 1, The US Federal Minimum Wage, set at $2.65 an hour in November 1977, became effective.
(http://bartlett.house.gov/Issues/Issue/?IssueID=2063)
1978 Jan 1, US copyright law of 2007 held that the rights to songs written before this date expire 75 years after they were published. US songs written after 1978 would hold their copyright for 50 years after the death of the songwriter.
(WSJ, 10/30/97, p.B1,11)(www.pdinfo.com/copyrt.htm)
1978 Jan 1, An Air India jet exploded in midair and killed 213 people near Bombay.
(WUD, 1994, p.1691)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_India_Flight_855)
1979 Jan 1, China and the United States held celebrations in Beijing and Washington to mark the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries. Deng Xiaoping arranged to visit the US. China standardized the spelling of people and place names using the Pinyin system. Peking thus became Beijing.
(SFC, 2/20/96, p.A4)(AP, 1/1/98)(SFC, 2/05/04, p.E8)
1979 Jan 1, UN Secretary General Kurt Waldheim signed a proclamation declaring 1979 as the International Year of the Child.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Year_of_the_Child)
1981 Jan 1, Children born from this day on were considered to be part of "Generation Y," as opposed to "Generation X," born between 1966 and 1979, which followed the baby boomers.
(WSJ, 4/16/98, p.A1)(Econ, 6/1/13, p.58)
1981 Jan 1, Roger Smith (b.1925) took office as chairman and CEO of GM.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)(http://tinyurl.com/2pvqps)
1981 Jan 1, Greece joined the European Union. It joined the Eurozone on Jan 1, 2001, allowing it to be among the first group of countries that issued euro banknotes on Jan 1, 2002.
(http://ec.europa.eu/economy_finance/euro/countries/greece_en.htm)
1982 Jan 1, Cecil Williams (b.1929), the pastor of San Francisco’s Glide Memorial Church, married Janice Mirikitani (b.1941). Both had children from previous marriages.
(SSFC, 12/6/09, p.A9)
1983 Jan 1, Pope John Paul II declared this year to be an extraordinary Holy Year to mark the 1,950th anniversary of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ in year 33.
(SFC, 12/24/99, p.A15)
1983 Jan 1, TCP/IP became the standard for Internet protocol.
(SFC, 8/30/99, p.C10)
1984 Jan 1, The break-up of AT&T took place as the telecommunications giant was divested of its 22 Bell System companies under terms of an antitrust agreement. 8 new companies were formed including US West.
(AP, 1/1/98)(SFEC, 8/16/98, p.A7)(www.corp.att.com/history/history4.html)
1985 Jan 1, The 1st US mandatory seat belt law went into effect in NY.
(www.nysgtsc.state.ny.us/seat-ndx.htm)
1985 Jan 1, In Florida the body of Tonya McKinley (23) was found in Pensacola. She had been strangled and sexually assaulted. In 2020 police arrested Daniel Wells (57) after using family tree DNA evidence.
(SFC, 3/20/20, p.A4)
1985 Jan 1, Mustafa Maarouf Saad (d.2002), Lebanese militia leader, lost his sight in a car explosion in front of his house in Sidon. His daughter (13) was killed and his wife lost one eye.
(SFC, 8/3/02, p.A18)
1986 Jan 1, Libyan leader Moammar Khadafy threatened to retaliate if attacked as the United States built its strength in the Mediterranean .
(HN, 1/1/99)
1987 Jan 1, Nicaragua’s Sandinista Constitution was promulgated. It provided the final step in the institutionalization of the Sandinista regime and the framework under which the Chamorro government would take office.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_of_Nicaragua)
1988 Jan 1, President Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev exchanged optimistic New Year's greetings, expressing mutual hope they would reach an arms control treaty on strategic weapons within six months.
(AP, 1/1/98)
1989 Jan 1, British PM Margaret Thatcher distanced herself from US vows to punish whoever bombed Pam Am Flight 103, saying in a TV interview that revenge "can affect innocent people."
(AP, 1/1/99)
1990 Jan 1, David Dinkins was sworn in as New York City's first black mayor.
(AP, 1/1/98)
1991 Jan 1, President Bush called top advisers to the White House for a fresh assessment of the Persian Gulf crisis.
(AP, 1/1/01)
1992 Jan 1, President Bush became the first American leader to address the Australian Parliament, telling lawmakers the United States would continue to subsidize its agricultural exports, despite protests by Australia's farmers.
(AP, 1/1/02)
1992 Jan 1, Altaf Hussain (b.1953), leader of Pakistan’s MQM party, fled to Saudi Arabia and after a month to London. PM Nawaz Sharif soon deployed the army to Karachi for a massive anti-MQM operation and the city descended into an undeclared civil war.
(WSJ, 12/5/07, p.A22)(www.elections.com.pk/candidatedetails.php?id=6881)
1992 Jan 1, Boutros Boutros-Ghali succeeded Javier Perez de Cuellar as secretary-general of the United Nations.
(AP, 1/1/02)
1993 Jan 1, President Bush continued to tour Somalia, greeting hundreds of cheering youngsters and foreign relief workers at an orphanage in Baidoa.
(AP, 1/1/98)
1993 Jan 1, Czechoslovakia peacefully split into two new countries, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The Slovak people never voted on the 1993 split with the Czechs. When the country split, all citizens were deemed to be either Czech or Slovak, based on their parentage. The vast majority of the Romany living in the Czech Republic are of Slovak descent, and they had to apply for Czech citizenship. Vladimir Meciar (b.1942) became the premier of Slovakia and Vaclav Klaus the premier of the Czech Rep.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladim%C3%ADr_Me%C4%8Diar)(AP, 9/21/02)(WSJ, 4/26/96, p.A-1)(SFC, 5/13/96, p.A-8)(AP, 1/1/98)
1994 Jan 1, The North American Free Trade Agreement went into effect. Under the system a complaint is referred to a panel of experts who debate it and render a decision. The losing nation must then change its practices or offer compensation to the injured nations. Members who refuse to comply can be subjected to trade retaliation, such as tariffs to their exports. It was run out of Geneva by Renato "Rocky" Ruggiero. GATT gave poorer countries 10 years to strengthen their drug-patent laws and a similar period for the US to lift its textile quotas. The World Trade Organization (WTO), founded as the successor to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), a relatively weak regulator of int’l. trade, was a product of the Uruguay Round of negotiations (1986-1994). In 2000 John R. MacArthur authored "The Selling of "Free Trade:" NAFTA, Washington, and the Subversion of American Democracy." In 2004 David Bacon authored "The Children NAFTA: Labor Wars on the US/Mexico Border.
(SFC, 10/17/96, A9)(WSJ, 12/3/96, p.A1)(WSJ, 12/13/96, p.A1)(AP, 1/1/98) (SFC, 11/24/99, p.A1)(SFEC, 7/2/00, BR p.3)(SSFC, 4/4/04, p.M2)
1994 Jan 1, The California tax on gasoline was raised to 18 cents per gallon.
(www.ncseonline.org/NLE/CRSreports/Transportation/trans-24.cfm)
1994 Jan 1, Actor Cesar Romero died in Santa Monica, Calif., at age 86.
(AP, 1/1/99)
1994 Jan 1, In Mexico some 2,000 Zapatista guerrillas under the leadership of Subcommander Marcos rose up against the government in the state of Chiapas. The Zapatista National Liberation Army launched a rebellion to press for better living conditions for Indian peasants in Chiapas.
(SFC, 7/2/96, p.A8)(SFC,12/18/97, p.C2)(AP, 1/1/99)
1994 Jan 1, Botswana, Germany, Italy, Honduras, and Indonesia joined the Security Council.
(SFC, 1/1/97, p.C1)
1995 Jan 1, Gary Larson's "Far Side" cartoon panel ended a 14-year run.
(SSFC, 11/16/03, BR p.17)
1995 Jan 1, Eugene Wigner (92), physicist (Nobel prize for physics-1963), died.
(http://nobelprize.org/physics/laureates/1963/wigner-bio.html)
1995 Jan 1, Austria, Finland and Sweden joined the European Union. Sweden held their elections to the parliament later that year on 17 September. Austria held its elections on 13 October, 1996 and Finland on 20 October, 1996.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_European_Union)(Econ, 5/1/04, p.26)
1995 Jan 1, In Bosnia a four month truce between the Bosnian Serbs and the Bosnian government was brokered by former Pres. Jimmy Carter.
(WSJ, 6/11/96, p.A14)(SFC,10/16/97, p.A12)
1995 Jan 1, Fernando Henrique Cardoso took office as Brazil's 37th president. He pushed up interest rates to 25% and stabilized the economy.
(WSJ, 12/15/95, p.A-13)(AP, 1/1/00)
1995 Jan 1, Fred West hanged himself in his London prison while awaiting trial in the murders of a dozen girls and women. The victims included his wife's 16-year-old daughter and 8-year-old stepdaughter and several young runaways.
(AP, 1/13/04)
1995 Jan 1, Chile, Egypt, Guinea-Bissau, Poland and South Korea joined the non-permanent sector of the Security Council.
(SFC, 1/1/97, p.C1)
1995 Jan 1, The Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe (CSCE), formed in 1973, was renamed the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).
(http://tinyurl.com/4wq42s)
1995 Jan 1, Teburoro Tito, the incoming president of Kiribati, moved the International Date Line a thousand miles east around Kiribati to allow all of its 33 atolls to be line the same time zone. Thus the atoll of Kirimati never experienced Dec 31, 1994.
(SSFC, 12/17/06, p.G5)
1996 Jan 1, In the US it became illegal to manufacture or import freon, a refrigerant for car air-conditioners, due to its effect on the ozone.
(SFC, 8/13/96, p.A2)
1996 Jan 1, Bayer Corp. added Betty Rubble to its mix of Flintstone vitamins.
(http://tv.groups.yahoo.com/group/tvbarn/message/127)
1996 Jan 1, Retired US Admiral Arleigh Burke, remembered for his World War II heroics, died at Bethesda Naval Hospital at age 94.
(AP, 1/1/01)
1996 Jan 1, Arthur Rudolph (89), German-US rocket Engineer, died. His final years were marked by his forced return to his native Germany from the US because of his earlier involvement with the slave labor that powered the Third Reich's V1 & V2 rocket programs.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Rudolph)
1996 Jan 1, Some 100,000 Bangladeshi women rallied to protest Islamic clerics’ attacks on female education and employment.
(AP, 1/1/01)
1996 Jan 1, A 7.0 earthquake struck offshore near the Indonesian Island of Sulawesi. Seismologist in Japan and Hong Kong measured it at 7.7. A tidal wave killed eight after the quake.
(WSJ, 1/2/96, p. A-1)(WSJ, 1/3/96, p.A-1)
1996 Jan 1, Two buses collided in northern Mexico, killing 25 people.
(AP, 1/1/01)
1997 Jan 1, The new members of the UN security council, Japan, Kenya, Sweden, Costa Rica and Portugal, took their seats.
(SFC, 1/1/97, p.C1)
1997 Jan 1, Kofi Annan assumed the title of United Nations secretary-general.
(AP, 1/1/98)
1997 Jan 1, As of this date the US withdrew completely from the UN Industrial Development Organization.
(SFC, 2/17/97, p.A14)
1997 Jan 1, The line-item veto became officially available to Pres. Clinton.
(SFC, 1/2/97, p.A20)
1997 Jan 1, Townes Van Zandt (1944-1997) Texas songwriter, died. His work included the 1983 song "Pancho and Lefty," sung by Merle Haggard and Willie Nelson.
(SFC, 1/3/97, p.A26)(SFC, 1/4/97, p.E1)(WSJ, 6/25/03, p.D8)
1997 Jan 1, In San Francisco Gar Trupelli and his wife Lara reopened the Beach Chalet as the Beach Chalet Brewery and Restaurant.
(SSFC, 4/2/17, p.A2)
1997 Jan 1, The EU introduced the Pan-European Cumulation System (PECS) to turn a latticework of bilateral trade rules into a single multilateral umbrella. It extended the system to include Turkey in 1999.
(Econ, 8/5/06, p.68)(www.foreigntrade.gov.tr/ab/ingilizce/panavrup.htm)
1997 Jan 1, An off-duty Israeli soldier, Noam Friedman, with a history of mental problems opened fire on a crowded vegetable market in Hebron, wounding 5 [7] people and touching off a stone-throwing demonstration by angry Palestinians.
(SFC, 1/1/97, p.A1)(AP, 1/1/98)
1997 Jan 1, In Mexico long-distance telephone competition began and ended a 49-year monopoly.
(SFC, 1/1/97, p.B3)
1998 Jan 1, The 109th Rose Bowl Parade in Pasadena was held and Univ. of Michigan beat Washington State 21-16, Florida State downed Ohio State 31-14 in the Sugar Bowl.
(SFC, 1/2/98, p.A1,22)(AP, 1/1/08)
1998 Jan 1, A new anti-smoking law went into effect in California, prohibiting people from lighting up in bars.
(AP, 1/1/99)
1998 Jan 1, Some 1-2 thousand Hutu rebels attacked a military base and near the main airport and 150 civilians, 30 rebels and 2 soldiers were reported killed. Later reports said as many as 300 were killed and that the army had sealed up the area.
(WSJ, 1/2/98, p.A1)(SFC, 1/2/98, p.A14)(SFC, 1/3/98, p.A8)
1998 Jan 1, In Brazil the new law making all Brazilian adults potential organ donors went into effect. New traffic laws also went into effect. It was reported that 50,000 people die annually from car accidents because drivers routinely ignore traffic laws.
(SFC, 1/7/98, p.A8)(SFEC, 2/1/98, p.T12)
1998 Jan 1, In Chechnya the president asked Shamil Basayev to form a government.
(WSJ, 1/2/98, p.A1)
1998 Jan 1, In Italy navy patrols intercepted a 2nd ship with 386 refugees, mostly Kurds,
(WSJ, 1/2/98, p.A1)
1998 Jan 1, Mongolia switched from a 46 hour to 40 hour work week.
(MC, 1/1/02)
1998 Jan 1, In Russia the government knocked 3 zeroes off the national currency. The old ruble notes will be exchangeable until 2002.
(SFC, 1/2/98, p.A15)
1999 Jan 1, Doris Haddock (d.2010), began walking from California more than 3,200 (5,150 km) miles across the United States. Fourteen months later, she (88) arrived in Washington DC to draw attention to the need for campaign finance reform.
(AP, 8/3/19)
1999 Jan 1, The Maastricht Treaty specified that a monetary union will be established by this date, and laid down several criteria that EU nations must fulfill in order to join. Some of the criteria included: maximum budget deficits of 3% of GDP, a cap on government debt of 60% of GDP. The European economic and monetary union (EMU) was scheduled to start with a new "Euro" currency. Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain made the transition. Public use was set for Jan 1, 2002. [see Jan 4]
(WSJ, 9/25/95, p.A-12)(WSJ, 12/5/95, p.A-14)(SFC, 11/16/96, p.A1)(SFC, 1/1/99, p.A8)
1999 Jan 1, When the euro was launched the US dollar-euro ($:€) exchange rate stood at $1.16:€1.
(www.econ.nyu.edu/user/frydmanr/Dollar_Euro_Exchange_Rate.pdf)
1999 Jan 1, In Canada an avalanche, possibly triggered ceremonial gunfire, hit the Inuit village of Kangiqsualujjuaq, Quebec, and 9 people were killed.
(SFC, 1/2/99, p.C12)(SFEC, 1/3/99, p.A17)
1999 Jan 1, Congo rebels massacred at least 500 civilians over the last 3 days. Six Red Cross workers were among the dead.
(WSJ, 1/6/98, p.A1)(WSJ, 1/11/98, p.A1)
1999 Jan 1, President Fidel Castro, marking 40 years as Cuba's leader, portrayed his socialist nation as a defender of humanity against rapacious capitalism.
(AP, 1/1/00)
1999 Jan 1, Weimar, Germany, began one year’s title as the European Union’s "city of culture."
(SFEC, 7/27/97, p.T1)
1999 Jan 1, In Mongolia new legislation liberated the news media.
(SFC, 1/2/99, p.C12)
1999 Jan 1, The UN designated Int'l. Year of Older Persons began.
(SFC, 1/16/99, p.A12)
2000 Jan 1, The Jewish calendar year was 5760 and the new year scheduled for Sep 30. The Hindu year was 1921. The Chinese year was 4697 with the new year on Feb 5. The Muslim lunar year was 1420 with the new year on Apr 6.
(SFC, 1/1/2000, p.A18)
2000 Jan 1, The arrival of 2000 saw no terrorist attacks, Y2K meltdowns or mass suicides among doomsday cults, but instead saw seven continents stepping joyously and peacefully into the New Year.
(AP, 1/1/01)
2000 Jan 1, Wisconsin beat Stanford, 17-to-9, to become the first Big Ten team to win consecutive Rose Bowls.
(SFEC, 1/2/00, p.A1)(AP, 1/1/01)
2000 Jan 1, Some 254 hours of Nixon White House tapes were to be made available for public duplication and sale under a 1996 agreement. Another 2,338 hours, mostly unrelated to Watergate, were to be released over the next few years.
(SFEC, 8/8/99, p.A3)
2000 Jan 1, In California the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act became law. It validated all transactions formed, transmitted and recorded electronically, with certain exemptions.
(SFEC, 1/2/00, p.B1)
2000 Jan 1, The $1.25 billion ($400 million) Millennium Dome at Greenwich, designed by Lord Richard Rogers, was built to inaugurate the millennium and provide an exhibition space for one year. The monograph "Richard Rogers; Complete Works, Volume One" was published in late 1999. The cable-stayed dome was suspended from 12 projecting masts. It failed expectations, but was reincarnated in 2007 as The O2, an all-purpose entertainment center.
(SFC, 2/1/99, p.A6,8)(SFEM, 1/2/00, p.12)(Econ, 6/23/07, p.64)
2000 Jan 1, In England the Cezanne painting "Auvers-Sur-Oise," valued at $4.8 million, was stolen from the Ashmoleum Museum in Oxford.
(SFEC, 1/2/00, p.A2)
2000 Jan 1, In southwestern France Robert Lund reported that his wife, Evelyn (52), was missing from their home. He told investigators he believed she had an accident after drinking heavily and setting off to visit friends. Her body was found inside her car in Lake Bancalie in 2002. Lund was sentenced to 12 years in jail in 2007 for the involuntary homicide of his wife. Lund insisted he was innocent as his third trial in the case opened in 2011. On Dec 16, 2011, Lund was sentenced to 12 years in prison.
(AP, 12/12/11)(AFP, 12/16/11)
2000 Jan 1, On his first full day as acting president, Vladimir Putin assured Russians there would be no "vacuum of power" after Boris Yeltsin’s surprise resignation.
(AP, 1/1/01)
2001 Jan 1, No. 4 Washington beat No. 14 Purdue 34-to-24 in the Rose Bowl.
(AP, 1/1/02)
2001 Jan 1, It was announced that Tyson Foods Inc. would buy beef and pork giant IBP Inc. in a deal valued at $3.2 billion in cash and stock. Tyson later tried to back out, but IBP sued, and a judge ordered Tyson to complete the deal.
(AP, 1/1/02)
2001 Jan 1, Ray Walston (b.1914), film and TV actor (My Favorite Martian) died in Beverly Hills, Calif., at age 86.
(AP, 1/1/02)(NW, 12/31/01, p.106)
2001 Jan 1, In Canada new cigarette warning labels became effective. 16 rotating labels included such warnings as "Cigarettes cause mouth disease" with a photograph of blackened, bleeding gums.
(SFC, 1/3/01, p.A9)
2001 Jan 1, In Canada a new federal gun control measure went into effect. It called for the licensing and registration of all shotguns and hunting rifles.
(SFC, 1/5/01, p.A16)
2001 Jan 1, In Israel a car bomb wounded at least 40 people in Netanya and gunfire killed 4 Palestinians in the West Bank.
(SFC, 1/2/01, p.A1)
2001 Jan 1, In the Netherlands a fire in a Volendam café killed at least 8 people and injured some 200.
(SFC, 1/1/00, p.A12)(SFC, 1/2/01, p.A10)
2001 Jan 1, In Mexico rebels soon called for the closure all 7 military bases near rebel strongholds.
(SFC, 1/2/01, p.A9)
2001 Jan 1, Taiwan allowed Chinese merchants and tourists to sail to Kinmen Island, a move to decriminalize reality and a possible preparation for wider links.
(SFC, 12/28/00, p.C2)(SFC, 1/2/01, p.A9)
2001 Jan 1, A shipwreck off Turkey killed at least 6 people. The Georgian-flagged Pati cargo ship carried illegal immigrants and dozens were missing.
(SFC, 1/2/01, p.A10)
2002 Jan 1, No. 2 Oregon defeated No. 3 Colorado 38-16 in the Fiesta Bowl.
(AP, 1/1/03)
2002 Jan 1, Michael Bloomberg succeeded Rudolph Giuliani as New York City's mayor. Bloomberg began to aggressively pursue a controversial "stop and frisk" police strategy when he took over as mayor. In 2019 he reversed his support for the policy.
(AP, 1/1/03)(SFC, 11/18/19, p.A6)
2002 Jan 1, Pres. Bush announced that envoy Gen. Anthony Zinni would return to the Middle East to push for steps to renew peace talks.
(SFC, 1/2/02, p.A9)
2002 Jan 1, Eduardo Duhalde, a Peronist and former vice-president, was chosen as Argentina’s new president, the 5th in less than 2 weeks.
(SFC, 1/2/02, p.A1)
2002 Jan 1, Egyptian state television launched a new program directed at Israelis. It was planned to extend the 30 min show to 2 hours.
(SFC, 1/2/02, p.A9)
2002 Jan 1, In Europe 50 billion new euro coins and 14 billion new euro notes began circulating in 12 participating countries in the most ambitious currency changeover in history: Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Luxembourg, Spain, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands and Portugal.
(SFC, 1/2/02, p.A8)(AP, 1/1/03)
2002 Jan 1, Pakistan ordered the country’s military intelligence agency to cut off backing for Islamic militant groups fighting in Kashmir.
(SFC, 1/2/02, p.A3)
2003 Jan 1, Oklahoma romped past Washington State 34-14 in the Rose Bowl; Georgia defeated Florida State 26-13 in the Sugar Bowl; Notre Dame saw its sixth straight bowl loss, losing to North Carolina State 28-6 in the Gator Bowl.
(AP, 1/1/04)
2003 Jan 1, More than two dozen surgeons stopped working in West Virginia to protest the high cost of malpractice insurance.
(AP, 1/1/04)
2003 Jan 1, U.S. and British warplanes attacked an Iraqi mobile radar system after it entered the southern no-fly zone.
(AP, 1/1/03)
2003 Jan 1, Joe Foss (87), former South Dakota Gov. and World War II hero who also served as president of the National Rifle Association and commissioner of the American Football League, died at an Arizona hospital.
(AP, 1/1/04)
2003 Jan 1, In Bosnia the EU hoisted its dark blue banner to officially mark the transfer of peacekeeping duties from the United Nations, while NATO-led troops handed over control of Sarajevo's airport to Bosnian authorities.
(AP, 1/1/03)
2003 Jan 1, Brazil's first elected leftist president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, took office. Gilberto Gill (60), musician, became minister of culture.
(SFC, 1/2/03, p.A3)(AP, 1/1/04)
2003 Jan 1, In Canada a new gun law came into effect that required the registration of all rifles and shotguns.
(AP, 1/2/03)
2003 Jan 1, In Gaza 3 Palestinian boys were shot and killed by soldiers after scaling a fence around Jewish settlements. Thousands of Palestinians marched in the West Bank and Gaza Strip to mark the 38th anniversary of the founding of Arafat's Fatah movement.
(AP, 1/2/03)(SFC, 1/2/03, p.A5)
2003 Jan 1, Dumitru Tinu (62), a leading Romanian journalist who covered the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia and steered his newspaper along independent lines after communism ended, died in a car accident.
(AP, 1/1/03)
2004 Jan 1, The University of Southern California defeated the University of Michigan, 28-14, in the Rose Bowl.
(AP, 1/1/05)
2004 Jan 1, The 1st US anti-spam law, the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003, went into effect. It made it illegal for advertisers to falsify their identity and required an effective way for recipients to get themselves removed from advertiser lists.
(SFC, 1/2/04, p.B1)
2004 Jan 1, A California ban on the gasoline additive MTBE went into effect. Ethanol became the new additive of choice, even though it could increase air pollution.
(AP, 12/31/04)
2004 Jan 1, Houston's $324 million, 7.5 mile, light rail system made its inaugural trips.
(AP, 1/2/04)(WSJ, 1/22/04, p.A1)
2004 Jan 1, The US Navy seized a 4th drug-smuggling vessel in the Persian Gulf with about 2,800 pounds of hashish. Street value was estimated at $11 million.
(AP, 1/2/04)
2004 Jan 1, Afghanistan's constitutional convention came off the rails, as panicked officials adjourned the gathering in the face of a boycott by opponents of President Hamid Karzai. Tajik and Uzbek delegates mounted a boycott demanding that minority rights be guarded.
(AP, 1/1/04)(WSJ, 1/2/04, p.A1)
2004 Jan 1, Brazil began fingerprinting and photographing American visitors in retaliation to similar new US procedures.
(WSJ, 12/31/03, p.A1)
2004 Jan 1, China began running the world's 1st commercially operated maglev train in Shanghai. The German-built system spanned 18 miles.
(SFC, 1/10/04, p.E4)
2004 Jan 1, In Colombia Luis Eduardo Garzon took the helm as the first leftist mayor of Bogota.
(AP, 1/2/04)
2004 Jan 1, Jiri Loewy (73), a Czech journalist who campaigned against communism from exile, died in Germany.
(AP, 1/3/04)
2004 Jan 1, President Jean-Bertrand Aristide pledged to improve life for his impoverished nation as police blocked thousands of anti-government demonstrators during celebrations marking Haiti's 200th anniversary of independence from France. More than 15,000 Aristide supporters rallied outside the National Palace as more than 5,000 government opponents massed in the capital's streets and faced off with police and government partisans.
(AP, 1/1/04)(AP, 1/2/04)
2004 Jan 1, Pres. Thabo Mbeki of South Africa joined Pres. Aristide for Haiti’s independence celebrations.
(WPR, 3/04, p.29)
2004 Jan 1, Iranian officials welcomed America's temporary lifting of sanctions against the Persian state following the country's earthquake, and the foreign minister said the embargo should end permanently.
(AP, 1/1/04)
2004 Jan 1, Pakistan's Pervez Musharraf won a vote of confidence that supporters hailed as the final step on the general's journey from dictator to democrat. Opponents derided the proceedings, which will keep the Pakistani leader in power as president until 2007.
(AP, 1/1/04)
2004 Jan 1, A Pakistani airline flew from Lahore to New Delhi and back, re-establishing a commercial link that was cut by a war scare in 2002.
(WSJ, 1/2/04, p.A1)
2004 Jan 1, North Korea confirmed that it would allow a U.S. delegation to visit its main nuclear complex next week, the first such inspection since the isolated communist country expelled UN monitors more than a year ago.
(AP, 1/2/04)
2004 Jan 1, In South Africa a minibus full of British and Canadian tourists headed to a scenic mountain area crashed, killing eight Britons and the pedestrian.
(AP, 1/1/04)
2004 Jan 1, In Taiwan tens of thousands of protesters marched peacefully to push for full democracy in this former British colony.
(AP, 1/1/04)
2005 Jan 1, Europe’s 7,000 listed companies adopted int’l. financial reporting standards (IFRS), replacing the mishmash of 25 local accounting regimes with one set of rules. Over 90 countries began switching to a new int’l. accounting standards.
(WSJ, 12/9/04, p.C1)(Econ, 6/18/05, p.73)
2005 Jan 1, A new California law took effect giving gay couples who register as domestic partners nearly the same responsibilities and benefits as married spouses.
(AP, 1/1/05)
2005 Jan 1, Shirley Chisholm (80), advocate for minority rights, died. She became the first black woman elected to Congress and later the first black person to seek a major party's nomination for the US presidency.
(AP, 1/3/05)
2005 Jan 1, Robert Matsui (63), 13-term California Democratic congressman, died. On April 13 US Representatives voted to name the federal courthouse in Sacramento in his honor.
(SFC, 1/3/05, p.A1)(SFC, 4/14/05, p.B3)
2005 Jan 1, Australia’s free trade agreement with the US became effective.
(Econ, 5/7/05, Survey p.10)
2005 Jan 1, The British Freedom of Information Act of 2000 went into effect. It gave a general right of access to all types of recorded information held by public authorities and places obligations on public authorities to disclose information, subject to a range of exemptions.
(Econ, 12/23/06, p.84)(www.bl.uk/about/policies/freedom.html)
2005 Jan 1, The 1974 Multi-Fiber Arrangement (MFA), which had restricted Chinese textile exports, ended. This forced Cambodia to face fierce competition from rival exporters. This led to the loss of some 30,000 jobs in Mauritius.
(www.ers.usda.gov/AmberWaves/February06/Features/feature2.htm)(Econ, 2/19/05, p.42)(Econ, 10/18/08, p.58)
2005 Jan 1, A deal to eliminate import tariffs between Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda came into force, marking the first major step toward integrating the East African nations into a single economic and investment block.
(AP, 1/1/05)
2005 Jan 1, Indonesia was forecast for 4.8% annual GDP growth with a population at 227.1 million and GDP per head at $1,230.
(Econ, 1/8/05, p.91)
2005 Jan 1, In Indonesia desperate, homeless villagers on the tsunami-ravaged island of Sumatra mobbed American helicopters carrying aid as the U.S. military launched its largest operation in the region since the Vietnam War.
(AP, 1/1/06)
2005 Jan 1, Al-Qaida's arm in Iraq released a video showing its militants lining up five captured Iraqi security officers and executing them in the street.
(AP, 1/1/05)
2005 Jan 1, Ireland's 2nd city of Cork became the European capital of culture for 2005, offering up a program of theatre, music, art, literature as well as sporting and other events.
(AFP, 1/1/05)
2005 Jan 1, Jamaica's embattled police commissioner Francis Forbes resigned following record number of homicides in 2004. The island nation of 2.6 million people, reported a record 1,145 homicides for 2004, compared with 975 the year before.
(AP, 1/2/05)
2005 Jan 1, Japan pledged up to $500 million in grant aid for tsunami disaster relief.
(AP, 1/1/05)
2005 Jan 1, Japan’s currency opened at 102.41 yen to the dollar. Rising oil prices pushed it down in April to 108.91 to the dollar.
(WSJ, 4/7/05, p.C16)
2005 Jan 1, In Norway a new law went into effect to allow foreign hunters to hunt seals. The legislation raised the seal kill quota to 2,000.
(SFC, 11/27/04, p.A10)
2005 Jan 1, In southern Peru Antauro Humala, retired army major, led a nationalist group that seized a police station ambushed a police vehicle responding to the scene, killing four officers and two reservists. Antauro Humala was later sentenced to 25 years in prison. In 2011 his sentence was reduced to 19 years. Antauro’s brother, Ollanta, was elected president in 2006.
(AP, 1/2/05)(Econ, 1/8/05, p.38)(AP, 9/7/11)
2005 Jan 1, Romania enacted a law forbidding int’l. adoptions except to biological grandparents in an effort to help it win EU membership.
(WSJ, 1/3/05, p.A1)
2005 Jan 1, In Saudi Arabia 2 men, a Pakistani and an Iraqi, were beheaded for smuggling in drugs.
(AP, 1/1/05)
2005 Jan 1, A new Swiss law took effect that legalized the production of absinthe.
(SFC, 11/4/04, p.A2)
2005 Jan 1, Taiwan was forecast for 4.8% annual GDP growth with a population at 22.9 million and GDP per head at $14,560.
(Econ, 1/8/05, p.92)
2005 Jan 1, Taiwan’s Statement of Financial Standards No. 35 took effect.
(WSJ, 4/6/05, p.C18)
2005 Jan 1, The New (yeni) Turkish Lira (YTL), will begin circulating, wiping out six zeroes from the current money. The old lira will keep circulating until Dec 31.
(AP, 9/23/04)(Econ, 8/28/04, p.67)(SSFC, 12/5/04, p.F2)
2005 Jan 1, Uganda President Yoweri Museveni said the army will resume all-out war on rebels in northern Uganda, charging that the insurgents rejected a cease-fire deal that had been expected to open the way for political talks on ending the 18-year civil war.
(AP, 1/1/05)
2006 Jan 1, President Bush strongly defended his domestic spying program, calling it legal as well as vital to thwarting terrorist attacks.
(AP, 1/1/07)
2006 Dec 31, The US Medicare prescription drug plan went into effect.
(AP, 1/1/07)
2006 Dec 31, American teenager Farris Hassan, who'd traveled alone to Iraq to experience the lives of its people, returned home to Florida after three weeks in the Middle East.
(AP, 1/1/07)
2006 Jan 1, The California Energy Commission introduced mandatory standby requirement for various electronic devices.
(Econ, 3/11/06, Survey p.34)
2006 Jan 1, A family of 4 was found murdered in Richmond, Va. [see Jan 7]
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_Richmond_spree_murders)(SSFC, 1/8/06, p.A3)
2006 Jan 1, Raging bushfires have destroyed at least 10 homes and threatened scores more in southeast Australia as a scorching heat wave hit Sydney with its hottest New Year's Day on record.
(AFP, 1/1/06)
2006 Jan 1, Ketamine, an anesthetic and niche club drug, was labeled a Class C drug in the United Kingdom. It was developed by Parke-Davis in 1962 as part of an effort to find a safer anesthetic alternative to phencyclidine (PCP), which was likely to cause hallucinations, neurotoxicity and seizures. By the end of 2011 its usage had doubled.
(Econ, 11/19/11, p.59)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ketamine)
2006 Jan 1, The Royal Mail's 350-year-long monopoly of the letter-delivery business in Britain ended, as new rules kicked in to allow rival operators to win a slice of the market.
(AP, 6/29/07)
2006 Jan 1, Toronto wrapped up 2005 with 78 homicides, 52 of them gun-related.
(CP, 1/2/06)
2006 Jan 1, The Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) failed to start due to legal and regulatory reforms. Juan Carlos Paiz of the Guatemalan Union of Nontraditional Products blamed the US in large part for the delay, saying Washington was requiring too much of its poorer partners. The 6 participating nations included, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala and Nicaragua,
(AP, 1/1/06)
2006 Jan 1, In China a new policy took effect that allowed listed companies to grant stock options to senior executives and certain employees as incentives.
(WSJ, 1/6/06, p.A8)
2005 Jan 1, Denmark’s PM Anders Fogh Rasmussen, in response to cartoons published by Jyllands-Posten depicting the prophet Muhammad, condemned in his new year’s speech any attempt to demonize groups of people on the basis of religion or ethnic background.
(Econ, 1/7/06, p.44)
2006 Jan 1, East African leaders said that millions of people in the region faced hunger because poor rains had affected vital crops and pasture. Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and Tanzania faced acute food shortages.
(AP, 1/1/06)
2006 Jan 1, In Haiti 2 kidnapped American journalists, who said their captors threatened to kill them, were freed after friends and family assembled a ransom for their release.
(AP, 1/1/06)
2006 Jan 1, Officials said a cold snap sweeping northern India has killed another five homeless people, taking the toll to 101 since the start of December.
(AFP, 1/1/06)
2006 Jan 1, An Islamic militant group kidnapped nine Iranian soldiers near that country's border with Pakistan. On Jan 4 Al-Arabiya said the group threatened to kill them unless the Tehran government released 16 members from prison.
(AP, 1/4/06)
2006 Jan 1, Insurgents exploded 13 car bombs across Iraq, including eight in Baghdad within a three-hour span, but the New Year's Day onslaught killed no one and injured only 20 people.
(AP, 1/1/06)
2006 Jan 1, Subcomandante Marcos (b.1957), identified by the Mexican government as Rafael Guillen, began a tour of 31 Mexican states under the name “Delegate Zero." The leader of Mexico's Zapatista rebels, wearing a ski mask to protect his identity, railed against the government and free trade to kick off a six-month tour of Mexico aimed at reshaping the nation's politics.
(WSJ, 1/5/06, p.A12)(AP, 1/2/06)
2006 Jan 1, Norway passed legislation requiring every publicly traded company in Norway to have 40% women on its board by Jan 1 2008.
(www.nytimes.com/2006/01/12/international/europe/12oslo.html)
2006 Jan 1, A coalition of thousands of Islamic schools vowed to resist a Pakistani government plan to deport their foreign students, calling the proposal immoral.
(AP, 1/1/06)
2006 Jan 1, Palestinian security forces stormed a building where an Italian hostage was being held, freeing the man after a shootout with his kidnappers.
(AP, 1/1/06)
2006 Jan 1, Russia took over the annual presidency of the G8 club of industrialized democracies for the first time from Britain on New Year's Day.
(AP, 1/1/06)
2006 Jan 1, Russia's natural gas monopoly halted sales to Ukraine in a price dispute and began reducing pressure in transmission lines that also carry substantial supplies to western Europe. Supplies of natural gas to Poland have been hit by cuts imposed by Russia on the amount of gas entering the pipeline system in neighbouring Ukraine.
(Reuters, 1/1/06)(AFP, 1/1/06)
2006 Jan 1, Spanish smokers faced a wrenching change New Year's Day as a nationwide ban on tobacco in the workplace came into force in a country known for its smoky bars.
(AP, 1/1/06)
2006 Jan 1, In Venezuela 32 privately operated oil fields returned to state control. A 2001 hydrocarbons law had required oil production to be carried out by companies majority-owned by the government.
(WSJ, 1/3/06, p.A14)
2006 Jan 1, In northern Yemen tribesmen kidnapped five Italians, a day after the government negotiated the release of five Germans held hostage. Tribesmen soon freed three Italian women, who were among a group of five Italian tourists, and pressed for the release of kinsmen held by the authorities.
(Reuters, 1/1/06)
2007 Jan 1, The 9th-ranked Boise State Broncos completed a perfect season with a 43-42 overtime victory over No. 7 Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl. Southern California beat Michigan 32-18 in the Rose Bowl.
(AP, 1/1/07)
2007 Jan 1, In SF the minimum wage rose 3.6% to $9.14 per hour following a mandatory 2003 requirement for annual cost of living adjustments. SF police reported a decline in homicides to 85 in 2006, down from 96 in 2005.
(SFC, 1/2/07, p.E1)
2007 Jan 1, In Washington DC a smoking ban passed in 2005 was extended to bars and nightclubs. The ban for smoking in restaurants and offices had taken effect in April 2006.
(SFC, 1/2/07, p.A3)
2007 Jan 1, In Denver, Colorado, Broncos football player Darrent Williams was killed in a drive-by shooting in the early morning and two people with him were injured. On October 8, 2008, Willie D. Clark (25) was indicted for the murder.
(Reuters, 1/1/07)(AP, 10/9/08)
2007 Jan 1, Tillie Olsen (94), writer and SF labor activist, died. In 1961 she won the O. Henry Award for best short story for her "Tell me Riddle." In 2008 Ann Hershey (1938-2018) completed her documentary "Tillie Olsen: A Heart in Action."
(SFC, 1/10/08, p.E1)(SSFC, 4/15/18, p.C10)
2007 Jan 1, Grand Ole Opry star Del Reeves died at age 74.
(AP, 1/1/08)
2007 Jan 1, The government of President Evo Morales approved a decree requiring US citizens to obtain visas to enter Bolivia. Morales said the decree was "a matter of reciprocity." The US government requires Bolivians to obtain visas to enter the United States.
(AP, 1/1/07)
2007 Jan 1, In Brazil Sergio Cabral took office as governor of the state of Rio de Janeiro. The state’s economy was valued at around $130 billion, about the same as that of Venezuela.
(Econ, 1/20/07, p.50)
2007 Jan 1, Bulgaria and Romania joined the EU. Some 30,000 Israelis gained EU citizenship due to their dual registration in Romania.
(WSJ, 10/4/07, p.A11)(AP, 1/1/07)
2007 Jan 1, China’s government began requiring all companies listed on the Shenzhen and Shanghai stock markets to prepare their accounts according to Int’l. Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). The initial decision had been made in Nov 2005. New rules came into effect that allowed foreign reporters to go more or less where they pleased.
(Econ, 1/13/07, p.13, 63)(Econ, 1/20/07, p.18)
2007 Jan 1, Li Zhaoxing, China's foreign minister, signed a string of accords in Benin as part of a whistle-stop tour of seven African nations as Beijing bolsters economic ties on the continent. From Benin Li flew to Equatorial Guinea ahead of visits in the coming days to Guinea-Bissau, Chad, the Central African Republic, Eritrea and Botswana.
(AFP, 1/2/07)
2007 Jan 1, In Germany a government plan to encourage working couples to have children went into effect with benefits worth up to 25,200 euros (17,000 pounds).
(AP, 1/2/07)
2007 Jan 1, Hong Kong became a mostly smoke-free city as a ban on smoking in many public places went into effect.
(SFC, 1/1/07, p.A3)
2007 Jan 1, Flight KI-574, an Indonesian passenger plane carrying 102 people, disappeared in stormy weather off Sulawesi island. Rescue teams were sent to search in the area where the Boeing 737-400 sent out a distress signal. In 2008 investigators said the pilots had accidentally disconnecting the plane's autopilot. A speed boat capsized in poor weather off the coast of Borneo island, killing 15 people.
(AP, 1/1/07)(AP, 1/2/07)(AFP, 3/25/08)
2007 Jan 1, Iraqi authorities reported that 16,273 Iraqis, including 14,298 civilians, 1,348 police and 627 soldiers died violent deaths in 2006. Iraqi police reported finding the 40 handcuffed, blindfolded and bullet-riddled bodies in Baghdad. The US military killed six Iraqis during a raid on the offices of a prominent Sunni political figure, where American forces believed al-Qaida fighters had taken refuge. A US soldier was killed by a roadside bomb southwest of Baghdad. The blast wounded three others, including an interpreter, as they talked with local residents about sectarian violence.
(AP, 1/2/07)
2007 Jan 1, A photographer for the French news agency Agence France Presse was kidnapped in Gaza City just before sundown.
(AP, 1/1/07)
2007 Jan 1, Somali government troops backed by Ethiopian tanks and fighter jets captured the last major stronghold of a militant Islamic movement, while hundreds of Islamic fighters, many of them Arabs and South Asians, fled the town. PM Ali Mohamed Gedi set a 3-day deadline for gun collection.
(AP, 1/1/07)(SFC, 1/3/07, p.A3)
2007 Jan 1, South Korean diplomat Ban Ki-moon became the UN’s eighth secretary-general.
(AP, 1/1/07)
2007 Jan 1, Slovenia adopted the euro, becoming the 13th EU nation to use the single European currency. The transition to the euro included a 14-day period for dual use of the euro and Slovene tolar.
(WSJ, 12/30/06, p.A4)(AP, 1/1/07)
2008 Jan 1, The US and Guatemala formally ratified the Hague Abduction Convention.
(SFC, 5/15/12, p.A2)
2008 Jan 1, This marked the start of the International Year of the Potato as declared by the UN. The potato stood s the world’s 4th biggest food crop, after maize, wheat and rice.
(Econ, 3/1/08, p.18, 92)(SSFC, 10/5/08, p.A15)
2008 Jan 1, In Arizona new laws targeting employers who hire illegal immigrants took effect, with experts predicting the move may cost the state's economy billions of dollars in lost income and taxes.
(AP, 1/1/08)
2008 Jan 1, In California a batch of new state laws took effect including a 50-cent raise in the minimum wage to $8 per hour. AB1298 too effect. It expanded the state’s data-breach notification law to include unencrypted medical histories.
(SFC, 1/2/08, p.A1)(SFC, 1/4/08, p.C1)
2008 Jan 1, The Michigan Wolverines upset No. 9 Florida 41-35 in the Capital One Bowl to win their first bowl game since 2003. This one was special. Michigan's senior class won its first bowl game in four tries and Lloyd Carr ended his coaching career on a high note.
(AP, 1/1/08)
2008 Jan 1, In New Hampshire Dozens of gay and lesbian couples entered into civil unions in the early moments of New Year's Day as a new state law legalized the partnerships.
(AP, 1/1/08)
2008 Jan 1, By state law strip clubs in Texas began imposing a $5 surcharge, dubbed the “pole tax," providing the state with an estimated $40 million in annual revenue. Most of the proceeds were to go to programs supporting victims of sexual assault.
(Econ, 1/5/08, p.28)
2008 Jan 1, Across Afghanistan roadside bombs and military operations killed 19 people, including 14 Taliban fighters.
(AP, 1/1/08)(AP, 1/2/08)
2008 Jan 1, Bhutan election officials announced that the Himalayan nation will begin its transformation from an absolute monarchy to a democracy with several leaders fresh out of college at the helm. The size of the country's population is unknown. Estimates put it between 700,000 and 2.2 million.
(AP, 1/2/08)
2008 Jan 1, In Rio Piracicaba, Brazil, a jail fire killed eight inmates who could not be rescued because the guard had left with the keys.
(AP, 1/2/08)
2008 Jan 1, Britain defied a Russian order to close the regional offices of its cultural arm from New Year's day, but there was no evidence of Russian attempts to forcibly close British Council centers.
(Reuters, 1/1/08)
2008 Jan 1, China’s new Labor Contract Law (LCL) went into effect. The legislation aimed at strengthening the contractual rights of workers.
(Econ, 6/5/10, p.48)(www.pacificbridge.com/publication.asp?id=110)
2008 Jan 1, EU newcomers Cyprus and Malta adopted the euro, bringing to fifteen the number of countries using the currency with increasing clout over the slumping US dollar.
(AP, 1/1/08)
2008 Jan 1, Vandals torched 372 cars as France celebrated the New Year, down on the figure last year after a night the police described as "relatively calm."
(AP, 1/1/08)(Reuters, 1/1/08)
2008 Jan 1, Smokers took to lighting up on the sidewalks as a ban took effect across France , Germany and Lithuania, the latest European countries to say "no smoking." Across France smokers took advantage of a one-day grace period and savored their last cigarettes over morning coffee in cafes as a ban against lighting up in bars and restaurants took effect.
(AP, 1/1/08)(AFP, 1/1/08)
2008 Jan 1, In Ghana 2 US Navy sailors, Patrick Mack (22) of Warren, Mich., and Lonnie Davis Jr. (35) of Riverdale, Ga., were found dead in a hotel room in Accra. They were stationed aboard the USS Fort McHenry, which is on a 7-month voyage in the Gulf of Guinea.
(AP, 1/1/08)(AP, 1/3/08)
2008 Jan 1, In northern India 2 assailants with guns and grenades ambushed a police recruitment center in an attack that killed seven police officers and a civilian in Rampur, Uttar Pradesh state. In Bihar state suspected Maoist rebels shot dead four soldiers.
(AP, 1/1/08)
2008 Jan 1, Iraq began curbing its food ration system. By June it planned to end the program altogether for many of the country’s citizens. A suicide attacker detonated an explosives-rigged vest at a Shiite funeral in Baghdad, killing 36 people gathered to mourn the death of an Iraqi army officer killed in a car bombing. In Jalula the bodies of a Sunni policeman and four of his relatives were found hours after gunman abducted them from their home. Also in Diyala province, a Shiite man and his 16-year-old son where killed in a drive-by shooting as they stood outside their home.
(AP, 1/1/08)(AP, 1/2/08)(WSJ, 2/26/08, p.A5)
2008 Jan 1, In Kenya a mob torched a church sheltering hundreds of people fleeing election violence. Up to 50 ethnic Kikuyus were killed in the fire in the Assemblies of God Church in the Rift Valley city of Eldoret. The death toll from ethnic riots triggered by President Mwai Kibaki's disputed re-election soared to nearly 200.
(AP, 1/1/08)(Reuters, 1/1/08)(AP, 1/2/08)
2008 Jan 1, Libya took over the rotating presidency of the UN Security Council in a major step back to global respectability after decades as a pariah of the West.
(AP, 1/1/08)
2008 Jan 1, In Mexico import tariffs on maize, beans, sugar and milk were eliminated.
(Econ, 1/26/08, p.38)
2008 Jan 1, In Mongolia a government official said at least 11 people died and another 21 were hospitalized for drinking tainted vodka during New Year's Eve celebrations in Ulan Bator.
(AP, 1/1/08)
2008 Jan 1, In Nigeria armed men killed 13 people over New Year in Port Harcourt when they attacked two police stations and a hotel. The Niger Delta Vigilante Movement, led by Ateke Tom, claimed responsibility.
(AFP, 1/2/08)(SFC, 1/2/08, p.A3)
2008 Jan 1, Pakistan's election commission said that unrest following the killing of Benazir Bhutto would almost certainly force the postponement of Jan. 8 elections, despite opposition threats of street protests if the poll is delayed. Militants abducted four Pakistani paramilitary soldiers in a tribal area. Pakistani troops killed 25 militants close to the Afghan border in fighting following the abduction of four soldiers.
(AP, 1/1/08)(AFP, 1/1/07)(AP, 1/2/08)
2008 Jan 1, Gaza's ruling Hamas militant group launched a new crackdown on the rival Fatah movement, arresting dozens of activists and barring public gatherings after Fatah anniversary celebrations sparked deadly violence. Fighting stretched into a second day, leaving a total of eight dead and 60 wounded.
(AP, 1/1/08)
2008 Jan 1, Slovenia became the first of 12 newcomers to take over the rotating presidency of the EU Union, a big psychological boost to a nation that gained independence from the ruins of the former Yugoslavia 16 years ago.
(AP, 1/1/08)
2008 Jan 1, In Sri Lanka a gunman assassinated an opposition lawmaker and one other person at a New Year religious service near Colombo, and the lawmaker's party held the government responsible for his slaying.
(AP, 1/1/08)
2008 Jan 1, In Sudan an American diplomat and his driver were shot to death in Khartoum. John Granville (33), an official for the US Agency for International Development, was being driven home at about 4 a.m. when another vehicle cut off his car and opened fire before fleeing the scene. A group calling itself Ansar al-Tawhid later claimed responsibility for the murder. On Feb 9 Sudanese security forces arrested two suspects in the murder. On Sep 20 five Sudanese Islamists admitted in filmed statements their role in murdering Granville and his driver. They were formally charged on Feb 5, 2009. On June 24 four Islamists were sentenced to death. A 5th man was sentenced to 2 years in prison for providing a weapon.
(AP, 1/1/08)(AP, 1/2/08)(AFP, 1/5/08)(AP, 2/10/08)(AP, 9/21/08)(AP, 2/5/09)(AFP, 6/24/09)
2008 Jan 1, In Uzbekistan as of this day execution by firing squad will no longer be legal, and the maximum sentence will be life or long-term imprisonment. The reforms have been incorporated into new criminal code and were sanctioned by a presidential decree signed by Islam Karimov.
(http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40819)
2008 Jan 1, Venezuela launched a new currency with the new year, lopping off three zeros from denominations in a bid to simplify finances and boost confidence in a money that has been losing value due to high inflation.
(AP, 1/1/08)
2009 Jan 1, In the SF Bay Area a BART police officer shot Oscar Grant (22) on the platform of the Fruitvale BART Station in the early morning in the midst of a brawl between 2 young rival groups. Grant died later that morning at Highland Hospital. Witnesses said Grant was lying face down with his hands behind him when he was shot in the back by Officer Johannes Mehserle (27). On Dec 6 an attorney for the family filed a $25 million claim against BART. On Jan 13 Mehserle was arrested in Nevada and charged with homicide.
(SFC, 1/2/09, p.A1)(SSFC, 1/4/09, p.B1)(SFC, 1/7/09, p.A6)(SFC, 1/14/09, p.A1)
2009 Jan 1, Bank of America purchased Merrill Lynch to save it from bankruptcy. It was later revealed that the company had awarded $3.6 billion in bonuses to over 39,000 employees just before the acquisition by BofA. The bonuses included $121 million to four top executives.
(WSJ, 2/12/09, p.C3)(WSJ, 2/12/09, p.C3)
2009 Jan 1, Claiborne Pell (b.1918), former US Senator from Rhode Island (1660-1997), died. He was the chief sponsor of the 1965 law establishing the national Endowment for the Arts and the national Endowment for the Humanities. He also sponsored legislation creating the Basic Educational Opportunities Grants (1972), which provided direct aid to college students. The awards were renamed the Pell Grants in 1980.
(SFC, 1/2/09, p.B6)
2009 Jan 1, A suicide car bomb exploded near an Afghan and NATO military convoy in the western province of Herat and killed an Afghan policeman. 2 UN staff of the World Food Program and 4 others were kidnapped in Nimroz province by alleged Taliban militants. The 2 UN workers were freed on Jan 27.
(AP, 1/1/09)(AFP, 1/28/09)
2009 Jan 1, The IMF announced plans to lend Belarus $2.5 billion to help the country cope with the global economic crises.
(WSJ, 1/2/09), p.A5)
2009 Jan 1, The Czech Republic took over the six-month rotating presidency from EU heavyweight France. It will face the daunting task of implementing a $258 billion European economic stimulus package approved by EU leaders under the French presidency.
(AP, 12/31/08)
2009 Jan 1, In Germany thieves over the last 24 hours stole an estimated $250,000 in art work from the Fasanengalerie, a private art gallery in western Berlin.
(SFC, 1/3/09, p.A3)
2009 Jan 1, In India 3 bombs exploded in the restive northeast, killing at least five people and wounding 50, about an hour before the nation's top security official arrived in the area.
(AP, 1/1/09)
2009 Jan 1, The United States handed over control of the Green Zone and Saddam Hussein's presidential palace to Iraqi authorities in a ceremonial move described by the country's prime minister as a restoration of Iraq's sovereignty. British forces handed over control of Basra airport, its main military base in southern Iraq, to Iraqi officials in accordance with an agreement signed with Baghdad this week. A roadside bomb killed two Iraqi soldiers in the town of Jalula, 80 miles northeast of Baghdad. In Mosul a parked truck bomb killed three police officers trying to search it and wounded a bystander. In Kirkuk Iraqi and US troops killed three suspected al-Qaida gunmen during a raid. American soldiers shot and wounded a woman after she failed to heed warnings to stop near a Baghdad checkpoint recently targeted by suicide and car bombs.
(AP, 1/1/09)(AFP, 1/1/09)(AP, 1/3/09)
2009 Jan 1, Israel assassinated Nizar Rayan (52), a Hamas strongman, in its first assault on the top leadership of Gaza's rulers, escalating a crushing aerial offensive even as it declared it was ready to launch a ground invasion. The aerial strike also killed 12 other people including two of Rayan's four wives and four of his 12 children. Officials said more than 400 Gazans have been killed and some 1,700 have been wounded. The UN said the death toll included more than 60 civilians, 34 of them children. Three Israeli civilians and one soldier have also died in rocket attacks from Gaza.
(AP, 1/1/09)
2009 Jan 1, Vilnius, Lithuania, a city of about 550,000 people, opened the year sharing the EU Capital of Culture title with Austria’s Linz.
(SSFC, 7/22/07, p.G6)(www.culturelive.lt/en/european_capitals_of_culture)
2009 Jan 1, Mexican federal police captured two alleged hit men after the suspects threw a hand grenade at police and soldiers who cornered them at a house. Eight officers were wounded in the confrontation. In the western town of La Huerta, a shootout between rival families at a New Year's party left four dead, and a clash between soldiers and alleged drug traffickers in Chihuahua state reportedly killed three smugglers.
(AP, 1/2/09)
2009 Jan 1, In northwest Pakistan a suspected US missile strike by a drone aircraft destroyed a vehicle, killing at least three foreign militants. The US drone killed 2 Al-Qaida leaders from Kenya, Usama al-Kini and Sheikh Ahmed Salim Swedan. Pakistani authorities arrested Ustad Mohammed Yasir, a former Taliban spokesman, during a raid on his relatives' house in Peshawar near the Afghan border. Yasir had been previously arrested by Pakistan in 2005 and sent to Afghanistan where he was released in 2007 in exchange for a kidnapped Italian journalist.
(AP, 1/1/09)(AP, 1/3/09)(WSJ, 1/10/09, p.A6)
2009 Jan 1, Russia’s Pres. Medvedev signed a bell ending jury trials in cases involving treason, terror, armed revolt and sabotage. Instead, defendants will have to face three judges.
(WSJ, 1/2/09, p.A1)
2009 Jan 1, Russia cut off the gas to Ukraine after a contract dispute but increased supplies to other European states to try to reassure customers worried about possible disruption.
(Reuters, 1/1/09)
2009 Jan 1, Slovakia became the 16th European Union member state to adopt the euro. This day also marks 10 years since the euro was introduced.
(AP, 1/1/09)
2009 Jan 1, Somali pirates seized the Blue Star, an Egyptian cargo ship, and its 28 crewmembers. A Malaysian military helicopter saved an Indian tanker from being hijacked in the new year's first attacks by pirates in the dangerous Gulf of Aden. A crew of the French warship "PM L'Her" dispatch boat intercepted two speedboats carrying 8 Somali pirates as they were preparing to board a Panamanian cargo ship. The Blue Star and its crew of 28 were freed on March 5 after a ransom was dropped from a plane.
(AP, 1/1/09)(AP, 1/2/09)(AP, 3/5/09)
2009 Jan 1, Helen Suzman (91), South African anti-apartheid activist, died. She won international acclaim as one of the few white lawmakers to fight against the injustices of racist rule. Suzman, who was twice nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, fought a long and lonely battle in the South African parliament against government repression of the country's black majority and the imprisonment of Nelson Mandela.
(AP, 1/1/09)(Econ, 1/10/09, p.77)
2009 Jan 1, Sri Lanka said its forces have captured a key crossroads from Tamil Tiger rebels in the north and that it will seize the guerrillas' de facto capital within two days. The fighting killed 50 rebels and four soldiers. A roadside bomb blast blamed on the rebels killed two policemen on a foot patrol in the eastern region.
(AP, 1/1/09)
2010 Jan 1, About 15 New Hampshire gay couples braved the cold to exchange vows outside the Statehouse in Concord, as the state joined Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts and Vermont in allowing gay marriage.
(SFC, 1/1/10, p.A5)
2010 Jan 1, In the Rose Bowl at Pasadena Terrelle Pryor passed for a career-high 266 yards and two touchdowns, rushed for 72 more and threw a 17-yard scoring pass to DeVier Posey with 7:02 to play, leading the No. 8 Buckeyes to a 26-17 victory over No. 7 Oregon.
(AP, 1/2/10)
2010 Jan 1, Damon Martin (35) of Detroit was shot and killed in Hampton, Ga. Rap music producer Demetrius Lee Stewart (28), aka Shawnty Redd, was arrested for the murder.
(SSFC, 1/3/10, p.A11)(www.rashaentertainment.com/blog/?p=5350)
2010 Jan 1, In Florida a small group of young immigrants began a 1,500 march to Washington, DC, to urge Pres. Obama to issue a temporary reprieve from deportation for millions of young immigrants.
(SFC, 1/1/15, p.A11)
2010 Jan 1, In Afghanistan 5 civilians were killed when their vehicle hit a bomb on a main road in Bala Murghab district in the northern province of Badghis. At least 4 security guards for a road construction crew were killed when their vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb in the northern part of Khost province.
(AP, 1/1/10)
2010 Jan 1, It was reported that Australian researchers have cracked the genetic origin of the deadly cancer that is threatening to wipe out Tasmanian devils, raising hopes that the animal's future is safe.
(AFP, 1/1/10)
2010 Jan 1, In southwestern Bangladesh a speeding bus lost control and hit a tree before crashing into a canal, killing 18 people and injuring dozens.
(AP, 1/1/10)
2010 Jan 1, In Brazil a rain-loosened slab of hillside collapsed on 3 houses and an upscale lodge after New Year celebrations at a resort on the island of Ilha Grande near Rio de Janeiro, killing at least 26 people. On the mainland, a torrent of reddish mud cascaded into the Carioca slum in the nearby coastal city of Angra dos Reis, killing at least 18 people and reducing rickety shacks to rubble. 10 people died in Sao Paulo state. 3 people died in Minas Gerais as heavy rains triggered flooding and landslides. Nearly 80 other mudslides have been reported throughout the region in recent days. Together with flooding, they have killed at least 76 people.
(AP, 1/1/10)(AP, 1/2/10)(Reuters, 1/3/10)
2010 Jan 1, In Britain the VAT returned to 17.5% after 13 months in which it was reduced to 15% to help combat the economic downturn.
(Econ, 1/2/10, p.41)
2010 Jan 1, Chad's President Idriss Deby Itno called on rebel forces in the troubled central African nation to lay down their weapons, saying constant conflict was hindering development.
(AFP, 1/1/10)
2010 Jan 1, Chinese state media said authorities have shut down a dairy in Shanghai and arrested three of its executives after tests found some of its milk products were tainted with the same industrial chemical at the center of a milk safety scandal more than a year ago.
(AP, 1/1/10)
2010 Jan 1, A free-trade agreement between China and the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asia Nations (ASEAN) came into effect. The 6 richest members scrapped tariffs on 90% of goods. The 4 poorest (Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar) will not need to cut tariffs to the same level until 2015.
(SSFC, 1/3/10, p.A4)(Econ, 1/9/10, p.44)
2010 Jan 1, In Colombia a New year’s Eve dessert, distributed to the homeless in Bogota’s El Calvario neighborhood, contained ground glass and poison that caused one death and sickened 44 others. Air and ground assaults on two rebel camps killed 18 insurgents and captured 13, 112 miles south of Bogota. An attack by guerrillas a few hours earlier killed a soldier and a teenage girl at a boardinghouse 164 miles southwest of Bogota.
(AP, 1/1/10)
2010 Jan 1, A Congolese army officer said the Democratic Republic of Congo forces are to mount a new offensive against Rwandan Hutu rebels in the east of the country with the backing of UN troops.
(AP, 1/1/10)
2010 Jan 1, In the Czech Rep. liberalized drug laws went into effect. Those caught with small amounts of drugs intended for personal use faced only a fine.
(Econ, 8/28/10, p.44)
2010 Jan 1, In Denmark Muhudiin Mohamed Geele (29), a Somali man armed with an axe and suspected of links with al Qaeda, broke into the home of Kurt Westergaard (74), a Danish cartoonist, whose drawings of the Prophet Mohammad caused global Muslim outrage. The attacker, who was shot and wounded by police, was charged the next day with two counts of attempted murder. On Feb 3, 2011, Geele was convicted of terrorism. The next day he was sentenced to 9 years in prison to be followed by permanent expulsion.
(Reuters, 1/2/10)(AP, 2/3/11)(Reuters, 2/4/11)
2010 Jan 1, In Dubai a British woman (23) told police she had been raped the previous evening by a waiter at a 5-star hotel. Police arrested her after she revealed during questioning that she had drunk alcohol and had sex with her fiance, with whom she was on holiday.
(Econ, 1/16/10, p.48)
2010 Jan 1, In Germany a technical problem left card holders unable to use cash machines. It was caused by microchips in about a quarter of all cards in circulation being unable to cope with the changeover to 2010. On Jan 8 retailers announced that the problem was mostly corrected.
(AFP, 1/8/10)
2010 Jan 1, Thousands of Hong Kong residents marched to the Chinese government's liaison office demanding that Beijing grant full democracy to the semiautonomous financial hub.
(AP, 1/1/10)
2010 Jan 1, In Iran a shootout with drug smugglers in an eastern desert region left 11 policemen dead.
(AP, 1/3/10)
2010 Jan 1, In Iraq a US soldier died of injuries unrelated to combat.
(AP, 1/2/10)
2010 Jan 1, In Ireland a new law against blasphemy went into effect. It was already a criminal offense under the country’s 1937 constitution, but the language was too murky to make prosecutions feasible.
(SFC, 1/4/10, p.A2)
2010 Jan 1, In Japan a robber bored a hole through the wall of jewelry shop and walked off with about 200 luxury watches worth 300 million yen ($3.2 million) in Tokyo's upscale Ginza district. On Jan 7-8 three men and 3 women were arrested in Hong Kong in connection with the jewelry heist. Police suspect many of the watches were mailed from Japan to Hong Kong, with some then sent to mainland China.
(AP, 1/2/10)(AP, 1/9/10)
2010 Jan 1, Malaysia’s Islamic morality police arrested 52 unmarried couples for sexual misconduct following raids in hotel rooms on New Year’s Day. The detained couples were expected to be charged with khalwat (close proximity), and faced a maximum penalty of 2 years in prison and a fine.
(SFC, 1/5/10, p.A4)
2010 Jan 1, In Mexico gunmen killed Jesus Escalante, the chief police investigator in the northern state of Sinaloa, hours after he started investigating the kidnapping of Jose Luis Romero (40), a local radio journalist. Mexico opened the New Year with 69 murders in one day, including 26 in the border city of Ciudad Juarez. Mexico’s drug related killings for 2009 totaled over 6,500.
(AP, 1/2/10)(SFC, 1/12/10, p.A2)
2010 Jan 1, North Korea called for an end of hostile relations with the United States in a New Year's message and said it was committed to making the Korean peninsula nuclear-free through negotiations.
(AP, 1/1/10)
2010 Jan 1, In northwest Pakistan a suicide bomber set off an explosives-laden vehicle on a field during a volleyball tournament in Lakki Marwat city, killing 101 people and wounding more than 70. A suspected US missile struck a car carrying alleged militants in North Waziristan tribal region, killing 3 men. Karachi, the country's largest city, came to a virtual standstill after religious and political leaders called for a general strike to protest a Dec 28 bombing that killed 44 people and subsequent riots. A roadside bomb exploded near a car in the Bajur tribal region, killing an anti-Taliban tribal elder and five of his family members. A local Taliban commander and his four companions were killed in an exchange of fire with troops in Kolachi village, 25 km (16 miles) west of the northwestern town of Dera Ismail Khan.
(AP, 1/1/10)(AP, 1/2/10)(AFP, 1/3/10)
2010 Jan 1, In Peru a riot by about 500 inmates erupted New Year’s Eve at a northern prison and left two inmates dead. 6 guards were held hostage until negotiations got the prisoners to end their protest.
(AP, 1/1/10)
2010 Jan 1, The Russian government set a minimum price for vodka that more than doubles the cost of the cheapest vodka on the market in an effort to fight rampant alcoholism.
(AP, 1/1/10)
2010 Jan 1, Somali pirates hijacked a British-flagged cargo ship, the Asian Glory, with 25 crew including eight Bulgarians, 620 miles (1,000 km) east of Somalia. It was transporting cars from Singapore to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia. The Singaporean-flagged Pramoni, a chemical tanker with a crew of 24, was seized by pirates in the heavily defended Gulf of Aden. The ship was carrying fertilizer from the US to India. The Pramoni was released on Feb 26 after a ransom was delivered by parachute.
(AFP, 1/2/10)(AP, 1/2/10)(AP, 2/26/10)
2010 Jan 1, Spain took over the presidency of the EU, with PM Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero promising to work to end the continent's economic crisis.
(AP, 1/1/10)
2010 Jan 1, Ugandan troops killed Bok Abudema, a leader of the Lord's Resistance Army, effectively the number two of the brutal militia, in the Central African Republic.
(AFP, 1/2/10)
2011 Jan 1, The Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) launched on cable TV.
(SSFC, 12/26/10, Par p.4)
2011 Jan 1, A new policy in US Medicare became effective and began covering doctor costs for patient end-of-life counseling.
(SSFC, 12/26/10, p.A10)
2011 Jan 1, Rick Snyder, a former president of Gateway Computers, began his first term as governor of Michigan. The Republican faced a state deficit of up to $1.8 billion.
(Econ, 1/29/11, p.28)
2011 Jan 1, Republican Susana Martinez (51) was inaugurated as the first female governor of New Mexico.
(SSFC, 1/2/11, p.A10)
2011 Jan 1, Democrat Andrew Cuomo (53) was inaugurated the 56th governor of New York.
(SSFC, 1/2/11, p.A10)
2011 Jan 1, In Arkansas some 3,000 red-winged blackbirds died and fell from the sky over a 1-mile area of Beebe. The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission said that it began receiving reports about the dead birds about 11:30 p.m. the previous night.
(AP, 1/2/11)(AP, 1/2/11)(SFC, 1/4/11, p.A5)
2011 Jan 1, In Ohio sheriff’s deputy Suzanne Hopper (40) was shot dead as she tried to photograph a footprint at a trailer park in Enon. Michael Ferryman (57), the suspected shooter, died in a gunbattle with police.
(SSFC, 1/2/11, p.A10)(SFC, 1/3/11, p.A4)
2011 Jan 1, Queensland Treasurer Andrew Fraser told reporters in the flooded city of Bundaberg that the flood disaster was of biblical proportions. Days of driving rain last week swamped northeastern Australia, with around 200,000 people affected by floodwaters in an area larger than France and Germany combined.
(AP, 1/1/10)
2011 Jan 1, Brazil's first female president, Dilma Rousseff, took control of Latin America's biggest economy from outgoing popular leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in a triumphant handover ceremony. Rousseff called for an overhaul of the tax code in her inaugural speech before Congress.
(AFP, 1/1/10)(Reuters, 1/1/10)
2011 Jan 1, In CongoDRC at least 67 women were raped in South and North Kivu provinces, including a teen-ager and two pregnant women. On Jan 21 Congo arrested Lt. Colonel Kibibi Mutwara, a senior army commander accused of ordering the rapes in Fizi. The arrest followed the detention of 10 other soldiers earlier in the week. On July 22, 2011, a UN report said investigators found at least 47 women were subjected to rape and other sexual assaults from Dec. 31, 2010, to Jan. 1, 2011 in an isolated and mountainous area of North Kivu province.
(Reuters, 1/25/11)(AP, 7/22/11)
2011 Jan 1, In England rioting inmates caused heavy damage to Ford open prison, smashing windows and setting fires that engulfed buildings and spewed clouds of black smoke.
(AP, 1/1/10)
2011 Jan 1, In Egypt a powerful bomb, possibly from a suicide attacker, exploded in front of a Coptic Christian church in Alexandria as a crowd of worshippers emerged from a New Years Mass, killing at least 21 people and wounding nearly 80. The Gaza-based Army of Islam was later said to be behind the planning and execution of the attack. The attack sparked three days of Christian rioting in Cairo and several other cities.
(AP, 1/1/10)(Reuters, 1/4/11)(AP, 1/23/11)
2011 Jan 1, Estonia became the first former Soviet republic to join the euro, Europe’s common currency.
(SFC, 1/1/11, p.A2)
2011 Jan 1, The new European External Action Service (EEAS) came into being.
(Econ, 2/5/11, p.64)
2011 Jan 1, In Hungary a new media law went into effect the same day Hungary took over the rotating EU presidency from Belgium. The law greatly expanded the state's power to monitor and penalize private news outlets, including on the Internet. Publications deemed to be unbalanced or offensive in their coverage could face large fines.
(AP, 1/7/11)
2011 Jan 1, In India separatist leader Arabinda Rajkhowa (54) was released on bail, and said he was committed to peace talks with the Indian government to end his group's 30-year insurgency in the northeastern state of Assam.
(AP, 1/1/10)
2011 Jan 1, Iran’s Pres. Ahmadinejad fired 14 advisers as part of an ongoing shake-up of his administration. 4 kidnappers were put to death in Zahedan prison in the volatile border province of Sistan-Baluchestan. 8 convicted drug smugglers were also executed this week.
(AP, 1/2/11)(Reuters, 1/1/11)
2011 Jan 1, Italy, one of the top users of plastic shopping bags in Europe, began banning them. Retailers warned of chaos as many stores braced for the switch.
(Reuters, 12/29/10)
2011 Jan 1, Japan said it has logged 1.19 million deaths in 2010, the biggest number since 1947 when the health ministry's annual records began. As a result the population contracted by 123,000 people, which was the most ever and the fourth consecutive year of decline.
(AP, 1/1/10)
2011 Jan 1, Japanese whalers shot water cannons at anti-whaling activists, hours after the activists tracked down the hunting fleet in the remote and icy seas off Antarctica.
(AP, 1/1/10)
2011 Jan 1, Pakistan’s Pres. Zardari signed the 19th amendment to the constitution giving judges a freer hand in making judicial appointments.
(Econ, 2/12/11, p.47)(http://tinyurl.com/6zl4d9t)
2011 Jan 1, In Pakistan suspected US drone aircraft strikes killed 15 Muslim militants in North Waziristan, suggesting there will no letup this year in a campaign Washington says is hurting al Qaeda-linked groups.
(Reuters, 1/1/10)
2010 Jan 1, Jawaher Abu Rahma (36), a Palestinian woman, died one day after allegedly inhaling massive amounts of tear gas fired by the Israeli military at a West Bank demonstration. On Jan 20 Israel's military said Rahma was the victim of a medical error and was not killed by tear gas.
(AFP, 1/3/11)(AP, 1/20/11)
2011 Jan 1, In Puerto Rico Justino Sanchez Diaz (48) attacked his family with gasoline and a blowtorch. 2 of his victims soon died from their wounds and Diaz was charged with murder. The mother of Diaz and Jesus Sanchez 4th died of their injuries on Jan 4. On Jan 6 Kate Donahue (25) of Seattle, who was engaged to Sanchez, died of her injuries. On Jan 29 Nereida Vazquez, who had been in an induced coma for weeks, died of a lung infection brought on by her injuries. In September Diaz was convicted of killing 6 people and was sentenced to 198 years in prison.
(AP, 1/3/11)(AP, 1/5/11)(AP, 1/29/11)(AP, 9/8/11)(AP, 9/26/11)
2011 Jan 1, A Russian passenger jet carrying 124 people caught fire as it taxied down a snowy runway and then exploded at a Siberian airport, killing three people and injuring 43, including six who were badly burned.
(AP, 1/1/10)
2011 Jan 1, Somali pirates hijacked the MV Blida, a Greek-operated, Algerian-flagged bulk carrier. The crew included 17 Algerians, six Ukrainians including the captain, two Filipinos, an Indonesian and a Jordanian. On Oct 12 Algeria announced that pirates have released 2 of the ship’s 27 crewmen on humanitarian grounds. The MV Blida was released on Nov 3 after a bag full of money was parachuted down to the pirates from a plane.
(Econ, 2/5/11, p.69)(AFP, 10/12/11)(AP, 11/3/11)(AFP, 11/20/11)
2011 Jan 1, In South Africa 10 people were killed in a stampede during the early hours of New Year's Day at a tavern in the Ipelegeng township in the largely rural North West province.
(AP, 12/31/10)
2011 Jan 1, In South Korea one of five wild ducks found dead this week was confirmed to have been infected with a lethal strain of the bird flu virus, its first outbreak in over two years.
(AFP, 1/1/10)
2011 Jan 1, In southern Thailand 2 bomb disposal policemen were killed and 9 other people wounded in a blast after warnings of New Year violence in the restive region.
(AFP, 1/1/10)
2011 Jan 1, Yemen's parliament agreed in principle to make constitutional amendments that could see President Ali Abdullah Saleh rule for life, and will hold a formal vote on the matter later this year.
(AFP, 1/1/10)
2012 Jan 1, The minimum wage in San Francisco rose 32 cents to $10.24 an hour.
(SSFC, 1/1/12, p.A1)
2012 Jan 1, In southern California an apparent murder-suicide left 4 people dead, 3 men and a woman, in Coronado. Two of the dead were F/A-18 pilots training at the US Marine Corps Air Station Miramar. Navy pilot Robert Reeves (25) shot David Reis (25), Reis’ sister Karen Reis and Matthew Saturley (31) before shooting himself. Reeves was later reported to have had a .16 blood alcohol content.
(SFC, 1/2/12, p.A4)(Reuters, 1/2/12)
2012 Jan 1, Mount Rainier National Park ranger Margaret Anderson (34) was fatally shot following a routine traffic stop, and authorities closed the 368-square-mile (953-square-km) park in Washington state as they searched for the gunman. On Jan 2 a plane searching for Benjamin Colton Barnes (24), an armed Iraq War veteran, discovered his body lying partially submerged in an icy, snowy mountain creek with snow banks standing several feet high.
(AP, 1/1/12)(AP, 1/2/12)
2012 Jan 1, As of today the EU began billing all the world’s airlines for the carbon emissions into and out of the EU.
(Econ, 1/7/12, p.58)
2012 Jan 1, Afghan Pres. Karzai along with US embassy officials met a delegation from Hezb-i-Islami, Afghanistan's second largest militant group led by former Afghan prime minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.
(AFP, 1/3/12)
2012 Jan 1, An Arab League advisory body called for the immediate withdrawal of the bloc's observers from Syria saying their presence was having no impact on the government's deadly crackdown on protests. YouTube videos circulating on the Internet showed protesters across Syria welcoming 2012 in with fireworks and holding up signs pledging "Freedom for Life" and denouncing President Bashar al-Assad as the enemy.
(AFP, 1/1/12)
2012 Jan 1, In Argentina Rio Negro Gov. Carlos Soria (62), the ruling party governor of the country’s prime oil-producing province, died following gunshots to the head. His wife, Susana Freidos, was being questioned by police to determine whether the shots were fired by accident or intentionally.
(AP, 1/1/12)
2012 Jan 1, Riot police in Bahrain fired tear gas, rubber bullets and stun grenades as they clashed with hundreds of opposition supporters, some hurling Molotov cocktails, following the politically charged funeral of a 15-year-old boy. Bahrain's new police chief announced that the kingdom would hire an additional 500 police officers "from all sections of Bahrain society."
(AP, 1/1/12)
2012 Jan 1, A British man (40) is suspected of shooting dead three female members of his own family before turning the gun on himself in Horden, County Durham, on a New Year's Day rampage.
(AFP, 1/2/12)
2012 Jan 1, In Britain a woman's body was found in a forest at Anmer at the vast rural estate in Norfolk where Queen Elizabeth II and her family celebrated New Year's. Forensic tests later identified the decomposed body as that of Latvian Alisa Dmitrijeva (17), who was reported missing from her home in eastern England in August.
(AP, 1/3/12)(AP, 1/8/12)
2012 Jan 1, Colombian police in Chaco state killed crime boss Juan de Dios Usaga. Police have said Usaga led a major crime ring involved in drug trafficking and was once a right-wing paramilitary fighter. Pamphlets soon appeared calling on the region's residents to protest the killing of Usaga.
(AP, 1/5/12)
2012 Jan 1, In CongoDRC 8 people died and 44 were wounded when a hand grenade exploded during an attempted jail break at the main prison in Bukavu, Sud-Kivu province. At least 18 people were killed in the town of Luyuyu in an attack by Rwandan Hutu rebels.
(AFP, 1/2/12)(AFP, 1/4/12)
2012 Jan 1, In Cuba Rene Cobas, a common criminal not jailed for political reasons, died of an apparent heart attack in the Boniato prison near Santiago. He had launched a hunger strike because he was not part of a large prison amnesty.
(AP, 1/2/12)
2012 Jan 1, In central Germany a Syrian man was been fatally shot by two people who fired at him as his car stopped at a traffic light in Sarstedt town.
(AP, 1/2/12)
2012 Jan 1, Iran’s nuclear agency said its scientists have tested the first nuclear fuel rod produced from uranium ore deposits inside the country.
(AFP, 1/1/12)
2012 Jan 1, In Kenya at least eight people drowned after a boat capsized in rough seas off the Kenyan tourist island of Lamu. More than 20 of the over 80 passengers on board were unaccounted for.
(AFP, 1/2/12)
2012 Jan 1, Kiro Gligorov (94), the first democratically elected president of Macedonia, died. He shepherded his nation through a bloodless secession from the former Yugoslavia and narrowly survived an assassination attempt.
(AP, 1/2/12)
2012 Jan 1, In Malaysia 17 people were arrested after police broke up a student gathering for greater academic freedom, in what the opposition and activists said was a campaign to stifle dissent.
(AFP, 1/1/12)
2012 Jan 1, In Myanmar gas prices unexpectedly rose more than 30 percent for the new year and sparked fears of other goods costing more as well.
(AP, 1/1/12)
2012 Jan 1, Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation and largest oil producer, announced immediate ends to subsidies on petrol, a policy that had held pump prices at 65 naira per liter ($0.40, 0.30 euros).
(AFP, 1/2/12)
2012 Jan 1, Omani newspaper Azzaman said it would appeal in the high court the five-month jail sentences handed to two of its staff for insulting the justice minister.
(AFP, 1/1/12)
2012 Jan 1, Pakistan and India exchanged lists of their nuclear sites under an accord which prohibits both sides from attacking these locations.
(AFP, 1/1/12)
2012 Jan 1, In Pakistan 3 soldiers were killed in a bomb attack in Baluchistan province. An anti-Taliban fighter was killed in a bomb attack in the Bajaur tribal district.
(AFP, 1/1/12)
2012 Jan 1, In Pakistan three Iranian border guards crossed the frontier in southwestern Baluchistan province and allegedly shot at a car, killing a Pakistani national. The border guards were arrested by Pakistan paramilitary Frontier Corps.
(AFP, 1/3/12)
2012 Jan 1, In Trans-Dniester an 18-year-old was killed by a Russian peacekeeper, after he reportedly ignored an order to stop his car at a checkpoint. The death led to protests against Moscow's role in the region's 1,500-member international peacekeeping force, which includes about 500 Russian troops.
(AP, 1/5/12)
2012 Jan 1, Pope Benedict XVI named convert Rev. Jeffrey Neil Steenson, a married priest and former sportswriter, to head the first organizational structure for US converts to Roman Catholicism wanting to retain some of their Anglican heritage.
(AP, 1/1/12)
2012 Jan 1, In Yemen tens of thousands marched in the streets of the capital Sanaa, chanting that Saleh "must stand before a judge." Another big crowd of marchers echoed the chant in Taiz.
(AP, 1/1/12)
2013 Jan 1, The House of Representatives easily approved emergency bipartisan legislation. It hiked rates on income above $400,000 for individuals and $450,000 for households, while exemptions and deductions the wealthiest Americans use to reduce their tax bill face new limits. It also set up another “fiscal cliff" confrontation in a matter of weeks.
(AP, 1/1/13)(Econ, 2/9/13, p.30)
2013 Jan 1, California began its cap-and-trade scheme for emitters of greenhouse gases. In 2006 former Gov. Schwarzenegger signed AB32, which called for a cut in greenhouse-gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020.
(Econ, 3/16/13, p.29)
2013 Jan 1, Ten states kicked off the new year with a minimum wage rise of between 10 and 35 cents. The rises went into effect in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Missouri, Montana, Ohio, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington.
(Reuters, 1/1/13)
2013 Jan 1, Gay marriage became legal in Maryland, the first state south of the Mason-Dixon Line on New Year's Day.
(AP, 1/1/13)
2013 Jan 1, Michael Cronan (b.1951), graphic designer, died in Berkeley, Ca. He was best know for christening TiVo, the digital TV recorder, and Kindle, Amazon’s portable reading device.
(SSFC, 1/6/13, p.C3)
2013 Jan 1, Patti Page (85), a top singer of the 1950s, died in Encinitas, Ca. Her hits included “Tennessee Waltz" (1950) and “How Much Is That Doggie in the Window." She also co-starred with Burt Lancaster in “Elmer Gantry."
(SFC, 1/3/13, p.D2)
2013 Jan 1, In Algeria seven insurgents were killed and arms, ammunition and medicine recovered in Boulzazene in the Boumerdes region. The operation killed Izza Rezki, the finance chief for Abdelmalek Droukdel, the head of al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb.
(AP, 1/2/13)(AP, 1/5/13)
2013 Jan 1, In China the Southern Weekly of Guangdong province was forced to add a provided commentary glorifying the Chinese Communist Party with its annual new year editorial, which was intended to call for proper implementation of the country's constitution. The new year editorial with the title Dream of China, Dream of Constitutionalism, calling for the cementing of rights into a constitution, was replaced with praise of the Chinese Communist Party.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Southern_Weekly_incident)(Econ, 1/16/16, p.26)
2013 Jan 1, Tallinn, Estonia, launched free public transport for all of its citizens.
(AP, 4/4/13)
2013 Jan 1, An Ethiopian court found 10 men guilty of plotting terror attacks with Islamist extremist rebels from neighboring Somalia.
(AP, 1/1/13)
2013 Jan 1, French Interior Minister Manuel Valls said young revelers set afire 1,193 vehicles, lamenting that this has become a way to mark the arrival of the New Year. His announcement was the first time in three years that such figures have been released.
(AP, 1/1/13)
2013 Jan 1, In Hong Kong thousands of demonstrators in rival marches crowded the main shopping district to praise or condemn chief executive Leung Chun-ying. Critics accused him of misleading the public on a controversial real estate deal and of being a puppet installed by Beijing.
(SFC, 1/2/13, p.A3)
2013 Jan 1, Ivory Coast at least 64 people, mostly children and teenagers, were killed early today in a stampede following a New Year's fireworks display in Abidjan. Survivors blamedmakeshift barricades.
(AP, 1/1/13)(AP, 1/2/13)(AP, 1/4/13)
2013 Jan 1, Myanmar rang in 2013 with its first public New Year's Eve countdown and a grand fireworks display, a celebration unprecedented in the former military-ruled country.
(AP, 12/31/12)
2013 Jan 1, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called for an end to confrontation between the two Koreas, technically still at war in the absence of a peace treaty to end their 1950-53 conflict, in a surprise New Year speech broadcast on state media.
(AP, 1/1/13)
2013 Jan 1, Gunmen in northwest Pakistan killed five female teachers and two aid workers in an ambush on a van carrying workers home from their jobs at a community center in Swabi, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
(AP, 1/1/13)
2013 Jan 1, Clashes began in the northern West Bank after Israeli forces dressed as merchants arrested one man. Regular forces then entered the town of Tamoun, and men began hurling rocks at them to prevent other arrests. At least 10 Palestinians were wounded.
(AP, 1/1/13)
2013 Jan 1, In the Philippines a “sin tax" on alcohol and tobacco came into effect. It had survived a 2012 Senate vote by a margin of one.
(Econ, 4/6/13, p.86)
2013 Jan 1, Rwanda took a prestigious seat on the UN Security Council. Human Rights Watch has been calling on the Security Council for months to sanction the Rwandan officials the rights group believes is helping M23 rebels in eastern Congo.
(AP, 1/8/13)
2013 Jan 1, In South Africa three people died and 4,000 were displaced when fires swept through shacks in poor settlements in the Cape Town area on New Year's Day.
(AP, 1/1/13)
2013 Jan 1, Syrian warplanes took part in bombing Daraya, a few miles (kms) from the strategic military air base of Mazzeh, a western neighborhood of Damascus.
(AP, 1/1/13)
2014 Jan 1, In northern California Rev. Eric Freed was found dead at the St. Bernard Church rectory in Eureka. Surveillance video captured images of suspect Gary Lee Bullock (44) and he was arrested the next day.
(SFC, 1/2/14, p.A8)(SFC, 1/9/14, p.D5)
2014 Jan 1, In San Francisco an arson attack destroyed the main entrance of the Chinese Consulate. On Jan 3 Yan Feng (39), who lives south of the city, surrendered to police after confessing to the attack.
(SSFC, 1/5/14, p.A5)(AFP, 1/6/14)
2014 Jan 1, In Colorado the nation’s first recreational pot industry opened as business owners threw open their doors for shoppers at 8 am.
(SFC, 1/2/14, p.A7)
2014 Jan 1, In New York city Bill de Blasio (b.1961) began serving as mayor. 63,000 homeless people lived in shelters as de Blasio office.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_de_Blasio)(Econ, 3/25/17, p.25)
2014 Jan 1, In Central African Republic clashes between Muslims and Christians in Bangui killed three as angry residents threw grenades and torched homes.
(Reuters, 1/1/14)
2014 Jan 1, China began requiring the disclosure of offshore holdings.
(Econ, 1/25/14, p.35)
2014 Jan 1, Cuba enacted a law banning the resale of clothes imported from abroad.
(Econ, 1/11/14, p.30)
2014 Jan 1, In Prague Jamel al-Jamal (56), the Palestinian ambassador to the Czech Republic, died in a blast that occurred when he opened an old safe that had been left untouched for more than 20 years.
(AP, 1/1/14)
2014 Jan 1, Guinness World Records said Dubai shattered the world record for the largest ever pyrotechnic display on New Year's Eve with a show involving more than half a million fireworks.
(AFP, 1/1/14)
2014 Jan 1, Egypt’s Ministry of Antiquities said 96 artifacts, mostly small figurines and beads, have disappeared from the Aswan Museum's storehouse. Authorities said evidence pointed to an insider theft.
(AP, 1/1/14)
2014 Jan 1, In Egypt 2 people were killed in violent clashes that erupted late today between pro-Islamist protesters and police in Alexandria.
(Reuters, 1/1/14)
2014 Jan 1, The European Commission said Romanians and Bulgarians now have the right to work in any of the European Union's 28 countries but "no major increase" in emigration is expected.
(AFP, 1/1/14)
2014 Jan 1, Greece assumed the presidency of the EU, starting 2014 with a promise by the government to pull the country out of a six-year recession, keep a balanced budget, and effectively end a financial crisis that rattled the euro.
(AP, 1/1/14)
2014 Jan 1, In Hong Kong thousands marched to demand a greater say in choosing their future leaders, expressing fears China will limit long-awaited political reforms, but turnout fell short of expectations.
(AFP, 1/1/14)
2014 Jan 1, In Iraq militants freed more than 100 prisoners, clashed with security forces and burned police stations in Fallujah and Ramadi. In Mosul a car bomb exploded near an army checkpoint, killing a civilian and four soldiers, including three officers.
(AFP, 1/1/14)
2014 Jan 1, Jordan took over the UN Security Council presidency, the first day of its two-year stint on a 15-nation body struggling to cope with conflicts in Syria, South Sudan.
(Reuters, 1/1/14)
2014 Jan 1, Latvia celebrated the new year as the 18th member of the eurozone, which for all its dents and bruises still represents stability and security to the Baltic country's leaders.
(AP, 1/1/14)
2014 Jan 1, Lebanon’s defense minister said Lebanese troops have arrested Saudi citizen Majid al-Majid, the "emir" of the Abdullah Azzam Brigades, an al-Qaeda-linked group that claimed a double suicide bombing at the Iranian embassy in Beirut in November. DNA testing confirmed the identity of al-Majid.
(AFP, 1/1/14)(AP, 1/3/14)
2014 Jan 1, In Mexico Yeudi Estrada (28), a US citizen and martial arts instructor in Quintana Roo, was found dead on arrival at police headquarters in the resort of Playa del Carmen after his arrest. A finding revealed that he died of asphyxia by strangulation. Six Mexican police officers were arrested Jan 3 on suspicion of killing Estrada.
(Reuters, 1/4/14)
2014 Jan 1, In Pakistan a suicide bomber killed two Shia pilgrims on their way home from Iran.
(CSM, 1/9/14)
2014 Jan 1, In South Korea a man, calling for the president’s resignation, died after setting himself on fire.
(Econ, 1/25/14, p.32)
2014 Jan 1, South Sudanese President Salva Kiir declared a state of emergency in Unity and Jonglei states. Negotiators from the two warring sides arrived in Ethiopia for peace talks.
(Reuters, 1/1/14)(AP, 1/1/14)
2014 Jan 1, In Somalia two car bombs exploded outside the Jazira Hotel in Mogadishu that often is used by foreigners and government officials. A third car bomb exploded as it was searched by security forces. At least 11 people were killed. Al-Shebab rebels claimed responsibility.
(AP, 1/1/14)(Reuters, 1/1/14)(AFP, 1/2/14)
2014 Jan 1, South African police found Patrick Karegeya, Rwanda's former spy chief, dead, possibly strangled, in Johannesburg's plush Michelangelo Towers hotel. Rwanda opposition leaders immediately accused President Paul Kagame of ordering his assassination. Karegeya had died a day earlier. The Kigali government swiftly denied any involvement and said the former intelligence chief was himself to blame.
(AP, 1/2/14)(AP, 1/17/19)
2014 Jan 1, Syrian warplanes bombed a barren range of Lebanese hills used by Syrian rebels and refugees to cross between the two countries, wounding at least 10 Syrians who were rushed to hospital in a nearby Lebanese town.
(AP, 1/1/14)
2014 Jan 1, The Syrian Electronic Army, an amorphous hacker collective that supports Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, claimed credit for hacking into the social media accounts of Internet calling service Skype.
(Reuters, 1/1/14)
2014 Jan 1, An NGO said more than 73,000 people were killed in Syria in 2013.
(AFP, 1/1/14)
2014 Jan 1, In Ukraine about 15,000 people marched through the streets of Kiev to mark the 105th birthday of Stepan Bandera (d.1959), glorified by some as a leader of Ukraine's liberation movement and dismissed by others as a Nazi collaborator.
(AP, 1/1/14)
2014 Jan 1, The UN said that violence claimed the lives of 7,818 civilians in Iraq in 2013, the highest annual death toll in years.
(AP, 1/1/14)
2015 Jan 1, Donna Douglass (b.1932), TV actress, died in Baton Rouge, La. She played Elly May Clampett in the “The Beverly Hillbillies" sitcom which aired from 1962-1971.
(SFC, 1/3/15, p.A6)
2015 Jan 1, Mario Cuomo (b.1932), former three-term governor of New York state (1983-1994), died of heart failure at home in Manhattan.
(SFC, 1/2/15, p.A5)(Econ, 1/10/15, p.86)
2015 Jan 1, In West Virginia Eric Campbell (21) and Edward Campbell (54) of Texas were arrested following a shooting that left two officers wounded. The bodies of Jerome Faulkner (63) and his wife Dora (62) of North Carolina, killed earlier in the day, were found in the bed of a pickup truck driven by Edward Campbell.
(SFC, 1/3/15, p.A4)
2015 Jan 1, In the Bahamas a new 7.5 percent tax value-added went into effect only for businesses whose profits exceed $100,000 a year.
(AP, 1/3/15)
2015 Jan 1, Fritz-Joly Joachin (19) was arrested while trying to cross from Bulgaria to Turkey. He was later associated with the Kouachi brothers who killed 12 people in Paris on Jan 7. On Jan 29 he was extradited to France.
(SFC, 1/30/15, p.A2)
2015 Jan 1, In Burundi a group of unidentified rebels crossed into the country overnight from DRCongo's eastern Kivu region.
(AFP, 1/4/15)
2015 Jan 1, The Dominican Rep. said it will not recognize a same-sex marriage performed for the first time there two days earlier.
(SFC, 1/2/15, p.A2)
2015 Jan 1, Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi addressed Muslim clerics in a televised speech at an Al-Azhar conference center in Cairo and called on them to promote a reading of Islamic text in an enlightened manner and to reconsider concepts that have been made sacred over hundreds of years.
(SFC, 1/9/15, p.A3)(Reuters, 5/31/15)
2015 Jan 1, Defense lawyers said Egypt's highest court has ordered a retrial of three jailed journalists working for Al Jazeera television, citing procedural flaws in last year's trial.
(Reuters, 1/1/15)
2015 Jan 1, France's Interior Ministry said 940 cars were set alight by revelers ringing in the New Year, 12 percent fewer than the 1,067 set aflame last year.
(AP, 1/1/15)
2015 Jan 1, A Gambia military source said four officers suspected of participating in a failed military coup against strongman President Yahya Jammeh have taken refuge in Guinea-Bissau. Dozens of military personnel and civilians were arrested and a large cache of weapons and explosives were found after the alleged coup attempt.
(AFP, 1/1/15)
2015 Jan 1, Heavy seas stopped divers reaching the possible wreck of an AirAsia Indonesia jet off Borneo. Nine bodies have so far been recovered from the Airbus A320-200, which crashed Dec 28 en route to Singapore.
(Reuters, 1/1/15)
2015 Jan 1, India scrapped its 65-year-old Planning Commission and replacing it today with new National Institution for Transforming India (NITI), which PM Narendra Modi said would do more to involve the regions.
(AP, 1/1/15)
2015 Jan 1, In Iran 2 people were killed in what is being labeled a terrorist attack in the southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchistan.
(AP, 1/2/15)
2015 Jan 1, In southern Iraq gunmen killed 3 Sunni clerics near the mostly Shiite city of Basra. A roadside bomb exploded in central Baghdad, killing 4 civilians and wounding 12.
(AP, 1/2/15)
2015 Jan 1, Iraqi government figures showed violence in the country killed more than 15,000 civilians and security personnel in 2014.
(AFP, 1/1/15)
2015 Jan 1, Former Lebanese PM Omar Karami (b.1934) died after suffering from an undisclosed illness. Karami served two terms, 1990-1992 and 2004-2005.
(AP, 1/1/15)
2015 Jan 1, Lithuania welcomed a New Year and a new currency, becoming the 19th member and last Baltic nation to adopt the euro in a bid to boost stability despite fears of inflation and eurozone debt woes.
(AFP, 1/1/15)(http://tinyurl.com/obb2hfm)(Econ, 12/6/14, p.85)
2015 Jan 1, In Nigeria a suicide bomber blew himself up at the gates of a church in the northeastern city of Gombe during a New Year service, wounding eight people.
(Reuters, 1/1/15)
2015 Jan 1, A Pakistani fishing boat laden with explosives bound for India blew up, killing all four people on board, after the Indian coast guard tried to stop and search it.
(Reuters, 1/2/15)
2015 Jan 1, In the Philippines a huge blaze, believed to have been ignited by firecrackers, razed nearly a thousand shanties and killed 3 people in a creekside slum in Manila. At least 17 fires across the country were linked to raucous New Year's celebrations leaving a total of 7 people dead.
(AP, 1/1/15)(SSFC, 1/4/15, p.A4)
2015 Jan 1, In Poland a so-called "oncology package" was introduced requiring family doctors to diagnose and fast-track cancer patients. Doctors said this will leave less time and attention for all other patients, threatening their health. Hundreds of doctors refused to sign the new plan and kept their surgeries closed.
(AP, 1/5/15)
2015 Jan 1, Saudi security forces arrested Montadhar Ali Saleh Alsbaitiin, a man believed to belong to a Shi'ite Muslim group blamed for instigating protests and unrest in the country's Eastern Province.
(Reuters, 1/2/15)
2015 Jan 1, South Korea-based Samsung Electronics said it will release smart televisions equipped with its new platform built around the Tizen operating system this year, as it seeks to lower its reliance on Google.
(AFP, 1/1/15)
2015 Jan 1, Sri Lanka said flash floods and mudslides have killed at least 39 people and more than 1 million have had to flee their homes in the past two weeks.
(Reuters, 1/1/15)
2015 Jan 1, Swedish police hunted for at least one suspect following what is believed to be the third arson attack on a mosque in a week.
(AFP, 1/1/15)
2015 Jan 1, The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group, recorded 76,021 deaths for 2014.
(AFP, 1/1/15)
2015 Jan 1, In Tanzania six lions were killed overnight by angry Maasai herders following an attack on livestock.
(AFP, 1/1/15)
2015 Jan 1, In Turkey a man carrying an automatic weapon was detained near the historic Dolmabahce Palace in Istanbul after he threw a grenade at police. The Turkish far-left group DHKP-C soon claimed responsibility for the grenade attack.
(Reuters, 1/2/15)
2015 Jan 1, Ukrainian separatists carried out sporadic attacks on government forces as the New Year began, wounding three soldiers. Rebel mortar fire reportedly killed one civilian. Alexander Bednov, head of a battalion called "Batman," was killed when separatist security forces tried to arrest him in the Luhansk region.
(Reuters, 1/1/15)(AP, 1/4/15)
2015 Jan 1, In Yemen 49 people were killed when a suicide bomber targeted a religious celebration by Huthi supporters in the mainly Sunni city of Ibb.
(AFP, 1/4/15)(AFP, 1/7/15)
2016 Jan 1, Former Arkansas Gov. Dale Bumpers (b.1925) died at his home in Little Rock. He served four terms in the US Senate following his term as governor.
(SSFC, 1/3/16, p.A15)
2016 Jan 1, Hawaii became the first US state to raise the legal age for smoking to 21.
(SFC, 1/1/16, p.A8)
2016 Jan 1, In Afghanistan a suicide attack at a French restaurant in Kabul killed 2 people wounded at least five.
(Reuters, 1/1/16)(AP, 1/1/16)
2016 Jan 1, In Burundi at least one person was killed and a dozen injured in a series of grenade attacks in Bujumbura.
(AFP, 1/1/16)
2016 Jan 1, In El Salvador at least 29 people were slain on the first day of the year. Local news media estimated the number of killings in 2015 at well above 6,000.
(AP, 1/2/16)
2016 Jan 1, In Estonia a law allowing gay partnerships took effect, but same-sex couples are being advised to hold off on getting hitched until a series of legal issues have been worked out.
(AP, 1/1/16)
2016 Jan 1, In the EU new rules known as Solvency 2 came into effect. They required European insurers to follow uniform rules on cpital designed to make the firms more robust and allow others to assess their strength more easily.
(Econ, 1/2/16, p.56)
2016 Jan 1, In Hong Kong more than 1,500 people protested on New Year's day calling for the city's leader to resign and airing grievances over issues from expensive construction projects to internet freedoms. Protester’s focused on the 40-km structure linking Hong Kong with Macau and the mainland city of Zhuhai.
(AFP, 1/1/16)(Econ, 2/13/16, p.37)
2016 Jan 1, Iceland's Pres. Olafur Ragnar Grimsson (72) announced he was stepping down after 20 years in the job, paving the way for a presidential election in June.
(AP, 1/1/16)
2016 Jan 1, In India more than a million private cars were banned from New Delhi's roads, as authorities began testing drastic new measures to cut smog in the world's most polluted capital. For the next 15 days private cars will only be allowed on the city's roads every other day to try to reduce pollutant levels.
(AFP, 1/1/16)
2016 Jan 1, In Iraq Islamic State militants launched suicide attacks in the western city of Ramadi days after troops drove them out of the city center.
(AP, 1/2/16)
2016 Jan 1, In Israel an unidentified gunman killed two people and wounded at least three others on a bustling thoroughfare in central Tel Aviv before fleeing. Media showed images of an abandoned ammunition clip that appeared to have come from a Spectre M4 machine-gun - a weapon rarely seen in Israel and the Palestinian territories.
(Reuters, 1/1/16)
2016 Jan 1, The Netherlands took over the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union.
(Econ, 1/9/16, p.10)
2016 Jan 1, Nigeria unveiled a nine-meter tall statue of Jesus Christ carved from white marble in the village of Abajah, thought to be the biggest of its kind in Africa. It was commissioned by Obinna Onuoha, a local businessman who hired a Chinese company to carve it and placed it in the grounds of a 2000-capacity church that he built in 2012.
(AFP, 1/2/16)
2016 Jan 1, Saudi Arabia executed 47 criminals including prominent Shiite Muslim cleric Nimr al-Nimr (56) and dozens of al Qaeda members, signaling it would not tolerate attacks, whether by Sunni jihadists or minority Shi'ites, and stirring sectarian anger across the region. Al-Nimr was a charismatic religious leader who delivered fiery speeches demanding more rights for his minority in the Sunni-ruled kingdom.
(Reuters, 1/2/16)(AFP, 1/2/16)(Econ, 3/19/16, p.53)
2016 Jan 1, In Saudi Arabia the price of petrol rose by 50%.
(Econ, 1/9/16, p.17)
2016 Jan 1, Turkish media reported that 2 police officers, a soldier and 12 Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) fighters were killed in the southeast in the last 48 hours in operations to push back the militant group.
(Reuters, 1/1/16)
2016 Jan 1, Ukraine's free-trade deal with the EU came into effect, coinciding with the start of Moscow's food embargo against Kiev that will force the impoverished former Soviet republic to revisit its economic model.
(AFP, 1/1/16)
2016 Jan 1, In Yemen 6 people were killed in a firefight between Yemeni pro-government forces and Al-Qaeda suspects who were travelling in a weapons-laden vehicle toward Aden. A senior al-Qaida leader and 3 people traveling in his convoy were killed near a security checkpoint in southern Abyan province.
(AFP, 1/1/16)(AP, 1/1/16)
2017 Jan 1, In California new laws went into effect that included an increase in the minimum wage from $10 and hour to $10.50 an hour for businesses with 26 or more employees.
(SSFC, 1/1/17, p.A10)
2017 Jan 1, In Illinois a new law took effect that mandated an hour of training for stylists, barbers, cosmetologists, hair braiders and nail technicians for abuse training as part of their licensing process.
(SFC, 1/2/17, p.A4)
2017 Jan 1, In NYC three new subway stations opened to the public on the Second Avenue line.
(SFC, 1/2/17, p.A4)
2017 Jan 1, In Texas an accidental pesticide poisoning left four children dead. Phosphine gas was likely released when a father used a garden hose to wash away a pesticide under a mobile home.
(SFC, 1/4/17, p.A6)
2017 Jan 1, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation brought into force a policy on research that it supports calling for the research, when published, to be freely available to all. On March 23 the foundation announced that it will pay the cost of putting such research in one particular repository of freely available papers.
(Econ, 3/25/17, p.69)
2017 Jan 1, In Bahrain a prison break led to the death of a police officer and the escape of ten inmates convicted on terrorism charges, setting off a manhunt across the tiny island nation.
(AP, 1/1/17)(Econ, 1/21/17, p.40)
2017 Jan 1, In Brazil a rebellion began late today at the Anisio Jobim prison complex in Manaus. By the next day 57 people were killed in the riot sparked by a war between rival drug gangs. Many of those slain were beheaded or dismembered. An estimated 225 inmates escaped and only 48 were recaptured. Officials later said members of the FDN, Familia do Norte (Family of the North), organized the massacre seeking to wipe out the Sao Paulo-based rival Comando da Capital (PCC).
(Reuters, 1/2/17)(AP, 1/3/17)(AP, 2/22/17)(Econ, 1/7/17, p.26)
2017 Jan 1, British economist Anthony Atkinson (b.1944)) died. His 40 books included: “Inequality: What Can Be Done" (2015).
(Econ, 1/7/17, p.57)
2017 Jan 1, In Burundi a gunman killed Emmanuel Niyonkuru (54), the country’s environment and water minister early today, the first senior government figure to be murdered in nearly two years of political violence.
(Reuters, 1/1/17)
2017 Jan 1, In China new regulations went into effect regarding the country’s salt industry, easing a monopoly that has existed in some form for more than 2,000 years.
(AP, 1/3/17)
2017 Jan 1, In northern China heavy smog caused hundreds of flights to be canceled and highways to shut, disrupting the first day of the New Year holiday.
(Reuters, 1/1/17)
2017 Jan 1, China’s state news agency Xinhua reported that a court in the eastern province of Anhui has handed out sentences of up to 20 years in jail for 67 people involved in a mafia-style gang that engaged in gambling, extortion and violence.
(Reuters, 1/1/17)
2017 Jan 1, In Congo DRC rival groups agreed a deal for hauling the country out of a perilous political crisis. Under a landmark accord, the country's contested president, Joseph Kabila, who under the constitution should have left office on December 20, will stay in power until elections are held at the end of 2017. During this period a so-called National Transition Council will be set up, headed by opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi, and a prime minister will be named from opposition ranks.
(AFP, 1/1/17)
2017 Jan 1, Denmark police arrested Chung Yoo-ra (20), an equestrian competitor and the daughter of Choi Soon-sil, a central figure in a South Korean influence-peddling scandal that led to President Park Geun-hye's impeachment. She will face extradition proceedings following her arrest on an Interpol request from Seoul.
(Reuters, 1/2/17)
2017 Jan 1, Gambian security agents closed three private radio stations near the capital, Banjul, amid an escalating political crisis triggered by President Yahya Jammeh's refusal to accept his election defeat.
(Reuters, 1/2/17)
2017 Jan 1, In Hong Kong nearly 5,000 people marched in a New Year's Day protest against an attempt by the semi-autonomous Chinese city's government to disqualify four pro-democracy lawmakers.
(AP, 1/1/17)
2017 Jan 1, In Indonesia a massive fire erupted in a boat carrying hundreds of local tourists to an island north of Jakarta, leaving at least 23 dead and 17 injured. Another 17 people were missing and 194 were rescued following the blaze on the Zahro Express.
(AFP, 1/1/17)
2017 Jan 1, A top commander said Iraqi forces have retaken more than 60 percent of eastern Mosul from the Islamic State group since the battle for the city began in mid-October.
(AFP, 1/1/17)
2017 Jan 1, The Israeli government ruled that it would not release to their families the bodies of Hamas militants killed during attacks on Israelis but would instead bury them.
(AFP, 1/1/17)
2017 Jan 1, In Italy a bomb squad officer in Florence lost an eye and had to have a hand amputated after a suspicious package he was examining exploded before dawn.
(AP, 1/1/17)
2017 Jan 1, Malta took up the rotating presidency of the EU Council of Ministers.
(Econ, 1/14/17, p.49)
2017 Jan 1, Hundreds of irate Mexicans marched in Mexico City to protest a steep rise in gasoline prices. The protests erupted into looting in several parts of the country.
(AFP, 1/2/17)(SFC, 1/5/17, p.A2)
2017 Jan 1, In Mexico at least five people were killed over the New year’s weekend in Acapulco including three men found decapitated.
(SFC, 1/3/17, p.A2)
2017 Jan 1, In Morocco more than 1,000 migrants tried to jump a high double fence between Morocco and the Spanish enclave of Ceuta in a violent assault that saw one officer lose an eye. Two managed to get through, but were badly injured.
(AFP, 1/1/17)
2017 Jan 1, In Poland new legislation went into effect that removed previous requirements for private landowners who want to cut down trees to apply for permission, pay compensation and plant new trees. The legislation reportedly led to a massacre of trees across the country.
(SSFC, 4/16/17, p.C14)
2017 Jan 1, In Slovakia train and railway station patrols set up by a far-right parliamentary party became illegal as of today. The People's Party Our Slovakia had launched the unarmed patrols in April following a violent incident on a passenger train, claiming the state was unable to keep people safe.
(AP, 1/1/17)
2017 Jan 1, South Korea's impeached Pres. Park Geun-hye broke a month-long silence over her alleged role in a corruption scandal, publicly denying charges of wrongdoing and saying that the accusations against her were "fabrication and falsehood."
(Reuters, 1/1/17)
2017 Jan 1, Syrian government warplanes resumed their bombardment of the rebel-held Wadi Barada valley northwest of Damascus after nearly 24 hours with no air raids. A monitoring group and rebels said Russian- and Turkish-backed ceasefire largely held in other areas on its third day.
(Reuters, 1/1/17)
2017 Jan 1, In northwestern Syria an air raid late today struck several cars killing at least eight people, including al-Qaida-linked fighters and a senior commander with a Chinese Islamic militant faction. The dead included a senior al-Qaida commander known as Khattab al-Qahtani, who was from the Gulf region and fought for the group in Afghanistan. Abu Omar al-Turkistani, a top commander with the Turkistan Islamic Party, and a Syrian al-Qaida commander known as Abu Muatasem al-Deiri, were also killed.
(AP, 1/2/17)
2017 Jan 1, In Turkey 39 people were killed and dozens wounded when a gunman stormed the popular Reina nightclub in Istanbul and sprayed bullets at revelers celebrating the New Year. The gunman was later identified as an Uzbek jihadist with the IS code name of Ebu Muhammed Horasani. In 2020 Albulkadir Masharipov of Uzbekistan was sentenced to life in prison.
(AFP, 1/1/17)(AFP, 1/8/17)(SFC, 9/8/20, p.A2)
2017 Jan 1, In Yemen an air strike hit a house in Marib, killing five members of the same family. Four civilians, including three children, were killed in rebel bombing that targeted residential areas in the southwestern city of Taez.
(AFP, 1/2/17)
2018 Jan 1, US President Donald Trump lashed out at Pakistan in his first tweet of 2018, threatening to cut off aid over what he said were its "lies and deceit" in offering "safe haven to terrorists."
(AP, 1/1/18)0
2018 Jan 1, Some 300 prominent women announced an initiative called “Time's Up" in an effort to fight sexual harassment.
(SFC, 1/2/18, p.A7)
2018 Jan 1, In Afghanistan a district police chief was killed in a Taliban ambush as he rushed to a checkpoint that was under attack in western Farah province. Airstrikes in the northern Jawzjan province killed at least 26 Islamic State fighters. In Nangarhar province, at least one civilian was killed and 14 others were wounded during a battle between Afghan security forces and Islamic State fighters.
(AP, 1/2/18)
2018 Jan 1, British police said four young men were stabbed to death in unrelated incidents in London on New Year's Eve, while a fifth is in a critical condition in hospital.
(AFP, 1/1/18)
2018 Jan 1, Bulgaria, the European Union's poorest country, assumed the six-month, rotating presidency of the bloc for the first time since it joined the EU in 2007.
(Reuters, 1/2/18)
2018 Jan 1, In China seven people were killed when a minibus fell into the sea in Qidong a city north of Shanghai.
(AP, 1/1/18)
2018 Jan 1, French power grid company Enedis said winter storm Carmen has cut power to about 65,000 households in western France and is moving south.
(Reuters, 1/1/18)
2018 Jan 1, German police said that a man (35) died after igniting fireworks, and a 19-year-old suffered fatal head injuries after he set off a homemade device in the Brandenburg region outside Berlin. Police in Cologne said there were seven cases of sexual harassment, while Berlin police reported 13.
(AP, 1/1/18)
2018 Jan 1, In Hong Kong thousands marched through the streets on New Year's Day to warn China not to meddle further in the city's affairs and undermine its autonomy.
(AP, 1/1/18)
2018 Jan 1, In Iceland a new law took effect requiring all companies to prove that their wage practices don't discriminate against women, in what is thought to be a global first in the effort to reduce gender pay gaps.
(AP, 1/4/18)
2018 Jan 1, In India celebrations by Dalits in Pune, 150 km (95 miles) from Mumbai, of the 200th anniversary of a battle they won, fighting alongside British colonial forces, against an upper caste ruler, were marred by clashes with right-wing Hindu groups. The clashes resulted in the death of one man (28).
(Reuters, 1/2/18)
2018 Jan 1, In India Rona Wilson and a group of activists were arrested after intercommunal violence broke out at the Bhima-Koregaon war memorial. In 2021 it was reported that key 'evidence' against the group of activists, accused of trying to overthrow the Indian government, was planted on a laptop before it was seized by police.
(The Telegraph, 2/10/21)
2018 Jan 1, In Indonesia a speedboat carrying 51 people capsized off of Borneo island, killing at least eight in North Kalimantan province. Rescuers found 42 survivors and searched for one man still missing.
(AP, 1/1/18)(AP, 1/2/18)
2018 Jan 1, Iran's state TV said nationwide protests saw their most violent night as "armed protesters" tried to overrun military bases and police stations before security forces repelled them, bringing the death toll in the unrest to at least 12. Fresh protests broke out as night fell in Tehran. Nine Iranians were killed in Isfahan province during anti-government protests this evening as security forces struggled to contain the boldest challenge to the clerical leadership since unrest in 2009. A gunman reportedly killed one policeman and wounded three other officers during a protest gathering in Najafabad.
(AP, 1/1/18)(AFP, 1/1/18)(Reuters, 1/2/18)(AP, 1/2/18)
2018 Jan 1, It was reported that in Iraq some 133 mass graves, left behind by defeated extremists, contained an estimated 11,000 to 13,000 graves.
(SFC, 1/1/18, p.A3)
2018 Jan 1, In Lithuania a new liquor law increased the legal drinking age from 18 to 20, banned alcohol advertising, and drastically curtailed opening hours for liquor stores.
(AP, 1/29/18)
2018 Jan 1, In Malaysia an unidentified driver died from injuries inflicted by a faulty Takata air bag inflator, raising the worldwide death toll to 22.
(AP, 1/30/18)
2018 Jan 1, Qatar's two state-owned firms, Qatargas and RasGas, running the country's natural gas business, announced a merger to form a new Qatargas in a move aimed at cutting costs and creating a global energy giant.
(AFP, 1/3/18)
2018 Jan 1, In South Africa two climbers were killed while scaling Cape Town's Table Mountain, with hundreds of tourists stranded on the summit for hours during the rescue effort. A female Japanese climber injured in the fall was rescued. Authorities in Hong Kong later said one climber who died was from the southern Chinese city.
(AFP, 1/2/18)(AP, 1/3/18)
2018 Jan 1, Syria's President Bashar Assad reshuffled his government replacing the ministers of defense, information and industry.
(AP, 1/1/18)
2018 Jan 1, In Ukraine Iryna Nozdrovska's body was found in a river. Media reports said the 38-year-old lawyer had been stabbed repeatedly. On Jan. 8 a suspect was reported arrested in the case.
(AP, 1/8/18)
2018 Jan 1, At the Vatican Francis reminded some 40,000 people who gathered in St. Peter's Square that he had chosen the plight of migrants and refugees as the theme for the Roman Catholic Church's World Day of Peace, which is celebrated every Jan. 1.
(AP, 1/1/18)
2018 Jan 1, In Yemen Saudi-led coalition strikes killed at least 23 people in the port city of Hodeida.
(SFC, 1/2/18, p.A2)
2019 Jan 1, US authorities fired tear gas into Mexico during the first hours of the new year to repel about 150 migrants who tried to breach the border fence in Tijuana.
(AP, 1/1/19)
2019 Jan 1, An American air strike in Yemen killed Jamal al-Badawi, an al-Qaida operative accused of involvement in the 2000 attack on the US Navy ship Cole.
(SFC, 1/7/19, p.A2)
2019 Jan 1, The US and Israel officially quit UNESCO, the UN's educational, scientific and cultural agency at the stroke of midnight, the culmination of a process triggered more than a year ago amid concerns that the organization fosters anti-Israel bias. Since 2011 the US has accrued $600 million in unpaid dues, which was one of the reasons for Pres. Donald Trump's decision to withdraw. Israel owed an estimated $10 million.
(AP, 1/1/19)
2019 Jan 1, NASA rang in the New Year with a historic flyby of the farthest, and quite possibly the oldest, cosmic body ever explored by humankind -- a tiny, distant world called Ultima Thule -- in the hopes of learning more about how planets took shape.
(AFP, 1/1/19)
2019 Jan 1, Washington state joined a handful of other states banning those under 21 from buying assault rifles.
(SFC, 1/2/19, p.A4)
2019 Jan 1, Pegi Young (b.1952), the ex-wife of Neil Young and co-founder of the Bridge School (1986), died in California after a year long battle with cancer.
(SFC, 1/5/19, p.E1)
2019 Jan 1, Two Austrian women became the first same-sex couple to officially tie the knot in the predominantly Catholic country, following years of legal challenges from gay rights groups.
(AP, 1/1/19)
2019 Jan 1, Former Brazilian army captain Jair Bolsonaro took office as president promising to overhaul many aspects of life in Latin America's largest nation.
(AP, 1/1/19)
2019 Jan 1, In Burkina Faso local villagers of the Mossi ethnic group attacked a nearby camp of herders from the nomadic Fulani group. Seven Fulani herders were lynched and their homes were burned down. Yirgou residents killed 39 people in Fulani herding communities across the region in retaliation for attacks a day earlier.
(AFP, 1/2/19)(Reuters, 1/4/19)
2019 Jan 1, Democratic Republic of Congo's government cut internet connections and SMS services across the country for a second straight day as the country nervously awaited results from the weekend's chaotic presidential election.
(Reuters, 1/1/19)
2019 Jan 1, France ditched a system whereby residents file income tax returns based on the previous year's earnings, replacing it with a system where the state deducts the taxes directly from people's salaries or pensions each month.
(AFP, 1/1/19)
2019 Jan 1, In Hong Kong thousands of demonstrators marched to demand full democracy, fundamental rights, and even independence from China in the face of what many see as a marked clampdown by the Communist Party on local freedoms.
(Reuters, 1/1/19)
2019 Jan 1, In Japan a minivan slammed into pedestrians early today on a street where people had gathered for New Year's festivities in downtown Tokyo. A ninth person was injured after the suspect got out of the car and punched him. Kazuhiro Kusakabe (21) was arrested.
(AP, 1/1/19)
2019 Jan 1, In western Germany a man (50) ploughed his car into a crowd of people in early today, injuring at least four in Bottrop and Essen before being arrested by police on suspicion of attempted homicide. This appeared to have been an intentional attack against foreigners.
(AP, 1/1/19)
2019 Jan 1, In southern India millions of women stood should to shoulder along highways in Kerala state creating a human wall 300 miles long standing fast against sexism and oppression.
(SFC, 1/3/19, p.A4)
2019 Jan 1, Israel's center-left opposition dramatically split ahead of an April 9 election, with leader Avi Gabbay announcing he would no longer partner with veteran politician Tzipi Livni as she sat stone-faced next to him. The announcement meant the end of their Zionist Union alliance, which secured the second most seats in the last general election in 2015, but has since tumbled far in opinion polls.
(AFP, 1/1/19)
2019 Jan 1, In Malawi Yasin Phiri, an albino, was killed in front of his young son. Local media said the man's arms were hacked off, his teeth pulled and his private parts removed, prompting calls by local and international civil society groups for government action. On March 1 Malawi said it will offer cash rewards of up $7,000 for information about abductions and killing of people with albinism as anger over government inaction grew ahead of national elections.
(Reuters, 3/1/19)
2019 Jan 1, In Mali armed men reportedly attacked a central village, killing 37 civilians, in what appeared to be ethnic violence. Those killed were from the Fulani ethnic group and included the village chief.
(AP, 1/1/19)
2019 Jan 1, Myanmar police clashed with insurgents in the troubled western state of Rakhine. One policeman was critically injured when border guard police were attacked by about 30 men carrying "small and heavy arms" near Saytaung, a village in the Buthidaung area.
(Reuters, 1/2/19)
2019 Jan 1, In Pakistan four Taliban militants stormed a security forces facility in the southwestern town of Loralai, triggering a battle that left four security forces and the attackers dead.
(AP, 1/1/19)
2019 Jan 1, Romania took over the EU's rotating presidency at a tumultuous time for the bloc and just days after European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker voiced doubts about the country's ability to do the job.
(AFP, 1/1/19)
2019 Jan 1, Somalia's government ordered the UN top envoy to the troubled country to leave, accusing him of "deliberately interfering with the country's sovereignty." Nicholas Haysom had raised concerns at the action of Somalia's UN-backed security services in recent violence that left several people dead.
(AFP, 1/2/19)
2019 Jan 1, Taiwanese immigration authorities found 24 Vietnamese and are searched for 124 others who left their tour groups after arriving in December on tourist visas.
(AP, 1/2/19)
2019 Jan 1, Thailand police said Sucheep Sornsung (41) shot and killed six family members, including his two young children, before killing himself after a New Year's party in southern Chumphon province.
(Reuters, 1/1/19)
2019 Jan 1, In Turkmenistan a law took effect forbidding the sale of alcoholic drinks including beer on trains, airplanes and ferries and at sports facilities. It also banned the sale of alcohol on holidays when workers get the day off. The law called for alcohol sales to be banned on Saturdays and Sundays beginning in 2021, except at bars and restaurants.
(AP, 1/1/19)
2019 Jan 1, Pope Francis ushered in the New Year with an ode to motherhood, reminding the faithful that a mother's example and embrace is the best antidote to today's disjointed world of solitude and misery.
(AP, 1/1/19)
2020 Jan 1, New US federal rules came into effect requiring most types of newly sold light bulbs to emit at least 45 lumens of light for each watt of electricity they burn.
(SFC, 1/1/20, p.C2)
2020 Jan 1, New or higher registration fees went into effect for electric vehicle owners in at least eight US states. For the first time, a majority of US states will impose special fees on gas-free cars, SUVs and trucks.
(AP, 12/29/19)
2020 Jan 1, California's landmark gig-work law, AB5, took effect amid a swirl of controversy and escalating challenges.
(SFC, 1/1/20, p.A1)
2020 Jan 1, In California a new law took effect requiring new homes to have rooftop solar panels, better insulation and air filtration systems.
(SFC, 12/26/19, p.A1)
2020 Jan 1, In southern California the 131st Rose Parade in Pasadena drew hundreds of thousands of spectators on New Year's Day.
(AP, 1/1/20)
2020 Jan 1, Nick Gordon (30), the man found liable in the 2015 death of ex-partner Bobbi Kristina Brown (22), died in Florida of a suspected overdose.
(http://tinyurl.com/ttfdlob)(SFC, 1/2/20, p.A4)
2020 Jan 1, In Illinois the sale of marijuana for recreational purposes became legal to the delight of pot fans. Illinois already allowed medical marijuana, but it is now the 11th state to allow its use and sale for recreational purposes.
(AP, 1/1/20)
2020 Jan 1, In Montana two snowmobilers were killed in an avalanche in the Dinah Lake area.
(SFC, 1/3/20, p.A5)
2020 Jan 1, More than 92,000 Jewish people congregated at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey to celebrate the reading of the entire Talmud in an event called Siyum HaShas, drawing a significant security presence after recent anti-Semitic attacks in the area.
(AP, 1/1/20)
2020 Jan 1, Drug makers including Bristol-Myers Squibb Co, Gilead Sciences Inc, and Biogen Inc hiked US list prices on more than 50 drugs, bringing total New Year's Day drug price increases to more than 250.
(Reuters, 1/1/20)
2020 Jan 1, Australia deployed military ships and aircraft to help communities ravaged by apocalyptic wildfires that have left at least 17 people dead nationwide and sent thousands of residents and holidaymakers fleeing to the shoreline.
(AP, 1/1/20)
2020 Jan 1, Egyptian police raided the parents' home of journalist Mohamed el-Garhy, known for his critical views of the government, and arrested his brother.
(AP, 1/2/20)
2020 Jan 1, In western Germany a fire at the Krefeld zoo in the first minutes of 2020 killed more than 30 animals, including apes, monkeys, bats and birds. Police said the fire may have been caused by sky lanterns launched to celebrate the new year.
(AP, 1/1/20)
2020 Jan 1, Hong Kong began 2020 with a familiar sight: Tear gas, fires, vandalism and roadblocks in busy downtown areas as protesters vowed to maintain their fight for more democracy and less Chinese control. Police detained about 400 people on charges including illegal assembly and possession of offensive weapons after the huge rally.
(Bloomberg, 1/1/20)(The Guardian, 1/2/20)
2020 Jan 1, In Indonesia at least nine people were killed as monsoon rains and rising rivers submerged at least 90 neighborhoods in Jakarta. The city has been rapidly sinking due to uncontrolled extraction of groundwater.
(SFC, 1/2/20, p.A2)
2020 Jan 1, Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei strongly condemned deadly US strikes on Iraq and warned his country was ready to confront threats after US President Donald Trump issued one against the Islamic republic.
(AFP, 1/1/20)
2020 Jan 1, In Iraq US troops fired tear gas and rubber bullets at protesters who descended on the US Embassy in Baghdad for a second time. Pro-Iran demonstrators left the besieged US embassy in Baghdad after the Hashed al-Shaabi paramilitary force ordered them to withdraw a day after their dramatic incursion.
(The Week, 1/1/20)(AFP, 1/1/20)
2020 Jan 1, Kim Jong Un declared he was no longer bound by his pledge to halt major missile tests and would soon debut a “new strategic weapon," adding to President Donald Trump’s foreign policy concerns in a politically charged election year.
(Bloomberg, 1/1/20)
2020 Jan 1, Tens of thousands of Palestinians took to the streets in Gaza to mark the 55th anniversary of President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah movement.
(AP, 1/1/20)
2020 Jan 1, Syrian government forces shelled a rebel-held village in the country's northwest, hitting a school and killing at least six people in Idlib province. A car bombing in the town of Suluk, controlled by Turkey-backed opposition fighters, killed three people.
(AP, 1/1/20)
2020 Jan 1, United Nations shipping agency the International Maritime Organization (IMO) banned ships from using fuels with a sulphur content above 0.5%, compared with 3.5% previously, in the biggest shake up for the oil and shipping industries in decades.
(Reuters, 1/22/20)
2020 Jan 1, Yemeni rebels released six Saudi prisoners, a rebel official said, after the kingdom two months ago released over 100 rebels, known as Houthis.
(AP, 1/1/20)
2021 Jan 1, The US Senate voted 81-13 to override President Trump's veto of the $741 billion defense authorization bill. This was Congress' first veto override of Trump's presidency.
(The Week, 1/2/21)
2021 Jan 1, The United States effectively banned anonymous shell companies from operating in the country with the passing of a new anti-corruption law described by campaigners as “historic." The new legislation was included in the annual National Defense Authorization Act.
(The Independent, 1/1/21)
2021 Jan 1, US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi unveiled a package of ethics and legislative reforms for the new Congress set to convene on Jan. 3, including barring former lawmakers convicted of federal crimes from the House floor.
(Reuters, 1/1/21)
2021 Jan 1, A federal appeals court cleared the way for the only woman on federal death row to be executed before President-elect Joe Biden takes office. A three-judge panel concluded that a lower court judge erred when he vacated Lisa Montgomery's execution date in an order last week. Her legal team said it would ask for the full appeals court to review the case and said Montgomery should not be executed on Jan. 12.
(AP, 1/2/21)
2021 Jan 1, The US Coast Guard suspended its search for a boat with about 20 people on board that was three days overdue to arrive in Florida after leaving the Bahamas earlier this week.
(AP, 1/1/21)
2021 Jan 1, In central California seven children and two adult drivers were killed in head-on collision in Fresno County.
(AP, 1/2/21)
2021 Jan 1, California to date had 2,297,064 cases of coronavirus and 25,987 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 264,986 cases and 2,587 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 20,037,736 with the death toll at 346,687.
(sfist.com, 1/1/21)
2021 Jan 1, In Maine Glenn Adams (780), a reporter who chronicled state government, politics and breaking news for The Associated Press for over three decades, died of complications after heart surgery at Maine Medical Center.
(AP, 1/2/21)
2021 Jan 1, In Texas Drill Sgt. Jessica Mitchell (30) was found around 2 a.m. with multiple gunshots to the driver's side door and window of her car along Interstate 10 in San Antonio. Mitchell had been shot several times and was taken to a nearby hospital, but died later from her injuries.
(CBS News, 1/5/21)
2021 Jan 1, Australia changed a lyric in its national anthem from “we are young and free" to “we are one and free" to recognize Indigenous populations that have lived on the continent for more than 60,000 years.
(NY Times, 1/1/21)
2021 Jan 1, The Bosnian military set up tents for hundreds of migrants who have been stuck in a burned-out refugee camp that has no facilities to fend off freezing winter weather.
(AP, 1/1/21)
2021 Jan 1, Bosnian police said 8 young men and women have died in a cottage in the southwest, apparently from carbon monoxide poisoning during a New Year's Eve celebration.
(AP, 1/1/21)
2021 Jan 1, Britain became the latest country to abolish the so-called "tampon tax," eliminating sales taxes on women's sanitary products.
(AP, 1/1/21)
2021 Jan 1, London Mayor Sadiq Khan said the British government has decided to close all primary schools in London for the next two weeks to counter the rapid spread of a more infectious variant of the COVID-19 virus.
(Reuters, 1/1/21)
2021 Jan 1, Chad locked down its capital N'djamena for the first time since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic and has declared a dusk to dawn curfew due to a rise in infections.
(Reuters, 1/1/21)
2021 Jan 1, In Egypt a roadside bomb went off in the northern Sinai Peninsula, killing two members of the country's security forces and wounding five.
(AP, 1/2/21)
2021 Jan 1, French officials said ravers at an underground, curfew-busting New Year’s Eve party that drew at least 2,500 people in Lieuron, Brittany, attacked the police sent to shut them down, torching one of their vehicles and injuring officers with volleys of bottles and stones.
(AP, 1/1/21)
2021 Jan 1, Experts at India's drugs regulator recommended for emergency use two coronavirus vaccines, one developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University and the other backed by a state-run institute.
(AP, 1/2/21)
2021 Jan 1, Iranian Ayatollah Mohammad Taqi Mesbah Yazdi (85), a prominent hard-liner and supporter of the country's ex-president, died in Tehran.
(AP, 1/1/21)
2021 Jan 1, Iraqi explosives experts worked to defuse a large mine discovered on an oil tanker in the Persian Gulf and evacuate its crew. A limpet mine was found a day earlier on the MT Pola, a Liberian-flagged tanker in the waters off the Iraqi port of Basra.
(AP, 1/1/21)
2021 Jan 1, Ireland said it had under-reported coronavirus cases in recent days by thousands more than previously known as its system came under strain, suggesting the EU's fastest growing outbreak is worsening even more rapidly than figures showed.
(Reuters, 1/1/21)
2021 Jan 1, Israel forces tried to stop Palestinians building a house in a village in southern Hebron and seized an electricity generator belonging to Abu Aram (24). Aram was shot in the neck and was left quadriplegic.
(AP, 1/2/21)
2021 Jan 1, In Lebanon celebratory gunfire to ring in the New Year killed a Syrian woman living as a refugee in eastern Lebanon and struck an airplane parked at Beirut's airport in two separate incidents.
(AP, 1/1/21)
2021 Jan 1, In Mexico a female doctor (32) was hospitalized in Nuevo Leone after she experienced seizures, difficulty breathing and a skin rash upon receiving the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine.
(Reuters, 1/2/21)
2021 Jan 1, Farmers digging in a citrus grove near Mexico’s Gulf coast found a striking, six-foot-tall statue of a female figure who may represent an elite woman rather than a goddess. The National Institute of Anthropology and History later said the carved statue, found in a region known as the Huasteca, may date to around 1450 to 1521.
(AP, 1/8/21)
2021 Jan 1, Portuguese singer Carlos do Carmo (81) died. He was one of the country's most beloved artists, known as the "Sinatra" of the soulful, melancholic fado music.
(Reuters, 1/1/21)
2021 Jan 1, The Thai capital of Bangkok said it will close all schools for two weeks after the New Year holiday as it tightens measures to control a new wave of the coronavirus pandemic.
(Reuters, 1/1/21)
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