Today in History - January 3
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For Asia History: https://www.asiaobserver.org/category/news/on-this-day-in-asian-history
106BC Jan 3, Marcus Cicero (d.43BCE), Roman orator, statesman and author, was born. He was elected Consul in 63. He chose to support Pompey over Caesar and was murdered by Mark Antony: "What is more unwise than to mistake uncertainty for certainty, falsehood for truth?"
(V.D.-H.K.p.74)(AP, 4/10/98)(HN, 1/3/99)
1521 Jan 3, Pope Leo X excommunicated Martin Luther from the Roman Catholic Church.
(NH, 9/96, p.18)(AP, 1/3/98)
1543 Jan 3, Spanish explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo (43-44) died of gangrene and was buried at San Miguel. He was injured in December while helping defend his men fight off a band of Indians in the Channel Islands off California. In 1989 Harry Kelsey authored the biography “Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo."
(NPS-CNM, 4/1/97)(SFC, 10/18/14, p.A1)
1621 Jan 3, William Tucker was born. He is believed to be first American born African-American. [1624 date also given]
(HN, 1/3/99)(MC, 1/3/02)
1641 Jan 3, Jeremiah Horrocks (22), English astronomical prodigy, died.
(MC, 1/3/02)
1670 Jan 3, George Monck (61), English general (to the-sea), died.
(MC, 1/3/02)
1754 Jan 3, Joseph Black, a medical student at the Univ. of Edinburgh, rediscovered carbon dioxide after pouring acid into a tall glass containing some chalk Black had read Helmont’s memoirs and so knew of gas sylvestris. A candle near the glass was snuffed out due to the outpouring of carbon dioxide. He also found that carbon dioxide will precipitate out of limewater when exposed to a strong source of carbon dioxide gas. Black later attained a professorship and had James Watt, engine-builder, as one of his first assistants.
(NOHY, 3/90, p.5,42)
1777 Jan 3, Gen. George Washington's army routed the British led by Cornwallis in the Battle of Princeton, N.J.
(AP, 1/3/98)(HN, 1/3/99)
1793 Jan 3, Lucretia Coffin Mott women’s rights activist, was born. She was a teacher, minister, antislavery leader and founder of the 1st Women’s Rights Convention.
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)(HN, 1/3/02)
1795 Jan 3, The 3rd division of the Lithuanian Polish Republic was made between Russia and Austria.
(Voruta #27-28, Jul 1996, p.5)
1795 Jan 3, Josiah Wedgwood (b.1730), British ceramics manufacturer, died. His daughter, Susannah, was the mother of Charles Darwin. In 2004 Brian Dolan authored “Wedgwood: The First Tycoon."
(SSFC, 12/5/04, p.E5)(www.wedgwoodmuseum.org.uk/wedgwood_chronology.htm)
1825 Jan 3, Scottish factory owner Robert Owen bought 30,000 acres in Indiana as site for New Harmony utopian community.
(MC, 1/3/02)
1833 Jan 3, Britain ousted a small group of Argentine settlers and seized control of the Malvina Islands (Falkland Islands) in the South Atlantic. In 1982 Argentina seized the islands, but Britain took them back after a 74-day war.
(AP, 1/3/98)(SFC, 4/3/02, p.A7)
1852 Jan 3, The 1st Chinese arrive in Hawaii.
(MC, 1/3/02)
1856 Jan 3, John Thompson (1827-1876), Norway-born immigrant, departed Placerville, Ca., with skies and snow shoes on his first mail run to Carson City, Nevada. By the spring of 1857 he made 31 crossings of the Sierra to deliver mail.
(ON, 4/10, p.7)
1861 Jan 3, Delaware rejected a proposal that it join the South in seceding.
(HN, 1/3/99)
1861 Jan 3, US Ft. Pulaski & Ft. Jackson, Savannah, were seized by Georgia.
(MC, 1/3/02)
1864 Jan 3, John Joseph Hughes (b.1797), Irish-born Archbishop of the Catholic diocese of NY, died.
(WSJ, 12/5/08, p.A19)(www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/John-Joseph-Hughes)
1868 Jan 3, Emperor Meiji ascended the throne and assumed power. The Meiji Restoration re-established the authority of Japan's emperor and heralded the fall of the military rulers known as shoguns. The feudal clan system was abolished and industrialism was started. Japan opened itself up to the West, thereby obtaining the benefits of western technology. With the erosion of the Tokugawa bakufu system and international pressure to open the country, the boy emperor Mutsuhito—later known by the name Meiji—became the political leader replacing the Tokugawa shogunate. The social and political changes during the Meiji period (1868-1912) had begun in the late Tokugawa period, but were only formalized with the creation of the Meiji constitution in 1889.
(V.D.-H.K.p.243,286)(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 215)(AP, 1/3/98)(HNQ, 11/21/00)
1870 Jan 3, Construction of the Brooklyn Bridge began.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooklyn_Bridge)
1871 Jan 3, Henry W. Bradley patented oleomargarine in Binghamton, NY.
(AH, 2/06, p.14)
1879 Jan 3, Grace Coolidge (Goodhue) First Lady: wife of 30th U.S. President Calvin Coolidge [1923-29], was born.
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)(HN, 1/3/99)
1883 Jan 3, Clement Attlee Britain’s prime minister [1945-1951; head of Labour Party, was born.
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1885 Jan 3, Anna Pavlova, Russia’s premier ballerina, was born.
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1888 Jan 3, Marvin C. Stone of Washington, DC, patented the drinking straw.
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1892 Jan 3, J.R.R. Tolkien, author of the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, was born in Bloemfontein, South Africa. "All that is gold does not glitter; not all those that wander are lost."
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)(AP, 1/5/99)(AP, 1/3/00)
1897 Jan 3, Marion (Cecilia Douras) Davies actress: Runaway Romany, When Knighthood Was in Flower, The Patsy, Show People, Going Hollywood, was born.
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1898 Jan 3, Zasu Pitts actress: Busby Berkeley’s 1933 musical: Dames, was born.
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1901 Jan 3, Ngo Dinh Diem, South Vietnamese president (1955-63), was born.
(HN, 1/3/99)(MC, 1/3/02)
1903 Jan 3, The Bulgarian government renounced the treaty of commerce tying it to Austro-Hungarian empire.
(HN, 1/3/99)
1905 Jan 3, Ray Milland (Reginald Truscott-Jones) Academy Award-winning actor: The Lost Weekend [1945], We’re Not Dressing, Star-Spangled Rhythm, Lady in the Dark, Let’s Do It Again, X: The Man with X-Ray Eyes, was born.
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1909 Jan 3, Victor Borge (Borge Rosenbaum) pianist, comedian, was born.
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1910 Jan 3, British miners struck for an 8 hour working day.
(MC, 1/3/02)
1910 Jan 3, The Social Democratic Congress in Germany demanded universal suffrage.
(HN, 1/3/99)
1911 Jan 3, Joseph Rauh civil rights activist: cofounded Americans for Democratic Action; member: executive board of NAACP; general counsel: Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, was born.
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1911 Jan 3, John Sturges director: Bad Day at Black Rock, Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, The Magnificent Seven, The Great Escape, Ice Station Zebra, The Eagle Has Landed, was born.
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1911 Jan 3, The Siege of Sidney Street, also known as the Battle of Stepney, was a gunfight in the East End of London between a combined police and army force and two Latvian revolutionaries. At the end the bodies of William Sokoloff and Fritz Svaars were found inside and one fireman was killed as the building collapsed. Winston Churchill (36) reportedly directed the operations.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Sidney_Street)(Econ., 12/19/20, p.37)
1912 Jan 3, Plans were announced for a new $150,000 Brooklyn stadium for the Trolley Dodgers baseball team.
(HN, 1/3/99)
1915 Jan 3, Jack Levine, artist, was born in Boston, Mass. His social realist and expressionist art included political and satirical undertones.
(SFC, 7/24/04, p.E1)
1916 Jan 3, Betty Furness, consumer advocate, TV spokesperson for refrigerators, was born.
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1916 Jan 3, Three armored Japanese cruisers were ordered to guard the Suez Canal.
(HN, 1/3/99)
1918 Jan 3, Maxene Andrews was born. Singer with sisters LaVerne and Patti: The Andrews Sisters: Why Talk About Love?, A Simple Melody, Bei Mir Bist Du Schön, Rum and Coca Cola; solo: I Suppose; on Broadway with Patti: Over Here.
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1920 Jan 3, The Red Sox sold Babe Ruth to the Yankees for $100,000, twice the amount of any previous player transaction. The deal also included a $300,000 loan secured by a mortgage on Fenway Park, a contractual clause that made the Yankees owners the Red Sox's landlords.
(http://espn.go.com/sportscentury/features/00242487.html)
1920 Jan 3, The last of the U.S. troops quit France.
(HN, 1/3/99)
1921 Jan 3, John Russell, actor: Forever Amber, Rio Bravo, Pale Rider, was born.
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1921 Jan 3, The state capitol in Charleston, West Virginia, was destroyed by a fire. Ammunition, bought by the West Virginia State Police two years before, was stored on the top floor of the building. The ammunition had been purchased for use in the coal field disputes which had threatened to erupt into civil war.
(http://www.charlestonwv.net/community/capitol.html)
1921 Jan 3, Italy halted the issue of passports to those emigrating to the U.S.
(HN, 1/3/99)
1922 Jan 3, Bill Travers, producer, director, actor: Born Free, was born.
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1924 Jan 3, Hank Stram, football: coach, was born: Kansas City Chiefs: Super Bowls I, IV; sportscaster: CBS radio.
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1924 Jan 3, Howard Carter opened the doors to the last shrine in the hall, revealing the large stone sarcophagus of the Pharaoh Tutankhamen. The next day Carter was photographed with Arthur Callender and an Egyptian workman in the Burial Chamber, looking through the open doors of the four gilded shrines, towards the quartzite sarcophagus tomb of Tutankhamun.
(http://tinyurl.com/6crmufa)(www.griffith.ox.ac.uk/gri/4acphot.html)
1925 Jan 3, Benito Mussolini dissolved the Italian parliament and became dictator.
(MC, 1/3/02)
1926 Jan 3, Joan Walsh Anglund, author, was born: Bedtime Book, Crocus in the Snow; illustrator of children’s books.
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1926 Jan 3, George Martin record producer, arranger, keyboard player, was born: group: The Beatles; AIR Studios; inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame [3-15-99].
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1929 Jan 3, William S. Paley (27) became CBS president.
(MC, 1/3/02)
1930 Jan 3, Robert Loggia actor, was born: Independence Day, Wild Palms, Big, Armed and Dangerous, Prizzi’s Honor, Scarface, Psycho 2, Pink Panther series, A Woman Called Golda, Speedtrap, An Officer and a Gentleman, The Greatest Story Ever Told, Somebody Up There Likes Me, Mancuso FBI.
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1930 Jan 3, The second conference on war reparations began in the Hague.
(HN, 1/3/99)
1931 Jan 3, Hundreds of farmers stormed a small town in depression-plagued Arkansas demanding food.
(HN, 1/3/99)
1932 Jan 3, Coo Coo (Clifton) Marlin auto race: Winston Cup star, was born.
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1932 Jan 3, Dabney Coleman actor, was born: Judicial Consent, The Beverly Hillbillies, Amos and Andrew, Clifford, Never Forget, Short Time, Dragnet, The Man with One Red Shoe, Tootsie, On Golden Pond, 9 to 5, North Dallas Forty, The Other Side of the Mountain, Cinderella Liberty, The President’s Plane is Missing, Buffalo Bill.
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1933 Jan 3, The Japanese took Shuangyashan, China, killing 500 in the process.
(HN, 1/3/99)
1935 Jan 3, James Michael Curley (1874-1958), former mayor of Boston, began serving as governor of Massachusetts.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Michael_Curley)
1938 Jan 3, The first broadcast of Woman in White was presented on the NBC Red network. The program remained on radio for 10 years and was one of the first to feature real doctors and nurses in leading roles.
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1938 Jan 3, The March of Dimes was established by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to fight poliomyelitis. Roosevelt himself was afflicted with polio. The organization was originally called the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, as the disease was commonly known.
(AP, 1/3/98)(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1939 Jan 3, Bobby Hull, ‘The Golden Jet’: Hockey Hall of Famer, was born: Chicago Blackhawks left wing: Hart Memorial Trophy, NHL’s MVP award [1965, 1966]; Lady Byng Trophy for good sportsmanship [1965]; 1st pro hockey player to score more than 50 goals in one season [54: 1965].
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1939 Jan 3, Tennis legend Don Budge played a pro tennis match, his first in Madison Square Garden, NY, before 6,000 spectators. Budge was touring the country as the top U.S. tennis player, having won the grand slam of tennis (Australian, French and U.S. Opens and Wimbledon) the year before.
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1940 Jan 3, The Southland Shuffle was recorded on Bluebird Records by Charlie Barnet and his orchestra. A young trumpet player named Billy May was featured.
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1941 Jan 3, Canada & US acquired air bases in Newfoundland with a 99 year lease.
(MC, 1/3/02)
1943 Jan 3, A US B-17 bomber was downed over France following a bombing run over a German submarine base in southern France. John Roten, navigator, was the only survivor. Roten spent 28 months as a POW.
(SFC, 9/10/01, p.A11)
1944 Jan 3, Jurgis Baltrušaitis (b.1873), Lithuanian Symbolist poet and translator, died in Paris. He wrote his works in Lithuanian and Russian. In addition to his important contributions to Lithuanian literature, he was noted as a political activist and diplomat. Baltrušaitis was appointed Lithuania's ambassador to Russia in 1920 and held this position until 1939.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jurgis_Baltru%C5%A1aitis)
1945 Jan 3, Stephen Stills, singer, songwriter, guitarist: group, was born: Buffalo Springfield: For What It’s Worth; group: Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young.
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1945 Jan 3, US aircraft carriers attacked Okinawa.
(MC, 1/3/02)
1945 Jan 3, Edgar Cayce (b.1877), American self-proclaimed psychic from Kentucky, died. Jess Stearn (d.2002) authored "The Sleeping Prophet: The Life and work of Edgar Cayce" (1968), and "A Prophet in His Own Country: The Story of the Young Edgar Cayce" (1974). In 2000 Sidney D. Kirkpatrick authored Edgar Cayce, An American Prophet.
(SFEC, 7/26/98, BR p.3)(SSFC, 1/14/01, BR p.12)(SFC, 4/2/02, p.A15)(SFC, 8/7/08, p.E6)
1946 Jan 3, John Paul Jones, musician, was born as John Baldwin in Kent, England: film score: Scream for Help; group: Led Zeppelin: Whole Lotta Love, Moby Dick, Ramble On, Immigrant Song, Since I’ve Been Loving You, Black Dog, Rock & Roll, The Battle of Evermore, Stairway to Heaven.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Paul_Jones_%28musician%29)
1946 Jan 3, Don May, basketball player, was born: Univ. of Dayton, Indiana Pacers.
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1946 Jan 3, President Truman called on Americans to spur Congress to act on the on-going labor crisis.
(HN, 1/3/99)
1946 Jan 3, William Joyce, (Lord Haw Haw), was hanged in Britain for treason. He had broadcast for the Nazis to British and American fighting troops. In 2005 Nigel Farndale authored “Haw-Haw: The Tragedy of William and Margaret Joyce."
(www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/William-Joyce)(Econ, 7/30/05, p.77)
1947 Jan 3, At the top of the record charts:
Ole Buttermilk Sky by The Kay Kyser Orchestra (vocal: Mike Douglas & The Campus Kids).
The Old Lamplighter by The Sammy Kaye Orchestra (vocal: Billy Williams).
For Sentimental Reasons by Nat King Cole.
Divorce Me C.O.D. by Merle Travis.
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1947 Jan 3, Congressional proceedings were televised for the first time as viewers in Washington, Philadelphia and New York City saw some of the opening ceremonies of the 80th Congress.
(AP, 1/3/98)
1947 Jan 3, In Trenton, New Jersey, Al Herrin, the handyman who claimed he had no bed to sleep in because he had never slept a wink in his life, passed away at age 92. He was famed for catnapping in chairs but never sleeping in a bed. No bed was found in his living quarters after he died. Doctors said there was evidence that he had gone several months without sleep and they confirmed that if he went that long, it could well be that he was awake his entire life.
(SFC, 12/4/94, p. S-8)(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1948 Jan 3, King Michael left Romania. His Peles Castle in Sinaia was confiscated by the Communists. In 2006 it was returned to the former king.
(SFC, 10/20/00, p.A16)(SFC, 5/24/06, p.A2)
1950 Jan 3, Bart (Clair Barth) Johnson baseball, was born.: pitcher: Chicago White Sox.
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1950 Jan 3, Rick MacLeish, hockey player, was born: London Nationals, Oklahoma City Blazers, Philadelphia Flyers, Hartford Whalers, Pittsburgh Penguins, Detroit Red Wings.
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1950 Jan 3, Victoria Principal, actress, was born: Dallas, Fantasy Island, Scott Turow’s The Burden of Proof, Naked Lie, Blind Witness, Mistress, Pleasure Palace, Earthquake, Life & Times of Judge Roy Bean.
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1950 Jan 3, Albert Cobo (1893-1957) began serving as mayor of Detroit. He pursued the building of motorways by razing black neighborhoods, sowing the seeds for the race riots of 1967.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Cobo)(Econ, 9/16/17, p.21)
1952 Jan 3, A revived "Pal Joey" opened at Broadhurst Theater, NYC, for 542 performances.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pal_Joey_%28musical%29)
1952 Jan 3, "Dragnet" with Jack Webb premiered on NBC TV.
(MC, 1/3/02)
1953 Jan 3, Frances Bolton and her son, Oliver from Ohio, became the first mother-son combination to serve at the same time in the United States Congress.
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1954 Jan 3, Albert Einstein wrote a letter to the philosopher Eric Gutkind describing belief in God as "childish superstition" and saying Jews were not the chosen people. In 2008 the letter was put up for auction and sold for $404,000.
(AFP, 5/13/08)(AP, 5/16/08)
1955 Jan 3, Melody Anderson, actress, was born.: Marilyn & Bobby: Her Final Affair, Landslide, Hitler’s Daughter, Final Notice, Speed Zone, Firewalker, Beverly Hills Madam, Policewoman Centerfold, Dead and Buried, Flash Gordon, Manimal.
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1955 Jan 3, At the top of the record charts:
Mr. Sandman by The Chordettes.
Let Me Go, Lover by Joan Weber.
The Naughty Lady of Shady Lane by The Ames Brothers.
More and More by Webb Pierce.
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1956 Jan 3, Mel Gibson, Academy Award-winning director and actor, was born in Peekskill, New York. His films included Braveheart (1995) actor and director; Maverick, The Man Without a Face, Lethal Weapon series, Forever Young, Hamlet, Bird on a Wire, Tequila Sunrise, Mad Max series, Mrs. Soffel, The Road Warrior, The Year of Living Dangerously, Summer City.
(http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000154/)
1957 Jan 3, The Hamilton Watch Company was the first to introduce an electric watch in Lancaster, Pa.
(http://rondeau.net/history.html)
1958 Jan 3, The first six members of the newly formed US Commission on Civil Rights held their first meeting at the White House after they were sworn in by President Eisenhower.
(AP, 1/3/08)
1958 Jan 3, Edmund Hillary reached the South Pole (Antarctica) overland. Hillary was part of a joint New Zealand-British ice trek that drove farm tractors on the Skelton Glacier to the South Pole. He beat Vivian Fuchs to the South Pole by 17 days.
(SFC, 1/14/99, p.C2)(MC, 1/3/02)
1958 Jan 3, The British created the West Indies Federation with Lord Hailes as governor general. The federation lasted to 1962. It included Barbados, Jamaica, Trinidad, Tobago and the Windward and Leeward Islands.
(HN, 1/3/99)(WUD, 1994, p.1623)
1959 Jan 3, President Eisenhower signed a proclamation admitting Alaska to the Union as the 49th state. Its area is 586,412 sq. mls. Capital: Juneau; bird: willow ptarmigan; flower: forget-me-not; nickname: The Last Frontier.
(TMC, 1994, p.1959)(THM, 4/27/97, p.L5)(AP, 1/3/98)(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1959 Jan 3, Fidel Castro took command of the Cuban army.
(HN, 1/3/99)
1961 Jan 3, The United States severed diplomatic relations with Cuba after Fidel Castro announced he was a communist. The US Guantanamo Bay base remained under US control.
(AP, 1/3/98)(HN, 1/3/99)(MC, 1/3/02)
1962 Jan 3, Pope John XXIII excommunicated Fidel Castro.
(MC, 1/3/02)
1963 Jan 3, Top hits:
Telstar by The Tornadoes
Bobby’s Girl by Marcie Blane
Go Away Little Girl by Steve Lawrence
Don’t Let Me Cross Over by Carl Butler & Pearl (Dee Jones).
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1964 Jan 3, Barry Goldwater announced that he was a candidate for the U.S. Presidency. He lost to Lyndon B. Johnson: 43,126,506 to 27,176,799.
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1965 Jan 3, UC Berkeley officials announced a new campus policy that allowed political activity on campus.
(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.F5)
1966 Jan 3, Cambodia warned the UN of retaliation unless the U.S. and South Vietnam end intrusions.
(HN, 1/3/99)
1967 Jan 3, Mary Garden (b.1874), Scottish opera star, died in Inverurie, Scotland.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Garden)
1967 Jan 3, Jack Ruby (55), the man who shot accused presidential assassin Lee Harvey Oswald, died in a Dallas hospital.
(AP, 1/3/98)
1969 Jan 3, Police in Newark, NJ, confiscated 30,000 copies of the John Lennon, Yoko Ono album, Two Virgins. A nude photo of John and Yoko on the cover violated pornography laws in Jersey.
(www.goatview.com/january03.htm)
1970 Jan 3, "Mame" closed at Winter Garden Theater in NYC after 1508 performances.
(http://www.ibdb.com/production.php?id=3142)
1971 Jan 3, At the top of the record charts: "My Sweet Lord and Isn’t It" a Pity by George Harrison; "Knock Three Times" by Dawn; "Black Magic Woman" by Santana; and "Rose Garden" by Lynn Anderson.
(www.mbgtop40.com/chartreviews/1971/week10of1971.html)
1972 Jan 3, Don McLean received a gold record for his 8-minute-plus (8:32) hit, American Pie.
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1973 Jan 3, The Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) got out of the baseball business this day by selling the New York Yankees to a 12-man syndicate headed by George Steinbrenner III for $8.8 million. Steinbrenner (1930-2010) put up barely $100,000.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1973_New_York_Yankees_season)(Econ, 7/17/10, p.38)
1974 Jan 3, Following eight years of inactivity, Bob Dylan and The Band began his 2-month concert tour in Chicago, IL. The tour was recorded and later released as a double-LP set titled, “Before the Flood."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Dylan_and_The_Band_1974_Tour)
1975 Jan 3, President Ford signed Public Law 93-620. This Act, written to enlarge the Grand Canyon National Park, also provided in Section 10 for the enlargement of the adjacent Havasupai Indian Reservation by 185,000 acres and designated a contiguous 95,300 acres of the enlarged National Park as a permanent traditional use area of the Havasupai Indians of Havasu Canyon, Arizona.
(SSFC, 2/19/06, p.F4)(www.tribal-institute.org/envirotext/89.htm)
1975 Jan 3, President Gerald Ford signed the Jackson-Vanik amendment into law, after both houses of the United States Congress unanimously voted for its adoption. Congress had passed the Jackson-Vanik amendment for economic sanctions on Russia to pressure the Soviet Union to allow unfettered emigration for Soviet Jews. Pres. Bush in 2001 proposed that it be lifted.
(WSJ, 11/5/01, p.A1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackson-Vanik_amendment)
1975 Jan 3, The US Trade Act of 1974 was enacted.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trade_Act_of_1974)
1976 Jan 3, Pres. Gerald Ford signed the American Folklife Preservation Act. San Francisco Folklorist Aaron Green (1917-2009) had lobbied Congress for the passage of the bill.
(www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=6021)
1977 Jan 3, Apple Computers incorporated under Steven Jobs and Steve Wozniak. In March Apple produced the Apple II, the first pre-assembled, mass-produced PC.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Computer)(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R42)
1978 Jan 3, In India the Congress Party split and Indira Gandhi became head of the larger faction.
(WUD, 1994, p.1691)
1978 Jan 3, Vietnamese troops were reported to be occupying 400 square miles in Cambodia. North Vietnamese Army (NVA) troops were using Laos and Cambodia as staging areas for attacks against allied forces.
(HN, 1/3/02)
1979 Jan 3, The top of the record charts included: Le Freak by Chic; Too Much Heaven by the Bee Gees; My Life by Billy Joel; The Gambler by Kenny Rogers.
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1979 Jan 3, Conrad Hilton (b.1887), American founder of the Hilton Hotel chain, died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conrad_Nicholson_Hilton)
1980 Jan 3, Conservationist Joy Adamson (69), author of "Born Free," was killed in northern Kenya by a servant.
(AP, 1/3/98)(WSJ, 9/8/00, p.W4)
1981 Jan 3, John Lennon’s (Just Like) Starting Over and the album Double Fantasy topped the pop music charts just weeks after the death of the former Beatle.
(www.440.com/twtd/today.html)
1982 Jan 3, A small plane crashed into the peak of White Mountain in northern California. Donnie Priest (10), the only survivor, was rescued 5 days later but lost both legs due to frostbite. His mother and stepfather were killed in the crash.
(SSFC, 11/25/07, p.A1)
1983 Jan 3, In Hawaii the Pu’u O’o vent of the Kilauea volcano lit up the skies for the first time and began a state of almost constant eruption.
(SFEC, 4/2/00, p.T6)
1985 Jan 3, Soprano Leontyne Price, part of the Met since 1961, bid adieu to the Metropolitan Opera in New York. She sang the title role of Aida.
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1985 Jan 3, President Reagan condemned a rash of arsons on abortion clinics.
(HN, 1/3/99)
1986 Jan 3, The British Banker’s Association started publishing the London inter-bank offered rates (LIBOR), a measure of interest rates banks pay when they borrow from one another. The rate is subjective by design and not a statistical measure.
(http://mortgage-x.com/general/indexes/wsj_libor_history.asp?y=1986)(Econ, 3/10/12, p.84)
1987 Jan 3, At the top of the record charts included: Walk Like an Egyptian by the Bangles; Everybody Have Fun Tonight by Wang Chung; Notorious by Duran Duran; Mind Your Own Business by Hank Williams, Jr.
(www.440.com/twtd/archives/jan03.html)
1987 Jan 3, The first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was ‘Lady Soul’: Aretha Franklin (b.1942). Bill Haley was among the 14 others inducted.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aretha_Franklin)(http://tinyurl.com/mn5j6)
1975 Jan 3, Milton J. Cross (b.1897), TV announcer (Met Opera), died.
(www.imdb.com/name/nm0189229/)
1988 Jan 3, Margaret Thatcher (b.1925) became the longest serving British PM this century.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/January_3)
1988 Jan 3, The Israeli Army ordered nine Palestinian activists deported from West Beirut as part of a controversial crackdown to stop the uprising in the occupied territories. Israeli raids on Palestinian and Progressive Socialist Party positions in the region of Saida make killed 21 persons and wounded 11.
(AP, 1/3/98)(http://tinyurl.com/zz87m)
1990 Jan 3, Ousted Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega surrendered to U.S. forces, 10 days after taking refuge in the Vatican's diplomatic mission.
(AP, 1/3/98)
1991 Jan 3, The 102nd Congress convened, plunging immediately into acrimonious debate over the Persian Gulf crisis. President Bush proposed direct talks between Secretary of State James A. Baker the Third and Iraqi Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz.
(AP, 1/3/01)
1992 Jan 3, In California, police pursued a driver who had killed another motorist along Interstate 5 for more than 300 miles until the car ran out of gas in Westminster; the driver was shot to death after officers said he pointed a shotgun at them.
(AP, 1/3/02)
1992 Jan 3, The Dow Jones industrial average closed above 3,200 for the first time, ending the day at 3,201.48.
(AP, 1/3/02)
1992 Jan 3, The UN, led by US Sec. of State Cyrus Vance, brokered a cease-fire between the Croatian government and rebel Serbs. Following subsequent breaches the UN Protection Force (UNPROFOR) put 14,000 peacekeeping troops into Croatia. The European Community (EC) recognized the independence of Croatia.
(SFC,10/16/97, p.A12)(SFC, 6/11/96, p.A14)
1993 Jan 3, The START II Treaty was signed between the US and Russia by President Bush and Russian President Boris Yeltsin. It was to eliminate land-based multiple-warhead missiles and reduce the long-range nuclear arsenals.
(SFEC, 12/1/96, Parade p.6)(AP, 1/3/98)
1993 Jan 3, Three days after he was jeered in Sarajevo, U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali took refuge from angry Somalis in Mogadishu.
(AP, 1/3/98)
1995 Jan 3, The US Postal Service raised the price of a first-class stamp to 32 cents.
(AP, 1/3/05)
1995 Jan 3, Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo announced an emergency plan for wage and price controls and budget cuts to stabilize the peso and combat spiraling inflation. The peso had lost 37% of its value since Dec. 20, 1994.
(WSJ, 1/13/95, p.A-3)(AP, 1/3/00)
1996 Jan 3, As a partial US government shutdown spilled into its record 19th day, stubborn House Republicans rebuffed a Senate bill that would have immediately returned idled federal workers to their jobs.
(AP, 1/3/01)
1996 Jan 3, US House speaker Newt Gingrich hired Christina Jeffrey to the post of historian for the House of Representatives.
(WSJ, 5/28/96, p. A-18)
1997 Jan 3, Bryant Gumbel ended his 15-year career as host of the NBC morning show “Today."
(SFC, 1/4/97, p.E1)(AP, 1/3/98)
1997 Jan 3, Pres. Clinton waived indefinitely the part of the Helms-Burton law that would punish foreign companies that used American property confiscated in Cuba 40 years ago.
(SFC, 1/4/97, p.A3)
1997 Jan 3, President Clinton declared northern Nevada a major disaster area following days of rain that sent rivers over their banks in the Reno and Carson City area.
(AP, 1/3/98)
1997 Jan 3, Las Vegas had a total of 101,106 hotel rooms as of this date.
(SFEC, 5/10/98, DB p.64)
1997 Jan 3, In NY in Centereach, Long Island, William Sodders (21) shot and killed, James Halverson, a firefighter out on a jog, in a random murder. Sodders was later turned in to police by his father after admitting to him the murder. Sodders was said to be influenced by the film “Natural Born Killers." Halverson left a wife pregnant with twins and a 4-year-old daughter.
(SFC, 8/15/97, p.A7)
1997 Jan 3, In Washington a diplomat from Georgia, Gueorgui Makharadze, was in a car crash that killed a 16-year-old girl. Police said he was drinking, but he refused a breath test.
(SFC, 1/8/97, p.A17)
1997 Jan 3, In Europe the 11th day of a cold front left some 206 dead.
(SFC, 1/4/97, p.A8)
1997 Jan 3, In Mexico a Jalisco state judge dismissed drug trafficking charges against Hector Luis Palma, leader of the Sinaloa drug cartel. He was sentenced to 6 years on lesser charges.
(SFC, 1/9/97, p.A12)
1997 Jan 3, In Rwanda two Hutu men were sentenced to death for their role in the 1994 genocide.
(SFC, 1/4/97, p.A10)
1998 Jan 3, Peter Christoff, Prof. of Russian history at SF State Univ., died at age 86. His dissertation was on Alexander Herzen and Mikhail Bakunin and he later specialized on the Slavophil movement, which attempted to reinforce Orthodox Christian values and Slavic cultural traditions in the former USSR. His main work was a 4-volume “History of Russian Slavism."
(SFC, 1/16/98, p.A19)
1998 Jan 3, In Meknassa, Algeria, a 117 people were killed. In Chekala some 200 people were killed. Villagers fled their homes and sought shelter in big-city public squares.
(SFC, 1/7/98, p.A8)
1999 Jan 3, The Mars Polar Lander was launched. Landing was scheduled for Dec 3 with probes designed to burrow 3 feet into the Mars surface.
(SFC, 12/11/98, p.D6)(SFC, 1/4/99, p.A2)
1999 Jan 3, Chicagoans dug out from their biggest snowstorm in more than 30 years.
(AP, 1/3/00)
1999 Jan 3, In Wyoming Cindy Thompson Dixon (40) was found dead near a road about 5 miles north of Laramie. She was reported to have frozen to death after leaving a bar. She was the mother of Russell Henderson (21), who was waiting in jail for trial in the death of Matthew Shepard. Henderson pleaded guilty to murder in 1999 to avoid a trial and possible death sentence. He was sentenced to 2 consecutive life terms without eligibility for parole.
(SFC, 1/5/99, p.A3)(SFC, 1/6/99, p.A3)(SFC, 4/6/99, p.A1)
1999 Jan 3, In Indonesia 6 people died following a riot touched off by a military raid in Aceh province. The military sought Ahmad Kandang, leader of the separatist Free Aceh movement.
(SFC, 1/4/99, p.A8)
1999 Jan 3, Israeli warplanes attacked Hezbollah positions in southern Lebanon and wounded 6 people including a woman (55) and her 4 daughters.
(SFC, 1/4/99, p.A22)
1999 Jan 3, In Israel police detained 8 adults and 6 children belonging to the Concerned Christians sect from Denver, Colo. Police said the group under Monte Kim Miller planned violent acts to hasten the 2nd coming of Christ. 11 of the members were ordered to be deported.
(SFC, 1/4/99, p.A1)(SFC, 1/5/99, p.A8)(SFC, 1/6/99, p.A1)
1999 Jan 3, In Pakistan a bomb intended for Prime Minister Sharif killed 3 civilians and a police official. The Muttahida Qami Movement (MQM) was suspected. The MQM represented Urdu-speaking people who immigrated from British India in 1947.
(SFC, 1/4/99, p.A8)
2000 Jan 3, The last new daily “Peanuts" strip by Charles Schulz ran in 26-hundred newspapers.
(AP, 1/3/01)
2000 Jan 3, Pres. Clinton opened peace talks between Syria and Israel in Shepherdstown, West Virginia.
(SFC, 1/4/00, p.A1)
2000 Jan 3, In Brazil flooding killed at least 11 people in Rio de Janeiro.
(WSJ, 1/4/00, p.A1)
2000 Jan 3, In Croatia a center-left coalition won the elections over the nationalist Democratic Union (HDZ). Leading the coalition were Ivica Racan (55) of the Social Democratic Party and Drazen Budisa (52) of the Social-Liberals.
(SFC, 1/4/00, p.A10)
2000 Jan 3, A curfew was imposed in southern Egypt following violence between Muslims and Christians that left 20 Christians and Muslim dead in the village of el-Kusheh (Al Kosheh).
(SFC, 1/4/00, p.A12)(SFC, 6/30/01, p.A10)
2000 Jan 3, Germany reported plans to cut the tax on profits from sales of shares held less than a year, making 50% of the gains taxable rather than 100%. The change would be effective in 2001.
(WSJ, 1/4/00, p.A1)
2000 Jan 3, In Indonesia new fighting in the Spice Islands left at least 18 people dead.
(SFC, 1/4/00, p.A12)
2000 Jan 3, In India controlled Kashmir a land mine killed 17 people.
(WSJ, 1/4/00, p.A1)
2000 Jan 3, In Beirut, Lebanon, assailants fired rocket-propelled grenades at the Russian Embassy. One police officer and one attacker were killed. In northern Lebanon Muslim militants killed 4 soldiers and 3 hostages.
(SFC, 1/4/00, p.A10,12)
2000 Jan 3, In Russia acting Pres. Putin fired Tatyana Dyachenko, the daughter of Boris Yeltsin and Kremlin image advisor from her post in one of his first official acts, moving quickly to distance himself from Yeltsin’s scandal-tinged administration.
(SFC, 1/4/00, p.A10)(AP, 1/3/01)
2000 Jan 3, In Sri Lanka fighting was reported at a key northern pass that had left 60 people dead on both sides.
(WSJ, 1/3/00, p.A1)
2001 Jan 3, Oklahoma defeated Florida State, 13-to-2, to win the Orange Bowl and capture college football's Bowl Championship Series title game.
(AP, 1/3/02)
2001 Jan 3, The 107th Congress opened with the Senate split evenly down the middle. Because of the 50-50 divide, the Democrats were initially in control, since Vice President Al Gore could break ties, but the Republicans took over on Inauguration Day when Dick Cheney became vice president. However, the Senate reverted to Democratic control when Vermont Sen. James Jeffords switched his affiliation from Republican to Independent in May.
(SFC, 1/4/01, p.A3)(AP, 1/3/02)
2001 Jan 3, The US Federal Reserve under Alan Greenspan, outside its normal schedule of meetings, reduced interest rates by a half % and sent the Nasdaq up 324 points to 2616. The Dow rose 299 to 10,945.
(SFC, 1/4/01, p.A1)(Econ, 10/20/07, SR p.16)
2001 Jan 3, In Delaware a fire at an Oak Orchard rural home killed 11 Wright-Shelton family members including 7 children.
(SFC, 1/4/01, p.C12)(AP, 1/3/02)
2001 Jan 3, In Prague some 100,000 people gathered in Wenceslas Square to support the striking TV journalists.
(SFC, 1/4/01, p.A8)
2001 Jan 3, On the India-Pakistan border 4 Indian soldiers and 2 civilians were killed at the border post of Arhayee Mandi.
(SFC, 1/4/01, p.A12)
2001 Jan 3, Iraq denied reports that Pres. Saddam Hussein was hospitalized with a stroke following a parade Dec 31.
(SFC, 1/4/01, p.A12)
2001 Jan 3, Yasser Arafat accepted “with reservations" Pres. Clinton’s outline for an Israeli-Palestinian settlement.
(SFC, 1/4/01, p.A8)
2001 Jan 3, In Spain a commuter train hit a van near Lorca and 12 Ecuadoran farm workers were killed.
(WSJ, 1/04/01, p.A1)
2001 Jan 3, In Tanzania 6 armed men attacked a ferry with 50 passengers in Lake Tanganyika and 3 were shot to death including a 3-year-old girl. Male passengers were ordered to jump into the lake and 5 bodies were later recovered. 20 were feared drowned. 5 gunmen were later arrested
(SFC, 1/8/01, p.A10)(SFC, 1/9/01, p.A15)
2001 Jan 3, In Turkey suicide bomber Gultekin Koc (23) killed himself a 2 others in a police station in Istanbul. At least 7 people were injured. Koc was a member of the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front, a Marxist group
(SFC, 1/4/01, p.A9)(SFC, 9/11/01, p.B3)
2002 Jan 3, Miami beat Nebraska 37-14 in the Rose Bowl.
(AP, 1/3/03)
2002 Jan 3, A three-year federal investigation into the political and personal finances of Sen. Robert Torricelli, D-N.J., ended with no criminal charges.
(AP, 1/3/03)
2002 Jan 3, A judge in Alabama ruled that former Ku Klux Klansman Bobby Frank Cherry was mentally competent to stand trial on murder charges in the 1963 Birmingham church bombing that killed four black girls. Cherry was later convicted, and served a life sentence until his death in November 2004.
(AP, 1/3/07)
2002 Jan 3, US warplanes hit an al Qaeda compound in the Khost region south of Tora Bora and Islamic fighters near Baghran were reported to be in negotiations.
(SFC, 1/4/02, p.A19)(WSJ, 1/4/02, p.A1)
2002 Jan 3, The US announced increased military operations in Somalia and prepared to send Marines there. It was suspected that Al Qaeda fighters might attempt fleeing to Somalia.
(SFC, 1/4/02, p.A19)(WSJ, 1/4/02, p.A14)
2002 Jan 3, In Florida the conviction of Juan Melendez for a 1983 murder was overturned after he had spent 17 years on death row. In 2000 the transcript of another man’s confession, withheld by prosecutors, was found.
(SFC, 1/4/02, p.A17)(WSJ, 1/4/02, p.A1)
2002 Jan 3, In the US south the largest snowstorm in a decade stranded thousands and left at least 9 people dead.
(SFC, 1/4/02, p.A7)
2002 Jan 3, Afghan troops beat back refugees seeking food at a Red Crescent compound in Jalalabad. There were numerous reports of stolen wheat and relief supplies attributed to members of the Eastern Shura.
(SFC, 1/4/02, p.A1)
2002 Jan 3, Argentina failed to make a $28 million payment on a foreign loan. A devaluation of the peso by 30-40% was expected soon. Duhalde named Jorge Remes Lenicov, former economic chief of Buenos Aires, as his finance minister.
(SFC, 1/4/02, p.A5)(WSJ, 1/4/02, p.A5)
2002 Jan 3, In Australia fires continued for the 11th straight day. At least 40 were fires were started by arsonists. Over 100 fires covered 1,250 square miles.
(SFC, 1/4/02, p.A14)
2002 Jan 3, Israel seized a ship, Karine A, in the Red Sea carrying 50 tons of advanced weapons allegedly for the Palestinian Authority. Most of the equipment was from Iran. Operation Noah’s Ark was not reported until the next day when US envoy Gen. Zinni arrived to promote peace talks. Hezbollah helped broker the deal and it was reported to have been overseen by Fuad Shubaki, a close aide to Arafat. Captain Omar Akawi, a member of Fatwah, said he was in contact with Adel Awadallah, an alias for Adel Mughrabi, a weapons buyer for the Palestinian Authority.
(SFC, 1/5/02, p.A1,9)(SFC, 1/7/02, p.A3)(SFC, 1/8/02, p.A1)
2002 Jan 3, Juan Garcia Esquivel, pianist and composer, died in Mexico at age 83. He turned out 10 albums in the US from 1957-1963.
(SFC, 1/10/02, p.A16)
2002 Jan 3, Alfred Henry Heineken (78), builder of a global beer brand, died in the Netherlands. Freddie designed the green bottle and logo. In 1983 he was abducted for weeks and released unharmed.
(WSJ, 1/4/02, p.A1)(SFC, 1/5/02, p.A22)
2002 Jan 3, Russian forces fought Chechen rebels for a 6th day in a conflict that left 40 dead. In other action 5 Russian soldiers were killed in attacks across Chechnya. Fighting continued in Tsotsin-Yurt. Moscow claimed 100 rebels killed, but rebels disputed that and said 40 Russians were killed.
(SFC, 1/4/02, p.A17)(WSJ, 1/4/02, p.A1)
2002 Jan 3, The UN made public a decision by Kofi Annan to pursue war crimes in Sierra Leone with a war crimes tribunal.
(SFC, 1/5/02, p.A7)
2003 Jan 3, Ohio State beat Miami in the Fiesta Bowl 31-24 in double overtime to become the national college football champion.
(SFC, 1/4/03, p.C1)
2003 Jan 3, President George W. Bush visited Fort Hood in Texas, where he rallied Army troops as the nation faced the prospect of war with Iraq.
(AP, 1/3/04)
2003 Jan 3, David Westerfield, the man who'd kidnapped and murdered 7-year-old neighbor Danielle van Dam, was sentenced to death by a judge in San Diego.
(AP, 1/3/04)
2003 Jan 3, In Brazil Pres. Silva delayed a plan to spend $700 million on jet fighters. The military's $7.4 billion budget is scheduled to be cut by $282 million.
(AP, 1/3/03)
2003 Jan 3, Ivory Coast Pres. Laurent Gbagbo pledged to cease hostilities and send home foreign mercenaries fighting with loyalist troops.
(AP, 1/3/03)
2003 Jan 3, A Peruvian court struck down anti-terror laws that had been used to quash rebel movements in the 1990s.
(AP, 1/3/03)
(AP, 1/3/08)
2003 Jan 3, Jose Maria Gironella (85), Spanish author, died. His work included "The Cypresses Believe in God," a trilogy based on the 1936-1939 Civil War, for which he won the 1953 National Literary prize.
(SFC, 2/10/03, p.B5)
2003 Jan 3, In Caracas, Venezuela, clashes between opponents and supporters of Pres. Chavez left at least eighty people wounded.
(AP, 1/3/03)
2004 Jan 3, The NASA spacecraft Spirit landed on Mars at the Gusev Crater. It was the 4th successful US landing on Mars.
(SSFC, 1/4/04, p.A1)(USAT, 1/16/04, p.2A)
2004 Jan 3, In San Jose., Ca, a gang brawl at a Jack in the Box restaurant left 2 teenagers (17) dead. James Ortega (14) was charged as an adult on 2 counts of gang motivated murder. In 2007 a San Jose court sentenced Ortega to 36 years to life in prison for the shooting.
(SFC, 1/9/04, p.A17)(SFC, 2/23/07, p.B1)
2004 Jan 3, In China a fire broke out on an overcrowded bus along an expressway that connects Shanghai with the eastern city of Nanjing, killing at least 12 people and injuring 14.
(AP, 1/3/04)
2004 Jan 3, In China a landslide crushed five houses, killing at least 14 people in northern Shanxi province.
(AP, 1/4/04)
2004 Jan 3, An Egyptian Air Flash, Boeing 737, carrying 148 people, most of them French tourists on New Year family holidays, crashed into the Red Sea off the resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, killing all on board.
(AP, 1/3/04)(SFC, 1/3/04, p.A3)
2004 Jan 3, India's PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee made a historic visit to Pakistan ahead of a key South Asian summit, greeted with a warm handshake by PM Zafarullah Khan Jamali. The airport ceremony would have been unimaginable just one year ago.
(AP, 1/3/04)
2004 Jan 3, In eastern India unidentified gunmen stormed a village and shot to death five so-called "untouchables."
(AP, 1/3/04)
2004 Jan 3, In Iran rescuers pulled Sharbanou Mazandarani (97) from the rubble at Ban, 9 days following the earthquake, as the death toll rose to about 35,000.
(SSFC, 1/4/04, p.A2)
2004 Jan 3, In Tikrit, Iraq, American soldiers opened fire with a machine gun on a taxi, killing four Iraqi civilians, including a 7-year-old boy.
(AP, 1/10/04)
2004 Jan 3, Israeli soldiers shot and killed 3 Palestinians in the West Bank city of Nablus.
(AP, 1/3/04)
2004 Jan 3, Isidro Galeana (65), a former state police commander and the first former government official to face arrest for his role in Mexico's "dirty war" of the 1960s and 1970s, died of a heart attack.
(AP, 1/4/04)
2004 Jan 3, Nigeria said it had routed a newly emerged Muslim militant movement fighting to create an Islamic state in Africa's most populous nation. 2 weeks of running gunbattles had killed at least eight people.
(AP, 1/3/04)
2005 Jan 3, President Bush tapped his father, former President Bush, and former President Clinton to help raise tsunami relief funds.
(AP, 1/3/06)
2005 Jan 3, The third-ranked Auburn Tigers limped to a 16-13 victory over No. 9 Virginia Tech in the Sugar Bowl.
(AP, 1/3/06)
2005 Jan 3, Heavy snow shut down a major highway north of Los Angeles and slowed post-holiday travel in the Sierra Nevada as Californians grappled with a 2nd week of stormy weather.
(AP, 1/3/05)
2005 Jan 3, Will Eisner (b.1917), comic book pioneer, died in Fla. In 1978 he wrote and drew his graphic novel “A Contract With God." It was the 1st of a trilogy that included “A Life Force" (1983) and “Dropsie Avenue" (1995).
(SFC, 1/4/05, p.A2)(Econ, 1/15/05, p.81)(SSFC, 12/25/05, p.M3)
2005 Jan 3, In eastern Afghanistan a US soldier was killed and three others wounded in a clash with militants.
(AP, 1/3/05)
2005 Jan 3, The Algerian Interior Ministry said security forces had arrested the leader of the Armed Islamic Group, the radical insurgency movement responsible for brutal village massacres several years ago, and killed his replacement. The arrest of Nourredine Boudiafi and the killing of Chaabane Younes were near-fatal blows to the seriously weakened GIA, as the movement is known. Islamic extremists killed 18 people in an ambush of an army convoy south of the capital Algiers.
(AP, 1/4/05)(AFP, 1/5/05)
2005 Jan 3, Thousands of Argentines angered over safety lapses at a nightclub where a fire killed 183 people, many of them teenagers, marched through capital streets holding pictures of the victims and demanding the resignations of key city officials.
(AP, 1/4/05)
2005 Jan 3, Honduras Pres. Ricardo Maduro said that police have arrested the alleged mastermind of an attack on a public bus that left 28 passengers dead two weeks ago. The suspect was identified as Juan Carlos Miralda, 24, one of the leaders of the violent Mara Salvatrucha criminal gang.
(AP, 1/4/05)
2005 Jan 3, India’s death toll from the Dec 26 tsunami was expected to top 15,000.
(AP, 1/3/05)
2005 Jan 3, J.N. Dixit (68), India’s national security advisor, died in New Delhi.
(SFC, 1/6/05, p.B7)
2005 Jan 3, In Iraq 3 suicide car bombs, including one that exploded near the Iraqi prime minister's party headquarters in Baghdad, along with a roadside explosion, rifle fire and an explosive rigged to a dead body killed at least 20 people.
(AP, 1/3/05)(SFC, 1/4/05, p.A3)
2005 Jan 3, Jewish settlers clashed with Israeli troops who came to tear down two structures at an unauthorized West Bank outpost, and a soldier was arrested for encouraging comrades to refuse to evacuate the settlement.
(AP, 1/3/05)
2005 Jan 3, Russian President Vladimir Putin stripped many of the duties of his top economic adviser, an outspoken critic who has accused the Kremlin of trying to muzzle voices of dissent and civil society in Russia.
(AP, 1/3/05)
2005 Jan 3, Ukraine gave in and agreed to pay Turkmenistan a third more for natural gas following a shut-off.
(WSJ, 1/4/05, p.A1)
2006 Jan 3, Jack Abramoff, the US lobbyist who spawned a congressional corruption scandal, pleaded guilty to 3 felonies and pledged to cooperate in a criminal probe edging closer to former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay.
(AP, 1/3/06)
2006 Jan 3, In Pennsylvania the Dover School Board rescinded its policy of presenting intelligent design as an alternative to evolution in high school biology classes.
(SFC, 1/4/06, p.A2)
2006 Jan 3, Rhode Island became the 11th state to legalize medical marijuana and the first since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June that patients who use the drug can still be prosecuted under federal law.
(AP, 1/4/06)
2006 Jan 3, The US DJIA rose 129.91 to 10847.41 on expectations for an end to interest rate increases based the release of minutes from the Federal Reserve meeting in December.
(WSJ, 1/4/06, p.A1)
2006 Jan 3, The Committee to Protect Journalists reported that 47 journalists were killed in 2005, and that more than three-quarters were murdered to silence their criticism of punish them for their work. Iraq accounted for 22 of the deaths.
(WSJ, 1/4/06, p.A9)
2006 Jan 3, The UN secretariat of the Convention on Int’l. Trade in Endangered Species ordered a temporary halt to the global export of caviar to compel nations to demonstrate that their fishing practices are not pushing caviar producing fish to extinction.
(SFC, 1/4/06, p.A2)(WSJ, 1/4/06, p.A9)
2006 Jan 3, Armed men beheaded a teacher in the central Afghan town of Qalat, the latest in a string of attacks against educators at schools where girls study. Officials blamed Taliban militants.
(AP, 1/4/06)
2006 Jan 3, Argentina repaid $9.57 billion in debt to the International Monetary Fund, a measure officials depicted as a means to help reclaim Argentina's economic independence.
(AP, 1/3/06)
2006 Jan 3, A Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said Egypt will deport 654 Sudanese refugees who were violently evicted from a protest camp in a Cairo park last week.
(AP, 1/3/06)
2006 Jan 3, A top official said Iran has decided to resume research into nuclear fuel production in a statement certain to increase concerns that Iran is moving toward production of nuclear weapons.
(AP, 1/3/06)
2006 Jan 3, Gunmen attacked a car carrying construction workers in western Baghdad, killing three and wounding two. Gunmen in the same neighborhood fired on a car carrying civilians, killing two and wounding three. The sister of Iraqi Interior Minister Bayan Jabr was kidnapped and her bodyguard killed. The nephew of Maj. Gen. Ali Al-Yasiri, Baghdad rescue police commander, was kidnapped.
(AP, 1/3/06)(SFC, 1/4/06, p.A3)
2006 Jan 3, Urbano Lazzaro (81), a resistance fighter credited with arresting fascist dictator Benito Mussolini at the end of World War II, died in Vercelli, Italy.
(AP, 1/4/06)
2006 Jan 3, In Japan Yoshie Sato (56) was killed near the Yokosuka base. Japanese media later reported that a US serviceman (21) had admitted to US military authorities to killing her.
(AFP, 1/6/06)
2006 Jan 3, Peru formally asked Chile to extradite former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori so he can be tried on human rights and corruption charges.
(AP, 1/3/06)
2006 Jan 3, Russian and Ukrainian officials agreed to resume talks on resolving a dispute over the price of natural gas that has reverberated across the continent and left Ukraine cut off from its supplies.
(AP, 1/3/06)
2006 Jan 3, Serb officials acknowledged that war crimes fugitive Ratko Mladic was drawing an army pension until at least mid-November 2005.
(WSJ, 1/4/06, p.A1)
2006 Jan 3, Venezuela President Hugo Chavez offered Bolivia's president-elect Evo Morales diesel fuel, trade benefits and help in financing his social reforms as the two leftists cemented ties, reasserting their opposition to US policy in Latin America.
(AP, 1/3/06)
2007 Jan 3, Hundreds of hay bales fell from the sky across Colorado's rangeland as military helicopter and cargo plane crews delivered food to cattle that have been stranded by heavy snow and high drifts for a week.
(AP, 1/4/07)
2007 Jan 3, Bob Nardelli abruptly resigned as chairman and chief executive of The Home Depot Inc. after a six-year tenure that saw the world's largest home improvement store chain post big profits but left investors disheartened by poor stock performance. He left with a severance package of $210 million. He was succeeded by Frank Blake.
(AP, 1/3/07)(SFC, 1/4/07, p.C1)(Econ, 1/6/07, p.54)
2007 Jan 3, C. William Verity Jr. (89), former US Commerce Secretary, died in Beaufort, SC.
(AP, 1/3/08)
2007 Jan 3, Afghanistan’s the interior ministry said Afghan and NATO troops killed 17 rebels, including two commanders, in a sweep of a Taliban stronghold in southern Afghanistan. In southern Afghanistan a roadside bomb killed five Afghan security forces and wounded four as they patrolled with NATO troops.
(AFP, 1/3/07)(AP, 1/4/07)
2007 Jan 3, A key political alliance announced it would boycott this month's general elections in Bangladesh, deepening a political crisis that has crippled the South Asian country for months.
(AP, 1/3/07)
2007 Jan 3, Belarus vowed to charge fees for transshipped oil.
(WSJ, 1/4/07, p.A1)
2007 Jan 3, Mike Perham (14), a British teenager, became the youngest person to sail solo across the Atlantic Ocean, reaching the Caribbean island of Antigua after a six-week voyage. Perham was trailed by his father in another boat.
(AP, 1/3/07)
2007 Jan 3, It was reported that more than a million Chinese die each year of smoking related diseases. The toll was expected to double by 2025. A roadside bomb in southern China killed two children who found the explosive wrapped in a package and began playing with it in Shenzhen.
(WSJ, 1/3/07, p.A1)(AP, 1/4/07)
2007 Jan 3, China's Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing arrived in the central African nation of Guinea-Bissau for cooperation talks. His 7-nation tour reflected Chinese interest in Africa.
(AP, 1/4/07)
2007 Jan 3, In northern India ash-smeared and naked Hindu saints led millions of devotees in a pre-dawn holy dip at the meeting of three major rivers, starting a weeks-long pilgrimage to wash away their sins.
(AP, 1/3/07)
2007 Jan 3, Iraq arrested 3 men who were present at Saddam Hussein's execution, including the person believed to have recorded the event on a cell phone camera. US troops detained 23 people suspected of ties to senior al-Qaida leaders in raids in western Iraq. Police in Baghdad found 27 bodies, most of them with gunshot wounds to the head. Four Americans and an Austrian abducted in southern Iraq spoke briefly and appeared uninjured in a video.
(AP, 1/3/07)(SFC, 1/4/07, p.A3)(WSJ, 1/4/07, p.A1)(AP, 1/3/08)
2007 Jan 3, Kenya sent extra troops to its border with Somalia to keep Islamic militants from entering the country after Ethiopian helicopters attacked a Kenyan border post by mistake while pursuing suspected fighters.
(AP, 1/3/07)
2007 Jan 3, Myanmar's military government freed nearly 3,000 convicts, but key political prisoners were not among those released.
(AP, 1/3/07)
2007 Jan 3, A Nigerian militant group said it had seized $545,000 sent by Italian oil firm Agip to obtain the release of 4 foreign workers kidnapped on Dec 7 but had kept the men hostage.
(AP, 1/4/07)
2007 Jan 3, In the northern Philippines a minibus carrying partygoers from a beach collided with a cargo truck, killing eight people and injuring 17.
(AP, 1/2/07)
2007 Jan 3, In Saudi Arabia Muslims circled the Kaaba, Islam's holiest site, for a final time, bringing to a close what may have been the largest hajj pilgrimage ever.
(AP, 1/3/07)
2007 Jan 3, South Korea’s official media reported that Paek Nam Sun, North Korea's foreign minister and the country's top diplomat for nearly 10 years, has died at the age of 78.
(AP, 1/3/07)
2007 Jan 3, In Tunisia at least 14 people, including two security forces, were killed in the shootout in Soliman, 25 miles south of the capital, Tunis. Fifteen people were arrested. On Jan 12 the interior minister said nearly 30 Islamic extremists involved in a deadly gunbattle with police had blueprints of foreign embassies and documents naming foreign envoys.
(AP, 1/13/07)
2007 Jan 3, Turkmenistan's acting president, in his first campaign statement for next month's election, called for wider Internet access in the country and for improving pensions that were slashed last year.
(AP, 1/4/07)
2008 Jan 3, Democrat Barack Obama and Republican Mike Huckabee won the Iowa caucuses as the candidates move on to New Hampshire. Obama won with 38% over Edwards at 30% and Hillary Clinton at 29%. Overall, Clinton leads with 175 delegates, including superdelegates, followed by Obama with 75 and Edwards with 46. Huckabee won 34% with Romney at 25%. Huckabee scored 30 delegates and Romney got 7.
(AP, 1/4/08)
2008 Jan 3, Ford Motor Co. named Tata Motors Ltd. the top bidder for its Jaguar and Land Rover brands and entered into "focused negotiations at a more detailed level."
(AP, 1/3/08)
2008 Jan 3, In southwestern Afghanistan a suicide bomber attacked Indian road construction workers and their Afghan police escorts, killing seven and wounding 12.
(AP, 1/3/08)
2008 Jan 3, In Chile Interior Minister Belisario Velasco, one of the most powerful officials in President Michelle Bachelet's government, resigned as part of an expected Cabinet shake-up. Mapuche Indians trying to reclaim farmland they say belonged to their ancestors clashed with police in violence that left protester Matias Catrileo dead.
(AP, 1/3/08)(AP, 1/5/13)
2008 Jan 3, China issued rules restricting the broadcast of Internet videos to sites run by the state.
(WSJ, 1/4/08, p.A1)
2008 Jan 3, A bitterly cold winter storm pummeled parts of Europe, killing at least three sailors when a ship sank in rough seas, and piling up snow that stranded thousands at airports, on mountain roads and in remote villages.
(AP, 1/3/08)
2008 Jan 3, Worshippers at a Hindu temple in southern India stampeded as they tried to draw close to a goddess' statue, trampling at least five people to death and injuring 15 others. The northern state of Himachal Pradesh said it planned to use unemployed youths to sterilize monkeys to try to combat aggressive primates who have been raiding farms. The idea drew immediate condemnation from conservationists, who said the plan was unscientific and would likely worsen the problem.
(AP, 1/3/08)
2008 Jan 3, Iraqi PM Nuri al-Maliki held talks with PM Gordon Brown, notably discussing the plight of five Britons seized in Baghdad last year. Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, a top Shiite politician, acknowledged the contribution of US-backed Sunni Arab groups to the decline in violence across Iraq and called for their use in the continuing fight against al-Qaida. The Samarra dam bridge, one of the entrances into Samarra, reopened. For the past 8 months, the entrances to the city were essentially closed due to the levels of violence. At least 5 people were killed in two separate attacks in Baghdad, one targeting a local member of the prime minister's party. One woman was killed and another civilian wounded when a rocket slammed into the primarily Shiite neighborhood of Washash in northwest Baghdad. Iraqi authorities ordered a one-day vehicle ban in Baqouba in response to a series of deadly suicide bombings and other attacks by al-Qaida in Iraq against predominantly Sunni fighters that have allied with the United States. The US military killed two insurgents and detained 12 in the Diyala region. But the operations also resulted in the deaths of two American soldiers the wounding of another in a small arms attack.
(AFP, 1/3/08)(AP, 1/3/08)(AP, 1/4/08)(AP, 1/5/08)
2008 Jan 3, Israeli tanks and warplanes attacked a series of targets throughout the Gaza Strip. 9 people were killed including 3 civilians with over 30 Palestinians wounded. The attack had intensified following a Katyusha rocket strike 10½ miles into Israel. The Israeli military uncovered an arms cache in Nablus that contained explosives, military equipment and material for manufacturing rockets.
(AP, 1/3/08)(SFC, 1/4/08, p.A16)(SSFC, 1/6/08, p.A18)
2008 Jan 3, Israeli authorities ordered fowl destroyed in an area of northern Israel after chickens kept at a kindergarten were diagnosed with a deadly strain of bird flu.
(AP, 1/3/08)
2008 Jan 3, Crews in Naples, where the streets increasingly are lined with trash, began cleaning up a long disused dump in a bid to ease a mounting garbage crisis.
(AP, 1/3/08)
2008 Jan 3, In Kenya riot police fired tear gas and water cannons to beat back crowds heading for a banned rally to protest the disputed election, and the president said he is willing to talk to the opposition once calm has been restored.
(AP, 1/3/08)
2008 Jan 3, Libya's foreign minister declared an end to confrontation with the US in a rare visit to Washington by a top Libyan diplomat aimed at cementing ties between the former foes.
(AP, 1/4/08)
2008 Jan 3, In the southern Philippines 2 al-Qaida-linked Muslim militants, including one wanted for the 2001 kidnapping of three Americans and 17 other people from a resort island, were captured in separate raids. Troops arrested suspected Abu Sayyaf sub-leader Tuwatin Anahalul in Zamboanga del Sur province's Margusatubig town.
(AP, 1/4/08)
2008 Jan 3, Puerto Rico halted all bird imports after a rare outbreak of avian flu in nearby Dominican Republic, where authorities killed more than 100 chickens, including fighting roosters that tested positive for the lethal virus. The ban forced the cancellation of more than 100 cockfights, dealing a blow to the lucrative industry.
(AP, 1/4/08)
2008 Jan 3, South Sudanese officials said North Sudanese troops have missed a third deadline to fully redeploy from the south following over two decades of north-south civil war that ended in 2005.
(AP, 1/3/08)
2008 Jan 3, In northern Sri Lanka heavy fighting broke out between government troops and Tamil Tigers, hours after Colombo announced it was pulling out of a tattered ceasefire agreement with the rebels.
(AFP, 1/3/08)
2008 Jan 3, Turkey’s Parliament approved a law extending a smoking ban in this tobacco-growing nation to all bars, restaurants and coffeehouses by mid-2009.
(AP, 1/3/08)
2008 Jan 3, In Turkey a car bomb exploded in the Kurdish-dominated southeastern city of Diyarbakir, killing 6 people, including 5 students. 67 people were wounded, including military personnel.
(AP, 1/3/08)(Reuters, 1/4/08)(AP, 1/8/08)
2008 Jan 3, President Hugo Chavez shuffled his Cabinet, naming a retired military officer as vice president and other changes aimed at tackling corruption and inefficiencies in his socialist government.
(AP, 1/3/08)
2009 Jan 3, The United States blocked approval of a UN Security Council statement calling for an immediate cease-fire between Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers.
(AP, 1/4/09)
2009 Jan 3, In New Orleans Danny Platt (22), was arrested and accused of committing an "extremely hideous" murder because he was ordered to pay child support. He initially told police that gunmen had kidnapped his 2 1/2-year-old son.
(AP, 1/4/09)
2009 Jan 3, Bitcoin, the “world’s first decentralized digital currency" was introduced. It was devised in 2008 by programmer Satoshi Nakomoto (thought not to be the person’s real name). It was run by a peer-to-per network and limited to 21 million coins. Nakamoto mined the genesis block of bitcoin (block number 0), which had a reward of 50 bitcoins. By 2013 the leading exchange was Mt. Gox, a Tokyo-based firm.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_bitcoin)(Econ, 6/18/11, p.83)(Econ, 4/13/13, p.69)
2009 Jan 3, Sir Alan Walters (b.1926), a top economic adviser to former British PM Margaret Thatcher, died. Walters received a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II in 1983.
(AP, 1/6/09)(Econ, 1/10/09, p.50)
2009 Jan 3, Tens of thousands of people demonstrated in European cities against Israel's bombardment of Gaza, including protesters who hurled shoes at the tall iron gates outside the British prime minister's residence in London.
(AP, 1/3/09)
2009 Jan 3, In eastern China an explosion at an illegal fireworks factory killed 13 people in the city of Weifang in Shandong province. A boy, Zou Chuanshuo (2) was killed with an ax in Luoyang in Hubei province. The child's grandmother Zhu Deqing (43) and six others were also killed. On Jan 11 authorities arrested junk collector Xiong Zhenlin (32) in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province. He confessed to the murders, which included a widow who jilted him. A Chinese court sentenced him to death on Feb 9 for the murders. Zhenlin was executed on April 16 in the central city of Suizhou.
(AP, 1/4/09)(AP, 2/9/09)(AP, 4/16/09)
2009 Jan 3, In Ghana opposition leader John Atta Mills was declared the next president in the closest electoral race this West African nation has ever seen. The peaceful ballot secured Ghana's place as a beacon of democracy on a volatile continent.
(AP, 1/3/09)
2009 Jan 3, In Iraq two brothers were killed and another was wounded when a bomb they were concealing in their car exploded near the town of Sinjar, 75 miles west of Mosul.
(AP, 1/3/09)
2009 Jan 3, Israeli warplanes, gunboats and artillery units bombarded more than 40 Hamas targets, including weapons storage facilities, training centers and leaders' homes. Palestinian medical officials said an Israeli airstrike on a mosque in the Gaza Strip killed 10 people and wounded dozens in the northern town of Beit Lahiya.
(AP, 1/3/09)
2009 Jan 3, In southwest Pakistan two paramilitary soldiers were killed and four wounded in a landmine explosion in Dera Bugti, Baluchistan province. Sarbaz Khan, a spokesman for the Baluch Republican Army, later claimed responsibility of the attack.
(AFP, 1/3/09)
2009 Jan 3, Russian gas flows to four European Union countries fell normal levels after Moscow cut off supplies to Ukraine in a pricing row with no talks in sight to resolve the dispute. Bulgaria's Bulgargaz joined energy firms in Poland, Romania and Hungary in saying they had noted falls in supply.
(Reuters, 1/3/09)
2009 Jan 3, In Somalia Islamic insurgents appeared to be scrambling for power, taking over several police stations in the capital as Ethiopian troops who have been propping up the government began to pull out.
(AP, 1/3/09)
2009 Jan 3, Sri Lankan troops advanced on the military headquarters of the Tamil Tigers and engaged the rebels in fresh gun battles. At least three people were wounded in a bomb blast in Colombo.
(AFP, 1/3/09)
2010 Jan 3, The US and Britain closed their embassies in Yemen in the face of al-Qaida threats, after both countries announced an increase in aid to the government to fight the terror group linked to the failed attempt to bomb a US airliner on Christmas.
(AP, 1/3/10)
2010 Jan 3, John Irwin (80), former criminal turned writer and criminologist, died at his SF home. Irwin was released from Soledad Prison in 1957 after serving 5 years for armed robbery. In 1967 He began teaching at SF Univ. and founded Project Rebound, a program to help those coming out of prison to go to college. His 6 books included “The Felon" (1970).
(SFC, 1/7/10, p.C3)
2010 Jan 3, Afghan President Hamid Karzai ordered parliament to cancel its winter recess so lawmakers can consider his new cabinet nominees. In southern Afghanistan 4 US troops and a British soldier were killed in two separate roadside bomb attacks.
(AFP, 1/4/10)
2010 Jan 3, In southeastern Australia more than 1,000 people were forced to evacuate their homes in Coonamble, in central New South Wales, as the worst floodwaters to hit the area in a decade threatened to swamp a remote farming town.
(AFP, 1/3/10)
2010 Jan 3, National Bank of Egypt (NBE) and Banque Misr, the country's first and second biggest banks by assets, said they had agreed to accept real estate in exchange for hundreds of millions of dollars in public sector debt.
(Reuters, 1/3/10)
2010 Jan 3, Eric Rohmer (b.1920), French new Wave film director and critic, died in Paris. His first feature film, “The Sign of Leo," was released in 1959.
(SFC, 1/15/10, p.C5)
2010 Jan 3, In northern India police said more than 30 people have died in cold weather-related incidents in the past 24 hours, including 10 people killed in train accidents caused by dense fog.
(AP, 1/3/10)
2010 Jan 3, In Pakistan's northwest tribal region a suspected US drone missile strike killed at least 2 people. A roadside bomb struck a vehicle in the Hangu district of North West Frontier Province, killing a former irrigation minister and 3 others. Another roadside bomb struck a vehicle carrying anti-Taliban elders in the Bajur tribal area, killing 2 and critically wounding 4 others. The bullet-riddled bodies of a man and a woman were found in the Mamund area of Bajur with a note saying they were guilty of violating Islamic law.
(AP, 1/3/10)
2010 Jan 3, Serbian police arrested Darko Jankovic, a war crimes suspect. He was wanted for the killing of at least 19 civilians in eastern Bosnia and other atrocities of the 1992-95 war.
(AP, 1/3/10)
2010 Jan 3, In Switzerland avalanches killed at least four skiers and a rescue doctor. Two of the avalanches occurred in Diemtig Valley, the first hitting a group of skiers, the second the rescuers who came to their aid. A third avalanche buried two skiers near Switzerland's borders with France and Italy.
(AP, 1/4/10)
2010 Jan 3, In northwestern Turkey a passenger train crashed head-on into another train, killing one of the engine drivers and injuring 14 other people.
(AP, 1/3/10)
2011 Jan 3, Boston scientists and health care giant Johnson & Johnson announced that they are joining forces to bring a blood test for cancer to market. Four big cancer centers also will start studies using the experimental test this year. The test is so sensitive that it can spot a single cancer cell lurking among a billion healthy ones.
(AP, 1/3/11)
2011 Jan 3, It was reported that Facebook has received a $450 million infusion from Goldman Sachs Group along with another $50 million from Digital Sky Technologies, a Russian firm already invested in Facebook and other social-media firms.
(SFC, 1/4/11, p.D1)
2011 Jan 3, US Marine Maj. Gen. Richard Mills, the senior Marine general in Afghanistan, said the leaders of the largest tribe in a Taliban stronghold in the southern Helmand province have pledged to halt insurgent attacks and expel foreign fighters.
(AP, 1/3/11)
2011 Jan 3, Australian military flights rushed to restock the coastal city of Rockhampton before it was cut off by floodwaters that have turned a huge swath of the Outback into a lake. Police confirmed two more deaths in the crisis.
(AP, 1/3/11)
2011 Jan 3, Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff kicked off her government with a series of market-friendly signals, including new details on budget cuts and a report that she will turn to the private sector to help solve one of Brazil's biggest infrastructure bottlenecks, a badly needed new terminal at Sao Paulo's main international airport.
(Reuters, 1/3/11)
2011 Jan 3, Ed Miliband, Britain’s Labor leader, warned that the VAT rise from 17.5% to 20% will cost families £7.50 from January 4, and put 250,000 jobs at risk.
(AFP, 1/3/11)
2011 Jan 3, China’s state television reported that Chinese scientists have mastered the technology for reprocessing nuclear fuel, potentially yielding additional power sources to keep the country's economy booming.
(AP, 1/3/11)
2011 Jan 3, Colombian authorities said that they have accused an army major and four other soldiers of killing three civilians and then falsely presenting their bodies as those of guerrillas slain in combat. Maj. Juan Carlos Del Rio Crespo and four other troops were charged in the 2002 killings of three members of the Agudelo family in Antioquia state.
(AP, 1/3/11)
2011 Jan 3, The Dominican Republic launched its first major crackdown on illegal Haitian immigrants since last year's devastating earthquake, rounding up and deporting hundreds of people in recent days. Human rights groups criticized the deportations, accusing authorities of stopping and questioning people based on their physical appearance.
(AP, 1/6/11)
2011 Jan 3, A Greek ministry statement said experts from Greece and the US have found rough axes and other tools, thought to be between 130,000 and 700,000 years, old close to shelters on the south coast of Crete. The island has been separated from the mainland for about five million years, so whoever made the tools must have traveled there by sea, a distance of at least 40 miles.
(AP, 1/4/11)
2011 Jan 3, In Guatemala City 7 people were killed and 15 others injured from a fire inside a passenger bus. Guatemalan authorities soon arrested four members of the Mara 18 street gang, including a woman (19) who police say left the bomb on the bus that was then detonated by cell phone. In the following days 2 more people died of the injuries.
(AP, 1/3/11)(AFP, 1/4/11)(AP, 1/12/11)
2011 Jan 3, In India a government environmental panel approved the initial stage of a project by POSCO of South Korea, to produce 4 million tons of steel on a 4,000-acre site in Orissa state. Activists opposed the project citing ecological damage.
(Econ, 1/8/11, p.67)
2011 Jan 3, In Iraq a suicide bomber detonated an explosives-laden car northeast of Baghdad, killing a passerby and injuring 33. A policeman was killed in a drive-by shooting in Baghdad and a Christian woman was shot to death by armed men who broke into her house.
(AP, 1/3/11)
2011 Jan 3, African leaders returned to Ivory Coast in their second visit in a week as they stepped up pressure on the country's renegade president to cede power more than a month after the election or face a military ouster.
(AP, 1/3/11)
2011 Jan 3, In Lebanon Ahmed Yamani (86), one of the founders of the radical Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, died in Beirut after a stroke. The PFLP was launched by the late Palestinian leader George Habash in December 1967, six months after the Arabs lost the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Syria's Golan Heights to Israel.
(AP, 1/4/11)
2011 Jan 3, In Mexico the severed head of Ramses Mendoza (30) was found hanging from a bridge in the Mexican border city of Tijuana. Hours earlier, a woman between 30 and 35 years old was found shot to death in another Tijuana neighborhood, also with a threatening message left nearby. Unidentified gunmen shot to death Sonora state's interim prison director, Erasto Ortiz Valencia, outside his home. The assistant police chief of the city of Empalme, near the coastal city of Guaymas, was also shot to death by a gunmen who fired an assault rifle from an SUV. Police in Acapulco reported they had found the bound bodies of four young men dumped on a main boulevard. Gunmen opened fire on people gathered at a street corner in the northern city of Monterrey, killing two adults and a 13-year-old boy.
(AP, 1/4/11)(AP, 1/5/11)(AP, 1/7/11)
2011 Jan 3, In Nigeria a policeman was shot dead in the northeastern city of Maiduguri, where an Islamist sect last week killed at least 16 people in a series of religiously motivated attacks. Security officers killed 3 bystanders and arrested 7 suspected Boko Haram sect members, including a man they were chasing in Maiduguri movie theater.
(Reuters, 1/3/11)(AFP, 1/4/11)
2011 Jan 3, Pakistani PM Yusuf Raza Gilani scrambled to save his ruling coalition after a key partner withdrew, plunging the country into a political crisis. Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari threw his weight behind beleaguered PM Gilani.
(AP, 1/3/11)(Reuters, 1/3/11)
2011 Jan 3, In Sudan a Darfur alliance of rebel splinter factions said that it has agreed to sign a final peace settlement with the Sudanese government.
(AP, 1/3/11)
2012 Jan 3, The US Justice Dept. said Maersk, a Danish shipping company, will pay $31.9 million for overcharging the US government for shipments to US troops in Afghanistan and Iraq for several years.
(SFC, 1/4/12, p.D1)
2012 Jan 3, Mitt Romney won 25% of the Iowa caucus by eight votes over Rick Santorum. Ron Paul won 21%, Newt Gingrich won 13% and Rick Perry won 10%. Michele Bachmann won just 5% and dropped out the race the next day. A recount of the vote gave the victory to Rick Santorum.
(ABCNews, 1/4/12)(Econ, 1/28/12, p.25)
2012 Jan 3, An expert hired by the state of Ohio said a 4.0 magnitude earthquake in Ohio on New Year's Eve did not occur naturally and may have been caused by high-pressure liquid injection related to oil and gas exploration and production.
(Reuters, 1/3/12)
2012 Jan 3, Orchard Supply Hardware Stores went public in an $82 million IPO on NASDAQ after being spun off by struggling Sears Holding Corp.
(SFC, 1/4/12, p.D1)
2012 Jan 3, Patagonia, an outdoor clothing firm, became the first company to take advantage of a new California law designed to give businesses greater freedom to pursue strategies which they believe benefit society as a whole rather than having to concentrate on maximizing profits. California became the 6th state to allow B Corps; the first was Maryland in April, 2010.
(Econ, 1/7/12, p.57)
2012 Jan 3, In Afghanistan a suicide bomber riding a motorcycle struck in Kandahar, killing four civilians and a policemen. 3 explosions today killed 13 people Kandahar. The dead include a child and four police officers. The Taliban announced that they had come to an "initial agreement" to open their first political overseas office, possibly in Qatar, in the first public gesture towards peace talks with the US.
(AP, 1/3/12)(AFP, 1/3/12)
2012 Jan 3, Afghan police arrested two British private security contractors and two Afghan colleagues and ordered their company, GardaWorld, closed down after finding a cache of weapons in their vehicle in Kabul.
(AP, 1/5/12)
2012 Jan 3, The Arab League called for an emergency meeting to discuss whether to withdraw the group's monitors from Syria. The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said security forces shot dead three people in the restive city of Homs. The LCC had a higher toll, saying security forces killed four people in Homs, one in the Damascus suburb of Kfar Batna and one in the central province of Hama. An explosion struck a gas pipeline in central Syria in an attack the government blamed on terrorists.
(AP, 1/3/12)
2012 Jan 3, Brazil’s labor ministry said some 294 employers submit workers to slave-like conditions.
(SFC, 1/4/12, p.A2)
2012 Jan 3, In Canada Czech emigre writer Josef Skvorecky (87) died in Toronto. He had published the works of former President Vaclav Havel and other authors persecuted by the communist government at home. His first novel was "The Cowards," written in 1948-1949, describing the atmosphere of Skvorecky's native Czech town of Nachod during the 1945 liberation from Nazism. It was only published in 1958 and then confiscated and banned. It was later translated into more than 20 languages.
(Reuters, 1/3/12)
2012 Jan 3, China’s official Xinhua news agency said the number of entertainment shows airing during prime time every week had plunged to 38 from 126, in line with an order the state broadcasting watchdog issued in October.
(AFP, 1/3/12)
2012 Jan 3, In China 13 people were killed in Hunan province when a truck crossed a highway divider and crashed head-on into a bus traveling in the opposite direction.
(AP, 1/4/12)
2012 Jan 3, In CongoDRC at least 8 people were killed in the town of Ngolombe in an attack by Rwandan Hutu rebels.
(AFP, 1/4/12)
2012 Jan 3, Egyptians lined up in front of polling centers in nine provinces to cast their ballots in the third and final round of the country's first parliamentary elections following the ouster of Hosni Mubarak. The two-day balloting is taking place in areas known as strongholds of Islamist parties and is unlikely to change the outcome of the elections.
(AP, 1/3/12)
2012 Jan 3, Indian activists reacted angrily after 12 doctors were fined less than $100 each for conducting secret drug trials on children and patients with learning disabilities.
(AFP, 1/3/12)
2012 Jan 3, Iraq’s Cabinet voted to declare the missing Iraqiya ministers "on leave." That decision sidesteps for now the possibility that boycotting ministers would be replaced.
(AP, 1/4/12)
2012 Jan 3, Israel's Yitzhak Molcho and Palestinian Saeb Erekat met in Jordan in the presence of envoys from the US, Russia, the EU and the UN. The Palestinian president threatened to take "new measures" against Israel if a much-anticipated meeting in Jordan fails to bring about a resumption of peace talks. There were no significant breakthroughs but both sides agreed to continue the dialogue.
(AP, 1/3/12)(SFC, 1/4/12, p.A3)
2012 Jan 3, Israeli credit card companies said hackers claiming to be Saudis disclosed credit card information of thousands of Israelis on the Internet.
(AP, 1/3/12)
2012 Jan 3, In Jamaica final results gave Portia Simpson Miller's opposition People's National Party (PNP) a two-to-one margin in Parliament.
(AP, 1/3/12)
2012 Jan 3, Libya’s National Transitional Council said Yussef al-Mangush, a former colonel in Kadhafi's military, has been appointed as the new chief of staff of the Libyan army. Mangush was arrested in the oil town of Brega in April by Kadhafi's forces and freed in late August following the fall of Tripoli. Two former rebel factions clashed in hours of gunbattles in central Tripoli that left five fighters dead. The clashes were triggered by arrest of a Misrata fighter on New Year's Eve by Tripoli fighters. He was suspected of robbery and the Misrata fighters were trying to free him.
(AFP, 1/3/12)(AP, 1/3/12)
2012 Jan 3, Mali's government announced a plan to distribute 40,000 tons of food in emergency aid to drought victims and those lacking food security.
(AFP, 1/3/12)
2012 Jan 3, Myanmar began releasing some prisoners, but activists and relatives said a government clemency fell short of national reconciliation promise.
(AP, 1/3/12)
2012 Jan 3, The offices of Niger's justice ministry in Niamey were ravaged by a serious fire which broke out in the early hours. In August last year, the justice ministry set up a hotline number for callers wishing to report alleged cases of corruption.
(AFP, 1/3/12)
2012 Jan 3, Nigerian police fired tear gas and detained protesters while crowds blocked petrol stations amid rising anger over a controversial measure that has led to skyrocketing fuel prices. A top trade union accused police of shooting dead a protester. Two suspected Boko Haram gunmen shot dead the head of the Shehuri neighborhood in Maiduguri. Suspected sect members also killed the leader of a neighborhood in Damaturu during a simultaneous attack. A girl was killed in the crossfire after suspected sect members attacked a police station in the northern state of Jigawa. Sect members also attacked a church in Gombe state, killing at least 8 people.
(AFP, 1/3/12)(AP, 1/4/12)(AP, 1/7/12)
2012 Jan 3, Pakistanis angry at gas shortages blocked a major highway and clashed with police for the second day, adding pressure on a government bogged down by scandal, near economic collapse and militant violence.
(AP, 1/3/12)
2012 Jan 3, In the Philippines some 50 New People's Army guerrillas assaulted a government militia outpost guarding a village in Agusan del Norte province, killing a militiaman and two rebels. A weeklong rebel cease-fire ended on Jan 2.
(AP, 1/3/12)
2012 Jan 3, In Senegal suspected separatist rebels attacked a paramilitary police brigade in the troubled Casamance region for the second time this week.
(AFP, 1/4/12)
2012 Jan 3, In Spain Ibrahima Dyey (32) of Senegal was shot in the San Marti neighborhood of Barcelona. Dyey’s death led to rioting and the arrest of four members of a Roma family. One of the arrested men had asked a group of youths to stop playing football on the street and after they refused he opened fire on them with a gun, striking Dyey in the chest.
(AFP, 1/4/12)
2012 Jan 3, In Sri Lanka Dinesh Buddhika Charitananda (25), an ethnic Sinhalese, was abducted. His body was found the following morning near a river in a Colombo suburb.
(Econ, 1/14/12, p.42)
2012 Jan 3, In Turkey Kenan Evren (94), a former president (1982-1989), and former air force commander Tahsin Sahinkaya faced charges of crimes against the state. A court will now have to decide whether to accept the indictment and order a trial. Their trial began on April 4.
(AP, 1/3/12)(AP, 4/4/12)
2013 Jan 3, The new 113th US Congress convened. It was set to take a fresh crack at a number of old, and highly contentious, issues, such as gun control, immigration, the record debt, tax reform and the farm bill.
(Reuters, 1/3/13)
2013 Jan 3, Officials said a smuggling ring brought narwhal tusks from the Canadian Arctic into Maine in a trailer with a secret compartment and then illegally sold them to American buyers. In 2015 Andrew Zarauskas (61) was sentenced to nearly three years for buying more than 30 tusks over six years from two Canadians.
(SFC, 1/4/13, p.A6)(SFC, 1/13/15, p.A6)
2013 Jan 3, Hormel Foods said it has agreed to buy the Skippy peanut butter business from Unilever for about $700 million.
(SFC, 1/4/13, p.C3)
2013 Jan 3, Argentine Pres. Cristina Fernandez called on Britain to relinquish control of the Falkland Islands.
(SFC, 1/4/13, p.A2)
2013 Jan 3, Australian astronomers discovered a comet named C/2013 A1 (Siding Spring). Scientists said it will pass about 50km from Mars on October 19, 2014. On Oct 19 the comet’s closest approach to Mars was about 140,000 km.
(Econ, 3/9/13, p.80)(Econ, 10/25/14, p.82)
2013 Jan 3, The Basque nationalist group known as Batasuna, legal in France but banned in Spain, announced that it is dissolving after 11 years.
(AP, 1/3/13)
2013 Jan 3, British police extradited terror suspect Abid Naseer (26) to the United States to face charges that he took part in an alleged al-Qaida plot to detonate explosives aboard the New York City subway system.
(AP, 1/3/13)
2013 Jan 3, Coalition military officials in Afghanistan said an elite Danish soldier was killed overnight by an explosive device.
(AP, 1/3/13)
2013 Jan 3, In India 5 men accused of raping a university student for hours on a bus as it drove through New Delhi were charged with murder, rape and other crimes that could bring them the death penalty. A sixth suspect, listed as a 17-year-old, was expected to be tried in a juvenile court, where the maximum sentence would be three years in a reform facility. Authorities said they will seek the death penalty against the 5 men.
(AP, 1/3/13)(SFC, 1/4/13, p.A2)
2013 Jan 3, Iraqi authorities ordered the release of 11 women facing criminal charges and pledged to transfer other women prisoners to jails in their home provinces, in a move to address a main demand during a wave of protests by the country's Sunni minority against the Baghdad government. A car bomb struck a procession of Shiite pilgrims in the town of Musayyib, about 60 km south of Baghdad, killing at least 20 and wounding dozens.
(AP, 1/3/13)
2013 Jan 3, In northeast Nigeria at least 43 people were killed when gunmen suspected of belonging to Boko Haram attacked the town of Song.
(SFC, 1/4/13, p.A2)
2013 Jan 3, In Northern Ireland 8 police officers were injured when protests at the removal of the British flag from Belfast City Hall turned violent for the first time in more than two weeks.
(Reuters, 1/3/13)
2013 Jan 3, In Pakistan a US drone strike took place near Mir Ali, the main town of the North Waziristan tribal region. One missile hit a vehicle near the town, followed by another missile when people rushed to the vehicle to help people in the car. Officials said four people were killed in the strike.
(AP, 1/3/13)
2013 Jan 3, Palestinian officials said Israeli undercover troops broke into a West Bank house in a failed arrest raid near Jenin, igniting a violent protest and signaling that Israeli-Palestinian security coordination may be in trouble.
(AP, 1/3/13)
2013 Jan 3, Russia announced that President Vladimir Putin has approved French actor Gerard Depardieu's application for citizenship.
(AP, 1/3/13)
2013 Jan 3, In Russia Denis Burakov (27), was killed when a transparent plastic ball, known as a zorb, veered off course and sailed over a rock ledge at the Dombai ski resort in the rugged Caucasus Mountains. His friend Vladimir Shcherbakov survived.
(AP, 1/9/13)
2013 Jan 3, Syrian troops and rebels fought intense battles around the Taftanaz air base in the country's north and a suburb of the capital that government forces have been trying to capture since last month. Rebels reportedly killed the commander of the air base, a brigadier general. The Observatory and the LCC said 8 people were killed in Douma and nearby areas. Dozens of people were also killed or wounded in the town of Hayan in Aleppo province. A car bomb blew up in a Damascus gas station, killing at least 9 people.
(AP, 1/3/13)(AP, 1/4/13)
2013 Jan 3, Syrian journalist Suheil al-Ali, who worked for a pro-government television station, died four days after a "terrorist" opened fire on him as he was returning home from work in the suburbs of Damascus.
(AP, 1/5/13)
2014 Jan 3, A major snowstorm producing blizzard-like conditions hammered the northeastern United States, causing 2,000 US flight delays and cancellations. At least 15 deaths were blamed on the storm.
(Reuters, 1/3/14)(SFC, 1/4/14, p.A4)
2014 Jan 3, In San Jose, Ca., police Officer Dondi West shot Vietnamese immigrant Hung Lam in the back as Lam allegedly walked backward on his front lawn with a knife in her direction. Lam was left paralyzed and restricted to a wheel chair. In 2017 a federal appeals court said San Jose must pay Lam, a mentally disturbed man, $11.3 million.
(http://tinyurl.com/yd5nf2lx)(SFC, 9/6/17, p.D1)
2014 Jan 3, Rock & Roll singer Phil Everly (b.1939), the younger brother of Don Everly (b.1937), died. Phil helped make the Everly Brothers one of the biggest rock and country acts of the 1950s and early 1960s.
(Reuters, 1/3/14)(SFC, 1/4/14, p.A7)
2014 Jan 3, Argentina’s government agreed to roll over the debt of 18 provinces to help ease their financial strains.
(Econ, 1/11/14, p.29)
2014 Jan 3, In Cambodia At least 4 people were killed when police outside Cambodia's capital opened fire to break up a protest by striking garment workers demanding a doubling of the minimum wage.
(AP, 1/3/14)
2014 Jan 3, The health minister of Alberta, Canada, said an H1N1 flu outbreak in Alberta has sickened nearly 1,000 people and killed five over the past few weeks. He urged everyone to get vaccinated.
(AFP, 1/3/14)
2014 Jan 3, Egyptian riot police clashed with supporters of former Islamist Pres. Morsi across the country, leaving 17 dead and 62 injured as the Muslim Brotherhood renewed calls to protest ahead of a key referendum later this month.
(AP, 1/3/14)(AP, 1/4/14)
2014 Jan 3, An Egyptian security official said police have found a murdered Swiss couple buried in the garden of their house in the Red Sea resort town of Hurgada. They were reportedly killed by the house's guard and two of his friends who wanted to rob the couple.
(AFP, 1/3/14)
2014 Jan 3, In Ethiopia South Sudan's warring parties began negotiations to end nearly three weeks of raging conflict which has left thousands feared dead and taken the world's youngest nation to the brink of all-out civil war. Fighting intensified as the army moved on rebel-held Bor.
(AFP, 1/3/14)
2014 Jan 3, In western Germany a World War II bomb exploded during construction work in Euskirchen, near Bonn, killing one person and wounding at least eight others.
(AP, 1/3/14)
2014 Jan 3, Indian PM Manmohan Singh ruled out serving another term after an election due by May and threw his support behind Nehru-Gandhi dynasty scion Rahul Gandhi to lead the country if their party wins the vote.
(Reuters, 1/3/14)
2014 Jan 3, In Iraq Sunni Muslim tribesmen backed by Iraqi troops fought al Qaeda-linked militants for control of Anbar province. More than 100 people were killed as police and tribesmen battled ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, aka ISIL) fighters, Al-Qaeda-linked militants who took over parts of Fallujah and Ramadi.
(Reuters, 1/3/14)(AFP, 1/3/14)(Econ, 1/11/14, p.39)
2014 Jan 3, Israeli war planes carried out a series of strikes in the Gaza Strip, shortly after a rocket from the enclave struck the Jewish state.
(AFP, 1/3/14)
2014 Jan 3, The Italian navy over the last 24 hours rescued more than 1,000 migrants from boats trying to reach Europe.
(Reuters, 1/3/14)
2014 Jan 3, Madagascar’s electoral commission said that former finance minister Hery Rajaonarimampianina, the candidate backed by outgoing President Andry Rajoelina who spearheaded the coup nearly five years ago, won 53.5 percent of the December 20 vote.
(Reuters, 1/3/14)
2014 Jan 3, In Mexico 9 people were killed during a gunfight at a prison in Guerrero state, after a gang dressed as police officers gained entry.
(Reuters, 1/4/14)
2014 Jan 3, In Pakistan Iram Ramazan, a 10-year-old maid, died in Lahore after being beaten by the wife of the household for stealing a few rupees.
(SSFC, 1/5/14, p.A4)(http://tinyurl.com/mhrtzx3)
2014 Jan 3, In Pakistan two senior Sunni leaders were killed in Islamabad.
(CSM, 1/9/14)
2014 Jan 3, A Palestinian youth, identified as Adnan Abu Khater (16), died of his wounds after he was shot a day earlier by Israeli soldiers near the border fence in the northern Gaza Strip.
(AFP, 1/3/14)
2014 Jan 3, Spanish police said they have caught two women flying in from Brazil with more than a kilo (two pounds) of cocaine each hidden under their wigs. The two women, who were Portuguese and aged 18 and 28, arrived at Madrid's Barajas airport on different days from Sao Paulo.
(AFP, 1/3/14)
2014 Jan 3, A Turkish court ordered the release from jail of two Kurdish lawmakers being tried for links to militants in a potential boost to a fragile peace process. Turkish prosecutors said they have charged 36 protesters with terrorism over mass anti-government demonstrations that swept the country last year.
(Reuters, 1/3/14)(AFP, 1/3/14)
2014 Jan 3, Zimbabwe's black empowerment agency said at least 90 percent of foreign shop owners don't have bank accounts and are hiding away money or smuggling it out of the country, worsening cash shortages in the troubled economy.
(AP, 1/3/14)
2015 Jan 3, In southern California a shooting in Long Beach left a mother and two brothers wounded. Giseleangelique Rene D'Milian and Anthony Ray McCall abducted 3-week old Eliza Delacruz, whose body was found the next day in a dumpster.
(SFC, 1/6/15, p.A5)(SFC, 3/28/15, p.A5)
2015 Jan 3, In Kentucky teenagers Dalton Hayes (18) and Cheyenne Phillips (13) disappeared from Leitchfield and went on a crime spree stealing vehicles in South Carolina and Georgia. On Jan 18 the teens were arrested in Panama City, Fla.
(SFC, 1/17/15, p.A6)(SFC, 1/19/15, p.A4)
2015 Jan 3, Edward Brooke (b.1919), former Massachusetts senator (1966-1978) died at his home in Coral Gables, Florida. Brooke was the first black person to be elected as senator in any state since Reconstruction.
(SSFC, 1/4/15, p.C9)
2015 Jan 3, In Afghanistan insurgents kidnapped 4 policemen from Wardak province. Their bodies were found near the provincial capital Pul-i-Alam hours later.
(AP, 1/4/15)
2015 Jan 3, In Armenia the defense ministry of the separatist Nagorno-Karabakh region said two of its soldiers were killed while repelling Azerbaijani infiltrators.
(AP, 1/3/15)
2015 Jan 3, In Australia thousands of people fled their homes as wildfires raged across the nation's south, with firefighters struggling to contain the blazes fanned by strong winds.
(AP, 1/3/15)
2015 Jan 3, Bangladesh police banned all protests in Dhaka and locked main opposition leader Khaleda Zia in her office in Dhaka as clashes broke out before the first anniversary of an election her party boycotted.
(AFP, 1/4/15)(SFC, 1/5/15, p.A2)
2015 Jan 3, Greek police arrested convicted terrorist Christodoulos Xiros, who had failed to return to prison while on a furlough almost a year ago.
(AP, 1/3/15)
2015 Jan 3, Guyana said it is issuing new passports with improved safety features after seizing fraudulent ones in recent months.
(AP, 1/3/15)
2015 Jan 3, Search teams hunting for the wreck of Indonesia’s AirAsia Flight QZ8501 that crashed with 162 people on board reported four large parts of the plane on the sea bed.
(Reuters, 1/3/15)
2015 Jan 3, Israel said it will withhold critical tax revenue and seek ways to bring war crimes prosecutions against Palestinian leaders in retaliation for Palestinian moves to join the International Criminal Court (ICC).
(Reuters, 1/3/15)
2015 Jan 3, In central Libya masked gunmen kidnapped 13 Coptic Christians in Sirte after seven were abducted days earlier. Forces loyal to the internationally recognized government staged air strikes on the commercial port of Misrata, a western city allied to a group that holds the capital Tripoli.
(AP, 1/3/15)(Reuters, 1/3/15)
2015 Jan 3, In Mexico Hipolito Mora, the founder of a vigilante group in the western state of Michoacan, was arrested along with 26 followers for their alleged role in 10 deaths during a shootout with a rival group last month.
(Reuters, 1/3/15)
2015 Jan 3, A Norwegian ship owner said one if its cargo vessels, the "Bulk Jupiter," has sunk off Vietnam. Bergen-based Gearbulk said only one of the 19 Filipino crew members was known to have survived.
(AP, 1/3/15)
2015 Jan 3, Pakistani airstrikes killed 31 militants and a suspected US drone strike killed another seven. The airstrikes in the Tirah valley of the Khyber region destroyed four militant hideouts and a suicide bomber training center.
(AP, 1/4/15)
2015 Jan 3, Pakistani and Indian border guards traded artillery fire overnight along the disputed border region of Kashmir, killing 4 people and wounding eight.
(AP, 1/3/15)
2015 Jan 3, A cargo ship carrying cement overturned off the coast of Scotland. The Cypriot-registered Cemfjord sank the next day. The crew of seven Poles and one Filipino were missing.
(AFP, 1/4/15)
2015 Jan 3, In Tunisia suspected Islamist militants captured and killed a police officer south of Tunis, stabbing him and slashing his throat as he traveled home. Nine suspected militants were arrested. In late December four men were convicted of cutting the throat of the 23-year-old policeman in El Fahs. Three men were sentenced to death. A fourth man, who is on the run, was sentenced to 22 years in jail.
(Reuters, 1/4/15)(AFP, 12/30/15)
2015 Jan 3, Uganda officials said outspoken General David Sejusa, who recently returned to the country after 18 months in self-imposed exile, has been placed under house arrest.
(AFP, 1/3/15)
2015 Jan 3, Yemeni authorities reported the arrest of a Belgian, a Bulgarian and a Somali suspected of having links with al-Qaida after a search found one of them carrying documents and materials with the group's logos on them. Unknown gunmen killed two fighters from the Shiite Houthi rebel group in central Ibb province.
(AP, 1/3/15)
2016 Jan 3, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo singed an order requiring communities statewide to take homeless people from the streets when temperatures reach freezing.
(SFC, 1/4/16, p.A6)
2016 Jan 3, In Afghanistan an army M-17 helicopter crashed in the eastern Logar province, killing 3 Afghan soldiers.
(AP, 1/3/16)
2016 Jan 3, Police in the Sunni-ruled Gulf state of Bahrain clashed with Shiite protesters a day after neighboring Saudi Arabia executed a leading Shiite cleric.
(AFP, 1/3/16)
2016 Jan 3, The European Commission said it would debate the rule of law in Poland this month in the first stage of a potentially-punitive procedure after Warsaw seized control of public broadcasters.
(AFP, 1/3/16)
2016 Jan 3, Indian troops were still battling at least two gunmen at the Pathankot air force base near the border with Pakistan. At least 7 troops and 4 gunmen have been killed in the fighting so far.
(AP, 1/3/16)
2016 Jan 3, In Iraq suicide attackers from the Islamic State group killed at least 12 Iraqi forces in a brazen attack on police training at Speicher base, near Tikrit. Police managed to kill 7 attackers but 3 were able to detonate their suicide vests.
(AFP, 1/3/16)
2016 Jan 3, Mexican officials said they have killed 2 people and arrested three others linked to the slaying of a mayor who had taken office only a day earlier. Morelos Gov. Graco Ramirez attributed the killing of Gisela Mota to organized crime.
(AP, 1/3/16)
2016 Jan 3, Saudi Arabia announced it was cutting diplomatic ties with Iran.
(Reuters, 1/4/16)
2016 Jan 3, The Islamic State released a new video in which five purported British spies are shot dead by masked extremists as propaganda from a group that is losing control of territory in Syria and Iraq. Newspapers named Siddhartha Dhar, a British Indian, as the speaker in the tape.
(AP, 1/4/16)(SFC, 1/4/16, p.A4)(Econ, 1/9/16, p.50)
2016 Jan 3, In Turkey more than 200 people in Istanbul protested peacefully against curfews and operations in mainly Kurdish cities and towns in the southeast, where security forces and Kurdish militants are locked in an intensifying conflict.
(AP, 1/3/16)
2016 Jan 3, Yemeni government forces clashed with militant groups for control over the strategic Port of Aden in the southern city with the same name.
(AP, 1/3/16)
2016 Jan 3, In southeastern Yemen Al-Qaeda militants stoned a woman to death after accusing her of adultery and prostitution in Mukalla, Hadramawt province.
(AFP, 1/4/16)
2017 Jan 3, President-elect Donald Trump announced he has nominated Reagan-era lawyer Robert Lighthizer, described as an advocate of greater protectionism, as US trade representative.
(AFP, 1/3/17)
2017 Jan 3, US House Republicans scrapped their plan eviscerate the Office of Congressional Ethics, after the move drew a public backlash and a Twitter scolding from Pres.-elect Donald Trump.
(SFC, 1/3/17, p.A5)
2017 Jan 3, Ford Motor Co. said that it is canceling plans to build a $1.6 billion car plant in Mexico and will instead invest $700 million to increase production in Michigan.
(SFC, 1/4/17, p.C1)
2017 Jan 3, In Minnesota a federal appeals court ruled that a program for keeping sex offenders confined after they complete their prison sentences is constitutional.
(SFC, 1/4/17, p.A6)
2017 Jan 3, Toyota began moving hundreds of jobs out of its northern Kentucky headquarters as part of a nationwide consolidation of the company's operations.
(AP, 1/3/17)
2017 Jan 3, Albania suspended the reopening of schools after the New Year's break because of frigid weather and concern about the spread of flu.
(AP, 1/3/17)
2017 Jan 3, Haitian officials said an electoral tribunal has rejected claims that massive voter fraud marred the November presidential election victory of first-time candidate Jovenel Moise.
(AP, 1/3/17)
2017 Jan 3, Imprisoned Iranian human rights activist Arash Sadeghi ended a 71-day hunger strike as his detained wife won a temporary release from prison, a day after his case sparked a rare unauthorized protest in Tehran.
(AP, 1/3/17)
2017 Jan 3, In Iran two pipelines were reportedly bombed in Khuzestan province. The next day the Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahwaz claimed responsibility. Iranian Interior Ministry spokesman Salman Samani denied the claim.
(AP, 1/4/17)
2017 Jan 3, Moldova's new Pres. Igor Dodon stripped the ex-president of Romania of his recently-acquired Moldovan citizenship, saying he obtained it illegally. Traian Basescu and his wife Maria were awarded citizenship of the troubled ex-Soviet republic, formerly part of Romania. Dodon favors closer relations with Russia, while Basescu has called for the reunification of Romania and Moldova.
(AP, 1/3/17)
2017 Jan 3, Mozambique's Renamo opposition party said it had extended a ceasefire by two months to allow talks with President Filipe Nyusi's government, raising hopes for a nascent peace process.
(Reuters, 1/3/17)
2017 Jan 3, Nigerian anti-drug officers said they found 9.15 kg (20 pounds) of cocaine worth $4.7 million "factory-packed" inside a new pair of shoes that arrived at Abuja airport on a flight from Brazil.
(Reuters, 1/3/17)
2017 Jan 3, In Romania Sevil Shhaideh, poised to become the country's first female and Muslim prime minister, was offered a job as deputy premier after the country's president declined to nominate her for the top government job.
(AP, 1/3/17)
2017 Jan 3, Taiwan strongly objected to the deportation from Vietnam to China of four Taiwanese nationals suspected of telecommunications fraud, saying the move was carried out under pressure from Beijing.
(Reuters, 1/3/17)
2017 Jan 3, Turkmenistan said that it has restricted natural gas deliveries to Iran over unpaid debts. Iranian state media have put the figure demanded by Turkmenistan at around $2 billion.
(AP, 1/3/17)
2017 Jan 3, In southern Yemen pro-government forces attacked al-Qaida militants, killing 15 jihadis but losing 11 of their own troops.
(AP, 1/3/17)
2017 Jan 3, In southern Yemen at least three soldiers were killed in clashes with al Qaeda militants in Shuqra in an operation launched by the internationally recognized government of President Abd-Rabu Mansour Hadi.
(Reuters, 1/4/17)
2018 Jan 3, US Pres. Donald Trump signed an executive order disbanding his voter fraud commission.
(SFC, 1/4/18, p.A4)
2018 Jan 3, A winter storm dumped snow in Tallahassee, Florida, for the first time in nearly three decades.
(SFC, 1/4/18, p.A5)
2018 Jan 3, In NYC Mehmet Hakan Atilla (47), a deputy general manager of Turkey's state-run Halkbank, was found guilty of five counts including bank fraud. Atilla was found guilty of conspiracy to defraud the US. He was acquitted of a money laundering charge.
(AP, 1/4/18)
2018 Jan 3, A agreement was proposed to tie up loose ends from two failed nuclear reactors in South Carolina. The deal could mean $1.3 billion in refunds for utility customers affected by the failed project. South Carolina Electric & Gas Co. had abandoned construction reactors at the V.C. Summer Nuclear Station. Thousands were left jobless in the wake of the $9 billion failure.
(AP, 1/4/18)
2018 Jan 3, Brazil's oil giant Petrobras said it has agreed to pay $2.95 billion to settle a class action suit in New York brought on behalf investors harmed by a huge corruption scandal.
(AFP, 1/3/18)
2018 Jan 3, In Congo DRC 44 people perished overnight in Kinshasa as shanty homes were swept away by killer floods and landslips.
(AFP, 1/6/18)
2018 Jan 3, In Egypt Laila Amer, a little-known female singer, was arrested for a racy video posted online. She was charged with violating public decency and inciting debauchery in the video, titled "Bos Omak," or "Look at Your Mother" a pun on a popular Arabic profanity.
(AP, 1/4/18)
2018 Jan 3, Ethiopia's PM Hailemariam Desalegn announced plans to drop charges against political prisoners and close a notorious prison camp in what he called an effort to "widen the democratic space for all."
(AP, 1/3/18)
2018 Jan 3, MiFID II/MiFIR, the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive, came into force across the EU. MiFID II and MiFIR will ensure fairer, safer and more efficient markets and facilitate greater transparency for all participants.
(https://www.esma.europa.eu/policy-rules/mifid-ii-and-mifir)
2018 Jan 3, Winter storm Eleanor packing winds up to 100 mph (160 kph) battered parts of western Europe, derailing trains, toppling trees, halting flights and leaving hundreds of thousands of homes across France, Switzerland, Britain and Ireland without power.
(AP, 1/3/18)
2018 Jan 3, In Germany a government study said violent crime rose by about 10 percent in 2015 and 2016. It attributed more than 90 percent of that to young male refugees.
(Reuters, 1/3/18)
2018 Jan 3, The prime ministers of Hungary and Poland said their countries' anti-immigration policies are gaining strength within the 28-nation European Union.
(AP, 1/3/18)
2018 Jan 3, In India demonstrators from the lowest caste blocked roads and railways across Mumbai in protest against violence involving Hindu nationalist groups at an event commemorating a 200-year-old battle.
(AFP, 1/3/18)
2018 Jan 3, Thousands of Iranians took part in pro-government rallies in several cities as the elite Revolutionary Guards deployed forces to three provinces to put down an eruption of anti-government unrest. Six days of protests have left 21 people dead.
(Reuters, 1/3/18)
2018 Jan 3, In Ireland an Egyptian man (18) was arrested as a suspect after a Japanese man (24) was stabbed to death and two others were injured in the town of Dundalk. Three attacks had taken place at three separate locations within 40 minutes of each other.
(AP, 1/4/18)
2018 Jan 3, Israel said it would pay thousands of African migrants living illegally in the country to leave, threatening them with jail if they are caught after the end of March.
(AP, 1/3/18)
2018 Jan 3, Israel's internal security agency said it has busted an Iranian espionage ring operating in the West Bank and arrested Mohammed Maharmeh (29) its Palestinian leader. Maharmeh was allegedly tasked with enlisting suicide bombers and gunmen for attacks against Israelis.
(AP, 1/3/18)
2018 Jan 3, In Italy surveillance footage of a theft at the Doge's Palace in Venice showed one of the thieves calmly opening a showcase window, putting the jewels in his pocket and sauntering off. The Al Thani Collection hasn't revealed the pieces' value, but news reports estimate they are worth millions of euros.
(AP, 1/5/18)
2018 Jan 3, Four Kosovo opposition lawmakers were handed suspended jail terms of between 15 and 18 months for obstructing parliamentary work by releasing tear gas in the chamber.
(Reuters, 1/3/18)
2018 Jan 3, It was reported that group of Kuwaitis, imprisoned for taking part in anti-government protests, have announced the formation of a new political bloc in defiance of their detention and charges related to their political activism. Kuwait's Democratic Party was launched this week by four Kuwaitis sentenced to prison in late November.
(AP, 1/3/18)
2018 Jan 3, In Mexico at least eight young people used social media to organize two days of collective looting of stores in several northern suburbs of Mexico City, leading to clashes with police and more than 100 arrests. As of Jan. 5 authorities detained 113 people, including 30 teenagers.
(AP, 1/6/18)
2018 Jan 3, In northern Nigeria a suicide bomber entered a mosque in and detonated his explosives, killing 14 people during early morning prayers in Gamboru Ngala town, Borno state.
(AP, 1/3/18)
2018 Jan 3, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un reopened a key cross-border communication channel with South Korea for the first time in nearly two years as the rivals explored the possibility of sitting down and talking after months of acrimony and fears of war.
(AP, 1/3/18)
2018 Jan 3, Norway said it has suspended exports of munitions and arms to the United Arab Emirates as a "precautionary line," based on its assessment of the situation in Yemen, where a Saudi-led coalition including the UAE has been fighting Shiite rebels for nearly three years.
(AP, 1/3/18)
2018 Jan 3, Palestinian Musab Tamemi (17) was killed in clashes with the Israeli army, which says troops fired at an armed protester.
(AP, 1/3/18)
2018 Jan 3, In the southern Philippines eight people were killed when a rusty mortar round they thought was an iron canister with gold inside exploded as they tried to pry it open with a hammer in Sirawai town, Zamboanga del Norte province.
(AP, 1/4/18)
2018 Jan 3, In Poland a protest by thousands of doctors, who refuse to work overtime, disrupted services at some hospitals, including children's wards. The Health Ministry said that some 3,500 of about 88,000 hospital doctors have refused to sign up to contracts allowing for work weeks of more than 48 hours.
(AP, 1/3/18)
2018 Jan 3, In Saudi Arabia Saleh al-Shehi, a columnist for Arabic-language daily al-Watan, was detained over various articles and television appearances, including one in which he accused the royal court of corruption in distributing land. On Jan. 5 the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) called for his release.
(Reuters, 1/6/18)
2018 Jan 3, Singapore banned a film festival from screening the documentary "Radiance of Resistance" later this week that features a teenage Palestinian female activist Ahed Tamimi, whose arrest last month has made her a symbol of resistance to Israeli military occupation in the West Bank.
(Reuters, 1/3/18)
2019 Jan 3, The United States issued a pre-emptive warning to Iran against pursuing three planned space rocket launches that it said would violate a UN Security Council resolution because they use ballistic missile technology.
(Reuters, 1/3/19)
2019 Jan 3, Democrats took over the US House of Representatives, ushering in a new era of divided government in Washington with the goal of checking Donald Trump's turbulent presidency.
(AP, 1/3/19)
2019 Feb 3, In southern California a small plane crashed into a home in Yorba Linda killing the pilot and four people in the home.
(SFC, 2/4/19, p.A4)
2019 Feb 3, In San Francisco two people were killed early today when a car entered Hwy. 101 at the Vermont St. exit going the wrong way. Driver Kayla Wilson (21) was killed along with Waheedullah Etimad, the driver of a minivan carrying 6 people.
(SFC, 2/4/19, p.C1)
2019 Jan 3, In Florida two big rigs and two passenger vehicles collided and spilled diesel fuel across I-75 sparking a massive fire that killed 7 people, including five children riding in a church van.
(SFC, 1/4/19, p.A4)(SFC, 1/5/19, p.A6)
2019 Jan 3, Michigan's Democratic congresswoman Rashida Tlaib kicked off her term with an expletive-laced vow to impeach Donald Trump, testing her party's discipline and earning a chiding the next day from the president.
(AP, 1/5/19)
2019 Feb 3, Barbra Siperstein (76), a crusader for transgender rights, died in New Jersey. Two days earlier a New Jersey bill, named in her honor, went into effect granting states residents the right to amend their gender on birth certificates without proof of surgery.
(SSFC, 2/10/19, p.C9)
2019 Jan 3, In Texas three children were found killed and their mother Kimaria Nelson (24) beaten and severley wounded by a pellet gun in Texas City. Junaid Hashim Mehmood, the father of one of the children was soon arrested and charged with murder.
(http://tinyurl.com/yb43d96j)(SFC, 1/5/19, p.A6)
2019 Jan 3, Stocks went into a steep slide after Apple reported a slowdown in iPhone sales over the holidays in China, a hugely important market for the company.
(AP, 1/3/19)
2019 Jan 3, Texas lawyer Herb Kelleher (b.1931), co-founder of Southwest Airlines, died. He became chairman of the airline in 1978 and CEO in 1982.
(SFC, 1/4/19, p.D2)
2019 Jan 3, In Afghanistan the Taliban killed eight police in an attack on their post in the provincial capital of the northern Baghlan province.
(AP, 1/3/19)
2019 Jan 3, The new government of Brazil's far-right President Jair Bolsonaro hit the ground running on its first day of business, rushing through changes to put a conservative stamp on the country by trashing progressive achievements of past administrations.
(AFP, 1/3/19)
2019 Jan 3, Canada said that 13 of its citizens have been detained in China since Huawei Technologies Co Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou was arrested last month in Vancouver at the request of the United States.
(Reuters, 1/4/19)
2019 Jan 3, A Chinese space probe successfully touched down on the far side of the moon. The Chang'e-4 lunar probe, launched in December, made the "soft landing" and transmitted the first-ever "close range" image of the far side of the moon.
(Reuters, 1/3/19)
2019 Jan 3, Croatia threatened to cancel its purchase of F-16 fighter jets from Israel after months of stalling due to a lack of US approval. Washington has objected to the sale because it wants the removal of electronic system upgrades that Israel added in a rare defence dispute between the close allies.
(AFP, 1/3/19)
2019 Feb 3, In El Salvador transgender woman Camila Diaz Cordova (29), who sought asylum in the United States, died after being kidnapped and beaten. This was weeks after she was deported, underscoring the dangers of the Trump administration's hardening policy on asylum seekers.
(Reuters, 2/23/19)
2019 Jan 3, In Greece two men, 67 and 64 years old, along with the older man's wife, went missing after setting out from Keratea in a pouring rain. Their bodies were later found separately in a creek that had turned into a raging river southeast of Athens.
(AP, 1/6/19)
2019 Jan 3, India deported a second small group of Rohingya Muslims, five members of a family, to Myanmar after ordering the expulsion of members of the Myanmar minority group and others who entered the country illegally.
(AP, 1/3/19)
2019 Jan 3, In southern India Hindu hard-liners shut shops and businesses and clashed with police in Kerala state to protest the entry of two women into the Sabarimala hill temple, one of India's largest Hindu pilgrimage sites.
(AP, 1/3/19)
2019 Jan 3, In Iran prominent human rights activist Narges Mohammadi and British-Iranian detainee Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe announced plans to go on hunger strike in Tehran's Evin Prison to protest against the denial of medical treatment.
(AFP, 1/3/19)
2019 Jan 3, Israeli far-right activists clashed with police as authorities moved in to clear away two mobile homes illegally set up on a hilltop near Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.
(AFP, 1/3/19)
2019 Jan 3, Italy's deputy PM Matteo Salvini demanded the resignations of the rebellious leaders of Florence, Palermo and Naples for refusing to obey a controversial anti-immigration law.
(AFP, 1/3/19)
2019 Jan 3, Mexico's government said construction on a partly-built $13 billion new Mexico City airport which the new president wants to cancel has been officially suspended.
(Reuters, 1/3/19)
2019 Jan 3, Niger's defense ministry said several days of raids have killed more than 280 Boko Haram extremists near the border with Nigeria.
(AP, 1/3/19)
2019 Jan 3, Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari appointed his niece, Amina Zakari, to the election commission ahead of presidential elections in February, when he will seek a second term. The opposition quickly objected to the appointment.
(AFP, 1/5/19)
2019 Jan 3, Saudi Arabia announced that it will seek the death penalty against five suspects in the slaying of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, a killing that has seen members of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's entourage implicated in the writer's assassination.
(AP, 1/3/19)
2019 Jan 3, In Spain workers at Amazon's biggest local warehouse started a two-day strike just ahead of a gift-giving feast day, as part of a long-running campaign for better pay and conditions.
(Reuters, 1/3/19)
2019 Jan 3, Sudanese security forces fired tear gas to disperse some 200 protesters who were trying to deliver an anti-government petition to the local headquarters of President Omar al-Bashir's ruling party in Port Sudan.
(Reuters, 1/3/19)
2019 Jan 3, In Syria clashes between jihadists and rebels raged inside the last major opposition bastion for a third day, as the death toll mounted to more than 70 fighters.
(AP, 1/3/19)
2019 Jan 3, In Tunisia two alleged jihadists blew themselves up during an early morning raid by security forces on a house in the central region of Sidi Bouzid.
(AFP, 1/3/19)
2019 Jan 3, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Ankara and Baghdad would deepen cooperation against terrorism after tensions last month over Turkish air strikes against Kurdish militants in Iraq.
(AFP, 1/3/19)
2020 Jan 3, A United States airstrike early today killed Revolutionary Guards commander Qasem Soleimani (62) in Baghdad as well as Iraqi militia commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis. Five Guards were killed in total as well as five members of Iraq's Hashed al-Shaabi paramilitary force. The UN and a host of world leaders, including several in Europe, Russia, and Turkey condemned the US drone strike that killed Soleimani. Iranian leaders promised a "forceful revenge" against the US and Iraqi leaders said the strike violated its sovereignty and international laws. US media reported the strike the evening of Jan. 2.
(ABC News, 1/3/20)(AFP, 1/3/20)(Business Insider, 1/3/20)
2020 Jan 3, President Trump said the killing of Iran’s top general, carried out by a US drone strike in Baghdad, was long overdue.
(Yahoo News, 1/3/20)
2020 Jan 3, President Donald Trump delivered a typical bombastic and at times vicious stump speech this evening at a Miami megachurch for his first campaign event of 2020. Trump declared his belief that God supports his agenda and pledged to bring prayer to public schools.
(ABC News, 1/3/20)(Yahoo News, 1/3/20)(Reuters, 1/3/20)
2020 Jan 3, A US federal judge ruled that Lev Parnas, an associate of President Donald Trump’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, can provide additional records sought by the House impeachment investigators, including the contents of his cell phone.
(ABC News, 1/3/20)
2020 Jan 3, Leaders of the United Methodist Church, the 2nd largest Protestant denomination in the US, announced a plan that would formally split the church after years of division over same-sex marriage. A new "traditionalist Methodist" denomination would be created and would continue to ban same sex marriage.
(SFC, 1/4/20, p.A6)
2020 Jan 3, In Alaska Shishaldin Volcano in the Aleutian Islands, one of Alaska’s most active volcanoes, shot a cloud of ash more than 5 miles high, triggering a warning to aviators and putting on a show that was captured in satellite imagery.
(Reuters, 1/3/20)
2020 Jan 3, In Mississippi a 3rd inmate was killed at the State Penitentiary at Parchman. He became the fifth inmate to be killed in the state since Dec. 29 in what was described as a feud between gangs.
(SFC, 1/4/20, p.A6)
2020 Jan 3, It was reported that Missouri’s two biggest cities saw a jump in homicides in 2019, and if that wasn’t bad enough, an alarming number of killers got away with it. St. Louis had 194 killings last year, eight more than in 2018. Kansas City’s homicide total rose by 10, to 148.
(AP, 1/3/20)
2020 Jan 3, In Australia one of the largest evacuations in the country's history was under way as more than 200 fires burned across the country. The navy evacuated hundreds of people from Mallacoota, cut off for days by the wild fires. Victoria premier declared a disaster across much of the eastern part of the state. Ten deaths have been confirmed in Victoria and New South
Wales with 28 reported missing in Victoria.
(SFC, 1/4/20, p.A4)
2020 Jan 3, Belarus suspended its oil exports after Moscow stopped supplying crude until contracts for this year are drawn up. A day later Belarus reached an agreement for limited oil supplies to ensure refinery operations for January.
(SFC, 1/4/20, p.A2)(SSFC, 1/5/20, p.A4)
2020 Jan 3, In Cambodia a building under construction collapsed in the coastal province of Kep, killing at least four workers. The death toll soon rose to 36.
(SFC, 1/4/20, p.A2)(SFC, 1/6/20, p.A2)
2020 Jan 3, In China the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission said 44 people have been diagnosed with pneumonia, the cause of which is unknown. That’s up from 27 three days earlier. Eleven people were in serious condition.
(Bloomberg, 1/4/20)
2020 Jan 3, In France one man was killed and two other people seriously injured in a knife attack by an unidentified assailant in the Paris suburb of Villejuif. Police shot dead the assailant.
(The Telegraph, 1/3/20)
2020 Jan 3, In India more that 1,000 members of the LGBTQ community, rights groups and their supporters marched through New Delhi to protest a new citizenship law that excludes Muslims. Opposition parties say the Modi government is trying to consolidate its Hindu base.
(SFC, 1/4/20, p.A2)
2020 Jan 3, In Indonesia the death toll from floods in Jakarta rose to 43 as rescuers found more bodies amid receding floodwaters.
(AP, 1/3/20)
2020 Jan 3, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei appointed Qassem Soleimani's deputy, Maj. Gen. Esmail Ghaani as the new commander of the Revolutionary Guard's Quds Force, part of the 125,000-strong Revolutionary Guard.
(AP, 1/4/20)
2020 Jan 3, American oil workers began fleeing Iraq, as fears grew of war between the United States and Iran.
(NY Times, 1/4/20)
2021 Jan 3, All 10 living former secretaries of defense cautioned against any move to involve the military in pursuing claims of election fraud, arguing that it would take the country into “dangerous, unlawful and unconstitutional territory".
(AP, 1/4/21)
2021 Jan 3, The 117th Congress convened for the first time and re-elected Nancy Pelosi as House speaker. Democrats control 222 of 435 seats, the slimmest majority either party has held in two decades.
(NY Times, 1/3/21)
2021 Jan 3, California to date had 2,356,544 cases of coronavirus and 26,547 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 273,843 cases and 2,635 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 20,439,674 with the death toll at 350,267.
(sfist.com, 1/3/21)
2021 Jan 3, In Minnesota hundreds of protesters marched in Minneapolis to demand justice in the fatal police shooting of a 23-year-old man, the city’s first police-involved death since George Floyd died after being restrained by officers in May. Dolal Idd was killed on Dec. 30 during an attempted felony traffic stop.
(AP, 1/4/21)
2021 Jan 3, The Wall Street Journal reported that in recent days Icahn had sold about 10% of his stake back to Herbalife Nutrition, a multi-level marketing company, whose products include dietary supplements. Icahn sold more than half his stake in Herbalife Nutrition back to the company for $600 million at $48.05 a share and has given up the five seats on the firm's board held by his representatives.
(Reuters, 1/3/21)
2021 Jan 3, Australia's New South Wales state recorded eight new local cases. There are 161 active cases in the state, most of them in the northern beaches of Sydney, and 13 emanating from liquor store that are not connected to the beaches cluster. More Australian states and territories are reimposing travel restrictions to prevent the spreading of the coronavirus from new outbreaks in New South Wales and Victoria states.
(AP, 1/3/21)
2021 Jan 3, British PM Boris Johnson warned that more onerous lockdown restrictions in England are likely in the coming weeks as the country reels from a new coronavirus variant that has pushed infection rates to their highest recorded levels.
(AP, 1/3/21)
2021 Jan 3, It was reported that rebel forces have seized Bangassou, a south-eastern city in the Central African Republic. The rebels have accused the government of holding a fraudulent election on 27 December.
(BBC, 1/3/21)
2021 Jan 3, Mainland China reported 33 new COVID-19 cases, up from 24 cases a day earlier. The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in mainland China now stands at 87,150, while the death toll remained unchanged at 4,634.
(Reuters, 1/3/21)
2021 Jan 3, It was reported that two men convicted over the assassination of the Democratic Republic of Congo's Pres. Laurent Kabila 20 years ago have been pardoned. Col Eddy Kapend and Georges Leta, implicated in the killing, had their death sentences commuted last June.
(BBC, 1/3/21)
2021 Jan 3, Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan resumed their years-long negotiations over the controversial dam Ethiopia is building on the Blue Nile.
(AP, 1/3/21)
2021 Jan 3, India's drugs regulator granted emergency authorization for the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine, but on the condition that Serum Institute doesn't export the shots to ensure that vulnerable populations in India are protected. Serum Institute of India has been contracted to make 1 billion doses of the vaccine for developing nations. COVAXIN, made by Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech, received emergency use approval from India's drugs regulator.
(AP, 1/3/21)(4, 1/4/21)
2021 Jan 3, In India hundreds of Tibetans in exile voted in Dharmsala for their new political leader and parliament. A 2nd round will take place in April.
(SFC, 1/4/21, p.A6)
2021 Jan 3, Tens of thousands of Iraqis chanting anti-American slogans streamed to Baghdad's central square to mark the anniversary of the US killing of top Iranian general Qassem Soleimani and Iraqi militia commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis.
(AP, 1/3/21)
2021 Jan 3, Italy reported 347 coronavirus-related deaths against 364 the day before, while the daily tally of new infections rose to 14,245 from 11,831.
(Reuters, 1/3/21)
2021 Jan 3, In Mali more than 20 people, including children, were reported killed when an airstrike hit a wedding party in a remote village. The French military, which has troops in the region, said it carried out a strike on jihadist militants in central Mali, but that no wedding was involved. Defense Minister Florence Parly later said no helicopters were engaged in the strike that “eliminated several dozen jihadis."
(AP, 1/6/21)(AP, 1/10/21)
2021 Jan 3, In Pakistan gunmen opened fire on a group of minority Shiite Hazara coal miners after abducting them in southwestern Baluchistan province. 11 miners were killed. The Islamic state claimed responsibility.
(SFC, 1/4/21, p.A6)
2021 Jan 3, A South Korean health official said that a third wave of the novel coronavirus is being contained, as it reported the lowest number of new infections in nearly four weeks with the help of tougher restrictions during the New Year holiday season. South Korea expanded a ban on private gatherings larger than four people to the whole country, and extended unprecedented social distancing rules in greater Seoul as the number of daily cases bounced back to more than 1,000 in four days.
(Reuters, 1/3/21)
2021 Jan 3, It was reported that Swiss regulators have allowed contract manufacturer Lonza Group to start producing Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine at a plant in Switzerland.
(Reuters, 1/3/21)
2021 Jan 3, In central Syria militants ambushed buses traveling down a highway late today, killing nine people, including a 13-year-old girl.
(AP, 1/3/21)
2021 Jan 3, Zimbabwe imposed curbs to slow the spread of the coronavirus as Information Minister Nick Mangwana warned that the country was being overwhelmed.
(SFC, 1/4/21, p.A4)
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For Asia History: https://www.asiaobserver.org/category/news/on-this-day-in-asian-history
106BC Jan 3, Marcus Cicero (d.43BCE), Roman orator, statesman and author, was born. He was elected Consul in 63. He chose to support Pompey over Caesar and was murdered by Mark Antony: "What is more unwise than to mistake uncertainty for certainty, falsehood for truth?"
(V.D.-H.K.p.74)(AP, 4/10/98)(HN, 1/3/99)
1521 Jan 3, Pope Leo X excommunicated Martin Luther from the Roman Catholic Church.
(NH, 9/96, p.18)(AP, 1/3/98)
1543 Jan 3, Spanish explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo (43-44) died of gangrene and was buried at San Miguel. He was injured in December while helping defend his men fight off a band of Indians in the Channel Islands off California. In 1989 Harry Kelsey authored the biography “Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo."
(NPS-CNM, 4/1/97)(SFC, 10/18/14, p.A1)
1621 Jan 3, William Tucker was born. He is believed to be first American born African-American. [1624 date also given]
(HN, 1/3/99)(MC, 1/3/02)
1641 Jan 3, Jeremiah Horrocks (22), English astronomical prodigy, died.
(MC, 1/3/02)
1670 Jan 3, George Monck (61), English general (to the-sea), died.
(MC, 1/3/02)
1754 Jan 3, Joseph Black, a medical student at the Univ. of Edinburgh, rediscovered carbon dioxide after pouring acid into a tall glass containing some chalk Black had read Helmont’s memoirs and so knew of gas sylvestris. A candle near the glass was snuffed out due to the outpouring of carbon dioxide. He also found that carbon dioxide will precipitate out of limewater when exposed to a strong source of carbon dioxide gas. Black later attained a professorship and had James Watt, engine-builder, as one of his first assistants.
(NOHY, 3/90, p.5,42)
1777 Jan 3, Gen. George Washington's army routed the British led by Cornwallis in the Battle of Princeton, N.J.
(AP, 1/3/98)(HN, 1/3/99)
1793 Jan 3, Lucretia Coffin Mott women’s rights activist, was born. She was a teacher, minister, antislavery leader and founder of the 1st Women’s Rights Convention.
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)(HN, 1/3/02)
1795 Jan 3, The 3rd division of the Lithuanian Polish Republic was made between Russia and Austria.
(Voruta #27-28, Jul 1996, p.5)
1795 Jan 3, Josiah Wedgwood (b.1730), British ceramics manufacturer, died. His daughter, Susannah, was the mother of Charles Darwin. In 2004 Brian Dolan authored “Wedgwood: The First Tycoon."
(SSFC, 12/5/04, p.E5)(www.wedgwoodmuseum.org.uk/wedgwood_chronology.htm)
1825 Jan 3, Scottish factory owner Robert Owen bought 30,000 acres in Indiana as site for New Harmony utopian community.
(MC, 1/3/02)
1833 Jan 3, Britain ousted a small group of Argentine settlers and seized control of the Malvina Islands (Falkland Islands) in the South Atlantic. In 1982 Argentina seized the islands, but Britain took them back after a 74-day war.
(AP, 1/3/98)(SFC, 4/3/02, p.A7)
1852 Jan 3, The 1st Chinese arrive in Hawaii.
(MC, 1/3/02)
1856 Jan 3, John Thompson (1827-1876), Norway-born immigrant, departed Placerville, Ca., with skies and snow shoes on his first mail run to Carson City, Nevada. By the spring of 1857 he made 31 crossings of the Sierra to deliver mail.
(ON, 4/10, p.7)
1861 Jan 3, Delaware rejected a proposal that it join the South in seceding.
(HN, 1/3/99)
1861 Jan 3, US Ft. Pulaski & Ft. Jackson, Savannah, were seized by Georgia.
(MC, 1/3/02)
1864 Jan 3, John Joseph Hughes (b.1797), Irish-born Archbishop of the Catholic diocese of NY, died.
(WSJ, 12/5/08, p.A19)(www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/John-Joseph-Hughes)
1868 Jan 3, Emperor Meiji ascended the throne and assumed power. The Meiji Restoration re-established the authority of Japan's emperor and heralded the fall of the military rulers known as shoguns. The feudal clan system was abolished and industrialism was started. Japan opened itself up to the West, thereby obtaining the benefits of western technology. With the erosion of the Tokugawa bakufu system and international pressure to open the country, the boy emperor Mutsuhito—later known by the name Meiji—became the political leader replacing the Tokugawa shogunate. The social and political changes during the Meiji period (1868-1912) had begun in the late Tokugawa period, but were only formalized with the creation of the Meiji constitution in 1889.
(V.D.-H.K.p.243,286)(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 215)(AP, 1/3/98)(HNQ, 11/21/00)
1870 Jan 3, Construction of the Brooklyn Bridge began.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooklyn_Bridge)
1871 Jan 3, Henry W. Bradley patented oleomargarine in Binghamton, NY.
(AH, 2/06, p.14)
1879 Jan 3, Grace Coolidge (Goodhue) First Lady: wife of 30th U.S. President Calvin Coolidge [1923-29], was born.
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)(HN, 1/3/99)
1883 Jan 3, Clement Attlee Britain’s prime minister [1945-1951; head of Labour Party, was born.
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1885 Jan 3, Anna Pavlova, Russia’s premier ballerina, was born.
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1888 Jan 3, Marvin C. Stone of Washington, DC, patented the drinking straw.
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1892 Jan 3, J.R.R. Tolkien, author of the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, was born in Bloemfontein, South Africa. "All that is gold does not glitter; not all those that wander are lost."
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)(AP, 1/5/99)(AP, 1/3/00)
1897 Jan 3, Marion (Cecilia Douras) Davies actress: Runaway Romany, When Knighthood Was in Flower, The Patsy, Show People, Going Hollywood, was born.
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1898 Jan 3, Zasu Pitts actress: Busby Berkeley’s 1933 musical: Dames, was born.
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1901 Jan 3, Ngo Dinh Diem, South Vietnamese president (1955-63), was born.
(HN, 1/3/99)(MC, 1/3/02)
1903 Jan 3, The Bulgarian government renounced the treaty of commerce tying it to Austro-Hungarian empire.
(HN, 1/3/99)
1905 Jan 3, Ray Milland (Reginald Truscott-Jones) Academy Award-winning actor: The Lost Weekend [1945], We’re Not Dressing, Star-Spangled Rhythm, Lady in the Dark, Let’s Do It Again, X: The Man with X-Ray Eyes, was born.
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1909 Jan 3, Victor Borge (Borge Rosenbaum) pianist, comedian, was born.
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1910 Jan 3, British miners struck for an 8 hour working day.
(MC, 1/3/02)
1910 Jan 3, The Social Democratic Congress in Germany demanded universal suffrage.
(HN, 1/3/99)
1911 Jan 3, Joseph Rauh civil rights activist: cofounded Americans for Democratic Action; member: executive board of NAACP; general counsel: Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, was born.
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1911 Jan 3, John Sturges director: Bad Day at Black Rock, Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, The Magnificent Seven, The Great Escape, Ice Station Zebra, The Eagle Has Landed, was born.
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1911 Jan 3, The Siege of Sidney Street, also known as the Battle of Stepney, was a gunfight in the East End of London between a combined police and army force and two Latvian revolutionaries. At the end the bodies of William Sokoloff and Fritz Svaars were found inside and one fireman was killed as the building collapsed. Winston Churchill (36) reportedly directed the operations.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Sidney_Street)(Econ., 12/19/20, p.37)
1912 Jan 3, Plans were announced for a new $150,000 Brooklyn stadium for the Trolley Dodgers baseball team.
(HN, 1/3/99)
1915 Jan 3, Jack Levine, artist, was born in Boston, Mass. His social realist and expressionist art included political and satirical undertones.
(SFC, 7/24/04, p.E1)
1916 Jan 3, Betty Furness, consumer advocate, TV spokesperson for refrigerators, was born.
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1916 Jan 3, Three armored Japanese cruisers were ordered to guard the Suez Canal.
(HN, 1/3/99)
1918 Jan 3, Maxene Andrews was born. Singer with sisters LaVerne and Patti: The Andrews Sisters: Why Talk About Love?, A Simple Melody, Bei Mir Bist Du Schön, Rum and Coca Cola; solo: I Suppose; on Broadway with Patti: Over Here.
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1920 Jan 3, The Red Sox sold Babe Ruth to the Yankees for $100,000, twice the amount of any previous player transaction. The deal also included a $300,000 loan secured by a mortgage on Fenway Park, a contractual clause that made the Yankees owners the Red Sox's landlords.
(http://espn.go.com/sportscentury/features/00242487.html)
1920 Jan 3, The last of the U.S. troops quit France.
(HN, 1/3/99)
1921 Jan 3, John Russell, actor: Forever Amber, Rio Bravo, Pale Rider, was born.
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1921 Jan 3, The state capitol in Charleston, West Virginia, was destroyed by a fire. Ammunition, bought by the West Virginia State Police two years before, was stored on the top floor of the building. The ammunition had been purchased for use in the coal field disputes which had threatened to erupt into civil war.
(http://www.charlestonwv.net/community/capitol.html)
1921 Jan 3, Italy halted the issue of passports to those emigrating to the U.S.
(HN, 1/3/99)
1922 Jan 3, Bill Travers, producer, director, actor: Born Free, was born.
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1924 Jan 3, Hank Stram, football: coach, was born: Kansas City Chiefs: Super Bowls I, IV; sportscaster: CBS radio.
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1924 Jan 3, Howard Carter opened the doors to the last shrine in the hall, revealing the large stone sarcophagus of the Pharaoh Tutankhamen. The next day Carter was photographed with Arthur Callender and an Egyptian workman in the Burial Chamber, looking through the open doors of the four gilded shrines, towards the quartzite sarcophagus tomb of Tutankhamun.
(http://tinyurl.com/6crmufa)(www.griffith.ox.ac.uk/gri/4acphot.html)
1925 Jan 3, Benito Mussolini dissolved the Italian parliament and became dictator.
(MC, 1/3/02)
1926 Jan 3, Joan Walsh Anglund, author, was born: Bedtime Book, Crocus in the Snow; illustrator of children’s books.
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1926 Jan 3, George Martin record producer, arranger, keyboard player, was born: group: The Beatles; AIR Studios; inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame [3-15-99].
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1929 Jan 3, William S. Paley (27) became CBS president.
(MC, 1/3/02)
1930 Jan 3, Robert Loggia actor, was born: Independence Day, Wild Palms, Big, Armed and Dangerous, Prizzi’s Honor, Scarface, Psycho 2, Pink Panther series, A Woman Called Golda, Speedtrap, An Officer and a Gentleman, The Greatest Story Ever Told, Somebody Up There Likes Me, Mancuso FBI.
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1930 Jan 3, The second conference on war reparations began in the Hague.
(HN, 1/3/99)
1931 Jan 3, Hundreds of farmers stormed a small town in depression-plagued Arkansas demanding food.
(HN, 1/3/99)
1932 Jan 3, Coo Coo (Clifton) Marlin auto race: Winston Cup star, was born.
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1932 Jan 3, Dabney Coleman actor, was born: Judicial Consent, The Beverly Hillbillies, Amos and Andrew, Clifford, Never Forget, Short Time, Dragnet, The Man with One Red Shoe, Tootsie, On Golden Pond, 9 to 5, North Dallas Forty, The Other Side of the Mountain, Cinderella Liberty, The President’s Plane is Missing, Buffalo Bill.
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1933 Jan 3, The Japanese took Shuangyashan, China, killing 500 in the process.
(HN, 1/3/99)
1935 Jan 3, James Michael Curley (1874-1958), former mayor of Boston, began serving as governor of Massachusetts.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Michael_Curley)
1938 Jan 3, The first broadcast of Woman in White was presented on the NBC Red network. The program remained on radio for 10 years and was one of the first to feature real doctors and nurses in leading roles.
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1938 Jan 3, The March of Dimes was established by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to fight poliomyelitis. Roosevelt himself was afflicted with polio. The organization was originally called the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, as the disease was commonly known.
(AP, 1/3/98)(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1939 Jan 3, Bobby Hull, ‘The Golden Jet’: Hockey Hall of Famer, was born: Chicago Blackhawks left wing: Hart Memorial Trophy, NHL’s MVP award [1965, 1966]; Lady Byng Trophy for good sportsmanship [1965]; 1st pro hockey player to score more than 50 goals in one season [54: 1965].
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1939 Jan 3, Tennis legend Don Budge played a pro tennis match, his first in Madison Square Garden, NY, before 6,000 spectators. Budge was touring the country as the top U.S. tennis player, having won the grand slam of tennis (Australian, French and U.S. Opens and Wimbledon) the year before.
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1940 Jan 3, The Southland Shuffle was recorded on Bluebird Records by Charlie Barnet and his orchestra. A young trumpet player named Billy May was featured.
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1941 Jan 3, Canada & US acquired air bases in Newfoundland with a 99 year lease.
(MC, 1/3/02)
1943 Jan 3, A US B-17 bomber was downed over France following a bombing run over a German submarine base in southern France. John Roten, navigator, was the only survivor. Roten spent 28 months as a POW.
(SFC, 9/10/01, p.A11)
1944 Jan 3, Jurgis Baltrušaitis (b.1873), Lithuanian Symbolist poet and translator, died in Paris. He wrote his works in Lithuanian and Russian. In addition to his important contributions to Lithuanian literature, he was noted as a political activist and diplomat. Baltrušaitis was appointed Lithuania's ambassador to Russia in 1920 and held this position until 1939.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jurgis_Baltru%C5%A1aitis)
1945 Jan 3, Stephen Stills, singer, songwriter, guitarist: group, was born: Buffalo Springfield: For What It’s Worth; group: Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young.
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1945 Jan 3, US aircraft carriers attacked Okinawa.
(MC, 1/3/02)
1945 Jan 3, Edgar Cayce (b.1877), American self-proclaimed psychic from Kentucky, died. Jess Stearn (d.2002) authored "The Sleeping Prophet: The Life and work of Edgar Cayce" (1968), and "A Prophet in His Own Country: The Story of the Young Edgar Cayce" (1974). In 2000 Sidney D. Kirkpatrick authored Edgar Cayce, An American Prophet.
(SFEC, 7/26/98, BR p.3)(SSFC, 1/14/01, BR p.12)(SFC, 4/2/02, p.A15)(SFC, 8/7/08, p.E6)
1946 Jan 3, John Paul Jones, musician, was born as John Baldwin in Kent, England: film score: Scream for Help; group: Led Zeppelin: Whole Lotta Love, Moby Dick, Ramble On, Immigrant Song, Since I’ve Been Loving You, Black Dog, Rock & Roll, The Battle of Evermore, Stairway to Heaven.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Paul_Jones_%28musician%29)
1946 Jan 3, Don May, basketball player, was born: Univ. of Dayton, Indiana Pacers.
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1946 Jan 3, President Truman called on Americans to spur Congress to act on the on-going labor crisis.
(HN, 1/3/99)
1946 Jan 3, William Joyce, (Lord Haw Haw), was hanged in Britain for treason. He had broadcast for the Nazis to British and American fighting troops. In 2005 Nigel Farndale authored “Haw-Haw: The Tragedy of William and Margaret Joyce."
(www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/William-Joyce)(Econ, 7/30/05, p.77)
1947 Jan 3, At the top of the record charts:
Ole Buttermilk Sky by The Kay Kyser Orchestra (vocal: Mike Douglas & The Campus Kids).
The Old Lamplighter by The Sammy Kaye Orchestra (vocal: Billy Williams).
For Sentimental Reasons by Nat King Cole.
Divorce Me C.O.D. by Merle Travis.
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1947 Jan 3, Congressional proceedings were televised for the first time as viewers in Washington, Philadelphia and New York City saw some of the opening ceremonies of the 80th Congress.
(AP, 1/3/98)
1947 Jan 3, In Trenton, New Jersey, Al Herrin, the handyman who claimed he had no bed to sleep in because he had never slept a wink in his life, passed away at age 92. He was famed for catnapping in chairs but never sleeping in a bed. No bed was found in his living quarters after he died. Doctors said there was evidence that he had gone several months without sleep and they confirmed that if he went that long, it could well be that he was awake his entire life.
(SFC, 12/4/94, p. S-8)(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1948 Jan 3, King Michael left Romania. His Peles Castle in Sinaia was confiscated by the Communists. In 2006 it was returned to the former king.
(SFC, 10/20/00, p.A16)(SFC, 5/24/06, p.A2)
1950 Jan 3, Bart (Clair Barth) Johnson baseball, was born.: pitcher: Chicago White Sox.
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1950 Jan 3, Rick MacLeish, hockey player, was born: London Nationals, Oklahoma City Blazers, Philadelphia Flyers, Hartford Whalers, Pittsburgh Penguins, Detroit Red Wings.
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1950 Jan 3, Victoria Principal, actress, was born: Dallas, Fantasy Island, Scott Turow’s The Burden of Proof, Naked Lie, Blind Witness, Mistress, Pleasure Palace, Earthquake, Life & Times of Judge Roy Bean.
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1950 Jan 3, Albert Cobo (1893-1957) began serving as mayor of Detroit. He pursued the building of motorways by razing black neighborhoods, sowing the seeds for the race riots of 1967.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Cobo)(Econ, 9/16/17, p.21)
1952 Jan 3, A revived "Pal Joey" opened at Broadhurst Theater, NYC, for 542 performances.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pal_Joey_%28musical%29)
1952 Jan 3, "Dragnet" with Jack Webb premiered on NBC TV.
(MC, 1/3/02)
1953 Jan 3, Frances Bolton and her son, Oliver from Ohio, became the first mother-son combination to serve at the same time in the United States Congress.
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1954 Jan 3, Albert Einstein wrote a letter to the philosopher Eric Gutkind describing belief in God as "childish superstition" and saying Jews were not the chosen people. In 2008 the letter was put up for auction and sold for $404,000.
(AFP, 5/13/08)(AP, 5/16/08)
1955 Jan 3, Melody Anderson, actress, was born.: Marilyn & Bobby: Her Final Affair, Landslide, Hitler’s Daughter, Final Notice, Speed Zone, Firewalker, Beverly Hills Madam, Policewoman Centerfold, Dead and Buried, Flash Gordon, Manimal.
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1955 Jan 3, At the top of the record charts:
Mr. Sandman by The Chordettes.
Let Me Go, Lover by Joan Weber.
The Naughty Lady of Shady Lane by The Ames Brothers.
More and More by Webb Pierce.
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1956 Jan 3, Mel Gibson, Academy Award-winning director and actor, was born in Peekskill, New York. His films included Braveheart (1995) actor and director; Maverick, The Man Without a Face, Lethal Weapon series, Forever Young, Hamlet, Bird on a Wire, Tequila Sunrise, Mad Max series, Mrs. Soffel, The Road Warrior, The Year of Living Dangerously, Summer City.
(http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000154/)
1957 Jan 3, The Hamilton Watch Company was the first to introduce an electric watch in Lancaster, Pa.
(http://rondeau.net/history.html)
1958 Jan 3, The first six members of the newly formed US Commission on Civil Rights held their first meeting at the White House after they were sworn in by President Eisenhower.
(AP, 1/3/08)
1958 Jan 3, Edmund Hillary reached the South Pole (Antarctica) overland. Hillary was part of a joint New Zealand-British ice trek that drove farm tractors on the Skelton Glacier to the South Pole. He beat Vivian Fuchs to the South Pole by 17 days.
(SFC, 1/14/99, p.C2)(MC, 1/3/02)
1958 Jan 3, The British created the West Indies Federation with Lord Hailes as governor general. The federation lasted to 1962. It included Barbados, Jamaica, Trinidad, Tobago and the Windward and Leeward Islands.
(HN, 1/3/99)(WUD, 1994, p.1623)
1959 Jan 3, President Eisenhower signed a proclamation admitting Alaska to the Union as the 49th state. Its area is 586,412 sq. mls. Capital: Juneau; bird: willow ptarmigan; flower: forget-me-not; nickname: The Last Frontier.
(TMC, 1994, p.1959)(THM, 4/27/97, p.L5)(AP, 1/3/98)(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1959 Jan 3, Fidel Castro took command of the Cuban army.
(HN, 1/3/99)
1961 Jan 3, The United States severed diplomatic relations with Cuba after Fidel Castro announced he was a communist. The US Guantanamo Bay base remained under US control.
(AP, 1/3/98)(HN, 1/3/99)(MC, 1/3/02)
1962 Jan 3, Pope John XXIII excommunicated Fidel Castro.
(MC, 1/3/02)
1963 Jan 3, Top hits:
Telstar by The Tornadoes
Bobby’s Girl by Marcie Blane
Go Away Little Girl by Steve Lawrence
Don’t Let Me Cross Over by Carl Butler & Pearl (Dee Jones).
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1964 Jan 3, Barry Goldwater announced that he was a candidate for the U.S. Presidency. He lost to Lyndon B. Johnson: 43,126,506 to 27,176,799.
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1965 Jan 3, UC Berkeley officials announced a new campus policy that allowed political activity on campus.
(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.F5)
1966 Jan 3, Cambodia warned the UN of retaliation unless the U.S. and South Vietnam end intrusions.
(HN, 1/3/99)
1967 Jan 3, Mary Garden (b.1874), Scottish opera star, died in Inverurie, Scotland.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Garden)
1967 Jan 3, Jack Ruby (55), the man who shot accused presidential assassin Lee Harvey Oswald, died in a Dallas hospital.
(AP, 1/3/98)
1969 Jan 3, Police in Newark, NJ, confiscated 30,000 copies of the John Lennon, Yoko Ono album, Two Virgins. A nude photo of John and Yoko on the cover violated pornography laws in Jersey.
(www.goatview.com/january03.htm)
1970 Jan 3, "Mame" closed at Winter Garden Theater in NYC after 1508 performances.
(http://www.ibdb.com/production.php?id=3142)
1971 Jan 3, At the top of the record charts: "My Sweet Lord and Isn’t It" a Pity by George Harrison; "Knock Three Times" by Dawn; "Black Magic Woman" by Santana; and "Rose Garden" by Lynn Anderson.
(www.mbgtop40.com/chartreviews/1971/week10of1971.html)
1972 Jan 3, Don McLean received a gold record for his 8-minute-plus (8:32) hit, American Pie.
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1973 Jan 3, The Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) got out of the baseball business this day by selling the New York Yankees to a 12-man syndicate headed by George Steinbrenner III for $8.8 million. Steinbrenner (1930-2010) put up barely $100,000.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1973_New_York_Yankees_season)(Econ, 7/17/10, p.38)
1974 Jan 3, Following eight years of inactivity, Bob Dylan and The Band began his 2-month concert tour in Chicago, IL. The tour was recorded and later released as a double-LP set titled, “Before the Flood."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Dylan_and_The_Band_1974_Tour)
1975 Jan 3, President Ford signed Public Law 93-620. This Act, written to enlarge the Grand Canyon National Park, also provided in Section 10 for the enlargement of the adjacent Havasupai Indian Reservation by 185,000 acres and designated a contiguous 95,300 acres of the enlarged National Park as a permanent traditional use area of the Havasupai Indians of Havasu Canyon, Arizona.
(SSFC, 2/19/06, p.F4)(www.tribal-institute.org/envirotext/89.htm)
1975 Jan 3, President Gerald Ford signed the Jackson-Vanik amendment into law, after both houses of the United States Congress unanimously voted for its adoption. Congress had passed the Jackson-Vanik amendment for economic sanctions on Russia to pressure the Soviet Union to allow unfettered emigration for Soviet Jews. Pres. Bush in 2001 proposed that it be lifted.
(WSJ, 11/5/01, p.A1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackson-Vanik_amendment)
1975 Jan 3, The US Trade Act of 1974 was enacted.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trade_Act_of_1974)
1976 Jan 3, Pres. Gerald Ford signed the American Folklife Preservation Act. San Francisco Folklorist Aaron Green (1917-2009) had lobbied Congress for the passage of the bill.
(www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=6021)
1977 Jan 3, Apple Computers incorporated under Steven Jobs and Steve Wozniak. In March Apple produced the Apple II, the first pre-assembled, mass-produced PC.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Computer)(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R42)
1978 Jan 3, In India the Congress Party split and Indira Gandhi became head of the larger faction.
(WUD, 1994, p.1691)
1978 Jan 3, Vietnamese troops were reported to be occupying 400 square miles in Cambodia. North Vietnamese Army (NVA) troops were using Laos and Cambodia as staging areas for attacks against allied forces.
(HN, 1/3/02)
1979 Jan 3, The top of the record charts included: Le Freak by Chic; Too Much Heaven by the Bee Gees; My Life by Billy Joel; The Gambler by Kenny Rogers.
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1979 Jan 3, Conrad Hilton (b.1887), American founder of the Hilton Hotel chain, died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conrad_Nicholson_Hilton)
1980 Jan 3, Conservationist Joy Adamson (69), author of "Born Free," was killed in northern Kenya by a servant.
(AP, 1/3/98)(WSJ, 9/8/00, p.W4)
1981 Jan 3, John Lennon’s (Just Like) Starting Over and the album Double Fantasy topped the pop music charts just weeks after the death of the former Beatle.
(www.440.com/twtd/today.html)
1982 Jan 3, A small plane crashed into the peak of White Mountain in northern California. Donnie Priest (10), the only survivor, was rescued 5 days later but lost both legs due to frostbite. His mother and stepfather were killed in the crash.
(SSFC, 11/25/07, p.A1)
1983 Jan 3, In Hawaii the Pu’u O’o vent of the Kilauea volcano lit up the skies for the first time and began a state of almost constant eruption.
(SFEC, 4/2/00, p.T6)
1985 Jan 3, Soprano Leontyne Price, part of the Met since 1961, bid adieu to the Metropolitan Opera in New York. She sang the title role of Aida.
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1985 Jan 3, President Reagan condemned a rash of arsons on abortion clinics.
(HN, 1/3/99)
1986 Jan 3, The British Banker’s Association started publishing the London inter-bank offered rates (LIBOR), a measure of interest rates banks pay when they borrow from one another. The rate is subjective by design and not a statistical measure.
(http://mortgage-x.com/general/indexes/wsj_libor_history.asp?y=1986)(Econ, 3/10/12, p.84)
1987 Jan 3, At the top of the record charts included: Walk Like an Egyptian by the Bangles; Everybody Have Fun Tonight by Wang Chung; Notorious by Duran Duran; Mind Your Own Business by Hank Williams, Jr.
(www.440.com/twtd/archives/jan03.html)
1987 Jan 3, The first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was ‘Lady Soul’: Aretha Franklin (b.1942). Bill Haley was among the 14 others inducted.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aretha_Franklin)(http://tinyurl.com/mn5j6)
1975 Jan 3, Milton J. Cross (b.1897), TV announcer (Met Opera), died.
(www.imdb.com/name/nm0189229/)
1988 Jan 3, Margaret Thatcher (b.1925) became the longest serving British PM this century.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/January_3)
1988 Jan 3, The Israeli Army ordered nine Palestinian activists deported from West Beirut as part of a controversial crackdown to stop the uprising in the occupied territories. Israeli raids on Palestinian and Progressive Socialist Party positions in the region of Saida make killed 21 persons and wounded 11.
(AP, 1/3/98)(http://tinyurl.com/zz87m)
1990 Jan 3, Ousted Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega surrendered to U.S. forces, 10 days after taking refuge in the Vatican's diplomatic mission.
(AP, 1/3/98)
1991 Jan 3, The 102nd Congress convened, plunging immediately into acrimonious debate over the Persian Gulf crisis. President Bush proposed direct talks between Secretary of State James A. Baker the Third and Iraqi Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz.
(AP, 1/3/01)
1992 Jan 3, In California, police pursued a driver who had killed another motorist along Interstate 5 for more than 300 miles until the car ran out of gas in Westminster; the driver was shot to death after officers said he pointed a shotgun at them.
(AP, 1/3/02)
1992 Jan 3, The Dow Jones industrial average closed above 3,200 for the first time, ending the day at 3,201.48.
(AP, 1/3/02)
1992 Jan 3, The UN, led by US Sec. of State Cyrus Vance, brokered a cease-fire between the Croatian government and rebel Serbs. Following subsequent breaches the UN Protection Force (UNPROFOR) put 14,000 peacekeeping troops into Croatia. The European Community (EC) recognized the independence of Croatia.
(SFC,10/16/97, p.A12)(SFC, 6/11/96, p.A14)
1993 Jan 3, The START II Treaty was signed between the US and Russia by President Bush and Russian President Boris Yeltsin. It was to eliminate land-based multiple-warhead missiles and reduce the long-range nuclear arsenals.
(SFEC, 12/1/96, Parade p.6)(AP, 1/3/98)
1993 Jan 3, Three days after he was jeered in Sarajevo, U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali took refuge from angry Somalis in Mogadishu.
(AP, 1/3/98)
1995 Jan 3, The US Postal Service raised the price of a first-class stamp to 32 cents.
(AP, 1/3/05)
1995 Jan 3, Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo announced an emergency plan for wage and price controls and budget cuts to stabilize the peso and combat spiraling inflation. The peso had lost 37% of its value since Dec. 20, 1994.
(WSJ, 1/13/95, p.A-3)(AP, 1/3/00)
1996 Jan 3, As a partial US government shutdown spilled into its record 19th day, stubborn House Republicans rebuffed a Senate bill that would have immediately returned idled federal workers to their jobs.
(AP, 1/3/01)
1996 Jan 3, US House speaker Newt Gingrich hired Christina Jeffrey to the post of historian for the House of Representatives.
(WSJ, 5/28/96, p. A-18)
1997 Jan 3, Bryant Gumbel ended his 15-year career as host of the NBC morning show “Today."
(SFC, 1/4/97, p.E1)(AP, 1/3/98)
1997 Jan 3, Pres. Clinton waived indefinitely the part of the Helms-Burton law that would punish foreign companies that used American property confiscated in Cuba 40 years ago.
(SFC, 1/4/97, p.A3)
1997 Jan 3, President Clinton declared northern Nevada a major disaster area following days of rain that sent rivers over their banks in the Reno and Carson City area.
(AP, 1/3/98)
1997 Jan 3, Las Vegas had a total of 101,106 hotel rooms as of this date.
(SFEC, 5/10/98, DB p.64)
1997 Jan 3, In NY in Centereach, Long Island, William Sodders (21) shot and killed, James Halverson, a firefighter out on a jog, in a random murder. Sodders was later turned in to police by his father after admitting to him the murder. Sodders was said to be influenced by the film “Natural Born Killers." Halverson left a wife pregnant with twins and a 4-year-old daughter.
(SFC, 8/15/97, p.A7)
1997 Jan 3, In Washington a diplomat from Georgia, Gueorgui Makharadze, was in a car crash that killed a 16-year-old girl. Police said he was drinking, but he refused a breath test.
(SFC, 1/8/97, p.A17)
1997 Jan 3, In Europe the 11th day of a cold front left some 206 dead.
(SFC, 1/4/97, p.A8)
1997 Jan 3, In Mexico a Jalisco state judge dismissed drug trafficking charges against Hector Luis Palma, leader of the Sinaloa drug cartel. He was sentenced to 6 years on lesser charges.
(SFC, 1/9/97, p.A12)
1997 Jan 3, In Rwanda two Hutu men were sentenced to death for their role in the 1994 genocide.
(SFC, 1/4/97, p.A10)
1998 Jan 3, Peter Christoff, Prof. of Russian history at SF State Univ., died at age 86. His dissertation was on Alexander Herzen and Mikhail Bakunin and he later specialized on the Slavophil movement, which attempted to reinforce Orthodox Christian values and Slavic cultural traditions in the former USSR. His main work was a 4-volume “History of Russian Slavism."
(SFC, 1/16/98, p.A19)
1998 Jan 3, In Meknassa, Algeria, a 117 people were killed. In Chekala some 200 people were killed. Villagers fled their homes and sought shelter in big-city public squares.
(SFC, 1/7/98, p.A8)
1999 Jan 3, The Mars Polar Lander was launched. Landing was scheduled for Dec 3 with probes designed to burrow 3 feet into the Mars surface.
(SFC, 12/11/98, p.D6)(SFC, 1/4/99, p.A2)
1999 Jan 3, Chicagoans dug out from their biggest snowstorm in more than 30 years.
(AP, 1/3/00)
1999 Jan 3, In Wyoming Cindy Thompson Dixon (40) was found dead near a road about 5 miles north of Laramie. She was reported to have frozen to death after leaving a bar. She was the mother of Russell Henderson (21), who was waiting in jail for trial in the death of Matthew Shepard. Henderson pleaded guilty to murder in 1999 to avoid a trial and possible death sentence. He was sentenced to 2 consecutive life terms without eligibility for parole.
(SFC, 1/5/99, p.A3)(SFC, 1/6/99, p.A3)(SFC, 4/6/99, p.A1)
1999 Jan 3, In Indonesia 6 people died following a riot touched off by a military raid in Aceh province. The military sought Ahmad Kandang, leader of the separatist Free Aceh movement.
(SFC, 1/4/99, p.A8)
1999 Jan 3, Israeli warplanes attacked Hezbollah positions in southern Lebanon and wounded 6 people including a woman (55) and her 4 daughters.
(SFC, 1/4/99, p.A22)
1999 Jan 3, In Israel police detained 8 adults and 6 children belonging to the Concerned Christians sect from Denver, Colo. Police said the group under Monte Kim Miller planned violent acts to hasten the 2nd coming of Christ. 11 of the members were ordered to be deported.
(SFC, 1/4/99, p.A1)(SFC, 1/5/99, p.A8)(SFC, 1/6/99, p.A1)
1999 Jan 3, In Pakistan a bomb intended for Prime Minister Sharif killed 3 civilians and a police official. The Muttahida Qami Movement (MQM) was suspected. The MQM represented Urdu-speaking people who immigrated from British India in 1947.
(SFC, 1/4/99, p.A8)
2000 Jan 3, The last new daily “Peanuts" strip by Charles Schulz ran in 26-hundred newspapers.
(AP, 1/3/01)
2000 Jan 3, Pres. Clinton opened peace talks between Syria and Israel in Shepherdstown, West Virginia.
(SFC, 1/4/00, p.A1)
2000 Jan 3, In Brazil flooding killed at least 11 people in Rio de Janeiro.
(WSJ, 1/4/00, p.A1)
2000 Jan 3, In Croatia a center-left coalition won the elections over the nationalist Democratic Union (HDZ). Leading the coalition were Ivica Racan (55) of the Social Democratic Party and Drazen Budisa (52) of the Social-Liberals.
(SFC, 1/4/00, p.A10)
2000 Jan 3, A curfew was imposed in southern Egypt following violence between Muslims and Christians that left 20 Christians and Muslim dead in the village of el-Kusheh (Al Kosheh).
(SFC, 1/4/00, p.A12)(SFC, 6/30/01, p.A10)
2000 Jan 3, Germany reported plans to cut the tax on profits from sales of shares held less than a year, making 50% of the gains taxable rather than 100%. The change would be effective in 2001.
(WSJ, 1/4/00, p.A1)
2000 Jan 3, In Indonesia new fighting in the Spice Islands left at least 18 people dead.
(SFC, 1/4/00, p.A12)
2000 Jan 3, In India controlled Kashmir a land mine killed 17 people.
(WSJ, 1/4/00, p.A1)
2000 Jan 3, In Beirut, Lebanon, assailants fired rocket-propelled grenades at the Russian Embassy. One police officer and one attacker were killed. In northern Lebanon Muslim militants killed 4 soldiers and 3 hostages.
(SFC, 1/4/00, p.A10,12)
2000 Jan 3, In Russia acting Pres. Putin fired Tatyana Dyachenko, the daughter of Boris Yeltsin and Kremlin image advisor from her post in one of his first official acts, moving quickly to distance himself from Yeltsin’s scandal-tinged administration.
(SFC, 1/4/00, p.A10)(AP, 1/3/01)
2000 Jan 3, In Sri Lanka fighting was reported at a key northern pass that had left 60 people dead on both sides.
(WSJ, 1/3/00, p.A1)
2001 Jan 3, Oklahoma defeated Florida State, 13-to-2, to win the Orange Bowl and capture college football's Bowl Championship Series title game.
(AP, 1/3/02)
2001 Jan 3, The 107th Congress opened with the Senate split evenly down the middle. Because of the 50-50 divide, the Democrats were initially in control, since Vice President Al Gore could break ties, but the Republicans took over on Inauguration Day when Dick Cheney became vice president. However, the Senate reverted to Democratic control when Vermont Sen. James Jeffords switched his affiliation from Republican to Independent in May.
(SFC, 1/4/01, p.A3)(AP, 1/3/02)
2001 Jan 3, The US Federal Reserve under Alan Greenspan, outside its normal schedule of meetings, reduced interest rates by a half % and sent the Nasdaq up 324 points to 2616. The Dow rose 299 to 10,945.
(SFC, 1/4/01, p.A1)(Econ, 10/20/07, SR p.16)
2001 Jan 3, In Delaware a fire at an Oak Orchard rural home killed 11 Wright-Shelton family members including 7 children.
(SFC, 1/4/01, p.C12)(AP, 1/3/02)
2001 Jan 3, In Prague some 100,000 people gathered in Wenceslas Square to support the striking TV journalists.
(SFC, 1/4/01, p.A8)
2001 Jan 3, On the India-Pakistan border 4 Indian soldiers and 2 civilians were killed at the border post of Arhayee Mandi.
(SFC, 1/4/01, p.A12)
2001 Jan 3, Iraq denied reports that Pres. Saddam Hussein was hospitalized with a stroke following a parade Dec 31.
(SFC, 1/4/01, p.A12)
2001 Jan 3, Yasser Arafat accepted “with reservations" Pres. Clinton’s outline for an Israeli-Palestinian settlement.
(SFC, 1/4/01, p.A8)
2001 Jan 3, In Spain a commuter train hit a van near Lorca and 12 Ecuadoran farm workers were killed.
(WSJ, 1/04/01, p.A1)
2001 Jan 3, In Tanzania 6 armed men attacked a ferry with 50 passengers in Lake Tanganyika and 3 were shot to death including a 3-year-old girl. Male passengers were ordered to jump into the lake and 5 bodies were later recovered. 20 were feared drowned. 5 gunmen were later arrested
(SFC, 1/8/01, p.A10)(SFC, 1/9/01, p.A15)
2001 Jan 3, In Turkey suicide bomber Gultekin Koc (23) killed himself a 2 others in a police station in Istanbul. At least 7 people were injured. Koc was a member of the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front, a Marxist group
(SFC, 1/4/01, p.A9)(SFC, 9/11/01, p.B3)
2002 Jan 3, Miami beat Nebraska 37-14 in the Rose Bowl.
(AP, 1/3/03)
2002 Jan 3, A three-year federal investigation into the political and personal finances of Sen. Robert Torricelli, D-N.J., ended with no criminal charges.
(AP, 1/3/03)
2002 Jan 3, A judge in Alabama ruled that former Ku Klux Klansman Bobby Frank Cherry was mentally competent to stand trial on murder charges in the 1963 Birmingham church bombing that killed four black girls. Cherry was later convicted, and served a life sentence until his death in November 2004.
(AP, 1/3/07)
2002 Jan 3, US warplanes hit an al Qaeda compound in the Khost region south of Tora Bora and Islamic fighters near Baghran were reported to be in negotiations.
(SFC, 1/4/02, p.A19)(WSJ, 1/4/02, p.A1)
2002 Jan 3, The US announced increased military operations in Somalia and prepared to send Marines there. It was suspected that Al Qaeda fighters might attempt fleeing to Somalia.
(SFC, 1/4/02, p.A19)(WSJ, 1/4/02, p.A14)
2002 Jan 3, In Florida the conviction of Juan Melendez for a 1983 murder was overturned after he had spent 17 years on death row. In 2000 the transcript of another man’s confession, withheld by prosecutors, was found.
(SFC, 1/4/02, p.A17)(WSJ, 1/4/02, p.A1)
2002 Jan 3, In the US south the largest snowstorm in a decade stranded thousands and left at least 9 people dead.
(SFC, 1/4/02, p.A7)
2002 Jan 3, Afghan troops beat back refugees seeking food at a Red Crescent compound in Jalalabad. There were numerous reports of stolen wheat and relief supplies attributed to members of the Eastern Shura.
(SFC, 1/4/02, p.A1)
2002 Jan 3, Argentina failed to make a $28 million payment on a foreign loan. A devaluation of the peso by 30-40% was expected soon. Duhalde named Jorge Remes Lenicov, former economic chief of Buenos Aires, as his finance minister.
(SFC, 1/4/02, p.A5)(WSJ, 1/4/02, p.A5)
2002 Jan 3, In Australia fires continued for the 11th straight day. At least 40 were fires were started by arsonists. Over 100 fires covered 1,250 square miles.
(SFC, 1/4/02, p.A14)
2002 Jan 3, Israel seized a ship, Karine A, in the Red Sea carrying 50 tons of advanced weapons allegedly for the Palestinian Authority. Most of the equipment was from Iran. Operation Noah’s Ark was not reported until the next day when US envoy Gen. Zinni arrived to promote peace talks. Hezbollah helped broker the deal and it was reported to have been overseen by Fuad Shubaki, a close aide to Arafat. Captain Omar Akawi, a member of Fatwah, said he was in contact with Adel Awadallah, an alias for Adel Mughrabi, a weapons buyer for the Palestinian Authority.
(SFC, 1/5/02, p.A1,9)(SFC, 1/7/02, p.A3)(SFC, 1/8/02, p.A1)
2002 Jan 3, Juan Garcia Esquivel, pianist and composer, died in Mexico at age 83. He turned out 10 albums in the US from 1957-1963.
(SFC, 1/10/02, p.A16)
2002 Jan 3, Alfred Henry Heineken (78), builder of a global beer brand, died in the Netherlands. Freddie designed the green bottle and logo. In 1983 he was abducted for weeks and released unharmed.
(WSJ, 1/4/02, p.A1)(SFC, 1/5/02, p.A22)
2002 Jan 3, Russian forces fought Chechen rebels for a 6th day in a conflict that left 40 dead. In other action 5 Russian soldiers were killed in attacks across Chechnya. Fighting continued in Tsotsin-Yurt. Moscow claimed 100 rebels killed, but rebels disputed that and said 40 Russians were killed.
(SFC, 1/4/02, p.A17)(WSJ, 1/4/02, p.A1)
2002 Jan 3, The UN made public a decision by Kofi Annan to pursue war crimes in Sierra Leone with a war crimes tribunal.
(SFC, 1/5/02, p.A7)
2003 Jan 3, Ohio State beat Miami in the Fiesta Bowl 31-24 in double overtime to become the national college football champion.
(SFC, 1/4/03, p.C1)
2003 Jan 3, President George W. Bush visited Fort Hood in Texas, where he rallied Army troops as the nation faced the prospect of war with Iraq.
(AP, 1/3/04)
2003 Jan 3, David Westerfield, the man who'd kidnapped and murdered 7-year-old neighbor Danielle van Dam, was sentenced to death by a judge in San Diego.
(AP, 1/3/04)
2003 Jan 3, In Brazil Pres. Silva delayed a plan to spend $700 million on jet fighters. The military's $7.4 billion budget is scheduled to be cut by $282 million.
(AP, 1/3/03)
2003 Jan 3, Ivory Coast Pres. Laurent Gbagbo pledged to cease hostilities and send home foreign mercenaries fighting with loyalist troops.
(AP, 1/3/03)
2003 Jan 3, A Peruvian court struck down anti-terror laws that had been used to quash rebel movements in the 1990s.
(AP, 1/3/03)
(AP, 1/3/08)
2003 Jan 3, Jose Maria Gironella (85), Spanish author, died. His work included "The Cypresses Believe in God," a trilogy based on the 1936-1939 Civil War, for which he won the 1953 National Literary prize.
(SFC, 2/10/03, p.B5)
2003 Jan 3, In Caracas, Venezuela, clashes between opponents and supporters of Pres. Chavez left at least eighty people wounded.
(AP, 1/3/03)
2004 Jan 3, The NASA spacecraft Spirit landed on Mars at the Gusev Crater. It was the 4th successful US landing on Mars.
(SSFC, 1/4/04, p.A1)(USAT, 1/16/04, p.2A)
2004 Jan 3, In San Jose., Ca, a gang brawl at a Jack in the Box restaurant left 2 teenagers (17) dead. James Ortega (14) was charged as an adult on 2 counts of gang motivated murder. In 2007 a San Jose court sentenced Ortega to 36 years to life in prison for the shooting.
(SFC, 1/9/04, p.A17)(SFC, 2/23/07, p.B1)
2004 Jan 3, In China a fire broke out on an overcrowded bus along an expressway that connects Shanghai with the eastern city of Nanjing, killing at least 12 people and injuring 14.
(AP, 1/3/04)
2004 Jan 3, In China a landslide crushed five houses, killing at least 14 people in northern Shanxi province.
(AP, 1/4/04)
2004 Jan 3, An Egyptian Air Flash, Boeing 737, carrying 148 people, most of them French tourists on New Year family holidays, crashed into the Red Sea off the resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, killing all on board.
(AP, 1/3/04)(SFC, 1/3/04, p.A3)
2004 Jan 3, India's PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee made a historic visit to Pakistan ahead of a key South Asian summit, greeted with a warm handshake by PM Zafarullah Khan Jamali. The airport ceremony would have been unimaginable just one year ago.
(AP, 1/3/04)
2004 Jan 3, In eastern India unidentified gunmen stormed a village and shot to death five so-called "untouchables."
(AP, 1/3/04)
2004 Jan 3, In Iran rescuers pulled Sharbanou Mazandarani (97) from the rubble at Ban, 9 days following the earthquake, as the death toll rose to about 35,000.
(SSFC, 1/4/04, p.A2)
2004 Jan 3, In Tikrit, Iraq, American soldiers opened fire with a machine gun on a taxi, killing four Iraqi civilians, including a 7-year-old boy.
(AP, 1/10/04)
2004 Jan 3, Israeli soldiers shot and killed 3 Palestinians in the West Bank city of Nablus.
(AP, 1/3/04)
2004 Jan 3, Isidro Galeana (65), a former state police commander and the first former government official to face arrest for his role in Mexico's "dirty war" of the 1960s and 1970s, died of a heart attack.
(AP, 1/4/04)
2004 Jan 3, Nigeria said it had routed a newly emerged Muslim militant movement fighting to create an Islamic state in Africa's most populous nation. 2 weeks of running gunbattles had killed at least eight people.
(AP, 1/3/04)
2005 Jan 3, President Bush tapped his father, former President Bush, and former President Clinton to help raise tsunami relief funds.
(AP, 1/3/06)
2005 Jan 3, The third-ranked Auburn Tigers limped to a 16-13 victory over No. 9 Virginia Tech in the Sugar Bowl.
(AP, 1/3/06)
2005 Jan 3, Heavy snow shut down a major highway north of Los Angeles and slowed post-holiday travel in the Sierra Nevada as Californians grappled with a 2nd week of stormy weather.
(AP, 1/3/05)
2005 Jan 3, Will Eisner (b.1917), comic book pioneer, died in Fla. In 1978 he wrote and drew his graphic novel “A Contract With God." It was the 1st of a trilogy that included “A Life Force" (1983) and “Dropsie Avenue" (1995).
(SFC, 1/4/05, p.A2)(Econ, 1/15/05, p.81)(SSFC, 12/25/05, p.M3)
2005 Jan 3, In eastern Afghanistan a US soldier was killed and three others wounded in a clash with militants.
(AP, 1/3/05)
2005 Jan 3, The Algerian Interior Ministry said security forces had arrested the leader of the Armed Islamic Group, the radical insurgency movement responsible for brutal village massacres several years ago, and killed his replacement. The arrest of Nourredine Boudiafi and the killing of Chaabane Younes were near-fatal blows to the seriously weakened GIA, as the movement is known. Islamic extremists killed 18 people in an ambush of an army convoy south of the capital Algiers.
(AP, 1/4/05)(AFP, 1/5/05)
2005 Jan 3, Thousands of Argentines angered over safety lapses at a nightclub where a fire killed 183 people, many of them teenagers, marched through capital streets holding pictures of the victims and demanding the resignations of key city officials.
(AP, 1/4/05)
2005 Jan 3, Honduras Pres. Ricardo Maduro said that police have arrested the alleged mastermind of an attack on a public bus that left 28 passengers dead two weeks ago. The suspect was identified as Juan Carlos Miralda, 24, one of the leaders of the violent Mara Salvatrucha criminal gang.
(AP, 1/4/05)
2005 Jan 3, India’s death toll from the Dec 26 tsunami was expected to top 15,000.
(AP, 1/3/05)
2005 Jan 3, J.N. Dixit (68), India’s national security advisor, died in New Delhi.
(SFC, 1/6/05, p.B7)
2005 Jan 3, In Iraq 3 suicide car bombs, including one that exploded near the Iraqi prime minister's party headquarters in Baghdad, along with a roadside explosion, rifle fire and an explosive rigged to a dead body killed at least 20 people.
(AP, 1/3/05)(SFC, 1/4/05, p.A3)
2005 Jan 3, Jewish settlers clashed with Israeli troops who came to tear down two structures at an unauthorized West Bank outpost, and a soldier was arrested for encouraging comrades to refuse to evacuate the settlement.
(AP, 1/3/05)
2005 Jan 3, Russian President Vladimir Putin stripped many of the duties of his top economic adviser, an outspoken critic who has accused the Kremlin of trying to muzzle voices of dissent and civil society in Russia.
(AP, 1/3/05)
2005 Jan 3, Ukraine gave in and agreed to pay Turkmenistan a third more for natural gas following a shut-off.
(WSJ, 1/4/05, p.A1)
2006 Jan 3, Jack Abramoff, the US lobbyist who spawned a congressional corruption scandal, pleaded guilty to 3 felonies and pledged to cooperate in a criminal probe edging closer to former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay.
(AP, 1/3/06)
2006 Jan 3, In Pennsylvania the Dover School Board rescinded its policy of presenting intelligent design as an alternative to evolution in high school biology classes.
(SFC, 1/4/06, p.A2)
2006 Jan 3, Rhode Island became the 11th state to legalize medical marijuana and the first since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June that patients who use the drug can still be prosecuted under federal law.
(AP, 1/4/06)
2006 Jan 3, The US DJIA rose 129.91 to 10847.41 on expectations for an end to interest rate increases based the release of minutes from the Federal Reserve meeting in December.
(WSJ, 1/4/06, p.A1)
2006 Jan 3, The Committee to Protect Journalists reported that 47 journalists were killed in 2005, and that more than three-quarters were murdered to silence their criticism of punish them for their work. Iraq accounted for 22 of the deaths.
(WSJ, 1/4/06, p.A9)
2006 Jan 3, The UN secretariat of the Convention on Int’l. Trade in Endangered Species ordered a temporary halt to the global export of caviar to compel nations to demonstrate that their fishing practices are not pushing caviar producing fish to extinction.
(SFC, 1/4/06, p.A2)(WSJ, 1/4/06, p.A9)
2006 Jan 3, Armed men beheaded a teacher in the central Afghan town of Qalat, the latest in a string of attacks against educators at schools where girls study. Officials blamed Taliban militants.
(AP, 1/4/06)
2006 Jan 3, Argentina repaid $9.57 billion in debt to the International Monetary Fund, a measure officials depicted as a means to help reclaim Argentina's economic independence.
(AP, 1/3/06)
2006 Jan 3, A Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said Egypt will deport 654 Sudanese refugees who were violently evicted from a protest camp in a Cairo park last week.
(AP, 1/3/06)
2006 Jan 3, A top official said Iran has decided to resume research into nuclear fuel production in a statement certain to increase concerns that Iran is moving toward production of nuclear weapons.
(AP, 1/3/06)
2006 Jan 3, Gunmen attacked a car carrying construction workers in western Baghdad, killing three and wounding two. Gunmen in the same neighborhood fired on a car carrying civilians, killing two and wounding three. The sister of Iraqi Interior Minister Bayan Jabr was kidnapped and her bodyguard killed. The nephew of Maj. Gen. Ali Al-Yasiri, Baghdad rescue police commander, was kidnapped.
(AP, 1/3/06)(SFC, 1/4/06, p.A3)
2006 Jan 3, Urbano Lazzaro (81), a resistance fighter credited with arresting fascist dictator Benito Mussolini at the end of World War II, died in Vercelli, Italy.
(AP, 1/4/06)
2006 Jan 3, In Japan Yoshie Sato (56) was killed near the Yokosuka base. Japanese media later reported that a US serviceman (21) had admitted to US military authorities to killing her.
(AFP, 1/6/06)
2006 Jan 3, Peru formally asked Chile to extradite former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori so he can be tried on human rights and corruption charges.
(AP, 1/3/06)
2006 Jan 3, Russian and Ukrainian officials agreed to resume talks on resolving a dispute over the price of natural gas that has reverberated across the continent and left Ukraine cut off from its supplies.
(AP, 1/3/06)
2006 Jan 3, Serb officials acknowledged that war crimes fugitive Ratko Mladic was drawing an army pension until at least mid-November 2005.
(WSJ, 1/4/06, p.A1)
2006 Jan 3, Venezuela President Hugo Chavez offered Bolivia's president-elect Evo Morales diesel fuel, trade benefits and help in financing his social reforms as the two leftists cemented ties, reasserting their opposition to US policy in Latin America.
(AP, 1/3/06)
2007 Jan 3, Hundreds of hay bales fell from the sky across Colorado's rangeland as military helicopter and cargo plane crews delivered food to cattle that have been stranded by heavy snow and high drifts for a week.
(AP, 1/4/07)
2007 Jan 3, Bob Nardelli abruptly resigned as chairman and chief executive of The Home Depot Inc. after a six-year tenure that saw the world's largest home improvement store chain post big profits but left investors disheartened by poor stock performance. He left with a severance package of $210 million. He was succeeded by Frank Blake.
(AP, 1/3/07)(SFC, 1/4/07, p.C1)(Econ, 1/6/07, p.54)
2007 Jan 3, C. William Verity Jr. (89), former US Commerce Secretary, died in Beaufort, SC.
(AP, 1/3/08)
2007 Jan 3, Afghanistan’s the interior ministry said Afghan and NATO troops killed 17 rebels, including two commanders, in a sweep of a Taliban stronghold in southern Afghanistan. In southern Afghanistan a roadside bomb killed five Afghan security forces and wounded four as they patrolled with NATO troops.
(AFP, 1/3/07)(AP, 1/4/07)
2007 Jan 3, A key political alliance announced it would boycott this month's general elections in Bangladesh, deepening a political crisis that has crippled the South Asian country for months.
(AP, 1/3/07)
2007 Jan 3, Belarus vowed to charge fees for transshipped oil.
(WSJ, 1/4/07, p.A1)
2007 Jan 3, Mike Perham (14), a British teenager, became the youngest person to sail solo across the Atlantic Ocean, reaching the Caribbean island of Antigua after a six-week voyage. Perham was trailed by his father in another boat.
(AP, 1/3/07)
2007 Jan 3, It was reported that more than a million Chinese die each year of smoking related diseases. The toll was expected to double by 2025. A roadside bomb in southern China killed two children who found the explosive wrapped in a package and began playing with it in Shenzhen.
(WSJ, 1/3/07, p.A1)(AP, 1/4/07)
2007 Jan 3, China's Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing arrived in the central African nation of Guinea-Bissau for cooperation talks. His 7-nation tour reflected Chinese interest in Africa.
(AP, 1/4/07)
2007 Jan 3, In northern India ash-smeared and naked Hindu saints led millions of devotees in a pre-dawn holy dip at the meeting of three major rivers, starting a weeks-long pilgrimage to wash away their sins.
(AP, 1/3/07)
2007 Jan 3, Iraq arrested 3 men who were present at Saddam Hussein's execution, including the person believed to have recorded the event on a cell phone camera. US troops detained 23 people suspected of ties to senior al-Qaida leaders in raids in western Iraq. Police in Baghdad found 27 bodies, most of them with gunshot wounds to the head. Four Americans and an Austrian abducted in southern Iraq spoke briefly and appeared uninjured in a video.
(AP, 1/3/07)(SFC, 1/4/07, p.A3)(WSJ, 1/4/07, p.A1)(AP, 1/3/08)
2007 Jan 3, Kenya sent extra troops to its border with Somalia to keep Islamic militants from entering the country after Ethiopian helicopters attacked a Kenyan border post by mistake while pursuing suspected fighters.
(AP, 1/3/07)
2007 Jan 3, Myanmar's military government freed nearly 3,000 convicts, but key political prisoners were not among those released.
(AP, 1/3/07)
2007 Jan 3, A Nigerian militant group said it had seized $545,000 sent by Italian oil firm Agip to obtain the release of 4 foreign workers kidnapped on Dec 7 but had kept the men hostage.
(AP, 1/4/07)
2007 Jan 3, In the northern Philippines a minibus carrying partygoers from a beach collided with a cargo truck, killing eight people and injuring 17.
(AP, 1/2/07)
2007 Jan 3, In Saudi Arabia Muslims circled the Kaaba, Islam's holiest site, for a final time, bringing to a close what may have been the largest hajj pilgrimage ever.
(AP, 1/3/07)
2007 Jan 3, South Korea’s official media reported that Paek Nam Sun, North Korea's foreign minister and the country's top diplomat for nearly 10 years, has died at the age of 78.
(AP, 1/3/07)
2007 Jan 3, In Tunisia at least 14 people, including two security forces, were killed in the shootout in Soliman, 25 miles south of the capital, Tunis. Fifteen people were arrested. On Jan 12 the interior minister said nearly 30 Islamic extremists involved in a deadly gunbattle with police had blueprints of foreign embassies and documents naming foreign envoys.
(AP, 1/13/07)
2007 Jan 3, Turkmenistan's acting president, in his first campaign statement for next month's election, called for wider Internet access in the country and for improving pensions that were slashed last year.
(AP, 1/4/07)
2008 Jan 3, Democrat Barack Obama and Republican Mike Huckabee won the Iowa caucuses as the candidates move on to New Hampshire. Obama won with 38% over Edwards at 30% and Hillary Clinton at 29%. Overall, Clinton leads with 175 delegates, including superdelegates, followed by Obama with 75 and Edwards with 46. Huckabee won 34% with Romney at 25%. Huckabee scored 30 delegates and Romney got 7.
(AP, 1/4/08)
2008 Jan 3, Ford Motor Co. named Tata Motors Ltd. the top bidder for its Jaguar and Land Rover brands and entered into "focused negotiations at a more detailed level."
(AP, 1/3/08)
2008 Jan 3, In southwestern Afghanistan a suicide bomber attacked Indian road construction workers and their Afghan police escorts, killing seven and wounding 12.
(AP, 1/3/08)
2008 Jan 3, In Chile Interior Minister Belisario Velasco, one of the most powerful officials in President Michelle Bachelet's government, resigned as part of an expected Cabinet shake-up. Mapuche Indians trying to reclaim farmland they say belonged to their ancestors clashed with police in violence that left protester Matias Catrileo dead.
(AP, 1/3/08)(AP, 1/5/13)
2008 Jan 3, China issued rules restricting the broadcast of Internet videos to sites run by the state.
(WSJ, 1/4/08, p.A1)
2008 Jan 3, A bitterly cold winter storm pummeled parts of Europe, killing at least three sailors when a ship sank in rough seas, and piling up snow that stranded thousands at airports, on mountain roads and in remote villages.
(AP, 1/3/08)
2008 Jan 3, Worshippers at a Hindu temple in southern India stampeded as they tried to draw close to a goddess' statue, trampling at least five people to death and injuring 15 others. The northern state of Himachal Pradesh said it planned to use unemployed youths to sterilize monkeys to try to combat aggressive primates who have been raiding farms. The idea drew immediate condemnation from conservationists, who said the plan was unscientific and would likely worsen the problem.
(AP, 1/3/08)
2008 Jan 3, Iraqi PM Nuri al-Maliki held talks with PM Gordon Brown, notably discussing the plight of five Britons seized in Baghdad last year. Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, a top Shiite politician, acknowledged the contribution of US-backed Sunni Arab groups to the decline in violence across Iraq and called for their use in the continuing fight against al-Qaida. The Samarra dam bridge, one of the entrances into Samarra, reopened. For the past 8 months, the entrances to the city were essentially closed due to the levels of violence. At least 5 people were killed in two separate attacks in Baghdad, one targeting a local member of the prime minister's party. One woman was killed and another civilian wounded when a rocket slammed into the primarily Shiite neighborhood of Washash in northwest Baghdad. Iraqi authorities ordered a one-day vehicle ban in Baqouba in response to a series of deadly suicide bombings and other attacks by al-Qaida in Iraq against predominantly Sunni fighters that have allied with the United States. The US military killed two insurgents and detained 12 in the Diyala region. But the operations also resulted in the deaths of two American soldiers the wounding of another in a small arms attack.
(AFP, 1/3/08)(AP, 1/3/08)(AP, 1/4/08)(AP, 1/5/08)
2008 Jan 3, Israeli tanks and warplanes attacked a series of targets throughout the Gaza Strip. 9 people were killed including 3 civilians with over 30 Palestinians wounded. The attack had intensified following a Katyusha rocket strike 10½ miles into Israel. The Israeli military uncovered an arms cache in Nablus that contained explosives, military equipment and material for manufacturing rockets.
(AP, 1/3/08)(SFC, 1/4/08, p.A16)(SSFC, 1/6/08, p.A18)
2008 Jan 3, Israeli authorities ordered fowl destroyed in an area of northern Israel after chickens kept at a kindergarten were diagnosed with a deadly strain of bird flu.
(AP, 1/3/08)
2008 Jan 3, Crews in Naples, where the streets increasingly are lined with trash, began cleaning up a long disused dump in a bid to ease a mounting garbage crisis.
(AP, 1/3/08)
2008 Jan 3, In Kenya riot police fired tear gas and water cannons to beat back crowds heading for a banned rally to protest the disputed election, and the president said he is willing to talk to the opposition once calm has been restored.
(AP, 1/3/08)
2008 Jan 3, Libya's foreign minister declared an end to confrontation with the US in a rare visit to Washington by a top Libyan diplomat aimed at cementing ties between the former foes.
(AP, 1/4/08)
2008 Jan 3, In the southern Philippines 2 al-Qaida-linked Muslim militants, including one wanted for the 2001 kidnapping of three Americans and 17 other people from a resort island, were captured in separate raids. Troops arrested suspected Abu Sayyaf sub-leader Tuwatin Anahalul in Zamboanga del Sur province's Margusatubig town.
(AP, 1/4/08)
2008 Jan 3, Puerto Rico halted all bird imports after a rare outbreak of avian flu in nearby Dominican Republic, where authorities killed more than 100 chickens, including fighting roosters that tested positive for the lethal virus. The ban forced the cancellation of more than 100 cockfights, dealing a blow to the lucrative industry.
(AP, 1/4/08)
2008 Jan 3, South Sudanese officials said North Sudanese troops have missed a third deadline to fully redeploy from the south following over two decades of north-south civil war that ended in 2005.
(AP, 1/3/08)
2008 Jan 3, In northern Sri Lanka heavy fighting broke out between government troops and Tamil Tigers, hours after Colombo announced it was pulling out of a tattered ceasefire agreement with the rebels.
(AFP, 1/3/08)
2008 Jan 3, Turkey’s Parliament approved a law extending a smoking ban in this tobacco-growing nation to all bars, restaurants and coffeehouses by mid-2009.
(AP, 1/3/08)
2008 Jan 3, In Turkey a car bomb exploded in the Kurdish-dominated southeastern city of Diyarbakir, killing 6 people, including 5 students. 67 people were wounded, including military personnel.
(AP, 1/3/08)(Reuters, 1/4/08)(AP, 1/8/08)
2008 Jan 3, President Hugo Chavez shuffled his Cabinet, naming a retired military officer as vice president and other changes aimed at tackling corruption and inefficiencies in his socialist government.
(AP, 1/3/08)
2009 Jan 3, The United States blocked approval of a UN Security Council statement calling for an immediate cease-fire between Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers.
(AP, 1/4/09)
2009 Jan 3, In New Orleans Danny Platt (22), was arrested and accused of committing an "extremely hideous" murder because he was ordered to pay child support. He initially told police that gunmen had kidnapped his 2 1/2-year-old son.
(AP, 1/4/09)
2009 Jan 3, Bitcoin, the “world’s first decentralized digital currency" was introduced. It was devised in 2008 by programmer Satoshi Nakomoto (thought not to be the person’s real name). It was run by a peer-to-per network and limited to 21 million coins. Nakamoto mined the genesis block of bitcoin (block number 0), which had a reward of 50 bitcoins. By 2013 the leading exchange was Mt. Gox, a Tokyo-based firm.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_bitcoin)(Econ, 6/18/11, p.83)(Econ, 4/13/13, p.69)
2009 Jan 3, Sir Alan Walters (b.1926), a top economic adviser to former British PM Margaret Thatcher, died. Walters received a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II in 1983.
(AP, 1/6/09)(Econ, 1/10/09, p.50)
2009 Jan 3, Tens of thousands of people demonstrated in European cities against Israel's bombardment of Gaza, including protesters who hurled shoes at the tall iron gates outside the British prime minister's residence in London.
(AP, 1/3/09)
2009 Jan 3, In eastern China an explosion at an illegal fireworks factory killed 13 people in the city of Weifang in Shandong province. A boy, Zou Chuanshuo (2) was killed with an ax in Luoyang in Hubei province. The child's grandmother Zhu Deqing (43) and six others were also killed. On Jan 11 authorities arrested junk collector Xiong Zhenlin (32) in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province. He confessed to the murders, which included a widow who jilted him. A Chinese court sentenced him to death on Feb 9 for the murders. Zhenlin was executed on April 16 in the central city of Suizhou.
(AP, 1/4/09)(AP, 2/9/09)(AP, 4/16/09)
2009 Jan 3, In Ghana opposition leader John Atta Mills was declared the next president in the closest electoral race this West African nation has ever seen. The peaceful ballot secured Ghana's place as a beacon of democracy on a volatile continent.
(AP, 1/3/09)
2009 Jan 3, In Iraq two brothers were killed and another was wounded when a bomb they were concealing in their car exploded near the town of Sinjar, 75 miles west of Mosul.
(AP, 1/3/09)
2009 Jan 3, Israeli warplanes, gunboats and artillery units bombarded more than 40 Hamas targets, including weapons storage facilities, training centers and leaders' homes. Palestinian medical officials said an Israeli airstrike on a mosque in the Gaza Strip killed 10 people and wounded dozens in the northern town of Beit Lahiya.
(AP, 1/3/09)
2009 Jan 3, In southwest Pakistan two paramilitary soldiers were killed and four wounded in a landmine explosion in Dera Bugti, Baluchistan province. Sarbaz Khan, a spokesman for the Baluch Republican Army, later claimed responsibility of the attack.
(AFP, 1/3/09)
2009 Jan 3, Russian gas flows to four European Union countries fell normal levels after Moscow cut off supplies to Ukraine in a pricing row with no talks in sight to resolve the dispute. Bulgaria's Bulgargaz joined energy firms in Poland, Romania and Hungary in saying they had noted falls in supply.
(Reuters, 1/3/09)
2009 Jan 3, In Somalia Islamic insurgents appeared to be scrambling for power, taking over several police stations in the capital as Ethiopian troops who have been propping up the government began to pull out.
(AP, 1/3/09)
2009 Jan 3, Sri Lankan troops advanced on the military headquarters of the Tamil Tigers and engaged the rebels in fresh gun battles. At least three people were wounded in a bomb blast in Colombo.
(AFP, 1/3/09)
2010 Jan 3, The US and Britain closed their embassies in Yemen in the face of al-Qaida threats, after both countries announced an increase in aid to the government to fight the terror group linked to the failed attempt to bomb a US airliner on Christmas.
(AP, 1/3/10)
2010 Jan 3, John Irwin (80), former criminal turned writer and criminologist, died at his SF home. Irwin was released from Soledad Prison in 1957 after serving 5 years for armed robbery. In 1967 He began teaching at SF Univ. and founded Project Rebound, a program to help those coming out of prison to go to college. His 6 books included “The Felon" (1970).
(SFC, 1/7/10, p.C3)
2010 Jan 3, Afghan President Hamid Karzai ordered parliament to cancel its winter recess so lawmakers can consider his new cabinet nominees. In southern Afghanistan 4 US troops and a British soldier were killed in two separate roadside bomb attacks.
(AFP, 1/4/10)
2010 Jan 3, In southeastern Australia more than 1,000 people were forced to evacuate their homes in Coonamble, in central New South Wales, as the worst floodwaters to hit the area in a decade threatened to swamp a remote farming town.
(AFP, 1/3/10)
2010 Jan 3, National Bank of Egypt (NBE) and Banque Misr, the country's first and second biggest banks by assets, said they had agreed to accept real estate in exchange for hundreds of millions of dollars in public sector debt.
(Reuters, 1/3/10)
2010 Jan 3, Eric Rohmer (b.1920), French new Wave film director and critic, died in Paris. His first feature film, “The Sign of Leo," was released in 1959.
(SFC, 1/15/10, p.C5)
2010 Jan 3, In northern India police said more than 30 people have died in cold weather-related incidents in the past 24 hours, including 10 people killed in train accidents caused by dense fog.
(AP, 1/3/10)
2010 Jan 3, In Pakistan's northwest tribal region a suspected US drone missile strike killed at least 2 people. A roadside bomb struck a vehicle in the Hangu district of North West Frontier Province, killing a former irrigation minister and 3 others. Another roadside bomb struck a vehicle carrying anti-Taliban elders in the Bajur tribal area, killing 2 and critically wounding 4 others. The bullet-riddled bodies of a man and a woman were found in the Mamund area of Bajur with a note saying they were guilty of violating Islamic law.
(AP, 1/3/10)
2010 Jan 3, Serbian police arrested Darko Jankovic, a war crimes suspect. He was wanted for the killing of at least 19 civilians in eastern Bosnia and other atrocities of the 1992-95 war.
(AP, 1/3/10)
2010 Jan 3, In Switzerland avalanches killed at least four skiers and a rescue doctor. Two of the avalanches occurred in Diemtig Valley, the first hitting a group of skiers, the second the rescuers who came to their aid. A third avalanche buried two skiers near Switzerland's borders with France and Italy.
(AP, 1/4/10)
2010 Jan 3, In northwestern Turkey a passenger train crashed head-on into another train, killing one of the engine drivers and injuring 14 other people.
(AP, 1/3/10)
2011 Jan 3, Boston scientists and health care giant Johnson & Johnson announced that they are joining forces to bring a blood test for cancer to market. Four big cancer centers also will start studies using the experimental test this year. The test is so sensitive that it can spot a single cancer cell lurking among a billion healthy ones.
(AP, 1/3/11)
2011 Jan 3, It was reported that Facebook has received a $450 million infusion from Goldman Sachs Group along with another $50 million from Digital Sky Technologies, a Russian firm already invested in Facebook and other social-media firms.
(SFC, 1/4/11, p.D1)
2011 Jan 3, US Marine Maj. Gen. Richard Mills, the senior Marine general in Afghanistan, said the leaders of the largest tribe in a Taliban stronghold in the southern Helmand province have pledged to halt insurgent attacks and expel foreign fighters.
(AP, 1/3/11)
2011 Jan 3, Australian military flights rushed to restock the coastal city of Rockhampton before it was cut off by floodwaters that have turned a huge swath of the Outback into a lake. Police confirmed two more deaths in the crisis.
(AP, 1/3/11)
2011 Jan 3, Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff kicked off her government with a series of market-friendly signals, including new details on budget cuts and a report that she will turn to the private sector to help solve one of Brazil's biggest infrastructure bottlenecks, a badly needed new terminal at Sao Paulo's main international airport.
(Reuters, 1/3/11)
2011 Jan 3, Ed Miliband, Britain’s Labor leader, warned that the VAT rise from 17.5% to 20% will cost families £7.50 from January 4, and put 250,000 jobs at risk.
(AFP, 1/3/11)
2011 Jan 3, China’s state television reported that Chinese scientists have mastered the technology for reprocessing nuclear fuel, potentially yielding additional power sources to keep the country's economy booming.
(AP, 1/3/11)
2011 Jan 3, Colombian authorities said that they have accused an army major and four other soldiers of killing three civilians and then falsely presenting their bodies as those of guerrillas slain in combat. Maj. Juan Carlos Del Rio Crespo and four other troops were charged in the 2002 killings of three members of the Agudelo family in Antioquia state.
(AP, 1/3/11)
2011 Jan 3, The Dominican Republic launched its first major crackdown on illegal Haitian immigrants since last year's devastating earthquake, rounding up and deporting hundreds of people in recent days. Human rights groups criticized the deportations, accusing authorities of stopping and questioning people based on their physical appearance.
(AP, 1/6/11)
2011 Jan 3, A Greek ministry statement said experts from Greece and the US have found rough axes and other tools, thought to be between 130,000 and 700,000 years, old close to shelters on the south coast of Crete. The island has been separated from the mainland for about five million years, so whoever made the tools must have traveled there by sea, a distance of at least 40 miles.
(AP, 1/4/11)
2011 Jan 3, In Guatemala City 7 people were killed and 15 others injured from a fire inside a passenger bus. Guatemalan authorities soon arrested four members of the Mara 18 street gang, including a woman (19) who police say left the bomb on the bus that was then detonated by cell phone. In the following days 2 more people died of the injuries.
(AP, 1/3/11)(AFP, 1/4/11)(AP, 1/12/11)
2011 Jan 3, In India a government environmental panel approved the initial stage of a project by POSCO of South Korea, to produce 4 million tons of steel on a 4,000-acre site in Orissa state. Activists opposed the project citing ecological damage.
(Econ, 1/8/11, p.67)
2011 Jan 3, In Iraq a suicide bomber detonated an explosives-laden car northeast of Baghdad, killing a passerby and injuring 33. A policeman was killed in a drive-by shooting in Baghdad and a Christian woman was shot to death by armed men who broke into her house.
(AP, 1/3/11)
2011 Jan 3, African leaders returned to Ivory Coast in their second visit in a week as they stepped up pressure on the country's renegade president to cede power more than a month after the election or face a military ouster.
(AP, 1/3/11)
2011 Jan 3, In Lebanon Ahmed Yamani (86), one of the founders of the radical Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, died in Beirut after a stroke. The PFLP was launched by the late Palestinian leader George Habash in December 1967, six months after the Arabs lost the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Syria's Golan Heights to Israel.
(AP, 1/4/11)
2011 Jan 3, In Mexico the severed head of Ramses Mendoza (30) was found hanging from a bridge in the Mexican border city of Tijuana. Hours earlier, a woman between 30 and 35 years old was found shot to death in another Tijuana neighborhood, also with a threatening message left nearby. Unidentified gunmen shot to death Sonora state's interim prison director, Erasto Ortiz Valencia, outside his home. The assistant police chief of the city of Empalme, near the coastal city of Guaymas, was also shot to death by a gunmen who fired an assault rifle from an SUV. Police in Acapulco reported they had found the bound bodies of four young men dumped on a main boulevard. Gunmen opened fire on people gathered at a street corner in the northern city of Monterrey, killing two adults and a 13-year-old boy.
(AP, 1/4/11)(AP, 1/5/11)(AP, 1/7/11)
2011 Jan 3, In Nigeria a policeman was shot dead in the northeastern city of Maiduguri, where an Islamist sect last week killed at least 16 people in a series of religiously motivated attacks. Security officers killed 3 bystanders and arrested 7 suspected Boko Haram sect members, including a man they were chasing in Maiduguri movie theater.
(Reuters, 1/3/11)(AFP, 1/4/11)
2011 Jan 3, Pakistani PM Yusuf Raza Gilani scrambled to save his ruling coalition after a key partner withdrew, plunging the country into a political crisis. Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari threw his weight behind beleaguered PM Gilani.
(AP, 1/3/11)(Reuters, 1/3/11)
2011 Jan 3, In Sudan a Darfur alliance of rebel splinter factions said that it has agreed to sign a final peace settlement with the Sudanese government.
(AP, 1/3/11)
2012 Jan 3, The US Justice Dept. said Maersk, a Danish shipping company, will pay $31.9 million for overcharging the US government for shipments to US troops in Afghanistan and Iraq for several years.
(SFC, 1/4/12, p.D1)
2012 Jan 3, Mitt Romney won 25% of the Iowa caucus by eight votes over Rick Santorum. Ron Paul won 21%, Newt Gingrich won 13% and Rick Perry won 10%. Michele Bachmann won just 5% and dropped out the race the next day. A recount of the vote gave the victory to Rick Santorum.
(ABCNews, 1/4/12)(Econ, 1/28/12, p.25)
2012 Jan 3, An expert hired by the state of Ohio said a 4.0 magnitude earthquake in Ohio on New Year's Eve did not occur naturally and may have been caused by high-pressure liquid injection related to oil and gas exploration and production.
(Reuters, 1/3/12)
2012 Jan 3, Orchard Supply Hardware Stores went public in an $82 million IPO on NASDAQ after being spun off by struggling Sears Holding Corp.
(SFC, 1/4/12, p.D1)
2012 Jan 3, Patagonia, an outdoor clothing firm, became the first company to take advantage of a new California law designed to give businesses greater freedom to pursue strategies which they believe benefit society as a whole rather than having to concentrate on maximizing profits. California became the 6th state to allow B Corps; the first was Maryland in April, 2010.
(Econ, 1/7/12, p.57)
2012 Jan 3, In Afghanistan a suicide bomber riding a motorcycle struck in Kandahar, killing four civilians and a policemen. 3 explosions today killed 13 people Kandahar. The dead include a child and four police officers. The Taliban announced that they had come to an "initial agreement" to open their first political overseas office, possibly in Qatar, in the first public gesture towards peace talks with the US.
(AP, 1/3/12)(AFP, 1/3/12)
2012 Jan 3, Afghan police arrested two British private security contractors and two Afghan colleagues and ordered their company, GardaWorld, closed down after finding a cache of weapons in their vehicle in Kabul.
(AP, 1/5/12)
2012 Jan 3, The Arab League called for an emergency meeting to discuss whether to withdraw the group's monitors from Syria. The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said security forces shot dead three people in the restive city of Homs. The LCC had a higher toll, saying security forces killed four people in Homs, one in the Damascus suburb of Kfar Batna and one in the central province of Hama. An explosion struck a gas pipeline in central Syria in an attack the government blamed on terrorists.
(AP, 1/3/12)
2012 Jan 3, Brazil’s labor ministry said some 294 employers submit workers to slave-like conditions.
(SFC, 1/4/12, p.A2)
2012 Jan 3, In Canada Czech emigre writer Josef Skvorecky (87) died in Toronto. He had published the works of former President Vaclav Havel and other authors persecuted by the communist government at home. His first novel was "The Cowards," written in 1948-1949, describing the atmosphere of Skvorecky's native Czech town of Nachod during the 1945 liberation from Nazism. It was only published in 1958 and then confiscated and banned. It was later translated into more than 20 languages.
(Reuters, 1/3/12)
2012 Jan 3, China’s official Xinhua news agency said the number of entertainment shows airing during prime time every week had plunged to 38 from 126, in line with an order the state broadcasting watchdog issued in October.
(AFP, 1/3/12)
2012 Jan 3, In China 13 people were killed in Hunan province when a truck crossed a highway divider and crashed head-on into a bus traveling in the opposite direction.
(AP, 1/4/12)
2012 Jan 3, In CongoDRC at least 8 people were killed in the town of Ngolombe in an attack by Rwandan Hutu rebels.
(AFP, 1/4/12)
2012 Jan 3, Egyptians lined up in front of polling centers in nine provinces to cast their ballots in the third and final round of the country's first parliamentary elections following the ouster of Hosni Mubarak. The two-day balloting is taking place in areas known as strongholds of Islamist parties and is unlikely to change the outcome of the elections.
(AP, 1/3/12)
2012 Jan 3, Indian activists reacted angrily after 12 doctors were fined less than $100 each for conducting secret drug trials on children and patients with learning disabilities.
(AFP, 1/3/12)
2012 Jan 3, Iraq’s Cabinet voted to declare the missing Iraqiya ministers "on leave." That decision sidesteps for now the possibility that boycotting ministers would be replaced.
(AP, 1/4/12)
2012 Jan 3, Israel's Yitzhak Molcho and Palestinian Saeb Erekat met in Jordan in the presence of envoys from the US, Russia, the EU and the UN. The Palestinian president threatened to take "new measures" against Israel if a much-anticipated meeting in Jordan fails to bring about a resumption of peace talks. There were no significant breakthroughs but both sides agreed to continue the dialogue.
(AP, 1/3/12)(SFC, 1/4/12, p.A3)
2012 Jan 3, Israeli credit card companies said hackers claiming to be Saudis disclosed credit card information of thousands of Israelis on the Internet.
(AP, 1/3/12)
2012 Jan 3, In Jamaica final results gave Portia Simpson Miller's opposition People's National Party (PNP) a two-to-one margin in Parliament.
(AP, 1/3/12)
2012 Jan 3, Libya’s National Transitional Council said Yussef al-Mangush, a former colonel in Kadhafi's military, has been appointed as the new chief of staff of the Libyan army. Mangush was arrested in the oil town of Brega in April by Kadhafi's forces and freed in late August following the fall of Tripoli. Two former rebel factions clashed in hours of gunbattles in central Tripoli that left five fighters dead. The clashes were triggered by arrest of a Misrata fighter on New Year's Eve by Tripoli fighters. He was suspected of robbery and the Misrata fighters were trying to free him.
(AFP, 1/3/12)(AP, 1/3/12)
2012 Jan 3, Mali's government announced a plan to distribute 40,000 tons of food in emergency aid to drought victims and those lacking food security.
(AFP, 1/3/12)
2012 Jan 3, Myanmar began releasing some prisoners, but activists and relatives said a government clemency fell short of national reconciliation promise.
(AP, 1/3/12)
2012 Jan 3, The offices of Niger's justice ministry in Niamey were ravaged by a serious fire which broke out in the early hours. In August last year, the justice ministry set up a hotline number for callers wishing to report alleged cases of corruption.
(AFP, 1/3/12)
2012 Jan 3, Nigerian police fired tear gas and detained protesters while crowds blocked petrol stations amid rising anger over a controversial measure that has led to skyrocketing fuel prices. A top trade union accused police of shooting dead a protester. Two suspected Boko Haram gunmen shot dead the head of the Shehuri neighborhood in Maiduguri. Suspected sect members also killed the leader of a neighborhood in Damaturu during a simultaneous attack. A girl was killed in the crossfire after suspected sect members attacked a police station in the northern state of Jigawa. Sect members also attacked a church in Gombe state, killing at least 8 people.
(AFP, 1/3/12)(AP, 1/4/12)(AP, 1/7/12)
2012 Jan 3, Pakistanis angry at gas shortages blocked a major highway and clashed with police for the second day, adding pressure on a government bogged down by scandal, near economic collapse and militant violence.
(AP, 1/3/12)
2012 Jan 3, In the Philippines some 50 New People's Army guerrillas assaulted a government militia outpost guarding a village in Agusan del Norte province, killing a militiaman and two rebels. A weeklong rebel cease-fire ended on Jan 2.
(AP, 1/3/12)
2012 Jan 3, In Senegal suspected separatist rebels attacked a paramilitary police brigade in the troubled Casamance region for the second time this week.
(AFP, 1/4/12)
2012 Jan 3, In Spain Ibrahima Dyey (32) of Senegal was shot in the San Marti neighborhood of Barcelona. Dyey’s death led to rioting and the arrest of four members of a Roma family. One of the arrested men had asked a group of youths to stop playing football on the street and after they refused he opened fire on them with a gun, striking Dyey in the chest.
(AFP, 1/4/12)
2012 Jan 3, In Sri Lanka Dinesh Buddhika Charitananda (25), an ethnic Sinhalese, was abducted. His body was found the following morning near a river in a Colombo suburb.
(Econ, 1/14/12, p.42)
2012 Jan 3, In Turkey Kenan Evren (94), a former president (1982-1989), and former air force commander Tahsin Sahinkaya faced charges of crimes against the state. A court will now have to decide whether to accept the indictment and order a trial. Their trial began on April 4.
(AP, 1/3/12)(AP, 4/4/12)
2013 Jan 3, The new 113th US Congress convened. It was set to take a fresh crack at a number of old, and highly contentious, issues, such as gun control, immigration, the record debt, tax reform and the farm bill.
(Reuters, 1/3/13)
2013 Jan 3, Officials said a smuggling ring brought narwhal tusks from the Canadian Arctic into Maine in a trailer with a secret compartment and then illegally sold them to American buyers. In 2015 Andrew Zarauskas (61) was sentenced to nearly three years for buying more than 30 tusks over six years from two Canadians.
(SFC, 1/4/13, p.A6)(SFC, 1/13/15, p.A6)
2013 Jan 3, Hormel Foods said it has agreed to buy the Skippy peanut butter business from Unilever for about $700 million.
(SFC, 1/4/13, p.C3)
2013 Jan 3, Argentine Pres. Cristina Fernandez called on Britain to relinquish control of the Falkland Islands.
(SFC, 1/4/13, p.A2)
2013 Jan 3, Australian astronomers discovered a comet named C/2013 A1 (Siding Spring). Scientists said it will pass about 50km from Mars on October 19, 2014. On Oct 19 the comet’s closest approach to Mars was about 140,000 km.
(Econ, 3/9/13, p.80)(Econ, 10/25/14, p.82)
2013 Jan 3, The Basque nationalist group known as Batasuna, legal in France but banned in Spain, announced that it is dissolving after 11 years.
(AP, 1/3/13)
2013 Jan 3, British police extradited terror suspect Abid Naseer (26) to the United States to face charges that he took part in an alleged al-Qaida plot to detonate explosives aboard the New York City subway system.
(AP, 1/3/13)
2013 Jan 3, Coalition military officials in Afghanistan said an elite Danish soldier was killed overnight by an explosive device.
(AP, 1/3/13)
2013 Jan 3, In India 5 men accused of raping a university student for hours on a bus as it drove through New Delhi were charged with murder, rape and other crimes that could bring them the death penalty. A sixth suspect, listed as a 17-year-old, was expected to be tried in a juvenile court, where the maximum sentence would be three years in a reform facility. Authorities said they will seek the death penalty against the 5 men.
(AP, 1/3/13)(SFC, 1/4/13, p.A2)
2013 Jan 3, Iraqi authorities ordered the release of 11 women facing criminal charges and pledged to transfer other women prisoners to jails in their home provinces, in a move to address a main demand during a wave of protests by the country's Sunni minority against the Baghdad government. A car bomb struck a procession of Shiite pilgrims in the town of Musayyib, about 60 km south of Baghdad, killing at least 20 and wounding dozens.
(AP, 1/3/13)
2013 Jan 3, In northeast Nigeria at least 43 people were killed when gunmen suspected of belonging to Boko Haram attacked the town of Song.
(SFC, 1/4/13, p.A2)
2013 Jan 3, In Northern Ireland 8 police officers were injured when protests at the removal of the British flag from Belfast City Hall turned violent for the first time in more than two weeks.
(Reuters, 1/3/13)
2013 Jan 3, In Pakistan a US drone strike took place near Mir Ali, the main town of the North Waziristan tribal region. One missile hit a vehicle near the town, followed by another missile when people rushed to the vehicle to help people in the car. Officials said four people were killed in the strike.
(AP, 1/3/13)
2013 Jan 3, Palestinian officials said Israeli undercover troops broke into a West Bank house in a failed arrest raid near Jenin, igniting a violent protest and signaling that Israeli-Palestinian security coordination may be in trouble.
(AP, 1/3/13)
2013 Jan 3, Russia announced that President Vladimir Putin has approved French actor Gerard Depardieu's application for citizenship.
(AP, 1/3/13)
2013 Jan 3, In Russia Denis Burakov (27), was killed when a transparent plastic ball, known as a zorb, veered off course and sailed over a rock ledge at the Dombai ski resort in the rugged Caucasus Mountains. His friend Vladimir Shcherbakov survived.
(AP, 1/9/13)
2013 Jan 3, Syrian troops and rebels fought intense battles around the Taftanaz air base in the country's north and a suburb of the capital that government forces have been trying to capture since last month. Rebels reportedly killed the commander of the air base, a brigadier general. The Observatory and the LCC said 8 people were killed in Douma and nearby areas. Dozens of people were also killed or wounded in the town of Hayan in Aleppo province. A car bomb blew up in a Damascus gas station, killing at least 9 people.
(AP, 1/3/13)(AP, 1/4/13)
2013 Jan 3, Syrian journalist Suheil al-Ali, who worked for a pro-government television station, died four days after a "terrorist" opened fire on him as he was returning home from work in the suburbs of Damascus.
(AP, 1/5/13)
2014 Jan 3, A major snowstorm producing blizzard-like conditions hammered the northeastern United States, causing 2,000 US flight delays and cancellations. At least 15 deaths were blamed on the storm.
(Reuters, 1/3/14)(SFC, 1/4/14, p.A4)
2014 Jan 3, In San Jose, Ca., police Officer Dondi West shot Vietnamese immigrant Hung Lam in the back as Lam allegedly walked backward on his front lawn with a knife in her direction. Lam was left paralyzed and restricted to a wheel chair. In 2017 a federal appeals court said San Jose must pay Lam, a mentally disturbed man, $11.3 million.
(http://tinyurl.com/yd5nf2lx)(SFC, 9/6/17, p.D1)
2014 Jan 3, Rock & Roll singer Phil Everly (b.1939), the younger brother of Don Everly (b.1937), died. Phil helped make the Everly Brothers one of the biggest rock and country acts of the 1950s and early 1960s.
(Reuters, 1/3/14)(SFC, 1/4/14, p.A7)
2014 Jan 3, Argentina’s government agreed to roll over the debt of 18 provinces to help ease their financial strains.
(Econ, 1/11/14, p.29)
2014 Jan 3, In Cambodia At least 4 people were killed when police outside Cambodia's capital opened fire to break up a protest by striking garment workers demanding a doubling of the minimum wage.
(AP, 1/3/14)
2014 Jan 3, The health minister of Alberta, Canada, said an H1N1 flu outbreak in Alberta has sickened nearly 1,000 people and killed five over the past few weeks. He urged everyone to get vaccinated.
(AFP, 1/3/14)
2014 Jan 3, Egyptian riot police clashed with supporters of former Islamist Pres. Morsi across the country, leaving 17 dead and 62 injured as the Muslim Brotherhood renewed calls to protest ahead of a key referendum later this month.
(AP, 1/3/14)(AP, 1/4/14)
2014 Jan 3, An Egyptian security official said police have found a murdered Swiss couple buried in the garden of their house in the Red Sea resort town of Hurgada. They were reportedly killed by the house's guard and two of his friends who wanted to rob the couple.
(AFP, 1/3/14)
2014 Jan 3, In Ethiopia South Sudan's warring parties began negotiations to end nearly three weeks of raging conflict which has left thousands feared dead and taken the world's youngest nation to the brink of all-out civil war. Fighting intensified as the army moved on rebel-held Bor.
(AFP, 1/3/14)
2014 Jan 3, In western Germany a World War II bomb exploded during construction work in Euskirchen, near Bonn, killing one person and wounding at least eight others.
(AP, 1/3/14)
2014 Jan 3, Indian PM Manmohan Singh ruled out serving another term after an election due by May and threw his support behind Nehru-Gandhi dynasty scion Rahul Gandhi to lead the country if their party wins the vote.
(Reuters, 1/3/14)
2014 Jan 3, In Iraq Sunni Muslim tribesmen backed by Iraqi troops fought al Qaeda-linked militants for control of Anbar province. More than 100 people were killed as police and tribesmen battled ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, aka ISIL) fighters, Al-Qaeda-linked militants who took over parts of Fallujah and Ramadi.
(Reuters, 1/3/14)(AFP, 1/3/14)(Econ, 1/11/14, p.39)
2014 Jan 3, Israeli war planes carried out a series of strikes in the Gaza Strip, shortly after a rocket from the enclave struck the Jewish state.
(AFP, 1/3/14)
2014 Jan 3, The Italian navy over the last 24 hours rescued more than 1,000 migrants from boats trying to reach Europe.
(Reuters, 1/3/14)
2014 Jan 3, Madagascar’s electoral commission said that former finance minister Hery Rajaonarimampianina, the candidate backed by outgoing President Andry Rajoelina who spearheaded the coup nearly five years ago, won 53.5 percent of the December 20 vote.
(Reuters, 1/3/14)
2014 Jan 3, In Mexico 9 people were killed during a gunfight at a prison in Guerrero state, after a gang dressed as police officers gained entry.
(Reuters, 1/4/14)
2014 Jan 3, In Pakistan Iram Ramazan, a 10-year-old maid, died in Lahore after being beaten by the wife of the household for stealing a few rupees.
(SSFC, 1/5/14, p.A4)(http://tinyurl.com/mhrtzx3)
2014 Jan 3, In Pakistan two senior Sunni leaders were killed in Islamabad.
(CSM, 1/9/14)
2014 Jan 3, A Palestinian youth, identified as Adnan Abu Khater (16), died of his wounds after he was shot a day earlier by Israeli soldiers near the border fence in the northern Gaza Strip.
(AFP, 1/3/14)
2014 Jan 3, Spanish police said they have caught two women flying in from Brazil with more than a kilo (two pounds) of cocaine each hidden under their wigs. The two women, who were Portuguese and aged 18 and 28, arrived at Madrid's Barajas airport on different days from Sao Paulo.
(AFP, 1/3/14)
2014 Jan 3, A Turkish court ordered the release from jail of two Kurdish lawmakers being tried for links to militants in a potential boost to a fragile peace process. Turkish prosecutors said they have charged 36 protesters with terrorism over mass anti-government demonstrations that swept the country last year.
(Reuters, 1/3/14)(AFP, 1/3/14)
2014 Jan 3, Zimbabwe's black empowerment agency said at least 90 percent of foreign shop owners don't have bank accounts and are hiding away money or smuggling it out of the country, worsening cash shortages in the troubled economy.
(AP, 1/3/14)
2015 Jan 3, In southern California a shooting in Long Beach left a mother and two brothers wounded. Giseleangelique Rene D'Milian and Anthony Ray McCall abducted 3-week old Eliza Delacruz, whose body was found the next day in a dumpster.
(SFC, 1/6/15, p.A5)(SFC, 3/28/15, p.A5)
2015 Jan 3, In Kentucky teenagers Dalton Hayes (18) and Cheyenne Phillips (13) disappeared from Leitchfield and went on a crime spree stealing vehicles in South Carolina and Georgia. On Jan 18 the teens were arrested in Panama City, Fla.
(SFC, 1/17/15, p.A6)(SFC, 1/19/15, p.A4)
2015 Jan 3, Edward Brooke (b.1919), former Massachusetts senator (1966-1978) died at his home in Coral Gables, Florida. Brooke was the first black person to be elected as senator in any state since Reconstruction.
(SSFC, 1/4/15, p.C9)
2015 Jan 3, In Afghanistan insurgents kidnapped 4 policemen from Wardak province. Their bodies were found near the provincial capital Pul-i-Alam hours later.
(AP, 1/4/15)
2015 Jan 3, In Armenia the defense ministry of the separatist Nagorno-Karabakh region said two of its soldiers were killed while repelling Azerbaijani infiltrators.
(AP, 1/3/15)
2015 Jan 3, In Australia thousands of people fled their homes as wildfires raged across the nation's south, with firefighters struggling to contain the blazes fanned by strong winds.
(AP, 1/3/15)
2015 Jan 3, Bangladesh police banned all protests in Dhaka and locked main opposition leader Khaleda Zia in her office in Dhaka as clashes broke out before the first anniversary of an election her party boycotted.
(AFP, 1/4/15)(SFC, 1/5/15, p.A2)
2015 Jan 3, Greek police arrested convicted terrorist Christodoulos Xiros, who had failed to return to prison while on a furlough almost a year ago.
(AP, 1/3/15)
2015 Jan 3, Guyana said it is issuing new passports with improved safety features after seizing fraudulent ones in recent months.
(AP, 1/3/15)
2015 Jan 3, Search teams hunting for the wreck of Indonesia’s AirAsia Flight QZ8501 that crashed with 162 people on board reported four large parts of the plane on the sea bed.
(Reuters, 1/3/15)
2015 Jan 3, Israel said it will withhold critical tax revenue and seek ways to bring war crimes prosecutions against Palestinian leaders in retaliation for Palestinian moves to join the International Criminal Court (ICC).
(Reuters, 1/3/15)
2015 Jan 3, In central Libya masked gunmen kidnapped 13 Coptic Christians in Sirte after seven were abducted days earlier. Forces loyal to the internationally recognized government staged air strikes on the commercial port of Misrata, a western city allied to a group that holds the capital Tripoli.
(AP, 1/3/15)(Reuters, 1/3/15)
2015 Jan 3, In Mexico Hipolito Mora, the founder of a vigilante group in the western state of Michoacan, was arrested along with 26 followers for their alleged role in 10 deaths during a shootout with a rival group last month.
(Reuters, 1/3/15)
2015 Jan 3, A Norwegian ship owner said one if its cargo vessels, the "Bulk Jupiter," has sunk off Vietnam. Bergen-based Gearbulk said only one of the 19 Filipino crew members was known to have survived.
(AP, 1/3/15)
2015 Jan 3, Pakistani airstrikes killed 31 militants and a suspected US drone strike killed another seven. The airstrikes in the Tirah valley of the Khyber region destroyed four militant hideouts and a suicide bomber training center.
(AP, 1/4/15)
2015 Jan 3, Pakistani and Indian border guards traded artillery fire overnight along the disputed border region of Kashmir, killing 4 people and wounding eight.
(AP, 1/3/15)
2015 Jan 3, A cargo ship carrying cement overturned off the coast of Scotland. The Cypriot-registered Cemfjord sank the next day. The crew of seven Poles and one Filipino were missing.
(AFP, 1/4/15)
2015 Jan 3, In Tunisia suspected Islamist militants captured and killed a police officer south of Tunis, stabbing him and slashing his throat as he traveled home. Nine suspected militants were arrested. In late December four men were convicted of cutting the throat of the 23-year-old policeman in El Fahs. Three men were sentenced to death. A fourth man, who is on the run, was sentenced to 22 years in jail.
(Reuters, 1/4/15)(AFP, 12/30/15)
2015 Jan 3, Uganda officials said outspoken General David Sejusa, who recently returned to the country after 18 months in self-imposed exile, has been placed under house arrest.
(AFP, 1/3/15)
2015 Jan 3, Yemeni authorities reported the arrest of a Belgian, a Bulgarian and a Somali suspected of having links with al-Qaida after a search found one of them carrying documents and materials with the group's logos on them. Unknown gunmen killed two fighters from the Shiite Houthi rebel group in central Ibb province.
(AP, 1/3/15)
2016 Jan 3, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo singed an order requiring communities statewide to take homeless people from the streets when temperatures reach freezing.
(SFC, 1/4/16, p.A6)
2016 Jan 3, In Afghanistan an army M-17 helicopter crashed in the eastern Logar province, killing 3 Afghan soldiers.
(AP, 1/3/16)
2016 Jan 3, Police in the Sunni-ruled Gulf state of Bahrain clashed with Shiite protesters a day after neighboring Saudi Arabia executed a leading Shiite cleric.
(AFP, 1/3/16)
2016 Jan 3, The European Commission said it would debate the rule of law in Poland this month in the first stage of a potentially-punitive procedure after Warsaw seized control of public broadcasters.
(AFP, 1/3/16)
2016 Jan 3, Indian troops were still battling at least two gunmen at the Pathankot air force base near the border with Pakistan. At least 7 troops and 4 gunmen have been killed in the fighting so far.
(AP, 1/3/16)
2016 Jan 3, In Iraq suicide attackers from the Islamic State group killed at least 12 Iraqi forces in a brazen attack on police training at Speicher base, near Tikrit. Police managed to kill 7 attackers but 3 were able to detonate their suicide vests.
(AFP, 1/3/16)
2016 Jan 3, Mexican officials said they have killed 2 people and arrested three others linked to the slaying of a mayor who had taken office only a day earlier. Morelos Gov. Graco Ramirez attributed the killing of Gisela Mota to organized crime.
(AP, 1/3/16)
2016 Jan 3, Saudi Arabia announced it was cutting diplomatic ties with Iran.
(Reuters, 1/4/16)
2016 Jan 3, The Islamic State released a new video in which five purported British spies are shot dead by masked extremists as propaganda from a group that is losing control of territory in Syria and Iraq. Newspapers named Siddhartha Dhar, a British Indian, as the speaker in the tape.
(AP, 1/4/16)(SFC, 1/4/16, p.A4)(Econ, 1/9/16, p.50)
2016 Jan 3, In Turkey more than 200 people in Istanbul protested peacefully against curfews and operations in mainly Kurdish cities and towns in the southeast, where security forces and Kurdish militants are locked in an intensifying conflict.
(AP, 1/3/16)
2016 Jan 3, Yemeni government forces clashed with militant groups for control over the strategic Port of Aden in the southern city with the same name.
(AP, 1/3/16)
2016 Jan 3, In southeastern Yemen Al-Qaeda militants stoned a woman to death after accusing her of adultery and prostitution in Mukalla, Hadramawt province.
(AFP, 1/4/16)
2017 Jan 3, President-elect Donald Trump announced he has nominated Reagan-era lawyer Robert Lighthizer, described as an advocate of greater protectionism, as US trade representative.
(AFP, 1/3/17)
2017 Jan 3, US House Republicans scrapped their plan eviscerate the Office of Congressional Ethics, after the move drew a public backlash and a Twitter scolding from Pres.-elect Donald Trump.
(SFC, 1/3/17, p.A5)
2017 Jan 3, Ford Motor Co. said that it is canceling plans to build a $1.6 billion car plant in Mexico and will instead invest $700 million to increase production in Michigan.
(SFC, 1/4/17, p.C1)
2017 Jan 3, In Minnesota a federal appeals court ruled that a program for keeping sex offenders confined after they complete their prison sentences is constitutional.
(SFC, 1/4/17, p.A6)
2017 Jan 3, Toyota began moving hundreds of jobs out of its northern Kentucky headquarters as part of a nationwide consolidation of the company's operations.
(AP, 1/3/17)
2017 Jan 3, Albania suspended the reopening of schools after the New Year's break because of frigid weather and concern about the spread of flu.
(AP, 1/3/17)
2017 Jan 3, Haitian officials said an electoral tribunal has rejected claims that massive voter fraud marred the November presidential election victory of first-time candidate Jovenel Moise.
(AP, 1/3/17)
2017 Jan 3, Imprisoned Iranian human rights activist Arash Sadeghi ended a 71-day hunger strike as his detained wife won a temporary release from prison, a day after his case sparked a rare unauthorized protest in Tehran.
(AP, 1/3/17)
2017 Jan 3, In Iran two pipelines were reportedly bombed in Khuzestan province. The next day the Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahwaz claimed responsibility. Iranian Interior Ministry spokesman Salman Samani denied the claim.
(AP, 1/4/17)
2017 Jan 3, Moldova's new Pres. Igor Dodon stripped the ex-president of Romania of his recently-acquired Moldovan citizenship, saying he obtained it illegally. Traian Basescu and his wife Maria were awarded citizenship of the troubled ex-Soviet republic, formerly part of Romania. Dodon favors closer relations with Russia, while Basescu has called for the reunification of Romania and Moldova.
(AP, 1/3/17)
2017 Jan 3, Mozambique's Renamo opposition party said it had extended a ceasefire by two months to allow talks with President Filipe Nyusi's government, raising hopes for a nascent peace process.
(Reuters, 1/3/17)
2017 Jan 3, Nigerian anti-drug officers said they found 9.15 kg (20 pounds) of cocaine worth $4.7 million "factory-packed" inside a new pair of shoes that arrived at Abuja airport on a flight from Brazil.
(Reuters, 1/3/17)
2017 Jan 3, In Romania Sevil Shhaideh, poised to become the country's first female and Muslim prime minister, was offered a job as deputy premier after the country's president declined to nominate her for the top government job.
(AP, 1/3/17)
2017 Jan 3, Taiwan strongly objected to the deportation from Vietnam to China of four Taiwanese nationals suspected of telecommunications fraud, saying the move was carried out under pressure from Beijing.
(Reuters, 1/3/17)
2017 Jan 3, Turkmenistan said that it has restricted natural gas deliveries to Iran over unpaid debts. Iranian state media have put the figure demanded by Turkmenistan at around $2 billion.
(AP, 1/3/17)
2017 Jan 3, In southern Yemen pro-government forces attacked al-Qaida militants, killing 15 jihadis but losing 11 of their own troops.
(AP, 1/3/17)
2017 Jan 3, In southern Yemen at least three soldiers were killed in clashes with al Qaeda militants in Shuqra in an operation launched by the internationally recognized government of President Abd-Rabu Mansour Hadi.
(Reuters, 1/4/17)
2018 Jan 3, US Pres. Donald Trump signed an executive order disbanding his voter fraud commission.
(SFC, 1/4/18, p.A4)
2018 Jan 3, A winter storm dumped snow in Tallahassee, Florida, for the first time in nearly three decades.
(SFC, 1/4/18, p.A5)
2018 Jan 3, In NYC Mehmet Hakan Atilla (47), a deputy general manager of Turkey's state-run Halkbank, was found guilty of five counts including bank fraud. Atilla was found guilty of conspiracy to defraud the US. He was acquitted of a money laundering charge.
(AP, 1/4/18)
2018 Jan 3, A agreement was proposed to tie up loose ends from two failed nuclear reactors in South Carolina. The deal could mean $1.3 billion in refunds for utility customers affected by the failed project. South Carolina Electric & Gas Co. had abandoned construction reactors at the V.C. Summer Nuclear Station. Thousands were left jobless in the wake of the $9 billion failure.
(AP, 1/4/18)
2018 Jan 3, Brazil's oil giant Petrobras said it has agreed to pay $2.95 billion to settle a class action suit in New York brought on behalf investors harmed by a huge corruption scandal.
(AFP, 1/3/18)
2018 Jan 3, In Congo DRC 44 people perished overnight in Kinshasa as shanty homes were swept away by killer floods and landslips.
(AFP, 1/6/18)
2018 Jan 3, In Egypt Laila Amer, a little-known female singer, was arrested for a racy video posted online. She was charged with violating public decency and inciting debauchery in the video, titled "Bos Omak," or "Look at Your Mother" a pun on a popular Arabic profanity.
(AP, 1/4/18)
2018 Jan 3, Ethiopia's PM Hailemariam Desalegn announced plans to drop charges against political prisoners and close a notorious prison camp in what he called an effort to "widen the democratic space for all."
(AP, 1/3/18)
2018 Jan 3, MiFID II/MiFIR, the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive, came into force across the EU. MiFID II and MiFIR will ensure fairer, safer and more efficient markets and facilitate greater transparency for all participants.
(https://www.esma.europa.eu/policy-rules/mifid-ii-and-mifir)
2018 Jan 3, Winter storm Eleanor packing winds up to 100 mph (160 kph) battered parts of western Europe, derailing trains, toppling trees, halting flights and leaving hundreds of thousands of homes across France, Switzerland, Britain and Ireland without power.
(AP, 1/3/18)
2018 Jan 3, In Germany a government study said violent crime rose by about 10 percent in 2015 and 2016. It attributed more than 90 percent of that to young male refugees.
(Reuters, 1/3/18)
2018 Jan 3, The prime ministers of Hungary and Poland said their countries' anti-immigration policies are gaining strength within the 28-nation European Union.
(AP, 1/3/18)
2018 Jan 3, In India demonstrators from the lowest caste blocked roads and railways across Mumbai in protest against violence involving Hindu nationalist groups at an event commemorating a 200-year-old battle.
(AFP, 1/3/18)
2018 Jan 3, Thousands of Iranians took part in pro-government rallies in several cities as the elite Revolutionary Guards deployed forces to three provinces to put down an eruption of anti-government unrest. Six days of protests have left 21 people dead.
(Reuters, 1/3/18)
2018 Jan 3, In Ireland an Egyptian man (18) was arrested as a suspect after a Japanese man (24) was stabbed to death and two others were injured in the town of Dundalk. Three attacks had taken place at three separate locations within 40 minutes of each other.
(AP, 1/4/18)
2018 Jan 3, Israel said it would pay thousands of African migrants living illegally in the country to leave, threatening them with jail if they are caught after the end of March.
(AP, 1/3/18)
2018 Jan 3, Israel's internal security agency said it has busted an Iranian espionage ring operating in the West Bank and arrested Mohammed Maharmeh (29) its Palestinian leader. Maharmeh was allegedly tasked with enlisting suicide bombers and gunmen for attacks against Israelis.
(AP, 1/3/18)
2018 Jan 3, In Italy surveillance footage of a theft at the Doge's Palace in Venice showed one of the thieves calmly opening a showcase window, putting the jewels in his pocket and sauntering off. The Al Thani Collection hasn't revealed the pieces' value, but news reports estimate they are worth millions of euros.
(AP, 1/5/18)
2018 Jan 3, Four Kosovo opposition lawmakers were handed suspended jail terms of between 15 and 18 months for obstructing parliamentary work by releasing tear gas in the chamber.
(Reuters, 1/3/18)
2018 Jan 3, It was reported that group of Kuwaitis, imprisoned for taking part in anti-government protests, have announced the formation of a new political bloc in defiance of their detention and charges related to their political activism. Kuwait's Democratic Party was launched this week by four Kuwaitis sentenced to prison in late November.
(AP, 1/3/18)
2018 Jan 3, In Mexico at least eight young people used social media to organize two days of collective looting of stores in several northern suburbs of Mexico City, leading to clashes with police and more than 100 arrests. As of Jan. 5 authorities detained 113 people, including 30 teenagers.
(AP, 1/6/18)
2018 Jan 3, In northern Nigeria a suicide bomber entered a mosque in and detonated his explosives, killing 14 people during early morning prayers in Gamboru Ngala town, Borno state.
(AP, 1/3/18)
2018 Jan 3, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un reopened a key cross-border communication channel with South Korea for the first time in nearly two years as the rivals explored the possibility of sitting down and talking after months of acrimony and fears of war.
(AP, 1/3/18)
2018 Jan 3, Norway said it has suspended exports of munitions and arms to the United Arab Emirates as a "precautionary line," based on its assessment of the situation in Yemen, where a Saudi-led coalition including the UAE has been fighting Shiite rebels for nearly three years.
(AP, 1/3/18)
2018 Jan 3, Palestinian Musab Tamemi (17) was killed in clashes with the Israeli army, which says troops fired at an armed protester.
(AP, 1/3/18)
2018 Jan 3, In the southern Philippines eight people were killed when a rusty mortar round they thought was an iron canister with gold inside exploded as they tried to pry it open with a hammer in Sirawai town, Zamboanga del Norte province.
(AP, 1/4/18)
2018 Jan 3, In Poland a protest by thousands of doctors, who refuse to work overtime, disrupted services at some hospitals, including children's wards. The Health Ministry said that some 3,500 of about 88,000 hospital doctors have refused to sign up to contracts allowing for work weeks of more than 48 hours.
(AP, 1/3/18)
2018 Jan 3, In Saudi Arabia Saleh al-Shehi, a columnist for Arabic-language daily al-Watan, was detained over various articles and television appearances, including one in which he accused the royal court of corruption in distributing land. On Jan. 5 the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) called for his release.
(Reuters, 1/6/18)
2018 Jan 3, Singapore banned a film festival from screening the documentary "Radiance of Resistance" later this week that features a teenage Palestinian female activist Ahed Tamimi, whose arrest last month has made her a symbol of resistance to Israeli military occupation in the West Bank.
(Reuters, 1/3/18)
2019 Jan 3, The United States issued a pre-emptive warning to Iran against pursuing three planned space rocket launches that it said would violate a UN Security Council resolution because they use ballistic missile technology.
(Reuters, 1/3/19)
2019 Jan 3, Democrats took over the US House of Representatives, ushering in a new era of divided government in Washington with the goal of checking Donald Trump's turbulent presidency.
(AP, 1/3/19)
2019 Feb 3, In southern California a small plane crashed into a home in Yorba Linda killing the pilot and four people in the home.
(SFC, 2/4/19, p.A4)
2019 Feb 3, In San Francisco two people were killed early today when a car entered Hwy. 101 at the Vermont St. exit going the wrong way. Driver Kayla Wilson (21) was killed along with Waheedullah Etimad, the driver of a minivan carrying 6 people.
(SFC, 2/4/19, p.C1)
2019 Jan 3, In Florida two big rigs and two passenger vehicles collided and spilled diesel fuel across I-75 sparking a massive fire that killed 7 people, including five children riding in a church van.
(SFC, 1/4/19, p.A4)(SFC, 1/5/19, p.A6)
2019 Jan 3, Michigan's Democratic congresswoman Rashida Tlaib kicked off her term with an expletive-laced vow to impeach Donald Trump, testing her party's discipline and earning a chiding the next day from the president.
(AP, 1/5/19)
2019 Feb 3, Barbra Siperstein (76), a crusader for transgender rights, died in New Jersey. Two days earlier a New Jersey bill, named in her honor, went into effect granting states residents the right to amend their gender on birth certificates without proof of surgery.
(SSFC, 2/10/19, p.C9)
2019 Jan 3, In Texas three children were found killed and their mother Kimaria Nelson (24) beaten and severley wounded by a pellet gun in Texas City. Junaid Hashim Mehmood, the father of one of the children was soon arrested and charged with murder.
(http://tinyurl.com/yb43d96j)(SFC, 1/5/19, p.A6)
2019 Jan 3, Stocks went into a steep slide after Apple reported a slowdown in iPhone sales over the holidays in China, a hugely important market for the company.
(AP, 1/3/19)
2019 Jan 3, Texas lawyer Herb Kelleher (b.1931), co-founder of Southwest Airlines, died. He became chairman of the airline in 1978 and CEO in 1982.
(SFC, 1/4/19, p.D2)
2019 Jan 3, In Afghanistan the Taliban killed eight police in an attack on their post in the provincial capital of the northern Baghlan province.
(AP, 1/3/19)
2019 Jan 3, The new government of Brazil's far-right President Jair Bolsonaro hit the ground running on its first day of business, rushing through changes to put a conservative stamp on the country by trashing progressive achievements of past administrations.
(AFP, 1/3/19)
2019 Jan 3, Canada said that 13 of its citizens have been detained in China since Huawei Technologies Co Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou was arrested last month in Vancouver at the request of the United States.
(Reuters, 1/4/19)
2019 Jan 3, A Chinese space probe successfully touched down on the far side of the moon. The Chang'e-4 lunar probe, launched in December, made the "soft landing" and transmitted the first-ever "close range" image of the far side of the moon.
(Reuters, 1/3/19)
2019 Jan 3, Croatia threatened to cancel its purchase of F-16 fighter jets from Israel after months of stalling due to a lack of US approval. Washington has objected to the sale because it wants the removal of electronic system upgrades that Israel added in a rare defence dispute between the close allies.
(AFP, 1/3/19)
2019 Feb 3, In El Salvador transgender woman Camila Diaz Cordova (29), who sought asylum in the United States, died after being kidnapped and beaten. This was weeks after she was deported, underscoring the dangers of the Trump administration's hardening policy on asylum seekers.
(Reuters, 2/23/19)
2019 Jan 3, In Greece two men, 67 and 64 years old, along with the older man's wife, went missing after setting out from Keratea in a pouring rain. Their bodies were later found separately in a creek that had turned into a raging river southeast of Athens.
(AP, 1/6/19)
2019 Jan 3, India deported a second small group of Rohingya Muslims, five members of a family, to Myanmar after ordering the expulsion of members of the Myanmar minority group and others who entered the country illegally.
(AP, 1/3/19)
2019 Jan 3, In southern India Hindu hard-liners shut shops and businesses and clashed with police in Kerala state to protest the entry of two women into the Sabarimala hill temple, one of India's largest Hindu pilgrimage sites.
(AP, 1/3/19)
2019 Jan 3, In Iran prominent human rights activist Narges Mohammadi and British-Iranian detainee Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe announced plans to go on hunger strike in Tehran's Evin Prison to protest against the denial of medical treatment.
(AFP, 1/3/19)
2019 Jan 3, Israeli far-right activists clashed with police as authorities moved in to clear away two mobile homes illegally set up on a hilltop near Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.
(AFP, 1/3/19)
2019 Jan 3, Italy's deputy PM Matteo Salvini demanded the resignations of the rebellious leaders of Florence, Palermo and Naples for refusing to obey a controversial anti-immigration law.
(AFP, 1/3/19)
2019 Jan 3, Mexico's government said construction on a partly-built $13 billion new Mexico City airport which the new president wants to cancel has been officially suspended.
(Reuters, 1/3/19)
2019 Jan 3, Niger's defense ministry said several days of raids have killed more than 280 Boko Haram extremists near the border with Nigeria.
(AP, 1/3/19)
2019 Jan 3, Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari appointed his niece, Amina Zakari, to the election commission ahead of presidential elections in February, when he will seek a second term. The opposition quickly objected to the appointment.
(AFP, 1/5/19)
2019 Jan 3, Saudi Arabia announced that it will seek the death penalty against five suspects in the slaying of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, a killing that has seen members of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's entourage implicated in the writer's assassination.
(AP, 1/3/19)
2019 Jan 3, In Spain workers at Amazon's biggest local warehouse started a two-day strike just ahead of a gift-giving feast day, as part of a long-running campaign for better pay and conditions.
(Reuters, 1/3/19)
2019 Jan 3, Sudanese security forces fired tear gas to disperse some 200 protesters who were trying to deliver an anti-government petition to the local headquarters of President Omar al-Bashir's ruling party in Port Sudan.
(Reuters, 1/3/19)
2019 Jan 3, In Syria clashes between jihadists and rebels raged inside the last major opposition bastion for a third day, as the death toll mounted to more than 70 fighters.
(AP, 1/3/19)
2019 Jan 3, In Tunisia two alleged jihadists blew themselves up during an early morning raid by security forces on a house in the central region of Sidi Bouzid.
(AFP, 1/3/19)
2019 Jan 3, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Ankara and Baghdad would deepen cooperation against terrorism after tensions last month over Turkish air strikes against Kurdish militants in Iraq.
(AFP, 1/3/19)
2020 Jan 3, A United States airstrike early today killed Revolutionary Guards commander Qasem Soleimani (62) in Baghdad as well as Iraqi militia commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis. Five Guards were killed in total as well as five members of Iraq's Hashed al-Shaabi paramilitary force. The UN and a host of world leaders, including several in Europe, Russia, and Turkey condemned the US drone strike that killed Soleimani. Iranian leaders promised a "forceful revenge" against the US and Iraqi leaders said the strike violated its sovereignty and international laws. US media reported the strike the evening of Jan. 2.
(ABC News, 1/3/20)(AFP, 1/3/20)(Business Insider, 1/3/20)
2020 Jan 3, President Trump said the killing of Iran’s top general, carried out by a US drone strike in Baghdad, was long overdue.
(Yahoo News, 1/3/20)
2020 Jan 3, President Donald Trump delivered a typical bombastic and at times vicious stump speech this evening at a Miami megachurch for his first campaign event of 2020. Trump declared his belief that God supports his agenda and pledged to bring prayer to public schools.
(ABC News, 1/3/20)(Yahoo News, 1/3/20)(Reuters, 1/3/20)
2020 Jan 3, A US federal judge ruled that Lev Parnas, an associate of President Donald Trump’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, can provide additional records sought by the House impeachment investigators, including the contents of his cell phone.
(ABC News, 1/3/20)
2020 Jan 3, Leaders of the United Methodist Church, the 2nd largest Protestant denomination in the US, announced a plan that would formally split the church after years of division over same-sex marriage. A new "traditionalist Methodist" denomination would be created and would continue to ban same sex marriage.
(SFC, 1/4/20, p.A6)
2020 Jan 3, In Alaska Shishaldin Volcano in the Aleutian Islands, one of Alaska’s most active volcanoes, shot a cloud of ash more than 5 miles high, triggering a warning to aviators and putting on a show that was captured in satellite imagery.
(Reuters, 1/3/20)
2020 Jan 3, In Mississippi a 3rd inmate was killed at the State Penitentiary at Parchman. He became the fifth inmate to be killed in the state since Dec. 29 in what was described as a feud between gangs.
(SFC, 1/4/20, p.A6)
2020 Jan 3, It was reported that Missouri’s two biggest cities saw a jump in homicides in 2019, and if that wasn’t bad enough, an alarming number of killers got away with it. St. Louis had 194 killings last year, eight more than in 2018. Kansas City’s homicide total rose by 10, to 148.
(AP, 1/3/20)
2020 Jan 3, In Australia one of the largest evacuations in the country's history was under way as more than 200 fires burned across the country. The navy evacuated hundreds of people from Mallacoota, cut off for days by the wild fires. Victoria premier declared a disaster across much of the eastern part of the state. Ten deaths have been confirmed in Victoria and New South
Wales with 28 reported missing in Victoria.
(SFC, 1/4/20, p.A4)
2020 Jan 3, Belarus suspended its oil exports after Moscow stopped supplying crude until contracts for this year are drawn up. A day later Belarus reached an agreement for limited oil supplies to ensure refinery operations for January.
(SFC, 1/4/20, p.A2)(SSFC, 1/5/20, p.A4)
2020 Jan 3, In Cambodia a building under construction collapsed in the coastal province of Kep, killing at least four workers. The death toll soon rose to 36.
(SFC, 1/4/20, p.A2)(SFC, 1/6/20, p.A2)
2020 Jan 3, In China the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission said 44 people have been diagnosed with pneumonia, the cause of which is unknown. That’s up from 27 three days earlier. Eleven people were in serious condition.
(Bloomberg, 1/4/20)
2020 Jan 3, In France one man was killed and two other people seriously injured in a knife attack by an unidentified assailant in the Paris suburb of Villejuif. Police shot dead the assailant.
(The Telegraph, 1/3/20)
2020 Jan 3, In India more that 1,000 members of the LGBTQ community, rights groups and their supporters marched through New Delhi to protest a new citizenship law that excludes Muslims. Opposition parties say the Modi government is trying to consolidate its Hindu base.
(SFC, 1/4/20, p.A2)
2020 Jan 3, In Indonesia the death toll from floods in Jakarta rose to 43 as rescuers found more bodies amid receding floodwaters.
(AP, 1/3/20)
2020 Jan 3, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei appointed Qassem Soleimani's deputy, Maj. Gen. Esmail Ghaani as the new commander of the Revolutionary Guard's Quds Force, part of the 125,000-strong Revolutionary Guard.
(AP, 1/4/20)
2020 Jan 3, American oil workers began fleeing Iraq, as fears grew of war between the United States and Iran.
(NY Times, 1/4/20)
2021 Jan 3, All 10 living former secretaries of defense cautioned against any move to involve the military in pursuing claims of election fraud, arguing that it would take the country into “dangerous, unlawful and unconstitutional territory".
(AP, 1/4/21)
2021 Jan 3, The 117th Congress convened for the first time and re-elected Nancy Pelosi as House speaker. Democrats control 222 of 435 seats, the slimmest majority either party has held in two decades.
(NY Times, 1/3/21)
2021 Jan 3, California to date had 2,356,544 cases of coronavirus and 26,547 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 273,843 cases and 2,635 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 20,439,674 with the death toll at 350,267.
(sfist.com, 1/3/21)
2021 Jan 3, In Minnesota hundreds of protesters marched in Minneapolis to demand justice in the fatal police shooting of a 23-year-old man, the city’s first police-involved death since George Floyd died after being restrained by officers in May. Dolal Idd was killed on Dec. 30 during an attempted felony traffic stop.
(AP, 1/4/21)
2021 Jan 3, The Wall Street Journal reported that in recent days Icahn had sold about 10% of his stake back to Herbalife Nutrition, a multi-level marketing company, whose products include dietary supplements. Icahn sold more than half his stake in Herbalife Nutrition back to the company for $600 million at $48.05 a share and has given up the five seats on the firm's board held by his representatives.
(Reuters, 1/3/21)
2021 Jan 3, Australia's New South Wales state recorded eight new local cases. There are 161 active cases in the state, most of them in the northern beaches of Sydney, and 13 emanating from liquor store that are not connected to the beaches cluster. More Australian states and territories are reimposing travel restrictions to prevent the spreading of the coronavirus from new outbreaks in New South Wales and Victoria states.
(AP, 1/3/21)
2021 Jan 3, British PM Boris Johnson warned that more onerous lockdown restrictions in England are likely in the coming weeks as the country reels from a new coronavirus variant that has pushed infection rates to their highest recorded levels.
(AP, 1/3/21)
2021 Jan 3, It was reported that rebel forces have seized Bangassou, a south-eastern city in the Central African Republic. The rebels have accused the government of holding a fraudulent election on 27 December.
(BBC, 1/3/21)
2021 Jan 3, Mainland China reported 33 new COVID-19 cases, up from 24 cases a day earlier. The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in mainland China now stands at 87,150, while the death toll remained unchanged at 4,634.
(Reuters, 1/3/21)
2021 Jan 3, It was reported that two men convicted over the assassination of the Democratic Republic of Congo's Pres. Laurent Kabila 20 years ago have been pardoned. Col Eddy Kapend and Georges Leta, implicated in the killing, had their death sentences commuted last June.
(BBC, 1/3/21)
2021 Jan 3, Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan resumed their years-long negotiations over the controversial dam Ethiopia is building on the Blue Nile.
(AP, 1/3/21)
2021 Jan 3, India's drugs regulator granted emergency authorization for the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine, but on the condition that Serum Institute doesn't export the shots to ensure that vulnerable populations in India are protected. Serum Institute of India has been contracted to make 1 billion doses of the vaccine for developing nations. COVAXIN, made by Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech, received emergency use approval from India's drugs regulator.
(AP, 1/3/21)(4, 1/4/21)
2021 Jan 3, In India hundreds of Tibetans in exile voted in Dharmsala for their new political leader and parliament. A 2nd round will take place in April.
(SFC, 1/4/21, p.A6)
2021 Jan 3, Tens of thousands of Iraqis chanting anti-American slogans streamed to Baghdad's central square to mark the anniversary of the US killing of top Iranian general Qassem Soleimani and Iraqi militia commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis.
(AP, 1/3/21)
2021 Jan 3, Italy reported 347 coronavirus-related deaths against 364 the day before, while the daily tally of new infections rose to 14,245 from 11,831.
(Reuters, 1/3/21)
2021 Jan 3, In Mali more than 20 people, including children, were reported killed when an airstrike hit a wedding party in a remote village. The French military, which has troops in the region, said it carried out a strike on jihadist militants in central Mali, but that no wedding was involved. Defense Minister Florence Parly later said no helicopters were engaged in the strike that “eliminated several dozen jihadis."
(AP, 1/6/21)(AP, 1/10/21)
2021 Jan 3, In Pakistan gunmen opened fire on a group of minority Shiite Hazara coal miners after abducting them in southwestern Baluchistan province. 11 miners were killed. The Islamic state claimed responsibility.
(SFC, 1/4/21, p.A6)
2021 Jan 3, A South Korean health official said that a third wave of the novel coronavirus is being contained, as it reported the lowest number of new infections in nearly four weeks with the help of tougher restrictions during the New Year holiday season. South Korea expanded a ban on private gatherings larger than four people to the whole country, and extended unprecedented social distancing rules in greater Seoul as the number of daily cases bounced back to more than 1,000 in four days.
(Reuters, 1/3/21)
2021 Jan 3, It was reported that Swiss regulators have allowed contract manufacturer Lonza Group to start producing Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine at a plant in Switzerland.
(Reuters, 1/3/21)
2021 Jan 3, In central Syria militants ambushed buses traveling down a highway late today, killing nine people, including a 13-year-old girl.
(AP, 1/3/21)
2021 Jan 3, Zimbabwe imposed curbs to slow the spread of the coronavirus as Information Minister Nick Mangwana warned that the country was being overwhelmed.
(SFC, 1/4/21, p.A4)
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