6 February in History

<< Feb 05| HISTORY “4” “2”DAY |Feb 07 >>
Events, deaths, births, of FEB 06
[For Feb 06 Julian go to Gregorian date: 1583~1699: Feb 16 — 1700s: Feb 17 — 1800s: Feb 18 — 1900~2099: Feb 19]

ALTERNATE SITES ALL FOR 030206 ANY DAY OF THE YEAR IN HISTORY ART “4” FEB 06

• Founder quits Apple... • Mussolini fires son~in~law... • Freed US slaves go to Africa... • Christopher Marlowe is born... • US boy eaten by cannibal... • Massacre place de la Concorde... • Of Mice and Men...

On a 06 February:
2001 Israelis elect as prime minister Ariel Sharon, who had provoked the al-Aqsa intifada by his visit to the Temple Mount area in late September 2000. Prime minister Ehud Barak is defeated, having been discredited by his inept handling of the intifada.
2000 First lady Hillary Rodham Clinton launched her successful candidacy for the US Senate.
2000. Social Democrat Tarja Halonen edged out her rival in a runoff to become Finland's first female president.
2000 Miles de personas del pueblo El Ejido (Almería) se enfrentan violentamente a los inmigrantes que habitan en la región.
2000 La socialdemócrata Tarja Halonen vence en la segunda vuelta de las elecciones presidenciales finlandesas al centrista Esko Tapani Aho.
1999 King Hussein of Jordan transfers full political power to his oldest son, the Crown Prince Abdullah.
1999 El presidente francés Jacques René Chirac inaugura la cumbre para las conversaciones de paz en Kosovo.

^ 1999 Clinton impeachment trial in the US Senate: videotape duel.

(1) In a war of dueling videotapes, House prosecutors and White House lawyers argue whether Monica Lewinsky's latest testimony helps or hurts the impeachment case against President Bill Clinton. In the videotape snippets shown during the prosecutors' summation, Lewinsky, dressed in a black dress and wearing a strand of pearls, generally seems self-assured and forceful in her testimony. But she looks nervous and uncomfortable at times, too. The prosecutors also air selections of deposed testimony by White House aide Sidney Blumenthal and presidential Vernon friend Jordan, the other two witnesses that received Senate subpoenas.
(TRANSCRIPT)

"Today the analysis and the speculation ends," Rep. James Rogan (R-California) tells senators. "There is only one judgment the Senate must make for history. Do you believe her? If you believe her, you will see this morning how the president wove a web of perjury and obstruction of justice," he says.

Rogan says if Clinton were only guilty of adultery, there would be no impeachment trial. But at each step along the way, Clinton made bad choices aimed at impeding Paula Jones' sexual harassment lawsuit against him, Rogan says. "We seek no congressional punishment for a man who chose to cheat on his wife," Rogan says. But House prosecutors have an obligation to seek punishment, he says, "for a president who chose to cheat the law." Clinton's political and personal legacy is "indulging all choices and accepting no consequences," Rogan adds.

If senators believe Lewinsky's testimony about her relationship with Clinton, "the just and proper verdict would be to replace him with Vice President Al Gore."

Rogan plays clips from Lewinsky's videotaped deposition in which she related that she and Clinton discussed using cover stories to conceal their affair. Later she said that Betty Currie, Clinton's personal secretary, called her and arranged to pick up gifts Clinton had given her. Currie would only have called, Rogan says, if she had been told to do so by the president. The testimony by Lewinsky is evidence, Rogan says, that Clinton participated in obstruction of justice. "If her testimony is truthful, then the president committed the offenses in the articles of impeachment," he says.

Rep. Lindsey Graham draws laughter when he questions Clinton's late-night call to Lewinsky to tell her she was on a witness list in the Jones case. "Where I come from, you call somebody at 2:30 in the morning, you're up to no good," Graham observes.

Rep. Asa Hutchinson (R-Arkansas), another of the House prosecutors, asserts that the call to Lewinsky on the night of 17 December 1997, when Clinton told her she would be a witness in the Jones case, was also obstruction of justice.

To illustrate the point, Hutchinson plays a section of Lewinsky's deposition in which she said, "From what I learned in that conversation, I thought to myself I would deny the relationship" to Jones' lawyers.

"What he (Clinton) is telling a witness in a case that is adverse to him is that you do not have to tell the truth," Hutchinson says. "You can use the cover stories that were used before. He says continue the same lies even though you are in a court of law ... Ladies and gentlemen of the Senate, in my book that is illegal, and I hate to say it, obstruction of justice by the president of the United States," Hutchinson says.

(2) When it is the White House's turn to summarize the case, Clinton counsel Seligman plays an extensive segment of Lewinsky's deposition, in which she said she and Clinton never discussed the content of the affidavit she gave in the Jones case, that he did not want to see it, and that she believed she could give a affidavit that was not false.

On the question of gifts from the president, Seligman says, Lewinsky testified that in an interview with investigators from the Office of the Independent Council, she corroborated a statement by Clinton that he told her to "turn over whatever she had." The gifts had been subpoenaed by Jones' lawyers. Asked if Clinton ever told her to turn over the gifts, Lewinsky said she was asked a series of questions after Clinton had testified before the grand jury. When it came to his statement that he told Lewinsky to turn over the gifts, she said, "I said that sounds a little bit familiar to me." Seligman says that is only one piece of evidence supporting the president's case not included the independent counsel's report to Congress. "We can only wonder, in troubled disbelief, how much more we still don't know," she says.

Seligman says the question of who initiated the transfer of the gifts from Lewinsky to Currie remains unresolved. "Mrs. Currie has one recollection; Ms. Lewinsky another," Seligman says.

(3) The Associated Press reports:
Reporter names Blumenthal as source for Lewinsky's 'stalker'
WASHINGTON (AP) - Sidney Blumenthal's lawyer was so determined to show the White House aide never leaked a rumor about Monica Lewinsky being a stalker that he released journalists from any pact of confidentiality and challenged them to come forward.
Now one has.
Journalist Christopher Hitchens has sworn an affidavit stating Blumenthal several times described Ms. Lewinsky as a "stalker" and President Clinton as "the victim" of a predatory and unstable young woman, when they lunch in March 1998.
Copies of the affidavit were being circulated in the Capitol late Saturday and was a topic of informal conversation among a number of senators, as well as others who saw it.
Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., said the Justice Department could investigate any false testimony given the Senate, but that the assertion by Hitchens was "collateral at best" to the overall question of whether the president should be removed from office.
Neither Hitchens nor Blumenthal's lawyer responded immediately to telephoned requests for comment.
Blumenthal has repeatedly denied being the source of disparaging comments to the press about Ms. Lewinsky. Asked about that in a deposition taken Wednesday for the impeachment trial, he testified: "I have no idea how anything came to be attributed to a White House source."
Earlier, lawyer William McDaniel asserted his client "didn't peddle it, he didn't urge people to write about it, he didn't tell people about it, he wasn't the source for that."
McDaniel went on to say "if anybody in their mind thinks they have a pledge of confidentiality to Sidney ... they're released; let them come forward and say it."
Hitchens, a freelance British journalist based in Washington who contributes to Vanity Fair and The Nation, said he had lunch with Blumenthal and someone else March 19, 1998, at the Occidental restaurant in Washington.
"Referring to Ms. Lewinsky, Mr. Blumenthal used the word 'stalker' several times," Hitchens swore. "Mr. Blumenthal advised us that this version of the facts was not generally understood."
Hitchens also swore he knows of other journalists told the same story by Blumenthal.
Clinton referred to Ms. Lewinsky as a stalker in a conversation he had with Blumenthal shortly after the affair became the subject of news reports. Blumenthal said he never passed that story around. Republicans have suspected he talked to the press to try to discredit the former White House intern.

1995 Robert Holland, Jr. is named the new Ben & Jerry's CEO after the Vermont-based ice cream company holds a "Yo! I Want To Be A CEO!" search.
1994 José Maria Figueres elected President of Costa Rica
1994 Martti Ahtisaari elected President of Finland — El socialdemócrata Martti Ahtisaari gana las elecciones presidenciales en Finlandia.
1993 Bélgica se convierte en Estado Federal.
1991 Jordan's King Hussein tilted sharply toward Iraq in the Gulf War, describing the conflict as an effort by outsiders to destroy Iraq and carve up the Arab world.
1989 30'000 soldados soviéticos abandonan Afganistán, mientras la capital, Kabul, queda sumida en el caos.
1989 Lech Walesa begins negotiating with the Polish government
1987 No-smoking rules take effect in US federal buildings.
1985 US President Ronald Reagan's State of the Union address.

^ 1985 Founder Steve Wozniak leaves Apple Computer.
Steve Wozniak, cofounder of Apple Computer and inventor of the best-selling Apple II computer, resigned from the company on this day in 1985. The company, which started in Wozniak's garage in 1976, had become a massive bureaucracy by the mid-1980s. Wozniak had developed his first computer, the Apple I, as a project to impress his friends in the Homebrew Computing Club. With Steve Jobs' help, he created the Apple II, which went on sale in 1977 and quickly became popular with mass-market consumers, not just electronics hobbyists. As the fastest growing company in history, Apple experienced serious growing pains, including the hiring of a professional management team. Wozniak, who preferred to remain an engineer rather than participate in management politics, objected to the tactics and strategies of Apple's management. 1998 Microsoft shuts down Mungo Park Microsoft closed the gates on Mungo Park, its high-profile adventure travel Web site, on this day in 1998. The move indicated a company-wide re-orientation. From 1996 through 1997, Microsoft had tried to dominate the online content business, launching numerous online publications, including commentary magazine Slate, Microsoft Sidewalk (an online magazine for numerous cities across the country), and various Web "shows." The strategy proved expensive, and Microsoft chose to re-focus in late 1997 and 1998, shifting its emphasis to commercial sites like CarPoint, a Web site for car shopping, and Expedia, an online travel agent. 1985 Microsoft announces word processing program Microsoft announced it would develop a word processing program for the IBM PC on February 6, 1985. Microsoft later adapted the program, called Word, to the Macintosh. At first, Word was an underdog, competing with category dominator WordPerfect; however, Word's intuitive, user-friendly design quickly won users over, making it the most popular software in history. Word marked an important turning point for Microsoft, which moved from being an operating-systems company catering to computer manufacturers, to a consumer-oriented software company. 1996 CompuServe unveils SpryNet CompuServe launched an Internet provider service called SpryNet on this day in 1996. Proprietary online services, high-flying revenue magnets in the early '90s, were now struggling. Many closed, and others transformed themselves into Internet service providers.

1984 Moslem militiamen take over West Beirut from Lebanese army — Beirut Este, ocupado por las milicias cristianas.
1983 Klaus Barbie ("el carnicero de Lyon") es detenido en Bolivia y trasladado al fuerte de Montcluc (Francia), para ser juzgado como autor de los crímenes cometidos por fuerzas alemanas bajo su mando en la II Guerra Mundial.
1979 Supreme court of Lahore affirms death sentence against premier Bhutto

^ 1973 Vietnam cease-fire monitors start their work.
Supervisors from the International Commission of Control and Supervision (ICCS), delegated to oversee the cease-fire, start to take up their positions. The cease-fire had gone into effect as a provision of the Paris Peace Accords. The ICCS included representatives from Canada, Poland, Hungary, and Indonesia, and was supposed to supervise the cease-fire. However, the ICCS had no enforcement powers and had extreme difficulty in settling the many quarrels that quickly arose. In the end, the ICCS proved incapable of enforcing the provisions of the Accords and was largely ineffectual. Consequently, renewed fighting between the South and North Vietnamese broke out after only a brief lull and continued for the next two years, until the North Vietnamese successfully launched their final offensive in 1975 and South Vietnam surrendered.

1978 Muriel, wife of late Hubert Humphrey (Senator-D-MN) takes his office
1967 Cultural Revolution in Albania

^ 1966 US president meets with South Vietnamese premier
Accompanied by his leading political and military advisers, US President Lyndon B. Johnson meets with South Vietnamese Premier Nguyen Cao Ky in Honolulu. The talks concluded with issuance of a joint declaration in which the United States promised to help South Vietnam "prevent aggression," develop its economy, and establish "the principles of self-determination of peoples and government by the consent of the governed." Johnson declared: "We are determined to win not only military victory but victory over hunger, disease, and despair." He announced renewed emphasis on "The Other War" — the effort to provide the South Vietnamese rural population with local security, and economic and social programs to win over their active support. In his final statement on the discussions, Johnson warned the South Vietnamese that he would be monitoring their efforts to build democracy, improve education and health care, resettle refugees, and reconstruct South Vietnam's economy.

1964 France and Great-Britain sign accord over building channel tunnel
1960 El Gobierno español garantiza derechos de concesión a seis compañías norteamericanas para explotar eventuales yacimientos petrolíferos en el Sáhara Occidental español.
1956 University of Alabama refuses admission to Autherine Lucy (because he's Black)
1953 US controls on wages and some consumer goods were lifted
1947 El Alto Comité Arabe informa a la ONU sobre su rechazo absoluto a la resolución que funda el Estado de Israel.
1945 Russian Red Army crosses the river Oder

^ 1943 Mussolini fires his son-in-law
      Wary of his growing antiwar attitude, Benito Mussolini removes Count Galeazzo Ciano, his son-in-law, as head of Italy's foreign ministry and takes over the duty himself. Ciano had been loyal to the fascist cause since its inception, having taking part in the march on Rome in 1922, which marked the Black Shirts' rise to power in Italy. He graduated from the University of Rome with a degree in law, and then went to work as a journalist. Soon thereafter he began a career in Italy's diplomatic corps, working as consul general in China. He married Mussolini's daughter, Edda, in 1930; from there it was a swift climb up the political ladder: from chief of the press bureau to member of the Fascist Grand Council, Mussolini's inner circle of advisers.
      Ciano flew a bombing raid against Ethiopia in 1935-36 and was made foreign minister upon his return to Rome. Both because of his experience in foreign affairs and personal relationship to the Duce, Ciano became Mussolini's right-hand man and likely successor. It was Ciano who promoted an Italian alliance with Germany, despite Mussolini's virtual contempt for Hitler. Ciano began to suspect the Fuhrer's loyalty to the "Pact of Steel" — a term Mussolini used to describe the alliance between Germany and Italy — when Germany invaded Poland without consulting its Axis partner, despite an agreement to the contrary Ciano made with his German counterpart, Joachim von Ribbentrop. Despite his concern about Germany's loyalty, he felt that Italy stood to profit nicely from an alliance with the "winning side," so when France fell to the Germans, Ciano advocated Italian participation in the war against the Allies.
      After humiliating defeats in Greece and North Africa, Ciano began arguing for a peace agreement with the Allies. Mussolini considered this defeatist — and dismissed him as foreign minister, taking control of that office himself. Ciano became ambassador to the Vatican until he and other members of the Grand Council finally pushed Mussolini out of power in July 1943. Mussolini never forgave his son-in-law for what he later considered a betrayal. Ciano soon fled Rome for the north when the new provisional government began preparing charges of embezzlement against him. Ciano unwittingly fled into the arms of pro-fascist forces in northern Italy and was charged with treason. He was executed on 11 January 1944 on his father-in-law's orders — Mussolini was installed in a puppet government that had been set up by the Germans. Ciano's diaries, which contained brutally frank and sardonic commentaries on the personalities of the war era, are considered an invaluable part of the historical record.

1943 First Spitfire in action above Darwin, Australia, Mu Ki-46 shot down
1941 Battle of Beda Fomm Italian 10th army destroyed
1941 British troops conquer Bengazi, Libya

1941 British crush Italians in North Africa at battle of Beda Fomm
At the climax of British Commander Richard O’Connor’s successful offensive against Italian-dominated North Africa, the outnumbered British Fourth Armored Brigade achieves an astounding victory at Beda Fomm in Libya against Italian Marshall Rodolfo Graziani’s retreating army. On 09 December 1940, the British launched their first major offensive against the Italians at Sidi Barrani, Egypt, on the Mediterranean Sea. After expertly flanking Graziani, O’Connor’s Western Desert forces initiated a devastating tank attack from the rear. The Italian were caught thoroughly unprepared, and within several days the Battle of Sidi Barrani ended with only 133 British soldiers killed to nearly 40'000 Italians taken prisoner. Over the next two months, British and Australian forces defeated Italian divisions in Egypt and in Cyrenaica to the east, and in early February of 1941, British Brigadier General John Caunter caught up with Graziani’s retreating army after advancing 170 miles in thirty-three hours. On February 6, at Beda Fomm, Caunter’s Fourth Armored Brigade, 3000 strong, takes 20'000 Italian prisoners and destroys one hundred Italian tanks at a loss of only three British tanks. With the Italians’s attempt to break out to El Agheila on the provincial frontier defeated, the tide seemed to have turned against the Axis in North Africa. However, German Field Marshall Erwin Rommel, later known as the “Desert Fox,” had yet to make his appearance in North Africa as commander of his formidable Afrika Korps.

1939 Spanish government flees to France.
1935 First election in which women are allowed to vote in Turkey.
1933 President von Hindenburg and von Papen end Prussian parliament.
1933 20th Amendment to the US Constitution goes into effect; Presidential term begins in January, no longer in March.
1933 Highest recorded sea wave (not tsunami), 34 meters, in Pacific hurricane near Manila.
1933 -90ºF (-68ºC), Oymyakon, USSR (Asian record)
1932 Fascist coup in the Memel territory.

^ 1928 Anastasia arrives in the US. Is she the survivor of the tsar's murdered family???
     A woman calling herself Anastasia Tschaikovsky and claiming to be the youngest daughter of the murdered czar of Russia arrives in New York City. She holds a press conference on the liner Berengaria, explaining she was here to have her jaw reset. It was broken, she alleged, by a Bolshevik soldier during her narrow escape from the execution of her entire family at Ekaterinburg, Russia, in July 1918. Tschaikovsky was welcomed to New York by Gleb Botkin, the son of the Romanov family doctor who was executed along with his patients in 1918. Botkin called her "Your Highness" and claimed that she was without a doubt the Grand Duchess Anastasia with whom he had played as a child.
      Between 1918 and 1928, more than half a dozen other women had come forward claiming to be a lost heir to the Romanov fortune, so some American reporters were understandingly skeptical of Tschaikovsky's claims. Nevertheless, she was treated as a celebrity during her stay in New York and occasioned society parties and fashionable hotels worthy of a Romanov heir. Registering for one hotel during her visit, she used the name Anna Anderson, which later became her permanent alias.
      In 1917, the February Revolution in Russia forced Czar Nicholas II to abdicate the throne. Nicholas, his wife Alexandra, and their four girls and one son were held at Czarskoye Selo palace and then taken to Ekaterinburg in the Urals after the Bolsheviks seized power in the October Revolution. Civil war raged throughout 1918, and in July anti-Bolshevik Russian forces approached Ekaterinburg. Fearing that Nicholas and his family would be rescued, the local authorities passed a death sentence on the Romanovs. Just after midnight on 17 July 1918, Nicholas, Alexandra, their five children, and four family retainers, among them Dr. Botkin, were ordered to dress quickly and go down to the cellar of the house in which they were being held. There, the family and servants were arranged in two rows — for a photograph, they were told, to quell rumors that they had escaped. Suddenly, nearly a dozen armed men burst into the room and shot the imperial family in a hail of gunfire. Those who were still breathing when the smoked cleared were stabbed to death.
      The executioners then took the bodies to an abandoned mine shaft some 23 km from Ekaterinburg, burned them in a gasoline-fueled bonfire, and doused the bones with sulfuric acid to further disguise the remains. Finally, what was left was thrown into the mine pit, which was covered with dirt. At first, the Bolshevik government reported that only Nicholas was executed and that his wife and children were moved to a safe location. Later, reports that the entire family had perished were confirmed by Russian investigators. At the same time, however, a persistent rumor spread through Europe, telling of a Romanov child, usually Anastasia, who had survived the carnage. Several pretenders came forward, hoping to cash in on the Romanov fortune reportedly held in European banks, but they were quickly exposed as frauds. Europe, however, had yet to meet Anna Anderson.
      In 1920, an apparently suicidal young woman was pulled from the Landwehr Canal in Berlin. She refused to tell authorities her identity and was committed to the Dalldorf Asylum, where she lived in anonymity until 1922, when she suddenly announced that she was none other the Grand Duchess Anastasia.
      At the time, Europe was filled with Russian exiles who had fled the Bolshevik Revolution, and a number of sympathetic czarists rushed to the aid of this young woman, who at first glance was certainly articulate and beautiful enough to be the lost Anastasia. Her body showed ugly scars, which she said she incurred from Bolshevik knives during the execution of her family. One Bolshevik soldier, she said, finding her alive, had helped her, and she eventually escaped to the West. Several months after claiming to be Anastasia, she was released from the asylum and moved in with the first of a long line of supporters.
      During the next few years, her entourage of Russian émigrés grew, and she became particularly close to Gleb Botkin, who as the son of the slain Romanov family physician had spent considerable time with the imperial family in his childhood. During this time, numerous Romanov relatives and acquaintances interviewed her, and many were impressed by both her resemblance to Anastasia and her knowledge of the small details of the Romanov's family life. Others, however, left skeptical when she failed to remember important For young Anastasia's life. Her knowledge of English, French, and Russian, which the young Anastasia knew how to speak well, were also significantly lacking. Many blamed these inconsistencies on her reoccurring mental illness, which led to short stays in mental institutions on several occasions.
      Meanwhile, her supporters began a long battle to win her legal recognition as Anastasia. Such recognition would not only win her access to whatever Romanov riches remained outside the USSR but would make her a formidable political pawn of czarist exiles who still hoped to overthrow Russia's communist leaders.
      The Grand Duke of Hesse, Alexandra's brother and Anastasia's uncle, was a major critic of this effort, and he hired a private investigator to determine Anastasia Tschaikovsky's true identity. The investigator announced that she was in fact Franziska Schanzkowska, a Polish-German factory worker from Pomerania who had disappeared in 1920. Schanzkowska had a history of mental instability and was injured in a factory explosion in 1916, which accounted for the scars. These findings were published in German newspapers but were not proved definitively.
      The woman who became known as Anna Anderson continued her fight for recognition, losing several court cases as the decades passed. A French play about her story, Anastasia, debuted in 1954, and in 1956 an American film version appeared, with Ingrid Bergman winning an Academy Award for her title role.
      In 1968, Anne Anderson married an American history professor, J.E. Manahan, and moved to the United States, living her final years in Charlottesville, Virginia. In 1970, she lost her last major suit, and a remaining portion of the Romanov fortune was awarded to the duchess of Mecklenberg. Anna Anderson Manahan died in 1984.
      In 1991, Russian amateur investigators, using a recently released government report on the Romanov execution, found what they thought to be the Romanov burial site. Russian authorities took over and exhumed human remains. Scientists studied the skulls, claiming that Anastasia's was among those found, but the Russian findings were not conclusive. To prove that the remains were indisputably those of the Romanovs, the Russians enlisted the aid of British DNA experts.
      First, the scientists tested for sex and identified five females and four males among the remains. Next they tested to see how, if at all, these people were related. A father and mother were identified, along with three daughters. The four other remains were likely those of servants. The son Alexei and one daughter were missing. To prove the identity of Alexandra and her children, the scientists took blood from Prince Philip, the consort of Queen Elizabeth II and the grand nephew of Alexandra. Because they all share a common maternal ancestor, they would all share mitochondria DNA, which is passed almost unchanged from mother to children. The comparison between the mtDNA in Philip's blood and in the remains was positive, proving them to be the Romanovs. To prove the czar's identity, who would not share this mtDNA, the remains of Grand Duke George, the brother of Nicholas, was exhumed. A comparison of their mtDNA proved their relation.
      A Romanov daughter was missing from the burial site. Could Anastasia have escaped and resurfaced as Anna Anderson? In 1994, American and English scientists sought to answer this question once and for all. Using a tissue sample of Anderson's recovered from a Virginia hospital, the English team compared her mtDNA with that of the Romanovs. Simultaneously, an American team compared the mtDNA found in a strand of her hair. Both teams came to the same decisive conclusion: Anna Anderson was not a Romanov.
      Later, the scientists compared Anna Anderson's mtDNA with that of Karl Maucher, a great nephew of Franziska Schanzkowska. The DNA was a match, finally proving the theory put forth by a German investigator in the 1920s. One of the great mysteries of the 20th century was solved.
     Franziska Schanzkowska “Anna Anderson” died in Charlottesville, Virginia on 04 February 1984. The real Anastasia Nikolayevna was born on 18 June (05 June Julian) 1901.

1922 US, UK, France, Italy and Japan sign Washington naval arms limitation
1922 Cardinal Achille Ratti elected Pope Pius XI — El arzobispo de Milán, Achile Ratti, sucede al Papa Benedicto XV y toma el nombre de Pío XI.
1935 “Molotov” (Viacheslav Mijailovich Scriabin), es confirmado jefe del Gobierno soviético por el Congreso de Comisarios.
1937 Se inicia la Batalla del Jarama, lucha entre los republicanos y los sublevados del general Franco.
1939 Los principales dirigentes republicanos españoles, entre ellos Manuel Azaña Diaz y Juan Negrín López, se refugian en Francia.
1940 II Guerra Mundial: El consejo de guerra franco-británico acuerda el desembarco de Narvik, el apoyo a Finlandia y la ocupación de la mina de hierro de Gallivare (Suecia).
1941 El general Erwin Rommel, nombrado jefe del Afrika Korps, tropas acorazadas alemanas destinadas a operar en el norte de Africa.
1920 Saarland administered by League of Nations

^ 1919 Seattle workers end strike, under pressure.
Nineteen-nineteen looked to be a good year for the American labor movement: World War I had swelled the ranks of the nation’s unions, while the Marxist revolution in Russia raised hopes of deliverance for the world's workers. On February 6, 1919, a heady display of labor's growing power concluded when a general strike was called off in Seattle, Washington. In the days before the war, a strong alliance of craft unions enabled Seattle's 35'000 dockworkers to gain some of the highest wages in the nation. With the outbreak of war, the government placed constraints on the shipyard worker's wages, in hopes of rolling their earnings back in line with the rest of the country. In January, the dockworkers retaliated by walking off the job, and on 1 February 25'000 of Seattle's other workers joined the dockworkers on the picket line.
The five-day strike effectively shut down Seattle: factories, shops and the waterfront all sat dormant, waiting for a resolution to the dispute. A General Strike Committee swiftly stepped in and established temporary systems for feeding and protecting Seattle’s citizens. Although the strike was peaceful, and the Committee judged that people were rapidly "learning to manage" the city's daily operations, local government and business chiefs threatened action against the country's unions. Feeling the fire of a potential legal or political nightmare, national labor leaders stepped in and urged Seattle’s workers to end their strike. Seattle’s strikers had not yet gained ground on their wage demands, but they go back to work.

1918 Britain grants women (30 and over) the vote
1911 Great fire destroys downtown Constantinople/Istanbul Turkey
1904 Russian-Japanese war begins. — Inesperadamente, Japón rompe sus relaciones diplomáticas con Rusia.
1900 Battle at Vaalkrans, South-Africa (Boers vs British army)
1899 Spanish-American War ends, peace treaty ratified by US Senate

^ 1881 Plea bargaining gains favor in US courts
      Albert McKenzie pleads guilty to a misdemeanor count of embezzlement in Alameda County, California. McKenzie had originally been charged with a felony for taking $52.50 from the sewing-machine company for which he worked. However, rather than go through a trial, the prosecution and defendant agreed to a plea bargain, a practice that was becoming increasingly common in American courts.
       The right to a trial by jury was considered a central part of the justice system in the early days of the United States. The Seventh Amendment of the Bill of Rights codified it as an essential part of Americans' civil liberties. When criminals were caught and charged, the government went through a trial and verdict. But in the 1800s, a trend toward plea bargaining began. In Alameda County, from 1880 to 1910, nearly 10% of all defendants changed their "not guilty" pleas to "guilty of lesser charges."
      By the end of the 20th century is an essential part of the criminal justice system, overwhelmed by the “war against drugs” and incapable of holding trials for all accused. The great majority of charges, over 90% in many jurisdictions, are resolved through some type of plea bargain.

1865 2nd day of battle at Dabney's Mills (Hatcher's Run)
1865 General Robert E. Lee is appointed Confederate General in Chief.
1865 John C. Breckinridge named Confederate Secretary of War.
1865 Battle of Hatcher's Run (Armstrong's Mill), Virginia continues.
1864 Robert E. Lee assumes command of the Confederate Armies.
1864 Skirmish at Barnett's Ford Virginia.
1862 Ulysses S Grant initiates a military campaign in the Mississippi Valley.
1862 Victory for General Ulysses S Grant in Tennessee, capturing Fort Henry, and ten days later Fort Donelson; Grant earns the nickname "Unconditional Surrender" Grant
1862 General Ulysses S Grant captures Fort Henry in Tennessee.
1862 Naval Engagement at Tennessee River — USS Conestago vs CSS Appleton Belle.
1861 first meeting of Provisional Congress of Confederate States of America.
1854 Composer Robert Schumann is saved from suicide attempt into the Rhine.

Waitangi Day; treaty signed between Britain and Maoris of New Zealand
^ 1840 Les maoris reconnaissent la souveraineté britannique en Nouvelle-Zélande.
      Par le traité de Waitangi, la plupart des chefs maoris de Nouvelle-Zélande reconnaissent la souveraineté de la Grande-Bretagne sur leurs îles. Aussi vastes et verdoyantes que la Grande-Bretagne, ces deux îles sont appelées Aotearoa ("Terre du long nuage blanc") par leurs premiers habitants, les Maoris.
      L'Europe en a connaissance grâce au navigateur hollandais Abel Tasman, en 1642. Le Britannique James Cook les explore longuement en 1769. Le premier a laissé son nom à la mer qui borde les rives occidentales de l'archipel, le second au détroit qui sépare l'île du Sud de l'île du Nord, surnommée Île fumante en raison de ses volcans.
      Les premiers Européens qui s'y établissent sont des baleiniers et des déportés échappés des bagnes australiens. Les colons ordinaires sont quant à eux rebutés par la rudesse des Maoris. Au temps du roi Louis-Philippe, les Français envisagent de prendre possession de l'archipel. Mais les Britanniques les prennent de vitesse (les Français se rabattront sur la Nouvelle-Calédonie).
      Par le traité de Waitangi, tous les habitants, y compris les indigènes maoris, obtiennent la citoyenneté britannique. Le pouvoir est exercé par un gouverneur nommé par la reine. Les colonisateurs s'engagent à respecter les droits des Maoris sur leurs terres ancestrales mais ces promesses seront bafouées et il en résultera de violentes guerres maories.
      Comme les autres colonies britanniques à population majoritairement blanche, la Nouvelle-Zélande va très vite évoluer vers un statut de dominion indépendant. Elle sera le premier Etat du monde à accorder le droit de vote aux femmes en 1893 et à instaurer un régime obligatoire d'assurance-vieillesse en 1898.

1836 HMS Beagle and Charles Darwin reach Diemen's Land (Tasmania).
1832 First appearance of cholera at Edinburgh, Scotland
1832 US ship destroys Sumatran village in retaliation for piracy
1820 86 free black colonists sail from New York NY to Sierra Leone, Africa.

1820 Freed US slaves leave to settle in Africa
The first organized immigration of freed slaves to Africa from the United States departs New York harbor on a journey to Freetown, Sierra Leona in West Africa. The immigration is largely the work of the American Colonization Society, a US organization founded in 1816 by Robert Finley to return freed American slaves to Africa. However, the expedition was also partially funded by the US Congress, which in 1819 had appropriated $100,000 to be used in returning displaced Africans, illegally brought to the United States after the abolishment of the slave trade in 1808, to Africa. The program is largely modeled after British’s efforts to resettle freed slaves in Africa following England’s abolishment of the slave trade in 1772. In 1787, the British government settled three hundred former slaves and seventy white prostitutes on the Sierra Leone peninsula in West Africa, but within two years, most members of this settlement had died from disease or warfare with the local Temne people. However, in 1792, a second attempt was made when 1,100 freed slaves, mostly individuals who had supported Britain during the American Revolution and were unhappy with their postwar resettlement in Canada, established Freetown under the leadership of British abolitionist Thomas Clarkson. Over the next few decades, thousands of freed slaves came from Canada, the West Indies, and other parts of West Africa to the Sierra Leone Colony, and in 1820, the first freed slaves arrived at Sierra Leone from the United States. In the next year, the American Colonization Society founded the colony of Liberia south of Sierra Leone as a homeland for freed US slaves outside of British jurisdiction. Most Americans of African descent were not enthusiastic to abandon their native lands in the US for the West African coast and the American Colonization Society also came under attack from American abolitionists, who charged that the removal of freed slaves from the US strengthened the institution of slavery. However, between 1822 and the American Civil War, some 15'000 African-Americans settled in Liberia, which had been granted independence by the United States in 1847 under pressure from Great Britain.

1820 US population announced at 9'638'453 (1'771'656 Blacks (18.4%))
1819 Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles founds freeport harbor Singapore
1815 NJ issues first US railroad charter (John Stevens)
1788 Massachusetts becomes 6th state to ratify US constitution.
1778 England declares war on France.

^ 1778 US and France sign treaties of alliance.
During the American War for Independence, representatives from the United States and France sign the Treaty of Amity and Commerce and the Treaty of Alliance in Paris. Treaty of Amity and Commerce recognizes the US as an independent nation and encourages trade between France and the America. The Treaty of Alliance provides for a military alliance against Great Britain, stipulating that the absolute independence of the US be recognized as a condition for peace and that France will be permitted to conquer the British West Indies. With the treaties, the first entered into by the US government, the Bourbon monarchy of France formalizes its commitment to assist the American colonies in their struggle against France’s old rival, Great Britain. France had been secretly providing aid to the United States since the outbreak of the American Revolution in 1775, and in 1776 the Continental Congress appointed Benjamin Franklin, Silas Deane, and Arthur Lee to a joint diplomatic commission to secure a formal alliance with France. However, it was not until 17 October 1777, and the American victory over the British at the Battle of Saratoga, that the French were convinced that the Americans were committed to achieving a victory and thus worthy partners to a formal alliance. The eagerness of the French to help the United States was motivated both by an appreciation of the American revolutionaries’s liberal democratic ideals and by a bitterness at having lost most of their American empire to the British at the conclusion of the French and Indian War in 1763. On 06 February 1778, the Treaty of Amity and Commerce and the Treaty of Alliance were signed, and on 04 May 1778, the Continental Congress ratified these treaties. Soon after, the French formally declared war against Britain, and French armies and naval fleets proved critical in the defeat of the British, which culminated at the Battle of Yorktown in October of 1781.

1716 England and Netherlands renew alliance.
1651 Cardinal Mazarin flees Paris.
1626 Huguenot rebels and the French sign Peace of La Rochelle.
1577 King Henri de Bourbon of Navarra becomes leader of Huguenots.
1508 Maximilian I crowned Holy Roman Emperor.
0337 St Julius I is elected Pope.

TO THE TOP

Deaths which occurred on a February 06:
2003 Abdel Karim Lubed and Omar Hassan, Palestinians in their 20s, male nurses in a southern Gaza City geriatric home, which they are about to leave in a car just after midnight, when Israeli helicopters fire missiles which they would say were “warning shots” to prevent the car from approaching troops pulling out of the city which they had entered in an unsuccessful attempt to arrest a wanted militant. Two other Palestinians are seriously wounded in the chest.

2003 Juan Luis Londoño De la Cuesta [< click photo to zoom in] de 46 años; Helen Gloss, de 27 años, asesora privada; Alirio Arcila Solano, de 56 años, asesor; José Joaquín Vera, de 44 años, agente de seguridad; y German Vanegas, el piloto de la pequeña aeronave bimotor Piper Star en la que viajaban a Popayán luego de salir de Guaimaral con escala en Flandes, a las 15:37, una fría zona montañosa a unos 160 kilómetros al oeste de la Bogotá. Londoño era uno de los Ministros clave del Presidente [para 4 años desde 07 Aug 2002] Alvaro Uribe Vélez [04 Jul 1952-], ya que era el encargado de llevar a cabo las reformas laboral y pensional. Sus principales objetivos eran reducir los niveles de pobreza y desempleo y ampliar la cobertura de los servicios de salud. Esta semana se convirtió en el Ministro de Protección Social, luego de que se fusionarán los ministerios de Trabajo y Salud, que dirigía desde agosto del 2002. Se graduó de economista de la Universidad de los Andes y realizó un posgrado en la Universidad de Harvard. — MORE
2003 Francisco José Quintero Sotomayor, Luis Ribón Beleño, Luis Carlos Támara Calvo, Rubén Quiceno Hidalgo, Bladimir Sarmiento Hernández, Miguel Ríos Castro y Oscar Luis Torres Palmera, soldados colombianos, después de accionar de manera accidental una granada en el área del polígono del Centro de Instrucción y Entrenamiento Militar en jurisdicción del corregimiento de La Loma, en cercanías al Municipio de El Paso, Colombia.
2003 Monsignor John A. Shocklee, 85, of neurological disorders, civil rights leader in St. Louis MO.
2002 An Israeli soldier, and Miri Ohana, 50, her baby, and her daughter Yael, 11, and a Palestinian gunman, in Hamra, a remote enclave settlement (“moshav”) of 40 families in the West Bank's Jordan Valley. At about 19:30 the gunman (possibly with others) armed with and an explosive belt (which he ended up not using), an M-16 assault rifle, a grenade, and eight ammunition clips, cut the settlement's fence and opened fire on a soldier and a civilian security guard. The soldier was killed on the spot and the civilian guard dove for cover. The assailant was walking deliberately while shooting. Reinforcements arrived from a nearby Israeli training base and two soldiers were wounded in an ensuing firefight. The gunman ran into a nearby house where Miri Ohana was hiding with her children. By the end of the fight at about 21:30, the assailant was dead on the house, and the hostages were dead or dying, it being unclear whether they were shot by the gunman or by “friendly” gunfire.
2002 Ten miners in coal mine explosion near Jastrzebie Zdroj, Poland, at about 05:00, 700 m below ground. There are 37 survivors, two of them injured.
2002 Possibly dozens of travelers trapped by an avalanche in the Salang Pass on the main road linking Kabul with the north of Afghanistan. Afghans have no equipment capable of rescuing any survivors. The continuing snow storm and temperature as low as –40º make it difficult for rescuers to get there. The Soviet-built Salang Tunnel is the world's highest tunnel at 4070 m altitude. It was reopened to traffic in January 2002, after having been blocked for years by the warring in Afghanistan. A team from the British de-mining charity Halo Trust would be the only rescue workers to reach the scene some 24 hours after the avalanche. With two bulldozers they dig through the wall of snow blocking the southern entrance to the tunnel. On 08 February they find three dead of asphyxiation from carbon monoxide fumes inside the tunnel and a fourth dead from hypothermia outside. They rescue about 350 shivering and starved survivors. A few others may have escaped by digging with their bare hands on 07 February, but many of these may have died from the cold and cannot be found because their tracks are covered by snow.
2001 Zoran Sokolovic, 68, suicide by pistol inside his car in his native village of Lepen, near Knjazevac, 190 km southeast of Belgrade. He had been interior minister of Yugoslavia under war criminal president Slobodan Milosevic.
2001 Annette Green, 37, shot by police during a drug raid on her home in Wellston MO. Police said that the mother of six was intoxicated on cocaine and they thought she was carrying a gun (she was not). She was on probation for selling drugs to an undercover police officer. No charges were made against the killer cops.
1999 Carmen Kurtz, escritora española.
1998 Claude Erignac, prefecto del Estado francés, asesinado por dos terroristas en Córcega, tras la ruptura de la tregua armada anunciada por el Frente de Liberación Nacional Corso.
1998 Nazim al-Kudsi , Syrian PM (1949, 1950-51)/President (1961-63)

^ 1996 Zachary Xerxes Ramsay, 10, disappears, believed eaten by a cannibal
     He was born on 18 February 1985. Height: 4' 0" Weight: 100 lbs. Build: Average. Eyes: Brown. Hair: Brown Race: Black and Caucasian. Missing from: Great Falls, MT [< photo]
      “Zach” was last seen leaving home for school at 07:34. He did not arrive at school. He had a scar between his eyebrows and another on his arm; his skin was blotchy and he had dimples.
     In Greatfalls, Montana, on 20 December 2000, prosecutors would charge a man with killing Zachary and said evidence suggests he butchered the child and fed the remains to his neighbors. David P. Brown “Nathaniel Bar-Jonah”, 43, was charged on Tuesday 19 December 2000 in the death of Zachary Ramsay, who disappeared while walking to school. His body has not been found. Bar-Jonah is already in jail, awaiting trial on separate charges that he sexually assaulted children and dangled a 9-year-old from a kitchen ceiling with a rope.

     Bar-Jonah’s lawyer, Larry LaFountain, does not have a listed phone number and could not be reached for comment on Tuesday 19 December 2000. In letters to a newspaper earlier in December 2000, Bar-Jonah denied any role in the Ramsay case. He is scheduled to appear in court Wednesday 20 December 2000.
      According to an affidavit, encrypted writings believed to be the work of Bar-Jonah [photo >] include a list of “dishes” made from the body of a small child. Acquaintances of Bar-Jonah also said he gave them prepared dishes which tasted peculiar, the affidavit said. A doctor who performed a psychiatric evaluation of Bar-Jonah said that he had fantasies about “dissection and cannibalism” and that he “expresses a curiosity about the taste of human flesh,” the affidavit said.
     All charges related to Ramsay's case were dismissed against Bar-Jonah in October 2002 as the result of a lack of evidence and Zach's mother stating that she would testify that she believed her son was alive, on the word of a psychic and a video tape which she said showed Zach on a playground at age 12. However by then Ramsay was serving a 130-year prison sentence without parole (imposed on 09 April 2002), having been convicted on 25 February 2002 of abusing children in 1998 and 1999.
     Living at the time in Massachusetts, in 1975 Bar-Jonah pleaded guilty to nearly choking an 8-year-old boy to death. He received probation. Two years later, he pleaded guilty to kidnapping and trying to kill two Shrewsbury, Mass., boys he abducted at a movie theater parking lot. He spent less than two years in prison before being transferred to a state mental hospital, where he stayed for 11 years. A judge ordered his release in 1991, shortly after which he was arrested in Oxford, Mass., where he assaulted a boy sitting in a car outside a post office. Under a plea agreement, Bar-Jonah received a suspended jail sentence, on condition he move to Montana with his mother.

1996: 189 persons, mostly German tourists, in crash of a Turkish-owned Boeing 757 jetliner into the Atlantic Ocean shortly after takeoff from the Dominican Republic.
1992 Six policiers algériens, assassinés dans une embuscade tendue par un groupe armé dans la Casbah d'Alger. C'est le début des violences à grande échelle en Algérie.
1992 Tres capitanes, un soldado, y un funcionario civil, asesinados por ETA (Euskadi Ta Askatasuna) en el centro de Madrid, al activar un coche-bomba al paso de la furgoneta de transporte militar.
1991 María Zambrano Rodríguez, escritora y filósofa española.

^ 1985 Walter L. Jacobs, founder of the first car rental company. dies
Although he was “not exactly” the founder of the Hertz Corporation, Jacobs’s car rental business became the Hertz Corporation after it was purchased by John Hertz in 1923. At the age of twenty-two, Jacobs opened a car-rental business with a dozen Model T Fords that he personally repaired and maintained. Within five years, his business generated an annual revenue of around one million dollars. After he sold his business to Mr. Hertz, the president of the Yellow Cab and Yellow Truck and Coach Manufacturing Company, Jacobs remained Hertz’s top executive. In addition to its innovations within the car rental industry, Hertz also maintains the unusual distinction of having been a subsidiary of both the General Motors Corporation and Ford Motor Company. 1954 The Wings of the Gull On this day, Mercedes introduced their 300SL coupe to the public. A stylish sports car characterized by its gull-wing doors, the coupe was a consumer version of the 300SL race car. With a six-cylinder engine and a top speed of 155 mph, the two-door coupe created a sensation among wealthy car buyers who were actually seen waiting in line to buy it. Because of the impracticality of the gull-wing doors, the company only manufactured 1400 300SL coupes. Nevertheless, the 300SL is widely considered the most impressive sports car of the decade. Unfortunately, the 300SL racecar also played an infamous role in car racing history. Careening out of control in the 1955 race at Le Mans, the SL crashed into the gallery. Eighty spectators died and Mercedes-Benz pulled its cars out of racing competition for nearly three decades. 1911 A Symbol of Excess Rolls Royce adopted the “Spirit of Ecstasy” mascot, the silver-winged hood ornament that has become the company’s symbol.

1986 El vicealmirante Cristobal Colón de Carvajal, asesinado por ETA (Euskadi Ta Askatazuna) en Madrid.
1984 Jorge Guillén, poeta español de la generación del 27.
1982 Ben Nicholson, pintor británico.
1981 José María Ryan aparece, asesinado por ETA. Era ingeniero jefe de la central nuclear de Lemóniz (Iberduero), secuestrado por ETA Militar el 29 de enero anterior.
1964 Sophocles Venizelos, 69, premier of Greece (1944, 50-51)
1963 Mohammed ibn al-Chattabi Abd el-Krim Morocco opposition leader.
1963 Piero Manzoni, Italian artist born on 13 July 1933. — LINKS

^ 1952 George VI, 56, King of Britain (1936-52) — Elizabeth II becomes Queen.
      Prince Albert Frederick Arthur George was born on 14 December 1895, the 2nd son of the future king George V. Following the abdication of his brother Edward VIII, he was proclaimed king of Great Britain and Northern Ireland on 12 December 1936, took the name George VI and was crowned on 12 May 1937. On 27 April 1949 he became head of the British Commonwealth. He dies a few months after undergoing an operation for lung cancer.
     His eldest child, Elizabeth, 25, is proclaimed Queen Elizabeth II. At age eighteen, Princess Elizabeth, the designated heir to King George VI, was made an official confidante to the king, and during World War II, she served as a second lieutenant in Women’s Services and was important in the British effort to maintain morale in the face of devastating air attacks from Germany. On 20 November 1947, she married her distant cousin, Philip Mountbatten, a young prince from the exiled Greek royal family who was made the duke of Edinburgh on the eve of wedding. The celebrations surrounding the wedding of the popular princess lifted the spirits of the people of Britain, who were suffering from serious economic difficulties in the aftermath of the war.
     When her father dies, Elizabeth and Philip are in Africa in the midst of a goodwill tour. The coronation of Queen Elizabeth II would be held on 02 June 1953, and millions witnessed it on live television. A very popular queen, she traveled more extensively than any other reigning British monarch in history. Elizabeth and Philip eventually had four children—Prince Charles, Princess Anne, Prince Andrew, and Prince Edward.

1948 Robert Brasillach, 38, French author / Nazi collaborator.
1941 Maximilien Luce, French artist born on 13 March 1858.

^ 1940 Day 69 of Winter War: USSR aggression against Finland.
More deaths due to Stalin's desire to grab Finnish territory.
Mannerheim Line holds firm on the Isthmus
      Karelian Isthmus: the Mannerheim Line holds firm. Finnish troops repulse the attempted Soviet breakthrough in Summa village and Marjapellonmäki.
      The first enemy tanks are destroyed in the early morning twilight, with the accompanying infantry also suffering heavy losses.
      By 7.30 in the evening the Finnish front line is entirely under Finnish control. The retreating enemy suffers heavy losses from the Finnish artillery and machine-gun fire.
      Northern Finland: in Kuhmo, the Finnish 9th Division surrounds the Russian 54th Division in a series of 'mottis'.
      Ladoga Karelia: Finnish troops capture an enemy base to the northeast of Lake Ladoga. The enemy loses over 500 men and a considerable amount of war materiel.
      Stockholm: Finnish Foreign Minister Väinö Tanner has another meeting with the Soviet Ambassador in Stockholm, Madame Alexandra Kollontai. Madame Kollontai passes on her government's view that Tanner's suggestion of the previous day does not provide a sufficient basis for opening peace talks. Tanner leaves for home.
      Norway: the northern Norwegian province of Ruija announces that there are currently 1,179 Finnish refugees in the province: 381 men, 359 women and 429 children.
      London: a question is asked in the House of Commons on the urgent dispatch of aircraft to Finland. Due to the sensitivity of the issue no detailed information can be provided.

^ Ilmavoimat pommittaa yöllä vihollisjoukkoja Talvisodan 69. päivä, 06.helmikuuta.1940
      Mannerheim-linja kestää Kannaksella: Suomalaiset torjuvat Neuvostoliiton läpimurtoyrityksen Summan kylässä ja Marjapellon-mäessä. Ensimmäiset vihollisen panssarit tuhotaan jo aamuhämärissä. Vaunujen mukana hyökänneelle jalkaväelle tuotetaan raskaita tappioita.
      Etulinja on kokonaan puolustajien hallussa klo 19.30:een mennessä.Pakeneva vihollinen kärsii suuria tappioita suomalaisten tykistö- ja konekivääritulessa.
      Kuhmossa 9. Divisioona saartaa venäläisen 54. Divisioonan useaan mottiin.
      Vihollisen tukikohta vallataan Laatokan koillispuolella. Vihollinen menettää yli 500 miestä ja joukkomme saa huomattavan sotasaaliin.
      Ulkoministeri Väinö Tanner tapaa Tukholmassa Neuvostoliiton lähettilään Aleksandra Kolontain ja kuulee Neuvostoliiton vastauksen eilen tekemäänsä yksityiseen ehdotukseen. Ehdotus ei tarjoa riittävää pohjaa rauhan-neuvotteluille. Tanner lähtee kotimatkalle.
      Ruijan maakunnankonttori ilmoittaa, että Ruijassa on tällä hetkellä 1179 suomalaista pakolaista, joista miehiä 381, naisia 359 ja lapsia 429.
      Englannin alahuoneessa esitetään kysely lentokoneiden kiireellisestä lähettämisestä Suomeen. Asian arkaluontoisuuden takia asiasta ei anneta tarkempia tietoja.

^ Mannerheim-linjen håller på Näset Vinterkrigets 69 dag, den 06 februari 1940
     Mannerheimlinjen håller på Näset: Finnarna avvärjer Sovjetunionens försök till genombrott vid Summa by och vid Marjapellonmäki.
      De första ryska pansrarna förintas redan i gryningen. Infanteriet som följt vagnarna tillfogas svåra förluster.
      Den främre linjen är helt i försvararnas besittning kl. 19.30. Den flyende fienden lider stora förluster av finnarnas artilleri- och maskingevärseld.
      I Kuhmo omringar den 9. Divisionen den ryska 54. Divisionen till flera mottin.
      Finland erövrar fiendens bas nordost om Ladoga. Fienden förlorar över 500 man och våra trupper får ett betydande krigsbyte.
      Utrikesminister Väinö Tanner träffar Sovjetunionens ambassadör Alexandra Kollontaj i Stockholm och får svar på det privata förslag som han gav igår. Förslaget utgör ingen tillräcklig grund för fredsförhandlingar. Tanner återvänder hem.
      Landskapskontoret i Finnmarken meddelar att det för tillfället finns 1179 finska flyktingar i Finnmarken, varav 381 är män, 359 är kvinnor och 429 är barn.
      I det engelska underhuset framförs ett förslag om att brådskande sända flygplan till Finland. På grund av frågans känsliga natur ges inga vidare uppgifter.

^ 1934 Seize manifestants et un policier, place de la Concorde.
Edouard Daladier présente à l'Assemblée nationale le nouveau gouvernement. Dans le même temps, une manifestation est organisée à Paris, place de la Concorde, à l'appel des ligues, de l'association d'anciens combattants Les Croix de Feu ainsi que de mouvements communistes, sur le thème: «A bas les voleurs!» La manifestation dégénère. La police tire. Seize manifestants et un policier sont tués. On compte un millier de blessés. Trois jours plus tard, une contre-manifestation dégénère à son tour et fait 9 morts. Edouard Daladier doit céder la place à Gaston Doumergue à la tête du gouvernement. Non sans mauvaise foi, la gauche parlementaire dénonce dans la manifestation du 06 Feb une tentative de coup d'Etat fasciste. Elle appelle au rassemblement des forces progressistes. Par ricochet, l'affaire Stavisky va ainsi contribuer à la victoire du Front Populaire de Léon Blum aux élections législatives de 1936.
Le 09 janvier 1934, les Français avaient appris la mort par balle du financier Alexandre Stavisky. L'homme était recherché par la police suite à un détournement de fonds au Crédit municipal de Bayonne. Son cadavre fut retrouvé dans un chalet de Chamonix. Il s'agissait apparemment d'un suicide mais l'opinion publique soupçonna aussitôt des hommes politiques d'avoir fait assassiner l'escroc pour l'empêcher de dénoncer ses complices. Le scandale Stavisky est peu de chose comparé à celui de Panama ou à ceux des vingt dernières années du siècle (écoutes téléphoniques, Crédit Lyonnais, Elf,...). Il ne met en cause ni un président de la République, ni même un quelconque ministre mais seulement une demi-douzaine de politiciens de second rang qui se sont compromis avec Stavisky dans le trafic d'influence. Son retentissement n'en est pas moins immense. C'est qu'après les années d'espoir qui ont suivi l'hécatombe de 1914-1918, la France est affectée par une crise à la fois économique et politique. La mort de Stavisky met brutalement à jour toutes les rancoeurs. Les xénophobes s'en prennent à une politique de naturalisation trop laxiste (Stavisky est un juif d'origine russe). L'Action Française royaliste, les ligues populistes de droite et les communistes dénoncent à l'envi la décadence de la IIIe République. L'indignation populaire entraîne la chute du gouvernement radical-socialiste. Edouard Daladier remplace Camille Chautemps à la présidence du Conseil. Il destitue aussitôt le préfet de police Chiappe, suspect de sympathie avec les ligues de droite.

On fait le ménage ! L’affaire Stavisky trouve son épilogue, la mort de Stavisky arrange bien des profiteurs. D’une famille israélite originaire de Russie, Serge Alexandre Stavisky arrive en France avec son père en 1898. Il est naturalisé français en 1910. Il ne tarde pas à se signaler à la justice française par une série d’escroqueries et de chèques sans provision. Mais, inexplicablement, les plaintes déposées contre lui n’aboutissent jamais et les jugements sont interminablement renvoyés à une date ultérieure. Au moment où éclatera "l’affaire", quatre-vingts dossiers environ, constitués contre Stavisky, dorment dans les bureaux de la Sûreté et des ministères intéressés.
      En 1931, un certain Serge Alexandre fonde, avec l’appui du député-maire de Bayonne, un crédit municipal dans cette ville et, très vite, cet organisme émet une masse considérable de bons à intérêt, placés auprès des compagnies d’assurance, des banques, des petits épargnants. Le deus ex machina de l’affaire, Serge Alexandre alias Alexandre Stavisky, est depuis plusieurs années une vedette du Tout-Paris. Il a épousé un mannequin parisien, Arlette, dont il a eu un fils et tous trois vivent dans un palace avec la gouvernante de l’enfant. Vacances à Deauville et à Chamonix alternant avec les réceptions dans les salons parisiens: le couple mène grand train et possède de nombreuses relations dans la presse, la politique et les milieux d’affaires.
      Dans les tout premiers jours de 1934, 500 millions se sont envolés des caisses du Crédit municipal et l’affaire éclate. Depuis un mois environ, on sait que Serge Alexandre et l’escroc Stavisky ne sont qu’une seule et même personne et un mandat d’arrêt a été délivré contre lui. Mais il s’est enfui en direction de la frontière suisse. Le 02 janvier, la police le localise à Chamonix dans un chalet loué sous un nom d’emprunt. Le 08 janvier, elle cerne la maison lorsque des coups de feu éclatent. Stavisky gît au pied de son lit, frappé d’une balle dans la tête et perdant abondamment son sang. Il faudra deux heures pour le faire transporter à l’hôpital le plus proche. Il est trop tard et il meurt dans la soirée.
      Dès le 04 janvier, L’Action française est entrée en campagne contre le gouvernement. Le beau-frère du 1er ministre n’est-il pas l’avocat de Stavisky? C’est aussi l’occasion pour le journal de Maurras (droite nationaliste) de s’en prendre encore une fois aux "métèques" auxquels la France, selon lui, ouvre trop généreusement ses frontières. Au lendemain du 08 janvier, les journaux de droite et de gauche trouvent une certaine unanimité pour accuser la police d’avoir "suicidé" Stavisky. Il fallait l’empêcher de parler et, en fait, la certitude de son silence rassura sans doute beaucoup de ses amis.
      Dès le 09 janvier, à l’appel de L’Action française, des manifestants défilent aux cris de "À bas les voleurs" et "Les députés à la lanterne". C’est le début d’une grande offensive, menée par la droite, contre le régime parlementaire "pourri"; communistes et socialistes, contents de la mise en accusation des radicaux, ne réagissent que mollement et rappellent, eux aussi, les scandales précédents. Le ministère tombe. Aux manifestations des Camelots du roi, des Ligues patriotiques et des anciens combattants, répondent, le 22 janvier et les jours suivants, celles des syndicats et des partis de gauche. Le limogeage du préfet de police de Paris, Jean Chiappe, est l’un des premiers actes du nouveau gouvernement Daladier. Il exaspère la droite pour laquelle Chiappe ne cache pas sa sympathie. Le 06 Feb, les manifestations tournent à l’émeute, à un affrontement sanglant entre extrémistes des deux bords et avec la police dont la répression, cette fois, est féroce. Cette journée est généralement considérée comme le prélude au Front populaire.

1923 José Navarro Llorens, Spanish artist born in 1867.
1918 Gustav Klimt, Austrian Art Nouveau painter born on 14 July 1862. — MORE ON KLIMT AT ART “4” FEBRUARY — LINKS — A Field of Poppies — Two Girls with Oleander — Sketch for the Allegory 'Junius' detail — The Three Ages of Women — Die Tänzerin — Hope I — Hope II.
— Tree of Life — Die Jungfrau — Schubert at the Piano — Garden Path with Chickens — Hygieia, detail from Medicine — Judith I — Danae
1916 Rubén Darío, poeta nicaragüense.
1898 Leopold baron of Löfler-Radymno, Austrian Polish artist born on 30 October 1827.
1859 Benno Friedrich Tormer, German artist born on 04 July 1804.
1804 Joseph Priestley, 70, England/US theologian / philosopher / chemist.
1800 Robert Léopold Leprince, French artist born on 14 November 1800.
1839 François-Thomas-Louis Francia, French painter born on 21 December 1772. — LINKS
1816 Gerrit Malleyn (or Mallein), Dutch artist born in 1753.
1793 Carlo Goldoni, escritor italiano.
1708 Elias van den Broeck (or Broek), Dutch artist born in 1650.
1695 Ahmed II, born on 01 August 1642, he became a weak sultan of the Ottoman empire in 1691, suffered defeats from the Holy League of Austria, Poland, and Venice; and unrest in the Arab provinces of Syria, Hejaz, and Iraq.
1549 (or 09 Aug 1546) Martin Schaffner, German artist born in 1478 or 1479.
1482 Primer auto de fe de la Inquisición española, en Sevilla.
1140 Thurstan archbishop of York
0891 Photius Byzantine theologian / patriarch of Constantinople / saint
0743 Hisham ibn 'Abd al-Malik, 52, 10th Moslem caliph
0679 Amandus, the founder of Belgian monasticism. During his 95 years, he established eight abbeys, five in the Southern Netherlands.

Births which occurred on a February 06:
1948 first radio-controlled airplane flown

^ 1937 Of Mice and Men is published
      John Steinbeck's novella Of Mice and Men, the story of the bond between two migrant workers, is published. He adapted the book into a three-act play, which was produced the same year. The story brought national attention to Steinbeck's work, which had started to catch on in 1935 with the publication of his first successful novel, Tortilla Flat.
      Steinbeck was born and raised in the Salinas Valley, where his father was a county official and his mother a former schoolteacher. A good student and president of his senior class in high school, Steinbeck attended Stanford intermittently in the early 1920s. In 1925, he moved to New York City, where he worked as a manual laborer and a journalist while writing stories and novels. His first two novels were not successful.
      In 1930, he married Carol Henning, the first of his three wives, and moved to Pacific Grove, California. Steinbeck's father gave the couple a house and a small income while Steinbeck continued to write. His third novel, Tortilla Flat (1935), was a critical and financial success, as were such subsequent books as In Dubious Battle (1935) and Of Mice and Men (1937), both of which offered social commentaries on injustices of various types. In 1939, Steinbeck won the Pulitzer Prize for The Grapes of Wrath, a novel tracing a fictional Oklahoma family as they lose their family farm in the Depression and move to California seeking a better life.
      His work after World War II, including Cannery Row and The Pearl, continued to offer social criticism but became more sentimental. Steinbeck tried his hand at movie scripts in the 1940s, writing successful films like Forgotten Village (1941) and Viva Zapata (1952). He also took up the serious study of marine biology and published a nonfiction book, The Sea of Cortez, in 1941. His 1962 nonfiction book, Travels with Charlie, describes his travels across the United States in a camper truck with his poodle, Charlie. Steinbeck won the Nobel Prize in 1962 and died in New York in 1968.

1935 "Monopoly" board game goes on sale for the first time.
1920 El sombrero de tres picos, de Manuel de Falla y Mateu, con decorados de Pablo Picasso. se estrena en París.
1916 John Crank, mathematician.
1911 Ronald Reagan, Illinois, movie actor (Bedtime for Bonzo) / actors' union organizer / radio commentator / governor of California / 40th and oldest US President (R) (1981-89) / Alzheimer patient.
1908 Amintore Fanfani, premier of Italy
1908 Herbert Rutledge Southworth, historiador estadounidense.
1905 Wladislaw Gomulka, Communist premier of Poland.
1895 Franz Radziwill, German artist who died in 1983.
1893 Sir Muhammad Zafrulla Khan, President of UN General Assembly (1962-63)
1890 Anton Hermann Fokker, aviation pioneer.
1885 Mariano Bertuchi, pintor granadino.
1879 Émile Othon Achille Friesz, French Fauvist painter who died on 10 January 1949.— LINKS — Travaux d'Automne — Cathédrale et Toits à Rouen
1866 Vladislav Podkovinski, Polish artist who died on 05 January 1895.
1860 El Eco de Tetuán, dirigido y escrito por Pedro Antonio de Alarcón y Ariza, primer periódico que se publica en Marruecos, aparece su número uno.
1856 Geerard Jozef Portielje, Belgian artist who died in 1929.
1851 Bartolomeo Bezzi, Italian artist who died in 1923.
1848 Adam Guenther, mathematician.
1833 José María de Pereda, escritor español.
1802 Charles Wheatstone, English physicist/musician
1793 Jakob Joseph Eeckhout, Flemish artist who died on 25 December 1861. [Was he able to eke out a living from his artwork? You couldn't prove it by the Internet, where I don't find any example of it.]
1772 Franz Gerhard Kugelgen, German artist who died on 27 March 1820.
1756 Aaron Burr, Newark NJ, (D-R), 3rd US Vice-President (1801-05); killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel and was known as a traitor although never convicted.
1730 Januarius Johann Rasso Zick, German artist who died on 14 November 1797.
1695 Nicolaus(II) Bernoulli, mathematician.
1665 Anne Stuart, queen of England (1702-14)
1636 Heyman Dullaert, Duch artist who died on 06 May 1684. [Hey man! He may not have been Brightaert nor Sharpaert, but these names bring up no more samples of artwork on the Internet than does Dullaert, or Dumbaert for that matter]
1613 Kaspar van Eyck, Flemish artist who died in 1673.
1612 Antoine Arnauld, mathematician.

^ 1564 Christopher Marlowe, poet and playwright. Marlowe, born two months before Shakespeare, was baptized in Canterbury, England, on 26 February 1564. Marlowe, the son of a Canterbury shoemaker, was a bright student. He won scholarships to prestigious schools and earned his B.A. from Cambridge in 1584. Historians believe that Marlowe served as a spy for Queen Elizabeth while at Cambridge. He was nearly denied his master's degree in 1587, until the queen's advisers intervened, recommending he receive the degree and referring obliquely to his services for the state. While still in school, Marlowe wrote his play Tamburlaine the Great, about a 14th century shepherd who became an emperor. The blank verse drama caught on with the public, and Marlowe wrote five more plays before his death in 1593, including The Jew of Malta and Doctor Faustus. He also published a translation of Ovid's Elegies. On 15 May 1593, Marlowe's former roommate, playwright Thomas Kyd, was arrested and tortured on suspicion of treason. Told that heretical documents had been found in his room, Kyd wrote a letter saying the documents belonged to Christopher Marlowe. An arrest warrant was issued on 18 May, and Marlowe was arrested on 20 May. He bailed out but became involved in a fight over a tavern bill and was stabbed to death on 30 May 1593. Kyd was baptized on 6 November 1568. He was educated at the Merchant Taylor's School in London and raised to be a scrivener, a professional trained to draw up contracts and other business documents. Of his early work, The Spanish Tragedie (1562, it is sometimes called Hieronimo, after its protagonist)) brought him the most recognition. Some scholars believe it served as a model for Shakespeare's Hamlet. Kyd died penniless in December 1594. MARLOWE ONLINE:
Complete Works The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus Tamburlaine the Great—part I — part II Tamburlaine the Great—part 1 — part 2	The Jew of Malta The Jew of Malta The Jew of Malta The Jew of Malta The Massacre at Paris The Massacre at Paris	Dido, Queen of Carthage Edward II Hero and Leander Doctor Faustus translator of: Ovid's Elegies

1465 Ferro, mathematician

Holidays Massachusetts : Ratification Day (1788) / New Zealand : Waitangi Day—New Zealand Day (1840) / Switzerland : Homstrom—celebrates end of winter / World : Boy Scouts Day (1910)

Religious Observances Christian : St Vedastus (St Vaast, St Gaston) / old Roman Catholic : St Titus, bishop of Crete, confessor / Roman Catholic : St Dorothea, virgin/martyr / Anglican, Roman Catholic : St Amandus [Apostle of Belgium] and Vedastus / Roman Catholic : St Philip of Jesus, first Christian martyr in Japan / St Paul Miki and his companions, martyrs / Santos Pablo Miki y los mártires del Japón, Dorotea y Saturnino. / Saint: Gaston (du mot Vaast qui signifie hôte en dialecte germain) restaure les églises du nord de la France, détruites par les Barbares. Devenu évêque d'Arras, il meurt en 540. Son souvenir est entretenu par la vénérable abbaye Saint-Vaast, à Arras même.

DICTIONNAIRE TICRANIEN: maudit: parole prononcée.

Thought for the day: “Work is much more fun than fun.” — Sir Noel Coward, British actor, dramatist and songwriter (1899-1973).
“Only a coward would make fun of people's work.”

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