2001 Robert Philip Hanssen, 56, FBI agent for about 27 years, and ostensibly a practicing Catholic, is arreseted on charges of spying for Russia since October 1985
2000 Iranians voted in an election that gave reformers a majority in the parliament, long a bastion of hard-liners. Nevertheless a small group of mullahs keep its theocratic rule of the country through the army, the police, and the judiciary.
— Las elecciones parlamentarias convocadas en Irán dan la mayoría parlamentaria a los aperturistas partidarios del presidente Mohammad Jatamí.
1999 Dimiten tres ministros griegos tras la detención del líder kurdo Abdulá Öcalan, que había permanecido en territorio griego durante dieciséis días.
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1999 Clinton impeachment aftermath. (1) Matt Drudge Reports: JANE DOE TALKS! Completely frustrated that NBC NEWS has refused to air her interview, Juanita Broaddrick, aka Jane Doe #5, opens herself up to Friday's WALL STREET JOURNAL! "Juanita Broaddrick Meets the Press," is the title of the story written by Dorothy Rabinowitz. Broaddrick tells the WALL STREET JOURNAL that Bill Clinton raped her back in 1978! In a Little Rock hotel room, Bill Clinton, she says, forced her onto a bed where he "held her down forcibly and bit her lips." Rabinowitz writes: "The sexual entry itself was not without some pain, Mrs. Broaddrick recalls, because of her stiffness and resistance. When it was over, she says, he looked down at her and said not to worry, he was sterile — he had had mumps when he was a child. "'As though that was the thing on my mind — I wasn't thinking about pregnancy, or about anything,' she says. 'I felt paralyzed and was starting to cry.' As he got to the door, she remembers, he turned. 'This is the part that always stays in my mind — the way he put on his sunglasses. Then he looked at me and said, 'You better put some ice on that.' And then he left.'" The WALL STREET JOURNAL story runs for thousands of words. The DRUDGE REPORT was first to reveal that NBC was sitting on an explosive interview with Broaddrick in a series of exclusive reports last month. Mrs. Broaddrick now tells the WALL STREET JOURNAL that NBC told her its investigators were waiting for the White House to answer some 40 questions relating to this matter. "Asked for a response to Mrs. Broaddrick's charges, a White House spokesman told this writer yesterday that the story was so old that Mr. Clinton's personal lawyer, David Kendall, was the one to answer it. After repeated phone calls, Mr. Kendall's assistant said he was unavailable for comment." Rabinowitz continues: "In the meantime Mrs. Broaddrick gets intermittent calls from NBC investigators, still hanging out at the Capital Hotel in Little Rock, waiting. In the meantime, too, spokesmen for NBC News still announce their intention to make certain the story is solid — a heartening testimony to the elevated standards of journalism that have now apparently seized the network. Mrs. Broaddrick laughs, noting that NBC is still seeking answers and working on the program, which the network may one day air — an event for which she is not holding her breath." Impacting hard on Friday. RENO CONSIDERING HANDING OVER INQUIRY ON STARR, SAYS PAPER Attorney General Janet Reno is considering whether to appoint a special investigative prosecutor to conduct the Justice Department's inquiry into charges of possible misconduct by Kenneth Starr, the NEW YORK TIMES is set to report in Friday editions. According to publishing sources, TIMES all-star Don Van Natta Jr. is building a story around the possible appointment of a "US attorney, possibly one with solid Republican credentials, who would supervise a team of Justice Department prosecutors and FBI agents" in an investigation of the investigator! STARR CHARGES THAT JUSTICE CAN NOT BE TRUSTED In recent days, Ken Starr has suggested that the Justice Department could not be trusted to conduct an unbiased inquiry of his office, the TIMES reports. There has been an "exchange of rancorous correspondence" between department officials and lawyers in Starr's office. "In a letter to Ms. Reno late last week, Starr criticized what he regarded as unauthorized disclosures to the news media about the Justice Department's inquiry," Van Natta reveals. With its latest exclusive, the NEW YORK TIMES continues to lead the way with news coverage of the post-impeachment scandal scene. "Don has all but cornered the market on Starr's office," bragged one high-level newspaper staffer Thursday afternoon. "Sue Schmidt down at the [WASHINGTON] POST is busy trying to put together her book... other reporters have been left reacting to our reports, choking on our ink!" The DRUDGE REPORT previously reported that the NEW YORK TIMES has now become the newspaper of choice for Washington insiders who have scandal stories to tell. The WASHINGTON POST is perceived as being too anti-Clinton by several well-placed individuals in Washington — individuals who have direct information concerning ongoing investigations. Individuals who have NEW YORK TIMES reporter Don Van Natta's phone number on speed dial! OFFICE MAY HAVE TO TURN OVER SENSITIVE INFORMATION If Reno appoints a special investigative prosecutor to conduct an investigation of the investigator, the new prosecutor would almost certainly ask Starr's prosecutors to turn over highly sensitive information about how they investigated the president, reports the TIMES. Impacting Friday... (2) Judge Susan Webber Wright, the judge who presided over the Paula Jones case will stay on to consider contempt charges against President Bill Clinton, as lawyers for both sides say they won't seek her removal. (3) CNN reports that former White House intern and presidential paramour Monica Lewinsky has received permission from Kenneth Starr's Office of Independent Counsel (OIC) to grant an interview to ABC's Barbara Walters. (4) In his first post-acquittal news conference, President Bill Clinton says the 13-month Monica Lewinsky controversy taught him personal lessons and reinforced his respect for both the US Constitution and the American people. |
1998 Rival modem makers 3Com Corporation and Rockwell International announced a new standard for 56K modems, ending the standards war in high-speed modems that had confused consumers and temporarily cooled the modem market. Industry experts claimed the new standard would boost industry sales from 50 million in 1997 to 75 million by the year 2000.
1998 In Russia, money shortages resulted in the shutting down of three plants that produced nuclear weapons.
1994 Hearst Corporation says that it will introduce ten interactive products, including an online computer service and CD-ROMs. The service, called HomeNet, evolved over the next year into HomeArts, an umbrella Web site incorporating Hearst magazines Popular Mechanics, House Beautiful, Good Housekeeping, and others.
1991 Iraqi Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz held talks in Moscow with Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev, who presented a proposal for ending the Persian Gulf War.
1989 Se crea en Marrakech (Marruecos) la Unión del Magreb Árabe (UMA), acuerdo entre los jefes de Estado de Marruecos, Libia, Argelia, Túnez y Mauritania.
1989 Arnaldo Forlani sustituye a Luigi Ciriaco de Mita en la secretaría general de la Democracia Cristiana italiana.
1988 El Politburó soviético destituye a Boris Nikolaievich Yeltsin en la pugna sostenida por la implantación de la Perestroika.
1988 Anthony M. Kennedy is sworn in as the 104th justice of the US Supreme Court.
1984 Revised concordat between Italy and the Vatican signed.
1983 La dimisión de Landelino Lavilla Alsina como presidente de UCD (Unión de Centro Democrático) hace presagiar el fin de este partido español.
1982 El partido Fianna Fŕil se convierte en la primera fuerza política de la Asamblea de la República de Irlanda, al obtener 81 de los 166 escańos.
1982 Comienza en Espańa el juicio contra los implicados en el golpe de Estado del 23-F.
1981 US President Ronald Reagan's State of the Union address.
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1981 Publisher
buys phony Hitler Diaries. Writer Gerd Heidemann meets in secret with the directors of German publishing conglomerate Gruner + Jahr. He tells the executives that he has received Adolph Hitler's diaries from a confidential source. Gruner + Jahr agree to pay approximately $2 million for the volumes. Two years later, the diaries would be revealed as a fraud that fooled not only publishers around the world, but also some of the leading handwriting authentication experts. The first experts that Gruner + Jahr selected to authenticate the diaries operated under a severe disadvantage. The samples of handwriting that they were comparing to the diaries were themselves forgeries. Thus, it was no surprise when these experts declared that Heidemann's diaries were genuine. Gruner + Jahr filled bags full of cash for Heidemann to deliver to his source. Amazingly, the executives failed to notice that Heidemann himself began to acquire expensive cars and homes at the same time. Apparently, they were too busy selling the international rights to the Hitler diaries. Rupert Murdoch bought the rights for $3.75 million in April 1983. Murdoch hired Hugh Trevor-Roper, the world's foremost Hitler historian, to examine the diaries. Despite some misgivings, Trevor-Roper prepared an article for Murdoch's newspapers declaring the authenticity of the Hitler diaries. However, the West German police were conducting their own independent investigation at the same time. They were focusing on the paper and ink rather than the handwriting and their conclusions revealed the hoax. On 06 May 1983, just two weeks after Trevor-Roper's article, scientists revealed that the diaries were obvious forgeries. The paper included a whitening agent, blankophor, which had not been used until after World War II. Threads attached to the fake seals were made from polyester, also not used before Hitler's death. Finally, ink tests demonstrated that the writing was less than a few years old. Heidemann, who hadn't passed on all the money to his confidential source, now betrayed him again by identifying the forger as Konrad Kujau, a lifelong petty criminal. In 1985, Heidemann and Kujau both received four-year sentences for their role in defrauding the publishing company. |
1979 Snow falls in the Sahara Desert
1979 President Zia ur-Rahmans National Party wins elections in Bangladesh
1975 Italy broadens abortion law. — El Tribunal Constitucional italiano admite el aborto terapéutico.
1973 54-kg octopus measuring 7 meter across captured in Hood Canal, Washington
1972 The California Supreme Court strikes down the state's death penalty.
1970 US President Nixon launches "Nixon-doctrine"
1970 The "Chicago Seven" defendants are found not guilty of conspiring to incite riots at the 1968 Democratic national convention.
1970 Father William Wakefield Baum [21 Nov 1926–] is appointed Bishop of Springfield-Cape Girardeau. He would be appointed Archbishop of Washington DC on 05 March 1973 and made a cardinal on 24 May 1976.
1968 British adopt year-round daylight savings time.
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1965 US sounds
friendly nations on forthcoming Vietnam bombing. The State Department sends secret cables to US ambassadors in nine friendly nations advising of forthcoming bombing operations over North Vietnam, and instructs them to inform their host governments "in strictest confidence" and to report reactions. President Lyndon Johnson wanted these governments to be aware of what he was planning to do in the upcoming bombing campaign. Johnson made the controversial decision to undertake the sustained bombing of North Vietnam because of the deteriorating military conditions in South Vietnam. Earlier in the month, he had ordered Operation Flaming Dart in response to communist attacks on US installations in South Vietnam. It was hoped that these retaliatory raids would cause the North Vietnamese to cease support of Viet Cong forces in South Vietnam, but they did not have the desired effect. Out of frustration, Johnson turned to a more extensive use of airpower. Called Operation Rolling Thunder, the bombing campaign was designed to interdict North Vietnamese transportation routes in the southern part of North Vietnam and thereby slow infiltration of personnel and supplies into South Vietnam. The first Rolling Thunder mission took place on March 2, 1965, when 100 US Air Force and Republic of Vietnam Air Force (VNAF) planes struck an ammunition dump 100 miles southeast of Hanoi. The operation would continue, with occasional suspensions, until President Johnson, under increasing domestic political pressure, halted it on October 31, 1968. |
1965 Giulio Bevilacqua IOSFN (priest of the Oratory of Saint Philip Neri) [14 Nov 1881 – 06 May 1965], who was spiritual director of the future Pope Paul VI while he studied in Brescia, is consecrated a bishop (without a see). He would be made a cardinal on 22 February 1965.
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1964 US imposes
futile sanctions on nations trading with Cuba The United States cuts off military assistance to Britain, France, and Yugoslavia in retaliation for their continuing trade with the communist nation of Cuba. The action was chiefly symbolic, but represented the continued US effort to destabilize the Cuban regime of Fidel Castro. The amount of aid denied was miniscule — approximately $100'000 in assistance to each nation. None of the nations indicated that the aid cut-off would affect their trade with Cuba in the least. America's decision to terminate the trade, therefore, hardly had a decisive effect. Many commentators at the time concluded that the US action was largely a result of frustration at not being able to bring down the Castro government. Since Castro came to power in 1959, the United States had tried various methods to remove him and his communist government. First, the US severed diplomatic relations and enacted a trade embargo. In 1961, it unleashed a force of Cuban exiles (which it had armed, trained, and financed) against Castro in the unsuccessful Bay of Pigs invasion. In 1962, the United States set up a naval blockade around Cuba to prevent the shipment of Soviet missiles to the island. Rumors also flew fast and furious about other US efforts, including talks with the Mafia about assassinating the Cuban leader. Despite all of these efforts, Castro survived and prospered, simply replacing most US trade and aid with the same from the communist bloc. The American obsession with Castro provoked the New York Times to observe that the US policies toward Cuba "suggest an extraordinary sensitivity that does not in fact correspond to basic policy judgments." The decision to cut off military assistance to Britain, France, and Yugoslavia did little to help in this regard. The three nations continued their trade with Cuba and expressed their resentment at the US action. Castro stayed in power and rules communist Cuba to this day. |
1955 Baghdad Pact signed, making Turkey and Iraq a defense alliance.
1954 La actuación del Comité de Actividades Antinorteamericanas, presidido por el senador Joseph Raymond McCarthy, produce enfrentamientos con el Ejército.
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1948 Eamon
de Valera resighs as Irish prime minister. After 16 years as head of independent Ireland, Eamon de Valera steps down as the taoiseach, or Irish prime minister, after his Fianna Fáil Party fails to win a majority in the Dáil Éireann (the Irish assembly). As a result of the general election, the Fianna Fáil won 68 of the 147 seats in the Dáil, and de Valera resigned rather than lead a coalition government. In his place, John A. Costello, leader of the Fine Gael Party, joins with several smaller groups to achieve a majority and becomes Irish prime minister. Eamon de Valera, the most dominant Irish political figure of the 20th century, was born in New York City in 1882, the son of a Spanish father and Irish mother. When his father died two years later, he was sent to live with his mother's family in County Limerick, Ireland. He attended the Royal University in Dublin and became an important figure in the Irish-language revival movement. In 1913, he joined the Irish Volunteers, a militant group that advocated Ireland's independence from Britain, and in 1916 participated in the Easter Rising against the British in Dublin. He was the last Irish rebel leader to surrender and was saved from execution because of his American birth. Imprisoned, he was released in 1917 under a general amnesty and became president of the nationalist Sinn Féin Party. In May 1918, he was deported to England and imprisoned again, and in December Sinn Féin won an Irish national election, making him the unofficial leader of Ireland. In February 1919, he escaped from jail and fled to the United States, where he raised funds for the Irish Republican movement. When he returned to Ireland in 1920, Sinn Féin and the Irish Republican Army (IRA) were engaged in a widespread and effective guerrilla campaign against British forces. In 1921, a truce was declared, and in 1922 Arthur Griffith and other former Sinn Féin leaders broke with de Valera and signed a treaty with Britain, which called for the partition of Ireland, with the south becoming autonomous and the six northern counties of the island remaining part of the United Kingdom. In the period of civil war that followed, de Valera supported the Republicans against the Irish Free State (the new government of the autonomous south), and was imprisoned by William Cosgrave's Irish Free State ministry. In 1924, he was released and two years later left Sinn Féin, which had become the unofficial political wing of the underground movement for northern independence. He formed Fianna Fáil, and in 1932 the party gained control of the Dáil Éireann and de Valera became Irish prime minister. For the next 16 years, de Valera pursued a policy of political separation from Great Britain, including the introduction of a new constitution in 1937 that declared Ireland the fully sovereign state of Éire. During World War II, he maintained a policy of neutrality but repressed anti-British intrigues within the IRA. In 1948, he narrowly lost re-election due to a negative public reaction against his party's long monopoly of power. Out of office, he toured the world advocating the unification and independence of Ireland. His successor as taoiseach, John Costello, officially made Ireland an independent republic in 1949 but nonetheless lost the prime minister's office to de Valera in the 1951 election. The relative Irish economic prosperity of the 1940s declined in the 1950s, and Costello began a second ministry in 1954, only to be replaced again by de Valera in 1957. In 1959, de Valera resigned as prime minister and was elected Irish president — a largely ceremonial post. On 24 June 1973, de Valera, then the world's oldest head of state, retired from Irish politics at the age of 90. He passed away two years later. |
1946 Are made cardinals: Grégoire-Pierre XV Agagianian (Patriarch Emeritus of Cilicia (Armenian), Lebanon) [18 Sep 1895 – 16 May 1971] — Benedetto Aloisi Masella (Official Emeritus of Roman Curia) [29 Jun 1879 – 30 Sep 1970] — Manuel Arce Ochotorena (Archbishop of Tarragona, Spain) [18 Aug 1879 – 16 Sep 1948] — Manuel Arteaga y Betancourt (Archbishop of San Cristobal de la Habana, Cuba) [28 Dec 1879 — 20 Mar 1963] — Giuseppe Bruno (Prefect of Apostolic Signatura, Roman Curia) [30 Jun 1875 – 10 Nov 1954] — Antonio Caggiano (Archbishop Emeritus of Buenos Aires, Argentina) [30 Jan 1889 – 23 Oct 1979] — José María Caro Rodríguez (Archbishop of Santiago de Chile) [23 Jun 1866 – 04 Dec 1958] — Jaime de Barros Câmara (Archbishop of Săo Sebastiăo do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) [03 July 1894 – 18 Feb 1971] — Teodosio Clemente de Gouveia (Archbishop of Lourenço Marques, Mozambique) — Jan de Jong (Archbishop of Utrecht, Netherlands) — Carlos Carmelo de Vasconcelos Motta (Archbishop of Aparecida, Sao Paulo, Brazil) — Joseph Frings (Archbishop Emeritus of Köln, Germany) — Norman Thomas Gilroy (Archbishop Emeritus of Sydney, Australia) — John Joseph Glennon (Archbishop of Saint Louis, Missouri, USA) — Bernard William Griffin (Archbishop of Westminster, England, Great Britain) — Juan Gualberto Guevara (Archbishop of Lima, Peru) — James Charles McGuigan (Archbishop Emeritus of Toronto, Ontario, Canada) — Clemente Micara (Official Emeritus of Roman Curia) — József Mindszenty (Archbishop Emeritus of Esztergom, Hungary) — Edward Francis Mooney (Archbishop of Detroit, Michigan, USA) — Agustín Parrado García (Archbishop of Granada, Spain) — Pierre-André-Charles Petit de Julleville (Archbishop of Rouen, France) — Enrique Pla y Deniel (Archbishop of Toledo, Spain) — Konrad von Preysing Lichtenegg-Moos (Bishop of Berlin, Germany) — Clément Emile Roques (Archbishop of Rennes (, Dol, e Saint-Melo), France) — Ernesto Ruffini (Archbishop of Palermo, Italy) — Jules-Géraud Saličge (Archbishop of Toulouse (-Narbonne-Saint Bertrand de Comminges-Rieux), France) [24 Feb 1870 – 05 Nov 1956] — Adamo Stefano Sapieha (Archbishop of Kraków, Poland) [14 May 1867 – 21 Jul 1951] — Francis Joseph Spellman (Archbishop of New York, New York, USA) [04 May 1889 – 02 Dec 1967] — Samual Alphonsius Stritch (Pro-Prefect of Propagation of the Faith, Roman Curia) [17 Aug 1887 – 26 May 1958] — Thomas Tien Ken-sin, S.V.D. (Archbishop of Peking [Beijing], China) — Clemens August Graf von Galen (Bishop of Münster, Germany)
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1943 Nazis arrest
German resistance leaders Hans Scholl and his sister Sophie, the leaders of the German youth group Weisse Rose (White Rose), are arrested by the Gestapo for opposing the Nazi regime. The White Rose was composed of university (mostly medical) students who spoke out against Adolf Hitler and his regime. The founder, Hans Scholl, was a former member of Hitler Youth who grew disenchanted with Nazi ideology once its real aims became evident. As a student at the University of Munich in 1940-41, he met two Roman Catholic men of letters who redirected his life. Turning from medicine to religion, philosophy, and the arts, Scholl gathered around him like-minded friends who also despised the Nazis, and the White Rose was born. During the summer of 1942, Scholl and a friend composed four leaflets, which exposed and denounced Nazi and SS atrocities, including the extermination of Jews and Polish nobility, and called for resistance to the regime. The literature was peppered with quotations from great writers and thinkers, from Aristotle to Goethe, and called for the rebirth of the German university. It was aimed at an educated elite within Germany. The risks involved in such an enterprise were enormous. The lives of average civilians were monitored for any deviation from absolute loyalty to the state. Even a casual remark critical of Hitler or the Nazis could result in arrest by the Gestapo, the regime's secret police. Yet the students of the White Rose (the origin of the group's name is uncertain; possibly, it came from the picture of the flower on their leaflets) risked all, motivated purely by idealism, the highest moral and ethical principles, and sympathy for their Jewish neighbors and friends. (Despite the risks, Hans' sister, Sophie, a biology student at her brother's university, begged to participate in the activities of the White Rose when she discovered her brother's covert operation.) On February 18, 1943, Hans and Sophie left a suitcase filled with copies of yet another leaflet in the main university building. The leaflet stated, in part: "The day of reckoning has come, the reckoning of our German youth with the most abominable tyranny our people has ever endured. In the name of the entire German people we demand of Adolf Hitler's state the return of personal freedom, the most precious treasure of the Germans which he cunningly has cheated us out of." The pair were spotted by a janitor and reported to the Gestapo and arrested. Turned over to Hitler's "People's Court," basically a kangaroo court for dispatching dissidents quickly, the Scholls, along with another White Rose member who was caught, were sentenced to death. They were beheaded — a punishment reserved for "political traitors" — on 23 February, but not before Hans Scholl proclaimed "Long live freedom!" |
1932 Japan declares Manchuria independent (Japanese puppet, really).
1931 El almirante Aznar forma nuevo Gobierno espańol por encargo del rey Alfonso XIII.
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1930 Planet Pluto
discovered Pluto, which on its excentric orbit is most of the time the ninth most distant planet from the sun, is discovered at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, by astronomer Clyde W. Tombaugh. The existence of an unknown ninth planet was first proposed by Percival Lowell, who theorized that wobbles in the orbits of Uranus and Neptune were caused by the gravitational pull of an unknown planetary body. Lowell calculated the approximate location of the hypothesized ninth planet and searched for more than a decade without success. However, in 1929, using the calculations of Powell and W.H. Pickering as a guide, the search for Pluto was resumed at the Lowell Observatory in Arizona. On 18 February 1930, Tombaugh discovers the tiny, distant planet by use of a new astronomic technique of photographic plates combined with a blink microscope. His finding was confirmed by several other astronomers, and on 13 March 1930 — the anniversary of Lowell's birth and of William Hershel's discovery of Uranus — the discovery of Pluto was publicly announced. With a surface temperature estimated at approximately -220ºC, Pluto was appropriately given the Roman name for the god of the underworld in Greek mythology [so much for the fires of Hades!]. Pluto's average distance from the sun is some six million kilometers, and it takes approximately 248 years to complete one orbit. It also has the most elliptical and tilted orbit of any planet, and at its closest point to the sun it passes inside the orbit of Neptune, the eighth planet. After its discovery, some astronomers questioned whether Pluto had sufficient mass to affect the orbits of Uranus and Neptune. In 1978, a solution to this problem came when James Christy and Robert Harrington discovered Pluto's only known moon, Charon, which was determined to have a diameter of 1186 km to Pluto's 3698 km. Together, Pluto and Charon form a double-planet system of ample enough mass to cause wobbles in Uranus' and Neptune's orbits. |
1927 Juan Campisteguy es proclamado presidente de la república de Uruguay.
1924
US Secretary of the Navy Edwin Denby ends term due to Teapot Dome-scandal.1921 British troops occupy Dublin.
1915 Germany begins a blockade of England.
^ 1913 French painting Nude Descending a Staircase No.2 (1912) by Marcel Duchamp, causes a scandal at the 1913 Armory Show in New York City. [click on thumnail for zoomable full-sized picture >]
A major proponent of Dada, Marcel Duchamp (28 July 1887 - 02 October 1968) was one of the most influential figures of avant-garde 20th-century art. — MORE ON DUCHAMP AT ART “4” FEBRUARY — LINKS — Un site Duchamp — Portrait of his father
1908 Bernhard Dernburg, primer secretario de Estado en la oficina colonial del Reich, pide en el Reichstag una mejor atención médica para la población de las colonias.
1907 The United States sends 600'000 tons of grain to Russia to help relieve the country's widespread famine.
1900 British troops occupy Monte Christo, Natal
1899 Loubet Président: Ancien député républicain modéré, Emile Loubet a été sénateur, président du Sénat, président du Conseil et ministre de l'Intérieur. Il succčde ŕ Felix Faure qui vient de mourir.
^ 1895 Gauguin repart définitivement pour Tahiti.
Un des oncles de Paul Gauguin [07 Jun 1848 — 08 May 1903] est mort, lui laissant une somme suffisante pour s’installer un atelier ŕ Paris. Une fois de plus, il se rend dans sa chčre Bretagne. Au cours d’une rixe entre matelots, dans un cabaret de Concarneau, il a une cheville brisée. Il regagne Paris pour y trouver son atelier cambriolé. Toutes ses affaires ont disparu. Cette succession de catastrophe finit par avoir raison de l’indomptable énergie de l’artiste. Tout se retourne contre lui. Ses amis organisent alors, pour lui venir en aide, une vente des tableaux que le peintre a ramenés de Tahiti, mais elle n’a gučre de succčs. Paul Gauguin trouve juste assez d’argent pour payer la traversée jusqu’ŕ Tahiti car il a décidé de repartir. Le 18 février 1895, il quitte la France et fait route vers les mers du Sud oů il vivra huit années encore et peindra ses plus beaux chefs-d'oeuvre.
— 329 Gauguin images — Self-Portrait (1896) — Self Portrait with Spectacles (1903) — Scenes from Tahitian Life (1895) — Te Arii Vahine (The Queen of Beauty) (1896, oil) — Te Arii Vahine (1897, watercolor) — No te aha oe Riri? (Why are You Angry?) (1896) — Nave Nave Mahana (Delightful Day) (1896) — The Canoe; A Tahitian Family (1896) — Three Tahitian Women (1896) — Eilaha Ohipa (Not Working) (1896) — Te tamari no atua (Nativity) (1896) — Baby (The Nativity) (1896) — Christmas Night (1896) — Still Life with Teapot and Fruit (1896) — Thatched Hut under Palm Trees (1897) — Where do We Come From? What are We Doing? Where Are We Going? (1897) — Rave te htit aamy (The Idol) (1898) — Tahitian Woman and Boy (1899) — Tahitian Woman and Two Children (1901) — Horsemen on the Beach (1902) — Riders on the Beach (1902) — The Magician of Hivaoa (1902)
1884 General Charles Gordon arrives in Khartoum
1879 Arabs capture Egyptian premier Nabar Pasha
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1873 Oakes Ames
found guilty in the Credit Mobilier scandal During the latter half of the nineteenth century, America's railroads heeded Horace Greely's call and headed West. However, companies often resorted to bribes and corruption to fund the furious construction of the nation's transcontinental rail line. The Credit Mobilier scandal typified these practices. One incident stemmed from the Federal government's decision to grant land and building rights to Union Pacific Railroad for the construction of a rail line that stretched west from Nebraska. Union Pacific farmed out the construction of the line to the Credit Mobilier Company. Enterprising Massachusetts Representative Oakes Ames had hastily formed Credit Mobilier in the wake of the government's grant to Union Pacific and then proceeded to dole out bribes to various officials to win the construction job. Simply winning the lucrative assignment was not enough to sate Ames; he also charged the government $100 million for the job, which was double what the rail line had cost to construct. The government soon got wise to Ames's swindle and marshaled an investigation into the affair. On February 18, 1873, the House found Ames guilty of charges of bribery and recommended his expulsion from the House. But, perhaps swayed by public opinion or fears that the scandal would expose the shifty dealings of other high-ranking government officials, legislators opted instead to censure Ames. The case against Credit Mobiler lived on, eventually making it to the Supreme Court, which ruled for Ames's company on the grounds that the government couldn't marshal a lawsuit until Credit Mobilier's debt matured in 1895. |
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1871 Belfort
se rend aprčs 103 jours de sičge La maladresse de l'empereur Napoléon III a provoqué en juillet 1870 une guerre entre la France et la Prusse. Les Français sont contraints de signer un armistice le 28 janvier 1871. Mais au sud de l'Alsace, la ville fortifiée de Belfort continue de résister ŕ l'envahisseur. Le colonel Pierre Denfert-Rochereau, gouverneur de la ville, n'accepte de rendre les armes que sur un ordre exprčs du gouvernement de la Défense nationale, présidé par Adolphe Thiers. Le gouverneur se rend enfin le 18 février 1871, aprčs un sičge de 103 jours. Belfort sauve l'honneur de l'armée française, sali par la défaite piteuse de MacMahon et Napoléon III ŕ Sedan et par la reddition ignonimieuse de Bazaine, ŕ Metz. Thiers demande que la ville et son territoire restent ŕ la France, ŕ la différence du reste de l'Alsace. Mais en contrepartie, il doit céder au vainqueur un morceau supplémentaire de la Lorraine. Eu égard ŕ sa glorieuse résistance, le territoire de Belfort acquiert le statut de département. En 1879, Auguste Bartholdi sculpte dans le grčs rouge de la falaise un lion blessé et rugissant (il tourne le dos ŕ l'Allemagne pour éviter toute provocation). La statue mesure 22 mčtres de long et 11 mčtres de haut. Elle est devenue le symbole de la ville. Une réplique en bronze de 2/3 plus petite est érigée ŕ Paris, sur la place d'Enfer, opportunément rebaptisée Denfert-Rochereau. Devenu député du Haut-Rhin puis de la Charente, le colonel Pierre Denfert-Rochereau ne cessera de dénoncer la cession de l'Alsace-Lorraine par le traité de Francfort du 10 mai 1871. |
1865 Union troops force Confederates to abandon Fort Anderson NC
1865 Battle of Ft Moultrie SC occupied by Federals
1861 Jefferson Davis inaugurated as provisional President of the Confederate States of America, in Montgomery, Alabama.
1861 King Victor Emmanuel II of Sardinia becomes first king of Italy. — El rey de Italia, Víctor Manuel II, inaugura el primer Parlamento italiano, establecido en el palacio Carignano de Turín.
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1859 Occupation
de Saïgon par les Français Une flotte française remonte une rivičre au sud du Vietnam. Aprčs un bref bombardement par les navires de l'escadre, les compagnies de débarquement de l'amiral Rigoult de Genouilly s'emparent de Saïgon, qui deviendra la capitale de l'Indochine coloniale. Les contacts entre la France et le Vietnam remontent au XVIIe sičcle avec l'arrivée des premiers missionnaires. C'est un jésuite français, Alexandre de Rhodes, qui. transcrivit la langue vietnamienne dans l'écriture latine aujourd'hui en usage dans le pays. Au XVIIIe sičcle, l'empereur Gia-long, de la dynastie Nguyen, unifia le pays avec l'aide des volontaires français envoyés par Louis XVI. Mais les massacres perpétrés par son successeur, Tu Duc, contre les chrétiens incitent Napoléon III ŕ monter une entreprise de conquęte. Aprčs l'occupation de Saigon, les Français vont conquérir la Cochinchine, le grenier ŕ riz de l'empire vietnamien. Ils imposeront ensuite un protectorat ŕ l'empereur puis créeront l'Union indochinoise avec les deux autres protectorats du Cambodge et du Laos. La Chine devra renoncer ŕ sa suzeraineté sur le Vietnam. Les derniers militaires français quitteront le Vietnam en 1956. |
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1858 La Vierge
apparaît de nouveau ŕ Bernadette Soubirous. Ŕ l'âge de quatorze ans, Bernadette Soubirous, paysanne d’une des familles les plus démunies de la localité, eut des apparitions de la Vierge Marie. Celle-ci lui annonça qu'elle avait donné des pouvoirs miraculeux ŕ une source prčs d'une grotte de Lourdes. Le 18 février, lors de la deuxičme apparition, la Vierge lui demanda de revenir tous les jours pendant les 15 jours suivants, ce qu’elle fit. Les apparitions furent déclarées authentiques par l'Église catholique et la grotte de Lourdes devint un lieu de pčlerinage. En 1866, Bernadette entra chez les sśurs de la charité de Nevers. Elle prononça ses vśux en 1867, fut béatifiée en 1925 et canonisée en 1933. Sa fęte, longtemps célébrée le 16 avril, a été translatée au 18 février. |
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1856 Know-Nothings
convene in Philadelphia The American Party, also known as the "Known-Nothing Party," convenes in Philadelphia to nominate its first presidential candidate. The Know-Nothing movement began in the 1840s, when an increasing rate of immigration led to the formation of a number of so-called nativist societies to combat "foreign" influences in American society. Roman Catholic immigrants from Ireland and Italy, who were embraced by the Democratic Party in eastern cities, were especially targeted. In the early 1850s, several secret nativist societies were formed, of which the "Order of the Star-Spangled Banner" and the "Order of United Americans" were the most significant. When members of these organizations were questioned by the press about their political platform, they would often reply they knew nothing, hence the popular name for the Know-Nothing movement. In 1854, the Know-Nothings allied themselves with a faction of Whigs and ran for office in several states, calling for legislation to prevent immigrants from holding public office. By 1855, support for the Know-Nothings had expanded considerably, and the American Party was officially formed. In the same year, however, Southerners in the party sought to adopt a resolution calling for the protection of slavery, and some anti-slavery Know-Nothings defected to the newly formed Republican Party. On February 18, 1856, the American Party met to nominate it first presidential candidate and to formally abolish the secret character of the organization. Former president Millard Fillmore of New York was chosen, with Andrew Donelson of Tennessee to serve as his running mate. In the subsequent election, Fillmore succeeded in capturing only the state of Maryland, and the Know-Nothing movement effectively ceased to exist. |
1841 First continuous filibuster in US Senate began, lasting until 11 March. The Whig majority used it to dismiss the Senate's contract printers, who had been appointed by a previous Democratic majority.
1841 Se proclama la República de El Salvador y se aprueba su primera constitución política.
1815 US treaty of peace with Great Britain is proclaimed.
1800 La escuadra inglesa de Horace Nelson derrota a la francesa cerca de Malta.
1787 Austrian emperor Jozef II bans children under 8 from labor
1745 Bonnie Prince Charlie's troops occupy Inverness Scotland
1688 At a monthly meeting in Germantown, PA, a group of Quakers and Mennonites became the first white body in English America to register a formal protest against slavery. The historic "Germantown Protest" denounced both slavery and the slave trade.
1536 France and Turkey sign military/trade agreement against King Charles V
1519 Hernan Cortez quitte Cuba avec une petite troupe de soldats. Contre l'avis du gouverneur espagnol de l'île, il gagne la côte du Mexique avec l'idée de conquérir les royaumes mystérieux qui s'y trouvent. C'est le début de la pénétration européenne sur le continent américain. — Hernán Cortés, con una flota de once naves y un millar de hombres, emprende en La Habana su gran expedición para conquistar México.
1405 Timur Lenk, whose violent conquests in the late fourteenth century ranged from China to the Mediterranean, died while leading an expedition to China.
1129 Jerusalem taken by Emperor Frederik II.
3102 -BC- Origin of Kali Era (India)
