8 Jan History

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Events, deaths, births, of JAN 08
[For Jan 08 Julian go to Gregorian date: 1583~1699: Jan 18 — 1700s: Jan 19 — 1800s: Jan 20 — 1900~2099: Jan 21]

ALTERNATE SITES ALL FOR 030108 ANY DAY OF THE YEAR IN HISTORY ART “4” JAN 08

On a January 08:

2001 Former Louisiana Governor Edwin Edwards, 73, is sentenced to 10 years in prison and fined $250'000 for extorting payoffs from businessmen applying for riverboat casino licenses. His son Stephen Edwards is sentenced to seven years in prison and fined $60'000. The Edwardses' co-defendants, former gubernatorial aide Andrew Martin, cattleman Cecil Brown. and businessman Bobby Johnson, were each sentenced to about 5 1/2 years in prison and a $50'000 fine.
2001 Christies announces that this 1789 5.4-cm miniature portrait of George Washington (watercolor on ivory, in a gold locket, shown enlarged here), by John Ramage (1748-1802), will go on auction on 19 January. It is expected to sell for $1 million or so.
2001 Entra en vigor en España la nueva Ley de Enjuiciamiento Civil (LEC).

1999 Clinton impeachment developments.
“If George Washington were alive today, he would turn over in his grave.”
(1) Andrew Bleiler, who had a five-year affair with Monica Lewinsky, is separated from his wife, Kathlyn, and the couple plans to divorce, a relative says. "I think this whole year has played a terrible toll on them, and they're truly a casualty of the Monica Lewinsky scandal," says Michael Nason, a Southern California public relations adviser who is an uncle of Bleiler's wife, Kathlyn. He spoke to The Oregonian, which reports on the split today. The Bleilers revealed last January that Bleiler and Ms. Lewinsky had an affair. The two met when she was a student at Beverly Hills High School in California and Bleiler worked in the drama department as a stage technician. He said they began an affair in 1992, the year after she graduated from another high school. He moved to the Portland area after Ms. Lewinsky became a student at Lewis and Clark College. Ms. Lewinsky became friends with Ms. Bleiler and occasionally baby-sat for the couple. Ms. Lewinsky told investigators for Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr that she once forged a letter on Lewis and Clark stationery suggesting that Bleiler had job prospects in the school's theater department, to give him an excuse to come to Oregon and continue their affair. The affair continued after Ms. Lewinsky left for Washington in 1995. The affair with Bleiler ended in 1996, after his wife found out about it.

(2) Linda Tripp is sending out letters soliciting contributions for her legal defense fund, according to a Washington Post report today. Tripp is under investigation by a Maryland grand jury looking into the legality of the secret tapes she made of her conversations with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky. Tripp's taped conversations about Lewinsky's affair with President Bill Clinton were the basis for Independent Counsel Ken's Starr's investigation into the affair and alleged coverup by the president. The report says Tripp is requesting contributions to the Linda R. Tripp Legal Defense Fund because her $90,767 salary from her Pentagon job at is not enough to tackle mounting legal bills. The 12-page letter appeals for help in battling assaults from what Tripp calls the president's "henchmen" and "disciples." "Their approach has always been to attack, discredit and destroy their opponents," the letter says. "Now they have me in their cross hairs and I feel like David up against Goliath." The Post quotes Tripp as saying her legal bills exceed $325,000 and are "growing every day." Tripp's solicitation asks for $20 to $100 contributions or "even $1,000" to stave off the "politically motivated" Maryland investigation.

(3) The Senate unanimously approves a road map today for continuing the impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton. With opening arguments set to begin next Thursday, all 100 senators gathered in their role as jurors to vote on the detailed bipartisan deal, worked out in a closed-door meeting earlier in the day. The plan does not explicitly settle the touchy issue of whether witnesses will be called to testify, but says a vote on witnesses will occur after both sides make their opening statements and there is questioning by senators. After the vote, the Senate sergeant-at-arms officially delivers a summons to the White House, notifying Clinton he is on trial in the Senate. White House Counsel Charles Ruff accepts the summons on behalf of the president, who is returning to Washington from a brief trip to Detroit. The president must now officially respond to the summons and has until Jan. 11 to file any pre-trial motions.
Highlights of the Senate's plan:
Each side has the opportunity to file motions (except motions to call witnesses), trial briefs and rebuttals briefs before the proceedings begin next week. On Wednesday, January 13, the House managers and the president's legal team will argue any motions before the Senate. The Senate will then vote on the motions. On Thursday, January 14, the opening arguments begin, with both sides having up to 24 hours to present their case based on the evidence on the record. After both sides present their opening statements, senators will have no more than 16 hours to pose questions to both sides through Chief Justice William Rehnquist, who is presiding over the trial. Next, a motion to dismiss the charges against Clinton will be introduced. Then, if either the House managers or Clinton's defense team wishes to introduce new evidence or call additional witnesses, they can introduce a motion to do so. Each side would have three hours to argue the motion or motions. All witness lists will be considered "en bloc." After the six hours have expired, the Senate will vote on the motion to dismiss. If that fails, they will vote on any motions to introduce new evidence or witnesses. If a motion for witnesses passes, the trial would go on hiatus, while the new witnesses are deposed. After depositions are taken, the Senate will reconvene to decide if the testimony of the new witnesses should be heard. At the end of the whole process, the Senate will vote whether to acquit or convict Clinton on each article of impeachment — perjury before a federal grand jury and obstruction of justice.

1998 Ramzi Ahmed Yousef is sentenced to life in prison for his role of mastermind behind the 1993 World Trade Center bombing in New York.

1997 Texaco racist jokester is fired.
Texaco Inc. takes action against David Keough, one of the executives surreptitiously caught on tape making racist jokes and admitting to destroying potentially incriminating documents. An assistant treasurer at Texaco’s finance insurance subsidiary, Keough was fired after officials for the oil giant received the findings of independent counsel Michael Armstrong’s investigation into the tape scandal. Keough’s firing was just the latest chapter in Texaco’s tape saga: earlier in 1996, the discovery of the tape had helped a group of 1,400 employees win a $175 million settlement in a racial discrimination suit brought against the company. That same year Richard Lundwall and Robert Ulrich, two of the other executives captured on the tape, stood trial on charges of conspiracy and obstruction of justice; Ludwall and Ulrich were acquitted of those charges in 1998

1994 Tonya Harding won the ladies US Figure Skating Championship in Detroit, MI, a day after Nancy Kerrigan dropped out because of a clubbing attack that injured her right knee. The US Figure Skating Association later took the title from Harding because of her involvement in the attack.
1992 President George Bush (Sr., the one who was legitimately elected) collapses during a state dinner in Tokyo, vomiting on Japanese prime minister's lap. White House officials say that Bush is suffering from stomach flu. [not good publicity for Japanese food]
1990 Felix Alfredo Cristiani Burkard reconoce que los jesuitas fueron asesinados por militares salvadoreños.
1990 José Ignacio Pérez Sáez se convierte en el nuevo presidente de La Rioja (España) tras una moción de censura.
1989 Soviet Union promises to eliminate stockpiles of chemical weapons
1988 Dow Jones down 140.58 points
1988 The Presidential Task Force on Market Mechanisms reported that the stock market plunge of 19 October 1987, was caused by automatic trading programs used by large money management firms. A subsequent report tied the crash to futures trading. In February, the New York Stock Exchange announced it would curb the use of electronic trading systems when the Dow Jones industrial average rose or fell more than fifty points.
1987 Dow Jones closes above 2000 for first time (2002.25)
1986 President Reagan freezes Libyan assets in the US
1982 US Telephone system is opened to competition when American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T) company is broken up. AT&T agrees to give up 22 local Bell System companies representing 80% of the company's assets.
1982 Dow Jones first tops 2000.

1985 US Treasury Secretary and White House Chief of Staff swap jobs
US President Ronald Reagan announces that his Treasury secretary Donald Regan and chief of staff James Baker are planning to swap jobs. The surprise move left more than a few legislators scratching their heads. Some wondered if Regan, a former Wall Street leader, had the political savvy and power base to fill Baker's shoes. Regan, however, pitched the switch as a solid move for the Reagan Administration and defended his skills as a manager. He also predicted that Baker would use the Treasury post to push for tax reform, though some conservatives feared that the new secretary would be more amenable to tax hikes than his predecessor.

1982 AT&T agrees to divest itself of the 22 Bell System companies
1982 US Justice Department withdraws antitrust suit against IBM, pending since 1969.
1982 Oscar Ribas Reig se convierte en el primer presidente del Principado de Andorra.
1979 Argentina and Chile sign Beagle Canal accord
1979 Vietnamese troops overtook Khmer Rouge and occupy Phnom Penh
1978 Israel's Cabinet votes to `strengthen' settlements in occupied Sinai.
1977 Los acusados de la muerte de dos partidarios de Carlos Hugo Borbón de Parma son puestos en libertad.
1976 Se publica en Buenos Aires el testamento político de Juan Domingo Perón Sosa.

1976 Doctorow wins award for Ragtime
      Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow is awarded the National Book Critics Circle Award. The book deals with race relations in the 1920s, mixing fictional characters with real figures from the era. The book was made into a 1981 movie and a musical in 1997. The book established Doctorow as a major contemporary novelist.
      Doctorow was born in New York in 1931 and raised in the Bronx. An avid reader, he decided at age 9 to become a writer. He graduated from Kenyon College, then studied at Columbia. He worked as a reservations clerk at La Guardia Airport, then became a book editor, rising to editor-in-chief of the Dial Press by age 33. He was writing novels on the side. He published his first, Welcome to Hard Times, in 1960. The book, about a frontier town, received little notice, as did his next book, Big as Life (1966).
      In 1969, he quit his job, moved to California with his wife and three kids, and began writing full time. His 1971 novel, The Book of Daniel, about the 1953 execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg for espionage, was more successful, and the next, Ragtime, became a bestseller. Doctorow continued writing and began teaching creative writing at Sarah Lawrence and NYU. He published several novels in the 1980s and 90s, including a coming-of-age gangster story, Billy Bathgate (1989, film 1991), and The Waterworks (1994,) about 19th-century New York. He lives on Long Island.

1975 Judge Sirica orders release of Watergate's John W Dean III, Herbert W Kalmbach and Jeb Stuart Magruder from prison
1974 Silver hits record $3.40 an ounce in New York
1974 Gold hits record $126.50 an ounce in London.
1974 La OPEP decide estabilizar el precio del petróleo a condición de que los países industrializados contengan su inflación.
1974. El consejo de guerra celebrado en Barcelona dicta pena de muerte para Salvador Puig Antich, acusado de terrorismo.

1973 Vietnam peace talks resume
National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger and Hanoi's Le Duc Tho resume peace negotiations in Paris. After the South Vietnamese had blunted the massive North Vietnamese invasion launched in the spring of 1972, Kissinger and the North Vietnamese had finally made some progress on reaching a negotiated end to the war. However, a recalcitrant South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu had inserted several demands into to the negotiations that caused the North Vietnamese negotiators to walk out of the talks on December 13. President Richard Nixon issued an ultimatum to Hanoi to send its representatives back to the conference table within 72 hours "or else." The North Vietnamese rejected Nixon's demand and the president ordered the “Christmas Bombing” (Operation Linebacker II), a full-scale air campaign against the Hanoi area.
On December 28, after 11 days of round-the-clock bombing (with the exception of a 36-hour break for Christmas), North Vietnamese officials agreed to return to the peace negotiations in Paris. When the negotiators returned on January 8, the peace talks moved along quickly. On 23 January 1973, the United States, North Vietnam, the Republic of Vietnam, and the Viet Cong would sign a cease-fire agreement to take effect five days later.

1973 A trial opened in Washington of seven men accused of bugging Democratic Party headquarters in the Watergate apartment complex in Washington, DC.
1971 Los tupamaros secuestran al embajador británico en Uruguay.

1967 Major attack against Viet Cong is launched
About 16'000 US soldiers from the 1st and 25th Infantry Divisions, 173rd Airborne Brigade and 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment join 14'000 South Vietnamese troops to mount Operation Cedar Falls. This offensive, the largest of the war to date, was designed to disrupt insurgent operations near Saigon, and had as its primary targets the Thanh Dien Forest Preserve and the Iron Triangle, a 60-square-mile area of jungle believed to contain communist base camps and supply dumps. During the course of the operations, US infantrymen discovered and destroyed a massive tunnel complex in the Iron Triangle, apparently a headquarters for guerrilla raids and terrorist attacks on Saigon. The operation ended with 711 of the enemy reported killed and 488 captured. Allied losses were 83 killed and 345 wounded. The operation lasted for 18 days.

1966 Georges Pompidou forms his third cabinet as French premier [picture]
1965 Star of India returned to American Museum of Natural History
1964 European Parliament accepts the Mansholt Plan, a radical restructuring of Western European agriculture that became the basis for the Common Agricultural Policy of the European Economic Community (EEC) and its successor, the European Community (EC).
1964 US President Lyndon Johnson declares a "War on Poverty" (but does not claim war powers and violate civil rights, as would, after the 11 Sep 2001 terrorist attack, usurper-President “Dubya” Bush)
1963 Mona Lisa, on loan, unveiled in America's National Gallery of Art [see a reproduction] [hear and read the song]
1962 Se aprueba en El Salvador una nueva Constitución.
1959 Charles de Gaulle inaugurated as President of France's 5th Republic [picture: with Ike, Jan.1959] (ad for a brand of paint in Paris métro: "Les républiques passent, le Ripolin reste")
1959 Fidel Castro Ruz entra triunfalmente en la Habana (Cuba).
1958 (1959?) Cuban revolutionary forces capture Havana
1953 René Mayer (1895-1972) forms French government (lasted until 530521) Membre du premier gouvernement de Léon Blum, il rejoint le général de Gaulle à Alger en 1943. Il a été plusieurs fois ministre des Finances et de la Justice et a également présidé la Haute autorité de la CECA. [< photo]
1953 En Dinamarca se autoriza la sucesión femenina al trono.
1952 Jordan adopts constitution
1951 Thought extinct since 1615, 18 pairs of cahows are discovered nesting on Cooper's islet off of Bermuda. Millions of cahows, or Bermuda petrels (Pterodroma cahow), were exterminated by the early colonists of Bermuda. The surviving cahows are now under strict protection.
1947 General George Marshall becomes US Secretary of State.
1947 El general monárquico español Antonio Aranda Mata es desterrado a las Baleares.
1945 Josip Broz “Tito” reivindica para Yugoslavia, Rijeka y Trieste.

1940 Mussolini advises Hitler against pursuing war.
A message from Benito Mussolini is forwarded to Adolf Hitler. In the missive, the Duce cautions the Fuhrer against waging war against Britain. Mussolini asked if it was truly necessary "to risk all-including the regime—and to sacrifice the flower of German generations." Mussolini's message was more than a little disingenuous. At the time, Mussolini had his own reasons for not wanting Germany to spread the war across the European continent: Italy was not prepared to join the effort, and Germany would get all the glory and likely eclipse the dictator of Italy. Germany had already taken the Sudetenland and Poland; if Hitler took France and then cowed Britain into neutrality—or worse, defeated it in battle—Germany would rule Europe. Mussolini had assumed the reigns of power in Italy long before Hitler took over Germany, and in so doing Mussolini boasted of refashioning a new Roman Empire out of an Italy that was still economically backward and militarily weak. He did not want to be outshined by the upstart Hitler. And so the Duce hoped to stall Germany's war engine until he could figure out his next move.
The Italian ambassador in Berlin delivered Mussolini's message to Hitler in person. Mussolini believed that the "big democracies...must of necessity fall and be harvested by us, who represent the new forces of Europe." They carried "within themselves the seeds of their decadence." In short, they would destroy themselves, so back off. Hitler ignored him and moved forward with plans to conquer Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg, and France. Mussolini, rather than tie Italy's fortune to Germany's—which would necessarily mean sharing the spotlight and the spoils of any victory—began to turn an eye toward the east. Mussolini invaded Yugoslavia and, in a famously disastrous strategic move, Greece.

1938 El coronel Rey d'Harcourt, al frente de las fuerzas nacionales sitiadas en Teruel, se rinde a las tropas republicanas durante la Guerra Civil Española.

1935 Mao-Tse-Toung devient Président du parti Communiste Chinois.
Il transforme par son charisme, la retraite de l’armée rouge en victoire morale. La "Longue Marche" est cette marche historique de 12'000 km entreprise par les troupes communistes chinoises d'octobre 1934 à octobre 1935, après que le Guomindang mené par le nationaliste Jiang Jeishi (Tchang Kaï-chek), les eut contraintes à quitter la province du Jiangxi. Les quelque 100 '00 soldats et partisans communistes partis du Jiangxi en octobre 1934 rallièrent en janvier 1935 la ville de Zunyi, dans le Guizhou, au nord. Ce fut là que MaoZedong (MaoTsé-toung) fut élu à la tête du parti. Gênés par les difficultés du terrain, harcelés par les forces du Guomindang, affaiblis par la faim et la maladie, seulement 8 000 survivants atteignirent en octobre 1935 la ville de Yanan, dans le Shaanxi, où ils établirent leur quartier général. Faisant d'une retraite forcée une victoire morale, les dirigeants communistes surent organiser survivants et renforts ultérieurs en une force combattante efficace!; en 1949, celle-ci avait conquis toute la Chine. En plus Mao, on compte parmi les participants à la Longue Marche LinBiao, ZhuDe, Zhou Enlai et Deng Xiaoping, autant de dirigeants qui allaient marquer durablement l'histoire de la Chine.

1932 Atentado fallido contra el emperador HiroHito en Japón.
1926 Abdul-Aziz ibn Sa'ud becomes king of Hejaz; renames it Saudi Arabia. — Ibn Saud es proclamado rey del ex reino independiente de Hedjaz, actualmente incorporado a Arabia Saudí.
1922 Arthur Griffith vuelve a ser presidente de la república irlandesa, tras la dimisión de Eamon de Valera. El parlamento de Dublín ratifica el tratado por el cual Gran Bretaña reconoce la creación de un estado libre en Irlanda del Sur (Eire).
1918 Mississippi becomes first state to ratify 18th amendment (prohibition)

1918 For a lasting peace: Wilson's 14 Points
In an address before a joint meeting of Congress, US President Woodrow Wilson states the "war aims and peace terms of the United States" and outlines his "Fourteen Points" for achieving a lasting peace in Europe after World War I. The peace proposal calls for unselfish peace terms from the victorious Allies, the restoration of territories conquered during the war, the right to national self-determination, and the establishment of a postwar world body to resolve future conflict. The speech is translated and distributed to the soldiers and citizens of Germany and Austria-Hungary and contributes greatly to the agreement to an armistice by the leaders of the Central Powers in November of 1918. After the war's end, Wilson travels to France where he heads the American delegation to the conference at Versailles. Functioning as the moral leader of the Allies, Wilson struggles to orchestrate a just peace, although the other victorious Allies oppose the majority of Wilson's Fourteen Points. The final treaty calls for stiff reparations payment from the former Central Powers and other demanding peace terms that contribute to the outbreak of World War II two decades later. However, the creation of states based on Wilson's principle of national self-determination and the formation of the League of Nations were embodied in the treaty. In 1920, Wilson is awarded the Nobel Peace Price for his peace efforts.

La déclaration du président Wilson, les 14 points, explicite l’entrée en guerre des E.U. Contenus dans le message que le président Wilson a prononcé devant le Congrès, le 8 janvier 1918, les Quatorze Points définissent les buts de guerre des États-Unis: disparition de la diplomatie secrète; liberté des mers; suppression des barrières économiques; réduction des armements; règlement juste des questions coloniales; évacuation des territoires russes occupés par les Allemands; restauration de la Belgique; libération des territoires français occupés par les Allemands et retour de l’Alsace-Lorraine à la France; réajustement des frontières italiennes; développement autonome des peuples formant l’Empire austro-hongrois; évacuation par les Allemands des territoires serbes, monténégrins et roumains; sécurité pour les nations balkaniques; indépendance de la Pologne; création d’une Société des Nations. Les Quatorze Points, précisés à diverses reprises dans le cours de l’année 1918, ont servi de base à l’armistice du 11 novembre et à la Conférence de la paix.

1917 Austria-Hungarian troops conquer Forlani Italy.

1916 Allies retreat from Gallipoli.
      Allied forces stage a full retreat from the shores of the Gallipoli Peninsula in Turkey, ending a disastrous invasion of the Ottoman Empire. The Gallipoli Campaign resulted in 250'000 Allied casualties and greatly discredited Allied military command. Roughly an equal number of Turks were killed or wounded.
      In early 1915, the British government resolved to ease Turkish pressure on the Russians in the Caucasus front by seizing control of the Dardanelles channel, the Gallipoli Peninsula, and then Istanbul. From there, pressure could be brought on Austria-Hungary, forcing the Central Powers to divert troops from the western front. The first lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill, strongly supported the plan, and in February 1915 French and British ships began bombarding the Turkish forts guarding the Dardanelles.
      Bad weather interrupted the operation, and on 18 March six English and four French warships moved into the Dardanelles. The Turks, however, had used the intervening time wisely, setting mines that sank three Allied ships and badly damaged three more. The naval attack was called off, and a larger land invasion was planned.
      Beginning on 25 April British, Australian, and New Zealand troops landed on the Gallipoli Peninsula, while the French feinted a landing on the opposite coast to divert Ottoman forces. The Australians and New Zealanders were devastated by the Turkish defenders, who were led by Mustafa Kemal, the future President Atatürk of Turkey. Meanwhile, the British likewise were met with fierce resistance at their Cape Helles landing sites and suffered two-thirds casualties at some locations. During the next three months, the Allies made only slight gains off their landing sites and took terrible casualties.
      To break the stalemate, a new British landing at Sulva Bay occurred on 06 August, but the British failed to capitalize on their largely unopposed landing and waited too long to move against the heights. Ottoman reinforcements arrived and quickly halted their progress. Trenches were dug, and the British were able to advance only a few miles.
      In September, Sir Ian Hamilton, the British commander, was replaced by Sir Charles Monro, who in December recommended an evacuation from Gallipoli. In early January 1916, the last of the Allied troops escaped. As a result of the disastrous campaign, Churchill resigned as first lord of the Admiralty and accepted a commission to command an infantry battalion in France.

1904 Pope Pius X banned low cut dresses in the presence of churchmen
1889 Dr. Herman Hollerith (1860-1929) receives first US patent for a tabulating machine that was an important precursor of the electronic computer. The machine tallied numbers fed to it on punch cards. The system was first used extensively to compile statistics for the eleventh federal census in 1890. In 1896, Hollerith organized the Tabulating Machine Company, which later grew into the International Business Machines Corporation (IBM)

1877 US Army artillery drives starving children, women, and braves of Crazy Horse fleeing into blizzard.
      Outnumbered, low on ammunition, and forced to use outdated weapons to avoid genocide, Crazy Horse and his warriors fight their final unequal battle against the US Cavalry in Montana. Six months earlier, Crazy Horse (Tashunca-uitco) and his ally, Sitting Bull (Tatanka Iyotake), led their combined forces of Sioux and Cheyenne to a stunning victory over Lieutenant Colonel George Custer and his men near the Little Bighorn River of Montana. Outraged by the killing of the flamboyant Custer and more than 200 soldiers, the American people demanded speedy revenge.
      The US Army responded by commanding General Nelson Miles to mount a winter campaign in 1876-77 against the remaining hostile Indians on the Northern Plains. Combining military force with diplomatic overtures, Nelson succeeded in convincing many Indians to surrender and return to their reservations. Much to Nelson's frustration, though, Sitting Bull refused to give in and fled across the border to Canada, where he and his people remained for four years before finally returning to the US to surrender in 1881.
      Meanwhile, Crazy Horse and his band also refused to surrender, though they were suffering badly from sickness and starvation. His followers later reported that Crazy Horse, who had always been slightly odd, began to grow even stranger during this difficult time, disappearing for days into the wilderness by himself and walking about the camp with his eyes to the ground.
      On 08 January 1877, General Miles found Crazy Horse's camp along Montana's Tongue River. The soldiers opened fire with their big wagon-mounted guns, driving the Indians from their warm tents out into a raging blizzard. Crazy Horse and his warriors managed to regroup on a ridge and return fire, but most of their ammunition was gone, and they were reduced to fighting with bows and arrows. They managed to hold off the soldiers long enough for the women and children to escape under cover of the blinding blizzard before they turned to follow them. Though he had escaped decisive defeat, Crazy Horse realized that Miles and his well-equipped cavalry troops would eventually hunt down and destroy his cold and hungry people. On 06 May 1877, Crazy Horse led 1100 Indians to the Red Cloud reservation near Fort Robinson. The mighty warrior surrendered in the face of insurmountable obstacles. Five months later, a guard fatally stabbed him after he allegedly resisted imprisonment by Indian policemen.

1867 US Congress overrides presidential veto to give DC men the vote
The US Congress overrides President Andrew Johnson's veto of a bill granting all adult male citizens of the District of Columbia the right to vote, and the bill thus becomes law. It is the first election law passed in America granting African-American men the right to vote. The amendment of voting practices in the nation's capital stipulates that every male citizen of the city who is twenty-one-years of age or over has the right to vote, except welfare or charity recipients, those under guardianship, men convicted of major crimes, or men who voluntarily sheltered Confederate troops or spies during the Civil War. The bill, vetoed by President Johnson on January 5, was overridden by a vote of twenty-nine to ten in the Senate and by a vote of 112 to thirty-eight in the House of Representatives. In the aftermath of the Civil War, the passing of the bill was an early step in the efforts by the Republican-dominated Congress to enfranchise African-American men, who would in turn protect themselves against exploitation and strengthen Republican control over the South. In 1870, in a great civil rights victory, the Fifteenth Amendment to the US Constitution was ratified, prohibiting all states from discriminating against potential male voters because of race or previous condition of servitude.

1861 Jacob Thompson of Mississippi, Secretary of the Interior and the last Southerner in the Cabinet, resigns.
1856 Dr John A Veatch discovers borax, Tuscan Springs CA
1838 first telegraph message sent using dots and dashes, New Jersey 1838 Telegraph Code Alfred Vail of Morristown, New Jersey, demonstrated a telegraph code he devised using dots and dashes as letters. A predecessor to Samuel Morse's code, Vail transmitted the message "a patient waiter is no loser."
1811 Louisiana slave revolt by Charles Deslondes at German Coast
1806 Cape colony becomes English colony.
1806 Lewis and Clark find skeleton of 32 m blue whale in Oregon.
1800 Austrians defeat French in 2nd battle of Novi.
1800 In London, the first soup kitchens are opened for the relief of the poor.
1800 An 11-year-old boy is found naked and wild in a French forest. He was entrusted to Dr. Jean-Marc-Gaspard Itard, who explained the methods that he used (1801-05) in trying to train and educate the boy in Rapports sur le sauvage de l'Aveyron (1807), becoming a precursor of special education.

1798 11th Amendment ratified, judicial powers construed
Gentlemen of the Senate, and Gentlemen of the House of Representatives: I have now an opportunity of transmitting to Congress a report of the Secretary of State, with a copy of an act of the Legislature of the state of Kentucky, consenting to the ratification of the amendment of the constitution of the United States, proposed by Congress in their resolution of the second day of December, 1793, relative to the suability of states. This amendment having been adopted by three fourths of the several states, may now be declared to be a part of the constitution of the United States. JOHN ADAMS. United States. January 8, 1798.

1790 George Washington delivers first "State of the Union" address [click on picture to see full page >]

1760 Comet C/1760 A1 (Great Comet) approaches within 0.0682 AUs of Earth
1746 Bonnie Prince Charlie's troops occupy Stirling.
1745 England, Austria, Netherlands and Saxon sign anti-Prussian Quadruple Alliance.
1697 L'explorateur français Cavelier de la Salle découvre les Chutes du Niagara. A la présente frontière américano-canadienne, elles sont formées par les eaux du Lac Érié qui se déversent dans le lac Ontario. Ces chutes hautes de plus de 50 mètres sont l'un des grands spectacles de la nature.
1675 first American commercial corporation chartered (New York Fishing Co)
1656 Oldest surviving commercial newspaper begins (Haarlem, Netherlands)
1598 Genoa, Italy, expels Jews.
1558 French troops under duke de Guise occupy Calais.
1499 Louis XII of France after papal divorce marries Anne, Duchess of Brittany to keep the duchy for the crown.
1438 The council of Basle, which had opposed Pope Eugenius IV reconvenes in Ferrara, as ordered by the papal bull of 14370918.

Lotario di Segni elected Pope Innocentius III
1198 Innocent III est élu pape.
      Lothaire de Segni est élu Pape sous le nom d’Innocent III. Le plus grand Pape du Moyen-Âge entre en action. Il n’a pas 40 ans et n’est même pas prêtre. Né en 1160, dans une famille très influente, Giovanni Lotario, comte di Segni, étudia la théologie à Paris et le droit canon à Bologne, ce qui constituait la meilleure éducation offerte à son époque. Sans être ordonné prêtre, il fut pape à trente-sept ans, élu à l'unanimité par le collège des cardinaux, le jour même de la mort de son prédécesseur, et son pontificat fut à la hauteur de toutes les espérances de ses électeurs.
      Innocent s'intéressa à tous les aspects de la vie publique. Fidèle à l'esprit de sa fonction, il prêcha souvent en public et tenta d'imposer à sa curie un mode de vie modeste. Conscient de son autorité de pontife (il était très attaché à son titre de vicaire du Christ), il tenta néanmoins de renforcer les pouvoirs de l'épiscopat en restreignant le nombre de cas jugés directement par Rome.
      Ses démarches diplomatiques renforcèrent le pouvoir papal sur les territoires instables aux alentours de Rome, c'est pourquoi il fut souvent considéré comme le véritable fondateur des États pontificaux.
      Innocent III affirma la suprématie de l'autorité papale sur les pouvoirs séculiers. Il profita ainsi de la mort de l'empereur germanique Henri IV (1197) pour réaffirmer le rôle du pape dans le choix des prétendants à la couronne impériale et dans l'arbitrage des candidats : il couronna Othon (1209), l'excommunia (1210) pour porter Frédéric II au pouvoir (1212).
      Il fit pourtant preuve d'une grande prudence à l'égard du roi de France Philippe Auguste, qui avait fait scandale en répudiant sa femme, et il obtint par ce moyen entière satisfaction (1213). Dans le conflit qui l'opposa à Jean sans Terre au sujet de l'élection de Stephen Langton à l'archevêché de Canterbury, Innocent III marqua une victoire décisive, puisque le roi anglais remit le royaume tout entier sous la protection pontificale (1213).
      Les entreprises les plus controversées du pontificat d'Innocent III furent ses deux croisades. En 1209, après avoir dépêché en vain des prédicateurs pour régler la question sans combat, le pape lança une offensive dans le sud-ouest de la France, contre la secte hérétique dualiste des albigeois, dont les pratiques menaçaient selon lui les institutions sociales traditionnelles. La croisade provoqua une terrible effusion de sang, et le pape dut multiplier les appels à la modération, sans pouvoir arrêter le carnage ni vaincre l'hérésie.
      Très concerné par la protection de la Terre sainte, Innocent III y envoya la quatrième croisade. En 1204, un bataillon de croisés envahit la ville chrétienne de Constantinople et la mit à sac. Cet incident dramatique devait empoisonner les relations entre les Églises d'Orient et d'Occident pendant des centaines d'années. Il fut aussi le prétexte de l'établissement, à Constantinople, d'un royaume latin éphémère.
      Vers la fin de sa vie, en 1215, Innocent convoqua à Rome le quatrième concile du Latran. Ce concile édicta en particulier des lois régissant les droits et les devoirs de toutes les classes de la société. Parmi ces décrets figurait le célèbre Omnis Utriusque Sexus, selon lequel tous les chrétiens adultes devaient recevoir au moins une fois par an les sacrements de la confession et de l'eucharistie. Le concile encouragea en outre saint Dominique et saint François dans leurs efforts pour fonder de nouveaux ordres. Ce concile, qui rassembla à Rome quelque quatre cents évêques et huit cents abbés et supérieurs, ainsi que de nombreux princes séculiers, fut ainsi le plus grand rassemblement médiéval et l'une des réalisations les plus spectaculaires du pontificat d'Innocent III. Innocent mourut subitement le 16 juillet 1216, à Pérouse, pendant un voyage dans le nord de l'Italie.

0871 Battle at Ashdown Ethelred of Wessex beats Danish invasion army.
0794 Church at Lindisfarne, England destroyed by Vikings
0624 Moslem army occupies Kurashitische Caravan.

TO THE TOP

Deaths which occurred on a January 08:
2003:: 72 of the 77 aboard a Turkish Airlines RJ-100 (built by British Aerospace) coming from Istanbul, which crashes as it tries to land at Diyarbakir, in Turkish-occupied Kurdistan.
2003 All 19 passengers and 2 crew members aboard Air Midwest commuter Flight 5481, a Beech 1900 twin-engine turboprop which falters in its climb and crashes into a corner of a maintenance hangar at 08:55 as it takes off from Charlotte, North Carolina, bound for Greenville-Spartanburg. This is the first passenger or cargo airliner crash causing fatalities in the US since 12 November 2001 when American Airlines Flight 587 crashed in New York killing 265 persons.
2002 Dave Thomas, 69, just past midnight (or just before on 07 Jan), of liver cancer, founder of Wendy's. Born on 02 July 1932, Thomas was adopted as an infant and became an advocate for adoption, founding in 1992 the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption. He was 12 when he got his first job — delivering groceries. In 1962 he took over four failing KFC restaurants in Columbus, Ohio, and sold them back to KFC for $1.5 million in 1968. In 1969 Thomas opened his first Wendy's Old Fashioned Hamburgers, named after his daughter Melinda Lou, 8, “Wendy” to her siblings. Since 1989 Thomas became known for his homey, humorous TV commercials, which helped the Wendy's chain grow to 4800 restaurants in the US and 34 countries by 1996 (over 6000 in 2002), the third largest fast food chain in the world. Thomas completed high school (equivalency certificate) in 1993. Thomas wrote Dave's Way' and Well Done! [photo: Thomas in commercial >]
2001 Several dead in military coup attempt in Ivory Coast, which is put down by forces loyal to. President Laurent Gbagbo.
1999 Enrique Gran Villagraz, pintor español, muere en su domicilio madrileño al incendiarse el colchón de su dormitorio.
1998 Walter Diemer, 98, inventor (bubble gum 1928), of heart failure.
1997 Jesús Cuesta Abril, teniente coronel del Ejército de Tierra de España, es asesinado de tres tiros en la cabeza por dos miembros de la banda terrorista ETA (Euskadi Ta Askatasuna).

1996 François Mitterrand, President of France (1981-95), dies of cancer at 79, leaving these words which cardinal Lustiger of Paris repeated at the funeral: "Comment mourir? Nous vivons dans un monde que la question effraie et qui s'en détourne. Des civilisations, avant nous, regardaient la mort en face. Elles dessinaient pour la communauté et pour chacun le chemin du passage. Elles donnaient à l'achèvement de la destinée sa richesse et son sens. Jamais peut-être le rapport à la mort n'a été aussi pauvre qu'en ces temps de sécheresse spirituelle, où les hommes, pressés d'exister, paraissent éluder le mystère. Ils ignorent qu'ils tarissent ainsi le goût de vivre d'une source essentielle."
François Mittterand, né en 1916, diplômé en droit, devient avocat. Il est fait prisonnier de guerre en 1940 et s'évade en 1941, date à laquelle il travaille au commissariat aux prisonniers de guerre du Gouvernement de Vichy. En 1943, il entre dans la Résistance. A la Libération, il fonde le Mouvement national des prisonniers de guerre. Elu député centriste de la Nièvre en 1946, il occupe ensuite de nombreux postes ministériels : secrétaire d'État aux Anciens Combattants (1947-1948), ministre de l'Intérieur (1954-1955), ministre de la Justice (1956-1957). Parallèlement, il mène une carrière politique active : il est élu président du Conseil général de la Nièvre (1964-1981), maire de Château-Chinon (1959-1962), sénateur de la Nièvre (1959-1962) puis député de ce département. Il se présente une première fois à la présidence de la République en 1965 mais échoue contre le général de Gaulle. Nommé Premier secrétaire du Parti socialiste (1971-1981), il cosigne en 1972 le programme commun de la gauche avec le Parti communiste. Candidat de l'opposition de gauche, il échoue de nouveau à l'élection présidentielle de mai 1974, face à Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, avant d'être élu à la présidence de la République le 10 May 1981. Après une période de cohabitation avec une majorité parlementaire et un Gouvernement de droite, dirigé par Jacques Chirac (mars 1986-juin 1988), il est élu une seconde fois à la présidence de la République (juin 1988-mai 1995).

1996 Carmen Conde, poetisa española.
1992 Menachem Begin, 78, Israeli PM, of a heart attack.
1990 Jaime Gil de Biedma, poeta español.

1980 John Mauchly
John Mauchly co-invented, with Presper Eckert, one of the first general all-purpose electronic computers. During World War II, the US Army, needing a way to rapidly calculate its artillery-firing table, turned to Mauchly, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania. Mauchly teamed up with Eckert, a graduate student, to invent ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer), which was first used in 1947. Mauchly and Eckert founded their own company in 1948, where they created BINAC (Binary Automatic Computer), which used magnetic tape instead of punched cards to receive data. The company also went on to create UNIVAC with the help of Grace Hopper, who helped evolve programming language. The US Census department was one of UNIVAC's first customers, using it to process statistics gathered in the 1950 census

1976 Zhou Enlai, 77, premier of the People's Republic of China (PRC) since 1949, of cancer
Zhou was second to Mao Zedong, the leader of the revolution that brought a communist regime to China, in terms of importance in the PRC. Beyond his significance as a leader of communist China, Zhou was instrumental in the negotiations that resulted in the US recognition of the PRC in 1979. Zhou was born in 1898, and he was heavily involved in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) by the 1920s. He rose quickly through the party ranks and became one of Mao Zedong's most trusted advisors, particularly valued for his skill at negotiations and diplomacy. These skills were crucial during the 1930s, when the CCP found it necessary to collaborate with its enemy, the Chinese Nationalists, to oppose Japanese aggression.
In 1949, the CCP was victorious in its civil war against the Nationalists and Zhou was appointed premier and foreign minister of the new government. During the 1950s, he represented China at various diplomatic gatherings, including the 1954 Geneva Conference and the 1955 Asian-African Conference in Bandung. He was also a stabilizing force inside China during the tumultuous years of the Cultural Revolution and its resultant political tensions. In the early 1970s, Zhou embarked on a program to rebuild relations with the United States, which had refused to recognize the Chinese communist government. In 1972, he and President Richard Nixon shocked the world by meeting and agreeing to work for closer political and economic relations between the two nations. These talks eventually did bear fruit in 1979, when the United States formally recognized the PRC.

1971: 29 pilot whales beach themselves and die at San Clemente Island CA
1968 Loewner, mathematician.

1956 Jim Elliot, 28, Nate Saint, Roger Youderian, Ed McCully, and Pete Fleming, Plymouth Brethren missionaries speared to death in Ecuador by Auca Indians they had come to Ecuador in hopes of evangelizing, and which they had first seen, from a plane at 500 m, on 29 October 1955.Elliot's widow Elisabeth later published the story of their work and martyrdom in her book Through Gates of Splendor (1953). — Cinco misioneros protestantes en Ecuador cuando intentaban establecer contacto con los indios auca, en la selva oriental.

1950 Joseph Alois Schumpeter, 66, Moravian-born US economist and sociologist known for his theories of capitalist development and business cycles. Schumpeter taught at the universities of Czernowitz, Graz, and Bonn before joining the faculty of Harvard University (1932-50). In 1919 he served briefly as minister of finance in the Austrian government. In his widely read Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy (1942), he argued that capitalism would eventually perish of its own success, giving way to some form of public control or socialism. His History of Economic Analysis (1954) is an exhaustive study of the development of analytic methods in economics. His other books include Theorie der wirtschaftlichen Entwicklung (1912) and Business Cycles: A Theoretical, Historical, and Statistical Analysis of the Capitalist Process (1939).

1948 Kurt Schwitters, German Dadaist painter and sculptor born on 20 June 1887. — LINKS
1945:: 23 persons in crash of a Pan Am Martin 130 airplane in Trinidad.
1944 William Kissam Vanderbilt Jr., 65, who devoted much of his share of the family fortune to early automobile racing. He maintained a personal garage of more than 100 cars and 20 mechanics. He built the toll Long Island Expressway to avoid speed limits.
1941 Lord Robert Baden-Powell, 83, founder of the Boy Scout movement. — general británico, fundador de los "boy-scouts".

1940 Day 40 of Winter War: USSR aggression against Finland.
More deaths due to Stalin's desire to grab Finnish territory.
Finnish guerrillas active in the north.
     Northern Finland: Finnish troops carry out guerrilla strikes in northern Finland.
     Ladoga Karelia: Detachment Pajari defeats a Soviet battalion at Viitavaara.
     Ostrobothnia: Detachment Sisu is formed in Lapua, composed of foreign volunteers.
     At 7 o'clock in the morning Moscow radio transmits a propaganda broadcast in Finnish in which it claims that "unspeakable terror" has broken out in Finland. According to Moscow "people are being shot in droves and supporters of the Kuusinen Government are being hunted all over the country".
     Prime Minister Ryti reviews Finland's economic situation for the foreign press.
     Foreign Minister Tanner reminds US envoy Arthur Schoenfeld that Finland has captured more materiel as booty from the enemy than she has received in the form of aid from any friendly power.
      The Foreign Minister entrusts Hella Wuolijoki with the task of sounding out the possibility of peace with the Soviet Ambassador in Stockholm, Madame Alexandra Kollontai.

Suomalaiset tekevät sissi-iskuja Pohjois-Suomessa Talvisodan 40. päivä, 8.tammikuuta.1940
     Aamulla klo 7 Moskovan radio lähettää propagandaohjelman suomeksi, jossa väitetään "Suomessa vallitsevan sanoin kuvaamattoman terrorin". Moskovan radion mukaan "ihmisiä ammutaan joukoittain ja Kuusisen hallituksen kannattajia etsitään kaikkialta."
      Osasto Pajari lyö neuvosto-pataljoonan Viitavaarassa.
      Ulkomaalaisista vapaaehtoisista muodostettu Osasto Sisu perustetaan Lapualla.
      Pääministeri Ryti pitää katsauksen ulkomaiselle lehdistölle Suomen taloudellisesta tilasta.
      Tanner huomauttaa USA:n lähettiläälle Schoenfeldille, että Suomi on saanut viholliselta sotasaaliina enemmän sotatarvikkeita kuin miltään ystävällismieliseltä valtiolta apua.
      Tanner antaa kirjailija Hella Wuolijoelle tehtäväksi tunnustella rauhan mahdollisuutta Moskovan Tukholman suurlähettilään rouva Aleksandra Kollontain kanssa.

1934 Serge Alexandre Stavisky, grand escroc, assassiné par la police française.
      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 8 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 et cela explique peut-être que Stavisky bénéficie d’une certaine indulgence, en particulier dans le film tourné par Alain Resnais L’affaire Stavisky, avec un Delon très en verve, (1974). Le mystère qui entoure la mort d’Alexandre Stavisky et les complicités dont il a bénéficié ne sera peut-être jamais éclairci, trop de pistes ayant été brouillées, peut-être volontairement.

Le 09 janvier 1934, la police découvre dans un chalet de Chamonix le cadavre du financier Alexandre Stavisky (48 ans). L'homme était recherché par la police suite à un détournement de fonds au Crédit municipal de Bayonne. Sa mort est apparemment consécutive à un suicide mais l'opinion publique soupçonne aussitôt des hommes politiques d'avoir fait assassiner l'escroc pour l'empêcher de dénoncer ses complices. Le scandale Stavisky, qui ne met en cause qu'une demi-douzaine de politiciens de second rang, est peu de chose comparé à celui de Panama ou à ceux des vingt dernières années. Son retentissement n'en est pas moins immense. C'est qu'après les «Années Folles» qui ont suivi l'hécatombe de 1914-1918, la France est secouée par une crise à la fois économique et politique. La mort de Stavisky met à jour toutes les rancœurs. 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 le régime républicain et obligent le gouvernement à démissionner. Le nouveau Président du Conseil, Édouard Daladier, présente le 6 février 1934 son gouvernement à l'Assemblée nationale. Mais 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. 16 manifestants et un policier sont tués. Trois jours plus tard, une contre-manifestation dégénère à son tour et fait 9 morts. La gauche parlementaire dénonce dans la manifestation du 06 Feb une tentative de coup d'Etat fasciste! Elle appelle au rassemblement des forces progressistes. L'affaire Stavisky va ainsi contribuer à la victoire du Front Populaire de Léon Blum aux élections législatives de 1936.

1928 Three persons in ground collision of a KLM FCs3 airplane, in Rural Grove NY.
1921 Gérard-Marie-François Girard-Firmin, French artist born on 29 May 1838.
1916 Rembrandt Bugatti, frère du constructeur automobile, sculpteur animalier, se suicide. — PLUS SUR BUGATTI À ART “4” JANUARY -
1908 Seventeen persons in a train collision in a smoke-filled Park Avenue Tunnel in New York City. 38 are injured. The accident causes a public outcry and increased demand for electric trains.
1896 Paul-Marie Verlaine, 51, French poet (Elégies, Bonne Chanson)
1894 Columbus World's fair in Chicago destroyed by fire
1880 [Joshua] Norton I, 60, “Emperor of US, protector of México”
1879 Baldomero Espartero, general y político español.
1874 Eduard Schleich Sr., Danish artist born on 12 October 1812.
1857 Nicholas Condy, British artist born in 1793.
1848 Austrian soldiers kill 10 students, Pavia
1842 Pierre Earl de Cambronne, 71, French General (Waterloo, Elba)

1815 Edward Pakenham and hundreds of Brits, 8 US soldiers, at Battle of New Orleans
      Two weeks after the War of 1812 officially ended with the signing of the Treaty of Ghent, US Major General Andrew Jackson achieves the greatest American victory of the war at the Battle of New Orleans. In September of 1814, an impressive American naval victory on Lake Champlain forced invading British forces back into Canada and led to the conclusion of peace negotiations in Ghent, Belgium. Although the peace agreement was signed on December 24, British forces assailing the Gulf coast were not informed of the treaty in time, and on January 8, 1815, attacked New Orleans, Louisiana, hoping to separate it from the rest of the United States. However, the Americans had been informed of the imminent attack by pirate leader Jean Lafitte, and when the British descended on New Orleans they found the Americans to be strongly entrenched.
      In two separate assaults, the 7500 British soldiers under Sir Edward Pakenham were unable to penetrate the US defenses, and General Jackson's 4500 troops, many of them expert marksmen from Kentucky and Tennessee, decimated the British lines. In half an hour, the British had retreated, General Pakenham was dead, and over 2000 of his men were killed or wounded. US forces suffered only eight killed and thirteen wounded. Although the battle had no bearing on the outcome of the war, Jackson's overwhelming victory elevated national pride, which had suffered a number of setbacks during the War of 1812. The Battle of New Orleans was also the last armed engagement between the United States and Britain.
      The anniversary of the Battle of New Orleans was widely celebrated with parties and dances during the nineteenth century, especially in the South as Old Hickory Day or Jackson Day.

1796 Jean-Marie Collot d'Herbois, 46, French National Convention chairman.
1713 Arcangelo Corelli, 59, composer / violinist (Concerti Grossi).

1642 Galileo Galilei, 77, Italian mathematician, physicist / astronomer, in Arceti Italy
—     Galileo Galilei nacque a Pisa il 15 febbraio 1564 da Giulia Ammannati e Vincenzio Galilei, entrambi appartenenti alla media borghesia. Vincenzio, nato a Firenze nel 1520, ex liutista ed ex insegnante di musica, in passato era entrato in conflitto con la tradizione classica che attribuiva la consonanza tra tutti i suoni al controllo delle proporzioni numeriche ed aveva proposto idee proprie al riguardo.
      Era quindi ferrato in matematica, ma, intuendo le difficoltà pratiche che la professione di matematico presentava, spinse il figlio a studiare medicina proprio come un loro avo, quel Galileo Bonaiuti che nel XV secolo si era distinto nell'esercizio dell'arte medica ed in onore del quale un ramo della famiglia aveva preso il nome di Galilei. Galileo compì i primi studi di retorica, grammatica e logica nel monastero camaldolese di Vallombrosa ed entrò a far parte dell'ordine come novizio.
      La decisione non poté che contrariare Vincenzio, il quale, nutrendo appunto ben altri progetti per il figlio, lo fece tornare a Pisa e lo fece iscrivere a Medicina. I corsi della facoltà vertevano su Galeno e sui libri di scienza naturale di Aristotele, che costituirono i principali oggetti di critica da parte del giovane Galileo, sempre più attratto dalla matematica e dalla filosofia e sempre meno produttivo in veste di studente di medicina. Nel 1583 vi fu il suo incontro con Ostilio Ricci, un matematico probabile allievo di Tartaglia. Ricci era aggregato alla corte di Toscana e teneva le sue lezioni in volgare, come in volgare era scritto il testo di Euclide su cui basava i suoi corsi.
      Si trattava infatti della traduzione che ne aveva fatta lo stesso Niccolò Tartaglia, il quale, a differenza delle versioni latine, aveva chiarito la discrepanza esistente tra la teoria delle proporzioni di Eudosso e quella dell'aritmetica medievale, un chiarimento che si rivelò fondamentale per la formazione di Galileo. Le sue prime indagini nel campo della fisica lo portarono, tra l'83 e l'86, a determinare il peso specifico dei corpi tramite un congegno chiamato ‘bilancetta', simile ad un utensile già in uso presso i mercanti orafi. Nell'88 diede anche una prova della propria erudizione letteraria con delle lezioni su Dante tenute presso l'Accademia fiorentina.
      Nell'89, nonostante non si fosse laureato, grazie alla stima ed alla fama che si era guadagnato presso certe frange del mondo accademico ottenne la cattedra di Matematica all'Università di Pisa, un lavoro che gli assicurò l'indipendenza economica dal padre. A Pisa Galileo rimase 3 anni, durante i quali scoprì la legge di caduta dei gravi. Ma il periodo più sereno e fruttuoso della sua vita lo passò come insegnante di matematica presso l'Università di Padova, dove si trasferì nel 1592 e dove rimase per 18 anni. Qui continuò i suoi studi di meccanica e di astronomia, nell'ambito della quale abbracciò la teoria copernicana.
      Dal 1609 cominciò a perfezionare ed usare il cannocchiale come strumento per le osservazioni astronomiche. Il cannocchiale non era un'invenzione di Galileo (artigiani olandesi e italiani ne avevano già approntati diversi tipi) ma i miglioramenti che lo scienziato vi apportò inaugurarono l'epoca delle grandi scoperte astronomiche, di cui lo stesso Galilei diede annuncio nel Sidereus Nuncius (Ragguaglio astronomico) del 1610. I 4 maggiori satelliti di Giove, le montagne ed i crateri della Luna, le macchie solari, furono fenomeni fino ad allora sconosciuti che destarono meraviglia ed ammirazione tanto nel mondo accademico (Keplero riconobbe e confermò l'importanza delle scoperte di Galilei), quanto in certo ambiente politico (Cosimo dé Medici lo nominò matematico dello studio di Pisa), ma anche ostruzionismo ed astio da parte delle gerarchie ecclesiastiche (in particolare del cardinale Bellarmino) e degli aristotelici.
      Nel 1616 il Sant'Uffizio mise all'indice sia la cosmologia copernicana, sia le opere di Galileo, il quale venne convocato a Roma per giustificare le sue opinioni. Qui il suo tentativo di difendere le concezioni astronomiche copernicane (e le proprie) in quanto inoffensive nei confronti della Bibbia, venne respinto e lo scienziato fu intimato a non professarle più. Galileo continuò tuttavia ad approfondire ed ampliare i suoi studi e, nel 1623, compose in volgare il Saggiatore, nel quale polemizzava con il padre gesuita Orazio Grassi riguardo alla natura delle comete e a problemi di ordine metodologico. Sempre nel '23 salì al soglio pontificio Urbano VIII, un Barberini che si era dimostrato disponibile nei suoi confronti, tanto che proprio all'ex cardinale, spirito illuminato ed aperto ai discorsi scientifici, Galileo aveva dedicato il Saggiatore.
      Nel 1632 pubblicò il Dialogo sopra i 2 massimi sistemi del mondo, un testo fondamentale per la scienza moderna in cui Galileo, sotto un'apparente neutralità, dava risalto all'astronomia copernicana a discapito di quella tolemaica. A causa dell'influenza di alcuni padri gesuiti, Urbano VIII ebbe allora un'involuzione e, nel 1633, Galileo venne processato a condannato al carcere a vita dal Sant'Uffizio, una pena da cui poté salvarsi solo abiurando le sue teorie. Il carcere a vita fu così commutato in isolamento, che Galileo scontò prima nel palazzo dell'Arcivescovado di Siena e poi nella sua villa di Arcetri. Morì a Firenze l'8 gennaio 1642, circondato da pochi allievi e nella quasi totale cecità. Galileo Galilei è stato formalmente assolto dall'accusa di eresia solo nel 1992, trecentocinquanta anni dopo la sua morte.
Dialogo Sopra i due massimi sistemi del mondo
      Concepita nel 1610, l’opera ebbe un tempo di composizione molto lungo, dovuto principalmente a periodi di infermità dello scienziato ed in seguito, a causa della condanna da parte del Sant’Uffizio nel 1616, al timore di dichiarare troppo apertamente la sua adesione al sistema copernicano. Dedicato a Ferdinando II dé Medici, granduca di Toscana, il Dialogo, articolato in 4 giornate, si svolge tra il fiorentino Filippo Salviati, portavoce di Galileo, il veneziano Giovan Francesco Sagredo, uomo di ingegno e di idee progressiste, ed il peripatetico Simplicio, dalla rigida impostazione scolastica. Nella prima giornata si discute del moto, nella seconda si entra nel vivo del sistema copernicano, nella terza si affronta la teoria delle stelle fisse e nell’ultima si apre il dibattito sul flusso e riflusso del mare, secondo Salviati-Galileo uno degli argomenti più forti a favore del sistema eliocentrico. Il Dialogo fu completato all’inizio del 1630 ma dovette superare molti problemi per avere l’approvazione ecclesiastica, per assecondare la quale fu mutato il titolo originale (Dialoghi attorno al flusso e reflusso del mare) e vennero cambiati alcuni passaggi. Pubblicata il 21 febbraio 1632 a Firenze, l’opera venne aspramente perseguita da papa Urbano VIII, che ne vietò la diffusione ed intimò a Galileo di presentarsi a Roma, dove venne sottoposto al famoso processo che lo costrinse all’abiura.

1354 Charles d'Espagne, favori du roi Jean II le Bon, s'était vu offrir le comté d'Anjou que le roi avait promis à Charles de Navarre. Grosse colère de celui-ci, par vengeance, fait assassiner le favori, revendique son crime devant les plus hautes autorités, y compris le pape, et ses droits sont reconnus.

1324 Marco Polo , 69, Venetian explorer / Governor of Nanking [sample of his writing, in English translation]
     Nato a Venezia nel 1254 da una famiglia di viaggiatori, Marco Polo intraprese il famoso viaggio verso l'estremo Oriente (un evento che diverrà in seguito il soggetto del celeberrimo libro di memorie Il Milione) nel 1271, a soli 17 anni, insieme con il padre Niccolò e lo zio Matteo.
      I due facoltosi mercanti erano animati essenzialmente dalle facilitazioni mercantili e commerciali che le nuove vie e nuovi contatti con l'Oriente potevano portare a loro come alla loro città, sempre insidiata, da questo punto di vista, dalla concorrenza delle altre città marinare.
      Il viaggio ed i soggiorni nei diversi paesi che ebbe modo di visitare durarono in tutto 24 anni (dal '71 al '95) ed in questo lungo lasso di tempo Marco Polo attraversò tutta l'Asia, arrivando infine a Pechino, la sede del Gran Kahn, nonché il punto nevralgico di un impero enorme e favoloso. Qui fu al servizio dell'imperatore per diversi anni, durante i quali svolse attività diplomatiche ed amministrative, fino a che, nel 1292, non iniziò per mare il viaggio di ritorno a Venezia, un tragitto che gli portò via 3 anni. Giunto nella sua città natale nel 1295, vi trascorse serenamente ulteriori 3 anni, fino a quando, nel 1298, non fu fatto prigioniero dai genovesi in seguito alla battaglia di Curzola.
      Fu proprio in carcere che raccontò ad un suo compagno di cella, Rustichello da Pisa, le avventure che aveva vissuto e gli eventi a cui aveva assistito nel suo lungo soggiorno in Oriente: Rustichello redasse inizialmente il resoconto in francese (misto ad italianismi ed espressioni dialettali venete), e, una volta diffuso, lo scritto non fu tenuto in considerazione come veritiero dai suoi contemporanei, i quali anzi ne accentuarono il carattere favoloso e ne ricordarono soprattutto gli spunti fantastici, leggendari e misteriosi.
      Nonostante il parere dei suoi lettori trecenteschi e nonostante si presenti ancora oggi come 'il libro delle meraviglie', Il Milione è in realtà il primo esempio di prosa scientifica moderna, o, nelle intenzioni di Polo, un libro 'utile', che fosse in grado di fornire notizie precise e dettagliate sugli usi, i costumi, la geografia e l'economia di popoli e di lande sconosciuti o quasi. L'evidenza di questa volontà è fornita anche dallo stile estremamente conciso dell'opera, povero nel lessico ed in particolare nell'aggettivazione, uno stile che si vuole limitare ad una descrizione 'scientifica' di ciò che, in quanto ignoto, si immaginava comunemente come strano e favoloso. Liberato un anno dopo e tornato a Venezia, Marco Polo vi restò fino alla sua morte, avvenuta tra il 1324 e il 1325.
Il Milione
narra dei viaggi compiuti in Oriente (ed in particolare in Cina) dai fratelli Niccolò e Matteo Polo, più il figlio del primo, Marco, tra il 1271 ed il 1295. L’opera fu dettata tra il 1298 ed il 1299 dallo stesso Marco (all’epoca prigioniero dei genovesi) ad un suo compagno di cella, il letterato Rustichello da Pisa, rifacitore di poemi cavallereschi. Il Milione è diviso in 183 capitoli (secondo il codice Magliabechiano o ‘della Crusca’) ed il suo titolo originale è tradotto dal francese Le livre de Marco Polo citoyen de Venise, dit Million, où l’on conte les merveilles du monde; dell’opera in realtà esistono più di 150 manoscritti (in francese, latino, italiano, dialetto veneto), anche se, ovviamente, il codice più importante è quello più fedele alla originaria lingua d’oil, ossia il francese 1116 della Biblioteca Nazionale di Parigi, che risale ai primi decenni del Trecento e su cui si basa la prima edizione critica del testo.
Voyage de Marco Polo (POLO ONLINE:)

1198 Coelestinus III [Giacinto Bobo], pope (1191-98)
0624 Abu Sufjan ibn Harb Kurashite chief, in battle
0482 Severinus German monastery founder/saint.

Births which occurred on a January 08:
2001 Noah, at TransOva Genetics in Sioux Center, Iowa, Asian gaur produced from a cell from a dead gaur implanted into a cow's egg (cleared of cow DNA) and gestated by a cow, the first trans-species gestation. Noah would die 2 days later of dysentery.
1988 HP-28S Advanced Scientific Calculator of Hewlett-Packard in introduced
1979 Sequoyah chimpanzee (son of Washoe)
1964 War on Poverty. In his State of the Union address, President Lyndon B Johnson announces, "This administration today, here and now, declares unconditional war on poverty in America."
1947 El cielo está cerca, comedia de Víctor Ruiz Iriarte, se estrena en Madrid.
1942 Stephen Hawking, English mathematician, physicist (Black Holes and Baby Universes, The Arrow of Time). At age 22 he would be diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (also known as Lou Gehrig's disease), for which the average survival time is three to five years from the onset of symptoms. Despite his illness, Hawking earned his doctorate at Cambridge, where he later would hold the same academic chair given to Isaac Newton in 1669. Hawking is best known for his best-seller A Brief History of Time, and among scientists for "Hawking radiation" — the theory that black holes are not really black but emit radiation and eventually evaporate and disappear. Another conjecture is that the universe has no edge or boundary in imaginary time. One of his aims is to prove string theory to explain the universe. Hawking has at times startled colleagues with public statements concerning the existence of extraterrestrials, time travel and the creation of new humans through genetic engineering. He also has predicted the end of humanity from global warming, a new killer virus or a large comet colliding with Earth. [Hawking web site]
1942 George Passmore, in Devon, England, of Gilbert and George performance (?) artists (with Gilbert Proesch, British, Italian-born in1943) — — LINKS
1935 Spectrophotometer is patented by A.C. Hardy.
1933 Juan Marsé, escritor español.
1926 Soupy Sales [Milton Hines], North Carolina, comedian (Soupy Sales Show)
1924 Cohn, mathematician.
1921 Leonardo Sciascia, escritor político italiano.
1904 Curtis Arnoux Peters “Peter Arno”, New York City NY, US cartoonist whose satirical drawings, particularly of New York café society, did much to establish The New Yorker magazine's reputation for sophisticated humor. He died on 22 February 1968.
1902 Georgy Maksimilianovich Malenkov, político soviético.
1900 Serge Poliakoff, Russian French artist who died on 12 October 1969. — LINKS — Composition
1888 Richard Courant German / US mathematician (What is mathematics?)
1881 Henri de Waroquier, French artist who died on 31 December 1970.
1874 Oskar Laske, Austrian artist who died in 1951.
1870 Miguel Primo de Rivera y Orbaneja, militar y político español.
1867 Emily Greene Balch, a leader of the women's movement for peace during and after World War I. She shared the 1946 Nobel Peace Prize with Dr. John R. Mott. Balch died on 10 January 1961.
1864 Hugo Darien, French artist who died on 07 January 1926.
1862 Frank Nelson Doubleday publisher/founder (Doubleday and Co)
1852 Giovanni Frattini, mathematician.
1843 Nathaniel Sichel, German artist who died on 04 December 1907.
1836 Lawrence Alma-Tadema, Dutch English Pre-Raphaelite painter who died on 25 June 1912. — MORE ON ALMA~TADEMA AT ART “4” JANUARY — LINKS — Death of the Pharaoh's Firstborn Son — The Phyrric Dance — Sappho and Alcaeus . — Antony and Cleopatra — The Roses of Heliogabalus — Caracalla and Geta — A Favourite Custom — A Favourite Custom — Faust and Marguerite — The Education of the Children of Clovis — An Egyptian Widow — A Roman Family — An Audience at Agrippa's — An Apodyterium — Spring — The Coliseum — The Baths of Caracalla — Silver Favourites — The Finding of Moses (sold for £1.5 million in 1995)— A Sculptor's Model
1829 Schroeter, mathematician.
1823 Florent Willems, Belgian artist who died in October 1905.
1822 Damuel, Sam, Samuel Bough, British artist who died 19 November 1878. — LINKS — Tiberius on the Sea of Galilee

1821 James Longstreet, future Confederate General
      James Longstreet is born near Edgefield, South Carolina. Longstreet became one of the most successful generals in the Confederate Army, but after the war was a target of some of his comrades, who were searching for a scapegoat. Longstreet grew up in Georgia and attended West Point, graduating 54th in a class of 62 in 1842. He was a close friend of Ulysses S. Grant, and served as best man in Grant's 1848 wedding to Julia Dent, Longstreet's fourth cousin. Longstreet fought in the Mexican War and was wounded at the Battle of Chapultepec. He served in the army until he resigned at the beginning of the Civil War, when he was named brigadier general in the Confederate Army.
      Longstreet fought at the First Battle of Bull Run and within a year was commander of corps in the Army of Northern Virginia under General Robert E. Lee. Upon the death of General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson at the Battle of Chancellorsville in May 1863, Longstreet was considered the most effective corps commander in Lee's army. He served with Lee for the rest of the war — except for the fall of 1863, when he took his force to aid the Confederate effort in Tennessee.
      Longstreet was severely wounded at the Battle of the Wilderness in May 1864, and he did not return to service for six months. He resumed service and fought with Lee until the surrender at Appomattox in April 1865. After the war, Longstreet engaged in a number of businesses and held several governmental posts, most notably US Minister to Turkey. Although successful, he made two moves that greatly tarnished his reputation among his fellow southerners. He joined the despised Republican Party and publicly questioned Lee's strategy at the pivotal Battle of Gettysburg. His fellow officers considered these sins to be unforgivable, and former comrades such as Generals Jubal Early and John Gordon attacked Longstreet as a traitor. They asserted that, in fact, Longstreet was responsible for the errors that lost Gettysburg. Longstreet outlived most of his comrades and detractors and died on 02 January 1904. His second wife, Helen Dortch, lived until 1962.

1810 Robert Schumann Zwickau Germ, composer (Neue Zeitschrift fuer Musik)
1785 Jan Baptiste de Jongh, Flemish artist who died on 14 October 1844.
1712 Gabriel Gaspard Grésely (or Gresly), French artist who died in 1756. [Du bon Grésely de bon gré se lit n'importe quel renseignement, mais je n'en trouve pas dans l'internet.]
1696 Étienne Parrocel “le Romain”, French artist who died in 1776.
1638 Elisabetta Sirani, Italian artist, who, on 28 August 1665, died poisoned (according to her father). — MORE ON SIRANI AT ART “4” JANUARY — LINKS — Self-Portrait (1660) — Porcia Wounding Her Thigh — Virgin and Child (1663, 86x70cm) — The Holy Family with St. Elizabeth and St. John the Baptist (etching)
1081 Henry V Roman German king/emperor (1098/1111-25)

“In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual.” — Galileo

Santos Luciano, Máximo, Severino, Paciente y Erardo. / Sainte Alix: Née en 1576 à Remiremont, dans les Vosges, Alix le Clerc fonda la Congrégation de Notre-Dame pour instruire les jeunes filles pauvres. Il s'agissait au XVIe siècle d'une initiative proprement révolutionnaire.

DICTIONNAIRE TICRANIEN GÉOGRAPHIQUE FRANÇAIS-ANGLAIS: LILLE: p'tit ou p'tite. Exemple: LILLE GUEULE: p'tite fille.

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Mona Lisa, Mona Lisa
Men have named you

You're so like the lady
With the mystic smile

Is it only 'cause you're lonely
They have blamed you

For that Mona Lisa
Strangeness in your smile

Do you smile to tempt a lover, Mona Lisa
Or is this your way to hide a broken heart?

Many dreams
Have been brought
To your doorstep...

They just lie there...
And they die there...

Are you warm,
Are you real,
Mona Lisa?

Or just a cold and lonely,
Lovely work of art?

Mona Lisa, Mona Lisa
Men have named you

You're so like the lady
With the mystic smile

Is it only cause you're lonely
They have blamed you

For that Mona Lisa
Strangeness in your smile

Do you smile to tempt a lover, Mona Lisa
Or is this your way to hide a broken heart?

Many dreams
Have been brought
To your doorstep...

They just lie there...
And they die there...

Are you warm,
Are you real,
Mona Lisa?

Or just a cold and lonely,
Lovely work of art?