On a January
31: 2001 Libyan intelligence
officer Abdelbasset Ali al-Megrahi, 48, is
convicted of the murder of the 270 victims of the 21 December 1988 Pan
Am crash in Lockerbie, Scotland. His Libyan co-defendant, Ali Amin Khalifa
Fhimah, 44, is acquitted by the Scottish
court sitting in the Netherlands. al-Megrahi's mandatory sentence is
life in prison, the court recommends consideration of parole after 20 years.
An appeal is expected. The families of the victims are expected to proceed
with a $10 billion civil suit against Libya. 2001
During a 55-minute period a computer error posts extravagantly low United
Airlines fares at www.ual.com.
For example $24.98 for San Francisco to Paris round trip (at the special
E-fare rate listed on 20 February 2001 at http://www.itn.net/cgi/get?itn/air/uamultipromo/index it
would be $298). 143 such tickets are sold and United refuses to honor them
until, faced with outraged customers, it relents on 19 February.
^ 1999 (Sunday) Clinton impeachment
trial: wrangle over exit.
(1) On the eve of Monica Lewinsky's deposition testimony in President
Bill Clinton's impeachment trial, Democratic and Republican senators
wrangle over GOP exit strategies that would leave the president in
office but formally declare that he committed wrongdoing. One plan
floating on Capitol Hill, brought forward by Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine),
would have the Senate vote on "findings of fact" about Clinton's misconduct,
prior to a final vote on the two articles of impeachment lodged against
him. The motion would require only a simple majority to pass, rather
than the two-thirds vote needed to approve the impeachment articles.
"I am not attempting to convict the president but not remove him.
I am not attempting to find him guilty in the legal sense of criminal
wrongdoing," Collins says on NBC's "Meet The Press." "What the approach
that a number of us are working on would do is to set forth findings
of fact from the evidence based on the trial, on which we could build
a bipartisan consensus." A related but slightly different proposal
is been offered by Sen. Orrin Hatch, (R-Utah), under which the Senate
would adjourn after condemning Clinton's conduct, without votes on
the impeachment articles. While many Democrats question the constitutionality
of these approaches, one influential member of the president's party,
Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, says that he has been having
discussions with Republican senators about both proposals. He indicates
he would be open to considering them, depending on the wording of
the condemnation of Clinton. "I've advised my Democratic colleagues
(that) ... we shouldn't rush to judgment on the question of findings
(of fact) until we see what the findings are," he says on ABC's "This
Week." (2) Meanwhile, White House spokesman Jim Kennedy says that
the two women on Clinton's team, Nicole Seligman and Cheryl Mills,
will lead the questioning of Lewinsky. Rep. Ed Bryant (R-Tennessee)
will query her on behalf of the managers. The questioning will take
place at the Mayflower Hotel, where Lewinsky has been staying since
arriving back in Washington from Los Angeles this afternoon. It
will be the first chance House managers have had to question her
extensively, though three of them held a short interview with her
last weekend. It will be the first time the president's lawyers
have had a chance to cross-examine her. And it will be the first
time that her story is caught on videotape. Collins: Opening wide
for the President
(3) The New York Times reports Starr is considering seeking a grand
jury criminal indictment of Clinton. The Times story, quoting Starr
associates, says that Starr had concluded that he had the constitutional
authority to criminally indict the president while he is still in
office.
from
http://members.tripod.com/~jkahn/1999january.html |
1996 Corel purchases WordPerfect Corporation from Novell.
Once the best-selling word processor, WordPerfect had steadily declined
in popularity throughout the '90s, until the WordPerfect suite of office
applications held less than twenty percent of the market. Novell had purchased
WordPerfect in 1994, in an unsuccessful attempt to combat Microsoft's growing
dominance in the consumer software field. 1996 The
last Cubans held in refugee camps at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base board a plane
for Florida. 1994 Dow Jones Industrial Average reaches
a record 3978 1991 Allied forces claim victory against
Iraqi attackers at battle for Khafji, Saudi Arabia, which ends after 3 days.
1991 During the Gulf War, Army Specialists Melissa
Rathbun-Nealy and David Lockett are captured by Iraqi forces near the Kuwaiti-Saudi
border; both would be eventually released.
1990 State
of the Union Address by US President George H. W. Bush
(Sr.).
^ 1990 McMartin preschool retrial
Los Angeles
prosecutors announce that they will retry Raymond Buckey, who was
accused of molesting children at the McMartin Preschool in Manhattan
Beach, California. The McMartin trials had already taken over six
years and cost more than $16 million without a single guilty verdict
resulting from 200 charges. However, a jury had deadlocked on 13 charges
(voting 11-2 for acquittal) against Buckey, and prosecutors were not
willing to let the matter drop. The McMartin prosecutions represented
the height of the hysteria over sexual abuse of children in America.
Despite a complete lack of reputable evidence against the teachers
and workers at the McMartin preschool, and with every indication that
the children had been coerced and manipulated into their testimony,
the prosecutors nonetheless proceeded against Ray Buckey for more
than six years. "Believe the children" became the mantra of advocates
who insisted that children never lied or were mistaken about abuse.
The courts made unprecedented changes to criminal procedure to accommodate
this mistaken notion. The California Supreme Court ruled that child
witnesses were not required to provide details about the time and
place of the alleged molestation to support a conviction. The US Supreme
Court held that child witnesses could testify outside the courtroom
despite the Sixth Amendment's clear command that a defendant had the
right to confront his or her accusers. Throughout the nation, parents
and day-care workers were jailed after false, and often absurd, allegations
about child sexual abuse. As this hysteria swept the country, abuse
counseling quickly became a cottage industry, attracting often-unqualified
people who seemed to find sexual abuse everywhere. Recent research
has found that young children are exceptionally easy to manipulate.
Even when only subtly suggested, a child will respond with the answers
he or she believes a questioner wants to hear. This was abundantly
clear in Ray Buckey's case. In one instance, a girl initially failed
to identify Buckey as someone who had harmed her. After an interview
with Children's Institute International, the counseling agency who
worked with every child in the case, the girl did pick Buckey as her
attacker. It later turned out that Buckey wasn't even at the school
during the time period that the child attended McMartin. Buckey's
retrial went much faster. By July, the jury had acquitted on seven
charges and were deadlocked (once again, the majority voting for acquittal)
on the other six accusations. The district attorney finally decided
to drop the case at that point. However, Buckey and the other accused
workers at the school were not allowed to bring a civil suit. The
courts ruled that anyone reporting child abuse has total immunity,
even if there was knowledge that the report was false. |
^ 1990 First McDonald's in Soviet Union opens.
The Soviet Union's first McDonald's fast
food restaurant, the biggest in the world, opens in Moscow. Throngs of people
line up to pay the equivalent of several days' wages for Big Macs, shakes,
and french fries. The appearance of this notorious symbol of capitalism
and the enthusiastic reception it received from the Russian people were
signs that times were changing in the Soviet Union. An American journalist
on the scene reported the customers seemed most amazed at the "simple sight
of polite shop workers...in this nation of commercial boorishness." A Soviet
journalist had a more practical opinion, stating that the restaurant was
"the expression of America's rationalism and pragmatism toward food." He
also noted that the "contrast with our own unrealized pretensions is both
sad and challenging." For the average Russian customer, however, visiting
the restaurant was less a political statement than an opportunity to enjoy
a small pleasure in a country still reeling from disastrous economic problems
and internal political turmoil. The arrival of McDonald's in Moscow was
a small but certain sign that change was on the horizon. In fact, less than
two years later, the Soviet Union ceased to exist as a nation, Mikhail Gorbachev
resigned as leader of the country, and various Soviet republics proclaimed
their independence. As the American newsman reported, the first Russian
McDonald's customers "had seen the future, and it works, at least as far
as their digestive tract." 1985 South African President
PW Botha offers to free Mandela if he denounces violence 1982
10 Arabian oryx (extinct except in zoos) released in Oman [photo >]
1977 Frenchman François Claustre freed, after 33 months
as hostage in Chad 1973 Washington Post
story: Last
Two Guilty in Watergate Plot Ex-Aides of Nixon to Appeal Jury
Convicts Liddy, McCord in 90 Minutes by Lawrence Meyer (reporting
on For the previous day) 1972 Birendra becomes king
of Nepal (crowned in 1975), upon the death of his father king Mahendra.
1972 Military coup replaces the civilian government of
Ghana by a National Redemption Council of military men chaired by Colonel
Ignatius Kutu Acheampong. The national assembly was dissolved, public meetings
prohibited, political parties proscribed, and leading politicians imprisoned.
^ 1972 North Vietnam presents
peace proposal
In a communiqué charging President Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger
with "unilaterally" divulging the substance of the secret talks, creating
the impasse at the secret meeting, and distorting the facts, North
Vietnam publishes the nine-point plan they submitted during the secret
talks. Since August 1969, talks between Kissinger and North Vietnamese
representatives had been going on secretly in Paris. On January 25,
Nixon, in response to criticism that his administration had not made
its best efforts to end the war, revealed that Kissinger had been
involved in the secret talks. Nixon also disclosed the text of an
eight-point peace proposal presented privately to the North Vietnamese
on October 11, 1971. In their communiqué, the North Vietnamese answered
with their own peace plan. While Washington requested the withdrawal
of all foreign forces from South Vietnam with the condition of an
agreement in principle on a final solution, Hanoi insisted on the
withdrawal of US and Allied troops from all of Indochina without condition.
Hanoi also demanded the immediate resignation of the South Vietnamese
Thieu regime. With the secret talks made public and at an impasse,
the North Vietnamese leadership decided to launch a massive invasion
of South Vietnam in March 1972. |
1971 astronauts Alan B. Shepard Jr., Edgar D. Mitchell
and Stuart A. Roosa blast off aboard Apollo 14 on a mission to the moon.
1968 Nauru (formerly Pleasant Island) declares independence
from Australia (celebrates Independence Day) 1968
Record high barometric pressure (1083.8 mb, 32"), at Agata, USSR
^ 1968 Viet Cong's Tet offensive
begins During
the Vietnam War, Vietnamese Communists launch the Tet offensive, a
massive series of offensives against strategic and civilian locations
throughout South Vietnam. Timed to coincide with the first day of
the lunar New Year — Vietnam’s most important holiday —
the size and scope of the Tet offensive takes US command by surprise.
The Vietcong strike at Saigon, including a penetration of the US embassy
compound, siege a US Marine base at Khe Sanh, and capture the provincial
capital of Hue, among other initial gains. By the end of February,
US and South Vietnamese forces have repulsed the offensive and inflicted
heavy losses on the Vietcong, but the episode exposes the reality
that, contrary to what US military command previously espoused, an
end to the war is not in sight. Following the Tet offensive, American
leaders begin a slow and agonizing reduction of US involvement, and
US President Lyndon Johnson limits bombing, begins peace talks with
Hanoi and the Vietcong, and withdraws his candidate for reelection.
The Tet offensive is widely regarded as a turning point in the Vietnam
conflict. Viet Cong attack US Embassy in Saigon.
As part of the Tet Offensive, Viet
Cong soldiers attack the US Embassy in Saigon. A 19-man suicide squad
seized the US Embassy and held it for six hours until an assault force
of US paratroopers landed by helicopter on the building's roof and
routed them. The offensive was launched on January 30, when communist
forces attacked Saigon, Hue, five of six autonomous cities, 36 of
44 provincial capitals, and 64 of 245 district capitals. The timing
and magnitude of the attacks caught the South Vietnamese and American
forces off guard, but eventually the Allied forces turned the tide.
Militarily, the Tet Offensive was a disaster for the communists. By
the end of March 1968, they had not achieved any of their objectives
and had lost 32,000 soldiers and had 5,800 captured. US forces suffered
3,895 dead; South Vietnamese losses were 4,954; non-US allies lost
214. More than 14,300 South Vietnamese civilians died. While the offensive
was a crushing military defeat for the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese,
the early reporting of a smashing communist victory went largely uncorrected
in the media and this led to a great psychological victory for the
communists. The heavy US casualties incurred during the offensive
coupled with the disillusionment over the earlier overly optimistic
reports of progress in the war accelerated the growing disenchantment
with President Johnson's conduct of the war. Johnson, frustrated with
his inability to reach a solution in Vietnam announced on March 31,
1968, that he would neither seek nor accept the nomination of his
party for re-election. |
^ 1968 Apollo 14 departs for the
Moon Apollo
14, piloted by astronauts Alan B. Shepard, Jr., Edgar D. Mitchell,
and Stuart A. Roosa, is successfully launched from Cape Canaveral,
Florida, on a manned mission to the moon. On February 5, after suffering
some initial problems in docking the lunar and command modules, Shepard
and Mitchell descend to the lunar surface on the third US moon landing.
Upon stepping out of the lunar module, Shepard, who was the first
American in space in 1961 aboard Freedom 7, becomes the fifth astronaut
to walk on the moon. Shepard and Mitchell remain on the lunar surface
for nearly thirty-four hours, conduct simple scientific experiments
such as hitting golf balls into space with Shepard’s golf club, and
collect ninety-six pounds of lunar samples. On February 9, Apollo
14 safely returns to earth. |
1964 US report Smoking and Health connects smoking
to lung cancer
^ 1962 The OAS expels Cuba
The Organization of American
States (OAS) adopts a resolution to expel Cuba from its ranks for
its attempted subversion of other OAS countries. The OAS, a regional
agency initially comprising twenty-one North, South, and Central American
nations, was established in 1948 to promote peace and economic development
in the Americas. On January 1, 1959, after a bloody three-year civil
war, Cuban rebel leader Fidel Castro seized power in Cuba and proclaimed
himself premier of the island nation. The Organization of American
States initially recognized the new leftist leader of Cuba, an important
member state in the OAS, but grew critical of the Cuban dictator after
he launched a program of agrarian reform, nationalized international
assets on the island, and declared a Marxist government. In January
of 1961, the US broke diplomatic relations with Cuba and three months
later, with training and support by the Central Intelligence Agency
(CIA), Cuban exiles launched an ill-fated invasion of Cuba, known
as the "Bay of Pigs." In January of the next year, under pressure
from the US, the OAS voted to expel Cuba from its ranks in an attempt
to isolate Castor’s Communist regime. |
1961 David Ben-Gurion resigns as premier of Israel
1961 NATO secretary-General Paul-Henri Spaak says he'll
resign 1961 Ham is first primate in space (158 miles)
aboard Mercury/Redstone 2 1958 James van Allen discovers
radiation belt 1958 The US launches Explorer 1,
the country's first satellite. Satellite communication would prove instrumental
to the growth of wireless communications, including cell phones, pagers,
cellular modems, and a variety of other mobile computing devices.
1957 Trans-Iranian oil pipe line finished 1956
French government of Mollet forms 1956 Juscelino
Kubitschek becomes President of Brazil
^ 1950 Truman announces start
of development of the nuclear fusion bomb
US President Harry S. Truman publicly announces that he ordered the
Atomic Energy Commission to develop the nuclear fusion (hydrogen)
bomb, a weapon theorized to be dozens of times more powerful than
the atomic bombs dropped on Japan during World War II. Five months
earlier, the United States had lost its nuclear supremacy when the
Soviet Union successfully detonated an atomic bomb at their test site
in Kazakhstan. Several weeks after that, British and US intelligence
came to the staggering conclusion the German-born Klaus Fuchs, a top-ranking
scientist in the US nuclear program, was a spy for the Soviet Union.
These two events, and the fact that the Soviets now knew everything
that the Americans did about how to build a hydrogen bomb, led Truman
to approve massive funding for the superpower race to complete the
world’s first "superbomb," as he described it in his public announcement
on January 31, 1950. On November 1, 1952, the United States successfully
detonated "Mike," the world’s first hydrogen bomb, on the Elugelab
Atoll in the Pacific Marshall Islands. The 10.4-megaton thermonuclear
device, built upon the Teller-Ulam principles of staged radiation
implosion, instantly vaporized an entire island and left behind a
crater a couple of kilometers wide. The incredible explosive force
of Mike was also apparent from the sheer magnitude of its mushroom
cloud — within ninety seconds the mushroom cloud climbed to
17'000 m and entered the stratosphere. One minute later it reached
33'000 m, eventually stabilizing at a ceiling of 36'500 feet. Half
an hour after the test, the mushroom stretched 100 km across, with
the base of the head joining the stem at 14'000 m. Two years later,
on November 22, 1954, the Soviet Union would detonate its first hydrogen
bomb on the same principle of radiation implosion. Both superpowers
were now in possession of the "hell bomb," as it was known by many
Americans, and the world lived under the threat of thermonuclear war
for the first time in history. |
1946 Yugoslavia adopts new constitution, becomes a federal
republic 1945 US 4th Infantry division occupies
Elcherrath 1944 During World War II, US forces begin
invading Kwajalein Atoll and other parts of the Japanese-held Marshall Islands.
1944 Operation-Overlord (D-Day) postponed until
June 1943 Chile breaks diplomatic relations with
Germany and Japan
General Friedrich von Paulus surrenders to Russian
troops at Stalingrad ^ 1943 Capitulation
allemande à Stalingrad.
Le maréchal Friedrich von Paulus signe la capitulation de la VIe armée
allemande à Stalingrad. Ayant soumis l'Europe continentale au terme
de plusieurs guerres-éclair, Hitler ne trouva que l'Angleterre de
Winston Churchill pour lui résister pendant un an. Mais le 22 juin
1941, le dictateur allemand attaque son allié Staline. Ses troupes
envahissent l'URSS et arrivent aux portes de Moscou et de Léningrad.
Une partie de la Wehrmacht se dirige vers le sud et les gisements
de pétrole du Caucase tandis que la VIe Armée de von Paulus oblique
vers la ville de Stalingrad. Cette métropole industrielle située sur
la Volga a changé son nom de Tsaritsyn pour celui du dictateur soviétique
(la ville s'appelle aujourd'hui Volgograd, la "ville de la Volga").
Le Führer veut à tout prix s'en emparer. Stalingrad, qui s'étend sur
40 km, est conquise rue par rue pendant l'automne 1942, au prix d'immenses
souffrances des deux côtés. Mais le chef d'état-major soviétique,
le général Joukov, devine que les Allemands se sont avancés trop loin
de leurs bases. Il regroupe ses forces et déclenche une puissante
contre-offensive. Le 19 novembre, deux armées soviétiques se dirigent
sur Stalingrad en empruntant la Volga gelée, l'une par le nord, l'autre
par le sud. La VIe Armée allemande est bientôt emprisonnée dans sa
conquête, une ville en ruine plongée dans le terrible hiver russe!
Hitler interdit à von Paulus de faire retraite. En janvier, il le
nomme maréchal pour le détourner du déshonneur de la capitulation.
Mais von Paulus n'a bientôt plus d'autre solution que de se rendre
avec les 90.000 soldats survivants du siège. Son armée aura perdu
400'000 hommes dont 120'000 prisonniers. La victoire des Soviétiques,
trois mois après celle des Britanniques à El Alamein, soulève un immense
espoir dans les pays soumis à l'occupation allemande. En démontrant
la vulnérabilité des armées allemandes, la bataille de Stalingrad
marque un tournant dans la Seconde Guerre mondiale. La défaite de
Hitler devient inéluctable. Anniversaire: Franz Schubert est né à
Vienne le 31 janvier 1797. Die
in Stalingrad eingeschlossene 6. Armee unter dem noch schnell zum
Generalfeldmarschall beförderten Paulus kapituliert mit über 300.000
Mann, die unterernährt und schlecht ausgerüstet in Gefangenschaft
gehen. |
1943 39 U boats sunk this month (203'100 tons) 1942
62 U boats sunk this month (327'000 tons)
1942 Chrysler, Plymouth, and Studebaker Retool For War The last pre-war
automobiles produced by Chrysler, Plymouth, and Studebaker rolled off the
assembly lines today. Wartime restrictions had shut down the commercial
automobile industry almost completely, and auto manufacturers were racing
to retool their factories for military gear. 1941
21 U boats sunk this month (127'000 tons) 1940 40
U boats sunk this month (111'000 tons)
^ 1940 First monthly Social Security
check. Ida May
Fuller of Ludlow, Vermont, receives a $22.54 check from the Federal
government.It is the first monthly retirement payment made under the
Social Security Act. When the act initially passed in 1935, benefits
were paid out in lump sums. But, with Fuller’s check, the government
starts its program of doling out regular benefits to retired workers.
For Fuller, it is simply the first in a series of payments that would
lasted for the next thirty-five years: Before dying at age 100 in
1975, Fuller would received regular payments totaling $22'000. |
1934 US President Franklin Roosevelt devalues the dollar
in relation to gold to $35 per ounce 1933 French
government of Daladier takes power 1933 Hitler promises
parliamentary democracy 1929 Leon Trotsky expelled
from Russia to Turkey 1927 International allies
military command in Germany disbands 1925 Premier
Ahmed Zogu becomes President of Angola
^ 1917 Germany announces that
its U-boats will attack neutral ships.
Germany's admiral Tirpitz announces the renewal of unlimited submarine
warfare in the Atlantic, and German torpedo-armed submarines prepare
to attack any and all ships, including civilian passenger carriers,
said to be sited in war-zone waters. Three days later, the United
States broke diplomatic relations with Germany, and just hours after
that the American liner Housatonic was sunk by a German U-boat. None
of the 25 Americans on board were killed, and all were later picked
up by a British steamer. When World War I erupted in 1914, President
Woodrow Wilson pledged neutrality for the United States, a position
that the vast majority of Americans favored. Britain, however, was
one of America's closest trading partners, and tension soon arose
between the United States and Germany over the latter's attempted
quarantine of the British isles. Several US ships traveling to Britain
were damaged or sunk by German mines, and in February 1915 Germany
announced unrestricted warfare against all ships, neutral or otherwise,
that entered the war zone around Britain.
One month later, Germany announced that a German cruiser had sunk
the William P. Frye, a private American vessel that was transporting
grain to England when it disappeared. President Wilson was outraged,
but the German government apologized and called the attack an unfortunate
mistake. The Germans' most formidable naval weapon was the U-boat,
a submarine far more sophisticated than those built by other nations
at the time. The typical U-boat was 214 feet long, carried 35 men
and 12 torpedoes, and could travel underwater for two hours at a time.
In the first few years of World War I, the U-boats took a terrible
toll on Allied shipping. In early May 1915, several New York newspapers
published a warning by the German embassy in Washington that Americans
traveling on British or Allied ships in war zones did so at their
own risk. The announcement was placed on the same page as an advertisement
of the imminent sailing of the British-owned Lusitania ocean liner
from New York to Liverpool.
On May 7, the Lusitania was torpedoed without warning just off the
coast of Ireland. Of the 1959 passengers, 1198 were killed, including
128 Americans. The German government maintained that the Lusitania
was carrying munitions, but the US demanded reparations and an end
to German attacks on unarmed passenger and merchant ships. In August,
Germany pledged to see to the safety of passengers before sinking
unarmed vessels but in November sunk an Italian liner without warning,
killing 272 people, including 27 Americans. Public opinion in the
United States began to turn irrevocably against Germany. In 1917,
Germany, determined to win its war of attrition against the Allies,
announces the resumption of unrestricted warfare.
The United States would break off diplomatic relations with Germany
on 3 February, and on 22 February Congress would pass a $250 million
arms appropriations bill intended to make the United States ready
for war. Two days later, British authorities gave the US ambassador
to Britain a copy of the "Zimmermann Note," a coded message from German
foreign secretary Arthur Zimmermann to Count Johann von Bernstorff,
the German ambassador to Mexico. In the telegram, intercepted and
deciphered by British intelligence, Zimmermann stated that, in the
event of war with the United States, Mexico should be asked to enter
the conflict as a German ally. In return, Germany promised to restore
to Mexico the lost territories of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona.
On March 1, the US State Department published the note, and American
public opinion was galvanized against Germany. In late March, Germany
sunk four more US merchant ships, and on April 2 President Wilson
appeared before Congress and called for a declaration of war against
Germany. On April 4, the Senate voted 82 to six to declare war against
Germany. Two days later, the House of Representatives endorsed the
declaration by a vote of 373 to 50, and America formally entered World
War I. On June 26, the first 14,000 US infantry troops landed in France
to begin training for combat. After four years of bloody stalemate
along the western front, the entrance of America's well-supplied forces
into the conflict was a major turning point in the war. When the war
finally ended, on 11 November 11, more than two million American soldiers
had served on the battlefields of Western Europe, and some 50'000
of these men had lost their lives. |
1915 first (German) poison gas attack, against Russians
1906 Strongest instrumentally recorded earthquake,
Colombia, 8.6 Richter 1905 first auto to exceed
100 mph (161 kph), A G MacDonald, Daytona Beach 1901
Boer Generals Jan Smuts and De la Rey conquer Mud river Transvaal, during
the South African war. 1895 José Martí and others
leave New York City NY for invasion of Spanish Cuba 1871
Millions of birds fly over western San Francisco, darken the sky
1865 US House of Representatives passes 13th Amendment,
abolishing slavery (121-24) 1865 General Robert
E Lee named Commander-in-Chief of Confederate Armies 1865
Robert Edward Lee named General-in-Chief of all Confederate armies
1863 Confederate ironclads temporarily break the blockade
at Charleston Harbor, South Carolina 1863 first
black Civil War regiment, SC Volunteers, mustered into US army 1846
Corn Laws abolished in Britain
^ 1795 Hamilton resigns as US
Treasury Secretary.
Wounded by the sharp criticism of his colleagues, Alexander Hamilton
resigned his post as the Secretary of the Treasury on this day in
1795. During his run as the first US Treasury Secretary, Hamilton
put his conservative stamp on the young nation’s finances, establishing
a national bank and a tax-based system to fuel the repayment of national
and foreign debts. Hamilton also pushed for the Federal government
to assume full responsibility for debts incurred by the states during
the Revolutionary War. However, Hamilton’s Federalist ardor was a
frequent target for controversy, as was his role in meting out the
country’s neutrality stance during the early stages of the Napoleonic
Wars. Hamilton’s involvement in the latter bit of policy drew particularly
heavy fire and helped seal his departure from office. And so, Hamilton
putatively retired to lick his wounds and count his vast personal
fortune. But, the siren call of politics proved irresistible and Hamilton
served a long stint as an unofficial presidential advisor. |
1675 Cornelia/Dina Olfaarts found not guilty of witchcraft
1627 Spanish government goes bankrupt 1596
Catholic League disjoins 1531 Kings Ferdinand of
Austria/János Zápolyai of Hungary accept each other 1504
By treaty of Lyons, French cede Naples to Ferdinand of Aragon 0993
St.
Ulrich, who lived 890-973, and was Bishop of Augsburg from 923, was
canonized at a Lateran Synod. With this action by Pope John
XV, St. Ulrich became the first individual in Roman Catholic history
formally elevated to sainthood. 0876 Charles becomes
king of Italy 0314 St
Sylvester I begins his reign as Pope
|