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Events, deaths, births, of FEB 07

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On a February 07:
2003 World chess champion Garry Kimovich Kasparov [13 April 1963-], with Black (playing his favorite Najdorf defense to the Sicilian opening), draws against computer program Deep Junior in the crucial sixth and last game of a match which started on 26 January (28 Jan Game 2 — 30 Jan Game 3 — 02 Feb Game 4 — 05 Feb Game 5). The final match score is tied Kasparov 3, Deep Junior 3. Kasparov gets $750'000, and Deep Junior $250'000. The game:
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Be2 [avoiding the sharpest Najdorf lines, especially what would come after 6. Bg5] e5 [rather than his usual 6. ...Bg6, Kasparov goes into the more unbalanced lines of the Boleslavsky variation] 7. Nb3 Be7 8. 0~0 0~0 9. Kh1 [will permit the advance of the f pawn without endangering the king, but, once out of its opening book, Deep Junior will negate this by blocking the pawn with 11.Bf3] Bd7 [played with the intention of getting Deep Junior out of its huge openings book] 10. Be3 [does not seem to be the best move] Bc6 [Kasparov's position is very comfortable] 11. Bf3 [protects e4, but of dubious strategic value] Nbd7 12. a4 [gains some space on the queen side and prevents Kasparov from expanding with ...b5] b6 [to prevent a5] 13. Qd3 Bb7 [the Bishop protects the a6 Pawn, attacked by the White Queen, so that the Rook can go to its optimum place, on the open c file] 14. h3 [now out of its opening book, Deep Junior wastes a move and creates weaknesses on its king's side] Rc8 15. Rad1 h6 [Kasparov gives his king another escape square, but mostly seems to be making a waiting move, hoping for a blunder by Deep Junior] 16.Rfe1 Qc7 17. g3 Rfd8 18. Kh2 [a waiting move] Re8 [also a waiting move] 19. Re2 Qc4 20. Qxc4 Rxc4 [removing the Queens reduces the tactical possibilities and the chances for a win, but slightly more for the computer than for the human] 21. Nd2 Rc7 22. Bg2 Rec8 23. Nb3 Rxc3 [after a lengthy consideration, Kasparov sacrifices the rook so as to open up of the c file. He offers a draw, but Deep Junior's humans decline it.] 24. bxc3 Bxe4 25. Bc1 Bxg2 26. Kxg2 Rxc3 27. Ba3 Ne8 28. f4. Deep Junior's humans offer a draw, Kasparov accepts.
^ 2002 Ask Jeeves shares sink further.
      Shares of Ask Jeeves Inc. (ASKJ) plummet $1.35, more than 46%, to close at $1.55 on the Nasdaq Stock Market, as the Internet search engine company (http://www.ask.com) reports a small fourth quarter profit, but warns of a wider-than-expected loss in the current quarter. The company said it earned $1.3 million, or 3 cents a share for the three months ended on 31 December 2001. In the year ago period, Ask Jeeves reported a loss of $62 million, or $1.74 a share. Excluding restructuring charges, gains on the dissolution of a joint venture and other one-time items, the company reported a pro forma net loss of $3.5 million, or 9 cents a share. That's narrower than its year-ago equivalent loss of $18.7 million, or 53 cents a share. The operating results beat the analysts' consensus loss estimate of 17 cents per share. Revenues were $15.4 million, down 33% from $23 million in the year-ago period. For the current quarter, the company warns that it expects a pro forma net loss of about $10 million, or 25 cents a share — far more than the 16 cents a share that analysts were expecting. The company said it expects a pro forma loss of 50 cents a share for all of 2002 but expects to achieve a small operating profit in the fourth quarter. For all of 2001, the company reported a net loss of $425.3 million, or $11.48 per share, on revenue of $66.6 million. In fiscal 2000, it lost $189.6 million, or $5.51 per share on revenue of $95.7 million. [ASKJ price charts below, first two from the left. Notice the 40-fold change in scale required by the start of 2001 because of the collapse of share prices]
      On 07 February 2003, ASKJ would close at $5.86, having in the intervening year traded as low as $0.86 (11 Jul 2002) and as high as $6.50 (05 Feb 2003) [chart below, right].
ALKJ price chart before 2001 ASKJ price chart from 2001
2001 Jean-Bertrand Aristide, 47, is inaugurated as president of Haiti, for the 2nd time, his Lavalas Family party having gotten over 80% of the vote in the May 2000 election, which according to the opposition and independent observers, was rigged. The Convergence opposition alliance of 15 parties recognizes as “provisional president” Gérard Gourgue, 75, to rule by decree until general elections in 2003. Gourgue was minister of justice following the ouster of dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier on 7 February 1986, and a presidential candidate in 1987 elections aborted by bloody attacks by the army.
2001 El presidente ecuatoriano Gustavo Noboa y Antonio Vargas, líder de la Confederación Nacional de Indígenas de Ecuador (Conaie), firman un acuerdo.
2001 In Cleveland $640'000 in three bundles of about 20 kg each falls on the street out of the back of an armored truck whose back door was not properly closed. Unrelated security guard Mark Morant, 38, picks it the bundles and returns them unopened two days later, after his description has been broadcast. The FBI gives him a hard time because of the delay. Nevertheless AT Systems, the armored truck company, says that it will pay him the announced $75'000 reward and give another $10'000 to the man who gave his description to the police.
^ 2001 Blind cod offered retirement home.
      A blind cod has swum into the same net about 35 times in the Norwegian fjord of Hardanger and is only alive because a soft-hearted fisherman frees him each time. "He's too thin to eat and he's in bad condition," said Harald Hauso, 69, on 26 January 2001, "and I feel a bit sorry for him."
    The cod, blind in both eyes and weighing about 2.5 kg, first swam into Hauso's hooped nets in March of 2000. In the nets are tiny crabs and starfish, on which the cod feeds. "He's found out that it's an easy place to find food. And he knows I let him go every time. Also, maybe he feels safe because the net protects him," Hauso said. He says that a marine park from nearby Aalesund offered today to let the fish retire in the safety of its aquarium. "I've said 'yes' to the offer. It'll be a good place for him to be a pensioner," he says.
     Hauso catches the cod for the 40th and last time on 7 February, and sees it off to Aalesund, about 300 km north of Hardanger, where it is to share a private pool at the marine park with a Big Mama, a short-sighted halibut.
     On 09 February 2001, the blind cod would cling to life after surviving a critical medical operation and 40 nettings by a Norwegian fisherman.BR>       The celebrity fish is caught off Norway for the 40th and final time on 07 Feb by Harald Hauso, 69, who gives up the chase and sends it to retire in a private pool in a marine park in Aalesund. Almost entirely blind in both eyes and weighing a meager 4-6 lbs., it was touch and go whether it would survive the 190-mile journey north from the Hardanger fjord where it was caught. The cod had to undergo an emergency operation to remove gas which built up inside its body because of its repeated capture. "He had too much gas inside, so we put the needle inside and took the gas out," Jan Einarsen, director at Aalesund's Atlantic Sea Park, told Reuters. He said the cod — nicknamed Balder after a handsome god in Norwegian mythology — was also stressed after being trapped and released so many times. Einarsen said his biggest concern was the fish's loss of appetite, despite being tempted by squid, shrimp, herring and mussels. The cod first blundered into Hauso's nets in March 2000 and returned almost every week, apparently attracted by the smell of the nylon. Hauso repeatedly freed the scrawny fish because it was too thin to eat and he felt sorry for it.
2000 La victoria de Stipe Mesic en las elecciones presidenciales de Croacia supone el fin del régimen del difunto Franjo Tudjman.
2000 El laboratorio Pfizer, creador de la Viagra, y la Warner-Lambert se fusionan en una operación de $90'000'000'000.
2000 The Web site Yahoo! comes under a "denial of service" attack by Internet vandals who overwhelm the site with junk messages that block legitimate users from gaining access.
1999 (Sunday) Around the Clinton impeachment trial.

(1) In an interview aired on ABC's "This Week," the dean of Senate Democrats, the influential and respected Robert Byrd of West Virginia, indicates that he is at least considering voting to convict Clinton.
  • "It will be very difficult to stand and say 'not guilty' — very difficult," Byrd says. <"Who's kidding whom here? I have to live with myself. I have to live with my conscience. And I have to live with the Constitution. I have no doubt that he has given false testimony under oath and that he has misled the American people," Byrd says. "There are indications that he did indeed obstruct justice."
  • But Byrd says that because conviction carries with it automatic removal from office, he also has to take into consideration "what's in the best interests of the nation." "There has been such polarization, such a division among the American people," he says. "To remove him — does it help that or does it make the wound deeper?"
(2) The New York Daily News reports:
Bill 'Still Doesn't Get It' Clinton is rueful, but not contrite, sources report
By THOMAS M. DeFRANK
Daily News Washington Bureau Chief
WASHINGTON
White House aides have promised there won't be any gloating when President Clinton's impeachment trial ends this week, but someone apparently forgot to tell the Comeback Kid.
On the eve of his expected acquittal by the Senate, an exuberant Clinton is telling old friends and political allies that except for hurting his family, he continues to believe he has done nothing wrong in the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal. "This was much ado about nothing," Clinton recently assured an old pal, dismissing the impeachment process as a partisan cabal choreographed by his political foes.
"I beat the odds," the President has also happily told well-wishers.
Presidential press secretary Joe Lockhart, who last week declared the White House a "gloat-free zone," responded: "I think the President fully understands what he's done, has taken responsibility, understands who he's hurt and is working hard to make it right — with his family, his friends, the administration and the American people."
According to several well-placed sources who recently have spoken with Clinton, his private demeanor is notably lacking in remorse. Privately, some of these presidential intimates worry that in his understandable relief that the impeachment ordeal is almost over, he still doesn't get it.
Says one, "It's a lot easier for him to focus on his outrage at Republicans for putting him through this for a year, than his own behavior."
"There's no contrition for what he's done," echoes another dismayed counselor who regularly speaks with the President. "That's all just an act. He's only sorry he got caught."
One veteran presidential adviser who asked for anonymity suggested there's a difference between remorse — which he believes Clinton privately feels — and contrition.
"I think there's real honest regret for behaving stupidly and being shabby to his family and not being straight with his staff," the source observed. "But he doesn't believe he lied or obstructed justice. If that's the definition of contrition, he isn't contrite."
In a conversation in December, Clinton told a former senator he would accept a censure resolution saying he misled independent counsel Kenneth Starr's grand jury, but would never concede that he lied or obstructed justice.
He repeated that defiance in a more recent conversation with another source, when reminded that some Democratic senators were saying the language of a bi-partisan censure might go easier on him if he admits to some culpability. "I won't do that," Clinton replied. "I'll never do that. I didn't lie, and I didn't obstruct justice."
Asked how he reacted to Clinton's remark, the source said, "He's in total denial."
Sen. Robert Torricelli (D-N.J.) vigorously disagrees.
"There's an enormous sense of disappointment in himself," says Torricelli, a loyalist who also supports a tough censure. "I have heard him speak in terms of disbelief that he ever got into this situation."
An old Clinton pal says the President was angry and morose after being impeached by the House on 19 December. But Clinton's mood "has changed dramatically as it became clear that he was going to be acquitted," the friend says. "Now he is up, way up."

from http://members.tripod.com/~jkahn/1999february.html
1995 Ramzi Yousef is arrested in Islamabad, Pakistan, after two years as a fugitive. Extradited to the US, he would on 12 November 1997, together with a co-defendant, be found guilty on all four counts of participating in the planning and execution of the 26 February 1993 World Trade Center bombing (he was the mastermind).
^ 1992 Signature du traité de Maastricht.
     La signature du traité de Maastricht crée officiellement l’Union Economique Européenne. Maastricht est une ville de 120'000 habitants dans le sud-est des Pays-Bas, le chef-lieu de la province du Limbourg, sur la Meuse, près de la frontière avec la Belgique. A moins de 40 Kms de Liège. C'est un centre industriel produisant des textiles, des produits chimiques, des céramiques et du verre. On y trouve de nombreux monuments historiques, notamment la basilique Saint-Servais, construite au Xe siècle, la plus ancienne église des Pays-Bas, ou encore l'église Notre-Dame de style roman. Maastricht est également un important centre culturel, possédant un conservatoire de musique, un orchestre symphonique et un musée d'Art moderne renommé. Maastricht fut fondée au IVe siècle à l'emplacement d'un pont romain. Annexée par les Provinces-Unies en 1632, elle fut assiégée par Louis XIV et Vauban en 1673. C'est au cours de ce siège que mourut le fameux d'Artagnan (repris par Alexandre Dumas). Elle fut attribuée aux Pays-Bas en 1830, après avoir résisté à la Belgique.
      La ville devint célèbre en 1992, lors d'un sommet historique au cours duquel les dirigeants des douze pays de la Communauté européenne signèrent un traité destiné à accélérer leur intégration économique et politique. 12 chefs d'État et de gouvernement de la Communauté économique européenne signèrent le traité sur l'Union européenne qui est une révision majeure du traité de Rome. Outre un approfondissement de l'intégration économique dans l'Union économique et monétaire (UEM), le traité confère à l'Union des prérogatives qui dépassent le champ économique en définissant les modalités d'une politique extérieure et de sécurité commune (PESC), ainsi qu'une coopération dans les domaines de la justice et des affaires intérieures. L'achèvement du grand marché intérieur, tel que défini dans l'Acte unique européen de 1986, est complété dans l'UEM par une politique monétaire commune et par la création d'une monnaie unique européenne. Nommée " Euro " par le Conseil européen de Madrid de décembre 1995. La création de la banque centrale européenne, chargée de gérer l'émission de monnaie et de mettre en œuvre la politique monétaire de l'Union, est prévue pour 1999. La PESC, quant à elle, est l'ébauche d'une future politique de défense commune de l'Union. Pour l'instant, il ne s'agit que d'un cadre intergouvernemental permettant de mettre en œuvre des actions communes en matière de politique étrangère.
      Un autre apport essentiel du traité est l'instauration de la citoyenneté européenne. Est citoyen européen tout ressortissant d'un des États membres. En pratique, cette citoyenneté permet à n'importe quel citoyen européen de s'installer dans un autre État membre (sans nécessairement s'y établir sur le plan économique, ce droit étant déjà garanti par le traité de Rome dans le cadre de la liberté de circulation des travailleurs) et d'élire un représentant au Parlement européen depuis son lieu de résidence. La période qui a précédé la ratification du traité par les différents États membres a suscité des débats internes houleux sur la pertinence de l'approfondissement de l'intégration, et donc de l'abandon par les États d'une partie de leur souveraineté au profit d'une entité supranationale. L'intensité du débat a varié selon les pays. Dans la plupart des États, c'est le Parlement qui ratifie les traités. Le débat de ratification a donc pu y être moins divulgué, les députés débattant au sein de l'assemblée. En France, la ratification des traités peut être soumise à référendum. Le gouvernement de l'époque a choisi d'employer cette procédure, ce qui donna lieu pendant le printemps et l'été de 1992 à une confrontation politique entre " pro " et "anti-Maastricht " qui ne recouvrait pas la traditionnelle césure droite-gauche. Le "oui" au référendum l'emporta de justesse en France (51%).
      Le traité fut finalement ratifié par 10 États membres sur 12. Le Danemark et le Royaume-Uni (comme par hasard), réticents devant la perte de souveraineté que représentait l'abandon de la politique monétaire à l'Union, ne le ratifièrent pas. Ils font tout de même partie de l'Union, mais ont la possibilité de ne pas participer à certains aspects de l'intégration monétaire. Le Royaume-Uni avait déjà quitté le mécanisme de taux de change du SME au moment des attaques spéculatives de 1993, faisant subir à la livre une forte dépréciation par rapport à l'écu (European Currency Unit) constitué d'un panier des monnaies européennes. L'appartenance à l'Union monétaire étant normalement conditionnée par la maintien de la monnaie nationale dans des "marges étroites" de variation par rapport à l'écu, la participation du Royaume-Uni semble repoussée, pour l'immédiat. Bien que les milieux d’affaires souhaitent vivement ne pas rester écartés du nouveau système monétaire. Cependant, les autres pays connaissent également des difficultés à remplir d'autres "critères de convergence" des économies nationales, dont le traité de Maastricht exige la satisfaction avant le lancement de la monnaie unique. Ces critères concernent les indicateurs clés des économies. Il s'agit du niveau de la dette des États, qui ne doit pas dépasser 60 % du produit intérieur brut (PIB), de leur déficit, qui ne doit pas dépasser 3 % du produit intérieur brut (PIB), et des taux de change, d'intérêt et d'inflation, qui doivent être maintenus dans des marges proches de la moyenne des " meilleures performances ". Presque tous les États connaissent de graves problèmes de déficit et d'endettement, de sorte qu'au début de 1996 le Luxembourg était le seul à satisfaire à tous les critères.
     Les douze ministres des affaires étrangères de l'Union européenne signent un «traité d'union économique, monétaire et politique» à Maastricht, aux Pays-Bas. Le traité de Maastricht est le deuxième acte fondamental de la construction européenne après le traité de Rome du 27 mars 1957. Il trace la voie vers une union monétaire qui est devenue effective pour onze pays de l'Union le 1er janvier 1999. C'est la première fois qu'une unification monétaire précède l'unification politique et sociale. Cette innovation réveille les opposants à l'Europe économique, jugée trop technocratique. D'aucuns s'indignent que l’Europe parle gros sous pendant que des bandes mènent une guerre abominable autour de Sarajevo. En juin 1992, le petit Danemark, dans l'euphorie de sa victoire sur l'Allemagne en Coupe d'Europe de football, ose rejeter le traité par référendum. En France, le président Mitterrand est poussé à organiser aussi un référendum. Le traité est approuvé de justesse par le peuple français après des débats exceptionnellement virulents. Il faudra la froide obstination des responsables politiques et des instances européennes pour que le traité suive son cours.

At Maastricht in the Netherlands, the Maastricht Treaty of European Union is signed by ministers from the European Community, formally establishing the European Union. The agreement, which takes effect on November 1, 1993, calls for greater economic integration, common foreign and security policies, and cooperation between police and other authorities on crime, terrorism, and immigration issues. The treaty also lays the groundwork for the establishment of a single European currency — the “Euro.” By 1993, twelve nations have ratified the Maastricht Treaty on European Union: Great Britain, France, Germany, the Irish Republic, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, Denmark, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands. After suffering through centuries of bloody conflict, the nations of Western Europe finally unite in the spirit of economic cooperation.
^ 1991 Haiti's first democratically elected leader assumes office
      On the 5th anniversary of the flight of Bébé Doc, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, a radical Roman Catholic priest who was an opponent of the dictatorship of Jean-Claude Duvalier, is sworn in as Haiti’s first democratically elected leader. In December of 1990, Aristide had won a landslide victory in Haiti’s first free elections. However, less than nine months after his inauguration, in February of 1991, Aristide is deposed in a bloody military coup and flees to Venezuela. The Organization of American States calls for his restoration and imposes an economic embargo, and although a series of civilian leaders are subsequently appointed, a three-man military junta led by General Raul Cedras retains real power.
    In 1993, the United Nation approves heavy economic sanctions against Haiti, and in 1994 authorizes the use of force to restore Aristide. Amid invasion preparations, the United States negotiates an agreement calling for Aristide’s return, and in October of 1994, a US-led force occupies Haiti and oversees Aristide’s return to power. In 1995, a military-supported candidate, René Préval, is elected to succeed Aristide, who is barred from running by the constitution.
^ 1990 Soviet Communist Party gives up monopoly on power.
      The Central Committee of the Soviet Union's Communist Party agrees to endorse President Mikhail Gorbachev's recommendation that the party give up its 70-year long monopoly of political power. The Committee's decision to allow political challenges to the party's dominance in Russia was yet another signal of the impending collapse of the Soviet system. At the end of three days of extremely stormy meetings dealing with economic and political reforms in the Soviet Union, the Central Committee announced that it was endorsing the idea that the Soviet Communist Party should make "no claim for any particular role to be encoded in the Constitution" that was currently being rewritten. The proposal was but one of many made by President Gorbachev during the meetings. Critics of Gorbachev's plan charged that dissipating the Communist Party's power would erode the gains made since the Bolshevik Revolution and would weaken the international stature of the Soviet Union. Supporters, however, carried the day — they noted the impatience of the Soviet people with the slow pace of change and the general pessimism about the crumbling economy under communist rule. As one Communist Party official noted, "Society itself will decide whether it wishes to adopt our politics." However, he was also quick to add that the move by the Central Committee did not mean that the Communist Party was removing itself from public affairs. Many foreign observers stressed that even in a new pluralistic political system in Russia, the well-established party would have immense advantages over any challengers. The response from the United States was surprise and cautious optimism. One State Department official commented that, "The whole Soviet world is going down the drainpipe with astonishing speed. It's mind-boggling." Former Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger indicated that he was "personally gratified and astonished that anyone would have the chance to say such things in Moscow without being shot." President George Bush was more circumspect, merely congratulating President Gorbachev for his "restraint and finesse." Ironically, the fact that the Communist Party was willing to accept political challenges to its authority indicated how desperately it was trying to maintain its weakening power over the country. The measures were little help, however — President Gorbachev resigned on 25 December 1991 and the Soviet Union officially ceased to exist on 31 December 1991.
1989 Both houses of the US Congress vote against their scheduled 51% pay increase.
1986 Philippine Corazon Aquino defeats incumbent dictator Ferdinand Marcos but fraudulent returns gave the election to Marcos.
1986 Haiti's President-for-Life “Bébé Doc” Jean-Claude Duvalier flees to France, ending 28 years of his family's rule. Henri Namphy becomes leader of Haiti
^ 1984 First untethered extra-vehicular activity in space.
      While in orbit around the earth, Navy Captain Bruce McDaniels II becomes the first human being to fly untethered in space when he exits the US space shuttle Challenger and maneuvers freely using his Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU), a rocket pack of his own design. McDaniels orbits the earth along with the shuttle at speeds in excess of 28'000 km/h and flies up to one hundred meters away from the Challenger. After McDaniels safely reenters the shuttle, Army Lieutenant Colonel Robert L. Stewart becomes the second astronaut to fly untethered in space, also using McDaniel’s MMU. It is the fourth orbital mission of the space shuttle Challenger.
1984 David (born without immunity system) at 12, touches mom for first time
1983 first female secretary of transportation sworn-in (Elizabeth Dole)
1982 Luis A Monge elected President of Costa Rica
1979 Colonel Benjedid Chadli succeeds President Boumédienne in Algeria
1979 Neptune becomes farthest planet from the sun in our solar system (will remain that way until 11 February 1999) as Pluto moves closer to the sun.
1978 Ethiopian offensive in Ogaden desert
1976 World's largest telescope (600 cm) begins operation (USSR)
^ 1975 Canadian highway speed limit set at 55 mph.
      Canada imposes a fifty-five mph speed limit (88 km/h). In 1973, reacting to the ban of oil sales to the United States and other Western countries by eleven Arab oil producers, President Richard Nixon lowered the US speed limit to fifty-five mph in hopes of conserving gasoline. An addition to a greater reserve of oil, a by-product of the mandate turned out to be a lower rate of highway automobile fatalities. Two years later, Canada followed suit in hopes of lowering their own rate of highway fatalities.
1974 Grenada gains independence from Britain (celebrates National Day)
1971 Women win the right to vote in Switzerland.
^ 1971 US stops at Laos border, South Vietnamese go on.
      Operation Dewey Canyon II ends, but US units continue to provide support for South Vietnamese army operations in Laos. Operation Dewey Canyon II began on 30 January as the initial phase of Lam Son 719, the South Vietnamese invasion of Laos that was to begin on 08 February. The purpose of the South Vietnamese operation was to interdict the Ho Chi Minh Trail, advance to Tchepone in Laos, and destroy the North Vietnamese supply dumps in the area. In Dewey Canyon II, the vanguard of the US 1st Brigade, 5th Infantry Division, an armored cavalry/engineer task force, cleared the road from Vandegrift Combat Base (southwest of Cam Lo in the region south of the DMZ) along highway Route 9 toward Khe Sanh. The area was cleared so that 20'000 South Vietnamese soldiers could reoccupy 2600 square kilometers of territory in northwest South Vietnam and mass at the Laotian border in preparation for the invasion of Laos. In accordance with a US congressional ban, US ground forces were not to enter Laos. Instead, the only direct US support permitted was long-range cross-border artillery fire, fixed-wind air strikes, and 2600 helicopters to airlift Saigon troops and supplies.
1969 Al-Fatah leader Yasser Arafat becomes president of PLO.
1968 Belgium government of Vanden Boeynants falls.
^ 1965 US air raids on North Vietnam guerilla training camps.
      US begins regular bombing and strafing of North Vietnam. As part of Operation Flaming Dart, 49 US Navy jets from the 7th Fleet carriers Coral Sea and Hancock drop bombs and rockets on the barracks and staging areas at Dong Hoi, a guerrilla training camp in North Vietnam. Escorted by US jets, a follow-up raid by South Vietnamese planes bombed a North Vietnamese military communications center. These strikes were in retaliation for communist attacks on the US installation at Camp Holloway and the adjacent Pleiku airfield in the Central Highlands, which killed eight US servicemen, wounded 109, and destroyed or damaged 20 aircraft.
      Even before the attack, presidential advisors John T. McNaughton and McGeorge Bundy had favored bombing North Vietnam. After the attack in the Central Highlands, they strongly urged President Johnson to order the retaliatory raids. Johnson agreed and gave the order to commence Operation Flaming Dart, hoping that a quick and effective retaliation would persuade the North Vietnamese to cease their attacks in South Vietnam. Bundy, who had just returned from Vietnam, defended the air raids as "right and necessary." Senate Majority Leader Mansfield (D-Montana) and GOP leader Everett Dirksen (Illinois) supported the president's decision, but Senators Wayne Morse (D-Oregon) and Ernest Gruening (D-Alaska) attacked the action as a dangerous escalation of the war. The retaliatory raids did not have the desired effect. On 10 February, the Viet Cong struck again, this time at a US installation in Qui Nhon, killing 23 US soldiers. Johnson quickly ordered another retaliatory strike, Flaming Dart II.
     Le président américain Lyndon Baines Johnson prend prétexte d'un incident naval dans le golfe du Tonkin pour lancer les premiers bombardements sur le Nord-Vietnam. C'est un tournant dans la deuxième guerre d'Indochine.
1962 President Kennedy begins blockade of Cuba
1960 Old handwriting found in at Qumran, near the Dead Sea
1959 Castro proclaims new Cuban constitution
1959 Cessna lands in Las Vegas after 65 d without landing (refuels in air)
1956 Autherine Lucy, first black admitted to University of Alabama, is expelled
1950 US and Great-Britain recognize Bao Dai Vietnamese regime
1950 Senator Joe McCarthy finds "communists" in US Ministry of Foreign Affairs
1950 Georges Bidault forms French government
1948 General Dwight D. Eisenhower resigns as US Army chief of staff; he was succeeded by Gen. Omar Bradley.
1947 Arabs and Jews reject British proposal to split Palestine
1946 Filibuster in US Senate kills FEPC bill
1945 US 76th/5th Infantry divisions begin crossing Sauer
1945 General Douglas MacArthur returns to Manila
^ 1945 Theologian Bonhoeffer is transferred to Buchenwald concentration camp.
      Where does a Christian fit in a nation which makes itself god? The Lutheran theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer (born 04 February 1906) answered that the Christian's duty is to resist such a state. This landed him in a concentration camp and cost him his life. Safe in exile in America, he abruptly returned to Germany. "I have come to the conclusion that I have made a mistake in coming to America. I shall have no right to participate in the reconstruction of the Christian life in Germany after the war if I did not share in the trials of this time with my people. Christians in Germany face the terrible alternative of willing the defeat of their nation in order that civilization may survive, or willing the victory of their nation and thereby destroying civilization. I know which of these alternatives I must choose. But I cannot make that choice in security."
      In Germany Bonhoeffer worked with the underground resistance. He helped guide Jews to safety. Believing that Hitler was like a madman "driving a car into a group of innocent bystanders," he joined a plot to kill the Führer. After he was arrested for his aid to the Jews, his role in the plot was discovered. There was little hope he would survive Nazi wrath. Nonetheless Bonhoeffer was personally at peace. Suffering, he said, had become a better key for understanding the world than happiness ever had been.
     Bonhoeffer was arrested on 05 April 1943, and imprisoned in Berlin. Following the failure of the attempt on Hitler's life on 20 July 1944, the discovery of documents linking Bonhoeffer directly with the conspiracy led to his further interrogation and eventual execution.
      On 07 February 1945 he is transferred to the terrible Buchenwald concentration camp where many thousands of prisoners died, some under cruel medical experiments. On 09 April 1945 Bonhoeffer corpse was added to the list of dead. He was hanged days before the allies freed the camp. He had fulfilled his own theology, aptly expressed in his book The Cost of Discipleship: "The one thing that matters is practical obedience. That will resolve [man's] difficulties and make him free to become the child of God." When the government usurps God's place, what is the Christian to do? By his life and death, Bonhoeffer exemplified his solution.
     From 1923 to 1927 he studied theology at the universities of Tübingen and Berlin. At Berlin he was influenced by the historical theologians Adolf von Harnack, Reinhold Seeberg, and Karl Holl but also was strongly attracted by the new "theology of revelation" being propounded elsewhere by Karl Barth. His concern to relate himself critically to Barth is seen in his doctoral thesis, Sanctorum Communio (1930), in which he tried to combine a sociological and a theological understanding of the church, and in Akt und Sein (1931), in which he traces the influence of transcendental philosophy and ontology, Kantian and post-Kantian theories of knowledge and of being, on Protestant and Catholic theologies.
     In 1935 he was appointed to organize and head a new seminary for the Confessing Church at Finkenwald (Pomerania), which continued in disguised form until 1940, despite its proscription by the political authorities in 1937. Here he introduced the practices of prayer, private confession, and common discipline described in his book Gemeinsames Leben (1939; Life Together, 1954). From this period also dates Nachfolge (1937; The Cost of Discipleship, 1948, rev. ed., 1959), a study of the Sermon on the Mount in which he attacked the "cheap grace" being marketed in Protestant (especially Lutheran) churches — i.e., an unlimited offer of forgiveness, which in fact served as a cover for ethical laxity. It was in this rigorous and even ascetic guise (to which his later theme of "Christian worldliness" provides a contrast if not a contradiction) that Bonhoeffer first became widely known.
     During the years 1940-43 Bonhoeffer worked intermittently on a volume on Christian ethics but completed only fragments, which were published posthumously (Ethik, 1949; Ethics, 1955).
     The prison writings, published in 1951 (Widerstand und Ergebung; Letters and Papers from Prison, 1955, rev. ed., 1972), are of interest both for the remarkable richness of cultural and spiritual life that they display and for the theological themes developed
     The chief works by Bonhoeffer in addition to those already mentioned are Creation and Fall: A Theological Interpretation of Genesis 1-3 (1933; Eng. trans. 1959) and the collected shorter writings, Gesammelte Schriften, 5 vol. (2nd ed., 1965-69), selections from which have been published in English translation under the titles No Rusty Swords (1965), Christ the Center (1966; British title, Christology), and The Way to Freedom (1966).
1944 Germans launch counter-offensive against Allied landing at Anzio, Italy.
1943 The US government announces that shoe rationing will go into effect in two days, limiting consumers to buying three pairs per person for the remainder of the year.
^ 1942 US car factories ordered to convert to war production.
      The US government orders passenger car production stopped and converted to wartime purposes. In spite of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s exhortation that the US auto industry should become the “great arsenal of democracy,” Detroit’s executives were reluctant to join the war cause. However, following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the country mobilized behind the US declaration of war. The government offered automakers guaranteed profits regardless of production costs throughout the war years. Furthermore, the Office of Production Management allocated $11 billion to the construction of war manufacturing plants that would be sold to the automobile manufacturers at remarkable discounts after the war. What had at first seemed like a burden on the automotive industry became a boon. The production demands placed on the industry and the resources allocated to the individual automobile manufacturers during the war would revolutionize American car making and bring about the Golden Era of the 1950s.
1940 British railroads nationalized
1924 Mussolini government exchanges diplomats with USSR
1915 2nd Battle of Masurian Lakes German armies surrounded a Russian army
1905 Dominican Republic signs treaty turning over customs collection to US
1905 Oklahoma admitted to statehood
^ 1904 The Great Baltimore Fire begins
      In Baltimore, Maryland, a small fire in the business district is wind-whipped into an uncontrollable conflagration that by the evening has engulfed a large portion of the city. When the blaze finally burns down after thirty hours, an eighty-block area of the business district, stretching from the waterfront to Mount Vernon on Charles Street, has been destroyed. Over 1500 buildings are completely leveled and some 1000 are severely damaged, bringing property loss from the disaster to an estimated eighty million dollars. Miraculously, Baltimore’s domed City Hall, built in 1867, is preserved. The Great Baltimore Fire was the most destructive fire in the United States since the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 destroyed the majority of the city and caused an estimated two hundred million dollars in property damage.
1900 Labour Party forms in England
1900 British troops vacate Vaal Krantz, Natal
^ 1898 Zola on trial for accusing French army of anti-semitism.
      French writer Emile Zola is brought to trial for libel for "J'Accuse," his newspaper editorial attacking the French army over the Dreyfus affair. On 13 January, Zola had published his editorial in the newspaper L'Aurore. The letter exposed a military cover-up regarding Alfred Dreyfus. Dreyfus, a French army captain, had been accused of espionage in 1894 and sentenced in a secret military court-martial to imprisonment in a South American penal colony. Two years later, evidence of Dreyfus' innocence surfaced, but the army suppressed the information. Zola's letter exposed the military's mistaken conviction. Zola was a well-known writer who had published his first story collection more than three decades earlier. A high school dropout, he had worked in the sales department of a major French publisher, who encouraged his writing and published his first book. He became one of the most famous writers in France with the publication of his 1877 hit, The Drunkard, part of his 20-novel cycle exploring the lives of two families. Zola's letter provoked national outrage on both sides of the issue, among political parties, religious organizations, and others. Supporters of the military sued Zola for libel. He was convicted and sentenced to one year's imprisonment, but he fled France. In 1899, Dreyfus was pardoned, but for political reasons he was not exonerated until 1906. Shortly after Dreyfus' pardon, Zola returned to France, where he died in 1902.
1891 Great Blizzard of 1891 begins
1883 Lieutenant-Colonel Borgnis-Desbordes founds Fort Bamako Niger
1881 Battle at Ingogo, Transvaal Boers beat superior British forces.
^ 1870 US Supreme Court rules 4-3 against Legal Tender Act.
      The US Supreme Court handed rules in Hepburn v. Griswold [79 US 457, 460] that the Legal Tender Acts, initially passed during the height of the Civil War in 1862 and 1863, were unconstitutional. As a result, debts piled up before 1862 or 1863 could not be paid via US Treasury notes that were issued under the auspices of the acts. The ruling, which split the Supreme Court in a five to three vote, irked President Ulysses S. Grant, who used his executive power to reinstate the Legal Tender Acts. Although he didn't necessarily stack the high court in favor of the Acts, Grant was mindful to nominate justices to the Supreme Court who echoed his views on the case. During 1870, he appointed Joseph P. Bradley and William Strong, both of whom viewed the Legal Tender Acts as a viable use of the federal government's powers during a period of crisis. With the balance of opinion duly tilted, the Supreme Court reversed course and upheld the Legal Tender Acts in 1871.

To finance the Civil War, the federal government in 1862 passed the Legal Tender Act, authorizing the creation of paper money not redeemable in gold or silver. About $430 million worth of "greenbacks" were put in circulation, and this money by law had to be accepted for all taxes, debts, and other obligations — even those contracted prior to the passage of the act. In Hepburn v. Griswold (07 February 1870, 75 US 603), the Court ruled by a four-to-three majority that Congress lacked the power to make the notes legal tender. Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase, who as secretary of the Treasury during the Civil War had been involved in enacting the Legal Tender Act, wrote the majority opinion, declaring that the congressional authorization of greenbacks as legal tender violated Fifth Amendment guarantees against deprivation of property without due process of law.
      On the day the decision was announced, a disapproving President Grant sent the nominations of two new justices to the Senate for confirmation. Justices Bradley and Strong were confirmed, and at the next session the court agreed to reconsider the greenback issue. In Knox v. Lee (1870, 79 US 457) and Parker v. Davis (01 May 1871), the Court reversed its Hepburn v. Griswold decision by a five-to-four majority, asserting that the Legal Tender Act of 1862 represented a justifiable use of federal power at a time of national emergency.
     The constitutionality of the act was more widely sustained in Juillard v. Greenman (03 March 1884, 110 US 421).
1865 Battle of Hatcher's Run (Armstrong's Mill), Virginia concludes
1864 Federal troops occupy Jacksonville FL
1863 Skirmish at Olive Branch Church, Virginia
1862 Federal fleet attack on Roanoke Island NC
1831 Belgium adopts it's Constitution
^ 1821 First landing on Antarctica
      John Davis, a seal hunter from Connecticut who has been searching the South Shetland Islands for prey, becomes the first recorded person to set foot on the continent of Antarctica when he goes ashore at Hughes Bay. Although English explorer Captain James Cook had sailed in the vicinity of Antarctica during his circumnavigation of the world in the late eighteenth century, there were no recorded sightings of the continent until January of 1820, when Russian Thaddeus von Bellingshausen sighted Antarctica from a distance. On 18 November of the same year, US Captain Nathaniel Palmer discovered the Antarctica peninsula later named Palmer’s Peninsula in his honor. Over the next century, many nations, including the United States, made territorial claims to portions of the almost inhabitable continent. However, during the 1930s, conflicting claims led to international rivalry, and the United States, which led the world in the establishment of scientific bases, enacted an official policy of making no territorial claims while recognizing no other nation’s claims. In 1959, the Antarctic Treaty made Antarctica an international zone, set guidelines for scientific cooperation, and prohibited military operations, nuclear explosions, and the disposal of radioactive waste on the continent.
1812 At 09:45 UT (03:45 local) the strongest earthquake in US history (magnitude 8.7) occurs at the New Madrid fault in then sparsely populated Missouri, with epicenter at 36º40"N 89º40'W. The strongest previous earthquake (magnitude 8.4) had occured at the exact same spot on 23 January 1812 at 15:00 UT (09:00 local)
1752 Monseigneur de Beaumont fait interdire la vente et la détention des deux premiers tomes de l'Encyclopédie d'Alembert et de Diderot.
1623 Par le Traité de Paris la France s'allie à la Savoie et à Venise contre l'occupation de la Valteline par les soldats du pape qui sont pro-espagnols.
1528 The Swiss canton of Bern officially embraces Protestantism.
In Florence, Savonarola burns art works, books, musical instruments, games, jewelry.
^ 1497 Savonarole fait brûler les objets de vanité à Florence.
      Les coquettes de Florence jettent leurs bijoux et leurs atours dans un grand "bûcher de vanité". A l'instigation du prédicateur Jérôme Savonarole, les flammes dévorent tous les attributs du luxe: jeux, instruments de musique, oeuvres d'art et jusqu'aux ouvrages de Boccace et Pétrarque... Le prieur dominicain du couvent de Saint-Marc a entrepris six ans plus tôt d'assainir les mœurs florentines. Dans ses prêches enflammés, Savonarole dénonce les moeurs délétères de la Renaissance italienne et la dépravation du clergé. Il s'en prend à la Florence des Médicis, amoureuse de la richesse et des arts, et plus encore à la Rome du pape Alexandre VI Borgia. Savonarole exerce une très grande attirance sur le peuple de Florence et même sur la bourgeoisie, convaincant les uns et les autres de revenir à plus d'austérité avec ses prophéties lugubres. En 1494, le roi de France Charles VIII passe à Florence en vue de s'approprier la couronne de Naples. Le maître de la ville, Pierre II de Médicis, fils et successeur de Laurent le Magnifique, tente de s'appuyer sur le puissant monarque pour maintenir son autorité mais il est en définitive chassé par un soulèvement populaire. Les affaires sont confiées à un Grand Conseil grâce auquel Savonarole exerce une sévère dictature morale sur la République florentine. L'intolérant moine n'hésite pas à s'appuyer sur un réseau d'espions et de policiers. Il triomphe avec le "bûcher de vanité". Mais c'en est trop pour le pape Alexandre VI Borgia qui l'excommunie le 12 mai 1497. Menacée d'interdit, c'est-à-dire de toute possibilité de pratiquer le culte, Florence se détache de son guide. Invité à se soumetttre au "jugement de Dieu", c'est-à-dire au supplice du feu, Savonarole se défausse. Il est jeté en prison, torturé, condamné et exécuté avec deux autres moines. Il a 46 ans.... Vingt ans plus tard, de l'autre côté des Alpes, à l'abri de la vindicte papale, un autre réformateur lancera avec plus de succès ses anathèmes contre Rome. Il a nom Martin Luther.
1297 Par la bulle pontificale Romana Mater Ecclesia, le roi de France se voit conférer même le droit de lever des subsides sur le clergé sans l'autorisation du pape, en cas de nécessité urgente.
^ 0543 St. Scholastica prays up a storm.
      According to a story retold by Pope St. Gregory the Great in Chapters 33-34 of the second book of his Dialogues (Anecdotes about St. Benedict), St. Scholastica, the twin sister of St. Benedict of Nursia, founder of the Benedictines, has a premonition of her death while her brother visits. She has founded a convent 8 km from her brother's famed monastery. She asks him to stay with her as her death approached. He refuses, and so she lowers her eyes in prayer. A severe thunderstorm develops, preventing Benedict from leaving. St. Scholastica dies three days later. [German woodcut >]


 Benedict and Scholastica[33]... fuit quiddam quod [Benedictus] voluit, sed non valuit implere. Soror namquam eius, Scholastica nomine, omnipotenti Domino ab ipso infantiæ tempore dedicata, ad eum semel per annum venire consueverat. Ad quam vir Dei non longe extra januam in possessione monasterii descendebat.
      Quadam vero die venit ex more, atque ad eam cum discipulis venerabilis eius descendit frater: qui totum diem in Dei laudibus sacrisque colloquiis ducentres, incumbentibus jam noctis tenebris simul acceperunt cibos. Cumque adhuc ad mensam sederent, et inter sacra colloquia tardior se hora protraheret, eadem santimonialis femina soror eius eum rogavit, dicens: quæso te ne ista nocte me deseras, ut usque mane de coelestis vitæ gaudiis loquamur. Cur ille respondit: Quid est quod loqueris, soror? Manere extra cellam nullatenus possum.
      Tanta vero erat coeli serenitas, ut nulla in aere nubes appareret. Sanctimoniales autem femina, cum verba fratris negantis audisset, insertas digitis manus super mensam posuit, et caput in manibus omnipotentem Dominum rogature declinavit. Cumque de mensa levaret caput, tanta coruscationis et tonitrui virtus, tantaque inundatio pulviæ erupit, ut neque venerabilis Benedictus, neque fratres qui cum eo aderant, extra loci limen quo consederant, pedem movere potuissent. Sanctimonialis quippe femina capit in manibus declinans, lacrymarum fluvios in mensam suderat, per quas serenitatem aeris ad pluviam traxit. Nec paulo tardius post orationem inundatio illa secuta est, sed tanta fuit convenientia orationis et inundationis, ut de mensa caput jam cum tonitruo levaret: quatenus unum idemque esset momentum, et levare caput, et pluviam deponere.
      Tunc vir Dei inter coruscos et tonitruos atque ingentis pluviæ inundationem videns se ad monasterium non posse remeare, coepit conqueri contristatus, dicens: Parcat tibi omnipotens Deus, soro; quid est quod fecisti? Cui illa respondit: Ecce te rogavit, et audiri me noluisti; rogavi Dominum meum, et audivit me. Modo ergo si potes, egredere, et me dimissa ad monasterium recede.
      Ipse autem exire extra tectum non valens, qui remanere sponte noluit, in loco mansit invitus. Sicque factum est ut totam noctem pervigilem ducerant, atque per sacra spiritalis vitæ colloquia sese vicaria relatione satiarent. Qua de re dixi eum voluisse aliquid, sed minime potuisse: quia si venerabilis viri mentem aspicimus, dubium non est quod eamdem serenitatem voluerit in qua descenderat permanere; sed contra hod quod voluit, in virtute omnipotentis Dei ex feminæ pectore miraculum invenit.
      Nec mirum quod plus illo femina, quæ diu fratrem videre cupiebat, in eodem tempora valuit: quia enim juxta Joannis vocem, Deus charitas est, justo valde judicio illa plus potuit, quæ amplius amavit.


Chapter 33: Of a Miracle Wrought by his Sister, Scholastica.
     There was one thing which the venerable father Benedict would have done, and yet he could not. For his sister called Scholastica, dedicated from her infancy to our Lord, used once a year to come and visit her brother. To whom the man of God went not far from the gate, to a place that did belong to the Abbey, there to give her entertainment.
     And she coming thither on a time according to her custom, her venerable brother with his monks went to meet her, where they spent the whole day in the praises of God and spiritual talk: and when it was almost night they supped together, and as they were yet sitting at the table, talking of devout matters, and darkness came on, the holy Nun his sister entreated him to stay there all night, that they might spend it in discoursing of the joys of heaven. But by no persuasion would he agree unto that, saying that he might not by any means tarry all night out of his Abbey.
      At that time, the sky was so clear that no cloud was to be seen. The Nun, receiving this denial of her brother, joining her hands together, laid them upon the table: and so, bowing down her head upon them, she made her prayers to almighty God: and lifting her head from the table, there fell suddenly such a tempest of lightning and thundering, and such abundance of rain, that neither venerable Benedict, nor his monks that were with him, could put their head out of door: for the holy Nun, resting her head upon her hands, poured forth such a flood of tears upon the table, that she drew the clear air to a watery sky, so that after the end of her devotions, that storm of rain followed: and her prayer and the rain did so meet together, that as she lifted up her head from the table, the thunder, so that in one and the very same instant, she lifted up her head and brought down the rain.
      The man of God, seeing that he could not by reason of such thunder and lightning and great abundance of rain return back to his Abbey, he began to be heavy and to complain of his sister, saying: "God forgive you, what have you done?" to whom she answered: "I desired you to stay, and you would not hear me, I have desired our good Lord, and he hath vouchsafed to grant my petition: wherefore if you can now depart, in God's name return to your monastery, and leave me here alone."
      But the good father, being not able to go forth, tarried there against his will, where willingly he would not stay. And so by that means they watched all night, and with spiritual and heavenly talk did mutually comfort one another: and therefore by this we see, as I said before. that he would have had that thing, which yet he could not: for if we respect the venerable man's mind, no question but he would have had the same fair weather to have continued as it was, when he set forth, but he found that a miracle did prevent his desire, which, by the power of almighty God, a woman's prayers had wrought.
     It is not a thing to be marveled at, that a woman which of long time had not seen her brother, might do more at that time than he could, seeing, according to the saying of Saint John, "God is charity" [1 John 4:8] and therefore of right she did more which loved more.
Chapter 34: How Benedict Saw the Soul of his Sister Ascend into Heavenly Glory.
      The next day the venerable woman returned to her Nunnery, and the man of God to his Abbey: who three days after, standing in his cell, raising up his eyes to heaven, beheld the soul of his sister (which was departed from her body), in the likeness of a dove to ascend into heaven: who rejoicing much to see her great glory, with hymns and lauds gave the almighty God, and did impart the news of this her death to his monks, whom also he sent presently to bring her corpse to his Abbey, and had it buried in that grave which he had provided for himself; by means whereof it fell out that, as their souls were always one in God whiles they lived, so their bodies continued together after their death.
TO THE TOP
Deaths which occurred on a February 07:

Tarek dead2004 Four civilians, two rebels, and 14 Haitian policemen among those attempting unsuccessfully to retake city Les Gonaïves held by the rebels of the Front de Résistence Révolucioniare de l'Artibonite (FRRA) since 05 February 2004. (L'Artibonite is the département of which Les Gonaïves is the chef-lieu). Les Gonaïves is where Haitian independence was declared on 01 January 1804. The country has not had a very happy history before or since.

2004 Rebeca Martínez Hiciano, in Santo Domingo, after heart attacks resulting from the previous day's 11-hour surgery that removed the undeveloped twin head attached to the top of her head, with which she was born on 10 December 2003 (craniopagus parasiticus), daughter of Franklin Martínez, 28, and María Gisela Hiciano, 26.

2004 Aziz Mahmoud al-Shami, 23, and Tarak al-Sousi, 11, Palestinian boy [at his funeral >] on his way to school in Gaza City, killed at 10:30 (08:30 UT) when two Israeli helicopters fire missiles at the car of “senior Islamic Jihad terrorist” al-Shami, 23, who dies of his wounds a few hours later. Shami's driver, Khalil Bahtini, 25, and 9 innocent passers-by, including a two-year-old boy, are wounded. Israel says that Shami is killed to prevent an attack he was planning for the coming days against the Netzarim enclave settlement. Shami belonged to Islamic Jihad's armed branch, the Jerusalem Brigades, and was the nephew of one of Islamic Jihad's leaders, Abdullah al-Shami. According to Israel, Aziz al-Shami helped conduct a January 1995 {at age 14!!!?} double-bomb attack at the Beit Lid bus stop, in which 22 Israeli soldiers and one civilian were killed. After that attack, Shami was imprisoned by the Palestinian Authority until the end of 2000, and then worked to provide weapons to the Jerulalem Brigades in the Gaza Strip. In October 2003, Shami was involved in an attack on Netzarim in which three Israeli soldiers were killed.

2004 Three Iraqi policemen by a terrorist bomb inside police station in Suwayrah, Iraq. 11 policemen are wounded.

2004 At least 20 persons in the vicinity of Orgo, province Badakhshan, Afghanistan, killed since fighting started on 05 February 2004 between two local warlords (Orgo mayor Musadeq, and militia commander Qari Ziauddin) feuding over the collection of a tax on opium poppy crop. Some 40 persons have been wounded.

2004 A few victims of 11:43 (02:43 UT) Richter 7.1 earthquake with epicenter 10 km deep at 04º00'S 135º03'E, some 50 km west of Nabire, Papua province, Irian Jaya, Indonesia. The death toll and the damage are relatively light as the area was already ravaged by the Richter 7.0 earthquake of 06 February 2004 at 06:05 (21:05 UT 05 Feb) with epicenter at 03º36'S 135º33'E. Among the continuing aftershocks there is on 08 February 2004 a 17:59 (08:59 UT) Richter 6.5 earthquake with epicenter at 03º43'S 135º13'E.

club El Nogal2003 Germán Alejandro Munevar Cárdenas, Alejandro Guzmán Cruz, Oscar Enrique Barboza and 28 others, at 20:10 (01:10 UT 08 Feb 2003), by a 150-kg bomb (of the FARC) in a car in the 3rd-floor parking lot of the luxurious 12-story Club El Nogal (membership costs $15'000) [< photo] in Bogotá, Colombia, which was frequented by political and business leaders. 157 persons are injured.
2003 Tom Christerson, 71, from the wearout of an internal membrane of the AbioCor artificial heart that was implanted in him on 13 September 2001. He was the second recipient of an AbioCor, and the longest surviving. (Robert Tools received an AbioCor on 02 July 2001 and died on 30 November 2001, at age 59)
2003 Daniel Feussner, 32, in Bellevue WA, due to multiple organ failure. He was a former Microsoft manager who was out on bail after having been arrested in December 2002 for stealing $9~million-worrth of software for internal company use and selling it to fund a lavish lifestyle.
2003 Augusto Monterroso, 81, of heart failure, Guatemalan writer. He was an active opponent of the Guatemalan government and the US-owned United Fruit Co., which operated banana plantations across Central America. He helped found the intellectual magazine Acento, but left Guatemala in 1944 to live in Mexico until 1996, when he returned to Guatemala to receive the country's National Literature Award. In 1959, he published Complete Works and Other Stories. His other works include The Black Sheep and Other Fables (1969); Perpetual Movement (1972); All the Rest is Silence (1978); The letter E: Fragments of a Diary (1987), The Magic Word (1983) and the shortest story in the history of literature, The Dinosaur (complete text: “When it woke up, the dinosaur was still there.”). Monterroso taught literature at the National Autonomous University of Mexico and received the Juan Rulfo award for Latin American Literature in 1996 as well as the highest honor the Mexican government can bestow on foreign dignitaries, the Aguila Azteca, in 1988.
click to ZOOM IN on detail^ 2001 Anne Morrow Lindbergh, 94, widow of Charles Augustus Lindbergh (020204-740826), mother of baby Charles A. Lindbergh Jr. kidnapped-murdered at 20 months of age on 01 March 1932, and of five others (one of which, Anne, died in 1993).
      Author of 13 books of memoirs, fiction, poems and essays, including North to the Orient, about the couple's flight in a single engine airplane over uncharted routes through Canada and Alaska to Japan and China — Bring Me a Unicorn, 1922-1928 diaries and letters — Hour of Gold, Hour of Lead, memoirs of 1929-32 — Locked Rooms and Open Doors, 1933-1935 diaries and letters — The Flower and the Nettle, 1936-1939 diaries and letters — Gift from the Sea, a 1955 best-selling collection of essaysPavle BulatovicThe War Within and Without, memoirs of the years 1939-1944, when Charles Lindbergh was criticized as being pro-Nazi — Listen! the Wind, about the Lindberghs' 1933 trip to Greenland, Iceland, Scandinavia, Russia, Europe, Africa and South America — Dearly Beloved — The Unicorn and Other Poems 1935-1955. She was born on 22 June 1906.
2000 Pavle Bulatovich [< photo], 51, Defense Minister of Yugoslavia, a Montenegran, assassinated:
Internet mediji javljaju da je sinoc oko 19 ura u Beogradu ubijen ministar odbrane Pavle Bulatovic. Pavle Bulatovic je bio blizak saradnik saveznom premijeru Momiru Bulatovicu i jedan od najmocnijih ljudi u administraciji Slobodana Milosevica.http://www.montenegro.com/   http://www.glas-javnosti.co.yu/danas/srpski/h00020707.shtm      Biografija
1999 Jordan's King Hussein ibn Talal ibn Hussein, 63 (portrait by Bernard Safran [03 Jun 1924 – 14 Oct 1995] >), of cancer, born on 14 November 1935. He had become king when, on 11 August 1952, his schizophrenic father, Talal, was detroned by parliament. Hussein is succeeded by his eldest son, Abdullah.
1994 Coronel Leopoldo García Campos, de 59 años, balaceado en Barcelona por terroristas de ETA (Euzkadi Ta Askatasuna).
1990 Dom Heider Camara nonviolent/human rights Bishop of Brazil./td>
^ 1979 Dr. Josef Mengele, the “Angel of Death” of Auschwitz.
      Dr. Josef Mengele, the infamous “Todesengel” Nazi doctor who performed medical experiments at the Auschwitz death camps, dies of a stroke while swimming in Brazil — although his death was not verified until 1985. Mengele was born on 16 March 1911, in Gunzburg, Germany. His father founded Frima Karl Mengele & Sohne, a factory that produced farm machinery, in Bavaria. In college, Mengele first studied philosophy, imbibing the rascist theories of Alfred Rosenberg — who posited the innate intellectual and moral superiority of Aryans — and then took a medical degree at the University of Frankfurt am Main. Soon thereafter he enlisted in the SA, the paramilitary force of the Nazi Party. Mengele was so enthusiastic about Nazism that in 1934 he joined the research staff of the Nazi Institute for Hereditary Biology and Racial Hygiene.
      When World War II started, Mengele was a medical officer with the SS, the elite squad of Hitler's bodyguards who later emerged as a secret police force that waged campaigns of terror in the name of Nazism. In 1943, SS head Heinrich Himmler appointed Mengele the chief doctor of the the Birkenau supplementary extermination camp near Auschwitz in Poland. Mengele, in distinctive white gloves, supervised the selection of Auschwitz' incoming prisoners for either torturous labor or immediate extermination, shouting either "Right!" or "Left!" to direct them to their fate. Eager to advance his medical career by publishing "groundbreaking" work, he then began experimenting on live Jewish prisoners.
      In the guise of medical "treatment," Mengele injected, or ordered others to inject, thousands of inmates with everything from petrol to chloroform to study the chemicals' effects. Among other atrocities, he plucked out the eyes of Gypsy corpses to study eye pigmentation, and conducted numerous gruesome studies of twins. Mengele managed to escape imprisonment after the war, first by working as a farm stableman in Bavaria, then by moving to South America. He became a citizen of Paraguay in 1959. He later moved to Brazil, where he met up with another former Nazi party member, Wolfgang Gerhard (who later returned to Europe)..
      In 1985, a multinational team of forensic experts traveled to Brazil in search of Mengele. They determined that a man named Gerhard had died of a stroke while swimming in 1979. Dental records later revealed that Mengele had, at some point, assumed Gerhard's identity and was the stroke victim. A fictional account of Josef Mengele's life after the war was depicted in the film Boys from Brazil, with Mengele, portrayed by Gregory Peck, creating clones of Hitler.
1969 Hans Rademacher, German US mathematician born on 03 April 1892.
^ 1968 Claire Josephs, her throat slashed.
      Bernard Josephs returns to his house in Bromley, England, and finds his wife Claire lying under the bed, her throat slashed and severed to the spine. Defensive wounds to her hands appeared to be caused by a serrated knife. No weapon was found at the Josephs' house, and police had no other clues to go on. However, the murder was solved, and the killer convicted within four months, through solid forensic investigation. Authorities first pinned down the time and circumstances of the crime. Ingredients of a meal that Claire had been preparing were still in a bowl in the kitchen. There was no sign of forced entry into the house and a half-empty cup of coffee was left out on the table. Investigators were fairly certain that a friend or acquaintance had dropped by while Claire was making dinner and so they began to concentrate on family and friends.
      One of the people the police questioned was Roger Payne, a recent acquaintance of Bernard and Claire, who had earlier convictions for attacks on women. Police discovered several scratches on his hands, which Payne ascribed to a fight with his wife but his alibi for February 7 was far from airtight. Forensic evidence focused on Payne's clothing. Claire Josephs had been wearing a cerise woolen dress at the time of her murder. Although Payne's clothing had been laundered, the seams and hems still contained over 60 cerise wool fibers matching Josephs' dress. Investigators then examined Payne's car and found traces of blood matching Josephs' blood type, as well as additional clothing fibers. Payne was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in May 1968.
1967 Henry Morgenthau, 74, US minister of Finance (devaluated dollar)
1961 Louis-Ferdinand Céline, 67, French physician/author/anti-Semite
1948 Poul Heegaard, Danish mathematician born on 02 November 1871.
^ 1940 Day 70 of Winter War: USSR aggression against Finland.
More deaths due to Stalin's desire to grab Finnish territory.
Soviets bomb Kajaani.

     Karelian Isthmus: the pressure on the Isthmus continues to grow. The non-stop Soviet artillery bombardment, bombing and tank and infantry assaults are now into their seventh day in the area defended by the Finnish 3rd Division.
      A dugout belonging to the Finnish 9th Infantry Regiment takes a direct hit from a heavy enemy mortar; 18 soldiers are killed and 11 wounded.
      Central Isthmus: Red Army tanks and infantry mount two separate assaults in Summa village, both of which are successfully repulsed.
      Ladoga Karelia: in the Aittojoki sector, Detachment Pajari is attempting to strike the enemy troops to the west of the River Kuukkausjoki. The Finnish attack grinds to a halt in the evening in the face of heavy enemy fire.
      Northern Finland: in the Suomussalmi sector an enemy detachment which had entered Finnish territory to the south of Raate is pushed back across the border.
      Thirty-three enemy aircraft carry out a surprise bombing raid on Kajaani, where the headquarters of the North Finland Group are situated. Four people are killed in the raid, including one doctor, and two civilians are injured. Several buildings are destroyed, the worst hit being the town hospital. The enemy takes advantage of the resulting confusion to send in reconnaissance parachutists. Those picked up are wearing Finnish military uniforms. BR>       Helsinki: the city court sentences 12 people to pay fines for infringing the blackout regulations.
      Abroad: in Copenhagen a new civilian labour agency has attracted 1,250 volunteers for Finland in its first two days of operation.
      An article in Leningradskaya Pravda tells of the first executions in Leningrad for hoarding food and profiteering. The official grounds for the convictions are counter-revolutionary activities and serving as a Finnish agent.
      The United States' House of Representatives rejects by 108 votes to 105 a motion to withdraw the US Ambassador from Moscow in protest over the war in Finland.
      The American trade union movement is today holding a special day to express its support for Finland.

^ Vihollinen pommittaa yllättäen Kajaania Talvisodan 70. päivä, 07.helmikuuta.1940
       Paine Karjalan kannaksella kasvaa: Neuvostojoukkojen keskeytymätön tykistötuli, ilmapommitukset ja panssarivaunujen sekä jalkaväen hyökkäykset jatkuvat jo seitsemättä päivää 3. Divisioonan puolustusalueella.
      Eräseen Jalkaväkirykmentti 9:n korsuun osuu järeä vihollisen kranaatti: 18 suomalaissotilasta saa surmansa ja 11 haavoittuu.
      Summan kylässä puna-armeijan panssarit ja jalkaväki hyökkäävät kahdesti. Molemmilla kerroilla suomalaiset torjuvat vihollisen hyökkäykset.
      Aittojoen suunnassa Osasto Pajarin joukot yrittävät lyödä Kuukkausjoen länsipuolella olevat viholliset.
      Illalla suomalaisten hyökkäys pysähtyy vihollisen ankaraan tuleen.
      Suomussalmen suunnalla vihollisen osasto on edennyt rajan ylitse Raatteen eteläpuolelle, mutta se karkotetaan rajan taakse.
      Vihollinen tekee yllätyshyökkäyksen 33 lentokoneen voimin Kajaaniin, jossa sijaitsee Pohjois-Suomen Ryhmän esikunta. Tässä pommituksessa saa surmansa neljä henkilöä, heidän joukossaan yksi lääkäri, kaksi sivilihenkilöä havoittuu. Useita rakennuksia tuhoutuu, pahiten Kajaanin sairaala.
      Vihollinen käyttää hyväkseen aiheuttamaansa sekasortoa ja pudottaa desantteja maahan. Useita vihollissotilaita pidätetään. Desanteilla on yllään suomalaiset sotilaspuvut.
      Helsingin raastuvanoikeus tuomitsee 12 henkilöä sakko-rangaistuksiin sotavalaistuksesta annettujen määräysten rikkomisesta.
      Ulkomailta: Kööpenhaminassa on avattu siviilityövoimaa välittävä toimisto, jonne kahden ensimmäisen päivän aikana ilmoittautuu 1250 vapaaehtoista Suomeen lähtijää.
      Leningradskaja Pravda kertoo, että Leningradissa on pantu toimeenensimmäiset elintarvikkeiden hamstraajien ja keinottelijoidenkuolemantuomiot. Tuomioiden perusteena on vastavallankumouksellisuus ja toiminta suomalaisten asiamiehinä.
      Yhdysvaltain edustajainhuone hylkää äänin 108-105 ehdotuksen Yhdysvaltain Moskovan lähettilään kutsumisesta kotiin Suomen sodan takia.
      Tänään on Yhdysvalloissa sikäläisen ammattiyhdistysliikkeen järjestämä työväestön Suomen päivä.

^ Fienden bombar överraskande Kajana Vinterkrigets 70 dag, den 07 februari 1940
       Trycket på Karelska näset växer: oavbruten rysk artillerield, flygbombardemanget och anfallen av både pansarvagnar och infanteri fortsätter för redan sjunde dagen i följd på den 3. Divisionens försvarsområde.
      En av Infanteriregemente 9:s bunkrar träffas av en skarp granat: 18 finska soldater dödas och 11 såras.
      I byn Summa anfaller Röda Arméns pansrar och infanteri två gånger. Finnarna lyckas slå tillbaka båda anfallen.
      I riktning Aittojoki försöker Avdelning Pajaris trupper slå fiendens trupper väster om Kuukkausjoki.
      På kvällen bromsas Finlands anfall av fiendens häftiga eldgivning.
      I riktning Suomussalmi har en av inkräktarnas avdelningar ryckt fram över gränsen söder om Raate, men den fördrivs tillbaka.
      Fienden går överraskande till angrepp med stöd av 33 flygplan i Kajana där staben för norra Finlands grupp befinner sig. Vid det här bombardemanget dödas fyra personer, bland dem en läkare, och två civila skadas. Flera byggnader förstörs, värst drabbas sjukhuset.
      Fienden utnyttjar den uppstådda förvirringen och fäller desanter. Flera ryska soldater tas tillfånga. Desanterna är klädda i finska uniformer.
      Rådstuvrätten i Helsingfors dömer 12 personer till böter för brott mot bestämmelserna om krigsbelysning.
      Utrikes: En byrå som förmedlar civilarbetskraft har öppnats i Köpenhamn. Under de två första dagarna anmäler sig 1250 frivilliga för arbete i Finland.
      Leningradskaja Pravda uppger att de första dödsdomarna för jobbning med och hamstring av livsmedel har verkställts. Motiveringarna för domarna är kontrarevolutionärt agerande och verksamhet i egenskap av Finlands ombudsmän.
      Förenta staternas representanthus förkastar med rösterna 108-105 förslaget att kalla hem ambassadören i Moskva på grund av kriget mot Finland.
      Idag firas i USA Finlandsdagen som arrangerats av den amerikanska fackföreningsrörelsen.
^ 1938 Harvey S. Firestone, 89, founder of the Firestone Tire & Rubber Company, in Miami Beach, Florida.
      At the age of thirty-one, Firestone developed a new way of manufacturing carriage tires and began production with only twelve employees. Eight years later, Henry Ford asked Harvey Firestone to provide the tires for the Ford Model T, and Firestone Tires became a household name. Firestone and Ford remained fast friends, but, unfortunately, neither man would live to see the marriage of their grandchildren and the legal union of their empires.
1937 Elihu Root, 91, US Minister of War/Foreign affairs (Nobel 1912)
1918 Alexander Sergeyevich Taneyev, 68, composer.
1902 Thomas Sidney Cooper, British artist, specialized in animals, born on 26 September 1803. MORE ON COOPER AT ART “4” FEBRUARY with links to images.
1901 Oscar Xavier Schlömilch, German mathematician born on 13 April 1823 in France. Schlömilch taught at Jena and Dresden. The techniques of Cauchy [21 Aug 1789 – 23 May 1857] in analysis became well known in Germany through Schlömilch's textbook. In 1847 he gave a general remainder formula for the remainder in Taylor series. He discovered an important series expansion of an arbitrary function in terms of Bessel functions in 1857.
1897 Charles Édouard Boutibonne, French painter born on 08 July 1816. — links to images.
1894 Antoine-Joseph Sax, in Paris, Belgian-French maker of musical instruments and inventor of the saxophone. He was also called Adolphe Sax. He was born on 06 November 1814, in Dinant, Belgium.
1880 Arthur Jules Morin, Parisian applied mathematician born on 19 October 1795.
1878 Pius IX "Pio Nono", [Giovanni Ferretti], 85, Pope (1846-78)
1848 Christen Købke, Danish Realist painter born on 26 May 1810. MORE ON KØBKE AT ART “4” FEBRUARY with links to images.
1808 Jan van Os, Dutch artist born on 23 February 1744. — more with links to images.
1749 Jan van Huysum, Dutch painter born on 15 April 1682. MORE ON VAN HUYSUM AT ART “4” FEBRUARY with links to images.
1609 Ferdinand I cardinal/ruler of Toscane.
0590 Pelagius II Gothic Pope (579-90), from plague. He had protested when the patriarch of Constantinople was given the title "Universal Bishop" by a council.
Births which occurred on a February 07:
1932 Gay Talese, writer (The Kingdom and the Power, Unto the Sons)
^ 1920 An Wang, in Shanghai
      Wang immigrated to the United States in 1925 and later earned a Ph.D. from Harvard University. In 1948, he invented the magnetic memory core, which served as the basis for all computer memory until the invention of the microchip. In 1951, he founded Wang Laboratories, which manufactured desktop calculators and later office computers. Wang, who died in 1990, was also instrumental in the development of word processing systems.
1919 Dom Hélder Câmara Brazilian bishop
1897 Maxwell Herman Alexander Newman, English mathematician who died on 22 February 1984.
^ 1893 Telautograph signing machine is patented by Elisha Gray of Highland Park, Illinois. The machine automatically signs autographs to documents. Gray worked on a number of other related instruments, including a telephone, which would eventually lead him to contest Alexander Graham Bell's telephone patent. After a long legal battle in the US Supreme Court, Gray lost the patent rights to Bell; however, he still managed to patent more than sixty inventions during his lifetime.
1885 Sinclair Lewis, US novelist/social critic (1st US Nobel prize-winning author [1930]: Elmer Gantry; refused Pulitzer prize: Arrowsmith [1926], Main Street). He died on 10 January 1951.
1883 Eric Temple Bell, Scottish-born US mathematician who died on 21 December 1960. He also made contributions to analytic number theory, Diophantine analysis and numerical functions. He wrote several popular but inaccurate books on the history of mathematics. He also wrote 16 science fiction novels under the name John Taine, an autobiography, and several volumes of poetry
1877 Godfrey Harold Hardy, English mathematician who died on 01 December 1947. His interests covered many topics of pure mathematics:- Diophantine analysis, summation of divergent series, Fourier series, the Riemann zeta function and the distribution of primes.
1870 Alfred Adler Austria, psychiatrist (Inferiority Complex). He died on 28 May 1937.
^ 1867 Laura Elizabeth Ingalls, in Wisconsin, author of the semi-autobiographical Little House series of children's fiction (Little House in the Big Woods 1932, Farmer Boy 1933, Little House on the Prairie 1935, On the Banks of Plum Creek 1937, By the Shores of Silver Lake 1939, The Long Winter 1940, Little Town on the Prairie 1941, These Happy Golden Years 1943). The basic facts of her life correspond to those related in her books about her family's experiences on the US frontier during the 1870's and 1880's. She died on 10 February 1957.
^ 1855 Charles Angelo Siringo, in Matagorda County, Texas, cowboy, writer, Pinkerton detective.
      When Siringo was only 30 years old, he published the first authentic autobiographical account of the cowboy life, A Texas Cowboy, or Fifteen Years on the Hurricane Deck of a Spanish Cow Pony. The book was an immediate success and played a pivotal role in creating the enduring American fascination with the Western cowboy. Unlike some of the subsequent popular accounts of western ranching written by eastern greenhorns, Siringo based his memoir on his authentic experiences as a Texas cowboy. While still only a teen, Siringo had registered a brand and begun building his own ranch by the then still acceptable practice of claiming "mavericks," unbranded cows wandering the open range. Siringo was never able to build much of a herd, but his years spent on trail drives and roundups provided perfect material for a genuine, if somewhat romantic, portrait of the short-lived golden era of the open range.
      A few years before he wrote A Texas Cowboy, Siringo had abandoned the footloose cowboy life to become a husband and storekeeper in Caldwell, Kansas. Siringo, though, seemed incapable of staying out of the action for long. In 1886, he hired on as a detective for the infamous Pinkerton National Detective Agency (founded by Allan Pinkerton [25 Aug 1819 – 01 Jul 1884] in 1850). Working out of the Pinkerton's Denver office, Siringo's career as a detective for hire was every bit as dramatic as his earlier years on the open range. In 1892, he infiltrated the radical labor movement in the mining region near Cœur d'Alene, Idaho, where conflicts with management had become bitterly violent. Around the turn of the century, Siringo spent four years pursuing the famous Wild Bunch at the behest of the railroad companies angered by the gangs' repeated train robberies. Siringo traveled more than 40'000 km around the West chasing after Butch Cassidy, the Sundance Kid, and other gang members. When Cassidy and the Sundance Kid fled to South America, the Pinkertons finally forced Siringo to abandon the case.
      In 1907, Siringo left the Pinkertons and turned again to writing about his past adventures. In 1912, he published A Cowboy Detective, an account of his 20-year career as a detective. Three years later, Siringo attacked the often violent and illegal Pinkerton methods he had witnessed in Two Evil Isms: Pinkertonism and Anarchism. Legal threats from the Pinkertons forced him to eliminate such overt attacks from his subsequent books, A Lone Star Cowboy (1919), History of "Billy the Kid" (1920), Riata and Spurs (1927). in which he returned to the Wild West themes that had won him his first success. Siringo lived out his later years in California, and died on 18 October 1928.
1842 Alexandre Ribit premier (France).
1837 Philip Lodewijk Jacob Frederik Sadee, Dutch artist who died on 14 December 1904.
1837 José Jiménez y Aranda, Spanish painter who died on 06 May 1903. — more
1834 Dmitri I Mendelejev Russian chemist (devised Periodic Table)
1830 José Tapiro y Baro, Spanish artist who died in 1913.
1823 George Washington Wilson, Scottish photographer and painter who died on 09 March 1893. — more with links to images.
1817 Frederick Douglass, Maryland, abolitionist leader, first high ranking Black in US government.He died on 20 February 1895.
1816 Jean Frédéric Frenet, Périgueux French mathematician who died on 12 June 1900.
1814 Gardner Quincy Colton, US anesthetist and inventor who died on 09 August 1898.
^ 1812 Charles Dickens
      Dickens was born in 1812 and attended school in Portsmouth. His father, a clerk in the navy pay office, was thrown in debtors' prison in 1824, and 12-year-old Charles was sent to work in a factory. The miserable treatment of children and the institution of the debtors' jail became topics of several of Dickens' novels. In his late teens, Dickens became a reporter and started publishing humorous short stories when he was 21.
      In 1836, a collection of his stories was published: Sketches by Boz, later known as The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. The same year, he married Catherine Hogarth, with whom he would have nine children. The short sketches in his collection were originally commissioned as captions for humorous drawings by caricature artist Robert Seymour, but Dickens' whimsical stories about the kindly Samuel Pickwick and his fellow club members soon became popular in their own right. Only 400 copies were printed of the first installment, but by the 15th episode 40'000 copies were printed. When The Pickwick Papers were published in book form in 1837, Dickens quickly became the most popular author of the day.
      In 1838, Dickens published Oliver Twist, followed by Nicholas Nickleby (1839). In 1841, Dickens published two more novels, then spent five months in the US, where he was hailed as a literary hero. On 17 December 1843 he publised A Christmas Carol. The "social conversion" of Ebenezer Scrooge on Christmas Eve may be seen as a literary symbol (based on the For the first Christmas night) of the human potential released through spiritual conversion
      Dickens churned out major novels every year or two, usually serialized in his own circular. Among his most important works are David Copperfield (1850), Great Expectations (1861), and A Tale of Two Cities (1859). Beginning in 1850, he published his own weekly circular of fiction, poetry, and essays called Household Words. In 1858, Dickens separated from his wife and began a long affair with a young actress. In the late 1850s, he began a series of public readings, which became immensely popular. He died on 09 June 1870 at the age of 58, with his last novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, still unfinished.
     Il deviendra un grand romancier de l'époque victorienne. Dans un style qui allie l'humour au sens dramatique, il proteste contre la condition déplorable des classes laborieuses en cette période d'expansion industrielle. Il salut avec joie la révolution française de 1848 sur laquelle, il fonda de grands espoirs.
DICKENS ONLINE:
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  • The Seven Poor Travellers
  • Sketches of Young Couples
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  • Speeches, Literary and Social
  • Sunday Under Three Heads
  • A Tale of Two Cities
  • A Tale of Two Cities
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  • The Uncommercial Traveller
  • The Wreck of the Golden Mary
    co-author of:
  • No Thoroughfare
  • No Thoroughfare
    editor of:
  • A House to Let
  • 1804 John Deere, US inventor of agricultural implements who died on 17 May 1886.
    1776 Sebastien Wegmayr, Austrian artist who died on 20 November 1857.
    1606 Nicolas Mignard d'Avignon, French painter who died on 20 March 1668. — more with links to images, including of Ganymede by Mignard and many other artists.
    ^ 1477 Sir Thomas More ('Man for All Seasons')
         English humanist and statesman, chancellor of England (1529-1532), who was beheaded on 06 July 1535 for “treason” (i.e. being faithful to the Catholic Church, instead of assenting to king Henry VIII creating the Church of England and making making himself its head so as to change wives at will). More was canonized on 19 May 1935 (feast day 09 July). He wrote Utopia, creating the word from the Greek “ou topos” (no place) reminiscent of “eutopos” (good place). The book, written in Latin, describes an imaginary pagan and communist city-state entirely governed by reason. It includes consideration of penology, state-controlled education, religious pluralism, divorce, euthanasia, women's rights, presenting communism as the only way to mitigate the evils of egoism.
    — Thomas More est né à Londres. Humaniste audacieux, auteur de "l'Utopie", il devient chancelier du roi Henri VIII. Il sera exécuté en 1535 pour n'avoir pas voulu le reconnaître comme le chef de la nouvelle Eglise anglicane.
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  • The History of King Richard the Third
  • The History of King Richard the Third
  • Selected Latin Epigrams
  • Religious Observances Christian : Feast of Saint Theodore / Sainte Eugénie Smet, à l'instigation du saint curé d'Ars, fonda les Auxiliatrices du Purgatoire en 1856, pour l'enseignement du catéchisme aux enfants.

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