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Events, deaths, births, of JAN 03
[For Jan 03 Julian go to Gregorian date: 1583~1699: Jan 131700s: Jan 141800s: Jan 151900~2099: Jan 16]
On a January 03:
2002 Israeli commandos seize Iranian ship Karim A. in international waters in the Red Sea some 500 km south of Elat. The ship is captained by a Palestinian and carries 50 tons of mainly Iranian-manufactured arms and munitions, including mortars and anti-tank missiles
2002 A UK Office of National Statistics news release includes the following findings based on names given to 267'875 boys and 254'978 girls born in 2001 in England and Wales:
Top 10 names given to boys: 1. Jack 2. Thomas 3. Joshua 4. James 5. Daniel 6. Harry 7. Samuel 8. Joseph 9. Matthew 10. Lewis.
To girls: 1. Chloe 2. Emily 3. Megan 4. Jessica 5. Sophie 6. Lauren 7. Charlotte 8. Hannah 9. Olivia 10. Lucy
2001 Outside of its scheduled meetings, at 13:15 ET (in the midst of the New York trading day) the US Federal Reserve cuts the federal funds rate from 6.5% to 6% and the discount rate from 6% to 5.75%. In reaction to this, the Dow-Jones Industrial Average rises 299.60 (2.8%) to close at 10'946.75, the SandP 500 closes up 64.29 (5.0%) at 1347.56, and the NASDAQ up 324.83 (14.2%) at 2616.69. Sun Microsystems makes its 52-week low (25.00) early in the session, but then surges $7.56 (29.7%) above yesterday's close, to close at 33.00 (still far from its 1 Sep 2000 52-week high of 64.66). But, contrary to what one might expect, the Treasury bonds decline, as they apparently had been priced in expectation of the rate cut, and now money goes out of them into stocks.
2001 La dracma griega se incorpora al sistema de moneda única.
1999 La moneda única europea inicia con éxito su primera jornada en los mercados financieros mundiales.
1998 El presidente de México Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de León acepta la denuncia formal de su ministro del Interior, acusado de ser el máximo responsable de la matanza de 45 indígenas en Chiapas.
1997 El presidente de Estados Unidos, Bill Clinton, prorroga por otros seis meses la suspensión del Capítulo III de la Ley Helms-Burton sobre inversores extranjeros en Cuba.
1995 Sri Lanka: Cease-fire agreement between government and Tamil rebels.
1993 US President George Bush and Russian President Boris Yeltsin sign the second Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START 2) in Moscow. — Los presidentes de Estados Unidos y de Rusia, George Bush (padre) y Boris Nikolaievich Yeltsin, firman en el Kremlin el START II, con la intención de reducir los arsenales nucleares.
1993 Junk bond king Michael Milkin is released from jail after 22 months
1992 32 Cubans defect to the US via helicopter
1991 AIDS was removed from the list of diseases that bar a person from entering the US.
1990 Panama's leader General Manuel Noriega, holed up in the Vatican embassy for 10 days, surrenders to the US, who had invaded Panama to arrest him as a drug smuggler. Noriega had ceased cooperating with the CIA. He was flown to Miami., tried, and sentenced to prison.
1988 Margaret Thatcher becomes longest-serving British PM in the 20th century
1985 Israel's government confirms resettlement of 10'000 Ethiopian Jews
1984 Syria frees captured US pilot after appeal from Jesse Jackson
1983 Times Beach, Missouri, declared disaster area due to dioxin contamination.
1983 Une éruption du Kilauea crée d’immenses lacs de lave.
      Depuis cette éruption, une des plus importantes en vulcanologie, cent cinquante millions de mètres cubes de lave sont produits chaque année. La lave s’écoule vers l’océan, à plus de cinquante kilomètres et agrandit l’île de plusieurs dizaines de milliers d’hectares. Le Kilauea est un cratère volcanique, le plus actif du monde, au centre de l'île d'Hawaii. Il se situe sur la pente sud-est du grand volcan Mauna Loa, à une altitude de 1 111 m, plus de 3000 m en dessous du sommet de la montagne. Le cratère, qui forme une grande cavité dans le flanc de la montagne, couvre une aire d'environ 10 km² . À l'exception de quelques coulées de lave dans le fond du cratère, l'activité volcanique récente s'est résumée à un cratère intérieur, le Halemaumau, d'un diamètre de plus de 900 m et d'une profondeur d'environ 400 m.
      Normalement, la lave provenant de sources souterraines coule constamment dans le fond du cratère, où soit elle refroidit et se solidifie, soit elle s'accumule jusqu'à ce qu'elle soit drainée vers d'autres passages souterrains. Lors d'une plus grande activité volcanique, la lave peut s'échapper des cheminées sur les pentes inférieures vers la mer. D'importantes coulées se produisirent en 1920-1921, en 1950, en 1955, en 1959, en 1965 et en 1969. Le cycle d'éruption actuel, le plus long de l'histoire récente d'Hawaii, commença en 1983. Le volcan vomit environ 382 000 m3 de lave par jour et, jusqu'en 1987, ajouta plus de 80937 ha à l'île. En juin 1989, la lave détruisit le centre touristique du parc national, et plus de 65 habitations en 1990. Depuis 1911, il existe un observatoire sur le bord du cratère.
In Hawaii, volcano Kilauea starts an eruption, with a series of short-lived lava fountains which eventually build a 255-meter-high cinder-and-spatter cone, Pu'u' O'o . The eruption becomes a tourist attraction, and, twenty years later, shows no sign of abating, changing the coast line and covering already 111 square kilometers.
1983 La empresa Apple presenta, a un precio de $10'000, el ordenador de sobremesa Lisa, el primero equipado con ratón.
1980 Francisco Sá Carneiro es elegido primer ministro de Portugal.
1980 Gold hits record $634 an ounce.
1976 Falange Española y JONS (Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional Sindicalistas) se constituyen en partido político.
1974 Burma accepts its constitution.
1973 En France est créé le poste de mediateur, une sorte d' “ombudsman”
      La loi du 03 janvier 1973, modifiée sur certains points par celle du 24 decembre 1976, a créé l’institution du médiateur dans le but de permettre aux administrés, de plus en plus écrasés par le poids de la machine administrative, de mettre en œuvre une forme de contrôle susceptible de les protéger contre l’arbitraire des décisions dont ils ignorent le plus souvent les motivations.
      Une partie de la doctrine française aurait voulu voir acclimater le modèle suédois de "l’ombudsman" ; mais à l’inverse de celui-ci, le médiateur français n’émane pas du Parlement. Il est nommé pour cinq ans par décret du président de la République en Conseil des ministres. Toutefois, son indépendance est largement garantie : il ne peut être mis fin à ses fonctions qu’en cas d’empêchement constaté par le Conseil d’État. Son mandat n’est pas renouvelable et, dans la limite de ses attributions, il ne reçoit d’instructions d’aucune autorité ; il ne peut être poursuivi, recherché, arrêté, détenu ni jugé à l’occasion des opinions qu’il émet ou des actes qu’il accomplit dans l’exercice de ses fonctions.
      La mission du médiateur est de recevoir les "réclamations" des administrés concernant le fonctionnement des administrations de l’État, des collectivités locales, des établissements publics et de tous les organismes investis d’une mission de service public. Elle concerne, d’une façon générale, les difficultés qui échappent au contrôle du juge, mais qui "blessent l’équité et le bon sens". On a parlé, à ce propos, de "maladministration".
      Mais, et c’est là une restriction qui n’existe pas en Suède, le médiateur ne peut être saisi directement par un particulier mécontent. Il doit l’être par un parlementaire, qui lui transmet la réclamation si celle-ci lui "paraît entrer dans sa compétence et mériter son intervention" ; cela constitue un important barrage, auquel s’ajoute un double inconvénient : d’une part, cette réclamation doit avoir été précédée de démarches auprès des administrations intéressées, et d’autre part, elle n’interrompt pas les délais de recours contentieux, ce qui lui ôte en pratique une partie de son intérêt. Il faut de plus qu’elle soit considérée comme individuelle et si elle est présentée au nom d’une personne morale par une personne physique, que celle-ci justifie d’un intérêt direct à agir. En revanche, les parlementaires peuvent saisir d’eux-mêmes le médiateur et des pétitions peuvent lui parvenir par l’intermédiaire des commissions permanentes et des présidents des assemblées parlementaires.
      Que peut faire le médiateur ? Si l’on reprend la formule toujours valable de l’exposé des motifs de la loi de 1973, il n’a pas pour mission de "censurer les actes de l’administration, mais d’inciter celle-ci, dans des affaires précises, à reconsidérer son attitude ou à remettre en cause des règles, des pratiques ou des décisions qui gagneraient à être modifiées ou améliorées".
      Il peut donc faire des recommandations ou des propositions, mais il n’a pas de pouvoir de contrainte sur l’administration. Cependant, les ministres sont "tenus" d’autoriser leurs agents à répondre aux questions et aux convocations du médiateur, et celui-ci peut, en cas de carence de l’autorité supérieure, engager contre les agents une procédure disciplinaire ou même une action devant la juridiction répressive. Il peut aussi rendre l’affaire publique dans un rapport spécial, ce qui n’est pas de l’intérêt de l’administration, qui répugne naturellement à toute forme de publicité sur ses activités.
      Ainsi se trouve facilitée la tâche du médiateur qui doit pouvoir recevoir communication de tout document ou dossier utile, et ne peut se voir opposer leur caractère confidentiel qu’en matière de défense nationale, de sûreté de l’État ou de politique extérieure. Enfin, il peut demander au vice-président du Conseil d’État et au premier président de la Cour des comptes, de faire procéder aux études indispensables.
      Chaque année, le médiateur présente au président de la République et au Parlement un rapport public dans lequel il établit le bilan de son activité. On constate au regard des différents rapports connus à ce jour, que, malgré les améliorations déjà apportées par la réforme de 1976, et malgré la qualité des personnalités nommées, les pouvoirs du médiateur sont encore par trop dérisoires pour apporter les remèdes au malaise que ressentent les citoyens devant l’administration.
1970 Marxist government takes over in Congo
1970 African nationalist guerrillas based in Zambia stage their first infiltration raid on white-ruled Rhodesia since mid-1968. Because the guerrillas lack any overall political or military objective, and receive little local support, they are routed by Rhodesian security forces. The ineffectiveness of the infiltration strategy will cause dissension among the exiles. But, in 1972, guerrillas of one faction, the Zimbabwean African National Union, infiltrates the country with much greater success, and maintain an insurgent war that ousts Ian Smith's white regime in 1979.
1969 Representative Adam Clayton Powell Jr seated by US Congress
1968 Vietnam War critic runs for US President
      Senator Eugene McCarthy (D-Minnesota) announces his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination. McCarthy had been a contender to be President Lyndon B. Johnson's running mate in the 1964 election, but since then he had become increasingly disenchanted with Johnson's policies in Vietnam and the escalation of the war. In 1967, he published The Limits of Power, an assessment of US foreign policy that was very critical of the Johnson administration. When announcing his candidacy, McCarthy said he hoped to harness the growing antiwar sentiment in the country, particularly among the young. In March, much to the astonishment of most political pundits, McCarthy came within a few hundred votes of beating Johnson in the New Hampshire primary. 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.
      The rest of McCarthy's campaign was almost an anticlimax. Robert Kennedy entered the race and won most of the Democratic primaries until he was assassinated in June 1968. When the Democratic National Convention opened in Chicago, a conflict immediately erupted over the party's Vietnam platform. While demonstrations against the war took place in the streets outside the convention hall, Vice President Hubert Humphrey won the party nomination. Humphrey was defeated in the general election by Republican Richard Nixon. McCarthy retired from the Senate in 1971, but his brief run at the presidency demonstrated that there was a strong antiwar sentiment in the country that demanded to be heard.
1965 Antigovernment demonstrators clash with Saigon police
      The political crisis that had been undermining the South Vietnamese government and military for months is aggravated when thousands of antigovernment demonstrators in Saigon clash with government marines and police. There was also rioting in Hue, where students organized strikes against the local government. The main resistance to the Saigon regime came from Buddhists, who were strongly opposed to Tran Van Huong. Huong was a civilian who became premier on November 4, 1964, after a series of military governments had failed in the aftermath of November 1963 coup that resulted in the death of President Ngo Dinh Diem. The Buddhists were alarmed that Huong's government might pave the way for a return to power of Catholics and those faithful to Diem and his policies. In addition, many Buddhists had become increasingly concerned about American influence in South Vietnam and saw Huong as a puppet of the United States.
1962 Pope John XXIII excommunicates Fidel Castro Ruz por cometer abusos contra funcionarios de la iglesia e instituciones del Vaticano.
1961 Adam Clayton Powell elected Chairman of the US House of Representatives' Education and Labor committee.
1961 United States severs diplomatic relations with Cuba
      In the climax of deteriorating relations between the United States and Fidel Castro's government in Cuba, President Dwight D. Eisenhower closes the American embassy in Havana and severs diplomatic relations. The action signaled that the United States was prepared to take extreme measures to oppose Castro's regime, which US officials worried was a beachhead of communism in the western hemisphere. The immediate reason cited for the break was Castro's demand that the US embassy staff be reduced, which followed heated accusations from the Cuban government that America was using the embassy as a base for spies.
      Relations between the United States and Cuba had been steadily declining since Castro seized power in early 1959. US officials were soon convinced that Castro's government was too anti-American to be trusted, and they feared that he might lead Cuba into the communist bloc. Early in 1960, following Castro's decision to sign a trade treaty with the Soviet Union, the Eisenhower administration began financing and training a group of Cuban exiles to overthrow the Cuban leader. Castro responded by increasing his program of nationalizing foreign property and companies. In return, the United States began to implement cutbacks in trade with Cuba. The diplomatic break on January 3, 1961 was the culmination of an increasingly acrimonious situation.
      Severing relations marked the end of America's policy of trying to resolve its differences with Castro's government through diplomacy. Just over two months later, President John F. Kennedy unleashed the Cuban exile force established during the Eisenhower years. This led to the Bay of Pigs debacle, in which Castro's military killed or captured the exile troops. After the Bay of Pigs, the relationship between the United States and Cuba was one of the chilliest of the Cold War.
     Cuban soldiers, using Soviet weapons, intervened in Africa during the 1960s and '70s. Refugees from Cuba still continue into the next century to present a problem both for Cuba and for the US.
1959 Alaska becomes the 49th and largest state in the Union with US President Dwight D. Eisenhower's signing of a special proclamation (celebrates Admission Day). When Secretary of State William H. Seward negotiated the purchase of Alaska from Russia in 1867, many called it "Seward's Folly." The Klondike Gold Rush changed all that, and prospectors mined some fifty million dollars worth of gold between 1897 and 1900. Later petroleum was discovered.
1958 La expedición neozelandesa dirigida por Edmund Percival Hillary llega al Polo Sur.
1955 José Ramon Guizado becomes President of Panama
1955 Federal victims of McCarthyism revealed
      The US government announces that over 3,000 persons designated as “security risks” have been discharged from federal employment between June of 1953 and October of 1954, a period regarded as the height of "McCarthyism" in America.
      What would become known as McCarthyism began in February of 1950, when Joseph McCarthy, a relatively obscure senator from Wisconsin, announced during a speech in Wheeling, West Virginia, that he had in his hand a list of 205 Communists in the State Department. The unsubstantiated declaration, which was little more than a desperate publicity stunt, suddenly thrust Senator McCarthy into the national spotlight. Asked to reveal the names on the list, the reckless and opportunistic senator named officials he determined guilty by association, and a special Senate committee was formed to investigate the matter. The committee found little to substantiate McCarthy's charges, but McCarthy nevertheless touched a nerve in the American public. Over the next two years, he made increasingly sensational charges, even attacking President Harry S. Truman's respected former secretary of state, George C. Marshall.
      In 1953, a newly Republican Congress appointed McCarthy chairman of the Subcommittee on Investigations of the Senate Committee on Governmental Operations, and McCarthyism reached a feverish pitch. In widely publicized hearings, McCarthy bullied defendants under cross-examination with unlawful and damaging accusations, destroying the reputations of hundreds of innocent citizens and officials. In the early months of 1954, McCarthy, who had already lost the support of much of his party, finally overreached himself when he took on the US Army. Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower pushed for the investigation of McCarthy's conduct, and the subsequent televised hearings exposed McCarthy as a reckless and excessive tyrant who never produced proper documentation for a single one of his charges. On 2 December 1954, the Senate voted to censure him, and McCarthyism finally came to an end, although many of its victims never recovered their careers or reputations. Nor did McCarthy, “his name became Mudd” and he died an alcoholic in 1957..
1953 Frances Bolton and her son, Oliver, from Ohio, become the first mother-son combination to serve at the same time in the US Congress.
1951 9 Jewish Kremlin physicians are alleged to be British or US agents
1949 The US Supreme Court rules that, as part of the Taft-Hartley Act in 1947, states have the right to outlaw the closed shop, one of labor's most potent bargaining weapons.
1945 La ofensiva alemana de las Ardenas fracasa en la ciudad belga de Bastogne.
1945 Allies land on west coast of Burma, conquer Akyab
1945 Greek General Nikolaos Plastiras forms government
1945 US aircraft carriers attack Okinawa
1945 MacArthur and Nimitz given new commands
      In preparation for planned assaults against Iwo Jima, Okinawa, and mainland Japan, Gen. Douglas MacArthur is placed in command of all US ground forces and Adm. Chester Nimitz is placed in command of all US naval forces. This effectively ended the concept of unified commands, in which one man oversaw more than one service from more than one country in a distinct region.
      Douglas MacArthur's career was one of striking achievement. His performance during World War I combat in France won him decorations for valor and earned him the distinction of becoming the youngest general in the Army at the time. He retired from the Army in 1934, but was then appointed head of the Philippine Army by its president (the Philippines had US Commonwealth status at the time).
      When the US was thrust into World War II, MacArthur was called back to active service as commanding general of the US Army in the Far East. He was convinced he could defeat Japan if Japan invaded the Philippines. In the long term he was correct, but in the short term the United States suffered disastrous defeats at Bataan and Corregidor. By the time US forces were compelled to surrender, he had already shipped out on orders from President Roosevelt. As he left, he uttered his immortal line: "I shall return."
      Refusing to admit defeat, MacArthur took supreme command of a unified force in the Southwest Pacific, capturing New Guinea from the Japanese with an innovative "leap frog" strategy. True to his word, MacArthur returned to the Philippines in October 1944. With the help of the US Navy, which destroyed the Japanese fleet and left the Japanese garrisons on the islands without reinforcements, the Army defeated the Japanese resistance. In January 1945, he was given control of all American land forces in the Pacific; by March, MacArthur was able to hand control of the Philippine capital back to its president.
      Admiral Nimitz, a graduate of the US Naval Academy at Annapolis, fought in World War I as chief of staff to the commander of the Atlantic submarine force, an experience that forever convinced him of the efficacy of submarine warfare. Upon America's entry into World War II, Nimitz was made commander in chief of the unified Pacific Fleet (Ocean Area), putting him in control of both air and sea forces. He oversaw American victories at Midway and the Battle of the Coral Sea, and directed further victories at the Solomon Islands, the Gilbert Islands, the Philippines, and finally, as commander of all naval forces in the Pacific, in Iwo Jima and Okinawa. Both MacArthur and Nimitz had the honor of accepting the formal Japanese surrender on September 2, 1945, aboard the USS Missouri.
1944 La Syrie et le Liban deviennent indépendants. La France reconnaît la souveraineté de ces deux pays qui avaient été placés sous son protectorat vingt-deux ans plus tôt. Dans le Liban à majorité chrétienne, quarante années de prospérité et de paix s'écouleront avant que l'intolérance religieuse ne dilapide l'héritage du protectorat.
1943 Serge Alexandre Stavisky, créateur et fondateur du Crédit municipal de Bayonne, a détourné plusieurs dizaines de millions de francs. "L'affaire Stavisky" éclate à Paris, et éclabousse de nombreuse personnalités politiques qui sont impliquées dans ce scandale.
1942 Chiang Kai-Shek es nombrado comandante en jefe de todas las fuerzas aliadas en China.
1941 Canada and US acquire air bases in Newfoundland (99 year lease)
1941 Italian counter offensive in Albania
1934 At Barmen-Gemarke, in Germany, 320 pastors of the German Confessing Church met to draw up a theological statement opposing the Nazi German Nationalist Church. Led by Karl Barth and Martin Niemüller, the gathering led to the formula afterward known as the Barmen Declaration.
1926 Greek General Theodorus Pángalos names himself dictator.
1926 Benito Mussolini acumula los ministerios de Asuntos Exteriores, Guerra, Marina y Navegación Aérea.
1925 Benito Mussolini dissolves Italian parliament and announces that he will take dictatorial powers. — declara ilegales a todos los partidos de la oposición.
1924 King Tut's sarcophagus discovered
      Two years after British archaeologist Howard Carter and his workmen discovered the tomb of the Pharaoh Tutankhamen near Luxor, Egypt, they uncover the greatest treasure of the tomb — -a stone sarcophagus containing a solid gold coffin that holds the mummy of Tutankhamen. When Carter first arrived in Egypt in 1891, the majority of the ancient Egyptian tombs had been discovered, although the little-known Pharaoh Tutankhamen, who had died when he was only nineteen, was still unaccounted for. After World War I, Carter began an intensive search for "King Tut's Tomb," finally finding steps to the burial room hidden in the debris near the entrance of the nearby tomb of King Ramses VI in the Valley of the Kings. On November 26, 1922, Carter and fellow archaeologist Lord Carnarvon entered the tomb, finding it miraculously intact. Thus began a monumental excavation process in which Carter carefully explored the four-room tomb over four years, uncovering an incredible collection of several thousand objects. The most splendid architectural find was a stone sarcophagus containing three coffins nested within each other. Inside the final coffin, made out of solid gold, was the mummy of the boy-king Tutankhamen, preserved for over three thousand years.
1921 Studebaker stops making farm wagons.
      The Studebaker Corporation announced that it would no longer build farm wagons. Studebaker began in 1852 as a horse-drawn wagon shop. Over the following years, the company became the world’s single biggest manufacturer of horse-drawn carriages and carts. In 1897, Studebaker began experimenting with the newfangled "horseless carriage." By 1902 the company had produced several electric automobiles, and by 1904 gasoline-powered motorcars were rolling out of Studebaker factories. Throughout the early twentieth century, Studebaker remained one of the biggest names in the automobile business. In 1954, Studebaker merged with the Packard Motor Car Company. Production of Studebaker automobiles ended in 1963 in the US, and in 1966 in Canada.
1918 US employment service opens as a unit of Department of Labor.
1915 El presidente paraguayo Eduardo Schaerer es detenido por los golpistas y liberado por las fuerzas leales.
1910 British miners strike for 8 hour working day.
1906 El ex presidente Eloy Alfaro Delgado vuelve a hacerse con el poder en Ecuador.
1904 John Edwuard Redmond intenta relanzar el movimiento nacionalista irlandés del Home Rule.
click to ZOOM IN1899 An editorial in the New York Times made a reference to an "automobile" on this day. It was the first known use of the word.
1889 Admissions convention meets in Ellensburg WA, asks for statehood
1876 first free kindergarten in US opens in Florence MA
1870 Brooklyn Bridge construction begins; completed 24 May 1883
1868 Meiji Restoration returns authority to Japan's emperors [click to enlarge picture >] which means the fall of the shoguns (military rulers).
1862 Romney Campaign — Stonewall Jackson moves north from Winchester
1861 Delaware legislature rejects proposal to join Confederacy
1861 US Fort Pulaski and Fort Jackson, Savannah, seized by Georgia
1852 first Chinese arrive in Hawaii.
1841 Herman Melville sails for the South Seas
      Herman Melville, 22, ships out on the whaler Acushnet to the South Seas.
      Melville was born in New York City in 1819. A childhood bout of scarlet fever left him with weakened eyes. At age 19, he became a cabin boy on a ship bound for Liverpool. It is two years later that he sails for the South Seas on the Acushnet, which would anchor in Polynesia. There Melville would take part in a mutiny, be thrown in jail in Tahiti, escape, and wander around the South Sea islands from 1841 to 1844.
    In 1846, he published his first novel, Typee, based on his Polynesian adventures. His second book, Omoo (1847), also dealt with the South Seas. The two novels became popular, although his third, Mardi (1849), more experimental in nature, failed to catch on with the public. Melville bought a farm near Nathaniel Hawthorne's house in Massachusetts, and the two became close friends, although they later drifted apart. Melville wrote for journals and continued to publish novels.
     
On 14 November 1851, Harper and Brothers published Moby Dick. The book flopped and was not recognized as a classic for many years, but Melville's short stories were highly acclaimed. Putnam's Monthly published Bartleby, the Scrivener in 1853 and Benito Cereno in 1855. In 1866, Melville won appointment as a customs inspector in New York, which brought him a stable income. He published several volumes of poetry. He continued to write until his death in 1891, and his last novel, Billy Budd, was not published until 1924.
MELVILLE ONLINE:
  • Complete on-line works
  • Bartleby, the Scrivener
  • Bartleby, the Scrivener
  • Benito Cereno
  • The Piazza Tales
  • Moby Dick
  • Moby Dick
  • The Confidence-Man
  • The Encantadas, or Enchanted Isles
  • The Lightning-Rod Man
  • Billy Budd
  • Omoo
  • Typee
  • Typee
  • Typee
  • 1834 Stephen Austin imprisoned by Mexicans
          Escalating the tensions that would lead to rebellion and war, the Mexican government imprisons the Texas colonizer Stephen Austin in Mexico City. Stephen Fuller Austin was a reluctant revolutionary. His father, Moses Austin, won permission from the Mexican government in 1821 to settle 300 Anglo-American families in Texas. When Moses died before realizing his plans, Stephen took over and established the fledgling Texas community on the lower reaches of the Colorado and Brazos Rivers. Periodic upheavals in the government of the young Mexican Republic forced Austin to constantly return to Mexico City where he argued for the rights of the American colonists in Texas, representing their interests as a colonial founder. Yet, Austin remained confident that an Anglo-American state could succeed within the boundaries of the Mexican nation.
          Mexican authorities were less certain. Alarmed by the growing numbers of former Americans migrating to Texas (8000 in Austin's colonies alone by 1832) and rumors the US intended to annex the region, the Mexican government began to limit immigration in 1830. Though Austin found loopholes allowing him to circumvent the policy, the Mexican policy angered many Anglo-American colonists who already had a long list of grievances against their distant government. In 1833, a group of colonial leaders met to draft a constitution that would create a new Anglo-dominated Mexican state of Texas by splitting away from the Mexican-dominated Coahuila region it had previously been tied to. The colonists hoped that by decreasing the influence of native Mexicans, whose culture and loyalties were more closely wedded to Mexico City, they could argue more effectively for American-style reforms.
          Once they had hammered out a new constitution, the colonial leaders directed Austin to travel to Mexico City to present it to the government along with a list of other demands. Austin conceded to the will of the people, but President Santa Ana refused to grant Texas separate status from Coahuila and threw Austin in prison on suspicion of inciting insurrection. When he was finally released eight months later in August 1835, Austin found that the Anglo-American colonists were on the brink of rebellion. They were now demanding a Republic of Texas that would break entirely from the Mexican nation. Reluctantly, Austin abandoned his hope that the Anglo Texans could somehow remain a part of Mexico, and he began to prepare for war. The following year Austin helped lead the Texan rebels to victory over the Mexicans and assisted in the creation of the independent Republic of Texas. Defeated by Sam Houston in a bid for the presidency of the new nation, Austin instead took the position of secretary of state. He died in office later that year.
    1833 Britain seizes control of Falkland Islands in South Atlantic.
    1828 En France, le ministère Villèle a fait voter des mesures impopulaires comme les lois limitant la liberté de la presse, etc. Il se retire sous la pression des libéraux. C'est le cabinet du semi-libéral Martignac qui lui succède.
    1825 Scottish factory owner Robert Owen buys 30'000 acres in Indiana as site for New Harmony utopian community
    1781 Inca besiege Cuzco (Peru) in attempt to dislodge Spanish.
    1777 George Washington defeats the British, led by Cornwallis, at Battle of Princeton, New Jersey, during the US War of Independence.
    1746 Bonnie Prince Charlies army leaves Glasgow
    1642 Se aprueba la Gran Amonestación, acta de acusación del Parlamento contra Carlos I, rey de Inglaterra.
    1521 Martin Luther [10 Nov 1483 – 18 Feb 1546] is excommunicated by the bull Decet Romanun Pontificem after he had been admonished by the 15 June 1520 bull Exsurge Domine [English translation] (which he burned on 10 Dec 1520), both of pope Leo X [11 Dec 1475 – 01 December 1521].
         De plus, le souverain pontife demanda au roi Charles Quint de condamner Luther en tant qu'hérétique, à moins qu'il ne se rétracta les points de vue qu'il avait exprimé au sujet de l'Église catholique romaine dans ses sermons, et pamphlets. Luther refusa et deviendra l'initiateur de la Réforme protestante. Le Protestantisme tel que l'entendait Luther demeure religion officielle en Suède, au Danemark et en Allemagne. En France, il subira une importante mutation sous l'influence de Jean Calvin.
    1431 Joan of Arc handed over to Pierre Cauchon, the Bishop of Beauvais, an unscrupulous and ambitious man who was the creature of the Burgundian party.
    1383 La révolte fiscale des Maillotins
          A son sacre, le 4 novembre 1380, le roi Charles VI de Valois n'a pas encore 12 ans.
    Embellie au royaume de France
          Le royaume se remet d'un long conflit avec les Anglais et de troubles civils très graves marqués par la captivité de l'ancien roi Jean II le Bon, la dissidence du prévôt des marchands parisiens, Etienne Marcel, et les pillages des "Grandes Compagnies" de routiers qui, n'ayant plus à combattre l'Anglais, se sont jetés sur les malheureux paysans. La France a retrouvé la paix grâce à la remise en ordre des affaires par Charles V le Sage et de son connétable, le breton Bertrand Du Guesclin. Elle est entrée dans une longue embellie. Le manuscrit des Très riches Heures du duc de Berry illustre l'art de cette époque. Ce chef-d'oeuvre a été conçu pour Jean de Berry, l'un des oncles du roi Charles VI. Il fait aujourd'hui la fierté du musée de Chantilly.
    Reprise des troubles
          Pendant la minorité de Charles VI, ce sont ses puissants oncles, Louis d'Anjou, Jean de Berry, Louis de Bourbon et Philippe de Bourgogne, qui assurent la régence. Ils profitent de leur situation pour dilapider les ressources du royaume et instaurer de nouveaux impôts pour leur profit personnel. Mécontents, les contribuables parisiens s'arment de maillets de plomb (d'où leur surnom de "Maillotins") et descendent dans la rue. Cette révolte fiscale prend fin le 3 janvier 1383 et débouche sur la loi martiale. La prévôté des marchands, l'équivalent de la mairie de Paris, est supprimée. Charles VI reprend pour un temps les affaires du royaume en main. En 1388, il chasse ses oncles prévaricateurs et rappelle les sages conseillers de son père, que les princes surnomment avec mépris les "Marmousets". Le roi est alors appelé par ses sujets Charles VI le Bien-Aimé. Mais en août 1392, il est atteint par la folie et ses puissants oncles reviennent en force au pouvoir, pour le plus grand malheur du royaume. Les accès de folie du malheureux roi vont donner libre cours à la rapacité des grands seigneurs et encourager les Anglais à reprendre les hostilités. La guerre reprendra pour de nombreuses décennies et l'on en parlera comme de la Guerre de Cent Ans.
    Effervescence sociale
          La révolte des Maillotins n'est pas un phénomène isolé en Europe. La brutale diminution de la population, après la Grande Peste de 1347, réduit la main-d'oeuvre disponible dans les champs et encourage les paysans et les ouvriers à faire valoir leurs revendications. Dans le même temps, les très grosses dépenses dues à la guerre franco-anglaise poussent les nobles et les souverains à créer de nouvelles taxes. Il s'ensuit de nombreuses révoltes sociales qui annoncent la fin du Moyen Age.
          En Angleterre, au même moment, les paysans se révoltent sous l'égide de Wat Tyler et menacent la monarchie. En Hongrie, sous le règne du roi Sigismond, les paysans se révoltent contre les grands féodaux. Battus, ils retournent au servage... et se vengent en refusant leur concours aux seigneurs lorsque la Hongrie est envahie par les Turcs.
    0936 Duke Alberic II of Spoleto appoints his son [??] Pope Leo VII
    0269 St Felix I begins his reign as Pope, which lasted until his death in 0274.
    Deaths which occurred on a January 03:
    2004 Two men, a woman, and a boy, 9, Iraqis machine gunned from the rear vehicle of a US army convoy their car was about to by-pass on a road near Tikrit, Iraq. The fifth Iraqi in the car is wounded.
    2004 All 148 aboard a chartered Boeing 737-300 jet plane of the Egyptian company Air Flash, Flight , which crashes at 04:46 (02:46 UT) in the Red Sea 11 km south of the tourist resort town Sharm el-Sheikh, from where it had just taken off. The plane, bound for Paris, was headed first to Cairo for a crew change, carrying 133 French and 2 Moroccan passengers, as well as 13 crew members, Egyptian and Moroccan.
    2004 Rohi Hazam Shoman, 19; Amjad al-Masri, 15; and Amar Arafat, 26; Palestinian men, two of which were in groups from which stones were thrown at Israeli soldiers raiding Nablus, West Bank, early in the day. In at least three separate incidents, Israelis fired at such group. Arafat was just a passer-by, shot in the back. Al-Masri and Shoman were shot in the chest. The Israelis claim that one of the Palestinians had dropped a large concrete block in the direction of a soldier, another was seen holding a weapon, and a third threw a Molotov cocktail in the direction of troops. Later in the day, Israeli troops fired from 200 m away, without provocation, at the funeral procession for the three victims, seriously wounding Mohammed al-Masri, a relative of Amjad al-Masri. The Israeli say that they shot at two men who were carrying weapons.
    Gironella2003 José María Gironella, from a blood clot on the brain, Catalan author, born on 31 December 1917.
         The best know works of Gironella [< photo] are novels about Spain before, during, and after the 1936~1939 Civil War (in which he fought on Franco's side): Los Cipreses Creen en Dios (1953), Un Millón de Muertos (1961), Ha Estallado la Paz (1966). Los Hombres Lloran Solos (1986) is about the transition to democracy after Franco's 1975 death. Gironella won literary prizes for his first novel, Un Hombre (1946), for Condenados a Vivir (1971), for La Duda Inquietante, and for Se Hace Camino al Andar (1997). Gironella also wrote travel books, essays, news stories. His first book wasHa Llegado el Invierno y Tú No Estás Aquí (1946, poems), and his last Apocalipsis (2001).
    En las casi tres mil páginas de Los cipreses creen en Dios, Un millón de muertos y Ha estallado la paz, encontramos la historia de la familia Alvear, que vivía en Gerona. Son una familia española como muchas: la madre, una buena mujer y profundamente católica; el padre, telegrafista, una persona ilustrada, religioso más a causa de la esposa que por convicción, y los tres hijos, buenos muchachos y bien educados. El protagonista principal, Ignacio, es un muchacho sano, con las aficiones y enredos propios de sus 17 años.
          En aquellos años de antes de la guerra, los españoles poseían una conciencia política; había muchas ideas que estaban revolucionando al país. Una parte de la sociedad rechazaba a la Iglesia, otros eran fanáticos. Los curas, que siempre habían tenido mucha influencia, eran ahora aborrecidos y agredidos, y los había — como acontece siempre — buenos y malos. Cada quien tenía su propio concepto de libertad.
          A lo largo del relato iremos conociendo las diferentes ideas políticas de entonces. Había muchas agrupaciones, tanto de izquierda como de derecha, que aunque a veces tenían pocas diferencias ideológicas, jamás se ponían de acuerdo. Todos los ciudadanos tenían una etiqueta política distinta, de ahí la desunión que llevó a la guerra y a la posterior derrota de la democracia. Pues aunque el pueblo no quería a los fascistas, estaban todos tan divididos que por eso perdieron ante el poderío militar de Franco.
          Aunque en el prólogo Gironella asegura su imparcialidad, ésta no resalta. El libro fue publicado por primera vez en 1953, la época de “oro” del franquismo — si tal cosa existió — . Además agrupa, sin diferencias casi, a los “rojos”. No es que diga mentiras, es que no presenta toda la verdad. Describe varios episodios sangrientos perpetrados por los “rojos” donde el lector está deseando que llegue alguien — Franco el salvador — a poner orden. También cuanta algunas de las atrocidades cometidas por los falangistas, pero deja entender que eran causadas por un inmenso amor a España; a la que los “rojos” preferían la Unión Soviética.
          El gobierno republicano, por poco que se le menciona, aparece no como democrático, sino anarquista, el pretexto por el que Franco se levanta en contra. La principal congoja de la familia Alvear es causada por los “rojos” — sin distinción — y los dos hijos están enamorados de falangistas que eso sí, son heróicos y valientes y aman a su país.
          La segunda novela aborda la guerra civil. Carmen Alvear reza para que ganen “los nuestros”, y Gironella minimiza el heroísmo de los “rojos”, mientras maximiza el de los mal llamados “nacionales”. En la tercera se cuenta lo acontecido en la posguerra.
    2003 Jairo Gregorio Morán, 23, and Oscar Aponte Gómez, 24, at 14:15 as pro-Chávez gunmen fire from ambush at the anti-Chávez “la Gran Batalla” demonstration (authorized by permit #602968, granted the previous day by the Caracas city government) headed for avenida Los Próceres, in Caracas, as it proceeds along the freeway Valle-Coche, by the Guaire River. From 13:00 to 17:00 there was a rock-throwing fight while security forces struggled to keep the two sides apart. Strikers, chavistas, and news media alike, are choked by tear gas, targeted by rubber bullets, and pelted by rocks and bottles. Five other persons are injured by gunfire, at least 23 by beatings or thrown rocks, at least 73 by tear gas. A national strike has been going on since 02 December 2002, aimed at forcing president Hugo Chávez to subject himself to a referendum.
    [Below: in Caracas, anti-Chávez demonstrators are met with tear gas]
    tear gas fired at anti-chavistas
    [Below: in Caracas, anti-Chávez demonstrators flee in a cloud of tear gas, as riot policemen talk to rock~throwing chavistas]
    anti-chavistas flee
    2002 Antonio Todde, Italian shepherd, born on 22 January 1889, before any other male human living on this day. The next oldest living man, Japanese Yukichi Chuganji, was born on 23 March 1889, and would die on 28 September 2003.
    2002 Matsuno Oikawa, Japanese woman born on 20 February 1889.
    1989 Sergei Sobolev, mathematician.
    1984 A woman at Disneyland after falling from the Matterhorn bobsled. She had apparently unfastened her seatbelt.
    1980 Joy Adamson, conservationist author of Born Free, killed in northern Kenya by a servant.
    1967 Jack Ruby, murderer of the murderer of president Kennedy
          Jack Ruby, the Dallas nightclub owner who killed Lee Harvey Oswald, the accused assassin of President John F. Kennedy, dies in a hospital of apparently natural causes. On 24 November 1963, two days after President Kennedy was fatally shot while riding in an open car motorcade through the streets of Dallas, Texas, Lee Harvey Oswald, the alleged assassin, was shot to death by Jack Ruby in the basement of the Dallas police station. Oswald, a former US marine and accused Soviet sympathizer, was arrested several hours after Kennedy's death on a charge of murdering Dallas police officer J. D. Tippit in a separate incident. The next day, he was also charged with the murder of President Kennedy. Early the next afternoon, while television cameras were rolling, Ruby emerged from the crowd of law enforcement officers and media representatives watching the transfer of Oswald to a county jail, and shot him dead. Millions of Americans witnessed the murder on live television. Jack Ruby, originally known as Jacob Rubenstein, operated nightclubs and dance halls in Dallas, and had at least minor connections to organized crime. In 1964, Ruby, who was apprehended immediately after the shooting, was put on trial in Dallas for murder and in March, was found guilty and sentenced to death. However in October of 1966, a Texas appeals court overturned the conviction on the grounds that Ruby could not have received a fair trial in Dallas. On January 3, 1967, Ruby died in a hospital while awaiting a second trial. Although some suspect that Ruby was part of a larger conspiracy in the assassination of Kennedy, such as the charge that he was hired by the mob or the CIA to silence Oswald, the official Warren Commission report of 1964 concluded that neither Oswald nor Ruby were part of a larger conspiracy, either domestic or foreign, to assassinate President Kennedy. However, the report failed to silence conspiracy theories surrounding the event, and in 1979 the House Assassination's Committee concluded that Kennedy likely was killed as part of a larger conspiracy that may have included members of organized crime, although many government officials disputed its findings.
    1961 Three military technicians as nuclear reactor explodes at the National Reactor Testing Station in Idaho Falls, Idaho, and releases a surge of radioactivity which, in the words of John A. McCone, Director of the Atomic Energy Commission, was "largely confined" to the reactor building.
          Steam explosion caused by improper control rod removal from the SL-1 experimental reactor. The technicians were killed as they moved fuel rods in a "routine" preparation for the reactor startup. One technician was blown to the ceiling of the containment dome and impaled on a control rod. His body remained there until it was taken down 6 days later. The men were so heavily exposed to radiation that their hands and heads had to be buried separately with other radioactive waste.
    1958 Frederick William Elwell, British artist born on 29 June 1870.
    1956 Arturo Tosi, Italian artist born on 25 July 1871.
    Lord Haw Haw1946 William Joyce “Lord Haw Haw”, hanged for treason
          William Joyce, broadcaster of Nazi propaganda to Great Britain during World War II, is hanged for treason in London, England. Joyce, born in Brooklyn, New York, immigrated to England with his family as a child. As a young man, Joyce became involved in the English fascist movement, and later founded the British National Socialist Party in imitation of Adolf Hitler's Nazi Party. At the outbreak of war, he fled to Germany, where he broadcast Nazi propaganda to Britain from Radio Hamburg. He was soon nicknamed "Lord Haw Haw" by skeptical British citizens and troops because of his upper-class drawl. British soldiers captured him in Germany in 1945, and despite his birth in the US, he was judged subject to British jurisdiction because he held a British passport. On 19 September 1945, he was convicted of treason and on 03 January 1946, he is hanged.
    1940 Day 35 of Winter War: USSR aggression against Finland.
    More deaths due to Stalin's desire to grab Finnish territory.
  • Ladoga Karelia: the Finnish 13th Division breaks off its assault at Ruhtinaanmäki.
  • Northern Finland: Soviet troops supported by tanks and artillery launch an offensive in the Kuhmo sector.
  • Finnish forces surround the enemy base entrenched at Sanginlampi.
  • Salla sector: in temperatures approaching -40° Celsius, four Finnish battalions begin a counterattack at Joutsijärvi designed to break the defences of the enemy division.
  • Åland Sea: the Soviet submarine S2 is sunk by a Finnish mine in the Märket narrows.
  • The labor office of the Ministry of Supply announces that the most important work to be carried out in the countryside is the gathering of firewood.
  • Abroad: according to German radio, the Soviet Union is concentrating its call-up on reservists with a technical background.
  • In Norway, a special rucksack collection in aid of Finland has already gathered 25'000 rucksacks packed with food and clothing.
  • 1931 Joseph Joffre, mariscal francés.
    1927 Carle Runge, mathematician.
    1923 Jaroslav Hašek, 39, of drunkenness, Czechoslovakian writer, having finished only four volumes of his projected six-volume anarchist novel The Good Soldier Schweik. For the first edition Hasek's friend Karel Vanek provides a spurious ending.
         The Good Soldier Svejk and His Fortunes in the World War (1921-22) The title character is classified as 'feeble-minded', but he is drafted into service of Austria with the advent of WW I. Honest, naive, incompetent, and perhaps more shrewd than he reveals, Svejk (written also Schweik and Švejk) collides with the military bureaucracy, causing especially troubles for Lieutenant Lucas. As illustrated in Josef Lada's series of cartoon's, Svejk is plump, balding, middle-aged ordinary looking man with deceptive qualities. He is arrested for making indiscreet remarks about the assassination of the Archeduke Ferdinand, interrogated by civil and military authorities, enforced to enlist, posted as an orderly to various officers, finally to Lucas. From the start to his wanderings across the Central European landscape, Svejk always understands the meaningless of the events that swirl about him, and the little man, wise fool, wins against the bullies who confront him. The novel was banned from the Czechoslovak army in 1925, the Polish translation was confiscated in 1928, the Bulgarian translation was suppressed in 1935, and the German translation burned on Nazi bonfires in 1933
    1920 Zygmunt Janiszewski, mathematician.
    1915 William Strutt, British artist born in 1826. — more with links to images.
    1912 Amsler, mathematician.
    1905 Anton Braith, German artist born on 02 September 1836.
    1892 Schroeter, mathematician.
    1882 William Ainsworth, English writer of popular historical romances.
    1870 Javier de Ramírez, autor dramático sevillano.
    1843 Thomas Christopher Hofland, British artist born in 1777. — links to images.
    1809 Henri-Pierre Danloux, French artist born on 24 February 1753. MORE ON DANLOUX AT ART “4” JANUARY with links to images.
    1795 Josiah Wedgwood, 64, British ceramic craftsman / woodworker.
    1699 Mattia Pretti “il Calabrese”, Italian artist born on 24 February 1613.
    1661 Mary I Stuart, 29, Queen of England / wife of Wilhem II
    1543 Juan Cabrillo conqueror of Central America, discoverer of California.
    1457 Beata Bonne, religiosa francesa.
    1322 Philip V the Tall, King of France (1316-22)
    0502 Sainte Geneviève, qui a sauvé Paris de l’enfer du fléau des Huns.
          À la fin du XIXème et au début du XXème siècle, plusieurs historiens érudits ont étudié la vie de sainte Geneviève et se sont violemment affrontés au sujet de sa valeur historique. La transmission du texte est très difficile, il y a au moins trois écrits dont les rapports sont mal établis. Mais il ne semble pas qu’on puisse mettre en doute l’essentiel du récit.
          Geneviève naquit en (vers) 420 à Nanterre, près de Paris. Elle était petite fille quand, en 429, les deux saints évêques Germain d’Auxerre et Loup de Troyes, qui se rendaient en Grande-Bretagne pour combattre l’hérésie pélagienne, la remarquèrent. Germain suspendit à son cou une pièce de monnaie marquée d’une croix pour la vouer au service de Dieu. Quelques années plus tard, elle reçut la consécration des vierges, continuant à demeurer chez ses parents, puis, après leur mort, chez sa marraine à Paris, menant une vie de prière et de pénitence ; elle ne rompait le jeûne que le dimanche et le jeudi. S’imposant par la force de sa personnalité, elle prit la direction de plusieurs groupes de vierges. Elle fit le pèlerinage au tombeau de saint Martin à Tours et construisit la première basilique sur le tombeau de Denis, premier évêque de Paris.
          L’invasion d’Attila en 451 fut, pour elle, l’occasion de montrer son génie et son autorité: malgré les menaces de mort des plus apeurés, elle conseilla aux Parisiens de ne pas quitter leur ville. Paris ne tomba pas aux mains des ennemis, mais les guerres y amenèrent la famine. Geneviève organisa le ravitaillement en envoyant des bateaux jusqu’à Troyes et fit bénéficier les pauvres des distributions. Geneviève gagna la confiance des rois francs, Childéric Ier (mort en 481) d’abord, puis son fils Clovis Ier. Elle obtint d’eux la libération de prisonniers et la grâce de criminels qui, en ces périodes de violence, étaient souvent victimes d’injustices ou de châtiments disproportionnés.
          La renommée de Geneviève s’étendait au loin. Siméon Stylite (mort en 459), de sa colonne des environs d’Antioche, se recommanda à ses prières. Geneviève mourut un 3 janvier, peut-être en 502, et fut ensevelie sur le mont Lucotitius. Le roi Clovis y fit élever, sous le titre des saints Apôtres, une basilique où il fut enterré en 511 et la reine Clotilde en 545. Déjà Geneviève était vénérée comme une sainte très populaire, l’église prit son nom et fut desservie par des chanoines.
          Du XIIe siècle à la Révolution, leur abbaye fut un lieu de pèlerinage et un centre intellectuel important sur cette "montagne Sainte-Geneviève" où les maîtres et étudiants, qui s’y étaient installés au XIIe siècle, avaient créé la première université. En 1764, les chanoines réguliers de Sainte-Geneviève entreprirent la construction d’une nouvelle église. Elle fut désaffectée en 1791 pour devenir le Panthéon. Rendue au culte en 1806 et achevée seulement en 1812, elle redevint Panthéon en 1830, de nouveau église en 1851 et Panthéon en 1885. Les reliques de sainte Geneviève, qui avaient alors été transportées à l’église voisine de Saint-Étienne-du-Mont, furent brûlées et jetées à la Seine en 1793. On a reconstitué un tombeau avec quelques reliques à Saint-Étienne-du-Mont, qui est devenu le centre du culte de la patronne de Paris.
    0236 St Anterus, Pope since 02351121.
    Births which occurred on a January 03:
    1981 La Academia Europea de Ciencias, Artes y Letras se crea en París. Entre sus miembros fundadores figuran los españoles Pedro Laín Entralgo, Federico Sopeña y Federico Mayor Zaragoza.
    1977 Apple Computer incorporated
    1957 First electric watch introduced, Lancaster PA
    1953 En Attendant Godot, del dramaturgo irlandés Samuel Beckett, se estrena en París.
    1952 Esperanza Aguirre Gil de Biedma, presidenta del Senado español.
    1949 El reino de este mundo, novela de Alejo Carpentier, se publica.
    1946 El galeón y el milagro, de Eduardo Marquina, se estrena en Madrid.
    1939 La agencia española de noticias EFE
    1938 Aurora roja, con poemas de Rafael Alberti, Apel les Mestres y Emilio Prados es estrenada en Barcelona, por una compañía constituida por niños de 9 a 16 años.
    1938 The National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, later renamed March of Dimes, is established by US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
    1926 Pontiac car introduced by General Motors. The new Pontiac line was the descendant of the Oakland Motor Car Company, acquired by General Motors in 1909.
    1924 André Franquin, autor de historietas belga.
    1923 Jaroslav Hasek Czech writer (Good Soldier Schweik)
    1922 Morten Nielsen, Danish poet and resistance fighter killed on 29 August 1944.
    Lucretia Mott1917 Mytropolshy, mathematician.
    1917 La ruta del aventurero de Pío Baroja y Nessi se publica.
    1901 Ngo Dinh Diem President / Dictator of South Vietnam (1955-63). He was assassinated on 02 November 1963 with the connivance of the CIA, which did not consider him a sufficiently pliable puppet..
    1892 John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, South Africa, philologist / writer who created a complex mythology in The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Co-editor of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Tolkien died on 02 September 1973.
    1887 Helen Parkhurst US educator (Education on the Dalton plan)
    1883 Clement Richard Attlee (L) British Labour Prime Minister (1945-51). He died on 08 October 1967.
    1871 Oleomargarine patented by Henry Bradley, Binghamton NY. Margarine had been invented by the French chemist Hippolyte Mège-Mouriès, who in 1869 won a prize offered by Napoleon III for a satisfactory butter substitute.
    1863 William Marshall Brown, British artist who died in 1936.
    1840 Father Joseph Damien de Veuster Belgium, helped lepers in Hawaii. He died on 15 April 1889.
    1823 Robert Whitehead, British engineer, invented the modern torpedo. He died on 14 November 1905.
    1793 Lucretia Coffin Mott, in Nantucket, Massachusetts, political and social reformer, she participated in many of the reform movements of the day including abolition, temperance, and pacifism. Most importantly, however, she inaugurated the woman suffrage movement. She died on 11 November 1880. [< photo] [satirical 03 Jan 1874 Thomas Nast cartoon on women's movement]
    1777 Louis Poinsot, mathematician. He died in 1859.
    1737 Heinrich Wilheim von Gerstenberg, German theorist of Sturm und Drang literary movement. He died on 01 November 1823.
    1624 William Tucker, first Black child born in Britain's American colonies.
    1591“Moïse” Jean Valentin de Boulogne, French painter who died on 20 August 1632. MORE ON VALENTIN AT ART “4” JANUARY with links to images.
    Catholic Commemoration of St Genevieve (419-512), virgin, patroness of Paris, whom legend says twice saved Paris, the first time by calling the city to prayer, the second by acquiring twelve ships full of grain during famine. / Santos Genoveva, Antero, Florencia y Anastasio. / Sainte Geneviève est la sainte patronne de Paris... et de la gendarmerie. En 451, la vierge convain les Parisiens de ne pas abandonner la ville aux Huns et elle détourne la colère d'Attila par ses prières. Elle reçoit les fidèles dans l'ermitage de la montagne qui porte son nom, au coeur de l'actuel Quartier latin de Paris. C'est là qu'elle meurt en 512, à l'âge de 89 ans, et c'est au même endroit qu'elle sera enterrée, à côté de Clovis et de la reine Clotilde, ses plus célèbres disciples.
    DICTIONNAIRE TICRANIEN: ressort: ce que fait un revenant quand il va de nouveau à l'extérieur.
    TINIBRAINER DICTIONARY: mandate: 1. the kind of evening appointment that most girls prefer. — 2. a fruit reserved for the male members of Beduin tribes.
    Thought for the day: “Where you stand depends on where you sit.” — Don K. Price, Harvard dean
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