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Events, deaths, births, of JAN 04
[For Jan 04 Julian go to Gregorian date: 1583~1699: Jan 14 — 1700s: Jan 15 — 1800s: Jan 16 — 1900~2099: Jan 17]
On a January 04:
2001 The italian weekly Oggi publishes an interview with orthopaedic surgeon Gianfranco Fineschi, member of Pope John Paul II's medical team, who says that the pope suffers from Parkington's disease.
1998 David Levy presenta su dimisión como ministro de Exteriores israelí, ante los graves desacuerdos mantenidos con su primer ministro, Benjamín Netanyahu.
1996 AT&T scraps online service
      AT&T abandons its plans for a proprietary online service akin to America Online. One of several major companies in the mid-'90s seduced by the early success of high-profile companies like AOL, Prodigy, and CompuServe, AT&T believed that the Internet would remain too confusing, technical, and forbidding to the average user, who would prefer safe, easy proprietary systems. Rupert Murdoch's Delphi system, Microsoft's original MSN, and General Electric's Genie all jumped on the proprietary system bandwagon. But with the development of the Web in the early '90s, consumers became less interested in proprietary online services. By early 1997, many proprietary systems had either been abandoned by large companies or transformed into Internet provider services or Web sites.
1996 General Motors announces that it will sell an electric car, the EV-1, starting in the fall, through GM’s Saturn dealerships. It would have sales quite modest by the standards of internal-combustion cars, but still be the best-selling electric consumer car of its time.
1995 In the US, the 104th Congress convenes, the first entirely under Republican control since the Eisenhower era; Newt Gingrich is elected speaker of the US House of Representatives.
1994 La Corte de Justicia de la Asociación Europea de Libre Cambio (EFTA) es inaugurada en Ginebra.
1994 The US's 104th Congress convenes, the first entirely under Republican control since the Eisenhower era; Newt Gingrich is elected speaker of the House.
1993 Daniel Arap Moi, de 68 años, es investido presidente de Kenia, después de haber sido reelegido en las primeras elecciones multipartidistas en 26 años, celebradas el 29 Dec 1992.
1991 Iraq agrees to send its Foreign Minister Aziz to Geneva to meet US Secretary of State Baker on 09 January 1991 to discuss the Kuwait crisis.
1990 Deposed Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega is arraigned in federal district court in Miami on drug-trafficking charges.
1984 Apple Computer wins $2.5 million from cloner.
      Apple wins a copyright suit protecting the Macintosh and its operating system from duplication. The Franklin Computer Corporation agreed to pay Apple $2.5 million for copying crucial elements of the Macintosh. Apple's insistence on protecting its copyright was hailed as a victory against clone companies at the time. But ultimately, Apple's no-clone policy promoted higher prices and lower demand for the Macintosh, leading to its dramatic loss of market share in the late '80s and early '90s.
1980 US sanctions against USSR for invasion of Afghanistan
      In protest of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, US President Jimmy Carter cancels the shipment of grain to the Soviet Union, suspends high-technology exports to the country, postpones the expansion of US-Soviet diplomatic relations, and threatens a US boycott of the 1980 Moscow Summer Olympics. In 1978, a Soviet-backed coup in Afghanistan installed a new Communist government under Nur Mohammad Taraki. However, in 1979, a second coup toppled Taraki's government in favor of Hafizullah Amin, a Muslim leader less favorable to the Soviets.
      In December of the same year, Soviet tanks and troops invaded Afghanistan, but were met with unanticipated resistance from the conservative Muslim opposition. Afghan tribesmen, calling themselves "holy warriors," fought a fierce and bloody guerrilla war against the Soviets. The anti-Soviet factions, bolstered by military arms aid from the US and other nations, eventually forced the Soviet withdrawal in 1989. Two years later, the Soviet Union and the United States signed an agreement calling for an end to all outside military assistance to the warring factions in Afghanistan. Five years later, Taliban, a group of Islamic fundamentalists, seized control of Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, and hanged former president Mohammad Najibullah. By mid 1997, all of Afghanistan was under the control of Taliban, who enforced strict Islamic law across the nation.
1979 $675'000 the price of 4 deaths and 9 injuries by National Guard gunfire.
      In an out-of-court settlement, a total of $675'000 is awarded to the victims of the Kent State University shootings of 1970, and the legal battle over the controversial event is put to rest. On May 4, 1970, National Guard troops, called in to suppress students rioting in protest of the Vietnam War, killed four Kent State students and injured nine when they fired over sixty rounds into a crowd of unarmed demonstrators. Before the shooting, some of the protestors had responded to the National Guards' order to disperse and firing of tear gas by throwing rocks and verbally taunting the troops. Without firing a warning shot, twenty-eight Guardsmen discharged their weapons toward a group of demonstrators in a nearby parking lot. The closest casualty was twenty meters and the farthest was more than 200 meters away. After a period of disbelief, shock, and attempts at first aid, an angry group of students gathered on a nearby slope, and were again ordered to move by the Guardsmen. Faculty members were able to convince the group to disperse, and further bloodshed was prevented. At the end of the subsequent criminal investigation, a federal court dropped all charges levied against eight Ohio National Guardsmen for their role in the student deaths. The victims of the shootings later launched a civil suit against the Ohio National Guard, and in 1979, a modest settlement was accepted by the parents of the four students killed and by the nine students who were wounded.
1979 El Sha del Irán abandona Teherán camino del exilio.
1978 Se crea el Consejo General del País Vasco, con Jesús María de Leizaola como primer lehendakari.
1975 Ice thickness measured at 4776 m, Wilkes Land, Antarctica
1974 US President Richard Nixon refuses to hand over tape recordings and documents subpoenaed by the Senate Watergate Committee.
1974 Carlos Arias Navarro forma Gobierno en España.
1971 Anwar el Sadat reconoce la presencia militar soviética en Egipto.
1970 New York City NY transit fare rises from 20¢ to 30¢, new larger tokens used
1969 Firma en Fez del tratado de retrocesión del territorio de Ifni de España a Marruecos.
1965 In his 2nd annual State of the Union address, US President Lyndon B. Johnson outlines the goals of his "Great Society". He also reaffirms US commitment to support South Vietnam in fighting communist aggression. He notes that US presidents have been giving the South Vietnamese help for 10 years, and says: "Our own security is tied to the peace of Asia."
1963 Soviet Luna (4) reaches Earth orbit but fails to reach Moon
1962 first automated (unmanned) subway train (New York City NY)
1961 Longest recorded strike ends — 33 years — Danish barbers' assistants
1960 Gran Bretaña, Suecia, Noruega, Dinamarca, Suiza, Austria y Portugal firman en Londres el tratado fundacional de la Asociación Europea de Libre Cambio (EFTA).
1958 Edmund Percival Hillary alcanza el Polo Sur.
1951 During Korean conflict, North Korean and Communist Chinese forces capture Seoul.
1948 Burma wins independence
      The British colony of Burma, later known as Myanmar, becomes an independent sovereign nation, ending more than six decades of British rule (Annual celebration on this date).
      The British Empire first made inroads into Burma in 1826, when the Treaty of Yandabo forced Myanmar to cede its Arakan and Tenasserim coasts to British India. In 1852, British forces invaded Myanmar's Irrawaddy River region, and in 1885, Britain launched a third Anglo-Burmese War to annex the rest of the nation to British India. Under British rule, Myanmar saw economic and industrial development, but self-rule was not allowed until a partially elected legislature was established in 1923 to govern selected national affairs. In 1935, the British Parliament approved the separation of Myanmar from India, and in 1937 a fully elected assembly was established under a new constitution. During World War II, Myanmar was occupied by the Japanese, leading to the establishment of an anti-Japanese resistance movement by Aung San. In April of 1945, Myanmar was liberated, and less than three years later, the nation was granted full independence.
1944 Ralph Johnson Bunche is appointed first Black official in US State Department.
1944 US begins supplying European anti-Axis guerrillas
      US aircraft begin dropping supplies to guerrilla forces throughout Western Europe. The action demonstrated that the US believed guerrillas were a vital support to the formal armies of the Allies in their battle against the Axis powers.
      Virtually every country that experienced Axis invasion raised a guerrilla force; they were especially effective and numerous in Italy, France, China, Greece, the Philippines, Yugoslavia, and the Soviet Union. Also referred to as a "partisan force," a guerrilla army is defined roughly as a member of a small-scale "irregular" fighting force that relies on the limited and quick engagements of a conventional fighting force. Their main weapon is sabotage-in addition to killing enemy soldiers, the goal is to incapacitate or destroy communication lines, transportation centers, and supply lines.
D'Estienne d'Orves stamp      In Italy, the partisan resistance to fascism began with assaults against Mussolini and his "black shirts." Upon Italy's surrender, the guerrillas turned their attention to the German occupiers, especially in the north. By the summer of 1944, resistance fighters immobilized eight of the 26 German divisions in northern Italy. By the end of the war, Italian guerillas controlled Venice, Milan, and Genoa, but at a considerable cost — all told, the Italian resistance lost roughly 50,000 fighters.
      Perhaps the most renowned wartime guerrilla force was the French Resistance — also known as the "Free French" force — which began as two separate groups. One faction was organized and led by Gen. Charles de Gaulle, who left France upon the Vichy/Petain armistice with Germany but rallied his forces via the British airwaves. The other arm of the movement began in Africa under the direction of the commander in chief of the French forces in North Africa, Gen. Henri Giraud. De Gaulle eventually joined Giraud in Africa after tension began to build between de Gaulle and the British. Initially, de Gaulle agreed to share power with Giraud in the organization and control of the exiled French forces, but Giraud resigned in 1943, apparently unwilling to stand in de Gaulle's shadow or struggle against his deft political maneuvering.
      The Allies realized that guerrilla activity was essential to ending the war and supported the patriots with airdrops. The US support was critical, because guerrillas fought admirably in difficult conditions. Those partisans who were captured by the enemy were invariably treated barbarically (torture was not uncommon), as were any civilians who had aided them in their mission. Tens of thousands of guerillas died in the course of the war, but were never awarded the formal recognition given the "official" fighting forces, despite the enormous risks and sacrifices.

1941 Resistance fighters count Honoré d'Estienne d'Orves [stamp] and Jan Doornik, first meet
1939 Hermann Goering appoints Reinhard Heydrich head of the Reich Security Central Office
1935 Laval rencontre Mussolini à Rome
      Le ministre français des Affaires étrangères, Pierre Laval, se rend à Rome, capitale de l'Italie fasciste. Pierre Laval a succédé à Louis Barthou aux Affaires étrangères. Il a emprunté à son prédécesseur l'idée d'un système de sécurité collective destiné à contenir la menace hitlérienne en Europe. Il s'apprête à signer avec le Duce, Benito Mussolini, un traité qui réglerait le contentieux colonial franco-italien. Ce contentieux concerne notamment la Tunisie, que revendique l'Italie fasciste.
      Mais dans son désir de consolider l'alliance entre la France et l'Italie, Pierre Laval va jusqu'à rassurer Mussolini sur l'attitude de la France dans le cas où l'Italie déciderait de conquérir le dernier pays africain indépendant, l'Ethiopie. Or, quand l'Italie attaquera l'Ethiopie en octobre de la même année, la France ne pourra pas empêcher la Société des Nations de la sanctionner. L'Italie fasciste se rapprochera alors de l'Allemagne nazie et le calcul de Pierre Laval se retournera contre les intérêts français... Ecarté de la scène politique par la victoire du Front Populaire en 1936, Pierre Laval reviendra au pouvoir dans la plus sinistre des circonstances, celle de la défaite.
1932 State of siege proclaimed in Honduras
1932 British East Indies Viceroy Willingdon arrests Gandhi and Nehru.
1929 Las dos Fundaciones Rockefeller se funden en una, que se convierte en la organización filantrópica más poderosa del mundo.
1925 French psychologist Emil Coué brings his self-esteem therapy to US "Every day in every way I am getting better and better"
1923 Second part of Lenin's "Political Testament" calls for removal of Stalin. — En un post scriptum a su "testamento", Lenin recomienda la destitución de Josif Stalin.
1918 El gobierno soviético reconoce la independencia de Finlandia.
1915 Trans-Caucausus Russians defeat Turkish troops
1912 Smallest earth-moon distance in the 20th century, 356'375 km center-to-center
1904 US Supreme Court rules that Puerto Ricans cannot be denied admission to US.
1896 Utah enters the Union
      Six years after Wilford Woodruff, president of the Mormon church, issued his Manifesto reforming political, religious, and economic life in Utah, the territory is admitted into the Union as the forty-fifth state (celebrates Admission Day).
      On June 27, 1844, Joseph Smith, the founder and leader of the controversial Mormon religion, was murdered in his jail cell by an anti-Mormon mob in Carthage, Illinois. Two years later, Smith's successor, Brigham Young, led an exodus of persecuted Mormons from Nauvoo, Illinois, along the western wagon trails in search of religious freedom. In July of 1847, the 148 initial Mormon pioneers reached Utah's Valley of the Great Salt Lake. Upon viewing the valley, Young declared "this is the place," and the pioneers began preparations for the tens of thousands of Mormon migrants who would follow. In 1850, Young, a polygamist with over twenty wives, was named the first governor of the territory of Utah by US President Millard Fillmore, and the territory enjoyed relative autonomy for several years. However, in 1857, President James Buchanan removed Young from his position as governor, and sent army troops to Utah to establish federal law. Tensions between the territory of Utah and the federal government continued until Woodruff issued his Manifesto in 1890, renouncing the traditional practice of polygamy, and reducing the domination of the church over Utah's political, economic, and social life. Six years later, the territory of Utah was granted statehood.
1894 France ratifies Duple Alliance with Russia
1893 US President Cleveland grants amnesty to Mormon polygamy
1889 In Australia, Colin Wardrop, head of the National Bank of Queensland, mails a postcard to Miss Wardrop at 32 Carden Place, Aberdeen, Scotland. The postcard would arrive in February 2001, and on 26 February 2001 be air-mailed back to sender's grand-daughter, Alison Britts, 74, in New South Wales.
1887 Thomas Stevens is first man to bicycle around the world (San Francisco-San Francisco, 21'700km)
1885 Dr W W Grant of Iowa, performs first appendectomy (on Mary Gartside, 22)
1884 In Ontario, last sighting of an eastern cougar.
1874 Levantamiento republicano en Zaragoza a causa del golpe de Estado del general Manuel Pavía Rodríguez de Albuquerque.
1865 The New York Stock Exchange opens its first permanent headquarters
1861 Alabama state troops seize the US Arsenal at Mount Vernon, Alabama
1847 Colt sells his first revolvers to the US government
      Samuel Colt rescues the future of his faltering gun company by winning a contract to provide the US government with 1,000 of his .44 caliber revolvers. Before Colt began mass-producing his popular revolvers in 1847, handguns had not played a significant role in the history of either the American West or the nation as a whole. Expensive and inaccurate, short-barreled handguns were impractical for the majority of Americans, though a handful of elite still insisted on using dueling pistols to solve disputes in highly formalized combat. When choosing a practical weapon for self-defense and close-quarter fighting, most Americans preferred knives, and western pioneers especially favored the deadly and versatile Bowie knife.
      That began to change when Samuel Colt patented his percussion-repeating revolver in 1836. The heart of Colt's invention was a mechanism that combined a single rifled barrel with a revolving chamber that held five or six shots. When the weapon was cocked for firing, the chamber revolved automatically to bring the next shot into line with the barrel.
      Though still far less accurate than a well-made hunting rifle, the Colt revolver could be aimed with reasonable precision at a short distance (30 to 40 yards in the hands of an expert), because the interior bore was "rifled" — cut with a series of grooves spiraling down its length. The spiral grooves caused the slug to spin rapidly as it left the barrel, giving it gyroscopic stability. The five or six-shoot capacity also made accuracy less important, since a missed shot could quickly be followed with others.
      Yet most cowboys, gamblers, and gunslingers could never have afforded such a revolver if not for the de facto subsidy the federal government provided to Colt by purchasing his revolvers in such great quantities. After the first batch of revolvers proved popular with soldiers, the federal government became one of Colt's biggest customers, providing him with the much-needed capital to improve his production facilities. With the help of Eli Whitney and other inventors, Colt developed a system of mass production and interchangeable parts for his pistols that greatly lowered their cost.
      Though never cheap, by the early 1850s, Colt revolvers were inexpensive enough to be a favorite with Americans headed westward during the California Gold Rush. Between 1850 and 1860, Colt sold 170,000 of his "pocket" revolvers and 98,000 "belt" revolvers, mostly to civilians looking for a powerful and effective means of self-defense in the Wild West.
1833 El rey de España Fernando VII restablece la Pragmática Sanción, en virtud de la cual se designa heredera a su hija Isabel en perjuicio de su hermano Carlos.
1832 Insurrection of Trinidad negroes.
1790 Las provincias belgas, excepto Luxemburgo, proclaman su independencia.
1762 England declares war on Spain and Naples
1725 Nineteen-year-old Benjamin Franklin arrives in London.
1717 Netherlands, England and France sign Triple Alliance.
1698 En virtud de la paz de Riswick, las tropas de Louis Joseph de Bourbon duc de Vendôme evacuan Barcelona.
1642 King Charles I with 400 soldiers attacks the English parliament
the leaders of the Long Parliament debated the Grand Remonstrance, a catalog of their grievances against the king. The Grand Remonstrance (1641) divided the Commons as nothing else had. It passed by only 11 votes, and the move to have it printed failed. Many were appalled that the remonstrance was to be used as propaganda "to tell stories to the people." For the first time members of Commons began to coalesce into opposing factions of royalists and parliamentarians. The passage of the Grand Remonstrance was followed by Pym's attempt to create a militia. Bills were proposed to put the army under parliamentary control and to give Parliament the right to nominate officers. The political situation had reached a state of crisis. In Parliament rumours spread of a royal attack upon the Houses, and at court wild talk of an impeachment of the queen was reported. It was Charles who broke the deadlock. On Jan. 4, 1642, he rode to Westminster intending to impeach five members of the Commons and one of the Lords on charges of treason. But, because the king's plan was no secret, the members had already fled. Thus Charles's dramatic breach of parliamentary privilege badly backfired. He not only failed to obtain his objective but also lost the confidence of many moderates left in Parliament. After ensuring the safe departure of his wife and children out of the country, Charles abandoned his capital and headed north.
English Civil Wars (1642-51), also called GREAT REBELLION, the fighting that took place in the British Isles between Parliamentarians and supporters of the monarchy. It was precipitated by the Bishops' War (1639, 1640) with Scotland, to finance which King Charles I was forced to summon Parliament (1640) after having governed England for 11 years without it. Tension between monarch and House of Commons steadily increased; after his unsuccessful attempt to arrest five members of Parliament (04 January 1642), Charles left London (10 January), and both sides prepared for war.
1570 Spanish viceroy Alva banishes Zutphen City's only physician, Joost Sweiter, "because he is a Jew"
1528 Ferdinand of Austria, younger brother to Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, issued the first secular mandate forbidding the Anabaptist religious movement.
1493 Columbus left new world on return from first voyage. — Cristóbal Colón embarca en la isla Española (Santo Domingo), en la carabela Niña, con destino a España, de regreso de su primer viaje.
1357 Flemish Earl Louis and Luxembourg Duke Wenceslaus sign peace treaty
0871 Battle at Reading Ethelred of Wessex beats Danish invasion army
0275 St Eutychian begins his reign as Pope (died 02831207)
Sgt. ChapmanDeaths which occurred on a January 04:
2003 Dos mujeres fallecen y otras veinticuatro personas resultan heridas al descarrilar la locomotora, el furgón generador y el primer vagón de viajeros de un tren Talgo en las cercanías del apeadero de Tobarra (Albacete), España.
2002 Maria Grazia Malagisi, Italian born on 06 July 1891.
2002 Nael Ramadan, 22, Palestinian policeman, killed in Israeli incursion at dawn in the village Tel, near Nablus, West Bank.
2002 Nathan Ross Chapman, 31, Sgt. 1st Class, communications specialist, [photo >] by small-arms fire during an ambush in Afghanistan near Khost, a few km from the Pakistan border, following a meeting with local tribal leaders. Chapman is with a CIA officer, who is wounded. Chapman is the first US soldier to die from hostile fire in Afghanistan during the anti-terrorism campaign that began on 07 October as part of US President Bush's so-called “war”.
1999 Sixteen persons, as gunmen shoot at Shiite Muslim worshippers in a mosque in Islamabad, Pakistan. 25 persons are injured.
1999 José Vela Zanetti, pintor español.
1990 Alberto Lleras Camargo, presidente de Colombia.
1990 Charles Stuart, wife's murderer, suicide by driving off bridge.
      The previous day, his brother Matthew had met with Boston prosecutors and told them that Charles was the murderer of Charles's wife, Carol. The killing of Carol Stuart, who was pregnant at the time, on October 23, 1989, had touched off a national outrage when Charles Stuart told authorities that the couple had been robbed and shot by an African-American man while driving through a poor Boston neighborhood. In the summer and fall of 1989, both Boston daily newspapers had been trumpeting a so-called crime explosion. Actually, the screaming headlines had more to do with a desire to sell papers than any actual crime wave, but the public was on edge. Charles Stuart, a fur salesman, used the public mood to his advantage when he planned the murder of his wife.
      "My wife's been shot! I've been shot!" screamed Stuart into his cell phone as he drove through the Mission Hill area of Boston. Paramedics responding to the call for help found that both Charles and his wife had been shot. Carol was barely hanging on to her life and Charles had a fairly serious wound to the stomach. Immediately, Charles identified an African-American male in a black running suit as the perpetrator.
      The crime was the biggest story in Boston that day and even led some national newscasts. Across the country, the story was portrayed as an example of what could happen to affluent people traveling through bad neighborhoods. In many papers, liberal policies were attacked and held responsible for the tragedy. Carol Stuart died, and although doctors were able to save her baby temporarily, the child also died days later. Charles Stuart underwent intestinal surgery for 10 hours, but his life was not endangered.
Blacks wrongly mistreated by police.
      The Boston police began to comb the housing projects in Mission Hill. African-American men were strip-searched on the streets on any pretense. Alan Swanson, a small-time drug dealer, was arrested on suspicion of being involved. However, there was absolutely no evidence against him, even after a warrant was falsified so that it would match what Charles Stuart had told investigators. He was later released with no apology from the police.
      Meanwhile, Stuart was showing unusual interest in a young female co-worker, asking that she phone him at the hospital where he was recovering. Detectives, fixated on finding the black perpetrator Stuart had described, didn't bother to find the ample evidence that Stuart was unhappy in his marriage and particularly upset with his wife for not having an abortion. Stuart had discussed both his obsession with the co-worker, and his desire to see his wife dead, with several friends and family members in the months before the murder.
      In December, Willie Bennett, an African-American ex-con, was arrested after his nephew jokingly bragged that he was responsible. Stuart picked Bennett out of a lineup in which the others were all clean-cut Boston police officers. This was the last straw for Matthew Stuart, who had assisted his brother in carrying out the scheme. Matthew thought he was helping Charles with an insurance scam when he carried a bag away from the murder scene. In it was the gun and the couple's wallets and jewelry. In return for immunity, Matthew testified against his brother.
      Charles Stuart found out that Matthew was going to turn him in and immediately fled. The next morning, Charles Stuart drove to the Tobin Bridge over the Mystic River, and jumped to his death. His suicide note said, "I am sorry for all the trouble." Willie Bennett was released after witnesses told a grand jury that the police had pressured them into identifying him.
1983: 30 oficiales afganos asesinados por sus propios soldados.Ola de atentados contra las posiciones soviéticas en Kabul (Afganistán).
1979 Serafín Adame, periodista y escritor español.
1974 Karel Janacek, 70, composer.
1974: 55 South Vietnamese soldiers killed, means “war has resumed”
       South Vietnamese troops report that 55 soldiers have been killed in two clashes with Communist forces. Claiming that the war had "restarted," South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu asserted, "We cannot allow the communists a situation in which...they can launch harassing attacks against us," and ordered his forces to launch a counter-offensive to retake lost territory. The announcement essentially marked the end of attempts to adhere to the agreements of the Paris Peace Accords.
      A cease-fire had been initiated in Vietnam on January 28, 1973, under the provisions of the Paris Peace Accords. These most recent battles were only the latest rounds in ongoing fighting that had followed the brief lull provided by the cease-fire. A large part of the problem was that the Peace Accords had left an estimated 200,000 North Vietnamese troops in South Vietnam. Renewed fighting broke out after the cease-fire as both sides jockeyed for control of territory in South Vietnam. Each side held that military operations were justified by the other side's violations of the cease-fire. What resulted was an almost endless chain of retaliations.
      During the period between the initiation of the cease-fire and the end of 1973, there were an average of 2980 combat incidents per month in South Vietnam. Most of these were generally low-intensity harassing attacks by the North Vietnamese designed to wear down the South Vietnamese forces, but the Communists intensified their efforts in the Central Highlands in September when they attacked government positions with tanks west of Pleiku. As a result of these post-cease-fire actions, the South Vietnamese lost an estimated 25'473 soldiers in battle in 1973.
1968 Endangered whooping crane, accidentally shot by duck hunter in Texas.
1965 T.S. Eliot, 76, in London, poet.
1961 Erwin Schrödinger, mathematician.
1960 Albert Camus, 46, French author (Stranger), in an automobile accident. — Premio Nobel 1957.
1958 Archie Alexander, mathematician.
1950 Snyder, mathematician.
1941 Henri Bergson, 81, French philosopher (Le Rire, Nobel 1928)
Finns bravely defend their homeland1940 Day 36 of Winter War: USSR aggression against Finland.
More deaths due to Stalin's desire to grab Finnish territory.
Attempted enemy breakthrough fails in Taipale.
  • Northern Finland: Colonel Siilasvuo gives his troops the final order to attack. Salla: Detachment Roininen breaks off its attack at Joutsijärvi.
  • Eastern Isthmus: Finnish troops repulse the enemy offensive at Kirvesmäki in the Taipale sector.
  • The Ministry of Education urges parish priests and officials to reserve areas for establishing heroes' cemeteries as a matter of urgency.
  • The voluntary defense organization Maan Turva organizes a tour of the front by well-known entertainers which becomes popularly known as the 'anti-boredom battery'. The main attractions are the popular character actor Aku Korhonen and the conductor George de Godzinsky. Others taking part in the tour include Siiri Rantanen, Uuno Laakso, the accordionist Onni Laihanen, and the actress Tuire Orri.
  • Members of the public are forbidden to take photographs of the damage caused by enemy bombers or of equipment used for military or civil defence.
  • Abroad: Sweden rejects the Allied offer of assistance in respect of both armaments and troops.
  • An anonymous Danish businessman announces that he is going to donate 50 trucks to Finland.
    Talvisodan 36. päivä, 4.1.1940
    Vihollisen hykkys Taipaleessa torjutaan
  • Eversti Siilasvuo antaa joukoilleen lopullisen hyökkäyskäskyn.
  • Sallan Joutsijärvellä Osasto Roinisen hyökkäys keskeytetään.
  • Vihollisen hyökkäys Taipaleen Kirvesmäessä torjutaan.
  • Opetusministeriö kehottaa seurakuntien papistoa ja viranomaisia kiireellisesti varaamaan alueita sankarihautausmaiden perustamista varten.
  • Ikäväntorjuntapatteriksi ristitty Maan Turvan rintamakiertue kiertelee etulinjoja. Vetonaulana ovat Lapatossu eli Aku Korhonen sekä kapellimestari George de Godzinsky. Kiertueella ovat mukana myös Siiri Rantanen, Uuno Laakso sekä hanuristi Onni Laihanen ja näyttelijätär Tuire Orri.
  • Yksityisiä henkilöitä kielletään ottamasta valokuvia vihollisen ilmapommituksen aiheuttamista vaurioista sekä maanpuolustukseen ja väestönsuojeluun liittyvistä laitteista.
  • Ulkomailta: Ruotsi torjuu liittoutuneiden avuntarjouksen paitsi aseiden myös joukkojen osalta.
  • Tuntemattomana pysyvä tanskalainen liikemies ilmoittaa lahjoittavansa Suomelle 50 kuorma-autoa.
    • 1927 Frederick Cayley Robinson, British Neoclassical painter born on 18 August 1862. . — MORE ON ROBINSON AT ART “4” JANUARY with links to images.
    1926 Willem Karel Nakken, Dutch British artist born on 09 April 1835.
    1920 Benito Pérez Galdós, novelista español.
    1915 Anton Alexander von Werner, German artist born on 09 May 1843. — more
    1913 Alfred von Schlieffen , 79, Prussian General then Field Marshal.
    1901 Nicolas Gysis (or Gyzis), Greek artist born on 01 March 1842.
    1900 Pieter Lodewijk Franciscus Kluyver, Dutch artist born on 22 March 1816.
    1880 Anselm Feuerbach, German Neoclassical painter born on 12 August 1829. — MEHR ÜBER FEUERBACH  AN ART “4” JANUARY with links to images.
    1877 Cornelius Vanderbilt, 82, US robber baron. He was a shipping and railroad magnate who acquired a personal fortune of more than $100'000'000. That would be about one and a half billion 1999 dollars. For past value of the dollar see http://woodrow.mpls.frb.fed.us/economy/calc/cpihome.html (which only goes back to 1913) or better http://www.westegg.com/inflation/   (covers 1800-1998)
          Vanderbilt’s early life plays like a page out of a Horatio Alger novel: born to a downtrodden family in 1794, he fled school at age eleven to work on New York’s waterfront. A budding young capitalist, Vanderbilt bought a boat in 1810 and started a small ferry business. However, Vanderbilt sold his schooners in 1818 to go and learn the steamer business under the wing of Thomas Gibbons. By 1829, Vanderbilt had purchased his own steamship; by aggressively slashing fares and lavishly appointing his steamers, Vanderbilt became the ruling force in the shipping industry. In 1862, he turned his attention to the burgeoning rail industry, using his trademark competitive touch to build an empire that included the New York and Harlem Railroad, as well as the New York Central Railroad. Toward the end of his life, Vanderbilt tempered his competitive zeal with a touch of altruism. He donated $1 million to Central University (later renamed Vanderbilt University) and masterminded the construction of New York’s Grand Central Terminal, which employed a number of the workers who were devastated by the Panic of 1873. When Vanderbilt died in 1877 with an estate of some $100 million, he was the wealthiest man in America.
    1864 Pascual Bravo Echeverri, escritor y militar colombiano.
    1845 Louis-Léopold Boilly, French portrait and genre painter born on 05 July 1761. — MORE ON BOILLY AT ART “4” JANUARY with links to images.
    1834 Mauro Gandolfi, Italian artist born on 18 September 1764.
    1826 Fuss, mathematician.
    1825 Ferdinand I, 73, King of Sicily/Naples (Ferdinand IV)
    1821 Elizabeth Ann Seton first native-born American saint. Today is her feast day.
    1778 Charles-Dominique-Joseph Eisen, French artist born on 17 August 1720. — MORE ON EISEN AT ART “4” JANUARY with links to images.
    1752 Gabriel Cramer, 47, Swiss mathematician (paradox of Cramer)
    1748 Coenraet Roepel, Dutch artist born on 06 November 1678.
    1729 Joseph de Montesquiou Earl d'Artagnan, 77, French Lt-General.
    1624 Vicente Martínev de Espinel, escritor y músico español.
    1614 Luisa de Carvajal y Mendoza, escritora (de poesías y escritos autobiográficos) y religiosa española, en el día de su 48º cumpleaños, en Inglaterra a donde había ido para evangelizar a los protestantes y buscar martirio, y sufrió encarcelamientos y enfermedad.
    1607 (burial) Gillis van Coninxloo III, Flemish landscape painter born on 24 January 1544. — MORE ON VAN CONINXLOO AT ART “4” JANUARY with links to images.
    1584 Tobias Stimmer, Swiss artist born on 17 April 1539.
    0749 San Rigoberto, arzobispo de Rheims.
    0041 Gaius Cæsar Germanicus " Caligula", his wife Cæsonia, and their daughter, murdered. The Roman populace had grown weary of this mad and unpredictable tyrant. Caligula was murdered at the Palatine Games by Cassius Chærea, tribune of the Prætorian guard, Cornelius Sabinus, and others.
    Births which occurred on a January 05:
    1955 New model Packard car. The 1955 Packards are introduced. Corvettes and Thunderbirds were upping the horsepower ante, and Packard struck back with the Packard Caribbean, the first V-8 Packard and the debut of highly stylized cathedral taillights. The era of the mighty tailfin was beginning.
    1950 The God That Failed published
          The collection of essays by six writers and intellectuals who either joined or sympathized with the communist cause before renouncing the ideology, is published by Harpers. The book provided interesting insight into why communism originally appealed to, and then disappointed, so many adherents in the United States and Europe, particularly during the 1920s and 1930s. The essays also showed that many individuals of good conscience and intentions desperately hoped that communism would bring order, justice, and peace to a world they worried was on the brink of disaster.
          The six men who contributed to the book were all writers or journalists. Two were American (Louis Fischer and the African-American novelist Richard Wright); the rest were from Europe (Andre Gide from France, Arthur Koestler and Stephen Spender from England, and Ignazio Silone from Italy). Of these, Spender, Wright, Koestler, and Silone had been members of the Communist Party for varying lengths of time. Gide and Fischer, though they sympathized with the communist ideology, never formally joined the party. Each man, in his turn, eventually turned against communist ideology.
          According to the volume's editor, British politician and essayist Richard Crossman, the very fact that these intelligent and compassionate individuals were drawn to communism was “an indictment of the American way of life,” and evidence of “a dreadful deficiency in European democracy.” All of the writers — particularly during the 1920s and 1930s, when fascism and totalitarianism were on the march and the Western democracies seemed unable or unwilling to intercede — turned to communism as the hope for a better, more democratic, and more peaceful world. Each man eventually broke with the communist ideology, however. Some were disturbed by the Soviet-Nazi pact of 1939; others had traveled to the Soviet Union and were appalled by the poverty and political oppression. The book, which was published the same year that former State Department official Alger Hiss was convicted of perjury related to his alleged role in a communist spy ring in the United States, was an interesting contribution to the ongoing national debate concerning communism.
    1947 J. Danforth Quayle (Senator-R-IN, 44th US Vice President 1989-1993 ) who became famous for his Quaylisms. _ One example: "I stand by all the misstatements that I've made." — to Sam Donaldson, 890817 (reported in Esquire, 9208)
    1943 Jesús Torbado Carro, escritor y periodista español.
    1921 Friedrich Dürrenmatt, escritor suizo.
    1913 Manuel Andújar, escritor español.
    1896 André Masson, French Surrealist painter who died in 1987. — MORE ON MASSON AT ART “4” JANUARY with links to images.
    1896 Everett McKinley Dirksen, Republican leader of the US Senate (1959-1969). He died on 07 Sep 1969.
    1895 Leroy Randle Grumman, US aeronautical engineer and founder of Grumman Aircraft. He died on 04 October 1982.
    1890 Alfred G Jodl German Wehrmacht General/Chief of Staff.
    1881 Wilhelm Lehmbruck, German sculptor who died on 25 March 1919. — LINKS
    1863 Four-wheeled roller skates patented by James Plimpton of NY.
    1861 Charles Schreyvogel, US artist who died on 27 January 1912.
    1848 Suter, mathematician.
    1838 midget Charles Sherwood Stratton) (1838-83), showman under the name "General Tom Thumb" (after miniature fairy-tale hero); 61 cm tall when first exhibited by P.T. Barnum; later grew to 100 cm.
    1813 Sir Isaac Pitman, English educator and inventor of shorthand, who died on 12 January 1897.
    1809 Louis Braille, Coupvray, France. Blinded at age 4, he would invent a raised dot alphabet for the blind to read and write. He would die from tuberculosis on 06 January 1852, before his system was widely adopted.
    1797 Wilhelm Beer, German astronomer who made the first map of moon. He died on 27 March 1850.
    1785 Jacob Ludwig Carl Grimm, Germany, librarian, fairy tale collector and editor.
          The older of the two Grimm brothers, Jacob, is born in Hanau, Germany. His brother Wilhelm is born the following year. As young men, the two brothers assisted some friends with research for an important collection of folk lyrics. One of the authors, impressed by the brothers' work, suggested they publish some of the oral folktales they'd collected. The collection appeared as Children's and Household Tales, later known as Grimm's Fairy Tales, in several volumes between 1812 and 1822.
          Tales in the Grimm brothers' collection include "Hansel and Gretel," "Snow White," "Little Red Riding Hood," "Sleeping Beauty," "Rapunzel," and "Rumpelstiltskin." The brothers developed the tales by listening to storytellers and attempting to reproduce their words and techniques as faithfully as possible. Their methods helped establish the scientific approach to the documentation of folklore. The collection became a worldwide classic.
          Jacob continued researching stories and language, and published an influential book of German grammar. He also did important work in language study and developed a principle, called Grimm's Law, regarding the relation of languages to each other. In 1829, Jacob and Wilhelm became librarians and professors at the University of Gottingen, and Jacob published another important work, German Mythologies, exploring the beliefs of pre-Christian Germans. In 1840, King Frederick William IV of Prussia invited the brothers to Berlin, where they became members of the Royal Academy of Science. They began work on an enormous dictionary, but Wilhelm died in 1859, before entries for the letter D were completed. Jacob followed on 20 September 1863, having only gotten as far as F. Subsequent researchers finished the dictionary many years later.
    BROTHERS GRIMM ONLINE of (in English translations): Fairy Tales, Grimm's Fairy Tales, Grimm's Fairy Tales, Grimm's Household Tales.
    1784 François Rude, French Realist sculptor who died on 03 November 1855 — LINKS.
    1746 Benjamin Rush, US physician, political leader and signer of the Declaration of Independence. He died on 19 April 1813.
    1745 Johann Georg Pforr, German artist who died on 09 June 1798.
    1710 Giovanni Battista Pergolesi Italian composer (Il Prigioniero Superbo). He died on 16 March 1736.
    1643 (25 December 1642 Julian) Isaac Newton, mathematician, scientist, in addition to theorizing about planetary orbits and gravity, he was the first scientist to examine the possibility of satellites. Newton hypothesized that a cannonball shot at high velocity would eventually orbit the Earth. He died in 1727. In a letter to Robert Hooke, Newton wrote: “If I have been able to see further, it was only because I stood on the shoulders of giants.”
    1581 Bishop James Ussher Archbishop of Armagh. Based on a literal interpretation of Old Testament references, he considered paternity as a viable method by which the age of the Earth since its creation could be determined using the "begat" method of determining the antiquity of an event — essentially counting backward in time through each documented human generation. In 1650 Ussher determined that the Creation had occurred during the evening of 22 October 4004 BC. Ussher died on 21 March 1656. At present the earth is thought to be about 4.55 billion years old, creationists nothwithstanding.
    1566 Luisa de Carvajal y Mendoza, en Jaraicejo (Cáceres), escritora y religiosa española, que irá a Inglaterra para evangelizar a los protestantes, y después de encarcelamientos y enfermedad, fallecerá allá el día de su 48º cumpleaños.
    1477 Girolamo del Pacchia, Italian artist who died after 1533.
    Holidays Sri Lanka: Tamil Thai Pongal Day  _ Congo ex-Zaïre: Martyrs' Day
    Santos Aquilino, Rigoberto, Roger, Cayo y Gregorio.
    DICTIONNAIRE TICRANIEN GÉOGRAPHIQUE FRANÇAIS-ANGLAIS: NANCY: prénom féminin.
    Thought for the day: “We have nothing to fear because we have nothing.” — a student of John Canu's 3rd grade in an economically depressed area.
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