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Events, deaths, births, of JAN 26
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left: Karparov, right: Deep Junior's human: Amir Ban On a January 26:

2003
World chess champion Garry Kimovich Kasparov [13 April 1963-], with White, defeats computer program Deep Junior (who has a human to physically move the pieces) in the first game of a match which will end in a draw with its 6th game on 07 February 2003 (28 Jan Game 2 — 30 Jan Game 3 — 02 Feb Game 4 — 05 Feb Game 5):
1.d4 In recent years Kasparov usually only plays this instead of his customary 1.e4 when he has prepared some special opening variation.
1. ... d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.e3 e6 5.Nf3 Nbd7 6.Qc2 Bd6 7.g4 a move credited to US Champion Alexander Shabalov, although it was first played by his Latvian countryman Alexei Shirov against Thorhalsson in 1992. it leads to sharpest lines of the Semi-Slav Anti-Meran. It has since been played over 500 times, with only 22% of the games resulting in draws.
7. ... dxc4 [... Bb4 might have been better]
8.Bxc4 b6 9.e4 e5 Surprisingly Deep Junior is out of book here and takes 20 minutes for this move, which may be worse than ... Bb7.
10.g5 Nh5 11.Be3 0-0 12.0-0-0 Qc7 13.d5 [13.Be2 exd4 14.Nxd4 Nf4 15.Kb1 Be5 16.h4 Nc5 17.h5 Nce6 18.g6 Nxd4 19.Bxd4 Be6 20.gxh7+ Kxh7 21.Bf3 Rad8 22.Be3 Rxd1+ 23.Rxd1 Rd8 24.Ne2 Rxd1+ 25.Qxd1 c5 26.Qd2 Nxe2 27.Bxe2 Qd6 Ward,C-Gausel,E/Copenhagen 2002/CBM 88/[Wells]/1/2-1/2 (58); RR 13.Kb1 g6 14.Be2 exd4 15.Nxd4 Nf4 16.h4 b5 17.Bxb5 Bb7 18.h5 Be5 19.Bc4 Nb6 20.Be2 Rae8 21.hxg6 fxg6 22.a4 Nxe2 23.Qxe2 Qf7 24.f4 Bh8 25.e5 c5 26.Ndb5 Qb3 27.Nd6 Bxh1 Hillarp Persson,T-Borgo,G/Batumi 1999/CBM 74/1-0 (37)]
13...b5?! 14.dxc6 bxc4 15.Nb5! Kasparov goes for the maximum result. [ 15.cxd7 Bxd7 16.Qd2 Bg4 17.Qxd6 Qxd6 18.Rxd6 Bxf3 19.Rg1+/= ]
15...Qxc6 16.Nxd6 Kasparov would win this position easily against any human being.
16...Bb7 Black is hoping for counterplay against the pawn on e4.
17.Qc3! [ 17.Nf5 achieves nothing 17...Qxe4 18.Ne7+ Kh8 19.Qxe4 Bxe4 20.Rxd7 Bxf3= ]
17...Rae8?! Gives a rook for a knight in order to save the pawn on e5. [ 17...Rab8 18.Nxe5 Nxe5 19.Qxe5 Qa4 looks better.]
18.Nxe8 Kasparov thinks for 10 minutes before making this move, once he is confident that Deep Junior's giving up of the rook is a sign that it is in trouble and not that it has set a trap.
18. ... Rxe8 19.Rhe1 Qb5 20.Nd2 Rc8 21.Kb1 Nf8 22.Ka1 Ng6 23.Rc1 Ba6 24.b3! cxb3 25.Qxb3 [The Queen sacrifice 25.Qxc8+ Bxc8 26.Rxc8+ Nf8 27.Nxb3 might have been an easy and showy win against a human. But leaving a computer's queen on an open board runs the risk that the computer mught find an arcane mate or perpetual check]
25 ... Ra8 26.Qxb5 Bxb5 27.Rc7 Deep Junior resigns.
(All games are in New York, and are supposed to start at 15:30 EST, though this one was delayed 25 minutes to get the computer running. The time control is 40 moves in 2 hours followed by 20 moves in one hour then 30 minutes for the rest of the game.)
2001 A blind cod has swum into the same net about 35 times in the Norwegian fjord Hardanger and is only alive because a soft-hearted fisherman frees him each time. "He's too thin to eat and he's in bad condition," says Harald Hauso, 69, "And I feel a bit sorry for him."
      The cod, blind in both eyes and weighing about 2.5 kg, first swam into Hauso's hooped nets in March of 2000. In the nets are tiny crabs and starfish, on which the cod feeds. "He's found out that it's an easy place to find food. And he knows I let him go every time. Also, maybe he feels safe because the net protects him," Hauso says. He says that a marine park from nearby Aalesund offered today to let the fish retire in the safety of its aquarium. "I've said 'yes' to the offer. It'll be a good place for him to be a pensioner," he says.
     Hauso would catch the cod for the 40th and last time on 7 February, and see it off to Aalesund, about 300 km north of Hardanger, where it is to share a private pool at the marine park with a Big Mama, a short-sighted halibut.
Elian triumphant after meeting grandmas09 Feb 2001 update:
     A blind cod was clinging to life today after surviving a critical medical operation and 40 nettings by a Norwegian fisherman. The celebrity fish was caught off Norway for the 40th and final time on 07 Feb by Harald Hauso, 69, who gave up the chase and sent it to retire in a private pool in a marine park in Aalesund. Almost entirely blind in both eyes and weighing a meager 4-6 lbs., it was touch and go whether it would survive the 190-mile journey north from the Hardanger fjord where it was caught. The cod had to undergo an emergency operation to remove gas which built up inside its body because of its repeated capture. "He had too much gas inside, so we put the needle inside and took the gas out," Jan Einarsen, director at Aalesund's Atlantic Sea Park, told Reuters. He said the cod — nicknamed Balder after a handsome god in Norwegian mythology — was also stressed after being trapped and released so many times. Einarsen said his biggest concern was the fish's loss of appetite, despite being tempted by squid, shrimp, herring and mussels. The cod first blundered into Hauso's nets last March and returned almost every week, apparently attracted by the smell of the nylon. Hauso repeatedly freed the scrawny fish because it was too thin to eat and he felt sorry for it.
2 survivors and a cousin^ 2000 Elian met grandmas.
      Shipwreck orphaned survivor Elián González, 6, meets for 90 minutes his grandmothers at the Miami Beach home of Sister Jeanne O'Laughlin, president of Barry University, chosen as a neutral venue for the meeting by the US government which pressured the boy's great-uncle to whose home (besieged by the media and anti-Castro activists) the grandmothers had refused to go. On his way back to the home of his great-uncle, he is carried in triumph [photo >], having reaffirmed his desire to stay in the United States, contrary to the grandmas' mission.
      Sister O'Laughlin, who was neutral before the meeting, is now convinced by the grandmothers' attitude, that they are in fear of Castro and that the repressive Cuban regime would be bad for the boy.
Shipwreck survivors go to Washington to support Elian staying in US.
     In the photo on the left, Georgina Cid, a cousin of Elian Gonzalez, right, accompanied by Nivaldo Fernandez, center, and Arriane Horta, left, both of whom survived the shipwreck that claimed the life of Elian Gonzalez's mother, meet reporters at the National Press Club in Washington, calling for Elian to stay in the US The news conference is sponsored by the Cuban American National Foundation.
^ 1999 (Tuesday) Clinton impeachment trial in US Senate.
To call or not to call witnesses.


(1) As Clinton's Senate trial enters its 12th day, the Senate hears arguments from House prosecutors and the president's lawyer on whether or not to call witnesses. "We have an excellent case without the witness, but the witnesses will help you," says Rep. Henry Hyde (R-Illinois), the chief House prosecutor. "We have narrowed it down to three, a pitiful three, and I should think you would want to proceed with that minimum testimony." House prosecutors want the Senate to issue subpoenas for Monica Lewinsky, Vernon Jordan and "Sid Vicious" Blumenthal. The House prosecutors say it is vital for the Senate to hear testimony from Lewinsky, Jordan and Blumenthal to weigh their credibility and resolve discrepancies in what they have said so far. Dropped from the list of proposed prosecution witnesses is Clinton's White House secretary, Betty Currie, whose involvement with both Clinton and Lewinsky had been thought to be pivotal in trying to sort out discrepancies in testimony about Clinton's sexual affair with Lewinsky. What good is a trial without witnesses? "The two people who know the most about this are Monica Lewinsky and President William Jefferson Clinton," Rep. Bill McCollum says, leading off the prosecution argument for calling witnesses. McCollum says Lewinsky will convey the story in a way that grand jury transcripts cannot — "how she responds to the question, how she answers ..." McCollum promises prosecutors would not ask Lewinsky about the explicit details of her sexual activities with Clinton. Some senators have warned the trial could turn into a lurid spectacle if Lewinsky testifies. McCollum argues for hearing from the key scandal players Rep. Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas, another of the House prosecutors, cites conflicts between the grand jury testimony of Jordan and Lewinsky on her Paula Jones case affidavit and an alleged comment that Jordan made about getting rid of notes she wrote to the president. "The story needs to be told," Hutchinson says. "The truth needs to be determined."

But Clinton's lawyer, David Kendall, says each of the three was interviewed many times during Independent Counsel Ken Starr's investigation and there is no need for more testimony. "This has been a partisan process on the part of the House managers," Kendall says. "In the House, they had the votes. They didn't think they needed to talk to witnesses." Kendall argues that alleged discrepancies in the testimony are immaterial and if there is anything damaging or prejudicial to Clinton's case it would already be in Starr's report to Congress. "I would certainly say this for Mr. Starr; he is thorough," Kendall says. Kendall also warns that calling witnesses would mean extending the trial significantly, and said he counted on the Senate to assure a fair amount of time for discovery in advance of depositions, if the Senate calls witnesses. In a surprise move, House prosecutors also ask the Senate to invite Clinton to appear for a deposition, as a fourth possible witness. The request to Clinton is that he appear without a subpoena at the Senate's invitation. The White House immediately rejects the idea. House prosecutors also ask for the submission of additional evidence, including telephone records of a 56-minute conversation on December 6, 1997 between Clinton and Lewinsky. The prosecutors also want admitted into the record an affidavit from Barry Ward, a law clerk for Judge Susan Webber Wright, the judge in the Paula Jones lawsuit, as well as the sworn declaration of T. Wesley Holmes, a lawyer for Paula Jones. The three witnesses would face depositions — that is, private questioning — in sessions likely to be videotaped, so that all senators could watch the depositions. Senators would have to determine in a separate vote whether to bring the witnesses in for live testimony on the Senate floor.

(2) The Senate then votes 58-41 to go into private session to consider what to do. Three hours later, senators from both parties emerge and say negotiations are under way for a bipartisan timetable to conclude the impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton, but not before witnesses are deposed on videotape. A vote is expected Jan. 27, with both sides predicting the Senate probably will accede to House prosecutors' request to seek testimony from Monica Lewinsky, presidential friend Vernon Jordan and White House aide Sidney "Sid Vicious" Blumenthal. A separate vote to dismiss the charges against Clinton appears likely to fail. So much for voluntarily providing information "sooner rather than later"

(3) In another development today, Senate Majority Leader Lott names a seven-member ad hoc committee to draft a "finding of fact" motion that would denounce certain actions by Clinton without convicting or removing him from office. Sources within Lott's office say it is the GOP leader's attempt to find some middle ground that would put the Senate on record condemning the president's behavior but stop short of forcing him from office, a prospect few concede is likely at this point. The committee, made up entirely of Republicans, might simply list objectionable acts that a Senate majority believes the president committed. It's not clear how specific the list might be or how it might coincide with the articles of impeachment accusing Clinton of perjury and obstruction of justice. Lott names Sens. Olympia Snowe of Maine and Pete Domenici of New Mexico to serve as co-chairs of the panel. The other members are Sens. John Ashcroft of Missouri, Tim Hutchinson of Arkansas, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Susan Collins of Maine and John Warner of Virginia. A committee meeting could occur as early as Jan. 27. (4) Attorneys for Lewinsky request a hearing before a federal judge seeking permission for the former White House intern to do a television interview. Under the terms of her immunity agreement with Starr's prosecutors, she is not allowed to make any detailed public statements. Lewinsky leaves Washington today, but will return for a deposition if she gets a subpoena from the Senate. Groping around for an alternate endgame (5) Maryland Democratic Sen. Barbara Mikulski is in a Baltimore hospital suffering from "the flu". A spokeswoman for the senator says Mikulski, 62, is in good, stable condition, resting and taking plenty of fluids. Mikulski expects to return to the Senate Jan. 27 in time to vote on the motion to dismiss and the motion to call witnesses in the impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton.

1998 President Clinton says "I want to say one thing to the American people, I did not have sexual relations with that woman ... Miss Lewinsky" (Is it a lie? “It depends on what the meaning of ‘is’ is!”)
^ 1998 Compaq buys Digital Equipment Corporation
      Compaq Computer Corporation purchases the struggling Digital Equipment Corporation. The purchase made Compaq the world's biggest seller of personal computers and allowed Compaq to enter the world of high-end computing, offering workstations and Internet services manufactured by Digital. Digital, founded in 1957, was once the number two computer maker in the world, second to IBM. By 1998, however, the company had fallen to fourth place, while Compaq, a relative newcomer founded in 1982, had skyrocketed to the top slot.
1998 Motorola agreed to license Sun Microsystems' Java technologies, paving the way for Java's use in cell phones, smart cards, and embedded automobile computers. The deal was the largest distribution agreement for the technology to date, and it escalated Sun's competition with Microsoft, which was promoting its Windows CE operating system for consumer electronic devices.
1996 First lady Hillary Rodham Clinton testifies before a grand jury connected to the Whitewater probe.
1996 Hours before a midnight deadline, the US Congress votes to finance dozens of agencies for seven more weeks, thus averting a third federal shutdown.
1996 It is reported that the German government has launched an investigation into CompuServe for inciting racial hatred by providing Internet access to a Canadian Neo-Nazi. The case raised issues regarding the responsibilities of an Internet service provider. Although CompuServe temporarily blocked access to the bulletin boards and chat rooms in question, the company reinstated them after several months.
^ 1995 Cadbury Schweppes buy Dr. Pepper
      For a price-tag of $1.7 billion, Cadbury Schweppes, whose arsenal of products already included A&W root beer, Canada Dry, and Crush and Sunkist fruit colas, buyn the United States' third-biggest soft drink concern, the Dr. Pepper / Seven-Up Company. The acquisition left Cadbury Schweppes with 17% of America's $49 billion soda market, putting it just behind Coca-Cola and Pepsico in the field. Still, the acquisition of Dr. Pepper and its $829 million in debts was not without some risk, especially for Cadbury Schweppes, which was already saddled with its own debt of roughly $874 million. Wall Street, however, chose to ignore the flood of red ink and quickly warmed to the deal. Dr. Pepper's stock shot to a record close of $32.50 on the NYSE, while Cadbury's American shares climbed by $1.125 to end the day at $26.75.
1993 Former Czechoslovak President Vaclav Havel was elected president of the new Czech Republic.
1992 Americans with Disabilities Act went into effect.
1991 An estimated 200'000 to 300'000 people across the US demonstrate for, or against, Operation Desert Storm.
1991 Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev grants the KGB and Soviet Interior Ministry sweeping search-and-seizure powers to combat economic crime.
1991 Alfaro Vive guerrilla group of Ecuador gives arms to Catholic church.
1989 US computer security expert warns of catastrophic virus.
1989 AT&T reports first loss in 103 years; $1.67 B in 1988.
1986 Yoweri Museveni's rebel army conquerors Kampala Uganda.
1982 Mauno Koivisto elected President of Finland.
1982 US President Ronald Reagan's State of the Union address.
1980 Israel and Egypt establish diplomatic relations.
1978 Mario Soares forms Portuguese government.
1972 Stewardess Vesna Vulovic survives 10'160 m fall without parachute
1971 Charles Manson convicted of murder.
1965 South Vietnam military coup under General Nguyen Khanh
1959 Italy government of Fanfani resigns.
1958 H Laskow replaces Moshe Dayan as Israeli minister of Defense
1957 India annexes Kashmir.
1956 Porkkala military base returned to Finland by USSR.
1951 The Temple Beth Israel of Meridian, Miss. became the first Jewish congregation to allow women to perform the functions of a rabbi
^ 1950 The Indian constitution takes effect.
     It makes the Republic of India the most populous democracy in the world. Mohandas Gandhi struggled through decades of passive resistance before Britain finally accepted Indian independence. Self-rule had been promised during World War II, but after the war triangular negotiations between Gandhi, the British, and the Muslim League stalled over whether to partition India along religious lines. Eventually, Lord Mountbatten, the viceroy of India, forced through a compromise plan.
      On 15 August 1947, the former Mogul Empire was divided into the independent nations of India and Pakistan. Gandhi called the agreement the "noblest act of the British nation," but religious strife between Hindus and Muslims soon marred his exhilaration. Hundreds of thousands died, including Gandhi, who was assassinated by a Hindu fanatic in January 1948 during a prayer vigil to an area of Muslim-Hindu violence. Of Gandhi's death, Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru said, "The light has gone out of our lives, and there is darkness everywhere." However, Nehru, a leader of the Indian struggle for independence and Gandhi's protégé, persisted in his efforts to stabilize India, and by 1949 the religious violence began to subside.
      In late 1949, an Indian constitution was adopted. With universal adult franchise, Nehru hoped to overcome India's "caste-ridden" society and promote greater gender equality. Elections were to be held at least every five years, and India's government was modeled after the British parliamentary system. A president would hold the largely ceremonial post of head of state but would be given greater powers in times of emergency.
      The first president is Rajendra Prasad. Nehru, who won his first of three subsequent elections in 1952, was faced with staggering challenges. A massively underdeveloped economy and overpopulation contributed to widespread poverty. Nehru also had to force the integration of the former princely states into the Indian union and suppress movements for greater autonomy in states like Punjab. In his years of struggle against Britain, he always advocated nonviolence but as prime minister sometimes had to stray from this policy. He sent troops into the Portuguese enclaves of Goa and Daman and fought with China over Kashmir and Nepal. He died in 1964 and was succeeded by Lal Bahadur Shastri. Later, Nehru's only child, Indira Gandhi, served four terms as a controversial prime minister of India.
     L'Inde proclame son indépendance souveraine . Deux ans avant, la mésentente entre les Musulmans et Hindous avait amené la partition du continent indien entre le Pakistan et l'Inde
1948 Executive Order 9981, end segregation in US Armed Forces signed
1945 Soviet forces reach Auschwitz concentration camp
1942 Italian supreme command demands dismissal of German marshal Rommel
1942 first US force in Europe during WWII goes ashore in Northern Ireland
1940 Nazis forbid Polish Jews to travel on trains
^ 1939 Franco captures Barcelona.
      During the Spanish Civil War, Barcelona, the Loyalist capital of Spain, falls to the Nationalist forces of General Francisco Franco. In 1931, King Alfonso XIII approved elections to decide the government of Spain, and voters overwhelmingly chose to abolish the monarchy in favor of a liberal republic. Alfonso subsequently went into exile, and the Second Republic, initially dominated by middle-class liberals and moderate socialists, was proclaimed. Over the first five years of the republic, organized labor and leftist radicals forced widespread liberal reform as independence-minded Spanish regions such as Catalonia and the Basque Provinces achieved virtual autonomy. The landed aristocracy, the church, and a large military clique increasingly employed violence in their opposition to the Second Republic, and in July of 1936, General Francisco Franco led a right-wing army revolt in Morocco, which prompted the division of Spain into two key camps: the Nationalists and the Loyalists. Franco's Nationalist forces rapidly overran much of the Loyalist-controlled areas in central and northern Spain, and Catalonia became a key Loyalist stronghold. During 1937, Franco unified the Nationalist forces under the command of the Falange, Spain's fascist party, while the Loyalists fell under the sway of the Communists. Germany and Italy aided Franco with an abundance of planes, tanks, and arms, while the Soviet Union aided the Loyalist side. In addition, small numbers of Communists and other radicals from France, the USS.R., America, and elsewhere formed the International Brigades to aid the Loyalist cause. The most significant contribution of these foreign units was the successful defense of Madrid until the end of the war. In June of 1938, the Nationalists drove to the Mediterranean Sea and cut the republican territory in two. Later in the year, Franco mounted a major offensive against Catalonia. On 26 January 1939, its capital, Barcelona, was captured, and soon after the rest of Catalonia fell. With the Loyalist cause all but lost, the Republicans attempted to negotiate a peace, but Franco refused. In early April of 1939, the victorious Nationalists entered Madrid, and the bloody Spanish Civil War came to an end.
1934 Nazi Germany and Poland sign non-aggression treaty for 10 years.
1931 Hungary-Austria sign peace treaty.
1929 Indian National Congress proclaims goal for India's independence.
1926 Television first demonstrated (John L Baird, London)
1918 President Hoover calls for "wheatless" and "meatless" days for war effort.
1914 Vatican puts Belgian Nobel winner Maeterlinck's works in their index
1911 Glenn Curtiss pilots first successful hydroplane, San Diego CA
1910 Heavy rains cause floods in Paris.
1907 The US Congress passes a reform corrupt election practices law that bars America's corporations from making contributions to national campaigns.
Pensacola.
1906 The first General Assembly of the Church of God convened. Headquartered today in Cleveland, TN, the Church of God is the oldest Pentecostal Church denomination in the US, with roots going back to 1886.
1906 American driver Fred Marriott set a new land speed record of 127.659 miles per hour in his steam-powered "Wogglebug" at Ormond Beach, Florida. It was the last time that a steam-powered vehicle would claim a new land speed record.
^ 1905 World's largest diamond found
      At the Premier mine in Pretoria, South Africa, a 3106-carat diamond is discovered during a routine inspection by the mine's superintendent, Captain Wells. Christened the 'Cullinan,' it is the largest diamond ever found. The Cullinan is later cut by Joseph Asscher, head of the Asscher Diamond Company of Amsterdam, who examines the enormous diamond for over six months before determining how to divide it into manageable pieces. On the first day of the division process, Asscher, fearful of how his heart might react to a blunder, has a doctor stand by as he hits the first critical blow. After nearly shattering the diamond on his initial attempt, Asscher manages to satisfactorily divide it with his second blow, and promptly faints. The Cullinan is later cut into 106 polished diamonds, valued at tens of millions of dollars. The largest of the cut stones is the 'Star of Africa,' which at 530.2 carats is the largest cut fine quality colorless diamond in the world. The gem is presented to Britain's King Edward VII by the government of the Transvaal, a province of South Africa. Pear-shaped, with seventy-four facets, the Star of Africa now resides in the Tower of London among the other Crown Jewels, mounted in the British sovereign's Royal Scepter.
— Adopted in 1913 to weigh diamonds, replacing the very slightly larger former carat, 1 metric carat = 100 points = 0.2 gram
1897 Battle at Bida Gold Coast British troops beat Nupe's army
1887 Battle of Dogali Abyssinian Emperor John IV defeats Italians
1885 Muhammad Ahmed ("Mahdi") rebels conquer Khartoum
1882 France government of Gambetta falls
1871 US income tax repealed
1870 Virginia rejoins the US
1863 War Department authorizes Massachusetts Governor to recruit black troops — 54th Regiment (Black) infantry forms
^ 1863 Joseph Hooker takes over the Army of the Potomac
      General Joseph Hooker assumes command of the Army of the Potomac following Ambrose Burnside's removal the previous day, due to his disastrous record. Hooker was a West Point graduate and a veteran of the Seminole War and the Mexican War, and he had served in the American West in the 1850s. When the Civil War erupted, Hooker was named brigadier general in the Army of the Potomac. He quickly rose to division commander, and he distinguished himself during the Peninsular Campaign of 1862. He also continued to build his reputation as a hard drinker and womanizer. He earned the nickname "Fighting Joe," and received command of the First Corps in time for the Second Battle of Bull Run in August 1862. His corps played a major role in the Battle of Antietam in September, and when Burnside failed as commander, Hooker had his chance.
      The general first had to deal with the sagging morale of the army. He reorganized his command and instituted a badge system, where each division had their own unique insignia. This helped to build unit pride and identity, and Hooker led a reenergized army into Virginia in April 1862. Hooker's appointment was part of Lincoln's frustrating process of finding a winning general in the east. After Irwin McDowell, George McClellan, John Pope, McClellan again, and then Burnside, Lincoln hoped Hooker could defeat Confederate General Robert E. Lee. It was a tall order, though, and Hooker was not up to the challenge. In May 1863, Hooker clashed with Lee at the Battle of Chancellorsville, and the Union army suffered a decisive and stunning defeat. Lincoln's search for an effective commander continued, and he eventually replaced Hooker with George Meade.
1862 Lincoln issues General War Order #1, calling for a Union offensive. McClellan ignores order
1861 Louisiana becomes 6th state to secede as a state convention votes 113 (103?) to 17 in favor. It was charged that there had been fraud in the election of delegates to the convention, and the claim was made that the Union men were in a majority throughout the State. Accordingly it was proposed to submit the ordinance to the vote of the people. This proposition was voted down 84 to 45. Had already seceded: South Carolina (24 Dec 1860), Mississippi (09 Jan 1861), Florida (10 Jan 1861), Alabama (11 Jan 1861), Georgia (19 Jan 1861).
1855 Traité avec Victor-Emmanuel Ier, roi de Piémont Au cours de la guerre qui les opposent à la Russie, la France et l'Angleterre signent un traité d'alliance avec le Piémont et la Sardaigne.
1841 Great Britain formally occupies Hong Kong, which the Chinese had ceded.
^ 1838 Tennessee passes first Prohibition Law in US.
      The first prohibition law in the history of the United States is passed in Tennessee, making it a misdemeanor to sell alcoholic beverages in taverns and stores. The bill stated that all persons convicted of retailing "spirituous liquors" would be fined at the "discretion of the court" and that the fines would be used in support of public schools. The movement for the prohibition of alcohol began in the early nineteenth century, when Americans concerned about the adverse effects of drinking began forming temperance societies. By the late nineteenth century, several states and dozens of cities had enacted prohibition laws, and temperance groups had become a powerful political force, campaigning on the state level and calling for total national abstinence. On December 18, 1917, the Eighteenth Amendment, also known as the Prohibition Amendment, was passed by Congress and took effect on January 16, 1919, following state ratification. During the 1920s, despite an often-vigorous effort by law-enforcement agencies, the federal government failed to prevent the large-scale distribution of alcoholic beverages, and organized crime flourished in America. In 1933, the Twenty-first Amendment to the Constitution was passed and ratified, repealing prohibition.
1837 Michigan becomes the 26th state of the US.
1827 Peru secedes from Colombia in protest against Simón Bolívar's alleged tyranny
1797 Russia, Prussia and Austria sign treaty.
^ The first European settlers in Australia, led by Captain Arthur Phillip land at Sydney, Botany Bay, New South Wales, to form a penal colony.
1788: 210 marins et 717 forçats deviennent les fondateurs de l'Australie.
      Un convoi anglais de onze navires arrive en Australie sous le commandement du capitaine Arthur Phillip. Après avoir accosté à Botany Bay, un site remarquable pour sa flore, les navires ont remonté la côte jusqu'à une anse propice à l'agriculture. Il s'y élève aujourd'hui la ville de Sydney. Les navires transportent des émigrants européens considérés comme les fondateurs de l'Australie moderne. Il s'agit de 191 matelots et 19 officiers, parfois accompagnés de leur familles, mais aussi de 717 forçats. Parmi ces derniers figurent 180 femmes.
      Le capitaine James Cook avait reconnu la côte orientale de l'Australie en 1770 et l'avait nommée Nouvelle-Galles du Sud. Le gouvernement anglais, ne disposant plus de ses colonies d'Amérique, devenues indépendantes, a eu alors l'idée d'utiliser cette terre des antipodes pour y reléguer ses convicts. Les convicts ne sont pas de grands criminels mais de simples délinquants qui encombrent les bateaux-prisons des ports britanniques. Ils sont parfois seulement coupables d'avoir volé une miche de pain. De 1788 au milieu du XIXe siècle, pas moins de 162'000 seront ainsi expédiés en Nouvelle-Galles du Sud. Ces colons d'un genre particulier, une fois leur peine accomplie, feront souche sur place. Ils formeront l'ossature du peuplement européen de l'Australie et repousseront vers l'intérieur désertique les 300'000 Aborigènes présents sur l'île depuis des temps immémoriaux. Le 26 janvier, anniversaire de l'arrivée en Australie de la "First Fleet" (en anglais, la Première Flotte), est devenu la fête nationale du pays.
1784 In a letter to his daughter, Benjamin Franklin expressed unhappiness over the eagle as the symbol of America. He wanted the turkey.
1748 England, Netherlands, Austria and Sardinia sign anti-French treaty
1736 Stanislaw Lesczynski flees Polish throne
1721 Jaloux de la réussite financière du banquier Law, les frères Pâris, demandent une enquête financière est ouverte. La montée du prix de ses actions ne correspond pas aux bénéfices escomptés de la mise en valeur de la Louisiane. Law a eu l'imprudence de mettre trop de billets en circulation. Il doit s'enfuir.
1699 Venice, Poland and Austria sign peace treaty with Turkey
1697 Isaac Newton receives Jean Bernoulli's Brachistochrone Problem with a 6 month time-limit for solving, solves problem before going to bed that same night
1666 France declares war on England and Münster
1564 Following the closing of the Council of Trent, Pius IV ratified its enactments by the bull "Benedictus Deus." Included among the Tridentine decisions were decrees concerning the creation of an Index of Prohibited Books (a list of condemned authors and their works)
^ 1500 Spanish explorer discovers Brazil
      Vicente Yanez Pinzon, who had commanded the Niña during Christopher Columbus's first expedition to the New World, reaches the northeastern coast of Brazil during a voyage under his command. Pinzon's journey produces the first recorded account of a European explorer sighting the Brazilian coast, although whether or not Brazil was previously known to Portuguese navigators is still in dispute. Pinzon subsequently sails down the Brazilian coast to the equator, where he briefly explores the mouth of the Amazon River. In the same year, Portuguese explorer Pedro Alvares Cabral claims Brazil for Portugal, arguing that the territory falls into the Portuguese sphere of exploration as defined by the 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas. However, little is done to support the claim until 1532, when the first permanent European settlement in Brazil is established at São Vicente in São Paolo by Portuguese colonists.
1340 English king Edward III proclaimed king of France.
0066 5th recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet.
^ Deaths which occurred on a January 26:

2004 Capt. Amer Abdul-Rahim Amira; 8 other firemen; 3 policemen; and 2 other persons; on the main commercial Abbas Al-Aqqad Street in Nasr City, eastern suburb of Cairo Egypt; after a defective 11-story building collapses, in the evening, to 2nd-story level in a fire which started three hours earlier in Souq al-Wahda, a small appliance store on the ground floor. The building was built in 1981 with 7 floors, 4 more floors were illegally added in 1992. A 2002 city order to tear down the extra floors was disregarded. On 21 January 2003, tenants complained to police that renovation in the appliance store could damage the building's foundations. The owner of the building, Khalaf Mohammed Abu Diab, among the injured, is arrested.
[below: the morning after, pancaked building in the center].

click to ZOOM IN2003 Annemarie Schimmel [< click photo to zoom in >], German Lutheran pro-Islam scholar born on 07 April 1922, specialized in Sufism. Author of more than 50 books (some of them written in English), including The Triumphal Sun. Life and Works of Mowlana Jalaloddin (1978) — Rumi: Ich bin Wind und du bist Feuer — Calligraphy and Islamic Culture (1984) — Mystical Dimensions of Islam (1975) — Deciphering the Signs of God (1993) — Berge, Wüsten, Heiligtümer (1994) — Gabriel’s Wing. A study into the religious ideas of Sir Muhammad Iqbal (1963) — Die Träume des Kalifen (1998) — Im Reiche der Großmoguln (2000) — The Mystery of Numbers (1993). — MORE

2003 Palestinian boy, 6, by Israeli gunfire, while playing in an open field in the Brazil neighborhood of Rafah, Gaza Strip. His brother, 5, is wounded. The Israeli army destroys a printshop and other peaceful Palestinian workshops.

2003 Two Afghan security men and one bandit, at 10:00 (05:30 UT) on road from Jalalabad west to the Hesarak district of Nangarhar province, which had provided an escort to a convoy of four vehicles of the UNHCR (United Nations High Commission for Refugees). The convoy was turning around to return to Jalalabad, after seeing a dead body on the road and judging that it was unsafe to go ahead. Other members of the escort are wounded. One attacker is captured.

2003 Lobsang Dondrub, Tibetan executed by the Chinese Communists for “sabotage of the unity of the country and the unity of various ethnic groups” and “crimes of terrorism”.

2003 Hugh Trevor-Roper, English historian born on 15 January 1914. Author of The Last Days of Hitler (1947), The Rise of Christian Europe(1965), The Philby Affair (1968), The European Witch Craze of the 16th and 17th Centuries(1970), From Counter Reformation to Glorious Revolution (1992).

2003 Hisashi Shinto, born on 02 July 1910, prominent Japanese industrialist who helped privatize the Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation, the world's largest telecommunications company, in 1985, from which he was forced to resign as chairman in 1988 a few months before being arrested for accepting bribes, for which he was convicted in October 1990.

2002 Marjan, 39, of old age, in Kabul Zoo, the only lion in Afghanistan, who had survived a king, a coup, Soviet occupation, Communist rule, internecine mujahideen battles, the Taliban (barely), and a US bombing campaign. A Taliban fighter once climbed into Marjan's enclosure to prove his bravery, only to be killed and devoured by the hungry lion (keepers were not paid and had to beg for food for the animals). The fighter's brother returned the next day and lobbed a grenade at Marjan in revenge, blinding him and making him lame. Marjan was a gift from Germany in 1964.
Quake rescue, Aumedabad2002 Six Russian aggressors in Chechnya: four in attacks on Russian positions, one as his car detonates a land mine, and another as a remote-controlled bomb exploded under a reconnaissance vehicle in Grozny.
2002 Nassar Abu Salim, 30, Palestinian, bleeding to death near the Ramallah checkpoint after being shot in the leg tear by Israeli troop, who for 45 minutes prevent Palestinian ambulances from reaching him.
2001 Some 13'000 in 7.9 earthquake in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, saddening India's Republic Day, the worst natural disaster of the year in the whole world..
[photo: rescue workers use a crane to clear rubble while searching for survivors >].
dog on Death RowThe earthquake occurs at 03:16:41 UT with the epicenter 110 km NNE of Jamnagar, at 23.40ºN, 70.32ºE, at a depth of 23.6 km. (Current earthquake reports). 1.2 million homes are destroyed, damage is estimated at $4.5 billion.
2001 Benjamin Hermansen, 15, stabbed to death near his Oslo home. Arrested for it would be four young men and two 17-year-old girls, all associated with Boot Boys, a neo-Nazi group. Benjamin's mother is a White Norwegian and his late father was a Black from Ghana.
2001 Diane Whipple, (50 kg) 33, from bites of dog Bane (54 kg). Whipple was attacked by the dogs (Presa Canario mastiffs) Bane and Hera (51 kg) in the hallway of her Pacific Heights CA apartment building shortly after she arrived home. The co-keeper of the dogs, Marjorie Knoller, has just come down from the roof with the dogs when Bane spots Whipple at her door. Bane moves toward her, dragging Knoller along by his leash. Knoller said she tried to place herself between the dog and Whipple. But Bane went for Whipple's throat as Hera nipped at her clothing. Whipple suffered 77 bites and is left there by Knoller who doesn't even call 911. Whipple dies about five hours after the attack. In March, impatient with the criminal investigation process, Whipple's lesbian partner Sharon Smith would initiate a civil damages suit against the Knollers. [< photo: Hera on Death Row] On 27 March 2001, the couple of lawyers Marjorie Knoller, 45, and Robert Noel, 59, who blame the victim, would be charged with involuntary manslaughter and keeping a mischievous dog that killed a human being. Knoller would also be charged with second-degree murder. The criminal trial of Knoller and Noel would start with opening arguments on 19 February 2002. On 21 March 2002 a jury would find them guilty on all counts, but on 17 June 2002, at the sentencing, the judge would grant a new trial on the murder charge, saying that Marjorie Knoller could not know that the dog might kill, and he postpones her sentencing to 15 July 2002 and then throw out the murder conviction for lack of support from the evidence and sentence Knoller to paying $6800 to Sharon Smith and to the maximum for involuntary manslaughter, 4 years in prison, which was also Noel's sentence in June. The judge says of the defendants that “their conduct from the time that they got the dogs to the weeks after Diane Whipple's death was despicable.”. The dogs belonged to Paul Schneider, 39, a white supremacist and prison inmate whom the couple legally adopted. Hera and Bane would suffer the death penalty. Seven of Bane's grandchildren (like him a cross between a Canary Island fighting dog and English mastiff), would be advertised for sale at $1200 each, in the 05 July 2001 Los Angeles Times, as "Dog-O-War" puppies "bad to the bone, protective and stable."
[below: 07 Jun 2002 photo: Knoller, attorney Bruce Hotchkiss, Noel]
lawyer between murderous dogs' caretakers

1998 Shinichi Suzuki, 99, music teacher (Suzuki Method).
1996 Dave Schultz, olympic wrestler, is fatally shot at the suburban Philadelphia estate of John E. du Pont; who would surrender 48 hours later.
1993 Luis Ernesto Ascanio Ascanio, 16, shot at close range after being abducted while walking to his home in the indigenous community of San José del Tarra, municipio de Hacari, departamento de Santander Norte, Colombia, by soldiers of the "Motilones" Anti-Guerrilla Batallion (No. 17), attached to the Second Mobile Brigade of the Colombian National Army, which since 12 January 1993 had been making illegal warrantless searches, arrests, tortures, and murders in the region, and some of whom had been occupying the home of Luis Ernesto since a few days before, holding the family hostage and mistreating it (they stay in the home until 31 January 1993). On 29 January soldiers bring to the hospital in Ocaña four bodies which they allege are of guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) which they killed in combat on 27 January. On 21 May 1993, these four bodies would be exhumed and one of them found to be that of Luis Ernesto. — Communication No. 778/1997 of the UN Human Rights Committee.
1979 Nelson A. Rockefeller, 70, former US Vice President and 4 times Governor of NY
1962 Charles "Lucky" Luciano, 65, New York City NY Mafia gangster
1942 Felix Hausdorff, German mathematician born on 08 November 1868.
^ 1940 Day 58 of Winter War: USSR aggression against Finland.
More deaths due to Stalin's desire to grab Finnish territory.

Prime Minister Ryti and Mannerheim discuss prospects for peace
      Central Isthmus: in the Lähde road sector, heavy enemy shelling renders 'Fort Poppius' almost unusable for active combat purposes.
      Ladoga Karelia: a Finnish Fokker reconnaissance plane disappears on a flight over the northeast shore of Lake Ladoga. The pilot, Toivo Häilä, and the navigator, Lieutenant Reino Vaittinen, are both killed.
      Northern Finland: the last batch of 9th Division troops transferred from Suomussalmi arrive in Kuhmo.
      Mikkeli: Prime Minister Risto Ryti visits General Headquarters to discuss the prospects for peace with Commander-in-Chief Mannerheim. Mannerheim urges the Prime Minister to make concessions to achieve a settlement.
      Northern Finland: enemy aircraft bomb Ivalo, Kuusamo, Savukoski and Sotkamo.
      Abroad: at a press conference in Washington, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt emphasizes that any American who enlists in and swears allegiance to the army of a foreign country at war will thereby lose his American citizenship. However, since there had been no official declaration of war, the United States did not consider Finland to be a country at war, and American volunteers in Finland would therefore retain their citizenship.
      The British Labour Party and Cooperative Movement declare Britain will do all it can to help Finland.

^ Pääministeri Risto Ryti neuvottelee Mannerheimin kanssa rauhan mahdollisuuksista Talvisodan 58. päivä, 26.tammikuuta.1940
       Poppiuksen linnake Lähteen tien suunnassa Kannaksella tuhoutuu vihollisen tykistötulessa lähes taistelukelvottomaksi.
      Tiedustelulennolla oleva suomalainen Fokker FK-81 katoaa Laatokan koillisrannikolla. Ohjaaja, lentomestari Toivo Häilä sekä tähystäjä, luutnantti Reino Vaittinen, saavat surmansa.
      Viimeiset Suomussalmelta siirretyn 9. Divisioonan joukot saapuvat Kuhmoon.
      Pääministeri Risto Ryti neuvottelee Päämajassa Mikkelissä ylipäällikkö Mannerheimin kanssa rauhan mahdollisuuksista. Mannerheim kehottaa myönnytyksiin.
      Vihollinen pommittaa Pohjois-Suomen paikkakuntia: Ivaloa, Kuusamoa, Savukoskea ja Sotkamoa.
      Ulkomailta: USA:n presidentti Franklin Delano Roosevelt korostaa lehdistötilaisuudessa Washingtonissa, että sotaa käyvän valtion armeijaan liittyvä ja sille uskollisuutta vannova amerikkalainen menettää kansalaisuutensa. Yhdysvaltojen mukaan Suomi ei kuitenkaan ole sotaa käyvä maa, koska mitään sodanjulistusta ei ole annettu. Amerikkalaiset vapaaehtoiset saavat pitää kansalaisuutensa.
      Englantilainen työväenpuolueen ja osuustoimintaliikkeen valtuusto ilmoittaa Englannin kaikin keinoin tahtovan auttaa Suomea.

^ Ryti diskuterar med Mannerheim om möjligheterna till fred Vinterkrigets 58 dag, den 26 januari 1940
      Poppiusbunkern i riktning Lähdevägen på Näset förstörs av fiendens artillerield och blir nästan stridsodugligt.
      Ett finskt Fokker FK-81-plan på spaningsuppdrag försvinner på Ladogas nordöstra strand. Piloten, flygmästare Toivo Häilä samt navigatören, löjtnant Reino Vaittinen dödas.
      De sista trupperna i den 9. Divisionen, som förflyttats från Suomussalmi, anländer till Kuhmo.
      Statsminister Risto Ryti diskuterar i huvudkvarteret i S:t Michel med överbefälhavare Mannerheim om möjligheterna till fred. Mannerheim uppmanar till eftergifter. Fienden bombar orter i norra Finland: Ivalo, Kuusamo, Savukoski och Sotkamo.
      Utrikes: USA:s president Franklin Delano Roosevelt betonar vid en presskonferens i Washington att en amerikan som ansluter sig till en krigförande stats armé och som svär trohet gentemot denna förlorar sitt medborgarskap. Men enligt Förenta Staterna är Finland inte en krigförande stat eftersom ingen krigsdeklaration har utfärdats. De amerikanska frivilliga soldaterna får behålla sin nationalitet.
      Fullmäktigeförsamlingen för det engelska arbetarpartiet och den kooperativa rörelsen uppger att England på alla sätt vill hjälpa Finland
1932 William K Wrigley owner (Wrigley Gum, Chicago Cubs)
1929 Constantin Marie Le Paige, Belgian mathematician born on 09 March 1852.
1914 Emmerich Alexius Swoboda von Wikingen, Austrian artist born on 17 July 1849.
1895 Arthur Cayley, 73, mathematician.
1893 Abner Doubleday, 74th birthday, credited with inventing baseball
1885 The British garrison of Khartoum, including Major-General Charles George Gordon, born on 28 January 1833, British Governor-General, massacred by the troops of Muhammad Ahmad al-Mahdi [12 Aug 1844 – 22 Jun 1885] who storm the city after a ten-month siege.
^ 1855 Gérard Labrunie “Gérard de Nerval” , 47 ans, est retrouvé pendu d'un lampadaire dans la rue de la Vielle Lanterne, près du Châtelet à Paris.
      Né à Paris, le 22 May 1808, Gérard Labrunie (Nerval est un pseudonyme emprunté à un clos familial) avait deux ans lorsque sa mère mourut, en Silésie. Elle accompagnait son mari, médecin de la Grande Armée. Gérard voua un culte à sa mémoire, et le traumatisme causé par cette absence est à l'origine de son tourment.
      Il vécut ses premières années dans le Valois, chez son grand-oncle maternel, Antoine Boucher, qui possédait une petite maison à Mortefontaine. Au retour de son père, en 1814, il le suivit à Paris. Il prépara son baccalauréat au collège Charlemagne. L'été, cependant, il retrouvait les forêts de son enfance. Mortefontaine, mais aussi Chantilly, Senlis, Chaalis, Ermenonville l'ont imprégné de souvenirs. Lorsque la maison d'Antoine Boucher fut vendue, en 1825, cet événement familial marqua pour lui la fin d'un premier cycle affectif.
      Il vit une vie de dandy mondain, rencontre des artistes, des poètes, des musiciens, et s'initie aux sciences occultes. Nerval souffre de troubles psychiques très sévères. Sa 1ère crise de délire s'était produite en février 1841. Entre ses différents internements en la clinique psychiatrique du Dr. Blanche, il a composé les " Filles du feu ", " Aurélia " et les sonnets de " Chimères ".
      Son œuvre préfigure Baudelaire et Mallarmé, aussi bien que les tentatives des surréalistes. Sa passion malheureuse depuis 1836 pour l'actrice Jenny Colon développe son mythe féminin qui intercède pour sa propre rédemption. Obsédé par une autre vie dont seuls les rêves nous rendent compte, sa poésie fut une sorte d'incantation, un appel du langage à un monde invisible, comme dans "Loreley".
      "Aurélia" ou "le Rêve et la Vie" illustre bien la "descente aux Enfers" du poète. Nerval est convaincu que le songe aide à percer "ces portes d'ivoire ou de corne qui nous séparent des mondes invisibles".
NERVAL ONLINE: Œuvres
Fantaisie
Il est un air pour qui je donnerais
Tout Rossini, tout Mozart et tout Weber,
Un air très vieux, languissant et funèbre,
Qui pour moi seul a des charmes secrets.
Or, chaque fois que je viens à l'entendre,

De deux cents ans mon âme rajeunit :-
C'est sous Louis Treize ; et je crois voir s'étendre
Un coteau vert, que le couchant jaunit...
Puis un château de briques à coins de pierre,
Aux vitraux teints de rougeâtres couleurs,
Ceint de grands parcs, avec une rivière
Baignant ses pieds, qui coule entre des fleurs;
Puis une dame, à sa haute fenêtre,
Blonde aux yeux noirs, en ses habits anciens,
Que, dans une autre existence peut-être,
J'ai déjà vue... - et dont je me souviens!
1853 Johann Nepomuk Schödlberger, Austrian artist born in 1779.
1826 Victor Jean Nicolle, French artist born on 18 October 1754.
1824 Edward Jenner discoverer (vaccination).
1824 Jean Louis André Théodore Géricault, French Romantic painter born on 26 September 1791. MORE ON GÉRICAULT AT ART “4” JANUARY with links to images.
1795 Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach, 62, composer.
1752 Jean-François de Troy, French painter and tapestry designer. — more with links to images.
1721 Pierre-Daniel Huet, French bishop born on 08 February 1630. He was a scholar in many fields. In philosophy he was an anti-Cartesian fideist. — Relative? of painter Jean-Baptiste-Marie Huet I [15 Oct 1735 – 27 Jan 1811]?
1697 Georg Mohr, Danish mathematician born on 01 April 1640. Author of Euclides danicus (1672) where he proved that all Euclidean constructions can be carried out with compasses alone.
1630 Henry Briggs, English mathematician born in February 1561.
1531: Some 30'000 in Lisbon earthquake.
1109 Albericus of Cîteaux French saint
Births which occurred on a January 26:
1998: 333 MHz Pentium II chip is introduced by Intel
1997 Pasaye Twin Palatine IL, twin born 92 days after his brother (Oct 26)
^ 1983 Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet software.
      It became the "killer app" that drove demand for the IBM PC. Throughout the late '70s and early '80s, leading computer hardware was almost always driven by "killer applications" — software so useful that consumers would buy a computer just to run the program. VisiCalc, the first spreadsheet, created demand for the Apple II in 1979, Lotus 1-2-3 made the IBM PC into a best-selling business computer in 1983, and Aldus PageMaker created demand for the Apple Macintosh.
1945 John Henry Coates, Australian mathematician.
1937 Joseph Saidu Momoh General / President (Sierra Leone)
^ 1928 Jules Feiffer, cartoonist, author, children's book writer, screenwriter, and playwright.
     He would become famous for his cartoons notable for their emphasis on very liter5ate captions. The verbal elements usually took the form of monologues in which the speaker (sometimes pathetic, sometimes pompous) exposed his own insecurities. Feiffer was educated at the Art Students League of New York and Pratt Institute in New York City, later assisting several comic-strip artists as he learned his trade. From 1949 to 1951 he drew "Clifford," a Sunday cartoon-page feature. During the two years he served in the US Army, he did cartoon animation for the Signal Corps. In 1956 Feiffer's work was accepted by The Village Voice, a weekly newspaper published in Manhattan's Greenwich Village, where it was an immediate success and was syndicated, beginning in 1959. Feiffer's first collection of cartoons, Sick, Sick, Sick (1958), was followed by Passionella, and Other Stories (1959). Passionella contained the character Munro, a four-year-old boy who was drafted into the army by mistake. Munro became the basis of an animated cartoon that received an Academy Award in 1961.
      Later cartoon collections include Boy, Girl, Boy, Girl (1961); Feiffer's Album (1963); The Unexpurgated Memoirs of Bernard Mergendeiler (1965); a retrospective, Jules Feiffer's America: From Eisenhower to Reagan (1982); Marriage is an Invasion of Privacy (1984); and Feiffer's Children (1986). Feiffer also wrote satirical revues, such as The Explainers (1961) and Hold Me! (1962), and a one-act play, Crawling Arnold (1961). His full-length plays—Little Murders (1967), The White House Murder Case (1970), and Grown Ups (1981)—like his cartoons, blend farce and biting social criticism. Other literary efforts include the novels Harry, the Rat with Women (1963) and Ackroyd (1977); The Great Comic Book Heroes (1965), which he edited and annotated; and several screenplays. In 1986 he received a Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning
1920 The Lincoln Motor Car Company is founded. It would be acquired by the Ford Motor Company just two years later. Under Ford’s protective wing, the Lincoln brand name flourished and the Lincoln Continental would become one of the world’s most famous luxury makes.
1918 Nicolae Ceausescu, Communist dictator of Romania after the death of previous dictator Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej [08 Nov 1901 – 19 Mar 1965]. On 17 December 1989, security forces, under orders from Ceausescu, fired on antigovernment demonstrators in Timisoara, which led to the 22 December 1989 defection of the army and capture of fleeing Ceausescu and wife Elena (which he had appointed to high office). They were summarily executed by firing squad on 25 December 1989.
1908 Rupprecht Geiger, German painter and architect. — more with digression about other Geigers, including the counter.
1905 Maria Augusta von Trapp, Austria, singer, inspired Sound of Music.
1904 Seán MacBride, Irish statesman and winner of 1974 Nobel Peace Prize. He died on 15 January 1988.
1886 First auto with internal combustion engine is patented by Karl Benz.
^ 1880 Douglas MacArthur, future US general and reformer of Japan.
     He is born at Fort Dodge, Little Rock Arkansas, son of Captain Arthur MacArthur. Douglas first became a general with the US expeditionary force in France during WW I. In 1930 he became a four-star generas and Chief of Staff of the US Army. Acting on US President Hoover's 29 July 1932 orders, MacArthur brutally evicted the bonus marchers from Washington DC.
      On 03 October 1935, US President relieved MacArthur as Chief of Staff. He was sent to the Philippines as an adviser. On 06 August 1937, MacArthur was notified that he would be reassigned to the US. So he resigned and Manuel Quezon, the Philippines Commonwealth President, appointed him Field Marshal of the Philippines. On 27 July 1941 MacArthur was restored to duty as a US general, in command of the combined Philippine and US Armies there.
      MacArthur is ordered on 22 February 1942 to leave the Philippines, where his forces were being defeated by the Japanese and would capitulate at Corregidor on 05 May 1942. He says: “I shall return”.
      On 07 August 1942 the US counteroffensive began with the Marines landing at Guadalcanal. On 30 October 1944, MacArthur waded ashore at Leyte in the Philippines and said: "I have returned”. On 18 December 1944 he was promoted to the newly created rank of General of the Army. His forces conquered Manila on 25 February 1945. MacArthur received the unconditional surrender of Japan on 02 September 1945, aboarded the battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay.
      For 5 years MacArthur was "The Star- Spangled Mikado," who, as head of the occupation forces, caused the transformation of Japan into a democratic, peaceful society, an achievement which he rightly considered even greater than his successes in war.
      On 25 June 1950, North Korean Communist troops invaded South Korea. The UN authorized a countering force. From Japan, MacArthur planned executed an amphibious landing on the North Korean rear at Inchon. It was executed on 12 September 1950, sending their forces fleeing back to North Korea. US forces went in pursuit toward the Chinese border. On 16 October 1950, Chinese Communist troops crossed into North Korea, and sent UN troops into retreat. MacArthur disagreed with the prudent policies of US President Truman and said: “There is no substitute for victory.”
      Truman relieved MacArthur of command in April 1951. On 19 April 1951 MacArthur addressed the joint houses of Congress, ending with “Old soldiers never die — they just fade away.” On 01 August 1952, he was named chairman of the board of Remington Rand Inc. (now Sperry-Rand). He faded away by dying on 05 April 1964.
1877 Kees Cornelis Théodore Marie van Dongen, Dutch French painter who died on 28 May 1968. MORE ON VAN DONGEN AT ART “4” JANUARY with links to images.
1875 Electric dental drill is patented by George F Green.
1871 Samuel Hopkins Adams, US journalist and author who died on 15 November 1958.
1862 Eliakim Hastings Moore, US mathematician who died on 30 December 1932.
1857 Ferencz Eisenhut, Hungarian Austrian artist who died on 02 June 1903.
1852 Pierre Brazza explorer/colonial administrator (French Africa).
^ 1831 Mary Mapes (Dodge), children's writer, in New York City.
      At the age of 20, she married a lawyer named William Dodge, and the couple had two sons. Widowed at 27, Dodge began writing children's stories to support herself. In 1864, she published a popular collection of tales, entitled Irvington Stories, about a colonial American family. When her publisher asked her for another book, she wrote Hans Brinker, or The Silver Skates, published in 1865. The story, set in the Netherlands, richly portrays Dutch life, although the author herself never visited the country. In 1873, Dodge was hired to edit a new children's magazine called St. Nicholas, for which she set high literary standards. The magazine's high quality attracted such contemporary writers as Mark Twain, Louisa May Alcott, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Rudyard Kipling. Dodge died in1907.
DODGE ONLINE: : Hans Brinker, or The Silver SkatesAlong the Way — (editor of:) Baby World: Stories, Rhymes, and Pictures for Little Folks
1826 Julius Adam I, German artist who died on 02 February 1874.
^ 1763 Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte, future King Charles XIV of Sweden and Norway.
      Born in Pau, France, Bernadotte became in 1794 a general under the Revolution. Napoléon, after proclaiming the Empire on 18 May 1804, named, that same month, Bernadotte a marshal of France. Bernadotte was active in Napoleonic campaigns (1805-1809). Napoléon named him Prince de Ponte-Corvo in 1806. Bernadotte was elected crown prince of Sweden on 21 August 1810. On 20 October he converted to Lutheranism. He became regent Karl Johan (adoptive son of aged, childless King Charles XIII). of Sweden and Norway (1818-44). He formed anti-Napoléon alliances with Russia (April 1812), Great Britain (March 1813), and Prussia (April 1813), which defeated Napoléon at the Battle of Leipzig in October 1813. Then Bernadotte attacked and defeated Denmark and, in January 1814 forced its king Frederick VI (born on 28 Jan 1768) to sign the Treaty of Kiel, which transferred Norway to the Swedish crown. The Norwegians rebelled but Bernadotte forced them to submit and in August 1814 they signed the Convention of Moss. On 05 Feb 1818 King Charles XIII died and Bernadotte became King Karl XIV Johan of Sweden and Norway. He never learned Swedish, but he was a wise, though authoritarian ruler. He died on 08 March 1844 in Stockholm.
1715 Claude-Adrien Helvétius, French philosopher who died on 26 December 1771. He developed hedonism into a radical theory of self interest as an individual's single incentive. HELVETIUS ONLINE: De l'Esprit (1758) — De l'homme, de ses facultés intellectuelles et de son éducation
1714 Jean-Baptiste Pigalle, French sculptor who died on 21 August 1785.
1684 Hendrik F. van Lint, Flemish artist who died on 23 September 1763.
1582 Giovanni Lanfranco di Stefano, Italian Baroque painter who died on 30 November 1647. MORE ON LANFRANCO AT ART “4” JANUARY with links to images.
^ 1468 Guillaume Budé, grand poète, écrivain, imprimeur, humaniste de la Renaissance.
      Né à Paris, formé à la Sorbonne, également connu sous le nom latin de Budaeus, Budé exerça plusieurs charges importantes, dont celle, à plusieurs reprises, de prévôt des marchands ainsi que celle de maître des requêtes. Il fut ensuite responsable de la bibliothèque royale de Fontainebleau (future Bibliothèque nationale). En 1530, il obtint de François Ier la création des " lecteurs royaux " qui sont à l'origine du Collège de France. Budé est l'exemple même de l'humaniste partageant son temps entre le service de l'État et l'étude. Les travaux de Budé sur la philologie, la philosophie et la jurisprudence comprennent des traductions de traités de Plutarque, des commentaires sur le droit civil romain (Annotations aux Pandectes, 1508, saluées par Rabelais), un Traité sur la monnaie antique (1514). Il convient également de mentionner des ouvrages sur la langue et la littérature, notamment grecques, tels que Commentarii linguae Graecae (1529), qui établirent les premières bases de la philologie et qui firent considérablement avancer l'étude de la littérature grecque. Il est mort le 20 août 1540.
Holidays: Arkansas: General Douglas MacArthur Day / Dominican Republic: Día de Duarte / India: Republic Day (1950) / Michigan: Admission Day (1837)
Religious Observances Roman Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran : SS. Timothy and Titus, companions of Paul / Sainte Paule, mère de famille dans l'aristocratie romaine du IVe siècle, s'établit à Bethléem près de la grotte de la Nativité et se consacra à la méditation de la Bible

DICTIONNAIRE TICRANIEN: supercherie: femme objet d'un amour passioné (ortographe défectueuse par manque d'un accent aigu).
YESTERDAY'S QUESTION OF THE DAY: Which US city is two letters away from a soft drink? — READ THE ANSWER.
Thoughts for the day: “Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age 18.” — Einstein (1879-1955). [that statement is plain common sense]
“Wisdom is the collection of prejudices acquired by age 18 and not discarded by age 81.”
“If you can't stand the heat, don't jump from the frying pan into the fire: get out of the kitchen and go jump in the lake.”
“A friend is one who sees through you and still enjoys the view. —
Wilma Askinas
“The only service a friend can really render is to keep up your courage by holding up to you a mirror in which you can see a noble image of yourself.” —
George Bernard Shaw [... while, of course, concealing the fact that it is a distorting mirror.]
“ A friend is someone who won't stab you in the back, but in the heart.”

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