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WASHINGTON, Jan. 1
Today is Monday Jan. 7, the 7th day of 2008, with 359 to follow.
The moon is waning. The morning stars are Venus, Jupiter and Saturn. The evening stars are Mars, Mercury, Uranus and Neptune.
Those born on this date are under the sign of Capricorn. They include Frenchman Jacques Montgolfier, who, with his brother, invented the hot air balloon, in 1745; Millard Fillmore, 13th president of the United States, in 1800; Marie-Bernarde Soubirous, who became St. Bernadette and whose visions led to the foundation of the shrine at Lourdes, France, in 1844; film executive Adolph Zukor in 1873; ghoulish cartoonist Charles Addams in 1912; actor Vincent Gardenia in 1922; author William Blatty ("The Exorcist") in 1928 (age 80); singers Paul Revere in 1938 (age 70) and Kenny Loggins in 1948 (age 60); Rolling Stone magazine publisher Jann Wenner in 1946 (age 62); CBS news anchor and former "Today" co-host Katie Couric in 1957 (age 51); and actor Nicholas Cage in 1964 (age 44).
On this date in history:
In 1610, Galileo, using his primitive telescope, discovered the four major moons of Jupiter: Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto.
In 1789, the first nationwide U.S. presidential election was held. The electors chosen by the voters unanimously picked George Washington as president and John Adams as vice president.
In 1927, commercial trans-Atlantic telephone service between New York and London was inaugurated.
In 1931, as the Great Depression was getting under way, a report to U.S President Herbert Hoover estimated that 4 million to 5 million Americans were out of work.
In 1979, the Cambodian government of Pol Pot was overthrown.
In 1989, Japan's Emperor Hirohito died.
In 1990, Jeffrey Lundgren, a self-proclaimed prophet and leader of a breakaway religious sect wanted for the slayings of five Ohio followers, was arrested in California near the Mexican border.
In 1991, loyalist troops attacked Haiti's presidential palace, rescuing President Ertha Pascal-Trouillot and capturing the coup plotters.
In 1993, the EPA released a long-awaited report that classified environmental tobacco smoke as a carcinogen.
In 1997, U.S. Rep. Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., was re-elected Speaker of the House and then reprimanded for violating House rules and misleading the House Ethics Committee in its inquiry into possible political use of tax-exempt donations.
In 1998, a federal jury in Denver was unable to agree on a penalty for Terry Nichols, convicted in December 1997 in the 1995 bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building. That meant he would not face the death penalty.
In 1999, U.S. President Bill Clinton's impeachment trial opened in the Senate. He was acquitted.
In 2003, President George Bush proposed a tax-cut package of $670 billion over 10 years, a major feature being the elimination of the tax on stock dividends.
In 2004, U.S. President George Bush unveiled an immigration reform program that would allow millions of undocumented workers the opportunity to obtain temporary guest worker status.
In 2005, Mississippi authorities arrested an 80-year-old man for the 1964 killings of three civil rights workers.
In 2006, doctors in Jerusalem were uncertain when they would bring Prime Minister Ariel Sharon out of his induced coma. Sharon, who suffered a major stroke two days earlier, underwent his third brain surgery.
In 2007, Democratic leaders now in control of the U.S. House of Representatives agreed that U.S. President George Bush would not get "a blank check" for the Iraq war and that efforts would be made to avoid wasting taxpayer money, fraud and abuse.
A thought for the day: an anonymous author wrote, "Remember, people will judge you by your actions, not your intentions. You may have a heart of gold -- but so does a hard-boiled egg."
Today is Tuesday, Jan. 8, the 8th day of 2008 with 358 to follow.
The moon is new. The morning stars are Venus, Jupiter and Saturn. The evening stars are Mars, Mercury, Uranus and Neptune.
Those born on this date are under the sign of Capricorn. They include financier Nicholas Biddle in 1786; educator and hymn writer Lowell Mason ("Nearer My God To Thee") in 1792; James Longstreet, Confederate general in the Civil War, in 1821; publisher Frank Doubleday in 1862; reading teacher Evelyn Wood in 1909; actor Jose Ferrer in 1912; comic actor Larry Storch in 1923 (age 85); comedian Soupy Sales in 1926 (age 82); newsman Charles Osgood in 1933 (age 75); rock 'n' roll legend Elvis Presley in 1935; singer Shirley Bassey in 1937 (age 71); Bob Eubanks in 1938 (age 70); actress Yvette Mimieux in 1942 (age 66); physicist and author Stephen Hawking in 1942 (age 66), and singer David Bowie in 1947 (age 61).
On this date in history:
In 1815, the forces of U.S. Gen. Andrew Jackson decisively defeated the British in the Battle of New Orleans, the closing engagement of the War of 1812.
In 1867, the U.S. Congress approved legislation that, for the first time, allowed blacks to vote in the District of Columbia.
In 1916, Allied forces staged a full retreat from the shores of the Gallipoli Peninsula in Turkey, ending a disastrous invasion of the Ottoman Empire that resulted in 250,000 Allied casualties.
In 1973, the trial of the "Watergate Seven" began in Washington. The defendants were charged with breaking into Democratic Party national headquarters, a furor that eventually led to the resignation of U.S. President Richard Nixon.
In 1976, Chinese Premier Chou En-lai died in Beijing.
In 1987, Kay Orr was inaugurated in Lincoln, Neb., as the nation's first woman Republican governor.
Also in 1987, the Dow Jones industrial average closed at more than 2,000 for the first time.
In 1991, one person was killed and 248 injured when a London commuter train crashed into the buffers at a station.
Also in 1991, Pan American World Airways filed for bankruptcy.
In 1993, thousands gathered at Elvis Presley's Graceland mansion in Memphis, Tenn., to purchase the first issue of a stamp honoring the "King of Rock 'n' Roll" on what would have been his 58th birthday.
In 1997, a report by University of Texas scientists concluded that exposure to a combination of chemicals was somehow linked to Gulf War Syndrome, responsible for the various ailments reported by veterans of the 1991 conflict.
In 2002, U.S. President George Bush signed a major education bill that mandated annual testing for students in grades 3-8 and called for tutors for poor schools.
In 2004, the U.S. Defense Department announced it had designated former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein a prisoner of war.
In 2005, the U.S. military said an airstrike in Mosul, Iraq, hit the wrong target, demolishing a civilian home and killing 14 people.
In 2006, a fire swept through a one-story wooden orphanage in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, and killed 13 disabled children. Seventy-one others were evacuated.
Also in 2006, a reported 12 U.S. military personnel were killed when a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter crashed in Iraq.
In 2007, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez announced he would nationalize the nation's telecommunications and electric power industries then controlled by U.S. companies
Also in 2007, more than 17,000 Iraqi civilians and police officers died violently since July, three times as many as in the first half of 2006, officials said.
A thought for the day: William Feather said, "Success seems to be largely a matter of hanging on after others have let go."
Today is Wednesday, Jan. 9, the 9th day of 2008 with 357 to follow.
The moon is waxing. The morning stars are Venus, Jupiter and Saturn. The evening stars are Mars, Mercury, Uranus and Neptune.
Those born on this date are under the sign of Capricorn. They include women's suffrage and peace movement leader Carrie Chapman Catt in 1859; pioneer psychologist John Watson in 1878; choreographer George Balanchine in 1904; French novelist Simone de Beauvoir in 1908; Richard Nixon, 37th president of the United States, in 1913; striptease artist Gypsy Rose Lee in 1914; actors Fernando Lamas in 1915, Lee Van Cleef in 1925 and Bob Denver in 1935; author Judith Krantz in 1928 (age 80); sportscaster Dick Enberg in 1935 (age 73); singer Joan Baez and actress Susannah York, both in 1941 (age 67); country singer Crystal Gayle in 1951 (age 57); actress Joely Richardson in 1965 (age 43); and bandleader Dave Matthews in 1967 (age 41).
On this day in history:
In 1768, the first modern circus was staged in London.
In 1861, Mississippi seceded from the Union.
In 1945, in World War II, U.S. troops invaded the Philippine island of Luzon and went on to liberate Manila.
In 1969, the British-French supersonic Concorde jetliner made its first test flight at Bristol, England.
In 1972, the luxury liner Queen Elizabeth was gutted by fire while docked in Hong Kong.
In 1986, the Internal Revenue Service announced it would withhold income tax refunds coming to 750,000 government loan defaulters, most of them former students.
In 1993, seven people were found shot to death at a fast-food chicken restaurant in Palatine, Ill., northwest of Chicago.
In 1995, House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., asked for the resignation of House historian Christina Jeffrey after it was revealed she'd once criticized a school program on the Holocaust for not including the "Nazi point of view" or that of the Ku Klux Klan.
In 1996, rebels in the Russian republic of Chechnya overran the town of Kizlyar and took 2,000 hostages at a hospital and in nearby homes.
In 2004, a Kenyan survey said about 1 million adults were infected with HIV in the country, one-third of previous estimates.
In 2006, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon began breathing on his own as Jerusalem doctors eased him out of an induced coma following emergency brain surgery. Sharon suffered a major stroke five days earlier.
In 2007, fierce fighting was reported in Baghdad between Sunni Muslim insurgents and Iraqi forces backed by U.S. troops and air assaults. Fighting flared soon after a new security plan for the city was announced, reports said.
Also in 2007, Venezuelan stocks fell almost 19 percent -- their biggest drop on record - and the country's currency lost almost one-third of its value after President Hugo Chavez pledged to nationalize the country's utilities.
A thought for the day: Seneca said, "If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favorable."
Today is Thursday, Jan. 10, the 10th day of 2008 with 356 to follow.
The moon is waxing. The morning stars are Venus, Jupiter and Saturn. The evening stars are Mars, Mercury, Uranus and Neptune.
Those born on this date are under the sign of Capricorn. They include silent screen actor Francis X. Bushman in 1883; poet Robinson Jeffers in 1887; actors Ray Bolger in 1904, Paul Henreid in 1908 and Sal Mineo in 1939; singers Johnnie Ray in 1927, Frank Sinatra Jr. in 1944 (age 64), Jim Croce in 1943 and Rod Stewart in 1945 (age 63); boxer George Foreman in 1949 (age 59); and singer Pat Benatar in 1953 (age 55).
On this date in history:
In 1776, "Common Sense" by political philosopher Thomas Paine was published. The pamphlet advocated independence from England.
In 1878, a constitutional amendment that would give women the right to vote was introduced into the U.S. Senate. It wasn't until 42 years later that the amendment was signed into law.
In 1901, oil was discovered at the Spindletop claim near Beaumont, Texas, launching the Southwest oil boom.
In 1920, the League of Nations came into being as the Treaty of Versailles went into effect.
In 1946, the first meeting of the U.N. General Assembly convened in London.
In 1984, the United States established full diplomatic relations with the Vatican for the first time in 116 years.
In 1994, NATO approved a plan for a limited expansion of the membership to Eastern European nations.
In 1996, rebels in the Russian republic of Chechnya holding 2,000 rebels released all but 130 and were allowed to flee. However, before they reached the border, Russian troops attacked the convoy, beginning a five-day standoff.
In 2000, America Online announced it had agreed to buy Time Warner for $165 billion, in what would be the biggest merger in history.
In 2003, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld signed orders sending 62,000 troops to the Gulf Coast region. Britain deployed an aircraft carrier and said it would send 26,000 troops to the region.
Also in 2003, North Korea announced it was withdrawing from the 1979 nuclear nonproliferation treaty.
In 2005, Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip elected Mahmoud Abbas as their new president, succeeding the late Yasser Arafat.
Also in 2005, CBS News announced it had fired four employees for producing a flawed report on U.S. President George Bush's military record.
In 2006, Iran unsealed its nuclear facility at Natanz and resumed atomic research for what it claimed to be peaceful purposes but sparking international anger.
In 2007, U.S. President George Bush announced he was sending more than 20,000 additional troops to Iraq, most of them deployed in Baghdad, in what was labeled a troop "surge" and set off intense debate in Congress.
Also in 2007, the U.S. House of Representatives approved and sent to the Senate a $2.10-an-hour increase in the national minimum wage, raising the figure to $7.25.
A thought for the day: Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, "Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail."
Today is Friday, Jan. 11, the 11th day of 2008 with 355 to follow.
The moon is waxing. The morning stars are Venus, Jupiter and Saturn. The evening stars are Mars, Mercury, Uranus and Neptune.
Those born on this date are under the sign of Capricorn. They include American statesman Alexander Hamilton, first secretary of the U.S. Treasury, in 1757; Ezra Cornell, founder of Western Union Telegraph company and Cornell University, in 1807; John MacDonald, first prime minister of Canada, in 1815; psychologist and philosopher William James in 1842; feminist lawyer Alice Paul in 1885; South African novelist Alan Paton ("Cry the Beloved Country") in 1903; actor Rod Taylor in 1930 (age 78); Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien in 1934 (age 74); and singers Naomi Judd in 1946 (age 62) and Mary J. Blige in 1971 (age 37).
On this date in history:
In 1785, the Continental Congress convened in New York City.
In 1861, Alabama seceded from the Union.
In 1935, U.S. aviator Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly across the Pacific from Hawaii to California.
In 1964, U.S. Surgeon General Luther Terry released a report saying smoking cigarettes is a definite "health hazard."
In 1984, the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated a $10 million award to the family of Oklahoma nuclear worker Karen Silkwood, who died in 1974.
In 1990, martial law, imposed during the June 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy movement, was lifted in Beijing.
In 1991, the U.S. Congress authorized the use of military force to oust Iraq from Kuwait.
In 1995, the U.S. State Department accused Russia of breaking an international agreement by making major troop movements into the rebel republic of Chechnya without providing notification.
In 1996, the Japanese Diet elected Ryutaro Hashimoto, head of the Liberal Democratic Party, as the new premier.
In 2000, the British government declared Chile's Augusto Pinochet medically unfit to stand trial in Spain. The ruling cleared the way for the former dictator to avoid charges of crimes against humanity.
In 2001, the Federal Communications Commission approved the merger of American Online and Time Warner Inc., creating the world's largest media conglomerate.
Also in 2001, a yearlong investigation by the U.S. Army concluded that U.S. soldiers killed unarmed South Korean civilians in July 1950 during the Korean War.
In 2002, Ford announced it planned to lay off 35,000 employees, drop four car models and close four plants.
Also in 2002, Taliban and al-Qaida fighters captured in Afghanistan were flown to the U.S. Naval base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.
And more from 2002, the father who killed another father after hockey practice in which their sons took part at a Reading, Mass., rink, was convicted of involuntary manslaughter.
In 2003, a few days before leaving office, Illinois Gov. George Ryan commuted the death sentences of 171 inmates to life in prison.
In 2005, U.S. President George Bush nominated federal Judge Michael Chertoff to be the director of Homeland Security.
Also in 2005, NASA scientists studying the tsunami-inducing Indonesia earthquake of Dec. 26 calculated it slightly changed Earth's shape and shifted the poles by about 1 inch.
In 2006, China confirmed a new outbreak of bird flu with the deaths of two more Chinese, bringing the number of avian influenza deaths there to five.
And India reported as many as 172 deaths have been blamed on a cold wave.
In 2007, the president of Sudan agreed to a 60-day cease-fire in the country's war-torn Darfur region but continued to oppose a U.N. presence in the African country.
Also in 2007, an Indonesian fisherman found a piece of an airliner missing since Jan. 1 with 102 aboard off the coast of South Sulawesi. Authorities had said there were 12 known survivors.
In 2007 sports, Florida upset Ohio State for the national college football championship and three months later, beat Ohio State again for its second consecutive college basketball title.
A thought for the day: William James said, "There is no worse lie than a truth misunderstood by those who hear it."
Today is Saturday, Jan. 12, the 12th day of 2008 with 354 to follow.
The moon is waxing. The morning stars are Venus, Jupiter and Saturn. The evening stars are Mars, Mercury, Uranus and Neptune.
Those born on this date are under the sign of Capricorn. They include British statesman Edmund Burke in 1729; American patriot John Hancock in 1737; painter John Singer Sargent in 1856; novelist Jack London in 1876; World War II Nazi leader Hermann Goering in 1893; western singer/actor Tex Ritter in 1905; champion heavyweight boxer Joe Frazier in 1944 (age 64); radio personalities Rush Limbaugh in 1951 (age 57) and Howard Stern in 1954 (age 54); actress Kirstie Alley in 1951 (age 57); and Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos in 1964 (age 44).
On this date in history:
In 1828, boundary disputes were settled between the United States and Mexico.
In 1932, Ophelia Wyatt Caraway, a Democrat from Arkansas, became the first woman to be elected to the U.S. Senate.
In 1943, the U.S. wartime Office of Price Administration said standard frankfurters would be replaced during World War II by "Victory Sausages" consisting of a mixture of meat and soy meal.
In 1971, a U.S. grand jury indicted the Rev. Philip Berrigan and five other people, including a nun and two priests, on charges of plotting to kidnap presidential adviser Henry Kissinger.
In 1976, the U.N. Security Council voted 11-1 to seat the Palestine Liberation Organization for its debate on the Middle East. The United States cast the only dissenting vote.
In 1990, Salvadoran President Alfredo Cristiani named eight soldiers, including chief of the military academy, as suspects in the November 1989 slayings of six Jesuit priests.
In 1994, U.S. President Bill Clinton asked Attorney General Janet Reno to appoint an independent counsel to investigate the Whitewater land deal affair that involved him and the first lady.
In 1995, U.S. President Bill Clinton and congressional leaders agreed on a bailout package that would give Mexico as much as $40 billion in loan guarantees. After Congress filed to vote quickly on the deal, Clinton invoked his emergency authority to lend Mexico $20 billion.
In 2001, scientists in Oregon announced the birth of the first genetically engineered primate. The rhesus monkey had a jellyfish gene that caused jellyfish to glow; however, the monkey did not glow.
In 2003, Maurice Gibb, 53, one of three singing brothers who made up the Bee Gees, died of complications from an intestinal blockage.
In 2004, former U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, in a harshly critical new book, likened U.S. President George Bush in a Cabinet meeting to a "blind man in a roomful of deaf people."
In 2005, The Southern California death toll from rain, flood and mudslides rose to 19.
Also in 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that an alien can be deported to a country without the advance consent of that country's government.
And, aftershocks continued to hit northwestern Indonesia and the Indian Ocean basin more than two weeks after a giant earthquake struck the area.
In 2006, around 350 people were crushed to death by a stampeding crowd at the entrance to Jamarat Bridge in Mina, Saudi Arabia, during an annual pilgrimage to Mecca.
In 2007, a proposed law to require the U.S. government to negotiate Medicare drug prices was soundly approved by the House of Representatives in what Speaker Nancy Pelosi called "a resounding victory for America's seniors over the special interests."
Also in 2007, the former head of the Bangladesh central bank, Fakhruddin Ahmed, was named head of the caretaker government, replacing President Iajuddin Ahmed.
A thought for the day: It was Otto von Bismarck who said, "Laws are like sausages, it is better not to see them being made."
Today is Sunday, Jan. 13, the 13th day of 2008 with 353 to follow.
The moon is waxing. The morning stars are Venus, Jupiter and Saturn. The evening stars are Mars, Mercury, Uranus and Neptune.
Those born on this date are under the sign of Capricorn. They include French fairy tale writer Charles Perrault, author of the Mother Goose stories, in 1628; Horatio Alger, author of rags-to-riches stories, in 1832; Alfred Fuller, the original Fuller Brush Man, in 1885; singer Sophie Tucker in 1884; Hollywood columnist Army Archerd in 1922 (age 86); and actors Robert Stack in 1919, Gwen Verdon in 1925, Charles Nelson Reilly in 1931, Richard Moll in 1943 (age 65), Kevin Anderson in 1960 (age 48), Julia Louis-Dreyfus in 1961 (age 47) and Penelope Ann Miller in 1964 (age 44).
On this date in history:
In 1864, composer Stephen Foster ("My Old Kentucky Home") died in a New York hospital, three days after he was found sick and almost penniless in a hotel room.
In 1910, radio pioneer and electron tube inventor Lee Deforest arranged the world's first radio broadcast -- a performance by the New York Metropolitan Opera -- for the public in New York City.
In 1941, Irish novelist James Joyce died at age 58.
In 1982, an Air Florida Boeing 737 crashed into a Potomac River bridge in Washington, killing 78 people.
In 1987, seven top New York Mafia bosses were sentenced to 100 years in prison each, including the heads of the Genovese, Colombo and Lucchese crime families.
In 1991, a Soviet crackdown in the Baltics killed 15 and injured 140.
Also in 1991, at least 40 South Africans were killed and 50 injured when fighting erupted during a soccer game in Orkney.
In 1993, U.S. and allied fighter planes bombed targets in southern Iraq to punish Saddam Hussein for his repeated violations of U.N. resolutions that ended the Persian Gulf War.
Also in 1993, a U.S. House of Representatives task force said it found no "credible" evidence that 1980 Reagan campaign officials tried to delay the release of U.S. hostages held by Iran.
In 1996, U.S. Sen. William Cohen, R-Maine, announced his retirement, a record 13th senator choosing not to seek new terms. By year's end, Cohen would join the Clinton Cabinet.
In 1997, U.S. President Bill Clinton awarded the Medal of Honor to seven black soldiers for their courage in action in Italy during World War II. It was the first time the medal was given to black WWII servicemen.
In 1999, Michael Jordan, regarded by many as the greatest basketball player ever, announced his retirement. He had led the Chicago Bulls to six NBA championships.
In 2001, more than 800 people were killed when an early morning earthquake shook the coast of El Salvador.
In 2003, Pope John Paul II argued forcibly against war in Iraq except as "the very last option" and said such a conflict would be "a defeat for humanity."
In 2004, U.S. President George Bush said Canada will be allowed to compete for major reconstruction contracts in Iraq despite its objection to the war.
In 2005, the 15-year-old boy accusing Michael Jackson of child molestation vividly described sexual encounters in testimony before a grand jury.
Also in 2005, the CIA said Iraq replaced Afghanistan as the training ground for the next generation of professional terrorists.
And, U.S. major league baseball players agreed to stricter policy for steroids and other drugs that includes testing and tougher penalties.
In 2006, the U.S. military launched a missile attack in Pakistan in an unsuccessful effort to kill al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri. Pakistan lodged a complaint against the U.S. attack in which a reported 17 died.
In 2007, the U.S. Defense Department used an obscure law to examine the finances of hundreds of Americans suspected of terror or espionage, a published report said. The practice was described as an aggressive expansion by the military into domestic intelligence gathering.
A thought for the day: in "The Guardian," Alec Issigonis wrote that, "A camel is a horse designed by committee."
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Copyright 2008 by UPI
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