Today in History

98CE        Jan 27, Marius Cocceius Nerva (67), emperor of Rome (96-98), died. (MC, 1/27/02) 661        Jan 27, Ali ibn Abu Talib, caliph of Islam (656-61), was murdered in Kufa, Iraq. Caliph Ali, son-in-law of Mohammed, was assassinated and his followers (Shiites) broke from the majority Muslim group. A member of the anarchist sect of Kharajites assassinated Ali. This sect believed that there are no verdict’s but God’s. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ali_ibn_Abi_Talib) (SFC, 3/16/02, p.A14) (SSFC, 6/30/02, p.M6) (http://tinyurl.com/44dtom)1164        Jan 27, Abraham ibn Ezra, poet, philosopher, died. (MC, 1/27/02)1302        Jan 27, Dante became a Florentine political exile. (MC, 1/27/02)1571        Jan 27, Shah Abbas, King of the Safavid dynasty in Persia (1587-1629), was born. He established a monopoly on the production and sale of silk and used the wealth to develop the city of Isfahan. Fearful of assassination he turned on his own family, executed one son, and blinded 2 sons, his father and his brothers. (WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R8) (http://4dw.net/royalark/Persia/safawi3.htm)1593        Jan 27, Vatican opened a 7 year trial against scholar Giordano Bruno. (MC, 1/27/02)1629        Jan 27, Hieronymus Praetorius (68), composer, died. (MC, 1/27/02)1662        Jan 27, 1st American lime kiln began operation in Providence RI. (MC, 1/27/02)1671        Jan 27, Welsh pirate Sir Henry Morgan (1635-1688) landed at Panama City. (WUD, 1994 p.931) (MC, 1/27/02)1695        Jan 27, Mustafa II became the Ottoman sultan in Istanbul on the death of Amhed II. (HN, 1/27/99)1700        Jan 27, A tsunami hit Honshu Island, Japan. It was later estimated that wave was triggered by a 9.0 magnitude earthquake in California. (CW, Spring ”˜99, p.32)1736        Jan 27, Stanislaw Lesheinski gave up the Polish-Lithuanian throne. (LHC, 1/27/03)1756        Jan 27, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (d.1791) was born on Gertreiderstrasse in Salzburg, Austria, the son of violinist and composer Leopold Mozart. He later played string quartets with Johan Baptist Vanhal, Haydn and Dittersdorf. The young Mozart began composing minuets at age 5 and, with his older sister Marianne, gave concerts in Munich and Vienna from age 6. At 13, Mozart became director of concerts for the archbishop of Salzburg and in 1782 he married Constanze Weber against her father’s wishes. Although Mozart gave piano concerts throughout Europe and composed more than 600 works, including 40 symphonies, he and his wife were plagued by debt. When Mozart died in 1791, probably of heart disease, he was buried in an unmarked pauper’s grave. It was not until his works were published, in many cases near the end of the 19th century, that Mozart’s genius became widely recognized. His works included “The Marriage of Figaro” and “The Magic Flute.” In 2005 Stanley Sadie authored “Mozart: The Early Years,” which chronicled Mozart’s life to age 25. (SFEC, 9/8/96, Par p.11) (HNPD, 1/26/99) (HN, 1/27/99)(WSJ, 12/8/05, p.D8)1778        Jan 27, Nicolo Piccinni’s (1728-1800) opera “Roland” premiered in Paris. (WUD, 1994 p.1088) (MC, 1/27/02)1814        Jan 27, Johann Gottlieb Fichte (b.1762), German philosopher, died. (MC, 1/27/02)1823        Jan 27, Edouard-Victoire-Antoine Lalo, French composer (Symphonie Espagnole), was born. (MC, 1/27/02) 1823        Jan 27, Pres. Monroe appointed 1st US ambassadors to South America. (MC, 1/27/02)1825        Jan 27, Congress approved Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma), clearing the way for forced relocation of the Eastern Indians on the “Trail of Tears.” (HN, 1/27/99)1832        Jan 27, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, who wrote “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” under the pen name Lewis Carroll, was born in Cheshire, England. (AP, 1/27/98)1836        Jan 27, Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, Austrian writer (masochism), was born. (MC, 1/27/02)1850        Jan 27, Samuel Gompers, first President of American Federation of Labor, was born. (HN, 1/27/99)1851        Jan 27, John James Audubon (b.1785), wildlife painter and conservationist (Audubon Society), died. He was buried in NYC. In 2004 Duff Hart-Davis authored “Audubon’s Elephant,” an account of his 12 year sojourn to Europe to oversee the production of “Birds of America.” In 2004 William Souder authored “Under a Wild Sky: John James Audubon and the Making of the Birds of America.” In 2004 Richard Rhodes authored “John James Audubon: The Making of an American.” (WSJ, 3/26/04, p.W6) (SSFC, 6/20/04, p.M6) (SSFC, 10/17/04, p.M6) (AH, 10/04, p.75)1859        Jan 27, Kaiser Wilhelm II, German emperor (1888-1918) during World War I, was born. He was forced to abdicate in 1918. (HN, 1/27/99) (MC, 1/27/02)1862        Jan 27, President Abraham Lincoln issued General War Order No. 1, setting in motion the Union armies. (HN, 1/27/99)1880        Jan 27, Thomas Edison received a patent for his electric incandescent lamp. (AP, 1/27/98)1885        Jan 27, Jerome Kern, Broadway composer (Showboat, Roberta), was born in NYC. (MC, 1/27/02)1888        Jan 27, National Geographic Society was founded in Washington, DC. It 1st magazine was published Oct 1, 1888. In 2004 Robert M. Poole authored “Explorers House: National Geographic and the World it Made.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Geographic_Society) (Econ, 10/16/04, p.81)1894        Jan 27, The privately financed Mid-Winter International Exposition opened in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. It featured an Electric Tower, a Fine Arts Building and a Royal Pavilion. The Tennis courts were situated at their current site. It was the result of a campaign led by Michael de Young, founding publisher of the SF Chronicle. The Egyptian-styled fine arts building became the M.H. de Young Memorial Museum. (SFC, 5/19/96,City Guide, p.4) (SFC, 7/29/97, p.A5,6) (SFC, 10/3/97, p.A22) (SFC, 7/4/14, p.C2)1900        Jan 27, Hyman Rickover, American admiral, was born. He is considered the “Father of the Atomic Submarine.” (HN, 1/27/99) 1900        Jan 27, Foreign diplomats in Peking fear revolt and demanded that the Imperial Government discipline the Boxer Rebels. (HN, 1/27/99)1901        Jan 27, Giuseppe Verdi (b.1813), opera composer, died at the Grand Hotel in Milan, Italy, at age 87. In 1993 Mary Jane Phillips-Matz authored “Verdi.” (SFEM, 9/10/00, p.20) (AP, 1/27/01) (WSJ, 4/11/03, p.W7)1904        Jan 27, Willie Vanderbilt (1878-1944) reached 92.3 mph in his new German motorcar at the Daytona Beach Road Course at Ormond Beach, Florida, establishing a new land speed record. He was the 2nd child and first son of William Kissam Vanderbilt and Alva Erskine Smith. (Econ, 12/22/07, p.122) (www.racechase.com/ftopic254.html)1905        Jan 27, Russian General Kuropatkin took the offensive in Manchuria. The Japanese under General Oyama suffered heavy casualties. (HN, 1/27/99)1916        Jan 27, President Woodrow Wilson opened a preparedness program. (HN, 1/27/99)1918        Jan 27, “Tarzan of the Apes,” 1st Tarzan film, premiered at Broadway Theater. Elmo Lincoln, renamed from Otto Elmo Linkenhelter by D.W. Griffiths, was the first Tarzan in the film “Tarzan of the Apes.” (SDUT, 6/6/97, p.E2) (MC, 1/27/02) 1918        Jan 27, Communists attempted to seize power in Finland. (HN, 1/27/99)1922        Jan 27, Elizabeth Cochran (1864-1922), renowned American journalist who had written under the pen name of Nellie Bly, died in NYC. (ON, 6/20/11, p.12) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nellie_Bly)1924        Jan 27, Lenin’s body was laid in a marble tomb on Red Square near the Kremlin. (HN, 1/27/99)1925        Jan 27, Anchorage, Alaska, delivered a diphtheria antitoxin to Nenana. Dr. Curtis Welch in Nome had begun diagnosing cases of diphtheria. An emergency delivery of serum against the disease was arranged by dogsled. 20 mushers rushed the serum 674 miles from Nenana to Nome in 5 days. The last leg of the journey was run by Gunnar Kaasen (1882-1964) and his lead dog Balto (d.1933). An animated film on Balto was made in 1995 by Stephen Spielberg. The longest segment of the journey, 260 miles, was run by Leonhard Seppala and his lead dog Togo. The events were later described by Bill Sherwonit in his book: “Iditarod: the Great Race to Nome.” (SFC, 3/16/98, p.A3) (ON, 11/06, p.1)1926        Jan 27, US Senate agreed to join the World Court. (MC, 1/27/02)1931        Jan 27, Mordecai Richler (d.2001), Montreal author, (Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz), was born. (MC, 1/27/02)1933        Jan 27, Mohamed Al Fayed, CEO of Harrods, was born. (MC, 1/27/02)1934        Jan 27, Julian Ogilvie Thompson, CEO of De Beers, was born. (MC, 1/27/02)1935        Jan 27, The League of Nations majority favored depriving Japan of mandates. (HN, 1/27/99)1936        Jan 27, Merle Johnson Jr. (d.2001), later known as film actor Troy Donohue, was born. (SFC, 9/3/01, p.A15)1937        Jan 27, The Ohio River crested at 57.1 feet, almost thirty feet above flood stage. The flood of 1937 took place in late January and February. Damage stretching from Pittsburgh to Cairo, Illinois. One million persons were left homeless, with 385 dead and property losses reaching $500 million. The Mississippi River crested at 14.8 meters. Flooding left 37 people dead in Arkansas. In 2010 Patrick O’Daniel authored “Memphis and the Superflood of 1937: High Water Blues.” (http://tinyurl.com/43h4l54) (http://tinyurl.com/3g4qcdg)1939        Jan 27, President Franklin D. Roosevelt approved the sale of U.S. war planes to France. (HN, 1/27/99)1941        Jan 27, The United States and Great Britain began high-level military talks in Washington. (HN, 1/27/99)1943        Jan 27, Some 50 bombers struck Wilhelmshaven and Emden in the first all-American air raid against Germany during World War II. (AP, 1/27/98) (HN, 1/27/99)1944        Jan 27, The Soviet Union announced the end of the deadly German siege of Leningrad, which had lasted 880 days with 600,000 killed. (AP, 1/27/98) (MC, 1/27/02)1945        Jan 27, US Master Sgt. Roddie Edmonds (d.1985), one of around 1,000 soldiers taken to the Stalag IXA camp Ziegenhain, Germany, after the Battle of the Bulge, ordered his men to refuse Nazi instruction to separate out Jewish soldiers: “We are all Jews here.” (http://tinyurl.com/z5vyyrz) (SFC, 12/3/15, p.A7) 1945        Jan 27, The Soviet army arrived at Auschwitz and Birkenau in Poland, and found the Nazi concentration camp and crematorium. It is now believed that 1 million Jews were murdered here, up to 75,000 Polish Christians, 21,000 Gypsies, and 15,000 Soviet POWs. (www.krakow-info.com/auschwit.htm) (http://tinyurl.com/aqhbc)1947        Jan 27, Britain agreed to give Burma independence following negotiations with nationalist leader Aung San. (SFC, 5/7/02, p.A9) (www.myanmar.gov.mm/Perspective/persp2001/2-2001/uni.htm)1948        Jan 27, Mikhail Baryshnikov, ballet dancer, was born in Riga, Latvia. (MC, 1/27/02) 1948        Jan 27, The 1st tape recorder sold. (MC, 1/27/02)1951        Jan 27, “Peter Pan” closed at Imperial Theater NYC after 320 performances. (MC, 1/27/02) 1951        Jan 27, Atomic testing began in the Nevada desert as an Air Force B-50D from a base in New Mexico dropped a one-kiloton nuclear bomb on Frenchman Flats, Clark County, 65 miles NW of Las Vegas. Over the next 40 years 928 nuclear devices were exploded at the site. (AP, 1/27/98) (WSJ, 4/12/05, p.D8) (www.ntshf.org)1956        Jan 27, Elvis Presley’s “Heartbreak Hotel” and “I Was the One” was released by RCA. It sold over 300,000 copies in its first three weeks on the market. (Internet)1959        Jan 27, NASA selected 110 candidates for the first U.S. space flight. (HN, 1/27/99) 1959        Jan 27, Aldous Huxley (64), British author of Brave New World (1932), attended a conference at the Univ. of California Medical school and warned that manipulation of personality by drugs is already here. (SSFC, 1/25/09, DB p.50)1961        Jan 27, Mitch Miller (1911-2010) debuted his TV show, “Sing Along With Mitch.” It continued to 1964. (SFC, 8/3/10, p.C3)(www.imdb.com/title/tt0054564/)1962        Jan 27, The SF Bay Area hosted the Chubby Checker Twist Party at the Cow Palace. 17,000 fans made it the 1st big rock concert in Bay Area history. (SFC, 1/26/02, p.D1)1964        Jan 27, In San Francisco the California Meat Co. and its 50 butchers moved from its 2-story building at Montgomery and merchant to a modern building at 750 Brannan. (SSFC, 1/26/14, DB p.42)1965        Jan 27, Military leaders ousted the civilian government of Tran Van Huong in Saigon, South Vietnam. (HN, 1/27/99)1967        Jan 27, During a launch pad test of the Apollo I (AS-204) mission at Cape Kennedy, a flash fire suddenly broke out in the vehicle’s command module and killed its crew, Lt. Col. Edward White (36), II, U.S. Air Force, Lt. Col. Virgil “Gus” Grissom (40), U.S. Air Force, and Lt. Cmdr. Roger Chaffee (31), U.S. Navy. The fire consumed the command module mere seconds after the crew had reported it. Although the Apollo I test ended in tragedy, subsequent modifications to safety and planning contributed to the success of later Apollo missions–including the first landing on the moon and the first time a man walked on the moon. (AP, 1/27/98)(HNPD, 1/27/99) 1967        Jan 27, The US signed the Outer Space Treaty with Russia. More than 60 nations signed a treaty banning the orbiting of nuclear weapons. All weapons of mass destruction were banned from orbit, as was military activity on the moon and other celestial bodies. (SFC, 1/28/67, p.A1)(AP, 1/27/98)(SSFC, 7/15/07, p.D1)1969        Jan 27, Transamerica Corp., under the leadership of John Beckett (1918-2010), announced its wish to build a 1,000-foot tower in San Francisco. Work on the 48-floor Pyramid, designed by architect William Pereira, began in December, 1969. The 853-foot tower was completed in 1972. (SSFC, 12/27/09, p.A19)(SFC, 6/28/10, p.C4)(http://tinyurl.com/2acu688) 1969        Jan 27, Byron Vaughn Booth and fellow convict Clinton Robert Smith, also a robber, escaped from the California Institution for Men at Chino. The next day they bought a ticket for a flight from Los Angeles to Miami with a connection in New Orleans. National Airlines Flight 64 was hijacked over the Gulf of Mexico after the plane left New Orleans. The plane ended up landing at Camaguey, Cuba, where Cuban officials removed the hijackers. The flight continued on to Miami. Booth was arrested in Nigeria in 2001 and returned to the US. (SFC, 2/24/01, p.C14)(http://articles.latimes.com/2001/may/17/local/me-64627) 1969        Jan 27, In Iraq 14 people, including 9 Jews, were hanged for alleged espionage. (http://tinyurl.com/5u75cx)1970        Jan 27, Movie rating system modified “M” rating to “PG.” (www.thedeal.com/dealscape/2006/01/)1972        Jan 27, Mahalia Jackson (b.1911), Grammy Award winning gospel singer, died. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahalia_Jackson)1973        Jan 27, The US Selective Service announced that there would be no further draft calls. (http://tinyurl.com/h5gf943) 1973        Jan 27, The Paris Agreement froze the status quo on the ground in South Vietnam. The agreement by the United States and North Vietnam included a ban on infiltration of arms or personnel to reinforce North Vietnamese troops in the South, as well as a ban on the use of Laotian or Cambodian territory for that purpose. The Paris Agreement provided for continued US supply of the army of the Republic of Vietnam. Peace Accords were signed in Paris over events in Vietnam. (WSJ, 2/5/96, p.A-19)(WSJ, 11/30/95, p.A-23)(HN, 1/27/99) 1973        Jan 27, Lt. Col. William B. Nolde was killed, the last American soldier to die in combat in Vietnam. (www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/vietnam/index-1969.html)1974        Jan 27, Pavel Rafalovich Bermon(d)t-Avalov, (b.1877 in Tbilisi), died in New York. He was an Ussuri Cossack and warlord. He adopted his second surname Avalov after his adoptive father, Georgian prince Mikhail Avalishvili. At the end of WWI he was appointed to lead the German-established Russian army (subsequently frequently known after his name as “the Bermontians”) which was meant to go to fight the Bolsheviks in the Russian Civil War, but, believing that communists would be defeated without his help, he decided to strike against the newly independent nations of Lithuania and Latvia instead. The Bermontians managed to capture a large part of Samogitia and western Latvia and entered Riga, but later were defeated by the Lithuanian and Latvian armies, with the help of the Estonian forces. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pavel_Bermondt-Avalov)1975        Jan 27, The US Senate voted to establish a special 11-member investigating body to examine FBI and CIA activities. Under the chairmanship of Idaho Senator Frank Church, with Texas Senator John Tower as vice-chairman, the select committee was given nine months and 150 staffers to complete its work. On November 20 the committee released a report, charging both US government agencies with illegal activities. (http://tinyurl.com/2tb7rc)(http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Church_Committee)1976        Jan 27, “Laverne & Shirley,” a spin-off from “Happy Days,” premiered on ABC TV. It starred Penny Marshall as Laverne De Fazio and Cindy Williams as Shirley Feeney. The show ran to 1983. (SFC, 7/21/99, p.C3)(www.imdb.com/title/tt0074016/)1977        Jan 27, The Vatican reaffirmed the Roman Catholic Church’s ban on female priests. (AP, 1/27/98)1978        Jan 27, The State Supreme Court ruled that Nazis can display the Swastika in a march in Skokie, Illinois. (HN, 1/27/99)1981        Jan 27, President Reagan greeted the 52 former American hostages released by Iran, telling them during a visit to the White House: “Welcome home.” (AP, 1/27/98) 1981        Jan 27, The Indonesian passenger ship Tamponas II caught fire and sank in Java sea killing 580 people. (AP, 2/3/06)1982        Jan 27, “Joseph & the Amazing Dreamcoat” opened at Royale NYC for 747 performances. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_and_the_Amazing_Technicolor_Dreamcoat)1985        Jan 27, A secret three-day military-satellite mission of the space shuttle Discovery ended with a smooth landing in Florida. (AP, 1/27/05) 1985        Jan 27, Pope John Paul said mass to one million in Venezuela. (HN, 1/27/99)1988        Jan 27, The US Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously approved the nomination of Judge Anthony M. Kennedy to the Supreme Court. (AP, 1/27/98)1989        Jan 27, President Bush held an informal White House news conference in which he defended a widely criticized pay raise for Congress scheduled to go into effect the following month. (AP, 1/27/99)1990        Jan 27, In Romania, four top associates of executed dictator Nicolae Ceausescu went on trial, charged with abetting genocide. (AP, 1/27/00)1991        Jan 27, The New York Giants defeated the Buffalo Bills, 20-to-19, in Super Bowl XXV, which was played amid extra-tight security at Tampa Stadium in Florida, because of fears of possible Iraqi-sponsored terrorism. (AP, 1/27/01) 1991        Jan 27, Muhammad Siad Barre, the dictator of the Somali Democratic Republic since 1969, fled Mogadishu as rebels overran his palace and captured the Somali capital. Dictator Siad Barre was ousted and power fractured into some 27 warring sides and Ali Mahdi Mohamed declared himself president. (SFC, 11/18/97, p.B2)(www.empereur.com/somalia1991.html)1992        Jan 27, Democratic presidential candidate Bill Clinton and Gennifer Flowers accused each other of lying in a renewed dispute over her assertion that they’d had a 12-year affair. (AP, 1/27/02) 1992        Jan 27, Boxer Mike Tyson went on trial for rape. On Feb 10 he was found guilty. (http://slam.canoe.ca/BoxingTysonHolyfield/tyson_chronology.html) 1992        Jan 27, Aileen Wuornos, a Florida prostitute, was convicted of slaying the first of seven men she’d admitted killing, claiming self-defense. (AP, 1/27/02) 1992        Jan 27, Pres. Mugabe’s wife, Sally (b.1932), died. Some dated the collapse of Zimbabwe and Mugabe’s misrule to her death. (Econ, 3/31/07, p.28)1993        Jan 27, The Commerce Department imposed temporary tariffs on steel imports from 19 countries, drawing sharp criticism from some of the affected nations. (AP, 1/27/98)1994        Jan 27, The US Senate passed a non-binding resolution, 62-38, calling on the Clinton administration to lift the U.S. trade embargo against Vietnam. (AP, 1/27/04) 1994        Jan 27, Figure skater Tonya Harding appeared before reporters in Portland, Ore., to say that while she’d had no prior knowledge of the attack on her rival, Nancy Kerrigan, she had failed to report what she’d learned afterward. (AP, 1/27/99)1995        Jan 27, About 5,000 mourners gathered at the site of the Nazi death camp Auschwitz to commemorate the 50th anniversary of its liberation. (AP, 1/27/00)1996        Jan 27, A man invaded a convent in Waterville, Maine, stabbing and beating four nuns, killing two of them with two others injured, including one left in a coma. Mark Bechard was later found not criminally responsible because of mental illness. Bechard, a mentally ill man who dreamed of becoming a Catholic priest burst through the doors of the chapel of Servants of the Blessed Sacrament, went on a rampage, stabbing and stomping elderly nuns. (AP, 1/27/01)(AP, 1/26/06) 1996         Jan 27, France detonated its sixth and most powerful nuclear bomb. In 1998 the Int’l. Atomic Energy Agency confirmed that the test sites in the South Pacific would be contaminated for centuries. Plutonium particles were scattered in the sediment of the lagoons at Mururoa and Fangatoufa. (WSJ, 1/30/96, p.A-16)(SFC, 6/27/98, p.A7) 1996        Jan 27, Germany commemorated the 1st Holocaust Remembrance Day. (http://tinyurl.com/a6sfj) 1996         Jan, 27 In Niger coup leaders named the armed forces chief president after seizing power. Ten people died, political parties were outlawed and the constitution was suspended. Gen’l. Ibrahim Bare Mainassara seized power. (WSJ, 1/29/96, p. A-1)(WSJ, 1/2/98, p.8)1997        Jan 27, Little Richard was scheduled to receive the Award of Merit at the 24th annual American Music Awards. His hits included “Tutti Frutti,” “Good Golly Miss Molly,” and “Long Tall Sally.” (SFC, 1/3/97, p.C7) 1997        Jan 27, Israeli soldiers removed 45 Bedouin families of the Jahalin Bedouin tribe from land east of Jerusalem that they had occupied for decades due to the expansion of the Maale Adumim Jewish settlement. (SFC, 1/28/97, p.A8) 1997        Jan 27, In Mexico police arrested Benigno Guzman, president of the Peasant Organization of the Southern Sierra, an anti-government alliance of poor farmers near Acapulco on charges of belonging to the EPR guerrilla group. (SFC, 1/28/97, p.A8) 1997        Jan 27, The Swiss ambassador to the US, Carlo Jagmetti, resigned after remarks against groups that represented Holocaust victims seeking recompense from Swiss banks by likening his country’s Nazi gold crisis to a war that had to be won. (SFC, 1/28/97, p.A6) (AP, 1/27/98)1998        Jan 27, Shaken by scandal, Pres. Clinton made his State of the Union address and proposed bolstering Social Security with the current surplus, improving schools by reducing class size and building more, raising the minimum wage, and making child care more available for low-income families before cutting taxes or increasing spending. He also issued a warning to Sadam Hussein of Iraq and asked Congress to support NATO expansion. Earlier in the day, First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, appearing on NBC’s “Today” show, charged the allegations against her husband were the work of a “vast right-wing conspiracy.” (SFC, 1/28/98, p.A1)(AP, 1/27/99) 1998        Jan 27, The UN named Gro Harlem Brundtland, the former prime minister of Norway as the head of the World Health Organization (WHO). (SFC, 1/28/98, p.A6) 1998        Jan 27, In Britain poet laureate Ted Hughes won the $33,000 Whitbread Book of the Year award for his “Tales of Ovid.” (SFC, 1/28/98, p.E6) 1998        Jan 27, The Chinese lunar year of 4696, the year of the tiger, began. According to ancient legend the count began when Buddha called all the animals of the world and promised to name a year after each one in exchange for eternal loyalty and obeisance. Only 12 answered the call in the following order: rat, ox, tiger, hare, dragon, serpent, horse, ram, monkey, rooster, dog, and bear. (SFC, 1/27/98, p.A19)(SFC, 1/28/98, p.A16) 1998        Jan 27, In Japan Hiroshi Mitsuzuka, the finance minister, announced that he will resign following the arrests of 2 senior officials on bribery charges. (SFC, 1/28/98, p.A6) 1998        Jan 27, In Sierra Leone fighting broke out between junta troops and Nigerian peacekeepers trying to restore Pres. Kabbah. (WSJ, 1/28/98, p.A1) 1998        Jan 27, The UN Security Council approved a 3-month extension for peacekeeping operations in Angola. (WSJ, 1/28/98, p.A1)1999        Jan 27, The Clinton administration announced a plan to end fighting in Kosovo. It called for NATO air strikes if autonomy to the region is not accepted by Pres. Milosevic. (SFC, 1/28/99, p.A12) 1999        Jan 27, In 2 votes the Senate voted along party lines, 56-44, to reject a Democratic proposal to dismiss the impeachment case against Pres. Clinton and to subpoena 3 witnesses including Monica Lewinsky. Wisconsin Democrat Feingold made the only crossover vote. (SFC, 1/28/99, p.A1)(WSJ, 1/28/99, p.A1) 1999        Jan 27, Over 100,000 people gathered at the Trans World Dome in St. Louis to see Pope John Paul II. (SFC, 1/28/99, p.A3) 1999        Jan 27, Angola admitted that UNITA rebels had taken the northern city of Mbanza Congo. (WSJ, 1/28/99, p.A1) 1999        Jan 27, In Colombia the death toll from the Jan 25 earthquake went up to 878 with over 3,400 injured and survivors began looting markets for food. (SFC, 1/28/99, p.A12) 1999        Jan 27, In Indonesia legislators announced that independence for East Timor would be considered. Also Chief Xanana Gusmao was to be released from prison but kept in confinement. (SFC, 1/28/99, p.C3) 1999        Jan 27, In Japan the Health Ministry approved Viagra in 6 months but still held back approval for the birth control pill, which has been waiting 9 years. (SFC, 2/11/99, p.A16) 1999        Jan 27, From Japan it was reported that thousands of fans welcomed back a hitchhiking duo who traveled from the Cape of Good Hope to a lighthouse in Norway along with a TV cameraman. The exploits began in 1998 and were aired weekly on the show “Susunu.” (WSJ, 1/27/99, p.A1) 1999        Jan 27, In Mexico Jorge Aguirre Meza (39), president of the Sinaloa state bar and a human rights activist, was shot to death in Novalato. (SFC, 1/30/99, p.A14) 1999        Jan 27, In Northern Ireland Eamon Collins, author of the 1997 book “Killing Rage,” was found beaten to death near Newry. He had been the IRAs intelligence officer from 1980-1985 and offended his associates with the book. (SFC, 1/28/99, p.C4)2000        Jan 27, Pres. Clinton gave his last State of the Union address. His proposals included a $250 billion tax cut; tough gun control measures; expanded tax breaks for vaccine development; new education spending; and approval of the China WTO accord. Clinton proposed a $350 billion tax cut, big spending increases for schools and health care and photo ID licenses for handgun purchases in his final State of the Union address. (WSJ, 1/28/00, p.A1,3)(AP, 1/27/01) 2000        Jan 27, The US and China agreed to resume normal military ties. (SFC, 1/28/00, p.D2) 2000        Jan 27, In Ecuador hundreds of military officers were arrested or detained for their role in toppling Pres. Mahuad. Gustavo Noboa named a finance chief who would press to make dollars the country’s currency. (WSJ, 1/28/00, p.A1) 2000        Jan 27, In Egypt a new law which expanded women’s right to divorce passed the People’s Assembly. Travel freedoms were excised at the last minute. (SFC, 1/28/00, p.A15)(SFC, 9/28/01, p.D3) 2000        Jan 27, In Iraq the execution of 26 political prisoners at the Abu Gharib prison reportedly took place. Another 13 political detainees were later reported to have died there in the last 2 months from torture neglect and malnutrition. (SFC, 2/19/00, p.C1) 2000        Jan 27, In Sri Lanka a parcel bomb exploded in a post office and killed at least 11 people in Tamil-dominated Vavuniya. 73 people were injured and Tamil rebels were blamed. (SFC, 1/28/00, p.A15)2001        Jan 27, Jennifer Capriati upset three-time winner Martina Hingis 6-4, 6-3 to win the Australian Open title and her first Grand Slam tournament championship. (AP, 1/27/02) 2001        Jan 27, Lynn Swann and Ron Yary were both elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame on in their 14th year of eligibility. (AP, 1/27/02) 2001        Jan 27, Bill Gates pledged $100 million for an AIDS vaccine. (SSFC, 1/28/01, p.A18) 2001        Jan 27, In New Hampshire 2 Dartmouth professors, Half and Susanne Zantop, were found slain. James Parker 16) and Robert Tulloch (17), suspects in the murder, were arrested in Indiana Feb 19. Parker pleaded guilty in 2001 and agreed to testify against Tulloch. Parker pleaded guilty to being an accomplice to second-degree murder and is serving a sentence of 25 years to life. Tuloch pleaded guilty in 2002 to murder and conspiracy and is serving a sentence of life without parole. (SFC, 2/20/01, p.A1)(SFC, 12/8/01, p.A7)(SFC, 4/2/02, p.A4)(AP, 1/27/06) 2001        Jan 27, A small plane crashed south of Denver and 10 people were killed including passengers associated with the Oklahoma State Univ. basketball team. (SSFC, 1/28/01, p.A13)(AP, 1/27/02) 2001        Jan 27, In Switzerland riot police prevented some 1,000 protestors from reaching the World Economic Forum at Davos. (SFC, 1/29/01, p.A14) 2001        Jan 27, The Iran Republic news Agency reported that 3 intelligence agents were sentenced to death and 12 others to life in prison for their roles in murdering dissident writers and intellectuals. (SSFC, 1/28/01, p.A22) 2001        Jan 27, Israel and Palestine ended 6 days of talks in Egypt. They failed to reach a peace accord but declared that they were never closer. (SSFC, 1/28/01, p.A18)2002        Jan 27, The Feb 3 Super Bowl matchup was decided as the New England Patriots upset the Pittsburgh Steelers, 24-to-17, to win the AFC championship and the St. Louis Rams defeated the Philadelphia Eagles, 29-to-24, to win the NFC championship. (WSJ, 1/28/02, p.A1)(AP, 1/27/03) 2002        Jan 27, Thomas Johansson defeated Marat Safin 3-6, 6-4, 6-4, 7-6 (4) to win the Australian Open final. (AP, 1/27/03) 2002        Jan 27, Vice Pres. Dick Cheney said he would not release Enron related energy task force documents from last year’s meetings. Cheney and Rumsfeld said al Qaeda prisoner status at Guantanamo Bay would not change to POW. (SFC, 1/28/02, p.A1) 2002        Jan 27, Hamid Karzai, interim Afghan leader, began a visit to the US and asked Afghan Americans to return and help with reconstruction. (SFC, 1/28/02, p.A1) 2002        Jan 27, Honduras restored diplomatic ties with Cuba just before Ricardo Maduro took office. (WSJ, 1/28/02, p.A1) 2002        Jan 27, Iran’s Pres. Khatami met with Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri in Tehran as part of an effort to restore ties. (SFC, 2/1/02, p.A18) 2002        Jan 27, Iraq admitted an int’l. nuclear-inspection team (IAEA) on a 4-day mission to a site near Baghdad. (WSJ, 1/28/02, p.A1) 2002        Jan 27, In Nigeria explosions at the Ikeja military base rocked Lagos. Over 1,000 people died when they fled the area and drowned in Oke Afa drainage canal. Deaths from panic later rose to 600 and then 1,000-2,000. (SFC, 1/29/02, p.A5)(SFC, 1/30/02, p.A9)(SFC, 1/31/02, p.A9)(SSFC, 2/3/02, p.A17)(AP, 1/27/03) 2002        Jan 27, A Palestinian woman, Wafa Idris (28), exploded herself on Jaffa St. in Jerusalem and killed an Israeli man (81). Over 150 others were injured. (SFC, 1/28/02, p.A1)(SFC, 1/31/02, p.A8)(AP, 1/27/03) 2002        Jan 27, A Russian military helicopter crashed in Chechnya and all 14 aboard were killed including generals. (SFC, 1/28/02, p.A7)(WSJ, 1/28/02, p.A1) 2002        Jan 27, In Uzbekistan a referendum, largely regarded as rigged, extended Pres. Islam Karimov’s term to 7 years from 5. (WSJ, 5/13/02, p.A13)(AP, 3/30/04)2003        Jan 27, The Bush administration moved toward a military showdown with Iraq and suggested a decision could come as early as next week after U.N. inspectors credited Iraq with only limited cooperation in the search for weapons. (AP, 1/27/03)(SFC, 1/28/03, p.A1) 2003        Jan 27, In Florida over 800 doctors staged a brief walkout to protest rising malpractice insurance costs. (WSJ, 1/28/03, p.A1) 2003        Jan 27, A head-on train collision between French and Italian passenger trains killed two people. It appeared to be the result of human error. (AP, 1/28/03) 2003        Jan 27, India and Pakistan resumed shelling along the Kashmir border, and New Delhi warned Pakistan it would be “erased from the world map” if Islamabad used nuclear weapons against India. (AP, 1/28/03)2003        Jan 27, The Bush administration moved toward a military showdown with Iraq and suggested a decision could come as early as next week after UN inspectors credited Iraq with only limited cooperation in the search for weapons. Meanwhile, chief U.N. inspector Hans Blix charged that Iraq had never genuinely accepted U.N. resolutions demanding its disarmament and warned that “cooperation on substance” was necessary for a peaceful solution. (AP, 1/27/03)(SFC, 1/28/03, p.A1) 2003        Jan 27, In Florida over 800 doctors staged a brief walkout to protest rising malpractice insurance costs. (WSJ, 1/28/03, p.A1) 2003        Jan 27, A head-on train collision between French and Italian passenger trains killed two people. It appeared to be the result of human error. (AP, 1/28/03) 2003        Jan 27, India and Pakistan resumed shelling along the Kashmir border, and New Delhi warned Pakistan it would be “erased from the world map” if Islamabad used nuclear weapons against India. (AP, 1/28/03)2004        Jan 27, In New Hampshire John Kerry won the Democratic presidential primary with 39% of the vote. Howard Dean, Wesley Clark, John Edwards and Joe Lieberman followed with 26, 12, 12, and 9%. (SFC, 1/28/04, p.A1) 2004        Jan 27, The case against Martha Stewart (62) began in NYC. Prosecutors alleged that Stewart intended to commit securities fraud in her Dec 21, 2001, sale of ImClone Systems shares. She was convicted the following March and sentenced to five months in prison. (SFC, 2/28/04, p.A3)(AP, 1/27/05) 2004        Jan 27, A new Windows computer virus, a self-propagating worm known as Mydoom or Novarg, continued to spread over the Internet. (SFC, 1/28/04, p.B1) 2004        Jan 27, Jack Paar (85), TV host, died in Greenwich, Conn. The “Jack Paar Tonight Show” ran from 1957-1965 and “The Jack Paar Program” ran from 1962-1965. His 1960 memoir was titled “I Kid You Not,” which was also his signature line. (SFC, 1/28/04, p.A2) 2004        Jan 27, Global health officials listed 6 countries with confirmed cases of H5N1 avian flu. These included Cambodia, China, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, and Vietnam. (WSJ, 1/28/04, p.A1) 2004        Jan 27, In Afghanistan a Taliban suicide bomber struck a convoy of the NATO-led security force in the capital, killing a Canadian soldier and an Afghan civilian. (AP, 1/27/04) 2004        Jan 27, In Chechnya at least 8 Russian servicemen were killed and 16 others wounded in the latest rebel raids and land mine explosions. (AP, 1/28/04) 2004        Jan 27, Wartime Croatian Serb leader Milan Babic (1991-1992) pleaded guilty to persecution in a plan to ethnically cleanse parts of Croatia of non-Serbs at the outset of the Balkan wars, and expressed “a deep sense of shame” for his crimes. Babic was sentenced to 13 years in prison. (AP, 1/27/04)(WSJ, 6/30/04, p.A1) 2004        Jan 27, Roadside bombs killed 6 US soldiers in 2 blasts outside Baghdad. 2 CNN employees were killed in an ambush as their crew returned to Baghdad from southern Iraq. (AP, 1/27/04)(SFC, 1/28/04, p.A9) 2004        Jan 27, In central Iraq US soldiers killed 3 members of a suspected guerrilla cell linked to the former Baathist regime. (AP, 1/27/04) 2004        Jan 27, In Malaysia an Iranian asylum seeker set himself on fire in an apparent suicide attempt outside the Kuala Lumpur headquarters of the UN refugee agency. (AP, 1/27/04) 2004        Jan 27, Mexican Army troops arrested Javier Torres Felix, an alleged leader of one of the largest drug trafficking organizations in western Mexico. (AP, 1/28/04) 2004        Jan 27, Mexican authorities in Ciudad Juarez said at least 11 bodies were found at a house that had been occupied by alleged drug lord Humberto Santillan Tabares. (ST, 1/28/04, p.A8)2005        Jan 27, Condoleezza Rice, in her first day as Secretary of State, reached out to European allies and partners in the war on terrorism and echoed President Bush’s inaugural charge to promote liberty across the globe. (AP, 1/27/06) 2005        Jan 27, P&G announced a $55 billion deal to buy Gillette Corp. (SFC, 1/28/05, p.C1) 2005        Jan 27, An Afghan soldier opened fire inside a US base and killed 5 of his comrades. (SFC, 1/28/05, p.A3) 2005        Jan 27, In northeastern Bangladesh a bomb exploded at an opposition rally, killing two people and wounding at least 30. (Reuters, 1/27/05) 2005        Jan 27, Egypt admitted to failing to signal a “number of research experiments” to the IAEA, after diplomats said the agency was investigating an Egyptian lab that could be used to make plutonium, a nuclear weapons material. (AFP, 2/14/05) 2005        Jan 27, In Poland frail survivors and humbled world leaders remembered the victims of the Holocaust as they marked the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi death camp Auschwitz. (AP, 1/27/06) 2005        Jan 27, India has decided to open the main airport in disputed Kashmir to international flights to draw more tourists to the scenic Himalayan region. (Reuters, 1/27/05) 2005        Jan 27, Indonesian Pres. Yudhoyono rebels in Aceh amnesty and greater autonomy in exchange for a cease-fire on the eve of new peace talks I Helsinki. Japanese troops arrived in Aceh to take over aid tasks from US forces. (SFC, 1/28/05, p.A10)(WSJ, 1/28/05, p.A1) 2005        Jan 27, Eleven Iraqis and one US Marine were killed as insurgents clashed with US troops and blew up a school slated to serve as a polling center. Authorities found the bodies of four Iraqi National Guardsmen who had been shot dead in Ramadi, capital of the troubled Anbar province. (AP, 1/27/05)(AP, 1/28/05) 2005        Jan 27, It was reported that Japan’s trade with China in 2004 exceeded its trade with the US for the 1st time. This included figures for Hong Kong. (WSJ, 1/27/05, p.A10) 2005        Jan 27, Jordan’s King Abdullah II said he would introduce some limited democratic reforms in his kingdom. (AP, 1/27/05) 2005        Jan 27, Pakistani police arrested 23 Afghans in raids in the border city of Quetta on suspicion of links with Taliban and Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida network. (AP, 1/28/05) 2005        Jan 27, The Palestinian leadership banned civilians from carrying weapons, its latest step aimed at reigning in militant violence. (AP, 1/27/05) 2005        Jan 27, In southern Russia hundreds of police and soldiers stormed an apartment building in Nalchik, the regional capital of the province of Kabardino-Balkariya, killing seven suspected Islamic extremists linked to Chechen rebels after a two-day standoff. (AP, 1/27/05)(Econ, 2/12/05, p.21) 2005        Jan 27, Taiwan formally severed ties with Grenada after accusing the tiny Caribbean island of trying to exploit the rivalry between China and Taiwan to get more financial aid. (AP, 1/27/05)2006        Jan 27, A US government report said economic growth slowed sharply in the fourth quarter to the weakest pace in three years as consumers spent less robustly, growth in home building eased and businesses were less eager to boost investments. (AP, 1/27/06) 2006        Jan 27, Lawmakers in Washington state passed a gay rights bill and Gov. Chris Gregoire said she will sign it on Jan 31. (SFC, 1/28/06, p.A3) 2006        Jan 27, Police in Houston, Texas, said they had arrested 8 gang members from New Orleans as suspects in 11 slayings. (SFC, 1/28/06, p.A3) 2006        Jan 27, The first inhalable version of insulin, “Exubera,” won federal approval. (AP, 1/27/07) 2006        Jan 27, Microsoft Corp’s founder Bill Gates in Davos, Switzerland, pledged $900 million to fight tuberculosis, kick-starting a $31 billion funding drive against a disease which kills one person every 15 seconds. (AP, 1/27/06) 2006        Jan 27, Western Union delivered its last telegram. (AP, 1/27/07) 2006        Jan 27, Belgium’s food safety agency closed 96 pig and chicken farms as it traced the source of dioxins found by a Dutch firm last week back to a vat of Belgian pork fat. (AP, 1/30/06) 2006        Jan 27, Bolivia’s Pres. Evo Morales cut his salary by more than half and declared no Cabinet minister can collect a higher wage than his own, with the savings to be used to hire more public school teachers. (AP, 1/27/06) 2006        Jan 27, In Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, a sudden flood caused by heavy rains killed at least four people in the underground parking garage of a shopping mall. (AP, 1/28/06) 2006        Jan 27, British port operator Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co. switched prospective suitors for the second time after Dubai Ports World raised its offer for the company to almost $7 billion, trumping an offer from Singapore’s PSA International Ltd. (AP, 1/27/06) 2006        Jan 27, Christopher Lloyd (84), iconoclastic English gardener, died. (Econ, 2/4/06, p.78) 2006        Jan 27, Five Caribbean islands held their last parliamentary elections as members of a unified Netherlands Antilles. Curacao, St. Maarten, Bonaire, Saba and St. Eustatius have set a target date of July 1, 2007 for breaking off to form their own governments. (AP, 1/27/06) 2006        Jan 27, China’s biggest lender, state-owned Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, signed a $3.78 billion investment deal with Goldman Sachs Group Inc., American Express Co. and Germany’s Allianz AG. (AP, 1/27/06) 2006        Jan 27, Mittal Steel, the world’s biggest steel producer, launched a takeover bid worth 18.6 billion euros (22.7 billion dollars) for European group Arcelor in an ambitious attempt to create a dominant global giant. (AP, 1/27/06) 2006        Jan 27, Georgia’s president said that Iran had agreed to start providing emergency gas supplies to the Caucasus mountain nation as early as this weekend, signaling an end to an energy crisis made worse by an extreme cold snap. (AP, 1/27/06) 2006        Jan 27, Johannes Rau (75), former German president (1999-2004), died. He urged his country to open up to foreigners and promoted deeper ties with Israel. (AP, 1/27/06) 2006        Jan 27, Three French citizens and a Haitian who were kidnapped near a volatile slum outside of the capital were released unharmed. (AP, 1/27/06) 2006        Jan 27, It was reported that one of every two German oak trees was sick due to pollution and global warming. (www.dawn.com/2006/01/27/int14.htm) 2006        Jan 27, In Honduras Manuel Zelaya was inaugurated as the new president. He promised to fight corruption and help criminal and gang members become useful citizens. (AP, 1/27/06) 2006        Jan 27, Basra’s governor threatened to stop dealing with British forces unless they release several Iraqis detained this week, including policemen suspected of links to local killings and kidnappings. Iraqi special forces backed by US troops raided houses in Baghdad and detained 60 suspected insurgents. (AP, 1/27/06)(WSJ, 1/28/06, p.A1) 2006        Jan 27, Libya said it is heading toward allowing private newspapers, radio and television news in what has been a state-controlled media environment for more than 30 years. (AFP, 1/27/06) 2006        Jan 27, Malaysian dissident politician Anwar Ibrahim sued former PM Mahathir Mohamad for defamation after Mahathir refused to apologize for calling him a homosexual. (AP, 1/27/06) 2006        Jan 27, Angel Hidalgo Espinosa, the leader of a farmers’ group in Mexico’s southern Chiapas state, was convicted in the 2001 slayings of 8 peasants and sentenced to 37 years in prison. (AP, 1/27/06) 2006        Jan 27, In Mexico authorities got into a shootout with drug traffickers in Acapulco and at least 4 people were killed. (SFC, 1/28/06, p.A6) 2006        Jan 27-2006 Jan 28, In Nepal 11 Maoist rebels fighting to overthrow the monarchy and two soldiers were killed in a battle in the eastern part of the kingdom. (AP, 1/28/06) 2006        Jan 27, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas asked Hamas to form a new government after his vanquished Fatah Party rejected a role in the Cabinet and Israel ruled out peace talks. In the wake of Hamas’ triumph in Palestinian parliamentary elections, thousands of outraged Fatah supporters burned cars and fired in the air across the Gaza Strip. (AP, 1/27/06)(AP, 1/27/07) 2006        Jan 27, A Panamanian ship collided with two other vessels near the Peruvian port of Callao, splitting in two and leaving one sailor missing. (AP, 1/27/06) 2006        Jan 27, The UN said killings, rapes and indiscriminate attacks on civilians continue in Darfur, accusing Sudanese soldiers of apparently coordinating with armed militia in terrorizing the troubled region. (AP, 1/27/06)2007        Jan 27, Sundance Film Festival’s grand-jury prize for best US drama went to “Padre Nuestro,” an immigrant saga about a Mexican teen’s heartbreaking search for his father in America. (AP, 1/28/07) 2007        Jan 27, In Washington DC tens of thousands converged on the National Mall to oppose Pres. Bush’s plan for a troop increase in Iraq. Thousands marched in San Francisco. (SSFC, 1/28/07, p.A15) 2007        Jan 27, In Oregon the new $57 million Portland Aerial Tram officially began operations. Two 78-passenger cabins carried commuters from the Banks of the Willamette to the campus of the Oregon Health and Sciences Univ. on Marquam Hill. (SFC, 1/29/07, p.A4) 2007        Jan 27, In China a gas explosion in the Yile Coal Mine in the southern town of Shuitang in Guizhou province killed at least 15 miners. (AP, 1/29/07) 2007        Jan 27, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon held up Congo’s first elections in 46 years as a sign of hope for the rest of Africa, praising the country’s fragile democracy on his first tour of the continent. (AP, 1/27/07) 2007        Jan 27, Two car bombs in quick succession struck a market in a mainly Shiite district in Baghdad, killing at least 13 people and wounding more than 40. US airstrikes killed 14 terror suspects and destroyed a safe house for foreign fighters during a raid south of Baqouba that also led to the capture of two other suspects. At least one rocket struck Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone, and two people suffered minor injuries. Two mortar shells slammed into a residential district in the western Baghdad neighborhood of Hurriyah, killing two people and wounding seven others. Armed men who wore commando uniforms and drove cars with license plates commonly used by the Interior Ministry stormed a computer company and kidnapped seven people, including shoppers, in the mainly Christian neighborhood of Sina’a. A taxi driver was shot to death after he was caught in the crossfire during clashes in the northern city of Mosul. The bodies of five men were pulled from the Tigris River in Suwayrah. A US Marine died from wounds suffered in fighting in Anbar province, and two soldiers were fatally injured in separate bombings in the Baghdad area. (AP, 1/27/07)(AP, 1/28/07) 2007        Jan 27, Guinea’s union leaders ended a deadly 17-day strike after the president agreed to name a new prime minister with boosted powers. (AP, 1/27/07) 2007        Jan 27, Gunmen carjacked a US Embassy vehicle on the outskirts of the Kenyan capital and killed two women in the car. (AP, 1/27/07) 2007        Jan 27, Police in Tijuana, Mexico, got their guns back three weeks after they were forced to turn over weapons to federal authorities because of allegations they were colluding with drug traffickers. (AP, 1/27/07) 2007        Jan 27, The Netherlands’ government extradited Iraqi-born Wesam al Delaema (32), a naturalized Dutch citizen, to the US. He was charged with involvement in terror attacks on US troops in Iraq. In 2009 Delaema was sentenced in Washington DC to 25 years in prison. His actual term was up to the Netherlands. In 2010 a court in Rotterdam slashed the sentence to eight years and released him for time served. (AP, 1/28/07)(SFC, 4/17/09, p.A6)(AP, 10/13/10) 2007        Jan 27, A Belgian man working for a building materials company was murdered in the oil city of Warri, in Nigeria’s Niger Delta. 2 suspects were arrested. Carjackers with AK-47s shot dead two women in a US embassy vehicle in Nairobi’s western outskirts, and police killed two of the fleeing gunmen during a shootout in the nearby bush. (Reuters, 1/27/07)(Reuters, 1/28/07) 2007        Jan 27, Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the US House of Representatives, held talks with Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf focusing on the fight against terror. A bomb went off near a Shiite Muslim mosque in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar, killing 15 people and wounding 35. (AFP, 1/27/07)(AP, 1/28/07) 2007        Jan 27, A Belgian man working for a building materials company was murdered in the oil city of Warri, in Nigeria’s Niger Delta. 2 suspects were arrested. Carjackers with AK-47s shot dead two women in a US embassy vehicle in Nairobi’s western outskirts. Police killed two of the fleeing gunmen during a shootout in the nearby bush. (Reuters, 1/27/07)(Reuters, 1/28/07) 2007        Jan 27, Andrei Lugovoi, the man reported by British media to be a suspect in the murder of a former Russian agent in London hit out at “lies, provocation and government propaganda,” denying any role in the radiation poisoning death of Alexander Litvinenko. (AP, 1/27/07) 2007        Jan 27, In Switzerland major powers at Davos agreed to resume global free trade talks. A meeting of the world’s top commercial powers yielded only a vague pledge of commitment to global trade liberalization efforts, a disappointment after business and political leaders called for progress in the World Trade Organization talks. (AP, 1/27/07) 2007        Jan 27, In Yemen 6 security forces were killed and 20 others were injured in clashes with followers of Abdel-Malek al-Hawthi in Saada. (AP, 1/28/07)2008        Jan 27, Gordon B. Hinckley (b.1910), the humble head of the Mormon church, died in Salt Lake City. He added millions of new members and labored long to burnish the faith’s image as a world religion. (AP, 1/28/08) 2008        Jan 27, In Australia an Aborigine elder, Mr. Ward (b.1961), died of heatstroke during a four-hour, non-stop trip to face a drink-driving charge in a prison van with broken air-conditioning. In 2010 state director of public prosecutions Joe McGrath told Ward’s widow that charges would not be laid against the two guards employed by security firm GSL, now known as G4S, who were in charge of the van. In 2010 Ward’s family was awarded 3.2 million Australian dollars ($2.9 million) in compensation. (AFP, 6/28/10)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr_Ward)(AP, 7/29/10) 2008        Jan 27, Chinese police shot and killed two members of a “terrorist gang” and rounded up 15 others during a raid in the restive northwestern Muslim region of Xinjiang. Police found guns, homemade bombs, training materials and “extremist religious ideological materials” during a raid in Urumqi. (Reuters, 2/18/08)(AP, 3/9/08) 2008        Jan 27, At least 10 bodies were recovered after a boat capsized on Lake Tanganyika in eastern Congo. An official later said the overloaded boat was piloted by a drunken captain. (AP, 1/30/08) 2008        Jan 27, Egyptian forces brandishing electrified batons stopped Gaza cars from crossing the breached border and tightened security at checkpoints to try to confine Palestinians who moved freely into Egypt for a fifth straight day. (AP, 1/27/08) 2008        Jan 27, France’s Societe Generale said Jerome Kerviel, the young trader blamed for losses that cost the bank more than $7 billion, hacked computers and used “several techniques of fraud.” Judicial officials said the man would remain in custody a further 24 hours. The bank said Kerviel had built up a position worth some $73.5 billion, which was eventually closed or hedged by Jan 23 with a loss of $7.21 billion. (AP, 1/27/08) 2008        Jan 27, Indonesia, the nation hardest hit by bird flu, recorded its 100th human death as the virus picked up speed across Asia. (AP, 1/28/08) 2008        Jan 27, Former Indonesian President Suharto (b.1921) died. The US Cold War ally led one of the 20th century’s most brutal dictatorships over 32 years that saw up to a million political opponents killed. (AP, 1/27/08) 2008        Jan 27, In Iraq an American soldier was killed in a roadside bombing. (AP, 1/27/08) 2008        Jan 27, In western Kenya gangs armed with machetes and bows and arrows burned and hacked to death members of a rival tribe, as the death toll from the latest explosion of violence over disputed presidential elections rose to 69. (AP, 1/27/08) 2008        Jan 27, In Lebanon protesters angry about electricity rationing clashed with troops in Beirut’s worst riots in a year, leaving 7 Shia youths dead. (AP, 1/27/08)(Econ, 2/2/08, p.56) 2008        Jan 27, Mozambique said it would forcibly evacuate 10,000 people who have defied government calls to leave areas at risk of flooding along the Zambezi valley in the country’s central regions. (Reuters, 1/27/08) 2008        Jan 27, In northwest Pakistan security forces retook the Kohat Tunnel, which was captured a day earlier, and killed at least 24 militants. (SFC, 1/28/08, p.A12) 2008        Jan 27, Mikhail Kasyanov, former prime minister and the most vocal Kremlin critic in Russia’s presidential contest, was barred from the ballot by election authorities who said tens of thousands of signatures on his nominating petitions were faked. Kasyanov denounced the Central Election Commission’s ruling as politically motivated and described the election as “farce.” “I have no doubt that Putin personally made the decision not to register my candidacy,” he said in a statement. (AP, 1/27/08) 2008        Jan 27, In central Turkey a passenger train derailed, killing at least nine people and injuring dozens of others, possibly due to ice on the tracks. (AP, 1/27/08)2009        Jan 27, President Barack Obama chose an Arabic-language satellite TV network for his first formal television interview as president, delivering a message to the Muslim world that “Americans are not your enemy.” (AP, 1/27/09) 2009        Jan 27, Eddied Perez (b.1957, former gang leader and mayor of Hartford, Connecticut, surrendered to police to face a bribery charge related to home renovations. (SFC, 1/28/09, p.A4) 2009        Jan 27, In California federal prosecutors said purchasing managers for Kraft Foods and Frito-Lay have admitted to taking $318,000 in bribes from Randall Rahal, a former sales broker for SK Foods of Lemoore, a major Central California tomato processor. On August 11 Robert Watson (59), former Kraft Foods purchasing manager, was sentenced to 2 years and 3 months for taking $158,000 in bribes. (SFC, 1/28/09, p.B3)(SFC, 8/12/09, p.D2) 2009        Jan 27, The social-networking site Facebook removed a group whose title advocated raising money so a gunman could be hired to “liquidate” Bolivia’s leftist president, Evo Morales. The Spanish-language group, created in August, had 8,069 members and had drawn the attention of at least one outraged blogger, when The Associated Press alerted Facebook. Creator Hony Pierola (20) denied any malice. (AP, 1/27/09) 2009        Jan 27, A new study led by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said climate change is “largely irreversible” for the next 1,000 years even if carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions could be abruptly halted. (AFP, 1/27/09) 2009        Jan 27, Near Los Angeles police found the bodies of 7 people at a home in Wilmington.  Ervin Lupoe (40) killed his five children and his wife before turning the gun on himself. Both adults were recently fired from their hospital jobs. (AP, 1/28/09) 2009        Jan 27, John Updike (b.1932), American writer and poet, died of lung cancer. He released more than 60 books, including 28 novels, in a career that started in the 1950s, winning virtually every literary prize. In 2014 Adam Begley authored “Updike.” (AP, 1/28/09)(Econ, 1/31/09, p.89)(SSFC, 4/13/14, p.F3) 2009        Jan 27, Gunmen abducted 10 Afghan workers in a daring ambush in Herat. 2 local UN staff, kidnapped on New Year’s Day by alleged Taliban militants, were freed. One captive was already freed, but 3 remained hostage. A roadside bomb struck a vehicle carrying civilians in Kandahar province, killing four and wounding nine. (AFP, 1/28/09)(AP, 1/28/09) 2009        Jan 27, In Bahrain police fired tear gas at dozens of rioters as the public prosecutor charged three Shiite Muslim activists with promoting a coup. (AP, 1/27/09) 2009        Jan 27, In Brazil some 100,000 activists of all stripes converged on the Amazon city of Belem, opening the 9th World Social Forum. (AP, 1/27/09) 2009        Jan 27, Brazil established a new set of bureaucratic hoops for importers, raising worries about creeping protectionism. (WSJ, 1/28/09, p.A10) 2009        Jan 27, Lord Mandelson, business secretary to Britain’s PM Gordon Brown, announced loan guarantees of up to 2.3 billion pounds (2.5 billion euros, 3.2 billion dollars) in credit funding for its ailing auto industry. (AP, 1/27/09)(Econ, 1/31/09, p.63) 2009        Jan 27, Canada’s Conservative government unveiled a two-year C$40 billion ($32 billion) stimulus package to help pull the economy out of recession, laying out plans for a budget deficit for the first time after 11 straight years of surplus. (Reuters, 1/27/09) 2009        Jan 27, The UN refugee agency said thousands of Congolese civilians have fled across the border to South Sudan to escape rebels of the Lord’s Resistance Army. (AP, 1/27/09) 2009        Jan 27, Iceland’s center-left Social Democratic Alliance Party was chosen to lead the country following the collapse of the island nation’s government amid deep economic troubles and intense political discord. (AP, 1/27/09) 2009        Jan 27, Iceland raised it quota on whale hunting to 250 a year, a dramatic increase over past levels. (AP, 1/27/09) 2009        Jan 27, Ramaswamy Venkataraman (98), India’s eighth president (1987-1992), died. He helped draft the country’s 1950 constitution. (AP, 1/27/09) 2009        Jan 27, Indonesian police opened fire on hundreds of people in Papua province during a protest against alleged police violence. 4 people were injured. (AP, 1/27/09) 2009        Jan 27, In Iraq a car bomb exploded near a Kurdish party’s office in the northern city of Mosul, killing at least three Iraqi soldiers only days before pivotal elections. A Sunni insurgent group claimed responsibility for downing two US helicopters that crashed a day earlier, killing four US troops. The US military denied the claim. (AP, 1/27/09) 2009        Jan 27, Jamaican police said a gunman shot a woman (55) in her one-room wooden shack and then set it ablaze, leaving her 3 grandchildren to perish alongside her in the fire. (AP, 1/27/09) 2009        Jan 27, Japan announced a $16.7 billion stimulus package to help businesses that have en decimated by the global financial crisis. (www.uiowa.edu/ifdebook/timeline/Credit_Crisis_Timeline.pdf) 2009        Jan 27, Japan’s No. 38 Yoshi Maru fishing boat was seized by Russian authorities in waters between the two countries and was taken to the Russian port of Nakhodka. On Feb 7 Russian authorities released all 10 Japanese crew members seized after allegedly straying into Russian waters. (AFP, 1/28/09)(AP, 2/7/09) 2009        Jan 27, In Mexico thieves, apparently targeting people who exchange money at Mexico City’s international airport, shot a French citizen in the head. Authorities warned that gangs have put lookouts at exchange windows in the terminal. Mexico City prosecutors soon detained two suspects in the shooting. French scientist Christopher Augur died at a Mexico City hospital four days after his assault. (AP, 1/27/09)(AP, 1/30/09)(AP, 1/31/09) 2009        Jan 27, Pakistani tribal elders urged the government to stop military operations against Taliban militants in tribal areas bordering Afghanistan and to start peace talks. (AP, 1/27/09) 2009        Jan 27, Palestinian militants detonated a bomb that killed an Israeli soldier patrolling near Gaza and Israel responded with an airstrike. Not long after the bombing, a 27-year-old Gaza farmer was killed by Israeli gunfire along the border several miles away. An Israeli airstrike wounded 2 men, at least one of whom was a Hamas gunman. Israel closed its crossings into Gaza to humanitarian aid traffic after briefly opening them. (AP, 1/27/09)(SFC, 1/28/09, p.A2) 2009        Jan 27, Pacific Island leaders gathered in Port Moresby and threatened to expel Fiji from their forum if coup leader Frank Bainimarama fails to announce credible plans for elections. (Econ, 1/31/09, p.48)(www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2008/s2475598.htm) 2009        Jan 27, A Peruvian court freed two men accused of belonging to a military death squad linked to several massacres in the early 1990s, after the suspects completed six years in prison without a conviction. Douglas Arteaga Pascual and Angel Pino Diaz were charged in 2001 and accused of belonging to a death squad known as the “Colina group.” A verdict was expected this year. (AP, 1/28/09) 2009        Jan 27, Russian Orthodox bishops, monks and laymen voted for a new head for the world’s second largest Christian church in a contest between a powerful modernizer and an influential conservative. Metropolitan Kirill (62) defeated a conservative rival, Metropolitan Kliment, with 508 of 700 votes. (AP, 1/27/09)(SFC, 2/2/09, p.A3) 2009        Jan 27, In South Africa the 15-nation SADC grouping said after a meeting, its fifth attempt to secure a deal on forming a unity government, it had agreed that opposition MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai should be sworn in as prime minister by February 11. An analyst said chances for a deal appeared slim. The recently introduced 10 trillion Zimbabwean dollar note cannot buy a loaf of bread, which costs Z$30 trillion. Two weeks ago, a loaf of bread cost Z$30 billion. (Reuters, 1/27/09) 2009        Jan 27, South Korea’s central bank announced that a woman will appear on its banknotes for the first time, with the issuance of a new 50,000-won ($36) bill. (AP, 1/27/09) 2009        Jan 27, In Sri Lanka a health official alleged that at least 300 civilians were wounded and scores feared killed by Sri Lankan army artillery shells fired into a designated “safe zone” for ethnic Tamils trapped by fighting between the military and Tamil rebels. (AP, 1/27/09) 2009        Jan 27, Sudanese armed forces waged air strikes and artillery attacks on rebels in two key areas of Darfur for a second day. (AFP, 1/27/09)2010        Jan 27, President Barack Obama, facing a divided Congress and a dissatisfied nation, unveiled a jobs-heavy agenda in his State of the Union address. Obama fought to recharge his embattled presidency with a State of the Union vow to get jobless millions back to work and stand on the side of Americans angry at Wall Street greed and Washington bickering. (AP, 1/27/10)(AP, 1/28/10) 2010        Jan 27, The Albuquerque Journal reported in a copyright story that Ishmael “Mike” Salinas admitted to bulk cash smuggling and failing to make a required report on currency brought into the US from Baghdad. The former employee of a New Mexico construction company with contracts in Iraq pleaded guilty to illegally bringing in more than $800,000. (AP, 1/27/10) 2010        Jan 27, In NYC an armed robber killed jewelry store worker Henry Menahem (71) and made off with nearly $1 million in jewels. (SFC, 1/29/10, p.A6) 2010        Jan 27, Claude Irwin Jr. (62) of Spokane, a fugitive lawyer accused of stealing millions of dollars in an Idaho real estate development, was been captured in Los Angeles after living for years in Mexico. In 1998 he vanished and left his Powderhorn Ridge Ranch development near Harrison, Idaho, owing at least $3 million. (AP, 1/28/10) 2010        Jan 27, Apple Inc CEO Steve Jobs took the wraps off a sleek tablet that it called the iPad, pitching the new gadget at $499, a surprisingly low price, to bridge the gap between smartphones and laptops. It will go on sale in late March for $499-829. (Reuters, 1/28/10)(Econ, 1/30/10, p.11) 2010        Jan 27, J.D. Salinger (b.1919), author of “Cather in the Rye” (1951), died at his home in Cornish, New Hampshire. In 2013 David Shields and Shane Salerno authored “Salinger,” a biography. (SFC, 1/29/10, p.A1)(SSFC, 9/8/13, p.F1) 2010        Jan 27, Howard Zinn (b.1922), Massachusetts-based historian, teacher and activist, died of a heart attack in Santa Monica, Ca. His work included “A People’s History of the United States” (1980). (SFC, 1/28/10, p.A8) 2010        Jan 27, In northern Afghanistan a joint NATO-Afghan air and ground assault killed 11 suspected Taliban militants, including two senior commanders. Leaders of the Shinwari, one of the largest Pushtun tribes, agreed to support the Afghan government and battle insurgents. American commanders in exchange agreed to channel $1 million in development projects directly to the tribal leaders, bypassing the Afghan government. (AP, 1/27/10)(SFC, 1/28/10, p.A4) 2010        Jan 27, In western Algeria the Oran criminal court sentenced eight people to jail terms for drug trafficking. Six of the convicted men were sentenced to 20 years, a seventh to life and the eighth, who was on the run, was also sentenced to life, after the seizure in 2008 of two tons of cannabis resin at Bechar in the southwest. (AFP, 1/28/10) 2010        Jan 27, Bangladesh executed 5 former soldiers for killing independence leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in a 1975 military coup. (SFC, 1/28/10, p.A2) 2010        Jan 27, In Belgium a five-story apartment building collapsed in Liege after an apparent gas explosion. At least 11 people were killed. An additional 21 people were injured, two of them seriously. (AP, 1/27/10)(AP, 1/29/10) 2010        Jan 27, Brazil’s first working-class president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (64), got a hero’s welcome at the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, wowing 10,000 leftists with a vow to reproach the planet’s business titans for causing the global meltdown when he meets with them this week at the Davos Swiss ski resort. Lula fell ill at the air force base in Recife where he was supposed to board a flight to Switzerland and his trip to Davos was canceled. (AP, 1/27/10)(AP, 1/28/10) 2010        Jan 27, The prime ministers of Britain and Ireland presented a compromise plan to keep Northern Ireland’s fractious politicians from breaking up their Catholic-Protestant government, but neither side accepted the deal. (AP, 1/27/10) 2010        Jan 27, In Britain world powers gathered in London for talks on how to tackle Al-Qaeda militants operating out of Yemen. The conference was called to help world powers chart a roadmap out of Afghanistan amid rising US and NATO casualties and falling public support. (AFP, 1/27/10)(AP, 1/28/10) 2010        Jan 27, A Cambodian court convicted and sentenced in absentia Sam Rainsy, the nation’s main opposition leader, to two years in jail on charges of uprooting border markings. Rainsy, who is in France, said by telephone that the court had made a “most unjust” ruling, saying the border markers he had uprooted in protest were illegally placed. (AFP, 1/27/10) 2010        Jan 27, France’s main Jewish organization, CRIF, says at least 18 tombstones at the Cronenbourg cemetery in Strasbourg were found marked with swastikas and 13 of them were overturned. The desecration came as Jews marked the 65th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz death camp. (AP, 1/27/10) 2010        Jan 27, In Haiti teenager Darlene Etienne (17) was rescued from a collapsed home near St. Gerard University, 15 days after a great earthquake killed an estimated 200,000 people, It was the first such recovery since Jan 23, when French rescuers extricated a man from the ruins of a hotel grocery store. (AP, 1/28/10) 2010        Jan 27, In Honduras President-elect Porfirio Lobo, a conservative rancher, was sworn in as the new president, ending months of turmoil and the quest by ousted leader Manuel Zelaya to be restored to power. Lobo provided safe passage to Zelaya, who left his refuge at the Brazilian Embassy and flew to exile in the Dominican Rep. (AP, 1/27/10)(SFC, 1/28/10, p.A3) 2010        Jan 27, In Indonesia Eko Budi Wardoyo (32), a suspected Islamist militant, was arrested in East Java province. He was allegedly involved in the 2005 bombing of a market that killed 22 people and the murder of a Christian priest in 2004. (AP, 1/29/10) 2010        Jan 27, It was reported that Italian fashion house Armani has stopped selling online a T-shirt bearing a logo similar to Indonesia’s national symbol, Garuda Pancasila, after some bloggers protested and other people called for the label to be sued. (Reuters, 1/27/10) 2010        Jan 27, Mexican authorities found a man’s head and a threatening message referring to the La Familia drug cartel in the town square of Quiroga, Michoacan state. A headless body was found 60 miles (100km) away. (AP, 1/27/10) 2010        Jan 27, NATO’s top officer said that Russia had agreed to boost cooperation with the alliance in Afghanistan, including opening more transit routes for supplies to international troops and helping service Soviet-built helicopters used by the security forces. NATO said it had finalized an agreement with Kazakhstan to open the last leg on an overland route to Afghanistan from Europe via Russia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, offering an alternative to the one through Pakistan. (AP, 1/27/10)(AP, 1/28/10) 2010        Jan 27, In Nigeria Shehu Sani, president of the Civil Rights Congress in Nigeria, said chilling text messages urged both Christians and Muslims to commit violence during rioting that left more than 300 people dead. He said his group has collected about 150 text messages that were sent before and during the violence in Jos. (AP, 1/27/10) 2010        Jan 27, North Korea fired more than 80 shells into the sea near its disputed maritime border with South Korea, sparking an artillery exchange which fuelled tensions on the peninsula. (AFP, 1/27/10) 2010        Jan 27, In northwestern Pakistan a bomb planted near a house in Upper Dir exploded after children playing nearby tried to open it, killing three of them. 13 police and civilian explosives experts were wounded when a homemade bomb they were trying to defuse in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir detonated. (AP, 1/27/10) 2010        Jan 27, Panama’s national police force killed three guerrillas from a Colombian rebel group in a confrontation along the sparsely populated frontier between the two countries. Two others were captured while and one escaped. (AP, 1/27/10) 2010        Jan 27, A top Saudi defense official said Saudi forces have driven Yemeni rebels out of the border region between the two countries, suggesting that the three month conflict along the mountainous frontier may be winding down. (AP, 1/27/10) 2010        Jan 27, Ahmed Mohamed Mohamoud (8), a Somali boy, died just days after undergoing reconstructive surgery in Kenya. He had been horribly disfigured months ago by a stray bullet in Mogadishu. Ahmed personified the civilian toll in the brutal conflict in Somalia and drew offers of aid from around the world. (AP, 1/28/10) 2010        Jan 27, In Sri Lanka the election commission declared Pres. Rajapaksa the winner with 57.8% of the vote to Sarath Fonseka’s 40%. Rajapaksa beat back a challenge from his former army chief, who rejected the official results and said he feared arrest as troops surrounded his hotel. Dayanada Dissanayake, the distraught election commissioner, said the state media violated guidelines he had crafted, government institutions behaved in a way that embarrassed him, and he pleaded to be allowed to resign his post. (AP, 1/27/10) 2010        Jan 27, In Thailand 13 tiger range states attended the first Ministerial Conference on Tiger Conservation. The aim of the 3-day meeting was to convince countries to pledge to spend more on tiger conservation and set targets for boosting their numbers. The meeting was being organized by Thailand and the Global Tiger Initiative, a coalition formed in 2008 by the World Bank, the Smithsonian Institute and nearly 40 conservation groups. It aimed to double tiger numbers by 2022. The 13 countries attending were Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Russia, Thailand and Vietnam. (AP, 1/27/10) 2010        Jan 27, In Zimbabwe a lawyer said the Supreme Court has ordered the central bank to safeguard millions of dollars’ worth of diamonds from a mine where the military is accused of killings and forced labor. State media said a Zimbabwe high court has rejected a southern African court’s ruling that blocked the government’s move to resettle blacks on more than 70 white-owned farms. (AFP, 1/27/10)2011        Jan 27, The US Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission (FCIC), chaired by Phil Angelides, released its report: “The Financial Crisis Inquiry Report: Final Report of the National commission on the Causes of the Financial and Economic Crisis in the United States.” It included 3 competing narratives. (Econ, 1/29/11, p.72)(Econ, 2/5/11, p.98) 2011        Jan 27, The US Senate majority and minority leaders unveiled a package of tweaks to Senate procedures. They included an end to a practice called “secret holds” by which senators had been able to prevent consideration of bills or nominations to government jobs anonymously. (Econ, 2/5/11, p.38) 2011        Jan 27, A thick blanket of snow covered the Northeast, as the fifth major storm of the winter set snowfall records. The storm that had been predicted for days caught much of the East Coast off guard with its ferocity, tearing through with lightning, thunder and mounds of wet snow, leaving nearly 300,000 customers around the nation’s capital without power and forcing people to shovel out their cars and doorsteps all over again. (Reuters, 1/27/11)(AP, 1/27/11) 2011        Jan 27, In Tampa, Florida, Julie Powers Schenecker (50) shot her son (13) in the head as she drove him to soccer practice. She then returned home and shot her daughter (16) in the face. Both kids were killed with a .38-caliber pistol purchased a few days earlier. On May 16, 2014, she was convicte3d and sentenced to two life terms in prison. (SSFC, 1/30/11, p.A10)(http://tinyurl.com/4kecuck)(SFC, 5/17/14, p.A12) 2011        Jan 27, Australia imposed a temporary new tax to help fund a multi-billion-dollar rebuilding program after floods devastated infrastructure and ruined thousands of homes and businesses across the eastern seaboard over the past month. (Reuters, 1/27/11) 2011        Jan 27, An appeals court in Botswana ruled that indigenous dwellers in one of the driest parts of the world can now drill wells for water, overturning an earlier decision that denied them access. (AP, 1/27/11) 2011        Jan 27, The Brazilian government issued a “partial” installation license allowing the Belo Monte Dam to break ground on the Amazon’s Xingu River despite egregious disregard for human rights and environmental legislation, the unwavering protests of civil society and condemnations by its Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office (MPF). (http://news.yahoo.com/s/usnw/20110127/pl_usnw/DC37400) 2011        Jan 27, Britain’s Times newspaper reported that Iran’s state-run news channel Press TV has had its British bank account frozen. The English language channel, which is headquartered in Tehran but also has an office in London, has seen its main trading account at the National Westminster Bank suspended. (AFP, 1/27/11) 2011        Jan 27, Colombia asked Israel to extradite former Israeli army Lt. Col. Yair Klein, who was convicted by a Colombian court and sentenced in absentia to nearly 11 years in prison for training drug lords’ assassins in the late 1980s. (AP, 1/27/11) 2011        Jan 27, In Colombia priests Rafael Reatiga and Richard Piffano were found shot to death dead in a car in southern Bogota. In 2012 prosecutors said the priests had paid 15 million pesos or about $8,500 to be shot after at least one of them was diagnosed with AIDS. Two of the four assassins were later arrested. (AP, 2/14/12)(http://tinyurl.com/7749qkj) 2011        Jan 27, Egyptian police fought protesters in two cities in eastern Egypt and Nobel Peace Prize winner Mohamed ElBaradei headed back to the country to join demonstrators trying to oust President Hosni Mubarak. Egyptians torched a police post in the eastern city of Suez over the killing of protesters in anti-government demonstrations earlier in the week. Activists outraged over unemployment and repression kept up the momentum of the largest anti-government protests in years, taking to the streets for the third straight day. Mubarak’s ruling party said it is ready to open a dialogue. Egypt’s stock exchange suspended trading temporarily after a sharp drop, amid the largest anti-government protests in the country in three decades. (Reuters, 1/27/11)(AP, 1/27/11)(AFP, 1/27/11) 2011        Jan 27, The European Commission launched legal action against Sweden for allowing hunters to shoot 20 wolves this year even though the species is threatened with extinction. (AFP, 1/27/11) 2011        Jan 27, In Hungary Bela Biszku (89), a former Hungarian interior minister, was charged with publicly downplaying the regime’s crimes. He was seen as one of the main architects of repression after the country’s 1956 anti-communist uprising. Biszku was charged because of comments he made during an appearance on state television on Aug. 4, 2010 in which he said he had nothing to apologize for. (AP, 1/27/11) 2011        Jan 27, Indian police raided the Gyuto monastery, home of Ugyen Thinley Dorje, the 17th Karmapa Llama, and seized about $777,000 in cash. The top Buddhist monk was seen as the possible next spiritual leader for Tibet. The next day India’s NDTV news chain reported Indian security officials planned to question the Karmapa over alleged Chinese links, saying the monk was suspected to be planning to set up a string of pro-Chinese monasteries. On Feb 11 authorities cleared the Karmapa saying the money found during a raid had been donated by his followers. (AFP, 1/28/11)(SSFC, 1/30/11, p.A4)(AP, 2/11/11) 2011        Jan 27, In northwest India an American man, Jeff Knaebel (71), died after setting himself on fire in an abandoned Buddhist center in Virat Nagar, Rajasthan state, leaving a cryptic suicide note that blamed his death on “cruel incidents” in his homeland and India. (AP, 1/28/11) 2011        Jan 27, In Iraq a car bomb ripped through a funeral tent in a mainly Shiite area of Baghdad, killing at least 51 people and prompting scuffles between police and Iraqis angry about security failures. 3 other Iraqis were killed in sporadic bombings targeting Iraqi troops and an electricity official earlier in the day. (AP, 1/27/11)(AP, 1/28/11) 2011        Jan 27, In Italy PM Silvio Berlusconi faced more pressure to resign after magistrates issued new documents with fresh details of erotic parties, some with under-age girls, and of his gifts to participants. (Reuters, 1/27/11) 2011        Jan 27, Standard & Poor’s cut Japan’s credit rating for the first time since 2002, saying Tokyo had no plan to deal with its mounting debt, a warning that could rattle other heavily indebted rich countries. (Reuters, 1/27/11) 2011        Jan 27, In Pakistan, Raymond Davis, a US consular employee shot and killed two gunmen as they approached his vehicle in a congested street in Lahore. One man was shot once in front and 3 times in the back. The other man took 8 bullets, mostly in the chest. Davis was reportedly associated with Hyperion Protective Consultants, a Florida-based outfit. A pedestrian was also killed by a speeding American car trying to help. Police the next day took Davis to court and a judge ordered him held for 6 more days while investigators probe the case. On Feb 3 Davis’ detention was extended for 8 more days. (AP, 1/27/11)(SFC, 1/29/11, p.A2)(AP, 2/3/11)(Econ, 2/5/11, p.55) 2011        Jan 27, In the Philippines a temporary elevator at a building construction site in Manila plunged 25 floors, killing 10 workers. (AP, 1/27/11) 2011        Jan 27, Spain arrested Malik Imtanan Sarwar (30), Pakistani man, in Barcelona. Sarwar was said to be linked to a cell that forged passports for al-Qaida-linked groups. Police had been looking for him since seven members of the cell were arrested in Spain in December and three more in Thailand. (AP, 1/28/11) 2011        Jan 27, A Taiwanese general was arrested over claims he spied for China. Army Major General Lo Hsien-che (51) was recruited by China while stationed in Thailand between 2002 and 2005 The defense ministry scrambled to limit the damage from what it called the worst espionage case in 50 years. (www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12401472)(AFP, 2/9/11) 2011        Jan 27, In Tunisia thousands took to the streets to call for old regime politicians to be ousted after the fall of president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. The interim government under PM Ghannouchi named 12 new ministers and removed ministers tied to the ousted president. (AFP, 1/27/11)(SFC, 1/28/11, p.A7) 2011        Jan 27, Ukraine’s state prosecutors office announced new criminal charges against former PM Yulia Tymoshenko over the alleged illegal purchase of 1,000 vehicles in the run-up to the 2010 presidential election. (Reuters, 1/27/11) 2011        Jan 27, In Yemen tens of thousands of people called for the ouster of President Ali Abdullah Saleh in protests across the country inspired by the popular revolt in Tunisia. (AP, 1/27/11)(AFP, 1/27/11)2012        Jan 27, A Connecticut judge ordered Joshua Komisarjevsky (31) to be executed this summer for the July 23, 2007, murders of a mother and her two daughters during a brutal home invasion. His accomplice, Steven Hayes (48), was already sentenced to death row. (AP, 1/28/12) 2012        Jan 27, Hull House, the Chicago social services organization founded in 1889 by the Nobel Peace Prize winner Jane Addams, closed after running out of money. (AP, 1/27/12) 2012        Jan 27, The California Air Resources Board approved strict vehicle emissions regulations in a package known as the Advanced Clean Car program. It would cut in half current greenhouse gas emission by 2025. (SFC, 1/27/12, p.C1) 2012        Jan 27, In Oakland, Ca., adopted son Moses Kamin (15) strangled his mother, Susan Poff (50), and his father, Robert Kamin (55), at the family home near Lake Merritt. He then tried to burn their bodies in a car. In 2013 Moses was sentenced to 25 years in prison. (SFC, 1/26/13, p.C1) 2012        Jan 27, Fitch ratings downgraded the debt of Belgium, Cyprus, Italy, Slovenia and Spain even as European finance chiefs gathering in Davos sought to reassure global business leaders that Europe is on track to solve its debt crises. (SFC, 1/27/12, p.A4) 2012        Jan 27, A paralyzed British man who wants to die won the first round in his legal battle, when the High Court ruled his lawyers won’t be prosecuted if they seek out experts to help him commit suicide. (AP, 1/27/12) 2012        Jan 27, Chinese security forces arrested a youth named Tarpa after he posted a leaflet in Sichuan’s Aba prefecture “stating that the reason for the self-immolation protests was that Tibet must be free and the Dalai Lama must return, and until these demands were met, there was no way for the campaign to be stopped.” Security forces fired at Tibetans trying to stop Tarpa’s arrest, killing one and wounding several others, in the third reported deadly clash in a politically sensitive Tibetan region in a week. (AP, 1/27/12) 2012        Jan 27, In CongoDRC two months after voters went to polls in a chaotic election, the electoral commission announced that parties supporting Congo’s president won two-thirds of legislative seats. Electoral officials said they also want to annul results of the legislative elections in seven of Congo’s 169 voting districts and prosecute a dozen candidates accused of introducing irregularities and violence. (AP, 1/27/12) 2012        Jan 27, Cuba convicted six people of cutting down African mahogany trees in the National Botanical Gardens and sentenced them to eight and 10 years in prison. (AP, 1/27/12) 2012        Jan 27, The Czech government signed a deal for Prague to host the headquarters of an ambitious satellite navigation system that is expected to rival the US Global Positioning System. (AP, 1/27/12) 2012        Jan 27, In Egypt protesters marched to Cairo’s Tahrir Square to join thousands there demanding democratic change. Today’s rallies marked a year since the army was deployed to control the deadly protests calling for an end to Mubarak’s regime. Muslim Brotherhood supporters and secular protesters hurled bottles and rocks at each other and got into fistfights in Tahrir Square. (AFP, 1/27/12)(AP, 1/27/12) 2012        Jan 27, Ethiopian PM Meles Zenawi said he would pull troops out of Somalia “as soon as feasible,” admitting for the first time that forces had crossed into the war-torn neighboring country. (AFP, 1/27/12) 2012        Jan 27, France announced it would withdraw its troops from Afghanistan a year earlier than the 2014 date agreed by NATO. Pres. Sarkozy, alongside Afghan President Hamid Karzai who was in Paris for a previously planned visit, said France had told the US of its plan, and will present it at a Feb. 2-3 meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels. (AP, 1/28/12) 2012        Jan 27, Gabon officials announced that the National Wood Company of Gabon (SNBG) has obtained a loan of 13.7 million euros ($18 million) to help in building a plant to treat timber at Libreville’s port, Owendo. (AFP, 1/27/12) 2012        Jan 27, In India a leopard badly mauled two people including a pregnant woman after straying into Guwahati, the largest city in northeast Assam state. It was the third such attack there in as many weeks. (AFP, 1/27/12) 2012        Jan 27, In Iraq a suicide bomber detonated an explosives-packed car near a funeral procession in southeastern Baghdad, killing 33 people, half of them policemen who were guarding the march. Minutes after the explosion, gunmen opened fire at a checkpoint in Zafaraniyah, killing two police officers. (AP, 1/27/12)(AP, 1/29/12) 2012        Jan 27, In Italy Costa Cruises, the Italian operator of the Costa Concordia luxury liner, offered a settlement of some $14,000 to each uninjured passenger in the Jan 13 shipwreck. The Carnival Corp. unit also offered reimbursement of an estimated $4,000. A class-action suit was expected to seek $165,000 per passenger. (SFC, 1/27/12, p.A4) 2012        Jan 27, A retired Moroccan died in a Marrakech hospital after pouring gasoline on himself and lighting himself on fire in a nearby town’s courthouse the day before. State news said the man lived alone and had serious social and personal problems. (AP, 1/27/12) 2012        Jan 27, Gunmen in Nigeria killed at least one officer after opening fire on a police station in the city of Kano. Police in southeastern Enugu state arrested 25 armed men believed to have come from the violence-plagued predominantly Muslim north while traveling on a bus headed to the mainly Christian south. The men were found with 19 home-made guns and some machetes during a search at a highway police checkpoint. (AFP, 1/28/12) 2012        Jan 27, In Pakistan unidentified assailants rained 9 rockets on the elite military academy in Abbottabad. (SFC, 1/27/12, p.A2) 2012        Jan 27, In Puerto Rico Nicolas Gonzalez Figueroa, an assistant US Army chaplain who pleaded guilty to producing child pornography, was sentenced to nearly 20 years in prison. (AP, 1/27/12) 2012        Jan 27, Russian officials said the leader of Islamist separatists in the province of Ingushetia was killed in a shootout in the village of Ekazhevo along with two other militants. 4 Russian military officers and five militants were killed in the neighboring province of Dagestan. In Kabardino-Balkariya, three masked militants stormed into a school and stabbed a volleyball player in the gym. (AP, 1/27/12) 2012        Jan 27, The Rwandan government said it will increase the cost of a permit to track the endangered mountain gorillas, the country’s main tourist attraction, to $750 from $500 starting June 1. The permit allows visitors to spend around one hour observing the primates, estimated to total just 790 worldwide. (AP, 1/27/12) 2012        Jan 27, Senegal’s highest court ruled the country’s increasingly frail, Pres. Abdoulaye Wade (85) could run for a third term in next month’s election. The ruling led to rioting. Just days before the constitutional court was due to vote on whether Wade was eligible to run again, the judges received new, government-issued luxury cars. (AP, 1/28/12)(Econ, 2/4/12, p.51)(AP, 2/26/12) 2012        Jan 27, In Syria heavy gunfire hammered Homs in a second day of chaos. Activists said 21 people were killed across the country. The UN Security Council held a closed-door meeting to discuss the crisis, a step toward a possible resolution against the Damascus regime. The rebel Free Syrian Army said it had captured five Iranian soldiers in Homs who it said were under orders of the Syrian intelligence service. (AP, 1/27/12)(AFP, 1/27/12) 2012        Jan 27, The UN called on Israel to immediately halt the destruction of Palestinian homes in the West Bank after reporting a dramatic rise in demolitions in the past year. (AFP, 1/28/12) 2012        Jan 27, In Yemen fighting between government troops and al-Qaida linked militants in the country’s south killed at least five people. (AP, 1/28/12)2013        Jan 27, The US State Department condemned an Iranian court for sentencing  Saeed Abedini (32), an Iranian-American Christian pastor, to eight years in prison for reportedly threatening Iran’s national security through his leadership in Christian house churches. (Reuters, 1/27/13) 2013        Jan 27, Illinois Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn signed a measure into law  giving illegal immigrants permission to drive. Opponents have pointed to hundreds of fraudulent cases in New Mexico, Washington and Utah after those states began giving illegal immigrants permission to drive. (AP, 1/28/13) 2013        Jan 27, In Chicago 7 people were killed and 6 wounded in gun violence around the city. (SFC, 1/28/13, p.A5) 2013        Jan 27, A barge laden with 80,000 gallons of oil struck a railroad bridge in Vicksburg, Miss., spilling light crude into the Mississippi River and closing the waterway for miles each way. A second barge was damaged. (AP, 1/28/13) 2013        Jan 27, Stanley Karnow, award- winning author and journalist, died at his home in Potomac, Md. His work included “Vietnam: A History” (1983), and “In Our Image,” a companion to a PBS documentary on the Philippines, which won the Pulitzer in 1990. (SFC, 1/28/13, p.C4) 2013        Jan 27, Afghan authorities accused NATO of killing three civilian men in a nighttime ambush in the eastern Logar province. The coalition disputed the account, saying it had no operations in Logar’s Baraki Barak district the previous evening. NATO said there were three dead, but they were insurgents killed by Afghan forces. (AP, 1/27/13) 2013        Jan 27, African Union leaders met in the Ethiopian capital for talks dominated by the conflict in Mali as well as lingering territorial issues between the two Sudans. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon attended the two-day summit in Addis Ababa, where Ethiopian PM Hailemariam Desalegn took over from President Yayi Boni of Benin as chairperson of the African Union. (AP, 1/27/13) 2013        Jan 27, In southern Brazil a fire swept through the crowded Kiss nightclub in Santa Maria early today. The fire broke out after band members lit flares. There was no alarm, no extinguishers, no sprinklers and almost no escape from the nightclub. 3 people were detained the next day in connection with the blaze that left 237 dead. In April the nightclub’s two owners and two band members were charged with murder. 4 others were also charged in connection to the fire. (SFC, 1/28/13, p.A2)(AP, 1/29/13)(SFC, 2/4/13, p.A2)(Econ, 2/2/13, p.28)(AP, 4/2/13) 2013        Jan 27, In Egypt clashes broke out in Cairo for a 4th straight day, with protesters and police near central Tahrir Square, birthplace of the 2011 uprising. Police fired tear gas as protesters pelted them with rocks. Pres. Morsi declared a 30-day state of emergency and night curfew in the three Suez Canal provinces hit hardest by the wave of violence that has left more than 50 dead in three days. (AP, 1/27/13) 2013        Jan 27, In France thousands of supporters of a government-sponsored bill, that would legalize marriage and adoption for same-sex couples, marched in Paris. (AP, 1/27/13) 2013        Jan 27, Iran’s government arrested 14 journalists accused of cooperation with foreign-based, Persian-language media organizations. (AP, 1/28/13) 2013        Jan 27, In northern Mexico at least eight bodies were pulled from a well in Mina, Nuevo Leon state, near the site where 20 people went missing late last week, including members of a Colombian-style band. (AP, 1/28/13) 2013        Jan 27, In the Philippines gunmen hiding in a sugarcane field ambushed a truckload of policemen and village guards killing 9 and wounding 9 others in Negros Occidental province. (SFC, 1/28/13, p.A2) 2013        Jan 27, In South Sudan a showdown in the middle of the market town of Pibor between rebels and South Sudan’s military led to the deaths of four civilians and some 2,000 people seeking refuge with the UN. (AP, 1/28/13) 2013        Jan 27, In northern Syria at least 10 rebels were killed in fighting that erupted after the opposition fighters attacked a government checkpoint. (AP, 1/28/13) 2013        Jan 27, Zimbabwe’s prominent political analyst Professor John Makumbe (63), an albino who also campaigned against prejudice toward the skin pigmentation condition, died after a heart attack. (AP, 1/28/13)2014        Jan 27, In Colorado a boy (16) at a suburban Denver high school set himself on fire in an apparent suicide attempt. (SFC, 1/28/14, p.A5) 2014        Jan 27, In western Colorado a helicopter, believed to be inspecting power lines, crashed near Silt killing 3 people on board. (SFC, 1/27/14, p.A4) 2014        Jan 27, Pete Seeger (b.1919), legendary American banjo player and folksinger, died in NYC. His song “Turn! Turn! Turn!” was made famous by the Byrds in 1965. He also wrote “Where Have All the Flowers Gone.” (SFC, 1/29/14, p.A10) 2014        Jan 27, In Las Vegas the Prince and Princess pet store was torched. Firefighters rescued 27 puppies alive. Videos showed Gloria Eun Hye Lee, a US citizen originally from South Korea, and a man torching the store. Lee was arrested on Feb 7 and accomplice Kirk Bills was arrested in Indiana. (AP, 2/8/14) 2014        Jan 27, Google said that it had agreed to buy British artificial intelligence start-up company DeepMind for an undisclosed amount. (AFP, 1/27/14) 2014        Jan 27, Afghan authorities said a border police officer has opened fire on fellow officers, killing 5 and wounding two at a checkpoint in Herat province. The US military said the Afghan government has ordered the release of 37 “dangerous” prisoners who it believes pose threats to the country and the region. (AP, 1/27/14) 2014        Jan 27, A bus heading from Athens, Greece, to the Albanian capital of Tirana with 21 passengers on board, was attacked on a highway near the city of Tepelene. A passenger (25) died in the hospital from gunshot wounds. Police soon arrested 4 suspects, aged between 20 and 32, and said they were under the influence of marijuana. (AP, 1/29/14) 2014        Jan 27, Cambodian riot police used smoke grenades and electric batons to disperse demonstrators in the capital demanding a government license for an independent television station. (AFP, 1/27/14) 2014        Jan 27, In Colombia a fire at a prison in Barranquilla killed at least 10 inmates. (AP, 1/28/14) 2014        Jan 27, In Egypt the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces “unanimously delegated” army chief Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Sisi (el Sissi) to run in presidential elections during an hours-long meeting. The announcement was made shortly after interim Pres. Adely Mansour promoted him to field marshal. (AP, 1/27/14) 2014        Jan 27, In a coordinated swap, Egypt released a Libyan militia commander detained over suspected links to the Muslim Brotherhood while six abducted Egyptians, including two diplomats, were released in Libya. (AP, 1/27/14) 2014        Jan 27, The EU announced the release of 140 million euros in aid to Guinea, its first development package to the West African nation after a five-year suspension. (AFP, 1/27/14) 2014        Jan 27, European news channel Euronews said it will launch Africa’s first multi-language news channel in the middle of next year in partnership with the state television of the Republic of Congo (Brazzaville). (AFP, 1/27/14) 2014        Jan 27, Hungary’s Pres. Janos Ader, on Holocaust Memorial Day, clearly stated that Hungarian officials had collaborated with the Nazis during WWII. (Econ, 2/1/14, p.44) 2014        Jan 27, In Iraq a suicide bomber killed 4 troops near Fallujah while attacks elsewhere in the country killed 4 people. (AP, 1/27/14) 2014        Jan 27, An Israeli data protection expert said hackers earlier this month attacked 15 Israeli computers including one used by the defense ministry department dealing with civilians in the occupied West Bank. (AFP, 1/27/14) 2014        Jan 27, Israeli troops shot and seriously wounded a Palestinian man (34) close to the Gaza side of the border. Soldiers opened fire after a blast which occurred as a military vehicle passed on the Israeli side of the border fence. Israeli authorities demolished four Palestinian homes in annexed east Jerusalem that had been built without construction permits. (AFP, 1/27/14) 2014        Jan 27, The World Bank warned Myanmar against corruption as it unveiled a $2-billion aid package designed to provide better health care and improve supplies of electricity. (Reuters, 1/27/14) 2014        Jan 27, In Peru a long-contested expansion of the Camisea natural gas filed won regulatory approval, despite UN concerns that it could endanger Amazon tribes living in voluntary isolation in the area. (SFC, 2/1/14, p.A2)(http://tinyurl.com/pqw2xl2) 2014        Jan 27, Russian anti-corruption activist Alexei Navalny launched an interactive website painting a vivid picture of the suspected cost overruns and conflicts of interest at the Sochi Winter Olympics. (AP, 1/27/14) 2014        Jan 27, South Africa’s Pres. Zuma signed a “DNA Act” to match more sexual offenders, including many who break the law more than once, with their crimes, exonerate the wrongly accused and crack cold cases. (AP, 2/21/14) 2014        Jan 27, UN aid chief Valerie Amos arrived in war-torn South Sudan amid a growing humanitarian crisis, with rebels and government accusing each other of breaking a ceasefire aimed at ending the conflict. (AFP, 1/27/14) 2014        Jan 27, In Geneva the first meeting meant to discuss the issue of a Syrian transitional government broke up less than an hour after it began following a tense session that one delegate described as “a dialogue of the deaf.” UN envoy Brahimi broke up the meeting and was scheduled to meet with both sides separately later in the day. (AP, 1/27/14) 2014        Jan 27, Tunisia’s President Moncef Marzouki and the head of the National Assembly signed a new constitution, enshrining one of its last steps toward full democracy after a 2011 uprising that inspired the Arab Spring. (Reuters, 1/27/14) 2014        Jan 27, The Ukrainian government said in a statement it was issuing $2 billion in Eurobonds to Russia on the same terms as in December, bringing the total amount borrowed – over two years at an interest rate of 5 percent – to $5 billion. (Reuters, 1/27/14) 2014        Jan 27, Ukraine’s justice minister threatened to call for a state of emergency unless protesters leave her ministry building, which they occupied during the night. The body of a man (55) was found dead hanging from the framework of a huge artificial ‘New Year tree’ in central Kiev. (AP, 1/27/14)(Reuters, 1/27/14)http://timelines.ws/days/01_27.HTML