Today in History

28CE        Jan 28, The Roman Emperor Nerva named Trajan, an army general, as his successor. (HN, 1/28/99)814        Jan 28, Charlemagne (71), German emperor, Holy Roman Emperor (800-814), died. In 1968 Jacques Boussard authored “The Civilisation of Charlemagne.” In 2004 Alessandro Barbero authored “Charlemagne: Father of a Continent.” (www.tiscali.co.uk) (Econ, 1/3/04, p.39) (Econ, 9/18/04, p.87)1077        Jan 28, Pope Gregory VII pardoned German emperor Henry IV at Canossa in northern Italy. Henry had insisted that he reserved the right to “invest” bishops and other clergymen, despite the papal decree, but became penitent when faced with permanent excommunication. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walk_to_Canossa) (Econ, 5/9/09, p.88)1457        Jan 28, Henry Tudor (later Henry VII), 1st Tudor king of England (1485-1509), was born in Pembroke Castle, Wales. (www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/henry_vii_king.shtml)1495        Jan 28, Pope Alexander VI gave his son Cesare Borgia as hostage to Charles VIII of France. (MC, 1/28/02)1547        Jan 28, England’s King Henry VIII (55) died; his sixth and last wife was Catherine Parr. He was succeeded by his 9-year-old son, Edward VI. In 1996 Alison Weir authored “The Children of Henry VIII.” (V.D.-H.K.p.162) (AP, 1/28/98) (HN, 1/28/99) (ON, 5/00, p.5)1561        Jan 28, The Edict of Orleans suspended the persecution of French Huguenots. (MC, 1/28/02)1573        Jan 28, In Warsaw a confederation act acknowledged freedom of religion in Lithuania and Poland. (LHC, 1/28/03)1578        Jan 28, Cornelis Haga, Dutch lawyer, ambassador to Constantinople (1611-39), was born. (MC, 1/28/02)1588        Jan 28, King Sigismund Vaza upheld the 3rd Lithuanian Statute that until 1795 stood as the fundamental code of law. In practice it was active until 1840. (LHC, 1/28/03)1596        Jan 28, English navigator Sir Francis Drake (50) died off the coast of Panama of a fever; he was buried at sea. (HT, 4/97, p.30) (AP, 1/28/98)1608        Jan 28, Giovanni Alfonso Borelli, mathematician, astronomer, was born in Naples. (MC, 1/28/02)1613        Jan 28, Thomas Bodley (b.1545), English diplomatist and scholar, died in London. He founded the Bodleian Library at Oxford. (www.nndb.com/people/859/000094577/) 1613        Jan 28, Galileo may have unknowingly viewed the undiscovered planet Neptune. (MC, 1/28/02)1693        Jan 28, Anna “Ivanovna”, Tsarina of Russia, was born. [see Feb 7] (HN, 1/28/99) 1706        Jan 28, John Baskerville, English typographer and inventor of the “hot-pressing” method of printing. He also manufactured lacquered ware. (HN, 1/28/00) (WUD, 1994 p.124)1725        Jan 28, Peter I “the Great” Romanov (52), Czar of Russia (1682-1725), died. (MC, 1/28/02)1757        Jan 28, Antonio Bartolomeo Bruni, composer, was born. (MC, 1/28/02) 1757        Jan 28, Ahmed Shah, the first King of Afghanistan, occupied Delhi and annexed the Punjab. (HN, 1/28/99)1775        Jan 28, Peter the Great, Czar of Russia, was born. (HN, 1/28/99)1792        Jan 28, Rebellious slaves in Santo Domingo launched an attack on the city of Cap. (HN, 1/28/99)1801        Jan 28, Francis Barber (ca. 1735 ”“ 1801), the Jamaican manservant of Samuel Johnson (1752-1784), died at the Staffordshire General Infirmary. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Barber) (http://tinyurl.com/2njdfy)1807        Jan 28, London’s Pall Mall was 1st street lit by gaslight. (MC, 1/28/02)1825        Jan 28, George Edward Pickett (d.1875), Major General in the Confederate Army, was born. When blame was being sought for why his ill-fated charge was the final action of the Battle of Gettysburg, and why the Confederacy did not win the three-day battle, George Pickett suggested that “The Union Army might have had something to do with it.” Pickett had been sponsored for West Point by the Illinois congressman, Abraham Lincoln. (MC, 1/28/02)1829        Jan 28, In Scotland William Burke was hanged for murder following a scandal in which he was found to have provided extra-fresh corpses for anatomy schools in Edinburgh. His partner William Hare had turned king’s witness. The scandal led to the 1832 Anatomy Act. (Econ, 11/15/08, p.99) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Burke)1830        Jan 28, Daniel Auber’s opera “Fra Diavolo,” premiered in Paris. (MC, 1/28/02)1833        Jan 28, Charles George “Chinese” Gordon, general (China, Khartoum), was born in London. (MC, 1/28/02)1839        Jan 28, William Henry Fox Talbot (1800-1877), English inventor, presented his discoveries and methods of photography to the Royal Society of London. His callotype, a negative to positive process, allowed multiple reproductions of a single image for the 1st time. Talbot suggested a daguerreotype camera with extra parts to hold mercury. (ON, 4/00, p.10) (SFC, 6/12/96, Z1 p.5) (SFC, 12/26/02, p.E9)1851        Jan 28, Northwestern University, near Chicago, was chartered. (MC, 1/28/02)1853        Jan 28, Cuban revolutionary Jose Marti was born in Havana. (AP, 1/28/98)1858        Jan 28, John Brown organized a plan to raid the Arsenal at Harper’s Ferry. [see Oct 16, 1859] (MC, 1/28/02) (ON, 7/02, p.7)1871        Jan 28, France, under a provisional republican government, continued the war against Germany, but was forced to surrender in the Franco-Prussian War. Surrounded by Prussian troops and suffering from famine, the French army in Paris surrendered. During the siege, balloons were used to keep contact with the outside world. (V.D.-H.K.p.260) (AP, 1/28/98)(HN, 1/28/99)1878        Jan 28, The first daily college newspaper, Yale News (now Yale Daily News), began publication in New Haven, Conn. (AP, 1/28/08) 1878        Jan 28, The 1st telephone exchange was established at New Haven, Conn. (AP, 1/28/04)1880        Jan 28, Henry Casebolt, San Francisco inventor of the cable car grip, sold his interest in the Sutter Street Railway. (www.cable-car-guy.com/html/ccwho.html#hxc)1884        Jan 28, Jean Felix Piccard, scientist, explorer (balloonist), was born in Switzerland. (MC, 1/28/02)1886        Jan 28, Artur Rubinstein, pianist, was born in Lodz, Poland. (MC, 1/28/02)1901        Jan 28, Byron Bancroft Johnson announced that the American League would play the 1901 baseball season as a major league and would not renew its membership in the National Agreement. The new league would include Baltimore and Washington, DC, recently abandoned by the National League. The league would also invade 4 cities where National League teams existed: Boston, Cleveland, Detroit and Philadelphia. The 8 charter teams included: the Baltimore Orioles, Boston Americans, Chicago White Stockings, Cleveland Blues, Detroit Tigers, Milwaukee Brewers, Philadelphia Athletics, and Washington Senators. (ON, 6/09, p.11) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_League)1902        Jan 28, The Carnegie Institute was established in Washington, D.C. (AP, 1/28/98)1909        Jan 28, The United States ended direct control over Cuba. (AP, 1/28/98)1911        Jan 28, In San Francisco 143 were taken prisoner following a raid on gambling at a poolroom at Fourth and Mission streets run by Brophy & Collins. (SSFC, 1/23/11, p.42)1912        Jan 28, Jackson Pollock (d.1956), “Jack the Dripper”, expressionist painter (Lavender Mist), was born in Cody, Wyoming. Leader of the abstract expressionist school of art. He filled two sketchbooks between 1937-1939 and another from 1938-1941. (AHD, 1971, p.1015) (WSJ, 11/5/97, p.A20) 1912        Jan 28, In Ecuador a group of pro-Catholic soldiers supported by a mob, broke into the prison where former Press. Alfaro and his colleagues were detained and dragged them along the cobbled streets of the city center. This sparked the Concha Revolution. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1912_in_Ecuador)1913        Jan 28, Pleasance Pendred, an active member of the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU), was arrested for taking part in a window breaking campaign mainly targeting government offices around Westminster. Her pamphlet “Why Women Teachers Break Windows” was first published circa 1912 by the Woman’s Press. The Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) had recently declared all out war against public and private property in the United Kingdom. An orgy of vandalism followed. (http://suffragettes.nls.uk/media/28977/project_1_4_1.pdf)(ON, 10/2010, p.8)1914        Jan 28, Beverly Hills, Ca, was incorporated. (http://www.beverlyhills.org/)1915        Jan 28, Pres. Wilson refused to prohibit the immigration of illiterates. (MC, 1/28/02) 1915        Jan 28, The U.S. Coast Guard was founded by an Act of Congress to fight contraband trade and aid distressed vessels at sea. (AP, 1/28/98) (HN, 1/28/99) 1915        Jan 28, 1st US ship, the William P. Frye, was lost in WW I while carrying wheat to UK. (MC, 1/28/02) 1915        Jan 28, The German navy attacked the U.S. freighter William P. Frye, loaded with wheat for Britain. (HN, 1/28/99)1916        Jan 28, Louis D. Brandeis, a private practice attorney and leader in the US Zionist movement, was appointed by President Wilson to the Supreme Court, becoming its first Jewish member. He served until 1939. (AP, 1/28/98) (SFC, 10/6/05, p.A15)1917        Jan 28, US forces were recalled from Mexico after nearly eleven months of fruitless searching for Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa, accused of leading a bloody raid against Columbus, New Mexico. (MC, 1/28/02)1918        Jan 28, Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae (b.1872), Canadian MD and author of the poem Flanders Field (1915), died. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McCrae) 1918        Jan 28, Leon Trotsky became leader of the Russian Communists. (MC, 1/28/02)1921        Jan 28, Albert Einstein startled Berlin by suggesting the possibility of measuring the universe. (HN, 1/28/99)1922        Jan 28, The American Pro Football Association was renamed “National Football League.” (MC, 1/28/02)1923        Jan 28, The 1st “National Socialist German Workers Party” (NSDAP, aka NAZI) formed in Munich. (MC, 1/28/02)1929        Jan 28, Claus Oldenburg, US pop artist (Alphabet/Good Humor), was born in Stockholm, Sweden. He worked in Chicago as a newspaper reporter and then went to New York in 1956. He opened his “Store” in 1961, which was a storefront stocked with painted plaster replicas of food, clothing, and inexpensive household goods. (WSJ, 10/11/95, p. A-12) (MC, 1/28/02)1932        Jan 28, The Japanese attacked Shanghai, China, and declared martial law. (HN, 1/28/99)1933        Jan 28, Susan Sontag, American essayist and novelist, was born. Her works included “The Style of Radical Will” and “Illness as a Metaphor.” (HN, 1/28/99)1934        Jan 28, The 1st US rope ski tow began operation at Woodstock, Vermont. (MC, 1/28/02)1936        Jan 28, Alan Alda, [Alphonso D’Abruzzo], actor (Hawkeye Pierce-M*A*S*H), was born in NYC. (MC, 1/28/02) 1936        Jan 28, A fellow prison inmate slashed infamous kidnapper Richard Loeb to death. (HN, 1/28/99)1941        Jan 28, French General Charles DeGaulle’s Free French forces sacked south Libya oasis. (HN, 1/28/99)1944        Jan 28, Leonard Bernstein’s “Jeremiah,” premiered in Pittsburgh. (MC, 1/28/02) 1944        Jan 28, Matthew Henson received a joint medal from Congress as co-discoverer of the North Pole. (HN, 1/28/99) 1944        Jan 28, 683 British bombers attacked Berlin. (MC, 1/28/02) 1944        Jan 28, U-271 & U-571 sank off Ireland. (MC, 1/28/02)1945        Jan 28, During World War II, Allied supplies began reaching China over the newly reopened Burma Road. (AP, 1/28/98) 1945        Jan 28, Chiang Kai-shek renamed the Ledo-Burma Road the Stillwell Road, in honor of General Joseph Stillwell. (HN, 1/28/99) 1945        Jan 28, The US Army 10th Mountain Division first entered combat in the Apennine Mountains of northern Italy. (ON, 4/2011, p.7) 1945        Jan 28, The Red Army captured Klaipeda, the last German-held Lithuanian city. (LHC, 1/28/03)1946        Jan 28, Helene Schjerfbeck (b.1862), Finnish painter, died. Her work included a 5 painting series of self-portraits that represented herself at various ages. (Econ, 11/24/07, p.91) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helene_Schjerfbeck)1948        Jan 28, A plane chartered by US Immigration Services left Oakland, Ca., carrying 32 people, including 28 Mexicans. Many were part of the bracero program and had finished their government-sponsored work contracts. 20 miles west of Coalinga an engine exploded, a wing broke off and more than 100 witnesses watched bodies and luggage thrown from the fireball. There were no survivors. (http://tinyurl.com/ky6debf) 1948        Jan 28, Charles Taylor, later president of Liberia (1997-2003), was born in Arthington, near Monrovia. His family descended from freed American slaves He was the third of 15 children of an Americo-Liberian father, Nelson Taylor. His mother, Zoe, was a Gola-woman. (www.liberiapastandpresent.org/charles_taylor.htm)(AP, 7/14/09)1949        Jan 28, NY Giants signed their 1st black players, Monte Irvin & Ford Smith. (MC, 1/28/02)1953        Jan 28, J. Fred Muggs (the chimp) joined NBC’s “Today Show.” (MC, 1/28/02)1955        Jan 28, The U.S. Congress passed a bill allowing mobilization of troops if China should attack Taiwan. (HN, 1/28/99)1956        Jan 28, Elvis Presley recorded his television debut for “Stage Show” hosted by Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey.” (SFC, 12/27/04, p.C10) (www.elvisconcerts.com/liv1956.htm) 1956        Jan 28, Pres. Eisenhower rejected a proposal for a friendship pact from Soviet Premier Bulganin. (EWH, 1968, p.1210) 1956        Jan 28, Iva Toguri D’Aquino (1916-2006), a Japanese-American suspected of being wartime radio propagandist “Tokyo Rose,” was released from prison at Alderson, W. Virginia. In 1949 she had been tried in San Francisco and convicted for having spoken “into a microphone concerning the loss of ships.” She was pardoned in 1977 by President Ford. (SFC, 9/28/06, p.A18) (AH, 10/02, p.28) 1956        Jan 28-1956 Jan 29, Henry Louis Mencken (b. Sep 11-12, 1880), author, critic and journalist, died in his sleep in Baltimore. H.L. Mencken’s work included “Smart Set,” “American Mercury,” “In Defense of Women,” “Treatise on the Gods,” and “A Mencken Chrestomathy.” Mencken won fame as a journalist with the Baltimore Morning Herald and Baltimore Sun, as editor of The American Mercury magazine and as a literary critic. In 2002 Terry Teachout authored “The Skeptic: A Life of H.L. Mencken.” In 2005 Marion Elizabeth Rodgers authored “Mencken: The American Iconoclast.” (HNQ, 6/20/98)(SSFC, 11/3/02, p.M1)(www.policyreview.org/DEC02/munson.html)1958        Jan 28, Roy Campanella, catcher for the Brooklyn Dodgers, was paralyzed in a car crash. In 1959 Topps Chewing Gum Company issued a baseball card in his honor featuring Campanella in a wheelchair with the phrase “Symbol of Courage.” (AH, 6/03, p.56) (http://tinyurl.com/ry7spx)1959        Jan 28, Joseph Sprinzak (73), Speaker of Israel Knesset (1949-59), died. (MC, 1/28/02)1962        Jan 28, Elliot Joslin (b.1869), American pioneering diabetes researcher, died. He had argued that controlling the level of glucose in a person’s bloodstream was the key to managing type 2 diabetes. (www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/pagerender.fcgi?artid=1848826&pageindex=1)1963        Jan 28, Jean Felix Piccard, Swiss explorer, died on his 79th birthday. (MC, 1/28/02)1964        Jan 28, The Soviets downed a U.S. jet over East Germany killing three. (HN, 1/28/99)1970        Jan 28, Israeli fighter jets attacked the suburbs of Cairo. (HN, 1/28/99)1973        Jan 28, A cease-fire officially went into effect in the Vietnam War. The Vietnam War resulted in the death of 58,153 (58,167) Americans, 1.1 million North Vietnamese and Southern resistance fighters (Viet Cong), and 2 million civilians. In 2001 Gerald Nicosia authored “Home to War: A History of the Vietnam Veteran’s Movement.” (AP, 1/28/04)(WSJ, 11/30/95, p.A-23)(SFEM, 11/10/96, p.12)(SSFC, 6/3/01, DB p.68)1977        Jan 28, A heavy blizzard began in Eastern Canada and the US. It claimed as many as 100 lives. This was the only blizzard declared a natural and national disaster by the American and Canadian governments. In 1978 Erno Rossi authored “White Death: Blizzard of ’77.” (www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-gRb_MuUgg) (www.whitedeath.com/)1978        Jan 28, Fire swept through the historic downtown Coates House hotel in Kansas City, Mo., killing 20 people. (AP, 1/28/08)1979        Jan 28, “The Wiz” closed at Majestic Theater in NYC after 1672 performances. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wiz)1980        Jan 28, SF Mayor Diane Feinstein signed a Friendship City agreement with Zhao Xingzhi, vice mayor of Shanghai. It was the 1st of its kind between an American city and the PRC. (SFC, 1/28/05, p.F7) 1980        Jan 28, Six U.S. diplomats who had avoided being taken hostage at their embassy in Tehran flew out of Iran with the help of Canadian diplomats. (AP, 1/28/98)1981        Jan 28, William J. Casey (1913-1987) became the 13th director of CIA replacing Adm. Stansfield Turner. (www.espionageinfo.com/Cou-De/DCI-Director-of-the-Central-Intelligence-Agency.html)1982        Jan 28, Italian anti-terrorism forces rescued U.S. Brigadier General James L. Dozier, 42 days after he had been kidnapped by the Red Brigades. (AP, 1/28/98)1985        Jan 28, The song “We are the World” was recorded in Hollywood, Ca. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_Are_the_World)1986        Jan 28, Just 73 seconds into its 10th launch, Americans watched in horror as the space shuttle Challenger (STS-51L) exploded in midair, killing its crew of seven: Navy pilot Michael J. Smith, Commander Francis Scobee and mission specialist Ronald McNair, mission specialist Ellison Onizuka, first teacher in space Christa McAuliffe, payload specialist Gregory Jarvis and mission specialist Judith Resnik. President Ronald Reagan spoke to the nation from the Oval Office that afternoon, explaining the tragedy to the nation’s schoolchildren: “The future doesn’t belong to the fainthearted. It belongs to the brave…. The crew of the space shuttle Challenger honored us by the manner in which they lived their lives. We will never forget them nor the last time we saw them this morning as they prepared for their journey and waved good-bye and ‘slipped the surly bonds of earth to touch the face of God.'” Space shuttle flights were suspended until 1988. An independent U.S. commission blamed the disaster on unusually cold temperatures that morning and the failure of the O-rings, a set of gaskets in the rocket boosters. Rocco Petrone (1926-2006), former Apollo program manager and Rockwell chief shuttle engineer, had cautioned against the launch fearing that low temperatures might have damaged the shuttle’s thermal protection tiles. (SFC, 12/18/96, p.A3)(AP, 1/28/98) (HNPD, 1/28/00)(SFC, 9/1/06, p.B8) 1986        Jan 28, In northern California the Apex Houston oil spill began. By Feb 4 it killed an estimated 6,500 common murre seabirds. (www.dfg.ca.gov/ospr/NRDA/apex-houston.aspx)(SSFC, 1/20/02, p.A27)1988        Jan 28, A 13-day standoff in Marion, Utah, between police and a polygamist clan ended in gunfire that killed a state corrections officer and seriously wounded the group’s leader, Addam Swapp. (AP, 1/28/98) 1988        Jan 28, Public Service of New Hampshire filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. This was the first American utility since the Depression to go bankrupt, mostly because of unexpected costs of a nuclear plant. (www.nu.com/aboutnu/psnh.asp) (Econ, 6/2/07, SR p.22) 1988        Jan 28, The Supreme Court of Canada struck down the nation’s restrictive abortion law. (AP, 1/28/98) 1988        Jan 28, Nicaragua’s leftist government and Contra rebels began their first face-to-face peace talks, meeting in San Jose, Costa Rica. (AP, 1/28/98)1989        Jan 28, In Antarctica an Argentine navy ship, the Bahia Paraiso, was wrecked on rocks next to DeLaca Island, near the US Palmer Station scientific base. It was still leaking diesel fuel in 1996 and had decimated imperial cormorant and kelp gull bird population. (SFC, 1/4/97, p.A19) (www.antarcticmarc.com/bahia.html) 1989        Jan 28, In Hungary official Imre Pozsgay described the 1956 Hungarian Revolution as a popular uprising, a startling contradiction of the official Communist view that the revolt was a counter-revolution. (AP, 1/28/99)1990        Jan 28, The San Francisco 49ers routed the Denver Broncos, 55-10, in the 24th Super Bowl. (AP, 1/28/00)1991        Jan 28, Secretary of State James A. Baker the Third and Soviet Foreign Minister Alexander A. Bessmertnykh announced in Washington DC that a planned February superpower summit in Moscow had been postponed. (AP, 1/28/01) 1991        Jan 28, The US military reported that more than 60 Iraqi fighter-bombers had taken refuge in Iran, where they were impounded by the Iranian government. (AP, 1/28/01) 1991        Jan 28, Harold “Red” Grange (b.1903), three-time All-American, died. He is credited with establishing professional football as a popular spectator sport. In 2009 Lars Anderson authored “Red Grange and the Barnstorming Tour That Launched the NFL.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Grange) (SSFC, 1/3/10, Books p.F4)1992        Jan 28, President George H.W. Bush, in his State of the Union address, proposed tax breaks and business incentives to revive the economy, and announced dramatic cuts in the U.S. nuclear arsenal. (AP, 1/28/02) 1992        Jan 28, A multinational Middle East peace conference opened in Moscow. (AP, 1/28/02)1993        Jan 28, Funeral services were held in Washington for former Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. (AP, 1/28/98) 1993        Jan 28, The Israeli Supreme Court unanimously upheld the deportations of 400 Palestinians from the occupied territories to Lebanon. (AP, 1/28/98)1994        Jan 28, In Los Angeles, Superior Court Judge Stanley Weisberg declared a mistrial in the case of Lyle Menendez, just over two weeks after a mistrial was declared in the case of Lyle’s brother Erik; both juries deadlocked over whether the brothers were guilty of murder in the shooting deaths of their wealthy parents. They were later retried, convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole. (AP, 1/28/99) 1994        Jan 28, Helicopter crashed into an office building in San Jose, Calif. 1 person was killed. (http://tinyurl.com/8c32g)1995        Jan 28, President Clinton was host to a 5 1/2-hour “work session” of governors, legislators and local officials, both Democrats and Republicans, to discuss welfare reform. (AP, 1/28/00)1996        Jan 28, In Super Bowl XXX the Dallas Cowboys captured their third Super Bowl victory in four years, beating the Pittsburgh Steelers 27-to-17. (AP, 1/28/01) 1996        Jan 28, In California Gunner Lindberg, head of the supremacist gang Insane Criminal Posse, murdered Thien Minh Ly (24) at Tustin high school. It was a racially motivated attack where he stabbed Ly 50 times, slashed his throat and pounded his head. Lindberg was convicted in 1997 and sentenced to death. (SFC,12/13/97, p.A20) 1996        Jan 28, Joseph Brodsky (b.1940), Russian-born poet, died at age 55. He was a winner of the Nobel Prize in 1987. In 2000 his “Collected Poems in English” was published. (WSJ, 1/29/96, p. A-1) (SFEC, 10/8/00, BR p.5)1997        Jan 28, O.J. Simpson’s fate was placed in the hands of a civil court jury that was charged with deciding whether Simpson should be held liable for the slayings of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman. The jury found that Simpson was liable, and ordered him to pay $33.5 million. (AP, 1/28/98) 1997        Jan 28, In Algeria union leader Abdelhak Benhamouda was killed by an assassin. Separately a bomb in the marketplace at Blida killed 15 people. (USAT, 1/29/97, p.8A) 1997        Jan 28, In Chechnya Aslan Maskhadov claim victory in the elections. (SFC, 1/29/97, p.A6) 1997        Jan 28, PepsiCo Inc. said it was ending business in Myanmar due to human rights problems. It joined Eddie Bauer, Levi Strauss and Liz Claiborne. (USAT, 1/29/97, p.8A) 1997        Jan 28, Five former police officers in South Africa admitted to killing anti-apartheid activist Stephen Biko, who died in police custody in 1977. His death had been officially listed as an accident. (MC, 1/28/02) 1997        Jan 28, In Sudan the government faced a new rebel offensive. (SFC, 1/28/97, p.A8)1998        Jan 28, The day after his State of the Union address, President Clinton barnstormed in the nation’s heartland, where he was warmly received; accompanying him was Vice President Al Gore, who urged Americans to “join me in supporting him and standing by his side.” (AP, 1/28/99) 1998        Jan 28, Michelangelo’s “Christ & the Woman of Samaria” sold for $7.4 million. (MC, 1/28/02) 1998        Jan 28, In Algeria the military reported 3 more civilian massacres that killed 34 people and said that 18 Muslim rebels were killed. (WSJ, 1/29/98, p.A1) 1998        Jan 28, In Burundi Colonel Firmin Sinzoyiheba, the Tutsi minister of defense, was killed in a helicopter crash in the Gihinga Hills. (SFC, 1/29/98, p.A11) 1998        Jan 28, In the Czech Republic prime minister Josef Tosovsky’s government won a vote of confidence in the parliament 123-71. (SFC, 1/29/98, p.A11) 1998        Jan 28, Israel’s finance minister, Yaakov Neeman, met with US officials and outlined a plan to end the $1.2 billion annual economic package over 10-12 years with an increase in annual military aid from $1.8 billion to 2.4 billion. (SFC, 1/29/98, p.A10) 1998        Jan 28, From Kenya it was reported that 77 people died in the month in attacks aimed at ethnic Kikuyus, who opposed Pres. Moi’s re-election. (WSJ, 1/28/98, p.A1) 1998        Jan 28, In India the 26 people accused of the May 21, 1991 assassination of Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi were sentenced to death by hanging. Authorities braced for possible unrest. Only 2 of the 26 were charged with murder, the rest were charged with conspiracy. (WSJ, 1/28/98, p.A1) (SFC, 1/29/98, p.A10) 1998        Jan 28, In Japan two more finance ministry officials resigned and a 3rd committed suicide. Separately the lower house passed a $16 billion income tax cut. (SFC, 1/29/98, p.A11) 1998        Jan 28, In Chiapas, Mexico, Rubicel Ruiz Gamboa, a peasant organizer in Ocosingo, was gunned down in an ambush. (SFEC, 2/1/98, p.A22) 1998        Jan 28, In Mexico federal police in Guerrero came upon the anti-kidnapping squad of Morelos with the tortured body of a 17-year-old member of a kidnapping gang. They suspected that the body was to be dumped and arrested the state officers that included Armando Martinez Salgado, chief of the squad. (SFC, 2/10/98, p.A10) 1998        Jan 28, From Switzerland 3 balloonists set out to circle the globe in the Breitling Orbiter 2. They failed to get clearance from flying over China in time and were forced down in Burma on Feb 7 after traveling a record 4,730 miles. (SFC, 2/7/98, p.11) 1998        Jan 28, In Thailand officials at Chulalongkorn Univ. posted posters forbidding the wearing of miniskirts. (SFC, 1/29/98, p.A11)1999        Jan 28, The Senate voted 54-44 to allow the video-taping of witness depositions for the Clinton impeachment trial. (SFC, 1/29/99, p.A1) 1999        Jan 28, Missouri Governor Mel Carnahan honored a personal request for mercy from Pope John Paul II and commuted the death sentence of triple murderer Darrel Mease (52) to life without parole. (SFC, 1/29/99, p.A1)(AP, 1/28/00) 1999        Jan 28, Ford Motor Co, confirmed the acquisition of the passenger car division of Volvo AB for $6.47 billion. (SFC, 1/28/99, p.B1) (WSJ, 1/3/00, p.R12) 1999        Jan 28, Scientists announced the creation of Element 114 with about 184 neutrons in its nucleus. (SFC, 1/29/99, p.A9) 1999        Jan 28, The council of the American Geophysical Union, an int’l. organization with 35,000 members, issued a warning that the pace of global warning was increasing due to greenhouse gases. (SFC, 1/29/99, p.A3) 1999        Jan 28, NATO allies warned Pres. Milosevic that they were ready to use immediate force, and Britain and France said they were prepared to send in ground troops to enforce a peace settlement in Kosovo. (SFEC, 4/18/99, p.A3) 1999        Jan 28, In Burundi officials reported that at least 178 civilians had been killed over the last 2 weeks in clashes between rebels and government troops. (SFC, 1/29/99, p.E9) 1999        Jan 28, In Colombia Pres. Pastrana ordered in 2,700 soldiers and police to restore order. 2 human rights activists were kidnapped by right-wing militia. They were released Feb 18. (WSJ, 1/29/99, p.A1) 1999        Jan 28, From Iraq a UN official reported that hoof-and-mouth disease had crippled 1 million sheep and cattle in the country and that 50,000 kids and calves had died from the viral disease. The vaccine supply was exhausted due to the 1993 destruction of a vaccine laboratory by the UN commission. (SFC, 1/29/99, p.E9) 1999        Jan 28, In Cape Town, South Africa, a bomb exploded at the main police station and wounded 11 people. It was the 3rd bombing in 5 months. (SFC, 1/29/99, p.E9)2000        Jan 28, Sister Jeanne O’Laughlin, the Florida nun selected by Attorney General Janet Reno as a neutral party in the custody battle over Elian Gonzalez, sought unsuccessfully to persuade Reno to change her mind about returning the six-year-old to Cuba. (AP, 1/28/01) 2000        Jan 28, In Karachi, Pakistan, a bomb exploded in a Mosque and killed 4 people with 28 wounded. (SFC, 1/29/00, p.C1) 2000        Jan 28, In Turkey police uncovered 7 more bodies at a Hezbollah hideout and the government ordered clerics to read a sermon denouncing violence. Captured militants in Batman led police to a cache of small arms that included 26 AK-47 assault rifles. (SFC, 1/29/00, p.A9)2001        Jan 28, Super Bowl XXXV was played in Tampa. The Baltimore Ravens defeated the New York Giants 34-7. (SSFC, 12/24/00, p.T8) 2001        Jan 28, Marc Rich, fugitive financier pardoned by outgoing Pres. Clinton, said he would return to the US to face tax evasion charges. (SSFC, 12/30/01, p.D2) 2001        Jan 28, In Algeria an armed group killed 2 dozen people in Oued Fares in the Chlef region. 16 of the dead were children. (SFC, 1/29/01, p.A14) 2001        Jan 28, In Colombia gunmen killed at least 10 people in Hato Nuevo. (SFC, 1/29/01, p.A14) 2001        Jan 28, In Israel state workers under the Histadrut labor federation expanded their strike with a walkout by workers at Ben-Gurion airport over pay demands. (SFC, 1/29/01, p.A12) 2001        Jan 28, In Karachi, Pakistan, masked gunmen ambushed a religious school’s van and killed 5 Sunni Muslims. (SFC, 1/29/01, p.A14) 2001        Jan 28, In Peshawar, Pakistan, an angry mob torched the English language newspaper, the Frontier Post. It had just published a letter to the editor titled “Why Muslims hate Jews.” (LSA, Fall/03, p.38) 2001        Jan 28, Only a week after naming a record-setting 37 new cardinals, Pope John Paul II named 5 new cardinals, two Germans, and one each from South Africa, Bolivia and Ukraine. He also revealed the identities of 2 others from the former Soviet Union. (SFC, 1/29/01, p.A14) (AP, 1/28/02) 2001        Jan 28, Weekend clashes in Zanzibar (Tanzania) killed 39 opposition supporters as protesters demanded new elections. (WSJ, 1/29/01, p.A1) (Econ, 12/13/03, p.43)2002        Jan 28, Hamid Karzai became the first Afghan leader to visit Washington in 39 years; President George W. Bush promised a “lasting partnership” with Afghanistan. (AP, 1/28/03) 2002        Jan 28, US forces and Afghan militiamen attacked and killed 6 al Qaeda gunmen, who had been holed up at the Mir Wais Hospital in Kandahar. (SFC, 1/28/02, p.A9) (SFC, 1/29/02, p.A10) (NW, 8/26/02, p.39) 2002        Jan 28, Palm Inc. introduced its $449 i705 handheld computer with wireless e-mail and message service. (SFC, 1/28/02, p.E1) 2002        Jan 28, An Ecuadoran TAME Airlines Boeing 727-100 crashed along the Colombia border with 92 people aboard. The wreckage was found on a glacier of the Nevado de Cumbal volcano and there were no survivors. (SFC, 1/29/02, p.A8) (SFC, 1/30/02, p.A8) 2002        Jan 28, Israeli police killed a Palestinian car thief as he barreled through an army checkpoint in a stolen car. (SFC, 1/29/02, p.A8) (WSJ, 1/29/02, p.A1) 2002        Jan 28, In Sweden Astrid Lindgren (b.1907), author of “Pippi Longstocking” (1945), died in Stockholm. (SFC, 1/29/02, p.A17) 2002        Jan 28, In Zimbabwe Pres. Mugabe’s government announced plans for compulsory national youth service training. (SFC, 1/29/02, p.A8)2003        Jan 28, Pres. Bush in his State of the Union vowed to use the “full force and might of the U.S. military” if needed to disarm Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. Bush pledged of $15 billion for AIDS assistance in Africa, a domestic agenda of tax cuts, medical malpractice caps and a ban on certain late abortions. Bush also announced a $1.2 billion hydrogen fuel initiative. (www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/02/20030206-2.html)(AP, 1/29/03)(WSJ, 1/29/03, p.A1) 2003        Jan 28, Oregon voters defeated a proposed 3-year income tax hike designed to forestall $310 million in cuts to schools and social services. (SFC, 1/29/03, p.A3) 2003        Jan 28, John Philip Thompson (77) died. He expanded his family’s business into the nationwide 7-Eleven chain. (AP, 1/28/04) 2003        Jan 28, US and Afghan forces battled rebels aligned with renegade leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar in the largest-scale fighting in 10 months. 18 enemy fighters were killed in 2 days of fighting. Norwegian F-16s participated in bombing enemy targets. (AP, 1/28/03) (WSJ, 1/29/03, p.A1) (SFC, 1/29/03, p.A8) 2003        Jan 28, A Chinese company began distributing generic drugs for an anti-AIDS cocktail. (SFC, 1/29/03, p.A5) 2003        Jan 28, In eastern India a passenger bus caught fire after colliding with a truck carrying paint in dense fog, killing at least 42 people and injuring 13 others. (AP, 1/28/03) 2003        Jan 28, An explosion leveled a Gaza City house, killing three Palestinians, including a teenage brother and sister, and wounding 11. In Jenin four Palestinians were killed in battles with Israeli troops. (AP, 1/28/03) 2003        Jan 28, In Israel PM Ariel Sharon’s Likud won with 38 seats, but still needed coalition partners to reach a 61-spot majority in the 120-seat parliament. (AP, 1/29/03) (AP, 2/4/03) 2003        Jan 28, Ivory Coast’s army said it opposed a new peace deal with rebel forces. Ethnic fighting flared amid violent protests over the proposed peace accord. A 4th day of ethnic clashes reportedly killed 10 people. (AP, 1/28/03) (AP, 1/29/03) 2003        Jan 28, Mauritania, an Arab-dominated West African nation, banned anti-U.S. protests and deployed hundreds of security forces in the capital to enforce the prohibition. (AP, 1/29/03) 2003        Jan 28, In Mexico, gunmen in San Juan Chamula ambushed police trying to arrest murder suspects, sparking a gunbattle that left 5 people dead. (AP, 1/28/03) 2003        Jan 28, Rwanda began releasing 19,000 genocide suspects and former rebels in an effort to ease intense overcrowding in the country’s prisons and foster national reconciliation. (AP, 1/28/03) 2003        Jan 28, In Sweden Keith Jarrett was named winner of the $117,000 Polar Music Prize, founded in 1989 by Stig Anderson, manager of ABBA. (SFC, 1/29/03, p.D8)2004        Jan 28, David Kay, former head of the CIA’s weapons search team in Iraq, told Congress no weapons of mass destruction had been found and that prewar intelligence was “almost all wrong.” In 2007 Bob Drogin authored “Curveball: Spies, Lies, and the Con Man Who Caused a War.” Curveball was the code name for an Iraqi chemical engineer who turned up in Germany in 1999 and served as the source for Iraq’s chemical and biological weapons pro-grams. In 2011 Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi, identified as the informer called “Curveball,” said he is proud that he lied about his country developing mobile biological warfare labs. (SSFC, 4/11/04, p.A22) (WSJ, 10/13/07, p.W8) (Econ, 11/3/07, p.100) (AP, 2/16/11) 2004        Jan 28, A new strain of the Mydoom virus emerged. Mydoom.B was programmed to launch an attack against Microsoft’s web site the following week. (SFC, 1/29/04, p.B1) 2004        Jan 28, Scientists said they had created a new form of matter, called a fermionic condensate, and predicted it could help lead to the next generation of superconductors for use in electricity generation, more efficient trains and countless other applications. It is the sixth known form of matter, after gases, solids, liquids, plasma and a Bose-Einstein condensate, created only in 1995. (Reuters, 1/29/04) 2004        Jan 28, The UN was shut down and more than one million children had the day off school on the heels of a storm that dumped as much as 36 cm. of snow in the Northeast. (AP, 1/28/04) 2004        Jan 28, Lloyd “Pete” Bucher (76), former U-S Navy commander who helped his USS “Pueblo” crew survive brutal captivity in North Korea then faced criticism back home, died in Poway, California. (AP, 1/28/05) 2004        Jan 28, Elroy “Crazy Legs” Hirsch (80), a pro football Hall of Famer and later the athletic director at Wisconsin, died. (AP, 1/28/04) 2004        Jan 28, In Afghanistan a suicide car bomber blew himself up in a taxi next to British peacekeepers patrolling the Kabul, killing one soldier and wounding four. (AP, 1/28/04) 2004        Jan 28, Arab prisoners began their journey to Germany under a long-awaited prisoner swap between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas. (AP, 1/28/04) 2004        Jan 28, Bosnia’s international administrator imposed a decree to unify the ethnically divided city of Mostar, a precondition for Bosnia to join international organizations and perhaps even the European Union. (AP, 1/28/04) 2004        Jan 28, British PM Tony Blair won vindication when a judge said the BBC was wrong to report the government had “sexed up” intelligence to justify war in Iraq. (AP, 1/28/05) 2004        Jan 28, Businesses shut down, schools closed and streets emptied for a 48-hour strike to protest the Dominican Republic’s worst economic crisis in decades. (AP, 1/28/04) 2004        Jan 28, In the Dominican Republic at least 4 protesters died from gunshot wounds suffered in clashes with security forces. (AP, 1/29/04) 2004        Jan 28, In Haiti one student was shot and killed as protests mounted against President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. (AP, 1/28/04) 2004        Jan 28, In Iraq some ten thousand Shiite Muslims protested in the south to demand the resignation of the U.S.-appointed provincial governor. (AP, 1/29/04) 2004        Jan 28, In Iraq a suicide bomber blew up a van disguised as an ambulance in front of the Shaheen Hotel after speeding through a security barrier in the heart of Baghdad, killing three people, including a South African, and injuring 17. (AP, 1/28/04) (SFC, 1/28/04, p.A9) 2004        Jan 28, Israeli troops clashed with Palestinian militants in fierce, prolonged street battles across Gaza City, killing eight Palestinians. (AP, 1/28/04) (SFC, 1/29/04, p.A7) 2004        Jan 28, Italian police said they cracked a drug smuggling ring spanning four continents, arrested more than 150 people and seized more than five tons of cocaine. (AP, 1/28/04) 2004        Jan 28, Nigeria said North Korea had agreed to share its missile technology.  Nigerian VP Atiku Abubakar reached the accord with Yang Hyong Sop, the visiting VP of North Korea’s Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly. Nigeria rejected the offer under US pressure. (AP, 1/28/04) (WSJ, 2/4/04, p.A1)2005        Jan 28, Senate Democrats criticized President Bush’s plan to add personal accounts to Social Security and accused his administration of improperly using the Social Security Administration to promote the idea. (AP, 1/28/06) 2005        Jan 28, Procter & Gamble, under CEO Alan G. Lafley (b.1947), announced the largest acquisition in its history, agreeing to buy Gillette in a $57 billion deal. Gillette CEO James Kilts stood to reap over $153 million. (WSJ, 1/31/05, p.A1)(WSJ, 6/1/05, p.A16) 2005        Jan 28, According to an insider’s written account, female interrogators tried to break Muslim detainees at the US prison camp in Guantanamo Bay by using techniques such as sexual touching, wearing a miniskirt and thong underwear. (AP, 1/28/05) 2005        Jan 28, Bolivia’s Pres. Mesa agreed to allow Santa Cruz residents to elect their own local leaders and hold a national referendum that could extend greater autonomy to other provinces. (AP, 1/28/05) 2005        Jan 28, In Chile Retired Gen. Manuel Contreras, the chief of the feared security service of former dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet, was forcefully arrested at his home and sent to prison with four of his top aides after being convicted in an emblematic human rights case. (AP, 1/28/05) 2005        Jan 28, Colombia and Venezuela announced a settlement in a bitter dispute over the capture of a Colombian rebel on Venezuelan soil. (AP, 1/29/05) 2005        Jan 28, India took a major step to reform its financial sector and boost the country’s stock markets by allowing non-government pension funds to invest up to 5 percent of their portfolios in equities. (AP, 1/28/05) 2005        Jan 28, Iraq battened down for the 1st free balloting in half a century, imposing a 7 p.m.-6 a.m. curfew and closing Baghdad Int’l Airport. 5 US soldiers were killed in the capital and insurgents blasted polling stations across the country. Iraqis overseas began three days of voting in 14 nations. (AP, 1/28/05) 2005        Jan 28, Authorities in Iraq said they have arrested three close associates of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. In southern Iraq a roadside bomb hit an Iraqi police vehicle, killing one officer. 2 American soldiers were killed in two separate incidents in Baghdad. (AP, 1/28/05) 2005        Jan 28, Israel’s army chief ordered troops to halt operations in the Gaza Strip and to scale back raids in the West Bank, as hundreds of Palestinian police deployed in the volatile central and southern parts of the territory. (AP, 1/28/05) 2005        Jan 28, In Nicaragua Eugenio Hernandez, who served as mayor of El Ayote from 1990 to 2000, was sentenced to 25 years in prison in the Nov 9 slaying of Maria Jose Bravo (26), a reporter who was investigating an electoral dispute. (AP, 1/29/05) 2005        Jan 28, Election officials said the Hamas won an overwhelming victory in local elections in Gaza towns in a setback for the Fatah Party of Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas. (AP, 1/28/05)2006        Jan 28, A 20-million US dollar FA-18 Hornet strike fighter jet was lost when it crashed during a training exercise off the Queensland coast. (AFP, 1/30/06) 2006        Jan 28, Close to 200 teams in NYC participated in the 3rd annual Idiotarod, a race of shopping carts pulled by a human team. (WSJ, 2/2/06, p.A1) 2006        Jan 28, In southern Arkansas police found the bodies of 3 children lying side-by-side on a bed in their home after Paula Eleazar Mendez (43), their mother, said she smothered them. (AP, 1/29/06) 2006        Jan 28, Warren Mundine, previously an advisor on Aboriginal issues to the conservative government of PM John Howard, took over the role of Australian Labor Party president. The first Aborigine to be elected president of an Australian political party, Mundine said that he wanted to enter parliament after his term finishes. (AFP, 1/28/06) 2006        Jan 28, A 2-day European conference on the future of the EU ended in Salzburg, Austria. European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said that Europe must face globalization head-on and not shy away from the issue. (AP, 1/28/06) 2006        Jan 28, Beijing prepared to usher in the Lunar New Year with bang, after authorities lifted a 12-year ban on fireworks. (AP, 1/28/06) 2006        Jan 28, China’s state-owned CNOOC began gas production at the Chunxiao field near the disputed border region with Japan. (WSJ, 4/6/06, p.A13) 2006        Jan 28, Karnataka Governor T.N. Chaturvedi invited H.D. Kumaraswamy (b.1959), son of former Indian PM H.D. Deve Gowda, to form the government in the state after Dharam Singh resigned earlier in the day. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.D.Kumaraswamy) 2006        Jan 28, The UN Children Fund (UNICEF) said 3 more children have contracted polio in Indonesia, bringing the total cases to 302 since the crippling disease resurfaced last year. (AFP, 1/28/06) 2006        Jan 28, Iran’s foreign minister said Tehran and Moscow have agreed to expand the number of countries participating in the plan to enrich Iranian uranium in Russia, describing a compromise that could satisfy U.S. concerns about the nuclear program. (AP, 1/28/06) 2006        Jan 28, According to a new tape the kidnappers of four Christian peace activists threatened to kill them unless all Iraqi prisoners are released from Iraqi and US prisons. The aired tape was date Jan 21. The 4 workers disappeared last Nov 26. (AP, 1/28/06) 2006        Jan 28, A Sunni Arab leader condemned recent police crackdowns on Sunni neighborhoods in the Iraqi capital and demanded government protection from further raids. At least eight people were killed in attacks across Iraq. A US soldier was killed in a roadside bomb blast in Baghdad. (AP, 1/28/06) (SFC, 1/30/06, p.A7) 2006        Jan 28, At least 8 people were killed in a gunfight between Indian security forces and Kashmir rebels. (AP, 1/28/06) 2006        Jan 28, Rabbi Yitzhak Kadouri (106), a leader of the Kabbalah school of Jewish mystical thought who wielded great influence over Israeli politics, died in Jerusalem. (AP, 1/30/06) 2006        Jan 28, North Korea warned of nuclear war and vowed to strengthen its deterrent forces as it demanded that Washington show evidence backing its allegation that the communist regime is counterfeiting US money. (AP, 1/28/06) 2006        Jan 28, In Pakistan suspected tribal rebels have fired rockets at a major gas field, blasted a main power line and tried to blow up a rail track in the restive southwestern province of Baluchistan. (AFP, 1/28/06) 2006        Jan 28, Fatah activists marched to Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas’ compound, police briefly stormed the parliament building in Gaza and security forces clashed with Hamas gunmen as the long-ruling party lashed out in anger for its devastating election loss. (AP, 1/28/06) 2006        Jan 28, In southern Poland an exhibition hall collapsed during a racing pigeon show in Katowice, killing at least 65 people and injuring 160. On June 26 three men, who helped design the exhibition hall, were arrested on suspicion of endangering lives by failing to meet building codes. (AP, 1/31/06) (SFC, 2/1/06, p.A3) (AP, 6/26/06)2007        Jan 28, The comedy “Little Miss Sunshine” won the top prize at the Screen Actors Guild Awards. Forest Whitaker won for his portrayal of Uganda’s brutal dictator Idi Amin in “The Last King of Scotland” and Helen Mirren won for her performance as Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II in “The Queen.” (Reuters, 1/29/07) 2007        Jan 28, Jim Gray (63), an acclaimed computer scientist, was last heard from shortly after he set out from San Francisco for the shark-infested waters of the Farallon Islands, about 25 miles west of the Golden Gate Bridge. (AP, 2/1/07) 2007        Jan 28, Rev. Robert Drinan (b.1920), former Jesuit congressman from Massachusetts (1971-1981), died. (SFC, 1/30/07, p.B5) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Drinan) 2007        Jan 28, Afghan Pres. Karzai told House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that his security forces need to be stronger as the two discussed possible US troop increases. (AP, 1/28/07) 2007        Jan 28, Officials said India will set up an aerospace defense command to shield itself against possible attacks from outer space. (AP, 1/28/07) 2007        Jan 28, US-backed Iraqi forces killed 263 militants in a daylong battle near Najaf against a group called the Jund al-Samaa, or Soldiers of Heaven. The group’s leader and foreign fighters were among the dead. The US military confirmed a report that a helicopter crashed during the battle and that the two crew members were killed. Mortar shells rained down on a girls’ secondary school in a mostly Sunni area of western Baghdad, killing five pupils and wounding 20. At least seven other people died in a series of bombings and shootings across the capital, mostly in Shiite areas. Drive-by shooters killed a high-ranking Shiite official at the Iraqi industry and mines ministry, along with his 27-year-old daughter and two other people. Two car bombs exploded within a half-hour of each other in the northern oil city of Kirkuk, killing a total of 11 people and wounding 34. US troops captured 21 suspected terrorists including an al-Qaida courier in a series of raids in Baghdad and Sunni areas north and west of the capital. At least 61 people were killed and scores wounded across Iraq. Ghanim al-Qureyshi, the provincial police chief of Diyala province, said the mayor of Baqouba and 1,500 provincial police officers have been fired in a bid to end the raging violence. (AFP, 1/28/07) (AP, 1/29/07)(AP, 1/30/07) 2007        Jan 28, The Israeli government approved the appointment of Raleb Majadele, the country’s first Muslim Cabinet member. (AP, 1/28/07) 2007        Jan 28, Some 50 Nigerian rebels attacked a city centre police station in the Niger Delta and freed George Sobomabo, a top commander, arrested earlier that day. Militants released 125 inmates when they stormed the police station in Port Harcourt. (AFP, 1/28/07)(AFP, 1/30/07) 2007        Jan 28, Sinn Fein members overwhelmingly voted to begin cooperating with the Northern Ireland police, formally abandoning their decades-old hostility to legal law and order in the British territory. (AP, 1/28/07) 2007        Jan 28, In southern Pakistan dozens of people sitting on the roof of a crowded passenger train were by hit by an overhead power line. At least 15 people were killed and 40 were injured. (AP, 1/28/07) 2007        Jan 28, Hamas and Fatah gunmen battled each other in the streets in an increasingly bloody power struggle that left more than two dozen Palestinians dead over the weekend. Palestinian gunmen shot dead a member of a Hamas police force and a senior Fatah intelligence official was abducted in Gaza as Saudi Arabia called for talks to end the spiraling violence. (AP, 1/28/07)(AFP, 1/28/07) 2007        Jan 28, In Somalia gunmen attacked a police station in Mogadishu, sparking an hour-long battle that killed two people just hours after two other stations were hit with machine-guns and rocket-propelled grenades. (AP, 1/28/07)2008        Jan 28, Pres. Bush State in his State of the Union speech called again for immigration reform, an end to lawmakers’ pet projects, control of Social Security spending and making tax cuts permanent. (AP, 1/29/08) 2008        Jan 28, The US Senate confirmed former North Dakota Gov. Edward Schafer as secretary of agriculture. (WSJ, 1/29/08, p.A1) 2008        Jan 28, A US District judge in Washington, DC, sentenced Ricardo Palmera, a Colombian rebel leader, to 60 years in prison. Palmera admitted serving as FARC’s chief negotiator during discussions over the release of 3 American hostages captured in 2003. (SFC, 1/29/08, p.A4) 2008        Jan 28, Data Privacy Day began in the United States and Canada, as an extension of the Data Protection Day celebration that started in Europe in 2007. In the United States, the House and Senate passed Resolutions recognizing January 28, 2009 as National Data Privacy Day, and the Senate also recognized National Data Privacy Day in 2010 and 2011. (www.staysafeonline.org/dpd/about/history) 2008        Jan 28, It was reported that security costs for California Gov. Schwarzenegger and other top state officials approached $38 million a year. A state senate panel rejected a proposed $14.7 billion health-care plan supported by Gov. Schwarzenegger. (SFC, 1/28/08, p.D1) (WSJ, 1/29/08, p.A1) 2008        Jan 28, Pegasus Wireless, a Fremont, Ca., technology company, filed for bankruptcy. In 2011 financial officer Stephen Durland was sentenced to 33 months in jail for fraudulent stock sales that netted him some $2.1 million. CEO Jasper Knabb pleaded guilty to stock fraud that netted him some $29 million and awaited sentencing. On June 7, 2012, Knabb was sentenced to 21 years in federal prison. (SFC, 10/15/11, p.D1) (SFC, 6/8/12, p.D1) 2008        Jan 28, In SF one worker was killed and 2 others badly injured when a 5-story tower of a decommissioned power plant collapsed during demolition in the Hunters Point neighborhood. (SFC, 1/29/08, p.D2) 2008        Jan 28, Afghanistan’s Health Ministry said as many as 300 Afghans had died over the past 10 days from bitter cold and heavy snows. (SFC, 1/29/08, p.A4) 2008        Jan 28, Abderrahmane Bouzegza, leader of the Dec 11 attacks in Algiers, was killed by the army at Boumerdes, east of the capital. 4 others responsible for the attacks were arrested in February. (AFP, 2/6/08) 2008        Jan 28, In London demonstrators staged noisy protests as Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf held talks with PM Gordon Brown, amid criticism over human rights and concern over elections. (AP, 1/28/08) 2008        Jan 28, In Chile Patricia Troncoso, an indigenous rights activist jailed for setting fire to a farm once owned by Mapuche Indians, ended her 110-day hunger strike. (AP, 1/28/08) 2008        Jan 28, Congolese Tutsi rebels and Mai Mai militia clashed in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, breaking a ceasefire signed last week aimed at ending A long-running conflict in the east. (AP, 1/28/08) 2008        Jan 28, Egyptian security forces and Hamas militants strung barbed wire across one of the openings in the Egypt-Gaza border, a sign that a days-long breaching of the frontier may be nearing an end. (AP, 1/28/08) 2008        Jan 28, The EU launched its long-awaited peacekeeping force for Chad and the Central African Republic to help protect hundreds of thousands of refugees from strife-torn Darfur. (AFP, 1/28/08) 2008        Jan 28, A French court sentenced six French charity workers to 8 years in prison, after they were convicted in Chad of trying to kidnap 103 children they said were orphans from Darfur. (AP, 1/28/08) 2008        Jan 28, Archbishop Christodoulos (69), the leader of Greece’s powerful Orthodox Church, died. He eased centuries of tension with the Vatican but was viewed as reactionary by his liberal critics. (AP, 1/28/08) 2008        Jan 28, Iran received the final shipment of uranium fuel from Russia for its first nuclear plant, state media reported, a key step toward the launch of the reactor’s operations expected later this year. (AP, 1/28/08) 2008        Jan 28, In Iraq a roadside bomb struck a minibus carrying a coffin and mourners to a funeral in the predominantly Shiite southeastern neighborhood of New Baghdad, killing three passengers. Insurgents attacked 4 policemen heading home from work south of Mosul, killing two and wounding the other two. US troops detained 18 al-Qaida-linked militants in two days of operations ending today north of Baghdad. 5 American soldiers were killed in a complex attack in Mosul, described as one of al-Qaida in Iraq’s last strongholds. (AP, 1/28/08) (AP, 1/29/08) 2008        Jan 28, In Nakuru, Kenya, the provincial capital of the fertile Rift Valley, 64 bodies were counted at the morgue. In Kisumu on the shore of Lake Victoria, armed mobs of young men torched houses and buses, burning alive anyone inside and blocking blood-spattered roadways. (AP, 1/28/08) 2008        Jan 28, Pakistani authorities found the body of Keith Ryan (37), a US immigration and customs enforcement attache, with a bullet wound in his head at his home in Islamabad and were investigating a suspected case of suicide. A US missile from a Predator drone destroyed a suspected militant hideout in Torkhali village in North Waziristan, killing 12 people inside. Later reports said there were seven Arabs and six Central Asians killed. Abu Laith al-Libi, a top al-Qaida commander, was among the dead. (Reuters, 1/28/08) (Reuters, 1/31/08) (AP, 1/31/08) 2008        Jan 28, In Somalia 3 staff members of Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF-Holland) were killed and one wounded when their vehicle hit a land mine on a road between the international staff members’ home and the hospital where they worked in the southern Somali town of Kismayo. In response Doctors Without Borders evacuated its 87 employees from Somalia. (AP, 2/1/08) 2008        Jan 28, In Sri Lanka security forces killed 45 rebels along the northern frontlines. (AFP, 1/29/08) 2008        Jan 28, Thailand’s parliament chose Samak Sundaravej, representing ex-PM Shinawatra’s interests, as premier easily beating the Democratic party candidate 310-163. (SFC, 1/29/08, p.A4)2009        Jan 28, President Barack Obama signed requests from Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear and Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe for federal emergency declarations as crews worked around the clock to resurrect power lines downed by thick ice in both states. Since the storm began building on Jan 26, the weather has been blamed for at least six deaths in Texas, four in Arkansas, three in Virginia, six in Missouri, two in Oklahoma, and one each in Indiana and Ohio. (AP, 1/29/09) 2009        Jan 28, A White House official said President Barack Obama will press Afghan President Hamid Karzai to extend government control beyond the capital and fight corruption under a new US policy with a “significant non-military component.” (AP, 1/28/09) 2009        Jan 28, US federal regulators guaranteed $80 billion in uninsured deposits at the institutions that service the nation’s credit unions. (WSJ, 1/29/09, p.A1) 2009        Jan 28, Peanut Corp. expanded its recall to all peanut products produced at its Blakely, Ga., plant since Jan 1, 2007, due to a salmonella outbreak. (SFC, 1/29/09, p.A3) 2009        Jan 28, Billy Powell (56), Lynyrd Skynyrd keyboard player, died in Florida. He played on such hits as “Sweet Home Alabama” and survived the Oct 20, 1977, plane crash that killed three band members. (AP, 1/29/09) 2009        Jan 28, Five African and international human rights groups called on the African Union to press Senegal to move forward with the trial of former Chadian dictator Hissene Habre. (AP, 1/28/09) 2009        Jan 28, Albania awarded a 35-year concession to the British-Swiss Zumax AG group for a euro1.18 billion ($1.55 billion) container terminal for ships in southwestern Albania. (AP, 1/28/09) 2009        Jan 28, China’s state media said at least 81 people have been detained as the country launched a security sweep in Tibet ahead of one of the region’s most sensitive anniversaries in years. (AP, 1/28/09) 2009        Jan 28, Cuba’s President Raul Castro began the first visit to Russia by a Cuban leader since the end of the Cold War, the latest sign of reviving ties between the two countries. (Reuters, 1/28/09) 2009        Jan 28, El Salvador police said they found the remains of what they believe to be eight to 10 gang victims at the bottom of a well in Tonacatepeque, located outside San Salvador. (AP, 1/29/09) 2009        Jan 28, The European Union promised billions of dollars in aid to the world’s poorest nations to entice them to sign a new global climate change pact. (AP, 1/28/09) 2009        Jan 28, French PM Francois Fillon said 1,000 French 1,650 soldiers would be pulled out from the EUFOR mission to protect refugees in Chad. He also says France’s 1,800-strong contingent in Ivory Coast will be reduced by half. (AP, 1/28/09) 2009        Jan 28, In Iceland both parties of the new coalition government supported the appointment of social affairs minister Johanna Sigurdardottir (66), an openly gay former air hostess, as interim prime minister. (SFC, 1/29/09, p.A8) (Econ, 5/2/09, p.52) 2009        Jan 28, In Iraq special voting began for those needed on duty for Jan 31 elections, such as security forces and government officials. Iraqis held in detention also were expected to take part in the early voting. (AP, 1/28/09) 2009        Jan 28, Israeli warplanes struck Gaza smuggling tunnels and a weapons factory. There were no reports of casualties. George Mitchell, Pres. Obama’s new Mideast envoy, said a long-term Gaza truce must be based on an end to weapons smuggling to Hamas and the re-opening of the territory’s blockaded borders. (AP, 1/28/09) (AP, 1/29/09) 2009        Jan 28, Israel’s chief rabbinate cut ties with the Vatican to protest the reinstatement of English-born Bishop Richard Williamson (b.1940), who has continued to deny the Holocaust. Williamson was excommunicated by the Roman Catholic Church in 1988 because of his unauthorized consecration by French Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, deemed by the Holy See to be “unlawful” and “a schismatic act.” (WSJ, 1/29/09, p.A1) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Williamson_(bishop)) 2009        Jan 28, Japan’s defense minister ordered the dispatch of ships to fight pirates off the shores of Somalia, joining other countries in the battle against the outlaws. (AP, 1/28/09) 2009        Jan 28, Japan’s territorial row with Russia was re-ignited as Japan announced that it had cancelled humanitarian aid to the four disputed Russian-held islands, north of Japan’s main northern island of Hokkaido, following new Russian demand that a disembarkation card be submitted in addition to the usual procedures. (AP, 1/28/09) 2009        Jan 28, Japan’s former prime minister Shinzo Abe signed a partnership accord with Iraq, on a rare visit to the country for a senior leader of the close US ally. (AFP, 1/28/09) 2009        Jan 28, In Kenya a massive fire swept through a supermarket in downtown Nairobi. 28 shoppers were burned alive. (AP, 1/30/09) (AP, 2/3/09) (Econ, 2/7/09, p.42) 2009        Jan 28, In Madagascar thousands of opposition supporters demanded the resignation of Pres. Marc Ravalomanana. The director of the main hospital said 43 people had burned to death as protesters set fires in political violence earlier in the week. (AP, 1/28/09) 2009        Jan 28, A new UN report said Myanmar faced food shortages in many parts of the country, largely because of last year’s cyclone and a rat infestation that destroyed crops.  A human rights group said the Chin people, Christians living in the remote mountains of northwestern Myanmar, are subject to forced labor, torture, extrajudicial killings and religious persecution by the country’s military regime. (AP, 1/28/09) 2009        Jan 28, Pakistan arrested nine men suspected in a string of deadly bombings last year which devastated the Danish Embassy, killed an army general and wounded several FBI personnel. The day’s raids turned up about 220 pounds (100 kilograms) of explosives and other materials suitable for making vests worn by suicide bombers. (AP, 1/29/09) 2009        Jan 28, Russia’s military said it has halted plans to deploy missiles near the Polish border, in what could be a sign Moscow is seeking better ties with the new US president. (Reuters, 1/28/09) 2009        Jan 28, In Serbia the editor of a popular liberal radio show, critical of Serb nationalism, said attackers have disrupted the broadcasts of Pescanik (Hourglass) and hacked into its Web site. (AP, 1/28/09) 2009        Jan 28, Sri Lankan forces fought their way into another village still held by Tamil Tiger rebels, as neighboring India raised fears for civilians caught up in the war. (AFP, 1/28/09) 2009        Jan 28, A Sudanese man, Mohammed el-Sari, was jailed for 17 years on charges of trying to help the International Criminal Court investigate a minister suspected of war crimes in Darfur. He was arrested in June accused of trying to solicit information about special police in Darfur, men trained and paid by the government and supervised by current Minister of Humanitarian Affairs Ahmed Haroun. (AFP, 1/28/09) 2009        Jan 28, In Switzerland some 2,500 business and political leaders met at Davos for the World Economic Forum, as the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression served to mute the enthusiasm of previous years. China’s Premier Wen Jiabao and Russia’s PM Vladimir Putin blamed the US-led financial system for the global economic slump. (AP, 1/28/09) (WSJ, 1/29/09, p.A1) 2009        Jan 28, A Thai court convicted 66 barefoot, disheveled migrants detained at sea of illegally entering the country, raising the prospect they could be sent back to Myanmar despite fears they would be persecuted there. (AP, 1/28/09)2010        Jan 28, A US government audit found that a $46 million American aid program aimed at strengthening the government in Pakistan’s tribal regions and blunting the appeal of al-Qaida and the Taliban has achieved little since it began two years ago. (AP, 1/29/10) 2010        Jan 28, The US formally pledged to the UN that it would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 17% (from what they were in 2005) by 2020. Meeting the target depended on getting a climate bill through Congress. (Econ, 2/6/10, p.38) 2010        Jan 28, In Arizona police Lt. Eric Shuhandler (42) was shot in the face as he walked back toward a pickup after finding the passenger had an arrest warrant. Shuhandler, the father of two girls, was rushed to a hospital, where he died shortly before midnight. A high-speed, 50-mile chase ended near the small mountain mining community of Superior when the suspects jumped out and opened fire on police before falling to the ground in a hail of bullets. The suspects were identified as Christopher A. Redondo (35) of Globe, and Daimen Irizarry (30) of Gilbert. Both were expected to survive. (AP, 1/30/10) 2010        Jan 28, In Louisiana Mose Jefferson, the brother of former US Representative William Jefferson, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for bribing a former New Orleans school board president for her support in awarding contracts to a computer-based teaching system, which he sold. (SFC, 1/29/10, p.A6) 2010        Jan 28, Ford Motor Co. said it has halted production of some full-sized commercial vehicles in China because they contain gas pedals built by the same company behind the accelerators in Toyota Motor Corp.’s recent recall. Ford spokesman Said Deep said the diesel version of its Transit Classic built by a Chinese joint venture contains accelerators built by CTS Corp., based in Elkhart, Ind. The vehicles began production in December and only about 1,600 have been produced. (AP, 1/28/10) 2010        Jan 28, In Oakland, Ca., Dhar Mann (25) opened iGrow, a one-stop shop for medical marijuana in a 15,000-square-foot warehouse near the Oakland Airport. (SFC, 1/28/10, p.C1) 2010        Jan 28, US researchers reported the development of a prototype vaccine that protects monkeys and mice against the emerging chikungunya virus. The mosquito-borne virus first appeared on Reunion Island in 2005 and has spread to more than 18 countries. (SFC, 1/29/10, p.A13) 2010        Jan 28, The Afghan government invited the Taliban to a peace council of elders, the strongest signal yet that Kabul and its Western allies are looking for a way out of the eight-year war in Afghanistan. US soldiers shot and killed an Afghan cleric as he drove with his young son near an American base on the eastern edge of Kabul, underscoring the dangers facing civilians despite NATO efforts to minimize casualties. A homemade bomb killed a US soldier in southern Afghanistan. (Reuters, 1/28/10) (AFP, 1/28/10)(AP, 1/28/10) 2010        Jan 28, In Britain world powers agreed on a timetable for the handover of security duties in Afghan provinces starting in late 2010. The 70 nations said Pres. Karzai had promised to crack down on corruption and said a summit in Kabul later this year would offer specific plans to bolster his faltering government.  The Afghan Taliban dismissed the London conference as a propaganda ploy and said the London summit will fail to produce results. (AP, 1/28/10) (AFP, 1/28/10) 2010        Jan 28, Denmark’s government said that face-covering Muslim veils don’t belong in Danish society but no ban is needed because their use can be limited under existing rules. (AP, 1/28/10) 2010        Jan 28, France’s ex-premier Dominique de Villepin was acquitted of charges of plotting to smear Nicolas Sarkozy and sabotage his presidential bid in a verdict seen as bolstering his chance at a comeback. (AFP, 1/28/10) 2010        Jan 28, Honduras’ new administration began its term saying the nation is bankrupt and will likely need international financial assistance to recover from months of diplomatic isolation over its June coup. (AP, 1/28/10) 2010        Jan 28, Iran executed two men, Mohammad Reza Ali Zamani and Arash Rahmani Pour, accused of involvement in an armed anti-government group. The public prosecutor announced that new death sentences have been issued against opposition activists involved in protests over June’s disputed presidential election. (AP, 1/28/10) (AFP, 3/8/10) 2010        Jan 28, In southern Iraq an American soldier died of injuries unrelated to combat. (AP, 1/29/10) 2010        Jan 28, Toyota Motor Corp extended its safety recall of millions of its most popular cars to Europe and China in a further blow to the reputation of the world’s largest auto maker. (Reuters, 1/28/10) 2010        Jan 28, Libyan Justice Minister Mustafa Abdeljalil said he wants to resign because of “hindrances” and his inability to secure freedom for hundreds of prisoners who have been found innocent. (AFP, 1/28/10) 2010        Jan 28, In southern Pakistan militants staged a rare attack against trucks carrying supplies for NATO troops in neighboring Afghanistan, wounding three people in the latest violence to plague the country’s largest city. A bomb attached to a bicycle exploded, killing three people and wounding a dozen others in an area of Baluchistan province. (AP, 1/28/10) 2010        Jan 28, In the southern Philippines a decades-old military plane crashed into a residential area, killing a two-star air force general and eight other people. (AP, 1/28/10) 2010        Jan 28, Spanish police arrested two suspected members of Basque separatist group ETA in northern Spain and discovered a hidden cache containing explosives and bomb-making equipment. (AP, 1/28/10) 2010        Jan 28, In Spain prosecutors say charges have been filed against Mohamed Benbrahim, a Muslim imam, for threatening a woman in Cunit, Catalonia, who refused to wear an Islamic headscarf. (AP, 1/28/10) 2010        Jan 28, In Venezuela police fired tear gas to chase off thousands of students demonstrating in the capital, a fifth day of protests against President Hugo Chavez for pressuring cable and satellite TV providers to drop an opposition channel. (AP, 1/28/10)2011        Jan 28, In southwest Michigan investigators found the bodies of 2 women buried in a woodland near Bangor. Suspect Junior Lee Beebe was charged with murder. (SFC, 1/29/11, p.A6) 2011        Jan 28, In Minot, North Dakota, a mother, her 2 children and her boyfriend were found dead at a home and trailer. (SFC, 1/29/11, p.A6)(SSFC, 1/30/11, p.A10) 2011        Jan 28, Authorities in Columbus, Ohio, seized about 800 more pounds of marijuana from Mexico during a 2nd raid in 3 days. The total street value from the 2 raids was estimated at $3.5 million, as well as almost $1 million in cash. (Reuters, 1/29/11) 2011        Jan 28, In Afghanistan a suicide bomber killed 9 people, including 3 foreign women, inside a high-end grocery store in the heart of a heavily guarded district of Kabul that’s home to many diplomats and Westerners. Six of the victims were the son of a former Afghan senator (Mahbooba Huqoqmal), his rights activist wife and their four children. On Feb 10 an Afghan man publicly confessed to helping a suicide bomber cross the Pakistani border so he could attack the Kabul supermarket popular with foreigners. (AP, 1/28/11) (AFP, 1/29/11)(AP, 2/10/11) 2011        Jan 28, Tens of thousands of Albanians marched through Tirana to honor three opposition supporters shot dead in a protest last week. (SFC, 1/29/11, p.A2) 2011        Jan 28, In eastern Algeria a guard was killed and four people injured in the Kabylie region, when armed Islamists attacked a barracks. (AP, 1/29/11) 2011        Jan 28, In Bolivia the raging Molle Punku River swept at least 34 people to their deaths after swamping a bus and a truck that tried to cross. (AP, 1/30/11)(www.whatsonningbo.com/tag-Bolivia%20flood.html) 2011        Jan 28, British-based Vodafone said the Egyptian government has ordered all mobile telephone operators to suspend services “in selected areas” of the country. Egypt’s four primary Internet providers, Link Egypt, Vodafone/Raya, Telecom Egypt, Etisalat Misr, and all went dark at 12:34 a.m. (AP, 1/28/11) 2011        Jan 28, In Cambodia a tribunal statement said Japan has agreed to make a contribution of $11.7 million to the UN-assisted genocide tribunal that is trying former leaders of Cambodia’s communist Khmer Rouge. Japan has provided a total of about $67 million to the tribunal, about 49 percent of all contributions. (AP, 1/28/11) 2011        Jan 28, Canada said it will comply with a new Tunisian government request to extradite Belhassen Trabelsi, a billionaire businessman and the brother-in-law of ousted Pres. Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali. (SFC, 1/29/11, p.A2) 2011        Jan 28, China introduced its first home-ownership tax in the cities of Chongqing, .4%-.6% of the property’s value, and Shanghai, .5$-1.2%. (Econ, 2/5/11, p.52) 2011        Jan 28, A Danish warship rescued two men who escaped from pirates off the coast of East Africa. The men were among several crew members who attempted to shake their captors two days after their ship, the MV Beluga Nomination, was hijacked. (AP, 1/28/11) 2011        Jan 28, Djibouti’s first political rally broke out after the Muslim country’s Friday prayers. Democracy International estimated that 2,000 to 3,000 people attended. (AP, 2/18/11) 2011        Jan 28, Egyptian security officials said police have put Nobel Peace laureate Mohamed ElBaradei under house arrest. Dozens of people were wounded as police and demonstrators fought running battles on the streets of Cairo in a fourth day of unprecedented protests by tens of thousands of Egyptians demanding an end to President Hosni Mubarak’s three-decade rule. Looters broke into the Egyptian Museum during anti-government protests late in the day and destroyed two Pharaonic mummies. The “Friday of Rage” witnessed a heavy police crackdown on tens of thousands of protesters. Policeman Mohammed Abdel-Moneim was later sentenced to death for shooting 20 protesters. In 2012 his death sentence was overturned. (AP, 1/28/11) (Reuters, 1/28/11) (Reuters, 1/29/11) (AP, 3/7/12) 2011        Jan 28, France’s top constitutional watchdog ruled that law prohibiting gay marriage does not violate the constitution, all but challenging parliament to debate overturning the ban. (AP, 1/28/11) 2011        Jan 28, Two Indonesian passenger trains crashed killing 3 people in West Java province. A crowded ferry burst into flames off Java, killing at least 18 people and sending hundreds to the hospital, many in critical condition. (AP, 1/28/11) (AP, 1/31/11) 2011        Jan 28, An Israeli settler shot and critically wounded a Palestinian teenager in the West Bank, in the second such shooting in two days. The teenager from the village of Beit Safa was shot in the head during a clash with settlers near the city of Hebron. (AP, 1/28/11) 2011        Jan 28, In Jordan the Muslim Brotherhood called for fresh demonstrations to press its demand for political and economic reforms. Thousands of Jordanians demonstrated peacefully in Amman and other cities after weekly prayers to press for political and economic reform, and demanding that the government resign. (AP, 1/28/11)(AFP, 1/28/11) 2011        Jan 28, In Mexico Mayor Ramon Villagomez said soldiers, state and federal police had been deployed to patrol General Teran, a town along a drug-smuggling route to the US border. The local police chief and 38 officers quit after the discovery on Jan 26 of the mutilated bodies of two officers who had been kidnapped by gunmen two days earlier. Authorities began arresting over 30 former mayors in the Mexican Gulf coast state of Veracruz on suspicion of corruption. They were among 115 ex-municipal employees in the state charged with corruption between 2004 and 2008. The first to be arrested was Leonardo Mendoza, former mayor of the town of Benito Juarez. (AP, 1/28/11) 2011        Jan 28, Mexican soldiers seized nearly 200 pounds (90 kg) of drugs from the cargo area of an Aeromexico commercial plane scheduled to fly to the northern border city of Tijuana. (AP, 1/29/11) 2011        Jan 28, In central Nigeria up to 13 people were killed overnight when men with rifles attacked 4 Christian villages near Jos. Authorities in Maiduguri said gunmen on motorcycles shot and killed Modu Fannami Gubio, a dominant gubernatorial candidate. (AP, 1/28/11) (AP, 1/29/11) 2011        Jan 28, North Korea’s Kim Jong Nam said his father opposed continuing the family dynasty into a third generation but named his youngest son as heir to keep the country stable, according to TV Asahi. (AP, 12/28/11) 2011        Jan 28, Pakistani fighter jets and helicopter gunships bombed militant hideouts in a tribal region near the Afghan border, killing 28 rebels. (AFP, 1/28/11) 2011        Jan 28, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed the ratification of a nuclear arms cut pact with the US, the centerpiece of Pres. Obama’s efforts to reset ties with Moscow. (AP, 1/28/11) 2011        Jan 28, In Rwanda a grenade attack killed two people and wounded at least 28 in Kigali during the evening rush hour. (Reuters, 1/29/11) 2011        Jan 28, Spain’s Cabinet approved a plan to raise the retirement age by two years to 67 for most workers, a key structural reform aimed at reassuring markets that are uneasy over the country’s finances. (AP, 1/28/11) 2011        Jan 28, In Switzerland Daniel Domscheit-Berg, a former member of the group that created WikiLeaks, said a new platform called OpenLeaks will allow sources to choose specifically who they want to submit documents to anonymously, such as to a particular news outlet. He hoped it would be fully operational later this year. (AP, 1/28/11) 2011        Jan 28, The head of Tunisia’s main union body said that PM Mohammed Ghannouchi had agreed to meet critics demanding his removal amid signs that mass protests were running out of steam. (AFP, 1/28/11)2012        Jan 28, In Oakland, Ca., riot police fought running skirmishes with anti-Wall Street protesters, firing tear gas and bean bag projectiles and arresting more than 200 people in clashes that injured three officers and at least one demonstrator. (Reuters, 1/29/12) 2012        Jan 28, A California police officer under investigation for sexual misconduct with a teenage minor was shot and killed while on duty by fellow officers as they tried to arrest him in Santa Maria. (AP, 1/28/12) 2012        Jan 28, In Aiken, South Carolina, Joshua Tremaine Jones (26) shot and killed police Master Cpl. Sandra Rogers (49) as she responded to a report of suspicious activity. Jones was soon arrested and also faced murder charges for the death of his girlfriend Cayce Vice (26). (SFC, 1/30/12, p.A5) 2012        Jan 28, Washington state wildlife officials said 8 sea lions have been found shot dead in recent weeks. (SSFC, 1/29/12, p.A8) 2012        Jan 28, Bird enthusiasts were reporting rising numbers of snowy owls from the Arctic winging into the lower 48 states this winter in a mass southern migration. (Reuters, 1/28/12) 2012        Jan 28, British police searched the offices of Rupert Murdoch’s British newspapers after arresting a police officer and four current and former staff of his tabloid The Sun as part of an investigation into police bribery by journalists. (AP, 1/28/12) 2012        Jan 28, In Ethiopia African leaders inaugurated a new $200 million headquarters that was funded by China as a gift. They said the massive complex in Addis Ababa is a symbol of China’s rapidly changing role in Africa. (AP, 1/28/12) 2012        Jan 28, In northeast India a suspected Naga rebel opened fire at a police station packed with voters on a tense election day in Manipur state, killing 4 people before he was shot dead. (AP, 1/28/12) 2012        Jan 28, Iraqi Kurdish leader Massud Barzani backed minority Kurds in Syria, who have rallied against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad during 10 months of nationwide protests. He spoke at a two-day conference of Syrian Kurds in the Iraqi Kurdish capital of Arbil. (AFP, 1/28/12) 2012        Jan 28, The foreign ministers of Japan and Russia agreed to strengthen economic and security cooperation but made no progress on resolving a long-standing territorial dispute that has kept the two nations from concluding a peace treaty. (AP, 1/28/12) 2012        Jan 28, In Kazakhstan some 300 opposition activists staged a rare rally in Almaty, the commercial capital, to protest recent elections and the violent suppression of a group of oil workers. Hours later, speakers at the rally were handed two-week jail sentences for holding the unsanctioned gathering. (AP, 1/28/12) 2012        Jan 28, It was reported that more than 1,000 prisoners in Kyrgyzstan have sewn their lips together, a grotesque act inmates describe as a protest of their dismal conditions, but which authorities blame on organized criminal gangs who resent attempts to break the power they wield in prisons. (AP, 1/28/12) 2012        Jan 28, Liberia arrested some 70 people near its southeastern border with Ivory Coast for their alleged involvement in plans to destabilize the neighboring country. (AFP, 1/31/12) 2012        Jan 28, Libya’s ruling National Transitional Council adopted a new electoral law to form its first constituent assembly in June, dropping a 10% quota set aside for women. It now said each political party must have equal numbers of men and women in its list of candidates for the 136 seats. (AFP, 1/28/12) 2012        Jan 28, In Pakistan a private TV station said it had fired Maya Khan, a popular morning show host, after she sparked outrage by running around a public park trying to expose young, unmarried couples hanging out, a taboo in this conservative Muslim country. (AP, 1/29/12) 2012        Jan 28, In Papua New Guinea Yaura Sasa, a retired colonel who attempted to take over the military and ordered the prime minister to step down, was arrested and charged with mutiny. (AP, 1/29/12) 2012        Jan 28, In Peru a fire swept through a two-story private rehabilitation center for addicts in a poor part of Lima, killing 27 people and critically injuring five. The “Christ is Love” center for drug and alcohol addicts was unlicensed and overcrowded and its residents were apparently kept locked inside. (AP, 1/29/12) 2012        Jan 28, In Somalia unidentified gunmen shot dead Hassan Osman Abdi (29), a station director at a Mogadishu radio station. Pres. Saleh arrive in the US for medical treatment. (AFP, 1/28/12)(SSFC, 1/29/12, p.A3) 2012        Jan 28, South Korean activists floated giant balloons carrying boxes of socks into North Korea hoping that North Koreans could wear the socks or trade them for food during the harsh winter. (AP, 1/28/12) 2012        Jan 28, In South Sudan a Nuer tribe from Unity state attacked a Dinka community in neighboring Warrap state. 70 people were reported killed and attackers took more than 4,000 cattle. On Jan 30 South Sudan accused its former foes in the Khartoum government of arming gunmen who killed over 40 people in the cattle raid. (AP, 1/30/12) (AFP, 1/30/12) 2012        Jan 28, Sudan agreed to free ships with South Sudanese oil as a goodwill gesture to ease negotiations aimed at resolving a furious row over pipeline transit fees. (AFP, 1/28/12) 2012        Jan 28, In Sudan’s South Kordofan state rebels of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) captured 29 Chinese workers after a battle with government forces. Nine members of the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) were also being held. On Feb 7 all 29 Chinese workers were released and flown to Kenya. Sudan’s foreign ministry spokesman said that in addition to the 29 freed Chinese, 17 others had earlier been “released” by the Sudan Armed Forces but one other Chinese died. (AFP, 1/29/12) (AFP, 2/7/12) 2012        Jan 28, At Davos, Switzerland, 3 topless Ukrainian protesters were detained while trying to break into an invitation-only gathering of international CEOs and political leaders to call attention to the needs of the world’s poor. Separately, demonstrators from the Occupy movement marched to the edge of the gathering. (AP, 1/28/12) 2012        Jan 28, The Arab League halted its observer mission to Syria, sharply criticizing the regime of President Bashar Assad for escalating violence in recent days that has killed at least 80 people across the country. Government forces clashed with anti-regime army defectors across the country. At least nine were reported killed in the clashes and other violence. State-run news said “terrorists” ambushed a bus carrying army officers near the tense Damascus suburb of Douma, killing seven of them. (AP, 1/28/12) 2012        Jan 28, In Tunisia over 8,000 people marched in Tunis denouncing violence committed by ultraconservative Islamist groups. (SSFC, 1/29/12, p.A3) 2012        Jan 28, In Yemen hundreds of air force personnel in Sanaa and Taez demanded the ouster of air force commander Mohammed Saleh al-Ahmar, a half-brother of Pres. Saleh. (AFP, 1/29/12)2013        Jan 28, In New Hampshire Catherine Houghton (70) of Novato, Ca., was stabbed to death in the lobby of the Hampton Inn in Littleton. Rodney Hill (37) was later charged with 2nd degree murder. He said he attacked her because he thought she was the devil. (SFC, 5/30/13, p.D3) 2013        Jan 28, Argentina’s Pres. Cristina Fernandez announced 15.8% raise in public pension payments effective in March. Retirees dismissed the move as too little and too late. (Econ, 2/16/13, p.39) 2013        Jan 28, Australia reported 4 deaths as torrential rain over the weekend flooded the Queensland towns of Gladstone, Gympie and Ipswich. (AP, 1/28/13) (AP, 1/29/13) 2013        Jan 28, Britain received an initial 340 million pounds from the Swiss government as part of a deal to tackle tax evasion that the government expects will net it some 5 billion pounds over the next six years. (Reuters, 1/29/13) 2013        Jan 28, In Egypt  riot police fired tear gas at rock-throwing protesters in central Cairo, and one protester died of gunshot wounds. Egypt’s main opposition coalition rejected the Islamist president’s call for dialogue unless their conditions are met. (AP, 1/28/13) 2013        Jan 28, Nikolaos Dertilis (94), the last jailed member of the Greek military dictatorship (1967-1974), died of a stroke at Athens’ Erythros Stavros Hospital. He had spent the last 38 years in prison. (AP, 1/29/13) 2013        Jan 28, In eastern Indonesia  a mob of wild monkeys has gone on a rampage in a village in South Sulawesi province, entering houses and attacking residents. Seven people were injured. (AP, 1/30/13) 2013        Jan 28, Iran said it has successfully sent a monkey into space, describing the launch as another step toward Tehran’s goal of a manned space flight. (AP, 1/28/13) 2013        Jan 28, Malian ground forces backed by French paratroopers and helicopters took control of Timbuktu’s airport and the roads leading to the town in an overnight operation. Timbuktu’s mayor said Islamist extremists torched a library containing historic manuscripts as they fled late last week. The jihadists left a manual behind on how to use the SA-7 surface-to-air missile as well as other instructional material, including a spiral-bound pamphlet showing how to use the KPV-14.5 anti-aircraft machine gun and another on how to make a bomb out of ammonium nitrate. (AP, 1/28/13) (AP, 6/11/13) 2013        Jan 28, The Netherlands’ Queen Beatrix announced that she is ending her reign after 33 years and passing the crown to her eldest son, Willem-Alexander (45), who has long been groomed to be king. (AP, 1/28/13) 2013        Jan 28, In Nigeria John Yakubu Yusufu, a man who formerly helped oversee the country’s police pension program, pleaded guilty to stealing $145 million, but walked out of court a free man after agreeing to a plea bargain that saw him pay only a fraction of it back. (AP, 1/28/13) 2013        Jan 28, The Philippine Congress ratified a bill awarding $246 million to victims of martial law compensation and recognition for detentions, beatings, harassment and killings from 1972-1986. The bill will be sent to Pres. Benigno Aquino III for signing into law. (AP, 1/28/13) 2013        Jan 28, Syrian activists said troops battled rebels in several towns and villages around Damascus, including in Daraya, Arbeen and Zabadani. (AP, 1/28/13) 2013        Jan 28, In Yemen a car bomb exploded next to a military checkpoint in Radda, where Yemeni government forces waged their first offensive targeting al-Qaida militants in the area. 11 soldiers were killed. The military launched a wide offensive against al-Qaida in surrounding Bayda province.  The first day of shelling left 6 dead, 4 from al-Qaida and 2 from the army. (AP, 1/28/13)2014        Jan 28, Pres. Obama made his State of the Union address saying would be a “year of action” and that if Congress wasn’t willing to work with him, he was prepared to act on his own. (SFC, 1/29/14, p.A1) 2014        Jan 28, A report by the US Office of the Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction said an estimated half of Afghan security forces remained illiterate despite a 3-year-old $200 million US program to bolster their literacy rates. (SFC, 1/29/14, p.A2) 2014        Jan 28, Officials said the cheating scandal inside the Air Force’s nuclear missile corps is expanding, with the number of service members implicated by investigators now roughly double the 34 reported just a week ago. (AP, 1/28/14) 2014        Jan 28, A rare blast of snow, sleet and ice hit the US South, prompting schools to close, airlines to cancel flights and emergency officials to warn of icy roads. Forecasters predicted 1 to 2 inches of snow in parts of middle and north Georgia including the Atlanta area, prompting dozens of school closings. In Mississippi 4 people were killed in a fire in a mobile home blamed on a faulty space heater. (Reuters, 1/28/14) (SFC, 1/30/14, p.A8) 2014        Jan 28, Bolivia’s government declared a national emergency to deal with flooding that has claimed at least 30 lives and forced some 21,000 families from their homes over the past two months. (AP, 1/28/14) 2014        Jan 28, In Brazil a dump truck smashed into a pedestrian bridge on a busy highway in northern Rio de Janeiro, causing the walkway to collapse onto three cars and a motorcycle below. At least 4 people were killed. (AP, 1/28/14) 2014        Jan 28, Britain announced it would take in hundreds of vulnerable Syrian refugees, targeting those most traumatized by the 3-year civil war. (AFP, 1/28/14) 2014        Jan 28, Debut author Nathan Filer won Britain’s Costa Book Award for his novel “The Shock of the Fall”, which draws on his experience as a mental health nurse. (AFP, 1/28/14) 2014        Jan 28, Burundi’s top lawyer, Isidore Rufyikiri, was sacked after criticizing the government and being accused of urging the people to rebel. (AFP, 1/29/14) 2014        Jan 28, Canada’s BMO Financial Group said it will acquire UK-based financial manager F&C for 1.3 billion Canadian dollars (860 million euros). (AFP, 1/28/14) 2014        Jan 28, In China an Indian oil tanker being repaired at a shipyard at Haizhou Shipyard in the port city of Zhousha exploded and caught fire, killing 7 Chinese workers. (AP, 1/28/14) 2014        Jan 28, In Cuba Latin American and Caribbean leaders (CELAC) opened a regional summit in Havana. (AP, 1/28/14)(Econ, 2/1/14, p.28) 2014        Jan 28, A Cyprus Forestry Department official said illegal logging in the bailed-out island nation has picked up sharply as people turn to firewood to save on heating bills. (AP, 1/28/14) 2014        Jan 28, In Egypt gunmen on a motorbike killed General Mohamed Saeed, head of the technical office of the minister of interior, outside his home in Cairo. (AP, 1/28/14) 2014        Jan 28, European Union officials demanded Croatia slash its budget shortfall and reduce spending to bring the country’s deficit back under the bloc’s allowed ceiling. (AP, 1/28/14) 2014        Jan 28, Europe’s top human rights court in Strasbourg, France, ruled that Ireland’s government failed in its duty to protect children in the case of a woman sexually abused by a lay teacher at a state-backed Roman Catholic school in 1973. Louise O’Keeffe (48) said she was abused by her teacher during lessons in his classroom when she was 9 years old. She argued that the Irish state failed to put in place appropriate measures to stop “systematic abuse” at the Dunderrow National School. (AP, 1/28/14) 2014        Jan 28, A French court barred the return to France of a Roma family including Leonarda Dibrani, the teenage girl whose arrest in front of her schoolmates and expulsion to Kosovo became a cause celebre. (AP, 1/28/14) 2014        Jan 28, France’s crackdown on Dieudonne M’bala M’bala intensified with police raiding premises linked to the controversial comic as part of a probe into suspected fraud. (AFP, 1/28/14) 2014        Jan 28, Hong Kong culled around 20,000 chickens after finding the deadly H7N9 bird flu virus in poultry imported from mainland China. Fears over avian flu have grown following the deaths of two men from the H7N9 strain in Hong Kong since December. (AFP, 1/28/14) 2014        Jan 28, In Indonesia two landslides triggered by torrential rain killed at least 19 people and left 10 others missing on the main island of Java. (AP, 1/28/14) 2014        Jan 28, In Iraq gun attacks north of Baghdad killed 7 members of the security forces. (AFP, 1/28/14) 2014        Jan 28, A Kenyan court ordered a Chinese man to pay $230,000 in fines or be jailed seven years for ivory smuggling in the first of what will likely be many cases as authorities implement a stringent new law to deter illegal trading in wildlife products. (AP, 1/28/14) 2014        Jan 28, Mexican officials said that they are launching a nationwide effort to fight kidnapping, a crime that has risen to epidemic levels across the country. (AP, 1/28/14) 2014        Jan 28, Nicaraguan lawmakers approved constitutional changes that would allow Pres. Daniel Ortega to be re-elected indefinitely, a move that his critics say is designed to keep the Sandinista leader in power for life. (AP, 1/28/14) 2014        Jan 28, In Pakistan a senior official in Bannu said 23,000 refugees in North Waziristan had fled to the town fearing a major military operation by armed forces. (Reuters, 1/28/14) 2014        Jan 28, A Polish court convicted seven Poles for attacking Mexican cadets last year in a massive beach fight on the Baltic coast, and sent them to jail. Some 300 Poles had attacked 57 Mexican naval cadets who were on a training voyage aboard a sailing vessel docked in Gdynia. (AP, 1/28/14) 2014        Jan 28, South Africa’s main opposition Democratic Alliance party under Helen Zille merged with the smaller Agang group to jointly challenge the ruling ANC party. Mamphela Ramphele will stand as the presidential candidate of the new coalition. (AP, 1/28/14) 2014        Jan 28, South African police shot dead two protestors in a northern village during a siege a day earlier of their station by an angry mob throwing stones and petrol bombs. The violence near Tzaneen was sparked by community anger over a recent killing in the area. (AFP, 1/29/14) 2014        Jan 28, In Sri Lanka thousands of protesters from opposition parties, human rights groups, trade unions and media groups marched in Colombo in a rare show of dissent against the government. (AP, 1/28/14) 2014        Jan 28, In Sudan a Russian diplomat and his wife were stabbed in Khartoum by a man anguished by the death of his brother in violence-plagued Central African Republic. (AFP, 1/28/14) 2014        Jan 28, Togo police said they have arrested 3 men after discovering nearly two tons of ivory in a container marked for shipping to Vietnam. (AP, 1/28/14) 2014        Jan 28, Turkey’s central bank hiked all of its key interest rates in dramatic fashion at an emergency midnight policy meeting, ignoring opposition from PM Tayyip Erdogan as it battles to defend the country’s crumbling lira currency. The key rate rose from 4.5% to 10%. (Reuters, 1/28/14) (Econ, 2/1/14, p.59) 2014        Jan 28, Ukraine PM Mykola Azarov resigned. Pres. Yanukovych accepted Azarov’s resignation but asked him to stay on in an acting role until a new government is formed. Parliament repealed anti-protest laws that had set off violent clashes between protesters and police. (AP, 1/28/14) 2014        Jan 28, The Vatican library and four Japanese historical institutes agreed to inventory, catalogue and digitize 10,000 documents from a lost Japanese archive detailing the persecution of Christians in Japan in the 17th-19th centuries. (AP, 1/28/14) 2014        Jan 28, Venezuelan journalists and journalism students protested on one of Caracas’ avenues to demand that the government auction off dollars to allow newspapers to buy newsprint after nine regional dailies shut down and some of the main media chains are experiencing difficulties. (AP, 1/28/14) http://timelines.ws/days/01_27.HTML