Saturday, January 4, 1997
| AllPolitics Campaignland |
Today's Events
German Chancellor Helmut Kohl is due to meet with Russian
President Boris Yeltsin.
The National Football League divisional playoffs begin.
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On the horizon
On Sunday, January 5, the African nation of Chad holds
parliamentary elections.
On Monday, January 6, more than 1,000 scientists gather
in Mohe, China, to observe a total eclipse of the sun.
On Tuesday, January 7, the 105th session of the U.S.
Congress begins.
On Wednesday, January 8, Monaco's Grimaldi dynasty
celebrates its 700th anniversary of rule.
Political leaders of the 1980s and '90s are scheduled to
hold a seminar at UNESCO headquarters in Paris on the foreign
policy of the late French President Francois Mitterrand. The
event marks the first anniversary of Mitterrand's death and
participants are to include Cuban President Fidel Castro,
Haiti's ex-President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, former European
Commission President Jacques Delors and former foreign
ministers Han Dietrich Genscher of Germany and David Owen of
Britain.
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On this day
In 1717, in the Seven Years War, England declared war on
Spain
and Naples.
In 1896, Utah became the 45th U.S. state.
In 1908, Mulai Hafid was proclaimed sultan of Morocco at Fez.
In 1919, Vilna (now Vilnius), which had been proclaimed
capital of independent Lithuania, was captured by Soviet
troops. The occupation lasted only until April.
In 1932, the British Indian government was granted emergency
powers to deal with a campaign of nationalist civil
disobedience. The National Congress party was declared
illegal and Mahatma Gandhi was arrested.
In 1948, the British governor of Burma formerly handed over
power, and the Union of Burma was proclaimed as an
independent
republic with Thakin Nu as first prime minister.
In 1951, in the Korean War, the North Koreans and Chinese
communists captured the Southern capital of Seoul.
In 1958, Sputnik I, the world's first artificial satellite
launched in October 1957 by the Soviet Union, fell to Earth.
In 1967, Donald Campbell, British car and speedboat racer,
was
killed on Coniston Water in England during an attempt to
break the world water speed record.
In 1974, Burma inaugurated a new constitution providing for a
Peoples Assembly.
In 1980, President Jimmy Carter announced curtailment of U.S.
grain sales to the Soviet Union because of the invasion of
Afghanistan.
In 1994, nine people were killed and at least 48 wounded as
the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo shuddered under heavy
shelling from
its Serb besiegers.
In 1995, Bosnian government troops began a belated withdrawal
from a demilitarized mountain zone overlooking Sarajevo in
keeping with a four-month truce accord.
In 1995, Rep. Newt Gingrich of Georgia was formally
elected speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, the
first
Republican to hold the post in 40 years.
In 1996, Poland's counter-intelligence chief, Colonel
Konstanty Miodowicz, announced his resignation in an apparent
protest against allegations that the secret services had
stepped
out of line in accusing Prime Minister Jozef Oleksy of
spying.
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Newslink
Two years ago today, Representative Newt Gingrich of
Georgia was formally
elected speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, the
first
Republican to hold the post in 40 years. He's now fighting to
keep his position in the aftermath of ethics questions and an
unrelenting drumbeat of Democratic criticism. C
lick here to find out more about his current battle to
save his job.
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Holidays and more
Today is the Day of Martyrs of the Colonial Repression in
Angola.
It's Independence Day in the Union of Myanmar.
Zaire honors its Martyrs of Independence today.
Actress Dyan Cannon is 60.
Actor Patrick Cassidy is 36.
Former boxer Floyd Patterson is 62.
Former football coach Donald Francis Shula is 67.
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Sources: Associated Press,
Chase's Calendar of Events 1997, J.P. Morgan
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