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Tuesday, January 20, 1998
Today's events
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Bill Clinton meet in Washington, D.C.
Major League Baseball salary arbitration figures are exchanged.
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On the horizon
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On Wednesday, January 21, Pope John Paul II begins his first visit to Cuba.
On Thursday, January 22, National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League chapters hold events marking the 25th
anniversary of the Supreme Court's Roe vs. Wade decision.
On Friday, January 23, the formal sentencing for Mir Aimal Kasi is to be handed down. In November, a jury recommended he receive the death penalty for fatally shooting two CIA employees in January 1993.
On Saturday, January 24, the National Research Council conducts a workshop on
failed stars and super planets.
On Sunday, January 25, the Denver Broncos and defending champ Green Bay Packers battle it out in the Super Bowl in San Diego.
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On this day
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In 1265, in England, the first parliament to be attended by
elected knights of the shires and burgesses met under Simon de
Montfort.
In 1320, Wladislaw I, also known as Wladislaw the Short, was
crowned king of Poland. In defeating the Knights of the Teutonic
Order, he created strong foundations for one Polish nation.
In 1327, King Edward II of England was forced to abdicate by
powerful barons in favor of his son Edward III.
In 1612, Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor from 1576, died; he was
unable to reconcile Roman Catholic and Protestant factions which
eventually led to the Thirty Years War.
In 1649, British king Charles I was brought before a high
court of justice at Westminster Hall on charges of treason
following the civil war against parliamentarian forces.
In 1839, the confederation of Peru and Bolivia invaded Chile
and was heavily beaten by the Chileans at the battle of Yungan.
This defeat led to the break-up of the confederation.
In 1841, after lengthy talks between Britain and China
concerning the Opium Wars, the convention of Chuanbi was signed
by which Hong Kong island was ceded to the British.
In 1918, the German light cruiser Breslau was sunk by mines
outside the Dardanelles. Only 162 of 370 crew members
survived.
In 1936, King George V of Britain died. He was succeeded by
Edward VIII, who caused a crisis later the same year by
abdicating.
In 1942, Nazi leaders of the security police and various
ministries met at the Wannsee conference to set up the
bureaucratic apparatus for the Final Solution and complete the
systematic destruction of the Jews.
In 1944, in a short air raid on Berlin, the British air force
dropped some 2,300 tons of bombs.
In 1945, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was inaugurated to his
record fourth term in office as president of the United States.
In 1958, Dr. Vivian Fuchs who led the Commonwealth
Trans-Antarctic expedition arrived at the South Pole, the
half-way point of their journey, with his 11-member team.
In 1961, John F. Kennedy was inaugurated as the 35th president
of the United States. He was elected by the closest vote ever
and was the youngest presidential nominee elected.
In 1973, Richard M. Nixon was sworn in as president for a second
term; during the Watergate scandal, he became the first
president to resign from office.
In 1973, Dr. Amilcar Cabral, Guinea-Bissau Nationalist leader,
was assassinated in Conakry. He founded the PAIGC (African
Independence Party of Guinea and Cape Verde), the organization
that fought Portuguese colonial rule.
In 1981, Ronald Reagan became president of the United States
at the age of 69 and 349 days, the oldest president to take
office.
In 1981, 52 American hostages seized in their embassy
in Tehran were released after 444 days in captivity.
In 1984, Johnny Weissmuller, U.S. athlete and actor, died.
Olympic swimming champion who set many records, he was famed for
his film appearances as Tarzan.
In 1987, Terry Waite, the Archbishop of Canterbury's special
envoy in Lebanon, was kidnapped. He was not released until
November 1991.
In 1996, Palestinians voted for the first time in elections
that consolidated PLO chief Yasser Arafat's rule of the West
Bank and Gaza under a peace deal with Israel. He became the
first democratically-elected leader of the Palestinian people
with 88.1 percent of the vote.
In 1996, Mohammed Hamed Abu el-Nasr, leader of the Muslim
Brotherhood, Egypt's largest and most influential Islamist
organization, died aged 83.
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