Friday, January 30, 1998
Today's events
The International Olympics Committee executive board meets in Nagano, Japan.
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On the horizon
On Saturday, January 31, the National Religious Broadcasters
Association holds its annual meeting in Washington.
On Sunday, February 1, the NFL Pro Bowl is held in Honolulu.
On Monday, February 2, President Clinton is scheduled to submit his budget to Congress.
On Tuesday, February 3, the court-martial for former Army Sergeant Major Gene McKinney on sexual misconduct charges is scheduled.
On Wednesday, February 4, Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair begins a four-day visit to the United States.
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On this day
In 1606, Sir Everard Digby, Thomas Winter, John Grant and
Thomas Bates, conspirators in the "Gunpowder Plot" to blow up Britain's Houses of Parliament, were executed.
In 1648, treaties were signed ending the Eighty Years War
between Spain and the United Provinces of the Netherlands.
In 1649, King Charles I was beheaded in London for treason.
In 1790, the first purpose-built lifeboat, The Original, was
launched on the River Tyne in England.
In 1835, President Andrew Jackson survived the first-ever
assassination attempt on a U.S. president.
In 1858, the Halle Orchestra was founded by Charles Halle in
Manchester, England.
In 1889, Crown Prince Franz Karl Josef Rudolf and his mistress, Marie Vetsera, committed suicide at the imperial hunting lodge of Mayerling, Austria.
In 1902, Britain and Japan signed a treaty providing for the
independence of China and Korea.
In 1933, German President Paul von Hindenburg appointed Adolf Hitler chancellor. On the same date in 1937, Hitler told the Reichstag that Germany was withdrawing its signature from the Versailles Treaty.
In 1937, 13 leading Communists were sentenced to death
for participating in a plot, allegedly led by Leon Trotsky, to overthrow the Soviet regime and assassinate its leaders.
In 1943, Admiral Karl Doenitz was appointed commander-in-chief of the German Navy in place of Admiral Erich Raeder.
In 1943, the British Air Force carried out the first daylight bombing raid on Berlin.
In 1945, the Duke of Gloucester became Australia's first royal governor-general.
In 1948, Orville Wright, youngest of the American brothers and aviation pioneers who made the first flight, died.
In 1948, Mahatma Gandhi, leader of the Indian nationalist
movement against British rule, was assassinated by a Hindu
extremist.
In 1963, Francis-Jean-Marcel Poulenc, French composer and
pianist, died. Poulenc had great success
with the opera "Les Biches."
In 1964, a coup d'etat took place in South Vietnam, led by
General Nguyen Khanh, displacing General Duong Van Minh.
In 1965, the state funeral of Sir Winston Churchill was held
in London.
In 1967, Pope Paul VI met Soviet President Podgorny, the first Soviet head of state to visit the Vatican.
In 1968, Viet Cong guerrillas and North Vietnamese soldiers
launched the Tet (New Year) offensive, targeting more than 100 towns and cities in South Vietnam; in Saigon they invaded the grounds of the U.S. embassy.
In 1970, Lesotho's prime minister, Chief Leabua Jonathan,
declared a state of emergency and suspended the constitution, claiming malpractices had been discovered in recent elections.
In 1972, British soldiers shot dead 13 people in a banned
Catholic civil rights march in Londonderry, Northern Ireland, in a clash known as "Bloody Sunday."
In 1972, Pakistan left the Commonwealth in protest against
imminent recognition of Bangladesh by Britain, Australia and New Zealand.
In 1973, in the United States, G. Gordon Liddy and James McCord were convicted of burglary, wire-tapping and attempted bugging of the Democratic headquarters at the Watergate building in Washington.
In 1979, in a referendum, white Rhodesians voted by a majority of 85 percent in favor of a new constitution aimed at black majority rule.
In 1989, Lebanon's warring Shi'ite groups, the Syrian-backed
Amal militia and the pro-Iranian Hizbollah signed a peace
accord, ending a year-long feud.
In 1992, Irish Prime Minister Charles Haughey announced he
would resign after being accused of telephone-tapping.
In 1992, Argentina opened the files on scores of Nazis who
fled to South America after World War II -- a move Jewish
leaders said would help the hunt for war criminals.
In 1994, the United States granted Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams a visa to attend a New York conference on Northern Ireland.
In 1996, Hasan Muratovic was formally appointed prime minister of Bosnia Herzegovina's central government.
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Newslink
Watergate, a scandal of the '70s involving Richard Nixon, has resurfaced in the news recently. It was on this day in 1973 that G. Gordon Liddy and James McCord were convicted of burglary, wire-tapping and attempted bugging of the Democratic headquarters. Read more about it in this comprehensive site.
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Holidays and more
Muslims around the world celebrate the end of Ramadan.
Actress Brett Butler is 40.
Former U.S. Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney is 57.
Musician Phil Collins is 47.
Actor Charles S. Dutton is 47.
Actor Gene Hackman is 68.
Comedian Dick Martin is 76.
Indiana Gov. Frank O'Bannon is 68.
Actress Vanessa Redgrave is 61.
Singer Jody Watley is 37.
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Sources: Associated Press,
Chase's Calendar of Events 1997, J.P. Morgan
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