Wednesday, February 4, 1998
Today's events
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Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair begins a four-day visit to the United States.
Today is the 13th annual U.S. celebration of National Girls and Women in Sports Day.
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On the horizon
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On Thursday, February 5, the Senate Agriculture Committee holds a hearing on the December global warming agreement reached in Kyoto, Japan.
On Friday, February 6, the NBA's All-Star Weekend gets under way.
On Saturday, February 7, the 1998 Winter Olympics open in Nagano, Japan.
On Monday, February 9, Russian President Boris Yeltin is tentatively scheduled to visit Rome and meet with Pope John Paul II.
On Tuesday, February 10, nominations are announced for the 70th Academy Awards.
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On this day
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In 211, Lucius Septimius Severus, the Roman emperor responsible for making the empire's government a military monarchy, died.
In 1615, Giovanni Battista della Porta, an Italian physicist,
philosopher and writer on the properties of lenses, died.
In 1783, England officially proclaimed an end to hostilities
in America.
In 1787, Shays' Rebellion, an uprising of Massachusetts
farmers led by Daniel Shays, ended with defeat at Petersham.
In 1789, presidential electors met and chose George Washington as America's first president.
In 1874, the Battle of Kumasi ended the Ashanti War between
Britain and Ghana.
In 1904, the Russo-Japanese war began when Japan laid siege to Port Arthur.
In 1924, Mahatma Gandhi was released after spending two years in jail in Bombay.
In 1927, British driver Malcolm Campbell broke the world land speed record in his car Bluebird, driving at 174.224 miles per hour.
In 1938, Adolf Hitler became Germany's war minister and
Joachim von Ribbentrop took over foreign affairs.
In 1945, Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt and Joseph
Stalin met at Yalta in the Crimea to discuss plans for the
defeat of the Axis powers and to decide on the post-war future.
In 1948, Ceylon became a self-governing independent state
within the Commonwealth.
In 1962, Francisco Orlich Bolmarich was elected president of
Costa Rica.
In 1966, an All Nippon Airways Boeing 727 jet aircraft crashed in Tokyo Bay, killing 133 passengers and crew.
In 1971, British carmaker Rolls Royce declared itself
bankrupt.
In 1972, Zambian President Kenneth Kuanda banned the
opposition United Progressive Party and arrested its leader,
Simon Kapepwe, together with more than 120 members.
In 1974, Patricia Hearst, granddaughter of the late William
Randolph Hearst, was kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation
Army.
In 1974, Grenada achieved independence within the British
Commonwealth.
In 1976, an earthquake measuring 7.5 on the Richter scale and resulting mudslides caused the deaths of 23,000 people just north of Guatemala City; 1.5 million people were made homeless.
In 1976, in Mozambique, the capital, Lourenco Marques, was
renamed Maputo.
In 1978, Junius Jayawardene was sworn in as Sri Lanka's first president.
In 1982, in Britain, Laker Airways, pioneer of cheap
transatlantic air fares, collapsed.
In 1983, Karen Carpenter, vocalist with the internationally
successful brother and sister duo The Carpenters, died of
anorexia nervosa.
In 1987, Liberace, U.S. pianist and showman, died.
In 1990, nine Israeli tourists and two Egyptian guards were
killed when masked assailants opened fire on a bus en route to Cairo.
In 1992, loyal troops put down an attempted coup against
President Carlos Andres Perez in Venezuela.
In 1994, mortar bombs killed nine people in a food line in
Serb-besieged Sarajevo.
In 1994, Polish Finance Minister Marek Borowski resigned after clashing with Prime Minister Waldemar Pawlak.
In 1996, a Colombian cargo plane crashed into homes near the
Paraguayan capital Asuncion, killing at least 22 people.
In 1997, 73 Israeli soldiers were killed when two military
helicopters collided in midair in a storm in northern Israel.
In 1997, 16 months after O.J. Simpson was cleared of
murder charges, a civil trial jury blamed him for the killings of his ex-wife and her friend and ordered him to pay $8.5 million in compensatory damages.
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Newslink
Holidays and more
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Angola celebrates the Commencement of the Armed Struggle.
It is National Day in Sri Lanka.
Comedian David Brenner is 53.
Actor Gary Conway is 62.
Singer Alice Cooper is 50.
Actress Lisa Eichhorn is 46.
Actress Pamela Franklin is 48.
Author Betty Friedan is 77.
Civil rights leader Rosa Parks is 85.
Former Vice President Dan Quayle is 51.
Actor John Schuck is 58.
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Sources: Associated Press,
Chase's Calendar of Events 1997, J.P. Morgan
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