Friday, February 6, 1998
Today's events
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The XVIII Olympic Winter Games open in Nagano, Japan, at 9 p.m. EST.
The NBA's All-Star Weekend gets under way.
The International Toy Fair opens in New York.
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On the horizon
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On Saturday, February 7, the first events of the 1998 Winter Olympics get under way.
On Monday, February 9, Russian President Boris Yeltsin is scheduled to visit Rome and meet with Pope John Paul II.
On Tuesday, February 10, nominations are announced for the 70th Academy Awards.
Wednesday, February 11, is the deadline for Attorney General Janet Reno to decide whether an independent counsel is needed to look at Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt's role in his department's rejection of an Indian casino.
On Thursday, February 12, the European Union Rio Group meets in Panama.
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On this day
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In 1515, Aldus Manutius, Italian editor and printer, died; he produced the first paperbacks and invented italics.
In 1685, Charles II, king of Great Britain and Ireland, died; James II acceded to the throne.
In 1778, France and America signed treaties allowing the United States to conquer Canada and Bermuda; France was allowed to take the British West Indies.
In 1783, Lancelot "Capability" Brown, a noted English
landscape gardener, died.
In 1788, Massachusetts became the 6th of the United States.
In 1793, Carlo Goldoni, Italian comic playwright, died;
he was considered the founder of Italian realistic comedy.
In 1804, Joseph Priestley, English cleric, chemist and one of the discoverers of oxygen, died.
In 1838, during the Boers Great Trek, Boer leader Piet Retief was murdered by the Zulu king Dingane's warriors.
In 1840, the Treaty of Waitangi was signed under which New
Zealand's Maori population accepted Queen Victoria's sovereignty in their lands.
In 1899, the Treaty of Paris was ratified by the U.S. Senate
by one vote, ending the Spanish-American War.
In 1918, women over 30 and men over 21 won the right to vote
in Britain as the Representation of the People Act received
royal assent.
In 1922, the Washington Conference between the United States, France,
Japan, Italy and Britain ended with agreement on restricting use of poison gas and submarine warfare.
In 1922, Cardinal Achille Ratti was elected to succeed Pope
Benedict XV as Pius XI.
In 1933, the 20th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was
adopted, allowing the president to take office in January
instead of March.
In 1943, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower was appointed
commander-in-chief of the Allied Expeditionary Forces in North Africa.
In 1952, King George VI of Great Britain and Northern Ireland died and was succeeded by his daughter, Elizabeth II.
In 1958, seven members of Britain's Manchester United football team were among 21 killed in a plane crash in Munich. Nicknamed the "Busby Babes" after their manager, Matt Busby, they were returning from a European Cup match.
In 1964, France and Britain agreed on the joint construction
of a Channel tunnel.
In 1976, in the United States, Lockheed Aircraft Corporation admitted
it had bribed officials in the Netherlands, Japan, Sweden and Italy.
In 1993, U.S. tennis great Arthur Ashe, the first black man to win the Wimbledon men's title, died of pneumonia resulting from AIDS. He was 49.
In 1994, Defense Minister Elisabeth Rehn of the Swedish
People's Party conceded defeat to Martti Ahtisaari of the
opposition Social Democrats in Finland's presidential election.
In 1994, Togo held its first multiparty election for
parliament.
In 1997, Ecuador's Congress voted to oust embattled President Abdala Bucaram on grounds of mental incompetence.
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Newslink
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The 1998 Winter Olympic Games open tonight in Nagano, Japan, kicking off two weeks of ice-cold competition. Check out the who, what, where, when and how of the Games.
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Holidays and more
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It is Waitangi Day in New Zealand.
News anchor Tom Brokaw is 58.
Singer Natalie Cole is 48.
Singer Fabian is 55.
Actor Mike Farrell is 59.
Actress Zsa-Zsa Gabor is 79.
Actress Gayle Hunnicut is 55.
Actor Barry Miller is 40.
Former U.S. President Ronald Reagan is 87.
Actor Michael Tucker is 54.
Actress Mamie Van Doren is 65.
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Sources: Associated Press,
Chase's Calendar of Events 1997, J.P. Morgan
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