27 Jan: This Date in History

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Events, deaths, births, of JAN 27
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ALTERNATE SITES ALL FOR 030127 ANY DAY OF THE YEAR IN HISTORY ART “4” JAN 27

On a 27 January:

2000 In US President Clinton's last State of the Union Address, he proposes a $350 billion tax cut, big spending increases for schools and health care and photo ID licenses for handgun purchases.

2000 Shipwreck orphaned survivor, Elian Gonzalez, 6, [photo >] observed by a large contingent of the press camped across the street, shouts at the family dogs for inteferring with his ball playing, at the home of his great uncle Lazaro Gonzalez.
Lazaro and Elian's cousin, Marisleysis Gonzalez, who are taken care of Elian in their Miami home, flie to Washington today to try and talk with those who might help Elian remain in the United States rather than be sent to his father in Cuba.

^ 1999 (Wednesday) Clinton impeachment trial in US Senate is far from over.

(1) In the first formal sign of how President Bill Clinton's impeachment trial may end, the Senate votes 56-44 to reject a move to dismiss the charges of perjury and obstruction of justice against Clinton. While Democrats lose the largely party-line vote, it does indicate the Senate may most likely fail to muster the 67 votes necessary to remove the president from office. Republicans, as expected, muster all of their 10-vote majority in the Senate to defeat the Democratic attempt to dismiss the trial and approve the House managers' request for witness depositions. Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold of Wisconsin is the only Democrat senator to cross party lines, voting with the Republicans on the motion. Feingold does not talk with reporters after the vote, but issues a three-page statement. "My view, as of this moment, is that to dismiss this case would be in appearance and in fact improperly short-circuiting this trial. I simply cannot say that the House managers cannot prevail regardless of what witness might plausibly testify and regardless of what persuasive arguments might be offered," Feingold writes. "I want to be clear that my vote against the motion does not mean that I am leaning in favor of a final vote to convict the president. I am not." Another glimpse of statesmanship

(2) But the trial is far from over. In a second vote, the Senate approves, also by a 56-44 margin, the Republican House prosecutors' request to allow witness depositions in the impeachment trial. That vote paves the way for Senate subpoenas of Monica Lewinsky, Vernon Jordan and Sidney Blumenthal. Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold of Wisconsin again crosses party lines to vote with the Republicans on the motion to hear witnesses. Maryland Democratic Sen. Barbara Mikulski returns from a bout with "the flu" in time for the vote on both motions. She votes against, then in favor, of dismissing the case against Clinton, but when that motion fails, crosses over and votes in favor of witness depositions. The Senate resolution authorizing depositions also includes a timetable of events: Depositions would take place over 2 days in private, presided over by two senators, and would be videotaped and transcribed. The depositions would run approximately six hours each, with the questioning equally divided between House managers (the prosecution) and White House lawyers (the defense). The tapes and transcripts would then be distributed to senators, who would then vote on whether to follow up depositions with live testimony. The House managers announce that Rep. Ed Bryant (R-Tennessee) will depose Lewinsky, Rep. Asa Hutchinson (R-Arkansas) will depose Jordan and Rep. James Rogan (R-California) will depose Blumenthal. Under this scenario, the trial would end Feb. 5 or 6 with final votes on the articles of impeachment.

(3) After the vote, the Senate recesses upon the call of the chair, so that Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Mississippi) and Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-South Dakota) could try to work out procedures for the witness depositions. Daschle says he is optimistic that he and Lott could work out a compromise today on how to proceed. But shortly before 5 p.m. ET, Lott returns to the Senate floor, telling Chief Justice William Rehnquist they had not reached an agreement and requesting the trial be adjourned for the day. Three stooges

(4) A group of about a half dozen Republicans meet to talk about producing "findings of fact" to make sure the record reflects a finding of fault against the president if he is not convicted on the articles of impeachment. Convicting and removing Clinton from office would require two-thirds support, or 67 votes, which most observers say are unlikely to materialize. Republicans fear that if both impeachment articles are voted down, the White House will claim the president has been exonerated. To prevent that, the Republicans want to get on record some finding of fault. Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), who co-chairs the ad hoc group, says the group of six Republicans senators charged with looking into the "finding of fact" option in the impeachment trial will present a proposal to Lott. Snowe says the "finding of fact" would come up as a motion prior to votes on the articles of impeachment. The goal, says Snowe, is for the Senate to accept the facts as charged in the articles of impeachment, without drawing conclusions on those facts. Snowe says the motion would not include any mention of conviction, and would not get into specifics on the language. White House Press Secretary Joe Lockhart calls the effort "constitutional gymnastics."

(5) Paula Jones has no objection to a mediator working to resolve a dispute over how the $850'000 settlement from President Clinton is divided among her lawyers, according to court papers. After lawyers for Clinton and Jones agreed on the settlement, two lawyers who handled the earlier stages of her case, Joseph Cammarata and Gilbert Davis, filed a claim for $875,000. Jones' lawyers who had the case when it was thrown out and subsequently settled — the Dallas firm of Radar, Campbell, Fisher and Pyke — filed court papers earlier this month asking a federal judge to refer their dispute to a magistrate to mediate how they should divide the $850'000. Afraid she hears the White House

1998 US President Clinton's State of the Union Address.
1997 National Semiconductor agreed to sell its Fairchild Semiconductor business to the unit's management. The separation of the two companies would allow National Semi to focus on expensive custom chips instead of high-volume, low-cost chips, which Fairchild specialized in.
1996 Soldiers seized control of Niger's government.
1994 Romanian social-democrats form government with anti-Semites
1992 Presidential candidate Bill Clinton (D) and Genifer Flowers accuse each other of lying over her assertion they had a 12-year affair

^ 1991 Somali dictator flees
Muhammad Siyad Barre, the dictator of the Somali Democratic Republic since 1969, flees Mogadishu as rebels overrun his palace and capture the Somali capital. In 1969, Somalian President Abd-i-rashid Ali Shermarke was assassinated, and a few days later Major General Barre seized power in a military coup. Barreís government developed strong ties with the USS.R. and other Soviet-bloc nations during the 1970s, but in 1978 lost Soviet support when it invaded Ethiopia to regain pre-colonial Somali territory. The attack was repelled within a year, but protracted guerrilla warfare continued into the 1980s, bolstered by US support for the Somalis. Several hundred thousand refugees fled to Somalia to escape the conflict, and by the late 1980s, economic depression contributed to the outbreak of civil war in Somalia. In early 1991, Barre was ousted by rebels after intense and bloody fighting and Ali Mahdi Muhammad of United Somali Congress took control of Mogadishu and the rest of southern Somalia. The Somali National Movement gained control of the north, the old British Somaliland, and proclaimed it the independent Somaliland Republic. In 1992, civil war between the two Somalias, internal clan-based fighting, and the worst African drought of the century created devastating famine which threatened one-fourth of the Somali population with starvation. In response, troops from the US and other U.N. nations occupied Somalia in late 1992 to assure distribution of food aid and to suppress Somaliaís warring factions. Although many of the U.N.ís temporary humanitarian aims were achieved, the military operation was largely unsuccessful. In 1993, a national cease-fire was signed, but no central government was formed and fighting erupted again in the same year.

1991 Nadine Strossen is first female president of the ACLU
1990 Dissolution of Polish Communist party
1989 German war criminals Fischer and Austrian der Fünten freed
1988 Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously approves nomination of Judge Anthony M Kennedy to US Supreme Court
1987 State of the Union Address by US President Ronald Reagan..
1985 The Cola Wars Meet the Cold War On this day, the Cold War couldn’t stop one of the stalwarts of capitalism, Coca-Cola, from setting up shop behind the iron curtain. On 27 January 1985, Coke announced plans to sell its all-American soft drinks in the Soviet Union. With the move, Coke belatedly matched Pepsico, who, twelve years earlier, had begun distributing its colas in the USS.R.
1983 World's longest subaqueous tunnel (53.90 km) opens, Honshu-Hokkaido.
1982 Mauno Koivisto, 58, installed as President of Finland — Valtiovarainministerinä, Suomen Pankin pääjohtajana ja pääministerinä toiminut Mauno Koivisto saavutti laajan kansansuosion yli puoluerajojen ja nousi sen varassa tasavallan presidentiksi Urho Kekkosen presidenttikauden keskeydyttyä 1982. Koivisto joutui vastaamaan haasteisiin, joita Urho Kekkosen pitkä presidenttikausi oli seuraajalleen luonut. Ulkopolitiikassa Koivisto jatkoi Kekkosen viitoittamaa linjaa varovaista puolueettomuuspolitiikkaa noudattaen. Koiviston sisäpolitiikkaa leimasi muun muassa presidentin valtaoikeuksien rajoittaminen.
1981 President Ronald Reagan greets the 52 former American hostages released by Iran.
1977 President Carter pardons most Vietnam War draft evaders (10'000)
1977 The Vatican reaffirmed the Roman Catholic Church's constant tradition of an exclusively male priesthood.
1976 Morocco-Algeria battles in Western Sahara.

^ 1975 US Senate investigation of FBI and CIA begins
A bipartisan Senate investigation of activities by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is launched by a special congressional committee headed by Senator Frank Church of Idaho. On November 20, of the same year, the committee releases its report, charging both US government agencies with illegal activities. The committee reports that the FBI and the CIA had conducted illegal surveillance of several hundred thousand US citizens, and charges the CIA with illegally plotting to assassinate foreign leaders, such as Salvador Allende, the democratically elected socialist president of Chile who was overthrown with CIA assistance in 1973. The Senate committee also reports that the CIA has maintained a secret stockpile of poisons despite a specific presidential order to destroy the substances.

^ 1973 Official, but not real, end of Vietnam War.
      The “Paris Peace Accords” William Rogers and Nguyen Duy Trinh sign US-N. Vietnam cease-fire, ending US participation in the most unpopular and longest US war and the US military draft (celebrated in Vietnam as Peace Day)
     The accords do little, however, to solve the turmoil in Vietnam or to heal the terrible domestic divisions in the United States brought on by its involvement in this Cold War battleground. Peace negotiations between the United States and North Vietnam had been ongoing since 1968. Richard Nixon was elected president that year, largely on the basis of his promise to find a way to "peace with honor" in Vietnam. Four years later, after the deaths of thousands more American servicemen, South Vietnamese soldiers, North Vietnamese soldiers, and Viet Cong fighters, the Paris Peace Accords were signed, and America's participation in the struggle in Vietnam came to a close. On the military side, the accords seemed straightforward enough. A cease-fire was declared, and the United States promised to remove all military forces from South Vietnam within 60 days. For their part, the North Vietnamese promised to return all American prisoners of war within that same 60-day framework. The nearly 150'000 North Vietnamese troops in South Vietnam were allowed to remain after the cease-fire.
      The political side of the agreement was somewhat less clear. In essence, the accords called for the reunification of North and South Vietnam through "peaceful means on the basis of discussions and agreements between North and South Viet-Nam." Precisely what this entailed was left unsaid. The United States also promised to "contribute to healing the wounds of war and to postwar reconstruction of the Democratic Republic of Viet-Nam [North Vietnam] and throughout Indochina." Most Americans were relieved simply to be out of the Vietnam quagmire. The war against communism in Southeast Asia cost over 50'000 US lives and billions of dollars, in addition to countless soldiers wounded in the line of duty. At home, the war seriously fractured the consensus about the Cold War that had been established in the period after World War II—simple appeals to fighting the red threat of communism would no longer be sufficient to move the American nation to commit its prestige, manpower, and money to foreign conflicts. For Vietnam, the accords meant little. The cease-fire almost immediately collapsed, with recriminations and accusations flying from both sides. In 1975, the North Vietnamese launched a massive military offensive, crushed the South Vietnamese forces, and reunified Vietnam under communist rule.

1969 Noordiers vicar Ian Paisley sentenced to 3 years
1967 More than 60 nations signed a treaty banning nuclear weapons in space.
1964 Margaret Chase Smith (Senator-R-ME) tries for Republican Presidential bid
1958 Ferenc Münnich follows Kádár as premier of Hungary

^ 1951 First nuclear detonation at the Nevada test site
      An Air Force plane drops on Frenchman Flats at the new Nevada test site a one-kiloton bomb, the first of a series of nuclear devices tested there. Although much of the West had long lagged behind the rest of the nation in technological and industrial development, the massive World War II project to build the first atomic bomb single-handedly pushed the region into the 20th century. Code named the Manhattan Project, this ambitious research and development program pumped millions of dollars of federal funds into new western research centers like the bomb building lab at Los Alamos, New Mexico and the fissionable material production center at Hanford, Washington. Ironically, the very conditions that had once impeded western technological development became benefits: lots of wide-open unpopulated federal land where dangerous experiments could be conducted in secret.
      After the war ended, the West continued to be the ideal region for Cold War-era nuclear experimentation for the same reasons. In December 1950, the Atomic Energy Commission designated a large swath of unpopulated desert land 100 km northwest of Las Vegas as the Nevada Proving Ground for atmospheric atomic testing. On 27 January 1951, the government detonates its first atomic device on the site, resulting in a tremendous explosion, the flash from which is seen as far away as San Francisco.
      The government continued to conduct atmospheric tests for six more years at the Nevada site. They studied the effects on humans by stationing ground troops as close as 2500 meters from ground zero and moving them even closer shortly after the detonation. By 1957, though, the effects of radioactivity on the soldiers and the surrounding population led the government to begin testing bombs underground, and by 1962, all atmospheric testing had ceased.
      In recent years, the harm caused to soldiers and westerners exposed to radioactivity from the Nevada test site has become a controversial topic. Some critics argue the government waged a "nuclear war on the West," and maintain that the government knew of the dangers posed to people living near the test site well before the 1957 shift to underground tests. Others, though, point out that the test site has brought billions of dollars into the state and resulted in great economic benefit to Nevada.

1948 First tape recorder sold

^ 1945 The Soviet army liberates Auschwitz-Birkenau.
      Near the provincial Polish town of Oshwiecim, the Soviet Red Army liberates Auschwitz, a Nazi concentration camp where between two and three million people perished during World War II. As the Russians explore the three main camps comprising Auschwitz they find approximately 8000 survivors—individuals too sick and hungry to participate in the death marches forced on the other surviving prisoners by the Nazis days before the campís liberation. Although the Nazis had made efforts to destroy the evidence of their atrocities before their departure, the massive scale of the genocide committed at Auschwitz is too great to hide and the remains of the campís extermination facilities—and of its victims—are documented by the Russians for the whole world to see. The Auschwitz concentration camp was founded in June of 1940, and initially held Polish and German political prisoners.
      In October of 1941, the camp was supplemented by a much larger complex made up of wooden barracks, which within weeks was receiving the first Russian prisoners of war from the eastern front. In March of 1942, this complex, known as Birkenau, was converted into a massive extermination camp designed to carry out Nazi leader Adolf Hitlerís ìfinal solutionî—the extermination of all European Jews. Birkenau was designed to house over 100'000 prisoners, and was equipped with four gas chambers, each with its own crematoria. Jews sent to Birkenau who were considered incapable of working—infants, elderly people, pregnant women, the disabled, and the sick—were immediately gassed, while the others, making up a minority of the new arrivals, were sent to work details. Forced to toil in horrendous conditions, the prisoners would work until, exhausted by fatigue, hunger, and deprivation, they too were sent to the gas chambers.
      In October of 1942, a third complex, the brutal Monowitz labor camp, was opened at Auschwitz. By 1945, one to two million Jews, hundreds of thousands of Roma Gypsies, thousands of Polish political prisoners, and an unknown number of Russians prisoners of war had perished at Auschwitz. Weeks before Soviet liberation, an additional 134'000 Jews were evacuated, and it is estimated that about 80'000 of these prisoners died or were killed during forced death marches to other Nazi camps. By 17 January 1945, the last able inmates left Auschwitz and the campís Nazi SS officers executed hundreds of the remaining prisoners, hastily attempted to destroy evidence of their atrocities, and then evacuated. On 27 January the first Soviet tanks and troops advanced into Auschwitz.
     Le monde médusé découvre l'Holocauste dans toute son horreur.

C’est le plus gros point noir du nazisme, celui que personne n’a pu effacer. La liquidation massive des Juifs, qui répondait à l’idéologie du nazisme, reste l’un des plus gros crimes contre l’Humanité. Des centaines de milliers de Juifs ont été parqués dans des camps de concentration, soumis à un isolement social avant d’être tués dans les chambres à gaz et les fours crématoires. Le camp d’Auschwitz, découvert le 27 janvier 1945 par des soldats ukrainiens, à quelques kilomètres de Cracovie, est aujourd’hui considéré comme le plus grand complexe industriel d’extermination humaine. Les nazis n’avaient reculé devant rien. Pour ce seul camp, on estime aujourd’hui à plus de 1 million le nombre de morts par asphyxie et 500 000 le nombre de détenus morts de faim, de maladies ou abattus par les SS. D’autres ont servi de cobayes pour les médecins allemands.

1944 The Soviet Union announces the end of the 880-days-long German siege of Leningrad.
1943 first US air attack on Germany (Wilhelmshafen)

^ 1943 First WW II all-US bombing of Germany
8th Air Force bombers, dispatched from their bases in England, fly the first American bombing raid against the Germans, targeting the Wilhelmshaven port. Of 64 planes participating in the raid, 53 reached their target and managed to shoot down 22 German planes-and lost only three planes in return. The 8th Air Force was activated in February 1942 as a heavy bomber force based in England. Its B-17 Flying Fortresses, capable of sustaining heavy damage while continuing to fly, and its B-24 Liberators, long-range bombers, became famous for precision bombing raids, the premier example being the raid on Wilhelmshaven. Commanded at the time by Brig. Gen. Newton Longfellow, the 8th Air Force was amazingly effective and accurate in bombing warehouses and factories in this first air attack against the Axis power.

1942 –27.4ºC, Netherlands' coldest day since 1850.
1941 Peruvian agent Rivera-Schreibér warns of Japanese assault on Pearl Harbor.
1934 French government of Chautemps falls (Stavisky Affair)
1926 US Senate agrees to join World Court.
1924 Lenin placed in Mausoleum in Red Square.
1915 US Marines occupy Haiti.

^ 1914 Canal Zone given civilian government by US
By executive order of President Woodrow Wilson, the US-administered Panama Canal Zone is granted a permanent US civilian administration. American George W. Goethals is subsequently appointed the Canal Zoneís first governor, receiving confirmation by the US Senate on February 4. During the mid nineteenth century, the US government became interested in connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans with a shipping route across the Isthmus of Panama, and by the twentieth century considered it imperative for the US economy and national defense. In 1913, the Hay-Herran Treaty was signed with Columbia, granting the US use of the necessary territory in exchange for financial compensation, but the Colombian senate refused to ratify it. President Theodore Roosevelt responded by giving tacit approval to the Panamanian independence movement, which began on November 3, 1903, the day after the arrival of a US warship. During the revolt, the US military presence prevented Colombia forces from halting the Panama rebellion, and three days later, the US officially recognized the independent Republic of Panama. In the next year, American engineers began work on the Panama Canal, which was completed in October of 1913, and opened for traffic in August of the next year. In one of the largest construction projects of all time, US engineers moved over 240 million cubic yards of earth and spent nearly $400 million dollars in constructing the forty-mile-long canal.

1905 Maurice Rouvier forms government in France
1897 British troops occupy Bida Gold Coast (Ghana)
1889 Le général Boulanger est élu député à Paris par 245'236 suffrages contre 162'875 à son adversaire, le radical Jacques. Mais en dépit de ce plébiscite et sur les conseils de sa maîtresse Mme de Bonnemain, il refuse de marcher sur l'Elysée.
1886 first British government of Salisbury resigns
1870 After accepting 15th amendment, Virginia is readmitted to Union
1870 Manitoba and Northwest Territories incorporated
1864 1864 Engagement of Fair Gardens (Kelly's Ford), Tennessee
1864 Civil War skirmish at Kelly's Ford VA
1794 En France, la Convention décide que tous les actes publics rédigés jusqu'alors en latin doivent dorénavant être rédigés en français.
1736 Stanislaw I abdicates as king of Poland, receiving as compensation (after the so-called War of Polish Succession) the duchy of Lorraine. In 1733, Stanislaw I, seen as a symbol of Poland's independence and supported by France (his daughter married Louis XV), was elected king of Poland for the second time. The counter-election of Augustus III followed, and Russian troops drove Stanislaw out of the country (déjà vu all over again).
1710 Czar Peter the Great sets first Russian state budget
1687 A la lecture faite à l'Académie française du Siècle de Louis le Grand par Charles Perrault, le moderne. Celle-ci est vivement contesté par Boileau, l'ancien. Cette bataille durera plus de quatre ans.
1671 Landing at Panama City by Sir Henry Morgan, Welsh buccaneer, most famous of the adventurers who plundered Spain's Caribbean colonies during the late 17th century. Operating with the unofficial support of the English government, he undermined Spanish authority in the West Indies.

^ 1669 Madame de Sévigné commence à écrire.
      Née en 1626, petite-fille de Jeanne de Chantal, qui fonda l'ordre de la Visitation avec François de Sales, Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, marquise de Sévigné, perdit son père en 1627, puis sa mère en 1633. Elle fut donc élevée par ses deux oncles maternels, Philippe et Christophe de Coulanges. Elle reçut auprès d'eux une éducation riche et variée, fondée essentiellement, comme souvent à l'époque pour les filles, sur les belles-lettres et l'étude des langues.
      À dix-huit ans, réputée tant par son esprit que par sa beauté, elle épousa Henri de Sévigné, de trois ans son aîné. Entre la Bretagne, où le marquis de Sévigné possédait plusieurs domaines, et Paris, le jeune couple passe pour avoir mené joyeuse vie, à en croire les témoignages de deux contemporains, Tallemant des Réaux et Bussy-Rabutin, cousin de la marquise. Mme de Sévigné fréquenta à Paris une société choisie, en particulier celle de l'hôtel de Rambouillet, où elle se lia d'amitié avec La Rochefoucauld, le cardinal de Retz ou encore Fouquet. En 1646, elle mit au monde une fille, Françoise-Marguerite, puis, en 1648, un garçon, peu avant de perdre son mari, tué en duel en 1651.
      Dès lors, libérée de toute obligation de résider en Bretagne, Mme de Sévigné s'installa à Paris, où le pouvoir de séduction de son esprit lui attira de nombreuses et durables amitiés, comme celles de Mme de La Fayette, Jean Chapelain ou de Gilles Ménage. Malgré les diverses occasions qu'elle eut de se remarier, elle décida de se consacrer exclusivement à sa vie mondaine, d'une part, mais plus encore à l'éducation de ses enfants.
      C'est en 1669 que se produisit l'événement qui devait, d'une certaine façon, décider de la carrière littéraire de Mme de Sévigné : sa fille Françoise-Marguerite, qu'elle chérissait par-dessus tout, épousa le 26 janvier, le comte de Grignan. Son mari étant Fermier Général, elle partit rejoindre son époux en Provence. La séparation d'avec sa fille fut pour la marquise un véritable déchirement, mais lui donna l'occasion de rédiger cette célèbre correspondance, ininterrompue de 1671 à 1696, qui forme la quasi-totalité de ses écrits.
      Les quelques 764 lettres adressées à Mme de Grignan qui nous sont parvenues - souvent remaniées et édulcorées par des éditeurs trop zélés - représentent un témoignage savoureux et varié, une observation alerte de son époque. Véritable chroniqueuse, Mme de Sévigné relate pour sa fille tous les événements marquants qui se sont produits à Paris : le mariage de la Grande Mademoiselle, l'arrestation de Fouquet, l'exécution de la Brinvilliers lors de l'affaire des Poisons, la mort d'Henriette d'Angleterre, etc. Elle lui adresse aussi des conseils pratiques et mondains, ainsi que des réflexions plus générales sur le temps, l'absence, la destinée humaine.
      Mais là n'est pas la finalité première des lettres, qui se proposent avant tout de réduire la distance avec l'être aimé par l'évocation des souvenirs communs et par l'expression spontanée du sentiment d'amour maternel. Le style de ces lettres, enfin, adopte le ton enjoué de la conversation mondaine : naturel autant qu'on pouvait l'être dans la fréquentation des salons, il ne doit que très peu aux ressources de la rhétorique, discipline que la marquise, en tant que femme, n'avait jamais apprise. Par leur inventivité, leur liberté de ton et leur originalité, les Lettres de la marquise de Sévigné constituent, sans que ce fût le moins du monde prémédité, l'une des œuvres les plus marquantes du XVIIème siècle français.

MADAME DE SEVIGNE ONLINE:
Lettres de madame de Sévigné, de sa famille et de ses amis:
Tome 1 — Tome 2 — Tome 3 — Tome 4 — Tome 5 — Tome 6 — Tome 7 — Tome 8 — Tome 9 — Tome 10 — Tome 11 — Tome 12
Lettres inédites de Madame de Sévigné : à Madame de Grignan, sa fille: Tome premier — Tome second
Lexique de la langue de madame de Sévigné: Tome premier — Tome second

1593 Vatican opens 7 year trial against scholar Giordano Bruno

^ 1556 Couronnement du souverain moghol Akbar
Akbar, 13 ans, succède à son père à la tête d'un petit royaume musulman du nord de l'Inde. Ce lointain descendant des conquérants turcs Tamerlan et Babur Shah va se tailler en quelques années un empire qui recouvrira la plus grande partie du sous-continent indien, de l'Afghanistan au Bengale. Akbar épousera une princesse rajpoute de religion hindoue. Pendant son long règne, jusqu'en 1605, il cultivera la tolérance, gouvernera avec les hindous et développera une administration solide. L'empire d'Akbar, faussement appelé moghol (déformation de mongol - ou turc ! -), est à l'origine d'une brillante civilisation indo-musulmane dont les Indiens cultivent encore la nostalgie.

^ 1349 L'année sainte périodique
      Le Pape Clément VI en Avignon, détermine la périodicité de l'Année Sainte. D'après le Lévitique, XXV, 8-55, l'année sainte est envisagée comme une tentative de redressement social, où l'esclave retrouvait sa liberté et l'homme endetté son patrimoine : "Tu compteras 7 semaines d'années, c'est — dire le temps de 7 semaines d'années, 49 ans ; le 7ème mois, le 10ème jour, tu feras retentir l'appel de la trompe. Le jour des expiations, vous sonnerez de la trompe dans tout le pays. Vous déclarerez sainte cette 50ème année et proclamerez l'affranchissement de tous les habitants du pays. Ce sera pour vous un jubilé ; chacun de vous rentrera dans son patrimoine, chacun de vous rentrera dans son clan. Cette 50ème année sera pour vous une année jubilaire." Le mot "jubilé" fut utilisé par St-Jérôme précisément pour désigner cette pratique biblique annoncée par le son du cor et la mise en œuvre de la doctrine selon laquelle la terre appartient à Dieu, qui la destine à tous les hommes.
      Mais l'institution de l'année sainte, qui offre aux catholiques une occasion de payer leurs dettes envers Dieu, n'apparaît qu'à l'extrême fin du XIIIème siècle. Un mouvement populaire l'obtint de Boniface VIII, demandant la résurrection d'un privilège qui avait été accordé par les papes de l'époque des croisades et qui consistait, pour stimuler l'énergie des fidèles, à leur octroyer remise de toutes les peines dues à leurs péchés. Devant l'affluence croissante des pèlerins à Rome, le pape consulta les cardinaux et publia, le 22 février 1300, la bulle " Antiquorum " , qui accordait, pour toute l'année, à compter de Noël 1299, à quiconque visiterait les deux basiliques des saints apôtres le plus large pardon, sous la condition de consacrer à cette visite trente jours pour les Italiens, quinze pour les étrangers. Ainsi affluèrent, durant l'année 1300, 200'000 visiteurs, soit bien plus que la population habituelle de la ville. La bulle de clôture, à Noël 1300, accorda de surcroît l'indulgence à tous ceux qui n'avaient pu, faute de temps, accomplir entièrement le pèlerinage.
      Un autre jubilé avait été prévu pour 1400, mais on supplia Clément VI (1342-1352), en Avignon, de revenir au chiffre biblique de cinquante ans ; le pape se laissa convaincre, en raison de la brièveté de la vie humaine. Sa bulle du 27 janvier 1349 ajoutait aux deux basiliques à visiter celle de Saint-Jean-de-Latran. En 1350, vinrent ainsi à Rome 1 200 000 pèlerins, l'indulgence ayant été alors, pour la première fois, étendue aux fidèles accomplissant hors de la Ville éternelle une démarche similaire.
      La périodicité du jubilé fut ramenée à trente-trois ans par la bulle Salvator noster d'avril 1389. Le succès fut cependant moindre, en raison du grand schisme d'Occident, qui éclata en 1378 ; en outre, Boniface IX avait accordé aux fidèles d'Angleterre et du Portugal l'autorisation de gagner l'indulgence en effectuant un pèlerinage dans les églises de leurs pays, au lieu de venir à Rome, sous la condition de verser en offrandes le prix que leur eût coûté le voyage.
      À partir de 1475 et jusqu'en 1800, les jubilés se succédèrent régulièrement tous les vingt-cinq ans. Pie VI étant mort en captivité en 1799 et Rome étant occupée par les armées françaises, la tradition fut interrompue au début du XIXème siècle. Elle fut remise en vigueur par Pie IX, en 1875, malgré les avis de certains de ses conseillers. En dehors de la périodicité inaugurée en 1475 par Paul II, se déroulent aussi des jubilés extraordinaires, tel celui "de la Rédemption" en 1933, sous Pie XI, et celui de 1983, décrété par Jean-Paul II.
      L'an 2000, outre son caractère exceptionnel de fin de siècle et de millénaire, a été, pour l'Eglise Catholique, une exceptionnelle " Année Sainte ".

1343 Clement VI's bull Unigenitus officially ratifies the belief that Indulgences owe their potency to the Pope's dispensation of the accumulated merit of the Church. (In 1518 Cardinal Thomas Cajetan accused German reformer Martin Luther, 32, of challenging the validity of this Catholic doctrine.)

^ 1302 Dante is exiled from Florence.
Poet and politician Dante Alighieri, 37, is exiled from Florence, where, since 15 June 1300, he served as one of six priors governing the city. Dante's political activities, including the banishing of several rivals, led to his own banishment, and he wrote his masterpiece, La divina commedia, as a virtual wanderer, seeking protection for his family in town after town.
Dante

      Dante was born to a family with noble ancestry that had fallen in fortunes. He began writing poetry in his teens and received encouragement from established poets, to whom he sent sonnets as a young man.
      At age nine, Dante first caught a glimpse of Beatrice Portinari, also nine, who would symbolize for him perfect female beauty and spiritual goodness in the coming decades. Despite his fervent devotion to Portinari, who did not seem to return his feelings, Dante became engaged to Gemma Donati in 1277, but the two did not marry until eight years later. The couple had six sons and a daughter.
      About 1293, Dante published a book of prose and poetry called The New Life, followed a few years later by another collection, The Banquet. It wasn't until his banishment that he began work on his Divine Comedy. In the poem's first book, the poet takes a tour through Hell with the poet Virgil as a guide. Virgil also guides the poet through Purgatory in the second book. The poet's guide in Paradise, however, is named Beatrice. The work was written and published in sections between 1308 and 1321. Although Dante called the work simply Comedy, the work became enormously popular, and a deluxe version published in 1555 in Venice bore the title The Divine Comedy. Dante died of malaria in Ravenna on 14 September 1321.

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^ Deaths which occurred on a 27 January:
2002 More than 1000 victims of a long series of bomb, rocket, and shell explosions started by an accidental (or political sabotage?) fire at the Ikeja military armory in Lagos, Nigeria, near a crowded barracks and a residential area. Many victims die in the ensuing panic, drowned in the nearby Oke-Afa and Pako canals, or trampled.
2002 A bystander 81-year-old man and Wafa' Idris, 27, Palestinian female suicide bomber in downtown Jerusalem, just after midday. At least 113 persons are injured, most only lightly. Idris was a non-practicing Muslim, a divorced paramedic from the Amari refugee camp in Ramallah.She had attended Palestinian victims of Israeli shooting and sometimes hit by rubber bullets while doing so. The al-Aqsa intifada (started in September 2000 after a Sharon provocation) body count is now at least 821 Palestinians and 248 Israelis.
2002: General Mikhail Rudchenko, Major-General Nikolai Goridov, and 12 other Russian Interior Ministry troopers, including 3 colonels, as their Mi-8 helicopter crashes near Shchelkovskaya, northwest of Grozny, Chechnya. Rudchenko was a deputy interior minister who headed Interior Ministry forces for the Caucasus region. Goridov was deputy commander-in-chief of Russian interior forces.
2001 Oklahoma State basketball players Nate Fleming and Daniel Lawson, student manager Jared Weiberg, sports information employee Will Hancock, OK State director of basketball Pat Noyes, trainer Brian Luinstra, broadcast engineer Kendall Durfey, OK City broadcaster Bill Teegins, pilot Denver Mills, and co-pilot Bjorn Falistrom, as their Beechcraft King Air 200 Catpass crashes in a snowstorm in Byers, Colorado, about 70 km east of Denver, after taking off from Jefferson County Airport. They were returning from a game in Boulder.
2001 At least 15 Civic United Front demonstrators and 1 policeman, in Zanzibar (10 in Zanzibar town, and 5 in Pemba), as the government of the Chama Cha Mapinduzi party cracks down with massive arrests of the CUF followers, who protest what they say are the rigged elections of three months earlier.

^ 2001 Half Zantop, 62, and Susanne Zantop, 55, his wife, murdered.
At Dartmouth College, in Hanover, New Hampshire, Susanne Zantop is head of the German studies department and her husband teaches Earth sciences. Coming from their Chelsea, Vermont, homes, an hour away, and following a premeditated robbery and murder plan, Robert Tulloch, 17, and his friend, James Parker, 16, pose as students taking an environmental survey. Mr. Zantop leads the boys into his study, given them each a chair and sits down at his desk. The professor answeres Tulloch's questions for 10 minutes while Parker takes notes.
the killers

      When the interview is finished, Parker thinks that they are going to leave and abort their criminal plan. But Zantop tells them that they should be better prepared for the next survey and says that he has a friend who could help them with research. When Zantop opens his wallet to give the boys the friend's business card, a wad of cash pokes out, and Tulloch abruptly reaches into a backpack and grabs one of the two 30-cm-long commando knives the boys had bought over the Internet. He lunges at Zantop, stabbing him repeatedly in the chest. Susanne Zantop comes running when she hears her husband's screams. At Tulloch's direction, Parker slits her throat. The pair flees with Zantop's wallet, which has what they believe are PIN numbers for ATM cards. But they decide that using them would be too risky.
     Tulloch and Parker were questioned by Orange County, Vermont, police on the evening of 15 February 2001, and fingerprinted. Their fingerprints match those found at the Zantops’ home. The two fled, hitchhiking, and would be arrested at 04:07 on 19 February 2001, at a truck stop in Henry County, Indiana.
     The crime had its genesis two years earlier when the once-inseparable buddies from the little town of Chelsea, Vermont, began thinking up ways to collect $10'000 and run off to Australia. The boys ordered stun guns on the Internet, but Tulloch's mother intercepted them. Tulloch suggested talking their way into homes and demanding ATM cards and PIN numbers at knifepoint, then killing the victims. Tulloch discussed with Parker that they would have to be able to kill people so that they could be sort of tough guys when they went to Australia. Their first attempt was in a Vermont town six months before the Zantops were killed. Dressed in black and using old Army knives, they dug a grave for the bodies, but left when the homeowner answered the door holding a gun. In another attempt the same day as the murders, they went to a Zantop neighbor's house, but no one was home. After the slayings, they wiped the blood off their hands in the snow, changed their clothes and went to a bookstore, where they read about how soldiers cope with killing. They later drove back to retrieve the knife sheaths, but a police car in the driveway scared them off.
     On 04 April 2002 former high school honor student Tulloch drops his insanity defense and pleads guilty. He receives the mandatory sentence of life without parole for first-degree murder. Parker, who struck a plea bargain in December 2001 and had agreed to testify against Tulloch, is sentenced to 25 years to life as an accomplice to murder.

1996 Sarahi Morales, 15 days old conjoined twin, in operation of separation from Sarah, who survives.
1996 Two nuns of four stabbed and beaten in their Waterville, Maine, convent, by Mark Bechard, later found not criminally responsible, because of mental illness.
1989 Sir Thomas Sopwith, English WW1 aircraft designer born on 18 January 1888. His Sopwith Aviation Company produced the Sopwith Pup and it famous successor the Sopwith F1 Camel, which, from July 1917, when it reached the Front, until the 11 November 1918 Armistice, downed 1294 enemy planes.
1978 Evelyn Miroth and Daniel Meredith, murdered by Richard Chase, 28, the "Dracula Killer," who, some say, suffered a medical condition causing him to need to drink blood, which they identify as porphyria.
1972 Richard Courant, 84, German/US mathematician.
1969 9 Jews publicly executed in Damascus Syria
1969 14 spies hung in Baghdad
1967 Alphonse Juin , 78, French marshal

^ 1967 Virgil I. (Gus) Grissom, 41, Edward H. White II, and Roger B. Chaffee, US astronauts, in Apollo I fire
A launch pad fire during Apollo program tests at Cape Canaveral, Florida, kills astronauts Virgil “Gus” Grissom, Edward H. White II, and Roger B. Chafee. An investigation indicates that a faulty electrical wire inside the Apollo 1 command module was the probable cause of the fire. The astronauts, the first Americans to die in a spacecraft, had been participating in a simulation of the Apollo 1 launch scheduled for the next month. The Apollo program was initiated by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) following President John F. Kennedyís 1961 declaration of his goal of landing men on the moon and bringing them safely back to earth by the end of the decade. The so-called ìmoon shotî was the largest scientific and technological undertaking in history. In late 1968, Apollo 8 became the first manned spacecraft to orbit the moon, and then, on 20 July 1969, astronauts Neil A. Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin, Jr., walked on the lunar surface, while a third astronaut, Michael Collins, orbited the moon in the Apollo 11 command ship. In all, there were seventeen Apollo missions and six lunar landings.

Dans le cadre des premiers vols spatiaux et de la conquête de l'espace par les américains, le premier vol d'Apollo habité, en orbite terrestre, devait avoir lieu en février 1967. Le 27 janvier 1967, durant une répétition du compte à rebours, un incendie se déclara à l'intérieur de la cabine du vaisseau spatial et, dans l'atmosphère d'oxygène concentré à la pression atmosphérique, s'étendit rapidement. Les astronautes Virgil L. Grissom, Edward H. White et Roger B. Chaffee périrent, après avoir tenté, sans succès, de quitter la cabine. L'accident retarda considérablement la poursuite du programme Apollo. Cependant, en novembre 1967, une fusée Saturn V plaça sur orbite un vaisseau Apollo automatique.

1965 Franklin, mathematician.

^ 1944 Last of 600'000 killed in siege of Leningrad as it is lifted after 880 days.
     Soviet forces permanently break the Leningrad siege line, ending the almost 900-day German-enforced containment of the city, which cost hundreds of thousands of Russian lives. The siege began officially on 08 September 1941. The people of Leningrad began building antitank fortifications and succeeded in creating a stable defense of the city, but as a result were cut off from all access to vital resources in the Soviet interior, Moscow specifically. In 1942, an estimated 650'000 Leningrad citizens perished from starvation, disease, exposure, and injuries suffered from continual German artillery bombardment.
      Barges offered occasional relief in the summer and ice-borne sleds did the same in the winter. Slowly but surely a million of Leningrad's young, sick, and elderly residents were evacuated, leaving about 2 million to ration available food and use all open ground to plant vegetables.
      On January 12, Soviet defenses punctured the siege, ruptured the German encirclement, and allowed more supplies to come in along Lake Ladoga. The siege officially ended after 872 days (though it is often called the 900-day siege), after a Soviet counteroffensive pushed the Germans westward.

^ 1940 Day 59 of Winter War: USSR aggression against Finland.
More deaths due to Stalin's desire to grab Finnish territory.
Enemy artillery continues to pound main defensive position
       Karelian Isthmus: the enemy artillery continues its increasingly fierce pounding of the main Finnish defensive position on the Isthmus.
      The 'Million Fort' in the Lähde sector to the east of Lake Summajärvi is badly damaged by the enemy's heavy artillery.
      Ladoga Karelia: near Pitkäranta, Soviet troops take the offshore island of Putkisaari.
      IV Army Corps' combat detachment and battalion commanders hold talks at the 13th Division's command post.
      Major-General Hägglund gives the command to take the 'mottis' at Kelivaara and West Lemetti.
      Abroad: Count Eric von Rosen, the Swedish Finnophile who donated the first aircraft in the Finnish Air Force, believes Finland can withstand the Soviet pressure and does not believe the air raids will undermine Finnish resistance.
      An editorial in the Red Army paper Krasnaya Zvezda claims the "Red Army is fulfilling an honourable international obligation in Finland."
      The American daily The Chicago News suggests the 1940 Nobel Peace Prize be awarded to Finland.
      Sweden's Foreign Minister warns the Soviet Ambassador in Stockholm, Madame Alexandra Kollontai, that continuation of the war against Finland could lead to the involvement of the Western powers

^ Vihollisen tykistö jatkaa pääpuolustusaseman murentamista Talvisodan 59. päivä, 27.tammikuuta.1940
      Vihollisen tykistö jatkaa kiihtyvällä voimalla pääpuolustusaseman murentamista Kannaksella.
      Summajärven itäpuolella Lähteen lohkolla Kannaksella sijaitseva ns. Miljoonalinnake vaurioituu pahoin vihollisen raskaan tykistön tulessa.
      Neuvostojoukot valtaavat Pitkärannan edustalla olevan Putkisaaren.
      IV Armeijakunnan taisteluosastojen ja pataljoonien komentajien neuvottelu pidetään 13. Divisioonan komentopaikalla.
      Kenraalimajuri Hägglund antaa määräyksen Kelivaaran ja Läntisen Lemetin motin valtaamiseksi.
      Ulkomailta: Suomen ilmavoimien ensimmäisen koneen lahjoittaja, ruotsalainen Suomen-ystävä, kreivi Eric von Rosen, uskoo Suomen kestävän eikä usko pommihyökkäysten murtavan Suomen vastarintaa.
      Puna-armeijan lehti Krasnaja Zvezdan pääkirjoituksen mukaan "Puna-armeija täyttää kunniakasta kansainvälistä tehtävää Suomessa."
      Amerikkalainen päivälehti The Chicago News esittää Nobelin rauhanpalkinnon myöntämistä Suomelle 1940.
      Ruotsin ulkoministeri varoittaa Moskovan Tukholman-suurlähettilästä rouva Aleksandra Kollontaita toteamalla että sota Suomea vastaan saattaa myötävaikuttaa länsivaltojen haluun liittyä sotaan mukaan.

^ Fiendens artilleri fortsätter att bryta ner huvudförsvarsställningarna Vinterkrigets 59 dag, den 27 januari 1940
      Fiendens artilleri fortsätter med accelererande kraft att bryta ner huvudförsvarsställningarna på Näset.
      Den så kallade Miljonbunkern öster om Summajärvi i Lähdeavsnittet på Näset får omfattande skador av fiendens tunga artillerield.
      De ryska trupperna invaderar ön Putkisaari utanför Pitkäranta.
      Kommendörerna för den IV Armékårens stridsavdelningar och bataljoner samlas till möte vid den 13. Divisionens kommandoplats.
      Generalmajor Hägglund ger order om att erövra mottin i Kelivaara och västra Lemetti.
      Utrikes: Den svenska Finlandsvännen, greve Eric von Rosen, som donerade det första planet åt flygvärnet, tror att Finland kommer att hålla ut och att bombanfallen inte kommer att krossa Finlands motstånd.
      Enligt en ledare i Röda Arméns tidning Krasnaja Zvezda uppfyller Röda Armén "en ärorik internationell uppgift i Finland".
      Den amerikanska dagstidningen The Chicago News föreslår att Nobels fredspris år 1940 ska beviljas åt Finland.
      Den svenska utrikesministern varnar Moskvas ambassadör i Stockholm, fru Alexandra Kollontaj i sitt konstaterande att kriget mot Finland kan bidra till att väststaterna vill gå med i kriget

Va, pensiero, sull'ali dorate;
Va, ti posa sui clivi, sui colli,
Ove olezzano tepide e molli
L'aure dolci del suolo natal!
Del Giordano le rive saluta,
Di Sïon le torri atterrate...
Oh mia patria sì bella e perduta!
Oh membranza sì cara e fatal!
Arpa d'ôr dei fatidici vati,
Perchè muta dal salice pendi?
Le memorie nel petto raccendi,
Ci favella del tempo che fu!
O simìle di Solima ai fati
Traggi un suono di crudo lamento,
O t'ispiri il Signore un concento
Che ne infonda al patire virtù,
Che ne infonda al patire virtù,
Che ne infonda al patire virtù, al patire virtù!
— G. Verdi // T. Solera

1927 Luigi Pastega, Italian artist born on 18 November 1858.
1912 Charles Schreyvogel, US artist born on 04 January 1861.

1901 Giuseppe Verdi, 87, Italian composer (Rigoletto/Traviata/Aïda/Nabucco >)

1890 Anton Hartinger, Austrian artist born on 13 June 1806.
1864 Leo van Klenze, dies at age 79 about one month before his 20th birthday. He was a German artist born on 29 February 1784.
1860 János Bolyai, 57, Hungarian mathematician (parallel)
1851 John James Audubon, 65, naturalist and artist famous for his drawings and paintings of North American birds. — MORE ON AUDUBON AT ART “4” JANUARY — LINKS
1836 Ludwig Philipp Strack, German artist born in 1761.
1823 Hutton, mathematician.
1811 Jean-Baptiste Huet, French artist born on 15 October 1735.
1738 Alessandro Marchesini, Italian painter born in 1664. — The Dedication of a New Vestal Virgin
1747 Willem van Mieris, Dutch painter born on 03 June 1662. — LINKS — The Peepshow — The Greengrocer — The Spinner
1669 Gaspar de Crayer, Flemish artist born on 18 November 1584. — MORE ON DE CRAYER AT ART “4” JANUARY — LINKS — Altar — Alexander and Diogenes — The Cardinal Infante — Head Study of a Young Moor
1667 Saint-Vincent, mathematician.
1651 Abraham Bloemaert, influential Dutch Mannerist painter and engraver who born on 25 December 1564. — MORE ON BLOEMAERT AT ART “4” JANUARY — LINKS — Landscape with the Ministry of John the Baptist — Adoration of the Magi — Adoration of Newborn Jesus by Shepherds and Angels — The Emmaus Disciples
0847 Pope (844-47) Sergius II
0672 Pope (657-72) Saint Vitalian
0098 Marius Cocceius Nerva, 67, Emperor of Rome (96-98)

Births which occurred on a 27 January:

^ 1966 Enrico Maria Ferrari
Nasce a Roma, dove continua a vivere nonostante tutto. Dopo il liceo ed un inutile vagabondaggio all'Università, scopre il piacere della scrittura grazie ad un sistema di messagistica elettronica, dove amici giornalisti apprezzano i suoi raccontini. Comincia a collaborare alla fine degli anni Ottanta con MCmicrocomputer, mensile di informatica, divenuto quindi giornalista collabora con la Repubblica, Mondo Economico e addirittura L'Avvenire. In tempi più recenti comincia una collaborazione con un quotidiano di turismo, che lo fa viaggiare tutto spesato; realizza così l'obiettivo di fare vacanza lavorando. Come scrittore trova spazio solo fra amici e conoscenti, finché nel '91 viene invitiato al Maurizio Costanzo Show come "nuovo scrittore", il riscontro successivo sfiora lo zero assoluto fino all'approdo, sempre per vie telematiche, a Stampa Alternativa. Frequenta la Scandinavia, la Groenlandia e l'Islanda, dove ritiene che le condizioni climatiche siano ottimali: adora infatti il freddo in ogni sua manifestazione e sogna di vedere un giorno il Tevere completamente ghiacciato.
FERRARI ONLINE: Quando vendettero il Natale (Una raccolta di racconti umoristici e graffianti, molto divertenti e meno "leggeri" di quello che può sembrare ad una lettura superficiale)

1933 Mohamed Al Fayed CEO (Harrods)

^ Première démonstration de télévision, à l'Institut Royal à Londres, par l'inventeur écossais John Baird.
1926 Televisor is first demonstrated.
      John Logie Baird, a Scottish inventor, gives the first public demonstration of a true television system in London, launching a revolution in communication and entertainment. Baird's invention, a pictorial-transmission machine he called a "televisor," used mechanical rotating disks to scan moving images into electronic impulses. This information was then transmitted by cable to a screen where it showed up as a low-resolution pattern of light and dark. Baird's first television program showed the heads of two ventriloquist dummies, which he operated in front of the camera apparatus out of view of the audience.
      Baird based his television on the work of Paul Nipkow, a German scientist who patented his ideas for a complete television system in 1884. Nipkow likewise used a rotating disk with holes in it to scan images, but he never achieved more than the crudest of shadowy pictures. Various inventors worked to develop this idea, and Baird was the first to achieve easily discernible images. In 1928, Baird made the first overseas broadcast from London to New York over phone lines and in the same year demonstrated the first color television.
      The first home television receiver was demonstrated in Schenectady, New York, in January 1928, and by May a station began occasional broadcasts to the handful of homes in the area that were given the General Electric-built machines. In 1932, the Radio Corporation of America demonstrated an all-electronic television using a cathode-ray tube in the receiver and the "iconoscope" camera tube developed by Russian-born physicist Vladimir Zworykin. These two inventions greatly improved picture quality.
      The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) inaugurated regular high-definition public broadcasts in London in 1936. In delivering the broadcasts, Baird's television system was in competition with one promoted by Marconi Electric and Musical Industries. Marconi's television, which produced a 405-line picture—compared with Baird's 240 lines—was clearly better, and in early 1937 the BBC adopted the Marconi system exclusively. Regular television broadcasts began in the United States in 1939, and permanent color broadcasts began in 1954.

1921 Georges Mathieu, French artist
1918 Tarzan of the Apes, first Tarzan film, released, a silent movie, based on Edgar Rice Burroughs' novel.
1916 "Spartacus Letters" of Communist party first published in Berlin
1908 William Randolph Hearst Jr newspaper publisher (newspapers: San Francisco Examiner, magazines: Cosmopolitan; Hearst Broadcasting, A&E Television Networks, The History Channel)
1900 Hyman G Rickover, nuclear engineer, US Admiral (father of modern nuclear navy, directed development of the Nautilus, the first nuclear reactor-powered submarine). He died on 08 July 1986.
1892 Ch'ing-ling Soong, Chinese politician who died on 29 May 1981.
1891 (15 January Julian) Ilya Grigoryevich Ehrenburg, in Kiev, prolific writer and journalist, one of the most effective Soviet spokesmen to the Western world. He died on 31 August in Moscow
1888 National Geographic Society organizes (Washington DC)

^ 1880 Electric incandescent lamp is patented by Thomas Edison.
Edison's invention of the light bulb had a major impact on the electronics and computer industries, and not just because it allowed future programmers to work all night. During the two years of research it took to develop the bulb, one of Edison's assistants noticed a flow of energy from one electrode to another in a pattern later known as the Edison effect. Later, the Edison effect was discovered to be an electron flow, which laid the basis for the electron tube and the entire electronics industry.

1874 Harold Knight, British artist who died on 03 October 1961. — LINKS
1872 Learned Hand, Albany NY, Chief judge (US Court of Appeals). He died on 18 August 1961.
1871 Samuel John Peploe, Scottish painter who died on 11 October 1935. — LINKS — Landscape, Cassis
1859 Kaiser Wilhelm II Potsdam, German emperor (1888-1918)
1851 Jan van Chelminski, Polish artist who died in 1925.

^ 1850 Samuel Gompers Dutch/US, first president-American Federation of Labor
Born in England, Gompers emigrated in 1863 to New York with his family and soon joined his father working as a cigar maker in various New York sweatshops. Although he became heavily involved in the cigar makers' union, Gompers was hardly an advocate of labor's more left-leaning tendencies. As he rose to prominence in the union, Gompers gradually articulated his belief in strikes and boycotts tempered by responsibility and reason. In addition, he focused almost solely on economic goals and hailed binding contracts as a key to improving the lives of workers. In 1886, Gompers spearheaded the formation of the American Federation of Labor (A.F. of L.) He ruled the A.F. of L. for forty years, save for 1895, when a brief burst of socialist sentiment forced him out of office. Gompers shaped the A.F. of L. into his conservative ideal, leading the organization to eschew overt political affiliations, most notably radicalism, in favor of broad patriotic values. However, as employers and politicians increasingly marshaled tough tactics to quell the rising tide of labor, Gompers was forced to choose sides, and in 1908, he supported William Jennings Bryan's failed run for the Oval Office. A few years later, Gompers became a fierce ally of President Woodrow Wilson, and Gompers used the pulpit of the A.F. of L., as well as the recently formed Pan American Labor Federation, to push the government's policy in World War I. Gompers passed away in Texas on December 13, 1924.

1832 Arthur Hughes, English Pre-Raphaelite painter and illustrator who died on 22 December 1915. — MORE ON HUGHES AT ART “4” JANUARY — Arthur Hughes and his daughter Agnes, photographed by Lewis Carroll. — Drawing portrait by the artist's son, Arthur Foord Hughes — LINKS — Self-Portrait — Ophelia — Home From the Sea — Knight of the Sun — La Belle Dame Sans Merci _ This painting is based on La Belle Dame Sans Merci by John Keats — Ophelia and He Will Not Come Again — A Music Party — Good Night — Sir Galahad — Endymion — The Heavenly Stair — Wonderland — The Annunciation — The Nativity — The Mower

^ 1832 Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, better known as Lewis Carroll, mathematician English logician, mathematician, photographer, and novelist, especially remembered for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and its sequel, Through the Looking Glass (1871). His poem The Hunting of the Snark (1876) is nonsense literature of the highest order. He died on 14 January 1898. LEWIS CARROLL ONLINE:
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Alice's Adventures Under Ground *Complete on-line works and commentary* *Complete Stories*	Euclid and His Modern Rivals The Hunting of the Snark The Nursery "Alice" Sylvie and Bruno Sylvie and Bruno Concluded	Through the Looking Glass Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There Eight or Nine Wise Words About Letter-Writing Phantasmagoria and Other Poems

1828 Louis Schubert composer.

^ 1826 (15 January Julian) graf Mikhail Yevgrafovich Saltykov “N. Shchedrin”, in Spas-Ugol, Russia.
      He would grow up to be a novelist of radical sympathies and one of the great Russian satirists. As a boy he was shocked by his mother's cruel treatment of her peasant serfs, which he would describe in Poshekhonskaya Starina (1889). The serfs were under a 1597 law of Boris Godunov and would be emancipated (at least in theory) only by the 03 March (19 February Julian) 1861 proclamation (the serfs were obligated to pay for their “freedom” and the inadequate land granted to them by extravagant annual instalments).
      Saltykov expressed sympathy for French utopian socialists in his story Zaputannoye Delo (1848), for which he was exiled until 1855 to Vyatka (in the northern Urals, renamed Kirov in 1934 by the Soviets in honor of Sergey Mironovich Kirov [27 Mar 1886 – 01 Dec 1934] whose assassination, probably on orders from Stalin according to Krushchev's 25 February 1956 secret speech, Stalin attributed to his real or imagined enemies and used to launch a bloody purge).
      He then wrote Gubernskiye Ocherki (1857), in which he satirized Vyatka officials, his only comedy Smert Pazukhina (1857, about Russian merchants); two satires on high Russian officials: Istoriya Onogo Goroda (1870) and Pompadury i Pompadurshi (1874), a novel on a decaying family of landed gentry Gospoda Golovlyovy; fables on Russian society Skazki (1885).

1824 Jozef Israëls, Dutch painter and etcher specialized in Landscapes, often called the Dutch Millet. He was the leader of the Hague school of peasant genre painting in the 1870s and 1880s. His painting style was influenced by Rembrandt's later style. He son Isaac also became a painter Jozef Israëls died on 12 August 1911. — LINKS — Interior of a Hut — Peasant Family at Table
1823 Edouard-Victoire-Antoine Lalo, France, composer notable for the clarity of his orchestration, who died on 22 April 1892 (Symphonie Espagnole)
1813 Johann Jakob Frey, Swiss artist who died on 30 September 1865.
1808 David Friedrich Strauss, German-Protestant philosopher and theologian who died on 08 February 1874.
1805 Samuel Palmer, English painter who died on 24 May 1881. — LINKS — 26 prints at FAMSF
1756 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Salzburg, Austria, musical prodigy and composer who died on 05 December 1791. (Don Giovanni, The Marriage of Figaro, Symphony #41, Requiem, A Little Night Music) — Mozart
1679 Jean-François de Troy, French painter and tapestry designer who died on 26 January 1752. — LINKS — La Gouvernante Fidèle — A Hunting Meal
1645 Michiel van Musscher, Dutch artist who died on 20 June 1705.
1630 Job Berckheyde, Dutch painter who died on 23 November 1693. — LINKS — The Baker — Interior of the St Bavo Church at Haarlem
1556 Abbas I "the Great," shah of Persia (1587-1629)

Holidays Mauritius: Cavadee

Sainte Angèle Merici (1474-1540) est née sur les bords du lac de Garde. Elle fonda en 1535 l'ordre des Ursulines pour s'occuper des jeunes filles en difficulté. C'était la première fois que des religieuses sortaient de leur monastère et se vouaient à l'enseignement.

Thoughts for the day: “Music is the only language in which you cannot say a mean or sarcastic thing.” — John Erskine, US author and educator (1879-1951). Not quite true! Erskine was obviously neither a musician nor a mathematician, and did not know P.D.Q. Bach. He ought to have said:
“Mathematics is the only language in which one cannot say a mean or sarcastic thing.” [but mathematician can speak other languages when the need arises.]
“Old mediums never die, they just give up the ghost.”
“Old milkmaids never die, they just kick the bucket.”
“Old agricultural workers never die, they just buy the farm.”
“Old lawyers never die, they just go to a higher court.”

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updated Monday 27-Jan-2003 21:07 UT

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