From: Biniam Tekle (biniamt@dehai.org)
Date: Mon Feb 02 2009 - 08:34:59 EST
1975 - Ethiopia's military government orders bombers, armoured units and
troops into operations against guerrillas in Eritrea Province.
February 2
02/02/2009 08:41 - (SA)
<http://www.news24.com/News24/On_this_day/On_this_day/0,,2-1602-1492_2460102,00.html#>
**
Today is Monday, February 2, the 33rd day of 2009. There are 332 days left
in the year.
*Highlights in history on this date:*
*
1535* - Argentine city of Buenos Aires is founded by Pedro de Mendoza of
Spain.
*
1653* - New Amsterdam - now New York City - with a population of 800, gains
a city charter from the Dutch.
*
1797* - Mantua, Italy, surrenders to the French.
*
1808* - French force occupies Rome after Pope Pius VII refuses to recognise
Kingdom of Naples and to join alliance against Britain.
*
1848* - Mexico signs the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, ending a US invasion
and ceding Texas, New Mexico and California to the United States, and
receives $15m in return.
*
1872* - Holland sells trading posts on African Gold Coast to Britain.
*
1878* - Greece declares war on Turkey.
*
1905* - Insurrection breaks out in Welle District of Belgian Congo.
*
1919* - Monarchy is proclaimed in Portugal.
*
1924* - Caliphate is abolished by Turkey's National Assembly.
*
1943* - German troops surrender to Russians in Stalingrad after losing
200 000 men.
*
1953* - United States announces that it no longer will block Chinese
Nationalist raids against mainland China.
*
1971* - Idi Amin assumes power in Uganda following a coup that ousted
President Milton Obote.
*
1974* - Khmer Rouge bombard Vietnamese city of Phnom Penh, killing 17
people.
*
1975* - Ethiopia's military government orders bombers, armoured units and
troops into operations against guerrillas in Eritrea Province.
*
1979* - After 14 years in exile, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returns from
Paris and becomes the de facto leader of Iran.
*
1980* - Reports surface that the FBI had conducted a sting operation
targeting members of US Congress using phony Arab businessmen in what became
known as "Abscam", a codename protested by Arab-Americans.
*
1990* - South African President FW de Klerk lifts ban on African National
Congress and promises to release political prisoner Nelson Mandela.
*
1991* - An earthquake jolts Afghanistan and Pakistan, killing at least 109
people and injuring more than 350.
*
1992* - Serbian officials and a Serb leader agree to support a UN peace plan
for Croatia.
*
1993* - Rebels fire rockets on besieged Afghan capital of Kabul, killing 72
people.
*
1994* - US administration headed by President Bill Clinton praises Sinn Fein
leader Gerry Adams for showing an inclination to promote peace in Northern
Ireland.
*
1995* - The leaders of Israel, Jordan, the PLO and Egypt sit down together
for the first time in Cairo in an attempt to revive Israel's troubled accord
with Palestinians.
*
1997* - Tamil separatist rebels attack two government military bases in Sri
Lanka's northeast, killing at least 48 people.
*
1998* - A Cebu Pacific Air's DC-9 aircraft crashes in southern Philippines,
killing all 104 people aboard.
*
1999* - Hugo Chavez takes office as Venezuela's president, seven years after
he tried to overthrow the government in a military coup.
*
2000* - The two Libyan defendants charged in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am
Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, plead innocent at a pre-trial hearing
in a Scottish court. The blast killed 270 people.
*
2001* - Defiant in the face of possible impeachment, Indonesian President
Abdurrahman Wahid says he will not quit despite a humiliating censure by
parliament over two corruption scandals.
*
2002* - Riots between ethnic Hausa and Yoruba rocks Lagos, the commercial
capital of Nigeria, killing 100 people and forcing thousands to flee.
*
2004* - Australia's Defence Minister Robert Hill says his country doesn't
need another inquiry into its intelligence on Iraq - despite the US decision
to probe its own possible intelligence failures. Australia's Prime Minister
John Howard was earlier on record saying that most of Australia's
intelligence in the Iraq war came from Washington and London.
*
2006* - Foreign aid workers and journalists start leaving the Gaza Strip
after masked Palestinian gunmen, incensed by cartoons of the Prophet
Muhammad in European newspapers, surround an EU office and threaten to
attack Europeans.
*
2007* - A UN envoy unveils a long-awaited plan for Kosovo recommending
internationally supervised statehood for the contested province. The plan is
quickly rejected by Serbian President Boris Tadic.
*
2008* - Hundreds of rebels penetrate the capital of Chad, clashing with
government troops and moving on the presidential palace after a three-day
advance through the oil-producing central African nation.
*Today's Birthdays:*
Eleanor (Nell) Gwyn, English actress (1651-1687); James Joyce, Irish author
(1882-1941); Jussi Bjoerling, Swedish tenor (1911-1960); Abba Eban, Israeli
ambassador, foreign minister and author (1915-2002); Valery Giscard
d'Estaing, former French president (1926--); Graham Nash, British pop singer
(1942--); Farrah Fawcett, US actress/model (1947--); Christie Brinkley, US
model (1954--); Shakira, Latin singer (1977--).
*Thought For Today:*
Truth has no special time of its own. Its hour is now - always - Albert
Schweitzer, German-born missionary and Nobel laureate (1875-1965).
Sapa-AP
- SAPA
----[This List to be used for Eritrea Related News Only]----