Friday, January 16, 1998
Today's events
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President Clinton plans to meet with the presidents of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to sign a Charter of Partnership.
National Association of Home Builders holds its 54th annual
convention and exposition in Dallas.
The Art Deco Weekend Festival opens in Miami.
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On the horizon
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On Saturday, January 17, NAACP holds Summit on Employment
Discrimination in the Federal Workplace.
On Sunday, January 18, the Golden Globe awards are presented in Los Angeles.
On Monday, January 19, the Conference on Disarmament holds its first session in Geneva.
On Tuesday, January 20, the trial for Melissa Drexler,
a 19-year-old accused of killing her newborn after giving birth
during her high school prom, is scheduled to start.
On Wednesday, January 21, Pope John Paul II begins his first visit to Cuba.
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On this day
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In 1547, Ivan IV (Ivan the Terrible) was formally crowned as
the first Russian Tsar; his reign brought reforms but was more
noted for its oppression, during which over 3,000 were executed.
In 1556 - Charles I of Spain was succeeded by his son, Philip
II.
In 1756, the Treaty of Westminster was signed between George
II of England and his nephew Frederick of Prussia; it guaranteed
the neutrality of Hanover in the Anglo-French wars.
In 1780, Admiral Sir George Rodney defeated a Spanish squadron
at Cape St Vincent, thus relieving Gibraltar.
In 1794, Edward Gibbon, historian and author of "The History
of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," died.
In 1809, the British army under Sir John Moore defeated a
superior French force at the battle of Corunna, but Moore was
killed in the fighting.
In 1891, Clement-Philibert-Leo Delibes, French composer, died;
best remembered for his ballet "Coppelia" and his opera
"Lakme."
In 1920, Prohibition took effect in America, forbidding the
sale or manufacture of alcohol.
In 1920 - The first meeting of the Council of the League of
Nations took place in Paris but without the participation of the
United States.
In 1942, U.S. screen actress Carole Lombard died in an
air crash; wife of film actor Clark Gable, she was best known for
her films "Twentieth Century" and "To Be or Not to Be."
In 1944, General Dwight Eisenhower was appointed
Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Expeditionary Force and asked
to plan the launch of a second front in Western Europe.
In 1945, this date is generally regarded as marking the end of
the failed German Ardennes offensive, better known as the Battle
of the Bulge.
In 1947, Vincent Auriol was elected president of France, the
first president of the Fourth Republic.
In 1957, Arturo Toscanini, conductor of La Scala and
Metropolitan opera houses and the NBC symphony orchestra, died.
In 1969, student Jan Palach set fire to himself in Wenceslas
Square in Prague in protest at the Russian invasion of
Czechoslovakia.
In 1969, the Soviet Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5 linked up to become
the first manned spacecraft to dock in Earth's orbit.
In 1979, the Shah of Iran left the country after being forced
into exile by Ayatollah Khomeini.
In 1979, an earthquake measuring seven on the Richter
scale struck Khorasan province in the Qaen area of Iran, killing
hundreds.
In 1980, the British government announced re-establishment of
diplomatic relations with Chile, broken in 1976.
In 1987, Hu Yaobang stepped down as the Chinese Communist
Party's general secretary, replaced by Zhao Ziyang.
In 1991, Allied forces launched a major air offensive against Iraq to begin the Persian Gulf War.
In 1992, in Algeria, ex-FLN dissident Mohamed Boudiaf returned
from 27 years of exile in France to be sworn in as head of a
five-man presidential council.
In 1994, South Africa's Pan Africanist Congress suspended its
armed struggle against the government of President F.W. de
Klerk.
In 1996, in India, federal police charged seven political
leaders, including six former cabinet ministers, in connection
with an $18 million scandal.
In 1996, Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Anatoly Chubais,
longest-surviving reformer in the government and architect of
the world's biggest privatisation programme, resigned from his
post.
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Newslink
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"The saloon or the boys and girls: The American Issue!" So shouts a pamphlet printed in the early 1900s by the Anti-Saloon League. Their efforts worked -- alcohol became illegal in the United States on this day in 1920. Flip through the digitized archives of the ASL.
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Holidays and more
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It is Nuzel-Al-Quran in Malaysia.
Dancer Debbie Allen is 48.
Former auto racer A.J. Foyt Jr. is 63.
Opera singer Marilyn Horne is 64.
Singer Eartha Kitt is 70.
Singer Ronnie Milsap is 54.
Photographer Francesco Scavullo is 69.
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Sources: Associated Press,
Chase's Calendar of Events 1997, J.P. Morgan
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