Today is Saturday, Jan. 2, the second day of 2016. There are 363 days left in the year.
Highlights in history on this date:
1492 – The leader of the last Arab stronghold in Spain surrenders to the Spanish forces loyal to King Ferdinand II and Queen Isabella I.
1799 – Britain joins Russian-Turkish alliance; Napoleon Bonaparte advances into Syria.
1900 – Open-door policy in China is announced by U.S. Secretary of State John Hay.
1905 – Japanese General Nogi receives a letter offering surrender from Russian General Stoessel, thereby formally ending the Russo-Japanese War.
1909 – Dismissal of Yuan Shih-kai places Chinese administration in Manchu hands.
1913 – Turkish garrison on Chios Island surrenders to Greeks.
1932 – Manchukuo Republic is proclaimed in Manchuria, China.
1937 – English and Italians sign agreement on Mediterranean and in favor of maintaining Spain’s independence.
1942 – Japanese capture Philippine capital, Manila, during World War II. Twenty-two nations add their signatures to the U.N. Declaration, already signed by the U.S., UK, U.S.S.R. and China.
1965 – Ayub Khan wins Pakistan’s presidential elections.
1971 – Sixty-six people suffocate or are trampled to death when crowd barrier gives way at a soccer match in Glasgow, Scotland.
1976 – Soviet Union hardens its stand on emigration despite 1975 Helsinki Agreement to permit freer movement of people and ideas in Europe.
1983 – The musical “Annie,” based on the “Little Orphan Annie” comic strip, closes on Broadway in New York after a run of 2,377 performances.
1988 – Right-wing guerrillas ambush train near Mozambique’s western border, killing at least 22 people and injuring 71.
1992 – Military commanders in Croatia agree to stop fighting within 24 hours to allow for dispatch of up to 10,000 U.N. peacekeepers.
1995 – Less than 24 hours after Russian troops say they have taken Grozny, the capital of the separatist Chechnya region, rebels beat them back from the city center.
1996 – U.S. government dietary guidelines acknowledge for the first time that consuming some alcohol can be healthy.
1997 – Kofi Annan arrives at U.N. headquarters for the first time as secretary-general.
2001 – Ships from outlying Taiwanese islands dock in ports in mainland China, making the first legal and direct crossing between the mainland and Taiwanese territory in more than 50 years.
2003 – Chinese space officials announce plans to launch a manned spacecraft in the second half of the year. The Oct. 15 launch of the Shenzhou 5 mission carrying astronaut Yang Liwei makes China the third nation, after Russia and the United States, to do so.
2005 – After the devastation wreaked by the seas, a deluge from the skies deepens the misery for tsunami-stricken areas, triggering flash floods in Sri Lanka that send evacuees fleeing and increasing the threat of deadly disease.
2006 – The roof of an ice rink in Germany collapses after a heavy snowfall in a town in the Bavarian Alps, killing 15 people and injuring dozens.
2009 – Sri Lankan forces capture the Tamil Tigers’ de facto capital, Kilinochchi.
2011 – The United Nations says that it will do everything it can to locate areas where human rights abuses have allegedly occurred in Ivory Coast following disputed presidential elections.
2013 – The United Nations gives a grim new count of the human cost of Syria’s civil war, saying the death toll has exceeded 60,000 in 21 months — far higher than recent estimates by anti-regime activists.
2014 – The New York Times and Guardian newspapers call for clemency for Edward Snowden, saying that the espionage worker- turned-privacy advocate should be praised rather than punished for his disclosures.
2014 — The United States imposes fresh sanctions on North Korea, targeting the North’s defense industry and spy service in an attempt to punish Pyongyang for a crippling cyberattack against Sony.
Today’s Birthdays:
James Wolfe, English general (1727-1759); Nouri Said, Iraqi prime minister (1888-1958); Michael Tippett, English musician (1905-1998); Isaac Asimov, Russian-born U.S. writer (1920-1992); Todd Haynes, U.S. director (1961–); Cuba Gooding Jr., U.S. actor (1968–); Christy Turlington, U.S. model (1969–); Taye Diggs, U.S. actor (1971–).
Thought for Today:
It is the tragedy of the world that no one knows what he doesn’t know — and the less a man knows, the more sure he is that he knows everything — Joyce Cary, British author (1888-1957).
