Today is Wednesday, Feb. 3, the 34th day of 2016. There are 332 days left in the year.
Highlights in history on this date:
1679 – Peace of Nijmegen is declared between Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I and France’s King Louis XIV.
1782 – Spanish forces capture Minorca Island, off Spain, from British.
1792 – Tipu of Mysore, India, who is defeated in war with British and Hyderabad, cedes half of Mysore to British.
1811 – British Regency Act is passed, whereby the Prince of Wales becomes Prince Regent during King George III’s temporary insanity.
1885 – Congo state is established as a personal possession of Belgium’s King Leopold II.
1887 – Verdi’s opera “Otello” premieres at La Scala, in Milan, Italy.
1917 – Mexico becomes a federated republic of 28 states; U.S. Congress passes, overriding President Woodrow Wilson’s veto, a law severely curtailing the immigration of Asians.
1958 – Gamel Abdel Nasser is formally nominated to become the first president of the new United Arab Republic, the union of Egypt and Syria.
1962 – France’s President Charles de Gaulle calls for independence for Algeria on basis of friendly cooperation with France.
1971 – U.S. Apollo 14 astronauts land on Moon.
1976 – Earthquake in Guatemala takes almost 23,000 lives.
1989 – Algeria’s president proposes new national constitution, dropping references to socialism and opening door to multiparty system.
1990 – Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, addressing the party plenum, says the Communist Party must abandon its monopoly on power.
1991 – Iraq, under attack by the U.S. and its allies, suspends fuel sales to its citizens.
1993 – Up to 200 Somali youths hurl rocks at U.S. forces and set tire barricades ablaze in the belief that American troops shot to death a Somali man.
1997 – Three Swiss banking giants announce they will contribute US$71 million to open a humanitarian fund for Holocaust victims.
1999 – The 80-year-old President Nelson Mandela of South Africa delivers his last major address to Parliament.
2001 – Four men go on trial in New York in the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa, which killed 224 people; Blast in Moscow subway injures at least nine.
2002 – Belgian Foreign Minister Louis Michel apologizes for his country’s role in the 1961 assassination of then-Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba. He offers a US$3.25 million fund in Lumumba’s name to promote democracy in Congo.
2003 – North Korea announces its nuclear reactor at Yongbyon has resumed operations. North Korea in December 2002 declared its intention to reopen the facility, as part of a series of announced moves to resume its nuclear programs, which it had agreed to suspend in 1994.
2010 – Toyota’s president emerges from seclusion to apologize and address criticism that the automaker mishandled a crisis over sticking gas pedals. Yet he stops short of ordering a recall for the company’s Prius hybrid for braking problems.
2012 – U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta says NATO allies have agreed broadly to step back from the lead combat role in Afghanistan and let local forces take their place as early as next year, a shortened timetable that startled officials and members of Congress.
2013 – NATO’s secretary-general says the alliance has no intention of backing down on its plans for a European missile defense system, despite criticism from Russia.
2015 – President Barack Obama and Jordanian King Abdullah II vow not to let up in the fight against the Islamic State group as Jordanians mourn the death of a military pilot held captive by the militants.
Today’s Birthdays:
Sir Robert Peel, English statesman after whom British police are called “Bobbies” (1788-1850); Johan Ludvig Runeberg, Finnish national poet (1804-1877); John Lindley, English botanist (1799-1865); William S. Burroughs, U.S. writer (1914-1997); Andreas Papandreou, Greek prime minister (1919-1996); Jennifer Jason Leigh, U.S. actress (1962–); Bobby Brown, U.S. singer (1969–); Laura Linney, U.S. actress (1964–).
Thought For Today:
Many excellent words are ruined by too definite a knowledge of their meaning. — Aline Kilmer, American poet (1888-1941).
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