January 5

2009-01-06 08:59

Today is Monday, January 5, the 5th day of 2009. There are 360 days left in the year.

Highlights in history on this date:

- 1477 - Swiss defeat and kill Charles the Bold of Burgundy at Battle of Nancy.

- 1762 - Tsarina Elizabeth of Russia dies, is succeeded by Peter III.

- 1781 - A British naval expedition led by Benedict Arnold burns in Richmond, Virginia.

- 1809 - Britain and Turkey conclude Treaty of Dardanelles.

- 1869 - Joint Argentine, Brazilian and Uruguayan forces take Asuncion, Paraguay during Triple Alliance war.

- 1895 - Discovery of x-rays is announced by German physicist Wilhelm Roentgen; French Captain Alfred Dreyfus, convicted of treason, is publicly stripped of his rank. He is ultimately vindicated.

- 1919 - Communist Spartacist revolt begins in Berlin; Nationalist Socialist Party formed in Germany.

- 1925 - Nellie T Ross succeeds her late husband as governor of Wyoming, becoming the first female governor in US history.

- 1929 - King Alexander I suppresses Yugoslav Constitution and establishes dictatorship.

- 1949 - In his State of the Union address, US President Harry Truman labels his administration the "Fair Deal".

- 1964 - Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Benedictos of Jerusalem meet in Holy Land on Mount of Olives - the first meeting in five centuries between a Roman Catholic pope and Eastern Orthodox Church patriarch. It is also the first papal pilgrimage to the holy land.

- 1972 - US President Richard Nixon orders the development of the space shuttle.

- 1987 - Cheering students in China burn hundreds of copies of newspaper Peking Daily to protest government publication's harsh criticism of student demonstrations.

- 1991 - Cuba and the Soviet Union sign agreement ending trade at easy terms and artificially low prices.

- 1992 - Rebels pound Georgian President Zviad Gamsakhurdia's stronghold with rockets and machine guns and he offers to hold a referendum on their demand that he resign.

- 1993 - The tanker Braer runs aground on the Shetland Islands and spills 26 million gallons of oil in the next few days.

- 1994 - Easing fears of a nuclear arms race in northeast Asia, the Clinton administration says North Korea has agreed to allow renewed international inspection of seven nuclear sites.

- 1995 - With oil tanks ablaze on the horizon, troops move in to quell a peasant uprising in southern Colombia that reportedly leaves one child dead and costs millions of dollars in oil revenue.

- 1996 - Yehiya Ayyash, the suspected mastermind of a string of suicide attacks that killed dozens of Israelis, dies when a booby-trapped mobile phone blows up in his hands in the Gaza Strip.

- 1997 - French trains are diverted to pick up stranded skiers, and German rail stations are converted into homeless shelters as the death toll from Europe's longest cold spell in a decade passes 230.

- 1998 - Arab interior ministers give preliminary approval to an accord to combat terrorism in the Middle East.

- 2000 - Two US medical firms and a Dutch organization offer to pay up to $2.36m to Dutch haemophiliacs infected with the Aids virus during blood transfusions in the 1980s; INS Commissioner Doris Meissner rules that six-year-old Elian Gonzalez "belongs with his father" and must be returned to Cuba.

- 2003 - Two Palestinians carry out a coordinated suicide bombing in Tel Aviv, the Israeli capital, killing themselves, 22 others and injuring more than 100. The attack marks the first suicide bombing in Israel since November 2002.

- 2005 - The US military command that oversees the detention mission at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, opens an internal investigation into allegations of prisoner abuse, stemming from recently released FBI documents.

- 2006 - A suicide bomb explodes in a crowded market in an Afghan town just a few hundred yards from where the US ambassador is meeting with local leaders. Ten Afghans are killed and 50 wounded in the deadliest of a recent series of attacks.

- 2007 - In wave of Palestinian fighting, assailants outside a Gaza mosque gun down a Muslim preacher known for his anti-Hamas views, and thousands march through Gaza carrying the bodies of seven slain Fatah men.

- 2008 - Indonesia's former dictator Suharto, 86, is put on a dialysis machine in critical condition a day after being admitted to Pertamina Hospital. He dies Jan. 27 of multiple organ failure after more than three weeks on life support.

Today's Birthdays:
Konrad Adenauer, German statesman (1876-1967); Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Pakistani prime minister (1928-1979); Friedrich Duerrenmatt, Swiss playwright and novelist (1921-1990); Robert Duvall, US actor (1931--); Umberto Eco, Italian writer (1932--); Charlie Rose, US talk show host/journalist (1942--); Diane Keaton, US actress (1946--).

Thought for Today:
In aging, one becomes more foolish and more wise - Francois, Duc de La Rochefoucauld, French author (1613-1680).

-Sapa-AP

- News24