Wednesday, February 4

2004-02-04 07:52

Today is Wednesday, February 4, the 35th day of 2004. There are 331 days left in the year.

Highlights in history on this date:

1585 - France's King Henry III refuses sovereignty of the Netherlands.

1742 - Construction of a break-water begins in Table Bay.

1783 - Britain declares a formal cessation of hostilities with its former colonies - the United States of America.

1789 - George Washington is elected president of the United States.

1838 - Zulu king Dingane cedes "the place called Port Natal together with all the land annexed from the sea to the north" to Voortrekker leader Piet Retief "and his countrymen".

1874 - British forces under Garnet Wolseley burn Kumasi, Ghana, ending Ashanti War.

1887 - The Interstate Commerce Commission is established to regulate the transport of passengers and goods across state lines by land and water.

1893 - Internationally respected South African anthropologist, Professor Raymond Dart, chiefly remembered for revealing the human-like features of the Taung skull to the world, is born in Brisbane, Australia.

1899 - Filipinos stage revolt against United States because independence is not granted.

1920 - Two South African aviators, Pierre van Ryneveld and Quintin Brand, hoping to conquer Africa by becoming the first airmen to fly from England to Cape Town, take off from Brooklands in Surrey in their converted Vickers Vimy bomber powered by two Rolls-Royce engines.

1922 - Japan agrees to restore Shantung to China.

1938 - Adolf Hitler assumes office of German war minister and names Joachim von Ribbentrop foreign minister.

1945 - US President Franklin Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Josef Stalin begin a wartime conference at Yalta.

1946 - Death of Sir Herbert Baker, architect of the Union Buildings in Pretoria and many other fine structures in South Africa.

1948 - Ceylon - now Sri Lanka - becomes self-governing dominion in British Commonwealth.

1969 - China's representative in the Netherlands, Liao Ho-Shu, arrives in United States and requests political asylum.

1970 - US President Richard Nixon orders all federal agencies to stop polluting the air and water.

1972 - Britain and nine other nations recognise East Pakistan as independent nation of Bangladesh.

1974 - Newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst is kidnapped in Berkeley, California, by the Symbionese Liberation Army.

1976 - President Samora Machel of Mozambique decrees an end to private property ownership, and Lourenco Marques is renamed Maputo.

1990 - Terrorists ambush bus carrying Israeli tourists in Egypt, killing nine people and wounding 20.

1991 - Iraqi forces overrun one Syrian position and fire artillery at another as they occupy territory in northeastern Saudi Arabia.

1991 - The European Community agrees to lift sanctions as soon as President FW de Klerk fulfils his pledge to repeal cornerstone apartheid laws.

1992 - President FW de Klerk receives the Prix du Courage Politique in Paris.

1992 - Rebel troops attempt overthrow of Venezuelan President Carlos Andres Perez. The coup leader, Hugo Chavez, wins the presidential elections in 1997.

1993 - Prime Minister Etienne Tshisekedi of Zaire comes out of hiding to call for international military intervention to force President Mobutu Sese Seko to surrender power.

1994 - Mortar shells kill nine people waiting in line for food in Sarajevo.

1995 - Chechen rebels shoot down first Russian jet fighter of the war, downing an Su-25 with anti-aircraft guns not far from Grozny.

1996 - Guatemalan President Alvaro Arzu escapes unharmed when a motorcycle carrying two men lunges toward him as he rides horseback in Antigua, Guatemala.

1997 - In Israel's worst-ever military air accident, 73 soldiers die when two CH-53 Sikorsky transport helicopters ferrying elite troops to Lebanon collide in heavy fog and rain.

1998 - A 6.1-magnitude earthquake and subsequent tremors in Afghanistan's remote northeast kill at least 4 500 people.

1999 - A Russian project to reflect a beam of sunlight from orbit onto dark cities on Earth is foiled when the mirror fails to unfurl properly.

2000 - Despite international opposition, Austria's president swears in new government that includes rightists loyal to Joerg Haider - a man known for praising aspects of the Nazi era.

2001 - Israel's powerful ultra-Orthodox religious bloc throws support behind hard-liner Ariel Sharon, giving another boost to the front-runner in election for prime minister.

2002 - Argentina's government says it will completely sever the peso's link with the US dollar within a few days, creating a key test for both the currency and a new economic crisis plan.

2003 - Both houses of the Yugoslav parliament vote to adopt a new constitutional charter, replacing the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia with a looser union, known as Serbia and Montenegro, between its two constituent republics.

Today's Birthdays:

Tadeusz Kosciuszko, Polish and American independence fighter (1746-1817); Friedrich Ebert, German president (1871-1925); Fernand Leger, French painter (1881-1955); Charles A Lindbergh, US aviation pioneer (1902-1974); Isabel Peron, Argentine president (1931--); Dan Quayle, US vice president (1947--); Alice Cooper, US rock singer (1948--); Clint Black, US country singer (1962--); Natalie Imbruglia, Australian singer (1975--).

Thought For Today:

No human creature can give orders to love - George Sand, French author (1804-1876). - Sapa-AP

- SAPA