===
January 13: St. Knut's Day in Finland and Sweden
- 1815 – War of 1812: British troops captured Fort Peter in St. Marys, Georgia, the only battle of the war to take place in the state.
- 1898 – The Paris newspaper L'Aurore published "J'accuse...!", anopen letter by French writer Émile Zola (pictured) to Félix Faure, thePresident of the Republic, exposing the Dreyfus affair.
- 1915 – About 30,000 people in Avezzano, Italy—96% of its population—were killed when an earthquake struck the region.
- 1953 – An article published in Pravda accused some of the most prestigious physicians in the Soviet Union, mostly Jews, of taking part in a vast plot to poison members of the top Soviet political and military leadership.
- 1986 – The month-long South Yemen Civil War began in Aden between supporters of President Ali Nasir Muhammad and his predecessor Abdul Fattah Ismail, resulting in thousands of casualties.
===
Events
- 532 – Nika riots in Constantinople.
- 888 – Odo, Count of Paris becomes King of the Franks.
- 1435 – Sicut Dudum, forbidding the enslavement of the Guanche natives in Canary Islands by the Spanish, is promulgated by Pope Eugene IV.
- 1547 – Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey is sentenced to death.
- 1607 – The Bank of Genoa fails after announcement of national bankruptcy in Spain.
- 1793 – Nicolas Jean Hugon de Bassville, representative of Revolutionary France, lynched by a mob in Rome
- 1797 – French Revolutionary Wars: A naval battle between a French ship of the line and two British frigates off the coast of Brittany ends with the French vessel running ashore, resulting in the death of over 900.
- 1815 – War of 1812: British troops capture Fort Peter in St. Marys, Georgia, the only battle of the war to take place in the state.
- 1822 – The design of the Greek flag is adopted by the First National Assembly at Epidaurus.
- 1830 – The Great fire of New Orleans, Louisiana begins.
- 1832 – President Andrew Jackson writes to Vice President Martin Van Buren expressing his opposition to South Carolina's defiance of federal authority in theNullification Crisis.
- 1840 – The steamship Lexington burns and sinks four miles off the coast of Long Island with the loss of 139 lives.
- 1842 – Dr. William Brydon, an assistant surgeon in the British East India Company Army during the First Anglo-Afghan War, becomes famous for being the sole survivor of an army of 4,500 men and 12,000 camp followers when he reaches the safety of a garrison in Jalalabad, Afghanistan.
- 1847 – The Treaty of Cahuenga ends the Mexican–American War in California.
- 1869 – National convention of black leaders meets in Washington, D.C.
- 1893 – The Independent Labour Party of the United Kingdom holds its first meeting.
- 1893 – U.S. Marines land in Honolulu, Hawaii from the USS Boston to prevent the queen from abrogating the Bayonet Constitution.
- 1898 – Émile Zola's J'accuse exposes the Dreyfus affair.
- 1908 – The Rhoads Opera House fire in Boyertown, Pennsylvania kills 171 people.
- 1910 – The first public radio broadcast takes place; a live performance of the opera Cavalleria rusticana is sent out over the airwaves from the Metropolitan Opera House in New York, New York.
- 1913 – Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated was founded on the campus of Howard University.
- 1915 – An earthquake in Avezzano, Italy kills 29,800.
- 1934 – The Candidate of Sciences degree is established in the Soviet Union.
- 1935 – A plebiscite in Saarland shows that 90.3% of those voting wish to join Nazi Germany.
- 1939 – The Black Friday bush fires burn 20,000 square kilometers of land in Australia, claiming the lives of 71 people.
- 1942 – Henry Ford patents a plastic automobile, which is 30% lighter than a regular car.
- 1942 – World War II: First use of an aircraft ejection seat by a German test pilot in a Heinkel He 280 jet fighter.
- 1951 – First Indochina War: The Battle of Vinh Yen begins, which will end in a major victory for France.
- 1953 – Marshal Josip Broz Tito is chosen as President of Yugoslavia.
- 1953 – An article appears in Pravda accusing some of the most prestigious and prominent doctors, mostly Jews, in the Soviet Union of taking part in a vast plot to poison members of the top Soviet political and military leadership.
- 1958 – The Moroccan Army of Liberation ambushes a Spanish patrol in the Battle of Edchera.
- 1964 – Anti-Muslim riots break out in Calcutta, resulting in 100 deaths.
- 1964 – Karol Wojtyla, the future Pope John Paul II, is appointed archbishop of Kraków, Poland.
- 1966 – Robert C. Weaver becomes the first African American Cabinet member when he is appointed United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.
- 1968 – Johnny Cash performs live at Folsom State Prison
- 1972 – Prime Minister Kofi Abrefa Busia and President Edward Akufo-Addo of Ghana are ousted in a bloodless military coup by Colonel Ignatius Kutu Acheampong.
- 1974 – Seraphim is elected Archbishop of Athens and All Greece.
- 1982 – Shortly after takeoff, Air Florida Flight 90, a Boeing 737 jet crashes into Washington, D.C.'s 14th Street Bridge and falls into the Potomac River, killing 78 including four motorists.
- 1985 – A passenger train plunges into a ravine in Ethiopia, killing 428 in the worst railroad disaster in Africa.
- 1986 – A month-long violent struggle begins in Aden, South Yemen between supporters of Ali Nasir Muhammad and Abdul Fattah Ismail, resulting in thousands of casualties.
- 1990 – Douglas Wilder becomes the first elected African American governor as he takes office in Richmond, Virginia.
- 1991 – Soviet Union troops attack Lithuanian independence supporters in Vilnius, killing 14 people and wounding 1000.
- 1993 – Space Shuttle program: Endeavour heads for space for the third time as STS-54 launches from the Kennedy Space Center.
- 2001 – An earthquake hits El Salvador, killing more than 800.
- 2012 – The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia sinks off the coast of Italy. There are 32 deaths (and a few people still missing) amongst the 4232 passengers and crew.
[edit]Births
- 1434 – King Henry II of Castile (d. 1379)
- 1505 – Joachim II Hector, Elector of Brandenburg (d. 1571)
- 1562 – Mark Alexander Boyd, Scottish poet (d. 1601)
- 1596 – Jan van Goyen, Dutch painter (d. 1656)
- 1610 – Maria Anna of Austria, Electress of Bavaria (d. 1665)
- 1616 – Antoinette Bourignon, Flemish mystic (d. 1680)
- 1635 – Philipp Jakob Spener, German theologian (d. 1705)
- 1651 – Henry Booth, 1st Earl of Warrington, English politician (d. 1694)
- 1683 – Christoph Graupner, German composer (d. 1760)
- 1698 – Metastasio, Italian poet and librettist (d. 1782)
- 1720 – Richard Hurd, English bishop and writer (d. 1808)
- 1749 – Friedrich Müller, painter and dramatist (d. 1825)
- 1777 – Elisa Bonaparte, Grand Duchess of Tuscany, sister of Napoleon Bonaparte (d. 1820)
- 1787 – John Davis, 14th and 17th Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1854)
- 1804 – Paul Gavarni, French caricaturist (d. 1866)
- 1805 – Thomas Dyer, Mayor of Chicago (d. 1862)
- 1808 – Salmon P. Chase, 6th Chief Justice of the United States (d. 1873)
- 1812 – Victor de Laprade, French poet and critic (d. 1883)
- 1832 – Horatio Alger, Jr., American minister and author (d. 1899)
- 1845 – Félix Tisserand, French astronomer (d. 1896)
- 1858 – Oskar Minkowski, biologist (d. 1931)
- 1859 – Kostis Palamas, Greek poet (d. 1943)
- 1861 – Max Nonne, German neurologist (d. 1959)
- 1864 – Wilhelm Wien, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1928)
- 1865 – Princess Marie of Orléans (d. 1908)
- 1866 – Vasily Kalinnikov, Russian composer (d. 1901)
- 1869 – Emanuele Filiberto, 2nd Duke of Aosta, Italian aristocrat (d. 1931)
- 1870 – Ross Granville Harrison, American biologist (d. 1959)
- 1878 – Lionel Groulx, Canadian nationalist (d. 1967)
- 1878 – Geert Lotsij, Dutch rower (d. 1959)
- 1881 – Essington Lewis, Australian industrialist (d. 1961)
- 1883 – Prince Arthur of Connaught (d. 1938)
- 1883 – Nathaniel Cartmell, American athlete (d. 1967)
- 1884 – Sophie Tucker, Russian-born singer and performer (d. 1966)
- 1885 – Alfred Fuller, Canadian businessman, The "Fuller Brush Man" (d. 1973)
- 1886 – Art Ross, Canadian ice hockey player and executive (d. 1964)
- 1887 – Gabriel Gabrio, French actor (d. 1946)
- 1887 – George Gurdjieff, Georgian-Armenian-Greek mystic (d. 1949)
- 1890 – Jüri Uluots, Estonian Prime Minister (d. 1945)
- 1893 – Roy Cazaly, Australian rules footballer (d. 1963)
- 1893 – Clark Ashton Smith, American writer (d. 1961)
- 1898 – Kai Munk, Danish playwright and Lutheran pastor, martyr (d. 1944)
- 1898 – Carlo Tagliabue, Italian baritone (d. 1978)
- 1901 – A. B. Guthrie, American novelist, historian (d. 1991)
- 1901 – Mieczysław Żywczyński, Polish historian and priest (d. 1978)
- 1904 – Richard Addinsell, British composer (Warsaw Concerto) (d. 1977)
- 1905 – Kay Francis, American actress (d. 1968)
- 1906 – Zhou Youguang, Chinese linguist
- 1909 – Marinus van der Lubbe, Dutch communist (d. 1934)
- 1910 – Yannis Tsarouchis, Greek painter (d. 1989)
- 1911 – Sir Johannes "Joh" Bjelke-Petersen, Premier of Queensland (d. 2005)
- 1913 – Jeff Morrow, American actor (d. 1993)
- 1914 – Lord Ted Willis, British television dramatist (d. 1992)
- 1919 – Robert Stack, American actor (d. 2003)
- 1921 – Dachine Rainer, British writer (d. 2000)
- 1922 – Albert Lamorisse, French film director and producer (d. 1970)
- 1923 – Daniil Shafran, Russian cellist (d. 1997)
- 1923 – Willem Slijkhuis, Dutch athlete (d. 2003)
- 1924 – Paul Feyerabend, Austrian-born philosopher (d. 1994)
- 1924 – Roland Petit, French choreographer (d. 2011)
- 1925 – Georgi Kaloyanchev, Bulgarian actor (d. 2012)
- 1925 – Gwen Verdon, American actress and dancer (d. 2000)
- 1926 – Michael Bond, British writer
- 1926 – Carolyn Gold Heilbrun, American feminist author (d. 2003)
- 1926 – Shakti Samanta, Indian film director and producer (d. 2009)
- 1926 – Melba Liston, American jazz trombonist, composer and arranger (d. 1999)
- 1927 – Brock Adams, American politician (d. 2004)
- 1927 – Sydney Brenner, British Nobel Laureate
- 1929 – Joe Pass, American jazz guitarist (d. 1994)
- 1930 – Liz Anderson, American singer (d. 2011)
- 1930 – Frances Sternhagen, American actress
- 1931 – Ian Hendry, English actor (d. 1984)
- 1931 – Charles Nelson Reilly, American actor (d. 2007)
- 1931 – Chris Wiggins, British actor
- 1932 – Barry Bishop, American mountaineer (d. 1994)
- 1934 – Rip Taylor, American actor
- 1935 – Mauro Forghieri, Italian automotive & mechanical engineer (Scuderia Ferrari)
- 1935 – Elsa Martinelli, Italian actress
- 1936 – Renato Bruson, Italian operatic baritone
- 1938 – William B. Davis, Canadian actor
- 1938 – Richard Anthony (French singer), French singer of Egyptian descent
- 1938 – Tord Grip, Swedish football manager
- 1938 – Shivkumar Sharma, santoor player, Indian music composer
- 1939 – Jacek Gmoch, Polish footballer and coach
- 1939 – Edgardo Cozarinsky, Argentinian writer and film director
- 1939 – Cesare Maniago, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1940 – Edmund White, American author
- 1941 – Pasqual Maragall, Spanish politician
- 1942 – Carol Cleveland, English actress
- 1943 – William Duckworth, American composer and author (d. 2012)
- 1943 – Richard Moll, American actor
- 1946 – Eero Koivistoinen, Finnish musician
- 1947 – John Lees, English Musician (Barclay James Harvest)
- 1947 – Jacek Majchrowski, Mayor of Kraków
- 1947 – Carles Rexach, former Spanish-Catalan footballer and coach
- 1948 – Gaj Singh, Maharaja of Jodhpur
- 1949 – Klaus Brandner, German politician
- 1949 – Rakesh Sharma, first Indian Astronaut/Cosmonaut and 138th person to visit space
- 1949 – Brandon Tartikoff, American television executive (d. 1997)
- 1950 – Bob Forsch, American baseball player
- 1950 – John McNaughton, American film director
- 1951 – Frank E. Peretti, author of Christian fiction
- 1954 – Trevor Rabin, South African guitarist (Yes)
- 1955 – Paul Kelly, Australian singer-songwriter
- 1955 – Jay McInerney, American writer
- 1956 – Janet Hubert-Whitten, American actress
- 1957 – Lorrie Moore, American writer
- 1957 – Mark O'Meara, American golfer
- 1958 – Ton du Chatinier, Dutch retired footballer and football manager
- 1959 – Ernie Irvan, American race car driver
- 1959 – James Lomenzo, American musician (Megadeth, White Lion and Black Label Society)
- 1960 – Takis Lemonis, Greek footballer and coach
- 1961 – Wayne Coyne, American singer (The Flaming Lips)
- 1961 – Julia Louis-Dreyfus, American actress
- 1961 – Kelly Hrudey, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1961 – Suggs, English singer (Madness)
- 1962 – Trace Adkins, American country music singer-songwriter
- 1962 – Paul Higgins, Canadian hockey player
- 1962 – Kevin Mitchell, American baseball player
- 1963 – Kevin McClatchy, American businessman
- 1964 – Bill Bailey, British comedian
- 1964 – Penelope Ann Miller, American actress
- 1964 – Ronan Rafferty, Northern Irish golfer
- 1966 – Patrick Dempsey, American actor, race car driver
- 1966 – Shelagh Fogarty, British radio presenter
- 1966 – Leo Visser, Dutch speed skate champion
- 1967 – Annie Jones, Australian actress
- 1968 – Traci Bingham, American actress
- 1968 – Chara, Japanese singer and actress
- 1968 – Mike Whitlow, English footballer
- 1968 – Antonio Tartaglia, Italian bobsledder
- 1969 – Stefania Belmondo, Italian cross-country skier
- 1969 – Stephen Hendry, Scottish snooker player
- 1970 – Keith Coogan, American actor
- 1970 – Frank Kooiman, Dutch football goalkeeper
- 1970 – Marco Pantani, Italian cyclist (d. 2004)
- 1970 – Shonda Rhimes, American screenwriter
- 1971 – John Mallory Asher, American film actor/director
- 1971 – Phil Whyman, English paranormal researcher, television personality, writer and musician
- 1972 – Mark Bosnich, Australian footballer
- 1972 – Nicole Eggert, American actress
- 1972 – James O'Brien, British radio presenter and journalist
- 1972 – Atoosa Rubenstein, Iranian-born American magazine editor
- 1972 – Vitaly Scherbo, Belarusian gymnast
- 1972 – Park Jin-Young, Korean singer
- 1973 – Nikolai Khabibulin, Russian ice hockey player
- 1973 – Gloria Yip, Hong Kong actor
- 1974 – Sergei Brylin, Russian ice hockey player
- 1976 – Michael Peña, American actor
- 1976 – Tania Vicent, Canadian short track speed skater
- 1976 – Mario Yepes, Colombian footballer
- 1977 – Orlando Bloom, English actor
- 1977 – James Posey, American basketball player
- 1977 – Elliot Mason, British jazz trombonist, also plays bass trumpet
- 1977 – William Ash (actor), British actor
- 1978 – Ashmit Patel, Indian actor
- 1978 – Nate Silver, American journalist and statistician
- 1979 – Katy Brand, English actress and comedian
- 1980 – Krzysztof Czerwinski, Polish conductor and organist
- 1980 – Nils-Eric Johansson, Swedish footballer
- 1980 – Akira Kaji, Japanese footballer
- 1980 – Michael Rupp, American ice hockey player
- 1980 – Mirko Soltau, German footballer
- 1981 – Reggie Brown, American football player
- 1981 – Shad Gaspard, American professional wrestler, bodyguard, and actor
- 1981 – Jason James, Welsh bassist (Bullet for My Valentine)
- 1981 – Darrell Rasner, American baseball player
- 1982 – Kamran Akmal, Pakistan cricketer
- 1982 – Guillermo Coria, Argentine tennis player
- 1982 – Constantinos Makrides, Cypriot football player
- 1982 – Mason Ryan, Welsh wrestler
- 1983 – William Hung, Chinese-American singer
- 1983 – Imran Khan, Indian actor
- 1983 – Sebastian Kneißl, German footballer
- 1983 – Julian Morris, English actor
- 1983 – Mauricio Martín Romero, Argentine footballer
- 1983 – Ronny Turiaf, French basketball player
- 1984 – Matteo Cavagna, Italian footballer
- 1984 – Kamghe Gaba, German sprinter
- 1984 – Nathaniel Motte, American musician (3OH!3)
- 1984 – Lourdes Arévalos, Paraguayan beauty model
- 1985 – Qi Hui, Chinese swimmer
- 1986 – Laura Ludwig, German beach volleyball player
- 1986 – Josefine Preuß, German actress
- 1986 – Joannie Rochette, Canadian figure skater
- 1987 – Stefano Del Sante, Italian footballer
- 1987 – Lee Seung Gi, South Korean singer
- 1987 – Daniel Oss, Italian cyclist
- 1987 – Alexandre Pliuschin, Moldovan cyclist
- 1987 – Marc Staal, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1987 – Sven Wetzel, German rugby player
- 1988 – Josh Freeman, American football player
- 1988 – Daniel Scheinig, German footballer
- 1989 – Bryan Arguez, American footballer
- 1989 – James Berrett, English footballer
- 1989 – Triinu Kivilaan, Estonian singer (Vanilla Ninja)
- 1989 – Tim Matavž, Slovenian footballer
- 1989 – Beau Mirchoff, American-Canadian actor
- 1990 – Liam Hemsworth, Australian actor
- 1990 – Vincenzo Fiorillo, Italian footballer
- 1991 – Goo Ha-ra, South Korean singer and actress (Kara)
- 1992 – Adam Matthews, Welsh footballer
- 1992 – Dinah Pfizenmaier, German tennis player
- 1993 – Xénia Krizsán, Hungarian heptathlete
- 1993 – Max Whitlock, British gymnast
- 1995 – Qaasim Middleton, American musician and actor (The Naked Brothers Band)
[edit]Deaths
- 86 BC – Gaius Marius, Roman general and politician (b. 157 BC)
- 533 – Saint Remigius, bishop of Reims (b. 437)
- 614 – Saint Kentigern (Saint Mungo), patron saint of Glasgow
- 703 – Empress Jitō of Japan (b. 645)
- 858 – Ethelwulf, king of Wessex (b. 795)
- 888 – Charles the Fat, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 839)
- 1138 – Simon I, Duke of Lorraine (b. 1076)
- 1151 – Abbot Suger, French statesman and historian (b. 1081)
- 1177 – Henry II of Austria (b. 1107)
- 1330 – Frederick I of Austria (b. 1286)
- 1363 – Meinhard III of Gorizia-Tyrol (b. 1344)
- 1599 – Edmund Spenser, English poet (b. 1552)
- 1625 – Jan Brueghel the Elder, Flemish painter (b. 1568)
- 1630 – Yuan Chonghuan, Chinese military commander (b. 1584)
- 1658 – Edward Sexby, English Puritan soldier (b. 1616)
- 1691 – George Fox, English founder of Quakerism (b. 1624)
- 1717 – Maria Sibylla Merian, naturalist and scientific illustrator (b. 1647)
- 1766 – King Frederick V of Denmark (b. 1723)
- 1775 – Johann Georg Walch, German theologian (b. 1693)
- 1790 – Luc Urbain de Bouexic, comte de Guichen, French admiral (b. 1712)
- 1796 – John H. D. Anderson, Scottish scientist and inventor (b. 1726)
- 1797 – Elisabeth Christine von Braunschweig-Bevern, wife of Frederick II of Prussia (b. 1715)
- 1832 – Thomas Lord, English cricketer, founder of Lord's cricket ground (b. 1755)
- 1838 – Ferdinand Ries, German composer (b. 1784)
- 1852 – Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen, Russian explorer (b. 1778)
- 1853 – Theophilos Kairis, Greek priest, humanist and revolutionary (b. 1783)
- 1860 – William Mason, American politician (b. 1786)
- 1864 – Stephen Foster, American composer (b. 1826)
- 1882 – Wilhelm Mauser, German weapon designer and manufacturer (b. 1834)
- 1885 – Schuyler Colfax, American politician (b. 1823)
- 1889 – Solomon Bundy, American politician (b. 1823)
- 1894 – Nadezhda von Meck, Russian patroness of Pyotr Tchaikovsky (b. 1831)
- 1905 – George Thorn, Premier of Queensland (b. 1838)
- 1906 – Alexander Stepanovich Popov, Russian physicist (b. 1859)
- 1915 – Mary Slessor, Scottish missionary (b. 1848)
- 1923 – Alexandre Ribot, French statesman (b. 1842)
- 1924 – Georg Hermann Quincke, German physicist (b. 1834)
- 1928 – Mara Buneva, Bulgarian revolutionary (b. 1902)
- 1929 – Wyatt Earp, American Western lawman (b. 1848)
- 1929 – H. B. Higgins, Australian politician and judge (b. 1851)
- 1932 – Sophia of Prussia, consort of Constantine I of Greece (b. 1870)
- 1934 – Paul Ulrich Villard, French physicist (b. 1860)
- 1937 – Antoine Védrenne, French rower (b. 1878)
- 1941 – James Joyce, Irish writer (b. 1882)
- 1943 – Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Swiss artist (b. 1889)
- 1956 – Lyonel Feininger, German-American painter and caricaturist (b. 1871)
- 1958 – Jesse L. Lasky, American film producer (b. 1880)
- 1961 – Herman Glass, American gymnast (b. 1880)
- 1962 – Ernie Kovacs, American actor and comedian (b. 1919)
- 1967 – Anatole de Grunwald, British producer and screenwriter (b. 1910)
- 1971 – Robert Still, English composer (b. 1910)
- 1974 – Raoul Jobin, Canadian tenor (b. 1906)
- 1974 – Salvador Novo, Mexican writer and poet (b. 1904)
- 1976 – Margaret Leighton, English actress (b. 1922)
- 1977 – Henri Langlois, French film archivist, and a co-founder of the Cinémathèque Française (b. 1914)
- 1978 – Hubert H. Humphrey, 38th Vice President of the United States (b. 1911)
- 1978 – Joe McCarthy, American baseball manager (b. 1887)
- 1979 – Donny Hathaway, American musician (b. 1945)
- 1979 – Marjorie Lawrence, Australian soprano (b. 1907)
- 1980 – André Kostelanetz, Russian-born music conductor and arranger (b. 1901)
- 1982 – Marcel Camus, French director (b. 1912)
- 1982 – Arland D. Williams, Jr., hero of Air Florida Flight 90 (b. 1935)
- 1988 – Chiang Ching-kuo, President of the Republic of China (b. 1910)
- 1993 – Camargo Guarnieri, Brazilian composer (b. 1907)
- 1995 – Max Harris, Australian poet, columnist and publisher (b. 1921)
- 2001 – Michael Cuccione, Canadian actor and singer (2ge+her) (b. 1985)
- 2002 – Ted Demme, American film director (b. 1963)
- 2002 – Gregorio Fuentes, Cuban fisherman, Ernest Hemingway's first mate (b. 1897)
- 2002 – Frank Shuster, Canadian comedian (b. 1916)
- 2003 – Norman Panama, American screenwriter and director (b. 1914)
- 2004 – Arne Næss Jr., Norwegian mountain climber (b. 1937)
- 2004 – Harold Shipman, British serial killer (b. 1946)
- 2004 – Zeno Vendler, American philosopher of language (b. 1921)
- 2005 – Earl Cameron, Canadian broadcaster (b. 1915)
- 2005 – Nell Rankin, American mezzo-soprano (b. 1924)
- 2006 – Frank Fixaris, American sportscaster (b. 1934)
- 2006 – Marc Potvin, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1967)
- 2007 – Michael Brecker, American jazz saxophonist (b. 1949)
- 2007 – Danny Oakes, American racecar driver (b. 1911)
- 2008 – Sergei Larin, Lithuanian tenor (b. 1956)
- 2008 – Johnny Podres, American baseball player (b. 1932)
- 2009 – Doña Mary Ejercito, Filipino supercentarian, mother of Joseph Ejercito Estrada (b. 1905)
- 2009 – Dai Llewellyn Welsh socialite
- 2009 – Patrick McGoohan, American actor (b. 1928)
- 2009 – Mansour Rahbani, Lebanese composer and lyricist (b. 1925)
- 2009 – Nancy Bird Walton, Australian aviator (b. 1915)
- 2009 – William De Witt Snodgrass, American poet under the pseudonym S. S. Gardons (b. 1926)
- 2010 – Teddy Pendergrass, American R&B singer (Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes) (b. 1950)
- 2010 – Jay Reatard, American garage punk musician (The Reatards and Lost Sounds) (b. 1980)
- 2010 – Kalifa Tillisi, Libyan writer and linguist (b. 1930)
- 2011 – Albert Heijn, a Dutch entrepreneur, major stock holder and founder and chairman of the board of Ahold (b. 1927)
- 2012 – Rauf Denktaş, Turkish Cypriot politician, founder and first president of Northern Cyprus (b. 1924)
- 2012 – Lefter Küçükandonyadis, Turkish footballer (b. 1925)
[edit]Holidays and observances
- Christian Feast Day:
- Liberation Day (Togo)
- Korean American Day
- Old New Year's Eve (see Old New Year), celebrated on the night of January 13. (Russia, Georgia, Belarus, Ukraine, Serbia, Montenegro, Republic of Srpska, Republic of Macedonia)
- Sidereal winter solstice's eve celebrations in South and Southeast Asian cultures; the last day of the six months Dakshinayana period (see January 14):
- St. Knut's Day or Tjugondag Knut, the last day of Christmas. (Sweden and Finland)
===
A bad government was succeeded by an abysmal government
Piers Akerman – Sunday, January 13, 2013 (12:21am)
TODAY marks a dismal anniversary in Australian history, it is the day on which the Gillard minority Labor-Independent-Green government equals the Rudd Labor government’s total time in office - 935 days.
Given the propensity for this miserable government to attempt to redefine failures as successes, it is possible that some foolhardy Rudd-hating, Gillard-supporting staffer may even pop a bottle of champagne in the office tomorrow when the current prime minister exceeds Rudd’s abruptly curtailed term.
While the moment may be morbidly depressing for many, many Australians who would like the opportunity to vote for a party which can demonstrate a clear mandate to govern, it does mark an important milestone at which comparisons between the Rudd and Gillard government can conveniently be made.
Looking at the ledger, it is abundantly clear that a bad government was succeeded by an abysmal government. If anyone is in doubt the Rudd government was bad, just recall that Gillard told the public his government had lost its way.
When Rudd attempted a comeback at the beginning of last year, his party colleagues queued to describe Kevvie from Brizzie as chaotic, unfit to be prime minister, a psychopath and responsible for sabotaging the 2010 election campaign.
The Opposition let Rudd off lightly by comparison. Economic management provides a black-and-red yardstick to measure the two government’s performances. In its first year in government (2008-09) the Rudd government produced a $27 billion deficit; a $54.5 billion deficit in 2009-10 and a $47.5 billion deficit in 2010-11.
The Gillard government produced a $43.4 billion deficit in 2011-12 before collapsing in a heap and crab-walking away from the future surplus it has repeatedly promised. It was the third major promise to be broken by the Gillard government after it had reversed its pledge on no carbon tax and no Pacific Solution for offshore processing of illegal people-smuggler clients.
Remember, too, that the Rudd government inherited a Treasury with a healthy surplus before it started its reckless spending spree which left Australia with $42.3 billion of net debt for 2009-10 and $84.6 billion of net debt for 2010-11.
The Gillard government (for factional reasons operating under the same hopeless Treasurer, Wayne Swan) then drove the nation further into the red by pushing our net debt up to $147 billion in 2011-12.
In the latest Budget update, net debt is estimated to fall to $144 billion by the end of the 2012-13 year, but the government’s own monthly financial statements show that net debt continues to grow month by month because it is addicted to spending.
Five years ago, the Rudd government lifted the nation’s credit card limit to $75 billion, increasing it again the following year to $200 billion. The Gillard government increased the country’s credit limit to $250 billion in 2011 and again to $300 billion in 2012.
Swan, in the Rudd government, demonstrated poor economic management, but with the loss of some of the notional restraints applied by former Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner, showed himself to be a totally lousy manager under Gillard. To appear at all competent, Swan now resorts to pointing at failed Euro-economies, hoping the electorate will overlook the manner in which he has squandered national savings on worthless policies.
Another excellent and easily understood measure is provided by the flow of illegal people- smuggler clients. Again, Rudd started with near-empty processing centres as the Howard government had stopped the flow of boats. Under the Rudd government 140 boats arrived with 6,552 asylum seekers.
Under the Gillard government (which announced the “Malaysia solution” people swap which relied on a country that had not signed the UN Refugee Convention) 405 boats have arrived carrying 25,266 asylum seekers - more people than live in many sizeable towns - and there have been 1000 or more lives lost by those lured to try and breach the stretched border security net.
That number far exceeds the four lives lost during the bungled implementation of the Rudd government’s ill-conceived $2.4 billion Home Insulation Plan which also saw the destruction of at least 224 houses, possibly the Rudd government’s greatest policy failure.
Then there was the Rudd government’s Building the Education Revolution, which inflicted school halls, many unwanted and unneeded, around the country at a cost of $1.7 billion and of course, the uncosted, unfunded not-bloody-needed National Broadband Network, created on the back of an envelope by the then prime minister, which now pays its CEO more than it gets from its customers (more on the NBN later).
As far as policy failures go, the Gillard government’s carbon tax, which has helped deliver the largest quarterly rise in electricity prices since 1980, is hard to beat on so many fronts but then again there is its mining tax which last year collected no revenue.
Cost-of-living pressures under the Rudd government, from the December quarter of 2007 to the June quarter of 2010 saw electricity prices increased by an average of 34 per cent across Australia. Gas prices rose by an average of 26 per cent and water and sewerage rates increased by an average of 29 per cent.
Health costs jumped by an average 18 per cent, education costs increased by an average 17 per cent and the amount of rent people paid increased by 17 per cent as insurance costs leapt by 20 per cent.
Under the Gillard government, from the June quarter of 2010 to the September quarter of 2012, electricity prices soared by an average 41 per cent, gas prices increased by an average of 29 per cent and water and sewerage rates rose by an average 27 per cent. Health costs increased by an average 10 per cent, education costs rose by an average 12 per cent and the amount of rent people paid jumped by 10 per cent as insurance costs rose by 16 per cent.
An insight into the duplicity of both the Rudd and Gillard governments was provided on Friday. NBN announced it had exceeded its rollout target for 2012. This like so much of this government’s utterances was sheer nonsense as the NBN’s definition of rollout doesn’t meet any international standard. All it means is planning has commenced in an office somewhere but does not reflect actual cable laid in any actual city, town or suburb. Ouch!
The truly disheartening fact on this bleak anniversary is that Gillard was a key member of the failed Rudd government and that she has not matched even its dismal record.
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Stop telling bushfire victims to shut up
Miranda Devine – Sunday, January 13, 2013 (8:38am)
WHENEVER a major bushfire catastrophe occurs in Australia, the victims are essentially told to shut up.
It happened after Victoria’s Black Saturday fires in 2009. It happened after the Canberra bushfires, 10 years ago on Friday. And it’s happening now in Tasmania.
“Now is not the time for that conversation,” says the Tasmanian Minister for Emergency Management, David O’Byrne, avoiding questions about why adequate hazard reduction burns were not done in cooler months to remove fuel from the path of inevitable summer fires.
It’s just too early, claims Premier Lara Giddings, presiding over Tasmania’s ALP-Greens coalition.
But the residents of Dunalley, whose town was overrun, and the farmers whose properties and livestock have been wiped out, want that conversation right now.
Now is the time for farmers to complain that they could never get a permit to burn off excessive ground fuel on their properties.
Now, while public attention is focused, and before the truth can be buried for years.
Now is the time to point out, perhaps, that a fire which begins in a national park carrying negligently heavy loads of ground fuel can become an unstoppable inferno which will eventually burst out into the Canberra suburbs and kill four people and consume 500 homes.
Now is the time for people who understand the bush to tell the rest of Australia what fools we are.
“Fuel reduction burns make it possible to fight and control a fire; what happened here was uncontrollable,” Dunalley farmer Leigh Arnold told The Australian.
Greenies who oppose such burnoffs, “care more about birds and wildlife than they do about people and farms,” he said.
“But what’s the point of that now when the hills and trees they told me I couldn’t burn off, because there were protected eagles and swift parrots there, are now all burned and the fire it created was so hot we had dead swans dropping out of the sky?”
No, the only permissible comment on a bushfire catastrophe is to say it was caused by “climate change” - that convenient get-out-of-jail free card for greenies, governments and the obstructive bureaucracies they jointly create.
But we’ve heard it all before, and we’re not buying it.
“It’s really simple,” says Brian Williams, captain of the Kurrajong Heights bushfire brigade, a veteran of 44 years of firefighting, in one of the most extreme fire risk areas of Australia, on a ridge surrounded by 0.75 million hectares of overgrown national park between the Blue Mountains and Wollemi.
“Fires run on fuel. Limited fuel means limited fire.”
Green tape and heavy-handed bureaucracy has made his job harder today than in 28 years as captain. Rather than needing six people to perform a controlled burn in the cooler months, now 40 are involved, to oversee biodiversity and so on.
Williams managed to conduct just two of the five hazard reduction burns he planned before this fire season.
But don’t blame greenies. All week they have been claiming they support hazard reduction. Really?
No matter what legalistic and linguistic ploys are now used to rewrite history, green hostility to proper bushfire management is on the record, from the light-green NIMBYs who object to smoke, to green lobbyists who infiltrate government decision-making, taxpayer-funded green activists who embed themselves in government agencies, the bureaucratic green tape which makes the job of volunteer firefighters so difficult, the green NGOs who strongarm politicians, right up to the political arm of green ideology, The Greens.
It is true The Greens have developed a new set of “aims” including a caveat-studded “effective and sustainable strategy for fuel-reduction management”.
In practice, on the ground, it amounts to covert opposition. Williams scoffs at the Orwellian sophistry: “They publicly say they support it. The reality of how it pans out is nothing like that. Greens have two faces and underneath they are undermining everything.”
While there have been improvements under a new state government, Williams says hazard reduction is still inadequate across NSW, reaching just 1 per cent rather than the 5 per cent minimum recommended by the Victorian bushfire inquiry.
At least in the hard-won patch of Volunteer Fire Fighter Association president Peter Cannon, around Dubbo, Parkes and Forbes, hazard reduction is complete this year and he is confident any fires will be controllable.
He says it is a credit to hard-working firefighters that Tasmania-scale destruction has not occurred in NSW despite extreme fire conditions.
Another bright spot is the latest Rural Fire Service annual report which says more than 80 per cent of planned hazard reduction was achieved, and the area treated should increase by 45 per cent over three years.
It’s not enough but it’s a welcome change from the dark days of 2003, eight months before the Canberra inferno, when former RFS Commissioner Phil Koperberg told a NSW parliamentary inquiry that widespread hazard reduction was “an exercise in futility”.
Fast forward to last month and blame for that fire has finally been laid where it belongs, at the feet of Koperberg’s RFS and the green-influenced National Parks and Wildlife Service.
Brinadabella farmer Wayne West, whose property was wiped out in the fires, sued the two agencies. Last month in the ACT Supreme Court, Chief Justice Terrence Higgins found them negligent.
The episode demonstrated how green pressure on decision-makers filters down into a cascade of subtle bureaucratic obstructions which disempower firefighters on the ground and disregard their expertise.
The result in 2003 was that a small fire at McIntyre’s Hut in the Brindabella ranges was allowed to rage out of control through the national park to emerge 10 days later, and burn lethally through Canberra’s suburbs.
Unfortunately for West and his insurance company, the government agencies are protected by statute and don’t have to pay compensation.
But West won a moral victory. We all are in his debt because he fought for the truth and refused to shut up.
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Bob can’t handle the truth
Miranda Devine – Sunday, January 13, 2013 (7:42am)
I can’t say I was surprised when Bob Brown had a shot at me in the Sydney Morning Herald last week. Still, even though he is a Green, you’d think he’d have more integrity than to lie about me.
In a paean to tepee-dwelling eco-terrorist Jonathan Moylan, who admitted creating a false ANZ press release which briefly carved $340 million off the value of Whitehaven coal, Bob likened the young man to himself. And Ghandi, Mandela, Martin Luther King, Jesus Christ. Jonathan, like Bob, is Saving the Planet. “Business as usual in coalmining is a high crime against humanity”.
Actually, the only real crime alleged here, which The Greens are irresponsibly championing, is Moylan’s.
Which brings us to me. Australian eco-activists are “committed to non violence”, wrote Bob. But no such commitment exists on “the other side”.
“Just read Miranda Devine’s advocacy of violence against environmentalists in the Daily Telegraph.”
It’s not true, Bob. I have never advocated violence.
But Bob did try to get me sacked for a column I wrote in the Herald four years ago, a week after Victoria’s Black Saturday bushfires killed 173 people.
It wasn’t climate change or arsonists which killed those people, I wrote.
“It was the unstoppable intensity of a bushfire, turbo-charged by huge quantities of ground fuel which had been allowed to accumulate over years of drought. It was the power of green ideology over government to oppose attempts to reduce fuel hazards before a megafire erupts, and which prevents landholders from clearing vegetation to protect themselves.
“So many people need not have died so horribly. The warnings have been there for a decade. If politicians are intent on whipping up a lynch mob to divert attention from their own culpability, it is not arsonists who should be hanging from lamp-posts but greenies.”
At the time, a lynch mob against arsonists was being egged on by politicians and the media, a tradition begun by Bob Carr in 2001. When a “fragile loner was charged with arson, vigilantes called for him to be burned at the stake.
No reasonable person would have read my column as advocating violence, or literally hanging greenies from lamp-posts.
Of 330 responses, not one reader mentioned lamp-posts.
It took ten days for Bob’s perverse misrepresentation to get traction. Four months later the Press Council dismissed the complaint brought by his supporters.
But Bob persists because shooting the messenger is his only answer.
UPDATE: A reader provides an example of green “non-violence”.
“I grew up in an area that had logging as one of its major employers. There are still many trees that can be harvested in that area but most sawmills have closed because of protest groups.
“It got so bad that protesters were hammering spikes into trees at a height where a person using a chainsaw could easily be killed or seriously wounded if the saw contacted the metal spike.
“Some of the sawmills had been in families for generations and this was only possible because trees were carefully chosen to minimise the environmental impact.
“The Greenies would have us believe that contractors moved in, stripped the forest, took all the profits and moved on to do the same in other areas.
“Nothing could be further from the truth.
“Should we want to live in houses and not in caves, most houses are built using products provided by Mother Nature.
“The timber is from trees, the bricks are from clays dug up and fired using heat generating carbon monoxide.
“The mortar is from cement mined in various areas and so on.
“Of these, trees are perhaps the only renewable source if managed correctly.”
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OUR FEATHERED FRIENDS
Tim Blair – Sunday, January 13, 2013 (12:55pm)
Greens senator Lee Rhiannon is concerned about a new coal terminal disrupting nesting areas occupied by the red-necked stint. But Australia’s avian crisis doesn’t end there …
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Miss California asked about euthanasia: ‘That’s a vaccine, right?’ ==> http://twitchy.com/2013/
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awsome latex work!
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This is an Arab home under "Israeli occupation" in Chevron; this is not unique, there are thousands of them in Judea and Samaria...please share the truth!
http://www.jmgads.com/
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Stop to visit magnificent Dray Nur waterfall, swim at natural Fairy Lake and enjoy the wild scenery with epic weather..
The picture was taken on our 2nd day of the Central Highlands Adventures going on at the moment.
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Primitive cellular pumps may have enabled rocky proto-life forms to eventually leave the hydrothermal vents where life likely originated.http://oak.ctx.ly/r/1un5
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