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Other Notable Events, February 5

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Published in History & Quotes

In 1631, British clergyman Roger Williams arrived in Salem, Mass., seeking religious freedom. He founded the colony of Rhode Island.

In 1919, screen legends Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and D.W. Griffith formed United Artists.

In 1971, Apollo 14 astronauts Alan Shepard and Edward Mitchell walked on the moon for four hours.

In 1981, U.S. President Ronald Reagan, in a nationwide address, said the United States was in the worst economic mess since the Great Depression and called for sweeping spending and tax cuts.

In 1986, world oil prices plunged toward $15 per barrel from $30 three months earlier after OPEC failed to curb production. Prices dropped to $9 by the summer of 1986.

In 1988, two U.S. grand juries in Florida announced indictments of Panama military strongman Manuel Antonio Noriega and 16 associates on drug smuggling and money laundering charges.

In 1989, Radio Moscow announced the last Soviet soldier had left Kabul, Afghanistan.

In 1990, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev proposed the Communist Party give up its monopoly on power in the Soviet Union. Two days later, the party's Central Committee agreed.

In 1994, a mortar shell was fired into a crowded market in Sarajevo, Bosnia, killing 69 people and injuring 200.

Also in 1994, white supremacist Byron De La Beckwith was convicted of the 1963 killing of Mississippi civil rights leader Medgar Evers.

In 1996, a judge ordered U.S. President Bill Clinton to testify in the Whitewater land dispute trial. He later did so via videotape.

In 2003, making a case for U.N.-endorsed military action in Iraq, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell accused the Saddam Hussein regime of deceiving U.N. weapons inspectors and having ties with the al-Qaida terrorist network.

 

In 2005, a Moroccan family of four was charged in Spain in the March 11 Madrid train bombings that killed 191 people.

In 2006, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told the International Atomic Energy Agency that Iran was halting voluntary cooperation in regards to Tehran's nuclear program.

Also in 2006, the violent Muslim protest against Danish-published caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad spread to Turkey, Indonesia, India, Thailand and New Zealand.

In 2007, U.S. astronaut Lisa Marie Nowak was arrested on several charges, including attempted kidnapping, after she drove from Houston to Orlando, Fla., to confront another officer whom she viewed as a romantic rival for a fellow astronaut.

In 2008, on Super Tuesday, Barack Obama took a slim lead in delegates over Hillary Clinton in the Democratic contest while John McCain outscored all of his opponents combined in the delegate battle for the Republican nomination.

In 2010, the president of Toyota Motors Co. apologized for quality control problems that led to massive Toyota recalls. Sticking gas pedal problems led to a recall of 4.2 million vehicles, followed by similar problems with the 2010 hybrid Prius.

Also in 2010, in the second lethal assault of the week on Shiite pilgrims in Iraq, two car bombs killed more than two dozen people in Karbala and injured another 75 on final day of the Arbaeen festival. Earlier, a suicide bomber killed 31 in Baghdad.

In 2011, former Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide said he was ending a seven-year exile and returning to Haiti. About a month earlier, former dictator and Aristide adversary Claude Baby Doc Duvalier returned to Haiti after 25 years in exile.

In 2012, Dominican Republic authorities called off a search for survivors after a small wooden boat carrying dozens of migrants capsized just off the coast. At least 16 people died and more than 30 were missing.

Also in 2012, Sauli Niinisto scored a resounding victory over Pekka Haavisto to become Finland's 12th president.


Copyright 2013 by United Press International

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