Happy New Year 2006

Time for making the best wishes for 2006 and hoping this new year can they become sucessful

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On this day in History - Dec. 31

0192 - Lucius Aurelius Commodus dies murdered (b. 0161). Roman Emperor.
0335 - Pope Silvester I, o 33rd pope.
0406 - Vandals, Alans and Suebians cross the Rhine, beginning an invasion of Gallia .
1194 - Leopold V of Austria, killed at a tournament in Graz.
1378 - Pope Callixtus III was born (d. 1458) .
1384 - John Wycliffe dies. English philosopher, theologian and religious reformator
1491 - Jacques Cartier was born. Explorer .
1492 - Jews are expelled from Sicily.
1514 - Andreas Vesalius was born [d. 1564]; Flemish anatomist who, as a university teacher insisted on conducting detailed dissections on human cadavers personally ( "De humani corporis fabrica") .
1553 - Pedro de Valdivia funda en Chile los fuertes de Arauco, Puren, Tucapel y la ciudad de Los Confines o Angol.
1568 - Shimazu Tadayoshi dies (b. 1493). Japanese daimyo.
1588 - Fray Luis de Granad dies in Lisbon. Spanish ascetic writer.
1600 - British East India Company is chartered.
1668 - Hermann Boerhaave was born [d. 1738]; Dutch physician and professor of medicine who was the first great clinical, teacher.
1679 - Giovanni Alfonso Borelli dies [b. 1608]; Italian physiologist who was the first to explain muscular movement and other body functions according to the laws of statics and dynamics. ["De motu animalium (Rome, 1680)].
1687 - The first Huguenots set sail from France to the Cape of Good Hope.
1695 - A window tax is imposed in England, causing many shopkeepers to brick up their windows to avoid the tax.
1719 - John Flamsteed dies[b. 1646]; English astronomer who established the Greenwich Observatory, as one of a group of scientists who convinced King Charles II to build a national observatory.
1738 - Charles Cornwallis was born (d. 1805). 1st Marquess Cornwallis, British general.
1744 - James Bradley announced the discovery of Earth's motion of nutation, or wobbling.

1753 - Alexandre de Gusmão dies in Lisbon (b. in Santos, São Paulo, Brazil in 1695). Diplomat and politician.

1775 - American Revolutionary War: British forces repulse an attack by Continental Army generals Richard Montgomery and Benedict Arnold at the Battle of Quebec.
1784 - Para reforzar la lucha contra los piratas, Carlos III establece la pena de galeras en España. 1805 - Marie de Flavigny best known for Daniel Stern was born. French writer.
1816 - Sir William Withey Gull was born (d. 1890); A leading English physician of his time, lecturer and physician at Guy's Hospital, London, and an outstanding clinical teacher.

1830 - José Elias Garcia was born (d. 1891). Portuguese politician. President of the Municipal Chamber of Lisbon.
1838 - D. Luís I was born in Lisbon (d. 19 Oct 1889). King of Portugal
1846 - Os miguelistas são completamente derrotados em Braga, tendo o seu comandante, Macdonell sido preso e morto em 30 de Janeiro de 1847 (O liberalismo em Portugal).
1857 - Queen Victoria chooses Ottawa, Ontario, as the capital of Canada .
1862 - American Civil War: Abraham Lincoln signs an act that admits West Virginia to the Union (thus dividing Virginia in two); meanwhile, the Battle of Stones River is fought near Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
1864 - Robert Grant Aitken was born (d.1951). American astronomer who specialized in the study of double stars, of which he discovered more than 3,000 .
1868 - É ocupada Assunção, a capital do Paraguai, por uma coluna brasileira sob o comando do Coronel Hermes Ernesto da Fonseca.
1869 - Henri Matisse, was born (d. 1954). French painter and graphic artist. Along with Picasso, Matisse is considered one of the two foremost artists of the modern period. His contribution to 20th-century art is inestimable.
1872 - Aleksis Kivi dies (b. 1834). Finnish author
1877 - Gustave Courbet dies (b. 1819). French painter.
1878 - Elizabeth Arden was born in Woodbridge, Ontario, Canada (d. 1966). Beautician, business executive.
1878 - Horacio Silvestre Quiroga was born in Salto. Uruguayan writer
1879 - Thomas Edison gave the first public demonstration of an electric incandescent lamp.
1880 - George C. Marshall was born , general and cabinet member, recipient of Nobel Prize in Peace 1953 for the Marshall Plan (d. 1959)
1881 - Max Pechstein, was born (d. 1955). Painter and graphic artist .
1890 - Francisca Carrasco Jiménez (Pancha) dies (b. 1816). "Defensora de lasLibertades Patrias" de Costa Rica.
1894 - Pola Negri was born (d. 1987). Polish actress.
1898 - Sir John Eric Sidney Thompson was born [d. 1975];He was a leading English ethnographer of the Mayan people.
1902 - Candido López dies in Baradero, Buenos Aires. Argentine painter.
violinist (d. 1992)
1905 - Aleksandr Popov dies (b. 1859). Physicist and electrical engineer acclaimed in Russia as the inventor of radio.
1905 - Jule Styne was born (d. 1994). Composer.

1905 - Waldemar Seyssel was born in Jaguariaiva, Paraná (d. 23 May 2005). Brazilian comedian and actor.
1908 - Simon Wiesenthal was born. Concentration camp survivor, activist
1909 - Manhattan Bridge Opens
1910 - Carl Dudley was born (d. 1973). American movie director.
1911 - Marie Curie receives her 2nd Nobel Prize .
1913 - Seth Carlo Chandler dies (b. 1846). American astronomer best known for his discovery (1884-85) of the Chandler Wobble, a complex movement in the Earth's axis of rotation (now refered to as polar motion) that causes latitude to vary with a period of 14 months.
1916 - The Hampton Terrace Hotel in North Augusta, South Carolina, one of the largest and most luxurious hotels in the USA at the time, burns to the ground.

1917 - António José Saraiva was born (d. 17 Mar 1993). Portuguese essayst and Professor

1923 - The Sahara is traversed by an automobile for the first time.
1923 - Se inauguran los servicios aéreos entre Buenos Aires y Montevideo.
1924 - Inicio de la Corrida de San Silvestre, celebrada anualmente Sao Paulo, Brasil.
1929 - Jeremy Bernstein was born; American physicist, educator, and writer widely known for the clarity of his writing for the lay reader on the major issues of modern physics.
1929 - Guy Lombardo plays Auld Lang Syne for the first time .
1934 - Cornelia Maria Clapp dies [b. 1849]; American zoologist and educator whose influence as a teacher was great and enduring in a period when the world of science was just opening to women.
1935 - Monopoly was patented, game assigned to Parker Brothers, Inc., by Charles Darrow of Pennsylvania.
1935 - Manuel Portela Valladares preside un nuevo Gobierno en España.
1936 - Miguel de Unamuno dies (b. 1864). Spanish writer and philosopher.
1937 - Anthony Hopkins was born. Welsh actor.
1938 - The first breath test for drivers, "drunkometer," was introduced in Indianapolis.
1940 - Arsène d'Arsonval dies [b. 1851]; French physician and physicist who was a pioneer in therapeutic use of electricity, heat, and light.
1941 - Alex Ferguson was born. Football (soccer) player and well known manager (Manchester United).
1943 - John Denver was born (d. 1997). Country/pop musician.
1943 - Ben Kingsley was born in Scarborough England; actor (Gandhi, Betrayal, Maurice...).
1944 - World War II: Hungary declares war on Germany .
1946 - President Harry Truman officially proclaimed the end of hostilities in World War II.

1947 - Rita Lee Jones was born in São Paulo. Brazilian singer and composer.
1948 - Donna Summer was born in Boston. American singer.
1949 - 18 countries recognize Republic Indonesia.
1952 -Vaughan Frederick Randal Jones was born; New Zealand mathematician who was awarded the Fields Medal in 1990 for his study of functional analysis and knot theory.
1955 - General Motors becomes the first American corporation to make over USD $1 billion in a year.

1956 - Francisco José Tenreiro dies (b. 1921). Poet and government official, São Tomé & Príncipe

1958 - Ernesto "Che" Guevara encabeza la ocupación de Santa Clara. Horas más tarde Fulgencio Batista huye de Cuba.
1959 - Val Kilmer was born. American actor ( The Saint, Top Gun, The Doors) .
1960 - The farthing coin, used in Britain since the 13th century, ceases to be legal tender.
1961 -The Marshall Plan expired after distributing more than $12 billion in foreign aid to rebuild Europe .
1963 - African Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland was formally dissolved.
1968 - Marien Ngouabi assumed the presidency of the Republic of the Congo.
1969 - George Lewis dies (b. 1900). American jazz musician.
1971 - US President Richard Nixon signs the National Air Quality Control Act, which calls for a 90% reduction in automobile emissions by 1975. The act also tightened air-pollution controls and fines in other industries.
1971 - Vikram Sarabhai dies (b. 1919). Indian physicist.
1972 - Roberto Clemente dies (b. 1934). Baseball player. From Puerto Rico Roberto Clement was elected to the Hall of Fame posthumously in 1973, being the first Hispanic American to be selected.
1975 - Pela primeira vez em 51 anos, a corrida de São Silvestre, maratona internacional realizada todos os anos em São Paulo, aceitou a participação de mulheres.
1978 - United States ends official relations with Nationalist China.
1978 - En Colombia el Movimiento 19 de Abril sustrae más de cinco mil armas de una guarnición militar conocida como Cantón Norte.
1979 - La Reina Isabel II de Inglaterra nombra caballero de la Orden del Imperio Británico al director de cine Alfred Hitchcock.
1980 - Muere Herbert Marshall McLuhan.
1980 - Léopold Sédar Senghor resigns after 20 years as Senegalese president .
1980 - Raoul Walsh dies (b. 1887). American film director .
1981 - Flight Lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings becomes Africa's first post-independent head of state after overthrowing Frederick Akuffo's government in Ghana.
1982 - Kurt Otto Friedrichs dies [ b. 1901] German mathematician.His main work was on partial differential equations in mathematical physics.
1983 - The last day that the AT&T Bell System exists before being broken up by the United States Government.
1983 - Nigeria's National Assembly dissolves after military coup .
1984 - Luciano Jaramillo Trujillo dies. Colombian painter.
1985 - Rick Nelson dies (b. 1940). American singer.

1985 - João de Araújo Correia dies (b. 1 Jan 1899). Portuguese writer [Contos Bárbaros (1939), Montes Pintados, Contos Durienses, Folhas de Xisto ]

1986 - A fire at the Dupont Plaza Hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico, kills 97 and injures 140.
1987 - Robert Mugabe sworn in as Zimbabwe's president.
1988 - No Rio de Janeiro o Bateau Mouche IV afunda na Baía de Guanabara matando 55 pessoas.
1990 - Russian Garry Kasparov holds his title by winning the World Chess Championship match against his countryman Anatoly Karpov.
1990 - Vasili Lazarev dies (b. 1928). Soviet cosmonaut.
1991 - The Soviet Union officially dissolves.
1991 - The civil war in El Salvador ends .
1992 - Thames Television ceases broadcasting. Carlton Television takes over its London weekday franchise.
1993 - Zviad Gamsakhurdia dies (b. 1939). Scientist and writer, first President of the Republic of Georgia.
1993 - the last research samples of the smallpox virus (variola) were scheduled to be destroyed. Smallpox was the world's most dreaded plagues until 1977, when it was declared eradicated. However, some scientists who wanted to continue research on the virus stopped the destruction plan. The remaining frozen samples are in Moscow.
1995 - The publication of the last new Calvin and Hobbes cartoon strip.
1995 - Renuncia del primer ministro italiano Lamberto Dini.
1995 - O presidente da Argélia Liamine Zeroual indica Ahmed Ouyahia como seu novo primeiro-ministro.
1997 - Michael Kennedy, son of Robert F. Kennedy, killed in a skiing accident on Aspen Mountain in Colorado.
1997 - Microsoft buys Hotmail E-mail service.
1998 - Fin de la peseta en España.
1999 - La administración del Canal de Panamá es entregada por los Estados Unidos a Panamá.
1999 - Boris Yeltsin resigns as President of Russia, to be replaced by Vladimir Putin
1999 - Five hijackers, who had been holding 155 hostages on an Indian Airlines plane, leave the plane with two Islamic clerics that they had demanded be freed.
1999 - The Panama Canal comes completely under Panama's jurisdiction.
1999 - Sarah Knauss dies at the age of 119 years - at death, the world's oldest person alive.
1999 - Elliot Richardson dies (b. 1920). American politician.
1999 Control of Panamá Canal reverts to Panamá.
2000 - Alan Cranston dies (b. 1914). American politician.
2000 - Kenneth L. Pike dies (b. 1912). He was a U.S. linguist and anthropologist known for his studies of the aboriginal languages of Mexico, Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, New Guinea, Java, Ghana, Nigeria, Australia, Nepal, and the Philippines.
2000 - José Greco dies. Spanish Flamenco dance.
2000 - Bill Clinton suscribe el tratado para crear el Tribunal Penal Internacional (TPI) con capacidad para investigar y juzgar a individuos acusados de haber cometido graves delitos contra el Derecho Internacional Comunitario. Su sucesor en la presidencia de los EE.UU., George W. Bush, retirará la participación de los EE.UU. en el tribunal.
2000 - Manuel de Rivacoba y Rivacoba dies. Spanish penalist and politician.
2003 - Arthur R. von Hippel German-born American physicist and professor at MIT
2004 - Gerard Debreu dies (b. 1921). French-born economist, Nobel Prize laureate.
2005 - Lisbon-Dakar all terrain veihucules rallye starts, naturally from Lisbon.
R.C. Saints - Pope Sylvester I (optional memorial)
Bahá'í Faith - Feast of Sharaf (Honor) - First day of the 16th month of the Bahá'í Calendar.

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Candidatos à Presidencia da Republica

A certa altura pensou-se que os candidatos à Presidencia da República Portuguesa quase permitiria a constituição de uma equipa de futebol (e até com alguns suplentes). Havia quem jogasse à defesa, à direita, vários esquerdinos, alguns polivalentes e outros "desconhecidos" que os jogos de preparação (leia-se campanha eleitoral) poderia dar a conhecer aos adeptos (leia-se povo sofredor) as suas virtudes e defeitos.

Afinal não é verdade. Apenas seis candidaturas formalizadas estão em condições de avançar. E tal prova que os tais jogadores desconhecidos não têm hipótese nenhuma de singrar na "alta competição". Só com aparelhos partidários de apoio é que se consegue cumprir os requisitos legais para ir a votos. Porque depois ter boa votação isso ainda é outra história.

Já agora aí ficam os nomes dos seis candidatos. Para além dos cinco que apareceram nos debates televisivos: Cavaco Silva, Manuel Alegre, Mário Soares, Jerónimo de Sousa e Francisco Louçã, temos mais um : Garcia Pereira.

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On this day in History - Dec. 30

• 0039 - Tito Flavio Vespasiano was born (d. 0081). Roman emperor.
• 0274 - St Felix I ends his reign as Catholic Pope.
• 1218 - Richard de Clare, 4th Earl of Hertford dies (b. 1162). English politician.
• 1460 - Wars of the Roses: The Duke of York is defeated at the Battle of Wakefield.
• 1460 - Richard, Duke of York dies killed in battle (b. 1411). Claimant to the English throne
• 1525 - Jacob Fugger dies at 66. German banker and merchant.
• 1552 - Simon Forman was born (d. 1611). English occultist and astrologer.
• 1572 - Galeazzo Alessi dies (b. 1512). Italian architect.
• 1573 - Giovanni Battista Giraldi dies (b. 1504). Italian writer.
• 1591 - Pope Innocent IX dies (b. 1519).
• 1642 - Vicenzo da Filicaja was born (d. 1707). Italian poet.
• 1644 - Jan Baptista van Helmont dies [ b. 1580]; Belgian chemist, physiologist, and physician who recognized the existence of discrete gases and identified carbon dioxide. He was part medieval alchemist and part scientist.
• 1673 - Ahmed III was born (d. 1736). Ottoman Sultan
• 1678 - William Croft was born (d. 1727). English composer.
• 1691 - Robert Boyle dies [b. 1627], Irish chemist and natural philosopher noted for his pioneering experiments on the properties of gases and his espousal of a corpuscular view of matter that was a forerunner of the modern theory of chemical elements ( See Boyle's law ).
• 1703 -Tokyo hit by Earthquake; about 37,000 die.
• 1722 - Charles Yorke was born (d. 1770). Lord Chancellor of Great Britain.
• 1724 - Louis-Jean-François Lagrenée was born (d. 1805). French painter.
• 1741 - Bartolomeo Giacometti was born. Composer.
• 1781 - John Needham dies [b. 1713]; English naturalist and Roman Catholic priest.
• 1788 - Francesco Zuccarelli dies at 86. Italian rococo painter/etcher.
• 1803 - The Maratha chief Daulat Rao Sindhia and the British signed the Treaty of Surji-Arjungaon.
• 1819 - Theodor Fontane was born (d. 1898). German novelist and poet.
• 1847 - John Peter Altgeld was born in Niederselters, Prussia. Reformist Illinois governor known principally for his pardon of German American anarchists involved in the Haymarket Riot.
• 1838 - Émile Loubet was born (d. 1929). 7th President of France.
• 1850 - John Milne was born [d. 1913]; English seismologist and geologist who invented the horizontal pendulum seismograph and promoted the establishment of seismological stations.
• 1851 - Asa Griggs Candler was born [d. 1929]; U.S. soft-drink manufacturer who developed Coca-Cola®.This soft drink began in 1886 when a druggist named John "Doc" Pemberton started selling the syrup that he used in his drugstore fountain drinks. When he died, the formula (still a very well kept secret) was sold to Asa Candler, a marketing genius.
• 1852 - Future U.S. President Rutherford B. Hayes married Lucy Ware Webb in Cincinnati.
• 1853 - The United States bought some 45,000 sq mi of land from Mexico in the Gadsden Purchase, to facilitate railroad building in the Southwest.
• 1853 - 20-strong dinner party held inside life-size model of Iguanodon created by Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins and Sir Richard Owen in south London.
• 1853 - André Messager was born. French composer.
• 1861 - US banks stops payments in gold.
• 1861 - Henrique de Paiva Couceiro was born in Lisbon. Portuguese militar and Governor of Angola.
• 1862 - USS Monitor sinks off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.
• 1865 - Rudyard Kipling, was born in Bombay, India (d. 1936). British writer ("Jungle Book" and "Soldiers Three") and recipient of the Nobel Prize in literature in 1907.
• 1868 - Capitulación de las tropas paraguayas ante el duque de Caxias. Francisco Solano López no se rinde y acompañado por un puñado de combatientes, emprende al retirada hacia el norte de Paraguay .
• 1869 - Stephen Butler Leacock was born. British-Canadian writer and economist.
• 1873 - the American Metrological Society was formed in New York City.
• 1873 - Alfred E. Smith was born (d. 1944). U. S. politician.
• 1879 - The Pirates of Penzance is first performed (Paignton, Devon, England).
• 1879 - Manuel de Araújo Porto Alegre dies in Lisbon, Portugal (b. 29 Nov 1806). Brazilian painter and writer.
• 1880 - The Transvaal becomes a republic and Paul Kruger, its first president.
• 1882 - Ángel Roffo was born. Argentine physician and investigator.
• 1883 - John Henry Dallmeyer dies [b. 1830]. German-born British inventor and manufacturer of lenses and telescopes.
• 1883 - Leonardo Coimbra was born in Lixa, Amarante (d. 1936). Portuguese philosopher.
• 1884 - Hideki Tojo was born (d. 1948). Prime Minister of Japan
• 1888 - U.S. troops intervene in Haiti
• 1890 - The Dressel Missions fight happens today.
• 1890 - Adolfo Ruiz Cortines was born (d. 1973). President of Mexico(1952 - 1958).
• 1896 - José Rizal, Philippine nationalist, was executed by firing squad in Manila.
• 1897 - Natal annexes Zululand.
• 1897 - Alfredo Bracchi, was born. Italian author.
• 1898 - Luís da Câmara Cascudo was born in Natal. Brazilian writer, journalist and folclorist.
• 1899 - Helge Ingstad was born (d. 2001). Norwegian explorer, discoverer of the only confirmed Viking settlement in America.
• 1899 - James Paget, dies [b. 1914] English surgeon and physiologist who is considered (with Rudolf Virchow) to be a founder of the science of pathology. Paget discovered (1834) in human muscle the parasitic worm that causes trichinosis. In 1877, he described Paget's disease of bone (osteitis deformans), a chronic disease of bones.
• 1900 - Battleships are sent to Tangiers by the Spanish government as the first part of its intended invasion of Morocco.
• 1902 - A new southing record was set by Robert Falcon Scott, in company with Ernest Henry Shackleton and E.A. Wilson, as they reached the Ross Ice Shelf at the head of the Ross Sea in Antarctica.
• 1903 - A fire at the Iroquois Theater in Chicago kills 600.
• 1904 - Dmitri Kabalevsky was born (d. 1987). Russian composer.
• 1906 - Carol Reed was born (d. 1976). English film director
• 1906 - Iran becomes a constitutional monarchy.
• 1910 - Paul Bowles was born (d. 1999). American composer and author
• 1911 - Jeanette Nolan was born. American actress
• 1911 - Sun Yat-sen was elected the first president of the Republic of China.
• 1913 - Tungsten filaments: Dr William David Coolidge patented a method for making ductile tungsten for the purpose of making filaments for electric lamps .
• 1916 - Grigory Yefimovich Rasputin was poisoned by Russian conservatives in an effort to halt his influence over Empress Alexandra and the royal family.
• 1917 - Un cataclismo de grandes dimensiones asola Guatemala, cuya ciudad capital quedó convertida en ruinas.
• 1917 - Seymour Melman was born (d. 2004). American industrial engineer.
• 1918 - The Spartacus League lead by Rosa Luxemburgo was transformed into the Communist Party of Germany at a party congress.
• 1919 - Lincoln's Inn in London admits its first female bar student.
• 1920 -Albania was admitted to the League of Nations as sovereign and independent state.
• 1920 - Jack Lord was born (d. 1998). American actor.
• 1922 - Vladimir Lenin proclaims the establishment of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) with its capital in Moscow, eventually incorporated 15 republics and constituted (in area) the largest country in the world until its dissolution in 1991.
• 1923 - Sara Lidman was born (d. 2004). Swedish writer.
• 1923 - Inauguración del primer servicio público aéreo en Argentina (de Buenos Aires a Montevideo).
• 1924 - Edwin Hubble announces the existence of other galaxies.
• 1927 - The Ginza Line, the oldest subway line in Asia, opened in Tokyo.
• 1928 - Bo Diddley was born. American singer and musician.
• 1931 - Skeeter Davis was born (d. 2004). American singer.
• 1931 - Tyrone Power Sr dies at 62. Actor (Big Trial, Test of Donald Norton).
• 1933 - O primeiro-ministro da Roménia, Íon Duca, é assassinado por um membro da Guarda de Ferro.
• 1933 - El ministro Javier Burgos establece la división de España en 49 provincias.
• 1934 - Del Shannon was born (d. 1990). American singer.
• 1934 - John Norris Bahcall was born (d. 2005). American physicist.
• 1934 - Joseph Bologna was born. American actor
• 1934 - Joseph P. Hoar was born. U.S. general
• 1934 - Russ Tamblyn was born. American actor, dancer, and singer
• 1935 - Omar Bongo was born. President of Gabon
• 1935 - Sandy Koufax was born. Baseball player
• 1936 - Beginning of successful 44 day sit-down strike by the United Auto Workers union at GM plant in Flint, MI.
• 1937 - Gordon Banks was born in Sheffield. British footballer (goal-keeper).
• 1937 - John Hartford was born (d. 2001). American musician.
• 1937 - Jim Marshall was born. American football player
• 1937 - Paul Stookey was born. American singer
• 1938 - An electronic television system was patented by V.K. Zworykin.
• 1940 - California opens its first freeway: the Arroyo Seco Parkway.
• 1941 - Mel Renfro was born. American football player
• 1942 - Vladimir Bukovsky was born. Russian author and dissident
• 1942 - Michael Nesmith was born. American singer and musician (The Monkees)
• 1942 - Fred Ward was born. American actor
• 1943 - Chandra Bose raises the flag of Indian independence at Port Blair.
• 1944 - King George II of Greece declares a regency, leaving his throne vacant.
• 1944 - Romain Roland dies. French writer/pacifist (Nobel 1915).
• 1945 - Davy Jones was born. American singer (The Monkees)
• 1945 - Arnaldo Faria de Sá was born in São Paulo. Brazilian radio personality and politician.
• 1946 - Patti Smith was born. American singer
• 1947 - Michael Burns, Ph.D. was born. American actor and history professor
• 1947 - Jeff Lynne was born. English singer and musician (ELO)
• 1947 - Alfred North Whitehead dies [b.1961]; English mathematician and philosopher, who collaborated with Bertrand Russell on Principia Mathematica (1910-13).
• 1947 - King Michael of Romania is obliged to abdicate and the Romanian republic is proclaimed.
• 1948 - The play Kiss Me, Kate opens for the first of 1,077 performances.
• 1949 - India recognizes People's Republic of China.
• 1950 - Vietnam, Laos & Cambodia become Independent states in France Union.
• 1952 - June Anderson was born. American soprano
• 1953 - The first color television sets go on sale for about USD $1,175.
• 1954 - 1.st use of 24-sec shot clock in pro basketball (Rochester vs Boston).
• 1956 - Suzy Bogguss was born. American singer
• 1957 - Matt Lauer was born. American newscaster
• 1957 - Israeli government of Ben-Gurion, resigns.
• 1959 - Tracey Ullman was born. English actress and singer
• 1961 - Ben Johnson, was born. Canadian athlete.
• 1961 - Douglas Coupland was born. Canadian author
• 1961 - Sean Hannity was born. American talk radio host and conservative political commentator.
• 1963 - Chandler Burr was born. American author.
• 1963 - Michelle Douglas was born. Canadian human rights activist.
• 1963 - Alessandra Mussolini was born in Naples, Italy. Actress (Ferragosto OK)
• 1965 - Ferdinand Marcos becomes President of the Philippines.
• 1965 - Zoe Kelli Simon was born. American actress.
• 1969 - Jack Yablonski was murdered. Reform mine leader.
• 1969 - Dave England was born. American television personality.
• 1969 - Jay Kay was born. English musician and singer (Jamiroquai)
• 1972 - Kerry Collins was born. American football player.
• 1972 - Vietnam War : President Nixon halted the heavy bombing on North Vietnam.
• 1972 - Selton Mello was born in Passos, Minas Gerais. Brazilian actor.
• 1973 - Jason Behr was born. American actor.
• 1973 - Ato Boldon was born. West Indian athlete.
• 1974 - Beatles are legally disbanded (4 years after suit was brought).
• 1975 - Tiger Woods was born in Orlando, Florida. American golfer.
• 1975 - Constitution of Democratic Republic of Madagascar comes into force.
• 1976 - Meredith Monroe was born. Actress.
• 1976 - The Smothers Brothers play their last show (Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas).
• 1978 - Tyrese was born. Singer.
• 1979 - Rock group, Emerson, Lake & Palmer break up.
• 1979 - Togo adopts constitution.
• 1980 - Eliza Dushku was born. Actress.
• 1980 - After 25 years, the longest-running prime-time TV series The Wonderful World of Disney is cancelled by NBC.
• 1981 - Wayne Gretzky scores his 50th goal in 39 games, an NHL record to this day.
• 1982 - Kristin Kreuk was born. Canadian actress.
• 1983 - A 7.2 earthquake killed 26 people in Afghanistan (14) and Pakistan (12).
• 1984 - LeBron James was born. American basketball player
• 1985 - Alexa Ray Joel was born. Daughter of Billy Joel and Christie Brinkley
• 1985 - Pakistan restores constitution.
• 1987 - The Transkei government is overthrown in a bloodless coup led by General Bantubonke Holomisa, commander of the Transkei Defence Force.
• 1987 - Premier Mugabe elected President of Zimbabwe.
• 1989 - Dmitri Volkov swims world record 50m freestyle (27.15 sec).
• 1989 - Alex Germany-Wald was born. American activist
• 1989 - Ryan Sheckler was born. Professional skateboarder
• 1993 - Israel and the Vatican signed an agreement of mutual recognition to put an end to Jewish-Christian hostilities.
• 1993 - Giuseppe Occhialini dies (b. 1997). Italian physicist.
• 1994 - Dmitri Ivanenko dies (b. 1904). Russian physicist.
• 1995 - The lowest ever UK temperature of -27.2°C was recorded at Altnaharra in the Scottish Highlands. This equalled the record set at Braemar, Aberdeenshire on February 11, 1895 and January 10, 1982.
• 1996 - In the Indian state of Assam, a passenger train is bombed by Bodo separatists, killing 26.
• 1996 - Proposed budget cuts by Benjamin Netanyahu spark protests from 250,000 workers who shut down services across Israel.
• 1997 - In the worst incident in Algeria's insurgency, 400 people are killed from four villages.
• 1997 - In Spain a judge accused 36 Argentine military and police officers of involvement in torture and the disappearance of 600 Spaniards during the dirty war from 1976-1983. Most of those named served in the ESMA, a torture center used by the military regime.
• 1997 - In Italy Danilo Dolci, advocate of nonviolent social reform, died at age 73. His writings and poetry chronicled Sicily’s beauty and despair. His books include: “Report From Palermo,” “Waste,” and "Sicilian Lives".
• 1998 - Joaquim Pacífico da Silva dies in Guararema, São Paulo (b. 1909). Brazilian musician, singer and composer.
• 1999 - O ex-beatle George Harrison foi esfaqueado no tórax dentro de sua mansão em Londres por Michael Abram, de 33 anos. Foi hospitalizado recebendo alta dias depois.
• 2000 - Rizal Day Bombings: A series of bombs explode in various places in Metro Manila, Philippines within a span of a few hours, killing 22 and injuring about a hundred.
• 2001 - Pakistan arrested Hafiz Saeed, leader of Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (Army of the Pure) as India moved more troops to the border.
• 2002 - Eleanor Jack Gibson dies [b. 1910]; American psychologist who studied learning processes in children. She is remembered for her “visual cliff” experiment which showed how an infant's depth perception helps prevent injuries and falls.
• 2003 - The Bush administration announced it was banning the sale of ephedra, and urged consumers to immediately stop using the herbal stimulant linked to 155 deaths and dozens of heart attacks and strokes.
• 2003 - John Gregory Dunne dies. American novelist and screenwriter.
• 2004 - A fire in the República Cromagnon nightclub in Buenos Aires, Argentina, kills 194.

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Os aumentos da função pública em 2006

Bettencourt Picanço, do Sindicato dos Quadros Técnicos do Estado, quer que o actual Presidente da República Jorge Sampaio se pronuncie sobre o comportamento do Governo que nas "negociações"para a actualização salarial da função pública de 2006 impõe o aumento de 1,5% , claramente inferior à taxa de inflacção prevista.

Também o candidato à Presidencia da República, Jerónimo de Sousa quer que os candidatos Mário Soares e Manuel Alegre se pronunciem sobre este assunto (já que de Cavaco Silva nem vale a pena).

Entretanto ontem ouvi a repetição de um excerto de uma entrevista feita ao Ministro das Finanças, aquando da apresentação do Orçamento, com uma pergunta directa (directíssima) sobre se aquele Orçamento permitia aumentos salariais para a função pública que cobrissem a inflacção, com o Ministro a responder "nim" ("...vai depender das negociações"). Agora com as negociações - na prática não há negociações - porque o Orçamento já está aprovado e não permite maiores aumentos. Não sei o que se passa nos outros países, a situação económica e orçamental do país é grave, mas em termos de ética política ... estamos bem aviados.

Em altura de fecho de ano e começo de outro não há dúvida que não faltam oportunidades para ... divertimentos (uns ) e ... preocupações (outros).

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Legenda para a vida de um vagabundo - Joaquim Namorado

Nasci vagabundo em qualquer país,
minhas fronteiras são as do mundo.
Esta sina vem-me no sangue:
não me fartar! Um desejo morto,
mais de dez a matar.

O caminho é longo!…
— Mas nada é longe e distante
quando se quer realmente…
E nunca o cansaço é tão grande
que um passo mais senão possa dar.

(in Antologia de Poetas Alentejanos)

Joaquim Namorado (n. em Alter do Chão, 1914; m. 29 Dez 1969)

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Mania das Grandezas - Joaquim Namorado

Pois bem, confesso:
fui eu quem destruiu as Babilônias
e descobriu a pólvora...
Acredite,
a estrela Sírius, de primeira grandeza,
(única no mercado)
deixou-me meu tio-avô em testamento.
No meu bolso esconde-se o segredo
das alquimias
e a metafísica das religiões
— tudo por inspiração!

Que querem?
Sou poeta
e tenho a mania das grandezas...

Talvez ainda venha a ser Presidente da República...

Joaquim Namorado (n. em Alter do Chão, 1914; m. 29 Dez 1969)

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On this day in History - Dec. 29

• 1170 - Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, was murdered by four knights acting under the orders of Henry II.
• 1223 - El Papa Honorio III aprueba la regla de la Orden de los Frailes Menores (Franciscanos) fundada por San Francisco de Asis en 1209.
• 1563 - Sebastian Castellio dies (b. 1515). French theologian
• 1586 - Francisco de Moncada was born. Spanish earl of Osuna/marquis of Aytona.
• 1634 - John Albert Vasa dies (b. 1612). Polish bishop.
• 1661 - Antoine Gérard de Saint-Amant dies (b. 1594). French poet.
• 1678 - Gotthard Wagner, was born. Composer.
• 1689 - Thomas Sydenham dies [b. 1624]; English physician who has been called “the English Hippocrates” as a founder of clinical medicine and epidemiology, emphasizing detailed observations of patients and maintaining accurate records.
• 1709 - Elisabeth Petrovna, Elizabeth of Russia, was born (d. 1762). Tsarina of Russia, daughter of Peter the Great .
• 1721 - Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson (Madame de Pompadour) was born [† 15 Apr 1764]. Mistress of French King Louis XV.
• 1721 - Occupation de l'Île Maurice par les Français, qu'ils baptisent Ile de France .
• 1731 - Brook Taylor dies [b. 1685] British mathematician noted for his contributions to the development of calculus. In 1708, Taylor produced a solution to the problem of the centre of oscillation. His (1715) “Direct and Indirect Methods of Incrementation” introduced what is now called the calculus of finite differences.
• 1743 - Hyacinthe Rigaud dies in Paris. One of the most prolific and successful French portrait painters of the Baroque period.
• 1766 - Charles Macintosh, was born in Glasgow [d. 1843]; Scottish chemist and manufacturer. He developed his famous method of waterproofing cloth (1823) .
• 1785 - Johan Herman Wessel dies (b. 1742). Norwegian poet.
• 1788 - Christian Jürgensen Thomsen was born [d.1865) Danish archaeologist who devoloped the three-part system of prehistory, naming the Stone, Bronze, and Iron ages for the successive stages of man's technological development in Europe.
• 1796 - Johann Christian Poggendorff was born (d. 1877). German physicist.
• 1799 - Joaquín Acosta, was born [d. 1852]; Colombian scientist, historian, and statesman who sought to preserve knowledge of his country's early history.
• 1800 - Charles Goodyear was born; invented vulcanized rubber [d. 1860].
• 1808 - Andrew Johnson, was born [d. 1875];17th President of the United States and the first ever to be impeached.
• 1809 - William Ewart Gladstone was born [d. 1897]. Statesman, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
• 1813 - Alexander Parkes was born [d. 1890]; British chemist and inventor who developed various industrial processes and materials.
• 1813 - War of 1812: British soldiers burn Buffalo, New York.
• 1816 - Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Ludwig was born [d. 1895]; he was a founder of the physicochemical school of physiology in Germany. He developed the kymograph (1847) and a mercurial blood-gas pump (1859) which enables the separation of blood from the mixture of gases in it for analysis.
• 1825 - Simon Bolivar Palacios abandonne la Présidence de la Bolivie, qu'il laisse à son lieutenant Antonio José de Sucre Alcala.
• 1825 - Jacques-Louis David dies (b. 1748). French painter.
• 1840 - Anton Dohrn was born (d. 1909). Zoologist.
• 1841 - Se le concede por gracia la nacionalidad chilena al naturalista francés Claudio Gay.
• 1845 - Texas became the 28th state in the United States.
• 1851 - The first American-based YMCA opens, in Boston, Massachusetts .
• 1859 - Venustiano Carranza, was born; President of México (1915-20) .
• 1860 - The first British seagoing iron-clad warship, the HMS Warrior is launched.
• 1862 - American Civil War: End of the Battle of Chickasaw Bayou.
• 1865 - Abolitionist crusader William Lloyd Garrison published the last issue of The Liberator.
• 1869 - Se funda el Observatorio Astrónomico de Córdoba, Argentina.
• 1876 - The Ashtabula River Railroad bridge disaster, 64 injured, 92 dead at Ashtabula, Ohio.
• 1876 - Pablo Casals was born in Venrdell; Spanish cellist, conductor, composer (d. 1973).
• 1877 - Adolfo Alsina dies. Argentine politician.
• 1881 - Jess Willard was born (d. 1968). American boxer.
• 1890 - The last major battle of the Indian Wars, at Wounded Knee Creek, took place with hundreds of Indian men, women, and children of the Great Sioux Nation massacred.
• 1891 - Thomas Edison patents the radio.
• 1891 - Leopold Kronecker, German mathematician, dies [b. 1823] His major contributions in elliptic functions, the theory of algebraic equations, and the theory of algebraic numbers. However the topics he studied were restricted by the fact that he believed in the reduction of all mathematics to arguments involving only the integers and a finite number of steps.
• 1893 - Vera Brittain was born. Novelist, poet .
• 1894 - Christina Rossetti dies (b. 1830). English poet.
• 1895 - Leander Starr Jameson launched an abortive raid into the Transvaal to overthrow the Boer government of Paul Kruger.
• 1896 - David Alfaro Siqueiros, was born; Mexican painter/muralist (Liberation of Chile).
• 1898 - Se estrena en Munich el poema sinfónico Don Quijote, de Richard Straus.
• 1899 - Nie Rongzhen was born (d. 1992). Chinese Communist military leader.
• 1903 - Candido Portinari was born (d. 1962). Brazilian painter.
• 1908 - Helmut Gollwitzer was born (d. 1993). German theologian.
• 1910 - Ronald Coase dies. British economist, Nobel Prize laureate.
• 1911 - Sun Yat-sen becomes the first President of the Republic of China .
• 1911 - Klaus Fuchs was born [d.1988]; Emil Klaus Julius Fuchs was a German-born physicist and spy who was arrested and convicted (1950) for giving vital American and British atomic-research secrets to the Soviet Union.
• 1911 - Alves Redol was born in Vila Franca de Xira (d. 29 Nov 1969). Portuguese writer.
• 1913 - The first serial motion picture, The Unwelcome Throne is released by Seligs Polyscope Company.
• 1914 - Billy Tipton was born (d. 1989). American musician.
• 1914 - Albert Tucker was born (d. 1999). Australian artist.
• 1916 - Grigori Rasputin dies (b. 1869). Russian monk.
• 1917 - Tom Bradley was born (d. 1998). Mayor of Los Angeles, California.
• 1921 - William Lyon Mackenzie King becomes Prime Minister of Canada.
• 1924 - Carl Spitteler dies (b. 1845). Swiss writer, Nobel Prize laureate.
• 1925 - French Comunist Party is created.
• 1926 - Rainer Maria Rilke dies (4 Dec 1875). German poet.
• 1927 - Andy Stanfield was born (d. 1985). American athlete.
• 1929 - Wilhelm Maybach dies [b. 1846] ; German engineer and industrialist who was the chief designer of the first Mercedes automobiles (1900-01).
• 1931 - Prince Gu of Korea was born (d. 2005)
• 1934 - The first college basketball game at Madison Square Garden in New York City is played, between the University of Notre Dame and New York University .
• 1934 - Japan renounces the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 and the London Naval Treaty of 1930.
• 1934 - Tom Jarriel was born. American correspondent.
• 1936 - Mary Tyler Moore was born. American actress.
• 1936 - Ray Nitschke was born (d. 1998). American football player.
• 1936 - Angelina Muñiz-Huberman was born. French-born Mexican writer ( Dulcinea encantada; Huerto cerrado, huerto sellado; De magias y prodigios; La memoria del aire).
• 1936 - John Cornford dies murdered in Madrid (b. 27 Dec 1915). English author [The Last Mile to Huesca (1936) and Poems from Spain (1936)].
• 1937 - The Constitution of Ireland, changing the Irish Free State into Eire, went into effect.
• 1937 - Barbara Steele was born. British actress.
• 1937 - Don Marquis dies (b. 1878). American author.
• 1938 - Jon Voight, was born, American actor (Deliverance, Midnight Cowboy) .
• 1940 - During World War II, Germany began dropping incendiary bombs on London.
• 1941 - Tullio Levi-Civita dies [b. 1873]; Italian mathematician known for his work on the absolute differential calculus with its applications to the theory of relativity.
• 1941 - Ray Thomas was born. British musician (The Moody Blues)
• 1942 - Rick Danko was born (d. 1999) Canadian musician (The Band)
• 1946 - Abel de Lima Salazar dies in Lisbon (b. 19 Jul 1889). Portuguese physician, scientist and painter.
• 1946 - Marianne Faithfull, was born. Singer.
• 1947 - Ted Danson was born. American actor.
• 1949 - KC2XAK of Bridgeport, Connecticut becomes the first Ultra high frequency (UHF) television station to operate a daily schedule.
• 1951 - Yvonne Elliman was born. American disco singer
• 1952 - Gelsey Kirkland was born. American dancer
• 1952 - A coelacanth, once thought to have been extinct for 75 million years, is caught off the Comoros and sent to scientists in South Africa.
• 1953 - Gali Atari was born. Israeli singer
• 1954 - Roger Voudouris was born. American singer and songwriter
• 1954 - William Merriam Burton dies [b. 1865]; American chemist who developed a thermal cracking process for increasing the proportion of gasoline obtainable from crude petroleum.
• 1956 - Metro of Lisbon (Portugal) is inaugurated.
• 1957 - Singers Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme were married in Las Vegas.
• 1959 - Patricia Clarkson was born. American Actress
• 1960 - Frederick Fuller Russell dies [b. 1870]; American scientist who developed the first successful U.S. typhoid fever vaccine.
• 1960 - Henri-Gaston Busignies was born [d. 1981]; French-born American electronics engineer permitted the U.S. Navy during World War II to detect enemy transmissions ( from wich a radio transmission was coming) throught his high-frequency direction finders (HF/DF) Busignies invented also the radiocompass (1926) .
• 1960 - Eden Phillpotts dies (b. 1862). British writer.
• 1961 - Anton Flettner dies [b. 1885]; German inventor of the rotor ship, a vessel propelled by revolving cylinders mounted vertically on the deck. He also developed a device that allowed airplane pilots to raise or lower a plane's nose for better control. 1963 - Francisco Bustamante was born. Filipino billiard player.
• 1963 - Dave McKean was born. English artist and filmmaker
• 1966 - Dexter Holland, was born, Rock musician (The Offspring).
• 1967 - Paul Whiteman dies (b. 1890). The “King of Jazz”. His sucesses includes “My Blue Heaven” and “All of Me”.
• 1967 - Andy Wachowski was born. American director.
• 1967 - Edson Cordeiro was born. Brazilian singer.
• 1968 - Numa operação antiterrorista, comandos israelitas destroem 13 aviões de guerra libaneses.
• 1970 - Aled Jones was born. Welsh singer and television presenter
• 1970 - Kevin Weisman was born. American actor
• 1970 - Glen Phillips was born. American singer/songwriter (Toad The Wet Sprocket)
• 1972 - An Eastern Airlines Lockheed Tristar crashed on approach ro Miami, International Airport killing 101 .
• 1972 - Jason Kreis was born. American soccer player
• 1972 - Jude Law was born. English actor
• 1973 - Theo Epstein was born. Baseball general manager
• 1974 - Richie Sexson was born. Baseball player
• 1975 - A bomb explodes at New York City's LaGuardia Airport killing 11.
• 1978 - Alexis Amore was born. Peruvian actress, dancer, and model
• 1978 - Kieron Dyer was born. English footballer
• 1978 - LaToya London was born. American singer.
• 1980 - Tim Hardin was born (b. 1941). American musician
• 1980 - Nadezhda Mandelstam was born (b. 1899). Russian writer.
• 1981 - Angela Via was born. American singer
• 1983 - Mariage de Caroline de Monaco et Stefano Casiraghi.
• 1984 - Rajiv Gandhi wins landslide election victory (BBC)
• 1986 - Harold Macmillan dies in Sussex, England. Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
• 1986 - Joaquim Namorado dies (b. 1914). Portuguese poet.
• 1987 - Yuri Romanenko, cosmonaute soviétique, revient sur terre après avoir établi le record de la plus longue mission dans l'espace soit 326 jours, 11 heures et 40 minutes.
• 1989 - Vaclav Havel was elected President of Czechoslovakia. Novelist and playwright Václav Havel was unanimously elected president of Czechoslovakia without having to face an opposing candidate.
• 1989 - Hermann Julius Oberth dies [b. 1894]; German scientist who is considered to be one of the founders of modern astronautics.
• 1989 - Riots break-out after Hong Kong decides to forcibly repatriate Vietnamese refugees.
• 1992 - Fernando Collor de Mello, president of Brazil, resigned.
• 1992 - Itamar Franco is the new President of Brazil.
• 1992 - President Daniel Torotich arap Moi wins the first multi-party elections held in Kenya for 26 years.
• 1993 - Construction of the Tian Tan Buddha, the world's tallest outdoor bronze statue of the seated Buddha, was completed.
• 1995 - Nello Celio, President of Switzerland (1972), dies at 81.
• 1996 - Guatemala and leaders of Guatemalan National Revolutionary Union sign a peace accord that ends a 36 year a civil war.
• 1997 - Hong Kong begins to kill all the nation's chickens (1.25 million) to stop the spread of a potentially deadly influenza strain.
• 1998 - Leaders of the Khmer Rouge apologize for the genocide in Cambodia that claimed over 1 million in the 1970s.
• 1998 - Six people have died after mountainous seas smashed into yachts taking part in the prestigious Sydney to Hobart race.
• 1999 - Jerzy Waldorff, dies; Polish film and music critic .
• 1999 - The Nasdaq composite index closed above 4,000 for the first time, ending the day at 4,041.46.
• 2001 - A massive fire in the historic district of downtown Lima kills at least 274 people.
• 2001 - Cássia Eller dies in Rio de Janeiro (b. 10 Dec 1962). Brazilian singer and musician.
• 2003 - Earl Hindman dies (b. 1942). American actor.
• 2003 - Dinsdale Landen dies (b. 1932). English actor.
• 2003 - Bob Monkhouse dies (b. 1928). English comedian and game show host
• 2004 - Julius Axelrod dies (b. 1912). American biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
• 2004 - Liddy Holloway dies (b. 1947). New Zealand actress.
• 2005 - Officials Hope to Free Hostages in Yemen Soon. Yemeni authorities say they are hopeful of a speedy release of a kidnapped former high-ranking German official and his family seized by tribesmen in the eastern part of the country.

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