Russian forces withdraw from Chechnya... 1997

The collapse of the Soviet Union granted independence not only to the individual republics that once made up the country, but also the numerous ethnic enclaves within the republics themselves. Chechnya, in the south of Russia, was one enclave that refused to cooperate with the new Russian authorities, insisting instead of complete independence. After a coup deposing the pro-Moscow government and open hostilities towards a neighboring Russian republic, Russian troops moved in to occupy the ares. The war would last, on and off, for nearly three years.

On this day, January 5th, 1997, following a peace accord between the two countries, Russia announced the last of its military forces left Chechnya, marking a formal end to the war.

Unfortunately, despite the peace accord and the tens of thousands of casualties on both sides, hostilities between Russia and Chechnya sparked a second Chechen war just two years after the conclusion of the first. Russian forces officially ended the second war in 2009, but left a portion of the army to help out local police with Chechen insurgents.

Quebec National Assembly Shooting... 1995

Denis Lortie, a former Canadian army corporal, stormed into the National Assembly of Quebec building and killed three Quebec government employees in Canada in 1984.

Cpl Lortie was a Supply Technician in the Canadian Forces and was disgruntled with a number of policies of the Quebec and federal governments. He planned a killing spree as a means of broadcasting his discontent.

On May 7 of that year, Lortie left the CFS Carp military base (better known as the Diefenbunker) pretending that he needed time off to arrange a divorce with his wife. Instead, he rented a car, drove to Quebec City and took a guided tour of the Quebec Parliament Building. He then rented a room in a motel on Laurier Boulevard for the night.

The next day, at 9:30 a.m., Lortie walked into CJRP radio station in Quebec City and dropped off a sealed envelope containing an audiotape for one of the station's hosts, André Arthur. He instructed the radio staff not to open the envelope until 10:30 a.m. but they opened it anyway, discovering that it was a statement of Lortie's plans, in which he declared that "The government now in power is going to be destroyed." However, by the time radio staff contacted police, Lortie's plan had already been put into action.

At 9:45 a.m., Lortie entered the Quebec Parliament Building through a side door located on Grande-Allée. He was dressed in combat fatigues and armed with two submachine guns. As he entered the building, he shot at a receptionist, then killed a messenger that he encountered in a corridor. He went into a smoking room and shot at the people there. He then went to the cafeteria, but finally found his way into the Assembly Chamber.

Based on later testimony, it is clear he intended to assassinate Premier René Lévesque and other members of the governing Parti Québécois. His plan was to enter the Assembly Chamber during the parliamentary committee starting at 10:00 that morning. However instead of using a watch, Lortie timed his attack by listening to CJRP and waited for the station's host, André Arthur, to end his segment. Fortunately that day, André Arthur ended his broadcast 20 minutes early, leading Lortie to enter the building and make his way to the Assembly Chamber while it was still mostly empty. Nevertheless, Lortie killed three government employees (Georges Boyer, Camille Lepage and Roger Lefrançois) and wounded 13 others. No politicians were killed or wounded.

The National Assembly's Sergeant-at-Arms, René Jalbert, was told there was a man with a gun in the Assembly Chamber. Upon stepping out the elevator, Lortie fired on him. Seeing that Lortie was in a military uniform, Jalbert told him that he too had been a soldier with the Van Doos (slang for the Royal 22e Regiment), and that if Lortie allowed he would show him his discharge card. Lortie agreed, after which Jalbert persuaded him to show his own identification.

After this exchange, Jalbert persuaded Lortie to come to his office to discuss the matter, and release the other civilians in the Assembly Chamber. Jalbert talked to Lortie for over four hours, ultimately persuading him to surrender to military police (he was unwilling to surrender to civilian police) at 14:22. For his heroic act which likely prevented further death, the Canadian government several months later awarded Jalbert the Cross of Valour.

One of the factors contributing to the crime was the easy access that Lortie had to both weapons and ammunition. Unlike other non-combat Canadian Forces Bases, the CFS Carp "Diefenbunker" did not have room for separate weapons and ammunition lockers.

According to psychiatrist Pierre Mailloux who was assigned to the case, Lortie suffered from paranoid schizophrenia and had organized his crime during a psychotic episode, believed his was acting on instructions from God. Nevertheless, in 1985, Lortie was convicted of first-degree murder, but a new trial was ordered due to legal errors. Lortie pleaded guilty to reduced charges of second-degree murder in 1987.

Lortie was paroled in December 1995. He now lives in Quebec and works in construction.

Hundreds killed in Venezuelan prison revolt... 1994

An estimated 100 people died in a riot in a vastly overcrowded prison in western Venezuela, the police and the national news agency Venpres reported.

Inmates shot and stabbed each other and set fire to the prison, the National Jail of Maracaibo. The riot reportedly ended after about four hours, said the police in Maracaibo, 325 miles (523 kilometres), west of Caracas.

A switchboard operator at the local police station also said that 100 people had died. Ortis Torres, a duty officer for the National Guard, which brought the riot under control, said he estimated 150 deaths, but said bodies were still being recovered.

Alberto Moran, a reporter at the local newspaper Panorama, said that about 200 prisoners had been injured and that two wings of the jail had been burned. Other estimates of the number wounded ranged from 50 to 200. It was not immediately known whether any prison workers were among the casualties.

The prison was built to hold 800 inmates but has about 3,000, according to Panorama.

Mwanawasa takes office as third President of Zambia... 2002

Levy Patrick Mwanawasa (September 3, 1948 – August 19, 2008) took office as the third President of Zambia. He ruled the country from January 2002 until his death in August 2008. He is credited for having initiated a campaign to rid the country of corruption. Prior to his election, Mwanawasa served as vice president from 1991 to 1994 whilst an elected Member of Parliament for Chifubu Constituency.


Before his party's convention in 1990, Mwanawasa was widely tipped to become the President of the Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD), but he declined the overture, citing his young age and inexperience. He opted instead to stand as a Member of Parliament and won with an overwhelming majority of the popular vote.

On 8 December 1991 Mwanawasa was involved in a serious traffic accident in which his aide died on the spot. He suffered multiple body injuries and was flown to Johannesburg, South Africa for medical treatment. He remained hospitalized for three months. A lasting effect of the accident was his noticeably slurred speech. A commission of inquiry was set up to investigate who was responsible for the alleged assassination attempt.

Mwanawasa served as Vice-President until he resigned in 1994. In 1996 he unsuccessfully contested Chiluba for the presidency of the Movement for Multiparty Democracy. After the loss, Mwanawasa retired from politics until the 2001 election.

In August 2000, the National Executive Committee of MMD elected Mwanawasa as its presidential candidate for the 2001 election. He won the election, held on 27 December 2001, with 29% due to Zambia's first past the post system, beating 10 other candidates including two other former vice presidents (Godfrey Miyanda and Gen. Christo Tembo); Anderson Mazoka came in a close second with 27%, according to official results. Mwanawasa took office on January 2, 2002. However, the results of the elections were disputed by main opposition parties, including Mazoka's United Party for National Development, which many observers claim had actually won the elections. Both domestic and international election monitors cited serious irregularities with the campaign and election, including vote rigging, flawed voter registration, unequal and biased media coverage, and the MMD's improper use of state resources. In January 2002, three opposition candidates petitioned the Supreme Court to overturn Mwanawasa's victory. While the court agreed that the poll was flawed, it ruled in February 2005 that the irregularities did not affect the results and declined the petition.

In a move he described as an attempt to promote "national reconciliation", Mwanawasa appointed a number of opposition lawmakers to his cabinet in February 2003, including Dipak Patel of the FDD as Minister of Trade, Commerce, and Industry, and Sylvia Masebo of the ZRP as Local Government Minister. However, Godfrey Miyanda, himself also belonging to the opposition, opposed the move and threatened to file a lawsuit over it.

In January 2005, Mwanawasa apologized to the nation for failing to tackle Zambian poverty. About 75% of the country's population lived on less than $1 a day, the United Nations' indicator of absolute poverty.

He was elected as President of the MMD for a five-year term in 2005.

Mwanawasa ran for a second term in the presidential election held on 28 September 2006.

Michale Sata of the Patriotic Front was considered his main challenger. His re-election was confirmed on 2 October; according to official results, he received 42.98% of the vote.

He was sworn in for another term on 3 October. A few days later, he named a new cabinet and appointed Rupiah Banda as Vice-President.

In August 19, 2008, Levy Patrick Mwanawasa died at 10:30 (8:30 GMT) at the Percy Military Hospital in Paris from stroke.

Importation of slaves into the United States is banned... 1808

The United States Constitution, Article 1 Section 9 protected the slave trade for twenty years. Only starting January 1, 1808 could laws become effective to end the slave trade.

The Migration or Importation of such Persons as any of the States now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the Year one thousand eight hundred and eight, but a tax or duty may be imposed on such Importation, not exceeding ten dollars for each Person.

In part, to ensure passage of such a law when the time came, the Pennsylvania Abolition Society was formed, and held its first meeting at the temporary Capital, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1794. On March 22, 1794, Congress passed the Slave Trade Act of 1794 that prohibited making, loading, outfitting, equipping, or dispatching of any ship to be used in the trade of slaves. 

Then on August 5, 1797, John Brown of Providence, Rhode Island was tried in federal court as the first American to be tried under the 1794 law. Brown was convicted and was forced to forfeit his ship Hope. On April 7, 1798, the fifth Congress passed an Act that imposed a three-hundred dollars per slave penalty on persons convicted of performing the illegal importation of slaves. It was an indication of the type of behavior and course of events soon to become commonplace in the Congress.

On Thursday, December 12, 1805, in the ninth Congress, Senator Stephen Row Bradley  of the State of Vermont gave notice that he should, on Monday next, move for leave to bring in a bill to prohibit the importation of certain persons therein described "into any port or place within the jurisdiction of the United States, from and after the first day of January," which will be "in the year of our Lord 1808." His words would be repeated many times by the legislators in the ninth Congress. The certain persons were described as being slaves on Monday, December 16, 1805.

Wary of offending the slaveholders to the least degree, the United States Senate amended the proposed Senatorial Act, then passed it to the House of Representatives whereat it became meticulously scrutinized and, figuratively, poked and prodded. Cautiously, ever mindful of not inciting the wrath of slaveholders, members of the House produced a bill which would explain the Senatorial Act. The two measures were bound together, with the House bill being called H R 77 and the Senate Act being called An Act to prohibit the importation of slaves into any port or place within the jurisdiction of the United States, from and after the first day of January, in the year of our Lord, 1808. The bound measure also regulated the coastwide slave trade. The bound measure was placed before President Thomas Jefferson on March 2, 1807 for his approbation. He signed the bill into law on March 3, 1807.

The 1807 Act of Congress was modified and supplemented by the fifteenth Congress. The importation of slaves into the United States was called "piracy" by an Act of Congress that punctuated the era of good feeling in 1819. Any citizen of the United States found guilty of such "piracy" might be given the death penalty. The role of the Navy was expanded to include patrols off the coasts of Cuba and South America. The effective date of the Act, January 1, 1808, was celebrated by Peter Williams Jr. in An Oration on the Abolition of the Slave Trade; delivered in the African Church in the City of New York, January 1, 1808.