Unix Timestamp: 1043107200
Tuesday, January 21. 2003, 12:00:00 AM UTC

Israel completes its withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.

Former Liberian warlord Joshua Milton Blahyi confesses that he is responsible for at least 20,000 deaths during the First Liberian Civil War. //edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/africa/01/21/liberia.general.ap/index.html (CNN)

North American Markets: U.S. markets are closed for Martin Luther King Day. Stock futures are down, with March contracts on the Dow Jones Industrial Average trading 482 points lower to 11,624. SP 500 futures are also down 55 points to 1,270.10 and Nasdaq 100 futures are down 72.25 points to 1,777.25. The Toronto Stock Exchange loses over 500 points during morning trading at 12,233. //www.marketwatch.com/news/story/stock-futures-pointing-sharp-losses/story.aspx?guid=%7B9A894790%2D5D69%2D48C6%2D8303%2D18EE41CA5D1C%7D (MarketWatch) //www.cbc.ca/money/story/2008/01/21/worldstocklosses.html (CBC)

Stock markets around the world plunge amid growing fears of a U.S. recession, fueled by the 2007 subprime mortgage financial crisis. //news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7199552.stm (BBC News) //www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23433407-details/Black+Monday+as+biggest+FTSE+crash+since+911+wipes+off+nearly+%A360bn+in+shares/article.do (thisislondon.co.uk)

Stock markets around the world plunge amid growing fears of a U.S. recession, fueled by the 2007 subprime mortgage crisis.

A Turkish court bans YouTube for the second time because of clips deemed disrespectful to Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. //www.physorg.com/news120108745.html (PhysOrg.com)

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal meet together in Syria to try to end violence between the two factions. However, differences remain and talks will resume possibly next week. //news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6283769.stm (BBC) //abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=2811528 (AP via ABC News)

In one of the largest drug busts in American history, the United States Coast Guard intercepts a ship with over 9,500 pounds (4.75 tons) of cocaine aboard headed for Houston, Texas.

Lorena Bobbitt is found not guilty by reason of insanity on charges of mutilating her husband John.

Boris Yeltsin announces that Russia will stop targeting cities of the United States and her allies with Nuclear Weapons. In return George H. W. Bush announces that the United States and her allies will stop targeting Russia and the remaining communist states with Nuclear Weapons.

In El Salvador, an army colonel and a lieutenant of the Atlacatl Battalion are each sentenced to 30 years in prison for the 1989 murder of six Jesuit priests and their housekeepers.

China and Israel establish diplomatic relations.

Macy's files for bankruptcy.

Rebel forces occupy Zaire's national radio station in Kinshasa and broadcast a demand for the government's resignation.

"STS-42": Dr. Roberta Bondar becomes the first Canadian woman in space, aboard Space Shuttle "Discovery".

Nagorno-Karabakh War: in the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, fighting between Armenians and Azeris leaves at least 60 people dead.

Faced with decreased military spending, United Technologies Corporation announces it will eliminate 13,900 jobs by 1993.

In Mauritania, security forces open fire on opponents of President of MauritaniaMaaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya, killing at least five people.

Three SCUDs and one Patriot missile hit Ramat Gan in Israel, injuring 96 people 3 elderly people die of heart attacks.

British ArmySAS patrol, Bravo Two Zero is deployed in Iraq during the Gulf War. All but one of eight members are killed or captured.

Harald V formally takes the throne as King of Norway, succeeding his father, Olav V of Norway.

The first DeLorean DMC-12automobile, a stainless steelsports car with gull-wing doors, rolls off the production line in Dunmurry, Northern Ireland.

U.S. President Jimmy Carter pardons Vietnam War draft evaders.

The first commercial "Concorde" flight takes off.

Former U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson dies at his Stonewall, Texas ranch, leaving no former U.S. President living until the resignation of Richard M. Nixon in 1974.

A Royal JordanianBoeing 707 flight from Jeddah crashes in Kano, Nigeria 176 people are killed.

Eldfell on the Icelandic island of Heimaey erupts.

The Communist League is founded in Denmark.

"Roe v. Wade": The U.S. Supreme Court overturns state bans on abortion.

U.S. President Richard Nixon announces that a peace accord has been reached in Vietnam.

George Foreman defeats Joe Frazier to win the heavyweight world boxing chionship.

A New Delhi bootlegger sells wood alcohol to a wedding party 100 die.

Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro resigns due to a power struggle in his party.

The Chadian Muslim insurgent group FROLINAT is founded in Sudan, starting the Chadian Civil War.

The military government of Nigeria announces that ex-prime minister Abubakar Tafawa Balewa was killed during the coup.

In France, President Charles de Gaulle fires Jacques Massu, the commander-in-chief of the French troops in Algeria.

Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh descend into the Mariana Trench in the "bathyscaphe Trieste", reaching the depth of 10,911 meters (35,797 feet) and become the first human beings to reach the lowest spot on Earth.

A mine collapses at Coalbrook, South Africa, killing 500 miners.

The first nuclear-powered submarine, the , is launched in Groton, Connecticut, by First Lady of the United States Mamie Eisenhower.

Accused communist spy Alger Hiss is convicted of perjury.

WWII: Erwin Rommel launches his new offensive in Cyrenaica.

The Belgian Parliament accepts the Locarno treaties.

Following the death of Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin immediately begins to purge his rivals to clear the way for his leadership.

Kiwanis International is founded in Detroit, Michigan.

Opel Motors opens for business.

The National Trust is founded in Britain by Octavia Hill, Robert Hunter and Canon Hardwicke Rawnsley.

The Cherry Sisters first perform in Marion, Iowa.

Giuseppe Garibaldi's group of French and Italian volunteer troops in support of the French Third Republic win a battle against the Prussians in Dijon.

The P.E.O. Sisterhood, a philanthropic educational organization for women, is founded at Iowa Wesleyan College in Mount Pleasant, Iowa.

Māori Wars: The Tauranga Caign starts.

Adam Opel founds Opel AG.

American Civil War: Jefferson Davis resigns from the United States Senate.

The iron clipper runs aground off the east coast of Ireland on her maiden voyage out of Liverpool bound for Australia with the loss of at least 300 of around 650 on board.

General elections are held in the Papal States.

Dumont D'Urville discovers Adélie Land in Antarctica, claiming it for France.

Dumont D\\'Urville discovers Adélie Land in Antarctica, claiming it for France.

Peter I Island in the Antarctic first sighted by Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen.

John Marshall is appointed Chief Justice of the United States.

The Dutch fleet, frozen in IJsselmeer, is captured by the French 8th Hussars.!Nolfi //www.strategypage.com/cic/docs/cic123a.asp dates it 25 January, credits Lt Col Lahure, adding a coy of infantry

After being found guilty of treason by the French Convention, "Citizen Capet", Louis XVI of France, is guillotined.

The first American novel, "The Power of Sympathy or the Triumph of Nature Founded in Truth", is printed in Boston, Massachusetts.

Mustafa III, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire dies and is succeeded by his brother Abd-ul-Hamid I.

first medical publication in America (Phlet on smallpox) , Boston

HighwaymanClaude Duval is executed in Tyburn, Middlesex.

Abel Tasman discovers the island of Tonga.

Queen Elizabeth I of England grants a monopoly on producing printed sheet music to Thomas Tallis and William Byrd//www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/581620/Thomas-Tallis Britannica Online: Thomas Tallis

The Swiss Anabaptist Movement is born when Conrad Grebel, Felix Manz, George Blaurock, and about a dozen others baptize each other in the home of Manz's mother on Neustadt-Gasse, Zürich, breaking a thousand-year tradition of church-state union.

Pope Innocent V succeeds Pope Gregory X as the 185th pope.

Philip II of France and Henry II of England begin to assemble troops to wage the Third Crusade.