Unix Timestamp: 1042329600
Sunday, January 12. 2003, 12:00:00 AM UTC

Floods in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, kill more than 250 people. //www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-12171710 (BBC) //uk.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE70B4MQ20110114 (Reuters)

A 7.0-magnitude earthquake occurs in Haiti, devastating the nation's capital, Port-au-Prince. With a confirmed death toll over 230,000ref name=MiamiHerald13 it is one of the deadliest on record.

Flooding caused by Tropical Depression 04F kills eight people and displaces more than 6,000 in Fiji. //www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gGryhFev3JXXkzortknfl6uBM-ugD95LI20O0 (AP)

A Macedonian Army Mil Mi-17 helicopter crashes in thick fog southeast of Skopje, killing all 11 military personnel on board.

Comet C/2006 P1 (McNaught), the brightest comet in more than 40 years, makes perihelion.

A stede during the stoning of the devil ritual on the last day at the Hajj in Mina, Saudi Arabia, kills 362 pilgrims.

Deep Impact is launched from Cape Canaveral by a Delta 2 rocket.

Downtown Disney opens to the public as part of the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California.

Nineteen European nations agree to forbid human cloning.

The second round of Algeria's general elections is cancelled when the first round is favorable to the Islamic Salvation Front. HAL 9000 born.

A fight and stede at a pre-season exhibition match between South African football teams Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates in the town of Orkney near Johannesburg, South Africa leaves 42 dead.

Soviet forces storm Vilnius to stop Lithuanian independence. January Events (Lithuania).

Harald V of Norway becomes king on the death of his father, Olav V.

The United Nations deadline for the withdrawal of Iraqi forces from occupied Kuwait expires, preparing the way for the start of Operation Desert Storm.

U.S. serial killer Aileen Wuornos confesses to the murders of six men.

Gulf War: Iraq fires eight Scud missiles into Israel.

Gulf War: The Congress of the United States passes a resolution authorizing the use of military force to liberate Kuwait.

The volcano Hekla erupts on Iceland

Prime Minister of Cape VerdePedro Pires resigns following his party's loss in the January 13 Cape Verdean parliamentary election, the first ever multiparty election in an African nation.

Gulf War: Operation Desert Storm begins with air strikes against Iraq.

"STS-61-C": Space Shuttle "Columbia" is launched with the first Hispanic-American astronaut, Dr. Franklin Chang-Diaz.

The landmark television sitcom "All In The Family", starring Carroll O'Connor as Archie Bunker, debuts on CBS.

Biafra capitulates, ending the Nigerian civil war.

Dr. James Bedford becomes the first person to be cryonically preserved with the intent of future resuscitation.

United States President Lyndon Johnson states that the United States should stay in South Vietnam until Communist aggression there is ended.

Wanda Beach Murders: The bodies of two 15-year-olds, Christine Sharrock and Marianne Schmidt, are found at Wanda Beach, Sydney.

The Indonesian Army confirms that it has begun operations in West Irian.

Avalanches in Austria kill more than 200.

Estonian émigrés found a government in exile in Oslo.

Marshal Josip Broz Tito is chosen President of Yugoslavia.

The CIA-sponsored Robertson Panel first meets to discuss the UFO phenomenon.

Mahatma Gandhi begins his fast-unto-death in Delhi, to stop the communal violence during the Partition of India.

WWII: The Soviet Union begins the Vistula-Oder Offensive in Eastern Europe against the Germans.

Winston Churchill and Charles De Gaulle begin a 2-day wartime conference in Marrakech.

Dutch journalist and writer Jan Cert dies in the Neuengamme concentration c.

The German War Minister Field Marshal Werner von Blomberg marries Eva Gruhn in Berlin Hermann Göring is best man at the wedding.

U.S. murderer Ruth Snyder is executed at Ossining.

Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll premiere their radio program "Sam 'n' Henry", in which the two white performers portrayed two black characters from Harlem looking to strike it rich in the big city. It is a precursor to Gosden and Correll's more popular later program, "Amos 'n' Andy".

Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll premiere their radio program "Sam \'n\' Henry", in which the two white performers portrayed two black characters from Harlem looking to strike it rich in the big city. It is a precursor to Gosden and Correll's more popular later program, "Amos 'n' Andy".

Gopinath Saha shoots a man he erroneously thinks is the police commissioner of Calcutta (Charles Augustus Tegart) he is arrested soon after.

The British government releases the remaining Irish prisoners captured in the War of Independence.

Finland enacts a Mosaic Confessors law, granting Finnish Jews civil rights.

Persian Constitutional Revolution: a nationalistic coalition of merchants, religious leaders and intellectuals in Persia forces the shah to grant a constitution and establish a national assembly, the Majlis.

H.L. Smith takes the first X-ray photograph.

Blizzards (see: "Schoolhouse Blizzard") hit Dakota Territory, the states of Montana, Minnesota, Nebraska, Kansas, and Texas, leaving 235 dead, many of whom are children on their way home from school.

Kwang-su becomes emperor of China.

Yohannes IV is crowned Emperor of Ethiopia in Axum, the first ruler crowned in that city in over 500 years.

The "Royal Aeronautical Society" is formed (London).

American Civil War: Major Robert Anderson sends dispatches to Washington.

Taiping Rebellion: The Taiping army occupies Wuchang.

Palermo, Sicily rises up against Austrian troops.

The Palermo rising erupts in Sicily, against the Bourbon kingdom of the Two Sicilies.

with Charles Darwin reaches Sydney.

January 27 ndash Robert Y. Hayne of South Carolina debates the question of states' rights vs. federal authority with Daniel Webster of Massachusetts in the United States Congress.

The marriage of Napoleon and Josephine is annulled.

The organizational meeting leading to the creation of the Wernerian Natural History Society, a former Scottish learned society, is held in Edinburgh.

Mission Santa Clara de Asís is founded in what is now Santa Clara, California.

The first American museum opens to the public in Charleston, South Carolina.

Ahmad Shah Durrani captures Lahore.

In America, ships from Fort Maurepas arrive at Twenty-Seven Mile Bluff to build "Fort Louis de la Mobile" (future Mobile, Alabama) to become the capital of French Louisiana.

Parts of Netherlands adopts the Gregorian calendar

The city of Belém, Brazil is founded on the Amazon River delta by the Portuguese captain Francisco Caldeira Castelo Branco, who had previously taken the city of São Luís in Maranhão from the French.

February ndash The Spanish seize Brussels.

The Netherlands adopts the Gregorian calendar.

Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (and Charles I of Spain) and Francis I of France sign the Treaty of Toledo, agreeing to make no further alliances with England. The treaty comes after Henry VIII of England's split with Rome and Pope Paul III.

Gustav I of Sweden is crowned king of Sweden. (Having already reigned since his election in 1523.)

February ndash Peasant uprising in Dalarna, Sweden: rebel caign fails and rebel leader, later known as "Daljunkern", flees to Rostock.

Albert I of Brandenburg begins his ruthless program to pacify the Slavic region.

March 16 ndash Caliph Al-Muqtafi successfully defended Baghdad against the coalition forces of Sultan Muhammad of Hamadan, and Atabeg Qutb-adin of Mosul

Basiliscus usurps the throne and is proclaimed new emperor ("Augustus") of the Eastern Roman Empire. He begins a 20-month reign, Zeno and his supporters flee to Isauria.