On this day
Revisit the news, notable people, and historical moments connected to this date.
In 1990, the world population was approximately 5,327,803,110 people[†]
1990Victor Hedman, Swedish ice hockey player[†]
Victor Erik Olof Hedman is a Swedish professional ice hockey defenceman and captain for the Tampa Bay Lightning of the National Hockey League (NHL). Hedman was selected second overall by the Lightning in the 2009 NHL Entry Draft and made his NHL debut that year.
1990Sierra Kay, American singer-songwriter[†]
Sierra Kay Kusterbeck, better known as Sierra Kay, is an American singer-songwriter and model. She rose to prominence as the lead vocalist of the rock band VersaEmerge.
1990Anne Revere, American actress (born 1903)[†]
Anne Revere was an American actress and a liberal member of the board of the Screen Actors' Guild. She was best known for her work on Broadway and her portrayals of mothers in a series of critically acclaimed films. An outspoken critic of the House Un-American Activities Committee, her name appeared in Red Channels: The Report on Communist Influence in Radio and Television in 1950 and she was subsequently blacklisted.
1990Paul Tortelier, French cellist and composer (born 1914)[†]
Paul Tortelier was a French cellist and composer. After an outstanding student career at the Conservatoire de Paris he played in orchestras in France and the US before the Second World War. After the war he became a well-known soloist, playing in countries round the globe. He taught at music schools in France, Germany and China, and gave televised masterclasses in England. He was particularly associated with the solo part in Richard Strauss's Don Quixote, cello concertos by Elgar and others, and Bach's Cello Suites.
1990Joseph Zubin, Lithuanian-American psychologist and academic (born 1900)[†]
Joseph Zubin was a Lithuanian-born American educational psychologist and an authority on schizophrenia who is commemorated by the Joseph Zubin Awards. He was the founder of the Biometrics Research Department of New York State Psychiatric Institute.
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Colombia's war on drugs, which gripped this cocaine trafficking center only six months ago, is winding down into peace talks between the new Government and the major traffickers. If negotiations remain on track, the new year should see the surrender of up to 300 traffickers in return for lenient treatment, immunity from extradition and permission to retain all property, say Colombians close to the talks.
The Rev. Jean-Bertrand Aristide, a priest who campaigned as a champion of the poor, was overwhelmingly elected President in Haiti's first democratic elections on Sunday, according to unofficial preliminary returns from several international election-monitoring groups. Father Aristide, a 37-year-old Roman Catholic priest, led his nearest rival, Marc L. Bazin, a former World Bank economist, by as much as 30 percentage points.
FAMED in song, legend and movie, the tumbleweed is the plant that best evokes the old American West. And any image of small-town and suburban life in the United States is incomplete without dandelions, clover and crabgrass. But the tumbleweed, as John Wayne might have been horrified to discover, is a foreign immigrant known to botanists as the Russian thistle. Dandelions, clover and crabgrass are also naturalized aliens. All four are among some 3,000 plant species from other parts of the world growing wild in North America, just as native American species have colonized other countries.
The Presidential commission coordinating the international celebration of the 500th anniversary of Columbus's voyage to the New World is mired in problems, including the loss of major corporate aid and a Congressional inquiry into its finances and the activities of its chairman. The chairman, John N. Goudie, a Republican fund-raiser in Miami, said today that he was submitting his resignation from the unsalaried post. He denied any wrongdoing. "It's time for me to bow out," he said, and added that the commission needed "some favorable publicity."
Parents angered over the ouster of a popular principal at a South Bronx elementary school chained the school doors shut and staged a noisy but peaceful demonstration yesterday while keeping nearly all of their children home in a coordinated pupil boycott. The protest was the latest uproar in a school district serving one of the city's poorest areas, one wracked recently by factional disputes that apparently have more to do with power and personality on the local school board than with the educational needs of a troubled community.
Alfred Nielsen, the novelist-health inspector, was reciting Robert Frost as he got into his Dodge ("He knew a spring that wanted drinking; A thought that wanted further thinking"), when suddenly he stopped. "What the hell? Did I drop my thermometer?" He had just used it at the Yankee Clipper diner to check the home fried potatoes (98 degrees). He ducked under his car and popped up. "I instinctively know when I drop my thermometer," he said.
Secretary of State James A. Baker 3d told America's NATO allies today that he expected President Saddam Hussein of Iraq to take a dramatic step, like a partial withdrawal from Kuwait, just before a United Nations resolution authorizing force to evict Iraq goes into effect in mid-January. Addressing foreign ministers at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's annual winter meeting, Mr. Baker urged his colleagues to stand united against any such "ploy." "We should anticipate," Mr. Baker said in his remarks to the ministers, "that as we draw close to Resolution 678's Jan. 15 deadline, and as the choices are presented starkly, Saddam Hussein is likely to try to undercut the collective will of the international community to use force. Just as I believe he chose to release hostages for this purpose, I think he may take a dramatic step on or around Jan. 15. He could withdraw partially." 'We Need to Anticipate' Mr. Baker added: "We have all agreed that partial solutions or outcomes that are conditioned or linked to other issues are unacceptable. We need to anticipate Saddam's possible moves, be prepared for a partial withdrawal ploy and coordinate closely our responses."
RJR Nabisco Inc. announced an offer yesterday in connection with its continuing effort to reduce its costly debt burden that would essentially take the consumer products giant public for the first time since going private nearly two years ago in the largest leveraged buyout ever. According to a plan disclosed yesterday in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, the company intends to ask former shareholders, who received high-yield "junk bonds" in the $24.88 billion buyout, to exchange up to $752 million of the bonds for cash and newly issued common stock in its parent company, the RJR Nabisco Holdings Corporation.
Congressional investigators have found that many private nonprofit hospitals provide charity care worth less than the financial benefits they get from their tax-exempt status. Federal and state tax officials have begun systematically auditing nonprofit hospitals, prodding them to provide more charity care in return for their tax exemptions. The Internal Revenue Service has formed teams of experts to examine nonprofit hospitals, in a program coordinated from the agency's headquarters in Washington.
The Coloray Display Corporation has six employees, a mothballed factory it bought at a discount and an exciting new technology for producing flat television and computer screens. What Coloray does not have yet is the money to perfect its technology and begin manufacturing. If history is any guide, the company will have a tough time getting it. Numerous small American companies, despite having advanced technology, have been floundering in attempts to enter the business of what is known as flat-panel displays, and many have already failed. It is a business in which Japanese companies are collectively investing billions of dollars, hoping to dominate a technology that could replace the cathode-ray tube now used in computers and television sets.
The White House chief of staff today ordered the Education Department to reverse its ruling on scholarships for minority students, acting on President Bush's instructions to retreat from the decision, Administration officials said. The action today came within hours of Mr. Bush's selection of Lamar Alexander, the former two-term Governor of Tennessee, as the new Secretary of Education. He would replace Lauro F. Cavazos, who was forced to resign last week by the White House. The selection of Mr. Alexander, one of the first governors to champion education reform more than a decade ago, was seen as an effort to revive the department and make good Mr. Bush's pledge to be the "education President." [ Man in the News, page B14. ] Debate at Meeting In a contentious meeting in his office this afternoon, Mr. Bush's chief of staff, John H. Sununu disagreed with officials from the White House, the Justice Department and the Education Department over how far the Administration should retreat from the ruling that scholarships designated solely for minority students were illegal.
The Economy Seidman told Congress that one way to strengthen the bank deposit insurance fund would be a $25 billion assessment on the industry and an 18 percent rise in bank contributions. [ Page A1. ] A law that would make San Francisco the only community in the nation to regulate the use of video display terminals in the workplace was approved by the Board of Supervisors. [ A22. ] Companies Zenith and A.T.& T. are jointly developing an all-digital high-definition television system, they said. [ D1. ] RJR Nabisco announced an offer that would essentially take the giant consumer products company public for the first time since it went private nearly two years ago. [ D1. ] Chrysler offered cash rebates for the first time on its 1991 mini-vans and increased the rebates for Cherokees. [ D1. ] Kirk Kerkorian first proposed in 1989 that Chrysler buy MGM/UA in a transaction that would have made him a big investor in the nation's No. 3 auto maker, it was disclosed. [ D5. ] Shearson Lehman and Prudential Bache are reportedly in talks to merge their back-office data processing operations. [ D1. ] In American's attempt to fly to London, the purchase of T.W.A.'s routes may be the easy part. [ D6. ] Merrill Lynch reportedly plans to tell its brokers today that the firm will raise customer fees on Feb. 1. [ D18. ] Simon & Schuster said it would consolidate its general-interest publishing group into two divisions from four. [ D19. ] Freeport-McMoran said it planned to auction $750 million in assets. It said proceeds would be used to reduce long-term debt. [ D5. ] The Daily News said its circulation had climbed back to 600,000, but few people believe the numbers. [ B3. ] International The head of British Airways is concerned about the deals by American and United to buy U.S.-London routes. [ D1. ] British Air is also battling to establish hubs in Brussels and Berlin. [ D6. ] Prime Minister Li Peng is personally overseeing a proposal by Taiwan's richest industrialist to build a $7 billion petrochemical complex in China. [ D7. ] The Brazilian Government said it would end, at least temporarily, its moratorium on paying interest on the $60 billion of loans from its commercial bankers. [ D2. ] Markets Oil prices rose modestly on war fears, but prices for home heating oil dropped. Crude was up 50 cents, to $27.05. [ D6. ] Stock prices weakened in the slowest day in almost a month, with 1,054 issues ending lower, although the Dow fell only 0.49 point, to 2,593.32. Volume slid to 118.6 million shares. [ D8. ] Prices of Treasury securities rose modestly and interest rates slipped a bit. [ D15. ] The dollar strengthened slightly against most currencies. [ D16. ] Corn futures prices rose moderately. [ D16. ] Today's Columns Unscrupulous operators have sold virtually worthless health-care policies to dozens of small-business groups desperate for low-cost coverage. Milt Freudenheim: Business and Health. [ D2. ] America's largest corporations asked the S.E.C. to turn aside pleas from institutional investors to change the system of proxy fights. Floyd Norris: Market Place. [ D8. ] "A curtain of gloom has descended" on Madison Avenue, the chairman and president of Grey Advertising said recently. Kim Foltz: Advertising. [ D19. ]