January 1, 1993

The mergers were meager; the Dow Jones was dowdy; the trading was treacherous. It was a mixed year for many parts of Wall Street. Yet in its classic business of raising capital for companies, the underwritings were unbelievable. Corporations sold a record $584.3 billion of securities in the United States' public markets in 1991. And to Wall Street's surprise, the total for 1992 increased 45 percent, with $744.4 billion in debt and $101.6 billion in equity, according to data provided by the Securities Data Corporation.

Against the wishes of many of its 15 million citizens, Czechoslovakia today split into two countries: Slovakia and the Czech Republic. A multi-ethnic nation born at the end of World War I in the glow of pan-Slavic brotherhood, Czechoslovakia survived dismemberment by the Nazis and more than four decades of Communist rule only to fall apart after just three years of democracy.

A "single market" takes effect in Western Europe today, linking 345 million people in the European Community's 12 nations by eliminating tariff and customs barriers.

In ordering the Air Force to terminate a $740 million contract awarded to the Zenith Data Systems Corporation for desktop computers, an administrative judge agreed with the losing bidders that Zenith's bid did not comply with the Trade Agreements Act of 1979, as required by the contract. The decision to uphold the protests was made on Dec. 23, but Judge Catherine B. Hyatt of the General Services Administration's Board of Contract Appeals did not disclose her reasoning until late on Wednesday.

President Bush today had his first glimpse of the Somali famine that he has sent troops to ease when he visited a feeding center and toured a small hospital with sick and malnourished patients near the capital. After seeing some of the needy and being briefed by aid workers as he walked through the center, Mr. Bush said, "It's just very, very emotional for me to see it."