On this day
Revisit the news, notable people, and historical moments connected to this date.
In 1993, the world population was approximately 5,591,544,797 people[†]
1993André the Giant, French professional wrestler and actor (born 1946)[†]
André René Roussimoff, better known by his ring name André the Giant, was a French professional wrestler and actor. Dubbed "the Eighth Wonder of the World", Roussimoff was known for his great size, which was a result of gigantism caused by excess human growth hormone.
Britain dropped its benchmark lending rate today to its lowest level since 1977, causing the pound to fall against the German mark and the dollar and sending stocks up sharply in London. The Bank of England said it had dropped its base rate by one percentage point, to 6 percent. It was the fourth rate reduction since September, when Britain abandoned its policy of maintaining the pound's value against other European currencies by keeping interest rates high.
The BankAmerica Corporation appears to be finally digesting last year's acquisition of the Security Pacific Corporation, which had far more troubled assets than was expected. BankAmerica, the nation's second- largest banking company, said yesterday that it earned $473 million for the fourth quarter and $1.492 billion for the year, which was in line with analysts' expectations. In 1991, the bank earned $285 million in the fourth quarter and $1.124 billion for the year, but the results are not directly comparable because of the merger, which took effect in April 1992.
ROASTING wafts through the senses. In culinary terms it is freighted with mouthwatering aroma, comforting warmth, a crisping sizzle and anticipated succulence. And lately it is more appreciated than ever. Dry-heat cooking in an oven has traditionally been associated with meat, poultry and game. Indeed, large cuts of meat and whole poultry are often called roasts. But increasingly, chefs are roasting other foods like fish, vegetables and fruit, finding that the technique seals in and intensifies flavors, imparts an attractive burnish and often uses less fat than some other cooking methods.
Raised in the privacy of a two-hour White House meeting and in public debate, the military's objections to homosexuals' serving openly in the armed services are many. They range from visceral fears of disrupting a tight-knit culture and destroying decades-old tradition to practical questions of living in cramped quarters on a six-month sea tour. The emotional debate was crystallized on Monday in the White House session between President Clinton and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Those six top officers, whose views were formed over decades in military services that flatly banned homosexuality, are fiercely resistant to lifting the ban.
Squeezed by fewer orders for military aircraft and commercial jet airliners, three major aerospace companies announced cutbacks yesterday that will result in layoffs of thousands of workers in coming months, with Connecticut and Washington State losing most of the jobs. Pratt & Whitney, the jet engine manufacturer with headquarters in Hartford, said that 6,700 jobs at its Connecticut plants would be eliminated during the next 24 months, including 1,800 this week.
Accused of allowing the United Nations to adopt a double standard in its dealings with recalcitrant nations, Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali called today for the Security Council to take "whatever measures are necessary" to make Israel obey the Council's demand to re-admit 400 deported Palestinians. Mr. Boutros-Ghali's recommendation led immediately to a call for sanctions against Israel by the Palestine Liberation Organization, which circulated a draft Security Council resolution to ban Israel from human rights meetings and to prevent foreign companies from doing business with some Israeli enterprises in the occupied territories.
The Dinkins administration and the City Council plan to put conditions on a proposed city franchise for building public toilets that in effect would eliminate from competition a major European company that has tested its toilets successfully in New York. Responding to pressure from advocates for the disabled, the administration and the Council leadership have said they will design the request for proposals to give preference to a company that can provide a single public toilet for both handicapped and nonhandicapped people.
Aides to President Clinton said that he would probably propose $15 billion to $20 billion in new Federal spending this year to stimulate employment. The likelihood of such a proposal was confirmed by Labor Secretary Robert B. Reich, who acknowledged that the figure was a modest one, given the context of a $6 trillion economy.
A permit allowing port officials to begin dredging container-ship berths in Newark Bay, a project vital to the survival of waterfront commerce in New York Harbor, was abruptly suspended this month by one Federal agency, only a week after it had been approved by another. The issue is dioxin contamination in dredged sediment: how much is too much and how can it be disposed of? Until the agencies resolve their differences, officials of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, who have been poised to begin dredging for almost three years, remain mired in frustration. So are many others -- fishermen, environmentalists and officials at other ports -- who see Newark Bay as a test case that could determine how dioxin, a cancer-causing industrial byproduct easily absorbed by fish and wildlife, can be safely dredged and disposed of.
The new leadership team at the American Express Company -- James D. Robinson 3d as chairman and Harvey Golub as chief executive -- emerged victorious Monday only after a search committee of five board members failed to find an alternative choice to Mr. Golub. But they almost did.
NEW YORK CITY CHANCELLOR SOFTENS RAINBOW CURRICULUM The Schools Chancellor, Joseph A. Fernandez, moved to end a long, bitter dispute over teaching tolerance for families headed by gay and lesbian couples in the first grade by softening controversial passages of his Rainbow Curriculum, including replacing most references to "lesbian/ gay families" with the phrase "same gender couples." A1. MEETINGS AND GREETINGS AT THE POST Steven Hoffenberg, the businessman who would be owner of The New York Post, scheduled his first meeting on the future of the imperiled newspaper with the head of the one department that he values above all others: sales. B2. Annual reports of Mr. Hoffenberg's company show explosive growth, unusual accounting and uneven compliance with legal obligations. B2.
Pratt & Whitney's decision to shrink its Connecticut work force by one-third during the next two years promises to ricochet through an economy already battered by deep cuts in military spending and layoffs in the insurance industry. It will also mow down, at least for now, the hope for recovery from one of the worst local recessions in the nation, economists said. But what has dampened spirits even more is that Pratt & Whitney, the state's largest private employer, had been seen as a leader among military contractors in reducing its dependence on Government contracts. Away From the Military As military orders for jet engines declined with the end of the cold war, falling from a high of 800 a year in the early 1980's to 80 this year, Pratt & Whitney had sought to insulate itself by relying more heavily on sales to airlines. Dependence on the Pentagon fell from 50 percent of all sales through the last few decades to only 30 percent last year.