On this day
Revisit the news, notable people, and historical moments connected to this date.
In 2001, the world population was approximately 6,254,936,459 people[†]
Comment on monumental project of James Turrell to transform Roden Crater, black and red volcano overlooking Painted Desert, near Flagstaff, Arizona, into one of biggest works of art in world; Turrell became rancher in area to pay for the land, and regularly shuttles to crater museum directors, collectors, writers--anyone who might help him raise money; photos (M)
ON a chilly February afternoon, about 45 diamond merchants and manufacturers gathered in the nondescript cafe at the Diamond Dealers Club, on the 10th floor of a building at 47th Street and Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. Down the hall, at tables along the windows, dealers from around the world squinted into loupes and negotiated for stones. Wall clocks displayed the time in Mumbai, Tel Aviv, Antwerp, Johannesburg and Tokyo, all major diamond centers. The meeting had been called to discuss changes threatening the century-old structure of the diamond industry. The discussion, said Joseph Schlussel, a diamond dealer, always came back to the same questions: ''How will I fit in in this new order? Where will I stand? Will I be left out?''
LIKE would-be millionaires on television, drivers can use lifelines now and then. More than a million motorists now have them in the form of hands-free wireless links to central call centers, where operators are standing by to lend a helping hand. The systems, part of a nascent industry known as telematics, include General Motors' OnStar and others that are available from BMW, Clarion, Jaguar, Lexus and Mercedes-Benz. Safety and security are the systems' biggest selling points, but convenience features -- like automated phone dialing, mobile e-mail and traffic alerts -- are adding to the appeal.
ABOUT the only direct link between Manhattan and Johns Hopkins University Press is a humble deli serving New York-style corned beef on rye a few blocks from the publisher's offices in Baltimore. But Johns Hopkins, the nation's oldest university press, has ignored its Baltimore ZIP code and for the last three years has become an unlikely southern redoubt for books about New York. Its top seller is ''Invisible New York: The Hidden Infrastructure of the City,'' a lavish black-and-white photography book that features must-see landmarks like a Bronx missile silo and an abandoned Queens efflux, a chamber for the city's water supply.
China insists in strongly worded statement that United States has not done enough to end crisis over 24 Americans detained after their spy plane made emergency landing nearly week ago; negotiations to find way out of crisis continue; official propaganda in China both reflects popular anger and keeps it ratcheted high; China asserts that collision was 'entirely caused' by US side, and that US should apologize; photo; maps (L)
John Leland article on effects of 'zero tolerance' policies at Mountain Lakes High School in New Jersey since he graduated 24 years ago; photos; students, teachers, administrators and local police describe subtly altered school landscape, with new sets of fears, rules and penalties designed to ward off violence and drug abuse (M)
UNTIL that terrible evening in May two years ago, Ekaete Udoh was both a battered wife and a good mother. But, she said, when her husband blackened the eye of their 11-year-old because the girl washed the dishes the wrong way, city officials labeled Mrs. Udoh a bad mother. She received a telephone call two days after the incident saying that her four daughters had been pulled out of school and put in a foster home. They stayed there three weeks.
First article in series Two-Tier Justice, describing inadequate representation often received by the poor in New York City's criminal justice system; finds that 38-years after United States Supreme Court ruled in Gideon v. Wainwright that indigent defendants have a right to legal counsel, New York City offers representation to the poor that routinely falls short of even the minimum standards recommended by legal experts; in seven-month analysis of thousands of city records and court cases in 2000, New York Times finds that almost no part of indigent defense system functions as it was intended; finds that from felony courts to misdemeanor mills and parole-violation trailers on Rikers Island, defendants frequently get assembly-line representation from lawyers who may spend only few minutes on each case; for their part, lawyers complain they are overworked and underpaid in system under pressure to produce high volume of quick guilty pleas; number of lawyers willing to take such cases has dropped sharply in recent years, and some who do sign up say privately they are forced to cut corners; New York, more than most big cities, relies on private lawyers to represent the poor in homicide cases; examples cited; photos (L)
Article on reality of estate taxes, which is far different from mythology in which family farmers have become icons for abolition campaign; IRS analysis for 1999 finds that almost no actual working farmers owe anything in estate taxes, Iowa State economist Neal Harl has never found case in which farm was lost for this reason, and even American Farm Bureau Federation, major advocate of repeal, cannot cite single example of farm lost for estate taxes; example is Harlyn Riekena, who owns 950 acres of Iowa farmland but expects to owe nothing; overwhelming majority of repeal's beneficiaries are heirs of people who made fortunes through businesses and investments in securities and real estate, such as Seattle Times publisher Frank A Blethen; photos; chart; confusion in public mind is reflected in Gallup Poll finding that while 17 percent of Americans think they will owe estate taxes, in fact only richest two percent, or 49,870 people, will; nearly half of estate tax is paid by about 3,000 people with taxable estates of more than $5 million (M)
He sprang seeming ly out of nowhere or at least out of last season -- and resoundingly blocked a shot in a critical moment late in the third period of the Miami Heat's game Friday night. The capacity crowd of 16,500 in the American Airlines Arena jumped up and gave Alonzo Mourning a spine-chilling ovation. Jamal Mashburn of the Charlotte Hornets was about to score on a drive to expand their slim lead when Mourning, who just six months ago found his career as well as his life in jeopardy, swatted away the potential hoop. A timeout was called shortly after.
16 Die in Vietnam Crash Seven Americans and nine Vietnamese were killed in the crash of a helicopter carrying a team searching for Americans missing in action from the Vietnam War. PAGE 6 Council Candidates' Hurdle A dozen foreign-born candidates have set their sights on New York City Council seats, but some are finding that many of their supporters may not be eligible to vote. PAGE 37
Age has not dulled the edge of 211 East 48th Street, the landmark home and office of William Lescaze, a pioneering modernist architect. Emerging in 1934 like a white specter among dowdy brownstones, this clarion of the International style heralded a luminous new era of architecture with its walls of sheer glass block. But there was a paradox to the Lescaze house: as transparent as it seemed, it was a very private building. Those blocks hid the inside as effectively as any shutters. Mr. Lescaze died there in 1969 and his family kept the house another 16 years.