On this day
Revisit the music, news, notable people, and historical moments connected to this date.
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Beneteau, French pleasure boat builder, expects net profit to rise almost 3 percent, to 58.5 million euros, or $50.3 million, in its current financial year ending Aug 31, on 7 percent revenue increase, to 610.8 million euros; chairwoman Annette Roux comments; photo (S)
Viacom Inc chairman-chief executive Sumner M Redstone told company's board at special meeting on Jan 30 that he would not renew contract of president Mel Karmazin, after Karmazin's term ends in May 2003; Redstone, in announcing that he would let Karmazin go, did not criticize Karmazin's corporate strategy or decisions but said that Karmazin's hard-charging management style does not mesh with Viacom's corporate culture; he also said that several fund managers had told him that Karmazin's departure would not hurt stock and that Karmazin was not man Redstone wanted to lead company in future; Karmazin said he would serve out his contract; details of meeting, as well as information about number of critical memos Redstone wrote about Karmazin appear to undercut months of denials by executives of significant rift in their relationship; Redstone and Karmazin issue joint statement saying newspaper accounts of what took place in meeting and reports of their personal conflict are 'outrageous and a total fabrication' (M)
Level of exclusivity at parties accompanying this year's World Economic Forum conference is ratcheted up from already soaring levels of past conferences, leaving many bankers, diplomats, executives and celebrities out in the cold; New York City offers far more places for hobnobbing than Davos, Switzerland, site of previous meetings, but because more than 2,500 people are attending forum, not everyone can be invited to everything; jockeying for invitations has become competitive event (M)
Fieldston School, selective private school in Riverdale section of Bronx, has had no repercussions from its decision last year to eliminate Advanced Placement classes; Fieldston is at vanguard of small movement of some of country's top private schools that have abandoned AP courses, saying classes, which were mostly survey courses covering wide range of material, restricted teacher creativity and increased stress on students; photo (M)
Study shows that only 30 percent of film characters routinely put on seat belts when they get in cars; figure is reverse of real life, where researchers find about 70 percent of Americans buckle up; photo (M)
Music on My Birthday
The Top 50 albums for the chart week of January 30, 2002, covering February 1, 2002.
Alan Jackson
Creed
Linkin Park
Nickelback
Ludacris
2002Aykut Barka, Turkish geologist and academic (born 1951)[†]
Aykut Barka was a Turkish geoscientist specialized in seismology. He is best known for his contributions to understanding the behaviour of the North Anatolian Fault Zone (NAFZ), one of the most dangerous active faults in the world.
2002Hildegard Knef, German actress and singer (born 1925)[†]
Hildegard Frieda Albertine Knef was a German actress, singer, and writer. She was billed in some English-language films as Hildegard Neff or Hildegarde Neff.
2002Daniel Pearl, American journalist and South Asia Bureau Chief of The Wall Street Journal, kidnapped on January 23, is beheaded and mutilated by his captors.[†]
Daniel Pearl was an American journalist who worked for The Wall Street Journal. On January 23, 2002, he was kidnapped by jihadist militants while he was on his way to what he had expected would be an interview with Pakistani Islamic scholar Mubarak Ali Gilani in Karachi, Sindh. Pearl had moved to Mumbai, India, upon taking up a regional posting by his newspaper and later entered Pakistan to cover the war on terror, which was launched by the United States in response to the September 11 attacks in 2001. At the time of his abduction, he had been investigating the alleged links between British citizen Richard Reid and al-Qaeda; Reid had reportedly completed his training at a facility owned by Gilani, who had been accused by the United States of being affiliated with the Pakistani terrorist organization Jamaat ul-Fuqra.
In 2002, the world population was approximately 6,337,730,342 people[†]