On this day
Revisit the music, news, notable people, and historical moments connected to this date.
In 2004, the world population was approximately 6,503,377,772 people[†]
Music on My Birthday
The Top 50 albums for the chart week of January 14, 2004, covering January 14, 2004.
OutKast
Alicia Keys
Various Artists
Sheryl Crow
No Doubt
Jay-Z
Evanescence
G Unit
Toby Keith
Ruben Studdard
2004Uta Hagen, German-American actress (born 1919)[†]
Uta Thyra Hagen was a German-American actress and theatre practitioner. She originated the role of Martha in the 1962 Broadway premiere of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward Albee, who called her "a profoundly truthful actress." Because Hagen was on the Hollywood blacklist, in part because of her association with Paul Robeson, her film opportunities dwindled and she focused her career on New York theatre.
2004Ron O'Neal, American actor, director, and screenwriter (born 1937)[†]
Ron O'Neal was an American actor, director and screenwriter, who rose to fame in his role as Youngblood Priest, a New York City cocaine dealer, in the blaxploitation film Super Fly (1972) and its sequel Super Fly T.N.T. (1973). O'Neal was also a director and writer for the sequel, and for the film Up Against the Wall.
2004The national flag of the Republic of Georgia, the so-called "five cross flag", is restored to official use after a hiatus of some 500 years.[†]
Georgia is a country in the Caucasus region on the coast of the Black Sea. It is located at the intersection of Eastern Europe and West Asia, and is today generally regarded as part of Europe. It is bordered to the north and northeast by Russia, to the south by Turkey and Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. Georgia covers an area of 69,700 square kilometres (26,900 sq mi). It has a population of 3.7 million, of which over a third live in the capital and largest city, Tbilisi. Ethnic Georgians, who are native to the region, constitute a majority of the country's population and are its titular nation.
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SEC investigators find widespread instances of brokers receiving undisclosed payments of cash and other compensation for steering investors toward specific mutual funds; say investors were not informed, as required by law, when funds engaged in one particularly prevalent form of compensation, steering trading of stocks in their portfolios to brokerage houses that would promote funds to their brokerage clients; harm caused to individual investor by most of mutual fund abuses revealed in last four months has been abstract and indirect, but new disclosures suggest that many ordinary investors were misled (M)
European Commission to sue 15 members of European Union for voting to suspend rules that would have forced France and Germany to make deep cuts to bring their budget deficits within lawful limits; France and Germany flouted those rules, which cap deficits to 3 percent of gross domestic product, saying they risk choking off fragile economic recovery; commission is seeking to overturn vote (M)
Bush administration plans extensive election-year initiative to promote marriage, especially among low-income couples, and it is weighing whether Pres Bush should promote plan in coming State of Union address; proposal would provide at least $1.5 billion for training to help couples develop interpersonal skills that sustain 'healthy marriages'; conservatives, who worked on plan with administration officials, are eager to see federal government defend traditional marri age in wake of decision by highest court in Massachusetts that gay couples have right to marry under state's Constitution; some want Bush to go further and seek constitutional amendment opposing legal recognition of same-sex marriage (M)
French catering company Sodexho Alliance asks French financial market regulator to investigate 3.5 percent decline in its share price after report issued by Citigroup's Smith Barney questions filing it made with Securities and Exchange Commission in US; filing disclosed Sodexho subsidiary in Britain packaged 82 million euros ($104 million) and sold them as securities; Smith Barney says securization was not reported and might have been reason Sodexho's results were better than expected last year (S)
Lawsuit Costs Hold Steady The average price of settling class-action lawsuits and the average fee paid to lawyers have held steady for a decade, a study found. PAGE C1 Move to End Tax Shelters The administration unveiled plans to block tax shelters, specifically those that allow companies to buy public works and lease them back. PAGE C1
Study by Journal of Empirical Legal Studies concludes that average price of settling class-action lawsuits and average fee paid to lawyers who bring them have held steady for decade, even though companies have said suits are driving up cost of doing business, hurting economy and lining lawyers' pockets; issue is fiercely divisive one that has fueled heated debate over whether to place limits on class-action lawsuits; legislation to curb class-action suits is priority of Pres Bush and many Republicans in Congress; co-authors of study are Theodore Eisenberg and Geoffrey P Miller; chart; photos (M)
Exotic varieties of lime are being grown in California, Florida, Australia and elsewhere; photos; list of sources (L)
New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter says he understands former Yankees pitcher Roger Clemens's decision to come out of retirement to join former Yankees pitcher Andy Pettitte on Houston Astros; photo (M)
Saddam Hussein warned his Iraqi supporters to be wary of joining forces with jihadist and other foreign Arab fighters entering Iraq to battle American troops, according to document he wrote after losing power; document, which was found with Hussein when he was arrested and whose content is revealed by unidentified Bush administration officials, provides second piece of evidence challenging administration contention of close cooperation between Hussein's government and terrorists from Al Qaeda; administration officials say Hussein apparently believed foreign Arabs, eager for holy war against West, had different agenda from Baathists, who were eager for their own return to power in Baghdad; military and intelligence officials now believe that number of foreign fighters who have entered Iraq is relatively small; level of coordination between them and Iraqi insurgents is not known (M)
China's Ministry of Finance is preparing to help Bank of China and China Construction Bank by writing off its $41 billion stake in them in bid to cleanse their balance sheets of nonperforming loans and prepare them to issue stock; move is latest in series of steps by China to fortify its banking system ahead of what could be difficult year for Chinese economy; China's central bank says inflation at wholesale level continued to accelerate in December, with prices up 6.3 percent from year earlier, increasing pressure on central bank to slow economy; photo (M)
Enron's former chief financial officer Andrew S Fastow and his wife Lea, who was company treasurer, are expected to enter guilty pleas days after their negotiations with government collapsed; Fastow will be sentenced to at least 10 years in prison and be required to cooperate with continuing investigation; Mrs Fastow will serve at least five months in prison; Federal Judge David Hittner does not have to accept terms of plea deal, and could sentence Mrs Fastow to as much as 16 months, at which point she would have right to withdraw her plea (M)
Russia's Lukoil reports 38 percent increase in earnings during its third quarter and says it plans to sell even more crude oil outside Russia and less at home to cash in on high global oil prices; net income was $701 million on sales of $6.04 billion, which was up from $4.43 billion; photo (M)