David Laney

David Laney, born January 19 1949, in Dallas, Texas, is the Amtrak board chairman since July 2003. A graduate of St. Mark's School of Texas, Laney attended Stanford University and Southern Methodist University. A member of the Amtrak board since April 2002, Laney was previously a partner at Jackson Walker LLP and became a campaign "Pioneer" for George W. Bush by raising over $100,000 for his 2000 presidential campaign. Laney, David Laney, David

January 19

January 19 is the 19th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 346 days remaining (347 in leap years).

Events

- 1419 - Hundred Years' War: Rouen surrenders to Henry V of England which completed his conquest of Normandy.
- 1520 - Sten Sture the Younger, the Regent of Sweden, was mortally wounded at the Battle of Bogesund
- 1764 - John Wilkes is expelled from the British House of Commons for seditious libel.
- 1795 - Batavian Republic is proclaimed in the Netherlands. End of the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands.
- 1806 - The United Kingdom occupies the Cape of Good Hope.
- 1829 - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust premieres.
- 1839 - British East India Company captures Aden.
- 1840 - Captain Charles Wilkes circumnavigates Antarctica, claiming what became known as Wilkes Land for the United States.
- 1853 - Giuseppe Verdi's opera Il Trovatore premieres in Rome.
- 1862 - The Confederacy suffers its first significant defeat in the American Civil War at the Battle of Mill Springs.
- 1883 - The first electric lighting system employing overhead wires begins service (Roselle, New Jersey) It was built by Thomas Edison.
- 1893 - Henrik Ibsen's play The Master Builder premieres in Berlin.
- 1899 - Anglo-Egyptian Sudan is formed.
- 1915 - George Claude patents the neon discharge tube for use in advertising.
- 1915 - German zeppelins bomb the cities of Great Yarmouth and King's Lynn in the United Kingdom killing more than 20, in the first major aerial bombardment of a civilian target.
- 1918 - Finnish Civil War: The first serious battles between the Red Guards and the White Guard.
- 1920 - The United States Senate votes against joining the League of Nations.
- 1935 - Coopers Inc. sold the world's first briefs.
- 1937 - Howard Hughes sets a new air record by flying from Los Angeles to New York City in 7 hours, 28 minutes, 25 seconds.
- 1941 - World War II: British troops attack Italian-held Eritrea.
- 1942 - World War II: Japanese forces invade Burma.
- 1945 - World War II: Soviet forces liberate ghetto of Lodz. Out of 230,000 inhabitants in 1940, less than 900 had survived Nazi occupation.
- 1946 - General Douglas MacArthur establishes the International Military Tribunal for the Far East in Tokyo to try Japanese war criminals.
- 1949 - Cuba recognises Israel.
- 1953 - 68% of all United States television sets were tuned in to I Love Lucy to watch Lucy give birth.
- 1955 - The Scrabble board game debuts.
- 1966 - Indira Gandhi is elected Prime Minister of India.
- 1969 - Student Jan Palach died after setting himself on fire 3 days ago in Prague's Wenceslas Square to protest the invasion of Czechoslovakia by the Soviet Union in 1968. His funeral turned into another major protest.
- 1971 - Revival of No, No, Nanette premieres (46th Street Theatre, New York City).
- 1974 - The UCLA men's basketball team sees its 88-game winning streak end at the hands of Notre Dame.
- 1975 - Double Jay began broadcasting in Sydney, Australia.
- 1977 - President Gerald Ford pardons Iva Toguri D'Aquino (a.k.a. "Tokyo Rose").
- 1977 - Snow falls in Miami, Florida. This is the only time in the history of the city that snowfall has occurred.
- 1981 - Iran Hostage Crisis: United States and Iranian officials sign an agreement to release 52 American hostages after 14 months of captivity.
- 1983 - Klaus Barbie, Nazi war criminal, is arrested in Bolivia.
- 1983 - The Apple Lisa, the first commercial personal computer from Apple Computer, Inc. to have a graphical user interface and a computer mouse, is announced.
- 1993 - IBM announces a $4.97 billion loss for 1992, the largest single-year corporate loss in United States history.
- 1997 - Yasser Arafat returns to Hebron after more than 30 years and joins celebrations over the handover of the last Israeli-controlled West Bank city.
- 2002 - Michael Jordan, formerly of the Washington Wizards, plays his first game in Chicago since rejoining the NBA.

Births

- 399 - Pulcheria, Byzantine empress (d. 453)
- 1544 - King Francis II of France (d. 1560)
- 1736 - James Watt, Scottish inventor (d. 1819)
- 1739 - Joseph Bonomi the Elder, Italian architect (d. 1808)
- 1807 - Robert E. Lee, American Confederate general (d. 1870)
- 1808 - Lysander Spooner, American philosopher (d. 1887)
- 1809 - Edgar Allan Poe, American writer and poet(d. 1849)
- 1813 - Sir Henry Bessemer, English inventor (d. 1898)
- 1839 - Paul Cézanne, French painter (d. 1906)
- 1848 - John F. Stairs, Canadian businessman and statesman (d. 1904)
- 1851 - Jacobus Kapteyn, Dutch astronomer (d. 1922)
- 1863 - Werner Sombart, German sociologist (d. 1941)
- 1887 - Alexander Woollcott, American intellectual (d. 1943)
- 1909 - Hans Hotter, German bass-baritone (d. 2003)
- 1912 - Leonid Kantorovich, Russian economist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1986)
- 1913 - Minnesota Fats, American billiards player (d. 1996)
- 1917 - John Raitt, American singer and actor (d. 2005)
- 1918 - John H. Johnson, American publisher (d. 2005)
- 1920 - Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, Peruvian United Nations Secretary General
- 1921 - Patricia Highsmith, American author (d. 1995)
- 1922 - Guy Madison, American actor (d. 1996)
- 1923 - Jean Stapleton, American actress
- 1923 - Markus Wolf, German spy
- 1924 - Nicholas Colasanto, American actor (d. 1985)
- 1924 - Jean-Francois Revel, French author
- 1926 - Fritz Weaver, American actor
- 1931 - Tippi Hedren, American actress
- 1931 - Robert MacNeil, Canadian journalist
- 1932 - Richard Lester, British director
- 1939 - Phil Everly, American musician
- 1941 - Colin Gunton, British theologian (d. 2003)
- 1942 - Michael Crawford, British singer and actor
- 1943 - Janis Joplin, American singer (d. 1970)
- 1943 - Princess Margriet of the Netherlands
- 1944 - Shelley Fabares, American actress
- 1944 - Peter Lynch, American investor
- 1944 - Dan Reeves, American football coach
- 1946 - Julian Barnes, English author
- 1946 - Dolly Parton, American singer and actress
- 1948 - Frank McKenna, Premier of New Brunswick and Canadian Ambassador
- 1949 - Robert Palmer, English singer and guitarist (d. 2003)
- 1949 - Dennis Taylor, Irish snooker player
- 1952 - David Patrick Kelly, American actor
- 1953 - Desi Arnaz Jr., American actor
- 1955 - Simon Rattle, English conductor
- 1955 - Paul Rodriguez, Mexican-born actor and comedian
- 1956 - Katey Sagal, American actress, singer, and writer
- 1966 - Floris Jan Bovelander, Dutch field hockey player
- 1966 - Stefan Edberg, Swedish tennis player
- 1969 - Junior Seau, American football player
- 1971 - Shawn Wayans, American actor, writer, and producer
- 1971 - John Wozniak, American singer and songwriter (Marcy Playground)
- 1973 - Drea de Matteo, American actress
- 1973 - Karen Lancaume, French actress (d. 2005)
- 1974 - Jaime Moreno, Bolivian footballer
- 1977 - Lauren, Cameroon footballer
- 1979 - Svetlana Khorkina, Russian gymnast
- 1981 - Asier Del Horno, Spanish footballer
- 1982 - Jodie Sweetin, American actress
- 1983 - Hikaru Utada, Japanese singer and songwriter
- 1985 - Rika Ishikawa, Japanese singer (Morning Musume)
- 1992 - Logan Lerman, American actor
- 1993 - Elián González, Cuban refugee.

Deaths

- 639 - Dagobert I, King of the Franks
- 1526 - Isabella of Burgundy, queen of Christian II of Denmark (b. 1501)
- 1576 - Hans Sachs, German Meistersinger (b. 1494)
- 1729 - William Congreve, English playwright (b. 1670)
- 1757 - Thomas Ruddiman, Scottish classical scholar (b. 1674)
- 1766 - Jean-Nicolas Servan, French architect and painter (b. 1695)
- 1785 - Jonathan Toup, English classical scholar and critic (b. 1713)
- 1833 - Louis Joseph Ferdinand Herold, French composer (b. 1791)
- 1847 - Charles Bent, New Mexico pioneer (assassinated)
- 1851 - Esteban Echeverría, Argentine writer (b. 1805)
- 1865 - Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, French philosopher and anarchist (b. 1809)
- 1869 - Carl Reichenbach, German chemist and philosopher (b. 1788)
- 1874 - August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben, German poet (b. 1798)
- 1878 - Henri Victor Regnault French physicist and chemist (b. 1810)
- 1905 - Debendranath Tagore, Indian philosopher (b. 1817)
- 1929 - Liang Qichao, Chinese scholar (b. 1873)
- 1968 - Ray Harroun, American race car driver (b. 1879)
- 1969 - Jan Palach, Czech student and political activist (suicide) (b. 1948)
- 1971 - Harry Shields, American musician (b. 1899)
- 1972 - Michael Rabin, American violinist (b. 1936)
- 1975 - Thomas Hart Benton, American painter (b. 1889)
- 1980 - William O. Douglas, U.S. Supreme Court Justice (b. 1898)
- 1990 - Rajneesh, Indian religious leader (b. 1931)
- 1990 - Herbert Wehner, German politician (b. 1906)
- 1991 - John Russell, American actor (b. 1921)
- 1996 - Don Simpson, American film producer (b. 1943)
- 1997 - James Dickey, American writer (b. 1923)
- 1998 - Carl Perkins, American guitarist (b. 1932)
- 2000 - Bettino Craxi, Prime Minister of Italy (b. 1934)
- 2000 - Hedy Lamarr, Austrian-born actress (b. 1913)
- 2004 - Harry E. Claiborne, American judge (suicide) (b. 1917)
- 2004 - David Hookes, Australian cricketer and coach (b. 1955)
- 2005 - Bill Andersen, New Zealand communist and trade union leader (b. 1924)
- 2005 - K. Sello Duiker, South African novelist (b. 1974)

Holidays and observances

- Eastern Orthodoxy — Julian Calendar Theophany (Epiphany)
- Bahá'í Faith — Feast of Sultán (Sovereignty) — First day of the 17th month of the Bahá'í Calendar
- Confederate Heroes Day in Texas
- Dr. Martin Luther Jr. day

External links

- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/19 BBC: On This Day] ---- January 18 - January 20 - December 19 - February 19 — listing of all days ko:1월 19일 ms:19 Januari ja:1月19日 simple:January 19 th:19 มกราคม

1949

1949 (MCMXLIX) is a common year starting on Saturday.

Events

January-February

- January 4 - RMS Caronia of the Cunard Line departs Southampton for New York on her maiden voyage
- January 4 - February 22 - Series of winter storms in Nebraska, Wyoming, South Dakota, Utah, Colorado and Nevada - winds of up to 72 mph - tens of thousands of cattle and sheep perish
- January 5 - U.S. President Harry S. Truman unveils his Fair Deal program.
- January 11 - Los Angeles, California receives its first recorded snowfall.
- January 22 - Communist forces enter Peking
- January 25 - The first Emmy Awards are presented at the Hollywood Athletic Club.
- January 25 - In the first Israeli election, David Ben-Gurion becomes Prime Minister.
- January 26 - Australian Citizenship comes into being.
- February 1 - Rationing of clothes ends in Britain
- February 8 - Cardinal Mindszenty of Hungary is sentenced to life imprisonment for treason against the Hungarian Communist government.
- February 12 - The Vatican announces the excommunication of all persons involved in the trial and conviction of Cardinal Mindszenty.
- February 14 - The Knesset (Israeli parliament) first convenes.
- February 14 - Antonio Carmona re-elected president of Portugal for lack of opposing candidate
- February 19 - Ezra Pound is awarded the first Bollingen Prize in poetry by the Bollingen Foundation and Yale University.
- February 22 - Grady the Cow, a 1,200-pound cow gets stuck inside a silo on a farm in Yukon, Oklahoma and garners national media attention.

March-April

Yukon, Oklahoma
- March 1 - World heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis retires
- March 1 - Indonesia seizes Yogyakarta from the Dutch
- March 2 - The B-50 Superfortress Lucky Lady II under Captain James Gallagher lands in Fort Worth, Texas after completing the first non-stop around-the-world airplane flight. It was refueled in flight four times.
- March 3 - The Tucker automobile Corporation folds.
- March 12 - The Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, Denver & Rio Grande Western and Western Pacific railroads inaugurate the California Zephyr passenger train between Chicago, Illinois and Los Angeles, California as the first train to feature Vista Dome cars as regular equipment.
- March 28 - United States Secretary of Defense James Forrestal resigns suddenly.
- March 31 - The former British colony of Newfoundland joins Canada as its 10th province.
- April 1 - Éire leaves the Commonwealth and becomes the Republic of Ireland
- April 4 - NATO is formed.
- April 18 - Éire formally became the Republic of Ireland.
- April 20 - Royal Navy frigate HMS Amethyst goes up the Yangtze River to evacuate British Commonwealth refugees escaping the advance of the Mao's communist forces. Under heavy fire it rans aground off Rose Island. After an aborted rescue attempt at April 26 it anchors 10 miles upstream. Negotiations with the communist forces to let the ship leave drag on for weeks
- April 23 - Chinese communist troops take Nanking
- April 29 - News Review reveals that neither Selhurst College nor its headmaster H. Rochester Sneath exist

May-June

- May 5 - The Council of Europe is founded by the signing of the Treaty of London.
- May 9 - Rainier III of Monaco becomes Prince of Monaco.
- May 11 - Israel is admitted to the U.N. as its 59th member.
- May 11 - Siam changes its name to Thailand.
- May 12 - Cold War: The Soviet Union lifts its Blockade of Berlin.
- May 20 - The AFSA (predecessor of the NSA) is established.
- May 22 - After two months in Bethesda Naval Hospital, James Forrestal commits suicide, under circumstances that seem suspicious to many.
- May 23 - The Federal Republic of Germany is established.
- EDSAC, the first stored-program computer, begins operation at Cambridge University.
- June 2 - Transjordan becomes kingdom of Jordan
- June 6 - With the passage of the Bodh Gaya Temple Act by the Indian government, Mahabodhi Temple is restored to partial Buddhist control.
- June 8 - Red Scare: Such celebrities as Helen Keller, Dorothy Parker, Danny Kaye, Fredric March, John Garfield, Paul Muni and Edward G. Robinson are named in an FBI report as Communist Party members.
- June 8 - George Orwell's book Nineteen Eighty-Four is published.
- June 29 - Last US troops withdraw from South Korea
- June 29 - Dock strike in the UK
- June 29 - Beginning of Apartheid - The South African Citizenship Act suspends the granting of citizenship to British Commonwealth immigrants after five years and imposes a ban on mixed marriages
- July 31 - Captain Kerans of HMS Amethyst decides to make a break after the nightfall under heavy fire from both sides of the river and successfully rejoins the fleet at Woosung the next day

August

- August 5 - In Ecuador an earthquake destroys 50 towns and kills more than 8000
- August 5 - 6.75 Richter scale earthquake kills 6000 in Ecuador
- August 8 - Bhutan becomes independent
- August 14 - Gang of Salvatore Giuliano explodes mines under police barracks outside Palermo, Sicily
- August 14 - Military coup in Syria ousts the president
- August 28 - Last surviving veterans of the United States Civil War meet in Indianapolis - all six
- August 29 - First meeting of the Council of Europe
- August 29 - Soviet Union tests its first atomic bomb.

September

- September 5 - A former sharpshooter in World War II, Howard Unruh kills 13 neighbors in Camden, New Jersey with a souvenir Luger to become America's first single-episode mass murderer.
- September 6 - Allied military authorities relinquish control of former Nazi Germany assets back to German control.
- September 7 - Federal Republic of Germany officially founded. Konrad Adenauer is the first federal chancellor
- September 9 - Albert Guay affair: dynamite bomb destroys Canadian Pacific Airlines Douglas DC-3 in Quebec
- September 13 - Soviet Union vetoes United Nations membership of Ceylon, Finland, Iceland, Italy, Jordan and Portugal
- September 17 - Canadian steamship SS Noronic burns in Toronto Harbor with the loss of over 118 lives.
- September 24 - Laszlo Rajk, ex-foreign minister of Hungary, is sentenced to death.
- September 29 - First Plenary Session of the National People's Congress approves design for the Flag of the People's Republic of China.
- September 29 - Mrs. Iva Toguri D'Aquino is found guilty of broadcasting for Japan as "Tokyo Rose" during World War II.

October-December

- October 1 - Birth of the People's Republic of China.
- October 7 - Democratic Republic of Germany DDR established officially
- October 13 - Severe flooding in Guatemala
- October 16 - Civil war ends in Greece - communist troops surrender
- October 17 - Chinese communist troops take Canton,_China
- October 27 - An airliner flying from Paris to New York crashes near the Azores. Among the victims are violinist Ginette Neveu and boxer Marcel Cerdan.
- November 24 - Opening day at the ski resort Squaw Valley California.
- November 26 - The Indian Constituent Assembly adopts India's constitution. [http://lawmin.nic.in/coi.htm]
- December 8 - Nationalist Chinese finish their evacuation to Taiwan.
- December 10- Robert Gordon (Bob) Menzies elected.
- December 14 - Traicho Kostov, ex-vice prime minister of Bulgaria, is sentenced to death.
- December 15 - Typhoon strikes fishing fleet off Korea - several thousand reported dead.
- December 16 - Sukarno elected president of Republic of Indonesia.
- December 17 - Burma recognizes People's Republic of China.
- December 27 - Queen Juliana of the Netherlands grants Indonesia sovereignty.
- December 30 - India recognizes People's Republic of China.

An Unknown Date

- The Fourth Geneva Convention is signed.
- Pamir is the last commercial sailing ship to sail round Cape Horn.

Births

January

- January 2 - Christopher Durang, American playwright
- January 7 - Steven Williams, American actor
- January 8 - Wolfgang Puck, Austrian chef
- January 10 - George Foreman, American boxer
- January 10 - James Lapine, American stage director and librettist
- January 10 - Linda Lovelace, American actress (d. 2002)
- January 11 - Kalev Ots, Estonian statesman
- January 12 - Wayne Wang, Hong Kong-born film director
- January 13 - Brandon Tartikoff, American television executive (d. 1997)
- January 14 - Lawrence Kasdan, American director and screenwriter
- January 17 - Andy Kaufman, American comedian (d. 1984)
- January 18 - Philippe Starck, French designer
- January 19 - Robert Palmer, English musician (d. 2003)
- January 20 - Göran Persson, Prime Minister of Sweden
- January 24 - John Belushi, American actor (d. 1982)
- January 30 - Peter Agre, American biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry
- January 31 - Ken Wilber, American philosopher

February

- February 2 - Brent Spiner, American actor
- February 9 - Jim Sheridan, Irish film director
- February 10 - Maxime Le Forestier, French singer
- February 10 - Harold Sylvester, American actor
- February 15 - Ken Anderson, American football player
- February 18 - Gary Ridgway, American serial killer
- February 19 - Dan Bunten, American computer game designer(d. 1998)
- February 22 - Niki Lauda, Austrian race car driver
- February 25 - Ric Flair, American professional wrestler

March

- March 2 - Gates McFadden, American actress
- March 2 - Eddie Money, American singer
- March 2 - JPR Williams, Welsh rugby player
- March 3 - Jesse Jefferson, baseball player
- March 6 - Shaukat Aziz, Prime Minister of Pakistan
- March 6 - Martin Buchan, Scottish footballer
- March 7 - Ghulam Nabi Azad, Indian politician
- March 10 - Larry Wall, American computer programmer
- March 12 - Bill Payne, American musician (Little Feat)
- March 13 - Julia Migenes, American soprano
- March 16 - Erik Estrada, Puerto Rican actor
- March 16 - Victor Garber, Canadian actor
- March 17 - Patrick Duffy, American actor
- March 22 - Fanny Ardant, French actress
- March 23 - Ric Ocasek, American musician (The Cars)
- March 24 - Nick Lowe, American musician
- March 26 - Patrick Süskind, German writer
- March 30 - Marcia Ball, American musician
- March 30 - Lene Lovich, American singer

April-June

- April 1 - Gérard Mestrallet, French businessman
- April 1 - Gil Scott-Heron, American musician and composer
- April 3 - Richard Thompson, British musician and songwriter
- April 6 - Horst Ludwig Störmer, German-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- April 7 - John Oates, American musician (Hall and Oates)
- April 14 - John Shea, American actor
- April 16 - Sandy Hawley, Canadian jockey
- April 17 - Claudia de Santa-Fe, American painter and sculptor
- April 18 - Geoff Bodine, American race car driver
- May 4 - John Force, American race car driver
- May 9 - Billy Joel, American musician
- May 18 - Rick Wakeman, English musician and songwriter (Yes)
- May 18 - Bill Wallace, Canadian musician (The Guess Who)
- May 19 - Archie Manning, American football player
- May 24 - Tomaž Pisanski, Slovenian mathematician
- May 26 - Philip Michael Thomas, American actor
- May 26 - Hank Williams Jr., American singer
- May 31 - Tom Berenger, American actor
- June 8 - Emanuel Ax, Polish-born pianist
- June 13 - Ann Druyan, writer
- June 14 - Jimmy Lea, English musician (Slade)
- June 14 - Harry Turtledove, American historian and novelist
- June 21 - John Agard, British poet and playwright
- June 21 - Jane Urquhart, Canadian author
- June 24 - Albert Zappelli, American Educator

July-September

- July 3 - Jan Smithers, American actress
- July 15 - Carl Bildt, Prime Minister of Sweden
- July 17 - Charlie Steiner, American sportscaster
- July 22 - Alan Menken, American composer
- July 26 - Roger Taylor, English musician (Queen)
- August 6 - Alan Campbell, Irish minister
- August 7 - Walid Jumblatt, leader of the Lebanese Druze
- August 12 - Mark Knopfler, Swiss guitarist
- August 15 - Richard Deacon, Welsh sculptor
- August 23 - Shelley Long, American actress
- August 23 - Rick Springfield, Australian singer and actor
- August 25 - Martin Amis, English novelist
- August 31 - Richard Gere, American actor
- August 31 - H. David Politzer, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- September 1 - P.A. Sangma, Indian politician
- September 3 - Patriarch Peter VII of Alexandria (d. 2004)
- September 7 - Lee McGeorge Durrell, American author, television presenter, and zookeeper
- September 7 - Gloria Gaynor, American singer
- September 14 - Eikichi Yazawa, Japanese singer
- September 15 - Joe Barton, American politician
- September 17 - Cassandra Peterson, American actress Elvira
- September 18 - Mo Mowlam, British politician (d. 2005)
- September 23 - Bruce Springsteen, American singer and songwriter
- September 27 - Mike Schmidt, baseball player

October-December

- October 1 - Isaac Bonewits, American author and occultist
- October 2 - Lorraine Bracco, American actress
- October 8 - Sigourney Weaver, American actress
- October 14 - Katy Manning, British actress
- October 20 - Valeri Borzov, Ukrainian athlete
- October 21 - Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel
- October 22 - Stiv Bators, American musician (The Dead Boys) (d. 1990)
- November 5 - Armin Shimerman, American actor
- November 6 - Arturo Sandoval, Cuban musician
- November 7 - Aiswarya, Queen of Nepal (d. 2001)
- November 7 - Judi Bari, American environmental activist (d. 1997)
- November 24 - Nicholas Richard Ainger, British politician
- November 26 - Juanin Clay, American actress (d. 1995)
- November 29 - Alexander Godunov, Russian-born dancer and actor (d. 1995)
- December 3 - John Akii-Bua Ugandan hurdler (d. 1997)
- December 4 - Jeff Bridges, American actor
- December 4 - Pamela Stephenson, New Zealand-born comedienne, actress, and singer
- December 7 - Tom Waits, American singer, composer, and actor
- December 12 - Bill Nighy, English actor
- December 13 – Randy Owen, lead singer of the country music band Alabama
- December 14 - Bill Buckner, baseball player
- December 15 - Don Johnson, American actor
- December 17 - Paul Rodgers, British singer (Free)
- December 22 - Maurice Gibb, Australian musician (The Bee Gees) (d. 2003)
- December 22 - Robin Gibb, Australian musician (The Bee Gees)
- December 24 - Randy Neugebauer, American politician
- December 25 - Sissy Spacek, American actress
- December 25 - Joe Louis Walker, American musician
- December 26 - José Ramos Horta, Foreign Minister of East Timor, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize

Unknown date

- William Hope, Canadian actor

Deaths

- January 6 - Victor Fleming, American director (b. 1883)
- January 11 - Nelson Doubleday, American publisher (b. 1889)
- January 14 - Joaquín Turina, Spanish composer (b. 1882)
- January 28 - Jean-Pierre Wimille, French race car driver (b. 1908)
- February 12 - Imam Hassan al Banna, Egyptian founder of the Muslim Brotherhood (b. 1906)
- March 30 - Friedrich Bergius, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1884)
- April 19 - Ulrich Salchow, Swedish figure skater (b. 1877)
- May 6 - Maurice Maeterlinck, Belgian writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1862)
- May 9 - Louis II, Prince of Monaco (b. 1870)
- May 22 - James Forrestal, U.S. Secretary of Navy and Defense (suicide) (b. 1892)
- May 22 - Klaus Mann, German writer (suicide) (b. 1906)
- June 10 - Sigrid Undset, Norwegian writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1882)
- June 14 - Russell Doubleday, American author and publisher (b. 1872)
- July 9 - Fritz Bennicke Hart, English-born composer (b. 1874)
- July 12 - Douglas Hyde, first President of Ireland (b. 1860)
- July 18- Vítězslav Novák, Czech composer (b. 1870)
- August 18 - Paul Mares, American musician (b. 1900)
- August 30 - Arthur Fielder, English cricketer (b. 1877)
- September 8 - Richard Strauss, German composer (b. 1864)
- September 13 - August Krogh, Danish zoophysiologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1874)
- September 19 - Will Cuppy, American humorist (b. 1884)
- September 19 - Nikolaos Skalkottas, Greek composer (b. 1901)
- October 27 - Marcel Cerdan, French boxer (plane crash) (b. 1916)
- October 27 - Ginette Neveu, French violinist (plane crash) (b. 1919)
- December 6 - Leadbelly, American musician (b. 1885)
- December 11 - Krishna Chandra Bhattacharya, Indian philosopher (b. 1875)
- December 16 - Sidney Olcott, Canadian film director (b. 1873)
- December 28 - Hervey Allen, American author (b. 1889)
- December 28 - Jack Lovelock, New Zealand athlete (b. 1910)

Nobel Prizes

- Physics - Yukawa Hideki
- Chemistry - William Francis Giauque
- Medicine - Walter Rudolf Hess, Antonio Caetano De Abreu Freire Egas Moniz
- Literature - William Faulkner
- Peace - John Boyd Orr Category:1949 ko:1949년 ms:1949 ja:1949年 simple:1949 th:พ.ศ. 2492

Amtrak

Amtrak, is the brand name of the intercity passenger train system created on May 1, 1971 in the United States. Officially known as the National Railroad Passenger Corporation, the name Amtrak is a portmanteau of the words American travel by track. Nominally, Amtrak is an independent for-profit corporation, but all of its preferred stock is owned by the federal government, and the members of Amtrak's board of directors are appointed by the President of the United States and are subject to confirmation by the United States Senate. Some common stock is held by the private railroads which transferred their passenger service to Amtrak in 1971. Though Amtrak stock does not pay dividends and is not routinely traded, a small number of private investors have purchased Amtrak stock from its original owners. The interim president of Amtrak is David Hughes. Until November 9, 2005, David L. Gunn was president. Gunn was fired after a GAO report critical of the board's oversight was released on November 3, 2005. The current chairman of Amtrak's board is David Laney, a presidential appointee. By law, the Secretary of Transportation (currently Norman Mineta) also sits on the board, although Mineta has never attended a board meeting. Per Amtrak's authorizing legislation, there are to be seven directors forming the company's board. Aside from Laney and Mineta (or his designee), the Bush administration has only filled two other director seats. As of the date of Gunn's firing, both of those directors were recess appointments whose terms expire with the adjournment of the current session of the 109th Congress. 109th Congress

History

109th Congress, often called the "pointless arrow" or, less often but officially by Amtrak, the "inverted arrow". On July 6, 2000 Amtrak unveiled "a new logo whose shape and suggestion of movement convey the comfort and uniqueness of the rail experience." ]]

Background: pre-1971

Historically, on routes where a single railroad has had an undisputed monopoly, passenger service was as spartan and as expensive as the market and Interstate Commerce Commission regulation would bear, since such railroads had no need to advertise their freight services. But on routes where two or three railroads were in direct competition with each other for freight business, such railroads would spare no expense to make their passenger trains as fast, luxurious, and affordable as possible, because it was considered to be the most effective way of advertising their profitable freight services. As early as the 1930s, automobile travel had begun to cut into the rail passenger market, somewhat reducing economies of scale, but it was the development of the Interstate Highway System and of commercial aviation in the 1950s and 1960s that dealt the most damaging blows to rail transportation, both passenger and freight. There was little point in operating passenger trains to advertise freight service when those who made decisions about freight shipping traveled by car and by air, and when the railroads' chief competitors for that market were interstate trucking companies. Soon, the only things keeping most passenger trains running were legal obligations. Meanwhile, companies who were interested in using railroads for profitable freight traffic were looking for ways to get out of those legal obligations, and it looked like intercity passenger rail service would soon become extinct in the United States outside a few highly-populated corridors. The final blow came with the loss of railway post offices in the 1960s. The National Association of Railroad Passengers (NARP) was formed in 1967 to lobby for the continuation of passenger trains. Its lobbying efforts were hampered somewhat by Democratic opposition to any sort of subsidies to the privately-owned railroads, and Republican opposition to nationalization of the railroad industry. The proponents were aided by the fact that few in the federal government wanted to be held responsible for the seemingly-inevitable extinction of the passenger train, which most regarded as tantamount to political suicide. The urgency of the need to solve the passenger train problem was heightened by the bankruptcy filing of the Penn Central, the dominant railroad in the Northeast U.S., on June 21, 1970. Under the Rail Passenger Service Act of 1970, Congress created the National Railroad Passenger Corporation (NRPC) to subsidize and oversee the operation of intercity passenger trains. The Act provided that
- Any railroad operating intercity passenger service could contract with the NRPC, thereby joining the national system.
- Participating railroads bought into the new corporation using a formula based on their recent intercity passenger losses. The purchase price could be satisfied either by cash or rolling stock; in exchange, the railroads received Amtrak common stock.
- Any participating railroad was freed of the obligation to operate intercity passenger service after May 1, 1971, except for those services chosen by the Department of Transportation as part of a "basic system" of service and paid for by NRPC using its federal funds.
- Railroads who chose not to join the Amtrak system were required to continue operating their existing passenger service until 1975 and thenceforth had to pursue the customary ICC approval process for any discontinuance or alteration to the service. While it appeared for some time that President Nixon would veto the legislation, ultimately it was signed into law October 30, 1970. The original working brand name for NRPC was Railpax, but shortly prior to the company's assumption of intercity rail passenger operations, the name was changed to Amtrak. At the time, many Washington insiders, including President Nixon's and his aides, viewed the corporation as a face-saving way for the President and Congress to give passenger trains the one "last hurrah" demanded by the public, but expected that the NRPC would quietly disappear as a result of disinterest within a few years of its creation. However, while Amtrak's political and financial support have often been shaky, popular and political support for Amtrak has allowed it to survive long past its expected lifetime.

Early days: 1971-

At Amtrak's startup, 20 out of the 26 eligible railroads had elected to join the Amtrak system: #Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway #Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (no service until the West Virginian began September 8, 1971) #Burlington Northern Railroad #Central of Georgia Railway (has never hosted Amtrak service) #Chesapeake and Ohio Railway #Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad #Chicago and North Western Railway (never had any service) #Delaware and Hudson Railway (no Amtrak service until the Adirondack began August 6, 1974) #Grand Trunk Western Railroad (no Amtrak service until the Blue Water Limited began September 15, 1974) #Gulf, Mobile and Ohio Railroad #Illinois Central Railroad #Louisville and Nashville Railroad #Missouri Pacific Railroad #Norfolk and Western Railway (no Amtrak service until the Mountaineer began March 25, 1975) #Northwestern Pacific Railroad (has never hosted Amtrak service) #Penn Central Transportation #Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad #Seaboard Coast Line Railroad #Southern Pacific Railroad #Union Pacific Railroad The Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad, Chicago South Shore and South Bend Railroad, Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad, Georgia Railroad, Reading Company and Southern Railway continued to run their own intercity trains after the Amtrak startup date. The Alaska Railroad provided long-distance service, but was already owned by the federal government. In addition, the Canadian Pacific Railway's Atlantic, taken over by VIA Rail in 1976, crossed northern Maine until 1994. Amtrak began operations May 1, 1971 on a system of about half the size of that operated the previous day. Several major corridors, including the New York Central Railroad's Water Level Route across Ohio and the Grand Trunk Western Railroad's Chicago-Detroit line, became freight-only in favor of parallel lines. A 19-hour layover at Cincinnati was necessary for eastbound Chicago-Newport News travelers on the James Whitcomb Riley and George Washington. On the other hand, Amtrak's Coast Starlight (named November 14) was a first, running along the west coast from San Diego to Seattle, combining three separate trains operated by three railroads into one. The first timetable was compiled from former Official Guide of the Railways schedules with only minor changes. Former names were kept, and some trains were unnamed at first. By the July 12 timetable, service had returned to the Water Level Route with the Lake Shore (named November 14), and the Northeast Corridor received an Inland Route via Springfield, Massachusetts, thanks to money from New York, Ohio and Massachusetts. Due to pressure from Senator Mike Mansfield of Montana, the North Coast Hiawatha was implemented as a second route to the Pacific Northwest. The first all-new timetable was dated November 14, 1971, and included several name changes and names for most of the formerly unnamed trains. New numbers were also assigned to all trains. Another barrier, at Chicago, was broken with the Milwaukee-St. Louis Abraham Lincoln and Prairie State. The Southern joined on February 1, 1979, when its Southern Crescent became Amtrak's Crescent. The D&RGW last operated its Rio Grande Zephyr April 25, 1983, and Amtrak's San Francisco Zephyr was renamed the California Zephyr. The Zephyrs rerouting onto the scenic D&RGW was delayed by a mudslide and did not take place until July 15, 1983. The bankrupt CRI&P ran its last intercity passenger trains (the Chicago-Peoria Peoria Rocket and the Chicago-Rock Island Quad Cities Rocket) on December 31, 1978. The last Georgia Railroad mixed train was operated May 6, 1983 by the Seaboard System Railroad. The Reading Philadelphia-Newark Penn Station service stayed around into Conrail and was discontinued in 1983. CSS&SB trains still operate, now by the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District. Both the Reading and CSS&SB operations qualified as intercity passenger service, but were fundamentally longer-than-average distance commuter train operations. Except for the joining of routes through Oakland, California to create the continuous Coast Starlight, all Amtrak services on day one were continued from pre-Amtrak operations. The first all-new Amtrak route, in other words a route that had not been operated immediately prior to Amtrak, was the Montrealer/Washingtonian. That route was inaugurated September 29, 1972 along Boston and Maine Railroad and Canadian National Railway track that had last seen passenger service in 1966. In its original conception, Amtrak did not own any track and thus was not a true railroad. Following the bankruptcy declaration of several northeastern railroads in the early 1970s — particularly that of Penn Central, which owned and operated the Northeast Corridor, Congress passed the Railroad Revitalization and Regulatory Reform Act of 1976 to create a consolidated, federally-subsidized freight network called Conrail. As part of this legislation, the vital Northeast Corridor passenger route was transferred to Amtrak, and the corporation became a true railroad for the first time. In subsequent years, various short route segments needed for passenger operations but not for freight were transferred to Amtrak ownership. However, the majority of Amtrak's routes are hosted by private railroads, to which Amtrak pays the costs of adding its passenger trains to the freight trains of the host railroad. At the beginning in 1971, the host railroads supplied the rolling stock and operating crews. Amtrak soon purchased the best of the railroad equipment and subsequently has purchased new equipment.Today, Amtrak trains are staffed by Amtrak employees but, other than on the routes that Amtrak owns outright, are dispatched by the host railroads on whose tracks these trains operate. The fuel shortages of the mid-1970s on the nation's highways and increased air fares which also resulted in creating a renewed interest in passenger rail travel. Given that railroads use fuel very efficiently, passenger rail travel no longer seemed quite so outmoded. Consequently, Amtrak's ridership began to increase. Another rebound occurred after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Conflicting goals
September 11, 2001 attacks] Amtrak was established to relieve railroads of their federally-mandated responsibility to transport passengers as a priority over freight. This was causing increasingly large financial losses for the railroads as the networks of federally-funded highways and airports expanded. From the outset, Amtrak was expected to pursue conflicting goals: Amtrak was supposed to continue providing a national rail passenger service in the face of significantly diminished demand while simultaneously operating as a commercial enterprise. There have been few times in history when any intercity rail passenger operation in the world has been profitable, even with respect to only its operating costs, and passenger trains have never brought in enough revenue to pay their infrastructure costs. Even highly efficient private-sector railroads such as the Norfolk and Western Railway could not earn a profit, or even recover operating expenses for passenger service. The concept of Amtrak as a for-profit business was fatally flawed before the first passenger boarded. Amtrak is in many ways dependent on freight railroads. As it owns little track, it must rely on maintenance done by the freight owners, and sometimes has to cancel service over routes taken out-of-service by the host freight railroad (as occurred recently with service to Phoenix, Arizona) or pay to maintain the tracks.
Politically-appointed leaders and congressional funding
Without a dedicated source of capital equipment and operating funding (except for competitive passenger fares and even less express income), Amtrak's continued operation has always been dependent upon the Executive and Legislative branches of the U.S. government. Both congressional funding and appointments of Amtrak's leaders are subject to political considerations, which have varied widely during its existence through seven U.S. presidencies and major shifts of power in the U.S. Congress. Because Amtrak's board and president are all political appointees, some have had little or no experience with railroads. However, Amtrak has also benefited from both highly skilled and politically-oriented leaders. For example, in 1982, former U.S. Secretary of the Navy and retired Southern Railway head W. Graham Claytor Jr. brought his naval and railroad experience to the job. Claytor had served briefly as an acting U.S. Secretary of Transportation in the cabinet of President Jimmy Carter in 1979, and came out of retirement to lead Amtrak after the disastrous financial results during the Carter administration (1977-1981). He was recruited and strongly supported by John H. Riley, an attorney who was the highly-skilled head of the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) under the Reagan Administration from 1983-1989. Secretary of Transportation Elizabeth Dole also tacitly supported Amtrak. Claytor seemed to enjoy a good relationship with the Congress for his 11 years in the position. Of course, politics aside, that may have also been because he did a good job. According to an article in Fortune magazine, through vigorous cost cutting and aggressive marketing, within 7 years under Claytor, Amtrak was generating enough cash to cover 72% of its $1.7 billion operating budget by 1989, up from 48% in 1981.
Myth of a self-sustaining Amtrak
Two of the leaders who followed Claytor lacked freight railroad or private-sector experience. Further, they each inherited the goal of making Amtrak operationally self-sufficient, an idea which began under David Stockman and his successors at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) while Claytor was Amtrak's president (circa 1986). Claytor's replacement was Thomas Downs. Downs had been city administrator of Washington DC, and oversaw the Union Station project, which had experienced both massive delays and cost overruns. Under Downs, Amtrak began to claim that it could achieve operating self-sufficiency, and its leaders seemed to be increasingly misleading as to the prospects of achieving that goal when pressed by Congress and the media. After Downs left Amtrak, George Warrington was appointed by the board as the company's next president. He had previously been in charge of Amtrak's Northeast Corridor Business Unit. When he took the helm of Amtrak in January, 1998, self-sufficiency was still officially a stated goal, although it was becoming elusive in the eyes of Congress. Under Warrington's administration, Amtrak was mandated by the Administration and Congress to become totally self-sufficient within a five-year period, and all its management efforts were directed to that goal. Passengers became "guests" and there were expansions into express freight work. Finally, at the end of the 5-year period, it became clear that self-sufficiency was an unachievable goal, no matter how much additional express revenue was gained or how many cuts were made in Amtrak services. 1998, after departing from Chicago in 1993.]] In fairness, while both Downs and Warrington had extensive experience in government, neither had the non-governmental cost accounting or practical experience in private-sector railroading that Claytor had had. Claytor also enjoyed the benefit of serving during the Reagan Administration when increases in federal spending on military items was drawing a lot of the political attention in Congress. The efforts to expand Amtrak's express income were unpopular with the host freight railroads, who did not want the additional Amtrak traffic it brought (or the competition). The express work also brought Amtrak new political enemies in the powerful trucking lobby before Congress. Warrington also had the burden of delays in implementation of the new Acela Express high-speed trainsets, which promised to be a strong source of income and favorable publicity along the Northeast Corridor between Boston and Washington DC. When David L. Gunn was selected as Amtrak president in April 2002, Amtrak self-sufficiency had largely fallen out of favor as a realistic short-term goal. Gunn came with a reputation as a strong, straightforward and experienced operating manager, but his blunt style sometimes put him at odds with others. Years earlier, Gunn's refusal to "do politics" put him at odds with the WMATA (Metro) board, which includes representatives from the District of Columbia and suburban jurisdictions in Maryland and Virginia during his tenure from 1991-1994. His work as president of the New York City Transit Authority from 1984 to 1990 and as Chief General Manager of the Toronto Transit Commission in Canada from 1995-1999 earned him a great deal of operating credibility, despite a sometimes-rough relationship with politicians and labor unions. The two agencies were each the largest transit operations of their respective countries. Prior to 1974, Gunn also gained private-sector railroad experience with Illinois Central Gulf Railroad, the New York Central Railroad System (before their 1968 merger into Penn Central) and for the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. Before that, he had experience with the U.S. Navy in the Naval Reserve. Supporters consider Gunn's credentials to be the strongest at the head of Amtrak since W. Graham Claytor came out of retirement by request in 1982. Gunn was polite but direct in response to congressional criticism. He was also seen as more credible than some of his recent predecessors by Congress, the media, and many Amtrak supporters and employees. Perhaps more than any past president of Amtrak, Gunn seemed willing to publicly confront the policy and budget positions of the President of the United States who appointed the board at whose pleasure the Amtrak president serves. In a departure from his recent predecessors' promises to make Amtrak self-sufficient in the short term, the Gunn administration took the stance that no form of mass passenger transportation in the United States is self-sufficient as the economy is currently structured, and that Amtrak should not be judged by different standards than other transport modes. Highways, airports, and air traffic control all require large government expenditures to build and operate, although some of those expenditures are not as obvious as Amtrak's direct subsidies, instead appearing as user fees and highway fuel and road taxes. Before a congressional hearing, Gunn answered a demand by leading Amtrak critic Arizona Senator John McCain to eliminate all operating subsidies by asking the Senator if he would also demand the same of the commuter airlines, upon whom the citizens of Arizona are dependent. McCain, usually not at a loss for words when debating Amtrak funding, did not reply. Some of Gunn's actions have been seen by many as politically wise. He had been very proactive in reducing layers of management overhead and has eliminated almost all of the controversial express business. He had stated that continued deferred maintenance will become a safety issue which he will not tolerate. This improved labor relations to some extent, even as Amtrak's ranks of unionized and salaried workers have been reduced. On November 9, 2005, Amtrak's board of directors asked David L. Gunn to step down as president. He refused and was terminated. David Hughes was named as acting president and CEO until a permanent replacement can be appointed. David Laney, Amtrak's chairman, stated "Amtrak's future now requires a different type of leader who will aggressively tackle the company's financial, management and operational challenges. The need to bring fundamental change to Amtrak is greater and more urgent than ever before." The board envisions fundamental changes for the railroad including increasing competition and shared financial responsibilities with states.
Federal funding
Amtrak's ongoing need for federal government funding leads to recurring budget crises and debates over its possible elimination. A stalemate in federal subsidization of Amtrak has led to cutbacks in services and routes for the last several years, and some deferred maintenance. In fiscal 2004 and 2005, Congress appropriated about $1.2 billion for Amtrak, $300 million more than President Bush had requested. However, the company's board has requested $1.8 billion through fiscal 2006, the majority of which, about $1.3 billion, would be used to bring infrastructure, rolling stock, and motive power back to a state of good repair. In Congressional testimony, the Department of Transportation's inspector-general confirmed that Amtrak would need at least $1.4 billion to $1.5 billion in fiscal 2006 and $2 billion in fiscal 2007 just to maintain the status quo. As has been the practice in most years, the current budget proposal from the U.S. President to the Congress does not support Amtrak's continued existence in its current form. Hoping to spur Congress to overhaul the way Amtrak does business, the budget proposed by the Bush Administration for fiscal 2006 would eliminate Amtrak's operating subsidy and set aside $360 million to run trains along the Northeast Corridor once the railroad ceases operating. Several states have entered into operating partnerships with Amtrak, notably California, Illinois, Oregon, Washington, North Carolina, and Oklahoma.
National impact
states 2004.]] Amtrak employs over 19,000 people. The nationwide network of 22,000 miles of routes serves 500 communities in 46 of the United States, with some of the routes serving communities in Canadian provinces along the United States border. In fiscal year 2004, Amtrak routes served over 25 million passengers, a company record.
Gaps in service
The only states that are not served by Amtrak trains are Alaska (served by the Alaska Railroad), Hawaii, South Dakota, and Wyoming (lost service in the 1997 cuts; served by Amtrak's Thruway Motorcoaches). In addition, many large cities are not served by Amtrak such as
- Las Vegas, Nevada (lost service in the 1997 cuts),
- Boise, Idaho (same),
- Nashville, Tennessee,
- Louisville, Kentucky and
- Columbus, Ohio. Other cities are not served directly due to inconvenient water barriers including Norfolk and Virginia Beach in the Hampton Roads area, and San Francisco, where trains stop across the bay in Oakland and Emeryville. Others have only indirect service for other reasons, such as Phoenix, Arizona, which is served via Thruway coach from the Southwest Chief train at Flagstaff, Arizona or the nearby, yet remote due to a lack of any public transportation connection, Maricopa, Arizona roughly thirty miles from the city.
Amtrak routes and services
Maricopa, ArizonaAmtrak has a complex albeit decentralized management structure wherein individual train conductors and other staff are assigned to particular routes or stations whereas ticket sales are managed by a nationwide computer system. As a general rule, even-numbered routes run north and east while odd numbered routes run south and west. However, some routes, such as the Pacific Surfliners, use the exact opposite numbering system, which they inherited from the previous operators of similar routes, such as the Santa Fe Railroad. Amtrak gives each of its train routes a name. These names often reflect the rich and complex history of the route itself, or of the area traversed by the route.
Commuter services
Through various commuter services, Amtrak serves an additional 61.1 million passengers per year in conjunction with state and regional authorities in California, Washington, Maryland, Connecticut, and Virginia:
- CalTrain (San Francisco and San Jose)
- Sounder Commuter Rail (Seattle, Washington and the Puget Sound area)
- San Diego Coaster (San Diego)
- MARC (Maryland)
- Shore Line East (Connecticut)
- Virginia Railway Express (VRE) In the past, Amtrak has operated Metrolink . and MBTA Commuter Rail.
Freight services
Amtrak Express provides