In my never-ending search for the day where nothing happened, I had hopes for this one. But no, not even in 1998 where a devastating earthquake shook parts of China, Indonesia was smack in the middle of financial chaos, Islamic terrorists were rampaging around Algiers, a massive blackout from a winter storm hit Eastern Canada putting millions of people in the dark, can I actually say nothing happened in the world on January 10th.

And beyond all that, the Romany population in the Czech Republic were going through massive discrimination and threats of deportation (sounds like France a few weeks ago), the Northern Ireland Peace Process was continuing and looking hopeful and if you were the parent of a teenage boy living in Dubai and were wondering why your phone bill suddenly shot up, blame the sexy Asian babe on your TV - phone sex hits the United Arab Emirates.

All on this day in 1998. Here is an episode of the BBC World Service's Newshour from January 10, 1998 and you can hear for yourself. Next to today, this day thirteen years ago seems downright docile by comparison.