Albania ablaze as riots mount
1997 - Soldiers were deployed in the Albanian capital Tirana after demonstrators fought with riot police there and torched buildings in towns in the south in growing protests over collapsing savings schemes. Thousands of angry demonstrators, fearing they may lose all their cash invested in pyramid savings funds, clashed with ranks of police who lashed out with batons to try to disperse a crowd of around 30,000 in central Tirana. Police fired in the air over the ear-shattering din of shouts and screams as a hard core of around 3,000 protesters tried to advance towards the parliament, hurling stones through windows and glass doors of buildings bordering central Skanderbeg Square. Albanian state media reported disturbances in 13 other towns in the Balkan state.
January 26
1699 - Venice, Poland and Austria sign a peace treaty with Turkey.
1778 - Australia is settled by the British.
1788 - First fleet of ships bringing convicts from Britain arrive in Australia to establish penal colonies.
1802 - Congress passes an act calling for a library to be established within the US Capitol, paving the way for the Library of Congress.
1837 - Michigan becomes the 26th US state.
1841 - Britain occupies Hong Kong.
1930 - Mahatma Gandhi begins a march across India against British occupation.
1934 - Germany signs a 10-year non-aggression agreement with Poland.
1947 - Sweden’s Crown Prince Gustav Adolf is killed in a plane crash in Denmark.
1950 - India becomes an independent republic, with Rajendra Prasad as its first President.
1957 - Kashmir Constitution for incorporation with India goes into effect.
1992 - Award winning actor and director Jose Ferrer dies.
1998 - US President Bill Clinton denies sexual relations with Monica Lewinsky.
2001 - A powerful earthquake kills more than 30,000 people in Bhuj, Gujarat, India.
2003 - A China Airlines jet becomes the first Taiwanese airliner to land in mainland China since 1949.
2005 - Condoleezza Rice becomes US Secretary of State, the first African-American woman to hold the post.
2006 - Palestinian group Hamas wins a landslide victory in parliamentary elections.
2008 - Palestinian leader George Habash dies.
2010 - A Boeing 737 of Ethiopian Airlines crashes into the sea shortly after takeoff from Beirut, killing all 90 people aboard.
2013 - 245 people are killed when a fire engulfs a crowded nightclub in Santa Maria, Brazil.
2014 - A top executive of India’s Tata Motors, Karl Slym, 51, commits suicide in a fall from the 22nd floor of a Bangkok hotel.
2015 - Radical Left leader Alexis Tsipras is sworn in as new Greek Prime Minister.
