Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi appointed Krishna Chandra Pant as India’s defence minister to replace Vishwanath Pratap Singh, who resigned after ordering controversial investigations into two scandals. Pant, 56, was appointed after President Zail Singh accepted Singh’s resignation. Gandhi has been under intense pressure from supporters in the last few days to drop Singh for indirectly challenging his leadership and trying to dent his ‘Mr Clean’ image. Senior members of the cabinet and of the ruling Congress (I) party said they asked for the ousting because Singh ordered an inquiry into a $23 million (Dh84.5 million) commission paid to an agent for buying foreign arms. Singh has denied that the arms deal inquiry was an attempt to embarrass or topple Gandhi, who held the defence portfolio himself until naming Singh to the post. Singh said in a statement that he would not hold any public office in the near future. “This will nail the lie of those who have been carrying on a rumour campaign that I am over-ambitious”.
Other important events:
1815 Austria declares war on Joachim Murat, King of Naples, for occupying Rome.
1850 French troops restore Pope Pius IX and occupy Rome.
1911 French aviator Pierre Prier makes the first non-stop flight from London to Paris.
1945 US President Franklin D. Roosevelt dies at 63.
1955 The Salk vaccine for polio is declared safe and effective.
1956 Bandaranaike became Prime Minister of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka).
1961 Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becomes the first man to fly in space.
1976 India successfully chases 406 runs to win the third cricket test against West Indies.
1980 Liberian President William Tolbert is killed in a military coup led by Sergeant Samuel K. Doe.
1981 The first voyage of the space shuttle Columbia begins. Captain Robert L. Crippen and John W. Young are on the flight.
1985 Senator Jake Garn of Utah becomes the first senator to fly in space.
1990 East German parliament names Lothar de Maiziere as prime minister.
1992 Euro Disneyland, a $4 billion (Dh14.7 billion) theme park, opens in Marne-La-Vallee, France.
1993 Nato planes begin patrolling no-fly zone over Bosnia.
1999 Colombian rebels hijack a domestic flight and force the plane to land at a remote airstrip, where they kidnap the 46 passengers and crew.
2004 West Indies cricketer Brian Lara reclaims the highest score in Test cricket history and reached 400 not out against England in St John’s, Antigua.
2006 Death of Indian movie icon Rajkumar sparks violence in India.
2007 The six-square-kilometre Lulu Island, stretching from the Abu Dhabi breakwaters to Mina Zayed, opens to the public.
2008 Former Irish President Patrick Hillery dies at the age of 84.
2009 Six students from Rashid School for Boys make history as the first Emiratis to reach the Everest base camp.
2010 An Iranian and a Tajik face 25 years in jail after the Dubai Court of First Instance convicts them of collaboration in Chechen commander Sulim Yamadayev’s assassination.
2012 UAE recalls ambassador to Iran after Iranian president visits the occupied UAE island of Abu Mousa.
2015 Hillary Rodham Clinton enters White House race to be the first female president of the United States.
