Arafat sweeps to massive win
1996 - Palestine Liberation Organisation chief Yasser Arafat became the first democratically elected leader of the Palestinian people after almost 30 years of spearheading their military and political struggle for a homeland. Arafat won 88.1 per cent of the vote, crushing his only challenger, veteran woman activist Samiha Khalil, who gained 9.3 per cent. Invalid votes totalled 2.6 per cent, elections chief Mahmoud Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, told reporters. The high turnout among the one million eligible voters was hailed as an endorsement of Arafat’s authority and of his 1993 peace agreement with Israel, which made polls possible. Members of Arafat’s Fatah faction were thought to have won many of the 88 seats in a parallel election for the legislative council.
January 21
1732 - Russia gives up claims to certain Persian territories under Treaty of Riascha.
1793 - France’s King Louis XVI, condemned for treason, is executed on the guillotine.
1919 - Sinn Fein Congress in Dublin, Ireland, adopts Declaration of Independence.
1924 - Russian revolutionary Vladimir Ilyich Lenin dies of a stroke at the age of 55.
1925 - Albania declares itself a republic.
1949 - Chiang Kai-Shek resigns from China presidency following Nationalist Party reversals.
1950 - Author George Orwell dies in London.
1954 - The first atomic submarine, the USS Nautilus, is launched at Groton, US.
1972 - Manipur, Meghalaya and Tripura become separate states in the Indian union.
1970 - World’s largest airplane, Boeing 747, makes its first commercial flight.
1976 - The supersonic Concorde jet is put into commercial service by Britain and France.
1977 - US President Jimmy Carter pardons almost all Vietnam War draft evaders.
1994 - Syrian President Hafez Assad’s eldest son Bassel Al Assad is killed in a car crash.
1998 - Pope John Paul II arrives on a historic five-day visit to Cuba.
2008 - Israel launches an advanced spy satellite that would be able to track events in Iran.
2009 - The US Senate confirms Hillary Rodham Clinton as Secretary of State.
2012 - Dutch teen Laura Dekker became the youngest sailor to complete a solo circumnavigation of the world.
2013 - US President Barack Obama takes his second oath of office at the US Capitol in Washington.
