June 25
1891 The first electric street cars began operating in Ottawa, Canada.
1924 Britain says it will not abandon Sudan, despite Egyptian demands for complete withdrawal.
1925 Theodoros Pangalos becomes President of Greece after seizing power in a bloodless coup.
1938 Dr Douglas Hyde becomes Ireland’s first president.
1942 British Royal Air Force stages a 1,000-bomber raid on Bremen, Germany, in the Second World War.
1950 Korean War begins with North Korea’s invasion of the Republic of Korea.
1959 The first commercially produced hovercraft makes its maiden flight from Cowes on the Isle of Wight in the UK.
1966 Vatican and Yugoslavia resume diplomatic relations.
1973 Erskine H. Childers becomes President of Ireland.
1975 Mozambique gains independence from Portugal.
1978 Argentina defeat Netherlands to win the football World Cup.
1979 Nato Supreme Allied Commander in Europe General Alexander Haig escapes an assassination attempt when a remote-controlled landmine exploded under his car.
1983 India wins the World Prudential Cup final at Lord’s, London.
1988 Iraq recaptures the oil-rich Majnoon islands from Iran.
1991 Yugoslav republics of Slovenia and Croatia declare their independence.
1993 Tansu Ciller, Turkey’s first female prime minister, forms a coalition government.
1995 Shaikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani becomes emir of Qatar.
1996 A truck bomb explodes in a US Air Force housing area near Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, killing 19 Americans and injuring 270.
1997 An unmanned Progress spacecraft collides with the Russian space station Mir.
1998 The South Korean navy has found nine bodies inside a captured North Korean submarine.
2000 Umm Al Quwain Museum, housed in the 232-year-old fort, is inaugurated.
2001 The ruling Socialist party in Albania claims victory.
2007 The final British troops withdraw from the Northern Ireland borderland, ending a 37-year mission.
2008 Nepal’s veteran Prime Minister Gijira Prasad Koirala resigns to pave way for a new Maoist-led government.
2009 Pop singer Michael Jackson is found dead at his home in Los Angeles.
2013 Crown Prince Shaikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani becomes emir of Qatar.
2014 Masked men kill Libyan women’s rights activist Salwa Bugaighis is in her home in Benghazi.
2015 First artificial heart transplant successful at Sharjah’s Al Qasimi Hospital.
HIGHLIGHT
1981
Lukman becomes chief of OPEC
OPEC oil producers have elected a new president but have yet to begin serious debate on oil output policy. On the first day of their conference on this Adriatic island, the 13 OPEC states unanimously elected Nigerian oil minister Rilwanu Lukman, a relative newcomer, as their chairman. He replaced Arturo Hernandez Grinsanti of Venezuela. Delegates said Lukman’s election at the opening session was unopposed, which they took as a good omen for the tough bargaining which lies ahead. Saudi Arabian minister Shaikh Ahmad Zaki Yamani said the second session, had been occupied with a general discussion on oil production, but no specific proposals aimed at restoring the price had been made. The ministers resume the conference in closed session with only one senior aide apiece. They are expected then to confront the deep divisions between them over whether to grab a larger market share by pumping more oil, or to force up prices by pumping less. Delegates said the conference atmosphere so far had been cordial and workmanlike.
