A delighted Mother Teresa was replaced as head of the Missionaries of Charity in Kolkata after almost half a century, to allow an Indian nun to take charge. The 86-year-old Nobel Peace laureate, suffering from life-threatening heart problems, stood down to make way for Sister Nirmala, a Hindu convert who was elected after almost two months of deliberations. A brief statement from the Missionaries of Charity, meanwhile, confirmed that Mother Teresa would continue to play a key role, adding: “Mother remains as Mother and the foundress. Sister Nirmala is the new superior general.” Mother Teresa set up the order in 1950 to help the poor and destitute in the slums of Calcutta (now Kolkata) before setting up homes worldwide.
1639 Harvard University is named for clergyman John Harvard.
1714 Battle of Storkyro leads to Russian domination of Finland.
1781 Sir William Herschel discovers Uranus.
1808 Danish crown prince Frederick VI ascends the throne following the death of his father Christian VII.
1809 Swedish king Gustav IV is driven from power in a coup.
1881 Russia’s Czar Alexander II is assassinated by radical terrorists who demand a constitutional government in Russia.
1868 The impeachment trial of US President Andrew Johnson begins in the US Senate.
1900 British forces under Frederick Roberts capture Bloemfontein, South Africa.
1901 Former US president Benjamin Harrison dies in Indianapolis at the age of 67.
1913 New Australian federal capital officially named Canberra.
1938 Germany annexes Austria.
1974 Arab nations agree to end five-month oil embargo against US.
1979 Socialists in Grenada stage a bloodless coup.
1988 The Seikan Tunnel is officially opened in Japan.
1991 UAE troops returning from Kuwait get royal welcome.
1992 A 6.2 magnitude earthquake rocks Erzincan, Turkey, claiming at least 570 lives.
1993 Prime Minister Paul Keating claims victory in Australia’s general election.
1996 A gunman in Dunblane, Scotland, shoots to death 16 children and a teacher.
1997 A military cargo plane crashes in the mountains in north-eastern Iran, killing all 88 people on board.
1998 South Korean President Kim Dae-jung rants amnesty to some 5 million South Koreans.
2000 Chechen warlord Salman Raduyev is captured in a secret operation in Moscow.
2002 Angola’s government announces a ceasefire in its 27-year civil war against the rebel National Union for the total Independence of Angola.
2007 Somalia’s President Abdullahi Yusuf comes under mortar attack in his palace, which kills seven people.
2008 Serbia’s president dissolves parliament and calls an early election.
2012 A ferry capsizes at suburban Munshiganj area and kills at least 34 passengers.
2013 Jorge Mario Bergoglio is elected as the new Pope.
2016 A car bomb rips through a busy square in central Ankara, Turkey, killing at least 27 people.
