1997 - Arab states hit back hard at Israeli policy on Jewish colonies and Arab territory with a surprise decision to stop normal relations and bring back the old economic boycott of the Jewish state. Arab foreign ministers, at the end of a two-day meeting in Cairo, said they would also close down Israeli missions and withdraw from multilateral talks on Middle East peace. It is the most decisive and concerted step that the Arabs have taken since Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took office on a platform that challenged what Arabs saw as the basic principles of peace talks. The immediate cause was Netanyahu’s decision to go ahead with a Jewish housing colony at Jabal Abu Ganem or Har Homa in occupied East Jerusalem.
Other important events
1683 - Poland forms alliance with Holy Roman Empire against Turks.
1854 - United States Commodore Perry signs the treaty of Kanagawa with Japan, opening two Japanese ports to trade with the outside world.
1889 - French engineer Alexandre Gustave Eiffel unfurls the French tricolour from atop the Eiffel Tower on its completion.
1917 - United States takes possession of the Virgin Islands from Denmark.
1946 - The first election is held in Greece after the Second World War.
1979 - Arab League imposes economic boycott of Egypt.
1980 - Jesse Owens, the black track star, dies of lung cancer at the age of 66.
1986 - A Mexican airliner carrying 166 people crashes in flames near the capital, Mexico City, killing all on board.
1992 - United Nations Security Council imposes aviation, arms and diplomatic sanctions against Libya.
1994 - Al Ain International Airport is officially inaugurated.
1998 - A plane carrying Britain’s Leeds United football team crash-land in flames just after takeoff at Stansted airport, no casualties reported.
2007 - The first Earth Hour is held in Sydney, Australia.
2012 - Syria rejects international envoy Kofi Annan’s call for the regime to halt violence just days after the government agrees to a ceasefire plan.
2014 - Anne Hidalgo becomes first female mayor of Paris.
2015 - Muhammadu Buhari wins Nigeria presidential election.
2016 - A flyover under construction in Kolkata collapses, killing at least 25 people.
