2003 - Arnold Schwarzenegger was sworn in as California’s 38th Governor by California Chief Justice Ronald George. In his first speech as governor, he positioned himself as a populist reformer who would cut through the state’s political dysfunction to restore its fiscal health and revive its economy. The Republican cast the October recall election as a mandate to change not only the occupant of the governor’s office, but “the entire political climate of this state”. Laying out his initial goals, he pledged to work with Democrats and “put aside years of partisan bitterness”. Much as he did in his abbreviated campaign for the governorship, Schwarzenegger suggested that optimistic and firm-handed leadership will be the key to polishing the lustre of the state.
Other important events:
1558 - Elizabeth I becomes Queen of England after the death of Mary I.
1800 - John Adams becomes the first US President to live in the White House.
1831 - New Grenada becomes an independent state.
1869 - Suez Canal opens in Egypt, linking Mediterranean Sea and Red Sea.
1929 - Pascual Ortiz Rubio is elected President of Mexico.
1950 - Tenzin Gyatso, aged 15, is enthroned as the 14th Dalai Lama.
1954 - General Jamal Abdul Nasser becomes head of state in Egypt.
1963 - Army in Iraq revolts and sets up new revolutionary government headed by Abdul Salam Arif.
1967 - French author Regis Debray is sentenced to 30 years in prison in Bolivia.
1969 - The Strategic Arms Limitation Talks between the United States and Russia begin in Helsinki, Finland.
1970 - The Soviet Luna 17, an unmanned and remote-controlled vehicle, lands on the moon.
1971 - Vemij Thanon Kittikachorn seizes power in Thailand.
1972 - Former Argentine dictator Juan D. Peron returns to his homeland after 17 years in exile.
1988 - Benazir Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party scores solid victory in parliamentary elections.
1991 - Indian Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao is elected to parliament.
1993 - South African leaders endorse a new constitution to end apartheid.
1997 - Militants kill at least 70 people, including 60 foreign tourists, outside an ancient temple in Luxor, Egypt.
2001 - Kosovo votes in a landmark election to give the Yugoslav province self-governing powers.
2007 - Australian batsmen Adam Gilchrist establishes a record as the first person to hit 100 sixes in Test cricket.
2008 - Iraq signs a pact allowing US troops to stay until 2011.
2014 - China and Australia seal a landmark free trade agreement more than a decade in the making, significantly expanding ties between them.
2015 - Australia fast bowler Mitchell Johnson retires from all forms of international cricket.
