1996 - New Socialist Prime Minister Costas Simitis called on all Greeks to join his struggle to build a strong nation with a new role in Europe and the Balkans. “The fight which is just beginning is not only our fight, it is a battle involving all Greeks, including those who did not vote for us,” Simitis, 60, said in a televised statement. “Everyone must put forward ideas and work to steer Greece into the 21st century, into a new role, a new image and a new voice,” he added. Earlier, black-clad Orthodox priests chanted a blessing for the new four-year government. A reserved technocrat who studied Economics in Germany and Britain, Simitis guided the socialists safely into a new era when he succeeded party founder and legend Andreas Papandreou as Prime Minister.
Other important events
1890 - Sequoia National Park is established in California, US.
1955 - The Royal Jordanian Air Force is founded.
1956 - TAT-1, the first submarine transatlantic telephone cable system, is inaugurated.
1959 - Sri Lankan Prime Minister S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike is assassinated.
1966 - Two typhoons hit Japan, leaving more than 300 people dead and missing.
1978 - PSA Flight 182, a Boeing 727-214, collides in mid-air with a Cessna 172 and crashes in San Diego, California, resulting in the deaths of 144 people.
1979 - Pakistan votes in its first elections to be held since the armed forces came to power in July 1977.
1981 - Sandra Day O’Connor is sworn in as the first female US Supreme Court justice.
1983 - Syria and Saudi Arabia arrive at a ceasefire agreement for Lebanon.
1984 - Jordan resumes diplomatic relations with Egypt, ending a five-year boycott.
1989 - Vietnamese troops complete their final withdrawal from Cambodia.
1995 - New Zealand volcano Mount Ruapehu bursts angrily into life.
1996 - At least 40 Palestinians and 11 Israelis are killed in a fight triggered by Israel creating a new opening to an archaeological tunnel in occupied Jerusalem.
1997 - The Palestinian National Authority shuts down 17 Hamas institutions and arrests 13 activists.
2005 - A US military helicopter crashes during an anti-militant operation in Afghanistan, killing all five American crew members.
2006 - Gunmen kill the southern provincial head of Afghanistan’s Ministry of Women’s Affairs, Safia Ama Jan, outside her home.
2007 - Yasuo Fukuda, a dovish lawmaker, takes over as Prime Minister of Japan.
2008 - Kgalema Motlanthe becomes the third President of South Africa since the end of white rule.
2011- Nineteen people are killed after a plane crash-lands in Nepal.
2012 - An Antonov AN-72 military transport plane crashes in Kazakhstan, killing all 27 people on board.
