December 19
1907 - A coal mine explosion in Jacobs Creek, Pennsylvania, kills 239 workers.
1909 - Civil war erupts in Honduras.
1946 - War breaks out in Indochina as troops under Ho Chi Minh launch widespread attacks against the French.
1951 - New Treaty of Friendship is signed between Oman and Britain, recognising full independence of the sultanate.
1955 - Sudan’s parliament declares independence.
1957 - Britain and the Soviet Union sign an Air Services Agreement to launch an air service between London and Moscow.
1962 - Senegal’s President Leopold Senghor takes charge of the government in Dakar.
1963 - The Berlin Wall is opened for the first time, allowing West Berliners to visit family members in East Berlin during the Christmas season.
1966 - UN General Assembly endorses a draft treaty banning the use of mass destruction weapons in space.
1974 - Nelson A. Rockefeller is sworn in as Vice-President of US, replacing Gerald R. Ford, who became President.
1978 - Indian Parliament ousts former prime minister Indira Gandhi.
1980 - Two major power generating sets are inaugurated in the village of Hatta, Dubai.
1984 - Britain sign agreement with China handing Hong Kong over to Peking’s Communist rulers in 13 years’ time.
1990 - Albanian authorities formally recognise the country’s first noncommunist party.
1992 - Taiwan holds its first full legislative elections after retiring hundreds of lawmakers who were elected in China in 1949 and stayed in office.
1995 - The first Russian soldiers arrive in Bosnia for a Nato-led peacekeeping mission.
1996 - Former Indian Prime Minister Narasimha Rao steps down from his last government post after corruption charges.
1997 - Janet Jagan becomes the first female President of Guyana
1999 - China regains Macau after 442 years of Portuguese rule.
2003 - Libya to scrap weapons of mass destruction.
2007 - Former Hyundai CEO Lee Myung-bak claims victory in South Korea’s presidential election.
2011 - Kim Jong-un is named successor of his father Kim Jong-il as North Korean leader.
2012 - Park Geun-hye is elected as first woman president of South Korea.
2015 - Rwanda votes ‘yes’ to change the constitution to allow President Paul Kagame to potentially rule until 2034.
2016 - A gunman shoot and kills Andrei Karlov, Russian ambassador to Turkey as he gave a speech at a photo exhibition.
HIGHLIGHT
1992
Breakthrough in Saudi-Qatar talks
The Emir of Qatar Shaikh Khalifa Bin Hamad Al Thani and Saudi Arabia’s King Fahd held reconciliation talks in Madinah, arranged by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. After three days of intensive talks in the two countries that looked on the verge of collapse, Mubarak persuaded the Emir of Qatar to join him and the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques in what Egyptian diplomats described as a breakthrough. The surprise breakthrough was described by a source close to Mubarak’s delegation as “a slap in the face for Iran”. The sources said the breakthrough came after Mubarak gave his personal guarantees to the Emir that Egypt would ensure that his country’s border dispute with Saudi Arabia was dealt with actively and promptly. Qatar had complained that Riyadh had never implemented a 1965 border accord and consistently violated it. The sources said the Egyptian proposal would revive the accord. It would be supervised by a tripartite committee in which Egypt would join Saudi Arabia and Qatar in taking the necessary steps to implement the agreement.
