March 6, 1996: Yilmaz back as Turkey’s Prime Minister

Yilmaz back as Turkish Prime Minister

1996 - Conservative Motherland Party leader Mesut Yilmaz (above) formally became Turkey’s new Prime Minister when President Sulaiman Demirel ratified his cabinet. “President Demirel has just ratified the new government led by myself,” Yilmaz said after a meeting with Demirel. “This will be a government of reforms and I hope it will solve the problems of Turkey,” he said. Demirel’s approval reinstates Yilmaz as Prime Minister after just over four years and paves the way for a parliamentary vote of confidence next week. The conservatives fell short of an absolute majority in the 550-seat assembly and have the grudging support of a Left-wing party. Yilmaz signed a coalition protocol with his former political foe Tansu Ciller, the outgoing prime minister.

March 6

1834 - The city of York in Upper Canada is incorporated as Toronto.

1922 - US prohibits exports of arms to China.

1953 - Georgi Malenkov succeeds the late Joseph Stalin as Prime Minister of the Soviet Union.

1957 - Israeli troops hand over Gaza Strip to United Nations force.

1957 - Gold Coast and Togoland form independent West African nation of Ghana.

1964 - American heavyweight boxing champion Cassius Clay changes his name to Mohammad Ali.

1981 - Hijackers shoot and kill one of their 116 hostages aboard a Pakistani airliner at Kabul airport and throw him onto the tarmac.

1988 - Thousands of Tibetans demanding independence light fires throughout their capital city of Lhasa.

1990 - Afghan Defence Minister Shahnawaz Tanai leads an unsuccessful coup attempt against the government of Najibullah.

1999 - An Air France Boeing 747 freighter with faulty landing gear ploughs into the runway at Chennai and bursts into flames.

2003 - An Air Algerie plane crashes after taking off from the Sahara desert town of Tamanrasset, killing 102 passengers aboard.

2006 - Kuwait’s parliament approves a new press law that takes away the government’s right to close down newspapers without court ruling.

2007 - Merger of Emirates Bank International and National Bank of Dubai creates UAE’s largest bank.

2010 - Iran signs three security agreements with Qatar, Oman and Kuwait.

2013 - Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez dies after a two-year battle with cancer.

2014 - A Nato air strike in eastern Afghanistan accidentally kills five Afghan soldiers.