October 23, 1980: Kosygin resigns due to ill health

Kosygin resigns due to ill health

1980 - Alexei Kosygin, Soviet Prime Minister for the past 16 years and once a major figure on the world diplomatic stage, bowed out of the Kremlin leadership and was replaced by his First Deputy Nikolai Tikhonov. The resignation of the 76-year-old Kosygin, ailing since a severe heart attack exactly a year ago, was announced in his absence to a session of the country’s parliament, the Supreme Soviet by President and Communist Party chief Leonid Brezhnev. As the two-day session moved to a close after hearing a low-key report on the state of the economy whose fortunes Kosygin had so long guided, Brezhnev rose to say he had received a resignation letter from the prime minister. The Kremlin chief then proposed that Kosygin be replaced by Tikhonov.

October 23

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1989 - Hungary is officially proclaimed a free republic following the end of Communist rule.

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1994 - Sri Lankan leader Gamini Dissanayake is assassinated in a bomb blast in Colombo.

1997 - South Africa’s Nelson Mandela receives a hero’s welcome in Libya, and calls for the United Nations to lift sanctions that are harming “our African brothers and sisters.”

1998 - A Palestinian-Israeli interim peace accord is signed at the White House.

2001 - Indonesia’s parliament passes a bill granting the rebellious province of Irian Jaya sweeping autonomy.

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