Amato wins crucial confidence vote
1993 - Italian Prime Minister Giuliano Amato won a vital confidence vote after seeing one of his severest critics become the latest victim of the country’s growing bribery scandal. Amato won the vote 310-265 with nine abstentions. It was the 11th time his Labour-party coalition had survived such a vote in eight months. Closing speeches in the confidence debate had earlier been interrupted as MPs reacted in disbelief to the news that Giorgio La Malfa, leader of the small but influential Republican Party had resigned in the wake of the scandal. La Malfa, who quit after being officially warned of being suspected of breaking party financing laws, is the second party leader to resign under a cloud this month after Socialist secretary Bettino Craxi.
February 25
1713 - Sweden’s King Charles XII is taken prisoner by the Ottoman Sultan.
1793 - US President George Washington convenes the first Cabinet meeting.
1836 - American inventor Samuel Colt patents his revolver.
1913 - The 16th Amendment of the US Constitution, authorising income tax, goes into effect.
1947 - Prussia officially becomes part of Germany.
1951 - The first Pan American Games are held in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
1955 - Britain completes construction of HMS Ark Royal, its largest-ever aircraft carrier.
1964 - American boxer Muhammad Ali defeats heavyweight champion Sonny Liston in Miami Beach.
1976 - US vetoes UN resolution deploring Israel’s annexation of Jerusalem.
1986 - Philippines President Ferdinand E. Marcos resigns and flees to US air base.
1988 - India tests surface-to-surface missile joining US, Soviet Union, China and France.
1993 - Kim Young-sam becomes President of South Korea, the first civilian president since 1960.
1994 - Jewish colonist Baruch Goldstein massacres 30 Palestinians in Hebron.
1998 - Veteran pro-democracy campaigner Kim Dae-jung becomes President of South Korea.
2002 - Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai is accused of treason over an alleged plot to kill President Robert Mugabe.
2003 - Pakistani bowler Wasim Akram creates one-day cricket history at Boland Park by becoming the first to take 500 wickets.
2005 - Argentina completes biggest debt restructuring in history.
2006 - A six-storey building collapses in Dhaka, Bangladesh, killing 20 people.
2013 - Park Geun-hye is inaugurated as South Korea’s new President.
2015 - Dubai unveils 16 car-charging stations for hybrid and electric cars for public use.
2016 - Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt walks free from prison, after ending 23 years of legal troubles over his possession of an assault rifle.
2017 - Palestinian singer Yacoub Shaheen crowned ‘Arab Idol’ for the fourth time.
