1983 - Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) Chairman Yasser Arafat was declared persona non grata by the Syrian government and ordered out of the country under threat of being forcibly ejected. The abrupt move came after the PLO leader accused Syrian forces of encircling his forces in east Lebanon. Syria said Arafat was ordered out of the country for making false accusations. Syria has denied militarily backing the dissidents opposed to Arafat within the PLO. Arafat, who had come to Damascus from the north Lebanon city of Tripoli several hours earlier, was handed a letter from the Syrian army chief-of-staff.
Other important events
1793 - First republican constitution in France is adopted.
1894 - France’s President Sadi Carnot is assassinated by an Italian anarchist at Lyon.
1911 - John McDermott becomes the first American-born player to win the US Open golf tournament.
1913 - Joseph Cook named prime minister of Australia.
1917 - Russia’s Black Sea fleet mutinies at Sevastopol in the Crimea.
1975 - An Eastern Airlines Boeing 727 crashes at New York’s JFK International Airport, killing 113 people.
1978 - Yemen’s President Ahmad Hussain Gashemi is killed in Yemen by a bomb.
1989 - Jiang Zemin is elected general secretary of the Communist Party of China.
2000 - Actor David Tomlinson dies at 83.
2005 - Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is elected president of Iran.
2010 - Julia Gillard beats Kevin Rudd to become the first woman and 27th prime minister of Australia.
