2001 - Former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic (centre) defied the United Nations war crimes tribunal, flatly refusing to respond to charges of genocide for atrocities in the bloody Bosnian war, the court’s gravest accusation against him. Milosevic, who has repeatedly refused to recognise the legality of the UN court in The Hague, said the genocide charge — the most serious of war crimes — was outrageous. “This tragic text is a supreme absurdity,” he said, when presiding judge Richard May asked him whether he planned to plead guilty or not guilty to the indictment read out to him in court. “I should be credited with peace in Bosnia, not for war,” he said. The Bosnia indictment charges Milosevic with 29 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Other important events
1769 - King Prithpi Narayan Shad creates a united nation of Nepal by capturing the last of its 24 states.
1792 - France’s King Louis XVI faces charges of treason. He is convicted, and executed the following month.
1816 - Indiana becomes the 19th state of the USA.
1853 - Britain annexes Nagpur, one of India’s key states.
1878 - French-British dual control in Egypt is suspended.
1937 - Italy withdraws from League of Nations.
1941 - Germany and Italy declare war on the US during the Second World War.
1946 - The UN International Children’s Emergency Fund (Unicef) is established.
1972 - US Apollo 17 astronauts land on the moon and begin an extensive exploration of the lunar surface.
1981 - The UN Security Council chooses Javier Perez de Cuellar of Peru to be its fifth Secretary-General
1984 - Margham gas processing facility is inaugurated in Dubai.
1991 - Leaders of 12 European Community nations agree to establish loose federation with common foreign policy and single currency by 1999.
1995 - Israeli troops withdraw from Nablus as about 100 Palestinian police arrive to take control of the largest town in West Bank.
1997 - Sharjah cricket stadium stages its first match under floodlights.
2000 - Dubai Natural Gas Co Ltd (Dugas) ownership is transferred to Enoc.
2004 - Ukrainian presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko is poisoned with dioxin.
2006 - Prince Turki Al Faisal, Saudi Ambassador to the US, resigns from his post.
2007 - North and South Korea begin a regular train service for the first time in 50 years.
2010 - British boxer Amir Khan retains the WBA super lightweight title after beating Marcos Maidana.
2012 - Malian Prime Minister Cheick Modibo Diarra resigns after his arrest by soldiers.
2013 - An inferno ravages the Rongjian Agricultural Wholesale Market in Shenzhen, kills 16 people.
2014 - A new cruise passenger terminal is inaugurated at Port Rashid in Dubai.
