Erich Honecker, former East German leader, was seeking refuge in the Chilean Embassy in Moscow, his latest sanctuary in an epic flight from justice.
Russian authorities have ordered him to leave the country. Honecker, 79, condemned efforts to extradite him as breaking international law.
A statement made no mention of any request for asylum in Chile, where his daughter is married to a prominent Leftist politician. Embassy staff insisted that Honecker was “a guest” in the ambassador’s residence.
If deported to Germany, he will face charges of manslaughter in connection with the shooting of fugitives fleeing East to West across the old German border. “I have requested political asylum in the Soviet Union because I am politically persecuted,” the statement said.
Other important events:
1642 Dutch navigator Abel Tasman discovers New Zealand.
1677 Denmark’s King Christian V is defeated by Swedish forces at Cassel, Germany.
1800 The capital of United States is moved from Philadelphia to Washington DC.
1804 Spain declares war on Britain.
1870 Joseph Hayne Rainey of South Carolina takes his seat in the US House of Representatives, becoming the first black Congressman.
1894 Japanese troops invade Korea.
1899 African-American George Grant receives the first patent for a golf tee.
1913 The Mona Lisa is recovered in Italy, two years after it was stolen from the Louvre museum in Paris.
1915 The German Junkers J1, the first all metal plane, flies for the first time.
1920 Martial law is declared in Cork, Ireland.
1963 Kenya becomes independent from the United Kingdom.
1968 Arthur Ashe becomes the first African American to be ranked number one in tennis.
1975 Sara Jane Moore pleads guilty to trying to kill US President Gerald Ford.
1979 Rhodesia becomes independent nation of Zimbabwe-Rhodesia.
1984 Mauritania’s armed forces chief-of-staff, Colonel Mouawiya Ould Sidi Ahmad Taya, seizes power in a bloodless coup.
1985 A chartered DC-8 carrying US soldiers crashes on take-off from Gander airport, killing all 248 military personnel and eight crew on board.
1988 Three trains collide during morning rush hour in south London, killing at least 36 people.
1993 József Antall, first democratically elected Prime Minister of Hungary, dies.
1994 The Brazilian Supreme Court acquits former President Fernando Collor de Mello of corruption charges.
1996 India and Bangladesh share water of the Ganges.
1997 A pre-dawn fire damages part of Terminal One of London Heathrow International Airport, disrupting hundreds of flights.
2003 Paul Martin, Jr. becomes Prime Minister of Canada.
2005 Gibran Tueni, Lebanese journalist and politician, is assassinated.
2006 Prince Turki Al Faisal resigns as Saudi Ambassador to the US, after 15 months in the post.
2007 A car bomb kills one of Lebanon’s top generals, Brigadier-General Francois Hajj, and his driver.
2012 Khalifa Port is inaugurated in Abu Dhabi.
2013 Bangladesh executes Abdul Qader Mulla, 65, a senior leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami party for war crimes during 1971 war of independence.
2015 195 nations adopt historic Paris pact to stop global warming.
