Russian President Boris Yeltsin seized control of the Kremlin, the Soviet Foreign and Interior ministries and secret police, ignoring President Mikhail Gorbachev’s pleas for a “legal” transfer of authority.
A series of decrees was signed before Yeltsin flew to Italy. He stripped the Soviet government of all its organs except the ministries of Defence and Atomic Energy.
Russian authorities were ordered to take over all Gorbachev’s official assets, including foreign currency, and the Inter-republican Economic Committee, which has sought to manage the economy for the past few months.
The report gave no time frame. There was no word on the status of Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze or to whom Soviet ambassadors would report.
Other important events:
1907 A coal mine explosion in Jacobs Creek, Pennsylvania, kills 239 workers.
1909 Civil war erupts in Honduras.
1946 War breaks out in Indochina as troops under Ho Chi Minh launch widespread attacks against the French.
1951 New Treaty of Friendship is signed between Oman and Britain, recognising full independence of the sultanate.
1955 Sudan’s parliament declares independence.
1962 Senegal’s President Leopold Senghor takes charge of the government in Dakar.
1963 The Berlin Wall is opened for the first time, allowing West Berliners to visit family members in East Berlin during the Christmas season.
1966 UN General Assembly endorses a draft treaty banning the use of mass destruction weapons in space.
1974 Nelson A. Rockefeller is sworn in as Vice-President of US, replacing Gerald R. Ford, who became President.
1978 Indian Parliament ousts former prime minister Indira Gandhi.
1980 Two major power generating sets are inaugurated in the village of Hatta, Dubai.
1984 Britain signs agreement with China handing Hong Kong over to Peking’s Communist rulers in 13 years’ time.
1990 Albanian authorities formally recognise the country’s first non-communist party.
1992 Taiwan holds its first full legislative elections after retiring hundreds of lawmakers who were elected in China in 1949 and stayed in office.
1994 Russian forces bomb Chechnya’s capital Grozny and edged closer to the city in the fiercest fighting.
1995 The first Russian soldiers arrive in Bosnia for a Nato-led peacekeeping mission.
1996 Former Indian Prime Minister Narasimha Rao steps down from his last government post after corruption charges.
1999 China regains Macau after 442 years of Portuguese rule.
2003 Libya to scrap weapons of mass destruction.
2006 A Libyan court convicts five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor and condemns them to death for infecting 400 children with HIV.
2007 Former Hyundai CEO Lee Myung-bak claims victory in South Korea’s presidential election.
2010 Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar becomes the first batsman to score 50 Test Centuries.
2011 Kim Jong-un is named successor of his father Kim Jong-il as North Korean leader.
2012 Park Geun-hye is elected as first woman president of South Korea.
2015 Rwanda votes ‘yes’ to change the constitution to allow President Paul Kagame to potentially rule until 2034.
