January 2, 1991: Dixon sworn in as Mayor of Washington

Dixon sworn in as Mayor of Washington

1991 - Sharon Pratt Dixon promised Washingtonians an “honest deal” after she was sworn in as the US capital’s third Mayor since Congress granted it home rule 17 years ago. “Our immediate responsibility is to give the people of this city the government they deserve and respect,” Dixon told an audience of several thousand people after she took the oath of office in front of the District Building. Standing on a box so that she would be plainly visible behind the lectern as she spoke, the diminutive Dixon became a national political figure: The first black woman to become mayor of a major American city. The change in Washington’s political picture perhaps was sketched most clearly when Dixon was handed the city’s seal by her predecessor, Marion S. Barry Jr.

January 2

1870 - Construction begins on the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City.

1932 - Manchukuo Republic is proclaimed in Manchuria, China.

1942 - Japanese capture Philippines capital Manila during the Second World War.

1955 - Panamanian President Jose Antonio Remon Cantera is killed at the Franco race track in Panama City.

1967 - Ronald Reagan is sworn in as Governor of California

1971 - Sixty-six people suffocate when crowd barrier gives way at a football match in Glasgow, Scotland.

1959 - Luna 1, the first spacecraft to reach the vicinity of the Moon and to orbit the Sun, is launched by the USSR.

1974 - US President Richard Nixon signs the federal law, forcing states to set maximum speed limits of 55 miles (88.5km) per hour.

1982 - The new Abu Dhabi International Airport is inaugurated as the first flight by Gulf Air from Bahrain lands with 58 passengers.

1993 - Burhanuddin Rabbani is sworn in as Afghan President at an official ceremony in Kabul.

2001 - Taiwan and China launch their first direct links since the Communists won the civil war 50 years ago.

2008 - Justin Gatlin, the 100-metre Olympic champion, is suspended for four years for a doping violation and forfeits his former 100-metre world record run.

2009 - Shaikh Rashid Bin Ahmad Al Mualla, Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Umm Al Quwain, dies in London.

2010 - Afghan parliament rejects 17 of 24 cabinet nominees of President Hamid Karzai, including several close allies and former guerrilla commander Esmail Khan.

2013 - The first phase of Dubai’s dedicated terminal for A380 superjumbos opens at Dubai International Airport.