1997 - Czech President Vaclav Havel married actress Dagmar Veskrnova in a private ceremony, his office confirmed. “The wedding was performed in the absence of public and media at the Municipality of Prague 3. Veskrnova, 44, is a popular TV, theatre and film actress with a full-time job in one of Prague’s leading theatres. She has been divorced since 1980 and has a 20-year-old daughter from her first marriage. Havel, 60, a former dissident playwright who became president after the overthrow of communism in 1989, is a widower. His wife Olga died of cancer last January after 32 years of marriage. In his traditional New Year’s speech he spoke of Olga, to whom he wrote numerous letters from jail that were published as a book in the West, as his “closest human being”.
Other important events
1717 - The Netherlands, Great Britain and France sign the Triple Alliance.
1762 - Britain declares war against Spain and Naples.
1865 - The New York Stock Exchange is moved to its first permanent headquarters at 10–12 Broad Street.
1885 - The first successful appendectomy is performed in the US.
1908 - Mulai Hafid is proclaimed Sultan of Morocco at Fez.
1918 - France’s former prime minister Joseph Caillaux is arrested for treason.
1919 - Russian Bolsheviks capture Riga, Latvia.
1932 - Indian government introduces emergency powers as Indian National Congress is de-clared illegal.
1948 - Britain grants independence to Burma.
1951 - North Korean and Chinese forces capture Seoul during the Korean War.
1962 - First unmanned subway train runs in New York.
1973 - Montreal Museum of Fine Arts is robbed of $2 million worth of art, including a Rembrandt valued at $1 million.
1990 - Pakistan’s worst-ever railway disaster when the Karachi-bound train rams a stationary goods train near Sukkur, at least 350 people are killed.
1998 - Swedish police arrest 314 people after violence erupts at a neo-Nazi concert outside Stockholm.
1999 - The euro single currency is launched.
2001 - India successfully test flies its long-delayed frontline Light Combat Aircraft (LCA).
2002 - Massive 7.3 earthquake hits Vanuatu, an island in the Pacific Ocean.
