July 16, 1980: Samaranch elected as IOC president

Samaranch elected as IOC president

1980 - Juan Antonio Samaranch of Spain was elected president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). He will succeed Lord Killanin of Ireland when the flame goes out at the end of the Moscow Games and will serve for eight years. Samaranch won a clear majority on the first ballot of the IOC election. It is believed 75 of the IOCs 85 members were present. There were four other candidates — James Worrall of Canada, Willi Daume of West Germany, Marc Hodler of Switzerland and Lance Cross of New Zealand. According to IOC traditions, the voting was secret and no figures were released. Samaranch, a dapper and handsome-looking industrialist is a former president of the Barcelona city parliament. He was elected to the IOC in 1967.

July 16

1809 - Revolt breaks out in upper Peru against Spanish authority.

1910 - John Robertson Duigan makes the first flight of the Duigan pusher biplane, the first aircraft built in Australia.

1918 - Russia’s Czar Nicholas II, his wife and their five children are executed by the Bolsheviks.

1921 - Greek forces defeat Turks at Kutania in Turkey.

1925 - First elected parliament in Iraq opens in Baghdad.

1935 - The world’s first parking meter is installed in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

1945 - First atomic bomb is exploded by the US over the desert in New Mexico.

1948 - The Vickers Viscount, the world’s first turbine-propeller aircraft, makes its maiden flight in Australia.

1951 - Belgium’s King Leopold III abdicates and is succeeded by his son Baudouin.

1965 - The Mont Blanc Tunnel linking France and Italy opens.

1969 - US Apollo 11 spacecraft is launched from Florida.

1979 - Saddam Hussain takes over as President of Iraq.

1981 - Dr Mahathir Mohammad is sworn in as Malaysian Prime Minister.

1995 - Amazon.com opens its website to the public.

1999 - John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife and her sister are killed when their single-engine plane crashes into the Atlantic Ocean.

2004 - A major fire sweeps through a school complex in Tamil Nadu, killing 90 schoolchildren.

2012 - An Indian fisherman dies and three other compatriots are injured after a US ship fires on their small boat off Jebel Ali Port.

2014 - UAE announces launch of its Mars probe by 2021, making it the first Arab country to make the 60 million-kilometre journey.