US President Bill Clinton announced the resignation of Secretary of State Warren Christopher, clearing the way for the appointment of a successor who will take up the post in January. “Today it is with great regret at his departure but deep gratitude for his service to our administration and to our country that I have accepted Warren Christopher’s decision to step down as secretary of state,” Clinton told a White House news conference. Clinton praised Christopher for his “quiet dignity” that he said “masked a steely determination” and said he would stay on until a successor was chosen. Christopher, a 71-year-old lawyer from California, was the first cabinet member to announce he will not serve in the administration as it heads into a second term.
Other important events:
1733
Spain and France sign the Treaty of Escurial and form an alliance against England.
1912
Russia and Outer Mongolia sign a treaty securing Mogolia’s autonomy.
1916
Woodrow Wilson is re-elected for a second term in the US presidential election.
1919
Socialists depose the king of Bavaria, ending the rule of one of Europe’s oldest dynasties, and proclaim a republic.
1944
US President Franklin D. Roosevelt wins an unprecedented fourth term in office, defeating Thomas E. Dewey.
1950
The king of Nepal is deposed by the state’s hereditary prime minister. The king’s 3-year-old grandson, Prince Gyanendra, is installed as ruler.
1956
British and French declare a ceasefire in Egypt.
1967
Carl Stokes is elected the first black mayor of Cleveland, Ohio.
1972
Richard M. Nixon is re-elected as US president.
1982
Turkey adopts constitution.
1987
Tunisian President Habib Bourguiba is replaced by Zine Al Abidine Bin Ali.
1988
Powerful earthquake just inside China’s mountainous southern border kills 600 people.
1989
East German Prime Minister Willi Stoph and the entire cabinet are forced to resign after massive pro-democracy protests.
1990
Indian prime minister V.P. Singh resigns when his 11-month old National Front government lost a vote of confidence in parliament.
1996
A Nigerian airliner carrying 141 people crashes into swampland east of Lagos, killing all aboard.
1997
Kenyan President Daniel Arap Moi signs a package of reforms aimed at making Kenya a multi-party democracy.
1998
The space shuttle Discovery ends its historic nine-day mission with US Senator John Glenn and an international team of astronauts aboard.
2000
Americans choose Republican George W. Bush as president over Democratic Vice-President Al Gore by 537 votes.
2005
Former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori is arrested in Chile on charges involving corruption and massacres.
2006
Tajikistan’s authoritarian president, Emomali Rakhmonov, wins a new seven-year term in an election.
2011
Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega is re-elected in a landslide.
2012
Michael Jackson’s doctor is convicted of involuntary manslaughter after a trial.
2013
Russia launches into space a trio of Russian, Japanese and US astronauts carrying an unlit Olympic torch on a spacewalk to mark the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi.
2015
First batch of Emirati troops comes back from Yemen as part of Saudi-led operations — Decisive Storm and Restoring Hope.
