1987 - Costa Rican President Oscar Arias Sanchez won the 1987 Nobel Peace prize for his role as architect of a peace plan for troubled Central American states, the Oslo-based Nobel committee said. Arias, 46, the youngest-ever president of a tiny country that has had no armed forces since 1948, was a surprise winner and had not been on the prize committee’s shortlist. Since taking office in 1986 as Costa Rica’s 47th president, Arias has assumed the role of peacemaker in Central America. “As the main architect of the peace plan, President Arias made an outstanding contribution to the possible return of stability and peace to a region long torn by strife and civil war,” committee chairman Egil Aarvik commented.
Other important events
1792 - The cornerstone of the Executive Mansion, later known as the White House, is laid during a ceremony in Washington, DC.
1880 - Transvaal declares independence from Britain.
1889 - Boers rebel against British in South Africa.
1923 - Ankara becomes new capital of Turkey.
1942 - The Soviet Union and Australia establish diplomatic relations.
1943 - Italy declares war on former Axis partner Germany.
1952 - Egypt reaches agreement with Sudan on Nile waters.
1970 - Canada and China announce they will establish diplomatic relations.
1981 - Vice-president Hosni Mubarak is elected Egypt President.
1986 - Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II begins her visit to China.
1988 - Egyptian author Najeeb Mahfouz becomes the first Arabic-language writer to win the Nobel Prize for Literature.
1990 - General Michel Aoun, the Christian army commander, surrenders power in the face of a Syrian-led military attack during the civil war.
1992 - The pyramids, the Sphinx and other monuments survive Cairo earthquake that kills at least 400 and injures more than 4,000.
1993 - Andreas Papandreou becomes the Prime Minister of Greece.
1996 - British racing driver Damon Hill wins the 1996 Formula One world championship.
1997 - British Prime Minister Tony Blair has a historic handshake with Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams.
2001 - President Hosni Mubarak issues an order that 83 suspected Islamic militants stand trial in Egypt’s state security court.
2004 - Leading Turkish militant Metin Kaplan, known as the ‘Caliph of Cologne’ is charged by a criminal court in Istanbul.
2010 - Chile rescues 33 miners trapped for a record ten weeks.
2011 - Raj Rajaratnam, the hedge fund billionaire is sentenced to 11 years behind bars for insider-trading scam in US.
2014 - Colombo-Jaffna rail link reopens after 24 years.
2016 - Thailand’s King Bhumibol Adulyadej dies at the age of 88.
