Mugabe sworn in for a second term
2002 - Zimbabwe’s re-elected President Robert Mugabe (left) took the oath of office, vowing to accelerate land reforms while exulting that the Zimbabwean people had triumphed over British neo-colonialism. In a speech mixing jubilant exhortations with defiant jabs at the West, which has widely rejected the legitimacy of last week’s election, Mugabe also called for national unity and pledged to speed up land redistribution. “We have dealt a stunning blow to imperialism,” said the former guerrilla who led Zimbabwe to independence from Britain in 1980.
Other important events
1521 - Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan reaches the Philippines.
1649 - England’s Parliament abolishes House of Lords.
1845 - Englishman Stephen Perry patents the rubber band.
1861 - Italy declares independence.
1888 - Britain establishes protectorate over Sarawak on Borneo.
1899 - Windsor luxury hotel in New York City catches fire, 92 die
1921 - Poland’s Constitution is established.
1942 - Gen Douglas MacArthur arrives in Australia to become supreme commander of Allied forces in the southwest Pacific theatre during Second World War.
1948 - Britain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg sign the Brussels Treaty, a 50-year alliance focusing on economic, social and military cooperation.
1957 - Ramon Magsaysay, president of the Philippines, is killed in a plane crash.
1959 - Dalai Lama flees Tibet for India.
1961 - South Africa leaves British Commonwealth.
1973 - Cambodian Air Force officer steals plane and bombs presidential palace in Phnom Penh.
1990 - The Bastille opera house in Paris, France is officially opened.
1991 - Millions of people vote for the first and only national referendum in Soviet Union.
1992 - A car bomb explodes at the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires, Argentina, killing 29 people.
1994 - Serbs and Muslims sign agreement to ease stranglehold on Bosnian capital of Sarajevo.
1997 - Janet Jagan becomes the first female Prime Minister of Guyana.
2000 - At least 230 members of a Ugandan doomsday cult set themselves ablaze.
2001 - Explosions at four workers’ dormitories kill 108 in China.
2003 - Shaikh Ahmad Bin Hasher Al Maktoum wins gold in the World Cup double trap event in India.
2010 - A bus plunges off a road in Hindu Kush mountains, Afghanistan, killing 35 people.
2013 - Shams 1, the world’s largest solar power, plant is inaugurated at Madinat Zayed, Abu Dhabi.
