2006 - Ex-dictator Augusto Pinochet, who ruled Chile from 1973-1990 and spent his old age fighting human rights, fraud and corruption charges, died a week after suffering a heart attack. Pinochet, 91, who was diabetic and had been in frail health for years, underwent bypass surgery after the heart attack. He was given Roman Catholic last rites and his son said the surgery had brought him back from the brink of death. Pinochet was under house arrest at the time of his recent heart attack, after being accused in the deaths of two bodyguards of former Chilean president Salvador Allende, whom he had ousted in a coup. Pinochet had issued a statement last month on his 91st birthday, suggesting he felt his death could be near.
Other important events:
1898 - The Treaty of Paris is signed, formally ending the Spanish-American War and granting the US its first overseas empire.
1899 - British forces are defeated by the Boers at Stromberg, South Africa.
1906 - US President Theodore Roosevelt becomes the first American to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
1931 - Jane Addams becomes a co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, the first American woman honoured.
1948 - United Nations General Assembly in Paris unanimously adopts the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
1958 - The first domestic passenger jet flight takes place in the United States as a National Airlines Boeing 707 flies 111 passengers from New York City to Miami.
1963 - Zanzibar becomes independent within the Commonwealth.
1964 - Dr Martin Luther King Jr receives the Nobel Peace Prize.
1967 - World’s first commercial thermonuclear blast takes place in the US state of New Mexico.
1979 - Government of Dubai takes over Dubai Electricity Company.
1983 - Democracy returns after seven years of dictatorship in Argentina, as Raul Alfonsin is sworn in as President.
1991 - The Maastricht Treaty, which established the European Union, is agreed by the leaders of 12 European nations.
1996 - South African President Nelson Mandela signs a new constitution.
1997 - Palestinians begin their first census in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
2003 - Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Iranian President Mohammad Khatami hold first meeting in 24 years in Geneva.
2007 - Cristina Fernandez is sworn in as Argentina’s first elected female President.
2008 - US-led air raid kills six policemen by mistake in Afghanistan.
2009 - US President Barack Obama receives the Nobel Peace Prize at the City Hall in Oslo.
2014 - Palestinian minister Ziad Abu Ain dies after Israeli forces attack a protest march in the occupied West Bank.
