1997 - Croatian President Franjo Tudjman won a convincing re-election that endorsed his post-Communist drive to align the former Yugoslav republic with the West. He pledged his immediate priority would be to attack low living standards hit by war and recession. With just over 90 per cent of votes counted, Tudjman had won more than 61 per cent of the vote with Social Democrat Zdravko Tomac on 21 per cent and Vlado Gotovac of the Social Liberal Party on just under 18 per cent. His position is now stronger than ever, with his ruling HDZ party also entrenched in parliament and local government. The opposition challenge suffered because of infighting and public doubts about the leadership strengths of the candidates.
Other important events
1671 - Rebel Cossack leader Stenka Razin is executed by quartering in Moscow’s Red Square.
1779 - Spain declares war on Britain, and begins a four-year siege of Gibraltar.
1884 - The first roller coaster in America opens at Coney Island, Brooklyn.
1917 - First All-Russian Congress of the Soviets is convened.
1963 - First woman space traveller, Valentina Tereshkova, is launched into orbit.
1968 - Lee Trevino becomes the first Spanish-American golfer to win a major American title when he captures the US Open.
1976 - Bloody rioting erupts in Soweto, South Africa, 600 die in months of racial upheaval.
1977 - Leonid Brezhnev becomes President of the USSR.
1983 - Yuri Andropov is elected President of the Soviet Union.
1992 - US and Russia agree to slash their arsenals of long-range nuclear weapons by two-thirds.
1998 - Afghanistan’s Taliban religious army orders the closing of more than 100 private schools that had been educating girls.
2001 - US President George W. Bush and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin meet for the first time in Slovenia.
2003 - Emirates awards Airbus and Boeing the biggest orders in global aviation history, valued at $19 billion (Dh69.88 billion) for 71 aircraft.
2006 - The leader of Nepal’s Maoist rebels announces a landmark agreement to make his followers part of the government for the first time.
2012 - Saudi Crown Prince Nayef Bin Abdul Aziz dies at the age of 79.
2015 - Former Egyptian President Mohammad Mursi is sentenced to life for espionage.
2016 - Jo Cox, a British Member of Parliament, is killed in her constituency.
