Merkel to become first woman chancellor
2005 - Conservative leader Angela Merkel will become Germany’s first woman chancellor under a deal agreed. Under the agreement, Gerhard Schroeder will step aside after seven years in power, but it gives his party many top government jobs. The deal breaks a political deadlock that has plagued Germany since a September 18 election produced a narrow victory for Merkel’s conservatives over Schroeder’s SPD, but without enough support to form a government with her allies. As part of the agreement, the SPD secured many top cabinet positions, including the foreign, finance, justice and labour ministries. That would allow Schroeder’s party to continue to play a key role in shaping budget and labour market policy, as well as influencing foreign policy.
October 10
1842 - Britain proclaims victory as second Afghan War ends.
1859 - Civil war breaks out in Argentina.
1901 - American automaker Henry Ford enters his first and last automobile race and wins.
1911 - Revolutionaries under Sun Yat-sen overthrow China’s Manchu dynasty.
1913 - Atlantic and Pacific oceans are united when the Gamboa Dam in the Panama Canal is blown up.
1933 - A United Airlines Boeing 247 is destroyed by an explosive device while flying from Cleveland, Ohio to Chicago.
1943 - Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek is named the President of China.
1963 - High dam collapses near Belluno, Italy, and resulting flood kills an estimated 1,800 people.
1964 - Tokyo Olympic Games, the first held in Asia, begin.
1970 - Fiji becomes independent after a century of British rule.
1980 - Thousands of casualties are reported following earthquake in Al Asnan, Algeria.
2000 - Sirimavo Bandaranaike, the world’s first woman prime minister, dies in Sri Lanka.
2003 -Iranian human rights lawyer Shirin Ebadi becomes the first Muslim woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize.
2004 - Australian Prime Minister John Howard wins fourth term.
2009 - Turkey and Armenia sign a landmark agreement to establish diplomatic relations and open their sealed border.
2013 - Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar announces retirement from Test cricket after playing his 200th match.
2014 - Pakistani education activist Malala Yousufzai and Indian children rights activist Kailash Satyarthi jointly win the Nobel Peace Prize.
