Haiti President Aristide weds
1996 - Haiti’s President Jean-Bertrand Aristide exchanged marriage vows with attorney Mildred Trouillot in a simple garden ceremony at his private residence. The former Roman Catholic priest, who met his bride-to-be while in exile in the United States after a September 1991 military coup, had a modest ceremony out of respect for the economic situation in his impoverished nation. Marriage is not widely practised among Haiti’s many poor, as it represents a financial burden. The Aristide-Trouillot wedding is likely to set a new standard in the country. The evening ceremony had no wedding cake and no floral arrangements. Aristide, 42, is Haiti’s first democratically-elected president. Aristide left the priesthood after the coup under pressure from the Vatican.
Other important events on January 20
1841 - The island of Hong Kong is ceded to Britain.
1887 - US Senate approves leasing Pearl Harbor in Hawaii as naval base.
1921 - The new parliament in Ankara declares that the country will be called Turkey.
1936 - Britain’s King George V dies and is succeeded by Edward VIII.
1941 - Franklin D. Roosevelt is inaugurated as President of the United States for a third term.
1942 - Japanese invade Burma (Myanmar).
1961 - John F. Kennedy is sworn in as the 35th president of the United States.
1969 - Richard M. Nixon is inaugurated as the President of the United States.
1990 - Soviet troops storm Azerbaijani capital of Baku.
1991 - In Moscow, hundreds of thousands of Soviet citizens protest bloody crackdown on Lithuania and demand resignation of President Mikhail Gorbachev.
1992 - An Air Inter Airbus A320 crashes in the eastern Vosges mountains in freezing fog near Strasbourg, killing 87 people.
1993 - Bill Clinton is sworn in as the 42nd US President.
2001 - Vice-President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is sworn in as new Philippines President.
2005 - George W. Bush is sworn in as US President for a second term.
2007 - Paul Casey wins the title of Abu Dhabi Golf Championship.
2009 - Barack Obama is sworn in as the 44th US President.
2013 - Two packed commuter trains collide head-on in the morning rush-hour in Vienna, Austria.
2014 - A Taliban suicide bomber kills at least 13 people in a market next to Pakistan’s military headquarters in Rawalpindi.
