1998 South Korea’s parliament broke up in chaos as scuffles between rival deputies forced a halt in voting to confirm President Kim Dae-jung’s coalition partner, Kim Jong-pil, as the country’s prime minister. “I declare the session closed as it is passed midnight,” speaker Kim Soo-han announced. There was no official word on what steps President Kim would take to get his prime minister appointed. But state television said he had decided to name Kim Jong-pil as acting prime minister.
It said Kim then would name 17 new cabinet members. Kim Jong-pil was promised the prime minister’s job in return for foregoing his own bid for the presidency. President Kim’s National Congress for New Politics (NCNP) and its coalition partner, the United Liberal Democrats (ULD), stopped the balloting soon after it began, demanding a new vote. They accused lawmakers of the main opposition Grand National Party (GNP) of casting blank votes, which they said was illegal.
Other important events
1801 Spain declares war on Portugal.
1836 Texas declares independence from Mexico.
1868 The University of Illinois is opened.
1877 Republican Rutherford B. Hayes is declared the winner of the 1876 US presidential election.
1946 Ho Chi Minh is elected president of North Vietnam.
1949 A B-50 Superfortress, the Lucky Lady II, completes the first non-stop, around-the-world flight.
1955 Egypt and Syria sign defence accord.
1962 Gen Ne Win overthrows premier U Nu in Burmese coup.
1970 Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) becomes an independent republic.
1972 US spacecraft Pioneer 10 is launched on mission to explore the environs of Jupiter.
1975 Terrorist bombing of bus in Nairobi, Kenya, kills 27 people and injures about 100.
1984 Lebanon and Syria agree to a Syrian-guaranteed ceasefire in Lebanon’s civil war.
1986 Zafer AI Masri, Palestinian mayor of Nablus, is assassinated.
1987 Apple releases the Macintosh II personal computer, the first Apple computer to feature colour graphics.
1991 Sri Lankan Defence Minister Ranjan Wijeratne is killed in car bomb blast in Colombo.
1992 UN General Assembly welcomes nine new members: eight former Soviet Republics and San Marino.
1993 A gangway collapses when passengers board a ferry on the Congo River, drowning at least 147 in the Republic of Congo.
1995 Former Italian Premier Giulio Andreotti is indicted for consorting with the Mafia.
1996 John Howard in landslide win over Paul Keating in Australia.
1997 Kuwaiti prince Shaikh Khalid Al Sabah is killed in Abu Dhabi Powerboat Championship.
2003 Alinghi becomes the first European team to win the America’s Cup.
2004 Coordinated suicide bombs and mortars tear into vast crowds of Shiite worshippers, killing more than 180 people in Iraq.
2006 India and US sign a historic agreement on civilian nuclear power.
2008 Dmitry Medvedev wins Russian presidential election.
2009 Joao Bernardo Vierira, President of Guinea-Bissau is assassinated during an armed attack on his residence in Bissau.
2011 Pakistani Minorities Affairs Minister Shahbaz Bhatti is shot and killed in Islamabad.
2012 A total of 13 tornadoes wipe out central US, killing at least 32 people.
2017 An Indian-origin businessman Harnish Patel is shot and killed in Lancaster, South Carolina, US.
