1999 Los observadores internacionales descubren 45 cadáveres
de civiles kosovares de etnia albanesa en distintos lugares al sur de Kosovo.
1998 El Tribunal Constitucional turco decide disolver el
Partido del Bienestar y condenar a su líder y primer ministro Necmettin
Erbakan, a cinco años de inhabilitación política.
1998
El presidente estadounidense Bill Clinton, suspende el artículo III de la
ley Helms-Burton contra Cuba.
1997 El gobierno argentino
rechaza la petición del juez español Baltasar Garzón para abrir una investigación
sobre la desaparición de 266 ciudadanos de origen español durante el régimen
militar argentino.
1997 El etarra José Luis Urrusolo
Sistiaga, relacionado con 18 asesinatos y dos secuestros, es detenido por
gendarmes franceses cerca de Burdeos.
1996 Gunmen
in Trabzon, Turkey, hijack a Black Sea ferry with more than 200 people on
board, and demand that Russian troops stop fighting Chechen patriots in
Pervomayskaya. (The hostages would be released three days later)
1994
El presidente italiano, Oscar Luigi Scalfaro, disuelve el Parlamento y convoca
elecciones generales anticipadas.
1992 Officials
of the government of El Salvador and rebel leaders sign a pact in Mexico
City ending 12 years of civil war. — Se firma la paz entre la FMLN
y el gobierno de El Salvador en el castillo de Chapultepec.
1991 Announcing the start of Operation Desert
Storm by US and 27 allies, to drive Iraqi forces out of Kuwait, President
Bush said in a nationally broadcast address, "the battle has been joined,"
as fighter bombers pounded Iraqi targets. (Because of the time difference,
it is early 17 January in the Persian Gulf when the attack begins.)
1990 Soviets send troops into
Azerbaijan
In
the wake of vicious fighting between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces
in Azerbaijan, the Soviet government sends in 11'000 troops to quell
the conflict. The fighting--and the official Soviet reaction to it--was
an indication of the increasing ineffectiveness of the central Soviet
government in maintaining control in the Soviet republics, and of
Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev's weakening political power.
Strife in Azerbaijan was the result
of centuries of tensions between the Islamic Azerbaijanis and the
Christian Armenians. Since the Russian Revolution in 1917, the communist
regime managed to maintain relative peace between the two groups,
but with the gradual weakening of the Soviet Union during the late-1980s,
ethnic rivalries began to re-emerge. In its weakened state, the Soviet
Union chose to only partially involve itself in the conflict. The
approach was unusual--had it occurred under the strict communist regime
of the Cold War's peak, such a tense internal conflict would likely
have been immediately and forcefully quelled.
In the latest outbreak of violence, Armenians took the brunt of the
attacks and nearly 60 people were killed. Armenian spokesmen condemned
the lack of action on the part of the Gorbachev regime and pleaded
for military intervention. Soviet officials, however, were not eager
to leap into the ethnic fray and attempted to downplay the seriousness
of the situation in the press. One Soviet official declared that the
fighting in Azerbaijan was not a "civil war," but merely "national
strife."
Some Gorbachev supporters
even voiced the suspicion that the violence in the region was being
stirred up by anti-Gorbachev activists merely to discredit the regime.
Gorbachev dispatched 11'000 Soviet soldiers to quiet the situation,
and the United States government supported his action as a humanitarian
response to the killings and terror.
The troops Gorbachev sent did little to alleviate the situation--over
the next two years, ethnic violence in Azerbaijan continued, and the
weakening Soviet regime was unable to bring a lasting resolution to
the situation. Less than two years later, Gorbachev resigned from
power and the Soviet Union ceased to exist. |
1989 Police arrest writer Vaclav Havel in Prague.
1989 El Consejo de Seguridad de la ONU aprueba por unanimidad
el plan para la independencia de Namibia y pide al Gobierno de Sudáfrica
que reduzca su presencia militar en ese territorio.
1987
Dimite Hu Yaobang, secretario del Partido Comunista chino, y le sustituye
Zao Ziyang.
1985 El Gobierno israelí decide retirar
sus tropas del Líbano en tres fases.
1982 Great
Britain and the Vatican resume full diplomatic relations after a break of
over 400 years.
1981 In Northern Ireland, Protestant
gunmen shoot and wound Irish nationalist leader Bernadette Devlin McAliskey
and her husband.
1979 Shah flees from Iran.
Faced with an army mutiny and
violent demonstrations against his rule, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi,
the leader of Iran since 1941, is forced to flee the country for Egypt.
Fourteen days later, the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the spiritual
leader of the Islamic revolution, returned after 15 years of exile
and took control of Iran.
In
August 1941, British and Soviet troops occupied Iran, and the first
Pahlavi shah (Reza Khan 16 Mar 1878 – 26 Jul 1944), whom
they regarded with suspicion, was forced to abdicate on 16 September
1941 in favor of his son, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (born on 26 October
1919). The new shah promised to act as a constitutional monarch but
often meddled in the elected government's affairs. After a Communist
plot against him was thwarted in 1949, he took on even more powers.
However, in the early 1950s, the shah was eclipsed by Mohammad Mosaddeq,
a zealous Iranian nationalist who convinced the Parliament to nationalize
Britain's extensive oil interests in Iran. Mohammad Reza, who maintained
close relations with Britain and the United States, opposed the decision.
Nevertheless, he was forced in 1951 to appoint Mosaddeq premier, and
two years of tension followed.
In August 1953, Mohammad Reza attempted to dismiss Mosaddeq, but the
premier's popular support was so great that the shah himself was forced
out of Iran. A few days later, British and US intelligence agents
orchestrated a stunning coup d'etat against Mosaddeq, and the shah
returned to take power as the sole leader of Iran. He repealed Mosaddeq's
legislation and became a close Cold War ally of the United States
in the Middle East.
In 1963,
the shah launched his "White Revolution," a broad government program
that included land reform, infrastructure development, voting rights
for women, and the reduction of illiteracy. Although these programs
were applauded by many in Iran, Islamic leaders were critical of what
they saw as the westernization of Iran. Ruhollah Khomeini, a Shiite
cleric, was particularly vocal in his criticism and called for the
overthrow of the shah and the establishment of an Islamic state. In
1964, Khomeini was exiled and settled across the border in Iraq, where
he sent radio messages to incite his supporters.
The shah saw himself foremost as a Persian king and in 1971 held an
extravagant celebration of the 2500th anniversary of the pre-Islamic
Persian monarchy. In 1976, he formally replaced the Islamic calendar
with a Persian calendar. Religious discontent grew, and the shah became
more repressive, using his brutal secret police force to suppress
opposition. This alienated students and intellectuals in Iran, and
support for Khomeini grew. Discontent was also rampant in the poor
and middle classes, who felt that the economic developments of the
White Revolution had only benefited the ruling elite. In 1978, anti-shah
demonstrations broke out in Iran's major cities.
On 08 September 1978, the shah's security force fired on a large group
of demonstrators, killing hundreds and wounding thousands. Two months
later, thousands took to the streets of Tehran, rioting and destroying
symbols of westernization, such as banks and liquor stores. Khomeini
called for the shah's immediate overthrow, and on December 11 a group
of soldiers mutinied and attacked the shah's security officers. With
that, his regime collapsed and the shah fled.
The shah traveled to several countries before entering the United
States in October 1979 for medical treatment of his cancer. In Tehran,
Islamic militants responded on 04 November 1979 by storming the US
embassy and taking the staff hostage. With the approval of Khomeini,
the militants demanded the return of the shah to Iran to stand trial
for his crimes. The United States refused to negotiate, and 52 US
hostages were held for 444 days until the 20 January 1981 inauguration
of President Reagan. Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi died in in Egypt on
27 July 1980. |
1975 Se firma en Lisboa el acuerdo para la independencia
de Angola.
1970 Colonel Muammar al-Qaddafi becomes
premier of Libya.
1967 First black government installed
in Bahamas, as after the general elections of 1967, the Progressive Liberal
Party under the leadership of Lynden Pindling was able to form a government
with a slight majority.
1969 Soviet Soyuz 4 and
Soyuz 5 perform first transfer of crew in space.
1969 Agreement to open Vietnam
peace talks.
An agreement is reached in Paris for the opening of expanded peace
talks. It was agreed that representatives of the United States, South
Vietnam, North Vietnam, and the National Liberation Front would sit
at a circular table without nameplates, flags or markings.
The talks had been plagued from the
beginning by procedural questions, and the participants literally
jockeyed for desirable positions at the negotiating table. Prolonged
discussions over the shape of the negotiating table were finally resolved
by the placement of two square tables separated by a round table.
Seemingly insignificant matters as the table placement and seating
arrangement became fodder for many arguments between the delegations
at the negotiations. |
|
On
a January 16: 
2001
Deaths
2001 Stormy, 4, bottlenose dolphin, after acting strangely
for a few days and stopping eating since the previous day, at the 
1940
Day 48 of Winter War: USSR aggression against Finland. 
1936
Albert Fish, 73, in the Sing Sing electric chair, saying "It will
be the supreme thrill, the only one I haven't tried.". The "Moon Maniac"
is believed to have killed and eaten 10 children, including in 1928 Grace
Budd, 12, of which he was found guilty. His other thrills included self-torture
and self-debasement, and boasting about it all.
Births
