This Day in History – September 3
Today is the 246th day of 2010. There are 119 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight
1989: Thousands of blacks march and bathe at “whites only” beaches in nationwide defiance campaign in South Africa.
Other Events
1791: French constitution is passed by National Assembly, making France a constitutional monarchy.
1916: The first German Zeppelin bomber is shot down over England.
1945: Singapore is returned to British control after being occupied by the Japanese since 1942.
1962: Katanga government accepts UN Secretary-general U Thant’s plan for Congolese reunification.
1967: Nguyen Van Thieu is elected president of South Vietnam under a new constitution.
1971: Oil state of Qatar gains independence from Britain.
1978: Pope John Paul II becomes the 264th pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church.
1994: China and Russia proclaim an end to any lingering hostilities, pledging they would no longer target nuclear missiles or use force against each other.
2000: Russian President Vladimir Putin debuts on the world stage at the UN Millennium Summit in an effort to restore Russia’s clout and develop new partners.
2003: North Korea’s parliament, the Supreme People’s Assembly, votes unanimously to re-elect the country’s leader, Kim Jong Il, to a new five-year-term as chairman of the National Defence Commission.
2006: Europe’s first spacecraft to the moon smashes into a volcanic plain as planned, signalling the end of a successful mission to test a new propulsion system and navigation technology for flights to other planets.
2007: Myanmar wraps up a 14-year-old national convention to draw up guidelines for a new constitution, completing what the military government calls a successful first step back to democracy but what critics dismiss as a sham.
2009: Gabon’s government declares Ali Bongo, son of the late dictator Omar Bongo, the winner of presidential elections, triggering the worst violence in years in the oil-rich West African nation.