Megawati Sukarnoputri sworn in as Indonesia's president (2001), and Canada restricts entry of paupers and criminals (1900). Born on this day: Haile Selassie I, Haile Selassie and Daniel Radcliffe. Died: Ulysses S. Grant, Amy Winehouse and Sir William Ramsay.
29 events, 69 births and 70 deaths on this date.
Indonesia's parliament removed Abdurrahman Wahid from office, and Megawati, his vice president, took the top job. She became the country's first female president, and the first born after independence.
National Information Agency Republic of Indonesia · Public domainCanada tightened its entry rules to bar people considered destitute or criminal, as immigration was expanding rapidly. The law reflected growing unease about who was settling in the country.
Qaboos bin Said overthrew his father in a palace coup, and the state of Muscat and Oman became the modern state of Oman under him. The move ended the old order and set Oman on its modern course.
Nikephoros I, the Byzantine emperor, sacked Pliska and seized the hoard of Khan Krum, ruler of the Bulgars. The raid showed how far the Byzantines could strike into Bulgarian territory at the time.
Prussian troops took the Rhineland city of Mainz back from France, a result of the wider war against revolutionary France. Prussia, then a growing military power in the German lands, was one of the main states fighting the French Republic.
Slobodan Milošević took over the presidency of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, having already run Serbia since 1989. He was a central figure in the Yugoslav Wars, was ousted in 2000, and was later charged with crimes against humanity and genocide.
Associated Press (AP) Agency / SCANPIX · CC BY-SA 2.5
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Born Tafari Makonnen, he became Emperor of Ethiopia in 1930 and ruled until 1974. He is remembered for modernising the empire and for helping found the Organisation of African Unity, and he is revered as divine in Rastafari.
unknown; according to [1] and [2] an official portrait of which b/w copies were distributed by the Ethiopian government · Public domain
Haile Selassie was born Tafari Makonnen and went on to rule Ethiopia as emperor from 1930 to 1974. He is remembered for modernising the empire, helping found the Organisation of African Unity, and for the Rastafari movement's reverence of him as a divine figure.
unknown; according to [1] and [2] an official portrait of which b/w copies were distributed by the Ethiopian government · Public domain
English actor best known for playing Harry Potter across a run of eight blockbuster movies, then a Tony Award winner on Broadway. He has also varied his film work, from The Woman in Black to the surreal Swiss Army Man.
Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America · CC BY-SA 2.0
Ulysses S. Grant led the Union Army to victory in the American Civil War, taking Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox. He then served as the 18th president of the United States from 1869 to 1877.
Henry Ulke · Public domain
Amy Winehouse was a British singer-songwriter whose husky contralto and autobiographical songs, blending soul, R&B and jazz, made her a major figure in popular music. Her 2006 album Back to Black was a global hit, and at the 2008 Grammys she won five awards.
Rama · CC BY-SA 2.0 fr
Ramsay, a Scottish chemist, shared the 1904 Nobel Prize with Lord Rayleigh for finding the inert gases in air. He then isolated several of them, opening a new section of the periodic table.
Elliott & Fry · Public domain
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