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Cuban President Fulgencio Batista is forced to flee the country because of the success of the revolution led by Fidel Castro.

In response to Soviet military intervention into Afghanistan in December 1979, US President Jimmy Carter requests that the Senate postpone action on the SALT-II nuclear weapons treaty and recalls the US ambassador to the Soviet Union.

Alaska becomes the 49th state of the United States of America.

The world first learns about Israel’s 'Operation Moses', in which thousands of Jewish Ethiopian refugees have been airlifted out of Sudan, fleeing the famine in Ethiopia.

Record label EMI sack the Sex Pistols because of their notoriously bad public behaviour.

Disgraced former Cabinet Minister Jonathan Aitken is released from jail after serving less than half of his 18 month sentence.

Aitken had been convicted of perjury and perverting the course of justice after his libel case against the Guardian Newspaper and Granda Television collapsed.

The largest passenger ship ever built, RMS Queen Mary 2, is named by Queen Elizabeth II.

As part of an arrangement to decrease Cold War tensions and end a brutal war in Angola, Cuban troops begin their withdrawal from the African nation.

In Britain, two bombs explode at the Hertfordshire home of the Employment Secretary, Robert Carr. Nobody is injured in the attack, which is thought to relate to a new controversial industrial relations bill Mr Carr is proposing.

L. Douglas Wilder is elected governor of Richmond, Virginia in the U.S.A. He becomes the first African American governor.

South African police use strong arm tactics to disperse demonstrations against rebel cricketers who are defying a ban on playing in segregated South Africa.

Photographs of prisoners being held at Camp X-Ray in Guantanamo Bay by the U.S. military are published. The photographs heighten speculation that the prisoner’s human rights are being abused.

The Vietnam War: The battle for Khe Sanh begins.

In Britain, the government launches a three million pound campaign to convince parents to immunise their children with the MMR jab - measles, mumps and rubella – amid fears that the job could trigger autism in some children.

In America, Madeline Albright becomes the first female Secretary of State.

In London, Newspaper workers launch a strike against Rupert Murdoch's News International for wanting to move newspaper production away from Fleet Street. The action comes to be known as the Wapping dispute.

Six members of the International Olympics Committee face expulsion as they are accused of accepting bribes.

India becomes an independent Republic.

In Somali, dictator Muhammad Siyad Barre flees the capital Mogadishu as rebels overrun his palace and take control of the capital.

In South Africa, four police officers, appearing before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, admit to the 1977 killing of Stephen Biko, a leader of the South African 'Black consciousness' movement.

Philippine President Corazon Aquino surprises a rebel uprising in Manila.

In America, British-born 'shoe bomber' Richard Reid is sentenced to life in prison after he attempted to blow up a flight from Paris to Miami.

Robert McCartney dies from stab wounds in Belfast. McCartney’s family, who blame the IRA for the killing, subsequently launch a high profile campaign to obtain justice for Robert.

During the Italian general election campaign, Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi causes controversy by comparing himself to Jesus Christ.

In Glasgow, Stephen Kelly goes on trial for knowingly infecting a woman with the HIV virus in a case believed to be the first of its kind in Scotland. Kelly is found guilty.

Former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri is killed by a car bomb in Beirut.

The beginning of the decimalisation of British coinage.

Following Hamas’ victory in the Palestinian elections, Ismail Haniya is chosen to be the new Prime Minister.

Seven people are arrested and more than £2 million is recovered by Irish police investigating the £26 million Northern Bank robbery, which touch place in Belfast in December 2004.

Fox hunting with dogs becomes illegal in England and Wales.

The Rolling Stones play to an audience of over a million people on the Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

American figure skater, Tara Lipinski, becomes the youngest gold-medallist at the Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan.

Steve Fossett becomes the first person to make a solo flight across the Pacific Ocean in a balloon.

Thieves break into a Securitas depot in Tonbridge, Kent stealing £53 million, in Britain’s largest every robbery.

In America, the film Schindler's List is shown on NBC without any commercial breaks. It is the first time that a film has been shown on U.S. television without advertising breaks during the movie.

In America, the Supreme Court votes 8-0 to overturn the $200,000 settlement awarded to the Reverend Jerry Falwell for his emotional distress at being parodied in Hustler, a pornographic magazine.

Jewish settler Meir Kahane, shoots dead between 30 to 50 Arabs in the Hebron mosque massacre.

In Jamaica, Portia Simpson Miller is elected leader of the governing People's National Party. She becomes the countries first female leader.

Architect Daniel Libeskind wins the competition to design the former World Trade Centre site.

In North Hollywood, U.S.A bank robbers Larry Eugene Phillips Jr, and Emil Dechebal Matasareanu start a mass shootout with Los Angeles Police after robbing a bank. Both robbers are killed.

In China, 100,000 students gather in Tiananmen Square, Beijing to commemorate the life of Hu Yaobang, the former leader of the Chinese Communist Party.

British Prime Minister Spencer Percival is assassinated in the lobby of the House of Commons by bankrupt broker John Bellingham.

NASA launches Space Shuttle Endeavour for the 50th time. One of the crew members Mae Carol Jemison becomes the first black women in space.

The Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev claims responsibility for organised the Beslan school siege in which at least 320 hostages were killed.

Queen Elizabeth II becomes the first ever British monarch to make a state visit to the Vatican.

Roy Jenkins MP announces that he is to leave the House of Commons to become President of the European Commission.

The anti-Communist witch-hunt comes to an end in America when its main instigator, Senator Joseph McCarthy, is condemned for conduct unbecoming of a U.S. Senator.