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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.

A report funded by The Department of Health in England finds that the convicted serial killer, former GP Harold Shipman, may have killed in excess of 300 of his patients.

In one of the closest fought American Presidential elections in history, Vice President Al Gore presides over a joint session of Congress that certifies George W. Bush as the winner of the 2000 election.

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.

After three months of unsuccessful negotiations, Britain’s coal miners go on strike for the first time in almost fifty years.

British Airways is forced into an embarrassing climb-down in relation to a campaign of 'dirty tricks' it launched against rival airline Virgin Atlantic. BA is forced to pay damages to both Virgin Atlantic and its boss Richard Branson.

Sven-Goran Eriksson starts his job as the manager of the England football team. He is the first foreigner to hold this position.

The Soviet Ambassador to the United Nations, Jacob Malik, storms out of a meeting of the UN Security Council, as a Soviet proposal to expel the Chinese Nationalist representative is rejected. Malik announces his intention to boycott future meetings of the Council.

Yasser Arafat is elected president of the Palestinian National Council

On his second day in office American President, Jimmy Carter issues a pardon to all Americans who dogged the Vietnam draft.

R. Budd Dwyer, an American politician in Pennsylvania, shoots and kills himself at a press conference live on television. Dwyer, who had been convicted of accepting bribes, strongly professed his innocence before putting a gun in his mouth and pulling the trigger.

The American navy intelligence vessel, USS Pueblo, is captured off the coast of North Korea.

In Britain, Peter Mandelson, the Northern Ireland Secretary, resigns from the cabinet over a row concerning a passport application from an Indian billionaire. It the second time Mandelson has had to reign from the Cabinet.

Russia almost launches a nuclear attack after a Norwegian research rocket is mistaken for missile attack by the Russian early-warning radar station.

A massive earthquake hits western India and parts of Pakistan. Thousands of people are killed.

Ibrahim Baré Maïnassara stages a military coup in Niger.

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.

In his State of the Union Address, American President George W Bush argues that there is an 'Axis of Evil', comprised of countries which are destabilising the world.

The Vietnam War: communist forces launch the Tet Offensive, a series of coordinated surprise attacks across South Vietnam.

The first McDonalds’s restaurant opens in Moscow, Russia.

South Korean scientists announce they have successfully cloned the world's first human embryo. However, in 2006 it emerges that the results had been faked.

Massacre of Glencoe: Roughly 78 Macdonalds in Scotland re killed for not pledging allegiance to King William of Orange

Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini issues a fatwa against British author Salman Rushdie for his book Satanic Verses.

The search for the missing British trawler, the Gaul, in the Arctic Ocean is called off.

In England, Ministry of Defence assistant secretary Clive Ponting resigns. Ponting become famous for passing information to an M.P about the sinking of the Argentinean ship the General Belgrano by British forces during the Falklands War.

Victor Emmanual II assumes the title of King of Italy.

In England, an abattoir in Essex is suspected of having Foot-and-mouth disease. It is later confirmed that it has the disease, starting a crisis in British farming.

In the Indian state of Assam, hundreds of people are killed as violence spreads in the run up to the general election.

In light of the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in Britain, the European Commission bans all British milk, meat and livestock exports.

Former American Olympic ice-skater, Tonya Harding loses her first professional women’s boxing fight.

America president George W. Bush holds a summit with Russian president Vladmir Putin, in Slovakia. Bush is the first US president to visit the country.

Russian president Vladmir Putin dismisses the entire Russian government.

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

Shoko Asahara, the leader of a Japanese cult that gassed the Tokyo subway in 1995, is sentenced to death.

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.