1991: August Coup ends in USSR.
On August 21, 1991, the communist hard-liner coup against Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev ends with the arrest of the seven living conspirators. On August 18, the coup leaders, who were critical of his liberal reforms, detained Gorbachev. Claiming that he had fallen ill and was unfit to rule, the conspirators attempted to form an emergency government. However, they failed to arrest the popularly elected Russian President Boris Yeltsin, who rallied opposition to the coup at the Russian Parliament building. After a tense standoff, the army defected to Yeltsin's side, and the coup collapsed. Gorbachev recognized Yeltsin's new authority, and the Communist Party was dissolved. The Soviet republics were granted independence, and by 1992 the United Soviet Socialist Republic no longer existed.
1993
NASA loses contact with the
Mars Observer spacecraft. It has never re-established it.
1986
More than 1,700 are killed in
Cameroon after a cloud of lethal gas escapes from Lake Nyos.
1983
Philippines opposition leader, Benigno Aquino, is assassinated within minutes of returning to the country after spending three years in exile.1973
In
Northern Ireland, the
inquest jury returns an open
verdict on the deaths of those people killed on “Bloody Sunday.” The
coroner accuses the British army of “sheer unadulterated murder.”
1968
Soviet troops enter
Czechoslovakia bringing an end to the “Prague Spring.”
1961
Jomo Kenyatta, leader of the Kenyan independence movement, is released by British colonial authorities after nearly nine years of imprisonment and
detention. Two years later,
Kenya achieved independence and Kenyatta became
prime minister. Once portrayed as a menacing symbol of
African nationalism, he brought stability to the country and defended Western interests during his 15 years as Kenyan leader.
1959
Hawaii becomes the 50th state of the USA.1911
Leonardo
da Vinci masterpiece Mona Lisa is stolen from the
Louvre Gallery in
Paris by
Italian waiter Vincenzo Peruggia posing as an official photographer. The painting was recovered 2 years later.
1858
Senator Stephen Douglas of Illinois and
Abraham Lincoln, a Kentucky-born
lawyer and one-time U.S. representative from
Illinois, begin a series of famous public encounters on the issue of
slavery. 1831
In America,
Nat Turner launches a bloody slave insurrection in Southampton County, Virginia.
1821
The British ship Eliza Francis discovers Jarvis Island in the South Pacific Ocean.1810
Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte is elected Crown Prince of Sweden.1772
In
Sweden, King Gustav III adopts a new constitution which dissolves parliament and enables him to rule the country.
