01|Hopes for a peaceful settlement in Hebron are shaken when an Israeli soldier shoots and wounds seven Palestinians in the market place. Hebron, a city in the West Bank area, has been controlled by Israel for 30 years, but 80 per cent of it is due to pass to Palestinian control in the next few weeks. The soldier later confesses that the action is a deliberate attempt to sabotage the agreement on Israeli withdrawal.|
01|The Bodo people of Assam, north-eastern India, continue their attempts to isolate their homeland from the rest of the country, blowing up a third railway bridge in four days. No one is hurt, but communications between Assam and the rest of India are severely disrupted.|
01|In a New Year address, Greenland's Premier Emil Johansen announces that oil and mineral resources discovered in the last few years enable his territory to seek independence from Denmark.|
02|In elections in Singapore, the People's Action Party win 81 out of 83 seats, gaining 66 per cent of the vote (an increase from 61 per cent in the last election). Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong claims that Singaporeans have "rejected Western-style liberal democracy and freedom [which put] individual rights over that of society".|
02|The Russian tanker Nakhodka is broken in two by storms in the Sea of Japan and some 4000 tonnes of heavy fuel oil are spilled into the water. The oil slick quickly grows to a width of 10 kilometres off the coast of Honshu, the most heavily populated island in Japan. Fishing ports, shellfish beds and tourist resorts are all threatened as bad weather hinders the clearing up operation.|
02|In Australia Janet Mills becomes the second person to die under a Northern Territory law that permits euthanasia. The federal government is due to vote early in 1997 on a bill to overturn the law, which came into force in 1996.|
03|A silver coin found on a beach near Melbourne, Australia, is thought to be 500 years old and Portuguese. The discovery casts doubt on the long-held belief that the Englishman Captain James Cook was the first European to reach Australia.|
03|The Belgian Parliament votes to ban all forms of tobacco advertising from 1999. Newspaper publishers protest that this will lose them a large proportion of their income.|
03|Zimbabwean chicken farmer and international cricketer takes the first ever hat-trick (three wickets in three consecutive balls) for his country as England totter to their twelfth overseas one-day international defeat in a row.|
04|German Chancellor Helmut Kohl meets Russian President Boris Yeltsin in Russia for talks which include the future of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Kohl announces that NATO will probably expand this year, presumably to include countries from Eastern Europe.|
04|Czech President Vaclav Havel marries actress Dagmar Veskrnova only weeks after leaving hospital following an operation for lung cancer.|
04|On the 49th anniversary of the independence of Burma (now officially called Myanmar), opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi vows to continue the fight to bring democracy to her country. Suu Kyi's party won over 80 per cent of the vote in the 1990 elections, but the ruling junta refuses to acknowledge their victory. Suu Kyi herself spent six years (1989-95) under house arrest, during which time she was awarded the 1991 Nobel Prize for Peace.|
05|Prince Bertil of Sweden, 84, the king's uncle, dies in his sleep. He will be best remembered for having spent 33 years in the public eye without revealing his love for an English actress, Lilian Craig. The couple met in London during World War II but the prince would have had to resign his claim to the throne in order to marry her. He felt it might jeopardize the monarchy should the king die before his heir -; the present king, then a baby -; was old enough to succeed him. As a result, Bertil and Lilian were not married until 1976.|
05|Heavy rains in Brazil lead to widespread flooding and mudslides, killing 65 people and leaving 20,000 homeless.|
05|Russia announces that it has withdrawn its last 18,000 troops from Chechnya. Elections in the separatist region are due later this month.|
06|Unusually cold weather in Europe has killed over 200 people in the first days of the new year. Roads and railways were impassable in much of France and Spain, and 50 people died of cold in the streets of Bucharest, Romania.|
06|Australian Attorney-General Daryl Williams announces that over 250,000 firearms have been handed in under a "buy back" scheme launched after 35 people were murdered by a gunman in Tasmania last May.|
07|Republican New Gingrich is narrowly re-elected Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, despite admitting giving inaccurate information to an ethics committee enquiry. Four members of his own party vote against him and five abstain.|
07|China's paramount leader Deng Xiaoping, 92, in intensive care in hospital in Beijing, is reported to be doing "relatively well for an old man".|
08|Boris Yeltsin, the 65-year-old president of Russia who underwent heart surgery in 1996, is admitted to hospital, apparently suffering from pneumonia. Widespread doubts are expressed about his ability to continue in office.|
08|After 52 days of demonstrations in the Serbian capital, Belgrade, President Slobodan Milosevic admits that the opposition coalition Zajedno won municipal elections in Nis, Serbia's second city. The protests began after Milosevic declared invalid many opposition victories in the elections, which took place last November.|
08|British tycoon Richard Branson fails in his attempt to circumnavigate the earth by balloon. He makes an emergency landing in the Algerian desert just 19 hours and 600 kilometres after taking off from Marrakesh, Morocco. Later in the month, American Steve Fossett fares better, but abandons his attempt after covering 15,000 kilometres in just over six days.|
09|Palestinian extremists are blamed for two bomb explosions in central Tel Aviv. Talks between Israel and the Palestinians concerning the Israeli evacuation of the West Bank city of Hebron are already in crisis, and the attacks are seen as a further attempt to undermine the peace process.|
09|British yachtsman Tony Bullimore, 57, is rescued by an Australian frigate after spending four days imprisoned in the upturned hull of his yacht, the Global Exide Challenger. She had been competing in a round-the-world race when she capsized in high seas in the Southern Ocean, 1500 kilometres from Antarctica. Bullimore is suffering from mild hypothermia, dehydration and frostbite, but is otherwise well and in good spirits.|
09|Kofi Annan, new Secretary General of the United Nations (U.N.), removes 23 senior officials from their posts. One, from the U.N. Drugs Control Programme, is accused of "misconduct and mismanagement".|
09|Germany's Chancellor Kohl admits to "giant problems" as the unemployment rate reaches 10.8 per cent, the highest since World War II.|
10|Negotiations begin between the Peruvian government and guerrillas holding 74 hostages inside the residence of the Japanese ambassador, but no concessions are made on the guerrillas' chief demand -; the release of imprisoned comrades.|
10|Turkish Justice Minister Sevket Kazan announces that a number of high-ranking public servants, including one member of parliament, Sedat Bucak, must face an investigation into their alleged links with the Mafia. The allegations arise from a car crash last November which Bucak survived but which killed his travelling companions -; one of them a known gangster wanted for murder by the international police force Interpol.|
11|In Seoul, South Korea, police use tear gas to disperse 20,000 demonstrators protesting against changes to employees' rights. On the 17th day of a nationwide strike, protesters also clash with police in four other cities.|
11|For the first time in 25 years, China uses its right of veto in the United Nations (UN) Security Council. The issue is a plan to send UN observers to Guatemala to monitor the recent peace agreement, and China's objections centre on Guatemala's links with Taiwan.|
11|In Burundi, 126 Hutu refugees are shot dead by soldiers in the Tutsi-dominated Burundian army at they try to escape from a detention centre.|
12|A high-speed train derails south of Milan, Italy, killing eight people and injuring 25 more. Reports suggest that it was travelling too fast after taking a curve; seven of its eight carriages derailed and hit several pylons before coming to a halt.|
12|Aid workers in Sierra Leone announce that many of the 600 girls circumcised in a camp for displaced people have developed complications because of lack of medical care. The operations were performed by a powerful women's secret society, on girls said to be aged between six and fifteen.|
13|Australia's most highly regarded poet, Les Murray, wins the T. S. Eliot Prize for poetry for his collection Subhuman Redneck Poems.|
13|South African President Nelson Mandela admits that his African National Congress (ANC) party has made " fundamental and serious" mistakes during its first two and a half years in office. He was referring specifically to recent scandals involving ANC funds, and to the quarrels over leadership of the organization.|
13|Mother Teresa of Calcutta resigns her position as head of the Missionaries of Charity on the grounds of ill health. She is 86, suffers from arthritis and osteoporosis, and has only recently left hospital where she received treatment for heart trouble.|
13|The volcano on the island of Montserrat in the Caribbean finally erupts, pouring a flow of hot rocks into the sea. The volcano has been rumbling for 17 months and the lava dome continues to grow, causing fears that a second explosion might follow.|
14|Delighted archaeologists in Greece announce the discovery of the Lyceum -; the first university in the West -; where Aristotle taught in the fourth century BC. Socrates is also known to have visited the Lyceum. One of the most sensational finds in the history of modern Greece, it will greatly expand scholars' understanding of ancient Athens. One expert describes it as "like coming across Leonardo da Vinci's workshop".|
14|The Pope receives Taiwanese Vice-President Lien Chan at the Vatican, less than 24 hours after having warned China to respect the rights of Catholics in Hong Kong. This is seen as a surprising gesture of defiance to Beijing, which refuses to establish close ties with theVatican as long as it maintains diplomatic links with Taiwan. Although there are 300,000 Catholics in Taiwan, there many be several million practising clandestinely in China.|
14|A bus falls off a bridge in Cairo, Egypt, killing at least 39 people and injuring 37 more. The driver, who is among those killed, apparently lost control as he approached the bridge.|
15|Seven Nigerians and four Ghanaians are washed ashore on Dyer Island near Cape Town, South Africa, after being thrown off a Taiwanese cargo ship as stowaways. They had drifted for two days on a makeshift raft. A twelfth man is missing, presumed drowned. The men claim that they paid the captain of the ship to allow them to travel with him, but that he later changed his mind.|
15|A 72-year-old Sri Lankan priest, Father Tissa Balasuriya, is excommunicated by the Catholic Church for having allegedly "deviated from the integrity of the truth of the Catholic faith", questioning basic concepts such as original sin and the Immaculate Conception.|
16|Israeli troops finally withdraw from all but a small enclave of Hebron, the holy city where Abraham and other Jewish patriarchs are said to be buried. Traditional Israeli belief says that God gave the land to the Jews, but a recent poll shows that 67 per cent of Israelis are satisfied with the agreement.|
16|Following the death of Conservative Member of Parliament Iain Mills, the British government no longer has a majority in the House of Commons. Although this could hamper the government in the day-to-day processing of legislation, it does not necessarily mean that the general election, due by May 1, will be brought forward.|
16|The Afgham militant group Taliban captures a key military airbase and claims to have captured 500 opposition fighters in a major offensive against the forces of the former government. United Nations-sponsored peace talks have so far proved ineffective.|
17|An alleged Nazi war criminal, Szymon Serafinowicz, 86, is ruled unfit to stand trial at the Old Bailey, London. The former police sergeant in Byelorussia (now Belarus), who has lived in England for nearly 50 years, is believed to be suffering from Alzheimer's disease. The police investigation and the nine-day trial cost seven million pounds (about U.S.$11 million).|
17|The European aircraft manufacturer Airbus moves a step nearer the development of its proposed Super-Jumbo by signing up Belgian and Dutch partners for the project. The aeroplane, which would cost U.S.$8 billion to develop, would seat 650 people and might be in service as early as 2003. At the same time, the American manufacturer Boeing, which is in the process of taking over McDonnell Douglas, announces plans to test fly a 5 metre unmanned model of a proposed "blended wing body" jet in which passengers would sit inside the wings.|
17|In Ireland, the first divorce is granted to a seriously ill man who wants to marry again. The Irish people voted in a referendum in 1995 to legalize divorce.|
18|More than 60 people, many of them refugees who had returned home to give evidence in genocide trials, are murdered in Rwanda.|
19|Petar Stoyanov, 44, is sworn in as Bulgaria's second democratically elected president. Last week 30,000 people demonstrated in the capital, Sofia, demanding democratic elections for Parliament as well. Stoyanov promises that these will happen, and that much needed economic reforms will follow.|
19|A recording made in a makeshift home studio by a previously unknown computer enthusiast enters the United Kingdom pop charts at Number 1, having sold 120,000 copies in a week. The song, Your Woman -; Abort, Retry, Fail by White Town is only the fourth debut single to enter the charts at Number 1 since charts began in 1952.|
20|United States President Bill Clinton is sworn in for his second term. He is the first Democrat to be re-elected as president since Franklin Delano Roosevelt in1936.|
20|John Galliano, the English fashion designer, presents his first collection for Dior in Paris. It is acclaimed as the most exciting since Christian Dior himself launched the "New Look" in 1947.|
20|The death of Labour Member of Parliament Martin Redmond means that the British governing Conservative Party -; in a minority since the death of one of its members on January 16 -; once again holds the same number of seats as all the other parties combined.|
20|A statue of a lioness devouring a man, one of the best preserved Roman relics ever found in the United Kingdom, has been discovered near Edinburgh, Scotland. The statue, which is 1.5 metres tall, is believed to be part of the tomb of a Roman official of the second or third century AD.|
21|Archaeological findings in Ethiopia suggest that humans began using stone tools almost 2.6 million years ago. The newly discovered artefacts are 300,000 years older than the previous "oldest known" tools.|
21|A joint declaration signed by Germany and the Czech Republic ends decades of ill-will concerning the Sudetenland, part of the then Czechoslovakia which Germany invaded just before the outbreak of World War II. In the new declaration, Germany apologises for suffering inflicted on Czechs during the Nazi Occupation of 1938-45, while the Czechs apologise for expelling two and a half million Germans from Sudetenland after the war.|
21|Irish poet and Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney wins the Whitbread Book of the Year award for his collection of poems The Spirit Level.|
22|Germany orders 5,200 cattle imported from Britain and Switzerland to be slaughtered after five cows die of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE).|
22|Sixteen members of the Ethiopian football team seek political asylum in Italy. They are travelling to Morocco for an international match when they give their escort the slip in a Rome hotel.|
22|Remains of a "new" dinosaur named Neovenator Salerii have been discovered on the Isle of Wight, off the south coast of England. Neovenator, an upright-standing flesh-eater distantly related to the North American Allosaurus, lived 120 million years ago.|
22|Boris Yeltsin remains president of Russia, despite an opposition bid to oust him on the grounds of ill-health.|
23|The government of South Korea agrees to revise the law which has caused industrial unrest in the country for the last month. The law puts curbs on the powers of trades union which were considered unacceptable both by Korean workers and by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, of which South Korea is a member.|
23|Chris Patten, governor of Hong Kong, attacks prominent politicians for abandoning their principles in the face of proposed Chinese changes to civil liberties legislation. Several former members of the cabinet who previously spoke strongly in favour of the existing Bill of Rights are now joining Chinese-appointed bodies which Mr Patten believes will "turn back the clock" on recent democratic and civil rights reforms.|
23|Branko Todorovic, a member of Serbias ruling Socialist party, accuses his party of betraying its people in November's elections. He confirms that the elections had been rigged under the direct instruction of President Slobodan Milosevic.|
24|The executive council of Hong Kong's first post-colonial government will include businessmen and a trade unionist as well as two members of the current governor, Chris Patten's, cabinet and other senior politicians. Leader-elect Tung Chee-hwa, announcing his choice of council members, pledges support for "traditional Chinese values".|
24|Over 100 people have been killed in Algeria during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. Forty-nine of them were worshippers in the mosque in the village of Beni Slieman, hacked to death by armed men who entered the building during evening prayers. At least 40 others were the victims of car bombs. Most of the violence is attributed to the Islamic Armed Group (GIA), the military wing of the Islamist faction opposed to the military government.|
24|Transport workers bring many French cities to a standstill because of a strike in support of lowering the retirement age to 55.|
25|Fifteen people die in a Hong Kong karaoke club in a fire probably caused by arson. Police suspect a link with organized crime.|
25|Czech-born Swiss tennis player Martina Hingis, 16, wins the Australian Open to become the youngest ever player to win a Grand Slam tournament.|
25|Argentinian news photographer Jose Luis Cabezas, is found dead, the victim of a "mafia-style" execution. He had been working for the magazine Noticias, renowned for its anti-government stance.|
26|The Albanian government is on the brink of collapse as tens of thousands of people demonstrate in protest at losing their savings after the failure of the so-called "pyramid" investment schemes. The government has already rushed through legislation to make such schemes illegal, and arrested several prominent organizers, but the people remain convinced that the government is to blame.|
26|Six people are dead, 100 missing and 30,000 homeless after a cyclone devastates the African island of Madagascar.|
27|Five South African former security policemen confess to having been involved in the murder of black activist Steve Biko, who died in custody in 1977. It has long been suspected that Biko died as a result of torture under interrogation, and that an official cover-up followed.|
27|(check date - this may be better in February when the pardon becomes official) James Hanratty, hanged in the United Kingdom in 1962 for the "A6 murder", one of the most notorious crimes of the century, is pardoned. A police enquiry last year concluded that he was the victim of a miscarriage of justice.|
27|The people of Chechnya, the former "rebel republic" of Russia and scene of much bloodshed and destruction over the last two years, vote in their first independent elections. Aslan Maskhadov, former separatist chief of staff, is elected president.|
28|Brazil's Chamber of Deputies approves a constitutional amendment that will allow the president to seek a second term of office. If the measure is also approved by the Senate, President Fernando Henrique Cardoso will be permitted to seek re-election in 1998.|
28|South Korean President Kim Young San cancels a visit to Europe, scheduled for early March, because of a financial scandal surrounding the collapse of one of the country's largest steel firms. The scandal centres on the vast loans the company had received from South Korean banks, presumably acting with the approval of the government.|
29|Benazir Bhutto, ousted prime minister of Pakistan, fails in her attempt to have her dismissal declared illegal. At the same time, scandal threatens former Pakistani cricket captain Imran Khan's hopes of becoming prime minister of his country when a former friend accuses him of being the father of her child.|
29|Spain proposes to share sovereignty of Gibraltar with the United Kingdom (UK) for a transition period of up to 75 years, as a step towards returning the dependency to Spanish rule. Gibraltar has been ruled by the UK since 1713 and the British Foreign Office refuses to consider the proposal, claiming that most Gibraltarians consider themselves British.|
29|Scientists working in Switzerland and in the United States believe that genetic technology could make it possible for injuries to the spine and to the central nervous system to be repaired, meaning that severe back injuries need not be permanent. The announcement follows the discovery of a gene which makes nerves grow again.|
29|Saddam Hussein, president of Iraq, places his wife Sajida under house arrest as part of a purge to protect himself against a possible challenge to his authority.|
30|The last remaining portion of the ashes of Mohandas Gandhi, leader of the Indian independence are scattered across the sacred river Ganges. After Gandhi's assassination in 1948, the ashes were divided and sent to various parts of India to be scattered over different rivers, in accordance with Hindu tradition. But a small portion somehow lay forgotten in a bank vault until two years ago. Today's ceremony was conducted by the Mohandas' great-grandson, Tushar Gandhi.|
30|A 180-metre asteroid whose orbit is within that of the earth is discovered by astronomers at the North American Space Agency (NASA). Its proximity means that it is more likely than other asteroids to crash into the earth.|
31|Amercian surgeons announce that they have performed an operation transplanting the retina of an aborted foetus to an 80-year-old partially blind woman. Although it is too early to tell whether the operation has been a success, they hope that cells from the transplanted retina will regenerate in the patient's eye and bring some improvement in her sight.|
