EMERGENCE OF A UNIPOLAR WORLD

1991 AD: Gulf War begins (Jan 17). After freeing Kuwait Gulf war comes to an end (Feb 28);
Nepal goes to its first multiparty Parliamentary polls in 32 years (May 12); Mikhail Gorbachov,
President of USSR, is ousted in a coup by hardliners (Aug 19); The Soviet coup fizzles out.
Mikhail Gorbachov resumes as President of USSR (Aug 21-22); Moscow grants independence to
the Baltic States of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, ending more than 50 years of Soviet rule (Sep
6); Begum Khaleda Zia is sworn-in as the first woman Prime Minister of Bangladesh (Sep 19);
Eleven former Soviet republics form a Commonwealth of Independent States, proclaim Soviet
Union dead and give Russia the UN Security Council seat(Dec21); Mikhail Gorbachov resigns
as President of USSR, as the once mighty Soviet Union ceases to exist (Dec 25).
1992 AD: The first-ever Security Council Summit is held at New York (Feb. 1); Mauritius
becomes a Republic (Mar 12); Afghan President Najibullah steps down. Rebels take over power
(April 16); Earth Summit, held at Rio-de-Janeiro in Brazil, ends (June 14).
1993 AD: The European Communitys single market plan becomes effective (Jan 1);
Czechoslovakia ceases to exist as a Republic. Two independent countriesCzech republic and
Slovak republic are born (Jan 1); Russians vote in the historic multi-party elections (Dec 12);
Ireland and UK sign a historic pact to pave way for ending the 25 years of terrorist violence in
Northern Ireland (Dec 15).
1994 AD: North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) comes into effect (Jan 1); Israel and
PLO sign a historic accord to give Palestinians their first taste of self-rule (May 4); Nelson
Mandela elected as the first black President of South Africa (May 9); Israel and Jordan sign a
peace accord, ending 46 years of hostility (Oct 26).
1995 AD: The World Trade Organisation (WTO), comes into being (Jan 1); Emergency ends in
Ireland after 50 years (Feb 7); First-ever world summit for social development held in
Copenhagen (Mar 6); Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) is extended indefinitely (May 11);
Fourth World Conference on Women opens in Beijing, China (Sept 4); The UN General
Assembly starts its historic 50th session (Sept 20); PLO Chief Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime
Minister Yitzhak Rabin sign a historic accord expanding Palestinian autonomy in the West Bank
and ending 28 years of Israeli occupation of Arab cities (Sept 28); The Bosnian Peace Treaty is
signed (Dec 14).
1996 AD: PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat takes oath of office as the first Palestinian President
(Feb 13); The Awami League, led by Sheikh Hasina Wajed, returns to power in Bangladesh after
21 years (June 13); At least 23 Americans are killed and 105 wounded in a terrorist attack at a
military housing complex in Saudi Arabia (June 26); A Paris-bound TWA airliner explodes after
take-off from New York, killing all 229 people on board (July 18); The biggest Olympics in
history open in Atlanta, USA (July 20); UN General Assembly adopts CTBT (Sept 11); Taliban
rebels enter Kabul, capital of Afghanistan, and force the government of Prof Rabbani to flee
(Sept 26); Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto is dismissed (Nov 5).
1997 AD: Israeli troops begin pullout from Hebron thus ending 30-year rule of Israel (January
16); Nawaz Sharif returns to power in Pakistan (Feb 4); The historic WTO agreement is signed
by 68 nations (Feb 16); A fire in Mecca during the Haj pilgrimage claims more than 200 lives
(April 16); China takes over Hong Kong after 156 years of British rule (July 1); Princess Diana
is killed in a car crash in Paris (August 31); Scotland votes for its own Parliament signifying a
historic break from a 300-year old relationship with UK (September 12).
1998 AD: Peace accord is reached in Ireland; Pakistan conducts five nuclear explosions (May
28); US bombs terrorist targets in Afghanistan and a pharmaceutical unit in Sudan (August 20);
Israel and Palestinian leaders sign the Wye Peace Aecord (Oct 24); Hurricane Mitch hits
Honduras, killing more than 7000 people (Nov 1); 13th Asian Games begin in Bangkok (Dec 6).
1999 AD: Euro, the single European currency, launched (Jan 1); People of East Timor vote
decisively for independence from Indonesia (Sept 5); Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif of Pakistan is
dismissed in a coup led by Army Chief Gen Pervez Musharraf (Oct 12); 50 km long Panama
canal is handed over to Panama after being under US control for nearly a century (Dec 15);
Russian President Boris Yeltsin resigns (Dec 31).
2000 AD: Vladmir Putin takes over as President of Russia in countrys first democratic transfer
of power (May 7); Researchers announce completion of the working map of the human genome
(June 26); The UN millennium summit begins in New York (Sept 6); Sydney Olympics open
(Sept 15); George W. Bush is declared elected as the 43rd President of USA (Dec 12).
2001 AD: Space probe NEAR-Shoemaker lands on asteroid Eros; Ancient Buddha statues in
central Bamiyan province of Afghanistan are destroyed by the Taliban regime (March 2); Soviet-
built space station Mir plunges safely into Pacific Ocean (March 23); Nepals King Birendra,
Queen Aishwarya and 12 other royal family members are massacred by Crown Prince Dipendra
(June 1); Gen Pervez Musharraf takes over as the President of Pakistan (June 20); Missile
Defence Project of USA is tested successfully (July 15); Russia and China sign the first
Friendship treaty between the two countries since 1850 (July 16); Terrorists crash three
commercial aircraft into major US landmarksWTC in New York and the Pentagon in
Washingtonkilling more than 6000 people (Sept 11); Khaleda Zias BNP sweeps elections in
Bangladesh (Oct 2); US begins attacks against Afghanistan (Oct 7). Kabul falls to the Opposition
forces in Afghanistan (Nov 13). Taliban regime is wiped out of Afghanistan with the fall of
Kandhar (Dec 7); Hamid Karzai is sworn-in as the leader of Afghanistan in the first peaceful
handover of power in 28 years (Dec 22).
2002 AD: Euro becomes the official currency of 12 European countries (Jan 1); Sri Lanka enters
into a historic ceasefire agreement with LTTE, as part of Norways initiative to broker peace
(Feb 21); The UN Security Council approves a resolution endorsing a Palestinian State for the
first time (Mar 13); Military rulers of Myanmar free Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi after
19 months of house arrest; East Timor becomes the worlds newest nation (May 19); Football
World Cup begins in Seoul, South Korea (May 31); Earth Summit opens in Johannesburg (Aug
26); Chechen Islamic terrorists take up to 1000 people hostage in a Moscow theatre in Russia
(Oct 23). Russian special troops barge into the theatre and rescue 250 hostages. 50 militants and
90 hostages are killed (Oct 26).
2003 AD: North Korea w i t h d r a w s from Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (January 10); US
Space S h u t t l e C o l o m b i a , c a r r y i n g seven astronauts, including India born A m e r i c
a n K a l p n a Chawla, disi n t e g r a t e s shortly before l a n d i n g (February 1); Hu Jintao
takes over as President of China (March 15); Gulf War-II (Operation Iraqi Freedom) is launched
by USA with dawn air raids on Iraq (March 20). Chaos and celebrations sweep across Baghdad
as the US takes control of the Iraqi capital (April 9); Israel pulls out of Gaza Strip as part of a
US-based peace plan (June 30); Ousted Iraqi President Saddam Husseins sons, Uday and Qusay,
are killed after a firefight with US forces (July 22); NATO takes over command of the
peacekeeping forces in Afghanistan, a historic move that marks the first outside Europe
operation since it was created 54 years ago (August 11); China becomes the first Asian country
and only the third nation after US and Russia to send a manned spacecraft (October 15); US
coalition forces capture Saddam Hussein (December 14).