1951January 4 – Korean War: Third Battle of Seoul – Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul for the second time (having lost the Second Battle of Seoul in September 1950). January 9 – The Government of the United Kingdom announces abandonment of the Tanganyika groundnut scheme for the cultivation of peanuts in the Tanganyika Territory, with the writing off of £36.5M debt. January 15 – In a court in West Germany, Ilse Koch, The "Witch of Buchenwald", wife of the commandant of the Buchenwald concentration camp, is sentenced to life imprisonment.
19961996 was designated as: International Year for the Eradication of Poverty January 8 – A Zairean cargo plane crashes into a crowded market in the center of the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kinshasa, killing 300 people. January 9–20 – Serious fighting breaks out between Russian soldiers and rebel fighters in Chechnya. January 11 – Ryutaro Hashimoto, leader of the Liberal Democratic Party, becomes Prime Minister of Japan. January 13 – Italy's Prime Minister, Lamberto Dini, resigns after the failure of all-party talks to confirm him.
July 3130 BC – Battle of Alexandria: Mark Antony achieves a minor victory over Octavian's forces, but most of his army subsequently deserts, leading to his suicide. 781 – The oldest recorded eruption of Mount Fuji (Traditional Japanese date: Sixth day of the seventh month of the first year of the Ten'o (天応) era). 1009 – Pope Sergius IV becomes the 142nd pope, succeeding Pope John XVIII. 1201 – Attempted usurpation by John Komnenos the Fat for the throne of Alexios III Angelos.
June 41411 – King Charles VI granted a monopoly for the ripening of Roquefort cheese to the people of Roquefort-sur-Soulzon as they had been doing for centuries. 1561 – The steeple of St Paul's, the medieval cathedral of London, is destroyed in a fire caused by lightning and is never rebuilt. 1615 – Siege of Osaka: Forces under Tokugawa Ieyasu take Osaka Castle in Japan. 1745 – Battle of Hohenfriedberg: Frederick the Great's Prussian army decisively defeated an Austrian army under Prince Charles Alexander of Lorraine during the War of the Austrian Succession.
March 20673 – Emperor Tenmu of Japan assumes the Chrysanthemum Throne at the Palace of Kiyomihara in Asuka. 1206 – Michael IV Autoreianos is appointed Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople. 1600 – The Linköping Bloodbath takes place on Maundy Thursday in Linköping, Sweden: five Swedish noblemen are publicly beheaded in the aftermath of the War against Sigismund (1598–1599). 1602 – The Dutch East India Company is established. 1616 – Sir Walter Raleigh is freed from the Tower of London after 13 years of imprisonment.
April 4503 BC – Roman consul Agrippa Menenius Lanatus celebrates a triumph for a military victory over the Sabines. 190 – Dong Zhuo has his troops evacuate the capital Luoyang and burn it to the ground. 611 – Maya king Uneh Chan of Calakmul sacks rival city-state Palenque in southern Mexico. 801 – King Louis the Pious captures Barcelona from the Moors after a siege of several months. 1268 – A five-year Byzantine–Venetian peace treaty is concluded between Venetian envoys and Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos.
1990Important events of 1990 include the Reunification of Germany and the unification of Yemen, the formal beginning of the Human Genome Project (finished in 2003), the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, the separation of Namibia from South Africa, and the Baltic states declaring independence from the Soviet Union amidst Perestroika. Yugoslavia's communist regime collapses amidst increasing internal tensions and multiparty elections held within its constituent republics result in separatist governments being elected in most of the republics marking the beginning of the breakup of Yugoslavia.
19921992 was designated as International Space Year by the United Nations. January 1 – Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt replaces Javier Pérez de Cuéllar of Peru as United Nations Secretary-General. January 6 The Nagorno-Karabakh Republic is proclaimed by the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh. 1991–92 Georgian coup d'état: President of Georgia Zviad Gamsakhurdia flees the country as a result of the military coup.
March 7161 – Marcus Aurelius and L. Commodus (who changes his name to Lucius Verus) become joint emperors of Rome on the death of Antoninus Pius. 1138 – Konrad III von Hohenstaufen was elected king of Germany at Coblenz in the presence of the papal legate Theodwin. 1277 – The University of Paris issues the last in a series of condemnations of various philosophical and theological theses. 1573 – A peace treaty is signed between the Ottoman Empire and the Republic of Venice, ending the Ottoman–Venetian War and leaving Cyprus in Ottoman hands.
1991It was the final year of the Cold War, which had begun in 1947. During the year, the Soviet Union collapsed, leaving fifteen sovereign republics and the CIS in its place. In July 1991, India abandoned its policies of dirigism, license raj and autarky and began extensive liberalisation to its economy. This increased GDP but also increased income inequality over the next two decades. A UN-authorized coalition force from 34 nations fought against Iraq, which had invaded and annexed Kuwait in the previous year, 1990.