1940    World War II: Marshal Henri Philippe Pétain becomes Premier of Vichy France.

1945    Egyptian Premier Ahmed Maher Pasha is killed in Parliament after reading a decree.

1959    At the opening of the American National Exhibition in Moscow, U.S. Vice President Richard Nixon and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev have a "Kitchen Debate".

1970    Montreal, Quebec: Quebec Vice-Premier and Minister of Labour Pierre Laporte murdered by members of the FLQ terrorist group.

1983    Israeli premier Menachem Begin resigns.

1993    Catherine Callbeck becomes premier of Prince Edward Island and the first woman to be elected in a general election as premier of a Canadian province.

1996    Polish Premier Jozef Oleksy resigns amid charges that he spied for Moscow.

2005    Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani becomes Iraqi president; Shiite Arab Ibrahim al-Jaafari is named premier the next day.