Youtube star Gareth Donkin

Events in 1999 and 23-12

Events in the world in the birth year of Gareth Donkin

• Russian president Boris Yeltsin survives impeachment hearings (May), reshuffles his cabinet twice (May, Aug.), and takes military action against Islamic separatists in Dagestan and Chechnya. Background: 1999 in Review.
• Nelson Mandela, first black president of South Africa, steps down (June 16), and Thabo Mbeki takes over.
• War erupts in Kosovo after Yugoslavia's president Slobodan Milosevic clamps down on the province, massacring and deporting ethnic Albanians. NATO begins Operation Allied Force on March 24, 1999, launching air strikes against Belgrade for 78 consecutive days until Milosevic relents. Background: Timeline: The Splintering of Kosovo and Timeline: NATO in Kosovo.
• Magnitude 7.4 earthquake kills more than 15,600 and leaves 600,000 homeless in Turkey (Aug. 17).
• East Timor population votes for independence from Indonesia (Aug. 30, 1999), which causes pro-Indonesian forces to massacre and uproot thousands of East Timorese.
• Pakistani government is overthrown in the midst of economic strife and intensified fighting with India over Kashmir (Oct. 12). Background: 1999 in Review.
• The world awaits the consequences of the Y2K bug, with more drastic millennial theorists warning of Armageddon.
• See also: 1999 Year in Review: News of the World

Birthday Gareth Donkin (23-12) in history

• Day 23-12 year 1783: George Washington resigned as commander-in-chief of the U.S. Army.
• Day 23-12 year 1788: Maryland voted to cede a 100-square-mile area for the District of Columbia.
• Day 23-12 year 1823: The poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas" ("'Twas the night before Christmas"), written by either Clement C. Moore or Maj. Henry Livingston, Jr., was published in the Troy Sentinel of New York.
• Day 23-12 year 1913: President Woodrow Wilson signed the act creating the Federal Reserve System.
• Day 23-12 year 1947: The transistor was unveiled by American physicists John Bardeen, Walter H. Brattain, and William Shockley.
• Day 23-12 year 1948: Hideki Tojo and six other Japanese war leaders were executed.
• Day 23-12 year 1986: Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager completed the first non-stop, around-the-world flight without refueling aboard the experimental airplane Voyager.