Nicosia, Cyprus. Major events that occurred on June 12 include political transitions, the end of a regional conflict, notable deaths and diplomatic developments spanning several decades.
Events on June 12
In 1917, King Constantine of Greece stepped down in favour of his son, Prince Alexander.
In 1935, Bolivia and Paraguay signed a truce ending the Chaco War, a three-year dispute over the Chaco area.
In 1957, U.S. band leader and saxophonist Jimmy Dorsey died.
In 1991, Boris Yeltsin defeated Communist rivals in the first direct election to the presidency of the Russian republic.
In 2003, Gregory Peck, one of the last great stars from Hollywood’s golden era and known for his roles in “To Kill a Mockingbird”, “Moby Dick” and “Cape Fear”, died at the age of 87.
In 2005, Kuwait appointed its first woman cabinet member, naming veteran women’s rights activist Massouma al-Mubarak as planning minister.
In 2006, Canadian newspaper tycoon Ken Thomson, who helped transform his father’s print empire into Thomson Corporation, one of the world’s biggest electronic publishers, died aged 82.
In 2007, the U.N. war crimes tribunal sentenced Milan Martic, the former leader of rebel Serbs in Croatia, to 35 years in jail for ordering atrocities committed in the early 1990s.
In 2008, long-time political rivals Taiwan and China agreed in their first formal talks in almost a decade to launch direct weekend passenger flights starting on July 4, the first in nearly 60 years.
