4 Khordad 1381 | Saturday 25 May 2002

This day in four calendars

1946 (80 years ago) The Emirate of Transjordan becomes independent from the United Kingdom as the Hashemite Kingdom of Transjordan after ratifying the Treaty of London and making their Amir, Abdullah I, their King.
1977 (49 years ago) The Chinese government removes a decade-old ban on William Shakespeare's work, effectively ending the Cultural Revolution started in 1966.
1981 (45 years ago) In Riyadh, the Gulf Cooperation Council is created between Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
1985 (41 years ago) Bangladesh is hit by a tropical cyclone and storm surge, which kills approximately 10,000 people.
1999 (27 years ago) The United States House of Representatives releases the Cox Report which details China's nuclear espionage against the U.S. over the prior two decades.
2000 (26 years ago) Liberation Day of Lebanon: Israel withdraws its army from Lebanese territory (with the exception of the disputed Shebaa farms zone) 18 years after the invasion of 1982.
2009 (17 years ago) North Korea allegedly tests its second nuclear device, after which Pyongyang also conducts several missile tests, building tensions in the international community.
2018 (8 years ago) Ireland votes to repeal the Eighth Amendment of their constitution that prohibits abortion in all but a few cases, choosing to replace it with the Thirty-sixth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland.

1803 (223 years ago) Ralph Waldo Emerson, American poet and philosopher (died 1882)
1803 (223 years ago) Edward Bulwer-Lytton, English author, playwright, and politician, Secretary of State for the Colonies (died 1873)
1865 (161 years ago) Pieter Zeeman, Dutch physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1943)
1889 (137 years ago) Igor Sikorsky, Russian-American aircraft designer, founded Sikorsky Aircraft (died 1972)
1939 (87 years ago) Ian McKellen, English actor
1963 (63 years ago) Mike Myers, Canadian-American actor, singer, producer, and screenwriter
1965 (61 years ago) Yahya Jammeh, Gambian colonel and politician, President of the Gambia
1976 (50 years ago) Cillian Murphy, Irish actor

992 (1034 years ago) Mieszko I of Poland,
1085 (941 years ago) Pope Gregory VII,
1261 (765 years ago) Pope Alexander IV,
1681 (345 years ago) Pedro Calderón de la Barca, Spanish poet and playwright (born 1600)
1786 (240 years ago) Peter III of Portugal,
1926 (100 years ago) Symon Petliura, Ukrainian journalist and politician (born 1879)
1954 (72 years ago) Robert Capa, Hungarian photographer and journalist (born 1913)
2014 (12 years ago) Wojciech Jaruzelski, Polish general and politician, 1st President of Poland (born 1923)