This Day in History: Liberia’s Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf took office as Africa’s first elected woman president

Following are some of the major events to have occurred on January 16:

1920 – The prohibition era began in the United States when a ban on making and selling alcohol came into force.

1942 – U.S. screen actress Carole Lombard, wife of film star Clark Gable, died in an air crash; she was best known for her films “Twentieth Century” and “To Be or Not to Be”.

1957 – Arturo Toscanini, conductor of Milan’s La Scala and New York’s Metropolitan opera houses and the NBC symphony orchestra, died.

2001 – Congo President Laurent Kabila shot by bodyguard.

2002 – Declaration of end to civil war in Sierra Leone.

2006 – Liberia’s Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf took office as Africa’s first elected woman president.

2007 – Biggest trial in Swiss history opens against Swissair.

2007 – Supermodel Naomi Campbell pleads guilty to assaulting housekeeper with mobile phone.

2009 – Renowned American artist Andrew Wyeth, famous for landscapes of his native Pennsylvania and Maine, died.

2011 – French far-right National Front party elects Marine Le Pen to replace her father.

2016 – Burkina Faso troops rescue hostages.